 If our ultimate goal is can we keep the size and look of kind of where you're at, but then feel a little bit leaner and also be able to eat like 2,500 calories, then the ultimate goal is to speed your metabolism. Nothing is going to do that better than us building muscle. But the hard part, and I think the part that Sal's kind of alluding to is that the psychological part, when we're on this reverse diet and I'm asking you to eat more calories and you put on your jeans one day and they feel a little tighter, not to freak out and go, oh, I gotta go the other direction. In fact, the main thing I'd be communicating is let's just focus on strength. Let's just look at your lifts. Let's try and get stronger. That's our goal of this program, with get stronger, get stronger, get stronger. That's all I'm gonna speak to while also trying to slowly increase calories. If we can increase calories by a few hundred and you can get stronger, I really don't give a shit about how your jeans feel temporarily. I don't really don't give a shit about where the scale is saying up or down a couple pounds. That's what I wanna hear. And then I would cut you from there and then get you to the exact size you wanna be. When you pull in your waist, when you suck it in and make it smaller, that's a muscle that's doing that. It's called the TVA. Well, check this out. You can train that muscle to be stronger and actually shrink your waist without getting any leaner. It's not the abs, it's not the obliques, it's the transverse abdominis. Yeah, I- Sounds like an infomercial. It does, doesn't it? And check out this new piece of equipment. It's actually nothing to sell. It's not new, it's really old technique. That's why it's not popular. There's nothing attached to it. I don't know what you would attach to that. Nothing, that's why. To sell, right? Yeah, nothing. It's nothing. Yeah, it's interesting. I learned about the exercises and techniques to do this from old bodybuilding magazines because back in the day there was a bodybuilding pose called the vacuum pose. In fact, they do it now in the classic bodybuilding division. They have this new division where they're trying to make them look more like bodybuilders of the 80s. And they brought back that pose, right? Because it harkens back to the classic eras of bodybuilding. And basically, it's hands behind the head and we'll pull up a picture where you suck in- You visually see the ribs a lot more. Yeah, and you see the serratus anterior and you have to train it to really make it happen. And people who have really strong TVA can suck in and really shrink their waist. Well, anyway, that muscle, if you work it and strengthen it in some cases, many cases in my experience of training clients, that they would notice that their waist would get smaller and they didn't have to get in leaner just because they tightened that muscle up. Yeah, and also there's lots of cool applications, especially for postpartum and losing that access through pregnancy, like to be able to reconnect to that muscle and be able to kind of get things back on track and be able to stabilize your spine, like all these muscles that are there for a purpose, you know, to gain that kind of accessibility again is great. Would you teach this first or would you teach like in a quadruped position, draw and maneuver first? See, that's how I was originally exposed so I didn't really know the bodybuilder technique specifically. Yeah, I would typically do what you just said with quadruped, but I would regress back to just basic hands and knees. Let's see if we can pull your belly button up, especially when I worked with postpartum women because they were so disconnected from, so think about that muscle as like the body's weight belt. So it wraps around the core, right? When you're pregnant, it has to atrophy and stretch. Obviously it has to make room. So you get this muscle stretch and then often what happens is women will have a baby and then they'll go train their abs and obliques, but that muscle will stay kind of weak and then they'll complain about it as they'll say things like, you know, I've been working out my abs and my core and I'm lean but I got this lower belly pooch ever since I had a baby and sometimes that's due to the fact that this TVA isn't strong. So I would get postpartum women, I'd have them try to suck in and do this draw and maneuver and they couldn't connect to it at all. And so that's how I would practice first. And then I would, once they were able to, then I would do something a little more challenging. Well, and also posturally too, like for me to address what you see a lot of times when overhead pressing, you'll see this like arching of the lower back and lots of pain intention in the lower back to focus on the TVA and really gaining access there to bring that rib flare down and good posture and stack your spine. It absolves that issue. So I would put a client, the reason why I would do this too is for exact point is like a lot of clients can't even activate their TVA, right? They're so disconnected. And this isn't just pregnant women. Some people have just completely disconnected from that area and when you tell them to draw in they hold their breath and they don't actually use that muscle to pull up. So putting them on all four like that, now we're using gravity. This feedback. Yeah, there's a feedback there. And then I would take actually a PVC pipe and I would rest it. So I'd have them tilt their head down to where you have their cervical spine nice and neutral and then their low back. And so I'd want the PVC pipe to hit all three points, their head, their upper back and then their hips and that, because the other thing people do is they roll their spine and arched their back to try and draw in like that too. So I want them to understand how to keep the neutral spine while they draw in. And then also, can you actually breathe while you do that? Tight and breathe. Yeah. By the way, that is hard for people who don't have it. No, that's an exercise in itself. I mean, that would be a foundational exercise that I would teach a lot of clients when we first get started because you have to first get that down. And then if you do a good job of laying that foundation, then when you get to more complex movements you can get them to organize their posture and their body much easier because you've taught that first versus going right into a more basic or fundamental movement that everyone's familiar with and then saying, oh, you know, stand up tall or draw your core in, you know? And you say that and then like, huh? It's like completely forward to that. Yeah, it's weird when you don't have connection to a muscle, it would be like telling someone to, it'd be like telling me to make this desk levitate. I have no connection to it. I don't know how, I don't know what I'm doing. So when you get someone who doesn't have a connection- You need to understand the force. Yeah. It's weird, right? Like you would get someone who doesn't have this connection and as a trainer it's your cues. You have to, I would put my finger on their belly button and I'd say, see if you can lift your belly button towards your spine and you would see them go like, I can't. I can't do it. I say, well, we just gotta sit here and try. And sometimes it would take three sessions, like three workouts before they go, oh, what is that? Oh, I can feel it. Okay, we're connecting. Now let's get it stronger. But yeah, that muscle, if you can't connect to it, it's not stabilizing. And so now you're relying on all the other stabilizers. This is why oftentimes people have low back pain, even though they're training their core particular way. Or again, they notice that lower belly pooch. The reason why you get that lower belly pooch is because your internal organs as you're standing gravity kind of pushes them down and out. So if that muscle isn't tight, it'll bulge out a little bit. And you'll have that kind of, you'll have to increase waist size from it. So yeah, it's a great exercise, a great way to strengthen and tighten your core. It is imperative for postpartum women in particular. This was one of the first exercises that I would do when they would come in after having a baby and I would tell them, I would have them practice it on their own. It's an easy way to make yourself look like you lost 10 to 15 pounds and not losing any weight at all. You know how many times have you guys done that? Pretty quickly too. Well, it's also essential to keeping you in good posture. So when the transversa dominance activates, I used to give this analogy of like, I'd have like this pen in my hand and I would be like, it'd be like loose. You'll pencil fist analogy. Yes, you're right. This is your spine and then when you activate your TVA, it goes like a vacuum, right? So now it's all, and that's what also holds you up into that good posture. So if I can get you to learn, first of all, how to activate that muscle and then we train and strengthen it, you're gonna have better overall posture, a little back pain tends to go away. You automatically look better. Like I can take a client in an assessment and have them posture up, activate their core and then show them their reflection of before and after of what they look like. And you right away, you already look like you've lost 10, 15 pounds just by standing up. Totally, yeah. If you think of the, when people talk about core stability and you think of the spine, the spine is obviously made of a lot of joints and it can move in almost any direction. Like if you took a spine out and tried to stand it up, it would just flop over. So it's all these muscles that surround it and muscles that connect to the surrounding muscles that contribute to stability. And good stability is the balance and efficiency of how they work together. And what happens when one muscle or two muscles doesn't stabilize the way it should is that the other muscles then start to take over and try to pick up the slack. And this is not a bad thing. This is a compensation. You need it. However, when this goes on long enough, you develop problems. For example, a lot of back pain is not due to problems with the spine. It's very common for someone to have their psoas muscle have to do way more work than it needs to. And that's a hip flexor. You think, what does a hip flexor have to do with my spine? Well, it goes through the body, it attaches at the lower back. And if other muscles aren't doing what they're supposed to, that psoas is constantly pulling and at the attachments you get inflamed. And what does it feel like? It feels like low back pain on one side or the other. The lower lats. A lot of people don't know the lower lats are involved in stability. The glutes are involved in stability. And of course your abs, obliques, internal, external, and then your TVA. But the TVA being the one that oftentimes, because most people have no idea that that's even a muscle that you need to train or strengthen, that one often is a big issue. It's overlooked quite a bit. Totally overlooked. By the way, this is when you, if you ever put on something stabilizing around your midsection, like you see people at Home Depot wear those things. And all of a sudden they're like, oh, my back doesn't hurt anymore. Like, well, you did that artificially. You could totally do that with your, You can do that intrinsically. You can work on that muscle. You could totally do that. Well, that's the, you know, and by the way, that is the problem with braces like that. Oh my God. And the weight belt would be included in the, especially for people that wear weight belts their entire time of lifting is that you're basically creating an artificial core. And yeah. Weakening with the one you have. Yeah, which exactly. The body will adapt and go like, oh, cool. I don't, this core, your actual core doesn't need to be strong because I'm artificially propping it up with this belt. And so you actually just get weaker in that area. And yes, you're maybe supported because you have this artificial support while you're working at Home Depot or while you're in the gym and you're lifting. But let's be honest. Are you wearing that all the time or do you want to wear that all the time? Of course not. It's not a good idea. Oh boy, here we go. One of my favorite giveaways, the RGB bundle, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic. You can get it for free, but you got to do this. Leave a comment below in the first 24 hours that we dropped this episode, started a nice conversation. Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. Do all those things. If we like your comment, we'll notify you in the comment section and you'll get free access to those three programs. That's nine months of exercise programming. Also, we got a crazy promotion going on right now until August 14th. So it's not going on all month. We're going to end it short because it's that big. So check this out. We've taken very popular MAPS workout programs, combinations, combinations like MAPS Split and MAPS Power Lift or MAPS Prime and Prime Pro and anywhere or MAPS Anabolic and MAPS Performance. Those are all examples, right? We've got lots of different bundles, either two or three program bundles. Every single one is only $99.99. And again, this promotion ends on the 14th of this month. So take advantage, go to mapsaugust.com, find the bundle or bundles that work best for you and get yourself signed up. All right, here comes the show. So anyway, I'm going to change topics here, but I've been reading a lot about alpha-lipoic acid. So, but I'm going to get to why I've been reading a lot about this particular compound. I brought it up before. Other than you being a dork? Yeah, besides that. Besides that, I like to read about... What'd you do for your week, Justin? Oh, I read studies on alpha-lipoic acid. Aren't you guys happy that that happened? Thank God, yeah. Okay. You're right, you're right. Fair enough. Thank God, every group needs one. Thank you very much. So anyway, so here's what led me to that, right? So we just, we've talked about now past podcast how the serotonin model of depression and it's wrong depression has just been flipped on its head. Yeah. And this is a big deal because for decades we've built an entire industry around this theory of depression, that it's this deficiency of serotonin. And what ends up happening is you get funding in that direction, you get more medications in that direction. They get approved by investors and all that stuff. And you end up building this entire house on a faulty premise, which is really crazy, right? Well, they just, they did that with Alzheimer's. So Alzheimer's, it's coming out now that the whole approach to like the beta amyloid plaque theory of Alzheimer's, like this is what's causing the symptoms, which what they're not saying is there isn't a connection, but what they're finding now is that that was actually faulty and we've developed this entire industry around drugs that prevent beta amyloid plaques from building. And there's no research, for example, it shows that this new drug, yes it reduces that, but it doesn't solve Alzheimer's, it's not correcting the problem. So just huge amounts of money have gone totally in these directions that have been a complete waste of time, really, really crazy. But the reason why I got to alphalopoic acid is because I'm looking at this Alzheimer's research. I talked to Max Lugovir a little bit. He, you know, this is a big area of study. Yeah, no, I saw his post last week and I didn't, I actually didn't know what it was all about. It was like, he was like big news in Alzheimer's this week and he talked about two like main studies that were like completely upended. Yes. So originally, so they found that like there was a correlation between a beta amyloid plaque buildup within Alzheimer's patients. They didn't find shit. It was fraudulent, right? So what it was is essentially, and I'm- I'm just trying to see where they like got to that. I'm not a hundred percent privy on it, okay? But from what I understand, they came up with a theory that the beta amyloid plaques are the cause and if we could just prevent those from building, we will solve Alzheimer's. And there was a study that now turns out that wasn't that great, but anyway, it came out a long time ago and everybody was like, oh, this is it. This is the silver bullet because Alzheimer's is a big issue. It's a big problem. It's chronic degenerative disease. It's growing. We have an aging population. Like if you could solve Alzheimer's like you're solving a big problem. And what happens when this happens is then the government comes out and says, okay, we're going to give funding towards solving that part of the problem. So then studies come out, more people are putting money that way. Pharmaceutical companies are directing their efforts towards that. And it's not profitable or it's very risky to go in any other direction because you're not going to get funding. Investors are like, look, if you have a drug that's going to stop beta amyloid plaques, we'll give you money. But if you have a drug that's going to go in this other direction with this other theory we're not going to give you any money. So we build these entire industries around it. So that's kind of what's happened. So anyway, because of that, I started looking at the alternative theories. Now I have said many times on the show, I know we have that some researchers will call Alzheimer's and dementia type three diabetes that there's a connection between our inability to utilize glucose and our insensitivity to insulin to Alzheimer's. And we know that if you give someone who has Alzheimer's or dementia, you put them on a ketogenic diet, we see improvements in cognition. So that shows us something. So there's this alternative theory that has to do with that and mitochondrial health, the health of the engines of ourselves. But not a lot of money's gone there, right? But you hear wellness people talking a lot about mitochondrial health lately. Well, anyway, that's what got me down that rabbit hole of mitochondrial health. One of the best things you could take for your mitochondria, creatine it fuels mitochondria and then alphalipoic acid. Very, very good for mitochondrial health and very good for insulin sensitivity. Isn't that the one you told me to pair with my creatine? Yes, it is. Yes, so alphalipoic acid, great for mitochondrial health, reduces oxidative stress very effectively, increases muscle creatine concentration. So even if you don't have taking creatine, alphalipoic acid seems to increase that. It's like I said, it's very, very potent antioxidant, so interesting. And so I've been supplementing it now with it for the last six months. So, you know, we work with a company called LiveOn and one of the products they have is alphalipoic acid and they put it in this liposomal packet. In other words, it's very absorbable. And I've been using it for a while and I think I noticed a difference when I take it versus when I don't. I did notice with the CGM. So I had the Continual Glucose Monerone and I noticed that my glucose did not do the same thing when I took alphalipoic acid. So it does seem to have a sensitizing effect on insulin. So I think it's a supplement that has got a lot of benefit for people interested in longevity, health. So it sounds like in terms of wellness and longevity and you speculated too how creatine was gonna move into the wellness category. Sounds like the combination of both of those would be a great. If you can keep your mitochondria healthy, you'll probably prevent a lot of chronic disease. It seems like a lot of chronic disease is being connected now to poor health of the engines of our cells. And that's why we're seeing a lot of that. Wouldn't the infrared light fall into that category too? Yep. Okay, they're all doing that, right? Yep, they all helped that, definitely. Well, well. So I thought I read that on that study that it came out that it was completely fraudulent. Fraudulent, yes. Like they made false claims, completely people signed off on it, like doctors signed off on it like when they shouldn't have like. You know what the problem is and I'm gonna have, I'm trying to get max on the show to break this down because I, you know, I'm not, like I said. Obviously it's his space, he's way more. Yeah, and I'm not privy enough to really break it down but I do know that in science, getting funding can be very challenging if you're gonna go, for example, I use this example. Let's say you are a scientist and you have this like really novel, interesting alternative theory towards cancer. So like, you know what? I got this really interesting theory on how we may be able to cure cancer. Getting funding for that would be really hard. Now, if I came out and said, if that same scientist said, hey, I've got this new form of chemo that's safer and maybe kills more cancer cells because it's already in a category that's already established, you're more likely to get funding. This is why opiates like, just, you know, and if you come up with alternative forms of pain, you know, medicine, it's hard, right? Plus, if you're a scientist and just come out- Which is so stupid of me because it's like the opposite of what science is supposed to be. You're right. It's supposed to be constantly challenging what we believe. And instead, it's like, oh, well, we already believe this. So you can go do research and studies on that because this is where we already believe. That's where you get the funding. But we're not gonna finance, we're not gonna help any of these ones that challenge any of these beliefs, which just flies right in the face of all these hardcore science beliefs. It's really crazy. And also, if you're a scientist and you are coming out to disprove, you'll destroy your career oftentimes. Oftentimes, you have to- It's not advantageous for them to- It's not even advantageous for them to do what they're supposed to do, which has challenged these ideas. It is way more advantageous for them to fall in line with what everybody else believes because that's how they'll get recognized. That's where they'll get the money. It's such bullshit. This is where I think government spending could be valuable. Because I am, you guys know, everybody knows I'm a super free market guy, but I do think that when markets can't exist, that's where there may be value. Like I could see governments coming out and saying, I would love this. We're gonna fund alternative treatments because there's no market. There's no market investment viability. Like investors, I'm as an investor, I wouldn't invest some weird technology that has no track records. I'm gonna lose my money. So that's where I think- So I don't know though. So my challenge, I would still challenge that and go back to your free market belief because I would believe that there's enough, you know, 100 millionaires and billionaires out there that have been impacted by these things that need to be researched. If you were gonna put your money towards any direction, that's- I mean, look at just like Max is a good example. He's dedicated his life to learning about this topic because it impacted him so close to home with his mother. So you can't tell me there's not money out there that's attached to people that have been affected by these things that need to have research done to him. I think letting the government involved is like your- Look, it's one of those things where I think it's like necessary evil in some cases. I agree with you, but man, do you know how many billions of dollars it takes with no return for a long time? To me, that's a whole other argument, right? Because if you go back to true free market stuff, what would happen is you would free up a lot of that. Well, I mean, if you really wanna make it viable, what you do is you completely change our FDA because to get a drug from inception to market is like a billion dollars. So maybe, I've said this before, maybe what we had was a tier system where it's like high risk drugs with very little evidence and it goes down and then the consumer can pick. So if you're really sick and you're like, I'll take, look, this one over here, I know it's got like one study that shows maybe it works, but I'm terminal. So I'll go ahead and try it out. You know, maybe something like that and then you'd have enough people using it where you start to get data, but I don't know if people are ready for that. You know what I mean? I don't know if people are ready to let people take weird shit. Hey, how was your weekend over there solo guy? Dude. You've been solo since like, what? Wednesday or Thursday last week, still solo? Yeah, the kids and Courtney went to Lake Corderlane to hang out with my brother. They had a great time. It was funny cause I was like, well, they're probably gonna stay in excessive amount of time and so I don't wanna take work off or nothing and like I want them to just have fun. So I was like, you guys just go. And so like, I'm just trying to catch up on stuff which was good and I'm like kind of doing my thing but I was getting bored, dude. Like, you know, being by myself for too long I get bored, but they're sending me all these videos like having the greatest time ever, dude. Like my kids, again, like I missed out on my kids catching a fish. Like I took them and didn't work out. They went and learned how to like water ski, you know? And then like, send me videos. I'm like, oh cool, like that's awesome. Cool dad misses out again. Later on, yeah, we're going out tonight and oh, by the way, like I guess we found out that there's this private concert with Lenny Kravitz and so we're gonna drive the boat and then watch a free concert and then there's gonna be fireworks and it's like, I'm like, whoa, that's awesome. Like good for you. You're at home trimming the hedges. Yeah, dude, seriously. And I'm like, you know, take care that the dogs are like extra needy. So I just was getting out and trying to like manage them for most of the weekend. But yeah, dude, I mean, I, again. It was the phone? I was just by myself. Yeah, I was getting no kids, no wife, no nothing. Yeah. You didn't invite anybody over? You just stayed at home like a hermit? Yeah, I haven't done that forever. You guys haven't done that in a while where you're just like, oh, you did that not too long, right? I did and it's fun for two days. Yeah, there's a cap to that, dude. It was like one day for me, I was like, yeah, like kick my feet up, watch all the man shows and all the action stuff and comedy that I could never watch. And then it was, it was like, it was cool and it was gone. Did you take a bath like Adam does with the bubbles in the wine? No, I didn't get that fancy. I probably should have, you know? I probably should have made a bus for that. Just soak in a bath. Yeah, just soak. Read a novel. Pedals and, you know, candles. Get really into a book. He'll be a hater, bro. Yeah, he'll be a hater. Well, you looked like you had Max by yourself. I did, I did. Oh, you guys took, you took him to his first movie. It's our first time going to the movies. You ready? Are you ready for the movies? Like a big boy? Are you going to sit through the whole movie? You going to eat some popcorn? Popcorn. Popcorn? What are we going to go see? We'll see. What are we going to go watch? Minions. Minions. All right. Pray for us. Bro. Did he watch the whole thing? Bro, listen to this. So, OK. So I have Max. I have Max. So I had him from Thursday all the way till Sunday. Katrina came back Sunday late, late afternoon, early evening. And like, what day was it? Saturday, I think it was. We, I took, I love to take him for a drive to put him to sleep. I already like driving. And like our kind of our thing is to drive the coast. And like, I have this little route that takes about an hour. And I'm like cruising one. And like, he falls asleep. And I'm just kind of chilling, right? So that was like our thing. So we, I take him out at noon. He passes out in the car. We drive for like an hour up and down the coast. And then he wakes up. He wakes up all in a good mood and stuff like that because he got good sleep. And we're heading back to the house. And I'm like, you know what? Like, I wanted to swing by the movie theater. Katrina had called the movie theater, like, I don't know, a week or two ago, I asked her to call down there and see what it would cost for me to rent the whole thing to ourselves. Because I was like, I had this idea that I, first of all, I'm a huge movie person already. And I, like, if I was going to bring my son there, I'm like, you know what? I heard that it's not that crazy expensive to like rent the whole thing. And maybe I'll do it for Max and a couple of friends and we'd have the whole place. So she called down there and she got some kid who's like, just started working there, had no answers for her, couldn't help out. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to go there and see if I can go talk to the general manager. So I just rolled up there in the afternoon. I picked, I take Max out with me and we walk up. And this is like first time even in the movie theater. So he's like looking around. He's like so enamored by the lights and everything going on. I'm talking to the general manager and stuff. And they're like, yeah, you know, this place is really small. We don't do that. I'm like, you know, I live right around the corner. I said, I'll come on a weekday when you'd be closed. When you're not, I was like, I said, I'm really flexible about when, I imagine you guys could use the revenue and stuff like that. He goes, no, absolutely, you know what? Let me take your number. Let's figure, we'll figure something out. We'll do something. Well, then I go to leave and Max doesn't want to leave. He really wants to stay. And I'm like, do you want to go to a movie? He's like, yeah, yeah. And I said, okay, well, daddy's got to take you home. We got to change real quick. And then we'll come back, put some shoes on you and stuff. And then we'll come back and we'll go to a movie. And I pull up the thing. And these are the movie theaters where you can book your seats. So you can see how much of it's taken up. And I'm like, okay, let me see if it's not crazy. If it's not crazy packed and it's in 20 minutes. I'm like, it ended all the lines. And I'm like, sure enough, I got on there. It was minions. And there was like six people in there. And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. So if he acts all crazy and stuff like that, I won't be all that embarrassed. It'll be easy. It's a kid movie. Yeah, if he moves around a little bit too, it's not a big deal because it won't be packed at all. So I picked a little spot where we kind of had plenty of seats on the other sides. And so I'm like all prepared, right? I packed his diaper bag. I bring his like little snacks and his drink and everything I got going on. And so, and I take them there. And right when we get there, like the right up the road is the college. And a whole college class is in like walks in front of us because I'm walking him, so we're walking hell slow. And I see them coming. And it's like a mob of probably 30, 40 kids, you know, college kids, and they all get him before me and they all go straight to the line. I'm like, oh, shit. Right? And I'm like, I do not want to. So I'm standing in line with him. He was so good. Dude, I threw him on my shoulders and just waited. We waited the whole time to get up there. By this time, the movie time has hit. It's already 2.40. I'm still in line to get the popcorn. I get all the popcorn. I get a popcorn. I get a water. I get a Diet Coke. And then the general manager see him and everybody was talking to him because they think he's such a cute, fucking great kid. And so he's, because he's behaving so well, right? In a place like this. And they're trying to give him a bunch of free stuff. He's like, oh, does he like banana slurpee? I'm like, oh, he's never had anything like that. And so the guy gives him a free slurpee. That doesn't want that shit every time they watch. So he gives him a free slurpee and he's trying to give him candy. And I'm like, ah, we're good. We're good. Candy, the fruit snack, gummy things, which are pretty much fucking cute. But they're organic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically glorified gummy bears, you know what I'm saying? Right? So I grab those. So I'm like, completely, my hands are full, diaper bags on me, everything like that. And I tell him, I'm like, you got to take the tickets. You got to give the tickets for Daddy because Daddy's hands are full. Okay. So he walks right up and hands the guy the tickets and he scans it, gives him back to him. We walk in the theater. And he's so funny because he's just like, you know, looking all over the place, people are behind him. They got everybody was being patient. So I'm so glad I didn't have any rude people. And I'm like, come on, son, we got to let people go out. Okay, so he comes up, I pop him in his seat. And now I'm like, like full on, like get everything, my wallet and keys out, I got to set that over there. I got to get his water up here. Oh my God. I got to get my popcorn here, wedging the popcorn perfect. And I'm like, playing defense, you know what I'm saying? Like, getting ready for like, okay, my son going to be like a handful to watch this movie. And finally we get all situated and sit down and he fucking sits down and watches the whole thing. Wow. Whole thing. I mean, literally halfway through, at one point I picked him up and actually sat him in my lap. So I wedged the popcorn in between my seat like this. And so for half the movie, he's laying on my chest with his legs all up, watching. Oh, what a great moment. It was so cute too, because I don't know if you guys saw the picture or whatever. He held the tickets like the whole movie. So he did the tickets, they gave him back to him and he never let go of the tickets. Where's the larynx? Yes, he's just holding. He watched the whole thing. He probably thought you had to like hold it to stay there. I know, I know. You got something you could do with him now. Bro, I was ready to go the next morning, but I felt so bad because I didn't want to leave Katrina out of it. I'm telling you the theater's ruled, dude. I was so ready to take him to the movies again because he was so good. And he's never even sat through a whole cartoon or movie at home. Yeah. So I was not, I was already prepared. I'm like, I told Katrina. I was like, the way it all went out, I was like, it was a matinee. Nobody was there. I figured I didn't even tell you because I was like, you know what? He's going to want to go. And that's okay. I lose 30 bucks or 20 something bucks, whatever it was, whatever, just to test it, right? And see what it's going to be like. Plus, if you even if they're 30 minutes, it's fun. Yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I thought. Well, yeah, even though I get 30 minutes, that was a new experience, whatever, like that. I had already told myself that going into it. Bro, he was so good. Bro, I didn't make it. There was kids that were like noisy in there. He wasn't distracted. He wasn't talking. He was just into it. Oh, so I did that with my older kids right around that age and they did the same thing. And then we developed this like, it's like a thing that dad does with them. Until this day, we all love going to the movies. I can't wait. And I grew up that way, but my young, so Aurelius we took when he was 19 months, which is early to try watching a full movie. So we were prepared like, and I, the bet was, I told Jessica no way he makes it past 25 minutes. She said, I bet you he'll make it past 25. So that was the bet. 25 was the break. I didn't see what happens. He made it an hour and 10 minutes. Didn't watch the whole movie at that point though. He started getting loud. So then we took him out. But an hour and 10 minutes, I couldn't believe it. And you know why he stopped? We ran out of popcorn. Now I know bringing more popcorn. Cause that's what he'll do. You know what actually ended up working to my favor was the line that we had to stand in to get the popcorn. So the anticipation of going up there to buy the stuff was entertaining for him cause he was on my shoulders wanting to do that. And because we were like late to going into the movie, you know the first like 20 minutes of the movie is all preview crap anyways. So it was actually good that I, and now I know I'm like, you know what? I'm actually just going to show up like five minutes late cause you have your seats reserved anyways. So he doesn't have to sit through, like luckily he didn't have to sit the 30 minutes before the movie even starts. Cause then that would have probably been a little more challenging. Cause they don't only play cartoons they're playing other stuff during that in commercials. That would have probably been hard. But because it was like the cartoon like almost right away. And it was funny too cause But it's immersive too. It's the sound. So he jumped like the first, the first like three like parts where the, you know, speakers were loud, you know? And the surround sound hit on like some parts. He, he jumped, but he wasn't scared. It was just like kind of startled him that it was so loud and he's stuck with it. Dude, I go back to my original argument with that man. I swear, like it's not going away. It may be novel, more novel, like going, but you see all the studios now is you know, removing a lot of the streaming options immediately for these, these blockbuster movies coming out. They want people in the theaters. They want them in the seats. And then, you know, to, to highlight. I agree. I don't think it's disappearing. I think it's, it's, it's always going to be like the experience destination thing. But I don't think it's going to be like what it used to be where you had to go. Well, I reignited it for me 100%. I mean, I was on the argument on the other side of like, and I for myself or for Katrina and I, I'm like whatever, I'd almost rather be home. But for him, I mean, I watched him the whole movie. Yeah. I was like, so into him. This is something to do. Into him watching an experience that I was actually the movie. So that was cool. The only reason why I would personally, for me, without my kids, want to go more to a movie, to the movies than stay at home, is if there's some kind of nostalgic like, like if it's like a movie that I'm like, oh my God, it's the, it's, you know, a new matrix or Lord of the Rings, like something like that, the anticipation experience. Like I'm in. Yeah. But most of the time I'd rather watch it at home. Yeah. They also have, I don't care what brand and what they have, they just have never been able to replicate true movie, movie popcorn too. Yeah. It's the liquid. They have a secret formula. Like formula. There is. It's the liquid butter. Maybe. Whatever it is. It's just not take the one you do at home and I tried to like melt my own butter and do all this. Like just does not, just never amounts to the same thing to me. Well, yeah. Well, speaking of unique and different experiences, like I got reminded of, it was pretty funny. I hung out with my parents a bit too, you know, over when I was hanging out by myself because I was just like, well, I guess I'll hang out with my parents for a bit. And, Hey mom, can you come over? Yeah, they're like, can you come over? And they knew like, you know, my family was gone and there's just like any opportunity where they can kind of pull me to catch up. Yeah. And so I was like, all right, I'll come over. And so we kind of started like riffing about old stories and things and like it came up when I used to be in a band in Chicago and we were like this crazy heavy metal band. And they reminded me, which I totally forgot about this time where it was Mother's Day. And like I had already had like all these shows lined up because I was booking a lot of them in the band. That was like sort of my role. I was like, you know, trying to market, promote us and all that stuff. And so we had this like show downtown Chicago and it happened to land on Mother's Day and my mom and my dad were in town to see me, you know, in Chicago. And so I was like, yeah, come on, let's, you know. So I literally like brought them to the show, like not even thinking about like how ridiculous like our music is, right? And like how much my parents think it's like they also on a chalkboard for this. But like my mom is very much like wanted to help. And so like she was like videotaping it with this old like VHS camera. And on the bottom, it kept flashing like Mother's Day, Mother's Day. Did you watch the video again? So I, she was trying to find it for me. I haven't seen it yet, but I want to see it. But like we came in hot and we were, we were, we were obnoxious and we were annoying. And it's like, it was so funny because I'm like picturing my parents just sitting there and it was like, yeah. Do you have old footage of you in the band like that? Yeah. Oh my God. You have to say that. Thank God. Yeah, I do. Bring it in. So it was like nobody was there. I remember that it was a really weird day. It was like there was some crazy accident that like nobody could get to the show. So everybody came really late to the show. And it was like you were really humid and hot and all this stuff. And it was just like all this weird energy there. But my mom sitting up front, you know, with this VHS like filming us like, like screaming and rolling on the ground and doing stupid shit. You're a dad, bro. Yeah. If you see your kid do something that they've worked hard at and they're proud of and it's something that you're not into. Like let's say, I don't know, your son's like doing ballet and he's like super good at it, you know? It's the equivalent. You're always, you're still your kid, you know? You're still gonna be like, God. I mean, you say that, that's a good dad. I mean, I think that there's not a lot of parents that would probably sit- Well, I know you guys are good dads. Yeah, sitting through that. Like I totally get that. You guys would do that. Oh, but I mean, they're definitely chiming in of like their little- Oh, bro. You know, like, oh my God, my ears were hurting and ringing. Dude, well, my son did robotics. I had no, I didn't know what the hell robotics was. I didn't do nothing of it. But when I went to go watch it, you better believe I was like, I'm gonna buy the t-shirt. I'm gonna have a flag. I'm thinking, I don't know what this is, but do I get to wave a flag or something to support? Yeah, exactly, dude. It was funny, I was talking to all the dads- The show with the ribbon. I was talking to all the dads of the other kids doing robotics and they're all in like, they're all like tech geniuses and tech people. Yeah. And they're like, so what do you do? And I'm like, I'm in fitness. I don't know what they're doing right now, but it's- I feel like that changes though, because you're probably at that point, you're probably in your 20s, right? You're not a teenager, are you? Yeah, you're in your 20s. So that's a little bit different, right? It's like one thing like supporting your kid doing ballet, gymnastics, robotics, what like that. But then they hit that 20-year-old mark where they're gonna go off and do whatever the hell they want. I mean, how many, okay, how many of your family members listen to the goddamn show? It's our show? Yeah. Oh, Mike. Not my immediate juice. Yeah, immediate juice. Oh, my mom did. Just Courtney, really. My mom, yeah. My mom did. And that was like late to the party. Late to the party. And I've sent them, and they'll only listen to like Bishop Barron or like one of the, you know, more. My family really religious and that was like the whole thing, like we talked about this for, so that was my spin too, by the way. So we were in a metal band, but we were also like playing a lot of churches and we were like, yeah, yeah. We would like practice in the chapel at my college and like these people would come out that were like, you know, studying through seminary to become like preachers and everything. And we were like playing really like borderline satanic stuff. Wow. But with a spin, like a positive spin. And so I was trying to like, Jesus loves you. It wasn't that obvious, dude. It was just more uplifting. But yeah, it was like, and I was trying to sell my dad on that. Like, this is kind of like a ministry, you know? We're helping these kids, these, you know, these youth that are like really struggling. And, you know. We're gonna fight fire with fire. Yeah, we're going out into the world and, you know. And so he was always like, dude, I just didn't see it. No, my, my mom, right out the gates, listen to our show, which you guys know what our episodes used to be like early on. Oh, she did. I don't know if you remember you telling me that. She did, and then she stopped because It's too much. She just like, I don't know if I want to know all the stuff you guys are talking about on this show. But she did listen. I think my mom started too. And then she stopped for like really quick. It only took a couple of episodes for her to be like, I can't listen. You want to know how, you want to know how I have, so I have cousins and family members that I don't, you know, they're just, they're distant in the sense that I don't ever, I don't talk to them. I haven't talked to them for a long time, but we're family. And I get messages from them because I was on relevant radio, which is a Catholic. Oh, yeah. It's a, so they wanted me on to talk about fitness, but they are a Catholic syndicated radio show. So not like recorded podcasts, actual radio show where they're like, okay, you're gonna be on in five, four, three, like that type of deal. Yeah, yeah. So I have cousins calling my parents going, oh my, congratulations on your son. And they're like, what? Oh, I heard them on relevant radio. Mom was like, you've been doing it for like seven years. Yeah. But I heard them on the, you know, on the church channel or whatever. Yeah, it's like, you gotta go into their pool, you know, you gotta, then they're like, oh wow, you're a big deal. Dude, I gotta tell you guys this story that maybe Doug's not gonna like I'm gonna tell, but it's hilarious. It does eyebrows. No dude, it's hilarious. So I, I'm not gonna tell too many details cause I don't want this person to be called out. Friend of mine, okay. Friend of mine, hilarious story. So him and his wife were getting kind of, you know, frisky with each other or whatever. And they pull out the sex toys and she, she goes to use a penis pump on him. So people don't know, penis pump goes on a penis. It's a vacuum, whatever. I think it's self-explanatory. Yeah. He puts it on. Okay, you attach it. There's like this lever and yeah. Like a preacher in self-explanatory. Go ahead Doug. There's a picture of it next to me right now. So she does it on him. Turns, you know, it starts hitting the pressure and the something happened where it got caught on his, like his, his, his sack and his ball went through. Boop. Yes. So cause the whole, like he would try explaining to me the whole at the bottom where, you know, your penis goes through or whatever. It's kind of small. Well, the pressure was so much that it sucked his ball through so that he says, bro, it's like, I got kicked in the nuts. And then he goes, and then I'm like freaking out. She takes off the pressure, but now I got to pull it back through the other end. He goes, bro, that's the worst thing ever. He's like, that ruined everything. I was dying of like, I cannot imagine how this must have been. And he's, I'm like, did you hear it? And he goes, oh, she heard it. Boop. I don't know if I've ever, I don't know if I've ever known anybody to actually use, use that as like a sex toy prop. That's the guy that's using it to like, either help with erectile dysfunction or actually on the mission. People use anything. Absolutely grow. People use anything. Just grab it. That's true. Is there anything that people haven't used for sex? Yeah, you've seen ER rooms. Yeah, but yeah, he was like, dude, he goes, it's like I got kicked in the nuts. And then the best part was when he was like, I'm like, oh shit, you know, but then she turned off the pressure. You're okay. He goes, no, bro. It took 10 minutes to pull it back out the other end. Oh my God. Because it's such a tight, like there's a ring or whatever he's trying to explain. It's like, there's a ring. And he goes, and the pressure is what pulled it through. And he goes to get it back out the other end. He goes, like, he goes, eventually I kind of had to use scissors to try and figure out how to cut this thing. Oh my God. Terrible. I'm like, sorry, bro. Sorry. You were finally going to get something. I didn't want to cross my legs. Yeah. It didn't work out for you. Anyway, along those lines. Along those lines, let's hear it more. So what do you think? What are you reading and watching lately? So this may be a little sad, but did you guys know that THC, if now they have studies, this is now the second study I think it's come out that's shown this. THC affects gene transcription or the way genes are expressed in your sperm. So a man who smokes a lot of weed or consumes a lot of weed with a lot of THC, he will get his woman pregnant and risks for certain things go up because it changed his sperm. What are the risks? More neurological issues, more behavioral type issues. So things that have to do with brain development. Because of that, because it changes the sperm. How shitty is that? It sounds very correlation, not causation type of deal. No, that's okay. So I'm glad you said that. So one of the challenges with studies on certain things like this is there's a healthy or non-healthy user bias. So like people who are more likely to smoke weed. Right, people who smoke weed also eat like shit or lazy, don't exercise, right? Therefore, yeah. No, they've connected it to the THC. Oh, interesting. That THC itself affects that. Now, on the flip end of that, CBD seems to, in other cases, Mitigate some of it. Mitigate some of it. And CBD doesn't work the same. There's a CB1 and CB2 receptors that cannabinoids will attach to. CBD doesn't attach to either one, but what CBD does is somehow allow your body to utilize its own natural endocannabinoids more effectively. This is why CBD's got really good therapeutic effects, whereas THC, far more acute and then lots of potential negatives. So if you wanna gain the benefit of cannabinoids, and let's say you've read that, oh, weed helps with anxiety, depression, inflammation, go with the other cannabinoids, stay away from the THC, unless you need something acute. Well, what do you think about this? And you're the one who actually taught me this. And I normally have gummies, I don't have gummies to do it now, so I just use the NED, the full spectrum instead. But you are the one that, and this was before this study, you had shared before about the positive things of CBD, the negative things that we've seen potentially with THC, and so just for a safe precaution, you've always told me, try and keep it a one-to-one ratio. So now what I do is I just have a habit of like, oh, if I'm gonna smoke or I'm gonna take this edible, that's high in THC, then I also take the full spectrum hemp or I take a gummy that's high in CBD to try and counter it. Yes, cause they'll show that the short-term memory loss effects that come from a lot of THC, a lot of that gets mitigated if you combine it with other cannabinoids. So I highly recommend that. And for people who want the benefits of cannabinoids, but don't want any of those potential negatives, like if you're just trying to get high, if you want to, for inflammation, for anxiety, for that kind of stuff, go with hemp oil extracts, really good quality one. I mean, we work with a company called NED, it's the best one I've ever seen or tried. It's the best one I've ever seen tested. They do third-party testing. Go with that because you're not getting the THC, you're getting all the other benefits. So those negatives probably not gonna show up, at least so far in studies we've seen. That's actually how, so I've originally, when we first worked with them, this was before they had their mellow product and I'd use it at nighttime a lot. I've now become like every day I use the mellow before bed. So the, but what I use now the full spectrum dropper is exactly, my preferred way of taking in THC is smoking joints, which I know is not ideal, but I also just make it a habit that I do a couple of those droppers when I sit down to do that, to try and hopefully, and I'll cancel some of that out, that's what my thought process. It just always reminds me with like plants how nature sort of has that balance already established. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, and we like concentrate it, but then the antidote to the negatives, it's already there, we extracted it from it, and it's like, to try and get back to balance. Well, natural marijuana used to, when it wasn't bred to be super high-intensity. Yeah, it used to be like back in the 60s, it was like 6%, 8%. It was very balanced. It was passed to me up, if you ever heard, you see how it's funny, you talk to an old timer. Oh, the stuff that we used to have back in the days was that was the real shit, blah, blah, blah, like get the fuck out of here, it was like no THC in it. Bro, it was so weak. It was so weak. Well, you'd have to smoke like a couple of joints. Look, I know in my experience, when I really started researching it because I had a family member with cancer, I would go to the cannabis clubs, and these were legal cannabis clubs, so this is already a market above what I experienced as a kid when it was like full on illegal. If you saw anything over 15% THC, that was a big deal. Go now, it's over 20, 22, 25, I've seen 30% THC. Like what the hell is going on? We keep bringing it to be super, super, super strong. Well, yeah, and then that's why that market got popular with all the waxes and stuff like that that everybody's doing. I mean, that stuff is like 70, 80, 90, even have 90 or clear and stuff like that. I think it's up in the high 90s, like it's just insane. Oh, check when you're weak. Check this out. So this is just to stay on that negative tip. So I'm gonna read to you guys some studies have come out on the effects of the school closures on children that we did during the pandemic, which we've said since day one was a knee jerk fear-based reaction that we all speculated would have far worse repercussions. And sure enough, that's what they're showing. So this is a quote, school closures in the US have had a devastating impact on children's mental health, development and future earnings potential. And like we've said before, it's not just now, it's how it's gonna affect the future, right? According to data released last month by the National Center for Education Statistics, 70% of US public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services, okay? So 70% increase. Another study reported that mental stressors brought about by school closures, and they did some calculations here, would destroy about seven times more years of life than the lockdowns saved. In other words, however many infections are prevented and whatever, it was worse what we did with the lockdowns. And it's pure based knee jerk kind of reaction. It's crazy this information is there and it's readily available and yet people still just don't wanna hear it. And like still, you know, and it's a leadership problem. That's where I get the most fresh one. I don't know, dude, I don't know if it's just a leadership thing. I don't know if you can blame this on fucking the presidency or who's running the government right now. It's like, this conversation, I had a really difficult conversations in the last month with like even my good friends who like we don't see eye to eye and a lot of stuff like that. It's like, I can't even share like studies like this coming out. It's just they've already doubled down so hard that they agree with what we did before or thought it was the best thing. Bro, can I tell you guys the biggest, like what's a huge- You gotta be objective, get a place somewhere. It's crazy. These are like, these are intelligent people I'm talking about too. Here's a huge, like you wanna talk about reversal of public opinion. Five years ago, just five years ago and before you could not criticize on a national stage teachers. They couldn't touch teachers because they help our kids, they take care of our kids. It was like, if you went up there and said teachers are messing up, they're not doing a good job, like you wouldn't get elected, right? Okay, here's what happened during the pandemic. A lot of people saw how their teachers were teaching kids during it, didn't like it. So that's one, but here's the big one. The teachers unions were the ones that were pushing for the long, the public school teacher unions. Well, definitely here in California that was a big problem. They were pushing the hardest for these lockdowns and a lot of people are upset about that and that does not look good because you see the private school teachers, we're not doing that. Well, I mean, this is, it's probably because they didn't get paid if they didn't go to work. So they're like, we need to open up. So this does not look good on teachers unions and you're gonna start to see now that there's cracks in that particular voting block that you'd see in politics because of all that. We've needed to disrupt the education system for a long time anyways. I think so, but I think, whoa, that was, we really allowed our fear to take over and we did a lot of damage to our kids. Third rail now is even talking about the effectiveness of the vaccines. We can't even talk about that or even evaluate it or even be objective about it because it's been so pushed. Yeah, well, I think it's gonna be very interesting over the next 10 to 15 years looking back. That's when we're gonna be able to say, I don't, I think it's sad. Well, unfortunately, yeah, but it's a leadership issue to me because it's their responsibility to slow down and evaluate long-term, not just immediate knee-jerk reactions to appease the mob. True leadership leads you and reassures everybody that this is a good plan long-term. It doesn't get you elected. If you were up on stage- I told you that the other day, that's what Patrick by David was talking about. He said, made that case. It won't get you elected. So he said, like, if the right person, right, that made all those right- Shame on us, dude, for having no- And that's where I put it back on us. Of course. And that's where I put it back on, like when I say my friends and stuff like that, that's not leadership. They want these people. They vote for these people. They're the ones making that choice. Imagine you had two politicians. Imagine if obesity was like the biggest national issue, like everybody wants to vote on obesity, right? Which it should be, but it's not. But let's just say it was. And you had two politicians. One on stage going, all right, here's the deal, guys. Here's a solution to obesity. All of you are gonna have to make better choices with your nutrition. You're all gonna have to exercise more. You're gonna have to make behavioral changes. And then the other politician goes, we're gonna put forth a three trillion dollar solvable BCD bill. Yeah, yeah. Who do you think's gonna get elected? You just gotta take three shots. That's all you have to do. Or whatever. Throw all the imaginary money at it. Yeah, we're gonna fund it in, oh, by the way, you're not gonna pay for it. The super rich are gonna pay, whatever. They're gonna say, we'll print money, but think about it, right? Nobody wants to elect a person that's gonna say, hey, it's a really scary thing that's happening right now. You guys all need to kind of like take your own risks. And I don't think this is a smart idea because of whatever it's the guy who gets elected or the girl who gets elected is the one that says, no, here's all the solutions. Do this, do that. Three pizza on Fridays. Yeah. That's who wins. Totally. All right, check this out. There's a company we work with that makes a product called Mass Zymes. And taking Mass Zymes daily helps top off your enzyme levels and replace the enzymes that your body may no longer be producing. So this means you'll have better digestion, better utilization of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Basically take these with your meals, get better digestion and better utilization of those nutrients. I take them with every single meal that I eat and I've noticed a significant improvement in how I feel reduction in things like bloating, gas and of course improvements in digestion. So go check this company out. Go to masszymes.com. That's M-A-S-S-Z-Y-M-E-S.com forward slash mind pump and then use the code mind pump 10 for 10% off your order. All right, here comes the rest of the show. Our first caller is Valerie from Florida. Hey Valerie, how can we help you? Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm on the show. I'm a new fan, new fan. So I love you guys and my husband comes home and hears me talking or he's usually listening. Like he's like, what are you listening to? I'm like, my broadcast. Awesome. All right. I realize later that that was not such a great term to call you my bros because of the bro science and all that. That's all right. We don't mind coming from you. What's your question? How can we help you? I have to find another term of endearment. Okay, so my question is trying to find the best way for me to do a cut. So I have been working out consistently for about 15 years, but I did the whole higher up, low weight, taking classes, that kind of thing. And I'm 40 years old. I'm five, four, and I'm currently around 117 or 118. And probably the beginning of this year, I started listening to your podcasts and reading books and realizing like, oh wait, I should be eating tons of protein. I should be doing regressive overload and lifting heavy and all that stuff. So I started that this year. But let's see, a couple of years ago, I started cutting down on my calories to probably around 2000 calories a day. And I went from around 140, and I got down to 111. I was probably like 19 or 20% body fat. I've been eating a little bit more because 2000 calories is hard for me to maintain. And I'm currently probably at like 2250. But I'm gaining six or seven of those pounds back. And I know some of it is fat because my waist has gotten an inch or two bigger. So yeah, I guess, so my question is about doing a mini-cut. I'm starting to feel fluffy. In the years that I lost the weight, I had cut out starches. I thought that you were supposed to do that. I've recently added back, but like, and I've added creatin to my diet, but I'm starting to feel fluffy. And I thought maybe I could do a mini-cut because I really don't like being in a cut. But I was thinking maybe decreased to about 1500 calories for maybe four weeks. And then I was wondering as far as like a water weight goes when I think, which I kind of know the answer. I can think I know what you're gonna say, but to tap into the fat stores in that short four week period, should you try to get rid of the glycogen and the water weight by reducing carbs and creatin before you start your cut so that you're just tapping into fat stores? Yeah, you're overthinking it. And the answer is no, creatine will help keep muscle while you cut. So do not stop taking creatine because you're trying to get lean. And any water that you gain from creatine is intracellular. So it's just, it's in the muscle, which means they'll just feel more firm. It's not the same thing as bloat. So don't cut the creatine, keep it, especially when you're dieting and you're cutting down. As far as a short cut is concerned, you can totally do that. You look very lean, you look really good. So I don't know how far do you wanna go? Like would you know what body fat percentage you wanna aim for? I think I'm probably at 21%. Basically, I want to stay in my same pant size, but man, if I could get each 2500 calories a day. Like I have a big appetite and even, I don't know how I'm gonna even do 1500 because even 2000's hard sometimes, you know. Yeah, I don't know. It sounds like the reverse diet angle is the direction we should go. And if you do a cut, I would do just a short mini cut and then go right back into a reverse diet. It sounds like the goal would be, can we get you up to 2,500 calories and maintain the body that you want? So I mean. Yeah. That's kind of what I'm doing at the top, but I feel fluffy now. I feel like I've put, you know, five, six, seven pounds on doing that. What program are you following of ours right now? Don't yell at me. There's another person that you've had on your show that I actually got his program first. I got his book. I heard about him before I heard y'all and so I was doing his, but I haven't bought one of yours yet. Yeah, we're gonna fix that then. If he's been on our show, he probably has a good program, but our program's always better. I'll send you one of ours. I think Maps at a Bulk would be good for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, you can do a short cut if you want. You're 21% body fat, you're lean. I think, I mean, honestly, I think you should do a slow bulk. And in other words, slowly increase your calories and try and build muscle. Now the whole thing about feeling fluffy. So I've trained clients for a long time. And whenever I hear a woman, especially when I can see them in front of me like you, say I'm feeling fluffy, I'm always a little skeptical, not because I'm trying to say you don't feel that way, but building a little muscle, feeling a little fuller in terms of the glycogen in muscle. Sometimes women can confuse that with gaining body fat. Again, I can see you right now. You look lean, you look fit. So, I mean, and again, it's your body. So if you wanna reverse out, kinda cut a little bit, that's totally fine, but 21% body fat's a great body fat percentage to be at. I've had the same experience with women. And it's a lot of times it's like when you put your jeans on, when you put the clothes on, it's a little tighter, but like, as you're gaining muscle and building muscle, I guess it's just gonna happen. Yeah. Is your husband saying, man, you look good? Is he commenting on how you look and saying everything looks great? He doesn't. He like, man, my other side, he was fine with it. So I just feel fluffy on my belly because I've gained an inch or two. So I know that that's probably fat because I think I heard on your show, like you don't gain size in your belly, so. Usually not, but also that could also be a lot of different things. It could be a bloat, it could be digestion, it could be a lot of different things. But nonetheless, I don't think there's anything wrong with doing like a four week, you know, 1,700 calorie cut. Well, we just sent you over Maps Anabolic. If you were my client, what I would like to do, because I actually would like you fed in calorie wise in phase one. So I'd actually try and get you to increase calories a little bit for the first four weeks. And then when we moved to phase two, I'd let you do a little mini cut and then we go back to a surplus again in phase three. So that's what it would look like with me. If we were to do this, we would run, I'd try and get you to increase a couple hundred calories. So one to 200 calories a day from where you're at currently. It's like 2350 or 2450. Right, and then follow Maps Anabolic to a T for phase one. When we transition out of phase one and go into phase two, I would put you into a cut. So now we would reduce your calories down maybe down to 2,000 or 1,900 for that phase. And then put you back up on the, on back towards the increase on the final phase and see where you're at. I would really like to see you just try and build some muscle right now. I think that is if our ultimate goal is can we keep the size and look of kind of where you're at but then feel a little bit leaner but keep you and also be able to eat like 2,500 calories. Then the ultimate goal is to speed your metabolism. Nothing is going to do that better than us building muscle. But the hard part, and I think the part that Sal's kind of alluding to is that the psychological part that you're going to have to battle through as you're going and it's the reverse for someone like me who was, I was afraid of being skinny. So when I go on a cut, I freak out as soon as I start looking smaller and smaller and then I always want to go back the other way calorie wise. When we're on this reverse diet and I'm asking you to eat more calories and you get, you put on your jeans one day and they feel a little tighter not to freak out and go, oh, I got to go the other direction. In fact, the main thing I'd be communicating is let's just focus on strength. Let's just look at your lifts. Let's try and get stronger. That's our goal of this program with get stronger, get stronger, get stronger. That's all I'm going to speak to while also trying to slowly increase calories. If we can increase calories by a few hundred and you can get stronger, I really don't give a shit about how your jeans feel temporarily. I don't really don't give a shit about where the scale is saying up or down a couple pounds. That's what I want to hear. And then I would cut you from there and then get you to the exact size you want to be. That was gold. What he just told you was gold. I think if you followed that, I think you'd be very happy. Okay, can you do maps in a ball like at home? All I have is a pair of select text and like a ball. I have a bar that you can put the select text on. The problem with squatting is I'm not strong enough to lift it over my head. Like if I put the 50s on each side, legs can handle that, but I can't get in and out of position like that. So we have a dumbbell mod that comes with it. So there's a modification so you can do it. But now that you say that to me, so do you ever barbell back squat or deadlift? Have you ever or? And it's because you were, you told me you're like the high intensity class girl. So have you not really done like a barbell lifting? Not really. I do free weights and then I've done classes. See, I would love to do that with you. I mean, where you're already at with your experience, how good your physique already is. I mean, we have the dumbbell mod, follow it, you're fine, but- Yeah, if you joined a gym and followed and did some barbell training, it would blow your mind. Yeah. Okay. But you don't have to. The MAPS Anabolic has the dumbbell mods. You totally did to run it at home. I totally think everything we said still applies and you'll get great benefits from it. But knowing your past, the type of training you've done in the past and what you're missing and kind of where you want to go as far as metabolism goes and sculpting your physique and everything. Man, getting you to barbell squat and deadlift would be just phenomenal for your body. Totally. Okay, does the program have nutrition guidance in there? Or- No, we don't do any nutrition because that's so individualized. I mean, even the conversation we're having right now, like what we're saying to you would be completely different for somebody else who's running MAPS Anabolic. So there isn't that. What we can do is this, is I'll have Doug throw you in the private forum. So you have access to that and in there, you have our community plus us floating around. So as you're going through and you're manipulating your diet, feel free to post and share and get feedback there. Oh my gosh, awesome. Thank y'all so much. Thanks Valerie. Thank you. You know what's funny is after you train for so long, there's certain key words that when I hear, I know like, okay, let me, and one of them is fluffy. Yeah. When I hear a woman say I feel fluffy, I'd say a decent chunk of the time, they're just uncomfortable with building a little bit of muscle or you know, create team made their weight go up two pounds cause they have more interest cellular fluid and they freak out a little bit. You know what I mean? She looks so good already. And the fact that she looks like that and she has never really experienced barbell. Oh she would get blown away. She would just, I mean, would be a fun client to train on a like little legit bulk. Like let's put some, let's not worry about the genes right now. Let's not worry about the scaler, yeah, let's just see. Let's see where your squad is day one and let's see where we can get it. Let's see where your deadlift is day one. She's already eating 22.50 at her size and she's tiny and looking the way she does and her body fat percent. You know how much her metabolism can get ramped up? Yes, yes. I mean, she could be like 20 and her calories, you know, no problem. She want to get up to what, 2,500? Yeah, easy, easily, easily. Our next caller is Brad from Indiana. Brad, what's happening? How can we help you? Hey, what's up guys? First off, I just want to say this is awesome to be on here. I was looking for a fitness podcast about a year and a half ago and I stumbled across to you guys. First 50 minutes, you guys were talking about like aliens and politics and I was like, had to make sure I was listening to a fitness podcast but no, you guys are amazing. So I just want to say thank you for that. So basically, I'm 5'10, 22 years old. I'm 175 pounds now and I'm about two years off of playing college basketball. And when I stopped playing basketball, I started doing these more hypertrophy, bodybuilding style of training and it really carried over to the basketball court. I still play in open gyms and in leagues and I found myself driving into the lane and really putting shoulder into guys, moving guys and it really helped out my basketball. I've never been in a better position basketball wise. So my question is, why do you think I've seen so much carry over to the basketball court by doing more of a split hypertrophy mind muscle connection style of training? And then the second part would be, I aspire to be a basketball coach and a strength trainer and would it be bad for me to want to incorporate this style of training into my athletes? No, it's a great question. And this is a muscle. I totally remember this going through this, right? So I'd never lifted the at all really going through high school, played basketball too. And I was a better basketball player in my mid-20s than I was when I was playing organized ball because I built all this muscle and I wasn't playing as much basketball but it was my frame was missing that. I was missing that size and strength. And so that's what you're seeing right now translate on the court is you've got the skills you've been playing ball for so long that you've already got great skills in the sport. What your body was missing was that strength and size and the explosiveness. Like I could dunk the basketball with way more authority in my mid-20s than I could when I was 17, 18 playing basketball every day. So I could totally relate to that. And I remember thinking like God damn, I missed out by not training like this when I was younger and incorporating it. So absolutely. And it just goes to show that if you're always doing like strength driven type of workouts and you haven't actually like gone and changed up and shook it up in terms of like the style of training like there's a lot of carryover and translation in terms of like the benefits of seeking a different adaptation. So, you know, your body giving this getting this novel stimulus and also gaining size and strength, you know, is definitely gonna contribute towards a better, well-rounded athlete. So, you know, a lot of the times it's the opposite as the case too. Like with bodybuilders that never do any kind of powerlifting or never do any kind of, you know, functional training. So there's just, you know, we get in these camps and I think that, you know, that's what we always try to dress on the show. Now I'm gonna be the turd in the punch bowl here. So I'm gonna give you some claviots here, okay? Because what you just experienced is great, but what I don't want you to do is marry what happened and then apply it as a coach to every athlete because strength when you sacrifice skill isn't very valuable when it comes to sports. So if your basketball skill decreased but you're bigger and stronger, you're gonna be not as effective on the court. So remember that as a coach. So don't trade strength for skill. Number two, you did a bodybuilding style workout which made you bigger and stronger which is better than what you were doing before. But sport specific functional training is even better than that, okay? So if you're training basketball players and the option is zero strength training and bodybuilding, bodybuilding is better than zero. But what's better than bodybuilding is more specific type of training for those athletes for their sport. So it's gonna be more functional. There's gonna be things like isometrics and plyometrics. You're focused more on movement than you are on mind to muscle connection for the most part. So consider that when you are coaching other people. Well think of it too like this. So the majority of what you're gonna focus on is a sports specific training but in terms of phasing. So this is why we phase through our programming. You're gonna lean heavily on that and come back to it but you're gonna interrupt it with hypertrophy style training. And this is what I do with my athletes and they did receive a lot of benefit from that because two besides that like mass building is a part of that in terms of like certain sports more than others, right? Like if it's something that is gonna benefit your specific sport which basketball being very explosive, you're gonna be shouldering people. You're gonna have to get positions. So being able to have a bit of mass and strength in those positions is gonna be beneficial. Absolutely. And then when you notice that you were bigger and heavier but you could move better, it's because your strength to rate ratio got better. And the reason why I'm communicating that is because it could also go in the other way. Right? So the example that would be comparing what I was saying when I was 24, 25 after just a couple of years of strength training and then me at 30, me at 30 was not better. Because you were a bodybuilder. Cause I continued to keep bodybuilding and bodybuilding and then eventually that my physique looked way better but then it took away from my skill. So I can't move at my late 20s to 30 as I did in my mid 20s. And that's why that was was like you, I played so much basketball. I had already acquired the skill. I had no real strength training. I started strength training like a bodybuilder just like you and the carry over to that like translated to the court but then fast forward two, three, four more years later and now the skill starts diminishing and I become more and more of a bodybuilder. So it's about strength to weight ratio, right? So if you double your strength but you triple your body weight you're actually weaker as an athlete. Does that make sense? So even though you got stronger. Okay, so keep that in mind when you're training yourself and other athletes and that'll guide you in the right direction. Okay. And part of the reason I'm asking this question is like I remember like our style of training that we did in high school and in college and it was very explosive like split snatch and but like they would take like a traditional like bilateral shoulder press on a bench and they would turn it into this like get into a split stance lunch and then you might have a kettlebell and then somebody might be punching your abs while you're doing it or something like that and that's great for like balance and like and I understood all that but in terms of actually building a 3D more rounded belt like I didn't really feel like it helped and for like a hardgainer like me and like a lot of high schoolers especially at my high school I feel like they could have benefited so much more from doing like basic like basketball athletes ever gonna do like a rear delt fly, right? That's a coach throwing spaghetti at the wall. Yeah, no, you're, where your head is at you get you, you're thinking in the right direction. Actually that split stance press with someone punching your stomach is stupid as fuck. That was like a terrible idea. No matter how they tried to just- They just go too far and throwing everything at everything. Yeah, and your, and those athletes would have to Justin's point totally benefited from a phase of just pure strength training just pure traditional squatting, deadlifting, overhead pressing, even though that it looks nothing like a move on basketball but because those young athletes have none of that foundational strength or they lack that they would get great carryover by running a phase of just pure good old strength training with your basic compound lifts. That's right. Right, that makes sense. All right, man. Thanks for calling in. All right, thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad you said what you said about your experience. Because you could, I mean, because he's experiencing like, oh my God, it's amazing but I could already, you know, I could see that. He falls in love with it. No, it's a bell curve. Like you're explaining it. And I remember like, because my intention had nothing to do with basketball. I, you know, I left playing basketball in high school and now I'm in my 20s and I'm on this mission to build a physique. And I'm like trying to build as much muscle as I can. I'm still, I'm actually around his weight and everything, a little bit taller and skinnier. And I go to play basketball one day and just recognize how explosive I'm on the court and strong. And I'm like, what the fuck? Like I'm not even playing basketball right now but I was, but I was lacking that. I didn't squat, I never squatted in high school. I never deadlifted in high school. I never did any of those functional strength type movements. And they do have great carryover in the sport. Well, this is so nuanced because you know, you get benefit from that right away. And so then you, you want to kind of lean further into that thinking that like hypertrophy, this is what was missing. And so now this is like really benefiting my sport. There's a window to this. So, you know, if this was something like, like to your point of having the skill already to then build on top of that made a huge difference in comparison to a bodybuilder, let's say that just keeps bodybuilding and then tries to do athletics. Like there's, so, you know, in terms of like just single joint focus and not, you know, having that kind of movement focus style training where, you know, you need to get the body to be in symphony. Okay. And, and so this is just one of those things. The difference of athletic training is you need to be able to get, you need to be able to organize every part of your body at one time. And so that, that is the highest priority. And now what we do is, is, you know, we phase this through. So you get benefits of other styles of training, but very briefly, we always come back to that. Our next caller is Matt from Florida. Matt, what's happening, man? How can we help you? Hey, guys, just a pleasure to be here for the first things first, I want to ask Justin, how he grew such a magnificent beard. A tiny beard. He likes to keep it tiny. That's my mama. I got it from my mama. You got your beard from your mama. Wow. Wow. Shots fired, mom. You know, it happens. But for real, you guys have helped me through some tough times. Last few months have been tough, just like I'm a college student, so just stuff gets crazy. But the one constant has been listening to you guys every day. Awesome. I really appreciate it. So the premise of my question, you guys have probably read it. But over the past like year and a half, 15 months about, I've increased my pitabals from 2,800 to like 4,700. Wow. I know it sounds like kind of insane. Like you think like, oh, you probably just like look sloppy now. But I've gained a good amount of sides and I've stayed fairly lean. I think I've had reverse by dysmorphia this whole time because my friends are starting to be like, oh, you're not really that lean. But you could still see like four of my abs. So I can still consider myself like leaner than pretty much most of the population. So basically where the problem lies is that right now I'm in running maps in a ball like I'm in phase one, but I'm doing a power lifting meet in December. So I wanted to obviously power lift, it would be to my benefit to be in a surplus. But I feel as if I bulk throughout anabolic, my metabolism is going to be above 5K. Once I get into power lifting and with school starting, it's just going to be like kind of astronomical to actually try to eat in a surplus when my metabolism is cranked up that high. So I got a question for you first. Okay, did you just get back from Mardi Gras or a spiritual retreat? I like you in Italy, but I wish there was a Mardi Gras. Okay, I just wanted to clear that out. No, okay, so wait. One question, one question. You want to start the prep in eight weeks or the meat is in eight weeks. Let me get that clear. I wish I knew the exact date because I was looking into buying power lifts. I had anabolic and odd power lift and the weeks don't really coincide as well. That's another question, but the meat is in December. I don't know when yet. Oh, okay. So we have plenty of time. So I actually would run a cut right now. So why don't you run it? Like four weeks. Yeah, run a cut right now and then Doug will give you a maps power lift. So we'll shoot maps, we'll shoot maps power lift. And then go on a bulk with it. Yeah, and then go on a bulk. Do you know what weight class you're trying to compete in? Honestly, no, because this, I literally, you guys are the only reason I started barbell benching, squatting, deadlifting. Like literally I used to listen to all these influencers. I'm not going to name them, besides like Greg Durset. They told me all you don't need to do all these movements and stuff. You just like, you don't have to be in a surplus to gain muscle. They just told me all this like bullshit that really that you guys defunct on a daily basis. So I literally just started the big three lifts. Like a few months ago. So I'm really just competing against myself. Like whatever weight class I'm in, I don't expect to score high or rank high or whatever. But as long as I PR, it's me versus me at the end of the day. Great attitude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Four week cut, you drop your cal, you're at 4,700, which is incredible. So I'd bring it down to like 4,000, 3,800 because you have so much room to go for four weeks. After that go on a mass power lift and then start bumping calories slowly from there and then see what happens. That's your great, great place to be. Great attitude too about it. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. Where, what type of program? I know I'm in anabolic and I literally, I finished the first foundational work out of phase one on Monday. So, and obviously in a cut, just gaining strength isn't gonna be really the best thing or the most like the likely thing. So do you recommend, this obviously isn't recommended to any people listening to this of your viewers, but would you recommend going forward to like the phase three or the muscle pump part of anabolic just so I can like kind of speed through and then stop power lifting? No, no, no. So the way power, I know how power lift is laid out, right? So power lift is gonna follow phase one really well because with power lift, it actually ends kind of like phase one. So go ahead and do maps anabolic phase one, do it for four weeks with the cut, then jump in a mass power lift and start bumping your calories. It would be a great transition. So don't even go into phase two and three of. No, you don't want him to finish anabolic. He's got a long ways before December, bro, is the power lift. Yeah, no, but I trust me. I wish I could, but I was doing the, how long is power lift again? I think it's three months. Yeah, he's gonna be. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, you want, okay, so what you need to find out when the meat is. Ideally the way power lift is written, it's written to take you right into a meat. So that's the idea. So we need to kind of get in somewhat of an idea of when you this meat. Like backward schedule it. Yeah, and reverse the schedule. And so then you go, okay, I want my last week basically of power lift in the week before I go to my meat. So then back those weeks out, the program I believe is eight or nine weeks. I think it's nine weeks. Yeah, it's eight or nine weeks long. So back it out that way. And then from there, how much time do we have till now? Which I think you are gonna have enough time to run another program. Yeah, I think you'll be able to run it all the way through. Yeah, so you should be able to run all of anabolic pretty close, if not all of it, and then run into then maps power lift. Yeah, and it doesn't matter that you're in phase one with a cut, just keep it as it is. Yeah, and I think you already have a good attitude about things. Obviously you understand that if you're in a cut that you're likely not gonna be hitting PRs. So what? Train like you're trying to, right? Train like you're trying to build muscle. Train like you're trying to get stronger. Recognize you're in a deficit. And so there's, cause you might, you know, sometimes you do good programming and following and being consistent. I've seen it happen in young guys where they actually even in a cut get stronger. It's not impossible. So especially if you get better at the skill, you are a relatively new squatter deadlifter overhead pressin guy. So you actually, it's not surprising to see someone like you get stronger even in a cut because that is, those are such skilled movements that just you getting better at the skill, you get better at your lifts. So don't be surprised if you do, but you don't, it doesn't matter cause that's not your focus. Your focus is to get cut, get lean while you're on it. And then you go to your bulk when you, when you switch to power lift. We'll send math power lift over to you. Okay, Matt. Yeah, awesome. I appreciate that. And I think I'll be able to either maintain or even somehow increase strength cause I've never done full body before. I've always done. I started a little extra twice a week and then I scaled that down to five and then four days up or lower split. And I'm really excited to do full body cause I think I, there's just like a stimulus there that I can tap into that I've never really experienced. 100%. Excellent, man. Well, I'm glad you're listening to us and not other people with high pitch voices. Yeah, I know you guys trust me. You guys have been a blessing. And if there's anyone listening that's like, well, I don't know if I should trust these guys. These guys have changed my life. And it's like a blessing to even talk to you guys right now. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, have a good one, guys. You got it, man. Yeah, I mean, great. I didn't even consider the time. He could totally run the program, he's knocked it back and he'd be, he'd be so totally set. I find it interesting that people still, that people would advise people to not do barbell lifts. I don't care. It's cause it's click baity right now, dude. It's cause it's click baity. I mean, this goes back to the conversation that we, and you know what, a perfect example of what we had that little friendly good debate with Eugene Tao on our show, like, yeah, it's just, when we talk about barbell deadlifting and squatting, he is the avatar, he is the kid I'm thinking about because all these influences, people are telling the opposite and they gravitate towards that. You know why? Cause squatting is hard. Yeah, exactly. And so it's like, oh, I don't need it. You know, this influencer who looks jacked and looks awesome is telling me it's not that important. There's other things you do. So you avoid it. And then guess what happens? You finally find us. We convince you it's something for you and it changes your life. You start getting so, you start squatting and deadlifting. All of a sudden you pack on more muscle. You build a faster metabolism you've ever built in your life. Oh wow, look at that. Yep, strange. Our next caller is Matteo from Georgia. Matteo, how's it going, man? How can we help you? Hey guys, appreciate you having me on today. Like everyone, just want to start by saying thanks for everything you guys do. I've been listening for about six months and I found you guys six months ago but listening pretty religiously ever since. So the fitness content's obviously awesome but really the other content is what I wanted to say thanks for. So I had my son about six months before I found you guys and kind of struggling with the new parent thing. And so hearing you guys talk about your family and your kids and all that was really cool and helpful for me to process everything. So thanks for that. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you. All right, so two more questions. So two questions and I'll start with the first one. So I caught a stomach bug this weekend and it kind of took me out and I've been running a force cut really ever since. So not wanting to pass up a good opportunity. So what I'm thinking is should I capitalize this and run a cut for a week or two or do I need to get back to somewhat normal calories before I do that? So I just increased my calories to about 2,900 a week before I got sick and I've been eating way less for a few days. Yesterday was the first day I tracked and it was 1,500 and before that I was probably 1,000 or less. Are you over the virus yet? Are you healthy? I'm up and up. So today I feel much better physically. I'm still weak, like just walking up the stairs, my legs burn, stuff like that. And so I'm eating more today than yesterday and each day is getting a little bit better. So I'm recovering. That's the priority, Mateo. The priority is to get healthy. So cut, bulk, I don't care. Have you guys ever done that before though? What? I've done that before. Of course. Have you ever done that before? No. You've never done that before? No, man, I hated being skinny. You're so lame. So if I lost weight. What about you? Yeah, well just where I've done exactly what would happen to it right now. You've been sick for like three or four, yeah, four or four days. Yeah, you're already depleted like crazy so you're just like I'm already there. Well he's still coming out of it. And so I'm saying like get healthy first so whatever makes you feel better is what I would do. And then when you're out of it, then you can go in whatever direction you want but usually after a virus, the smart thing to do is to feed the body. Not to continue to deplete the body because your nutrients are probably low and you're already depleted. So I mean, the healthy thing to do would be get well and then when you're well. Cause you risk getting sick again. Yeah. Yeah, you risk getting really sick by being depleted like that again. And as far as when you're sick, what to do like you want to get healthy before anything else. So they usually mean skipping workouts, doing light movement, walking, you know, what feels good. Not missing workouts when you're sick is not taking away from your gains. It's actually getting to keep more of your gains and if you work out when you shouldn't. So if you work out when you shouldn't work out that actually sets you back more than taking the days off. So remember that. And this is speaking for personal experience. It's really hard for me to take time off even when I'm sick. I've had to learn this lesson at least 15 times before it finally set in. We've tried the opposite multiple times. So I know for me like not feeling good thinking that the workout was gonna help to kind of re-energize me and get me back on track. But in fact, yeah, set me back a few more days than I should have. So yeah, restoring your body, replenishing your body with nutrients, that makes a lot of sense. Totally. Yeah, I haven't lifted since Friday. I've been taken off today and maybe I feel good enough to try it, but I'll probably wait till tomorrow before doing it. But I mean, as far as the cut goes, I've never done a cut. And so right now I'm running mass aesthetic. I have like a week and a half left program from great. And so my plan initially was, okay, after I finish aesthetic, I'll go into a cut for maybe a week and then bulk two weeks, three weeks and then back to a cut, kind of go like that. But since I'm already here, I'm like, okay, should I just, obviously cutting calories in half is too much, but should I just go ahead and go back up to a little bit less than where it was or what should I do? No, I'd focus on getting healthy and you're probably gonna wanna feed yourself a little bit just to get those nutrients back in your body. You know, those viruses can be pretty nasty and really deplete your body. Also, are you adding sodium to your water? Are you drinking electrolytes? That's a big deal when you have a stomach virus. Yeah, I've been drinking body armor light. I don't have LMT, I hear you guys talk about it all the time and I wish I had some already, but I didn't wanna order it and wait or whatever, still body armor and trying to do stuff like that. Yeah, electrolytes are real important. The sodium is the most important part. So I don't think it has enough sodium, the one that you mentioned, if I'm not mistaken. So I'd add a little bit, just a pinch of sea salt to even that, just to kind of help keep yourself from, if you're noticing muscle cramps and weakness and stuff like that, it's usually an electrolyte imbalance. Yeah, definitely weakness, no cramps, but definitely weakness, so yeah, I'll try that. So I mean, as far as running, you know, a cut tentatively, so my goal is end of September, I'm going to Mexico with my wife and so I'm thinking, that's why I was like, maybe I'll try to cut to see what happens, see if I can add some definition or whatever. Should I, obviously you said get back to kind of normal, should I wait until I get closer? I think we're like eight weeks out before going again. I bet you're gonna, you'll get more definition from going the opposite direction right now. Now, you know, three weeks before you go, four weeks before, if everything's going well, you could do a little bit of a cut, but coming out of an illness like that, usually reversing and refeeding the body results in a leaner looking physique, not the other way around. Yeah, you also look like a pretty lean guy already. So I wouldn't, I mean, four weeks out from, from getting ready to go to the beach, it would be plenty of time. I mean, I, four weeks out is what I did for shows, bro. So you, if you manage yourself relatively lean, you can make some serious, especially if you're not somebody who cuts that, you may sound like you don't ever cut. So you're by never, yeah. So if you actually go on a, on a pretty aggressive cut for four weeks heading into, or even three, you're heading into vacation, you'll, you'll make some moves. And I would do, you know, kind of calories first and intensity and then slowly start to introduce some, you know, cardio slash walking, moving more and then start to slowly ramp that up all the way until we, I go to vacation and you'll, you'll lean out. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. So three, four weeks before, and then I'll start it. Okay. Awesome. So then my second question is, is related to being sick. So like I said, I haven't listed or done anything since Friday. So going back into it, I'm in aesthetic. Do I just pick up where I left off or do I, you know, try to cut out focus days and do foundational to stay on track? I don't really know how to go back into it. I'm very routine oriented. And then that's why I like the structure. So I'm like, okay, what do I do now? Go, I would do the first workout back, do one set instead of three or four of whatever is recommended. Just do one, see how you feel the following day. If you're really, really sore, then do the same workout again. If you feel okay, then slowly bring yourself back up to what you were doing before. But don't go back to what you were doing before. That's going to be over, over killing it. So slowly work back into it over what, like a week or probably depends how I feel. Yeah. I would, I would restart that phase wherever you were at. So whatever phase you were on, just restart at the beginning of it and take Sal's advice, you know, do at least a set or two less per exercise and then see how you feel. More than likely you've already taken enough time off to where you actually probably feel sore from just getting out there and doing it almost anything and then slowly, you know, each workout I would slowly start to ramp up to try and get back to what the actual program is telling you to do. It'll take like a week probably. A week to get back to where you were. Okay. Awesome. Anything else I should do, get back into it. You said sodium, obviously hit my protein and stuff, but anything else to really focus on? No, that's about it. I mean, sodium is a big one, right? So sodium, your magnesium, potassium, but mostly sodium, I'd focus on that. And of course just eating, just feeding yourself properly. Awesome. Cool. Hey, really helpful. I appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it. Yeah. So you went on a cut after having diarrhea, huh? This is really weird, bro. I could totally relate to getting sick. I get the mentality. Yeah, because you've already lost like five. And your appetite's already gone. Yeah, your appetite's gone. So instead of like, but it's not, it's not good advice, right? Just to your point. But I wanted to admit that that's, I've been in that mindset before. I'm like, well, I'm already low calorie. I don't feel like eating a bunch. I'm going to use this to my advantage. I'm going to stay low calorie. Like, but yeah, it's not good. What happens to me is if I do something like that, when I come out of it, I try to increase my calories and end up looking leaner through that process. You know, because I'm feeding my body. Yeah, it's giving it what it needs. Look, if you like our information, head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal. You can also find us on social media. So Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump Justin. Adam is on Instagram at Mind Pump Adam. You can find me on Twitter at Mind Pump South. This one's really important and that is to phase your training. If somebody trains for a full year doing a bench press and they're always aiming for five reps, if you compared that person to a person who did a bench press where they did three or four weeks of five reps, but then they did three or four weeks of 12 reps and then three or four weeks of, let's say, 15 to 20 reps and then they'll throw in some supersets, at the end of that year, you're going to see more consistent progress from the person who's moving in and out. And less injury, that's another thing. You'll see less injury as well.