Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 997: How to Sculpt the Perfect Body

Episode Date: March 28, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin talk about Adam's road from chunky to IFBB pro and the techniques he used to sculpt his body for maximum aesthetic appeal. Humans are naturally attracted to a sym...metrical, well shaped body and by using focused muscle building techniques anyone can improve the symmetry of their body. These tools are described in detail in this episode and featured in the MAPS Aesthetic program available at mapsfitnessproducts.com. Adam’s road from chunky to IFBB pro: Gaining traction and building an audience on social media via his transformation, the programming he followed to get there & MORE. (3:32) Training for aesthetics the RIGHT way and how to sculpt the perfect body. (33:20) Phase 1: ‘Strength’ - To build maximal strength and Central Nervous System (CNS) adaptation for a granite-hard look. (38:40) The importance and science behind ‘Focus Sessions’. (43:05) Phase 2: ‘Size’ - To build full round muscle bellies. (47:36) Phase 3: ‘Sharpen’ - Maximizing the pump you get in the gym. (48:44) Final thoughts and recommendations. (52:35) People Mentioned: ARIEL ALBERTO (@_cutz_)  Instagram Layne Norton, PhD (@biolayne)  Instagram Ben Pakulski (@bpakfitness)  Instagram Products Mentioned: March Promotion: MAPS Aesthetic is ½ off!! **Code “BLACK50” at checkout** Day 1 – Adam’s transformation - YouTube

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. So in this episode of Mind Pump, we actually get Adam to tell his story of his fat, to fit story. Some of you listening right now didn't know this, but Adam, at one point, was quite tubby. He took himself from tubby to pro, and he talks all about the process of that, and along that process,
Starting point is 00:00:37 developing some, or fine tuning, some more of his theories on training. And then we got into maps aesthetic. Why we created it and how we created it? We actually give you the breakdown. We break down the phases, the reps, the sets. We talk about why we designed it the way we did. So you can find all about all that program
Starting point is 00:00:56 and how effective it is. Yeah, we wanted to make sure to refresh people about that story because that's really what led into us, all kind of put our heads together to create a map's aesthetic and be able to kind of show you how to kind of take yourself, like just an average person to get into kind of shapes that you could present on stage. That's right. We also break down every, every bit of this programming here.
Starting point is 00:01:20 That's insane. So that was one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we did for everybody because I know we're going to get questions of sets and reps and how long is it. So we made sure to include all the details of how and why we came up with the way that we created this. But a lot of it was, it was inspired by the way that I would prepare for a show,
Starting point is 00:01:39 which is basically just focusing on specific muscle groups that you want to develop, which is very common focusing on specific muscle groups that you want to develop, which is very common, obviously, in competitors, because we're getting judged on them, having a balanced and aesthetic physique. And so every time you go to a show, the judge goes, okay, you need to work on this,
Starting point is 00:01:55 you work on that. And so how would you go about programming that if someone told you, hey, you got to work on this or work on that? And so that's really what inspired it. But when you think about it, this is probably 80% or more of what I would get even just with normal people.
Starting point is 00:02:09 So my normal clients come in, I very rarely ever did I have a client who just said, hey Adam, can you train me? I just want to be healthy. Could you just teach me about nutrition? I just want to be healthy and be better. Most people come in and they say, I want to work on this and I want to work on that.
Starting point is 00:02:22 And they point at their flabby arms, are they point at their gut or are they point at their butt? And we know, we've talked about it, there's no such thing as spot reduction, but there is a way for you to train specific body parts to develop areas that you want to develop and also create, when I'm training somebody who comes to me about training their butt,
Starting point is 00:02:43 or Adam, I want a bigger butt, how do I get a J-low butt or bigger butt? Well, you'll never to me about training their butt, you know, they are Adam, I want a bigger butt. How do I get a J-Lo butter bigger? But well, you'll never have a J-Lo butt that's her genetics that creates where the origin insertion is and it's unique to her. But can you create the illusion of having a big, old butt by developing certain muscles? Absolutely, you can. And so that's really what this program is all about. Is that ability to look at the body,
Starting point is 00:03:05 look at areas that you want to develop, and then go, how do you go about that in programming? Yeah, well, if you're listening to this episode when it's dropping, you have four days left for 50% off map system. So we took this program, cut the price in half. Here's what you do, go to mapsfitinistproducts.com, use the code black50black50.
Starting point is 00:03:26 So that's it. Here we are talking about Adam's story and maps aesthetic. It is crazy because we've been on air now for four years and it's funny because the people who are with us in the very beginning have seen us go through massive changes. So many different changes and then it reminded me of, like when we first started the podcast,
Starting point is 00:03:46 Adam, you were competing as a professional. You're up there on stage. Physique competitor. You were on stage posing and flexing in your whole life, you know, for a little while, revolve around sculpting and shaping your body to look a particular way. God. And it's funny because now we're talking to you about, you just like to swim and you want to remain mobile.
Starting point is 00:04:08 And what a big, I mean, what was that like, that whole period like for you? You know what's funny is, I had, I went through this little thing for a while there, and we shared a little bit on the podcast about it, but it actually really bothered me when we first started that I got kind of like categorized as the bodybuilder guy on the show is the bro on the show because I really didn't identify with that. Like I've never, you know, I've never been into bodybuilding. Like, how am I the bro bodybuilder guy?
Starting point is 00:04:42 And I couldn't even name like fucking five bodybuilders. I mean, I can't now because we've interviewed five or more, right? So I know more about bodybuilding today, post bodybuilding than I did, thinking about getting into this board. And the only reason why I even wanted to do it, I remember it like very vividly. Like when after I met with Taylor and I saw what he had done on social media to gain traction and to build a business, I was fascinated by that first,
Starting point is 00:05:13 and then I thought, okay, I'm gonna do something in fitness, well, what makes the most sense in fitness? And at this time, it's not bodybuilding I'm thinking about, it's just being fucking jacked and shredded. Like, and I- And I'm gonna get you the most attention. Right, right? And I'm thinking, okay, this is good because I'm in the is just being fucking jacked and shredded like and I get you the most attention right right and and I'm thinking okay, this is good because I'm in the worship of my life I'd never been 20% over 20% body fat before
Starting point is 00:05:33 Which so for me was that picture is out there somewhere it's floating around right? Yeah, no you can still find it I'll share it after this episode so for those that ask um, you know, I have there's a there's a YouTube video of me saying This is day one, you know, nobody's, I think I had like a hundred people maybe paying attention to me at most, half of them being family. You know, when I first, when I first did this and I thought, okay, the people when I walk through the grocery store and I look at shape magazine, muscle and fitness, I look at men's health, I look at all these big magazines and you open them and you flip through
Starting point is 00:06:05 like 99% of all the people that we see in there are competitors. There are people that have, you know, got into this competitive shape and then they've landed to cover the magazine. They're the ones giving all the advice and telling people what to do. And I think, okay, to get myself in a place of authority,
Starting point is 00:06:25 I'm gonna need to prove to people. I've been a trainer already now for 10 plus years. I've got the smarts, I've got the experience, I've got the education, but how am I gonna reach the masses? Like, I need to find a way to do that. And so, you gotta tell people though, how far out of shape you were, and like, what you do. I don't even think they remember.
Starting point is 00:06:42 Well, I was in the marijuana business at this time, right? So I had done three years in a medical marijuana and during that time, I had, I was still kind of working out like my buddy and I that ran these clubs together. We'd still go to the gym at night, like probably three times a week, I would say, and we were training decently hard, but what was killing me was, I went from being a trainer,
Starting point is 00:07:05 who trained 10 clients a day, moving all day long, probably burning 4,000, 5,000 calories, to sitting behind the desk and selling drugs to people. Like that, like that shift, and my diet didn't change. I was eating quiznos every day. I was stopping by Jack in the box,
Starting point is 00:07:21 at least every other day, like, so our diet was shit. And being the guy who was insecure about being small his entire life, my scale was going up. So I was like, oh, I'm cool with this. Like it. I'm still big.
Starting point is 00:07:35 Yeah, yeah. You know, like so for me being the skinny kid, I measured my bodies, you're my success of my physique and the, and building the gym by how my sleeves and my arm fit literally, really. Like I didn't get in the front of the mirror and like look at my abs, I always had abs growing up.
Starting point is 00:07:52 I looked at how I filled out my extra large t-shirts. Like I was the size of that. Yeah, that's all that matter. And so I see my size going, I'm getting much fatter, but I don't see it. It's crazy that I don't see it. All I see is me, I'm filling out people, hey man, you're gonna get a big, I'm like, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:07 Yeah, right. This marijuana club thing's working for me. And like, I remember vividly the night that I realized, like, oh, I'm not big, I'm fat. You know, like this is, the first time I could say that I'm fat in my life. And I was laying on my side, this was early on in Katrina and I's relationship,
Starting point is 00:08:26 and I always tease her and blame her for not saying anything to me. And I go to scratch my side and I can feel my belly hanging. I've never felt that before. It gets on the bed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know? And I kind of pick it up and move it a little bit. Not a lot. It wasn't massively fat.
Starting point is 00:08:44 I was comfortable blanket. But yeah, it a little bit not a lot. I wasn't massively fat I was comfortable blanket, but I yeah It was definitely something I had never felt before and I like instantly jumped out of bed This is like in the middle of the night. I jumped out of bed I turned on my light and I look at myself in the mirror and I hadn't really like looked at my body in the mirror I really had the the judge was the fucking sleeve It's like that was really my my gauge before and I went oh shit like I'm fucking out of shape right now and by my gauge before and I went, oh shit, like I'm fucking out of shape right now. And this was all happening at the same time
Starting point is 00:09:08 that I was getting really tired of marijuana. And I've shared this on interviews where people have interviewed me. I had got to a point where I was much of my life, I was driven by making money. I wanted to make more money, I wanted to make more money. And I had reached that. I'd reached this point in my head where I said,
Starting point is 00:09:26 once I make X amount of dollars, I'm going to be happy. And I had got to that point. And at that time in my life, I had, I had recently lost a relationship. So this is right before Katrina, I had just broken up with somebody else, not that long before. I had lost two of my best friends. Uh, and I was in the worst shape of my life. But I had the deepest pockets I'd ever had in my life. And I realized that I'm not happy. And I was at a hard lesson at that point,
Starting point is 00:09:52 or were you like, fuck. It was kind of like, because I would, and I've said this before too, like don't get me wrong. When I finally, when I reached that, you know, quote unquote dollar amount, the first year was fun. The first year was a lot of Vegas trips a lot of toys a lot of flying around a lot of pain for other people to do shit And I was living it up But that got old in about a year took about a year and I realized like this is I don't want the rest of my life to be like this
Starting point is 00:10:21 That I got to pay for everybody else if I want to have fun with all my friends and it's short lived. And then I also started to notice like people started to expect it for me and that started to bother me. And Katrina would always check me. She'd be like, you created this for yourself. You fucking go somewhere and you pay everybody shit all the time and then you wonder why they don't pull their wallets out
Starting point is 00:10:40 when you go to do something and you've now created a monster. So and that really made me unhappy. Made me feel used. Made me feel like that's all the reason why. So all these things started to happen that just didn't compute in my head when I was chasing the dollar amount.
Starting point is 00:10:52 And so it wasn't really hard to walk away from it because the luxury I did create for myself was, I didn't need to work for probably a few years and I didn't need to make any money. And enough money saved up that I could literally just take off three years when I want to, which that's what really made me go, okay, now that I have the money, I need to be doing what I love to do. And I was like, you know what, I fucking miss fitness.
Starting point is 00:11:15 I miss training, I miss helping people. And like this light bulb went off, I'm 30 years old. I'm in the worst shape of my life. I don't need to make money. So it's like, okay, I'm going to get back into fitness. And when I decided to do it, I'm in the worst shape of my life. I don't need to make money. So it's like, okay, I'm gonna get back into fitness. And when I decided to do it, I thought this is perfect because one of the things I also remember that was really challenging as a trainer was being,
Starting point is 00:11:35 and I know you guys can identify with this because you guys both, especially you, so because you got it really young. I remember one of the frustrating things being like a 22 year old trainer and talking to clients and then telling me like, oh, you don't know, you're a kid, you know wait until you have kids wait until you don't know It's like it'd be fat like you don't know it's like to have a big business and all these things and they would always tell me these things that like I can't quite relate to them and they're partially true
Starting point is 00:11:56 You know, it was only 22 years at that and I didn't have all kids and I didn't have a big massive career And so I didn't have all the same stresses that they had. So I kind of thought, like, okay, this is cool. I'm now 30. I'm not a baby anymore. I'm fat for the first time in my life. I can now share this story. And so the goal was, okay, I'm in the worst shape of my life,
Starting point is 00:12:17 27% body fat. At this point in my life, I never, even as a trainer, I'd never seen sub 9%. 9% body fat was like my low. If I would get in shape for Vegas, or good shape for never seen sub 9%. 9% body fat was like my low. If I would get in shape for Vegas or good shape for the way it was about 9% body fat. So the goal was get sub 9. So I told, and I knew, and this weird one,
Starting point is 00:12:33 Instagram was coming out, I decided I was gonna use that platform and I put it out there in the air. I said, okay, I'm gonna take myself from the worst shape of my life to the best shape I've ever been in my life. And now the goal was to attract attention through this process, build your social brand, to be able to get back into fitness, but rather than working for a gym, working on your own, or turning it into something.
Starting point is 00:12:55 Right, and in this point, I don't know what it's going to be. And this is right, but we're just trying to get the audience. Yeah, and I know that. I know that's the first strategy. This is, I knew that this is something that I didn't I wasn't trying to monetize yet. I wasn't trying to make any money. And what year was this? This is 2013 or 14. Okay, right. Okay. This is right before you and I start talking. Right. So I'm like the story I'm telling right now is about six months before
Starting point is 00:13:20 Sal and I are communicating. That's right. So this is, I'm just kind of starting to get some traction. And I begin this journey. And what I see when I'm looking at Instagram and I'm looking at all the fitness space is I see a lot of shit that's annoying me. I see a beast mode, I see no days off, I see kill it, I see all the leg memes, I see people getting fucking pumped and then great lighting and taking photos of themselves. You know what's great about this is that you, and here's an interesting part about the story. Your experience up until this point is as a professional, as a fitness professional, as somebody who worked and trained
Starting point is 00:14:01 lots and lots of other people. And this is an important part to note because I think a lot of times we see people who are shredded and fit and muscular and ensure they work hard. Maybe they are on a lot of gear on top of it, but they all kind of work hard and die it. But they don't know how to train other people, and so they don't understand the real fundamentals
Starting point is 00:14:20 of what makes fitness or how to make fitness effective. What they know is that whole world of bodybuilding and they know those myths and they know that kind of stuff. So you're coming into it with your knowledge of training, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of clients and working with lots of other people, lots of other trainers. So now you're stepping into this new world and you have these kind of eyes.
Starting point is 00:14:41 Right. You're not like blinded by the fact that you're just jumping in as a bodybuilder and let me listen. You're looking into it and be like, okay, I know some stuff. Let me see what I can learn here. Totally.
Starting point is 00:14:51 And I'm coming in with this approach, like you said, as a trainer, not as the bodybuilder. So I'm not connecting with all of these people. I'm like looking at them going like, this is awful. This is terrible information. Terrible advice. Yeah, this is terrible advice, which there was one I had a little chip on my shoulder, so
Starting point is 00:15:06 it irritated me a little bit, but then it also excited me because I saw the opportunity. I thought, man, I'm going to come, I'm going to show these motherfuckers. I'm like, and right now I'm not drawing any attention because I'm fat. I don't look good. You were saying so. Yeah, I'm not going to outcompete these guys that look amazing in its Instagram. They got a fucking professional photographer shooting them and shit. I'm taking a photo and bad lighting in my bedroom first thing in the morning looking like shit, right?
Starting point is 00:15:30 So I know that I'm not going to get a win right away. So I start doing these posts where I show myself in the morning and I talk about my journey. And the things that I share are counter the message that's being permeating the industry, the space at the time, which is the, like I said, beast mode, no days off, push it, kill it, you know, go, you know, all the motivational stuff. I'm going, hey, this is my first week. So my goal is to not eat out,
Starting point is 00:15:55 because I eat out at Jack in the box almost every day. I make shitty choices and I haven't had a day of like eating my own food and then just go to the gym and I'm literally only gonna work out for about 20, 30 minutes. And I'm gonna go over to the little girly area with all the silver weights, you know, and I'm gonna do lightweight, just a few reps and then get out of the gym.
Starting point is 00:16:14 So this is the message that I'm sending, which is not very attractive to a lot of people at first. But when it started to become attractive was week over week, you're seeing a little bit of change, a little bit of change, a little bit of change. And before long over a week you're seeing a little bit of change, a little bit of change, a little bit of change. And before long, I started to come into a little bit of shape and this message that I've been sitting it just started to gain traction.
Starting point is 00:16:32 Now what point did you decide, because at this point you're just like, I just wanna go 20%, 9% or lower, look good, show everybody. At what point did you think, compete? I'm gonna get on a stage. It's when I hit 10k followers. When I hit 10k followers, it was when I hit the, when I came down and I,
Starting point is 00:16:50 so it took about six months for me, maybe a little bit longer than that, for me to get from the, I think it was actually longer, it was more like nine months, sorry. About nine months it took me to get from 20% body fat and I landed at 7.7%. So I kept pushing, pushing until I knew,
Starting point is 00:17:06 like I could see my body, I've never seen my body like this. I'm like I'm for sure lower. And then I went and tested it. When I tested it came back 7.7. So, and at that point, I was approaching about 10,000 followers. And what I saw was like, whoa,
Starting point is 00:17:20 like people really dug this transformation. Like that's what, you know, other than that, that was the main, there are other than that, and the few things that I'm sharing as far as advice. Now at this point, are you happy at that one spot where you got to that point and you're like, oh, I'm cool here, I got a lot of traction, but now seeing how much they liked it,
Starting point is 00:17:40 it's like, okay, what if I were to accelerate this and then now make this into like competitive thing? So that's really the decision. Like I did not get like, I mean, don't get me wrong. I remember sharing with you, Justin, because you and I were friends and business partners at this time already and we were talking. And I'm telling you, I was fascinated.
Starting point is 00:17:57 I remember me meeting with you going like, I've never really taken all of my knowledge and truly applied it to this level. Like all the coaching I've done, all the training I've done, I've used my knowledge as a trainer to maintain a healthy lifestyle, never to get competitive about it, never to be like, watch me become the shredded guy. Like, I never cared to, I was never that guy.
Starting point is 00:18:18 So, but this for the first time, because I had a goal and I put it out there into the fucking universe and told all these people on Instagram that I'm gonna do this. Now I felt this accountability piece, like, I got a goal and I put it out there into the fucking universe and told all these people on Instagram that I'm gonna do this. Now I felt this accountability piece like I got a fucking follow through or else this whole business idea I have is gonna come crumbling down.
Starting point is 00:18:32 I can't be the guy who's talking a big game. Like I'm so smart and I can do this better than everybody who's telling you guys and that I don't do it. I would have done something else. Yeah. So, and at this point, what is your, this is nine months into it.
Starting point is 00:18:43 You've, I'm sure the volume and type of training is ramped up. What is your training look like at this point? I'm actually following something very similar to Maps and Obolic and this is what and it wasn't Maps and Obolic because you and I hadn't really met yet But but a it all passed lead to the same truth. No, that's the crazy part This is what this is and what some people may not know that haven't listened to show for a very long time This is what this is and what some people may not know that haven't listened to show for a very long time This is what really sold me on you aside from our friends always telling me like you got to meet the sal guy You got to meet the sal guy. You're gonna love him. He's amazing. He's just like you like people could constantly telling me this and You and I connected on Facebook You sent me over
Starting point is 00:19:21 Maps and approlic. I'm already getting in good shape at this time. And you send over, maps and approlic. You tell me you're working with this guy, Doug, and you're about to launch this internet business. You're trying to build. And you show me the material. And I instantly am like, this is what I'm trying to tell people right now.
Starting point is 00:19:40 It doesn't have to be fucking seven days a week. It doesn't have to be quick kill yourself. week. It doesn't have to be critical yourself. There's a much more methodical approach to lifting and training. And you know what, it's not the sexiest. You know, it's not the weird exercises and the balancing shit and doing crazy stuff. It's like the fundamentals. And that's what I had been applying. I've been training in this like full body type of fundamental compound lifting.
Starting point is 00:20:03 And that's all I, and I I was doing as the minimal dose. I was trying to do as little as possible every week to elicit the most amount of change. And when I saw, when you sent that over to me, I was like, fuck yes, this is cool, let's meet. It was totally different at the time. So this is in the height of shreds, this is in the height of the side chest press,
Starting point is 00:20:23 you know, like, bonanza, there was just like all this stuff on Instagram that was just ridiculous. And then now you're coming in with all this like sound training advice. And I said this on an interview I just did recently. And I was, because I don't remember it. I remember a lot of people after me, but I don't remember before me.
Starting point is 00:20:42 Cause now it's tacky, it bothers me. Cause originally I did it because nobody was doing this, but I would show people what the fuck I looked like normal. I wasn't showing you after I got a, because I look sick after a pump. I look night and day difference after I get a massive pump, like it's cramp and fed.
Starting point is 00:20:58 Like I'm a big tall guy, long muscle bellies. You throw four, 600 grams of carbs in me, and you get a pump, especially if you're lean. Yeah. So I can look like a monster, but I wanted to show people realistically what the change I was making and the difference. And so I would just take a picture first thing in the morning when I wake up.
Starting point is 00:21:14 I'm flat, I don't look, I don't look as if I had terrible lighting. And now I see it everywhere. Now everybody's like, this is what, this is Instagram. Hashtag new filter. Right, right, this is Instagram, and this is what I really look like.
Starting point is 00:21:25 And so it became this thing later on that everybody started doing that because I think after I was doing this, it started to get, and I was getting some traction. At this point, I'm small as fuck, right? I'm only 10,000 followers or whatever, but you know, the fitness community still a relatively small pond.
Starting point is 00:21:41 So I know I'm shaking some shit up a little bit in our space. And so you decide, okay, I know I'm shaking some shit up a little bit in our space. And so you decide, okay, I think I wanna do this next level compete. So because I saw how much traction the getting myself shredded or getting myself lean was I was like, man, well, what's the next level
Starting point is 00:21:59 of just getting in really good shape? It's getting in competitive shape, right? Like that's the next level to just getting in good shape. Because when I was at 7% body fat, I mean, sure, Katrina thought I looked awesome and I'll post pictures of this sometime too, like, and I look pretty damn good, but I wasn't like, I'm not winning no shows, you know, I just look good. I look fit, you know, but I wasn't like a bodybuilder where my body was symmetrical and shaped like a certain way. And this is where I go, okay, if I did this on my own
Starting point is 00:22:28 and I got 10,000 followers, what happens when I decide I'm gonna go compete against people that are supposed to be the best in the world at doing this? And I do it, the opposite of how everybody else does it because the formula back then and still is today, is if you wanna get in competing, you hire the most well-known coach, you get on top, you get on one of the most well-known teams and you go to the shows that they all
Starting point is 00:22:50 fucking sponsor. And between that, getting help from your coach and getting recognized by people that are well-known in the space, good recipe for chance of success. So I said, fuck that. I'm going to do it without all that stuff. I'm gonna, I, because I believed at that point that I had the tools to take myself to that level without the assistance of these people. And so, and I thought my whole goal was not to win bodybuilding shows, but it was to continue to solidify myself as an authority
Starting point is 00:23:19 to my current 10,000 audience, and if I could grow that to another. I didn't care about everybody else. I cared about the people that were paying attention to me that watched this you guys. I'm now going to go compete against these people that love bodybuilding, shit and breathe it all day long, read all the magazines, know everybody and they just all aspire to be bodybuilders one day. I'm going to go fucking their space and go fuck it all up, watch this. And so that was kind of the goal and I knew that I would get some traction and And so I did, and I competed in my very first show.
Starting point is 00:23:47 And this is also why we've all been introduced now. So we've been introduced to each other. We're not doing any business together yet, but we're all kind of communicating. You and I are sending pictures back and forth and I'm talking shit to you around this time. And you're talking shit back to me how shredded you are. And so I decide I'm gonna do my first show.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Now when I get to my first show, this is when I get the itch, or what made me really decide to continue further. Cause at this point I go like, okay, this is it. Like I got in a great shape. I'm now gonna get on stage. It doesn't really get any bigger of a deal for me than this. But when I got backstage, I'm the only guy with no team
Starting point is 00:24:23 and no coach, everybody's got their coaches with them. And I'm all kind of covered up in the corner of my hoodie and I'm all, you know, look like a fucking all dark and shit. Disgusting, you're all chocked with it now. I hate it all of this. The irony of all this, too, is like, I hate all this shit. Like, I don't like prancing around. I feel like I helped rub some of that on you.
Starting point is 00:24:40 Oh, remember. Did you really? I did not like doing any of that stuff. And it's totally out of character for me to be like this. But I'm doing it, right? It's what I am enjoying is the competitiveness of, I'm not like everybody else. I'm gaining traction.
Starting point is 00:24:59 I'm actually building an audience of people. I'm showing people the right good information. And I'm showing that you can do something this extreme, but kind of do it in a healthier, a healthy way as possible, right? So I get backstage, I peel down for the first time and I'm fucking diced compared to everybody and all of a sudden I start getting all these competitors
Starting point is 00:25:19 walking around. Who's your coach? Who's got you doing that? Who's what you're diet? What are you taking? What's your steroid cycle? Like all these questions, I'm like, oh, I take this much testosterone.
Starting point is 00:25:29 I don't have a coach. This is how I did my diet. And I'm asking these people the same questions, you know? And the stuff I'm hearing back, I'm fucking floored, dude. I'm hearing crazy steroid cycles. I'm hearing totally extreme stupid diets. I'm hearing crazy amounts of cardio being done and I'm going, what the fuck?
Starting point is 00:25:48 These are the people that make the magazine? They're like, no, this is okay. Then I start going, okay, this is amateur, that's why. These are all the knuckleheads that want to be pros that are doing it all the wrong way that get in here and that's what I'm assuming. I'm like, oh, they just don't know what they're doing. That's why they're at the amateur level.
Starting point is 00:26:06 So it doesn't take me very long. I do two shows before I take my get my first first place. I go fourth place, I go sixth place, I go first place. Once I hit first place, I win my first show that qualifies me for nationals. So now I give to national level. And when I'm at the national level, I'm thinking, okay, I'm really excited now.
Starting point is 00:26:24 Like, these are like the elite and I go to USA. So USA's in the bodybuilding world is the fucking, is the pinnacle. Like of amateur bodybuilding, trying to go pro. The hardest show, the biggest show, the most pre-seediest show you can do is USA's. And I remember that time my buddy, who's a coach, was trying to tell me to go to like Pixberg. He's like, dude, you should just go fly to Pixberg where it's small and get your pro card just to give you people, I'm like, no, fuck that. Like, if I'm going to do this,
Starting point is 00:26:49 like, I want to do it all the way. Like, I want to be proud that I want not because I don't want to be proud because there was eight people in the show and I slid in, slid in and got my pro card. So I do, I go to this massive USA show. And I think I had 32 or 37 people just in my class alone. Now at this point when you're doing the USA, how many competitions have you done leading up to this? Three?
Starting point is 00:27:10 So I've done three. Now each time our judges telling you work on this, work on that, how are you changing your training? What are you doing? So that's a good question, because this is actually where I do start to change my training. So up into this point, I'm kind of falling more,
Starting point is 00:27:25 when I got in my first initial shape, it was kind of following this map's antibiotic type of protocol, really fundamental strength training, building a solid base on myself, doing as little as possible to build. Now that I get into competing and I have a judge in my very first show, they did, they critiqued me. They critiqued my back, they critiqued my shoulders. And- So they're back in shoulders, you need more of them? Yeah, they critiqued me. They critiqued my back. They critiqued my shoulders.
Starting point is 00:27:45 And they said back in shoulders, you need more of them. Yeah, they could say, you know, and they use more specific terms. They say, you know, you could get a wider, fuller looking back. And my shoulders could be more round and pronounced. And that was my critique from the judges. They said, you were more than enough shredded. They said, I was too shredded to be in fact. The first time I ever heard someone be told that, but I was told critique from the judges. They said, you were more than enough shredded. They said, I was too shredded to be in fact,
Starting point is 00:28:06 the first time I ever heard someone be told that, but I was told I was too shredded. And I needed to develop these areas. So now I had to go to the drawing board and this is where it got really fun, was because this is where things are a little bit different. Like training to get in shape overall, lose body fat or just to kind of build muscle,
Starting point is 00:28:24 there I think there's a protocol in a form like that. But then when you're asked to develop specific parts of your body, the programming has to change. You following this exact same programming that's kind of evenly hitting all the same muscle groups is all it's going to do is make everything evenly kind of come up. And that's the sculpting aspect of training for aesthetics. That's the sculpting aspect of what body building has brought to the fitness world is being able to identify parts of your body and to be able to train your body in a way that not
Starting point is 00:28:57 unlike, and I remember in Pumping Iron Arnold talked about it this way, he said it's like a sculptor. When a sculptor is creating their work of art and they notice that they need a little bit more clay here, a little bit less clay there, they are trying to create their aesthetic masterpiece and that's where bodybuilding or training in that fashion, understanding it in the real way, what there's a lot of value that way. And something that I found fascinating also was, now I have peers right and so we're talking about other competitors a lot of us work out in the same gym and so I see a lot
Starting point is 00:29:33 of them were all friends. And you know a lot of the guys like to cross pollinate and work out together and that was one of the things that I think I probably wasn't the most well liked amongst my peers at first because you're allergic to pollen. Yes. I told all of them that I don't really like training with somebody else. And it's not like a personal thing. I have my own personal goals.
Starting point is 00:29:53 My judge told me that I'm weak here and weak here. Therefore, my programming is very specific. You're sculpting your body. Yeah. And you know, you've got two people coming in and one guy needs more chest and you need more rear delt or whatever. Of course the workout's got to look different. Right. And so I think they didn't understand that. And then that made me realize something else. Like I thought well then what are they doing when they're when the judge tells them they need more this? They just apply more intensity.
Starting point is 00:30:22 And more drugs. Yeah. Yeah. The exercise programming, the science of it and the skill of it, left body building long time ago. Lost art. Lost art. It is because if you look at the way that they trained in the 60s, 70s and 80s, that's what they did. They would really look at their body objectively and then they would model their training around
Starting point is 00:30:43 how they wanted to shape and sculpt their bodies. And then it became just about genetic freaks, taking lots of drugs and just eating a lot of food and that's pretty much it. And you see that a lot, and especially in the amateur ranks with these, because I know I know a lot of these guys and I could take their workouts, put them next to each other and they're identical.
Starting point is 00:31:00 They're almost identical, same kind of programming, same kind of approach. Nobody's focusing on really building maximal strength. That was lost a long time ago, which is stupid because that builds equality to your body that you can see on stage. Everybody's training in this kind of, you know, pump type fashion, which has its own value, but if you stay in there long enough, you know, you're, of course, you have to throw more drugs at your body to get your work.
Starting point is 00:31:23 I was the only guy that I saw. And this is not to say, it's an overgenonization for me to say that everybody, like programming, completely lost in bodybuilding. There's obviously certain guys. In fact, way later on, because I met all the big coaches and big names, I really like the way Ariel from cuts, the team cuts, I think he does a really good job, not only just programming wise with his competitors, but also nutritionally, I think he does a really good job not only just programming wise with his competitors But also nutritionally, I think he does a really good job because he talks about overall health versus just you know getting shredded for show So there are some yeah, Ben Pekolsky. Yeah, right?
Starting point is 00:31:54 Wayne Norton, right smart. Yeah, there's there's and that's actually how I found Lane so the story behind how Lane comes into my life at this time Because I'm seeking and same thing with Pekolsky Yeah, it's only voices of reason. The way the two of us, the way I became friends with both those guys was, because I don't have a coach and I don't have a team, doesn't mean I'm an asshole, I just think I'm gonna do it all by myself. I'm like looking for information.
Starting point is 00:32:16 I'm looking for, I'm reading and I'm watching, I'm trying to pick up information. And the only people at this time, at this time, because this is before I'd met some of these other coaches that I think are decent, I found Ben Pekolsky and I found Lane Norton and I was like, finally, somebody is talking from a science perspective on how to program design, how to diet correctly,
Starting point is 00:32:37 and I was impressed with that. And it was just a huge opportunity, because at this point, right after you become pro, we kind of launch MindPump and the first program that we sold was Maps and Abolic. This was about a year into MindPump. We didn't sell anything for a full year. We wanted people to know that we knew what we were talking about. We want to build a lot of value.
Starting point is 00:32:59 On our sites was, let's create a program that is geared around aesthetics, like sculpting and shaping your body. And we knew that would be a blockbuster because at the end of the day, we could talk all day long about function and how you feel and all that stuff. But what motivates people initially to work out? They want to change how they look. Well, not to mention that, but this also, you know, this applies to even someone who doesn't want to get on stage.
Starting point is 00:33:25 If I had a client, these same principles that I applied to myself on the competitive level, is the same thing if I had somebody, like a lady sitting down from me and she goes, and I say, and I ask her, are there any specific areas on your body that you want to address? Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:33:38 And she goes, Adam, I've never had a butt, can you help me build a butt? And I wish I had better arms. So when I go to the drawing board and I write a program out, I change it based off of what she just said to me. And the cool thing about understanding how to develop your body in this way,
Starting point is 00:33:52 having the intelligence, or at least the programming that allows you to do this, is you can get around your structure a little bit. Like there are people who have naturally narrow shoulders for men, for example, they can develop delts. Women who waste might be a little blocky. Great, develop your back, it's gonna make your waist look a lot smaller.
Starting point is 00:34:11 You can develop hamstrings to give your legs a little bit more shape for certain women who want more curve or whatever. And you can do this through resistance training. And now here's the other thing too, aesthetics doesn't just come from the fucking air, right? Esthetics exist for a reason. There's a reason why certain things look good to us.
Starting point is 00:34:30 And we've perverted them now for a while with surgeries and exaggerations. But at the end of the day, if you look at the root of aesthetics, aesthetics are visual representations of incredible health. Oh yeah, I mean, that's why it's so attractive. It's you want those genetic traits passed on and this is why people like see that and then,
Starting point is 00:34:50 oh wow, this is something that you're drawn towards. That's right, for example, there's a hip to waist ratio, I don't remember what the number is, but a hip to waist ratio that they found that men and women both find to be aesthetic in women Now here's a funny thing They'll take the physical ideal from the West compared to the east compared to the Middle East and to Africa
Starting point is 00:35:15 And the sizes are different so women you know with considered ideal as can be different You know between 10 to 20 pounds But the hip to waist ratio, that always seems to be consistent. Scientists were like, why this ratio? Why do we find this ratio to be so attractive? They've actually done studies and found that that ratio dramatically increases the odds that you will have a successful and healthy, natural childbirth when you have a child.
Starting point is 00:35:42 So there's a reason why we find a reason why we found we find there's this this inverted Triangle shape that we find attractive in men where broad shoulders narrow hips smaller waist why You have good functions smaller waist means in strength narrow waist means you can run pretty damn well wide shoulders You're probably strong. You've got some signs of high testosterone. And so, but you can develop these through resistance training and this is the beauty of training for aesthetics. If you do it the right way,
Starting point is 00:36:11 you start to give yourself more of this visual aspect of health, you look like you're healthy. Now, of course, you can't get around the fact if you're not healthy. So, everything needs to be done with good health and mind, but training specifically to make yourself look a particular way. It's a lot of fun. And if it's a muscle, I mean, you can develop that muscle.
Starting point is 00:36:29 I think that a lot of times people get frustrated and want to go right to surgery, or they want to fix things by shrinking their waist, and that's the focus of that versus creating the illusion of slimmer by building and developing other parts of their body. Now the thing that I found really interesting too when I was getting into all this was the lack of programming that was done on a lot of these competitors that went about it. It was all the drugs and it was all the intensity driven.
Starting point is 00:37:00 Really what I found out and what I tried to express to people that are aspiring to be like these competitors is most of them, what they've proven they can do is be disciplined for a really long time. And they have this ability to restrict from themselves and push really fucking hard for long periods of time, meaning months on months on months of consistency. And that's really what they've proven. They haven't proven. They have the formula for all people to get in really good shape.
Starting point is 00:37:27 No, that takes lots of practice, lots of training different people over and over and over and over again. Because I can say with full confidence, I didn't have that knowledge three years into my training career or four years into my training career. It took a good eight, nine, ten years before I really started to develop to the understanding of what it takes to get people's bodies to react and respond. And what we see with these people that were giving the advice out to all these other people that are following them
Starting point is 00:37:57 and wanting to do them and their writing programs for them is, you know, they get some people, and I remember this, I'd be like, oh, you follow whose program? Like, really? I've seen the way he trains and what he does, I'd be like, oh, you follow the hoos program? Like, really? I've seen the way he trains and what he does, and they were like, oh, man, well, I just got great results. I'm like, whoa, okay, yeah, if you cut all them calories,
Starting point is 00:38:14 you got on the treadmill that long, and you did that for six months, like, yeah, no fucking shit. But is that really sustainable long term, and does that really help the other 90% of the population that maybe doesn't want to be a competitor But wants to get really good shape. No, not at all. In fact, that's a really bad way to go after it And we're missing some of the thing and there's a much easier way to go about this There's a smarter way to do it. I remember and this is what I love like so in in in maps aesthetic, right?
Starting point is 00:38:40 The very first phase is the strength phase and aesthetic, right? The very first phase is the strength phase. And in that phase, you know, we spend three weeks inside, or three weeks inside that phase, where we're focused on three to six reps, and we're doing like three set, three to four sets at least sometimes five sets. And we're doing these real big compound basic movements. You know, you learn how many men's physique guys I saw ever training like this? Probably zero. Zero. Yeah. Zero. Which is crazy because, first of all, training in that rep, all the most rep ranges, by
Starting point is 00:39:11 the way, build muscle, especially if you're not training in those rep ranges. So that's a big, that's a big myth. But second, training in a strength phase gives your body a quality of a look that you, it's hard to achieve without training that strength phase. Now, how do I explain it? What does it look like? It looks like your body's harder, like it's carved out of stone, solid. This is both for men and women.
Starting point is 00:39:35 It gives them that solid, hard look to their body in a different way than training in the higher rep ranges. Now, of course, if you stay in that for too long, then you don't get the benefits in the higher rep ranges. Now of course, if you stay in that for too long, then you don't get the benefits of the other rep ranges. But I always thought it was crazy that these competitors never training those phases. So I didn't know this. I was not privy to this until I got in the space.
Starting point is 00:39:56 I just assumed. I assumed in order to be that in shape, they at least had these fundamental things down. But what I realized was like, no, what they're really good at is just dieting and training really hard. And yeah, if you train really hard for long periods of time and you diet really hard for a long period of time, like absolutely, you'll get shredded and you'll look pretty damn good. But the ability to kind of maintain that and keep that is very unrealistic. And the rebound effect that you get from that
Starting point is 00:40:21 type of mentality approach towards training. It's a monster. Well, I used to tell it like this to clients, I used to say, look, you know, I could give two people instructions to dig a 10-foot hole. I could give one person a spoon and another person a backhoe. And if they both work hard enough, eventually they both dig that hole, but it's going to happen a lot faster and a lot easier for the person with a backhoe. Right. And it's going to be silly.
Starting point is 00:40:44 And it's like someone, that's what they're doing with their training. It's like they're using a spoon, they're like, but I'm digging, but I'm getting there further and you're like, man, I know you are, but holy cow. Well, that was such an easy way to do it. I love that analogy too,
Starting point is 00:40:54 because to me, when it came to the programming for each time I went from show to show, so between shows I always had to restructure my program. The thing that got me the bulk of my success or showed me the most gains towards the goal, which was that in this case, build more chest or build more back and build more shoulders, which was like the first main focus was the first face. The first phase, it was those heavy overhead pressing, it was those heavy incline bench press, it was those dead lifts, those were the things
Starting point is 00:41:28 that started to put the bulk of the muscle on, especially since that's, so this program is, you know, aesthetic is 10 weeks long. I wouldn't die at first show until the last six weeks or so. So I'm being fed in those first four weeks, I'm feeding myself, I'm lifting heavy, I'm building, and you could see it every time I would do this.
Starting point is 00:41:48 And we designed MAPS aesthetic, because that was the goal, the idea was, okay, let's design a program that people could use to compete, but also for people, the everyday person, who's got a decent amount of experience training, because it is a high volume program, who want to be able to train and shape and sculpt their body like these types of people.
Starting point is 00:42:08 And so we did it, we made it 10 weeks long because you told us Adam, that that's the length of time you wanna do your get ready for a show. You wanna do about 10 weeks because you got people coming in 16 weeks, we're doing insane dieting for that long. Yeah, and exactly, and they're dieting
Starting point is 00:42:23 and they're doing high-intensity training right out the gates. So at this point, I'm actually managing my steps already at this point. I keep my steps very low. I'm strength training. I'm trying to build right now. I've got a phase right now of packing on some muscle,
Starting point is 00:42:38 getting my caloric intake, speeding my metabolism up. I'm not doing zero cardio, and I'm just trying to build and put some ass on. And we would run that phase for about three weeks. So three weeks is our programming. I would run somewhere between three and four, and then I would transition into our second phase. And meanwhile, you're keeping those muscle parts in mind that the judges brought up, right?
Starting point is 00:42:59 You're back, your shoulders, like that's something that you're keeping within the way that you're structuring your work. Well, those are the focus sessions that we put in Maps aesthetic, which focus sessions are another word for those will be like a frequency builder. These are, you pick your weak body parts and you do these short 20 minute, 30 minute workouts on these areas throughout the week. So although you're doing your full body strength training,
Starting point is 00:43:26 the days in between, you're doing these short workouts and you're getting good pumps and squeezes and you're using things like machines, which these machines are great for this, where you're just adding some focus. And after that first three, four week period, then you can move into what we call the size phase, which is that eight to 12 rep range, the
Starting point is 00:43:45 more traditional bodybuilding, you know, rep range. Well, you have to talk about the science behind this because this is again another thing that I saw as a problem in the space was these athletes or competitors, whatever you want to call them, when they would go into a get ready for a show and their their approach was just, you know, oh, my judge said more shoulders. And so they just, you know, randomly throw more as much shoulders as they can. And that kind of works for some people because what do they do? The increase of volume where I knew that this is like, I'm at amateur level now. I'm like, I'm trying to work my way to national and professional level. So I'm trying to be very methodical about my approach.
Starting point is 00:44:22 If I was training a map centabolic three times a week, so in other words, my shoulders are getting, let's just say hypothetically, because I think the math on that is about 12 sets, I think is about what we have in that program, right? So my shoulders are getting about 12 sets of attention over three times a week, a week. So now when I go about, okay, so now what I want to do is I'm going to build in more sets, more volume. What are we going to do that on?
Starting point is 00:44:47 We're going to do that on focus days. What we're doing is we have a very mathematical approach to starting to build the shoulder. What I got to be careful of, because if I'm lifting good compound lifts, I'm doing overhead barbell press and dumbbell press, and we're doing some of these big gross motor movements for my shoulders. You don't want to over train them. I don't want to over train them either. So I can't just do more of what I was already doing.
Starting point is 00:45:10 I got to be cognizant of, okay, I don't want to do so much damage that my body is constantly just trying to repair itself and it's not actually adapting and building and growing. So I just want to send a signal to it, which again goes back to the brilliance in MAP Santa Ballock and your philosophy. The trigger sessions. The trigger sessions, we took that same science, that same philosophy that supports that, and we created these focus sessions, which are these isolation type exercises, a lot of machine, a lot of cable type movements.
Starting point is 00:45:38 Less damage. Not going to do a ton of damage, but going to give me a nice pump, it's going to send a signal. It's going gonna accelerate the progress of that particular body part. And the reason why you pick one, two body parts max, it's just your body's capability to, cause some people are like,
Starting point is 00:45:54 why don't you focus sessions for the whole body you're missing the point. You start to overcome your body's ability to adapt. You wanna attack the body, one body part of the time in terms of what you're bringing up, but you do this over the course of cycles, and you develop your entire body. Well, and what I did, which we don't,
Starting point is 00:46:11 this isn't necessarily programmed into the program, but I tell people that this is where you can kind of modify, and this is what I started to do was, let's say, like my shoulders and back, that didn't stop being a focus, just one show. It's not like I focused on it for one show and then it's up So I started to build in the volume and all I would do is I Our focus sessions are designed to be short. They're only designed to be about 20 30 minutes
Starting point is 00:46:34 They're designed to be isolation Not a lot of damage more cable more machine type work to increase that volume But I want again. I want to start at the minimal dose as little as possible to list the most amount of change. I run that through a whole cycle, a whole time going through the entire program for 10 weeks. Then when I go back to that again and revisit it, now I might add an extra exercise. But you're just building on that. Yeah, I slowly build on it.
Starting point is 00:46:57 I don't go right out the gates of training six days a week for one hour at a time. That 20 minute workout now turns into about a 28, 30 minute workout because I've now added one more exercise on there. And so I'm trying to get a little bit more, a little bit more, allowing my body to adapt to that new amount of volume so I can get the benefits of adding more size to it and then slowly progressing,
Starting point is 00:47:18 which is to your point, what you're asking, we get a lot of people that ask that, like, well, why don't I just do, on my focus days, why don't I just do five foundational days? It's like, well, why don't I just do, on my focus days, why don't I just do five foundational days? It's like, well, why would you want to do that? You don't want to tax it. You don't want to tax it. Yeah, scale up to that if anything.
Starting point is 00:47:31 It just doesn't work. It's just not going to work for you. But yeah, we go from strength, you build that solid foundation, then you go to the next phase, which is the longer phase, four weeks long. We call it the size phase, but really what it is, is that eight to 12 rep range
Starting point is 00:47:46 is known as the hypertrophy rep range. Now that doesn't mean that the other rep ranges don't build hypertrophy represents, muscle fibers actually growing themselves. All the rep ranges do that. But if you were to compare rep ranges head to head in a short period of time, let's say four weeks, the eight to 12 rep range would build the most muscles.
Starting point is 00:48:04 That's why it's called the hypertrophy range. So then you move into that range, but you're coming from a strength cycle. So you're going from strength cycle to the size phase and the results are incredible. Once you jump into that, muscles just start to fill out. Things start to build. This is where you get that nice pump feeling, right? You start to get more of a pump and you start to see what happens on the scale. If you're trying to put on size, for example, the scale really starts to move up. If you're
Starting point is 00:48:28 dieting at this point and you're trying to get leaner, you just notice that the scale might not move down as fast because you're building muscle while you're getting leaner. You start to see that as well. And that's the middle meat portion of the program. Then at the end of the program, the last few weeks, well that's when you're getting ready to get on stage, or if you're not a competitor, this is when you're really trying to bring it all together and the volume is much higher, they're doing a lot of supersets. What you're doing at this point is you're maximizing the pump that you get in the gym. Now the pump itself also signals muscle growth, but through different ways, one through what they call cell signaling
Starting point is 00:49:07 because of the swelling effect that the pump gives you. But two, your muscles actually increase their capability to contain more of these non-muscle fiber structures within muscles. Some people call it sarcoplasm, sarcoplasm, which would represent that. There's conflicting studies on this. One thing that I do know though,
Starting point is 00:49:26 is when you're coming out of a strength and size cycle, when you move into more of these supersets, you just get this full round, kind of bubbly look, which is why we end the program in that phase. There was some other, I think there was some other things that we thought about when we wrote this program too, because we kind of really geared it around like me getting ready for a show
Starting point is 00:49:44 that we took into consideration. And that was most likely in this whole 10-week process, at one point you're gonna start a caloric restriction, and you're gonna start starting to cut. And you're trying to burn calories. And you're so, when you're thinking about, okay, the last phase of this is the most amount of volume, the most amount of sets, the most amount of reps
Starting point is 00:50:04 that you'll do in the entire program. So more likely you're burning more calories. And you're not eating as much calories. So you're not gonna have a lot of food to actually support a lot of growth and a lot of extra protein and extra calories to help support you recovering. And so we're thinking in our heads, okay, this person is trying to cut and lean out
Starting point is 00:50:24 and get ready for their peak physique. Okay, well, what is my routine going to look like? Okay, well, my routine is not definitely going to be heavy, deadlifting, and squatting when I'm on my eighth week of coming into a show. These are the, like, I'm going to be able to get in there and move away just lots of reps. It's not grinding hard strength. No, you're getting a pump. You doing super sets you're building more strength endurance
Starting point is 00:50:48 And you're trying to achieve a look is what you're trying to do I remember it's funny when we wrote this program because we were excited to put this program out because of its commercial appeal We knew you know, Jesus as soon as we put something out that's gonna focus off we make everybody look awesome Like they're not gonna hate that. It's just a motivation behind it like okay This is a program based on just aesthetics, people are gonna love it. And we waited, actually, we put maps performance out first so that we could have people move better
Starting point is 00:51:13 and have that function. And so that if they did the next program, it would be a great way to follow up. Man, we launched maps aesthetic and it was like, people went crazy. I remember that launch was insane. And then it still remains one of our most popular programs. Yeah, I know it is.
Starting point is 00:51:27 It's the most popular program. It's the most appealing. And, you know, the reality of it is we know that some people don't do it the way we would like to see them do it, right? And that's why we waited because it was important to us that anabolic came first and performance came second because when we think of the average person, the average, and that's the kind of thing that people need to do.
Starting point is 00:51:46 And that's the kind of thing that people need to do. And that's the kind of thing that people need to do. And that's the kind of thing that people need to do. And that's the kind of thing that people need to do.
Starting point is 00:52:02 And that's the kind of thing that people need to do. And that's, because it's been out now for a little while, I get messages now from people who use it to compete, which I love because it's given them time now, right? It's funny because when we launched this, I was like, we're gonna put so many coaches out of business. You know, and it's like, I knew it was gonna take a while for people to catch on to the effectiveness of it,
Starting point is 00:52:23 but now it's like, I mean, I'm hearing somewhat of people like having the courage to kind of run their own programming and kind of go through that process themselves. Well, we have a lot of people in the form. In fact, I actually Cassie just sent me over an email of somebody who was asking, she's, she actually used MapsStatic for a first show. She had great results. And she was asking and owns like all the programs and just totally a pump. But she's like, you know, I was wondering like, do you guys have anything or where would you guide me
Starting point is 00:52:51 or where should I go for a little bit more nutrition advice? And I told Cassie, send her in the forum. And we don't really talk. We don't we don't pitch the forum on the show that much. But that community is fucking incredible. The very smart. And we were really, this was, this has been a discussion in mind pump since the first, since inception.
Starting point is 00:53:11 And that was, we really wanted to stay away from nutrition and telling you that mainly because we knew it wasn't realistic that the three of us could handle the load that it would take to truly help each individual in nutrition, because nutrition is, I mean, programming, nothing's more in the individual. Right, right, programming is complex. Programming is complex and individualized.
Starting point is 00:53:34 Nutrition programming. That's on the whole of the universe. It's on a whole nother level, and none of us felt comfortable with creating something that we could sell to the masses, and so we just refuse to do it. But we have built this community that's got people like shallow in it, that's got brink in it, that's got Dr.
Starting point is 00:53:52 Ruscio in it, that's got Arya in it, that's got a bunch of other competitors, pros, myself is in there, the boys are in there. And it's become this community that's someone like this, and that's why I told Cassie, I was like, send her into the forum and literally ask the questions that she like this, and that's why I told Cassios, like send her into the forum, and literally ask the questions that she has about nutrition, and watch all the other pros and competitors that are at the amateur level, national, we have all the whole range, and let the and everything from bodybuilding to men's physique, to women's bikini, to women's physique, to natural competitors, to non-natural competitors, we got it all in there. And it's such a great community of people that are helping coach each other and they've
Starting point is 00:54:28 listened to all the mind pumps, they understand the philosophy and a lot of them are really, really intelligent. And so then you can then provide your information like, hey, this is what I'm eating, this is what I'm doing, what do you guys recommend? And then you get the collection of all these really intelligent people giving you advice is based off of you and your body and where you're at. I just love seeing people now sending me pictures. I won my first show, I used Maps aesthetic.
Starting point is 00:54:52 I won my first show. It's bikini competitors, physique competitors. There was a body builder that had sent me his before and afters and how he had competing as for show and used Maps aesthetic as his program. Of course, all of them individualized it a little bit with the focus sessions. And I always ask them, I always say to them, like, oh my god, you look phenomenal.
Starting point is 00:55:10 What were your focus sessions? What are the body parts that you worked on? And they'll say things, oh, I worked on my glutes and my hamstrings, or I worked on my upper back, or I worked on my lower back, or whatever. And I freaking love seeing that. I mean, the workouts itself, if you kind of want an idea what that looks like,
Starting point is 00:55:24 three days a week in the gym, you're of want an idea what that looks like, three days a week in the gym, you're going to be in there for a little while. Three days a week is high volume. You're going to be in there for between 60 to 90 minutes. You're training the whole body. Those are the hard foundational workouts. The other two to three days a week are the focus sessions, which are 20 to 30 minutes long. So the program can have a lot of volume.
Starting point is 00:55:44 Some people do it without focus sessions. Some people like to just do the three days of full body and don't like to throw on the focus sessions. But at this point, if you're doing maps aesthetic, you're probably pretty serious because it is a serious program. So I would say five days a week is what I would recommend. So you're going to be in the gym a little bit working on these areas. And the focus sessions again, that's where you have a lot of fun. And that's where you can use all the equipment in the gym. That's why I love about that.
Starting point is 00:56:08 Those are the days that we recommend you do all the machines, you do all the cables. Well, remember when we first kind of came out on the show, and this was before this was created, we talked a lot of shit about machines and cables. We did, and people started to live on them. Well, and people started to look at it, it's like, you mean to tell me that these things
Starting point is 00:56:23 have existed in the gym for this one? We're a time machine. And you guys don't use, and you know what I'm saying It's like no absolutely not in fact. I use them quite a bit But you got to use them in a particular way. They're good for a particular thing Right, and I think that I I'd loved releasing this program for this reason was it's not that we don't believe in Cables and machines. They are an incredible tool, just like any other tool. The thing that we noticed, well, what we know, because we've been in gyms
Starting point is 00:56:48 our whole life, is that people gravitate to them for the wrong reasons. They gravitate towards them because they're easier. They're easier to learn, they're easier to just get in and put a pen and start doing them. And people have a hard time or scared to learn a barbell overhead press or a barbell squat or a barbell incline press.
Starting point is 00:57:08 These things tend to scare people, but those are the things that learning to do those things will give you so much more benefits than any cable or machine ever will be able to give you. So, why would you gravitate to the thing that's going to give you the least amount of results first? You should gravitate to learning the principles, learning, and that's why anabolic is so heavy in the barbell area. Right.
Starting point is 00:57:31 Yeah. Maps aesthetic is for people who have some experience training in the gym. It's not a beginner program by any stretch of the imagination. But if you have some experience, you've been working out for a little while consistently or you have in the past and you kind of know what you're doing and you're going to go into the gym and you're serious, there's nothing. You're kind of serious, like, okay, I really want to change the way I look. Apply it, it's a 10 week program with a good diet, watch what happens to your body.
Starting point is 00:57:58 Please take a picture. Take a picture before, take a picture after, it'll blow your mind, but again, it is not a beginner program. It is more of an advanced type workout because you will be in the gym utilizing a lot of exercises. If you're a beginner and you throw this at your body, it'll probably be too much. If you've got some experience and you throw this at your body and you do it right and you combine it with a decent diet, watch what happens to your body.
Starting point is 00:58:23 I think you'll be radically surprised. And I think when we air this, maps aesthetic will still be 50% off, but I think it'll only be about four days left if I'm not mistaken, to the promotion. So if you're listening to this on the day that it airs, there's only four days left for maps aesthetic to be 50% off, so we took the price literally cut it in half.
Starting point is 00:58:42 We want more people using it, we want more people posting before and afters We want to see more people get the benefits of this program. People up on state. Well, part of all of us doing this, too, have those that have been listening for the last few months or more, we've been rolling out the 50% off on all the programs that we redid. So if you own this program already, you automatically get these upgrades. Yeah, we revamp them with a new interface. It's a lot easier to use, better videos, cleaner videos, better instruction.
Starting point is 00:59:12 Anytime we do that, it's upgraded for free. But yeah, so it's half off. Here's what you do. Go to mapsblack.com and then use the code black50black50 and you'll get that 50% off. I hope you're listening to this episode while this promotion is still running. Again, there's only four days left.
Starting point is 00:59:30 So make sure you check it out. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal and Amin Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having
Starting point is 01:00:07 Sal and an adjustment as your own personal trainer's butt at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPump.

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