2984: The 5 Most Functional Exercises You Can Do

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MindPump. MindPump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in history. That's right. This is MindPump. Today's episode, callers called in and we got to coach them on air with their health and fitness. But this was after the intro. Today's intro is 54 minutes long. Now, in the intro today, we talked about the most functional strength training exercises you could do. We talk about studies on fat loss, on longevity. We talk about current events and family life. If you want to be on an episode like this where you could talk to us and we can coach you, send your question to MPLifeCaller.com. Now, this episode is brought to you by Organifi. Today, we talked about the organic beauty gummies. They have a compound in them. 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Go check it out. Get the 60% off and enter into the contest. Go to mapsfitnessproducts.com. Use the code Black Friday for the discount. Here comes the show. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. You've probably heard the buzzword functional. What does that mean? What does that even mean? And is it important? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about functional lifts and what are the best functional lifts. And we're going to break down what that actually means. What are the best functional lifts you could do in your workout to make you awesome in everyday stuff? So first define functional for the audience, because I feel like that's a bit of a bastardized word. Totally bastardized. Because I think when people hear functional, they oftentimes get an image of like a weird exercise. You're balancing or doing something ridiculous. And I remember this was in the 90s, late 90s when I became a trainer, early 2000s. Even early 2000s. That's when functional became a thing. And what functional meant back then was, can we take an exercise and make it as weird and unstable as possible? Okay. So like literally you would take a tricep press down and how do we make it functional? Let's have you stand on a Dynadisc with one foot and do a tricep press down. Now it's a functional exercise. Well, then it kind of evolved too to like, you know, your Ido portals and like the, the kind of trainers that make you do this really elaborate animal flow things. And it's just a lot of it's on this. I have a memory of me at Hillsdale. You did those, didn't you? I did. Tricep press downs on my knees on the stability ball. Oh God. And, uh, I loaded, I loaded it a little too much and I went full ball shot out to the side. Yeah. Or like, yeah, that was in the thick of that, you know, early 2000s. Uh, that's when it was, it was a crazy pendulum swing in the wrong direction. And the side effect of that was we actually avoided some of the most functional exercises, uh, strength training exercises in existence as a result. Okay. So let's define functional. Functional means that the gains you see in the gym translate to everyday life. Okay. What exercises give you the best carryover to everyday life? Getting strong anywhere in the gym will have at least some carryover. Yeah. But some exercises have more carryover. You get strong at functional exercises in the gym and you feel it in everything you do. You feel it when you play with your kids, you feel it when you're moving boxes or your couch, you feel it when you go play basketball with your buddies. Like you could tell that you're stronger, less functional exercises. You know, you get stronger in the gym, you go out in the real world. You can't really tell that much. So that's how we're going to define functionality is the carryover into the important stuff, which is everyday life. It's not just about how you look. It's also how you move and perform. Yeah. So I'll start with the first with number one and number one really is four exercises. And I put them all in the same category because they're often referred to as the big four. And these are the ones you've probably heard about, heard us talk about a hundred million times if you listen to the podcast. And these are the big gross motor movements, the common ones, the popular ones, three of them are in powerlifting. Competitions, uh, bench press, deadlifts, barbell squats, and then we throw in the overhead press. Now, why are those so let's talk about those and why they're so functional? What is it about those exercises that makes them, well, you have to start here and I'm glad you did, you know, cause we can't, I mean, we could get into the, uh, the ones that people think we're going to get into, but, but first we have to cover this because it's, it's going to produce the most amount of strength. So you can be the biggest overall for your entire body. So your entire body, your entire body is going to get stronger, which is the foundation for you to build off of any other movement direction. Well, and arguably if you were to only do, uh, any of the things we're about to talk about, if you just did these four, it really covers, you'd be pretty good. Yeah. You'd be really not perfect. You mentioned a barbell. You would, you would actually be better than probably 90% of the population. I mean, so, uh, you'd be really good. Now, obviously there's other planes and movements and things. I know that we'll, we'll address to, to be more optimal, but, uh, to Justin's point, uh, this is the foundation. Yeah. You, if you're strong in these four movements, you've got a lot of your basis covered. That's right. And by the, when I said earlier, we moved away from some of the most functional exercises when the whole functional trend started. These are the ones we moved away from. Uh, suddenly trainers were training their clients in, in, in weird ways and they were avoiding traditional bench press. They weren't doing traditional squats. They weren't doing deadlifts. They weren't doing standing overhead presses. Everything was standing on balance boards, uh, and Dinah discs and one arm, this one leg, that, and, uh, making things really complicated. And as a result, people couldn't generate a lot of force and just build a lot of strength. That's it. And so it, things got so unstable and so weird that it really became less about building strength and more about just mastering kind of the technique. Progressive overload wasn't really like, that's right. Emphasize enough. That's right. And here's the deal. Like if you get strong, listen, if you're listening right now, you've probably, and you've been working out for a while. You know what I'm talking about? Your deadlift goes up 30 pounds. You could tell, you could tell in everything you do. It's not like you can only tell when you deadlift, you could tell when you play with your kids, you could tell when you're picking things up and moving and just walking. Yeah. You can feel the strength in your body. This is true, especially for things like a barbell squat, especially for standing overhead, press bench, press still functional. If the, I, you know, ironically, probably the least functional of these exercises. Yeah. Overhead press is very functional. Like you could stand and hold something heavy overhead. You've got a very tight, strong, stable body. Yeah. I was actually kind of surprised that you, I mean, I think I'm not surprised because I know you, why you did the big four, because it is kind of the standard, but I actually think you could have left out bench press. You could, because you just need a horizontal press. That's all. I mean, kind of if somebody has the ability to stand up and press a barbell up over their head with good weight and strength and stability I don't think. They're going to struggle whatsoever with pushing something off of them. Well, I mean, to like decelerating it to, I mentioned like row, but you're kind of getting that as well. Uh, with the bench, it covers that. That's right. All right. Next up sled work, all directions of sled work. So we'll just, I'll just talk about, uh, the most commonly, the most common way that someone will use a sled is by pushing it forward. It's one of the only exercises, uh, that you do in the gym where you're, you're using resistance in a strength training way, and you're connecting everything from your foot to your upper body. So, you know, when I do a barbell squat, my feet are flat. When I'm pressing us, when I'm driving a sled, I'm pushing through my toes and I'm strengthening the muscles in my feet, uh, all the stabilizing muscles in my ankle, my calves, and then all the way up the kinetic chain to my upper body, which also has to stabilize, including my core to push that way. Uh, I remember when, uh, Joe DeFranco was championing, uh, sled work. Mm-hmm. Back in the day and saying, you guys, this carries over to the field. And he was training some of the best athletes, uh, at the time, uh, football in particular. And then lo and behold, studies came out showing, oh yeah, like you get really good at sled driving. You get re we see it on the field. Well, I think too, as trainers, we overlook a lot of foot strength as being a major factor. Um, and you know, you see that go all the way up the kinetic chain. It affects pretty much everything. And to be able to really train, um, all the way up the kinetic chain, it affects pretty much everything. And to be able to train, uh, your foot, especially on the forefoot, um, and utilize the pressure that you would normally in a run in a sprint, uh, you know, walking patterns, uh, all this stuff where you're, you're adding. resistance to locomotion but at the same time you're not getting uh any of the eccentric you're not getting a lot of the uh the type of force uh you know that you have to recover a bit longer from like so this is something too that you're getting you know you're utilizing that resistance but now you're you're strengthening uh all the way up your legs all the way up the kinetic chain through your feet well another way to say that or what i was going to add to that was that it's arguably the greatest roi on a lower body exercise with the least amount of risk for sure it's one of those rare exercises where it's low risk high reward usually it's the other way it's high risk that's right that's typically how it works that's the movements that you listed before you know bench deadlift squat they are some of the greatest they also have some high level risk have their high skill that's right and uh you know i'm not uh putting my 60 year old grandma under any of those movements her first day no but i'm not putting my 60 year old grandma under any of those movements her first day i could absolutely have her push she could push a sled right away right she could walk she could push us right away but you could also take an advanced lifter have them push a sled and it's appropriate right this is why i think it's got one of the greatest rois for the least amount of risk totally uh and by the way all the rated walkers now yeah i was just thinking of that oh wow uh there's and by the way all directions so lateral sled drags uh maybe the most underrated way to use oh that cured my hip pain literally i did four weeks of lateral sled drags fixed my hip pain completely and i was actually literally at a point justin and i were talking about this we're like am i gonna need a replacement like what is going on and all i did for four weeks was sled work and i'd start with lateral sled drags completely fixed my hip when you see what was deficient in your programming yeah you know and it's it's one of those yeah you don't consider that until you actually put yourself through that range of motion and you're like strengthening that pattern wow all of a sudden now i have that support i had the same you know same type of uh you know paradigm shift it's the reason why i recently signed up for the whatever that elite membership was for fitness 19 it gives me access to this high rocks room which basically has four lanes with four different sleds that i can drag on there because we've gotten so busy in here i can't do sled drags in here anymore just we have so many people clients yeah that i don't want to disrupt what they're doing and i remember how good i felt when i was doing lateral sled drag and so that was a big motivator to paying that extra fee just so i could have access to that room because i can do that you know what's great too about them is there's no eccentric portion of the rep so eccentric is when you lower a weight the concentric parts when you lift the weight and eccentric there's nothing wrong with it but it does cause more damage to the body require and it's one of the things that contributes the most to soreness and recovery sled work is one of that one of those interesting uh exercises where you can kind of do it really frequently yeah you can add volume to the body and it's one of the things that contributes the most to soreness to your program with a sled like pretty easily pretty easily and it doesn't i mean it'll add a little bit of recovery but not much no especially when you consider the return you get from it so sled work very functional uh next up uh heavy carries all harry uh heavy carries heavy carries where you're hacked overhead you know yeah you're gonna get your like suitcase carries you get your farmer carries so yeah that's right now someone might ask why carrying it and walking why don't every time you take a step uh it creates torsion in the pelvis uh you're creating some instability you're uh moving under load and what you're doing is you're strengthening the hell out of your body to stabilize your spine stabilize your spine now you could also hold a weight overhead and now you're adding shoulder stability you can hold weight in one hand and strengthen stabilization in one side you can hold weight with both hands and learn how to stabilize your body with a lot of load in my opinion you can hold weight with both hands and learn how to stabilize your body heavy carries uh are one of the most functional exercises you could do when i get good at heavy carries i almost feel there's just like invincible feeling i have like as i start to get good at them i just feel solid it's like bulletproofing you yes one of the best things you can do for bulletproofing your back well going back to what you know why i asked you the very first question was to define what functional meant and you know what that is is like the carry over to real world stuff when you think about the things that you will do uh all the time nearly every single day you're carrying a bag of groceries in one arm from the car you're carrying a baby or picking your kid up from something like that like the uh you're you're you're picking up furniture you're there's things that you are constantly picking up having to carry and do in the real world and if you get really strong at all those different carries that you just mentioned doing all those simple tasks become just exactly that simple and you become bulletproof and you and and by the way uh when whenever i would have injuries with clients especially advanced age it was never doing the exercises in the gym with them it was always some mundane thing like getting groceries out of the car twisting yeah bending over to pull a little weed like it's always like these little things and doing those carries gives you that good lateral stability core strength and stabilization and just anti-rotation anti-rotation great foundational strength uh while walking and which is what you end up doing with a lot of this yeah i so when i i i have a long history of heavy farmer walks and that's only because years ago i read this book and it talked about how great they were for improving grip strength and deadlift strength and at the time i was really interested in getting my deadlift stronger then i meet you guys and justin introduced me to overhead carries never done overhead carries before and it it that was responsible for adding a good 20 pounds to my overhead press the stabilization uh that i got from doing overhead carries like one arm dumbbell or kettlebell or two arm uh when i went to my overhead press is suddenly i was so much stronger yeah and it was because my shoulders were so much more stable trying to walk with something overhead that's a long lever and you really got to learn how to stabilize your scapula your shoulder you got to brace your core like while you're walking it's a lot more difficult than it sounds and it man it made a huge difference yeah i i wish i could pinpoint exactly how much weight like it contributed to but i remember i was i had this goal specifically to get this 128 pound kettlebell overhead because when somebody in my gym was doing it and man that thing was heavy and i get it's about here and you know you're trying to stabilize lateral rotational everything at once and it's just inefficient and then once you start really working with that and uh walking with that load uh it's amazing once you get stable like all of a sudden it goes right up and locks it in i just remembered one of the few workouts we've ever had all through all of us together because we've all worked out probably less than five times in 10 years together honestly less than five times and i just remembered we worked out at truckie it was snowy outside there was snow oh yeah and we did heavy farmer walks yeah as part of the workout two of the only five workouts we did we did carries yes we did uh because the other one i can think of was when we worked out justin i remember that one because that was the first workout with you yeah yeah we did we did sled work sled work deadlifts yeah i was like i got you guys in my gym yeah yeah that was a good time yeah and that was like peak uh meathead bodybuilding oh yeah so i totally remember that that was fun uh-huh that was fun all right next up cossack squats uh nobody does these uh which is too bad this is really good for lateral stability and strength it's essentially a sideways lunge if you think about it it's really good for mobility it's good for that lateral stability you need this by the way like if you're really good about the big four you're missing out on lateral strength and stability that's why side that's why sled drags lateral sled drags were so good for me because i get really stuck in that you know bench deadlift squat kind of whatever um and cossack squats squats are amazing good for ankle mobility good for hip mobility good for you know get some good inner thigh mobility um and then get that lateral push off uh to bring the feet i'm just always looking for those holes you know my programming and that was one of those big eye-opening uh pieces was the that lateral work and you really have to be intentional because it's not like you're just going to stumble across you know in the gym like oh okay i'll i'll do some cossack squats or i'll do some lateral lunges you have to really be focused on you know placing that into your routine and the difference is substantial like how much more stable your backloaded squats are like everything else benefits tremendously when you can bring that type of stability and increase your force output so my tip for that because i think what i run into with cossack squats is just the the challenge of it being unique and different and people uh um they watch it and then have they have a hard time setting up getting good at it or whatever or performing it well uh i would love i love starting people with a suspension trainer yeah just their body weight yes uh it really helps like kind of get the technique down sit back yeah yeah stabilize it first yeah and get the the flow of what it looks like uh and then once you get it down really well with the support of the suspension trainer and your body weight then you can eventually progress it with either holding dumbbells or loading it on your back and then it becomes amazing by the way ladies if you want to develop your upper glutes uh cossack squats are great for doing that better than the abduction machine yes uh all right next up two body weight exercises they're great for building muscle so these are great to build upper body muscles but they're also very functional because they're body weight exercises and you get good at these two lifts these two exercises i should say you've got a pretty strong uh well versed mobile upper body that's pull-ups and dips yeah put good old pull-ups and dips by the way back in the day there were guys that this is all they did yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah for their upper body and they had great chest shoulders backs triceps biceps i mean picture the ultimate jacked gymnast dude i mean this is what he's doing yeah i mean all he that's all he's doing a lot of what he's doing is literally like bar dips and pulling himself up on the rings or the or the bar and that's like literally what's giving him that jack physique you know i love this is like a test too to really know for sure how much i can connect to my entire body so especially pull us because you know i'm a heavier guy but it's like if i can keep my body rigid and planked out while i'm pulling up like how much more efficient that is and that gets me excited same thing with dips but even with dips you can add that instability with like rings or something else and it really emphasizes the fact that you have to you know really stay nice and tight and supported with your body by the way those these two exercises first off they are relatively high skill okay so get good at them first so if you're not good at them practice them maybe use a gravitron or a weight assisted machine and get good at them but if once you get good at them you're going to be able to do a lot of things and you're going to be able to do a lot of things and you're going to be able to do a lot of things and you're going to be able to do a lot of things this is a shoulder joint proofing combo like pulling up getting that that downward you know contraction getting the scapula to rotate downward and back pulling yourself up then you go into dips and you get really deep with the dips and press yourself up again strengthening the scapula to humorous kind of combination or communication this will this will give you great shoulders yeah it'll increase your shoulder mobility and strength tremendously if you could do both of these uh really well yeah i would say honorable mention just for on here would have been like a windmill just because of that like yeah upper thoracic rotation and just the support uh that's going to provide you love that yeah so i would have mentioned that as well by the way uh great superset pull-ups and dips like great upper body superset if you want to get your whole body looking amazing yeah in 10 minutes with a big pump uh do those back to back so it's killer do you guys see uh i have some some notes here because i want to read you guys organifi's new beauty gummies did you see this what you got new gummies okay so we don't have them here so uh they're always they're so organifi does such a good job you'd be offended if i gave you a bunch of those i pretty need these yeah i'll throw you some fat burners okay so i feel like okay i feel like i wish i would have brought this up because it would have been fun to see if you could guess i don't know if justin and i could guess what is probably in those to call to call them beauty gummies well i'll tell you because you won't know so i started i did a little would you have guessed i would not but i did some research so there's a compound uh called these so there there's a there's a company that that sources these so here's what organifi does really well if there's a compound that's got great uh clinical trials they will go to the best source and get that source okay so they they've done this with all of their products they're not going to get you know uh for example they're not going to get shilajit on their own they're going to go with the company that produces the best shilajit and source uh uh their shilajit that's what they do with their shilajit gummies right prima v yeah yeah okay they do the same thing with their happy drops that's right that's right they're saffron and so yes yes yes so there's a company called serolock that produces something called rice ceramides or what are rice ceramides these are lipids that in studies increase there's a 12-week clinical study that when women took this they had 23.7 percent greater skin hydration actually measured the hydration of the skin okay and it was so almost 25 percent better hydration and what does that look like yeah what does that look like less wrinkles it looks like less saggy skin nice dry and so that's the main ingredient in these gummies are the serolock rice ceramides now they also have acerola in there and pomegranate extract both anti um anti-inflammatory so really good but essentially what they're doing with these gummies and again organified does such a good job of this uh is they're they're improving the beauty of your skin or the health of your skin from the inside out so instead of putting something on which that's also i think also makes a difference but now you can eat something and it'll change the at this point i can almost have a full bag of gummies every day actually just just an excuse to eat more candy i know i know so funny so funny you're holding a gummy dose regiment dude i gotta tell you guys it's so funny i still have this experience at my age after talking about this for as long as i have i switched my training i used to do five days a week then i went to four days a week and then i went to three days a week in a full body which i preach all the time right but of course i'm different because i'm an idiot so i always do that and then i went to three days you know took me this long to go back to three days a week i should not i'm in a calorie deficit at the time at the moment most of the time right now so i'm actually losing weight i dropped about 13 pounds i should not be this strong i should not be as strong as i am i am lifting weights that i normally lift in a hard bulk in training for it but it's because of the programming it's because i'm doing full body yeah yeah it works it's crazy yeah it's what my strength went up immediately i switched to this and immediately all my lifts started going up it's all right i mean i can't really give you too much shit because it's it's one of those things you end up like kind of going off and doing something like you're that day like i want to work on this and so i'll end up like just creating a new program for myself on the fly yeah all the time but yeah get back to like that three day a week schedule makes such a i mean i feel like i feel like i've been preaching this to you for a long time i've been saying this for a long time that well you've been on the i don't work out much kick for a while i know the extreme but it it but there's a and i'm sure it gets interpreted by a lot of people oh he's just lazy you're right here or whatever but it's like no i i've been uh fascinated with um and i and i i had this conversation i just had it yesterday with any of my friends that have been you know lifting for an extended period of time like any of us um i i share this with i think that uh you get in the habit of really overdoing it and we justify it because we like it yes and our and our you know our work out is our part of our day starts our day and so we have all these justifications i wasn't over training but i was definitely doing as much as i could probably tolerate which is not optimal right obviously right obviously not right and so and and again we justify it through all these reasons oh it's how it starts my day it's part of my stress relief it's a you know insert whatever reason you want to justify doing more than you need to or or doing the less optimal routine than what you should or i'm always in pursuit of like what's the most optimal you know it's my the whole thing is like how can i do as little as possible to list the most change and i'm just so fascinated with how if you have put this and i think this it it matters a lot that you have lifted for as long as you have and you have built the foundation that you have built so the stimulus that you need uh is very little and any bit over that is counterproductive and as soon as you start even in a calorie deficit when you move more towards what's optimal for you you're seeing these crazy positive benefits wild dude because i look i dropped like 13 14 pounds today i did i was doing singles so just one pull-up with 100 pounds strapped on my waist i haven't done 100 pounds around my waist in a long time pull-ups i was benching uh 315 band assisted so but you know and i know that's lightweight for you justin but for me that's a lot uh so 315 i'm doing box squats with 375 and i'm not even trying to go out over my hip feeling good yeah uh for me that's great weight yeah uh and so it's it's we i haven't deadlifted yet i'm gonna start incorporating deadlifts again uh just because i enjoy doing them i'm gonna try not to get carried away so i'm gonna need you guys to check me but uh we'll see what that looks like you know if i'm pulling five plates right now without really training them i'm gonna be blown away and it's just basic full body routine it's crazy dude that's why speaking of which i got a study for you guys speaking of how little you need to build strength there was a study done and from penn state trip off this everybody so here's what they did they took a bunch of adults 65 and older and they trained them for 12 weeks you want to know what they did you guys want to know how much they did one exercise they did four minutes of daily strength training oh four minutes that's yeah so we shouldn't we need to write a program that's four minutes okay four minutes of strength training a day yeah for older 65 and older yeah okay so that's literally one set you're done yeah yeah okay that's all just one set one set one exercise that's it not three sets not nothing one set four minutes a day at the end of the 12 weeks they saw tremendous gains meaningful gains in balance strength and their ability to come up from a chair in 12 weeks everybody had dramatic improvements in their strength he's putting in perspective bro yes now someone listening is like that's nothing these were all typical 65 and older people so they were all deconditioned they didn't work out yeah so i don't know if they'll continue to see that progress but that's three months no sure at one point they would they would they would adapt that would become the norm but what it highlights and that i would love to see with a study a continuation of that study and the argument that i would make is not only did they uh see tremendous and substantial change or strength gains but it was probably closer to what would have been is what is optimal for them i bet if you did one where you did somebody who did uh like they thought the other group felt like a maps anabolic routine might have been too much too much for that person yes and seen less results so that's to me what really that that's that's highlighted there is that you know it's like again starting with like if you were doing nothing you were training you weren't lifting any weights you weren't doing any compound movements and then all of a sudden you do one every day that is significantly more than what you're doing also it's also this adam okay i i will make i will bet money on this so this was a 12 week study. I bet you, I bet you they will progress for the next. year with four minutes and you think how's that even possible because you add weight yes it's not like you're not progressing if you're doing four minutes of an exercise today and you get you get stronger two and a half pounds stronger every week every week you're adding weight so it's not like they're not progressing they're not making the workout harder you're adding weight to the bar or to the dumbbell or you're doing more push-ups or whatever i bet you those 65 plus year olds would have progressed for at least a year without doing anything else just adding weight to the bar or weight to the dumbbells just like medicine you're just like titrating up to find your right dose by the way there's another study because they quote this study in the study because the researchers had seen another study and said okay let's do our own there was another study called the fast study functional activity strength training in that study they took 25 older adults and they performed 30 seconds of push-ups and squats every day that's it 30 seconds push-ups squats every day those two exercises not a minute you guys 30 seconds half of a minute by the the the time i started talking about this to the time right now that's already over 30 seconds in over six months they improved just doing 30 seconds of those things it's so encouraging to hear this and this is one of the things one of the things i love most about strength training it's a unique form of exercise because uh you can get away with so little you can get great results and why can you get away with so little because you get stronger you know so you just as you get stronger the exercise progression down that barrier a bit for sure i mean not to be the turn the punch bowl but like the this also just highlights how pathetic and deconditioned we've become totally because like go back 100 years and take a random 100 people and do that study and i bet you don't see that no of course not you don't see their labor is doing yeah hard labor all day long that's what i mean right like that like what that totally highlights like wow how much we have evolved to become said i mean i'm really feeling this right now i'm really feeling this right now i'm really feeling this right now uh you know talking more about my personal journey uh on this this whole cut and you know i'm in the phase right now where i'm really ramping up activity right and i always talk about how i do that through steps first and then eventually gets to a point where you know reaching 15 000 or 17 000 steps is required i get on cardio now for an hour you know i'm saying i can't i can't just build that into my day anymore like in order for me to keep progressing that and so now i'm i'm doing more traditional uh cardio to do that and i'm like i'm gonna do that and i'm gonna do that and i'm gonna get there and the carryover that i'm watching into just the way i move every day has been really really interesting makes you move more yeah i move more i move faster uh easy i i it's compounding effect it's it's these subtle things i caught myself to it last night literally normally when i come home from a it was yesterday was a long day at work i didn't get home till uh way after dark i think it was like 7 30 or something like that by the time i finally got to my house uh and i had a full day here full day of activity i worked out i'm low calorie uh average me say six months ago definitely in a deficit definitely after a full day like that i'm i'm i'm tired i'm exhausted sit on the couch sit on the couch do nothing don't want to move uh you know i get home and i'm i'm putting my bag away for that and then oh i forgot something and i and i go to go upstairs and i like jog upstairs like like i didn't think i didn't go i need to i didn't think i need it's just i just up at quick it and i had this like moment like oh wow like i used to do that all the time and i how and i and it was like it's it stuck out to me because i couldn't remember the last time i did that yeah and and so you you forget how how easily you start to like kind of pare that stuff down this is why you see studies i was just talking to a family member about this uh who's started working out and he goes oh i feel kind of guilty because it's taken away from my work because i'm building my business and i'm like look at the studies on exercise when it's done properly people are more productive oh yeah oh yeah they they this listen i know the studies well because everything works better when i used to manage gyms okay we used to sell corporate memberships meaning we used to go to big companies like apple or google or wherever and you would try and sell them a membership so that their whole staff has access to your gym it's a big typically it's a big check 15 000 or whatever so it's a big deal and so we had to be really well versed on studies and these were the studies that would sell them because i'd bring these they're real studies studies by the way there's way more of them now than there were back then but you can look up the studies and i'd be like check it out if all of your employees worked they'd be 25 more uh productive they would call in sick far less half half as much you your company would thrive if everybody worked out if everybody worked out so a lot of companies saw this and encouraged their employees to work out during work hours and saw improvements in productivity so it just makes a difference yeah you see the carryover in in all aspects when you do that well you guys have been talking a lot about your getting skinny and all that and uh yeah so i've actually been doing my own little experiment and really it's like to try to kind of figure out a way an angle i have in that regard because i do want to i do want to get leaner but it's you know to make it interesting for me i've i've used and this is kind of like what i did way back in the day when i started training with the civic so there's this whole protocol i'm kind of going through where you start with like you do this ring push-up and and you start with different grips and also too like i can go so i i bring my arms out a little wider with a false grip and i can work my way like very progressively towards like an iron cross oh whoa and kind of like you know from horizontal kind of perpendicular work my way up you know you really low ring dips it's just for me it's just a little more interesting really hard you know i want i want to be challenged a lot with it so getting leaner will be will help obviously my strength to weight ratio would matter in that regard that makes so much sense for you yeah that'll be the one to motivate you i'm thinking that's kind of what i'm going to start chipping away at uh and then way have you started to introduce anything like that yet have you have uh yes the last two weeks i started doing more more grip um push-ups and you know working my way through that but you know what what sort of inspired it was um there was this guy that had just posted a brand new move which is like an inverted cross upside down upside down and was able to perform it with arms fully extended and i'm like oh my god like the tension on your elbows and shoulders the core stability to do that it's just uh yeah i saw this video and i was just like so impressed and my mind just blown uh not not to say i'm gonna even try that you know to get anywhere near that if i could even do like a half like iron cross maybe like three-quarter like i'll be stuck but like that's just i don't know i like i like something really hard but like is is manageable if i'm doing everything appropriate that's way cooler than what we're doing we're all in whatever bro listen you guys get excited i hear it in your voice you know it's you're more energetic like all you see it's contagious but at the same time i have to kind of do it my way dude i i will i will never try an iron cross because i saw a stupid video a long time ago of a gymnast doing iron cross and his bicep tearing oh in the video well i'm not gonna watch that video and it just it just dude thanks al those hey listen videos like that ruin things you know i used to love arm wrestling you guys know this as a kid i was pretty good i actually never oh there's a lot i never got injuries bro so i never got beat as a kid ever i was undefeated forever forever forever then as an adult i saw a youtube video of a spiral fracture never it's like i don't think i could ever try that again you ever seen a spiral fracture i don't want to the guy's arm just went back that way oh god spiral fractures suck too that's like the bone twists and breaks yeah you got to reattach it and it's all weird recovery for that's insane oh a lot of times you never get it back oh no no i met someone who had a spiral fracture and his hand was always off like no matter what oh yeah my friend had one in his arm yeah it still kind of holds it like this oh dude my my favorite thing about like uh you know what i'm doing right now is all all the other things that i don't think about that that come from it like i mentioned all the the movement and the activity and like how i get up the stairs and the whole point was like get shredded for 45 but then all of a sudden all this other stuff starts unlocking is it for your birthday is that the whole motivation that was always it well i know it was your trip but did you guys no no it was it was always my birthday but my trip was gonna be a nice little testing point on the way there and i made the joke about like i can't show up to cabo with my two buddies who were i can great shape yeah yeah but it's always a little fuel to it yeah so uh for the audience hasn't listened for long enough so you guys know that like literally this coming you know two weeks marks one year for me to be able to do this for the rest of my life from the sober from kratom oh wow yeah yeah so for you yes it was my it was my birthday last year that i was going to the withdrawals wow so um you know so you have that i'm turning 45 it's been over a decade since i competed and so i'm like you know what this would be cool to not only being been sober from any substances like that and i haven't smoked weed really at all either so it's like no weed no kratom 45 years old and i'm gonna come in some of the best shape i've been so quietly that's been and then you prodded it up about the pcp did you stop using that does anybody even do that i've never met anybody before no but i mean i obviously you uh you know you you stirred up the the kind of fun competition uh between each other yeah just just to have fun which is cool but it was always like a thing i was on i was on a path uh to do anyways i mean i actually uh when i went and did the dexter scan i looked at my my previous one i did one in of this year and it was, you know, it was the, the highest and worst it's ever been since my initial transformation back in the days now I didn't look as bad which is why I mean I think you guys would probably tell me if I look like that which is which is a testament of like when you have more muscle muscle makes yeah so I was I was 200 that DEXA scan in February I was 233 pounds and 18% body fat but I wanted to share that because it also I forgot about that and I was reminded after you had yours and like you were really kind of annoyed with it and frustrated with the number because I was at that time too because I actually was training and dieting and I was I was reverse dieting so I'd kind of fallen out of shape I was inconsistent and I'm like I'm gonna kick it back up I'm gonna start with a reverse diet instead I'm not gonna go into a cut I'm gonna reverse diet build my metabolism and I was kind of feeling good I built some muscle back I was up but I was a good size I was 233 and so if you ask me I looking at myself I was like I'm probably 14% or something crazy muscle makes it and so I was 18 point something and I like freaked out I was like no way I don't look anything like what I looked like at 19 when I did the whole thing but it was a muscle a testament to the muscle and so how much of a difference that you know that that can make so making that point wasn't why I brought this up I brought this up because I also notice you know when I get this really good rhythm of training and almost like working out becomes play again and I'm playing with different exercises our good friend Ben Bruno and and Brett did this old video and what's what stirred me up down that rabbit hole was listening to our other good friend Jordan shallow and his buddy his co-host which is name is slipping me right now Jordan thank you should be able to remember that Jordan Jordan their podcast and they were actually talking about that you know how squatting and deadlifting is not true hip extension and and they make the argument because it lacks the internal rotation and it's not true hip extension of the hip and the true hip extension is actually a walking lunge and a walking lunge is the only thing that takes the the hips the full thing the fullest thing and I'm like oh that's like I've actually never heard anybody communicate that before but of course that makes makes total sense and so that started the kind of the rabbit hole I know that I lack a lot of that you know like you I can get caught up in this kind of bilateral squatting for a while and stuff like that I need to do more lateral stuff I need to do more unilateral stuff I need to do more stability stuff and I'm not and so I'm like okay I need to I need to incorporate some of this then fast forward to the Ben Bruno and Brett video and Ben is talking about how like like his one of his he his favorite exercises for his clients is the single leg RDL and I'm very familiar with that but I've never done it I've never I've never trained to get strong at it like just I've never really cared to you know I'm saying it's most people that do it tend to do it because it's like a great glute movement sure and and what he's talking about with the landmine is that how it takes the hips through internal rotation because if you if you're pulling it from the right direction it's turning you as you go down yes right it did naturally dips the hip that's got to set your glute on fire it it rocks my glute and so before that I know I'm I'm time I promise to tie all these stories in I'm also coaching and helping Katrina right now because she's also you know got on the kick because our birthdays are one day apart so she's like I want to get in the best shape too so I'm training her at the same time and you know a lot of her stuff is glute focused and so I've been teaching her different stuff and I had her doing these single leg RDL with with your own internal rotation and like kind of stabilizing on the squat rack and the reason why I went got started looking at the Ben Bruno and and Brett's video was because she kept telling me I'm having a real hard time feeling it like you're describing to me and it's just challenging because you have to kind of really control that you got to stabilize you got to control the internal rotation whereas the landmines pulling you right and I know our trainer brains are really good at that stuff because we know what we're trying to accomplish and like it's just I'm reminded as my wife's going through it like how an average client thinks and I'm like you know what this is the argument that Ben was making well let me pick it up let me mess with it and I did it I went oh shit this is fire oh that's awesome I was like this is fire I gotta try that I got her doing it and she's like I'm not doing it I'm not doing it I'm not doing it oh my god my glutes have never felt so lit up that's so awesome so lit up so the light the leg that's standing is that's the direction that landmines so I want to plug our boys Ben Bruno and Brett Contreras single leg RDL landmine have a YouTube video that's old that they've done they show you how to set it up but so if you can imagine the the landmine coming here so this foot would be the foot that is staying on the ground that's the outside foot and the landmine would basically come right to the front of my hand and I'm actually I'm holding with that at the outside hand and what's cool if you if you can if you get really strong you eventually want to have a strap because your limiting factor will be how much you can load I can load I was working out with 225 on there and doing it so you can load it really good the landmine provides a little bit of stability for you so you're not having to like you know rotate yourself and and so the fact that you can load the glute really good the fact that it slightly internally rotates the hips and takes that glute through that fully stretched position that is really cool badass moment you know that's I mean you kind of sparked something for me too that I wanted to bring up but it was like you've seen the belt squat all love it yeah and that machines amazing itself but I never thought to do a push-up yes I saw that did you see that I saw that like on blocks and so now you're strapped over in that so it's pulling on this is pulling you down you're resisting it so it's around your upper back it'll make so much sense to me I was like I gotta try that I saw I was like was he a power lifter I think he's a power lifter yeah wait a second how does it so your feet are up on your feet your feet will be elevated behind I know but how do you like get down how do you like it doesn't squish you to the floor like it just pulls you to the floor but then you resist out but is that where does it the end where like oh you can set it so that so there's an okay so there's well that's why I'm on blocks too so it's like oh so you have so you have oh so you have leverage yeah I've made my own my my own homemade for Katrina a lot over the weekend belt squat for her that's cool yeah I what I did was I set the squat rack up I stacked up 45s about this high took the the our belt with chain yeah yeah and then loaded the big Bertha kettlebell on her let her use the the the barbell and I had it on the reverse side so she kind of lean back and do and then literally do almost like a like a like a belt squat dropping it with that you know the other one I did I think I sent you the video again here I'm playing I'm playing with it I got one for you that if you haven't done it I sent it to you that is fire is the using the belt with a chain to the squat rack or something that you can hold say was and doing that for your sissy squats so I so it's hooked around the thing so I can lean all the way back and so I create a longer lever with my body more range of motion oh it's been my like new favorite move I'm doing on leg day I gotta I gotta I'm gonna change directions gotta tell you guys about this these studies that are coming out on people who use GLP's the nutrient deficiencies they're finding in these people is why I can only the vast majority of them yeah of course nutrient deficiencies why is this happening I'll tell you why they the same diet they ate before they just eat less so now they're probably nutrient deficient anyway high odds anyway now they just cut their calories down by 50% people are coming back with brittle nails hair loss dry skin good cold intolerance so like if you're on a GLP you need to supplement with a multivitamin for sure and try to eat whole natural foods nutrient dense foods otherwise your nutrient deficiency rate will go through I mean I'm talking I'm talking some of these studies 90% so like everybody I mean right before we aired so somebody was DMing me about their their mom who has psoriasis and they've heard me talk about microdosing the GLP one and his mom I think I want to I want to say his mom was 65 years old and he's asking me he goes I know you're not a doctor and this and that but he's asking me dose stuff I said well I said me talking to you about my doses won't do you any good but let me tell you the things I'd be worried about if my mom gets on a microdose of GLP one for psoriasis and I listed off all these things I listed that like you got to make sure she's hitting her essential fats you got to make sure she's hitting her protein intake you got to I said if she's not doing those things all in pursuit to probably improve her psoriasis a little bit so starve her body of calories you're just going to rob Peter to pay Paul yeah and I'm like so you got to watch out for that stuff so sure yeah the microdosing that could possibly help the psoriasis but if she's getting nutrient deficiencies you're just shooting her in the foot here's how bad it is I just found the data trip off this they're doing food records of the GLP users 99% of them are below vitamin D 99% of them below potassium now keep in mind 60 to 70% of everybody is below vitamin D you take a GLP it's 100% almost choline 94% magnesium 90% iron 88% vitamin C 78% below protein only 43% of the people are eating 0.5 grams per pound they're not even hitting the one gram per pound so less than half saturated fat 130% of limit do you know what they're doing they're still eating garbage yeah they're just seeing low calorie so which will make you lose weight so the only nutrient they are hitting is fats saturated fat because they're still eating the process I mean this is exactly what I told you what I've seen in my own my - Yeah, changed none of the behaviors. - Experience with my family members. and people and friends that I know that are taking it. Which is like, is so wild to me. I mean, off-air, you and I talk a lot about, you know. I feel like garbage, man. Dude, it's just what it shows you. I mean, Sal and I have been obviously talking about this off-air a lot because we've been dieting and then I'm microdosing the, you know, triseptide. And I'm like, on days where I need to eat, bump my calories, it is difficult for me. And Adam's taking a microdose. A tiny, tiny dose. Yes. Like a drop. And I'm eating whole foods. Like I'm eating chicken thighs and I'm eating top sirloin and yams. Like really easy, digestible food. And when I got to bump my calories a little bit, like it feels like a rock is sitting in my stomach. If I try to eat garbage, oh, and you feel awful. That's why so many people are like diarrhea, gas. Yes. Like how could you be so disconnected? Right. And the reason why. It does work is there is a lot of people that, that obviously feel that that's enough to curb them. They're like, oh my God, I can't, I can't, I can't eat that much. So they just don't. But then there's a large percentage of people that just still plow through this shit food. It's like, oh my God. So I think what you're going to see, I would guess is, cause there's light at the end of the tunnel. There's a silver lining here is I think what you're going to see is at least half. I'm guessing. Okay. So it's just, this is total guests, everybody, but just as based off the data, I see between 30 to 50% of people on GLPs are, uh, engaging in fitness, trying to hit protein. They're trying. There's a good chunk of people, half or a little more of people that are just taking the GLP and chain and really not focusing on anything other than I, oh, cool. I'm not hungry. I'm not going to eat. And those are the people that are going to come out with osteopenia, nutrient deficiencies, and they're going to come out lighter and skinnier with other health issues. Listen, if you are going to take the plunge with a GLP one and you're willing to invest in, spend the money on that, you gotta be willing to spend and invest the money on a coach to take you through that because if you really want to do it, it'll make such a big difference, huge difference to have somebody coaching you through that process. So you do it right. Applying the right amount of volume of training intensity, holding you accountable on your, your micro and macro nutrients that you need to be taking reverse dieting you when needed coaching you, how to talk to your doctor on whether we should probably, reduce the dose or not like that is going to become so important. The people that we're going to have tremendous success are going to have that. I'm going to plug our coaches. We don't often plug how you can get in contact with our coaches. And the reason is we don't have enough coaches to service everybody. And that's by design. We just, uh, we slow roll. We're only hiring coaches that we really like, and we don't want anybody representing us, but I'm going to, what's our link, Doug, if someone wants, because we have coaches that work with GLP. Yeah. Mind pump, personal training.com. Okay. So mind pump, personal drain, you want to work with a coach that's experienced with this then, uh, and unfortunately it's probably going to be a wait list, but get on and see if you can work with somebody because our coaches are good. All right. I want to talk to you guys about the Caldera lab regimen. I've been reading, they have a regimen, so they have lots of different skincare products. Good. Please. I'm so bad about like the, the way I'm supposed to order this. So exactly. So the order of operation, you start with the clean slate, which cleans your skin. But so Caldera labs done a good job with the clean slate because it doesn't just strip everything and actually balances the pH of your skin. So it doesn't just take everything off, cleans your skin, but it balances the, which the PA, which is like what the old school products used to do, right? Like the, um, we'll just strip everything off your face. Yeah. Like what was those old pads that everyone you see, like, uh, what were they called? Which Hazel or something? I don't remember the names of them, but you were like the key. Like they were like the oxy girl. Yeah. Yeah. And they like, then like burned your skin because it was like killing soap or whatever, which, it messes up the pH. So this balances pH. Then you use the great and the great is the anti-aging, uh, product that they have. It's got the exosomes. It's got the stuff that, so in their clinical trials, 90% of people who used it, uh, saw firmer, uh, younger looking skin is great. The one that comes in the screw top and it's kind of the creamy white. No, no, the greats in the little pump bottle. Oh, that's in the little pump. That's right. Okay. So use the great, then you finished with the hydro and the hydro, is for, uh, for hydration. So then that's the one I'm thinking of. Yes. Yes. That's in the little jar. Okay. So that's the three step. So it goes the clean slate, the great and the hydro layer. Oh, I was flipping called the regimen. I was flipping those two. Yeah. And so use, use them in that order. Uh, and watch what happens. The clean slate. Keep, I keep in my shower. So that's, I'm washing my, my body. Then I washed my face with that, but I was doing the hydro first and then the right now. So the other way around, go the great and then the hydro. Okay. Hydro. And then you're glad you got that clear. That's good. Are we, we're giving away something here the day after this airs, Doug. So this is Friday. It's going to be on Monday on Monday. So every week, uh, or every day we're doing these giveaways, except for on the Saturdays and Sundays. Cause obviously we're getting on live with our people, which by the way, you guys haven't seen it yet. I've seen it. I think Doug has seen it. The giveaways and the games that we're going to be playing live on, uh, Instagram live is Josh. It really is. We just wait till you guys see it. It's, it's super cool. It's super fun to be interactive. People are going to love it. I can't wait to see, uh, everybody on there, but on Monday, uh, because it's after the weekend, we'll have three, three giveaways that we're giving away. I know Organifi is one of them. So two winners get a tub of Organifi protein. One person's going to keep a case of the sparkling element water. And then we're also going to give away a PRX squat rack. Oh, damn. All that. Yes. It's at 4 PM Pacific standard time on Instagram, live mind pump media and make sure when Monday, the ninth, and make sure that you're tuning into all of them, because once you have an entry, you have an entry to everything for everything. So make sure you tune in every 4 PM Pacific standard time on Instagram live element is the world's best electrolyte powder, nor artificial sweeteners and no sugar. And it's got the right amount of sodium. Here's the deal. Many people are chronically under sodium. It's true. This is a fact. This is why element has exploded because they know this and people use their products, feel the difference. Off this is anybody who sweats a lot. You exercise, you eat a whole food based diet. If your diet is whole foods based that way, your sodium is probably too low. No joke. How do you know the difference? Well, try element and see if you feel better in 15 minutes. I get better pumps when I take it before my workouts, better performance. What does it feel like when your sodium is too low? Chronic fatigue, headaches, sometimes joint pain. You just can't get moving. Try element and see for yourself. And it tastes great. And again, no calories go to drink element t.com/mindpump the on that link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink, mixed flavors with any purchase back to the show. Our first caller is Tim from Australia. What's up, Tim, Tim. What you got going on fellas? How are we all good? How can we help you? Hey, well, we'll just get straight to it. Hey, so I'm just looking for some direction on where I want to head next. And, uh, basically see if I'm heading in the right direction now. So, uh, I've got my niece's wedding, which I'm emceeing in March next year. It's in Fiji, the beach wedding. So, uh, you know, it's one of the best break I've ever had, uh, head into that. So, um, I've just come off GLP one where I've lost 18 kilos. So it's about 40 pounds of your talk. Uh, I managed to maintain my muscle mass by lifting weights. And once I started listening to you, I started prioritizing protein. So I'm 185 centimeters tall. So it's about six foot, uh, and about 95 kilograms. That's about 200. And 10 pounds. Uh, my last body scan said I'm 18.6% body fat, but I'm not sure how accurate that it was. Cause it was on an old machine and I've never done it before. So I don't know what I'm looking at. Uh, so I lift weights three to four times a week. Um, I've designed my own program. I have a history of, uh, fitness instructing in the army. Uh, so I've got a rough idea of what I'm doing. I usually break it up into like a push day, leg day, pull day, leg day. Um, I saw not for 20 minutes, at least twice a week. I get a minimum. I get a minimum of 8,000 steps every day, but most days I hit 10,000 steps. Uh, I also play Oz tag, which is, uh, like flag football for you guys play that once a week. Uh, and during winter, I coached my son's rugby league team, which, uh, involves a lot of chasing the boys around. Uh, I've trained consistently for the past 14 years in some form or another. I've done triathlons, marathons, CrossFit hit, you name it. I've tried it all. Um, but, uh, recently the past sort of 12 months, I've really enjoyed resistance training, lifting weights. Uh, so while I was on the GLP one, I was eating around 2000 calories, but now I've increased to about 3000 calories a day, hitting a minimum of 200 grams of protein. Most days around sort of two 20 to two 30 grams of protein. Uh, since increasing my calories, I've, uh, my sleep scores on my gum and watch have gone from low seventies, uh, consistently in the high eighties and quite a few high nineties. Uh, after listening to your podcast, I figured out the reverse diet is best place for me right now to build to a cut prior to the wedding. So, I guess what I'm really wanting to know, I've just started at maps anabolic actually just started this week. Um, I guess my questions are, is maps anabolic the right program for me right now? Uh, and what, when should I start to cut and what should it look like? I love you're doing a lot of, a lot of things, right? Yeah. You're doing a great job, dude. Uh, love the program choice. Love the bump in the calories. Uh, awesome too. You've connected the dots to, uh, notice a huge difference when I'm really low calorie. My sleep scores always suffer a little bit. As soon as I bump feed, my body, when it needs, sleep gets better. So you're on the right track. I need you on those dots the other day when I was listening to one of your podcasts and you were talking about how when you increase your calories, your sleep gets better. I'm like, I only just noticed a few days beforehand that my sleep scores had been going through the roof. I'm like, Oh, that's because I've increased my calories. That'll make sense. You guys do know what you're talking about. No, you're, and you're doing a great job right now. And if let's say that, let's say the body fat percentage is give or take pretty close, right? You know, I'm sure it's somewhat accurate. Giving yourself, I typically tell somebody you want a half a percent is on the more conservative side to a percent of body fat a week. A percent is, is, is aggressive. A half a percent is more realistic. So think of that. And if you want to, and if, if you have a look, you're trying to obtain, you know, you'll probably see abs around 10% body fat. So that's eight to eight to 16 weeks out. Right. So that's kind of like how I look at it. And we got plenty of time, right? You said March of next year. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Second of March, the start of March. Yeah. So I would really, I would, because I also think what's going to happen in this reverse diet, you're actually going to get probably leaner in the process too. So even though I'm saying it takes eight to 16 weeks from now, I have a feeling when the reverse diet eating the control calories, you are lifting weights like maps in a bog, you'll probably build some muscle, which will cause the body fat percentage to continue to go down too. So you'll probably only be five to 10 weeks out from getting shredded for the wedding if you want to be shredded. And so I would literally reverse diet build and, and bulk all the way until you're about, you know, 10 weeks out from the wedding. And then that's when I would probably start a cut. And I think you'll lean out the entire time. So long as you keep the reverse diet in control and you're not like going, like sometimes what happens when someone comes from 2000 calories and they get the permission to reverse diet, it's like, Oh, I get to eat all the time. It's like, you don't need to eat a lot. I think you're eating a good amount. Now, listen to your appetite. If you're eating whole foods, if you, if you notice you're still hungry and you're eating whole foods, there's a good chance. Your body's trying to build more muscle. I would feed that. Just make good choices. Yeah. Not much to add to that. I think the only thing I'll add is that, you know, Adam mentioned 10%. And I'll tell you this, most people are most guys, especially if you're natural, uh, trying to get to 10%. Isn't that, uh, isn't that great? Uh, yeah, you can see your abs, but you tend to not feel good. It kind of hammers your metabolic rate, your hormones. I think a good, a good place to aim for is like 12 or 13%. You're fit. You look good. You got some, some muscle you're not shredded, but you look fit. You definitely look fit. And if you're at 18%, that's only a 5% loss in body fat. So, uh, I think you're at 3000. How long have you been at 3000 calories? Uh, probably about six weeks now. Oh, you're good. So if you slowly, if you slowly worked yourself up to, let's say 34, 3,500 calories, now you've got a lot of room. And then when you get into the cut, you know, you can cut down to 2,800 calories and then to 2,500 calories and then 23, and you'll, you'll probably get down to a nice, easy 12% body fat at least. Yeah. At least then you'll feel good. Yeah. That's it, dude. Excellent. Otherwise you're set bro. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. Really good job, dude. Great, great job. Hey, thanks boys. And thanks for everything you do. You got it, my friend. All right, Tim. Oh, Hey, you know what? Let us do this because after anabolic, what do you want him to run after that? Cause he's got time. Oh yeah, he does. So he's like to throw you a program to follow after anabolic. Uh, do you like this? Like one of our, like one of our splits, upper, lower, upper, lower split would be a cool discount codes for followup programs. Cause you got a while. Yeah. Yeah. We'll send up. Awesome. Thanks boys. Upper, lower to you. Follow that after anabolic. And then Doug can send you some other ones we do after that. Awesome. Appreciate it. All right, dude. Thanks Tim. All right. Thanks. He's done a good job. Really good job. Yeah. Yeah. He's done a really good job. He's, uh, you know, listen to us while on the GLP, which has helped him. His way off, which is reverse dieting, which is great. So he sounds like he missed the common pitfalls that people run into while on GLPs. Also shifted his, here's the other thing that he did. That was really good. You know, he's like, Hey, this is in March. You know, oftentimes people come to us and like him, you know, my, my sister's getting married in four weeks. What do I do? Uh, not much panic mode. Yeah. So he's got plenty of time to do this the right way to build muscle. Uh, you know, he's in a, he's in a really good place. He's going to get great results. As long as he's patient. I mean, there's a good chance that if he keeps the, the eating habits under control, eats whole foods, follows kind of the stuff that he's doing already stays around 3000 to 3,500 calories to your point, slowly inches up when, when, when call for through your appetite and strength. You see strength gains. He may, he may just, he may cruise all the way to that percentage. He has enough time right now that if he gained no additional body fat and gained seven pounds of muscle, eight pounds of muscle, his body fat will go down 3%, something like that. Yeah. Automatically. Right. So, I mean, without even cutting, he can get pretty close to the number you were talking about. And so it would be an easy, easy, very, very easy. Our next caller is Miguel from the Philippines. What's up, Miguel? How you doing Miguel? Hey guys. Thanks for having me. You got it, dude. How can we help you? Uh, so, uh, I'm going to read off, uh, the message I sent you. I edited some. So just so that I don't lose track. No worries. So, Hey guys, it's awesome to be here. And thanks for having me on. Uh, I'd like to apologize. I apologize in advance since I think my message is a bit long, but I've tried to provide, I tried to provide as much context as I can and added details on the things I usually hear you guys ask from other callers. So I'm Miguel. I'm 30 married and I have a two year old daughter. I had trained consistently in the past, but when COVID hit through 2025, I didn't really have access to a gym. So I spent these, those years mostly running and playing sports. I occasionally did some unstructured strength work, like push-ups and body weight squats, but nothing consistent enough to be really called a program. Uh, this January, 2026, I finally had enough financial leeway to get a gym membership again, and I've been relatively consistent for the past nine and a half months. I generally train about two days a week, mainly because of logistics. Since my gym is on the way to work, I work out early in the morning, which technically impacts my sleep. So I, but I do it so I can spend more time with the time and get home while my daughter is still awake on good weeks. I might get three or four sessions in, but at least two is what I try to target weekly. Uh, when I started in January, I was around 195 pounds and I basically stayed somewhere between 192 to 199 for the entire year. And I'm still hovering around 195 to 196 now, but despite my weight basically staying the same range, I believe my strength has gone up. My bench went from 40 kilos or 88 pounds from four sets of eight to now 65 kilos or 143 pounds for five sets of five. My squat and RDL both went from 60 kilos or 132 pounds for four sets of eight to around 90 kilos or 198 pounds for five sets of five. And over the past few weeks, I've also been tracking my food and TDE more consistently. I'm averaging around 2,800 to 3,000 calories overall, although there's a pretty big difference between weekdays and weekends on weekdays. I might be around 2,000 to 2,500 calories while on weekends, I generally range from 2,600 to 4,000. My estimated TDE on active days is around 2,600 to 2,800 calories with roughly around 8,000 to 12,000 steps, sometimes reaching 13,000 to 15,000 on more active days. On sedentary days, I probably expend around 2,000 to 2,300 calories depending on how much I move. Protein is usually around 130 grams, but it can range from 100 to 160. I know I have to improve consistency on that. I also really enjoy running and doing sports, mainly playing basketball. I try to keep those in my routine. I play in recreational basketball leagues and want to remain competitive in those. So my ultimate goal is longevity and health, but I also care about looking better aesthetically. I want to be stronger, look good, and stay athletic. For programming, I've actually been self-programming based on things I've learned from listening to you guys. I've also been using AI to help me organize and define the program. I recently finished a 5x5 strength block for compound lifts, and this October I started a unilateral strength block since I always hear you guys talking about cycling in map symmetry. I'm not particularly sure if what AI program is appropriate, but I'm giving it a go. After that, I plan to return to a more traditional strength block. I've also had some interesting changes in my health markers, I just had my lipid profile retested a few days ago and the results were kind of mixed. The good news is that my HbA1c improved and I'm back now in the normal range from previously being pre-diabetic range, which I'm really happy about. The downside is my triglyceride and cholesterol levels went back up after stopping my triglyceride medication with the consultation from my doctor as a test to see if I can maintain my triglyceride levels through diet and exercise alone. I know my diet is probably the biggest thing I struggle with. As I mentioned earlier, in weekdays I can generally eat pretty well and manage my intake, but weekends are difficult because they're usually family and social days. We have a two year old, so we're usually out at the mall, dining out, ordering food, visiting my family, that kind of thing. I also know that I could personally meal prep and eat the same meals for several days, but I don't want to force that lifestyle on my wife and family. So that's basically where I am. At right now. So for my questions, first, would you consider this past year a success even though I technically have a lost weight? For someone who's just getting back into strength training for the past nine months, is it possible that my expectations of what I would look like and what I would have achieved aren't really aligned with what's realistic? In reality, would my goals actually take years of consistency to reach? Second, how much of that strength progression do you think would realistically be muscle gain versus neurological and skill adaptations from coming back to lifting after several years away? Is it reasonable to think that I probably improved my body composition even though my smart scale says otherwise? Third, given my health situation of continued high triglyceride and cholesterol levels, would you prioritize a dedicated fat loss phase at this point? I'm currently at around 195 pounds. My smart scale indicates I'm around 29% body fat. I'm thinking about doing a more focused cut, getting down to a healthier body fat level, around 20 to 23%. And then returning to a maintenance or thinking about reverse dieting. How would you approach it? And lastly, this has been your topic for the past few episodes. I really enjoy running and playing basketball, and I don't want to give those things up just because they aren't necessarily the most efficient way to build an aesthetic physique. I understand that if my goal was maximizing muscle and getting lean as possible, I should probably do less running and basketball and structure everything around hypertrophy. So is it realistic to eventually improve my build a really good aesthetic physique while still running, playing basketball, and doing the things I enjoy? I understand that it might not be the most efficient path and that my physique progress might be slower, but I don't really want to sacrifice the activities I enjoy just to optimize my physique. Again, apologies for the long message. No worries, Miguel, and thanks for calling in. So I'm going to go through your questions kind of one by one, and let's see if I can kind of help answer some of those for you. So your first question, with your strength gains, do we know if it's muscle or neuroadaptation? No way for me to know. I don't know unless we do, you know, body comp changes or whatever. It doesn't matter because strength gains are positive, whether they're neurological or muscle. In fact, when you look at longevity studies, the correlation and connection is to strength, not necessarily muscle. Now, the reason why we speak to muscle is because muscle is one of the things that contributes to strength. But you can have somebody with a lot of muscle and have low strength, somebody with less muscle and more strength, and the longevity benefit goes to the person with the strength. So I really don't care, except for the aesthetic part, okay? So we'll start, you know, we'll start there. Have you done a good job? I think you've done a good job. I think your expectations are fine considering your diet's all over the place. That's the big problem. The big problem is going to be your diet, 100%. It's not your workout. Now, I'm going to, we'll talk about that, but the diet is where we can really nail things down, and you can see a big difference. Not just aesthetically, but also with some of your blood panel work. That's where you're going to see the biggest changes is with diet. Doug, if you could scroll down a little bit. You also asked, it says you haven't bought any MAPS programs because you can technically afford them, but you can't justify spending on them right now. Well, I'm going to tell you this, and this is just to everybody, and of course, you're on the show right now. I'm going to give you a free program, so you're going to get one for free. But just for anybody listening, when that pops up in your head, I always position it this way. You can't afford not to because your options are no results or results. Spend my time doing all these things and getting little for it or spend my time doing some stuff and getting a lot for it. And so really, it's not the difference of I spend money or not. It's do I waste my money? Do I take it and invest in a way that I get a bigger return? And that's what investing in your health looks like. You get a much, much better return. And I can say that confidently in comparison to AI programs. AI is better than what a good coach will put together. And that's not just talking about myself. I'm talking about other really good coaches that are out there. Let's talk about your diet. Now, I understand you don't want to meal prep for family time. And that makes perfect sense. Like that, it's like you're going to trade. Cool, I get to eat these meal prep meals, but now I'm not hanging out with my wife and kids and I'm making it weird for everybody. But that's really just the weekend, dude. So here's what it would look like. During the week, you meal prep. On the weekend when you eat out, you just make a few choices that changes quite a bit. For example, it's very easy to avoid fried foods and to avoid carbohydrates. Those two things right there make a very big difference when it comes to calories. And the third thing is don't overdo it. So if you're going to eat out with your wife and kids and you look at the options, you say, which one's the low carb option? Which one is not fried? Is it high in protein? And I'm going to and you all still eat out. So it's not the, and I just want to help you with this. It's not the issue is not, uh, I can't hang out with my family and enjoy myself. The issue is when I'm with my family, I tend to go off the rails and eat whatever I want. Cause you could eat. I eat out all the time. I have family stuff all the time, but I make a few choices with my foods. My family doesn't have to eat any differently. We don't have to pick necessarily a different place to eat. Uh, but my choices are a little different. And if your calorie swing is, you know, between one to 100 calories between the week and the weekend, this is your problem. And if you, if you could fix that right there, like if you can, instead of averaging 4,000 calories, hit 2,800 calories on the weekend by making a few, you know, few of those choices, eating less, choosing protein, less carbohydrates, no fried foods, uh, then you're going to see your body fat percentage drop and you'll see improvements in your, uh, in your blood markers. So that's the big issue that I see with everything else. Basketball, you know, going to, I don't care. Keep doing that. Yeah. I'll send you a program. You said you like to work out about three days a week. Maps Anabolic will be a great program for you to follow. And that's it, dude. If you can nail that down when you eat out with your family and just be consistent with it, like every time you eat out, just be consistent, you'll see a nice controlled trend of body fat percentage going down. Cause right now you're just kind of maintaining cause you're doing good during the week and on the weekend you off. So it's really the seesaw of the, of the calories. 100%. That's, that's so common. This is all diet. This is all diet. And then what I'd add to that is not being very clear on your goals. Listening to you, uh, you, you, there's so many things that you're contradicting yourself where it's like, oh, like I care about, uh, health and that's my kind of my thing. But then you, I want to look a certain way. It's like, well, let one of those be your driving force and something's got to give. So if you're going to just focus on health and balance with family, stuff like that, well, then you're probably not going to look like a bodybuilder and ripped and super fit like that because you're not going to look like a bodybuilder and ripped and super fit because they make a lot of sacrifices for those things. But if you want to look like that, then you're definitely going to have to make a lot of different choices the way you eat right now. Like that's just not, they're both not going to live in the same world. And the same thing goes for the basketball thing. If you love playing basketball and you enjoy it, I mean, play basketball, you're not going to build as much muscle as you would if you did it. And you focus on hypertrophy, like you said, but it's like, then just, you don't have to like apologize for it, but it just decided that that's your goal, that your goal is I want to be good at playing basketball and I want to be healthy. Otherwise you're going to be conflicted. Exactly. Cause like, Oh, right now I'm trying to build more muscle. I'm focused on that. Oh, right now I want to be good at basketball. Oh, right now I'm trying to be more of my, it's like, decide what you want, be clear on that. And then there's little micro changes that we can make towards that goal and stay focused on that goal. Right now I hear a lot of back and forth on what you kind of want to do and what you're kind of focused on, which will also make the, and I'll say something a little bit different than what Sal said with the money and the maps programs is like, it's, do you, do you value more money or do you value more time? And most people will say that they value time more. And it's like, cause you could absolutely continue to figure this out on your own chat, GTV, chat, GBT, then come back, tweak it again, figure it out, fail, do it. It's like, or you could invest in something and figure it out the first time and then be on with your life. It's like, so if you value money that much, that spending 70 or a hundred bucks is too much. It's like, well then yeah, spend the time, spend the months or years figuring it out on your own or invest in it and then be done with it and have all the answers. And so that that's another way to look at what he's saying too. And that's what, I think people get at these crossroads of like, yeah, I'll just figure it out. It's like, oh, you totally can do Miguel. I mean, it took me 20 years. So to figure it all out and just to go extreme, I mean, uh, hiring a personal trainer costs thousands of dollars, but I would have people hire me after trying on their own for 10 years, 10 years or more of gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight. Can't figure this out. My body doesn't want to work anymore. Then they hire me. And eight months later, they're like, oh my God, I can't believe how great this is working. And it's like, would you have traded the last 10 years for the time or money for the $3,000 that you spent? That's right. You know, and hire me. So that's the point that Adam's making. And it's a super valid one. Uh, especially when it comes to otherwise trying to figure it on your own, man, it takes forever. But look, I'm going to send you a mass program. Anyway, you'll see for yourself after that, you can get another one if you want. Uh, but it's your weekend, bro. It's your diet. It's your diet on the weekend. Got to win the weekends, dude. That's it. Winning the weekends will completely change. If you're consistent with what I said, eat less protein, cut the carbs, no fried foods, just be consistent with that. You'll probably drop 10% body fat over the course of the next 30 weeks or something like that. And blood markers improve all the things. Without really having to like try really hard. You just, you'll just see it over time, you know, over the next 30 weeks or so your body fat percentage will drop. And now if you want it to happen faster, then you got to meal prep more and be a little bit more consistent. But yeah, honestly, I don't think it's worth it. You like being with your family. I think do what I said and just let it happen. Just keep it simple. Keep focusing on getting and yeah, make those tweaks with your diet. If your composition is really bad, what you want to achieve like that's the gold right there that's really what's going to get you there but the rest of it is like you know just keep putting the work in with strength uh we get you this program and and you'll watch and see like how that's gonna really jump up so uh basically just don't overthink it and just keep on working that's it dude fix fix when you eat out that's the big thing just be consistent with that follow maps anabolic i'll send that to you um and you'll see you'll see your body change now if you're inconsistent with your diet it's gonna be really hard so you gotta be really consistent very consistent yeah thanks very much guys you got it brother thank you for calling in man thank you again take it easy two things i gotta say one uh it's eating out is i would say heavily processed foods is up here eating out is right under it so it's really hard if you have aesthetic goals it's just you might want to just avoid even even what you and i know this is i'm a person will look at a meal like that's healthy yeah let me choose that sure and there's lots of hidden oils and things oh yeah it's like a salad that's 1500 calories like what the heck just happened dude i had a i had a at disneyland i i ordered a double meat chicken caesar salad caesar's dressing on the side and i got it and it was like the best chicken breasts i ever tasted i think it's fucking true i'm like this thing is soaked in oil right now because it's so i like chicken breast doesn't taste like this you know and it's just like i and i i'm and i'm trying to guesstimate that it's like is that a tablespoon is that a cup one tablespoon is definitely is definitely a lot enough to make chicken breast taste moist and taste good fried in butter yeah yeah chicken breast don't taste like that yeah no so that's number one the second thing is what you know what you said adam what i said about investing uh in fitness and i'll go to the extreme the most expensive thing you can invest in in person in in the fitness space is hiring your own coach yeah nothing's more expensive also nothing will give you the most return period end of story it's gonna cost it's gonna it's gonna cost you no matter what it's either gonna cost you in time or it's gonna cost you in money that's right and when you're talking about something like this where you have to figure out nutrition figure out your body figure out exercise science the the amount of years it takes to hone that in it is and even that's speaking from somebody who did schooling on it and did it for a living still took and obsessed yes year years of doing that so it's like uh to think about it and to think that you're you're not capable yeah you could totally do it but you're also signing up for some serious time if you got now listen some people are in for that and they're passionate about and they love that process and more power to you but i think the process is more fun when you have a wide but if you if you have the if you want the answers and you want to figure this out say i got a wedding in march or i got these goals right now uh then the you're you're gonna spend you're gonna you're gonna spend somewhere you spend time we're gonna spend money and it's like it's a worthwhile investment because once you spend that money that's done you have the knowledge you know what to do from there our next caller is robert from texas what's up robert how are you dude howdy guys how are you doing good good man how can we help you all right uh so i about six months ago had a doctor's appointment got my blood work done was fattened out of shape and got all the symptoms you get from somebody's fattened out of shape so i've been uh you know you tried to put me on blood pressure medication all this other jazz and i was like i'm not spending a dime on that and i'm like i'm not spending a dime on that and i'm like i'm not spending a dime on that and i'm not spending a dime on that until i actually go and get my ass in the gym first and uh i know for a gym that day i've been going been getting slowly back in shape uh kind of plateaued lately i'm down to 220.1 today i've been kind of hovering here between 220 and 225 for like the last eight weeks and looking for a way to kind of break through the plateau and keep going give us an idea of what you did to get down to that where were you at calorie wise are you tracking food what's the workouts yeah give us a little bit of a rundown of that yeah so tracking food um i i used a macro factor to track my calories um and it's suggesting that i go down to like 1700 calories a day which is kind of brutally low i think for terrible i'm six foot tall two uh 220. yeah yeah um and so uh that i kind of you know wanted some advice on and then i've been doing uh i started out doing strong list five by five um then moved back to the starting strength that's great yeah those are good um which was uh a program i did back in like 20s and 30s uh so kind of going back to that i think i've hit the plateau where i can't really make the linear progression every single workout anymore yeah and probably need to switch up the the exercise routine as well i'm at um 325 on a back squat i was at 225 on bench but i messed up my left shoulder so uh bench is struggling for me i'm at high reps at 165 right now and then uh overhead press like 135 a deadlift at 365 yeah i'm guessing it's it's actually less the programming and it's more uh nutrition you've probably been low calorie for too long and you need to reverse what were you so if it tells you to go to 17 where are you at now yeah uh i'm i mean i'm eating like 1700 to 1900 calories that's why that's why you're plateaued and you're not progressing in your weights you'll see your weights you know jump up right away to 25 2800 right away okay right away 25 2800 don't even change the program keep following that just watch what happens in a week in a week or two you should see strength gains and you're so depleted right now um i mean you'll gain weight on the scale but a lot of it's going to be water and glycogen yeah you're going to feel strong you're going to get good pumps i would give you give yourself like a three months of just building now you don't got to go crazy with it i think what adam said with your calories 2500 is a very reasonable yeah just do it in good calories just to have another yeah two more meals of what you probably were eating like a more yeah yeah and that's gonna and i'm imagining at 1700 hitting your protein goals has got to be really hard unless you're eating super lean and that then that would tell me yeah yeah so you're probably low fat and then which also you're going to feel way better as soon as you bump your fat your testosterone will go up too yeah yeah you're gonna feel it is yeah here's the other thing too it's part of my blood work i'm seeing on your email that your your sleep is really crap during the week watch me any way we can fix that uh i have been working on that a lot lately i had kind of my first week of uh seven plus hours a night knocking on eight i think that's what's gotten me down close to the 220 line again instead of uh but 226 bro watch when you get over 100 grams of fat what happens yeah you'll see you as soon as you as soon as you're 100 grams you're over 100 gram once you get over 100 grams of fat in the day and i know you've been lower than that to get down that low yeah you'll see a difference in your sleep right your sleep will get better right away on its own yep okay yeah uh what about goal weight so i just had a dexa scan last week at uh i think 157 pounds of all the weight i've been doing all the lean tissue all in i was i originally set my goal at 170 because that was like right in the middle of uh the bmi chart for my height you're six foot right yeah you don't got to go that much down on scale bro no yeah what did it say your body fat percentage is that uh like 29 yeah i'd say look don't worry about the weight so much i would worry more about body fat percentage but over the next few months you you just increase your calories in a conservative way 2500 is super reasonable number focus on getting stronger building some muscle you know in two months go get another dexa scan i would not be surprised if your scale weight goes up but your body fat percentage goes down that's exactly what will happen uh and then you could probably go up a little higher and you know once you get up to like 28 29 then you could go cut and you'll see fat come off your body but yeah of course you plateau bro 1700 calories at your size see the body put muscle on you know what happened if you cut your calories from here you're just gonna lose muscle oh god yeah no you're already way too low no way you can't do that you gotta reverse you're gonna see great results in the first couple weeks right away just from just by bumping up so long as you do with good food obviously don't this isn't permission to go eat like an like eat good eat you know balanced meals and you're gonna feel it robert what do you do uh for work are you sedentary you move what do you tell me what you do uh yeah so i i mean i'm an office worker i run a small business uh so glued to a desk a lot during the day um i try to get out and like walk around the the yard next to the shop and stuff when i can but like i'll have days where i do like 1200 steps if i'm working from home and then go back to work and then go back to work and then go back to work and include to a desk all day and then other days where you know 8 000 9 000 steps so try trying to be a little more consistent with that will really help yeah um you know it'll help facilitate recovery for you so it'll speed up the recovery process will help build your muscle better you'll feel better digestion wise you'll be able to eat more like you should be able to is it possible to do like a 10 minute walk two or three times a day yeah yeah i'll just need to be disciplined about scheduling it and sticking to it so just letting everything take me away so do this because you're so low like if i was coaching you what it would look like is we would i would have got your kind of at your average of like a week or two and i real incrementally just set a floor like okay i'm not gonna let it i'm not gonna ever be lower than four thousand or five thousand because you could go knock that out literally and at the end of the day you can go knock that out in one hour if you had to yeah so just set a floor of like i'm not gonna let it be less than this and then have a just a little bit higher goal so it's like six to eight thousand is my range never lower than six i want to at least try and hit eight that's my goal and then if i go over that's great but that's kind of like set a small bar for yourself until it becomes like this habit in your lifestyle and then we can inch our way up doing that while you creep calories up bro we'll bump your calories you'll build muscle you'll you'll lean out all the things it'll feel like a light switch yeah from where you're at now do you think and you think link uh staying on the starting strength progression is i mean we could we could send you one of our programs but uh i mean you know when people when people tell us about a program that we we all would get behind as far as that that's assault that's solid programming it is but it wouldn't hurt to to switch it up if you're ready to do something different we can send the only thing that i would say is if you hurt your shoulder uh because you've been following kind of that that you know sagittal pain you know plane type programming which starting strength is super it's like one of the best programs out there for just overall strength but it's limited in uh how it can build you know rotational stability driven yeah it's like maps anabolic kind of has that same weakness uh so you know we can send you map symmetry it's a unilateral training program and it might be good for your joints right now because you're pretty strong you're lifting some pretty heavy weight yeah that i think that would be helpful i do have some kettlebells and gyms that i go to i have some kettlebells too the yeah run run a block run a whole block of symmetry so three months of that and then you can go back to starting strength if you want or run another maps program like maps anabolic with the walking thing robert i don't attach it to fat loss although probably some of that will happen just focus on this it'll make you feel better dude yeah yeah like if you do like just two 10 minute walks or three 10 minute walks you're going to be more productive at your desk have you have you been robert you listen to the show for long no i just started uh you know the things i put in my ear in my commute back and forth kind of keeps me focused on life goals right so when i started losing weight i was looking for a good uh oh shit just recently good fitness podcast yeah so started this oh welcome welcome to the family uh hey so i'd be here hey so one of the things i'll tell you like because i've talked about this is why i asked i've talked about this a lot like the we we can get sedentary here we sit in the studio easily can be a 2000 step day and one of the things i also noticed since sleep is one of our focuses man uh just getting up and moving because i i know what it feels like to feel exhausted the other day because your brain's exhausted because you're probably running yeah you're running because you're working but then your body is not physically exhausted because it didn't move all day and so it's your body's restless at night simply really getting more active with the steps will make it also improvement so the fat's going up and calories going up combined with moving more through the day will improve sleep sleep will then improve building muscle recovery fat loss all positive feedback loop and you'll i mean you'll see all kinds of good stuff happen if you focus on those things okay yeah uh we'd definitely love to give uh the symmetry plan a try yeah you got it dude we'll send it to you awesome cool i love here i hear back from you too follow up with us send us an email let us know how you're doing we'll do thanks guys all right man take it easy dude take care yep yeah it just it's you know so so common right cut calories lose weight cut calories lose weight cut calories lose weight plateau do i cut calories again yeah no yeah where do i go from here no dude you're a six foot tall dude 220 pounds at 1700 calories i need to feed and where are you gonna go 1200 calories you know it's it's inevitable it happens to i mean it's everybody i'm in it right now off air i was just talking to you about it so it's i mean it's uh it's inevitable it's part of the the journey you gotta reverse and you gotta reverse out of it um and of course i have an option i could go down to 1500 calories which is crazy cool yeah yeah and i'll lose weight on the scale if i were to do that but and that's where people get messed up is they keep playing that game when it's like what i know already without i don't even have to look at his diet for a six foot guy 1700 calories if you say you're hitting your protein intake that means he's got to be eating tilapia and chicken breasts all day i know and that means his fat is probably hovering around 40 maybe 50 grams at the most most you feel like garbage so yeah his fat's essential and for a male that big that size yeah 80 80 grams minimum a day i want and in and you'll see a huge difference hormone profile sleeping all those things like oh yeah huge difference our next caller is jordan from nova scotia what's up jordan how you doing jordan dude hey guys it's nice to meet you you too very honored to be on here you guys are amazing thank you thanks man how can we help you um i'll just read my email to make it nice and easy for you um so i'm 30 years old um i've been strength training now for about 15 years um i do come from more of like a sports background growing up um i did a bit of uh competing immense physique back in 2015-2017 i did a bit of uh competing immense physique back in 2015-2017 um i did a bit of uh competing immense physique back in 2015-2017 um i did a bit of uh competing immense physique back in 2015-2017 um and really since i started lifting um and really since i started lifting um and really since i started lifting my training has always been geared towards my training has always been geared towards my training has always been geared towards you know typical bodybuilding hypertrophy you know typical bodybuilding hypertrophy you know typical bodybuilding hypertrophy style style style um and you know i still train very similar um and you know i still train very similar um and you know i still train very similar today i find the main difference though is today i find the main difference though is today i find the main difference though is i'm focused more on how i move the weight i'm focused more on how i move the weight i'm focused more on how i move the weight versus just moving the weight like i did versus just moving the weight like i did versus just moving the weight like i did for a lot of years for a lot of years for a lot of years um my split right now is i do push pull um my split right now is i do push pull um my split right now is i do push pull legs and then i'll do chest and back legs and then i'll do chest and back legs and then i'll do chest and back and then shoulders and arms and then i'll and then shoulders and arms and then i'll and then shoulders and arms and then i'll throw in some mobility work towards throw in some mobility work towards throw in some mobility work towards the end of the workouts and then the end of the workouts and then the end of the workouts and then sometimes i'll use a rest day as a sometimes i'll use a rest day as a sometimes i'll use a rest day as a mobility day as well mobility day as well mobility day as well um currently i eat like between 2500 to um currently i eat like between 2500 to um currently i eat like between 2500 to 3000 calories a day 3000 calories a day 3000 calories a day um averaging about 0.8 to 1 gram of um averaging about 0.8 to 1 gram of um averaging about 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight protein per pound of body weight protein per pound of body weight um the one thing in my diet that is a um the one thing in my diet that is a um the one thing in my diet that is a killer is alcohol killer is alcohol killer is alcohol um i love alcohol it's like a my family um i love alcohol it's like a my family um i love alcohol it's like a my family likes to drink as well likes to drink as well likes to drink as well so it's been a battle for me over the so it's been a battle for me over the so it's been a battle for me over the years but luckily this year i've been years but luckily this year i've been years but luckily this year i've been able to able to able to taper off a bit more than than what i taper off a bit more than than what i taper off a bit more than than what i have been doing in the past which have been doing in the past which have been doing in the past which i've seen great results from um sleep i've seen great results from um sleep i've seen great results from um sleep is okay is okay is okay i'm about seven to eight hours on i'm about seven to eight hours on i'm about seven to eight hours on average per night average per night average per night the only problem with my sleep is i do the only problem with my sleep is i do the only problem with my sleep is i do wake up wake up wake up three to four times per night sometimes i three to four times per night sometimes i three to four times per night sometimes i go use the washroom sometimes just go use the washroom sometimes just go use the washroom sometimes just i just wake up and go back to bed not i just wake up and go back to bed not i just wake up and go back to bed not too sure why too sure why too sure why um so currently i also started um um so currently i also started um um so currently i also started um i kind of switched paths in my career a i kind of switched paths in my career a i kind of switched paths in my career a little bit little bit little bit still within the same industry i do still within the same industry i do still within the same industry i do sales sales sales and leadership and mentoring um but i and leadership and mentoring um but i and leadership and mentoring um but i started in a new industry started in a new industry started in a new industry so it's been a bit stressful to get so it's been a bit stressful to get so it's been a bit stressful to get things off the ground and building a new things off the ground and building a new things off the ground and building a new team so i find team so i find team so i find i have been under quite a bit of stress i have been under quite a bit of stress i have been under quite a bit of stress but i do find my energy levels but i do find my energy levels but i do find my energy levels they dip um very early on usually they dip um very early on usually they dip um very early on usually around like around like around like one or two o'clock and it's hard to get one or two o'clock and it's hard to get one or two o'clock and it's hard to get my energy levels my energy levels my energy levels back up after they do dip and i try to back up after they do dip and i try to back up after they do dip and i try to stay away from caffeine after 12 so stay away from caffeine after 12 so stay away from caffeine after 12 so um that's been a challenge for me um that's been a challenge for me um that's been a challenge for me and um i guess a little bit more of like and um i guess a little bit more of like and um i guess a little bit more of like the details so the details so the details so i did get a full blood panel done last i did get a full blood panel done last i did get a full blood panel done last january january january um and the the red flags that came back um and the the red flags that came back um and the the red flags that came back so so so my red and white blood cell count was my red and white blood cell count was my red and white blood cell count was very low very low very low my b12 was also very low and my free my b12 was also very low and my free my b12 was also very low and my free testosterone was only 240. testosterone was only 240. um whenever i told people what my test um whenever i told people what my test um whenever i told people what my test was everyone's like what like that was everyone's like what like that was everyone's like what like that doesn't even make sense like you're a big doesn't even make sense like you're a big doesn't even make sense like you're a big dude right dude right dude right um and luckily so after that um and luckily so after that um and luckily so after that um i was able to increase my free test um i was able to increase my free test um i was able to increase my free test to 493 to 493 to 493 by taking a very low dose of hcg to help by taking a very low dose of hcg to help by taking a very low dose of hcg to help boost my production boost my production boost my production i did that for about 10 weeks and then i i did that for about 10 weeks and then i i did that for about 10 weeks and then i um currently the only like supplements um currently the only like supplements um currently the only like supplements i'm taking is uh i do 10 grams of i'm taking is uh i do 10 grams of i'm taking is uh i do 10 grams of creatine per day creatine per day creatine per day um i take pine pollen and l-theanine um i take pine pollen and l-theanine um i take pine pollen and l-theanine so so so to close it off um what i said is i'd to close it off um what i said is i'd to close it off um what i said is i'd love to chat with you guys on a deeper love to chat with you guys on a deeper love to chat with you guys on a deeper level and see if you'd be able to help level and see if you'd be able to help level and see if you'd be able to help me increase my free test the goal is to me increase my free test the goal is to me increase my free test the goal is to get up to around 700 get up to around 700 get up to around 700 to help better my overall health to help better my overall health to help better my overall health increase my energy levels and sharpen increase my energy levels and sharpen increase my energy levels and sharpen my brain my brain my brain and figure out what the best training and figure out what the best training and figure out what the best training style would be style would be style would be to move forward with it i'm an open book to move forward with it i'm an open book to move forward with it i'm an open book um and i just love to get your guys um and i just love to get your guys um and i just love to get your guys input yeah you got it dude yeah this is input yeah you got it dude yeah this is input yeah you got it dude yeah this is actually pretty simple and i'm pretty actually pretty simple and i'm pretty actually pretty simple and i'm pretty i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm fairly certain what the issue is uh but fairly certain what the issue is uh but fairly certain what the issue is uh but i want to back up for a second so are i want to back up for a second so are i want to back up for a second so are you taking b12 you taking b12 you taking b12 yeah so i go uh every six to eight weeks yeah so i go uh every six to eight weeks yeah so i go uh every six to eight weeks i take a shot i go to my naturopath okay Your vitamin D levels got checked? Yes. They were low, but they're good now. Okay. So you're taking vitamin D. Okay. Yeah. So that's, I just wanted to make sure we do that. So, and you're a young guy when you competed, any, any history of, uh, of PED use, any testosterone and steroids? Okay. No. You're, you're just over-trained. Yep. That's it. I'm new years. I knew that. Well, I mean, typical, typical bodybuilder type of mentality, like more is better. It's like you, I knew it as soon as you read off your training volume and calories, it's like too much. Uh, what you could do, you could do half the effort and see twice the results. Better, way better. Yep. Yeah. So here, here's what happens, Jordan, because there's a, you can train at a, at a certain volume and intensity, but over time it starts to add up and you get cumulative stress on the body. Okay. So, you know, let's say you're, cause what your training should probably look like. You're a natural dude. You're, you know, so you lift naturally, young dude, you've got a background of strength training, a full body workout three days a week. We'll give you the best results. And that's what 85 to 90% of your year is going to look like. Then the 15 to 10% of the year is like, Hey, for the next six weeks, I'm going to ramp it up and I'm going to do an upper lower split or something like that for six weeks. But you, but you're always going to go back to, in fact, if you went to a three, if you went to a full body three day a week routine, one lift per body part, three sets, don't go to failure. Stop two reps short of failure. If you started that next week, you'll see strength gains the following week. That's how fast it'll work. Within a week, you'll get stronger and you'll be like, Whoa, this is, this feels really weird. Uh, but your sleep is an issue because you're over-trained your testosterone is an over an issue because you're over-trained. Uh, and so once you fix that, your diet's great. I like that you cut back alcohol. You got that 2,500 calories a day is fine. You're probably a little low. I'd probably bump that too. So, you know, if, if I was training with you, I would say, let's go up to 28. Let's do a full body routine three days a week. Continue to stay active and biologically. Okay. Week two or three, you're going to see strength gains and you know, you're moving in the right direction and your sleep will get better by that time as well. Cool. And w would you guys have any recommendations like, cause I love to go, like I work out in the morning and I find it's a mindset thing more on the days that I work. Um, what would you guys recommend do on the days that I'm not lifting walk, walk on the treadmill listen to an audiobook yeah walk mobility sauna more more working inward recoveries type related stuff yeah yeah no workouts yep but three days listen it's this is what it looks like very basic and i don't need to give you like specifics because you've been training you've been lifting for 15 years you know what you're doing one lift per body part okay i'm serious because here's what you're going to want to do you're also going to want to train a failure none of that you're going to you're going to do this and by the third or fourth week you're going to get stronger you'll i'm going to add another exercise per body part don't do that one lift per body part start with legs go to back go to chest go to shoulders go to arms finish off with little core calves get out that's it stop two reps short of failure by the second week you'll see strength gain well send a map send a ball okay i can send you maps and a ball yeah send a map but you can also modify it if you want to be trained for you've been lifting for 15 years i think you know what you're doing yeah yeah but you know what follow something though because that's the one problem when we've been lifting for a long time we're all guilty of this getting in our own way i'll just do this or i know you know i'm saying like follow the program as laid out with that advice trust the process do exactly what we said don't break from that for the three months in the program watch what happens when you get to phase three i'll add this jordan when you get to phase three bump your calories yeah phase three volume is a bit i mean if if if all goes well because i i would start you out i wouldn't even i wouldn't even change calories quite yet i just switched the programming i think you'll see within like sal said a week or two strength gains and you feel stronger bump the calories then and then and then i'd wait again until i feel stronger and i feel see my lifts go up then i bump the calories again and each time i'm bumping the calories like two three hundred calories tops yep and all through good all through good foods not alcohol through good foods and let that and let that be your guide and by the end of the program by the time you get to phase three you should be upwards over 3 000 calories sleeping better stronger leaner and doing less less work when i and i just like it's it's pretty clear because when i see a young man who's been working out for a while and they come to me and they're like oh my god i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired and they come to me and they say ah i wake up in the middle night and it's hard to get back to sleep and my testosterone came back low and i get this energy crash end of the day it's like it's over trained it's like almost every time unless it's a nutrient deficiency but you got those filled so it's over trained for sure yeah yeah cool yeah cool well and the answer that i didn't want that i got yeah yeah trust the process by week three you're gonna be like this is great yeah yeah yeah yeah hundred percent trust us just stick to it for that entire week and then you're gonna be like oh my god i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired i promise we won't let you down cool awesome all right jordan we'll send that over to you thanks guys you guys are awesome take it easy man yeah you know along those lines look i'm not i'm not immune to this myself i mean well that's why i wanted him to fall in a ball yeah it helps when knowing too much is sometimes a problem it's all there well look hey i'm in it right now bro my calories are really low i'm trying to eat less because you know whatever and i my strength training is down to three days a week i'm strong as hell right now yeah and i'm like even myself i'm like oh yeah of course well it's easy when you've been in it for as long as he has 15 years and i can do more and the temptation physically the temptation still bro yeah i'm lifting i'm like man i'm pretty strong for low calories i'm gonna throw in another day what am i doing yeah like that's gonna send me back look if you like the show come find us on instagram it's mind pump media 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 the rgb super bundle includes maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by sal adam and justin to systematically transform the way your body looks feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos the rgb super bundle is like having sal adam and justin as your own personal trainers but at a fraction of the price the rgb super bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable 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