The 6 Best Lifts for Athletic Fitness (That Actually Transfer to Real Life) | Mind Pump 2888

Key Takeaway

For athletic performance, focus on strength-to-weight ratio. Pull-ups naturally enforce this by making body weight the limiting factor—if you can't move your own body efficiently, added muscle becomes a liability. This checks-and-balances approach prevents the trap of getting stronger but less athletic. The key: every pound you add must move better, not just be heavier.

Episode Overview

A detailed discussion of the six best lifts for athletic fitness, focusing on exercises that translate to real-world performance. The hosts break down movements like lunges, sled work, overhead presses, trap bar deadlifts, pull-ups, one-arm rows, hanging leg raises, and rotational band chops, explaining why each develops functional strength and athleticism beyond traditional bodybuilding.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The 6 Best Lifts for Athletic Fitness (That Actually Transfer to Real Life) | Mind Pump 2888 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

All right, we're going to give you the six best lifts for athletic fitness. This is the kind of fitness that translates to the real world. Lets you play harder and move better. Still builds muscle, makes you look awesome. We're going to break it down. Let's go. Oh, Jessica Jesse got up for this one. Yeah, a little just as excited about this. So excited. So excited. So excited. Now, these are these are lifts that we're that we're listing cuz so we're not putting in here things like pio or drills or things that are more specific.

Okay. And I do want to say just like I think I got to say this. Um if you're an athlete, the best thing you can do to get more athletic is to play your sport. Yeah. [snorts] Yeah. [snorts] Yeah. [snorts] Um and then general strength tends to benefit uh athletes across the board, especially if you're new to strength training. So training. So training. So you always need a foundational base to your strength to build off of in any direction you want to branch off. So any of these are going to do well with whatever sport it is you're pursuing.

100%. So, we're going to kind of go through the list and we'll start with kind of lower body stuff. Um, and I listed here lunges and sled driving or sled work. Why don't we talk about those a little bit? So, I'm assuming that within this is encompassed like lateral sled drags and Yeah, just sled work just in general sled. Yeah, let's, you know, let's start there because I love sled work so much for a couple different reasons. You got what's called what's known as triple extension with a sled.

So, a lot of leg exercises, your feet are planted and they're flat. Um, you'll almost never be in a position in any athletic endeavor where that's the case. the case. the case. Is there any sport that encourages flat footing? footing? footing? Not like that. No, I can't think. Yeah. Weightlifting. Yeah. Well, almost every sport I'm aware of. You're moving. You're on your toes. You're You're You're encourages you to be on your on your toes. You should be at least on the ball of your foot. Yeah.

Yeah. And so when you're when you're driving, if you're just doing a basic drive, like a forward sled drive, um you're having to push through the entire uh lower body, including your foot uh and your ankle. So yeah, the calves are involved, but you're also strengthening your feet. your feet. your feet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. While you're driving forward, lots of hip extension. Another good feature about sled work is there's no negative portion. portion. portion. It's all concentric. So yeah, you're now taking out a lot of the uh more damaging, I guess, aspect of the muscle contraction phase.

So, it's like you could put all this force output out without a lot of the uh, you know, damage you need to heal from. This that's, you know, we say that a lot in the podcast, but if you've never uh actually compared that, it's it's really interesting to to compare the difference. difference. difference. Totally. Totally. Totally. Like go and do five sets of barbell back squats hard. squats hard. squats hard. Yeah. Hard on your leg day. And then go do, you know, five sets of, you know, sled pushes.

Just as hard. Yeah. Heavy. Real hard. Heavy. and notice the difference in how you feel the days two and three after those two workouts and it's significantly different. different. different. So, you know what else is interesting about sled driving? There's of course so much carryover for athletic performance and function and strength. It's one of those few exercises that's uh relatively low skill. What I mean by that is I can have a lady I can have a 60-year-old push a sled. Uh I can have a 16-year-old push a sled.

I can have someone push a sled with, you know, 500 lb on it. I can have someone push a sled with almost no weight on it. and they're all going to get tremendous benefit. You can't say that for a lot of exercises. There's a lot of exercise that requires a certain level of skill to perform. Uh and uh rarely do you have a low skill exercise that's got tons of carryover like sled. Well, the lunging itself is just so functional because anything you're going to do athletically, you're going to be in a split stance.

It's just there's no, you know, getting around that fact. and building up, you know, strength to be able to load a lot like bilateral definitely makes sense for that to build a good base, but to reinforce that split stance position and also the the different directions you could take lunges. Like you can do a lot of variations of lunges pretty easily to expose people to different planes of motion. motion. motion. Yeah. You know what's interesting about lunges uh is by the way back in the 90s lunges were not considered like a crazy strength building action.

It was weird. Uh it was not like a strength building exercise. It was like what what people did in like jazz or size classes which is interesting. is interesting. is interesting. It's a very good muscle builder. Uh it's a great uh functional exercise. What's interesting about it is you can get really strong at bilateral lower body exercises like squats. Never practice lunges. Go try lunging and you'll see just how much of a deficiency. Would you say would you say uh would you say Ronnie Coleman made them popular for for aesthetics and for build bodybuilders?

I think bodybuilders started to do one of them for sure. He started there was that there's that famous video of him those tights. That's right. The yellow and black one where you can see his leg veins through his tights and he's doing walking lunges in the parking lot. I think you're right. Like I I can't remember them being really popular. really popular. really popular. Not in bodybuilding. No, not until him. No 100%. Right. Cuz Arnold didn't really promote him much. He wasn't No, it was in his encyclopedia.

But yeah. yeah. yeah. Yeah, but everything was in his huge. So that was like, you know, he wasn't he didn't hype them up or talk a lot about them. I mean, I didn't see him in any of his like hype videos. Like I don't remember any of that. And there's a lot of coaches, athletic coaches that make the argument that lunges or split stance are superior to bilateral for athletes. We have people like Mike Bole who especially who stands by that's the only way to train athletes.

Is there a reason why you put lunges and sled driving in together? They could be almost their own. own. own. They are their own, but they're both lower body. So I kind of went through and kind of tried to Got it. I see what you you you and I couldn't pick one or the other. Got it. Okay. I couldn't understand why you put those together. I'm like those there's a whole category of of different type like Justin's saying different lunges that you can do that I think are incredible.

And same thing with sled driving. They could have been in their own category. Totally. But I see what you did. Okay. Yeah. Totally. Uh next up we have the standing overhead press. Uh this and this has to be standing. It's you're you're very rarely going to be seated when you're doing any any kind of a movement like this or at least in any functional capacity in the real world. I mean you're picking something up overhead. you're almost always standing because you're putting something up high on a shelf or, you know, up in the attic or whatever.

Um, but it does strengthen the whole body. And, um, you know, this is the way I would say you could uh demonstrate upper body strength. Like there almost is no lift that's more impressive uh than a standing overhead press. By the way, humans know this instinctively. Anytime you watch a cartoon or any kind of like somebody displaying some strength, what are they always doing? always doing? always doing? Can you put it over your head? You're lifting it up over your head. Have you ever have you ever met somebody who can press a lot of weight over their head that's just not unbelievably strong?

No. strong? No. strong? No. Cuz it also require if you can push a lot of weight over your head, you have to have a pretty solid base. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. To to handle that, too. So, you're not you're going to have like this like tiny little legs and weak lower body and then you're pressing you're pressing you're pressing go wrong if you don't have the strength. Yeah. So, you got to have a good core and lower body to press up over your head. And so the requirement I mean it's a squat of the upper body and so you're going to so you're going to be strong uh upper body for sure but then in order to press a lot over your head you're also going to need to have a solid base in order to do 100%.

In fact uh when you look at um old school lifters um they did almost no horizontal pressing. Bench presses weren't invented until much later. The a bench press back in those days was a floor press. Uh they didn't have uh any benches. Um, and big chests uh weren't really in fashion until bodybuilding. Uh, and you almost never saw that in an athlete. Not saying that big chest or strong chest isn't something that uh will benefit you. Uh, but it's o it's it's the overhead pressing. Anytime you press something or push something away, you're leaning into it.

You're pushing away from your body. Um, and even when you look at old sculptures, old uh sculptures of uh athletes that were based off of gladiators or Olympic athletes, they had really well-developed shoulders and lumbar spines, uh, which you know would you it's what you would get from being able to press a lot. Well, you also get a lot of good upper chest involved. A real true full overhead press where you bring the bars. Yeah. Where you bring that all the way down to your upper chest, it's, you know, you get some upper chest development from that and strength.

So, it's such a great lift. Then we have the trap bar deadlift. Uh, this is, you know, and I've heard people make this argument. I've heard athletic coaches make the argument that the trap bar deadlift bar deadlift bar deadlift is better for athletes than the conventional deadlift. conventional deadlift. conventional deadlift. Part of that I believe is it's a lower risk of injury. It's a lower skill exercise. Um, the other part of it might have to do more with that it's more of an upright, which might translate better to to sports.

Um, I like, you know, I like exercises that have a high carryover that are also lower skill. Um, because you can get into them quicker and exert force faster. Uh, of course, lower risk of injury is always a good thing. Uh, so long as there's a lot of carryover. carryover. carryover. So, trap bar deadlifts are really valuable. valuable. valuable. Yeah. I mean, even just my tiny stint of like going through like two years of trying to help program for like student athletes and whatnot, it was the the biggest hurdle was really to get them to learn these movements in, you know, in a really short amount of time before then now we jump right back to season.

And so it's like how much can you really um move the needle in terms of their optimizing their performance and strength in that period of time. And so you're you're kind of weighing these things out. Um riskreward too is obviously one of those other ones. Um but I really do think it's the skill is a big that's a big factor because I could I could like you know take a big group and we could we could go through this and learn it pretty effectively and load it like almost immediately.

Well there it's I also think it has a tremendous amount more carryover into sport because very few sports in fact I can't think of any at the top of my head that that that Yeah. that are posterior based. Yeah. That require your hips to be down 90° or lower. You'll see that in wrestling. That's about it. Maybe wrestling. Yeah. You'll see like you see like zer deadlifts, deadlifts, like really like Jefferson curls like these are like Oh, yeah. Well, I mean wrestling like bridging and all that makes sense, you know, into your neck and all that.

So, it's it's its own category. You would see that with like Greco Roman wrestlers uh would do stuff like that. But the skill involved like we're think about the average person. I can take most average, not everybody because it's still a deadlift, but I can take most people without major injury and we could do a trap bar deadlift day one. Uh, and I could load it within a few weeks. Uh, typically I can start to load it. A straight bar deadlift often to every everyday person, it would take me months.

months. months. Well, to your point too, like every day, most people that are interested in an athletic produc pursuit that are average day people, day people, day people, I would think are doing recreational sports. Yeah. sports. Yeah. sports. Yeah. Most of them are wrestling. Sure. That's recreational, right? Like recreational I think of think of think of basketball, football, baseball, um soccer, like you those are all like you pick up on the weekend or you do a a league with your your buddies in your 30s and you do something like that like and all those I think are the a trap bar deadlift is going to translate over to that.

that. that. As a personal trainer, I use trap bar deadlifts all the time. I could get a lot of people to do it. straight bar deadlifts. Sometimes it took me a long time to get somebody to be able to pull. I mean, we tal it's like the goal is to be able to do a straight bar, but the the truth is that you started a lot of clients on the trap. And I'm I'm basing a lot of this I mean, I didn't train a lot of uh athletes as a trainer.

A lot of my experience was just everyday people, but when I look at athletic trainers, and I the ones I at least I I really admire, [clears throat] [clears throat] [clears throat] um they all trap bar deadlift. You see this in basketball players, football players, uh baseball, like they're all using the trap bar. Um, and so I got to go with what these coaches are doing. You're also uh you're also not going to do something unless you're going to do like a full snatch, but you're not you're not going to do something explosive with a traditional deadlift.

Conventional deadlift trap bar. Trap bar. You will do conducive for that. Yeah. So that's another like bonus like if you're programming it now, we can add you know this new phase that's more acceleration based and we can add that in as you know the protocol for it. So So So and you're not doing that with conventional. Conventional deadlift is more of a grinding lift. Uh, and so you're not going to do that with that. So, it makes sense that this would be more for athletic things.

Yeah. Then we have the one- arm row and pull-ups. We'll start with pull-ups. Pull-ups are just pull-ups are great for athleticism because you've got this wonderful kind of limiting factor of body weight. Uh, strength to weight ratio for most sports is really important. I say for most cuz some sports weight plays a role. You still got to have good strength to weight ratio though. You can't just be a heavy person. Uh but strength to weight ratio in general is what makes you move well. Uh it makes no difference if you're a big person and you're strong but your strength ratio weight ratio is terrible.

You know to give you an example you take uh somebody who lifts weights who's strong at 200 lb and you suddenly make them 150 lb with the same strength. That is an explosive person. Oh yeah. All of a sudden force of nature. And so pull-ups are cool because uh you know it's like it's a little checks and balances. And what kind of happens sometimes with strength training, sometimes, not often, but sometimes people get carried away with the strength and size and end up figuring out they lost athleticism because the strength to weight ratio was thrown off.

And pull-ups got that uh built in. And then one arm rows uh with rotation. This Justin's favorite way to do one arm row. And it's there's a reason for it. And it's because when you're pulling something, you're rotating. You're almost never just pulling something. Your body's natural anatomy is inclined to just rotate even if it's just subtle. So, um I'm always I'm always like work with it, you know, work with these mechanics. Uh you know, we're doing throwing patterns, we're uh you know, we're holding sticks, like everything is dynamic and moving and rotational based like with sports.

So, uh you know, strengthen it and any opportunity I can do to throw that into a workout, I'm going to find it. Well, we have to here, right? Because so far, you haven't named anything that has any sort of rotational component into it, right? And that's I mean if you're going to have an athletic pursuit, there's got to be a decent amount of rotational work included in there for sure. sure. sure. Totally. Uh hanging leg raises would be another one done properly, please. Uh this is I mean you got to be really strong first off to be able to do these.

But when you do these, these really do strengthen the lumb pelvic uh hip area and the core. Like they really strengthen the core uh quite a bit. Um it's great to be able to bring your pelvis up or rotate it up while using your hip flexors at the same time. This this is uh very active in almost every time you run or jump uh or try to move in any particular way. It's a great way to build the core uh in a functional way. And then bodybuilders love it because it builds the abs.

You just got to be able to do them right. That's well even if you're doing them right, you're still working your hip flexor on some. So I like that it's both like Yeah. And it's not just isolating like Yeah. If you're doing it wrong, you're just going to isolate your hip flexor. But um I like that it's strengthening everything there in the in the hip complex. That's right. Well, and your core and abs are just such a crucial part of athletic pursuit that you have to have something that's that's directly targeting your core.

You know, I I'll never forget this as a trainer. I had um some clients that were pretty high level. Um, one was uh did Iron Man, then I had some marathon runners, uh, triathletes, and what was wild to me, and I didn't predict this, uh, but then it was very clear afterwards, if they were going to go do any of their uh, athletic pursuit, whether it be running, cycling, swimming, whatever. Later in the day, sometimes they'd have to stack the workouts. If I train their legs earlier in the day, they could still go and perform.

If I train their core, it threw them off. Uh, it was and I didn't I thought, man, if I hit your legs, it's going to really mess you up on your run. Fatiguing and bracing with the Yeah, like a fatigue. I could not fatigue their I could not fatigue their core before they'd go uh and it messed them up every single time. That's how important it is. And then lastly, you mentioned a rotation band chops. So, these are side chops. You can do downward, you can do them upward, sideways.

Bands athletic bands allow speed and power. So, you can do bands controlled controlled controlled consistent resistance. Would you is this interchangeable for you guys with with med balls or cable chops? Totally. Yeah. Say that. Say that. Say that. I like cable chops, but here you know what bands let you do? They let you explode. explode. explode. You ever try to explode with a cable? You're slamming the stack all over the place. place. place. Well, I like medballs just because of the release. And so, yeah, it's concentric, you know, focused primarily, which is a lot closer to what you're going to have with sports.

It's like really that release and then control. But uh if you know you're doing multiple reps and you're trying to you know add resistance, I think bands is smooth uh in terms of that consistency of resistance. Yeah, I would I would argue they all they all belong in there at some because I also cables I use all the time too because what I like about the cable is so I put an anti-rotational component to there which I think is also important for because you're you're going to get in sport a lot of times you're going to get forces left to right that are pushing against you that and so that ability to chop and then to be able to stop and yeah anti-rotation I think is a lot a lot of value so I would include all three in this category I'd be like band chops, medball tosses and cable with the anti-rotation component.

You know what I did that was such a game changer? So back when I used to have my studio um this was back remember when freeotion was getting real popular with the two movable arms or whatever. So when I got my studio this was a long time ago so I don't je this like maybe almost 17 18 years ago. I went online looking at uh machines that were like uh freeotion and they had this one machine in there. I think it was called the Da Vinci I want to say.

Do you remember it when you came to see my studio? So, it was a a big machine, two two stacks, and it had pulleys going all the way up. It was like kind of curved. Yes. Yes. I've seen those. And then what it had on and I got I bought it for my gym and I loved it. It's It's It's so big. so big. so big. It's so I loved it. But I loved it because you could use both side both at the same time. It was easy to use with clients.

clients. clients. But was really cool about it was the first time I'd ever seen a machine that had attachments on the stacks for bands. And the reason why you could do why you did that is so you could be explosive. Because if you swing really fast with a cable, you know what happens with the cable? It kind of you get the slack, you get the jump, but I would attach the bands to it and I could explode. Oh, I didn't know it handled that. It was really cool.

I didn't know how hand I forgot about that machine. that machine. that machine. So, just just something you could do even even even is that still there? Uh, I don't know. I think that I When was the last time you went by there? there? there? Oh, it's by my I live by this. I know. That's why the last time you even by even by even by I think it's been There's nothing in there. there. there. I think it's gone now. Yeah, I think it's gone. Oh, they got rid of it.

I went by one day and it was The sign is up there. Who Who took it over when you sold? I sold it to one of my trainers who took it over. And then they ran it for a while and then now it's not there anymore. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's no longer there. No. No. No. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. A lot of good memories in that. I walk by there all the time. I mean, I every once I drive by that area.

In fact, I drove by there just the other day and I thought about it. I was like, "Oh, you know, I haven't been by ABS in a long time. I wonder if who's running it." running it." running it." I was really big into acronyms. You know what? ABS advanced body solution. You're really big on lexicon. You want to create Yeah. You want to just create your own lex? lex? lex? I was on board with you for that for a minute. You sold me on it. You right.

We were going to change language. That's just my s my sales ability. I think that's not that it's a good idea. good idea. good idea. Yeah. That was a good time, dude. I walked by there the other day and I was kind of looking in and just remember it was like a small little space. We had a good time. What I wonder what the average uh gym how long the average gym lasts. Private gym, Private gym, Private gym, bro. private gym is not a good I think you're better off opening a average gym average gym average gym a restaurant so hard I wonder that's a good question is it fall in that tough of a category it's got to be I see them pop up and shut down all the time time time oh I know so so many trainers that work for me who try to oh here you go Doug what you got yeah what's the stats no how long does the average uh put uh put personal trading studio uh stay in business put that because that would kind of be some category that would be Yeah, stay in business.

It was um it was a I was funny. I was telling my daughter the the history of I bet most don't make business. What do you think? you think? you think? I I don't think most make I think 80% don't make five years. One to two years. Yeah, one to two years. That's what I was was thinking. However, studios that survive their initial launch and transition, excuse me, to stable ownership often scale to a sustainable 5 to seven years or more. Industry attrition rates are high with surveys indicating that 20 to 40% of smallbox gyms and studios close within their first year.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Trainers need to hear this, you know, because trainers always first years really like make or break whether it's going to go anywhere. Yeah. I had mine, you know, the mistake they all make and again, you know, this is this was a constant conversation I had to have is they build up enough to where they have somewhat of a clientele at a big box gym and they go, "This big box gym has taken the math. They do the math. If I just if I don't even the way they think, even if I don't get any more clients, I just have my clients." Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Because they they they don't they have all this new overhead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It just it doesn't matter. And those people don't stay with you for 10 years. They just don't. The average client doesn't stay with a trainer for 10 years and you have to replace them. And then you go, "Oh [ __ ] how do I do that?" You know, and you think it's going to be easy and it's just not. No, you better love the hell out of it. And you better be really good.

That's how I always And you got to be And you also have to not be shy. Like you got to go out and talk to people in your area all the time. All the time. It's you. It's tough because most most leave because they do the the the math and the money thing and and yet it's not a great pursuit if you want to try and make more money. N it's like you most trainers you'll work more and make the same amount if you're lucky. If you're lucky and many of them made more than commercial gym.

commercial gym. commercial gym. That was me. I mean I I had always flirted with the idea of it and was like pursuing it but then I would talk to the places where I was renting out of and I was making way more than the owner. Yeah. And so it was like this that'd be dumb. dumb. dumb. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys look at me. Not like that. I did. Okay. Well, you're you're also the right person in my opinion cuz you're so you you truly are.

You're not a you're not a money driven guy. No, No, No, you're not. No. You know, that's part of why it makes us all great partners is that it it wouldn't work probably if you were that you're you're very passion and purpose driven driven driven and so you were very successful. You you you that was fulfilled for what you did. Um, but if you were like, I'm trying to build this thing to be a franchise and be a millionaire or some [ __ ] like that was not a good idea.

I I was telling my daughter the whole story about how I went into like how I became an entrepreneur like the you know when I was cuz 24 when I started I was 24 years old when I started that and I didn't realize I never told the story. And so she's looking at me and she's like you did what? Why did you do that? You jumped into what? how much was and I'm just telling the story and as I'm telling her I'm hearing the things that I did or me jumping in I was like yeah that was kind of kind of crazy.

I was talking to a buddy of mine who's like I'm thinking about going into business for myself. I I have some questions and so we're going back and forth and I said and I can already hear as he's talking and I'm like I got to tell you biggest mistake somebody makes is they over plan everything. I said most entrepreneurs who kind of make it bro it's like you jump out of the plane and then you start to make a parachute as you're falling. That's kind of a lot of what it's about.

You got to just go. Now, you made it work and you made it work for quite some time. So, I wouldn't consider that a failure at all. What What do What comes to mind when you think of like some of your worst business ideas or businesses? Oh, I had a big failure in there. I did have one. I opened So, I had this location, the one you're talking about. Um, it's in Los ABS Fitness. I I had that location. It was doing really well. I had people would pay me rent.

I had my client base. and I'm in a spot open in the same shopping center two doors down. And I thought, you know, it would be a good idea if I had group uh like group fitness classes like yoga, meditation, mobility, whatever. And I offered it over there. So now I have high ticket services, personal training, lower ticket services, group. So I thought this is going to be a great idea. Here's the problem. I was in my studio making it happen every single day. Yeah. It could not be.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I That's a classic mistake. Uh did you lease the other place? I did. I did. I did. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, how long did you have that lease? I had it for Man, it was It was rough, dude. It was uh 8 months, maybe. No, maybe a year. So, did you have to break the lease? I did. Oh, no [ __ ] I did not know you did that. that. that. I paid them to to break the lease. I had to pay.

to pay. to pay. No way. I did not know that. What year into abs was that? I Gosh, this was probably seven years. Eight years. You already you already something different. something different. something different. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. I just was trying to grow. I was trying to figure out you obviously you had figured it out there which I think the most most most but I figured it out but I didn't I figured out because I was there. Right. Right. I mean you figured you figured out there boot camp.

He ran a boot camp. It's like yeah that's kind of a natural thought process. It's like well volume like I've had you know some people I've let go. It's like I could keep them if I give them a lower ticket option, you know, but it's just the for for the the amount of time and effort and then the what it's taken away from your other business is what was your worst? So that the invention I just called the invention so fast invention. invention. invention. Boom. Boom.

Boom. Don't ever do that. That that would be the worst. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Easily. Yeah. Easily. Yeah. Easily. Is it because you cuz how much you invested? invested? invested? It's just Yeah. Yeah, it was just cuz time, money, and and just really um I think just trying to see it all the way through. Like I I am a stubborn [ __ ] So it just like consumed my every thought and it just took away from family, took away from this business, took away from so many things.

Yeah. [snorts] uh to try uh you know to kind of prove it versus you know what I totally learned uh through the process what I would do differently completely now you know even if I had an idea that I thought was that good you know you go test it you go do all these like basic steps that steps that steps that you know you're you're driven by passion and like I I got swept into the whole like like like artist like you know passion-driven entrepreneur in the beginning and learned my lessons and then you know adjusted but adjusted but adjusted but like most of Most of the rest of the businesses I ran were very much like I was in control.

I take all the money up front. Like I had it all like systematized. Everything was like an oiled machine. Uh the other one would have been like partnering up with a a food kind of. Oh, I remember when you did that. Yeah. With Brad. This this he really nice guy, just terrible business, you know, operator. And so I was carrying him a lot uh and fronting, you know, so my clients could benefit from his food options and like you know he would fill up their refrigerators the beginning of the week and then they'd have all this like excess of food and it and it started out really great but then you know the clients would kind of want to go shop themselves and then it started to become like well less and then and then he was less consistent and then like it was all this like extra inventory that was burned And oh wow, you know, and I was just like, I'm out, man.

Like, man. Like, man. Like, you're killing me. So, I cut him off. But yeah, those two things. things. things. Yeah. You know, I had a business partner initially with ABS. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. Don't say his name. Stop talking about about about good guy, you know, really good trainer. Like really knows fitness. Yeah. What did you learn about that partnership? partnership? partnership? Well, it's funny because I didn't cuz he was a good trainer, good guy. So, so, so this is what's crazy about it because and I think I don't know if this is necessarily a good thing to teach to someone listening, but it worked out for me in a great way.

I uh I def when I make a partnership, I'm very, you guys know this, I'm very loyal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh and I don't know if you want to say it to a fault. I don't think so. It worked out really well uh you know with you guys, you guys, you guys, but we were partners and um and I I funded the whole thing. Now, the reason why I want him as a partner was because of his experience. He was a really really good trainer. He was better than I was when we first started.

He knew what he was doing really. really. really. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh, he was he knew his stuff for sure. Correctional exercise like the whole deal. I learned some stuff from him. Uh but also because my initial plan was to work in investments. Remember at that time I had been trying to work in the bank and he would do a lot of the co the training and I would kind of do part-time. Well, I quickly moved over did it with him. I funded the whole thing but it just he was up and down, dude.

Up and down. And it got real frustrating because I we split everything, but I was bringing in most of the revenue. Ah, Ah, Ah, and I remember I had a conversation with him and he's a good guy. He's an honest guy, good guy. And I sat down with him. I said, "Dude," I said, "Listen, I'm going to run." Yes. This is my exact words. I said, "I'm going to run fast. I'm going to run hard and you need to keep up with me. And if you can't, we got to figure something out." And so my goal that my goal was for the next three months, I'm going to make it obvious to him so he leaves because I don't want to have to boot him.

And I did. And I went him. And I did. And I went and I did. and I went and he said, "Hey, I'm going to bounce." And um and that was it. And then I took over the whole thing. thing. thing. That's pretty cool that it's pretty smart that you had the wherewithal to have that conversation and then he also had the humility to bow out and be like, I obviously am not carrying my weight cuz you know what can happen sometimes in ugly partnership like that is that that person still rides your coattails or like that.

So the fact that you guys and you guys maintain a friendship afterwards? Yeah, we do. We He's a great guy. Love him. Yeah, he's really good, man. Like I said, said, said, so the fact that he he was he he bowed out and and you guys still were That's not That's pretty good. In fact, I saw him not that long ago and he actually apologized to me for the whole period. whole period. whole period. This was like a month ago, like a few months ago. months ago.

months ago. Oh, no way. How random. Yeah. I just want to say that happened. I know. I know. I thought it was cool him, but I had no I didn't hold any animosity or anything like that. Uh but what was the lesson of that? I could have come out of that with this kind of bitter attitude towards partnerships partnerships partnerships which would have destroyed what we did here. here. here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But and so I don't know. I mean I guess I guess a lot of people would say you got to be really shrewd with business partners but um I mean you guys are very trustworthy.

Obviously you guys you know I I I get I gain a tremendous amount from you guys and it worked out really well. well. well. So yeah. So yeah. So yeah. So we didn't sign anything for that's not good advice either though. But this was a handshake for for a while. while. while. If I'd recommend anybody else, what's your what's your biggest failure, right? Um, so it depends on how we would measure it, right? So I can think two two big ones come to mind. Um, financially financially financially the worst was the app that Justin and I did.

did. did. Yeah. Financially that was the biggest. Uh, I took about a 75k hit on that, which was my biggest like hit. But uh, the the the mobile car detailing business was a pretty big flop. like yeah I I I made out financially on that because it was a very small investment. Um I thought it was brilliant because this time I'm in my 20s and uh making good money in management for the company and my all of our peers if you were in management at 24 in those days you were probably making six figures or close too, right?

I think like 80 was the low end and some guys were making 140 and stuff stuff stuff and so and what do a bunch of 20-year-olds that make $100,000 a year 20 years ago do? They all had cars, so they all had nice cars. And I thought, "Oh my god." And we all worked bell to bell. So we all worked like 10 hours. And so we had these nice cars bell to bell. I could show up. I could have I see could have I see where you're stress.

Oh, bro. I thought it was brilliant. Very smart. Very smart. Very smart. Yeah. It sounds very logical, right? Like I thought about and then the way it came about was I had a counselor who worked for me who had already had this mobile detailing business and he had a small book. Wasn't it was had a few clients that he was doing already. So, I already had a built-in book and it was just attached to my truck, so I didn't need to buy anything. It was all had all the stuff and I think I paid four grand for it or something like that.

Four or five grand for it. And uh I was like, "Yes, this is I'm going to crush this." And right away started booking. But what I what I did not think through was when I was first scaling and building it while also working 60 hours a week, I couldn't hire anybody to do the detailing. Cuz my thought process was, I'll hire a couple people for minimum wage, pay them, pay them, and they they go handle it. I make the cream off of it. I got all the contacts, I'll grow it.

But what I couldn't do was when I was only getting three or four car washes a week, who could I hire for three or four hours, you know, if three or four drops? You're out there washing cars. So, I'm washing. So, my crazy ass is working 10-hour days and then washing cars in my parking lot afterwards, you know, for an extra hundred bucks. You know what I'm saying? And so, and I'm crazy. I'm crazy enough to do that for a while, you know. And so, yeah, on the weekends and after work, I'm washing cars while trying to get this thing.

How long did it take you to be like, "This isn't going to be I did it for less than a year, but probably a good solid six six." That's a long time. Yeah, I did it for a while. I'm stubborn like that. You know what I'm saying? You got to give it a shot, dude. Well, yeah. And I believed in it. I really did. And I and I thought and I just kept running into this problem of I c I didn't have enough uh I didn't have enough capital at that time to like take the risk of I'm just going to pay somebody and eat I'm losing money at first to get it scaled up so they could go and work it and I couldn't convince anybody to work for 20 bucks an hour for three hours a week and so I'm out here washing cars and so now luckily six figure guy yeah after working hours washing your buddy's Oh yeah, dude.

Yeah, exactly. I'm washing my buddy's Corvette and I'm here scrubbing his tires and like for an extra hundred bucks. You know what I'm saying? Like what am I doing? You know what I'm saying? I could have sold two printing train. printing train. printing train. It does sound like it would have worked though. though. though. Oh, right. Oh, right. Oh, right. You got to believe it. You got to believe it when you go do I did I did I did uh sell it for double what I paid for cuz I had I had actually hustled enough to have a clientele list.

I said, "Hey, you got, you know, 10 12 clients that you can wash some cars plus all the stuff and and so so I can't remember." You know who I sold it to? Who? Who? Who? Lawrence. Lawrence. Lawrence. He bought it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a good guy. He is a good guy and a hustler. I don't think he kept doing it either. Oh, dude. Oh, dude. Oh, dude. But I mean I I So that I'd say those two were, you know.

So you said you lost 75 on the That's right around how much I lost with my with my extra location. And that's that was a lot of money for was a lot of that was a lot of money for that's a ton of money for anybody but especially when you're like saving. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was I wasn't stacked up at that time. And so that was that was a lot of money to to spend on that. But I believed in what what Justin and I were doing.

I was excited about it. But I was so naive to that also. Like I didn't know anything about the app world. And we learned a lot along that way. And so we weren't tech people. Now you can build an Now you can build an apposed. apposed. apposed. We can build an app with AI now. Yeah. Exactly. I know. The That's like the seriously slapping irony. Do you know how much you lost with the whole deal? You don't want to talk about 25. 25. 25. 25? That's not bad.

Oh, that's not bad. On that invention, as nice as it was, you only lost. I'm sorry. You're talking about the invention. Talking about that I put in with him. Yeah. No, it was that was like 50. So, yeah, we It's about the same. Yeah, that's still But considering how far you made it cuz you like designed and and and also the time and energy. the time really in in the testing and um and really like really like really like and it it really just didn't have a definitive market target, you know, and two, it was like there was just too much and this is what I I pitched it in front of Apple and you guys remember that, right?

Yeah. Which was like it's so crazy and stupid and I feel like [ __ ] for doing that. No, bro. What are you talking about? That's great. That's great. That's great. LIKE THAT'S INSANE. That's balls, dude. I Dude, that's so great. and we didn't have and our I don't even think I told you guys what happened and it like the computer didn't even work. So, we were supposed to have like this whole slideshow and everything and then my partners were freaking out and I was like, I got this, you know, and I got up and just was like talking directly to each person and then like was demonstrating it and like here's all the potential for it and you know, we're going to serve this market and it's like low risk and like you talking about all the benefits to it and all that stuff.

And at the end, you know, the guy, you know, pulled me aside and he's like, "Wow, this is really like an interesting product and like I like your you, you know, your presentation and all this stuff." He's like, "You got a long road ahead of you." He's like, cuz he he told me the story about basically David Wet, he's like, cuz he had met him before and um he was trying to promote the Bosu ball to him. Oh. And it was like he was getting nothing nowhere at all until he brought the education up to that level where it's like here's the relevance and here's the certification around it and here's all the trainers using now it's in the gyms and you know and so it had to have that public awareness for it to even be viable and I'm just like oh my god that's forever from now you know so you got to listen humbling you find a successful entrepreneur and they they haven't had a failure they haven't tried everything you guys are talking about right now okay which is so which is So cool.

I'm as I'm sitting here listening to us tell these old reminisce these old stories. I can think of an example on be how much that has served you in this course business that experience of course of course of course I mean literally% because of those I mean could you imagine how quick we probably would have built an app if we hadn't had such a terrible exper and know what that experience is like and how like not worth it is burn. I mean the amount of pressure that we've had to do something like that and yet we we've been able to we've been through that and so we [clears throat] know that right the meal thing we just had a had a had a someone come in right now that wants to partner up with meals and it's like you're like I've done this like this no one of the biggest mistakes this is what I learned is that you may be able to uh build an incredible culture in your location but to duplicate it hard it's a completely and if you don't have a person like you that you're like this person is special.

Go over there and rebuild the culture. You You're not going to do it. It's just not going to happen. A lot of people ran into that problem. That's what I learned from that. that. that. Oh, no. That's a I mean, there's I forget what the the the statistics are on uh replicating a second location. It's like unbelievably difficult, which is counter to what you would believe. You would think, "Oh, I've done this. I can go do another one." If you could just uh you know, photocopy yourself, turn you Exactly.

So the your only way to do that is you truly have to find someone who you think is as good as you or better than you. That's right. Like you have to find someone like that's the way that works is like, "Oh my god, I actually found someone who I can put in my place that I think is better than me and now I can go and I know I can go do this. So now I'm going to put all my time in the new one.

I can trust this person's better than me. They they're going to keep at least what I did over here or better." And so but like how often do you find that? And then you don't have to pay out your your your nose. I'll never forget I told you guys this this story so many times, but I had a client was this really successful guy uh self-made, whatever. I was a kid and I asked him, I said like, "What's your advice like for me?" And he's like, "You got to ask the right questions." I said, "What is it?" He says, "Ask me how many times I failed." And so I was like, "Tell me how many times you failed." And he went through and told me about the times he made fortunes and went bankrupt.

It was like three times. And I'm like, "Why'd you keep trying?" He's like, "Cuz I love it. I just you got got to swing the bat." I was like, "Man." And [clears throat] that's that's really what that's what I say. You talk to an entrepreneur who does well, they're going to have failures going, man. You you're going to have failures, you know. know. know. Well, I told you guys that the the I can't remember what book it was that I read when I read that the what the average millionaire how many failures before they hit made their million was it's nine.

it's nine. it's nine. Is it? Is it? Is it? Yeah. Nine business fails before you make your million dollars. That's on that's what the average is. I remember reading that when I was like 20 22 somewhere around there. And of course at that at that I'm like a young ambitious kid who was like I'm gonna retire by 30, you know, saying [ __ ] like that. Like I said, yeah, I said stupid [ __ ] like that. that. that. So did I. And I let me tell you, I believed it.

I 100% believed it, right? And then I remember reading that and I remember going like, wait a second, I've only I've only failed at like two or three things. I better get to work. I better get to failing, you know? Like I remember having that having that epiphany that oh my god like that I've got to get way more swings got to I've got to get way more swings if I if I'm ever going to be that guy. Especially if I'm going to do it by 30 I better get to better get I better get to moving.

So what about you Doug? What's the what's the worst business business business business? Well investment failure. I think I've told this story. That's the best story I've ever heard in my life. It's not a great story. It was very painful. So I lived in Japan for six years. I I worked hard. I squirreled all my money away. I had no living expenses other than food and some travel, right? So, I was putting away I think about $120,000 and this was back in the 1990s. So, that's a lot of money.

10 billion. Yeah. Something like that. Uh and so I come back and I've been in I invested in some stocks. I invested like in Microsoft and and uh Starbucks and different companies that I knew from the Seattle area mainly. And then I decided I want to get into a triplex. Uh and I bought bought a triplex. I had renters whole thing and then I got involved with this organization that had these like high yield investments and I got caught up uh with the excitement over this particular this one instment that we were told it was Hitachi or something was associated with it.

It was a sure thing and I liquidated everything and put it in that all all all and I lost everything. So So yeah, I lost the whole thing. Oh, by the way, that triplex now is almost 30 years in. Uh, I would have had the thing basically paid off. Also, uh, stock in Starbucks. I think it's worth I'm not sure what would be worth more money. money. money. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Starbucks Microsoft. Starbucks Microsoft. Starbucks Microsoft. The pain was very real for many years afterwards.

But, you know, in hindsight, there was a lesson to be learned there about investing money and and that type of thing and and throwing all your money eggs in one basket, so to speak. That's why Doug holds on to our money. So, So, So, that's why I'm careful. You know, every time you guys are talking about stocks, I'm kind of rolling my eyes because, you know, obviously there's good stocks to invest in, but the average person doesn't do it well. I thought you were going to tell that story about when you were working with that group and then they they all got Oh, yeah.

That's That's the same group, by the way. No. No. No. So, hey, so he Wait a second. What scene happened first? How did you not learn your lesson from one of those two things? things? things? Well, no. So, that was But it all happened at one time. It all happened around the same time. This is the exciting story. Yeah. Only Doug has any experience with the FBI out of all. No, no personal experience, but yeah. So, I was with this group and their their whole thing was offshore investments, investments, investments, tax strategies were extremely aggressive, etc., etc.

And it was a massive organization. You know, they do these big seminars down in Cancun and there'd be like 2, three,000 people who showed up. It seemed super legit. You know, I was obviously younger back then uh and not so wise. And uh and so anyway, I I worked my way up. It was kind of like an MLM and I'd worked my way up into the leadership part of the organization. And uh and so one day we're on a leadership call with the three co-founders and then all of a sudden one of the guys goes silent.

He's gone off the off the call and then the next guy all we hear is his bird chirping in the background and then the third guy gone. It's like It's like It's like [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] During the middle of our call, it was like at that time the largest like uh you know coordinated IRS takedown. Oh my god. Yeah. So they all got picked up by the the feds uh during that call. And so after that, so I had never done any of the I didn't do any of the tax strategies cuz I was a little nervous about that, fortunately.

Yeah. But yeah, every time I saw Black Suburban after that, I was a little nervous. nervous. nervous. So Doug, did you So if you look that company up, do you think there's news articles on it? Oh, absolutely. I could find them. Yeah, I want to see those. So yeah, that was that was a couple of my fails uh early on. But, you know, as a result of that though, when I look at money and finance, I'm I'm fairly conservative now. And well, again, I mean, talk about what a what a beautiful balance the four of us have been with all of our experiences and stories because it's good that we we we have to pry our money away from Doug.

You know what I'm saying? And we and he changes passwords changes passwords every week to all of our stuff. stuff. stuff. Not a day goes by. Where's the other stuff? All it takes is being hacked once to get you nervous about that. No, it's good. good. good. I've done that. I've done I've been hacked. hacked. hacked. I've had IRS audit. Uh and again, it was not related to that was about something that wasn't reported properly. So, but they they sucked me in for a year with an audit.

So, I have a lot of experience with the kind of negative things that you can experience uh in the financial world. world. world. So, yeah, I'm very cautious. Like, nah, I won't do that again. Yeah. No, that's I love you told me that story when I was as a when I was your uh trainer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You were my client. You told me that story. story. story. Well, I was going to mention, you know, ABS, of course, I I worked out there. That's when I met S originally was there and then we created Maps Anabolic and the NOBS six-pack formula, which now has just been revamped.

Our 10 year anniversary relaunch, right? Yeah, basically. Yeah, basically. Yeah, basically. Yeah, dude. Yeah, that's kind of cool. That was a cool time to, you know, we also I know uh people can watch the original video, right? I was going to say, yes, the maps anabolic original video, the one that he sent to you. Yes. Yes. Yes. That got you interested in talking, which created mind pump. We're not going to point people to that, are we? are we? are we? Child in that video. That's fine.

That's great. In fact, yeah, nostalgia, dude. That was my first Can I tell you that was my first time on camera ever? Yeah, that was when Doug knew you had a business thing. I was like, I've got a business here. business here. business here. I put I put a quarter in this guy. There he goes, man. I like it. This guy loves the camera. We're going to make a lot of money. Really? It was it was pretty funny though cuz I had this uh what was it called?

Teleprompter, right? It was just an iPad with this mirror thing on the back. Very rudimentary teleprompter rudimentary teleprompter rudimentary teleprompter and this thing would freeze up all the time. time. time. Yes. Yes. Yes. ZONG WITH THE IPAD LIKE A FROZE UP AGAIN. AND SO we kept re-recording these passages. passages. passages. Were you stress dug out the same way back then or were you more less pressure back then? Huh? It built over years. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, WE'RE STILL DEALING WITH THE NEXT RULE. RULE. RULE. What's going on here?

But yeah, that video that took us a while to film uh is now available. And I know Eli know Eli know Eli during our maps anabolic launch one that we just did recently. He put it up that link. I think he'll include it again. Where is it? Is it on the mapsolic.com or is it somewhere else, Eli? Description. In the description. You can you can find that. worth the watch. Yeah. So, I know. Okay. So, I know we're doing a couple things for the 10 year anniversary, right?

So, we have the the anabolic relaunch, which we've revamped things. We've customized some stuff. So, no BS is now and then and then no B and then No BS is correct. I know it's discounted too, right? right? right? Oh, yeah. It's half off. So, that's half off. And then addition to that, you I know that there's an opportunity to upsell to a nutrition call with with that if you buy. So, if you buy No BS. So, the No BS six-pack formula is uh with the discount $28.50 50 cents and it's it's all about building your abs, building your core.

Same principles from absabolic applied to core training uh and it's half off and then you can get a nutrition call with that. What is it? Is is it no bs6pack.com? Is Is Is double check that. Yeah, I think it's no BS6pack uh with the number sixpack.com. Yep. Nobsixack.com Nobsixack.com Nobsixack.com and the code is six-pack for the for the half off. That was a good time, dude. That was a while ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Every time I see that video, that picture of me, I'm like, that's a lot of hair.

I look real young, higher voice. Yeah. Did you see the personalities? I know. I can't even do the Kermit voice for you anymore. I saw somebody screenshotted in the forums. You see the picture? They screenshotted a picture of you and they're like, "Hey, someone needs to tell Sone on the team put a grandpa filter on his jerk. Shots fired, dog. Shots fired. What a what a jerk. I hate that. Hey, I got to tell you guys about I'm going to change subjects here. Um, you know how occasionally people will report that creatine makes them feel like bloated or causes like gut, you know, kind of gut issues?

That's the number one side effect from creatine. And it's more reported by women. I I don't there's no data to show that women have a harder time digesting protein. Um, but I but typically when someone says creatine causes bloat, it's typically women. These are friends of mine. The row creatine solved it. Solved it. So the people thatal is that so so this so I think it's so so this so I think it's just easier on the gut. So the the the friends that I have that are women that I'm constantly, you know, hammering them, take creatine, take creatine.

It's so effective. So good for your brain. It's good for your mood. It's good for your bones. It's good for muscle. Oh, every time I take it, it bloats me. Every time I take it, it'll blow. They're taking row and they're like, I could take that no problem. And I have no no no delivery system. delivery system. delivery system. I think it's the liposomaal delivery. Interesting. So I've had that people say that before. Normally what I do is I make them just kind of split the doses up, up, up, but I didn't.

No, they're taking full five grams, you know, and getting no nothing. No issues whatsoever. whatsoever. whatsoever. Oh wow, that's really cool. So I think it's because of the liposomaal effect from it. Are you guys uh are you guys taking off uh for your week whenever when we go? Are you guys have you have vacations planned? planned? planned? We're going to Yellowstone. Are you going to Yellowstone? That's cool, dude. Oh, that's right. So obviously you're not camping or you do you guys what do you guys do like like in a situation like that where you're it's I mean it's not camping but you're probably in a cabin somewhere up that place.

So, I got us an Airbnb in a place called Island Park, which is 30 minutes uh outside of the west entrance from Yellowstone. So, I got this this this really nice house, and it's going to be to be to be me, my kids, Jessica, and then my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, and their kids. And so, we're all going to go there, and we got a car. So, we'll just Good family trip. Drive to Yellowstone or hang out there at Island Park. Now, you're you're sponsored by Door Dash, and you're all the way out there, and I don't think they go out there.

So, what do you do like are you like like like Island Park is like a community I think you can I'm not staying in Yellowstone 30 minutes out. Okay. So, you can still go to live off I see this guy scooping up all our sponsor stuff before he got to live off truck. No, I think there's grocery store. I don't know. I've never been there before to be honest with you. But, uh 40 pounds of beef. of beef. of beef. Yeah. See there? See? See? It's 32-minute drive to uh to the west entrance.

entrance. entrance. Oh, okay. So, you still got to drive. Have you guys been to Yellowstone before? before? before? I have not. Yeah. One time. Yeah, dude. It's amazing. It's so beautiful. National parks. I'm a big fan. So, so, so Yoseite, which is in our, you know, quote unquote backyard, is picturesque, right? Yuseity is just beauty. beauty. beauty. Yellowstone is so massive. Huge crosses over. Does it cross over two states? two states? two states? I think more or three. Is it three? How many states does it cross over?

Boy, good question. I was just going to say though, Island Parks population is 193 people. Idaho. But I think it's close to other. Okay. So, it's three. Does it cross over three states? For sure. Oh, wow. So, it's Idaho, Montana, and what's the other one? other one? other one? Uh, Wyoming. Uh, Wyoming. Uh, Wyoming. Wyoming. Yeah, you might be right. Um, trivia. Um, trivia. Um, trivia. But what's cool? What's Yeah, it is. Good job, guys. Only 1% is in uh Idaho. You know what's crazy about it?

Most of it's Wyoming. Uh, Yellowstone is like there's it feels like you're on another planet in some of the areas. Like you go to certain areas, you're like, "This does not look like Earth. Earth. Earth. I'm on Mars right now." like with the with the way the acidic with the way the acidic pool. pool. pool. I know what you're saying because it's cool because the heat like changes the color of the water and so you have like this really like bright almost turquoise color and yeah it's it's trippy.

There are these pools I don't remember what they're called. Maybe you can look them up. them up. them up. When was the last time you went? I went there with Jessica uh in 2000. This already the second time you guys go. go. go. Well, we were dating then. We didn't we didn't go with the kids and stuff. So yeah, you like shot guns and stuff last time we went, right? Yeah, we did. Oh, I remember that story now, now, now, bro. bro. bro. I remember that story.

If you're from California and you go to Montana, Montana, Montana, cool guns. cool guns. cool guns. It is weird. It is weird, dude. Cuz I'm from California. I know is too. I I did. Yeah, we treat guns weird over here in California. I was in We were there at this when I was with we were just dating. We're in Montana and I see like a It's like a gun I don't know, like a shooting range. So, I'm like, "Yeah, let's go check it out." Sure. Sure.

Sure. We walk in and on the wall is like every gun you could imagine, including ones you see in video games. I'm like, "What is that? They go, "Is that a real?" He's like, "That's an Israeli military grade." military grade." military grade." Yeah. He's like, "That's an Israeli blah blah blah. You can shoot around corners with it and stuff." I'm like, "What? Huh?" Huh?" Huh?" And I'm like, "Oh, it's it's for display." I'm like, "How do I how can I shoot some of these?" He's like, "Oh, just give me your driver's license." Like, I give you driver license.

Which one do you want to shoot? I'm like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "You just go around the corner and you just pay per 30 minutes." Cool. Let's go. Your ammo's up. You're done. It's so different. It was It was It was a good time. That's cool. It was a good time. I got to get out I want to go out there for sure at the moment. It's crazy. It's crazy. And uh we're going to go to this one park there. I can't remember. Bear park or something where you could feed grizzly bears.

What? What? What? Yeah. So, you're like in a what? Yeah. You're like in these You could feed them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, Yeah. Dude, Yeah. Dude, like they give you stuff or you bring your own stuff to feed them. I don't know. But you're allowed to give them them them managed. It's a park with grizzlies on it. it. it. Look up the gri Yeah. Look at That does not sound like No, you know what you should do? It says Bear Park with grizzlies. Okay. No.

Look up Yellowstone people. You can't feed your bears. No. There's this Someone's playing a prank on you, dog. No. There's a Someone's trying to set you up, guy. No, there's a park where you can feed. It's strictly illegal. No, dude. Listen, I'm going to find Bear Cub bottle feeding. Is that what you're going to do? Maybe that's it. Bear World and Rexburg. Is it Bear World? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I think that's it. I think it's it's Bear World. There it is. Drive-thru There it is. Drive-thru wildlife park.

wildlife park. wildlife park. Wrestle the Wrestle the Wrestle the That's the one right there, dude. They got rides and stuff and I think there's an There you go. Right there. Look. Look at the bears. What? Oh, so they're all like domesticated. domesticated. domesticated. Yeah. Look, they walk up to you and stuff, dude. stuff, dude. stuff, dude. Oh my god. No way. No way. No way. That's wild, dude. I didn't know that. Maybe you can't feed them. I don't know, but I know they walk up to the car.

the car. the car. Get clear on that before you go. Yeah, I don't know about that, bro. Take our Paleo Valley beef sticks. No, No, No, they love they love they love and get a commercial. Get a commercial ad for us. You will you will set our contract up for like the next We already know black bears like them. They crushed that. Do you remember that oven truck? That was I had like 40 lbs of the beef steaks up there. I'll never forget. I'll never forget.

That was one of the dumbest things I ever did was leave that inside the laundry room. I had we had like one of those I don't know like those Costco bag things and we had just started working with them. And so we we literally it was completely full of those beef sticks and I was heading up there to to to load our house up house up house up and we didn't lock the door and it didn't Yeah. it didn't lock the door. And then I remember pulling up the next time and the pantry door and the side door to the house wide open and right at the front was a a peanut butter jar.

And I'd never seen a peanut butter jar so clean. I mean inside of it was clear was like as if as if there was no peanut butter ever in it and it just sitting out like that and then like walking there. I don't think I've ever been so scared walking into our house. You thought the bear might be there. Oh man. And I'm not afraid. So, I grew up country, so I'm not afraid of black bears, but being in a house with a black bear is different, right?

Yeah. They have to get out. Yeah. Cuz cuz they'll they'll be scared and they want if it's between you, if you're in front of the door and it's only escape. only escape. only escape. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to go through you. Yeah. So, like I mean I if they're out in the wild, you hit some pans, they'll freak out. Ah, you scared. They're fine. But you you inside a house and being in the house with them, I just don't that that scares the [ __ ] out of me.

So, being the person who had to go walk and figure out is this thing here? You know what I'm upset about? I'm upset that we took There was a big paw print in the pantry. Why did we wash that? I left. I think the cleaners Yeah, we I left it there for a while. We should have painted it. At least like Yeah. traced it or something. something. something. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. I think if it was a good one, I probably would have have like said something to you guys about that, but I felt like it wasn't that good.

There was a lot of animal prints though. Remember that? There's like all these other ones. Like what was wild was he he opened the I'm assuming it's a he. He open the door and I feel like the whole like forest came in with him. They the the fact that he could open and close doors and stuff. No scratches. No scratches. No scratches. Really? I thought for sure like the sofa would be torn apart or something. Yeah, we were lucky. He didn't take a dump in the bathroom.

He did. He went to the bathroom. No, actually in the the dining in the dining area. Breakfast nook area. Oh, that's where he pooped. I thought it was upstairs. was upstairs. was upstairs. I'm not even certain it was the the bears poop cuz it was so small. It could have been like a smaller uh like a raccoon or or coyote or bobcat or something like that in there. You left the door open. That's gross, dude. You left you left. What's crazy was once they once they found out that they could feed there, we had a problem for like the next couple years.

years. years. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Where they were getting in the trash. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I looked up, by the way, I looked up the the the fermentation process that they do with their meat sticks, you know. Yeah. When you eat Paleo Valley meat sticks, people, if you've had them, you know they're not dry. They taste good. They don't taste like normal. I mean, they taste amazing. Um, and it's because uh other companies use a different process. I I'll look it up cuz I actually had it.

Uh, I remember her saying like the cost for that uh was substantial and that's why a lot of other companies like definitely, you know what they should do? We should talk to them about this. We've been with them long enough to convince them to do. So, you know what other companies do? Uh, quick acidification. citric acid or encapsulated acids for preservation. Fermentation takes days to weeks, but that's why it tastes so good. And it also breaks down the protein so it's tender. tender. tender. They're one of those things those brands where it's like you could I think they could take a loss on the front end to get it to people to try than you clothe because any most people have had beef jerky.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like oh I've never had beef jerky. jerky. jerky. Oh, it's way different. When you when Exactly. When you have that and you realize how much better it is than anything else out there, it's to me it's like it sells itself. I wonder if they would consider doing something like that where they give out like a small nugget. Yeah. Like a a small sample size so people can taste the difference in it because I mean that's how we got sold. How many different beachy companies tried to send us stuff and then we had theirs and we're like, "Oh my god, these are amazing.

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Would you limit this stronger leg to the reps you can successfully complete on the weaker leg? So, this is very common. Yeah. Okay. So, anytime you do any kind of unilateral exercise or split stance or something like that, almost always, in fact, it's pretty rare to not have one side that feels more stable or stronger. And the discrepancy can be minor, it can be major. Yeah, we're going to be glaring. Uh the approach to fix this uh is can be multifaceted, but it all generally looks like this.

Start with the weaker side and allow those reps and that weight or whatever you're lifting to dictate what you do on the stronger side. And that's it. So, if you only do 10 reps with your left leg, when you go to the right, you stop when you get to 10. Uh otherwise, you may maintain the discrepancy through your training. I want to add that one of the coolest things about when you figure this out or find out like wow I have a sometimes people get discouraged or frustrated but it's actually a really exciting time like cuz if you stick to the Bulgarians you take the advice that you just said when you balance that out and then you go back to like let's say a barbell back squat or some of your traditional it is amazing how oh how strong and stable and comfortable you feel.

I've had clients report back too that they they they had like hip pain or low back pain that they would from back squatting gone now that they they're balanced left to right better. Like there's a lot of stuff that tends to work itself out when you take the time to do unilateral work like this and really balance the body out. So even though it may be frustrating for some people when they notice this and a lot of times and I'm I'm sharing this because what I've seen happen is someone does it.

They re they see this discretion and they get frustrated like they bail on the exercise and they go back to doing leg. Well, cuz they're Yeah. they're used to having the ability of like your strong leg. You're like, well, this should catch up to it when in fact, you [clears throat] know, you're going to have to like, you know, take take a bit away and you're going to have to kind of build yourself back up. But to your point of the long-term pain solution and and compensations and discrepancies you're going to have long term, it's like now you're addressing it, your body is going to perform so much better.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I was just looking this up while we're talking about just differences and discrepancies. There are stories of boxers, obviously, when you're when you're fighting, you're you're you have one hand that's dominant, but they would they there was several boxers I looked up where they broke the right hand had to and continued training and it ended up [clears throat] making them way better boxers. Yep. Because they learned how to be so good with the other hand and then they learned how to be addressless.

Who? addressless. Who? addressless. Who? Rocky. Rocky. Rocky. That he took that. He did. He's like Rocky too, right? He didn't break his hand. Uh Mickey tied his hand. time, right? Yeah. But um but no, it's it's pretty interesting how the the progress you can make when you find a discrepancy like that. that. that. Next question is from Corey Nicholson. I'm currently running MAPS 15 powerlift, but instead of using the traditional powerlifting lifts, back squat, bench press, and conventional deadlift, I'm considering using my weakest variations as my primary lifts, front squat, incline bench press, and sumo deadlift.

My goal is to bring up these lifts while still benefiting from the MAPS 15 power lift structure. Do you think this is a good approach? And are there any modifications, recovery considerations, or programming tweaks you'd recommend when substituting these lifts? That's a great love this idea. So, here's why this works. Cuz someone may be listening and be like, "Oh, cool. So, I'm just going to switch out exercises on a maps program. It'll work, right?" No, cuz programming can be uh a bit touchy. But here's why this works.

He's doing variations of the primary. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's not going back squat to some other, you know, exercise. It's not This is great. I love this idea. He's going back squat to front squat, bench press, incline press, you know, conventional deadlift. This is a great idea. idea. idea. Shout out to Cory. Even a good alternative. Yeah. alternative. Yeah. alternative. Yeah. No, that's Yeah, I mean, for all the listeners who love the 15 protocol, this is a great I a great way to use our programming to uh benefit other lifts like this.

So, this is this is a great idea. I like this a lot. Next question is from Fatal Strength. Which maps program do you recommend to fix imbalances, unlock my squat depth, and get me training pain-free? Specifically for quote unquote imbalances, this would be MAPS Prime or Prime Pro. Um, so it's not a program. Both of them are correct in nature and can be used with any program. Okay. Symmetry. Symmetry. Symmetry. Those are specific. If you want a program uh where it's the workout itself, symmetry uh it's it's the best one.

one. one. I mean, the ideal situation would be to to own the two would be to have prime with symmetry. with symmetry. with symmetry. Oh, great. Oh, great. Oh, great. So, you know what your specific individual uh discrepancies are and then you go to unilateral work. And so, I would if someone's really trying to focus on this, that would be my recommendation is to to have both those. Now imag this is this is really important to discuss like when it comes to imbalances um and moving well without pain or whatever.

Um you know correctional exercise is so valuable and I think sometimes we we kind of cut it out because we want to keep progressing on our main lifts and we tend to ignore little nagging pains and we'll do things like wear elbow sleeves or you know we'll do little variations. Uh fixing quote unquote imbalances uh will give you much better progress. It'll unlock a higher ceiling to your lifts. Don't negate that kind of stuff. Look, Prime and Prime Pro. If you're listening and you don't have those programs, just prime.

Get Maps Prime. Do the priming sessions based off of your own body, the compass test, what it tells you about your body, and you will get 5 to 10% more out of your current workout. Yeah, I wish we highlighted that more. Like it's it's like that 10 to 15% performance boost plus, you know, muscle building potential that you're, you know, leaving behind. Next question is from Janie Ewell. What's your opinion on sprint intervals paired with strength training? It depends on how you pair them. Uh separately, great.

Uh sprint intervals are great for stamina, endurance, uh for power. power. power. Um what I hope you don't mean is that you're lifting and then sprinting and lifting and sprinting and doing like a circuit, which is a terrible ideate these out. these out. these out. Terrible idea. Terrible idea. Terrible idea. Yeah, this is could be amazing. Uh and I think the way we would program this is on different days. M right. So you'd have your let's say like you're running a MAPS program which traditionally they're like three-day type routines full body or something like maps anabolic and then the days in between is when you would do like interval type training.

Totally. And by the way for if you want to get really good uh or really maximize the usefulness of sprints, you treat sprinting uh like you do strength training. So sprinting is the strength training of cardio if you will. So what that would look like, let's say it's like running sprinting is you get warmed up. Make sure you can do this properly. by the way, cuz high risk of injury if you can't do it right. You do your sprint, then you done with your sprint, you come back to the beginning start line, you wait and you rest.

Yeah. You wait till you're recovered full, full, full, ready to go again. It's all about getting power, getting power, getting power, keeping it anorobic. So that's the thing is different because [clears throat] I think yeah, people will get like uh antsy and motivated uh to just go that next rep and keep it going. And uh really that energy system is what you're training and we need that immediate firing of everything. A a generic what a recommendation probably be what three five minute rest in between the sprints.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know to to allow depend on the person. 10 minutes for me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. So that's why I say at least 3 to 5 minutes. I think most people that think of something like sprints like this they're like doing them and then resting a minute or less and they're going right back into it until they're tired. Where if you're doing this appropriately uh to get those benefits like the ideal would be rest three to five. And that's why too, this is why you would pair this on a different day is because what it would look like for me is I would spend a good 10 15 minutes doing my mobility work and kind of warming up really well and get warm.

Maybe do a couple light short runs on sprints, you know, where I just kind of slowly start and then I've got five hard working sets and they're got and there's rest periods in between them and I'm letting my heart rate come all the way down and I'm giving it everything I got for that short burst and then right back. That's right. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mindput Media. All right, I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out.

Walking. It's one of the best things you could do for your health, bar none. But there's a better way to approach it. Yes, you can just walk, but if you follow the right protocol, it's far more effective. Let's talk about talk about talk about walking. I can't wait to hear your walking protocol. walking protocol. walking protocol. Well, there is a Well, there is a protocol. So, and I'll start with the first thing, right? Cuz just first off, uh let me start with this. One of the reasons why walking um is such a great form of just activity is because it's low risk of injury.