The 5 “Good” Reasons to Do Cardio (Most People Get This Wrong) | Mind Pump 2786

Key Takeaway

Cardiovascular training has five good reasons to pursue it: building endurance, doing what you love, improving health markers, getting outside, and connecting with others. But the worst reason? Fat loss. Strength training preserves muscle while losing fat and builds metabolism—cardio in a deficit causes muscle loss and metabolic adaptation. Choose the right tool for your goal.

Episode Overview

This episode breaks down the five legitimate reasons to do cardio and the common mistakes people make. The hosts discuss how cardiovascular training builds endurance, supports health markers like cholesterol, gets you outdoors, and creates social connections. However, they emphasize that cardio is a poor tool for fat loss and aesthetics—the main reasons most people choose it. The key message: match your training to your actual goals, and for most people seeking fat loss, strength training is the superior choice.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The 5 “Good” Reasons to Do Cardio (Most People Get This Wrong) | Mind Pump 2786 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Cardiovascular Cardiovascular training. It's a form of exercise with its own benefits. Sometimes people do it for the wrong reasons, but if you do it for the right reasons, you're likely to do it the right way and reap incredible benefits. We're going to talk about the five good reasons why you should do cardio. And then later on, we'll talk about some of the terrible reasons why people do cardio. Let's get to it. Here they are. Promote cardio. Promote cardio. Promote cardio. There are none. No, I'm just I'm just kidding.

Everybody gets all upset. You're just pump up that myth about us that anti-cardio. No, I mean uh I want to open I also want to say this like all forms of exercise if applied appropriately have benefits. Um exercise and activity in general is just good for you so long as it's applied appropriately. But different forms of exercise have their own unique benefits. So, the way I like to explain it or the way I've explained it in the past, it's like you have a toolbox and you open up the toolbox and you have a screwdriver and a hammer and a saw and you know, I could use uh you know, a hammer to try and break a piece of wood in half, but it'd be better off if I use a saw, right?

So, right? So, right? So, so it's important to know the tool and what it's good for. Yeah. And then if you approach it like that, you'll get the best benefit. If you do it for the wrong reasons, uh you you you tend to miss out on Well, at the end of the day, it's always the body uh adapts and responds best to specificity. Yes. And so, if you're looking at this, like what is my intention going in uh to my training? And you know, this exercise specifically, what are the benefits of it?

What can I squeeze out uh and maximize the most uh to to get that kind of potential? But, you know, cardio itself has benefits. You just have to know exactly like what you're going in to it for. Could you say or would you say that any and all stresses that induce adaptations are a good thing? Uh if the adaptations are to make you more resilient. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. You could have negative uh adaptations to trauma, you know, and stresses. Uh but you're right. If it's an adaptation that makes you more uh resilient, um if it's a good adaptation, we're getting real specific now, but generally speaking, I'd say you're that's correct.

Yeah, that's why I just I framed it that way is like you could you could potenti because that I think that's the the thing that we always have to understand that uh about exercise because obviously uh all exercise can be good. Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh but it's not good in isolated. It's good because it's a stress that tends to have a positive adaptation attached to it. it. it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Tends to also is key word there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because we but we have to look at exercise from that framework.

It's not that it by itself is good. It's what it induces that typically is good and when used appropriately to your tool point can be really good but yeah but when used improperly can that's right that's right that's right be not good. Yeah. I mean, you could you could exercise so improperly you hurt yourself. yourself. yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh or you beat yourself up uh or you induce no changes because you're not um it's not intense enough. Uh for example, so all right, let's talk about cardio and like the five, you know, good reasons to do cardio and the reasons will motivate the application.

What I mean by that is if you do forms of exercise for the right reasons, then you tend to perform that type of exercise properly because you're aiming it in the right direction. Okay. So, the number one reason uh that you would want to do cardio is for endurance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great way to build endurance. Sure. Sure. Sure. It's one of the best ways to build cardiovascular endurance. Like, you want to be able to run, you want to be able to swim, you want to be able to play for long periods of time with your kids at the park.

Like, you're going to need some cardiovascular endurance. And cardio is a great way to build endurance. If fatigue is a major factor for you, doing any kind of movement, you know, like focusing on cardiovascular type training is really going to be a massive benefit uh for you going forward to then in any other pursuit after that. It's like, you know, now we can eliminate that as a major factor. Fatigue is is a pretty pretty big uh barrier for you pointing in the right direction though. Who who brought up which one of you said specificity?

Was it you Justin? Yeah. So, and to your kind of like uh if you want to get really good at uh hiking up hills, hiking up hills is the way probably the best form of card, right? If you want to get really good at playing soccer, playing soccer, playing soccer, then you should play soccer. If you want to get good at running long distances, then run like then that's what you practice. So I think that's also important to to nail down here is like if endurance is what we're after uh okay the next layer to that is what kind of endurance am I after and then that's how I apply cardio.

cardio. cardio. Now there is general endurance that you'll build. Uh that being said, um if uh you just want to get overall better endurance and stamina uh just for everyday life, then you may choose the form of cardio that you enjoy the most, that's the safest for you, that you could perform the best. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Um so there is general, right? General overall fitness just like you could build general strength like a foundation of it. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So you want endurance again, uh when somebody says, I want more endurance and stamina, uh cardio is one of the tools I'm going to use, one of the first tools I'm going to use.

Well, okay. Let's let's use that actually because um if someone came to you and said, "I I just want general endurance. I'm not trying to play soccer. soccer. soccer. Uh I I just I don't want to get have shortness of breath when I'm, you know, going up the stairs or something like that. And so when I think of that, the the the way I think I would probably apply uh cardio to that person, like as far as the tools inside of a gym would be like a steep incline walk, power walk.

Sure. I mean, a steep incline power walk is going to elevate the heart rate in a way that is going to build some stamina, endurance, and the closest you can get to that specificity and emulate it, the better. And it and it's and it's challenging enough that, you know, walking around and playing with your kids and doing stuff like that is it's going to cover those bases really level. I would not have you sprint on the the the treadmill for 20 minutes or whatever at at a time that I would I would I would prefer to put that client on like I said the steep incline power walk.

Well, I mean sprinting is going to inappropriate if somebody says I I get gassed going up the stairs. We're not sprinting. sprinting. sprinting. That's not where we're going to start. That's my point though because because people will start with running or maybe I should have said sprint. Just running. People would say, "I I'm going to go run as and I'm going to run as as as long and as hard as I can and try and improve that." It's like, well, we could also put that treadmill on a 11 incline and walk at speed three to four and watch that heart rate get up.

Treadmill walking uh or uphill walking or bike uh were my favorite forms of, you know, let's get started with cardio forms of cardio because they're safe and I want general endurance. They don't require tons of skill. the risk the risk of injury is very low in comparison comparison comparison low impact. That's right. That's right. Uh so those would be the ones I would pick. But again, you want endurance, cardio style training is going to be great. Uh next up is you love doing it. I I I never like to discourage uh somebody who's found a form of activity that they love because the biggest challenge with exercise is not the results.

The biggest challenge is consistency. Period. End of story. And so if somebody's like, "I love uh rowing. rowing. rowing. I love rowing." Well, keep doing it. That's the That's the form of cardio you're going to do. Keep doing. I love running outside, S. Like, are you going to tell me to stop doing it? No. No. I want you to keep doing it because you love it. I love salsa dancing. I had clients that would tell me I actually had this one client who she's like, "I want, you know, uh I want to keep working on my endurance." Um and I said, "Well, what do you like doing?" She's like, "Well, does salsa dancing count?" I said, "Well, yeah." She's like, "Well, I love doing that.

I do that with my husband, so go do more of it." She's so excited that that was the form of cardio that I recommended. So, I'm going to do my best to try and challenge every point that you bring up just to make people think even like deeper sometimes. Uh, in my experience, um, someone who brings up salsa dancing, their love for basketball or uh, you know, swimming that they did their whole life, they love like uh, easily that's normally like, "Oh, yes, keep going doing that.

I've had a lot of clients that claimed to love running and many times were running away from something of course of course of course or needed a marathon in order to get them motivated to burn calories to lose weight weight weight and but would say I love to run and so I would challenge the person that said that to make sure that it's a true passion of yours that you would do regardless of your where your fitness goals are at, body fat percentage, aesthetics, and all those You like doing it for the sake of doing it.

That's right. Independent of that I think is so important and important to as the the the client to peer into that because would you guys not agree that you had a lot of clients who said I love to run? to run? to run? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like well do you really love to run or is this been the thing that you always do to try and get in shape? Well the underlying thing might be like keeping my body at this size or whatever.

You know there's something else that's like Yeah. like all the time whenever I'm running I can keep myself at this weight and so that I've learned to love that thing versus like do you really love it and and and I think there's a very a good I'm glad you brought up the salsa dancing because that's a very clear difference like the person who goes salsa diving I'm going salsa dancing so I can lose 15 pounds usually they do it because they like to dance dance dance they they do it because they love to dance or the person who's like I'm going to go pick up some ball because they've played ball their whole life they love to do that versus the person who is who chooses to go run because that's when I was in the best shape of my life cuz I like to be skinny.

Yes. Difference. Difference. Difference. No, that's why the asterisk of appropriate uh has to be in there. So, if it's appropriately applied, um but people abuse exercise. We know that. So, you know, lots of people will say they love the abuse when in reality a good coach will sniff that out for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you been on a weight loss journey, starving, grinding on cardio, and you're still not losing fat? The how to lose fat and three steps guide is completely free and it lays out the real blueprint.

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But each form of activity is unique in how it improves health. We've talked at Nauseium of the benefits of strength training. And strength training across the board if you had to pick a form of exercise in the context of modern life, especially when you throw aging in there. there. there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If if you had to pick one, it's the best one. But cardio is great for other things. It's like if you're trying to change your blood lipid levels, you want to lower your LDL, raise your HDL, maybe change the particle size of your LDL, uh, you know, change your triglycerides, cardiovascular activity tends to have a better approach.

And if you're looking for good overall health and you like to work out and you approach it the right way, way, way, yeah, yeah, yeah, cardio is going to be a part of this. So, a good routine for someone who's like, I just like good health and longevity, cardio is going to be a part of the mix. I think especially too if it's like it's difficult with your uh everyday life schedule to like have movement opportunities and you kind of need to schedule that a little bit more.

I think cardio fits in that category just to broaden your uh amount and volume of movement. That's right. And also when we're talking about good health, we also mean the ability to continue um doing certain activities throughout your whole life. So what I mean by that is like we'll use running as an example. uh you know, you you like to run, you enjoy it, you do it in your 20s, you you approach it appropriately, you do in your 30s, your 40s, your 50s, your 60s, your 70s, you'll never lose the ability to run.

If you stop running, even if you're fit, even if you work out otherwise, if you stop doing that activity, you'll actually lose the ability to do it well. And this is I mean look I could take a very fit person in the gym who does you know cardio on a bike uh who strength trains who never runs and you have them run and although they have the endurance and stamina they have bad technique and the skill of running their body's actually forgotten. So good health also means the ability to do all these things that I want to continue doing and you need to practice them otherwise your body prunes them away actually gets rid of the ability to do them.

So again, doing my best to try and challenge all these great points uh and to think the the full picture of this. Many times get a client who um is not in the best place metabolically and and they but they say they want to start running because they want good health. They've heard someone like Sal say that this is a great goal to have. this is a great goal to have. I may not have run or do cardio I should say at the beginning because I want to build muscle, build their metabolism before I introduce that.

That's right. And so um you also want you also don't want to take someone who's frail uh uh and start them out with lots of cardio. You want to strengthen them a little first, right? Which so so be resilient for that repetitive stress. And and and you you will hear this a lot from somebody who just got back from the doctor who told them all their markers are all off and they need to get healthy or is recently motivated to become healthy and they're carrying all this extra body fat on them and that and so okay that person it seems you would think like cardio would be a good thing but at it will be a part of their routine just not at first.

At first I'm going to really focus on on building muscle building muscle building muscle building exercise movement exercise movement exercise movement pattern. That's right. And so, um, again, this is where someone could get this this, uh, message misconstrued is that they hear, "Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, that's me. I want to be a healthy person." And so, let me add cardio also, but maybe I don't have you where I want you yet strengthened metabolically before I would do something like that. 100%. Uh, next up, this is a good point everybody I'm about to make here.

It sounds silly, but it's a good point. I fall in this category, which is it gets you to go outside. There's a lot of gym rats. Okay, that's a real term. A gym rat is a fitness person that lives in the gym. Yeah. And they don't go outside. They never go outside. Uh they don't go outside unless they're getting to their car. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This easily could be me. Now, I have kids and my kids get me to go outside. But if I didn't have kids, uh or if my kids, my little ones were older, I would almost never do lots of stuff outside.

I would do all my exercise indoors cuz I love the gym. Going outside is good for you. Mhm. It's beneficial to get in the fresh air and the sun. And for some people, like cardio type activity, like getting on your bike, riding around, going on long walks, on hikes, it's the one thing that gets you to go outside. And I think that's a great reason. I absolutely I absolutely I absolutely I actually think of all the points, this is the most important one, unless you have a job that requires you do labor outside.

outside. outside. Uh, which is a small percentage of the population. And I think that we are more and more um trapped inside under these, you know, blue lights where we're sitting in front of blue screens and sedentary. And I think that just the idea of getting outside and moving in fresh air, fresh sunlight, nature, uh is probably the best argument of all the things that you brought up in in my opinion, opinion, opinion, especially for guys like us. It's like I I would say Justin's probably the most likely to do stuff outside, but you and I are like gym rats.

Like we would do all of our workouts inside and maybe that's why I feel so passionate about this is but like it gets you to go out like it hits home for myself personally. Totally. Totally. Totally. Um it it was something that I I became more aware of as I gotten older and uh and and in the past I would never have done this and I was like so anti the outdoor run or hike or thing as as a young guy. I was so so much more the gym rat where I have found in my, you know, late 30s to 40s sometimes I I don't make it even to the gym, but uh I'll make a point to go for a nice walk with my wife like and so I think that that has tremendous when you think of when you say your goal is health.

Uh it has so many other benefits. it. Sure, it's not the fastest way to build 10 pounds of muscle or burn 10 pounds of body fat, but when you think of general health, it's probably one of the greatest arguments for that. Yes, absolutely. Um, and then lastly, uh it it encourages you and helps you to connect with others. For some people, um outdoor cardio or cardiovascular type activities like sports, yeah, this activities, this is how they socialize. Yeah. This is how they connect to other people.

I know a lot of dads like this. I know a lot of dads have This is me, dude. This is Okay. I Yeah, I have to like have something. If I'm going to hang out, I'm not going to sit down inside and talk like that's horrible, dude. That's what you do for this for work. No, we're outside and we're doing something. I'm either playing, you know, whatever it is like raetball or, you know, shooting hoops or or we're walking or we're whatever. Whatever it is, like I'm like, I'll meet you outside.

we're at the beach or something just because it's like it's like it's like uh for me like I I just crave movement and I crave like getting that for my body. There's so many benefits to it, but like also interacting with people just makes it so much better. Isn't there a viral app right now that's going on that's uh you meet up with people? Yeah. For a walk. It's like it was like it's like the dog walking version of that where people can connect just to I I kids, animals, you got to get them all outside.

I I know I know dads where this is the only this is when they get to hang out with other people is when they on the weekend go play some sport or do some thing with their buddies. I know a lot of moms, stay-at-home moms who feel so isolated. They're at home with their kids, but then when they meet with other moms is when they get the kids in the stroller and they all go for walks at the park and and and really it's about doing the walk or doing the workout, but they get to connect and be with other people and that's super important for health everybody.

The data on that is very cool. Then again, I think these last two have become more important in the last few decades. I think the we've become more connected online, but more isolated, but more isolated to uh than in person stuff. And so I I think these two are probably the best arguments for now. What's the worst reason to do cardio? What's the one? Well, this this the main reason why people do it. Shave body fat. Yeah. Lose body fat. Yep. Yep. Yep. Uh will you lose some body fat with cardio?

Yeah. Are there better ways to do it? Yeah. lot better, way better ways to do it. Uh cardio by itself in a calorie deficit causes muscle loss and fat loss causes a negative uh adaptation with the metabolism tends to cause plateaus. Strength training uh will preserve muscle uh or build muscle as you lose body fat. It's a better form of exercise for that. The other one is aesthetics, which is kind of along those like I want to look better. Uh better ways to do that. Strength training, you can sculpt your body the way you want.

cardio, you just kind of lose overall weight. And again, you can lose muscle or you often do. do. do. Uh, and again, this is why if if that's your main reason for exercising, if your main reason is I want fat loss and aesthetics and I don't have a lot of time to dedicate is indiscriminate. It's not that specific. specific. specific. That's right. So, if you're like, okay, I only got a couple days a week that I can dedicate to exercise. I want fat loss. Uh, the form of exercise to me doesn't matter.

I just want to do what's effective and fat loss is number one. Then don't pick cardio. Pick strength training. Th this is uh this is why you've heard us for so many years rail on cardio is because we know that 90% of the people that came to us this was the goal. goal. goal. This was the big button. 90% of the people come for fat loss or changing the way they look. I would say it's higher 90. It was actually rare I got someone like it's very rare that you get someone who just says I just want general health or I want to be uh increase my vertical like that was so fat loss.

Everybody wants to lose fat. Everybody wants to look better. Which is why that message that you've heard from us for so which is also too and it's always the the the 10 the small 10% of people that have the other goals or have are utilizing cardio appropriately are always the ones that push back at us. And it's like you're the minority. the minority. the minority. Most people go to the gym or hire a personal trainer because they need to lose body fat or they want to lose body fat or they want to look different, i.e.

build muscle or lose fat. And so because of that, of that, of that, you've heard this message of that we're the anti-c cardio guys. And it's like we're the anti-do cardio for the wrong reason guys. reason guys. reason guys. Yeah, that's right. It's it's the wrong tool for the job that you want. If it if it was the right tool for the job, we would never tell we would never let a client hire us and be like, I want to build endurance or I want to get good at this sport and be like, "No cardio for you.

We're just hitting weights." Like, it would never happen. But that's such a small percentage of people that come to a trainer. Most people come because they they want to look different. And so cardio, I think, is a terrible tool for that. And it doesn't mean it can't be utilized at some point, but it's for the for the main part of the job, the sculpting, the building, the metabolism, the losing the body fat. It's a terrible tool. tool. tool. That's right. All right. I got to uh bring something up that I I was I'm really impressed with this company.

Uh it's one we work with. It's Dose, and they have a cholesterol product. So, for people aren't familiar, it's like a bottle. It's liquid. You put I used to think you had to drink the whole thing. whole thing. whole thing. No. God, I'm so glad you didn't do that. You pour a serving, I think it's 2 ounces, you drink it, and you take it uh daily. Here's why I'm impressed. They fund, and I'll pull it up. They fund and do their own clinical trials. Supplement companies don't do this.

Supplement companies will say, "This study expensive does shows this on an ingredient, and then this other study shows dose took their actually did their own clinical trials." Um, so they can make claims, right? And here's what they found. It's a 90-day clinical study. people using people using the the dose or or compounds that were in dose showed 95% of them had an improvement in their LDL 90% of them had an improvement in triglycerides 81% of them had an improvement in their total cholesterol. cholesterol. cholesterol. Can I can I comment just on how powerful of a study that is too is to to it it wasn't a um survey of people that 95% of people said they felt better.

No, they did. These are actual markers, blood markers that were measured before that they went and did that and they saw that much improvement. Everybody got a positive result. Almost everybody. everybody. everybody. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's awesome. Yeah. Now, the reason this is for me more important than ever now, and I'll tell you guys why. So, I have my my normal blood lipid panel, so total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, is always great. In fact, I'm like I'm I'm I'm invincible. like nothing I can do will affect my blood lipids in a bad way.

But I've never done a study that differentiates particles. I've never done that. So, I'm trying to I'm getting myself set up with one. And so now, cuz you guys know me, I worry about everything. So, now I'm like, "Oh, I hope it comes back." Okay? Because I'm also going to do a study that is going to look at my uh arteries to see how clean and clear they are. And I got motivated because I was talking to my buddy who's a he's an ER doctor fit and healthy guy and he said he got that done and he was surprised to see the results.

So he had to change some things even though he was healthy. So I'm like oo I've never done that. So I'm going to take a look. And and the thing that we did with PNU that that wouldn't that does not that looks at heart your heart muscle and if there's any enlargement or anything like that which I have any none of us did but it doesn't look at your arteries. It doesn't look to see if they're if they're how how blocked they are. How was that weird?

I thought you were 100%. Yeah, I thought we were getting all of it. I know. So, what what's the uh what's the test look different? Like that was like a crazy full on a blood test. So, that a blood test will tell you distinguish the particle size. Yeah. They differentiate the particle size. So, you can see Well, what about the arteries? What What kind What kind of scanner test will that? that? that? I think it's a CT scan. It's a CT scan. So, they actually look at the arteries themselves and and so I know somebody I know someone else fit and healthy.

Okay. He was in his 50s. Cool. Worked out. did everything right, came back 75% blockage. blockage. blockage. What would you And he's like, "What?" So, he had to change his eating habits, added other forms of exercise, and over a couple years got it down to 40%. Some kind of genetic polymorphism like Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, it's less Okay. So, it's it's less likely something he was doing in Well, whatever he was doing didn't work with his genetics, apparently, cuz he was fit and healthy. He wasn't overweight.

He was active. Wow. came back 75% which is doesn't sound typical at all which so I'm like curious right I want to see you know he's an to see I want to see you know he's an anomaly I'm trying I mean I mean here's okay okay okay I'm going to calm everybody I'm going to calm everybody down down down if your family line includes lots of heart attacks and heart disease you look into it look all the means yeah I have none that doesn't help me huh huh huh my dad had blockages and things and I don't have nobody in my family gets a heart attack or anything like that So, but I'm going to go get checked anyway.

But I I love that Dose has a natural product that has been shown to actually have positive effects. So, I'm super motivated to use it. It's funny, the older I get, the more interested I am in health supplements, not just like muscle building supplements. supplements. supplements. That's the shift that you've been in. You've gone from This is good for my organs. You know, does it make your biceps bigger? I don't know. But at least I'll have them soon. I mean, speaking of biceps, dude, I I I I did today.

I love old school exercises that fall out of favor that people just stop doing. Here's why I got motivated. You resurrect them. Well, here's why I got motivated. So, yesterday I did a reaction video. So, Josh uh does some of our social media comparing our arms. No, no, he was um he had a reaction video where um it was doc it was Mike Israel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about leg extensions. And at first when it popped up I'm like great sit you up. Yeah. No Mike Israel was right on the same page.

page. page. He did. Okay. He's like leg extensions like yeah they're fine. He goes but they're not a big deal. Blah blah blah. And he goes you know what's better? [ __ ] squats. [ __ ] squats. [ __ ] squats. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He was promoting [ __ ] squats. Good man. Good man. Good man. Which I remember on an island. I mean, 10 years ago when we brought it up, nobody nobody nobody Not only that, but we just recently ranked exercises and we got this all this push back over leg extensions.

Like, get out of here for So, I started thinking about I started thinking about like old school exercises that nobody does anymore. Yeah. And I'm going to save one. I know you did them before, Adam. Remember 21s for Yeah, I did. I did those. Yeah, dude. So, I did them today in the gym. It's great. I mean, so for people don't know what tw 21s are is you start at the bottom. It's a barbell curl. You start at the bottom, you come up halfway for seven reps.

Then the next then you go up all the way and you come down halfway for seven reps. And then you do seven full reps. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so and so as a young kid, I did them because bodybuilders did them. Now experience understands. I'm like, I know why these are valuable. It's including an isometric hold in different positions throughout the whole list. It's not just doing a bunch of curls. It's like I have to pause and then pause. You know, the last and it was a great feel.

The last time I did an arm thing like that that was who was it on our show. I want to give credit to the doctor that we had u bodybuilder doctor guy that we had a long long time ago. This is long before Israel and uh he introduced clusters to me. Oh, cluster sets and I did those after he left and I went whoa that's cool. I hadn't I hadn't done cluster sets at least not appropriately and I and I forget what the protocol uh was.

You go and then you rest like 15 seconds. You squeeze out a couple more. Yes. Cuz you can do uh significantly higher weight than you would do for something that high of repetitions and just that that little 15-second rest and just the pump that I got from the just just just surprising how you can recover. Yeah. Just a little bit. Oh man, what a what a what a great You know, also though in line with that talk like I'm I'm not there right now. Like uh you're at it would be a waste of time for you to Yes.

So yes. So it's like so important to talk about that because I know as a young guy I hear this and I'm like, "Oh, this is what I'm missing." You know what I'm saying? And then I'm I'm skipping out on like some of the fundamentals and it's like I'm not even in a rhythm enough. I'd say I'm in a good enough. I'd say I'm in a good rhythm right now. I'm on uh two months or so, right? give or take uh of consistency and on diet training all the things but I'm so back at baby fundamental phase you know what I'm saying like saying like saying like well even even if you ask me I never miss workouts how when am I going to do 21s again I'm not going to be doing it every time every time every time you know what the relevance is funny that you mentioned that I did do 21s but I I immediately think of things stupid things I did that were like it was more like barbell complexes you know where I would just stack them all you know back to back to back and it was just you know that's sort of the the the performance into, into, into, you know, one of my favorite you know, one of my favorite things to do back I don't work out with anybody, but back in the day, every once in a while, I'd grab one of my trainers uh or my fitness managers when I was managing managing managing hand off back and forth.

I used to love that, dude. that, dude. that, dude. That's like I do as many as I can do and we just go back and forth until we die. we die. we die. It's like it's just fun, you know? It's like you go beat up your buddy. Honest. Okay. To that is the to me that's the most valuable part of it for someone who's been training as long as you have and consistent as you have is like is that part. It's like it's not the the bedrock or the foundation to what you do.

It's not going to put an inch on your arms or any of the stuff that all the muscle magazines would would sell sell you on. You know cuz you know what I did is I remember making a mistake as a kid is like oh that you read it in the magazine or you hear it and then now that you add all you do all the high or now that's the thing I do all the time and it's just like it's kind of just seeing where what you can tolerate you know in the beginning there's a lot of like discovery in that and exploration and so I feel like there's I don't know I try not to deter that too much especially with like young athletes and people that are trying to figure out where their line is you know and so like doing some techniques like that it helps to kind of gauge that for a minute.

What's the most insane uh like obviously inappropriate uh routine that you've ever done for yourself like fitness wise or anything? Like what's the craziest crazy [ __ ] I of course you have. But can you think of I have in my head some of the craziest things I did. Like there was a period of time there where I was like, you know what? Uh I I've never done a double split routine. split routine. split routine. And so I did a fullon a fullon a fullon like Arnold Schwarzenegger style.

You hit in the A.M. and the PM, you come back and it's six days a week. And I did it for as long as I could uh until the signs of overtraining were so obvious. We did like 2hour weight training like heavy intense power cleans, squat, you know, bench over everything everything everything in the morning and then we did practice, you know, the middle of the day and then we did practice in the evening. Yeah. And we did that for at least like two weeks. weeks.

weeks. Oh my god. So much. Yeah. I was in I remember just having to go into the ice bath just to maintain my body. I I I would I would I would say the same thing that you did. In fact, this was also during the time too where we would I got up I was motivated with one of my other trainer buddies. We were like early 20s and we did this this double split routine and I we would train like 500 6 in the morning really hard to and then I go in the midday and just lay in my bed, right?

I eat a big big old meal. Yeah. Just lay lay there for like four hours. Not even sleeping. Just laying there. You know what I'm saying? Try not to move. You know what I'm saying? so I can be ready for my 8:00 workout where we would train hard again. The reason why that's so memorable to me and I'd say it's so inappropriate is I remember this is Kevin McKe uh a leg day so hard and bad that I stepped off the curb and I fell. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, my legs were so destroyed that that stepping off the curb was enough for I literally fell to the ground and I went this is you know and of course we're like yeah that was a good one. You know what's funny? You know, you know looking back it was stupid. It was crazy. Thank God I didn't hurt myself. myself. myself. But there was a uh there was a fun in that. Uh there was fun with being naive. You know what I mean? Like we were clueless.

It was just it was like you would talk to your buddy and you're like so psyched. so psyched. so psyched. I can't move, bro. Oh, bro. We would talk with like we're going to do this thing. We're going to work out. work out. work out. I think the most valuable part about it cuz and I think about like kind of the the era we're in right now. we're in this really interesting, you know, information era and there's a lot of really young guys with a lot of like read all the studies and have all the science what like we also did a lot of the stupid stuff for a long time and so that the ability to speak from that experience and the mindset so that's the most valuable part to me was like I look back and there's obviously these regrets of like god if I would have just simplified my routine only did yeah but because I didn't and I did so much the wrong way for so long.

Plus, it humbles you. But I feel like I could read that with somebody who never did that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, "Oh, you just stayed in the books and did everything like, you know, perfect." perfect." perfect." Yeah. So, that's what I mean. I think I think it gives you another level of communication that that person can't give. Yes. Because not only uh was I dumb enough and crazy enough to do it, I also understood what was going through my mind during that time and how I felt and how I thought and like I you know it's it's easier to be able to convince that person because I've been there than to just study my way you know give you the studies data shows.

Yeah. Exactly. And so uh that when I think of it when I think back to those days no regrets. I think that I go uh it was it if who would have known we would be on a podcast exploration discovery. exploration discovery. exploration discovery. Yeah. gave gave all of us that that the ability to commun and connect to somebody who probably thinks that's a good idea. And so I think that part of it was it was it was I know and looking back I've told this story so many times.

His name was Joe. He was a family friend, chiropractor, bodybuilder at the time, biggest dude I ever seen. And I mustered up the courage. I was probably 15 years old to take him aside and ask him like, "How did you get so big?" And he looked at me like looked at me dead in the eyes and he goes, "All right, here's what you do. You lift weights three days a week, full body. do one exercise per body part and eat a lot of chicken body weight and protein.

protein. protein. Eat a lot of eggs, eat a lot of milk, a lot of tuna fish, and then go to bed at 9:00 every night and wake up at 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. every day. And I remember leaving that conversation like he lied. Why won't he just think I'm a kid? He just thinks I'm a kid. He was giving me the best advice of all time. That's not what I read in my muscle bag. Do the best advice. I mean, I think you you are so lucky and blessed that you got the bodybuilder or the the powerlifter guys to to at least I was doing those lifts.

I was dead to bring to bring you under your wing because I I didn't I didn't get that. And that I think would have really saved me a lot of time if I would have at least done that really well. I I bought into all the information of just like, oh, this this is just as good or better and like, oh, okay, this is this okay, I understand the study. I see what it okay I'm going to just do those things cuz I didn't like doing the other stuff.

You know what I'm saying? And so I fell into that trap versus I got speaking of lifting and stuff. So um I I just so I had this conversation with my wife, right? So she's been relatively consistent with her strength training now for a little while. There was a period there it was really hard to be consistent, but kids are older, more time, we have a great garage setup, so she's been going. And so she's also been in my faith series now quite a few times.

So she's been on there together. and she brings great insight, female insight. Somebody commented underneath now and it was a funny comment. They were like, "It's really hard to watch her workout with such low intensity." So, she got real like, "What is this person saying?" or whatever. Right. Okay. So, anyway, and it it it made me think for a second and I'm like, I know how strong she is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know when I see her work out, she goes way lighter than she could.

Now, I know why. There was a period of time there after she had uh our baby, the youngest, where if she went too hard, she would hurt herself. Her body just needed time to adjust. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm like, she's still is she's still in that I think she is. So I I I was we've been worked we worked out together a couple times and I watched her do I don't remember it was like with that new row machine that we have and she has a quarter on there and she's just I'm like add some weight.

She's like it's fine. Like no no add some weight. She puts 10 on. I'm like you can add like three times as much weight. So, she finally now is starting to push herself with with with the weight and the intensity, the intensity, the intensity, dude. She responds so fast, like three workouts. I'm like, "Oh my god, look at your arms and your delts and whatever." and whatever." and whatever." I feel like Katrina is the same way, too. We We did I was I was sharing earlier when we did a live call or what that we I talked about how I like give like little bits of stuff and she's been on her kick for a while.

She gets stuck in the same way. She totally does. And She totally does. And uh you know it just it takes one workout with me where I'm like you could throw another 25 on there. You're fine. No, you're fine. I'll let you know when you're let that. And then she doesn't. She's like uh and she'll tell me she's just like message received. I knew I wasn't I I could be there's more. I there's a lot more I could be pushy. Which is so t to me my female clients that was always typical always very good with form cautious.

Guys was the opposite. Guys I'm like Guys the opposite. Guys I'm like how many times did you have to tell them e too heavy bro? Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Slow it down. Deeper range of motion. Come on, guy. You know what I'm saying? Like guys, I'm always having to back off. Is very much like a guy like in she's always going too hard and I'm just like relax. You know, I'm like she doesn't want to hear it and she doesn't want to do mobility and so I'm like those are the things I'm always That's really weird that with you being such the mobility guy into all that stuff that she Well, she hate like jumping and a lot of the when I used to like train and and I had like that athletic background.

and I would sneak in, you know, some of these like type of athletic moves and she hated those. So, I'd like kind of uh adjust the the workouts and whatnot. But yeah, she she hated every time I would address any kind of like pattern dysfunction. Um, and two, like but still tells me, "Well, I feel it in my quads." I'm like, "What do you mean you feel it in your quads?" You know, and I'd have to go through and like tell her. I'm like, look, we we need to correct this like like this the root of this is, you know, a dysfunction the way you move.

And so I'm trying and so it's been years for me to finally like get in there and start getting her to be disciplined with like doing priming uh you know, warm-ups and and doing it the right way. But yeah, it's it's funny cuz she just wants to go hard, like super hard, and I think we kind of related with that. So I just I just introduced this is with Park City. This literally just two weekends ago, right? We were up there. I had just introduced Katrina into uh assisted single leg deadlifts versus stabil balancing.

Oh yeah. So she was next to me and I'm doing my lifts and and I know right she's been training for a while so she's she's past kind of the starter phase you know she's she's kind of and I know what her goals are right. So she's like and she's doing I think she's holding like a 10 lb or you know maybe a 15lb dumbbell and she's like doing single leg deadlifts like stability, right? And and I go, "Uh, you know, you go over there and you grab that cage and you do that, you probably load that thing with like 50 lb dumbbell, right?" And she's like, "What do you mean?" I'm show I show it to her.

And she's like, "Of course." She went from 15, then she went to like 30, then she went to then she's holding a 50 lb dumbbell doing that. And and I was like, "How's your how's your butt feel now?" She's like, "Oh my god." I'm like, "Yeah." I said, "I know that's your goal, right?" I said, "What you were doing is not bad." I said, "Like building good stability, balance." I said, "I love when you get reintroduced to training again. that's a good place to start, but you've been doing this for a while now.

Load that sucker. And it's I'm like, you loading with a 50 lb dumbbell and balancing is going to be really hard. So, go ahead and go assist yourself for that. And then she was like, "Oh my god, that's awesome." No, I I'm having fun because uh my wife's got she's got really good uh like strength genetics. She could get really strong. So, and she I think she just forgot how to really push it. So, and now because I train my daughter and my niece, she'll pop in and we'll work out.

And it's cool because I see that that pushes her because they'll use a weight and of course she has to use more use more use more just to let the kids know and she's like way stronger than they are. Yeah. Yeah. And so especially on back exercise she could pull like like a horse. And so to see that and then to see her body change so rapidly I'm like all right dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just right away unlocked. It's awesome. So good. Anyway, oh, speaking of workouts and stuff, uh I was going to ask you, Adam, to do this because you're the most likely uh you're the most consistent besides Doug with the Jew red light.

light. light. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, remember that study I brought up a while ago where they took I love this study where they took people and they redlighted one leg. Oh, you make me do that? Well, no, I don't you don't go that far. Okay. Okay. Don't be all lopsided. Yeah. Well, so for people who don't know, there was a study here. There's a couple studies where they they would red light one leg, then they'd have them train both legs, and the leg that got red lighted actually built more muscle and strength, which is a great because you have a natural control.

It's your both your legs. It's amazing. But it also increases nitric oxide. And so I would love for you to test it once to see if I get a pump just to see if you get a better pump on one side. Okay? And maybe pick like an easy body part like biceps, just red light one arm, then go do curls and see if you notice a better pump. I mean, I would love to do that with my my my legs and see if I get a better pump that way like uh and feel it with what you're making me think right now that would be really cool for people is we get a lot of people that obviously symmetry is one of our popular programs and and we have a lot of people that have asymmetry, right?

We have this this imbalance on right to left about accelerating it. Yeah. So, imagine if you are somebody who got one of those Texas games weak and you have Yeah. a really weak left leg or left arm, like would it be cool to like just make it faster? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. And pair it with symmetry. So, literally follow symmetry, use it on the less dominant side preworkout and see what happens. happens. happens. Wow, that's interesting. I know. Well, that's what just came to mind when you were saying that because that's kind of a fun way to Well, that's the thing.

When you have one side that's off, uh, you want it to balance out. Um, and you might as well get just bring it up. Yeah. That's a That makes a lot of sense. Wouldn't that be cool? Do you guys have a body part that's harder to get a pump than others and one that gets a pump super easy? Do you guys have that? I think that's common for a lot of people, right? Uh, Uh, Uh, no. no. no. Not anymore. I did for sure when I was young.

young. young. Like it took me a long time to to get a to learn how to get a really good back pump. pump. pump. Um, but for absolutely now I can get a crazy back pump. Um, but I would you for a long time I never knew what feeling of, you know, it wasn't deadlifts really made a difference for me on getting a like feeling a full a back pump. Yeah. I remember the day this is how I remember the day I got my first back pump.

The day I can tell you I can tell you it was summertime. I was 16 in my backyard predator backyard predator backyard predator and I was in my backyard and it was the first time I did uh pullover super set with pull-ups. Uh, and I remember I came down and I felt my lats lats lats over the pull-ups, of course. So, mine was the deadlift to a lat pull down. That com that combination I had never felt an entire my entire I felt my back from top to bottom just completely that and you know this is what a great cuz there's a bit of an uh isometric part of a deadlift, right?

you're keeping your your spine stabilized in that move even though the the the the movement isn't an isome considered an isometric. You're keeping yourself in this isometric position. That's so isometric is so good to getting really connected to a part of Totally. Totally. Totally. And so I think you have to activate the hell out of everything. everything. everything. Yes. And so I think that was what happened was like for the first time I did this great isometric contraction on the back with a with a deadlift even though I understand that's not a a isometric but that type of contraction on the back going over to a lat pull down which most people feel really good of an exercise and that pumping the lat was just huge from deadlift to pull-ups.

Yeah. Well, yeah. Same thing. Same thing. That gave me the craziest that and from that point on. on. on. Now, for me, I can get a back pump super easy, but nothing like delts. I can get a my delts will get so pumped I can't move. It hurts. And that'll take me one set. It just I get a instant. That wasn't one that took me longer, too. Back, delts, um, and then glutes were probably the three that took the longest. But once I once I unlocked it, you unlocked it.

Justin gets glue pumps. I get I get pumps all over. I mean I I don't even think he he even knew what pump was until we start until we started working out together. What's happening? What's happening? What's happening? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't like it on my forearm. Yeah. He trained for strength for so long when he started working out with me and stuff like that. I think it was the first time he's like I did honestly I think I told you about I was like oh my god I feel so like huge and wrong right now.

Like is it wrong? This feels wrong. I know. Well, you know, it just felt dysfunctional, you know, cuz you're like stiff almost. stiff almost. stiff almost. I don't care. It's It's the the only thing I like. The only thing I like better than the pump, cuz the pump is just It's up here. It's the best feeling ever. The only thing I like better than that is lifting more weight than I've ever lifted before. I just can't chase that cuz I'll hurt myself. So, the pump is what I'll Yeah, I'm with you on that.

There's nothing that the the nothing the pump is such an amazing I mean aside from the the aesthetic look part of it is just it's the feeling of like all all that the blood flowed in that it's like looking at your potential you know what I mean I can look like this get there then stay there as a young kid I used to as a young kid I used to always think I was like man if I could just that was I remember saying that to myself if I could just look like that if I could just just look like that the t-shirt that's like the rich that's the rich guy though chasing the dollar amount you know what I'm is the same thing because I know for sure when I was 20 saying that I passed that kid up a long time ago and I kept saying that for a long time I know it doesn't go well my chest the one like you substantially would like get bigger than anything else yeah you're pet you're pe heavy for sure heavy heavy heavy hey what did you think of the um uh talking about exercise and stuff like that uh the the reaction video uh Brett cont which I thought was really funny I was I was going to ask bro how far are these reaction videos going to go a reaction reaction hey I wanted Justin cuz Justin has the the more comedic personality to do a reaction video to that video because it was was was See, that's what I'll do.

I initially they had me doing those. I don't know if you guys knew this, but I was just like, I don't do these. Yeah, this is not my jam. See, so you should do that cuz I wanted you to do it and this is what I wanted you to do. Be like, I have nothing to contribute to this. Like that's how I wanted you to do it because it was it was Joe DeFranco reacting to another trainer who was commenting on a rever a PR reverse launch and then it was Bre and Ferris reacting to Joe Franco.

It was Frank's reaction of that reaction and this reaction. So, I wanted you to do a reaction to just like just like just like No, we could do one of you. No, we could do one of you. I'll do one to that same video. That's right. That's what I mean. That's I wanted you to do that. Like, listen, you react to it and then you react to your own reaction and then react again to it like 15. I don't know what the hell I was talking about.

But, uh I bring it up though because I actually thought it was a I love I mean, this is just highlights how much uh respect that we have for Joe DeFranco and his I mean the there's I don't know. I definitely Maybe two hands for sure. One hand. Uh maybe two hands. I count on like the trainers and coaches that I have so much respect and admiration for them. for them. for them. It's a smaller group than I would have thought initially. You know, as as a young trainer, you look up to a bunch of coaches out there and then, you know, even going through that whole process, it it really is like 10 people.

And and that and that's no disrespect to the the good trainers that follow us. I don't want you to there's a don't want I don't want you to there's a lot of we have a lot of good trainer friends or good trainer there's another there's another level these are the top way way way the way that Joe reacts the way that Joe reacts to that video is just so good you you tell I mean he just he knows what he's talking about but he also has experience with what he's talking about so he's just the best he did a really good job of of of the nuance nuance nuance like hey I understand where this this guy's coming from for these reasons.

Let me let me show you where we have done that and why how the thought process all the things and just his his his ability and it and so much of personal training then has been lost in my opinion to in these you know 30 second one minute reels that that have gone viral gotten popular and and personal training is so much more nuanced than that. I mean, I feel like everything that somebody says this is the way I can make an argument for no, it's not.

So, like because of that, it's there isn't this like this guy or the way they do it or the way this person says is always right. There's there's almost always an exception to the rule. And if you don't know all of that stuff, that's why the best uh coaches uh have both education and experience. Yep. And I can tell Brent Contreras is like, you need the application to go with it. Brent Contrerus is very knowledgeable also lots of experience that's why I respect his opinion uh you know Jod Franco is another one uh which I consider Jod Franco Ben Bruno is really good Beno is great you can tell Ben Bruno's trained a lot of everyday regular people just by the way he communicates yeah and I just shout out to those there's lots of other good coaches but those three coaches their their uh their knowledge uh both the the science and application is just incredible And it's not a couple years, it's decades.

No, it's 20, 30 years. Yes. Of doing that. And you can tell when they communicate something. And I just I I love to see content like that. And And those guys should be they're they're big, but they should be even bigger than what uh I mean, they've gotten to that point on social. Social media is so fast and and and it has to go viral is the things that most controversial and it's just like that that's the stuff that gets the algorithm going. And it's like man our our industry or I mean our space isn't that like it's uh talking to an individual is so unique to that individual and there's so many times where I tell one person this thing and another person something totally different because there's so many variables that that come into this is why I got to listen I this is why I got to listen I got to uh just pump the tires of our coaches that we don't have a lot of coaches that work for us.

So people listening like uh it's on purpose we're trying to grow as fast as we can. we have more uh people that we can service. Obviously, we have millions of listeners, but um we don't want bad coaches. And so, we hire based off of character character character um and, you know, purpose and some experience. And I tell you, man, I am so impressed with our coaches. They they're they're they were good when they came in. They're sponges, man. But 6 months later or eight months later, we're not talking years later, it's like they're they have experience of four or five years.

Yeah. Like some of our coaches downloaded 10 years of experience. I'm telling you, some of our coaches, you know, I remember we hired them. Wasn't that long ago, it was less than a year ago because we don't have we just started this. And I'm listening to them coach and watching their technique and and how they're apply. I'm like, you already have you're already talking like a trainer with with with five years of experience experience experience in less than a year. It's amazing. Off air, I share with you guys like how impressed.

I was been hanging around here later. We have obviously we have clients now that come in here late at night and stuff, right? Typically after 5:00 PM people get off work and they train. And so there's been times where I'm here and just I can tell by the way a client warms up how good of a train I know. know. know. And I'm like watching the the the priming movements that the these clients are on their own. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So and I'm like and I'm sitting I'm sitting at our counter over here and I'm like I'm like and I had to go to Kyle.

I'm like who is whose trainer is who's training that client? Who's training that client? like we remember how hard it was just to get them to buy into that concept. So that I'm so impressed. I wish I I man I feel I watch them. They're so good. I feel so blessed. I've never worked with so many gifted coaches. But I think back to when I first became a trainer, I was so hungry. I loved it. Man, could you imagine working environment like this with with with how they're getting coached and trained and what they're doing?

Incredible. I mean, I feel like Justin's experience the closest thing to that out of all of us, like cuz he got an opportunity to work. He worked with some good trainers. Yeah. He got a chance to be at a high level private studio. Although, I would still make the argument that these guys are better. Yep. You know, because they're the they're the they're the I have a bias and yes, I agree cuz you did you had an uh I never got to do that. I didn't get to uh you know, I was in big box gym, then I went into leadership and and the business side more.

So, you know, of us as coaches, you guys are far better coaches and trainers than I am. And so, I I I missed out on that opportunity to to work with like a collection of like, you know, five, six other I had I had great experience working with people outside of uh fitness. So, like physical therapy, functional medicine, that kind of stuff. But Justin, he was surrounded by like athletic, very good athletic trainers, top tier trainers for sure, which is cool cuz I learned a lot from Justin when we first got together, which is pretty cool.

That's probably why it all works, too. It does. Yeah. That's That's the reason everybody's so so different. so different. so different. Dude, I got to tell this story before I forget of my daughter, Dalia, my three-year-old daughter. I was playing with her the other day, and this is just just gives you a little little peer into her personality. So, she comes up to me, which by the way, when your daughter comes up and says, "Come play with me." You say yes. Every time. So, she's like, "I'm "I'm "I'm But she grabs my hand." "Baba, come play with me." So, I'm like, "Done.

Let's go." So, I walk with her. She goes, "Sit down. Uh, it's a restaurant." I'm like, "Okay." Okay. So, I sit down and she's like, she tells me what to say. She's like, "Ask me, tell me you're hungry." So, oh man, I'm so hungry. And so, she's like putting pretend food together and she's like, "Tell me you want um eggs and toast." So, I'm like, "Uh, hey, uh, can I please have some eggs and toast?" She goes, "No, I'm eating it." And she's I'm like, "What's happening right now?" Like, just s I just sat there while she pretended to eat.

You can't have it. Watch me eat. So, like, okay. I'm like, "What do I do now?" She's all nothing. I'm like, "Okay." Oh yeah, little turkey. little turkey. little turkey. I don't understand this game. Little turkey. Little turkey. Little turkey. Just want to tell me no. Fire every day for sure. If you don't eat a lot of processed foods, if you have a low carb diet, uh if you sweat a lot, you work out a lot, electrolyte supplementation often time makes a huge difference. And of the electrolytes, sodium is the most important.

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Go check it out. Back to the show. show. show. This segment of the podcast is brought to you by Mind Pump Fitness Coaching. This is the number one course that teaches trainers and coaches how to build sustainable sixf figureure plus businesses and careers in fitness. Look, it's round table based, 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. Our first caller is Alexa from New York. Hi, Alexa. How you doing, Alexa? Morning. Morning. Morning. Hi. Hello. Nice to see you guys. Thanks for having me on. You got it. How can I help you? Um, I have a bit of context, so I guess I'll start with that. Um, but I I guess I'll I my real question is, uh, my broad question is, is it harder to lose body fat and maintain progress?

uh with a more petite frame. So, I'm five foot tall. Um which has been a struggle. Um and I think I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to be doing, but I just feel like I'm working so much harder uh just because I'm a lot shorter. So, um I recently got a DEXA scan and I was at 15% body fat uh which is pretty low, but I don't feel like it looks low just because I'm so petite. So, I feel like because I'm 5 foot tall, I just have to work harder to appear leaner.

My calories have to be cut so much more um because my BMR is lower uh just because I'm shorter. Um so, right now I'm maintaining 1,600 to 1,800 calories a day. Uh which I feel like is pretty high. Um but I'm super hungry, so I'm scared to cut it even lower. Um just to maintain the physique that I have right now. I really just want to maintain what I've got going on, but it doesn't feel sustainable. Uh the things that I'm currently doing, lifting four times a week, running four times a week, maintaining 1,600 to,800 calories.

Um I just feel like I have to work super super hard to maintain um whatever I've got going on now. So, good question. good question. good question. Hope Hope Hope good question. Can I be just straight with you? with you? with you? Yes. Yes. Yes. You're tripping. You're tripping hard. So, here's the deal. Um, it feels like you're working so hard because you're doing a lot of the wrong stuff. stuff. stuff. I also think actually I know that you don't see yourself accurately. So, it's a bit of a distorted uh perception of how you look.

15% is not just lean, it's a little too lean to maintain. Uh you'll you'll typically get hormone imbalances if you're not already experiencing um some of those side effects. Uh, if you want your body to look different at your first off, your size makes no difference. It's all relative. And I've I've trained young ladies at your size who've gotten their metabolisms in the in the high 2000s, which I think you could definitely do. Um, so I'll give you advice in just a second. But I think what you're looking for is more muscle, not less body fat.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because muscle is what gives shape. Uh, it's what gives sculpt. And especially at a body fat percentage between 15 to 18%. It's what's going to give you the look that I think you're looking for. looking for. looking for. It's muscle, not less body fat. And also the ability to eat way more calories. calories. calories. Yeah. And the reason why you're definitely definitely definitely the reason why you're hungry is because you're you're starving yourself. And you're probably not feeling great with all those workouts and running on such low calories.

So there's a couple things couple things I would advise you to do. I would cut the running down to two days a week. But do you like the stamina from running or are you doing it for fat loss? Let me ask you that first. Um, so I'm actually training for a half marathon, which is fun. Um, so I'm doing that. I do enjoy it. I do enjoy um training for endurance. So all of these things I really enjoy. I I'm not really doing it for fat loss.

Um, but yeah, it's fun for me. It's conflicting. Yeah, it is. Yeah, cuz you're like, I want to perform with a half marathon, but I also want to look leaner. Um, and I also got to be careful with my calories, and those are all conflicting. How important is the half marathon to you? Can we not do it or is it like a big deal for you? Well, it's on Sunday. So, yeah. So, um after that, I have no um running uh races on in the books.

All right. So, after Sunday, uh don't do it again. Cut your running down to if you like to run, cut it down to two days a week. If you can get rid of it, I would get rid of it and just do uh something a little easier. And I would bump your calories. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And build some muscle. The look that you're looking for is going to come from more muscle, not more body fat. Stop weighing yourself. Don't worry about the scale. But like, if I were to if I had you increase your calories and had you gain five pounds of muscle, I guarantee you would look in the mirror and be like, "Whoa, that's the look that I was looking." But I'm also looking at your pictures.

You You look lean. lean. lean. Yeah. You look great. You got to really Yeah. You're not seeing yourself accurately, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just wondering how much more muscle can I build cuz I feel like I I've gotten um I I was really skinny at one point. Um so I've built muscle. Um and then I had my DEXA scan. So my DEXA scan results said that I I gained about seven pounds of skeletal muscle. Um so I'm not sure. I guess I if I eat more I could probably gain more.

Oh, for sure. Oh yeah. No, you you you'll you'll build more muscle. You got a great base, too. I mean, you if you f I mean, uh you look like you could compete. You you totally could uh focus on increasing calories, building muscle, just be okay with the the be comfortable with increasing a little bit of body fat on the way there and then know that you have the skills to come right back to where you're at, but you're you're you're more than enough lean, but you're too lean to build muscle right now.

You're so lean, your body's not going to build muscle at that leanness. It it needs to put on a little bit of of body fat. This is similar to the journey I'm taking Karen on right now. Like uh her she's so lean right now that I need her to increase her body fat so we can build muscle. It's just not going to build her body that lean. Uh and she's at 17. You're at 15. You're even leaner. Uh I I'm constantly telling her we got to keep increase calories.

Yes, you're going to feel a little fluffy. Yes, you're going to feel like you're putting a little body fat on, but we need to in order to go build muscle. And so that's what you need to do right now is focus on that. So as soon as the marathon is over, you need to switch over to the concept of like increasing calorie, putting some putting some body fat percentage and muscle on. And then what will happen is you'll put you'll land somewhere in the mid 2,000 calories wise.

Then you should be able to cut down to 20 to 22 and be as lean as you are right now with eating more calories and less work. You're going to feel you're going to feel stronger, more energy, more drive. Uh you'll feel amazing. Your strength will go through the roof. So right now you've got everything you're doing, you have a severe limiter on what your body can do because your calories are so low. Very depleted. Very depleted. Very depleted. Yeah. It's like you got a speed limiter on and you're you know you want to go fast but your car you're just you're you're you got a speed limiter.

It's not letting you. letting you. letting you. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. It feels like a lot of work. I'm just so scared of increasing calories just cuz I'm I don't know if my I mean I keep thinking focusing so much on my height and I keep hearing you know 5 foot tall you should have this many calories versus someone who's larger. So it's it's definitely limiting me. Melissa Wolf who was the competitor that I trained before Karen the last one she was 5 foot. So 5 foot we got all the way up to 2,800 calories.

So she was eating 28 calories. She hit stage competing in one at and she was eating 2200 calories. That's to hit stage. That was on stage the her peak week. We cut down to 10. What was her body fat down to 10? Oh yeah. She was super lean. So uh you you absolutely can can but just again like just like I talked to Karen as we have the same conversation right now is you're going to be you're going to feel a little fluffy. You're going to feel like you're holding a little bit of that's just water.

That's just where you're at right now. We can go right back the other place really quick. Don't worry. And so you you have to learn to get comfortable with that process of putting putting size on, putting muscle on, and then know that you have the ability to come back the other direction. And the longer you can stay in that phase, the more muscle you're going to build, the faster your metabolism is going to be. And the better and healthier you're going to feel when you lower those calories back down to say somewhere like 22.

You'll be able to maintain the look you're wanting with more muscle on your body, with no running, and have have what you want. But you have to first be able to kind of go through what is uncomfortable for a lot of my female competitors. One thing you said, Alexa, is you're scared. Uh so you would, and I get that, uh I get that personally, but also because I've worked with people uh like this. Um have you ever worked with a coach? coach? coach? No. Um I am actually a certified personal trainer, so I coach myself, but I've never worked with a coach.

Yeah. It never works to coach yourself. Take it from me. So uh it's always valuable. Yes. So you it really helps to have a guide uh that you can kind of offset, you know, all that and trust and say, "Okay, I'm going to trust the process. I'm going to let you tell me. I'm just going to do it, not listen to myself because I know I can, you know, be a little distorted with it." Um and and like I said, like the reverse diet is going to change your life.

It's going to ch absolutely change your life. Um but if you're interested in working with a coach to walk you through that you could just trust, I could have somebody call you um and we'll see, you know, where we could take that. at the very least start following Karen because I'm coaching her through this exact process. process. process. Exactly. She's a trainer. Yes, I actually just did. So, okay, good. okay, good. okay, good. I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes. goes. goes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

No, definitely. Well, I mean, this is the conversation we're having right now. So, definitely at least do that and then if you want and she's a coach, so she's incredible. So, and she doesn't need me for the knowledge piece of it. It's the accountability piece is why she has me. So, it's just that reminder as she's going through it. And uh and you know, just cuz she's an brilliant trainer doesn't mean that she doesn't get challenged with the same things. And so u that'll be a great process for you to watch.

watch. watch. Awesome. Appreciate it. You got it. All right, Alexa. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You got it. Thanks. All right. What do you guys think? Is she going to do it or not? not? not? I mean, I I if she's following Karen, I hope she reaches out to Karen. That's what I'm hoping. Uh because uh Karen is incredible. It's so funny. Kin is incredible with coaching other people how to do this, yet also recognizes that she needs someone to coach her through that through that process.

Totally different thing. And so hopefully they connect. I hope that she, you know, DMs her or messages her and and hopefully they can connect and she can she can help her because this this is the conversation that I mean I think that Alexa knows what to do. I think she she asked us to get kind of confirmation of confirmation of confirmation but she doesn't want to because of the fear want to. Yes. The psychological barrier barrier barrier is everything. Absolutely everything. But I mean, if she just did what we said would be uh I mean, she already looks incredible.

I think she's getting away with a lot of the wrong things. If she just started moving in the right direction, there'd be some incredible changes. changes. changes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our next caller is Venita from Utah. Hi, Venita. Hi, Venita. Hi, Venita. How you doing? Hello. Hello. Hello. Good. Thank you. Uh this is wild. Uh first, I'd like to thank you for all the content you've put out over the years. you've had a huge impact on uh my overall health and wellness and I'm looking forward to listening for years to come.

to come. to come. Awesome. Thank you so much. How can we help you? help you? help you? Uh so I'll jump in. I've been listening to you guys since 2018 and I have exclusively followed your programs. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I have the strength or aesthetic that might be expected from 8 years of consistent strength training. And my best guess for why that is is a failure to adjust volume and intensity for life stressors. That being said, stressors have reduced significantly for me for the past couple years and I have reached a point of balance where I have a pretty healthy lifestyle.

I feel like I've achieved the 80% that you guys talk about. Uh my focus so far has been longevity, sustainability, and muscle gain, but I'm about to turn 29, which means I have one year left in my 20s, and I want to really take advantage of my youth to make significant gains. Uh, my goal is to record PR numbers and photos when I turn 30 so that when I'm old and frail, I can look back at that and be proud. So, my questions are, is this goal worth pursuing or would you recommend something else?

And would I have to sacrifice the balance I've found to achieve my goal or are there effective tweaks that I could make to my current lifestyle? lifestyle? lifestyle? Yeah, good question. This is great. The only thing the only thing I would tweak or change is that uh the idea of looking back when you're older as if this thing you I some of my strongest most beautiful awesome clients were my clients that were 70 years old and still strong as [ __ ] So do not be fooled that you can continue to gain strength and build muscle for a long time.

And so don't think of it as this moment where you're going to get in great this window right now. Yeah. It's going to if you make uh fitness uh your lifestyle like it sounds like you want for the rest of your life uh you're going to be very surprised when you get in your 60s and 70s of how great you feel look and move and all the things. So things. So things. So yeah Vonita it's it's not that this is the reason why you should do this.

Uh but uh as as you maintain your fitness and your health uh it becomes more impressive the older you get not less impressive. So impressive. So impressive. So you know a fit a really fit 29year-old is pretty impressive. that really fit 69year-old way more impressive. Now, that's not why you should do it, but just again, just to echo what Adam Adam's saying is you keep looking there's more to look forward to as you keep doing this. So, let's go back. Okay. Um, you said you you had a tough time managing stressors, which tells me maybe you overtrained during that period of time or or went after a little too hard.

Um, you're a mom. How many kids you have? you have? you have? Uh, two kids, three and five. Oh, they're still young. Good for you. Uh, and SIBO, you got that already handled? handled? handled? Yes. Haven't had symptoms for over a year. year. year. Awesome. Oh, good. Um, I also see uh in I'm looking at your question. Is it okay if I bring up stuff on your question that you didn't talk about? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So, you were in the military in the Marines?

Marines? Marines? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, uh so I'm getting a better picture now of the kind of um kind of personality you have, which sounds to me when I have ex-military um they they tend to overdo it. they tend to push harder than they need to to accomplish um you know the best results uh type of deal. You said things a little more balanced now, so I'm assuming sleep and schedule and everything looks a lot better. Oh yeah. Okay. Might be. Might be. Might be.

What does your activity level look like and and tell me a little bit about your nutrition? nutrition? nutrition? Um let's see. So for more context, I'm 5'8, 135 lbs. Currently hit about 6 to 8,000 steps a day. I do have a desk job, so I have to intentionally work to get that. Um, the past three programs I've done are Symmetry, Muscle Mommy, uh, MAPS 15, Performance Advance, and right now I'm finishing up Muscle Mommy 15, and I'm pretty consistent with those. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. My diet is whole foods about 80% of the time, and I consistently reach 110 to 130 g of protein.

I don't currently track my macros and calories, but would guess I'm around 200 2200 to 2500. And my sleep is about 7 to 8 hours a night. You're kicking butt. You are kicking butt. And I think uh I'm curious to how you feel in the 15minute protocol versus the other programs cuz I think that probably really suits your lifestyle cuz you've added too that you work so working having kids like that you got a lot uh going on. going on. going on. How does it how does your body feel training in 15 when you compare it to the other programs you've done?

Um well I'll be honest I heard about your 15 programs and I was skeptical. It took me months to try it, but when I did uh 15 performance advanced, it it has been one of my favorites. Um my body feels less tired after my workouts. Um and I liked it so much I went to Muscle Mommy 15. I think I was surprised at how well the 15 minutes works. So, it's more like 30 minutes. I do the ability, but um but I really like it. Are you getting stronger on it?

A little bit. Um honestly, mostly upper body. Uh, I mentioned in my in my question, I just haven't made a ton of strength gains uh over the past few years, and I feel like I'm missing something. something. something. Okay. Okay. Okay. Tell me about your lifts. Give me an idea of how strong you are. Yeah. Uh, so squat about 145, deadlift 150, bench 75. Um, and these are doing like 5x5s. like 5x5s. like 5x5s. Oh, that's five reps. Five reps. Five reps. Five reps. Oh, five reps.

Oh, you're pretty strong. You're pretty strong. strong. strong. You're strong. You're strong. You're strong. Yeah. Yeah, you're pretty strong. Yeah. I like I like And you're And you're 135, you said. Yeah. You're good. Okay, let me ask you a question. Be honest with me. Okay. Would other people say you look like you work out? work out? work out? Uh, Uh, Uh, yeah. yeah. yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I mean, I I don't look like I'm not built. built. built. But But But I don't care what you think.

Do other people What do other people say? They're like, "Man, you work out. You look fit." I don't know. I think they'd be more likely to say, "I'm just skinny or slender." slender." slender." Yeah. Well, I don't know. Change your answer now. Yeah. Well, I mean, you could also I mean, you you look lean. Uh you you could go on a like a bulk and actually intentionally try and get stronger. And I I can tell you you have room to you could put on weight. You could put on body fat.

You're totally fine. fine. fine. How tall are you getting? 5'8. 5'8. 5'8. 5'8. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're lean you're lean. Yeah. 135. You're lean. Yeah. You could eat more. I would go reverse diet. And uh I like Mass 15 powerlift if you want to see some strength gains. strength gains. strength gains. Mass 15 power lift will get you hitting some PRs. Yeah. You have access to a home gym? Yeah, I do. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But really go on a control bulk. Like try and add calories to the diet.

Make it an I know you don't really track right now, but get an idea of where you're at. And and and if you don't track, then what you would do is add a shake or add a meal every day. That's a balance. balance. balance. Like an extra meal. Yeah. Just every day. That's it. Just add that. Don't change anything else. Follow the the new program and intentionally go after bulking. Uh stay away from the scale. Don't let that get in your head of what's going on.

and just trust the process. You add good good calories, you're going to get stronger. Yep. stronger. Yep. stronger. Yep. Yeah. And you'll build more muscle and you'll look more muscular and look like you lift more weights if that's what you want to do. You absolutely can. Do you know what your body fat percentage sits at roughly? Um I did the InBody scan at the gym. It said 21%, but I guess a little higher. Yeah, you could you could get you could gain probably on a reverse diet with power lift.

I mean a good five to eight pounds of lean body mass. Yeah, I think you'll gain and that'll give you the look I think more of the look that you're looking for. So when you say add, are you thinking like a a 300 calorie snack or Yeah. Yep. Three to three to 400 calorie high protein meal. Yep. Yep. Yep. So if you know what you generally eat throughout, so this is how I would coach. This is how I coach people who don't track. You generally know what you eat day in and day out.

Most of your meals are kind of similar. There's always those off days, but for the most part, you probably always have kind of this for breakfast. That's okay. you get an extra meal that you know is going to have 35 grams of protein, some carbs, and that's your extra meal. You just add that uh to your day. So now you've added 300 calories. 300 calories. 300 calories. Another way to do it that I love to do it too is just add two ounces to every time you eat meat.

So instead of you eating a 6 thing of meat, you you make eight. So add 2 ounces of of meat that you eat you eat you eat to every meal. So, whatever that portion size normally is, go 2 oz bigger on all of it and you'll be fine. It'll get it'll bump those calories naturally that way. way. way. This is actually pretty simple. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. You make it sound easy. Okay. Well, it's application. The hard the hard part is going to be trusting it, but I think you got you already did that with mass 15.

Uh, but yeah, add add a few hundred calories. Go mass 15 powerlift next. How far are you in in uh the current program? program? program? I'm just finishing up muscle mommy right now. Perfect. now. Perfect. now. Perfect. Mass 15 powerlift will be perfect for you. you. you. It is it's a really simple answer. If we don't see the results, if we if you're not getting then then I'd want to to get deeper into the tracking and seeing exactly where you're at so I can adjust that.

But if you have a pretty good general idea of what you eat on a regular basis and you simply just either add a meal or you just add 2 ounces to every single serving of meat, it'll take care of that. Yep. you'll it'll it'll do what it needs to do right there and that'll be enough additional calories and you'll build. So I I typically do the six week mini cuts and mini bulks that you guys talk about. Are you thinking this would be longer than that?

Yep. I Yep. I Yep. I Yeah. I keep you on I'd go all the way through powerlift in in this bulk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Three months. That's it. Three months. And we're looking for strength gains. Do you supplement? Do you take supplements? supplements? supplements? Um vitamin D in the winter. That's it. You don't take creatine? Not right now. Oh, yeah. Start taking creatine. Yeah. Yeah. Right away. Right away. Five grams a day. Yeah. That's going to be great for what you're looking for. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. All right. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to hear I'd love to hear back from you after we uh Yeah. Let's get you back on in a few months. months. months. We're going to send you the Maps 15 power lift and I'd love to hear where your lifts go. You You want to get back on in 3 months? Yeah, I'd love to. Thank you. We'll call you back. Let's do it. All right. All right. Have a good one.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Yeah. I had to read the rest of her question. And I was like, "Okay, ex-Marine." ex-Marine." ex-Marine." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but when I've trained dudes follow the same pattern when they're exmilitary, but especially women. When I train ex-military women, ex-military women, ex-military women, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. they're like, they're like, they're like, "Oh, they're like athletes, but just extreme." Yeah. They're like athletes. They're like, "This is too easy." I'm like, "No, no." The the same the same type of not exactly the same, but similar type of They're They train a lot of mindset.

Yes. Yes. Yes. They train a lot of endure, which is what you want. endure, don't break, don't like that that they so they build these Yeah. They they build these incredibly resilient mindsets, but uh you know, resiliency isn't the best attribute when trying to sculpt and build a body. It's just not. I mean, yeah, exactly. There's there's a smarter way to do it. And so, yeah, she's uh one 135 58. She's doing those numbers already. You move to the 15 protocol on her own. She goes to a legit a legit bulk and and really try and bulk and get strong.

Oh, I'd put I'd put 10 pounds of muscle on her. on her. on her. Yeah, I know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Our next caller is Kaden from West Virginia. Virginia. Virginia. Kayen, what's happening? What up, Kayen? Uh, how are you guys today? Good, man. How are you? I'm good. I just want to say thank you for taking my call today. This really means a lot to me. You got it, dude. What you got for us, buddy? How can we help you? I'm just going to read my email here.

So, all right. So, here's my situation. I'm 19 years old. I'm a mechanic. I work around 50 hours a week. I'm on my feet a lot, averaging like 15 to 20,000 steps a day. And I train in a powerlifting style. I lift five to six days a week. My goal is to put on lean lean muscle without extra weight with that level of daily activity. What would you recommend for my calorie intake to support healthy weight and muscle gain? Yeah, you're you're a machine, dude. Yeah.

Do you know where you're at right now by chance? Like how many calories you eat now? I'm at like 2,000 calories roughly, give or take. I am I don't know how much this really plays into it, but I am on PRT as a 19-year-old and I've lost 155 lbs. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Dude, when did you lose that? So, beginning of my freshman year, I weighed 300 lb. Wow. Wow. Wow. And by the end of my by August 8th, I actually have all these wrote down.

August 8th or no 2021 I was 300 lb. 2024 I hit 150 pounds. Bro, how did you do that? Tell me about your story. What you um So, if you want to be honest with me, I was I've been a wrestler my whole life and I was fairly decent at the heavier weight classes, but I didn't grow I didn't grow up. I grew out is what is what I like to say. I kind of put a good bit of weight on. And then my freshman year, I went in with my brother and I didn't make weight to wrestle heavy weight.

weight. weight. I was too heavy. I had 15 lbs over the weight limit. So, right there, I started losing weight. I didn't do it the right way. I did it very like improper, which I know that now. I did it kind of like the wrestler mentality. Get the weight off you as fast as you can. And that's why I'm on TRT as a 19-year-old. It's from the doctor. My pituitary gland doesn't produce it anymore because of the weight loss, but that's really about it. I mean, I'm trying to I I probably should have wrote a lot more down about my story.

I apologize there. apologize there. apologize there. Yeah, no problem, dude. And you're let me guess here. You're afraid you're afraid to eat more because you don't want to gain all that body fat back. back. back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Yeah. I'm going to be honest with you. That is the truth. I get it, dude. You can you could easily bump your calories. Oh god. Yeah. And you'll just build muscle hung. Especially because you're on TRT, you have a loud signal that your body wants to build muscle and you're you're underfeeding it right now.

You feeding it more calories. As long as you keep strength training and we'll give you a program to follow. I think that's more appropriate for like your activity level. But you follow that program and you eat about 500 more calories to start uh with a day. And so you think like 2500 at least just to start to start. We'll get you up to 3,000. We're going to get you up higher than that. That's you go right to right to 25 and you start following the program we send you and you're going to build muscle.

muscle. muscle. Do you like you like powerlifting style training? Because I can send you mass powerlift. powerlift. powerlift. Yeah, I love powerlift training. I like being there for a while too. Like I like spending time at the gym if that makes sense. sense. sense. Long rest periods lift. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to send you mass powerlift. Yep. and bump and bump your calories 500. 500. 500. Yep. Yep. Yep. And in 6 weeks, uh, I'd bump you up again. again. again. And you're just going to get strong, dude.

dude. dude. But thank you, guys. But do it controlled. Okay? Cuz here's the other side. Sometimes what happens, especially with a kid, is you go in a you start to bump your calories, you feel good, and then you go loose with it and crazy. None of the dirty bulk stuff. Yeah. Do you Yeah. Are you uh do you have a Facebook profile? profile? profile? Yes, sir. I'm in the private forum. Okay, good. So So use that. So use that to stay in touch with us. So as you go through this, through this, through this, add the 500 calories like S's saying, and then probably a month to six weeks, we're going to bump you again.

Just keep us posted on how you're feeling, what you notice, but you should see strength gains and you should start to put muscle on in that first month for sure. How do you uh you live at home or you live on your own? Oh, yeah. I live at home. Oh, good for you. All right, man. How strong are you? Tell me your lifts. Uh, so my max squat last time I really maxed out was, it's been a couple months, but it was 375. The bench was 245 and the deadlift was uh I'm kind of like Justin here.

My squats way better than my deadlift. My deadlift was um um um Feel your pain, dude. 325. 325. 325. You're strong. You're strong. You're strong. We're going to get you pulling over 400 lb. lb. lb. That's not bad. That's not Dude, I would love to pull over 400 lb. You will? Yeah, you're going to focus. only 19 and you're you're eating 2,000 calories. Yeah. Yeah. Wait till you got to get them up. Wait till Yeah. We bump these calories and Yeah. Yeah. We'll send you the program.

Bump your calories 500 in 6 weeks. If you feel good, bump it another five. Yeah. Stay in touch with us in the forum. Let us know how you're going to the forum and we'll we'll guide you through this process and then love to have you come back on in 3 months and talk about where everything's at. Strong, dude. Strong, dude. Strong, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you guys. I really appreciate this. appreciate this. appreciate this. Yeah, of course, man. Keep going. Yeah. Great. Great.

Great. You guys have a good one. You too, brother. I love it. Wow, dude. Oh, he lost a hell of weight on his own. Yeah, that's crazy. That's great. That's great. That's great. Yeah. I mean, yes and no. He learned a lesson, right? That's also what crashed his testosterone, testosterone, testosterone, you know, you know, you know, which is interesting to me. Well, I don't know his medical history, so I don't know. Yeah. Interesting. They didn't use like hCG first hCG first hCG first or cuz Well, the fear is uh that you put a kid on testosterone, you kill the lying on it.

No. Well, you just kill the fertility. Now, there's ways to maintain fertility, but that's always the fear. So, doctors typically are like whatever. But there might be more to the story. Uh, who knows? You know, what the deal is, but but and nonetheless, um, if you He's scared to add cal, he's 19, 15,000 steps a day, working out five, six days a week. a week. a week. I mean, he can eat 3,000 calories a day. Ready? Ready? Ready? Yeah. Yeah. But 25 will step him up nicely, and he he should see a difference right away just from that.

Cool. Cool. Cool. Our next caller is Casey and Kristen from Texas. from Texas. from Texas. What's up, guys? How you doing, man? How you been? Hey, guys. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. Long time. How you been? I'm well. Um, I wrote down my question so I wouldn't mess it up because it kind of uh involves my wife here. So, is it okay if I just read it? Yeah, go for it. Don't get us in trouble here. here. here. I know, right?

Me, too. Like a land mine. All right. So, uh, so my wife hasn't really been interested in training, but I want her to get into it just for the health benefits if nothing else. She suffers from various health things and I know that it can help her because it's helped me so much. Um, now to make things easier, I built a home gym and she's agreeable to like a Maps 15 style commitment. So, my plan here is to train her myself, teach her the movements, take it easy, uh, but aim for consistency.

So, A, what do you think of my little plan? And B, what program would you recommend? you know, starter maps 15, 40 plus 15, muscle mommy 15, whatever. Now, my dream ultimately is that we're in there together doing like the big compound movements, that would be awesome. be awesome. be awesome. But, um, but I'm open to anything, even if it's starter if need be. So, yeah. yeah. yeah. Uh, what thoughts do you guys have? Yeah. So, a lot a lot of that's going to be based on her ability to perform the movements and mobility.

Um, any experience strength training, Kristen? Is this totally new for you? Pretty much. Yeah. Okay. Uh I starter is a good place to start. start. start. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh then from there, maths 15 and then any of the 15 would be good after that. And you're going to be with her, right, Casey? So you'll be able to watch her technique and form. Yes, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Starter is the place to start. It'll help her understand stability and control. Uh it's a it's named Starter precisely because it's the best program to start with.

You're still going to see progress. You're going to see yourself get stronger. It is strength training, but the exercises in there and the programming is perfect for a complete beginner. beginner. beginner. Yeah, you figure out body control and really how to hold position, anchor down, and all that kind of stuff is necessary to kind of build upon and add load to as you go. And then after that, mass 15 is perfect. Then you can go with any 15 after that. 50 40 plus you can go symmetry, powerlift, muscle mommy.

It's all good. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Would you recommend working with maybe a uh trainer from you guys? Always. Always. Always. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Always. Always. Always. Yeah. I mean, you can't if if you're willing to invest in someone like that, it's always worth the investment. Yeah. They're going to they'll individualize everything. individualize everything. individualize everything. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's where you're going to get it. And and and and uh wife always does probably better listening than to the coach than probably listening to husband, too.

just uh that's I I can't train my wife and I've got a big podcast where all I do is help and train people. It's just easier. It's easier coming from from from It's just a hard dynamic. It's weird like now you're like teaching. Yeah. Yeah. And typically it's not doesn't work uh well unless they're working out together and they're both now after after she gets momentum with the coach and gets a solid base, then I could totally see you guys working out together, right? Like down the road.

But you doing the coaching, I mean, I don't know. I don't know how dynamic you are in that situation. I know I I I think I'm a pretty good coach and I still fail to do it to my my wife. So it's just we have so many other things going on in our life and then that that in itself is a skill set and requires that and uh you know that and when they mesh don't always go great and so I would rather have somebody else you know one of my trainers coach my wife than myself for that reason stuff like that but just the individualization is just uh that's the big thing they'll be able to individualize nutrition guidance uh exercise modifications exercise modifications exercise modifications if there's anything that pops up hey this hurts this doesn't feel Right.

Can I go harder? Can I add this? Take that away. Um, they're just going to guide you the entire way through. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay, cool. Pretty pretty simple. So, just start with starter and then you guys will hook us up with a trainer. Hopefully, Hopefully, Hopefully, I'm going to have someone call you. Yeah, we'll have someone call. I'll make sure you're taken care of. We got really really good coaches, but we'll make sure you guys get set up. Awesome.

Okay. Thanks for the time, guys. Appreciate it. You got it. Nice to meet you, Chris. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, do you guys remember Casey? I do. I do. I do. So, he's he's got the uh basketball. He used to be he used to be like a real like TV guy. Yeah. And then he moved to his own channel. He's been doing it for a long time. And so, he's my he's my go-to. Like, what you said though is uh on point.

Like, uh Like, uh Like, uh couples that work out together sometimes works when they're when they're very similar, same focus, same kind of whatever. But when it's like I'm going to train you type of deal, Yeah. It could it could work but sometimes oftenimes it causes uh challenges because then it's like you don't want your husband telling you what to do and yeah you know and I don't want you bet and you trained them which is my situation. situation. situation. You still train are you able to train your wife consistently?

I can she loves it but I I I kind of don't I don't do it very often because I have my own workout I have to do and everything but I' I've tried to go back into that role and uh it it is a dynamic that works for us. But I I'll tell you how it it looks for Katrina. So Katrina and I, we go to the same gym right now and uh we totally don't do the same thing. We're on opposite sides of the gym.

Uh I occasionally will be walking by and see her doing a lift and then I'll stop and say something and I'll I'll comment. I'll be like, "Hey, you want me to show you something with that?" And she'll be like, "Yeah." And then I'll be like, "Here's here's like your form is perfect. Um you're now at a level where you're more advanced. let me show you how to engage your lats even more through that movement. And then I'll sit down and I'll demo it and she'll be like, "Oh, wow." And then I walk away.

It's like that's what it looks like. You you you mansplain to her and then she she she No, I ask I go, "Would you like me to?" Cuz if you don't, I'll just I'll just keep it walking. You're fine. You know what I'm saying? But she'll go, "Yeah, yeah. No, I I definitely want Well, cool. Let me show you something." And then, of course, and I I lead with a You're doing great already. Here's another here's the next level to this. and then she loves that and so it works really well.

But me coaching her for the full hour just it's not um you know we do so much together and so I think that's hard for a coach that's I think that's hard for a coach to do that much less somebody who's not a professional coach in that. So that you're just asking for that if you you you for consistency and you know making sure that everything is moving forward. I think having a outside coach is way more effective. It's also hard. This is the other challenge I've had with couples is that then it's hard to turn off because then you're you're coaching your wife or you were coaching your husband, which is less common, but then you're at home and you're and you're watching them eat and they're eating something that's off the D.

Now you're like, do I can I make a comment? What do I say? And then you become the coach all the time. So this is just it just it can be a weird dynamic. Well, yeah. And then you and you don't want to not have your workout that's set to be at a set time and just because you guys got into a tiff about something important out. important out. important out. Yeah. So, it's like better to outsource that in my opinion. It's not that it can't work.

But in this in their situation, I think a perfect world is he she gets some coaching to get her set on her way and then they can work out in the gym together at the same time and and I think they'll enjoy that process. Totally. All right. I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. So, let's say you decide to do 100 squats every single day. What happens to your body? Some pretty cool stuff. This if somebody Hey, thanks. to give away the first one.

Actually, you know, uh, a lot of people, um, it sounds obvious, but then you have a lot of people like, well, you can't do that every day type of deal. Uh, you have to do them the right way, right? I think a 100 squats all at once is probably not a good idea, but spread out throughout the entire day, you for sure will get Well, you can easily overt