 in this super duper awesome episode of mind pump. Everything is awesome. We talk all about fitness, health, building muscle, burning body fat, but we also talk about our lives and current events. Here's what we talked about in the first 42 minutes, which is the introductory portion of this episode. We started by talking about called Dara. This is a new company we are partnering with. They make skin care products that are all natural. It's the reason why Adam's face and head looks so beautiful. It looks like the fountain of youth. Anyway, we got a discount for you. If you go to Caldera lab, that's C A L D E R A L A B dot com forward slash mind pump. You'll get 20% off your first purchase of their products. Then we talked about taxi cabs, how some people are buying old taxi cabs and police cars and making us scared as fuck at night confusing us with the hell. Then Adam talked about how you went into daddy protective mode. This is the first time you ever felt that feeling. It's like a super human feeling. Isn't it? Then we talked about how blue light can improve late night athletic performance. Study found that if athletes are going to compete late at night, if they expose themselves to bright electronic light beforehand, they perform better. And the reason for this is because it reduces melatonin production. It keeps the body awake. Now, if you want to go to sleep at night, like most of us, you want to do the opposite. You don't want to do that. You want to block blue light and our sponsor Felix Gray makes the best blue light blocking glasses. Now they're not orange or red looking. They look like normal glasses. The lenses are pretty much clear. So you don't look like a dork. They're very stylish. And we got a hookup for you. If you go to Felix Gray glasses, that's F E L I X G R A Y glasses.com forward slash mine pump. We'll get you free shipping and free returns. Then we talked about the seven biggest parenting mistakes based off of an article that I read. It's actually a pretty good article. We talked about how the feds are demanding the names of 10,000 users from Apple and Google. Uh oh. And then we talked about a personality test that we all took. Then we got the fitness portion of this episode. The first fitness question. What are some easy ways to spot a bad personal trainer? Like what are some telltale signs? Next question for a woman who lifts alone. Should you ask some random dude to spot you? Like is that weird? Is that creepy? What are the strategies? Next question of the three major power lifting lifts. Which ones did we have to work the hardest on to get stronger? And which ones were the easiest? And the final question. This person wants to know about how we all started our careers in fitness. So we share the early days way back in the late 90s. Oh yeah. Memories. Back when men dressed like idiots. They still do though, don't they? Yeah. Also this month maps starter is 50% off. Now map starter is the best program to get you started with resistance training. So if you haven't worked out for a long time or you're totally new to resistance training, but you want to reap all the benefits. You want to get a faster metabolism. You want to sculpt your body. You want to get leaner. Maps starter is the perfect program. It's also a great gift. If there's anyone in your family you're trying to convince to start working out with resistance. This is the perfect program and personal trainers if you have any clients that are beginners. This is a great resource. Now here's another good part about the program. You only need a physical ball and dumbbells. That's all the equipment you need for the entire program. Now maps starter is 50% off. Here's how you get the discount. Go to mapsstarter.com. That's M-A-P-S-S-T-A-R-T-E-R .com and use the code starter 50. S-T-A-R-T-E-R-5-0. No space for the discount. Did you see the company we just signed with? Yeah. You like it? I like them. What do you think? I like them dude. I looked them up. Do you approve? Is this the caldera? Yes. So Adam's face and head have been looking extra shiny. Good. Extra handsome. Well good. Extra handsome. Well, I mean, youthful-ish. Look, here's the deal. Okay. When you're already at a 10 in terms of handsomeness. Right. It's hard to get better. Improving upon that. Don't give them that big a head, dude. It doesn't. It's impossible. But it seemed to work. No, all joking aside, you've been using it. I see you rub it on your head and your face before we podcast. Taylor gave it to me about a month ago and said, Hey, I like this company. I like what they're doing. I like what they're about. You know, would you use something like this? And I'm like, Well, I'll try it out. We'll see what's up. And you brought it up like a couple weeks ago. That you and I thought was, Oh, that's crazy. Because I didn't tell you guys. I couldn't say anything. I didn't share with you guys. It was just because sometimes stuff like this comes across where, you know, Taylor will give it to one of us. One of us will try it and then we'll be like, Yeah, it's not really a thing that I think I would use on a regular basis or whatever and we kind of just move along from it. And then every once in a while, one of us will like really like it and then go, Okay, turn it, you know, show everybody else. So and I actually just wrote a a test testimony or whatever for their their landing page. And what in what it's done for me, what I really, really like is I've eliminated using my steroid creams on my psoriasis completely. Really? Yeah. And I mean, look at my shin. You guys know I have that right there, right? Yeah, I saw you rubbing it on your shin one day to as well as your face so that's it's a whole Yeah, so it started with me using on my face. And I was getting compliments from you guys have had people tell me like how good my skin looks right now. And I'm like, you know what, like, I'm going to start rubbing it on all my psoriasis spots. And I started with that and I was doing it at the same time still using my steroid cream. And I actually seen such an improvement on them like, let me stop using the steroid cream and I'll just keep using this. Yeah. And what I like about it is it's 100% all natural. Well, that's that's the other test. The other test is it has to pass, you know, what I think about in terms of the ingredients and it's 100% organic. But it doesn't contain and I have the list here. No parabens, aluminum, no animal ingredients, no toxic chemicals. There's no synthetic preservatives, no phthalates, formaldehyde or silicones. So it's, it's very, very good. It's very well made. And they actually did a they actually did a study with people who used this product. And the results that came back. Very good. Everybody noticed an improvement in their skin. Yeah. So it's really good. Here's the ingredients that so they have firewood, apricot oil, jojoba oil, meadow foam, seed oil, sunflower seed oil, echinacea, prickly pear oil, frankincense, nettle, red raspberry, sea buckhorn. Then there's and then I already said the frankincense. I like frankincense frankincense. That's biblical. Frankincense is good stuff. Do you know frankincense has anti-cancer effects? Is it really? Yes. Wow. There's actually studies you can find on now it's highly concentrated, but on it's anti-cancer effects. And there have been companies that have been interested in examining their anti-cancer effects. So anyway, it's just a little fascinating. So is this considered like an essential oil? They call it a serum. Serum? Yeah, they call it, they call it a serum, like a face serum. Well, most things you put on your skin that you buy at the store are, because here's the here's the problem. There's a big issue with people are much more aware of what they put in their mouth today than ever before, right? Like 20, 30 years ago, nobody was asking questions, too many questions about the potential long term effects of some chemicals and, you know, preservatives and colors and all those types of things. But nobody was asking, nobody's really asking what about what we put on our skin, because we don't consider that going in our body. You know what I mean? Even though some of the biggest organs. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of categories like this, like women's like feminine hygiene products. A lot of women don't consider the cotton that's in the materials and like a tampon and do those have chemicals and you know, those types of things. Toilet paper that obviously touches your body and you know, in a different way, I guess. Very. And then of course, the stuff you put on your skin or under your arms or on your scalp, you know, that also some of that stuff will go inside your body and accumulate. This is why, you know, with sunscreen, I use the mineral based sunscreens, the ones that don't that are not chemical based for my kids. And it makes your skin a little bit wider, obviously. But it's not, you know, I'm not absorbing chemicals that can have potential, like hormonal effects. I didn't I didn't think that I would like it. And then when I saw how expensive it was, I was like, Taylor, you're fucking crazy. You know what I'm saying? But what I've realized is how far it goes. So I've used the shit out of this thing for the last 30 days, and it still feels like I got quite a bit left in it still. So it's like a dropper in there. Yeah, you're just using a little dropper. So like when you like initially when you look at you like that's because it's it's price pretty high. And I'm like, that's pretty expensive stuff. There's so many servings in there, though. Yes. Right. Yeah, it lasts a long and you don't need very much. I literally you pull it has a little syringe thing in it, you drop it in your hands, I rub it in my hands and then I rub it on my face or my psoriasis. So how much like how many drops would you say you're using when you're rubbing it all over? Because you you rub it on your head too. Yeah. So it's not just your face. Yeah, my face, my head and my legs right now. And how many drops would you say you're using? So each time. So when I do my face, I do a drop. When I do my head, I do a drop. When I do my legs, I do a drop. So like three droppers, it's not even that much. Yeah, it's not it's not much at all. And it lasts. So I've been using it consistently for 30 days. We should have Justin give it a try. Yeah, you're ashy as fuck. I was gonna say my my ashy gator skin over here, I'd probably benefit from it the most. But I'm glad they started with you because it's, it's like a foreign animal, this lotion and stuff like that. I'm like lotion. No, I think I know I'm does that. No, I want you to try it. I think you'll I think you'll like it. I mean, I'm gonna keep it in here so we can just use it in here if you're not willing to take it home and actually do it. And it's been I've I actually really liked it. I didn't think I was going to I really kind of looked at Taylor like, you know, we're none of us are really essential oil type guys. I'm not this deal. No, they want us over. Yeah, they want us over. It makes a big difference. It's just some kind of soap to you to use. Use like normal or you just like a pure bar. You didn't care. Just like bar style. Yeah, it's like whatever's in the hotel room. I'm scrubbing myself for that. You don't use. What's it called the my joke and I use a luffa. No, you guys don't even know what's that one soap with a guy in the old commercial where he he carves it with a knife. Yeah. What is that? I was spring. Is that what you use? I totally would just, you know, to be that guy. Yeah. Yeah. So my parents bought Irish spring. This is the power of advertising. My parents bought Irish spring once when I was a kid. What do we use? We grew up with ivory. Remember ivory? Oh, Mike, we grew up on safeguard because their big pitch was like antibacterial. Guess what? Also, that was their big pitch. My parents bought that. No, it's funny. I'm more of like an opportunist like I use everybody else's soap. I don't really have like my own and so Courtney's realized like her volumes gone way down and like started buying me like the same stuff as the kids. She's like, you're only allowed to have this one. And and so I use the kids. You're says the right aid brand. Yeah. Like all right. Exactly. I'm like swab. Dishwasher soap. You know, like, yeah, shampoo. I've been, I've been meaning to take a picture of this because I find it comedy every time I get in the fucking shower is I have this little corner area in the right on the right side of our shower. And there's like, there's like two products. And then I have my bar soap over here, right? And then the whole rest of the shower, we have a shelf up top here. We've got three other corners. We have a little fucking hangy thing full of bottles and shit. And I'm always getting in the shower and I'm like, how the fuck does this woman use all of these things? Like I literally have three things over here, total, but products are no joke. It's insane. The market is insane on their side. Yeah. No, I just use I just use I just use salt palm metal shampoo and using it forever. I've got the same bottle you bought me. Yeah. Well, now you shaved. You gave up. Give it back to me. No, I still use it. Yeah. Yeah. You just rub it in and leave it. Just take a little drop now. I don't need I don't need like a big old glob of it. So I use that and then little sprouts and then I'll use sometimes charcoal. I'm still I'm still hoping to recover. You guys ever use charcoal soap? It's like a black bar of soap. And it's got activated charcoal in it. That's kind of cool. Use that a little bit. Jessica's pretty basic too. Her and I just that's it. Simple, done. No deal. Bunch of hippies. Yeah, that's it. But you know, we don't shower. So just put your oil. What do they call it? The whore bath? The bar? You rinse off your armpits and you're causing that in your jibbly bits or whatever. That's disgusting. Hey, so I had a I had a question for you guys because I'm just not aware of this, I guess. What is the deal with people that buy the old taxi cabs or the old cop cars and they drive them around? I hate their assholes. I hate those. You know, I I think there's like an auction where you can get like a discounted price on them that likes I've seen a commercial for this when I was in Chicago. Yeah, where like you go down to this auction and they auction off like government like issued vehicles and then you get a discount on it. I think that's how it works. But yeah, then they drive up and you're like confused or like you're driving slow because you think he's a cop. Well, it's always like the the hipster or stoner guy who's driving it. Tatted up. He's blown a joint. Yes. Yes. So is it aviator sunglasses? Is it supposed to be funny and ironic and that's why they do it or is it like a killer deal? That's why they drink Paps Blue Ribbon beer. Is that what it is? Yeah. So there's a guy right now. There's a guy right now who obviously gets to work at the same time I do because we've I've seen him like almost every every day on on the trip home from my house to here and he's got one, you know, he's got the taxi cab one and it's definitely that, you know, tattoos, a beard, smoking his vape pin out the window and it's got he's got a he put a the only thing about it that it's not a taxi cab and you can see where it was because you can still see like through the paint job. They don't they don't paint it or change it. But he put it. He did put a white spoiler on it. Come on. So what was your what was great for picking up chicks? So do you guys have a favorite cop car or one that you always will remember the most like oh that's a cop car. The Crown Victorian is like the most memorable. Yeah. Yeah. What about the Plymouth Grand Fury? You know the boxy like 19. Oh yeah. That one's bad. Doesn't that seem like a tank? That was like the one that always chased the Dukes of Hazard around. All the ones in Beverly Hills Cop. Yeah. Yeah. But the Crown Victoria is the one I remember the most. Well that was the most popular for a while. Now it's just like any like Ford Explorer or wherever you are. It's like you don't even know it's a cop car anymore. Dude. They got some badass ones though. Some of the Highway Patrol guys get like chargers and marrows and chargers. Yeah. Yeah. When I went to Monaco years ago I remember they I saw a cop car drive by and was a I think it was a Lamborghini. What. Yeah. I think they actually let. Yes. What. Yes. Have you guys ever been to you guys know where Monaco is. I'm not. Have you guys ever been to Monaco or know what that place is. Oh yeah. No that's where the richest of the rich they all hang out there. In saying that makes sense there. In saying bro the taxi cars the taxi cabs were like the top of the line AMG Mercedes. That was the taxis. I have seen that. I have seen that. Yeah. It was it was. I went to the they have a casino there that you have to pay to get into. It's like a famous casino and you walk already they're winning. You assholes. The odds are already in your favor. You got to pay to lose here. You know why they do that. You know why they do that though is because tourists want to go in and just walk around because you walk in there and the cheapest table I saw. This was back in two thousand and six or seven. The cheapest table I saw was a five thousand euro minimum bet. Damn. That's the minimum. And I see these guys were like they were betting chips and it was like I was trying to count a little bit from the side. I'm like dude he just did a hundred and fifty thousand euro bet. What a weird tourist like attraction. You know I want to go see rich people in their environment. That's it right there. You just pulled up. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of have you guys ever seen that tour company that like goes through Compton and like all these other places where the gang wars happen all the time. Yeah. The tour company. There's a tour company down in L.A. that like just takes it. I swear to God. Yes dude. Yeah they go like look at like the gangs like check this out. Wow. Like it's like it's so ridiculous. Like what are you doing. I had an exciting day. So yeah. So listen to what happened to me yesterday. And this was like a weird feeling that I had. Like I didn't know how to react or respond to it. Was it just that the the sexual feeling you had about Justin. That conversation. Dreams are not real Adam. I'm used to that. OK. That's not weird. Don't go with it. So Danny and I are Danny comes over yesterday and spent some good time talking to him about business stuff and things that they're working on with the YouTube channel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We are. I take the baby from Katrina. Put him in his little Bjorn thing or whatever. And I'm walking with him. He's asleep on me. And Danny and I are talking and we're walking the loop. And I live in a I live in a really nice neighborhood. And so most of the time when we're walking there's always just like other families walking us for that. And there's this dude that is walking in the middle of street and he's got a bottle in his hand and he's yelling at somebody. And I don't even know who the somebody is. And it's just kind of strange never seeing somebody like this in our neighborhood. This is the first time I've experienced this. And he actually starts walking like directly towards me and Danny. And I've got Danny with me and we're but I've got the baby on my on my chest and he's sleeping. And what I what I had a rule what it was weird for me was I instantly like the hair on my neck like stood up and the guy comes over. It's obvious he's he's extremely drunk and he's like he's getting he's super close. He gets like hella close to me. And I'm trying to be really friendly. And I end up being extra friendly. But when I catch myself like I'm in this moment of like how I should react. And what I'm struggling with and I never thought I would struggle with something like this is and I don't know if it's because Danny's there also or I'm concerned to other people coming by like how I'm going to react to the situation. But my instincts were like to say something like get the fuck out of here, bro. You got your kid. Yeah, because I had my kid and like I mean I feel my I feel my palm sweating. My my my fists are kind of clenching because I don't know what the fuck this guy is doing. And he's obviously hella drunk. He's lifting his shirt up. He's talking about the cops coming after him and like. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like super weird and uncomfortable. Now it ends up diffusing. He walks out. He gets a separation from us and Danny and I can take a laugh. But the part that I was I was struggling with is this this inner battle that I had and I couldn't wrap my brain around like why I was struggling that way because I think I was concerned of like like people what they would say if I was judging this person or you know how I react if it was appropriate because you know the guy didn't do anything. Nothing happened. He didn't have a gun or a knife or a weapon on him. It all it all worked out fine. Yeah, but you got your kid with you. Right. It really elevates that to a whole different level. Right. And I was thinking like think about like you walking around and you walk by some kids you know smoking a joint at the park by yourself. You don't give a shit. Now you got your little kid playing there. This happened to me. And then you got these kids smoking joints around them. Now you're getting fucking irritated. That's it. It's just it just elevates everything. Dude. I caught myself with that like there was there's this it's not a park. It's like a private like this conference center that's like close to my house. And so I was down there. You know and I brought my kids down there to throw the ball for the dog and all that kind of stuff. And there's these kids like you know hot boxing their car or something we would have done when we were younger or whatever. And they're blown all this smoke out in the middle of the day. And then one of them got out with the joint and they're smoking and and you know the kids were playing out on the field but it was like close by and I just was like I couldn't help it. I like went up to him like you guys got to leave. You can't do that like out in public right here. My kids are out here. You've got to take off. You know like I had to turn into the guy. Yeah. That was the you know that that that sort of parent figure back in my day where I just be like you know the only thing that kept me like semi calm about it was that I knew I had Danny next to me and there was two of us. So like if something went down and feel less threatened as threatened. But it mean I was threatened enough to where I was posturing up a little bit weird. It was very weird. And after the fact after a diffuse we left protective mechanism I thought fuck bro if Danny wasn't there. I don't know how it would have reacted. Yeah. You probably wouldn't let him get close to you. Yeah. Yeah. You would probably be lined at somewhere else. Yeah. You don't want. Yeah. You probably you got to be. God man. It got away from me one time. That feeling got away from me once. I told I think I told you guys a story. I was driving the basketball. Yeah. I was driving home from my my parents house. And I had my daughter and the truck in the back and my son was sitting a little further up and these kids were playing basketball. I don't know how they're probably 16 17. And I think one of them thought it'd be funny to throw the basketball at the car as I drove by and it hits the window right next to my daughter bangs off the window and instinctually I'm thinking if that shattered that shattered. Yeah. And so I fucking pulled over. Instinct gorilla. And I fucking picked up their basketball hoop. Fucking. And they all scattered and ran away and I was like what did I do. Yeah. I would have never I could totally empathize with that. Actually I just remembered this when I might have told you guys about this or not but I was at a coffee shop and this guy I was with my kids and my and I had the dog with me to I was downtown Santa Cruz and there was a guy in the corner that I wasn't aware of I was getting the drinks the kids were standing over in the corner holding the dog and they were both you know they were just like mining their business just standing there like the dog was sitting it was like like a picture as kind of a moment this guy decided to ask my oldest if he could take a picture of them. And he didn't ask me I was getting the drinks I was over here he asked the kids and then he takes a picture of them and then Ethan feels kind of like weird about it he comes up to me he's like he's like dad this guy like took a picture of us and I'm like what who is this guy you know like a yelling it like all out loud and crazy you know and then this guy kind of looks up like really scared and he's got these like weird round spectacle glasses on he's like an older guy and I'm like you fucking pedophile and I'm like like be like it right to this guy and I'm like did you just take a picture of my kids and he was like he's like yeah I asked them I'm a photographer and he got like kind of shaky and he was like you know here's my website and he like pulls up his his computer he shows me all his pictures like all this kind of stuff and then I started to kind of calm down and I was just like I was like I was like you really should ask me like and then he kept going through it and he's like is this OK and I'm just like and I took me like a while to to consider whether I was OK with it or not and and I was just smash your phone right in front yeah I was just like do I do I guys like a professional photographer yeah I was like your camera then you can leave yeah I was like break your camera I'm going to break your fucking face inflicted man like I was like do I punch it this guy or do I let it go this guy got like I let it go I mean this guy got within you know inches and the problem is you have your boy strapped you in front of me yeah yeah so I was like it was like I wanted to swing on him right away just for coming that close with me like I feel like you shouldn't I have a baby on me like you know say back off yeah like you shouldn't even come in that that closest base and if Danny wasn't with me I don't know what I would have done I I would have been I was already on edge with him there and that was the one that made me feel like OK this dude will just do try to grab the baby out of me you know I'm saying or had a knife or had anything like huh dude I remember once we're back when I was married my son was I think he was two years old one maybe one and a half he was in the car my my at the time my my wife put him in the in his car seat and she walked out I was upstairs I was already upstairs I was doing something on the computer she walked inside real quick to grab something or no walk to the porch to grab something so the car doors kind of open the neighbor's dog runs and jumps in our car and it's a friendly dog he's a big dog big dog friendly dog now my my ex doesn't like dogs she's not cool with dogs they scare her but I hear this fucking scream like a like a banshee and I look out the window like what's going on and there's my fucking my ex wife she grabbed the big ass dog and fucking chucked him out the car and then she's she runs up to the owner and she's like gonna fight the guy so I run downstairs and I diffuse it but it was her mom instinct that kicked in because she saw the dog jump in the car with the baby so she thinks yeah and I know I couldn't believe it I'm like wow you you grabbed that big ass dog and threw it out the car but you know that parent instinct is it gives you superhuman ability well for me like I heard the scream I look out the window and I jumped down the stairs from the top to the bottom and got out and then I kind of calm down you know oh yeah but you get that instinct that kicks in remember that's remember you know the story I told you years ago where I heard something shatter outside my my my in my backyard sound like someone broke in the slide two steps you rode down the stairs before I woke up I can't wait till you have one of those like because it happened to me too like my kid was like well slightly imbalanced and was on on this on this hill and started to fall and it just out of the corner of my eye saw it and then I just jumped and just well I was there I weird well I've already had moments already where you know he's lying next to me with that and I doze off and fall asleep and then a noise startles and you shoot right up you know I'm saying it's a weird it is a weird feeling with adrenaline yeah the prepare yeah right away like sleeping still right next to me it was just like I hate that because if I hear a noise in the middle of night that sounds suspect and I wake up that way I can't go back to sleep I know I'm hyped now now I'm ready to rock and roll like I went like I'm gonna go work out because I feel like I just took a pre-workout and only bottle that yeah turn it on that'd be the ultimate pre-workout at the right moment that was that was my first experience of something like that and I still I'm trying to wrap my brain around you know what that could happen to me again next time but I'm by myself that's why I you know what do I do in that situation like I'm not I'm sure shit not gonna take a chance that's why when I see these like when I see these pushes for and this is not a pro or against vaccine at all that's not where I'm going but when I see these pushes for like these local governments or state governments that are gonna force parents to vaccinate their kids I look at that and I go that's the never force parents to do anything that they don't that they think is dangerous to their kids because you are asking for trouble because that instinct kicks in whether they're right or wrong right that's applying force that way that's a losing battle or it's gonna cause some problems well especially to that you know I just told you what my experience was with that we watched them fucking broke my heart you know like someone was just stabbing like now imagine if you were forced yeah I know sorry sir yeah and you were selfless was holding oh yeah hell no absolutely not you're gonna watch the videos of kids like when they're going through like the what is it the TSA or whatever and they're like sorry sir we're gonna have to search your five-year-old daughter I'd be like well guess what you can do you can take me to jail actually because I'm not gonna let you not happening today you know what I'm saying anyway dude I want to tell you guys a study about I've been doing a lot of reading on the effects of blue light you know that's the light that electronics really emit quite powerfully the effects on the body and we've looked at all the negatives of blue light right like yeah if you're exposed to blue light within like an hour or two of going to bed it dramatically reduces melatonin production decreases the quality of sleep and potentially can lead to a whole host of health problems well there's also a positive to blue light they did a study with athletes and they found that if they exposed the athletes to bright electronic light or blue light before an athletic event that they would perform better if the if the event was done late at night Wow like heighten their senses well because you know like when the Olympics are happening a lot of times events will happen in the evening well yeah it keeps them up and yes it stimulates them it reduces melatonin production and tells their body it's still daylight because one of the reasons why athletes will perform worse late at night is because their body is is geared towards preparing for sleep starts shutting down yeah so they did the study where they shined they had these people exposed to blue light and then did like all out on a cycle and they found they performed better when they were exposed to blue light versus when they weren't so moral the story is don't worry your don't worry you're going if you're going to be cycling at midnight that you should don't worry about wearing your blue blockers don't wear your Felix raise yeah I guess not if you want to sleep you should probably wear your feet but how funny is that like the opposite you know obviously yeah yeah that makes yeah that makes a whole lot of sense I mean of all the things that we've talked about the benefits of it and you know I use them I don't know I might use them the most out of all of us I use them quite often I find a lot of value even just in the in during the day when I'm looking at my phone to just the eye strain I can feel a difference when I do and I don't but the number one thing is just the sleep I mean I've just made a good habit of when it when the sun goes down like I make sure I throw them on I just want to make sure you know it's funny so we had friends over last night for dinner and you know we're hanging out and at 9pm we turn the lights off or down and we use the salt lamps Oh you know your friends over and we just do because it's a school night my kids are you know they're going to go to bed and I've noticed such a big difference here's what happens if you do it once or twice you might not notice once you do it it's like eating healthy you eat healthy for three months consistently then you notice a big difference when you go and eat shitty the contrast is just it's too it's too obvious well if you make if you have a sleep routine and you do you know a couple hours before bed blue blockers dark light no electronics that kind of stuff do it for like 30 to 60 days you will notice such a big difference that when you go over someone's house and it's like 10 o'clock at night and their lights are on full blast just like oh yeah you can feel it so they're they're over and we start dimming the lights and turning things down and then they're asking us questions like oh they're swingers yeah why is this music on why am I taking my clothes off yeah what's going on beenie no but we're beenie we're explaining it to them we're telling them like what we're doing and they have a little two-year-old boy and he has trouble sleeping what's funny because he started to wind down because it was dark or whatever it's like this makes a big difference you know yeah speaking of speaking of kids every this cool article it was the title of it is the seven biggest parenting mistakes that destroy kids confidence and self-esteem oh interesting I thought this would be really good a really good discussion for us so number one is letting your children escape responsibility I think that's an obvious one right where if you know to us maybe not to everybody yeah like like having responsibility and doing that responsibility just makes you feel more confident because you can handle more you know one of the strategies that they use have you guys ever heard of those camps that those like some parents will send their kids off to like they caught their kid their kids spoken to which we yeah and they'll go off they'll go off on these camps to try and change them or whatever one of the strategies that they use is they give that kids lots of responsibility so they'll take like a troublemaker and they'll say hey you know John look you're going to be in charge of your group there's four kids in your group you're in charge you're in charge of finding the campsite you're in charge of getting the whatever and then the reason why they do that is this is so effective at getting them to step up to the play yeah so the escape responsibility make sure your kids have responsibility another one is preventing them from making mistakes so you got to let them make their own make some mistakes which is where I could totally see a lot of parents having one of the hardest struggles with because like yeah you it's so easy to intervene and then make that that a lot easier and help them you know when they when they are going through those challenges but to really like let them sit in it and work their way out of it is that's like a skill you develop as a parent it is not easy at first well this is this one Jessica helped me a lot with because she would tell me some things like it's better that they make the mistake now when they're kids then they make the same mistake but when they're adults because it's usually much bigger much bigger problem and I think that's absolutely true like I'd rather have my kid fuck up on a test in fourth grade than lose their job you know over over making a similar type of mistake it's on it's interesting most of the things that you're probably going to list right now I'm sure aligned right in line too with like leadership it's the same thing in business it's the same thing when you're managing a team of people and you have these natural instincts of like oh you know you want to tell them what they're doing wrong or fix it but there's value in allowing some people to figure that out for themselves and then come to that conclusion there's a lot that they learn in that here's a here's a good one protecting your kids from their own emotions so it's like you know it says here it's tempting to cheer your kids up when they're sad or calm them down when they're angry but rather than doing that it's better to have them identify why they're feeling the way they're feeling and talk about unpack it rather than being like oh you're sad let's go have ice cream or whatever I'm going to cheer you up you know type of deal I thought that was pretty good here's a big one and I see this one happening a lot today condoning a victim mentality this one's quite common nowadays here's the quote that they use that I thought was really smart saying things like we can't afford new shoes like the other kids because we come from a poor background that reinforces to the child that most of life's circumstances are out of their control that's the victim mentality is focusing on the things that we don't have control this is just the way it is rather than focusing on you know the stuff that they can change or whatever right that's a common one that's made a mistake like it how often has a parent had a kid who comes up and says hey mom I want a new pair of these hundred and fifty dollar Jordan shoes or like that and they're just responses we can't afford that yeah you know versus like trying to say like okay well those are expensive let's figure out a way that we could buy those you know and help the kid try and troubleshoot and figure that out versus just accepting that like and also why they want them so much here's another one being over protective obviously that's a that's a big one parents try to to prepare the world for their child rather than preparing their child for the world you know the world's gonna be hard it's gonna suck and shit's gonna happen so it's better to kind of not be so over protective and kind of sugar coat or bubble wrap everything that one's a tough one for me I have a natural protective instinct that I want to kind of you know help things out or whatever but so I think that's a good one expecting perfection that's an obvious one and then punishing rather than disciplining explain that yeah so so kids who are disciplined think I made a bad choice kids who are punished think I'm a bad person so discipline gives your child confidence that they can make smarter healthier choices in the future while punishment makes them think they're incapable of doing any better right like this is you're bad for doing this versus hey because you made the decision you're grounded for no yeah like you're a dumb kid instead of you made a dumb decision right you know what I mean and I think it's tough because like I don't know at least with my kids they've sometimes they will get that in their head and then they'll they'll vocalize it like I'm so stupid or like I I did say like and then I'm just like me and Courtney both were trying to reiterate like this is exactly why this is happening and kind of bringing it back to the choice that led to this you know consequence and it's not it has no reflection of who you are as a person this is this is the decision that we're focused on that's all yeah make better decisions time to deal anyway I thought that was pretty interesting no that's really cool dude did you hear about the feds and what they were demanding from Apple and Google no what so the feds went to Apple and Google and and demanded that they hand over the names of over 10,000 users of a particular gun scope app what yeah so there's an app for this gun scope or whatever and apparently and this is unprecedented like never before have have they disclosed to us because the feds told the media never before have they demanded personal data of users from a single app kind of crazy right yeah I mean it's it is crazy I mean is there logic behind that they're they're trying to find well was it people that are like really interested in in that so nothing happened I was gonna say was there before we get all alarmist about this I mean I could see that if we just had some sort of a terrorist terrorist and they're connecting it or whatever and a gun that was found had this specific scope on it and so they're trying to find who could be a part of this group well there's it says that there's this is part of a broad investigation into possible breaches of weapons export regulations so they're they're looking into illegal exports of particular scope and then the app that maybe works with it or whatever I don't know it's kind of crazy it's kind of interesting but I don't think it's that I don't think it's that crazy you know what I mean I would be more afraid of them going after like if you get a court order and a warrant then then that's not a problem you know because we we've always been able they went through the process yeah yeah it's when I get afraid when they don't yeah they just override the company and like we're taking this yeah or we're gonna figure out how to find this ourselves and not tell you yeah and not be public with it either because I'm sure they've done that I go back and forth on how I feel about things like this because I I can see I could see the value of it for for protecting us or solving something right like for example let's think of an extreme extreme possibility right there was a attempt of a terrorist attack it got spoiled behind the scene has left this scope it's a super rare scope by a super rare trying to find out who right and they're trying to match who that potentially and this is one of the probably the best ways to do it is somebody who's connected to this group yep but then I also see for sure everybody freaking out oh my god Facebook I mean this company is the government's going through all of my personal information well if you're not one of the people that was trying to you know we're a part of this terrorist attack you're probably gonna get overlooked really quick no that's that's perfectly in line with due process so due process says there's an investigation or something happened we want to investigate these people we go to the court we ask for a warrant which is basically permission and to give them limited access yeah so like they say hey we think Adam is part of this whatever we would like to we'd like to wiretap him we'd like to follow him around and wiretap him so then the judge says okay what are your reasons what's your potential evidence whatever and they get a warrant and then they can do it no problem the problem that I have is when they don't get a warrant and they broadly search everybody and they capture everybody's data everybody's information and then they say oh if you did nothing wrong there's nothing to worry about uh-uh like that is that is explicitly well then here's the and I'm just playing devil's advocate with you though is you know here's the challenge with that is some like something like due process is the how long that process takes and if there's something that's time sensitive what if at that same scene we find out that it's we're in the middle they were in the middle of plotting a second act that's supposed to happen a day and a half from today there are two days from now whatever and so now we have to try and put this all together as fast as we possibly can so we have an a competitive edge on on stopping it getting a getting approval um for something like that actually isn't that long uh it's it's actually a quite fast process it's not it's not the issue of something happens and we need to to happen the argument and then we need you know access to to follow people or whatever the argument they make is we want to look at everybody all the time then we can prevent something from happening or when something happens we already have the information but the problem with that is they put everybody in that then we look like the the Wesley Snipes and you have that probable cause Stallone movie what was that? Judgment uh what was that? you don't know what I'm talking about right? Demolition man? Demolition man? Joe is a judge dread? which one is it where they have all the you know the predictive they can't swear oh that is that is uh judge dread no no no I know what he's talking about it's demolition man it is demolition man yeah demolition man where if they say a bad word a little thing yeah yeah comes out yeah yeah yeah you said a bad word and then Taco Bell is a fancy restaurant yeah yeah Sandra Bullock's on that right I remember that that was a terrible movie they don't have they don't have sex anymore yeah dude connect with those helmets uh lame you know what though sometimes those movies got some pretty good you know interesting predictions no because it's yeah it's the extreme version of what you're saying right now like that's that's where it could lead to so that's where I think and which is what's great about movies about that so we'll do it's not that I'm telling you the safety and freedom I mean that's the the conendrum never trade that never trade safety for freedom yeah it never turns out well that's all just look at history I'll tell you every time but it's it is entirely plausible that in the future they will be able to uh read your mind pretty much and let you know kind of what you were thinking or or you know they've done this with monkeys you know that right they've they've hooked up monkeys to machines and they can the computer will create the image of what the monkeys thinking of which is kind of weird um and some of the images the monkeys are thinking of by the way they think of fucking terrifying yeah I wanna know you can pull it up and you can see and it's terrifying I didn't know this I didn't know this was just a banana just a big banana poop yeah that's it I didn't know that was a real thing they can act yes dude the technology is getting the point where they'll they'll gonna get to the point where they can literally start to read your fucking mind bro dude and so there's there's scientists that are they're saying hey we need legislation to say that you can't you can't just go around read your mind scan everybody yeah you imagine every I'm are having arguments with people that would suck I mean look how we just did I know what you're thinking of like yeah we just did that personality test I think that's that's evolved the time since that first started I remember those things we've done a few those now this was like a totally different feel for sure yeah they're getting better they're getting more and more accurate man it's it's pretty cool yeah you know the thing about personality test that makes them inaccurate though is that your own self like if the question is like you know I'm the life of a party and someone might think to themselves like I want to be the life you know they yeah yes I am like so many near you're not you're never the life of the party we're talking about I know he's in the corner he's like yeah I feel like this personality test should include friends like I answer him for and then you actually actually your friend validates that would be really fun as to now now that we've all done I'm going out for each other yeah it's like I'll fill yours out you fill mine or Justin's out that would be interesting to see how close we I don't know though I feel like when you read yours I'm listening to it I'm like I mean I definitely agree with what it kicked out yeah you know so if I had to go to the innovative questions I I I can nail but I don't feel like I'm anything like Adam did this that's I know you guys have the same one it's weird that's I mean I do but copy all my answers that everything I do that's why that's you know I wait till the end just specifically to add up your points Adam you got to put the binders around your tests when you're in school that fucking asshole I have to define all of his language yeah yeah that's why library that's why we made a good team for so long for sure we are there's a lot but there was enough if you looked at the percentages we were off quite a bit on some things oh yeah totally yeah no it makes sense first question is from Sean and Bolt 84 what are some easy ways to spot a bad personal trainer hmm I'll tell you an easy one eating on the floor yeah oh is that a crossfit shirt how funny the dick that's a big one you know what dude it's funny you have to say that Adam but yeah eating on the freaking it's so common dude I see it all the time and it like just drives me you ever fire a trainer for that bro 100% yeah that that was like a no I I get mad at the coffee cups like and that was a pushback I used to get from trainers like I'm like it just looks fucking lazy I'm all poured in a sport cup I'm all so it looks like a water that you're drinking I don't I'm not going to tell you what you can't drink on the floor because I get you need to be hydrated but drinking a fucking Starbucks coffee while you're leaning against the machine while while she's doing reps is just a fucking bad look dude I had a trainer who was eating potato chips while training while training a client on the workout floor just crumbling then when I bring him aside and ask him but like what are you doing around your potato chips on the fucking you know he says to me he goes I bro I got a six pack I know what my calories and my macros are I'm gonna fuck what you look like yeah and you're eating potato chips while they're doing I used to I used to get into onto my trainers that would come in because we had you know you have we had a break room right and you know fucking go to McDonald's or Taco Bell hide the thresh it outside I know that they come in I'm like listen I'm not gonna tell you what you can't can't even everyone teach their own but come on man you know and they would say the same thing too hey man I know my macros look at my abs look how great I look I'm like yeah but it's not it's what you're the message you're sending to everybody else yeah not only that I can you bring in that smell when you come in I'm like McDonald's french fries smell amazing dude he has this client's working out hard oh I can smell french fry oh that's I know what I'm doing after this what are you doing that's a psychological phenomenon as you get hard as you get tired you start to smell the foods so that's your first thing is if they're if they're drinking or eating on the floor I think that's just I'll tell you an easy one um or if is the trainer doing metrics with the client and having them get super tired doing the playoffs that's a bad trainer so the the jump box is a part of a circuit uh or any kind of exercise that's explosive but that's not treated as an explosive movement but rather as a fatigue building movement that is a bad trainer and unfortunately you see that quite common yeah I know I mean if they're always like constantly kind of being their cheerleader is like push through it push through it like the intensity is always being highlighted all the time yes I'm steer clear of that for sure well that one could be a little bit harder the one that you guys just name right now because if you have the right athlete with good mechanics and there's a there's a there's a purpose for their application of that that's hard but you you know what I'm talking about oh no 100% I and I think that a regular person coming to the gym may not have a trained eye to see the the poor mechanics now trainer a trainer will know another bad trainer who's doing this that's got the jump box they've got the jump rope they've got the you know overhead press or squat thrusters and they're running through the circuit and you can see when she's doing the jump box her knees are caving in you know she's thumping down on the ground sometimes she does it like her back is all rounded like bad posture bad form but yet still getting pushed through a circuit like that's a really bad trainer I mean but you if you see like someone doing something explosive and in a circuit but they look like if they look like a gazelle and they have great form and they look like an athlete there could be an application for what they're doing I think it's the you know the overweight middle aged the male or female client that doesn't look like your athlete and that's usually who's doing that right right so that to me I think you to make that distinction a case by case share with that I think a trainer if you you can watch trainers train their clients and are they paying attention close attention to their client right so are they walking around the client while the clients performing the exercise are they careful to spot the client so if if something happens they're there to catch the weight or catch the client so they don't fall are they watching them head to toe are they critiquing their form I mean really that's the value of a trainer the true value of a trainer is the application the proper application of exercise from an exercise standpoint I should say because there's a lot of value to train that has nothing to do with exercise right but from the workout standpoint is the trainer really paying attention to the form oh tuck your elbows tighten up lift here control your rep you know walking around like you can tell when somebody oh if you're a really good if you're a really good trainer to me I feel like I'll see you during your your client will be doing a set of something could be anything right and while the client is is doing the reps the trainer is constantly moving checking all and checking checking from the side checking from behind checking in front maybe even talking giving little feedback you know open up slow down head up like they're giving these cues while they're going through and then when they're done with the set you'll see the trainer normally get in and actually perform it and show the example of whatever he or she was speaking to during that rep like you know notice how your elbows were rocking like this I want you to retract like this and hold back and they're demonstrating it again like they're showing the movement they just did they're showing it with better form they're critiquing it then they're putting them back in and doing it like there should be a lot of movement and engagement happening between a trainer and a client if you have a really good trainer yeah I think I mean if you want to boil it down to two main attributes is how much if you can tell that they really sincerely care and they're paying a lot of close attention and they're communicating well with their client I mean those things are you know paramount to make a good trainer you know the rest of it you can kind of tell on your own if like their experience level because I know I sucked in the very beginning like I was doing some shit wrong and wasn't like too aware but I definitely cared deeply about like you know getting better and then also helping my client gets where they want to get you can also watch the clients do the clients look like they're enjoying their workout and I know a lot of people thinking are thinking oh I mean enjoy a workout supposed to be hard and whatever yeah you can still see if somebody enjoys the workout or if they don't now why is that important well you're planning if you're planning on hiring hiring a trainer it's probably because you want to establish a good practice a good relationship with exercise and if you don't enjoy your workout sessions if you're dreading them because your trainer is whatever mean boring whatever you're not going to have a good start so watch the client does the client look like they're enjoying their session is a look like they respect the trainer and then the presentation of the trainer this is a big I don't have to say this I don't think I don't really think I have to say this but if the trainers look sloppy like they're not really taking their job seriously because can you see this sometimes with trainers they're probably not going to take the actual training portion seriously so I like the train that looks like they got dressed for the job you know what I mean like shirt tucked in nice looking you know clean clothes you know ready to train their client hair combed does that directly you know communicate to the training skill and all stuff no but it does tell you that they kind of took it seriously yeah it's just professionalism any other job how you do anything is how you do everything next question is from Melissa Lanari S-Y-T for a woman who lifts alone should you just ask some random dude to spot you when you want to lift heavy is it weird or creepy? hmm who picked this question I did yeah I did I had first of all I had a lot of likes from people that obviously wanted to hear the the question answer I'm trying to put myself in her shoes and I guess that I guess that's a really really good question it is a fair question especially we encourage strength training and you know there's there's a lot of women I think that are really starting to move in that direction and it's a new area they're having to do three to five reps and that's a much heavier load and can be scary to feel like what's to do that on your own and also to be fair if you're in the gym and you're a man and a woman comes up to you and says hey can you help me with an exercise you instantly probably assume she's flirting with you or she wants to talk with you and so I can I mean that's every guy unfortunately I know and I can imagine that that would be a challenge for a woman she's like God I just want to spot I don't want all that but I just actually you don't want what I ask well I'll tell you what spotters were very valuable about 20 years ago today not so much and here's why most gyms have free weight equipment that you could set up to spot you so like if because I'm trying to think what exercises do you really need to spot her for well this is the I was going to go the same direction as you where you're going right now and in fact maybe Doug we can write this down too maybe Danny can shoot some videos on this because I don't think we've done a series on how to bail out of some of the biggest lifts like how to bail on a deadlift how to bail on a squat like things did like had a bail on that I mean it was we were just lifting together and I had to bail squatting with Justin and we were caused a discussion afterwards and you know Sal was like man you bailed from that really I'm like yeah no I I would I always Justin's there I know Justin would be a great spot I don't even ask him I don't want him to I would much rather I know my limits I know how far I want to push you if I feel my form breaking down at all I just bail on the exercise I feel it's way safer I agree too yeah it's just like you're not so relying on somebody else like making sure they're really hyper paying attention and having the right you know leverage to really help you know in the spots where you could just dump it well I'm trying I'm trying to think right now like what are the exercises that you would that people would really be afraid if you're using dumbbells mostly squatting at squatting overhead pressing and bench pressing especially bench pressing that's probably the scariest pressing is but here's the thing most gyms will have a power rack where you could set the safeties safety bars underneath and you set the safety bar so that at the very bottom of the rep where it's at your chest the safeties will catch it so if you fuck up I can't get it up you put it down the safeties will catch it then you can shimmy your way out from under the bar unrack the bar and you're okay same thing with the squat same thing with an overhead press you don't need a spotter for anything else you don't need spotter for a deadlift you drop the weight you don't need to spot her for any dumbbell exercise you just throw them down onto the ground make sure you don't throw him at someone so really it's just squat overhead press and bench press in which case and like this is what I meant by saying 20 years ago it was hard to find a gym that had a lot unless you went to like a hardcore bodybuilding or powerlifting gym there weren't many many safeties for free weights I mean you had machines but they have like ones for free weights now if I go to bend I go to gyms and almost every single gym I've been to these days that's got a decent weight room has safeties for their benches even yeah you know what you don't even have to use a power cage you just have the bench press those little arms on the side set them up so that they're down at the bottom you don't need a safety and to be honest with you I think it's I think it's better because using a spotter means that the spotter also needs to know how to spot yes there's a skill involved and I think that's I think that's what eventually move me in the direction of never wanting a spot is I've had enough instances where I thought I could just tap shoulder tap the guy who looks buff or looks fit you know come over here hey I'm gonna I'm gonna push myself I'm gonna do a you know one rep max can you spot me and then they end up spotting me and it ends up being worse and then I end up hurting myself trying to get the weight up where I wish they would have just taken it up off of me it's like dude why'd you let me struggle that much you know and because there's a especially in especially in gyms there's a lot of meat head guys that have this mentality of like that's what it should look like you know one rep if someone's going really heavy they should be at a sticky point come on you can do this guy and his fingers are right there come on you got this is like no if I have a spot I don't wanna break momentum yeah I don't ever want to get stuck and stick there cause that's where the issues happen that's where somebody gets hurt and I would much rather hit that sticking point myself and then realize I'm not gonna get this weight today and drop it and bail yeah I think the only one I'd even consider anymore is the bench just for the lift off you know just for that initial bit so I could have it like ready to go and then drop in but I don't want them intervening at all and but it's even then like you should be able do that first part where you unrack it yourself and then I'd love I'd like to be able to put the weight down here's what happens with a bad spotter you decide you're gonna drop the squat on the safeties but the spotter fucking thinks they need to help you more so now they're pulling up harder on you and you're trying like you just gave them a job so now you got to fucking lift two or they're pushing you forward dangerous it's better to have it's better to use a squat rack with safeties or a bench with safeties then if you can do it you'd put it down yourself you're not the spotter's not they're trying to lift it I told you guys like what happened when I was squatting I had somebody I brought somebody over to spot me and they actually ended up like intervening so much it like right at my sticking point that they pushed me forward and so I started to fall forward with weight on my back that's bad you know and so then I ended up like falling onto my knee and then like being in a compromise position where they had to get like more guys to come pull it off me and almost like injured me have you guys ever got stuck underweight? No Never? No You know what? That's probably because I started lifting young in the backyard Yeah, yeah Yeah, I've gotten stuck under Oh, stuck like yeah, I've had that before Oh, yeah before I learned how to actually that's the first time I learned how to bail Really? Yeah, I had a bench I was benching man and I the bent the bar I was I thought oh, I think I can do one more and I was in the backyard mom was cooking dinner so she that was just me back there and the weight started coming down and I was like oh, fuck and he was sitting on my chest and I remember sitting there like what do I and I just keeping the bar from rolling back on my neck so I had to like roll the bar down my body which fucking hurts you're rolling this bar and then sit up with it across your waist type of deal that happened to me the truth is a few times the truth is that 95% of the time you shouldn't even be chasing that kind of weight that you're you would potentially not be able to get it up 95% of that going to failure causes that Yeah, 95% of the time you should not ever be training that heavy that you would have to bail on a load now I just said I did it the other day and what happened I'm lifting with Justin you know what I'm saying and this is we talked about this afterwards like no way I would have done that had I not been all hyped up because I took a pre-workout Justin's lifting he's adding weight into it I'm not going to be a wuss and be like nah, drop the weight I don't want to do that this is why we don't work out so much right it's just around two days later he chooses the dead lift with me yeah he's like what am I doing I squandered with Justin the dead lifting was so heavy I know him you picked the wrong exercises oh man so and that's just it it's like I shouldn't have done that I did it anyways if I'm going to do something like that and I feel myself stick through and I'm smart enough now to know that just get out of it and if you think about it if you know how to bail properly with a squat having a spotter there only puts the spotter in danger yeah you know what I'm saying it's better that you just bail on your own or what I say for this young lady use the safeties go get a power go use the cage learn how to use the safeties or use the bench with the safeties you'll never need to use a spotter that's why I think we should have Danny do a video because I teach them how to do that yeah we could do a really good video especially on on bench and on squatting which I agree is probably the two main ones that somebody needs help learning how to bail on those or set up the safety racks and then you know that's and then use it that way forget using a spotter I'm not a fan of using somebody else's spotter and just keep in mind too this is if you're training that heavy it should it should be very infrequent that you're doing this like you shouldn't be using safety bars and having to you know go to failure on at most of your workouts too much yeah too much next question is from Derek McMullen of the three major power lifting lifts which one did you have to work the hardest on to get stronger and which one was the easiest cool question yeah so we're probably all different here too yeah I think so what were your what were your top lifts in each of the three lifts what if in your life what are the let's start with that because I think that's a cool thing to share bench bench 375 squat 420 and deadlift 550 those are all those are all top numbers on on that I did 355 on bench was the most I ever did for squat was 405 deadlift was 600 what about you Justin I'm trying to think of my deadlift because that was the weakest I think it was only like 425 or something like that and squat squat actually like I got up to 475 and then for bench I did I got up to 405 yeah yeah so the one that I worked on the first was bench press and the reason why I worked on bench press first was because when I was a kid that was the lift yeah like a bench was king yeah nobody cared like if they didn't ask you what was your day what's your deadlift with your squat was always like how much can you bench so because it was so much importance placed on that that was the lift that I focused on first and focused on it the most the deadlift came very natural to me I'd say that the probably the first time I really started deadlifting I was maybe 16 and three plates was fast I don't remember how long it took me to get three plates but it wasn't long at all and then four plates came pretty quick after that and then five plates happened in my 20s and then my 30s when I hit six that one was really easy squats were also difficult but my legs forget even though I have mobility issues in my hips my legs get really big and strong and so I got pretty good at the squat in terms of weight it was the bench press that took me a long time and then eventually I think it's what the always focusing on bench press I think it's one of the reasons why I eventually had shoulder surgery and now I never push heavy on the bench press I have my AC joint had to get operated on and I rarely ever go above 225 on the bench press that's probably as heavy as I'll go ever again yeah we're all a little bit different where you and I are the same deadlifts just came real natural to me I remember when I first started deadlifting I was doing like 135 like figuring it out like it was one of those exercises like we've never done a deadlift it takes a while to learn the mechanics as soon as I figured the mechanics out when it started to feel smooth quickly I went from like one plate to two plate to three plate to four plate to eventually five plate it didn't take me long to really push the numbers in deadlift it just felt very natural for me and the opposite is true with squatting squatting has been a grind my whole life and even though my squat is okay and my bench isn't that strong I mean I got a long limb so at the end of the day I don't think I was ever built to be a really really strong powerlifter in these big lifts but I moved the needle pretty far on my bench especially when I was competing like that a chest obviously your chest is a major focal point for competitors so it was an area of emphasis for me and I remember really starting to notice a big difference when I started building my and I also so when I hit 375 I could hit that on a flat and I could hit that on an incline so that's probably the most impressive thing about my bench was I made a point to be as strong in the incline press as I was the flat which is not normal most guys can lift significantly more on their flat than they can incline I had a pretty well developed chest both an incline and flat bench and it didn't take as much effort early on as a kid chest was really hard for me and bench was hard for me because my mechanics were off and that's why I stressed that even with the deadlift all of these things and the end squat too like a lot of times when you really struggle with a lift more often than not it's you're still learning the mechanics down and for me I had for my sports that I had played you know and I'm left-handed I had a little bit of this kind of forward shoulder and it was very very subtle the average I would not be able to see it and tell I didn't even know and didn't put pieces together until later as a trainer but I had like one side of my chest my opposite side was more developed than my dominant throwing side because I had this kind of roll forward shoulder so when I bench pressed my shoulder and my triceps took over the load on that one side on the opposite side I had better mechanics and so my chest was uneven for a long time so it took me a really long time to actually level that out and when I learned that saw the importance of it I also had to stop ego lifting because as a young 17, 18, 19 year old kid lifting I was always trying to just keep up with my buddies that were way stronger than me on the bench press I was weak as fuck and my chest wasn't developed right because I wasn't doing it correctly when I figured out how to get the mechanics right and fix my imbalance that took about a year or two of really lightweight control learning form and technique once that all came together and like I really understood how to chest press then it kind of took off and it was doing great the hardest thing has been squat and I think I was just sharing with you guys that's a recent one for you yeah, it's recently finally came together and again, back to the form and technique thing is I never really addressed the mobility thing for me I never worked on my hips I never worked on my ankle mobility I had a really ugly squat even when I worked at it for a long time and got kind of strong in it like 315 was just like crippling for me for a very long time it wasn't until I really started to address the hips the ankles get better at squatting and then now I'm actually I'm getting close to some of my peak numbers I could probably squat 375, 380 right now I feel pretty confident about and 420 is like my record record and when I was doing that I was actually on anabolic so when I was squatting 420 I was at the peak of my bodybuilding career so I'm actually really excited about that but it's been a grind to get a good squat it's been a grind for me yeah, I think for me I was under the impression based off of all the coaches that I've had and like the programming that I was exposed to through athletics that we pretty much avoided like the deadlift it was kind of a lot like what you heard out of Robert Oberst and his sort of mentality towards that with athletes that's the kind of dogma that was thrown at me quite a bit going through training and so we did do power cleans and I really honed in on power cleans so that was like my jam like I got up to like 350 power cleaning so I could do a decent that's funny you could power clean 350 but you could be in deadlift four yeah, I'm serious and it has to be a lot of that technique right and of course I was completely like to be completely transparent probably the last few years is only the time I've even put into deadlifting I've never even really tried to put effort towards maxing on deadlifts so I have no idea you know, if there's any potential there or not but it's not something that I really focused on squatting came natural to me that was something that like it felt like getting the groove of it you know, pretty seamlessly there was something that like felt like immediately oh yeah, I get this like my body gets this I could do well with this and that actually like I was putting up some good numbers right out of the gates and like I was immediately jumping they had groups for like I started out with like the running backs the linebackers, the corners and all that and then kind of jumped up into the linemen real fast because like, you know I could hang with all them in terms of their numbers for squat and their numbers for bench and bench was another one that came naturally to me but yeah, it was really like the posterior chain like I was in terms of like deadlifts and like I was like any kind of pulling move was a little more difficult for me and pull-ups and all that was very challenging for me so yeah, I felt like pushing and you know, in those type of mechanics like I could like seamlessly get into that it's funny because really, really good deadlifters tend to some of them are good at squats most of them are bad at bench press it's like the things that make you really good at deadlifting the long arms and the long levers tend to make you that's what I appreciate a bit I appreciate that about powerlifting they consider that and it's like the your grand total of all of those you have to somewhat do well in all of them I remember when I pieced together because I valued strength a lot in lifting weights I know Adam, you probably placed more of an emphasis on aesthetics longer term than I did Oh for sure I know Justin was very performance oriented like I was like for me, I liked the building muscle but I liked the strength of it and I remember when I figured out that if I trained with the lower rep ranges but frequently where I was practicing two or three reps but I was doing it three days a week or four days a week I remember piecing that together and then my numbers just go into the roof and I loved it and that was in my early 20s that's when I would stop the single body part one body part of time type training like if I practice bench press a few days a week let's see what happens and I got my numbers I trained for at least 10 years and never knew my PR in any of those Oh I tested my PR the first day I worked out 10 years I trained and could not if somebody asked that question first of all that question was it was rarely ever asked 10 years ago it's since the birth of CrossFit it's a very common thing because they test PR was not a thing Well it was bench press but bench press was how much do you max? Yeah that was it But nobody was talking about their PR and anything else No, no, nothing and even then again I did not believe in maxing out like I just didn't I wasn't a strength I didn't value strength the same way I was all about aesthetics and I had learned early on that I could build a pretty good looking physique and never in my life max out and I knew that when I was teaching clients that was always the safest route so I was the trainer who kind of actually avoided it with this chip on my shoulder a little bit like you max out that's stupid what's your goal? Are you a powerlifter? Oh you're not a powerlifter? Why the fuck are you doing that? I remember you just all show no go That's what I used to say I was just like what? Like it didn't even compute with me Why would you brag about that? Like what? Like no girl ever asked you in the room in the bedroom what your PR is That's exactly what I used to say and honestly most people that go to the gym you know most people there are of course there's exceptions to the rule they're listening right now but most people are going there to change their aesthetics Of course They want to lose their fat they want to build a little bit of muscle they want to look better they want to feel better they want to feel sexy and what I pieced together early on was you know what? None of that you do not have to ever train like a strength or a powerlifting athlete to achieve that There's very little value to it for the average person I mean I can make a case for some value but reality you're 100% right Well what I'll make the case for and what breaking beyond that happened for me and we've shared this a little bit on the podcast is I have a different looking physique today than what I did eight years ago and it's due to lifting heavy weight like I've built a it's so hard to explain It's density Yeah, obviously somebody who's been here and done both understand it's really hard for me to articulate this to a new lifter but when I went from being the guy who only trained like hypertrophy type training for a decade and then I went into strength training and incorporated strength training I built a different looking muscle on my body and the best way that I could describe it is my hypertrophy that I had was man when I would get in the gym and I would lift and I'd get all aired up I'd look great I would look like and I used to always say that man if I could just look more like what I looked like all pumped up and aired up which I know everybody can relate to but I would really deflate after that and sure I looked kind of fit but nowhere near what I looked like inside the gym when I started lifting really really heavy I saw less of a pump you know from the workouts but I started to build like this solid muscle and I started to notice that you know just my arms hanging by my side you could see my tricep which you would only see that if I got them all aired up in the past and so and the same thing goes for my legs and goes for my like all of a sudden I built this muscle that didn't need to be aired up to look solid and big and that's the best way I can describe that to people and the value of what strength training and heavy lifting did for my body and physique but you absolutely could build it without it totally do you guys have a lift that like a special lift that if you're if you want to like work out with someone and you just know you'll crush them at you have like this one lift that well deadlifting bro deadlifting is there's not many you're probably one of the few people that in our circle that can you know other than fucking our like power lifting buddies like Ben Polak average gym goer there's definitely nobody in my men's physique group that I hung out with that get out there no I have a I have a I have a lift there's one lift that I could that I did and I don't even exercise this anymore but I knew I could whoever I was working out with I would freak him out but the amount of weight I could use and that was a reverse grip reverse curl for whatever reason it's like the dumbest exercise ever but I put a forty five on the plan that worked on yeah I put a forty five on the bars yeah I remember to get them on just a simple stupid extra that's right that's like my mace belt thing you know I'll take the heaviest mace ball you could possibly give me and I'll fucking crush her out yeah who cares yeah next question is from Molly on fire I would love to hear how each of your careers in fitness began oh man we haven't told this story in a little while have we no yeah I mean Sally mean on everybody else's podcast yeah I mean I think I tell this all the time in fact I just did an episode that I think goes live next Friday that I thought I probably shared the story the best in my opinion of all the interviews I'd done so when that comes out I'll share it in my story but you and I mean Sal and I have I think a relatively similar story of you know I was I actually was not into I never thought I was gonna be a personal trainer when I was younger I was driven to make money and I was interested in being an architect I was interested in being a lawyer you're not gonna pick fitness yeah I did not I wanted to make money that was like that was not the field yeah yeah that was that was my main goal was to make money and I didn't think that fitness would be that I actually and even when I bought my first national certification when I was 18 I actually thought it will be I'm not forget this we were in Jim and Modesto and working out there and my buddy and I were we're in junior college and we're talking about degrees and things like that and we're uncertain what we're gonna declare as when we when we eventually have to and we're talking about jobs things that we're currently doing and there's one of these personal trains and I think he actually said at first you know be cool like side job I were going through school is personal training man we love working out so much I'm like yeah that would be a cool and that's actually what made me go home that night and I bought a national cert and I bought it with the intention of hey that would be a cool side job while I went to school that was how that really started I just assumed they didn't make any money because I didn't know any trainers that were rich or had and then that for me that's what all I was driven by so then I I have the national certification I'm going through junior college I'm on my second year I notice I'm kind of dicking around I'm in my hometown I moved out of my own place when I was 17 years old I'm partying I have a keg on my fucking you know balcony so we're partying like every weekend at that thing at that time I thought it was cool to skip as many classes I could but yet still pass on the tests you know that's kind of that's a move that's a sign that you're an entrepreneur by the way I did that I remember I was so proud I passed with a seed right I showed up like four times right and so and I and I've always prided myself on being a pretty self-aware person and so I realized this about myself I'm you know hanging out with my my buddies we're partying on the weekends we're skipping class you know I'm chipping away at nine units a semester and I and I find myself I'm 20 years old and I'm like I'm not gonna get stuck in this town I don't I want more for myself I can't I can't fuck around with the school thing anymore I need to get this done and I had a grandmother who lived in San Jose and my grandmother had a two bedroom apartment that she she owned that I knew that I could go live in one of the rooms and I could go to school now what I also had found out this around the same time was that San Jose State was known for kinesiology so I thought oh this is cool I'll transfer over I'll finish my AA at DeAnza and then I'll transfer to San Jose and just since I'm into this working out thing and I'm already interested in being kind of a personal trainer maybe I'll go down this kinesiology to the direction and see where maybe the maybe I'll be a physical therapist now I'm thinking like I'm gonna be a physical therapist like because I know that's more money than a personal trainer so that's kind of where my head is at so I moved to San Jose the very first week that I'm there I walk across the street and there's a 24-hour fitness and I go to get a membership there when I'm filling out the profile of the membership that asks how you heard about 24-hour fitness well I had never heard of 24-hour fitness until I bought that national certification because it said that 24-hour fitness recognized it so that was the first time I even heard of what 24-hour fitness was so I put it on there oh my IFPA national certification instantly that got the attention of the manager general manager he wouldn't got the fitness manager fitness manager came over gave me this whole spiel I'm like whoa I don't have my degree I don't have this I haven't passed the test yet I just bought it they asked how I found about and he's like no no no it's okay we we have 24-hour fitness university and you can take this test and all the stuff and I'm like well I'm not looking for a job I'm actually come I moved to San Jose to go full time school and they go well you could even work part-time and so and you get a free membership so I'm like okay I passed their little test and I'm like okay I'll go part-time personal training this is cool this I just landed this job that I was already interested in doing as a side hustle while I was going to college and I started and I had about three months or two or three months before the next semester was starting in Dianza and because I couldn't get enrolled in though I was too late for the current one that was happening so I had like a three-month run rate before I was going to register for the next the next semester and I start this job and I fucking fall in love with it I mean every aspect of it I loved being there I loved working with people I loved learning about the body and nutrition and all the knowledge that I was starting to consume for myself selfishly and then what I was teaching and giving people it was just a fucking blast and then you know go from I was a kid who started at four dollars and fifty cents an hour worked his way up to seven dollars an hour to all of a sudden I'm making seventy thousand dollars a year as a personal trainer it was like holy shit and every check that I made every two weeks was significantly bigger than the last one and now and I've got my my boss at the time is in my ear and he's like you were meant for this you got to do this and I'm like no I'm here I gotta finish school and I'm thinking like fuck I told all my family that I was going to go to school and this is what I was going to do like everybody's gonna be pissed my grandma bought me a computer and desk just for I can do all my fucking homework like so I'm stressing out about telling me and I'm going I'm 20 years old right now if I listen to this this guy who's telling me that I'm made for this and I can make all this money if I listen to him and I give everything I got for one year and and then assess at the end of the year is it what everybody says it's going to be um I'm only 21 I still got almost my AA it's not like I'm really behind my peers yet okay I think I think I'll try this and I pissed everybody off you know my grandma was disappointed my uncle's an answer disappointed my parents are disappointed but I knew um that I was I was still not not going to go to school I was going to give this thing everything I got for one year to see if it could take me as far as what people are saying the potential it could take me and man in a year's time I mean the rest is fucking history I broke records I made as a 20 year old kid I made 70 something thousand dollars my very first year by the next year after that I bought my house I was now a six-figure employee I was in management and it was real easy and then they and the real selling point for me what as I was falling in love with this career where they were telling me that if you go get your four-year degree Adam in kinesiology and you get a national certification we pay you the same and that was like the kind of the the final thing for me was like oh you mean I could work make all this money continue to pursue my career also educate myself on my own time at nighttime and on weekend courses and you will pay me the same that if I went through and dedicated four years of college and spend potentially you know 60 to 100 thousand dollars I'm like fuck it I'm gonna do it this way so that's kind of how I got started in fitness and the rest is kind of history so it's a there's definitely some similar aspects to mine the difference is how it started I I started working out at 14 years old and immediately fell in love with the weights immediately loved it absolutely loved it I loved the fact that I could work my body I could train myself I could learn and then I could see changes in myself and improvements in myself and I mean I would come home from school you know as a kid 15 years old 16 years old and I would spend two hours in the backyard working out I at the when I was 15 I got a job washing dishes at a local pizzeria and I'd save my money and I'd go to the to the the supplement store and I'd buy protein powders and you know I bought creatine when that first came out and I was studying these things I bought chemistry books to study the chemicals in supplements so I could figure out which supplements were the right right combinations and I bought every single bodybuilding magazine and fitness man I absolutely loved in fact I have old yearbooks and you can read what people write and all of them make a comment about something they're having to do with working out because I was so obsessed with it so I knew that I was going to get into a field that was related to fitness I just didn't know I didn't think of the gym because I thought that there was no career in gyms I thought that the careers revolving around fitness revolved around things like physical therapy so same thing I thought okay I'm going to go to school for physical therapy graduate high school we all have that in common yeah exactly graduate high school because you know why we're all money motivated yeah but yeah but I want fitness you can hear that from me too yeah so I thought to myself like cool you know what I'm going to do I'm going to go to school for physical therapy but in the meantime I'm going to go become a personal trainer and I used to work out at the 24 fitness on Hillsdale I had a membership there since I was 16 years old that my dad you know would drive me and then when I had my license I drove myself and I went up to the front desk and I asked them hey how do I apply to become a personal trainer and they said well you have to be 18 at the time I think I was 16 and a half or 17 so I waited I'm like okay I got to be 18 years old and I waited until like literally my fucking birthday and I was like I'm 18 I'm going to go apply so it was probably I don't know a month or two after I turned 18 I walk in and you got to keep this keep in mind I was a very I'm a very different person than I was as a kid but there's some things that were very similar and I was just a very assertive 18 year old I wasn't your typical teenage kid so I walked up to the front desk and I said I'd like to speak to your manager so manager it was a surprise me at all manager walks out his name is Sean Winters he was my he was the fitness manager at the time he walks around the corner and I shake my hand and I'm like I want to be a personal trainer here and say oh okay I talked to him for five five minutes and he's like you're hired I think it was my it was because he saw my personality I was very much man if I remember being a fitness manager if you got a kid that was 18 years old I'm going to be a I want to be a trainer yeah so that was me so he's like you're hired so I'm like cool so he hires me I become a personal trainer the the first day I start he has this other trainer shadow me now remember I knew nothing about the business of fitness I didn't know how I got paid I don't know what that looked like I remember when he hired me I asked him how much you make and he says oh you can make up to 30 bucks an hour so I thought that's what I got 30 bucks an hour so I came in the next day and I'm fucking like yeah I'm making this great job to have while I go to you know while I go sign up for for some classes or whatever and I'm and he had me he had this other trainer kind of have me follow this other trainer along who was the top trainer in the club now back in those days 24 hour fitness had just become 24 hour not sorry they had just become 24 hour fitness they were 24 hour Nautilus before they had merged or took over another large fitness chain it was Ray Wilson's family fitness and they changed their name 24 hour fitness and at this time you're you're talking 1997 personal training was not a revenue source it wasn't a big revenue that it was like a it was something they were kind of trying to see if it would work but all the revenue came from memberships so here I am I'm in this club Hillsdale which you know club 504 if you're listening right now that club now or definitely later on was producing tremendous amounts of revenue from personal training but at the time the whole club's goal I think was $13,000 for the whole month and the trainer that I was shadowing he was like the top guy and he was doing like $2,000 or $2,500 and I remember because my fitness manager's like I want you to follow I'm not going to say his name because I'll embarrass him because he sucked I'm going to have you follow so and so around he's our top trainer and I'm like oh what makes you the top trainer he's like well you know I'm the top sales guy I'm like really what are you selling he's like well last month I did $3,000 and this month I'm already at $2,000 and I had no concepts so I was like wow okay whatever so then he's showing me or he's showing me around and he's taking people through orientations and orientations are when people buy a membership they get a free orientation to the gym and your job as a trainer is to show them how to use like five or six pieces of equipment show them what they do and then they're off on their own or they hire you as a personal trainer so I follow him around and he's taking Mrs. Johnson or whoever through and he's like here's a bicep curl here's a chest pest or whatever and does this thing and then at the end he asks him a few questions about personal training and the lady leaves so I asked this guy I'm like wow you fucking we make 30 bucks an hour just for that? and he's like no he's like we're making minimum wage I'm like excuse me and I said what do you mean we're making minimum wage he's like they have to hire you first then you make a percentage of the session so I'm like oh I'm like well how much do we charge for personal training like what's the deal he's like oh here and he pulls out this sheet and it has all the prices of personal training and it range from like 40 to 60 dollars an hour or something like that so I'm like oh that's cool okay so he says hey look do you want to take the next guy the next person through the orientation I'm like sure he's like do you feel confident I'm like yeah he leaves this fucker leaves first day yeah first day he took he went through one orientation and then he leaves so I'm like okay person walks in this lady walks in I'll never forget her she comes in hey how you doing my name is Sal I'm gonna be I'm gonna I'm your trainer for today I'm gonna show you around come over here and sit at the desk with me 15 minutes later she bought 10 sessions of personal training because I'm like you need to hire me I'm gonna show and literally I remember what I told him like look I'm gonna show you around and use equipment but you're not gonna know how to do a workout like what are your goals now keep in mind I had no training nobody taught me how to do any of this stuff so I show her the form and I say well which one do you want she's like I think I'll start with 10 sessions I'm like perfect hold on one second I walk all the way to the general manager's office Darcy was my general manager knock on the door she opens the door I think I don't even think she met me yet right she's like huh and I'm like oh you know I'm a trainer here I'm like you're the manager yeah I said I have a lady who wants to buy 10 sessions she's like what really I'm like yeah she's like okay so she's like bring her my office I bring her in she signs her up the lady leaves so I think she assumed that this person this lady walked up to me and asked me hey can I buy 10 sessions of training because she said nothing else so now I have three more appointments that day next appointment walks in it's a man he walks in I take him to the desk I go back Darcy's office knock on the door hey someone else wants to buy 10 sessions she's like wait are people walking up to you and asking you if they could buy a personal training I'm like no these are orientations and she goes you're not certified yet I said I know I told him that I told him that I'd be certified in about a month and they said that they'd wait so I schedule him out a month out she's like okay take the guy back sign him up he walks out next guy that walks in it's a kid so this time it's a young kid he's like 16 years old I still remember I remember this kid because I ended up he ended up becoming a personal trainer later on so he comes in I take him in the back he walks out the gym so now he walks out and I'm standing at the front at the front desk the general manager walks out and she goes what did you have another I thought you said you had another orientation like oh yeah I said he went to go get his mom because he's going to buy 10 sessions of training and she goes oh Sal she goes I gotta tell you something she goes when people say they're gonna you know leave and come back yeah two percent return yeah they don't right as she's saying that he walks in with his mom oh here's my manager she can sign you up so I sold three packages my very first day of personal training and within two days I blew away the the first guy and my first month remember the goal of the club was 13 thousand dollars my first month I think I sold seven or eight thousand dollars of personal training which is insane which is it it doesn't make any sense like nobody knows what's going on so now the general manager takes me in the office this is after like a week and she sits me down she's like what are you doing yeah you're my favorite person what are you doing I want to know what you're doing I want to know whatever so this time during this time I start going to school I'm going to school fucking hate it can't stand it absolutely just try to imagine me sitting in a chair listening to a teacher you know writing up on the on the dry race board or it's very difficult for me so I'd sit there and all I think about is like I can't wait till this class is over so I could go go to work go to work like this is fucking terrible dicks like me yeah four months later they offer me the fitness manager position I still had no idea what I was doing at all I remember the this is when 24 Fitness at apex which was owned by Neil Spruce this guy's a legend in the fitness space and I remember one of the representatives came down to the club because I was becoming a fitness manager and they're like hey we heard about you you're this new kid you know you're gonna be a fitness manager your apex sales you're crushing everybody we'd love you to come teach our other trainers how to sell apex and how to talk about apex and I was like okay I'll do that and I said but I need you like help teach me what apex is I said I don't know what it is all I know is it's nutrition and so I sell it because everybody needs nutrition so they said we'll send you the class to go learn we've bottled nutrition yeah we'll send it but anyway I did that for a little while became a general manager when I was 19 and just you were what you were one of one of or the youngest general manager ever because I know I was one of the youngest fitness managers ever yeah I had I was 19 just about to turn 20 when I became a general manager so I was the youngest at that point that I heard of in the company I just fucking loved it I love fitness I love the gym you know I was making a shit ton of money had no idea had no concept of what a lot of money was I remember I take my checks and I deposit them and just leave them there and go back to work I had no idea what was a lot of money I was going to school to be a physical therapist and what convinced me to not go anymore was my hatred of school couldn't stand that it sucked I had to take math classes to get my general my AA or whatever and I hated it I think I showed up to one class and I was like fuck this I'm not doing homework couldn't stand it and then the other thing that convinced me I had a there was a member that was a physical therapist that told me how much she made and I remember thinking I'm making more than you I'm not going to school anymore this is all I'm going to do and that was it the rest was history and that's it then I bought my own gym my own gym at 21 and at 24 I had started my wellness studio and that was it rest is history yeah I could totally empathize with you and you're disdain for school like that's where it all began for me I was at San Jose State and was there for two years and was just sloughing off and doing anything I could to just barely make it by show up and I was just really just interested on trying out for the football team making the football team working out like being physical and meanwhile like that was my entire focus and I found like I had like an opportunity to then go on to the spring ball team I had tried out and I had been like working my ass off to try and like make this team and then they cut it out from under me they're like you know what we don't have a spot for you and so I'm like just in like what the hell am I going to do with my life now like my girlfriend's at Cal Poly you know like I would find myself back and forth like driving down there and that like half my life was there I was like San Jose State's weird because it's kind of like a commuter school so like a lot of people there they don't really hang out you know so I would like take a bus there and I would just like spend all this time by myself and I'm a pretty social person you know as much as people think I'm an introvert I definitely like to hang out with people and like be social and so that was like wearing on me and I guess this guy had shared a flight with my dad and it was flying back from the Midwest and my dad was out there for business and he was just talking to the guy and the guy turns out to be a coach for this small school in Chicago and he was like you know what my son he was amazing like I had all these like accolades from when I was in high school you know that guy that has all the you know MVPs and you know one championships and all that shit Uncle Rico stuff right and I could throw football really far like I had that to my name you know people in my area knew who I was and I wasn't going to see any playing time anymore I just kind of gave up on the idea of football and then my dad was like hey I met this guy on the plane he was really interested in like you and like he's like I already sent him all your old footage and highlights I'm like what like really okay weird and then I just like started to communicate with him and had a phone call he really liked me he's like I didn't know this is how this played out I had no idea about this I didn't know your dad was the one who initially met the guy on a plane yeah yeah he met he met coach Vandercoy he was a really really good guy he uh he just he saw something in me and was like I want you know like if you can if we can get you back to that type of plane it'd been two years for me outside of high school playing actual football I mean I was training to try and get on D1 level and I just was just on the brink of that and they just they didn't want to take a chance on me and so I was just like really deflated I was I was actually working at a junior college in San Jose at San Jose City College and I was working with their track team just to try my my weakness was speed and so my 40 time was shit and uh that was where I was really like working my ass off to get faster just just because all they care about was like these combine numbers and so that was my game speed everything else my athleticism you know like all the coaches recognize that and they saw how much of a beast I was in the weight room and so they were like yeah we'll give you a chance you know and they kept giving me all these tryouts and I had a grueling tryouts when you're the guy that's like trying to get in on the team like they fuck with you like they used to put me in like little scrimmages and things this before I was even on the team and they would just like almost like bull in the ring kind of stuff and just smash you and just like you know working to the ground in the workouts see what you could take see what you could take I had to do a timed line so liners you'd go 25 yards back you'd go 50 yards back 75 yards back 100 yards back timed if you didn't make that you had to show up the next day at 5 a.m. and repeat it until you passed this time it took me two weeks to pass that time oh and so anyways I was like throwing up I was like oh my god I was like just like adamant that I was going to make it though that was my entire goal and I was just crushed that I didn't make it and so anyway so this was like a new opportunity for me and I was trying to explain this to my girlfriend she was obviously like not excited about the idea because I was going to be all the way on the other side of the country you know in Chicago and then I was like you know I've done everything for everybody else you know screw that I'm just going to go and so and my parents were just super excited because I don't think they liked my girlfriend at the time they're like yeah like let's get them to go and so I went out to the Midwest and I had no friends out there and I was just like you know totally like did I make the wrong decision is this crazy and turns out like I mean that that was what I needed I needed to find myself like this was all for me I was really like all about fitness forever I always loved being physical I loved the training process loved the off season loved getting better but that was always in the backburn this is like you know like I want to either be you know in the NFL or I want to be a rock star that was like my goals like very realistic you know very not lofty at all not lofty that like yeah like stuff you still think about as a little kid like I had that like goal in mind and quickly realized that at the college level like I could do well and I could handle you know I could like step up to the plate but I was never going to be like shining like I was at the high school level so I just was just like you know what what am I doing like I'm grinding my ass off and like beating myself up to try and become something I'm not going to be you know like I'm not going to take steroids you know like that was like thrown at me a bunch through the process and I was just like I just couldn't do it I just wasn't like and I was like this is as strong and fast as I can be like this is it and so I started to play music and I thought that okay I'm really into music I'm going to play in this band and I had a couple guys that were on the team that were just like like me like they just loved you know goofing off playing music I we started a band with this guy I was rooming with he was the drummer we recruited somebody from another school we're like touring around Chicago playing music and I'm I'm the guy that's setting up all the scheduling of all the dates the appearances like all this kind of stuff like I was like really gung-ho I'm like we're gonna we're gonna get signed dude you know like we're gonna make it and then like it was after I graduated from college I stayed there for an extra year to try and really be like am I just like like I still had some rational realistic like look this is a totally a dream a pipe dream like let's let's have some realism and I need a real job you know and so I started interning with this with this place in Chicago that was like it was like our dream setup so there was there's physical therapists there there was massage therapists there there was you know in ortho there there was like all these like super like well-established professionals that like like wealthy people would come in and they have a gym membership but they could have like access to all you know these physicians and you know some pro athletes would actually go through there and stuff and I totally took it for granted I was just like you know whatever like I had had a good time you know just training people and then I started going back to campus and training people just as sort of like a side gig but meanwhile I was like bartending and doing all that and then trying to become you know a rock star and and so you know it all kind of came to to a head and I made my way back to to California because I just missed home I was very homesick and and that's where I was like I'll do anything at this point like I need to like do I have to go back to construction you know maybe I'll go back to construction and I'll just do that for a living and I I drove past the 24 hour fitness and I just saw something in the window they're looking for for trainers they're looking for help and this is in Santa Cruz and I was like wow that's interesting I never even thought like that would be like a career that I could do and I was like maybe I'll try this out and I was there for maybe I don't know if it was a week and I was going through orientation and they they saw that I had a degree so that helped and they're like you know we'll put you on the floor try you out and all this but I guess at the time they just didn't have that much business and they're like you know what we have another opportunity actually like over in San Jose I think you know would be a better fit if you're willing to drive and commute I'm like you know I'm willing to do whatever like I just I want to I just want to work and make money and be you know self-sufficient and so I just decided to do that that's right you know I connected with Adam and we went to Hillsdale and then went to that like that funny little course with a couple of the guys that were new hires at the time Nick and I like subtly like I was super super competitive like I didn't want it to be obvious you know I knew I didn't have the ultimate hey hey look at me everybody charisma like that's just not me but I wanted to crush you I wanted to crush everybody and like I was picking everybody apart who's the best trainer what do they do like well how do they talk to to their clients like what's what's why are they carrying clipboards what is this all about like why why can't I do this with the client like so I was like breaking it all down and I was writing it all every night I was writing it down every single night writing it down I come in with a plan you know and I just that was like my safety net it was like I had a plan every single day for every one of my clients like and so I just I just really was like methodical in the beginning as much as I could and then like later like I realized oh wow like I know what to do I know what to do I'm just going to do what I'm going to do and then I started to really flourish and be comfortable when I was comfortable I started attracting more people and then I started like building this really big base of clients then I started breaking records in the company you know and then obviously applying a lot of techniques sales techniques I didn't have that before like it was great to learn all that stuff and just it was really just a confidence thing for me it takes me a while to really feel like like I put myself all the way out there like oh I'm so awesome like it takes me a while to say I'm awesome and once I got to that place it was like it all kind of was like oh this was the best thing I could have done for myself and I loved it so awesome and now we're here yep and with that go to mindpumpfree.com and download our guides they're all absolutely free you can also find all of us on Instagram if you want to follow awesome Justin follow him and him at mind pump I'm awesome Adam is at mind pump Adam and I'm at mind pump Sal