2614: The Top 5 Fitness Tips from Soviet-Era Scientists & More (Listener Live Coaching)

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Mind pump, right? In today's episode, people called in. We got to coach them on air. We get to help them with their fitness on air. But this was after the intro. Today's intro is 54 minutes long. Now, in the intro, we talk about studies on fat loss, muscle building.

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Came out of the Soviet Union. It's true. We're going to talk about the top five fitness tips you can apply that the Soviets figured out they were ahead of everyone else. We've got to work on your clickbait titles. It could have been more like the communists have it right. Why didn't you do something like that? I mean, they had this part right. The one thing the communists got right. Yeah, I mean, you've got to get something that's more edgy, dude.

It's actually, it's really fascinating because, you know, during that time, this of course is when the Soviet Union existed, they were just killing it in strength sports. Yeah. Absolutely killing it. And they really took... this approach towards Olympic medals as a way to glorify that their system was best, right? And so they took their concentrated efforts and they took their best scientists.

And they said, we're going to figure out strength training. We're going to figure out progressing. We're going to figure out supplements. We're going to figure out nutrition. Of course, performance enhancing drugs, which we also use, by the way. But we're going to take this all and take a very scientific approach and we're going to spend money on it. And let's see what we end up producing. And what they did was they actually came up with...

Many things we take for granted now. And when the Iron Curtain came down, right, when the Soviet Union kind of fell apart, a lot of the strength secrets came over and we figured them out and we used them as well. Okay, you've talked about this before many times in the podcast.

Were we not doing that at all? Like, I know that part of this was this was government funded. Right. So it was the opportunity for them to show that there's superiority right over us in the Olympics. And so they poured a lot of money. into all this research and obviously we are on the other side saying that you know free market's better and let your people do whatever and

We didn't have anybody that was doing this. Nobody had kind of figured that out on their own. They were the only ones that were controlling studies. And figuring out the steroids. I mean, I don't understand. So we had our own pharmaceuticals and steroids. So Diana Ball came out of the U.S. Okay. But when it came to training methodologies, although now, of course, the best comes out of the U.S. But when you go back then, it's like there's no market.

for funding the types of studies that are needed for this kind of stuff. There really was no market. They didn't have as much of a concerted effort. No. Yeah. It wasn't funded. So, yeah, I think that there was a lot of training. Obviously, there's a lot of training going into like the Olympics and weightlifting. But to the degree where they took.

scientists and took them through testing and everything. I think that they were ahead of everybody. So it really was them who started to figure a lot of this stuff out first. There was no pioneers over here. I always assumed that it was just because it was government.

funded they had they had all the athletes on board with the same philosophy and the same like regimen that they were studying and maybe over here we had a couple guys that had figured it out we're kind of doing it but not collectively everybody so consultants and whatnot but yeah well you Now what you have here is professional sports make a lot of money. And so this is now where you get a lot of the studies and funding. It'll come out of there.

But the Soviets, they took a scientific approach and broke everything down. I'll give you an example, okay? They understood progressive overload. better than we did. So what I mean by that is, so progressive overload, very important, like add weight to the bar, like get stronger. Our athletes knew that as well, but the way our athletes did it back then.

in weightlifting was that they would push what they could do. And then when they could do it, they would push again. The Soviets looked at it and it was very systematic. And what they found was... you progressively overload a little bit. And even if they could do more, you leave it there. Because what it allows for is more progression later. In other words...

If you're going to go out and do a deadlift and your previous weight that you used for, let's say, eight reps at that same intensity, let's say it was 500 pounds, and you go and you add five pounds to it, 505, and you do weight and you're like, whoa, I could go up to 515. A lot of people go up to 515. Soviets are like, nope, you're going to stay at 505. And we're going to stay there for two weeks. And then we'll go up to 510. They added in increments of two and a half to five pounds.

And they did this in this very systematic approach. Another thing they do with progressive overload is they would allow an athlete to stay at a weight. even though the intensity continued to drop as the athlete got stronger and then waited 30 days before they would then jump and do an overload. So their approach to progressive overload... was scientific it wasn't just oh you feel like you could do more let's do more yeah it was very much like okay here's the number let's do it that seems

And maybe just because we've been doing this for so long, it almost seems like common sense to me. Do you feel like it's the other way? I mean, do you think that I'm biased because I've just been around it for so long? Yeah, I think common sense would say everybody still falls for this is, oh, I did more than last week, but I feel like.

you could do more let's add more let's push it let's keep pushing it yeah whereas they were like we've already exceeded let's stay here draw it out much further along that's right and so they just have you have this kind of long-term approach uh with progressive overload Which takes us to the next point. This was a big one that they did that other people just didn't really figure out as well, which was periodization. They periodized their athletes and the way they trained.

in a very systematic way. It was like, you are going to train for this block with this intensity, regardless of how you feel, we're going to bring you down to this intensity.

Then they had mesocycles, microcycles, mesocycles. So this week, this is what the cycle looks like. This month, this is what it looks like. Here's what it looks like over three months. And it was very... systematic and scientific so as you explain this for the audience that's obviously familiar with us and familiar with maps programs you need to translate that into maps language for everybody else because

We chose to, because some of these terms are popular and people have heard them thrown around. We tend to use, you know, our own lexicon with a lot of stuff. And so as you explain. what they did explain how we use a lot of that within our own maps philosophy yeah so to give an example of of like a very basic um periodization type schedule that that the soviets would have used it would be like uh you have a heavy

week, a medium week and a light week. Okay. Now here's the difference between what I'm talking about and what a lot of people tend to do. It doesn't matter how you feel. You're going to do a heavy week. You're going to do a medium week. You're going to do a light week. So going to the light week, a lot of people are like, I can keep going. I can keep pushing. They said, no, this is your light week. And when they applied the scientific method, they saw that long-term this resulted in tremendous.

So what does this look like for a MAPS program? You have phases. You know, MAPS Anabolic is the flagship program. That's a good example. Phase one is low reps. Phase two is moderate reps. Phase three is higher reps. You have a little bit of a change of exercise, a little bit of a change in rest periods. And the number one, I'll put in quotations, complaint we'll get from people with MAPS anabolic. It's not enough. It's because they'll finish phase one and they'll be like,

But I could keep going. But I'm so strong right now. Yeah, let me stretch out phase one. Can I do that? And we're like, no, no, no. You get better results switching before you hit. where you stop progressing. This is why I wanted you to communicate this because it's very, in the internet world, we have an incredibly low return rate, right? Like anything under 4% is incredible. We trend under 2%.

as a business for as long as we've been doing this in the maps programs and the only time uh our team gets something as a refund it's because people think that they need more yep because they're not sore enough and this is oh this must be remedial this is yeah this is for a beginner I'm too advanced for this and so I just wanted you to point that out as this is a perfect opportunity since we're talking about

how much they changed the game and training and how wrong we had it for so long thinking that, Oh, this is a better way. Cause I can, because I can do more. I should do more. And it's that, no, that's not true. There's a better way to do that. And we figured that out. And so. I just wanted and we obviously use different terms in our programming than periodization and undulating and things like that. You might have also heard.

So I want you to continue to communicate that so people understand that. Because if we ever get a return, that's what it's for right there. That's right. I mean, lifters in America at that time, let's say the 60s and 70s, for example, they would kind of base it off of feel. And so they had schedules, but if they felt like they could go harder, they would. And this systematic approach, what it shows is we often, often, I'll speak personally.

I completely tend to be wrong. My personal belief is I could do more or I'm going to stretch out this phase. Let me keep going. Ooh, I just added 20 pounds to the bar. You know what? I could go 30 pounds. Let me do that. Yeah. And really what we're doing is we're missing long-term progress and we're not maximizing the body system of adaptation. They were really good.

at sticking like yeah it's almost like they removed like feel and momentum yeah and just stuck with discipline that's right complete discipline and just regardless of, you know, what your body's communicating. And to be clear, these were athletes that were owned by the communist. You had to do, yeah. Oh, you're not going to follow this? You had to stick with it. Yeah, you're going to throw in the gulag.

So they did, they followed it and it worked. And again, it shows that periodization, you know, makes a big difference precisely because you're not just trusting. You know, you want to get after it, how I feel type of deal. Because that oftentimes will just lie to you. The next thing they did is they did focus a lot on compound movements. I don't think we need to focus a lot of time and energy on this point.

But compound movements just give you so much more bang for your buck. Now, was that unique to them? Or did we at least figure that out, though, right? We did that as well. We did that as well. So this one we had. But let's highlight. Doing these, the previous two become even more important. Totally. Because how taxing those types of lifts can be on the body. That's right. So I think even though the U.S. might have been doing this, understood this part.

If you understand this part, but you neglect the previous two points that they had figured out, boy, do you really set yourself up for overtraining and injuries. That's right. That's right. So. What we tend to do is we tend to add in all these other exercises, which will sometimes have value, but we tend to do it while sacrificing our ability to adapt to the big compound lifts. So it's like we set the ball in motion.

And it's rolling. And we're going great. And then we put little roadblocks in front of that. ball because we're like oh i'm going to do some of these a lot of times it's a big distraction a big distraction for your body to adapt efficiently that's right you're just compromising your well you even shared this in your recent journey yeah I mean, you were going after, obviously, a compound lift as the primary PR goal.

And your first admitting your first even mistake was like, I was still doing too much other shit. Yeah. Well, it's like the goal here is to hit a PR on this lift right here. And you felt you were overdoing it even at the beginning. I wasn't specializing. I was looking too broadly at my goal.

And once I started to get into it, it was like, wow, this isn't benefiting me. I can't recover at the same rate that I want, you know, by adding all this excess amount of exercising. It's like we got to narrow it down to what's going to move the needle the most. And it was very eye opening. Yeah, you got huge gains just from that change right there. They also really placed an emphasis on recovery, and they really figured out active rest.

The Soviets really figured this out. So I think instinctually we think that the best way to recover is to not move. Like we think of like rest for recovery. like rest when we need to sit down and sleep or just sit down and do nothing. The truth is your body recovers faster, except in extreme, extreme, extreme situations. Your body recovers faster through light movement.

Yeah. Your legs are really sore from a workout and you just want to sit down and not move them. They'll actually recover faster if you do some light walking. Just that light movement and stretching. Hearing you say that makes me feel like, I think, a great example of how we didn't have this part right, I think of the old, what was a pumping iron? where Arnold then would lift and then they would just go lay. And I feel like knowing what we know now that they would probably more likely.

be walking on the park barefoot or the beach or doing even like mobility or lunges would be something that they would do to promote even more muscle growth than they were doing versus just laying out just trying to sleep because that was 10 that was the even

Even when I first came into the space, I remember that was the theory, like body build. You would get big. Lift and then go do nothing. I remember doing this on my lunch breaks because I had these huge gaps in between training clients is I would train really hard around 11 or noon.

And then I had like a good four or five. And I just go, I literally would just, I didn't try not to move. Yeah. Didn't want to burn any calories, wanted to rest as much as I could. Like that was what I, and I thought this is giving my body the most optimal amount of recovery to build muscle.

And just totally had that wrong. In fact, it would have been better off doing some mobility stuff or walking and moving. I mean, even when I was going through sports and I still had, I carried that same mentality. It was like, I just need to not do anything. you know, overexerted myself and I just want to like rest all day. And then the next day until I started reading actually, and it was from the super training book that was like Soviet related.

They were talking about stretching and active recovery with walking and getting blood circulation and all that, too. Yeah, no, in fact, you just brought up the bodybuilders of the 70s. That's a big myth.

the myth was that they did nothing in between their workouts really what they did is they tanned for like 20 minutes yeah and then they were swimming they were playing yeah they would all hang out at the beach and they were moving oh but there's a myth that they would just lay there yeah yeah because that's what they were the

they highlight yeah they highlight that at the show like they make it seem like they wouldn't train hard and they just laid on the log you know laid out and laid on the grass and slept you know you know what's interesting about this again unless there's an extreme like you have rhabdo like severe muscle damage yeah you just need to sit there because your body's

You need to heal. But for 99% of people, here's what happens, right? You just did this stress signal to the body through exercise. And if you did it right, the stress signal sets the gears in motion for... recovery and adaptation which are separate but they happen kind of the same time so i'm okay i'm gonna i'm gonna start building muscle here's what the signal of being sedentary sends to your body pair muscle down you actually are sending yeah a competing signal

when you don't move, that says, let's get rid of some of this muscle. We don't need it. That's why it's better to actually move. It actually speeds up and enhances. The adaptation process. I figured this out as a kid. I've told this story. I had a BMX bike at one point. My cousin and I bought one. We saved our money. And I remember I would hit my arms like super hard. Biceps would get all sore.

And I remember, and I'll never forget the summer that we bought our bikes, I was learning how to bunny hop. And I was pulling the handlebars so hard. And I remember thinking to myself, like, oh, man, I'm... my biceps are sore and i'm pulling these handlebars totally ruining my gains and i got like i was surprised to see that i recovered faster and had better gains and that's when i kind of started piecing it together

I didn't really fully apply it until I was much older. But yeah, if you're sore, you just had a hard workout, move. Move is going to help you recover the fastest. And lastly... The Soviets did really, really well as they tracked and analyzed their progress. Because they took a very scientific approach, every rep, every, the wait, every hour of sleep.

Like, you know, everything they did, they were able to track and put into their formulas to figure out what's actually working. Now, why is this valuable?

because we think we're so self-aware but we're actually not yeah the most even the best fitness experts you're talking like you know we got three guys on this podcast who've been training people for two and a half decades it's what we do for a living I miss things all the time, and I'm about a billion times more aware of what fitness exercise does and diet does than the average person.

So tracking just lets you kind of see... what's going on i i know i love the story you tell adam when you were competing uh as a pro and looking at your total volume for the first time you tracked it and you realize like my volume never really changes because sometimes i go more sometimes i go less yep

And, you know, what's the deal here? I mean, and that's, and to your point, you're talking about people that have been doing this for a long time and think you're, and I like to think that we're more self-aware in the gym than the average person, but you do seem to fool yourself. You know, I'm going to.

take this opportunity for a shameless plug since we happen to be in, I think the final couple of days of our group training. And, you know, you want to talk about a incredibly valuable experience for anybody who's never. had this before which is having somebody take you through something that's been expertly programmed, then also coaches guide you through that and have conversations with you on a weekly basis to help you understand how to modify and back off or increase.

and know what that's like and feel what it's like to go through that. Even in a group setting where, you know, everybody's focused on fat loss, everybody's focused on muscle building.

But hearing a coach, one of our trainers, take you through that process and teach you how to do that, I just think it's so invaluable. I mean, and that was the feedback that we've gotten for this group is that so many, even some of these people that are advanced have been lifting for a really long time going through this.

and going like man having them lead that and coach you through that because i can't tell you how many times i always hear these people that buy the program our programs and then they add stuff to it and they think

that because they can do more, that it's better. And it's like, no, it's not. We trick ourselves all the time. And then you get fooled because you see, it's still good enough, you see some results. And so then we get in this head of like, probably how just like the US used to, like, well, we're always- doing something right because our guys are getting stronger so it's like yeah but there's even a better way if you just trust the process and then

Actually having someone lead you through that process for a three-month cycle to go through all those phases and then go, oh, wow, this is what it's supposed to feel like, it'll blow your mind. Unbelievably valuable. It is. We have two groups that we're going to be running. one for fat loss and one for muscle building. It's at mindpumpgroupcoaching.com, just if anybody's interested. Yeah, no, the tracking part of this is important because it also does this.

When I had clients track, and actually this is what I used to do just because I tried to prove to my clients the value of this. Because sometimes you could tell people, like right now you're listening to this, maybe it's going in one ear or out the other. So here's what I used to do as a trainer.

I would track for my clients when we would have these conversations and I knew they wouldn't, I would start tracking and I'd write things down in their, in their chart. And then they'd come to me 30 days, you know, into it, 60 days into it. So I feel like, you know,

I don't know if I'm, am I doing everything right? And it's just not, I don't know. I'm frustrated. And I go, well, let's go look at your chart. And I'd show them and be like, wow, look at that. Your squat went up 15 pounds. You added five reps to this. you used to often come in and tell me about how bad your energy was. And I'm marking here that your energy levels were actually consistently higher. And then they go, oh yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. Why? Because they just weren't.

paying attention to everything what they were paying attention to was like one thing like the scale maybe or maybe the mirror which uh is subjective oftentimes so this is something you can do for yourself too this tracking allows you to see like Oh my God, like this is working or wow. When I eat that, this is what's happening to me. And I wouldn't have known had I not written it down or what you, you tend to.

you tend to perceive or think that you're always busy or always doing so much. And what I found, which was like, you have them, I'll have a month and it'd be like, what the hell? I didn't progress. Move it off. But then when I pull back out and I go, Oh, well shit. When I look at total volume,

I actually went down this month. So the fact that I didn't go any further backwards and I at least held on to my strength is actually really good. I didn't progressively overload at all, yet I thought I did because I was just as busy or I felt like I had those hard sessions in there. And so I find that really valuable too, especially for coaches and trainers.

to do what you're saying for their clients, because there's been many times where a client might come or has came to me after say month three or four in the middle of a training cycle. I've been training with me for a long time and been frustrated because that month they didn't see the progress they wanted to. And I bet many times if you pull back and were to compare that to the previous month or something else, you might realize like.

Oh, shit. Well, even though you thought you worked just as hard or were doing as much, you actually didn't. We did this much. We did 10% less volume this month than we did previous month. It is an absolute fact that you only see what you focus on. That is a psychological fact.

There are studies that show this and prove this time and time again. If you think you perceive every bit of information that your brain receives, you're crazy. You actually perceive a tiny fraction of it. And so the question is, how do I allow myself to get a much...

fuller accurate picture well you you start writing things down and you start tracking certain things and then you'll start to notice things and you'll get a much more accurate picture of not just where you've come from but where you're going and then you'll know when you need to change gears and when you, when you shouldn't, because otherwise it's based off of this limited information. That's probably based off fear and anxiety or

past issues, and that's all you see. That's all you're going to see. Especially if you go into it with these high expectations or you're trying to get the most results in the shortest period of time. Because the other option is this, is just understand this is a journey. understand that consistency trumps everything, and just be patient.

But a lot of people aren't patient. They want the results now. They want this. They want it to look like this. They have these high expectations and goals. But then they're not doing all the work to track and to be able to double check their work. And it's like.

If you really want it that bad, then do these things because then you'll know for sure. Or the other side of that is, hey, you don't have to get that crazy. You can just enjoy the process and understand you're going to have these peaks and valleys and you have these times where you hit plateaus and, you know, and just.

continue to be consistent, enjoy the journey. And the other conversation that I feel like we always have, which is trying to get people to enjoy the process because it is a long process. It is a journey. You're going to have some set of- It's for the rest of your life if you do it right. Yeah. So I really feel like those are the two ways. to have success in this, you either approach it meticulously like that, really dive in to try to learn all about this.

Or you accept that it's going to be a slow process. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to have some setbacks, but just keep plugging away and be consistent. I think the best approach is probably in the middle is what I would say. Yeah. You know, I got to ask you, Adam, you...

You do not appear to be sick at all. And I know you were getting hit by the flu. Well, my son had the flu and pneumonia. Like actually tested positive for the flu. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, he went to the hospital. We had to take him to the hospital. We had to take him to the doctor. And because it was it was a fever wasn't going away for five days. And and then he got pneumonia. And so and Katrina and I were like.

super paranoid i know i call you right away anytime that stuff's happening all right what do i take you know and so the stack of vitamin C, vitamin D, glutathione, and then thymosin alpha? Alpha. Yeah, alpha, thymosin alpha. Bro, thymosin alpha is crazy. I feel like, okay, so this is the second time now I've been good. Get on it right now.

away yeah i do notice a difference when uh i get on it right away like if i'm if i'm not sick yet but i think there's a good chance that's when you use it yeah and so i this is the second time i was early on it and i still got sick but It's just more like, I want to say annoying sick than it is like I was down. I mean, I still had to... you know cook for a party of 60 people and still was taking care of my son and we had we had company at the house and so i didn't stop i didn't take a day off

And you can probably tell a little bit. I have a little bit of congestion. You can probably hear it still. Yeah, but knowing you, because you and I are similar in a sense. Like once you get sick, you're sick for like a week and messed up. Yeah. Bro. Thymus and alpha is wild. I've now used it several times. So this is a peptide made by the thymus. Essentially tells your immune system to ramp up. It gets those killer cells to come out.

uh, more readily and more of them to it. So it doesn't stop an infection, but what it does is it gets mitigated big time. Oh, your immune system is like, let's go. Yeah. It also reduces inflammation. Did you guys know this about Thymus and Alpha, by the way? We can say this now because now we're at the point now where people are saying this stuff.

Thymus and alpha was being used by doctors and researchers during the COVID explosion and they were getting success with it. Okay. The study showed like, oh, we're really preventing people from getting severely ill. The government. made it impossible to get thymus and alpha for a little while they actually they actually made it so you could not get it during that period of time which is crazy it's like why anything that worked yeah dude no competition please i remember when nac

NAC gets your liver to produce more glutathione. And low glutathione levels is very strongly connected or correlated to severe COVID or influenza, right? So all the bad symptoms. NAC has been a supplement for two decades, three decades. You can buy it anywhere. It's like nothing. And suddenly the government was like, put out letters. You cannot sell this anymore.

Yeah. We're going to ban this. And I remember you couldn't get it on Amazon Prime, you know, Amazon for a little bit. Yeah, that and any dewormer, anything. Yeah. I mean, I know it's only two times, but for me, I've noticed a significant difference. Like you said, it doesn't... keep me from getting sick all it does is it makes

whatever probably would have been significantly worse for me. Way milder. Super mild. It becomes just annoying. I've been annoyed for the last four days. It's not like I haven't stopped doing my normal stuff. I just have a little bit of congestion. I had a little bit of... an itchy throat and at night i feel it the most in the morning and just but it's like normally i'm laid up i'm that much of a baby that when i get sick i'm pretty much down for a couple days and

I didn't have that at all. I tell our partners at mphormones.com, I tell them to send me, I have bottles just on reserve. Yeah, so I mean, you just sit there. You got me to do that now is to just have it. That's why I hit you up right away. I mean, I don't know if... you're supposed to or not, but you have me do like a mega dose the first night and then kind of taper down. So I take, I take a little extra first night. Oh, I stocked up on BBC.

And I was glad I did. For a minute there, they were trying to get rid of it. They were, dude. I know, man. It's a weird time with peptides. I don't know what they're trying to do or what the deal is. Yeah. I don't know. I like to keep them around. Ever since the whatchamacallits, the terzepatide and semaglutide GLP-1. Oh, yeah. They started going after the compound pharmacies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because those, bro, those, you guys, those are blown.

up so especially the rest of the world is now catching up to the hype and so it's still like the sales i stand by what i said i think you're probably going to see 50 to 70 percent of everybody's gonna be you know you you should use it since you're bringing up uh you know the whole uh our partnership with transcend and everything like that like it's important i think to to the audience knows so i mean i i remember telling you guys when this first this

market first started to explode that uh it it reminds me so much of the medical marijuana uh industry and what people need to understand mouse game yeah yeah so There's a lot of things that, you know, and I feel really bad for these, some of these companies because.

You know, you have people that are listeners of the show and they hear about it and they trust your knowledge around the science and everything like that. They're like, oh, cool, I'm going to try this thing out or I'm going to do this thing or Sal says great things about this and so they want to do it. And then you may be one of those people that go through this process and it's when they're in the middle of this political games that are going on. And what I mean by that.

is it's this cat and mouse of like, oh, we're going to ban this. And oh, we're going to make it difficult for you to resource this. And oh, we're going to shut these down. Or oh, we're going to threaten you this. And so because it's still considered in that gray market.

you are at the whims of whatever those whatever each state laws are and by the way that's something too it's not like this blanket law for everybody it's like each state is different and so what happens is we get some people that get really upset and impatient sometimes And I feel like.

poor transcend takes the heat from it. Like they're doing something wrong or their customers. It's like, it's not even gray market. It's, it's legal, but the laws keep getting changed. Just like, just like, and they try to, it was just like that. It was legal. But again, because each state law was different and they were always playing these shell games that it was like we were, and then we're the people that were providing it.

Man, we always took the heat like it was our fault because I couldn't get this or not wasting. You had this last week. Now you're saying I can't get it. And it's like, yeah, it's I wish I could I could just have it and run it like a normal business, but it's not quite like a normal business. So then you get people that expect the process to feel like what it's like when you just go down to your doctor and get a normal prescription. And it's like, man, it's...

unfortunately it's not like that. And so being patient with that, uh, I get the frustration as I've been on the side, I've been on both sides of this and it's tough, but you need to understand it's not the same thing as like going anywhere else. That's right. That's right.

All right, I'm going to talk about something interesting I just realized or I just learned about with grain-fed beef. Did you guys know that they've done studies and found that the bacterial contamination... with antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria is something like four or five times higher in grain fed beef than grass fed. Wait, wait, wait. Say that again. So I'll read it to you. I'll read this particular study. So they did a study on bacterial contamination in ground beef.

This was in WebMD. This is Consumer Reports 2015. A study of 300 ground beef samples found that 18% of grain-fed samples contained antibiotic-resistant superbugs. compared to 6% of grass-fed samples. Yeah, but what does that even mean? These are bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

So now this is a big future problem. This is like when you hear like scientists talk about like, what could potentially kill humanity? It's like, oh, we could have another black plague with bacteria that's antibiotic resistant. Now why you see a higher percentage of this.

in grain fed meat is because we're shooting them up with hormones and everything else they're getting antibiotics to resist it yeah and they're putting them in these in these pens yeah and they're you know feeding them grain and they have to give them antibiotics otherwise they get sick because of the way they're living So they're still getting sick in a sense because of the superbugs.

Okay. Now we cook the meat and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, we burn it off, so it's not like that scary. However, this just goes to show you like grass-fed meat is better on that standpoint. And as far as nutrients are concerned, I don't realize this as well. You know that it's, I've talked about CLA, better fatty acid profile, leaner cuts for the same size. So you get like lower calorie, you know, six ounces of grass fed versus whatever. It's also three times higher in.

vitamin E precursors, one and a half times higher in vitamin C, two to three times higher in B vitamins. So they're just nutrient dense in comparison. So grass-fed meat... Way more. Yeah, it's just... Higher in protein, higher in nutrients, lower in fat. I mean, it's such a win all the way around. Yeah, dude. Which also, though, again, I think it's just bringing up points, defending all these things, I feel like today.

Grass-fed beef is not going to taste like a grain-fed cow eater. Well, no. It's lean. It's leaner. It's so much leaner. So you have to go in knowing that. I remember that's why I like ButcherBox so much because I particularly didn't care for grass-fed beef for them.

for the most part. I'm going to prefer it. Because I felt like it just didn't taste good at all. I felt like ButcherBox was the first grass-fed, grass-finished beef that I actually really liked. I thought... okay, they've done a really good job because I know that's a hard problem to solve is because obviously most of us, they buy a ribeye or one of those types of cuts.

want a really good tasting steak you know regardless of like how much healthier you think it is or not and they did a good job of being able to provide grass fed grass finish and also taste really good that was the best and i eat so much meat it makes a big difference for me i eat red meat every day probably a day i could 60 pounds this weekend dude 60 pounds 60 yeah that's the most how many people do you have over

60 people. How many cats was that? That was two 15-pound brisket. Did I say that right? No, it was 30 pounds of brisket. Then we had... Other meat. Yeah, then we had chicken, and then we had tri-tip, and we had, what else do we have? I mean, we had, I was responsible for the 30 pounds of brisket. I had two 15-pound cuts. That's a monster, dude.

24 hours? Yeah, so this is the first time I did a full 24-hour cook. First time I'd ever done two briskets at once. Did they come out all right? They did. Because brisket is like... there's like a skill to it yeah this is definite i you know i got a i got a ton of compliments uh and from people like two ex-chefs that said something to me a sister who came from texas that was like oh wow yeah yeah so i got really i didn't feel that way

Doug was asking me off air. He's just like, what would you think? And I'm like, yeah, you know. I felt like this could have been a little better. That could have been this. I felt there were- Well, you can't compare it to Texas Park. Why? Why can't I not? I have that- Because they're obviously- I want to get to that level. You want it like how Kendrick sliced in the middle and all just juicy stuff.

in my back pocket too so you know I'm calling him and I'm talking to him as I go through the process you know so I'm trying the hardest part is is to there was definitely parts of it that was some of the best brisket ever but that's the hard part is that the way it's shaped yeah and so and when you're cooking something that long

And you have a cut or a part of the cut that's this thick and then another part that's this thick. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. So there's definitely a part where, oh, man, just perfect. But then there was other parts. I was like, oh, there's a little drier. Yeah, a little dry side. Oh, that felt. like that fell apart too much.

But I mean, at the end of the day... That's what barbecue sauce is for. No. Oh, my God. If someone pulled barbecue sauce out of my brisket, bro, I would have just... I would have cried, dude. Oh, bro. Somebody used ketchup. If somebody pulled barbecue sauce out on brisket that I... made I would have literally went in the room and cried I would have just been so embarrassed and that's all I didn't want I was like

I just don't want to screw up. You know, my brother paid like four or 500 bucks for all that meat. I'm like, and it's, I'm responsible for it. And yeah, if I saw people pour barbecue sauce on it, I would have definitely cried. I used to go out with this guy who'd, who'd, um,

He put ketchup on his steak. I was like, this is, I just almost got up and walked away. I mean, I get it if you go into like a sizzler or some shitty ass steakhouse, you know what I'm saying? But if you cook good, good meat should not. Maybe Denny's or something. That's what I mean. Even...

But good meat shouldn't need anything. I feel like ketchup is like... At least you like the steak sauce, not like ketchup. Yeah, if you use ketchup on your meat, you're a child. That's how I feel, you know what I mean? You're like a kid, you know what I mean? I can't, yeah. I don't know if I'm...

I've seen a grown man use ketchup before. I've seen people use A1 in barbecue sauce. I'll use A1. That's more acceptable. Yeah, but ketchup? But if you do that when I cook a piece of meat, to me, that's a fail. You deserve to get bullied by Justin. That's a fail on my part if you felt like you needed to do that.

You shouldn't even have to do that. Hey, so I want to bring up a topic that I think is an important topic to talk about. Why you say that? Radical non-monogamy. Oh, God. Yes. What does that even mean? Yes. Jeez, so stupid. Oh, Aubrey Marcus has entered the chat. Oh, my goodness. I knew he was married, right? Because it went from kind of... I don't care. Do your own whatever. I don't care.

But stop labeling, stop calling this something that sounds so like evolved. Like, oh, it's radical. Non-monogamy. You know what we used to call that? You can't commit. You don't have any discipline. You want to just screw everybody. But now we're going to label it. That's a made-up term, right? Of course it is. Radical. Radical. How can we rebrand this? You know what's annoying about this? Here's what's frustrating.

This is for young men watching right now, okay? Because young women get lied to as well, but young men get lied to in a particular way. Here's what young men hear from media and the world and advertisers and all that. Here's what it says. And this is what you believe. This is what I believe.

That the happiest guys, they aren't committed. They're not tied down. No ball and chain. They just make a lot of money. They get to bang whoever they want. What a fun existence. They can hang out with their buddies. as many hot chicks lined up and all that stuff. Here's what the data shows. So many benefits for the woman. Yeah. Right. But here's what the data shows. I don't care if you're religious or not. It's what the data shows. That guy is miserable.

That guy is really not happy. The happiest people are in committed relationships. The best sex reported are by married couples who are in their 60s. who've been together forever. They're the healthiest. They're the least likely to need to take medications for mental illness. They die without lots of regrets.

That's what the data shows, but the world will have you believe otherwise. So we have all these young men who are looking at people like that, and they're like, oh, that's what I want to be like. He's a tormented person, just straight up. I'm just calling it out. I don't know him personally. But to promote that in that way, what it seems to me is like you're trying so hard to justify this empty.

you know, life that you have. And so you're like, this is called radical non-monogamy. And it's so cool. I don't even know. I mean, I'm guilty. You know, I was a naive young man that, that believed that. And I guess if you, if you've. never experienced the other side it's hard i mean i would have never i would have never believed i that if me went back in time and told me you know you'd be with the same woman for 15 years and at year 15

your intimacy, your sex, your attraction to her will be better after she's had a kid, she's in her mid forties and you've been with her 15 years. I would probably slap me. I would just, you're full of shit. There's no way that's possible. I wouldn't believe it. So that's why it's easy as a young man to hear someone talk like that and go like, totally. I mean, he's got all the cool stuff and the cars and he gets a different hunch.

chick every year he just changes what he calls it like this sounds way cool like that's more believable so spiritually well I mean it seems it seems more believable than what i would be saying which is like no bro i'm telling you right now i'm more attracted to her at 45 than when i had her at 30 and i'm i we have better sex and more of it today than we did our because you you hear the honeymoon phase honeymoon phase

I mean, yeah, our first year was great, but it's way better today than it was in the first year or even the first five years. Now, if I were to have to explain it to me, what I would say is this, the ability to... grow with another person together is the ultimate intimacy yes serious

I was going to say the, the best way to work on intimacy is obviously to go find somebody else to get intimacy with. It makes a lot of sense. Well, I just, I think what happens in, in some of these marriages where this isn't true because they're.

Maybe there's a guy who's been married 15 years. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. My wife and I never have sex. And so, yeah, I could totally see where if you stick in a relationship where the two of you aren't on a mission to grow together. that that could totally happen and then that looks attractive but the answer to that is not no no i mean forget yeah but i mean i'm not even claiming to say i have the answer i'm just saying that i think that i can understand

why that looks attractive. I could also understand why there are some married people that wish they had that maybe that relationship is because, and I think that the hack is. You have to make sure that you find a partnership where each partner does want to do that. And if you want to do that, then it's the most beautiful thing ever. The best sex reported in the data is couples who've been together for a long time.

who are older, and if you want to look in the subset data of that, the most happy of those couples are religious couples, which the world will tell you is not true. Oh, religious people? They have terrible sex. They actually report the best intimacy.

And then if you look even deeper to that, it's the couples that was the only person they've ever been with. Again, counters. Yeah, but you know, that's the flaw in that. And I'm just playing devil's advocate with you because I know there's at least half the audience that's doing it right now, not to you, is that. that's self-reported bro

It's all self-reported. Okay, so... All of it is self-reported. So somebody who has only had saltine crackers thinks it's the best thing in the world. That's such a terrible... Listen, somebody needs to have that with you, though. Let me ask you a question. Because if it's self-reported...

like that that's going to be where someone pokes a hole let me ask you a question if you have a pie chart of sexual intimacy the physical part how much of a how much of a percentage would you say is that you your partner looks a particular way and the actual physical acts and tricks and things that you do how much of it do you think makes up that pie chart versus all the other stuff that you're talking about so is this a cherry pie so fair but younger me wouldn't know the answer that's right

So here's the answer. Now I understand that pie chart. But I didn't understand that before. That's why we're talking about it. But I mean, I have to point that out to you because I know that someone's thinking that. Well, here's the answer to this. The answer is young men need older guys that they admire and respect.

to communicate this to them because otherwise they're they're they're they're the guys that they look up to are all by the way dan's bilzerian who was the poster child of this has now come out and said himself it's empty yeah he's like this was not this is not what i thought it was You know, you think Hugh Hefner was a happy man? No. And you should read about some of the stories. Moments of it. Yeah, some of the stories that were reported by the women that were around him.

So I think what they need is they need these roles. I mean, it wasn't that long ago. I mean, it was a while ago, but it wasn't that long ago where a man's pride was. How many children you have. Yeah. And you can support your family. I mean, bro, I'm right with you. It's just wild. I'm with you that, I mean, I know that somehow, I don't know if we even ever intended this podcast to go in this kind of fatherhood direction.

conversation around that um but i agree there's not enough there's not enough men that that young men can look up to and admire that are telling them that yeah and so i'm with you you know i'm with you on that i and i don't know if i would have been able to i hope i could i could have got through to me but i didn't realize that pie chart i didn't realize there's no way i would

I probably at 17 would have believed that though. I think I would have, I would have been the other one. The, the, the other one looks more attractive on the outside. You're right. Let me give you an analogy that I think people understand. So this, this might help. You have somebody who's never experienced the benefits of good health and fitness, and they'll look at you and say, but I am so free to eat whatever I want and not exercise. I enjoy eating, you know, cookies and garbage all the time.

It's way more enjoyable. I feel like what you're doing is restrictive, and I feel like that's unhappy. The truth is the freedom comes from health, not poor health. Freedom does not come from... sleeping around with a bunch of people freedom comes from being dedicated to one person both of you are dedicated to each other and you grow together that's where the freedom comes from so so for people who are listening you're a young man you're listening you understand fitness

And your friends that don't understand fitness try to tell you that looks like it's restrictive. That looks like I just want to enjoy eating what I want. That's the same thing. that you may be thinking about what we're talking about right now okay so there's another stupid idea i want to discuss with you guys um And, you know, I want to just, you know, get some feedback. So I guess I don't know if it's a growing trend or if it's just something that somebody sent me this in the DM where.

Women were starting to do Botox to their traps. What? to to not develop basically not develop the traps while the rest of their oh to kill all the muscle there yeah all the rest of their body is is building developing muscle they can decrease the size of their traps look this up doug is that is this really a thing

I saw the video for it and I saw that there's like doctors that are actually performing these. Of all the people we've ever been around, all the women we've trained, all the women we've been in the gym, so trainers, female fitness enthusiasts. It's not common for women to develop traps that look too big. I think women worry about this. They do worry about it. This is not a common thing. Trap Botox, also known as trap talks. Oh my gosh, or baby or Barbie Botox.

Wow. I just thought it was absurd. Oh, that's terrible. I mean, right there, you know, alongside the squeam. Oh, well, there you go. So I knew there's a medical application, which could be fixed through proper exercise, by the way. It can also be used to alleviate neck and shoulder pain and stiffness.

If you're trapped or tight pain. Because they're overactive, they just basically kill it. Because your mid-back needs strengthening. But now what you're going to do, you're going to make your whole shoulder girdle unstable and cause problems. They were promoting it like it was an aesthetic reason.

sell too yeah well that i mean i i get where you're both i know i bet i bet it probably was tested for sal's reason first right and then somebody goes oh i like that oh well let's just keep going you know I have close family and friends that we talked a while back about that whole

perception drift yeah yeah and man it's such a real thing dude bro it's so um it pains me when it's someone by the way generally speaking there's perception drift in society as as certain looks are becoming totally more

Like, oh, that's what people look like. Promoted, highlighted, accepted. Oh, this is the new model. Yeah. No, it's crazy. I guess I really don't care to each their own, right? I'm not the type of person to judge anyone for doing whatever. But I guess when I have someone who's close to me.

me who I I've always I thought oh man she's so beautiful naturally beautiful and then you watch them do this and you're like you're so far from where you were and you were so yeah goddamn beautiful before and like now you just that's frustrating you not only do you look like all these other same people

But it doesn't look good either. Somebody needs to shake these people. These big weird lifts do not look good. That's the one. Come on. Stop it. It's the big, big lips. That's the crazy one that I see. Who's asking for that? I think it's a weird thing. I mean, I understand it from my perspective, wanting to look a particular way and not being aligned with kind of reality.

it's a thing man it's a thing it's well and i think too it it again the perception drift i think at least i'm not sure though i mean somebody can correct me if i'm wrong like I feel like it just, it gets, it doesn't start there. It starts with just like a little bit, Justin. And it's like, oh, it looks good, you know? And it's like, and it isn't that bad. Maybe you or I don't even notice it. Yeah, yeah. Maybe you don't even, maybe-

It's so subtle you don't notice. It's more and more and more. I mean, you know, hey, just to throw ourselves in the fire here a bit, I mean, it's a little bit of, like, we've kind of... made health and fitness look like this in a sense too i mean yeah of course jacked ass muscular looking dudes okay as much as i like that we all like that isn't like really no it's not like going to weird places well yeah and it's i mean it's actually really weird when you think about it like

as crazy buff and muscular and stuff like that that we all try to chase after, like... It's the same thing. It's really... Yeah, exactly. It really is the same. The only difference is... You have to work out. Yeah, well, no, that you organically do it. Yeah. Like, I guess maybe if you could...

do lip exercises to make them look like that, then they would be more acceptable? Well, it's like synthol is the comparison, I would say. No, I see it. Okay, so that's the extreme version, but you have to understand that even... training enough volume and consistency to get your muscles to look that overly muscular is a bit of that. Here, I'll back you up. I'll back you up.

Because there's a difference between strength. Like, keep going because of vanity reasons. I know this is a hard conversation for you because you don't really fucking really. You're not really this guy, right? Yeah, yeah, but I can understand it. This is more me and Sal talking here about, like, our own insecurities and what. Like, let's be honest. Yeah, no, it's fine.

There's a point where that muscular and leanness look is no more healthy or functional than what you were, say, 20 pounds less of it. I'll back it up. I'll back you up, Adam. What would, you know, back in the day, maybe even now, right, if you really train hard. A compliment. This is what I would take as a compliment. Oh, you're too big now.

Yeah. I'm like, oh, cool. Yeah. I'm on to something. That's what I was looking for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. I'm on to something. You can stop right now. Exactly what I was looking for. You look a little too extreme, you know, or my mom would be like, you know. Wow, you need to calm down. Yeah, you're late. You look too veiny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone told me I look like

got stung by a beat yes exactly it doesn't look right yeah that's right it doesn't look right yeah so i mean uh 100 i mean i don't want to come off like the uh like kettle calling it black or what about that we are absolutely the same way when you think about it. The only difference though is that you can do that yourself, right? So there's, to me, there's a little bit different than when you start injecting, killing muscles, shooting stuff, putting tissue in.

Doing weird shit. Get better friends. That is a little more, but still in a very similar vein. Who's the judge on American Idol? Simon what? Simon Cowell. Have you seen the recent- pictures of him oh he's got a lot of work where people are like oh no you need to slow down and stop oh it doesn't look like i haven't seen him oh yeah let's see if doug look at look it's a con it's a lot of controversy around it because

He's obviously... It looks even weirder when men do it for me. Oh, who was it that did a really bad job? Who's that country singer from back in the day that his face changed? Garth Brooks? No. No, what's his name?

Kenny Loggins? No. Billy Ray Cyrus? Kenny Rogers. Oh, yeah, it was Kenny Rogers. Remember? Yeah, yeah. He went, he like, what happened to your face, dude? You look way different. He went a little too far. A little too far. Way too far. Yeah, I'll change directions here. I want to talk about. Brain.fm and I want to because people I've seen people write in and comment on the best ways to use it

The best ways to use... By the way... Oh, there he is. Look at his face right there. Is he trying to look all weird in that one? No, it's just... If you watch the whole video of him playing, it doesn't look like him at all. It's pretty crazy how much his face has changed. So... So Brain FM, for people who don't know, you listen to music, but the music's been engineered and there are sounds embedded that induce brainwave states. So these are brainwave states that we've identified.

that will, you know, that are focused or when you're meditating or sleeping. In other words, if you're, if you're in a focused state, they can look at your brain waves and a scientist can tell you what you, what's going on. So it'd be like, Oh, this person's focused. This person's sleeping, whatever. So what Brain.fm does is you listen to it and through the sound, it induces these brainwave states. Now, the best way to use this...

is to also focus or concentrate on accomplishing what you're trying to accomplish through the sound. In other words, if you want to focus, listen to focus, and then try to focus. And what happens, you get this... double whammy of you also trying to focus while the music is also inducing this brainwave state and then watch what happens. Same thing with meditate.

put it on, actually try to meditate. It is wild how quickly you get into the states of mind when you do that kind of conversation. It's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. If you eat a high protein diet, you will probably benefit from taking the right digestive enzymes. They'll break down the protein, get them to your muscles. By the way, some companies don't make the best digestive enzymes. We work with one that makes the best.

Mass enzymes, they are digestive enzymes for fitness enthusiasts that will help with digestive issues and break down those foods for better digestion and absorption. Go to masszymes.com. That's M-A-S-S-Z-Y-M-E-S.com forward slash Mind Pump. Use the code Mind Pump 10. Get 10% off. Back to the show. Our first caller is Sarah from Virginia. Hi, Sarah. How are you doing, Sarah? How can we help you? Hello. Well, I...

Well, thank you guys. First off, because y'all really have, I know you hear it all the time, but y'all really have changed my life between you and Dr. Deloney. I've made like just a whole turnaround. So thank you for that. That's awesome. All right. My question is, how do you tell the difference between just a normal, regular hunger that's just what you feel versus your body's trying to tell you it's time to up your calories? What a great question. And I think that this is...

one of the most important things to learn and figure out as you get on a health and fitness journey that's going to last you a lifetime. This is also how we recommend people utilize tools like fasting. Yes. To help.

to help connect those. Yeah. So this is important precisely because we, we really haven't learned this in modern societies. Like, you know, if you live in a modern society, you've always had access to food not only food but you've had access to whatever food you want for the most part when you go to the grocery store and it's just you know cornucopia of whatever the heck you desire and so it's really hard to discern between

and I'll use a different word because I think this helps, cravings and hunger. So hunger is the real desire for nutrients that your body needs. Cravings. is a desire to indulge in, I don't know, to feel better, to experience flavor, taste, pleasure that we can get from food. So that's a very important thing, very important, I should say, question.

that you're asking. So there's a couple of ways that I would teach people this. And it's a little more complicated than what I'm about to say, because it takes some time. But a craving is typically specific. So it's like, I'm sitting here and I'm like, oh my God. I'm so hungry for ice cream or I'm so hungry for pizza. Like I could really use, I could really eat some Chinese food right now. Hunger is I'll eat, you know, some chicken breast and broccoli and some rice.

Or I'll have some steak. Like really put anything in front of me right now. And I think that I could definitely eat that. So that's the difference. That's one of the main differences. between cravings and hunger so like cravings is like you're with your friends hey it's lunchtime what do you guys want to eat and then you have a debate over you know well maybe we can have this or no i don't feel like eating that and i feel like eating this type of thing hunger is like i feel like eating anything

especially or typically things that will nourish my body. So when you're sitting there thinking I'm hungry and you think of a healthy dish and you're like, nah, I don't really want to eat that right now, you're probably not hungry. Sarah, tell me a little bit about your goals and your kind of journey so far, like how long you've been lifting weights for and have you ever really tried to like dial in your nutrition? Like, tell me a bit about that.

Well, to kind of add a layer onto the nonsense, like growing up, we were very unhealthy. We've always had... Me and my sister, just a bad relationship with food because my mom didn't really like grocery shopping or cooking or doing anything. So we were either like hungry, hungry all day and then we would get home to have dinner and it was either just eat as much as you can before it's gone or like my mom would take half of it.

put it on my dad's plate and then the rest of us would split what was left so even after eating like just still hungry um so i've had honestly eating disorders from both sides of the spectrum from just binge eating because I finally have food till I make myself sick. And that was just normal growing up. I didn't ever realize that after eating, you're not supposed to feel like that until one day I was just like, man, I'm so tired of feeling like this.

Growing up, again, my mom was very overweight herself, and all we heard was, oh, if you want to lose weight, you just have to starve yourself, and this and that. So once I got tired of the binge feeling, I was like, all right, I need to get healthy. And so I just wasn't eating very much. I got really skinny. And I still like I've struggled with body dysmorphia.

So even when I was like looking back now, I can see I looked like my arms look like toilet paper tubes, like I was very tiny and very unhealthy. So I've done that side of it. And then I've done the exercise. side of it the wrong way just like i guess it's kind of like ego lifting like i feel like i should be able to do this and if i can't then i just need to try harder So after I got through all of that and none of that was working, I was actually listening to Dr. Deloney.

And I think either he was interviewing you guys or he was a guest on your podcast. And so that led me to y'all. And so now it's been about... I think I started in January, so it hasn't been that long that I've been lifting properly with proper form and eating, and I've gotten the... I guess I still have the feelings sometimes of the mental side of it with the anxiety towards, like, the scale.

or eating too much and things like that. But I have a much healthier relationship with the scale and with food and with weightlifting now, honestly. And I think... Honestly, from when I started, I did anabolic and I did pre-phase, phase one, and I think half of phase two. And then I got really sick and I took, I've had to take about a month off just for my health. I couldn't hardly breathe. I've had asthma. And so when I get sick, sometimes it puts my breathing.

just really messed up for a while um so after that i started muscle mommy and i'm actually today was day two of phase three So since then, I've actually only had a two pound difference, but my whole entire body looks completely different. So I'm finally starting to see the results, but I. Well, before I started from processed foods, I went totally whole foods and I wasn't tracking.

And then I noticed I was like really hungry all the time and feeling so tired. So I finally started tracking and it turns out I was actually only eating like 800 to 1000 calories. So I immediately jumped up to 1500. And I didn't have any weight gain from that. And I was still feeling very hungry. So I went to 1800. And that's when I sent y'all the message because I was still just like all day, just like I could eat anything. I could just let myself do.

it um so i wasn't sure if it was because of my past i'm like not really trust myself to know is this actual hunger or is this just my body like this isn't the norm we're trying to go back to normal um But since I sent the question in, I've actually jumped to 2100 with still no weight gain, still getting results.

And thinking about jumping up again, but still have that feeling of, I don't know if I should or if it's the mistake or if it's the right choice. So it's been a roller coaster since January. That helps so much. And I'm glad I asked because now I definitely wouldn't recommend fasting as a tool for you. That would be a bad idea. And it actually sounds like your intuition is on point. You're doing the right things. And I like the idea of going up another 200 calories. I think that...

What you are feeling, especially since you've already noticed body composition change, especially you've noticed increasing calories and no weight gain. your body is wanting more. And it sounds like you're lifting weights properly and you're probably, it's trying to build muscle and it wants the nutrients it needs to do that. And so-

I would totally do that. I'd love to, if you're not already, Sarah, in our private forum, I'd love to give you access to that. That way. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to have Doug give you access to that. I love the program you're on. That's totally fine. I think that's great. That way, as you go through this process, if you start to question yourself.

Again, whether you should or shouldn't be doing that, we can kind of be there to help support you along. But I actually think you're doing a really good job. I think you're doing a great job and what you're feeling is normal. But what you're probably feeling, because of all the things you told us, is your body wanting to build muscle and it wanting more calories. And so I would give it another couple hundred calories and see how you feel and what your performance looks like.

and body composition. So I think you're doing great. Yeah, you're doing such a great job, Sarah. So here's what this is going to look like for you more specifically. This is going to be a process of awareness and it's going to start with some structure. It's not going to end this way, but it's going to start with a little bit of structure. So you're going to up your calories and then you're going to eat at regular intervals.

Okay. So you're going to build this kind of practice. So you're going to eat, you know, three or four meals a day. You're going to kind of eat them regularly. You're going to make sure you have your protein. It's not going to end this way, but this is just to help you bring awareness. And what I want you to do when you eat is don't eat while you're distracted.

And I want you to really focus on how you feel. How is this making me feel? Do I feel satisfied or full? Do I still feel hunger? You know, do I get more energy from this? And then I want you to really pay attention to your performance. I think your strength gains in the gym are going to direct you better than anything right now. So if you're getting stronger...

you're moving in the right direction. I don't think the scale is a good idea. And I also don't think studying your body in the mirror is a good idea at this moment. So you're at this kind of beginning stage of really starting to understand. what your body's signals are telling you, and then discerning between good signals and maybe bad relationship type stuff. But you are moving in the right direction. Doing good.

Thank you. And right now, depending on the day, I do track, so it is an accurate... number, but I'm between like 158 and 175 grams of protein. So where should the calories come from? Should I add more protein or should I be more concerned with fat or carbs? How low is your fat? That also might be while you're hungry too. How low is your fat? It's usually between 50 and 58. Bump your fat. Bump your fat. Yeah. Definitely. And that actually might help a lot with how you feel.

Most women I've trained that way. Most women I've trained need, need more than that. Yeah. If that's essential. So I would bump it. Yeah. All right. Thank you. And then just one last question. If you have time. It's probably always been there and I just haven't noticed because I've never been able to see my muscles, but I'm noticing a difference in size between right and left. And I'm wondering how much is.

like a normal difference for you know a dominant side versus when I should be like focusing on trying to Catch the other side up. Right now, I would tell you not to study your body to look for discrepancies. I think that's going to move you in the wrong direction. However, after muscle mommy, follow symmetry. Yes.

That's the perfect program. That's it. We'll address that completely. Let me send that to you, Sarah. We'll send you symmetry too. Thank you. You got it. All right. Appreciate you guys again. Thank you for this call and for. guiding me and kind of breaking me free from a generational cycle of just nonsense good for you good for you sarah you're doing awesome thanks for calling y'all have a good day you too hey man i am so glad you asked that uh because i just went into yeah give me an advice and

That context is so important. Oh, yeah. I mean, it changed the complete advice. I mean, when we first started talking, I thought, oh, man, this is a great example of someone who should do some fasting. But then when you hear this, you're like, no. You don't do that. But great job. I mean, as far as someone who has, what, only been listening to us for a half a year.

is trying to use the information she's learning and her own intuition. I mean, she's on the right track. And I bet you once she bumps that fat. Goes up another 200 calories. She's going to feel better. She'll know the strength go up. Probably the appetite won't be as bad. Yeah, I think she's doing really good. But yeah, that context really makes a difference on how you advise that person.

Our next caller is Colin from Tennessee. Colin, what's going on, guy? Yeah, I know you. Hey, guys. Good seeing you all again. What's up, homie? How you doing, dude? Doing well. Yeah, just living the dream one day at a time. How's the baby? Baby's good. She has a stomach bug right now. She's teething. Good times. No sleep for us. We also own a dance studio.

And we just did our show, so there was no sleep there either. So I'm kind of giving up on sleep for a little bit. Is this a fake background? Maybe we'll have you show us some dances later. Ask your question. No, I do the props and special effects. I don't do the dancing.

So I don't know that I said this last time I was on this when we did this a year and a half ago, but I just want to say I appreciate you guys, all that you do, all the information you put out. Super helpful over the past 10 years listening from the beginning. So just wanted to say that. Awesome. So my question is, how do you develop thick skin as a trainer? And for those listening, that's thick with a CK and not two Cs, just to clarify. So, and I'll read a little bit of…

my message, but I take, um, a lot of personal, um, interest in my, all my clients. Right. Like if I, if I meet with someone, I just feel like the connection's not really that great. Like I'll, I'll kind of like. shut that down. So all my clients, I really care about every aspect of their life, home, family.

Kids, if they're a Christian like me, I'm asking about their faith and their walk and what they're reading, all those things because I really care about all the intricate details there. And so I'll share one client in particular that… I typically tell clients, you have to give training at least a year. You can't come in and expect...

30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and to see this massive stuff. So I typically tell everyone, like, give it a year and then kind of gauge how you feel. And so for this client in particular, she, in the first six months, She, her shoulder pain that she had for four years was gone. Her pelvic floor issues that she had had for several years was gone. She was, when we started, she was eating 1200 calories. And then six months later, she's eating about 1600 calories.

Um, her weight stayed the same and, um, there was something that, oh, and we did it all virtually, right. Which is my least favorite way of training, but, um, it went really, really well. Right. Gave her all. I mean, the same thing. I'm like giving her prime. exercises and assessments and we did the whole thing. And so, and I, I definitely remember from the beginning forecasting.

for her and walking her through like, hey, this is what's going to happen. This is kind of what we're going to see, right? You're going to get three months into this and go, I don't know about it, but then you're going to get another three months and see some progress, but then you're going to be like, I don't know about it. And it's like, these cycles are going to happen. Anyways, we got six months into it.

I wake up to a text one day, and she's like, I'm done. This isn't for me. And so as someone who just – I really take a personal interest in my clients to the nth degree and trying to make sure I overcommunicate things. It's really hard for me to pick myself back up from those things because I know I have to take ownership of them calling it quits and them not succeeding. But when I look back at some of those, I don't know.

what to do different in particular. And I'll also say this, that even before you guys had mind pump trainers, the benchmark I've always used over the past eight years as a trainer is, would I be good enough? to be a mind pump trainer, or really it was to work for you guys. And that's my, that's kind of like how I gauge, like, am I growing? Am I moving towards that? And when I typed this message out, it was like April 28th.

And I was like, I don't know that I really want to send it. Later that day, I saw on Facebook where Sal had posted like two weeks earlier about what it takes to be a mind pump trainer. And so I'm reading through it. And one of his snippets was about having thick skin.

And honestly, I read that and I was like, I don't want to send this message because I don't want to look weak as a trainer. Like I've been doing this for eight years. I've listened to you guys for 10 years, but I still feel like I suck. And so it's really hard to figure out how do I give myself grace and pick myself up and keep going when, like, I mean, this is what I love doing. Like, if I would not be, I work.

I own a dance studio with my wife. I own a personal training studio and I work a full-time job. That's it's way too much, but I love the training so much. I can't let it go. It's where I want to get. And so. It's really hard to not, when I have those interactions with clients that I feel like I gave 110% to, that they're like, no, it's not working. To not take it personally and be like, I'm eight years into this and I'm nowhere near where I should be or good enough to be even a decent trainer.

I know that's long-winded, but the question is, how do I develop thicker skin as a trainer? And ultimately, the reason I decided to send the message anyways was because my skin's not going to get thick by ignoring it, right? I want to get better at it. So that's ultimately why I'm here. Yeah. Good job, Colin. There is the possibility that you do suck, Colin. Yeah.

I will get a t-shirt made. Just hang out with Adam more. Can I tell you something? Hey, we like you. That's why we tease you, by the way. We don't tease everybody. It's me helping you out with your thick skin, bro. Look, look, look. All right, listen. I'm going to just straight up, okay?

We don't hire trainers because of their skills. We hire trainers because of their character. Thick skin is not, you know, oh, I'm just not going to complain. I'm not going to talk about this struggle. Thick skin is actually being vulnerable.

Because when your skin isn't thick, you don't want to show your weakness. You're afraid of showing your weakness. So you kind of got some thick skin by getting on here and talking to us. Telling us about this. And you have good character, Cole. I'm going to tell you that right now. Now, I'm going to stop pumping your tires because I'm going to tell you the truth.

about being a trainer. There's two truths here. Everything is your fault and you will never have all the answers. So you're in a position where here's the good part. You're like, man, I did something wrong. Or I couldn't figure this out. That's true. But here's the other truth. You'll never figure it all out. You'll never be able to figure it out. There's always going to be people that are going to not.

move in the right direction or that you're not going to be able to impact in the ways that you think you're going to help them. And that's just the way it is. That's just what it means to be a trainer. But on the other end of it. Your pursuit of trying to figure that out is what's going to make you better. Here's what's not going to make you better. Thinking I'm terrible. I'm crap. I'm whatever. No, here's what you say. I don't have all the answers. I'm going to keep going.

I don't have all the answers. I'm going to keep going. So when that would happen to me, and I hated it, I hated it because, oh, okay, why couldn't I get to this client? Why couldn't I figure this out? Why did they stop? Like, that's going to make me better.

So let me just keep, let me try to figure this out, but also understand I will never figure everything out. It's impossible. That's what's going to make, that's what's going to continue because I think you're already a great trainer. It's going to continue to make you.

a better and better trainer. And the longer you do this, the better you're going to get. And I don't think it's ever going to stop. It's a lot like baseball, bro. The greatest batters ever to live missed 70% of the time. It's just...

There's a variable in this that you can't control. Now you take responsibility as what could I have done better? How can I get better? I mean, that's how you stay growth minded. That's how you continue to get better. But the reality is that you're still going to fail. you know, at least 50 to 70% of the time. And that's because the other variable is- And that's if you're good. Yeah, that person still has to follow through. They still have to want it.

And sometimes, no matter how great you are, they're just not ready for that step yet in their life. And maybe you played a much bigger role than you think. Maybe she leaves. And a year or two from now, she realizes, oh, man, that was the best I ever felt when I was working with Colin. And he really would tell me this, and I need to get back to that. And you don't know. But at this time, she may not be ready for that.

To add to that, I also like to, with situations like that, investigate as much as I can from the client. If someone sent me that text, I'd be like, oh, man. totally let you down and failed you what are some of the things that i could have done better or what what makes you feel that way like i'm gonna i'm gonna pull out i want to get to the bottom because sometimes what happens too is these people don't want to admit or tell you

that something's going on financially with them or that there's another reason, real reason, but I'm going to give you the surface answer of, oh, it's just not working out for me. And so your immediate default is, oh, there's something wrong with me. But really what might be.

is as you start to pull that thread, you find out that, oh, shit, my husband just lost his job, and we don't know how we're going to take care of the bills next month. I certainly can't be paying for this personal trainer. But I don't want to tell my personal trainer that. That's my husband. You know what I'm saying? So I'm just going to tell them it's not working out. So I want to investigate.

to get to the real root cause of what is it? Was it she'd not seen the results enough? Was I overbearing and messaging her too? What was it so I can step my game up the next time and improve? Yeah, find out. really what her expectations were and that's the thing like being able to

ask those questions. I think that's, that's super important. And even if it's going well, like just continually kind of have that kind of dialogue between your clients of, you know, how are we feeling about how things are going and, you know, And then you can go back and really reevaluate that beginning process of how you can refine it and what.

you could put in front of them to do a better job of kind of outlining this whole thing. And maybe it is a bombardment of information. Maybe it's something like that, that we need to reevaluate and pull back a little bit. So, yeah, there's just a lot of data there that I'm always going back and overanalyzing these things because, and two, you got to let it go. You got to let them go. And a lot of times, like Adam said, they'll come back if you're really, you're.

hearts into it and and they know that you had their best interest in mind they'll go seek somebody else because they have this weird expectation that they should have had this within like a month and you know they're gonna come back and be like oh my god that's not what i needed and calling you know

outlined exactly what was going to happen and i didn't listen yeah yeah you know it's funny you guys are saying that that i i distinctly remember a couple times where i had a client telling me they wanted to stop and i asked them why and you know what they said to me They said, it's because I keep messing up, man. I just keep messing up. And I said, well, of course. This is hard. You're going to mess up. This is very challenging. But we're moving in the right direction. And they stayed with me.

They stayed with me because of it. The other side of this is, let me ask you this, Colin. In all honesty, to the best of your knowledge, with the time that she was with you, do you think she had a good experience? Yeah, up until she quit. She was excited. I mean, she made posts and tagged me about her shoulder pain and muscle definition and all that stuff. Colin, you did a good job. This is a journey. So here's what you've done now.

You've given her a good experience with a healthier lifestyle. Yep. Do you think that's going to benefit her moving forward? Yes. Okay. Do you know how many times a trainer... gives somebody a bad experience and they never try again. Happens all the time. So on this side, it sounds like you did a good job. It just, it sounds like you did a great job.

I would investigate more. You could ask questions like, if we were to be continuing on for another year, what or how did you need to feel at this moment? Like, obviously, you were doing good. You did your post. You were happy. Everything's been fine. What could I have done to keep you? And all of a sudden, you don't feel that way. So what was the feeling you were expecting to have at this moment?

Like in order for us to continue on, what was it that you don't feel or have? Right? Well, okay. I'll share something else that she said. This was actually a while ago, but this is the whole point of asking the question because it takes me so long to process. I told her from the beginning that we will be using maps-based programs, and later she comes back and goes, I don't think these are appropriate for me. I'm like, okay.

And I didn't really clarify, but she was like, yeah, I just I think it's too much. It's overkill. Right. It's overkill, but you're seeing more muscle definition in your shoulder pain and pelvic floor. Wait a second. Wait a second. Let's let's pause there for a second. OK, so here this is there's something we can I can help you with right now. So if so, if a client tells me that this is where you hear us talk about meeting people where they're at.

Maybe it is too much for her. She's whatever. Maybe map starter was better. It would have been better for her. Maybe half the exercises map starter is better for her. And then you, but here, and here's what you don't ever want to do. Okay. So what you just did right there. And I don't know if you did it that way.

is she expressed how she feels about something like that. And instead of accepting it, receiving it, and trying to meet her somewhere, you defended your case on why you have her on that program. Where I would have said something more like, oh, really? What is it about that? Do you feel like it's too many exercises? Are you too sore? What is it about the program that feels like it's too much? Because sometimes it can be for people. And get more information.

And maybe what she says is just like, yeah, I'm not ready to have three days a week or these exercises are too difficult. Like, oh, I totally get it. So my clients aren't ready for some of these movements. Let's do this. Let's go back and we'll start on this. You know what I'm saying?

yeah this is chess not checkers yeah so she says this is too much for me you know okay is this an argument you try to jump her right away is this an argument that i need to win i you know i just want to do less all right let's do less yeah I didn't say that to her whenever she sent me that message. But what's funny is she's also the type of person who would ask me if she was doing enough. Yeah, that's common client. I'm like...

I'm getting some bipolar signals here. Okay. Right. Like this, you know, so that it's, I will say, I will say this. And I don't know if this is progress or not, but it's, it's. So setting me certain ways of communicating things in the beginning to make it maybe change how I communicated, how the journey works. And so some in particular are, one, I tell people before we start, I say.

I, as your coach and trainer, am not a shortcut to fast results. I'm a shortcut to long-term results. And then I say that your journey is like building a puzzle. And it's going to take time, and we have to build the perimeter first, and then we fill it in. And so we have to do the foundational truths, right? It's lifting weights. It's protein. It's water. It's sleep. It's all these things, right? And so that way people kind of have this visual of like we're putting your pieces in it.

It's not just like you dump it out and like, oh, look, there's a puzzle. It's beautiful, right? And you have to sift through which pieces fit and where they fit for you. So I will say that that may be a positive that has come out of those situations is trying to change how I communicate and paint the picture. I love that analogy. I love that analogy. You know what's the most important thing?

that a trainer does above everything else because it makes everything else possible is do they enjoy spending time with you? That's literally the most important thing. And I used to get caught in this probably the first half of my career where I just would get caught in teaching. It was more important to me that I taught them something than they were happy to be there. It's actually less important because I can't teach you anything unless you want to be here.

So there were clients I trained. I'm not making this up. I had clients I trained for three years. and all they would do is show up to the workouts, and they made no other changes in their lives because it just wasn't happening. And that's okay. As long as you show up and you're having a good time, then that's fine for now. Because I'm going to keep working this. Colin, do you still make the time to listen to us talk to live callers, all the live callers?

Yes. Yeah, that's really good for you because this is an example and hopefully you get to see this live with us when we do this all the time. How many times have you heard us ask questions, a bunch of questions? We only got, remember, we only got like five minutes with these people. we ask a bunch of questions and then we already can like pinpoint that personality or what that person. So maybe looking back, the growth part for me, if I'm you is like,

dammit, I could have asked better questions when we first met to get a better idea of the type of personality she is, that she was going to be somebody who expected this or wanted that or thought that. That way, I could have forecasted better.

Yeah. Right. So there, there's the growth opportunity there. And, and this, this takes years, bro. I mean, I, it probably was 10 years before I thought I was really good at this, where I could talk to somebody for five to 10 minutes. Now you have more than five, 10 minutes than we do, but that I could talk to in one sit down and really get a good idea of like, oh, okay, this is going to be the type of client that wants this and thinks that. And so I can already kind of see the hurdles.

So right now it sounds like you have this kind of general forecasting for everybody where your forecasting becomes very specific to that person. And you've heard me talk about this before. I love to talk to people about a client that I had when I'm talking about them. them right like oh yeah i had this client but it's really me honing in on like having that social awareness of oh she's gonna be like this she's gonna think my programming is too weak and not enough or or whatever

And so I will talk about that client, but I'm really talking. So maybe getting better at your forecasting instead of having this, because that is a great little spiel you have, but it's very generic in general, where my forecasting is always. I'm trying to forecast what I think this person is going to be challenged with, not what everybody is challenged with, like what is unique to her or him.

Yeah, I have taken that play out of your book several times. You're better than most trainers. You're definitely better than most people already, and you're eight years in, and this is when you start to really become a black belt. So keep it up. You're doing good, bro. I appreciate that because I feel like I'm eight years in, but I feel like compared.

comparatively, I'm like two years in, right? So I don't feel like I'm two years away from 10 years. Yeah, no, no, no. You're good, dude. You're doing good. You are calling. You're doing good. You're doing good, bro. I appreciate it, guys. Thank you so much. You got it, man. Thanks for calling in. You know what he's going through. I can't remember the name of this, but there's like this... Dunbar...

God, I love you, Justin. It's like our brains are connected. I don't know if that's what it is, but I know you think the same thing. The more you know, the less you realize you know. Yeah, because when you first become a trainer, I know everything. Then the longer you become a trainer, you're like, I know nothing. And it's like this process.

process. That's where he's at right now. Our next caller is Nicholas from Massachusetts. What's up, Nicholas? What's happening, man? What's going on, guys? How you doing, bro? How can we help you? Good, good. I appreciate you taking my question. It's awesome. What you got for us? Question is, so I'm going to take you back four years, right? When I really started getting into fitness and health and wellness, everything, I started training Jiu-Jitsu four years ago.

Since that time, I was getting ready for a competition. This is four years ago. I was getting ready for a competition. Wanted to cut to 205 in my weight class. I was 215. Training jiu-jitsu and lifting, cardio every day. and I cut down to 1,700 calories. In hindsight, I know, way too low. Made 205, easy, no problem. After the competition, still training jutsu, still lift.

Didn't really focus on the diet, but everything was still clean, clean eating. My weight maintained from 205 to 210-ish for a couple years. Last year, I wanted to... I do a legit cut, so I cut my calories down to 2,400 calories, kept protein as my priority, continued to train, continued to lift, and I didn't lose a single pound.

which I thought was odd. The summer hit, so I kind of cruised through the summer, didn't really focus on my diet. But again, continue to lift, continue to change jiu-jitsu. When the holidays hit, same thing, didn't really focus on the diet. And after that, I was like, you know what, let me try and do a bulk. So I increased my calories to 3,400 calories, continued to lift, continued to change the jiu-jitsu. I trained, I changed the way I lifted. I did three days a week.

Full body, focused on higher reps, trained to almost failure. Gained 10 pounds and was noticeably stronger. I was noticeably bigger in the mirror, my physique. And I was like, all right, cool. Let me try and cut. So I was 220 when this happened. I was like, all right, cool. Let me try and cut now. Cut down to 2,800 calories. Still did three days a week full body.

increased my weight, lowered my reps, and didn't lose a single pound for four months. Cut down to 2,700 calories, added in Zone 2 cardio once a week, and same thing. didn't lose a single pound, which I thought was odd. And looking at it now, I think I totally jacked up my metabolism and I messed it up. So I'm just looking to get.

your insight on it yeah i'm gonna assume you're tracking accurately correct yeah oh yeah yeah okay yeah so i also saw in your question you're firefighter in a busy city yeah yeah okay and you're doing okay and you're doing jiu-jitsu how many days a week

on average four i try and train five hold on a second okay hold on five plus hold on hold on hold on adam for a jump on this four days a week jiu-jitsu it's probably two hour two hour classes is that what they are yeah yeah give it take and then you're doing lifting three days a week

yeah and then you're eating uh and then you're doing cardio yeah yeah okay and you have a stressful job yeah and you got a stressful job and you get crappy sleep all the time because i know firefighters yeah where do you think i'm going here yeah listen by a lot bro your metabolism is actually healthy yeah that's right it's really healthy bro it is protecting you yeah you're over trained to hell you're underslept

and you're trying to go into calorie deficit. Thank God that your metabolism is doing what it's doing because it's keeping you going. is what's happening storing energy that's right and you're you seem like you're a young man i'm gonna tell you right now you keep on this path you're gonna crash hard if your testosterone isn't already in the floor it will be

So you're overdoing it like crazy. Yeah. Like crazy. Yeah, yeah. And you're trying to cut. Yeah. That's crazy. What's your priority with fitness? Is it jujitsu or is it strength training? Oh, it's so tough to answer. Both. But realistically, I know that's not an answer.

so you love jiu-jitsu you love jiu-jitsu i love it okay you're a one day a week max yeah max one day a week that's it max you're going to jiu-jitsu four to five days a week you're going to lift once a week and moderate intensity you're not trained to failure yeah that's

it and you're not doing cardio you're already doing plenty of cardio no additional anything focus on your sleep and then start feeding yourself properly and stay there for a little while before you decide to cut yeah don't think about cutting your bulking think about eating for maintenance right now That's it. Eat to take care of your body, okay? Which maybe for you is going to be somewhere around 26 to 2800 calories, if I had to guess. Maybe more.

Probably around 3,000. Yeah. I mean, but where he's currently at now, because I'm sure it's slowed down because of all the overtraining. So I would work you. You would be in like a reverse diet, right? I'd probably start you somewhere around.

26 to 2800. And the goal is to keep moving that up to where until you get somewhere around 3000, 3400 calories. And then what should happen is without any more additional anything, you just slowly lean out. You build a little bit of body change on its own. Yeah.

And you don't need any more and doing more is not going to speed it up. It's only going to set you back again. Yeah, here's what's going to happen. You're going to go down to one day a week of strength training, four to five exercises max.

moderate intensity, and you're going to keep your calories around what Adam said. And what's going to happen is you're going to get stronger. Your jujitsu game is going to get better. You're going to start feeling better. And then your body's slowly going to get leaner without having to do lots of cuts. Yeah. So I figured you guys are going to say that with that. So I have a competition coming up in September, right? I'm two 20 now.

and I want to compete at 205 because I'm a small 220. That's not the priority right now. That'd be a big mistake. Why are you trying to cut weight for jiu-jitsu, dude? You're a firefighter. What are you doing? To compete at 220, like I said, I'm a small 220. I'm going to go in there and get destroyed. 205 is where I'm at. What's the prize money if you win, by the way? A million dollars?

oh no you get a stupid trophy yeah listen you're gonna you're gonna crash yourself if you try to cut 15 pounds for a tournament So you can, whatever you're better off. It's the old Valley tournament. Yeah. You're better off going into it healthy and feeling good and then doing the best job you can. And you know, how long have you been doing jujitsu? Four years, four and a half. So what are you blue or purple?

Okay. You just modify your game and play the best game that you can, and that's it. And if you lose, so what? But don't destroy your metabolism in pursuit of this or destroy your body. in pursuit of this trophy, go into it healthy. And Nicholas, maybe later on, after we prioritize your health and getting back, we can talk about cutting down to that weight class. But right now is not the right time to do it. You're in a position right now where...

Your body's trying to scream at you to get healthy and take care of it, right? Get rested, get fed. exercise properly. That's what it's trying to tell you. And then you want to push it to another extreme level right now. It's just not the timing. Doesn't mean that I couldn't take you say a year or two from now and go, Hey, you want to get in that two Oh five class. Now that we got a healthy metabolism, you've got a better balance with. sleep and food and exercise. Now we can do this together.

Let's do it. But right now in this moment, that's not a good focus. It's an opposite focus. And I'll tell you right now, the odds that you'll do well in the jiu-jitsu tournament at a healthy, lots of energy, feeling good 220 is better. Then you go in at 205, cutting your calories way down and over-trained. Yeah. Okay. And you also, is this gi or no gi? What are you competing in? Oh, God. With the gi too? 15 pounds? It's not going to make that big of a difference.

You know this. I bet you go against guys that are 160 that kick your butt because their technique is so good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Go in there healthy. Jiu-jitsu, keep it up. One day a week strength training, like we said. Keep your calories up. And then watch what happens. All right. That's it. All right, cool. You got it, man. Appreciate it. You got it, brother. Yes.

Thanks for calling in, man. I didn't know I was going to get yelled at like this. That's how it goes sometimes. I appreciate you, man. Thanks for the work you do, bro. Just listen, though, okay? Don't just get off the phone and be like, fuck those guys and go do your thing. We're the angry uncles. Yeah, if you trust us, I promise you. Yeah, my angry uncles killed me. All right. Hey, by the way, let me send you a program that I think you'll like. MAPS 15 Performance. Let's send that to him.

That's a good program for guys like you who like doing jiu-jitsu and stuff like that. Cool. I appreciate it. You got it, man. All right, man. Thanks. See you, dude. Later, bro. Thanks. Have one of our trainers call him. Yeah. I like his Boston accent. I almost asked him if you like these apples. Can you say wicked real quick? Yeah, dude. Oh, wicked awesome. I'm listening to it. I'm like, bro, jiu-jitsu. I did jiu-jitsu. I did it. my 20s four days of jujitsu period or five yeah

That's a lot. It's two hours. You said two hours. You're wrestling hard, dude. That beats you up. You ain't doing a bunch of lifting with that. No, you're not doing hardly. Even the lifting he does should be moderate. That's right. And he said he was training to failure. And three days a week. And he's a firefighter. And he's a firefighter. Probably a fucked up schedule too. The four on, five off thing they do where they're like...

24 hour. We didn't even get into that. I'm like, sure. He walked into a buzzsaw. Yeah. Well, I mean, as he was listing all of it all. And here's the thing. You know what? He's 29 years old. He's young. So he's resilient as fuck. And so that's where you get in your head because you can. Yep. Because I can.

That's why I told him you keep going. It's your body. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love that you hinted to the testosterone too. I bet I'm about now, if he's been doing that for a long enough time, he's, Oh, I think I said, I said that on purpose because I guarantee he's already feeling the effects of low testosterone. Yeah. So for sure. Our next caller is Gage from Hawaii. What's up, Gage? How you doing, Gage? Yo! Hey, guys. How's it going? Good. Good, man. Chilling.

The studio looks so cool. I just wanted to say that. I'd rather be where you're at, dude. Yeah, yeah. Let's trade places for sure. Awesome. Okay, guys, I'll just jump straight into my question. I guess I had a multi-part question. You guys can just answer kind of whatever parts you want to pick out of it based off the time. I know I'm a few minutes late. It's my bad. But a little background about me.

Got super into health and fitness after kind of my own health problems, complications, multiple doctors visits, things like that. I unfortunately never got specific answers from anybody in the past, kind of took my health into my own hands and kind of changed how I was exercising, changed what I was eating, changed how I was living.

I ended up starting to feel a lot better after some time. After listening to your guys' podcast for the last couple of years and listening to some other people's experiences and things, I feel like it was. It's probably a mold toxicity issue or like a mold issue because I started feeling better right after I moved out of the place that I was living before. I feel like that was kind of the timeline.

I have a lot of background in sports, weight training. I did a little bout of running, ran a marathon. I'm one and done with that one. I did not fully enjoy that process. I'm glad to say I've done it though. Um, and, uh, just trying to look for like balance with, uh, work life stress and training. Um, my main question is being that, um, I have a new opportunity to do personal training at a gym that I'm working at here. I also teach group classes and I'm a health coach remotely online.

I have two kind of side business ventures that I have also my feet in that are taking up a lot of my time. So my main question is, I know that you guys have some entrepreneur background. Um, what are your, what's your advice on, on how to know when to kind of go all in on one thing or the other? I know that I'm spread too thin. I hear it all the time of like, kind of pick one thing. Um, if you, uh, you know.

do too many things, you're not going to progress very much in any of them, basically. That's my first main question. Which one are you more passionate about or which one's got the best ROI? Currently or like in the future? Potential ROI. That's the question. No, not potential right now. Which one's got the best return on your investment right now? And which one are you more passionate about? And are they the same?

No, they're not the same. I would say that the coaching opportunity is I'm way more passionate about. I enjoy doing that a lot more. I do feel like the other options... potentially could have more roi but currently don't so oh how old are you do you have and you have you have kids wife do you or are you just on your own i'm 25 i'm on my own so i don't have any of that overhead or anything like that

Oh, dude. Push the chips. Yeah, bro. This is the time. Do the one you're most passionate in. Go for it. You got lots of energy. You're young. You don't have kids or a wife to support. Pick the one you're passionate in and go for it. That's the one that will haunt you if you don't. I'm going to tell you that right now. That's it. So go for it. Worst case scenario. And give yourself some time, by the way. Whenever we tell people like you.

Go all in on the one you're passionate on. Don't just do it for three months and be like, I did it. I'm done. No, no. Give yourself a year or I think a year minimum and say, okay, I'm going to give myself to this date and I'm going to go as hard as I can and I'm going to see if it can work.

And usually what happens is you get your answer. And oftentimes the answer is I made the right decision. Yeah. Pick the thing that you see right in front of you that you would be willing to do for the next 10 years to get good at it. And it wouldn't bother you. It doesn't feel like work. You can just keep working on it continuously, and it's okay because you enjoy it. Yeah.

That's the hack, bro. When you do something that you're passionate about and you're staying up at 11, midnight at night, you're not counting those hours because you'd be doing it anyways and you love it. You lean into that. Otherwise, you're looking at the clock. That's the biggest hack for really successful entrepreneurs is they've found something that they don't count the hours of all the time and effort they put into it. It's not an easier path. People think it's like...

Oh, it's all this flexibility and freedom. Bullshit. You're going to work more than anybody who does a nine to five because, but you won't look at it like work because you love doing it. You're excited about it. You're passionate about it. So as soon as you got a break, you're actually kind of working because you're reading up or researching or.

educating yourself or watching others doing that craft or getting mentored like and you love it because it's what you want to do so the best quote the best quote i ever heard on entrepreneurship is that an entrepreneur is somebody who's willing to work 80 hours a week

to avoid working 40 hours a week. Yep. If that makes, if that's like you, and I saw you laugh and kind of smirk a little bit when I said that, if that resonates, that's you, then go for it. Because I tell you what, working 40 hours a week for me. with something that I'm not passionate about feels like a million. Like, oh, I can't stand this. But doing something that I'm passionate about, I'll do this all day long for free and I love it. So it's totally different.

No, thank you for that. I feel like that really resonated with me when you shared that. Also, just knowing that it's something that I could put a lot of time into. don't feel like it's a lot of time passing doing it. Yeah, go for it. That's the key, bro. Are you in our course? Are you in any of our courses or anything for trainers? I'm not currently, but I've been looking into them as you've kind of...

been sharing on the podcast. Did you listen to looking into them? Did you listen to the three, three episodes that we just did for trainers? No, but I just saw that you dropped them, what, like last few days? Yeah, just a couple days ago. Yeah, go through those. Get in the free webinar where I do sales training, and we're going to do a lot more content for trainers and coaches like you.

And it'll help you. It'll help you a lot. Yeah, that's our big focus right now. And that's a big passion of ours. And guess what? It's not the great ROI for us right now. But it's a passion we all believe in.

We're all in on that right now. So it's the same concept. So go all in if you're passionate about it, dude. This is the time to do it. Always... make peace with the worst outcome what is the absolutely worst thing that could happen you know you got to eat peanut butter jelly sandwiches for a while or downsize your apartment or get a roommate or whatever like that's

Big deal. You're 25. Oh, I'm 26 now. And I guess it didn't work. So what? Right. Oh, that's, that's super helpful. You got this guys. Do it. Do it. When you hang up, go run towards it. Let's go. Awesome. I have one other question about training, if we have time. Yeah, let's go. Sure. Yeah. So because I got this opportunity to start personal training, I kind of had to...

start with group classes to get my foot indoor at the gym. So I had to get, you know, CrossFit L1 certified. And so I went through that whole process and started taking classes to learn how they worked and started doing it on my own. So I wouldn't say I'm fully addicted, but I'm enjoying the different style of training for myself. This is very new, very novel for myself. I'm seeing a lot of gains in areas that I've never seen before because I've never really done.

olympic lifting or gymnastics movements things like that um so my question to you guys is like how do i balance um the training right now with um kind of like the stress i i try to like taper my training with uh if i get a bad night of sleep you know listening to you guys like i'll bring back the volume or i'll bring back the intensity um but my main question is

Like, what do you recommend I do to continue progressing? Because I know that I feel like I'm at an age where I can get away with a lot of bullcrap. programming and training right now yeah like i'm still seeing a lot of progress but i know that it's not structured in a good way um or it's not like the best way to do it um do you because i do a couple met cons a week i still do some hypertrophy uh like lifting maybe once or twice a week.

I'll do some strength-focused stuff, like some endurance. Like, it's kind of all over the place. Yeah, no, this is good because of your age, because you're also a trainer and a coach. You can get away with the law right now. So I think the most you'll get out of this is by having fun with it.

and treating it like a skill. So instead of thinking of gains and whatever, like, oh, I'm going to learn, you know, I'm going to learn how to do this, you know, use the rings really well, or I'm going to continue to perfect my snatch.

Just treat it like you're learning a skill and you're having fun. That's it. That'll serve you best right now. Hunter, especially considering what your first question is all about and following your passion, your business to be a coach. It'll make you a better coach. It'll direct you. Yeah, don't go into this as like my gains or how I need to look.

like i want to learn about i want to get so good at learning these techniques that i can teach it to others yep and let me tell you that's a uh that is a that's a skill i didn't have like i could not if somebody came to me and wanted to learn how to do a snatch i couldn't do it i couldn't teach them how to do it i didn't have that skill you will have that And that's very, especially today with how popular CrossFit and those movements have become.

That's a very valuable thing for you to just add another tool in your tool belt. So look at it like that. Don't think about gains as much as it is education. And when you're going into one of these things and you're like, man, I'm too tired to have fun, then that means take the day off. Okay. No, that's super helpful. Yeah, I feel like there is some movements where I'm not actively chasing a big PR or a goal. I'll just do them just to get better. And so I feel like that kind of...

Yeah, just learn it and then I can teach you better. You're probably the biggest mistake someone young like you will make is doing too much when you don't need to. If you're already doing three Metcons a week, that's enough to build a great physique. Don't overdo it. You don't need to add in hypertrophy training and strength training on top of that. Those things are already got it built into it.

I would be, I would caution you on adding stuff. And I would go like, man, if you, if you get three good workouts in a week with everything else you got going on. Yeah. Just get as educated as possible. That's your entire focus. So the most important thing.

can modify with what we're telling you is intensity so you're like oh man i had three hard workouts this week but i want to go practice more go low intensity practice yeah like literally have fun think of it that way like how can i have fun right now And is this still fun for me? That's going to give you the most returns for all the stuff that you just said. Thank you. No, that's super helpful. I feel like I am having fun. So that's helpful to know that like, okay, just go in and have fun.

Keep going into it. Don't try to look at it for PRs or gains. Go have fun. Have fun at the gym, the community. The competitions are fun. For sure. Perfect. That's the right attitude. That's great, dude. Yep. Cool. That's it. That's all I had, guys. Thank you so much for your time. We'll see you on the webinar, dude. Right on. Yeah, good, good. I love those questions. I love it. But yeah, I mean, when you're young like that, you don't have dependents.

Because that will haunt you. Let me just paint the picture. 25-year-old you. Oh, my God, I love. training people but i got this job that kind of pays the bills you know what i'm gonna do the you know quote-unquote responsible thing then you're 30 you got married you got a baby on the way you don't have a mortgage yeah and you're like oh this sucks i hate this job like oh i wish i wonder if i could have because

a trainer it's like well now you probably could still there's way more on the line it's way different versus back when you didn't have those things so look if you like the show come find us on instagram justin is at mindpumpjustin

I'm at Mind Pump DeStefano. Adam's at Mind Pump Adams. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, Check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com.

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