Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 377: Squatting & Deadlifting Barefoot, Avoiding Cardio, Training Pro Athletes & MORE

Episode Date: October 5, 2016

iTunes Review Winners! Kimera-Quah! In this episode of Quah, sponsored by Kimera Koffee (kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about squatting and deadlifting barefoot, benefits of doing or skipping cardio, changes in gyms over the last decade and the way professional athletes train. Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you with a new video every day on our new YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic and the Butt Builder Blueprint (The RGB Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts! Have questions for Mind Pump? Each Monday on Instagram (@mindpumpradio) look for the QUAH post and input your question there. (Sal, Adam & Justin will answer as many questions as they can)

Talk to the tax guy the other day and I've got some good news and bad news. Okay. Bad news for us. Okay. Good news. Don't say that. Good news for our listeners. So I didn't realize this this whole time we've been building up this inventory of

clothes, of all the shirts and tanks and hats and all this cool shit, which is nice because we don't have to keep rebying. But I found, and I didn't know this. Okay. So this is a learning process, that when we have inventory, none of that is tax deductible. None until you sell it.

Not until we sell it or give it away. So that being said, and we're coming up on the final quarter, what we're gonna do before we enter into winter is do a 24 hour fucking fire sell. Whoa. We're basically gonna give these shirts away for what it costs us to make the shirt. So we're gonna close out of closeouts for everybody.

It's gonna be $8 a shirt. Well, for just 24 hours. Oh, Molly. Yes. We're not gonna get killed on that or what? Well, we're gonna get more killed by it sitting there. I see. That's the headache.

At least we're gonna get our money back, we can get out of our inventory, and then we can move on to the next like winter line and the new year. So with your listening to this right now, it's gonna be a 24 hour fire cell. You can buy as many shirts and things that you want inside. It's gonna be like a feeding frenzy.

And it's gonna be first come first serve. So as soon as we're out of that size, we're out of that size, we're not gonna be like a feeding frenzy. Yeah, and it's gonna be first come first serve. So as soon as they were out of that size, we're out of that size, we're not gonna be reordering it. We're trying to get rid of all this inventory so we don't get hammered on taxes. So once you hear this episode, there'll be 24 hours and then we'll shut it down. You know it's cool about that.

Once we make room, then that means we make room for something new, cool coming in. Yeah, absolutely. New stuff. Move on to the winter line, but 24 hour fireself. First time we ever do this. For the shirts, A-box. Yeah.

Where do they go to find them? Mindpumpmedia.com. Mindpumpmedia.com. Right on. Hurry up. You know what scientists don't know why breast female breasts are considered sexual to humans. It doesn't make any sense. It's not like other animals.

One of the very few mammals where the breasts always stay in large. How do you figure that if we were, if we fed on it, what wouldn't you think there's a core? Why would you be sexually attracted to it though? You're not sexually attracted. You want that end of mate because then they could produce more milk.

There's lots of theories, but they don't know. They don't know why we consider that a sexual part of the body Well, is it really sexual or is we don't have that we want it? Yeah Is there jiggling their night? I want that's what there's a lot of things I want that don't give me a boner Yeah, I'm saying and no gee and there's gotta be something to be said about the fact that we Covered up in the middle and you could do something I think if everyone walked around naked all the time, I think there would be a whole different like arouse.

Yeah, I think so. I think you're right. We'd be desensitized a little bit, but of course. I don't know. If I grew up in an environment where women were always topless and I'm a 14 year old boy going through puberty, boobs still have some power. You say that right now because you're a 14 year old boy

that boobs were covered up and to see a boob when you're 14 years old was a big fucking deal.'s a me I think if we saw it every single day I don't think it would be that big of a deal so if you saw butts every day it wouldn't be a big deal If you saw naked butts all the time. Yeah, same thing too really. Yeah, you don't think you'd be a big deal You know the gonna track the woman even vagina's if you saw vaginas all day long And they were if everyone was naked all the time I think it would take away from that, like. A little bit. Yeah, and this is why Adam's like.

Like the gynecologist, I think. You want to keep it from happening. Well, that's a good example. You think a guy know every time he gets ready to go work on a vagina, get to rouse. That's different. Because he sees them all day long. He's looking for, he's horrible.

He's a quote unquote issue. He's a professional, that's different. My God, we should hope so. My goodness, Adam. What are we doing here? We should hope so. My goodness, Adam. What are we doing here? We're giving away some shirts here, please. Sorry, cover them, cover up them titties. Yeah.

With those shirts. Let's give some shirts out so they can cover them, take them. Teeth them as steaks. Well, the good news is we got 20 reviews last week. Boom, boom, boom. And so this, this calls for a song from Justin in a Sounding like that one senior in Japanese

Yeah, that was worse So we're gonna give away five shirts now five Five shirts. Let's do it. Five shirts going out. First up is Sam McCree, Brian Urb, Z-Man 113, A-Jones 5566. Am I very favorite of all? Adam's Liberian. Did we already give-shirt last time? No, we didn't get a free one. We mentioned it. We had to give him one just for his name. I almost I could have swore we gave him a free shirt. We did because you guys already made that was the joke last time. Yeah, no, no, he's he read it, but he didn't give him a shirt last time. Oh, sure. Yes. Oh, that's what happened. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it came in midweek and we were dying. Library. Yeah, librarian. Library. Library. Library. midweek in a We were dying library library library librarian. Yeah, Conan the librarian pretty fucking funny, buddy So email yeah, I tuned to mine pump media Dot com include your shirt size and your shipping address and we'll send that out to you boom boom But I know shipping address. And we'll send that out to you. Boom boom. I don't know much. So much better. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Might, uh, might, up with your hosts. Salta Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. I think we sold fucking 300 plus shirts yesterday.

Whoah. Are we almost out of stock? Yeah, we sold a lot out of stock. When does this, we sold almost all of those. We sold all of the, When does the sale go and affect for everybody else? Right now. Right now, it's in effect.

Oh, last night at five. Wait, wait, wait, it's on right now or what is episode air? It's episode airs today. Okay. General public gets access. So we're posting later tonight. We gave access to the four members. So they got first dibs.

So right now, if they're listening right now, they can go to mindpumpmedia.com and buy the shirts for. It's a fire sale. Any of our shirts for how much? $8. Ocho? Ocho.

$8 bucks? Mind pumped, the Ocho. $8 for a fucking craft, a professionally crafted, and it fits good. Oh, they're Jack Ferd shirt. Yeah, that's actually a buff people. That's actually cost on most shirts and actually under cost on some other shirts.

So we're losing money? Yeah, we lost money on the MP, on the MP TV shirts. So we're like bad business people right now. Well, not necessarily, I mean, I told you that we talked to the tax guy and it'd be bad business if we were to hold on to the inventory at the end of the tax year. Yeah, you don't get to write it off unless you sell it. Or give it away.

Or give it away. So we're basically almost giving it away. Yeah, we're just trying to get our money back. Yeah, exactly. So for eight bucks, you can get a brand new mind pump or maps. Ah, the apparel business. Yeah.

And so many cash 22. Very great. They, the minute that we had released it, they're flying right now. So if they're, I mean, they're, they're already as limited sizes on a lot of things. So it went fast already. So you better get on there and buy a bunch of them.

Yeah, if you're listening, you probably want to pause the show and actually go to, to look it up and see what's left because I know that. Here's the other thing too, because there's some smart people out there. You could buy these shirts for $8 or resell them for twice as much. You have a business. You have a business opportunity. Hustle. Get your heart on it. That's funny that you brought that up. I watched a documentary last night called Sneakerheads on Netflix. Great documentary. Of course you did. That feeds right into me. I watched a documentary last night called Sneakerheads on Netflix. Great documentary.

Of course you did. That feeds right into me. I know. Did you win in the search thing and you put head? Well, no, no, no. Sometimes I have to, I have to let Katrina know that I don't have that much of a problem as she thinks I have. And I'm like, no, no, no, listen.

I'm like, not even bad. And it was great. Oh, look at these guys. It's like, it's like the hoarders. Oh, dude. I'm actually pretty clean. These it was like these guys. It's like the hoarders. Oh Dude, I'm actually pretty clean these dudes. Let me tell you there's some There's some guys with thousands of sneakers like never even worn them before like they've collected like every single pair and God that's ridiculous every colorway of the Jordans. Well, it's called foot locker just by one They to me. It's a little so I wear all mine. So I collect them and I take good care of them.

You know, knowing the back of my head, if I ever got kicked out on the street and I was absolutely broke that I could sell my shoes and I could live off of them for a while. Yeah, that's why you buy them all. That's not why I buy them. I buy them all to wear them. But I mean, it's easier to justify

spending money on that when you know they're still value to them. It's like buying a classic car versus going out buying a brand new Mercedes. I remember when I almost bought my S550 that I wanted and I thought, man, it's a $110,000 car. The moment I drive it off the lot, it's gonna be worth like 50 grand. And I'm like, I just have a hard time stomaching that

regardless if you can afford it or not, where like things like the sneakers or like a Rolex watch or like a classic Camaro, like stuff like that, like you accumulate value. Well, yeah, some of it goes up in value, like my Camaro is worth more than what I bought it for. My watches are worth the same or worth more than I paid them. Think about this too with classic cars. Like, there's going to be a point where all these self-driving cars and like everybody's

driving everybody around where there's gonna be laws for even driving yourself. Right. Think about how valuable those classic cars are gonna be. I'm gonna have those. That's why I wanna get like a stick shift and make my-

Dude, stick shift's gonna be all more gone already. Yeah, it's hard to find them. Kids don't know how to drive stick. Adelaide, actually, do you know that they say one of the best ways to prevent your car from being stolen? Is this just to give a shit? That's great. No way. Is that a true fact? That's true. It's far, far, far. We've gotten to that point. It's far less likely to be stolen. I have never heard that, but it makes so much sense. I mean, let's be honest, the age group that's probably out at two o'clock in the morning

stealing cars is probably not some 50 year old guy right? It's probably some young punk kid between you know 17 and 25 and you're probably I never even thought of that. Into me? I'm buying sticks from here. Yeah and to me I don't know about you guys but for me like if I buy a fast car or whatever it's got to be a stick. I have to have it be connected to it.

But you know what the technology is so good now on the automatics that you're faster with the automatic. It used to not be that way. When we were kids, stick was faster than automatic because they just didn't have the timing right and the technique. You know the but now you get no listen, you get it like the Ferrari's the top align ones with the paddle shifters. It's faster. They get faster quarter mile times than with the old school clutch and stick, but it's just not a fun, it's not as fun. Yeah, and you, I mean, you can debate that back and forth too, because if you're a good stick driver,

there's lots of benefits to driving stick because you have full control of that. But if you're bad, if you launching is one of the hardest, I used to race cars, right? So I used to race my go illegally, not totally legal. So I'm not talking like I'm a professional already, I think. So I do have a little bit of experience in that.

And launching is one of the hardest things. I don't know how many times I got beat by somebody who had a car that had way more horsepower. I had way more horsepower. But if you don't launch and you don't take off correctly, I mean, half a second more of spinning your tires. And a lot of these cars now have launch controls where you hit a button and it just puts you at the right

Marry the news and then you take off and it launches it is cheating I think I think if you if you are into that or into the sport there's a part of it that That's just it well think about electric cars now, right? They're they're faster than anything off the line It's a media it's immediate torque. Yeah, right. Oh, it's silly. I so I trained a guy Feel like it'd be like hunting with like an infrared, you know infrared dot like this is not right Like you're where's this you're out there dear hunting and you see like this red laser beam on Oh, dude, just wait you just wait till you cheating mother fucker like you can't do that just wait till people hunt with drones Oh, yeah, oh my god, they're part of our or he hate seeking bullets, right? Go around trees and go find your deer. Dude, they can't do that.

That's not fair. It's a way from the sport. It's a sport. I used to train a guy who was the head engineer for Tesla and he took the fastest Tesla. What is it? The Model S, but it was the P85D or whatever. The faster one. The big one, yeah.

And right when they first came out, had me sit in it and he just punches it, you know, just punched the accelerator. Your head snapped. That power. Dude, I never felt anything like it. Well, it was different. It was different power.

It was just smooth, but it's like immediate. You get that rollercoaster feeling in it, and it makes that G-forces. Yeah, I remember Batman, the way the car sounded, the newer Batman, that electric engine sound, that's what it made. It's pretty interesting. It's very, very fast.

Never felt anything like that before. And I'd been in some fast cars. Yeah, there's a difference between that kind of power, for sure. I mean, there's zero to 60, is like what, two and a half or three seconds, something crazy. Dude, it's silly.

You know, it's funny. I had to get it back to here. You're talking about hunting and how lazy you know, along those lines. Well, I went to Arkansas, it was so weird. You know, it's funny. I had to get it back to here. You're talking about hunting and how lazy like along those lines. Well, I went to Arkansas. It was at my cousins a long time ago. And I was a big fisherman back then. And I was into fly fishing, all kinds of fishing.

And they took me out, we're going to go fishing. And I'm like, great, cool. Where's my fishing rod? I'm like, oh, we don't use any of that. Yeah. Like, like, barehead, get your, like, barehand catching, then the other version for catfish, then the other version was, they would take like this yo-yo, like, they called it yo-yo fishing.

So they put it on a branch, and then they would feed it down into the water. It was basically like a snare, and they would drive away. And they'd come back, and a fish would get caught and then it would go up into the overhanging branch and it would be hanging there. Oh, that's great.

I'm like, what the fuck? That's not fishing. What is it called when you fish, like when you actually do fish bearing, when you put like the bait or whatever, like when you're fishing? Oh, in a bites your hands? Yes, what's that called?

There's a name for that. Do you know the name of that? No. I don't know the name of it, but that was creepy. Somebody was telling us. Cause I was reaching my hand in this like hole, and they have huge catfish, dude, and they're like, all-

Did it fucking grab you? Yeah, I grabbed one inside its mouth, and then I got weirded out, and then I let it go. I see, I could not do that. I could not put my hand in a dark, freaking cavern, expecting some sketchy to bite it. I was a kid, too, so I was like, you know, I was a little more hesitant Yeah, I would do that shit. You're afraid of the lockness monster I don't want to swim. Don't take me monster So did you guys know?

Apparently Anything outside a neutral spine means you're breaking half. Oh God. It will snap you You'll die are we bringing this up again? Do that, too. Well, here's gonna be like the butter the joke I told Sal we need to do like a video of like captain trainer stop You're not a neutral spot. I have to play what Justin sent over because I believe when we just we just talked about this Because of the debate you got into on your page and I was telling you you guys, I got on, I finally got on there after about 200 comments or whatever and put my two cents in.

And what a lot of these idiots that were on there that were arguing with you, that they keep talking about neutral spine, neutral spine. And anybody who's a place is so much stress on the facets of the spine and the sheer force of the blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, people are not made out of fucking paper. Yeah.

You can move in different ways. Well, I have to say in this fucking way. In these morons defense, here's the thing. This is, this is how we were taught. And that's why I have patients with it. But what I don't have patients with is when they start attacking you or they start talking shit to you. When it's like, okay, first of all, I'm proud of you

for going through whatever schooling you went through to get whatever certifications and whatever degrees or whatever level that you are at in your profession now. But you've obviously stopped continuing to evolve and reading because if you knew that, you would know that any like all your guys that are on like cutting edge, all your mobility specialists that are like now, right now that are like studying and doing that, yeah, that are relevant right now would tell you that neutral spine is something that has been debated

for quite some time now, and it was a hypothesis. It's not even something that has any sort of like facts or for sure, we're not for sure about it at all. And the more and more we learn, and when we look into this, it's like, it makes more sense to train the spine in its full articulation, extension, flexion, and moving.

So you have control when you're in those positions because in reality, when we move around all day long, nobody's ever in neutral spine. So here's actually Justin sent this over. It was great. This is Dr. Spina, so who's Spina, I believe, SPNA. How did he say? Spina.

I always say Dr. Spina, and it's not Spina. It's Spina, and it's SP spina and he's one of the specialists and probably one of the leading guys What's a gangster? I like this guy. Yeah, so do I badass. So this is We wanted our patients and clients to maintain neutral spine all the time Which means have a nice lumbar curve never get out of neutral spine, you know, you sit down You just go to take a shit. It doesn, never get out of neutral spine, you know, you sit down, you go to take a shit, it doesn't matter what you do, neutral spine. Now if you take a joint and you always maintain it in one position and you ask any therapist is this, is that good or bad for

the joint? They'd say that's the matter. So then I say to them, then what do you think is happening at L5S1, if you lock yourself in neutral spine all the time? And then people start to say, yeah, I guess it's not gonna be healthy. It's like, okay, where is the most common area for Degeneration or arthritis? It's an L5S1. I mean It's it's right there. It's it's written in our genome in our code. Think about movement in general. Our brain actually provides us with happy drugs. When we move. Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he says it very well there. Yeah. You know, always constantly training and neutral spining and being afraid of moving outside of that is not only silly.

It's based on faulty theory, which we know now is incorrect, but it's also promoting problems in the future. You're actually making it more likely that these people will hurt themselves because they build all this strength and stability in this one position. It's too fixed. And when they go in the real world and go to move, they're really strong in one position. They move out of that and there's no more strength. What ends up happening?

You create instability. No, one guy on my page, and he doesn't have a super popular page but he should because he's very smart uh... doubt me uh... is is instagram pages doubt me i n c he completely agreed with what we were talking about and he does a lot of his training around this and when you go on his page you can see some of it but there are people that are getting it uh... it's just that you those like him, and I'm pretty sure because I looked at his page, I believe he's gone through

FRC. So a lot of people that are on new, like new cutting-edge science, or that people that are learning that are like mobility specialists now, like a doctor brink, or like a spina, or like the guy you just brought up, these guys are reading like the new stuff that's coming out right now with mobility and functionality and physical therapy and all that stuff.

So, you know, that's, in the defense of these guys, real quick before we go too far this week, because now I don't wanna like, people go like, what, so you're saying neutral spinal amits bad? No, no, no, I'm not saying it's bad, nor is Sal, no, it's Justin, like we're not saying that it's bad. All I'm saying is the guy got a bunch of people got on South's page a bunch of academia and knuckleheads

Got on there and started talking shit about the way he was teaching a a point and The problem with with it is the the way that what they were all trying to say was that there was all this Crazy stress on the on the spine In the thoracic region. And it was literally laughable. It is. It's very laughable. It would be like saying that a cat cow is dangerous, right?

Yeah. You know, to do a movement like a cat cow, which is an excellent movement for us to do, uh, is dangerous because of the gravity that's pulling down. And it's just like the shearing feet. Somebody referred to say it was shearing force on your spine. Like, what the fuck? Oh, like, that's what I mean. So I mean, I referred to say it was shearing force on your spine. Like what the fuck? Oh, that's what I mean. It's like anything outside of that. It's so horribly dangerous that you can never move outside of it.

That's the mentality that they have, which is so silly. Well, and in fact, the times that you should actually go in full flexion and extension would be times like that. That would be a great way to challenge and strengthen and articulate the spine is in a position like that. That would be a great way to challenge and strengthen and articulate the spine is in a position like that. You shouldn't be doing that dead lifting 500 pounds. We're uploaded with weight on your back, squatting, squatting with 400 pounds on your back. Absolutely. We're concerned about neutral spine and you want you want to make sure that

that weight is evenly distributed. And it's not putting a lot of pressure in your stress. But you've even seen strong men lift atlas stones. Yeah. What's your answer to that? Exactly. They're completely rounded in the thoracic region right and forward and it's in its inflection. So it's ridiculous to me to hear these guys. And when they come out attacking, it's like, I'm okay with you coming in and like putting your two cents in or asking questions or getting in a good educational debate about things and going back and forth with theories

and hypothesis, that's a lot of this stuff still is because we're always evolving, but when you start talking in certainties and you start attacking, man, just, you're such a, you make you look stupid. I do like the fact that we tend to piss everybody off though.

We pissed off the bro. We're just, we're pissing off academia. So we're equal. Equal opportunity, pisser offers. Yeah, I was, I always am worried about, I'm always worried about academia because I know that, oh, there, here's a thing. The bro science people, the supplement industry,

as much as they've come after us, they're not gonna fight very hard. Academia will come after us much harder. They are the fucking... Because of the tiggets, they're fucking, like, it's like, they're gospel, don't mess with what we say. I mean, it gets ugly with them.

Yeah, and that's, and it's a little more, I mean, smashing some bro on bro science is easy. Same like, that's not challenging, but it is a little challenging when you've got academia coming after because they bring up good points and stuff that we believe for a very long time. It's fucking in textbooks.

It wouldn't be there if it didn't have some sort of validation or we didn't think it was true for decades. So those people, when they come after us, you know, it's a little bit, a little more challenging to get your point across. And you know, one thing that will always reign true with our show. And we've always said that, you know,

if there's something that we're wrong on, you're better Dan Well believe that we'll come forward and say like none of us have got egos in here where if somebody comes out and says, well, no, this isn't safe or this isn't right. This is wrong for these reasons. And you explain to me like, you know, like, hey, this is why then I go, okay,

that makes a lot of sense. I understand that. You have a very strong argument. We're 100% open to listening to it. That's always the case. You just have to, you got, I mean, there has to be a conversation. You can't just make it a one way thing. You know, exactly. But look at his spine. It's not a neutral That neutral, ah! Ah! Wee-caw! Wee-caw! Wee-caw! Wee-caw!

Today's Caw is being brought to you by Kine-Marikoffee. It's the only coffee that is infused with all natural neutrophics for a cleaner, calmer, and more focused fuzz without the crash. Put the Kine-Marik link at MindPumpMedia.com and input the discount code MindPump a checkout for 10% off! It's the motherfucking croix! The eagle has landed! Quique-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-cou-c instead of heels and chucks. Excellent. It is an excellent question. Excellent question. So, so definitely, so let's start with dead lifts. That's a little easier.

Deadlifts are best done. Really? With, yeah. I'll let you get matters. I don't think you'll get matters. Well, let me start with deadlifts because deadlifts require a little bit less You know ankle mobility There you know once you get a deadlift flat foot is it is almost always the best So you want flat sold shoes if you go barefoot. That's fine too. It's a little easier to do them barefoot requires less mobility

A squat a barbell squat in very flat shoes and then barefoot requires higher levels of mobility than the deadlift. Excellent point. Which is why in the past I've used and even partially advocated for squat shoes. That being said, the goal really honestly, the goal should be, and my position has changed a little bit on this. Recently, your goal should be to be able to do squats and deadlifts with good form, with good way, and good control. Barefoot. Yeah.

Ideally. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to be able to do it now, and it doesn't mean you should try it right away. It's like the people that learn how to run, you know, people who advocate running barefoot. It takes a long time to get you to that point because you're in shoes 90% of the time. Your shoes likely have some kind of a heel to them, especially if you're a woman, most of the time. And so taking them off and going barefoot and then trying to do a big movement like a

barbell squat may put you in some trouble. So you may want to start with some heel elevation, either some kind of squat shoes or nice to lift weights and hiking boots almost. And then slowly progress yourself to the point. A little two by four underneath. Yeah, two by four under heels. So you can sit back and sit down and your squat a little better.

And then over time, work yourself to the point to where you can do them in completely flat shoes. And then can you do them barefoot. But you gotta keep this in mind when you're progressing this way, as you start to progress, you're going to likely have to regress the amount of weight that you're using. You can't just go from squatting 200 pounds with squat shoes to squatting, okay, now I'm gonna do barefoot

because you're going to run into problems. What you should probably do is cut the weight in half and perfect your form without that support and then slowly build yourself up. I'm in that process right now. Like I haven't worn a weight belt or squat shoes in maybe two or three months now at all, three months at all. And I've backed way off on the weight

and slowly working my way up to my old, you know, strength. And if I didn't do that, if I just kept the weight the same and just went with really flat shoes and no belt, I'm pretty sure I would have hurt myself by this point. So that's kind of where I stand with some of that. Yeah, I'm a little mixed on the squat shoe thing. And how that got popular. And really I only saw them specifically for Olympic lifting for a long period of time. Just because, I mean, what are your thoughts on then taking somebody and specifically focusing on, say,

box squats for depth versus, crushing somebody with squat shoes and elevating the heel in order. Because really what you're trying to do is achieve more depth than yourself. Well, you're saying exactly right, which it's a crutch. So I mean, I don't know if you guys saw it. So this is like the reason why I picked this question is because it's something that I'm going through right now.

And because for a second there, we were, we were using squats and we were like, whoa, this feels amazing and you hit it beautifully because it's okay so I just I just recently did a post and you can see like I'm asked to grass squatting and my form is far from perfect but it's got it's come a long ways in the last two years but I'm still and in that picture I'm wearing squashes and I have a belt so and I point that out you know I'm still wearing my high heels and my belt. So, still have my crutch, but improving. So, what had happened to me, I'm going out in the town.

So, when I, when I first started really getting back into squatting, I was in squat shoes and I wasn't really able to break parallel. So, my first goal when I started, when I really started getting after a map screen was to improve my mobility and little bit after month after month after month I started increasing my mobility and getting deeper and deeper in my squats. And then I was progressing so good I was getting so excited that I was like fuck yeah not only am I getting deeper now now I can drop these shoes. So then I dropped the shoes and I'm going deeper and even now I was getting so excited I'm like now I'm getting deep I'm in my chucks. And on top of that, I'm starting to increase my weight. So I was squatting I think 315, which is not a lot of weight

for me. You're super deep, but it's it's good amount of weight. And it was enough that I aggravated something in my hip flexor growing area. And I had done this multiple times because I could I was progressing so fast and I wasn't allowing my body to get caught up and adapt. And I was getting overconfident with this newfound mobility that I had. I was so excited that I could get that deep and I was so excited that I didn't have to have shoes. And then I started pushing myself with weight and depth and no shoes and I paid the price.

That's interesting. So this is why you see me back in my shoes again. Now I've got this and it's already helping. I haven't aggravated it, I've completely healed in that area and I've been able to get really deep but I still kind of need my shoes. So my goal again is to get back to where I'm getting in that deep of a position with lighter weight first comfortable, but the ultimate goal is always flat shoes or

bare feet. Some gyms won't even allow you to squat bare feet. So obviously if you're in a golds or a basic 24, they're going to come over and say some shit to you if you're in bare feet. So Chuck's for flat shoes. Yeah, Chuck's are pretty damn close. But you know, you get you got to consider this. It takes a long time to progress mobility properly. It takes a while. Yeah. You'll see progress, but like Adam said, you'll get you don't get overconfident and push things because you'll set yourself up for problems. You got to remember this, okay? You think about all day long. How what percentage of the day are you walking around doing things in shoes? And what percentage of the day are you doing things barefoot? It's probably like 95% to 5% or something something silly like that. So to think that you're gonna go to the gym and just boom progress right to

Barefoot or flat squat, you know flat-shoots, squats with heavy weight is inaccurate. You gotta give yourself time. And again, I'm gonna go back to the whole barefoot running thing. Like, people, the barefoot running craze got real big about, I don't know, five, eight years ago maybe. And then people were, and then people were coming out of that bandwagon going, oh, I first I loved it, but then I hurt myself. So now I'm wearing these super, you know, padded shoes.

And the reason is it's not because running barefoot is bad, it's because you didn't give yourself enough time. Like you've got weak, underdeveloped feet. You've got poor recruitment patterns for running barefoot. And so you've got to give yourself time. It takes a long time. So I've given myself, and I'm giving myself that much time to do so.

So first thing I did was I eliminated my belt. Then I eliminated the shoes. I went way lighter on the weight. I changed my stance and little by little, I'm working my way up. Right now, the most I've done in chucks with no belt for a single rep is about 320 pounds in the squat. That's a good, maybe 60, 70 pounds lighter

than I would do with my squat shoes and belt. And I know I can go heavier if I push the weight, but I don't think my mobility is at that point to where I can do so. Otherwise, being there. And what happened to me? Yeah, exactly. It was just so common for us trainers.

I mean, this is totally, I get all excited because I know what I'm doing, and I know I set a goal, I'm gonna get more mobile, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get a deeper squad and like and I don't know if you guys remember me You know sending you guys pictures and talking like every week. Look at dude. I got a I got a six inch push Yeah, six in stance. I'm deaf looking at well 275 on my back now Oh three 15 and I just kept pushing it and pushing it and getting excited about my progression in in my mobility And sure shit. I paid the price. I'm getting a little bit of an epiphany here.

It's interesting, we talk about nutrition and we talk about how people only use the metric of weight loss or weight gain and how that's a problem, right? Let's take that now and apply it to your workout. When you look at your workouts and your training, many of us, if not most of us, solely focus on the metric of how much weight we're able to lift. It's us, if not most of us, solely focus on the metric of how much weight we're able to lift. It's about, uh, I get by any means. Yeah. Like,

oh, I lifted more weight. Therefore, I've progressed. It is not the only metric. It is one of many, many metrics. And if you used the same weight, but you moved down an inch further, or you changed your stance, or you went from the same way to flat shoes, or you even lighten the load, but went deeper with flat shoes, you didn't go down, you didn't regress, you actually still progressing. That is another metric you need to pay attention to. You need to be just as excited about that progress as you are as if you added 15 pounds to your school.

Also, Adam mentioned with his wrist positioning and being able to keep that tight fist in just every little checkpoint. What tends to fail on your way down into depth and into position. Great point. And then also coming out of the hole. There's all these little nuance things that if you really pay closer attention to what's going on in these complex lifts,

you're going to get a lot more out of it. You know, right point, he's now he's referring to when we were demoing the behind-the-neck shoulder press. Well, no, I talked about it someone on my page just recently on that same squat that I'm talking about asked about my because he he's been reading books that we referred him to and he was like, you know, they were talking Mark Ripto was talking about your wrist placement in the squat and you can see my wrist are broken and he was pointing that out and asking me if there's benefits to what I was doing and why I was doing that. I said, fuck, I'm doing it because I don't have the mobility. Like, I should be there. You know, I want to be there. That's part of my goal. And you know, it's unfortunate that, you know, I, very few people and I get a

handful of guys that get it in girls that get it that will comment and say stuff to me on my page every once in a while. But these are the things I talk about on my page. I don't get a lot of like fucking kudos because I'm not fucking Bradley Martin, I'm not squatting 600 pounds and six foot three guy. Like that's fucking super impressive and cool. Like I'm always talking about these little things

that are going on. It's like, you know, and people see me squatting with 315 on my back. Well, they see me do 405, so that's not impressive. So I don't get a like, it's like whatever. But I talk about what's going on. This is a big victory for me, my depth, my mobility, no aches, no pains.

I'm working on this and working on that, and I talk about other things of progression, but because it doesn't reflect in these huge weight gains that no one gives a shit. No one can't, it's not a big deal. Stop details. And I want people to understand this too, because a lot of you listening are aesthetic focused, It's not like no one gives a shit like no one can't It's not a big deal. Yes, it's a micro. It's not a deal. And I want people to understand this too

because a lot of you listening are aesthetic focused or just want to build bigger muscles or get better shape or whatever. If you progress the mobility, you'll get those as well because your body's working differently. It's moving differently. You're doing things you couldn't do before. So just increasing weight, yes, you get stronger

you build muscle, but also increasing mobility, range of motion and control will do that as well. So it's not like Adam or myself who've now backed off on our weight because now we're working on squatting without squat shoes, without a belt with better depth. Now that we're going lighter, it's not like I've lost muscle, it's not like my body looks worse. If anything, I'm noticing better improvements in the way my body looks and the sides of my moves. We always kind of bring it back to the performance coaches and these programs with high performance, like Olympic lifting type athletes that,

they are using tools like going theometers and things like that to measure, have actual metrics for how much more range of motion you've increased. They're paying attention to these kind of details, and you just don't see that in anything else, fitness-related, besides performance. I feel like it's the micro-details. People just want to take things on that, well, how much did I move today?

Where's my weight at? It's so general, but when you can really just stop and this is why I think I'm more of a fan of like, if you're gonna do a program and, you know, and try and keep it as simple as possible, if you can keep it to like, you know, four or five lifts and just master those, like, you're gonna be so much better off.

Then doing just a bunch of them. They just run around the gym like an idiot. It's true, and you know, it's, uh, God, man, there, it, it, I always blows me away. I tell you what, it's a huge ego check. When you go and you start to focus on, uh, working on the mobility aspect of your training because you do have to lighten the load. Like, you know, when it comes to deadlifts, conventional style, uh, alternate grip for me with the belt on. I could always pull

500 plus pounds. I get my body weight down to 187 pounds and I'm going to pull 525 off the floor. Strong as shit, no problem. I had to take the belt off, focus on using a hook grip so that both hands are pronated because I noticed having that alternate grip. I definitely had an imbalance because I couldn't lift as much with my left hand supernated as I could with my right. So boom, red flag, there's an imbalance there. I should be able to do both. So I eliminated the ultrana grip,

but went to a hook grip and the belt, I noticed that when I took the belt off, I did not feel as comfortable pulling anything over 450 pounds. Oh, and sumo styled deadlifts, I just felt horribly blocked in my hips. I just didn't have the hip mobility So I completely stopped doing conventional deadlifts with an alternate grip and a belt when took the belt off hook grip Sumo style deadlifting now

I don't go heavier than 400 pounds But I'm slowly getting myself better and better and better and I know by the end of the year when I go back to my Conventional deadlifts without the belt I'll be as strong if not stronger with a hook grip and without a belt and not only getting myself better and better and better. And I know by the end of the year, when I go back to my conventional deadlets without the belt, I'll be as strong if not stronger with a hook grip and without a belt. And not only my seeing improvements in mobility, but I'm building muscle as a result, I'm using less weight.

So it's hard because there's an ego check, right? Like I'm used to pulling five plates. Now I'm down to four plates or three plates. You gotta check your ego, but when you get over that, when you start to get over that hump and just say, okay, whatever, I'm just going to work on these two, you know, these, these things over here, your workouts really progress at a new level and you feel the difference, you see the difference. It's just, it takes you to check your ego and even at this level, and even as long as I've been doing it, it's

a tough thing to do. Well, I think it's smart, it's a smart strategy for you to continue going along this fitness journey too, because it's, man, if you or somebody like any of us in this room who've been lifting for 15 plus years of your life, man, if you are solely hooked on weights and strength gains or even like aesthetic gains, like that's, that could be a very daunting journey. That's a long time to see incremental changes in strength or a little bit better physique or like that. So I look at it as, you know, like a big victory for me right now.

I'm not in the best aesthetic shape of my life, but what I am right now, I'm in the best shape with the least amount of work. I've never been in this good as shape as I am with the least amount of effort inside the gym, which to me, that's a big victory. It means that I've really honed in on the things that my body is responding well to.

I'm not having to kill myself inside the gym. I go in, I do some things that are super effective and my body responds well to, and it's nice. I have great balance in my life. Now, I'm not in the best shape of my life. So if I post a patient on Instagram or social media and say, look at me, it's like, so what? No big deal. But for me, it's a big deal. at me, it's like, so what? No big deal.

But for me, it's a big deal. For me, it's a big win. I think getting people to understand that that there's other things that are involved than just how shredded are you or how much weight are you lifting. There's other things that you want to be thinking about that we're always trying to progress.

That being said, that doesn't mean that too. We would knock somebody who's wearing shoes or wearing a belt or things like that. The goal ultimately is to not have to utilize any crutches or any tools like that. Be able to do everything, barefoot, bare-handed, all that. But you need to progress there because if you come in and you don't have the mobility or the flexibility to do things like that, and because you heard someone like us on the radio say, oh yeah, you want to be able to do barefoot, well, that could also get you hurt if you're

not ready for it. It's true. And I think the key is to look at those things as tools and not as a crutch right there's a big difference there It's a good point. It's a tool that you can use and use it wisely But not as a crutch and at the end of the day I you know what really convinced me at the end because I was always like always deadlifted and about heavy and at the end of the day I thought to myself, you know what good is the strength if I can't summon it without my weight belt? You know, if I can't maximally use all the strength that I have, that I know I have. If I don't have my big ass belt, you start wearing your belt everywhere. That's what I'm saying. It's kind of, I don't

know. It's kind of interesting, right? Like, what if I got to live something? I mean, I don't know. It just, it just felt, it didn't feel as if I've always had that mentality. Yeah. And it's just, that's something, especially if you're just starting out in the gym, I try as hard as a can to steer people away from, you know, wrist wraps, belts, anything. Like, you know, you need to build the pattern first. You need to build the grip strength to even pick the weight up. And if you don't have that, then you don't get it.

It's earned. Yep. And your body will respond from then on out so much better than going up to, you know, those tools that are meant for really high performance, really heavy weight, you know, situations. Well, like it's like that. The golf analogy I've given before too, it's like taking somebody who has been golfing for 10 years on their own and then they go see us a professional teach them

and their mechanics and their habits are so bad that they have to regress them and it takes forever. You're far better off. You get somebody who has never golfed in their life before and you teach them good patterns and good mechanics right from the gate, that person's gonna end up being a better golfer than the guy who's been golfing for 10 years on his own with all the poor mechanics that has to go back and take longer.

But it takes longer. Yeah, and it's demotivating for a lot of people. It's like I can see why people jump into that as like, well I want to see how much I can, you know, squat with a belt. Let's get, you know, let's get heavier. I got cut up on that. Not to go too off subject, but I do want to make a comment on something that really just completely changed my thoughts on this particular tool. And that's the power plates, the vibrating machines in the gym. I used to make fun of them because I'd see people doing all these exercises and stuff

on them. They have one at the club sport that we go to and I use it to get myself kind of ready to do squats or deadlifts and that thing vibrates the shit out of you, right? And I notice that it gets my central nervous system to chill and I can get into really really deep squats and positions with it that I normally would take me 10, 15, 20 minutes of warm-up just to get into and then I can get in my squat very amazing tool. I'm gonna keep messing with that thing and have more comments on it later on, but so far, I'm sold on the, on the whole, you know, using it for mobility, for mobility perspective. I don't know if I'm sold on spending $10,000 on one, but I mean, interesting. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting for that.

Tali Array is asking, why no cardio for you dudes? Are there no benefits exclusive to cardio that you might be missing? I think the only one of us that gives that impression is probably Adam, because you always talk about how you don't do cardio. Yeah, I used to, on my posts, I used to be like, write all my stats and then at the bottom, zero cardio. Yeah. Well, let me do that for a specific reason, let's be honest, because that was the hustle

for that whole community. Thank you. So that was the main reason why I make such a point of it is to be the counter of all the people that think you had to do cardio to get it in crazy shape. I wanted people to see that watch. I can do no cardio and put myself in the most elite level of aesthetic shape and not ever get on a fucking treadmill. So really that is the point of it.

It's not to knock people who do cardio or anything like that. It's just, you know, the fitness industry has given this impression with cardio for so long that people think like, oh, if you want to lose fat, you do cardio. But that's necessary. If you want to build muscle, you lift weights. If you want to burn fat, you do cardio. And, that's necessary. If you want to build muscle, you lift weights. If you want to burn fat, you do cardio. And that's kind of like the formula for beginning in shape. And that's absolutely wrong in so many ways.

And so part of my message of always kind of talking shit about cardio and so on that, it's more along those lines. I'm not knocking somebody for that. Also though, you know, the other side of why I'm hard about cardio is that when you do something, especially intense cardio, because when we're talking about cardio, I'm assuming that we're talking about either hit or like steady state or repetitive type of movement like that. I'm not a big fan because I know that a majority people, especially those of us that are 30 plus

years old, have a lot of imbalances on their body. And while they're running on a treadmill, all they're doing is continually to reestablish this poor connection that they have and these imbalances. And I think that that client who's spending 20 to 30 minutes doing cardio would be far more beneficial to be doing mobility movements

and fixing into their imbalances. They're gonna burn calories and they're gonna fix posture alignment. To me, that is way more important than cardio. I mean cardio sure you can argue that it's good exercise for the heart, strengthens the heart because the heart's a muscle and you're basically exercising it by doing that, but that's about fucking it. Yeah, I think if you look at cardio, you can break it down into three purposes for doing the cardiovascular activity. One, it's to improve, you can use Cardio to improve cardiovascular endurance.

So if you're an athlete and you play a sport or your runner or whatever, Cardio is necessary to an extent to improve upon VO2 max and to improve upon your ability to recover between intense bouts of cardiovascular activity. Most of you listening are not in that category. Number two, doing cardio because it burns calories I want to lose body fat. Cardio on a minute-by-minute basis does burn more calories than resistance training. However, resistance training is superior in altering your metabolism so that you burn more calories than resistance training. However, resistance training is superior in altering your metabolism so that you burn more calories on your own.

So if you're just doing cardio to burn body fat, it's not a very efficient and effective way to do it. Resistance training is actually more effective. Yeah, I saw a post this morning that said, you know, cardio is manually burning calories, weight training is automatically burning. That was Jessica. Oh, that's supposed to be it. Yeah, weight training is automatically. That was Jessica. Oh, that's supposed to be. Yeah.

At the training hour, the, the third reason you do cardio is to benefit your health. Cardio vascular activity does have some health benefits. However, most of those health benefits are in the, the kind of chill type of cardio like going for a walk or doing a hike or doing a swim, nothing super intense. The super intense cardio is great for the cardiovascular endurance. I can argue that you can gain good cardiovascular endurance with resistance training as well if you want to cut rest periods and do conditioning type movements as part of your routine as well.

Calisthenics does that well. Burpees does that well. You're not building strength with those, but you are building that kind of endurance. I just think cardio is, I do cardio, but I do it for meditative purposes. I do it for just it feels good. I'll do my reading while I'm doing cardio.

Sometimes I'll go on walks. I'm not trying to build tons of endurance. If I want conditioning, I'll do a separate routine in the gym that's conditioning based. I know I'm not building strength while I'm doing it, so don't get me wrong, I'm not doing the whole, combined 50 different weight training exercises, type of deal, it's very specific,

but I'll do things like kettlebell swings or jump rope or sledgehammer stuff, things like that to build conditioning type endurance, but I'm not against cardio. I do it pretty regularly, but I do it from a more meditative standpoint. I don't do it to get leaner. If I want to get leaner, I adjust my nutrition. Yeah, it's interesting how my view has changed

to coming from athletics, and especially the hustle everybody has of cardio being the answer to lose fat and like, you know, equate it to a lot of thermodynamics where like throughout my day, like at least if my cardio, I got to burn another five to 800 calories here. So then I can counter that to what I'm eating and then it becomes this catch-up game that people are always playing with themselves. It's unhealthy. It's unhealthy to live that way. The argument for just increasing activity all day long is so much stronger and so much more compelling to me, much stronger and so much more compelling to me, especially for longevity, for joint proper function and health.

Here's how I look at cardio now. So I'll do cardio. And I'm one of the probably the guys in here that will do the most high intensity forms of cardio. However, I do that more as a skill. So what I'm doing is I want to, like, because I enjoy it, I'm gonna do, like, jump ropes or I'm gonna, you know, sledgehammer, tire, strikes,

you know, I'm gonna do specific things where I'm expressing movement and power. It's all movement related because I want to be able to move explosively. And so, I'll incorporate that and I'll phase in and out as a skill. I'm going to work on this for a while and make sure my body can move and respond the way I want it to. And I've also found that as far as movement, I don't need to run and cut and do all these drills Like I used to do in athletics. What's been more beneficial for my movement has been mobility and that that was a sort of epiphany that I had that

It showed when I went to to go playing this this dumb game where I'm like I'm 36 years old and I'm played in a really high intensity sport and well over a decade. And all I did leading up to it did no conditioning, not only that, I had the flu for like a week and a half leading up to it with no conditioning. All I did was mobility drills, very light stuff. And then got in and I was just blown away by the movement I was able to produce and I paid for it after I was done. No doubt, but I performed at a high level, no injuries either, with no injury.

Yeah, no, that's really, that's what's really impressive when you think about that. To be able to do something like that, that explosive and contact sport and not get hurt at 36 is probably the most, you know, the other thing about cardio is we talk a lot about Justin touched on a little bit is neat, you know, neat is like he said, just far there's so much more coming out as far as the benefits of that and just learning to be active all day. If I had to choose for my client, you know, hey, one hour of cardio a day and then you go to your desk and you sit at a desk all day long, you sit in your car all day long, and only a bit of real activity you have is your one hour of intense cardio, or I have a client who at every hour goes and walks for 10 minutes, I would much rather have that client who goes and walks for 10 minutes at every hour than the

one client who busts their ass for an hour. It's going to be far more beneficial for their body than sitting in this fixed sedentary position all day long. And not just from a calorie fat, fat burning, but a mobility, neurological point, there's so many things that are more beneficial to just getting around and moving throughout the day and it doesn't have to be a high intensity. It's just one of those things,

it's like resistance training is very specific, they're specific techniques, specific things you're training, you're working on particular movement patterns. When you people schedule cardio, it's like this mindless get on a machine and blah, blah, blah, and do the same thing over and over again. It's like, just go, go move.

You don't have to do that. Like that's cardio is easy. Cardio, you don't need a gym to do cardio. Just go for a walk, go to the mall, walk around for 45 minutes. And really, no joke. And even better than all those, like I said originally, which is I would much, right now I would tell a client like I would rather you spend 20 minutes

repattering your connections that are poor. You know, almost everybody is suffering from either upper or lower cross syndrome and have these imbalances that I have a plethora of exercises for you to do that are are with bands or body weight or just some passive stretches that you're doing that are going to help correct these imbalances which are gonna be so much more for you with longevity and feeling better and feeling healthier

than anything it's ever could compare to getting on a treadmill and running for 20 minutes. That's like ridiculous. Not to mention what's nice is because I know I stop shit like I don't do any cardio. No, I do. I just got I got ready for Maui and guess what I get to do two weeks before going to Maui. I can get on a treadmill and guess what? My body responds like a motherfucker to cardio because I don't do it because it doesn't know what 30, 45 minutes of running on a treadmill looks like. So you

better believe when I go and do that, my body starts responding like crazy because it's not used to it. It's not adapted to that yet. Our bodies only take about two to three weeks to get adapted to whatever cardio modality that you're doing. So if you're somebody who loves to get on the stair master, loves to get on your elliptical or loves to do your treadmill, loves to do your trail run. Do something different. All the fucking time, guess what? Your body has become so efficient at that. You ain't doing much. You think you're doing a bunch

because you might be getting hot and sweaty. You ain't doing much. And not only that, but over time, adaptive thermogenesis happens where your body slows its metabolism down to compensate. Because cardio doesn't send the signal to speed up the metabolism. Cardio just burns calories.

Resistance training. Well, you could argue it sends the opposite signal. It up the metabolism. Cardio just burns calories. Resistus training signal. Well, you could argue it sends the opposite signal. It sends the opposite signal. Resistus training sends a speed up the metabolism signal because you're giving your body a reason to have more of this calorically expensive tissue called muscle. Cardiovascular activity doesn't do that.

So constantly doing lots and hours and hours of cardio every single day, it tells your body that it needs to be very efficient at conserving calories. And it this through a burning muscle or not, excuse me, not burning muscle but making you lose muscle because you don't really burn it. You lose it and be just slowing you down in general so that when you do that cardio, now you're at the same total caloric burn as you were before. So you just slow down your metabolism. And this is why people plateaued so hard with cardio

and they don't with resistance training in the same way. So. Chase Smith is asking, what changes have you seen in the gym over the last decade? Excellent. I love this. I've been in gyms now professionally for almost 20 years, non-professionally probably 23 years.

And my first gym membership, I think I was 16 years old or 15 years old. I was in there all the time and I haven't stopped since. I've been in gyms every single week since then, since I was 15 or 16 years old. For long periods of time, seven days a week, lived in gyms, worked in gyms, worked with people in gyms, and I've paid close attention to the a week, lived in gyms, worked in gyms, worked for people in gyms,

and I've paid close attention to the different trends in the way gyms look. When I first started working out in gyms, this is what they look like. And by the way, I'm in California, and so we tend to be ahead of the curve. So trends will happen here, and then they start to spread everywhere else.

But when I was first in gyms, they had machines. They had free weights. They had a women's area, and they had a men's area. The women's area had the same machines as the men's area except the weight stacked and go up as high and the color of the upholstery on the equipment was different. The women's area didn't have free weights. It was just machines. There were parts of the gym were segregated.

You had cardio room, free weight room, a machine room. You had racquetball rooms. It was all broken up and segregated. Then I saw the next progression was no more women's only parts of the gym. That fell out of favor. And so men and women kind of started working out together. Then I saw the hammer strength revolution. This is where hammer strength came on the scene

and you saw plate loaded equipment was like the big thing. I remember when they all started coming out and it wasn't the weight stacks. It was like who could get the most plate loaded type exercise equipment? And somehow this was better than machines, it was actually the same thing. It's just using plates instead of,

and they had different movement patterns, but it really wasn't that different, but it became the same thing. It's just using plates instead of, and they had different movement patterns, but it really wasn't that different, but it became the big thing. Then it became big to have the whole gym be all in one room. So gyms became very, very open. Cardio machines used to be facing TVs, and then all of a sudden cardio machines were facing the freeway area,

because they discovered that people like to watch people More than they'd like to watch TV when they were already. Yeah, and and so you saw some of that now I'm starting to see more squat racks and gyms. I'm starting to see bumper plates, kettlebells, a little bit of turf in like 24-fitnesses throwing turf in their gyms. You're starting to see these jungle gym type apparatuses and gyms with TRX hanging off of it and maybe a punching bag on one end and monkey bars in the other end.

So lots of change, gyms don't look anything like they did when I used to. And now when I go into a gym and I see like an old Nautilus machine, then nostalgia just washes over me. And I have to use that fucking machine. You know what I mean? I'm like, oh my God, a Nautilus pullover machine. I haven't seen this thing in 15 years, you know. So it's like the old like branded supplements that you love.

I was like, oh, I gotta eat it. Yeah. Well since grandpa took that question and answered pretty much fucking everything, Jesus Christ, didn't leave anything for me. I will say one thing. So, you took just on a journey. I mean, how accurate was that though?

No, no, you know, all but one. That's why I'm gonna come in here and save the day. Oh, I know, I know, I know. We're about to group taxes. So, this is, I think 24-hour fitness is a great place to watch. You wanna watch a company who is always trying to stay on the trends, right? Yes.

They are a money making machine. They, as far as their integrity with how great of a company or trainers they produce or that they could give two shits. They're about pumping people in and out of that place and making money and their fucking... They were the first to introduce the body bug. Matt, inter-roathed fish.

Yeah. And they are good at what they do for sure. And anytime I used to always tell people when I worked for the company, like someone would say, oh, check out this new thing that's coming, I'm not even tripping because I know my company, we're going to have that in our gym within six months. And I'll remember like the firm, remember when like the curves trend came and the big curves when the circuit training was like the ill Nana.

Next thing you know 24 is a little bit of a whole 24 24 if it is makes the express zone. They have an express zone now. And it's the same thing that but it's colored blue and yellow and then it's a circuit training with numbers and we always be some poor soul. Like just stuck in one of those machines holding everybody up. Still running their express. Everybody coming up to complain. Yeah.

He's not moving. And the company would roll out pamphlets for us. And we had this big old brochure that showed people the science behind it. We used to close people on how great it was. But in reality, it was just brilliant marketing. We saw the fitness industry or the fitness company saw where the industry was going.

So they made sure they took care of it. Then 24 of Finisys, which you see kind of right now, like your orange theories and all these small little group type setting classes. So now they have this opportunity where you can hire a trainer and five to 10 people can go go around with them and they teach these little mini boot camps within the gym. And that's I forget what they call it now, but 24Finnes does that also. And that's the kind of combat what you see going. Sal touched on the grass now. You see almost every 24 now has a grassy area with some tires and a bunch of CrossFit shit because why?

Because the big CrossFit trends going on and they know better than to just sit back and let them take all the people. So they took the elements that people love about CrossFit, like flipping a tire or dragging a sled and they've now Incorporated that and most all their time so this is the thing that dry that this is the thing that is so tough is People see that you have a company that like like like a like a 24 that you know Implement something like that and if you're a young kid who works for them, you know You get fed all this information on like, oh, this is the way to do this, or this is the net. And it's like, it's really hard when you're in it.

When you're in it to step away and go like, this is just like the new FAD. And is this really more about business? This is really what's best for my client. The gym industry, the fitness industry, besides supplements, they'll like work out part of the fitness involves quickly. It is a Fad driven industry. It is 100% fad driven. Luckily, we're

seeing science start to come in now a little bit. It's becoming more science-driven, but that's still a tiny piece of it. It's still largely fad driven. I can... It's so funny, like all these things are coming to my mind now, all the changes I saw, like when you'd walk into a gym, neon, it was neon lights, neon colors, and it was carpet. Then it turned into sheet metal on the walls and fucking rubber flooring. Robic studios used to be carpet and in step was the big thing, step aerobics. Yeah. Then they put, you know, put floors, and then it was kick cardio kickboxing was huge.

Remember when cardio kickboxing was massive. And then it was body pump. It was weight training in aerobics type environment. It was now it's soul cycle. And it's so now it's everything is geared around the UJ. Heart rate because now heart rate all of a sudden. Yeah. Ilnana like, oh shit. I can see what Suzy over there is doing. And you know, she's slackin'. What about cardio machines? When I first started in Jones, it was, now they're like so. Well, it was treadmill, when I first started,

it was treadmill. Stairmaster and bike. Stairmaster and bike. Stairmasters were big. That was like the big thing. Bike is the hardest, that's why. Yeah, I like stairmasters. Yeah, better than fun.

And then you had, and then pre-core came out with the elliptical trainer. So impact. That shit. That shit blew the fuck up. Whoever invented that man, the tread climber. A millionaire instantly. The elliptical.

Oh, no, no, no, no. Remember the tread climber? Yeah. It came after that. Yes. And then I would break down. Like, it was in a week. Yeah.

All the time. So you see all these different changes, God, man, it's, I love it. And then there's even trends in weights. Like when I first started lifting out, it was an iron plate with a lip and a hole in the middle. And then it was all about the weights with the handle that you could hold.

And then it became about the fucking hexagon weight that sucks. And now that's going away. and it's about the round rubber plates It's become the big thing when my favorite is the old school frickin metal, you know, just clinging around lifting well all of us are old I My my fingers. Oh, I put it away. I love I love looking back at some of those old Sometimes the simplest answers the right one. Do you remember though walking and it was neon. Remember the neon writing free weights and then you go to another one, machines.

It's just if you're, you know, I think Chase is a trainer too. So don't get caught up in all the hype, man. It's it's changing now. It changed back then. It's going to change. They're always, they're going to follow the money. They're going to follow the money and you can't hate on them for doing that. It's a, it's a, it's a billion dollar industry.

It's a billion dollar company. Most of them. Uh, and they're going to follow gonna follow wherever the trends are going. Yeah, for a while, Rackable courts were huge. Oh yeah. Those were huge than those fell out of favor, then it was basketball courts.

Basketballs courts are huge. Are they still huge? Are basketball courts still a big driver of sales? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Basketball is not going away. That's definitely not true. Cause all I know is every club I ever manage with the basketball court, all that ever meant was fight drama.

Always have to break up, fight it out. Sneaking kids in front. Every time like, oh, we go, new club, basketball court, we have to question. Benny B. Fly, what do you guys think about the way professional athletes currently train? Ooh. Sounds like a justic question. Which one are we talking about here? Well, he, he, uh, he, uh, he, uh, he, uh, he, uh, he, uh, he, uh, he? Well, he, he, I've seen some shenanigans.

He referred to the big, he said, especially the big three like your NFL MLB. And what do you say? I think soccer or something else. But for sure, it depends. It depends on the team. And it depends on the athlete. Because I've seen high school programs that are legit,

you know, like a high school program that's got like a badass coach, they've got a badass trainer in the, in the facility, like they're on top of their, like kind of like American Olympic, yeah, like cutting edge programming, like I mean, and they're like, they're off seasons legit. Like I've seen that even as low as the high school level, but then I've seen as high as the NFL where some of these NFL players They go out and they they're higher their best friend who just finishes NASM certification and he's personal training him and

Rehaving him from like serious fucking injuries, and I see the stuff that they have them doing and it's like mind-blowing I'm talking like you know your Navarro Bowman type guys like guys at that elite level That will go out and like hire a buddy as a personal trainer. Like, it's crazy. Some of these dudes, they do that. And I don't know if that's because, you know, and I've, you've seen like, I'm kind of giving back. Yeah, like, right. It's like, you want to take care of your buddy, right? You know, I'm saying, and he knows more than I, you know, in that profession. So you think it's a good idea to hire him, and you're already in great shape, and you're already a badass. So what can your buddy really do? You know in that for profession, so you think it's a good idea to hire them and you're already in great shape And you're already a badass. So what can your buddy really do?

You know when you think about it if you're training a professional athlete It's actually you know for for a long time. I thought it would be extremely difficult But now that I think about it's easy. You take a professional athlete who's already kicking ass and all you got to do is not fuck him up Yeah, you too much. No, no, no, no, just don't fuck him up Well, this is why I kind of bring up, I think Mike Boyle, I would probably say probably has the best programming out there as far as sports and athletics are concerned.

But his major focus is to just like prevention of injury. And like his success lies on like, you know, having an entire hockey team go through an entire season and not being injured. And that's what I kind of define as far as being a good trainer when you're at a very high level like that. Of course, you want to reach new levels of performance, but typically, at that point, it's more skills driven. 100%. 100% when you're talking about a professional athlete,

somebody who's in their 20s to mid 20s, they're pretty much piqued. Yeah. I mean, for the most part, that's not to say that they can't gain a little bit more on their vertical or a little bit more on their full throttle. They're redlining. Yeah. Every time they compete. So why the hell are you going to try and redline them in their training? Yeah. That's stupid. Yeah, 100% so and you know So it really depends you know, I remember the NBA Aligned with NASM like I don't know over 10 years ago, and I know they have some pretty decent programming and some of it with some of their

Athletes and stuff, but it really does depend and I think it's a shit show right now. So I don't think there's one formal Way of doing. Well, I think a lot too shit show right now. So I don't think there's one formal way of doing it. I think a lot too, like these professional teams, they're seeking like the ones that are smart are really seeking like new wave information. And this is why you see like smart companies like Nike trying to pursue like groundbreaking information out there, like you know, like Dr. Spanay,

I think he's actually intertwined now with Nike and like they're trying to do things because, you know, science, it evolves and especially in athletics, every little minute detail matters. And so if you can have an edge on another team, so it really like the franchise itself, a lot of times is responsible for this. Like they're the ones that are going to be out seeking new information and people that are doing it right and a lot of times it they're just like sticking with like old barnacle information And then you know then you're seeing the results play out on the field so you know something you said just about skill

Makes a lot of sense because if you look at So something you said just about skill makes a lot of sense because if you look at certain sports, you look at basketball, for example, what makes those athletes so good at what they do is their level is their skill level. It's not their strength and their speed. Now are they strong and fast? Yes, definitely. But if it was just strength and speed, then you would have weightlifters and sprinters playing professional basketball and they would be killing it, right?

It's about skill So if I took a bunch of professional basketball players and I magically was able to Increase their strength by 50% boom your 50% stronger go on the go on the court now and go play I guess what's gonna happen to their skill? They're gonna suck. Yeah, they're gonna suck because they're not used to moving Right with that level it all tears it it alters their. And so that's a great point that you made. It's injury prevention is number one, number two, and number three priorities. And it's not necessarily dramatically improving performance because A, they're already at a high level.

And B, if we took them away from their skills training and just improve their strength and then they go back and play, their skill is off. And I've seen this even myself when I trained in Jujitsu. If I took time off and then would lift, go back to Jujitsu, I they go back and play, their skill was off. And I've seen this even myself when I trained in Jiu-Jitsu. If I took time off and then would lift, go back to Jiu-Jitsu, I'd go back much stronger, but my skill would be off. Almost if I wasn't used to my new body, you know what I'm saying?

So I won't throw anybody specifically under the bus, but I have seen this play out, you know, professional football player, train like a bodybuilder, and then go into the season and have like the sheetiest season they've had. Well, didn't Honey Romra, did he teach Vernon Dave, did he coach, uh, Vernon Davis for a season? What happened?

You know, I don't give a fuck. I love Adam. Did I ever tell you that? Well, it's the same reason why I think it's a joke that he hired. The freaking rock heart him to joke. It's joke. You know, it's it's come on. Like what are you thinking?

It's the world we live in, man. He doesn't pissed me off, man. It's I love Vernon Davis. I know. And I love the rock too. You know, but you know, sometimes we're misled and people just don't, they don't know. And you can't knock somebody. I mean, fuck your, you're not screwing those guys up.

They're as far as the bodybuilders. I mean, they don't have to get out on a field and play football, but people think that type of, I mean, that's such a specialty, right? To train somebody for aesthetics, for a bodybuilding show, and to train somebody for a sport, I'll tell you right now, like,

I'm gonna have two different fucking, you know, I'm a sport performance, I'm a I'm a support performance about it. I'm a sports performance specialist and I still don't even consider that my specialty. So even though I have certifications in that and I have a higher level than the average trainer when it comes to training athletes and I've trained lots of athletes, I don't even consider that a specialty of mine. It's something that I could do, but I don't think that I have this level of understanding and ability to take someone like a Vernon, I would even want that responsibility. The goal, the 100% goal with any type of training aside from preventing injury is to improve performance

in the respective sport. That means getting stronger if the strength translates to better performance. That means improving mobility. If that new mobility range of motion contributes to better performance, if they don't, then don't go for it. Just making someone stronger with poor performance or poor technique is not going to benefit them on the field. And I think, like you said, Vernon Davis was a great example. Yeah. What may happen there? Listen, if you like Mind Pump, leave us a five star rating review on iTunes. If we like your review and we choose it, you'll win a free Mind Pump T-shirt.

Also, don't forget to check us out at mindpumpmedia.com. That's where we have all of our programs and our T-shirts, which are on sale, maybe, still? Excellent. And find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal, just as that Mind Pump Justin and Adam Instagram at Mind Pump Radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Sound, just as that Mind Pump Justin and Adam is at Mind Pump Adam.

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