Beyond the Scale: Rethinking Metrics for Fitness Success | Mind Pump 2818

Key Takeaway

Stop obsessing over the scale—it's sabotaging your progress. The number doesn't tell you about muscle gain, water retention, or inflammation. Focus on what truly matters: strength gains, energy levels, performance, and how your clothes fit. A client once gained muscle, lost fat, received compliments from everyone, yet felt devastated when the scale barely moved. The scale is feedback, not fate. Track performance metrics instead—they drive better habits and sustainable results.

Episode Overview

The hosts discuss why daily weighing often sabotages fitness progress, sharing stories of clients who built muscle and lost fat while the scale barely changed. They explore how inflammation, water retention, and muscle gain make the scale misleading, and why performance-based metrics (strength, energy, recovery) are far more reliable indicators of health. The conversation touches on body dysmorphia, the mirror's deceptive feedback, and why most people aren't qualified to interpret scale data without proper context.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Beyond the Scale: Rethinking Metrics for Fitness Success | Mind Pump 2818 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Do you weigh yourself often? Congratulations. You're totally sabotaging yourself. sabotaging yourself. sabotaging yourself. Oo, that's a that's a bold statement right there. right there. right there. Sabotage. Sabotage. Sabotage. Um, Um, Um, yeah. You know, it depends, right? It depends on who we're talking about because I think I weigh myself, right? So, am I am I sabotaging myself right now because I'm weighing myself or is it most people that do that end up sabotaging theirselves? I I can get behind that. There's a self- selection bias. If you weigh yourself daily, you're probably the one that's sabotaging yourself.

If you if you're constantly checking the scale, scale, scale, obsessed with the scale for sure. That's right. Even Even if you're not right, what's it what do you think are the percentage of people that can read that data as simple as we make it sound and interpret it correctly? That that's that's what makes a really good argument for or to your point is that maybe you're not even obsessed, Justin, with the scale, but you regularly weigh yourself. You have to ask yourself, are you even uh informed enough or understand what you're actually reading?

actually reading? actually reading? Discern like what kind of muscle like ratio versus fat like you consist of versus water versus water versus water versus water. Yeah. I would I would even reward it like this. I'd say, does what the scale say dictate your mood and how you feel for the rest of the day? Yeah. that well that to me whether you're winning or losing that to me is a clear indicator that you're you're not uh qualified to interpret that data. That's right. That's right. That's right.

Because it shouldn't like because again I I weigh myself daily. It's feedback and it's like oh interesting this might be going on or like and then I also crush your feelings. No no it doesn't make me go like oh my god I'm so sad like oh I'm going the wrong way freak out like it's just like oh interesting this could be going on this might this might this might so uh I I bet you're right. I bet uh a large percentage of people that do use the scale and get on it.

What it says and and this is a great exercise for anybody who's listening right now who just may disagree with this your statement is pretend it's 10 lb up or 10 lbs down. Does that change your emotional state? emotional state? emotional state? And if it would and we're not even telling you what that 10 lbs. lbs. lbs. That's right. That's exactly what I'm saying. Just 10 lbs up. Say, say pretend you got on there today and it was 10 pounds higher than you expected or 10 lbs less than you expected.

And does that ch change your your emotional state? And if if the answer, if you can be honest with yourself and you would say, oh my god, yeah, that would make me either really happy or yeah, that would make me really frustrated, then that says you probably shouldn't be doing it. I have I have two uh great um stories around this. Um and then I'll and then I'll talk about myself because this is uh you know this is was a constant struggle for me and it can still be even now so many years uh later.

But I I remember the first time this really struck me. I was a relatively new trainer and I had this woman uh that I trained and I at this point I had become privy to the fact that frequent weighing would often get in the way. Okay? And what I mean by that is like if I had a client and we're building muscle and this person's interested in losing weight or body fat, you know, god forbid the scale go up a pound, like it was just so hard.

You'd have to deal with that with the client. There's lots of conversations and talking around it essentially talking them off a ledge type of deal. So I had this this at this point I had kind of seen this and I had this woman, she wanted to lose uh weight. I don't remember how much it was. I was like probably 15 pounds, something like that. and I had convinced her to not weigh herself. We had this big conversation. She's like, "Okay, I won't do it." So, I'm training her and she's getting stronger and she's getting visibly leaner.

Uh what I mean by that is like it just there was more definition, more definition arms, her lower body was shaping, and then she was coming to me and she was telling me all the compliments and comments she was getting from work and from her husband. So, she'd come in, so this was over like a 3-month period or something. She'd come in and be like, "Oh, another person I haven't seen in a long time came up to me and said,"Oh my god, you've lost so much weight." She's like, "It's this is like the third person." People come up to her and say, "Oh my god, how much weight have you lost?" And she'd say, "Well, I don't know.

I'm not allowed to weigh myself." type of deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so this is just kept happening. Her husband was like, "Oh my god, you look amazing. You look so good." This people worker uh you know, co-workers would compliment on how much weight she was losing. Meanwhile, she's getting stronger and I'm seeing more definition. Well, anyway, we finally hop on the scale uh a a few months later and the scale had barely budged. I think it went down like a pound or two. Mhm. Mhm.

Mhm. She was devastated. Totally devast crushed. This isn't working. working. working. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is abandoned ship. Yes. And I remember I like we had to sit down. I went I remember I sat down with her. I said, "Your strength went up, you know, 30 lbs here, 15 lbs there." Everybody's not saying to you you look different. They're saying to you, "Oh my god, how did you lose so much weight?" Your husband's saying it. You've been comment com uh commenting on this. I said, "You do realize you've lost body fat and built muscle, which means you're smaller and more defined." But it at at that point had crushed her.

And there was like this long period after that. That number just really got I had to rebuild trust. I had to like rebuild her trust in the process because of that. And then on the other hand, I have another I had another story of a client who had gotten really sick. They got really sick and came in after a while. Like they got really sick. Came in and I remember they came in, they were depleted. You could tell they were really sick. They probably they lost muscle.

It was like one of those illnesses where it was like, you know, throwing up the whole deal and then fever. Okay. fever. Okay. fever. Okay. She came in, gets on the scale, and she's like, "Oh, well, at least I lost 10 pounds. This is great." and like she was happy about it even though like you obviously just got over a major illness was like four weeks long. long. long. Uh and so the these are great examples of how uh this could really mess you up. And if you're the kind of person that weighs yourself daily um this is dictating your joy and it's also dictating what you do in the gym and with your diet uh to to the point where it's moving you in the wrong direction.

Now I'll speak to myself as a kid. I just wanted to get big. And I could still struggle with this as a as a as a grown man, but definitely as a kid. As a kid, it was like the scale was everything. If I went up, I don't care what I gained. I just want to gain weight weight weight on the scale. And I would actually veer towards inflammatory foods. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Because it'd make me hold water. Like pizza was great because I'd gain a few pounds on the scale.

And I'd never weigh myself in the morning because I knew I'd be heaviest at night. Uh and I'd weigh myself after a heavy meal. God forbid I weigh myself before I ate. And even though I know logically that was like dumb, uh it was totally moving me in this in this terrible direction. So if you're looking at the scale constantly um and weighing yourself daily, you're sabotaging yourself. You're there far better metrics to measure like strength, energy, uh your overall performance and fitness, your digestion, your sleep.

Um, you could use uh body fat tests even though but those can get also carried away but that's a better measurement. The scale does just tells you total mass. Tells you nothing about body composition. It doesn't say water retention or not or dehydrate or not. It's just a it literally is just a number everybody without any uh further investigation or understanding. Uh I think weighing yourself daily for most people you're totally sabotaging yourself. yourself. yourself. It's funny because in most people it's for a look anyways.

And like to your your point earlier of like everybody's giving positive feedback, you know, and receiving that and you know to to be hung up on just the number of the scale like this is I I've had many clients that that was the main determiner and they come in and they just had to lose the weight you know and to lose the weight and by any means necessary feel fatigued you know but they're still happy about it because they got to that result and it's just it's doesn't make any sense to me.

I mean, of all three of us, I'm I'm for sure the guy that probably tracks uh these types of metrics the most and more regularly than everybody, right? Everything from the scale to DEXA scans to my or a competitor. This was what you this was your game, your game, your game, right? Right. And even before that, I've I've I've always been fascinated with that data. I still love that data. Like right now, I'm tracking sleep a lot. Like I I I pay attention all stuff. But I think the problem with the scale is in its simplicity that we we make it seem so simple yet it's probably one of the more sophisticated more sophisticated more sophisticated uh pieces of data that you could get you meaning like how difficult it is to interpret.

interpret. interpret. That's right. That's right. That's right. What what it's giving you like it's not like body fat test is actually really clear clear clear what moved it. Like a if you go take a body fat test uh say you you've been following a plan for 2 months you get a body fat test. There's your body composition. Yeah, it's pretty clear there's there's still cases where that can definitely mislead you. Uh in the example I gave was recently with what we had been going through with Karen like it didn't give a a great result back for us but it's still the direction I want to go and I want to take her and so some people can misinterpret even that.

Um, but for the most part, it's a pretty good indicator and it's pretty clear, right? Like, oh, look, I gained fat. I lo or I lost fat. I gained muscle. That's right. I'm moving in the right direction or not moving at all. Whatever the case may be. But the scale is is actually much harder to interpret. Very, very difficult. I mean, even for somebody who's been doing this for a very long time and is tracking all these other metrics. I mean, I'll get on the scale and I'll still go, hm, I I it's not like, oh, I definitely this is happening.

I'm going, okay, this I'm recounting, well, I've been doing this. I've been doing that. Hm. This could be going on right now. This could be like I'm I even question that. And yet we so many people take that data and go, "Oh." And they they right away go to a conclusion. It's like that's crazy. Like as much as I track and as much as I'm really good at all these things, when I look at the scale weight of all the things that I track, it's the least clear answer for me.

It's I I still go like, hm, it could be these things. I might be do this. Maybe I'll try this one variable. Like I definitely do not allow it to go like, oh no, I'm off the rails or oh no, this is or yeah, this is perfect. It's like that's so uh vague of all the metrics that we can use. You know what's wild? You know what's wild about metrics and I I I know this is true for you guys. I guarantee and I guarantee it's true for most really experienced trainers.

Um except for the context of let's say where you're training competitors, right? These are people who are getting on stage and that's different. But the average person early days trainer or early days trainer me I used to I used to do body fat tests and scale measurements relatively frequently with my clients and I test every two weeks probably probably probably often. Every two weeks I'm testing I'm testing their body composition. I'm looking at their body fat percentage. Gain muscle, lose muscle, gain body fat, lose body fat.

Later version of myself. I almost did no metrics ever. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And I bet you that's true for you guys. Well, yeah. Remember I I I admitted I failed Karen on this journey that we just went on and I we waited still six to eight weeks. I can't remember what it was between tests and it was still too early. early. early. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, because I know I know we're on the right path. Exactly. I know we're on the right path what we're doing.

Um, too much information for a client is bad often. often. often. Yeah. I used to just like I would take all those metrics at the very beginning and so I would try and like get as much data as possible on the client and then I would just store it away and then we would literally only revisit it when they felt like they made immense progress and they're pumped and like well let's see kind of where we we landed, you know, and let's look at this that, you know, so such a uh so it was so funny too.

I was I was like I was actually trying to figure out how can I do this when I went to get her test or when she went to go take her test cuz she goes and does it and it's all in her data system, her email and everything. But in a perfect world, I only get it. She doesn't get it. Like all you would say to her is we're moving the right direction. I wouldn't like literally I wouldn't report back to her what is being what is being read by the the test because I am very confident in what I'm doing.

Like we've done this enough times. I was aware of what was the potential where we need to be. Um, and even she knows logically. I would have protected her from the mental games that it plays if I if I could have and I should have like figured out a way like you know what let's I should have said that from day one was like you know what let's have your test emailed just to me and I'll interpret the data. I don't want you to see see see I'll change your training.

Yeah. Yeah. I should have done that. Um and I so I look back now like this was a a mistake as coach Adam on this part. I should have done that because then she'd still be cuz she's seeing all she's seeing PRs damn near every other week. People are complimenting every other, you know what I'm saying? But then the data comes back and it's not Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. ideal, right? Or it doesn't say this awesome, awesome, awesome, but you know you're moving in the right direction.

direction. direction. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I It's funny. I used to ask uh typically female clients, I'd ask them this just to kind of prove a point and say, "Okay, let's say let's say your weight on the scale never changed. Let's say you you're still going to weigh whatever 160 pounds, whatever it is, but I got you to lose 10% body fat, so you gain muscle, but the the weight is is the same on the on the scale. You know what they used to say to me?

I don't care. I I just want to get smaller. Yes, I know. You do realize you'd be smaller, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I just want to be Yeah. It's like, oh, you And then I'd do the famous like, you want me to cut your leg off? You lose weight on the scale. Will that make you happy? It just kind of illustrate um the silliness silliness silliness of the whole thing. Um and it does. It really does mess people up. This my performance. So, so you may be hearing this and thinking, "Oh, what?

You didn't track anything for your clients?" No, no. I used to look at their energy, their strength, their performance, their pain. I could tell if they were gaining a lot of body fat. I could tell. And so then that would adjust my training. But performance is a far better metric. It's not perfect, but it's better. Drives them to better habits. Yeah. Listen, if you dramatically increase your fitness, the side effect of that is you're probably going to get leaner and build muscle. probably health-wise you're way better and uh quality of life-wise you're way better.

Performance is actually a better if I had to pick any metrics that I could only ever use. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. They'd be performance-based for the most part. part. part. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mypumpstore.com. mypumpstore.com. mypumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mypumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. So, we also have a brand new bundle, the spring bundle, map symmetry, maps prime, and the advanced training techniques guide.

All of that together, 50% off, 147. Head over to mapsmarch.com. Here comes the show. Well, yeah, cuz I would say the the second worst metric and most commonly used is the mirror. Yeah. Oh god. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Cuz that can be so deceiving. Oh my gosh. Oh gosh. I mean, so subjective. really uh was highlighted personally for me. I mean I I I pieced that together later in my career as a trainer, but the the because I had to become so hyperfocused on it in the bodybuilding world bodybuilding world bodybuilding world and it was now become like part of like my job.

I'm I'm totally looking at all these things. these things. these things. Uh I realized, wow, how much that can fluctuate and change within 24 to 48 hours and also give you a feedback of oh my god this doesn't look right. But you I know because I was tracking so detailed. detailed. detailed. That was my favorite part of the whole experience of competing aside from manipulating myself was the coaching level up I got from it was oh wow like if I know for a fact what's going on based off of all the macros things I'm doing that I know I'm doing the right things but then I'm look I'm looking in the mirror right now and I don't like what I see compared to what I saw just two days ago.

Oh, this is crazy. Like this is totally what my clients have felt and expressed to me so many times before when they're like I know I don't I look this way and they're like it's like how do you argue that? like how do you argue that? I I had a client once uh it's like one of those breakthrough moments as a trainer and then I would use this as an example later but I had a client who was in her late 30s like 38 39 and she said this is what I want to look like and she brought a picture of herself when she was in her mid20s and she was like at the beach or whatever she like this is what I want to look like.

So, I looked at it and you know, of course, she was younger, more fit, the whole deal. And I said, said, said, "How did you feel about the way you looked when you were 25?" And she's like, "Wow." She goes, "Wow, let me think about that." She goes, "Yeah, I wasn't happy with myself." Said, "Isn't that interesting?" I said, "I think the way you feel about yourself is largely subjective." And it really dawned on her like, "Yeah, when I was in my mid20s, even though I look like that, I was so insecure about the way I looked.

Had you asked me then, I would have been like, "Oh, no. I got too much flab here. I don't look good there." and whatever and studying yourself in the mirror, you're setting yourself up for terrible Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. failure. failure. failure. Well, and like you I I mean before we were on the podcast today, I was talking to you openly, man, I can tell right now I have systemic inflammation right now going on and my diet's dialed right now. And so there's a couple things I know for sure that happens.

I'm I'm puffier for sure. So I I hold I'm holding water all over the body, which in the reflection of the mirror looks like looks like body fat. It also reflects on the scale. holds an extra two to four pounds for me on the scale. Yet, I know I'm like dialed nutritionally. And so, it's more like, oh, what else is going on in my life that's causing this inflammation? I can feel it. I can see it. Um, I I notice it's really easy for my aura ring, the way it slides on and off.

I'm like, I know when I'm holding extra water, extra water, extra water, and yet I I know it's not a problem with my training and my diet. And so, that's where this would throw a client way off. And and I get it because objectively you look you say subject your image is subjective and there is a subjective part but there's a very objective part to it. I'm for sure fluffier like there's no there's like it's it's very clear. So, it makes it extra hard because there's a subjective element to it and then there's actually a true objective element to it that yeah, you could easily be holding an extra two or four pounds of water for a period of a couple days because you ate something uh you had extra stress, you had a really rough night or two of sleep, you uh overtrained, you've got a small injury like that, which is probably what my case is right now.

you like there's a lot of there's a whole host of things that could have happened that it does not reflect you're not dieting right and you're not training right. I just had this conversation uh with my wife cuz she was taking creatine and she's like I stopped taking it so why she goes I just feel bigger. I'm like you know what's happening with creatine like it's your muscles. She's like I know but know but know but in the muscles and she knows she knows. So we're having this conversation about this and she's she used to be a trainer.

She's still it'll just yeah mess with your head and creatine doesn't make you make you make you hold water in a way that looks like bloat. It makes your muscles fuller. If anything, it makes you look more sculpted and you will go up a couple pounds on the scale from it because you're more hydrated. But people are like this is why creatine has been hard to sell to women for so long by the way. Although more women are using it now because I think they're getting they're finally figuring it out.

But initially this is why you had this whole category of creatine supplements that were like creatine for women no bloat because women would take creatine they their muscles will feel fuller but to them feel bigger myth further they a lot of people don't know how to discern the difference between the two they they look and feel totally different so like so what I have right now systemic inflammation looks different than water retention from from the muscle in the muscle it's very very different different different one looks like sculpted tone and shape the other one looks like water around Yeah.

Yeah. Totally. Totally different. Yeah. So, um I we've been getting message I want to cover something because we've been getting some messages from people who've been using dose the liver support supplement they have. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And they're reporting back like energy like energy boost like I have way more energy. energy. energy. So like what's in it that's giving me more um energy. So, uh, so I what I did is I pulled up common symptoms of, uh, you know, I looked up elevated, uh, liver enzymes or let's just say your liver is being a little bit too stressed.

Okay? And by the way, there's there are supplements out there that will say that they'll help um, with liver health, but very few of them actually have clinical data. Dose actually has has real studies on their product and has shown a majority of people to have an improvement in liver function. So you'll see this in the data. So if you go get your blood test, you'll see an improvement. Uh most people see an improvement in their in their uh liver enzyme markers. But here are some of the symptoms, some of the common symptoms that your liver enzymes are a bit elevated.

Loss of appetite, itchy skin. This is one where you kind of feel itchy skin, fatigue, and bloat. And so people are reporting back and they're like, "Is this an energy supplement?" I'm like, "Well, if you needed it, it's an energy supplement. You'll feel better from that." Appreciate it. Interesting. Yeah. What are the different flavors they have, Doug? Do you know what they are? Do you know what they all are? I'll have to look it up. I know they have a few of them, right? Yeah. Well, the products I don't think they're different flavors of each product.

I think it's like liver. The one one is for liver and it's a specific cuz you drink what? 2 ounces of it. Yeah. Yeah. Remember I thought you had to drink the whole bottle. Thank god, Thank god, Thank god, bro. You had Don't do that. No, it's like 2 oz serving. The bottle lasted for a little while. That's a pretty common one though when you get the blood markers back, right? you'll see a little bit of elevated liver enzy liver enzy liver enzy especially if you had a hard workout.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really hard workout or elevated uh CK levels if you have a lot of muscle mass. Um and doctors who are not familiar with athletes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've had people come back and be like my doctor said doctor said doctor said that's how I always know. That's how you always know when you got a good like doctor who's like strength trained and understands that is they'll normally when they go over their blood they'll say oh this is a little elevated but I I could tell you lift weights and so that's probably a little bit from there someone else cuz I've had both sides.

I've had someone who's like hey this a little high and I'm like really is that a problem? What do you got Doug? So, I mean, there's just one flavor for each variety. variety. variety. So, that's the liver one that and it tastes like uh kind of tastes like like carrot juice almost. I think it's a combination of a variety of different uh juices. There's some ginger in it, some orange. I believe they have another product too. Turmeric. Oh, yeah. They have obviously the chole cholesterol. They have one for cholesterol too.

They have one for skin. And now what I think you've shared this before about their which is is is cool is that they have like really good tests and stuff where people are have actually done blood work taken just that and then done that that that actual studies. actual studies. actual studies. Yeah. That's cool. Which is great cuz supplements typically don't come with uh with studies, right? Especially something like that. No. All right. I got a new uh thing that's going on in the world that is interesting.

interesting. interesting. There's a new what new thing? A new category of um I don't know what you would call it. Identifi identity. M. So, do you guys know what theans are? Justin probably knows. I've heard this. Doug, look up Theans. Sounds very Star Treky. Yeah. Are these um I'll pull up the article, dude. So, So, So, wait, is is this like a little breakaway society? society? society? Look at these guys. Yeah, dude. So, they're kind of like furries but different, huh? different, huh? different, huh? So, Theans are people who How do you look?

There's even a thing that says, "How do you know the difference between a Theion and a furry?" furry?" furry?" No. No. No. Oh, lord. So a theion is someone who identifies psychologically. identifies psychologically. identifies psychologically. So mentally, physically, spiritually with a nonhuman entity or an animal. So these are people actually identify. actually identify. actually identify. It's not either one. Yeah. So this is like I am a dog. This is how I identify. And they'll walk on all fours. all fours. all fours. So we just we don't call these people crazy anymore.

Probably no probably had no trauma or anything growing up at all. That's sad. But dude, But dude, But dude, I mean, I mean, I mean, you know what this You know, I was thinking about thinking about thinking about why can't why can't why is that so taboo to talk about that by the way? I don't know why, dude. Cuz the percentage on this stuff is like ridiculous when you see it. I think what's happening I I'll try to keep it like secular because I have a different worldview now.

But I think what's happening is there's such a lack there's there's simultaneously a lack of meaning. meaning. meaning. Yeah. And and and it's combined with this idea that you you create your own destiny and you can be whatever you want. And that combined when you have a lack of meaning with the I can be whatever I want and you and you're like, well, I don't want to be this and so now I want to be this other thing and it feels good to be this other thing.

Therefore, that's probably that's what I need. You're going to get really unique attention which you know some people are starving for. So, you know, you're going to do weird things. Yeah. And so they meet together. This is actually a big phenomenon in some countries where you get like these groups and they meet together and they Yeah. And so a furry is someone who likes to be in the costume, but these pe these people believe they they believe it and they're they're walking around like animals. animals.

animals. Yeah, dude. You see the picture and you see them get together like all the time or or is this just like you know when they hang out? This is this is what they are. This is what happens too because of the internet internet internet and the fact that Yeah. You get more of these ideas. Yeah. There's probably only a few hundred or maybe a few thousand of these people in the entire world, but they can all find each other and it looks like a movement.

Looks like some sort of I feel like we've hit every category. I mean, what's dude? Nope. I bet you there's more, dude. No, No, No, I watch that show. Uh, I love Taboo. I love uh Strange Addictions. Like, that's my jam, dude. I love weird people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I feel like they've gone everywhere with it. Yeah. I don't know what's left. Well, that but what's that what's that the what's that thing where um they you see a group of people dancing and then you'll come you'll you that study you know talk you know what I'm talking about.

about. about. So it's it because of the internet you have that where these would be all over the world they wouldn't be able they wouldn't be able to collectively yeah collectively get together. So the all it takes is one person who who sees this collective group and now goes like oh okay I could you know what I'm saying who like to your point lost no identity no purpose and it's like I can relate to this person I like animals whatever the thing is thing is thing is my worldview is different now cuz I would have explained this like I guess psychologically but now I have a different worldview which is u I guess you could well definitely you could say more biblical more biblical more biblical but this is really an extension of this idea that you determine what your identity is and now that doesn't sound bad on the surface, but let me just paint a picture, okay?

If my idea identity is a podcaster, this is what I am. This is my identity. This is everything. And then I lose my voice. What am I now? Or my identity is as a father and then my kids move out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or my identity as a a construction worker or a singer or I'm an athlete and then I get older and I can't be an athlete. athlete. athlete. Yeah. But those are all like based in reality. Like this is like fantasy land. Well, but my point is, yes, that's the secular side.

There's a big difference. Yes. Yes. Yes. And that's that's, you know, but it's just an extension and it goes to crazy levels. Sure. But there's no like feedback they're accepting. they're accepting. they're accepting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like there's no like like checks and balances with their friend groups. groups. groups. I know someone everybody's leaning into the fantasy and not like they just don't want to face reality, reality, reality, dude. And I think social pressure needs to be back a little bit. Well, there needs to be quality control amongst your peers, you know, and and I mean, I'm sorry, but like it needs to come back with force because, you know, this is the reason why we have friends.

This is the reason why we have this tell you're stupid. stupid. stupid. Yeah. Stop doing stupid [ __ ] But you're saying like it's cool to play and you know, you can you can do laring and and all that stuff, which is great, but like that's for play, right? This isn't like your identity. Don't make your FAN BASE ANGRY. BRO, I'M TELLING TO DO IT FOR PLAY. I'm I'm there with you. I'll lar with you. He's got He's got a huge LAR. I'm not going to put a costume on, but you know what I'm saying?

Somebody said for justice for whatever reason, reason, reason, bro. I'll got a question for you, Salin. So, so a part of you, do you is there no longer a part of you that identifies as a podcaster or a father? Uh I think that uh my identity is in um who I belong to which would be uh God. So whatever that is uh then that's where I'll go. But and that's a very that feels so much more grounded and secure. As crazy as that may sound to somebody who doesn't um you know have a faith like that um I think it's very secure because all the stuff here is fleeting.

Everything here. Now that doesn't mean I I don't want to be a great dad or I don't want to do a good job. job. job. Yeah. You don't think that you can you don't think that you can identify as a father and also be able to disconnect from from from not make that the ultimate identity. That's my point. If that's your ultimate I think that's what you have to make clear because I think there's if someone were to ask me um I absolutely identify as a father as a leader as uh you know those things I I identify but that's not your thing that you worship.

Oh yeah. No, of course. And and at any time those things could change, right? So I think there there's a part of the ability to identify as something uh without uh like losing yourself. Yeah. Um because inevitably all that can be stripped from you. Yeah. I know somebody by the way who right cuz I I that being a father could be stripped from me. Right. Totally. And if that's all I identify with and that was was was well even if and I couldn't disconnect from even if there wasn't a travesty that happened.

I mean how many uh times probably more common for moms. Oh super common when they kids move out. That's why you see relationships, the percentage of them that that end in divorce actually lost. Yeah. Because they they they did they identified only as a a dad or a mom or a parent and that was their whole thing. And then all a sudden the kid goes through that phase, right? Like most kids do when they turn 18 to say 25 where they actually want to disconnect from mom and dad a little bit and go do their own thing.

And it's like, "Oh my god, I'm no longer." I know someone whose kid went to a school who the school had to have a litter box for a kid that identified as a I'm serious. Yeah, I know. The school literally this happened in a local school here. Maybe it's the same school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know about this? I've heard about Yeah. where they actually set a litter box. They actually did it. They did it. Yeah. This is the height of like, This is the height of like, you know, you know, you know, we are at the height.

We're We're We're definitely coming back. Are we still there? I feel like it's coming back a bit. We're coming back. Yeah, you're right. We're coming back. We're coming. We're coming back. And I remember I remember when you guys were sounding the alarms 5 years ago or what like that and I'm like, dude, this is how it works. Pendalum swings so hard this direction. We want to be peak stupidity and we're on our way back. back. back. Like that's just it's and and of course we'll probably extremely swing the other way, way, way, you know, over the we'll go.

Yeah. Now you have AI have AI, you know, relationship. I just watched another clip of this woman who's got this. She used to be married and everything. She had actual relationships. Now she's like has this relationship with her AI boyfriend and she's like, "It's the best relationship I've ever had." I'm like, "Oh, no. "Oh, no. "Oh, no. It's not real." And I think we And like I said, I think I think unfortunately they'll they'll there'll people that will worship it. There'll be people that marry it.

There'll be people that all the things with it. And then we'll run through a period probably a decade, maybe two, uh, of that extreme side like that. Once we have enough thousands of idiots to do it and realize where that path ends, I think humans tend to correct and come back the other direction. I think that's I think one of the the biggest keys I think uh somebody navigating through this world is is actually to remain I mean this is one of the things I love about my wife.

Sometimes I think she's crazy how how disconnected she can be to some stuff and like unaware what's going on. It's probably better. But it is she has such a healthy relationship uh with it and it's just like it's all it's all noise to her, you know? It's all it's like it's and it's it's like we we focus on what we can control in our house and our child and our families. What you actually have the most influence over. influence over. influence over. That's right. It's like we do not have this influence over even millions of idiots doing extreme weird things and worshiping weird things and doing like it's just and if any and and allowing it to affect your daily emotion uh is is giving up your your your power your control and what you can truly affect.

Anxiety inducing. Anxiety inducing. Anxiety inducing. Yeah. Very anxietyinducing, you know, and and and if you the the more you feed into it uh the the more it just elevates, dude. Yeah. I had a good quote is Duncan Trussell. This is like perfect with like you know Katrina's mentality. It's like he says some poor phoneless fool is probably sitting next to a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he's supposed to be. Yeah, dude. That's so Katrina. That's so true. true. true. That is that is I always thought that was a brilliant quote.

100% that like I need to know what's happening though in the world. Well, why what are you going to do? What are you going to do about it? about it? about it? What values that bring you? Yeah. Well, I can't do anything about it. Exactly. it. Exactly. it. Exactly. Yeah. I even when I try to inform her on something, she says, "I don't even want to hear it." Well, my wife's got my wife like that too. too. too. Really? So, my wife's got like that too.

She She turns off routinely will turn off social media or her whole phone. In fact, right now she's going through where she turns off her phone throughout the day and if I want to get a hold of her, there's other ways I get a hold of her. In fact, you know what we're doing? She ordered a phone that you can that you can connect to your cell phone that you turn your cell phone off or or basically brick it, but if you get a call, it'll go through this basic phone.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, if I want to call her, she gets a call, but she doesn't pick up her normal phone with everything on it. I mean, I mean, you've known Katrina's never had any of that ever. Ever. Well, she's you know what she told you know what my wife says to me? She goes, "If you think I need to know something, tell me." So, I'm like, "All right." And you you know what? There's almost nothing that I like I something happens I'm like do I need to tell her this?

Like no it's not going to change anything. anything. anything. Right. Right. Right. Speaking of extremes. Uh I've been seeing these reports of gas prices in California. Have you seen So is this happening? I haven't got gas yet. Is it here or is this in some areas? areas? areas? I thought the last time we looked increased but like I mean somewhere close to six right now. I heard reports of like eight. There's some places in California it's like almost $8 a No way. Really? It was two days ago.

Hard to believe. I don't know if it's California if it's No, someone was doing there were people were screenshotting and I don't it might be in places like Tahoe, you know, it might be uh No, we're normally hard to The area is normally higher than more. No, remote places are normally I thought more expensive cuz you're up in the mountains. No, no, no. Remote places are normally cheaper. cheaper. cheaper. Look up. Look up. Look up. We're We're normally like one of the peak places for sure.

God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is it almost six or five? Because they have they have way more control and power on us. We need it. A Newator. A Newator. A Newator. You know, like he's been killing it. More than half of that is not even the gas. gas. gas. It's a bunch of taxes. Yeah. Yeah. The gas Gas stations don't make a ton of money. No. No. No. Gas, you know, gas stations, you know, the most, you know, gas stations don't make money on gas. They almost break even on gas.

They make it on the concessions. They make it on on the concessions. That's how a gas station makes money. It is not on gas. So, when you think like this guy's gouging me, it's like, no, he's making like pennies. We get pennies on on on one of our friends used to own a shell station. They make it all on when people come in and buy drinks and snacks and all that crap. That's which is why you notice how much those have evolved in the last decade like that.

Now a lot of gas stations are like almost like little grocery stores. So I found a gas station in Mendescino is charging almost $10 a gallon. But that's not standard. This is just weird. weird. weird. How are they charging $10? Hey, that's Hey, that's taking advantage of the marijuana market. marijuana market. marijuana market. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. All these drug dealers got to go out there, go pick up their weed, dude. Oh, this like I got a shipment Oh, this like I got a shipment of 400 lb cash like all Yeah, I'm going to make they got tons of cash.

They're like, I got to get back here with all this. Oh, perfect. I got you. I like the New York Times. It said US gasoline prices rising again hit $348 a gallon. gallon. gallon. Yeah, that would be so low, dude. In California. That would be, by the way, they're going to start charging now per m uh for miles. You guys know that. Is that going to go? I believe they passed that. Maybe look that up, Doug. In California. So, however many miles you drive, now you're going to pay a tax, which how do they how are they going to know that?

You just report it? I don't know. We're going to start turning back our odometers that we're do the do the do the old school style. When you when you do the math on the the income that is taxed times the sales tax times the gas tax times the like your money gets taxed 60%. 60%. 60%. More than that, dude. More than that. Like it's so it's a form of slavery at this point, dude. We got property tax $30 million miss. Yeah. So they don't actually have this, you know, implemented at this time.

They're studying a road charge program. These are lawmakers, by the way, who are studying uh to replace the declining gas tax. tax. tax. Uh so I don't know where Oh, so they're going to lower tax. So this is what they do. They're like, "We're going to lower your taxes. We'll make it up somewhere else." Yeah. Yeah. We're going to get it on the back side. back side. back side. Yeah. Didn't we just get a bunch of oil places? places? places? Well, but there's also But where's it going?

They're also bombing oil refineries though all over in the Middle East. So I don't know. don't know. I don't know. Our oil supply isn't going down. So it says so bad. I think it still causes to go to NGOs's or anything, you know. It it caused oil prices to to I I actually does that mean it's a good time to buy oil. Oil oil it got on speculation. Yes. So on speculation oil already spiked. It would have been smart for you to buy it say two months ago.

Two months ago you would have made Is it going to be a good investment Adam to buy a horse because of all this now? What do you think? I mean you know I'm the guy who's banking on all these gas engines. Like you know that's I'm all I'm all in on that. How do you how do you tax my mileage on my I mean hey here's the thing that I like I'm going to go full calorie I'm all in on that on on on on that theory that even if whatever we get all this gas we do all this stuff like that like they're the what they're doing on regulations if you guys haven't paid attention to like every generation of car car car even if even if it's a company that still is making gas power car it's like the restrictions they put on the exhaust and all like that it's just like you have all these cars that are going going down to you six-cylinder, four cylinder, hybrid, everything.

So, that the high the high output ones will be collectors. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like my 68, like things like that. Like a real old school engine. That's like Yeah. No, that that I think is is going to be like a thoroughbred horse. You know what I'm saying? Like a like your best best horse that you would pay, which by the way, horse like ridiculous horses with like hundreds of thousands. Yeah. People spend millions on on like thoroughbred horses. I was just talking to my daughter and my niece the other day cuz they were talking about gas prices and you know cuz they're they just they're young kids so now they're realizing how expensive things are and I'm like you know how much it used to cost me to fill my tank in the '90s.

I you know it was like 20 bucks. I have my furthest memory back of pumping the cheapest gas I ever had. I have the memory of the gas station the day everything. How funny is that? 98 cents. 98 cents. 98 cents. I bet Doug has 98 98 cents a gallon. It cost me I think 11 I obviously I was close to all the way. E, the light was on, I believe, in my Acura Integra. It cost me $11 and something cents to fill up the entire tank.

tank. tank. Wow. Doug used to use steam engines, though. though. though. No, my dad used to talk about like 5 cents a gallon gasoline and things like that back in the day. 5 cents a gallon, bro. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. I mean, if you would have think about that at that rate, if you would have if you would have just put a a tanker away, right? You know what I'm saying? Oh, gas doesn't last. Oh, it doesn't? No. How how long does gas I mean it degrades quickly.

degrades quickly. degrades quickly. Very quickly. Very quickly. Very quickly. Oh, I I did not know that. You can't like stockpile it. Yeah, I thought you could. I didn't I wasn't aware of that. I mean, there's additives you can put in it to extend the life, but I don't know how long you can keep it. But, for example, if you have like a uh generator, you know, you don't want to keep gasoline in it for too long. For too long. Yeah. Really? Really? Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Don't they have solar power generators? They do. Mhm. Okay. Okay. Okay. I mean, Tesla, I mean, they have that. Speaking of Tesla, I sent Adam batteries for your house are cool. I sent something to Adam. Let me pull it up, you guys. I sent it to Adam cuz this is so like Chimoth who did the breakdown, right? This is so something Adam would be into. So, I'm going to pull it up. Dude, it's uh uh uh as much as I I'm anti electric cars and hate electric cars, I would do this.

So, this guy did an analyze. So, you know Tesla is has these robo ties soon come, right? So, you can literally buy one one one and then allow it to be used. And he said, "Have it make money for you." you." you." Yes, dude. He said, a car prostitute. He's He's He's car car pimp. Be a car pimp. Yeah. So, one robo taxi theoretically, this guy did all the math, right? After you do all the cost of the car, uptake, all that stuff would make you roughly $30,000 a year.

That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. So, he's like, if you own 34ick robo taxes, you make a million a year. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's kind of cool. That is cool. What sucks though about that s I'll tell you right now is that that will will last for a very short period of time because then it'll become a race to the bottom. Yeah. And it'll And it'll And it'll and then the insurance companies will will catch wind and you I mean even that will be that won't be that bad because it's probably not going to be a high payout for those cars and stuff like that.

So plus insurance is probably going to be cheap because they're not going to get many accidents. They're really good. Yeah. You'll have you'll have big umbrella insurance policies where you'll basically pay, you know, thousand or something else, but you'll have 10 20 cars underneath the fleet or whatever because the likelihood of all of them getting crashes is so unlikely. But what it'll do is that that's his current theory right now at the rate it is, but then people just undercut that. Yeah. Like what what stop before you know it, they'll be competing.

competing. competing. Oh yeah, they'll be competing and then they'll they'll they'll So there could be a short window. Oh, very short window. I mean it's like everything though, right? Like I mean So are you So here's a real question. Are you going to do it? I feel like this is all you. I love stuff like this. I mean, I think that's what what what interests me in marijuana when I got into it was not I was totally not a marijuana guy. I saw it early it early it early and I know that the the best time to get in stuff like that is on the front the front end when nobody wants to, they're scared, they're nervous, they don't know about it, then a bunch of people prove the model, then everybody dives in and then by the time you dive in.

Yeah. Yeah. And then get your fleet, it's like, oh, cool. You So it' be like a window of like when they first buy like two or three of them. them. them. That's how I mean at the very least that would be cool. At the very least, it would be cool to have one of down to do that. We go cars shuttle you around. Like if if uh our vehicles that we we all commute in that we all use paid for itself. So like we drive it here at work while we're at work and then all four of them are out.

I mean I mean how cool would that be? Had to buy a parking lot. How how cool here's how I would do it and it it would be like it would not be for a business. How cool would it be that we could supply every one of our employees a vehicle that pays for itself and that's part of a perk for working here? here? here? And who cares? That's why you're the business guy, bro. So, we don't care. We don't care that it's making it's so competitive.

It doesn't make $30,000 over everything, but it what it does at least do is it pays that. pays that. pays that. It's also a ride off cuz the company owns owns owns That's right. It covers It covers that. And guess what? All of our employees have a vehicle supplied by the company and and they can't be late. We wrap them. We got your drive, bro. We can see where you're at. you're at. you're at. You're still parked in front of your house, dog. house, dog. house, dog.

Yeah, bro. I love that. No, no. So, I could see that would totally be uh my motivation because like what what would it it's not big enough business for us to distract us from the things that we do already, but if I could supply all of our employees with a car and it pay for itself, what a cool perk. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. I love that. But I thought that was really put that write that down. Nonetheless, that's it's cool that we're kind of going that going that direction.

I got Okay, so I have I'm going to change directions. I have the perfect skin stack from Calera Lab. This is the stack right here. Like if you want like the order of it too. Yes. Yes. Yes. Besides just the serum cuz I'm pretty sure that's like the best product. I screw this up whenever I tell people. So I can't wait to hear the prop. So So they have a lot of different products but just three products and this is just a very effective stack. You'll see a difference using this for sure.

So you get the base layer, the moisturizer, and the serum. And you put them on in that order. base layer first. Okay. Okay. Okay. Then moisturizer, then you add the serum. And look great. What's Doug? Could you look up what's the name of the moisturizer? Because I I the base layer and the serum. I'm very familiar with the moisturizer. What's the name? the name? the name? It's called the That's not the great, is it? They have the Yeah, the great. Now, again, I don't have any of the newer.

Where's the lofah fitting on this? I have it. I have So, the great I have in front of me right now, it's called the anti-aging lightweight facial serum. Biometric exo serum. This is the one that has the exo in it. Yeah. Excess. Is that would that be considered the moisturizer? I know what the base layer is. That's the one that comes in the screw top. screw top. screw top. So, the base layer is like a moisturizer cream. cream. cream. But there's another one that you do on also.

So, there's one that is looks like it's in a similar container, but it's called something else. Can you name all the products for me? Yeah. Let me I'm trying to get to them right now. right now. right now. I'll tell you right now that what the serum is the good and the base layer is called base layer. So, I know those two what those two are. The moisturizer is the one that might be the great. The great I think it might be the great as well.

as well. as well. I think it might be the great. So base layer, the great and the good. That makes sense. And then you got it. You got your combination. combination. combination. Okay. I I do that and watch what your what people tell you. tell you. tell you. Great. Great. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I So me I just got to add the moisturizer in there cuz I do the base layer and then I normally do the serum when I get here. So I like religiously. That's why I keep it here.

Yep. Yep. Yep. It's like It's like It's like And then the clean slate of course is the thing you use. That's in my shower. So, I use I got a couple compliments on my skin. Uh, I've gotten more than a couple, but recently a couple on my skin. skin. skin. Do you think that's because your skin looks so good or you have less hair? I have more face. You have more. You have more forehead. You have more slaying. You have more skin showing. Damn. Damn. Damn.

This is hard. You know what I'm saying? Hey, listen. Little by little chick who gets the the breast compliments cuz she's just shown more of it. You know what I'm saying? Maybe just show more face. He's got head cleavage. Did I tell you I wore a hat? the other day for the first uh time you did. Yeah. So sunny outside this it was really sunny. It was a nice beret or something. A beret. Yeah. You have to wear like a what what what are the other ones called?

The like the Kangle Kangle ones. Those buckets bucket hats. Yeah. Put a bucket dancer. bucket dancer. bucket dancer. No, no, no. I was outside. Cool. Dude, Cool. Dude, Cool. Dude, my uh we we bought like this teeter totter for the kids. So I was putting it together outside. It was warm. It was really nice outside. Dude, it's been so nice. Yeah. And so my wife is like, we laid out. We laid out for Yes. So my wife comes outside like, "Sir your head's getting sunburned." I'm like, "Oh, that happens now." Cuz I used to have hair and I never got sunburned on my head.

So I had to put a hat on, dude. And I don't like the way I look in hats. I don't have Well, what's your right? Cuz there's different version. Like me and Adam have very different hat. Yeah. Yeah. I can't wear I wish I could wear those hats. I can't wear the hat. You can't do the hat. You have to have a big square head. If I wear that hat, I have to If I wear that hat, I have to wear it over my ears. Yeah.

You know, my favorite thing. Hey, I'm serious. I have a small head. So that's why the dad I love dad hats. I get that. Yeah, because I I wish I could wear those hats. hats. hats. You ever see Justin? So you know we do shoot sometimes. So Justin has to take off his hat and show off his luxurious hair. I don't why he never shows it. Makes me angry. I was doing my hair today just so you guys would stop. Whatever. Whatever, bro. Anyway, so he's always covering his amazing hair.

But he'll put his hat down, right? Cuz he's doing his hair. And bro, you know how you have the little snaps, right? He's like on the last one. Are Are you two left? No, he's not. Look, look, look. Oh my god. Let me see that. Turn around. Oh, when I mel two or three. Oh, yeah. If I put that on, bro, you're almost needing. needing. needing. Most of them are one, though. Oh my god. I just realized that hat. That's the old school Prodigy collab we did.

did. did. I brought it back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You still have that? I still have it. And you know what's funny? Inside uh it says Everett. We Yeah, I kind of took it from him. But um Yeah, cuz mine I wore I remember I wore that to death and it was just like dude trashed. I that you guys probably don't remember that story. So, I have several of these business stories behind the scenes that that make me kind of chuckle inside sometimes of like people I try to do business with like collab with or do things.

That's an example of one. one. one. Yeah, I know. I really wanted this one to work. to work. to work. Yeah. And I remember I really did too. Uh way back when. And uh you know, we've had some stuff with programs that we've done this. I won't I won't throw people under the bus or say names of of all the stuff, but it always cracks me up when because we we we operate from a place we talk about this all the time. The unfortunate part of the fitness space is there's such a scarcity mindset and we're always about helping and elevating other people and and that these are examples of that.

These were people like I was coming from a place of, oh man, we could grow together. Let's do some stuff and collab and everything like that. And that's one of many examples of somebody was just like, oh, you know, it was competitive and thought that like, you know, they didn't want to they didn't want to do that because we'd be competing with each other. And like we've had many times like this that some I've shared with you guys, some I haven't. And that's an example. The scarcity mindset.

Yeah. That that company doesn't even exist anymore. You know what I'm saying? Like never took off, never did anything. It's like you idiot. Like you know what I'm saying? Like that could we could have gone places. Oh yeah. You could have done something really great. But that that that what an example of like what like having a scarcity mindset, how crippling it can be in business. Totally. Totally. Totally. And you know, I think I see I've seen this so much in in my lifetime of people that I think could have been really successful because they're talented in whatever craft or thing that they do, but because they operate from a place like that, like that, like that, everybody's going to take it from me.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, then you're never going anywhere. And and so it it they it just it's so it's so unfortunate when you see that cuz that that was a very talented person who early on in in our journey would have been man what a great person to could have done our apparel for so many years who god knows what our our apparel line is line is line is look a lot better than it does now now now our apparel line's always been an afterthought to us uh and we've and yet there's people in our space far smaller in their network that have massive apparel lines because that's their passion.

Yeah, they they focus on Yeah, they love it. They love doing that. And you know, well, we're going to come out soon, right, with our own line. Like each of us is going to have our own team. Yeah, I think that's what we like the idea of it. Yeah. Yeah. I think one what which we thought would be it's more fun than it is for business. Is this you'll have one? Yeah. We all have our own style. And so it's like what I think we're going to move to this like where we each get to give, you know, uh whoever's running the apparel, hey, I here's a shirt, pants, and a hoodie or a hat that I like.

you know, put I like to make one for myself selfishly selfishly selfishly and then the people that I, you know, like like your style. If they like it, then cool. Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll see. I got speaking of companies, I have to mention this. Uh the biggest uh shutdown or failure or whatever you want to call it in the gray market peptide space happened. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Peptide Sciences, well, catch me up with that. Peptide Sciences was the biggest research chemical, you know, what you would call gray market provider of peptides in the world.

So, they sold all the peptides. And the difference is, you know, with with gray market, you're not going through a doctor. You're not going through through through FDA approved um compoundingies. You're getting what's called a research chemical, but people would, you know, get that anyway because typically less expensive um and um very accessible. You mix it yourself. It's it's it's pretty significantly inexpensive, which is why it blew up. So that's right. And also, you don't have to go through a doctor. You just go on their website.

That's why it's so Peptide Sciences Peptide Sciences Peptide Sciences was the biggest. They're gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Wow. Wow. Wow. Just done. And there's speculation as to why I have some inside u you know, scoop. I won't say online uh on air, but Yeah, dude. That's so that's and that's a huge vacuum. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like they they were doing they were doing something like I think like 50 to$100 million a month. like insane amounts of revenue monthly and they're gone. I I mean I feel I feel really confident about the decision that we made to go in the direction with with Vitabella and their model.

Um yes, I think that that's which by the way the regulations on peptides have been lifted. So now when you go to mpormones.com all those older peptides that were weren't available uh through the doctor are now available again. So, ibutamorin, you know, old school BPC157 that's back DSIP, like all the ones that uh that every that the compoundies were told like you can't do this anymore, they can do it again. Well, the best part about it is that not only is it regulated, but the the the model that they built it very I think the best example I have is like it's a it's a Costco model where it's like you pay a monthly membership uh and you know if your guy covers your testosterone.

Yeah, it covers your testosterone. It built in and your quarterly appointments with your medical professional. So, you get a you get you get basically quarterly with uh meetings with a medical professional who's going to go over your blood work, monitor all that stuff with you. Hormones are include your your testosterone is included. If you're not a testo, if you're not using testosterone, then you can go the B vitamin route. vitamin route. vitamin route. B vitamin or enclomophane. Oh. Or or inclenine. And so and then and then if you want peptides, you're getting them at wholesale prices that are regulated.

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Back to the show. show. show. First question is from JC Trucking UT. What would be a good program for for bluecollar workers who work 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.? How much should we be eating? So, blueco collar workers are interesting because um typically when you work with somebody uh one of the strategies increase activity, right? Get them to move more, but they're already pretty active. They're pretty active. You're you're you're moving a lot. Um so, you know, having them track steps like I'm not going to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not to mention the activity is so high um that uh too much stress from a workout program um it's it's kind of easy to do. So, I actually this was a challenge for me early on. I get blue collar workers and I kind of had to figure out what was the appropriate amount of strength training to get them results. It was actually very little. Well, especially considering that type of person tends to be like tough, right? And so they can handle a lot and so you think that okay, I'm going to throw they expect an intense workout.

Yes. And and the opposite is kind of true. Like uh moderate intensity, a lower volume program tends to work much better. And so I think right away like mass 15 protocol for them is probably the perfect balance or grade eight. Grade eight would be great for someone like this. Yeah. Depending again on on what you do for work like how much heavy lifting you do and all that. Like you got to factor in in in you know when this first uh uh occurred to me. It wasn't because we weren't necessarily seeing results.

It was because they'd come back to me and be like s uh I couldn't work that well the day after. like I was too sore and it really made it hard for me to do my job and so I had to scale it back so they could go back to work the next day because you guys your legs get real sore and you work a desk job. How do they recover? It's just right back to it. So I would scale it way down and boom, we started seeing great results.

Now as far as eating is concerned, uh blueco collar workers diets are notoriously bad. Now it's most people's diets are pretty bad, but blue collar workers are really bad. They have it's based on convenience, right? Convenience. It's uh it's what's easy, what's fast. There's food trucks that literally I would tell them, especially cuz they're active. I say, "Eat as much as you want. Just stick to whole natural foods and you're good." And that was always the recipe for success. I mean, we just had a blue collar worker this week that has has struggled with weight loss uh most of his lifting career, very familiar with lifting.

And that was like our advice was and I took it a step further and and talked about, you know, on your off day prepping a lot of meat and rice. Yeah. Uh so you have that access because that's that's what happens is you you're on the go, you're working hard, uh you haven't eaten in 5 6 hours, you get a break finally, you don't have anything prepared, so it's like burrito truck or something, you know, something like that that's fast. Bring a cooler. So yeah, being prepared and and again like I you don't even have I don't even have to take this person and go like, "Oh, you have to eat these types of meat." Like dude, try tip ribeye, ground beef, uh, fish, um, chicken, thighs, what, whatever you like with white rice and eat it when you're hungry.

Uh, you don't have to over complicate this, but but prepare that and have it ready for you and make those choices. And the other thing is, uh, what they drink. Um, soda was super prevalent in soda or beer, right? Yeah. So, it's like just drink water, whole natural foods, eat as much as you want. Don't worry about increasing activity. You're already doing plenty. uh you know maps uh grade 8 or maps 15 and you're going to get great results. Next question is from Kathy Steinhill. You guys don't talk a lot about drop sets much.

Why? It's a super uh advanced intensity technique. Bodybuilders love drop sets. Um but for most people it's just not only is it not necessary, it's out it's actually counterproductive. It's I was so uh you know I picked this question because I think it it it's good for us to have this discussion of like why because there's a lot of things we don't talk about a lot of different techn talk about partials and force wraps wraps wraps yeah cluster sets a lot and things like that and it's like in the context of the things that really move the needle for 99% of the population it's it's it's damn near irrelevant irrelevant irrelevant like it's just not it's of all the levers I could pull to help somebody through a plateau or get them to see better results it's just not there.

Does it mean that I don't do drop sets? Yeah, I use drop sets. I can do drop. It's just this. But I'm not doing drop sets thinking like, "Oh, this is going to get an extra inch on my biceps this week." You know, you just do for fun. Yeah. It's It's literally It's a novelty for me. It's like, "Oh, I haven't done this thing in a long time. Uh I like doing it. I'm going to do it." Um but it's not how it gets sold in magazines and in the in the controlled study, right?

Right? So they they like to take examples of something like this and they control it in a six week study and they go, "Oh, group A that did traditional sets compared to group B who did some drop sets in there saw an increase in this." And it's just like that doesn't tell the whole story of really how valuable it is. Uh it's really more the the novelty stimulus of it that they get the most benefits that wears off after four to six weeks of them doing it consistently.

And so it's just it's just a small thing. It is. And I'll I'll say this, even at my most consistent, best rested, best, you know, diet, uh, best recovery, I would do a drop set once a month. Like, this is what it would look like in my routine. And it would be literally like, I think I'm going to do a drop set today, and I'll do it for laterals or curls or something else. By the way, a drop set is when you do as many reps as you can, take some weight off, and then squeeze out some more reps and do it again.

And you repeat that like three or four times. Yeah. But even bodybuilders, they're not doing drop sets all the time. uh bodybuilders are doing them like very infrequently as a way to introduce novelty um or spice things up. things up. things up. They're also such a terrible example to use because of how how many of us are enhanced. enhanced. enhanced. It's just bodybuilding. Yeah. It's just you can get away with that type of intensity. intensity. intensity. Yep. Yep. Yep. um that and so if you're somebody who like you said is wellfed, well rested, um had a good good balance of routine volume and you occasionally do the drop set could be incredible for you.

But if you were like I was when I was in my, you know, late teens and early 20s and was introduced to this, it became like the thing I did in every workout. You know what I'm saying? And there just over application of you would have got better results if you did that. did that. did that. Exactly. And so that's why you don't hear us talk that much about it. Next question is from Karan Singh19. What does strength maintenance while building endurance, stamina, and V2 max look like once you focused on strength for 2 or 3 years?

Okay, so the question is uh essentially I want to build my endurance, my stamina, my V2 max, but I don't want to lose any strength. Uh well, here's the deal. You're probably going to lose some strength uh regardless. Okay. So, um, maximal strength, maximal stamina, uh, they tend to take away from each other. So, maximal now some stamina, some strength, like they're totally fine. But if you're like really pushing to gain endurance and stamina, you're going to see see see buckets, buckets, buckets, you're going to see your strength go down.

That being said, the amount of strength training required to try to maintain what you've built is very little. very little. very little. Very little. Very little. Very little. So, especially if you're adding other sty other training to your routine. So, let's say typically you do three or four days a week of strength training. Now, you're going to move more towards endurance. Uh, one day a week of, you know, strength training would be enough to maintain what you're going to maintain by chasing those other things. Yeah, that's I would say one and two days of strength training and then one to two days of you pushing stamina, endurance, V2 max type stuff.

And what's cool about uh V2 max is you can manipulate that in a week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, if you want to meaning you can improve that within a week's time. Um, so getting getting pretty good endurance, pretty good stamina and V improving V2 max, you can get that relatively quick if you haven't trained for that. And you can just and but the mistake that people make is they pile it on top on top on top of their strength training they've been doing for two or three years.

So whatever that that that number was that you just mentioned, like if you're training four days a week of strength training, like a a full hour, uh, I probably wouldn't recommend like really pushing the endurance. I'd scale back one to two days, replace those 1 to two days now with training for endurance and you'll get the best of both worlds. You'll you'll keep most of your muscle. You'll lose a little bit of strength, not a lot. You'll look awesome because you'll keep most of the muscle on your body, but you you you should predict that you're going to lose a little bit, but you'll definitely gain that endurance.

And then it happens so fast that you can course correct after two or three weeks. three weeks. three weeks. Two or three weeks of like stamina endurance training, you're going to get a lot in that short period of time. And if you don't like the way you look and you want to go back to going more more focused on strength go back to strength. That's the thing and you can undulate them too. So it's like one of those things when you feel whenever you feel like a deficit in something that you want to improve you can focus on that you know for a few months it's not going to completely hinder you and all those other metrics.

Next question is from James Mullen Art. When I do front arms, uh, sorry, when I do front squats with my arms crossed, by the time I'm done, my biceps feel like they're going to explode. Is that normal, or is my form out of whack? Uh, it sounds to me like you're really squeezing and holding on the bar for dear life to try to prevent the bar from sliding down. sliding down. sliding down. Should be resting up on your shoulders. Yeah. So, you probably need to lift your elbows higher.

So, as you squat, you want to lift your elbows as high as you can so the bar doesn't want to roll forward. Sometimes people will drop their elbows as they squat down at that point. point. point. Yeah. And it's like they're trying to hold it up with their hands. Um, you shouldn't feel like you're having to hold it up with your hands. No, it should feel like you lift your elbows up and it sits over balancing on your upper chest and your your anterior delt. It should you should feel it balance balancing on your shoulder caps and and and that and that is from the elbows driving up.

If it's coming down across your your arms, you the bar is not in the right placement. You know, someone like this too, maybe better way to do it than the arms crossed is the the two, you know, towels or or wrist straps. Yeah. Wrist straps or two towels wrapped around um and then holding it like that around. You can just make fist and hold. Yeah. But really, I mean, I used to when I used to train my clients with this, I would say as you squat, lift your elbows.

Because as you squat, your elbows might be in a nice position, but when you squat, your upper body tends to bend forward a little bit. So you have to lift your elbows even higher. I used to say lead with your I used to say lead with your elbows as you drive out of the squat. Lead up with your elbows. elbows. elbows. Keeps your chest up high and then it keeps those elbows from dipping cuz it's natural. natural. natural. They have a there's this interesting uh piece of exercise.

It's like a really inexpensive piece of exercise equipment. I think it was called a either a stingray or manta ray. One of them was for a back squat. Didn't like it. But one for the front squat's pretty cool. You put it on your shoulders. It sat across it. across it. across it. Yeah. It sort of sits in that little Yeah. And it was actually pretty cool. I mean, I feel like the What's the What's the other one called with a bit with the big pads on side?

That feels like you hit it like Oh, the squat with the safety spark. Is that what it is? Farmer It's not a farmer squat. What is What are those? What is What are those called? Where we We have one with the two You The handles are right here. Oh, yeah. Safety bar. It is a safety bar. bar. bar. Safety bar. Yeah. So, the big the big safety bar hits like a front squat. Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Yeah. If you squat and if you the yolk bar the only so if you if you if you squat with that uh that squat bar if it's it's like so when I so a lot of times when I want to do front squats and I'm not in the mood to hold the bar across.

I'll just use that and so it'll it'll target your quads very similar to a front squat. All right. I know you like that episode. If you did check this one out. Walking. It's one of the best things you could do for your health bar none. But there's a better way to approach it. Yes, you can just walk, but if you follow the right protocol, it's far more effective. Let's talk about talk about talk about a walking. I can't wait to hear your walking protocol. walking protocol.

walking protocol. Well, there is a Well, there is a protocol. So, and I'll start with the first thing, right? Cuz just first off, uh let me start with this. One of the reasons why walking um is such a great form of just activity is because it's low risk of injury. Now,