When Overtraining Becomes a Superpower | Mind Pump 2739

Key Takeaway

Small, consistent daily actions often yield better results than sporadic intense efforts. Even 15-20 minutes of daily movement using simple equipment like suspension trainers can build sustainable fitness habits that fit into busy schedules with work and family demands.

Episode Overview

Discussion on the benefits of occasionally overtraining for mental toughness, advice for multiple callers including a successful fitness plateau breakthrough, gym business guidance, and practical training solutions for busy parents.

Full Transcript

Transcript of When Overtraining Becomes a Superpower | Mind Pump 2739 from Mind Pump Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Overtraining. It's always bad, right? Maybe not. There may be some benefits every once in a while to pushing beyond what is necessary to going a little too hard or too long. By the way, fitness fanatics, relax. We're going to explain it here. I'm not trying to justify your overtraining, but sometimes there may be some benefits, and we're going to talk about those uh in today's episode. Let's go. This reminds me of the conversation we had with our good friend um Andy Galpin. Yeah. A long time ago.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember um he articulated this really well. We tend to to kind of beat that drum a lot, right? Cuz a lot of people that listen, adapt and optimize. Yeah. They need to hear it. Um that if you're if you're I mean just in our experience, if you're proactively listening to a fitness podcast, you're probably working out doing that. Not even though we have seen some people that don't, but for the most part you're into that and there's a self- selection bias.

Yeah. Right. And a lot of our clients would undereat and overtrain and so we tend to but I remember when we kind of were having like it was not I guess a debate but a conversation around that and he made the case that well you know there's also some value in actually pushing the body when it's you know overly stressed all those things lack of sleep and then uh he he explained why occasionally that can be but doing that chronically is a terrible idea. Yeah. So I the the reason why this came up for me was um I was thinking about this in relation to um competitive endeavors.

Uh so oftent times you'll uh as a coach or trainer or even just look even if you just talk to anybody who trains at a high level for sport if you're if you have any understanding of workout programming and appropriate intensity often times you'll look at their their workouts their their practices that's too much. Why are they doing that? And and not all these coaches are bad. A lot of these coaches are great and they're doing this to their athletes. what's going on. I think a lot of the value and we could talk about some of the physiological value too, but I think a lot of the value of doing that is uh it's really at training the mind, mental toughness and the and the psychology at the expense of, you know, maybe some extra muscle gains or conditioning.

It's grit. It is. I I was actually talking with uh Josh about this a week ago and we were we were talking a little bit about this. I said, you know, pushing the body and the mind beyond what's appropriate or perfect uh for physical adaptations. I said, when you're in the in the ring, cuz he's a fighter, so Josh manages uh a lot of our social media, and he's a fighter. He's he's a boxer. He also does kickboxing and other stuff. It's like when you're in the ring, that fight is not appropriate training.

Like, you're fighting. And often times, what separates the winner from the loser? Um their will. Yeah. It's just the dude that Yeah. is just they're they're able to just keep going when everything in their body is telling them not to. Is there value in that kind of training for the average person? Well, I'll pose this question. Are are there ever going to be seasons in your life when things are suboptimal and you got to kind of push through uh things? Yeah. Yeah. Have kids. Uh that alone will will do it to you.

or you know there's going to be times of stress with the job and and so there's that mental component uh where there's that value and uh and that's where I think a lot of this is that's where I would kind of rest. I I find these kind of conversations hard these days because people can't deal with nuance. I they just cannot like take a step back and like well this is contradicting what you previously espoused and you know um unfortunately like training is a lot of that like it's it's it's case by case and it's individual by individual uh and it's really it's it's that intention like what are we intentionally focusing on right now that we're trying to strengthen and embolden and maybe it's mental discipline maybe it's grit And that looks different.

That looks different than optimizing my body to adapt towards, you know, building muscle for instance or like thriving and feeling like super energetic and awesome. Uh, you know, sometimes you got to be in the [ __ ] Uh, and you have to work your way out of it and and that's an important skill to obtain. Yeah. Listen, it's it's it's a spectrum and at any time you could fall somewhere on that spectrum. And if you're the type of person who tends to heed the advice that we talk about with undereating, overtraining, and it's like the slightest bit of a potential cold coming on or not perfect sleep or I didn't have a perfect diet, you go, "Oh, you know, I don't I don't want to overtrain.

I don't want to work out, so I don't work out." And you you tend to do that all the time. You're the type of person where it's like, we could probably throw some of these days into your routine more frequently just for the mental toughness part of that. If you're on the other side of the spectrum where you ignore all signs of that your body is exhausted, underfed, you know, you haven't rested appropriately, you're hammering it way too much, and you lean on that more often than not.

Well, then this advice isn't for you. Like, you're the type of person that needs to learn to listen to their body more, recover more, and is way overdoing it and not that's why you're not seeing your results. So that's why it's it's nuanced to your point and everybody wants to be in a camp of like this is the way. It's like no this isn't the way nor is this the way. It depends on the type of client that's sitting in front of me and you know a good trainer in a in a relatively short period of time figures out who that client is.

Right. Like I it didn't take me very long good point to know there's the ones that you got to kind of push. Yeah. Yeah. I I very much so would have a client that would say advice, say something to me like, "Oh, I didn't give very good." That's okay. We're going to and we're going to get after it anyways, you know, because I know who this client is. And then there's other clients that are like, "No, no, I'm fine. I didn't get the best. I'm fine.

Let's go." And I'm like, "No, we're going to take it easy this time." So, as a a good coach and trainer can learn that client, understand their habits, where they lean towards, and then correct uh the type of behavior. It's not black or white. Yeah. There were often times these clients where I would do it I would push them so that they could see what they were capable of which would change uh the filter at which they viewed uh or perceived pain during exercise and challenge.

I would say for the fitness fanatics uh that are listening, like the people that don't miss workouts, very consistent. Uh it's part of your life, you're probably going to live uh in what's considered optimal uh for physiological change, strength, and energy, and mobility, and feeling good. 90% of the time, nine out of 10 workouts are going to be what are considered appropriate. 10%, maybe even 5% are the ones where you overdo it. And the overdoing it is valuable uh for the big picture. So what you're doing is you're sacrificing gains because that's what happens when you overdo it.

You're not going to get the gains as quick, right? So you're sacrificing a little bit of gains for the gain of testing yourself a bit and seeing where those limits are. Cuz here's what can happen to me even uh because I I'll tend to push it too hard probably too often. But sometimes what can happen to me is I will leave just a spe this specific example. I'll leave two reps in the tank. In other words, I'll I'll pick a weight that I think I would fail at 10 reps with and I'll do eight.

But then I'll go through a short season of training to failure and realize I was actually leaving more like four. And this can happen for me at least with certain exercises in particular like squats. With squats, I'm much more likely to stop when I have five reps in the tank than when I have two because they hurt so bad. And I don't know. Sometimes I don't know until I'll do a couple sets. Yeah. To failure. And this is what it feels like. I'll have, you know, so much weight on the bar.

I'll go I'll get to eight. I'll be like, "Oh my god, okay, this is a failure set. I think I can do two more." And I'll do two. And I'll be like, "Oh, wait. I have two more." And I'll do two more. Like, "Wait a minute. I have two more." And I'll then I'll fail. I'll be like, "Whoa, I had six when I thought I only had two." Uh, so there's there's that value as well. But you know, you know, isn't that is that as you're saying this, I'm trying to think like how, you know, I'm curious, Justin, your point, cuz I agree.

Squats are unique like that. They're like brutal. They're Well, they're the only ones that I think I I misguided the most. Course like deadlift, it's very obvious if that's going to get pulled up off the ground one more time or not, right? Like I could tell the one before it was just like that took everything to get that thing off the ground. So deadlifting, I'm like I know right where the failure is at. But there's something about dropping in the hole in a squat and thinking like, "Oh, I can't get that out." And then you grind it out and you're like, "Oh, I got that out." And like, "I don't think I have another one." And then you grind it out.

Yeah. Cuz the feeling on your back, it's sometimes it's crushing and it really messes with you psychologically. And then you have to go through the full mechanics uh and know like at the bottom I'm going to be okay or I'm not going to be okay. It's like kind of a crapshoot, you know? It is squats, right? It's got to be unique to that. There's nothing else. No, there's nothing else I can think cuz deadlift, you're right. It's it's like boom, I just get rid of it.

Yeah, deadlift for some people are scary, but squats are up there. Upper body exercises, I'm not that scared if I'm going to, you know, and it doesn't not even just scared. It's uh it's gauging. Yeah, exactly. Like I I can easily gauge a bench press, easily gauge an overhead press, easily gauge a dead squats feel like you're done before you're done. Many times I'm like, I don't got anymore. And then if I got somebody with me like, "No, no, no, you got" and they're like, "Oh [ __ ] I did." Who is that bodybuilder in pumping iron?

There's one scene in Pumping Iron. It's one of the more popular ones with fitness finale. He keeps telling him two more. Yeah, two more. What's his name? Ed Cornney. Is that his name, Doug? Maybe you can look it up. And And they're doing squats. It's this great scene, everybody. You can find it on YouTube. And Arnold is working out with a bodybuilder. I think his he was famous for his posing. He had really great posing. I think it was Ed Cord. He keeps slapping him on the back.

He keeps going, "No, no, two more. Two more." Yeah. And Eddie's doing squats and they're going and it's hard. It is a hard. By the way, this is in the 70s when they did 25 sets of everything. And he's doing squats and this is before they leg pressed or did a lot of leg extensions. And Ed's like he comes up and he's like two more Eddie. Two more. And he does two more. And he's like, "No, you got more." And you're like, "Does he have more in him?" Like I don't know.

What's his name? Is it Ed Corny? Ed Corny. Ed Cornney. Yeah. What a great scene. Cuz at the end of it, Ed Corny like, in fact, before he does the last rep, you could tell he's like trying to psych himself up. Then he racks it and he falls on the ground. And then Arnold CL like typical like you know workout buddy style just steps over him adjusts the bar so he can do his set. You know like his buddy's on the ground he's like hey are you okay buddy?

Yeah they are. He just step over you while I do the set. Today's giveaway is the maps super bundle. If you want to win leave a comment below this video the first 24 hours that we drop it. Subscribe to this channel. Turn on notifications. If you win will notify you in the comments section. Also, everything's 60% off right now for Black Friday. Go to mapsfitnessproducts.com. Use the code Black Friday. Every purchase enters you into contest. Two people get a week vacation at the Mine Pump Park City House.

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Yeah, that's the thing about it. It's objective that way. If you don't include uh stress testing it to that degree, you don't really know your capability. Like you're not you you don't have a real good um accurate gauge of like a like like you're being honest with yourself like this is really what I'm capable of producing versus like you know speculating like on a chart here's where I should be. And I I often will think about this in a different context when I just talk to my immigrant relatives and how they lived uh and and I think about how stressed out I get when I take my kids to the grocery store, you know, and I'm like they're crying or you know my daughter doesn't want to sit still and I'm like I can't handle this.

And then you know my mom used to do this with four kids and my grandmother was took a ship from Italy which broke down in the middle of the ocean and she all she had was a block of cheese to feed the kids and her I'm like how did they sleep and what did they do and then you look at the data and we're so anxious and stressed now but objectively life is so much easier and I I don't I think it has a lot more to do with how we perceive things and maybe the purpose behind things than the actual things that are happening.

Uh now working out obviously is not that. Uh but it's kind of a controllable that you could you could test a little bit and I think that there's a a toughness that can be developed through your training uh that you can even push yourself uh to test. But I will also say this for people who chronically overtrain. Yeah. Sometimes the challenge that you need to train yourself with the the mental challenge is not the can you push yourself until you kill yourself because that's what you're doing now, but rather can you lay off.

Well, I mean that's like somebody like you struggles with, right? Yeah. It's like it's it's not hard to get you up in the morning to do your lift, but it's a lot harder for you to go like, oh, I'm just going to take it easy in this lift because of the relationship that you have with it. I think a lot of people I mean, you share that openly and and honest, right? But I think a lot of people are naive to that or justify it because they're healthy, they're fit, you know, they look like you, right?

And so they go, "Oh, I'm doing it right." You know what I'm saying? Like I'm not doing it wrong. Right. But I but again, I think if you look at your whole routine and you know, 10% of the time is when you challenge yourself, I think that's probably for consistent people probably the number. And if people were being honest, they probably look more like the reverse where most the time they're overdoing it. Yeah. And then 10% of the time they train appropriately because they're forced to.

Like their body's just like, "You need a break." And so then they do that for a little bit until they just come out of the hole. You know, this is why I want to get a hold of that Ethan kid that I sent you the other day. The really big kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's going down the the the lot of fitness and Yeah. a lot of people that are like, who else did I just see him with recently who was, you know, you know, tell they're telling him to like get after it and keep pushing and so that kids already training like seven days a week and taking 20,000 steps and like Yeah.

and he's getting and he's using the scale. It's like I I want to get a hold of him. I'm so glad you brought that up, Adam, because the the the temptation for a fitness person, we'll just say fitness person, influencer, expert, whatever, is to look at somebody who struggled with being obese their whole life, and to simply think that person just needs to learn how to grind and discipline and beat themselves up more. Yeah, it's not that. And there I I see I understand why there's some truth in that, right?

There's some truth in that that there's a discipline involved with not overeating and being active. That's true. But here's why that approach is wrong. What you're doing is you're telling that person to beat themselves up more. And what you fail to realize is that is a person that beats the self up all the time already, just in a different way. Different form of self-hate. Yeah. So what you're doing is you're taking them from hating yourself like this. Now let's hate yourself like this. And that will not result in a sustainable approach.

What you what you need to do is take that person and say, "Stop hating yourself. We're going to start to get you to learn how to care for yourself." And then when you come out of that and you go through that and you develop a better relationship, then you can learn how to test yourself and push yourself but from a good place. Otherwise, what it turns into is more self-hate, which is then because my fear with that guy, Adam, because I know he's a lot of people reached out to him.

Why? Because he went viral and he's also seems like a great kid. Uh, so of course he's going to, you know, he's going to reach out to these really famous, popular, you know, fitness personalities that tend to be more on that side, you know, the David Gogggins types, right? My fear is that this kid follows them, continues to keep saying weight loss, develop this fame with now he's lost all this weight and then he gets stuck in this, oh my god, what do I do? How do I let, you know, I'm going to let people down?

And well, I've been watching the journey the whole time. Um, I've been meaning to to reach back out to him and but I also am not the type of person to be like, "Hey, bro, you're doing it wrong. Let's do it this way." Like I I I sent him over episodes of ours to start listening to in hopes that he would start to listen to the podcast and maybe start to hear some of the information versus me trying to tell him what to do. Like that's just not it's not my style to do that.

Um, but I know he's in the burn phase. It's like he's in this phase of eating less, got to move more, got to train more to keep seeing that scale go down and like we keep getting on the scale and measuring that as a victory or not every week. And it's like it's not how I would train him. It's not how I train him at all. A scale would not even be anything we pay attention to right now. It's like and I'd want his body fed so he could get strong and build muscle.

But in the calor the caloric deficit he's running in and the activity level he's at, like he's not going to build muscle. He's just he's just he's burning body fat cuz he's disciplining himself unbelievably to move like crazy. But that is not the long-term strategy to take off 200 and something pounds and keep it off forever and not keep it off. Yeah. Yeah. And so and again and then you know leaning on these uh fitness people that have a more militant uh mind like and like that that's not what that that guy needs.

It's not you know you just need a good fit. That's not the path. Like you're it's the path to being fit and healthy for the rest of your life is not this strenuous 7 days a week of thinking about food and exercise. That is not that is not the path to health. Like is not thinking about every meal you have to eat and training every single day and stepping 15 20,000 steps every day to be healthy. Like it's no, it's unrealistic. You know what it does too to that person is then that person inevitably will be like is this what it takes?

Yeah. Is this what it's like to be obsessed with this stuff all the time? And then they'll see somebody who's not that way. And then what it sometimes will happen is they'll they'll turn inward in shame. I got the worst genetics ever. Like that person, they only have to work out a few days a week. They seem to be eating like what's wrong with me? Why do I got to just eat 1500 calories a day and just keep beat the crap out of myself? Uh that's definitely not the approach.

I one way that I stretched myself years ago that's coming to my mind that uh was very instrumental for me and I say for me because uh it was unique to someone who never went 3 hours without eating. So for years and years and years, probably uh I would say from the age of maybe 17, uh every 2 hours I would eat every two hours like and if it wasn't a meal, it was a protein bar. Uh to the point where I took stuff with me obsessively.

I mean, when I had my studio, uh when I was training people, I'd have my food with me and then, you know, my client would come to warm up. I go in the back and I'd eat real quick whether I was hungry or not. And it was uh something that stretched me was when I first fasted. And it it wasn't a fitness thing. I think it's a terrible way to we've talked about this. There's lots of episodes if you want to hear our take on fasting for fat loss.

But for me, it was groundbreaking because it it broke the chains uh that eating every other hour had on me that I didn't realize constraints. Like I I I fasted for a day and then I was like, "Oh, I could I had the same experience. I could do this." You did, too. Yeah. It was it's pretty amazing. Yeah, it's it's liberating and I think it just in the back of your mind you you get this bit of anxiety and panic because you're not eating or you're not um it just feels like you're shrinking or something psychologically you're just like ah this can't be good and then you just realize like nothing nothing's happening like you're going to be just fine and the next day you eat and everything is normal.

So it's like yeah there's you just have to get through the panic of it. Yeah. I want to make the point though cuz since you transitioned to that point after talking about the really overweight kid like that's an a horrible thing for him to hear and try of course but the flip is uh you know guys that were orthorexic and were focused on every calorie and trying to eat as you I used to weigh myself after every meal carried a bag around I used to wake set alarms at 2:00 in the morning to pound a shake and go back to bed you know how lucky we are we lose you know how hard.

We would have spiraled if we were roommates. Yeah. We would have got jacked Yeah. and died. No, no, no. I I uh Yeah. And so, um yeah, I was so insecure about not having enough uh that if I didn't eat. And I mean, imagine being a full-time trainer. You're working six, seven days a week, 10 clients a day. You're moving like I mean, I would on a bad day move 15,000 steps and you're lifting weights. Yeah. So like a you know I had to have 4,000 plus calories a day to maintain that metabolism much less try and build on that was just like it was so obsessive.

Yeah. Super obsessive. Super super obsessive. So So yesterday uh so you guys know what happened yesterday and I'll give you a little update to the end of the day. So my daughter's actual birthday was yesterday. So now I can share the story. I don't want to share it first cuz I want to make sure had a good ending. Uh she's she just turned 16 and um she's a very disciplined, hardworking girl. Love her to death. Um and it for her birthday, so she's turning 16. She needs to get a car anyway.

And she she wants a car. So I've been kind of looking for a car. So we decided for her birthday and Christmas, it's both. Uh that I'd get her a new car. And so she had It's a double gift. I didn't know that. Well, yeah. I'm not going to, you know, I got to make it somehow. Like come on, dude. like these kids are I mean you say that but I actually I'm really proud of you. Uh you didn't make a big deal about it. You didn't say anything like but you know you uh you could have a lot of parents especially parents that love their kids that are in your situation would have would have bought something else like it was nice dude.

She got a nice car. But it is it is nice but it's not it's like it's Oh parents get their kids ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. It's just crazy. Brand new Tesla or something. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. I mean, it's not even a brand new car. No, no, no. No. I got her a 2021 uh Wrangler, which is I mean, that's a great 16-year-old kid, you know, girl. Yeah. No, I agree. I think that's a a great idea. But uh you know, but I just think that I think that's so cool that and the fact that you also made it a double present, so you don't get Christmas present.

That's your present for Well, you know, I get I'm like, you know, you talk about this sometime, Adam, like where you're like, "Ah, my kids going to have so much. How do I, you know, present Yeah. Yeah. you know, adversity?" And I can also be a little bit like uh this was especially with my older kids cuz you know when I got divorced from their mom a little bit of like trying to always keep them happy and being afraid to you know pull back and I'm also have that tendency any you guys know me I'm I'm a caretaker at heart.

So like I one time you and I traveled and you had your Achilles issue and I'm like bringing you things. It's my nature. Yeah. Which can back which can not be great. Well, that's what the point why I'm giving you kudos on this. I do know that about your relationship with your two older. And so there's this tendency to want to do more, right? To, you know, to impress them or make them happy or make up for lost time or whatever whatever the thing is. So for you to be able to keep that at bay while do that, I think is, you know, kudos to you to be able to do that.

Well, I appreciate it. So anyway, she wakes up uh and she expected, this is the part that made me mad. She I didn't tell her she's getting this, but we talked about it like this, you know, we're gonna this is the car you want. Let me think about it. So, I didn't really tell her, but she wakes up in the morning. She's at her mom's house. So, this is the week she's with her mom. And she wakes her birthday. So, I call to say happy birthday.

And she's in the car with my ex-wife. She's taking her to school and she's acting like and I just call her to say happy birthday. She's acting kind of like moody, you know? So, I'm like, "What's going on?" And so I'm on speaker phone and her mom's like she's and she knows we got her the car, right? She's but we're not telling her yet. She's like, "Oh, she's, you know, she's upset that she didn't get a car." And I'm like, "Excuse me?" So immediately in my mind, I'm like, "You spoiled, you know, how dare you wake up, you know, upset you didn't get a car." You know what I mean?

This what I'm thinking in my head. And I'm also thinking like, I've ruined this kid. So I'm on the phone with her. I'm on the phone with her and she's acting kind of moody after I call to say happy birthday because of that. And so I just lay into her to which was not which was a mistake. So I just blam her over the phone and I'm like happy birthday. Yeah. I'm like you better change your you know what did I say to her? You better have a heart posture change cuz later we're going to have dinner for her birthday which is when I was going to give her the her gift.

So like you better change your attitude and your heart posture. You're going to be so embarrassed. I promise you're going to regret it if you don't. I'm like laying under her. So then I hang up, right? And she's at school and she's crying now at school. So I'm getting messages from my ex-wife. She wants me to pick her up. She's crying. So I'm like, "Oh my god, dude. I got I was a little too harsh." But part of me is kind of like, "All right, you know." Yeah.

Well, tell can you tell you always what you wanted to do? Well, my instinct I had this instinct and this very angry instinct in me was to go I don't I wasn't going to do this. Okay. But I was mad. It crossed your mind, bro. I was mad, dude. I was going to film myself in front of her car, be like, "This is your present." And then smash the windows and be like, "Now you're gonna have to fix the windows out of your own pocket." I'm so glad I didn't do something crazy.

You didn't do that. Everybody thinks I'm a crazy dad. I'm not like that. But in my my in my heart, the anger was like, "This would be like in this teacher. This is the Sicilian. This is when the Sicilian side." And I was texting. I was texting my wife how mad I was and she was really doing a good job bringing me down. She's like, "Look, she's 16. She's a kid. They're naturally, you know, this way. She had an expectation. She's just disappointed. This happened to me once when I was a kid." Yeah.

Yeah. You know, my wife at one, you know, when she was 16, her she wanted her room to be redone and she was telling the story at dinner and she was so mad about and upset, not realizing that at that moment her mom was still was redoing her bedroom. Yeah. And so anyway, so I'm like, I'm calm, coming down. Coming down. So I'm like, we'll see what happens. And anyway, at of course before we take her to dinner, we present her with her gift and I put a bow on the car and she comes out and she's like, "I'm so embarrassed." So when we get in the car, she's like, she doesn't want to say in front everybody.

I acted like a brat. Popey, I'm really sorry. I'm so embarrassed. And so I'm like, "All right." You know, that's I mean that's all you want right there cuz I do I think and I did tell her like you did act like a brat. You totally acted like a brat, but it's okay. I forgive you. I I do I do feel like it's built into I could think of a story too of even myself. You know what I'm saying? Like of like you you thought something.

I'm glad you told me that. You did tell me that. That helped me too, Adam, because you were not spoiled. No. Right. And yet, so when I heard it from you, then I was like, okay. Yeah, that's right. When you're 16, the world revolves around you just you do you get you in your head, especially if you guys let on that there's even a possibility. So I I remember one year it was a Sega Genesis that my and and we don't have a lot of money but yet there was like this expectation that I was I was actually going to get that and I was like so angry in the morning like when I got up and it wasn't there and eventually my parents had I got it later on that night and so but I remember I was like really upset cuz your expectations.

Yeah. Exactly. And so and you're 16 or whatever the hell 14 or whatever the hell age I was. You know I was a teenager her close to her age and I you know just you just your brain isn't all the way there. You know what I'm saying? And so it's hard to remember what it's like to be that age. You are self-centered. That's just a natural developmental part. There's things I could definitely do though that'll that'll give her more gratitude. Uh I mean in fact I was think I told my my wife I was like maybe instead of sending her to college I'll have her go to a third world country for a year and and work there and then go to college.

This is when I was angry all these things. Yeah. She should go live in the slums for a year just so she knows. You know what I mean? Yeah. But you know I mean you know you know Arthur Brooks gave me some of the best advice um when we were talking. I mean, I I I I openly talk about my greatest fear, right, is is my son growing up in a different life, right? And so, and I I remember Joe Desenna when we uh hung out with him and you know, he's big on, you know, manufacturing adversity hardcore about it.

Yeah. And and so I took a lot of that like Yeah. I Yeah, that's I agree. Like I got And so my wheels are always turning like how do I make this [ __ ] harder on him, you know? Like this is like this is too easy. How do we make this hard like all the time? And it was Arthur Brooks who kind of settled me settled me in on that a little bit and just said, "Life is hard, Adam. Life will present plenty of adversity and challenge." And because you're a father that cares so much about that and that you're aware of that as you are, you'll know how you'll handle that.

You're like 90% of the way there. Yeah. Right. Like don't worry, it's going to come. Yeah. He's going to have a a heart. It may not be because he can't afford a pair of sneakers or maybe some things that you could relate to, but life will hand him adversity. And when it does, you'll be a good father. They'll be like, that kind of settled me down a little bit. And she did apologize before she saw her car, too. Later in the day, she said, "I'm sorry." And then when when we were in the car alone, when we're sitting there, she's looking at it.

I'm like, "Hey, so what was it like at school?" She's like, "Oh, you know how it is." She's like, "The waterworks start coming and I can't stop it." And then people are watching me, which makes me makes it even harder. And I'm like, "Did you tell anybody?" She's like, "I'm not going to tell everybody. I'm crying cuz I didn't get a car." So like she's aware. Yes. Sounds ridiculous, but you know, your emotions get running and you can't you can't stop the whole thing. But man, it just And it made me think that's just Yeah.

And I g I look, I know my dad had these situation with me cuz the way he grew up. He used to tell me stories all the time. I thought he lied. But but my dad's stories are crazy. His are extreme, bro. Yeah. His are so crazy that you're like, "You had a full meal tonight. How could you complain?" They're not even just bringing anything up. My dad used to My dad's toes are not sticking out your shoes. How could you complain? I have a blanket.

Like, he used to tell me the life of luxury, bro. He told me one time, I didn't believe him. He's like, "You know what toys I had when I was a kid? I had one tire and I had a stick." A tire and a stick. How do you compete with that? And then I remember I went to Sicily and him and his brothers were reminiscing when they were kids. remember the tire we had? Oh my god, it was so fun. I'm like, you actually had a tire and a stick.

Like, yeah, we used to push it along the road. That's what we used to play with all the time. That was our toy. I'm like, oh my god, dude. You I when I hear stuff like that though, I also wonder like how much of like that creativity side and stuff like that. We have robbed generations because I see so much so much value in the ability to do that. I felt bad. I had a buddy who was talking to me over my birthday weekend and it was the first time he had met Max.

He's like, "Oh my god, he's so cool." This and that. He's so chill. I'm like, "Yeah, I know. That's what everybody says when they meet him." I said, "He's super great kid." Whatever. Right. He's like, "Hey, man. Have you got him really into video games yet?" I'm like, "Uh, yeah." I said, "Uh, yeah, I'm trying to avoid all that stuff." And he kind of looked at me like sideways. Just Yeah, man. Just the just what that does to their their brain at such a young age.

I'm not saying I'm going to be a dad who says he can't play them, but I'm going to delay that as long as I can. Yeah. Um, you know, and and right now like seeing him in the living room come up with his own games and with his blocks and and and like make believe and stuff like that. I'm going to ride that wave as long as I possibly can. And so far, not having an iPad, not having video games around him, it's not it's non-existent in his world.

It does is isn't even there and doesn't, you know, he's missing out on it. I'm sure one day he'll be a 12-year-old and his one of his friends will and then sure he'll play and stuff, but I'm gonna I'm gonna delay that and and replace that with Uno cards and trouble and sorry and playing interactive games as long as I possibly can. I like I felt bad because I was just being honest with him about my son, but I felt like I was also insulting somebody about how they're raising.

such such a hard dynamic to try and, you know, bring that out cuz he was like excited to tell me to like get my kid playing video games and I'm like, "Yeah, that's terrible for kids." Yeah, I know. I didn't do that. You say like I did it in like a real soft like way around it. You use them to cocaine yet? Yeah. No, I was totally not that parent either. I was like nicely like saying like, "Yeah, you know, I've just kind of chose to do this." And um and then I said I I think that has a lot to do with what you see how his personality, why he's so calm, he's loving, he's interactive, he looks you in the eye when you talk to him as a stranger, like so um yeah, those games, man, they can just they could really suck those kids in.

So totally, totally. I got to talk about Vicki. Uh so she does our hair uh every Monday so we look uh decent on the podcast. By the way, when I when I look back at old podcast before we used to have Vicki. Yeah. Wow, dude. Hey, post I was close werewolves. Post Vicki and the chairs. Oh, that's so awkward. How could you tell me? People must have thought we were tiny. Well, you know, you know big ass chairs. People did. That's one of the biggest things we always get when people run like god damn you guys are all hella big.

It's like it's cuz we were in those big ass giant chairs we call their arms late. I take zero responsibility. You guys know I don't know how anything about or style. Oh, remember? So, I had to regulate and get these ones. So, remember when uh that was my buddy who owned that furniture store? That was right underneath right underneath the original studio. And when we first, you know, we stapled all the sound stuff because we all said, "We'll never record this." We all want to see us.

Yeah. We were like, "This is so stupid. Who would ever watch us?" Like, I know who thought like you would watch podcasts. Like, we just didn't think that way. And so, everything was more for comfort or sound. And so the big comfy couches Doug I remember Doug was like, "Oh yeah, those will absorb a lot of sound." That's right. Anyway, so I was talking to Vicki and she was talking about uh how she lo she loves her eight. So we hooked her up with an eight sleep.

Yeah. And she's been using it and she sets that thing to 55 or something like that. That's what my She freezes her little butt off in there. Arctic lady. Yeah. Cuz she was getting sweaty, Doug. She was getting sweaty at night and she's like I don't know if it's parmenopause or whatever stuff. Yeah. And uh but she's like, "Man, I freeze that thing and I just sleep all." By the way, are they What category though? Are they Black Friday? My wife's going through that. Are they Black Friday sale, too, Doug?

Everybody. Yeah, they have a massive sale going. Everybody's got a sick massive sale. Let me tell you what it is. They're doubling the typical offer that they up to $700 off. Oh wow. Oh my god. That's a huge saving. Yeah. Yet another cool thing they've uh rolled out is um financing options. Oh. So you don't have to pay for it all at once. What's the history? We might have looked this up a long time ago. It's because this is airing on Black Friday. Yeah, today is Black Friday.

What's the history of Black Friday? Would you mind looking that up? When did that start? I know this. I know. And like I looked at you figured it must I know. I've read something because people preparing for uh Christmas, you know, and like it must have been just a conscious effort. Everybody would shop right after the first one to do it. I don't know. I mean quickly it became the most popular shopping day after everybody everybody after Thanksgiving would go shopping and then I think it turned into department stores.

Well interestingly uh interestingly the term came from the Philadelphia police in the 1950s to describe the chaos of post Thanksgiving shoppers and second the retail explanation that the day marks when stores go from being in the red at a loss to IN THE BLACK. OH that's why it's Black Friday. Yeah that's very interesting. Wow. Run around the whole year. You know, you know what else has crazy history to it that has a a name? Bluetooth. Oh, yeah. I always wonder about that. Oh, dude. No. It's not a pirate.

It's a Viking Viking. Viking god. It's a It's a Viking leader. Yeah. Who brought two opposing uh um like um Yeah. militaries together. And so and and Bluetooth came when Dell and HP and they were all trying to do their own Bluetooth and that and the company came and the guy uh HB is uh Howard something I think is his name who was who who invented it. Bjornson. Okay. So, the Bluetooth the Bluetooth uh logo he was the one that knew the story of this Viking and and it's like a a Viking uh whatever uh writing H and B mix mix mixed together for his for his name.

Wow. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. And and that's the and it brought and that's the reason why cuz it brought these two like so companies that were rivaling each other towards Bluetooth technology. Let's work together so we could all do King Herald Bluetooth. Yes. 10th century Danish king who united Scandinavia. He had a dead tooth also. Well, that's actually so they say the way he got Bluetooth there is is either he had a dead tooth that made his mouth look blue or another there's another theory. There's like two different theories on why was he called Bluetooth?

But one of them is that he had a dead tooth in his mouth. You ever noticed someone like that? They had one of those those as a kid. You don't see those so often anymore, but as a kid there was always that one kid with the tooth. My mom My mom had one. Oh god. For the Yeah. for the longest time. It wasn't until like I don't know maybe a decade or so ago. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. She got it pulled out. Finally got put a put a whatchamacall you know back to Black Friday.

Black Friday is still a shopping frenzy but since the internet and and online shopping became a thing. I it it's not like it used to be. I first of all if you go to the mall on Black Friday it's still crazy. But do you guys remember when we were teenagers what it was like to go to the mall on Black Friday? I had avoided it like the pl where there were crowds. People camped out the night before. Yeah. At it was tradition that if you if you drove by right after Thanksgiving, you would see people camping out in tents.

Yeah. The night of Thanksgiving, you would be camping out for the next day. Last time I remember being a part of that was when the Wii came out. Oh. And um it was like cuz my birthday's in January as well. And so like this is when I was dating Courtney and it was funny cuz like we were in line like everybody was already camped out already at Target and it was like all the way outside and I was like, "Oh, this is ridiculous. We're not going to do this." She's like, "No." Like she was like on a mission to get me a freaking Wii.

And so like I wait there for a while and then like she actually like camped out and and like made it all night. She sp she actually stayed there all night. Stayed there all night. That's why I married her. Yeah. That's it. That was the one. I'm in. That's it. I'm in. I remember that. I remember that we had I had all the trainers over. That was before you guys married, right? It was Yeah, that's why you married her right there. That's like my story of coming home and Katrina watching football.

I was like, "That's it. I'm married this girl." Wow. She's like that determined, you know, to get me the thing. She's the one. Wow. Done that for me before. I have a story of Jessica, but I can't share on the podcast. But I knew that's it right there, baby. It was that one maneuver. She's going to be so mad. But I I used to hate the holidays because of that. I This is before I became a Christian, before I knew the value of it. And I used to hate it cuz I'd be like, "This is stupid." It was like mass consumerism.

It was just I used to hate it. I'd go to the store cuz I forget. And I'd go to the store to get some and I want to punch everyone cuz people are just racing and Well, I mean parking lots really. That was I mean honestly from here on out it's it's gnarly. I mean it gets I mean once once Black Friday starts all the way till Christmas Christmas I have to my uncle used to shop on Christmas Eve every year. Yeah, that was Yeahress. That's a guy thing, by the way.

That's dudes. Oh my gosh. Limited options list. I mean, with everything that you can do online now, we've Katrina and I have been pretty consistent now. There's been a couple couple years we've missed. But we're almost done with our Christmas show. Yes. Yeah. We normally do a really good job of getting lists early and then we just Amazon for a week looks crazy at our house. Just all of them coming in and then it's like the best feeling ever to go rolling into December and like Christmas shopping is done, dude.

like, oh, takes a lot of stress off the holiday. A lot. A lot. Anyway, anyway, but hey, you know, you brought up aid sleep. I've been I was actually I didn't know it was up today and I didn't know you're going to bring up Vicki, but um everything that I'm going through, one of the things that still hasn't recovered is my thermostat, dude. So, internal. So, my poor aid sleep can't figure me out right now. Oh, I was like sweating, then I'm freezing and it's like, oh yeah, it's like up and down all over the place.

And I actually shut it off one night cuz I'm like, I don't want to screw this thing up. It was like perfect for my body for the longest time. But my thermostat, I don't know how long that's going to take, but that's uh Well, you said last night you had a first night, bro. First two weeks. First night. Yeah. Took Praise God, bro. Took Yeah. It was like So, I'm going to give you more. I'm just going to love on you more, dude, on this podcast.

I can tell I could not tell when you I know because you talk about it, but you can't. You've come to work and you've been great. Uh you're not acting like somebody that I would look at and be like, "This guy is not getting sleep. He's he's he's going through it. You're coming in here doing your best and you I can't tell, bro. Great job. I think it's a testament of doing what we do. You know, I'm pretty lucky that uh you know, I've got partners like I got I've got a team like I have we get to come and do this like this is so uh I think I you know the whole thing also put me in a place of gratitude too, you know.

So I think that was wonderful. So I think that helped and like in part of my gratitude is that this is what I have get to do for a living, you know, like how how blessed am I and so uh yeah, it was it was it was pretty easy to to to muster up the energy to be here. Uh towards the end of the day, I mean well or midday I get tired. Yeah. And like the the headaches and the temperature stuff and all that like that.

So that part of my heart, but I mean, you know, uh, as far as getting up to be here, like, no, man, I love I love doing this. You can tell, dude. Anyway, speaking of substances, so last night we're at the birthday dinner and, uh, my daughter has figured out that if she wants, she can tell my, she can tell on me to my mom. Uh, cuz Italian moms, they just don't get out of that stage. They just don't. So my So I I use nicotine lozenes here and there.

And my daughter saw me use. She's like, "What is that?" This was a while ago. And I'm like, "Oh, it's uh it's nicotine." What? You know, because nicotine is associated with cigarettes. And I'm like, "It's not really bad for you." She, "Yeah, but is it good?" But is it good for you, Dad? I'm like, "It's Yeah, it's a little addictive or whatever." I'm going to tell Nona. Like, you're going to tell my mom on me. You know, I'm a grown man. And then I'm like, "Please don't tell her." Well, she did.

Penis. She did. And so last night we're at the birthday dinner and she brings it up again. And so then my mom is doing the whole I'm getting texts from her this morning. You know, she's sending me articles. You under the bus. She's sending you articles. She's sending me articles and she's saying I got to read to you some of this. It's just it's see this is just Oh, the apple doesn't fall from Italian moms are the best, dude. I mean, I love I love my mom so much.

But she's like she sends me articles of uh you know like does nicotine change your brain? Yes, nicotine significantly changes your brain by altering its reward system, which leads to addicting addictive uh behavior. I'm like, "Yeah, mom, it's addictive." She's like, "Honey, you just you tend to sway towards obsessions and crutches." And I'm like, "Yeah, I know. I know that, Mom. I'm open about it." Yeah. And And then she said, and I'm having fun with my mom and she sends me a text. She's like, "You know, caffeine's probably healthier." I'm like, "Why use that, too?" Mom, I stack them together.

And then she sends me this text. She goes, "You know what? I'm just going to let go and let God." And then I replied, I said, "Mom, telling me you're doing that is not doing that." But now I got to GET IT FROM MY MOM. Come on, man. Leave me alone. We were in the car. I was driving my parents home last night from dinner and my mom's in the back and she's doing this, right? And my dad's just like, "Oh my god." So then he's like, "Can we He goes, can we change the subject?" And he goes off into some some other subject.

My mom's like, "Yeah, if you don't want to be a father," talk to my dad like that. "Oh, you don't want to parent him right now." My dad's like, "Ah, he's a grown ass man. He's always He's in his He's got kids. He's in his 40s. Will you stop?" Like, "I'm always going to be your mom. I'm always going to love you." Oh my god. So good. I 100%. She will bother me about this until I stop. God, that's so Got to love got to love her for that.

Oh yeah. I got to uh I got to shout out another one of our partners uh you know, going through this whole process. Uh I told you guys that the the Christmas mix blend has been the morning thing every day and then I've been on double uh elementes every day too. So good. Yeah. Yeah. So that's been like a consistent What are you noticing that that's helping with? Well, when I I mean of course I went down the rabbit hole of like um you know all the things to do for withdrawal and what I need and um uh staying hydrated and potassium are really big to getting everything Yeah.

Yeah. back. Right. So, I've been hardcore on those and it makes a huge difference. So, their grapefruit flavor, that's my favorite. It's the best one. I didn't think I would like that the most. I'm not a grapefruit person. I never like grapefruit it goes good with the this the I think everybody ends up in the grapefruit. It's the best one. Yeah. Second is watermelon, but grapefruit is I like the black cherry. the watermelon and the black cherry I played out early because I think those are the like good ones to introduce you to because they're kind of they have like a sweeter good flavor, but I like the more tarty tarty like um grapefruit and lemon or the lime one and then uh and then now they have the orange one I really like like No, it's Yeah, my dad I got my dad using cuz he likes to use the sauna and he was telling me this was a few weeks ago he's like you know sometimes if I go in the sauna too long then I feel tired the rest of the day and so I said, "You need more water." He's like, "I'm drinking water." I said, "You need sodium." So, I I gave him the element.

I said, "Drink one of these before you go in and then drink some while you're in there." Yeah. He's like, "That was magic." So, yeah. That's why he felt terrible. You needed the sodium. You guys know they're in Targets and stuff now, too, right? Yeah. So, we were talking to them, right? Cuz this is our year this time of year we renew all our contracts for next year, right? So, for with our partners and and we're investors in their company, too. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things they they one of their frustrations they expressing to Katrina was just like um they had to hire how weird is this?

They had to hire an outside company to stock Target because Target employees weren't keeping the the they were selling out so fast. Yeah. Oh wow. So they actually had to hire a third party company. Interesting. Normally when you have a negotiation with Walmart Target companies like that like that's part of the negotiation is that you know hey we supply you you keep them on the shelf. These are the cans that they sell. Yeah. Yeah. and they were they were selling out so fast that some of the their representatives were going around.

They were like, "They're not keeping on the show." You know what? There's another side to this that just occurred to me and I already see it in my own house that makes Element so brilliant. So, yes, it's got this electrolytes. It's got enough sodium. Most electrolyte powders don't have enough sodium to really make a big difference, especially if you're an athlete. But there's another part here, which is that it's palatable. There's no artificial sweeteners or sugar, but they've done such a good job of making it taste good that it encourages people to drink more water.

Yeah. And and and and it just occurred to me how many times I had challenges with clients to drink more water and the reply I would get from them is it's boring. Yeah. And I remember as a trainer it's like boring. It's water. Yeah. And then and so that but something like this because it tastes good encourages you to drink more. So you got the dual benefit of the electrolytes. That's a common thing. a lot more calm than you'd think. And then too, when I was in like the Midwest, it was like like nobody drank water.

It was all sodas. Like it was soda for this. It was like a mineral water with something in it. Like everything had something in it. It wasn't just pure water. And I always thought that was weird. But like I think a lot of people grow up like that. So to have an option that's a little more healthier. Well, yeah. If you grow up on like drinking soda pop and grape juice, it's a hard water. No, it's No. I had a lot of clients that were like that that had a hard time just drinking water.

Just they it doesn't taste good. Tastes good. I know. I The first time I heard it, it was blew my mind. But but it was so common uh that I was like a it was like a training focus half the time was Yeah. You got to drink boring water, dude. Keep keep drinking. I had to uh I wanted to bring up because my I don't have a lot of wins all the time and like I got a win uh recently with Everett and uh it was mainly because okay so he we have been putting him into a lot of different sports and a lot of different physical outlets because I know basketball gymnastics track he's done tons tons of stuff and like you know it hasn't been smooth all the time like it's been like we've got rough patches where he felt like I was like being very uh authoritative and like you know militant about like my hard lines with it because it's like you know I I value it just as much as education like I I really feel like it's it's that important in conjunction with what he's doing at school and he just I just want to relax and you know his view of relaxing is like playing video games.

I love it when you hear your kids voices like, "Dad, I want to relax. Why are you always always like coming up and telling me to get outside and like, you know, do all this physical activity? I'm I'm tired." You know, it's like, "No, you're not. You're not even close to being tired. Like, you have no idea." Uh, but anyway, we get back and forth and, you know, and I I tried to like step out and I'm like, "Okay, like um I understand you're doing a lot, but it's good for you.

like it's good for your mental state. It's good for your mood. It's good for your interactions with people. It's good for uh you like being on top of your school and your studies. Like it's that like helpful. Like you don't real like you don't see it. And like he's just oh no like you I just need to relax and like you're you're too much dad. Like you know always like fighting me on it. And um you it was this was after like basketball and he's been really working hard to get some playing time cuz like he's learning you you start a new sport you have to start from the bottom up and like he did not he doesn't have a natural like gift of like oh I'm awesome at this sport and you know like this is easy like it's completely hard and he is struggle and like I've had to like we've had to really work at it and he's doing well now but just like he got home and he's like he's tired and he's just like, you know, reflecting and he was to me and Courtney, he's like, you know, I just feel like I'm just a better person, uh, you know, doing sports and, you know, I just feel like I'm Yeah, more balanced and like all this stuff.

And I'm just sitting there. I'm just like, "Oh, really? That's so interesting." You know, like I totally agree. And it's like just funny cuz like it just just dawned on him. Yeah. Just dawned on him. That's awesome though that he's getting it. I mean, he's still hella young, so for him to start piecing that dude, that's a huge win when you get your teenage kid to be like, "You were right." You know, that was all right. This is cool. Yeah. They don't want to say that, you know.

Even if they feel it. You were you were killing me earlier. We were off air and I was telling about the story off air. I was telling him about how my mom was getting on me and my daughter was getting me with the nicotine loz. And Justin was talking about when you were smoking cigars at one point and you're Oh, bro. I went through a kick because this is this is so funny, dude. Oh. of COVID cuz like um you know I was everybody's stressed out and like so you went the other way and smoked cigarettes.

So I'm just like cigars cigars. Yeah. I went outside on the deck and I'm just like I just need a moment, you know? And I s I kind of went through a spell of like I don't know maybe a couple times a week like I would be outside and I'd smoke a cigar and like like Ethan would be looking at me through the window and just be like shaking his head and like really disappointed in me and then like walked outside. He's like, "Dad, I think we should talk.

I don't think this is good for you." You know, and like we just I'm like, "Ah, bud. I know it's, you know, it just helps calm me down. Finally, I'm just kind of, you know, I'm like, "Go jump on the trampoline, you know, leave dad alone. I'm just smokes." He said, Dex, Adam said, I mean, Justin said he went up to him. He's like, I'm I'm kind of worried about you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was like really worried, like concerned about me. I'm like, you don't have to be, bud.

I I got a handle on this. I'm like, don't That's the best. But, I mean, I I ended up stopping doing it cuz he really was like Yeah. He was like concerned. I know. My parents feel like when I go in their house and throw food away and stuff. It's so good. It was funny. Brain. FM plays sounds and music that have been engineered to induce states of mind. By the way, fMRI studies show this actually works. In other words, you listen to focus, your brain becomes more focused.

You listen to meditate, your brain meditates. You listen to sleep, go to sleep, stay asleep. It works. It's crazy. Don't believe me? Try it for a month for free. Go to brain.fm/mindpump. Back to the show. Our first caller is Emily from Florida. Hi Emily. How you doing Emily? Hello. Hi guys. How are you? Good. How are you? How can we help you? Good. Um, really excited to be here. Um, so I will read my message. Let's see here. Okay. Hi, Mindpump Fitness. I'm a big fan of the podcast and I absolutely love your program.

Um, I've tried Powerlift. I'm 5'8, 29 years old, uh, female, weighing about 155 lbs. Um, I have about 17% body fat according to a DEXA about 2 months ago. Um, I am a personal trainer part-time, but I do have a full-time desk job as well. I average about anywhere between 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day. Although I'm not always 100% consistent. Uh my macros are usually about 150 g of protein, 200 g of carbs, and I would say upwards of around 70 g of fat. I'm writing in because I'm experiencing a little bit of a plateau and I would like some guidance on what to do next.

Being a personal trainer, I like following programs like yours. Um, I also have followed like Jordan Science and uh a few others because I feel like it really helps expand my knowledge and keeps me fresh as a trainer. Although I have multiple P maps programs, I've only completed Powerlift. Truthfully, I um actually just purchased quite a few with your uh 60% off sale, which I am very grateful for. That came in clutch. Um, at this point I'm following my own structured two upper and two lower workout splits.

I enjoy my workouts, but I feel like, you know, I'm plateauing a bit and I'd like your experience on what to do next and um what program to do next. I welcome any and all feedback. I love you guys and appreciate all you do. Emily, Emily, do you do you uh realize what's going on here? you're you're literally 155 17% body fat uh at 5'8 which is incredibly fit and you admit that you don't even consistently 100% hit your macros all the time like that's if you really wanted to get leaner or I if that's the goal or is the goal to get stronger consistency a little more consistency around nutition might might squeeze out a little bit more for you but you're actually in an incredible place what's what's the goal?

What's the main goal? What are you wanting to do? Um I I don't honestly um I know I'm in a good place physically. I I I have no like um I'm I'm aware that I'm on an elite level of in terms of my body composition and um where I'm at. I just I kind of like that challenge, the constant like chasing some sort of goal or you know um I loved powerlift because it made me push my weight. I never have, you know, deadlift or squatted what I was doing in that program.

And I, you know, that was due to the structured guidance I had from you guys in that program of, you know, reaching those lower um those lower reps, higher weight kind of deal. Um, I guess at this time I just feel like truly um I feel like I could I with with how much energy and time I do put into my health and fitness physically, I guess I would be chasing strength because I'm looking to kind of um yeah, gain strength. Um my core has always been something that I just it's like my problem area that for me it's like my eyes immediately go to that and I don't know if that's maybe a would be a nutritional thing.

Cutting out something or not maybe not cutting out but increasing my calories I would imagine is something you'd probably tell me to do. Um, I've never done a bulk, so the idea of that really scares me. Um, but I trust what you guys have to say and um, I'd like to fully take on whatever advice you give me and give it a go. Um, that's great, Emily. So, your goal is strength. You want to get stronger. Yeah, I want to get stronger. I don't I don't need I know I don't I don't want to lose any body fat.

I want to just gain strength. you and and you kind of already answered this, but you said you train people, too. If you were your own client, right? So, just imagine that you're talking to you, you came to you and you're like, "Hey, I want to get stronger." What would you tell you? I would tell me that um you need to fuel that strength. Yeah, you have good advice. I've learned it from the best. Honestly, you know, you guys have totally changed my life. It's amazing.

Well, you ready? Are you ready for some real changes? Yeah. Okay. You you you you got to eat more and and you're too lean to make the kind of strength gains that you're looking for. Uh you probably you need to Here's where it's going to get scary. Ready? Okay. You got to eat more. But I got something more scary for you. You also got to gain some body fat. You got to get up to probably 19 20% to really maximize those strength gains and it will look great.

But the beauty don't worry about it. The beauty of that is on the path there, you're going to be eating way more calories than you've ever eaten and you can always come back and you're going to build more muscle. You can always come right back to where you're at. You have the tools, you have the discipline, you have the knowhow to do it. And so it's not like the you have to stay up there forever if you don't like it. What happens to a lot of female clients that we we send this path, they end up going, "Oh [ __ ] I really like this.

I like it." And you're you're probably going to have a better hormone profile. You're probably going to have more energy, more metabolic flexibility. So, nutritionally, you can get away with more libido will feel good. Joints will feel good, and you're going to be stronger than you've ever been before. So, just a little a little background and why I think I have this fear is growing up, I was always uh honestly I hate I was a chubby kid and I've I've never had a problem loving food.

Um I love food. So, um that's why I feel like I've worked so hard to get to this place. I've you know and I and I can honestly say like I still do eat like I eat my I just eat whole natural foods kind of like what I feel like you guys tell everyone. Yeah. Um so it's not a problem of actually eating it. It's like knowing where my numbers are that I I'm I'm someone like I'm I'm disciplined. I can follow a plan. I if you tell me what to do like you jump tell me to jump.

I'll ask how high. Like I want to know um do you have an idea of like numbers I should start doing? Add 25 gram of carbs and add another 20 gram of fat. That'll do it. Just start there. Don't nothing with my protein or Yeah. I mean you can have a little more protein if if it comes with that. It's not a big deal. I mean I I I where your fat's at. I'd love to see you at 80 80 grams of fat consistently. So I think that'll do I think that'll serve you alone.

Yeah. I looked at your calories. It looks like you were right around 2 2100 or something like that. Yeah, I would say I'm between 2,000 to 25 to 2500. You should probably live at 2500. Mhm. So 2500 is where you're going to live, not going down to two. And you're and you're in such a good place in all your macros that you can evenly distribute that across or you can go and you're you're So here's here's what's great about where you're at macro- wise, okay? And you don't need to overthink this is you're as long as you're hitting your protein consistently, that comes number one priority.

But you have room in carbs, rooms in fat, and room in protein to go up in any and all. And so I would choose whatever you want. Or I would play with it. Maybe I would get those extra three 400 calories from fat for a week and see how that my body feels and responds. Then other weeks I would get the calories from carbs to see how I feel. And then I would do protein. And then I do a mix. And then and really just evaluate what what satisfies your cravings, what gives you the best workouts, what do you see yourself doing more consistently?

because you have the room in every macro to to go up and be completely healthy and good and and and then you choose you choose what you like. But I I'll just back you up uh because what Adam's saying is such great advice and I'm just going to back you up and say uh the it would be great to be able to do this and not fear that chubby girl that you were when you were a kid. Like how would you like to do this and not be fearful anymore?

I love that. And um I've had some, you know, as a 29year-old female, I can confidently say like I've had my own journey with my health and fitness. Hey, sorry, I have dogs. Um I can confidently say that, you know, I've had the point where I was I was noticeably too lean. And now I know that like I feel like I'm in a healthier place. I'm fueling my body correctly. Um, but I just feel like now I'm kind of looking to not be lean, but be strong and like be that, you know, example that I know like my clients need and um, you know, I I'd want to be for someone else.

Um, it with that, what program would you guys say out of your programs for me to I I'd love to see you do something more novel. I like uh but I also want you to do something that you're going to be motivated to do. So I I get if you really love powerlifting on that one, but like map strong or oldtime would be like a really cool the for traditional more like strong powerlift anabolic would probably be your programs for strength. Okay. I actually just got anabolic um with that sale.

And is it is it two days a week? No, you do a three. Yeah, you do three. So, it'll give you two workouts, but you could do them Monday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So, you know, uh you workout A would be duplicated in the week one and week two it's workout B and then as you get to the later phases, then it's a three-day. Gotcha. Okay. Cuz I just start I did um the pre yesterday I did the prephase. You don't need your pre. Yeah. Okay. So, with your experience, we jump right into the program.

Go right into phase one. Cool. Phase one, bump your calories, get strong, and stop measuring your body fat. Don't weigh yourself. Focus on the strength. Fuel the strength. And uh I'm going to tell you right now, if you get stronger and and your body fat percentage actually goes up, you're going to feel so good. But the most the best feeling is going to be the getting rid of the fear because then you're going to see like, oh, this isn't scary at all. Like, this is totally fine.

This is great. Yeah. No, I agree. I uh at one point I don't think I would ever even considering I would ever have considered, you know, quote unquote like bulking. I don't know if this is considered bulking 2500. Um but um I know that like you know I hear you guys talk to callers and say like how amazing is it to get your calories up to a place that your body is working so efficiently on you know higher calories. And I know it's not uh a myth.

It's real. Um so I want to get there, too. You're going to respond really well. You're going to respond really well because you're not coming from like a really scary place. You're actually coming from not a bad place, but what you've been doing for a while is is meeting your intake with your activity. And so you're just kind of like and that's why you're walking around at 17% body fat. Yeah. Uh because you're you're you're kind of playing with that, which there's nothing wrong with that.

But when you go in that surplus, now you've got the building blocks to really build the strength and stuff and it's going to you're going to feel like a superhuman. Uh and your body's going to respond really well to this. Yeah. Awesome. I'm super excited. Um so I will continue with anabolic. Yep. And uh I'll bump my calories to 2500 staying there. Yep. Increase my uh carbs and fats, maybe some protein, and uh I'll see where I go. Yeah. We know where you're going to go.

You're going to get strong as heck. Awesome. Well, I'm really excited. Thank you guys so much for speaking with me. You got it. Thanks, Emily. I really appreciate it. Have a good one. Bye. Bye. It's going to be I mean, she's so So, here's the deal. You when you reverse diet someone who came from a really super low calorie, super like it's that's scary. Takes pro it takes time. Takes a long time. She's healthy. Yeah. So, she's just going to go into a bulk and just get strong right off the switch is going to be flat.

Well, that was my original point of like when she first dropped all the numbers. I'm like, you're in a You're fine. you're fine. Like you're you're incredibly lean. She could live there already. Uh you're eating 2,000 plus calories. Uh so she's not in like this unhealthy bad state, but what's your goal? Oh, okay. You want to build more strength. Yeah. No, [ __ ] You're not going to go anywhere with that that low a calorie, that much activity. You've pretty much peaked out what you're going to get.

She bumps 4 or 500 calories, uh switches to a new program, and train hard. She's gonna turbo. Yeah, turbocharge that. Our next caller is Shelby from Alberta. Hi, Shelby. How you doing, Shelby? happening. Good. How are you guys? Good. We're good. How can we help you? Okay. So, I'll kind of read my email here. Um, I'm from a small town in Alberta and last year I bought a gym cuz that's what you do in small towns. Um, prior to that, I had no interest in working out, but then I had to justify the purchase.

So, um, had a couple pounds to lose and decided that I might as well make use of this facility. Um, I ended up teaching classes last year two to three days a week. So, my own like workout programming wasn't super consistent. Obviously, I was moving, but um diet also wasn't consistent. So, like I knew what I needed to do, but I wasn't exactly doing it. Um, I was sitting around 150 lbs. I'm 5'8 and 27 years old. So this spring we stopped classes for the summer and that's when I got the chance to really commit to my own fitness fitness programming.

Um around end of April, beginning of May is when I started being really consistent. So I was working out three days a week, walking 10 to 15,000 steps and trying to run 5K once a week, but I hate cardio, so that wasn't always consistent. Um my diet was pretty dialed in at 1750 calories, and I managed to get the weight off. So, I bounced around with programming from push, pull, leg, stopper, lower, and just recently switched to three days a week full body. Um, my reasoning was that I felt I wasn't really giving my all on leg days, so I tried this.

Um, I'm down to 135 lbs. I started reverse dieting in September and now I'm up to 2250 calories and consistently getting 130 g of protein. So, my focus for this winter is to put the muscle back on and just kind of see what I can do. So, I'm still doing three days a week, but that will be switching right away here because we're about to start classes up again. So, I'm going to drop that down to two days. Um, yeah. I guess something that I've been playing with that I'm kind of just interested to know your thoughts on is supersets versus resting between like doing um two exercises and then rest or adding drop sets to try and get past a plateau and going down to two days a week.

What kind of split would you look at? Would I stay with the full body or any other suggestions? Tell me a little bit about the classes you're going to be teaching. Um, so it's going to be like a full body boot camp like interval style one day a week. Well, probably two days a week and probably Zumba two days a week. And you're doing the class with them? Yeah. Okay. Definitely. We definitely don't want our strength training to be super setting. And in fact, you want to go the complete opposite direction almost powerlifter style where you do a set, rest for three minutes, do another set, one exercise, rest because you're going to be doing so much circuit and fastpac almost cardio uh weightlifting and all the other stuff.

Uh you if you want to get the benefits from uh from lifting weights, you're going to need at least a day or two of that in your week. uh otherwise you're just going to burn burn burn. The other option is to do uh a couple lifts a day like a maps 15 uh style workout. Uh so you obviously have access to barbells uh six days a week. And so you basically do two lifts a day. Mhm. So every day it's like 20 minutes rather than two days a week of this kind of full body.

That would serve you well with your already volume. That's right. Uh and and that might actually build more muscle for That would be ideal if you would be down to do it, you know. And then the other side of it, too, is you got to bump your calories when you're adding these classes. So, whatever you're eating now is not enough. No, you were going to say that. So, I would jump another 400 calories. Uh, we could send you maths 15. Follow that. And if and and get stronger.

That's how long have you been I got to back up here too for a second. Shelby, you didn't like you just bought a gym. I wanted I wanted to I wanted just what you do. You have no idea. This was a whim. I literally Okay. I looked at my cousin one day and I was like, "You know that gym that's for sale? I think we should buy it." She goes, "Well, I've been thinking about it." I was like, "Well, let's just go look at the building." Like, this was just a random Friday night.

Wow. So, we looked at it, made an offer the next week. They accepted. The inspection was good. And then we were like, "Oh, man. We own a gym." Okay. Wow. Now, were you were Okay. Were you like a a major lifter consistently before trainer or anything? No. Just felt a calling. That's awesome. Okay. So, since then I got like my group fitness certification, my Zumba, and I just got certified as a personal trainer. So, like we're committed, but it's Yeah. Okay. Well, and that was when?

Last year. Yeah. Like we've been open for just over a year. Okay. So, here's this is what's great. You're you're new with this with yourself. Uh and so your goal should always be to get stronger for the next two or three years. Just get if you're getting stronger, you're building muscle. Yeah. Now after 3, four years, 5 years, you get diminishing returns with chasing strength because you start to kind of hit that kind of upper limit. Not saying you can't get stronger, but it's not as like the returns on strength right now are everything.

So if you follow maps 15 and you feed yourself properly and you're getting stronger, you're moving in the right direction. If you're not getting stronger, then it's typically a calorie problem or a programming problem. In which case for you the programming issue would be put less effort into the classes. What I mean by that is find a way to teach the class without you doing the workout with them because it is an endurance style workout which is a competing signal to strength training. Okay. So any chance that you can outsource that or just teach walking versus actually doing you're winning.

That should be kind of the goal. In fact, Shelby, I'll tell you this. Uh, this is actually good for someone like you who's new to the gym industry. There's nothing wrong with doing the workout with the group, but a lot of instructors think that if they don't do the workout with the group, they're going to be less motivating. That's actually that's actually not true. The most motivating instructors are the ones that demonstrate the exercise while everybody's working around, they walk around and correct form and motivate people.

That's the best instructor. Yeah. So, like amateur instructors, they're doing it with them. pro instructors are coaching while everybody else is doing uh the workout. Yep. And so and that'll get you out of this like Yeah. Because that's a lot, dude, to be doing that many classes. You look for the ones struggling the most and you're bringing it up. So like you demonstrate it and then you walk around and you're like motivating people, correcting form, then you go back, show them the next one, then you walk around, you know, that kind of deal.

Maps 15 is a goal. Consistently hit protein. Yep. Another tip, if you are going to do any of the high-intensity classes, do some drink some calories before you go into it, get some fuel, fuel your body with liquid, like liquid calories, so digest it quick and you can use that to burn while you are in there and and follow mass 15 consistently and just try and get strong. We'll send that to you. And then are you in our course? Because we teach coaches and trainers how to build their business.

No, but that would be fantastic because I am just floundering. All right, I'm gonna send let's have maybe Ann. Yeah, we'll have Ann call you. So, she's our head instructor for all coaches that are building their business. She'll give you a call and tell you what it's all about. Yeah, we do. I mean, this is what we This is what we do. It's part of what we do. So, but great job. Super excited. Are you profitable or how are you doing? Um, yeah. So, we kind of had to restructure some financing and whatever, but like we opened September of last year and so September, end of September this year would have been a year.

Um, right now we have somebody else in teaching classes 2 days a week. We have the backspace rented out two days a week. Yeah. So, like the summer obviously is slow and we're just kind of getting through our like figuring out what the cycle is throughout the year. Yeah. But we made it through the summer. You do realize you jumped in like the hardest business. Yeah. That's awesome. But you're you're at a good time. Small towns are different because small town we have no competition. No, I have I want a skill person.

You give me I came from a small town, one gym in the entire town. Uh my best friend owned it. Uh I have all kinds of advice for you around that that will crush and and she killed it. She killed it cuz she was the only only business in town. So there is a lot of advantage to being in a small town where you're the only and you got a great personality and attitude and this is this is a good time of year for you right now.

So when all the kids go back to is this was such a weird learning curve for me. I always thought summer would be where we banged it out. Summer was always the hardest time to make money. When all the kids go back to school, this is when you make your money. So, this is the beginning of of a good time for you guys and good timing for you to be potentially getting with us. Yeah. Awesome. All right. We'll send you that program and then we'll have someone reach out.

Maybe we can help you out with your business, too. Awesome. Thank you so much. Got it. Right on. I had never heard that before. So, great. You want to sound like like a drunken night with your your cousin? Hey, you know that empty building? We should buy that. You're right. Business plans on an afternoon. There's only one time you come back from it make a pretty good gym. There's no gyms in this town. This is lit. This is literally like the one the one time that you spent an hour trying to convince us to buy a yogurt shop.

Remember that when you remember that, dude? Just want you to know. Yeah. That's not dead. You literally tried to sell us on my through half the product. Long listeners will they listen to listen to this and they'll know in like 10 years when we have this [ __ ] booming yogurt shop. I'm gonna be like, "Told you so yogurt pump." Our next caller is Connor from New Hampshire. What's up, Connor? What's going on, Connor? What's happening, gentlemen? Nice to see you. Um, I'll just I'll kind of get right to the point um with my my email.

Um, 36 years old, uh, 62 and I work remotely as a engineer environmental consultant. I've been a longtime listener of Mind Pump and I want to thank you all of you for uh, your insights and your programs have generally reshaped uh, my perspective and uh, helped me stay grounded uh, over the years. Um bit of background. I've struggled with weight with most of my life. Uh at 16 I was 300 lb and uh during college uh I reached 365 370. Uh I've gained and lost 65 to 70 lb multiple times.

After college, I started working in the field of uh environmental cleanup work uh which involved heavy travel and not so desirable locations. Uh despite inconsistent gym access, I discovered Mind Pump around 2015 and 2016 and began uh prioritizing fitness when I wasn't on the road. Uh by 2019, I was down to 285. Um early 2019, I met my now wife, uh and she moved in during the COVID lockdown. Uh I was running MAP Strong at the time, which is still my favorite program. And like so many others, the gym closures and pandemic habits led to poor eating and drinking um and inactivity.

Uh by late 2022, I was back up to 360 and I was mar we were married in uh February of 2024. Uh in August of 2024, after learning we were expecting our first child and uh due in April, uh I started semiglutide with a goal to drop below 300 lb before the baby arrived. Uh it helped tremendously. My appetite decreased, less food noise, and I was less inclined to drink. Uh reached my goal in late March, and by the end of April, I was uh at 295.

Since then, I've maintained around 290. My workouts, uh I feel like I've been more inconsistent with the demands of of fatherhood, but I aim for one to two gym sessions a week. Workout recovery on GLP1 uh has been slower than I'm used to experiencing even with low volume. I use the Hume Body Pod to track progress. Currently around 31% body fat uh with 1885 to 187 pounds of lean mass. Current track calories is between 2300 and 2400 with 205 uh grams of pro uh protein per day.

And my biggest challenge is consistency. I can somewhat reliably train twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. However, travel, unexpected work commitments and family responsibilities can often disrupt the time I've set aside for myself to get make it into the gym. I'm learning to give myself grace and stay active where I can. walk, swimming, trigger sessions, body weight work, chores uh between structured programming or I'll drop calories on days where I don't work out and just day got away from me. Um I'm considering tapering off my GLP1 now that I've plateaued and I want to use it to my advantage to gain strength and muscle.

Uh I've yet to discuss this with my doctor, but I want to have a clear and concise path and approach. Uh, I've outlined a phase strategy using anabolic, but I'd love your input. Um, you go ahead. You're you're doing so good. You've done so good. You really have. I mean, the even the ability for you to eat 23 to 2400 and hit your calorie and hit your protein intake on a GLP1 and to do that and you're still getting it. You're doing a really good job.

I hope you know that. Like this. You're in a you're in a good place and you've done really well. A lot of people that do GLP1s, they just crush the appetite and just just, you know, lose weight and and they lose a bunch of muscle and they kill their metabolism and then they're in this crazy they lost a bunch of weight, but then this hole that they got to dig out of. You're you're in a good place. You really are. Yeah. Yeah. And before I started, I was like, I need to do this right or I'm going to screw myself even more.

And I got that from information from you guys. Like, I got to do this right. I do not want to end up, you know, one taking this for the rest of my life, then putting myself in a spot where it's just it's going to be wasted, you know, a wasted effort. Connor, how old is your how old your baby? That's exactly where I'm going as well. I want to know like if are we is it a good time right now to potentially try and ramp this up with the with the baby?

Yeah. Yeah. She's she's six months old. No. All right. So, I got something. I I think I know how to help you here. Um, I I think the best strategy Well, let me let's back up for a second. What's the challenge with food? What are the things that trigger you when you're off the GLP1? When do you go off, let's say, you know, for lack of a better term, go off the rails with with diet? Uh, I would say it's usually either eating out or it would be uh like just like two weeks ago was uh having all the Halloween candy around.

Okay. Um, luckily I'm I'm also in a spot where I also do all the grocery shopping. Um, so I can I really have a good control over what's in my house and you know what I like to keep around. Um, my diet is mostly whole foods, mostly all homemade stuff, but maybe one or two meals a week. You know, we're you know, we're dead tired on a Friday and my wife wants Thai food and yeah, at this point my my wife wants my wife gets she wants Thai food, we're getting Thai food.

when uh uh you mind if I bring up a little bit more on the email that you put up there? Yeah, sure. It said that you also have a less desire to drink. Was that was that where you were getting some calories before? Was like where you were Oh, yeah. Yeah. Especially in my in my all throughout my 20s, you know, you know, I live in a a nice town with a a lot of great bars around and that was it was like my our social life was, you know, a lot of going out, you know, drinking, having some pizza at the end of the night, you know, standard stuff.

you know, and you know, I got to my 30s and I was like, this is this is enough. This is too much. And, you know, that that that thought of like, man, you know, I just don't need a beer. I'm perfectly fine with, you know, maybe a a diet ginger ale or something like that and or a big jug of water at the end of the night. But, you know, the the thought of, you know, having a lot of alcohol was just is just not in my purview anymore.

And it's even more so not now that I'm a dad because I want to I don't want to end up in a situation if there's an emergency or something that I'm you know inebriated like I got to be ready and I can't I can't be in a state. So good motivation dude. What's So when I ask you the triggers like is it stress? Is it boredom? Is it like uh Yeah, I would say it's it's boredom. And you know, I've kind of explored this internally too of you know, I've been a big guy my entire life.

And I don't know if it's a uh I don't really know if it's like this psychological thing that I grew up with, but like, hey, you're a big guy. You got to eat. And it's you know what I mean? And if that is just, you know, it's, you know, you know, grandma giving you another another plate at Thanksgiving, you know what I mean? It's like, oh, it's like I have no desire to eat anymore, but some like I feel almost feel bad if I don't eat the food.

You know what I mean? It's such a it's such a weird thing that I've I've I've reconciled that that's been a a problem of mine and I've been really really good with or you know, when I can to just like just put the food away. Like it's like I'm I'm no longer hungry. It's like even even being on a GLP1, it's like, "Oh, and now I know what hungry feels like." I was just going to say, dude, there's a couple things here. One, you got to replace old behaviors with new ones around boredom.

Uh, and this is a practice because your default might be when I'm bored, I eat. So when you're bored, find something that you can practice. And that can be like this is when I read, this is when I stretch, I don't know, this is when I pray, this is when I play with my kid, whatever. Find a a behavior that you always go to when you're bored and it's at first it's going to be a conscious effort because it's not going to feel automatic, but over time it'll become your new behavior.

So that's one. Yeah. The second thing is uh you you want to get comfortable with the feeling of not being full. So, what what I hear is, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that for so long, uh, you wait until probably because of the environment you're in, and I get this because I'm Italian, this is how we eat. Yeah. Is uh is uh like unless I'm stuffed, then I got to eat more. And so, you got to get So, try to get comfortable with the feeling of not being stuffed.

So, hunger. Hunger to you might actually be not feeling stuffed. It might not actually be hunger. It's just I feel like I I can eat more. And so that might be what you're making what you think might be hunger. So you want to get comfortable with that. And then as a workout, I think this will be better for you, Connor. I think if you do a little bit every day versus trying to go to the gym twice a week, you'll find more consistency. And then on those off times when you got time to go to the gym, go to the gym and do, you know, four major lifts.

But I'd love to see you have a suspension trainer in your home and every day you do a few exercises on and that's what you do every day. Every day you get up, maybe you do at the beginning of the day and you do two or three strength training exercises on the suspension trainer and then when that day comes up where you're like, "Oh my god, I got two hours to myself. I'm going to go to the gym and I'm going to do like three or four compound lifts." And and we don't normally do this, Connor, but I'm Can I mail you?

Do you have a suspension trainer? I don't. And honestly, I live in such an old apartment. It's old Navy housing. I don't even know. Like I have PL I have horse plaster walls and stuff like that. So I don't even know where I would put one. I probably I do. Yeah. You could hook it over a door, right? Don't they have Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you do is you you you close the door and there's a little stopper and it goes in the door on the top.

Yeah. And then the little bean bag that goes on the other side. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I have something similar to that with uh my um my bands. There you go. So, what we'll do is and we don't do I'm saying we don't do this because don't come on people watching this. Don't expect me to mail you something. I'm going to send you a suspension trainer on us and I'm going to send you maps 15 and every day have it map. Okay, there you go. Follow every day.

Every day do a do a little something and then those off days that you got time, go to the gym. That's it. That's your workout. And that'll be your consistency, bro. And it'll be great for you, especially even when you travel. You take your suspension trainer with you and any hotel room door, you hook it up and then you got your workout. It'll help you with work. It'll help you with a mental state. It's on a every day a little bit every day. It's an easier habit to build.

And then if you miss a day here or there, it's not a big deal. I I I want to piggy back off of what why Sal's going this direction. And I think it has a lot to do with probably your workload and that you have a 6-month old shield and this may not be the best time to come off the GLP1 because what we in a perfect world what I would want to hear from you is that you know house is getting back to its rhythm.

I've got my I've got plenty of I can get to the gym three four days a week if I wanted to. You know, baby's taken care of. I'm good. I'm rested. You know what I'm saying? And and and okay, let's start to tail back on the GLP1. Let's increase calories. let's really start to push the heavy weight in the gym and that'll be a nice transition out of where you're currently at. Um, yeah, but if you're not quite there yet with the sleep and with the baby being able to be taken care of more and you really being able to commit to like, yeah, I could easily get away for 3, four hours a week to the gym, then it's probably like what you're doing is actually really good.

You're doing a good job. Yeah, your calories aren't bad. Yeah, you're in a really you're actually in a really good place, especially for the place you are in fatherhood right now. Now, what I don't know, I don't know what your help and support is. I don't know if you have that ability to get away three, four times a week and you could dedicate that and you could see that consistently with your work and everything then that but I'd want to hear that from you first before I would recommend going off the off the GLP1 and increasing.

By the way, a little bit every day, Connor, with what you're doing, you're going to progress. You're still going to see prog. You're going to continue to slowly progress. Yeah. Is what's going to happen. And and and I'll just say this. If especially if you plan on having more kids, uh what Okay, you do. Okay, so here's what it's going to look like. Here's what it's going to look like for you. Most the time you're doing this kind of like a little bit of workout every day.

I'm going to stay active, take my steps, I'm going to eat healthy. And then there going to be periods of time when you can sprint and get after it. And then there's going to be long periods of of time where uh you know, cuz your family's number one. So I'm going to devote myself to my family, my job. But what makes you a good a better father, better husband is if you stay fit and healthy. So every day I do a little something and then in between walk like throughout the day go on walks, which I think you're you're doing, right?

You're already doing that. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go for walks. I'll um take the baby out uh run, you know, take a take her for a nice walk in the jogger all the way down to downtown and back. Love that. You're good, dude. Like if you get M if you follow Mass 15, do the suspension version just every day and then you get those occasional days at the gym. go to the gym and do, you know, three, four lifts, just compound lifts, you know, a squat, a press, a row, uh maybe a core exercise, and then get out of there in 45 minutes to an hour.

Otherwise, you're doing, you know, you're doing two suspension trainer exercises a day plus walking with your diet, you're going to see yourself progress. Yeah, that's that's again it's it's uh I don't know maybe it's one of those things where I'm just like I want to progress more but I get I understand that that rate is just going to it's not going to be at the that that it's going to not going to be like this or this. It's going to be yes much more. Well, here's here's the myth.

The myth right now with your lifestyle is that there's a faster way to progress. But there isn't. Because if you try to chase the faster way, you're not going to progress. You'll burn out. You're going to find yourself being inconsistent. You'll stall. You'll burn out. It'll be hard. I'm giving you the way that's going to give you the best results, too. Not just the one that you you know what like that the graph you just put. This is actually how you're going to get results the whole time.

Mhm. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I appreciate that. um when I don't know if you the red read like the the rest of the email about you know the the GLP1 down reverse dying slowly up is just it just your your take is just that maybe that's just not the time to do that maybe if you did I agree with Adam it might be not but look here's the deal if you're like I want to try it this is what it looks like you start scaling down the dose and you start seeing how you feel replace those the old behaviors with new ones you're going to feel hungrier.

All right, what does that look like? How can I deal with that? And then if you feel like, oh, I'm not ready yet. You just scale back up. So, it'll it'll kind of look like that. But, I mean, it might be okay. I mean, if I was coaching you, we could totally we would totally test this out. Like, if you came to me like that, I'd be like, "All right, let's let's test it out." And then because we'd be I'd be talking to you on a weekly basis.

I would I would keep an eye on it, hear you out, and then I'd be like, "Yeah, maybe not a good time right now." Or I'd be like, "Hey, you're doing great. Keep it going." So, how long have you been on it? uh since was it uh nove September November of last of 2024. So typically when someone's be on been on a GLP1 consistently for a year or two and they come off uh they have uh better success than if it was only like 3 4 months 5 months cuz yeah so your your the neural networks have started to change already around how you are with food.

So, you know, if you stayed on for another six months and then started scaling it down, you have a pretty good chance of being okay. But again, you find yourself being like, I'm not ready, you could just go right back up, right? Yeah. And I was on the MA I've been on the max dose for, you know, quite some time. And I just kind of stalled out like maybe it is time to that's what my thought was. Maybe it is time to just taper it down, get my appetite back, use that increase in appetite to, you know, help with recovery and increase increase volume.

Honestly, I think if you did maps 15, even what you're eating now, if that's what you're eating consistently, you're going to see progress. I think it's the consistency is the big one. How's your sleep and how's the baby sleep right now? Oh boy. Um, yeah, that's what I worry about. Sometimes it's Sometimes it's like every two hours. Uh I think last night was the first night she's only woken up once pretty much since she came home. Um yeah. Welcome to fatherhood. Yeah. But she's a very happy, healthy baby.

That's all I care about. Yeah. You're good, dude. That's all right. That's Yeah. Right now, I mean, again, I'm go back to if you and I were talking on a weekly basis. I I'm I'm encouraging you that you're doing a hell of a job right now. You're doing really good. Uh what you're doing. I think what Sal is saying with Maps 15, hey, let's throw it on there. I actually would have I wouldn't try and put high expectations on what to expect from that. Oh, we're going to build all this muscle.

It's like we want to weather the storm right now cuz it's not going to be forever that you have a baby who's waking up three times a night every night and having to work 8 10 hours a day like that. You're going to get through that storm. And then when you get through that storm, it's like, all right, now we scale this GLP1 down. Now we ramp up calories a little bit. Now we get after intensity in the gym and let's see your body respond. But trying to do it while you're also going through that, you're just going to frustrate yourself, burn out, and then get discouraged.

Don't be surprised for it. Yeah. But don't be surprised at the progress you see with the with the consistency of Maps 15. I think that consistency is going to you're going to see some good some good progress. Oh, great. I I appreciate that, guys. Email uh Doug your address. Send back to us your your address. The only time I'm ever going to do this. Nobody get on here and ask. Well, I appreciate I reached out to Jerry to contact him. Okay. All right. So, we'll have someone reach out to you.

Yep. We're on it. All right. Great. All right. All right. Appreciate it, guys. Take care. God bless. He's been a listener for a long time. You think um I don't know if he's going to see great results on the suspension train. So, you know why? Because as I'm reading his email, consistency. Consistency. Yeah. But he's still he's lifting two days a week in the gym. He's not. He said consistency in his email. Sleeping. Yeah. So, when you read his email, as I'm reading through, he's like, "This is the biggest issue." Let me see that.

I have uh cuz that's not what I unders what I got. One. Okay. Wait. Go back. I see it. Go the other way. I saw it right there. But one to two gym. Okay. Inconsistent with the demands of fatherhood. But I aim for Okay. One to two gym sessions. So what that tells me is okay. That's fair. Yeah. I I interpreted it as that he's like consistently doing two days a week cuz if he was doing two days of like good full body workouts then you go down to suspension, I don't think he's going to see more results from that.

But you're right. If he's inconsistent with his lifting and it's one time, you need a bit of a strength boost from that. Totally. Yeah. But I But nonetheless, again, if I'm coaching him, I don't care. I don't care if we don't see progress. This is not the time like your baby's getting up two, three times a week. You're on a GLP1. You keeping the muscle you have. Exactly. You've done incredible at to this point. It's like we weather the storm right now. It's not going to be like this forever.

You're going to it's you're going to make a turn. You're going to be getting better rest. You're going to have more free time. Then we ramp it up. Then we come down with the GOP on. Then we increase calories. And then you let your body respond. That's right. That's right. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. All right. I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. Stop doing three sets of 12 to build muscle and do this instead.

You guys want to guess? Stop doing the three sets of 12 and do this instead. Uh, with that intro, my guess is you're going to tell people to change the rep range up to Yeah. 5x5 or low rep range. Do you guys remember when you're going? Yeah. So, um, often times we get stuck in like a set count and a rep count or a range