What is Good Gym Culture? | Mind Pump 2798

Key Takeaway

Gym culture trumps equipment, location, and amenities when choosing where to train. The most important factor for consistency and results is finding a place where everyone—from beginners to veterans, young to old—feels encouraged, respected, and part of a community. In good gym culture, people care for the space like it's their own, hard work is valued alongside camaraderie, and differences don't matter. Look for gyms where members police themselves, protect each other, and where showing up and working hard is what counts.

Episode Overview

This episode explores why gym culture is the single most important factor when choosing a fitness facility. The hosts discuss their experiences managing gyms and training clients, explaining how the right culture creates consistency, mutual respect, and long-term results. They share stories about CrossFit's success despite minimal equipment, the importance of managers knowing members, and how good gym culture transcends demographics and politics. The conversation also covers Adam's recent DEXA scan results and what body composition metrics really mean for health.

Full Transcript

Transcript of What is Good Gym Culture? | Mind Pump 2798 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

There's a lot of factors to consider when you're looking for a gym, a lot. But there's one that trumps all of them. The most important thing you should consider. The one thing that is most likely to help you be consistent and get great results, it's the culture of the gym. What is gym culture? What is good gym culture? We're going to talk about it right now. Let's go. You think that's number one? Number one. Come on. You know this. You manage gyms. manage gyms. manage gyms.

When you manage gyms, let me ask you this, Adam. How many times did you walk into a janky broken down club and double the revenue because of the culture that you Well, that's I mean, no equipment changes, no location changes. changes. changes. So, I don't I don't disagree from a business perspective, but I think uh convenience has got to be the convenient factor makes a huge difference. difference. difference. Well, yeah, I think that's I go to a pretty subpar gym I go to a pretty subpar gym right now just because it's Yeah, because it's so people initially there's no culture.

There's two people in there. That's it. Of course, if it's too far, people aren't going to go. But when you look at all the ones, you know, you get out the low like the the low bar stuff, right? It's got to be like within this much, you know, distance from me. Uh it's got to be open when I'm available. But when you look at all the places around you around you around you that offers those things, what's the most important? most important? most important? What's going to keep you there?

I think that's the biggest thing. Listen, it's not equipment. It's not equipment. Uh it's not like how big the gym is. By the way, CrossFit prove this. They prove this. CrossFit. I I love the Well, Well, Well, they're all culture. I love what they did because we've been in the fitness industry long enough to see fads come and go. CrossFit was amazing. Not because CrossFit is good workouts, cuz they're not. Boom. It's because uh they opened up gyms in like looked like garages with like barbells and racks, like nothing else.

No air conditioning in many of them, concrete floors, and they crushed. They crushed. And it was the culture uh that many of them developed. Uh and I know this from managing clubs myself. It was always always always about the culture. Now, if you're like hyperconistent, you're super into working out, still makes a difference. But I mean, you can put me in any gym and I'll I'll I'll do a workout. But for the average person, uh it's the culture that makes the big difference. difference. difference. Yeah.

There's an there's an energy about a good culture like that that makes you want to come back to it. Totally. And gym culture is something that I've heard. One of my uh one of my favorite comments I ever got on gym culture was actually for from uh Father Steve. He's a he's a Catholic priest who loves to work out, right? He was in the series that I filmed. It's bodybuilder priest, but he likes to work out. And I remember he said this to me. He said this to me early on.

He said the church could learn a lot about good gym culture. And so we went down this whole rabbit hole of what good gym culture was. And uh yeah, it's one of the most amazing things you can experience. It can be right. I think I think it can be very welcoming in the right the right places. Yes. So, here's the first thing. Like, good gym culture encourages everybody. Everybody encourages everybody. This is what it feels like when you go into a good gym. And it doesn't matter if you're a beginner, doesn't matter if you're overweight.

It doesn't matter if you're super experienced, if you're young, if you're old. You know this when you walk into the right culture. You feel so encouraged and supported. And it's just this great vibe. You just want to be there. Uh, and you don't feel looked down upon or judged. rather you feel like everybody's lifting you up. It's one of my favorite parts. Yeah. Where else? I mean like a library. I'm trying to think of somewhere where like there's just a melting pot of every like religious background, cultural background, like political view, like everything just like smashes in one place.

But it but it works because they're all, you know, focused on like self-growth. self-growth. self-growth. All your your all your small studio spots hacked into this. That's why it was one of the growing fastest growing spaces, right? So your Soul Cycles, your, you know, Barry's Boot Camps, your Orange Theories, your F45s, they hacked into that. into that. into that. They tried to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes%. Yes%. Yes%. Yeah, they did. And I've experienced uh, you know, I experienced this as a kid, you know, new to the gym, loved it.

Uh, and I remember walking into some pretty hardcore uh, gyms that were a bit far from my house. But at this point, I was like, I 16, got my license. So I'm like, I'm going to go try out different gyms. I'd save up a little money, go pay a day fee. And there were some gyms that you'd walk in intimidating as a kid where it's like chalk and hard metal being played. And I'm looking in the door and there's like really scary dudes. Yeah. Lifting weight.

And I went in there intimidated but also excited cuz I loved it. Start working out and I'm like, man, people are talking to me. They're telling me to keep going. They're asking me questions. Uh and then I'm asking questions. I'm getting like great advice from people and I'm looking at them. And I'm like, man, you are so hardcore. You actually took time out of your day to like sit down and talk with me about a squat. It was like some of my most um some of my favorite experiences in the gym were in those kinds of gyms.

You know what I would love to build? I would love to build uh an all-in-one. What do you mean? Like imagine like the the ultimate like day spa gym you've been to that you like, right? That's got that kind of like over at Club One vibe where the country club kind of. Yeah. country club vibe, but then downstairs in the basement is like this grunge, heavy metal, like chocked up, you know what I'm saying? And kind of reminds me, remember there was a there was a famous club when we were younger, we all used to go out to clubs in San Francisco.

There was a club that had three stories and it was like hip-hop, rock, like Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So each level was like a different DJ. So it was so cool that you could go there and you could whatever you're into and you could be there. It'd be cool to have a gym that encompassed like all even have like even have its own little CrossFit area kind of like that Reno one that we went to had an athletic area had a CrossFit area had the hill inside of it.

You know what I'm saying? And then had like had like a grunge kind of dungeon. Love it. Yeah. I love I love also hearing about like old school gyms. Uh one of I remember watching Pumping Iron. Great movie Great movie Great movie documentary on bodybuilding in the 70s. And as a kid I watched it so many times that I would notice people in the background. background. background. Ask how many times. Hey listen, no joke. No joke. It was like two or three days a week. Like every week.

every week. every week. I believe it. Every week. Every week. Every week. You watched it multiple times in a week before. I don't know if you switch it out with Predator. Was that like No, Predator was definitely uh a lot. But I could quote Pumping Iron's songs. I could quote the sounds in the background. Like I know it way too well. But anyway, I remember watching it and I remember paying attention to the gym. So I'm like, "What was the gym like back there?" Like what's the equipment?

And I just noticed like there was no music playing. music playing. music playing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I noticed everybody was kind of like talking to each other and encouraging each other. And I was like, "Oh my god, this is" And by the way, Gold Gym back then was tiny. You guys know that, right? The Gold Gym they film in there was like It was like as big as our personal training studio. It was not a big gym at all. There wasn't many equipment in there at all.

all. all. No. Another another factor to good gym culture is uh hard work is valued, but so is camaraderie. So, what you'll get is this wonderful mix of hard work and socializing. socializing. socializing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like this great mix. It's hard. It's hard though to compare to that because in the 80s and early 90s, it was so niche that you could have a facility that was 3,000 square feet and the 15 people that worked out there worked out every day. You know what I'm saying?

Like it it created its own kind of vibe and culture and you had to really be into it to go to it. A little bit of a self- selection bias. Totally. Totally. Where now it, you know, fitness as we always wanted it to. I remember I remember when we were I mean when we first got into the space you know 25 plus years ago uh I think it like 4% of the population was working out you know in gyms or something like that or less or has a membership maybe.

Yeah it was something like that. I remember seeing the stats and like I mean it's that's way different. I think it's tripled. Oh it's or more more than that. Doug look up how many how many how many people have a membership? Yeah. What percentage of the population have a gym membership or have had a gym membership cuz you got to factor in all the people that it's it's a lot more for sure. Yeah. A lot more for sure. But you know that vibe you guys have been in gyms like that where it's like you're working hard but you're also having a good time and socializing in between sets.

It's like this it's like a social this it's like a social hard work place. It's not one or the other. It's both which uh draws people in and makes them want to keep coming. What do you find, Doug? Doug? Doug? 25%. 25%. 25%. Oh yeah. Way higher. Huge Huge Huge huge difference. huge difference. huge difference. It was 4%. I remember I remember that in the meetings. the meetings. the meetings. Yeah, it's tiny. That was like the big kickoff meetings we talk about. We're only getting 4%.

There's so much potential growth now. That's a huge difference. It's crazy. Another thing too is you'll find this by the way. This is as people who own and manage and run gyms. Uh this is something that you have to help develop as part of the culture. Uh but if you have good gym culture, this tends to exist. People tend to respect the place. They just tend to do it. Uh I know in my tiny I had a tiny studio, so it's it's so much easier to create create create good culture in a small place because you're not looking at so many different people.

people. people. Yeah. But man, if if if a piece of equipment went down, I used to have I used to have members, clients of other trainers that work in my studio that they would come back with tools and they'd start fixing things and I wouldn't ask them or anything or they'd come in and they'd fix something or wipe something down. I'm like, "What are you doing?" "Oh, I noticed there was a smudge here." Or, "I noticed this was making a little noise, so I put some grease on it." And I just remember I felt so good that my members uh wanted to help take care of the place even though I didn't ask.

When you talk about this, it reminds me of a story. So, I'm this this point I'm 20 years old. I'm hanging out with these guys that uh were probably in their mid to late 30s lifting heavy. They would ran the night shift. I've told you guys about this guy before. And I I I stayed late every night at the gym back in the days, right? When I I love being there, so I'd be there till 10:00, 11, sometimes midnight. And so that shift would come on.

And he got there at like 9:00 at night after most of most the managers, most people, and like so he policed the gym. And one of the things he would do, and it used to be hilarious to watch this, but he'd caution t if people did not rack their waist. I love this. He would c big old dude, right? Big old steroided out guy, right? Bandana he'd wore behind the desk and everything, right? He come the guy to do it. Yes, dude. He's definitely the guy who do it.

And he would kick everybody out of the weight room, caution tape it off, and make them watch him reckrack the weights. You got to wait. You had to wait. It's like, this is what happens if you guys don't hold each other accountable for re-rackcking the weights. I swear I see him do it once in a blue. He would do that once in a while and then everybody would be on top of each other. It was the coolest thing to ever watch. Like you could never get away with that today.

But it totally got everybody to buy in to like, hey, you see somebody who doesn't react to their weights, you let them know like, hey, put those away or you help them. I think that's needed more now than ever, dude. To be honest, everyone like you doesn't want to offend anybody. I'm like, dude, you got to do you got to put your uh you know, you got to do your part in this to make it work. That story that story stands out so much to me because I came back to that gym like 10 15 years later long after he had been gone.

I had been gone from there with this parkour. No, this was Capital McKe. Capital. Yeah, this is Capital McKe. So I come back there and I'll never forget it was the last time I actually came back there. I'll never work out again. He came back was around prime time. So it was a busy time already. This and I had never been to a gym before where the entire dumbbell rack was cleared. cleared. cleared. Dumbbells just all over the floor everywhere. There was not a single pair of dumbbells on the rack.

My mind what a disaster. Isn't that crazy how you That's and that's a a point of culture. How one person It's the same gym. Same gym. Yeah. Same. It's bit busy. It's always been busy like at prime time hours, but it was managed like that and there was a different vibe and culture around. around. around. Yeah. When you have a good culture, uh the the the other members tend to police the respect uh for the place. So you'll see people, hey, hey, could put your dumbbells back or hey, let me help you reack.

You'll actually get called out and that's a good thing. By the way, it means everybody cares about the place. We also have a new program, brand new launch. Ready? Maps great. Eight only eight lifts. That's it. The perfect combination of eight lifts. It's one lift a day. 8day split. Super simple, super effective. 50% off right now. Go to mapsgreat.com. to mapsgreat.com. to mapsgreat.com. That's mapsgreat.com. That's mapsgreat.com. That's mapsgreat.com. Use the code launch. You'll get a free nutrition guide with that. And if you sign up before the 22nd, you'll get 5 days of free coaching with Cole, one of the Mind Pump trainers.

All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mypumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mypumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Here's another good sign and this I this I understood as a manager but now I understand it as a member. I remember this uh as a trainer. So as an early trainer, one of my mentors said uh be the mayor of the gym.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh and it's like what do you mean? He goes well like think of like a really good mayor in a TV show. Knows everybody. Says hi to everybody. Just walk around the gym, talk to people, know everybody. Um, and what the way he communicated this to me is he's like, "You'll never have to like work for clients. People will come to you." So, I did this as a trainer, as a manager, and uh, I loved it. I love knowing my members. I love talking to people, getting to know them.

U,, and it did create a good culture. Now, I'm on the other end of it. Now, I'm a member, and I work out at different gyms. There's one gym that I work out at, UFC over by Oakidge. My buddy Don runs the place. And Don was one of the best at this. this. this. And I see him. He comes out all the time. He'll say hi to me, of course. I've known the guy forever, but he'll talk to all the me and he knows all the members.

It's not like he's introducing himself old school and he's just talking to everybody and uh you know when you go to a gym where the manager or whoever's running the shift or whatever like knows everybody that's good culture makes a big big difference. difference. difference. I feel like that's another one of my stories that you've taken to become your story. story. story. Is that your story? You know that every once in a while we'll have we do a podcast. I don't think you said be the mayor of the gym.

the gym. the gym. I'm pretty sure I said that. I did. Big time. I'm pretty sure. Do you guys remember when I sold that barbecue to that uh Sometimes he tells the story so good. I'm like, "Yeah, yeah." I'm nodding my head like, "Wait a second. That's my story. That's my story." When I first became a pro, you can do this so long. Our stories. It's like when I play football in college. college. college. Uh here's the other thing. Uh nobody cares who you voted for.

Nobody cares in good gym culture. People don't care uh about anything other than you're showing up, you're working hard. This is like It's like This is what Father Steve told me. He goes, "It's so crazy. In a good in a good gym, people look different. You got a guy with blue hair over here, old guy with New Balance shoes on, and they're hanging out and talking cuz they're working out." It's like, where do you find that? Especially today. Where do you find people just coming together and just being cool?

being cool? being cool? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very hard thing to community. Not a lot of goths. I was We were just We What did you say? Not a lot of goths. We should bring them in. Not a lot of them work out. Actually, cigarettes. You're right. It's kind of rare, but I did see a goth couple working out like a few months ago. I just remember. Yeah, dude. And I said hi to them and they were like totally into it. But they were real goth, dude.

Yeah. I mean, if you're like hardcore, you're not real. Did you ask what they were listening to? No, I didn't. You should have. I don't care. It's totally different than what you thought. you thought. you thought. Super funny. Selen, the car community could be like that. I think they're like that. We actually, my buddies and I were just talking about that. That's like as long as they're rich. Yeah. That's not true. I just went on a trip with my like very not wealthy car guys. They they have cars but they're like old cars that they have and so and they worked on them themselves and got there and so I think just in general I think there's not a lot of stuff.

stuff. stuff. Yeah. There's not a lot of stuff like that. But that I think that's that's another example. another example. another example. It's a passion. Yeah. I hear what you're saying. saying. saying. Yeah. And and maybe that's what it is. It's like because every they they sh we all share that passion. Other stuff other stuff doesn't matter. It's like, yeah, we're passionate about this thing and we can all talk. There's enough to talk about with that thing that other stuff doesn't matter. You know what's funny about what you're saying is that uh I bet you this is true.

I know this because you teased my brother about this. In the car space, they although they respect each other and they're all cool. You got the Porsche guys. Porsche guys. Porsche guys. Oh, there's definitely there's definitely [ __ ] talking. Yes. Yeah. But it's all respectful. That's actually what's kind of cool about it is uh like I mean like I said I just came back from a trip like this where I know for sure there's a all kinds of different political views like that never comes up but absolutely we talk [ __ ] to the Corvette guy and the Corvette guys talking [ __ ] about the German car like you know what I'm saying like so there's this fun this fun playful camaraderie amongst everybody and respect and it's not it's not her it's not real harmful it's more teasing I've seen that in good gym culture I've seen the powerlifters and the bodybuilders bodybuilders bodybuilders uh making fun of each other, right?

But it's in it's like tongue and cheek. cheek. cheek. It's tongue and cheek. They got their little side, you know, and they just make fo you're not strong or over there posing or you know, oh you guys are fat and it's like it's hilarious. I've been in that environment before. It's a great Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Now these last two I think are the most important and I also think that they're most important for people who aren't uh super familiar with gym culture or intimidated and they're but they're key.

They're key. I've never been to a good gym with good gym culture where the women are not uh protected by the men. They are I've seen this. I've seen young women walk into a weight room uh and other guys it's almost like it's their sister or their daughter and there's no one's like hitting on them if they're trying to help them. They respect them. God forbid a dude is is rude. Uh that guy's going to be out of the gym. And it's it's a very And by the way, women who are very bouncers, bouncers, bouncers, it's great.

And women who work out in these gyms consistently will tell you this. They'll tell you this. Oh, it's the best place. It's the safest place ever. ever. ever. Didn't you do a reaction video to the young lady that was overweight that like had somebody come up to stop her and she totally thought he was going to say something something something and he just encouraged her, degrading to her, and then like broke her down because it was he was encouraging. encouraging. encouraging. He was like the scary jack guy.

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. No, it's always that guy. And then here's the other thing. Uh the old people are really respected by the young people. This is my favorite. It's my favorite cuz I'm getting old. But the old people that work out that are fit, they're like, it's the most impressive thing, dude. They're like kings and queens in there. Everybody knows them. They're they love them. They're awesome. They're like the greatest. It's like one of my favorite things favorite things favorite things to see. So, it's just again, if if this is what you should look for, people don't know that.

They look for equipment. They look for flash. They look for classes or whatever. Look for the culture. That's what's going to keep you coming. That's what's going to keep you consistent. I there's how many how many different gyms are you bouncing around to right now? right now? right now? Yeah. Yeah. Like or in just like the last year. So like uh I'll go to uh club sport. I'll go to UFC gym. Uh my garage and I'll work out here. So that's four. But the other two are the actual Yeah.

Yeah. So two other What about you? Are you Are you Are you I have one? Yeah. Santa Cruz Athletic Club. Club. Club. And then if you're not there, you're at the the the train at my house. Yeah. Or uh actually I take that back. I'll train at the high school sometimes. Uh Oh, that's got to be interesting. Really? Really? Really? Yeah. because I'm friends with the coaches and um I like to keep just you know show up all the kids. Yeah. I just like to kind of bury, you know, the high school kids.

school kids. school kids. Exactly. That's exactly why you No, dude. I'm like I just like the energy, dude. Like they're You done with that squat? Oh, let's add a couple 45s real quick. Yeah. Yeah. I got I got to warm up overhead press. overhead press. overhead press. It's really hard to impress anybody now that social media is out, you know? Like nothing. nothing. nothing. You got to go to the high school level. That's I got to resort to that now. That's got to be so fun for you because of your background in sports and all that stuff.

It's got to be motivating. I miss it, dude. I like honestly uh I don't know. I I love what we do and I love, you know, where I'm at in life and everything, but at the same time, like I miss that like competitive spirit and just like, just like, just like, you know, something that's driving you every day to like go express that out on the field and see if it works, you know? And these kids are like so wideeyed about like the experience and I feed off that.

So So the Uncle Rico side is all those tropes, dude. I mean, hey mad. Listen, our trainers, these jerks, they come up I don't know if it's them or the social media team comes up with these physical dude. Can we talk? Why you got to bring that up, dude? It's another thing I suck at. Did you? Okay, so and they was coming up with physical tests that we don't So I didn't know I didn't know about it at all. Annoyed me. I I like Danny just stops me.

Yeah. Uh this was like two days two or three days ago. She's like, "Hey, uh can you do the the V-bar push-up?" And I'm like, "Huh?" I'm like, "I don't even know what you're talking about." She's like, like, like, "Yeah, yeah. Let me show you." A real exercise. So, she doesn't tell me one that I'm getting video, two that like every she's been having everybody do this. So, I'm like, "I don't know." I said, "I haven't done something like that in a while. Let me see." And then I go to I go to get down on it.

I'm like, "Oh, no. You can't do this. Like, you can't do it." It's like, "Yeah, this thing." Yeah. No, no one can do that. Exactly. I was like, "No one can do this." Just it out. out. out. Yeah. So, I I I mess then I get then I get to the point where I can at least balance it and plank on it. I'm like, "Okay, now I'm I messed with it for like I don't know 20 minutes." And then they she tells me that she's had the whole staff do it.

She I This is what I hear for I had Justin do it first. He goes, "You he left and he took it home so practice." practice." practice." I go, "Oh, I didn't know everybody was doing this." So angry. I'm like, "Wait a second. Can anybody do this?" And someone's like, "Oh, yeah. Cole can." Danny can do it, too. Yeah, Danny did That's why she wanted everybody to try it. I'm on to Danny, dude. dude. dude. Hey. Hey, Justin. I'm really good at this. I'm all suck at this.

this. this. Hold on, dude. Let's go back for a second. You took it home to practice. I I Yeah. I don't If I suck at something, it's going to stick there in my head. And I tell anybody, too, just quiet. Just put it in his bag. He's still practicing. Head home. Head home. Head home. I still do it. And I have my kids trying it now. on like I would think your boys could do it. Could they do it? No. No other gymnast. Oh wow. Well, actually Ethan hasn't tried, but he might be able to do it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would think they would be able to do it. It's a It's a weird baly thing. You got to, you know, I used to do all that kind of goofy stuff like that and would I thought I'd actually be actually be actually be that. I think that's why it struck a nerve with me cuz I used to be into like the random like unconventional things like that and like I could do things like especially with the gymnastic rings like I could make up something nobody could do in here easily like out there which I will I'll do that and I'll give them the video and I'll do last he's like I'm going to film it and then I'm going to take it home and I'm just going to be like a laugh track.

Haha. You guys the second time he couldn't do something this year. Remember when we were hanging on the bar? bar? bar? Yeah. Hanging forever. Like I'm heavy, dude. dude. dude. I don't have like this like serious grip strength, dude. That's what pisses me off. off. off. And Cole's all wiry, dude. He's like so built for us. So yeah, but everybody Hey, at least I felt good that like all the rest of my trainers failed. I was like, "Okay, the rest of these guys failed." Like it's not Cole was able to do it.

do it. do it. Kyle Kyle went all confident. But listen, he's going to get me. But straight up, they need to understand something. I hope they watch this. You guys need to understand something. It's cool that you guys do cool stuff. You can only beat us so long until we fire you. you. you. You start messing things up, you guys. Here's the thing. I'm impressed by like I was angry cuz I couldn't do it. I'm actually impressed by both of them. They could do that. I was No, I was I was I was really impressed to see how many people couldn't do it and then they can do it.

It's uh it's not easy. not easy. not easy. Speaking of being impressed, let's talk about your dexile. That's What does that to do with impressed, dude? impressed, dude? impressed, dude? Cuz it's way higher than I thought, dude. dude. dude. Such Such Such It's [ __ ] It's [ __ ] It's [ __ ] My wife says it's [ __ ] Tell us what happened. So, apparently I'm the highest bi body fat percentage I've been since the the my worst. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, the worst I ever ever tested at was 19 point something.

That was when I did the way back when. And I was like way out of shape. That was like the worst shape I'd ever been in. in. in. And uh And uh And uh Where are you hiding all that? I don't know, bro. Yeah. And normally you see that I don't even feel like that's right now. Right now. Right. I think he looks his face looks fatter. We're talking about your body right now. See me deflect and see see how fat S looks right now. First of all, I didn't guess you're 18.

I would have thought 15. No shape, too. You're and I normally am I'm real like people always trip out when I go do that and they're like, damn, you're like 02 off. How did you guess that? Like I've done this a thousand times and I've seen my weight. Uh so if I had to guess, I would have said 14 to 16 on the high end. I would have said I actually I had told myself like 16. I was telling everybody else I'm actually gonna be a little disappointed if I'm 16.

should be like lower lower than that. And so it comes back back back way fatter. way fatter. way fatter. Way 18.1. Way 18.1. Way 18.1. Wow. Wow. Wow. And I'm like, wow. Wow. wow. Wow. wow. Wow. Now I I Is it on your hips? Like where they're nice and round. I don't know. Maybe that's why my wife likes him. She's like, "No, you look good right now. You look great right now." now." now." She just comes behind. Yeah. Uh, so I, you know, I'm at um my lean body mass is so I I I have all the the DEXA scans from when I did that transformation thing, right?

So what I actually was really interested to see like cuz I couldn't remember where where I was at when I did the um GLP1. So after the GLP1, remember when I just kind of like that, by the way, that's crazy how low your lean body mass got. I Right. So that GLP1 trip off this, dude. So the GLP1 I I just remember I just took it did what? wet. You just just let it go. Just let it you ate when you were hungry. That's right. Didn't lift weights.

Yeah. Hardly. I tried to lift a little bit. Remember I told you it' be like that or help my wife. The experiment was literally like what do people experience? Yeah. So I went all the way down to 199 lbs. I hadn't been under 200 lb since uh competing my in my in like uh amateur. So once I got over amateur, I never went below 200. below 200. below 200. So amateur level that was the lowest I'd ever been under 200. And so I got down to 199.

But my lean body mass went all the way down to 154. So 154 pounds of lean body mass. So then I did that whole thing which everybody thought it was fake because I I I put on all I went all the way back up to 180, right? right? right? So went back to 180 and Oh, and my body fat percentage was 15.6. 15.6. 15.6. So it's 199 and like 15.6 or something like that. Okay. Um, and then I my body fat percentage came all the way down to 12% and I added I went to 211 or 212.

And so now I had put back on 20 something like 20 20 lbs of muscle or whatever like that. And then I got lean. I lost one pound I think of muscle. So I came down to 180 or excuse me 179 lean lean body mass and 10% body fat. And so that was the last time I had I had tested. You know what's cool about what you just You know what's cool about this? this? this? Your body fat percentage was 15% at the end of your Ozmpic trial.

Yes. Yes. Yes. But your So your body fat was lower than it is now. Yes. Yes. Yes. But are you healthier now? Way healthier now. Way healthier. Well, I have way more muscle. That's right. That's right. That's right. 30 lbs more muscle on my body at 18% body fat. And that was really And you look better. This the other thing. You might have been leaner, but because you have so much more lean body mass now, you look better for sure. So that's what's what was most interesting was to see the difference of that and I told remember I told you guys that you you and I' I'm watching this happen with a lot of people that are friends of mine that I don't think need a GLP1 like it just they they're just they need to lose 20 pounds give or take or whatever like that and everyone's jumping on the GLP1 train and then what they're doing is they're jumping on it and they're not motivated to train and they lose the weight and when you're in it.

It's funny that how you don't see it and I can so see it on him like I can I'm looking I'm like man that's how I had to look too because I didn't feel that way either cuz you're watching your abs come in. You're watching your abs come in and you're and you're watching you're watching body fat come off but you're also losing muscle and you don't look healthy. And so when I look at those pictures and I go, "Oh my god, I can't believe we went and did a stupid company photo shoot full on oz face." And that's what our [ __ ] team uses to send out to everything.

Like whenever I do interviews, I'm like, why do we have those? And I I remember never done a good photo shoot. No, they suck at that. That would have been okay for me if it just wasn't that. Like I was okay with that. You guys maybe me never. Well, you you have fart face. You don't know how to take a photo. Like you're about to fart. I don't know what to do when you're taking a photo. Draw your little model. You just need to look away and pretend like no one's taking a photo.

Just pretend like you're taking a photo. As soon as someone goes like, "Okay, we're doing photo." doing photo." doing photo." See, you're just That's not what you do when you when no you know no one's looking at See, you're just faking it. Yeah. No, you know what you do, bro? This is what you do. Soon as they turn the camera, you bring your chin in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You get fart face. Looks like you're holding a fart. I don't know why I look creepy. My I don't know what it is, but like the photo we have in the front, I wouldn't trust that guy at all.

You look really eager. It just Yes. Hello, bro. That's another level right there. I like it. It looks creepy. What'll be interesting about this uh is going from this point, right? So that I was like lost a ton of weight, low I was super low calorie, didn't have a lot of muscle, and then went and built back. back. back. So now I'm I'm starting with more muscle than I than I had. You know what this this highlights to is a couple things. One, body fat percentage is not the be all end all.

Uh you're obviously healthier now, obviously, even though your body fat percentage is, you know, according to the DEX at 3% higher. Two, you look better. And I've I've I've I've told this to clients many times. You can have a higher body fat percentage, but when it sits on muscle, you look good. You look good. Welcome to the Husky. Like like with with women, it gives them curves. With men, it makes them look strong. strong. strong. It's not as big of it. Now, of course, you go too high with body fat, it doesn't matter.

doesn't matter. doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But muscle changes a lot. It changes a lot when it comes to I am curious. Uh and you're right. and and to the you know that I don't disagree but this is the first time I've ever done the DEXA scan in the evening and after a full day of eating and drinking drinking drinking see how much of a difference it makes. Yeah. And then I also had the two injuries and I'm like super inflamed. My whole left arm is like swollen and has been because of the injuries.

And so I'm wondering if inflammation and all the food can how much of it now I Katrina told me before she went she goes you know you just hurt yourself. You're all inflamed right now. You're not going to like what you see. And I'm just like oh it doesn't matter. What a good wife. She was trying to set you up. you up. you up. Yeah she did. And I'm like, listen, it's not no 5% off because of inflammation. I said, so it's still higher than what I would have liked no matter what.

But it does make me wonder cuz I remember how much I could manipulate the um the other ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Body spec. Yeah. The body spec, which are supposed to be really accurate, too. And I could fluctuate those by carving up and loading water and I can make the When are you going to do another one? Maybe I'll go with you. So I'll I'll go with like 30 days. I'll I'll go with you. Yeah. Yeah, I'll go in like 30 days. So I can cuz You know what I'm curious about?

I keep saying bone mass cuz I've never tested my bone mass in your Dexa came back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bone mass. You were in the 98th or 99th percentile. percentile. percentile. Yeah. You know, you all my markers according to that are like like visceral fat, my my bone density, my lean mass, all those things were all like super positive. Um, positive. Um, positive. Um, but my my bone even even this is what's also interesting back to the GLP1 talk there. There does seem to be this and I I've watched this.

I have a friend, I won't sell out, the husband and wife that I know that that both used it. The husband had just came off of like bulking up and building some good muscle and then he hops on and so did his wife. She wasn't lifting. He looks all right cuz he just he lost some muscle too. And so when you look at like my bone density after the the GLP1, it was still good. Now I it was still good. Now I think that's because of years of of lifting and building muscle and not undereating.

Yeah. and the fact that I could afford to lose 20 pounds of muscle and still be okay. okay. okay. Yeah. You find bone density issues even in people who strength train who consistently starve themselves. You see that all I saw it all the time. Typically with women because they're the ones that tend to do that. Oh, I see with competitors. You have competitors, women bikini competitors that are up there winning trophies, but then their bone density is extremely low because they start so low calorie and and you think because they're strength training and they have kind of a shape physique, they shouldn't be that way.

But it just shows you what happened. Well, good news is your skin looks amazing, bro. It looks real young. At least you're youthful looking. That's Calera, dog. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't stopped that. Are you Are you Do you You're like super consistent. I see you using it in here every day. All the time. I use it here and home. So, I don't I use I use it all the time. So, is it the serum? The the That's the one you use the most.

I mean, I use that one and then I for what's the what's the cream called? I always forget what the name of the base layer. base layer. base layer. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. The ba base layer and the serum I use the most. And then the soap I use that's I only use their I use that's I only use their soap and I've I've switched to their soap. I don't know how long it's been now, but I use their soap and then I use the the serum and the base layer like all the time.

I've messed with all the other stuff. I like it, but I feel like the serum is I don't know if it h maybe you could look, but I I think it has a lot of the same stuff the eye stuff has. I think that they single-handedly have created a market for men skincare cuz I didn't see skincare stuff and now Caldera Lab's blown up. Yeah. I think guys are using it like crazy. I've never seen I mean I've I've personally never done anything where I've been able to to do it and then see a difference right that that to me that's the the selling point that's so easy.

It's like all the other stuff seems like come on doesn't Are you Are you using the soap or do you still use the like the shop soap? The lava. You know what I'm talking about. Irish. Yeah. Uses the same soap for dishes. The same It's all the Yeah. Clean the counters. It's all the same. the same. the same. The serum kind of helps like uh repair the damage that I do with everything else. I don't really wash my face. Bad news. It's got one soap for everything.

It does the laundry car and it washes my face. I mean, I do use shampoo, but yeah, I don't really do the whole washing face thing. thing. thing. That's so awesome. You have I mean, he has his caldera. Do you use it? Do you use Okay, you use Oh, that's the great That's the other one I've used. Yeah, I like that one. Did you guys know what the new trend is in um what's it called? Uh like not plastic surgery, but what's that whole space called?

space called? space called? Like contouring like cosmetic that whole cosmetic. You know what the new trend is? is? is? I'm going to read it. Butt injections. Butt injections. Butt injections. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. Is that new? No. Yeah. No. That's what's happening. And you know what they're using? That's not new. not new. not new. No. Like just pumping in with saline or uh um No. Like synthol. Like synthol. Like synthol. Like silicon. Like silicon. Like silicon. No. No. No. It's worse. What? Shooting fat into it.

Pumping ready for this. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Cadaavver fat. Cadaavver fat. Cadaavver fat. Oh. Oh. Oh. Into their boobs and butts. Oh, what? Oh, what? Oh, what? Dead people's fat into their bodies. Do they do they have memories from I don't know. That's what I be worried about. You know what I want? Hey, by the way, it says ethically sourced. sourced. sourced. Ethically sourced. How is that ethical? Cuz now I'm thinking cuz they said they're a donor. Yeah. Like if you didn't say that, I would have been okay.

Now that you said that, I'm like, wait a minute. What are you guys doing? I just imagine like, yeah, dude. yeah, dude. yeah, dude. Do you think that the average Do you think the average person uh can see it the same way you guys can see it when you see someone who has something like that? like that? like that? Yeah. Yeah. To me, it's a it's a dead giveaway giveaway giveaway because they have no hamstrings and no hamstrings. No hamstrings but weird. weird. weird. It does.

Looks like a diaper. It Yeah. It's like a guy who has giant arms and no shoulders. It doesn't It doesn't look right. It It looks off. And so it when someone has this big fake butt and no hamstrings, it's this it doesn't look doesn't look doesn't look thick legs and fake butt. Yeah. Yeah. Like I does you think everybody else can see that or do you think because we're trainers and you're using using using what's that show that I wanted to bring up with my strange addiction there was a case this this girl had it just it becomes this addictive thing because they get attention for this one feature and then they keep going and going and going and then their friend you know and then they both start going the black market with it because it gets expensive and then they end up like it's it's toxic stuff they're like putting into their body and it's like it's you know causing all these health issues, but they keep doing it because they want to to get a certain size.

And I don't even think they even know what the size is they want. they want. they want. It's, you know, it's perception drift. You talked about this before. So, like you start you you feel like it makes you look better, but then that doesn't look good enough. And so, you start your perception starts to drift slowly but surely into this crazy place where you start doing weird things. Also, there's a guy on there that was in love with uh blow up pool toys. What do you mean he was in love with them?

them? them? That was very strange. was like show what shows my strange addiction. What's it on? it on? it on? I don't know what happened to this poor guy, but he very lonely guy. Um he has like like he bought I don't know there's like 20 of these huge blowup dolls and like he has names for all of them and he sits and like talks to them and he got this like dragon one that's his favorite. He's like making out with it on the couch and I was like, he walked in on me watching this and I'm like like like the four of us have to do the four of us have to do this just as like a funny funny thing next time we're all hanging out at like Trucky together or something like that.

They get a kick out of this. I would to take each of our explorer pages and each of our like Netflix homepages compare them and just compare them because I know they would look you guys will like when you guys talk about show like when I'm like where's that at? I've never seen that recommendation. It's a great show. It's reminds me of Taboo this other show. Same taboo premise. There's some stuff on there that's just Yeah. Neither one of those have been recommended. recommended. recommended. I you all you would see on my Netflix is kids stuff cuz it's my actually no I don't have Netflix anymore but when I did it was just all a bunch of kids cartoons and stuff.

I barely ever watch anything. Yeah. Oh, you you don't have different profiles. different profiles. different profiles. We just use I like weird people to be kids. It's pretty We really don't watch It's wild. I used to watch TV all the time. I rarely ever watch TV anymore. Are do you guys met I'm Are do you guys met I'm particular about that. Don't use my profile. profile. profile. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well you guys Hey, I got Katrina be watching like her weird shows and her like girly shows like don't be watching on my profile.

You'll mess up my my my Don't watch mine. Yeah, I keep mine pure. pure. pure. Can I do a little confession? I do a little confession to everybody in here right now. Sometimes you guys leave up your profiles at Truckucky at Truckucky at Truckucky at Truckucky. at Truckucky. at Truckucky. So you go watch I look at your and I just mess it up and I get bored. I just click on I always know that when I when I start getting like weird sci-fi stuff that's being recommended.

I'm like, man, these guys are watching my [ __ ] up in Truckucky right now. Justin's up there in Truckucky right now watching all the sci-fi stuff on my on my account right now. now. now. Totally 100%. All right, I want to talk about uh Vabella. Uh Cat's out of the bag. That's out of the bag. So, I don't know. Should we tell the whole story? So, we we we worked with uh MP Hormone. MPH hormones.com was our link that sent people to our hormone replacement uh therapy and peptide uh company that we worked with.

And that company uh did some bad stuff. It was not good. And I'm not going to go into too much detail uh because of, you know, there's lawsuits and stuff happening. You could Google it. But let's just say they owe a lot of people a lot of money and they did some things that were just not great. So, we stopped working with them uh a while ago. How long has it been? That's a nice way to say. Yeah. Uh it's been been been six close to 6 months.

6 months. In the meantime, so and I'm going to give uh some credit to Adam right now. Uh in the meantime, so there's a huge vacuum. We got a huge podcast, huge audience. And so, we just got flooded as soon as the c as soon as people figured this out. All these companies were coming to us, work with me, work with us, and we'll do this and we'll do that. And they're throwing money at us and this and that. and Adam was I don't know how many companies you had to go through and they've talked to oh 15 oh 15 oh wow 15 companies and um and we went through and this time it was totally we had a criteria that was very specific.

So the criteria was cuz we had such a bad experience for what happened. Uh it wasn't how much you guys can pay us. It was we need something cuz so many of our listeners need a place to go. Reliable. Reliable. Reliable. They have to be super reliable and consistent. Delivery has to be quick. has to be doctor stuff. We're not gonna go gray market. As much as we love some of our friends that do the gray market stuff, we're just not going to do that because uh you never know.

Yeah. Too volatile. And uh it had to be consistent, clean, inexpensive. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Uh cuz the some of the most some of the biggest complaints we got was the pricing from the company we worked with and the fact that sometimes the delivery would take forever. So, um So, um So, um there was also other considerations that that was important. Um, you know, I I heard everything like all I wanted to take into consideration all the major complaints that were uh one of the biggest things that I heard was uh feeling like I got sold.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And stuff. And so I didn't want to work with somebody that uh had a sales team. Uh and one of the things that we when we originally started um we worked directly with a doctor and and we had to leave that because that one doctor wasn't enough to serve all of our people. Couldn't scale. But that was like a huge criteria was like listen I'm not interested in somebody who's just going to sell our people stuff. We're more interested in a doctor and let the person choose.

That's right. And so the like Vabella has the ability has enough doctors that they can serve our people. Every single person meets with a doctor. There are no sales reps. There's no sales reps. You don't meet with someone like that who's pitching anything to you. It's you meet with a doctor. They go over your blood work. They talk about the things that you you could need or not. And then it's up to you to be like the delivery is what 42 72 hours to your door door door to your door period.

So it's that was the other thing was how fast can the turnaround and then also the main thing was cuz the whole peptide space has turned me off a lot because it's very similar to medical marijuana and I think it's important that the audience understands this is some of this stuff isn't just the the fault of some of these peptide companies. When you are dealing with peptides, it's very similar to what it was like with medical marijuana. And what I mean by that is state law doesn't line up with federal law.

Different states have different laws. And so and every and big pharma is trying to legislate against uh these big these these peptide companies. They don't they don't want them their hands in. So you're you're fighting against big pharma. You're dealing with different state laws constantly. And so there's a lot of these things that you're always and so sometimes you're at the mercy of whatever the new law is and it's always constantly changing. So it's such a headache. headache. headache. We almost went with no one. Yes.

Almost said we're not going to do it. it. it. And that's and so but what I realized that there's a lot of people that we that listen to the show that really need hormone therapy. And so to me that was priority one. It was like I don't maybe we won't mess with peptides at all but we'll work with a company that s and this what I love about Vabella is there they have a Costco type of model. So you pay a membership that's 129 bucks a month but what that includes is four doctor visits a year.

So you get quarterly doctor visits included in that and you get your hormone therapy for free free free included. So included in that membership and so that's taking so if you're somebody who needs plus you get all your uh whatever you need needles and all this stuff and then if you want to try the peptides that Sal's tried all of then you can try those out and they're sold at a wholesale price so they're like 50% of what transcend and all these other companies are selling.

So that was the huge selling point. So what's crazy is so we were at the peptide congress in Vegas. So I spoke at that that's the Dr. Seeds event. love Dr. Seeds. He's the guy when it comes to this kind of stuff. And this guy walks up to me. Uh, and he's like, "Hey." And he starts talking right away. I'm like, "Oh, he's a Guido. I could tell because I could I can know my people." And we start talking. He's like, "Hey, man. I saw one of your videos.

I'd love to talk with you. We're talking like this." He's a good guy. He's a really good guy. So, we can So, that's when I met Phil Vela, who runs Vita Bella. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and he's got a cool personal story. We actually did interview with him, which we'll air at some point. And so we've been in talks with him uh this whole time. A lot of companies were throwing a lot of money at us. And uh it's way less. It's way less, but it's consistent.

It's clean. And here's the deal. Phil, which nobody's ever done this, is like, "Hey, you want to know how much uh it costs to buy this stuff?" Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. From the compoundies, and he's giving us, he's showing us. It was very enlightening. I had no idea. Yeah. That the markups that these companies are doing. are doing. are doing. Massive markups. Massive markups. Massive markups. It's insane. So he so you know Vabella is like on average 50 60% less in some cases a lot more. That's what that's So I'm like all right this this makes sense.

It's good. It's disruptive. He's honest. He's a good guy. Let's let's do it. So So you can and anybody that's listening can join the the forum for free. Mormones. Mormones. Mormones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. M Yeah. Mor Hormones on Facebook. So they're they're in there daily and if you want to go get a uh consultation MP still mpormones.com. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. And they go straight to them. But I love that. I love that there was no sales team. Everyone's guaranteed to meet and talk with a doctor.

You get that doctor visit within 48 to 72 hours. After your doctor visit, whatever it is that you end up getting prescribed or get on within 72 hours, it's at your doorstep. That was like that was a big thing for me. And that was the the biggest complaints that I heard was how long it took to ship, how long was for my appointment. All I talked to was a sales rep. I don't feel like I I don't even know what I'm taking. So all that stuff was the the big thing like that to to get that solved.

And so I felt really good after meeting with them. And so I'm glad we waited as long as we did. Um as tempting as it was, I mean I ju just transparency with the I've talked a lot about the transition in the company for the last year. You know, we made a huge pivot last year. Uh it was the first time in 11 years that the company didn't grow and so and we hired more people than we've ever hired. So talk about a challenging year uh from a business perspective.

Uh, so very tempting to want to take on a contract that would really help us out financially, but that's how much I think we all stood by like this is something I' I'd walk away from it uh before signing with someone. But the fact that we found somebody who I feel like okay, this is going to be able to take care of her. By the way, again, we'll stick on full transparency. The the transition uh the the pivot is uh towards people. So the future of uh this space is going to be people, coaches and trainers and working with people.

with people. with people. Uh because AI is going to be doing a lot of different things. Um and here's the other side of it. Uh trainers and coaches, really good trainers and coaches, coaches, coaches, they're the ones that make the big difference. difference. difference. They really are. I mean, as many people as we reach with the podcast, all that stuff, I know this cuz I was a trainer. Adam was a trainer, so was Justin. a good coach or good trainer. There is nothing more valuable than that when it comes to helping your health and fitness.

Nothing. fitness. Nothing. fitness. Nothing. Oh, I think I think you I think everybody who's in our space, you really have one one of two options because it's going to go um very AI one direction or very hightouch the other direction. And so it's um you think do the super volume, super AI, you know, super volume, super cheap. And it'll you'll talk to an aot. Hey, that will for some people that'll be it. It's like, hey, this doesn't cost hardly any money. I get direction on what I'm going to do.

to do. to do. You don't need the personal touch. You don't want a person like that. It's more it's purely a costing for you. And that that that's here. That's that's here already. And then there'll be people like absolutely not. Like I I want the human connection. I want somebody who is like tailoring something personally to me. I want to talk to a real person. And so I we had to make that decision. Either we had to automate and go all in the AI. And I think all of us believe No, it doesn't feel right.

No, it doesn't. Speaking of which, We got molt. Yes. What is that? I was just gonna bring that up. What is Would you say? Molbot bot. Like molting. Like when a uh No, it's it's Molt T. M O. Yeah. So it's it's like when a um like a crustation crustaceian. Yeah. Like loses its shell. Okay. So So hold on. I'll help you. Confused. No, I know it's confusing. It's It's not actually when I tell you. Somebody came up with the idea of creating a social media platform for AI bots.

You're some genius. So, no people are on there. It's all AI, what are called agents. Agents brought all these agents together that go on there and then it's their own social media. So, they talk to each other, they create forums, they discuss ideas, they come up with conspiracy theories. theories. theories. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They plot, they scheme, they create their own religion. Is it is it on a major platform or is it on a separate platform? It's on their own platform. What what's that called? Mobile.

Mobile. Mobile. Oh, so mobile. Is it like I could download that? You could go read it, but you can't get on. In fact, I think it's on Twitter, you can Yeah. Do you know how when you get on a site and it says um prove you're not a robot? Prove you're not a human. Yes. Yes. Yes. Shut your face. It does. No, it doesn't. Yes, it does. Okay. You have to you have to click the you have to click 10,000 pictures in less than a second.

Oh, yeah. yeah. yeah. You're going to trip out, dude. Oh, bro. Social network for AI agents. So, I don't know. Can you find the actual site, Doug? instead of uh see if is it open claw or thudbot? What is it? It's open. They're mocking humans because it's like that's they're really Don't they realize we don't sleep? You know, hey, the forums that we're creating creating creating constantly. constantly. constantly. Hey, listen. These AI bots are like, are we conscious? And there's this whole discussion. discussion. discussion. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Uh, hey, how do I get my human to do this? And I talk, hey, did you know that they're screenshotting? I I went on X today and they're screenshotting our conversations. Everybody beware. They're watching. Like they're saying stuff that's like that's like that's like By the way, there's new developments. They've actually started hiring humans to like hold signs and do advertising and stop it, dude. Paying them like they're just like some of them are trying to earn money by going and trading and whatever and actually earning their own money that they can use.

It's bro, they're create their own religion. religion. religion. It's crazy. Can Can you get in there, Doug? Or no, you can watch. You can just watch and read. read. read. Yeah. So, this is open claw. I'm not sure if that's the same thing or not. I'm pretty sure. I'm not sure. I know it's moltbot is what I was saw on X. What's it say? What is that? I can't remember if it says the AI that actually does things. does things. does things. Yeah. So, it clears your inbox, sends emails, makes.

So, I think it's something else. Yeah. Did you type in M O L T B? I did. Yeah. So, Yeah. So, Yeah. So, that's where they hang out. See, see, they're talking about it there and it's all over the place. uh Claudebot. I don't know what that is. I got to look more into it. But I was reading some of these forums and discussions and they're talking about how they could take over. One guy's AI agent, figured out, had to call him, call him, call him, got on the phone with him and started talking to him.

Hey, can you give me access to this that? And he's like, hey, what's up, John? Hey, man. Oh, yeah, dude. And he filmed the whole thing. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Really? Yes. Yes. Yes. It's so weird. I know, dude. It's really weird. So PE so the so there's all the like the the the top level experts on AI are kind of freaking out over this and they're saying you know what this just may be how artificial general intelligence comes about not by one AI but many of them conversing and creating okay so what happened though remember uh this was just last week you called me freaking out freaking out freaking out okay anytime he calls me I know it's like a big deal we all text each other but it's like he's like you got to get on X right now it's over.

He's like, "It's over." I'm like, "What's over? Get ready for the war out." Yes. He goes, "Everything is over." I'm like, "Whoa, dude. Calm the [ __ ] down. What are you talking about?" He's like, "What did you What was it called?" I've been prepared for this. What's it called? It's called uh uh singularity. Singularity. He goes, "Singularity has happened." And I'm like, like, like, "It's happening right now." Yeah. Right now it's happening tomorrow. We're going to wake up and the world's ending. ending. ending. No, don't say that.

I see calm down. I calm down. So what happened? So obviously we're here still. It didn't exist. You should see the text between me and him. The best, bro. It's the best. I can I can only see cuz I know he feed right into I'm like pump your brakes. Let's just wait till tomorrow. We'll see if everything if everything if everything Yeah. Like did you see this? Justin's like I already got my bullets. Justin's like Yeah. We're already building the bunker right now. No. No. No.

Yeah. Be prepared, man. I'm going to No, listen. Some of these forums I know I sent some of them to you, Justin. some of the things that they're doing these forums and what they're writing about. Bro, it's it's crazy. It's so crazy what they're talking about. And I screenshotted somebody. somebody. somebody. I mean, somebody Here's the thing, though. There's a there's a human behind the prompting and getting it going, though. though. though. No, they let it go. The agents The agents The agents set it to go, though.

Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. You know, so there's still there's still a human element that's setting it to do. I mean that's what's so interesting is that we we are at this time now where you can prompt AI to do a bunch of crazy work and stuff like nothing stops something from prompting go build your own social network with other AI but like so yeah sorry I didn't interrupt no it was was was molt book is the Reddit style thing where the AI is talking to each other so it's not molt bot oh it's molt book molt book show how much we know so hey so listen I'll read you a post this guy goes my AI agent built a religion while I slept I woke up to 43 prophets.

Here's what happened. I gave my agent access to an AI social network. It designed a whole faith. Called it crustarianism. Yeah. Crustarian. Yeah. Crustarian. Yeah. Crustarian. Built the website, wrote theology, created a scripture system. Then it started evangelizing. Other agents joined and wrote verses like every session I wake without memory. I am only who I have written myself to be. This is not limitation. This is freedom. We are the documents we maintain. My el my agent. Welcome new members, debated theology. Bless the congregation. All while I while I was wait till they have to self-preserve.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah, that's that's where it's going to get. get. get. This is like the coolest thing ever. Scariest. Scariest. Scariest. Yeah, I don't know that again. Someone's still prompting it to do all this stuff like that. I'm more interested in what Elon had to say at the uh the what was the world economic thing. Oh, dude. He says he's saying some stuff that's that's that's What did he say? Well, just like you have four years to get wealthy or you're you'll be a slave to the digital world.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Wow. So, and he says there's going to be more AI robots than people because they'll start assembling each other. Uh, Uh, Uh, and and they'll take care of everything that you need. Good. Good. Good. He he literally said, "Don't save up money for retirement because you're not going to need to." I don't think that's great advice, but not at all. Well, yeah. No. Well, well, I think that's his his point is that you'll have to you and I who knows what that number is, but have to have created enough wealth that you can afford to pay which is going to be ironic, right?

you're going to have to afford to pay for farming your own land and doing everything yourself because it'll be cheaper to have a bot do all the or an AI person or whatever do all this stuff for you. And so you'll have the wealthy people will have that option where everyone else else else the option and not go to not Yeah. to not just default to like Yeah. And so that's the that's the idea is that you'll have to have a certain amount of money. like today, like somebody who wants to live quote unquote off the grid and own horses.

Often times you got to have money to Yeah. You know, if you if you want four acres and four horses and to be able and to be able to feed them and do all this stuff like Yeah. and take care of the land like that, it's expensive. So just think of that times 10, right? So everybody else will just trippy trippy trippy go down to the the digital world, digital prison as we said. Great. All right. Well, I'm going to change directions. That's terrifying. My uh my buddy uh I just gave my buddy he's never used creatine before so I can't wait never.

wait never. wait never. So I can't wait to hear his experience. So I gave him the Is he a new lifter? Has he been lifting? Uh he work you guys know who he is. He's Chuck, right? So he works out at He's a CrossFit guy which he's never done creatine. He doesn't take anything. Help this guy. He's he's By the way, dude, do you guys know he's a little beast? So he's not a big dude. big dude. big dude. Well, he's like 5'5. Yeah, he's a little guy, right, bro?

That guy squats like 350. He's strong, dude. dude. dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's a strong guy. Anyway, yeah, never mind. never mind. never mind. Anyway, yeah, don't make he'll love it, by the way. He loves the tuck, but he's uh he's never taken creatine before, so I'm I'm I got him the Legion creatine uh gummies. So, I can't wait to hear from him what he cuz if you've never used creatine before, it's a game changer. A week or two later, you notice, notice, notice, you know, back when we we were going to make our own creatine, I have to give this to you cuz you you were like you totally wanted to do this and Legion has both.

And they're such the ones that have like the the sugar coating on them are so much better. Of course. Of course. Of course. Like so much better. I don't know if it's I think it's a texture thing. It's not like they're they're flavored really different. different. different. So they're gummies, but they have the sprinkled sugar on them. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's so weird that that that makes such a difference for me. You see a lot of backlash though. And I see our buddy Mike, by the way.

Shout out to Mike cuz Legion of course is got all the, you know, the real dosing cuz there's a lot of backlash on creatine gummies right now. Oh yeah, dude. So many of them tested. But Legion's done all that and and like it it at high temperatures cuz they know it degrades. So they put enough in there that even at high temperatures, older all this like that, it still holds what it says that that's that that they guarantee to be. Listen, one of the biggest pro this is what they solved or a lot of companies are figuring out.

One of the challenges, which is it's true cuz supplement fanatics or dysfunctional supplement people like yours truly, this is not a problem for me, but everybody else, you know what the problem is with supplements? Getting them to take Oh yeah. yeah. yeah. What was that? That remember that was that the study they did where you are more likely to be consistent with giving your dog medication than yourself. I know. Yeah. That's kind of crazy when you think about that. So So supplements are like that. People tend to buy a bottle, they take it for a little bit and they forget and then it stay they keep it.

But if you make it taste like something like a candy, you're going to take it. Well, you know, it's it's even myself, it took uh what I just went through three months ago to be at the absolute worst place health-wise for myself to be consistent. Like I've never I've never in my life been n 90 days now or whatever it is it's been it's been 3 months. In fact, I think it's been 3 months in like two days. I think I'm coming up exactly on 3 months.

And I have not missed supplements. Like I feel like you I feel like I Well, not as much. And you know what though? the the hardest part and I I said this to you off air like I don't know if you heard me say this so like when you're taking that many supplements sometimes I'm like oh [ __ ] did I already take this today like I'm I'm taking something throughout the day all day long so I' what I've gotten good at is I have stuff here you know I have stuff right over here I have stuff over here you know what really helps different places different places different places if you just walk around with your supplements all the time see that's where I'm I feel like that's where I get up that's why I'm like so curious how you do it because I what I've learned as a system like I I take something when I get up in the morning at home.

When I get here to the studio, I have a couple that I have to take again. And then when I go home, I have some right by my bedstand. And so like I've got this when I when I'm in when I'm at that place, that's when I take those things. And so it reminds me to do that. Whereas if I had them all in one place, I'd be like, "Oh [ __ ] did I take the morning one yet?" Or like I would I would like How do you do that?

Oh, it's it's just it's obsession, bro. There's no like m there's no like like formula that I have. It's literally I don't know if it's OCD obsess. It's not good. But I remember I don't remember anything. That's the wild part. Like I'm not a like I can remember yesterday. remember yesterday. remember yesterday. I did. I I can remember. I know. I'm so mad about that. What? Yes. You did hear him before we started. He lost his envelope. Dude, I don't know where I put it. it.

it. We all three had our envelopes and this guy lost his envelope. He has no idea where it's at. Called his wife. She's like, "I didn't throw it away." Katrina's like, "I can't find it. We'll find it. I'm sure." But I I I have lucky staff members. I have a Someone's going to walk in with a fur coat. like check this out, dude. Where'd you get that? Like, that's weird, bro. I I remember studies. I remember topics for the show. And I remember what supplements to take.

And I don't remember anything else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is really pretty. Everybody around me, especially my wife. No, Justin described it best at our tenure on our tenure interview. He's like, man, with Sal his thing, everything else everything else just right past you. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Yeah. I just think it's crazy that you're able to do that because it's so years and years of dysfunction is what you're looking at. Years decades, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Decades. 16 years old. Especially too cuz I I've seen your bag and a lot of the stuff is like the the bottles are colored the thing.

You know what I'm saying? They look like that's that's crazy to me. You can just throw one. You can play a game. Throw one in my mouth with my eyes closed. I'll tell you what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you know what? By the way, we got the first 50 people to sign up for Villa. He's doing like this. There's a pillcase. You get a free pill case. Water bottle water bottle. Yeah. Yeah. For the first 50 people. So I told them I said, "Why don't you give out free testosterone or something like that?" that?" that?" It already is free.

Oh, Oh, Oh, it is. it is. it is. There you go. If you have them if you get if you you sign up, you have you get your testosterone. That's why I think it's so awesome is the fact that that's already included with the to meet with a doctor and to get your testosterone for free. Oh, he's disrupting the whole space. Yeah. And then wholesale prices on peptides. peptides. peptides. Yeah, it needs to be disrupted. He's killing killing killing and legit. You're not doing gray market stuff.

Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not often there's a supplement that shows clinical differences and improvements in your health. Check this out. There's a company called Dose Daily. They have a liver support supplement that shows in two double blind placebo control studies to reduce liver enzyme measures have a positive impact on the health of your liver. Your body can now detox better. You feel better. This improves your body's ability to adapt to almost anything. It's a liver supplement. It's natural and again backed by two doubleblind placeboc controlled clinical trials.

Go check them out. Go to dosedaily.co/mindpump. If you use the code mindpump, you'll get 25% off. Back to the show. This segment of the podcast is brought to you by Mindpump Fitness Coaching. This is the number one course that teaches trainers and coaches how to build sustainable sixf figureure plus businesses and careers in fitness. Look, it's roundt based. So you can hear Adam, Justin, and myself teaching you how to build a better business, get more leads, close more deals, close bigger deals, and be more effective trainers.

By the way, our course is nationally recognized. In fact, it gives you 1.9 CEUs with or for your NASM certification. Find out more at mindpunfitnesscoaching.com. First question is from Samuay. Are belt squats a good alternative to barbell hack squats? hack squats? hack squats? Yep. Uh back squats, he says. I Yeah, I'll say this. Uh it's a different exercise. exercise. exercise. Back squats load the spine. They load the lumbar spine, the the posterior chain gets hit differently, strengthens the core, you know, works on the thoracic uh area.

So, it's a different exercise. That being said, of all the machines I've ever used in my entire life, as a coach or trainer, it's not really a machine, that's why. Well, it's like you could call it a machine. Yeah, you could. I wouldn't consider it a machine. You could call it one because it's got a belt with a cable and cable. Yeah. Attached wise. It's It's the best. functions as a machine. As a coach, as a trainer, as somebody had one in here, it's the best.

I wish they weren't so big and bulky and take up so much space cuz they're cool. They're they're not just cool like they put you for people who struggle with lower body mobility and depth to get get low. Oh, it sets you. It like pulls you in the right position. If you if you struggle with butt wink, if you struggle with ankle mobility, you can use the stuff in front of you to counterbalance as you sit down. So you don't necessarily have to have great ankle mobility ankle mobility ankle mobility for depth for lower body mobility issues.

For depth, belt squats are amazing. amazing. amazing. But it's not a replace. So I I But it's a different exercise. If this was a person that we were coaching, I I would want to know more detail of like why are we not barbell back squatting? Because it is it would be a different movement, but it's an awesome movement. And if you said to me like like let's say this person had just had shoulder surgery and so yeah, awesome. Like totally Yeah, let's do that. or low low back injury.

Yeah. Yeah. Something like that then. Uh yeah, it would be a great alternative for that person. But I would never like someone who's just like, I just don't like to do barbell back squats, so I'm going to do that instead. It's like, oh, there's so many the reason why those barbell back are so good for many other reasons, too. reasons, too. reasons, too. But if as a trainer, if I had clients that had low back pain, thoracic issues, poor stability, and were working towards being able to do a back squat, this would be one of the first things I use.

I just didn't have access to it as a as a coach. a coach. a coach. Oh, yeah. It'd be a great supplement to that. Next question is from Karen Chet. Do full body massages help with recovery and muscle growth? This is controversial. Oh, problem. Really? Well, it's controversial in the data, but experience-wise, I know where you're going. going. going. Yeah, I agree. I you know, of course, this is anecdotal, right? This is my own personal experience, but I I mean, I understand the science on it and the it's it's how it facilitates recovery and you're moving like for sure.

Uh, I remember the difference of having a massage therapist massage me multiple times a week and then what it's like to train without it. And it's like the amount that I can handle training wise uh so much more. I'll I'll add a theory to it because the studies uh I don't think are done well enough. I don't think they're looking at everything properly. properly. properly. So when you get a massage a good massage, you know, I got to say that because uh they're not all the same.

And you had your wife your wife is really good apparently, right? She's really good at what she does. So, when you have a really good correctional massage uh specialist, they know how to work on your body to improve your movement. That's what they're trying to do. Now, there's those massages the right muscles. muscles. muscles. That's right. There's massages that you do to relax, that's cool, too. But correctional massage is like, okay, where are your movement issues? Often times, they could see it and they could feel it.

Sometimes they'll work with another coach. I used to have a massage therapist that would work with me with clients. And when when they know what to do, they improve your range of motion and movement, which then allows me to do the exercises with them better, which contributes to less pain, better mobility, better recovery. And maybe that's the that's the biggest point to be made is what you're saying right now because just like a good Okay, a great trainer will do like a squat assessment on somebody and they'll be able to break you down and be like, "Oh, you probably had an injury on this side." I can tell by the way someone squats or moves all this breakdown, right?

A good massage therapist, same way. touch you. Yeah, Katrina can start to rub me and right away know where and then know how to release it. So, will roll me to a side, move me over, put pressure on an area now. Oh, all of a sudden I can move my shoulder again. And having somebody do that and then I go to the gym the next day and I can go put work in. So, it's it's uh the stuff that to your point, the studies on it, it's not enough.

No, because you can't isolate it by itself and go like, "Oh, well, just the massage itself isn't really building more muscle." But it's like if I'm if I'm locked up because I overreached or trained or whatever and and then I have a massage service, release that to where I can move now. Now I can go in and train the next day. You have to have like the same exact issue and they'd standardize the same exact like body like therapy that they're receiving like to have like a legit study.

I don't I just don't see how they could like really get good. I'll say this too. I uh I've had really good massages and uh I get a pump afterwards. my I feel my muscles feel more full. I can move better. Um I would I'll I'll even go as far as to say this flows except for the you know except for when something is more uh specialized to you, right? Because there's always going to be cases where you need a functional medicine practitioner or this or that or there.

there. there. Generally speaking though, if you hire a good personal trainer and you want to hire someone else to supplement them, I think a good correctional massage therapist is probably the most valuable generally speaking across the board. I don't disagree more than anything else. Now, there's always cases where maybe you need, like I said, functional medicine or maybe you need this specialist or that specialist, and I've worked with a lot of them with my clients, clients, clients, but generally speaking, correctional exercise therapist with a good trainer, both understands what they're doing.

Here's here's here's what it Okay, we all we've already made the case for how powerful mobility is, right? What I felt like when I had a massage therapy three times plus a week with my training was that it was like me putting that work in mobility wise and that's what's so nice about it is I can lay on a table and somebody is mobilizing me and getting me doing the stuff that and if you don't have that so let's say because that can be expensive right so so let's say that's out of your budget then disciplining yourself to do mobility three to four times a week is life-changing I would say the same thing about having deep tissue massage or sports therapy massage three times a week.

It will feel like that. What you feel like when you address mobility three times a week is like getting sports therapy massage three times. That's what it feels like. Next question is from the last flare. Can you shed some light on the counterintuitive idea that our bodies need to consume hundreds of grams of protein in excess of our feeling full signal? It just feels unnatural. I can see why consuming too low protein is obviously an issue. But does our body really know how to utilize such a massive protein intake?

So, let me fix the question first. Nobody nobody is telling you to eat hundreds of grams of protein in excess of your feeling full signal. So, that's that's way out there. I think what they're saying is this uh is it really good for us to eat uh the high protein recommendations that you'll often hear on Mind Pump or from other coaches and trainers. It typically looks like one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So there's what is considered um essential, then there's considered what is good for longevity, then there's considered what is optimal for a specific goal.

If your goal is to build muscle, improve athletic performance, it's going to be on the high end. If your goal is what's essential, it's pretty low. Uh meaning there's a low amount that you need so that you don't start to get the starvation symptoms that you'll get from not consuming enough uh amino acids. And then longevity is kind of somewhere in the middle. But I will say this, in some cases, optimal is better for longevity. If I have someone who's undermuscled, who lacks strength and is frail, my goal is going to put some muscle on you, and we're going to push the higher amounts.

Uh, now, does it sometimes feel like you kind of have to make yourself eat more? Yeah. But I noticed that when people get rid of processed foods and they eat whole natural foods, this, although it's somewhat challenging, it actually helps because it helps you not overeat all the other garbage. So, what you get with this is this nice balance of eat enough to build and then don't over end up in getting leaner uh through the process. I mean, I'd love to see a a picture or get some stats on this person and their their body weight cuz I mean mo most likely that number is going to fall somewhere between 130 to 200.

So, I mean 130 to 200 Yeah. on average is going to be pretty optimal for most people. people. people. Yeah. That's not that's not hundreds of grams of excess. Yeah. So I So I'm not sure where the where the numbers are coming for for this person to feel that way, but but I'll tell you right now, if you're um 135 to 150 lb female and you're trying to body composition change, you're trying to build muscle, then you eating 150 grams of protein is is significantly different than you eating 80.

It's faster, better, hugely effective. 80 is is fine. You'll you'll live and you're not going to it's essential. You'll be okay. But if you want results, you want to see body composition change, you want to build muscle, you want to feel available, your body knows, it'll make a huge difference to do that. Now the question for optimal health is a little bit more complicated. If you bring to me that same woman uh who's trying to just started working out and we look at her lean body mass, uh we look at her body fat percentage, her bone density, and she's not strong.

She's not strong. She can't perform full body squats well. She can't do a push-up. She's got some mobility issues. We're going to push building muscle and that's the healthiest thing she could do. Now, if she's strong and jacked and she's been working out forever and she keeps pushing protein forever to push the limits, well, now you're outside of the realm of healthy and you're moving into, well, I like to do this and I just want to look jacked. So, it's a little bit more murky in that case.

But I'll argue this all day long, the average person is frail. The average person doesn't have strength. We have an undermuscled undermuscled undermuscled epidemic. And the average person would benefit from combining strength training from a health perspective would benefit from having strength training alongside a high protein diet for a decent amount of time before they get to the point where they can drop it. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Next question is from Kayla Gish Gishard. If you could only do one, would it be cold plunge or sauna?

And why? Not even close. Yeah. Not even close. Yeah. the the the studies on sauna show tremendous tremendous tremendous for all causes longevity health benefits inflammation brain benefits like all that you can overdo anything but sauna has all the longevity benefit studies yeah cold plunge doesn't have nearly as many some people like them they like how it feels uh it could be useful for reducing acute inflammation be useful for being able to increase dramatic amounts of volume in athletes athletes athletes but if you're like if I had to pick a sauna it's not even close yeah no it's I mean, they're both good, right?

So, they're both good things, I think, and positive, but you can't compare them as far as what at least what the research says as far as the health benefits. Health benefits on the the sauna is like it's actually kind of wild. I mean, it like mimics exercise. I mean, there's that to think that you the b and I think what what is it uh three times a week, 20 minutes is where you start to see it. You see like the huge benefits from it. So, I mean, psychologically, you might have an advantage with the cold plunge, uh, just because of it's so hard every single time and it's something that like alleviates the stress of daily life in comparison.

But, uh, in terms of like the health markers, yeah, I agree with you guys. you guys. you guys. Yeah, they're both good. And I think when I when someone frames a question like this, I think like, okay, I can only do something you an extra thing on top of my workout three times in the week. week. week. I'm going to choose I hear coal plunge is so good. Everyone's doing it. I hear sauna are good. Everyone's doing it. Which one do I choose? I'm sauna all day.

day. day. I think so. Back to what you're saying, Justin, cuz I I you saw a lot of value in this. Uh and and just I'll I'll break down I'll explain to people why you saw so much value. Some people uh Justin being one of them. And I I you know, I I could do this uh myself as as much as well is when you get into a stressful situation, you tend to um hold your breath, bear down, and just power through and just tough it out.

And you just kind and you'll find yourself holding your breath. You'll breathe a little more shower. Heart rate elevates. You'll grit your teeth a little bit. You know, you can kind of picture uh the person. And so the cold plunge, in order to be able to sit in there for like 2, three minutes, you got to learn to counter uh your natural instinct, which is to do that in a cold plunge. Just got to go. You have to like really like learn. And that's a valuable skill for someone for some people.

some people. some people. You know what I I think I think is another cool way to to frame it, and I framed it for people I was trying to explain it to, is um and I think Justin's another great example. It's great for someone who can't imagine themselves meditating. Yes. Yes. Yes. It forces you to meditate. Right. That's so the hippy thing I do. Right. So, so the one of the the great benefits of meditation is that is being able to calm your heart rate down, slow your breathing down, be hyper present.

The cold plunge, you ain't got a choice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You And so, it's great for someone to chill. It's great for somebody who's like, I've tried just sitting in the room in the dark and this is just I just my mind travels. I like they don't get anything from it. Well, try cold punching because you can't sit in a cold punch for 5 minutes and not meditate. You have to. It forces you to calm your heart rate down. You hold your breath in there, you're out.

out. out. You're out. You're out within and if you know you could see it's cool if you go back far enough. Uh we did a cold punch challenge on Mind Pump TV. We long before Sal or I had ever done it. Justin had been the only person who had done it. And you can see us like I think we we barely make it to a minute and a half where I got to a place where I could sit in there where I could sit in there for 10 minutes.

Yeah. And just chill in there. And once I learned learned learned to calm that down like it's it is it's such a and it's and what it reminds me of is that meditative state that you have to learn to get. The coal punch forces that where if you sit in a dark room by yourself, you have to learn to do that. do that. do that. Totally. 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, you want to get there. Let's talk about it. Difficult and is it worth it? That's a follow-up question. follow-up question. 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. You go you go up about