How to Calculate Volume for Maximum Muscle Growth | Mind Pump 2793

Key Takeaway

Progressive overload is the strongest predictor of muscle growth, yet most people unknowingly sabotage it. Track your volume (sets × reps × weight) on major lifts weekly. The goal isn't to push as hard as possible when you feel good—that leads to overreaching and forced recovery weeks. Instead, aim to never go backwards. Add just a small increment each week (even 2.5 lbs or one extra rep), maintain intensity at 2 reps from failure, and keep calories elevated. This methodical approach creates consistent progress instead of the peaks and valleys that average out to zero gains.

Episode Overview

Adam shares his competitive bodybuilding experience tracking training volume precisely—a practice that revealed he was unknowingly spinning his wheels despite never missing workouts. The discussion centers on the volume formula (sets × reps × weight), why most people accidentally plateau by overreaching on good days then pulling back, and how to progressively overload systematically. Key points include focusing on main compound lifts, maintaining consistent intensity (2 reps from failure), scaling volume incrementally rather than dramatically, keeping calories elevated during volume increases, and understanding that feeling-based training often creates an illusory sense of progress that data exposes as stagnation.

Full Transcript

Transcript of How to Calculate Volume for Maximum Muscle Growth | Mind Pump 2793 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Almost nothing is more confusing to people just based off of how they actually try to do this than training volume. Look, we all know progressive overload is the closest connection to muscle growth of all the things that correlate to muscle growth. Strength and the pump and all this other volume or progressive overload is the strongest coralate. The problem is everybody messes this up. They do it too much or not enough. They don't know how to calculate it, right? We're going to talk about this right now.

Volume. What is it? How do you calculate it? And how do you effectively progressively overload to get your body to cons consistently progress? progress? progress? Crank up the volume. Yeah. Yeah. You, Adam, are probably I I heard people communicate this before, but I had personally never gotten as granular with my total volume and trying to progressively overload that way. I'd never gotten as gran granular as you did. I mean, you took competing, you treated it like a business. It wasn't like a fun hobby. You know, I think people listen to the podcast long enough, they know that you did it specifically with the intent of building a business.

And so, you were like you are with all business. You look at the data, the metrics, and you figured this out. And so, I'd love for you to talk about what you learned because this wasn't like you were a newbie. You'd already been a trainer. You've been working out for years, and then you got into this, and then you learned a few things. Yeah, I have I have a a similar opinion around it. Similar to like somebody who might say like um oh, I don't ever really want to track macros or I don't want to do that, but then they are like, but I really want to get down to this percent body fat or I really want to look this way.

Um I think tracking volume um can give you that that level of insight if you've never done it before. I think you could absolutely never track volume and be a very healthy fit person. totally fine. Did that for most of my training career. Everybody in here would probably attest to the same thing. Um, but what I what I found at that point because it was I was doing something competitively uh and knowing that information I know gave me a competitive edge was the only reason why I cared enough to to go to that level of it.

Right. Um, and I don't know if that speaks to my my business side like you alluded to or more of my competitive side of the kind of maybe. I don't think you cared about winning. You just cared about making it being able to build a business out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was the ultimate desired outcome. desired outcome. desired outcome. And so winning helped. Yeah. And I obviously if I if the way I thought about it was if I go do this and I don't do very good at it, who's going to want to follow me or pay attention to my business?

So, I better go do good. Um, but the the the one of the first big insights for me was uh and this I feel like this is the same with macros. Why why I used to love to have somebody who said, "Oh, I don't really want to track macros like like let's just do it for, you know, 30 days and just so we can see is it's just the insight that I got." Yep. Yep. Yep. Um and and so I knew I knew what volume was.

I knew how to calculate it. Never cared enough to really do it. And what I realized is we we have this kind of natural eb and flow very similar to how we eat where we kind of find this homeostasis of our calories. We think we're on a diet and we're doing so good. But then when we actually track it, it's like, oh, these extra calories sneak in and you have these higher days and then you have these lower days, but then when you look at the average over an entire 30 days, you were actually here when you thought you were like here.

Volume was like that. Um, you know, you have your weeks where you're like, "Oh yeah, I'm feeling it." And you're strong and you're hitting it consistently. You don't miss and feel like weight's moving on the bar. Then you have other weeks where you're just like going through the motions. You don't really feel it. And then when I would pull back and I would look at 30 days, I'd go, "Oh, wow. I'm really not not only am I not progressively overloading when I thought I was uh when I looked at the 30 days, I actually ended up uh the last week I was doing less volume than I was doing the first week, you know." And so is that is that because you would overshoot adding the volume cuz you're guessing.

So, so what would happen sometimes is I would, you know, really press the volume because I feel good, overtrain a little bit, then my my then my next time coming back around to that exercise, I'd have to scale back cuz I'm still sore. I'm still recovering and I overshot the last one. And so what I would what I what would end up happening is I like, oh my god, there's it's like this. Yeah. this. Yeah. this. Yeah. And then at the end of the 30 days, I'm lifting the same amount of volume as I was at the very beginning.

And so I was like, "Wow, okay, I need to have a a way more methodical approach to how I scale the volume." And it's a lot of what we we communicate on this podcast, which and also where the the goal is to do as little as possible to elicit the most change. It's like I knew that as long as I was staying where I did last week and I just did a little bit more, you know, a 5 lb plate more or one more set, you know, that each week that I was progressively overloading the body.

And that what that did was had this nice consistent progressive overload versus this peaks and valleys and then when you pulled back this like say I was doing the same [ __ ] 3 months later. You know who's really who really um figured this out first in the strength world were the Olympic lifters. Olympic lifters. Olympic lifters. They had to. They did. It was either works or it doesn't. That's what I love about it. Yeah. And I pointed to them before and it's just because it's the most scient from a scientific perspective.

Uh strength training and it's only because countries compete against each other in the Olympics and during the cold war it was like this was a way to display our superiority. So you had the Soviet Union, you had the US, you had Europe, and it was like, we're going to put our best athletes out there, and if we have more medals, then that means, you know, communism is better or capitalism is better. And the Soviet Union, you know, here in the US, uh, we don't like federally fund the athletes like they the Soviet Union, they were like they put their best scientists on this.

They're like, "No, we want the best athletes. We want to display to the world." and they literally studied strength training uh from an Olympic lifting perspective. And what you had in the early days, like in the 50s and 60s when you really started seeing them take off, off, off, the way that our lifters trained was they just kind of pushed it. It was like linear progression. They just kind of pushed it all the time. Yep. Yep. Yep. And it was like, can I do more? Let's do more.

Oh, I need to do less cuz I'm tired. I'll do less. The Soviets were methodical methodical methodical and they really had this kind of like whether you felt good or not, here's what we're doing. and they ended up doing phenomenally well and it's because they calculated this all they weren't just going into it based off of feel which by the way based off of feel is okay okay okay but when you really want to take it to the next level what that's why you got so granular so granular so granular well this was my inspiration well this was my inspiration s was exactly that was and I this is kind of what I focused on so because it can get really crazy if you try because then the next question that gets asked when people ask how I did this well how do you calculate buys and tries because you also that I actually just focused on the main lifts.

Okay. Okay. Okay. And you need controls. Exactly. And I cuz I knew those were my biggest bang for my buck type of movements. They're the most taxing uh exercise for my movement. They're also where I was going to the the biggest levers I could move for strength and adding muscle to my body. And so I really was like overhead press, bench press, the the deadlift, squat, the row. So these big the big big movers. movers. movers. And and like a like a power lifter or an Olympic lifter would do.

I would train at this kind of like moderate intensity for for most of the week and then I'd have my one day of that week where it's like this is where I'm going to I'm going to stretch that that exercise and I know what I did the last time I did it and so can I get another set or can I get another 10 lbs on the bar on that exercise and can I do that week over week leading up into a show. Have you been on a weight loss journey starving grinding on cardio and you're still not losing fat?

The how to lose fat in three steps guide is completely free and it lays out the real blueprint. Strength training, metabolic support, and sustainable eating. Skip the misery. Download the free guide now and burn fat the right way. Right. So, so here's how you figure out volume. This is the formula. It's not perfect like Adam said because you have crossover volume. An overhead press is going to add some volume to the triceps. Uh a bench press is going to add volume to both the shoulders and the triceps even though it's a chest exercise.

Um, it's also not perfect because when the reps get real high, it it kind of skews uh the volume in another direction. So, here's the formula. It's sets times reps times weight. So, generally speaking, this is the volume formula. this is the volume formula. And so, and I the way you explained it to me the first time made so much sense. So, when I would increase volume, I would only look at sets. I didn't look at if I got stronger. It didn't count as a set.

Yeah. It was all set and reps. I didn't count reps either. It was just sets. Yeah, but the reality is if I did three sets of bench press with 225 lbs last week, this week I did three sets of bench press with 230 lbs. My volume went up. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Adding another set is now adding too much volume. much volume. much volume. Yeah. No, I watch poundage. It was total poundage in that lift per week. That's the That's the formula. Sets times reps times.

So if you add one rep to one set, so here's here's how you would apply this. If your volume goes up at all, you're good. So, if you add one rep, good. If I add, you know, one set, fine. If I added a little bit of weight, good. Yeah. good. Yeah. good. Yeah. That means your volume went up. And I I like this because I think the mistake people make people make people make with increasing volume is they go as much as they can tolerate, which typically licks looks like more sets, more weight, and more reps all which results in your following week naturally pulling back down.

And then you average out. That is what I learned that I thought was that I was so like I I love when we have moments in we and we share these as much as we can on the podcast the podcast the podcast that were like paradigm shattering moments for each of us. This was a paradigm shattering moment for a guy who had already been lifting for 15 years. Thought he knew a lot about what he was doing. Decided I've never really tracked volume. Let's track this.

Let's get to the poundage on it and go oh [ __ ] look what I'm doing. you know, this week I do 6,000 pounds of whatever, you know, and then next week I do four because I was taxed from that and then I go back up to six and then when I look at I'm averaging five the whole time. So what it started to look like was this more like what I actually would the goal I would give myself is I just didn't want to go backwards. So okay like and I didn't want to overdo it.

So when I was starting a new routine so either progressing or staying the same. same. same. That's right. So just don't go backwards. like so can I just and and what would would allow me to progress is when those that time when I hit that lift and I felt good like oh I'm feeling good I'm going to and then it was just a little bit it wasn't like I'm going to do as much as I could tolerate it's like oh I'm feeling good today the day I'm going to add an you know extra whatever to my my deadlift today or today's the day I'm going to add that extra rep or set you know and I like that you you actually fixed a question that I had because uh because of the crossover volume and it gets really it could get really Crazy.

You're counting the big lifts, which you typically do first on the workout anyway. anyway. anyway. Yeah, cuz you get you can get really Yeah. Cuz like do you count like Okay, here's the problem. Does three sets of pec deck is the same as three sets of a bench press? No. No. No. No. Or three sets of laterals the same as three sets of So, you can't really count even if the weight is different cuz people say, "Oh, yeah, we'll use less weight or whatever." Okay. Well, then what I do 10 sets of lateral raises is equal.

And it gets really weird. I'll give you my my again my uh nutrition analogy. It's like tracking macros versus getting all the way into the minutiae of micronutrients. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, well, yeah, there's obviously there's more to than just protein, carbs, and fats, but the protein, carbs, and fats is the if you get that really dialed in, you can really move the needle in the right direction as far as your health. your health. your health. So, track like four main lifts of the week, sets, types, reps.

And to be and to be even more transparent with how I did it, um, and this is just my personal was I cared actually most about the thing that I was really trying to improve for the next show. So if I got a feed So if I was like great point. great point. great point. So if I was like cuz you try to bump volume on everything. everything. everything. That's right. So I'm not I'm not Exactly. So I I'm only really watching the main lifts but if I was like you know what I really need to bring my legs up this so this so I'm not also pushing chest like crazy shoulders crazy.

I'm really just I'm I'm paying attention to the volume in those leg. I'm paying attention to all the volume and I don't want to go backwards on my other things, but I need to know that if I'm like if I'm ramping up the the leg volume that hey, I might take it easy on one of my strengths in one of my other other lifts or whatever or back scale back. And so I would so someone else is not training for a show. It would look like training blocks.

It's like, okay, the next month or two my focus or emphasis is shoulders. So that's really where I'm going to put the energy on trying to scale the volume week over week. And so that's what it would it would look like. And then other shows it would be like, "Oh, this is bad. I'm going to bring up my back." my back." my back." What a great point because it's not just how much volume a body part can handle it. It's cumulative for the whole body. Like if I progress in my volume for squats, that's going to take away from my ability to recover from the rest of the body or at least contribute to it.

So, if I try to progressively overload my bench press, my row, my squats, my overhead press every week, week over week, too much at once. So, you're going to I'm going to go backwards. You're going to watch me do this with Karen right now. So, one one of the first things I did was I I stripped her down to the very bare bones kind of lifts, which was like, you know, she's like, "Oh my god, you're taking all my volume and all my subway. You had to tear those away from me, right?

I had to like tear it away from her." And she's constantly asking me, "Can I do more? Can I?" It's like, "No, this is where I want." Now, what I will do with her as we're in this bulk and I that I've stripped it down to just this kind of bare bones type of routine, I will look at her physique while we're building and go like, I want more of this on her. I want more shoulders or I want more glued hamstring, whatever it may be.

And then that now becomes the thing I really pay attention to in her training. And and that will be where I push her volumewise. And I'll go, "All right, you want more? This is what I'll let you This is what you can do more of now." where I we're and and we're hitting she's hitting PRs every week right now. So, I don't have to really mess with anything, but eventually it'll get to a point where she'll adapt. We'll hit we kind of hit our calorie maintenance where I think we are and stuff like that.

I don't know if you guys know we're I mean we we're at 2600 calories right now. So, we started 5600 calories more than Oh, yeah. We started this at 2,000 calories and a stretch for her to hit 2122. That's great. So, we're at 2600 calories right now and less volume in training. And I'm glad you said that because while you're scaling your volume up, you should not simultaneously be cutting your calories, right? right? right? That's a terrible time to progressively overload. So like like when Adam competed, this was happening in the offseason.

You were not doing this pre-contest. pre-contest. pre-contest. No. See, okay. Now, the opposite happens when I, this was another thing that I thought was like a super hack for me or my competitive edge to my peers was I would watch these guys as they get closer to showtime start ramping up volume and intensity. They'd be sweating more in their workouts and pushing it really hard really hard really hard while their calories. Yeah. While they're in this cut like in their head like like their idea was like, I'm sharpening up and getting ready for show.

And I'm like, you saw me back off. I was just like, "Okay, I just need to I need to to intensity would start to way scale back. I'm not pushing hard on the cardio. I'm walking." I'm like, because I know right now I'm trying to preserve all the muscle. I'm already sending this signal. I'm my body's not getting enough calories. So, I want it just to just conveniently utilize fat as its main energy source or one of the main energy sources because it's not getting a lot of glucose.

The last thing I want to do is ramp intens a new level of intensity when I'm also cutting calories. my body's going to be like, "Yeah, not only are we not going to build muscle, we're going to need to use some of this shit." In other words, if you're going to tackle this uh do it in a calorie surplus, don't do it in a deficit because you're you're in you're simultaneously increasing the recovery adaptation demands on the body while simultaneously reducing the nutrient intake, which is a recipe for overtraining.

It's a recipe for disaster. Totally. If you want to if you want to flatline and plateau or hurt yourself, yourself, yourself, then do that. But if you want to progressively overload, you also need to increase your calories. Otherwise, you got nothing to build off of. And what's the what's the method? Is it was it the Russians who did the the two and a half pound thing first? Who was who was you remember? Oh, the little added ink plates. They would do that. Yeah. And and that's just another example of like it just little magnet 2 and 12 lbs.

Like everything else stays the same. Just 2 and 12 pound and increment. They would even add half a pound and how strong that you get over that time. And so you what I the biggest takeaway if you from this whole discussion that we've had right now hopefully that people get is that what we tend to do uh is when we feel good we overreach. overreach. overreach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then when we overreach we end up we our bodies tell us we have to scale back the next week.

And many times people have this experience. Oh man I just had a a a that's a real discipline. Yeah. To not do that. It's hard to do that when you're like oh I'm feeling good. is just like, "Oh, I'm just going to do a little more of what I need to and then and then hang tight there and then see if I can keep building on that versus, man, I feel so good and just hammering it." When you feel good and then now I don't feel so good, I back off.

And then when you look at when you back out 30 days, you stayed the same. Well, I I see like such a common issue a lot of strength athletes I used to work with and you you'd ride it up and you'd structure their volume and they would go deliberately by the numbers, not listening to their body, their fatigue, their, you know, overexerting and then the next week just staying there. They're always trying to progress every day, every week, every workout when in fact the right move a lot of times is to just stay there or scale back a little bit.

bit. bit. That's right. So that was always my goal was always like don't go backwards because I realized I did these peaks and valleys. valleys. valleys. I go oh man instead of me really always thinking about oh I feel good pushing it. How about I just I I'm feeling good right now. Next week let's not go backwards. Yeah. backwards. Yeah. backwards. Yeah. And hey if I feel even better next week than I did this week maybe I'll add just a tiny bit or just stay the same.

So it was like stay the same or just a little bit every single week versus this attitude of like oh I feel good. Let's go get it which we're all guilty of especially the in the competitive space. important to control your intensity because uh you want to maintain the same level of intensity. So if I do the same volume this week as I did last week, but this week I go to failure, uh it's actually different. It's a different, right? So set the intensity gauge. Usually it's two reps short of failure.

Control that. So then sets, reps, and weight are are consistent. Otherwise, if the intensity goes up and down, then volume doesn't really make uh then it's hard to calculate the volume appropriately because well, my intensity change, right, change, right, change, right, with the whole thing. Keep the calories up. And then again, just so I just so people understand this with this formula essentially, I know it's not perfect. So, before I get the science nerds on here, well, this listen, it's not I know it's not perfect perfect, but it's as it's it's as close as something is you can use and calculate to track and follow as you can get when it comes to strength training.

Okay. So, as long as you keep the exercises the same, the intensity the same, bump your calorie intake, sets times reps times weight is a nice metric to follow. So long as you stay within the rep ranges that are considered muscle building. Once they get too high, it's crazy. Like one set of 100 reps of a bench press uh could look really weird on a on a volume uh calculation. But nonetheless, just to give you guys an illustration, if you did bench press, five sets, six reps at a certain intensity versus three sets at 10 reps at the same intensity, you have the same volume or similar volume.

The weight may actually make a difference. You got to calculate it out. It's not just adding sets. But I love this because uh just like you said, Adam, people uh they don't realize they're constantly going forward and backward, forward and back, going forward and back, and then they don't realize why they're not progressing. progressing. progressing. And it's because training is a formula. Uh it's it's it's scientific. I I mean, I love I love when I forget who I can credit to who I heard communicate this for.

There's there's a difference between exercise and training. Exercise is going into the gym and just doing a bunch of movements that are good for your body and stuff like that. Training is you have a goal in mind that you're you are going after and you are methodically training towards that. Meaning I am I everything I do in here is with the intent of I'm trying to build more muscle or build more strength or change my physique. And if we're training then this is such a valuable tool to at least peer into.

Maybe you don't become some like yeah I don't I don't track volume all the time just like I don't track macros all the time but there I ag I think there's tremendous value of having done that so you can at least see your tendencies and go like oh wow I am watch the trends yeah I am somebody who does I didn't realize it cuz I and cuz what it just like the macro track tracking I mean we know all the studies that show just by becoming aware of it people automatically start to lose weight some just because they're and I feel like the same thing happens with the the tracking volume is you all of a sudden become aware of like oh in my head I haven't missed a day in the gym and so I should be perfect and progressing but then when I look at what I've been doing it's just like oh I've been overtraining then undertraining overtraining undertraining and then what it ends up looking is the same and it's like oh no wonder I'm not I'm not you know changing all I want to talk about supplements here for a second because uh you know I was talking to Doug earlier and he's been using fish row uh from Paleo Valley instead of fish oil.

What's the difference? Fish rows are fish eggs. And so fish oil is literally they take the oil from fish, extract it, and it's just that fish row. The eggs are very high and omega-3 fatty acids, very high in DHA, which is a fatty acid that's good for the brain, but it also is full of nutrients. It's a complete food. So, we're not just taking the oil, we're actually taking a complete food. So, it's a it's a food supplement. So, what what they have is a freeze-dried fish row in capsule form.

So rather than taking the oil out and extracting it, it's like here's a complete. So I imagine it has it has more benefits because it has more things, but then I because it's not being extracted, it's a smaller concentration of vitamin D. That's right. Or no, no, I mean omega. So it's a good thing to So it's a good thing to combine, but um you know this is people have really rediscovered the value of eating uh organ meats and and um foods that are very nutrientdense.

Fish row is up there. My wife would eat a teaspoon of fish row almost daily when she was pregnant because she and now she did it the gangster way. She would eat the fish row, but because of the brain health benefits and and the how with the developing with the developing baby. It's so interesting. But it's cool because again like you could you could take B vitamins or you could eat um you know freeze-dried uh liver or iron or freeze-dried liver or organ meats. You know, you could take CoQ10 or you could take or you could eat heart heart heart for example.

And there's a lot of arguments for the whole food sources. So does Paleo is it done like the way like you see it on sushi or is it like in a pill form? It's in a pill form. Oh freeze-dried capsule. Yes. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So you get the anti-inflammatory benefits. You get some of the nutrients uh that you'll find in fish row that are good for you. It's good for heart health, but es especially brain health. It's especially good for brain health.

So it's a really good Yeah. supplement. Are you on that? I am. I am. I am. Oh, you're good. Doug takes a lot of supplements. supplements. supplements. I do. I'm probably number two. Oh, you for sure. Nobody beats S, but you for sure are a close second. Hey, I'm I'm working on it, right? it, right? it, right? You are, dude. Hey, I'm on You're third right now. right now. right now. I'm uh This is How many days? I'm Do you remember when uh all that that BS that it's been like three months?

Three months, dude. Yeah, I think three months. Well, 3 months I kicum. Two months of training consistently because it was a month. I could there's I didn't do [ __ ] for a month. I didn't do anything for a month. But then, yeah, it's been I've I've now passed uh two two months. Monday, I'll go get my DEXA scan. Super interested to see. see. see. This is like your starting. It's not really starting cuz you Yeah. No, of course. But what what'll be most interesting to me and I think I I don't know if I shared this on the podcast or not.

I know I shared with you um uh last time I talked about this was um the I have all the Texas scans from the the LA the when I did the transformation thing transformation thing transformation thing and I'm coming from a different place. I always like this. I don't know if this is the dork in me when it is the this is the dork in me when it comes to the the science stuff and just interested. It uh I've done so many of these. I don't know how if you guys have done as many as I have.

I've I've done like probably like probably like probably well over a hundred. So I've never done one DEXA scan. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, I mean, Dexa body fat testing in general, like like I've done hundred hundreds of these, and I I have seen my body fat percentage at at a different weight from as everything from 185 all the way to 240 lbs. And I can tell you that I have a Dexus can or a body fat test of a awesome body fat percentage and a terrible body fat percentage at almost every single one of those weights, which I find that really I think I think I think like a lean 185 versus a fat 185.

Yeah. Yeah. Which I think is super fascinating to think that that with with your own human body. Like this is obviously my journey, but for everyone listening, it's like 185 pounds to 240 is a huge difference in amount of weight on somebody's body. And yet I've got examples at like five pound increments all the way up of an awesome inshaped version of me and a terrible in shape version of me on all of those. So it's always interesting to me. You've probably done the least amount of body fat test and stuff, right, Justin?

I mean, I've done a a fair share, but mainly like when whenever I we've scheduled it for clients and stuff, I'll throw it in there. But yeah, I probably Yeah, I could probably do like 10 maybe 12. 12. 12. You've done then? Not Dexas. I've Yeah, underwater. I've only done underwater. to have the under and the reason why he probably has a lie is I used to have the underwater come to our gym and so all of my training training training I used to do it yeah with my clients dude the first time I did underwater weighing it's actually not it's not comfortable like you got to get under water you got to brea every bit of air under the water which doesn't not very and I used to think I'd like get a better result by like almost to the point where I was like almost throwing up in water I I remember when I asked him one time because I thought that was so important like oh man that's why I didn't the air bubbles.

I'm like, "Hey, what's the difference if I don't let any out?" And he's like, "Not even a quarter% of body." He's like, "Oh." Like this whole time. Yeah. Yeah. Like 3%. That's why I didn't get the air out. But that was the big reveal of like especially the cardio versus like lifting weights approach to like losing body fat. For me, it was the most revealing was like going through the competitions and stuff we used to do and it was like like substantially different when you're like more cardiobased and you're like, you're like, you're like, "Yeah.

your your body fat was such a valuable tool uh to use DEXA or your or your hydrostatic way to get body fat testing and not because what the number says and this is again like what I get so excited about going into this even though I've done it a 100 plus times is I'm so interested to just what it tells me because I've done it enough times to go like oh this is what I'm what I'm going to do from here like example like what do I mean by that Well, I'm going to come into this thing probably in the high 228 range, like weight, which is a high weight for me.

Now, Now, Now, if and I I know what uh a lot of lean body mass looks like on me when I'm over 203 lbs of lean body mass. That's a lot of lean body mass. That's really good. Right. Right. Right. Um low anything below 190 would be low for me. And so if I come in there and I'm at I don't really care about what the exact percentage is, but if I've only got 180 pounds of lean body mass on me and then I'm carrying a lot of body fat, I'll still stay on the gain train of building muscle.

Yeah, dude. You want that metabolic powerhouse. powerhouse. powerhouse. Exactly. But if I get on there and I'm like, "Oh, wow. I've built back up over 200 lb of muscle. I'm in a good place to lean back out." And so I don't really care if it says 16% 18% 13%. What do you guess your body fat's going to be when you test it? mid- teens, low teens, teens, teens, 15 to 16. 15. Yeah, 15 to 16. Um, yeah, that's my guess. But, I mean, I'm normally pretty close, I'd say.

Yeah, I I'd say pro uh I'll be really happy with 15. I'm probably around 16 something. Uh, I could be as high as 169, maybe. I don't know. Like, uh, and that'll it will tell on just how how much muscle I've built. That will dictate how much, of course. Yeah. Because I I I know I've put some muscle back on. I feel good. I'm not very strong in the gym right now. That makes me a little nervous. Um, so we'll see. You're careful though, too, at the way you've had a couple injuries.

I know. That's I'm I'm super careful right now. I'm not I'm not I I want It's I'm in a I'm in an interesting place right now. Part of why I want to cut and go the other direction is so I can get away from focusing on getting because I I'm I'm I've been at the same kind of weights and I really like yesterday I was dumbbell pressing again and like the 80s are just like flying around but I'm so scared to go 90 100 120s and move back to that kind of weight and so I'm just like high reps slowing it down all the things we talk about because of the pec tear.

Yeah, I've been really trying to wrap my mind around uh and just really get my head space around changing my training to what I told you guys where I go alternate strength training one week, one week cardio slash kind of functional. functional. functional. And so I'm really just trying to get my head in the right place because if it's not in the right place, I know what's going to happen is I'll very quickly back out or turn it into, you know, more strength training. Uh so so have you officially started this or No.

So I'm going to start in like a week or two. Okay. And what it's going to start with, I'm going to start real slow. So, it'll be like how I normally work out one week. Then the next week, it'll be just boring cardio. Just get on, listen to a book or a podcast or something like that and just get my stamina up a little bit. And then what I'll And then Fridays, I'm going to do unconventional stuff because I still film with Dylan on Fridays. And so I'll probably be in here doing just embarrassing myself with like windmills and stuff that I'm terrible at that I know I need to work on like lateral stability, rotation, that kind of stuff.

Um, and then it'll probably I don't know if I'll change my mind with this, but I want to get better at swimming. Um, because I uh I can swim to not drown, but truth be told, I totally empathize with you. High bar there. Like truth be told, are you a bad swimmer, too? I'm like I I'm okay. I'm like an okay swimmer. I just I don't I don't do well with it long term. Like I really get uncomfortable like if I have to be in the water for too long.

Like I like wakeboarding and I like doing water sports with a life vest and a board. Yeah. I'm like I can't be out there just like swimming. Yeah. Cuz I'm just dog paddling and and feeling like I'm going to die. to die. to die. It's so It's so mental. It's so mental because when I was a kid, I was a great swimmer and then I didn't swim for a long my mom and I think I got live at the beach when I was a kid. By the way, this makes me like aware like your fears, your kid will pick up on them for sure.

Oh, dude. I So, if you say like, "Ah, this is scary." Like a spider's scary. Your kids's going to be like, I My wife has done this with my wife is allergic to bees and every once in a while we have bees cuz our neighbor freaks out. freaks out. freaks out. Yeah. So, now my son thinks these I'm like, "Max, it is not scary." I'm like, "They're not scary." So, I grew up, my mom is terrified of the water. If she goes in, it goes up to her knees and she's out.

She's just always had this fear of water. So, I haven't swam for a long legit swam for a long time. So, if like if you guys were to invite me on like a housebo or you're like, "Hey, we're going to go to the we're going to go swim in the ocean like for sure." I get anxiety. I like will legit get anxiety like what if I and I know it's not logical. So, I'm like you trying to use that as motivation because the gym I go to, they have a pool and I want to do this cardio thing.

So, I'm like, you know what? I'm going to try and get over this. Now, you don't think that's biting off more than you can chew at the same time? No, I think it's actually You might be right, dude. Cuz I'm talking right now. I I mean, just my opinion or But you could be totally different. Uh I know that when I'm doing something like out of my comfort zone, like adding more layers of things that are out of my comfort zone doesn't help the person. No, let me be clear.

I'm not jumping in a deep pool. Well, I know, but still. Well, I'm not going to be scared. I know, but my point is you would never go swim anyways because it's not something you love to do. So, you're already challenging yourself to do something you wouldn't love to do, which I com I commend you for, but so is also getting out of cardio. You might be right, but here's where my here's where I'm I'm not sure. I think if I go in with the mentality of I'm just going to get better at swimming so I can enjoy things with my family, cuz that's the motivating factor.

cuz my wife, she's like, she's trying to book these short trips uh throughout the year. year. year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh because often times we have these, you know, 3day, 4 day weekends, and she's like, "Well, I want to go do a lakehouse and I want to get a house boat." And I can already feel inside of me like I'm not going to enjoy that because uh I don't feel comfortable. So, I feel like it might be uh a nice other focus, you know, like get in there.

I'm not in here to work out. I'm here to learn how to swim type of deal. So, if you see me at the gym, don't make fun of me. me. me. probably absolutely like you get one of those little caps. Yeah, just Yeah, just Yeah, just I did all that. Remember when I went to my sister a good swimmer? I'm not I'm not a good swimmer. You're a hell of a good swimmer. Yeah, you're a good swimmer. You're a really good swimmer. What are you talking about?

about? about? I did not have good technique. I definitely did. I learned a lot. I actually got actually got actually got You're built to swim, bro. That's true. That That is true. I'm built to swim. And so that because of that, I get I get away with it. Like not built to swim now, bro. The worst part is I've done so much of it, you know, like growing up and I was like living in the pool just see the water splashing the water splashing splashing splashing his big old legs and ass picture Justin cannonball Justin and I racing in the water.

You know what I'm saying? I could just see this just like this. You wouldn't even see him. You see water water water like a Tasmanian devil in the water just like that's what it look like. Probably accurate. But I, you know, when I was a kid and we would go to the beach or when we were visiting my family in Sicily, I'd go out and I just swim in the ocean, like the normal ocean. You wouldn't, you can't catch me dead doing that now. That's so interesting.

Like like I'm like I'm either going to drown. drown. drown. You're just out of practice, bro. That's That's That's That's You're also Hey, you also have a lot more muscle to that. Does that work to your benefit? your benefit? your benefit? Would you are you are you uh cuz I'm considering considering considering I may hire someone at some point. Well, I'm I'm considering doing it with you. So, would that help or not help? That would not help. That wouldn't help. No. Having someone thereard no I have no interest in you know the pool.

pool. pool. No I mean like because I I go get on Monday I go get my my test. You mean you mean following this approach? approach? approach? Yeah. Yeah. Because I I figure this uh one I I've already been trying to create more activity because we're so sedentary. And so the act that's already been something I've been introducing and I I kind of want to play with that way of of training. I think it would be a great program to write. write. write. Yeah. Right. I want to experiment with.

So, so part of me is like, okay, I it, you know, maybe I would do that to when would I switch over to the lean out process that would help that would work well with that direction. Um, and if it also supports you in that direction, then that maybe there's enough praying for the the one time in my life when I was the least dysfunctional because I've always been dysfunctional, but the least dysfunctional with strength training was when I did jiu-jitsu. And it was because exactly how I coach people.

someone comes to me with eating disorder or whatever, the way you don't coach them is you say, "Hey, don't do that thing anymore. It doesn't work." You just say, "Hey, focus over here instead." So, you get somebody with an eating disorder, I'm going to try and focus on getting you stronger. And if you can focus on getting stronger, it typically takes care of the rest. So, I'm praying for a desire to improve my my stamina and endurance. And if I can get to the point where I start to enjoy that, yeah, it won't be a problem.

But if it's like, you know, oh, I got to fix this thing with building muscle, it's not going to happen, dude. Like, I like like like Yeah, it's the wrong motivation. Wrong. It's just not going to work. Yeah. Yeah, it's wrong. I'll just keep doing Speaking of which, dude, it's so funny. You were making fun of me the other day cuz I I've been come back from a weekend of eating gluten and I just hold water in my And uh and so then I cleaned up my diet and I'll I'll fluctuate easy four or five pounds of water.

Easy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a there's one positive. I don't know if this is really positive, but one thing I like about holding water is when I lift, the pumps are ridiculous. ridiculous. ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll come in feeling kind of like, oh man, I'm holding water. My head doesn't feel right. Then I'll work out and I'm massive. I mean, off air. You get the best pups. Off air. We were talking about this cuz I So, this happened to me. I haven't So, I've been, again, I'm pretty dialed in right now.

Um, I'm not crazy dialed in, but I'm I'm dialed in as far as hitting my protein and eating, making good choices, making most my meals. And, uh, uh, I indulged in ice cream. Uh the night before last. Well Well, tell them how much. Yeah, like two or three thousand calories worth of ice cream at one time. Yeah. At one time. Yeah. Yeah. Post night. After I did all my other stuff, right? So I ate good all day long. Trained everything like that. So nuts. The justification, let me tell you.

How much is that? It's it's uh I mean it's whatchamacallit um what's the what's the cold stone? And it's you know they pack it with cookie dough and chocolate and all kinds of other stuff too. So it's not just the ice cream, dude. So a lot. I know. And I told myself and I have it. I'll just try halfway through. Are you feeling like Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. But you just keep going. keep going. keep going. Yeah. It's like But you know what? You know how this one goes.

I go I get a little bit more than halfway. I'm like, "Well, this is I'll be angry at myself to go get this later when I want when I have a craving for it. It's only this much. So, I may as well finish this. This is the smoke the whole pack of cigarettes." cigarettes." cigarettes." Yeah. Yeah. But and and also I know I'm going into my DEXA scan right now and I'm like I'm in reverse bulk mode and a 1% higher body fat to me I care less about than actually having more muscle.

So this is also part of the justification. So anyways I I I I slam all these calories. I know it's a super high calorie day for me. And then in the morning I typically eat a really light breakfast right now and and are lower on calories until we get to about midm morning to mid-afternoon. Katrina did this thing uh this weekend that was really cool. Um shout out to one of our partners. I know it's not one of their commercials, but uh Butcher Box has chriisso has chriisso has chriisso and we made like a egg egg chiso breakfast burritos for like the whole week and so I had three of those.

Wa. Wa. Wa. Yeah. All at once. Yeah. Yeah. Which, you know, so the the tortilla alone plus the eggs plus the tort,000 calories. tort,000 calories. tort,000 calories. Yeah. Yeah. Probably 1,000 calorie breakfast. So, I haven't had a workout. And then I had another meal and then I worked out in the afternoon. I bet your pump was Oh my god, dude. I I forgot what it felt like to feel like that. I haven't lifted like that in a long time where I was loaded and also like And the sodium Oh, everything.

Yeah. The sodium high. I I play I play I play good on all my other macros, too. So, I'm drinking water. Yes. I was just I looked like yesterday I gained 10 pounds of muscle. That's the best. And And felt like it too. Just That's the best. Yeah. Just Yeah. Just Yeah. Just the water bottle like a water bottle of dude mine. Hey, strong too. You know that's a that's a that's a you'll also Hey, I'm stronger when I'm holding. holding. holding. Oh, way stronger. What that my point of bringing up the I was I was benching.

Wonder why that is. And the 80s felt like they were just I was like, man, I got to go heavier. And I and I discipline that what I'm most proud of is that I disciplined myself not to. It was like stay here. I don't I don't need to go higher. higher. higher. You want to know what's crazy? I was reading this article. I knew about this already, but they were I don't remember what the I wish I'd saved the article, but they actually showed percentages. So, uh there's lots of things that influence strength, right?

Muscle size will influence it. Recruitment patterns influence it. How well your central nervous system like puts out that power influences it. But so does your tendon attachments. That's just mechanical leverage. Like if you look at my bicep, you know, where it attaches here in my in my forearm, if it attaches just a quarter of an inch further down here, do you know how much a difference that makes makes makes and how much weight I can lift? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, in this article, they were talking about how a lot of these strength athletes like we meet people like like Mike Salmi is a good example is he's a big dude.

If you meet him, you're like, eh, how much 600 lb deadlift? What? Yeah. What? Yeah. What? Yeah. Like, where's that come from? I bet you if we if we we pulled all those I know. I wonder what his tendons look like. His pinions are probably attached at these really crazy labal places. Yeah, dude. That's just another way that not to mention the CNS part that we talk about too. Like Yeah. Just his his technique. technique. technique. Like if you're building a machine, what's that? What's that um that quote?

If you give me a pulley large enough, I can can can a lever long enough I can lift the world. Who is it that said that? That's an old It's an ancient but it's basically like levers and pulleys and this is how we move heavy things. things. things. Biomechanics. Biomechanics. Biomechanics. Yeah. This is your body, dude. If your tendons attach a little bit in an advent like a little bit makes a big difference. difference. difference. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how much you can What was that?

Is it um about isometrics and how that really like addresses like tendon strength? tendon strength? tendon strength? It's better for tendons. Most other techniques tendon stiffness and strength. and strength. and strength. Do you think that's the most logical way to explain something like uh what is it? Was it uh stone stone hedge or stone hinge or whatever the Oh, how they moved it. Yeah. They probably did like a really long lever in order to aliens. Yeah. No. Funny you even mentioned that because like there was there was actually this uh theory for building of pyramids that uh I hadn't heard before and I thought it was actually pretty logical um that they actually built because they had other pyramids in mind um back in the day they they built it way bigger that to scale than it is currently even the Great Pyramid.

So they they built it so there's like ramps um along the outside and then and they started at the top and then kind of scaled their way down carving um carving it off and all the excess material they would deliver over and repurpose it to the next pyramid. And so if you see like so they started actually like on a hillside where it was like a flattened like hill area. So that way they could start the top part and kind of build their way down or carve their way down.

Carve their way down in that. So anyway, it just it it seemed a little bit more logical that way. The theory that I find most interesting uh is that the pyramids were there before the Egyptians. Well, yeah, Well, yeah, Well, yeah, because you see water erosion and stuff that could only have been possible. Well, not only that, but the part that makes that one hard to believe is the other stuff. How it aligns with the stars so perfectly and stuff like that, which is weird cuz it's like for for Yeah.

like for a hillside to also be like perfectly aligned with something or was technology given to them by uh by you know their false gods their demons like that you like that bro hey I I make it weird immediately I I I take back I everything is possible bro everything is possible now and there's definitely I mean the stuff that's coming out with these these Epstein files is just man does that make you feel uh sick inside that our our society and gatekeepers like gatekeepers like gatekeepers like what was there 3 million 3 million uh emails emails emails Mhm.

Mhm. Mhm. And I mean just the amount of sifting through all that it's going to be weird to see what happens. I think what you said Justin is probably true. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. It's too It's too You know why? Because no side wins. Yeah. Like I mean I I've seen I've seen stuff with like Dollaly Lama involved. I see I mean it's just got it's got everybody. It's got it's got it's got politicians. It's got actors and actresses. actresses. actresses. Both sides of the aisle.

Literally the gateway. gateway. gateway. It's got medicine people. It's got I mean dude it's got everybody. Did you say medicine people? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You see my medicine people. Hey I got you know I got to bring something up that's kind of crazy. do that that that so um so my so I'll tell you why this came from so Jessica just she got over uh like a cold virus uh and then she had this cough that just wouldn't go away and basically it was an asthmatic kind of cough so sometimes viral infections can trigger this and so you're you're not sick anymore but then you get this like incessant cough right and my wife this will happen to her and so um I you know I was like I think that's asthmatic and so I have a rescue inhaler cuz I grew up with asthma I rarely ever use it but I always have it.

And um we had to get her a steroid inhaler. So there's two types of inhalers you use for asthma. One of them dilates the bronchial tubes and it's immediate. The other one is an anti-inflammatory inhaled steroid. Uh because the tubes themselves can get inflamed. And now here I'll tell you where this is going. So as a kid I had asthma pretty regularly. Like I would say say say six months out of the year. I'd say six months out of the year for for years I would use um a steroid inhaler daily.

So every day I'd inhale a steroid inhaler and then I'd use my rescue inhaler when it would get real bad on top of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I looked it up. Now steroids u you know corticosteroids I should say um they have side effects and there's less side effects when you inhale them but they still get systemic. Yeah. They they it's been shown in studies that it blunts growth in kids. Chronic use blunts growth in kids. And so I'm like, did I blunt? Did I like affect And so here's my evidence of it.

So I'm 6' tall. Okay. 5'11 and a half. No, I'm not. How do you say that? Finding his way to six. I'm sorry. I'm starting a rumor on this. There's Okay, I have a reason for this. Do you know that heels? Do you know that guy? Do you know that guy? uh the uh Wes Watson guy. Okay. Do you know that one of the things he gets madly like trolled because he claims to be six foot and like everybody says he's shorter than that. And it's like one of the things that drives him the most crazy gets so angry.

I would say I don't care. I want to be shorter when I was doing it. That's where it comes from for me because I know that he's been trolled so hard on that. that. that. You react and everybody's just going to double down. I'm exactly 6'1. Anyway, uh but my my hands and feet measure for somebody who should be about 6'2. So, I don't know if you know that there's average shoe sizes and hand sizes for people who are 61, 6 foot, 510, whatever. And I've known this.

I know my feet are I wear a size 12, 12 and a half shoe. I think it's the same. You wear what? 62, 63. Yeah, 63. Yeah, 63. Yeah, 63. And I'm so I'm like And when you stunt growth, it doesn't stunt in the in those areas. It'll stunt like your legs and your upper. So, I probably should have been 63. Oh man. And my brother's like 6'2. I like how you scienced your way to that. that. that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Should have been a lot taller, dude.

Yeah, I should have been taller, dude. How do I explain Justin? Huh? Yeah. Yeah. My dad's 6'7. My brother's like 6'3. like 6'3. like 6'3. That's just generic. Come on, dude. Throw me a bum. Yeah. You can take a science excuse. Yeah. You don't wear What size shoe do you wear? You don't wear a 12, do you? Yeah. Uh, well, 11 and a half. Yeah. See, that's it's typically uh for 6 foot, I think the range is 10 and a half to 11 and a half.

And then outside of that is like considered, you know, outside of the range or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. You know what they say about Well, yeah. I'm good there. We'll stop right there. Anyway, listen. We have uh an Our Place commercial and we have a new Oh, what do we got? What do they say? Hey, listen. Hey, guy. Who's opening the box? Yeah. Who's is this last time? You just open open open I have no idea. They don't tell us.

So, there's some boxes. Somebody's going to take it home. So, you know, like Yeah. Last time it ended up working out. We got what was supposed to be. But Katrina is all of us have put in like what we want and then So some of that is mine, some of that's just just just That's right. That's right. Well, we need to have a list. I don't know. know. know. Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome to maybe let our producer know. Well, listen. Well, listen. I I have one of those small pans we cook eggs in eggs in eggs in it.

And it's the best. No forever chemicals. It doesn't have It is the easiest pan It is the easiest pan I have to clean. And there's none of the crazy chemicals in it. It's amazing. You know, my favorite part is that I think is I don't know why every other company hasn't done this. Does that one have it? Yes, that one has it, too. See that little that little knob? See that little knob on the the notch on the handle? Your spoon your spoon can rest there.

Yes. Yes. Yes. One of my big Okay. Okay. I'm I'm the one that cleans the one that I'm the one that cleans the kitchen. I'm the one that This is like a pet. pet. pet. You know, it goes on the counter. Yes. It goes on the counter and then the food and stuff gets stuck on there and it's always a pain to clean. It's like and or I'm always trying to rest a a a plastic uh you know spatula on a hot pot which will melt it so you can't do that and so it annoys me.

Right. Or and you can't use a metal one on Well, that's a good pot to cook rice in. Well, the nice thing is it's nonstick and it's ceramic. Okay. No forever chemicals. Yeah. They're light and they're super light. They have a threeyear warranty on them and free shipping returns. You can try it out for 100 days. If you don't love it, you can return it. They're they're pots and pans. I love that. I love that we're doing this now where we're opening up and we're giving them to us because I'm I'm close to like switching out everything I have to them.

Yeah. I want my whole kitchen to be out. There's something to note on this lid here. It's kind of cool. They have a strainer on one side. It's open on the other and you can just twist it. So if you want steam, you don't have any air steam escaping. But when it's time to like pour or strain something out, say you're doing pasta, all you do is turn to the side, hold the lid on. lid on. lid on. Oh, that's a good pasta right there. Perfect for that.

Yeah. Or vegetables if you like to boil vegetables. I I mean I if you when I learned the chemicals that are in non-stick stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Well, isn't that like one and two right there? Uh receipts and then the pots and stuff that we cook. Cooking cookware is the worst. Oh, I thought I thought the receipts were were were Well, the problem with a lot of people is they they use metal utensils on their pots and they scrape it up and then you're just eating that stuff.

It's it's amazing. What is it that they they put on it to where it cleans like that though? ceramic. It's ceramic. So that's it's very very high quality expensive ceramic. ceramic. ceramic. It's called thermachind, but it clean it cleans like nothing cuz that was a selling point for the Teflon pans was like how how easy it is to clean. This cleans easier and it's better for you. It does. Yeah. Way better. Yeah. So interesting. Yeah. I love it. And you have their air fryer. I do.

I love it. Yeah. I Yeah. I Yeah. I Which by the way, air fryers are the worst offenders typically for forever chemicals. chemicals. chemicals. I didn't know that till you brought that up. Who figured that out? Your wife. Yeah, my wife. Yeah, of course. Yeah, she's she's all into this. Yeah. Well, we we we we wouldn't get an air fryer because of that. Cuz I couldn't find any. Oh, you Oh, you were You knew that before? before? before? Before we were working with us know that.

There was a point there where I was talking about air fryer. Before I talk to you about everything, you warm up your stuff in plastic in the microwave. Yeah. I told you for years. Doug got me to change that. Why don't you listen to me? It's always done. done. done. Doug has Doug has better delivery, dude. You try to bully me into it so than ever. Just like you. Just like you, bro. If I try to tell you what to do, I got to go around.

I got to go around and get I've got to call Jessica. I got to call Jessica to get you to do something. That is the Even worse. Even worse. Even worse. Joy Mode is a before performance supplement. And by performance, I mean intimate performance makes a big difference. There's compounds in Joy Mode that have been backed by data to improve blood flow. So, you get relaxed blood vessels, more blood flow, things get firmer, you last longer, it's stronger, it really works. Our audience loves it. We get tons of com comments on using Joy Mode 45 minutes to four hours prior to sexual activity.

It's a pre-workout that you take before the most important workout of the day, of course. Go check them out. Get yourself 20% off. Go to tryjoymo.com/mindpump. Use the code mindpump. Get 20% off. Back to the show. First question is from coach cowboy James CPT. Are there actual benefits to vibration plates or is it just another gimmick in the fitness industry? The way that they advertise them is a gimmick. gimmick. gimmick. So they they advertise them uh for and they'll say it's helps with fitness, builds more muscle, it's a great way to work out.

It's none of those things, but it is helpful uh to reach deeper ranges of motion to work on mobility in a mobility protocol. I can see value um in using a vibration plate. And the reason why it works is like let's say you're trying to get into a deep squat and you get stuck. When you stand on a vibration plate, uh the vibration actually gets the central nervous system to start to relax and you'll be able to move deeper into that position. Overrides your governing. It overrides the governing to an extent.

much like what uh pressure points or massage therapy does to a muscle, right? So, one of the when you have really tight, stiff muscles and you get this deep tissue massage, that's what that does is it overrides the CNS, relaxes, and then all a sudden you're like, "Oh, wow. It feels so good." Which is arguably cheaper. So, yeah, it's hard for me to kind of push the place for the price point. price point. price point. Yeah, I'm not a fan. Uh, this is also like um because it got so much popularity, they now have all the cheap version gimmicky ones.

So yeah, cuz originally I thought these like were all like Doug can pull it up right now. Vibration plates on Amazon and you can get them for next to nothing. nothing. nothing. You need a pretty strong vibration plate to make a difference. Yeah, it's not going to be just like a, you know, weak I remember years ago I put a foam roller that vibrated that vibrated that vibrated and you found out it was really inside it. it. it. Yeah, that's another story. But it didn't it I mean it didn't really do anything.

It wasn't strong enough. Like the real expensive vibration plates which I don't think are worth the investment. But if you go to a gym with one, one, one, try doing like they get ones for 1999 bucks. bucks. bucks. The the big ones are much more expensive. expensive. expensive. Oh yeah. The big ones are like5 like$5 to $10,000. That's right. Yeah. So they're they're they're I actually like those. They're they're like lacrosse ball size and they vibrate because Yeah. If you're doing any kind of quote unquote myofascial release like that's uh you know helpful.

Yeah. But like static stretching on one mobility on them. Um it's like uh if it takes me if it would take me 60 seconds or 120 seconds like 2 minutes, 3 minutes to get into a position, I can get into it in 15 or 20 seconds on a vibration plate. So um do a do a lunge to a single leg balance and you'll get all more benefits than what you get from your Well, the way they sell it is so Well, yeah. No, it's all that's my point though.

like the any any any bit of like stability involvement or anything like that is do a do a single leg toe touch do a lunge to a balance and any toward any sort of benefit that they try and sell you on this you'll get more from that. that. that. So what you'll see with some studies is they'll compare vibration plate to nothing and and there'll be like a little bit of a bone strengthening effect or whatever. Um super minimal. It's like if you're looking to strengthen your bones and your muscles like do some body weight strength training exercise will crush it'll crush what a vibration plate does.

But for if I was training in a gym and training clients, uh I would use it uh for specific mobility and that's about it. If I own the gym, I would not spend five grand on one. That'd be like not a worthwhile investment. worthwhile investment. worthwhile investment. No. No. Next question is from Fran Fa. I'm new to lifting with a barbell and I have a home gym. I frequently lift when I am home alone. My goal is to progress to heavy squats, but I'm afraid of hurting myself or getting stuck at the bottom.

What is the best rep range for me? me? me? Uh, I mean, you can get hurt with any rep range if you do it wrong. Uh, you know, theoretically that lower rep ranges with heavier weight have a higher risk of injury, but that's when you start to get really strong. So, I'd like to touch on this. Um, if you have poor stability, sometimes the higher rep ranges are worse uh for people. If you're lifting a lot of weight, then I can see why this would be an issue.

But low, you know, low to high rep ranges, they're all good. If you have a home gym, uh if you have safeties, well, there you go right there. Yeah. Or learn how to dump the barbell. Exactly. I think that's a skill everybody that's, you know, working with barbells should learn anyways. I really feel like that's something that's way overlooked. If you learn how to actually dump the barbell effectively, this isn't even an issue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I wish we had a little bit more information about this client and like what what is how much are you able to lift right now?

Can you just do the bar? Have you added 10 pounds to it? because uh you know heavy heavy squatting is relative to the client and where they're currently at. I I also want to comment on the the value of actually loading it versus kind of nothing. Um I've talked about this before on the podcast like if you watch me do a a 135 135 lb squat which is basically a plate on each side for me is really light versus 225 and above uh my heavier loaded squat looks better.

better. better. Yeah. Yeah. because it's it's enough weight that I have to really brace. I'm more rigid and controlled. It gets around a little of the tightness because it forces Yes. Where when I'm so light, I'm I'm kind of loose and it's it's almost too light. So, and I found this with clients when I when I find a a good weight that's challenging for them. I'm not trying to PR them or anything, but challenging enough that, hey, working six to eight reps is is hard. I I see some of the best mechanics.

Um, when I when I put like just the bar on there and I teach a squat, they seem to be flimsy and all over the place because their legs are plenty strong enough to push up that 45 lbs, but they're not locked into enough to where it's loaded to where oh, they really brace the core and posture upright. Like, so there's some value to loading it to where it's challenging. Just go slow. I mean, load load it to where six to eight reps is difficult but doable.

And and then slowly try and increase that weight over time. time. time. Yeah. you focus on your your technique and your form and staying stable and not wobbling. Um, and perfect it, you can actually not add weight and just get better with your form, which will start to make it feel a little bit more difficult. And that's also progressing. Uh, so focus on that. And then, uh, practice dumping the bar. And dumping the bar literally is like you're stuck at the bottom and you can get it off your back.

your back. your back. [ __ ] it off. And now, by the way, this is an easy thing to do. The the reason why people don't like to do it is they're scared of dropping the bar. They think it's be loud or whatever. just practice it a couple times with a plate and you'll see it's not a big deal. Um, and then it's really easy to get out from under a squat uh by doing that. But if you have safeties, if you have a a a squat rack, uh most home gym squat racks these days have some kind of a safety.

Yeah, the safety arms and you set it just below uh the parallel set. Also, if you're working in this, if you choose a weight that I'm telling you should be challenging for six to eight, nothing says that while you're on rep four, you go, "Oh, wow. This is getting really hard. I don't know if I can get out the bottom. Stop at four. Like you uh you don't need to to choose a weight that is like pushing you to failure. Again, choose a weight that you think is difficult to go six or eight.

Let's pretend uh set one you get eight. Set two you only get seven. Set three you barely get six. Okay. So, set four you drop you stop at five or four. Like there's nothing there's nothing wrong with that. Um, but a lot of times you'd be surprised on h how strong I mean those are your glutes getting you out of that hole. And our glutes are the strongest part of our lower body. And so, uh, those those muscles tend to be much stronger than people realize.

And also why there's such so much value in training that. But, you know, start slow. Uh, take your time. Choose a uh choose a weight for six to eight reps. Be okay if you have to stop at four. And slowly add weight over time. All right. Real quick, if you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at 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. We also have a couples bundle. Four programs over 50% off all together. It's MAPS aesthetic, maps hit, maps muscle mommy, and the OBS six-pack formula. Just head over to mpv valalentine.com. Back to the show. Next question is from Burke himself. What grip type of pressing movement would be the easiest on the rotator cuff? cuff? cuff? So, here's the thing with this. First off, the rotator cuff uh is not a muscle. So, what that represents is a part on of the shoulder blade where you have four muscles that attach to.

You have the suppinatus, the infraspanatus, terraz minor uh subscapularis attaches to this uh part of the shoulder blade and those those muscles are relatively small and what they do is they stabilize your arm. They stabilize the humorris. This is the upper arm. So when I'm pressing uh it's it's not doing anything other than keeping my upper arm stable so it doesn't, you know, twist back or twist forward. So, if you have issues with the rotator cuff area when you're shoulder pressing, it's a stability issue. It's not a shoulder pressure issue.

pressure issue. pressure issue. There isn't a shoulder press that you could do that will solve this problem. You have to solve the problem of the stability that invol that's involved. Get a strong rot. This is uh Sal tells the story of when he added all that weight, added the weight to his bench press doing the the the what would you call it? call it? call it? It was a shoulder. It was called the shoulder external rotation. Yeah. So work on exercises like you know external like these are like rehab exerc I don't I don't know if how often you guys see me but that is a every time I bench I do W's.

I I always face PS W's on the suspension trainer for me cuz you can modify it with your body weight. So, and I want to do it enough to where I can get like 12 to 15 reps and warming that that rotator cuff up real good and getting that shoulder all stable and warmed up. Um, man, that gets me ready for a bench press like nothing else. And so, uh, that has been a go-to move for myself and my clients to to do that. that. that.

Yeah. And so what you would do is with your shoulder workouts uh for a little while is going to be centered around strengthening these muscles working on what's known as uh external rotation, internal rotation, full range of motion. You know, handcuffs with rotation is a good movement. Wall press is a good movement. W's on a suspension trainer. Uh you know, face pulls is good uh to really because here's what happens. you get really strong what are known as as prime movers in the shoulder or the chest or the back and then these stabilizing muscles aren't strong enough to stabilize these really powerful prime movers.

So I'm getting stronger with my shoulder press I start to get so strong that my stabilizer muscles aren't strong enough to support. So I get a little bit of movement in my shoulder press and poo I feel pain right in those areas because it's like they can't handle the weight that I'm moving. So, it's really important to get these strong, to get that stability, and then to continue to always go back to it before you start to have pain. But, it's not the shoulder press uh that's the issue.

Next question is from Mrs. Alyssa Mohler. I have a L5 bulging disc that causes me pretty frequent pain, and I'm trying to recover and heal it, but my chiropractor says it could take 3 to 6 months to fully heal. How am I supposed to train when I can't load heavy? Especially the lower body exercises like squats, deadlifts, etc. Yeah. Well, first of all, uh unilateral exercises probably fine. Okay. Uh so there's lots of great lower body uh unilateral exercises. Also, there's so many people with bulging discs in L4 and L5, right?

L5, right? L5, right? This isn't a death sentence. Uh if you were to to, you know, image a hundred random people, people aren't even aware. Most Yeah. this this is okay and strengthening your body makes this a lot better. better. better. What do you think the chiropractor means by fully heal 3 to six months there might just it might take 3 to six months to feel okay to go back to regular exercise? I'm not sure cuz I mean like if you have a bulging disc like it's not like there that's going to heal.

No, not necessarily. You're going to have a bulging reduce inflammation. Yeah. Like so that's why I'm curious what what do you think that what the chiropractor meant by that? like um like or or maybe because of the bulging disc, she hurt her low back doing something else or like compensated or something. But um yeah, no, this is unilateral symmetry. This is map symmetry right here. Like especially right now isometrics right away getting into isometrics isometrics isometrics and then symmetry. You control the load a lot too.

Yeah. So that would be the the recommendation. But yeah, to your point, um I remember when I learned this as a trainer because I remember early on I got scared when I had somebody like a b told me they had a bulged disc like when I was really young. I was like, "Oh [ __ ] like what can I do? I can't do anything." Whatever. anything." Whatever. anything." Whatever. And then I remember finding out like the amount of people that have a bulged, you know, L4, L5, and the ones that report zero pain whatsoever.

Then the ones that have say they have massive pain and they they it's like a tiny little bulge. And then other people with huge bulges, they don't even feel it. And so it's really this is like a really interesting one uh to you one get diagnosed and be told because then people all of a sudden identify that oh my god I have a bad back but yet I've seen clients uh with you know several millimeter bulge disc that are able to heavy deadlift and do everything everything that you would think that they're not supposed to be able to do.

So um but yeah unilateral work isometric work map symmetry would be a perfect example. would be really really wise to invest in a correctional exercise specialist trainer at this point but yeah somebody who's who specializes in correctional exercise maybe it's your chiropractor sometimes they are sometimes not I don't know I feel I'm sus I'm suspicious already by the 3 to six month fully heal fully heal fully heal without but I don't have full context but that doesn't sound like something that you that you that you get get you a doctor brink yeah but really good correctional exercise will handle this and um and then it won't happen again you won't feel that pain again because the spine is I mean it's a lot of joints And what keeps it, you know, for lack of a better term, in alignment is muscle.

So strengthen them the right right way and not only will you feel good, but you won't feel pain again. But unilateral movements is definitely where uh I would go. All right, I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. Stop doing three sets of 12 to build muscle and do this instead. You guys want to guess? Stop doing the three sets of 12 and do this instead. Uh, with that intro, my guess is you're going to tell people to change the rep range up to Yeah.

5x5 or low rep range. Do you guys remember when you're going? Yeah. So, um, often times we get stuck in like a set count and a rep count or a range