The Dan Bongino Show - Christmas Cuts

Episode Date: December 25, 2017

This piece highlights some great training tips for your workouts. Is this the strength vitamin? A great addition to your diet for weight control. Need to design a new workout? Here are some pointers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Growth is essential for every entrepreneur. At BDC, we get that. And the businesses we support grow at double the average rate, accelerating the pace. We're on it. BDC. Financing. Advising. Know-how. Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino. All right, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show, Christmas Cuts Edition. Producer Joe, how are you today? Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas, Dan-o. Merry Christmas. It is the season of the infomercial.

We are recording this late on Sunday, the day before Christmas. So if you're listening to it on Christmas, we're about 12 hours ahead of you probably. But it is the season of the infomercial. Have you noticed that, Joe? Oh, yeah. You turn on any channel on cable, and it's just nonstop infomercials. I guess because it's around Christmas time. Everybody. You got pillows. You got wire

cutters. You name it. You got lanterns. You got sunglasses, tactical lights. I mean, it is the season. We should have a Dan Bongino infomercial for the Dan Bongino show. That would be classic. Oh, boy. All right.

A lot to talk about on Christmas Cuts. I got about 10 things I wanted to bring up. You know, for those of you who are regular listeners, you know around the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July type stuff, we try to get away from the politics for a little while. And we talk about other stuff, lifestyle stuff, working out, just interesting stories I have that I don't talk about during the week, during the political

season, the political shows. Interesting story I saw today though, Joe, at Drudge, which relates to us and the show and something I wrote a while ago. So, the Secret Service where I used to work, as many of you know, has just, this is

one of the big stories on Drudge, has just announced that they're doing their first live training exercise on the White House grounds. Now, many of you listening may say, wait, what? Yeah. Come again? Like that's never happened before? And the answer is no, it hasn't. Why am I bringing this up? Well, obviously, I have an interest in what happens at the Secret Service. I used to work there. I'm still fiercely loyal to the agency. I think despite their problems, they do a great job. And I can tell you from a firsthand account, they are the finest men and women I have ever worked with.

They're wonderful people. I've got some management issues, but they're really good folks. And it may surprise many of you, not if you read my book, Protecting the President. I'm not plugging my book for anybody. I'm just saying, I wrote this in my book that one of the things that always astonished me when I was an agent is that there's almost no live training at the White House. I mean, that's crazy, folks. Many of you in the military, you know, like what they'll do is for the bin Laden raid, they'll build a mock-up of what they thought the House looked like. Or, I mean, obviously, she's not going to train at the bin.

Excuse me, Osama. Yeah, we're going to do a training exercise for this exercise we're going to do to come get you in a month or so. You mind? No, no. Oh, good, guys. Like that's not going to happen. So you build a mock-up. Well, we don't have that in the Secret Service.

There's no mock White House. And it might really surprise a lot of you to know that they never trained in the White House. They just don't do it. And finally, and I'm not taking credit for any of this. I'm not taking a victory lap. But from what I've heard, someone in the Secret Service in a management position may have read my book and read that chapter and been astonished too to know that nobody does that. So they're now practicing on the White House grounds, these fence jumper exercises, tactical assault exercises. And I want to give a big, big round of applause to the Secret Service for doing that. I think it's a great idea.

Secondly, a big Merry Christmas to all of you. And a big thank you before I get to the other stuff. Yes, you've made our show one of the top conservative podcasts in the entire world. We are absolutely crushing it. We're growing 10, 20% a month. So thank you very much. Merry Christmas to all of you.

I am a Christian. I know some of you are, some of you aren't. So Merry Christmas to the Christians out there. Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends out there. And overall to other folks, just have a really joyous holiday season out there if you're neither. We appreciate you listening. And by the way, we're glad you're here. So big, juicy Merry Christmas to everybody out there. Hope you have a great holiday. Okay. So a couple of stories I found interesting this week. You

know I'm into the health and fitness stuff, and I'm going through a really nasty rehab period right now, and it's getting really depressing. I mean, Joe has to listen to me every day complain about the weight I'm losing. And it's tough because you spend your entire life. You want to think, right, Joe, that you build up like life credits when it comes to working out, like anything else, right? Like education, if you build it up and you can use it throughout your life. I mean, you know, you build it up and you can use it throughout your life.

I mean, you don't lose your graduate degree or anything like that if you don't use it for a certain period of time. You have to brush up on your skills,

but you generally don't lose it. With weightlifting, it's just the weirdest thing. Like you spend your entire life crushing it in the gym and you stop working out.

I've only been doing cardio and it like goes away like that. It's so depressing. The only good news is I hear it comes back depending on the length of time you take off. So I've only been doing cardio and it like goes away like that. It's so depressing. The only good news is I hear it comes back depending on the length of time you take off. So I've been off now from weightlifting for six weeks. Wow.

They say it takes about double the time you take off to get it back. So I'm looking at right now about 12 weeks to get back to where I was, but it's really depressing. That's a really long time for you, man. Yeah, it hurts. It really does. My brain's been readjusting. I could tell during the day I'm fatigued. I'm does. My brain's been readjusting. I could tell during the day

I'm fatigued. I'm tired. My strength is in the can. And I'm down to now I weighed myself in the gym from 230. I'm down to 214, 214 and a half. And it's depressing. So I was thinking like if I was to come back, I'm going to come back with a fury. Like I am really pumped up about this comeback because I am going to be just destroying at the gym, my brick house and all this other stuff, brick house nutrition, my foundation, all the other products I'm going to begin on. So a couple of articles I saw that were interesting. Number one, there's a great piece I'm going to post at the show notes today about they did this study on weightlifting. And this is fascinating for those of you who are

career lifters, been lifting forever. And for those of you just looking to get back in the gym in the new year, very, very interesting. And this applies to me. I am, they looked at the difference between like these science facts, data-based organized lifters and people who just like are randos. Like they walk in and they just do different stuff every time. So in other words, the bookworm lifter, Joe, logs every set and rep. And then the guy who goes in or the woman who goes in and just really like just makes it up. Oh, today I'm this today i feel like that and fascinating because this is a

show that you know cherishes the fact that we use facts and data you would think that the former would be the better approach right you want to log your stuff you want to take it all down you want to make sure you're using the same exercises a little more weight next week but interestingly enough if you read the story that's not what they found they found that i'm being a little more weight next week. But interestingly enough, if you read the story, that's not what they found. They found that, and I'm being a little dramatic, it's not that people went in there totally randomly, but that people who go into the gym and vary their workouts, their exercises,

but keep the intensity the same, Joe, that's critical. In other words, you're still mauling it in the gym, you're just doing different stuff to destroy it. Destroy it, I mean that in a good way. Like you're just crushing it in the gym, but you're doing different exercises. Those are the people who gain the most muscle mass and generally perform better at the end of this study. It's an interesting piece. It's at T Nation. I'll put it in the show notes, but read through it because it just goes to show you that sometimes weightlifting and exercise can be a little bit

counterintuitive. And I know at least for my plan to come back, I'm going to be start lifting again next week. You know, I, I am big into the, I use this workout called dog crap training. If you're probably, you're probably laughing right now. Like this can't be serious. No, I'm dead serious with two G's. This guy, Dante Trudell wrote up this program. I think is spectacular. Um, I'll put the link in the show notes too. Let me take a note on that DC training. Uh, I put it in the last rough cuts episode. Let me take a note on that. DC training. I put it in the last Rough Cuts episode, but it's a really cool workout. But the thing with the workout is it's generally speaking pretty similar over time.

I mean, he does recommend you move stuff around, but I didn't. And I noticed I was still growing off it, but now I'm going to start moving around the exercises. So the takeaway from this is new lifters, old lifters, people coming back from an injury, you might be better off varying up your workouts, but keeping the intensity the same, which for me sounds like a simple thing, but was really mind blowing because that's not what

I do. I like to know every week, like if I'm, if I'm doing the say standard barbell bench press, everybody in America's favorite exercise, right? If I do 225 for a drop set of, say, 22, I want to do the exact same exercise next week and shoot for 23. This article is basically saying you may want to scrap that.

You may want to go to dumbbells next week. And even though you're not going to be able to keep track of exactly what your barbell weights were and sets and reps, because you're not doing it, you're doing a different exercise, you're going to get bigger, stronger, faster, more powerful.

So, interesting. Good piece, though. I read it this morning when I was putting together some ideas for the show and I think it's definitely worth your time. Another article I'll put up from Team Egg, which has some really good pointers in it. It has a workout design in there for those of you who don't want to do the dog crap training thing, which I'll put in there, which is really great. But it talks about the power of a couple things I know a lot of us don't do in our workouts and tend to ignore. You know, some of us when we work out, you know, you'll do say, you know, the bench press again, everybody's favorite exercise, most people know what it is. And you know, you'll go down and boom, you'll just like bounce it off

your chest, use terrible form, explode it upwards, And you're basically not getting much out of it. One of the pieces I'll put in here today has a point. There's about two things. Number one, the value of eccentric exercise. Now, what is the eccentric portion of a movement? That's the lowering phase. Now that's a phase of the bench press specifically. And again, I only use that because everybody knows what it is. It works for squats and everything else. I'd be very careful with deadlifts, but with other exercises as well, curls and even military presses and things like that. That's the lowering phase. And in the piece, it talks about the incredible growth potential of not just paying attention, Joe, to the point of the bench press where you're pushing the weight away from you,

but the lowering portion, how slowly, under control, lower that thing, get that stretch, resist it some of the way down, and then knock that thing back up. And then when you, that your potential for growth is so much better. And listen, the eccentrics aren't new. I mean, this isn't like a revolution in exercise, but the piece I'm going to include in the show notes shows you the incredible power of it to stimulate things like mTOR and other

things that are really going to promote muscle growth in the body. And I thought that was really fascinating because I do it too. You get lazy and you know, Joe, you lift, you know how it is. Sometimes you're just like, you just drop that thing and you practically cave your chest and you drop it so fast. Yeah, me pretty much all the time. yeah. Yeah, yeah, I do it too because you want to lift, you know, it's like, obviously, you want to be seen lifting the heaviest amount. You don't want to waste any energy on the way down, but that may be entirely counterproductive, folks.

Another thing they talk about, and I say this usually before every episode, I probably should have said it before this one when I do a rough cuts. I mean it, I'm not kidding. Like, if you're new to this kind of thing, definitely check with your doctor. Seriously, I know that's, this isn't some legal mumbo jumbo, I mean it. I'm not kidding. Like, if you're new to this kind of thing, definitely check with your doctor. Seriously.

I know this isn't some legal mumbo jumbo. I mean it. I don't want anybody getting into working out because they listen to the show and they have a heart attack. Seriously, if you have some heart issue, go get a checkup before you do any of this. It's invaluable. But once you've done that and you're ready to rock and roll, one of the other things that they talk about, which is really powerful, and you got to be really careful with this one, though.

So number one is eccentric exercise. Lower the weight slowly, under control. But secondly, and this I've done, and I'm telling you, Joe, it's torturous. It's bad. I wouldn't recommend this for newbies. Candidly, I wouldn't even recommend this for people who are even a little experienced. You should have a few years of solid lifting under your belt before you try this. But they talk about in the piece the power of the power stretch.

I call it the power stretch, but here's what that is. It's basically weighted stretching. Do you know what a dumbbell fly is? No. You're laying down on the bench. It's basically weighted stretching. So do you know what a dumbbell fly is? No. You're laying down on the bench. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hold the dumbbells and you lower them down to the side and you bring them up. It looks like a bench press, but you're keeping your elbow at a fixed angle.

So when you're doing a bench press, the angle between your upper and lower arm changes because you're pushing. So as you go down with a dumbbell and your wrist and the dumbbell starts to close in on your chest, the angle decreases. Your hand moves more towards your shoulder. When you're doing a fly, that doesn't happen. It's like fixed. It looks like you're trying to clap in front of you, like you're trying to crush a fly in front of your face or something like that. Yeah, I got it. Yeah. So when you go to the bottom of that movement, you lower the weight slowly. At the end of the exercise, you can engage in these things called these power stretches where you use the weight and all the way at the bottom, like you're stretching your wings out if you were a bird, right? You hold that position with the weight. You got to go easy on the weight. You don't want to put like 100-pound dumbbells. You'll dislocate your shoulders. on dumbbells, you'll dislocate your shoulders. But a decent enough amount of weight that it gives some pull to the muscle and that this has a tremendous growth-inducing effect. Now, I've

tried this and folks, I'm telling you right now, it is savage. It is brutal. Because if you do it at the end of an exercise, like even a bench press or the fly, whatever it may be, and you do that stretch when all that lactic acid is in there and there's almost no way it can get out because you're stretching it. It is like somebody's taking a hot poker to your tendons. It hurts so bad. But I can personally speak to the growth effects from this. I mean, I grew like a weed when I was doing it. Now, it's obviously hard to do and probably not safe to do in things like squats.

But for things like you're working out your back or working out your chest, it's pretty easy. So like with the back, the reverse would be, if you were doing a cable row, when you sit on a machine, you grab the thing and you like row, you pull the cable towards you and it's got a weight stack attached to it. The way to stretch your back would be at the end to just let that thing pull, pull your shoulders and really pull your lats. And man, does it burn. pull your shoulders and really pull your lats. And man, does it burn. It feels like someone's got a poker in there.

It is savage. So give it a shot. Read the piece and you'll see. But again, I would highly recommend, unless you've got a couple of years of lifting and you've got a decent amount of tendon strength and muscle strength, that you stay away from it because there's the potential for a tear or even a pull is great

if you don't have that built-up muscle strength first. All right. I got a couple other things I want to get to. Today's show brought to you by our buddies at BrickHouse Nutrition. I had to switch around the reads because these guys were perfect for today's show. You know BrickHouse Nutrition, my favorite nutrition company out there. Their products are available at BrickHouseNutrition.com. And just quickly, here are the three things they offer you're not going to get anywhere else.

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of greens dawn to dusk and foundation all available there they've got a ton of great deals brickhouse nutrition.com slash dan i think if you buy them all in a package too uh you get a really nice deal on it so go check it out all righty then what else did i want to go oh yeah you know i got a question after the last rough cuts from a guy who said, listen, I'm looking for some weight loss type stuff. And, you know, I thought I really don't get into that much because for me, Joe, the problem is always the opposite. I have a jet fuel metabolism.

I know I'm not trying to like pat myself on the back and do like a humble brag. I'm just telling you the truth. Like I lose weight like crazy if I don't eat and eat a lot and eat often. I've been very blessed with an explosive metabolism. It burns calories like crazy. So I don't really get into much to weight loss stuff, but one of the things I'll do for weight partitioning, there's a difference, but it applies to weight loss.

Weight partitioning meaning I don't want to lose weight, but I want to make sure the calories I eat are going selectively towards the building of new muscle and not the building of new fat. Make sense, Joe? See, I don't care about the weight. I've never heard of it before, but it does make sense. Yeah. I mean, I want to be 230. I just don't want to be 220 pounds of lard. I want to be 230 muscle. So I'm looking to gain weight, but I'm looking for that to be 220 pounds of lard. I want to be 230 muscle. So I'm looking to gain weight, but I'm looking for that to be selectively muscle weight, not fat weight. Now, for every few pounds of muscle you gain, if you're doing it right and you're doing it and you're not on chemicals and stuff, you're always going to gain a few pounds of fat too. So you got to be careful

with that, but there's ways to mitigate that. And this applies to weight loss as well. Here's a few pointers for stuff I use that I think is gold. And again, you may, please, check with some medical professional first to make sure you have no allergies or anything like that. But it's important stuff. I mean it. I'm not being silly about it at all. But one of the things I do before a heavy carb meal, especially tonight, we're having spaghetti and a meatball. It's a meatball.

My wife makes the best spaghetti and meatballs ever, even though I always have a horrendous reaction to pasta. I can't stop eating it. So one of the tricks to mitigate the effects of a heavy carb meal on your insulin production and the production of fat later if you overeat, and a lot of people do when they eat carbs, is to take apple cider vinegar now there's a number

of good products out there but i recommend you get one with what's called the mother in it the mother is this nasty looking looks like foam and it's gross you would never it's perfectly safe i'm telling you no it is gross looking but it's uh it get one with the mother. Just look it up, apple cider vinegar with the mother. Do some kind of fermentation process. It develops this foamy type substance, but it's very good for you. What I do is I take about two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I put it in water because you got to be careful with your tooth enamel. You want to dilute it right or else you're going to rot.

It's very acidic, obviously. It's strong, yeah. You've taken it before? Yeah, I got some right in the refrigerator right now yes super strong but unbelievably good for you i'll put an article in the show notes a very good one i read it's very well balanced it's from i think the bbc about apple cider vinegar it doesn't make incredible hyperbolic claims but it does say hey there's a lot of evidence that apple cider vinegar before a high carb meal will help you control your blood sugar. Number one, may help you lose weight and may have some other benefits as well. So look at the piece, but I'm an absolute believer. It does give you a feeling of being satiated early too.

So I am a grotesque overeater. I am folks. I mean, those of you who know me and have seen me eat and many of my friends listen to the show are laughing right now, including Joe, because I, remember that time I was at CBO and the guy was like, hey, you want me to get you some food from McDonald's next door? I'm like, yeah, get me like five egg McMuffins or something. He was like, five for who? I'm like, for me. Like five for you.

No, no, five for me. Yeah, five. Like I'm going to eat five. Like I eat like a gorilla. It's how I keep my 230 pounds on. But before I do that, once when I, when I have a high carb meal, I'm very careful because my diabetes runs in my family. So I've noticed when I take these two tablespoons of cider vinegar, you shake it up, get the

mother in there first because it's always foamy up at the top or at the bottom. Shake it up, put it in the water. Drink the water about 20 minutes before. I'm telling you, you're going to notice you're full with about half as much food. I don't know exactly how that part works. I do have an idea on how the blood sugar level works based on the acid content of it. The evidence is strong that it will help control massive spikes in blood sugar, maybe by slowing down digestion. But I'm telling you, you'll feel full a lot quicker. And I think the fact that you take it with about eight ounces of water, Joe, that volume of water takes up space in your stomach.

So easy cheat to lose a little bit of weight. Or if you're not looking to lose weight and just looking to lose fat, to just lose a little bit of fat and make sure those carbs don't go to fat. Apple cider vinegar, water, 20 minutes before a meal. I can't recommend it highly enough. Second pointer, cinnamon. Folks, put cinnamon on everything. You've heard this, John?

Yeah, I use that too. Put it on everything. Everything. Anything you can tolerate it on. Any ice cream, oatmeal. I put it in my coffee. Now, cinnamon won't dissolve in coffee, so you have to constantly stir it in

or just swig the cup like I do. I take it by the handle and I spin it myself. I put cinnamon in everything. The evidence behind cinnamon being a beneficial compound for controlling blood sugar spikes, and remember, controlling blood sugar spikes, just like with vinegar, is everything. Because when your blood sugar spikes, folks, it's got to go somewhere. So if you're not walking around, you're not exercising, and you've got elevated blood sugar, I got news for you.

It's going one place. If it doesn't fill up the carb stores in your liver, it's going right to fat cells. Not good. NG. You want to control spikes in blood sugar. You want nice, even-level blood sugar levels throughout the day so you feel energetic and these extra stores don't go into fat cells. Cinnamon is terrific for this.

I'm telling you, put it on anything you can tolerate. I mean, it tastes good. I mean, you know, within reason. I mean, you're not going to put cinnamon on like steak or anything like that, but oatmeal's great. If you're going to have ice cream, which I don't eat, but if you are, throw some cinnamon in it or help the spike in blood sugar. Coffee, great in coffee. What else? My kids put it in on Cheerios, everything. Really, really good. Great for controlling.

Matter of fact, great for controlling blood sugar. I should have finished the thought. My wife hates when I do that, by the way. I'm so absent-minded sometimes. But cinnamon is also great, not to hammer you a brick house nutrition, but their Field of Greens is really good. And one of the things I do is I put it in green tea, the Field of Greens, with a little bit of V8 and some collagen, and I'll throw cinnamon in there. Maybe every other time, I'll throw a big chunk of cinnamon in there. I know that some of you may say, sound gross, but I'm telling you, the field of greens has a nice berry flavor to it. It overpowers all that stuff. It's really, really good. Now, you could take it in water, whatever you want, but I'm absolutely convinced

that that is the path to really strong, vibrant, robust longevity. I mean, listen, anybody can live to 90. The question is, I mean, what does living mean to you? Do you want to be 90 like Jack LaLanne where he was like swimming to Cuba from Florida? Remember that guy? Guy was doing like 90 chin-ups in the morning. He was like 93 years old, right? Or, you know, I see a lot of folks now. And, you know, it's tough.

I watch them with – I live in Florida, folks. There's a very substantial aged population in Florida. Obviously, a lot of people like to retire here. We love having you here. But sometimes I'll go to restaurants and it's, gosh, I see people and I don't know if it's a life of manual labor. Obviously, some of it is not going to be their fault. Listen, working back in the 20s and 30s was a whole lot harder than working now. These robots weren't around. But you can see that a lot of them have walkers, having a tough time getting around. I have a feeling that's going to be me,

given the condition of my body now at 43. But I'll tell you what, folks, I'm going to do everything I can to prevent it. So just really take care of yourself. And these are some pointers. Some other nutrition stuff before I get to some other things. Fish oil, big believer in fish oil. I read a piece this week about fish oil I found fascinating.

And parents, listen up. This is a critical one. I give fish oil to Read a piece this week about fish oil I found fascinating. And parents, listen up. This is a critical one. I give fish oil to my kids. Always have. And I saw a study this week that kids who eat one serving of fish, just one,

I give my kids fish oil as often as I can. Do three times a week. I use Carlson's. It's a really good, it's a liquid fish oil. They'll get used to it. Trust me.

Just tell them, open up kids, it's lemon flavored. Right down the hatch. That's what I, my five year old takes it. No problem. You tell them, open up, kids. It's lemon flavored, right down the hatch. That's what I eat. My five-year-old takes it. No problem. You can take the pills. Nothing wrong with the pill. I just like the liquid. I keep it in my refrigerator, right? That the kids who ate one serving of fish oil a week had IQ scores and basically were smarter than the kids who didn't. That shouldn't surprise anyone. I mean, the brain is largely composed of fat. I mean, there's fat well throughout the brain.

You have the myelination of the neurons for the electrical impulses to go down the sheath there. I mean, these are really important compounds in fish oil that you need. They're great for anti-inflammation too. So I'm an absolute believer in fish oil. So fish oil, the field of greens, vinegar, cinnamon. Another thing on the field of greens product. I told you about a story this week I saw on Trudge about people who ate salads. Salads, carrots, everything that ate a salad a day.

They had IQ scores 11 points higher than other folks who didn't. Can I explain that away easily? No. But does it make sense? Yes. I mean, not to get metaphysical or spiritual on you for a moment, but God put animals and plants on the planet for us to eat. He didn't put Cheetos. Okay. He didn't make, we made Cheetos. He didn't make Cheetos. Okay. He put chemicals in these things that were designed to keep us alive. God gave us this.

I believe that. I mean, I know it's kind of veering off a hard science path here for a moment, but we evolved to eat these things. Of course, there are going to be chemicals in there that are beneficial for us that aren't in Cheetos and Cheez-Its and things like that. So the fact that there are micronutrients and some macronutrients as well in these salads and these plant-based foods and plant-based foods. We have field of greens and these types of things. It shouldn't surprise anyone that you'll be generally healthier and be able to think more

clearly if you eat this kind of stuff. That's why I'm a big believer in it. All right, one more on the nutrition side. I want to get to something else. I'm going to put this in the show notes today too. Vitamin D, great article in TMAG, really short. It's only like 200, 300 words, kind of like a blog post. But vitamin D, folks, I live in Florida,

so I don't generally have to worry too much about vitamin D production. Now, I do take it. I take 5,000 international units a day. That's a lot, a whole lot, especially considering the fact that I live in Florida. And my daughter thinks I tan. I don't tan, folks. I'm not a tanner. What I do is about twice a week because I know the power of the sun. Now, obviously, if you have skin problems, this does not apply to you at all. But for generally healthy people, I am a big believer

in the power of the sun to produce vitamin D and just for general health benefits. I go out for about 15 minutes. I put a timer on. And in Florida, it's like 82, 83 this time of year. So it's nice because 15 minutes in the summer in Florida, you're going to cook. I mean, seriously, you're going to burn in 15 minutes. The sun is that hot. But it's nice this time of year. And what I'll do is I'll just sit out in the yard, take the shirt off, get a little sun

on my back. And it really helps with the vitamin D production. If you're up in the Northeast, you're probably not going to get that. I mean, you still have the sun, obviously, but the sun's powerful. It takes a little bit of time. You're not going to go out with your shirt off in 30 degrees. Try vitamin D. The study I'm going to put in there shows that vitamin D, the guy, the author calls it the strength chemical. How people who had elevated levels of vitamin D, in contrast to people who were suffering under vitamin D levels a bit,

that the strength level in the vitamin D group was higher. I can't say enough about vitamin D for immunity, this article for strength, and just general overall health, but also I really, really believe in the power of the sun. My poor neighbors, they probably wonder what I'm doing. Like twice a week, I'm out there listening to Rush on my iPhone,

and I'm just sitting out there, and they're like, what is this guy doing? And the answer is I'm getting sun on my back because I really believe in the power of it. Maybe too much information for you all, but whatever. You're my regular listeners. I feel like I need to share everything with you. All right, today's show also, bro, this is a nice transition, by the way,

because I wanted to talk about something. Also brought to you by our buddies at iTarget, the letter I. I am ecstatic having them as a sponsor because the feedback I get on this product is tremendous. And their customer service, by the way, is amazing. The website is the letter iTarget, iTargetPro.com, iTargetPro.com. Now, what is it? It is a, you a shooter out there you a hunter you a person interested in self-defense are you a first-time gun owner are you a special forces guy you a police

officer any of these things you need to be skilled with your firearm anyone can shoot a firearm any knucklehead can shoot a gun the question and and the only question is, can you fire a firearm accurately? Most people can't, especially bad guys because they don't get the practice, thankfully. iTarget, available at letteritargetpro.com is a laser bullet. Drops in your gun. It's got a rubber stopper. It's not going to

hurt your firearm in any way. You don't have to manipulate your gun. You have to get a different barrel. It's a gun you have right now. You have a 9mm? You order the 9mm bullet. It's a laser bullet. It goes in there. When you depress the trigger, it comes with a target. And that target is going to show you, in conjunction with an app, exactly where your rounds go.

I've got people who buy this thing. They cannot put it down. It's like a video game with your firearm that's going to make your marksmanship go through the roof. It's available at itargetpro.com. Folks, range fees are expensive. I get it. You have to go buy ammo. Everyone should go to the range, but it's hard.

It's just hard to get there all the time. You got to clean your weapon afterwards. You got to drive there, drive back, find a babysitter for the kids. In some cases, it's really tough. With the iTarget Pro system, you can do this all in your house. And it is a trip. You will not put this thing down. You can do this all in your house. And it is a trip. You will not put this

thing down. You can do it all in your house. It is wonderful. It is a really good system. Competitive shooters dry fire 10 times more. 10 times more than they live fire with actual ammo because they know the value of dry firing. You want to make sure you can get your trigger control down, your sight alignment, equal light on both sides, even on the top. Make sure you're not moving your front sight to the left or the right. Sometimes you see those three dots. If you have a tritium night sight and they're lined up wrong, you don't even know it in the dark. The way to practice this, your grip, your trigger control, sight alignment, is the iTarget Pro system. Go to iTargetPro.com. Use promo code Dan. That's D-A-N. This is a great Christmas gift,

by the way. Or if you got a gift card, this is a great product. Use promo code Dan. My first name, D-A-N. You'll get 10% off. Go to itargetpro.com. Now, I wanted to talk about something separately, but I thought this is why I switched around the read because I thought iTarget would be perfect for this. Folks, when we trained in the Secret Service, we always trained in the red zone. I brought this up before in the last Rough Cuts, but I can't emphasize to you enough how shooting in the red zone is absolutely critical in practicing. Now, what's the red zone? The red zone is that adrenaline dump area where your heart's beating fast, your pupils, you're having a tough time with your peripheral vision, you're breathing heavy. Now, why would you want to train in the

red zone and induce a red zone condition before you practice? Not all the time, but often with your firearm. Why would you want to do that? Well, it's pretty simple. God forbid, Joe or I are in some situation where I have to take out my clock. I have a couple clocks right now. I really like them. And I have to fire at someone. Obviously, one of the worst situations a human being can find themselves in. Whatever it may be, you're in a soft target tactical assault terror situation. Someone's robbing you. They pull a gun on you. They decide to fire at you and you have to defend yourself. You're in an armed robbery situation in a store. Folks, your heart rate is going to be through the roof. What's the first thing to happen? Major muscle

groups. You start to get the diversion of blood away from them into the core of the body. You're going to start to get restricted peripheral vision. You're going to start breathing heavy. You're going to have a problem with your hands. Some people get a little bit of the shakes. These are very natural responses. Now, when you look at our special forces operators, our SWAT guys, our Secret Service guys, and our FBI guys, and other law enforcement entities as well that train there, you never train away this response, Joe, ever. It's physiological, ever. But you learn to deal with it and overcome it. Now, the reason I bring this up is this is really hard to do with the range. I mean, Joe, what are you going to tell the range operator? Hey, brother, I'm going to do 5,000

jumping jacks, 20 pushups, and a set of breathing Zurcher squats, and then I'm going to come and fire my AR-15 in your range. You're going to be like, not here, you're not. Right? I mean, they don't want an AD, an accidental discharge, or something like that. It can be a little dangerous at times. In the Secret Service, it's controlled. They make you sprint down to the shoot house. You literally have a firearms instructor over your shoulder

in case you, as we used to say in the Secret Service, blank the bed. Yes. The bed. You figure. I don't mean it's a family-friendly show, but that meant if you panicked, the firearms instructor, like, you know, say you do the sprint and you just, you can't, and all of a sudden the rounds start going everywhere,

they'll put you on the show, put the gun down, put the gun down. It's very safe. Obviously, a lot of folks out there, listen, you don't have that luxury at the range. This is where iTarget is terrific. You have a gym in your house, you don't even need it. Folks, set up the iTarget system. It's super simple. It comes with a target and you just drop the bullet and the gun. I mean, it's a laser bullet. It doesn't go anywhere. You drop the laser bullet and go out, run some sprints. Seriously, run a few sprints if you can, do some pushups, and then watch your marksmanship, see where it goes. Pay attention to your peripheral vision. And you'll see one of the advantages of learning to do that is you'll see after the fifth or

sixth time you do it. Yes, your peripheral vision is constricted. Yes, your hands shake a little bit. Yes, you're breathing heavy. But all of a sudden, Joe, you start to override it. And your body says, okay, I know I'm restricted and I can't see sideways. My peripheral vision's going. What do you do, Joe? You scan. That way you're not using your peripheral vision. Why? Because

your head's moving. You don't need to, right? You're scanning side to side. Therefore, you break that pattern. You're breathing heavy, but you learn. Calm down. In through the nose, out through the mouth. You're still going to be breathing heavy, but by controlling the pace of the breathing, you're still able to accurately engage. Major muscle groups, losing the blood flow. Your hands shake a little bit. You learn. You learn ways to calm down by that breathing.

All of a sudden, it's stabilized. You can see that front sight again. You can focus. Folks, these are tremendous, tremendous exercises. And then in the unlikely, God forbid, the event that you have to engage a target at some point in your life, all of a sudden this isn't new to you. Joe, I mean, seriously, when you think about it, do you want the first time you're in a high stress, back and forth firearm situation to be what it actually happens? No, Dan. No, Dan, you don't. You definitely don't. And just to kind of wrap up the show today,

the importance of this really hit me, not through firearms training, but through my love for Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. I'll give you a quick story. I mean, when I first got involved, I had taken, growing up like many of you, karate and who knows it,

Ishan Roo karate and taekwondo and got into boxing later on and really had been fascinated by stand-up fighting. And I had never heard of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And then I saw Hoist Gracie, like many of you, at the first Ultimate Fighting Championship. And I was like, what the heck is that? I really got to learn that stuff. Now, the same thing that replies to shooting is it does to fighting. The first time you start shooting,

like we did at the Secret Service range, after running sprints and doing push-ups, you can't believe, Joe, how heinous it is. You're like, I can't barely see the target, no less hit it accurately. You know what I'm saying? You're like, you're breathing heavy. You're just not focused at all. You have to learn to focus and learn to do that. The same thing happened to me

with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The first time I was on the mat with a skilled guy, he was a wrestler who had a little bit of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu background. Folks, it was just the most horrible experience in my life. I'm like, I can't believe this. I can't move. This guy completely owns me right now. He's dominating me. I can't breathe. He's heavy. And I'm basically minutes away from getting choked out. I was like, this really stinks. tired and breathing heavy over years and years of training and with firearms it takes less time even do after five or six training sessions you'll be far better at doing it but with the brazilian jiu-jitsu and the ground fighting you know what you just learn to chill out matter of fact not only learn to chill out you actually i don't want to say you don't you never enjoy fighting it's god forbid it was ever a street fight in the street you don't enjoy it but you enjoy when it's in the controlled environment you actually learn to enjoy it even But you enjoy when it's in the controlled environment.

You actually learn to enjoy it. Even when you're getting tuned up a little bit sometimes, you're like, all right, I could pull something here. I mean, I could see he's off balance a little bit on his right knee. I could sweep him here. You learn to adjust is what I'm getting at over time as you're working out. Sorry, I get a little bit distracted. I was watching this guy on TV and he looks familiar. He grew a beard though. He's on Fox right now. I'm like, gosh, that guy looks familiar.

So the same thing applies with shooting. If you get the eye target system, I highly recommend you do that. Go do some sprints, go do some jumping jacks and then go shoot. And you'll see how difficult it is. You know, I said that was the last story, but one quick thing.

Hey, I get a lot of emails from people about my stem cells. I had my stem cells taken out of my back, the fat tissue in my back, twice now and injected into my joints. It's going well, very well. My right shoulder, I have a torn rotator cuff. That's taken a little bit longer to heal, but the arthritis condition has done a really amazing job. But one of the things I recommend if you have arthritis and you are going to do stem cells, even if you're not, give glucosamine and collagen a shot. I put collagen in my field of greens, as I said before.

But collagen is basically like jello, but it's really, really good for joints, achy joints. Give that mixture a shot, field of greens, a little collagen, and take a couple of glucosamine pills with it. It's really good. It's helped my joints, and I think it's helped delay the degradation of the cartilage tissue in my joints. I'm not exactly sure, but I feel a little better since I've been doing it. So just one other quick thing for you. All right, folks, Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for another great year. We appreciate it. We will be back with you on Tuesday with some new fiery

political content, I'm sure. And I really do appreciate it. Have will be back with you on Tuesday with some new fiery political content, I'm sure. And I really do appreciate it. Have a Merry Christmas and all the kids out there. I hope Santa was really good to you. See you all. You just heard the Dan Bongino Show. Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com. You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud.

And follow Dan on Twitter 24-7 at DBongino.