The Raw Truth About Body Dysmorphia... | Mind Pump 2891

Key Takeaway

If you struggle with body dysmorphia, stop studying yourself in the mirror and weighing yourself obsessively. Instead, focus on a healthy objective metric like strength gains. You can't restrict calories and get stronger—this creates a positive feedback loop that naturally corrects unhealthy behaviors while giving you measurable progress to celebrate.

Episode Overview

The hosts discuss body dysmorphia in the fitness industry, revealing that over 50% of fitness professionals show symptoms compared to just 1-2% of the general population. They share personal experiences and practical strategies for healing, including outsourcing control to a coach, focusing on strength rather than appearance, and creating new healthy behaviors to replace obsessive patterns.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The Raw Truth About Body Dysmorphia... | Mind Pump 2891 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Over Over 50% of people who work in the fitness industry have symptoms of body dysmorphia. Now, what does that look like for the general population? One to two%. So, 50 times higher in the fitness space. Today, we're going to talk about ways to help heal this within yourself. Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience with this because we work in the fitness industry and we've trained lots of clients. We're going to talk about this, how you can help heal your body dysmorphia. That's You know what's crazy about that stat?

It's way more than that. It is under reportported. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's a majority of people people people would say they're not that are Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that are Well, you work in the space. So being obsessed could look like discipline. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Counting every calorie could be disciplined because you work in the space. space. space. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh but both of which all the time dysfunctions dysfunctions dysfunctions is Yeah. Dysfunctions. It's super high in our space. In fact, I would in my this is my personal experience.

So, I'm not a study, but this is my personal experience. experience. experience. Uh it's more often than not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All the trainers that have worked for me, me, me, seven out of 10. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Seven out of 10 at least. Uh also uh you know, full disclosure, I uh struggled with this um for I'd say most of my life. Uh uh exercise was a source of comfort for me uh since the age of 14. Um and it's been better and it's been worse.

Um and some of it was rooted a lot of it was rooted in body dysmorphia later on probably more in control. So I also have a lot of experience with this uh myself. Um and um it's definitely it's definitely a a challenge to tackle and that's why I think it's a good thing to talk about because fitness uh can be a path out of body dysmorphia or it could drive you straight into the arms of body dysmorphia in a way that makes it uh far worse.

And so it's like a double-edged sword. um when we're when we're dealing with this. with this. with this. What do you think are some of the most common forms of that? Do you think it's uh mostly people like things like uh anorexia? Do you think orthorexia? Okay. Yeah. So, so explain all the different types of kind of body dysmorphia that you could have and what do you think are probably the most Well, the I mean we're well general because it can be pretty but I because it can be pretty but I I do want to say this.

None of us are are therapists or psychologists. We're fitness uh experts. So, we're speaking from experience. Uh, but you have the classic anorexia where you restrict, starve yourself. Bulimia, this is where you you purge, make yourself throw up. Uh, reverse anorexia. Don't know what the technical or clinical name is. This is what you may see bodybuilders suffer from from from where they never feel big enough, right? right? right? Um, and so they take extreme measures, drug use with that. Yeah. The anabolic steroid use and just extreme exercise.

extreme exercise. extreme exercise. Is that called like bigorexia or something like I don't know what the you can look up reverse anorexia and see if the actual term bigexia I think is like the slang term for it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Uh orthorexia is the obsession with everything being perfect and healthy. It's like counting everything, measuring everything. Everything has to be organic. Everything has to be um you know know know oh just as muscle dysphoria. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh bigia. Oh bigia. Oh bigia. They did say bigia.

Okay. So those would be the more common ones. Um and just again it's that sense of uh control. And wouldn't wouldn't you also say south? So th those are all kind of the the main popular categories. And then within those those categories is a spectrum, right? right? right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So there there there's also that, right? Because there's also uh you know these are the clinical definitions or clinical names for these but sometimes it may not be uh you know diagnosed that but you are you lean in that direction.

I'll say this. Look, it is really hard to grow up and live in a media obsessed modern society modern society modern society and not to one degree or another uh struggle with some kind of body dysmorphia. dysmorphia. dysmorphia. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it's very difficult when you're constantly being shown and sold perfect bodies. Uh when it's being overvalued, uh it's becoming more prevalent in young men now. This used to be something only young women suffer from. now young men uh one of their top anxieties is not looking um good enough.

So it's uh it's to get out of this modern society unscathed from this I think is very difficult. At some point everybody kind of knows what this feels like. Um and you're right there's degrees. Well, especially like what drives you into fitness. If it's like the shame of whatever body, you know, you're trying to um correct something about yourself and that's like the main driver of you coming in and, you know, it's really hard to not like have that obsession, you know, going into like trying to solve this and it becomes, you know, problematic.

to your point, I'm curious what because we um I mean we've all talked about this uh I mean you and I probably more uh about like the that we this is what drove us to fitness originally, right? Um, this was originally what got me to go to the gym the first time was insecurities around my body and and wanting to be [snorts] big and uh, you know, and so we've we've talked about now when we grew up, social media didn't exist. And so the fact that it affected me and I didn't have that, I can't imagine what the the statistics are on somebody growing up today versus someone else where where where Yeah.

you are and and the amount of time that uh the this generation spends on their phones and following people that they aspire to look like or be like uh and then those people, you know, photoshopping, filtering, only putting their best images out. I mean, it just has to completely exacerbate this problem. Like, I mean, how many X has this got in the last two decades? Yeah, it has to have exploded. Yeah. And it's uh it's such a distorted reality. Um I don't know, maybe Doug, you can look up how much time the average uh let's say teenager spends on social media or average 20-year-old.

Before that, it's like you're looking at a magazine. a magazine. a magazine. Yeah. Magazine, an ad. Ad or Yeah. on TV maybe, but you don't spend a lot of time like you do with the phone constantly. phone constantly. phone constantly. Well, it it's totally distorts your reality. Like if I pull up So the average Okay. average Okay. average Okay. Yeah. Cuz when when we grew up, to your point, you saw an ad, you saw a commercial, commercial, commercial, maybe there was that one kid or two at school that was likely, yeah, that was so gifted and and beautiful, perfect, what, like so rare.

But even then, you see them on their bad days. Like in social media, like you only see a highlight reel and how many people are filtering it and and it's only their best angles, their best lighting, their best. It's distorting reality. Look, I'll give you guys an example. the the original Tarzan movie. Maybe you can look it up, Doug. Look up the original Tarzan. By the way, he was the man who played it. And I want to get his name. He was in Johnny Weism. What was his name?

Johnny Weism. Jesus. How'd you know that? that? that? Cuz I was growing up back then. That was I had to do the old age joke. That was very quick to have a random name. He name. He name. He was very famous back in the day. Never heard of my favorite Takis. So he was considered really fit. Doug had a poster poster of Okay. This is the original. This is 19 When was this movie uh When was this movie uh come out? When did it come out?

1904. 1904. 1904. That's when he was born. Uh when did Tarzan come out? 1950 something. something. something. Yeah. Let me see. Doug Doug just totally dated him. So, hey, all this dude's pictures are in black and white. 1932 and 19 uh between 1932 and 194. Look at So, look at a picture. That's my parents, you know. Oh, no. no. no. Is Doug back Look at Doug backpedaling right now. That's my dad. But dad's favorite show. favorite show. favorite show. No. So if you look up a p look at a picture of him in that Tarzan movie, he was known for having this incredible physique.

There he is right there. You know what he looks like? He looks like just like a fit dude. Yeah. Average fit guy that works out at the gym. Very average. I mean, you're talking about like uh he's probably 18% right now. now. now. If if somebody looked at that now, you know, because we're so distorted, someone might not even think he worked out. Even though he was a high level swimmer, he looks like a normal dude. That's actually what he looks like. He looks like a swimmer.

He was a swimmer. kind of a normal dude. You look at Superman, the old Superman. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People were like, "That's super fit." It's gotten so distorted. Here's what happens. This is the example I've given before another podcast. Imagine if for 5 hours a day, cuz that's what it says with teenagers on social media for 5 hours a day. Okay? Imagine if for 5 hours a day, all you did was hang out with NBA players. That's all you did for 5 hours every day. Yeah.

You think everybody's 7 foot tall, bro? You would you could be 6'4 and you'd be like, "Man, I am tiny." Yeah. I am a small person because I'm surrounded by 7 foot tall giants all the time. So, it's it's distorted things so much. I don't I think uh most people at some point have suffered from some of this. this. this. And there are ways that you can kind of get your way out of it. And fitness is a great way to do it, but it can also be a great way to get you in it real deep.

Um and it can make things a lot worse. You can reinforce it or Well, yeah. That's the And I think that's what we've seen happen with social media is that if you do push really hard and and and track all your calories and get your body this way and and then you get rewarded with likes and views and comments and so you get this like positive reinforcement and then you go, "Oh, well, I should do this for a living because because because people are asking me questions.

How do I look like this and how do I get that way?" And like this is maybe this is my career path. And then so it's this natural progression of I get this reinforcement of how good I look when when it all started because I was driven by some insecurity because I didn't I wasn't enough. I didn't have this. I didn't look this. And then I start doing that. And then because I put it out there online, I start getting this feedback at a rate that you would never get in real life.

And then all a sudden now it looks like a viable job or career for yourself. And then you get down that path. And then and then you get paid for it and you make a living off of it. And I'll say this to trainers. I'll encourage trainers. Uh this can make you really good at helping other people with these challenges. It did for me. In fact, it was a saving grace. It kept me from going too extreme. Uh because of coaching um other people and caring about them.

Well, you didn't I know this on your on your list of tips. You didn't put this on here, but we give this as a recommendation to people a lot of times that are suffering from this is to go help somebody else. help someone else because that was one of the best things for me too was to see to cuz again I think that we all seem to fall on somewhat of a spectrum of this and to see people even at a higher crazier spectrum it's really eye opening for yourself like oh my god I can't believe he thinks of himself or she thinks of himself that way and you're like wow I have a bit of that that's right that's right that's right you know and so it's this this this great mirror and then as you're coaching that person through that like trying to help them out you're like oh wow I'm a version of this maybe I'm not as bad but I'm definitely a version or you give advice that you should take yourself.

yourself. yourself. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that happens to me all the time. So, I think the first thing is really you have to try to get comfortable with being uncomfortable cuz if this is you, you derive a sense of comfort from whatever your behavior is. So, for I'll give you an example cuz I' I've gotten on the on I've gotten on the on calls with some of our clients um here at Mind Pump. So, we have trainers that work here and uh they work with clients and I love to pop in.

It's one of my favorite things to do and I tell my trainers, listen, if any of your clients ever request to have me on as much as I can, and I can't do it all the time, obviously, because I have I have to, you know, do the work that we do, I'll get on anytime I can, especially if this person is challenged by something. Well, that's tends to be, just so the audience knows, because I don't think you should put that out there like that because everybody's going to ask for Yeah.

Yeah. what you do a good job of is you've told the trainers that if you have a really client a client that's challenged with with something like this that you've you've tried to work through and they're still struggling and you want me to come on and help and and so what tends to happen is I get on with clients that have really difficult uh situations and I've talked to a couple um I talked to one woman a while ago who was she you know she had in in in treatment for anorexia she got released um and she's like uh I'm done I don't want to do this anymore anymore.

I don't want to work with therapists anymore. This was her own personal thing cuz of course we tell her, "Listen, we're not therapists." She's like, "Look, I want to work with one of your coaches." And we sat down, we talked, and I said, "Here's the deal." I said, "Um, just to be I'm going to be very honest with you. This is going to feel very uncomfortable very uncomfortable very uncomfortable there. I tell people to listen to their body all the time." Yeah. They can't listen to their body.

You can't listen to your body cuz you're going to eat 1,200 calories and you're going to feel bloated and stuffed like you're stuffing yourself. And that's what you're going to have to kind of get used to for a little while for someone like me, especially when I was a kid, which I think it's important you explain why that is because this person has conditioned themsel to be so comfortable with feeling empty and hungry almost all the time. the time. the time. That's right. That's right. That's right.

So, they're so used to being empty. That's right. That's right. That's right. Okay. and what someone else might call starving or depleted or flat or all the terms that we use for someone who doesn't have a lot of calories in them that this person has now found that's their normal that's their comfortable. Anything beyond that feels overly stuffed. stuffed. stuffed. I this so I got real I conditioned myself to when I ate I would eat until I couldn't eat anymore. And this was as a kid cuz I was always trying to gain weight.

When I started to eat more properly I started to realize like I I'm not even hungry. Why am I feeding myself so much food? I had to get comfortable with not being stuffed. How funny is that? Because my uh issue was always trying to get bigger. Um and so this may look like it may look like this for you. Not doing tons of cardio all the time or not going to the gym as often as you do. Uh or skipping some workouts or doing workouts that are totally different from the ones that you know you probably should do less of.

And so getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. It doesn't mean you're going to be comfortable. I know people say that term. It just means get used to the fact or accept that this is gonna be uncomfortable. This process is gonna be uncomfortable. uncomfortable. uncomfortable. Um the next thing is and this one is a big one is you want to outsource some or all of this to someone else. Uh this is where a coach can really come in handy. Uh because a coach could tell you here's what your workout's going to look like.

Uh and you're just going to and you just do what they tell you. Or look, we're going to have you eat this much and I know it feels like too much for you or too little for you. Uh but this is what you need to eat. And you got to outsource that control because a lot of this comes with a sense of control. control. control. There's so much internal conflict. It's just yeah, just necessary for you to offload that to a coach to really, you know, sift through that and give you the the right answers.

Do you know when I realized just how important this is for this person that we're speaking to? And I really realized this was actually in the in the competitive world. competitive world. competitive world. And the reason why I say that was I was scratching my head why you had people let's say Phil [snorts] Heath for example. He's you dude there's that dude knows everything about macros and training. training. training. Yeah. Mr. Olympia needs needs a coach. Like all the greats all the people that had all these that all had coaches.

And it made so much sense when you think about so many of these people are extreme versions of this that suffer from this and that's what they and they've just taken it to a whole another level. But they're also the same people that are in their head the most about their bodies and they can't they and if they're constantly assessing and looking at themselves and critiquing themselves critiquing themselves critiquing themselves analyzing data and all that obsessing and again I think I I know what it's like because I fall on the spectrum of that.

I'm not as extreme as that and I' and I've shared on the podcast before of how much I could get in my own head of like I know I'm doing all the own things. Luckily, I'm self-aware enough to know to know to know that that stay the course, Adam. I know I'm doing the right things because I was coaching myself through this process. But I remember the the mental games of looking at myself in the mirror and then and judging and going, "Oh my god, this is bad.

This overorrect." Yeah. and then wanting to go the other direction and then having to like talk myself off that ledge which is made so much more sense to me like oh this is why why why think about how effective this would have been like cuz you and I are similar right as a kid always trying to be big never allowing yourself to let's say go on a cut having a coach be like no no no you're fine you're not getting small don't worry you're just getting leaner totally you know really be it would have been effective uh or beneficial to be able to outsource that to somebody for sure for sure for sure um and I think this is uh a valuable strategy I think a good coach will do by the way if you pick a coach to do this.

Make sure they're qualified uh that can do this because what you don't want to do is get a coach that'll strengthen your because it could go in the opposite the opposite the opposite which this also speaking about the competitive space. This happens a lot. You get somebody who has no business competing because they already have an extreme version of body dysmorphia and then they hire a coach who takes them to extreme levels of eating and training and just pushes that person even further down this hole.

Yeah. Next, you know, you want to focus on a healthy objective metric. So, I I've told this story many times because it was the first time that this really occurred to me, but I as a young I was a young trainer. I remember how old I was. I was either probably 19 and I had trained these uh this couple and then they had hired me to train their daughter and they had told me, "Look, our daughter uh suffers from anorexia. Uh she got out of the her treatment.

She's gaining some weight. we want her to exercise now. We want her to strength train to strengthen her body. Um, and so we'd like to hire you because they trusted me because I'd trained them. And I actually got on the phone with uh the young lady's therapist because I had no I've never worked with anybody with this. And I asked her, "What do I do? What do you want me to do? [snorts] What are the smart things to do?" She said, "Don't focus on her body.

Don't do body fat tests." Because she asked me, "What do you do with clients?" So, well, typically we weigh. We do body fat. Like, don't do any of that. She said, "Don't focus on any of that." And so I thought, well, what am I going to focus on? I said, strength. I'm gonna focus on getting her strong. And it worked so well. Now, it's not perfect because strength can become its own obsession. own obsession. own obsession. But for this young lady who suffer who had struggled with anorexia, getting her to focus on and then take joy in getting stronger meant she was moving in the right direction.

It was a it was objective. You're either getting stronger, you're not. And you can't restrict and get stronger. You can't overtrain and get stronger. And so that was the direction that she moved. It may be for someone else mobility. It may be sleep. It may be uh connecting with people at the gym. It's something that's more objective, but that's also healthy. And then you can make that your target because uh some sense of control I think is necessary for people with body dysmorphia. Yeah. dysmorphia. Yeah.

dysmorphia. Yeah. So when you have that metric, like for me, I'll give my example. So, my example, the healthiest I ever was with my relationship to fitness was when I did uh jiu-jitsu. That's when I had the healthiest relationship with it because it took me away from wanting to be big and wanting to get jacked and super strong because it kind of didn't help me in my jiu-jitsu. jiu-jitsu. jiu-jitsu. There's checks and balances with that. There were checks and balances. like if I lifted too much, I couldn't do jiu-jitsu really really well and I needed to be able to be mobile and I needed to to be so when I focused on my jiu-jitsu, it was the healthiest uh I ever was with that because it was a healthy objective metric.

Yeah, I think the strength thing is is so valuable because it's a it's a measurable win that they can go after. And when this person is so used to using the mirror and the scale as the way of measuring their success or wins and you take that away from them, it's really difficult if you don't give them something that they can go tell me I'm doing the right thing cuz I don't feel it. I feel bloated. I feel terrible. I don't like the way I look.

The scales going in the wrong direction. So please tell me there's something that is to signal to me that I'm and strength is a great thing for that. And so it [clears throat] gives him at least something some sort of positive reinforcement of, okay, we're going the right. I could trust this pro. I could trust this coach. I could trust this process. He's showing me that I'm getting stronger here. He's telling me that this is the pathway cuz all these other markers that I'm so used to looking at are signaling to me that this is not good.

Which brings us to the next one. Don't study your body or weigh your body. This is a tough one. So the conversations look like this. Uh, you know, get ready in the morning and don't study yourself in the mirror. like look, look at your hair. Do your hair. You're done. Get out of the way. Don't stand there and look at yourself and turn sideways. And what does this look like? Because here's what happens. Your eyes start to focus on the areas that you feel like are imperfect.

Oh my god, I know I'm gaining weight, but now I can see it here or I can see what's happening there. Don't study your body. Get out of the way. Stop looking in the mirror. And don't weigh yourself. Uh the scale is a very uh terrible metric at measuring any kind of success. It's measuring body mass. And it more often than not, especially when it comes to people who are afraid of gaining weight, it just pushes them in the wrong direction. Yeah. So don't do that.

Yeah. And then lastly, create new and strengthen new healthy behaviors. So you may find comfort in what you're doing, which is why you do it so often, or a sense of control. You can't just stop doing it and have nothing. There's a there it actually does something for you. There's a reason why you do it. Uh find a behavior that's healthy and try to strengthen that. uh to replace the old behavior. So, if you're, you know, if you're a cardio fanatic, uh maybe it's stretching, maybe it's reading or writing, uh maybe it's art, something that you enjoy that is not the thing that uh is no longer serving you, and then use that to bring you some comfort because you need to replace what you were doing before.

So, [snorts] So, [snorts] So, [snorts] anyway, I want to ask you, Adam, about your you were on Shelene Johnson's podcast. podcast. podcast. Yeah. Yeah. which was really cool because uh a large segment of our audience had never heard you or us before, which is cool. Yeah. No, I've had I the response has been incredible. In fact, it's still going right now. She did a post uh not that long ago of a clip from it and uh the amount of ads and messages that I've received from it.

I really liked how uh she did the interview. Um I hadn't listened to I don't listen to the interviews that I do um unless something unless my wife said something to me. You should listen to that. And I said, "Why?" and she goes, "It was it was really good." really good." really good." And uh she goes, "And she she did it different than I've heard somebody interview before." So I listened so I could see what it was. And uh it was actually really cool um the way she she clipped it.

So she she she edited the content in a unique way. So out of all the interviews I' ever done, I hadn't had somebody uh do it this way where she had sat me down and she wanted to just like basically hit me with these questions that I wasn't prepared for. It was just like and then I would like quick answers to her like like and that she coached me on that. like I just want you just direct straight whatever and I get and I was like I get it I get what you're you're you're looking for right she wanted like short clippable type of to the point answers not long- winded nuance right nuance right nuance right so she did all that and that was what was the front of the episode and then the the the rest was more conversationalist about and so more in depth about those topics you guys talked uh there was a lot of interest in peptides mostly about peptides so I actually referenced you a few times when it got to places where I'm like, ah, it's a, you know, better question for my co-host who is way better with the studies and remember them.

In fact, one that one of the ones where I was referring to you that I wanted her to like understand was that there's this she was talking about uh Rea and Yes. and just how popular it is over there. She's like, "You can't go to the gym over here and not overhear conversations of people taking it and like people going like, "Oh yeah, I got some. I can bring you tomorrow." So, and it's still great market. It is. It's not approved. It's not. So, this is not which is crazy.

And so we talked a lot about that and and she has also heard a lot of the so the and when I talked about you that I'm like you know S explains this study better than me because I know that initially a lot of the rat and chimp studies that we saw run it was so promising because it showed that you lost less muscle. In fact it showed some built a little bit of muscle during this calorie deficit which is just kind of mind-blowing, right? right?

right? I was like but that doesn't tell the whole story. And so there's this there's this misconception because those studies have gone viral and people have talked about it and it's being shared so much that REA which is coming down the pipe, you know, is going to keep you keep you from losing. So the wave has happened where so many average people have heard of GLP once now and then it's even hit so many people that everybody probably listening right now either has experience with it or knows somebody that has experience with it.

And if there's any sort of negative feedback that they've heard aside from like the nausea and things like that, it's they lose a lot of muscle too. And then the word on the street is that redd doesn't keeps you from losing muscle. muscle. muscle. And that was kind of the conversation we're having. And I and and I know it's because of those early studies that showed that oh, they built some muscle. So now there's this dis this this misconception that oh when you when we get to the the GLP3 you know now you you won't lose any muscle.

We have phase three trials now Doug you can pull up the red true tide phase three trial uh muscle loss and you can see on the average uh that people lost muscle on them like they do with other GLPs. Um there was there was some animal studies that showed less a little bit less muscle loss. Rea causes so much weight loss uh that the muscle loss is significant as a percentage of the weight loss. It did it better than let's say um tepatide but it still wasn't great.

great. great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there are some mechanisms where it's trying to preserve but you're going to lose muscle when your calories are really low and you don't lift weights and you're not eating enough protein. You can't get around that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's no way to get around that. You don't have the building blocks and your body will try uh to adapt. And if you pull up the study, Doug, it'll give you, if you uh look up the study, I think it was like 28 to 30% or something like that, if not more.

Uh some studies show up to 40% um weight loss. Up to 28 to to 30% weight loss, but the what was the muscle loss that we saw? That's what I want to pull up. It just says reduction of both body fat and and and so it's a significant amount. And so it here's the thing. It doesn't cause muscle loss. It also doesn't have this profound muscle sparing effect. Uh it's complicated because it does do some interesting things. It does cause energy release from the liver. Uh it does a few other things, but uh it your calories really low.

You're not lifting weights, so you're going to lo muscle. Well, this is this is and this is what I communicated to it is because uh I that is what I wanted to dispel was that there is this rumor about it that it's it's like so much more miraculous than the GLP1 and GLP2 because it showed these promising studies around muscle preservation. And I'm like what you're talking about is we're splitting hairs. If somebody is still in a significant calorie def def deficit where it's extremely low and they are not hitting protein and they're like they'll lose as much muscle if not more in this situation and so but there's that's not the belief right now.

The belief is that red is coming down the pipe and it's so much better than the GLP2s. the GLP2s. the GLP2s. So here you go phase two they had a phase two data 35% of total weight loss came from lean mass. It's similar to other potent weight loss treatments uh which are similar. So, actually, it's not even that much better. It does seem to cause a little bit more weight loss than the other ones because it acts on three receptors instead of one or two, but you're going to lose muscle.

to lose you're going to lose muscle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you eat really low calories and that's what you do and that's it, you're guaranteed to lose muscle. So, listen to the other thing that we speculated about. I speculated with her that I thought was cuz she asked me and I'm like, "Oh, that's an interesting question." And thought because all of the reta that's out on the market right now is all gray. Yep. Okay. None of this is is pharmaceutically regulated or FDA approved. Okay.

Because it's all research. research. research. It's all research chemical. It's all gray. gray. gray. What is the incentive or what is why does somebody who doesn't have the regular GLP1 or GLP2 doesn't slap a label of rea on there and sell it because it's just the hottest thing right now? And what's to stop them considering it's not regulated? They do. They are selling them. No. No. No. No. Like switching it out with the GLP1. Like why even go through the why go through the rigamore to go and try and get uh GLP3 when I got GLP1.

I got still boxes of that cuz I've bought thousands of of of And why not just pretend? Why not just pretend? Nobody would know. No one's going to know the difference. And that was the And I'm like, wow. You know what's I'm like, you know what? It's not a matter if that's happening. It's how much of that is happening. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, when they did the big when they do the big studies on the research the the research chemicals the the when they bring them in, one of the biggest ways where they're mess up is mislabeling dosage.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So taking too much of a GLP not a good thing everybody. thing everybody. thing everybody. Oh yeah. No, you will not like the way you feel. It will not be good. By the way, rea uh does have some more more some interesting side effects like sk like tin skin tingling um and elevated heart rate. rate. rate. Heart rate. Yeah, that's what I heard. Yeah. So, we'll see. It hasn't even hasn't even passed. I know. Hasn't even regulated. Well, this is what's it's interesting.

And when we were one of the things her and I were talking about was just how crazy popular the gray market and the the influencer pushing peptides and linking my bio game has become. It's like it's insane. I know. What's crazy about this though is that people are forgetting that hormone balance and hormone therapy is if you need if you benefit from hormone therapy that craps on any other peptide or anything else. If you got low testosterone as a man or a woman, a woman, a woman, your hormones are off and you let's say you go through our our people at mpormones.com, you get your blood test and they're like, "Wow, you're we could do some hormone replacement therapy." That's way more effective than a peptide.

peptide. peptide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you want that first. This this is exactly what I said to her. She gave me scenarios like, you know, you know, imagine I'm a, you know, menopausal woman and I've got my my hormones all over the place and I'm struggling just to lose those 15 pounds. And she's like, you know, what peptide would you put? I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, hormonal therapy. hormonal therapy. hormonal therapy. I'm like, that's definitely not what I would do. I'd get your hormones in check.

I'd address your sleep. I'd get like there's so many levers I would pull before I would even think to go to a peptide. I said, me getting your hormones is huge. So, let's just pretend your hormones are good, right? So, let's say you're on the thyroid, you got you got all that balanced. Okay, so we got that that that me I even made the case that me improving your sleep by 10 to 20%. Is better than any peptide I'm going to put you on. So, if if you don't have the best of sleep already and you're coming to me saying, "I want to lose an x 5 10 pounds or whatever, what peptide should I take?" And you're telling me you get six hours of sleep at night, me not even making your sleep perfect, but improving it by 10 to 20% will give you better results than the greatest peptide out there.

That's it's like that that's where we're at right now though. Yeah. And here's the other thing, too. People are getting advice from social media on all this stuff. And 90 I don't know percent of the people communicating this are not experts. No. No. No. And look, I'm not a I'm not an expert. I know I know stuff because I get to interview experts like Dr. Seeds who I would say he's he's definitely the world leading expert on peptides and what they do and good friends with him and I've had him on the show a couple few times.

I've been on his podcast. I will talk to people who want to be on our show who are quote unquote peptide experts and then I realize 10 minutes in, whoa, I know more than you do. I can't have you on my show. If I know more than you and I'm not an expert, why the hell am I going to interview you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, one thing you could do, by the way, uh, we got, we should say this, mpormones.com, mpormones.com, mpormones.com, there's medical professionals.

Everybody will get a consult, 10-minute consult. So, you can actually ask a medical professional what's going on. That's the other thing too that we tal I talked to her about that is like this is why you you should go through uh a a legit source where a doctor or a medical professional professional professional monitors it meets with you because they won't put you on something you shouldn't be on. And so you have people that we, you know, we started this whole podcast talking about body dysmorphia and anorexia and things like that.

Like the last thing that somebody who suffers from anorexia, what do you think are the people that are going to be reaching out to this? This is problem. Big problem. Huge problem. Huge problem. Huge problem. Huge. And and we've had callers call in and there's and a medical professional that's asking you questions. They're not going to put you on this. No. No. No. I have a history of anorexia. I need to be on, you know, uh, even if you just have a few percentages of body fat you're trying to lose and then people go to GLP1.

I'm like this like why why are you doing that? Why not build muscle? Why not like let's mess with the metabolism? Let's work on sleep. Let's do all these other things. Even then it's like you're trying to lose weight. Like you're trying to restrict your eating. Like that's all like it doesn't equate to body fat. Like there's this like weird disconnect there. disconnect there. disconnect there. It's Yeah, it's crazy. I just speaking of which we were just talking about how you know eat really low enough calories don't lift weights you'll lose muscle.

There was a study that came out uh that is somewhat similar to what we were just talking about. So it was a huge review on calcium and vitamin D supplements. And so they they did this huge review and they found that uh older people who took vitamin D and calcium that it provided no meaningful protection against fractures or falls for most older adults. Okay, so most older adults taking calcium and vitamin D had no protective effect from the supplement. Here's why everybody. If you're not giving your bones a reason to be strong, you can take all the vitamin D and calcium you want.

That's right. That's right. That's right. It ain't going to do nothing. You got to give the signal. It's like eating more food but not lifting weights. You're not going to build more muscle. You're just going to get fatter. get fatter. get fatter. Y Y Y So taking all the bone nutrients or whatever. So when I read a stud, it's funny because that makes headlines, right? Vitamin D, calcium, they don't help you your bone strength. No, no, they do. they do. they do. So misleading. So misleading.

So misleading. But you got to give your body a reason to strengthen its bones. Like do some resistance training. resistance training. resistance training. That's right. That's right. That's right. You do resistance training, you get your vitamin D and calcium in check and you're going to get stronger bones. It works like clockwork. I've had many clients. Have you guys had clients go through and do bone scans while they train with you? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's it's so predictable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How how much how to me that doctors always trip out on that?

you know, they see results like that and it's like they should be teaching this should be like part of the protocol. It's cuz how many of them are not don't strength train? It's so rare. I mean, how how often do you guys or how like excited you get when you walk in and you see a doctor and he's like he's jacked, you know? you know? you know? Oh, yeah. I like he's going to get it or he's going to get it or she's going to get it.

You know what I'm saying? It's like but so many times I mean it's it's better today. It really is. It wasn't that it was horrible 20 30 years ago. I mean 20 30 years ago it's like you never saw a doctor like that the first time I had that. So every time I get blood test as a uh you know cuz I've been working out since I was a kid uh my CK levels could be a little elevated elevated elevated and it's always through like they go through this process ask me questions what's going on or whatever and I eventually realized like oh it's because I work out and I have more muscle mass and I'll never forget first time ever happened I had a doctor review my blood test he worked out and he looked at me and he's like oh this is by the way this is normal it's cuz you lift weight I didn't even have to say anything he knew he's like thank god thank god but every once in a while it pops up still no they'll bring it up to me and I'm like, you know, that's cuz I work out, right?

No, it's it's super, you know, I'm getting I've had a handful of my friends I I don't know if I brought this up on the podcast or not. I think I talked to you maybe off air a little bit about um cholesterol with uh friends of mine that I I just wouldn't think that they have high cholesterol that all in all look pretty healthy. I don't know enough like every day what they're eating and doing stuff like that, but you know, you you typically think of somebody who's got that is like they have a really poor diet and exercise routine and they're both active people and keep their body weight in check, but both have uh have high cholesterol right now and looking to um fix it.

And when you when you see somebody like that who cuz I know you can you can eat like a ridiculous amount. ridiculous amount. ridiculous amount. Mine doesn't get affected, right? right? right? It's weird. Do you still recommend somebody if they're in a healthy weight and they're working out still to, you know, limit the red meat, lower some of that? that? that? So, there's a there's a there's a um a difference from person to person. Uh their genetic polymorphisms where saturated fat has a negative effect on their blood lipids.

And so, I've had a couple clients like that where we were doing everything right um and then we just had to adjust their fatty acid intake and it did the trick. Now is now I could have saturated fat all day all day long and have no negative effect on my lipids. Every time they measure my lipids, they're like these look like Yeah. Sometimes like pure genetic and then like your dietary like contributions affect it little. Yeah. So saturated fat will affect LDL and a lot of people.

Um to what extent depends um sometimes switching to grass-fed meat makes the difference. Uh and sometimes they need to do like I had to have my client reduce their saturated fat and boost their you know other fat intake like olive oil and stuff like that fish and it made a difference. difference. difference. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it depends depends on the the person. person. person. Now being in a a calorie deficit will that make as usually gets better. Yeah. I was going to say that probably in itself a lot of times will do is just someone could be over consuming go on a little bit lower calorie diet for a little bit minimize the amount of red meat you're eating or switch to grass-fed.

you know, by itself, by the way, unless it's extreme, blood lipids, and and again, there's this is all uh there's a lot of variance here. If it's extreme, then then then this is disqualified, but when you're out of range, blood lipids by themselves are not great predictors by themselves. You have to look at everything else. That's where that's where I'm getting at with you here is cuz I feel like if that's the only thing they have like if you if you got good strength, you've got good, you know, fitness, your blood sugar looks good, your, you know, all the other metrics look good, but then your lipids are a little, you know, kind of out of range, which is typically what it is.

It's usually not like this major thing. If it's major, that's different. different. different. Um, it's not a big it's not a huge predictor by itself. I mean, you can look up the stats on it. If people don't believe me, look it up. Yeah, that's what and this is the the challenge I had with the advice with them was that you're I'm talking about two people that all other markers are good and they're not in some like crazy like oh boy whoa that's that's wildly just they're a little out of the range and so it's like does this person really need to reduce red meat?

Do they really need to do that? By the way, one of them of the two uh I know that he had just got done we had just gone on this kick. So I had told this story a while back. This is a buddy of mine who who wasn't really lifting that much weights. He was doing a thing in his garage where he was just kind of lifting weights all the time. And he I never he'd never like consistently hit protein. And I'm like, "This that's all I want you to do is just" And so he really listened to the advice and was like he's like, "Dude, this is crazy.

I've never ate this much meat before." And so and then he ends up getting this blood test. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah. And then it goes up. So it looks like Oh, my my advice of having him push that, you know. Now granted, you obviously could still hit protein and change your choices. Yeah. of meat and everything like that. But I would argue that he's he's probably okay and he's and he's lifting weights and he's cuz all other markers he's good. It's like literally that was his only thing that he was kind of high.

So, but I was just like, listen, go when you try to minimize how much you're eating out. If you do red meat, go grass. Sometimes cutting carbs will do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've had clients like that, too, where we didn't change that. We cut their carbs and then we saw Now, do you think that's because it probably put them in a deficit a little? Yeah, that's probably why it just put him in a little bit of deficit and then that probably leveled him out a little bit.

So, it be interesting because I, you know, I gave him that you know, I gave him that advice and I sent him a link to one of our supplements that helped out and so we'll see what what happens. Um, but I I was really surprised by both of them and it sucked when it was somebody that I had just your advice. your advice. your advice. Yeah. And he was just seeing great great great and he was seeing great results because he had never, you know, he he put on like 10 pounds.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And you could see it on him. He looked good. He looked really good and but he had see this is where it gets weird. This is where it gets weird because you have this GLP data. You'll have uh typ by the way there's an article that just came out. So typical person who's using a GLP is avoiding exercise. So a majority of them are not choosing to Yeah. They're not. It is alarming. Yeah, bro. It's hard. It should. Yeah. Remember what I told you?

You definitely don't want to. You're not It's It's hard enough to be motivated to to lift weights. We're all busy. We're all tired. We all work a lot. We all this that. Okay, take that and now cut your calories down to 1300,500. For somebody that doesn't even train to begin with. begin with. begin with. That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. And you're going into deficit and then all of a sudden trying to get more exactly what you said, Adam. And this is this problem. This is what this this what it says.

People's daily steps might drop after starting a GLP1 prescription. New research suggests. Yes. Yes. Yes. Why? Because people So here, doctors at uh St. John's Hospital Illinois and others examined Fitbit data from people with obesity who were prescribed a GLP-1 medication people's level of physical activity significantly decreased. Wow. Wow. Wow. After starting a GLP-1, they found I'll tell you why. It's because they're cutting their calories way the hell down. Have no energy. I One of the best things I did was when I did that was going into it like I think a client would go into it and not trying to game it, right?

Because this is what I experienced was just low energy. I did not have a motivation. I didn't have a motivation to work out at all, much less continue go like increasing my steps or staying consistent. It was come home from work and I wanted to plop down in my giant bean bag and just take a midday nap because I was just tired. Was so tired from it. And so it takes a lot of discipline for somebody to to to continue to do the steps, continue to do the workouts, and then also push to eat when you're not hungry when you also know that that's what I'm trying to lose weight.

weight. weight. Yeah. I'm trying to lose weight. Well, so my point with this is a lot of people are are taking these these these peptides. They're losing lots of weight. Their blood markers are getting better, but they feel weak. Yeah. They're losing strength and they have less energy. less energy. less energy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so what they're doing is they're just looking at the blood markers. the market. market. market. Hey, you're moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, you have a friend who's like, "Dude, I felt so strong.

I've got more muscle. I've got more energy." And his blood lipid numbers are a little off. Yeah. And so, like, uhoh, what do I need to do? do? do? I know. Really looking at That's why I'm like that's why I was so frustrated with it and was like so caught. I think that's why I reached out to like I mean, how do I want to advise him right here cuz I just got him to build 10 pounds of muscle on his body and doing a good job and now the doctor comes back and say, "Oh, your your blood lipids are a little off uh and now you should probably cut back red meat." I'm like, "Oh, man.

This is what got killing me, dog." Yeah. So, it's like it's it's put you in that predicament of like what's and I don't know enough because it's not like I'm really coaching this person. So, it'd be different if I was a little more Yeah. See what there may be something else. else. else. Right. Right. So, I'm I'm also careful not not not I'm having organic beer. Is that Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I'm also careful to not just be, oh, ignore the doctor, do this. You know what I'm saying?

And so, I'm like, okay, speaking of that, that's a great transition. Um, transition. Um, transition. Um, so you know how they have the World Cup going on right now? Like Scotland's in there. Um, and I don't know, it's been years since they've really been in in the World Cup. So, a lot of Scottish fans flew in and it was on the East Coast. It was in um, Boston. And so, there's this statistic going around out now that um, you know, St. Patrick's Day is a big thing in Boston.

Like, it just goes crazy, right? Uh, they dye the river and everything, right? right? right? Yeah. Everything. Everybody's drinking. And so, you can imagine how much beer sales are. So apparently like it's been three times the amount of beer. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Triple Wow. Triple Wow. Triple Scottish fans. Scottish fans. Scottish fans. Wow. Wow. Wow. This is again this was a report out there that somebody posted. It's kind of funny. funny. funny. I This is like a really You just made me remember this. This has been a terrible year for Italy.

They they didn't get in the World Cup and they came out with that just horrible Ferrari. horrible Ferrari. horrible Ferrari. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Just Italians are just bro. My my family is like they're so they're so depressed, dude. dude. dude. They're not in the World Cup and we have we have an electric Ferrari. The hell's happening, dude? Ugly electric Ferrari. electric Ferrari. electric Ferrari. Look at that. Look at this. Our Scottish soccer fans drinking all of the beer in Boston. Boston. Boston. So, man, if you're a pub, you're loving it right now, huh?

Champions. Yeah. Did you see the clip speaking of the World Cup? And uh it was it was what was it compare? Oh, was comparing the comparing the comparing the New York Knicks celebrating after the Spurs loss and just all the fights and the trash and that and they showed Japan uh playing who did they just Japan played somebody recently. I don't know who they played this last week and I believe they lost and they showed all the Japan fans afterwards. Crazy cleaning up the stands. Cleaning up the stands.

Japanese culture is very is very is very dude I mean talk about huge I mean it wasn't like one or two people like all the Japanese fans that were in the stands the stands the stands stayed after the game and were using were had bags and were were picking up the trash. the trash. the trash. So I did I did judo as a kid and I did Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a young adult and judo I did in a traditional Japanese it's in [ __ ] Japan town here in San Jose San Jose Buddhist Judo Club one of the oldest judo schools.

Yeah. And it was very traditional. And let me tell you the difference. You [snorts] did Japanese judo. We show up. We set up the mats. We set we sweep the mat. This is part of your basically part of the class. You sweep the mats, get everything ready. It's very professional. At the very end, we clean the mats again. We roll them up. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is like you show up like, "Hey, what's up, bro? How you doing?" 15 minutes late, fist bump, you know, do your thing.

Totally different. You know, this is a part of our culture I don't like. Right. There's a bit and and I know we're in the world we can be known as like this the arrogant Americans Americans Americans that there's there's so much that we can learn and take away from other cultures and like what a great I mean oh yes the memorable memorable memorable oh 100% you're in you're in another country in another in another team stadium your team loses you stay after the game and you pick up the like that's that I mean that that's like a whole new standard and and it's like what's wild to me about that is the those people are strangers.

It's not like there's not like a family of 10 people doing it. It's like there was like a hundreds of people that like that the whole culture that just that's what you do. You go somewhere, you make a mess. Doesn't matter if it's in a stadium, in a home or what that like you stay and you clean up your like that's Do you guys remember what with the big earthquake that happened in Japan and the Fuk was it the Fukushima power plant that Okay. And it was so radioactive that they needed volunteers to go down to help clean it knowing that they would die.

It was the elderly, right? Elderly Japanese people volunteered. That was so They volunteer cuz they're like, "I'm already old, so I'll go down." Wow. And I'll clean. I'll clean. I'll clean. That was so cool. It's the It's so such cool things about uh cultures like that. Yeah, I know. I just wild to me to see hundreds do that. I mean, that that says something about an entire culture if hundreds of people get buy in like that. You know, you get there. It's not to say there's not good people, and I'm sure there's somebody who's listening to this podcast like, "I always clean up after myself." Well, you're one person, you know, know, know, like you're not an entire culture.

I've always wanted to go there cuz it's such a great culture, but then they got weird stuff like some of their anime is really crazy. Like I would like Yeah, it's a super clean place and it is the culture to do that to clean up after yourself. And good luck finding a garbage can on the street because people don't walk and eat food there. They eat it where they buy it or they take it home or wherever they're going and throw it away there. So, um, yeah, there's a lot of like little frustrating things about Japan, but I really appreciate how detailed they are and how, uh, conscientious they are.

Is it true that it's custom or it's part of the culture where like I don't know, Fridays or whatever, everybody goes out with the boss and you got to keep drinking until he says we're done. So, I never worked in the corporate world, but judging by the trains, I don't think it's just a week, you know, Friday. I think it's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday hammered. Yeah, they get hammered. That's funny. I saw I saw a clip after this and I don't know. I can't I think it was attached to this just like their culture and different things they teach and train and some of that.

They're showing kid children when they're really young. This is to keep people from jaywalking, right? So that people you won't jaywalk as you get older. So when they're really young, there's like a stadium of kids and they probably look like the the kids must be five to seven at the oldest of young like our kids' age, real young, and they're all sitting like like in a school setting and they show like a car full speed hitting like a child dummy. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's like like Yeah.

Show and Yes. Yes. And so it's like one of those crash dummy like tests and it's like there's like front row seats of it and like all the children are sitting and they get to watch like what happens to this this like the red asphalt leg. Yeah. They don't even show that anymore. Come on. Come on. Come on. That was you had if you got a point on your license or whatever and you had to go do traffic look up how how they train Japanese kids to not to not jaywalk and see if that pops up.

They would show you a video in traffic school of horrible accents. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like brain. And I get it now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Back then I was like, "Yeah, wow. What is this?" is this?" is this?" Yeah, dude. Did it slow me down though? Children is crossing choruses. Hands up rule. rule. rule. Yeah. I'm not seeing their um Yeah. Well, there. Well, there. Well, there. There it is. Right there. Oh, really? There it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This one here, the second video.

Right there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You see it? Yeah, I see it. Yeah, this can't be everybody. Oh, Oh, Oh, it is Instagram. I'm not Well, I'm not I'm not logged in on that computer. Yeah. Well, I I got to bring up some some interesting science on uh our partner's super patch. So, I was talking I had I had I had so wild. so wild. so wild. So, I had a couple of them on the other day. I don't remember where was I. I went somewhere and I was with friends and one of them's like they noticed I had the patch on my arm.

Like, what is that? I'm like, oh, oh, that's what it was. I was training my buddy [snorts] who's a doctor, right? Science guy, doctor. doctor. doctor. So, he's like, "What's on your arm?" I'm like, "Dude, this is the wildest thing." Great person to talk to. Oh, perfect. Oh, perfect. Oh, perfect. You You want to go ahead and sit down? I got to explain. Listen, this is the craziest thing. I said, "It's called haptic technology." And so, there's no it's not transdermal. There's no chemicals. There's no medicine in it.

There's no supplement in it. It's literally just a patch that sits on your skin and the design on there creates tension on the skin and actually changes uh you know how we can measure your brain waves to match brain waves that would be like athletic performance or for sleep or for whatever. And his face of course is looking at me was like get out of here bro. I'm like listen what are you talking about? I'm I'm the big I was the biggest skeptic. Biggest skeptic. I sent him all the studies.

I have I have yet to hear from him. Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah, bro. There's like a dozen. So people need to understand this. He did his homework. There's a dozen peer-reviewed studies on super patches patches and how well they work and they're the studies are wild. It's not like a little effect. No, it's wild. They work. They work. They work. It is really crazy. So, have you Which So, I use the sleep one all the time. The pain one I use like crazy. The pain.

Yeah. It's a it's a I compare it to and I think when I brought this I think when I brought this up I I brought this up before and you actually looked up it is the exact p the studies that show what percentage of pain I said I said it feels like if I have a level eight it brings me down to like a five or something five or six somewhere like that taking it down. Yeah. Which and I compared it to taking an Advil. an Advil.

an Advil. It is similar in the pain study. It's as effective as Yeah. Advil never has never felt miraculous to me, but if I have pain or it's not as loud, yeah, but yeah, it definitely dull dulls it and it works. We know it works. Obviously, it's been around forever. Everybody uses it. And so when I use that patch, I'm like, this is what it kind of reminds me of. Only I'm not taking a pill, you know? It's like this patch I can put on. And so, and then you looked it up and then what the So, they have they have one for athletic performance and they use them.

That's what I want to try. So, they have one. So, here's the deal. So, uh it's it's measurable. It's about as measurable as caffeine, which is actually quite measurable. However, if you're an athlete, you have to use it consistently for you to notice the effect because you can have a day that's off or whatever, but it's measurable. That's what the study shows. So, I've used that one. I've used the pain one. I've used the sleep one. I've used sleep one, too. And then there's one called joy that help that's supposed to help with mood and I think it works and it's really weird.

I'm still skeptical. I use the sleep one and I what's cool is the Liberty one. I should look up what Liberty they name them. They have names on them and I'm like I don't what does that mean? I have that one and I was like oh what does this one do? I think it just gives you freedom. Yes. Yes. Yes. The sleep one improved my REM. So I I consistently measure my sleep already right now. right now. right now. That's what the study show and so it improved my REM.

Oh Liberty patch uh better mobility, balance, stability, strength and control. control. control. Oh cool. Yeah. Yeah. So they have a whole bunch of these dude that are pretty there's one that boosts met metabolic rate. I got to look at the study on this. I still am skeptical even though I use it and I and these are peer-reviewed studies. I I still still still because it just it seems so woo woo. It's a whole new category of science. It really is. They invented or essentially created a whole new area of research.

Um I'm really curious to see how it spreads out, you know, cuz I know he was like um addressing the the pro sports market and like they're doing like wild things with athletic performance. Uh but just to see like if it really does pervade, you know, culture. Well, isn't the isn't this the science behind Braille is very similar when you think about it? Like what? Like we just take that for granted because it's been around for a long time. time. time. But you ever think that somebody blind touches a bunch of dots and and can and can decipher it.

Yeah. Decipher words and sentences and language. language. language. Well, that's how it started. And what he did with the research because he's an engineer. We did a whole podcast with him. I'm going to make it him. I'm going to make it real simple. He literally took there's tons of data, tons of data on I think they're called EEGs, right? That's the brain. Is that is that what the brain? Look it up because I don't want to get this wrong. Tons of data. And there's EEGs on people in all kinds of different states of mind.

He created an algorithm that could sift through it all. And then like an engineer, he tested different techniques. And there's way more that goes into it. The guy spent, I don't know, $40 million of his own money, I think it was. and he would just put it on people and look and measure their brain waves. He's like, "Oh, cool. This one's producing the brain waves that seem to produce better athletic performance." performance." performance." And then they would test it and they ran the study and then show sure enough it works.

I mean, basically, he's an engineer. engineer. engineer. It's wild. Yeah, I know. It's It's really really crazy. Anyway, super cool. I uh um uh favorite shirt from Viori. What's your favorite strate for me? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, hands down. hands down. hands down. I'm on the jacket. That's the one that I wear all the time. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, all the time. I'd have to say that's the one with the pocket, right? No, I think this one with the pocket. the pocket. the pocket. Doug's got one on right now.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. You have the straddle on. I like the It's a little thinner, but it has a pocket on it and it just it fits like a glove. Like it's very Yeah. Yeah. And you're still stuck on the jacket. jacket. jacket. Yeah. Yeah. Those I bought another one. You know that, right? You got two now? Yeah. Yeah. I ordered a third one. You got three now? Yeah. Yeah. So, I just like Are they different colors? Are you getting the same? Yeah. No, of course.

I mean, I guess it's a fair question. I have like five of the same color pants. You know what I'm saying? So, I guess it's a fair question. That's how I wear clothes. I mean, it makes sense. I feel like with the pants, like the having the black pants that all go together, but it's uh No, they're No, they're No, they're they're I just like how light they are. I like that I can dress them up or down and so they look really sharp if I want to look dressed up.

Um if I want to be casual in them. So, it's it's one of the things that I love about Boris. So, I brought up the Stratech cuz I was wearing Stratate to uh went to a church event with a bunch of uh friends and right away people recognize now that I have Vori is such a recognizable brand now. So, someone's like, "Oh, Vori, I like them." So, we started talking and they're like, "How do you know them?" I'm like, "Oh, they sponsor the show. I've been working with them for a while." while." while." And they're like, "How long have you been working with them?" And I was telling them like, "We worked with them before they had they had one physical location.

It was Insinas, right? That was the only one." one." one." And they were just tripping like, "What do you like it was it was all online. We grand opened their first physical location uh that nobody a lot of people didn't know who they were and now everybody knows. Yeah, we were we were the official first sponsor and partnership they had ever worked. We reached out to them. So, uh I explained this too to a lot of friends and people that we know that have started a podcast and that asked me questions about partnerships and I said, you know, we really did it different than uh a lot of people I know in the space.

most people uh just they'll take whatever companies reach out or who will pay whatever amount. Um where when we built this we originally were going to do no ads, no anything like that. It was like there was no reason we didn't need to. That wasn't the the the mission. Obviously got to a place where we had lots of companies that were reaching out, none that we were really interested in. And I thought, well, why don't I just try and see if I can go after brands that we like?

And I got to credit uh Taylor because Taylor was the one that who introduced this who worked for us way back in the day. Yeah. T Dog T Dog who who I I don't know if you you I don't know if you guys remember this or not. I I know I've said it to you before, but the big motivation of hiring him was I mean he's a good 10 15 years younger than me. And I like to think that when I was younger, I was the cool kid who was on all the hip trends.

I'm fully aware I'm not that cool guy anymore. I'm I'm totally okay. I'm a dad now. I'm not cool. I'm not hip. Too much to keep up with. Right. Yeah, it's just it's a lot it's a lot of work to stay up on the trends and to stay up on that. But I I I I love that, respected that so much and know how important that is to the generation coming up. And he was that kid that I knew that was young enough and distant enough from my age that was like I was when and he was always on the latest newest stuff of everything.

And so that was a lot of the motivation of bringing him on the team is like I want somebody who is up and up on all the latest brands and trends. And so and I remember when he brought Viori to me and he's just like we got to get with this brand. And so we reached out to Joe and the the founder and basically presented to them. They're like I don't know who you guys are because they didn't know who we were at the time. And I was like listen I think that I think this is right up our alley.

I we're going to make you a a household name brand. name brand. name brand. I didn't put it like that. What I did what I did say is we had a very what I did say is we had a very loyal audience. I really like your your your brand and I think that it fits our demographic really well. Gave him like a sweetheart deal and told him this is a sweetheart deal. I I we can't afford to do a partnership with this forever, but let me prove to you that it's a worthwhile partnership.

And so I made that pitch like that. Was that eight years ago? Seven. Yeah. Eight. Maybe longer. Maybe longer. They're one of the first. That's cool. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. They're one of the early early partnerships partnerships partnerships like 90% of my wardrobe. I think all of ours I mean I have it's become they they're always constantly um you know the one thing I get upset when we do these ads for them is uh they always have like new stuff coming out and I don't even keep up with all of it.

And then occasionally I'll go into the store and like damn I didn't even know they had all this. And we work with them and so and so and so you know they they're always coming out with new great stuff. And so it's it's an incredible brand. and I love everything they do. [snorts] Look, if you've been listening to Mind Pump for any amount of time, you know how seriously we take gut health. We've devoted countless episodes to the microbiome. And for years, we've stressed the importance of a solid evidence-backed probiotic.

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Yeah. Yeah. So, when we first met, um my personal goal was to lose fat. Um, at the time I weighed about 207 and I had just taken a DEXA scan and it said I was around 30% body fat. So I met with you guys. Um, I followed the advice to like just prioritize protein daily steps uh, and increase healthy fats. And since then I've lost over 20 lbs. So I'm about 183 now. Um, more importantly I just feel really good. So, I'm I'm focusing on protein and activity instead of obsessing over, you know, every single calorie.

Um, and that made the process a lot more enjoyable, a lot more sustainable for me. And so, I feel like I've been able to build healthy habits, and I've been able to maintain a flexible flexible flexible metabolic lifestyle uh for months now, which has been really nice with the stage of life that I'm in. Um, you guys gave me maps anabolic and I really enjoyed it. It was It was really nice to try something new. I'm not typically like a full body guy. I'm typically like a we're doing shoulders today or we're doing chest today, but it was really nice to try something new and uh I felt like my body really responded to like a new type of stimulus.

So, that was awesome. [gasps] Basically, at this point, like I've lost weight, I [clears throat] feel good. Um, I'm just trying to figure out what my next steps are. So, I've uh I've noticed a little bit of strength loss. Um, my goal right now isn't to bulk, but I would like to get some of that strength back. I am really liking how lean that I feel. I probably still have some body fat to peel off, so I don't know if I'm in like a recmp mode or or what.

Um, I can kind of get into my calories, too. my calories have actually gone up as I've lost weight and like my metabolism has increased. So I feel like I'm in what you guys have called like the Goldilock zone like so that's awesome. Um just want to get a little stronger. It's a little uh you know disappointing to to like feel a noticeable strength loss in all the core lifts. It's pretty it's pretty common when you drop 20 lbs you know. So that's and and I think you're actually in a really good place.

I'd like to hear a little bit about uh cuz it's awesome that you've been able to kind of do this intuitive eating. What would you say is like uh like if if you have what you think is a not a great day eating or what's what's the things that creep into the diet that were not ideal or like would not be a what you consider a really good day? Yeah, a really good day like it's just a really good day is like being on it all day and it's like chicken and rice, uh beef and rice.

It's just like, you know, getting good fiber. It's it's hitting my protein. A really bad day is like I I don't hit steps. I'm short on protein. I go out to eat with the family. Maybe I have, you know, some wine or something for dinner. Um, you know, that creates like a poor sleep that night and I'm kind of dragging the next day and I'm trying to like play catchup the next day. So, day. So, day. So, well, Alex, let me pause you there for a second.

Um cuz I have a couple questions before we get into kind of what you considered the bad day, right? Just talk a little bit about the strength changes that you noticed. Can you give me an example of where a lift was and where it is now? Yeah, [clears throat] I So I used to uh be able to rep out like 185 on an incline barbell bench for three, four sets of 10 to 12 like pretty pretty easily. I felt really strong in that lift and I'm really struggling on 5x5s now.

Um I'm able to hit five sets of five but um with the same weight with the same weight, but I can't do anymore. anymore. anymore. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um Um Um so so here's what you want to do with strength when you start to lose weight. Um and now this isn't true necessarily for beginners. Uh a beginner will often see strength go up as they lose weight. And so this can sound confusing to somebody who's experienced because they'll drop weight and see strength drop and be like, "Am I doing something wrong?" wrong?" wrong?" Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh but it's expected when you're experienced. experienced. experienced. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's expected to go down in strength when you drop weight. What you want to look at is your strength toe ratio. So, if you were doing 185 for 10 and you lost 20 lb, uh, your weight to strength, your strength to weight ratio would be the same if it went down to 155 for 10. [clears throat] [clears throat] [clears throat] 20 lbs down. Does that make sense? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it sounds to me like you've maintained your strength or maybe even gone up a little bit little bit little bit if we start to look.

And so, you could do this with your lifts. You could say, "Okay, how much was I doing for one rep here? How much am I doing for one rep there? What is my strength toweight ratio? And if you're losing weight and keeping your strength to weight ratio around the same, you're totally winning. Yes. Yes. Yes. You're doing a great job. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. So there, that's number one. Now, let's go back to what you defined as a bad quote unquote bad day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

What we need is a complete picture of what that actually means. So I need more information. When you're going out with your family and you're eating out and having a little bit of wine, what are some of the good things out of that day? I mean, from a [clears throat] nutritional standpoint or No, let's look at the big picture. Oh, okay. Yeah, big picture. I mean, it's it's a great social bonding moment like with people who love me and care about me and it means a lot to go and do things like that.

So, from that standpoint, like it's a great day. Good. Because what you're talking about right now, Alex, is you're you're you're moving towards uh what would be considered a lifestyle of health and fitness. I'm so glad you went that direction with him cuz it's where I was heading, which was cuz I I can tell just by looking at you from here, you're you're healthy and fit. You're in a good you're in a good place. Now, does that mean could you be more ripped and maybe you want a little more of that?

And what comes with that is is is sac sacrifice. So maybe less of those days that Sal's talking about for more abs. abs. abs. And and so and I wrestle with And and so and I wrestle with this all the time. and and like and I have to make that choice of like do I enjoy enjoy enjoy every Friday night I can have a couple glasses of whiskey and enjoy good barbecue ribs with my wife and not count calories and you know what I'm I'm not going to look like stage Adam that way definitely not you know what I'm saying or and if I'm in a season in my life where I'm like you know what I want to ramp it up a little bit I'm going to have less less of those for a while and so I think you're kind of in that place right now where I think you're in a very healthy balanced and I think if you just keep kind of going the way you are, you're going to slowly just keep recomping, getting strong, getting a little bit fitter.

If you wanted to see that faster, or you wanted more leanness, then you you just you would have less of those days. You'd have less less of those days uh and you'd have more abs. But then you have to ask yourself and and I I always encourage people go through a season where you do that. You know, make those sacrifices, get shredded to prove to yourself that you can, you know, say no to all those days and see if you're happier. Most people are not. You know what I'm saying?

Most people, they get there and temporarily go, "This looks badass." And then they go, "But boy, I missed that night with my wife and it would have been really nice to have that popcorn and that movie." And and so I I think you're right there. I you're I think you're right there. I think I feel at least that's what I hear and I feel from you is that you're kind of in that place right now. Yeah, you're doing a good job, dude. You're actually kicking ass.

You really are. There's a couple things you could do when you eat out if you want to make it uh a little bit more conducive to like fitness goals. Like what I'll do is I'll still go out and enjoy myself. I'll just won't eat carbs. That's really easy for me to avoid. So I can have the steak and vegetables and the glass of wine and so now the calories are a little bit lower. Um you know there's there's little things like that. But you know fitness isn't life.

Uh life is not fitness. Fitness makes life better. You know like on people's death Exactly. So, like on people's deathbeds, people never say, "I wish I worked more or I wish I had better abs or I wish I avoided, you know, that dinner with my wife." Nobody says that. I want that on my tombstone. People may say, "I wish I took better care of myself so I didn't get a heart attack." Like, that might happen. But often times what they say is, "I wish I spent more time with my family or I special," you know?

So, so you're in that phase where you're like, "Man, I I'm getting this lifestyle that's really improving the quality of my life." And what I would say to you, bro, is just stay the course. Yeah. The mistake you can make right now, Alex, is to start to look at it and everything's going good and then to start to be like, how can I make this happen faster? And that can be a mistake. That can be a trap. trap. trap. Um, yeah. As far as programs are concerned, uh, I see you asked the question about maps powerlift.

I think that'd be a great program. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Wasn't sure where to go from here. Again, like I just I I'm in a really good spot right now where I'm not focusing on every detail. I just want to stay the course and continue to build strength. Um, not really sure what program, but I know you guys have a program like like Powerlift, so wanted to get your input. Yeah, I think I think Powerlift is a great program. And the my advice following it would be uh a when you're hungry, feed.

So like uh if if all goes well, well, well, you'll your appetite will increase while you're going through this and and feed yourself. But make good choices. Yep. I mean that allow allow that. And and if we do that correctly, it it should make this real natural reverse diet for you where the calories keep going up. We should see strength go up. Not really. I don't really care with the scale cuz you're at a plate a good weight. I don't need you to be any lighter than what you are.

So, I mean, if the scale goes to 187, who cares? Especially if strength is going up, that's a really good sign. And appetite going up and eating more. So, I'm really that's what we're watching is to see that and feel that. And I think uh you will lean out in the process. And you'll lean out not through dropping weight on the scale, but through building more muscle. And so, yeah, that'll probably Have you Have you done another uh scan since you did the 30% one? Do you know where you're at?

You know, I I actually haven't. And I didn't because I realized it kind of just robbed me of my happiness before. And although it sent me down this path of like of like of like No, you're good, dude. Something about it. Like S I think last time we talked was like it sounds like it stole the happiness from you like, you know, basically. And I was like, you know what? I think it did, did, did, bro. You are you are in such a good Yeah, you're in a good place.

That's a good place, bro. That's a good place. You're literally on the right path. What I do love is that my calories like when I I I was at like 1,900 2,000 really trying to cut. And now I'm eating whenever I'm hungry. I'm at like probably 24 2500 the last time I actually tracked all day. And I'm not gaining any weight. So I'm maintaining around 183 at like 24 2500. Isn't that weird? So my Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. My metabolism is firing. I don't want to cut any more calories.

I'm at about 8,000 steps a day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, some days are lower, some days are a little bit higher, but average about 8,000. So, like I think I'm humming along. Um, and I have you guys to think because I feel like I have that you guys talk about like metabolic and lifestyle flexibility where I call it a bad day, but it's not a bad day. like I go out and I have that flexibility where I can go and do whatever with my family and then I can still still still maintain the goals that I have like big picture.

So, picture. So, picture. So, good job. Yeah, you're killing it. Success story. Success story. Success story. Total success story. And honestly, if you're right if you're right probably falling around 2425 and we go into powerlift and you eat when you're hungry, you're hungry, you're hungry, you'll probably go up. You'll probably go up around 27 2,800 maybe even 3,000 calories and be able to still kind of maintain your body composition. composition. composition. I'll tell you what. So at this point if you you know just the only advice I'd give you is cycle through our programs and just focus on the physical aspect of it.

So like powerlift is great. I think symmetry would be phenomenal everything everything everything after that and then you can look at different programs and look at see see what what looks fun. My my advice I give all callers or people that we're coaching is uh either symmetry or performance cycle through once a year. That that'll address any imbalances. It's got unilateral work. It's got rotational stuff in there. And the one bad thing about anabolic and powerlift if you just ran those all the time is you'll get really strong but you're not addressing a lot of the imbalances, rotational stuff, unilateral stuff, and that'll keep you healthy, take care of those joints long term.

So, as long as you cycle through one of those two programs every year and just keep keep on this path, you're good, man. Nice. My my other question, as I was doing anabolic, um obviously there's barbell squats. I know you guys talk about doing barbell squats all the time. Um, man, my shoulder, my right shoulder is so uncomfortable holding the bar back there. I'm not sure what to do. So, I've opted for belt squats, hack squats. I've gotten strong, but I know that I would like to be strong at back squats, and I have a lot more to give there, but I just I I rack it because my shoulder can't take that position.

Where do you feel the pain? Yeah, I mean, it's it's hard to describe it. So I I can describe it this way. When I do a shoulder press with dumbbells, I can keep my my elbows slightly in inwards. So there's no pain at all. But when I start to go all the way back, like a full-blown, right, right, right, like behind my neck, it starts to just really feel super tight and uncomfortable in my right shoulder. Okay. So you you So um you could definitely fix that.

There's some scapular issues there. A little bit of pec tightness, maybe bicep tendon tightness. I'm going to send you Prime Pro. And in Prime Pro, uh, start doing the mobility movements for shoulder and scapula and practice those daily. And and get under a bar. External rotation. External rotation. External rotation. Get under a bar. You don't got to squat, but get into a bar. Focus on squeezing the shoulder blades down and back. Grab wider on the bar. That might help. And then just practice holding that position without pain.

But do the mobility movements in Prime Pro. That'll take care of that. Okay. Sweet. Okay. Sweet. Okay. Sweet. Yep. Yep. Yep. I will, dude. Thank you, guys. All right, dude. Thanks for calling in. Keep it up, Alex. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. you. you. Take it easy. What a success. What a great story. Success. You know, it's funny. If uh if being ripped was the way to happiness, then the happiness. I mean, I'm so glad you went that direction cuz that's where I was heading with him.

I wanted him I wanted to hear him him him define to me what was good or bad, right? And so I could hear that and cuz I could tell he looks great. Oh, he lost 20 pounds. All good, right? Yeah. he's in and he so he looks very healthy where he's at. So, and you know this is the I think this is the trap when you start to see great results is uh it's similar to the money trap. You start making a little more money, more money, you just keep moving the goalpost and then it's more and and you continue to sacrifice things for moving that goalpost.

goalpost. goalpost. And so, you know, you have to ask yourself if this thing that you call a bad day and you challenged him on it was like, well, what was so bad about Well, no, I got great hanging with my wife doing all this stuff. It's like, hey, you want to get down to 8% body fat, just do less of those, you know, and then then ask yourself, is that worth that? Like, is it are those abs abs abs worth less of those days? And if it is, hey, so be it.

Who am I to judge? That's that's up to each person. But it's like, you're in a really great place. I'm going to say this again. If if happiness was defined by being ripped, then the most ripped looking people would be the happiest people. And here's the truth. They're not. They're far from the happiest people. It is not the path to happiness, no matter how much they sell it on social media. But I do I do think and that's why I said it to him that there is value.

I think every everybody has to figure out their path. Uh Uh Uh well there's nothing like experiencing. Yeah. There's nothing like uh saying I'm going to do that for and you could like man dedicate three months of your life. It's not your whole I mean it's a small part of your life. Three months and make all those sacrifices. Be the person who carries their Tupperware around. You know say don't go out to those dinners. Don't have that drink. Do that thing for a while. Get those abs and then ask yourself like am I happier?

Am I does did this make me better? And if it's not, if the answer is no, and if it's and maybe maybe what you find is there's some if there's somewhere in the middle of that where, you know, and I feel like this has kind of been part of my own journey of of of figuring out what that looks like. And it's like, you know, I know there's there's a there's a balance like where I I want to enjoy that that drink. I want to enjoy that dinner.

I want to enjoy that popcorn. But there's also times where I'm like, I don't need to do that. Why am I eating candy watching movie? Exactly. It's just like it's Tuesday. It's Tuesday night. It's not a big deal. You know what I'm saying? It's like, but it's like then there's times where it's like, "Oh, this is a really nice night. I've got no kids, me and my wife." It's like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm going to enjoy that night." Our next caller is Amber from Texas. Hey, Amber, how you doing?

Hey guys, Hey guys, Hey guys, how are you? How are you? Just trying to stay cool over here in this heat. How can we help you? So, this is a followup. Um, I called in earlier in the year about starting a GLP and then S yelled at me and he's like, "You shouldn't be on a GLP." I'm just kidding. He he was very honest because, you know, I had uh said that I had a history of an eating disorder and so I shouldn't have been on it.

But I wasn't going to do this followup because I probably don't have the answer or, you know, the follow-up that maybe not saying you were hoping for, but I didn't stop the GLP. I did have the dose, but there was an episode that I listened to where a mother was considering putting her teenage son or something on one and I was like, you know what, I need to follow up because the JLP gave me a whole lot of anxiety. Since I've haved it, my anxiety has gone down.

I'm not blaming it all on that, but it was just so bad that I was like, you know what, let me call in. Let me do a follow-up and be honest. So, being honest, I did not stop the GLP. I'm on a truce appetite compound, but I did have the dose. So, I am able to eat more and my anxiety did go down once I started having that dose. And since then, I went and I've got blood work a couple of times and my gynecologist gave me a diagnosis of something called adenomiiosis.

I don't know if you guys have heard of it. Mhm. I'm familiar. Yeah. So, yeah. So, I have that. So, I have a hyerectomy that's scheduled for August and I was also low on testosterone. So, they were going to put me on pallets, but then I remembered you guys talking about Vabella. So, I actually just signed up with them. I started my testosterone uh shots yesterday. And so, with all of those changes, I'm, you know, I'm still on the JLP. I'm doing NAD with the shot.

I'm doing the uh testosterone now, the 0.1 um milliliter, the small dose, and I'm doing the vitamin D3 daily. With my upcoming surgery in August, my hyctomy, they're going to leave the ovaries in. Should I change anything as far as my training, my nutrition? Like, what should I do to prepare for this surgery? Should I take advantage of the testosterone and try and get as strong as I can before surgery? What do you guys suggest? I know it's a lot of information. information. information. Yeah, thanks for thanks for calling in.

And so, I do want to address first off, I'm going to be very clear, none of us are doctors here. So, we're we're personal trainers. Um, so you're going to be hearing Well, you guys have helped me a whole lot more than my doctors have. So, there's going to be some I'm going to give you some answers based off of my experience with clients and some speculation, okay? So, just take it for what it's worth. I will say this, uh, some people do experience anxiety with GLPS because they do have an effect on resting uh, heart rate.

They will increase resting heart rate pretty predictably pretty predictably pretty predictably and the stronger ones tend to do this more. Uh, the data on reatride shows that it raises it more than trespathide seems to raise it more than simaglutide. And so for people that are very prone to anxiety, that may be a side effect. Now, it's not widely observed. Uh a lot of people lose weight, get better with their anxiety, especially people who suffer with obesity and stuff like that. Um the other reason why sometimes people get anxiety on a GLP is their coping mechanism is food.

You take away the food, I still have the anxiety. What do I do now? You know, type of deal. So, that might be another mechanism. But what you're saying isn't uh unheard of. So, I'm glad he kind of lowered the dose. Um, okay. So, uh, adeninoiiosis. So, this is where the the cells there are cells that kind of proliferate and grow. Um, grow. Um, grow. Um, yeah, they grow into the uterus. Yeah. And so, um, they they're basically removing this and they stop that from happening.

It's a big surgery. It's a pretty big surgery. Uh when you look at the relationship between testosterone and this condition, there seems to be no or a positive association, meaning testosterone, raising testosterone may actually help actually help actually help because this condition is estrogen uh related. Uh I want you to ask your doctor and confirm everything I'm saying, okay? Because I could totally be wrong. So you you got to get cleared from them first. Uh now from a fitness perspective, it's always best to go into a surgery a surgery a surgery strong.

strong. strong. Stronger and heavier. Yeah. Stronger, wellfed. Not just more muscle, but more body fat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, I don't know what body fat. You don't like that. What body fat are you sitting at right now, Amber? now, Amber? now, Amber? I don't know. I don't weigh myself. I don't take my body fat measurements. When I was signed up with Vita Bell at the doctor, I said, "Do not tell me my weight because it's still pretty triggering for me, but I know I've lost at least 20 pounds, maybe.

That Yeah, you're you're pretty lean. You're better off going into a surgery with more muscle and fat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not just muscle. Uh that's going to be protective through the recovery process. So, people who go into surgery who are weak uh and or low mus uh low body fat do very poorly. People who go in with a lot of muscle with low body fat don't do as don't do super great. They do better, but they don't do super great either because they don't have stored energy, which is body fat.

So, if you really want to do well, uh I would go on a bulk. Now, that doesn't mean eat a bunch of garbage uh because there also may be an association between insulin resistance uh and your condition. So, I don't think you should eat a bunch of garbage, but it probably is a good idea to gain weight going into the surgery. It'll make your recovery better. better. better. Okay, that makes sense. It's scary, but um I will try to eat more. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, because you're going to need some some weight to lose.

You know, when you get a hyctomy, you're going to be recovering. You're not going to be able to do much. You need weight on you for your body to use as energy. Your appetite's going to be low and you're not going to be moving much. So, you need to go in with some stored energy. Does that make sense? That makes sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So bulk and maybe just I I'm doing like a full body routine about three times a week. So and I didn't want to change it when I started the test just to see if I get stronger with you know if the just uh adding the testosterone low make me stronger cuz I did get weaker with the GLP.

My strength did go down. So I guess um just staying on that same training up until the surgery. Yep. Yep. But definitely increase your calories, keep lifting weights. Uh testosterone should be totally fine. clear it with your medical professional, with your doctor that is doing the procedure. Let them know, hey, I'm on testosterone replacement therapy. Uh are there any contraindications? Do I need to go off? Uh is it going to affect anything for the surgery? Do I need to do anything else? And then just see what they recommend and go with what they say.

But for my from my understanding as a trainer and I'm talking to you, uh so this would be different advice for everybody else. go gain some weight and then go into the surgery. That's that'll be your best bet for recovering from the surgery surgery surgery and bouncing back. Do you see that as possible being on the GLP1? Can you eat more being on the GLP? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Probably not. Okay. I'd probably have to get off of it or Yeah, probably have to get off of it.

That's why I asked cuz I would consider that if you're already uh you already feel like it's worked to eat what you eat now and this is where we're at. Uh probably consider even lowering the dose more or eliminating it for this period of time. You can always go back in afterwards. Uh but if you're already struggling to eat what you eat now and we're asking you to eat more uh during this period of time, that's probably going to be tough. Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to be catabolic going into a catabolic state.

Okay. Surgery, that makes sense. Yeah. Surgery and recovery is like really catabolic. So, you want to go into a kind of anabolic. Uh, so what's your body weight at now, Amber? Do you have an idea? She has no idea. You have no idea. Uh, I'm going to guess about 120. I don't know. I mean, people ask me like it's to the point where people are asking me like, "Are you okay?" Like, do you have some kind Yeah. number? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When's your surgery? Uh, August 13th.

Okay. Can you think you can gain 10 pounds by then? I can. Whether or not I mean I'm I'd have to probably talk with the therapist while I go through it to do that or just you know you know you know just I guess my thing would be thinking about the end goal. You know what would my future me thank me for and and just being able to come back faster for work, for my kids, for exactly exactly exactly for life and Yeah. Yeah. It it take a lot of mental I can physically are you going to listen are you going to listen to us this time?

Feel like you didn't listen to us last time. I kind of did. I halfway did. I mean, kind of. So, tiptoe. I mean, I'm afraid the same thing's gonna happen here. I feel like you're nodding your head. I feel like you were nodding your head last time and then you got off and you still Yeah, you were. were. were. So, I feel like we're we're having a very similar conversation here where the answer is answer is answer is you don't want to be really frail after your surgery.

That's what that'll happen. You might come out of it really frail. frail. frail. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. I Yeah. I I don't know if I can gain the full 10, but I can promise you that I will either decrease or get off the GLP. And I'm promising myself this. That way again after I have the hyctomy, I can come back faster cuz I'm a workaholic. I need to get back to work like the day after surgery. after surgery. after surgery. I think 10 is minimum.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a very conservative. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, I just want to stress that because if you uh if you half ass listen to us, I'd rather tell you 20 pounds and then you half ass and give me 10 cuz 10. cuz 10. cuz 10. Yeah. I think you should shoot for 20. We got August. So, where are we in right now? June. now? June. now? June. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, let's let's do this. Uh Amber, here's what I'm going to do.

Okay. I'm going to have you on in 30 days. So, that'll give us some time before your surgery. And so, we'll do another update. And if you don't do what we tell you, you, you, okay, I'm going to chastise you on air for everybody. for everybody. for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Yes. All right. We'll see you in 30 days. Y Y Y All right, guys. Thank you. I remember her. her. her. Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye-bye, bro. Yeah. No, she didn't listen to us the first time.

No, No, No, no, no, no, she don't she lowered the dose, she said. said. said. Yeah, but she to a a area where she still is not eating. I know. I know. I know. You know, You know, You know, you listen uh being really obese going to surgery, bad outcomes. Being frail going to surgery, worse out. worse out. worse out. I I remember this conversation now to me. I mean, I obviously remember Amber because we've met her before. Um but I couldn't remember the exact conversation we had.

Now, it's coming back to me right now. right now. right now. Um, we were very adamant about her being off of jail. I know there's no reason for she has she has a she has prior eating disorder. I know. And so somebody who had So for the listener, do not if you had an eating disorder, if you have an eating disorder in the past, a GLP-1 is a horrible idea. It's heroin. Horrible. Yes. Horrible idea. Any dose of it, horrible idea. Mh. idea. Mh. idea. Mh.

It is dabbling in something that you already I mean it's like you said the sense of control that people get from restricting restricting themselves when they have an eating disorder is a big reason why they have the eating disorder. Now you have a tool that helps that gives you more power to restrict. restrict. restrict. It's heroin for the person with the eating disorder. eating disorder. eating disorder. And no dose of it is a good idea. It's not a good idea. And so um and now I remember this conversation and and look it we got off the call and she quote unquote half listened to us and still is not a good place.

I want to know what she said in Spanish. She said She said She said I know I know I know she probably said something sounded sexy. sounded sexy. sounded sexy. I'm not doing anything you're telling me more. I'm sure somebody one of the audience. Our next caller is Kennedy from Missouri. Missouri. Missouri. What's up Kennedy? What's happening? Good. How are you all? Good. Good. How can we help you, dude? Um, so a little background. I started working out when I was about 17 and started listening to y'all around the same time.

So about 2017. Um, and then in 2019, I had a bad work accident and had glass fall on me at work and cut my leg open. So, I was out for about 6 months and I lost probably 30 40 lbs. And so, when it came to putting that weight back on, I I didn't do it correctly. I know that. Um, it was just eat trying to get as much my weight back as possible. Um, and then just like seeing myself, I kind of like fell out of love with it.

Um, Um, Um, and now the beginning of this year, I kind of started uh like really getting back into it. Like I worked out the whole time, but just never like continue to track my calories or anything else. So, at the beginning of the year, I was at 196 and um just not the way I wanted to be. And so so so I have been cutting for just to get back to where I want to look like and then I was going to try and put some mass on um after that.

So since January I've lost about 20 lbs. Um my strength stayed about the same so I haven't I don't feel like I've really messed that up any. Um but I just want to know what do you guys think? I know you guys talk about um like increasing calories and adding mass and it helps you lean out differently than So I was just wondering your guys's opinion on that and how that would go. Yeah. I'm curious to the uh the the look that you're trying because it says your goal is to lean out down to 165.

You're a six foot tall dude. Yeah. I was just gonna wanted to get like I'm 180ish right now. 78 I think is the last time I weighed in, which is a good weight for you. Um, and I'm about 20% body fatish. I had a scan last week. So, okay, okay, okay, let's back up for a second. Kenny, first off, you've been listening to us since you were 17, so I appreciate that, man. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What happened with the the accident uh where you cut up your leg?

Any nerve damage? Yeah, my whole So, I worked at a local glass company for a family friend and and and um one day I was moving a few mirrors for him and uh they ended up slipping and falling on my leg and so they shattered and cut basically from I'd say like 4 in below my knee to it's like it's like a horseshoe down my leg that just like flayed off basically. But yeah, so it cut basically to the bone. Um bone. Um bone. Um so yeah, my whole right side leg is from there from where the cut started to down it is pretty much numb, but I have full function of it.

It's just that outer portion is pretty to numb to the touch. Wait, okay. So it's full function. So you don't have a Okay, well that's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's your muscles. too. too. too. Okay. So, you can squat bilaterally. There's no like big difference between right to left. Balance is good. Okay. Oh, good. Oh, good. Oh, good. Okay, dude. All right. Sounds like it was very traumatic, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was rough. All right. Do you still think you're dealing with that a little bit?

Um I think there's certain things like I can't do or it feels weird, I guess. Maybe not can't do. I can do everything. But like I know like lunging with that leg back is if it's really tight like my Achilles got shortened or something and it's really tight on the back end but I can do it. It just feels awkward. What about psychologically? What did that do for your for like body image and stuff? Cuz it sounds like you were like you were working out had a good you know relationship with it that I'm just re you know kind of paraphrasing right?

that happened and then you're like, I gotta gain the I lost all this weight because for six months you're healing and I gotta gain weight and you said you did it the wrong way and now uh you're kind of, you know, you're you're trying to eat real little. I could see what calories you're eating right now. Do you think that there may have been a psychological impact from all that in all honesty? all honesty? all honesty? Um yeah, I think for a long time there was.

Um it felt like I wore pants for years after it. Didn't want to wear shorts. shorts. shorts. Um, they had like two drains in it. So, there's like these two like little scar holes that where the drains came out. They're still there. Um, and being big athlete, like not being able to play the sports I used to play, that bothered me for a long, long time. Um, but other than that, I wouldn't say it was like a huge psychological thing. I mean, yeah, definitely. I had the sound of glass still bothers me if it it it something drops and that still [clears throat] freaks me out.

But out. But out. But um um um I think it's been long enough now that I've like really prayed about it and talked to family members and doctors and stuff like that about it and it's has helped. So good man. good man. good man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh spoken like a good man. You're a tough dude cuz that that's rough. Mhm. So, I think you're still dealing with some of it and I can see it in your diet. diet. diet. Uh, you know, it says here you're eating 15-,900 calories a day, which is really low.

After I emailed you guys, it was I emailed you all after I listened to a podcast and I think Adam was talking about his wife and a reverse diet and had her somewhere and I was like, "Okay, if she's eating that many calories, like I way too far under." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so [clears throat] I'm at like 2100 2100 2100 now. Uh but I'm at like 185 grams of protein a day. Too low. Too low. Too low. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Too low, brother. And you're lifting six days a week.

Six days a week. Yeah. Yeah. And you have a physical job? [snorts] No, I'm office job. Okay. So, um so here's what I want you to do. Uh and you tell me if this is realistic for you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I don't want you to track. All I want you to track is your protein and I want you to eat when you're hungry. hungry. hungry. And I mean eat until you're satisfied. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna let your calories go up, brother.

Now, if you were to track, I'd have you immediately go up to 2,600 calories immediately. And then after that, I'd have you go up even higher. But I think the tracking may be part of the problem. And so, whole natural foods, hit your protein. Don't do the thing where you eat the lean protein. Eat the fatty cuts. When you're hungry, eat. Eat until you're satisfied. Six days a week of strength training is too much. much. much. Uh I think uh we could put you I have two programs in mind that I think might be good for you.

You tell me what sounds better. We could do something a little bit of bodybuilding focus or you used to be an athlete. Would you like to get some of that athleticism back? Because I have another program I can put you on. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I would. That's my main goal is I want to be athletic and when the time comes and I have kids like I don't want this leg problem to be a problem. Oh yeah. No, I'm sending you maps performance and I want you just to hit your protein and eat when you're hungry, bro.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And stop weighing yourself. You're I and I want to address how I started the conversation with you where you're at. Uh cuz follow the advice exactly where it's laid at 20% and 180 lbs. You don't need to go anywhere on the scale. Like we can you could be 10% body fat and 180 180 pound like this this. So what I'm trying to say is that a good goal is not to move on the scale at all especially down. Uh you're at 6 foot tall you could be 180 to 200 lb and be lean and jacked.

And so there's no reason to go down. Like let's build muscle and you'll lean out. out. out. So you So you So you if you ate more and if you ate more and followed mass performance you're you would get leaner and and probably stay the same way. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, So, So, I did buy uh maps aesthetic at one point. point. point. That's a lot. And I ran that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was It was hard. I loved it. But it was I could only Hey, I can only imagine on 1500 to,900 calories, too.

That's a lot. At that point, I was still I wasn't really tracking at that point. That tracking has only started since January. I was like, I can't stand being this big or feeling this big. And aesthetic is aesthetic is the wrong program for you. Yeah. Do performance. Do performance. Do performance. I mean, I mean, I mean, go ahead and hit your protein and eat when you're hungry, bro. What? What? What? I'm trying to get to like your training. Like, have you ever thought about working with a coach and not just, you know, working out?

I just feel like there's a little hesitancy with the legs uh performance and its strength, which I bet you, you know, you're you're making a lot of strides and you're not seeing it cuz nobody's there kind of reinforcing that for you. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. I mean it would just be something to consider just because a lot of times we get in our head because of you know past things and a lot of athletes I've trained before have had injuries and it's a really hard hurdle to get over again.

When you start to get somebody to reinforce the fact that you're making a lot of progress and stride when these incremental angles like now I can I can actually like cut better now I can actually uh jump and I can do all these like um you know performance moves again. uh you get more confidence in that. Uh and I just feel like, you know, maybe somebody to just build that confidence in your leg because I guarantee, you know, you've probably made a lot of stride and a lot of strength there that you're you're just probably not seeing yourself.

Kennedy, were you uh were you a runner or a wrestler? wrestler? wrestler? Uh I was a I played soccer and men's volleyball. volleyball. volleyball. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm just curious because the the your your idea of like the the weight into your height ratio like it's like you like you like you you do not have to be that that light. It's I mean Justin, I'll tell you you're six foot. six foot. six foot. How much foot? I'm 235. 235. 235. 235. 285. 285. 285. 35. My bad.

My bad. I mean I mean you you Yeah. You don't want I don't I don't want you any lighter than that, bro. You're plenty light. You know what I'm saying? Let's build some muscle. build some Let's build some muscle. Let's eat some. You could very easily build into Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, for sure. for sure. for sure. So, a mental thing from high school just being like this is one. Yes, it is. That's why I asked that. The reason why I asked and why I thought maybe you were a runner or wrestler is because this tends to happen with my runners or my wrestlers is my runners and wrestlers are so obsessed with keeping their weight down because they need it for their sport.

their sport. their sport. And so they're they're obsessed with a number on the scale when it's like, dude, you could totally weigh 20 pounds heavier and have the body you want or whatever. So, uh, you have that you have you have that mentality a little bit. So, that's why I assume that that Kennedy, listen, I want you to have fun. I want you to start enjoying this again, dude. dude. dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like fall in love with it again. When you follow Matt's performance, here's how I want you to feed yourself.

Hit your protein. And then feed yourself for performance. Man, I need more energy. I got to eat more. That's what I want you to think. Am I Am I moving better? Am I stronger? Am I faster? This is fun. That's what I want you to focus on. I don't want you to focus on the scale or the mirror or leanness. I want you to focus on am I enjoying this? Am I having fun? Can I move better? That's going to move you in the right direction.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to check back up on you after this, too. this, too. this, too. Yeah. You want to get back on in 60 days? Let's talk with you again. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. All right. Let's do it. I'm sending performance to you. Yeah. And let's just talk about your strength improvements in the next conversation. I want I want to hear all about it. about it. about it. Okay. Sounds good. You got it, man. Thank you all for everything you do.

You got it, brother. Right on. Thank you. you. you. I thought for sure he was a wrestler or a runner. a runner. a runner. Well, soccer's close. Yeah. And volleyball. They they both I know try and keep their weight down and they're light but that's I because he lean lean lean physique bro six foot tall and 180 is is is small it is and I think it's more than that he loved cuz he said this he loved fitness loved fitness loved fitness had a tragic accident and when you're a fit person when you're an athlete and then suddenly you can't do anything for 6 months uh and you come back you're looking for control so this has become control for well did you hear him also he said there's there was a past high school food thing.

Yeah. Yeah. So, he had he had some food stuff and low keeping body body weight down low. I mean, the fact that his goal I mean he didn't you guys didn't hear him but is written up here that he wants to be 165. be 165. be 165. No, I know that's what 165 and and 6 foot and you're and you want to be athletic and strong. No way. That's like frail. No way, dude. Yeah. No, he should be he should be at least 180. And and we also we cannot understate the trauma that uh being unable to do what you want physically for 6 months.

Do you know how depressing that is? I was just You got to love how you got to love how a man describes that. That's why I said spoken like a man. No, I think it's okay. You know, you know, sound of glass sends chills down my back. But I'm fine. No, you're not. That's why you need That's I don't know. Well, that's why I kind of was talking about the coaches. You need another person like because actually a sports psychologist would Yes. Exactly. Exactly. That's actually maybe we'll give him a contact.

I have Why don't you send that a contact? Yeah. For him to to maybe um pursue that pursue that pursue that at the very least we'll we'll be there for him. for him. for him. I know how depressed I get. I was just sick for a day, bro. For one day I'm in bed and I'm like I'm depressed. I couldn't imagine six months, bro. I'm going through that, you know. Oh yeah. Well, and if you add the extra layer of that, if you admit that you had like a weight thing in high school, and then you watch yourself, forget it, bro.

You know. Yeah. No. Completely dwindle away, freak out, then you overcompensate and go the other direction, put on a bunch of bad weight. Yeah. Yeah. Our next caller is Sophie from the UK. Hi, Sophie. Hi, Sophie. Hi, Sophie. How you doing, Sophie? Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. How can we help you? help you? help you? Thanks so much for taking my call. You got it. Um, [clears throat] before I start, I just want to say I've been listening for a couple of years and I want to say how much I appreciate the way that you your ethos really, how you strive to educate and share knowledge and inspire, but also that you stay curious and you keep learning and you challenge yourselves.

challenge yourselves. challenge yourselves. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you allow yourselves to be vulnerable. Yeah, I think that's admirable. admirable. admirable. Thank you so much. I appreciate a nice compliment. How can we help you? Uh, I actually have a question about my husband. It's not about me, but he knows that I'm talking to you. It's two questions. One is related to back pain. Um, because he recently had an episode of really bad back pain, but his fitness is good, his mobility is good, his core strength is good.

So, we're looking for advice about that. And then just um what you'd advise for long-term health and longevity for him in terms of exercise and nutrition. and nutrition. and nutrition. Okay. [snorts] So, do you want me to give you some background about his back? Yes, that would help a lot. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Okay. Uh, so he's 54. He has a very sedentary job. It's a very high pressure job as a police officer. He works really long hours. So, he usually leaves the house at about 6:00 in the morning.

He gets home maybe at 7:00 p.m. He gets on average, I would say, 6 hours of sleep on weekdays. He's always kept fit. So, he cycles maybe 40 miles a week. He swims a couple of times a week. He does a bit of weights and chin-ups. And he does maybe half an hour of mobility every day. Lots of stretches, things like glute bridges, that kind of thing. Some Romanian deadlifts, but with no weights at all. Over the years, he's had back problems several times. The worst time was probably about 15 years ago when we thought it was a herniated disc.

And then every few years he'll have an episode where his back goes into spasm and it takes him maybe two or 3 weeks to recover. recover. recover. His recent episode of that was about 3 months ago. So he felt his back stiffening up. He went to the physio. He went to the osteopath. They told him to keep moving which he does. They told him to stay mobile which he does. They gave him all these exercises like glute bridges which he does. And then after the osteopath visit he got noticeably worse worse worse and one day he sneezed and this caused acute pain.

I mean properly he had to go and lie in bed for two days. It was so painful. Um but our national health service didn't really do anything about that. He hasn't had any scans or anything at all. So the the really acute pain morphed into something sciatica like it referred down one of his legs. His cough got very stiff. He got pins and needles and then gradually it improved. So he's done all the exercises that he's meant to do. It's improved. His back doesn't hurt anymore.

His calf isn't stiff anymore. But obviously we're interested in avoiding this in the long term. what can he do to prevent this kind of thing reoccurring? thing reoccurring? thing reoccurring? Yeah, good. Uh, thanks for calling in and thank you so much for what you said uh in the beginning. Uh, he's had no scan so we don't know if there is uh herniation herniation herniation or Okay, that would be very helpful cuz it sounds like there may be now this isn't a death sentence. No, but it would illuminate uh to what the issue is because it does sound nerve related.

related. related. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because of what you described uh with with the leg pain and the calf stiffness. And so sometimes you can have a herniated disc or a slip disc or there could be bony growths on the spine, the the bones of the spine that uh can press on a nerve and cause those issues. Now, [clears throat] I think what he's doing is preventing a lot worse. So, it could be a lot worse. Could it be better? Uh, possibly. But I think a scan would would give us a better idea.

Is there I would I would also want to know if have you guys peered in, is there any correlation with the when this is flared up with uh like have you gone back and been like, okay, what has that that week been like stress, sleep, and like maybe the lifting routine that week? Like did was there is there a certain time where a certain exercise that he has pushed that week? Was there a certain level of stress at work at the time? Was it a really poor week of of sleep that week?

Has there any been has there been any correlation to the when he gets these flare ups or something happens during during to that week leading up to that that I would want to peer into that if you guys have at all. We we've never looked at that specifically. No. I can tell you that when this happened three months ago, it was a particularly bad time for it to happen because he was um he was on promotion at work. He was basically standing in for his boss.

So at work it was extremely stressful and extremely busy, extremely busy, extremely busy, but we haven't looked specifically, you know, to to try and make a link between each episode and whether he was sleeping less or whether there was more stress. Well, you did say he sleeps about six hours uh at night through the night. There's a strong correlation between uh suboptimal sleep injuries and injury and pain. Very strong correlation. correlation. correlation. And that'll be exacerbated if it's during a time of high stress. Stress. Yeah.

High high stress and or if there was something compromising that he might have done in his lifts. Like let's say that was a week that he was kind of pushing his strength a little bit, doing a little more than usual. And so there could easily be a connection of, wow, you had a lot of stress going on. You already don't sleep really well and that also is the day that you decided to do that extra run or you decided to do a little more weight on this exercise.

There could be a connection there. And just what the advice would be I think he's doing a lot of the right things, right? To to Sal's point to to to mitigate what's happening. The next layer or level to this until we find more information out would be like being mindful of those weeks like, hey, this I got a lot going on. Stress works. If there was ever a time I really prioritized getting more sleep or maybe I back scale back a little bit on my training this week because I had so I being more aware of that in in those moments.

moments. moments. So just to kind of bring this together cuz sometimes when people say stress and sleep it sounds so general and so like oh that's the answer they give when they don't know what the problem is type of deal. But if you look at the data, uh, the things that you could do, so they've actually tested this, like what are the things you could do to dramatically increase risk of injury in a workout, and they've tested things like not warming up, lifting with loose form, having a poor night of sleep the night before.

Poor night of sleep the night before is the worst. Uh, and it really has to do with how it affects the central nervous system. So the central nervous system is what controls and organizes all the muscles. So, let's just say for just hypothetically, I don't know if this is the case. We don't have a scan, but let's say he does have a herniated disc. And so, it's kind of it's always there. Let's just say it's near one of the nerves uh that can cause some of this pain.

It's not doing anything there yet, but it's there. And what keeps it from causing pain is his muscles are well organized. He's got good core stability and everything's keeping everything in check. But then when you have cumulative stress, so here's what happens with poor sleep. You can have really bad sleep. You could have a night where, you know, people with infants knows what this like. You'll have one or two nights of like one hour of sleep and it's like I'm dead. But you can also have what's called cumulative stress where, you know, over months and months and years, I just kind of have suboptimal sleep.

Central nervous system gets affected and it's not able to organize muscles uh in the right way. What it starts to do is tighten things up. So, it starts to limit ranges of motion in areas that it believes it needs to protect. So, let's just say that your your husband's body has identified, which it probably has, an area of instability. Let's just say it's in the lumbar spine. [snorts] Through stress and lack of sleep, it'll tighten that area up and prevent mobility. Uh, which in the short term may be okay, but in the long term can actually cause more problems.

Um, and so this is kind of what happens. So, number one, I what the number one thing I would do is to try to prioritize sleep. Maintain the movement. Prioritize sleep. Here's the other thing that I would look at. Um I noticed his weight was 135 at 5'11 and he's also vegetarian. Okay. vegetarian. Okay. vegetarian. Okay. I would look at uh supplementing uh with um he's already taking creatine. It says uh I would try to supplement. He's already taking protein. I'm assuming he's getting at least 130 grams of protein a day.

Do you know? He doesn't track. So we have no idea really. really. really. Okay. Okay. So, I I would like to see him hit about 150 grams of protein a day. day. day. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. And then uh I would also the mult he's taking a multivitamin which is good. Uh I would also take an additional uh methylated B vitamin supplement. Uh I would take vitamin D in addition. And then I would I would definitely take some essential fatty acids. Uh like the high EPA fish oil would be a good idea.

If eggs could be on the menu, eggs would be phenomenal. Typically, vegetarians respond well to eggs. If not, uh, then then you can skip that. that. that. Eggs are totally on the menu. We have our own chickens. Oh, awesome. Oh, awesome. Oh, awesome. Oh, good, good, good. So, keep doing that. that. that. Really nice eggs. But the essential fatty acids help with inflammation. Uh, they help with central nervous system function. Protein is great for recovery. I I think the sleep would be the best thing cuz he saw physios, he saw people who understand movement.

Mhm. movement. Mhm. movement. Mhm. I'm assuming they correct. They looked at his movement. They looked at his movement patterns and they probably gave him some exercises like you said. Uh I I my guess is going to be it's the cumulative uh kind of stress over time which is coming from sleep. Well, and to and to close the loop on what I was saying and then what S has added, imagine a day like the like we were just talking about this period of time he's doing the B high stress at work.

He gets a less optimal night of sleep than what he normally typically does. So it's even maybe a little worse, just slightly, but a little worse. And that that next morning is the morning that he does his swim or his cycle or this thing. And even though that's a healthy exercise, that those are good movements. It's that his body is tightened up because of that stress, that lack of sleep, what what Sal is saying from the central nervous system. And he goes and does these movements and and that's just enough for that nerve to hit that and he's and [clears throat] then he freezes up or or what what happened in his case is he did an involuntary movement that was very fast like a sneeze.

Yeah. and and so those tight muscles can't react the way that they're supposed to. supposed to. supposed to. And if it hits a nerve, so it sounds like it's nerve related. Uh when you have nerve pain, it's sudden, it's hard, and it's it's debilitating. It's like boom, I can't move. Um and that's typically a nerve type related issue. So, if let's say he has a week like that or a or or a night or two of really not enough sleep or whatever, would you advise him to try and cut down on his exercise?

exercise? exercise? Yes. Yes. It would be more recuperative. This would be a great time for you know what honey maybe today's the day for this the sauna or just or a walk or you know a like just stretch a walk more recuperative type of stuff. Yeah. You're doing you're just reducing the intensity. the intensity. the intensity. That's right. So, a not a cycling day, not a swimming day, not a a strength training day, per se. This would be a better day to do something. And just to encourage you, Sophie, let's just say he did get a a scan and they did see, oh, here's some structural stuff that's going on.

Uh, how many times in the last 10 years has he had this dehabilitating kind of back pain? Uh, well, the kind of back pain that he had this time around, he's only had maybe twice ever. Yeah. Normally, it's it's extreme stiffness, and I've always thought it was muscular. Okay. Okay. Okay. And he's he's had that maybe every few years. years. years. That's not bad. If he has a No, no, no. Listen, it's actually it's a testament to him doing a lot of the right things. He's done a lot of right things.

With people, I would guess that if he got an image done that they would see something. something. something. I've had clients like this where they look at the image, they're like, "Whoa, I'm surprised you're not hurting all the time." time." time." Uh, and it's because of their fitness. Uh, but that doesn't mean he can't get better. And I really do I I really do think with his job and you know 6 hours of sleep 5 days a week uh you can get away with that for a little while but if it happens long term all the time well paired too with a a very physical demanding activ demanding activ demanding activ it it definitely wears uh it's cumulative uh is what happens.

So if he could get could get could get an extra hour of sleep every night I think it would reduce these episodes. Yeah, he's trying. He's trying, but it's it's hard. And what's your take on exercises like Romanian deadlifts? Is that something he should be not doing or with very little weight, or is that something that's protective if you can work up? work up? work up? It's it could be protective he can work up, but it's being mindful of what we just talked about, too. Because a time for him to work up would not be that weak, right?

weak, right? weak, right? So, like if if he's getting it's a good rest, rest, rest, fully recovered. fully recovered. fully recovered. Yeah. He's fully recovered. He feels great. Hey, good time to try and get stronger in that lift. is going to be protective for him but being mindful of not good night's sleep really stressful at work right now this might be the time where I'm working inward at this point he wants to maintain uh the skill of these exercises more than anything so when he goes in to do the exercise more often than not it's to be able to m to be able to do it not necessarily to push it or to build muscle uh those are going to be more rare occasions when everything's going great and I feel amazing uh but More often than not, you practice them so you don't lose the ability to do them, which does keep make them protective because like if you stop doing them, let's just say stop doing that because he's scared of it.

Over time, he'll lose the ability to do it, which increase his risk of injury. Okay, Okay, Okay, does that make sense? It does. It does. It does. Good. How difficult is it to get an image uh uh where you're at? Can you can you request that or does it have to be like like like uh it would have to be done privately. the the health service will basically refer you for a scan if you're dying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we asked and that's pretty much what they said.

Yeah. I mean, here's what a scan. So, we could have it done privately. Here's what a scan would do. A scan would give you here's what the issue is. Here's what we see and then you have the image and then you could take that to a physio who then might have better information. I mean, I'm pretty I'm pretty confident. I think you would be too that they're gonna probably see it's just a matter how much the bulge disc is gonna be. How like and because I I think he's done a phenomenal job.

phenomenal job. phenomenal job. I we've I've had clients with with incredibly bulging disc and never had any pain because they're healthy, they're fit, they take care of they do all the things. And then I have others that have nothing but yet have all this crazy chronic back pain. And so people can live with a bulged disc and and for the most part be pretty healthy and fit. He's doing a lot of the right things. I just I think the next level or advice I have for you guys is just being more mindful of the like the week to week what's going on.

He's he's not changing his job. That's going to happen. You know what I'm saying? He's those things are so he can't control whether he's going to have stress or not. He's probably not going to get a lot of sleep, but knowing that, hey, this was an extra stressful week. This was also an extra not good night of rest and this is also the day I would have went and done that cycling for x amount of miles. Not a good day to do that. you know, if you do get an image, if you do get scans done, make sure that they look at everything, not just discs, but if is there spinal stenosis, uh, can we look at the the the the narrowing of the canal, not just if there's a disc, because there's a lot of things that could cause uh pressure on the nerve.

Uh, so if you do go pay out of pocket, you know, make sure you say, okay, are we looking at everything, not just like the discs? Okay. All right. Uh, in that case, can I ask you a last question about just more general fitness and nutrition because I don't know if you can see how much he does. This is a person who never sits down at the I mean at work he sits down a lot. It's very sedentary. He spends the whole weekend gardening. Uh, even when he's watching telly once a week, he does the ironing at the same time.

He never sits down. So, he can see that I'm doing weights at the moment. I'm on your concierge coaching program. Oh, good. Which I'd be really happy to say something about if there's time at the end of the call. Um, so he hears me and sees me doing weights. Um, and he he's the kind of person who thinks he's never doing enough. doing enough. doing enough. How much should he be doing? You know, he's probably doing a set of pull-ups every day and some kind of random upper body weights once or twice a week.

It What should he be doing? More, less, none? What do you think? I think I'm looking at it and it looks okay, but I think the sleep is the big issue. issue. issue. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm going to keep pointing in that direction. Um I think the sleep is the big because he's doing a lot of activity. activity. activity. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's moving along. Um and so I I think if he sounds like I I to me it sounds like the challenge is going to be telling him what not to do.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. is that I so I think he's doing all great things and I so long as he's rested stress all that he just needs to be mindful at those times when this is peak stress at work this is the most the least optimal sleep we've been getting this is probably the time take it easy on the weights take it easy on the cycling you can still do it but just be mindful of it this is don't push that extra mile of cycling don't increase the weight on the overhead press today you know know know Sophie if he did if he went from 6 to 7 hours of sleep at night and change nothing else.

It would be lifechanging. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. It would be within a week. It would be life-changing. Strength gains. He'd have mental clarity, less pain. It would feel like he just uh took 10 years got 10 years younger. One more hour of sleep. If he could prioritize that, it would make all the difference in the world. Yeah. When is he doing his work? I'm assuming he must be doing these workouts before work. Is that what he does he get up really early or something? What does he do?

he do? he do? Yes, he gets up really early. He would be he okay he would be better off s getting some of sleeping in doing less less less less and less activity. Yep. Yep. Yep. So if if he's sacrificing sleep to go do this stuff that's not good. No. No. No. If if if that's impeding on an extra hour hour hour going to bed early. I mean I don't know what the what your guys' lifestyle looks like but like but like but Well, he tries.

I mean we go um he probably probably probably goes to bed but doesn't fall asleep sometime between 9 and 10. And then he gets up either at 4:00 or at 5. Yeah. And he does maybe half an hour of mobility and then he cycles to work or part way. part way. part way. Yeah. So So what you would do, Sophie's uh cuz he sounds like uh a guy whose mind is racing. He's got a lot of ideas. It's hard to kind of wind down. Uh so what I would do is when he gets home, it's going to sound funny.

Uh do do you work, Sophie? Are you are you uh Yes, I work. Yeah, I work mostly from home online. Okay. [clears throat] So what what you would do is when he comes home, it's candle light. Uh that makes a big difference. No electronics. Uh, we're reading paper books. I mean, this sounds silly, but for people serenative, serenative, serenative, I love that idea. And And what what shall I do with my two teenagers? Well, teenagers? Well, teenagers? Well, oh, yeah. Yeah, I I forgot to ask you that.

Well, that throws a whole wrench wrench wrench who both have exams at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, you get the idea is like you create this kind of environment that brings the CNS down. Yeah. which allows them to fall asleep. Because what happens is we we we hit the pillow pillow pillow and then we accept our like we expect our bodies to be like ready for sleep when it takes about an hour or two for our bodies to prepare for sleep. And that has to do with things like light, the light that you're exposed to, activity.

So what you can do then instead of candle light, this is what my wife does and it works really well is we got salt lamps and we put them in the house and we turn our lights down and we go we go by salt lamps and it's a nice glow. It's a really nice environment. Um, and it does help everybody sleep better. So, something like that, less electronics, electronics, electronics, um, and just kind of wind down and, you know, show him this and, hey, look, he sounds like a a very focused focused individual, you know, do a 30-day challenge.

30-day challenge of seven hours of sleep at night and see what happens. He it would be it'll it'll blow his mind at the improvement he feels from that. from that. from that. All right, I'll try that. Thanks so much for the advice. You got it, Sophie. And then I'm glad you're enjoying the Yeah. Yeah. How's the concier going? Oh, yeah. Okay. So, I wanted to say um I've been doing the concage coaching since January and that was to get help with reverse dieting because I lost some weight last year.

I wanted to reverse diet. I thought that that was terrifying and uh it's just a shout out for your coaches. I've spoken to Tyler, to Marissa, to Cole, uh Cole especially. I think it's not a given that this fit 21-year-old guy on the west coast of America is going to relate in some way to a 55year-old uh woman in the UK with two teenagers. So I think your your coaches have great knowledge and coaching skills, but also they're good at listening and adapting and they have really good communication skills.

Um, and what's really nice, I think, kind of just coming back to my ethos point at the beginning is that I feel like everyone's singing from the same hymn sheet. sheet. sheet. So, I find that really reassuring that if I listen to your podcast, I hear one thing, your coaches are saying the same thing and I've seen really great results. So, I want to say thank you for that. I think it's incred incredible feedback. Thank you, Sophie. Thank you so much. Whenever if you ever hear somebody compliment you on your kids, that's how we feel right now.

I appreciate that. They're great. They are great. Thank you so much. so much. so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Byebye. Byebye. Byebye. All right. All right. All right. That's the best thing to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, especially on a concier because concier you get you could get different coaches each time. And so And so And so it's a lower cost version for people. But you and you're so working with different coaches each time. But but so the fact that they they they all are that that tells me they're doing a great job of communicating with each other with keeping notes on all the clients and stuff like that.

And then of course what she's saying. So that's awesome. awesome. awesome. Y All right. I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. Shredded, ripped, defined, singledigit body fat. body fat. body fat. Yes. Yes. Yes. You want to get there? Let's talk about it. it. it. Difficult. And is it worth it? That's a follow-up question. Yeah. First off, we got to say, 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, women, women, add 10%. add 10%. add 10%. Yeah. Don't. Yeah. Exactly.