Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 413: Are you as fit as you think you are?

Episode Date: December 5, 2016

How do you define fitness? What exactly makes up a optimally fit individual? Are you as fit as you think you are? The definition of fitness continues to evolve and in this episode Sal, Adam & Justin delve into the perceptions, myths and personal revelations they have observed and had with respect to fitness and how they define it. 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)

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Saldas Defano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Hey, my pump listeners. You're gonna hear an episode here where me, Adam, and Justin really talk about what it means to be fit. We talk about fundamental human movement. Are you as fit as you think you are? We talk about some of the things you can do to get some of that fundamental movement. And of course at the end we realize, man, we're giving out all this information and

people are going to want to work on these things, but we're our good resources. And we couldn't think of a better resource than our private forum. We have an amazing private forum, which is going up this month, by the way. It's going to be going up in price, but it's a one time fee right now, which will also change at some point. It's going to go up in price the last day for the current rate, which is $67, it's a one time rate, lifetime.

It goes up after Christmas day. So Christmas day is the last day for this particular rate, but on that forum, we have trainers. There's doctors, there's physical therapists, there's kind of practice, and there's nurses, everything. And then every day people, like you, people sharing their own stories, people watching videos of form, helping each other out, lots of good information, it's transformations out the union.

It's by far the most valuable thing that we offer is our private form. It's near and dear to our hearts, That price will be going up after Christmas, but still right now, $67, get in the forum, you pay it once, you're in there for life. Check it out mindpumpmedia.com. Hey dude, by the way, the new look that you're doing with the beard and the beanie and the fucking shit, you know, the sweater and the...

Can you look like Cypress Hill? You look in the shit. No, no, no, here's the thing about Adam. Adam has the ability to look handsome, even when he's not handsome, and it's really irritating me. It's like when Brad Pitt, you know, he goes on like this weird movie where he gets all scraggly.

Yeah, you got the hippie homeless look. Yeah, it's a homeless still handsome. I couldn't do that. Homeless, cypress, it's really fucking annoying. They hit you. Homeless. I don't, you know, it happened to me. It happened to me again last night.

I get so, did one scream that you had to come home. No, no, no. So, what I don't like about it is, so I gotta, I gotta, I'll show you guys, I should have showed you, because it happened again last night. And I've already shared this once before with you guys, is when I go to light a joint that's really small.

Did you light your mustache on fire? My mustache catches on fire. And it's like, when your mustache catches on fire It's the worst smell and it's right there. It's under your nose. So it all goes a day. Oh god Because everyone knows a smell of burning hair is like one of the worst smells ever. It's even more worse with tubes It's on your mouth. Well, hold on a second How are you? Everybody was like laughing for me. They go wait a second

Which wouldn't you ever catch your pubes? What are the logistics of that? What are you doing? What are you doing? He's all baby. Get the boat torch, get the baby oil and get a banana. If you're smoking, I'm making spells. If you're smoking joints at night, bro,

you're doing it all wrong. That's for sure. You're doing it wrong. Justin said he's making spells. Like Gargamel. Sturr the broth. Actually, I'm gonna go for that. After talking to Ben Greenfield, I feel like I'm going to go for this kind of wiry look now.

I'm over the buff, the buff guy, so I'm gonna get into this. He's so influenced by all our guests. I am gonna be hyper mobile and Wierry and Hippy look hold on a second. That's my new thing. Are you joking? Are you serious? I don't know I'm flirting with it Because let me tell you why I'm flirting with it was like feeling you guys out and the fact that you complimented me on I'm like okay, this one I might be doing something. Can I tell you why I think that's a good idea? Slivery. I'm gonna tell you why that's a good idea because I'm I'm still in this fucking everybody including Ben like refer to me as the body builder guy

No, no, that's not why. Oh god. It's coming from a bad place again Adam. It's got to come from a good place. Yeah, let me tell you why Because your best everybody's best themselves is is working with their natural attributes and you've forced yourself It's like I have in the past. You've forced yourself to be this big muscular guy, but you're not, you're probably naturally... Oh yeah, very wired. Wirey, very much. Mobile, athletic, type of person.

Yes. And I think you'd probably be most comfortable in your skin that way. Oh, I think so. And the second part, here this is also what's important, is that if you do that, then I move up the rung of who's big in the mind pump room.

I can't, I didn't say that, Wierry, fuck. Ah shit. You know what, you, you, you, I want Justin to get Wierry. You're right, I don't think that's possible. I don't, I, you know, I can't shrink these glutes. You're right, and you bring up a really good point because, and I think it's really hard to explain to people

when I talk about it, but it just goes to show you like how, even someone like Ben who's been around us enough times and knows who we are and like, you know, he looks at me and just refers to me as like the body builder guy or the meathead guy and it's like, wow. You know, I work so hard to get that look. And it's very, and it's so not my body type.

Is it starting to feel? God, this is great. Is it starting to feel like it's not you? Like uncomfortable. Well, I know it was not me before I went into it. Right, but you said no. I'm saying it's starting to feel like it's not you. Oh, well, yeah, but it's not starting.

It was feeling that way long ago because you can just tell well, yeah, but it's not starting. It's it was feeling that way long ago, because you can just tell when you when you start to push the body beyond where it wants to go naturally, it gives you feedback. Absolutely. Like, I was a very mobile, athletic, any sport, pick it up and do it. And I'm not that guy anymore. Like, I look like I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my life, but I'm not from a physical, like from an athletic standpoint, from performance, right? Moving and mobility, just feeling comfortable.

I used to push my body weight up to 220 routinely, I've gotten up to 230. Now I'm six foot, I'm not a massive, like I don't have a huge bone structure. If anything, I'm kind of narrow. You have a huge bone. I have a huge bone, but that's totally different. I'm not counting that.

Yeah. But, you know, I push myself to 220 to 230, routinely because I was trying to be this like big muscular guy, and when I started to identify, I think what you're going through right now out of my went through a little sooner than you. When I started identifying how uncomfortable I was, because I wasn't really,

what's the word acknowledging it for a long time, and I started letting my body go to where it wants students to start focusing on other things. And even more recently, I've taken my focus off of just maximal strength. I feel so much more comfortable in my own skin. It's a very, I don't know, I feel like more myself, you know what I'm saying? It doesn't mean my fitness went down.

I'm just not forcing it to go in this extreme situation. And it's funny because we talk about athlete. You know what that is? Wisdom. You think so? I think so. Because I'm old. Well, you just learn, you learn the capacity of your body and like, you

press it so much like trying to get to a certain point and you figure out like where you feel the best and where you're most comfortable and where you're most mobile, where you're the strongest in that mobility, where, you know, your body is going to be able to perform on command the easiest. All these different factors come into play over years of figuring that out. There's definitely a way to tap into that early on. It's funny because we talk a lot. Adam brings us up all the time about how athletes, professional athletes are some of the,

they're not the fittest, they're not the healthiest people, but all because they're forcing their bodies to do something at extreme level. They're repetitive in their motion, obviously if you're a pitcher, you're repetitively pitching, if you're a swimmer, you're doing the same, especially if you compete in one stroke, you do the same thing over and over again. Well, we kind of fell on that, right? We fell on that, that, you know, I need to get bigger, build muscle type of thing. And it's, and we forced our bodies beyond what is probably ideal. And once you start to identify that and move in the direction that works

best for you, you start to feel so much more comfortable in the way your body looks and the way your body moves. It's really hard to explain. I think you explain it very well. I think you explain it well. And I think I also think what you're sharing though, and I know you're trying to relate you and I together, but this is definitely your journey. You guys have already said before, and you know that, and I'll elaborate that, I've always been the guy who I like to experiment and take things to those extremes intentionally.

Like, it's not driven through an insecurity, it's not driven through this desire I gotta get this, it's like, I approached bodybuilding, knowing it wasn't for me, knowing it wasn't, knowing that I didn't care about that, I didn't read body, like I wasn't like you I didn't read bodybuilding magazines and idolize, you know big competitors before in fact I used to mock most of that stuff

But I recognized that there was a growing industry right now men's physique and women's bikini exploded that industry I realized that a majority of those people were the ones that were directing the masses in the fitness world and those that were trying to get in shape and I saw the opportunity and I saw that, okay, I needed to first show that I could do it and I thought I was a perfect person to do it because it's not, I don't fit that. It's like me saying, okay, I'm going to become this hockey player. I've never played hockey in my life and watch me work my way all the way to professional level. That would be very cool to watch happen,

especially when you're not and to show the steps that it takes to show that anybody could do it if you really put your mind to it. That was the whole purpose of the bodybuilding thing. And even with the like mobility right now, like I've become, and I'm joking about becoming this wiry hippie guy, but that is how I do things. I like to take the extremes, but I also share with people that that's not how they should live, right? And what I mean by that is I like to take like this,

okay, now I'm gonna become this like super hyper mobile guy and get heavy into that. When really it's about having this complete balance and that's what we all preach and we talk about, but I don't think, I think you misinterpret me if you think that it's this like awareness thing that I'm having or it's something that I have driven, I've been driven that way for insecurities.

Like, I'm a very confident guy. I'm not in, I have lots of insecurities and I'm aware of them that they've driven me, but when I, when I have gone after like my fitness goals or a way of training, I'm fully aware of what I'm doing and I even know know too that even like when I was chasing you with the deadlifting and the squatting, and like I knew that when I was heading that direction, like this is not how I always want a train, it was I wanted to challenge myself that if I focus

to 100% just on this as a priority, like can I catch salad as deadlift, can I catch just in a squat knowing that I've never given two shits about that, you know, what I catch salad as deadlift, can I catch Justin in his squat, knowing that I've never give two shits about that, you know, what I want to experience that. And then I wanted to be able to share and talk about the things that I noticed along the ways, like, and there was some great benefits and great learning experiences that I had going through that process, but then there was some things that I also noticed that were major drawbacks of training that way.

Well, so let me ask you this, let me ask you this then. If you were to just objectively stand outside of your body, what do you think would be the best way for you to train your body according to your genetics, according to what you think's gonna benefit you the most in the long term and overall make you just feel most comfortable being yourself without thinking of experimenting in these different endeavors in extreme ways.

What would that look like? It would require the, me letting go of any sort of real aesthetic goals, because knowing that I've always been the skinny body type and the ectomorph look for so long, that that's my body type and 100% accepting and being okay with that, I'm not gonna have 22 inch arms, I'm not gonna have 30 inch quads, and I'm not gonna have 20 inch calves.

But I can build an aesthetic physique that's pleasing to the eye and looks fit, but not being obsessed with trying to do that or driving to push beyond where my body naturally wants to go, which is what it required me to do to compete on stage. And then also making sure that mobility is a high priority. So, you know, and that's why I think I fall in like this maps green and maps black marriage. Like, that's really the baby of like how I, how I like motor mobility and aesthetic. Yeah, for long jevety reasons, for how I would train forever would really

look like that where it's, it's a mixture of taking all of our tools from a map screen and integrating it with the things I love to do. So it because it begs the question when you, when you was, you know, talk about that, it begs the question, obviously, if I were to say, what's aesthetic to a bunch of people, you would get this kind of general consensus, right? Esthetics is for a man-wide shoulder,

smaller waist, narrow hips, muscles here, there. Esthetics for woman is this hip-to-waste ratio and they kind of write all these different this general consensus down. But I always make the argument that there is know, that there is this general kind of, you know, thing that the world can agree on where there's, you know, some kind of aesthetic qualities. But I think on an individual basis,

people will look their best if they kind of follow their body. You know what I'm saying? So rather than taking this general consensus and let's say you're the super ectomorph guy or this endomorph guy, it's real overweight big dude, and you say to yourself, oh, this is what is this general consensus of aesthetics, I'm gonna just hammer myself to look this way

and in order to look that way, I have to eat like this, I have to work out this way. I would argue that they would probably look better if they kind of followed their body a little bit and worked, you know, and listened to their body a little bit more. Does that make sense? Yeah, but that's, you know, that's so debatable

because it's your opinion on what they look like based off of you. It's even like when you say, it's even like when you say, you know, if you just chase, you know, healthy, that healthy looks better. But let's, to be honest, and to be honest with ourselves, and to be honest with the society, healthy, that healthy looks better. But to be honest, and to be honest with ourselves, and to be honest with the society, like, unfortunately, that's not true.

It's not true because most people don't know how to look at health that way. I don't think they don't understand how to do what you're trying to explain. And I think that- Well, that's a problem. There's a big problem. You're right.

A lot of people don't. Look at, we idolize models that are, most of them and I think that- Well, that's a problem. There's a big problem. You're right. A lot of people don't. Look at we idolize models that are most of them are anorexic and have eating disorders. I'm saying like the women want, and if you ask, probably 80% of them would say, that is beautiful and I want to look that way. For you to say that chasing health, and if you just focus on that, that you could have taken- So here's the thing, you are using, when you look at people that are portrayed

in magazines or entertainment, you do realize that none of those people represent average, not even close. In fact, if you were to take a thousand people, that's the problem. Well, I understand, but what I'm saying is, identifying that and understanding that, but people need to understand is that them being healthy,

they're gonna look their best being healthy versus chasing, you know, or trying to look like somebody who was born, a mutant. I mean, I've never met a supermodel in Proye. And that's, and that's the point that I'm trying to, the point that I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I mean, isn't that you're wrong that that's not the right way to approach it.

My argument is that people don't know how to do that yet. People don't know how to disseminate from that yet. They don't understand the difference between this mutant looking guy on the Muscle Fitness magazine or this supermodel who's throwing up after every meal that this is not healthy. This is not what you want to look like. And in fact, if you chased what was optimal for you and healthy for you, you would look way better than you ever would be trying to chase that based off of what they're expressing or sharing or showing you in their ways of getting there. So I'm not disagreeing with what you're

saying. I'm disagreeing that. I don't think people are ready to look or to get, they're not there yet. Well, society, I mean, I mean, it needs a rewiring. Like, people need to understand that there's other metrics that are other areas that you can focus on that will benefit your overall and then as a byproduct, you know, your aesthetics will improve.

But really like, I feel it's so psychological because for me, it's never like the aesthetic piece to it has been something that I just have a disconnect to that. Like, and I know you guys definitely have brought that up as like insecurities and these are things that like have been a focus. And I guess I've just been so consumed by trying to perform and trying to be at the pinnacle of what I could do in a sport that I never idolized that. I mean, I always was impressed by it, but at the same time, it's just like, it doesn't

even cross my mind that like somebody looks at something, you know, oh, well, you should shape this up a little bit better. You should do this a little bit better. I'm like, we can't fucking move. You know, like, and it's, it's, I, I try to, to sort of get in the mindset of that just to, to, to be able to voice in on, on a lot of these conversations, but it, it's really interesting to me because, um, it's one of these conversations, but it's really interesting to me because it's one of those things

that I don't really feel like there's a lot of people that share that because society in general, like the main focus of that is the pinnacle of fitness success is six pack, you know, chisel body, something that reflects that whereas for me, I just look at that as like, I'm confused, I wanna know what they can do. You know what's funny is that you say that,

and then I think that the answer for that is also the thing you hate probably more than any of us, which is CrossFit. Like I think that for so many years, we have been glorifying these people on magazines and so that they can't move and aren't really in great shape and they can't perform and they just look sexy in their Photoshop to death. And then outcomes, CrossFit, which is heavily performance,

it's all about performance, it's not, if you just perform like an animal, you'll die. Yeah, yeah, performer dies. Right, the mentality. So it was, and I think that's a lot, I think that resonated with a lot of people. And so that's why that movement exploded like it did. Because you're right, there is,

and I think a lot of people are getting fed up with that. But I think then you became this other extreme. And I really think that mind pump is always trying to help people with that balance. Let's even talk about the super athlete, the CrossFit athlete or the basketball player at the professional level or football player. People really think these people are super healthy and are in super great shape because they can perform. that's not even the only indicator. No, and there's optimal health there. There's a difference between fitness and performance.

Mm-hmm. You know, I can train. Explain that. Well, I can train, if I'm in a compete in a, I don't know, a deadlift competition, and I want to maximize my performance, it's very specific, right? Of it's a very specific metric in that particular situation. My performance in the deadlift

And so I'm gonna do everything I can to get my deadlift to go up Fitness is much more broad. It's much more all-encompassing and There's lots of factors that go into fitness Can you move well? Can you perform in different, you know in different ways? move well, can you perform in different ways? Can you, do you have good sleep? Do you feel like you have good energy? Do you have a good relationship to exercise

and to nutrition? Is this something that is contributing to other aspects of your life versus taking away from them? Like if I'm constantly just training for this deadlift competition, other aspects of my life will probably suffer, like my endurance, maybe, or maybe I'm going to over train my posture or your chain too much in cost and imbalances. There's definitely situations

we're getting stronger, for example, is not going to improve your fitness. We're getting stronger, it might be a bad thing. If mean, if I strengthen a poor recruitment pattern, am I, do I have better fitness? Well, that's why I'm such the anti-running guy, because of this. People don't realize, and I would venture to say that more than 50% of the people probably much higher than that,

that are out there running on a regular basis, probably have no business doing that. And that sounds crazy, right? And someone's like, what? How could you say that? And oh my God, that's healthy, you know what? No, dude, most people have these really bad recruitment patterns because of what they do all day long,

that they're a little five mile run, that they're patting themselves on the back for doing, like they have no idea the wear and tear they're actually doing. Well, you know what the problem is, the problem is that we compare doing that to a regular modern lifestyle, which is worse, which is nothing, right? Yeah.

So then you're like, what are you talking about? That's a great point, right? Yeah. Because that's when we say, I mean, it's better than, yeah, for a lot of people. It's sitting on the couch, right? It's better than not doing anything whatsoever.

Exactly. So we have such a, we have such a whole, we have such a whole, we have such a low bar that, you know, hey, you know, you have a desk job all day long. Why don't you go do this, you know, repetitive motion over and over again, which is, you know, cementing poor recruitment patterns, because that's better than what you're, you're currently doing. And it's unfortunate that that's the bar that we use. I think people need to identify, you know,

to just movement. I mean, there's so many things, in so many ways you can improve your fitness, and they don't have to be the specific, like running all the time, or just go and lift, you know, all the time, like there's so many different things you can do to improve your overall fitness. And it really, it's this all-encompassing thing, right?

Everything from, you know, you know, movement, you know. I'm gonna get kind of outside of my character with this one just a little bit because. Whoa! What? What's outside of his character? Well, I'm gonna actually give CrossFit a little bit of praise here. Whoa! Yeah. The hell's going on? Wait, I want to know. You never should.

That's what you check as temperature real quick, please. Yeah, because I feel like we're, I feel like throughout this entire process of trying to define that. Like that's one version that's been created to try to address these issues. And I feel like maybe there was some intention there that was, you that was sparked by good ideas. I want to be able to create benchmarks for different movement patterns, and I want to be able to assess my capabilities as a human being and what my abilities are and how to express that. But then it just got out of hand and it got crazy as far as what

they were actually focusing on. So then, I mean, what spark does listening to Kelly Starrette kind of talk about this, how the focus of like a pull-up became different and, you know, the speed at which they were performing these types of movements became different. And then the combination of how they used this movement, you know, paired with this movement, it diminished the quality of what they were doing. And, you know, I feel like we are all trying still to seek out how to define a human being's fitness level and capacity. And I feel like we're getting closer

to the smarter we get in combination with a lot of theories out there. And you know, and this is really what I feel, mine pump is defining that and filtering good ideas or trying with where they failed too. Yeah, I know. So I feel like sports, that's not the ultimate pinnacle I thought as a kid, you know, that's not what would fit human being, you know, like I wouldn't define

it that way. That's a high performing human being in a very specific skill. In a very specific, well, that's exactly how I think someone like Kelly start who have so much respect for could attach himself to CrossFit is I think he saw the good in it. I think he could see like, hey, you know, we're starting to teach these humans to do some basic movements that we know and we know as trainers like like and I know it silly because if you drive by any CrossFit in your area, you're bound to see all of a sudden, a bunch of knuckleheads running outside with weights over their head as they run circles, right?

They run around with plates or their head, but there's something really good about that, you know, because that's a movement that we lose. Like people stop doing that. They stop moving the shoulder in that position, and it's a very basic thing that you should be able to do. You should be able to take your shoulders all the way back behind your ears and hold your arms up in a locked position to where you could suspend weight over your head for a good amount of time without fatiguing. So, you know, they took, and then like

a pistol squat, the ability to come all the way down on a single leg to have that hip and ankle And then like a pistol squat, the ability to come all the way down on a single leg to have that hip and ankle mobility is a great thing. And you should be able to do that. And I remember just recently, this only happened like maybe six, seven months ago, whenever it was right before I really got crazy into the mobility. This was the red flag like I've Katrina and I were talking and you know, we're in my, we're in our room and we somehow it came up about a pistol squash. It's seen somebody do it.

Oh, I think it was Justin did the jumping on the two by four into the single leg pistol, right? And I was telling her, oh yeah, I know, we used to do all that stuff all the time and balance on a stability ball or a medicine ball and do it and I was telling, and then I jumped up real quick to show off and show, and I couldn't do it.

Not only could I not do it, but like I didn't even really attempt it because just starting to decelerate into the pistol squad, I could feel how uncomfortable it was for me and how foreign it felt for something that I was so good at doing that I used to mess around with how unstable I was while I did this movement,

and I went holy shit. Like it wasn't that- Wasn't that you're unconnected to that or was it that you had built a significant amount of more muscle that was, you know, probably unconnected. Unconnected. He was strong. It's like you weren't strong. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Strength is there. I'm stronger. I'm squatting more weight than I squatted, you know, four years ago for sure, but four years ago I could stand on a stability ball balance on it and do a single leg pistol. So I couldn't do a pistol standing on flat ground that's not moving anymore, much less hold you onto something or on an unstable environment.

So it was, and I just hadn't done it. I hadn't done it and I had lost that connectivity. And it was like, wow, you know, here I am a trainer, here I am doing great movements, here I'm getting stronger, I look better, all these things, but because I've neglected that, look what it's done. And so that was like a big moment for me, where I realized that God even a trainer like me, and even somebody who aesthetically could look really fit

how deceiving that can be, and how important it is that we continue to do these basic movements that improve shoulder and hip and ankle. Well, you do realize function. This is why the whole muscle bound myth came about. Muscle bound is a term that's been used to describe bodybuilders, right? People who lift weights, they say that they're muscle bound. They can't move, they look so stiff.

And you know, there's some truth in that. I mean, if you see bodybuilders moving in the gym, they do look stiff, they do move kind of weird. You know, they look like they're muscle bound. It's actually a pretty good, accurate way to describe how some of them look, but it's not because they're not strong. I mean, obviously, very, very strong. You've very, very strong.

And doing full range of motion reps. Well, what they've done is they've trained their body to move that way. They've trained particular ranges of motion so frequently and over and over again, that their body's gotten really good at moving that way. And it's lost the ability to move in other ways. And it's, here's the thing, like I want people to,

I want to be able to give people just some general ideas of some of the stuff that they should be able to do. I mean, we're not gonna, you know, nothing crazy. Like you don't need to be swinging from trees and doing crazy stuff. That'd be great. But there are some basic, you know, foundational movements that you should be able to do as a human being.

And when you start to lose these abilities, you lose lots of function. And you should be able to test these things. You should be able to test yourself and see if you could do these. And if you can't, try and be able to do these. One of them is a squat. One of them is just a basic, well, I'm going to sit in a squat. I'm going to take you further than that then. If you're going to say that, I think that a very basic thing that you should be able to do,

you should be able to sit down like a baby does. You should be able to sit down all the way down and hold yourself in that. Sit in a squat. Yes. Sit where you're literally comfortable in it. You know it's comfortable. By the way, you know what sucks about that?

I can't. I know that's why I said it. I wanted to make sure I pointed that out because I don't want people to think that just being on the squat is enough. No, it's not because squatting down to 90 degrees or a chair is not full-right. Well, I was actually referring to what you're saying.

Yeah, you need to be able to, and you should be comfortable with that. And I'll tell you right now, it's if you can't and it seems so far away right now, it's not because it was very far away from me less than a year ago. And now I can sit in that position for an hour, no problem, completely comfortable.

It's a very comfortable position, but it was very uncomfortable for me just six months ago. So it has taken a lot of work with ankle mobility and hip mobility to get to that point, but once you're there, now it's really cool because now I've just made it a routine and a habit to just sit down in that position. Isn't that interesting that most people would identify the fact that, oh well, I just can't do that. It's not in my body's ability. Whereas they've never even put the effort or practice into that movement to produce it.

So they can't even really... Well, this is fun. You know what I'm gonna say that it's not within their ability. You know what's funny is that if... If... Let's just say... Most people can't define their goals. Well, I was just gonna say... Let's just say, for whatever reason, at a long time ago,

we invented these like machines that made us hover and fly around. Okay? And so like, everything you do, you hover and fly around, since you're a child, super convenient, you get lots of shit done, humans would lose their ability to walk, right? Walking we know is a fundamental human movement. We should everybody's everybody for the most part, the vast majority of us should be able to walk. But if you didn't walk, if you never walk,

you'll lose it, you won't be able to walk. And so then it's gone. Squatting is a fundamental sitting on your hunches like that on the floor like Adam was saying is a fundamental human movement. That's how humans pooped. That's how humans gave birth. That's how we did shit on the floor. Humans didn't just bend over with their low back on fire while they were doing something stuff or low. They sat like that. Isn't it funny when we think about it too that we think societies that actually that shit like that? Isn't it funny when we think about it too, that we think societies that actually,

that shit like that are so like third world, when in reality, that's the most natural way to shit. It is the most happening. They invented the squatting potting. Don't do it in the shower. It's the healthiest way for us to poop. People don't realize that, like how, and the fact that we've built these beautiful toilets,

now these porcelain toilets that are elevated, you know, two and a half, three feet plus off the ground. And it's all it's done is created. Here we go, the mobility toilet. We'll bring it down like five inches. It's got like a little hydraulic system on it. So you just keep working on it. It's on your depth incrementally.

Now that's actually kind of cool, because we couldn't go straight all the way to ground. I can't go right all the way. Because people like, well, this is lame. I can't, I can't. It's a hole in the bottom of the wall. Yeah, so that wouldn't work. But, you know, absolutely something that was adjustable

would be phenomenal. But that's kind of how you work towards that. So, I remember when I first started really trying to, that was the goal, right? So, let me back up a little bit. I like that. The goal was to be able to put it like that. I'm going to trade my idea. No, I do like that. I do like that. I do like that. Do you

stand on the toilet now and poop? Yeah. So Kelly star it said something that I thought was really, really, really intelligent that when somebody when you ask somebody like what's your goal and they'll say something that's really surface level and they don't truly understand their own goal. Like for example, to look a certain way or a lose a certain amount of pounds or what that, like, well, what does that exactly equate to and what does that exactly mean? And learning how to define that. And if you were to ask me just recently what my goal was, it was to get to a point where I could sit in that squad of position and be comfortable there. And then from there, I had to back up and say, okay, well, now how do I get to a point where I could sit in that squad of position and be comfortable there.

And then from there, I had to back up and say, okay, well, now how do I get there and what does it take? And I think this goes along the lines of some of the things that we've been kind of recently talking about on MindPub is teaching people how to learn how to focus on other goals and what everybody else is all the sexy goals, like PRs and looking like your stage ready, like those two goals as cool as they all are and it's cool as I

and I love to chase them too, they're not the end all be all at all. And it's it's okay to shift away from that and to find and have another goal of just and I think everybody at one point in their life, if not all the time and everybody should, have a goal to move better and to be able to do the things that are very, very basic, that we have just decided as we've gotten older that I just can't do anymore. But that's the worst thing I ever want to hear from somebody.

Well, let me ask you this Adam, because you've recently done this now, right? You said you weren't, as soon as what, six months ago, or a year ago, you were unable to see. Yeah, it was less than a year ago. You were unable to sit down in a squat. And now you're able to do it comfortably. Yeah.

What was the process? Like I want people to leave. Yeah. You know, I want people to listen and say, okay, you have some tools, you know what I mean? Like, how can I get to that point? So, and what benefits now have you seen from being able to do that?

Okay, so, two of the most common areas, I think that hinder people from getting down in there is the hip and the ankles. Now, there could be other things. Like, I have a client right now that had knee surgery and has all kinds of scar tissue built up. And you know, the primary thing that's limiting her right now is her knee, right, and the build up there.

So that's a whole nother exception to the rule. But for the most part, most people that cannot get down in that position, starts with how you ground on the floor with your feet. Yeah, and that goes to the ankle mobility with the thing where I'm going with this, is that hips and shoulders are the two areas that I started addressing.

And you can, if you're really good, you can start working on both at a time. Or kind of what I did was I really addressed the hips first and really started to see some good progression in that. And then as I got really deep into my squat and getting all the way down, then I realized how much I was limited by the ankles. And a good part of this was a lot of our boy, Dr. Brink.

He was one that really opened my eyes and the limiting factor in my ankles and what Justin is saying is getting down to grounding and getting myself barefoot. So, we've done some really good videos already on Mind Pump TV. So if you're not subscribed to the YouTube channel, I'm telling you to go do that. That's why we put all this free content out there. So you guys can start piecing a lot of the things that we talk about on the show and starting to look at those videos and put it together like, oh, okay, this is what the boys mean by the hip mobility and ankle mobility and how I apply this. So we've actually already done videos on both hip and ankle mobility on our YouTube channel.

And that those exact movements that I shared with the audience was exactly what I was doing. But what I was doing, so step one, were you just doing like these hip, because we filmed them, obviously, let's just talk about the hip mobility stuff, were you just, was that the first progression, like you just started doing that? So, okay, what I started doing was it became the first 10 minutes of every workout. So, okay, what I started doing was it became the first 10 minutes of every workout. So, I eliminated foam rolling and I started to do all mobility drills. I started to do all. And yours were focused heavily on hips first.

Okay, so I was doing like my froggers, my pigeons, my, you know, leg swings, my, what else was on the videos that I shared? Swings, oh, 90 ounce triple pull. No, my 90, 90 stretch with all the progressions. So these were my basic hip movements that I was doing every day before my workout and I started with that. So that was the beginning. The beginning was like, okay,

I'm just gonna make sure that every time I go to the gym, that I begin it with opening these hips up and getting connected. So 10 minutes of mobility. Yeah. Okay. Sometimes less. Five, five to 10, you know, as long as-

Just doing it frequently. Yeah. I mean, I went, you gotta remember, like, and we're, we're huge advocates of this, so understanding that you don't go from zero to a hundred miles an hour right away. You don't need to. Like, just like anything- Oh my God, have you ever hurt yourself anyway? Yeah, well, I mean, just think about that, though.

Like, people go from one extreme to the other. Like if you never did any mobility, never did any stretching, and then also you're like, okay, I'm gonna become flexible. And then you start doing it, hell, it tends for hour at a time or you go take yoga for an hour. It's like, dude, you weren't doing anything before. Try adding five minutes a day of that, of those moves that are gonna improve that.

So that's all I did was I said, okay, every time before I start working out, I'm gonna include this. And I started doing that. So that's all I did was I said, okay, every time before I start working out, I'm going to include this and I started doing that. And right away, I saw huge improvement. I saw huge improvement in my squat and my low back pain and things like that that I was very aware of whenever I would do like heavy squatting or deadlifting. And it already started to alleviate some of that

and I felt so much more comfortable doing those moves. So right away I was like, okay, wow, this is, I'm already starting to see some progression. Sure, I wasn't able to get all the way down to a full squat where my butts sat down. Sure, I wasn't seeing PRs going crazy, but I was feeling better and I was connecting that, right? So after I did that, I applied our frequency principle,

which we talk about like our trigger sessions. So you got better at it and then you did it more and more? Yeah, and basically what I did, where we share trigger sessions with people, and that's probably one of the most revolutionary things about our programs, is that concept. I took that same concept and I applied it with my mobility drills. So now two to three times a day, I was spending five to eight minutes, maybe ten minutes tops, doing a couple of these movements. And what we always teach people is, you know, here,

I'm going to give you an array of movements that are what generally help most people, but you're going to find like maybe one or two or three of those like really help you. Make those a priority, make those ones a priority. What's the blueprints in Masterformance when we're trying to identify, you know, good quality mobility drills to include? It has to cover the gamut of, you know, things, like dysfunction and things that we see within people's movement patterns that, you know, we specifically want to address, but we want to make sure that you go through that.

You're this whole time, you're paying attention to the signals and what's difficult and why can't you move that way. That's something that you really want to bring into the routine consistently and make sure that you frequent that in your program. Well, Adam was saying, you were saying how you applied the frequency principle and I think it's important for people to understand that What he did with his hips and his ankles over the last year had nothing to do with changing the bones of his femur of his pelvis of his ankle Had nothing to do with changing the joint the muscles didn't even change really now I didn't build a bunch more muscle or anything what changed was he was able to create

New patterning he was able to teach his central nervous system to fire some muscles in certain ways relax other muscles allow His body to move the way it could because For those of you listening right now who can't sit in a squat if I peeled all the muscle off your body and just had your skeleton I bet you I could sit you in a squat. I could sit your cell it's your skeleton a squat, if I peeled all the muscle off your body and just had your skeleton, I bet you I could sit you in a squat, I could sit your skeleton, your skeleton is squat, no problem. Absolutely. So what's preventing you for the vast majority of you,

of course, barring those of you with major injury or problem, but for the vast majority of you, is you just don't have this pattern. It must cure connectivity. Right, and the best way to get patterning is just practice and that's why frequency is so effective. That's why intensity isn't, like, if if you need if you're trying to teach your kid Had to write a bike they're better off practicing two or three times a day than putting them on the bike and fucking throwing them down the freeway

You know go, you know you gotta pick you know They're not gonna learn. I was thinking of that track. That's it like a 45 degree angle You know it goes up like a NASCAR Just throw them on my my stepdad did that to my sister to this day degree angle, you know, it goes up like a NASCAR. This is thrown them off. My learn! My stepdad did that to my sister. To this day, she still hates him. And I swear that's why. Because we all were learning to, well, I was older.

So I knew how to ride a bike. I wasn't great at it. And my sister didn't have training wheels. It was her first mountain bike. And we were heading down the hill and he said her on this hill. And she crashed really bad. And she hurt herself. And like, forever, she scarred for that.

She's 34 years old, she still shares that story when that motherfucker put her on the hill. She'll talk about, she'll talk about how she doesn't like him, that's totally unrelated to that, and then she'll be like, Bring that one up.

Yeah, and this motherfucker put me on a hill when I was six. It's like, hey, you want to sit in a squat? We're gonna put 300 pounds in your back. It's gonna push you down to a squat. Don't worry, you'll be able to make you. You'll be absolutely fine. Yeah, you know.

So you went from mobility drills before your workouts then you increased the frequency of them to where you were doing two, three times a day. Then were you at any point where you, maybe throughout the day, getting yourself into a seated squat and just trying to sit there and hold it. Not there yet, like, okay, so, and that's where there's there's progressions and regressions to all of this stuff. Now, what are the signals your body's telling you that, because I want the listeners to really understand this,

because I don't want people to try to then get mobility and do it the wrong way. Yeah. What were the signals that you listened to that your body were telling you that helped you realize that I could progress and add a little more? Well, what was it? Well, and I'll be honest too, even though I was listening to those signals, part of me got excited and pushed beyond where I need to, I even kind of re-entered myself a little bit and had to progress back. So I know that this is a difficult part, so that's a great question. I mean, sometimes we get so excited about progression and getting better and challenging yourself

and pushing and pushing and pushing that. As I started to see the results, I was like, oh, yeah, I can do this. I can do further. I can do further. Oh, I can add some more weight now. I was doing that and ended up re-injuring myself. Very minor, but enough to set me back to where I kind of had to peel back and check myself. So, for me, I got away, what I started to do,

which was wrong, so I'll start with that. Like, what I started to do, as I started to notice, I was the hip, the pain, the stuff like that was going away. I was able to get deeper into my squat. I felt better going into it. So right away, I wanted to start challenging it by stacking weight on. So that was a mistake. So I'll tell you that. That's a mistake is just because all of a sudden,

you've got this new found range of motion is to be so excited you start piling on weight and saying like, okay, let's see what I can do with this. Let me add to that real quick, just to kind of cement it into people's minds. If your range of motion is 12 inches and you're able to squat 200 pounds within 12 inches, when I add two or three more inches to that mobility, I can't squat that same weight within the new range of motion. I have not trained that range of motion to be strong yet. And so I think that's that's that's where you made your mistake. Exactly. Exactly. What I did was I was I was continuing to challenge my stance and the weight that I was putting on was too much too fast. And I paid for it, which I'll be very honest

that's very common for me. Like that's something, I think all of us do, right? I think we're truly honest with ourselves, especially trainers, because even though we know better, we continue to push those limits and challenge ourselves like that. And I'm always reminded, and my body reminded me, me like you're an idiot like don't do that so Once I started to see the progression in my hips and I was getting deeper and deeper in the squat

Then I started to do what you're saying now, which was I would start to you know sit as low as I possibly can no wait on my back Just my body weight throughout the day. Did you have to start by holding on thing? Yeah, like so holding on to like a you know, sit as low as I possibly can. No weight on my back, just my body weight throughout the day. Did you have to start by holding on things? Yeah, like so, holding on to like a, you know, a TRX rope or a bar or something next to me. Or what would happen is when I would come down, my heels would elevate up off the ground and I would be up on the balls and my feet. Now, that's where I knew that now what was limiting me

from getting that ankle was now ankles. Yeah, cause you used to wear the squat shoe. Yeah, I had to. Yeah, to get you in that depth. I had to. So funny too, because it made me squat more weight. So there you go, I started using squats shoes. Oh yeah.

And you're not addressing the root. Yeah, not at all, man. It's amazing how I don't care how experienced you are. You just fall for that same pattern. You know what I mean? Yeah, well because we are, we're even, there's trainers and even knowing better and even though we preach to the lift a lot of weight.

Yeah. Well, and it's ultimately, let's be honest with ourself. Well, men, I mean, my ultimate goal is to move pain free, through full range of motion, the most amount of weight I possibly can. So just because all of a sudden I see this great progression and movement, I now want to challenge the weight side of it right away, which is, you know, I'm getting a little head of myself by doing that, you know, I should have continued to work on that patterning and get become to where that's become second nature to me and becomes very comfortable

and natural before I, and then slowly incrementally put the weight. That, let's stop right there because that is very, very, very good advice. Before you progress to the next phase of your getting better range of motion, getting better tension stability within these fundamental movements, you gotta get real comfortable

with what you're currently doing. When you get real comfortable with your new mobility drill or your new sit in a squat type thing and it feels like wow This is really easy now then you got it You just start incrementally adding you just inch it you just move forward an inch and then get comfortable with that and then move forward and Within a short period of time look Within within a year you're talking about a guy, you know, we're talking about Adam who Could not sit in a bottom position squat, could not, and within one year,

I mean, he had poor mobility. It wasn't even, it wasn't even okay, you would consider it poor. Oh yeah. When from poor to now, I would consider pretty damn good within one year. And, I mean, let me, let me ask this because I know this motivates so many people. I know a lot of listeners are motivated by what does that mean aesthetically? What does that mean performance wise? What did you notice from that new hit mobility with your strength, with the way you looked, with the way you moved, with all different things?

Well, I mean, my legs are in better condition, better shape and size, and they've ever been in my life right now. And I think that's just part of that is I'm utilizing them completely. You know, where before I wasn't even tapping into all of them. Like when you're squatting down to 90 degrees and you're coming back up, like, I mean, your glutes, your quads can take you much further than that, you know?

And so it's like not, it's like you're not using its full potential. To me, I think of it like having a Ferrari or a race car and yeah, I can get to zero to 60 really fast But you know that shit will go all the 200 something miles an hour and never really tapping into that part of it Like yeah, I get going fast. There was another gear for that. You didn't even know is there. Yeah, right? There's a whole there's a whole another side to it that you never really experienced along those lines to like for me, that's why I'm so interested in other types of skills.

And I really try to immerse myself with other tools or objects or movement patterns or because I'm like, wait a minute, if I'm not using any of those types of movement patterns, what am I not contributing, what muscle isn't contributing in a lot of lifts? Like I'm starting to figure out that like if I'm not adding this type of rotation, you know, my shoulder, what that does to a certain point I'm going to hit a wall where I'm not supported.

And I need all these muscles to benefit each other. And so if I'm not out seeking these types of unique movements and tools and things to implement into a very specific, not even a workout, but a very specific part of my either mobility or just a practice to learn and go through that process of incremental progress with that type of a movement or new skill that I'm trying to acquire. It's such a mental issue for a lot of people. It can be very fun if you change your understanding of what you're doing with your exercise. I work with, I have a couple of people that I'm working, I'm coaching right now, and one

of them I've had to have her dramatically reduce the amount of weight that she presses overhead. Because she had shoulder dysfunction, I mean, and one of the other fundamental movements right, is being able to reach straight up above your head, arm totally straight, shoulder packed, you know, arm next to your side, excuse me, arm next to your head, you know, type of a press. And she was unable to do that with, excuse me, arm next to your head type of repress. And she was unable to do that with, you know, she's had pain in her shoulder. So we've had to like dramatically cut her weight, which has caused a lot of stress for her and a lot of grief because now she's working out with a third of the weight she was

working out before. So she feels like she's going backwards. And it requires you to change your mentality with what you're doing, because if it's all about the amount of weight you lift or how lean you look, it's going to be very difficult for you to dress these things. And it makes it not fun. It's not fun to do mobility when all you're worried about is how much you can lift off the floor. If that's all you're focused on, and you're focused on that one particular movement within a particular range of motion, I mean, if I always overhead press

and never lock my elbows out, or if I always do it seated and I never do it standing, of course I'm gonna have to use a lot less weight. Well, to somebody who all they care about is how much weight I'm lifting, well, fuck that, I'm not gonna do it then. I know, I used to do that, man, I would not do an exercise because I'd be like, no, I can lift more,

doing it this way, and my mentality was, I'll build more muscle this way and plus it's better for my ego. I've never seen somebody in person that was so insanely connected to their movement that it would just impress the shit out of you. Yeah, I've seen gymnasts tend to do that to me. When I've trained a couple gymnasts way in the past with weights,

and I'd have to teach them, you know, biomechanics of the exercises just because they didn't do some of them. But I was always so like amazed that their connectivity with their bodies, and Olympic lifters on certain movements, certain, you know, they're so connected and so they're so able to call upon their power.

That's always impressed their share. I mean, it's like, wow, how do they generate that much? Yeah, I met, well, and I've referenced Dr. Ed Thomas before, but I've seen him in person, explain his way through these Indian club movements and rotations. And I just, I couldn't believe for one, him just, his posture. And you know that like he's worked on that

for like decades, just his posture alone. And then that how that in itself provided the most fluid, controlled, strong loop, and I've ever seen my life. I've never seen anybody be able to go through without any kind of a... Dr. Eric Thomas Thomas Ed Thomas. Yeah. How do I not know who that is? He's a older guy. He's an old old. He's he's actually like responsible

for a lot of how dare you not have shared in America. Yeah. How dare you have not shared that with us. I don't know who I have. Yeah. Well, he well he, you know, you don't listen. I have, yeah, I was just gonna be a little bit poshful. I mentioned it before, but yeah, no, he actually, he tied a lot of great cook. What he knows as far as like with the Indian clubs and also just posture and movement in general and like, you know, great cooks like been really influential with creating the movement screening process,

which, you know, in turn has actually been able to create certain benchmarks for movement capacity, which is great. But yeah, like that, he's just, he's like, he's like the father of physical education, a doctor had Thomas. He worked with the military and he did all their calisthenics and he's just been world renowned for what he's done with that. Yeah, I think for the average listener who's not like this fanatic about movement and exercise, but just wants to just be in better shape overall. Pick things that you can't do, pick movements that you find difficult, things that are kind of fundamental like sitting in a squat or really reaching up overhead

with your arms straight and shoulders packed without any pain, you know, good rotation, being able to twist well, being able to reach down and pick things up and look up at the sky at the same time, like all these movements that you see babies do and move that you see, you know, really, you know, healthy, you know, fit people be able to do and just test yourself out and when you can't do these things, if you can't sit in a squat, just start practicing little things that help you do. Even walking on a curb or balancing. Stop here right there because that's where I think it gets challenging for people.

And this is also what, this is why we provided the forum, was that's where things get a little hard or challenging for the average mind. I'm here I am a software engineer and that's where all my education is. And I don't wanna I am a you know software engineer and that's where all my education is and I I don't want to think about you know why can I do this squat and exactly what steps I need to take that's a lot of thinking for somebody who thinks in a whole different mentality. Sure 99% of their day right so

you know we understand that we understand that that can be a lot so you know part of the forum and it's loaded full of all kinds of doctors and physical therapists and chiro's. I mean, Dr. Brink, who we speak so highly about and we're working on a program with him, is he's on there and helps people out. So, if you know you, everyone can at least assess if you have a problem. Like, if you can't put your hands over your head, you can't squat down below nine degrees. You know you have a problem,

but you don't quite know how to start or where do you go from there. I mean, that's why we have that community. We have a community full of people that are there either one, have experienced it themselves or two, they have a doctor there or a physical therapist there that they can reach out to and say,

hey, these are my issues. This is what I feel. This is what I notice. And then get feedback from them saying, like, oh, you could be dealing with this. You could be dealing with that. Here are some moves or some things for you to practice. And that's why too, we create the YouTube channel

with all the videos as we hope that we'll have this glossary of all these different moves and mobility drills and exercises that we keep putting out there, because eventually I want it to be able to be that easy for you where you could ask, and one day I hope it'll be automated to where it'll be that easy where you're on the form or you're somewhere and you put in something like that

and it just gives you all these common dysfunctions and then ways to correct it and then all these videos that could be attached to it that will help you. So, I can't stress that enough if you're somebody who this resonates with and you're like, man, I got to address this, I got to work on it, but I don't know where to start. I feel like the guys gave lots of information. I know they have this channel, but I still don't know.

I mean, this is where the form really comes in, and this is where I'm so proud of that community that we built and I continue to give kudos to Sal because I know that he really put his heart and soul into that and still does. And you can find us on there. I mean, we're on there on a regular basis and this is the stuff. I feel like, I mean, a lot of things are communicated

on there, but these are the things that I feel like, wow, this is where we're changing lives. It is where we're really helping people because, that's tough. And it's tough. I think a big takeaway is it's a journey. That's really what I want to get across. If you're finding that you can't do some of these fundamental movements,

it's a journey and like any journey, it starts with one step and just practice a small part of it and very, very slowly get yourself better at doing some of these things. And if you do get stuck and you don't have the right tools or you don't have the answer to how you can get past that, there are some fantastic resources and we hope you end up picking mine pump. We can vouch for some of the information we put out and some of the information that

our forum puts out. So if you like mine pump, leave us a five star rating review on iTunes. If we like your review and we pick it, you will win a free mine Pump T-shirt. You can also find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Style, Adam at Mind Pump Atom, and Justin at Mind Pump Justin. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps on a ballad, maps performance and maps aesthetic.

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