Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 561: Improving Body Weight Exercises, Muscle Building at a Caloric Deficit, Restricting Water & MORE

Episode Date: July 28, 2017

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 increasing their aptitude for body weight exercises, why the Prime tests are pass or fail, building muscle at a caloric deficit and restricting water to dry out for a wedding. Get our newest program, MAPS Prime Pro, which shows you how to self assess and correct muscle recruitment patterns that cause pain and impede performance and gains. Get it 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)

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, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND cartoon, Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo, Ro-ro. Then we talk about Gilligan's Island. For those of you youngsters, ask your mom and dad, they know exactly what that's all about. Oh, I make it feel like. Oh man, the skipper. Then we talk about the benefits of learning how to sell in the fitness industry. That's right.

If you can sell fitness, you can sell anything. We talk about the hay days of 24-hour fitness. Of course, those are the days that we were there. And then we talk about effective leadership. This is one of our favorite subjects. And Adam loves to go on tangents on that one. We want to miss that one. Then you go, then we get into the question. The first question is, if you build strength and muscle, and then you lose weight, is that good for your lighter body? In other words, strength, weight ratio, how important is that?

Then we get into why we put tests in prime, our prime program and why their pass or fail. A lot of assessments use different metrics in terms of trying to assess your movement, your body. We chose the very simple pass or fail. Why? Why did we do that? Find out in this episode. Then we talk about what to do when you can't eat more calories and carbs because you have

a sensitive gut, but you still want to put on muscle thighs. You want to shovel it in. Yeah, what do you do now? I want to gain some muscle, but my gut is giving me the poops. Then we talk about a gentleman who's getting married in late September and he would like to know, God bless us all. The best water restriction protocol to dry out. Yeah.

For the big day, horrible idea, buddy. Uh, we think he's super confused and we try to help the fella out. Yeah. Also, finally, I'm gonna read a special announcement from Doug, our producer. If your muscles are not firing properly, you will not see results in the gym.

Maps Prime is designed to fire up your central nervous system and promote optimal recruitment patterns and muscle firing so that you get substantially more out of your current workout. It is the only pre-intra and post workout supplement you need to maximize muscle growth and performance in the gym. Maps Prime Pro is a comprehensive assessment and correctional program that's designed to address

the function of all parts of the body for optimal performance and function from head to toe. It also helps you overcome pain. There's seven pass or fail tests that allow you to identify dysfunction in your neck, shoulder blades, wrists, lumbar spine, hips, ankles, and feet. Once identified, we include advanced tools that are employed to correct those issues. For anyone who has pain who wants to max my performance,

and for all you fitness professionals, Maps Prime Pro is a program. This month, and I believe there's only four days left when this particular episode airs, we have the Prime bundle, which includes both Maps Prime and Maps Prime Pro at a massive discount. If those programs sound interesting to you and they should, enroll at mymepumpmedia.com four days left for this special bundle. Do you guys ever wonder why they call these things microphones? Where the original why are they micro where the original ones bigger than this? Yeah, megaphone. Do you know what you the? megaphone well, that's a good any idea what the cause of microphone Doug

Why would they call the other one a megaphone well a megaphone makes your voice louder? Yeah, so if you do it like if I put it in front of my face right now Why would they call the other one a megaphone? Well a megaphone makes your voice louder. Yeah So if you do it like if I put it in front of my face right now what or when you guys put Microphone condenses right that's I should say it Boom that's what it is. We solved the riddle figured it out feel like scubi-doo. I know Your Delma doinks your Selma. Yeah, Adam's Daphne Wait, wait, which ones which one's Daphne? I'm Scoob.

I thought I was Ruh-Ruhl. Yeah. Oh, Scoob. Scoobie. Scoobie. You're for sure, Scoobie. Whoa. Yeah.

And you're, so you're the hot chick? No, Scoob. Adam, what does she do? I forgot what she does. She didn't do a lot, no. She just, she just, she just runs, dude. She's just like, yeah, whatever idea you said, it's great. Yeah.

Dude, she like goes. Yeah. Talk about an old show that I used when I was a kid, I was like thinking in my head, like I guarantee they're all fucking each other. For sure. Gilligan's Island. They have a van.

You guys remember Gilligan's Island? Yes. For sure there was some crazy shit going on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you want to watch that? I'm a man. I'm a man, but I didn't watch what you're doing in the weekends Ireland. Yes. For sure there was some crazy shit going on there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Did you want to watch that? I didn't want to watch it at all. I had, but I didn't watch it a lot.

So you know why? I used to know the song. You were a little buddy. Like I think they had a thing. Yeah, the reason why I know the song so well is because when I'd have a sales counselor who just spent way too much time is when I would manage gyms by the way

for the audience doesn't know what I'm talking about. When I'd have a sales guy, you know, when you manage gyms, what you do, part of the sales process is you give people a tour of the gym and show them around. And, you know, we always have a three hour tour. Yeah, we always have a sales guy that was spent an hour and a half with one guest, and then the guest wouldn't even enroll. They'd walk them. They'd walk them out. So I'd get on the intercom, and I'd do the Gilligan's island song. Oh nice.

Three hour tour and we'd do the whole song. Because public shaming is extremely effective motivation. I tell you what man, those were some of the good old days. That atmosphere, man, for a guy like me who was young, athletic, and competitive, I don't think I could have fought, I could have fell into a better place. They fostered that kind of. Sure, sure, you could have, you imagine if we fell into an environment that was like investments or tech, be millionaires.

I don't know though, it was fitness in the team. I don't know though, because not a lot of play, maybe now, I don't know, I don't know what the landscape looks like But the landscape was just so awesome there everybody was young fit Vibrant hungry hungry. Yeah competitive and it was Being in the cycling room what we were It was in that you know it it was during the time too, where I felt like personal training was on the rise,

especially here in the Silicon Valley. It seemed like, you know, if anybody and everybody who had money, it was like a cool thing to have a personal trainer. So to sell personal training was pretty easy. So what a good time to learn how to do it well, you know, when it's a little bit easier. The thing about sales in gyms and why some of the best,

and I'm not just saying this because I'm biased, by the way, because I've trained and worked with on side businesses, some of the, some other extremely successful sales people I've worked with, real estate agents who are, you know, among the top in the country I've worked with insurance agents who do extremely good sales, car salesmen. But the best salesmen I've ever worked with insurance agents who do extremely good sales,

car salesmen, but the best salesmen I've ever worked with in my entire life and this is salesmen and women were in gyms and the reason I think the theory I have behind this is because the sales cycle is so fast that it's just constant practice. You know what I'm saying? Like if you're a lot of people that are coming in now.

Like if you're a real estate agent, the between, you know, getting a lead, turning it into a, you know, a customer who actually buys from you, that could take months, one person. If you're in a busy gym at 24 fitness, we would sell, I mean, tons of memberships every day. Oh, you all have, we got mad that it was a three hour tour, right?

Because you knew how many other people you probably could have took on that tour and closed. Yes, but there's also the one of the biggest sales pitfalls and that you see is where people just fucking sales people just talk too much and talk people out of it. And yeah, you know, a three to sell a gym membership should not take two hours. If it is, you're talking to them out of it. And yeah, you know, a three, to sell a gym membership, should not take two hours. If it is, you're talking about it by that point.

So, but just the sales cycle so fast that if you're a good salesperson in a busy gym, and I ran some of the busiest ones in the Bay Area, you're gonna see 10, 15 people a day. You're doing this whole process, just reps. You just tons of reps. So I know, you know how many sales people I know, I'm sure you guys do too, who worked with me,

who were excellent, who moved on to other arenas and just became killer. Oh, is it incubator? Is it incubator? It's for talent. Yeah, they would just go in whatever direction. And if they killed it there, you knew they're gonna kill it somewhere else.

So you have that, and I think that's very true. but I have a theory that a lot of it has to do too with what you're selling. So when you go to a, you know, real, like you said, real estate, car dealership, cars, stereos, I mean anything, mattresses, those are all tangible things. Yeah, I can get you in a mattress and say, feel how good this feels, right? This feels amazing. It feels better than one you're sleeping on. I can bring you to a home and say, look how much nicer this home is the one you live in right now. How would you like to be here? Like, there's something you're dreaming with. Right. You are selling something that is not tangible. So the art of that, so learning to master, selling something that somebody can't touch, learning to master selling something that somebody can't touch is truly, I mean, you can't get any better training ground for a salesperson. Like, it only gets easier from there. Like,

hey, I sold something that doesn't exist. Now you're going to give me a job where I actually have something that the person could touch and feel, fuck, this is easy. You know, that's how I would look at it. And I think that's how a lot of guys that evolved from the business that worked with us looked at it. It was like, man, the last 10 years of my life, I've been selling people a fucking dream of what they're gonna look like one day, which we all know that 80% of them never fucking do.

It's very true. And one of the biggest mistakes when I would manage gyms and do sales. I did sales training for the region and then for the division at one point. I did this big sales meeting. And one of the things I talked about that I was taught early on by some of the people

I worked with was to stop selling the features of the gym. And this, you don't see this so much in other areas of sales because in other areas of sales, they teach you to sell the features. Like that's what you sell, right? So if you're coming in to buy, like Adam says, I don't know, a stereo, I'm gonna sell you all the features of the stereo.

The problem with that is that they can find the same stereo somewhere else, and if they find it for cheaper, they're gone. Right, so it'd be more effective to really just tie in an emotional component. That's it, yeah. That's it, That's it. When I'm selling fitness, I'm not selling you my gym.

That's doing it itself. We're walking around. I'm showing you the gym. You're taking a look and that's nice. Wow, that's great. But what I'm selling you is me, the dream, and why you can get this dream here, and why you can't get this dream anywhere else. Once you do that, then everything else is easy.

But if you sell features, you're fucked because someone else can have better features or the same features for cheaper. Right. Or it becomes a price for it at that point. You're going to be able to sell the experience in the dream of it, man. That's why I think, I mean, between what you said and when I was just saying is, I mean, it was and there's no one you guys that are millionaires now that what's selling memberships with us. Oh, yeah. I know. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah,

absolutely. That's that's what's so fascinating to me is that how many of them came from that and started and during that time, you know, we were also blessed to be a part of not just a good company, the company in the fitness industry. Nobody did the playbook. Yeah, nobody was doing anywhere near the revenue. It's like getting a chance to be a part of the UFC during its growth years and turning into what it is now. We got to be a part of that with a the gym industry

and fitness industry when 24 fitness was dominating everybody. Some of these clubs were profiting. and I know because we did the, you know, we were worked on the profit and loss statements. Some of these clubs were literally profiting by themselves, just one location, millions of dollars a year, after they pay their massive staff, after they pay their, their, you know, the, everything, the rent, the cost of advertising for that particular location, like everything, the cost of advertising

for that particular look at everything, the profit, millions of dollars for Jim. And I'm just gonna tell you this right now, if you have dreams of becoming a millionaire, buying a Jim is one of the hardest ways to go, or opening a Jim's one of the most difficult. This is one of the conversations I had with Ben Pact the other day, when we were working out,

and he was asking about guys that I know that own Jim's and why we didn't do this and that. I said, man, all of us were really blessed to be a part of a company during these the hay days. At 20 years old, I was managing PNLs for a gym that was anywhere between one to $5 million a year in profit that I had to manage and I saw that and I saw what it took to produce that kind of revenue and you

know, and after I had done that for long enough, realized that I don't want no fucking part of this. Like, this is not as easy as everybody thinks it is. It's not as simple as, hey, get a cool gym and, you know, oh man, you know why this gym isn't doing good? You need the donkey calf raise machine in here and you don't have enough. And if you had some better plasmas in here, I mean, that's what like the average trainer,

the average person, they look at all these like little details about the gym that they would enhance their experience. And so they think like, oh, I would do a gym so much better than this gym. And it's like, dude, oh, I would do a gym so much better than this gym. And it's like, dude, that's not what makes a gym make millions of dollars. What was your guy?

I mean, I saw, you talk about numbers, right? So the shittiest gym in the Bay Area, okay? Capital McKee is the most profitable. So it's. Out of the triple A gym. Yeah, the big one. Yeah, in the area. In San Jose, in the 90s and early 2000.

Shit hall. When it's a shit hall. It is a shit hall. And it makes a lot of your customers don't speak English. A lot of them will come in and even you got to speak Spanish to them because it's just a thing. But that talk about an eye opening thing for someone who's but they crushed. Yeah. Yeah. And they're fitting a need in that community. And so anybody who's thinking about opening a gym and they have these great idea grandiose ideas on oh, it's going to be like this and it's just the like the gym attracts people like oh if you have this badass gym then then it attracts people like no bro you're going about it all wrong. It doesn't work that way. In fact, you know in my experience all the and I've managed tons of gyms and I've looked at reports on all

of them. So, we, part of not only running all these PNLs and numbers for these gyms that we were running, we also got to go to monthly meetings where we compared each others. That's what was awesome about the company was that I could see this guy over down in Southern California, how much he was profiting over his, and I can see what this guy was doing over here and you start to You start to collect all this information and you start to realize that and you realize that we were in the best part The best area for all the clubs and what I mean by that is not that we were in the in an area that was the easiest to make the biggest profit but we all the the killers the systems and the processes that

were extremely successful came out of this area and a lot of it was here. Like, I mean, I'd run clubs that had been around for, I mean, Sunnyvale was an old, that was an old flagship club that I ran when I was in there. I mean, every month the pool, the pool was broken. It was old, it would turn green. I used to tell people it was emerald green water, so it was special, but it wasn't, it was broken. The ceiling broken, cave in the Operations Manager office,

we had a racquetball on there, because it was an old club, just like capital. And I was producing, you know, competing with clubs that were grand opening massive clubs in these beautiful, like, thousand oaks and all these areas in Southern California in other parts of the country. And the only reason why they were competing numbers-wise was because they had these great, gorgeous,

beautiful clubs. The Bay Area didn't have a grand opening club for a long time and we were killing it because we had such crazy teams. It was awesome to be a part of all of that. I remember a lot of it was intense. I remember meetings, I'll never forget, did I was in a meeting that was being given by,

I can't say his name, but you guys know who it is. He was a notorious manager, district manager, vice president, you know, he moved up to divisional president, individual who was giving a meeting, and the last thing you ever wanted to do in his meeting was be caught not paying attention, because it would be all bad for you. Well, we had a guy that worked for us in our club

who, I loved him to death. Great guy. I actually passed away recently. He had some alcohol problems, but he'd been in the club forever. The club that I, the club was, didn't he pass away? The guy you're talking about right now? Yeah, you know I'm talking about. Yeah, I do. The club, the next to us was a bar, which was perfect for him because you go back and

forth between the bar. Right, that's another story. But he kind of started dozing off in this long meeting where we were going over PNLs wherever. So he dozes off, falls asleep. So so and so guy who's giving the meeting looks at everybody, gives us the shush sign, like don't make any sound. And he opens the door real quietly.

Because the guy was sitting in a chair with wheels, wheels him out and fucking rolls him out to the workout floor. And his chair spinning, he wakes up halfway through, falls over, he's like, don't you ever fucking fall asleep on my media again, watch it. I mean, this was, some of the atmospheres that we were a part of were just intense dude. Yeah, I know. It was like, it was, yeah, I've got plenty of,

you're making me laugh right now. I know, because I know I've sparking some, well, yeah, and I can't, some memories, you know, I'm like, how do I even tell that story without fucking incriminating people and stuff? I mean, it was, it was wild, it was different, you know,

and it's a different culture now, right? It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's it's it's an insane you can't do that you can't you can't yell it employees like you used to be on employees you can't say things like that anymore and so dude I also think there's I also think that this is caused I think it's a reason why a lot of companies right now struggle because I think there was a lot of motivating restrictions. Yeah, there was a lot of motivating factors behind that now do I think it's still possible? Absolutely. I mean, but I think you have to be a little more creative on how you how you build a team like this now. And I think we've gotten away from building these great, this great culture. And that was

what was, I could always tell when I walked into a facility, I still to this day can tell. When I walk into a gym, I can feel the energy of the gym, the moment I walk in, just from the front desk to the employees that are walking around, to the members that are inside there, just the energy that's being put off in that place, and it always translated into dollars. You could always tell the clubs that were struggling revenue-wise. You could feel it when you walk in. Yeah, you could feel it. Because again, you could feel it when you call them. Right. You could feel it, because again, you could feel it when you call them. Right.

You could get on the phone and how they answer the phone, the way they talked on the phone. I mean, the irony of the story that I just told was the reason this manager could do that to that person wasn't because they were this abusive whore because he had his respect, right? They respected each other so much, because, I mean, he had done so much for this particular person. There was so much respect

That you know like I could do something like that to one of you guys or you could do something like that to one to me In a in a situation like that where one of us was really Taking a shit and all we would get from from the other from the individuals respect like fuck man You called me out and you're right and it's just just, you know, people need to understand that too, because I'll tell stories like that sometimes and people be like, oh my God, that was horrible. Like, you don't understand the environment, like. Well, talk about.

Respect level is so high. Talk about how we create that. I think this is a kind of a cool tip or takeaway. And I think I've just addressed this before on the show. This was something that I got from the book, the short read, one minute manager that I got from the book, the short read, one minute manager that I've talked about before. And it spoke about this, this culture

and this way of leadership where, I stopped focusing on all the tasks that my employees had to do and micro-managing them. And it's tough, you get in a role, right? You take over a facility and this could go for any business. It doesn't have to be fitness, It's just in general where you have to lead 5, 10, 20 plus people or whatever, towards the same goal or same direction, where you get in that position and right away you want to think of all the things, the guy

or the girl before you wasn't doing. How can you hold them accountable and accomplish more and motivate them more to do that. And that was kind of like how it worked. And it took me a while and it took me until I read this book before I had this paradigm-shattering moment for me where I completely flipped how I led on its head. And from that book, I began focusing on all the things that my staff was doing well and was doing right. And I totally stopped paying attention to what they weren't doing and what they weren't

doing well. And when I begin to lead this way, it changed everything for leadership for me. And it was such a powerful moment. And it really made me realize what some of these leaders, like the one you're speaking of, how they could get away with just verbally abusing somebody or just fucking punking them and that person would respond, right? They would respond well and right. They would do the right thing afterwards.

Well, you also know who that works for and with and who that doesn't. Well, what I found was there was kind of this formula that you could do. And like, everybody was, everyone's unique and different and how much effort you have to put in each one is a little bit different. But for example, you know, I began leading this way where I would, you know, point out when I'd see, you know, Justin doing something with a client, walk over, touch him on the shoulder and be like, Hey, dude, I just saw what you were doing. I was fucking great job, man. And I really appreciate your work that you do around here and then walk away. And once you start to do that enough, and you do that consistent, consistent consistency is everything.

You can't do it once or twice. You have to be known as that leader who is constantly pointing out the things you do well. Then the once in a while, when I come unleashed, it's so fucking rare, but it's so powerful. It's like how we talk about using, you know, swear words. It's part of our talk about using, you know, swear words. It's like it's part of our vocabulary And I think when you use correctly, it's very powerful when you use the f word when it's when it's put in the right.

It exists in human vernacular in every culture and every language for a reason. They can express feeling and they can communicate better when you use appropriately or properly, whether it's done for humor or whether it's done for to express some type of emotion, you could be happy to status whatever, curse words exist for that particular reason. That's why they're in, like I said, every culture has words that are taboo or bad.

So I feel like nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. And if you, if you approach leadership like that, where you truly give everything you got passionately into people, then when those moments come where you drop the hammer or you swear or you do something that's just out of character like that. Oh my god, it's powerful. It's unbelievably, for me to do that, because, you know, and we've on this show before, right? I've got the reputation of being the asshole, right? And that's not because I'm this guy who's an asshole

all the time, it's that I'm not afraid to be that guy. I'm not afraid to be candid. I'm not afraid to tell somebody who I think is doing a fucking shitty job, that you're doing a fucking shitty job But that's because I put in all the hours of stroking that person off and building their character and building their character up and Completing them for all their hard work and telling them and putting everything I got into them wholeheartedly So then when I do that it that boy, it's powerful. It's very powerful.

And it's only powerful if someone respects you. That's what people need to understand. Yeah, you have to get that first. You can't just do that. You can't run around. You gotta be genuine. Yeah, and that's the same thing I've run into with the best coaches I've ever had, even in athletics.

Oh, so true. Man, like they just, they know when to properly like snap everybody out of something. And you know, a lot of times maybe that is something that maybe comes off a little ass hole-ish, but it's what needs to be said. And you can't be afraid to say what needs to be said when the opportunity presents itself,

but you don't want to constantly bombard people all the time in a negative way. It's just not as effective. No, the minute you lose the respect of your team, you're screwed. I don't care if it sports, business, politics, whatever. They stop respecting you because you're weak or because you think you're strong and you're not,

or you push too hard or whatever, the reason why they lose respect for you lose their respect, you're screwed. One of the biggest mistakes that I see that I used to see Jim managers do was, they would go in, this is a mistake I see with a lot of businesses, is they go in with this customer's always right,

and the customer comes first to attitude, and the reason why that's wrong, I know people are listening, they're like, no, that is the right thing. They're your king, man. Yeah, the customer's first, that's not true. Fuck that, my people are first. That's right.

If your people are first, and you treat it's inverted, it's the inverted business triangle. If you treat your people as they come first, it's they're the ones that are most important. Then the side effect of that is incredible customer service, customer experience, product, efficiency, all that stuff. The best, you know, the best gems that I've ever run into,

where I see the members of the happiest are the ones where the staff is the happiest and the most motivated and the most, you know, they have the most respect for their leaders and the most connected. The ones where the managers just make it all about the customer and not nothing about the staff, they always are horrible and the customer hates them.

So, and this is especially true of a gym which is a service industry, you know, service-based industry. So, you know, it can be really difficult, you know, with your inner leadership role to learn how to do this. And it, it, it, it took me fucking almost all the way towards the end of my career before I really started to put this together because I, I learned to start to look at like my team because before I was always trying to develop

develop people to be like me, right? I was successful at what I did. Let me try and develop these, teach these people what I do to be like me so we can be successful and we can win, right? That was like the mentality. And it took me a long time to really start to stop looking at my staff and my team like that.

And instead looking at it like a football team would be like there's a quarterback, there's a lineman, there's a wide receiver. Everybody is extremely valuable, and they're all valuable for different reasons. And then learning how to not, I can't get mad at my lineman because he can't catch the ball like my wide receiver.

So I gotta stop, even though they're in the same position, they're playing the same game, I can't look at them like that. I have to be able to separate that and go, you know what? This is what he's really good at. I need to encourage that in him and I need to tell him how good he is at that. And I want him to be great at that. And I would push that that area that he's strong. I'm not going to worry about that.

He has no hands because you know what? I'm not going to throw in the fucking ball anymore. Like there's no reason to throw in the ball. He's got damn line man. I'm not gonna worry about that he has no hands, because you know what, I'm not gonna throw in the fucking ball anymore. Like, there's no reason to throw in the ball. He's got damn line man, I'm gonna keep focusing this way. My wide receiver, I'm gonna stop expecting him to block or hit people hard because he's a sissy, but he's got incredible hands and he's so talented that way. So when you start to look at your staff

and those that are underneath you, and you stop trying to compare them to what you do so well, or maybe the top sales guy or the top producer for you, and stop comparing them and looking at their individual attributes and their strengths, and then encouraging those strengths and teaching them how to take those things that they're already good at and be great at it, they begin to excel. And then, then telling them what a great job they are that when I learned to finally do that, it was amazing. It wasn't until I was on my way out really,

that I have this type of impact where I no longer had to fucking reprimand or get hard on anybody. In fact, what I found was, if I had just kind of slacked off a couple of days in a row where I didn't make my rounds of going over and telling my employees how great they were, some of them would make their way to my office and be like, Adam, did I do something okay?

Yeah, did I do something wrong or is there something like they, I had created this culture that of me coming around and telling you what a great job you're doing, things that if I didn't make my rounds of doing that, instantly they were already self-evaluating what the fuck am I not doing? The boss hasn't come by to tell me what a great job and they would only be mad at themselves.

You know, I did have, or somebody would come and tell me something that they fucked up on that I didn't even know they did. They'd come over and they would explain themselves. Like, hey, you know, boss, I'm so sorry, I just haven't had a chance to get to these files. I know you told me you wanted me to do these stuff with that. And I didn't even know they didn't do them, but because I hadn't come over to tell them a good job, something was weighing on them and they were going through their entire business thinking like, what could he be mad at me for and then they would present it to me and then present that they're gonna finish it. It was such a beautiful thing but it took years and years of coaching and developing and

leadership before I kind of piece that all together. I tell you what, that was probably one of the greatest gyms I could pass on to somebody. Powerful. Leadership bird. Step right up all you bearded man and all you bearded ladies. This quad brought to you by Big Top Beard Company whose all-natural beard oil products not only make your beard smell amazing,

but feel amazing too. Their organic essential oil blends transport you to manly places like the mountains, the desert, the sea and beyond. All while encouraging a lot of beard, noslin' the boo. This is the most important thing to do. Our first question is from... Double O Silk Drop. If someone builds strength and muscle via weights

and then sheds a few pounds, will the newfound strength and lighter build increase their aptitude for body weight exercises? Uh, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So I noticed this with myself every single time or when I used to do large swings and body weight, you know,

when I would bulk and cut type of deal. My body weight doesn't really fluctuate that much anymore. My weight might fluctuate maybe five pounds, but in the past it would fluctuate as much as 15, 20 pounds, and I would get really good at body weight movements when I'd get light. Even though my overall strength many times would go down, so I might not be able to do as much on a squat or an overhead press or even a heavy row because I've lost 15 pounds, but my strength to weight ratio is much better. So now when I do pull ups or push ups

or handstand push-ups or whatever, I'm repping out reps like crazy. And I remember I remember putting this together in my early years where I do weighted pull-ups. And you know whenever you drop a lot of weight, I like I said I'd have these big fluctuations whenever you have a large drop in weight. It's it's many times you lose overall strength But I so I remember losing strength in my like barbell lifts But then I could add more weight around my waist on my weighted pull-ups And I remember thinking like man no matter what I do my back just gets stronger and I was doing this I was talking to my dad about this. I was a kid. I was a teenager

They're just putting away and I'm like you know, it's great I'm like you know, it's crazy. I'm like, I lost like 15 pounds, but I can do this pull up with, you know, I added another 15 pounds in my pull up. My dad's like, weird. He's all, you lift the same way. He's the same way. I'm like, what do you mean, same thing?

He's a lot of 15 pounds, you add a 50 pounds here. Oh, shit. You know what I mean? But this is a very, very true thing. And this is the, for many sports and many athletes, not all of them, come sports, excuse me, some sports. Come sports. Yeah, that sounds sexy.

Yeah. Don't Google that. World champion. Yeah, one sports. You know, one sports. Sal's good at it. Yeah. Yeah.

For a place. So master debate or something. So the, some sports weight is good. Like in football, certain positions actually being big and heavy is a good thing. But in many sports, you have weight classes. And so like if you wrestle or you box or other sports that require lots of agility, you want to maximize your

strength to weight ratio. That's everything in some of those sports. I mean, imagine if you're a wrestler at 150 pounds, and you could add 15% strength to your body and not gain a single pound of weight on the scale, you're gonna move faster, you're gonna have more agility, and you're going to be stronger against your 150 pound competitor.

Again, this is like the holy grail of athletic training for most sports. Well, generally, your body's going to be a lot happier with you. The more you actually focus on that element because there are sport specific body types that people will build themselves up to mass wise. And that might fit for that very specific activity, but for an overall general purpose, like functionality and applied strength, the more you can kind of match that strength-a-weight ratio

in a favorable manner, the better. And you will find a lot of these bodyweight movements and exercises will become like ways here in your joints. You don't have the same kind of pains. A lot of times, our idea of where we want to get to is definitely outside of and we kind of mentioned like the body weight set point and all that kind of stuff as an example, but you know we try to push beyond that and a lot of times like your body is like you know we're pushing against our body like to a certain degree. I think it's important to know that not all things are created equal though. So if you

are let's say, because what I'm picturing right now with her, because we know who it is, like let's say she decides like, okay, I'm gonna go on a strength building program. I'm gonna run maps and a ballic. And she sees her deadlift at her squat, you know, go up. She gets much stronger, she adds five pounds.

And now she says she wants to lean out, lose some body fat, so drop some down weight. So will that translate over into body weight exercises? Well, some things will have great carry over. Some things not so much. For example, I could go on a hardcore strength program and do get up to 500 and a half pounds deadlifting, but then I can't do more than 15 pull-ups. I could not do any deadlifting, but focus on my pull-ups and I could get better at pulling out. Oh, yeah, there's specificity here, for sure.

Well, I think that's what I mean by that it's important to understand that not all things are created equal. So just because you build strength and then lean out, doesn't necessarily mean that it could technically carry over to a specific bodyweight exercise that you're trying to get better at. So that's important to keep that in mind. Well, like her activity, so she does silks,

which my girlfriend was very versed in as well. And silks are for people who don't know. It's where they have those, they're like made out of fabric, well. And silks are for people who don't know. It's where they have those, they're like made out of fabric, they're called silks. They're pretty smooth, but they're not made out of silking. They're hanging from a very high vantage point like the ceiling, but a high ceiling.

And these artists, because that's what they are, it's an art, will climb the silks and then perform in the silks with like the splits and these twists and moves and where they'll go down, they'll roll down real fast and catch themselves and you see this in the like circuses like the Cirque du Soleil, it will do this quite a bit. So for this particular activity, if you add a bunch of weight to your squat, you're not going to see a lot of carryover. That's what I mean to the silks. That's what Adam's talking about. You're not going to see a ton of carryover. Now, if you add a lot of strength to your arms, to your shoulders, to your ability to pull,

so your rows and your pull-ups, and dumbbell rows, and stuff like that, you add a lot of strength to your grip, and you don't gain any weight. You're going to fling your body around very easily up on those sticks. It would be very, very easy to pull yourself up. In fact, this is why you'll see like giving a good example. If you look at male gymnasts, who by the way are some of the most muscular pound for pound athletes that you'll find ever

anywhere in the world in their upper body, you'll notice in their lower body, although their lower body is lean and not skinny and weak, it's just not big. And that's on purpose. You don't see a lot of gymnasts doing, trying to build mass in their lower bodies, or at least male gymnasts, because of their competitive movements are, you know, the rings and, yeah, hanging and flipping and doing what's that horse called, the pommel horse, whatever. Which, if you got one of those guys and they built a ton of strength in size in their legs,

even if they're strength-to-weight, where your show was awesome. Yeah, it's gonna make it worse for their upper body. So, specificity is very important with this, but if you're looking for this kind of performance, where you want a excellent strength excuse me, you want an excellent strength to weight ratio, then you should be focused on training your central nervous system

in all aspects. So maximal strength, you know, CNS training. Also control, overall tension and control in all these different positions. Yeah, I was gonna say, even the one carryover, if you wanna attribute to like a backloaded squat is just that sensation of loading on your back and your central nervous system responding to that.

Like that, that's just some kind of a stimulus that you'll be able to have in some and like an irradiation effect of being able to have that tensile strength on command when he needed. So I'm glad you said that, Justin, because I've been reading some of the stuff you've set me in. I've been looking on some more information on isometric training. Isometric type exercises were very popular in the old days of exercises. It was a prized form of exercise way back in the day.

And it lost favor as the goals of exercise became more aesthetic based. And what I mean by that is back in the day, a strength athlete was prized for their performance. And then if they looked good, that was cool too. In fact, Eugene Sandel was one of the first guys that was a strong man that kind of had a six pack. Everybody else before that, nobody gave a shit.

It was all about how much weight they can, so we can combine the two of them. But the reason why they prized isometric training, training so much was because it gave you so much strength that was functional that you could add to your lifts. And it doesn't necessarily translate to a lot of muscle until you combine it with other forms of exercise. So all of a sudden it was cut out of routines

because it was all about pumping up the muscles. Well, if you combine that type of training with traditional exercise, you'll get crazy strength and muscle. If you just focus on tension, you get crazy strength to weight ratio type strength. So that's a great point because if you're looking for this kind of performance and you're in a sport where you don't want to gain a lot of weight, I would say place a lot of attention

on isometric and tension based movements because you'll see a lot of a lot of carry over there. Quick commercial break you guys, we keep getting asked all the time, how can I support the mind pump family? Here's one of the best ways you guys can. You guys love that chimeric coffee that we have. Chimeric coffee with a K, you go to chimeric coffee.com, put in the discount code mine pump for 10% at the checkout.

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Next up is Kray Manley. Why are the prime tests passed or fail? Good question. Yeah. This was a big piece of our program. Yeah, it was something that, you know, you talk about these trips where we take off and we hash things out, we go back and forth. No, no, no, this is one of those things where we went back and forth and it was very important. And I remember when we all finally agreed,

like, it's got to be, it has to be this way. We can't create something that is any more specific because if we start to do that, we're gonna lose a lot of people. We need to be more general. And what I mean by that is because this is a program that a hundred different people can buy. And out of those hundred people,

there could be 20 different upper body issues from the shoulder to the neck to, you know, whatever in the chest like muscles that are overactive, underactive, injuries, all different, unique things that are causing dysfunction in the upper body. And we can't obviously, we won't be able to figure out, be able to tell, you know, this person who had the frozen shoulder and this person right here who has, you know, forward head, even though they both have similar things that, similar movements that can help them,

they have different issues going on with their body. So how do we make this generic enough that this many people can have it, but then also specific enough that we know that anybody who fails this, these type of movements, we love it. Well, we leave room for you to sort of self-prescribe because for us to be able to provide something that in depth, we're gonna have to add a new title

to our name and get, there's a lot of legal stuff to go along, not to mention, but so what we did is we made it so we basically can identify different zones and, you know, the basic functioning and, you know, what you should be able to produce, you know, at each joint point with that. And so that way you can kind of see like, well, you know, if I wasn't able to fully retract, you know, and I'm not able to hit this point of my elbow onto the wall, you know, then you fail. So that way, you know, you kind of dive deeper on your own, you realize, oh, this is how I'm going to address this one dysfunction that that's not producing in this movement. So the train, the trainers who are listening and the people

in the, I guess, some wellness fear who work with movement or like this, what I'm about to say here, because when we wrote Prime, we had a few epiphanies while writing it, and a lot of it was from our experience, working with individuals and trainers, and then working with other movement specialists

who we're blown away by and learn from. And one of those, some of the things that we learned was that it's all based off of movement. So the old assessment models, and I say old because they're gonna be gone everywhere soon. So you guys, a lot of you guys listening right now are probably using some of these models and they're not nearly as effective as a movement-based model.

If I have somebody, and I'm trying to assess dysfunction, I can definitely use an old model and break them down piece by piece to try and figure out what muscle isn't doing what and how to target that one area, okay? Or I can look at general movement, and look at movement, know what proper movement looks like, know what recruitment patterns are supposed to look like, and then work on that particular movement and add movements to that movement that's strengthen it and put it in a position or at least correct those issues.

And if you do it based off of movement, you don't need to know the specifics. Like, I don't need to know why when you do a windmill, you can't do a proper windmill. I don't, it doesn't matter because these are the exercises and movements that are going to help you be able to accomplish that particular movement in that plane of movement. Which is a movement that everybody should be able to do. And that's how it's a pass or fail. That's it. There is no like kind of pass. It doesn't even matter why you fail. If you fail because you have tightness in your lumbar,

or if you fail because your scapula won't retract and allow you to get that straight line with your arms, or if you fail because you're tight in your hamstrings, or whatever, it doesn't matter because the solution to that problem, the solution to that, the reason why you can't do all those movements is the same for all of them. Because we don't work in specifics, we have to work based on movement, and the reason

why that's better is because that's how life is. If I can make you move better, then you're going to move better. If I correct one small area of your body, I still haven't addressed your movement, because now you have to be able to integrate that. Because what the old model was, you find that one thing correct that, then work up and then finally work on the movement. And it's like why? Why when if we teach people the proper patterning

with these exercises and movements that we know are general, but we'll address those issues, if we just do that, it's gonna take care of everything else. And this is how we were able to break the body up into three zones, three movements, pass or fail. Because regardless of why you fail any of which one of them, it's going to point to these particular exercises, movements that are correct. All the issues that can cause a fail. And so these are data points that you can go off of, right?

Like a lot of times people just have an assumption of movement. Like they're knowledge base of how their body moves and their mechanics are so. And a lot of times like they just go through with momentum and they don't realize they really aren't capable of articulating their joints this specific way. And so once we identify that, that may actually highlight other areas that they realize, wow, this has affected my shoulder and it's been in pain because I actually can't articulate my joint this way. So you're not going to figure that out until you actually look at your... And we're also thinking like ahead of what... of what, someone gets a program online or is training their

own program, whatever. There's basic movements like the overhead press, the squat, the bench press, whatever, row. These are all movements that are in almost every program somewhere or another that you should be able to perform correctly. If you can't do the exercises that we put inside prime, you probably shouldn't be doing a lot of those moves,

especially if you can't complete them with good form without any pain. So that's why too, that we were so excited to finally get that piece out because we knew deep down, even though we released the other programs first, because they were completed first, that really prime and prime pro are,

is the foundation to all the programs that everybody should go through and assess and at least understand your own personal mechanics and what you need to work on. And then from there, it's up to you to work on it. But what I love about it, it's one of those things that immediately when you apply it into your routine,

right away, you will see a difference immediately. If you are somebody who... You take a 10 minute prime session, done properly based on your body, what you pass or fail. You'll know, that second, you'll know, this is fucking awesome. That entire body performs better. It doesn't take weeks or months to, you'll know right away, you'll get into your extra, I don't care what workout you'll know, this is fucking awesome. That entire body performs better. It doesn't take weeks or months to,

you'll know right away, you'll get into your extra, I don't care what workout you're doing, I don't care if it's CrossFit, if you're a runner, if you compete in Jiu Jitsu, I don't, you know, yoga, it doesn't even matter. When you do your normal activity, right away, you'll get into it and be like, that's, I have not moved this well,

this early on in my workout, ever before, is what you're gonna think to yourself, you know that right away. So, it's not, and that's, and have not moved this well, this early on in my workout, ever before is what you're gonna think to yourself. You know that right away. So, it's not, and that's, and we understood that. I mean, here's a deal. When we used to do assessments as trainers, we were taught a lot of these stationary assessments, posture, stand, just stand there and don't move.

That's it, what does that tell you? Doesn't tell you much. What if I got somebody who can move in all these dynamic ways with good recruitment patterns and great balance in their body, they can do great squats and pullups and rows and overhead presses and they can twist and turn and do all these other awesome stuff, but when they stand in just regular posture,

it looks like forward shoulder to me. That's not gonna tell me, that doesn't mean shit, that's just their posture. But everything's firing and moving the way it should. Assessment should be based on movement, they should not, there's definitely clues you can get from stationary positions. But it doesn't tell you even half of the story. Well, this reminds me a little bit of the rebuttal that we did to Joe Rogan's chiropractor thing when we bought Jordan and Brink on them, they were talking about how funny it is, how the old chiropractor way would be,

they'd take a screenshot of your posture, they put you in front of one of those walls, and they'd do it. Yeah, yeah, they'd say, oh, you have shoulder elevation here, and you're one inch longer here. So it's a total of nothing? Yeah, it doesn't tell you, it doesn't tell you anything,

and nothing tells you really the story of someone's body till you watch them move. Yeah. And then when you see it, and which is what impressed me so much the first time that I met, Brink was now a couple of years of knowing him, I've never even been on his table before. He's never put me on his table before.

It's always been about my movement. Like take your shoes off, take your socks off, go walk from me out of him. Okay, now squat from me, stand up on your toes from me. Do these movements and let me see how your body is communicating with all the muscles and how they all speaking to each other and how they're firing and how are you responding to that? I mean, it is crazy to think that there still are tests

and things out there of love. No, people will think that the more the specific frozen assessment type stuff that that's more individualized, but it's actually not. It's not because if I look at a picture of what posture is supposed to look like that does not take into account any of the individual variances between individual because one per two people could have excellent recruitment patterns and excellent movement and have posture that looks different. I could also train someone to be able to stand with perfect posture, but that didn't tell

you much at all about how their body is functioning. This is true for squats. This is true for anything like, you know, more recently we've had these pretty awesome posts that I've seen on Instagram or some of these great doctors and physical therapists are posting pictures of hip joints, and they're saying, look, all squats can't look like this because some hip joints look like this. There's nothing you could do about it.

So proper movement will look different for this person, for this person. So it's not about looking like this specific thing, or even just looking at an x-ray. It's about how you move. I mean, shit, talk about x-rays. Do you know, and you could talk to a doctor, if you have a doctor friend's about how you move. I mean, shit, talk about X-rays. Do you know, and you could talk to a doctor,

if you have a doctor friend or if you're a doctor yourself, you can look at two X-rays and you can look at one that's like, oh my God, look at this disc over here, look at that disc over there, and they have no symptoms. And then this guy over here's got all this pain, and you look at their X-ray and we can't find any problems at all with your spine, it looks absolutely perfect. Like, it's all about movement.

And that's why prime is pass or fail because you either do it right and you do it under control and everything feels effortless or you don't. And it doesn't matter how bad you fail. That all the solution is always going to be these particular exercises to prime your body. Five far the most underrated program that we have.

I just launched a buddy of mine the other day from, I've talked before on this podcast, how I mentor trainers that used to work for me and help them with their business and continue to progress. And I just got upset one day because, you know, he's sitting here asking me this and that, you know, Adam should do this and help with that. And I'm going through and I'm like, did you watch the prime

pro webinar that we did? Oh, I didn't have time. I didn't get to it. Well, I said, what's on fucking YouTube? You can still watch it for free on there. Oh, well, yeah, I'll get to that. Well, did you ever pick up prime? Are you utilizing prime with your clients? So that, oh, no, I've been, I'm like, you know what dude? Like here's the deal, like I can't, I can't continue to sit here and spend time with you and help mentoring you when I'm providing a lot of this information for free. In mind you, this is someone close to me that I would give this shit for free if they just asked me, but if you're not even

putting the work in to go through, if you're listening and you're a fitness professional, if you have some anything to do with health and wellness, most certainly if you're personal training clients, physical you have some anything to do with health and wellness, most certainly if you're personal training clients, physical therapy rehab, chiropractor, any of that, and you do not fucking own prime and prime pro, you're missing the boat. I'm telling you right now, that is the one of the best

investments that you could possibly make for yourself, for your practice, for your clients. Steal it, make it your own, I don't give a shit, but get the information. Use it because it is the future. It is how everybody will be doing things. That's one of the beauties of listening to this show, is you get guys like us that are already going through all this stuff and trying to provide it for you. If you have not listened to the webinar online, that was free information that we take advantage of all this stuff.

Well, the thing is, we get a lot of questions on our social platforms and on our private forum, and they were all these reoccurring questions. And they were all of these things that were addressing things that were like, oh, they probably have this and that, and the other going on with their joints and they have this type of dysfunction. And it was like a broken record to all these very common sort of symptoms that people would have going through their programs and getting to a certain point where they've just bypassed all these sort of prerequisites and all these different things that they've just tried to numb out the signal. And so we, that's why we put so much time and effort into how we're going to

tackle this problem. Like, this is a monster to tackle because this is like, you know, what we, what we would do in our eyes, what we would see in the movement process uh... to identify uh... these things to help people better so you guys see the article that somebody posted from bretken traris on our page today no uh... i like lancel over it yeah it refresh my memory yeah it was just it was an article that he had written and he spoke out on this quite a few times and i and there's lots of this that i do agree with bret

for the information he's putting on the cuz i I do like a lot of stuff he puts out there But they were sharing in our forum because a lot of people out there in the fitness realm are using like scare tactics of You know using words like dysfunction or you know you're not you're in mobile or you're hurt here And so you can't do this. So that's like this whole scare people into thinking that they can't do it properly. It hears all the, I have the magical way to fix you. And so he had wrote this out there that this is what's going on.

And he used the example of Usain Bolt who has a discrepancy in his... He's got a little bit of a school yoses are one leg slightly shorter than right right and he used them at the example of this elite elite athlete who obviously is performing at the highest level and is got all kinds of dysfunction he's totally fine and i said you know i i think it's a horrible example to use a professional

athlete is because that's the best at compensating. He's trying to make the case that maximum performance in one particular area equals, you know, overall health, wellness, being able to move properly, whatever, some of the most dysfunctional patterns I've ever seen in people are athletes. I have dealt with, I were to look at, you know, all of my clients, right, that I have

trained over the years that have injuries, aches, pain, surgeries, issues going on, more than half of them, for sure, are ex athletes. You know, that it's caught up to them. Sure, maybe when they were 25, they were on top of the world and nothing was bothering them and they were fine. But later on, when all those bad, those poor recruitment patterns that they've had for 20 plus years, now that they are now working at a desk or more sedentary like the average American, now that shit's all caught up to them.

So, you know, what a great topic because, you know, I mean, I have an example. I had a kid that I used to train, was a high school senior could pitch 90 miles an hour as a high school senior. So he was this huge prospect, but it'd been pitching for a long time. And he hired me to get him stronger. We lift weights. And his right arm was, it was a totally different arm than his left. Stronger, way more muscle development on the right side. And so it was just crazy how great he was at performing at his sport, but how dysfunctionally he was otherwise. In fact, it twisted him just a little bit.

Like you can see, the difference between the right and left so much that that's gonna end up causing problems in the future. What you need to understand is, this is how important your patterning is to your life. This is another your life. This is another great example. So my girlfriend just did a post on Instagram or she's about to do a post.

I just read it at the training hour. And the post is about breathing patterns and how important breathing is. And we hear about this all the time with experts. And by the way, if you're not familiar, I'd suggest looking up information on how important breathing is and how bad our breathing kept patterns become because of stress or whatever. And she explained how we develop poor recruitment patterns with their muscles that cause our breath and our diaphragm and whatnot because we're in this constant low level of stress.

And so people who breathe shallow and create the stress in themselves, it's literally because it's a poor pattern that they've created. And they can't get out of it without training a brand new patterns that they make this concentrated effort. This is what happens with your entire body. Priming your body before your workouts, really make sure that you're sending the signal you want to send with your workouts. Otherwise, you end up strengthening this poor patterning. So you have somebody who has got, you know,

really bad forward shoulder, because the shoulder blades don't pull back, they don't get good retraction, and they go do all the rows in the world. They do all the right exercises, all the exercises. They're gonna move the way their body is recruitment pattern,

their default pattern has them move, and all they're gonna do is make a strength in that bad patterning. So, they're doing all the right exercises, but because they didn't prime properly or get things the fire they want properly, they're just making things worse for themselves. So, very, very important, your prime your body properly, but it must be movement-based. So I guess

to, you know, circle back to the answer the question, it has to be movement-based, and a movement is either good or it's not good. So it's a pass or fail. Next up is a Tyen Queen G. Oh God. Sounds like a nightmare. Hi, Sal. If you can't up your calories and carbs

because of a sensitive gut, can you still build muscle? I like this question, because I'm gonna change, I'm gonna answer it in this way. If you have gut issues, which are, by the way, by the time you have gut issues,

that's a signal that something's been going on for a while. So it's like pain, like my knee hurts. The problem... Started way before the pain. It started before the knee pain. Whatever I was doing before, for however long I was doing it. And that being said, when it's better isn't technically better, either. That's right. So once the pain of my knee is gone,

and once it doesn't hurt anymore, I haven't solved the problem. I've only solved it enough to take away the pain, but it'll come back. If you already have gut issues, you've already been doing something to your body that's not working for it. Gut issues are, you're lucky for having a sensitive gut, and I'll tell you why. It is a very outward, obvious signal, and you can use it to read what's going on and change things. Sometimes the signals people get are much more subtle, like insulin resistance until it's too late

and then they have diabetes or, you know, they're getting brain fog, but they don't realize that they're causing things that may promote things like Alzheimer's or dementia. By the time they get that, it's like sensitive gut. It's obvious. You see it right away. Do not ignore that signal.

So the answer to this question is, if you have a sensitive gut, you shouldn't be focused on gaining muscle or losing fat or really anything else. You should be focused on making sure you're gut is healthy. And the irony of that is, when your gut is healthy, you'll be able to build sure you're gut is healthy. And the irony of that is when your gut is healthy, you'll be able to build muscle much, much easier. Way easier. I mean, I'll tell you my own experience, like I had some, I go on and off with gut issues.

And I tend to be very sensitive mainly because I fucked myself for years with supplements and poor eating habits and all that stuff. So it was rather recently where I was getting really, really bad gut issues and I had to kind of do this what kind of gut reset where I fast and I take these herbs and supplements that are antimicrobial and antiparicitic and to just kind of get me back on track

and then start to rebuild health of my gut. Well, after doing that, it's like all of a sudden, strength is going up and I'm building more muscle, even though I'm doing the same stuff I was doing before. So you don't want to do both because a lot of times the focus of building muscle besides the workout ends up being eat more food, eat more carbs, you know, push more food, and now you've got a sensitive gut on top of it. You're going to be fighting it uphill battle, and potentially causing a massive reaction of your gut,

where then you've got to go back and take all these steps and maybe stop working out for a while, which you don't want to be put in that position. So I try to go to her Instagram page so I can see exactly what she looks like right now. It's private, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's private. So I have a little bit to add to this.

I think that 100% I agree with Sal. And I think that your gut should be the number one priority. That being said, one of the biggest struggles that I'm having right now for me personally, and let me preface this by saying that where I'm trying to take my body is outside of where my body wants to go, which now means I'm no longer doing what's the healthiest thing for my body. I'm not searching for optimal health right now. I'm searching for the most amount of fucking muscle I can build. That is where my mindset has been for the last four or five weeks. And I've tried to keep my carb intake pretty low because it keeps my psoriasis

in check. And when I start to increase my carbohydrate intake, I start to notice my psoriasis starts to flare up. So, and of course, this is all probably time back to my gut. So I have had a hard time building a amount of muscle on my body that's beyond where my body kind of wants to be without the use of carbohydrates. So I do believe that there becomes a give and take a little bit. Like if we were, if I'm talking to the body builder guy

who is trying to build tons of muscle, doing this on the ketogenic diet is damn near fucking impossible and no, no smart body builder, I know would ever recommend that. In fact, I remember been packing, I were talking about this when we were training the other day. And I said, man, I loved the way I felt health wise on keto. I felt really good and my training was good,

my energy was all fine. But man, when it came to trying to put some mass and size on, I just, I hit a point where my body didn't want to go any more than that. So you know, if someone is struggling with that and you're really aggressively trying to bulk, I could see how this could become a bit of a dilemma that like, man, I can't grow anymore. I can't put size on.

I'm thinking that this is this girl is not trying to do what I'm doing right now. Well, even then, my advice would be to, because it's usually not a macro nutrient. When you see gut issues, and I'll address what Adam's talking about, because there's, I think there's more of the story too. Oh, yeah, you mean like as far as gluten or dairy or whatever. Well, because, yeah, because what exactly it is. Yeah, because usually it's not That's a good that's a good too many carbs or too many protein

That's a good point She could probably in more likely she could probably increase rice and sweet potatoes and be fine all day Yeah, so it go a little deeper because it's rarely just Carbs right if it was just carbs, which it could be by the way. It doesn't mean it's impossible check the bread and dairy It's so it almost always for clients man, not only that but let's say it was just carbs, which it could be, by the way, it doesn't mean it's impossible. Check the bread and dairy. It's almost always for clients, man. Not only that, but let's say it was just carbs. Let's say it didn't matter what her carbs were. She ate all the foods that she didn't have in tolerance

as to just eating too many carbs is giving her sensitive gut. Then I would look deeper in that and say and look at potential bacterial overgrowth or yeast because carbohydrates tend to feed certain types of bacteria and certain types of yeast in the body, in which case you would need to balance your body out and then be able to up your carbs. So like Adam, for you I'll ask you on your carb intake,

have you been able to identify particular carbs that are doing it as a gem? Yeah, I know, yeah, I know. And I should have specified, it's because I introduced pancakes and bread back in. When I'm eating pancakes and having sandwiches or bread inside the diet, this rice comes up. If I had chosen to go through rice and sweet potato,

I would have been fine. But it's hard to eat those because they're not as highly palatable. Excellent. And calories, we also want to explain that because I know listeners like, well, don't fucking eat the race in the, but you're trying to eat palatable. Excellent. And calories, we also want to explain that because I know listeners like, well, don't fucking eat the race in the, but you're trying to eat 5,000 calories.

Right. It's not as palatable to have a bowl of rice as it has to do. Some pancakes, so I think the point, Adam's making, he's pushing his body above and beyond normal muscularity. You're, he's a big guy once you get up to 230 pounds or whatever more.

So it's kind of an interesting dilemma. It would be interesting to watch too, how you solve that problem because that would be a pretty cool thing to solve, right? Cause we have a lot of people who are stuck in between that, who really like to push their body to the limit, but then also want to maximize. Well, that's kind of the answer.

I just, I have to become more, like for example, I have routines where I eat breakfast and what I typically eat for lunch. And then when I'm on the gain, I just kind of add to those things, right? It's simpler for my life to just add to my already kind of current routines of where I eat and like the whole pancakes.

The way that works is, I still have the same thousand calorie or so breakfast. Now I'm slapping on an extra 600 calories of pancakes after I eat that breakfast in addition to that. Or later on at night where I would have my normal dinner, then I'll go grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after I finish that meal. So that is what's was killing me.

And so now what I have to do is places in my diet where I would normally have a cup of rice, I'm gonna have two, three cups of rice. And I recommend scheduling that this around your workouts. So if you are somebody who does start to introduce the carbs back in because you're trying to... I made the most of them, right? you're trying to make the most of them right? Yeah, I would I would put the bulk of them around

Before and after your training sessions so that you know that a majority of them are getting put to use versus Sitting in your because I feel like they're less likely to cause issues With your gut if you're if they're going right to use versus over Consuming them, which is what I feel like a lot of people but I'll tell you this right now 100% if you have gut issues right now And your goal is to build muscle a burn body fat and you address the gut issue and you Start to fix that you will see yourself build muscle and burn fat A great much easier agreed especially for in my opinion like I don't know this girl completely But I'm guessing she's not trying to look like me as far as a 200 pound chick and just be massive. I could be wrong. But

more than likely she just wants to build some muscle. She's probably talking about pasta. She's Italian. So it passes chock full of right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a void shit like that for sure. Yeah. Quick commercial break. Hey, people ask us all the time how they can support MindPump. Here's what you can do. You can go to www.brain.fm-minepump and get 20% off BrainFam for meditation or focus. You can also go to audible-trial.com-minepump and get a 30-day trial plus one free audio book. Lastly, you can go to www. natureblend.com forward slash mine pump and you will get a discount on Ben Greenfield CBD product. The Hofmeister 89 is getting married in late September and is asking what's the best time

to restrict water to dry out for the big day? Get the fuck out of here. Did you guys make this question? You know what? I want to talk. Is he going to be walking on the aisle naked on stage? I want to talk. Is he going to be walking on the, I'll make it on stage? Yeah. I want to talk about this actually because I- This is a real question, huh?

Just yesterday I had somebody while I was walking on the treadmill with Katrina and a friend of a friend who was getting ready for a show this weekend came up to me and said, hey, Adam, I'm in peak week any last minute advice. And I said, well, tell me, walk me through what you're doing right now with kind of sodium and water. And the reason why I asked that is because I think it's one of the biggest misconceptions that people have with, you know, drying out as the term goes. It's done wrong.

It's not, it's not smart. It's not right. And I know that I'm sure I'm pissing some bodybuilder off who's listening because he's got on stage and he looked awesome this way. Here's the deal. 60% of your fucking muscles is water. So to drive them out completely would be just think of what you would do to a water balloon. You're going to pull all the water, the water balloon. And what's it going to look like when you pull all the water out? You don't want that. You don't want all the water pool completely out. Now, we also have subcutaneous water that's floating all around us also. Now, that would be okay to pull some of that out, but really that's the crazy

science of what these guys are trying to figure out through all this bro science of loading up the sodium, just to write them out, pulling just the right amount of water. So I pull some of the water out of me, but then I also leave enough in my muscle bellies to where I still fill out. Here's why this is one of the most ridiculous questions I've ever seen. I'll tell you why.

Sorry, half my stir, if I'm hurt, you're feeling tough. But the difference that water manipulation will make on the appearance of your physique is Zero unless you're super fucking lean. Right. Yeah, so if you're in the single digit low single digit body fat percentage Then water manipulation will make a difference if you're 9% 10% body fat, which is still lean you probably still have a six pack water manipulation I'm not gonna make a fucking difference. Here's the second thing, second thing. If you're getting married, you're likely

wearing a tuxedo, okay? So all people are gonna see is your face. Do you know what looks worse on your body when you manipulate water? Your face, your face looks like shit. So when these bodybuilders get into work, it's true. When these bodybuilders and athletes are drying themselves out to go on stage

and they're at 2% body fat and make some look shredded, take a close look at their face, dry and fucked up and they can't really talk. Well let me, because they have no spit. This is part of why this is an issue. I actually was just talking to, we mentioned her on the show, the girl Jessica that I'm helping out. What happens to a lot of these competitors as they're getting ready for the show, the girl Jessica that I'm helping out. What happens to a lot of these competitors as they're getting ready for a show, their coaches look at their bodies and their

conditioning is nowhere near where it should be to get on show and compete. So they're so last ditch effort. It is. It's a last dish, a ditch effort to try and make them look smaller by pulling all this water out and dropping and so and you see the scale go down So in your head you think you're losing something all you're doing is pulling the water out of your muscles You're not making your body look any better whatsoever Maybe you think you are because you're looking smaller and if you're a bikini girl Who's trying to get in shape and you want to look smaller? That's what's happening But if you are conditioned if if you were conditioned right,

like Sal is saying, you're getting ready for your wedding day, that's everything, like it's not, if you got September, you want to enjoy it. Well, that's what I'm laughing at. That's so ridiculous, yeah. I'm laughing at it. I'm thinking of all the things that you do on your, imagine he goes right,

they have a drink of beer. Hey, it's a fair, it's like right after that. Think about this way. It's a fair, it's a great after that. Think about this. Sorry, Pukes. Think about this way. It's a fair question. It's super popular to hear this right now. You got to understand.

Hold on, it's crazy. Hold on, okay. So me and Justin have both been married. So we know that all the rigor, rigor more, you know, whatever the phone was at work. We can dress, dude. Yeah, think about it. Forget that phrase, we're gonna kill each other.

Before we get into that, I'm gonna ask Adam, because Adam's actually competed. How awesome do you feel going into a contest? Water restricted on the start. How do you feel mentally? How do you feel? Do you know that that's the hardest part for competing was because you're feeding the last day

or two because you're filling your muscle bellies up with carbohydrates. So the hardest is the taking away of water. You're so fucking thirsty, you're caught in mouth and irritable because your mouth is so dry. You feel like you're foggy, right? I'm telling you you're dying. Yeah, yeah, no.

You feel like shit, right? Dehydration is not a fun feeling. So you feel like shit. You're getting married, which is why I'm this in the next. You're like, this is supposed to be one of the greatest days of your life, rememberable. You're walking down the aisle in front of a bunch of people. You're gonna say some vows to the woman you're devoting your memorable. You're walking down the aisle in front of a bunch of people. You're gonna say some vows to the woman

you're devoting your life. You're stressed out, you're crazy ants gonna show up. 12 kids that weren't invited. You gotta make a fucking speech. You gotta kinda take in front of people, you gotta dance, you gotta drink alcohol. What the fuck do you think you're trying to restrict water going to this is the worst idea?

Oh my God, you're making ass of yourself. So, because Justin and Sal just made you feel like a piece of shit, I'm gonna give you some really good advice that's generic. We're gonna get lean. Okay, yeah, this is generic advice, but I think it should be good advice for what you're trying to do.

It's September, okay. You got plenty of fucking time. What is that? How many weeks away is that from that? What are we in right now? We're almost in the, we're July, August, August, I mean, yeah, you got fucking, probably you can be shredded by September. Unless you you got fucking probably you can be shredded by September unless you're

Super fat. You can be shredded by Yeah, that's a medical term and if you're super fat while drawing out water is not gonna do So ever so you got plenty of time your goal between now and then Should be get to be get to get as lean as you possibly can. Get as lean as as shred as you possibly can by eating properly leading up to it. That is going to make the biggest difference on that day. Then when you get close to that time, so also during this whole process, make sure you eat plenty of sodium in your diet. Sodium is perfectly fine and all the bullshit out there

that you can't have that is not true whatsoever and it's very essential to you. So have lots of sodium and in fact, go out of your way to get sodium coming into that final week. Then when you get into that final week and you're trying to manipulate some of your water, you need to make sure that you've already been drinking lots of water and then you just,

you pull back a little bit on it. You don't need to pull a ton because you want water in your system. You don't want to cut water. And when I'm saying by a little bit, you have to slowly introduce the ramp your way up first is what you're saying to even be able to then start scaling out and do it safely. Right. So when I would, when I would get ready for a show, I would push as high as two

to three gallons of water and then come down to one, which is still more than with the average person fucking drinks. So all I'm doing is conditioning my body to pushing that much water and an out of it that way when I have just one It pushes a majority of it that's not being used. So here's my advice Fucking practice your speech Think about how you want to spend the rest of your life. You guys will happen in my wedding. Yeah, yeah, go. Yeah, dude Like okay, just did to drop your water going. Well, yeah, so like, people showed up that weren't supposed to, right?

How? Yeah, so not only that, like. I invited some people. Like before that, so leading up to that, what's it called when you're side of the family hosts, like the dinner or whatever? What's it called? Yeah, what's it called?

Oh, no. Rehearsal dinner, thank you's it called? Yeah, what's that dinner called? Rehearsal dinner, thank you. Jesus Christ. Sal, you were married anyway. I tried to buy no one. I know I probably shouldn't have been off. Obviously an awful husband. Shut it off.

So we're sitting there and like ahead of time, I knew my mom already did this for my brother. I asked her specifically not to do this. Sorry mom, I'm throwing it into the bus right now. But so what happened was like She decided that she really wanted to because of our heritage, you know Scotch Irish like we hit we all like have bagpipes and we have like Killed and all that kind of stuff and so you know, I'm like, no, I'm not gonna do that, you know like Courtney

Like we're just we're good, you know, we don't need all that attention, and like we're gonna be at a really nice restaurant, and like I don't want like what you did to my brother, like to happen, you know, to me, where? Oh yeah, no problem, she doesn't anyway, right? So we're out there, this fucking bagpipers coming, like around the corner,

it's like, na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na. Walking through, there was another wedding party in the same. Neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet, neet scenario just one scenario dude. I'm not even gonna go into the rest of it dude my at my wedding We ordered we had all these dishes that were gonna come out now in in a tie-in wedding especially in the South They feed you until you fucking die like they feed you so much food. Yeah, it's scary like this stuff You with food over an incredible food constant barrage in spin so. Oh, usually you leave a wedding and you're like, I don't know if I'm gonna make it through the night. Not so much food they see, right? So in America, not so much.

Usually leave a fucking American wedding starving. You end up going through a drive-through because you're hungry. So we had family from Italy and then my grandfather, you know, is obviously, and my grandfather does not give a fuck. Like he'll say whatever he's gonna say, right? So they bring out the first dish

and we specifically told the people, you're gonna serve Ravioli's to a tie in. People, fill the bowl. Like give them fucking a big thing of Ravioli's. Yeah. Well, I don't know why in America when they serve you shit sometimes, they serve you one or two to make it look cute, right? So they bring out a dish with two fucking Ravioli.

Everybody gets two Ravioli as one of the first dish. So I'm looking at this and like oh shit yeah I'm like oh shit this is not going to be good. So I'm watching people yeah I'm watching people and the lady serves it to my grandfather. So right away she puts the plate to in front of my grandfather and he goes he looks and he goes what's this? Yes you're ravioli goes I know ravioli I'm Italian he goes what the fuck is this he gives a back to he goes, what's this? It's the car that's here. Yes, you're Ravioli goes, I know Ravioli I'm Italian. He goes, what the fuck is this?

He gives a back to he goes, bring it back with at least 10 times as a better evidence. He was the only one in the front. I said something, but I was just like, anyway, prepare for your wedding by preparing for the unexpected. I just tell you what, if you remember whoever this is, if you remember to DM me at one point, I think this is a

good topic for me to talk about on my Insta story to get into what peak weeks look like, the misconception. That's a good, that's a very good topic. Yeah, I'll talk all about peak week for a day. If you remind me to do this and what I saw in the bodybuilding world that is so fucked up and wrong about it and some little takeaways that you can do to improve that. But honestly like the boys are saying it's your wedding, fucking enjoy your day, you don't want to be dehydrated out of the wedding, it's not going to make that big of a difference.

The biggest difference that you can make right now is you conditioning yourself leading up that. If you come into your wedding day at five or six percent body fat, nothing is going to make a bigger difference than that. And then when it comes to that, I tell you what, come for your wedding gift from me to you, I will prep you for the final five days for your wedding. So I'm going to, I'm going to put that out there. You can hold me accountable to that. If you, if you bring, if you service, I don't think I'm going to not give you married. If you, if you bring me it, now, yeah, you got to bring me, you got to bring me a solid lean physique. Because if you show me a night, Jimmy Marriott. If you bring me, yeah, you gotta bring me, now we're going to Vegas.

You gotta bring me a solid lean physique because if you show me a picture of your fat ass and you want me to help you with your water, I'm gonna just tell you straight up, like just go enjoy your, just go enjoy your day motherfucker because I can't help you. It's down the donut.

It's right, so do that from now till then, which means I have high expectations for how lean you should be able to get in September. When you get down to single digit body fat, then what I can do from there is I'll help you manipulate some water. My pump atom was so generous. He helped my fiance out. But night is when I get married, you're worried about the bachelor.

Now we're just friends. Hey, so a lot of people may not realize this, but we are still doing 30 days of coaching and it's still for free. So you go to mind pump media.com and you register and you'll get 30 days of worth of information's still for free. So you go to MindPumpMedia.com and you register and you'll get 30 days of worth of information that covers all kinds of different topics from resistance training to meditation to gut health, basically everything that you need for wellness, health, fitness, and performance. Also, if you want to ask us a question that we answered in an episode like this one, the place to do it is on Instagram.

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