Standing vs. Seated Overhead Press : Why You're Leaving Gains on the Table | Mind Pump 2838

Key Takeaway

Switch your shoulder presses from seated to standing and watch your delts explode. Standing overhead press isn't just a shoulder exercise—it's a full-body strength builder that activates your core, improves thoracic mobility, and bulletproofs your back. Start light, focus on the lockout overhead, and you'll develop functional strength that translates to real-world movement. If seated pressing hurts your back, that's your body telling you it needs the stability work that standing provides.

Episode Overview

This episode breaks down why standing overhead presses are superior to seated versions for shoulder development, core stability, and functional strength. The hosts discuss how this fundamental movement has fallen out of favor in modern gyms, despite being one of the most effective exercises for overall upper body strength and real-world carryover. They also explore the science behind BPC-157, a powerful healing peptide.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Standing vs. Seated Overhead Press : Why You're Leaving Gains on the Table | Mind Pump 2838 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Shoulder presses are great for your delts, but if you always do them sitting down, you're missing out on gains. Try doing them standing. Watch what happens to your shoulder development and the rest of your body. Yeah, stand. Yeah, stand. Yeah, stand. I know. You know who talked about this? First time you're talking about peeing, boo. boo. boo. Who? No. Who? No. Who? No. While pressing. While pressing. While pressing. I know. I know. I know. Thanks, Justin. Thanks, Justin. Thanks, Justin. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Um, you know, sit down while I do.

Come on, guys. Stay on track. You know who used to do um who talked about this for a little bit? Someone very unexpected. unexpected. unexpected. Jay Culler. Jay Culler. Jay Culler. Oh, really? Oh, really? Oh, really? Jay Cutler when he was Mr. Olympia. I didn't know that. Yeah, because you know at that level of pro bodybuilding, these guys are massive. massive. massive. You're allowed to sit down. You're so big. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're so big and heavy and just overdevelopment, you know, sitting down might be advantageous, you would think.

But he said that I don't remember who it was that convinced him uh to start doing some overhead presses standing. and he talked about how it really developed the caps. That's a bodybuilding term for the roundness to his delts. But just from a functional standpoint, um, standing, you're still working the delts, but you're you're really activating the whole body. You're totally grounded. You get real good core stability. And and the real big one for me is that thoracic uh uh activation, that kind of upper back activation that's required to do a really good really good really good There's got to be more Yeah, I mean just based on your stabilizing with your core, your legs a lot more.

There's more contraction happening all at once. Uh so yeah, I've always preferred it. I wouldn't make the case that my shoulders look any better or different. But that's interesting. Yeah. And you know what's interesting about that too, Justin, because you I think some people like I could press heavier seated, but I think the the heaviest presses overhead are all standing. standing. standing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Which which you which is that true? all the records or seated ones I've seen.

Yeah, I don't think we have a record of like an actual written record of like how much people have done seated, but um the heaviest I've ever seen. Well, Olympic lifters. Well, cuz there's no real competition for that. Like I don't think anybody's kind of put that as part of the exercise to compete with. But it'd be interesting to see if like somebody that can lift standing overhead like that like if they could do more seated or less. Yeah. Well, you also get the benefit even though this becomes a bit of a different exercise, but you you're you can't do it seated is and and Justin was the one who really got me to start doing this cuz I was a a longtime uh shoulder press person who sat down always.

I never did standing presses. It wasn't until I think I did started lifting with Justin that and I would do the push press and being able You can't do that seated. Yeah. and penal to throw a little English on it and actually use leg drive uh would put me in a a shoulder press that I'd never done weightwise. And so that alone blew my shoulders up. So there was some just from that alone there's like tremendous value. And obviously until you learn how to strict press standing and do that, you probably shouldn't be doing a heavy push press.

But once you learn that those fundamentals down and then you can actually put a little English on it and use some leg drive and really move some weight. And I think pressing that heavy of load over my head, stabilizing the weight in a in a locked out position too was incredible for my shoulders. You know, you're going to get people cuz we'll get this sometimes when we do um you know, like we've done this actually happened recently where we did a exercise ranking post and we ranked pull downs low but pull-ups real high and there was some dude that's like it's the same exercise.

It's the same it's not the same exercise. It's a the same muscles are involved uh but it's not the same uh exercise. Um, and anybody who does lots of pull-ups versus pull downs or vice versa will tell you uh that it's different even though you're working the same muscles. Um, but even Okay, so even if we look at a seated overhead press and a standing overhead press, overhead press, overhead press, far more similar than a pull-up to a pull down, right? Wouldn't you agree? They're more similar.

Okay. So, let's just say uh that they were um identical in terms of the what they could do in terms of development of the delves. Let's just say that they were same. Okay, same. Okay, same. Okay, same exercise, seated standing. They're going to build your delts in an identical way. Um, as a trainer, um, and anybody who's listening right now, whenever that happens and you have two exercises, exercises, exercises, aside from other factors like injury or convenience or something like that, right? Let's say everything is equal and you want to pick a version.

It's a good idea to pick the version that's probably going to translate uh to the real world more often. more often. more often. Mhm. And being able to press something heavy while standing uh is going to give you much more carryover to the real world. Of course. Of course. Of course. Much more. Much more. Much more. What What else would you press? What are you lifting something over your head while you're sitting down? Yeah. I don't I'm trying to think if there was there was there was I don't know.

Maybe your kid or something, but that's about it. Oh, playing around or whatever. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I'm trying to think if there is there ever been a time where I was sitting down and I lifted something over my head. It's always It's always It's always just yesterday I was I stopped by my mother-in-law's house. mother-in-law's house. mother-in-law's house. Her uh her wine fridge went out and so she had to buy a a whole new refrigerator freezer motor or whatever you call it or whatever.

But this big heavy thing that I had to press up over my head and then slide it in. And it was uh it was hard. But it's like makes me think like there's never been a time where I've had to do something like that in this the seated position where you know you would you would sit down and lift something heavy above your head. You would never do that. And and you could you could I I could make the argument that a standing overhead press uh is the ultimate upper body uh expression of strength.

Uh I could definitely make that argument. Like you could pick any other upper body exercise uh not lower body, right? So, we're taking out lower body stuff. So, a deadlift would be considered lower body as well. But if you take all the upper body exercises, body exercises, body exercises, uh which one do you think would uh communicate this person's really strong the most? Uh I think it would be the standing overhead press. And this was how strength athletes in the past used to compete. So, back in the day, uh the bronze era, they would call it of uh strength training, you would have these strong men and women.

There were actually a few women that would compete as well. Very few, but there were some. And they would uh do these feats of strength. And there were a few lifts that they would do. The one- arm bent press was one very unique lift. There was a hip lift that they did which is uh it's it's almost like a hip thrust. thrust. thrust. Hip bridge. Yeah. Yes. Uh but the but the most common was was how much can you lift up over your head? And it was just universally known to be this is what shows how strong you are.

Can you pick something up and lift it up over your head? In fact, if you watch old cartoons, what exercise do they always demonstrate in a cartoon to show how strong the character is? Lifting something Yep. Yep. Yep. overhead. We know this instinctively. And it's it's an exercise that displays strength. strength. strength. If you had to uh only do two lifts for the rest of your life, it would squat and overhead press. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would cover the bases.

Yeah. I mean, I would I mean, if you just were mean, and if you had to pick just Yeah, exactly. You have to pick just two. Okay. If we we're playing this game, you're directly opposing gravity. I mean, mean, mean, and and and and think about that for a second. Somebody who got really strong at just squatting and just overhead pressing is going to have some pretty good just overall general strength everywhere. You're obviously missing a good pulling movement, right? And and that you that would be a bit of a hindrance.

If you add into that taking the weight up off the floor and then pressing up overhead. True. True. True. Well, now you're done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now you're now it's a done deal. Yeah. Cuz you have to clean it up. Now you got everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's it's uh it's an exercise that um you know I still go to commercial gyms and I see a lot of overhead presses. It's a very popular exercise whether it's machine or free weight and for good reason.

It's a great exercise. It's great for shoulder health especially if you do a full range of motion. you're getting the scapula involved with the humorous and it keeps your shoulders healthy. Um, it's just a great exercise for aesthetics. Uh, so that's why people love doing them. But I rarely ever see a standing barbell overhead press. overhead press. overhead press. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. It's actually more rare than a deadlift or squat nowadays. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Which is crazy to me because u Yeah. It's a it's a phenomenal everybody does I see a lot of seated overhead presses.

Yeah. But Yeah. But Yeah. But I wouldn't say that's even even that's a little bit if if there's ever I see them way more than I do. Yeah, I agree. If but I mean I tell you what the the military bench is pro the barbell military press is probably one of the most emptied pieces of equipment in the gym. It's one of them shoulder pressing because most people that do shoulder press either dumbbell shoulder press or machine shoulder press. press. press. That's true. That's true. Yeah, that's that's one or the other.

But that being said, I'll see people doing seated military press with the barbell 10 times more. Actually, I'm trying to think right now, the last as long as I can think how how often I saw standing overhead press. I don't think I've seen one. Yeah. No, it's interesting you point that out because I Yeah. Just going back to the commercial gym setting, um it even with all the squat racks and everything, you know, how it's changed, I don't see the overhead press a lot. The barbell.

Yeah. No. And you know what's funny? What's crazy about this is cuz here's some of the complaints that you'll get from some people. They'll say, "Well, why do you do it seated? Standing hurts my back." That's a very common Yeah. thing that you'll hear from someone. So, seated, they could do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, why does it hurt your back standing? Well, it requires more stability. stability. stability. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. So, lighten the load.

And I'm going to tell you right now, uh if you get good at a standing overhead press, unrackck a weight even. Don't clean it. Just unrackck it and come back. I think your strength potential is higher with the standing press which which you know we've added complexity and yet we can get stronger at it than the other version. There's a lot of gains that are missing or that people are leaving on the table because they choose the seated ver version. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Over the standing version.

Yeah. I mean I would ar I would argue that it's become this is why I think the prerequisite to that is a Zpress. It's just that's why I love the Z press so much. I much. I much. I if you're going to be seated Yeah. Do a Z press. Z press. Z press. Yeah. Well, especially or the prerequisite before someone cuz you're right. I think the the the push back someone would give you that's listening right now, they'd be like, "I tried it and my low back is killing me because they don't they lack the mobility, stability in the shoulder and and and so they can't lean up against the bench." Yeah.

That has to be the big deterrent is just because of everyday's uh everyday posture that people have and and how protracted they are, how weak their core is. So, those two things are very exposed. very exposed. very exposed. Maps pushpull legs. PPL You asked for it, you got it. By the way, there's two versions of this program. One for men and then one for women. The programming is different. Women have a more higher emphasis on lower body volume, glute training, shoulder volume. Men, it's more traditional.

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Again, you can get all of that included 40% off mapspl.com. The code is PPPL. 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. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mypumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. That's why I love this. I think that if I I wish I had the Z press in my arsenal as a younger trainer. That wasn't something that I found till much much later.

Yeah. I I I don't I same here. I didn't even know it existed. existed. existed. Yeah. I I would have had Yeah. I I would have had everybody everybody everybody In fact, had I seen it, I would have disregarded it. It wasn't until we were taught it and then someone sold it. You don't realize how tough it is till you go to perform the movement. It's crazy. crazy. crazy. And also just like how how how safe and good it is to like to teach somebody. Like I mean that would be like a if I was a trainer right now, putting somebody in a Z press and just doing the bar would be like that's the qualifier.

Yeah, exactly. I would just get them good. You get a client good at that, really good at that and then they're ready for a standing overhead press. Like they'll they'll get once they get good at that that that will prep their their core, their shoulder mobility, the thoracic mobility, thoracic mobility, thoracic mobility, and then now they're ready to get up now stand and load and like let's press this thing. Um, I ju I think it's such a such a under underutilized movement. Uh, I wish I saw more.

Every once in a while I I still I see it every once in a while now. I mean, I don't know if that's our influence or not. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I've seen I've seen it before. What's interesting to me is uh and this is just true in the strength training space is that exercises fall in and out of favor. Um, and it's what it's you would think that the ones fall out of favor is because they're not effective. That's just not true. Uh, I think sometimes what falls out of favor is just what's hard.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, like it wasn't that long ago. So, if you're listening to this now and you're, you know, you're younger than 30, this isn't going to make any sense to you, but, uh, when we were, uh, running gyms in the late 90s, early 2000s, uh, nobody squatted and deadlift. No, I'm not like not not even a little bit. Never. Yeah. Never. Yeah. Never. Yeah. Never. Deadlift. Never. Ever. Ever. Yeah. Uh, now that sounds crazy to somebody who works out in gyms now because you see people squatting, deadlifting all the time, but they just didn't do it.

And it wasn't because those exercises didn't exist. They were extremely popular in the 60s and 70s and then 80s they started losing popularity and it was the '90s that they for some reason reason reason lost tons of popular and they're very effective exercises. And the standing overhead press, I've just noticed it. I was thinking about this recently like nobody does a standing shoulder press which is wild to me. It's such a great exercise. It develops incredible shoulders shoulders shoulders staple for me, incredible core stability. Like if you could do a good secure heavy standing overhead press, like if you've practiced it and you got good at it, it's one of the exercises that'll actually bulletproof your back, which is interesting.

It's a shoulder exercise, but it'll bulletproof your back because you can lift. I mean, it's it's the re if I mean that's why I said that comment when we first started this conversation is that if you only did two movements, movements, movements, one of I think everybody would know squat is going to be one of those two. But I think the surprise to a lot of people be this overhead, standing overhead press would be the other one. Mh. Mh. Mh. Just those two movements and you take care of a lot.

Doesn't make it's not perfect. perfect. perfect. It's not ideal. Yeah. But it's like it and and the reason why I think that's so important to communicate is because if you if you had a week that you just were so busy, you didn't get to the gym, you couldn't and you but you just went out to the garage and you lifted that lifted that that that barbell over your head, you know, for three sets, you know, standing overhead press and you just squatted it. you you boy would you keep yourself in a really good well those are the two it's funny you say that because those are the two uh movements that get lost as people age so people know the squat like people stop being able to squat this shocked me as an early trainer I'd train someone in their 40s that's how that's where I'm at now right but I would train people in their 40s their 40s their 40s who could not stand and do a full extension up over their head they'd move their arms up but their elbows will stay bent and then if I try and straighten them out they'd arch back they lost the ability to fully extend over their head.

Yeah. You take the average person over 50 and that's the uh that's the rule. It's it's more often than not. Over 60 for sure you're not going to find people who can who can who can Well, yeah. I definitely think it just gets uncomfortable over time because of the degrees that your posture affects that. And it's like each time you're out of track, you know, just that, you know, millimeter to then a centimeter to an inch. And it's like it puts more stress. Uh it inevitably to where you'll get like impingement or something you're fighting.

fighting. fighting. I I when I had older clients uh and when I started to recognize this like we do a shoulder press and their form would, you know, be real short like, "Oh, what's going on here?" Yeah. It's like forward. Yeah. It was almost like they were trying to do an incline or they'd arch or something. So, what I used to do is I'd get a a broom handle or a stick. I'd have them hold on to it and I'd push it up for them to hold them up into position and then I'd slowly let go of the stick and see if they could just support it and keep themselves straight.

And we would slowly progress them to doing a shoulder press. And the the what I would get besides the aesthetic effects, right? Their arms look nice. They get this great, you know, development of the upper body. Besides that, they would always comment, "Oh my god, my posture feels so good. My neck isn't tight. I feel so good." And it's like, "You lost uh something your body's supposed to be able to do." And when you do that, everything tries to to to compensate and tighten up. Uh and it doesn't feel good.

And it's because you lost the ability to do something fundamental, which is a standing overhead press. So if you're doing seated, switch and watch what happens to your body. And you won't be able to go as heavy at first. You have to get used to it. No, but you'll get way better. Start start light and just in fact, start light and and put the emphasis on the lock out over your head. Yes. Yes. Yes. And so this is why I like the Z press because it forces that.

You have to get that right. You have to you have to figure that out. And so, you know, if you can't do the know, if you can't do the standing overhead press right now, start with the Z press, then work your way to doing that. And yeah, just keep that going because it, you know, it's I'm thinking back to the clients. I I wonder um you know, did did they lose the ability to squat first or did they lose the ability to overhead press first? They might have lost the ability to overhead press first before even squatting.

squatting. squatting. I don't know. That's a good question. Because even squatting, if you get up and down from the toilet at the chair, your car, your car, your car, we kind of always still kind of do that. Everybody still does that. Everybody stops pushing putting things up. We design our houses so we don't have to. We do. You really you really unless you train that. There's not a lot of things in everyday life that require you to lift something above your head. Now, the two things that help you do that are hanging and pushing things up over your head, which nobody does.

Yeah. We we cut out all the monkey bars at schools and we there's nobody pushing anything up over their head where at least squatting we get up and out of chairs. So, we may have lost the range of motion to go really deep and stuff like that. We still have that hinging pattern a little bit, but overhead pressing is is is lost completely. I used to love doing that test with clients where you put them you put their their backs flat against the wall and you just have them raise their arm up and I mean they without they get right above their eye level.

It's it's wild and they're already starting to arch. Big compensations to get dressed. Yeah. One of my favorite things to do with that too is they'll say, "I can't do it anymore." And I'll say, "Hey, relax your arm." and I'll bring the arm back for you. This is where look, your arm can go here. You just can't bring your arm. You don't have access. You just don't have that access. Such an eye opener. I got some uh data on BPC157 because because because Yeah. So, do you guys remember that?

Okay. I brought up a study earlier. Uh let me pull it up here. I had brought up a study on an earlier podcast on how they injected people um with knee pain and I think it was like 15 out of 16 of them uh had dramat one injection. Okay. And these were all people with chronic knee pain. No acute injury, but like chronic knee issues. Um I think it was 15 out of 16 of them had like incredible relief that lasted a year from one shot.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Pretty wild. Uh I pulled up there's a lot of animal studies on BP. So that was a human study. The animal studies are crazy, dude. They're crazy. So there's one where they took a rat's cornea and they made a hole in it with a surgical blade. Then they took BPC57, dissolved it in water, and dropped it in the eye. 72 hours later, the hole closed. closed. closed. Oh my god. 72 hours later, the hole closed. What a weird. They did another one.

I know. I just laughed cuz they were so mean animals. mean animals. mean animals. And and like like why that one? Like why that idea? Because they're testing it on different uh tissues different tissues and animals. Okay. It's got crazy healing for like the like nerves and stuff like that. So they took another cornea. Huh. This is another one with rats where they compressed or crushed a rat's spinal cord for 60 seconds. They gave it an injection of BPC 10 minutes after injury. The paralysis reversed by day 28.

So it was paralyzed. What? What? What? 28 days later from the BPC57. Uh it was healed. healed. healed. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that is crazy. Yeah, dude. This is there is uh it is crazy. crazy. crazy. And they haven't done a ton of human studies yet. Just there are some human studies. There are and when this thing gets uh promoted when it gets promote when it gets when it's able to be prescribed directly for these things because right now you get it from a comp. So you can get doctor prescribes right.

So you can go to npor hormones.com and they'll prescribe you they can prescribe you a peptide. Is this on? It's not mainstream medicine. Yeah. Is it on the list do you think for water or for like Yeah. Oh it is on water. Oh yeah. Oh it is. Maybe double check that Doug for me. Yeah. just for athletes cuz it's just like how are they picking that up? It sucks cuz like I don't see it's effective and effective and effective and I don't think BPC is S.

Is it? I think it is. I think how are they picking that up? I think it is. I think so is thyosin beta. Oh wow. You're right. Nonapproved substances. I don't know how they test for it. for it. for it. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it's a peptide your body makes. How do you test something that your body makes? Right. And like how long does it stay in your What's the halflife? How does it stay in your You got to use it every day. Oh wow. Somebody Somebody Somebody to keep athletes going.

That's so annoying that they would put that on the band. band. band. I know. So, here's some of the stuff that it's been shown to do. Okay. By the way, BPC stand, you know what BPA? BPC stands for? stands for? stands for? What? What? What? Body protective compound. Okay. Okay. Okay. This is a natural peptide that we find in gastric juices in human. So, here's some of the stuff that it's been shown uh with BBC. It's been shown to reverse dopamine depletion and receptor desensitization caused by chronic hard stimulant use.

So, your dopamine system can get messed up through using lots of stimulants. helps reverse it. Uh BPC counteracts the toxic effects of alcohol in the liver, stomach lining, and brain. Simultaneously, it'll accelerate recovery of the uh of eye tissue. It counters NSAID induced gut damage. If you use lots of non-steridal anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, like if you use them weekly, probably want to use BPC uh as well. It accelerates the closure of intestinal fistulas. It uh is good for overtraining syndrome recovery, hair follicle vascularization. So upregulation improves blood supply to follicles supporting hair density.

It's good for gum tissue and parodontal health, nerve damage repair. Of course, we know this IBS and IBD symptoms. So really good for gut health, postsurgery, surgical recovery, acceleration, scar tissue remodeling, blood pressure normalization, traumatic brain injury recovery, and then mood disorders driven by leaky gut syndrome. Yeah. Wow. Dude, Wow. Dude, Wow. Dude, it's pretty it's pretty it's pretty any any any This one, by the way, remember we had Dr. Seeds on and we asked them if there was one peptide you could take all the time.

What do you say? Yeah. BPC1. Yeah. BPC1. Yeah. BPC1. I know. It's It's pretty evident. Can you Can you Can you take it indefinitely? indefinitely? indefinitely? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, you can. you can. you can. That's That's what Dr. Seed said. He did. He did. He did. Yeah. He's like, "I would I use it all the time." Now, the dose goes up if you have injuries or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he's like, "Yeah, that's the one I would take all the time." I mean, it's there.

I mean, it's the one that you've I can feel like you can tell a different. I mean, you a you can tell a different. I mean, you could tell how how much faster you're healing from something, especially if it's an injury that you've had before or you're familiar with. It's It's definitely one of those ones. I have a buddy who got uh I think I told you guys he he had a shoulder injury and then it was taking forever to heal and he used it and I saw him like the next week and he's like, "I don't know if I'm like imagining things." I'm like, "What do you mean?" He goes, "The pain's gone." gone." gone." I'm like, "No, it works, dude.

It definitely works. definitely works. definitely works. Yeah, peptides are interesting. That's like the And now it's like more mainstream, right? Peptide science is more mainstream. more mainstream. more mainstream. I saw a post of our buddy Ben. He had he had a picture. He's been since 2016. He's he's a cutting edge dude. He was talking about Ben's Greenfield. Yeah. Greenfield. Yeah. Greenfield. Yeah. Greenfield. You talking about BPC back in 2016? 2016, bro. 2016, bro. 2016, bro. Okay. Okay. Okay. He's there's a picture of him and he's early and he's Yeah.

show he's holding the bottle and vial and and and syringe and he's like I've been talking I've been been talking about this for a decade decade decade but it's mainstream he was you know he was the first person I called so I I remember right when we were first kind of of of was this when you tore your Achilles I think so I don't remember I think so yeah so it was quite it yeah I think so yeah so it was quite a ways back and I I reached out to him and he was like oh yeah absolutely and I was asking him about injecting it in the site and what should I do and get and all them dosage and all things.

So, yeah, he was he was my go-to. So, go-to. So, go-to. So, it's the um it's now like they can't ignore uh the effectiveness of peptides for uh for lots of different reasons. Uh so, like for healing, for brain health, uh gut health, sexual health, there's peptides for that. Uh hormonal health. Um there's peptides that help regulate sleep. Pretty pretty Do you think they're being oversold? No. No. I think uh well, okay, let me let me back up. Yes and no. Yes, because that's what our space does.

So, they sell them like you're going to take peptides and it's like, yeah, you're going to get all these magical results. magical results. magical results. Yeah, like you're going to become Mr. Olympia or something crazy. Uh but no, because uh as um interventions, especially safer interventions than than traditional drugs, drugs, drugs, right? right? right? Like this is a huge there's a huge future, you know, I feel like we need to add a category to the pie chart, right? For the longest time, we've had these like pie charts that would show like, you know, diet is 75%, you know, your workout is, you know, 20 whatever.

And so, and supplements would only be like 5% or something like that. Like, where does where do you think peptide if you were building a pie chart of nutrition, of nutrition, of nutrition, exercise, recovery, exercise, recovery, exercise, recovery, it goes like this, sleep, uh, and then for medical interventions, it goes hormone replacement therapy first, peptides right underneath So, if your testosterone's off, that's like that's like life changing, right? Right. If your hormones are are off, uh, go hormone therapy. Peptides are next underneath that um, in terms of what they can do for you.

So, okay. Yeah, but what I'm trying to close the gap on is in comparison to supplements cuz supplements are also No, you can't. So, you're way Yeah. No, you can't compare. More effective. More effective. More effective. No way, dude. Yeah, you can't compare. You could take uh growth hormone releasing peptides and if you're healthy uh you know you're a 40-year-old woman and take uh Samarolin or something like that, you'll start producing growth hormone like when you're 18 from a peptide naturally. So uh yeah. No, you you can't compare to supplements.

So if you had to put a number on it, supplements are 5% of health and fitness, you know, 5% of your your results when it comes to health. I hate to say that because I don't think they're necessary. I don't think peptides are necessary. I also don't think supplements are necessary. In some cases, they cases, they cases, they I know, but but in terms of what they'll contribute. Yeah, exactly. What they'll contribute. That's when I say five because supplements have tremendous value. If someone undereats protein and you supplement with a protein shake, it could be could be could be a huge thing.

But generally speaking, when you talk about if someone's diet is dialed and they exercise, that is you're 80% of the way 90% of the way to your ultimate physique or ultimate goal. So from a percentage standpoint, if you were comparing it to supplements, and I know you said it doesn't even compare, but yeah, but it also doesn't even But you wouldn't compare, you wouldn't say it's more important than diet. No, you wouldn't say it's more important than exercise. No. Okay. So where where does it fall in in the does it where does it fall in in the category or in it's definitely more important or more impactful than supplements less impactful than exercise and diet and sleep.

sleep. sleep. So somewhere in between there. Yeah. Somewhere in between. So it would be well even I guess if I was to compare just from cognitive benefits like neutropic supplements versus uh peptides. It's like I mean exponentially more benefit with Yeah. with the peptides I've experimented with. I I did tell you guys. So, I went I told you guys, right? I went to I recently went to the doctor because I had some heart palpitations for a few days and so I did a regular checkup thing and the doctor there is asking me like, "Oh, you know, what do you take?

What do you do?" Whatever. Whatever. Whatever. You're like, "Hold on, let me get this list out." list out." list out." He's like, you're like like today or or like like like Yeah. Like like since I got here. You want all my supplements? You have you have a half hour? No. No. So, I told her I was No. No. So, I told her I was on hormone, you know, uh hormone hormone therapy, right? Yeah. And you know what I'm taking and still still cuz I was still like, "Okay, come on.

You're a young doctor. I'm sure you realize like this is like hormone therapy is fine. It's just it's with the doctor. I'm not going to black market and doing all this stuff." Right. Right. Yeah. And her face was like, "What? Why do you take that? Why do you do that?" I'm like, "Oh, it's with a doctor. They like I'm almost 50 years old. They monitor my hormones and I do I do labs every 3 months, you know, you know, this and that." Some young guy. She's like, "But if you're not like if you're not really deficient, why would anybody take?" And she's asking me all these questions like, "That's" She's like, "Let's let's just test you.

Let's just make sure like she was concerned. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With me. I'm like, listen, I go through a doctor. In fact, their expertise is hormones. I know your expertise is not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't say that to her. But I'm like, you know, but it's interesting still. It's still interesting. interesting. interesting. Yeah. There's still that bit of stigma. I didn't expect it too cuz she was a young doctor. young doctor. young doctor. Well, and yeah. And Courtney experienced some of that even from some of her doctor friends.

she's, you know, and was a nurse uh forever and like is, you know, on some hormones and and thyroid and and they were like very concerned, you know, cuz it's like they don't they don't study a lot of that. They don't look into the research, you know, it's just not part of their curriculum. No, that's so funny to me with like you because I get that regular MDs may not have all the the schooling and up to date on the newest research but you would think someone I mean your age I would like if you were 30 and you were doing that I think if the doctor would be like what are you doing you're young man still well there's a different so you're almost 50 years old dog yeah I know the view maybe she thought I was inject was inject was inject Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You know what it you know what it is? There's there's an there's a there's a view with hormone therapy in traditional medicine that's it's getting outdated. It's it's starting to change. But the view is unless you're so unless you're way out of range. Yeah. Unless you're in dangerous zone like 100 something like if you come in as a man like if you come in as a man and your testosterone uh your total testosterone is below 250 because that's the bottom of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Well, then maybe we'll consider testosterone. But if you come in at 350, Yeah. you got to be like rock with all of the symptoms of with all of the symptoms of low testosterone. low testosterone. low testosterone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you've got the low drive, the low libido, libido, libido, uh you know, you're just not feeling good. You're losing muscle mass, gaining body fat, but you're in range. They're going to be like, "No, no, you're fine." Same thing with thyroid. Same thing with you see with women with testosterone.

They'll come in and, man, you know, I got low libido. I got low low drive. I just don't feel good. They'll look at their testosterone and say, "Well, you're within range, even though it's at the bottom of the range." And then they're more likely to be like, "You know what? know what? know what? We got an for you." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got an enzytic for you. That's the go-to. I mean, that's what led me to a be long before we were ever working with any companies.

What led me to going through a hormone specialist was I first tried to go through my general practitioner and I was like 275. So, I I tested a few times. 275 to 325 was like the highest I test. And I had all the s all the signs of like feeling terrible and uh your general pe your general practitioner wouldn't wouldn't prescribe me testosterone. testosterone. testosterone. Do you know how many do so and then then I go to a hormone specialist specialist specialist and they're like oh yeah right away like in fact and they started me on a very mild dose and then monitor and then inched me up inch and they would inch me up like 10 milligrams at a time.

It was like very slow. Do you know how many women I'll be careful when I how I say this right. Do you know how many middle-aged women who start to suffer from anxiety? Because anxiety spikes in middle age for women, parameopause, menopause spike, sleep issues, like you know, all the all the the classic stuff, right? Do you know how many of them uh do hormone therapy or will we use progesterone progesterone progesterone and they're like I don't have anxiety anymore. anymore. anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what the traditional methods were?

If you're middle-aged woman, sleep issues, I'm having anxiety, here's a benzo or here's an SSRI, that'll fix you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you can go on bio identical, meaning the exact same hormones your body's making. So, not the birth control crap where it's like different, but actual bioidentical hormones. You could take a woman, raise her testosterone, have her take some progesterone before bedyroid, uh maybe a little thyroid if her thyroid isn't optimal, and then boom, boom, boom, I feel great. Yeah. And all I'm all I'm taking are hormones I already make and they're within they're still within range.

You you're they're taking you out of range also. Now you're in this youthful profile again. Yeah. And your quality of life goes up, right? And then which also promotes that person has motivation to go work out. Their libido and sex drive is now up and so they're having sex with their partnerates. partnerates. partnerates. And the SSR does the opposite. Whereas an SSRI you have sex sex. Okay, my anxiety is better, but I can't get orgasm or I don't have a libido or I'm gaining weight as a result of the rest.

And you don't get any highs or lows anymore. You're just kind of Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. there. there. there. Yeah. So, I don't know. You know, talking more about the peptide market, I'm curious because especially since you you you categorize it as so much more effective than supplements, if it's had a a negative impact on the supplement industry. supplement industry. supplement industry. I don't think so. A big part of the supplement industry is there's a big gap fat loss and muscle building and stuff like that. And if there's products out there that there that there that you still need you still buy supplements uh over the counter.

Uh if you want peptides, you still if you want to do it the the legit route, you still go through doctors. Um so there's still over the counter. There's still this part, Adam, which is always a block for some people. some people. some people. There are oral peptides. So there are peptides you could take in capsules. A lot of them are injectable. A lot of them are injectable because uh they're not a bit of a barrier. barrier. barrier. They're not bioavailable. And now you use a tiny little insulin needle.

It's like a little hair. But a like a It's like a little hair. But a lot of people like the like the GLPs. Oh, Oh, Oh, the GLPs are injectable. Well, just getting my dad to do Yeah, that was a deterrent, you know. Come on. Be a man. Which one was he trying? Was he good? BBC. I was trying to get cuz he had knee surgery and knee replacement surgery. Oh yeah. Did he take it? He started to take it. Yeah. Right. I really had to convince him that it's, you know, you know, I gave my dad BPC, but I go there and give him give him give him I wouldn't be surprised if that's why the people that choose anti-depressants are probably for that same reason, too.

I'm sure that some of the people that choose antid-depressants versus taking all those hormones are probably similar, too. too. too. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. they don't they want well with with hormone replacement therapy just so that people know if we're just talking hormones so uh in mormones.com that the medical professionals have access to this you can use injectable testosterone they also have yes in fact if you're a woman and you do full hormone replacement therapy progesterone testosterone and thyroid none of it is injectable the progesterone is pills the testosterone is a cream you apply it vaginally And thyroid is a pill.

There are no injectives. It's the peptides that are often injectable. injectable. injectable. Speaking of all this and and things that affect health and stuff, I want to ask you about cuz you're been tracking sleep so much. so much. so much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh how big of an impact now that you're tracking and really paying attention to all this. all this. all this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How big of an impact does eight sleep have on things like your sleep quality, sleep score, all that stuff? Everything.

It's one of the it's one of the most impactful things that I've ever done um for sleep. Now, I've had that locked in for quite some time now, like that because we've had eight sleep for But you've you've slept at other places without it. without it. without it. Oh, yeah. Oh, I mean, one of the Because you run hot, right? Yeah, one of the worst parts is I'm I'm so the one of the worst parts is I'm I'm so aware of that and I'm sure I get in my own head when I know I travel now and I don't have that like I know that I'm going to have a like I the first thing I do I mean you've been with me before when first thing I do when I get to hotel room is drop it as low as I can cuz I've got to get that bed cold enough for me to get a good night's sleep and and even then by the time I get in those sheets I heat it up it ain't the same as like when I have my aid sleep the eight sleep controls that it's so crazy to me too like how wildly good the AI is on it.

Like it once it has I've I've been once it figures out like we we moved this last year, right? So I've now it's now been transferred from you know bed to bed like three times now. Um and I actually I I upgraded it on one of the times two. So I've now switched it out was three times now I think that I've switched it out. And so each time I switch it out or I've moved and I had to reset it and it and reaclimate the temperatures.

And so you go through this kind of phase of like a week of like, oh, I want a little bit colder, a little bit warm, and like messing with the the temperatures. And then after it's been about a couple weeks after that, it just knows. And like I doesn't matter if it's winter, summer because it'll cool or it'll it'll it'll adjust on the to and it doesn't matter the season. So we could be in the thick of summer, winter. Once it's calibrated, it know and it has all the metrics like an aura ring.

So it's tracking all your restfulness. restfulness. restfulness. It it tracks your Does it have to warm you up in the to wake you up or? No. No. I've never you I've only I mean I've used messing around with that, but the way mine is set like when I look at what it's calibrated to me again, I kind of set the original parameters and then it actually ends up adjusting. So when I go back and I look after a couple months and I it's different than what I actually originally said.

It's figured out what is optimal. What makes you that gives you the best. Yeah. And it's a trip because it just and I can feel how good it feels. What's our discount code on that, Doug? We have a big I think that's one of the ones where we offer a huge discount uh to our partners, you know. That's a good question. $350 off. $350 off. $350 off. Is that really substantial? Yeah. The Pod Five. So our link uh eightsleep.com/mindpump eightsleep.com/mindpump eightsleep.com/mindpump and then the the new ones are so sick.

$350 off. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's a big discount. Yeah. And I was just going to comment, too. My house right now is around 75°. Crazy, right? Crazy, right? Crazy, right? And I sleep with this and I don't have to turn down the, you know, turn on the AC. AC. AC. So, it saves you money, too. Saves me a bunch. I I I Okay, if eightle listens to this ad, they somebody on your team needs to do a cost comparison. Yeah. Cuz then you you you justify the cost.

cost. cost. Exactly. Like the selling point to me would be of course great sleep. Everybody know anybody who listens to this podcast knows the importance of sleep and so that's but it can be an investment for some people like oh okay they're not cheap but if you actually pay attention to what you keep your AC at I have to keep my AC before eight I it used to be 65 at the highest 68. It had to be in that range. It was always like a like I wanted 65.

Katrina was like I can't go lower than 68. So that was like the big thing back in the days. I can let my house get 72 73 degrees and sleep like with my comforter and sheet and quilt over me because it keeps the keeps me that cool underneath it. underneath it. underneath it. Yeah. I can imagine people that live in states especially during the summer where it's real hot or humid. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And the AC you got to just blast it all the time.

the time. the time. Be a lifesaver. Yeah. That could probably save you a ton of money. of money. of money. Yeah. That's why I'm like to me if somebody on their team needs to do that because I think over the course of a year if you can keep your house at 5° warmer that has to add up warmer that has to add up over the course of a year and it'd be really and knowing what pian cost I know it ain't cheap so I'm sure that that would negate the the price of the actual So to change the subject did you guys see this is actually really cool did you guys see what California is now allowing knowing.

So, you know how we have like lots of apps that allow you to like share rides and share things or whatever. or whatever. or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, there's these are apps that allow people to uh sell food out of their kitchens. kitchens. kitchens. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. And they legalized them. What? What? What? Yeah. So, uh it's called a microenterprise home kitchen operation permit. permit. permit. So, you can LA County is is accepting these. you can sell 30 meals maximum per day, 90 meals maximum per week, and your gross annual sales cap uh is uh uh 100K.

And so you get a you get an inspection or whatever, not a big deal. You can't sell alcohol. sell alcohol. sell alcohol. Um you could deliver it, but it must be direct to consumer. So you can't do like Door Dash and stuff, but dude, somebody who like is like really wants to cook or make meals, make meals, make meals, you can start your own business out of your kitchen. your kitchen. your kitchen. Wow. Wow. Wow. And they'll let you do it. So there's a there's an app.

Maybe Doug knows about this. And I know San Francisco does this. Um this. Um this. Um or you could dine at somebody's place. Yes, you could dine at somebody's place. So like like going to a restaurant like you have somebody who loves to cook and so think about like you can go to people's houses and they prepare a meal a dinner for you and you just like you're paying for at a restaurant. Grandma make you some awesome meal. I've I've always wanted to try it out.

I always thought it would be kind of cool to do something like that. But what comes to mind when you bring this up right away is kind of what I used to do. I this was a hack for me as a trainer. Uh this was back when I was doing private and I was going to people's houses and and and training some people at my place and wherever, right? And um I was so big on meal prepping. So a lot of my clients would pay me to meal prep for them after I so I train them and I'd stay there for another two hours and and I would cook for their week.

And so and I charged a pretty good price for that. So they had to obviously provide all the groceries, all the things. Did I give Melissa something? But this is like this is this is a whole other back on with that kind of accessibility. accessibility. accessibility. But this is so cool. This is like your own house, your own kitchen. You want to make food. You get this permit and you could just you can make food and deliver it yourself. Well, that's how they make what I would do is I would make that a part of my training service.

training service. training service. I would sell people on their personal training and it'd be like I also have a a meal prep service that I I run out of my house and I You know what I think of? I think of like a stay-at-home like parent, like stay at home mom who wants to supplement Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. their income. And she's like, you know, cuz they said up to 100 grand a year. And she's like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make some meals.

I'm going to service the neighborhood. Tell Courtney about this cuz she makes the best sourdough out of anybody I've ever had. ever had. ever had. I've tried it. You brought it here, dude. It's incredible. And I'm like, we got to monetize this. monetize this. monetize this. It's so funny when I heard this though, when I read this, I'm like, they've been doing this in San Jose for a I've had tamali out of somebody's drive car before. You know, here homemade tamalei so much better. I've had that all before.

The illegal ones illegal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever, dude. The best. Those are the best ones. best ones. best ones. Drive by East San Jose. So So did you guys guys guys Is that what it's called right there, Doug? Doug? Doug? Yeah. Eat with is an app you can get. So you can go to people's houses and try out their fair. That's kind of cool. It's super I think that's super cool. I like it. like it. like it. Have you guys heard of these rage rooms? Have you heard of these?

Rage rooms. Rage rooms. Rage rooms. Rage Doug. Look at Rage Room. They break stuff, right? Is that what it is? I have heard of that. Yeah. You put goggles on, they give you a bat like an old car going smashing car. I guess there's like a a huge demand. It's growing. And it's fe women. It's surging in female customers who want to go in and break stuff, dude. Well, see that makes sense cuz I remember when I was training and I would introduce some clients just to like, you know, as a as a change of pace, we do some boxing and we just like hold mits and it was just like like I just opened up a can of worms, you know, just just wouldn't stop.

I had this one lady hitting me forever. forever. forever. They have some here in San Jose down the street. What? What? What? Yeah, right down the street. No, Justin. No, Justin. No, Justin. Oh, I want to do that. 30 minute sessions, 45 bucks. 30 Who is Who is raging for 30 minutes? That's a long time. That's a long time, dude. You got some demons to deal with. A good a good five minutes and you're probably done, probably done, probably done, bro. 45 bucks and you go in there and you just break stuff.

Yeah, but how satisfying is that, dude? Especially with glass. Like when you hear broken glass when you're smashing through. through. through. I feel like blue collar I feel like blue collar workers and I got so much trouble. My when we were kids, my uncle used to his dad dad dad used to collect recycle and he in his backyard he just used to just keep all the bottles the bottles the bottles and just like a bunch of kids we you know started throwing rocks and just we started shattering all just just dumb you know just not thinking at all.

Oh boy he got whooped bad so bad when he got home for that just shattered all this all these glass bottles. You know what's really satisfying to break really satisfying? Uh like long mirrors. mirrors. mirrors. No, incandescent lights or whatever. Oh, those that shadow, bro. You throw those. Yeah, those are a good time. Don't inhale those fumes. Yeah, that was that was my favorite that when I would go to work with my dad and we would go do a demo. Like he'd go redo a kitchen a kitchen a kitchen and he'd give me a sledgehammer and he'd be like, "All right, here.

Break, you know, break the countertops, break whatever." whatever." whatever." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Until you get exhausted, cuz it is exhausting. But at first, it's like, can you imagine 30 minutes in a break room thing? You would not go more than 5 minutes. You wouldn't go. I bet three hard minutes and you would be done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a boxing match, It's like a boxing match, dude. Like everybody's like, "Yeah, I'll go fight box one round." I remember doing a demo of like a few houses and like you'd go for like an hour and you were just torched.

Yeah. Yeah, bro. Oh my god. The first couple swings are fun. fun. fun. Even if you use a jackhammer, you ever use a jackhammer? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh god, your whole body. Oh, dude. Afterwards, too. Yeah. You're just numb and like your arms just raise up. You're like, they look easy, right? Then you grab one. forget it. I was uh earlier uh this morning I was uh working out and I saw some posts on um balance uh you know you have balance in your life or whatever and um it's I think it's a it's our idea of balance is such a myth.

a myth. a myth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um I I think what we mean by balance because I know what people mean. I think what they mean is that your priorities are in the right order. I think that's what they mean by it because Mhm. uh if priorities in the wrong order, that's when things kind of get messed up. messed up. messed up. Yeah, you can't really divvy that up like equally. It's just yeah, whatever you think is your priority is where you want to spend the most.

So, and the idea that I thought of or or the the the just the topic around this I thought of was like like uh this is a common one people talk about like uh work and family like work and family balance, right? balance, right? balance, right? And if you place work too high on the priority list, you end up sacrificing your family for work. Mhm. Uh but work is really important and sometimes you do place work high on the prior list to serve your family. It changes.

It changes. It changes. Yeah. So the idea of balance I think is some people think that's it's like 50/50. It's always moving. I also think that we we tend to look at it through this lens like this 24-hour window lens window lens window lens where it's like you you don't have balance in like a 24. Now maybe when you when you zoom out over the course of six months or a year kind of to your point there's time there's definitely uh weeks of work where work is taking a very high priority and I'll even bring some of work home and it's just like and I don't get the same amount of play time with my son as I normally do depending on the projects or whatever is in front.

in front. in front. Yeah. And then and then and then then then some then it gets a little bit slower and easier and then I immediately get to spend more time with my son and do those things. And so it's like it doesn't look like this perfect even pie chart balance every day. But when you zoom out over the course of a year, I'd say, yeah, I definitely prioritize my family as number one. And yes, work is really important. Yes, I do spend a lot of good time with my friends and stuff like that, but I go in these sprints uh and I I could go three months and not see my best friend because it's just we're so busy.

But again, I think it's it's really balance is the wrong word. I think it's uh you have to are things in the right order because you can spend more time at work than you say let's say spend with your family but it's in service of your family. family. family. So I think it's more about uh where it is in the priority list and the time spent doing it doesn't necessarily that's a good point s because there's also and I think uh because there's some people that work a lot of hours to serve their family.

They have no choice. So it doesn't mean that work is more important. No, it's that they're doing it for their and the same is also true. There's a lot of people that work very hard that don't they're not doing it for their family, they're doing it for themselves or they're escaping from their family. So I don't think it's a time thing. I think it's a really you have to examine uh importance. What am I serving here? Because whatever's at the top, everything underneath it sacrifices. You sacrifice uh the priorities uh that are under the top priority.

Top priority becomes uh like a god and everything else gets sacrificed to it. So if you're if you really do prioritize work genuinely more than your family, you're going to sacrifice your family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For your work. But I don't think it's a balance as we understand it because I don't know if that really exists. At least not the way we communicate. Not the way we communicate. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with that. I think it's one of those things that it's uh it's misleading and and and tough to understand.

But you I and I definitely think people use the use what you just said on both sides because I definitely think there's people that oh I'm I'm I'm work working all these hours doing this thing for my family when the your wife might say something like hey I I'd be happy if we lived in a trailer and it was just me and you and it's like so then if that's true then you're probably not really right right right serving your family. it's more something to do with yourself than it really is that person versus if you're you are grinded to do so at that and so you you can now offer the opportunity for your wife to not work or to be with the kids more often or that you guys can take that vacation that you want to like I think uh I think you have to really examine that examine that examine that you know what I haven't seen in here in a while uh is the [ __ ] or the happy drops.

Yeah. What's going on why are they why are we short on both? We don't have any in stock that's why did they sell out? No, I don't think we've received any recently. I know Shili and the Happy Drops uh are the two two of the most popular. They are. Yeah. products that Organifi sells. They crush uh and people repeat by them. The happy drops people love. They feel them. And then the Sheila uh I'm seeing messages from people saying that they do feel uh athletic performance boosts performance boosts performance boosts from from from I like when we have them in here, so I don't know why.

I haven't seen them in a long time. No, this is a while. It knows the longest stretch that we've had. I thought one of you was hoarding them or someone was taking them home. That's why I looked at Doug and asked him on his desk or over there by Justin. Yeah, I know. It's usually a go-to. Especially the happy drops for me cuz uh Yeah, it's just one of those especially middle of the day. It's like, oh, grab some of those before the podcast. What's the main thing that's inside the happy drop again?

Then what's that flower called or whatever? It's uh uh what's it called? Saffron. Saffron. Is it? It's a flower. Is it a considered flower? considered flower? considered flower? It's part of the flower. Yeah. And so part of Yeah. There's studies on it for depression and anxiety and in women. There's also some libido studies and they're legit. Look them up yourself. Saffron is got some legit uh studies. It's an herb that actually has some pretty interesting effects and that's one of the main ingredients. That's like the the main the main thing that's affected.

It has other stuff, but I know that's the main and it's got the the the type of saffron uh that is the one you want. It's sourced very very well, which is the problem with herbs. Uh is how is it sourced? sourced? sourced? Uh but Organifi, you know, those guys, they they they Yeah. where where would something be poorly sourced like so there are companies that specialize in uh in producing a particular ingredient for example creatine creure is well known for being a high quality uh source of creatine and so you could buy different companies of creatine look on the back and see it's made from uh from that um the chilleit uh their chiligit is prima so this is a company company company they have to go to the source to get it as opposed to growing Yeah.

No, no supplement company's growing their own stuff. They they get it from other companies. So, uh Prima is uh the best chille. This is the stuff you get. This is what you see in the studies. Uh the saffron that they use is from safractive I think is the name of the company. Okay. company. Okay. company. Okay. That provides it. So, they've got the best source of these active ingredient. Got it. So, when you say sourcing, it's not like uh the company like Organifi. They they've gone out and they found who is the best at getting sourcing that and that's what you want unless the company itself they're probably paying a premium to get that versus uh going through some company that is unless cuz look, there's two ways you could work in the supplement industry.

One is you you sell single ingredients and you can source them well or not. So you get the bulk ingredient. So you could be like company from China that sells bulk whatever. Or you could be a company that's like, "No, no, check out our stuff. Third party tested constantly. We're known for our quality. If you want to sell uh saffron, you get it from us. uh were the stuff that's in studies, you know, type of deal. So, yeah, sephractive. So, they use uh a really, really good well source saffron.

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So, you can hear Adam, Justin, and myself teaching you how to build a better business, get more leads, close more deals, close bigger deals, and be more effective trainers. By the way, our course is nationally recognized. In fact, it gives you 1.9 CEUs with or for your NASM certification. Find out more at mindpunfitnesscoaching.com. First question is from Brett Richards87. Instead of skipping a day of training because of poor sleep, should I walk instead to get steps? How many days can I skip in a row before strength training becomes predominantly cardio?

Okay, I don't know what that second part means, but we'll answer the first one. Uh, yeah, you could of course still move. In fact, if you have poor sleep, you can also still work out, just moderate, just moderate, just moderate, just really low intensity. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, now really, now here's when you don't work out. Uh, when it's like unbelievably terrible sleep. Yeah. Yeah. Chronic bad. Yeah. Yeah. But if you get like a night of bad sleep and you're supposed to work out the next day, just drop the intensity.

Uh, just work out at a lower intensity. just contracting the muscles will help you recover and all that. It's it's invigorating. It'll probably wake you up, make you feel good. The problem is when you people go super hard after a day of poor sleep, uh the injury risk uh is is really high with something like that. like that. like that. And and just so we're clear, uh you know, five days in a row of not weightlifting and just doing lots of walking doesn't mean you're you're training your cardiovascular system.

there's a there's a cardio threshold, meaning your there's a point at which your heart get elevates to a point where it then is in the cardio place. Uh walking doesn't do that. Uh you're far from that. That's low inensity steady state uh keeps your heart rate below that and you're not like in so like in other words if you're fearful of like if I walked every day 10,000 steps on the treadmill and I didn't lift weights that do I all a sudden go into that I'm now going to pair muscle down and and lose muscle like you're not going to now if you uh ran uh for two hours every day and didn't lift weights uh for five days in a row.

You're just trying to become an endurance machine. endurance machine. endurance machine. Yeah. Exactly. And so then then that could but walking, no, you're not that's not going to happen. Yeah, that's going to be good for you. But I'm I'm with S. Uh you know, maybe I take a day off if it's really really bad, but the second day is even if it wasn't the greatest sleep, I I might just go through the motions and just back off my intensity. That's right. Typically what I do, cuz I'll have nights of bad sleep and I rarely miss workouts, uh I go in and I do probably half the volume.

Uh and it's a it's a just a lower intensity. I'm just feeling the muscle, feeling good. Uh instead of doing, you know, four exercises for an area, I'll do two or something like that. Or instead of doing four sets, I'll do two. Yeah, I usually start with body weight or bands and then kind of work into weights if my if I feel like, okay, I could probably handle a little bit more. Next question is from Stas Adamovic. How do I add plyometrics to my MAPS 15 style program?

style program? style program? That's a good question. Um so uh a couple things we need to understand what plyometric plyometrics training looks like because a lot of people also what also what also what very misused very misused very misused also what what you want it for right so like like like do we want to increase our vertical or are we trying to or you trying to practice maybe practice jumping jumping jumping maybe want to maintain the skill of jumping but yeah yeah so plyometrics are what you're training is the ability to um contract muscle muscles explosively or move in an explosive manner.

Okay? The only you don't train that when you're fatigued or you don't train that too fatigue because you're not training what you're trying to get better at, right? So just jumping back and forth, which a lot of people will do that uh or use jumping exercises or plyometric looking exercises in a circuit, they're not training plyometrics. They're just getting tired. Okay? Okay? Okay? So if you want to train plyometrics, uh an example, we use jumping as an example. There's a lot of ways to do this, but we'll use jumping.

You would warm up real well. So, make sure you're nice and warm. Uh, and then you would try to jump as high as you could, and you would do that once or twice. And then you'd wait for 3 minutes, and then you repeat it. Because the goal is to see if you could jump higher each time. And you you don't want fatigue to get in the way. Where you would install this in your Maps 15 style program would be at the beginning. the beginning. the beginning.

Bang. It didn't work out. You could and you could do this focus focus focus two or three times or I mean mass 15 is low enough volume that you could easily do. So, and that's why I'd want to know a little bit more about this. Like, okay, is it jump boxes that we want to do? Is it ice skaters that you want to get into? Like, are there certain plyometric movements that you want to get good at? And then I literally would only do uh three sets of twos and just like you just recommended before my math 15 workout.

two or three times a week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you do that, you'll get good at those things. You'll get really like you'll get really good at jump. You'll get really you'll increase your vertical or you'll get really good at ice skaters uh or whatever plyometric movement uh you want to get into. Um but you could do it first before you work out. Warm up the body a little bit and then just do you do like a few sets. Yeah. Three three. I love broad jumps for Yeah, broad jumps would be great.

Extension. Yeah. I think it's just it's one of those things I think people undervalue it. But again, this is like the all the prerequisites and training. Uh it all depends on like what your joints and everything can handle, but it's definitely a valuable way to train has to be um done in a very smart efficient way. Like you don't use fatigue as a metric with this at all. Next question is from BMER for life. What's your take on the high cortisol thing? It seems that high cortisol is to blame for everything these days.

Doesn't cortisol naturally rise during exercise? They they've taken a hormone, they've oversimplified uh the stress response, and then they've turned it into a way to sell or market or communicate something that's way more complex. So, cortisol, they call it the stress hormone. Uh but it's also the wake up hormone. It's an energy hormone. energy hormone. energy hormone. Your cortisol is supposed to rise in the morning. your if your cortisol doesn't rise in the morning, that sucks. Like you wake up and you feel like a zombie all day long and you need a lot of coffee to get your butt moving.

moving. moving. Uh cortisol rises in the morning and then it slowly starts to drop and it gets low in the evening because that's when you're trying to go to sleep. When people have a inverted cortisol um you know uh system when their cortisol is low in the morning and starts to go up midm morning uh and then is high at night. This becomes a problem because you're wired but tired. And and what this looks like behaviorally is coffee and caffeine or stimulants throughout the day and alcohol at night or cannabis at night uh to wind down.

And so this is what behaviorally what it tends to look like. Uh what they're trying to do is pin this hormone all the on the effects of uh stress management. So um and then stress management is a lot different than than the way it's communicated as well. So we're often communicated like you need to reduce the stress in your life. Okay. So people look at their life and like okay I guess I just like like move out of my house, don't live with my family. Like do I like not work anymore?

uh like what do I do? Right? Uh what the actual data shows is that if you have purpose behind the stress, it's not stressful. stressful. stressful. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Uh so people who have this wonderful sense of purpose with with their new child that they have, they're still tough. They're still getting poor sleep, whatever. They just don't suffer from the stress like somebody who's like, I don't want to deal with this right now. If you go to a job that you enjoy versus one that you hate or one that feels purposeful, you can work more hours with the job that you feel good about and it doesn't have the same effect.

Um, exercise is a stress on the body uh because uh and and that's one of the reasons why your body adapts to the and and gets stronger or while you build endurance. So, it's it's it's far more complex than this cortisol thing and cortisol is not the enemy. Uh, too much cortisol at the wrong times is the problem. But we need cortisol. It reminds me a bit too of like inflammation, how they vilify inflammation so much and how we need to change and structure our diet completely to get rid of inflammation when it's the signal for, you know, real growth of muscle growth and and so it is a vital part to that.

But obviously, you know, need to time it and balance it. But it's the same thing. It's like the timing of, you know, the cortisol. It's it's dependent on whether or not it's beneficial. beneficial. beneficial. This is a really hard question to tackle virtually without knowing who we're talking to because I think the way I would communicate this is dependent on who I'm talking to, right? Like to your point, if I had a client who's like, I'm hearing all this stuff about cortisol, this and should I be worried about that and they've love their job, they eat well, they sleep well, they got good training, it's just like, yeah, yeah, we're not really ignore it.

Ignore this. It's not it's it's it's noise to you. Um but I also you've probably maybe have heard us talk about uh what we call cortisol junkies which were these clients that were very very common with my female clients that love group X classes. Um they would be type A personality uh high stress either jobs or just stress person low calorie intake love highintensity classes and that gives them this cortisol dump and it makes them feel really good in the in the short term and they would be addicted to that feeling and that training is not and then they they couldn't lose weight, right?

they couldn't get in shape and they couldn't figure it out and they were taking this class five days a week and eating 1500 calories and and doing all the steps and doing all the things and it's like we called them cortisol junkies because they're constantly chasing that next dump of cortisol in their body to give them that short-term high and so if I'm talking to that client this is a conversation conversation this is a conversation about how do we manage that about how do we manage that through stress management to the point that you made change the way you exercise eat more right increase calories, reduce the intensity of their training, give them longer rest periods, and that so the so the the cortisol conversation becomes a very important conversation or to this that person in particular.

So it's tough for me to answer that without knowing if who is asking that question. Are you that person? So if that if anything I just said about lower calories, having a hard time losing body fat, high stress, love circuit training type classes that you like to work out in, then maybe that that conversation is for you. But if you identify more with S what he said, which is, you know, you have a lot of purpose behind your heart, you work hard, but you have a lot of purpose behind it.

you love what you do, you're wellfed, you're well-rested, you have a nice balance to your strength training program, you have long rest periods, you follow a MAPS program, it's probably not the conversation is probably not for you. Next question is from Tanya Garcia. What's the best advice for an adult who just got diagnosed as pre-diabetic? Someone close to me just got this news. She's going into her late 50s and has arthritis. arthritis. arthritis. So, generally speaking, the advice looks like this. Um, you're gonna eat a high protein protein protein uh lower carbohydrate diet uh with a decent amount of fiber in it.

That's what the diet's going to look like. So, for this person, I would have them eat uh their target body weight in grams of protein. That's the goal, okay? And you're going to eat it from whole natural foods. You're not going to eat a ton of carbohydrates. You can have carbohydrates, but you're not going to have a ton. Okay? So, your meal is going to look like protein, fats, a little bit of carbs, and some vegetables. Um, and then you're going to strength train. Uh, strength training, uh, is incredible for insulin sensitivity.

Building muscle does miracles when it comes to working with people who are pre-diabetic. Like miracles. You build a little bit of muscle and you see dramatic improvement because muscle is one of the places you store sugar. store sugar. store sugar. Big gas. It's big a gas tank for you. It's where you store glycogen. Uh, and muscle is very insulin sensitive. By the way, too, this will also help support the arthritis, which is autoimmune. So somebody who gets like the flare-ups from autoimmune who's also pre-diabetic is probably a lot of times when they over consume calories i.e.

sugar and stuff like that they're going to have those those flare-ups. Whereas if they have these bigger gas tanks muscle for that their body to store that glycogen they're less likely to overspill and have those and you don't even have to build a ton of muscle. You could just even the current muscle you have just becomes uh better at storing glycogen and becomes more insulin sensitive because you're stronger. So, I would have her strength train one to two days a week, high protein diet, protein diet, protein diet, and then uh the last thing you would add would be to to do five minutes of movement after she eats, that has a really good effect.

And if you just did those things, generally speaking, uh I wouldn't be surprised if this person uh within 6 months saw a radical shift. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh in their diagnosis just from doing those things. All right. I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. 30% body fat. For men, this is way too high. This is actually a bit high for women as well. So, in today's episode, we're talking about how you can go from 30 to 10. What is 10% body fat?

This is when you have a visible six-pack. Can you go from 30 to 10%, yes, it's possible, but not if you guess along the way. So, we're going to talk about how you can do that in today's episode. episode. episode. Now, there's a huge range, right, of like body types. Some people can run uh a little bit heavier uh and or a little bit higher