Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 487: Best Deadlift Grip, Postnatal Recovery, Biggest Mistake New Trainers Make & MORE

Episode Date: April 7, 2017

Big Top Beard Company Quah! In this episode of Quah, sponsored by Big Top Beard Company (bigtopbeardcompany.com, code "mindpump" for 33% off), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about postnatal recovery, the best deadlift grip, the biggest mistake they see new trainers make and the keys to being happy. Get our newest program, Kettlebells 4 Aesthetics (KB4A), which provides full expert workout programming to sculpt and shape your body using kettlebells. Only $7 at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with our newest program, MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. 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) Signs the guys are getting older / Staying up on new trends (1:03) Quah Question #1: Postnatal recovery tips once clear for exercise? (15:39) o   Focusing on core stability / Reactivation of muscles o   Isometric work / Focus on tension and reconnection o   Listen to your body o   Pre-phase MAPS Anabolic / MAPS Anywhere without AMP sessions Quah Question #2 – Best deadlift grips? (29:32) o   Hook grip – Pro/Cons o   Wrist wraps – Pro/Cons o   Over/Under – Pro/Cons o   Over/Over – Pro/Cons Quah Question #3 – Biggest mistake they see new trainers making? / Their biggest mistakes? (39:23) o   Intensity driven o   High turnover rate o   Don’t believe in their own value Quah Question #4 – What is the key to being happy? (51:27) o   Do things that are easy o   Emotional / Mental component o   Meaning / Purpose o   Perspective / Silver lining / Battling ego Related Links/Products Mentioned Deactivation of hip flexors / Stomach vacuums videos (MPTv on YouTube) What is a doula? Odd’s you need a C-section (article) Risk of children born through C-section (study) Using wrist wraps causes recruitment patterns (article) Wim Hof Method Certification Signup (Mind Pump Media Center) Men who are married live longer than men who are single (Harvard study) Blue zone’s: Friends Nourish the Mind and Body (article) People Mentioned: Layne Norton - @biolayne (Instagram) Build a stronger grip for the better deadlift and stronger hands (article) Wim Hoff - @iceman_hof (Instagram) Wim Hof Method (website)  Justin Wren – @TheBigPygmy (Instagram) Redemption Shot: Justin Wren’s path from drug addict to the Congo (article)

Hey, think about having a baby, that takes nine months. Let's do something different. You're talking about that. Let's have a sexy body baby. Yeah, well, you're talking about the RGB bundle. That's what I'm talking about. Nine months of exercise programming, or the MAPS Super Bundle, which also includes on top of that.

But I want everything, though. MAPS anywhere and MAPS prime. Both those bundles have most of our programs. The Super Bundle has all of our programs, and this month only enroll in one of those, and you get, what do you get for free? I think you get everything else for free, guys. LBS, six pack abs, nutrition, survival guide,

and the fasting guide, and the forum for 50% off all come when you get either one of those. Yep, so for free, no BS six pack formula, nutrition guide, fasting guide, for free, and the forum for 50% off. It's at mindpumpmedia.com. You're set for the year. If you wanna pump your body and expand your mind,

there's only one place to go. Mind, up, mind, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Dude, you got rid of the mustache. Huh? You got rid of the mustache. Huh? You got rid of the mustache. You know what happened? What happened?

So I need to buy, because I really enjoy growing facial hair, along with long facial hair. But what happened was, is I have a beard trimmer that I only have like the short guard on it. You just go off the rails or what? Well, I have the short guard, right? So it's not the long guard,

why can I gauge it properly? It's time to let me help you, dude. So if you fuck it up, it makes in like cool brick. You want to have designs in your face? Yeah, so help me sew it. So I go, so my daughter lighting bolts. My daughter's like,

I put my head, it's too long, I hate it. You make it cleaner. Ah, she's like complaining, right? And my daughter's like, come on. I'm gonna do whatever she tells me. So I go in the bathroom, and I'm like, I long, I hate it. You make it cleaner. Ah, she's like complaining, right? And my daughter's like, come on. I'm gonna do whatever she tells me. So I go in the bathroom and I'm like, I'm gonna trim this up, I'm gonna clean it up so that my little girl, she thinks her dad's handsome again.

So I go and I fucking, cause the guard is too short, and I fucking went too short on one side. So it was either, very good to like use like scissors. It was either go in, go like, okay just deal with it and just have one side short in the other or I had to just use like scissors. It was either going, go like, okay, just deal with it and just have one side shortening the other

or I had to just even everything out. So you don't, so I, when I trim like the mustache, I don't actually take a guard to that. You take the guard off and actually just line your lip. So you go ahead and let the top hair like continue. Is it bad that I use nose hair trimmers to do that? To do what? No, nose hair, how do you do that? Bro, it's like this little, I'll bring it in.

It's like this little tiny version. The probably actually, right? It probably works really good. Yeah. Oh, it's the little one. It's the little one. Yeah. I have one, I have one of those for my,

my, my ear, my nose, yeah. That's for your butt hole. I take care of, I can, you can use it for this. I'm old as fuck now. I never thought I'd ever have to use that shit. You know what? You just said something.

You know what just reminded me? I just noticed this, not making this up like a week ago, dude. I'm looking in the mirror. This is a fucking frightening thing for a man now. There's two things that are quite frightening. Three things that are very frightening for a man. Why, why, why, pubic hair? Yes, very frightening.

Terrifying. Lose your hair on your head. That sucks. Adam will tell you about that. Oh my god. Trace R3. R3. Hair.

Growing from your ear. What? Oh, your ear. Why? Yeah, I don't get it. I don't get it. What is going on? We evolve into wolf people.

But what's the evolutionary fucking advantage of that shit? Do my nose hair grows more than anything else? Now, yeah, that's just like this bush. That just like, it's just forms and I start breathing and he notices like, oh, I'm not fucking, there's just big old tarantulas in that. I hate it. Yeah, it's stupid.

It is. It's stupid. What do you guys, this is happening. This is a great conversation. What are your guys is like, oh fuck, I'm getting old moments that have happened recently The hair thing for sure for me because that happened that all the sudden accelerated at Like I went through these these spurts right so when we were younger

I have like my two best friends to go all the way back talk about the multi-mold time I'll go all the back since high school and That of the three of us my one buddy like he was thinning in high school And so it was like so So you knew what I was doing. Oh, so you know, imagine, we used a tease to fuck out of him. We're like, you know, early 20s. Just like, oh, you know, the hairline shit all the time. And he just, you know, he'd chalked it up about,

I don't know, 25 or so. Just fucked this, just start shaving it completely, grows his beard out. And he's got the facial hair thing. He's had that since he was 25 or maybe even earlier. Then my other buddy and I, we were cool. We were good, dude. We were solid, you know, saying good, good hairline, like thick hair, still getting compliments

from the hairstylist, and he had great beautiful hair. Somewhere around like 27, he started to get like this spot on the back of his head. And I remember dude, like we would all just, my boy that was boy, I told you motherfucker is all that teasing. It was going to happen you sooner or later. later and you know he fought it for a while and then he just owned it shaved it also and so I've been like the last one to go you know and I've been fighting it off for a really long time and I tried all these different hairstyles that I could make it look better but it doesn't yeah at the point now or it's like it's okay you gotta have yeah a hat. Yeah, you know, I just have wear a hat when I sleep now when I shower. Everywhere I go now, it's got a hat. I always get a call ahead for reservations.

Like, hey, what's dress code, can I wear a hat? You know what, though, back in the day, they used to have sleeping caps. You remember, you want to watch cartoons? I wear sleeping caps. Oh, sleeping caps. Yeah, I feel it's uncomfortable. Who's the thing?

But every time I look at the mirror and I'm like brushing my teeth, my head's down, especially the morning time when my hair's all fucking going in different directions and you just like can see your scalp. You're like, oh my God. You're a redroin mind. You're an old man.

So that's your getting old moment right there. There's nothing else. I think into like. Because that happens sometimes when you're young. I mean, when you're 12 for me, it was mainly like, okay, so I was with a group of younger people, let's just say, in a car, right? And like, they wanted to choose music and like, play it.

And so I'm like, I'm like, Ryan Shotgun. And so I'm like, okay, whatever, cool. And so they started playing music. And it was just like, I just, I noticed like my facial expressions and like, my eyes, like, start squinting really hard. And I was just like, oh, like, I just couldn't relate at all and it was too loud. I'm like, oh, is this how you guys listen to this? This is too loud!

That's it! Like, what in the fuck? Have you noticed? I can't even think. Have you noticed that? Shit's too loud now. Everything's too loud. At least it never be too loud.

Yeah. Nothing was ever too loud for me. I'm like, everything's too loud. And then I do. I let people, like, somebody's speeding and it's like, hey, what are you doing? Meanwhile, you knew you were an asshole, like it's 16 years old, fucking mashing around and doing that stuff like that.

Oh my god, dude. People that drive maniacs, I'm like, what the fuck? Katrina had a Katrina at that old moment just yesterday. So here's mine, and then I'm gonna hear Katrina's, but here's mine, this is something that I didn't even know was an old moment until that happened to me me and I was like, oh fuck. So old people, when they sit down, when they first sit down, this is what they do. I'll show you, ready?

Yeah. Ugh. Like they make us out. Right? I do that time, my shoe. What the fuck? I'm in the morning. I'm trying to put my shoes on like. Ugh.

So, so, so, so, so I did it yesterday, right? I sat down with my kids and I just like, so I did it yesterday, right? I sat down with my kids and I just went, and I'm like, oh, fuck. And then I thought about it, like my objective and a little combined, I'm like, why am I? When that door hinge gets a squeak, I'm like, why am I making that weird,

that's what I'm saying. And it's because what it is is, you try to maintain core stability. What he said, I'm just saying. You have to consciously core stability when you sit down and just say, you have to consciously do it now. Yeah, and then you let it out, you have to let it out slowly, see it or your back.

So you're like, yeah, but you're not lifting weights. Oh my God, you're sitting on the couch. Or if like your conversation starts to be just based around like what's going on with your body, you know, it's really like, I'll start saying something, like I just have a normal conversation. All of a sudden, like, I had this weird, like, sounding,

going on in my stomach and it was going up to my throat. It's like, REE-R-WONS-WR-WR-WR-WR-WR. It's like, friend just dies, I'm like, what the fuck was that dude? I'm like, I don't know man! That's the weird stuff going on. That's a new one.

Yeah, that's a new one. Or, or how about this, like, taking the stupid medication? Another one too, that this one's rather recently too, is like, in the morning, a good or bad shit will set the whole day. You know what I'm saying? Like, people will be like, damn, do you want to do a bad mood today?

And I'll be like, I don't know why, and I'll think about like, I don't have a good shit. Like, so much stuff goes wrong. There's a lot of friction on that one. It's not fair, dude. Yeah, yeah. It's not fair. What happened to Katrina?

Well, it was Katrina and I both. So we just, this last weekend, we went shopping. It's been a while since we got on shopping and re-cleaned out the closet, upgraded some shit, and it was so funny. Sounds like we're our Kelly sauce. So we're out, though, right? So we both, you know, we both get a bunch of new stuff.

And then of course, you don't have to go shopping like that, you want to wear some of your new shit. So we both are in our new fits that we just purchased. And we go out and I think we're having sushi that night. We're out having dinner and we run into a couple people that I know that are really young. Well, not really. They're like 23, 24. And they both make a compliment to us.

And they're like, man, you guys look fucking great, dude, I love this fit and asking about, asking about it and then right after that, we go somewhere else, run into somebody else, and say the same thing. And Katrina, both of us are like, oh, yeah, cool, right? But as soon as we get by ourselves, it's like this fist pump right away.

We got complimented by like 23-'s like this fist pump right away. We got complimented by like 23-year-old. We were noticed. Yeah, you see that thing? You notice my outfit, right? Did you notice your outfit, right? Like, fuck yeah, we're still, we still got this, right? But the fact that it was like this fist pump

like excited moment for you afterwards was that sign of like, oh man, like you guys are trying. Yeah, like now you're trying. It's like we had to, before it's a natural thing, it just happens. We can relate with you guys. Yes.

My kids. I just think you end up giving up at some point. Yeah, I mean. It's exactly what happens. I used to, okay, I remember literally being a trainer. I used to run camps all the time. This was something I used to say to my campers, right? I'd be 25 years old and I'd have,

this is your famous phone. Oh my, happy campers. I used to tell them all the time that like, you know, hey, part of my job is trying, that was the joke, right? I'm here to get you in shape, this, and do all those things, but I'm also here to help you guys not get old. And at one point in your life, you stop to not give a fuck. Like, and I'm here to make sure you give a fuck

for the rest of your life. Like, don't stop listening to new music, don't stop following new trends, don't stop, because that's part of your youthfulness. I promise you that. And I said, so I would tell and preach this all the time. And then it hit me one day where, and I remember the moment it happened to me, I was, I think I was 30.

And I'm driving around and back then I had that lifted Chevy. And I was like blaring like hinder. And then like I drove by, right? And I was like blaring like hinder. And then I drove by, right? And I was like, I'm feeling, I felt cool. Music was blasting windows were down, you know? Yeah, yeah, right? And I'm driving by and I drive by a bunch of like younger kids and stuff, and I caught that moment,

I caught the moment they're looking at me. And in my head, the first, like it's the way it's processing, it's like, yeah, I'm cool, they see I'm cool. But as we get closer and I go by, they laughing and pointing at me and I can oh my god And then there was just like I'm not cool And oh man, and then I like then I actually evaluated like oh shit Like I'm probably listening to a song right now that's like eight years old, you know And I'm blaring it like on blood and then I remember thinking myself fuck. I remember these guys

I remember when I was their age Then I remember seeing these guys and looking at my buddies doing back then it was a trans amp. We have what a tool, dude. He said, that shit was so old. Everyone that was cool, like with my friends and I realized like, oh God, that was me. And that was that moment for me that I got, I believe that everybody gets stuck in an era. Yeah, for sure.

Everybody does. Yeah. When you're young, right? I haven't even picked one. When you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're 40, 50, what are that? I can look at someone's outfit and go like, and the music you're listening, the music you're listening to, and the outfit you're wearing. And I know like, where you got stuck and you didn't keep evolving with time.

And that's, we all do it. So, you guys, you both worked at the Sanctuary, so 24. Do you guys remember, I don't know if you kept coming there, but do you guys remember the dude that would come in with the straight up like like fucking scorpions hair? Like he had the blonde, you never saw him? Bro, I think, I mean, I actually walked up to him and asked him if he was in a cover band or something

because I thought maybe this was part of his thing. Like a hair metal band? It was, I swore to God dude, it was literally like, like pertain, like it's like today's Halloween and I'm gonna put a wig on. I love people like that, that's amazing. You know what I mean? Like, did he pretend like it's like today's Halloween and I'm gonna put a wig on that. I love people like that, that's amazing. You know what I mean? Like, did he have like tight pants?

Bro, he's like 55 dude. That's great. It was, it was, it was, it was stuck in that area. It was super stuck. Yeah, that's what happens. So I would always tell clients, I give them like exercises to do like listen, you need to watch MTV for two hours. That's it, a week, that's all I want you to do.

Just watch it, you know, just watch it, absorb it. But I feel like MTV isn't even cool anymore. Well, it's not for us. The internet is, is it for you? Nobody watches that shit. All it is is like catfish or whatever. Yeah, you know, fucking stupid shit. Well, it's, see, that's what an old person would say.

Yeah, exactly. So dumb. Well, that's the problem. Because we, basically, you gotta pay attention to all the stuff that you think is dumb. Yeah. It's kind of it's kind of I got bamboozled by some fucking creepy internet guy. You have to be you have to be a little bit open-minded Right, you're not it's I'm not saying that MTV is going to provide like all the answers Anybody's staying in style whatsoever, but it's it's staying in touch with the the younger generation

Which is also why I still always keep like a handful of like young hip kids around me. So yeah, I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of that. I keep waiting. I'm like, what is the cool stuff? When I see the cool stuff, I really go for that. You know, but I'm like, it's just-

Yeah, but this is like when I told you guys the other day, like your understanding or what your thought process of what cool is is totally disconnected from what really is anymore. You know what's going to suck it has it now it's cool to be kind of you know, I don't even want to say it, dude. You don't want to give it away or you don't know what you're gonna say. I don't even know what it is to be honest. I haven't figured it out yet.

Just so it's about to say, hey guys, you know what's cool? Yeah. Because I don't. Like really soft music and it's like, you know, wearing all this like, you know, stupid clothes. So not these fucking manly anymore. So not in the script. You know what I mean?

No, you know what's gonna suck because it hasn't happened yet, but it will pretty soon dude. At some point, you're gonna fucking be very proud that you can work out harder than the fucking 20-something year old dude at the gym. Pretty soon. It's not there yet because I'm still pretty, I'm doing proud that you can work out harder than the fucking 27 year old dude at the gym. Pretty soon, it's not there yet because I'm still pretty, I'm doing pretty good. Been like, you know, within a 10 year period, I'm gonna be looking at them and being like,

oh yeah, I kept up with the fucking 27 year old and then we'll go take a bunch of I.B. Profin. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, God damn it. Whatever dude, I still have more testosterone than he does. We're going to Young Bird, please. Step right up all you bearded man and all you bearded ladies this cross brought to you by big top beard company Who's all natural beard oil products not only make your beard smell amazing, but feel amazing too

They're organic essential oil blends transport you to manly places like the mountains the desert the sea and beyond All I'm encouraging a lot of beer of nosel and the boo. Buy it for yourself or it's a gift for that special beer to someone at bigtopbeardcompany.com. Enter the discount code MindPom for a 33% off and check it. Woo! All right, our first question is from Erica Candace. Asking about postnatal recovery after a baby and you've

been cleared by your dog. Did you pick this one, Sal? No, the one guy who has no kid in his life. Adam picked it. I want to talk about pregnant ladies. Adam's got a thing for pregnant girls. Well, I knew that you guys, you know, every time a pregnant woman, we see what Adam's like, oh my god, they're so hot.

That's so weird. He likes it. I got it. I know. You have a pregnant fetish or not. It's weird. Maybe because there's, I know. It does exist. I know she's easy.

Oh my God. Bro. What do you mean easy? You are for sure thing. No, like it works. You know, I say, oh, I'm all out. Let me translate. Here's what Adam does.

Adam, what he's trying to say is, he knows she's already she's already had sex Yeah comes out of his mouth is 10 times more asshole She's not she's I know just if it in like all the Prelude that's not true fucking asshole. That's not true Postnatal recovery There she's been just so you know before I don't know if Doug put it up there not she's she's been cleared So it's not like it's let's just make that clear, right? That you step number one, you got to be cleared for exercise. When the rule number one for me, when I would train women after pregnancy, and there's two categories of people that I would train postnatal, one were the people that I trained before during pregnancy, which is much, much easier,

much, and it's actually quite different. Oh, yeah, you barely skip a beat with that person. Yeah, I mean, you still have to, you know, you still want to focus on a few things, but somebody who's not worked out and then had a baby and then wants to get into working out, you have to pay much closer attention and be a little bit more careful. But rule number one, after having a baby is focus on core stability, focus on activating your muscular recruitment. It's really that connection that you're seeking initially.

You want to just regain these kind of functions and get the muscles to respond the way that they need to. What happens when you, obviously when you have a baby, the baby grows in the uterus and it stretches out all of the muscles of your core. And when they're stretched, when muscles are stretched, they're automatically weakened. And you can test this out yourself. You can put yourself in a really, really deep stretch and then try to activate that muscle. It's actually quite difficult.

In fact, I would recommend not trying to activate it super hard when you're in a deep stretch because you may actually injure yourself. So muscles number one are naturally weakened in this stretched position. So now you're pregnant, you've got this baby growing, so your belly is big. All those muscles are stretched out, so they're already in a weakened position, and you're limited, especially in the third trimester, in terms of how you can activate them, or at least you can't activate them in any type of full range of motion. So you lose connection to those muscles.

So then after, and it ends up stabilizing you a lot during your pregnancy, your hip flexors. Hip flexors and low back. That's why you get a lot of low back problems during pregnancy. So after you have the baby, you want to reconnect to those muscles and that does not mean you go do a bunch of sit-ups and leg raises. Because you're just going to recruit the muscles that are still connected, which are your hip flexors. What you're going to want to do is you're going to want to activate, first, focus on activating those muscles that you've lost connection to, and then slowly focus on strengthening them

through ranges of motion. We actually posted a video on our YouTube channel, it's Mind Pump TV, and you can look it up. It's called Hip Flexor Deactivator. And it's a movement that I do with anybody who's got hip flexor dominance, but especially post pregnancy or postnatal. And it's a great way to kind of get the hip flexors to step out a little bit while activating some of the muscles of the core. And then the second video I recommend you watch is another popular video we have on

there is stomach vacuums. And vacuums are, that's probably one of the first exercises I do with a woman who just had a baby. Because I'm trying to activate their deep core. Yeah, their deep core muscles, the muscles, the transverse abdominis that pulls in. What about the belly breathing, they do with Stephanie, too? Belly breathing, you know, that's another one

where you're kind of getting that diaphragm to fully inflate again because it's, it's a, I'm actually really happy you brought that up at him because when you have a baby, the baby obviously when it's growing, it's big, presses up into the diaphragm and you tend to breathe shallow at a necessity. And so you wanna change that breathing pattern

back to its normal one. Otherwise you can experience a little bit of anxiety or feeling like you're not getting a full. And as you're sort of going through that process of reactivating and getting the abdominals to respond and going through that exercise that's on the YouTube, just instead of focusing on reps and sets and all that kind of stuff, really just the intent there is to just really try to squeeze and connect

and so I recommend more like isometric sort of work to just, you know, really try and focus down that signal and get it to respond and, you know, kind of gradually work your way towards reps and getting back into the swing of things. For the most part though, I feel like a lot of stuff is the same. I think there's been, I think a lot of things, there's a lot of stuff out there to either scare or intimidate people into like,

oh, you need to do this or oh, you need to take that. There's a lot of myths too. Yeah, there's a lot of, but you could jump ahead is, I think why we're being like kind of cautionary, like, or like being real like specific is like, these are like the first sort of items is, because if you could just start working out, but now, Visa, and you're not going to have the support system there to support your spine. Well, the biggest mistake I see is, as I was going to say, the biggest mistake I see

is when women who don't work out have a baby Is in there during this rush? Yeah, exactly Let's talk about that for a second because here's the reason why I said that was not because I mean 100% I agree with the boys like this is important in my experience So I feel like this is the what I get is really common to someone who's Had a baby and then like you said, either one, they're in like this hurry.

Like, oh my God, I have all this baby weight that I've put on and now it's time to get serious. The whole time they were in pregnancy, they ate like shit, they didn't really move and exercise and now they're on this mission to rebuild their body and it's like all intensity driven. So there's that one extreme. And then you have the other people that are,

you know, they have been going like consistently through, they've been trained through their pregnancy and they're out of their pregnancy. Now, if someone like that, it's all, you can almost just keep on going. Like you've just, if you've done a good job of exercising while you were pregnant, which I've trained people literally up

into the day they had their baby, you can just pick up right where you left off and keep going and you're probably gonna be pretty damn good and there's a lot of scare tactics out there to scare pregnant women away from training and oh, don't you don't push too hard don't do this Well, what you shouldn't do is you shouldn't go any harder than what you were going before so if you're someone who trained pretty consistently and then you get pregnant harder than what you were going before. So if you're someone who trained pretty consistently and then you get pregnant, I don't recommend stopping working, I recommend doing all the pretty much the same stuff

you were doing going into your pregnancy. Just listen to your body. Yeah, like if you're doing, if all of us, you know, the biggest thing. Yeah, if you're doing a bunch of Roman chair sit-ups and leg raises and planks and now you're like, oh, those hurt me because I have this big belly now,

you know, I'm in my third trimester, just stop doing them. But your body's incredibly capable throughout most of your pregnancy. I mean, you can keep working out pretty much, like Adam said, to the day you give birth as long as you're healthy and nothing major goes wrong. Some of the women I've seen do the other ones

are still squatting all the way through their pregnancy, you know, and they come out and they're still squatting. You're doing a lot of movements that you still would do. I just, as long as you're doing those. Yeah, and you're not like trying to ramp up through your pregnancy, which is a, you know. I do see that though too. Like, you know, oh, I'm getting pregnant,

so I got to now, you know, really intensify my workouts like to bounce back. Two mistakes with that. One is if you're ramping up your intensity from where it was before after you just got pregnant, the signal that you're sending your body is stress is up. We are now in a new situation, a new environment with higher demands on the body.

And one of your bodies' last results, believe it or not, in a situation like that, is to not complete the pregnancy. And there's been cases of this where, and this is where the scare tactics come from, where a woman will, who doesn't work out, gets pregnant, is super afraid of getting fat, and then decides she's going gonna run a marathon and then she loses the child or something bad happens or she hemorrhages and gets a bed rest. Well, yeah, you're telling your body that you've just entered into a new stressful

situation, your body knows that you're pregnant, so it's gonna think in your, you're kind of, the baby's a priority, but you are a priority as well and your body will make sure that you are okay. And if things that the stress is new and too much, bad things can happen. So don't change anything. Here's the perfect scenario. Perfect scenario is this. You're already exercising. You already have a good routine. You're already fit. You're doing everything right. Then you get pregnant, and then you just keep doing what you're doing. Don't have to change anything, listen to your body, then you stop when you think you need to.

A lot of women don't need to up until again, like the day before they have the baby, some women feel like they're absolutely super uncomfortable, have to stop a few weeks before. Have your baby, depending on if you had C-section or how your labor went, get clearance by your doctor, go back to the gym, start slow, but you will be surprised at how fast

you bounce back, I've had clients bounce back, incredibly, I mean, compared to the average person, incredibly quick, because they went into it, already fit, and they went into it with the understanding that there's a process and that they're not gonna- Well, it'll help with the labor, strong, yeah, going into labor, so.

You know, and we gotta realize something like, we always forget that when women got pregnant for most of the human civilization, it wasn't like, oh my God, your pregnant, don't do shit anymore, like, yeah, that wasn't an option. It wasn't an option. Like, you're still gathering.

You're still hunting and gathering. You're still part of the tribe. You're still, you might have another child. You still have to stay, you know, moving and increases your odds of successful, you know, labor. It wasn't like it is, you know, and now we're better at it. Now we tell women keep moving, but it wasn't that long. Like when we were born, like around the, you know, the 70s and 80s. Even then, they were telling women, like, relax, don't move. The only way they delivered babies

were women were on their back. Now, I was gonna talk about it. Yeah, because I give my wife a lot of credit. She did, we had a doula actually come with us to kind of help with the process and that really helped me to kind of help coach. And you know, she actually was able to do a lot more. What did you call it?

A doula? Dua? Yeah. What is that? It's like a person who, it's like almost like a nurse, but their expertise is in delivery. Is it delivery? Yeah. That's all they do.

Is that an acronym for something? I have no idea. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's a thing. I don't know. I believe you. Yeah, one of her friends was one and offered to be that for us. So it really just helps the like,

Did you guys go to the hospital though, right? Yeah, we went to the hospital. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, did you do the whole epidural thing? No. Well, you're both, both, nothing. Yeah, without an epidural. And that's not like shaming any other like women

that do that or anything But I just I was you know I totally respected that because that was something she had it like in her mind set that she wasn't gonna do and then even though certain points It was like like she still didn't do it, you know, so wow and and tried all these different You know positions to help it move it along and it worked. It was like very unconventional, let's just say. Yeah, exercise. Being fit, eating right will decrease your chance. I don't know what the number is,

but it's a significant statistical difference in terms of your odds of needing a C-section. So if you're fit, healthy, you know, you're eating right, moving, you're not, you know, bed rest and all these different things, the odds that you'll need a C-section are much slower, and you want this, obviously, C-section can be a pain in the ass recover from.

If you have more children after that, it's getting more, more difficult to find doctors that will actually deliver a second or third child after you've had a C-section, so they don't do V-backs as much anymore, they're called. And there is some evidence suggesting, it's pretty strong that children who are born through C-section have a higher risk of allergies,

food allergies, food intolerances, and autoimmune issues because they're not exposed to the vaginal bacteria. Yeah, and now I will say there was one caveat, they did find there is some bacteria in utero as well. So it's not completely sterile, but still those studies do show that being born vaginally is probably better

if you can do the epidural too. If the recovery for that is a bit longer than if not. So Courtney was kind of describing it to me, but basically like, yeah, it puts you out. Like, you know, you recovery time extends a bit, you know, with that. So. If I had to recommend a program to someone,

I would say pre-phase of maps and a ball that coupled with maps prime. Perfect. That's how I would start. Yeah, that'd be a perfect routine. Or maps anywhere minus the amp sessions there you go If you don't if you don't want to go to the gym Mark Wolves is asking on your thoughts about best deadlift grips

So for for me, this is a great question because I love deadlifting. I love pulling and For years I trained I used an alternate grip. Your standard powerlifting, one hand supinated, one hand pronated grip, when deadlifting very heavy. The problem with this was that I got really, really good or really comfortable, I should say, training the recruitment pattern to where my right hand

was supinated and my left hand was pronated. So it wasn't very often that I would pronate my right hand and supinate my left hand. So it ended up being that was like my default heavy grip. And so what I would do is I'd go up to 315 with a double overhand grip and then anything over 315, I'd alternate my grip and then the right hand would supinate, and that would be how I'd pull. As a result, I'd developed some imbalances in my back, which I could tell, and I could tell because visually and mechanically, or just one of the other.

Actually, both. So when I would get a massage, the person that would massage me said, well, it looks like one, you know, like this part of your back seems more tense or a little thicker. And I was like, well, that's kind of weird. And then I would, I'd like come up, go up against the wall.

I put my back up against the wall and kind of, you know, round my shoulders. And then I noticed that there was a little discrepancy between the two sides. Once I developed a little bit more. A little bit more because of the grip. And you do take off, the bar takes off a little differently that way. It's very, very subtle.

But if you constantly lift this way, that can happen. And then the second thing is, when I would go to try to alternate my grip, I'd get really fucking sore in my right pronator terrace. It would almost injure it. And it was all because I wasn't used to pulling heavy weight with my hand that position. And it wasn't that long ago. It was maybe, I don't know, it's only been about a year or so, maybe a little less. And I said, that's it. Like, I'm not, I'm not going to pull like this anymore. And at first I thought I said, I'm going to alternate, I'll just going to alternate and go the other way. And then I said, you know what, I'm going to try and get really good at a hook grip.

It's gonna alternate and go the other way. And then I said, you know what, I'm gonna try and get really good at a hook grip. Because a hook grip is both hands over hand, they're both the same. I don't have to keep track of how often I'm doing one side versus the other. And it took me a long time, and I'm almost at the point where I can hold on to

as much weight with a hook grip. Oh really, you're there. Yeah, as I can with an alternate grip. I'm just gonna ask you, I'm gonna take some long time to build it. I fucking hate it. And I tell you what, if you get good at it, you can handle it.

Olympic lifters pull fucking tremendous amounts away with a hook grip. Lane Norton is a super strong dead lifter. He uses a hook grip. Is he a hook grip? He's a hook grip lifter. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he's been hook ripping for a long time.

If you get really good at it, you can pull just as much weight with a hook grip. It just sucks. It just takes time to get used to. So my personal opinion, the best grip, hook grip, it just sucks. It just takes time to get used to. So my personal opinion, the best grip, hook grip, however, give it some time and, you know, get your body used to doing it because it first it hurts your thumbs

and then you can't hold on as long and you're gonna get sore and your pronator terrors and all kinds of different things. I don't think, I don't think you're gonna hear any debate from any of us that is by far the best right? I the only thing I will say is that what sucks if you've been lifting the other ways for a very long time Yeah, you're regressing for a lot for a while like I even for a long time Yeah, I went on a kick from the hook grip for a little bit and I just got frustrated with it

I was just like God hurts my hands. It's just not comfortable like you know And then I felt like it was just hindering the rest of my workout. So, fuck yeah, dude, it's definitely superior though. There's no doubt over over is better than alternating for sure. I mean, when you think about it biomechanically, I mean, when you supinate your hand like that, you're gonna activate the lat more on that side.

It's just that's just a fact. That's what it's partially responsible for. So as soon as you internally rotate like that, you're going to activate the lat more on that side. It's just a fact that's what it's partially responsible for. So as soon as you internally rotate like that, the lats are going to get activated more versus when you're protein. Not to mention the, think about the internal, external rotators of the humerus, right? The infraspinatus, the super spinatus muscles, for example, and some of the other muscles that are involved in internally actually rotates the lats. So well, so if you're in this position, sure, because some people are going to say, well, you're

not rotating, you're not actively rotating internally actually. You don't have to be. You're isomagically infected. Isomagically, and so what you're doing is you're getting that muscle really strong at pulling heavy weight in that shortened position on one side and in the length and position on the other side. That is a small subtle difference, and you're not going to notice it, but if you do it for months and years, it increases, yeah, and repetitive volume, it's

just all going to add up. Well, so, and this is where, and it reminds me way back when when we first started talking about this, and I really got rid of my wraps because of you, and I have to admit now that I would reintroduce wraps with a double overhand grip I think is superior to a power grip. Now for competing reasons you can't. Like if you're a competitor you don't get to use wraps in a competition like you got to go bare handed. So I understand the benefits of somebody who's going to be competing but I'm not ever well as of right now I have no plans of doing a powerlifting meet. But I do like to go really heavy and my grip does become limiting at a certain point

And so in my opinion once you get to a certain one I think a double over with wraps would be more superior to the average lifter than somebody who goes over on grip I'll tell you why I disagree to that, okay? Because we have now several studies that demonstrate that using wrist wraps promotes Different recruitment patterns all the way up in the shoulder. And so what you're doing is you're trading one bad recruitment pattern for another. Now it may be more asymmetric.

If you constantly use the same grip, the constantly use the same over-under grip. But by using wraps, you are changing the recruitment patterns all the way up in the shoulder and they're the kind of recruitment patterns that promote shoulder dysfunction. You can do you can argue that same thing with the over under. You could argue the same thing, right? So I don't think it's better or worse. I think it's in the same pattern. So I disagree though. I mean somebody who has actually done it for a long period both ways and has seen the imbalances that they've caused, I have never had as many imbalances in my shoulder and my back as I start as much as I have from heavy lifting over

under, then I used to use wraps all the time with heavy loads. Yeah, but you're going from one of the, I think, I think what's the best is hook grip. Yeah, we agree. We all agree on that. If you can train yourself, if you have the discipline to, to do a hook grip, I agree 100% with you. And then after a hook grip, then we'll just be a regular over over over grip. But then I would argue that

I would rather do and you will see me now use traps with both hands over before I go into a... Why not develop or keep practicing? Well, that would be ideal. That would be ideal. Why not? But why not? But I'm just going to keep it real that I probably won't, you know, and if I probably won't, I would choose to use the wraps over I would the over under and that's because why did you stop with the over with the hook because it would it was driving me crazy. Yeah, I didn't like it. It was it wasn't comfortable. I wasn't deadlifting enough. It's not a sport for me to care that much. So, I mean, it's just like squatting with squat shoes or a weight belt, we can see here,

talk circles all day long about, it's not ideal. But at the end of the day, people are still gonna utilize these tools. I guess it depends what you're looking at. I mean, if your goal is to just lift as much weight as possible, I guess use wrist straps. If your goal is to be able to connect the entire chain and be able to hold on the way and lift it and stabilize it, then you'd want no wraps and you'd want double overhand

grip and you'd want to develop that as much as possible. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're all on the same page. I'm just sharing my experience from being somebody who's actually now applied, okay? All of those methods, and the only one that I didn't go for a very long time is the overhand with the hook grip, which I would agree would be the superior one, if I was to discipline my ass to keep going, to regress, to go through all that, to work my way back

to lifting with that. But I'll tell you now, if you catch me pulling really heavy weight, you'll find me probably use the wraps, which I haven't even done. So just say that is like, you know, whatever. But I would, what I have done to myself by doing a heavy over under grip, I have caused more dysfunction in my shoulder and my back. You kept it the same, right? The same side, supinated and pronated.

Yeah, well, yeah, for most of the time, I mean, I tried to go for a while or I switched the other way and that, that's found your strong. Yeah, I mean, if I was going for, if I was chasing PRs and that's really what I was trying to lift this heavy, I was going to go with what felt the most comfortable and dominant, you know. So a lot of that is, yeah, you go base.

I for me, it's already like, it's a weak lift for me. So it's like, I don't like necessarily chime in with you guys, but like, I'll try just to go double overhand. And then if I don't get any heavier from that grip, then I'm done. What about when you, because you do a lot of power movements, although you're not lifting as much as you are on your deadlifting, you're having to generate speed, which requires a lot of grip. You don't use a hook grip on that?

I don't use a hook grip. Yeah. It's just overhand. Not bad. Is there, are there any power lifters or Olympic lifters that don't even use a hook grip and actually are pulling like, there's none that I know. I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Like almost everybody is a, yeah, they're all hook, Olympic lift.

Hook grip is like part of the protocol with Olympic lifting. I wouldn't mind developing it. Let's just put that with it. Yeah, it would, it would help for sure. Yeah. I mean, I think that's, we could all agree on that. There's no doubt the hook grip for sure, over, over, and then over, over, and then where maybe we disagree a little bit is the wraps versus the over, under, and I'm just speaking from experience that being a guy that's done both for a long period of time,

I caused more dysfunction in my shoulders and my back than I ever did with wraps. I did with the over, under. Lindsay, a dare, 23. What is the biggest mistake you see new trainers making and what were your mistakes as a new trainer. Number one, I think and I believe it's still common goes all the way back to when we trained and it drives me crazy to see is intensity driven workouts.

Flashy work out. Yes, a lack of attention to detail and movement and too much emphasis on can I come up with the most creative, you know, fucking back breaker workout for my clients. To this day, I go to the gym and it's the thing I just, and you know, it's like watching a slow train wreck for me. I just can't look away. It's none of my business to come over. I would never totally check a trainer in front of their client. That's just, I would never do that. But I cringe. I watch these trainers.

And it's like this. It's hard to watch. It is hard. But in where I have patients too is I went through that. You got to remember that you put yourself in there. Yeah, because we were there at one point. We were, right? And there was definitely, and there's definitely

a culture around that within Phasjim's is this, you know, who's got the most creative workout. And, you know, what creative workouts do not always and very rarely equal the most effective? I literally just had this conversation last week because I went to go workout, you know, where I go work out at. I don't wanna call it out, just in case they're listening. But you see there's this group of women

and they take the same, they take this super high intensity workout driven class every morning by this one trainer. And I can pick them out now. I've been doing this long enough to where I can see and it's, you see this in men and women, but more often women than men will end up in this category for some reason.

And I think it's just because women tend to beat themselves up more than men tend to, but these women come in mid 40s, maybe 50, maybe late 30s. And you can tell that they're adrenal fatigue, they're totally adrenal fatigue, like their bodies are fucking broken down. They don't get a lot of sleep, probably because they have small kids or they work a lot.

They come in, they are, they're not overweight, but they're definitely loose because they haven't developed a lot of muscle. Or maybe better said, they're not obese, but they're overweight. Most of them are pretty old. Yeah, they're like, it's like this look. And I know you guys can see it too.

Yeah, I know what you're describing. And they come in and they've got the tired, they've got the bags under their eyes, they're all coming in, and they work out, and the trainer beats them, the beats the fuck out of them. And they're all just trying as hard as they can, and he's yelling at them, like, go, go, go, go, and they're doing these sprints on the cardio and they're doing machines and circuits and

they're punching a bag and they're doing all this crazy stuff. And you can see that like, first of all, their form is there is no form. Like it's it's all about moving the weight. It's all about you know pedaling the bike. It's all about just throwing my fist into the bag. Like they're not even punching the bag. They're just moving their hands. And they're fucking dying moments.

What's keeping these poor women moving is they're total, like they're all these grinders. Like they're so like, I'm gonna keep doing this and I'm just gonna keep working at it. I'm gonna keep grinding. And they've been doing it for a long time. I've been working out at this place now for over a year. Same women.

They also connect that like in doorfin' release of that they get post workout to like, I feel better. Or I feel accomplished. There's a short term, right? Yeah, it's a very short term feeling that they, and that's where I think how they get stuck here, even if you're somebody who listens, like there's somebody right now, 100%.

The amount of people that I've listened to this show, 100% there's someone who's listening to this right now, 100%, the amount of people that I listen to this show, 100% there's someone who's listening to this right now, it's fucking you, okay? You were that person. You were that person. And the reason why you do not, well, you're like, you're like fucking tuning this out right now,

is because you have connected that feeling, that sweat feeling, and that feeling of accomplishment, and the endorphin rush that you get from pushing the body like that. And so therefore, you justify it. Dude, it was horrible. I was just watching the show.

I'm sure you had a Betty syndrome. They were doing squats with the barbell as part of their circuit. And they're fucking beat when they walked in. They were already exhausted when they walked in. This is like six something in the morning. They're doing squats and they're fucking everywhere. Their knees are going everywhere. I mean, Jessica's like, oh my god, she goes, maybe we should go stand next to them in case one of them goes down. Knees are going all over

the place. They're adding weight. The trainers just yelling at them like, keep going. You gotta keep going. And it's like, it's horrible. And the worst part about it is these women are trapped. I'll tell you why they're trapped. They know instinctively that the second they fucking stop, they're gonna gain a shit. They're gonna gain a shit 10 await. They're gonna binge like crazy because their body is in such horrible stress state and these trainers, they don't know any better and they continue to push them because what they do and I did this too.

I did this when I first became a trainer. You see this client and in your thought, all I did this too, I did this when I first became a trainer. You see this client, and in your thought, all you're thinking is, I know why you're not getting leaner and why you're feeling like this, because you're not eating as good as you should. You're not doing what I'm telling you, and you're not working out as hard, or as consistently as I'm telling you.

You know what I'm saying? It's like a parent that beats their children, and they justify it because they've seen results, or they got beat when they were a kid. Now they're quiet. They get scared. Exactly, right? Exactly. No, because they got beat when they were a kid. Now they're quiet. They get kicked. Exactly, right? Exactly.

No, seriously, right? That's true. It's like a kid that got beat turned out to be a good kid, right? And successful in life and says, I'm gonna beat my kids because I was beat. And so that's the mentality is like, I'm gonna beat, I got in shape

because I beat myself up to get in shape and I have this discipline. I'm gonna try and install that same thing in these people and what we're finding out is, you know what? Beating kids is probably the not the best way to do it, just because some of them turn out all right, just like the same thing goes for beating your clients. Just because you got clients in there. Listen, they turn into Ray Rice.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Dude, I feel so. Just because you got some people in shape by doing that doesn't mean it's the most effective way to do it. I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like She's got even some of the, you'll see in women, when they, you'll see this in anorexics too, but in women who push themselves to hard, they'll get this like microfine, kind of hair on their face or on their arms. It's a stress response.

And they look horrible, they're drinking coffee, they're trying to stimulate their body to pick up even more. And I just want to say something, and the worst part is, this is the worst part here, is if I take them aside and talk to them, myself, the advice I'm gonna give them, they're not gonna listen to, because my advice would be, hey listen,

here's what you need to do. You need to stop coming to the gym, five days a week and beating yourself up. I'm gonna want you to come work out two days a week. You're gonna lift weights real basic, we're not gonna go to failure, we're gonna build up some strength. I want you to get more sleep,

I want you to start drinking Camel Mill at night, and we're gonna eliminate coffee for a little while. You're gonna start doing meditation and it's gonna take us like six months before your body starts to get back on track. None of them will fucking listen to me. No one's gonna want to do. But this is easily the biggest mistake trainers do and what you're doing is you are destroying your clients and here's a good sign by the way that you're making this mistake, that you have a high turnover rate. If you are the kind of trainer that gets a client,

beat them up and they're super motivated for the first three to six months, and they're coming every workout, and the next thing you know, they're missing workouts, and next thing you know, they're not coming anymore, and you gotta find more clients, and you're thinking yourself, oh, people are so unmotivated,

oh, I need to just keep getting clients, why can't people stick to my routine? It's because you're beating them up in your shitty trainer. The reality is when people are hiring you, you should have a much higher stick rate. People will stay with you because they feel good. And if you're a client and if you're someone right now

listening who works out and you're not a trainer, working out should make you feel good. You should not wake up feeling exhausted. You should not leave your workout feeling like you're dreading the day, like you just went through boot camp, like literal boot camp, you should feel good, you should feel centered, you should not have hot flashes and cold flashes, you should not have issues with your sleep, you should feel fucking balanced and amazing. And if you're not, examine your workout and I guarantee a lot of you, it's because you're

going to work. What's the second part to this about our, it was about us, right? What was your biggest mistake as a trainer? Oh, that was it for me for sure. Yeah, I went too hard Yeah, I think that's I think that's 100% I don't know I don't know if that you could have a bigger one than that right? I think that's probably the I think you know When I read this question initially I thought what we just talked about and then I thought from the business side Maybe we could visit that for a second one One of the biggest mistakes I see trainers make from a business side to build their business

is they are don't believe in their own value. And this happens with new trainers all the time. Like I would get a train run board. They get competitive with their prices. Well, they look at the prices and they're like, well, you know, 90 a session, like, you know, can I charge 60 or can I go less? Like that feels like a lot. And it's like, you know, trainers instinctively, I think they'd like can I go less? That feels like a lot.

It's like, trainers instinctively, I think they'd like to train, but they don't like to sell, or at least they feel like they're asking for money's not right, or maybe they're not worth it. The problem is that there's a lot of trainers like that. So therefore, the customer coming in will have that impression already. So it's like, the expectation is already at that level,

whereas you need to pull yourself out of that mentality and understand that you're very valuable. You just have to present it in that way and be confident. Don't be afraid to ask, like don't be afraid to ask for the sale. Don't be afraid to tell people that it costs something. There's like this huge fear among trainers, I don't know if I can ask them to buy training for me or whatever's like, why is your job? Right. Yeah know if I can ask them to to buy training for me or whatever Like why I see job. Yeah

All right, before I get to this next question, we do have Wim Hof here. Oh Yeah, we got to bring the Wim Hof certification Coming up. What's the date for that Doug? April 29th and 30th here at mine pump studio So April 29th and 30th. I don't know if you guys haven't heard of Wim Hof, the Wim Hof breathing method, it is like the ice man. It's fucking exploding. It is absolutely exploding. The Wim Hof methods have been adopted by the military at the highest levels.

It's being utilized by top executives and Fortune 500 companies. It's a very effective way of getting your body to improve its peak performance, mental and physical performance. It's quite legit. Some of the, we obviously, here at Mind Pump have the ability to meet with and talk to some of these incredible athletes.

And it's like a year and a half ago, I kind of heard of the breathing methods. Now it's like everybody's doing it and talking about it. Have you seen that show Stan Lee, Superhuman? Yeah, he was on there. It's just because he's figured out this way to tap into breathing, to really get connected to the body on a level that's like,

a lot of people didn't even know you could get to. And he just has done superhuman feats because, you know, like he's just so in tune with that. And like that's why, you know, like, and they're studying him in a lab in science. And it's just very fascinating. I highly recommend. Well, I'm fascinated with what it's doing for the immune system too. That's what's really, really fascinating. That's some interesting shit. Yeah, that's to me is what it's doing for the immune system too. Like that's what's really, really fast. That's some interesting shit. Yeah, that's to me is what it's really, really cool.

What they're finding with some of these, with these breathing methods is your people who are really good at it and practice it are becoming able, or at least are able enough to control to some degree the automatic systems of the body. Like the things that we take for granted, like your heart beating, your body temperature, all that stuff the things that we take for granted, like your heartbeat and your body temperature, all that stuff, things that your body automatically does.

People at the highest level of this type of training are able to lower temperature, increase their body temperature, slow the heart rate down. Yeah, on command. Very, very interesting stuff. And how do people register? They just go to our page. Yeah, go to the event calendar on the page

and click on the WIMHOT. Mind pump media.com. Excellent. That. Excellent. That is correct. Next question. Our next question is J2264. What is the key to being happy? Well, let me tell you.

Yeah, you're right. God. I figured out. If I knew how happy it is. You know, it's funny. Katrina and I had a literally last night. And I love this because I told you guys that we've met her and I like we every month I'm reading like my own book that I'm going on then we we choose a book that we're reading together And it always promotes all this great dialogue right so afterwards. She's that she asked this question right she goes

You know what what does a perfect day look like for you? And I said like I don't know like You know, I don't think I would actually want that and And I'm like, what do you mean by that? And she's like, well, this was a perfect day. The day that you would want to have over and over and over again, I said, well, I just think that's just it. I think the perfect day is imperfect, right? I think that's part of what that drives us.

And that's all of this is embracing the challenges and the difficulties and overcoming those is what makes things so awesome. And if it was so perfect that nothing bad happened and everything went smooth If that just kept happening every single day then really it would get boring really fast So what does perfect look like and would you really want that is what I would I would challenge you You know what that remind me what you just said you guys ever watched the twilight zone remember that? Yeah, fucking awesome. By the way super old way older than me great TV series with some great twist in it. There was one episode where there was a guy in the beginning He's a bank robber and then he's going in a shootout with these police officers and then they kill him

And then he pops up and he's in like this beautiful hotel room and then this like Guy walks in the room was wearing this white suit and he kind of looks Like an angel almost, but he's just wearing a suit and he's like, hey, welcome. He goes, you know Welcome and he goes where am I and he goes well. I mean, where do you think you are? And he goes oh my god He goes this must be heaven. He goes well, what I do and the guy goes you can do whatever you want Like do whatever you want and so this guy He goes in gambles and every hand he wins He goes and eats and he never gains gambles and every hand he wins.

He goes and eats and he never gains a pound. Like every woman he talks to is attracted to him. And he's like, oh my God, heaven is awesome. And then they fast forward like five or 10 years later. He's over it. And he's fucking miserable. He's so, so miserable. And he calls the angel back.

And he goes, fucking changes. I hate this. I can't, this can't be. It's not reality. He goes, this can't be what heaven is like. And then the angel looks at him and he goes, who. I hate this. I can't this can't see that reality. He goes this can't be what heaven is like and then the angel looks at him and goes who told you this was heaven. There's a fucking amazing episode of utopia right like that was the whole matrix thing like they had to like restructure the matrix because it didn't work. You know this is a question that people there's books written on it. You know it's been examined by monks and motivational speakers.

And it's one of those like key human questions. Like, why are we here? How do I, what's the key to be happy? And all of a sudden, I, for me, this is a very personal question because the last five years have been so challenging just beyond comprehension. I had, you know, at the time, you know, when I was

married, my wife had a horrible health situation happen where she almost passed away. She had her appendix ruptured and, you know, she had to be choosing the hospital for like 10 days and then right after that, someone very, very close to me got diagnosed with cancer and then they fought it and I was very, very, you know, really intricately involved in that whole process of fighting the cancer, watching this person deteriorate, then they passed away, then I got divorced and going through that whole process and it was, this was something that I constantly asked myself, like, what's the key to being happy and then I'm too like, what is happiness?

And for me, and I don't know the answer, so I'm not pretending to answer at all, but what helped me a lot was I was able to divide this into a couple different things. One of them was that I really realized that there are physical feelings of anxiety, depression, paranoia, happiness, and there are emotional feelings that are to those things

and they can all be connected. So what I mean by that is think of anxiety. Let's just talk about anxiety for a second. You can you can have like anxious thoughts and worries in your mind, right? You can also have physical symptoms of anxiety. Like I could give you a drug that I could give you speed or something that speeds up your heart, makes your hands sweat, and gives you the physical sensations of anxiety. Now, the physical sensations of anxiety are also very similar to the same sensations you get when you're excited, happy or in love, but they're also the same feelings you get, similar feelings you get when you're stressed or worried or anxious.

And so I started to think to myself, you know, and because I'm in fitness, this was easy for me to put this together, I am going to make sure that I have the physical feelings of happiness. So I'm going to get that out of the way because the physical feelings of sad depression, you know, physically feeling shitty can easily make you feel emotionally shitty, like eating shitty food, not moving, not getting sunshine, not getting good sleep, those will make you physically feel bad, which then can feed the whole emotional mental component, and then it becomes this whole cycle, right? Now you feel depressed emotionally, on top of physically feeling depressed, now you don't want a movie even more,

and you feed into it and you get into this whole cycle. So, number one is do all the things that are easy, and I don't mean easy in the sense that they're like they're easy like you can do them They're simple like eat right Exercise get sunshine get good sleep have good relationships with people make sure that your physical body Which is the filter for a lot of stuff is feeling good then you all you really have to deal with is the emotional Mental component and that is was a much more difficult for me to deal with. And more recently, I've changed the question.

So I used to ask myself, you know, how can I, like, what can I do to make sure I'm happy all the time? Like, how can I feel happy in content all the time? And I changed that because I think there's a mistake there. I don't think you're supposed to be happy all the time. I think that that's false. I think that's a mess. I was gonna bring that up. I don't think you're supposed to be happy. the time. I think that that's false. I think that's how it's gonna bring that up. Yeah, I don't think you're supposed to be happy.

I think what you're, I think that's a mistake a lot of people have these days that I mean, that's the optimal state that everybody like emotionally, like they wanna be in a happy state, right? Yeah, you can't be happy and joyful all the time. That's a, first of all, if you're always joyful, then you're not joyful.

Because joy and happiness will only diminish the value. Well, what I mean by that, it only exists because you understand that it's a state of mind that's in contrast to the opposite. Yeah. Just like you know what the color, you know what black is because you know what light is. You know what happy is because you know what sad is.

If you never knew sadness, you would never know happiness. That's number one. Number two, to really feel, I guess, good about your life, and it doesn't mean happy, but just feel good. The key, I think, at least what I'm starting to find is I'm looking for meaning. What's the meaning? It's all purpose-based. That's how I feel. I feel like to achieve happiness, like I'm always striving to feed into my purpose. And whether that's doing things for other people, which I know I get a reward from that as far as the feeling of happy

when I can see people around me that are happy and their emotional state is good. That definitely will affect me personally. But the thing is, there's times where people hurt and there's times where shit doesn't go your way. And you have to have resiliency and you have to be able to feel different feelings. But the ability to be able to channel yourself

and regroup and then find your way back too happy. Like I think that's the important lesson in this is that there's a way to mentally recreate that and to get back to that optimal state. But I mean, it's like training, it's like eating, it's like everything else. Like you can't just do the same thing, you can't operate on the same mode all the time, that's just not reality.

Well, think about it this way, if you're just focused, I need to be happy all the time, that's my goal in life to be happy, because that's what people say, right? What's your goal in life to be happy? What happens when something bad happens? Because it will, life isn't perfect for anybody. I don't care. The richest people, the people who think of everything, they've got challenges too, right? It's their challenges.

They might not be your challenges, but it's theirs. What happens when you have a day where shit goes wrong? Well, now you're not happy, and now you feel even worse because you're not happy. Like, I shouldn't feel sad. I need to feel happy. How can I make myself feel happy? And you're constantly chasing this feeling that really is just a state of being a human. Now flip that.

What if I was searching for meaning? Now when something bad happens, I lose a loved one, I get sick, I get injured, I lose my job, you know divorce, whatever. I understand I'm not gonna be happy, but I'm looking for meaning in it. Meaning in it, you know, what can I get from this? How can I grow from this? What can I learn from this? What does this mean for me? Look for meaning in things, and then you'll find that life

becomes, it just becomes different. It's becomes less, I guess less challenging is the word, but I don't even like to use that because it's always challenging, right? So meaning, that's my answer. There you go. That was a lot of answer for somebody who said he wasn't very certain about it. You know, it changes, right? I, um, it's a deep question. I'm going to have to disagree a little bit here. Um, first of all, this is, I love this shit. I mean, I love talking about ego, perspective, philosophy. Like, I think we can be happy.

I think we can be happy all the time. And I think the key to that is perspective in finding the silver lining. I think that, yeah. So it's finding meaning, it sounds like. Yeah, it's perspective, right? So, not the same thing. Kind of, you danced around it left or right,

and gave a lot of certainties in there. So not the same thing. Kind of you danced around it left or right. It gave a lot of certainties in there, but I definitely think that you can be happy. And I think that's something that I think we're always striving to do this. And I think it's very challenging. I think Katrina is amazing at this. It's part of why she makes an incredible partner for me

because I still am very emotional and let things react to things that seem devastating to me, right? A death in the family. How can you find happiness in that? How can you find happiness in so and so close to you dying or how can you find happiness in losing a job or getting fired or all these things that happen in life? And I absolutely think you can, I think, and everything that seems so daunting or stressful or heartbreaking to us, there is good that can come of it. And I think learning to find that right away is the real challenge. And I think some of us that try to practice this

or pay attention to this, ultimately find that, and let's use your divorce, for an example, you bring up that being one of the most, probably you've been through probably when the most challenging times you've ever been in the last year, right? I think you would agree with that. And the only real difference between you today and you the day after that all happened is your mindset.

Nothing physically, in fact, I bet you've really think about it. Like it's a lot of things good have came from that. Of course. And we sometimes are blinded by self and our ego. And when we get hit with these things, our ego starts to tell us like, oh my God, I failed as a father. Oh my God, I'm not good enough.

Oh my God, like all these things, but in reality, it's like, what if you say like, oh my God. I'm not good enough. Oh my God. Like all these things, but in reality, it's like, what if you say like, oh my God, this is going to be an incredible opportunity. Oh my God. Like my life is going to get so much better today. Oh my God. Like what if you flipped it on its head when we had scenarios like that? And I think that's what we're all trying to get at. And we're trying to get to that level. And I think it requires incredible perspective. I think it requires incredible self-awareness and you will always be battling your ego in this situation.

And I think happiness is defined differently by everybody. I think that your level of it is really, truly up to you. Like you could be the happiest person in life and you do not need to do anything different but change your perspective. But it's okay to be sad. I think. You know what I mean? It's okay to be angry. It's okay to have like these other emotions attached. It's all in how you react. There's a reason why those emotions exist. And I tell you what, we had Justin Rennon here and he talked about working with the pigmies

and how he was trying to explain his depression to them and how he wanted to commit suicide. And it wasn't that they didn't understand them, like they were thinking, oh, you should be happy, that doesn't make sense. They didn't understand the concept, it was baffling to them. And I've actually read about this and heard about this many, many times at how in many of these, you know, what we consider primitive societies, they don't experience things like depression, at least not in our terminology, right? They don't experience these anxieties and depressions and fears in the same ways that we do. And, you know, you got to ask yourself why, I'm sure there's a modern living component.

I'm sure there's a, we focus on so many different things at what time, you know, type component. But I also think that there's this mentality that we've attached to modern, Western life where we're constantly telling people to be happy. Like, you have to fucking be happy. Everything's got to be great all the time rather than saying, there's meaning in things

and learn from things and grow from things. And I really do think Adam what you're saying is it really another way of saying that is, when something bad happens, you look at it and you grow from it and what is the meaning of it? You assess it and you know, absolutely get a react to it. Because I think perspective,

when you do that, I think when you do that, it changes what that particular situation then means to you rather than this horrible thing just happened to me. Wow, I just got so sick that, you know, I wasn't able to work out for three months and I can't do any or maybe even something devastating. Like, you know, I lost a limb in a car accident

or I'm paralyzed. And you could look at it and be like, this horrible thing just happened to me. Or you can say, okay, this horrible thing happened to me. How can I grow from this? And what does this mean for me? And how can I change things? It's interesting, there's the story of,

was that guy that rock climber? He's the amputee that rock climbs. You watch his interviews and it's like, it's all about meaning for him. I mean, it's all about like, he doesn't look at himself and think he's at a disadvantage. He realizes there's a disadvantage in some cases, right? But he also says that it's an advantage

in many other cases. And more and more when you're talking to these kinds of, because I don't think you should go to the person that has everything and ask them what the secret to happiness is. I think you should go to the person who, in your eyes, has nothing but seems to be happy. Yeah, they seem to be concerned.

That, I mean, that's, to me, the Pigny story is, a great example of what I was saying with perspective, is the reason why they couldn't connect with him about why he would kill himself is because from from their perspective Every day is a struggle to live So why would you ever think about taking a life that you're fighting for every day? So that's their perspective and for him he what's our perspective? I get up in the morning

I turn on my Instagram and it's the guy with the fast car and the cool chicks and the bikinis and the throwing money up in the air and all the traveling all over the world. And like that's my perspective of what happiness is. And you have strangers that right? That's why I just did a post not that long ago about the 10, and that's what I know sometimes my some of my posts don't get likes because it's in my head. And when I put it out, I do not the best

at fucking articulating what I'm trying to say, but that's what I meant by detachment and perspective is learning to detach yourself from your fucking little bubble and have perspective on your life. And when you learn to do that, I believe that happiness will follow. And I think that's what we're all trying to do. And we, it's in our society, it's harder than ever because of all the distractions that we have with being present. And the pygmy was a perfect example of somebody, they don't have any of those distractions. And they solely are focused on survival.

Therefore, somebody that would take their own life, seems so counterproductive to what they thrive for every day. It's interesting because it's like you base your own value and worth on other people. You look at other people and you compare and that will tell you if you're doing, you'll think to yourself like, oh, I'm doing good or I'm doing bad based on these other people. But the reality is if I go back, if I just go back, you know, 100 years, 150 years and take a person from there and put them in the average, you know, put them in middle class and be honest.

They would be like, wow, this is utopia. Like, are you kidding me? You have heat and cool on demand. I have food that I can eat whenever I want. I have. You could be entertained by your phone in your hand. Like, they would be ridiculous. But, you know, here's a question I wanna ask you guys.

What is your definition? What is feeling happy mean? Because I think when people think happy, they think joy. Like, oh my god, I'm so happy. I started kind of redefining it a little bit, because that does exist too, right? Where you're joyful. Oh, I just won the lottery.

I mean, that would be fucking joy, right? For me, it's like, I feel filled. Yes, peace, right? Yeah, like, yeah. I'm like, yeah, I guess it's the absence of fear and stress and anxiety. Like, for me, it's like, I feel filled because I know I've tapped in and I've honed in on, you know,

purpose and meaning and like I get up in the morning and I have other people counting on me and I'm hitting my marks and I'm doing things, you know, in the right order and things are kind of playing out the way that, you know, I feel like I wanted this to go. And that fills me up and then I get to hire highs and then I kind of level out, but yeah, joy is definitely, that's, I feel like joy should be more sporadic to where it's like, oh, wow, like you just get really charged. Yeah, I mean, the same for me, it's that feeling of like peace, you know, like you feel,

I don't, it contains the wrong word. I guess filled would probably be. Well, there is a great word. The reason why they're all wrong words is because they're words, dude, they're made up fucking words. To explain a feeling. Exactly.

Like let's be fucking honest here, we can see it's wrong word, dude. We can sit around this campfire all day and fucking talk about what's more right or who's more right. And I think it's just like I said, it's just simpler than that. It's like there's happiness in everything. Even the most challenging worst day of your life, there's happiness within it. Well, you're alive. I mean, you could deduce it down to that.

There's a million ways you can, right? And I think trying to put a label on it is the first mistake. I think just you're dead. You're not happy Find the silver line and everything find the silver line and everything to touch yourself have better perspective It's funny too because the statistics will show that people who are and people laugh whenever these these numbers come out Men who are married live longer than men who are single Men who have children live longer than men who don't, and people say, well, how the fuck is that possible? Because marriage and children is like some of the most

killed with me. But I think it might be that. I think in real life. Can you have purpose? And people who go to church and create that without children without a marriage, if you can't do right now. Exactly, I just gotta be more active about it.

Exactly, and it happens for you. Exactly, and I think, you know, people who go to church regularly tend to live longer and be healthier too. They have tapped into the meaning. One of the things, in fact, when they do these big studies on the blue zones, where, you know, areas where people live disproportionately longer than everywhere else in the world, one of the key things they find in common with all these areas of the world is that they have very good, close social networks, and they all have a sense of purpose. That's literally what it says. Maybe that's a really good word for, right?

The purpose, I like purpose there because I feel like in every bad situation, every good, you have a purpose within that, right? Like, and you can throw me any devastating thing that could have possibly happened to you. And then I, what is the purpose of it? Yeah, what is the purpose of it? Where is your purpose?

So I mean, I think there's, I don't know, you could go around all day long on words with this shit, but I think. I think too often people try and define it, try and seek for it when it's right in your fucking face. I mean, it's in, it's happiness is in front of you every single day. You just choose to accept it or not.

Mm-hmm. Listen, go to mindpumpmedia.com, enroll in 30 days of coaching, it's still free. So what happens here, here's what happens. Every single day, you get an email with a subject, whether it's fat, protein, carbs, whether it's mobility, strength, it could be wellness, meditation. We cover that subject, and then we link you to podcast episodes that we've covered that subject in detail, and we timestamp them.

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Now, you can find my personal page at Mind Pump Sal. You can find Adam's personal page at Mind Pump Adam, and Justin is at Mind Pump Justice. 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 Superbumble at MindPumpMedia.com.

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