 Our next caller is Jackie from Virginia. Hey, Jackie, how can we help you? Hey, first of all, this is super cool. So I listen to you guys pretty much every day. And if there isn't a new episode out, I go to the archive and listen to something there. So I'm a coach myself. I find a ton of value in the content you're putting out. So thanks for all you guys do. Thank you, Brad. Yeah, so a little background on me. I currently compete in Olympic weightlifting at a pretty high level. I've been competing for six years. And in that time, I've won two national championships, an American Open championship, 20 national medals. I've competed on Team USA. And I'm just getting to a point where I'm in my mid-30s. I've accomplished all of my goals and more in the sport, but I also have a full-time job, completely outside of fitness, and I coach on the side. So I'm just kind of ready to retire. I've also been an athlete my whole life. So I started out as a gymnast. I did that for over 15 years. And then I just went into normal strength training in college. I did some CrossFit. And that's what introduced me to Olympic weightlifting. But I've always been strong pretty much my whole life, especially from gymnastics and just having good genetics. I tend to keep on muscle and have really strong legs. So I can squat over 350 pounds. My deadlift is about the same because I'm super quad dominant. So yeah, I've been strong my whole life, been an athlete my whole life. And now I'm looking at the next chapter of being in my mid-30s and wanting to maintain a strong physique. But I also don't need to be as strong as I currently am, because if I'm not competing, I don't need to be able to squat over 350 pounds. I'm not looking to, but I also want to be strong and strength train. So for one, I'm pretty lost on which program I should do because I've been training really hard for so long. But I'm afraid that if I don't train enough, I'll gain body fat and there's a ton of muscle. So I'm trying to figure out what the best program is for me to start with. So you came to us from a program that will get you not as strong. Is that what you're saying? I mean, no. But I'm 5'3 ish. Between 5'3 and 5'4, I weigh 145 pounds. But I cut down to the 64 kilo class for competition. So I feel like I could lose 10 pounds to get to a physique that makes me happy and still be strong, because I'm not trying to be. I have giant quads, but I'm pretty lean. But I just want to change my body composition. And get to a point where I can also eat at maintenance, because right now I've cut for competition back and forth. So I haven't been able to actually reverse diet, because I don't have enough time in between competitions to do so. So I'm trying to also get to a place where I can eat like a normal person and all that as well. You'd be a blast to train. I would love to train. I can't wait to hear what everyone. I bet you were all going to have different opinions. Maybe you could go a lot of different directions. Well, I mean, I have some good news and some bad news. So here's the good news. With someone of your caliber, you can do whatever the hell you want, and you'll be fine. OK, that's the truth. And I can't say that to everybody. But someone like you with your obvious great genetics and how responsive you are to resistance training, you can do whatever you want. And you'd probably get great results, no matter what. Here's the bad news. It's going to be hard to lose muscle. So because your body's so responsive, the only way you could lose muscle in a relatively healthy way would be to focus on endurance training. And that would probably do it a little bit, although I wouldn't get too excited about it, because I've seen people like you do endurance training and not lose that much muscle. Not to mention she wrote that she hates cardio. Exactly. I mean, that's the good news and bad news. Now, what I would go, if I were you, is more of a MAPS aesthetic route. See, I was going to push your performance than aesthetic. Well, performance would be good, too. But here's why I said aesthetic is because with the focus sessions, you could go to the gym and be more like a bodybuilder and sculpt your body and not train your quads as much. Maybe focus more on your hamstrings and just focus on the parts of your body you really want to develop and neglect the parts you don't want to develop as much. You can really have fun with MAPS aesthetic because it allows so much of that modifiability in there. Right. Yeah, I was going to say that for that specific reason of the focus sessions and just to get you outside of the compound lifts a bit and really just kind of take your body as individual muscle groups that we're really like hyper-focused on. But then also, too, you mentioned you hate cardio. To me, that speaks like something that maybe your body needs to venture into that a bit, lean into the cardiovascular aspect of it. And just challenge yourself through that, which then you can maybe see the benefit of that going forward and your body responsive in that direction. OK, well, it sounds like we all are a little bit closer than I thought we were going to be because you're right. To your points, I 100% think that you could go a bunch of different directions and we could have success a lot of different ways. I did ultimately want you in MAPS aesthetic. I was going to say performance first, just because I know that Olympic lifting is obviously more dynamic than powerlifting. But sometimes we tend to do a lot of sagittal plane exercises. Primarily, there's not a lot of multi-directional exercises that you're probably doing. So I think you could benefit from that. And because I think there's a lot of unique exercise in there, so I think your body would respond with that. But I do think that a kind of bodybuilder-esque type of routine would do you really, really well. So MAPS aesthetic, I agree. The one add to that I would add to that is my prescription on that. If we were to go to MAPS aesthetic, I would love to see you, even though I know you don't like it or want it, I would try and push you towards 30 minutes of cardio with your focus days. So the way the program's structured is there's three foundational days, and then you have two to three focus days. On those two to three focus days, when you are focusing on the, which is basically like a 20-minute workout, 20 to 30 minutes, I would spend the other 20 to 30 minutes doing some cardio. And it doesn't need to be crazy intense. You could have fun with it, stair master stuff, electrical stuff, power walking on an incline, row for a while. You could have some fun. But I would encourage us to do some cardiovascular training like that for about 30 to 40 minutes on the same days that we do focus training with MAPS aesthetic. I think the combination of that, I think your body will respond really well. Now, here's another route you can go, Jackie. And I would almost never recommend this to most people, OK? Because you did mention you have a full-time job, and obviously you're not going to be competing at that same level. So maybe you want to work out less. Maybe you don't want to work out five or six days a week. You're one of the few people that could get away with this. You could go to the gym three or four days a week, literally do focus on whatever you want. Like, literally, you could go to the gym. You're probably so hyper responsive to resistance training, you could look in the mirror and be like, I want to work on my back a little more, so I'm going to do a little back today. Or you know what? My shoulders, I want to develop a little more. My quads are really big. I think I'll avoid quad training for the next three weeks or whatever. You could totally get away with going to the gym and kind of doing what you want and having a little bit of fun with watching your body shape and sculpt based on what you do. Most people's bodies are not responsive enough to do that. They just wouldn't see their body change quick enough for them to be able to make those judgments. But in your case, you're literally one of the 1% or probably less. I would say you could go to the gym, literally three, four days a week, and kind of do whatever you want and look at your body and say, I want to do a little this, a little that. And like I said, when you first answered your question, any direction you go, so long as you don't hurt yourself and overdo it, you're going to do fine. So that's the kind of- I think she did bring up a concern though that would be a concern of mine, of reducing the volume too much is that because she's got a lot of muscle, she's probably been training her ass off like crazy. She probably has created a high demand of calories for her body. So if all of a sudden you dramatically reduced the volume of training, I would imagine she's going to have to change the calories. Whereas if she does something like MAPS Aesthetic, which is one of our higher volume programs, in addition to 30 minutes of cardio, two to three times a week, I think that's enough calorie burn that she won't have to reduce her. I agree, but you know, it's funny. So Jackie, I've only really trained a few people that I would say are probably in your, like the kind of genetics that you have that really competed at super high levels. And so what Adam's saying is you cut your volume down. Oh no, I'm getting some body fat. What I noticed with these few people that I trained is they literally like, oh no, I gained a little bit of body fat. I'm going to work out a little more. Body fat's gone. It's like, it just responds very quickly. Whereas most people are like, oh my gosh, I'm stuck. What do I do? And I'm sure, is what I'm saying resonating, do you feel like you could just kind of pick it up a little bit and watch your body change? Yeah, I mean, I, like I love training, like obviously, because I've been doing it for so long at such a high level. So I don't necessarily want to like stop going to the gym on a regular basis. But I'm just trying to change up like what I'm doing, not put so much stress on my body because I've been putting it through the ringer quite a number of years. And also doing like those extreme cuts for competition. Like I end up water cutting most of the weight that I need to, like right before the meat, but like kind of like a fighter would, but I'm still restricting calories so that I don't gain weight. So, you know, it's hard to, I guess, figure out which route is the right one. But I feel like when you say like aesthetic, adding some cardio and like maybe that's, yeah, I love that. I think I'm standing by what I said. I think maps aesthetic, 30 minutes of cardio, two to three times a week on your focus days. It's still allowed. You're going to the gym, six, five, six days a week minimum, what you probably like to do anyways, you're just changing the focus. If you're not stressful on your joints. Yeah, not stressful on the joints. No, it's bodybuilder style. So it's really. I think you'd be phenomenal for your body. Awesome. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense because it's way different than how I train now. And I think my body would probably respond well to that. Well, Jack, if you don't have it, we'll send it over to you. Okay? Yeah. Oh, awesome. Thank you guys so much. I'd like to add two or two because you would be a fun client to listen to and talk. Could you add her to the forum too, Doug? And I would love to hear your process through. I don't know how often you use Facebook. Hopefully you get on there. I don't know if you do. I would love to see you in the forum. So I'm going to give you access to the private forum because you are somebody like back to Sal's point. This would be fun to try. Yeah, you would be fun. Like we could be going through maps aesthetic and you'd be like, oh, you know, I'm going to do my quads, you guys. And we'd be like, you know what? You see changes. Drop this exercise and that exercise that are in that program. Let's switch it, put this in instead. And like you'd be a fun person and I can easily help without having to feel like I'm having to coach you full time. You'd be real easy to tweak some things. So if you go in the forum and you actually share with us what you're doing, what you're going through, what you're seeing, you know, one of us three will get on there and give you tweaks. Awesome. That sounds great. Thank you so much. Thanks for calling in. Hold on, Jackie. Cool, yeah. Thank you guys. Yeah, cool to have someone of that caliber. Oh, it would be a fun client. Those are the best. But I tell you, well, they're the best. People need to know. Here's why they're the best. It's like anything you do, something happens. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's like a champion, right? That's why it's fun. Well, a couple of things too, right? So you know if she's that talented. You know that I, like this is what I love about clients too. When you teach like a new movement, I could say things like, oh, tuck your tailbone. Oh, pull the shoulders back. Oh, head up, Joe, chin in, like. And it happens. Yeah, it happens. And they cue them like that. And they just, their body will snap right into it, which is fun to teach. Of all the strength athlete-based sports, Olympic lifters are among the most athletic. I've seen Olympic lifters who play no sports watch them do stuff and they're, it's not like a bodybuilder or a power lifter. Like they can move, then they can move dynamically. So it's the highest like technical lifting sport. Dude, 335 squad at 145. 355. At 143. She competes at 62 kilograms. So that's 130 something pounds that she competes at. I mean, that's insane. Yeah, tremendous strength and power, but you know, I guess the challenge at that level is how do I scale down, right? Cause you competed at a national level. That's more of a mental challenge, I think than anything. How do I bring it down because I'm no longer competing at this, this ridiculous level.