The Best Training For Stamina, Power, Strength, and Mobility | Mind Pump 2741

Key Takeaway

Train power, strength, stamina and mobility separately for maximum results. Power requires zero fatigue - wait until fully recovered between explosive movements. Alternate stamina and strength weeks rather than combining them. Practice mobility multiple times daily. Most people need stamina for 'available energy' (repeated high efforts) more than steady-state endurance.

Episode Overview

Three experienced trainers break down how to properly train for different physical attributes - strength, stamina, power, and mobility. They explain common mistakes like trying to combine everything in one workout, and provide specific programming approaches for each attribute, plus how to combine them effectively.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The Best Training For Stamina, Power, Strength, and Mobility | Mind Pump 2741 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Strength, stamina, power, mobility. They're all awesome attributes. They're athletic and physical attributes. How do you train for each one? What's the best way to structure your workouts so you can get those? And what if you just want one, not the others? What if you want all of them? You're going to hear from three experienced trainers right now on how to do them. Let's go. Three experienced trainers. That's us. All different pursuits. Yeah, these are all different physical [snorts] pursuits. Uh, and use your workouts, well, I should say your workouts or how you train will contribute largely to one, uh, but not to the others.

Um, and so I think what we would be cool is if we kind of talk about what we think if you trying to get somebody to improve each one of these attributes and then maybe at the end what a routine would look like. uh that would give you let's talk a little bit about what not to do and probably the mistake that all of us probably made early on in our career and you probably see consistently which is this idea that well my sport requires all these things so therefore my workouts are going to look this incorporate all of it at one time or very crossfites right you had a lot of remember when crossfit got popular you had a lot of sports teams like going like oh put our players do this.

Yeah, let's let's do let's do CrossFit because they they address my old high school all [snorts] these things in a workout. So, isn't that a good idea? Like, so you got to explain that. Um well, that's kind of common knowledge is to think to do that. It is. And here's here's what's uh used to be common knowledge now, although now not so much. But if you want to get the physical attributes of a sport and you want to improve those, the best way to do it is to practice more of that sport.

That used to be common knowledge, okay? That used to be the way people trained. Now, that's not to say there aren't you you can't incorporate other forms of exercise to do things like improve power and strength and speed and, you know, all these other things. But what I'm talking about here is what you do in the gym. Like, if you want if you're an athlete and you want to get better at your sport and get more fit for your sport, what you do in the gym is actually quite small in comparison to what you do uh out on the field, let's say.

So, that's the best way. The best way to get in shape for jiu-jitsu is do more jiu-jitsu. best way to get in shape for basketball is play more basketball. Uh, and so on. Uh, that being said, there's a lot of people who are like, look, I'm not necessarily actively playing a sport. You know, maybe I do a little club ball here and there, but I just want how do I improve my stamina? Like, what do I just go run for a long time or or power?

What is power, strength, you know? Okay, I know it's strength training, but what's the best way to improve strength or what about mobility? So that's kind of what I you know the direction I want to go to start with because again with athletics it can get a bit nuanced. Y but the the general thing again I want to say this very clear the general thing when it with athletics is if you want to improve the physical attributes of your sport practice your sport. Uh that'll give you the most carryover because there isn't any carryover because you're doing the actual sport.

You know what? It it I I wonder what happened because you talk about how that was kind of like common knowledge before shifted. And if you uh if you've studied the great ones in like basketball for example, which I'm I'm more familiar with like the Kobe Bryants, the Steph Curry's, the Michael Jordans, um the the amount of time that these guys spend in the gym, they spend a little bit of time in the gym. Yeah. But a majority of it is just practicing basketball. I mean, they like Kobe was notorious for getting up at like 4:00 in the morning and going hitting a little bit of weights, but then from 5:00 a.m.

all the way till it's all skill training. It's all skill. It's all basketball. It's all shot. It's a thousand shots. It's, you know, hundred something free throws. It's I mean, they just they did their sport, but but yet people were were so curious about what do he do in the gym, his workouts, when it's like it if you looked at a pie chart of of it, it wouldn't it wouldn't even take up a 10% of their their time. It's like such a fraction. And if you look at Steph Curry who's, you know, younger, newer, most of his strength training is very uh rehab looking focus band distracted type stuff like he's rotational movements.

He's his training actually looks a lot like stuff to protect his body and not like and then granted you look his everybody who looks at him goes, "Oh my god, he put like 20 pounds of muscle on in his career." And so he did build some muscle along the way, but a lot of that's through diet and some strength training. But we we highlight on this podcast all the time, you don't got to do that much weight training in order to build some muscle, you know.

Well, and it to depends on what stage the athletes in. And so you're talking about really, you know, the the peak of their career, you know, in the pinnacle where they're only focused on their skill and then preservation and like maintaining uh this level they've already built up strengthwise, performance, power-wise. However, when you're starting from the very beginning, the foundational strength and establishing that and the body mechanics and just the overall coordination uh required to then apply the skill better, you know, that actually matters a lot more.

Uh and then we focus on that and then we start kind of tapering off and then you know incorporating a lot more of the skill specific type drilling. But however, we have to establish that first and then build upon that, right? But, you know, again, like if if someone said to me, I need more stamina for jiu-jitsu. What's a great way to build stamina? There are ways to train to improve general stamina, very effective ways, which we'll get into. But there's also um movement efficiency that comes from uh being very proficient in a particular movement pattern or movement and and that comes from practicing the sport.

So, I I remember doing this as doing jiu-jitsu and at one point I was training a lot. I had great jiu-jitsu stamina, but then I practiced boxing and I gassed. Mhm. But it wasn't because I was out of shape. It was because my movement efficiency was terrible boxing. The first time I did that, you know, and it was like I thought I was in shape round to dying rather than choking on my mouthpiece. That's right. So So there's translate. That's right. There's general fitness and then there's uh fitness that's specific to a particular activity or sport.

You want to get better at running, you should run. You want to get better at cycling, you should cycle. If you want general better endurance or stamina, let's talk about that. You want general strength, again, I can get really strong in the gym, but if I want to get really strong at wrestling, uh wrestling is going to get me really strong wrestling more. That's right. So, but let's talk a little bit about these physical attributes because there's a lot of people who, you know, they're they're listening.

They're like, I just want Yeah. They're not playing a sport, but they want those attributes. They want the athletic, they want the physical attributes, right? So, we'll talk about stamina. Now, a lot of now there's you could kind of break stamina up into different categories. You have the kind of that steady state, you know, where you're kind of exerting yourself at a low level. It's long endurance, right? And what that looks like is is your traditional cardio. I'm going to get on a machine and I'm going to plug away for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, or an hour uh and challenge myself somewhat.

Uh just how long can I endure, right? This is like long distance running looks like this. Uh the kind of stamina though that I have found that most people are interested in is less of this and it's more of the kind of stamina that requires high exertion, repeated high exertions. And what I mean by that is I would get clients that say I want stamina and it's for what? Well, when I go to the park and I chase my kids. Yeah. Uh you know, or I'm doing work in the yard or it's available.

It's there. It's you and I, you know, I'm moving for like like the kind of stamina that you know, it's it's not this like steady constant. it's accessible. That comes from uh HIT style uh cardio. Uh that's the best way to accomplish this form of stamina. What does that look like? Sprints interrupted by uh recuperative interval. Short sprints. Short sprints. Yeah. Yeah. 15 seconds all out. Then letting the heart rate come all the way down. Heart rate come down and then repeating that. And what happens is that period of time in between the sprints where you're waiting for your heart rate to come down as you become more fit that gets shorter and shorter.

I would add there's there's another endurance that people like that I think we should touch on is strength endurance. Yes. Yeah. Work. Yeah. Work capacity. Thank you. I was thinking along the same lines and really it's like how long can I, you know, hold this load? How how long can I hold these weights and and carry them? um and and still be able to to maintain my composure, maintain my posture, maintain like uh this grip um and to you know that that's a very valuable asset uh especially when lifting weights or pursuing anything like athletically.

Yeah. Now strength training is the best for that but the type of strength training looks very much like big gross motor movement type exercises reps compound lifts a bit higher reps and or unconventional type exercises like carries yeah carries Turkish getups you know using a sled um you know carries either at the side like suitcase carries overhead carries those those really contribute well to work capacity the kind that you'll want when you're doing things like yard work and a reason I wanted to touch on that is because you know one of the things that will get recommended is uh so it's common someone gets started in their strength training program.

Uh I mean I I I feel this too when I especially when I've been off for a little bit I'm about to feel this today when I get in is like my strength endurance will be really down. It's like it's not like my capacity to lift more load is there but it's like by the time I get it fades oh it fades quick because I don't have any strength endurance. A lot of people recommend oh well then go get on some cardio or treadmill get there.

like no, if I keep high reps in my squatting and stuff like that, that'll get there better and faster and it translates way better to that. And there's this idea because that's also one of the arguments you hear fitness influencers make for why people should do cardio. Oh, it imp it improves your strength stamina inside the gym. Well, it does have some carryover, but if you if you go do 20 reps of squats be way better. Yeah. You'll get way better strength endurance than you will.

So, uh, just that's why I wanted to point that out because that's a common, uh, things spoken about with fitness influencers that are making the case for why these people should be doing this cardio because for the endurance inside their training. Yeah. And I want to just add like the the real value is like you know how long can I stayave off fatigue because that's really like what cardio is like its superpower like it and two to the work capacity uh point it's like you know how long can I perform this thing without like the fatigue coming in which then interrupts everything.

Yeah. Yep. Today's program giveaway is maps anabolic advanced. If you want to win, leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it. Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. If you win, we'll let you know in the comment section. Also, right now, you can work with one of our coaches, a mind pump coach. Get on a call and they will set you up with a 90-day customized reverse diet plan. If you want to reverse diet, boost your metabolism, build some muscle, set yourself up for successful cut, work with our coaches, go to reverse dietcall.com.

It's on sale, normally $99. Do it for 49 bucks. again. Get a 90-day customized reverse diet plan with our coaches for $49. Go to reverse dietcall.com. Back to the show. 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. Totally. So, you know. Okay. Okay. So, what does a routine look like?

You know, three or four days a week, if this is what you want, you want stamina. This is your main thing. About 3 days a week of this HIT style training, uh, with maybe a couple sessions of steady state recuperative type cardio, you'll get stamina pretty quick, uh, training this way. And your strength training, if you want strength, stamina, it's high rep stuff, super sets, high rep stuff, but you're not doing a ton of it. This is where people mess up. Five days a week of high rep super sets, good luck.

You're not going to recover very well. It's like two days a week. you still need to train it like treat it like strength training uh if you want that. Uh then we get to power. Power building power uh people mess up building power because they allow fatigue to enter into the uh the mix into the formula. You can't build power uh when fatigue comes in. Now you can improve your capacity uh to be able to exert power without fatiguing as much but that comes from training your stamina.

Yeah. building power is I need to be able what I'm trying to train my body to do is to produce force quickly. Yeah. So I have to practice the ability to produce force quickly. So if I practice jumping, I have to wait until I'm ready to exert maximal force. If I jump, jump and I'm fatigued, no, I'm no longer training Yeah. and building power. I'm just training endurance at that point. you're not able to summon that same amount of force and and so it actually degrades u a lot of the value of that exercise that you're performing if you're at the point where it's fatigued.

So that's why the the thing about when you're training, you're practicing these things, you want to practice them with um that same uh perfect type of mechanics, the same something that you want to replicate every single time is like this is the standard because that's what you're telling your body. This is how I perform it every time. Well, think about it this way. If if you if I'm trying to throw a ball as far as I can, let's forget about biomechanics and technique and skill for a second.

Let's just say it's it's the same every time. I want to throw a ball as far as I can. So, my first throw, I throw it and it goes, I don't know, uh, you know, 50 yards. Like, I throw it real far, 50 yards, and they're like, "Okay, I want you to beat that throw with the next one." Am I going to throw it right away? No. I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait [clears throat] until I'm totally ready to throw it as hard as I can.

Again, what I'm doing is I'm training power with that. That's how you treat your plyometrics. This is how you treat your power if you're training with Olympic lifts is you wait until you're able to try to beat what you did previously. This is another thing that people get wrong. So, you can always tell when you've got a really good trainer inside of a gym with how he trains he or she trains plyometrics with their client. Like, right away I can walk in and see someone doing jump boxes with a client and I know that that trainer understands these principles or not by the the first two two or three reps they do with that client.

Is it either is it a placeholder for just something to get your client tired or are they actually training power? Right. And you will tell you what what a good trainer will do is they will do that rep and then they'll be talking for the next 30 seconds to a minute breaking down what they just did like, "Okay, I want you to explode more in your hips. Get your feet more like this." And like there's a long rest period between each rep and they're putting so much intent on them generating that force in order to jump as hard and as high as they can versus all right, let's do 10 jump boxes and you just see a client jump, jump, jump.

Oh my gosh. Which you see all the time. Totally. [snorts] Mobility. Let's get to mobility. Mobility, you're you're looking at challenging ranges of motion. Uh but you're trying to own the ranges of motion. So, it's not passive. So, you're getting into the range of motion through your own uh ability and you're moving into them while keeping your muscles active. Uh and here's the thing with mobility programming. This is probably the most simple of all programming. This is one of the ones more the more the marrier.

You practice these all day long if you want. And you're the the more you do this. Now, of course, there's a limit. Uh, but I have yet to know somebody that would reach this limit, except for maybe the most crazy fanatical person. Uh, but if you did mobility work three times a day, you would get mobility faster than if you did it once a day. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it because you're active in it and you're not passive. Because when you start getting passive, you this is where we can get dysfunction.

Uh, when you're in a range of motion that you don't really own. Like, I don't have access. I can't all of a sudden recruit a bunch of muscle fibers to take me out of this, you know, safely, effectively with strength uh to support my joint and that it's like you're not really supported in some of these movements if you get there passively. So, uh really it's a strength at the end of the day like mobility is strength and it's just expressing that and it's it's longer form.

That's right. I think that's the the most difficult part about explaining mobility is to the the average eye it looks just like stretching. Yeah. It looks like something that you're you're you're passively doing or like just like a warm-up. Yeah. So, it's so important um the intent uh that you go into the mobility movement and how much you're trying to contract all those muscles while you're in this stretch position. An example would be like I'm trying to improve my squat depth. So I'll get down and sit in a squat and just relax there.

That's not what we're talking about. What it would look like is I get down to the bottom, but I'm supporting myself. My muscles are supporting me and I'm active as if someone was going to jump on me. Squeezing intense. So it's like if someone were to jump on me right now, I could hold them. So that's the position I'm taking. That's the intent that I'm taking. Not like I'm so relaxed that if my kid comes and jumps on me, I'm going to hurt myself. uh which is what people will feel in a stretch like when they're doing a deep stretch like don't touch me if you do I'm going to tear something.

You should be able to support something uh or someone if they were to come push on you because you're in these positions and you're active and the more the marrier which is cool mobility. If you want to improve your mobility it's like real easy with programming. Pick some mobility movements that you can connect to the day. Practice them all day long throughout the day and you'll see dramatic improvements. I mean, I think my recommendation always to clients is pick one or two. That's it. And drill those down as many times so you can see the benefits of when you really versus what happens sometimes is you have these people that have all this like dysfunction and they have aches and pains and there's like they're doing like 10 different mobility moves and the rel the likelihood that they're going to do 10 different mobility moves three times, four times a day is so unlikely versus if I go, hey, let's pick one.

Let's pick one area that's like really egregious and let's just let's do that one mobility move and let's just try and you try and do that four or five times a day and let's be consistent with that for a while and watch what an improve that we can make so I can sell you on the idea of why you want to do all these other ones. Now we get to strength. This one we talk about all the time. But with strength, you know, for most people, if you were to practice a handful of movements, the best movements, you know, the the five to eight movements that you that are the best ones, your bench presses, your rows, your squats, your deadlifts, your overhead presses, uh you know, something with rotation or something lateral.

If you practice those few movements a couple days a week, you you know, two days a week or three days a week, you go in the gym and you practice them and you use a moderate to high intensity. You're not trained to failure, but you're training a decent intensity and you're practicing them and you feed yourself appropriately, you will see [clears throat] very nice strength gains, pretty consistent strength, especially if this is the first few years of your your strength training uh you know, routine or whatever, you'll see some nice strength checks.

So now the question is like how do I combine all of these? Here's what's interesting. First off, mobility you can combine with any of these. So mobility is one of those ones that if I work on this while I'm doing everything else, it'll help uh all of them. Definitely won't hurt all of them. But when you get to stamina, power, and strength, really the ones that you want to be careful with balancing or stamina and and power and strength. Power and strength, you can both you can work on those together.

That looks a little bit different, but stamina is the one that you want to alternate. Now, there's a couple ways you do this. You could do this where you have a stamina day and a strength day or a stamina day and a power day. You think weak weeks or phases? That's what the data is showing. The data is showing if you did a stamina week and then a strength week and then a stamina week and then a strength you did you'll do better at both than if you did them all in the same week and definitely better than if you did them all in the same workout.

Yeah. So, this is what's interesting. And so, uh, and a lot of people don't do this, but give it a shot. One week of stamina, one week of strength. You'll get better. you'll get better at both than had you combine them in that same way. Love that. Anyway, I love that. I pulled [clears throat] up some so we have um so inner circle has given access to Oh, I was going to ask our listeners. I've been meaning to ask you since we've been working with him, you know, I know you you've openly talked about uh you know, for a while now you working because it's been over a year now for you, right?

Yeah. Yeah. How long has it been? No. Yeah. I I know pornography for me for longer than that. It's been almost two. Has it really? Yeah. Been almost two years. Wow. Now, after all these this long of time, urges creep back in and you still need to You know what's interesting? This is what's interesting. So, with so and I'll just mention this. Inner Circle is a this is a a course or a group that helps uh people uh break the addiction because pornography is an addiction for a lot of people.

And by the way, this is like a couple times a week. So, a lot of people, oh, it's only a couple times a week. and they try to stop and they find that they can't do it. Um, and I was going to get into some of the negative uh brain changes which we'll get to, but one thing I want to mention, he's giving he's giving away a book, Doug. Yeah. Yes. The last relapse. So, where do they go for that? So, yeah, let me pull that up.

Yeah. So, you can get this book. It's deepcleancoaching.commindpump. Okay. All right. So, check that. Anyway, so back to what you're saying, Adam. Um, what's interesting is for a long time I thought if okay if I don't have that outlet or whatever whatever you want to refer to it as am I just going to be is my libido just going to go crazy like what's going to happen really yeah cuz I mean ever since I was a kid you know since I was a teenager like am I going to go and I have a head going to explode and I have a high libido I do have a very high libido so I thought is what's that going to be like is it going to put so much pressure from my spouse that she's going to, you know, this and that and the other.

No, here's what's weird is that be because of the the way that it affects the brain, the novelty effect, the it's it's got drug-like effects on the brain, which we can get into. When you stop using it over time, the that lust, which is what it's it's actually lust, it's not libido, it's lust, which is different. Yeah. It it starts to come down and then you have more of a healthy libido. So, I have a very good libido for my wife. Yeah. But I'm not walking around like uh you know, I'm not getting my drug, which is pretty wild.

So, no. Yeah. No, I don't get these. The urges were worse when I was using it. Yeah. It was always uh it was never I mean, we all have our thing, right? Anyone's been listening have I openly shared what I went through and stuff like that. I never had uh pornography addiction. And even the dabbling in and out with it. Like one of the things that keeps me not to and Katrina and I both have connected cuz we're both not anti the other person doing that at all.

It's like whatever. But what we realize is like our sex and intimacy is so much better if if the other person doesn't. And we know each other so well that you know if the other person did. So it's like what dude? Come on. You know it's been two days. You know you know what I'm saying? It's like you oh man I couldn't help. It was just a rough day and I needed this. Like so we've talked about that so many times in our relationship that for a long time it's just been like a like a pack because it's like clear difference how the level well that's everybody that's what the data will show intimacy is like [clears throat] it's not even in this like we are no matter what we have great intimacy and great sex but it's like in another stratosphere when you're not when the when your partner the two of you are not doing that it's like well the way that it wires the brain is pretty wild uh because of the novelty because of the imagery.

Um it desensitizes your brain so much that it will affect it does factually affect intimacy with a partner. Uh it's like um it's like using a drug and then going to something that's natural. uh your brain is wired for the drug and so it well I can only imagine like okay so again the reason why I share that is I think I like Katrina and I have a very healthy good relationship and like very very posit like I see a difference even that I can only imagine if we were struggling and going through things and that's kind of my outlet and it's just like man that would just be compounding on how much harder it would make the connection and the intimacy and our our sex work if if I was that was my outlet in addition to that.

So, I see how it can impact a very healthy, good, balanced relationship that doesn't have any any issues going on. I can only imagine if we had other stuff going on. Well, here's here's what you see in the data uh from just normal what they would consider normal users, okay? What which by the way, a significant percentage of pornography uh consumers are daily users, okay? And daily would be considered uh like problematic. So, I know a lot of people listening right now are like, "Uh, uh-oh.

Is that really me?" Um, reduced gray matter in reward areas of the brain, lower volume in the straium, especially nucleus accubans uh accumulates. There's downregulation of dopamine receptors. There's hyprontality or weakened prefrontal control, desensitized and reduced sexual responsiveness, altered reward prediction error signaling, craving and Q reactivity patterns, and changes in white matter connectivity. So from a health perspective, uh it has um pretty I mean measurable effects. And we're not just talking about like uh you know questionnaire. If all this stuff has been studied and we know all the negative effects, why is it that you have sex therapists that are pro pornography then?

I don't know if if they're anymore. I think they might have been, but I don't know if they could say that they are anymore. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't I don't know. I think sex therapists will now say like this is actually a it's not a good idea. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that. I was under the impression they're still all pro. I think you have people that are like they call themselves like pro what do they call themselves like pro-s sex people. Yeah. Uh which really they're just it's like talking to they're just hypers sexed uh trying to trying to sell you on some toys and [ __ ] Like that's all I get out of those conversations.

You know what it's like, bro? It's like when you talk to a pthead about the benefits of weed. You ever talk to a pthead? That's what I sounded like back in the day when I was, oh, it's got all these great benefits and, you know, it's good for this and it's good for that. It's like, you're an addict. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz it really just always amounts to the intimacy between the relationship, you know, and it's like you're not just going to get that from the visual aspect and like, you know, Yeah.

for men it's definitely a powerful draw, but it's not like that's not what the uh, you know, the nucleus of of the the problem is. Well, I I was listening to That's why it was such an easy cell for me to n like it it was such a clear difference with the intimacy with the wife. It's just we didn't we also didn't grow up with it. Yeah. No, I know. I mean, I feel grateful for that because I [clears throat] for sure being a 16-year-old boy, I would not have the with an iPhone.

Yeah. The self-discipline. No. Oh, God. No. I'd be I'd be an idiot. So I I imagine so my my I have a for for the 20-year-old listening right now I have so much empathy for uh just not knowing you know cuz talk about trying to unwind that trying to unwind a decade or more of that is I was listen so I was listening to this woman who was explaining and she did such a good job uh she I don't remember what her background was and it was a medical background but she also talked about just the behavioral effects and cultural and she said that sexual intim that that the act of of sex or sexual release flows should come from intimacy, right?

So, it's a result of intimacy. But what we've done is we've separated them and and severed them so strongly that now what's happened is we we think that they're separate. We objectified we it's totally separate and or the sexual release a lot of people believe leads to the intimacy. So they're like, I'm going to start here with someone with a w nightstand or hookup or whatever and hopefully it will lead to the intimacy. Now women are more aware of that. So women will often say, "Yeah, that's [clears throat] kind of what I'm looking for." A lot of guys are like, "Nah." But the reality is they are because when you really boil it down and especially when they're in a relationship where they have real intimacy, they're like, "Yeah, dude.

I don't want to go back to what what it was like before." But we've severed we've totally separated the two as if they're supposed to be. What do you mean by that? What do you mean we've separated though? But how there's like sexual release and then there's intimacy. Sexual release is supposed to be a result of intimacy, not by itself, not without any intimacy. So it's like we've taken the uh it's like it's like what we've done to processed food, the enjoyment of eating uh which should flow from nutrition and nourishment and connection.

Yeah. Now it's just all about hyper palatability and what does processed food do? Causes disease, you know, although we haven't completely separated them. We've done a decent job with food, but with pornography, it's totally separate. There is no intimacy. There is no relationship. It's only stimulation. It's only sexual personal, you know, gratification, release with nothing else. Yeah. Yeah. Which is very, very damaging. And and again, the data on this is is super super well. What do you say? It was like just like three times a week was problematic, right?

Yeah. Even I'm like I've been known to do that before. I mean, I know it's not hard for me to one time is will is enough to change the the level of intimacy that we have 100%. It's like it's a joke in our relationship. Like we talk like we'll call somebody out like like we have like your only rule. You're only allowed to masturbate if we're one of us is traveling. Like you're out of town for a week, like okay, you get a pass. You know what I'm saying?

But if I'm in town, we're in town together. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, uhuh, you don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's wild. And you know, talking to um I was talking to some friends the other day who were doing this like they're it's like a high school ministry. So, they talk to kids about sex and this and that. And we were talking and they're like focusing on all the scare stuff. I'm like you. I said you guys, you can't scare kids into not doing this kind.

It's never worked for thousands of years. No. I said talk to them about what they're missing out. Yeah. Not that it's scary. You can get pregnant. You can That's all true. They know that already. It hasn't stopped them. Tell them about what they're missing out on. That's what tells me. That's like how amazing it is on the other side. On the other side. Well, that one of the things I was pointing out was like you look at the data on I wish I knew this uh you know before people who report the the the most satisfied or satis the the best satisfaction from their sexual sex lives are married couples they're old who are in their 60s.

Yeah, they're old. Yeah. Okay. That's way outside of what you would think because the world sold you that it's about how young you are. Yeah. You would think it would be prime young 20s one night stand. Yeah. Lots of promiscuity and craziness. Shows you also how long it takes for you to really find those buttons. Yeah. I just [ __ ] 40 years it took me to figure that one out. 40 years. Finally nailed it. You know figured it out. Up down left right start. Why don't you just tell me that?

Hey, everybody from the '90s knows that code. The Konami code. Super contract. Yeah, you're finally a master. Anyway, I was reading this study on um uh on strength training comparing eccentric to concentric training. Yes, it was a really interesting article. So, if I were to tell you guys, this is going back and forth by the way, the science. So, if I was to tell you guys which one causes more muscle damage. Well, okay. So everybody histo like all the science and literature had pointed to the eccentric, but that's also comparing a 4-se secondond negative to like a regular one of two.

Well, what we know now is they're equal. Well, so here's what I was reading kind of along along those lines. Uh that number one, people don't practice eentric. So the second they practice it and novel messes them up. Of course, here's the other one, too. The load is never the same. Whatever you can do concentrically, you can add I don't know what it is like 20% or 40%. more now double double. Yeah, you can double you can take it's a big you can lower twice as much as what you can is that what it is.

So yeah, of course it's going to hurt more, you know, because you're using way more load, but if you control for that, it's all the same. Yeah, that's what So we've always been like all the all the books and stuff you we read back in our starting time, right, was like the eccentric does all the all the extra damage. But that's the point right there. It's like Yeah. Well, you're slowing it down and you could do more load. Do you guys remember I they they used to make these machines.

I have never seen them. I haven't seen them since, but uh in the late '9s when I was uh working in gyms, they used to have these and I think it was I want to say Nautilus made them. I'm not sure, but you could load it was a electronic resistance. So there wasn't a weight stack. So you type in the number. [snorts] So let's say I would bench press 150. When I press it would be 150, but then it would automatically adjust to lower with a much heavier weight.

Do you guys remember those machines? No, not those. I mean, you can do the tonal kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah. The total kind of does that. So, you know what sucked about those machines? What? The second they would change directions, the weight would hit and it would suck. I have that before. Yeah. Oh, you have? Yeah, dude. I have I haven't done like legit eccentric training in so long. It requires partners. It does. Like I can't I'm not going to do It's also so like I mean all this stuff is novel and so cool.

It's like I mean I don't know. At least my training is is so much more simple today than it was. I just get so much further with just frequently doing like the right thing. Yeah. I mean like it's so my mindset at my age now is just like what is the least off the least amount of things I can do to maintain this health and strength thing that I want. It's like trying a bunch of novel [ __ ] What do I care for? This works.

It's tried and true. Feel good afterwards. I think I'd like to try. I think what I want to do, only thing is a pain in the butt, but I think I'd like to do eccentric uh squats. Like go in there, rack it up, bring it out, and just lower it to the rack and then and then get out. I mean, I tell you what, if you do I mean, I remember I remember doing those and it it was a big obviously was the first time. So, of course, novel and probably made the biggest difference.

I probably say racks, but just gnarly loading something that you can't technically squat, right? You can't go up, but you could lower. Yeah, just lower it. Real control. what it just for everything else. I guarantee you'll hit a PR after that. I guarantee you will just like doing that sold. You have serious like you'll hit a you if you like you put I don't know what's like really heavy. You put five plates on there and you and you you train lowering it for a couple weeks and then you decide to go for a PR, you'll hit a PR.

too psychological to it because it's just getting over giving that feeling of oh I'm yeah I'm I'm bringing down more than I could ever come up and you get comfortable with that. So then when you go to the PR weight it's lighter than what you were and then you find a way to get out. I mean that's half of what I was battling. I remember trying to do this PR for you know push press and it was like just holding the weight initially was was crushing and you're like dude what am I doing?

Like it's just a psychological mind [ __ ] the split press. YES. YOU'RE SUCH A DICK. You're such a dick. You got As if I can even support it. I will never talk. You never my my back foot was like crooked and doesn't count, dude. Yeah, obviously you're unstable. So touche. Fair enough. I hate it when people talk crap I couldn't even do. I've seen videos. I've seen videos criticizing like like Ronnie Coleman's like dead people were full of [ __ ] once we had like Mike Smi who's like the most accomplished kettle bell person I've ever met.

So we talking [ __ ] about Mike? They were talking [ __ ] about his technique and form when we were doing like he was teaching me like techniques and I and I was looking at the comments and I'm like this is wild dude. Where are you getting your information from? Yeah. Like I want to looked and I looked through and they have nothing, you know, no like background to even like back their claims. You know, we have this big uh this big 10 year anniversary thing that we're doing this year, right?

I know. I'm excited too. And can't believe we worked together. You know what I wish we would have done? I wish we would have kept every negative comment from each that was said about each of us and would have played that on part of our Oh, that would have been hilarious. Do you guys have one that stands out to you just like weak chest? That's my bro. I have so many I can't I can't think of the way. So school, you know, dude bully. Like somebody somebody got me really good one time.

What did they say? It was a really good insult that it got me good. What did they say? I we we repeated it for a long time too. Like the weak chess one. It was like ones that have stuck around for a while that that like somebody said something that was like really good. Yesterday I was sitting down with I don't want to encourage this. By the way, I know we're talking about this now. We're going to get a bunch of plenty of Cuz you know why?

Cuz you know it took me a long time to like realize that a lot of them were actually like fans of the show that were just kind of joshing with you and it's just like you know they come in hot so you just fire back and you realize hey man big fan of the show. Own all the programs and it's like a [ __ ] Sorry bro you came in hot. You know what I'm saying? You need to give me a you need to give me a warm-up what up bro before you came at me.

You know, I had that I just had a conversation with Jessica yesterday cuz we were sitting [snorts] on the couch and like I'm like, "No, be honest with me, babe." And she already rolls her eyes. She's like, "All right, what's going What are you going to ask me?" I'm like, "Is is it really is it disproportionate? Is my chest disproportionate?" You can be honest. We're safe here. I actually had a comment under the series I'm doing someone and they're lying. This is not true, but underneath it, they're like, "That's actually a strong body part on you.

It's not a weak." Like, "All right, thanks, buddy." Yeah. Then you lying is worse. You can say it's improved. Thanks, mom. It's like so your calves are huge, dog. Stop it. Stop it. Come on, bro. Anyway, I want to hear about this. Sounds to me when I read one of your notes here, Justin. It sounds like an urban dictionary like thing. Which one are we talking? Navy Seal Goggles technique. Does that sound like a Sounds like a technique? You've tried the dirty sand. You guys haven't done this.

Have you tried the Navy Seals goggles technique? It's great, dude. It does sound like that. No, it I saw this cool video and it was this guy that was like describing Well, he actually went down into um one of those pools and showed how without goggles he could he was able to um see clearly like cuz they had to find like I don't [snorts] know if it was like some kind of nut and bolt and something. Anyway, oh yeah, it's part of their training. part of the train at bottom of the pool.

They have to like put together put together something and make it Yeah. So, and he was like, I claim he could do without any goggles. And so, he goes down there and he just basically blows um air and bubbles uh and then holds his hands like this over his eyes and then the bubbles come up and they kind of glue to his face like this. What? And it it creates this like weird like, you know, air pocket. That's cool. And so, he's looking down like this with this air pocket like bubble.

I thought it was like I've never even thought of that, you know, like I wonder if it works. I want to try it. Can you come on Google away? I want to see if that's true. That is cool. I've never seen I feel like I would have seen that on Tik Tok or on Facebook or on Instagram. That's why I was like I was I was like, man, why hadn't I seen this before? That just seems like such a to keep them from both not popping would be insane.

Yeah. He just had his hands like kind of shielded over like this so the bubbles stop right here and he could look through. Yeah. So he's blow So he has to be blowing just You would have to close this off though, wouldn't you? the clothes from No, they just they just go up cuz they float up here. Apparently, it's real. It is. Boom. Yeah. I'm going to try it and and uh report back cuz you know, you never know what I might have to put some bolts some bolts together at the bottom of my pool.

I don't know. It's called an air bubble mask. Let me see it. That's what it's called. I want to see it. You going to do this in the bathroom? You want to see? I'm going to try this. Okay. Adam always takes a bath and then you know I'm not a bath guy anymore. I don't have make this a bedroom technique. I don't know. Why don't you take the food in the bathroom? So, so the I only have one bath and it's one of those spare bedroom or spare bathroom.

So, so when I was going through my whole withdrawals thing, we did I did take a bath one time. My dad had never been in that thing and Katrina got it all ready for me and she's like, "I don't know if you can use it. I don't know the last time you've been in like a like a little bath." Oh, they're tiny, bro. I was like, I can only get uh you know, either my legs wet or my upper body. So, I'm like here, watch this.

Oh, look at that. Wait, it works, dude. Let's see. Let's see it. Get down there. Okay, it smashes over. Okay, here's how we're going to do it. And then do it. Wow. I I don't see the bubbles. This is a terrible video. That's the right one I seen. Wow, that's cool. Anyways, we'll give it a shot. Yeah, I believe I believe the video. Yeah. Don't dude, they dive deep without anything. It's [clears throat] crazy. Yeah. Did you ever watch that documentary? No. Oh, that's a good documentary.

It's called No. No. It's called Free Dive or something. It was a really good documentary of the world record holders of like hold. It's crazy how far down they go deep. I don't know if I ever told you guys this, but although I'm a terrible swimmer. I'm going to hold your breath for a long time. A long time. I don't know why. A long time. Do not work for me. I don't know why. It was just I remember I learned this as a kid. I took swimming lessons as a kid.

Yeah. As free diver. They told all of us to hold our breath underwater and I smoked everybody. I am like the worst swimmer. So, I think that's probably part of it. When we were kids, we used to have challenges. How many times back and forth on the the pool length could you go without without taking You're a good swimmer, too. I You swim better than me, dude. Well, I mean, I I can't swim. It's just like, you know, Justin swims better than you. You have a heavy butt, that's all.

I sink, dude. I know. He should not Yeah, he he's like a tugboat. He should not be able to swim better than you. I don't I'm just not You have a bird. You have like a nice like what you should be able to go through the water like this like a boat. You know what I'm saying? You should have just parked the water hell easy, dude. Kick your narrow waist. I got the floating raft the bottom. No, I just I'm not a good swimmer, dude. I think I get a little anxiousy.

You know what I mean? In the water. I'm just not comfortable. You know, like you know, when my feet can't touch the bottom. Do you think you had like a Did you have like a traumatic thing when you're a kid? You know what's crazy? I used to be I used to not mind at all. But my mom is terrified of of swimming. Terrified. So she won't go in the water below like if it's like above her waist, she's like not I don't know if it like inherited imprinted on you.

It's something I wouldn't be surpris I This is something I always give Katrina a hard time is like Katrina's like terrified of bees cuz she claims to be allergic to bees, right? So I don't know if there's a lot of proof for that or not, but she says that she's allergic to bees, right? So if a bee is in the backyard anywhere, she's and runs in the house and only because my son has seen that he's like that now. And I'm like, Max, you're fine. I was like, they don't it doesn't even hurt that bad if it stings you.

It's not a big deal. But because of that, I'm like, yeah. So I'm always trying to get on to them. I'm like, can you calm down just a little bit when you see a bee? Definitely. Cuz my son is now going to be terrified of bees cuz you're terrified. So I I cause I try and play with them when they're around like look, they're fine. You know what I'm saying? Like doesn't even hurt that bad. It's not a big deal. Like but you see him getting that way because he sees his mom.

Definitely. I think things can imprint on you. For sure. I can I watch it and watch it happen cuz my mom was also terrified of spiders. Although I'm not that bad anymore. I had to learn to not be scared of spiders because I'm a man and my wife won't. But my but my brother my you guys know my brother. He's a big dude, bro. You put the tiniest spider next to him, you will he will move like you never seen before in your life. He will jump and move.

I've seen him jump off a bike. He was on his bike and there was a spider on a handle and he jumped off. That's what makes spiders is is because of how small they are. I am le so a big tarantula will creep me out way less than a little tiny little really. So if you're driving and a tarantula so we grew up think it's going to jump on me. So October season is is was when all when they all come out, right? And I grew up where they used to be everywhere and we'd let them crawl on us.

So I'd let a a tarantula crawl on my arm. But a little spider in my house, I do not. Have you seen those videos where there's like it looks like a furry wall and then they tap it and it's bazillions of little spiders? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen that? This is in Australia where they had those where it was just like just blankets of webs and it was just like all in the bushes, all in the power lines and all this like and it just happens a couple times a year or something where they like they breed and it's like this crazy like Does Australia have the worst bug?

Yes. I think it was so remember when we talked about this years ago going to Australia talked about well we talked about spiders and so that and somebody sent in a picture of a spider carrying a rat up above that was enough for me never going there that's enough for right there a spider carrying a rat like that doesn't even make sense that's not supposed to happen it's not supposed to happen dude it's like crazy man did you are you guys all stocked up on your ziotics for the holiday.

We got No, I just ran out and I need to get some. I'm actually ordering some cuz Yeah, I've I've gone through this. This is not We're sponsored by them. We buy them ourselves. This is where we're at now. That much staff, dude. It's cuz of staff. They all send us stuff for free. But now you got What do you got? 20 something people in here. Plus, are they taking them all? Well, I make the the mistake of hyping it up to all my friends, too.

And then they're like, they come over and they're like, "Oh, is this what you're talking about?" And they just grab them. Well, it works. It really It really works. I'm still shocked that they don't that bars don't carry them. I think I thought I heard them say they were getting into some. I thought I heard that. So, yeah, I think a few do. Now, I I I don't know if they're actively pushing. It's silly for bars not to because I mean it would increase the the amount of drinks they would probably sell if they were to do that.

I think it would be really nightclubs or something. I I think it would be great. But anyway, I think the reason I mean I know they were always so careful about that like they're not trying to promote like binge drinking or lots of drinking kind of go together drinking but alcohol. I know. And well that's what it's for, right? So did you have you ever followed up on them on like cuz they were the last time we had talked to them they did that because it was like easy.

Remember they're they're they're in the whole their first product genetic modifying. Oh yeah. remember like that that was like it was like low hanging fruit was why they started the company so they could fund all the other projects that they were going to do I haven't talked to them but I remember there's some stuff I can't talk about on the pipeline that's really they have the sugar to fiber product how come we haven't tried that Doug we have we all got it you take it you eat sugar it converts it to fiber for reals have you tried it I've tried it Doug's tried it you have yeah it's great for regularity seriously yeah dude I'd like to try that I I enjoy a lot of regularity right now huh I said you don't need regular.

Thanks a lot, dude. I got Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on blast. Hey, you know, speaking of that, no, my my son uh uh Pete's pants at school, right? And uh we get a call. That happens. Listen though, we get a call and I was with Katrina. She's like, "Oh my god, the school called right now." I said, "What? What's going on?" She's like, "Max didn't make it to the bathroom." And I'm like, "What?" I'm like, "Okay, weird." And she's like, "I'm I'm going now.

I'll be back." So, she goes to pick him up and uh you know, I'm wondering like, "Oh man, did he get embarrassed? Is this going to be like a traumatic thing?" So, I actually like I greet them at I I I see him pull up in the driveway and I get out. I want to see see if he's doing okay. And he climbs out and he's like got these like some other kids high water pants on, something like that. He's like, you know, all the chippery and he comes right up.

Hey, Dad. I was just like, how was school buddy? That was good. I was like, uh, anything happened? No. Oh, I peed my pants. And I was just like, "Uh, what happened?" He's just like, "Oh, I didn't make it. It's not a big deal." And he just walked past, dude. He was so I looked at Katrina and she just kind of like she just shrugged me off. That's great. Yeah. She He goes She goes, "I tried to talk to him." He just kept telling me, "Mom, it's not a big deal.

I just I didn't make it in time. I was, you know, I was playing in the sandbox and I I held it too long and she kept she's like, "Mom, it's not a big He kept telling her it's not a big deal." She's like, "All right, it's not a big deal." Yeah. Yeah. I was ready for him to be kind of like, "Well, yeah, because that could No, no. I thought about that, you know, and like so uh and again probably my own Justin never lived that down when he was also known as pe boy.

I was I was totally prepared to like hey it's okay buddy like accidents happen. Hey next time like the whole dad speech and be there for him. That's why I met him at the door. He just walked right past me. I was like awesome. Yeah, no big deal. Dad and he's wearing these little tiny pants. It was so hilarious. That's so great. Oh, for all health too much. Probiotics have been shown in studies not just to improve digestion. They do, but they also improve the health of your skin, athletic performance, strength, recovery, mental state.

Probiotics are effective. The world's best probiotic is Seed. All the rest suck. Seed is the best. Go to seed.commindpump. Use the code 20 mindp. Get 20% off. This segment of the podcast is brought to you by Mindpump Fitness Coaching. This is the number one course that teaches trainers and coaches how to build sustainable sixf figureure plus businesses and careers in fitness. Look, it's roundt based. So, you can hear Adam, Justin, and myself teaching you how to build a better business, get more leads, close more deals, close bigger deals, and be more effective trainers.

By the way, our course is nationally recognized. In fact, it gives you 1.9 CEUs with or for your NASM certification. Find out more at mindpunfitnesscoaching.com. Our first caller is Stephanie from Ontario. Hi, Stephanie. Hello. Hello. How's it going? We're good. How can we help you? Good. So, I've adjusted my question a little bit uh because I've had a bit of an update, but I will just go right into it. Um, so I've been a listener for about 5 years now and I absolutely love your show.

Uh, it's completely changed my relationship with health and health and fitness and I follow all of your programs and even got my dad to change his lifestyle thanks to you guys. He used to be the Atkins diet's biggest fan and now he's no longer afraid of carbs. Um, a bit about my journey. I've been an athlete all my life but always struggled with my weight being taller and bigger than most of the other girls. Uh, over the years I've done a few bulking and cutting cycles.

have been able to get down to around 21% body fat. Um, and that's where I [clears throat] would ideally like to maintain somewhere in and around those low 20s. The challenge is at the end of my cuts, I really don't want to track everything that I eat. Um, so I typically track up to around maintenance and then I'll stop tracking um, and weighing myself cuz it just feels like a bit of a negative relationship. Um, and then inevitably my body fat always tends to creep back up.

So, I guess the update is that I ended a cut in March and decided to reverse back up to maintenance. Um, and then over the summer, I was no longer tracking and I'd say my body fat now is probably around 25%. Originally, I planned to do a bulk for the last 3 months of the year, but um, like Adam talks about, I actually hit a place where I was just kind of like tired of eating, wasn't really hungry or having too many cravings or anything. So, which I had never actually experienced.

So, I figured it'd be a good time uh to to start a cut. So, this probably the longest I've spent out of a cut in a while. Um so, at the start of November, I began a cut eating around 1,900 to 2,000 calories with 150 to 160 g of protein. Um I'm currently running MAP Symmetry on phase 2. I'm still not weighing myself, but I am tracking my food. So, my current plan is to continue cutting till probably around Christmas, take a week or two break over the holidays, um, and then go back into a cut for maybe around seven or so weeks.

Uh, for context, I'm 510. I play soccer one to twice a week. Strength training three to four times a week. Uh, 8 to 10k steps, 150 to 160 grams of protein. I do have PCOS managed with birth control and yeah, feel better eating higher fat, which is like 70 to 80 grams minimum. I like this plan. Yeah, I like this. I like this plan a lot. You're doing great. I think you're doing phenomenal. You're doing great. By the way, a lot of times, and I I'm not surprised that you do better on a higher fat.

Often times, women with PCOS do better with a lower uh carbohydrate, higher fat approach. And and the exercise you're doing is perfect. strength training is great uh for that. Yeah. One other thing I'd like to comment on is so let me ask you this. When you're feeling healthy, what I mean by that is like you're consistent, diet is good, workout is good, but you're also mentally healthy about it. You don't feel like you're controlling everything, tracking everything, like you just feel good. Uh and in in the kind of when you imagine that sphere of health.

Yep. Where does your body fat, if you were to guess, where does your body fat percentage tend to like to maintain? Probably this like 24%. And that's not tracking. Yes. So, and the reason like I'm glad I'm so glad I asked this question. So, um, in my experience, uh, female athletes, especially strong athletes, their body fat percentage when they're all healthy and doing everything right, tends to sit in the kind of low to mid 20s, which by the way is a healthy body fat percentage. Some and now, give or take, right?

There's this individual variance. Like, some women will sit leaner, other women will sit a little higher. But that's a great place to be. It's fit, it's healthy, you're strong, your hormones are balanced, you're not like obsessing about food, you don't feel stressed about it. And so that's probably where and that's a great place to be. And so the reason why I'm communicating this is don't get too caught up with the I got to get down to 20 21% body fat. I mean, you're talking about 3 4% difference, which, you know, you know, and you got to ask yourself, is it going to be worth the, you know, the the mental, you know, stress about it?

Cuz off and also the potential lack of performance. That's right. Because yeah, you know, we could technically cut down to 1,800 calories for longer and be stricter and, you know, and then, okay, maybe you shred off another percent or two body fat, but then, you know, then does soccer suck, you know, and do you feel like you're like restricting all day long and so you're just thinking about food? And it's like, I mean, yeah, we could do that, but you're in a very healthy good place right now.

You have a great plan the way you're going about this. Um, yeah, I I think you're in a a really good place. Yeah. So there's there's this kind of genetic, you know, fit and healthy body fat percentage range and it and and there's a there's a range there because for some people it's leaner and for some people it's a bit higher and it's your healthy range. And so if you're sitting at like 24 and you're like active and you're strong and you could play soccer and you feel like you're kicking butt and you're not like stressed over your diet and stuff like that and you're just like you just really have this good quality of life like that's great.

Like go for it. In fact, I feel like I just aesthetically like being lower, which I feel like probably everybody. Yes. You know what we've done, Stephanie, is we've placed this aesthetic quote unquote ideal, which is oh, it's always so funny to me how it's always 3% away from where you like to be healthy or whatever, right? But we've placed we've taken this aesthetic quote unquote ideal and we've elevated it above where it should be. And so, we've sacrificed [clears throat] all these things that are more valuable, if you really look at it, to you than just this.

like how much better of a quality of life do you have when you're at 21% body fat, but you're also uh tracking and stressed about your life with the food, right? So, is it really a better quality of life? No, it's not. So, so that's just the thing that, you know, I want you to think about when you're doing this and and then here's a little kicker. Here's where I'm going to sell it to you. If you start to get comfortable in this kind of zone, often times people do get a little leaner because because what what what kind of happens is this bouncing up and down where we're playing with it and then when people kind of settle into this healthy kind of place then what usually happens is you see a little bit of body fat loss anyway.

Okay. Yeah. And then what would you guys suggest? So, let's say I, you know, go through the maintenance cut or maintenance for 2 weeks after Christmas and then continue to cut and then I'm around again that low 20s. Would you suggest doing like slowly maintain and then every couple months add a couple hundred calories to get my maintenance up from there? Sure. Yeah. Sure. If you want to. Okay. And then do you have a suggestion on which program to follow after Symmetry? Oh gosh. I like uh powerlift and strong are great.

Okay. I've never done either of those ones. I have um aesthetic, muscle mommy, and anabolic. Oh, you know what? You probably would really like strong. Mhm. Yeah, I bet you would like strong. Let's send that to you. Okay. How many days a week is that one? I think it's uh I believe it's it's four or five. Well, it's five, but that's because of the work. Work sessions. So, there's like two workouts and three work sessions. Foundational and then the rest are work. So in other words, if you are also playing like soccer or something, you could literally cut the work sessions out and just do the three foundational days.

So it's like three foundational days, then we have the two work session days. If you're doing some other sport or activity, modify, you can modify and drop the work session for however many. So if you got two days of soccer, drop the two work sessions. If you got one day of soccer, drop one of the one of them. You can totally do that. Okay, cool. And then in terms of cardio, I typically just add like maybe 10 minutes on the stairmaster at the end of my workouts.

Do you guys think that's totally fine? Totally fine. Good enough. Not pushing. Okay, cool. No, you're good. I mean, how do you feel with on on the soccer field? How's your performance since adding quite a bit more muscle? It's definitely different, but it's kind of cool. Um, but it's still good. I think uh I should I probably need to get my cardio up a little bit more for soccer right now. You could you could do those those 10 minutes of stair master do more like interval training for those 12 minutes.

So like hit style hit style cardio postworkout would be great. That'll especially the way soccer is where you have just bouts of sprints like that. And so you could do those bouts of sprints in a short 12minute window and you'll get some good benefits just from that. By the way, the the the things that you're doing is great. Yeah. everything you're doing is good. I'm just talking about the the the the mindset around it, which I think you're heading in that direction anyway. Yeah. [clears throat] I think you sometimes you hear like obviously I listen to you guys and you've listened to other callers and stuff and you're like, "Oh, does that apply to me?" And you kind of like I don't want to deviate my plan too much.

So, I just wanted to I guess confirm it's right. Yeah. No, you're good. Doing great. Yeah, you're doing great. Sounds good. We'll send strong over to you. Okay. Awesome. Thanks so much, guys. You got it. Bye-bye. Recording stopped. Yeah, that was good. I think too uh you know cuz she's talking only about like two two or 3%. And with with birth control and autoimmune, how much water a weight do you think she holds on a regular basis? I mean it depends on what it you know it depends on the person but uh cuz in my experience someone who's got autoimmune and taking birth control pills, you got just that layer of what they think is fat is just is just water retention a lot of times.

Could be. You know, it's interesting. I'm like, "Okay, so you know where I was getting at with her is often times you take someone that like this and you get you take away that little bit of stress over cutting, bulking, cutting, bulking, and they settle. They tend to get leaner." Yeah. It just tends to happen. Uh rather than the pingpong, you know, but she's not extreme. She's doing good. No, you allow your body to actually acclimate. Great plan. I think she has a great plan. Our next caller is Emily from Colorado.

Hi, Emily. Hello. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for taking my question. And uh just first and foremost, I just want to thank you guys for all you do. I've been listening to y'all since 2021 and you have become my northstar when it comes to health and fitness. So, thank you so much. Thank you so much. How can we help you? Right. Yeah. So, I'll just read my question as I wrote it here. Um I hear a lot of conflicting information on the usefulness and safety of grass squats.

How do you know if it's safe to do so? If I'm able to do it unweighted, does that mean it's safe to try with weight? I'm asking this because I'd like to improve my squat depth, but I definitely have ankle mobility issues and chronic knee pain probably as a result, but I've noticed elevating my heels does help a lot. I'm able to get all the way down. So, is it best to start with lifted heels with the goal to eventually not need that or should I just avoid squatting altogether and only work on my ankle mobility?

Good question. You could do what I do. So I I just don't mow my lawn for a long time and then it's easy to go astrass. I just go barely. All right. So it's definitely a mobility issue. You've pointed it out. Yeah. We'll send you Sorry. Uh do you have Prime Pro? I don't. Okay. So Prime Pro and use the ankle and hip mobility movements in there. Practice them once or twice a day every day. Watch the videos and then as and so practice those regularly.

And then when you squat, range of motion is very important, but it has to be range of motion that you can own and control. Strength and supported range of motion. If you move outside of the range of motion that you can control and support with good stability, good strength, you are now in the realm of injury. Mhm. So as the grass is only good if if you can own that. If you can't, do not do it. But if you can elevate your ankles and you can own it and make a squat look really good just by elevating your which by the way happens a lot.

There's so many clients that I had that couldn't do a good astigrass squat but it was because their ankle mobility was so bad but as soon as I elevated their heels they could drop right down. It looked br it looked beautiful. Everything looked good. So what I would do is I would ask the grass squat with them with heels elevated while we worked on those mobility drills. So that just becomes a ritual for you and do that as much as you can. Like every day if you can multiple times a day and for sure before you always squat like so mandatory always before you squat I'm doing my hip and ankle mobility that's a bare minimum but then I'm trying to do it every day as many times I can even if it's just a five minutes get down on the ground do some of my 9090s do some of my combat.

The more frequency you do those those mobility drills primarily combat stretch and 9090s is going to open those hips up, get you better connected, and also get you greater range of motion in the ankles. And then eventually you can you can peel the the heel raise out. But doing it simultaneously is totally okay cuz there's also value in getting your hips and the rest of your body comfortable with that deep range of motion while you're still working on things. Good point. the more you can actually like add and infuse more isometric tension at the bottom of the squat and that being the focus for you, uh, the more likely you're going to be strong and stable in that position, which is where we can start thinking about loading it.

And, um, and I think too, like even slowly and gradually adding load, but then still working on that pause squat. So now I'm at the bottom. I'm I'm really emphasizing that muscle recruitment process and then you'll feel a lot more comfortable and confident uh going astr. Yeah. It's a mistake that you might make with prime pro is you'll watch the video and just copy the movement. Be very about the cues. Be very careful to listen to the video and the cues. How you activate your body and muscles in the pose or in the movement makes all the difference in the world.

So, just watch the videos associated with like combat stretch is probably going to be good for you and and the 9090 variations will probably be good for you, but there's others. So, when you're doing it, watch the video. Listen to the cues and and and do what the cues are telling you. That'll make all the difference. What's my uh Prime Pro video, Doug, called? Where's the webinar? Primeproinar.com. For anybody who doesn't have it, you can watch that. Yeah. And but even if you do like I think what I did on that a little bit better than what we did in the prime pro program is what you just said.

And so [clears throat] in prime on the prime pro webinar which is free. So we'll send you the program and then we'll send you the and then go to the prime pro webinar uh.com and go to that um webinar I did and in there I'm coaching through the whole thing so you can hear me telling you intensify it, drive your knee into the floor and so you get the coaching kind of with it. Um, I do recommend going through that with me because then you'll get kind of like the idea of like, oh, okay, this isn't just like a yoga stretch when you do this.

You're supposed to be working in these in these movements. But uh and also um squat shoes are a decent investment unless you got like a unless the gym has a nice little heel raise that you can just foam one or one of those nice ones or if you're having to like put plates underneath your shoes all the time, you know, I'd buy some some squat shoes and when I'm when I'm squatting, I'd bring them with me and and I'd continue to work on my ankle mobility and then yeah, it'll come together.

Okay. Yeah, I'm currently I work out at home, so I'm using plates. And it does kind of add a little extra time that I don't particularly like spending doing, so I might consider yeah, getting some squat shoes. I wasn't sure if I was kind of going down the wrong path by elevating my heels and practicing that without doing mobility. So, it's good to know I can do both at the same time. Yes. And I'm essentially doing it with like basically no weight. I don't have a standard bar or I have I don't have an Olympic bar, so my bar is only 15 lbs.

That's fine. So, I'm doing it with that just an empty bar and feels okay. I But yeah, I just wasn't sure if I was going to end up injuring myself because I don't have that mobility. No, no, you're good. I think Yeah, you follow Prime Pro mobility, those movements. Keep practicing the squat. Just be safe and you'll progress. You'll see it. Intentional with it. Yeah, you're doing a good job. I I will tell you this though, there's an interesting thing that I I find unique to squatting that there's this when you start to load it, and I'm not saying like load it so heavy you're scared to squat down in it, but all a sudden once you put a a good amount of weight where your core has to stabilize and you have to really posture up, your form gets better.

So if I literally to this day with all the years I've been squatting, if I go out there and do a 135 squat, it'll look worse than my 225 squat. And it's just because as soon as I get about 225 on my back, my body goes, okay, we got some weight on there. Even though it's not m it's enough for me to go, okay, I need to really tense up. And that's so important to a good squat. And so I do recommend at one point you kind of loading it a little bit to where you kind of get that feeling.

You don't need to go so crazy you feel scared, but enough to where it's like, oh, this is a good amount of weight that I got to move. And you you'll find it interesting how your body naturally kind of goes, oh, I need to tighten up and tense up. And that's really good for squatting. Okay. Okay. That's good to know. I I've kind of wondered if maybe my knee pain could be because I I only squat to parallel and I have for years and I'm wondering if maybe because I haven't gotten strong in the full range of motion that it could be that could be affected by it.

So it could be a few things. Uh so it could be a few things but knee pain often times where does your knee hurt? Yeah. Let me know where it hurts. um the inside area essentially like if you're looking at the kneecap, it's kind of like on the inside of the leg right below it. Okay. So that's that's probably coming from your ankle. Yeah. Yeah. Your knees are either probably doing this uh or there's tension going in that direction. It is almost always when it's just like unless you had an acute injury, it's almost always ankles or hips.

Yeah. So yeah, it's and then the knee is just taking that stress because our ankles are weak and lack mobility and our hips leak are weak and lack mobility. Once you get gain mobility, gain strength in those areas, it takes all the stress off the knees. It's incredible how that works. Yeah, [snorts] it's been a long prog. I've gone to an orthopedist and my PCP, even podiatrist to see if it could be related to, you know, I've got some feet issues, too. But I haven't had any injury.

It definitely occurred after having my baby back in 2018 and uh about a year after that I started working out again and the knee pain came. So I went to physical therapy and they suspected it was from pregnancy and how it kind of changes your gate and your stance. So yeah, no, you're on the right path. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. You got it. All right, Emily. Thank you. All right. Yeah. [clears throat] Now, when it comes to um what you said, Adam, where you add weight to the bar and it puts you if somebody is It's so wild how that is, right?

Well, so if you're strong but tight, it'll help. But if you're weak uh and loose, it doesn't help. And I want to say that because that because sometimes someone could be like weak and like loosey goosey and you add weight to them and but like you or I, definitely me, uh I'm strong but tight. And so what happens is it'll force my ankles into mobility. It'll force me in position position versus not. It also it it also forces my upper posture to push my chest up high.

So the bar is my core has to tighten up because I I because it's it's wanting me to fall. So it it's a it's a trip how much uh loading the bar on my clients I realize like and you don't it you don't have to load it crazy. No. Just to give them some feedback. Yeah. But if you I mean you tell me she's got a 15lb bar on her back. That's like that's like 25. Yeah, she could do at least a 45 lb bar and that alone that kind of weight will make her body kind of stiffen up a little.

Our next caller is K from Denmark. K, how you doing? Hey guys. So, uh this is surreal. So, I wrote this email because I feel like I'm at a crossroads on my fitness journey. I started working out as of January 2025 and have been going at it consistently for 11 months. Uh you guys have been a huge inspiration and driving force for me to keep bettering myself and with your help and guidance I feel like I have achieved a far better physique than I had expected.

I have just completed maps on a balik and have the entire RGB super bundle to go through. So that's very exciting. My driving force when I started out was football or soccer as you call it in America. I love playing football, but since I was about 20 years old, I have weighed about 220 lbs. So, playing the sport I love felt really difficult. Uh, so I ended up just stopping. My feet and legs wouldn't connect to my mind as I wanted to, and every turn, chop, and burst of speed turned sour as my legs burned out from the attempts.

I have now dropped down to 190 lbs, and I'm currently packing 97 pounds of muscle. And when last on an inbody scanner uh my butterfly percentage was at 14.8%. Uh although I think it's a little bit higher. Uh through my teens I was very active playing uh football and volleyball even playing volleyball at under 17s and under 19s for the Faroh national team. Uh I'm not expecting to go back to that level. I just want to feel athletic again. Uh so here's my question to you guys.

Is there any form uh of workout routine or diet that will get my feet and legs to act like I want them to so that I can do like one chop and sprint away from someone without losing my balance or slowing down or does my age of 32 just limit that factor. We could of course try some stuff out myself and see. But I really want to hear what you guys have to say about it. My uh big dream now is to get to play one more complete season of football where where I feel proud of myself and feel good on on the pitch.

Yeah, good [snorts] good question. This is cool. Well, what's really cool is that the way if you got the super bundle and you've just completed anabolic nexus performance, which would be the foundational thing we would do first and then and then probably progress you in that direction athletically. But that's that would lay a nice foundation in that pursuit. Yeah. especially phase two. Okay. There's also So, this is a unique situation because you played at a high level. So, what you uh are referring to in terms of your performance, your benchmark is what you used to be able to do at a very high level.

In other words, if you if I were to take you out and test your athleticism right now, you would be remarkable. But compared to how you used to be, you feel slow and unresponsive. And I'm going to tell you, the the best way you're going to get back to if that's what you're looking for, it's not going to be gym workouts. Now, we can give you gym workouts that are athletic, but to make you feel the way you did before, the best thing you could do is a little bit of strength training and a lot of playing.

Yeah. Nothing will rep uh replace getting on the field and playing in terms of giving you that feeling that you're looking for, that athletic feeling. Uh so if I had you and we didn't have like a very if you didn't say hey I need by this month this that and we had a nice time frame what it would look like would be taking you through performance the way it's laid out and then after that reducing to like a one day a week of it or like a like a mass 15 performance and starting to train uh and go practice your sport cuz that'll lay a nice foundation of muscle.

It's going to address some multiplayer stuff, mobility stuff, a little bit of endurance training. It's going to lay a nice little foundation and then we really start to ramp up the amount of sport that you're playing and reduce the time in the gym. And [clears throat] honestly, all that volume is accounted for in performance advance. There's two major like foundational workouts per week, but it's the skills that's highlighted the most. And and we don't talk about this a lot because there's not a lot of people like very much focused on their sport specific.

Um, you know, you can be intentional about getting faster, getting more responsive with, uh, organizing your body. So, you know, when you when you go to move, you're efficient with your movement. Uh, which there is there is a lot of value in that. You know, that does translate immediately to field play. Uh, and so if if I were and again, these skill training days aren't that long. So, you know, it could be anywhere from like 20 to 45 minutes. it's not going to be super fatiguing because it's the reps are very intentional.

Uh, and so it's it's really it's just drilling. So if you want to like compare it to something, it would be like if I was practicing and drilling my specific movements. Uh, so I would recommend that and then on top of that even like getting in again the actual game play and the movement of it and putting it all together. But you do lose that um ability to immediately access that kind of like uh quick and powerful movement ability and and control. Yeah. I'm I'm assuming [clears throat] you're pretty tall.

How tall are you? I am uh 180 cmters. Yeah. What is that in feet, Doug? He's a big guy, especially if you played on the national team for volleyball. I'm not uh I'm not very big. I my uh I could jump real high. Okay. Um but you're also I'm like what's say I think it's 5'11. F according to this is 59. 180 is 5'9. You said 182. Oh. Oh, 182. Okay. Let me fix that. That's Yeah. Okay. You said 182. Okay. Well, all right. Nonetheless, so when you're keep this Okay.

So, keep Yeah. 510 5 L. So, keep this in mind, right? That uh there's definitely a size component and a fitness component to what you're looking for, but there's also a skill component uh that you'll lose if you don't practice the skill often. Well, so so per I like what Justin said. I love what Justin said, but I think what matters difference than all of our advice right now is the is when you want to do this? Like when do you want to be on the field again?

Is it like by next summer? Is it like in a couple months? Because I think Yeah. So So right now we're out of season. Yeah. Um uh I'm playing once a week with my friends like an an indoor game. Mhm. So I'm keeping myself going and I'm actually uh I am doing the MAPS performance right now. I'm in phase one. So because after maps anabolic I felt that my body after phase three it like took a toll on me. I started feeling a bit of pain and something um and my endurance was was really um not there.

Uh yeah not there exactly. Uh but I but I feel like I am getting to a place where I I ran a 5k in 22 minutes uh the other month uh last month. So my endurance is getting better. Uh but the the season starts in March uh March, April. Okay. So reverse it, right, Justin? Maybe January start January January start advanced and just focus on power skill. So we'll say performance advance follow that in January and then make sure you practice more soccer and then dietwise eat for performance.

Yeah. Okay. So eat for performance. So whole natural foods, high protein, make sure you eat carbohydrates. Yeah. Get enough energy and eat for performance. So judge your diet based on your performance, not on how you look. Mhm. Okay. But what he's doing right now is great for right now. So what you're doing running performance playing soccer once a week to kind of maintain and then in January is we're going to follow Justin's protocol, go to performance advance, that'll really ramp up the soccer and then play as much soccer with it as you can.

Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah, you can get it back for sure. Yeah, if you just That's a good plan right there. Yeah, I would be uh very thankful if if that would be the case. My last complete season I played I think I was 21. Uh so so I would it would be amazing if I could like stick to it. And the reason I stop is because I expect so much more of myself. Yeah, of course. And when I can't deliver, I get like um uh what do you call it?

Um discouraged. Discouraged. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to the club. Okay. K. The one the one mistake that you could make, okay, is when you start to really pick up soccer more than once once a week and it goes to two three times a week and you're practicing more is to try and maintain the strength training along with it. Make sure you reduce that. Yeah. So once you get to a place where you're playing if you're playing soccer three times a week or more, the weight training needs to be one time at that's it.

No more. Okay. So that's a mistake that athletes will make and that's where you'll get injured is if you save the intensity for the sport. Yes. As like right now your plan's perfect. The mass performance one day a week of soccer. January comes you're going to follow Justin's performance advance. But you start hitting soccer four times three four times or more a week. Scale back on the on the weight training. Should only be like one day a week. Yep. Okay. So it would be like a full foundational workout for like an hour or so.

No like like three four exercises. That's it. Yes. Very very minimal. Very very minimal at that point. That that is going to make you great on the field and protect you from getting injured. Your mistake that you could make that people make is they try and keep the weightlifting routine up and now they're playing soccer four days a week cuz they and they that's where they get hurt. That's right. Okay. So So we're thinking like four compound movements or like three three three four compound movements at most.

Yep. Okay. Cool. Yep. Yep. And even at that and even at moderate intensity does not need to be going to fail. Don't be just because you're now you're only doing one day. Don't go I go to failure because I'm only doing this one day. You're just you're just trying to maintain the muscle and strength that you've built in the offseason. You're not trying to progress in the gym. You're trying to progress on the field. And it takes very little volume and intensity to maintain the muscle mass you built.

So just you get in there, do those four good compound lifts, do it at moderate intensity, get out. It's soccer time and that's your focus. Soccer time. It's soccer time. Soccer time. You like that? Well, I'd love to hear back from you, K. You'd be a fun person to talk to after uh after January. So, if you Yeah, I'd love to circle back and hear hear how you're uh hear how it went for you. Yeah, of course. That would be that would be very cool. Yes.

All right. And and I just have to say like I just started it feels like I've just started working out and to be here talking with you guys already. If you told me this a year ago, I would have told you to take a hike. This is uh this is really incredible, guys, and I'm so thankful that you are willing to have me on. Of course, man. We'll have you back on. All right. K. Perfect. Take it easy, brother. Thank you. Bye. Yeah. Just uh athletic training is totally I just to put it differently.

Okay. And this this is even more pronounc the more advanced or more elite you are in athleticism, the more pronounced this is. So, just to illustrate this for people, your bases already are there. If you took an athlete that was at a very high level, college level, definitely pro level, but like you're really good and you improve, you increase their strength by 20%. They're going to their timing is going to be off suddenly. Yeah. So, you have to match your strength gains, everything, all your gains, match the skill.

The skill has to follow mechanics. Otherwise, it throws you off. And then suddenly at that level I'm stronger, but my timing is off a little bit. My performance isn't any better. It might even worse. Your conditioning, your endurance, it's very totally different. Our next caller is Jessica from California. Hi, Jessica. How you doing? Hello. Hi. What's happening? This is so wild. I know everybody says that when they come on and they're like, "Ah, this is so weird." All right. I've been listening to you guys for for a while.

So, it's uh really awesome. Thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it. Um, as most people do, I guess I will just read my email. It's quite long. I hope you'll bear with me. Um, just trying to provide all the relevant data and details in here. So, um, here's my story. I am a 49year-old married working mother of three. Uh, one of my kids is in college, but I still have a 14-year-old and a nine-year-old at home. Um, for many years I was a serious long-distance runner and occasional triathlete.

Um, and I sort of listed a little bit in there, uh, but not seriously. I wasn't seriously weight training. Um, I was also a yoga teacher in my 20s and continued to practice yoga and Pilates as a compliment to my running in my 30s and early 40s. [gasps] My third pregnancy and pmenopause both kind of really threw me in for a loop. And among other extremely annoying symptoms, I developed a lot of hip pain and tendinitis and had to take long breaks from running. And for the first time outside of pregnancy, I gained about 20 pounds.

Um, I finally had to give up running entirely and subsequently went allin on lifting about two and a half years ago. Um, by the way, I was ultimately diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia, laboral tears in both hips, and early signs of arthritis in both hips. So, that's crappy. Um, when I first got into lifting, I went for traditional lifts. I actually started with strong lifts, 5x5, and and I did try to chase the deep squat. Um, but my MMO is going too hard. So, I went too hard, too heavy, too deep.

And I'm pretty sure that that led to more hip problems. I'm pretty sure that spring I got a new laboral tear. Um, and so I kind of had to back off. I realized that, okay, after my diagnosis, like I have shallow hip sockets, so deep squatting may not be the best exercise for me. Another thing that I had to come to grips with was that pain means stop. So, as a distance runner, you get really good at ignoring pain and discomfort and powering through. So when things would hurt in the gym, I just was like, "Oh, that that just means I have to work harder." Um, so eventually I had six months of really good physical therapy with a great PT.

I got into your podcast and I started trying to accept the gospel of rest. Um, so now I try to focus on good form, rest and recovery. And I really am trying to work with my body rather than against it. Um, as part of that, I realized I've been undereating for years. That was just my lifestyle. Um, not too bad. Um, you know, I wasn't eating like 1,200 calories a day, but I was definitely in a calorie deficit. And I even up until last year, 2024, I know I was in a calorie deficit all year because I was tracking.

I pretty much I don't know if I was a deficit. Let's just say my maintenance was low because I lived at 17,800 calories a day and I'm 5'7. Um, so in January of this past year, I decided to try my first reverse diet. I made it up to about 2150 with a slow increase over 3 months while I was running MAPS anabolic. Uh, then I did a little bit of a cut for about 8 to 10 weeks. I cut back to 1,800 and did performance 15.

And then I switched to like a two-day a week full body workout at around maintenance calories, like 1,900ish. Um, so what I'm trying to do now is start I just started Muscle Mommy a couple weeks ago and I'm trying to uh do another kind of bulk during this program. Um, as an aside, I also walk about 9 to 10,000 steps a day. Like a low day for me would be about 8,000. A high day about 12,000. So it averages out to about 10,000. Uh, let me give you some data from my DEXA scans.

I've been getting approximately quarterly DEXA scans for about a two years. So, um, between December, end of December 2024, and a recent DEXA scan I had at the end of October, um, I have gained about 7 pounds of lean mass. Um, and I took my body fat percentage down from about 29.1 to about um, 28%. So, a little bit of a decrease, even though technically according to my scan, I gained a little bit of fat, like about point4 pounds of fat over that time. Um, so I'm really pumped about the lean uh mass increase.

Even if it's not seven pounds, like if there's error, even if it was 5 lbs or four pounds, I think at 49 to gain that much muscle in a year is or 10 months is pretty good. Um, but I am frustrated by uh the body fat percentage not really going down. I was I I realize now in the past that I was kind of skinny fat. Like in January of 2024, I was at 33% body fat. So now that I'm at 28, like that's better, but as much as I work out and as like as active as I am, I my goal is to get more into the range of like 25%.

Um I gained muscle everywhere, but especially in my arms and my back and my chest. Um, I put a lot of details in the email, but the bottom line is I'm very strong in my upper body and like I'm 90th percentile for lean mass for my age in my arms and my trunk, but my DEXA scan says I'm in the 10th percentile of lean mass for my legs. Um, also my fat percentage of my legs is much higher than my body overall. So, I can tell I'm getting stronger um everywhere and I'm I'm happy about that.

my shoulders, my arms, my back, they look awesome, but progress is slower than I would like in both strength gains in the legs and in fat fat loss. Okay, I told you this was long, a lot of background. Now I'm ready to get to my questions. Um, so my first question is, considering my history of hip injury and having to modify a lot of leg stuff, what's the best way to go about building up my leg strength? I I definitely have gotten stronger. So, I've gone from, for example, being able to only do bodyweight Bulgarian split squats to now I hold 30 lbs while I'm doing them for 12 reps.

Same for step-ups. I went from bodyweight step-ups to holding a 30 lb dumbbell. My hip thrust, I got up to 195. So, I'm definitely getting stronger, but I can do more with my upper body. So, for example, um I can only do a sumo squat holding like 40 lbs, but I can overhead barbell press 75 lbs. I can curl 22.5 lbs for reps with my biceps, but I'm only holding 15s in each hand when I do Bulgarians. So, it just seems nuts to me that I can do heavier weight in some of my upper body lifts than in my lower body.

Um, I'm doing muscle mommy, but it just doesn't seem like it has enough lower body work towards correcting this huge difference in body composition and strength between my upper and lower body. So, how, if at all, can I modify the workout? Can I add substitute, you know, substitute in a lower a lower body lift into the workouts or or something just to get myself more um more balanced? Jessica, Jessica, I love you. Yeah. So, you're so great. Let me put this all in a nutshell first if that's is that okay if I if I kind of summarize real quick?

Okay. Uh you increased your calories, body fat percentage went down, you got stronger, you built more muscle everywhere. Lots uh lots of you had some injuries in both hips and lower body and your your MMO is to overdo it. Yes. Okay. What's the complaint? She wants to be more muscular. Now what now? What's the complaint? I want to hear that. I just I I want to be stronger in my lower body and I want to lose fat in my lower body. Now, now you do realize that it's it's not only normal, but it's healthy for a woman to store more body fat in their lower body.

Not only that, but we for over a decade, we beat the hell out of our hips. Yeah. So, so, so that's a you're going to have more body fat in your lower body as a woman. That's just you're supposed to. It's actually a healthy sign. So, that's number that's number one. Okay. So, you got way stronger. Also, remember when you're doing a squat, if I overhead press 45 lbs, but I do a squat holding 30, you're forgetting that your body weights in the squat. Yeah. You're not overhead pressing your body weight plus 45.

So, your lo your legs are much stronger than your upper body. Okay. So, that also consider that. Um, would you say you're hard, if I were to ask your husband or your friends that really care about you and I'm like, "Hey, is Jessica too hard on herself, what would they say?" Yes. Yeah. I don't I I mean, I I call myself a recovering perfectionist. I'm I'm trying. I'm trying. You are. And I think you're being you're you are kicking butt. Yeah. You don't And you're recovering from probably a decade of not being so kind to yourself, right?

and you're doing really well. Uh, now I could give you some advice. First of all, Muscle Mommy's got plenty of volume. Yeah, that's not the answer. It's notecially it's not more lower body. No, no, no. You're you're doing everything. You're good right now, but you're a perfect candidate for having a a personal trainer work with you through this process. I know you're in the Bay Area. Are we close to you? Are you near San Jose? No, no, I'm East Bay. San Jose is like an hour and a half away.

Okay, forget it. you you I I think you would be a perfect candidate for coaching or personal training because they'd be able to move you through this process. By the way, uh pounds of fat gained on uh on a DEXA scan don't matter. Body fat percentage matters. So if you gained four pounds of body fat, but your body fat percentage went down, you got leaner. So it doesn't matter what you're you're So in other words, uh 10 lbs of body fat on a 100 pound person is a higher percentage than 15 lbs of body fat on a 200lb person.

Yeah. Well, and I can tell from my progress photos, like I'm definitely leaner. Like even you're doing so good. And and honestly, the you you would probably see the progression in your upper body and your lower body at the same pace if we didn't have decades of beating our hips up. So I know if you've been listening to us long enough, this is why we scream at people about endurance running. It is so rough on the body. And you said it to us already that you were the type of person, oh [ __ ] that pain.

Just keep running through it. You know what I'm saying? Like and you did that for years. And so 20 years. 20 years. 20 years. Okay. And yet yet in a year you've already gotten strong in those legs. So you're doing really well. And the good news is you're going to keep progressing. So So whatever you did with the 20 years of whatever, but the answer isn't more [ __ ] to leg more intensity, more stuff to legs. It's just keep the pace, girl. No, you're you're doing so good.

You got to be kind of body adapt. And and and and I'm going to relax into this. Just relax into it. You're doing great. Just chill into what you're doing. Trust the process like you have been. It'll move you so much further if you do. Yeah. The fact that you got leaner, bumped your calories, got stronger, you're like there's I mean, what else can we do right now? There's there's not much. Just keep going. Yeah. Just keep going. Then the worst thing you can do right now is add more.

That's absolutely not what you should do. Yeah. Especially to an area that's already been beat to death for 20 years. Like that's not it doesn't need to be beat through the weights now. Like that would be the the word that will set you back if you're trying to build. I think you would benefit from working with a coach through this process. I could have somebody call you cuz I think it would be beneficial just to guide you through this process cuz what will happen for someone like you and I'm and you're probably like this in your career as well where you like get after it and you go for it.

What would really help someone like you is back for them to help you get out of your way. Yes. you know, so you got that person to bounce off of like and remind you how awesome you are. You know, you know, I was thinking about that just this morning. I was thinking about what are they going to say? They're probably going to tell me I need a coach to tell me to chill. Just through the process. Through this process. But honest to God, you're you're doing I mean, no.

Yeah. I'm I read your email before you came on. I heard you talk about it and I'm like, you're doing you're very hard on yourself. You're doing really good. Yeah. Well, I I have been trying to do this on my and I I'm big on data and evidence and so I've been trying to follow an evidence-based process. I've been trying to keep track of everything. Um but honestly, like you know, when I was younger, I just had so much energy. Yeah. And I could do so many things and I was so uh physically strong.

And then this whole thing with being in my 40s and pmenopause and everything being different, it's been a real challenge. It's just been very challenging. We all get older, but you also have three kids, a job, a house, like Yeah. daily habits are completely different. It is not the same. But you're doing really well. I mean, you're doing exceptionally well. So, just like stay the course, relax into it, cuz you've got another three or four years of consistent progress with this. Like literally, you've got like another three years ahead of you where you're just going to continue to progress at a nice pace so long as you don't overdo it and get in your own way.

That's the key. Yes. And I do that. Yeah. Well, that's why I mean that's why S is suggesting the coach thing. I mean, if you're open to that, we'll have one of our coaches call you and they can talk to you and you can decide if you want to do something like that or not. Yep. I mean, I think I was thinking about that this morning like maybe maybe it's time. Maybe it's time because it's not that I don't have uh discipline or consistency or even even knowledge.

Correct. But you're the best client to coach. You're you're my favorite type of client to coach because I know if I tell you to do it, you're going to go do it. You just put your trust in me that okay, he knows what he's doing. He's been doing this for a long time. He's probably trained a lot of people like me. You just you just trust the process. And Jessica, for someone like you, like like this is really important to hear. Okay, data is very important.

If it connects you to your body, if it pulls you away from connection to your body, data is no good. And so there definitely are people uh and and many of them fit that kind of personality profile that you have where the data becomes the idol and I start to ignore my body and I start to look at the numbers and the data and compare and what's happening here and if it disconnects you from your body it is not good. Such a good point because if I was coaching you for some reason, for some reason we did a you did a DEXA scan and the DEXA scan didn't come out exactly how you wanted, but I knew in my heart we're moving the right direction, I would have to counter you.

You know what I would go, Adam, the data is saying this, we're going the wrong way. And I'd be like, "No, we're not. Stay the course." Keep it all to myself and this is show you till way later. That's right. This is what we would do with clients with you like you is I would get the measurements and I wouldn't tell you. Yep. Like no, I'm not going to tell you. I'm It's for me, not for you. You're progressing. That's all you need to know. Yeah.

All right. All right. I think I needed to hear this. I kind of knew you were going to say this, but I guess I just needed somebody to to tell me. You're going to you're going to do so well with a coach. You will do so well with a coach. I'm going to have someone call you. I'm excited to see what this what happens here. Great. I do have another question. Um which is that I just am really finding bulking quite challenging. I found it difficult the first time, too.

I'm trying I really am trying to get my calories up, but um I'm consistently hitting my protein. Um I you know my BMR again according to the DEEXA scan it's like I'm something like 1640 at rest RMR or something like that. Um so I'm trying to I know I need I know I can handle more calories. Um, I'm up to about 2,200 calories on average right now. And I am just so uncomfortable. Like, I'm physically uncomfortable. Like, I feel bloated. I feel over full. I wake up full from dinner the night before.

I think it's affecting my sleep. Um, I do eat mostly whole natural foods. I really don't eat junk food or or fast food. Um, and but that said, I can't meet my protein goal without at least one scoop of protein powder a day. And I'm considering including two just so I don't, you know, because it's just easier to take a a smoothie or something like that than to feel like I'm force-feeding myself another piece of chicken. Yeah. Um I have stopped weighing myself cuz that definitely messes with my head.

So I don't weigh myself, but I can definitely tell I'm putting on fat. And I guess that's all part for the course. It's just I do want to trust this process. It's just it feels like it's impossible to imagine getting up to like 2500. It's not it's not it's not as difficult as you think. And there's there's multiple options. There's not one way only to do this. Uh I doubt I would ever do it through chicken breasts that produce so much satiety with you. It would be like this.

Uh all your meals, whatever whatever I don't know what your carb of choice is, rice, sweet potato, I don't know what you're doing. Uh add 1 ounce every meal. Okay? One more ounce of that carbohydrate uh will do that. Or if the shake is convenient and you like it and that's easy on you digest like that's fine too. It doesn't need to be this like add a meal and and and everyone wants to go to protein because protein is this great healthy s but if it's hard for you and you feel bloated from it.

I'm not going to force you to eat a a protein meal especially if you're already hitting your protein. Yeah. But there's two sides to this. There's digestive issues which if you're experiencing digestive issues then we need to examine the what you're eating and maybe identify any intolerances. And then there's this when people are disconnected from their body uh what it can what can happen to somebody who chronically used to over sorry undereat and overtrain is when they feed themselves appropriately it's uncomfortable. [snorts] Okay. So it might also be that.

It might also be that I'm so used to being underfed and feeling what that feels like which feels like empty which feels like h everything's empty and I feel and then you start to ident you start to connect that to good then feeling fed is uncomfortable and so this is what I mean by the disconnect from the from from the body. So I've worked with people like that where like we're feeding them appropriately. I can't eat more than this much food and so we start to talk a little bit.

And it's like you just don't know what it feels like to be properly fed. Now, that's separate from digestive issues. If you're experiencing legit digestive issues, then I'd want to examine the foods that you're eating and maybe move towards things that are easier to digest. Avoiding things like like gluten, uh dairy, sometimes legumes can sometimes cause issues, which is totally different. Now, and digestive issues tend to be much more pronounced. It's like, man, at the end of the night, I look like I'm, you know, pregnant.

like my my belly is really painfully bloated or gas or you know heartburn, constipation, but sometimes it's just it's uncomfortable because I'm not used to being fed. Yeah, I think it might be a combination of both. Like I definitely feel like kind of bloated at the end of the day. I do eat a ton of dairy because Greek yogurt is like one of my go-tos for protein. Um, and I like it. Um, and I do eat a lot of beans for fiber. actually do better with beans.

Um, like on a day I have beans, I feel like my digestion is better. Um, I don't I eat some bread, not a ton, um, just naturally. I do eat other grains like oats and rice. And you could try try psyllium husk uh with with with a couple meals as a fiber if it's a fiber issue. That'll make a big difference. I'm definitely I've tracked fiber. I I easily I'll get 30 grams of fiber a day. I get a lot of fiber, but there's soluble and insoluble fiber and some fibers can cause bloat and so psyllium husk doesn't do that.

Psyllium husk isn't your body isn't doing anything with it other than it just helps things move through. So if you don't have good Yeah. So if you don't have good motility um then that may help. It's just giving I could try that. But I also do think that there is a thing in what you said about sort of like the feeling of being fed because um yeah I I actually had this thought the other day of like I don't like never feeling hungry. It's weird. It's weird to me.

Like you know how we tell people listen to your body? Mhm. Okay. You ignore yourself. Yeah. I I there are you listening to your body works when you when you understand the signals of your body and when they're not distorted. Yeah. So So there are many times and I have a client I'm like ignore your body right now and we're going to rebuild a new relationship with it where [clears throat] it's like I'll give you an example for me. I forcefed myself for so many years that not getting stuff from a meal felt like I was hungry.

And then I realized like wait I'm not hungry I'm just not stuffed. So, and that took me a while to kind of figure out. This is why I like the strategy of one to two ounces of the carb in every meal because it's like so subtle. And if you came back to me and said like, "Oh, Adam, that extra ounce was too much." I'd be like, "Bullshit. 1 oz of rice or 1 oz of carb is not going to make you feel stuffed of a difference." That's definitely psychological.

And so, I could creep in those extra calories spread out over your meals so it doesn't feel like this. Coaching is going to You're going to really do well with coaching. Yeah. This is all stuff that we work on. And you know what? We there's not none of us have the perfect answer right now. We're throwing a bunch of things at you that we might we but this is what your coach would do. Your coach would say, "Hey, this week we're going to do this." And then you feed back and go like, "Well, that was horrible and I didn't feel it." Okay, cool.

We'll try this now. Until you guys figure out the perfect recipe to get you into a good healthy reverse diet, which by the way is really going to support this leg building you want to do. cuz that might also be part of our problem right now is you're so at you're under calorie and just at maintenance that and you and you're doing all the right things strength training and the body wants to grow but it's saying hey you're not giving me enough building blocks you're not giving I mean you want these legs to build some muscle on them but I need more nutrients but I will say gaining seven lbs of lean body mass is you know phenomenal that's phenomenal but she could also that she could be getting towards her peak until she gets to more calories so you may be tapping out of what your body is capable will do with the nutrients you're giving it.

And this is where why you might be feeling like you're not putting on any more muscle in there. We got to get these calories up. Yeah. Yeah. But slowly and correctly. And I'm going to call You're going to love Yeah. I'm gonna have someone call you this. We got you. And then I'd love to talk to you in like 3 months because I think uh you're going to be in such a cool place. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be very curious. I mean, my my idea is to go through Muscle Mommy sort of bulking and kind of natural over the holidays, too.

um good time to do it. And then I want to set myself up for a cut so I can take off a little bit more body fat. And I I don't want to be extreme, but I'm going to turn 50 next summer and I want to look great. I want to feel strong. I want to be able to do some strict pull-up. I I can already do some strict pull-ups, but I want to be able to do like 10 strict pull-ups. Yeah, that's a big goal.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, you probably got really good genetics being a triathlete. You just you just never really you're tapping into them now. Just promise me, Jessica, you'll listen to our coaches. They're all trained by us. We took a We're very very tough to even come work for us. They're all very very good. Uh and they will I like being an A student, so I'll listen to the coach. All right. Good. I like I like I like to hear that. This will be great. All right, Jessica, thank you so much.

I really appreciate it, guys. Thank you. Bye. Yeah, she's that's that's a great client to work with a coach. Yeah. Yeah. So open to educated. My sense and we're not coaching her so you'll figure this out as you work with someone. But my sense is the discomfort for meeting is really just she No, that was a great call. You hit it on the head cuz I could tell by the way she looked and responded. I'm like, "Oh, you're right." But that but my advice is spot on then because that's a perfect way to do it with someone cuz you add if you add one ounce I can't do it.

Yeah. It's like [ __ ] One if one ounce is like a couple spoonfuls. You're not telling me I just bloated you from doing spoon. So that's how that's when you know somebody has that bad relationship with that is when they'll come back to it. So but no wonder because eating a full and then choosing something like a chicken breast to add that would feel that's so satiety producing and dry and boring. It's like yeah that's not going to feel good. No. No. All right. I know you like that episode.

If you did check this one out. Shredded, ripped, defined singledigit body fat. Yes. You want to get there? Let's talk about it. Difficult. And is it worth it? That's a follow-up question. Yeah. First off, we got to say that, okay, so singledigit body fat, obviously body fat percentages, uh, that could be represented by one digit, like 3%, 5%, 6%, 9%. That's, uh, ripped for men. For women, add 10%. Yeah. Don't Yeah, exactly. Go you go up about