5 Fitness Influencers Worth Following (And Why Everyone Else is Lying to You) | Mind Pump 2834

Key Takeaway

When choosing fitness influencers to follow, prioritize coaches who built successful training careers before social media existed. The best communicators blend deep experience with practical advice, understanding that behavior change matters more than perfect programming. Look for nuance in their answers—those who start with 'it depends' have trained enough real people to know exceptions exist to every rule.

Episode Overview

A discussion about identifying quality fitness influencers in a sea of social media noise. The hosts recommend five evidence-based coaches—Joe DeFranco, Brett Contreras, Ben Bruno, Jordan Syatt, and Don Saladino—who share common traits: extensive real-world training experience predating social media, strong communication skills that simplify complex concepts, and focus on behavioral change over aesthetics.

Full Transcript

Transcript of 5 Fitness Influencers Worth Following (And Why Everyone Else is Lying to You) | Mind Pump 2834 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

99.9% 99.9% of fitness influencers on social media are total garbage. It's true. Don't follow them. They'll lead you in the wrong direction. wrong direction. wrong direction. Yeah, that's that's pretty true. Okay. So, if you were to give the audience five influencers uh in the fitness space regarding like exercise, science or nutrition, that direction. Okay. What are five people they should be following? That's a good question. Uh cuz we we Okay, so it is true that most uh you only get five. You could do the I'm sure we could go all day long, but I'll put some give me five.

Give me five that everybody should be following. I'll do some qualifiers, right? So these are I'll we'll name some people who are really good with the exercise part of of fitness, right? So not like like they do good nutrition stuff, too, but right right right people you'd want to follow when it comes to workout uh style advice. Okay. Um, and although I'll stand by what I said, most influencers on social media don't promote good advice. Don't do a good job leading people the right way. But there are people who are good that are out there.

So I'll name some. So Joe DeFranco, DeFranco, DeFranco, um, Brett Contrarus, uh, Ben, um, Ben uh, Bruno, Jordan Siet, uh, Don Saladino. Those would be five off the top of my head like kind of fitness people that give some good information that I would say give them a follow. I I love that. And what Okay, there's some super common themes amongst them, although very different. different. different. Yeah, they're all different. You get some sports specific information there. You get some general pop. You get some like hypertrophy like you don't you know what I find that they all have in common though really really well nuance.

well nuance. well nuance. Yes. Well, okay. Right. So, and to go deeper, they all have a lot of experience training a lot of people. Yes. And that's why I think they do such a good job of which comes with the nuance. That's right. Because you're gonna have new. So like let's start with the first one I mentioned which I think was actual trainers. actual trainers. actual trainers. I started with Joe, right? Joe DeFranco. Yeah. He's been training people for a long time. I think we all looked up to him when we were personal trainers.

Yeah. When I was in college. Yeah. I I loved his content. And I what I like about Joe is he's so good with the nuance. He's so good at explaining explaining explaining why something may be true sometimes but not always. Or that one video, Adam, where somebody was uh um criticizing an athlete athlete athlete Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. for the way that they were being trained and saying, "Oh, that's why they got injured." And he did such a great job going in and really breaking down uh the truth.

And he did it in a very I mean, it made perfect sense. Yeah. You know these guys all, you know, another thing that I find in common with all of them is all of them were great trainers before social media came. Good point. Good point. Good point. Long before social media came, they were already already already good coaches and trainers. Then social media came and then eventually they were found and and became popular and all for different reason. different reason. different reason. They didn't do it to get popular on social media.

social media. social media. What a great point. I think a fitness influencer who's media first, trainer second, bad. second, bad. second, bad. Mhm. you know, because you're right. All these guys, all these people were training people for a long time. And even even a ticket like to give some credit to like it doesn't necessarily they're bad, just they're not as good. Yeah. I mean, because you could you could have came up in the could have you could have came up in the that's not to say that anybody who who's younger who came up in the social media world and they got famous through social media and they became known that they they can't be a good coach, but everybody that you listed made their bones in coaching people in real life first and was already successful doing that without needing social media.

Social media just blew up. The ones on social media, it's like great information. you can receive that sometimes, but they don't have that uh experience to back it and like the the way to kind of navigate through that when uh you're troubleshooting. Okay. So, since we're talking about these five people uh that I would consider friends of ours, let's talk about what you like about each of them individually. individually. individually. Well, so Joe, you know, Joe's he's he's an OG and he understands um especially exercise performance training and nuance around that.

Um and he was talking about things that now I think we take for granted that a lot of athletes or or athletic trainers utilize. He was big on the sled before people were making that a big deal. Yeah, he was. Yeah. He understands um how to apply um uh you know explosive style training in the in the proper context. Uh he understands range of motion in the proper context. Um and he also communicates it very well. He communicates like a like a like a guy you would just talk to.

Yeah. Now, he doesn't talk over your head even though the dude is super intelligent, knows intelligent, knows intelligent, knows I found that interesting that you because you you chose these. I only gave you five to choose from and some people might be going, "Oh, what about some We have a lot of other friends that are very intelligent, have their own certifications, uh, you know, and are brilliant." brilliant." brilliant." You limited it to five, too. Yeah. and and and but I I do like the the list that you put together for for where I'm going with this is that there's definitely some of our friends that are more scienceheavy, but one of the things I love about Joe is Joe is brilliant, but then also communicates communicates communicates in a way that the average person can understand and go, "Oh, that makes a lot of sense why I do that." And I think that's such a a valuable trait.

Um, I'm sure I'm a bit biased because I think I'm I lean more in this direction than the scienceheavy guy. Like, I think communication and getting your clients uh to apply or change behavior is far more important than uh can I argue or debate with you uh about a study that proves me more right. That's right. And Joe has the ability to do both, which is so great, which makes him a superpower. superpower. superpower. Yeah. Um, now Brett Contrarus, speaking science, I think he does a great job uh with uh taking science and combining it with um his uh his experience.

He does a really good job. And one thing I like about Brett is he he won't die on a hill. If there's a study or something that kind of proves that maybe his opinion was wrong, so rare to find that. That's right. Or he'll go conduct studies themselves. Now, this guy became famous uh popularizing uh the hip thrust. Uh in fact, he would say he was one of the first people to do this as a strength building, butt building exercise. And I would agree. Um I didn't really I never really heard of the hip thrust in the way that he talks about it until he did.

Um and he also does a great job communicating traditional heavy strength training to women. Mhm. He does a great job because he's got all these female athletes or these female competitors that train under him and he's proven like nah, build muscle, get strong. That's the way to go. Yeah. I mean, you could make you could make a pretty fair argument that women that lift really heavy weights, the majority talking about obviously an overgeneralization, but a a bulk of that movement came from CrossFit and Brett Contraras.

Contraras. Contraras. Yes, good point. I mean, probably are responsible for a large percentage of women that are not afraid to lift heavy ass weight. The other thing too about Brett is of all he's probably the most scienceheavy out of everybody uh that you listed but also communicates in a in a very simple way even though he has a very high level understanding of all the science which makes him also a superpower too is that he can get in there and argue and debate with the best of them and has read all the literature and knows most all of it like the back of his hand but then also can communicate to the average person to get his point across and help somebody out.

So, I love that, too. Totally. And then Ben Bruno. Um, one of my favorites. Yeah. Well, first of all, he's got a great personality. He's hilarious. I love all the He's like a very much like a train like he's he's like a he's a trainer trainer. Yeah. He's like a really good trainer who's worked with a lot of everyday people and you know when you talk to him because because because uh I would say of all these people up here, I probably relate the closest to him.

Uh because that's what I trained a lot of was just everyday people. That's what most people's the irony though about Ben is that Ben has trained a lot but he's also most of his list is celebrities and athletes. You got high athletes, high level. He has everything. I think one of the thing why we probably all connect so much to Ben that he really focuses on behavior type stuff and practicality and practicality and practicality and he's a he's very much so uh a realist in like understanding that I've trained enough people who have tried all the things and understand all the science and all that [ __ ] doesn't matter if they don't continue to show up every day and do the thing thing thing and from all the years and years and probably close to thousands the people that he's interacted with has distilled it down to this is the stuff that works.

I don't give a [ __ ] about your study. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That proves your way might be a better way in a clinical master of the application. Right. Right. In a clinical setting. I know what works with people and I know how to get people results and I know how to keep. to keep. to keep. And by the way, he'll explain it well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He'll say, "Here's why that doesn't work in the real world." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he does a good job of it.

Because, you know, he's he's applied it. That's what I mean. He's applied it and he's done it. And so, uh, yeah, Ben Ben's one of my favorite up there for sure. I love that you picked him because very, very relatable. Really, really great guy. Also, too, um, another thing I think that's important to point out about him and maybe arguably, uh, I I'd put some of a couple of these other guys in that list, too, Ben is really, uh, evolved in his his place, too. A lot of people in fitness, even the experts and the best have these deep rooted insecurities that have propelled them to be these experts.

That is what's driven them to be obsessed with the gym, obsessed with the information, obsessed with all of it. It's what gives them kind of their superpower. Ben is not that guy. Ben is very much so a very normal dude that wants to and I think that is so relatable and helpful to the average person who wants to stay in shape. And so that to me he's very evolved as as a coach and trainer and obvious probably criticized by peers that are obsessed with the way they look or the PRs that they're doing.

He don't give a [ __ ] and and super high performancebased or super aesthetic based. He's just Yeah, he he again too and I think a lot of the best coaches, well the most of the coaches I know were the struggling athlete or the struggling person that like really wanted to figure it out and like worked really hard to get to that point and it's like they realized that their real gift is coaching. That's why I think that's what one of the things I like about Ben. That's what I meant like when he communicates.

I think his content is so good for everyday people trying to get fit. Like everyday people trying to get fit watch his stuff. It's gonna be very um valuable uh to you. That's just the way he communicates, which is good. Maps, push, pull, legs, ppl. You asked for it, you got it. By the way, there's two versions of this program. One for men and then one for women. The programming is different. Women have a more higher emphasis on lower body volume, glute training, shoulder volume. Men, it's more traditional.

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Again, you can get all of that included 40% off mapspl.com. The code is PPPL. Jordan S. We got him next. He's great. I love you. love you. love you. He's great. I think he's got great now. He is actually really good at social media, media, media, but he was again a trainer way before. He just He just He just Well, he got good because he was he was Gary Ve's coach, right? So he got the opportunity to train Gary Vee before anybody knew who he was and Gary Vee spit game to him on the social media side and then he got good at that.

But he was already a good coach. He is a great coach. He's also a coach of coaches. Uh so good. It's good for trainers to follow Jordan and he has a community I think of trainers right that he works with and he does a great job of communicating uh you know complicated you know stuff into very simple terms. Again, that's a theme that you're gonna see with all these guys. these guys. these guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um Um Um he's also a great guy. Uh and he's a very hardworking, very honest, very hardworking uh trainer.

Probably one of the hardest people working uh trainers in that I've met uh in this space. Also, I'd put him in that category with Ben Bruno, too. Very evolved with like he's uh he's been super, you know, ripped and and strong as [ __ ] Like he's he's done the thing. Like he's done crazy feats, but he doesn't live in that space. like he's cares more about being a father and healthy and balanced and helping people and you know enjoying life and the nice thing and so I think that uh does a really good job of communicating overall health and fitness and and cutting through a lot of the [ __ ] that's out there and and also well read too like he knows his studies he knows the science he's very aware of that but then communicates fitness in a very simple way that the average person can adopt it and be consistent with it and then we got Don Don Saladino great guy uh S he's he's got such a great um attitude of service.

Uh this is what got him initially. He's also a great trainer, of course, but what got him so popular in the celebrity world. Uh is that they felt comfortable with them because it didn't look like he was looking for anything uh back from them, but also communicates fitness so well, so accurately, so in such applicable ways, appropriate ways that uh most people could take from. Also just a great guy when you meet him. Also very hardworking guy. Uh, but just a just again what deserves to be on this list.

Maybe super likable. Yeah. Maybe the most experience out of everybody on the list of training people. Him and Joe. Joe's got to be Joe for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Don's Yeah. Don's Yeah. Don's I mean I don't know though. Joe Joe How long has Don been doing it? Don still trains a lot of clients. Oh yeah. He's Does Joe still train the volume of clients that Don does? Uh question. Uh question. Uh question. That's why I think Joe's been doing it a little bit longer, right? But I don't think Joe trains as many one-on-one clients.

clients. clients. Main businesses. Main businesses. Main businesses. No, but Don still Don still does. Don still trains a lot of clients one-on-one. one-on-one. one-on-one. And so he arguably maybe the most hours of one-on-one with people. That's tough. Joe's been doing it for a long time. He's been He's been training people since the '9s. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Has been is Joe. And uh so and Don is when did Dawn start? probably. Is Is he our age or is he younger? Don. No, Don's our older. Don's older than us.

Good guy. Or he's your He's your He's your age. He's older than me. He might have started in the '90s as well. It's a good Yeah, well. It's a good Yeah, you're right. They're probably both up there. there. there. Yeah. I mean, regardless of who's a little more or less, my point is just really really really You're talking about two of the most experienced one-on-one coaches. Um, I would say Joe a little heavier and more experienced in the in the uh sports performance world. performance world.

performance world. Don a little more experienced in the average person and so I think depending on your cup of tea I mean all all five are must follows if you don't follow them you have to be following them I think their content their the information they provide uh and it's real important too I mean one of the reasons why fitness influencers are so terrible for the most part besides the fact that the information they often communicate is either wrong or or not needed to be communicated.

So sometimes you get a fitness influencer who communicates good information, a study, but they're but they're communicating something that's just going to confuse people and misdirect people. people. people. And so they just don't have the experience to know like this isn't something I should sell because it actually doesn't matter. In fact, all it's going to do is turn uh people away. Uh but the other reason is that um fitness is so body obsessed. It's so obsessive about how you look uh and it's kind of got this unhealthy uh underpinning uh that following even people with good information who who sell things in that way can kind of make things not good.

Uh and so the fitness space in general and social media can be that way. that way. that way. When you follow the right people uh then it's very positive. I didn't think about that either. That that is common with all all five of these guys too. Like none of them use their physique to sell. Not their physique. No. Brett will will show his his women that he trains, but that's what he does. Yeah, but it's him in his jort. He's not, you know what I'm saying?

He's not I mean, I think he's got a niche. Yeah. I think when he hit a certain milestone age, I think he he presented like this is where he's at his age. his age. his age. You know, one thing I like about Brett cuz he'll have the, you know, the the booty model stuff on his because that's what he trains. He trains a lot of these women that compete, but it's he's always showing how strong they are. He's always showing like the the traditional strength training.

He puts a like a good positive uh point with it because he knows how to train. He's breaking down the exercises and being very specific with it. Not That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. But the point you made, Adam, I think is so I didn't even think of that. Like they were all training people for a while. First First First before first. Yeah. They were all That's what they did. This was their profession. They weren't fitness influencers. They're trainers. No. Yeah. No. Yeah. No.

Yeah. That just so happened to come along with social media. social media. social media. Why didn't you name any YouTube stars? I think that I think that's got to be one of the hardest things for the uh younger if you're you know younger than say 40 so 35 or even and younger and you find yourself looking for content or for good people on Instagram to to be able to discern between you know were these people good before Instagram came out you know like and like did did they get good not because they're good at making cuz what makes you good on Instagram is not necessarily what makes you a good coach coach coach 100% 100% 100% it it does you can be very good on Instagram and be a horrible coach.

But if you were a great coach first and then you you happen to be a decent or famous on cuz some of them aren't aren't even that. I'm trying to think who where the what's Doug. Can you pull up the following on everybody right now? I know Scot I believe Scots's over a million. I don't think Ben is over a million. I don't know if Brett is Tell me what the following is on all all of them. I'm curious to where they're all at. I think who's got the low who's got the lowest following?

be interesting because we were just arguing that Joe We arguing that Joe and Don have experience Joe DeFranco 184,000 followers. Okay. So, not crazy. No, no, not at all. Brett's probably got a huge following. Yeah. So, Saladino, let's see. He's at 428,000. Oh, yeah. So, he's not at a million. Brett 1.7. So, he's got the he's got a huge one. huge one. huge one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Ben Bruno. And I bet the reason why Brett is cuz he's got a lot of instant. So, Ben Bruno half a million.

So, 500,000. 500,000. 500,000. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so, let's see. Jordan. Jordan's over a million, I think. Is he is Jordan's a little higher. He's the best one out of social media. Oh, yeah. He's Yeah. Where's he at? I can't even find him. Oh, there he is. Uh, one one. So, Brent a little bit more. more. more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then what's Dawn at? I bet I think Don's the lowest, is he? is he? is he? Oh, no, he's not. 428, you said? Yeah. 428.

Yeah. 428. Yeah. 428. And what was Joe? Joe was only 187. Wow. How funny is that? We We're giving probably Joe some of the most flowers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Joe is is I mean Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like he's been in the game the longest out of all of them, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean these are all they're all good. They all do a great job. job. job. Um and it's funny too cuz we'll we'll meet people and we'll talk with them. Uh and and and uh you know when you have a lot of experience as a coach, you can hear it when someone else starts to talk and answer questions.

You go, "Okay, this person I remember Brett Contrarus. We first had him on the podcast. I didn't know a ton about him except for um what he was known for. And we started talking right out the gate. He's a science guy, right? But right out the gates as he's talking I'm like, "Oh, he's trained a lot of people." Oh, you you know why I remember I remember that conversation. Every time we challenge him or ask him a question that we were trying to see where he stands and so that he always started it with depends.

It depends. Well, yeah, there was no there was always nuance to the answer and I think that's what all these guys do such a good job is they they understand that, you know, there's there's an exception to almost every rule. And by the way, I know someone will do this whenever we talk about people we really like or something like that. you you if you sift through through through I should do this. Well, no, there's they'll sift through their content and find something that we don't say exactly the same or we don't say it's like you're going to find uh amongst even all five of these that some of them might communicate something else a little different.

It doesn't make one guy right or wrong. It's like but I'd say about 99% of all of our fitness philosophy is aligned. I I don't what's true is true. Yeah, exactly. I think that's there there might be some different strategies that each of us have because of our backgrounds, but for the most part, I think agree with almost everything that you guys talk about. All right, I'm going to talk about uh creatine. I know we talk about them all the time, but Oh, did you get this thing I sent over to you?

Did you find the study on it? So, I found the study. Uh it's not a public I can't pull up the actual study, but I found others like it that support it. But so, check out this study. This was a 2023 randomized uh control pilot study where women with major depressive disorder. So these were women with depressive disorder. They were given and a core u they had anxiety as well. So they had this major depressive disorder and they also had anxiety. Okay. And they gave them five grams of creatine a day.

So that's it. So normal serving, not the 15 grams that you see in some of these studies for brain health. Five grams of creatine a day. Within the first week, there was a 50% uh decrease in anxiety. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. Uh some with some sources claiming up to 95% by the end of the study. Here's the deal. Anxiety is a is is rough. Why s would that why would creatine make that at a 5 gram dose make that much of a difference on an anxiety and depression?

depression? depression? If your depression and anxiety is a result of poor energy production, energy in your brain, right? That's right. Or just in your body overall, right? If it's a product of poor energy metabolism, uh, or just not being able to create enough energy for whatever reason, uh, then then increasing ATP would make you feel a lot better. Definitely. And anxiety can be that anxiety could you can get anxiety from nutrient deficiencies as well. So you'll see sometimes people vitamin D deficiency vitamin D. But creatine, that's not the only study, by the way.

M in 2012 there was a double blind uh uh study with 52 women again with m uh with this depressive disorder. Adding creatine to their SSRI uh led to faster and greater reduction in depression compared to just the SSRI. So creatine in combination with the SSRI was like better much better much faster um uh reduction in depression. There was another study with 100 adults with depression. Five grams of of creatine a day plus cognitive behavioral therapy reduced depression scores more than just the cognitive behavioral therapy by itself.

Uh there's meta analysis that are done this on this that discuss its potential as an adgivant uh uh excuse me adjunctive uh benefits for depression. So in combination with other therapies it's a good idea. It's good for you. What's great about this is I can't I can't imagine then uh how what the result would be for someone who was who's battling anxiety and depression if they and they didn't take creatine. They all of a sudden started supplementing with five to 15 grams of creatine a day and started strength training two to three times a day.

Strength Well, now you got exercise because we already know what exercise does for that category coupled with creatine. It has to be here's here's what I'll have. And now here's something else and Doug if you can look this up. look up the rate of anxiety on with vegans versus omnivores. So, I know that vegans uh will suffer from higher rates of um anxiety uh than omnivores when when their diets are somewhat healthy. I wonder if that's if that's creatine because you see these pretty dramatic improvements in in health with especially with vegans and creatine because they're not getting any uh from from uh dietary um you know, sources.

sources. sources. Yeah. So, makes sense. sense. sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think this is what you're looking for. looking for. looking for. No, there's more. There are So, there are other studies that So, meta analysis will show that higher nutrient deficiencies and anxiety and depression. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you have to look at healthy versus healthy by the way, not vegans versus garbage omnivore diets. Yeah. Yeah. That makes that makes sense. So, um but yeah, creatine just one of those if you have better energy production in the body, you tend to feel better.

better. better. Yeah. I mean that logically that makes sense. Uh I just find that percentage is profound. profound. profound. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's a big difference to report within a week's time. You know what's cool about this? It's also it's also good for you. It's extremely safe. So it's healthy. It's good longevity supplements and it's inexpensive. inexpensive. inexpensive. Yeah. Inexpensive. Easy to take. Yeah. Uh Keon, our partners Keon have pure creatine monohydrate I think in capsules and just powder. You can just try it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Try it for 30 days and see if you notice an improvement. Well, it seems a lot like the conversation we had about like mitochondrial health and like why that's popping up so much. Yeah, it's very much connected and that whole energy production system is like you know if you can get that back on track like how many things we could resolve. resolve. resolve. I have I have a friend of mine who um is a nurse a nurse a nurse and uh so she and she does those crazy you know how nurses sometimes well you know this your wife did this these crazy schedules.

schedules. schedules. Yeah. Well, they'll work overnight or whatever and then try to readjust and it's just brutal. It's brutal. Oh, yeah. Graveyard shifts. Nuts. She started taking creatine. She's like, I feel way better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like way better. My my my mental focus is better. I don't feel so foggy. I don't feel so burnt out. And she's just taking 10 g a day. Yeah. What was What was that study that came out about like, you know, the lack of sleep and how it Yeah. It's 20 g.

Yeah. Yeah. Bad. You had really bad sleep. 20 grams of creatine erased the cognitive deficits that came from it. That was just super wild. That's I know. Isn't that cool? No, that's super cool. I love that. Anyway, uh a BPC study. I got a BPC study for you guys. Uh BPC57. It's back, right? Like in circulation. They It looks like they're going to reverse the um they're they're definitely going to reverse the restrictions. So BPC57 will be Yeah. So they gave 12 patients, this is a human study, 12 patients uh a single injection of one injection of BPC57 in their knee.

Okay. So these had people had chronic knee pain. This is osteoarthritis, meniscus tears, ligament sprains. So people who had just chronic knee pain, one injection, 11 out of 12 of them, so vast majority of them had pain relief, significant pain relief that lasted 6 months to a year. With one shot. Wow. Wow. Wow. Every one of them had failed standard treatment for over a year. That's wild, dude. Yeah, dude. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's wild. that's wild. that's wild. I know. I know. I know.

Is it Is it officially back? Do you know if it's back with like MP hormones and stuff? Do you know? They have Pentadca organate which is the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh just it's but I know that they're getting I wonder if they don't. I know Phil was on the on the phone with Katrina. I overheard the conversation and I want to say there was five peptides that came back that were uh that was one of them. And I'm assuming that that means they've they've got it ready to go now.

Yeah, I don't know if that was like it's going to, to, to, but I know he was celebrating that news with her, which was a big deal. That was I forgot what the other four were, but there were some other big ones, too. So, the thing about peptides is that they're so popular now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you can go online and get them as research chemicals, and this is what a lot of people are doing, um, is they're going online. They're not getting them from FDA regulated, uh, compoundies.

A bit of a crapshoot. And you know, some of them may be good, some of them may not. Some of them might be something bad. Uh, I've actually seen some third party testing. It's a little scary on some of that stuff. Again, you're injecting in your body. You might want to go the FDA compound lab, you know, compounding pharmacy, I should say, um, route with a doctor. That's what we have at mpormones.com. It's like this is a real medical professional and this is these are real compoundingies.

It's not a quote unquote research chemical. What percentage of people do you think go gray market? a lot. Really? Really? Really? It's a huge market, bro. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it's a huge market. That's so funny to me. That's the workound. workound. workound. Yeah, it's always I mean, even like the sub I remember as a like a trainer early on like with my clients when I tell them to go get like a certain protein powder or this or that and come back with a Walmart brand. Yeah.

Yeah. And I'd be like, "What are you doing?" Oh, it was half the price. It's like, yeah, it's probably half the [ __ ] in there, too. A quarter of it even. Like, and this is stuff that you're ingesting. This is stuff you're injecting. It's like Why would you risk quality matters? Yeah, I this is just one of those things I I don't know. Save on your grocery bill or your electric bill or save on something else. I mean, I get saving money. I can respect that, you know, but the the thing that you end up ingesting or injecting into your body probably not the thing you Yeah, I wouldn't skimp out on that.

Every time Every time I see a Every time I see an investigative uh report on supplements, we're not even talking about peptides right now, okay? Supplements. Every time I see an article, I go, "Oh god, here we go." Because they'll take supplements, they'll take third parties, uh, test them all, and like a majority of them come back like not good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Supplements, just regular old supplements. supplements. supplements. You're like, "Ah." And you're bummed, you know, like, "Oh, man. I like that brand." brand." brand." Well, it's it's because it's such an easy cash grab because the if you do because nobody checks.

If you put just whatever in it, you can you can get away with it and you can sell it for really expensive for and cost you nothing to build or make. So, you know, if you you make a good run for 6 months to a year before you get caught, it's a slap on the wrist and you made a bunch of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, of course, I mean, I it's so dirty that there's companies that do this and they just change their their branding and do it again.

No, I'm serious. It's like Yeah. It's not There's not like serious ramifications for this. It's like a SL. Yeah, exactly. Shreds rebranded rec came came right back and did something else. So, these companies do that. They they run as long as they can and they sell they sell until that somebody decides somebody else decides to pay for a third party test just to call them out, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, you caught us and then, oh, we'll just start a whole new brand, do it all do the hustle all over again.

And it's just like dude don't I mean those are the things I don't know that that you you don't go skimp on I don't feel like spend for the extra and that's why it's why the good supplements are expensive is because they're they're paying to have all that stuff done themselves themselves themselves and margins on supplements I mean depending on the supplement but they're typically not that good especially the common ones like protein powder margins suck suck suck yeah creatine sucks creatine sucks because they're super popular obviously popular obviously popular obviously all your all your major vitamins you know those are all they suck there's not you're not making a lot of you're not making huge margin margins off of that.

The only way you're making huge margins is if it's garbage in there. If you fill a bunch of, you know, pills with water, then you can make a bunch of money. But if you don't, my favorite are when they take um like uh you know, like the libido boosting pills and like 80% of them actually have like Viagra. like Viagra. like Viagra. Yeah, dude. Like Viagra in them. It's like one out of every like 20 pills or something. or something. or something. Hey, by the way, you know, you know what's funny about that is that that definitely didn't stop anyone from buying them.

buying them. buying them. No. Oh, No. Oh, No. Oh, cuz that's like that's like hey did you guys know those muscle building pills like five out of 10 of them had steroids people cool people cool people cool like whoa like whoa like whoa let's keep taking them no that's that's why they use things like that like nascin like they use supplements and they use pro things materials that make people feel something something something do you remember the first time you took a big dose of nascin yes yes yes oh my gosh I do did you get sweating my ass off sitting in my bed bro I I read that nasin was good turn my whole face red like a tomato dude I was working.

I was managing Santa Teresa and I read some stupid article about niacin and blood flow and this that and the other. So I'm like just cheap dude I'll buy you I'll take anything cuz I did. I took a big old dose of nasin. Bro, 40 minutes later I'm giving a tour of the gym and I'm just and the lady's looking at me kind of like funny. She's like are you okay? And I look in the mirror and it was it looked like I had a massive sunburn.

My whole everything was super red. So So So I was like what just happened? I think you're the only person I've ever met who's actually been able to take like each component from the supplement, buy them all individually, put them together, and like I it's it's funny to me. I love it cuz it's like you're like this mad, you know, experimental scientist back in the day doing all that stuff. stuff. stuff. You you for sure have you won the word on all although I definitely did a lot of stuff like that.

That's I think why I'm so jaded is because I did so much stuff that didn't work. Yeah. And so I'm like now I'm just like it takes a lot to convince me that it's worth me spending any money on anything. It's like most stuff is I mean I did one of those I did one of those videos that our in our social media team did and uh I think it was um uh I think Eli had me rate it was Eli or Danny had me rate like zero to five for uh I think um building muscle and supplements as zero, you know.

Oh my god. Well, because of the it was the the of the list you had to pick. Where's it where you where you where you Yeah. Yeah. 0 to five like food lifting weights rest. Yeah. It was all these things. It was just like no. Of course. Where's that fall line? Yeah. And then people were like, "What about creatine?" I'm like, "Well, creatine's great, but it's not moving the needle like these other things are going to move the needle. You take all the creatine you want for building muscle, not get a good night's rest, and not work out.

You don't get shit." It's like It's like you're taking a bunch of kindergarteners and you're like, "Who's the strongest kindergarter?" That's creatine. Yeah. of all the supplements, it's the best. Like, we're dealing with supplements here, you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them don't do much. That's what you have to understand. It's And it doesn't mean that I like, well, I thought you said that. I was like, no. I mean, creatine is the greatest supplement. It's amazing. But it's like, if you give me a list of things that it's not, let's put this way.

My family member comes to me and they're, "Adam, give me the things I need to do to go build muscle right now." And I give them the list. Like, it just it doesn't even it doesn't crack the top five. I'm not it's not my but I will I will say this for some cases there certain nutrients if you have a nutrient deficiency or if you're one of those people of course if you're one of those people that you're just not making enough ATP uh it's an it's an inexpensive way to see does this help me is this going to even then you have to get to the point where you're doing all the right things and then something still isn't working like okay now I'm that's the nuance of it or if like you have I mean you got expendable income then 100% then by all means you know you you use and try and do all those things like that.

But it's like, you know, I I've never had somebody come to me and we we weren't building muscle. We weren't doing something and it was because I didn't give them a supplement. It wasn't it was something like that. You know, you hold Oh my god, I forgot that. You know who was really You know who was really fun for me to train with supplements? Doug. Doug. Doug. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He'll do Yeah. Doug loves supplements. So, I would just be like, "Hey, try this." Like, okay.

You know why? Because Doug's like you and the where he's he's good about doing all the things. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm terrible at the pills. Like it's so hard like you know I need someone to follow me around and like I can do one at a time like like I'll just one thing. Yeah. I take anything like none of it. None of it all at once. I don't know. It's just like just I want to see if this is actually can do something and I like I don't care.

I should just start feeding. That's what I should do. I should be in I should be in charge of you guys' supplements. I mean I'm good if you if you give it to me. I mean that's why I've left it before. That's why I've left it. That's why my thing looks like a mess over here of all these pill bottles. That's cuz the only way I'll take it is I look over at you right there. It's accessible. I look over like a [ __ ] I don't I got to take some of them.

I said Sal told me to take you. So, I'm I'm going to take a left. So, uh I pulled up some Have you guys seen the the studies that came out have been coming out on homeschooling? No. No. No. You guys seen them? So, like new stuff. So, they just came out with some testing and some data on homesooled kids. homeschool kids outperform their public school peers in math, science, history, English, the SAT, and the ACT. They basically demolish them on all believe it believe it believe it on all categories.

And then I looked up the popularity of homeschooling through the years. In 1970, there were only 13,000 kids that were homeschooled. 1990, 850,000. 2000, 1.5 million. 2020, 5 million. 5 million. 5 million. Whoa. It's blowing up. Exploded. How many people? I 2020 I bet jumped because of co of course of course of course a lot of parents were like okay I see what's going on here watching the zoom you're like I could do that. Yeah but uh but yeah they and they these kids generally outperform their their peers.

peers. peers. I was just talking to these kids that were homeschooled over the weekend um and it was interesting cuz they're talking about their subjects that they study too and it's like okay we're learning Latin we're learning logic and I was like wait a minute logic like what what does that entail? what's the curriculum entail for logic? And it's like they'll give them these certain problems, but it's like they have to articulate the entire process of how they got to that conclusion. And I'm just like, wow.

Like you would never you would never get that in a in a public school. school. school. What What are some of the the bias that come with that though that you have to be fair, right? Cuz the type of person who decides who decides who decides they're going to take on a responsibility like homeschooling your kid is already a different person. That's right. It's not the average person. person. person. This is a per this is typically a parent that's very involved. Very You're right. You have to be.

And so and so there's there and there's advantages. Uh small classroom. classroom. classroom. All right. Although a lot of homesooled kids do pods and stuff like still small classroom. And here's another this is a big advantage. Like I my my wife did just did this this morning. I just talked to her this morning because she's just going into new curriculum uh with my 5-year-old. And my 5-year-old, a good parent, right? a mom or a dad knows what's most important for their kid to learn. Okay, here's an example.

My son is doing these uh exercises where he has to learn how to listen, pay attention, and follow order. So, she'll read a paragraph and then he'll have to go and try and remember every step. So, we'll say, "Okay, first thing you're going to do is underline the dog. Then, you're going to write an A at the top of the page. Then, you're going to use a red crayon circle." And so, it's like a bunch of steps. When she's done, he has to go through and try and remember everything.

So, it's an exercise on paying attention. paying attention. paying attention. But my wife knows that my son, the thing that he probably that he definitely needs to work on the most is not being a perfectionist. So, he's got this thing where if he messes up, he beats himself up. He really beats himself up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, she knows that. So, when he does it and he does a bunch of things wrong because she's mom and she knows, instead of saying, "Here's what you did wrong.

Here's fix that." Yeah. She's like, "Oh, no. Let's move to the next one. Let's try it again." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because she knows him. Yeah. A teacher might not have uh this ability because a you're not mom. Well, yeah. You're not going to get that kind of individualized custom. That's right. Yeah. And you're managing 30 30 30 adjustments. adjustments. adjustments. That's right. And so, so she's able to say, "Hey, this is the most important." In fact, I like that he's learning how to pay attention, but what's really important is I want him to not be a perfectionist because that can cause So my my theory is is is tied more to what I said than you and you admitted, which I what I think is that I think that obviously the parents that homeschool are far more involved with the kids.

What I and I think that if I can be as involved with my kid with the professional of a teacher like leading the way, it's like this beautiful like I'll go heads up with a a kid getting homeschooled with my son because of the attention that he gets and the leadership that he's getting with school paired with the amount of attention that my wife and I give that kid. Now could take homeschooling kids and put them against all schools and stuff like that like oh I wouldn't take that.

I'd take the bet on the homeschool kids all day long, long, long, but I would imagine a kid if you if you teased out all the parents that are completely disconnected from their kids schoolwork and involvement and like that and don't don't say and not a day goes by that Katrina I or both Katrina and I spend at least an hour plus with Max on part of his school stuff and we're our his school requires it. I we have to sign off that we went through the packet, we did all the things and the kids in kindergarten, okay?

So, we're not even into the upper grades. So, with and I and they teach him stuff that I'm like, "Oh, wow. That's so great. I wouldn't have thought to do that." So, So, So, I think you're always going to do better when you care. Uh, and you pay attention for sure. for sure. for sure. The crux of it all. Uh, but that's my point is like I would I would love to see the comparison if you teased out all the parents that do not are not involved and then you put homeschool heads up against parents that are involved that are also in.

where the homeschool kids uh and there aren't specific studies but there are studies that move in that direction and so we don't have a direct one so it's hard to say I think that's the biggest factor I agree with you I think the biggest factor is uh how much a parent cares and how much they're involved uh but what you find with homesooled kids is the odds that they that they follow their parents um values are significantly higher across the board definitely definitely definitely that they Yeah.

I I think it's like here's the thing like you can be very involved with your kid but they're still away for 6 hours being taught by someone else. else. else. That's right. And you're rolling the dice on what values that they're they're giving. giving. giving. So if you're if you're homeschooling your kid uh and you're definitely putting them in things. You're not just like keeping them at home all the time. Most home that's a myth, right? A lot of people think homeschool means they're just with me all the time.

That's not true. But they're with you way more than uh than the the typical kid who goes off for a long time. I mean 6 hours or 5 hours or 7 hours in school. It's interesting when you talk to homesooled parents are really successful at it. Ask them how much time you actually spend on education every day. It's wild. Like 2 hours an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like wait a minute, what? And your kid like is it went to college and is crushing and how did you get through all that stuff?

You didn't need to spend six hours doing all that stuff. I I want I always wonder too like um and it be Jessica would be great to talk to. My cousin would be great to talk to because they both obviously I think your cousin is the best person to talk to cuz she's done it for so long. so long. We're so new to it. Yeah. And so many kids. Cuz the part that and and I've never really asked her this that uh I find is and maybe Max is because he's at a young age, but uh he is when he's in the classroom setting, he's so much more likely to sit down and do the work and do the thing that when he's with mom and dad, there's it takes more of an effort for him to to buy into doing that.

And so there's also the power of you and your peers are all sitting down and there's like and they have a very structure to all that versus me trying to get him to to do certain things. certain things. certain things. It's like working at home remote, right? It's a very similar Yeah. aspect because yeah, there there are those clear distinctions. It's like, you know, we're okay, but now we're family and we're hanging and we're, you know, to have that kind of clear split, you know, there could be some bleed over.

But yeah, I know. It's It's interesting too cuz it's like if and I feel like the passion has to come through as well. Like if that's, you know, from the parent that's actually, you know, providing it. Uh because you can get that kind of passion from a really good invested teacher. invested teacher. invested teacher. Um that actually very knowledgeable but like pays that kind of attention. That's how I know I couldn't do it, you know? It just it is hella work cuz let's be honest. Let's all be honest straight up.

When you have little kids, it's a nice break oftentimes to say, "Okay, go to school and outsource that. I get some time to myself. I get some time to clean the house. I get some time." Like, if you're if you're It's like you're on all the time, it's a big ass commitment. I don't think it's for everybody for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I wouldn't be able to do if it was on me. me. me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I would definitely I know we wrestled with that.

Yeah. As much as I wouldn't be able to do it. Yeah. No, I mean I mean I I've said it to Katrina before like I mean I mean I would like for us to do it but it's like man I could it would be a I couldn't do it. You know what I'm saying? And she wasn't motivated to really want to do that because there there is there's a huge there's man it's a nice to have that's why it's easy for us to be involved in parents is because I've only got to be involved in an hour after school.

You know what I'm saying? Like that's not hard for me. That's not hard for me to to pick up forcing. Yeah. To pick Exactly. to talk to my teacher his teacher and go like where's he going? where's he doing well? And I mean, we go through all his stuff and it's like where he's where he's lagging behind or where he's struggling or where he's excelling. It's like, okay, cool. We can focus on this at home and then we complement all their hard work that they're doing and it's like I okay, I could do that.

I got that all day, but ask me to do that for six hours in the day and then transition over to like parenting home and value dad, which is different than school dad, I guess. Like that would be the crazy part too is that and I see this more with public schools and depending on where you're at but uh often times like you look at what they teach your kids like from a values perspective and you're like man I don't that's not what I agree with like what are you guys teaching our kids right now?

What are you doing? I've seen so many stories of parents going to battle with schools over uh certain things that they're educating their kids on. weird what people feel compelled like ideologically that they have to insert and inject and you're just like you know instead of sticking with the curriculum and so like it just got it muddied the waters a lot in the education system that I found and so it's it's been rough you know over the last few years needs to be disrupted big time totally well that's a part that I think uh uh right now I'm good I feel very very confident in the direction they're going like uh uh what how will I handle being faced with something like that right like what what What will I do?

Hold them out, right? Well, yeah. No, I mean, that's exactly how exactly how exactly how I I talked to some parents. I told you guys this last time that they're they were in a classroom and one of the kids uh in the classroom identified as a cat and everybody went along with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, "No, we're taking our kid out. What are you guys doing?" It seems like an urban legend, you know? I've heard of this a couple different examples of that.

Yes. It might even be the same same kids probably. Yeah. We're in the same area. Yeah. Dude, like what are you guys doing? Oh, we want them to feel comfortable. What? No, dude. What are you doing? Meanwhile, sounds made up, but but but it's like what the hell's going on here? Yeah. And then you as a parent, you guys said they're going to explain that back home. You know what I'm saying? Well, we have people really like Halloween. Halloween. Halloween. Like, no. Oh, dude. Year round.

You said Halloween. You brought up holidays right now. So, my my poor wife when she's battling right now. So, my son loves to decorate for the holidays, right? We know you guys have known that forever with with Halloween and Christmas. Well, those are the big ones, right? But Katrina, I don't know if you've ever been to our house. We do She does everything. St. Patrick's Day, Easter. We So, she does like little decorations through the house. She has a couple vases that she always changes and she she's got every every holiday through the whole year planned out, but we only go crazy for Christmas and Halloween because those are like monthlong decorations.

Sure. Sure. Sure. But he's learned that, you know, that we do decorate for St. We put all the stuff out for St. Patrick's Day with the gold and undo the whole thing and Easter and yada yada and but he's getting upset at Katrina that we don't have enough decorations for Easter and Katrina's like this isn't this is enough and no he wants all well it's an outside holiday why would we not have decorations outside that's his argument right now he's asking all the other family memb right now is like trying to solve this like I don't know what to do with this kid right now cuz he wants to decorate you got Easter and then what cin well we well we well we So we have you know you guys so racist what are you talking about racist racist racist that's the that's the you decoration you decoration you decoration yeah we does we had St.

Patty's Day we just did just did just did and then we did the and we did the whole you know this what she gets for going over the top you know and doing the whole house up and making it look like the leprechauns came in and destroyed it and pissed pissed in our toilet and left No way. Oh yeah, that's put footprints on the on the seat. Oh, she goes all out. Oh yeah. Then turns the toilet water green. And then writes a note. Haha, I got away.

And then she steals the gold. That's great. Like nobody does that. Like I told you guys way back like I dressed up as a leprechaun going to school. So that was like, you know, the level like we went in my house. Oh, that's my favorite story cuz nobody dresses up. And I'm just like casually throwing that out. out. out. You're the only one. You're the only one in the entire school. Leprechaun hat, dude. Buckle like tights. Uh, dude, fourth grade, dude. Maybe maybe third grade, actually.

grade, actually. grade, actually. So, you showed up to Your mom dressed you up like a leprechaun. Yes. Yes. Yes. Dropped you off at school. Dropped me out. Hey. No. No. I was on the bus. the bus. the bus. Everybody Everybody Everybody I can't believe my friends didn't just completely roast me, dude. But I mean, you're so young that like every Oh, hey. You know, they thought it was cool. You didn't get pinched. That's for sure. I didn't get pinched. And that's back when like, you know, I thought I could do this little Irish jig.

And so busted out. I swear to God, like other teachers pulled me in their class and I just did it. it. it. Irish jig in front of the whole Look kids, we have a leopard girl here today. today. today. And you'd think, right, like I wouldn't have this fear of like speaking in public, you know, but How many How many letters did you get from girls that day like, "Hey, do you like me?" like me?" like me?" Yeah. I don't know. And I don't even remember.

I was like looking back I'm so It's so embarrassing. Like it's like wa dude I can't believe I wish you had talked. talked. talked. I bet I bet if we if we let Max he probably would do something like that. He'd probably just show up by himself. I I would not be surprised if we if we got an outfit for him to wear he'd want to wear it to school. He would probably do that. do that. do that. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Yeah, he's I mean he loves the the the dressing up for birthday.

Does he wear Cuz my kids love this. He might I He's not too old for this. My kids Well, no. They love uh like themed pajamas. pajamas. pajamas. Oh. Oh, yeah. And and so my and my three-year-old's convinced whatever she wears, she gets the powers of that. So we got her Incredible Hulk pajamas. Sick. Sick. Sick. We got Spider-Man pajamas. And then here's the best one. You guys ready for this? this? this? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Someone gifted us Christian pajamas that said like Jesus on them.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So she runs out of her room. It's not a superhero, just Jesus. Right. She run I have Jesus powers. Like powers. powers. powers. She start walking on like I have the most power. So she's like she's got Jesus power. I'm like all right. So, so in our house quick, you have water. Let me turn that into wine real quick. The the luxury of you. Wow. you. Wow. you. Wow. The the the big luxury is if we allow him to stay in pajamas cuz if it's always up to him, he'd wear pajamas all day long.

So, when he goes over to Nana's house, we normally end up picking him up in the afternoon or the next day and he's still in his pajamas all day long. He Yeah. If he could wear pajamas all day, he'd wear pajamas all day and swim naked. That's his thing. That's like Wow. And so that's like, hey, we can't always son, dude. Yeah, so he's so weird how how similar he is to 100%. The little mini Adam, dude. That's funny. Hey, you guys, by the way, I got to tell you guys, do you know who eats all the Chris Power?

Who's responsible for that? Who eats them all? Who? We thought it was the trainers. No, it's Doug. The little leprechaun. Listen, Listen, Listen, we're on to you, Doug. Hey, every time when we're done with the show, every time and sometimes I'll hang out just a little bit. He's got I bar. You got a bag in there, don't you? Not at the moment. I eat all those. What do you Okay. What's your What's your favorite? The your favorite? What's your favorite? The flaming ones. I like I do like those, too.

Yeah, I like them. And the everything ones. I like those. I like those, too. Just get every day and I'll be in here doing something and I'll hear I need some of that afternoon protein, you know, a little bit of a pickme up. I mean, maybe the greatest maybe the greatest hack yet, though, when you think about it, what other what other carb snack has got that much protein? Well, it's not that high in carbs. It's got fiber. You know what I mean? Look it up, dog.

Fiber is a carb based snack. Yeah. It's like it's a carbby based snack is what would you call pretzels otherwise? Right. otherwise? Right. otherwise? Right. Yeah. Yeah. You would consider it that. So, that's that's my point. Like what what other carbs type of snack that is high protein, low carb, like that? You I can't think of any. Let me think. Beef jerky dried chips like they do. They They They chip. How much fiber is like pork rind? So 10 gram of fiber. Yeah, bro. Hey, listen.

28 grams of protein, 10 g of fiber. I know. It's so good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Only Yeah. So good. Low calorie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So good. So good. So good. Yeah. Yeah. They do a good job. That Hey, by the way, that company it's it's already blown up. That's going to be They're already I think Are they in Costco now? I thought I saw they were in Costco. Costco. Costco. I see it somewhere that I think it was Costco. Yeah. Um Yeah. Costco, Wegman's, Hy, the Vitamin Shop.

They they blew up. Uh, not in this local area, but I'm sure some place kind of. Yeah, they blew up fast. But I'm telling you guys right now, he he'll he every day he has a bag over there. there. there. I I have a bag almost every day. Do you really? Yeah. No, it's it's such a great easy snack that's high protein. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When can you eat like I said, when can you eat a salty chippy like snack and get 20 something grams? I know other brands have come out with like protein chips, but they're not as high of protein as that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're not as high as weird. And they're nowhere near as good either. Yeah. how it like tastes like that and it's like light and crunchy. You know what? I saw a video just made me think of Have Have you guys ever done this? Maybe Justin, you have. You did the most construction and you guys eat the most. the most. the most. Did you craft? Did you do the most construction? You did more than us. I did a lot, but Yeah, bro. Yeah, bro.

Yeah, bro. Pretty much like every job I had until college, I started waiting tables. I did I did it for I did it when I was like a teenager in the summers with my dad. dad. dad. Yeah, that's I did for a few years like that. But uh I saw a guy on social. Is this a thing where you buy a bag of chips, then you open the bag, and then you you go to like 7-Eleven and you you put the nacho cheese? That's high school [ __ ] dude.

Kids have been doing that. High school. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kids, you know what they do? They get nacho cheese in there. Yeah. Fire Cheetos and pour the nacho cheese over the top of We do slurpie like like you mix all the different slurpies together. Yeah. That's our era. Our era is 7-Eleven. Mix three or four slurpies. the the next generation coming up in high school. That was like a thing where you get fire when fired Cheetos, remember when fire Cheetos became popular? We were already kind of on our way out of high school.

What's in a slurpee that keeps it not cuz you I've had ices or shaved ice? It's not the same as a slurpee. No. Well, sh So shaved ice is an actual ice machine. That's like Yes, I know that. But what's a slurpee? Cuz it's still ice, right? Yeah. I don't know. It's chemically mixed though. So yeah, it's kind of like when you get a like a what is it? Like a frozen drink at a bar. They have a thing that keeps But it stays like that for a while.

Cuz it's moving. It doesn't It doesn't let it freeze. Stays really really cold. really cold. really cold. Yeah. And I bet you icy. Look at the ingredient. ingredient. ingredient. They keep it kind of liquidy. But it's just a syrup. It's a syrup over Oh, yeah. It's just a syrup over ice. Cuz you know what they do sometimes like like the ice cream this the soft serve. There's chemicals in there. Keep it Yeah. Who knows? They probably have that, bro. I mean, it's it's 7-Eleven. Yeah, I guess you're right.

For syrup. Wouldn't Wouldn't Wouldn't surprise me. That's all it is. Oh, well, there you go. They use yucka and what is that? Kia extracts for foam stability. See, that's what see something makes it stable. stable. stable. Yaka and Kha. I thought it just keeps it moving and that's what keeps it from freezing. But it's and it's kept at a very cold temperature inside there. What plant does those come from? What plant What plant What plant is a plant? That is a real Were you Were you big on slurpies at one point?

I was a big slurpie kid. Really? Yeah. Yeah. 7-Eleven was right by my house and we used to do that. Do what Justin said. Justin said. Justin said. Yeah. We'd ride our bikes over there and and we do the uh I was weird. I wasn't like I I would eat it. I mean, you gave me a slurpee, I'd have it. have it. have it. Slurpie suicides. Slurpie suicides. Slurpie suicides. You were too busy reading the encyclopedia. encyclopedia. encyclopedia. Yeah. No, no. I liked um like weird snacks.

Like I like Cheetos, Cheese Puffs. Uh I liked You like those circus peanuts. You know what I like that was weird that nobody likes I don't think any I don't ever see anybody eat, but I love was fun. fun. fun. I used to crush. I love fun. You know why I stopped eating them though? though? though? Make a breast milk. Yep. So, you're in junior high and you're trying to talk to a girl. You just had fun. I hate those. I hate corn nuts. Oh, man.

Love corn nuts. The one kid that would always come with corn nuts. The whole room stink, dude. They're delicious. They're delicious. They're delicious. I like You don't like corn nuts. Oh, this smells bad. There's something satisfying about the crunch of those, too. What were you? Well, I'm outnumbered here. What were you eating in class? Someone needs to make high protein corn nuts. nuts. nuts. You were the guy that put cheese on crackers, dude. crackers, dude. crackers, dude. Yeah. Okay. Cheese whiz. String cheese. String cheese. String cheese.

He's a big cheese wiz. I would always bring And everybody tries to steal my string cheese, dude. like explain that. explain that. explain that. Hey, there's a lot of trauma back there. Yeah, there was a little trouble. I would come with two and then it' always be one. I'm like, who stole my string cheese? string cheese? string cheese? I think it was a joke, you know, amongst like my other friends. Like, somebody would always try and steal my string cheese. cheese. cheese. Did you bite the string cheese or peel it?

it? it? I peel it, dude. Why would you What's the point of the string cheese? I know. Did you Did you guys have braces as kids? kids? kids? No, I didn't. I never did. Funny about that. Did you, Doug? No. My parents asked me like they didn't invent braces back then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had a crooked teeth all that and they're like, "Oh, do you want to fix that?" Or like I'm like, "Well, I don't know. I think I'm like I was just trying to be like, "Well, I'm cool.

You know, I'll I'll deal with it." kind of thing. Oh, good, great, great. Fine. I just saved them a ton of money, you know, and that's really what it amounted to. It It's really pricey now. It I mean, it was pricey when we were kids, but it's like gone crazy. I think it generally around $7,000 maybe. maybe. maybe. No. Yeah, it was like a,000 something when we were kids. My daughter had to have she had a lot of stuff happen. Uh, we did the the pallet spreading, like the whole deal.

But they don't do headgear anymore, I don't think. think. think. I haven't seen that. Not so much anymore. I haven't seen it, but but but No, no, they're better. They do something else. But head gear was Oh, you see a kid. Remember that kid? kid? kid? Hey, you got head gear. It was It was rough. rough. rough. So, I got the low down on ices here for you. So, we got flavored syrup, water, uh, CO2 in a specialized pressurized m machine. So, the machine continuously churns and freezes the liquid to create a fluffy carbonated semi-olid slurry.

It's the CO2 and the moving of it. That's what it is. Can you do like a nitro infused uh version of that? You may be able. I mean, that's is that what that's kind of what it is, right? Yeah, I think that's kind of what it is. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I like chicken coffee icy sounds kind of good, actually. And you're saying that chicken and a biscuit crackers for me. Hold that thought, dude. Best. Nobody eats those, dude. Chicken and a biscuit.

I don't even think they are. Yes, they're still around. Those were the best, bro. Crackers that taste like chicken soup. That's also one of those things. It's weird. It's like um was it ramen that that was like shrimp flavor and you're like hm like hm like hm why is it Yeah. Like where how did you eat dry ramen? Did you ever eat dry ramen and pour the pour the stuff on it? it? it? Probably in college. Yeah. I ate a lot of like uh what is that?

That cheese that comes out of the can. Cheese ways. Cheese ways. Cheese ways. Cheese. Yeah. Easy cheese. Yeah. Oh, easy cheese. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Probiotics have been shown to improve gut health, reduce inflammation, help with the look and health of your skin, help with anxiety, depression, speed up recovery. There's almost nothing a probiotic hasn't been shown to improve because it's your gut health. You got so much bacteria in there that you live with that creates uh things like chemicals your brain needs, uh help reduce inflammation, all that wonderful stuff.

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By the way, our course is nationally recognized. In fact, it gives you 1.9 CEUs with or for your NASM certification. Find out more at mindpunfitnesscoaching.com. Our next caller is Jennifer from Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee. Hi, Jennifer. Hello, Jennifer. Hey, hey, hey. Thanks for having me on. You got it. How can we help you? So, first of all, uh I know this is total first world problems and uh totally insane vanity, but I've heard you guys address a few things that are similar to what I have going on, but nothing exactly like me.

I have been following your show for a while. I have a couple of your programs. Um I would be what I guess considered pear shape. Um, so I show sorry um dog I I uh have it's very easy for me to show all sorts of muscles in my upper half but I cannot get definition in my lower half to save my ever loving life. A little bit of backstory. I've worked out since I'm a little hyper uh a lot hyper. So um exercise was like a way to medicate myself like throughout my entire like whatever junior high, high school and adult life.

And uh I did it the 90s way, right, which is the cardio and um I swam through high school and then I did rowing. So it was there was some lifting involved, but uh I I'm very strong naturally and that's not that hasn't been cool and except for maybe the last five years. So I hid from that, right? I was like, give me the five and 10 pounds because that's what girls are supposed to do. Um last five years I've been really up in the lifting.

I don't know what my maxes are cuz I'm afraid to max out. But with you guys following your MAPS anabolic last fall and now I'm on muscle mommy, I've been just every time I lift I'm just trying to add a couple pounds. So, how does somebody who has a pretty good background in exercise? I used to own a yoga and Pilates studio here in town. I did a lot of that. I still do a little bit of Pilates. I have a reformer and chair and stuff here at home.

Not too much. I'm following muscle muscle mommy phase two right now. 15 of like those reps can be exhausting. Y'all love the shoulder work. I've noticed that. But how do I modify it? I heard you guys talk about this with one fella because he had big legs. Um he he reduced the volume on the legs and increase it on the upper body. How do you modify your programs to do is it more volume on the legs to get definition? definition? definition? It's not it's not to get more definition, but to build more muscle.

So, there's a couple ways that you can get more definition in an area. One is to get it leaner and one is to develop the muscle underneath more. Now, you look like you're pretty lean just from looking at you. What's your body fat percentage? percentage? percentage? Uh the Hume scale, y'all are not going to like it. um is it's at 17%. 17.3. 17.3. 17.3. I would have guessed when I get Yeah, I would have guessed by just looking at you, I could tell that you're in the teens.

Um I don't think it's a good idea to try to get leaner. I don't think Yeah, you won't feel good. Uh it'll throw your hormones off. Um it's just not good. Um you probably what you want to do is just focus on building the lower body a little more to get the shape that you're looking for. Um, and the way to do that is to take volume away from upper body training and transfer it to lower body training. Um, the other option is this, and this very well may be the case.

You might be just a little bit skewed on how you're judging the way you look. Yes, the Hume scale has helped a lot with that. We it was a Christmas present to myself and um when I saw you know the body fat percentages and different various body parts I was like oh that's shocking shocking shocking the Hume scale has helped some of that body dysmorphia for sure. However, when you're sitting there and if I take my sweater off and you can see all the muscles and there's like veins showing if I lift anything which dudes think is cool.

It's not so cool for women. I don't have any of that in the legs. Not that I want to have the veins showing, but I would like there to be evidence of the fact that I exercise like when I wear shorts and you don't see that necessarily. necessarily. necessarily. I'm going to bet I would bet my house that you're that you look very developed and muscular in the lower body. If you have veins in the upper body, you get leaner, it's going to get worse. So, I don't I don't want to get I've been bulking because of you guys.

I've been bulking since January. I don't follow um I used to coach for an Indian company and they were really big on the macros and all that kind of stuff and um it was it was too low for me. I know very well if I get below 2,000 calories I will eat you. you. you. Um so I eat between 2500 and 3,000 calories a day. It just depends if my daughter makes cookies. We're really clean eaters. We you know I've got 20 37 like meat chickens in my basement right now.

So we we butcher our own stuff. So, we're really clean eaters and I eat a lot. So, it's hard for me to I don't know exactly how much more to add if you get what what what what about um tell me a little bit about your your squat, your deadlift when you do train legs, like what are you working out with? So, I again so in my in my email I have a tear in my right labum on my uh hip and my left shoulder labum.

Um so, I'm a little scared of lifting heavy. I went to a PT when I started MAPS and um had her watch me. So I basically started at zero back in nove, excuse me, November. And now, you know, um with the MAPS anabolic, I guess I got up to like 85 and I just kind of got scared with the squat. Um with the deadlifts, I just did the Romanians today. We did 15 at what, like 115 or something. Yeah. Um, Yeah. Um, Yeah. Um, Jennifer, I I don't not that I need to know the answer.

I said I already know what's happening here. But how tall are you and what's your body weight? I am 5'6 and 3/4. The 3/4 count. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I weigh about I oscillate between 150 and 155 right now. So you're 155 17% body fat. You've had two injuries. I see you did CrossFit. I see you owned a Pilates studio. You're on Maybe Doug, scroll down a little bit for me. uh you're taking you're on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy you're taking uh NAD glutathione BPC TB500 micro doing GLP-1 I'm going to tell you something right now I know what the issue is what is the issue you're you're seeing yourself very skewed honey skewed honey skewed honey there there is no answer to this other than stop focusing so much on the details that you think are not looking the way you want and that might not be the answer you want but that's the right Sir, because Sir, because Sir, because okay, you've got a lot of muscle.

You're lean. You're leaner than probably is good. I think you probably should gain some body fat, but that sounds probably like nails on a chalkboard to someone like you. You're eating a lot. You eat healthy. You eat high protein. Uh I that's there's nothing you would do more. The only thing I would do like if I was your trainer, I would focus on correctional exercise correctional exercise correctional exercise so that you felt more comfortable with heavier movements. Maybe build your gut confidence in the in the in the lifting heavier support system.

Split stance exercises would be good. Hip thrusts would be good for you. Trap bar deadlifts might be better than a straight bar deadlift for you. Stick with unilateral for a while. Yeah, unilateral. So like map symmetry probably be good for you. But that was going to be what I thought next. next. next. Yeah, that would be good for But there's nothing like there's I bet you if you sent this pictures, not that you need to, but I I bet you I would probably laugh and be like I think you're hard on yourself probably.

yourself probably. yourself probably. Yeah, you're really hard on yourself. I bet your husband tells you that and your friends probably tell you that too. I uh No, he My husband doesn't care. He said my butt was uh shrinking since doing Maps Anabolic. He's like, "Stop. It doesn't even cuz I'm whatever." Uh hourglass, whatever pair shape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I Yeah. I think I think you're really I think you're really tearing yourself down, huh? I mean, I could I mean, yeah, you could add more volume to lower body, reduce volume upper body.

uh continue to surplus. What does that look like though when you say reduce volume like in the MAPS program? program? program? Same exercises. So like like you're following a muscle mommy, right? You would take one or two sets away from the upper body stuff and then add them to the lower body stuff and you don't need to change the programming. So probably something like chest and shoulders since you recognize that that's an area that you you're not as focused on. So take, you know, two sets from chest, two sets from shoulders, add four sets to lower body stuff, and then you have four sets towards a lower body exercise.

So just add in another lower body to the max. Another set. Another set. Another set. Just another set. You can do same exercises just added an extra set. Yeah. So let's say like it says hip thrust for three sets. Now you can do five sets because you took two away from upper body, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I haven't done five. I usually stop at three, sometimes four because I was Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. 90s girl. Yeah. No. So that's it. And so you would just trade volume is what you're doing.

You could even skip, you know, if you if your shoulders get really developed and upper body, you could even train them every other week and not have to train them weekly. Um, and take that extra work and put it towards the sets on your lower body. lower body. lower body. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay, Okay, Okay, I'll try it. Yeah, give it a shot. But I know that's not what you want to hear because I know I kind of figured that because you guys always harp on women shouldn't get below 20.

And I I've been up when I was having babies. Um, I didn't focus on I just ate, you know, I was making a kidney. So, if mama wants golden grams, mama's eating golden grams. And, um, so, you know, I've gotten above it, but even after and I weighed whatever, I gained like a 100 pounds between both my babies. And so, I I feel like there's a healthy relationship with food. Um, that's not the issue. I just don't I don't I can tell a difference when I'm over 20, I got the pouch and instead of seeing muscles, you see the um parade wave.

You know what I I'm not too worried about your body fat percentage because of how much food you said you're eating. You may be one of those athletically uh you know genetically gifted women, which it sounds like you are, where you probably were always stronger. You probably built muscle easier than most people around you. And some women uh can eat a lot and weight train and walk around, you know, 18% body fat and not really have uh hormone issues or anything like that. It's not common, but if you were telling me that you were eating, you know, 1,800 calories a day, uh, I'd be like, you got to bump that up.

But it to bump you got to bump that up. But it sounds to me like if what you're telling me is true, which I think it is, uh, that you're eating, uh, like plenty of food. I'm not worried about that, but I definitely think that you're breaking yourself down, like you're probably looking at yourself in the mirror and finding the little areas that you think need to look different, and that's messing up this whole experience. Maybe. But like when my calves are bigger than my husband's, like I got 16 inch calves, guys.

And like my wife's calves are bigger than mine, too. too. too. And or whatever. What is it? I'm my thighs are maybe like they they go between 23 and 25. Those are some big legs. And I want to be able to see the muscles. Like I can see in my arm if I'm just moving, you can see shoulder muscles, right? And it's like I I would like to see there's a a a quadricep muscle that goes up my thigh. I would like to see that. It's vanity.

total first world problem. Yeah. But if I'm working out and following your protocol the three days a week, I'm not doing more. I get my 10,000 plus steps a day because I am hyper. Like I would like to see evidence, especially every woman's going to be like that. You're always going to be harder to see like to get a woman to see striations or quad the lower body. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh is is like you're getting really lean, lean, lean, you know? That's just the way it is.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I bet you if you were standing with shorts on, I bet we would see very clearly from the front. Oh, there's your quads. You probably have a nice hamstring uh bump in the back. Yeah, you do. do. do. We're not going to win with you, huh? I get your husband on here. Let me ask him what he thinks. Come on. See what he thinks. I mean, it's Jennifer, it's really easy math for us. Like when you take somebody who's 17 to 19% body fat, that's why Sal asked you how much you weighed is you got a lot of lean body.

quickly. And then you're also saying how lean if you're showing veins in your upper body. You've got a lot of muscle in your legs. You've got a lot of muscle in your legs and that it's just it and you may not see it that way or think that way. And everybody carries a lot of body fat in their lower legs. Some more than others, but that's I mean I don't see I don't see quad separation till I'm getting ready for stage. I mean I just I don't.

But there's shape to it, you know, and it's and it's covered with body fat. I know it is. That's where most people carry a lot of their body fat is hips and legs and especially women. But you've got a lot of muscle on your body. And you're lean. I mean, you're really lean. So going down just to see separation in the legs would require us to hit an unhealthy place of body fat percentage. percentage. percentage. Yeah. You'd have to get down 15%. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to you don't want to do that.

You're already on the on the leaner side. So you you're better off just keep focusing on trying to build and place a little emphasis on the lower body. Um, if if that's really again, if that's where yourself up and get strong and feel comfortable and confident that you can lift a little bit heavier and that's going to help move the needle in that direction you want. Anyways, let me encourage you, Jennifer, you've been doing this for a while. You're uh you're in the same age range as us.

I can see that you're healthy. You've got a lot of energy. If I put you next to women your age, there's probably a dramatic difference in both energy, function, and the way you look. You're being real hard on yourself. You're crushing it. crushing it. crushing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're you're eating a lot. You got a fast metabolism. You're working out. You're active. Like, you're totally killing it. killing it. killing it. And there's definitely a thing. It's there's a for real there's a thing for as as people ruining the experience of this amazing thing that you've accomplished and continue to accomplish by breaking themselves down in the mirror.

Yeah. mirror. Yeah. mirror. Yeah. By looking and saying, "I want this little piece here, and I want a little more of that, and I feel like I don't look like I work out." Even though everyone around you is like, "Man, you look like you work out." Not that it matters what they think. What matters is what you think. And it'll ruin the experience for you because you're on your path. If you you stay the course, man, you're you're on this incredible path and you're going to continue to separate yourself from your peers, which you're already already, like I said, you know this.

You go walk around a bunch of women your age and it's very different. You know how it's gonna be when you're Yeah. You wait till you're 57, 67, 77. It's gonna be like you're in a different universe. you're doing such a good job and I don't think you're celebrating it uh the way that you should and so it changes the experience of the whole thing thing thing and it makes it less uh enjoyable and more stressful. more stressful. more stressful. I mean we're in the long game now.

At this point it's like maintain this and continue this on like Sal's saying uh getting obsessed with it or forcing your body to go a certain direction. This is where the injury comes. This is where the injury happens or the setbacks come. Like you're you're in such a good place. Such a great place. Stay there, Jennifer. Thanks. I I will try the changing. That's the question. I didn't know. Changing adding some more volume. I'm I'm not going to I don't I don't want to lose weight.

I've given up like 150 155 is good. 160. I don't even care. Um but I would just like to I want if a if a bad guy's coming down the road and I've got my kids with me, I want him to be afraid that I kick him into I kick him into next week. You know what I mean? Just get a gun. We're in Tennessee. We have those, too. Yeah, you're good, dude. You're doing great. You're doing really good. We'll have We'll have uh Doug send over Map Symmetry.

So, you got that next uh to follow. I think that'll be a good program for you. That's the one that's left and right, right? The bilateral. Correct. Unilateral. Correct. Unilateral. Correct. Unilateral. Unilateral. Stay in those first few phases. Yeah. Totally. Don't do the last phase for a while. Don't do the last phase. Okay. And that will help me to get the the confidence in the squat. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, it will. Especially with the injuries that you've had. had. had. Yeah, it'll build up that support system for you.

for you. for you. Yep. Yep. Yep. Awesome. Thank you guys. I appreciate your time. your time. your time. Thank you, Jennifer. Y'all have a good one. She She Does she hear anything? I I wish we had a picture so we could see, but I mean, obviously, obviously, obviously, I don't need to see a picture. I can see her neck. I can see how her delts look through her sweater. I mean, if her numbers are on point, the numbers that she's giving me, she's actually like she's jacked.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. She's not just like kind of fit. She's like got a really fit. really fit. really fit. Yeah. Really fit. You're not You're not 17% body fat, 150 160 lbs at her height. Yeah. And and then and complaining about your vascularity in your upper body and not have like It's one Listen, it's this is tough. It's really tough because And she don't want to hear it. And she don't want to hear it because she probably hears people tell her all the time how great she looks and she's like, "No, I don't.

It it ruins this incredible experience. Not that you got to sit there and celebrate how great you are, but it's like you can't enjoy it. Not only that, S, but the the myth that um a lot of people fall for and they don't know until they ever reach that point that it's it's like the money thing. Oh, I'll be happy when I make this much money. I'll be happy when I get to It's an illusion. And and then you get there and you pick yourself apart the same way.

way. way. It's well, it's literally the thing that motivates 90% of these competitors is that they're they still obsess even after they get present the most perfect physique on stage. stage. stage. They are continually focused on all the flaws and that's what they keep. It's like it's 10 years later she looks back at the picture. Oh my god, I wish I was like this. Exactly what I was going to say. She's going to look at herself in 10 years, look at picture and be like, man, I looked what was what was I thinking?

I looked amazing. Yeah. Our next caller is Roger from California. What's up, Roger? What's happening? How's it going, gentlemen? Thanks for having me. having me. having me. Good. How can we help you, man? Uh, so I uh emailed I've got a probably a pretty unique situation here. So, my son and I um right around that Christmas, we purchased the maps uh 15 power lift. So, little background on my son. He's a a baseball player. He's uh eighth grade going into his freshman year in high school next year.

Um he's pretty kind of small by nature. He just hasn't hit that puberty yet. So he's about 55 110 lbs after a good meal. And uh so we started doing this in an effort to kind of lift more but not um kind of overtrain with baseball practices and uh kind of the other things he's got going on. So we got about 3 weeks into the program. Um he was uh we were in kind of like the uh deadlift phase I guess is uh looking back on it and uh his deadlift was up.

He's deadlifting about 230 at the time. Um it increased strength by 10%. Um I saw all my lifts go kind of up in ways I hadn't seen before. So we kind of knew the the program was was really working for us and for him and and it was cool doing it with him as a dad and and a son kind of side by side. So, the story takes a weird turn here is uh he was at a baseball practice uh one morning and um during a drill, it wasn't during batting practice, so he didn't have a helmet on, but a ball that essentially wasn't supposed to be thrown ended up going in his way, hit him in the side of the head, and uh by that was at 10:00 in the morning.

By 4:00 that afternoon, we're in emergency uh kind of brain surgery. He had a what was called a uh cranial hematoma. So, it wasn't actually his brain bleeding, but it was a small artery that was punctured by the fracture. So, uh 4 hours surgery um came out of it, everything was good. Um but he's obviously was this was about 2 and 1/2 months ago. Um so, obviously has some healing to to kind of go through, which which puts um the lifting and and all of that obviously on on the back burner.

So, uh So, uh So, uh Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Uh kind of at the point we're at now, um reason I had reached out to you guys is um I had a good friend at at our church. Oh, that's funny. He's a good friend now. At the time, I I did not know the gentleman. And he had came over and just randomly started talking, mentioned your podcast, which is where kind of all this kind of comes together. And uh so after watching my son kind of go through the workout stage and all that working and now kind of hit a hit a little bump in the road um I kind of wanted to reach out to you guys and just um get a feel for kind of he's now so now we're looking about 3 months before um high school preseason uh kind of camp starts and uh kind of reaching out to you guys to see what kind of program you would recommend him getting into.

um full clearance from the doctors now. Um I've just we always say praise to God cuz uh brain is 100% healthy. Um there's zero lingering side effects. Um nothing wrong with muscles or anything like that. He's he's got a full uh clearance from the doctor. Uh the only thing we're waiting for now for getting back to actually baseball is for uh the fracture itself to heal. And then they had to take out a a size of about the his palm from his skull to let the bleeding kind of um dissipate.

And so now we got to wait for that kind of to heal up. So he's about a month away from actually getting back on the field. But in terms of the weights and conditioning and all that, he's got a a full green light to go. So, I would just like to kind of reach out to you guys and say, you know, what would be your advice to him both for getting stronger, getting back into it. Um, but also, um, just the baseball atmosphere or landscape does look for kids to be bigger and stronger and so what he could do to, um, kind of fight this, uh, little little by nature syndrome that he's got going right now.

Yeah, man. Well, that's scary, dude. So glad to hear he's okay. So again, just to confirm, no uh movement issues, no speech issues, no nothing. It's all good. Just waiting for the complete healing. Okay, healing. Okay, healing. Okay, that was the crazy thing is he had u passed all PT and concussion tests 2 days after it. So wow, that's awesome, man. God, thank God. Protected in a mighty way. That's awesome. So, okay. So, um just to encourage you, Roger, um he he'll he'll gain back very quickly.

The only way to mess this up is to go too hard too fast. Okay, Okay, Okay, so muscle uh uh muscle memory is radically um effective and amazing, especially in kids. It's wild how kids can you build back strength and mobility and function from having a a cast on for 6 months or something like that. It's crazy. crazy. crazy. So just remarkable. The only thing you can do wrong is push too fast. So uh when he's cleared, you go map starter. after map starter, he'll probably be okay to get back into what he was doing.

Map starter is going to feel easy. It's going to feel easy to him or whatever. And we're just we're just we just want to just be be careful. Build back his stability. Build back stability. It'll come back real quick, dude. Uh and then as far as like size and strength, it's the same thing we tell uh everybody. Uh make sure he eats enough, eats high protein. With a kid his age, sleep is always a big challenge because they want to stay up on their on their devices or whatever.

So, it's like, "No, go to bed at the same time. Wake up at the same time every day. Don't do the thing where you go to bed super late Friday and you sleep in super late Saturday and, you know, jet lag yourself on Monday type of deal." deal." deal." And that's pretty much it, dude. really nothing nothing crazy uh or crazy advice considering his his his healing is just uh is just I'm honestly like it there's two kind of levers to pull with this and there's intensity and there's volume and I would lean more towards the volume uh in the practice of the lifts uh mainly because of that incraanial pressure and just that intensity of him like squeezing and and his output I would be a little bit concerned with that just you know to be on the cautious side and have him really kind of, you know, work through these movements, get that muscle contracting again, uh, and just kind of be in his body again for a bit.

Uh, so to starter and then maybe even like moving into 15. Yeah. Yeah. I go starter and then 15 after that. He'll be fine though by the time he gets to 15 cuz that starter is long enough that he's and and intensity wise he should be okay. And then I just really prioritize kids. Probably the hardest thing I think for young kids is the diet. Yep. Is consistently hitting protein, you know, and like I'm okay with uh, you know, some some junk calories or bad calories so long as we hit our protein first.

And so that would be kind of the message I would be constantly drilling in is, in is, in is, you know, you know, you know, I really focus on his food. Yeah. I'm not I'm not worried about eating, you know, extra stuff here and there because he's probably going to be burning a lot with everything he's doing. But what they tend to do is not hit protein and then over consume on sugar and other [ __ ] like that. that's just not going to help them build. And so keeping him consistent with that uh with all the stuff he's doing lifting wise and training like he'll build muscle, but that that's the part that that they struggle they struggle with consistently hitting their protein intake.

Uh intake. Uh intake. Uh the game changer with teenagers is breakfast. breakfast. breakfast. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That's the that's the big hack, dude. It's like Yeah. You get you get him to eat a load up that protein. Yeah. You get him to eat like 30 40 grams of protein, you know, his size for for breakfast. The rest is easy. he misses breakfast or skips breakfast or rushes out to go to school, then it's a it's a it's uphill battle. The breakfast is the key.

Yeah, nutrition's been the big thing. He's not a we'll say he's not a big eater. eater. eater. Always. Always. Always. He's he's the one I have to remind to eat. And uh so yeah, what would you guys say if if I was to give him a number calorie-wise? calorie-wise? calorie-wise? I wouldn't focus on the calories. I'd focus on the protein. Yeah. Have him hit 120 grams of protein a day. a day. a day. Yeah. had him hit the hit the protein and then let him eat whatever he wants on top of that.

So, it's like I don't give a [ __ ] if he's having give I don't give a [ __ ] if he's having ice cream here and there. I don't care about the burgers and the fries, but hit his protein and take first. And the guys are right like what will what will make it really difficult if he's a breakfast skipper or a bowl of cereal guy in the morning and he goes off because that's just a bunch of carbs and sugar and he's not getting high protein. high protein.

high protein. Yeah, the quick breakfast stuff is Yeah. Do Do you wake up with him and take him to school in the morning or is that mom who does that with him? Uh yeah, so we homeschool, so I'm usually already out of the house. Um Um Um so which makes the sleep part easy cuz uh they kind of can work on their own schedule. So he's good about getting his, you know, 8 to 10 hours of sleep. Yeah. Okay. So this is good. So cook breakfast and it's good family time, too.

too. too. Well, even if you don't cook, I don't know if you hear me give the advice all the time. I love the cook a big dinner and then that breakfast is literally the leftovers with the two, three eggs crunch cracked over it. Like that's okay. okay. okay. That's a go-to move. Like I'm sure like you guys I mean most people are consistent with like the dinner time family dinner cooking or whatever like that and if you have you know ground beef, steak, chicken, whatever it is and rice, sweet potatoes, regular potato, you just literally portion that out for the morning, reheat that and throw two or three eggs on top of it and you got yourself a 50 gram, you know, high protein great breakfast for him.

Starting that him off on the right track like that makes the rest of the day pretty easy. pretty easy. pretty easy. Okay, awesome. That's um I mean I'll share this with him cuz I know he needs to hear from somebody other than dad. He's probably heard the the message from dad a little too often. So of course and a good target for him is like 150 lbs 150 gram of protein is a good target. If he falls if he misses that he's good. Yeah. Shooting for 150.

If he's shooting for 150 and he falls short to 110 he'll be 120 he'll be fine. Y but shoot for 150 gram of protein uh will be a good target for him to go after. Totally. after. Totally. after. Totally. Okay, great. Thank you. You got it, man. I'm going to send you a starter. Okay. starter. Okay. starter. Okay. Thank you guys. So, thank you guys so much for what you do. We uh I love listening to you guys and uh it's uh it's just great to be able to talk to you face to face and and to share this with my son and it's been a big uh kind of whirlwind of a last two months.

So, I bet you have a cool step uh and just getting better. getting better. getting better. Well, love I love to hear back after you guys go through this whole process. So, let's uh let's hear if he sticks with it. uh email back in so we know how he's doing. doing. doing. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. All right, Roger. Thanks, man. Oo, that's scary, dude. That hits me a bit. Oh, boy, that's scary. But thank I mean, full recovery. Like, that's wonderful. But that is terrifying. But yeah, with kids, it's breakfast.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like they don't want to eat in the morning. morning. morning. I mean, [ __ ] that's everybody. But you're right. Kids are kids especially, they don't want to eat. Skip or you have cereal. Yeah, dude. What we do at home now, we have a little bit of um an advantage because we also homeschool. So we're not like rushed cuz that's when it gets real tough and most schools start so damn early I know that getting your kid up and then getting them to eat it's like I don't want to eat right every day.

But with our with the little one cuz my daughter's hard so she's 16 she goes to high school and so we've just what I've done with her I've gotten her the high protein yogurts and she'll throw granola in there and it's like a compromise, right? But at least she's getting the protein. But protein. But protein. But that's not a bad compromise though. That's a solid You get those ones with 15 20 grams in it. Yeah. I get the 20 the the 30 gram ones. Yeah. Now, it's and it's it's definitely better than nothing.

And thank god my daughter's like she's playing sports, so she's all about it. But like with the little ones, uh breakfast is family time. And so it's like we got the we don't have to rush it. We're going to sit together if I'm not there cuz I'm at work. My wife does it with them. And you know, we they we make sure they get it. Uh but that's the hack cuz you skip breakfast. You're trying to get, you know, you try to get 120 grams of protein protein protein is real difficult, which doesn't sound like a ton, but if he misses breakfast now, you got what you have 60 grams for lunch and dinner.

I think it's Let's Let's be honest. School lunch type settings is like a sandwich. Yeah. It's not available. It's like 10 g of protein. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our next caller is Evan from Indiana. What's up, Evan? What's happening? Hey, how's it going? Good, dude. How you doing? Doing all right. Um, I'll just get into my question then. Uh, so I've got like a lingering question about nutrition. So, I'm vegan. Um I have been vegan for 6 years and my question mainly is around like nutrition regarding protein.

Um I guess specifically guess specifically guess specifically what I understand to be like complete and incomplete like protein sources from plant-based foods. So um you know for reference I'll try to hit 210 grams of protein per day. Um and I'm pretty consistent with that. It's not too big a deal. But while I'm tracking that, you know, for example, if I eat bowl of rice and beans and then protein on top of that, the rice and the beans have protein in it that counts towards the total, that kind of thing.

And so my question is like, you know, how much does it matter that the protein source that I'm eating has is like a complete protein or not? Um, to hit that target. Good question, dude. I have some more questions for you. Uh, do you supple Do you take any supplements? supplements? supplements? I take protein powder um to help out with that. Usually like one in the morning. Um, some of the foods that I make will have like protein powder included in them both to complement the amino acid profile, but also just bump the protein of whatever I'm making.

Um, aside from that, I'll take creatine. Um, and then just vitamins and stuff. What kind of vitamins are you taking? Uh, multi B12, uh, omega-3 uh, omega-3 uh, omega-3 EA. EA. EA. Um, Um, Um, I think so, a little bit. I think it has DHA and, uh, the other one. Okay. Good, good, good. So, so, and you said you're hitting about 210 grams of total protein a day. And how much you weigh? weigh? weigh? Uh, right now I'm about 192. Okay. So, so protein quality matters more matters more matters more when you're low.

when the protein is below a certain threshold, uh, you're probably beyond that threshold, so you're okay. In other words, the total amino acids you're consuming are okay. Now, you could try getting up to 230 240 grams of protein to see if you notice a difference. Um, but if the protein is high, then what we start to see with protein quality is u it doesn't make that big of a difference anymore. Now if your protein is like 150 then it definitely uh makes a difference. The only uh caveat is sometimes really high intake of uh vegan proteins because it they tend to come along with fiber and other things uh and just quantity is sometimes people see gastric uh distress.

distress. distress. But if your digestion's okay uh then you're probably okay. Um and you could try bumping it to see if you notice a difference. And what you'll notice is like more strength, better recovery type of deal. Um, but I do have some other questions around diet if that's okay. Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay. So, uh, what is your what's the reason for going vegan? Is this, uh, a moral thing for you? Like because you don't want animals to be hurt type of deal or deal or deal or Yeah, basically.

Yeah, basically. Yeah, basically. Okay, that's good. That's fine. Uh, totally fine. If you were doing for health, if you're like, hey, I want to do for health or whatever, then we would talk a little bit about the value of eating meat. Um uh so so meat is off the table for you. Or what about eggs? Are eggs off the table? Uh off the table. Strictly vegan. Strictly vegan. Okay, we're fine then. Uh you could bump your protein. Um and I would I don't know how many grams of creatine do you take a day?

Uh five. I was taking 10. Um but when I did that in one dose, I noticed it hurt my stomach. So I bumped it down to five. You just break it up throughout the day. I would take 15 grams of of creatine a day, but I'd take five uh with breakfast, five with lunch, five with dinner. dinner. dinner. Benefits. Benefits. Benefits. Yeah, my vegan clients got remarkable benefits from taking 10 to 15 grams of creatine, but you got to divide it up all at once and you'll get gastric distress.

distress. distress. A lot of people, but he's if you're if you're hitting that that number with EAAs, you're going to be he's going to be fine. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So, if you don't if you're not consistently taking EAS, consistently take EAAs with uh your meals, you could try that and that'll help. help. help. Yeah. Some capsules like Keon makes a really good essential amino acid supplement that's also vegan. And what you would do is you would add like five capsules per meal which essentially boosts the what what they would label as the protein uh you know quality know quality know quality uh essentially.

Um and you could try that as well. I've had you know clients do that who are vegan who also got uh good results from that. What are your total calories at right now? I'm sitting around 3,400. Wow. Oh, yeah. You're doing good, dude. You're doing all right. And how's your strength training? strength training? strength training? Uh, it's going pretty good. I've been doing the um 15 advanced um just starting another round of that after taking a week off. Um Okay, perfect. Okay, perfect. Okay, perfect. After finishing the last and it's been going great.

I think I started I've tracked on and off just because of consistency in life and all that stuff um for the past few years and I started I think around 2700 just cuz that's been a starting point for me in the past and I went to 3100 and then been sitting at 3,400 for I don't know probably good six weeks now. That's great. And then you get you get things like iron tested uh just uh yeah blood works all good. Beautiful. And then with your B vitamins, something you might want to try are methylated B vitamins.

Okay. Some sometimes people in general do better with the methylated version. That's a brand that carries that. Uh I mean, I don't know a good brand. I mean, you could just look it up. You just look up methylated B, you know, complex. complex. complex. Um I had a vegan client once where we were, she kind of had low energy, but everything else looked good. Couldn't really figure it out. She was taking B vitamins. We switched to methylated B and it was like a light switch. So just something you can experiment with.

They're inexpensive. If you're already taking B vitamins, you could just go methylated um and see if you notice a difference. But otherwise, you're doing everything great, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How long you been following mass programs? Are you have you been doing them for a while or you just get started on them? on them? on them? Uh off and on for most of the time that I've been consistently strength training. I did anabolic back in I think 23. Um and then, you know, we had our son in early 24.

So, it's been hard to be consistent with that, which is what's nice about the uh 15 program. Oh, cool. Cool. Yeah, you're doing otherwise. You're doing good, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Doing real good. Well, cool. I appreciate it. Hey, can I send you a program? You're following 15. Do you have the other 15? Another version. Another version. Another version. Uh, no, just the uh advanced, advanced, advanced, the regular like 15 and 15 advance. What do you want? You want 15 powerlift? We have 15 performance. Um, Um, Um, I saw actually I've been I was thinking about like, you know, something related to symmetry and I went on your website and I saw that there's a 15 symmetry, but but but I'll send that to you, bro.

Yeah, we'll send it over. Got it. Oh, well cool. Appreciate it. Yeah, you got it, man. Thanks. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Take it easy, man. I had a client once. You're doing good, dude. I know. Yeah. So, my vegan clients were were challenging because of And he's doing it, it, it, but it was challenging to get enough protein without getting so much other stuff. stuff. stuff. Yeah. Totally. Um, and then we would supplement. supplement. supplement. Yeah, he's definitely supplementing. So, all my all my Yeah, because nutrient deficiency is going to be higher in in when you have comparable balanced diets uh in in vegan diets.

So, we would do multivitamin B and I had this one woman and I'll never forget and there's only one because I had other vegan clients and when they did when they followed the protocols, everybody turned out okay. But there's one woman I had, I'll never forget. We did everything, bro. We did everything. We had the supplements. She was taking the creatine. She was hitting protein, using protein powder. And she just had this lingering like low energy. She'd have these kind of symptoms that look like nutrient couldn't figure it out.

out. out. And convinced finally she just me and a functional medicine practitioner convinced her to eat eggs and it was like like like cholesterol. You think uh I think it was some it had to be either the choline or some and this is my guess. Uh, and I've heard of other cases like this from functional medicine practitioners where they're like, "Look, I've had some vegan clients where we had to sit down and say, "You got to throw in in in Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. some meat. some meat.

some meat. Eggs is usually like a gateway." Bro, it was it was like night and day, dude. She started eating eggs and it was like I gave her steroids. It was like boom. She's like, "Oh my god, I feel so good." I'm like, and the conversation the conversation was like this, cuz she was very much about animal welfare, which uh that's the only vegans that stick to it, by the way. So, I asked him and I said to her, I said, "Look, I I know this is real important to you." I said, "But the animal you have to uh place at the top cuz otherwise you're you're not able to to be a good in this world is you." And so she gave in, ate some eggs, and it was like a light bulb went off and she just she felt so much better.

There's only one only one client that ever happened with. All right, I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. 30% body fat for men. This is way too high. This is actually a bit high for women as well. So in today's episode, we're talk about how you can go from 30 to 10. What is 10% body fat? This is when you have a visible six-pack. Can you go from 30 to 10%, yes, it's possible, but not if you guess along the way.

So, we're going to talk about how you can do that in today's episode. today's episode. today's episode. Now, there's a huge range, right, of like body types. Some people can run uh a little bit heavier uh and or a little bit higher