The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How Strength Training For Women & Men Can Be The Unlock To Longevity, Mental Clarity, Weight Management, & Balanced Hormones With Brent Hruska

Episode Date: November 25, 2021

#412: On today's episode we are joined by Brent Hruska. Brent is a certified trainer and also happens to be Lauryn and Michael's trainer. On today's show we discuss how strength training can be the un...lock to longevity, better mental health, balanced hormones, and improved weight management. This episode is focused on health and training at the core.  To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential  The Hot Mess Ice Roller is here to help you contour, tighten, and de-puff your facial skin and It's paired alongside the Ice Queen Facial Oil which is packed with anti-oxidants that penetrates quickly to help hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving skin soft and supple. To check them out visit www.shopskinnyconfidential.com now.  This episode is brought to you by RITUAL Forget everything you thought you knew about vitamins. Ritual is the brand that’s reinventing the experience with 9 essential nutrients women lack the most. If you’re ready to invest in your health, do what I did and go to www.ritual.com/skinny  Your future self will thank you for taking Ritual: Consider it your ‘Lifelong-Health-401k’. Why put anything but clean ingredients (backed by real science) in your body This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront No One is great at something the first time they try it. And if you’re unfamiliar with investing, getting started can be intimidating. Wealthfront does the work for you, so you can invest like an expert from the beginning. Wealthfront creates automated investment portfolios of diversified, low-cost index funds personalized for you. To open your account all you need is 3 minutes and $500 to invest. Right now you can visit www.wealthfront.com/skinny to get your first $5,000 managed for free.  This episode is brought to you by Manscaped This holiday season I’m giving thanks to my friends at MANSCAPED™. Do I tell my extended family that I bought my man the Performance Package 4.0. from the global leaders in below-the-waist grooming? I am in love with their products and his confidence has shot up since he started using them for all of his grooming needs. Gift your man MANSCAPED™ this holiday season so his tree stands taller if you know what I mean. Help him join the 2 million men worldwide who trust MANSCAPED™ with 20% off + free shipping with the code SKINNY by going to www.manscaped.com Produced by Dear Media   

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Steals and deals, steals and deals. We have a skinny confidential Black Friday deal for you. Get excited, you guys. We are doing 25% off site-wide. This includes kits. We try to be really thoughtful when we do sales, but of course, we're doing a Black Friday deal for you. So the start date is November 26th, Friday, and it goes until November 30th, Tuesday. So Monday night at 1159, okay? You can shop everything. There's no code needed. So you're going to go on.
Starting point is 00:00:39 And if you're going to get holiday gifts for your friends or your family, I would recommend picking up a couple of ice rollers, maybe the new razor. You could grab some ice queen oil. I like to use the oil after I've shaved my face because it's so nourishing and full of antioxidants. Everything kind of goes together too. So how I would use it is I would shave my face at night because I like shaving it at night, not in the morning because my skin isn't exposed to the sun. So I would shave my face at night because I like shaving it at night, not in the morning because my skin isn't exposed to the sun. So I would shave at night and then I would ice roll after I shaved to really soothe the skin. And then I would put the ice cream facial oil on top of that, go to bed. You're going to wake up with the most plump, dewy, youthful, glowy skin.
Starting point is 00:01:20 Obviously, if you have not tried the razor, try little patch on your face first We have tons of tutorials on how to shave your face on our instagram account at the skinny confidential And then when you wake up you can ice roll the fuck out of your face You can do your skincare routine do a little facial massage with the oil and you are good to go I really tried to create products with my team that make sense I don't want you stressing for the holiday season because I feel like stressing gives us wrinkles. So go on the site, shop all your holiday gifts. I know you're going to love everything. Grab it for your girlfriends, your friends, even dad's ice roll. Okay. That is shopskinnyconfidential.com.
Starting point is 00:02:00 She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. And you got to think, if everybody's saving for retirement, how much are you putting away investments and saving? This should be part of your retirement because it's going to pay you
Starting point is 00:02:30 dividends when you get to 60, 70, 80 years old. Because once you're there and you start trying to do stuff then, it's too late. Just like retirement. If you try to start investing when you're 80, you're out of luck. What's up, everyone? I am so excited for this episode. This episode of the Skinny Confidential Him and Her because we have Michael and my trainer from Austin. Brent Reska. Brent is on the show
Starting point is 00:02:57 and he is going to talk about weightlifting for women. This is a really exciting topic because I have to be honest, I was really scared of heavy lifting for a long time. And Brent has slowly introduced me to it since being in Austin. And I've noticed a really big change in my body. So we discussed that in this episode. And we also discussed Michael's experience. It's a very him and her podcast. Yeah. Over the years, I've trained with a lot of different people. And Brent,
Starting point is 00:03:24 and I give him a compliment on this show, is by far the best person and my most favorite person that I've ever trained with in terms of trainers, because he takes a very individual approach. He actually takes the time to get to know you not only from a physical perspective, but also personally. And he has a way of working with people where you constantly feel motivated, you feel empowered, you feel like you want to actually show up and train. And I think that's one of the biggest things is like getting people to actually feel excited and motivated to get in the gym,
Starting point is 00:03:51 start lifting weights. And, you know, long story short, I think our experience lifting weights and also doing it as a couple has been super empowering because it gave Lauren an outlet to try something new. And it also gave me an outlet to stay motivated and stay consistent.
Starting point is 00:04:06 I'm mixing in Pilates and lightweights too. And I walk a lot. I also do some intervals, not like long running, just intervals every once in a while. So I think this whole approach to fitness has been really empowering for me. Like Michael said,
Starting point is 00:04:20 I absolutely adore Brent as a person. He has made my husband's body rock hard. You look so good, honey. Like absolutely adore Brent as a person. He has made my husband's body rock hard. You look so good, honey. Absolutely amazing. Between Brent and you manscaping your balls, it's like a whole new world. Yeah, I'd say manscaping the balls is like 95% of it, but also, I'm just kidding, Brent.
Starting point is 00:04:37 No, I think I feel good. Your jeans don't even fit anymore. Yeah, well. Your muscles are like bursting at the seams. You got testosterone. Things are bigger in Texas, let me tell you, Brent, thank you for making things bigger in Texas. I feel tighter. You've really helped me with my postpartum journey. He's an incredible human. We talk about women in weightlifting, weightlifting in general, what to eat, proteins, nutrients, and plant medicine. This episode goes kind of everywhere. With that, let's welcome a certified professional trainer, Bodies by Brent,
Starting point is 00:05:11 who has been training for like the last 15 years. He's absolutely amazing. Brent, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Today we have Brent, my trainer from Austin in studio. I'm so excited to pick his brain on women and weightlifting. But first, I want to give the audience some context because over the three sessions that we do a week, I've got to learn a lot about you. Why don't you tell us a little bit how you got in to weightlifting and specifically with women? Because that is your expertise, I feel like. Well, I got into personal training back
Starting point is 00:05:50 in junior high. I was an overweight kid, stopped playing athletics. And I was an emotional eater. And it just kind of spiraled down from there. And I remember one summer entering high school, I decided to do a program called Body for Life. And it was a 90 day program. It's kind of like the original of P90X. Lift weights three days a week, do sprints three days a week, eat six small meals. The creator was Bill Phillips. He owned the supplement company EAS.
Starting point is 00:06:19 Do you remember that company? Yep. Yep. And they also created Muscle and Fitness magazine at the time. And when I read this book, I got super inspired because it was the stories in the book and the transformations. So one summer after being sick and tired of being overweight, I decided I'm just going to give myself fully into this experience and see what happens. I didn't know what was going to happen. And then on the other side of that experience, I had lost 50 pounds, but I didn't really know the true transformation
Starting point is 00:06:47 until I went back to high school the next year. And everybody's reflection towards me, their experience of me being there was like their jaws were on the ground. Losing 50 pounds and completely different. Before I was dressing like a fat overweight kid, wearing super baggy pants and weird Hawaiian shirts with like crazy hair, going to like boot cut pants,
Starting point is 00:07:09 nice button up shirt. So like complete 180. So when you say emotional eating, what do you think that was, what do you think the reason for that was? And how does that manifest itself? I was just depressed, anxious. So a lot of emotional eating is a way of trying to soothe your emotions through food,
Starting point is 00:07:26 right? And you can do this with anything, cigarettes, alcohol, zoning out on TV. So I was just in a place where as I was gaining weight, not doing exercise, I continued to gain weight. And then it spiraled where I was using food as a way of coping. So that experience, I felt and experienced what it's like to achieve something that I didn't think was possible. And being a very empathetic individual, I made a commitment and decision that I wanted to help people go through that experience. And was this the first time you made the decision to start taking care of yourself and get in shape? Was it an overnight thing or did you take a few tries? Or right when you made the decision,
Starting point is 00:08:19 I'm doing this and then you did it? Because I think that's something that people struggle with. There's a lot of people that want to make this decision and for whatever reason, they struggle to actually get there. I think I was just finally fed up with being overweight and feeling like shit, sick and tired of just being sad and depressed and just down. And it was just, I was like, I need to make a change. And it's like a switch went off in my head. And I remember going through the experience or before the experience thinking, I don't understand how to get in shape. I don't understand. I was trying keto or at the time it was Atkins and trying different methods. It was just complete like it made no sense of how you achieve getting this weight off.
Starting point is 00:09:01 And then when I went through that experience, I was like, oh my God, this is so powerful. And I wanted to be able to take other people through that experience. And I think the reason I train with women specifically is it comes from my mother, you know, her being so empathetic and being raised by her. She was always encouraging me to express my emotions and my feelings, right?
Starting point is 00:09:23 And I think I have a lot of her energy within me that I care very deeply about all beings. And so I think I connect very easily with women because of that connection with my mother. Can you remember the first epiphany or thing that started working with weight loss? Like it is very overwhelming. I know too, with our audience, because there's so much content being thrown at everyone all the time online. Was
Starting point is 00:09:52 there one thing that you can pinpoint where you're like, wow, I'm losing weight. This is working. I mean, when I first made the transformation, I didn't really know, right? I was lifting weights in my garage and doing intervals. But as I started to train people, it was when I started adding weight training and interval training and getting people to make small little changes that made the difference and focusing on feeling better and eating better. Why do you think women are so afraid of weight training? Because they are, including myself when I first met you. I think they have a perception that they're going to get much bigger, right? Which is kind of funny because it's the one thing that will change their body the most, right? Especially if they've never touched
Starting point is 00:10:34 weights. It's the thing that will really transform them. Most women come to me and they're under eating. They're doing way too much cardio. So their body's overstressed. And it's even more stress because they're under eating. So they're not even recovering from all the cardio they're doing. So they're burning off muscle all the time. And they might be doing something like Pilates or barre, but it's not enough resistance to keep them building muscle or really losing that body fat. So the funny thing with changing your body is you need intensity
Starting point is 00:11:04 and you need stress in thing with changing your body is you need intensity and you need stress in order to change your body. But it's a balance. Too little, you don't really get a change. Too much, you won't really change either. Or you push yourself over the edge of being too high cortisol. You're inflamed. You don't feel good. So it's this balance. So when somebody comes in, you need to assess where they are. Have they been overstressing themselves or are they not stressed enough? And then that weight training component seems to be,
Starting point is 00:11:33 it's the appropriate amount of stress to get them to change, but it doesn't push their cortisol crazy over the edge. Like for example, as I train women, as they get much older, more and more they start shifting away from any high intensity cardio, the more they only lift weights. It's like a spectrum. 20 year olds are doing all this spin class
Starting point is 00:11:52 and boot camps and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And as they, 30s, 40s, they start transitioning more and more and more to weights because they finally realize it's the fountain of youth. It's going to thing that's going to keep them functional and feeling good, but it's going to keep them looking good in their clothes and their jeans and keep their skin tight and their physique looking good. Because women have very low amounts of testosterone in their body. Very, very low. So a man ranges anywhere from 300 to 1200 nanograms. Females
Starting point is 00:12:21 anywhere from 15 nanograms to 70 nanograms. If a guy's around 600 to 300, he's considered like low T, right? If a guy's low T, it's super hard for him to put on muscle. In addition, if he's not eating enough calories, right? So if my testosterone was around 300 and I wasn't eating enough calories, no matter how hard or heavy I lifted, I'm not going to build any muscle. Meaning like, so what you're saying is there's this myth and illusion that a lot of women have where if they weightlift, they're going to put on all this massive bulkiness.
Starting point is 00:12:53 But what you're saying, because of the testosterone levels, I don't want to say it's impossible, but it's really difficult for them to get that kind of like bulkiness that a man would get. Exactly. Your testosterone levels are like a prepubescent boy. So that's a very challenging thing. Now, if you've been a woman and you've trained five, six years, heavyweights and whatnot, and then you come to me and you're like, I don't want my quads to get any bigger. You have the
Starting point is 00:13:14 right now to tell me that because you've trained so much and you've developed your physique so much, you truly understand like, okay, I can change these things. I don't want my quads bigger. I don't want this bigger. For me with you, when I came to you, I said two things. The first thing was I do not like bootcamp or spin. I think, and you mentioned this earlier, I think it ups my cortisol and I'm very intuitive with my cortisol. When Michael turns the lights on in the morning too bright, I want to stab him. With bootcamp and spin, I feel like I don't want to be yelled at and have this loud music that's pounding. I think it gives me belly fat.
Starting point is 00:13:52 And also, I was doing a lot of low, low, low intensity because of that, like Pilates and like super light workouts. But there was something in me that felt like I needed to add weights. And you are right. Once I added weights, I have been told by my photographer who takes pictures of me that my body looks completely different and by the girl that spray tans me naked. So I know that it is working. But one thing that fucks you up, and I would love for you to speak on this, is I have gained weight, but I look fitter and my jeans are falling off me.
Starting point is 00:14:25 That is the mind fuck that everyone doesn't get. Can you explain that? What was the weight change? The weight change was probably like five to six pounds depending on the day. But it's scary when you step on the scale and it's five or six pounds heavier when you've been working your ass off, not raising your cortisol though, because weightlifting does not raise my cortisol. It makes me calm, but my genes are falling off and people are telling me I look more fit. So it's hard to conceptualize that. It's because you weren't training with weights or enough resistance, you were deconditioned
Starting point is 00:15:06 and you lost all your muscle. And so in that first month or two, you start putting back. So I always tell women that start training with me, you're going to probably gain five pounds in the first month or so. Then it will level off and then it might come back down
Starting point is 00:15:20 depending on how much weight you have to lose. So you're putting on more muscle and. So you're putting on more muscle. And just because you're putting on more muscle doesn't mean it's getting bigger. You can get much more dense and more and more dense. Well, that's what I was going to say and interject. I think there's this notion that if you gain, especially as women, you gain weight, it's this bad thing because you're expected to be a certain size and a certain weight. But muscle, correct me if I'm wrong, is more dense than fat. And so as you build more muscle, it's inevitable that you're going to gain weight, but it's a good weight gain.
Starting point is 00:15:58 I don't have a lot of things out on my bathroom vanity, but I do have Ritual. And you guys, if you have not tried it, you are missing out. They are the multivitamin company you know and trust. I know I trust them. They also just launched a protein powder. I am so intimidated by protein powders because I feel like they're full of added shit, to be honest with you. And I knew when Ritual launched a delicious plant-based protein that it would be legit. And of course it is. The ingredients are everything you could want. What it does is it's made with traceable ingredients. So you know what you're putting in your body and why. And they also have this supply chain, which I think is really cool. So you know where the ingredients come from. There's so many protein powders on the market that you're just like, where did this come from? What is this random name?
Starting point is 00:16:50 They also wanted to create something clean. So it's clean plant-based and it supports the nutrients needs, of course, because they're a multivitamin company. So they get it. It has 20 grams of pea protein plus a complete amino acid profile. I like to take this after I work out. So if I'm doing weights, I feel like it really helps me build muscle tone. And what I'll do is two scoops, almond milk, ice, cacao, and then I'll mix it up. Sometimes I do half a banana. I also am really into this protein powder because it has a good taste. That's important to me. I don't want to eat chalk. Okay. It's a delicious handcrafted vanilla flavor made direct from farmer vanilla bean extract. And it's sustainably harvest in Madagascar. So no big deal. Of course, no added sugar or
Starting point is 00:17:36 sugar alcohols and it's soy-free, gluten-free and formulated with non-GMO ingredients. So why not shake up your ritual to make trying something new less scary? Ritual offers a money-back guarantee if you're not 100% in love. Plus, our listeners get 10% off during your first three months. You are going to visit ritual.com slash skinny to add essential protein today. That's ritual.com slash skinny. I know, but you know, you've worked with a lot of women that that can be really difficult. So maybe you could just settle the audience's stress about that. Yeah. Maybe avoid looking at the scale for the first three months or so. That's why I always encourage women, like if you really want to look at the scale, you can, but let's just pay attention to how you feel in your clothing. Your clothing,
Starting point is 00:18:28 because at the end of the day, that's the end game, right? I was paying attention to how I felt in doggy style. Yeah, me too. But, oh, you and doggy. Okay, let me. But, you know, I think like, speaking of how you feel, you you know there's different people that have different perspectives on this conversation about you know weight loss, fitness all these things but one topic that comes up on this show all the time is confidence
Starting point is 00:18:54 and how do you build confidence and where does it come from and what I always try to tell people personally and on this show is that if you're not taking care of yourself and holding promises to yourself and keeping yourself accountable personally, before you even start worrying about the external stuff, it's almost impossible to develop confidence.
Starting point is 00:19:13 A lot of people want to be like, how can I be more confident as a public speaker? How can I be more confident in business? How can I be more confident in dating? But if you're not actually taking care of yourself and holding yourself accountable and being the best version of yourself, I tell people it's almost impossible to develop external confidence because internally, you know you're not doing what you couldn't be doing for yourself. Yeah, that's why focusing on how you feel and improving your health and well-being will
Starting point is 00:19:38 change your life because that's the first foundational thing that you need in order to whatever, create a successful business or have good relationships. If you don't feel good or you don't feel like shit, it can only get to a certain place in that relationship in a positive way, right? And especially for women, lifting weights, as guys, we've been guys in movies or muscular,
Starting point is 00:20:03 and we're always taught since junior high, like high school, lift weights, blah, blah, blah. Not a lot of women are encouraged to do that. And then when they experience, and that's another why it's fun to train women. When they experience it and they see themselves get stronger and how confident they become to move around furniture or like lug their kids around or whatever it is,
Starting point is 00:20:22 they're super empowered. And it's very amazing. And then they fall in love with it. Not only the changes that they see, but the confidence and the empowerment that it brings. Because like Jordan Peterson, he has like a chapter about holding your shoulders back and how it actually affects your physiology.
Starting point is 00:20:41 If you stand up tall versus slouch, well, if you're training weights, your structure, your posture is going to be much more upright, good posture. And that's going to change your perception of yourself. Yeah. And I personally, I feel like, and Lord, I don't know if you've experienced this, but when you're moving a bunch of heavy, relatively heavy shit around, depending on what level you're at, to me, it's one of the best killers of stress and anxiety because you're getting all of that kind of like aggression and pent up energy out. And so, you know, if you do that in the morning or the evening, I feel like you sleep better, you work better, you eat better, like all of these
Starting point is 00:21:15 things. It's like, it's a very foundational thing. And whenever in my personal life, I get away from weights, you know, we've talked about this, you know, you get into yoga, there's different, there's all sorts of different things you can do. But I've found over the last 30 something years, when I get away from weights, that's when all that stuff starts to creep back, anxiety, stress, fear, like all of those things that the weights I feel like kind of keep off. Exactly. Weights can have a very calming effect to the nervous system. And yeah, very calming effect to the nervous system where women, if they're doing a lot of high intensity cardio all the time,
Starting point is 00:21:49 it can feel good, but it starts to spin up even more cortisol and it can throw their hormones super out of whack where for whatever reason, weight training or resistance training seems to help balance or be much easier on women's hormone profiles. I can't tell you exactly why, but that's what I typically notice. And the thing with weights is you can titrate it. You know, how one woman lifts versus another, like Lauren versus another one of my clients,
Starting point is 00:22:15 is going to be a completely different session. But the key principle or the thing that continues through all the different training sessions is they're going to be doing some kind of resistance training, right? Some respond much better lifting very heavy with lots of sets and no exercises paired together. Maybe Lauren does better combining three leg exercises together and staying a little bit lighter in weights.
Starting point is 00:22:39 But no matter what, you're all progressing slightly in strength, adding weight over time, and that's changing your body. But everyone's very individual. And as you start to dabble in strength, adding weight over time, and that's changing your body. But everyone's very individual. And as you start to dabble in it, you can tweak things. And I think that's what your listeners should do is start to be curious. Okay, I'm going to commit to doing resistance training.
Starting point is 00:22:55 And start to reflect after each session, does this feel good? Does this not feel good? Does my coach, is he listening to me? Do I want to do more barbell stuff or dumbbell stuff? Or maybe I just want to go to cables only. Or maybe I want to stay with body weight. And how do I feel? Each week, am I feeling better and stronger? Or am I feeling run down and beat up? And I think that's a good question to ask yourself with anything doing with fitness and wellness is
Starting point is 00:23:19 you should continually be asking like plus or minus. should I continue going this way a little more or not, right? Cluing in on your body's feedback towards you. Same with nutrition. One of my things when I started working out with you was I didn't want to be in a sterile gym. I didn't want bright DMV lights shining down on us. And I wanted to keep things low cortisol. What do you think the
Starting point is 00:23:47 environment does to play into these women working out? Do you think it's important? Because for me, it's a complete energy shift. I think it's nice to train an environment that's like a sanctuary. If you can find a place to train where it's almost like a yoga studio, or you can just focus on yourself. The thing with like really big gyms is a lot of your external focus is outside of yourself. You're focused on dude over there doing lap pulls down the machine, right?
Starting point is 00:24:19 Or super pounding loud music. I like to treat weight training like a meditation, you know, and allowing the person to have whatever experience they need to have, whether it is they want to play super loud, you know, 90s gangster hip hop, or in my case. Do you like listen to Tupac?
Starting point is 00:24:39 No, we listen to heavy metal. So like, yeah. You do? Yeah. And we listen to- Hermanos Gutierrez and Bossa Nova and Smooth Jazz. I'm sure you said Hermanos Gutierrez wrong, but okay. But yeah, I can't get down with Smooth Jazz when I'm trying to do a squat. I want super low, low, low. But listen, it's your thing. But
Starting point is 00:25:00 no, I think that the problem that I have with the big gym sometimes is it, again, it's to your point, it's kind of like a social scene sometimes, right? No, no, no. I can't be running into Susie from high school. I can't be doing that. I can't even go lift at big gyms. I don't want to deal with, I already am around a lot of energy, which I enjoy. But the last thing I need to do is, you know, be having more eyes on me or getting distracted while I'm trying to like get in a state where I'm focusing on my training, making that mind muscle connection. Also the parking in the parking lot and going up the elevator, having to talk to the front desk people and all this stuff. It's like, I want to look like
Starting point is 00:25:40 a homeless slob too when I work out. I know that Michael's all about like leaving the house looking prim and proper. But when I work out, like I'm running outb too when I work out. I know that Michael's all about like leaving the house looking prim and proper. But when I work out, like I'm running out the door. I just took care of the baby. Like I got to go. Like sometimes I'm in my pajamas. You never know. The point is, is I'm getting it done and finding a way to make it happen.
Starting point is 00:25:55 I don't want to dress up. Sometimes I'll, you know, I'll put on like a tight Lululemon that boosts the ass if I'm working out with Michael. But sometimes I just want to just come as I am. Do you know what I mean? And just be a slob about it. Yeah. Just be in your own space without having to worry about being any other way than yourself. I would love to talk about the sort of prescription. I put that in quotes that you gave to me because I have seen this in my DMs and I think a lot of women feel
Starting point is 00:26:25 the similar way. I came to you and said I wanted like long lean muscle. How did you start me out? If someone wants to like tell their trainer if they live in Massachusetts, like what I think that you were saying that you gave me like a lighter weight with more reps. Can you sort of explain that? And then also explain what you did for Michael, which was a completely different prescription. Well, when you showed up, you could tell you were worn out. Yeah. You were, you were tired. I was tired. Yeah. You were tired. So we had to be very, we had to be very gentle with you. Right. So we stuck with mostly cable stuff to get you moving, to let you feel good. Because the goal of every session is, you know, you should leave feeling built up and feeling good.
Starting point is 00:27:07 You should feel an abundance of energy, but tired. If you're feeling completely drained every single session, it's going to wear you out over time. So starting very light, and as you started to do out things I prescribed outside the gym, you know, continuing to do your walks, you know, changing your food,
Starting point is 00:27:24 trying to get your cortisol. You were meditating. I mean, you were super on everything. Over time, her energy builds up, her strength builds up. Now we can throw in more dumbbell type stuff. If I had a recommendation for what you should have your trainer do. Or even if you're working out alone,
Starting point is 00:27:41 because some people won't have access. I would focus on two to three times a week doing full body or splitting it upper and lower. And I would just, you know, three sets, 12 to 15 reps and pair exercises together. So I think that's another thing you should actually touch on a two to three times. So I think a lot of people are sitting here thinking,
Starting point is 00:28:00 okay, you know, like they work out daily or, you know, five days a week. I think one of the benefits of lifting heavy weights is it doesn't have to be a daily thing. You and I personally, we train what, three days a week only. And there's at least two or three days a week where I'm taking pretty much completely off outside of walks and just basic stuff.
Starting point is 00:28:22 I spend a good amount of time not only for the Skinny Confidential, but the entire Dear Media Network going through analytics, seeing what people actually like, what they want to learn more about in financial advice, financial savviness, saving advice, investing advice keeps coming up to the top of the list. And I think that's because it's an area that affects all of our lives. All of us want to know how to be more financially savvy, be more responsible, make more, save more, take care of our families, which is why I love this partnership with Wealthfront, especially for new
Starting point is 00:28:50 and long-term investors, people that are really looking to start setting some money aside, which again, I highly recommend that you do. We did a financial episode and I said in that episode that it's really important to take a portion of your income, whether it doesn't have to be so big, but just some portion and set it aside for investing and saving for your future. Once you get into the habit of doing this, you're going to over time just become better and better at saving. It's going to become a natural thing. And next thing you know, you're sitting on a nice nest egg that's going to protect you and your family for your future. So what can you invest in through Wealthfront? Something that I've talked about, something that I give advice for every young person looking to jump in, and that is low cost
Starting point is 00:29:22 index funds. That's what I invest in. That's what Lauren invests in. That's what we put the majority of our portfolio in. Super easy to understand. You can also build, you know, using Wealthfront, you can build a portfolio with clean energy fund, cannabis, tech, hundreds of other investments. But again, low index funds is where I would start. Wealthfront even offers socially responsible portfolio mixes
Starting point is 00:29:41 with human rights, climate change, sustainability, and diversity. So they really have something for everybody. Best of all, Wealthfront is totally automated. They do all the trading, all the rebalancing, and they even help you lower your tax bill while you invest. Wealthfront is trusted with over $27 billion in assets, helping nearly half a million people build their wealth. So you know you can rely on it. You can trust it. Get your first $5,000 managed for free for life by going to wealthfront.com slash skinny to start building your wealth and get your first $5,000 managed for free for life.
Starting point is 00:30:11 Again, go to wealthfront.com slash skinny. That's W-E-A-L-T-H-F-R-O-N-T dot com slash skinny to start building your wealth now. That's wealthfront.com slash skinny and get started today. Yeah. So again, to change your body, you need stress, but you need to recover from the stress or you're not going to change your body. You're going to push yourself into a hole. So training two to three days a week is perfect. I only see clients two to three days a week. I don't see clients four days a week. And if I did, I would do something where it was based on recovery or yoga or breathing or we'd go on a walk or something recovery because I want them when they show up
Starting point is 00:30:51 to be able to give intensity and each time be progressing those workouts, each time adding a couple more reps or adding a little bit more weight. And that's the key is if you have a coach or you're training on your own, progressive overload or progression more weight. And that's the key is if you have a coach or you're training on your own, you know, progressive overload or, you know, progression is the most important thing you can do to change your body. And it just has to be something subtle. So if you're doing three sets of 12 lunges,
Starting point is 00:31:15 body weight, then adding fives and trying three sets of 12 and then letting your body adapt that for a couple workouts and then trying adding a little bit more or pairing two exercises together or maybe you add a fourth set or you shorten the rest but something needs to be slightly pushing you forward and that's how we started to change you is find that base that you can handle very subtly also as i'm taking you through a session i'm trying to learn your body learn what feels good and as you communicate to me, like, I don't like this. I like this. So we can just kind of naturally, you're guiding me where we can go as I push you at the same time. Now you can use a barbell where before, if I tried to get you to use a barbell, it'd be incredibly inappropriate. You'd be like, this is too fucking much. I'm out of here.
Starting point is 00:32:01 This is too crazy. What are you doing? And you'd be overwhelmed and it'd be too much for your body because you weren't in that place. So what's the difference between me and Michael, like the fundamental difference when you weight train, maybe goals, goals. Okay. So what, maybe may speak on that. So Michael's goal is put on, well, so I wanted to put on weight. I wanted to put on muscle mass, like for me because you wanted a pumping penis full of testosterone yeah well I actually need a reduction there no I'm just kidding no I wanted I felt like
Starting point is 00:32:33 you know the last few years or the last two years especially the pandemic has been stressful a lot of people have not been taking as much care of themselves as they should and I noticed that I had lost weight but in a way where it just felt unhealthy for me right like not a healthy weight loss. And with the, with the kid and chasing her around and Lauren, I was like, okay, I want to be able to like put some strength on
Starting point is 00:32:51 again and put some muscle mass so I could just feel more natural in my frame. So like our goal was completely different than yours because you were trying to tone and tighten up and I was trying to bulk up, right? Intentionally get bigger. Also your, your genetics and your background from when you were a little kid, what you did plays a big role in that. Yep. You've been lifting for a long time. Yeah, no. And I think that's worth noting on because for me, it's kind of like getting back on
Starting point is 00:33:16 the bicycle, right? You can lose it, but it's more natural. Where something that's not as natural and what we've talked about, that's a struggle to not... So I'm not painting a picture like I'm just like great in shape guys i struggle with things like yoga and like the pilates stuff like that's something i have to really work on because my body just i never did it when i was younger i think that's the same kind of correlation here for maybe men and women that have never lifted weights if you've never done it it feels like this foreign extremely difficult
Starting point is 00:33:40 thing to do um but if like reverse for me like when I jump into yoga or stuff with you guys, like I'm lost. Baby, you in a yoga position sets me over the edge. It's bleak. Yeah. I have a difficult time with all the like the hum he had stuff, you know, I just want to get the stretches in. Yeah. But he needs yoga. He does need yoga. I have a difficult time with the community stuff. Or float tank. You just do float tank. I like the float tank a lot. Yeah. I'm going to throw you in those for like two hours when you get stressed. I know that you're big on recovery. We've talked about that.
Starting point is 00:34:11 Can you talk about some tools in the recovery toolbox? Sleep, sex, walks, intervals. What's in your recovery toolbox? I mean, the basic is always walks. Walks, walks, walks. If you can do a walk first thing in the morning, even if it's just for 10 minutes, that is such a good way to get your mind into a relaxed day, your body into a relaxed day, and also kind of do a scan of like, how am I feeling
Starting point is 00:34:37 today? How should I work out today? What intensity should I be giving? And it is such a good way to lower your cortisol while burning calories into addition of all the other mindfulness benefits that you get from walking. So everybody should be walking. Now, if you can go into something more, float tanks are obviously one of my favorites. You love, what was your first float tank experience? Well, so to describe, I mean, some people that don't know what a float tank is,
Starting point is 00:35:10 you go in and what is this? Basically water with a shitload of salt. It's a deprivation tank, right? So you're going to take any stimulus away. So sight, sound, and even the feeling of gravity. Yeah, and Lorne and I had two different experiences with it. Like for me, I went in there and you can paint a picture. You go in, you can have a few lights on,
Starting point is 00:35:30 you can have a little music or you can make it completely pitch black and have no sound. I went straight into the black, no sound. I didn't love the black. It felt like I was going to be murdered. And also I meditate all the time and you don't. So I think that I get to get still. But the most important thing for me with the float tank
Starting point is 00:35:44 was that you have to wash your hair after. Yeah. And that's like telling both of you that you have to wax your whole body, including your butthole. So it's overwhelming to wash my hair. That's what it feels like for you to wash your hair. It's painful torture. I try never to wash my hair. I mean, if I knew that that was the kind of mental exercise you put yourself through, I would have been a lot more understanding. So speak on why Float Tank is one of your recovery tools. So when I was back in Seattle, a year ago I moved to Austin, but back in Seattle, I was working all the time,
Starting point is 00:36:16 6 a.m. till 8 p.m. at night. And it got to the point where I wasn't working out and I couldn't get my cortisol down. Like I would try to go to sleep at night and my roommates would tell me I would sometimes scream in the middle of the night because my nervous system was so amped up. I would literally yell in the middle of night
Starting point is 00:36:34 and make crazy noises and then make fun of me. And I needed sleep. So you get in this chronic cycle. You're drinking caffeine, you're working a lot. You don't have any energy to actually work out, but how am I going to get this stress offloaded right because you work out to burn some stress and so i started floating and it wasn't until like the third or fourth time i really experienced this deep relaxed state and it's it's almost it's a cheat code it's a hack for switching yourself from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state.
Starting point is 00:37:06 It just switches you into a relaxed state. The research is it puts you into a theta state, those brain waves that take you into that deep relaxation where you can have intense visualizations. And once you're in that state, it's very hard. If I were to float in the morning, I would be so zenned out the rest of the day to the point where I would be spacing out during clients. So that was the thing I would do at the end of the day and I could go home and I would actually finally pass out. As we're talking about this, I'm thinking there's a segment of the audience that's going
Starting point is 00:37:40 to say, okay, this all sounds great, but how much does it cost for a trainer? How much does it cost for a float tank? Oh, this is all expensive stuff. And they're almost going to talk themselves out of it. I'm kind of maybe attacking these people. But my answer to the people that are thinking like that is when I started making the switch and saying, okay, I'm going to spend some money on a float tank, or I'm going to spend some money on a vitamin IV, or I'm going to spend some money on training. I was replacing things like going out and drinking excessively with friends or buying something I didn't need or going on some kind of crazy trip or time with friends. And I think a lot of people look at this stuff and they say, well, this is all expensive,
Starting point is 00:38:14 but they also have a difficult time auditing. What else are you spending your money on that's also unnecessary, right? These are things that I think further your life, make you a better person, make you or put you in a better state of mind, build confidence, all of these things. So to me, it's worth investing. And hot tip, if you can't float, go in your room, turn the lights on dim and meditate. That's free.
Starting point is 00:38:34 Totally. But I don't want to pay the... Listen, a lot of this stuff does cost money, right? And you got to pay the normal bills. But it's an investment into yourself where a night out getting shit-faced with friends, maybe not. And you got to think,
Starting point is 00:38:48 if everybody's saving for retirement, how much are you putting away investments and saving? This should be part of your retirement because it's going to pay you dividends when you get to 60, 70, 80 years old. Because once you're there and you start trying to do stuff then, it's too late.
Starting point is 00:39:04 Just like retirement. If you try to start investing when you're 80, you're out of luck. That was that. I did this post the other day. And to me, I always have to figure out a reason. What's the motivation? To me, I'm married. I'm happy.
Starting point is 00:39:15 I'm past the point of the vain reasons. I'm not doing this because I'm worried about what other people think I look like. But I started looking at some older people that I have in my life and the relationship they have with their kids. And like, these are relatively still young people that are in horrible health. This one group I'm talking about. And I was thinking like,
Starting point is 00:39:33 you have all the money in the world and all these resources, but you're so unhealthy. You're not going to be here to, hopefully you are, but you're most likely not going to be here for the long haul to see your kids grow. And for me, like, I want to be that dad that,
Starting point is 00:39:43 you know, the kids have to keep up with, not the other way around where I'm wheezing and huffing and puffing. And so just that alone is like, okay, replace some of the bad habits and invest in the good habits, especially saving for retirement if you're not going to be around to enjoy it, meaning you're not going to be on the planet. What's the point? Exactly. And focusing on your health as you're having kids, you're going to instill those habits and that way of thinking into them. And then it's going to be so much easier for them. If they're around their parents and they're at their trainer's training session, or their mom always goes on a long walk in the morning, that's going to be a habit that they're going to do with their own kids. And they don't have to,
Starting point is 00:40:19 when they're hit 30 or 40, try to relearn a lot of that stuff. So I'll tell some women, you're also doing this for your children. If you're losing hope on, why am I doing this for myself? Think about your kids. Think about the food you bring in your house. Yeah. I think a lot of the self-help people in this space, sometimes people zone out because it's like, they're trying to, you'll be happy, do this. You're not going to be happy if you don't feel healthy and accountable to yourself right like you're like you can you know love yourself all of these things but if you're unhealthy and not feeling good like it's it's just kind of horseshit right you have to be in a healthy state of
Starting point is 00:40:55 mind in a healthy body to be able to enjoy these things you know what's tight, Lauren? What? Bet you can't guess. What? My shave. And not my shave on my face, but my shave down below. Thank you for letting us know that, Michael. You know what's hairless this Christmas? What?
Starting point is 00:41:17 Balls. Not the balls on the tree, Michael. Your balls. Merry Christmas. Thank God. Thank God for Manscaped. Literally, thank God for them coming in and disrupting all you guys' sick ass hairy balls. I am so happy to be working with them and I am so happy to tell all of our listeners the gift that keeps on giving to get for their husbands, their boyfriends, their dad, their grandpa, their great-grandpa.
Starting point is 00:41:49 Great-grandpa needs to shave his balls too, Michael. So let me tell you about the Performance Package 4.0 by Manscaped. In this kit, you'll find the Signature Lawnmower 4.0. Thank God, it's this electric trimmer that has advanced skin-safe technology. So you're not going to get a bunch of cuts on your balls, guys. Let me tell you, I can speak firsthand experience. This is why I like the Manscaped stuff because I'm not going to get a bunch of cuts on your balls. Let me tell you, I can speak firsthand experience. This is why I like the Manscaped stuff because I'm not going to lie. Well, some of the other stuff I was using before Manscaped, you get some nicks in there and some blood and it's not a pretty sight down below, as you can imagine. You know what else isn't a pretty sight? Doing it over the toilet, which is why I'm so excited to announce that they also have a waterproof situation. So you can use it in
Starting point is 00:42:21 the shower and not over my toilet, Michael. You know I have a little bit of shaky hands. So just in case I am standing over the toilet, I can hold on to this thing. And if I do drop it, then it's fine. I know it's safe. The performance package also includes the Crop Preserver and the Crop Reviver. And this is an anti-chafing ball deodorant, moisturizer, and toner. I'm going to get this for all my guy friends because guess what? Not only do we want things to be clipped and trimmed down there, we want things to smell good. There's nothing worse than a cheesy ball.
Starting point is 00:42:49 You should know that they're giving everyone 20% off plus free shipping with code skinny at manscaped.com. If you want, you could just turn this ad up around your husband or boyfriend and give him a little hinty hint. That is 20% off and free shipping with code skinny at manscaped.com. 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use code skinny. Get your man, your grandpa, your dad a gift
Starting point is 00:43:11 that everyone will enjoy. The gift of manscape. And that was the practice of like yoga. Yoga is this eight limbs. And the goal is, you know, reaching this samadhi, this spiritual enlightenment where you're one with everything. But the first couple limbs are like the asana, the physical practice. And the point of that is to create good health,
Starting point is 00:43:37 to balance your nervous system, and to be able to sit into meditation posture and do breath work to help balance your health. Because if you're not healthy, you can't pursue these higher levels of spiritual development. So health is the foundational cornerstone. So quickly to the audience, if you could, spark notes, five things that they can do tomorrow to lower their cortisol. Go on a walk, focus on your breathing, set a timer, five, 10 minutes,
Starting point is 00:44:08 just literally five seconds in, five seconds out. You can put on music if you want. That works too. Drink more water. Start writing down what you're eating and start to be curious about resistance training. What are the benefits of weightlifting as you get older? Because I know there's lots and lots of benefits.
Starting point is 00:44:31 Well, as you get older, all of us start to lose our hormones. Our testosterone starts to go down. And it helps keep for women that testosterone high. And you living a long time, they show that the stronger you are and you living a long time, they show that the stronger you are and the more muscle you have, the longer your life expectancy.
Starting point is 00:44:52 So that's a good way of predicting someone's longevity is their strength and their muscle mass. They did these hand strength tests where they would squeeze these things and people that were able to squeeze and produce more strength lived longer. So, because you think if you fall down and break your hip, you're going to start pulling calories
Starting point is 00:45:13 from your muscle and your fat. If you're very skinny and weak and you're in bed for three weeks and you're 80 years old, it's going to be very hard to recover from, right? It's going to keep you functional. It's going to keep you armored. So if you get sick or fall down, you're not going to hurt yourself, especially for women. Keeping their bones strong is extremely important, right? If you get older
Starting point is 00:45:34 and you fall and trying to recover from something takes so much longer. So it's a way of fortifying your body, but also it helps keep the skin tight so it's not drooping because you want to keep that muscle mass and that layer of fat and muscle small so it stays tight against you. That's one of the biggest things. You don't want saggy old person butt, right? The best way to do it is you got to keep lifting weights. So the more you can build muscle now and then preserve it as you get older, the better you're going to look. That's why I get scared of running. This is my personal opinion for myself because I feel like it sags my skin if you were doing it for long distance. We do intervals. We try to do them once a week for 30 minutes, which I don't think is going to sag my skin. But I think if I were to continue to run every single day for like an hour a day, I do think it would sag my skin.
Starting point is 00:46:26 And I'm talking about all skin. If you're a guy, like your balls are on the floor. Like for me, like my boobs are too big to run for an hour a day. I just feel like it's sagging and drooping my skin. Am I crazy? I honestly have no idea. But I don't like running. I'm not a big fan of any any long endurance stuff like running. You're
Starting point is 00:46:46 out in the weather, you're getting your skin beat up, but most runners that come to me are people that love running. Their bodies are so messed up. Their knees are messed up. They don't feel good. They burn off a bunch of muscle. They probably had a bunch of different knee surgeries where when you sprint, the reason sprints are great is because it's at such a higher intensity. So you're contracting your muscle at a higher amount. So it's like you're doing resistance training. So I feel like you're supporting the joints more. Where when you're jogging, it's like a light contraction.
Starting point is 00:47:17 You're just pounding, pounding, and pounding, and pounding. Where you're contracting, you're fully supporting. Like when you lift weights, right? There's no super high impact. So it's much more natural, I think, as a human being to do sprints. Let's talk about food. I know that you're not a nutritionist, but I'm sure you've seen a lot of different things. We have a lot of women listeners. Are there any little quick tips that you can recommend to our women listeners? For instance, you know, should protein, we eat it like in a certain amount of time after a workout. You told me the other day, you're like a great way to get protein in when you don't feel like it is bone broth. What are those little tactics that you give a lot of your women clients?
Starting point is 00:47:58 I think the first step for most women is to get their grams of protein up around their body weight ish or minimum like 100 grams. In general, I think women aren't eating enough protein in general, especially if you're training. If you're not training, I'm not sure. But if you're training, you're starting to work out, that's a good thing to do, where protein helps rebuild the muscle tissue, creates satiety so you feel full. And that's a good strategy, especially if you're going to start getting into resistance training. And then start tracking your food and slowly adding protein. So
Starting point is 00:48:32 if this feels super overwhelming, write down or track what you're eating and just see if you can add another 10 or 20 grams. And simple things like bone broth, that's usually another 10, 15 grams of protein. You can buy something from Whole Foods. You don usually another 10, 15 grams of protein. You can buy something from Whole Foods. You don't even have to go to a shop. It's easy way to kind of sip it and get it down. Just a little bit more protein can make a huge difference. I like protein for killing sweet tooth too.
Starting point is 00:48:57 Totally. Right, like you get that. I don't know if you noticed this since you started having more protein, but like whenever you're sitting, like maybe you get late at night or early in the morning, you get that like sweet tooth,
Starting point is 00:49:04 like I'm gonna maybe make a bad decision or eat something I shouldn't. If you have a little bit of protein, Lauren, but like whenever you're sitting, like maybe you get late at night or early in the morning, you get that like sweet tooth, like I'm going to maybe make a bad decision or eat something I shouldn't. If you have a little bit of protein, like it kills it. Like the cookie that you brought me in bed last night. Yeah, I said I actually wanted that cookie. Yeah, but I said go get the fucking cookie. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:16 Yeah, YouTube has like a million different ways to make protein ice creams, protein smoothies. And that's what I'll do too. Yeah, that sweet craving can help. And then that protein creates satiety or fullness. and you wait 20 minutes and you're like, oh, I guess I don't really... You don't really want the other thing. Yeah, I don't need another thing. So I would explore different protein powders. Ask your friends. A good place is Clean Label Project. They tested I think over 134 different protein powders for like pesticides, lead and so on and
Starting point is 00:49:44 they rate five stars to one star what are good protein powders for like pesticides, lead, and so on. And they rate five stars to one star what are good protein powders. So find whichever one works for you, whether it's vegan or beef or eggs. And my recommendation would be try to cycle the different proteins, maybe by two different kinds. So you're not always eating one like egg or always eating vegan, just because it seems that when you have one protein all the time, you can develop an allergy. I can't say this for sure, but it seems clients over the years, that's what can happen. And maybe even for myself, cycling, it seems to be a little bit better. Maybe do one tub, then switch to another when you run out.
Starting point is 00:50:18 I feel like I slightly manipulated you into working out with Brent and maybe a little bit into your wellness journey. If you're not going to give me any credit, that's fine. No, I had nothing to do with it. Okay. Anyways, next question. No, I would like you to talk about your wellness journey a little bit because you've completely changed your body for anyone who's listening that's married or has a boyfriend. I would love for you guys to sort of discuss that. Well, no, I think... You were looking good naked today. Oh, good. I'm glad someone's noticing. Everything was looking tight.
Starting point is 00:50:49 I didn't... You didn't really take any action, but all right. No. Well, the baby was like basically trying to break in the room. We're at that age now where you can't... Baby can't be there anymore. There was a period of time where you could get things done with the baby. Now it'd be really fucking awkward. With her big eyes. Can you imagine? Now child protective services. you can't do that. But no, I think again, like I've gone through waves and I think over the course of time,
Starting point is 00:51:12 people's motivations change. And you know, when I'm younger, obviously, like anytime you start working out, and you're younger, it's like, one, it's maybe a confidence builder. It's probably a little bit of a vain reason, right? Like everybody wants to look good. And you know, in my case, like attract the opposite sex. But then over time, like what happened with me was
Starting point is 00:51:28 it started to feel redundant and boring, right? Like, you know, I've been weight training on and off since I was 12 years old. So I have that, but I kind of started lagging because I just didn't have the motivation anymore. I think that happens to a lot of men and women as they get older, right? Like in a relationship, they get comfortable. That's one of the worst things, which I'll sidebar. I seen a lot of my friends, they get older, right? They get in a relationship, they get comfortable. That's one of the worst things, which I'll sidebar. I've seen a lot of my friends, they get in relationships and they just fully let it go because they're not out there hunting anymore. And then I think as you lose that motivation and get comfortable with someone, you just kind of keep lagging, lagging. And then over time, you just stop, right? You just stop
Starting point is 00:51:59 putting in the work. But when I had the kid, I said, okay, like I need to be healthy and around, especially, you know, with young kid as you're carrying them around, like Lauren's not carrying as much as me. So I was like, I got to get strength. But yeah, I mean, like I credit both of you a lot, Lauren, for, you know, getting me back into it and being a good example. But you also, and I've given you this compliment privately, like are probably the best person I've ever trained with because you take a very, you're welcome. You take a very individual approach. You care. You're not just, you know, there's a lot of people get in there and they're just like applying the same metrics and same methods to everybody where I feel like you and I have worked very personally, not only on the body stuff, but on the mind stuff
Starting point is 00:52:36 too. So I, you know, get that out of these training sessions. You got his legs big. Yeah. Well, that's something that I struggled with forever. And I think we put a very specific routine in place to address that. Yes, we did. Yeah. And it sucks. And it's painful. And it hurts. And I want to cry half the time.
Starting point is 00:52:53 And they're going to keep getting bigger. We're just getting started. His legs don't fit in his jeans anymore. I'm telling you, you got to get the stretchy ones that I'm wearing. His legs literally don't fit in his jeans. No, but I think this is the, I think it's more of an issue with as people get older. Because listen, for young people listening to this, I think it's very, you know, either when you're young, it's easy to stay in shape and you don't get it. And you're like, okay, cool.
Starting point is 00:53:16 Like, why do I need to hear this? But as you get older, you know, you need to continue to find that reason and you continue to switch that routine up and you need to continue to push yourself because that's when it really matters. You're in your 20s right now, even sub-30s. You don't have a lot to worry about from a health perspective unless you're really going the other way. But as you get older, it's when it really matters.
Starting point is 00:53:41 Michael and I are obviously concerned about the foods we give Zaza, but you know what we're even more concerned about? The food for the dogs? A hundred percent. Yeah, whatever about the child, but you know, dogs. The dog, we love our dogs. I mean, our dogs were our firstborn. Sometimes the child can be brat, but dogs, they love you unconditionally.
Starting point is 00:53:59 And Michael loves chihuahuas so much. He's a chihuahua whisperer, so it should not surprise you that he uses Sunday's dog food. Meet Sunday's, the first and only human-grade air-dried dog food. We know it's good because we tested it on Boone. He told us, Boone is very picky when it comes to things, but he licked this dog bowl from head to toe. He's looking skinny. He's looking good. He's looking suave. He's looking toned. He was having a feast. And here's the deal. This is why we like it. It's all natural. It's human grade food and it has the ease of zero prep. So it's seamless to set up. It's ready to eat. And it's the best way to feed your very best friend. Unlike most human grade dog food, Sundae's is gently air dried and ready to eat versus the other brands that are
Starting point is 00:54:45 cooked and frozen instead. What it is is it's as simple as just scooping it up, serving it, and your pet will devour it. They even did a blind taste test with a bunch of dogs and Sundae's outperformed everyone. Boone would have been just licking every single speck off the bowl. There's no artificial binders, synthetic additives, or general garbage. It's so gross how many dog foods have so many unnecessary added shitty ingredients, but Sundays are easy to pronounce except the quinoa, which is like still great, and they're healthy for dogs to eat. Simply said, Sundays makes it easy for us to be an awesome dog parent and chihuahua whisperer. We've worked out a special deal for our listeners. You get 35% off your first order.
Starting point is 00:55:31 Go to sundaysfordogs.com slash skinny or use code skinny at checkout. That's S-U-N-D-A-Y-S-F-O-R-D-O-G-S.com forward slash skinny. Switch to Sundays and feel good about what you're feeding your dog. Yeah, the sooner you can start weight training, the better. It's an amazing investment because weight training, and it doesn't mean you need to always lift heavy. You can lift in different ways. It can change. You could tell me I'm at a good weight. I want to do a little bit more of an athletic style of training or whatever it
Starting point is 00:56:08 is I want to do. But continually as a practice, just like you brush your teeth, you take a shower, you should always have weight training in your routine because you need to keep your physical body strong and resilient. The body demands stress to be able to be able to function, right? Just like you need to be out in the sun, you need to eat food, you need stress in life to progress. You need that resistance training. Us as humans, we're very physical. You need it.
Starting point is 00:56:38 You need it to be a good dad. You need it to feel good because if you stop training, your posture is going to go down. It'll start messing with your hormones, especially as a guy, right? Yeah, I think we live in a dangerous time where it's like everybody wants to feel good and happy all the time, but they don't realize that
Starting point is 00:56:53 unless they take care of themselves, they're not going to. It doesn't matter what any kind of self-help book or guru or self-help book tells you. Like you have to be healthy to start with. And I think so many people are going through life dissatisfied because they're focused on all these external things. They're not looking internally saying, how do I be the best version of myself? And I think that is motivation alone to say, okay, whether it's weights or yoga or whatever the routine, just start taking care of yourself
Starting point is 00:57:17 and recognizing that that's where it kind of all starts. It's a core pillar to living a good life. Speaking of, you recently did ayahuasca. I would love for you to tell us about that experience if you are open to it. Yeah, that's a heavy question. That's a switch. I love to switch it on the gas. Speaking of that, I have some tea on the table that we're all going to. Let's get wild. Okay. Tell you about my experience. And why?
Starting point is 00:57:52 So moving down here to Austin, I've been kind of in a fight or flight, rebuild my business mode. So I've been here for about a year and I've done different plant medicines in the past. I'm a big fan of mushrooms, as you guys know. And ayahuasca is something i've always wanted to try ayahuasca is a vine that comes from the amazon and when it was brewed with another plant it allows the enzymes in the gut to allow the dmt from the vine to activate and go into you so it's basically
Starting point is 00:58:17 an 8 to 12 hour dmt trip your every cell in your body has dT receptors. So my intention for going in ayahuasca is it can be a very good way for people to reconnect with themselves. Also, bring up anything that may be inside you, blocking you, right? Especially if you've never done any interpersonal work on yourself before. And so my intention going into it was to de-armor myself.
Starting point is 00:58:44 I could tell being in a work mode, I'd built up such an armor that I had lost that feeling of connection with nature and myself and that spirituality, that, I don't know, that life force was dim. I was just hardened, right? Just trying to get everything done. And I could tell because I know what it felt like before doing work on myself, feeling in that flow state, feeling present, feeling, you know, zen, let's call it.
Starting point is 00:59:13 And so I needed to de-armor myself. And you can only do so many float tanks and go to therapy and go on walks and do whatever you want. But at the end of the day, you know, having an experience where you take this medicine that we don't even know how old it is can help you reconnect. And so it was nothing less than profound. And it is something that I will continually do as a practice to reconnect with my truest self and find alignment to continually move through my life to live my purpose, but also to be in alignment with what is important.
Starting point is 00:59:57 So I think this is still an early conversation for a lot of people. If you tell, for example, if you mentioned this to our parents' generation, people think like they're going to look at the wall and their face is going to melt off, right? Like that's the kind of version of psilocybin, you know, ayahuasca, all these things. We've talked about it on the show, but what do you think the misconceptions are around some of these plant medicines? Because I think a lot of people have an immediate gut reaction to when you start talking about ayahuasca, psilocybin, all these things. It's like- They're using them to party. I think, yeah, a lot of people think it's a bunch of hippie shit that is super woo-woo.
Starting point is 01:00:31 That's a tool. Right? Where these tribes that have been around for a long time have been using this as medicine, as a sacrament, as a way of communing with their community and potentially higher realms or helping with their spirituality, bringing them back into alignment with the natural rhythms and flow of just mother nature. And if you do just even a little bit of research, you'll see that it's not so mystic or wild. Someday in our lives or in the future, it will become a normal thing for us to, you know, be able to have in our own communities easily. I think the conversation's starting.
Starting point is 01:01:14 And I think what happened is, you know, as Christianity and different religions pushed through, a lot of these traditions hid, or maybe some of these religions took away some of these medicines. Because when you can control power, like in order for you to get to God, you need to go through me. Now I have power over you. Where if you have something that allows you to commune or connect with something, you're free. And I can't control you. I definitely am very interested in trying it.
Starting point is 01:01:50 I think Michael is too. I've heard amazing things. And I would just encourage everyone to be their own guru and do their own research when it comes to this. I think that what we talked about earlier is it being used as like in the wrong frequency, in the wrong state. It's not something that I would go do at a festival. I would say if someone's leading it, they have permission from the tribe,
Starting point is 01:02:15 a direct permission from the tribe to be able to be doing what they're doing. And that the person leading it has profound and very detailed experience and training. Either they've lived in the Amazon for a very long time and studied directly under these leaders in the tribe, because this is extremely powerful medicine. It is not something to take very lightly. It's not like, even though you should respect mushrooms, it's not like taking a mushroom chocolate and going to a festival.
Starting point is 01:02:49 It is something that is meant to be sacred and respected. And it needs to be passed down through people who understand this, not someone who went to a workshop and goes, oh, I think I could lead this now. That's very dangerous and should not be done under someone who has little experience. Don't get a Groupon. Don't get a Groupon. Don't get a Groupon.
Starting point is 01:03:06 If you were to leave our audience with three tools that they should maybe purchase at home, definitely want you to include one of them being the shoes that you and I run with. What would those three tools be? I think everybody should get the Dharma wheel. That wheel where you can roll back that we've had. Yeah, that opens the posture yeah that wheel you can do all kinds of really cool supported postures on there michael been on that i don't know i don't think we've ever done it throw them on yeah it's really good for opening up like your mid back your shoulders he needs that now you need the dharma wheel to
Starting point is 01:03:41 open your back because i've heard a lot of complaints about your back today. Because I'm just so fucking strong now. The Dharma wheel, okay. Yeah. And then the own on cloud shoes. I discovered these because I'd have clients keep coming in. I kept seeing these shoes everywhere. I'm like, are those good?
Starting point is 01:04:05 And I'm a big fan of very low profile or zero drop shoes. But I've noticed walking a lot, having a completely zero drop shoe actually fatigues my calf so much than when I go to jump rope or do other stuff. It's almost too fatigued. Side note, while you're on that note, I got some messages when people saw us training about why I didn't have shoes on for certain. And I wanted you to explain because I probably didn't do the best job. But since we've been training that way, my back feels way better.
Starting point is 01:04:26 Yeah, I'll answer that. So those shoes, and then I would say, I haven't gotten it yet, but I've seen a lot of cool stuff and it keeps popping up in my mind. That Oura Ring looks very interesting. And I've been very resistant to that technology because I don't want text messages coming to me.
Starting point is 01:04:43 I don't want another screen, but it's something you can wear to track your sleep. And sleep is the most important foundational thing that needs to be. Really, what sleep? We didn't get any last night. Our daughter woke us up about 15 times. Yeah. And that can happen for a little bit, but if you're chronically, you're in, you're out, not sleeping, There's no amount of- Papa, papa, papa. Hazing, children hazing. But the reason we'll train barefoot is because in order to produce the most effective force and upstream, have your body in the right alignment, you need to be stable.
Starting point is 01:05:20 And having your foot flat, not only gets your foot to engage, but we can make sure that you're rooting and planning to make everything upstream be proper because a lot of people wear squishy running shoes i love these shoes but i would never actually like lift lift like squats in the barbell because my weight would constantly be shifting then that means my knee is going to be shifting and then that means my hips and i'm at risk for injury with my low back or whatever it is or pressing or whatever it may be. It's better to train barefoot if you're doing resistance training.
Starting point is 01:05:52 I mean, it's better to train barefoot than wear the shoes that Tom Cruise wore to his wedding to look taller than Nicole Kidman. You're talking about my cowboy boots? Yeah. I fucking dare you. This heel is like so big. I mean, this is like an insane heel what are you wearing
Starting point is 01:06:05 what are those things I'm wearing something comfortable you're wearing boots with a higher heel than Tom Cruise wears you're going to compare those shits to these I don't think so
Starting point is 01:06:11 okay all right old gringo boots you don't Brent tell our audience where they can find you can they do anything online with you
Starting point is 01:06:20 I know you have a text community your Instagram pimp yourself out if you're there in Austin maybe you can tell them how to train with you, all the things. Yeah, sweet. Hit me up on Instagram, bodiesbybrentatx. I started TikTok too, bodiesbybrent. And in the links on my Instagram, you can subscribe to my text community where I put out my own podcast. You can also text me on there. And if you're interested in training just shoot me a dm
Starting point is 01:06:45 better not give my sessions away brent no don't give my sessions away no not that's my sanctuary i'll tear this episode down so fast you won't even no one needs to see me working out either i don't want to like i i'm not looking like a hot tamale working out you know like i roll i roll out of bed and come work out. You are so incredible. You've absolutely transformed my body. I appreciate you so much. You've been such an asset to Austin for both Michael and I. And thank you for coming on.
Starting point is 01:07:16 Come back anytime. You guys check out his podcast on the podcast app. How can they find it? Yeah, Spotify. Spotify. Bodies by Brent podcast. Perfect. Thank you for coming on. Yeah. And thank you very much, guys. I perfect thank you for coming on yeah
Starting point is 01:07:25 and thank you very much guys I'm very grateful for being on here and of course I love having you guys you guys both you killed it so thanks
Starting point is 01:07:33 A plus oh I got a praise from you yeah in a heel rare thanks man thank you wait you guys
Starting point is 01:07:41 don't go we are giving away the hot shave razor. I have not done a giveaway with this yet. This is the first giveaway. You are going to win a Skinny Confidential hot shave razor to shave your face. It's going to give you glowy, dewy skin and exfoliate. It's absolutely amazing.
Starting point is 01:07:57 I'm obsessed. I use mine all the time. All you have to do is tag a friend to listen to the Skinny Confidential, him and her podcast on my latest Instagram. We want to grow the community and spread the word. And as always, we appreciate your support. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next time.

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