#595 The Secret To Recovering Faster After 40 + The Overlooked Muscle in Low Back Pain (Q&A)

He started this first gym out of a 500-square-foot storage closet. "Boys! We got it! Come on!" Worked his house off to build a world-renowned brand while becoming a legend in the sports performance industry. "So, 12 years of the work through my office has turned this little gym into a world-renowned place. And I'm not going to be satisfied until we are number one in the world and the country on this whole block everywhere." "I'm not trying to blend with the crown. I'm trying to make an impact in this industry." And now he's bringing his personality, passion, and expertise to you through this powerful podcast. "Welcome to the industrial strength show. Here's your host, Joe DeFrikel!" Hey guys, welcome to episode number 595 of the Industrial Strength Show. On today's show, I am going to be answering one, two, three, four questions. Not going to lie, it was a little bit of a light week. Question-wise, actually, I wasn't on my phone much this week. We had the Iron Business Blueprint Mastermind Weekend in Montclair at the MC Hotel this past weekend, which was incredible. I would say the best one yet, shout out to all the gym owners who attended, shout out to my partner, Chris Tutella. Absolutely crushed it. It's just a freaking phenomenal weekend all around business breakthroughs, relationships, great meal at the allegory restaurant at the MC Hotel. Lots of bonding, getting to know everyone better on more of a personal level. The training session at Kenny Santucci's gym, the Strength Club in Caldwell, New Jersey was freaking awesome. I love Kenny's gym. I put everyone through a group training session. Not only was it a great session, but helping the gym owners learn how to better organize larger groups of clients without watering down your training. So yeah, overall, freaking incredible weekend. If you're a gym owner, man, the next time you hear me promote a Mastermind Weekend, do what you got to do to get there. It really can change your business and your life forever. Not only the information that we share during the weekend, but just the relationships that are built, you'll have them for a lifetime. It's like a cheat code to grow your business. So anyway, check out ironbusinessblueprint.com to kind of stay up to date. We also have our Instagram page, which is also at iron business blueprint. So just wanted to throw that out there. But yeah, so that occupied my entire weekend, then come Monday. I was kind of behind schedule because I usually use my weekends to catch up on work. And when I don't have that, Monday is like a shit show into Tuesday. And then we turn into Wednesday night at midnight. Me actually, it's 1217. I'm recording this podcast Wednesday night slash Thursday morning. So we're going to get right into it. I'm going to try to keep my answers kind of tight into the point because it is late. But before I get to those four questions, I do have two quick announcements. First up, I can't remember if I mentioned this at all. If I didn't, it might have been a while ago, but I'm feeling like I didn't because it seemed so far away. But now we are like three weeks away from Luca Hosevar's Vigor Ground Fitness and Business Summit in Renton, Washington. Yes, I am flying across the country to speak at Lucas event. I was supposed to speak last year. And I had a last minute change of plans, scheduling conflict, if you will. But not this year, thankfully, I will be there. I think it's like four or five days. I think it's November 11th through the 14th or maybe it's the 12th through the 14th. I don't think I'm going to be able to stay the entire time. Probably only going to be there two of the days, but we just finalized my topic. I will be speaking on how to safely reintroduce sprinting into your training after the age of 40. It's going to be awesome. If you could attend, can't wait to see you there. I know a lot of you who listen to this podcast will be attending because you've already reached out to me. I hear from a couple of people each week who tell me they can't wait for the event and they're looking forward to seeing me and just the event in general because he has an all star line up. If you could get out to that event, I would highly recommend it. That's going to be another great event that can really change your business and your life. The networking alone is going to be second to none. Nice mix of training talk and business talk. So yeah, I'm excited about that. I just wanted to announce that I will be there. And then also before we get into answering these questions. Last week, I kind of teased my next training program, the program that I said I'm hoping will be out around holiday season Christmas time. And apparently you guys weren't too happy with me being vague. So I can't take any more emails of you guys asking, well, what's the program going to be about? What's the name of it? What's the split? So I wanted to give you a little bit of information so you could get off my back and I could I could focus on getting this thing done, but I am excited. I'm very excited about it because it's going to be super unique. We're bringing back the old school and in fact, I was actually I was going to call the program old school strength or like time tested muscle, but I think I'm going to go with built tough. A 12 week program based on the very first program that my father wrote for me back in 1988. Maybe I did maybe I did give this specifics of this. I'm totally shot you. It's been it's been a long day, long week, as you could tell. If I already mentioned this, I apologize, but I'm kind of having deja vu, but I can't remember now. So just in case I didn't, yes, I'm I even spoke with my dad for about 40 minutes on the phone this weekend and he hates talking on the phone, but I found one of my old notebooks literally from 1988. Unfortunately, I wrote in pencil, so it's like you could barely see it, but a bunch of my workouts, it wasn't the entire 12 weeks, but it was a few of the workouts I wrote out in the notebook with the weights I used and everything. So between that, the old VHS tape footage that we have, if you saw the strong documentary or you follow me on Instagram, you've seen some of those old clips, that's, that's the, the program I'm referring to, you know, you've only seen bits and pieces, a set here, a couple reps there, but we're putting that entire program back together. We're bringing it back to life based on the training logs that I still have access to the old VHS tape footage and both, you know, my recollection and my dad's recollection. We are going to read literally share that program like old school exercises, commentary, I will have in this never before told stories, it's going to be really cool, really unique, what's old is new. I am going to have like a little commentary after each workout because because it's so old, obviously there are some things that I made. maybe wouldn't recommend, or do now. But there's not a ton of that stuff. It's not like we trained like complete lunatics. I would say most of the training was pretty damn sound. The only argument you can make is maybe I did a little bit too much for an 11/12 year old. But just as a program for most of you, if you want it to challenge yourself and just have a different old school program with the nostalgia, but also the results. I think it's going to be really, really cool, really bad-ass. We're trying to dig up some old pictures that I've never shown before to include in the e-book. But also with the commentary, if there is anything that I would definitely do different now, I will have that as an option in the program. So let's say you have Monday's workout, the third exercise, if it's something that I wouldn't recommend doing, I might have a little note. Not I might, I will have a note that says, hey, back in 1988, we did it this way. If you want to still do it that way, go for it. But if not, if you want a little more shoulder-friendly variation of that exercise, I recommend substituting that out with this. So I'll have that sprinkled in there as well. But I think it's going to be really unique. I think you guys are going to enjoy it. My dad is actually working with me on this. It's so awesome because he jokes, he's like, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning, let alone how we trained 40 years ago. But once we started talking training, he remembered a couple of the signature exercises and shit that he used to have me do. He remembered stuff that I didn't remember. And usually I'm the one with the better memory when it comes to that stuff. But when it comes to the old MPs gym days and those workouts, he had a great recollection of a lot of stuff that I had just forgotten about or like a detail here or there that I was missing. But then he reminded me. So I think we continue putting our heads together. This is going to be a special, fun, bad ass program. And I am looking to have it ready for you guys. Come Christmas time. So that's the program, whether I announced that or not. Now y'all know and that is all I got for today's little intro. Now let me take a sip of water and let me pull up my email. The first two questions were emails sent in, I believe. And then I got screenshots of Instagram, DMs for the third and fourth topics we will discuss. All right, here's the first one. Question number one, email sent from Scott late last week. He wrote, "Coach, do you always recommend overweight clients eat in a calorie deficit or do you ever simply focus on food quality for a period of time, then adjust calories down the road after better eating habits have been established?" That's a great question because everyone thinks, I got this overweight client deficit deficit deficit. And this is great because I don't know if you heard last week's show, but the whole show was basically about how I would go about losing weight if I woke up tomorrow. And I was fat and bloated, like bloated Joe D back in the early and mid 2000s. But one of the things I spoke about was not focusing so much on restriction, it's a consumption mindset. Hit my protein goals, hit my fiber goals. I talked about drinking adequate water, like having more consumption goals than just starve, starve, starve, restrict, restrict, you know, it's all just about losing weight. Because, and I say this is a great question. And I can't speak for the entire world. I only know, you know, mostly here in America, I could tell you, the average American is in a caloric surplus while being in a nutrient deficit, if that makes sense. Like, most people are living on very high calorie, highly processed, hyper-palatable foods that have literally been created in labs for taste and flavor, not for freaking, you know, nutrient density or health, right? It's like, this is a major, major problem. And if we could get, I'll say, you know, those people, in air quotes, to eat more nutrient-dense whole foods, and most of you listening to this right now know this. When you eat nutrient-dense single-ingredient whole foods, your body really doesn't crave as much of the junk because it's getting the nutrition and the micronutrients that it needs, right? I've given this example many times, but I'm going to say it again, because it's so true and it is really, really interesting. Like, I love honeycrisp apples, right? But 99.99% of the time when I want to have a honeycrisp apple for a snack or I'm going to have an apple with my lunch or whatever meal I'm eating, 99.9% of the time I have one. And I love them. They're freaking delicious. They're like candy to me. But I have one, and then I'm good. Like, it doesn't even cross my mind to have a second, a third, or a fourth apple. Yet, give me a freaking chocolate chip cookie. Give me an Oreo, like 99.99% of the time I'm not having just one. Like, I'm having three, four, five, or more. The only reason why I'm not having more than four or five is if we run out, like if there just aren't any left. And that's, it's not like I'm comparing, you know, an apple which has 500 calories to a cookie that only has 50 calories. No, they're, they're very close in calories, right? They're, they're very similar, calorically, but nutrient density way different, right? One is just void of anything, of value. And the other one is packed with micronutrients, with water, fiber, et cetera. And that's why one is generally satisfying. Whereas the other, you need, you know, three, four, five, six plus, and you're still not satisfied. That's the, the ultimate example of the difference between, between eating nutrient dense foods versus just shit. When calories are equated, the nutrient dense foods are going to fill you up more. They're going to keep you satiated. They're going to give you, you know, better energy, et cetera. So I do think what, what you mentioned is a good idea. If, if you have an overweight client, instead of just going right to the, you know, we need to eat in a calorie deficit and you need to remove this, this, and that from your diet, have them focus solely on food quality without worrying about calories for a period of time. And I think that can and will be very beneficial. And ironically, if they actually do it, you know, they truly focus on single ingredient, you know, nutrient dense whole foods, the irony is they probably won't over consume calories at that point, because they're finally going to be getting adequate amounts of micronutrients, right? And, and they're, they'll be healthier at the cellular level for the first time in their lives. So they, they probably won't be binging and, and overeating as much. So that's kind of the irony of that. But absolutely focusing on food quality. Don't worry about calories. And then after a few weeks, or shit, it can even be a few months, I would say, after a period of time, you could check the scale, and then you could begin to create a deficit in order to burn additional fat via increasing their physical activity as opposed to, you know, removing food from the diet. If they're feeling good, right, they're not hungry, they're not starving all the time, but they're eating high quality foods should let them keep eating the way they're eating and create the deficit through physical activity, right? Just gradually increase their step count. Have them keep a little step tracker in their pocket and however many steps they're taking, bump it up a little bit for a couple of days, and then maybe you bump it up a little bit more and a little bit more. You layer in some strength training in there. So, you know, they're, they increase their strength, they maintain slash build some muscle, which will support their metabolism and allow them to continue, to not have to starve themselves. They could feed their body, feed their muscles, right, kind of build in that sense while they're losing weight because we're creating that deficit through some more physical activity, again, and that could be whatever, you know, increased step count, strength training, although it's not like a huge calorie burner, but at rest, if they maintain slash build some muscle, they'll be able to eat more calories at rest, or if they're eating the same amount, that might create the deficit. Maybe you ask them what they like to do and, and you could add in whatever is an enjoyable form of exercise for them. Maybe they're, they say, oh, man, I, now that I'm, I'm feeling better, I'm moving a little bit better. I love playing pickleball on the weekends. Awesome. Throw that in. Like, whatever just gets them moving more, man, I think that is a great point. More trainers, coaches, nutritionists need to take that approach where it is not always about taking things away, starving less, less, less deficit restriction, et cetera. It's more about consumption, eat more of the good stuff, then just start moving a little bit more, being a little bit more active and what a great way to eat more while dropping body fat and losing weight. You can actually do that from a, from a volume standpoint, right? You still need to obviously being be in a deficit for the most part to lose body fat and lose weight, but we can technically eat more volume and still drop plenty of body fat. So great question, great approach, great follow-up from last week's discussion. Thank you. Who wrote that? Scott, I, I believe you've written, your email looks familiar. I believe you've written in a few times. So I appreciate your input. Question number two comes from Daniel. Sorry, I was going to say Daniel. It's late. It's been a long day, but I'm Daniel, Daniel, the, the mail, Daniel wrote coach to Franco. I need your best recovery tips for between workouts. Ever since I turned 40, my recovery is nowhere near what it used to be. I'm literally sore all the time. Please help. Daniel, so my best recovery tips. Here's the thing. And I, I don't know. Your email doesn't look as familiar. I'm not sure if you're new to the show or not. And I don't know if you're thinking when, when you're asking for like tips to recover faster. I think a lot of people might be hoping I'm going to have a magic supplement or, you know, some biohacking routine. But that's not the answer, right? I think most lifters spend way too much time, especially now on social media, looking for the latest greatest quote unquote recovery gadget, biohacking technique or tool. And they overlook what actually needs fixing, like the foundation of recovery, which if I had to, I mean, there's a million and one things that, you know, contribute to whether or not we recover optimally between workouts. I'm going to give you my top three recovery tools in reverse order. They're all super important. You know, we could probably say 1 a 1 b 1 c. But if I had to rate them in order of importance, I'm going to, I'm going to go in reverse order from three down to one. And if you're new to the show, number one, probably is not going to be anything that you are thinking, I might say. So number three, and this ain't sexy, but it's the damn truth. You need to get better at managing your stress and protecting your sleep. And again, this is one of the things that I say it all the time. Do as I say, not as I do, it's still a work in progress for me sleep wise. Here I am recording the show at 12 45 in the wee hours of the morning when I got to wake up at frickin 6 30. I'm recording the podcast. So I clearly need to get better at this. And I do notice I'm for someone who's been training for 41 years. I am probably more sore than I should be from training. And I think my biggest thing is this is the biggest one for me. The other two things I'm going to, the other two things I'm going to talk about I have down more better. But this, I need to get better at managing stress and getting adequate sleep. Remember, your body doesn't really distinguish, distinguish stressors. So you have the stress of your workouts. You also have work stress. We might have relationship stress. It all adds up. It all adds to the load that your body is trying to recover from. So we need to manage that, right? And that could be a show in and of itself. But for now, I would just say the best bang for your buck. If you could learn and we spoke about this, I think two weeks ago, learning how to breathe properly, deep diaphragmatic breaths, how to slow down your breathing, right? Really use your diaphragm. Men, that pays huge dividends. nasal breathing, practice, slow breathing. Give yourself time to unwind at some point of the day, each and every day. No matter how busy you are, you need to give yourself some time to unwind and aim for seven to nine hours of sleep each and every night, not every once in a while, every freaking night. So that's number three. Number two, and you know, this could be again, one B nutrition, but more specifically prioritize protein, which I've said a million times, but don't neglect carbs. There's still a big, you know, protein craze. I think we all now finally know the importance of getting adequate levels of protein in your diet. You've heard me in every other freaking coach talk about prioritizing protein. And my recommendation just in case you're new to the show is to get one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass, daily doesn't up to one pound of protein per pound of body weight. So that would be the range between one pound, one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass or one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you're 200 pounds and you have a 10% body fat, You could get anywhere. between 180 and 200 grams of protein each day, I think my math is right there again, it's kind of late, but I've spoken about that many times before you don't want to neglect or cut carbs. Remember, carbs, well, first of all, they provide energy, right? They also replenish muscle fuel and help spare protein, which since we're talking about recovery, that's what I want to kind of highlight here. And carbs are protein sparing, meaning you want to eat enough carbs to give us the energy and provide us with energy so the protein can do what it does best, which is build and repair muscle. We don't want to cut out our carbs, and now we're having to use protein for energy because it's not really good at that, that's not what it does, that's not its job. We want all the protein we're eating to go towards building and repairing muscle, and we do that by having just enough carbs to fuel our workouts and our daily activities. So that's what I mean when I say carbs are protein sparing, we want to have adequate levels of both protein and carbs in our diet with hydration and carbs help bring water into the muscle, our muscles are made up of over 70% water, so that's helpful. Make sure to drink, try to get half of your body weight in ounces of water each day as well. That's very important hydration for recovery. I'll kind of add that to number two. I'm maybe cheating, but we're going to keep that with number two eating adequate amounts of protein and carbs, and my number one recovery tool is stop training like your favorite freaking fitness influencer or pro bodybuilder or maybe I should just say stop training like an asshole. And no offense to pro bodybuilders. I shouldn't have thrown them in there because they're not assholes. They they can get away with tons of volume and intensity and redundant exercises and maybe adding in a bunch of forced reps like they could get away with that right there on a massive amount of performance enhancing drugs for the most part. They're they're younger and and that's what they do for a living. So they get a pass if if you were taking enough drugs and you're eating eight times a day in your whole life revolves around training and building muscle, go for it. Good on them. That's what they've chose to do. I got no hate there. It's just you're an asshole. If you're an end and I'm sorry who Daniel, I'm not calling you an asshole, but generally speaking, and I don't know if you do this, but if you're really having trouble recovering between workouts, you I'm just I'm just saying this just in case. If it's not you, I'm sure somebody listening will benefit from hearing this. If you're a 40 year old person, 35 plus year old, like regular guy or girl, you have a job, you have kids, you're not a pro bodybuilder. You're not a full time fitness influencer 24 years old and on a boat load of performance enhancing drugs as well. You're you're just like a guy, you know, a hard work and dad, a hard work and mom, who also trains because they want to be healthy, look good, etc. But you're not on a boat load of performance enhancing drugs. You cannot be copying the workouts and the training programs of those who are yet so many people still do that. And I get programs sent to me all the time. I could make this podcast. This podcast could simply be every single week. I review a shitty program from a so called professional trainer online coach or fitness influencer. There is no shortage of shitty programs. And that's why this is like number one on my list. The best way to recover better in between workouts is to just stop training like an asshole. Like before you go looking to buy another recovery gadget like audit your program first because no amount of red light therapy BPC 157 cold plunging or massage gunning will save you from shitty training. Like that's how you recover better between workouts. You train smart. And I'm not saying not to train hard. You just train smart. And if you're a member of team forever strong or you've ever bought any of my programs, you know we the workouts are still challenging. But they're intelligent. If there's a really hard lower body workout where you're doing you know duck squats and you're going heavy and then you have a drop set. Guess what the next day is probably going to be an off day or a very light recovery day, you know a mobility day. And then the day after that's probably going to be an upper body more pump focused day where it's not super neurologically demanding. And then you just have one more workout before the weekend that you have off. So like everything is planned periodized like it has a reason a purpose it makes sense. It's experience based. It's not just throwing shit at the wall trying to be hardcore trying to be tough like no it's it's there to build muscle gets you stronger and help you feel better. So there's also a cheap plug for my training programs. If you want to train intelligently, I will put the link to the train heroic app and our team forever strong community. Which I've been the app on my phone has not been working. I actually have to contact train heroic, but it's still going strong. By the way, Smitty's been in the forums holding it down. But for all of our team forever strong members. If you're wondering where I've been the last couple days because I'm generally in the forums every day which Smitty something weird has been going on my phone where I've been getting kicked off, but we will get it worked out. I'm sure I just haven't had time to to call up the the train heroic support team. Yeah, I just got sidetracked. Anyway, or if you're not into the whole app thing, go to the Franco's training.com, click on programs and you could see all of the standalone programs that we offer. We have upper lower splits, full body splits, push pull legs like best of the best in programming. So probably not the answer you were expecting, but it's the truth. Mark training is the best way to recover from your training. Question number three. Oh, this was also an email. Yeah, okay. Yeah, this was a little bit longer bear with me. This came from Joshua who wrote, hey coach, I have a question that is probably unreasonable to ask via email, but I'm going to take a shot and ask it anyway, LMAO. I have a client who has been complaining about low back pain since we first started training together over six months ago. He's able to do most of the exercises that I program, but he'll just complain that his low back constantly hurts and feels tight. He does spend a lot of time sitting at his desk each day. So I prioritize mobility for the first 20 minutes of every session we have together. I have tried just about every mobility drill imaginable for the hamstrings, adductors, glutes, hip flexors, and most recently started focusing on the QL yet nothing has moved the needle as much as I would have liked for what it's worth. He had an MRI last month, and the only abnormal tea was mild to moderate spinal stenosis, which the doctor said was normal for his age. I know it's difficult for you to give me advice without meeting my client in person, but based on the information I've provided. is there anything I've failed to consider? Generally speaking, do you have any advice or suggestions for someone in his situation? I'm genuinely out of ideas and not sure what to do next. Thanks so much for your time and consideration. I've been a huge fan of your work for quite some time now, so any type of reply from you would really mean a lot. Joshua. Oh, Joshua, that was a mouthful. But I also appreciate you providing that context because if you just said, hey, I have a client whose back hurts, do you have any suggestions? I probably would have to skip over your question. But you gave enough context that, as you mentioned, it is a little bit unreasonable for me to give advice, and this certainly is not medical advice. But I can give you a general recommendation based on all the things you did, which it seems like you hit all the usual suspects, right? The glutes, the hip flexors, the adductors, the QL, all great stuff, and by the way, you should continue working on those areas and mobilizing those areas. If he sits a lot, none of that is wasted time, right? I would continue doing those things because if they continue to just get tighter and tighter and more tense and shortened, it certainly ain't going to help. So great job there. But I will say this, you missed one. There is one muscle. Nobody seems to check when it comes to low back pain. And that muscle is one that I just spoke about two weeks ago. When I talked about, I think it was two weeks ago, when we talked about the nasal breathing, the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle. And it does more than just help you breathe, right? It also helps stabilize the spine. A lot of people don't realize that the diaphragm attaches to the lumbar spine. It's got attachment points to our lower ribs and the sternum, but also to our lumbar spine. And also has facial connections with your soas. So getting the diaphragm to relax a bit. And really the entire abdominal wall, if you sit a lot, your client sits a lot, he's at work at a desk most of the day on a computer or the phone, I'm sure. Then sits in a car to get home, right? It's just when you're sitting and especially looking at a phone or looking at a computer, the protective tension that is created in that area, your abs, your diaphragm, no one ever thinks to mobilize or try to relax that area. Even you're a perfect example. And I'm not busting your balls because I did this, the majority of my career as well. If I thought about flexibility, mobility, what's a good mobility routine to loosen up my tight low back, I'm thinking of all the muscles that you mentioned. It's somewhat recently that we really started understanding how much the diaphragm and the abs play in low back tightness and pain. And longtime listeners of this podcast have heard me rave about Jill Miller and her gorgeous ball and quote unquote gut smashing before bed. I have a gorgeous ball. I still have one in my bedroom, one in my gym, one in my basement, one in my gym bag. And I have slacked. It's funny that this question got brought up because I have actually slacked on that a bit before bed. But it really helped me and anyone I recommended gut smashing too, which sounds kind of harsh. But basically, you're taking that gorgeous ball. And I like it because you could fill it with a little more air and make it a little more firm. I like it a little more on the firm side. But it still has enough give where it's not super hard where it's going to aggravate anything. It's still gentle enough. But you could control how squishy you want it or how firm you want it. And then I just lay face down and I placed the ball. I mean, from directly over my belly button to just under my sternum and my ribs in the so-as area, like just go around the whole abdominal wall diaphragm area, find the tender spots. When you find the most tender spots, breathe through it. I like to contract and relax. Tense your abs for two or three seconds. And then exhale and relax. Focus on deep, slow breathing. And it really does just help relax and reduce that protective tension that so many people have in that area from sitting for long periods of time. And with that, the pressure on the abdominal wall, the diaphragm, with the relaxed breathing, it really does influence the nervous system and kind of directs it towards a calmer, parasympathetic state when you get home from work before bed. And that alone can help alleviate tension, tightness, pain, et cetera. So I'm not saying it's to be all end all. But man, the way you kind of framed your question and the things you've done so far, this would be the missing piece. And for all of you listening, if you have a client or you yourself have low back pain, low back tightness that doesn't seem to go away even when you stretch and do all the classic recommendations you see online, try gut smashing. Look it up, Google it. I think I even have some old posts and pictures or maybe a video on it. Anyone I've ever recommended it to, it's helped. I'm not saying it's taken away 100% of everyone's low back pain, but I've never had one person do it properly and regularly and say, eh, I don't know. I didn't pretty much exactly the same. It has at least improved pain and tightness in everyone that I've recommended it to, including myself. All right, last one. This is a quick one, just took a screenshot of a DM I got this morning on my way to Connecticut. Simply says, is the L lateral raise overrated? I feel like I don't see them programmed that often anymore. This came from Jesse. So L lateral raises, for those of you who don't know, it's literally just picture a regular dumbbell lateral raise, but bend your elbows at 90 degrees. Keep them at 90 degrees the entire time and lift your arms out to the side like you would a regular lateral raise, but your elbows are bent at 90 degrees the entire time. Instead of having straight arms or like a very slightly bent elbow, they're at 90. Now, some people find that the shorter lever, right? By bending your arm, it is a shorter lever compared to a straight arm. That compact arm position is more comfortable. For a lot of people, they will have less joint pain. It's also a little bit easier to lead with the elbows. You know, a big cue when doing lateral raises is try to lead with your elbows. Don't lead with your hands or your knuckles. So that L position helps with that cue. And because it's a shorter lever, lever. It's a little less stress on the joint. Although, because you're shortening the lever, you could also go heavier too. I feel like you're with the dumbbells in front of the elbows. Gravity is trying to rotate your upper arms down slash inward, if you will, which the external rotators kind of have to resist that while you're raising your arms. So you could argue, you know, some would consider that a benefit. The true hypertrophy bros might say that's taking away a little bit from the lateral doubts because are the external rotators coming into play. I don't really get into that minutia. I'm not a freaking pro body builder. I lift, yes, do I want to build muscle? Do I want to look good? Do I want to be a little more jacked? Yes, but I also want to feel good. You know, I train for longevity and I want to choose exercise variations that feel good. Don't add a lot of mileage to my body. So the L lateral raise, if it does maybe, if it activates the freaking external rotator, there's a little bit more. To me, that's not a negative thing. That's a positive. But I'm not even just from anecdotal experience. Do I feel my rotator cuff more when I'm doing it? In theory, it makes sense, but I don't really feel it much more. How I will tell you to answer your question, is it overrated or not? I like the L lateral raise. I believe it works well for mechanical drop sets. I usually don't program it as just a standalone exercise. You see it in my shoulder shocker routines, right? Where maybe you begin with a regular straight arm lateral raise. And then as you fatigue, you bend the elbows and you could continue the set. Like that's just tailor made for the shoulder shocker sequences that I've put together. And that's why it is in a bunch of my shoulder shockers. But my main use would be, well, it's two main uses. Mechanical drop sets, which I just mentioned, I like it for that. But if you are a member of Team Forever Strong or you have purchased any of my programs or a few of my programs, you have probably seen or performed one of my all-time favorite shoulder exercises, which happens to be an L lateral raise variation. And that is the banded L lateral raise holding dumbbells. So you have two different types of resistance or two different types of tension, if you will. Those are money where you stand on a mini band. I like to cross it, you know, get a loop mini band step on it, make an X, place it over your wrists, now grab dumbbells, get in that L position with your arms. So now you're holding dumbbells and you have band tension around your wrists. So we are pulling the band apart as we're raising our arms as we are AB ducting our arms while holding the dumbbells. So we have two different resistance, the band and the dumbbells. But with the band, we initiate the movement by pulling the band apart with our wrists kind of a horizontal resistance. Then as we raise the arms up into the lateral raise, you get the vertical resistance and gravity trying to pull your arms down with both the band and the dumbbells. And since our arms are bent in that L position and we have the shorter lever, it's for being a very difficult exercise and one with a ton of tension on the muscle. It is a very joint friendly variation. I've heard from so many people, including myself, who have banged up shoulders, you know, I've had shoulder surgery and maybe overhead pressing hurts. But they're like, damn, those the banded L lateral raises with the dumbbells. I could hold, you know, 10, 15 pound dumbbells and have the band tension and do 10 to 15 rep sets and get an insane pump in my lateral delts without any AC joint pain or or rotator cuff pain, etc. So that's one of my favorites and it is an L lateral raise variation. So is the the generic standard dumbbell L lateral raise overrated? No, I would say it's properly rated. I feel like it doesn't get a lot of love. So I would say it has its place. For me, that place is mechanical drop sets and parts of my shoulder shocker sequences and or this standalone variation where we are pairing that exercise with band tension, making it one of my all time favorite lateral delt builders. That's all I got for you guys here today. I think this turned out to be a pretty decent show for it being a bit of a busy week, hectic week, not a lot of time to prepare, but there's always something to talk about. Those were the four topics. Interesting variety. Hope you guys got some value from it. If you got anything you would like me to talk about next week or any one you would like for me to invite on the show. Let me know, drop a comment when you see this on Instagram and always enjoy hearing your feedback. Hope you guys have a great week and I'll talk to you crazy kids next week. Peace! you