The 90-Day Hormone Reset That Actually Works | Mind Pump 2749

Key Takeaway

Your hormones may be out of balance due to three key factors: poor sleep, chronic stress (often overtraining), and inadequate nutrition. Start with consistent 8-hour sleep, reduce exercise intensity if you're overdoing it, and prioritize eating your body weight in grams of protein daily from whole foods. These fundamentals can rebalance hormones naturally in 90 days.

Episode Overview

This episode provides a 90-day hormone reset protocol, addressing the three main causes of hormone imbalances: poor sleep, excessive stress/overtraining, and nutritional deficiencies. The hosts explain why traditional medical ranges miss many imbalances and offer practical solutions including sleep optimization, exercise modification, and protein-focused nutrition strategies.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The 90-Day Hormone Reset That Actually Works | Mind Pump 2749 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Hormone Hormone imbalances suck. They feel terrible. Low libido, low energy, skin looks like crap. You're sleeping terribly, horrible recovery, no results. What's going on here? It's actually quite common. Hormone imbalances these days seem to be far more common than they used to be. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you a 90-day reset. Okay? Many of you can rebalance your hormones in 90 days if you tackle the problem and apply these strategies. We're gonna get into it. Let's go. Do you remember when this used to be like the the like the big challenge that you had with your clients?

Like not real like I think early on had draw up these meal plans, have these workouts workouts workouts and you'd have these clients that were coming back that were you I'm doing it. I'm doing all the things you're doing and they're just not seeing the results. And I think that like your hormone clinics and stuff that they have now just they didn't exist back then. It was like, "Well, go see your GP." And the GP would be like, "You're fine. You're okay." And then you'd be like, "Man, what is something's" And you just assume they are lying to you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and then then we start to have maybe I don't know, it's probably eight years or so into my career, do the do the, you know, the hormone replacement therapy and and the clinics start coming up and you see more. You could still find a hormone specialist back then, but it was just really uncommon. Yeah. No, I I and I didn't know as a and I didn't know as a young trainer to like send somebody to go do that. I had I was super blessed uh when I had my studio um you know when I opened my studio my idea was to have this kind of wellness facility uh and at the time I was like just pure trainer.

I understood strength training. I understood cardio. I knew macros and calories and that was it. And I had a young woman that worked in my studio. Um, she was a physical therapist by training, but she went private and had invested heavily into educating herself on hormones and gut health. So, I had the opportunity to work next to her and I would overhear her talk. It was a small studio, so we would, you know, I'd overhear conversations and then I would work with her myself and at one point she helped me and that's when I learned about uh hormone imbalance.

And like you said, Adam, you go to your typical doctor, your GP, your hormones have to be so out of whack for them to notice based off of their readings. Like you, you know, there's like there's like there's like you could have hormones that are so bad that the doctor's like, "Okay, we got to give you thyroid, right?" right?" right?" Or you could just have hormone imbalances that kind of fall within range and they're like, "Well, you look okay, even though you have all these symptoms of hormone imbalance." Mhm.

Um and so I got the opportunity to hear and witness what it looked like to try to balance hormones in a you know quote unquote natural way. Um now sometimes that doesn't work. Uh but many times it does. Many times you can do things uh in your life or not do things in your life that will actually cause changes in your hormones to balance them out and your symptoms will start to get uh much better. And so um you know I think that's what's important to talk about right now.

right now. right now. Yeah. I had a very similar experience to what you describe, Adam. But like it was two of my clients that I had trained for years and we were doing all the right things things things to the point where I was even infiltrating and and having a a personal chef make and prepare all the meals and we had all the macros and everything was balanced and I was like literally taking over their workouts and managing their movement and it's like what is nothing is moving the needle at this point.

We got to a certain, you know, point and it was just like just barely any progress. Yeah. I I I would say go ahead. People have to understand too like this. I love that like we have Doug as a great example for this because and he he's a bit of anomaly, but so are some of these clients that you end up dealing with and and more more often than not where somebody uh doesn't know where their healthy baseline is. And to your the point you made is that this range is so wide that you imagine imagine Doug you know bunch of stress hits him stuff goes on he starts eating bad doing a bunch of things and he and his testosterone goes all the way down from where he's at what 13 or 12 or what 1200 or whatever the hell it is his total his total his total and it tanks all the way down to like 450.

Yeah. 450, which is a a third. Like it's like literally more than cutting him in half, but that would put him within range. Yeah. But he he would feel that like he would he would probably feel depressed. He would be unmotivated to lift. He wouldn't be recovering the same. Just all he would feel all these symptoms, but if he were to go to see his GP, his GP would say, "Hey, your age, you're doing great. You're doing great. There's nothing wrong with you." And so I think this is what happens to a lot of clients that are just talking to their general practitioner and they're like, "Oh, yeah." And they're and they're now in their 40s or 50s and they fall in the, you know, lower range, but still in the range and the doctor says, "Hey, you're no, you're you're fine." It's like, well, yeah, but did you know where you were just 10 years ago?

Could you have been double or triple what that was? And and that's what you're used to feeling healthy at. healthy at. healthy at. Yeah. That's why symptoms are also important to look at. And you know what's crazy, too, Adam? mentioned people 40s 50s uh hormone imbalances or symptoms of imbalances are are hitting younger people uh now at rates we haven't seen earlier yeah I mean we can use uh like data on testosterone that those levels have been declining in men for decades um the use of birth control in women has caused uh lots of issues as well so um you know let's start with like the big rocks the big reasons why sometimes or often times people will will have these kind of by the way imbalances feel like suddenly my body's not mine.

Uh I nothing's responding like it used to. I can't seem to recover. I've got all this crazy fatigue or anxiety. anxiety. anxiety. Uh basically it's like what is going on is is typically it could disrupt sleep. It'll it'll keep you from recovering. Libido could go down. Hot cold temperature changes. You really just don't feel like yourself. Uh and and that's kind of I guess a general it doesn't have to be all of those. It could just be some of those. That's right. So here's the first one that I've noticed and and if you look at the data, this has a profound effect on your hormones and that is sleep.

Sleep is one of the biggest um contributors to good or bad hormone profile. So poor sleep over time, by the way, acutely it'll affect your hormones. One bad night of sleep in studies has a profound effect on your hormones, but cumulative kind of crappy sleep over time definitely throws things out of whack. It it spikes the stress hormone cortisol uh as your body's trying to produce more energy to get you moving. You'll see estrogen or progesterone start to be out of whack in women. In men, testosterone will drop in women as well.

growth hormone starts to change um as your body's trying to deal with the stress of poor sleep. So, in my experience when I would work with clients like this, if we tackled sleep first, we would typically see the needle move in the right direction. And what does this look like for most people and we can do a whole episode on sleep and we have but generally speaking, you want roughly eight hours of sleep every single night. You want to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.

And the things that tend to affect sleep negatively are electronic use right before bed. Um you know uh bad temperature in your room. Um so you want to essentially take it caffeine is a huge one. Alcohol is another one. another one. another one. You want to essentially tackle sleep and be consistent with it. And so you want to say to yourself, I'm going to bed at this time and this is the time I'm going to wake up and I'm going to do this consistently. And give yourself 30 days.

uh for many people with poor sleep uh it takes about 30 days to start to see improvements uh in this. So that's the first place uh that I would start. The second thing is uh stress. Now our audience I think we have a bit of a self- selection bias uh of people because it's a fitness podcast. Our in in our experience with our audience, we probably are talking to people who overtrain or do apply too much exercise and stress on themselves versus when we look at the general population.

General population needs more activity. Yeah. They need to step up their game. But when we talk to people who listen to our podcast or who call in who are like, "Ah, my hormones feel out of whack." And we look at what they're doing, it's like, "Whoa, you're doing way too much." typically typically typically way too much exercise, way too much stress. And so I would say if that's you where you're like, "Yeah, I work out consistently. I never miss a workout. This is like my life.

This I love what I I love doing it." I think a a MAPS 15 protocol for many of these people would be appropriate. be appropriate. be appropriate. I think I think it's also important to note that the the context of that matters because every even the people listening right now are like, "Oh, that's not me." And I had this I just had this call with my my cousin who's uh you know permenopausal on thyroid struggle has been struggling with weight forever and uh eats hardly anything.

And so these the people that don't think that they're overtraining don't realize that it's part of the the whole piece that that makes it overtraining. It's like they look at the training by itself and they're like, "Well, my friend is doing CrossFit and they're doing all this stuff. I'm not even close to that and I go for walks and I'm only doing this. I can't be possibly overtraining. It's only a few days a week or whatever." But what they don't realize is that in the context of maybe not the best sleep, they're super low calorie, not hitting their protein intake, who knows what their job, family life looks like.

You got all these other stressors. And then in addition to that, when you go in the gym, you get after it or you love the circuit class type of training. And it's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not necessarily bad training. It's that in the context of where your body is at hormonally and healthwise. healthwise. healthwise. It's wrong for and it's not helping and it's only making it's only exacerbating the problem which is really frustrating because you're putting this what feels like hard work in towards losing weight or getting in shape and you're only making it more difficult for yourself.

This is why most people call it doesn't it doesn't neutralize your stress which I think a lot of people if they're making the right decisions with nutrition with you know training and then sleep I mean sleep honestly would be the answer and rest but it's like you know for them it's it's it's the combination of all three so you know I'm doing all the things except that training itself is a stressor after I'm glad you said that because I think there is this misconception about that so many people uh oh when I'm really stressed I go trained really hard and so they they think of it as a stress relief because of what gets released right afterwards and how you feel and that feeling of accomplishment and so there's a psychological part that tells you that oh this is a this is good for me when I'm really stressed out this helps me recover get better mentally and stuff like that but you can't here this this will help people you can't force your hormones to balance you can only allow them to balance okay so you can't make it happen I can't go to the gym and be like this is going to make my hormones Yeah.

Balance by beating myself up. You have to allow them to balance. So, so there's two sides of the spectrum here. There's the I sit all day. I'm never active. I'm in front of a computer all the time. I'm really never outside. And then you have the uh you know go go, poor sleep, work, caffeine, and I go to the gym and do Orange Theory or CrossFit or circuit training. So, those are the two general avatars of people with hormone imbalance. The person that I said first, you got to go outside and walk.

You got to do some strength training. You got to move. This person over here, let's scale it way back. Let's have you do Maps 15 protocol. Two lifts a day. Stop all the other stuff. We're not having you do extra cardio. It's okay to walk. Those two people, the approach is a bit different. One of them, we got to get you moving, dude. You got to go outside. You can't be in front of your computer all the time. You got to get some some sunlight. This person over here, scale it way back.

You're doing way too much. bring it down. Let's have you lift a little bit and let's have your body start to balance itself out. So, those are the kind of two general avatars when it comes to activity and how it's affecting uh hormones. Then, when it comes to diet, uh you know, Adam mentioned one that's actually quite common, which is underfeeding yourself. underfeeding yourself. underfeeding yourself. Yep. Oh, yeah. You're if you don't eat adequate, especially nutrient- wise. No, no. If you don't eat Okay. The big the big ones are fat and protein.

You don't eat enough fat and protein, you can forget. You can kiss your hormones goodbye. You need both just to thrive. In fact, you could eat 10,000 calories a day, but if your protein is too low and your fat is too low, you'll over time die because they're essential nutrients. So, that's the two most important. But carbohydrates also are in there as well. A lot of people think, oh, carbs are not essential, which is true, meaning you don't have to eat carbs for your body to function.

But what we see in the data is chronic under carbohydrate feeding causes hormone imbalances especially thyroid. This is what we see uh in individuals. It also can cause over time insulin resistance. I know people are like I thought carbs were bad for that blood sugar. There's actually this uh this strange phenomena that happens where you go no carb for too long, you actually cause some insulin resistance uh and and some issues. So carbohydrates also need to be in there as well. You don't need a ton of them.

But if you're listening to this and you're like, I'm allergic to carbs or whatever. I don't eat them. I never eat them. Uh and but you're having uh issues with your hormones, eating carbohydrates may just be what you need. And so that's what we're looking at with the diet. Now on there's again two avatars that we typically see with this, which is the overfed undernourished overfed undernourished overfed undernourished and the underfed undernourished. So overfed, undernourished is like I eat a lot of garbage, a lot of heavily processed foods.

this is what my diet looks like, but I have nutrient deficiencies because I don't eat high quality food. Then over here, it's like, I eat high quality food. I just don't eat enough. I'm eating 1,200 calories a day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I listen to you guys. I eat whole natural foods, but when I look at my food intake, it's low, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so you need to bump your calories. We just got to give you more more food to get those hormones to balance.

Uh so that's the nutrition piece. And then nutrient-wise, uh I if had you asked me 10 years ago what I thought about uh taking a multivitamin and taking certain nutrients in supplement form, I would have said, "Well, if you eat a whole food diet and you're healthy, you probably don't need it." I don't believe that anymore. Uh now when I look at the d the data, the amount first of all the the planning required to have a nutrients nutrients nutrients diet uh is insane. So fitness professionals who plan everything like good luck it's hard for you let alone the average person.

And then the amount of calories required uh to get those nutrients is higher than what most people would consume anyway. For a man it's like almost 3,000 calories a day uh which most guys if they consume 3,000 calories a day of a healthy diet um that might in some cases be too much and or they're eating more than that but it's not those types of foods well planned out. nutrient deficiencies will cause hormone imbalances in particular things like vitamin D. So supplementing with those becomes uh quite important in some cases and I've seen this by the way uh not all not super frequent but I would have to estimate in my experience 20 to 30% of the time so it's a significant minority uh somebody would just supplement with vitamin D and zinc and magnesium and then we would suddenly see hormones start to balance out box.

Yeah. box. Yeah. box. Yeah. Today's giveaway is the RGB bundle. If you want to win, leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it. Also, subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. And then if you win, we'll notify you in the comment section. Also, Maps 15 strong is out. Brand new program. It's the Maps Strong program in the 15minute a day version. It's brand new and it's 50% off. Go to maps15.com. maps15.com. maps15.com. Use the code December50 for the discount.

Here comes the show. Do you think a lot of this has to do with just how depleted our soils are? Totally. Totally. Totally. Like Doug, I pulled this up. I know I've seen this before. Why were our fruits and vegetables? and vegetables? and vegetables? They compare like a like a potato or a tomato like just like a hundred or 200 years ago. I wrote that like the just the nutrient value of that to today's it's like it's crazy difference. difference. difference. The industrial farming, right? How it like took over and they just don't do the regenerative.

No, they replenish what's what the soil needs to grow a vegetable, but they don't replenish the the minerals that are in the soil. And so mineral depletion is actually quite high. high. high. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um so you could eat, you know, 500 calories worth of fruits and vegetables today has the nutrient equivalent of, let's say, 100 calories or 200 calories from 80 years ago. So that actually makes a big difference. So you could be eating lots of fruits and vegetables, uh, but you're not getting the same nutrients that your grandparents did.

Yeah, I've seen like two I've seen some really good like example. Magnesium is a big one. Taste the difference, too. I'll be honest. If you ever grow anything in your backyard, Yeah. It's so substantial. Yeah. What does that say there, Doug? So I'm looking at for between 1950 and 1999 there's been a drop of like iron by 15%, calcium by 16%, riboplavin by 38%. Wow, that's a just that's since the 1990s. 1990s. 1990s. Even protein is I'm talking about before we were born. That's 1950. That's 1950.

That's 1950. Oh, he said 50 heard Doug look up magnesium. That's a big one. The the riboplav flavin is a big one. Um one. Um one. Um yeah, 38%. yeah, 38%. yeah, 38%. Yeah. I mean so so you know again you're not even talking about 100 years though. You're only talking like I mean we're talking 50 years. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. Right. Right. Right. So multivitamin becomes that's why now we have studies that show people that take multivitamins uh tend to do better have better health overall.

I think it was a you know a healthy bias but not magnesium the range widely from 10% to over to 80 90%. Down. Down. Down. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So yeah supplement with a multivitamin. Get good sleep. Uh, and then diet-wise, here's how you approach here's how you approach your diet. It's going to sound very simple, but this is actually really it. Uh, you've heard us say this at least a thousand times on the podcast now. Um, if you hit your body weight in protein or your target body weight in grams of protein and eat it first and stick to whole natural foods and eat until you're satisfied, that pretty much covers everything.

That takes care of all of it. Now, you're like, I want to lose weight. weight. weight. That actually gets you to lose body fat. I want to build muscle that actually gets you to build muscle. It actually your calories when you consume this way, when you eat this way, your calories, uh, this is the really not the best word to use to describe it, but this is what happens. They balance out. Meaning, you'll eat more when you want when your body needs to build. You'll eat less in order to burn body fat.

So, over time, you get a body composition change by following a plan like that. So, it it kind of falls into where it's supposed to be naturally, unless you're on the extremes where you're like, you know, chronic undereater. Uh, in which case, uh, I I'm having you make yourself eat more. Um, or you just have this crazy appetite, which this solves that many times. But you may be in that 10% where you have this dysfunctional relationship with food where you super eat, in which case, you know, you got to cut back a little, but for most people, that's it.

You know, I was reminded uh I was told you I talked to my my cousin um just the other day about uh her trying to lose weight and the challenges that she's she's been struggling for a very long time. It's good for me to do this just because we don't coach clients anymore and it's been a long time since uh and and every time I do it reminds me of like, you know, this is stuff that we should probably talk more about or bring up on the podcast because what I realize talking to her is how one how common she is because I've had this conversation so many times of how many clients just don't know how that sounds really crazy but it's like for example for example for example like uh I told you guys about the breakfast thing where she was just like lost.

lost. lost. Yeah. How do I eat 35 grams of Yeah. I don't I don't It's How do I I'm kind of a picky eater. I don't like Greek yogurt or I don't like cottage cheese and so how do I get 35 to 50 grams of protein in the morning? I just And then like literally telling her that, you know, you can have ground beef and rice if it doesn't bother her. Chicken and rice. And and she's like, "Yeah, I I could do that, I guess. Yeah, that doesn't that doesn't that doesn't doesn't have to be a breakfast." Right.

Right. And then and then last night and cuz she she was telling me the last time she was around me, she goes, "You know, it was so refreshing to be around you like you you actually look like you eat normal like normal and I saw you had a drink." And I'm like, "Yeah, that's how it's like the difference is there's some things that you I've I've learned that you I have balance and I understand what my body needs and so but you can still have a lot of those things if you if you understand what you're what you're intaking and you get an idea of that." And for example, I sent her a picture last night.

It's uh you know, Tuesdays are taco Tuesday at my house. Um and so we we're we're having tacos and I Katrina always makes the tacos in bulk and then um you know I carve that over and then in the morning can crack a couple eggs over it and make it into like and a little bit of cheese. Yeah. Now it's like a breakfast thing. And so I'm sending her a picture of that and her question to me was um so do you use corn or flour tortillas for the tacos?

And I said oh. I said, 'Well, good question. I said, um, first weigh out what 7 to 8 ounces of that ground beef looks like, and then tell me how many shells that you can eat with that. And I said, 'What you'll find is that that's a lot of meat and most people, most females like her are, and she told me, she goes, you know, I I normally eat about two or three tacos, but I load it up with all the lettuce and veggies and stuff, and it has probably one to two ounces of ground beef in it.

So you just you got a bunch of carbohydrates and low nutrient tacos. Yeah, but exactly. And I said 1 to 2 o maybe you got three ounces of meat in there. I said so next time meat is not a garnish. I said weigh the meat out so you can see how much meat you need to be eating cuz I'm trying to train her to get at least 6 to 8 ounces in every serving. And I said, ' Doesn't mean you can't. I said, and so what I said, what it looks like for me or for Katrina, because it it's harder for Katrina to eat that many tacos to get to 6 to8 ounces, is we'll take a big bowl of lettuce, we'll put the 78 ounces of meat on it, sprinkle some cheese on it, and then we'll crack like one taco shell to have the taco shell on it.

But it's like one taco shell gives you enough of that I'm having like a taco salad type of deal, of deal, of deal, but the main priority is that you get to that protein. And it's just like mind-blowing to the people. It's like I'm having all the same stuff. I'm having cheese. I'm having ground beef. I'm having the lettuce, taco shell. Like, but I'm prioritizing the meat and that people just don't like that. The other part of that too, Adam, is that uh most the time you're eating very healthy cuz you mentioned that you had a drink.

You must have been hanging out. There is definite value in eating food for its enjoyment and for connecting with people. That's for sure. Like that's a real value. But if that's the only time you did it, you would always eat health. You would almost always eat healthy. healthy. healthy. Yes. Yes. Yes. And the problem is is we we eat for palletability or enjoyment most the time when we're by ourselves or when it's just a regular lunch or whatever. So if you if you if it's like 90% of the time when you're eating you're eating healthy, that 10% when you're eating for enjoyment and connection, Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. it's totally fine. In fact, when you realize it's for connection, you still eat in a more healthy way. Uh because I've experienced this. I experienced this in the past where when I would go on vacation, it felt like I was, you know, oh, I'm I'm taking the breaks off and then the meal was not about connection. The meal was about gorging. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was about like, let me get this in my face as fast as possible versus like I'm I'm hanging out with Adam and Justin.

We're having great conversation. This is about connecting and connecting over the food. Uh it's actually still resulted in in better behaviors. There's another layer to that because we actually talked about that on the phone also because she's because she again was bringing up that I I was that I had a drink and I was eating like normal she said as everybody else. I said yeah that's cuz I was with you and family and I'm not going to worry I'm not measuring my food or I don't care about that time.

So but then I go home and I go back to it. I said, "But there's another factor that I also have working for me that you don't have working for you that we need to get working for you, which is your metabolism from eating these lettuce tacos and, you know, 1,800 calories more flexibility." I said, "When you start to lift weights and you hit that protein intake like I'm telling you to do, and that's all you focus on, focus on, focus on, and I don't care if the scale stays the same.

I don't even care if the scale goes up two or three pounds and your main goal is to lose 30." What'll happen is your metabolism will get faster. And then those occasional nights with your husband when you have a glass of wine or when you're with family for Thanksgiving and you have your slice of pie, it doesn't feel like it sticks right to you. Right now it probably feels like that cuz that 450 calorie slice of pie is almost half of the calories you eat every day.

And so but when we build that metabolism up to where you're eating 25 2600 calories to maintain your weight and you decide to have that pie every once in a while or you decide to have that cake, it's a very small percentage of what you eat. And if you actually paired it with a day that you went and lifted, there's a good chance that surplus goes to some good work, too. I So, we talk about this all. I love when I experience personally what we teach because it solidifies it and galvanizes it so much.

I I told you guys uh recently, I've made a real concentrated effort to eat 220 grams of protein or more a day. I weigh about 215, 220 pounds. And so I've done this now for five or six weeks and what we talk about I have now just experienced and it's so cool to experience it uh you know at this stage uh of my life and you know having talked about it for so long I I haven't really targeted that in a long time. I always eat high protein but never like consistent 220 plus.

Here's what happened. I started doing it consistently and this is what it felt like at first. At first, I just got stronger and I gained some weight on the scale and I did. My weight went from 216ish 216ish 216ish to about 220ish. So, I went up about four pounds. Why? Because I added extra calories, extra protein. I got stronger in the gym. I don't care if my weight goes up or down. I'm like, I just want to hit these extra protein and just see how I feel around it because, you know, we talk about it so much.

And then here's what happened. My weight went up to about 220. Now, it went back down to about 219, 218. And I'm lean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I built muscle. Metabolism kicked up. Yeah. My body composition changed. Now I'm like shredded. I was lean before. Now I'm getting shredded and I'm not and I'm eating more. Why? Because I hit those high protein targets. It's really awesome to to experience. I know we teach it again, but once you do it yourself, you're like, "Oh my god, it doesn't work." doesn't work." doesn't work." It's the biggest thing I miss about competing this you when your metabolism is roaring like that, those flexibility days are more frequent.

Oh yeah, absolutely. When you get to a point where you're you're you're you're muscle training. muscle training. muscle training. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's No, you're right. You're right. That that was my point too with her is just it's like, you know, it's awesome is that even even if you had this little night, people don't realize that if you just focus on hitting the protein and you're consistent with those two or three days of lifting and so say it's like Friday night and she decides to indulge, but she still hit her goal like she said to herself, "Hey, I'm going to hit that protein intake for the day." So, she hits it and then 15 for dinner.

We're going to have that pie and maybe a glass of wine. and she overeats 5 600 calories over what her her maintenance is but then Saturday she's in the gym lifting weights like there's or maybe Friday morning she which by the way she's not I want to be clear not because she's burning the calories off through the exercise. No, it's the signal that you send that tells your body to build muscle. Your body uses those nutrients and puts it to muscle which then fuels the metabolism.

And it could work the other way. She could have if she lifted Friday morning before she went and did all that stuff, it would already sent that signal and her body would need to recover from that from that work. So those additional calories, a good portion of those get allocated over to recovery and building muscle. And so what a great place to be to be able to have this flexibility and also know that these extra calories that I decided to eat to just today because I was enjoying my family because I got my workout in and I hit my protein intake like that's some of that's going to get partitioned in order to build muscle.

This is it's so so and I want to be like real clear on this. It's not easy to hit these targets. So, and you do it consistently. consistently. consistently. What and I'm I'm now again it's galvanizing it in myself. I've coached it so many times, but now that I'm trying to consistently do it, something that's really helped me a lot was including uh protein snacks uh because it'll it'll give me an extra 8 to 10 grams here or there. I do this three times a day.

There's 20 30 grams of protein. the Paleo Valley meat sticks. Staple. Yeah, staple. Helps a lot. It's a staple. You know, it's it's because I'm trying to hit these targets. Not that I need to snack, but if you are someone who likes to snack, there you go. You have yourself, you know, 8 to 10 grams of protein, grass-fed meat versus either doing nothing, not hitting your protein target, or snacking on other stuff, which typically is carbohydrates. Typically, a bunch of carbs. It was the exact tip I gave her after I said the having that big dinner, carry that into your breakfast.

She's a teacher and so she gets to school about 23 minutes before the kids and she doesn't have a lot of time to prep. I'm like, "So all you got to do is throw that in the microwave or throw it in a skillet real quick and break an egg over it. Now you have your breakfast to eat before they get there and then she has this window for like 2 or 3 hours before she gets her lunch break." I said, "Cry a couple a bag of beef jerky or a couple beef sticks with you before that and that'll pale ones.

You tried the pale." Yeah, they like they've tried most of the stuff. They listen. Yeah. Justin, you said you told someone this advice, but they didn't work out, so they better. better. better. Well, I mean, I was like trying to get them to target protein and, you know, just simplify everything. And then they stopped. They weren't like training in combination with that. And it's like, if you're not going to train, you're just eating more calories. Like, it's it's got to go somewhere. So, they just got bigger.

bigger. bigger. You got to get the signal to go with it. So, yeah, that's that sucks. It's not working. That sucks. That sucks. Well, especially when they if they're using like things like uh you know big Five Guy burgers to get their protein into protein into protein into Well, that that's the other thing. Exactly. You got to watch out for where you're getting the the source of it. It's so funny, dude. I got to tell you guys this funny just just this thing that is so funny.

She's going to get so mad when I share this, but my wife does this thing and she deny it. She'll deny it. In fact, she's going to bring it up. She's listening right now. She's going to bring it up. You do this, honey. We'll be on the couch and we'll be just chilling chilling chilling and I'm like and we're wa either watching something or reading something with the kids or just hanging out and I know know know that if I stand up to do anything she's going to ask me to get something.

You're now Aaron boy. In fact, she's waiting, dude. dude. dude. She's waiting for me. And I know this cuz you know I'll I'll stand up. Oh, can you get me my water? And I'll be like that's funny. that's funny. that's funny. And I know I'm like you've been dying of thirst this whole time. You're just like, I'm just gonna sit here. Wait it out. Sooner or later he's going to suffer until he gets up. Wait till he breaks. Yeah. And then I'm gonna make him The worst is like the opposite direction you're going too.

My kids do that to me all the time. Your kids are Yeah. They're like, "What? Am I your servant?" Like, "No, you go get it. I I'll get it for Courtney, but I'm not going to get it for them." Yeah, I don't mind. I'll get it for I'll tell her that. I'm like, "Were you just sitting there waiting for me to get No, but I thought about it." So, you just stand up like, "No." I feel like I do that to Katrina when I Yeah. I'm feeling guilty right now.

You say that. Like I kind of do that. You just sit there and wait. I don't you know what it is. I just don't know what it is. Her movement is what triggers like I've been wanting to get up and get something, right? Like I think that happened last night. I'm not going to get up. Yeah. We're like lay we're laying in bed watching watching the Warriors or something like that and and I saw her get up and I'm like, "Oh, could you grab my my my mellow please?" So I I had already thought about it and I had got up yet.

I'm into the game. And then she gets up to move out of it. So she uh she pulled you know she pulled the other night on me which will work every single time. I think this works on every man, but we were upstairs and she had some night supplements and she's like, "Oh, damn." You know, I forgot my night supplements or whatever. And in my head, I'm like, "But she probably should just go get them, you know." But she's like, and so I'm like, "Are you going to go get them?" And she's like, "No, I don't care.

I'm so sleepy. I'm just going to go to sleep. I can't do that. Tucked in. Tucked in. Tucked in. If I forget something that's I'll get up and whatever." So she's laying there. I'm like, "Okay." And then she's like, "Will you will you get them for me?" I'm like, "Yeah, of course I'll get them for you." She's like, "You know, you're the man. You know, you're you're my you're the man. you're going to go down and you know take care of me and it's downstairs it's dark and I'm like okay it's like hearing a noise at night.

Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah, I'll get it for you playoff every time. I know. Super. I got to tell you guys uh some stuff with Max that we've been implementing that I think is really cool. Um I wish I actually would have thought about this sooner because it was I don't know if Could you do you guys know what book do you hear me recommend to people that's a simple read that I tell everybody to read? It's like an easy book. One minute manager. manager.

manager. Yes. Yes. Yes. Wow. Boom. Wow. Boom. Wow. Boom. I had no idea. You're terrible. You're terrible. You're terrible. I was looking at you showed you how much you've never listened. I listen a lot. Over here. Over here. Over here. I'm like, God, God daddy book. Everybody got that. It's like I was like going through my head. I was like, I don't know any books you said. I know you've said a lot, but I can't remember a single one right now. Bro, you're so terrible, bro.

You're so terrible. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, so I bring I I bring that up only because I started to implement this with Katrina and then there was like this aha moment. It's like that's the same exact psychology as as one minute manager just the positive. So, we've I've made this. So, I the routine is at my house. If you haven't heard already, or if you have already, I apologize for having to hear it again. But, you know, uh at night when it's time for Max to get ready for bed and get in the shower, what that like his his Katrina takes him up, he gets in his shower if he's not reading to one of his aunts and uncles or or my mom or dad, which he kind of rotates through everybody through the family.

So, a lot of times he reads to them via iPad. Um, that's what he'll do uh at night and then she kind of tucks him in. I'm downstairs kind of cleaning, getting the house all straightened up before we go to bed. And then I I come upstairs, come in his room, you know, kiss him good night and lay with him for a while. And uh I told Katrino a while back I said you know I wanna um he's at an age now where he's very cognizant of obviously everything he's doing and he can articulate and like he's definitely at you know he's at a much much more mature age and so I think he's ready and he understands he understands how to regulate his emotions all those things.

He's moved out he's moving out of that little boy age. So cool. Yeah it's cool like you can have like a real like deeper conversations with him. He asks a lot of really smart questions and things like that. And so one of the things I want to do is reinforce all these great behaviors. So we've made a goal that every night when we tuck him in that I find something in the day that I'm proud of that he did. And it's been cool to watch that unfold.

And like, you know, and sometimes I have to search, right? Cuz it's just like maybe you just I was like, man, what did he do? Like last night was he what did he do? Like last night was one of those nights and it's like, oh, you know what I noticed as I was cleaning up? Like my son has always just done his homework. He's never not done his homework. He's never bitched about doing his homework. He just does his homework. His mom, he comes home, mom says, "Do your homework." He sits down, does his homework.

homework. homework. And so that was the thing that I I I brought up last night. But you can see now after consistently doing it, cuz we're about a month or so into doing it, it just is it's super powerful, dude. It's unbelievably powerful. You can tell he likes it, you know? You can tell it makes him feel good. and you can tell that it's reinforcing all those behaviors and I'm like, man, if I can stay on top of this on all these things and address that that way.

I'm like, I remember how powerful this was with my staff, like it was just it blew my mind. It changed the leader I was at 26 when I read that book. book. book. It also does another thing too, Adam, which is it's it's yes, it's powerful as a leader, powerful as a parent, as a partner. You do this to your wife, you know, she does this back to you. It also changes the lens by which you start to view things because you start to notice more more more yes yes yes of the good things because it's really easy to not notice those things and notice like the thing the ways that someone might mess up.

But when you stay when you consciously are like what are the good things? What are the things that they're doing that are good? You start to notice them more and value them more and it changes relationships. relationships. relationships. Oh, 100%. I mean I think as a as a parent who's always searching to be more patient with their kids, it helps with that, right? that, right? that, right? Like if you're thinking, you know, if you're thinking of like I I've never met a parent who's like doesn't wish they were even more patient with their with their child.

their child. their child. And so if you train yourself as an adult to look at through the lens of not what he did wrong today, but it's like what were all the things he did right? You know, what were the things that I'm happy he did that I noticed? Like, you know, when his mom told him to go in there and just go brush his teeth, he got right up, went in there and did that. Those are little tiny behaviors that that that reinforce, reinforce, reinforce, oh, the one time that he, you know, didn't put his toys away right away and he delayed.

It's like minimizes a lot of the negative things you have to address. I mean, I I have definitely noticed that like in rewarding a lot of those moments where you're like, "Wow, you did this. You did such a great job with this." And uh yeah, I've I've been implementing that a lot with my kids. And um the other thing too with that, it's funny cuz every time I have like somebody stay with me at the house, they get to see our family dynamic and how things like really work, you know, cuz like you go to family functions and it's like, "Hey, here's the portrayal of us, you know, and like they're on their best behavior with, you know, and so it's funny cuz like my sister-in-law is like staying with us this week and it's like, you know, she's in the mix and you know, there's moments where like I have to like reprimmending Ethan cuz you know he's not getting it done at school or this or that's happening and it's like we have to like you know it's like we're we're open and and I have to like follow through with all these things that we're implementing see and so but with with ever it's like he's doing so well in school but then we'll have like things that I'm kind of a little more flexible on because of the fact that he's like crushing it.

He's crushing it here. He's crushing here, but he's dropping the ball a little bit here with like, you know, gaming or or whatever the thing is that like is kind of drawing his attention. And it's like, you know, as an outside perspective, you don't get a lot of the data points and all this. And so there's like, you know, she's great. She wants to like kind of help like help like help like shape and like correct and do some. And I'm like, he's all right. you know, he's crushing it.

It's interesting you bring that up, too, because uh so my my brother-in-law, his his son just went to to college to Oregon. And uh you know, they they've parented him quite a bit different than I think I how I'm with Max, especially when it comes to like technology and stuff like that. Mhm. that. Mhm. that. Mhm. But it's been good for me to see because I'd say I'm on the other extreme of like none of that stuff to see like how much freedom he gets with games and gaming and all that stuff like that.

And their their big thing is like getting your work done at school responsibility and he's going he's going to to be a doctor. So that's what he's on. And he's was he's a 40 student. And they've always that was kind of how they've always managed that that thing. It's just like, hey, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of you sitting and playing games for hours on in, but your homework, your responsibilities, these things are getting done. They allow them. And he's got social skills, he's got friends, he played sports.

played sports. played sports. Kids are different. He's got Yeah, kids are different. And so, he gives him a lot of that. He gives him a lot of that autonomy because he does these other things really well. And it's like, you know, I I could see where that's where I'd be a lot more flexible on some stuff. And yeah, cuz it's it's one of those things me growing up, it's like everything it was like everything was regimented. Like even if I was crushing it, it was like if I slip in any other facet, you know, or like I'm enjoying myself.

Yeah. They come in like, you know, full authoritarian and I'm like, so yeah, I try to balance that out of like where I really put my emphasis, but really I'm trying to focus more on the positive things and reinforcing that. It changes everything. Jessica and I have been going through a challenging season. Uh, and there's a few reasons for it, but one of them is we we have our niece that just moved in, 18-year-old kid. Love her. She's wonderful. It's not that she's caused any challenges, but it's a it is a new dynamic.

It's a new ch. We have a new kid in the house that we have to care about. And about. And about. And not just a kid, a teenager, a teenager care for. It's she's now moved into our dynamic. It's a big adjustment for her. It's a big adjustment for us. And so I think among other things that's caused uh just some challenges. So Jessica and I were sitting down the other night. We haven't done this in a little while. Uh which reminds me of how important this is.

We sat down and just had three hour two or three hours of just conversation. And we went to we started to notice just the the positives that have happened during this challenging season. And it made me realize it's not as challenging as I thought or should I say not as negative as I thought. I just I forgot to focus on all these amazing things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we were talking it's like, "Oh my god, this was incredible. Look at what happened here and this is so great." And it completely changed the filter by which we view this kind of ch we're looking at this challenging season.

It It's so easy. We're so wired. We're wired. I was just going to say the reason why this is uh so simple yet it's so profound is because we are wired the opposite way. That's right. We are wired to look at scary danger bad and it's in our best interest. interest. interest. You don't need to try to think about that. that. that. You don't it that comes natural. And so when you become aware of that that even with your own child, whether you like it or not, your default pattern is keep him safe, point out all the things he does wrong, bad, like that's that's your brain is operating from that system.

It takes a conscious effort to go like remove that switch and go what are all what okay sure he did that thing that he was not supposed to do but what did he do 30 minutes earlier that I was so proud of that it's like you should see the so you should see the data on the odds that you're that somebody is likely to leave a negative review over a positive review positive review positive review it's like 8 to1 it's crazy if you have a good experience at a restaurant unless it blows your mind like completely blows your mind you're you're not going to leave a review review review even then it's like a low percentage Even if you like a lot of times something blows your mind, you just tell your friend, "Oh man, that was so amazing." But you don't get on that's how you like figure out where you're going to go too.

You go right to the negative ones and you're like, "How negative?" negative?" negative?" That's right. That's right. How bad is this? this? this? 100%. So it's it has to be a conscious effort to shift this filter and it makes a huge difference. And then we're talking about you you were mentioning your nephew. your nephew. your nephew. Kids are so different. You made me think of this text that my wife sent to her family the other day. My I my two little ones are so different in this one in this one respect.

I'll read to you what she wrote just to give illustrate it. She goes, "Dalia," this is my my two-year-old or my three-year-old. Dalia is the most independent kid I've ever known. Won't let me help even to the bitter end of her attempts and frustrations. She wants to brush her own teeth. She has to comb her own hair. She has to put her own socks. She gets her own self dressed. She tries to change her own diaper. Like, she wants like, I'm going to do this, right?

Aurelius, on the other hand, literally makes me hold his hands and rub them together and lather soap and wash. That's so That's so like wash your hands. It's time for dinner. Can you come wash them for me? Like come on, kid. That has to be to do it for me. That's such a great combination of when you see uh nature and nurture, right? Because you're when you're the little one and you see the older one already doing it, that organically kind of does that. And then if you're also that type, that just it just amplifies it, right?

It just amplifies that she's I can do it. My brother, my older brother does all these things. I can do these things. And so it's so different. It's so funny. Literally, he just like, "Hey, can you come wash my hands for me?" No, dude. Rub your own hands together, dude. I tell you, I I asked I asked I was laying with Max the other day, and I just uh was uh talking to him and I said, "Hey," I said, "Uh, you ever you ever think about um what your son's going to be like one day?" And he's like, "Huh?" I'm like, "You know, when you're when you're older, like daddy's age, and you you have your own son, you ever think what he's going to be like?" Mhm.

Mhm. Mhm. He's like, you see like he long pause pondered, you know, like what would that be like? be like? be like? You know, what do you think he'd be like? like? like? He'd be really nice, right? right? right? Yeah, that was so cute. I said, you're probably right, dude. You're probably right. Really nice. I got to say something that just the a peptide that has that I am like little by little over time, I placing it higher and higher and higher on the list of just effective peptides.

GHKCU. Yeah. Oh, for skin. Oh, man. It's liquid Botox. Botox. Botox. It works so well that I can tell if I stop using it for takes about 45 days, 60 days of stop using it and I notice my face versus using it. Huge, huge, huge difference. Trina, I swear by it. It is so the the one we get from Intera has got such a high degree of it that after I use it three or four times, I can tell. Uh, but that's taking the whole skincare by storm.

They just don't put enough. put enough. put enough. Did I Did I hear him say yesterday that they're coming out with more like in another one like that? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's gonna be crazy. Yeah, I know. It's going to be amazing. Uh, one thing I want to touch on before we sign off here. I just got to mention uh just an annoyance I have. We did this clip on social media where we ranked quad exercises. quad exercises. quad exercises. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we ranked leg extensions at the bottom.

And then finally, leg extensions, right? Good old fashioned leg extensions. super popular, but for leg development, leg development, leg development, in my opinion, not so good. Ironically, Ironically, Ironically, I think it's a corrective exercise. This is the one that will light up the machines like crazy, right? Cuz And you'll cause the burn. Yes. And the pump pump pump and but yet I think this is F for me. This is the the lowest on the totem pole. And it's not saying that it's not a good exercise and I value it, but if we were ranking all these ones that you did, it hits F tier.

Yeah, agreed. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, agreed. And there was an out there was outrage. Outrage Outrage Outrage that. No leg extensions. Tik Tok outrageously. That's the best quad extension. quad extension. quad extension. Listen everybody, Listen everybody, Listen everybody, this is all the this is all the Nobody has ever developed amazing quads from just leg extension. No, No, No, doesn't happen. If you do, you already had amazing quads beforehand. I mean, there's got S, tell me there's got to be a study that they've done out there where somebody only did leg extensions three times a week and then the other person only squatted three times a week and then they compared what happened.

I mean, it's got and if you if you are the burns, hey, if you're the leg extension guy, I dare you to do that with your buddies. You be the leg extension guy. Let your other buddy be the squat guy three days a week and see what happen. It's a feel thing. This is not results. This is about I feel it. Make all these guys feel like idiots, you know? Hey, it's equivalent to the the girl doing the thousand kickbacks and feels in her butt. Think she's going to build her butt.

Yeah. Just go do your stair master kickback. I remember do your donkey kicks, dude. kicks, dude. kicks, dude. I remember the first time I feel it. The first time this got communicated to me was a group of powerlifterss who were at the time I was a kid. They were the most big strong dudes I' ever seen in my life. And they were having me do like heavy singles and doubles of overhead press. Like you want to get big shoulders, get stronger the overhead press. And I'm and I remember I'm like, you know, but I but I feel like laterals more in my shoulders.

And he goes, oh yeah, no. You know what he said to me? He says, go like this with your arms. Put your arms out and do shoulder circles for a minute. And so I'm like, okay. Okay. I'm like, "Does it burn?" Like, "Dude, it really burns. You will build zero muscle doing that." And I was like, "Oh, okay. Oh, damn. Oh, damn. Oh, damn. I should I should listen to this guy." What? What is it? It's the EKG. It's the EKG. EKG. EKG. Oh, no. No.

It's It's I always get the the acronym wrong. What do they use on It's not the Yeah, those muscles on magnet. What are they using? I can't remember. It's not EKG. It's not EK. That's for your heart. your heart. your heart. I always get the acronym wrong for those. those. those. Muscles on magnets. What do they what do they use to look at muscle activation? I can't believe I forgot. I know. I I do it every time. Every time I just cuz it's it doesn't they're looking for muscle activation.

But the reason why I'm bringing up is so so people understand because if that that's the the science that you are aware of that you think is so good that proves that leg extensions are so is based off of that science that it lights up the your quads like a Christmas tree. Because something lights it up, right? Just because it lights it up, it does not just it's no different than if you were to put that that same machine on a girl's butt and she did butt kickbacks.

Okay. Okay. Okay. But I don't think there's any debate that that versus hip thrust or squatting or deadlifts doesn't even come close. It's the same argument, dudes. So all you dudes that think that leg extensions are superior, you're an idiot. It's the same thing. EMG EMG. Thank you. close. Yes, that's all those the research that supports how great leg extensions are are EMG reports just because they light up up up and just because Yes, your quads are working leg extensions. extensions. extensions. Yeah, there's no argument there.

So, do you when you do butt kickbacks, you go go do go do 50 butt kickbacks right now. I bet all all your butts are going to burn. Or do what I did with the shoulder here. Little shoulder circles. Your shoulders are going to light up. Great for rehab, but you know, you can't argue with me. It's better than it's not at the top at the bottom. I didn't even go through, but I heard. So, was it Did you go through them? Did you learn? you learn?

you learn? Just people. I can't believe these guys put leg extension. There's S tier. What? Clickbait. You're not going to find this rage. Rage bait. We got a lot of work to do, guys. I read those. I read those comments. I'm like, "Oh my god." No. Tik Tok needs to be saved. I think Tik Tok is where the dumbest fitness people live. I think so. I think Instagram has has gotten way better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Well, we don't have time for it.

Uh, you know, X has got great fitness people. I've seen great posts on X. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Instagram is good. Tik Tok idiots. I think that's where they all live. Sorry everybody on Tik Tok. We'll help you. I'm offended. I'm offended. I'm offended. We're going to help you out. If you like high quality meat and you don't like to spend a lot of money, go to Butcher Box. They deliver grass-fed meat, wild caught fish, chicken, pork to your door at great prices. Go to butcherbox.com/mindpump. butcherbox.com/mindpump.

butcherbox.com/mindpump. By the way, on that link, new users will get your choice of New York strip, ribeye, or filet minion in your box included for free for an entire year. All right, here comes the show. Our first caller is Pat from Florida. What's up, Pat? How you doing, dude? Good day, gentlemen. Pleasure to see you. you. you. You too. You too. You too. Same, man. How can we help you? Well, I've been uh I've been on a journey for the last 18 or 24 months and um I feel like I kind of hit a a bit of an obstacle, roadblock, plateau, whatever term you want to use.

Uh my my health journey is is focused around, you know, getting healthier. Uh I'm 58, closing in on 60. Uh I want to lead a much more active lifestyle. So, I've been trying to get my weight down. My weight has gotten down, but I feel like I just hit a point where I can't get it to go down anymore. Now, I know I'm getting stronger. I hit the weights two days a week. I stare master two days a week. I'm back on the bike after my surgery uh in June.

So, I rode 15.6 miles Sunday. I ran 2 miles this morning. I just feel like I I'm hitting this point where I I can't get any lower in the weight area. And there's there's, you know, there's pain points. And you know, I'm talking things like love handles and things like uh a little bit of a protruding gut. So, uh you know, these are I want to get rid of the dad bod. I I want to do this because I I want to get healthier. I want to get my cholesterol in line without taking any any more statins.

And I like to get my BP down. Uh which I I'm like borderline between normal and and high. So, these are all the drivers behind me trying to get the weight into what I think is more acceptable range. acceptable range. acceptable range. Okay. So, we have a couple things we want to look at here. Uh, great job, by the way. Uh, number one, I want to say that. So, and this has only been about two years. two years. two years. I mean, it's been two years weight focused.

Uh, I've been on and off training my entire life. I'm, you know, I grew up playing multiple sports. Uh, you know, football, baseball, soccer. Great. Great. Great. I've always been active. Great. and and uh you know as I got into a desk job and and growing up into what I would call adulting uh things slowed down, weight came on, I and I I maxed out um in my you I think it was in my late 30s or early 40s. I maxed out at 208 and my face was bloated and I was like I can't I can't be this heavy anymore.

So that's that's when the journey started. journey started. journey started. Okay, good. So and then let's let's talk about your strength. You said you're getting stronger pretty consistently. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's a great I definitely am. That's a great I can tell that from from the, you know, the dumbbells I'm using for my my my shoulder press. I can tell that from the I'm moving up in weight with my with my bench, my incline bench, uh, you know, flies, uh, presses. The number of push-ups I can do.

You know, two years ago, I I I could barely squeak out 30 in a set. Now I can do 55 or 60 in a set. So, I know I'm getting Oh, you're doing good. Yeah, you're doing really really well. Let's talk about the health stuff. Uh, I see I'm I'm reading your question. Uh at one point you had a little fatty liver. Uh blood lipids look like little How is How is that all looking now? How are your lipids now? And your blood all in line.

Um because I got that diagnosis of the fatty liver in July and that was after my surgery in June cuz uh I you know I didn't slow down with my eating and drinking from the standpoint of just living life daily normal, right? So So my liver scores got out of whack. I got I I I got put on uh you know Mediterranean style diet uh which uh had me cut back on red meat, had me cut back on eggs, which I was leaning into heavily for my protein intake, which pretty much was the only macro that I've been tracking based off of listening to you guys.

You know, I I I don't really track my calories. I don't really track my fat. So, uh those are the you know, that that's the fatty liver kind of hit was a little um bump in the in the road, so to speak. Okay. But now everything's good. Yeah. Okay. Uh I mean, how are you how are you doing with hitting the protein intake considering you had to take out the red meat eggs? Are you really consistent with that? Are you struggle to hit that consistently? What's that look like?

look like? look like? Uh it's been a you know, I've literally been I've been tracking that trending that upward for the last three or four weeks. So, you know, I'm slowly but surely moving into, you know, a a a higher lean protein intake. And you know, for example, you know, during the Mediterranean diet phase, I was only doing, you know, three to five eggs a week. Well, I mean, I I ate three eggs this morning, so you know, that kind of thing. I'm I'm getting back into, but I'm also not eating red meat like every other day like I was.

I'm now adding in more chicken. I'm adding in more fish, you know, uh but still trying to hit those protein targets. So, eggs I wouldn't worry about. Saturated fat can have an effect on someone's lipids, uh but eggs typically don't. The data shows this. Uh you can play with it a little bit. There's always an individual variance. Um there's a there's a trap that I don't that I'll I'll talk to you about that I do I don't want you to fall into. And the trap is that you're doing great.

You seem like you got you're fit. Uh you've got good stamina, good strength, healthy, everything's moving in the right direction. The trap is to start nitpicking yourself from an aesthetic standpoint. Okay? Where you look in the mirror and you go, "Okay, well, I'm fit. I'm strong. healthy blood lipids look good. Everything's moving in the right direction, but I got this love handle area here, or I got a little bit of body fat here, or I want a little bit more definition there. And it it's a trap because uh you're not going to get an improvement in quality of life by focusing so heavily on the aesthetic.

Uh focusing on performance and health are going to give you a great deal of the aesthetic. But just look, if you start nitpicking yourself in the mirror, especially at 58, you're almost 60. So, you know, and we got to just, you know, call that out like that's you're getting to the point now with age where age starts to play a role. And I bet if you compared yourself to your peers, you're probably in a completely different category. And so, you don't want to create this these these standards for yourself from an aesthetic standpoint that start to reduce your quality of life because you're sacrificing uh certain things or chasing something that's kind of a little bit of a boogeyman.

Like I mean we could cut calories. calories. calories. There's two there's two knobs we can turn that I see. Don't you? Yeah. I mean I could see protein and I would I would stop the the intermittent fasting. fasting. fasting. So I and then I would also maybe scale back a little bit on the endurance training. So like still do some of your cardio. I mean it's good to keep the cardiovascular endurance up but like long bike rides or consistently long runs are not serving you building muscle.

So it's it's not bad for you. But if you're trying to make an aesthetic change, since that's what you're asking, like we're trying to trim off the body fat, that's actually not helping the cause. What will help the cause is consistently hitting protein like very consistent with the incre continue to get stronger in the gym and building muscle building muscle building muscle and the scale might not even move. That's right. The scale might even go up. I mean, cuz I don't care if you increase calories as long as you increase that protein consistently simultaneously while you lift weights.

What might happen is we might put four or five pounds on the scale, but it'll be muscle. It'll speed the metabolism up and you'll look different. The waist will come in. You'll be But the doing a lot of endurance training while also doing the strain training while also maybe not being very consistent with the protein tank is the reason why we're kind of at this plateau aesthetically and the intermittent fasting is not making it any easier on you. It makes it very difficult. really difficult to hit you know 180 grams of protein a day uh with intermittent fasting just so that you're you're you're doing this on hard mode but again you gota no you're you're right there I mean the only reason I do the intermittent fasting was a maintenance you know when I when I started this journey and and started taking a couple pounds off and I you know the intermittent fasting helps just to maintain weight for me I mean it just it it kind of just gives me that that that that ability to to stay level so to speak and I I also suffer from a bunch itises, right?

I got some arthritis, I got some tendonitis, I got planter fasciitis in both feet, right? And that's another driver here from the standpoint of when I'm when I weigh less, my planter fasciitis doesn't bother me. bother me. bother me. Sure. Sure. Sure. Right. You know, because it just it makes sense that way. And the other thing too is, you know, you mentioned uh you know, outperforming my contemporaries, you know, and that's another driver here. I have this regular group of guys that I play golf with and I kick their butt every time and I want to continue hitting out out to I want to continue hitting out out hitting them by 30 and 40 yards like I do.

do. do. Yeah. I tell you what, Pat, I mean big picture here, if you focus on feeling better. So, what are the things that help with the uh tendinitis and fasciitis? fasciitis? fasciitis? Uh performance enjoyment. Are you enjoying your workouts? Are you enjoying you want to run and you like it? Keep doing it. If you're only doing it to get leaner and it doesn't really matter, then you could try other options. If you keep uh focusing on those things, uh the rest tends to follow. What tends to happen, we focus on aesthetic too much.

We think we're going to get this return in quality of life. We actually reduce our quality of life. Uh and we get the look, which you can get, but it but it's it's not going to it's not the same. Most people don't get an incre an improvement in quality of life from just focusing on the aesthetic. Especially not in a place where where you're at where you're doing you're doing really well. well. well. You know, I would say if you just hit your protein and stop the intermittent fasting, you'll probably move in the direction you want to move.

Uh cardio-wise, you know, maybe the running is is not helping with the plantar fasciitis, at least maybe not now. Um and you can modify that unless you love it. you know, if you love being active and being able to run, which, you know, if you stop running, you'll lose the ability to run. That's the other part of it. So, what Adam's saying is correct from an aesthetic standpoint, uh, you could do other forms of cardio, uh, that are not going to be as muscle, I don't know, damaging, for lack of a better term.

But if you stop running, you'll lose that ability. So, if you like to run and you want to be able to run, I I don't know if you should stop it. I only run once a week. Okay. Yeah, it's a once a week run because I mean bluntly my my body can't take the pounding running more than that, right? You know, you know, I've got a bad knee. I've got a partially torn MCL, so I can't really put too much stress on it. I only run two two and a half miles at a time.

It's not like I'm out there doing six. six. six. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, and the other reason I I like to run is because, you know, I like to be able to to to when we go to a national park, I like to be able to go on a six mile hike, you know, that kind of thing. That's good. And we go on a We go on a national park trip every year. So, I want to go on these hikes because that's part of my enjoyment, you know, from a lifestyle perspective.

perspective. perspective. Yeah. Well, I could I could give you a workout plan that I think would be good instead of two days a week. Would you be open to doing like uh like a every day 15 minute 15 minute 15 minute plan like maps 15? I think you 15%. So, it's the same it's probably the same volume that you're used to. It's just not all done in two days. It's a little bit every day. And a lot of people get better results that way. that way.

that way. Okay. Are you going to a gym or are you lifting at your house? I I lift it at gym. Um one a big box gym, but it's got everything, you know, and and um I recently got my I got my stair master up to 30 minutes of stairmaster, 112 flights of stairs. So, you know, like I I get off that thing and I feel like I' I've accomplished something and and that, you know, the sweat's just coming down my face and and uh that's how I I love wrapping up a session like that.

But I go in there and I do anywhere from six to eight uh you know uh weight movements. Um three, you know, three sets of 10, two sets of 12, whatever it is, whatever I'm doing, whether it's shoulder press or lat pull down or or you know, you know, you know, let me let me send you a program, Pat. I'll send you mass 15. Uh that way you have some good programming. Um and then do you know what your body fat percentage is sitting at now?

at now? at now? You said it was No, I don't. I've never measured it. Okay. it it I I'll just tell you uh this is generally true but for a man who's 58 sitting in the mid you know the mid teens body fat between 14 to 18% and being fit is actually healthier than being between let's say 10 to 12% and being fit all things being equal that slightly higher body fat percentage within that range is actually going to give you give you give you especially if you got cardiovascular endurance you got strength you have all those things which you do we we idolize this like really lean look, but it's actually not healthy uh or not ideal for longevity and health.

Understood. You know, one of the one of the key drivers behind this was the losing muscle mass. And so, you know, after listening to you guys and knowing what I used to do when I was younger, that's why I got back into the gym, got back into moving some weights around and and and again, I go back to the to the push-up example where, you know, two years ago, I could barely do 30 in a set. And uh I could I can pump out 55 or 60 right now if I had to.

That's great, man. That was a double strength. I do I do want to I think Sal's advice is 100% perfect and and what he's saying. I do want to double down though on the what what will happen and why you feel this plateau is when you have the endurance training and you're also missing protein intake. That's a recipe for no way we're building muscle. So that's like why you'll feel a plateau is like what's happening is you're eating just enough to maintain right where you're at, which is a great place.

And that and that's kind of Sal's point is like dude, you're you're you're kicking ass. you're you're you have endurance, you're strong, you're kicking your peers's ass, like, but you're also asking questions about body fat percentage. And oh, I'll tell you from an aesthetic place is we got to consistently hit protein and and build and focus on building muscle. That's what's going to get you in that place where you'll you'll trim body fat and you'll start to sculpt composition. That's right. There's there two different like goals.

And so what you're feeling right now in the plateau isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's you're in a great place. you're healthy, you're fit, you're strong, you're capable. Uh but if you're trying to make change aesthetically, then then then the focus becomes, okay, we really need to focus on hitting that protein intake on a very consistent basis, really get strong in the gym. And then the endurance training just becomes less important because I'm trying to build a metabolism. Doesn't mean it's done. Don't do it or it's bad.

Just becomes less important when the focus is trying to sculpt the body. So that's why you're feeling what you're feeling. feeling. feeling. Then if you want to accelerate your results with golf, you go to Maps 15 performance. Uh just to reinforce that rotational torque and and you know all these like workout plans are great, but they lack a lot of rotational movement and lateral focus um to reinforce that is going to keep you, you know, pretty strong in that uh accelerated movement. accelerated movement. accelerated movement.

Good call. Why don't we send in performance master 15 performance? That'll be more so you keep that edge above your That'll be a better one for you. Awesome. Love to get another 10 yards on the driver. the driver. the driver. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Doing great, Pat. Thanks, guys. Hey, I really appreciate it. It's great talking to you guys. Yeah, you too. Thank you. All right. All right. Have a good one. Is he as old as you, Doug? Yeah, he's a couple years younger. Same age, huh?

Yeah. Oh. Oh, no. You're older. Look how young Doug is all the time. So crazy. Even with his new gray beard, it looks It looks It kind of makes him look younger a little bit, which is kind of weird. of weird. of weird. Yeah. He looks like the young guy trying to look older. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can I see your ID, sir? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I you know, I That's such a It's such a hard one to advise, right? advise, right? advise, right? Well, you don't want to get caught in that trap.

I I you know Well, I know. That's why I'm That's why it works that you say what you say, but it's like to me it's very obvious. Here's what it is. It's very obvious. You're very obvious what's going on. Yeah. There's a couple lovers. Yeah. He's he's uh he likes to get to sweat, so he's hitting that stair master probably every time he goes to the gym hard. He's moving a lot. He even goes for a run for, you know, a long distance. He's biked for a long distance.

distance. distance. Uh and then it sounds like hitting if man, if you're not eating steak and eggs and you cut that out of your diet and you're doing more Mediterranean and you're intermittent fasting, I know he's not no not no not no hitting 180 grams of protein every day. No. No. No. So if he just hits 180 grams of protein every day, focus on the strength training. maybe replace some of the higher intensity cardio with more like walking or you know whatever like that's the that's the solution but you know your your point is incredible which is I mean hey at that if that was my dad my dad my dad uh dad I like what you're doing you know what I'm saying like you're you like it you feel good you're you're you're the fact that you can go for a run and you can ride your bike that long and you're that strong in the gym like who gives a [ __ ] that you don't look like Mr.

universe right now. Like you're way more capable and you're in better health, but at the same time, if you want the aesthetic answer, I have that for you. It just looks different than your approach. approach. approach. Our next caller is Dan from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Dan, what's going on? How you doing, Dan? Dan, Dan, Dan, hey, how you guys doing? Good, good. How can I help you? Great. Um, so I'm just going to read my question. Um, so I'm 42. I just started MAP strong while going through a reverse diet and I'm kind of struggling with it and I'm wondering if it's too much volume.

Uh for background, I've lifted my whole life but always was overweight. About 8 years ago, I dialed in my diet and dropped about 60 lbs. Since then, I've never really committed to a proper reverse diet. And I'm starting to find it harder and harder to lose fat when I try and cut. and my weight has kind of slowly been creeping up over the years. So, I thought Matt Strong would be a good program to run for the reverse diet. However, I'm finding myself worn down, sore, don't feel like I fully recover from each workout.

And so, I was wondering if I should build in more rest days or if I should skip the work sessions sessions sessions uh or drastically, uh dial back the intensity of the work sessions. Um, the only other maps uh program I've run into this issue with is maps aesthetic. And I know you guys have said that a lot of times that's too much volume for most people. So, I'm wondering if this could be the same issue. Yeah, it is. Switch programs. Yeah, switch programs. Strong is uh is decent volume.

The work sessions are are are pretty It's funny because more volume. volume. volume. They're more volume in the workout the foundational workouts. That's what I noticed. noticed. noticed. Uh yeah, if you feel worn down, it's it's too much. So, okay, we'd want to switch programs and you could either avoid the work sessions, which is totally fine. Uh, or you could go through a bout of maps 15 uh and and uh or maps anabolic, which would probably be appropriate. Have you ran maxabolic yet? I have ran MAPS anabolic and I actually just ran MAPS 15 over the summer.

Okay. And like that. Um, so I wanted to, you know, for the reverse diet, I figured since I was adding more calories, I kind of wanted to try MAP strong to, um, I really haven't focused on strength in a while. while. while. That's logical. That's logical. That's logical. Yeah, that's logical. I think we tell them what's coming out or what. Oh, uh, Oh, uh, Oh, uh, yeah, we can. Yeah, I figured. Yeah, we have Map Strong 15. So, we have the 15minute version, which is definitely cuts into your your your It drops it.

Yeah. Well, by the time this airs, it will be out. So, we can actually send it over. Oh, so you actually going to be the first one to get Mass 15 Strong, my friend. friend. friend. That's great. That's great. That's great. We'll send that to you. Follow that. Just too good a fit for what you're talking about. So, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'll like it. It's got a lot of the cool exercises from MAP Strong, but it's in it fit in a 15-minute protocol, so that'll work really well for you.

Okay. Yeah. No, that sounds great. Out of curiosity, Dan, where where'd you take your calories with this reverse diet? diet? diet? So, um when I was cutting, I was around like 2,000 a day. Um, and I've been trying to eat around like 25 to 2,800 a day. And I've noticed that the weight's kind of like really kind of been like creeping on. Like I I gained about 10 pounds. So I don't know if, you know, I'm just kind of That's a big jump. Yeah, it was it was a big jump.

And also like this time of year, you know, there's a lot going on. So I don't know if maybe it's just like I'm letting it go too much on the weekends and if that's contributing. that's contributing. that's contributing. Probably if you're not tracking on the weekends, that's probably what's happening. For sure. Yeah, you got to a reverse diet tracking in my opinion is more important than it is for for a cut for a lot of people cuz it gets out of hand. Uh I would stay consistent at 2500 calories for a while and then move up from there.

But be consistent with and when the weekends I think the weekends are more important than the weekdays because the week days when you got work and you're busy, you tend to kind of fall in line naturally better. The weekends is definitely where stuff gets out. The other thing the other advice I'd add too is are you tracking steps right now to kind of see what your daily activity is? Yeah, I mean I'm pretty consistent with like around like 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day. Okay. I live and work in the city, so it's really easy just to get a lot of steps in each day.

So be careful of if you're like that in the city Monday through Friday and then does Saturday and Sunday have the same amount of steps or do they get reduced? Because if you reduce the steps simultaneously also a little loose on the diet, that's where that gap gets filled real quick. No, I usually weekends I'm I'm still pretty good with the steps. Okay, good. Okay, good. Because that that's really common where someone's more active throughout that week and then they have the day where they sleep in or they're not they're not moving as much and then they also I'm a little looser on the diet and that's enough right there to cancel out all that great work.

work. work. But if you're if you're if you track with your reverse diet and stay consistent with that, follow mass 15 strong, uh I think you'll be good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Right on. Hell yeah. There you go, man. All right, Dad. Let me know how you like it. it. it. All right, we'll do. All right, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Yeah. When I knew right away when you said, "Uh, oh, around between 25 to 28." I'm like, "Oh, you don't know how much you had it." Yeah.

Well, I mean, come on. And then weekend's a little Come on. We just went through Thanksgiving. I mean, it's only been a few nights I haven't had pie. had pie. had pie. I know. I know. I know. Are you having pie every night? Bro, it's like a sin to see all that pie. It's going to get thrown away if I don't eat it. Oh, we have apple crisp in our fridge. That's right. That's right. That's right. Oh, god. Oh, my tongue has got like a sore on it from all this sugar, dude.

IT'S FROM YOU AGAIN. YOU set yourself up. Poor dad. That doesn't This does not help Dan at all. No. No. No. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mypumpstore.com? I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mypumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Our next caller is Christian from Minnesota. Minnesota. Minnesota. What's up, Christian? Hey, guys. How are you? Good, man.

How are you? Good for a Tuesday, I guess. Yeah. So, Yeah. So, Yeah. So, how can I help you, dude? Dude, uh yeah, so um turning 50 here in February. uh sign myself up for uh a crazy endurance ride next June. So, I just wanted to uh read my email to you guys and uh get some advice from you guys. guys. guys. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, um so I'll be turning February turning 50 this February. I wanted to reach out for some training advice. I'm 6'3, about 217 pounds, sitting around 20% body fat.

I live in Minneapolis and lift weights 5 days a week during the summer and six days during the winter. I also mix in zone 2 cardio a couple days a week. Here's where it gets interesting. My brother-in-law, he's a banjo player in a traveling band, somehow talked me into signing up for an 108 mile gravel bike race in Steamote Springs, Colorado in June. Uh most most of the training plans I've seen call up for at least 5 days a week of riding for 60 plus minutes, ramping up over time.

My goal is to take this seriously while still lifting heavy year round because that's what I love most. Every year I bench 300 pounds on my birthday, and since I'm hitting 50 this year, that milestone feels extra meaningful. My main concern, how to balance endurance training without losing muscle mass or strength. I'd love your perspective on how to structure my training and nutrition to stay strong in and lean while prepping for this this event. Something's got to give. Yeah, you can't. You can't. They're not. They're conflicting.

They're conflicting goals. It's It' be different if you said, "Hey, I'm going to go for a run." But you're not talking. You're talking about a real goal, dude. Like a real endurance goal. And it completely conflicts with a 300 bench press. It just is the complete opposite. And so you got to ask yourself what um yeah, more important, more valuable, what what's going to give you more quality of life. Um and then and then lean into it. If you try to do everything, you're going to get nothing or hurt.

You're going to get hurt. Most likely, you'll get hurt. Like if you try and keep a 300lb bench press and train for 100 mileer, you're going to get hurt. Guaranteed doing one or the other. like you're you're going to overt tax the body trying to go for two go keeping two goal. It just you'll get hurt. But it doesn't mean there's nothing wrong. Like you could totally just I'm going to commit to this whole endurance thing cuz it sounds fun and challenging and I'm turning 50 and like how many 50-year-olds could say they could do that.

But just commit to that and then your training your training your training looks like keeping yourself from getting hurt. It's more mobility. It's more mobility and and maybe some isometric work in there. Maybe uh one day of really moderate training, but really that's it. No, that's nothing. You're not you're not making strength gains. You're going to lose a little bit of muscle. Hopefully, we maintain most of what you have. Hopefully, but that ain't the goal anyways. The goal is like you're get good at this endurance race and not get hurt.

And just to help you feel better, Christian, uh whatever you lose. Yeah. You'll get it back so fast. It'll come right back. It's not It'll be it'll it won't be an issue at all. It'll be, you know, it'll bounce right back. The way you would do this is follow the endurance training. And I think what Adam said is I mean that's that's what I found with all my clients who did that kind of training. The most we could do or what we could do what we did that was beneficial was about one day a week of strength training and it was moderate where we did like three or four lifts and that was it.

The rest of their training was focused on their sport. Where's your bench at right now by the way? way? way? Uh I do 275 five by five. So I'm not worried about hitting 300 in February. Right. I just I mean I just want to check that off. Be be a 50-year-old with a bunch of uh high school and young kids uh watching me throw up 300 lb and then I don't need to do it I don't need to do it again. Right. So I don't want to I don't need to maintain I'm actually not looking to maintain 300 lb after that.

I mean 225, you know, just you know, it's not that far off, but that Yeah. So I'm I'm confident I'll do 300 lb. It's just I I like uh lifting weights, right? And Sally kind of uh made me sad when you said, "Oh, we had to do it one day a week." Because uh it's kind of a a stress reliever. You know, my wife and I go to the gym every morning at 5:45. It's part of my routine. routine. routine. So, I'd like to keep up with that.

So, you could spread it out. You could do Maps 15. Maps 15. Maps 15. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh you could do Maps 15 and then like So, what it could look like since you like that and sounds like you and your wife have something that I think is far more important than any of the goals is getting up and going to the gym together like that. But you have to discipline yourself to do two things. one only do the two exercises in there and two keeping it at moderate intensity and that that takes a lot of discipline to do that because again now the focus becomes the endurance training and so really you're you're just going through the motions on the on the your weight I'm making you do 50 60% intensity at most so you're way lower than what you're normally do but you're still doing it you're sending a signal to your muscle that hey we still need this muscle because I'm going to get in this gym I'm going to do two exercises every day but then right after that you're going into your endurance training And that and that's kind of the focus.

Are you your brother-in-law? Is he very competitive or is this new for him, too? Uh he's competitive. I mean, he lived out in steamboat for 10 years, so he's a really good skier. Um he's actually a pretty good natural athlete. Um and my wife, which was his sister, um she's done numerous iron mans, and she actually is now been invited to be on a competitive uh gravel bike team. You know, 12 women from across the country have been selected to be on this team. So, she does it as well.

I've done races before. I've done 60 miles before. So, I've I've done a combination of like lifting and riding. Uh I'm just kind of worried about like the elevation. Starts at 6,000, finishes at about 8,300. Um so, that's kind of Is your goal to compete or is your goal to be able to just do it? No, we're just doing it together. Him and I, we we're going to, you know, ride next to each other, draft off some people, and finish. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay, dude.

If you if you just keep just ride, you got to ride a lot. a lot. a lot. Yep. Yep. Y do a little bit of strength training. If it's just to be able to complete it, you'll be able you'll be fine. fine. fine. Reinforce your hips and ankles, you know, make sure if if you need like again with the 15 protocol, you got like two exercises, so you could still do mobility right after that. Yeah. Maps 15 is the program for you, especially since that's your routine of kind of going to the gym every day like that.

Just dis don't do more. That's I'm just going to I'm going to say that's don't do more. Okay? That's where you where you'll [ __ ] up is you'll do more or go harder. So don't play in the middle of this going on. see where my bench is at. I feel like I can still throw 275 up for five. It's like no, right now we're just we're working out with 185 and we're doing the we're doing the reps and it's like that's the goal right now.

And it's like I'm focused on the training on the endurance training. I'm touching the weights cuz I don't want to lose a lot of muscle. You just want to maintain. If you do it like that, you can very easily finish this race, do well, not lose hardly any muscle, and then as soon as you're done, your body is going to put on muscle. you'll be strong as [ __ ] within within a month after. month after. month after. There's a totally different mentality with your training.

If you're like, I just want to be able to complete it versus I want to compete. If it's I just want to Yeah, dude. If if you don't tackle this like you're trying to win, I think you'll be okay. As far as nutrition is like maintaining my uh protein and stuff, I I I try to get 220 grams in right now. I really don't watch my carbs. I just, you know, eat fruit, rice, etc. Do you guys should I increase my uh my my protein and my calories?

Like right now I try to hang around like 2500. I weighed 246 the beginning of the year. Oh yeah. Calories. Yes. Protein you're already fine on protein but calories. Yes. You're going to need some carbs for all that endurance. Carbs. Carbs. Carbs. Fuel the performance. So based on how you feel, you'll bump it. I mean you're he's going to you're he's almost the exact same. You're 217 you said and you're 63. Yeah. It's I'm I'm 6'3 and around that. you're gonna be needed to be over 3,000 plus calories with all with all that riding for sure.

So, you know, it doesn't mean you need to jump to that right away, but as you start ramping up that, fuel those fuel those those workouts cuz that will be a recipe for losing losing muscle. You'll just get lean lean lean and you'll lose you'll lose muscle because you're doing so much endurance training and not enough calories. So definitely keep those get get those calories up and it it can be through carbohydrates if you like, whatever, because you're getting enough protein and so whatever you enjoy.

enjoy. enjoy. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Well, that's all the questions I have for you guys. I really uh appreciate you guys and uh I I love listening to you guys. Uh I think my favorite part is when you guys just get into a real life conversation with each other. Um I've got four daughters so I love all the kids talk and everything like that. So keep doing what you're doing. You guys are great. And I'm going to assume your Do you have Master 15?

We got to send that to you if you don't have Do you have Master 15? I don't have M. All right. Well, we'll send that we'll send that over to you. By the way, I'm going to assume your daughters are super athletes with you and you and your wife as their parents. Holy. Big dude, strong wife's iron man. Are they all crazy athletes or what? Uh basketball, hockey, uh downhill skiing, uh and swimming and lacrosse. So, yeah, they're kind of all over the board. So, um the only thing they can't do is play football.

Oh, that's been like a guy. So, that's all that that's awesome. that's awesome. that's awesome. Genetics. Genetics. Genetics. That's awesome, dude. Good stuff, man. Very cool. Very cool. Very cool. All right, guys. Thanks much. Easy. Easy. Easy. Take care. Take care. Take care. You know, if that's so dope. Yeah. You know, if you're fit, you work out, you're fit, uh, and you don't go to win. Uh, you could you could do pretty well. I mean, I've done He could absolutely do this. I've done long endurance stuff, but without like being fast just cuz I'm fit.

Well, no, you haven't. Not 108 miles. miles. miles. Not 108, but I did. I did. That's 108. I'd have to train. But my point is that's a monster. Yes, it is. That's a monster. It is. But if he's going if he just does if he practices long rides. Here's here's You're right. If he like he already has I'm sure he has already downloaded the the the formula for what he needs to do on the biking part of the is it all biking. Did I get that right?

Okay. So if he if he follows that protocol and he does map 15 with the attitude of I'm just coming coming in here and touching the waves, he'll be totally fine. totally fine. totally fine. But what will get in his way is one trying to think I'm going to win win this 108 thing or I got to be my brother-in-law or whatever like that and really pushing the that endurance training and simultaneously going like I got to keep that 275 bench. That's the recipe for the injury about the bike seat in my gu.

Man, that's a long time. Yeah, that hurts a gu. 108 miles is That's a lot, bro. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever rode a bike more than 2 miles? I don't I don't know how to ride a bike. Yeah. Yeah. Our next caller is Chance from Indiana. What's up, Chance? What's happening? Hey, guys. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. What's going on, man? How can we help you? you? you? Uh, thanks for having me on. Um, I'll just go ahead and read my question here. Uh I am trying to decide between two programs.

So I'm looking for which program that is not going to sacrifice aesthetics but has a focus on reclaiming mobility. Um I'm looking for better movement patterns and kind of having something to help build a bigger gas tank. I don't have a specific athletic pursuit that I'm looking to improve in, but I want to be able to maintain my strength and improve my cardiovascular endurance just for things like play and sports from time to time as I get older. Um, I have seen a regression in my ability to kind of run and I don't really want to be a runner.

So, Doug recently talking about incorporating uh sprints was something that spoke to me. I can easily do three days, three foundational days a week, two mobility supplemental days. So the the main question comes down to uh or questions is is performance the best fit and would it be okay in performance uh to switch chest exercises to unilateral due to some joint pain in my shoulder specifically phase one uh or should I skip phase one altogether and then should I also follow this program exactly the way it's laid out and allow the endurance gas tank to kind of build up in each phase change or should I incorporate or ate things like the sprints or hit in the mobility days since those are shorter workout days.

Uh or would something like map strong be a better fit because it has the work sessions and I could do mobility and stretching kind of on those uh non-foundational days to supplement that. that. that. Do just do performance. It's all laid out. You don't have to add anything. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it's going to hit all the things you said. And yeah, you can definitely change the chest exercise for sure, but it's got everything you ask for. It's all built into the program. I was almost thinking symmetry just because of what you just, you know, brought up at the end there, but yeah, I think performance even covers that with mobility.

So, you'll be all right. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, that's a perfect program for you. Okay, that's kind of what I was thinking. Uh, so I'm, you know, it's good to have the confirmation there with phase one of performance and doing unilateral. unilateral. unilateral. Is it a a big deal if I switch to like a higher rep scheme of six to eight? Okay. Not gonna matter too much. No, you're good, bro. Yeah, that's Yeah, it's perfectly fine. Totally fine. Totally fine. Totally fine. Do you have mass performance?

I do. Yeah. Awesome. Um I I've been doing So, I didn't know also if if you care if there's specific unilateral exercises that you think are better for the chest with shoulder pain. I've been doing floor presses and those seem to not cause any pain. Although I know that's not unilateral. Well, let's talk about your shoulder pain here for a second. What are you experiencing? experiencing? experiencing? Uh it's it's just some pain right here in the front. If I It seems like even when I try to really um set my shoulders and put them in, you know, put them in the back pocket.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a little bit of pain right there. I think it's due to um like I kind of messed it up shooting my bow and so there's that pain when I do chest exercises. exercises. exercises. Front of the delt. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's it's your bicep tendon. Yep. That's called bicep tendon uh bicep tendon tendonitis. tendon tendonitis. tendon tendonitis. That makes perfect sense from pulling a bow, too. bow, too. bow, too. So, deep stretching of that bicep on the right with massage uh should should really help take care of it.

of it. of it. U yeah. So, yep. It's it's I'm almost positive. I mean, there's no way to know for sure without like doing a full assessment, but what you're describing sounds like bicep tendon. Well, and one of the ways you can figure that out is you do a really good, you know, how to do a bicep stretch where you rotate your wrist over and come back behind you. If you don't, you can, I think we have one on our YouTube channel. If not, you can Google it pretty fast, like how to how to stretch your bicep really good and get a really good deep stretch in the bicep.

And then after you get out of it, see if you feel some relief there. And you'll you'll feel some relief just from doing that. that. that. If it's bicep tendinitis, I mean, a deep stretch like right away you'll notice uh some improvement. Yes. I mean, that would make sense because I'm not doing anything for my bicep. I'm doing like dead hangs and more shoulder mobility and none of that's helping. that's helping. that's helping. If it's bicep, I'm not doing anything for that. That's not improving. So, drops right over the shoulder right there.

So, that's why you probably feel that. That's super common, too. Yeah. Rifle flip, right? Do we have a video on the rifle flip? Okay. I know the rifle flip. Yeah. Yeah. And really I mean like a long static stretch of the bicep front the front del and then go into your chest presses and see how you feel. Got it. Okay, I will do that. All right, man. All right, chance you got it. That you know what's funny about that pain is unless you know how to address it, it doesn't go away.

Well, yeah, cuz you think it's shoulder. You think shoulder you feels like it's your shoulder for shoulder. Yeah. And then it's like I used to I mean this is one of the things as a trainer. Sometimes you'll hear a problem and you're excited because you know you can can can Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. make an impact. And that kind of shoulder pain that he's describing, whenever I'd get a client with that, I was I could almost always show them dramatic improvement right away and then within a couple weeks make it gone, you know, just from deep tissue massage.

massage. massage. I mean, the giveaway too is the bow. Yep. I mean that's that's all you when you're pulling back with that bicep that he's probably just strained it or overused it for some reason especially since he's connected like something to do with my bow because everyone 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 walking. I can't wait to hear walking protocol. Well, there is 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. Now some