2989:The 6 Best Squat Variations for Crazy Gains

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Let's see if we get a little debate here. I just wrote them down. I'm curious where you went. I think it's good to start, though, with just, you know, a barbell squat is just such a great exercise. It's got such tremendous carryover to physical performance. As a muscle builder, it's one of the best. It's the king of exercises. To improve overall strength of the whole body, it's a great exercise. It's a fundamental human movement. So being able to squat properly with good strength tends to protect the knees and the hips. It's good for low back stiffness. It's just a great exercise. But it's not the only exercise you want to do. There's lots of exercises you should do. You don't want to just stick to one. And so, you know, these are squat variations. You know, these are all considered squats themselves in one way, shape, or another that are great things to add to your repertoire. I would make the argument that at all times, one of these should be in the routine. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I don't know if I've ever trained for any extended period of time, and one of these are not. They're just in there, and this also, I think, highlights, because we talk a lot about machines versus free weights, and in the short studies, they'll show things like a hack squat is just as good as this, or a bar leg press is just as good as this, and it's just like, we always talk about the learning curve of just a regular squat and how far you can extend that out. Like how much, if you were to go a year, two years, how much more the squat would be. Then if you were to add the variations of that free weight movement like you are about to today. That extends that even farther when you think about that, like just the value of free weight exercises and the variations of the squat, but still staying in the squat family. Totally, totally. And it just helps prevent things like imbalances, helps prevent aches and pains that occur sometimes when you get really, really strong at a barbell squat, just because you tend to miss certain aspects of movement. And then for muscular development, each one of these variations will focus a little bit more on different parts of the lower body, and so they're just great things to add. Yeah, and it's good to also change it up too if you've been just barbell squatting the whole time and, you know, to split your stance and really address the instability that may be, you know, in the hips or, you know, to strengthen all these movement patterns further. I mean, the squat is such a fundamental part of everybody's everyday life. Yep. So, you know, let's strengthen that. Totally. So let's start with the first one, which is a front squat, which, you know, front squats, I would have to say is probably one of the best. Yet most underrated exercise. I rarely ever see anybody doing front squats. And I know why. Front squats are hard. They're really, really hard, but I tell you what, man. Hard stuff's where it's at. It is close to a back squat in terms of strength. Well, I'll get your back, because we've talked about this a lot on the podcast. I would call it the incline chest press of squat. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's for the same— It's like flat versus incline. That's right. Exactly. It's right there. It's right there, and you could arch. I would argue that there's so much gold there because it's neglected so much. Just like I think the incline bench is, right? If you bench press, nobody says, oh, I never flat bench press. Everybody flat presses. And if you squat, nobody ever says, I don't ever do back squats. Right. But a lot of people go, it's been a while since I front squat. It's been a while since I— And it's because it is a lot harder, but like the incline. So I went on a kick. The reason why I brought this up was because I remember, like, really challenging my own thought around this, too, because I neglected— I neglected front squats for a long time. And that became a goal of, can I catch my front squat up to my barbell back squat? I've never hit a PR that is the same as my barbell back squat, but I was able to work out with 315 on front squats, which is what I was working out with barbell back squats around that same time. And so I got them really, really close, and that was the strongest and the best my legs had ever felt. It's such a good transitionary, like, thing to work on, too, especially if you're doing overhead pressing. If you're doing any kind of Olympic lifts. Like, if you spend some good time strengthening your front squat, you're going to be in a really good position. Yeah, the placement of the bar on the front of the body, it forces you more upright, and it's a totally different feeling when it comes to core stability. It requires a lot of stability. Like a back squat, but it feels very different. What I like about front squats, too, is there's a huge capacity for strength. So some exercises are really, really good at—or lend themselves— well, to going heavy, like a deadlift, a press, like a row. Front squats are up there. Like, you can get—if you practice them— You can load it substantially. You can get really strong at a front squat. And you know what that means, right? Great muscular development. A little bit more focus on the quads than a traditional back squat. Great exercise. If you neglect these, throw these in your routine and get good at them and watch what happens. Well, and I think, too, like, if you think about, like, your everyday occurrences, you're going to load your front. Yeah, you're going to have a lot more situations where you're— you're holding, you know, heavy bags or anything in front of you. And I think that's probably why the direction has been more towards, you know, the posterior chain, because we're trying to balance that out a lot of times. However, the front squat is so applicable, and you feel that strength immediately with just functional movement. Well, I think you can make the argument that it is more functional. I mean, you think about what you—to your point, like, you never really pick something up and throw it on your back. No, it's usually holding it. Yeah, you're always holding it. So you could make the case that— that the front squat is as, if not more functional than the barbell back squat is. Totally. Next, our split stance squat. So this is like a lunge position with the barbell on your back, and you're essentially going down and up, like you're going into a lunge and coming up. And there's different variations of this. But a split stance squat, this is why it's so—this is why it's so functional. First off, the front leg is doing a squat, okay? The back leg is in this back position, is stabilizing, and it creates torsion on the pelvis. And so your body needs to stabilize while you're in the split stance. The strength carryover from split stance squats to things like running, sprinting, walking, hiking are tremendous. In fact, I've heard coaches make the argument that split stance squats are more functional for sports than a traditional back squat, and I can see the rationale. That's Mike Boyle. This is another exercise that you can get really strong in. And I'll tell you what, if you never do these, if you always back squat and you suddenly go to a split stance squat, you'll see such a huge discrepancy in weight. That's how you know this is something I need to do. Yeah, that's a Mike Boyle camp for sure. I mean, I could get behind, too. Not to mention, too, less risk, right? Barbell back squat, front squat can be a little bit higher risk. And so I think part of that argument, too, aside from that, that's a more natural position for an athlete, is also your ability to load it safely and with less risk. And you're isolating the one leg at a time. And I think so many people have such a discrepancy from left to right because they do so much bilateral work, doing this unilateral work, getting strong on both sides. Again, this was one of the biggest, game changers in my training again another thing that i neglected for a very long time i remember still i remember what gym i was at i remember the first time i did it i remember how weak i was and i'm back i was so embarrassed i remember i went into like a private room and did it because i was like i was like holding like 15 pound dumbbells you know and like it's humbling and and i struggled with it you know as a dude who had been lifting for i think already a decade at that point and so but it like it it blasted me and it was so hard and it was frustrating but then to get good at it to where i was holding on to 80 100 pound dumbbells was like oh shit and great gains oh yeah yeah it makes a big difference when you start reinforcing positions that you frequent a lot like for athletes especially you know you're going to be in a split stance you're going to start you know that's how you're going to start running that's you know you're always going to be uh producing force you know not necessarily bilaterally balanced like it's just not you're not going to conveniently always be in that position so to you know it's add load and really you know gain strength and that and be able to recruit a lot of force uh it makes you a better athlete i mean i've almost always whenever i've uh stopped barbell back squatting and then gone to bulgarians for a while and then come back i always notice a difference in my barbell back squat like i just feel so much more stable and in control i feel stronger like so if you've been barbell back squatting and you haven't done this like i replace it for a while and just get get really strong with bulgarians and then go back and see how you feel yeah next up box squats so box squats are one of my favorite variations of the barbell squat i and i love them because it's still a squat yeah it's actually very similar it's almost identical to a traditional back squat the only difference is you don't have to do the change of direction at the bottom okay so why is that important well there's a couple reasons one the change in the direction when you're changing directions with the weight on your back for a split second that weight is a lot heavier and this is where injuries tend to happen so this is the way this is how you take a traditional squat and make it very very safe this is this makes it appropriate for almost anybody in fact when i got people to barbell squat we always started with box squats it's also a great way to get really strong at back squats so box squats are a this is like a staple for powerlifters they've incorporated these for decades to get their their traditional squat through the roof because of the pause when you sit on the box or you sit on the bench and you have to pause you lose some of that elastic ability that you get from changing directions it actually feels very difficult so is louis simmons responsible for popularizing it i believe so yeah west side really popularized box because before that i don't because you don't really see that like when you look at someone like your old um you know you're more in an old time lifting and arnold and even before they did not do them they did not do them that that didn't get popular until west side soviet technique stopping momentum was a soviet technique oh yeah to to maintain that strength and longevity you know because squatting is such a good exercise to you know keep in your routine but i think the extreme of that when i was flying with the thunderbird so that change of direction the force that can produce is insane like and that's where you'd get like the the crazy g forces was that immediate turn in direction so yeah you know to kind of taper that down is huge well and there's something to be said about you doing that right because you have the box squat it's it's elevated up higher so you're not the range of motion isn't as deep you you you you take out that change of direction and how much that that experience so a lot of times you can load it with a lot more than what you could with a traditional deep squat and there's and we've talked about this before like i remember lifting with the my power lifting buddies when i was first getting into lifting and them and like them putting like 315 on my back when i couldn't even do 225 i'm like what are we doing and they're like you gotta feel the weight and i remember what a difference that made of being able to put a weight that was really heavy that i probably couldn't do a traditional squat or i know i couldn't do a traditional squat with on it so there's a lot of value in that too is like you just getting your rest of your body getting acclimated to being able to do this heavier load then when you go back to a regular barbell back squat like now and you feel more comfortable with a heavier weight these days box squats is most mostly what i do uh with my squatting and uh it translates over traditional uh squat so well again that's why power lifters do it yep uh next up this is a sissy squat so this is an exercise uh that bodybuilders did quite a bit uh in the 70s 60s 70s 80s and then it fell out of favor as people did more leg extensions but this is a great exercise for a couple reasons one it's very quad focused it'll strengthen your knees like crazy it does require a certain amount of strength though so not everybody could do these but if you're strong enough to do them it does help bulletproof your knees you're also up on your toes and oftentimes we do leg exercises our feet are flat this allows us to drive through with the balls of our feet this is a quad blasting exercise it loads the stretch really really well direct shot there and it man this will make your quads respond this is a single joint isolation exercise it almost performs like a compound lift uh for the quads would you not call it a compound still because you you have to engage the glutes and activate them in that movement in order to technically i'd say it's a single joint right because i guess they're isometrically yeah yeah because they're not they're not moving but they're they're being contracted they're working like that's part of what if you see someone do these improperly they let the hips sink down when they do it i'm obsessed with these right now um i think i sent you a video i don't think you've done it yet you need to do it and that is using the weight belt with a weight belt with a chain attached to it and anchored across on on the squat rack with it so what and i'd like it for two big reasons yeah so i you understand what i'm describing right so it's it's anchored over it not that far i don't need that much room as justin i only need a few feet and then i do it and then i can i can lean all the way back so i can create even more leverage then i also have the chain to assist me if i need it so it's like i can really challenge it to with to failure and or to fatigue but then also be able to kind of pull on the chain to kind of assist me back up so i can which what was always tough for me with sissy squats is i would do them body weight then i get good at them and then doing them loaded was really uncomfortable and it was hard it was hard where this i can i can i can add the extra leverage to make it more difficult and then if i need help i can use the chain so i used to do these loaded and you would do is you would hold like a 25 pound plate close to your chest but with a heavier weight it's really hard to hold on to so one thing that i did is i put on a weight belt which gave create a little shelf and i'd put the 45 pound plate on the weight belt in front of me and then i do my so i think you're gonna love this even more than like that because then you're gonna you're gonna make almost like a table even more when you when you do that it's just look i can't think of too many exercises that load the quads in a full stretch like a leg extension machine doesn't do this no it doesn't uh i mean i guess you could sit at the bottom of squat and try and create this but a sissy squat for sure when you lean back you're gonna get a stretch on the quad i also like the isometric pump i get in my calves yeah i get up i get up i get a nice pump in my calves while i do it so i feel good it makes my ankles and my hips all feel good dude because that that full range of motion it's a i'm definitely you know who really popularized these was tom platts uh probably arguably the world's best leg development of all time in bodybuilding and he was obviously a crazy squatter too yeah but he was a big sissy squat guy too uh next up bottom position squat so this is i learned this from a book called dinosaur training dinosaur training was just like it's like a book on just classic strength training where they borrowed strength training techniques uh that had existed for a long time i also borrowed off of soviet era studies and stuff and there was i remember reading this in this book and trying it myself and i could not believe how much it contributed to my my back squat i think i added like 25 pounds to my back squat by practicing this and this is what it looks like okay you set the barbell you load the barbell at the bottom position so i would use a squat rack i'd set it to where i'm at the bottom then i'd get underneath it get real tight and just lift from that bottom position and it feels awkward and weird because it's very different when you lower a weight when you come up versus when you start from a dead position but boy did it make me tight yes at the bottom of the squat it's training you to you know maximize your recruitment uh you know where it's the most difficult uh portion of the lift and so yeah to you know isometrically you know summon that and now and then come up come up is a totally different approach of all the ones that you listed this is the one that i had the least experience doing uh i can only count a handful of times that i ever did that and i've done a lot of it ever i messed with this and did this and it was i just was terrible at it it was terrible at it it wasn't i couldn't figure it out it didn't never felt right uh i don't know if i was starting too low of a position if i just couldn't get in like it's hard to get as low as you normally would with a squat because you lower it with the weight and come up when you're doing bottom position you have to set it a little higher to get used to it yeah get underneath it without lowering it you're not stable and maybe that's what it was was like i probably should have started it at like higher positions and learned to do that and then worked my way down than probably trying to go where i thought my squat range was um but never was really good all the rest of them that you list like i've definitely gone through kicks of getting really good at all the other ones and seeing the carry over it this is one that i've actually truly haven't tested to be this wouldn't have made my list for that reason because of that oh it's great it's so great i mean i went through a whole period of doing this i worked my way up to like 330 where i would start at the bottom but in 225 when i first did it felt really unstable once i got up to three plates and i get underneath and i'm tight and i can summon it from there doing a traditional barbell squat was like the bottom because i could sit in the bottom position it was wild what it did for that totally next up uh messing with your stance nobody does this with barbell squats i love doing barbell squats everybody has their stance and that's fine there's nothing wrong with that but go lighter on the weight and try a narrow stance try a really wide stance it's definitely go lighter with the weight though when you're playing with your stance because your strength is quite specific to the stance that you always train but you would be surprised at what this does for leg development messing with the step this by bodybuilders just do This is the seventies all the time. They didn't have access to all the machines that we have today. they modified their leg exercises was like barbell squats with a narrow stance with a wide stance you know feet pointed straight feet pointed out and uh they would talk about how it felt in different parts of the world you'll feel that resistance in new places for sure just the whole recruitment process just slightly different and you know you're going to activate muscles uh that probably you know they're going to add a little more emphasis it also it also challenges your mobility which is what this is how i got on this kick so uh after my mobility kick and then started to go back to really building a lot of strength um i got really into this in fact i thought i wanted to see how close i got to a place where i could literally squat with a stance where my my heels were less than five inches from each other super narrow and all the way down all the way down after grass and i think i was working out i think there's a video of me if you go far enough back on my instagram with like 275 on my back doing those narrow stance deep squats like that and again it was mobility it felt different it didn't feel like a traditional squat it feels different uh to your point just justin was making and it also was challenging uh my ankle mobility my hip mobility i just i liked that and i used rarely see that you rarely see anybody really mess with their squat stance they tend to find what's comfortable with them and they just stick to that and i think there's a lot of value in challenging that you just gotta like you said you gotta start like i obviously had to start i didn't go from the same thing i was no you'll hurt yourself yeah and i think there's a lot of coaches that like really want to emphasize just one way to do it you know like this is the mechanics this is the mechanics this is the And this is, you know, the positioning you need to apply every single time. And, like, there's all kinds of value with, like, changing that up. You just have to, like, be careful, yeah, with the amount of load and, like, the speed at which you apply that. One of the honorable mentions I would have brought in was the Zurcher. Yes. You know, it's difficult because it's very, like, unrelatable for a lot of people because it's difficult. It hurts, you know, the positioning there and the crook of the elbow. But, man, the load for that is amazing, and it really involves the core a lot more. So it's funny that you went that direction because I thought an honorable mention. I was thinking of something that would be easier for people because his title is Six Best Variations for Crazy Gains, right? And so the way my brain went, it's like, what are some things that I did to, like, or I don't want to say crutch, but to help this until I got really good at, like, maybe, like, my hip mobility, my ankle mobility. Heels elevated. Yeah. Squatting. A lot of people, in fact, most people that I've trained, one of the biggest limiting factors to getting good deep squats was ankle mobility. It's their ankles. Yeah. And so even though, as a coach, I want to work on those things, right, and I want to improve their ankle mobility, and I don't want them to always have to wear squat shoes or always have to lift their heels in order to do a squat, but if you want to add some gains to your legs and you have a limited range of motion in your squat and you do heels elevated, you'll be able to get weight. Still, to this day, even though I've got a deep, good squat, I love to throw my squat shoes on because it's… 20 more pounds on the bar. Oh, I can. I can add another 25 pounds to the bar easily because it just gives me that extra play and room versus me having to really work down in that position. Totally. And so I think that is something that if you haven't actually allowed yourself to do heels elevated, you can get some gains from that. All right. I got a study to bring up for you guys for digestion. This was a recent study. This was a recent study that they published in 2026, and it's a randomized placebo-controlled trial, and it's evaluating probiotics for bloating, gas, and abdominal discomfort. And I like this because it was a big, well-done study. Okay? So it was a big, well-done study. And bloating, gas, and abdominal discomfort or gut health kind of issues, super common. It's very common. It's one of the most common things that people will complain about. Whenever you talk to them about their nutrition, especially if you ask this question. I remember with my clients, anytime I asked them, do you ever experience bloat or gas or like discomfort? Like it was almost always a yes. It was such a common thing. So they did this big study, and they found that probiotic supplementation had significant improvements in 72% of the people in the study. So the vast majority. Yeah, that's high. And this, again, it was placebo-controlled, meaning some of them got a fake capsule, and some of them got a real capsule. And now, why is this important? Gut discomfort, gut health issues, placebo effect is actually very powerful for psychological issues, and gut is the other one that's got a big one. Like if I think I'm stressed out or I think something's working, our gut responds quite reactively to how we think. They call the gut the second brain because of all the serotonin receptors and stuff. You know, we know this, right? We all experience this. Like you feel butterflies when you fall in love, that kind of stuff. So the fact that they controlled it with the placebo is really good because we want to see, like, how much better does this actually work than people just thinking that they're taking something. And it was a lot better. So 72% of the people in the study saw significant improvements in bloating, gas, and discomfort from a probiotic. Was that over an extended period of time, or was that like immediate next day, that's how they felt? You know, I should look up the length of this. I'm asking you this because I was waiting for the next time that you brought up seed. And I wanted to talk to you about it because I told you that this is probably the most consistent I've been with it. And one of the things I noticed was I had like a period of time there where it almost felt like it made my stomach a little bubblier. And I don't want to say gassy because I didn't have gas from it, but I could hear my stomach kind of gurgling and it felt a little unsettled at first. And then it transitioned. And then it transitioned from there. And I want to say that lasted like three to five days of me getting back to like doing it consistently. So this study was done for six weeks. And yeah, I'm glad you said that. Typically, if you take a probiotic, now constipation tends to react pretty quickly. So if constipation is your issue and a probiotic will help you, let's say you take seed. So seed recommends you take it at night. Probably the next day, you should notice better bowel movement. But stuff like what you're saying, bloating, gas, there's an adjustment period. Sometimes. Sometimes it takes about a few days. Yeah. And that's typically what people will experience. Okay. Because that's why I was asking that because if they do a study like that, it sounds like, oh, they took it. And then these people report it back right away. And it's like, I wouldn't want to deter somebody who is that try it and go like, oh, this feels good. No, go through the whole bottle. Yeah. I did notice that at the beginning. And I wish I remember exactly how many days it was. I want to say it was close to a week of doing it before I like, okay. And then I've noticed that if I fall off and then go back, I always have that kind of day or two. And then it feels like it reacclimates. And so I don't know exactly what's going on. I just know what I feel and I notice. But I can see how somebody might interpret that of, oh, this doesn't feel good or this isn't right. But then it kind of normalizes and then it does. Yeah. There's an adjustment period. So, you know, here's the thing about seed that's, well, let's talk about the probiotic space in general. A lot of it's not regulated. And so what you might get is dead bacteria or bacteria that doesn't get where you want it to go because it just goes in your stomach. Your stomach destroys. It so quality probiotic makes a big difference. And what seed does is they have this patent pending capsule and they have this big machine that simulates the digestive system. And they have to the way they test these capsules as they wait to see when it goes through the digestive system and is able to release the bacteria. And is the bacteria still alive when it gets released? And the answer is yes. So that's why they're one of the best. It's like you take it. It's going to give you the live bacteria and it's going to. It's going to give it or deliver it to where it needs to go. So it actually will end up kind of out competing and repopulating. Totally good. And I imagine that's probably what I'm feeling is the repopulating. 100%. Okay. So that's, that's where I figured that it's going to take an adjustment period for probably for anybody who gets started. I'm sure. And you brought up the constipation stuff. That's never been my thing. I'm fast motility. So it's like I'm the opposite. So I, I, I have a different experience probably than somebody who has maybe constipation and then, and gets on it. Yeah. Good point. I got to tell you guys about what happened this morning. I came in and I told you guys there was a. Oh, it was just about the homeless guy? This morning. Dude. So, you know, my, all right. So I'll start by saying this. Like my wife and I, you know, it was a two years ago when I had the experience with the homeless guy that, you know, brought me to my faith. And ever since then, I'm just much more aware, I think, of people, especially people on the street. You know, we work in downtown San Jose. We're in a kind of a big metropolitan area. And you see people often, oftentimes you'll see at least a couple. It's homeless. People often. And I just, you know, I'm going to be very honest. Back in the day, it was more of a nuisance. And it was more of a like, you know, you know, kind of stay away or whatever. I'm just being very honest. And why can't the city do something about this was my attitude. My attitude changed after that experience. And so when I see somebody now, I just feel differently. And I typically, my wife and I, what we try to do is try to help out, you know, financially. We'll give them some money and then maybe ask to pray for them. And, you know, put our hand. We like to touch them, put our hand on their shoulder. Because I had somebody tell me once that they probably don't get any physical contact. Like lepers, like modern lepers. Like nobody ever puts their hand on them because you see someone that looks dirty or whatever. And so, you know, I always try to put my hand on them and just let them know that, you know, they're not, that it's okay type of deal. So anyway, we do this often. So this morning, I had a chance to go to the local Starbucks with my wife and my kids. And we're sitting in there and there was a dude. in the Starbucks that looked homeless for sure. So like super disturbing. shoveled, uh, had a hoodie on, you know, messed up shoes, a bag. And he was like writing in a notebook type of deal. And so my wife looks at me and she's, you know, hands me some money and she goes, Hey, can you go help him out? Cause I feel a little bit like intimidated by him. You know, she's a woman, so she's always a little careful. So I kind of looked at the guy and I'm like, yeah, something's not right, but I'll wait a little bit and then I'll go over there and, and, you know, see if he needs some help. So we waited. So then I walked over him and I kind of interrupted him and I said, Hey man, can, uh, do you need some help? And he looks at me kind of funny. He's like, sure. So I gave him a little money and, um, he says, Hey, as you can, uh, you know, people ask me if they can help me all the time, but nobody ever listens to me. So I said, Oh, I'll sit down. I got a little bit of time. So I sit down and he's like kind of rambling about weird stuff, uh, like science and art and conspiracy theories. And I can't really follow where he's going. He's obviously not all there, but I'm trying to like kind of engage and listen and, you know, he's telling me where he came from. So I got that out of him and he told me he used to be an artist. And then he's telling me like something spiritual about certain numbers. So then he asked me if I was spiritual and said, yeah, I'm a Christian. And that kind of irked him a little bit, which I noticed. I was like, okay, all right, that's interesting, but I'm not gonna say much else or whatever. So then I'm like, you know, I got to go to work, you know, is it okay if I pray with you? And he gave me this kind of look, uh, and he's like, you know, and he kind of went off a little bit. So I said, okay, it's probably not safe to, it didn't sound like he wanted me to use. It's not a big deal. So when I stood up, uh, to leave and, uh, and again, he told me, you know, people tap on my shoulder and ask him if I need help a lot, but nobody ever asked me to listen. He said that a few times. Right. So after I stood up and I said, Hey man, and I go to give him a fist bump and he like, didn't raise his hand to give me a fist bump back. So I kind of put my hand on his shoulder. It's like, I'll see you later. And he goes, don't touch me. I'm like, Hey man, no big deal. He's like, I'll stab you. And he smiles at me like this. Crazy smile, bro. He's looking at me like this crazy smile. I'll stab you. Like, Hey man, no big deal, bro. My bad. I didn't mean to, you know, I didn't mean to. Yeah, whatever. So I kind of walked back to my wife. I'm like, get the kids. We're going, we're going to head out of here real quick, dude. It was weird, bro. He gave me this really scary look, dude, like a smile. And he's like, I'll stab you. And I'm like, looking at him, I'm like, you've got a big hoodie on. Like he could have something. Yeah, dude. Some mental darkness. Was not good, dude. Was not good. And that's just the risk. That's just the risk that you, you play when you do that. I mean, I felt like you, you felt it and you still went, you know? So that's the thing. When I, after I get the kids in the car and I get Jessica in the car, I feel like there's a lesson there. She said to me, and I told her, I said, I knew there was something wrong. And she's like, well, so did I. That's why I asked you to do it. And I said, you know, good job. No, no, that's good. Her discernment. Better you than me. Her discernment was good. Definitely good. It was you. Yes. Her discernment was right because she felt something and she said, you should go help the guy. Thank God. Because had she gone, you know, who knows, you know, type of deal. But, you know, that's just the risk. It is a risk. Yeah. You know, a lot of mental illness. It sucks when you're leading with the helping, you know, foot and, but it's, yeah. He's obviously not all there. Not there. Yeah. And obviously I made him feel like threatened or something when I did that. So I don't know. But the smile, dude, with the outside. That's creepy. Bro, I'm like, let's go. We're leaving. That would have tripped me off. Yeah. And I'm keeping my eyes on him the whole time. Like, what's going to happen right now? Oh my gosh. Now, someone who's threatening to stab someone. Did you report him? So we leave and then I called the Starbucks and then they said, yeah, no, he just left. And then they called the police just to kind of survey. Yeah. To see what's going on. Yeah. I feel like someone smiles. They're going to stab someone. That's probably someone we want to check real quick. Yeah, dude. Bro. So that's the second scary experience I had with a homeless person. Was one of you with me outside? Yeah. When that woman lost her crap with me? Yeah. Was that you that was with me? That was me. Dude. I didn't see that. Yeah, bro. There's a woman. She was going off. And I'm like, hey, can I help you? And she starts screaming at me. Yeah. And then telling me she's got demons and all kinds of weird stuff. Yeah, dude. I've had a few encounters like that. Yeah, I've been kind of up and down with it a lot because it's very much a part of my everyday life in Santa Cruz. It's there a lot. There was one time we were at like a coffee shop. I probably told this a long time ago, but, you know, this guy came in and he was all angry because he didn't get like, a free drink or something. And then they were kind of ignoring him. And so he went right back outside. I was just sitting there drinking, you know, kind of looking out the window, like with my friends talking. And he comes back and like reaches in the back of his pants and then just throws like shit all over the window and smears it right into your drink in my coffee. It's like smeared like right in front of me. I did not know it. I'd rather be stabbed. I was like, wow, I didn't know that was going to happen today. Bro. So you just never know. Why is that a thing, dude? I don't know. I think it was just, you know, he was getting back at somebody he was angry with inside. That's next level crazy. I feel like stabbing is less crazy. Yeah, dude. Yeah. I'd rather you threaten to stab me than pull out a handful of poop. And, you know, me with like songs and stuff, like the immediate song was like Reading Rainbow. I was just thinking that immediately. Dude, hey, speaking of songs, I sent this to Justin. I didn't send it to you guys. I mean, I think this is more. I know he follows this guy. That's why I sent it over to Justin. But I think you might have seen him before. Have you ever seen that guy? He's a drummer. Yeah, yeah. You showed me him. He's like badass. Yeah, crazy good. Yeah, just crazy, crazy good. So he sends over or he does this video just recently and I sent it over to Justin and it's talking about AI and stuff. What what has happened? You pull it up, Justin. Yeah, I'll play it for him so I know so he can hear exactly what's going on. Oh, you want the whole. Yeah, yeah. Play it. Play it in the mic. Play it in the mic so we can hear it. Okay. You've seen my videos. I'm sure you know this guy. Let's have another look at this. Yeah, his name is Colby. He's a father, a drummer, a terrific guy. But what about this woman? She's reacted to a lot of my videos, too, with hundreds of thousands of views. Unfortunately, she has a problem. She doesn't have friends. She doesn't have a job. She doesn't have parents because that woman is an AI. And I think it's worth making a video because to me, this is the second stage of the AI doomsday. On the first stage, we witnessed the obvious. Companies like Suno stole every single song that exists in order to train software that could create any song that you can think of. And also corporations like this one that, by the way, stole all of my videos in order to train their money. And the second stage, I didn't see it coming. Not only these companies are stealing work from people like me that allows anyone with a key to make money, but they also steal money from people like me who don't have money. On the first wave you have the obvious problems. Videos like this. Or like that. She has 12 million followers and those videos have millions of fucking views. But the second stage I didn't see it coming. Not only these companies are stealing work from people like me that allows anyone with a keyboard to create an artist performing whatever they want, but also now they use the companies that stole my work in order to create a fake avatar that's going to be reacting to my work so that they can steal it twice hey total mindfuck i didn't see that one coming first stage ai performers second stage ai reactions and we are headed to the third ai reactions to ai performers and then that pretty much sums it up he does sum it up he does go on though to talk about like how this is and i thought this was interesting is and he talks about how i think is it spotify spotify or now is now offering like a uh i think i don't know if it's a lower price point or another service where you can just listen to nothing but ai music yeah yeah and so they're totally pushing cultivate it yourself and pushing and it's getting so good i told you it was so crazy i had just sent that to justin yesterday i'm driving to work this morning and saw this great live performance of this country singer and it was like a really good song and like clips to the audience. It looks like it's his mother who's crying and it's a young man song to like his mother or what not. It was super heartfelt, good, good, good. And I was like, oh, right away, like whenever I see like an artist like that, I'm like, oh, let me look him up. So I look him up, open up his Spotify, start listening to his stuff. And then it registered to me because I've seen this before it's happened to me once before where i hear something i really like i go listen to start to listen the artist and i notice that it it doesn't have a lot of history and i'm like oh don't tell me and i and i have this and it's it's done so well that i thought it was a real person the video of him it was a video of him live on stage singing and then an audience and then i go download his thing and then i and then i'm like wait a second let me and i sure as shit it's an ai generated artist that they create completely. Yeah, we're in phase three. They are trying to promote that. It's funny, though. I didn't even realize the reaction videos were happening. Neither did I. The AI version of that, because it's crazy, because they will. It'll be like an AI artist, and then it'll be an AI reaction. It'll be hundreds of AI reactions reacting to the one AI to boost it, because then now you have thousands, because that's how the algorithm works. So, like, when you see currently or what has happened in the past, you have an artist who is, like, really, really good. You remember the rise of Tom McDonald. Yeah. So when Tom McDonald was first coming up, you know, he was kind of a grassroots guy, and a lot of what – got a lot of reaction videos a lot of other musicians were like promoting him being like oh listen to his stuff and like talking about his lyrics and everything there was like there was thousands of small creators that were then talking about him which is a lot of how he got elevated where now imagine when it's all ai produced and then they can build as many ai bots that are going to go do that they can artificially prop somebody up to be the top you could prop yourself up yeah you could create ai reactions to your own videos that's exactly right flood the i mean it's it's crazy it's just getting weird i remember when it was not that long five years ago uh people speculated the last thing that ai would do would be art yeah and it's actually the first thing that they're starting that's why that's why i think it's an interesting conversation is because there was this belief that the the art side would not get touched and you know i still believe that and this is why i think the the in-person thing is going to is going to have this massive that's going to will yeah you're going to have this massive comeback of because after a while because you can't fake that it's just like covid it's like when we're all separated and isolated from each other we realize how important it is for us to be around people you know and it's like that experience is so different than anything else you can artificially replicate and people feel it it's not just like something you can uh you know easily articulate it's it's it's definitely like a connection you don't get yeah i'm not going to be worried until uh they make robots that are indistinguishable from humans that's when it's going to be really yeah really strange because uh they're going to be the great friends they're going to uh you know validate everything you say they're going to be whatever you want uh people it's going to be simulated uh relationships yeah it's mocking ourself it's going to be that's when i think it's going to get really strange well the artist thing is interesting because like i've i've been meaning to kind of mess because i've heard some of my friends who's music musicians who've you know kind of dabbled with a little bit of the ai creation stuff and music and it's like really good and so what they've said is like they just have like poured like every um album they can uh around the world like they poured it all in there so they could basically come up with you know whatever genre you want but uh the the spotify thing is like they're gonna they're gonna set it up so you're prompting these and curating these songs just with the prompts and then you're you're basically going to try to get following from your prompting ability so taking the artist out of it and then be your prompting is now something that they're elevating and gifting yeah well that's weird it is it is weird and there will be probably an argument that someone will make that there's artistry in that and the person who's doing it right right but they're used they're piggybacking off of all these these original creators who did all this stuff and so i can't help when this i mean when you say that it's not that far different from how um you know like uh producers dj djs and stuff yeah people made fun of djs for a long time yeah yeah because what do they do they take they take they sample all these original mixes and they speed the beat up or they slow it down and they blend it with something else and so you know are we a bunch of old fuddy daddies that are just sitting here that are complaining or is it just the natural evolution of like how our preference thing too i mean it's not like i don't know for me like i'm a bit of more of a purist i like seeing people actually like master an instrument and you know have a skill uh that they've worked on you know and it's hard and it's a struggle to produce something like that uh for me the prompting that's there's no skill there that's i i would be less inclined to be like excited about it but some people don't care no i think it's no different than uh i mean it'd be neat for doug to look this up and see what percentage of people still have a record player in their house right there is a percentage of people that swear by listening on vinyl yeah i'm that guy right and so uh you know even though sound is involved so much in this the sound quality and the speakers and the digital stuff that we can do yep uh there is definitely a percentage of people that are like no you listen to this on vinyl and doug says 24 that's a lot wow 15 of overall music i feel like it's increased yeah because i i know a lot of artists have gone back to so it'll be producing down right there there'll be a way by their records again yeah i can't help when this conversation comes up i can't help get spiritual about it because uh you know it's funny i was talking to a friend about this so you knew you know um one of the key um i guess components of the of the bible is that god made us in his image to reflect some of him and that means that we also like to create and so now we're creating ai but we're trying to create it in our image and we're broken as hell so this is why i think it's gonna go sideways yeah because we're trying to create something based off of what we think humans are like and what we should be and whatever and we don't know and we don't know what the hell and we don't agree and we don't agree we're all divided it's like we're just gonna have this yeah yeah dude fractionalized version of us let's see what happens anyway dude did you guys know that mike tyson's son is boxing no he's not really look up mike tyson is he a beast how many kids does yeah he's 16 or 17 how many kids does he have no idea i don't know no idea but i saw a clip you guys watch his documentary it's good right oh here he is right here look at his son uh right here bro look he looks just like i've always loved tyson bro so he's young and and i saw some videos of him looks like him right there to the right hey and he you know there's some similarities dude like he does the peekaboo style okay uh he's got some crazy speed he looks like and he looks like him in the face right definitely but yeah you should watch some videos of him uh i can't believe in the documentary they didn't talk about it i know they didn't no yeah bro that's why i didn't and i think he's like 16 or 17 years old uh i want to yeah i gotta check it out but he's knocking people out and stuff bro that's crazy interesting genetics are a funny thing dude yeah you know and he got tyson's genetics well you never know too if like they're even going to be interested in it you know it's like they have all the genetics for it sometimes they just don't even want any part of it wait he's 29 no that's not the boxing the boxing kid is much younger so anyway pretty it's uh yeah pretty interesting that's cool yeah so yesterday uh i had this funny conversation with a guy who's my mom we it was my son's birthday just turned six and we took him to um uh you know those places that the japanese place that cook the food in front of you what's that is that okay so he my son when we go there all he wants is scrambled eggs for whatever reason so we always ask him to make him four scrambled eggs and my son will throw down four eggs so he's eating four eggs and my mom's looking at me she's like that's a lot of eggs i'm like yeah that's fine she's like did he have some for breakfast i'm like yeah i had two eggs this morning she's like is he gonna be okay eating that many eggs and it just it dawned on me forgot about that generation brainwashing that we got about the fear of eating whole eggs and the cholesterol because i'll tell you something right now which is funny to me there's still weird things like that i didn't say this but this is what i'm thinking my head like you wouldn't have sneezed if my son was eating a whole cake right now i know for his birthday that's the but he's eating four whole eggs and you're looking at me like is he okay yeah he's fine dude yeah it's totally fine isn't that crazy i get that same stuff from family where they're like i they would never say anything but heaven forbid he's eating this big old thing a tri-tip and all this is like isn't that too much meat yeah yeah it's like what that's it reminds me because like i remember like so i was always like i doing double portions of meat even as like a kid like i'm like i was i don't know i just would crave protein and and my parents would get so mad and they'd be like you need to eat all these vegetables you need to eat all this and like like all the carbs and like they'd get mad if i didn't eat and plus two it's more expensive and so it's like you know i'm sure that was a factor to it they're like tired of like supporting but i was like i was on to something you know like i was right you know but whatever i know whole eggs dude it's so good for you that's so good for his brain it's so good for everything yeah it's just funny that she was like scared that he's eating four whole eggs i'm like you know he's again he could have eaten a whole cake god forbid there's cholesterol nobody what year was that this was not i think we were just starting mine when they finally came out and said don't trip yes that way it's so for a long time and american heart association came out i want to say in the first couple years of mind pump yeah when they said it's no longer a nutrient of concern cholesterol dietary cholesterol yes up to that point it was and so that happened everybody was so we were sold that this was going to give you a heart attack yeah so i mean 30 30 years of my life it was it was you know beat into our heads that so i mean that's a long time so it hasn't been that long that they've course corrected 2015 so yeah it wasn't even that long that's right when mind pump started isn't that funny yeah that's crazy but yeah in the 90s we were all everybody's eggs were like you might as well be eating poison yeah you eat the yolk eggs and real butter oh yeah everyone's eating i mean we had we had the we had the what was that was it was it i can't believe it's not butter and country crock the yeah margarine literally plastic well too much salt will kill you right because your blood pressure is going to make you explode dude that was basically the scare we got we used to spread margarine yeah on everything and that is literally so much worse so close to plastic if you saw the chemical they made it from that velveta cheese i can't believe we i never had velveta cheese oh we did no i never put it on like every yeah vegetable thinking that would make me eat more vegetables did i bring up the the oh i did bring up the ice cream thing didn't i have the ice cream sandwiches that they showed no yeah oh i did maybe it was just katrina i said oh it was katrina i didn't tell you guys i think we brought this up a long time ago because she when i was when i brought it to her i'm like i cannot believe this so they were uh it was this was i just saw this on the news and it was a clip from the news just recently about the ice cream sandwich that these kids are getting served at school and stuff like that. And they literally put it under heat and the ice cream doesn't melt. Oh, there's something they add to it. Yes. They literally leave it out all day in the sun and it's still, this ice cream sandwich is, right? Still stable. They'll go, ice cream sandwich that doesn't melt. I'm sure you'll see all kinds of articles. Didn't McDonald's do that? Wasn't there like a- So there was drumsticks and that's what Katrina reminded me. She's like, you brought this up on mine. One of you guys brought up on mine. Oh, it's got gums, thickeners and emulsifiers. Yeah, so I've seen some, I don't know if it's their soft serve, but it got all gelatinous when you'd let it melt. Dude, they put it under a flame, dog, and it wouldn't melt the ice cream. That was, I was like, Jesus, that is like some serious, I mean, to your point again, bringing your mama, I was like, no one would bat an eye if you gave your kid an ice cream sandwich, but heaven forbid he ate four eggs. It's like, it's crazy, right? Yeah, if you lined your house with the Oreo cookie, it would be flame retardant. Yes. You ever see anybody like blow a blowtorch to Oreo cookie? Yes. It's pretty crazy. Did it catch fire? Yes. There's a lot, a lot of these foods that we eat, which to me, I feel like if you take a flame to food and it doesn't change. Doesn't affect it, yeah. What's the worst thing you guys think we ate when we were kids? Wow. It's probably, well, margarine's one of them. Yeah. Easy cheese. Oh, yeah, I love that. What's easy cheese? What is that? It's in a can and you spray it out, everybody. If you've never had easy cheese, it's literally- I lived off that in college, yeah. No, we did too, dude. We'd spray them on those Triscuits and eat those things all day long. We ate that. I ate the Velveeta. I did the Mart. I mean, I did it all. You know what's funny? And I wonder why I have autoimmune shit. Exactly. I was telling my son about this the other day. I don't remember how the topic came up. And I said, you know, when I was a kid, we used to have candy and gum cigarettes. And my six-year-old looked at me like, what? He's like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, it looked like a cigarette. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you blew into it, it would make a puff of smoke because it had sugar in it. And it was just bubble gum. Yeah. And he looks at me and he's like, aren't cigarettes bad for you? He's like, why were they giving that to kids? I'm like, it was the 90s. Yeah. I don't know, dude. I think you can still find those somewhere. You can. Yeah. I was like at a car swap meet. And they had like some of those like old like cigars that were like bubble gum. Dude, at some point, I remember when the ice cream, because we're in San Jose, right? And we have a huge Hispanic population. I remember at some point, so in the 80s, I'm young. I don't remember, it was like late 80s, early 90s. The ice cream man started selling, we just called them Mexican candy. I don't know what they were. But they look like these little packets. And I tried one once. I'm like, oh, I'll try that. I'll get that for 50 cents or whatever. Cheeklets? It's just salt. It's just salty as hell. Oh. I'm like, who's eating this? Oh, I remember those. It's salty. What is it? It's like a lime. It has like a lime. Yeah, it's like lime and salt. Lime salt. It's like lime salt. What kid is eating this right now? Yeah, yeah. I do. I was so shocked. I was like, oh, why? Yeah. Why are we eating this? It was like a lime salt. Yeah, dude. Lime salt candy. Yeah, dude. It was weird. Yeah, no, it's not that. That's not it. I remember. It was little packets. No, yes. Yes, they were little packets. Because I remember trying it one time. You ate those, didn't you? Well, I tried it. Absolutely, I tried it. But just like you, I'm like, well, this is terrible. Yeah, dude. I'll never have that again. No, man. I wonder, I think it's made to be put it on something. I don't know. I think you're supposed to put it on fruit maybe or something. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, dude, I opened it and I was like, let's give this a shot. And I poured it in my mouth. I was like, why? Because you're a wanker. This should not be with the ice cream. No, no. So I want to, yesterday you were commenting on my sweater. Yeah, you looked all cozy. Bro. Yeah, yeah. The seaside line from Viore is amazing. Awesome, man. So comfy. It's so comfortable and so warm. So speaking of that. Because the sweats and then the hoodie. So they actually, I saw Marcello rocking, there's a new color. So they have new colorways. Oh, is that it? They're done? Oh, sweet. Yeah, that's the pull. Oh, yeah. Look at all the colors they have. Last I bought, there was only blue, like the dark brown color, and then the black. So now they have like a light gray, a beige. Oh, man. They got all kinds. Bro, it's the nicest hoodie I've ever owned. It's so soft, dude. It is so nice, dude. By the way, for people listening. It's hoodie weather now, too. For people listening, if you like Viore, Viore is like a, it's a very exclusive brand, right? So they're not cheap, but they last a long time. They're really nice, but they're not cheap. We have the biggest discount you'll find on the internet on our link. If you go through our link, and we know this because Viore tells us that we have the biggest discount. So you can go through our link and get, what is it, 20? Is it 20% off? Yeah, 20%. Yeah, yeah. 20% off your entire purchase. I didn't realize they dropped that many colors. Yeah, dude. I'm definitely going to pick some of those up. That blue one is really nice. That's it right there. The Limon 7 right there. Yeah. That's it. That's the one. The ButcherBox delivers better meat for a better you. So they specialize in grass-fed meat, crate-free pork, wild-caught fish, chicken that is better and more delicious. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. healthier, no antibiotics. Everything is well-raised and well-sourced and the prices are incredible, you guys. You can save money by buying your protein through ButcherBox and you're also eating healthier meat and with animals that are raised in an ethical way. That's their promise to you. Also, if you go to butcherbox.com slash mindpump, they're offering some pretty cool stuff right now. You can choose between New York strips or filet mignons included for free in your box for an entire year, or you can also choose to get chicken breasts added to your box for free for the life of your membership. This is a massive sale. If you like protein, you like to eat healthy protein, and you like the animals to be raised ethically, go to butcherbox.com slash mindpump. And again, it's also if you'd like to save money. All right, here comes the show. Our first caller is Samantha from Canada. Hi, Samantha. Hi, guys. How are you? Good. How are you doing? I'm good. Thanks. Thanks for having me on. You got it. How can we help you? Yeah. So I've been doing your programs for almost a year now. I started with Muscle Mommy and have run that through twice and I absolutely love it. I have to tell you, it works. I saw my numbers go up in every area and just generally really happy with it. The one thing that I struggle with is my body fat tends to be in my lower half and I really. I really want to work on my muscle development in my quads and glutes because my body fat's probably around 20 to 22, but I don't know that I want to go any leaner than this because I lose it in my face and I lose it in my chest area and I really want to make sure. I start to look really too thin here. So I want to keep where my body fat is at, but I want to really work on my development in my glutes and quads. Okay. So the question is what program you wanted to do? Well, let me ask. Yeah. So where do I go from here? Let me ask a little more about the diet and where you're at because it sounds like we want to build more muscle in our legs. I think your body fat percentage, if it's around 20, 22, is plenty lean enough. So I think you're right with that. Have you ran a reverse diet or a bulk? Have you done that recently? Yeah. So I worked with a nutritionist for about two years. I've tracked my macros for, I don't know, probably 15, 20 years. She bumped me up to about 2000 cals and my protein was at about 150. And I was just too fluffy, like felt very inflamed at that, at those cals. So I'm back down now to about 1700. My protein's around 120. So my, my, I'm around 114 pounds. So I keep my protein around my ideal body weight. And I find that my digestion's better with that protein not being excessively high. I do keep my fats pretty high though. Yeah. You're fine on, you're fine on the protein, but we're going to need, like, we're going to have to find a way to get more calories in if we're going to build. It's going to be tough for you to be that lean, that low of calories, and then build, build muscle in our legs. Did you, did you in the nutritionist, did you guys play around with like the different types? Because sometimes when you push the calories like that, at least I know this one, I push calories. There are definitely certain foods that will make me feel inflamed, make my digestion feel terrible. There's other foods that tend to agree with me more. Did you play with different, you know, carbs and proteins and see, you know, what's going on with your body? Did you play with different, you know, carbs and if there was, it was certain things or the other, other thing that helps me too is, uh, have you tried breaking up smaller, more meals frequently instead of larger meals too? Cause that's another thing that will also bother me is if I push a thousand plus calorie meal will really, will really bother me versus breaking it up in two or three meals. Yeah. So, um, just to give you a little bit of context, I've been hypothyroid since my second child in about 2004 and I am medicated, medicated, and I do think that impacts my digestion quite, quite a lot. So I eat gluten-free and have done for about 15 years. So that really helps, but I do still eat a lot of dairy, which is something that I'm reluctant to give up because it forms such a huge part of my protein. But that is something that I could look at doing. Um, if I have to bump the calories to try and get the digestion in check, I did add a fiber supplement, which has helped immensely with inflammation. I can't even stress enough. Like it it's changed. Uh, it actually helped change my body comp a little bit. So I hear what you're saying. I do, I do eat four meals a day and they're roughly about 350 to 400 cows per meal. Uh, so I try and keep that fairly even throughout the day. Um, I hear what you're saying on cows. It's just, it's a struggle to feel that full and bloated. I get it. But somebody as lean as you, as active as you, and that low of calorie is just going to be tough to put on muscle without getting more calories. You just need the material. That's all. I mean, I can tell you're very fit. I mean, you're very fit already, but when a client asked me like that next level question, like, Hey, I re I want to build my legs even more. And it's like, we got to find a way to do that. And I, if I was working with you, we'd be playing with different food combinations until we could get to that place where I can bump your calories up enough to where, and it might be not completely eliminating dairy maybe it's reducing it i also notice that again this is personal for me uh i can handle like i eat i eat cottage cheese it's part of mine i if i do cottage cheese protein and i have cheese it's like it seems to be a lot when i'm pushing if i do one no problem you know at two okay three pushes it for me so maybe even just paying attention to how much of it's coming from dairy and trying to do that and then you said your your fats are pretty good um at 1700 calories that high of protein i'm assuming you're probably eating pretty lean meat are you eating any what i am yeah i do eat quite lean meat the only thing that i eat that's not so lean is chicken thighs we have added those in but our beef our ground turkey it's all pretty lean extra lean how many grams of how many grams of fat are you having a day around 75 70 to 75 all right that's border but that's not bad that's not bad that's not bad yeah you're not going to be able to build unless you uh bump your calories i mean we could change okay so where do you think i need to go i mean the other option which is not what i'd want to do with you is to reduce the activity to reduce the calorie burn i don't think which i don't think that's a smart healthy decision you know like i never want to tell my healthy fit client like hey stop walking so much or stop but because you're doing so good but if we want to build we just we need more material yeah i would say bump your calories and eat foods you can digest well it sounds like motility was an issue which is why the fiber is helping well-cooked vegetables can help that as well like really well-cooked vegetables can help that um and i would play with the dairy but i'd get your calories up to at least 2 000 i mean doing cardio twice a week you're lifting weight three days a week you do 8 000 steps a day you're very fit you're on thyroid medication it'll be hard to build without getting uh without adding at least a few hundred calories as far as program is concerned you know muscle mommy is great uh i think because you've done that twice i think symmetry would be the program for you and then go back to muscle mommy okay in symmetry is a lot of unilateral work it's it ends with bilateral work but most of the program is unilateral work you'll build muscle in areas uh to balance out right to left and you'll notice imbalances in your body then when you go back to muscle mommy you'll feel great and so i think that would be the program to go to you know the other option to uh you know that we can play with this would be i mean god you'd be a good candidate for the our new maps custom that we just did too that i would customize like muscle mommy muscle mommy is uh is is focused lower body but you have such a great upper body muscular wise and since that's already that's like you're not trying to build you want more we could we could take some away from your upper body training and increase a little bit of volume in your legs but we still are going to need the calories to make sure we build the muscle so maybe it's like a balance of increasing volume a tiny bit on the legs while also just maybe bumping the calories a little bit and maybe there's a happy medium there where we can get we can build more abs and glutes too at the same time like you want to build overall leg development so yeah yeah muscle mommy really is like the best program for you and i know you've run that twice but a new stimulus would help so yeah symmetry would be good or we can have we can do custom which is what you do is you go in and you fill out a questionnaire and then you meet with one of our trainers who customize a work so he'll he or she will develop a three-month customized workout for you and so you talk with them takes about a week you get on the phone they they put it together for you and they hand it over to you and then you follow a customized program if you want to do that it's going to take about a week but you're probably your best option that might be the best option if you want to do that that sounds exciting yeah all right let's do that idea let's set up a maps custom yeah and do you think that um so i love the the full body the three days is perfect for me i the one the best thing i've learned from you guys is that less is more and i've uh at the three days even dropping down to two days when i have a really stressful week at work i actually find so do you think three days is enough to build 100 100 100 it's funny and what you're feeling and that's you know again more for the amount of calories and activity you are you're teetering on that we have to be very careful on how much we push volume and intensity because it is just counterproductive it's like we're already kind of on the lower calories calorie side we're trying to build you push intensity all it takes is a couple bad nights of sleep stress at work or something like that and three day a week three days a week will be a lot and two days is more so the fact that you notice that um you know i would i would be challenging you as a client to like hey really pay attention to your week and like it's okay to take a day off and only train twice you you'll you can still build two days a week you don't need three days is not like it it's a dance of your body because remember exercise is stress yeah recovery more and so if if you're if you are you've got a stressful week at work and or you had rough sleep and then you're also pushing the body that hard and we're low calorie it's just too much stress body's not going to build from that it'll build from that it'll build from that it'll build from that it'll build better if you took a day or two off of training only did one day of training then three days of pushing the body it's really hard for people to it sounds counterintuitive because you're like i'm training less and i i'm going to build more how's that going to work well yeah it's because you're saving some of that stress for recovery you know your body is stressed from work it's stressed from training it's stressed from all these things pushing in another day of lifting is not going to build more muscle and you'll have more room with higher calories by the way you won't feel like you're yeah your body won't get so overcome because your calories are kind of borderline low and are you guys fussy on whether i add those calories to fats or carbs no no actually whatever whatever is easy easier to digest for you you're already hitting your protein which is like number one priority right we're hitting a protein you're hitting essential fats you're hitting essential fats and so then it just becomes what makes you feel the best feels better like yeah yeah so you can even go fattier like 300 calories is really easy to add if you just got fattier cuts of meat like you don't even have to change much you know it could be ground beef instead of you know chicken thighs or something i would even do things like this uh because you because you notice that you're how much better you felt with the fiber supplement i mean sal is the first person ever got me to do this i'd never did this until i met him a huge bowl of you know really well cooked broccoli or spinach and use olive oil in there 300 calories right yeah and olive oil yeah and you said it tastes pretty good it's great fiber it's you know i'm saying so i would even play with some ways like that to get your calories because then you're kind of killing two birds with one stone three tablespoons of oil will give you 300 calories yeah okay great yeah i can do that i think it's when i uh overdo my protein or i overdo my protein and then i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm carbs at a particular meal that it just doesn't agree with me yeah i feel you yep i feel you getting old guys you're doing all right yeah you're you're winning samantha you're winning we'll send you maps custom and so then fill out the questionnaire and then in a week you'll get on the phone with one of our coaches and they'll send you a customized workout program yeah i love that thanks guys i tell everybody about you i love the work you've just helped me so much we appreciate the support thank you okay thank you take care i didn't even realize until after she made that comment then i read further down she was 50 yeah she looks really good yeah she looks at least 10 years young i didn't even catch that yeah i know i just i assumed she was uh much younger than that yeah so you know the thing uh you know you hit the nail on the head if you're eating like okay you can definitely eat too much and it affects digestion uh but if you're eating low calories and you bump it a little bit and it's digestive it's what you're eating yeah and you got to look at what you're eating and she mentioned it she the fiber made a big difference will it help improve her motel yeah got everything moving 100 and she also mentioned the dairy thing i noticed this myself it's like i can have dairy i mean you watched me crush but you push it too much but if i push it too much then the same with eggs i can have eggs but if i have too many eggs yeah and so just playing around with that and we just i don't care how perfect of programming you have you're if you don't give the body the material to go build it'll be hard to build on 17 very very hard to build on something it's gonna be hard to even build on 2000 and the other thing to address and i and i don't want to discount the it probably was digestion and she feels but but you know this that even corinne and i talk about as i whenever i reverse diet or is like you go through this phase of fluffiness and you know and it's it's tough when you've been so lean when you carry yourself lean for such a long time yeah you it's hard to not interpret that as body fat or oh i look terrible correct course and it's kind of it's like the opposite of what we talk about going through the being cut and getting shredded it's like man there's a phase i don't like the way i look i don't it does i don't you don't and so but it's part of the phase of getting also let's say she gained six pounds of muscle and went up uh one and a half two percent body fat she would look leaner yeah oh yeah that's just how it works when you have more muscle yep our next caller is adam from canada what's up adam how you doing what's happening hey how's it going guys uh this is yeah this is pretty crazy uh so i'll read off my email here um hey mind pump i've been a loyal listener for almost a year and i love your guys podcasts and all the advice you guys give so much that i've been listening to the episodes in reverse if there's no new drops for the week uh so i'm emailing you guys because i have a question about working out post vasectomy uh i got a vasectomy this past thursday last week and wondering what the timeline should be when looking to get back to my workouts i'm afraid i will lose all my gains uh i've spent the past year and a bit on a fitness journey which has gotten me from 200 pounds at five five to about 135 at my lowest uh i'm on a lean bulk days right now so i'm sitting around 140 141 pounds uh also do i keep my calories at maintenance or at a deficit for now until i get back into my workout routine yeah thank you guys and i hope you guys can answer my questions did you did you do your vasectomy i did i'm the only one so hold on so let's talk about this for a second you got a lot of kids is that is that what's going on yeah try to stop yeah but i only have two one boy one girl and my wife decided that was it you know so yeah we're good with that no you're good so i got i had a vasectomy it's not a big deal um you know you're probably okay if you had it on thursday last week you're probably okay now but just to just to let you know like you could take four weeks off and you wouldn't lose any gains yeah also when you're healing it's not a good idea to go into deficit now even if you gain some body fat while healing it's better because you'll heal faster being in a deficit while you're trying to heal any kind of damage or tissue or repair after surgery not a good idea now that doesn't mean you go in a crazy like eat garbage phase but you don't want to like purposely put yourself in a deficit subcalorie while healing from a surgery now vasectomy is not a major surgery but nonetheless uh you want to kind of fight that urge but you should be now you should be okay to work out and just kind of feel it out and see how you feel uh the pain by now is probably mostly gone is that is that true adam do you feel like you're pretty much okay now yeah it's i've been moving around pretty fine and everything's been okay i'm still taking precautions like picking up my kids and stuff i haven't really tried to pick them up because i don't want to take any chances there but i mean it's been it's been going pretty well yeah you're probably okay to go work out so i would go easier on like lower body exercises you're okay to go swings that's fine yeah until next week so maybe don't go heavy on squats and deadlifts till next week but you would still do them with good technique but you should be fine uh you should be okay by now typically i tell you to wait a week before going back um i i went back uh maybe three four days after and i just kind of went easy just go through the movements you know like keep the load light and you'll you'll see what you're capable of at that point and then assess it i mean you could wait till thursday if you want to wait the full week but i think you're probably okay also if i'm countering anything you're doing you're going to have to wait a week and then you're going to have to wait a week yeah yeah of course yeah uh and just one more question what program do you think would most likely be better for me to uh get back into from you guys because i was i was gonna get the upper lower but i wasn't too sure because i like doing like four times a week usually but what were you doing before i don't know if that would be too i was doing upper lower like four times a week but i was using like the macro factor app okay uh before but i want to get one of your guys programs for sure like getting back into it so i'm gonna get back into it so i'm gonna get back into it so upper lower would be good yeah if you like four days a week upper lower is good if you want to try something different symmetry i could send you which is a very different program it's all unilateral training um so you let me know which one you want to try okay yeah perfect yeah the upper lower uh i really want to try it from you guys we'll send up our lower we'll send that to you awesome thank you guys so much you got it appreciate it all right dude all right have a good one guys you too bye ice up i forgot when you did that how long ago was that uh has it been a year yeah probably no more than a year i think it's been more than a year didn't you get it right after your daughter not right after uh i waited some time and then i got it did i tell you guys what happened say what you heavy squats right away no no but did i tell you guys what happened while i was getting my surgery huh no yeah they're doing my you know you're on the thing your legs up they're doing the thing or whatever compliment you no yeah we had to get the big scissors listen one of the one of the people one of the assistants or nurses or whatever helping them after we're all done it's like hey i love your show thanks bro oh really you know what i'm saying she's like i could never unsee you really help me i really appreciate you really yeah i really thanks right i love that show like it's cold in here it's really cold anyway delicate hands it's not a big eight let's say hey listen the the post facet's not that big of a deal dude it hurt like a little bit not much the big question is did it work i don't i mean so far so good i'm good for now you never did right did you know because i just heard all these horror stories that it didn't work oh well you're supposed to get tested afterwards yeah to see if it worked yeah i never did that i assumed it worked wow yeah you just so far so good went on a win okay our next caller is kevin from nebraska how are you doing kevin what up kev hey i'm from ohio yeah kevin from ohio what's going on dude not much how you guys doing good man good all right um i couldn't find the email that i originally sent so uh i'll just jump into it okay i'm 53 i did a show when i was 49 and from there tanked my testosterone and everything um hurt my neck really good um since then i've worked with vitabella got on some testosterone i feel really good started doing anabolic um hurt my back so i modified it down to um you know two or three exercises every day and uh hurt my neck again so not sure what to do and also i have a lot of trouble now hitting more than 2400 calories okay all right so let's ask i'm looking at your email right now do you mind if i read through it a little bit just so for some context no please go ahead all right it says uh so you mentioned it's hard for you over 2400 calories because you're busy you're a supervisor at work you walk 13 to 18 000 steps a day and you rotate shifts every week so seven days you're on the night shift then you're off eight hours then seven days on afternoons eight hours off then seven days on mornings and you have a lot of other stressors like you're separated in your marriage uh possibly divorce and some other things and so i'm just gonna tell you uh you're under a lot yeah in case you didn't in case you didn't know that and the injuries uh the injuries are a reflection of that totally okay that's what's going on now here's the the down there's a lot of plus sides to going on testosterone when you're working out and you're testosterone is low a lot of plus sides and you feel it one of the downsides is it it artificially makes you feel good because your testosterone is always high and in a natural body testosterone fluctuates and stress tends to make it go down and so you get this signal that you feel like crap and so you tend to do less you tend to stress yourself less you tend to go to the gym less but when you're on trt it's always high and so you kind of get this like false signal like yeah i'm gonna go work out i feel okay even though you should probably uh take some time off because of your schedule and everything that's going on dude uh maps 15 maps 15 is your program yep and that even with maps 15 i wouldn't do it every day yep i would do maps i would go maps you've been doing three exercises a day right two two yeah i would do maps 15 and i would do it maybe three or four days a week yeah so you follow it like it's laid out you would do a workout take a day off do a workout and just go every other day like that while all this stuff is going on and then your appetite should go up i was wondering if i should do like 15 regular or one of the more bilateral maybe symmetry 15 yeah we could do 15 symmetry because i know when i when i use a barbell that's when i hurt myself but at home with the just dumbbells i seem to do a lot better you know we'll send you mass 15 symmetry but the big thing is this is that you're going to do every other day workout and it's going to be a math 15 we're going to bring that stress down a bit and you'll get you'll start progressing your appetite will go up a little bit here's the thing too i want you to consider because i went through a very it was at one point i went through a very very difficult time and because i was exercising and eating right i did a lot better than if i didn't but what i didn't do is make all these crazy progress and so don't judge your progress right now uh because you're doing a lot of stuff and so at at best what might be the case at best is you just feel okay and you don't hurt yourself it's like therapeutic yeah you know and so that'd be okay with that kevin how long you been listening to us for um let's see i did that show when i was 49 so two years before that so about six years okay you've been listening for a long time did you watch the little docu-series i did on uh on mind pump tv where my kind of come back to getting back in shape did you watch that by chance i've watched parts of it yeah pretty valuable for kind of where you're at uh you know one of the stuff when you you've competed before so you've obviously trained at a very high level i imagine if you got on stage is you it takes very little that you need to do inside the gym to start to build that muscle back and being on testosterone that muscle will come real fast and in that series you watch me injure myself like three different times because i just felt good like you like you you're explaining by my testosterone levels were good they're artificially elevated because of trt uh i hadn't trained in a while i'm now really good at it and i'm like okay i'm gonna do this really consistent and like every week i was able to lift more and more on the barbell but then i was just kept running into these injuries and a lot of that was because i was just progressing too fast too and so maps 15 will be appropriate don't be afraid to keep the weight the same for a while go through the movement squeeze like you're gonna what's great is that you have trained at a high level that muscle will come right back and you don't need to push uh the like we tell a lot of people like that are new like to be trying to you know focus on something that's not going to get stronger get stronger strong guy like you who's already probably been strong built a lot of muscle before to get on stage uh you barely got to touch that weight and yours is more about recovery managing stress and recovery is yeah look at it this way uh can i do this in a way to where it improves the quality of my life right now so do it that's the tool that's how fitness should be used as a tool and so okay is it making me feel better is it allowing me to deal my stress better am i moving better if that's a yes i'm doing good it's not just a tool to build muscle and progress it is sometimes but sometimes actually believe it or not most of the time it's a tool just to improve the quality of your life so if you view it like that you'll you'll train and you'll build more that way you'll build more and you'll feel better of course so yeah because injuries nothing stops gains like injuries yeah but we'll say we'll send over the the math 15 symmetry that's a better protocol for you for sure and then like sal said really if you're feeling run down because it was one of your shifts where you switched with that don't be afraid to skip a day just stay good on the day diet keep eating good and take the day of recovery and then get go pick up right where you left off on the map 15 program all right sounds good you got it man Good luck, brother. I appreciate you guys. Thanks, dude. All right. Thanks. It's pretty remarkable. I've been listening to her a long time. Yeah, it's pretty remarkable, the resilience of some people. Because what I just said, just the separation of marriage by itself, one of the most stressful things you get. And then a crazy work schedule on top of it. Yeah, I was going to say, the shift workers is one of the most stressful. It is. It is. But now he's got all that on top of everything. Yeah, yeah. And TRT is great, but you see this a lot. You see a lot of guys get on TRT and overtrain themselves because they have this kind of artificial signal that's like, oh, I think I'm all right. Well, then you add another layer to my point that I made, which is if he competed, I imagine that he's probably trained at a pretty high volume. He's used to a little more intensity. Yeah, so more intensity, more muscle. He's had all that. And so you get back in your rhythm. It was the same mistake I made. It was just like every week I was like, oh, I feel good. I feel stronger. I just kept slapping more weight on the barbell, more weight on the barbell. I'm back. Yeah. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's mindpumpmedia. 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 free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes, and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends, and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.