The 5 Most Functional Exercises You Can Do | Mind Pump 2984

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The code Mind Pump will get you 20% off. Also, right now, everything is 60% off. All maps, workout programs, all bundles, all mods, all guides, everything site-wide, 60% off for Black Friday. This is the biggest sale of the year. By the way, every purchase enters you into a contest. We're giving away squat racks, red light panels, three-day vacations in Park City, Utah. Lots of cool stuff. Go check it out. Get this 60% off and enter into the contest. Go to MapsFitnessProducts.com. Use the code Black Friday for the discount. Here comes the show. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at MindPumpStore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to MindPumpStore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. You've probably heard the buzzword functional. What does that even mean and is it important? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about functional lifts and what are the best functional lifts, and we're going to break down what that actually means. What are the best functional lifts you could do in your workout to make you awesome in everyday stuff? Let's go. First, define functional for the audience, because I feel like that's a bit of a bastardized word. Totally bastardized, because I think when people hear functional, they oftentimes get an image of a weird exercise. You're balancing or doing something ridiculous. I remember this was in the late 90s when I became a trainer, early 2000s. Even early 2000s. That's when functional became a thing. What functional meant back then was, can we take an exercise and make it as weird and unstable as possible? Literally, you would take a tricep press down, and how do we make it functional? Let's have you stand on a DynaDisc with one foot and do a tricep press down. Now it's a functional exercise. Then it evolved to your Ido portals and the trainers that make you do these really elaborate animal flow things. A lot of it's on that. I have a memory of me at Hillsdale. You did those, didn't you? I did tricep press downs on my knees on the stability ball. Oh, God. And I loaded it a little too much, and the ball shot out to the side. Oh, God. Yeah, it crashed on the floor. That was in the thick of that early 2000s. That's when it was everyone guilty of that. It was a crazy pendulum swing in the wrong direction, and the side effect of that was we actually avoided some of the most functional exercises, strength training exercises in existence as a result. Okay, so let's define functional. Functional means that the gains you see in the gym translate to everyday life. What exercises give you the best carryover to everyday life? Getting strong anywhere in the gym will have at least some carryover, but some exercises have more carryover. You get strong at functional exercises in the gym, and you feel it in everything you do. You feel it when you play with your kids. You feel it when you're moving boxes or your couch. You feel it when you go play basketball with your buddies. You can tell that you're stronger. Less functional exercises, you get stronger in the gym. You go out in the real world, you can't really tell that much. So that's how we're going to define functionality is the carryover into the important stuff, which is everyday life. It's not just about how you look. It's also how you move and perform. So I'll start with the first, with number one. And number one really is four exercises. And I put them all in the same category because they're often referred to as the big four. And these are the ones you've probably heard us talk about 100 million times if you listen to the podcast. And these are the big gross motor movements, the common ones, the popular ones. Three of them are in powerlifting competitions. Uh, bench press, deadlifts, barbell squats. And then we throw in the overhead press. Now, why are those so, let's talk about those and why they're so functional? What is it about those exercises that makes them? Well, you have to start here and I'm glad you did because we can't, I mean, we could get into the, uh, the ones that people think we're going to get into, but, but first we have to cover this because it's, it's going to produce the most amount of strength. So maybe the biggest overall for your entire body. So your entire body is going to get stronger, which is the foundation for you to build off of any other movement direction. Well, and arguably if you were to only do, uh, any of the things we're about to talk about, if you just did these four, it really covers, you'd be pretty good. Yeah. You'd be really, you mentioned a barbell. You would, you would actually be better than probably 90% of the population. That's right. I mean, so, uh, you'd be really good. Now, obviously there's other planes and movements and things. I know that we'll, we'll address to, to be more optimal, but to Justin's point, uh, this is the foundation. Yeah. You, if you're strong in these four movements, you've got a lot of your basis covered. That's right. And by the way, when I said earlier, we moved away from some of the most functional exercises when the whole functional trend started. These are the ones we moved away from. Suddenly trainers were training their clients in, in, in weird ways. And they were avoiding traditional bench press. They were avoiding traditional squats. They weren't doing deadlifts. They weren't doing standing overhead presses. Everything was standing on balance boards and Dinah discs and one arm, this and one leg that, and, uh, making things really complicated. And as a result, people couldn't generate a lot of force and just build a lot of strength. That's it. And so it, things got so unstable and so weird that it really became less about building strength and more about just mastering kind of the technique. Progressive overload. Wasn't really like, that's right. Emphasize enough. That's right. And here's the deal. Like, if you get strong and listen, if you're listening right now, you've probably, and you've been working out for a while, you know what I'm talking about? Your deadlift goes up 30 pounds. You could tell, you could tell in everything you do. It's not like you can only tell when you deadlift, you could tell when you play with your kids, you could tell when you're picking things up and moving and just walking. Yeah. You can feel the strength in your body. This is true, especially for things like a barbell squat, especially for standing overhead press, bench press, still functional. If the, I, you know, ironically probably the least functional of these exercises. Yeah. Overhead press is very functional. Like you could stand and hold something heavy overhead. You've got a very tight, strong, stable body. Yeah. I was actually kind of surprised that you, I mean, I think I'm not surprised because I know you, why you did the big four, because it is kind of the standard, but I actually think you could have left out bench press because you just need a horizontal press. That's all. I mean, kind of, if somebody has the ability to stand up and press a barbell up over their head with good weight and strength and stability I don't think they're going to struggle whatsoever with pushing something off of them. Well, I mean, to like decelerating it to, I mentioned like row, but you're kind of getting that as well with the bench, it covers that. That's right. All right. Next up sled work, all directions of sled work. So we'll just, I'll just talk about the most commonly, the most common way that someone will use a sled is by pushing it forward. It's one of the only exercises that you do in the gym where you're using resistance in a strength training way and you're connecting everything from your foot to your upper body. So, you know, when I do a barbell squat, my feet are flat. When I'm pressing us, when I'm driving a sled, I'm pushing through my toes and I'm strengthening the muscles in my feet, all the stabilizing muscles in my ankle, my calves, and then all the way up the kinetic chain to my upper body, which also has to stabilize, including my core to push that way. I remember when Joe DeFranco was championing sled work back in the day and saying, you guys, this carries over to the field. And he was training some of the best athletes at the time, football in particular. And then lo and behold, studies came out showing, oh yeah, like you get really good at sled driving. You get, we see it on the field. Well, I think too, as trainers, we overlook a lot of foot strength as being a major factor. And, you know, you see that go all the way up the kinetic chain. It affects pretty much everything. And to be able to really train your foot, especially on the forefoot and utilize the pressure that you would normally in a run, in a sprint, you know, walking patterns, all this stuff where you're adding resistance to locomotion, but at the same time, you're not getting any of the eccentric. You're not getting a lot of the type of force, you know, that you have to recover a bit longer from like, so this is something too that you're getting, you know, you're utilizing that resistance, but now you're strengthening all the way up your legs, all the way up the kinetic chain through your feet. Well, another way to say that, or what I was going to add to that was that it's arguably the greatest ROI on a lower body exercise with the least amount of risk. For sure. It's one of those rare exercises where it's low risk, high reward. Usually it's the other way. It's both high risk, high reward. That's typically how it works. That's the movements that you listed before, you know, bench, deadlift, squat. They are some of the greatest. They also have some high level risk. They're high skill, and, you know, I'm not putting my 60-year-old grandma under any of those movements her first day, but I could absolutely have her push this. She could push a sled right away. If she could walk, she could push a sled. Right away. But you could also take an advanced lifter, have him push a sled, and it's appropriate. Right. This is why I think it's got one of the greatest ROIs for the least amount of risk. Totally. By the way, all directions. We just need weighted walkers now. I was just thinking of that. Oh, wow. And by the way, all directions. So lateral sled drags. Maybe the almost underrated way to use it. Oh, it cured my hip pain. Literally, I did four weeks of lateral sled drags, fixed my hip pain completely. And I was actually literally at a point, Justin and I were talking about this. We're like, am I going to need hip replacement? Like, what is going on? And all I did for four weeks was sled work, and I'd start with lateral sled drags. Completely fixed my hip pain. Well, you see what was deficient in your programming, you know? Yeah, you don't consider that until you actually put yourself through that range of motion, and you're like, strengthening that pattern. Wow. All of a sudden, now I have that support. I have the same type of paradigm shift with that. It's the reason why I recently signed up for whatever that elite membership was for Fitness19. It gives me access to this Hi-Rox room, which basically has four lanes with four different sleds that I can drag on there. Because we've gotten so busy in here, I can't do sled drags in here anymore. We have so many people that I don't want to disrupt what they're doing. And I remember how good I felt when I was doing lateral sled drags. And so that was a big motivator to paying that extra fee just so I could have access to that room, because I can do that. You know what's great too about them is there's no eccentric portion of the rep. So eccentric is when you lower a weight. The concentric part's when you lift the weight. And eccentric, there's nothing wrong with it, but it does cause more damage to the body. It's one of the things that contributes the most to soreness and recovery. Sled work is one of those interesting exercises where you can do it really frequently. Yeah. You can add volume to your program with a sled pretty easily. Pretty easily. And it'll add a little bit of recovery, but not much, especially when you consider the return you get from it. So sled work, very functional. One of my favorites. Next up, heavy carries. All heavy carries. Heavy carries where you're- Racked, overhead, you know, your suitcase. Yeah. You're going to get your like suitcase carries. You get your farmer carries. So yeah. That's right. Now, someone might ask, well, why carrying it and walking? Why don't you just hold the weight? Well, every time you take a step, it creates torsion in the pelvis. You're creating some instability, you're moving under load, and what you're doing is you're strengthening the hell out of your body to stabilize your spine. Stabilize your spine. Now, you could also hold a weight overhead, and now you're adding shoulder stability. You can hold weight in one hand and strengthen stabilization in one side. You could hold weight with both hands and learn how to stabilize your body with a lot of load. In my opinion, heavy carries are one of the most functional exercises you could do. When I get good at heavy carries, I almost feel there's this like invincible feeling I have. As I start to get good at them, I just feel solid. It's like bulletproofing you. Yes. One of the best things you could do for bulletproofing your back. Well, going back to why I asked you the very first question was to define what functional meant and what that is, is like to carry over to real world stuff. When you think about the things that you will do all the time, nearly every single day, you are carrying a bag of groceries in one arm from the car. You're carrying a baby or picking your kid up from something like that. You're picking up furniture. There's things that you are constantly picking up, having to carry, and do in the real world. If you get really strong at all those different carries that you just mentioned, doing all those simple tasks become just exactly that, simple, and you become bulletproof. By the way, whenever I would have injuries with clients, especially advanced age, it was never doing the exercises in the gym with them. It was always some mundane thing like getting groceries out of the car, bending over to pull a little weed. It's always like these little things. Doing those carries gives you that good lateral stability, core strength, the stabilization, and just anti-rotation, great foundational strength while walking and moving, which is what you end up doing with a lot of this. Yeah. I, so when I, I, I have a long history of heavy farmer walks and that's only because years ago I read this book and it talked about how great they were for improving grip strength and deadlift strength. And at the time I was really interested in getting my deadlift stronger. Then I meet you guys and Justin introduced me to overhead carries, never done overhead carries before, and it, it, that was responsible for adding a good 20 pounds to my overhead press. The stabilization that I got from doing overhead carries, like one arm dumbbell or kettlebell or two arm, when I went to my overhead presses, suddenly I was so much stronger and it was because my shoulders were so much more stable. Trying to walk with something overhead, that's a long lever and you really got to learn how to stabilize your scapula, your shoulder. You got to brace your core. Like while you're walking, it's a lot more difficult than it sounds and it, man, it made a huge difference. Yeah, I wish I could pinpoint exactly how much weight like it contributed to, but I remember I was, I had this goal specifically to get this 128 pound kettlebell overhead because when somebody in my gym was doing it and man, that thing was heavy and I get it to about here and you know, you're trying to stabilize lateral, rotational, everything at once and it's just inefficient. And then once you start really working with that and walking with that load, it's amazing once you get stable, like all of a sudden it goes right up and locks it in. I just remembered one of the few workouts we've ever had all through all of us together, because we've all worked out probably less than five times in 10 years together, honestly, less than five times. And I just remembered, we worked out at Truckee. It was snowy outside. There was snow and we did heavy farmer walks as part of the workout. Two of the only five workouts we did, we did carries. Yes, we did. Uh, because the other one I can think of was when we worked at Justin's gym. I remember that one. Cause that was the first workout we did. I believe we did sled, we did sled work, deadlifts. Yeah. I was like, I got you guys in my gym. And I was like peak, uh, meathead bodybuilding. So I totally remember that. That was fun. All right. Next up, Cossack squats. Uh, nobody does these, uh, which is too bad. Uh, this is really good for lateral stability and strength. It's this, it's essentially a sideways lunge. If you think about it, it's really good for mobility. It's good for that lateral stability. You need this by the way. Like if you're really good about the big four, you're missing out on lateral strength and stability. That's why site that's why sled drags, lateral sled drags were so good for me. Cause I get really stuck in that, you know, bench, deadlift, squat, kind of whatever. Um, and, and Cossack squats, squats are amazing. Good for ankle mobility. Good for hip mobility. Good for, you know, get some good inner thigh mobility. Um, and then get that lateral push off to bring the feet. I'm just always looking for those holes, you know, my programming. And that was one of those big eye-opening, uh, pieces was the, that lateral work. And you really have to be intentional because it's not like you're just going to stumble across, you know, in the gym, like, oh, okay, I'll, I'll, I'll do some Cossack squats or I'll do some lateral lunges that you have to really be focused on, you know, placing that into your routine. And the difference is substantial. Like how much more stable your back loaded squats are like everything else benefits tremendously when you can bring that type of stability and increase your force up. So my tip for that, because I think what I run into with Cossack squats is just the, the challenge of it being unique and different and people may watch it and then have, they have a hard time setting up, getting good at it or whatever, or performing it well. Uh, I would love, I love starting people with a suspension trainer and just their body weight. Yes. Uh, it really helps. I kind of get the technique down, sit back. Yeah. And stabilize it first. Yeah. And get the flow of what it looks like. Uh, and then once you get it down really well with the support of the suspension trainer and your body weight, then you can eventually progress it with either holding dumbbells or loading it on your back and then it becomes amazing. By the way, ladies, if you want to develop your upper glutes, uh, Cossack squats are great for doing that better than the abduction machine. Yes. Uh, all right. Next up to body weight exercises. They're great for building muscle. So these are great to build upper body muscles, but they're also very functional because their body weight exercises and you get good at these two lifts, these two exercises, I should say. You've got a pretty strong, uh, well-versed, uh, mobile upper body. That's pull-ups and dips. Yeah. Put good old pull-ups and dips. By the way, back in the day, there were guys that this is all they did for their upper body and they had great chest, shoulders, backs, triceps, biceps. I mean, picture the ultimate jacked gymnast dude coming. This is what he's doing. I mean, all he, that's all he's doing a lot of what he's doing is literally like bar dips and pulling himself up on the rings or the, or the bar. And that's like literally what's given him that jack physique. I love this as like a test too, to really know for sure how much I can connect to my entire body. So especially pull us because, you know, I'm a heavier guy, but it's like, if I can keep my body rigid and planked out while I'm pulling up, like how much more efficient that is, then that gets me size. Same thing with dips. Uh, but even with dips, you can add that instability with like rings or something else. And it really emphasizes the fact that you have to, you know, really stay nice and tight and supported with your body. By the way, those, these two exercises, first off, they are relatively high skill. Okay. So get good at them first. So if you're not good at them, practice them, maybe use a Gravitron or a weight assisted machine and get good at them. Once you get good at them, this is a shoulder joint proofing combo, like pulling up, getting that, that downward, you know, contraction, getting the scapula to rotate downward and back, pulling yourself up, then you go into dips and you get really deep with the dips and press yourself up again, strengthening the scapula to humorous kind of combination or communication. This will, this will give you great shoulders. Yeah. It'll increase your shoulder mobility and strength tremendously. If you could do both of these really well. Yeah. I would say honorable mention just for on here would have been like a windmill just because of that, like, yeah, upper thoracic rotation and just the support that's going to provide you. Yeah. So I would have mentioned that as well. By the way, a great superset, pull-ups to dips, like great upper body superset. If you want to get your whole body looking amazing in 10 minutes with a big pump, do those back to back. So do you guys see, I have some, some notes here because I want to read you guys, Organifi's new beauty gummies. Did you see this? What? You got new gummies? Okay. So we don't have them here. So, uh, they're always there. So Organifi does such a good job. Would you be offended if I gave you a bunch of those? You need these. Yeah. I'll throw you some fat burners. Okay. So I feel like, okay, I feel like I wish I would have brought this up because it would've been fun to see if you could guess, I don't know if Justin and I could guess what is probably in those to call, to call them beauty gummies. Well, I'll tell you, cause you won't know. I'll just say, I started, I did a little research. Would you have guessed? I would not, but I did some research. So there's a compound called these. So there, there's a, there's a company that, that sources these. So here's what Organifi does really well. If there's a compound that's got great, uh, clinical trials, they will go to the best source and get that source. Okay. So they, they've done this with all of their products. They're not going to get, you know, uh, for example, they're not going to get Shilajit on their own. They're going to go with the company that produces the best Shilajit and source, uh, uh, their Shilajit. That's what they do with their Shilajit gummies. Right. Prima V. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They do the same thing with their happy drops. That's right. That's right. They're saffron and stuff like that. Yes, yes, yes. So there's a company called Ceraloc that produces something called rice ceramides. All right. What are rice ceramides? These are lipids that in studies increase, so it's a 12 week clinical study that when women took this, they had 23.7% greater skin hydration, actually measured the hydration of the skin. Okay. And it was so almost 25% better hydration. Now, what does that look like? What does that look like? Less wrinkles. It looks like less saggy skin. Nice dry. And so that's the main ingredient in these gummies are the Ceraloc rice ceramides. Now they also have acerola in there and pomegranate extract, both anti, uh, anti-inflammatory. So really good, but essentially what they're doing with these gummies. And again, Organifi does such a good job of this. Uh, is there, they're improving the beauty of your skin or the health of your skin from the inside out. So instead of putting something on, which that's also, I think also makes a difference, but now you can eat something and it'll change the appearance. At this point, I can almost have a full bag of gummies every day. Actually, just, just an excuse to eat more candy. I know, I know, so funny, so funny. Gummy dose regimen. Dude, I got to tell you guys, it's so funny. I still have this experience at my age after talking about this for as long as I have, I switched my training. I used to do five days a week. Then I went to four days a week. And then I went to three days a week, a full body, which I preach all the time, right? But of course I'm different because I'm an idiot. So I took me this long to go back to three days a week. I should not, I'm in a calorie deficit at the time, at the moment, most of the time right now. So I'm actually losing weight. I dropped about 13 pounds. I should not be this strong. I should not be as strong as I am. I am lifting weights that I normally lift in a hard bulk in training for it. But it's because of the programming. It's because I'm doing full body. It's crazy. Yeah. It's what my strength went up immediately. I switched to this and immediately all my lifts started going up. It's all right. I mean, I can't really give you too much shit. Cause it's, it's one of those things you end up like kind of going off and doing something like that day. Like I want to work on this. And so I'll end up like just creating a new program for myself on the fly all the time, but yeah, get back to like that three day, a week schedule. It makes such a difference. I feel like I've been preaching this to you for a long time. I've been saying this for a long time that well, you've been on the, I don't work out much kick for a while. I know the extreme, but there's, and I'm sure it gets interpreted by a lot of people, Oh, he's just lazy or whatever. But it's like, no, I've been fascinated with, um, and I, and I, I had this conversation, just had it yesterday with any of my friends that have been, you know, lifting for an extended period of time, like any of us, um, I, I share this with that, I think that, uh, you get in the habit of really overdoing it and we justify it because we like it and our, and our, you know, our workout is our part of our day starts our day. And so we have all these justifications. I wasn't overtraining, but I was definitely doing as much as I could probably tolerate, which is not optimal. Right. Obviously. Right. Obviously not. And so, and, and again, we justify it through all these reasons. Oh, it's how it starts my day. It's part of my stress relief. It's a, you know, insert, whatever reason you want to justify doing more than you need to, or, or doing the less optimal routine than what you should, or I'm always in pursuit of like, what's the most optimal, you know, it's my, the whole thing is like, how can I do as little as possible to list the most change, and I'm just so fascinated with how, if you have put this, I think this, it, it matters a lot that you have lifted for as long as you have, and you have built the foundation that you have built. So the stimulus that you need, uh, is, is very little. And any bit over that is counterproductive. And as soon as you start, even in a calorie deficit, when you move more towards what's optimal for you, you're seeing these crazy positive. It's wild, dude. Cause I look, I dropped like 13, 14 pounds today. I did, I was doing single. So just one pull up with a hundred pounds strapped on my waist. I haven't done a hundred pounds around my waist in a long time. Pull-ups I was benching, uh, three 15 band assisted. So, but you know, and I know that's lightweight for you, Justin, but for me, that's a lot. Uh, so three 15, I'm doing box squats with three 75 and I'm not even trying to go crazy with squats. I'm just being careful because I just got over my hip. Uh, for me, that's great weight. Uh, and so it's, it's, we, I haven't deadlifted yet. I'm going to start incorporating deadlifts again, uh, just cause I enjoy doing them. I'm going to try not to get carried away. So I'm going to need you guys to check me, but, uh, we'll see what that looks like. You know, if I'm pulling five plates right now without really training them, I'm going to be blown away and it's just basic full body routine. It's crazy, dude. Speaking of which I got to study for you guys, speaking of how little you need to build strength. There was a study done and from Penn state trip off this everybody. So here's what they did. They took a bunch of adults, 65 and older, and they train them for 12 weeks. You want to know what they did? No. You guys want to know how much they did? One exercise. They did four minutes of daily strength training. Oh, four minutes. That's yeah. So we shouldn't, we need to write a program. That's four minutes, four minutes of strength training a day for older 65 and older. Okay. So that's literally one set. You're done. Yeah. Okay. Just one set, one set, one exercise. That's it. Not three sets, not nothing. One set, four minutes a day. At the end of the 12 weeks, they saw tremendous gains, meaningful gains in balance, strength, and their ability to come up from a chair in 12 weeks. Everybody had dramatic improvements in their strength from perspective, bro. Yes. Now someone listening is like, that's nothing. These were all typical 65 and older people. So they were all deconditioned. They didn't work out. Yeah. So I don't know if they'll continue to see that progress, but that's three months of progress. At one point they would, they would, they would adapt that would become the norm, but what it highlights and that I would love to see with a study, a continuation of that study and the argument that I would make is not only did they see tremendous and substantial change or strength gains, but it was probably closer to what would have been is what is optimal for them. I bet if you did one where you did somebody who did, uh, like they fought, the other group felt like a maps, anabolic routine might've been too much, too much for that person and seen less results. So that's to me, what really that that's, uh, that's highlighted there is that, you know, it's like, again, starting with like, if you were doing nothing, you were training, you weren't lifting any weights, you weren't doing any compound movements. And then all of a sudden you do one every day that is significantly more than what you're doing. It's also this Adam. Okay. I will make, I will bet money on this. So this was a 12 week study. I bet you, I bet you they will progress for the next year with four minutes. And you think, how's that even possible? Cause you add weight. It's not like you're not progressing. If you're doing four minutes of an exercise today and you get, you get two and a half pounds stronger every week, every week you're adding weight. So it's not like they're not progressing. They're not making the workout harder. You're adding weight to the bar or to the dumbbell, or you're doing more pushups or whatever. I bet you those 65 plus year olds would have progressed for at least a year without doing anything else. Just adding weight to the bar or, or weight to the dumbbells. It's like medicine. You're just like titrating up to find your right dose. By the way, there's another study cause they quote this study in the study. Cause the researchers had seen another study and said, okay, let's do our own. There was another study called the FAST study, functional activity, strength training. And that study, they took 25 older adults and they performed 30 seconds of pushups and squats every day. That's it. 30 seconds, pushups, squats every day. Not a minute, you guys, 30 seconds, half of a minute. But the, the, the, the time I started talking about this to the time right now, that's already over 30 seconds in over six months, they improved just doing 30 seconds of those things. It's so encouraging to hear this. And this is one of the things, one of the things I love most about strength training. It's a unique form of exercise because, uh, you can get away with so little and get great results. And why can you get away with so little? Cause you get stronger, you know? So you just, as you get stronger, the exercise progression, take down that barrier a bit, for sure. I mean, not to be the turd in the punch bowl, but like the, this also just highlights how pathetic and deconditioned we've become. Cause like go back a hundred years and take a random hundred people and do that study. And I bet you don't see that. No, of course not. You don't see that. They're laborists. They're doing, yeah, hard labor all day long. That's what I mean, right? Like that, like what that totally highlights like, wow, how much we have evolved to become said, I mean, I'm, I'm really feeling this right now, uh, talking more about my personal journey, uh, on this, this whole cut and, you know, I'm in the phase right now where I'm really ramping up activity. Right. And I always talk about how I do that through steps first, and then eventually gets to a point where, you know, reaching 15,000 or 17,000 steps is required. I get on cardio now for an hour, you know? I'm saying I can't, I can't just build that into my day anymore. Like in order for me to keep progressing that. And so now I'm, I'm doing more traditional, uh, cardio to get there and the carryover that I'm watching into just the way I move every day has been really, really interesting. Makes you move more. Yeah. If I move more, I move faster. Uh, easy. I it's, it's the subtle things. I caught myself do it last night. Literally. Normally when I come home from a, it was yesterday, it was a long day of work. I didn't get home till, uh, way after dark. I think it was like seven 30 or something like that by the time I finally got to my house. Uh, and I don't, I had a full day here, full day of activity. I worked out. I'm low calorie, uh, average me say six months ago, definitely in a deficit, definitely after a full day like that. I think I'm, I'm, I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm going to sit on the couch, do nothing. Don't want to move. Uh, you know, I get home and I'm, I'm putting my bag away for that. And then, oh, I forgot. And I, and I go to go upstairs and I like jog upstairs, like, like I didn't think I didn't go, I need to, I didn't think I need. It's just, I just moved up at quick it. And I had this like moment, like, oh wow. Like I used to do that all the time. And I, how, and I, and it was like, it's, it stuck out to me because I couldn't remember the last time I did that. And, and so you, you forget how, how easily you start to like, kind of pare that stuff down. This is why you see studies. I was just talking to a family member about this, uh, who's started working out and he goes, oh, I feel kind of guilty because it's taking away from my work because I'm trying to build my business. And I'm like, look at the studies on exercise. When it's done properly, people are more productive. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They, they, this, listen, I know the studies well, because when I used to manage gyms, okay, we used to sell corporate memberships, meaning we used to go to big companies like Apple or Google or wherever. And you would try and sell them a membership so that their whole staff has access to your gym. And it's a big, typically it's a big check, 15,000 or whatever. So it's a big deal. And so we had to be really well-versed on studies and these were the studies that would sell them because I'd bring these, they're real studies studies. By the way, there's way more of them now than there were back then, but you can look up the studies and I'd be like, check it out. If all of your employees worked, they'd be 25% more productive. They would call in sick, far less, half, half as much. You, your, your company would thrive if everybody worked out, if everybody worked out. So a lot of companies saw this and encouraged their employees to work out during work hours and saw improvements in productivity. So it just makes a difference across. Oh, I mean, you see the carryover in all aspects when you do that. Well, you guys have been talking a lot about you're getting skinny and all that. And yeah, so I've, I've actually been doing my own little experiment and really it's like to try to kind of figure out a way, an angle I have in that regard, because I do want to, I do want to get leaner, but it's, you know, to make it interesting for me, I've, I've used, and this is kind of like what I did way back in the day when I started training with the Olympic rings and like more body weight specific. So there's this whole protocol I'm kind of going through where you start with like, you do this ring pushup and you start with different grips and also to like, I can go, so I bring my arms out a little wider with a false grip and I can work my way like very progressively towards like an iron cross and kind of like, you know, from horizontal kind of perpendicular, work my way up, you know, you really low ring dips. It's just, for me, it's just a little more interesting. It's really hard. You know, I want, I want to be challenged a lot with it. So getting leaner will be a little help. Well, obviously my strength to weight ratio would matter in that regard. That makes so much sense for you. Yeah. That'll be the one to motivate you. I'm thinking that's kind of what I'm going to start chipping away at. Uh, and then. Have you started to introduce anything like that yet? Have you have, uh, yes, the last two weeks I started doing more, more grip, um, pushups and, you know, working my way through that. But you know what, what sort of inspired it was, um, there was this guy that had just posted a brand new move, which is like an inverted cross upside down, upside down and was able to perform it with arms fully extended. And I'm like, Oh my God. Like the tension on your elbows and shoulders, stability to do that. Just, uh, yeah. I saw this video and I was just like so impressed and my mind was just blown. Uh, not, not to say I'm going to even try that anywhere near that. If I could even do like a half, like iron cross, maybe like three quarter, like I'll be stuck, but like, that's just, yeah, I don't know. I like, I like something really hard, but like is, is manageable if I'm doing everything appropriate. That's way cooler than what we're doing. We're all in. Whatever, bro. Listen, you guys get excited by hearing your voice, you know, it's, you're more energetic. Like all you see, it's contagious, but at the same time I have to kind of do it my way. I will, I will never try an iron cross because I saw a stupid video a long time ago of a gymnast doing iron cross and his bicep tearing in the video. Well, I'm not going to watch that video. And it just, it just, those, Hey, listen, videos like that ruin things. You know, I used to love arm wrestling. You guys know, this is a kid. I was pretty good at it. I was actually never, never, I never got beat, bro. So I never got beat as a kid ever. I was undefeated forever, forever, forever. Then as an adult, I saw a YouTube video of a spiral fracture. Never. It's like, I don't think I could ever try that again. You ever seen a spiral fracture? Remember, I don't want to say the guy's arm just went back that way. Spiral fracture sucks too. That's like the bone twist and breaks. You got to reattach it. And it's all weird. Recovery for that's insane. Oh, a lot of times you never get it back. Oh no, no. I met someone. Who had a spiral fracture and his hand was always off. Like no matter what, my friend had on his arm. Yeah. It's still kind of holds it like this, dude. My, my favorite thing about like, uh, you know, what I'm doing right now is all, all the other things that I don't think about that get come from it. Like I mentioned all the, the movement and the activity and like how I get up the stairs and it's like, it's all this stuff that obviously the whole point was like, get shredded for 45, but then all of a sudden all this other stuff starts unlocking. Is it for your birthday? Is that the whole motivation? That was always it. But did you guys know it was always my birthday, but my trip was going to be a nice little testing guy on the way there. And I made the joke about like, I can't show up to Cabo with my two buddies who were, I can great shape. Yeah. Yeah. But it's always been a little fuel to it. Yeah. So, uh, for the audience hasn't listened for long enough. So you guys know that like literally this coming, you know, two weeks marks one year from the sober from Kratom. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so it was my, it was my birthday last year that, that, that, that, that, that, that last year that I was going to withdrawals. Wow. So, um, you know, so you have that I'm turning 45, it's been over a decade since I competed. And so I'm like, you know what, this would be cool to not only being been sober for many substances like that, and I haven't smoked weed really at all either. So it's like no weed, no Kratom 45 years old, and I want to come in some of the best shape I've ever came in in my life for 45. And so quietly that's been, and then you prodded it up on the PCP. Did you stop using that? Does anybody even do that? I've never met anybody that did. No, but I mean, I, obviously you, you, uh, you know, you, you stirred up the, the kind of fun competition, uh, between each other just to have fun, which is cool, but it was always like a thing I was on. I was on a path, uh, to do anyways. I mean, I actually, uh, when I went and did the DEXA scan, I looked at my, my previous one, I did one in February of this year and it was, you know, it was the, the highest and worst it's ever been since my initial transformation back in the days. Now I didn't look as bad, which is why, I mean, I think you guys would probably tell me if I looked like that, which is, which is a testament of like, when you have more muscle, yeah. So I was, I was 200, that DEXA scan in February, I was 233 pounds and 18% body fat, but I wanted to share that because it also, I, I forgot about that and, um, I was reminded after you had yours and like, you were really kind of annoyed with it and frustrated with the number. Cause I was at that time too, because I actually was training and dieting and I was, I was reverse dieting, so I'd, I'd kind of fallen out of shape. I was inconsistent. And I'm like, I'm going to kick it back up. I'm going to start with a reverse diet and said, I'm not going to go into a cut. I'm going to reverse diet, build on metabolism. And I was kind of feeling good. I built some muscle back. I was up, but I was, I had good size. I mean, I was 233. And so if you ask me, I, looking at myself, I was like, I'm probably 14% or some crazy muscle and so I was 18 point something. And I like freaked out. It was like, no way. I don't look anything like what I looked like at 19 when I did the whole thing, but it was a, a testament to the muscle. And so how much of a difference that, you know, that, that, that can make. So making that point, um, wasn't why I brought this up, I brought this up because I also notice, uh, you know, when I get in this really good rhythm of, of training and, and almost like working out becomes play again. And I'm, I'm, I'm playing with different exercises, our good friend, uh, Ben Bruno and, um, and, uh, Brett, uh, did this old video. And what's what stirred me up down that rabbit hole was listening to our other good friend, Jordan shallow and, uh, his buddy, his co-host, which is name is slipping me right now. Jordan. Thank you. Should be able to remember that Jordan and Jordan, uh, their, their podcasts. And they were actually talking about that, you know, how squatting and deadlifting is not true hip extension. And, uh, and they make the argument because it lacks the internal rotation of the hip and the true hip extension is actually a walking lunge. And a walking lunge is the only thing that takes the, the hips, the fullest thing. And I'm like, oh, that's like, I've actually never heard anybody communicate that before. But of course that makes, makes total sense. And so that started the kind of the rabbit hole. I know that, uh, I lack a lot of that. Um, you know, like you, I can get caught up in this kind of bilateral squatting for awhile. So with that, I need to do more lateral stuff. I need to do more unilateral stuff. I need to do more stability stuff and I'm not. And so I'm like, okay, I need to, I need to incorporate some of this. Then fast forward to the, um, Ben Bruno and Brett video, and Ben is talking about how, like, like his, one of his, he, his favorite exercises, uh, for his clients is the single leg RDL and I'm very familiar with that, but I've never done it. I've never, I've never trained to get strong at it. Like I've never really cared to, you know what I'm saying? It's most people that do it tend to do it because it's like a great glute movement. And, and what he's talking about with the land mine is that how it takes the hips through internal rotation. Because if you, if you're pulling it from the right direction, it's turning you as you go down. Yes. Right. It, it did naturally dips to him. That's got to set your glute on fire. It, it rocks my glute. And so before that, I know I'm, I'm tight. I promise to tie all these stories in. Um, I'm also coaching and helping Katrina right now, cause she's also, you know, got on the kick cause our birthdays are one day apart. So she's like, I want to get in the best shape too. So I'm training her at the same time. And you know her a lot of her stuff is glute focused and so I've been teaching her different stuff And I had her doing these single leg RDLs with with your own internal rotation and like kind of stabilizing on the squat rack and the reason why I went got started looking at the Ben Bruno and the and In Brett's video was because she kept telling I'm having a real hard time Feeling it like you're describing to me and it was it's just challenging because you have to kind of really control that You got to stabilize you got to control the internal rotation as the landmines pulling you right and I know our trainer brains are Really good at that stuff because we know what we're trying to accomplish and like it's just I'm reminded as my wife's going through it Like how an average client thinks and I'm like, you know what? This is the argument that Ben was making well, let me pick it up. Let me mess with it. No, and I did it. I went oh shit This is fire. Oh, that's awesome. I was like, this is fire. I gotta try that. I got her doing it and she's like, oh My god, my glutes have never felt so lit up. That's so awesome It's so lit up. So the light the leg that's standing is that's the direction that landmines so did I want to plug our boys Ben Bruno and Brett Contreras single leg RDL landmine have a YouTube video. That's all that they've done They show you how to set it up. But so if you can imagine the the landmine coming here So this foot would be the the foot that is staying on the ground that's the outside foot and the landmine would basically come right to the front of my shoulder and I'm actually I'm Holding with that the same at the outside hand and what's what's cool if you if you can if you get really strong You eventually want to have a strap because your limiting factor will be how much you can load I can load I was working out with 225 on there and doing it so you can load it really good The landmine provides a little bit of stability for you So you're not having to like, you know rotate yourself And and so the fact that you can load the glute really good the fact that it slightly Internally rotates the hips and takes that glute through that fully stretched position. That's really cool badass mode Yeah, that's I mean you kind of sparked something for me too that I wanted to bring up but it was like You've seen the belt squat all love it Yeah, and that machine's amazing itself, but I never thought to do a push-up. Yes. I saw that. Did you see that? I saw that like on blocks and so now you're strapped over in that This is pulling you down. You're resisting it. Oh, it's around your upper back Why it'll make so much sense to me. I was like, I gotta try that. Yeah, I saw I was like That was he a power lifter. I think he's a power. Yeah, because second. How does it uh, so your feet are up? Your feet be elevated behind I know but how do you like it right? He doesn't quit doesn't squish you to the floor like just pulls you to the floor, but then you resist out But is that what is it in the end? Like oh you could set it. So yeah, so there's an okay So yeah, well, that's why I'm a block to so it's like oh, so you have so you have oh, so you ever okay? Yeah, I made my own homemade for Katrina a lot over the weekend belt squat for her. That's cool Yeah, I what I did is I set the squat rack up I stacked up 45 is about this high took the the our belt with Jane yeah, and then loaded the Big Bertha kettlebell on her let her use the the the Barbell and I had it on that reverse side So she kind of leaned back and do and then literally do almost like yeah Like a belt and squat dropping it with that, you know, the other one I did I think I sent you the video again here I'm playing with it. I got one for you that if you haven't done it I sent it to you. Okay, that is fire is the using the belt with a chain to the squat rack? Or it's something that you can hold stairs and doing that for your sissy squats. Oh so I So it's hooked around the the the thing so I can lean all the way back Uh-huh, and so I create a longer lever with my body more range of motion. Oh Yeah, it's been my like new favorite move I'm doing on late days I got it I got it. I'm gonna change directions gotta tell you guys about this these studies that are coming out on people who use GLPs The nutrient deficiencies they're finding in these people is why oh, I can only the vast majority of them Yeah, of course nutrient deficiencies. Why is this happening? I'll tell you why they ate the same diet They ate before they just eat less. So now they're probably nutrient deficient. Anyway, high odds Anyway, now they just cut their calories down by 50% People are coming back with brittle nails hair loss dry skin Good cold intolerance. So like if you're on a GLP You need to supplement with a multivitamin for sure and try to eat whole natural foods nutrient-dense foods Otherwise your nutrient deficiency rate will go through you really I mean I'm talking I'm trying to somebody studies 90% So everybody I mean right before we aired So if somebody was DMing me about their their mom who has psoriasis and they've heard me talk about Dosing the GLP one and his mom. I think I want to I want to say his mom was 65 years old And he's asking me because I know you're not a doctor and this now what he's asked me dose of I said Well, I said me talking to you about my doses won't do you any good? But let me tell you the things I'd be worried about if my mom gets on a micro dose of GLP one for psoriasis And I listed off all these things. I list that like you got to make sure she's hitting her essential fats You got to make sure she's hitting her her protein and take you got it I said if she's not doing those things all in pursuit to probably improve her psoriasis a little bit so starve her body of calories You're just gonna rob Peter to pay Paul. Yeah, and I'm like so you got to watch out for that stuff So sure. Yeah, the the micro dosing that could possibly help your psoriasis, but if she's getting nutrient deficiencies You're just shooting her in the foot. Here's how bad it is. I just found the data trip off this They're doing food records of the GLP users 99% of them are below vitamin D 99% percent of them below potassium, but now keep in mind 60 to 70 percent of everybody is vitamin D. You take a GLP. It's a hundred percent almost Choline 94% magnesium 90% iron 88% vitamin C 78% below Protein only 43% of the people are eating point five grams per pound They're not even hitting the one gram per pound. So less than half saturated fat 130% of limit. Do you know what they're doing? They're still eating garbage. Yeah, they're just seeing low calorie Mm-hmm, so it'll make you lose weight there So the only nutrient they are hitting is fats saturated fat because they're still eating the process I mean, this is exactly what I told you what I've seen in my own Experience with my family members and people and friends that I know that are taking is like which is like Is so wild to me. I mean Off-air you and I talk a lot about you know garbage man, dude It's it shows it's what it showed what it shows you I mean Sal and I have been obviously talking about this off-air a lot because we've been dieting and then I'm microdosing the you know tris epitide and I'm like on days where I need to eat about my calories It is difficult for me and but and I was taking a microdose. I'm a tiny tiny Yes, and I like a drop and I'm eating and I'm eating whole foods like I'm eating chicken thighs and I'm eating top sirloin and yams and like Right, like really easy digestible food And when I got a bump my calories a little bit like it feels like it sits like a rock is sitting in my stomach If I try to eat garbage, oh and you feel awful. That's why so like diarrhea gas. Yes Could you be so Disconnected right and the reason why it does work is there is a lot of people that that obviously feel that that's enough to curb Then they're like, oh my god, I can't I can't eat that much So they just don't but then there's a large percentage of people that just still plow through the shit food It's like oh my so I think what you're gonna see I would guess is because there's light at the end of the tunnel There's a silver lining here is I think what you're gonna see is at least half. I'm guessing. Okay, so just bait This is total guests everybody, but just as based off the data I see between 30 to 50 percent of people on GLPs are engaging in fitness Trying to hit protein they're trying there's a good chunk of people half or a little more of people that are just taking the GLP and She and really not focusing anything other than I oh cool. I'm not hungry. I'm not gonna eat and Those are the people that are gonna come out with Osteopenia Nutrient deficiencies and they're gonna come out lighter and skinnier with other health issues. Listen if you are Gonna take the plunge with a GLP one and you're willing to invest and spend the money on that You got to be willing to spend and invest the money on a coach to take you through this Because if you really want to do it makes such a big huge difference to have somebody Coaching you through that process. So you do it, right? Applying the the right amount of volume of training intensity Holding you accountable on your micro and macro nutrients that you need to be taking look reverse dieting you when needed Coaching you how to talk to your doctor on whether we should probably Reduce the dose or not Like that is gonna become so important the people that we're gonna have tremendous success are gonna have that I'm gonna plug our coaches We don't often plug how you can get in contact with our coaches And the reason is we don't have enough coaches to service everybody and that's by design. We just we slow roll We're only hiring coaches that we really like and we don't want anybody representing us But I'm gonna what's our link Doug if someone wants because if we have coaches that work with GLP Yeah, my personal training calm. Okay, so my personal trainer you want to work with a coach that's experienced with this then Unfortunately, it's probably gonna be a waitlist but get on to see if you can work with somebody because our coaches are good All right. I want to talk to you guys about the caldera lab regimen. I've been reading they have a regimen So they have lots of different skincare products. Please. I'm so bad about like the way I'm supposed to order this So exactly so the order of operation you start with the clean slate Which cleans your skin, but so caldera labs done a good job With the clean slate because it doesn't just strip everything it actually balances the pH of your skin so it doesn't just take everything off cleans your skin, but it balances the which the Which is like what the old-school products used to do right like the Strip everything off your face. Yeah, like what are those old pads that everyone you see? Like what were they called which hazel or something? I don't remember the names of them, but you ever like to like you and they're like the oxy. Yeah Yeah, they like they like burned your skin. It was like killing. I was like, oh, yeah soap or whatever Which messes up the pH so this balances pH then you use the great and the great is the anti-aging Product that they have it's got the exosomes It's got the stuff that so in their clinical trials 90% of people who used it Saw firmer younger looking skin is great The one that comes in the screw top and it's kind of the creamy white no No, the greats in a little pump bottle. Oh, that's in the little pump. That's right. Okay, so use the great then You finish with the hydro and the hydro is for For hydration, so then that's what I'm thinking of. Yes. Yes a little jar Okay, that's the three-step. So it goes the clean slate the great and the hydro layer. I was flipping called the regimen I was flipping those two. Yeah, and so use use them in that order And watch what happens the clean slate keep I keep in my shower So that's I'm washing my my body then I wash my face with that But I was doing the hydro first and then the right now so the other way go the great and hydro Okay, and then you're so glad you got that clear That's good, are we we're giving away something here the day after this airs does so this is Friday It's gonna be on Monday on Monday We're so every week or every day We're doing these giveaways except for on the Saturdays and Sundays because obviously we're getting on live with our people Which by the way, you guys haven't seen it yet. I've seen it I think Doug has seen it the giveaways and the games that we're gonna be playing live on Instagram live is Josh is We just wait till you see it. It's it's super cool. It's super fun It's gonna be interactive people are gonna love it. I can't wait to see everybody on there, but on Monday Because it's after the weekend. We'll have three three giveaways that we're giving away. I know Organifi is So two winners get a tub of Organifi protein One person's gonna keep a case of the sparkling element water and then we're also gonna give away a PRX Squat rack. Oh, damn Yes, it's at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Instagram live mind pump media and make sure when Monday the 9th Monday And make sure that you're tuning into all of them because once you have an entry you have an entry everything tip for everything So make sure you tune in every 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Instagram live Element is the world's best Electrolyte powder and artificial sweeteners and no sugar and it's got the right amount of sodium. Here's the deal Many people are chronically under sodium. It's true This is a fact This is why element has exploded because they know this and people use their products feel the difference off This is anybody who sweats a lot you exercise you eat a whole food based diet If your diet is whole foods based that way your sodium is probably too low. No joke. How do you know the difference? Well try element and see if you feel better in 15 minutes I get better pumps when I take it before my workouts better performance What does it feel like when your sodium is too low chronic fatigue headaches sometimes joint pain, you just can't get moving Try element and see for yourself and it tastes great and again No calories go to drink element t.com slash mind pump on that link You'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase back to the show Our first caller is Tim from Australia. What's up, Tim? Tim? What you got going on? How are we all Hey, yeah, well, we'll just get straight to it. Hey, so I'm just looking for some direction on where I want to head next and Basically, it's if I'm heading in the right direction now, so I've got my nieces wedding, which I'm emceeing in March next year It's in Fiji the beach wedding. So, uh, you know, it's one of the best break. I've ever had head into that. So, um I've just come off GLP one where I've lost 18 kilos. That's about 40 pounds of your talk I managed to maintain my muscle mass by lifting weights. And once I started listening to you, I started prioritizing protein So I'm 185 centimeters tall. So it's about six foot and about 95 kilograms. It's about 210 pounds My last body scan said I'm 18 point six percent body fat But I'm not sure how accurate that it was because it was on an old machine I've never done it before so don't know what I'm looking at So I lift weights three to four times a week I've designed my own program I have a history of fitness instructing in the army So I've got a rough idea of what I'm doing I usually break it up into like a push day leg day pull day leg day I saw not for 20 minutes at least twice a week I get a minimum of 8,000 steps every day, but most days I hit 10,000 I also play Oztag, which is like flag football for you guys, play that once a week. And during winter, I coach my son's rugby league team, which involves a lot of chasing the boys around. I've trained consistently for the past 14 years in some form or another. I've done triathlons, marathons, CrossFit, HIIT, you name it, I've tried it all. But recently, the past sort of 12 months, I've really enjoyed resistance training, lifting weights. So while I was on the GLP-1, I was eating around 2,000 calories, but now I've increased to about 3,000 calories a day, hitting a minimum of 200 grams of protein, most days around sort of 220 to 230 grams of protein. Since increasing my calories, my sleep scores on my Garmin watch have gone from low 70s to consistently the high 80s and quite a few high 90s. After listening to your podcast, I figured out the reverse diet is best placed for me right now to build to a cut prior to the wedding. So I guess what I really wanted to know, I've just started at MAPS Anabolic, actually just started this week. I guess my questions are, is MAPS Anabolic the right program for me right now? And when should I start the cut and what should it look like? You're doing a lot of things. You're doing everything right. Yeah, you're doing a great job, dude. Love the program choice. Love the bump in the calories. Awesome, too. You've connected the dots, too. Notice a huge difference when I'm really low calorie. My sleep scores always suffer a little bit. As soon as I bump, feed my body what it needs, sleep gets better. So you're on the right track. Yeah, I need to run those dots the other day. When I was listening to one of your podcasts and you were talking about how when you increase your calories, your sleep gets better. I'm like, I only just noticed a few days beforehand that my sleep scores had been going through the roof. I'm like, oh, that's because I've increased my calories. That'll make sense. You guys do know what you're talking about. And you're doing a great job right now. Let's say the body fat percentage is, give or take, pretty close, right? I'm sure it's somewhat accurate. Giving yourself, I typically tell somebody, a half a percent is on the more conservative side to a percent of body fat a week. A percent is aggressive, a half a percent is more realistic. So think of that, and if you have a look you're trying to obtain, you'll probably see abs around 10% body fat. So that's eight to 16 weeks out, right? So that's kind of like how I look at it. And we got plenty of time, right? You said March of next year, is that correct? Yeah, yeah. It's the second of March. The run at the start of March. Yeah, so I would really, I would, because I also think what's going to happen in this reverse diet, you're actually going to get probably leaner in the process too. So even though I'm saying it takes eight to 16 weeks from now, I have a feeling when the reverse diet, eating the controlled calories you are, lifting weights like MAPS anabolic, you'll probably build some muscle, which will cause the body fat percentage to continue to go down too. So you'll probably only be five to 10 weeks out from getting shredded for the wedding if you want to be shredded. And so I would literally reverse diet, build in bulk all the way until you're about 10 weeks out from the wedding. And then that's when I would probably start a cut, and I think you'll lean out the entire time. So long as you keep the reverse diet in control and you're not going, like sometimes what happens when someone comes from 2000 calories and they get the permission to reverse diet, it's like, Oh, I get to eat all the time. It's like, you don't need to eat a lot. I think you're eating a good amount now. Listen to your appetite. If you're eating whole foods, if you, if you notice you're still hungry and you're eating whole foods, there's a good chance your body's trying to build more muscle. I would feed that. Just make good choices. Yeah. Not much to add to that. I think the only thing I'll add is that, you know, Adam mentioned 10% and I'll tell you this. Most people or most guys, especially if you're natural, uh, trying to get to 10%, isn't that, uh, isn't that great? Uh, yeah, you can see your abs, but you tend to not feel good. It kind of hammers your metabolic rate, your hormones. I think a good, a good place to aim for is like 12 or 13%. You're fit, you look good, you got some muscle, you're not shredded, but you look fit. You definitely look fit. And if you're at 18%, that's only a 5% loss in body fat. So, uh, I think you're at 3,000, how long have you been at 3,000 calories? Uh, probably about six weeks now. Oh, you're good. Okay. So if you slowly, if you slowly worked yourself up to let's say 34, 3,500 calories, now you got a lot of room. Then when you get into the cut, you know, you could cut down to 2,800 calories and then to 2,500 calories and then 23, and you'll probably get down to a nice, easy 12% body fat. At least that I think. Yeah, at least. And you'll feel good. Yeah. I like your set bro. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. Really good job, dude. Great, great job. Yeah. Hey, thanks boys. And thanks for everything you do. You got it my friend. All right, Tim. Oh, Hey, you know what? Let us do this. Cause after anabolic, what do you want him to run after that? Cause he's got time. Oh yeah, he does. So I'd like to throw you a program to follow after anabolic. Uh, do you like this? Like one of our, like one of our splits, upper, lower, upper, lower split would be a cool stuff. We'll send you some discount codes for followup programs. Cause you got a while. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks. Upper, lower to you. Follow that after anabolic. And then Doug can send you some other ones we do after that. Awesome. Appreciate it. Thanks Tim. All right. Thanks bro. He's done a good job. Really good job. Yeah. Yeah. He's done a really good job. He's, uh, you know, listened to us while on the GLP, uh, which has helped him preserve muscle way off, which is reverse dieting, which is great. So he sounds like he missed the common pitfalls that people run into while on GLPs also shifted his program. Here's the other thing that he did that was really good. You know, he's like, Hey, this is in March. You know, oftentimes people come to us and like him, you know, my sister's getting married in four weeks. What do I do? Uh, not much. Then we're in panic mode. Yeah. So he's got plenty of time to do this the right way to build muscle. Uh, you know, he's in a, he's in a really good place. He's going to get great results. As long as he's patient. I mean, there's a good chance that if he keeps the, the eating habits under control, eats whole foods, follows kind of the stuff that he's doing already stays around 3,000 to 3,500 calories. Your point slowly inches up when, when, when called for through your appetite and strength. You see strength gains. He may, he may just, he may cruise all the way to that percentage. He has enough time right now that he gained no additional body fat and gained seven pounds of muscle, eight pounds of muscle. His body fat will go down 3%, something like that automatically. Right. So, I mean, without even cutting, he can get pretty close to the number you were talking about. And so it would be an easy, easy, strong, very, very easy. Our next caller is Miguel from the Philippines. What's up, Miguel? Hey guys. Thanks for having me. You got it, dude. How can we help you? Uh, so, uh, I'm going to read off, uh, the message I sent you. I edited some, so just so that I don't lose track. No worries. So, Hey guys, it's awesome to be here and thanks for having me on. Uh, I'd like to apologize in advance since I think my message is a bit long, but I've tried to provide, I tried to provide as much context as I can and added details on the things I usually hear you guys ask from other callers. So I'm Miguel. I'm 30 married and I have a two year old daughter. I had trained consistently in the past, but when COVID hit through 2025, I didn't really have access to a gym. So I spent these, those years mostly running and playing sports. I occasionally did some unstructured strength work like pushups and bodyweight squats, but nothing consistent enough to be really called a program. Uh, this January, 2026, I finally had enough financial leeway to get a gym membership again. And I've been relatively consistent for the past nine and a half months. I generally train about two days a week, mainly because of logistics. Since my gym is on the way to work. I work out early in the morning, which technically impacts my sleep. So I, but I do it so I can spend more time, family time and get home while my daughter is still awake. On good weeks, I might get three or four sessions in, but at least two is what I try to target weekly. Uh, when I started in January, I was around 195 pounds and I basically stayed somewhere between 192 to 199 for the entire year. And I'm still hovering around 195 to 196. But despite my weight, basically staying the same range, I believe my strength has gone off. My bench went from 40 kilos or 88 pounds from four sets of eight to now 65 kilos or 1.3 pounds for five sets of five. My squat and RDL both went from 60 kilos or 132 pounds for four sets of eight to around 90 kilos or 198 pounds for five sets of five. And over the past few weeks, I've also been tracking my food and PDE more consistently. I'm averaging around 2,800 to 3,000 calories overall, although there's a pretty big difference between weekdays and weekends. On weekdays, I might be around 2,000 to 2,500 calories, while on weekends, I generally range between 2,600 to 4,000. My estimated PDE on active days is around 2,600 to 2,800 calories with roughly around 8,000 to 12,000 steps, sometimes reaching 13,000 to 15,000 on more active days. On sedentary days, I probably expend around 2,000 to 2,300 calories, depending on how much I move. Protein is usually around 130 grams a day, but it can range from 100 to 160. I know I have to improve consistency on that. I also really enjoy running and doing sports, mainly playing basketball, so I try to keep those in my routine. I play in recreational basketball leagues and want to remain competitive in those. My ultimate goal is longevity and health, but I also care about looking better aesthetically. I want to be stronger, look good, and stay athletic. For programming, I've actually been self-programming based on things I've learned from listening to you guys, and I've also been using AI or chatGPP to help me organize and define the program. I recently finished a 5x5 strength block for compound lifts, and this October, I started a unilateral strength block since I always hear you guys talking about cycling in map symmetry. I'm not particularly sure if what AI program is appropriate, but I'm giving it a go. After that, I plan to return to a more traditional strength block. I've also had some interesting changes in my health markers. I just had my lipid profile retested a few days ago, and the results were kind of mixed. The good news is that my HbA1c improved, and I'm back now in the normal range, from previously being pre-diabetic range, which I'm really happy about. The downside is, my triglyceride and cholesterol levels went back up after stopping my triglyceride medication with the advancement of my concentration from my doctor, as a test to see if I can maintain my triglyceride levels through diet and exercise alone. I know my diet is probably the biggest thing I struggle with. As I mentioned earlier, on weekdays, I can generally eat pretty well and manage my intake, but weekends are difficult because they're usually family and social days. We have a 2-year-old, so we're usually out at the mall, buying out, ordering food, visiting my family, that kind of thing. I also know that I could personally meal prep and eat between meals for several days, but I don't want to force that lifestyle on my wife and family. So that's basically where I'm at right now. So for my questions, first, would you consider this past year a success, even though I technically haven't lost weight? For someone who's just getting back into strength training for the past nine months, is it possible that my expectations of what I would look like and what I would have achieved aren't really aligned with what's realistic? In reality, would my goals actually take years of consistency to reach? Second, how much of that strength progression do you think would realistically be worth a gain versus neurological and skill adaptations from coming back to lifting after several years away? Is it reasonable to think that I probably improved my body composition even though my smart scale says otherwise? Third, given my health situation of continued high triglyceride and cholesterol levels, would you prioritize a dedicated fat loss phase at this point? I'm currently at around 195 pounds. My smart scale indicates I'm around 29% body fat. I'm thinking about doing a more focused cut, getting down to a healthier body fat level, around 20-23%, and then returning to a maintenance or thinking about reverse dieting. How would you approach it? And lastly, this has been your topic for the past few episodes, I really enjoy running and playing basketball, and I don't want to give those things up just because they aren't necessarily the most efficient way to build an aesthetic physique. I understand that if my goal was maximizing muscle and getting lean as possible, I should probably do less running and basketball and structure everything around hypertrophy. Is it realistic to eventually build a really good aesthetic physique while still running, playing basketball, and doing the things I enjoy? I understand that it might not be the most efficient path and that my physique progress might be slower, but I don't really want to sacrifice the activities I enjoy just to optimize my physique. Again, apologies for the long message. No worries, Miguel, and thanks for calling in. I'm going to go through your questions one by one, and let's see if I can help answer some of those for you. Your first question, with your strength gains, do we know if it's muscle or neural adaptation? No way for me to know. I don't know unless we do body comp changes or whatever. It doesn't matter because the strength gains are positive, whether they're neurological or muscle. In fact, when you look at longevity studies, the correlation and connection is to strength, not necessarily muscle. Now, the reason why we speak to muscle is because muscle is one of the things that contributes to strength. But you can have somebody with a lot of muscle and have low strength, somebody with less muscle and more strength, and the longevity benefit goes to the person with the strength. I really don't care, except for the aesthetic part. We'll start there. Have you done a good job? I think you've done a good job. I think your expectations are fine considering your diet's all over the place. That's the big problem. The big problem is going to be your diet, 100%. It's not your workout. Now, we'll talk about that, but the diet is where we can really nail things down and you can see a big difference, not just aesthetically, but also with some of your blood panel work. That's where you're going to see the biggest changes is with diet. Doug, if you could scroll down a little bit. You also asked, it says you haven't bought any MAPS programs because you can technically afford them, but you can't justify spending on them right now. I'm going to tell you this, and this is just to everybody. Of course, you're on the show right now. I'm going to give you a free program, so you're going to get one for free, but just for anybody listening, when that pops up in your head, I always position it this way. You can't afford not to because your options are no results, or results, spend my time doing all these things and getting little for it, or spend my time doing some stuff and getting a lot for it. And so really, it's not the difference of I spend money or not, it's do I waste my money, do I take it and invest in a way that I get a bigger return? And that's what investing in your health looks like. You get a much, much better return, and I can say that confidently in comparison to AI programs. AI programs are better than guessing, but I have yet to see one that's better than what a good coach will put together. And that's not just talking about myself, I'm talking about other really good coaches that are out there. Let's talk about your diet. That's the big problem. Now, I understand you don't want to meal prep for family time, and that makes perfect sense. Like that, it's like you're going to trade, cool, I get to eat these meal prep meals, but now I'm not hanging out with my wife and kids and I'm making it weird for everybody. But that's really just the weekend, dude. So here's what it would look like. During the week, you meal prep. On the weekend when you eat out, you just make a few choices that changes quite a bit. For example, it's very easy to avoid fried foods and to avoid carbohydrates. Those two things right there make a very big difference when it comes to calories. And the third thing is don't overdo it. So if you're going to eat out with your wife and kids, and you look at the options, you say which one's the low carb option, which one is not fried, does it high in protein, and I'm going to eat a smaller portion, and you all still eat out. So it's not the end. I just want to help you with this. It's not the issue is not I can't hang out with my family and enjoy myself. The issue is when I'm with my family, I tend to go off the rails and eat whatever I want. Because you can eat. I eat out all the time. I have family stuff all the time, but I make a few choices with my foods. My family doesn't have to eat any differently. We don't have to pick necessarily a different place to eat, but my choices are a little different. So if your calorie swing is between 1 to 1,500 calories between the week and the weekend, this is your problem. And if you could fix that right there, like if you can, instead of averaging 4,000 calories, hit 2,800 calories on the weekend by making a few of those choices, eating less, choosing protein, less carbohydrates, no fried foods, then you're going to see your body fat percentage drop and you'll see improvements in your blood markers. So that's the big issue that I see with everything else. I don't care. Keep doing that. Programming. I'll send you a program. You said you like to work out about three days a week. Maps Anabolic will be a great program for you to follow. And that's it, dude. If you can nail that down when you eat out with your family and just be consistent with it, like every time you eat out, just be consistent, you'll see a nice controlled trend of body fat percentage going down. Because right now you're just kind of maintaining because you're doing good during the week and on the weekend you're off. So it's really the seesaw of the calories. 100%. That's so common. This is all diet. It's all body count. This is all diet. And then what I'd add to that is not being very clear on your goals. Listening to you, there's so many things that you're contradicting yourself where it's like, oh, I care about health and that's kind of my thing, but then I want to look a certain way. It's like, well, let one of those be your driving force and something's got to give. So if you're going to just focus on health and balance with family and stuff like that, well then you're probably not going to look like a bodybuilder and ripped and super fit like that because they make a lot of sacrifices for those things. But if you want to look like that, then you're definitely going to have to make a lot of different choices the way you eat right now. They're both not going to live in the same world. And the same thing goes for the basketball thing. If you love playing basketball and you enjoy it, I mean, play basketball, you're not going to build as much muscle as you would if you did it and you focus on hypertrophy like you said. Then just, you don't have to like apologize for it, but it just decide that that's your goal that your goal is. I want to be good at playing basketball and I want to be healthy. Otherwise you're going to be conflicted. Exactly. Cause you're going to go, you're going to see saw back and forth like, oh, right now I'm trying to build more muscle. I'm focused on that. Oh, right now I want to be good at basketball. Oh, right now I'm trying to be more of my, it's like decide what you want. Be clear on that. And then there's little micro changes that we can make towards that goal and stay focused on that goal. Right now I hear a lot of back and forth on what you kind of want to do and what you kind of focus on, which also make the, and I'll say something a little bit different than what Sal said with the, the money in the maps programs is like, it's, do you, do you value more money or do you value more time? And most people will say that they value time more and it's like, cause you could absolutely continue to figure this out on your own, chat, GTV, chat, GBT, then come back, tweak it again, figure it out, fail, do it. It's like, or you could invest in something and figure it out the first time and then be on with your life. It's like, so if you value money that much, that spending 70 or a hundred boxes too much, it's like, well then yeah, spend the time, spend the months or years figuring it out on your own or invest in it and then be done with it and have all the answers. And so that's another way to look at what he's saying too. And that's what I think people get these crossroads of like, yeah, I'll just figure it out. It's like, oh, you totally can do Miguel. I mean, it took me 20 years. So to figure it all out and just to go extreme, I mean, hiring a personal trainer costs thousands of dollars, but I would have people hire me after trying on their own for 10 years, 10 years or more of gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight. Can't figure this out. My body doesn't want to work anymore. Then they hire me and eight months later they're like, oh my God, I can't believe how great this is working. And it's like, would you have traded the last 10 years for the time or money for the $3,000 that you spent? That's right. You don't hire me. So that's the point that Adam's making. And it's a super valid one, uh, especially when it comes to otherwise trying to figure it on your own, man. It takes forever. But look, I'm going to send you a mass program anyway. You'll see for yourself after that you can get another one if you want. Uh, but it's your weekend, bro. It's your diet. Your diet on the weekend. Got to win the weekends, dude. That's it. Winning the weekends will completely change. If you're consistent with what I said, eat less protein, cut the carbs, no fried foods, just be consistent with that. You'll probably drop 10% body fat over the course of the next 30 weeks or something like that. It's going to improve all the things. Yeah. Without really having to like try really hard. You just, you'll just see it. It's over time. You know, over the next 30 weeks or so, your body fat percentage will drop. And now if you want it to happen faster, then you got to meal prep more and be a little bit more consistent. But yeah, honestly, I don't think it's worth it. You like being with your family. I think do what I said and just let it happen. Just keep it simple. Just keep focusing on getting stronger and yeah, make those tweaks with your diet. If your composition is really what you want to achieve, like that's the gold right there. That's really what's going to get you there. But the rest of it is like, you know, just keep putting the work in with strength. We get you this program and you'll watch and see like how that's going to really jump up. So basically just don't overthink it and just keep on working. There's a lot of things going on. That's it, dude. Fix when you eat out. That's the big thing. Just be consistent with that. Follow Maps Anabolic. I'll send that to you and you'll see your body change. Now if you're inconsistent with your diet, it's going to be really hard. So you got to be really consistent with it. Very consistent. Yeah. Thanks very much, guys. You got it, brother. I'm calling it, man. Thank you again. Take it easy. Two things I got to say. One, eating out is, I would say, heavily processed foods is up here. Eating out is right under it. So it's really hard. If you have aesthetic goals, you might want to just avoid it. And I know this because I'm a trainer, right? I'm in the fitness space. But the average person will look at a meal and be like, that's healthy. Let me choose that. Sure. And there's lots of hidden oils and things. Oh, yeah. It's like a salad that's 1,500 calories. Like, what the heck just happened? Yeah. Dude, I had a... It's hard to navigate. At Disneyland, I ordered a double meat chicken Caesar salad, Caesar's dressing on the side. Yeah. And I got it. And it was like the best chicken breast I ever tasted. I took a chew and I was like, this thing is soaked in oil right now. Yeah, bro. Which is... Because it's so... I like saline. Chicken breast doesn't taste like this, you know? Yeah, bro. And it's just like... And I'm trying to guesstimate that. I was like, is that a tablespoon? Is that a cup? Yeah. Bro, one tablespoon is 100 calories. It's definitely a lot. Enough to make chicken breast taste moist and taste good. Oh, buttery. Yeah, dude. It's like... Fried in butter. Yeah, yeah. Chicken breast don't taste like that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, so that's number one. The second thing is what you said, Adam, what I said about investing in fitness. And I'll go to the extreme. The most expensive thing you can invest in in the fitness space is hiring your own coach. Yeah. And nothing's more expensive. So, nothing will give you the most return, period, end of story. It's going to cost you no matter what. It's either going to cost you in time or it's going to cost you in money. That's right. And when you're talking about something like this, where you have to figure out nutrition, figure out your body, figure out exercise science, the amount of years it takes to hone that in is... That's speaking from somebody who did schooling on it and did it for a living, still took... And obsessed. Yes. Years of doing that. To think that you're not capable, yeah, you could totally do it, but you're also signing up for some serious time. Now, listen, some people are in for that and they're passionate about it and they love that process and more power to you. But I think the process is more fun when you have a wide coach. But if you want the answers and you want to figure this out, say, I got a wedding in March or I got these goals right now, then you're going to spend somewhere. You're going to spend time or you're going to spend money. It's a worthwhile investment because once you spend that money, then it's done. You have the knowledge. You know what to do from there. Our next caller is Robert from Texas. What's up, Robert? How you doing, Robert? What's happening, dude? Howdy, guys. How are you doing? Good. Good, man. How can we help you? All right. So I've gotten... Six months ago, had a doctor's appointment, got my blood work done, was fat and out of shape and got all the symptoms you get from somebody that's fat and out of shape. So I've been... He tried to put me on blood pressure medication and all this other jazz and I was like, I'm not spending a dime on that until I actually go and get my ass in the gym first. And I went for a gym that day, been going, been getting slowly back in shape. Kind of plateaued lately. Down to 220.1 today. I've been kind of hovering here between 220 and 225 for like the last eight weeks and looking for a way to kind of break through the plateau and keep going. Give us an idea of what you did to get down to that. Where were you at calorie-wise? Are you tracking food? What's the workouts look like? Give us a little bit of a rundown of that. Yeah. So tracking food, I used a macro factor to track my calories and it's suggesting that I go down to like 1700 calories a day, which is kind of brutally low, I think, for... Terrible. I'm six foot tall, 220. And so that I kind of wanted some advice on. And then I've been doing... I started out doing StrongLifts 5x5, then moved back to the starting strength. That's great. Yeah, those are good. Which was a program I did back in like 20s and 30s, so kind of going back to that. I think I've hit the plateau where I can't really make the linear progression every single workout anymore and probably need to switch up the exercise routine as well. I'm at 325 on a back squat. I was at 225 on bench, but I messed up my left shoulder. So the bench is struggling for me. I'm at high reps at 165 right now and then overhead press like 135, a deadlift at 365. Yeah. I'm guessing it's actually less the programming and it's more nutrition. You've probably been low calorie for too long and you need to reverse. Yeah. Where were you? So if it tells you to go to 17, where are you at now? Yeah. I mean, I'm eating like 1700 to 1900 calories a day. Oh, yeah. That's why you're plateaued. That's why you're plateaued and you're not progressing in your weights. You'll see your weights. So jump up right away to 25, 2800. Right away. Okay. Right away. 25, 2800. Don't even change the program. Keep following that. Just watch what happens. Okay. In a week or two, you should see strength gains. Yeah. And you're so depleted right now. I mean, you'll get weight on the scale, but a lot of it's going to be water and glycogen. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to feel strong. Yeah. You're going to get good pumps. You're not going to fully recover that load. I would give yourself like three months of just building. Now, you don't got to go crazy with that. Okay. I think what Adam said with your calories, 2500 is a very reasonable number. Yeah. Just do it in good calories, just to have another two more meals of what you probably were eating. Yeah. Yeah. And that's going to... I'm imagining at 1700, hitting your protein goals has got to be really hard unless you're eating super lean. And then that would tell me... Yeah. Yeah. So you're probably low fat, which also you're going to feel way better as soon as you bump your fats. Yeah. Your testosterone will go up too. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to feel... It is. Yeah. Here's the other thing too. You're going to feel way better in a week. Watch when you bump your fat. Any way we can fix that? I have been working on that a lot lately. I had kind of my first week of seven plus hours a night, knocking on eight. I think that's what's got me down close to the 220 line again, instead of about 226. Watch when you get over a hundred grams of fat, what happens. Yeah. You'll see... Okay. As soon as you're a hundred grams... You're over a hundred grams. Once you get over a hundred grams of fat in the day, and I know you've been lower than that to get down that low, you'll see a difference in your sleep right away. Yeah. Your sleep will get better. Right away. On its own. Yep. Okay. Yeah. What about goal weight? I just had a DEXA scan last week. I think 157 pounds of all the lean tissue all in. I originally set my goal at 170 because that was right in the middle of the BMI chart for my height. You're six foot, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You don't got to go that much down on scale, bro. No. Yeah. What did it say your body fat percentage is at? Like 29. Yeah. I'd say... Look, don't worry about the weight so much. I would worry more about body fat percentage, but over the next few months, you just increase your calories in a conservative way. 2,500 is a super reasonable number. Yeah. Focus on getting stronger, building some muscle. In two months, go get another DEXA scan. I would not be surprised if your scale weight goes up, but your body fat percentage goes down. That's exactly what will happen. Yeah. And then you could probably go up a little higher. Once you get up to like 28, 29, then you could go cut, and you'll see fat come off your body. But yeah, of course you plateau, bro. 1,700 calories at your size? Yeah. You may see the body put muscle on. You know what will happen if you cut your calories from here? You're just going to lose muscle. Oh, God. Yeah. No. You're already way too low. No way. You can't do that. Yeah. You got to reverse it. You're going to see great results in the first couple of weeks right away just by bumping it. So long as you do it with good food. Obviously, this isn't permission to go eat like an asshole. Eat good. Eat balanced meals, and you're going to feel... Yeah. Robert, what do you do for work? Are you sedentary? You move? Tell me what you do. Yeah. I'm a small business, so glued to a desk a lot during the day. I try to get out and walk around the yard next to the shop and stuff when I can. But I'll have days where I do 1,200 steps if I'm working from home and glued to a desk all day. I get it. And then other days where I'm 8,000, 9,000 steps. So try trying to be a little more consistent with that will really help. Yeah, you know, it'll help facilitate recovery for you So it'll speed up the recovery process will help building muscle better You'll feel better digestion wise You'll be able to eat more like you should be able to is it possible to do like a 10-minute walk two or three times a day Yeah, yeah, I'll just need to be disciplined about scheduling and sticking to it So I didn't everything take me away so do this because you're so low like if I was coaching you what it would look like is we would I would have got You're kind of at your average of like a week or two and I'm real incrementally just set a floor like, okay I'm not gonna let it I'm not gonna ever be lower than 4,000 or 5,000 cuz you could go knock that out literally and at the end of the day you can go knock that out in One hour if you had to yeah So just set a floor of like I'm not gonna let it be less than this and then have a just a little bit higher Goal, so it's like six to eight thousands my range never lower than six I want to at least try and hit eight. That's my goal And then if I go over that's great But that's kind of like set a small bar for yourself until it becomes like this habit in your lifestyle And then we can inch our way up doing that while you creep calories up, but we'll bump your calories You'll build muscle. You'll you'll lean out all the things don't feel like a light switch. Yeah from where you're at now Do you think and you think link staying on the starting strength progression is I mean we could send you one of our programs But I mean, you know when people when people tell us about a program that we all would get behind as far as that That's a salt that's all programming is but it wouldn't hurt to switch it up If you're ready to do something different That I would say so if you hurt your shoulder Because you've been following kind of that that you know sagittal pain, you know playing type programming Starting strength is super. It's like one of the best programs out there for just overall strength, but it's limited in how it can build You know rotational or a sagittal driven. Yeah, it's like maps that a ball kind of has that same weakness So, you know we can send you map symmetry. It's a unilateral training program And it might be good for your joints right now because you're pretty strong. You're looking some pretty heavyweight Yeah, no, I think that'd be helpful. I do have some kettlebells and Jim. No, I go to some kettlebells to the yeah, right Right sits on a block run a whole block of symmetry So three months of that and then you can go back to the starting strength if you want or run another maps program like math And a ball with the walking thing Robert, I don't attach it to fat loss So they'll probably some of that will happen just you focus on this. It'll make you feel better Do yeah, yeah, like if you do like just two ten minute walks or three ten minute walks You're gonna be more productive at your desk. Have you have you been Robert you listen to show for long? No, I just started You know the things I put in my ear in my commute back and forth kind of keeps me focused on life goals Right. So when I started losing weight, I was looking for a good. Oh shit. Just recently good fitness podcast. Yeah Welcome to the family. Hey, so I'm here. Hey, so one of the things I'll tell you like because I've talked about this Why I asked I've talked about this a lot like the we can get sedentary here we sit in this studio easily can be a 2,000 step day and One of the things I also notice since sleep is one of our focuses Matt just getting up and moving because I know what it feels like to feel exhausted the other day because your brains Exhausted because you're running. Yeah, you're running because you're working But then your body is not physically exhausted because it didn't move all day And so it's now your body's restless at night simply really getting more active with the steps We're making it also improvement. So the fats going up calories going up combined with moving more through the day will improve sleep Sleep will then improve building muscle recovery fat loss All positive feedback loop and you'll I mean that you'll see all kinds of good stuff happen if you focus on those things Okay. Yeah, we definitely love to give the symmetry plan a try. Yeah, you gotta do Awesome. Cool. I love here. I hear back from you to follow up with a citizen email list. Yeah, how you're doing Well, dude, thanks guys. All right, man. Take it easy, dude. Take care. Yep Yeah, I just it's you know, so so common right cut calories lose weight cut calories lose weight cut calories lose weight plateau Do I cut calories again? Yeah. No. Yeah, where do I go from here? No, dude, you're six foot tall, dude 220 pounds at 1700 calories need to feed and where are you gonna go 1,200 calories? You know, it's inevitable It happens to I mean, it's everybody I'm in it right now off-air. I was just talking to you about it So it's I mean, it's it's inevitable. It's part of the the journey and a reverse and you get a reverse out of it And of course, I have an option I could go down to 1,500 calories, which is crazy. Cool. Yeah Yeah, and I'll lose weight on the scale if I were to do that Yeah but the and and that's where people get messed up is they keep playing that game when it's like what I know already without I Don't have to look at his diet for a six-foot guy 1,700 calories if you say you're hitting your protein intake That means he's got to be eating tilapia and chicken breasts all day And that means his fat is probably hovering around 40 maybe 50 grams of fat at the most the most you feel like garbage So yeah, his fats essential and for a male that big that size 80 80 grams minimum a day I want and in and you'll see a huge difference hormone profile sleeping all those things like oh, yeah huge difference Our next caller is Jordan from Nova Scotia. What's up, Jordan? How you doing, Jordan, dude? Hey guys, it's nice to meet you. Very honored to be on here. You guys are amazing. Thank you. How can we help you? I'll just read my email to make it nice and easy for yes So I'm 30 years old I've been strength training now for about 15 years. I do come from more of like a sports background growing up I did a bit of competing immense physique back in 2015 2017 and Really since I started lifting my training has always been geared towards, you know, typical bodybuilding hypertrophy style And you know, I still train very similar today I find the main difference though is I'm focused more on how I move the weight versus just moving the weight like I did for a lot of years My split right now is I do push pull legs and then I'll do chest and back and then shoulders and arms And then I'll throw in some mobility work towards the end of the workouts And then sometimes I'll use a rest day as a mobility day as well Currently I eat like between 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day Averaging about 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight The one thing my diet that is a killer is alcohol. I love alcohol. It's like a my family likes to drink as well So it's been a battle for me over the years But luckily this year I've been able to taper off a bit more than than what I have been doing in the past Which I've seen great results from Sleep is okay I'm about seven to eight hours on average per night The only problem with my sleep is I do wake up three to four times per night Sometimes I go use the washroom. Sometimes just I just wake up and go back to bed. Not too sure why So currently I also started I kind of switched paths in my career a little bit still within the same industry I do sales and leadership and mentoring But I started a new industry So it's been a bit stressful to get things off the ground and building a new team So I find that I have been under quite a bit of stress But I do find my energy levels. They dip Very early on usually around like one or two o'clock And it's hard to get my energy levels back up after they do dip and I try to stay away from caffeine after 12 so that's been a challenge for me and I guess a little bit more of like the details. So I did get a full blood panel done last January And the the red flags that came back. So my red and white blood cell count was very low My b12 was also very low and my free testosterone was only 240 Whenever I told people what my test was everyone's like what like that doesn't even make sense that you're a big dude, right? and Luckily, so after that I was able to increase my free test to 493 By taking a very low dose of HCG to help boost my production I did that for about 10 weeks and then I stopped I cleaned up my diet a bit more and then I Started to cut out alcohol as well. So instead of having a couple of drinks a day. I'll have a couple throughout the week Currently the only like supplements I'm taking is I do 10 grams of creatine per day I take pine pollen and l-theanine so to close it off What I said is I'd love to chat with you guys on a deeper level and see if you'd be able to help me Increase my free test. The goal is to get up to around 700 to help better my overall health Increase my energy levels and sharpen my brain and figure out what the best training style would be to move forward with it I'm an open book And I just love to get your guys input. Yeah, you got it, dude. Yeah, this is actually pretty simple. I know I'm pretty I'm Fairly certain what the issue is, but I'm gonna back up for a second. So are you taking b12? Yeah, so I go every six to eight weeks. I take a shot. I go to my naturopath. Okay, your vitamin D levels got checked Yes, they were low but they're good now, okay, so you're taking vitamin D, okay yeah, so that's I just wanted to make sure we do that so and you're a young guy when you competed any any history of PED use any testosterone strokes? Okay. No, you're you're just over trained. Yep Typical bodybuilder type of mentality like more is better It's like you I knew it as soon as you run off your training volume and calories. It's like too much What you could do you could do half the effort and see twice the results that are way better. Yep yeah, so here's what happens Jordan because There's a you can train at a certain volume and intensity But over time it starts to add up and you get cumulative stress on the body Okay, so, you know, let's say you're because what your training should probably look like you're a natural dude You're you know, so you lift naturally young dude You've got a background of strength training a full body workout three days a week will give you the best results and that that's what 85 to 90 percent of your year is gonna look like Then the 15 to 10 percent of the year is like hey for the next six weeks I'm gonna ramp it up and I'm gonna do an upper lower split or something like that for six weeks But you but you're always gonna go back to in fact If you went to a three if you went to a full body three day week routine One lift per body part three sets don't go to failure stop two reps short of failure If you started that next week, you'll see strength gains the following week. That's how fast it'll work Within a week you'll get stronger and you'll be like, whoa. This is this feels really weird But your sleep is an issue because you're over trained. Yeah, your testosterone is an over an issue because you're over trained And so once you fix that your diets great. I like that you cut back alcohol. You got that 2,500 calories a day is fine. You're probably a little low I'd probably bump that too. So, you know if if I was training with you, I would say let's go up to 28 Let's do a full body routine three days a week continue stay active and by week two or three You're gonna see strength gains and you know, you're moving in the right direction and your sleep will get better by that time as well cool and would you guys have any recommendations and like As I love to go like I work out in the morning and I find it's a mindset thing more on the days that I I work What would you guys recommend do on the days that I'm not lifting walk walk on the treadmill audio book? Yeah walk mobility More more working inward recoveries type related stuff. Yeah. Yeah, no workouts Yep But three days listen, it's this is what it looks like very basic and I don't need to give you like specifics because you've been Training you've been lifting for 15 years. You know what you're doing One lift per body part. Okay. I'm serious because here's what you're gonna want to do You're also gonna want trying to failure. No, that's you're gonna do you're gonna do this and by the third or fourth week You're gonna get stronger even like I'm gonna add another exercise per body part. Don't do that one lift per body part Start with legs go to back go to chest go to shoulders go to arms finish off with little core calves get out That's it. Stop two reps short of failure by the second week. You'll see strength gain Cinemaps anabolic. Yeah, I can send you maps and a boy. Yes in a massive log But you can also modify it if you want to be trained for bar. You've been lifting for 15 years I think you know what you're doing. Yeah Yeah, but the fault you know what follow something though because that's the one problem when we've been lifting for a long time We're all guilty of this getting in our own way. I'll just do this I know you know I'm saying like follow the program as laid out with that advice trust the process Do exactly what we said don't break from that for the three months in the program Watch what happened when you get to phase three. I'll add this Jordan when you get to phase three bump your calories Yeah, that phase three volume is a bit I mean if if if all goes well because I would start you I wouldn't even I wouldn't even change calories quite yet I just switched the programming I think you'll see within like Sal said a week or two strength gains and you feel stronger Bump the calories then and then and then I'd wait again till I feel stronger And I feel see my lifts go up then I bump the calories again and each time I'm bumping the calories like two three hundred Calories tops yep and all through good all through good foods not alcohol They're good foods and let that and let that be your guide and by the end of the program by time you get to phase Three you should be upwards over 3,000 calories sleeping better Stronger leaner and doing less less work when I and I just like it's it's pretty clear because when I see a young man Who's been working out for a while? And they come to me and they say I wake up in the middle night And it's hard to get back to sleep and my testosterone came back low And I get this energy crash end of the day. It's like over trained It's like almost every time unless it's a nutrient deficiency, but you got those filled so it's over trained for sure. Yeah, yeah Cool. Yeah, well and the answer that I didn't want that I got Trust the process by week three you're like this is great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah hundred percent trust us Just stick to it for that entire program. I Paul. I promise we won't let you down Cool awesome. All right, we'll send that over to you. Thanks guys. You guys are awesome. Take it easy, man. Yeah You know along those lines look. I'm not I'm not immune to this myself. I mean well That's why I wanted him to fall in a ball. Yeah, it helps Knowing too much is sometimes Well I'm in it right now, bro. My calories are really low I'm trying to eat less because we know whatever and I my strength training is down to three days a week I'm strong as hell right now. Yeah, and I'm like even myself. I'm like, oh, yeah, of course Well, it's easy when you've been in it for as long as he has 15 years and I can do more and the temptation physically The temptation still bro. Yeah, I'm lifting. I'm like man. I'm pretty strong for low calories. I'm gonna throw in another day I'm like, what am I doing? Yeah, like that's gonna put sent me back Look, if you like the show come find us on Instagram. It's mine put me Thank you for listening to mind pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body Dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance Check out our discounted RGB super bundle at mindpumpmedia.com The RGV Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGV Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGV Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now, plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes, and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump. Rubrik is the security and AI operations company built for what happens after an attack hits, not just the moment before. AI has turned the threat landscape into quicksand, moving too fast for any human to fully predict. That's why an agentic cyber resilience platform matters. 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