 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump, mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, for the first 44 minutes, we do our introductory conversation. Bring the heat. We talk about the smoldering heat. Are you a hot or cold person? Studio swampy in here. We mention our good friend, Brendan Ayam Badejo. I call him the modern Renaissance man. What's his name, Adam? Last name? Brendan Ayam Badejo. Oh, he did it. I love it. We talk about Trump's terrible tariffs and shitty economics. Trump, you moron. Thanks a lot, buddy. We talk about Enzo's vlog. You gotta go check out his page. They're actually pretty funny. And his love of the skinny dipped almonds. They are fucking delicious. You can't blame the kid. And we're also sponsored by. We are sponsored by SkinnyDipped. If you go to SkinnyDipped. I miss those. Enter the code MindPump. You get 20% off. We give a little six week challenge update. Justin's kicking ass. Adam's kicking ass. They're right at my heels. I'm in the lead here. You're always wearing heels, aren't you? Yeah. We're talking, we talk about cooking healthy. And we mentioned how to use OrganiFi products coming out of a carnivore type diet. We love OrganiFi products. They are organic, non-artificially sweetened supplements. They have protein powders. They have a green juice. They have a gold juice for the evening. And they have a red juice for pre-workout. If you go to OrganiFi.com forward slash MindPump and enter the code MindPump, you'll get 20% off all of their products. Then we get into the questions. The first question was, as per this challenge of getting shredded, what is a better way to get started? What do you do first? Add cardio, cut your calories, or add more strength training or all of the above? Find out. All the above. Believe it or not, there's a right answer to this. There's a better way to do things. The next question was, what are the pros and cons of working out alone versus working out with a workout partner? We actually got into a strange debate on this one. Not sure why we debated this one. It was kind of strange. It got heated. Yeah, it was a good debate. I actually sided with Adam on that one. Yeah, yeah, of course you do. He's your boy. The third question is, how do I grow a massive butt? Justin lays down some knowledge on this one. Ass knowledge. These cheeks came in hot. He's got enough glutes for three people. We do have a butt guide, believe it or not, there's a guide on teaching you how to get your butt to finally respond. And it costs nothing. It's free. Go to mindpumpfree.com and get that. And the final question, this person's siblings are severely overweight and they are contemplating gastric bypass surgery. What is our advice for these people who are in this difficult situation? I also wanna mention that there are four days left for the 50% off MAPS anabolic sale. How many days, Justin? Holy four. Four, how about you, Adam? How many days left do we have? Four, four! There's only four days left. MAPS anabolic right now you can get for under $60. That's it, that's total. And you get full access to our flagship programs. The one to start it all, it's great for building muscle, great for building strength, excellent for boosting your metabolism. Now we also have bundles. Now this is where we combine multiple MAPS programs. I feel like really serious and you want everything set up for you for six months or for a year. Let's say you want a year set up for you. I do. You should do the super bundle. That's where we combine a bunch of MAPS programs. We put them in order for you and we discount them like 30% off. You can find all of our bundles and the 50% off MAPS anabolic that ends in four days. All of it at mindpumpmedia.com. Where were we just at recently and our guest that we were talking to that said Sal has a great radio voice? Who was it? Oh, I think, you know. It was somebody who accounts. Was it Christina Rice? No, it was somebody who accounts this. What was her name again? Yes, cause she's actually on the radio so she knows these things. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? She said that and I was like, oh, he's got like the, yay, the radio voice. Yeah, I think that's what she's talking about. That's what I sound like. No, but I mean, like you'd fit in, yeah. Yeah, I feel like when I first heard you, your voice, I'm like, this guy sounds like a stoner, like a stoner surfer, but you're not. I know. Yeah, the irony in that, he wasn't even really smoking much when we first met. Not at all. It's hilarious. And then Adam sounds like, Amazing. No, you sound like, You say it. You sound like a, So hard for you. Like a 48 year old woman that works out Walmart that's been smoking for 20 years. Yeah, like forever chain smoking her way to the end. You know? Give me your son. Like whoa. Like your name's Marge. Everybody needs a Marge. Calm down. Hey, I'll tell you what, man. I really appreciate you guys finally adjusting the temperature for people like me from the Mediterranean. Oh God. Oh yeah. I'm glad you're happy. It's nice and warm and moist in this fucking studio. It's annoying. Dude, we had to think, it puts me to sleep. Swampy. About 30 minutes into this podcast, man. When it's warm in here, I get all. Yeah, you do. Yeah. It's pretty funny. It's not funny. It's annoying as fuck, dude. I do not like to be hot. Like I'm so, that was like the Katrina shopping for them. Have you gotten better though since you've been using the infrared sauna and all that. Has your heat tolerance gotten better? Oh, maybe. Yeah. Maybe, I don't know. Mine hasn't. I try to avoid that as much as possible. Like I have AC everywhere I go. So I try and keep it nice and cool. I wonder what that says about a person. You know what I mean? Like if you have a. Like you're irritable when you get hot? Yeah. Something like if you have an intolerance to heat or an intolerance to cold. Well, let me. If that means different things. You know why I get irritated is because it can be solved. Like if we're in fucking, if we're down in Mexico. There's technology for this. Well, no, exactly. If we're down in Mexico, we're out on the beach and it's 110. I'm not complaining. When it's supposed to be hot. Yeah, exactly. I'm sucking up the rays, man. Getting in the water. Having a great time. You know the water's right there. And enjoying the heat. But when I walk into my fucking studio and it's 100 degrees inside of it, that annoys me. When I walk into my house and it's 100 degrees, that annoys me because the technology is there to keep that from happening. Yeah. You know, that's what pisses me off. I'm not like. Amen, brother. I'm not like, I don't get upset about just getting hot. Like if it's. Somebody froze it over, huh? Is that what happened? No. We figured out what happened. It was working yesterday. Well, because of thought out. No, it's not how that works. Let's say those things freeze up. They're fucked until you get fixed again. I'll be honest. I don't even know how an AC works. It's just a big block of ice with a fan on it, right? Blowing the cold. You guys remember those? What do they call swamp coolers? We had a swamp coolers. Did you really? Yeah, yeah. I installed one with my dad. So that's like the cheap man's or poor man's. Totally. That's exactly what it was. You just put it in the bottom of your window. You just do that in the house all day. Well, so my grandmother and my grandparents, so my family and Sicily from my dad's side, they're not well off. That's just to put it nicely, right? They don't have much money. And Sicily gets hot. And what I mean, it's like humid, hot. And my dad's family lives in Bagaria, which is not a beach town. So it's a little bit more inland. I mean, you could drive 40 minutes and get to the beach, but you're in this concrete jungle. It's hot as shit. The houses are made out of concrete. And then my grandparents didn't have AC. So when we would go there in the summer, it was like, you ever sleep naked? Swelter fest. You sleep naked with fans on you. Doesn't matter. Within 30 minutes, the area of the bed that you're on is soaked. That sounds horrible. And so what you end up doing to find relief is you move to a different part of the bed and then the part of the bed that you sweat on starts to cool off. And then you just go back to it and get the cool wetness. I'd sleep in the tub at that point. I know my mom hates me talking about like when we had less stuff, right? But we, I'm trying to make it. You didn't have less stuff. You had a horse. Yeah, yeah. You had a dude buggy. We were full of question. We used to fucking take cold rags and you'd put cold rags on your head and on your ankles. So that's like, that was to stay cool in the house because where we lived, like it would be like 110 degrees, dude. And we did not run the AC. It was dry out there though, right? Yeah, we didn't have AC. Yeah, but I don't give a shit what if it's dry, wet, humid, doesn't matter. If it's 110 degrees in your house, like it's hot. Inside the house? Yeah, it's too hot. Yeah, like laying on a bed is just awful. Like the sheets are hot, you know what I'm saying? See, I don't like cold. I can't, although these days, although these days, cold doesn't bother me as much. And I've realized what it is. I think it's when I push my food intake a little bit, when I'm feeling good, and I get my metabolism to ramp up, I definitely run hotter. When I eat, just listen to my body, my body tends to settle at lower calories. Then I notice I have more of a, like a cold intolerance, you know what I'm saying? Well, I acclimate a little bit easier to cold, like. Yeah, you're a polar bear, let's be honest. Except dude, when I went to Chicago, that was, I mean, I had no idea what cold was. You know, we all say that until you go experience the arctic fucking, like winds that just blow right through your skin to your bone and chill you, but like you get used to that too though. So I felt like I could handle that any day of the week over like humidity and hot and, oh yeah. You'd rather have freezing cold than humidity? I would too, 100% too. You guys are both insane. No, no. So you'd rather live in. I'd rather be freezing. Alaska. You'd rather live in Buffalo, New York. It's gotta be something back in the heritage thing, the Viking, you know, like Scottish heritage, that kind of thing. You just think you're a badass. If you... So you would rather live in like. I was in the movie Braveheart. You'd rather live in like Buffalo, New York versus like Hawaii. Well, that's a stupid example. No, that's not even a good comparison, dude. Come on, dude. No, but yeah, then you just say the weather. I would rather live somewhere where the weather is like X versus like you can't compare Buffalo, New York to fucking Hawaii. Fucking tropical white sand. You changed my answer, sir. 85 degree bath water. Well, that's what I mean. So like if San Jose could have whether like Buffalo or whether like Hawaii, you would choose Buffalo. No, I would say more like St. Louis or like Florida. Like that, that weather sucks. Like I can't even, dude. Really? Yeah, like just the hot, humid... I can't even. You know what it is? It's because of, to the environment makes a difference. Like if I'm not right next to water and it's that hot, like I just, there's some kind of panic that happens. It's very simple for me. One of them is easily controlled. The other one is not. Like I have full control of the cold thing. If it's freezing like 30 bucks, I could fucking eskimo up, dude, I could wrap my head with a scarf and four layers, whatever. It's better than it being in a situation where you can't do anything about it. You can only take off so much course. Drag your feet, you walk like inch by inches. No, fuck that. It's like you're at home. You're watching a movie. It's freezing as fuck outside. You're like, oh, I want some ice cream. I gotta go to 15 to 20 minutes. Nobody craves ice cream when it's 30 below. Fine, whatever. I want to get something. You're going to have to take like 20 to 30 minutes to wrap your shit up, go outside. When it's hot, you just like put on a tank top and some underwear. No way it takes that long. It's just not that. And put all those clothes on? You know what's worse is you can't do anything about it when it's super hot. You can. You can just put on a wife beater and your fucking speedo. Again, can't do it, but it's still 110. You can be in a wife beater and booty shorts and still sweat your ass off. Oh, I love it. Right? Oh, I love it. But what's cool about it in freezing weather is you can't put enough clothes on to where you can be warm. It's also an excuse to be honest with you. It's an excuse for me to wear like a wife beater all the time. You know what I mean? That's the real answer here. Yeah, because I have the kind of body. You know, you ever find that article, like there's a certain kind of article of clothing that make form fits you. That looks your best for your body, right? So like a wife beater for me. I think every 16-year-old boy figures that out about wife beaters. No, I did too. Listen, if you have, yeah, it works on you too. Let me put it this way. If you have skinny arms, a big chest, and a big back, you're not going to look good in a wife beater because it covers up the big areas. I'm kind of narrow. My chest isn't that big. I got nice delts and arms. Wife beater. It's like a whatchamacallit, like Photoshop. OK, I can get on board with that. I can get on board. Yeah, because guys with skinny arms with terrible tank tops. Terrible. Yeah, you can. Like those guys look good in sweaters. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't look good in this. I don't look good in sweaters. A bunch of them. Remember those old school workout shorts that dudes with the huge collar cut out? Yeah. And like it just like it kind of draped. It looks like in 1980s. It shows a cleavage. Yeah. Dude, I had a bunch of fucking YouTube trolls punk in my arms. Like really? Oh my god, bro. Did they have small arms, dude? Bro. Like, fuck, I know they're not at their best right now. I know I'm not fucking killing it. So I know you guys are literally just trying to be mean. I know you guys are super religious and I'm starting to believe in certain things. This is the serendipitous part of all of this, OK? Here we go. No way in hell guys like Adam and I would have survived on YouTube in our early 20s. No way. With that kind of shit, we would have fired back, got pissed off, fucking done kind of shit. It's not even constructive. It's terrible. It's just fucking asshole shit. And they hit you where it hurts. I know. That's what they know how to do that. Yeah, they'll like pick the part of my body that I was insecure about maybe 10, 15 years ago that would have bothered me. And then they do it and I laugh. Cavs, you know it's like your shoulders or whatever. Yeah, I did a chest video. And look, my chest has always been. Your nipples are weird. My chest has always been an area that I've focused on. And if you saw where I started, you'd think I was a genius by how far I've come, OK? So people look at me, it's not that big. It's a fucking long way. But that's an area that I've always been insecure about when I was a kid. And I did a chest training video on YouTube. There's like four comments are like, you should have a guy with a big chest teach you this video. Or why is he? I'm not going to listen to him. The irony of that is that that's the credentials that people want. Like, how funny is that? Like, I want to do. People are that stupid. I'd rather have a dude that's juiced up and fucking full of water that has massive bubbly biceps telling me how to train my biceps than somebody that's actually educated and been teaching others for fucking years. It's true. Like, that is so crazy to me. It's true. Like, I don't. Like, would you rather have Usain Bolt coach you on how to sprint, or would you rather have his coach coach you on how to sprint? You know what I'm saying? Because he looks faster. To be honest with you, many times, not always, OK. But many times. Many times, the coaches look terrible. They do. But some of the best coaches look terrible. But not only that, but many times, the best people in a given sport are the worst people to teach you anything. Oh, I see. You know what I mean? It comes so naturally to them. And they just know how to work hard. And they know how to work with their 0-1% That's quite rare that we see pro athletes turn into great coaches. I mean, there's an anomaly. It's like that does happen. Or great announcers. There's like. They're so dumb. Actually, funny you say that. There's a few of them that are awesome. There's a lot of talk right now about Tony Romo, right? And them letting him do more or that more because he just took over Gruden's job because Gruden now is coaching the Raiders. Oh, yeah. And they were talking about, like, you know, there's a lot of people that hate on Tony Romo the way he announces. I'm a Cowboys fan, so I'm like, whatever. I've never been a Tony Romo fan, though. But what I love about Tony Romo and the way that Gruden, which there's some critics out there say they talk too much, just not. I actually love listening to them because they won't just like regular announcers that are just a regular, like a, what's his name? That's famous. That's been around forever. Why can't I think of his name? Like Al Davis or something or not? I mean, Al Michaels. Al Davis. Yeah, sorry, I was thinking Raiders, right? So Al Michaels, like, you know, he'll tell you what just happened, right? Where Tony Romo or Gruden will read the. Oh, they'll predict it? Yeah. Oh, that's fun. They'll like, oh, look, he just audible to the left. Watch the wide out to the right right now. Look for a post route. You know, and you're like, that's cool. So a guy like me. You know, a defensive front is there, and so they're going to break down. You know what? I love the game enough. That's smart. That's smart because I think the more you educate your audience, the more they start to appreciate. Because I know this, look, I don't watch football or baseball or basketball that much, but I know Mixed Martial Arts and I know Jiu-Jitsu. Oh, yeah. And when I hear like Joe Rogan. Right, tell you about it. Yeah. And what happens? He's what got me into, you know, Mixed Martial Arts. Exactly. Because then the audience starts to kind of understand a little bit about what's going on. When you start to become better fans. You appreciate like the ground game, right? Like before everybody get all, oh, boo, boo, because you're on the ground. But if you've got a good announcer who's like, oh, watch this. He's trying to slip an arm bar right here, you know? And you're like, oh, shit, he just got an arm bar. Now you're more interested in seeing the setup of it. So yeah, so anyways, I don't know where I was going with the whole announcement. Yeah, I was just talking to you. I mean, there's some athletes out there do a really good job, but there's some of them that you're just like, I don't know, like boomerous and like, I just can't, I can't listen to that guy. Well, my boy, my boy Brennan tried it for a minute and it didn't work out really. Did he really? Yeah, Brennan was last year, the year. No, you're- That guy's like a renaissance man. He's a, he is a- I think I can, I hope I can announce it on there because he's told me he got the- Oh, man, can you? I'm sure he got paid, dude. He's got his house, so I'm sure he could talk about it. I don't know, but my boy is so fucking- He is, he's a renaissance man. He's a rare combination of intelligence, hard work, charisma, and then just like incredible athleticism. You don't find that combination- And he's just a good dude. And he's a very good dude. You know, great family, seems like a good dad. But yeah, very, very cool guy, you know what I mean? So cool. Very, very cool guy. Self-made, extremely successful on his own right, besides the fact that- Local boy, dude, came from Santa Cruz out by Justin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's, man, he's a really good dude. For sure will be somebody who'll be a long-term friend of mine. We've built a really good relationship. Yeah, you got a little bit of a man crush on him. I don't blame you. Yeah, well, no, we've both talked about it. We've got like an equal one going on here. Like, there's this- I watch that video. What was crazy when we first got to, when we first started, so he, you know, he reached out to me for Orange Theory and there was definitely a bit of clashing at first, which I find almost always happens with some of these, some of the strong personalities. The male friends that I ended up bonding with the longest, there is a little bit of this power struggle when you first meet. He's an alpha, that's why. Yeah, oh yeah, as we all are, right? So when you initially meet, but what I like about someone like him and like us is, you can be an alpha. You get mutual respect. And still not have an ego that gets in the way. No. Because a lot of times you have- Well, that's a real alpha. Right. That's real, a real alpha is confident. A false alpha male or female or whatever is insecure and it's in cocky. And when they meet another real alpha, they can't mix with them. When two really, really confident, honestly confident people meet, they may have different disagreements and stuff, but then there becomes this mutual respect. Mutual respect, 100%. 100%. That's exactly what it was. It was like this back and forth at the very beginning and then it was like, OK, I get it. You know what I'm saying? I see how you think, I see how you think, OK, cool. And so that was when we- Yeah, because he gave you a lot of latitude, wisely. Yeah. He wisely gave you a lot of latitude. Right, which I respected that. He had the awareness to go like, you know what, I'm just going to let this dude kind of do his thing inside my facility, right? Even though there's things that we didn't see eye to eye or we agreed on a lot of things, he had his smarts and intelligence to kind of let me do my own thing, which is why I was even there. There's no way that you could get me to go work for some corporate franchise type place. Oh, I think all of us are unemployable in that regard. Yeah. That'd be very difficult to work for that kind of thing. You know, I've been meaning to reach out. They let go of my buddy, Mike, over there. So it's- Really? Yeah. You know, this is- I thought he was killing it. This is what happens and, you know, I feel bad for a lot of the trainers because I told them that like two years ago, this is what will happen. You guys are a part of this during the heydays. The company's exploding. Everybody's making money. When that goes on, there's a lot of high-fiving. There's not a lot of like stress about what you're not doing perfectly or no one's really caring about forgetting this or forgetting that. And there's a lot of latitude within the business right now. And I remember telling them all, like, enjoy this. You know, make as much money as you can. Learn as much as you can. Have a good time while you're here. But don't be naive and think that this is going to be like this forever. Like, you know, the trainers get paid top dollar there. At some point, they'll want to lower the- They're gonna cut that. Yeah, they'll cut that and they'll want a bunch of robots. Is what they'll end up wanting. Well, that's what'll, if and when, you know, if OTF ever sells to somebody else, right? That's exactly what'll happen. Somebody will come in. It's like, we talk about this off air, right? Like our business right now. We're in the major growth phase, right? And we're exactly there right now. It's a fun time. It's a fun time to be an employee here. It's a fun time to be working here. You know, we're growing. We're doing better. We're doing better. Then at one point, a business starts the progress and the growth will slow down. And when it does, you know, if you're a company that reached a point where you want to sell, you typically sell right there. And then the new guy or girl comes in and goes, okay, let's evaluate the entire business. Let's look at all the areas that we're not optimizing. And let's do the areas that we're blowing money. Now here's the difference. The difference between, because I've seen two sides of this. I've seen like the Mark Mastroff who, you know, started 24 hour fitness. And I saw after Mastroff where, you know, they had these big corporate interests or whatever. And you see this with other businesses. Speaking of that, did you book the interview yet? He still has to contact me back. Thanks for reminding me. I'm gonna contact him again. But you see this, you see this sometimes and the people I respect the most are the ones that remember, they remember and they're loyal to the people that got them where they are. Now I'm that kind of person, right? We ever get to that point where we sell the company or whatever. Who knows, that could be 15, 20, whatever years from now. I'm gonna remember all the people that were with us in the beginning and I'm gonna make sure everybody gets taken care of. Versus what you sometimes see where they forget, you know? They're like, oh, and you saw that a little bit with 24 after Mark left. You took, you know, he took care of his boys. Rightly so, they were the ones in the trenches. But then you saw the new guys come in and they didn't know what the fuck was going on. And you saw an exodus of talent, you know? So that's the thing. So I wanted to remember how he had that little discussion about tariffs and, you know, how Trump's imposing these tariffs and trying to create this whatever. Creating a trade war with everybody. And I keep saying tariffs are just the tax. It's just the tax on shit and it's bad. It's terrible economics. It gets worse. You're gonna love this. And this is why, this is one reason why tariffs get on my nerves. And this is another reason why government is just so inefficient and ridiculous and silly and how the average American has no idea how this works. So everybody's just blind and just, okay, whatever. That sounds good. They have no idea what's happening. So here's what happened, right? Trump imposes tariffs on goods from China and China then retaliates with higher tariffs on US goods. So obviously what happens is American farmers and others start getting hurt from this. Not to mention consumers are gonna start paying more. How are they getting hurt? Well, because now China's charging more or slapping stuff on our stuff. So now American farmers, products that are getting exported are more expensive. So now they're getting hurt also. So it's just war. It's a tariff war. Nobody ever wins this. And the consumer ends up losing every single time. Now because American farmers are starting to suffer and because they're very organized and because American farmers have powerful lobbies, especially the wheat, soy, corn lobbies, which are some of the most powerful lobbies in America and they already get subsidies. Subsidies, yeah. People don't realize this. A lot of your tax money goes to, literally just goes to these farmers for free, for whatever reason, because we hooked them up a long time ago. So now they're complaining. We should do that for kale. Well, now that they're complaining and they're like, hey, we're suffering because now China's raised our tariffs. So what does the Trump administration do? They announced another $12 billion in agriculture subsidies to help the farmers. So now not only are we paying more for Chinese goods, more for American goods, or we're losing money because they're getting tariffed, but now we're also getting taxed even more. So we're getting taxed. On top of it. Awesome job. Yeah, thanks. So we're getting screwed. I heard even too that the tax relief that we're supposed to get as corporations was paid for by our already existing debt. Oh, yeah, that's a whole nother conversation. But we're basically getting screwed all the way around. So much of hot air. Yeah, higher prices on goods. Our farmers, our products are getting more expensive as a result of the tariffs that China puts on, and we pay higher taxes for the government subsidies. So it's basically a gang bang. We're getting screwed from all directions. Oh, God. And this is what ends up happening with these types of things. And so this is what irritates me about Trump, is he plays... This is why I hate politics. He plays into the nationalism. So it sounds good. Cause he's like, yeah, China and, we're gonna help our farmers and everybody. Cause the picture of the farmer in the American person's mind, like what do you think of when you think of a farmer? Right? The red barn. Right, overall speech for it. Yeah, like the good old like family. The simple life. Yeah, farms don't look like that anymore. It's a massive, you know, company. It's all machines. Massive corporation. And they're in bed with government. So there you go. Unfortunately. Have you guys seen, did you guys see our boy? We should give him a plug right here. So... Enzo? Let's get his fucking... He's doing a great job. What's his name on his YouTube? So he started a little vlog of like life and the life of mine pump Enzo and he's been vlogging coming to work. Yeah, he's an honorary mine pump Enzo now. Yeah. He's being smart. I think he's doing, first off, he does those in a day. Yeah. I mean, the kids... No, they're entertaining. That last one was really good. Dude, the kid's 17. He does all that in a day. He's got some talent. I'm looking it up right now. What is the, did you... Did you see the, this last video he did, the little skinny dipped packets? How come we don't get those ones, Doug? I want to, they send us the big bags, which I appreciate, but he orders the, the, it's under... Oh, it's his name. Enzo, close the code. No, no, no, no, no, that's not it. That's not it? No, because that says two subscribers. That's not it. Oh, maybe not. You gotta click on the, click on the video that says what it's like to work at mine pump, Doug. And, no, that's it. Okay. That is it. So it's his first name is Enzo, his last name is C-O-G-L-I-T-O-R-E Coliotore. That's a nice Italian last name. Enzo's E-N-Z-O. But he has, he orders the, you get these little small packets. They look like, did you see the, did you guys watch the video? He had it in there. Dude, so he's, so right now I'm also coaching him, right on the side. I'm helping him with nutrition and training. So you're the one who keeps feeding the skinny dude? No, dude. So he sends me a message yesterday. It's so funny, right? He sends me, and he's a smart kid. So he tries to, he tries to, what's the word? Justify. Yeah, he's smart. He knows what he's doing basically. So I'm gonna scroll back and said what he says. And I changed his macros now. I'm putting him on a cut because he's doing this six week competition with us. But it's something like, hey, I got this, you know, this craving and I think this will help. And, you know, what does he say real quick? Let me see here real quick. He goes, it was a snack and it totally helped, you know, helped me out. And he goes, because I'm really hungry. And I'm like, well, you know, obviously we know why you're hungry. You're burning body fat. Like you're in a deficit. So I'm like, I said, you're hungry because your metabolism is firing up. I said, but you're uncomfortable with hunger. And I said, you need to deal with it. Welcome to big boy land. And I'm like, do you want to get shredded? Brace it. If yes, then make friends with cravings. If no, then let cravings run your life. And so he's like, okay, I'll do it, you know? So great. It's so great, you know? But good for him, man. He does, he's smart because he's coming here. He's learning from us. He gets to be in this environment. He's asking us questions about fitness and stuff which I love and I embrace. I can see, I really enjoy it when somebody is not taking advantage of, that's the wrong word. But when somebody sees the opportunity, and maximizes it. Well, appreciates their environment. Yeah, like he's maximizing it. Dude, kid's on his third book that I've recommended to him since he's been here. Are you kidding me? Third. He's fucking not, Little machine. He's even been here, what, a month? Maybe a month? Dude, you know, I'll tell you what, he's, you know, and I hope I'm not putting him on blast or anything, but he's a well-off kid. He's got a lot of things going for him. He's a wealthy family, but he is a very hard-working kid. He doesn't show, he doesn't act like he's spoiled, he comes in, he busts his ass, and he does shit like this, man. I really like that. Yeah. I like seeing that. I'm excited to see where it goes. I mean, again, because you could tell he's a hard worker, he's learning right now. Like, he's reading about all this stuff right now too. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, so he's like, he's learning how to optimize. I'm gonna have to pay him. Because he's helping, yeah. He's helping, he's helping Taylor, so he reports to Taylor. So a lot of the work they're doing is related to YouTube and optimizing the YouTube channel and the thumbnails and things like that. And so they're kind of, he's been like reading like crazy, and he's the one providing a lot of good information back to both Taylor and Drew to help them out. So I'm really excited to see him kind of do his own thing, what he's doing right now with the vlog I like. To be honest with you, this is the way I prefer to build staffs is to start off with people who are new and then watch them grow and learn within us and become kind of, you know, become part of the brand versus, because I used to love hiring trainers and salespeople who had talent and who were hungry, but who didn't have lots of experience. Yeah. The ones that had tons of experience. These are easier to mold. Yeah, and sometimes the ones with all the experience, it's like training a new recruitment pattern. You know what I mean? Like if you have a terrible recruitment pattern that you've been doing for 10 years, it's hard to go back and learn a new one, but sometimes somebody comes in with nothing and it's easier to start them off on the right foot, you know? Right, right. Martial artists will say this all the time. If you go do like Muay Thai and you're a black belt in Thai Kwon Do, they'll say it's harder many times than just teaching a beginner. Yeah, yeah, because you already have like those specific ways of doing things. It's just ingrained in your brain, you know? How's your workouts going, by the way? Good. I'm doing well with the workouts and the everyday activities and it's starting to kind of pick up to, like I was in a dip there as far as like strength and performance. Is it coming back? It's coming back a little bit, yeah. Oh, you might be just adjusting. I think that's what it was. Where are you doing most of your training? I do most of it at my house now and then that total gym. Did you put up everything, the rack and everything? Not yet. That's supposed to be coming this week but I did buy like a trap bar and a bunch of weights and dumbbells. This is like Rocky versus Drago or whatever, right? Yeah. This is fucking this guy. Old school boulders and ropes. Like you're gonna win this competition down the mountain. Dude, don't fucking motivate him even more. I'm Rocky. What the fuck? Dude, you're, I walked in. You're even Drago. I walked in. No, you're Drago, bro. You're closer to the Russian. I walked in today and I looked at you and your jawline is coming out, dude. Ah! It's coming out, bro. He's in. Bro, don't believe him. Lean in. He's doing reverse psychology on you. I'm just keeping it real, you know what I'm saying? No, I look better than you. You look good, bro. You're doing fine. You're doing fine. You're doing totally fine. You enjoy some cheese this weekend. I'm being honest. I can tell both of you guys are fucking changing really quick. That's the truth. It's kind of fun to see this, you know what I mean? How everybody's kind of getting all jacked and shit. It's funny because Adam mentioned getting made fun of doing poses and shit. I actually was just looking at the mirror a little too long and then Courtney was like, Caught you. Are you done? Yeah. I was like, oh no! Oh no, I'm turning into them. Our women are the fucking hardest-critic saboteur, dude, for sure. Yeah, she don't let me go at all. She busts my balls all the time. I'll tell you what, she is a saboteur. I feel like you guys are paying her off. Oh, what did she do? Oh, she did. She gets like this every time I have, she like hates when I diet or like really, like I figured it out. Like she just really does not like hanging out because I get irritable the first week or two and I'm not like real fun to hang out with. And so she tries to just fuck with me the whole time. So she made like, she made like this amazing-looking cheesecake, you know, and all this stuff. Cheesecake? I'm like fucking cheesecake. You never even made that for me and you make a cheesecake all the time. It's her first time ever. Yeah, first time she's like, oh my God. She got like some like five, six star review thing. And you know, the kids are just, oh my God, mom, this is amazing. You know, gives it to the neighbor, like this is the best thing I've ever had. And like, she's like, there's one more. Oh my God, what the fuck outta here? Oh, wow. Oh, that was dirty. See, instead of doing me dirty. Instead, my girl is like, she's a pain in the ass because I'll do something, I'll eat something. She'd be like, is that part of your thing or you're supposed to be doing that or? Oh, that's- How does your gut feel when you do that? Are you sure that's a good thing to do stuff? That's contributing. Yeah, cause you know what we talk about trash to me. This detection too? Oh yeah, of course. Same thing, you know? Is that part of your plan right there? I don't think that's part of the plan. Yes, it's part of the plan. So what you're doing? Count it in. Yesterday was my first day doing consistent three trigger sessions. And like fucking magic, I swear to God, do by the third trigger session, like two reps and I get a pump. It's like, I can feel it right away. They're so awesome when you do them consistently. Absolutely love them. Yeah, they're legit. I am excited to do the old school maps I haven't done it fully like that in a long time. I'm surprised you switched to that. I thought that was kind of crazy. I thought that was a unique move of yours. Well, I did split. I liked it. I followed split for about five or six weeks. But I, you know, here's a deal. Like I had to change it up so I could go back to my bread and butter to the way I know my body really responds. But if I stay on, you know, this maps and Ebola style training forever, of course I got to switch it up, right? So I switched it up to split, which is very different. And so now, you know, I'm back on the, you know, maps and Ebola style. It's abbreviated because it's kind of individualized. And every time, every time I do it, man, my body just responds that crazy, especially the trigger sessions kind of blows me away. No. How about you? How about you to train yesterday? Yeah, no, I've been, I've been consistent, man. Real consistent. You're looking good too, man. Yeah, you say that. But I, you know, I took my first bathroom selfie yesterday. I haven't seen your shirt off. Yeah, not so good. That's so good. That's so good. I mean, I feel like I just got this like pool of estrogen like around my fucking waist. Just a pool of estrogen. That's quite the visual. That's what it feels like, dude. You getting the side cakes going on? It just gives, like squishy. It's really, it's interesting to me, like. Bro, it's natural. I'm telling you, store body fat differently. Oh yeah, well, I mean, natural or not, I think it's more being low testosterone and higher estrogen, which is also why I still battle right now with the, you know, the gynecomastia too. It's like, I think that, you know, a combination of the low testosterone, higher estrogen levels is giving me that with what I'm dealing with that. And then also the way that my body is storing body fat. So, but I mean, for me, like it just started though. You know what I mean? It's going to show up in about. Well, I really haven't just started. That's, you know, Katrina said the same thing too. I'm like, I don't know why you guys think I've been fucking, I haven't stopped. I just, what you guys see me doing is ramping volume up. Yeah, but I've seen more changes in your body in the last four weeks, three weeks than in the previous five weeks. Oh yeah, you know. That's what I mean by you just started. I don't mean you just started. Yeah, my body just started, the way I look at it is my body just started finally responding. That's what I mean. You know, it's finally responding. And so, cause I knew before I couldn't ramp up the volume and intensity because my body wasn't responding. I would just, I'd be working against it. Like at that point it was about health and trying to get hormonally balanced. Like control the damage. Yeah, that's the way my training looked for the last six months. And so now that I feel like it's somewhat responding and it is responding, but it's still not responding like I would like it to. Like I was telling you the other day on the podcast was, you know, I'm used to, if I am like really dialed, like I'm staying right where I need to be nutritionally. I'm putting the work in. I'm progressively overloading. Like I'm doing all the things that I need to do. I literally can see like change day to day, you know, like just very subtle, you know what I'm saying? For the average person probably can't, but because I'm so used to critiquing my physique like that and paying attention to all the numbers and tracking, I can look and weigh and see and look and go, okay, like nice. I'm right on pace. I'm right on pace where here it's a little bit different right now, you know, right now it's, I feel like, you know, we'll see. Like the way I'm trying to do it is I'm going to take these snapshots every week and then review it at the end of the week. Now how do you do that? Same time, same time of the day, same mirror, same lighting, same pose. Yeah, yeah, you know, like it's for me, right? Even the ones I used to post way back in the day on my Instagram, I never did it like, I never did it after a pump and fill all car, I mean, I did examples for people way back when, but you know, when I do it, I do it so I could compare. Like I want, and so I don't want to manipulate all those things to look cooler in the picture. So, you know, it's a basic picture of myself. It's, you know, I do it typically like around four o'clock in the afternoon. After I get off of work, I come home and you know, I had the same amount of meals and it's just me standing and I do a front shot and a back shot and that's enough for me to kind of see. I talk about my back as my North Star. So for me, the most consistent thing that I can see change and is my back. So I like to use that more than anywhere else. I've noticed like with my stomach, you know, certain foods I could be inflamed a little bit that could throw off the look where when I turn around and I look at my back, I can look at my back and tell if I'm making the right progress. You don't store much on your front midsection. Yours is more on the side or back. Yeah. You don't really store like that front belly. I'm all front belly, like all there. If I get, if I gain body fat, I'll get the, I'll be the lean arm dude with the big belly. It's just how my body. Yeah, I'm kind of like that too though. I get, I get a little pooch belly too. If I, if I- You have to push it though. Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, if I'm really falling out of shape, I, you know, which right now I'm in, you know, we just did their tests. Like I'm in some of the worst shape I've ever been and I've been worse, you know, I was worse before we started Mind Pump and I did the whole journey from front to front. What about strength? How's your strength feeling? That is actually what I've been really happy with. So when we first started- To me is the best sign. To me, that's the best sign. Yeah, well that's, and that's what's got me the most excited was, you know, other than the stupid pull that I did with the back because I was getting so, I was getting so sad with my strength. Like I had pulled over 400 and then all of a sudden I'm repping it. I'm like, oh, shit, okay. I've got my strengths coming back and then I hurt myself. But, you know, I'm back to being able to incline press over 225, which is good weight for me, you know, and especially being that I know that I'm a hundred percent natural because I can imagine if I was- Yeah, that's really good. Right, so if I'm incline chest pressing over 225, like that's solid for me. So, and it's taken me a while to get back up to that. I remember when I was just doing the whole maintaining my health, you know, I was working out with 135, like it was, it was challenging. So I was that weak. Yeah, no, my strength is doing pretty good right now. Although I've always pushed my strength, but I can feel like I've been pulling every week. I've been pulling in the low to mid fives, you know, which is for me, that's not bad. Although I need to take a little break on the heavy deadlifts today. I could tell it was a harder, I pulled five when I pulled 510 and it was more of a grind than it normally is. So I'm gonna do a little bit of a back off and maybe use the trap bar next week. But strength, so for me, it's strength, my pump, my vascularity is what I'll pay attention to. And then in terms of getting lean, my arms and shoulders pretty much always look pretty lean. It's my right near my belly button area. That's where I, for whatever reason, I think it's just stored body fat in one damn area. So that's the part, when I start to see that go down, I know that I'm... That's, see, that's where I'm the same way. Like I have this, and I can tell when I'm driving, right? So when I'm driving, I'm gonna, yeah. Like I can, if I can get a hold of something, like I got work to do. And then it'll get to a point when I know I'm really lean, where I just get skin there. And once I know I'm grabbing ab and skin and that's it, then I know like, okay, now I'm where I wanna be. You know, I know you are, you and I are probably the, taking the most supplements out of the three of us. Justin, are you taking anything right now? Are you using anything right now? I'm trying as hard as I can to keep it just steak, but I... He's taking steak protein. Because are you even allowed to use like, I mean, is it, or I mean, I think you're gonna do whatever the fuck you want, but I mean, are you technically not, like if you were to use like the green juice from Organifier, the red juice from them, would that be like not carnival, like you can't do, you're not supposed to do that? I mean, yeah, I just, I'm just trying to like, if I have anything that's like over three grams of sugar, like I'm not, like I'm trying as much as I can to avoid, like so, whether I'm drinking something or like, I've had, so none of the juices, but you could do, you could do like turmeric, right? Yeah, so that's what I have done, actually is some of the turmeric just for the inflammation, but other than that, I mean, I'm not like, initially I was inflamed, I think, once I started really ramping up again and like trying to lift heavy and was just eating a lot of meat, like, I mean, I was pretty fucking sore. And so I was using the turmeric to help with that, but now that's sort of dissipated a bit. And so I'm just, I'm actually not, I'm not too sore now going through everything. I got my energies kind of coming back naturally. So at some point though, like to keep my calories kind of like, you know, at maintenance at least, like I may start reintroducing vegetables and doing that and then coming back to carnivore towards the end. So I started doing my post-workout anabolic cholesterol shake. I started doing that yesterday. And it's, I'll just do protein powders. I use the Organified Vanilla. And I don't necessarily recommend this because there's always a risk of salmonella, although the risk is very, very small. You know, do your own, this is on your own, right? This is up to you. So you can't blame me if you get sick, but I'll throw in four to six raw egg yolks in the shake and I'll blend that thing up and I get my post-workout cholesterol and protein from the protein powder. And if I don't do that, then I'll do chicken liver and I'll have that post-workout. And I'm telling you, dude, cholesterol with some protein post-workout is fucking magic. And it's, at some point it's gonna be in a stopwatch. Yeah, I was thinking about doing something like that for breakfast. Like I grabbed the protein from Organified. I've been contemplating on whether or not to do like up my breakfast with a shake like that. I know it might be a contradiction. Well, you've been carnivore now for a week. Almost a week, yeah, a week. I would go two or three weeks and then do it because you're using this as an elimination. I'm still eliminating, yeah, exactly. So you want your body, yeah, you want a baseline. So then we throw it in, you can see if you have any reactions to any of the, you know, the vegetables or plants that are in there because it is a plant based. Yeah, I may introduce, yeah, with the green juice or the protein powder. Absolutely. So I've had a lot of people ask me kind of like, and I'm tracking now. So I'll try and remember to share kind of a weekly update since it's been a solid week now that I've been tracking like all my macrosin and where I'm falling on my fat secret is, I'm falling between 2,800 and 3,200 calories. So an average of 3,000 calories. Not bad. Is where I'm at. And my ratio, my breakdown of carbs, fat and protein is I'm at 25% carbohydrates, 48 to 50% fat and then 27% protein. So that's the breakdown that my fat secret looks like right now. And that wasn't like really planned. I'm not like- It's just where it's falling. Yeah, it's just where it's where it's falling right now. I've slowly kind of started to reintroduce more carbs. And what I see is the carbohydrate intake will start to increase more than that. Where are you getting all your fats from? So bacon, tri-tip steak. Fatty meats. Yeah, fatty meats. I still, I incorporate too butter with like when we do our vegetables, olive oil, avocado. Yeah, those are probably my main sources. I really don't have to chase fat. Like it's pretty easy for me to incorporate it. And this was really something I got from Sal. Like it wasn't some that for the longest time I just never ate fat with vegetables. Like it just didn't- Oh yeah, yeah. It seemed counter productive to me. This is like, if I'm eating vegetables, it's healthy, clean and lean. I shouldn't be adding a bunch of calories to it. But it actually makes it really enjoyable. It's an easy way for me to bump fat naturally. And so, you know, we- What do you do? Do you use olive oil? Do you use olive oil or butter or something? Yeah, we do more butter. Like so one of my favorite things like Katrina does right now, here's one for you guys, is we take spinach, portobello mushrooms, and onions, and a tablespoon of butter, and you saute it. Oh yeah, we had that, didn't we have that at the house? Yeah, you guys tried that. That was on the steak or with the steak? That was silly. That was really good. I ate it with everything now. It's so good. It's so- I'm gonna write Justin's sound in my head. Well, the portobello mushrooms, portobello mushrooms are already kind of juicy and have good flavor, and then they suck up all the butter. And then the butter in the pan is enough to get all the spinach kind of wet. And so, oh, it's like that is my go-to green right now. You know what I've been doing is I'll get baby bok choy, and I'll saute it with a bunch of ghee, and then I just put powdered garlic and maybe some red pepper flakes and salt and pepper, and that's it. And it's fucking amazing. It's so good. Who cooks more at your house? You or Jessica? Depends who's home first, really. Yeah, it really doesn't matter. We're both pretty, I mean, she does a better job. She's definitely more versed at cooking than I am, but we're both, we're pretty simple. Like, we like basic foods. Well, you cook like, I mean, you cook like we cook, for sure. We cook for health first. Yeah, so- Katrina and I are always, I mean, I shouldn't say we, she does most of the cooking. I don't really do much. We do a lot of planning, scheduling. We do a lot of organizing. No, no. Let's be honest, I don't really do any of that. But I do, I mean, I help pick it out. How about that? So I have- You do the hunting. Well, you know, actually what she leans on me. She leans on me for the macro breakdown on it, right? To tell her like, okay, that's cool. That's something we can do. That works or you can have that or like don't have more than that in there. And so she'll go look hunting for recipes that she likes to put together. Right now, we're doing one of my favorites too. And I won't be able to give you all the stuff that is, but she makes this like, what's the vinegar? The BCA vinegar, what's it called? Oh, Braggs? Yeah, Braggs. She uses that. I've never used it. Oh man, she makes this. Amino acid vinegar, that's funny. Well, I remember it says that on that. So check out the, it's the apple cider vinegar. Yeah, so it's, if you try one of my meals, I have two meals I brought today and it's bison. And then she puts that stuff with mushrooms, onions, and I want to say garlic and something else. And she puts in the blender and then she pours it in with the bison and it gives this really good flavor of the bison. And then she takes a sweet potato and we mash it. And then sweet potato mashed mixed with the bison ground and that kind of like. Oh, that sounds good. Oh, it's bomb. And then some green beans in there. You can have Justin over, he'll just eat the bison. I know, I know we've been getting all your bison. You know, since we're on this kick and this always starts, it always creates a lot of creativity in the kitchen for Katrina and I during this time, we're getting for Katrina. During this time, I want to get with Doug, since I think Doug's the other one with the plethora of recipes over there and create a damn recipe book. We've been talking about this forever and we always get people hammering us for it. We need to start like keeping. That'd be awesome. Keeping track. I literally have zero contribution to that. Meat, that's why this diet made so similar sense to me. I'm like the one thing I can do is barbecue. That's it. It's funny because we were, I don't remember where we were driving and we were talking about the contest and Justin was laughing. He was like, it's another thing I need to think about. He's like, I need, now I need to think about this. Fuck. So it's like perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta keep it simple, man. My life has too much stuff in it. Exactly. Good deal. This clause brought to you by OrganiFi. For those days you fall short on getting your organic veggies or whole food nutrition, OrganiFi fills the gap with laboratory tested certified organic super foods to help give your health and performance the added edge. Try OrganiFi, totally risk free for 60 days by going to OrganiFi.com. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com and use a coupon code MINEPOMP for 20% off at checkout. First question is from Carmen Alessa. Carmen Alessa? No. Is she back? She's a fan of MINEPOMP? No, Carmen Alessa. I love. I've loved. Tell me you guys loved Carmen Alessa. Come on, bro. That's what everybody... She was fantastically hot. When we were 15, 16? I had her poster. Sorry, Doug, go ahead. She probably was too. No worries. All right, Carmen Alessa. As your challenge of getting shredded is going on right now, would you rather add cardio to your cut or restrict calories more or maybe even add more strength training? Great question. Excellent. When somebody is starting, wants to embark on a get lean journey, which one should you start with first? Well, what's the most popular idea out there? Yeah, go do cardio. Yeah, cardio. Yeah, everybody's like, oh, I want to lose weight. That's the answer almost everybody says. Which is the absolute opposite for me. It's the last place. Always. It's the last place to go. It's the easiest variable to manipulate and change, so that's why I make it last. Like, it's why do that when you don't need to do that yet? I'd rather try and manipulate my volume in my training or my macros and my calories. Well, sometimes I do have to admit I've learned things from you guys and this is definitely in that arena because my go-to back in the day was to do it all at once. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This, this, and this, all three. That's everybody though. You know what I'm saying? That's not just you though. I was the same way too. I think everybody is like that, right? It's just, especially if you have a competitive personality. Like, if you have a competitive or an athletic mentality and you approach getting lean like you do playing a sport or competing at something, that's how you compete, right? You give it everything you got. Like, I'm gonna give everything. But this is science and human physiology and nutrition. There's smarter ways to do it. You have to learn. It's also just human behavior. Like, you, here's the thing. Like, the odds that you're going to stick to something consistently long-term and maintain whatever results you get are much lower when you start out doing everything all at once because, well, we have to understand and I'm gonna get into which one actually works better as well but we can't separate what's most effective from which one is most likely to be done because of human behavior. You can't separate the two because people always do that. They go, oh, we'll study, show that this works best but as a trainer, I know that doesn't work best because people aren't- Because this one's gonna stick. No one's gonna be able to do that long-term. So what you need to understand is when you're trying to change your body, unless you wanna change it and you don't care if it goes back to where it is now, if you're trying to change your body for the long-term, what you're really doing on a fundamental level is changing fundamental behaviors that you have, right? You're trying to change things that are very important or at least that take up a large part of life, like eating, okay? Everybody eats every day. Everybody eats several times a day. Food surrounds parties and culture and events and context and all these different things and we're surrounded by food so changing how you eat is a big fucking deal. It's a very big deal. It's like changing your job and moving to a new place. It's literally like that. It's a massive change. So that's number one, becoming more active. Well, that's another big change. You are now adding something that you hopefully are going to maintain for the rest of your life to your life that you weren't doing before. That's a fundamental change in your behavior and then of course, how you feel about exercise and how you feel about yourself. You're really the two general ways that people go about this and one is more popular than the other unfortunately is everything but the kitchen sink all at once which good luck trying to stick with that behavior with all those changes all at once and the other way is to do it slowly and what I mean by slowly and this is different from person to person now and I want to be clear here. Some people can make more changes than other people and it can stick and other people have to take smaller changes. What you have to do is you have to ask yourself the following questions. What is a change that's going to challenge me but I also know simultaneously something that for sure I can do, right? So you want to challenge yourself a little bit otherwise it's worthwhile. It's not going to mean anything but you also want to make sure it's something that for sure you know that is something I'm going to stick to and then do that and then when you're doing that and that becomes like a part of your life and it's like second nature then you add to it. That right there is the formula for long-term success from both the behavioral standpoint but also just pragmatism. It's actually what has always worked for my clients. Now in terms of what works for your body here's the deal. You start adding a shit ton of cardio right out the gates. You will notice a change in body weight right away but you're going to do a lot of work for that fat loss and your body will learn to adapt to it and you'll plateau very, very quickly. Your metabolism will start to adjust and then you got to do all that hard work to keep your body weight where it's at and the only way to lose more is to add more and you know where that goes. At some point eventually you're in this shitty situation where I've had so many clients like this where they come to me and they're like, oh, I need your help and I'll ask them, well, what are your activity levels? Well, I started running three months ago and now I run eight miles a week and I lost 12 pounds initially but I have another 20 pounds to go. Do I just add more running? I'm like, well, how's the running going for you now? Oh, well, it's difficult to get into my life and I'm not really enjoying it anymore. I'm like, okay, we got to back out of that because that is not a formula that's going to work. So that's always tends to be my advice. It's funny because I'm working with someone right now, a good friend of mine who I've known for a long time and she's been the kind of person that's always tried to lose weight like this. Like she'll do tons of cardio and severe calorie restriction and so I've slowly been backing her out of that, adding resistance training, slowly bumping her calories and she's very afraid of like weighing herself and oh my God, I feel like I'm getting fatter and I'm trying to, you know, I'm coaching her this whole way and Jessica's working with her too and Jessica's excellent with coaching people through that period or whatever and so the other day she's like, I couldn't help it, I had to get on the scale because I just felt so fat and you know what she found? She lost a pound and it blew her mind, completely blew her mind and she's eating 300 calories more than she was eating before so here's what I typically do with people and what I do for me is different because I'm not coming into this as a beginner or somebody who doesn't have a lifestyle of fitness. When I get a beginner, first thing I do is add strength training, that's it. It's the first thing I do, we're gonna do strength training, we're gonna do two days a week or three days a week, we're gonna build some strength, build some muscle, speed up your metabolism, I want you to keep your calories the same, then the next thing I do is I don't change your calories, try to slowly change the types of foods that they eat so rather than saying we're cutting or adding calories and that stuff, I'll say okay, let's try adding some vegetables, let's try reducing some of the processed foods, let's start changing the types of foods that you eat because we know that whole natural foods tend to suppress your appetite, at least in comparison to processed foods and you just start to feel better, then the next thing I do is I slowly increase calories as I get stronger and then when I feel like we're at a good place, that's when I start to cut calories and I still don't add cardio, that happens later on towards the end. Well, when you throw three different variables in like this, I can make a case and an argument for each one, right? So for example, if you're somebody who actually tracks and knows how much you move throughout the day, I would address movement, right? So like if you know that I only step 4,000 steps every single day, then one of the easiest things that I can do to start heading down the right path is to start to encourage more neat. So I take you from 4,000 to six or 8,000 steps a day, not cardio, just moving more, that's that person. But what if this person is somebody who is already moving 15,000 to 20,000 steps or maybe even was doing cardio three times a week? Well, I absolutely don't wanna mess with that because that's something that they're already doing in their life and they're already pushing it, there's not a lot of room to push it more. So I would totally leave that alone, going to the calories. If you're somebody who's been coming off of a binge and you've been eating like crazy and you eat lots of fast food and high calorie foods and you eat a lot of junk food and you're up to 4,000 or 5,000 calories a day, well, I could potentially adjust those calories to have you reduce and come back down the other way. So that person, I would go that direction. Now if you're somebody who's been strength training already for a consistent amount of time, well then adding more volume to that may not be the best thing to adjust. So there's gonna be variables to who you are, there's gonna be different answers for every person you're talking about. For sure though, cardio is the last thing and this is again why I think we were always coming out and saying this about cardio is not that nobody does it or we don't see it. Yeah, we're not anti-cardio. It's just that it's really the last place that most people should go when it comes to reducing body fat. There's many other things that we can address, you know, IE macronutrients, calories, neat training and you said strength training but it could be a different modality of training, right? So if maybe you're a strength, you've been strength training you've been following like a maps, anabolic phase one type of program or you follow like a power lifting type of routine and you've been doing that for a long time. Well, one of the great best things that we could do to start to see change in your body is to put you on a completely different type of adaptation. Send you send like a maps performance type of a program would be incredible for this person. And their body's gonna see change and start to try and adapt. So it really depends on the person and where they're currently at as where my advice goes as far as to get shredded. The bottom line is the goal is definitely not to throw the whole kitchen sink at it at the very beginning not when you have six, eight, 10, 12 weeks to get there and you want to like Sal said, keep it off for the rest of your life. You know, if this is a total different answer too someone comes to me and says Adam, I haven't been doing any of these things. I got Vegas in two weeks. What do I do? Well, then fuck, I guess you could throw the whole sink at it, you know what I'm saying? Because it don't get busy. Right, it don't fucking matter now. You know what I'm saying? You got two weeks, you haven't been eating well. You haven't been doing anything with your calories. You haven't been training correctly. You haven't been doing any cardio. You know what sucks about that? To somebody listening right now that's like, oh, that's the fast way to do it. That's what I want. Right, but here, exactly. But that person, I'm talking to a person that has one to two weeks. But if you're just a normal person who's got plenty of time, you know, you've got the ability to plan this out and do it correctly, and you actually want to keep your results and maintain it long term, then you actually want to be very strategic about how you implement these things. Plus, it also gives you an opportunity to implement one or two variables, like the strength training and changing that up, or just changing the macros, or just changing your meat, and seeing how the body responds. It'll teach you a lot about your own body and what's different about it. Maybe for Justin, adding a bunch of meat into his life doesn't really make a big difference to him. But maybe for Sal or me, maybe that makes a huge difference. So it's also learning about your own individual body, because as much as we can say here and talk about the science of what's the most quote unquote ideal approach to this, there's always going to be variables. And less is more in this situation. So changing less things and sticking to it and being consistent is better off than throwing a bunch of things at it in hopes that something works. Absolutely. And for me, like right now, cardio is what I'm going to add for the last two weeks of this six-week challenge. I'm waiting to the last two weeks. I'm going to throw in some cardio. And the last week, I'm going to do more cardio than I did the week before. And that's how I'm going to use it. I'm really not doing cardio now. The only thing I'm doing now is I'm just aware of my activity. Get up and move a little bit more than I normally do. But I like to save that, like to save that for the very end. And plus, here's a deal with cardio. I notice results with cardio for about two or three weeks. And then it doesn't do anything for me at all. Anyway. You know, it's interesting too. I'm kind of going against a little bit of what I would have planned for myself as far as like, I'm going a bit on the extreme side just as an excuse to like, I was going to do this anyways, an elimination diet to add that into the mix. But if it was just up to me, there was like two major things that could have just cut out and had massive result from. And that's cheese and alcohol. Those two things have made their way into rotation on a weekly basis. And I realized if that was like two variables right there that I could just easily adapt to in my lifestyle, that would have been a way better answer. Because in two, now my workouts wouldn't be as affected, which now I'm like, I'm sort of dealing and navigating through that and kind of on my way back. But yeah, like that was a little bit of a setback. But you know, that's the thing. When you start really hammering your body from all different angles, you're going to have to account for overcoming all these things. I don't think I've ever, I can't think of a client off the top of my head that I've worked. You know, 20 years, right? 20 years of training. I can't think of a client that had long-term success that did everything all at once in the beginning. I don't think I ever saw that. Or if I did, it's super rare. You can't. I don't know anybody. It just doesn't work that way. Well, because it's inevitable if you go from not doing all these things to doing all of these things. Too much. There's a reason why you weren't doing a lot of those things before, right? It's just a drastic radical change. Like cardio, restricting calories, and then strength training hardcore, right? So if you go from not doing any of these things to working your way up as fast as you can, to working out every single day, to training really hard and intense, to restricting calories, and then also doing cardio as much as you possibly can. Like, yeah, the ramp up to that will be the fastest change you'll ever see in your body for the first one to three weeks. For sure, because of all those variables. But then when you hit that three-week mark from then on, the progress is going to be unbelievably incremental and small. And then at one point, life fucking reminds you that you have other things to do in life. Like, oh, shit, I have a job. Oh, shit, I have a family. Oh, shit, I have a life and friends. I want to do other things. Oh, fuck, how do I do that with seven days a week of strength training and five to seven days a week of cardio and never getting to eat? And never having learned how to make that a part of your life. Yeah. Because you just do it all at once. And it's funny, if you compare groups of people doing those two things, one group doing it slow, one group doing it fast, if the competition was five weeks or four weeks, you'd see faster results in the person doing everything. You stretch that out to 12 weeks and 16 weeks and longer. You start to see the other group pass them up and then stay there. And that's the thing, even when I trained Doug, you know, when Doug was my client, Doug was a wonderful client, ideal client. He's the kind of person, you know, if he's serious. He actually did what you said. He'll do anything you tell him, right? He came to me and- Almost anything. Yeah. He came to me and it was like, you know, he's like, how many days a week are we going to work out? Because he's super motivated. Sourly pressed you on that. Yeah, totally. And I'm like, two days a week. And he's like, okay. And that's what we did. What should I do with my nutrition? Well, start slowly and I tell you what, dude, the guy within six months, it was like six months to a year, made one of the most radical changes you could ever see from having back pain to be able to deadlift, you know, over 400 pounds and having a six pack at like 47 years old. And it was, and we took that slow approach even with someone like Doug, who was willing to do whatever and was very motivated. Next question is from David K Silva. What are the pros and cons of working out alone versus working out with friends? Definitely different. It's definitely different, either one. So I work out currently with Jessica. And what I enjoy working, the things I enjoy about working with Jessica are, first off, I enjoy spending time with her. So we like to hang out. So that's fun. She watches my form. I watch her form. She keeps me in check and vice versa. And this is another thing too. I've worked out with women as workout partners in the past as well. And the thing about working out with a woman, I'm probably gonna be stronger than her, which is good because it eliminates the tendency to wanna lift heavier than my workout partner. Because I'm already gonna lift heavier. So I'm a little smarter about what I do. And then on the flip side, I can tend to push them a little harder in terms of challenging them with the weight. So I really enjoy those things about working out with Jessica. But when I also- This is why he's gonna lose. No, no. No, I mean, she's hard core, man. And she keeps me very consistent. But when I work out alone, working out alone is very, I can be very intense, very focused. And in a special- Totally different musical selection. Special zone. It's like this, hey, would you like to go for a run and have someone on your back? Or would you like just to go for a run? Which one's gonna be easier for you? Like, is he carrying somebody else or having to help? Working out with someone else fucking sucks. Well, it depends if you have to carry them. But if they work out with you, very different. There is, in my opinion, there's little to no benefit working out with somebody else. The one time that you decide- You've never had a workout partner? Of course I had. No, that was like- I had awesome workout partners. I had guys that pushed me when I was in my 20s and I did that whole thing for a long time. And I thought that that's what I wanted to do, but that a lot of that thought process was wrong. Like I was chasing what a lot of these young kids were chasing when they lived, which is purely intensity. Somebody else to yell in my ear and tell me five more and push me to the next level. I don't like that. And maybe when you're first starting, if you got somebody who has been doing this for a really long time and you're still learning like mechanics, like so I could see value there. So let me backpedal a little bit. If you have somebody who is just starting off and you're very insecure about the training yourself because you don't know if your form is good and you have a friend who has got better form than you and then he can help tell you or she can help tell you, hey, you're chest up, retract your shoulders more or oh, your feet, you're rocking towards you. Like that stuff is all good. But once you get to a point where I like to think where the level we're all at where nobody is gonna look at my form and tell me like something I don't already feel and know is off. Like if I do a squat and my weight shifts to the balls of my feet at all, I know it before the person watching me knows it. Like I'm that aware of how I move. So I don't need someone else to tell me that. So then the only other place that there is a place for another person in my workout is if I decided that day, I'm going for a single rep max, which is once in a fucking blue moon ever for me. So that's the only time. Otherwise what ends up happening is I vibe off of their energy and I end up doing what I did the other day, which- Yeah, you want it easy to influence. Hurt myself. Or what ends up happening is I allow, which this is what it would annoy me with working out with other professionals and other trainers is, you know, each guy or girl has their thing they want to do. Like, oh, I want to do this. Well, I want to do that. Well, no, somebody has to be the leader. It's like, no. Someone has to be the leader. Like I know what I want to do because I want to do something- Well, then you have to do everybody else's workout for them. Right. You know, at that point, we just pain the ass. Like yesterday and today is a perfect example of this. Like I called an audible on myself last night. Like last night was going to the gym to do back, buys and tries. And so, and I get there, I'm walking on the treadmill, working, doing my knee, kind of thinking about my workout before I go do it. And I'm like, you know, do I want to focus more on these types of movements or do I want to do this today? You know, you know what? Maybe tomorrow, because I was going to take a day off tomorrow. Maybe I'll just do my arms tomorrow because that's a really easy thing for me intensity wise to throw in there. And maybe I'll just address my back today and take some time on that and work on some mobile. And so I call an audible for what I know I should do for my body at that exact fucking moment. As soon as there's another person next to me, and this is including Katrina, I love her, okay? And I know she enjoys working out together, but I like- Does she prefer to work out with you or does she prefer to work out alone? Yeah, of course she does. But you know why? Because it's what I said at the very beginning is because I'm a professional, I've been doing this for a very long time. So she likes it because I can help her with her mechanics. She loves that she can do something and I can give her the most subtle cues. She can apply it and she goes, oh my God, I feel that so much more. So I get why she wants me to be in the workout. But for me, I'm not getting that same benefit. She's not giving me cues to help me get more out of my workout. Yeah, I kind of have to agree with Adam on this one. I'm a fucking Han Solo though. Only because of the, like you said, the level that I'm around. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We're not the average person at all. No, no. And I do really enjoy being in the gym and working out with Courtney. Same thing happens. I mean, I want to help her with her form. I want to see her do well, but then it completely takes away from what I'm trying to accomplish. And so I use that more as like hang out time. And so I don't really count it all the time. It's like a workout. I know she'll be pissed if she heard that, but like for me, it's like literally like a trigger session or like a load of moderate intensity of the whole time, which is fine. It's great. It's something I can add into the mix. But I need, when I'm working out, working out, like I know exactly how I'll make a call on the flag. I'll figure out like what I really need to be doing and then what's going to compliment that the best. And I just want to think about all that in my head for like just a matter of like seconds. Right, right before you get it. And that- Go. And I don't have to like- That is impossible to do with a second partner. And the reason why, even what I even, I think is bad for someone who's young who's getting workout partners, because then you're more likely to make the bad decisions because you have another person that you're- You're influenced. Yeah, you're influenced by. So I am not a fan of workout partners. And I know there's a ton of people right now that like that for the motivation and the accountability. And if that works for you, then that's cool. So funny. I wonder if any of us could like be trained for a month by somebody else. It would have to be- Can you imagine? You know what? I could. But it would have to be someone that I would do things that I wouldn't normally do on my own. Like, you know, working out with like a correctional exercise would be like learning a new skill. But what I'm saying is- What I'm saying is- Program design. Program that's very similar to what you would do. Probably not. I don't see- I've already thought about having you like teach me cleans. Like it's just nothing. I've never had somebody by my side like, I would totally do that, like a skill. That I am fully aware you are superior in that movement than I am. And that I would love your eye to tell me, you know, as I'm going through the mechanics. So I could see working on skill based movements, having someone like yourself or another professional. Yeah, and not the staples. We've been doing it for so long. Yeah, but I don't- No one's gonna tell me when I go to the gym. No, the two workout partners I've ever had that I actually enjoyed working out with were both trainers and they were both people that were in the industry, but they also followed my workouts. I've never worked out with anybody successfully who is experienced, but also then wants to lead the work. It just doesn't work because everybody's gonna be a little different. So when you think about that, then reality is somebody is always suffering. You, 100%. I don't- You working- I don't think so. You leading the workout means that- Knowing that you have a little bit of a impact. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. Of course, somebody, it's a given take. Not true. Look, one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time was Arnold Schwarzenegger and he worked out half the time up to a contest always with workout partners. Now he usually led the workout, but he worked out with Franco Colombo all the time. It's how he won many of his Olympias. He worked out with Ed Corney and- It's probably why he always won and everybody else took second and third. That's- Cause he was- You're just proving my point. Cause he's running his routine. They're all fucking following along. Like I'll do whatever you're doing, Arnold. I think they- You cannot say that Ed Corney and Franco Colombo were subpar bodybuilders. Franco Colombo won them. I didn't say that. I said that's probably why they all got second and third. I think that they worked out with him because they got a lot of benefit as well. And they did it for years and you're gonna get, sometimes you can get that dual benefit. But here's the deal. Most people aren't like us. They just aren't. They don't have our experience. Most people benefit from working out with a partner. In fact, if you look at surveys and whatever, people find a good workout partner. They're more consistent. They have better workouts. They're safer. Right. They just do better. I think it points to the fact that the biggest monster to get people to workout, it's motivation. So you're self-motivated. Like if we're all very self-motivated, not a lot of people are very self-motivated. And so like to have accountability from an external source, whether it's your friend, that's your workout partner, or the environment like a group setting or like you come into a gym, everybody knows you. Like for me, back when I was younger, like it was very good for me to have all the athletes in one gym working out at the same time. Like that really benefited me. That's a great point because I think when I'm talking about working out with a workout partner, the two that I worked out with that I really enjoyed, that's kind of what we did. Many times they would do my exercises, but then sometimes they'd be like, I want to do this and they would. And they'd be working out at the same time, kind of the same way that the three of us have worked out together. Because we've worked out together. Yeah, that works. That's- If we're all in the same location, we need to count. I don't count that. I don't count that it's working out with you. Yeah, yeah. If I'm across the other side of the gym, then you're no different than anybody else at the side of the gym. You mean we car pulled together? No. I see you over there. I say hi. When we worked out together, we will do, if I do 10 exercises that day, me, you and Justin end up doing two or three of them together. Oh, maybe. That's what I mean. But that's no different than somebody at the gym using the same piece of equipment. No, it's very- You're not following the same routine. It's different. It's definitely different. And I think it's a different level. I know you want to make the case for this, but here's the deal. It's inferior, bro. It's inferior. For you? Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right, you're right. I mean, you could, like, because if somebody- Because I'm gearing to you, there's people listening right now that are like, no man, me and my workout partner are great together. Oh, I bet I'm, I think I'm the minority. I do believe that. But I also, I think that it's the ultimate place you want to get. I'm sorry, but if, when Katrina and I workout, right, and if I'm being selfish, she's going to follow my workout. Now if I, and if I want to give her the best workout, it's going to look different than the one I'm going to do for myself. Bottom line, she has a different body. She has different weaknesses. She has different strengths. She has a different place that she's at. Her body recovers differently. She's stronger. You know what I'm saying? All these things about her that make her different. If I was coaching you- Yeah, I'm not going to disagree with you. I think what you're saying is- Somebody suffers. Yeah, I think what you're saying is the ideal place to be is in a place where you're so self-motivated and secure and consistent that you don't need anybody. You're there, you're doing your own work. Of course. Well, you just built up so much knowledge about your own body and like the sign signals, like what your body really needs as a result. But that just comes with experience and time. Yeah, I mean, if it motivates you to get to the gym, I think that's obviously, if that's the difference maker, like having somebody to hold you accountable, that makes sense to me, like why you do that. Like of course, like I would never tell a kid who's 22 years old, who's just kind of getting into weights, who has a workout partner and they use each other to motivate each other to go to the gym and hold each other accountable. Stop working out with your partner because you're not maximizing your workouts. Well, that would be bad advice for me because the kid may not go to the gym now because he doesn't have his workout partner. Well, picking a workout partner is like picking a business partner or picking a fucking mate. Like you have to mesh on a lot of different levels. Let's be honest. That is not an easy combination because here's the thing for me and I've done this several times and this is why I haven't worked out with partners for very long periods of time is because the second you show up two seconds late to a workout or the second you act, your energy is different than mine or you act like you're tired or you don't wanna push it or you don't wanna whatever. Like that's cool. I'm not working out with you anymore. There's no hard feelings and that's why you have to find, if you find a good workout partner, which is hard to find, it can be definitely worth its weight in gold but it's not an easy thing to do, I would say. Next question is from that fly guy. Yeah. Hey buddy. How do I grow a massive butt? I'm talking about a booty so thick you can bounce a quarter off it. Muscular of course though. This is Justin's question. Wow. Did I share it with you guys? Is there like a booty trend for guys now? Is that like a thing or? Well, I think men are becoming more comfortable with talking about it, right? Let's be honest, no guy wants a fucking flat ass. I don't want the dad pants. As a kid, I had this dude. I had fucking, you know, frog ass. If you ever seen like what a frog with suspenders would look like. You know what I'm saying? Imagine that, right? You could be like, hello my baby, hello all my honey, hello all my racked out. You have the V butt? Yeah, just droopy drawers, you know what I'm saying? Like I had to wear a belt or my fucking pants fell off because I had no ass to keep them up there, right? So I was that kid growing up, man. And so yeah, secretly, I didn't go around telling my boys, you know, like, hey man, I wish I could grow a butt, dude. But deep down in some- My butt gains. Yeah, deep down. And I'm sure every female listening right now would say that they love a guy that it's got an ass. Actually when they do studies, that's one of the areas that women tend to look at as a man's hips and his glutes. Glutes, here's why butts are- That's where your power source right there. I was just gonna say, here's why we are all attracted to fit muscular butts on men and on women. That is your prime moving muscle. That's like the- First off, when you look at primates, humans have the biggest glute muscles of all primates. Most primates have these tiny little glute muscles and that's because they walk on all fours or they climb- Just for that ugly ass baboon ass. That's not glutes, that's just a big pink weirdness. Yeah, it's just ugly. That's gross. The reason why we have such big glutes is because we stand upright and it is what balances us and it's what propels us and if you have any type of health or athleticism, you're probably gonna have a very fit muscular looking butt. So this is why men and women are both attracted to this. Now how do you grow a massive butt? This is kind of a- It's simple but not easy, right? It's simple in the sense that there's a few exercises that if you get good at, the odds are you're gonna add some muscle and size to your butt. Barbell squats, deadlifts, maybe hip thrusts and I mean, those are lunges, you know. Explosive jumps. Yeah, like those are kind of like the big, you know, I guess cornerstone movements and if you get good at those and you get strong at those, you're probably gonna develop some serious glute muscles. Now there are occasions where people will do those and they're still not getting results on their butt and it's not because those exercises aren't effective, it's because they're not connecting to their glutes very, very well, in which case learning how to prime your glutes before those lifts makes a massive, massive tremendous difference. Absolute massive difference. You need connectivity there. I mean, and then two, it's a practice thing so like I've noticed even just like, and I'm not like trying actively to grow my glutes but just, you know, obviously going through- I hope not. Squats but when I'm resting or I'm like just kind of hanging out I tend to just drop into a squat and I'm very, very comfortable just sitting like that for, you know, give me like a half an hour I could sit like that. And it's just, it's a matter of like my body responds like almost immediately to like, oh, this is a comfortable position. I'm very like well versed in this and just to be able to kind of put that in in low intensity, low volume but like have it constantly there and work on, you know, like the loading and like getting all the different stimulus by going through the different phases of how to train the glutes. But yeah, first of foremost, you have to connect to it. You know, I just had a thought on this. You think, I wonder if Doug can find this too. I wonder if there's a study out there to show as a general population, are we losing our asses? I don't know if there's a study. Well, think about it like we sit more now today than we ever have in our entire existence ever, ever, right? And it's that what that does is promote this dominant hip flexor and quad like takeover for whenever you are getting up and down because you're in that position, right? So I wonder if we are evolving to have less of butts as humans. And that would look like we have butts just because of lumbar lordosis. Interior pelvic. Right, okay. It could be that too, right? Women wear high heels a lot now. By the way, that's why high heels are attractive. It's because standing in heels automatically puts your back in an arch and shows off your butt. It's actually sexual signaling. But you know, the hardest people, here's the hardest people, by the way, when I would get clients who did lots of long distance running. Those were the toughest people to develop their butts because when you do this repetitive long, not sprinting, I'm not talking about sprinting because that's totally different. But people who do lots of long distance running, their legs move in this short end range of motion constantly. And so what you end up with is if they have any muscles that are developed at all, it's calves and quads, hamstrings are underdeveloped, and there are no glutes. And with those people, when you get them under a bar and you teach them how to squat, I mean, I can watch their butt just, it's off the whole time. And it looks, their knees come forward. If they have good ankle flexion, then it just looks like this strange, upright type of squat with no glute activation. These people, I'll train them for weeks without ever doing a squat. It's like all hip thrust, it's all abduction. It's all single leg toe touch. Like we got to turn on your butt, get it to fire. Once they start to feel it, then we move on to box squats and we'll do that so they can learn how to sit back. And then eventually we get into barbell squats. But if I took those people and just threw them in a barbell squat, even if they had good mobility and they could go all the way down, all the way up, what they would experience is bigger quads. They would just end up developing more quads. It's gonna take all of the force. Yeah, so- We have a really, I mean, one of our most viral YouTube videos is how to make the butt grow. So that's a really good YouTube video. And then we also have a free butt guide at mindpumpfree.com. So if you, I mean, where we- That's where I cover some of the stuff. Yeah, you're set, yeah. We also have a butt builder bundle. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so here's some things you could do when you're about to start your workout to prime your glutes to fire. You could do some hip abduction. So an easy one would be lay on your side, put a band around both legs, lift your leg out to the side, but keep your foot pointed straight and try to fire the outside of your glutes. So you could do some of those. You could do some single leg or both leg hip thrusts where you, we did a good video. Actually, Adam did a great video on this a while ago where you put yourself in a particular type of pelvic tilt, shoot your hips up, squeeze the glutes at the top, get them to fire. That's in that video. That's in that video. You can also do single leg toe touches with good form, try and squeeze the glutes at the top. Just get to the point where, oh, okay, I can feel my butt firing. I could feel the muscle burn a little bit. Then get into your lunges and your barbell squats and all that stuff and try to put yourself in a position where you can still feel those glutes firing and then watch what happens. And don't go too heavy because as soon as you start to add lots of weight, your glutes are gonna turn off and the other muscles that are stronger on you because your glutes never fire, we're gonna take over and you'll lose the effectiveness of that exercise. Next question is from Tom Siebert. Both of my siblings are severely overweight and starting their fat to fit journeys for the 100th time. My brother just bought maps red and plans on using it until his gastric bypass surgery. He has yet to make a final decision about having the surgery. Would you suggest the surgery to a loved one in any circumstance? Yeah, in life or death. Yeah, exactly. 100%. That's when I would say do it is when your health is so poor that they're like, okay, this is an emergency situation. Yeah, you've got five to 10 years to live maybe because of how obese you are. Yeah, you need to lose weight and this is gonna be, because here's the deal. Gastric bypass is not a fucking easy procedure. I think a lot of people get confused and think, oh, it's a cool, easy solution or an easier solution to my weight problem or what are my food problem. It's a major surgery. They are going into your stomach or your gut. They're cutting you open. So it's a major surgery. I cut through muscle, a lot of stuff. Yeah, you put you out. And the people who get this, by the way, are very overweight. So they're also cutting through layers of adipose tissue. Have you ever just watched a surgery being done? There's like layers of yellow adipose tissue to get to. They cut through it like a cauterizer way through it, right? Yeah, it's a laser. It's so terrible timing to put that bacon in my mouth. So they go through all of it. Then what they gotta do is they basically bypass your stomach and what you're left with is a small pouch of a stomach. Your stomach plays a vital role in your ability to digest food and assimilate and absorb nutrients and you are permanently altering that to the point where most gastric bypass patients have to take supplements and have gut issues for the rest of life afterwards. To the point where you're not gonna be able to eat a few hundred calories, more than a few hundred calories at a time, sometimes a hundred calories at a time, without vomiting or getting diarrhea. You're not absorbing fat soluble nutrients like you normally would to get the mega dose on them. And here's the deal. Being low in nutrients, you can feel depressed. You can feel like shit. So this isn't like an easy procedure. It's not an easy answer. No, it makes sense in a life or death situation. It makes sense if it's like, hey, you've gone so far that everything's gonna shut down on you if we don't get this weight off and we don't do it fast and soon. And so then I could see that. But if you're somebody who's a hundred, maybe even 200 pounds overweight and you're young still and you have the ability to potentially make some good choices, get into strength training. My cousin did. My cousin lost over 120 pounds. No gastric bypass. And he just slowly changed his lifestyle and his behaviors. And he's now in such an amazing place. And here's the other thing. This is a big problem that nobody talks about. Okay, when you go and you talk to the doctor about this procedure, they will refer you to counseling, which I think is smart. So you do counseling along with it. But what they're not gonna tell you is whatever it is that is causing you to do this to yourself, okay? Because this is not a genetic thing, okay? Yes, genes affect how much weight we gain and lose and there are definitely hormone issues, but I'm sure they've ruled all that out. There isn't a genetic thing that makes you a hundred pounds overweight, okay? Just isn't. That is a, you are using food like a drug. And whatever- Some form of coping mechanism. And whatever is motivating you to do this to yourself because you are fully conscious that you are killing yourself. You are not maybe not fully conscious, but partially conscious that this is a problem. I am hurting myself. If you don't solve the root behind why you're doing this to yourself and all you do is take away the drug, you are gonna replace that drug with something else. You are actually gonna be in a shitty situation. So if you look at the rate of addiction with alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, the rate of divorce and whatever with people who get a gastric bypass, it goes up. Because it's like taking an alcoholic, locking them in a cage and saying there, now you're not drinking alcohol anymore. And it's like, they're gonna do something else to themselves. It's gonna be a very difficult situation. Okay, you're not addressing the root cause. You're not addressing the root cause. I mean, something has led that person to be addicted to food the way they are. It's just bottom line. I mean, I've seen this with many friends of mine that have battled pills or hard drugs or sex or any of those things where they've been addicted to something. And they do, they just trade it for one. They trade one for the other. You fix the alcohol thing, that's cool, but now you're like this obsessive gambler. Where did that come from? Oh, you fixed the gambling, but now all of a sudden you're pill-popping and doing this now. It's like they have that behavior and that behavior is an escape from something else that they're running from. And until they address the root cause that's causing them to do that, they're just trading one thing for the other. So they pair them up with like a counselor beforehand, right? To sort of discuss. But it's short. Yeah, I was gonna say, wouldn't you, I mean, prefer to have them like really like dive deep with a therapist, somebody to really get down to like, you know, what the emotional triggers are and like where this is all kind of coming from. So I think they go there. Yeah, I've worked with, I've worked with lots of gastric bypass patients, people who both who've had it and people who think, who thought about having it and came to me first. And the most success I ever saw with these, with people in this situation did two things. There were two big things that they did. They hired themselves a very good therapist. So they would see this person on a weekly basis. And they also hired a good personal trainer with experience in this situation. And I say good trainer, because you go hire the wrong trainer, they're gonna beat the crap out of you. Right, just run you. It's gonna be a boot camp bullshit. Yeah, you are not a biggest loser. No, go find a trainer who has lots of experience, who's empathetic, who's patient and who understands what you're going through. Work with them, work with the therapist and then give yourself some time. Now some people say, oh, that's expensive. It's actually cheaper. It's cheaper than the cost of the surgery. It's cheaper than the time you'll take off of work. And it's cheaper than all of the turmoil that you'll go through because you're not dealing with the root issues. Now it may take you a couple years. It may take you three years to deal with this and lose the weight with a therapist and a personal trainer. But I promise you the odds of it staying off and how happy you'll be at the end of this without having to go through this major procedure and change your digestive system is so much better. It's such a better option and you will solve root causes or at least you'll start to attempt to solve these root causes and you'll start to look at them and you'll have the help from the therapist. And it's so much more. I've done this with several people and I still am in contact with some of them. And years later, very successful with their weight loss. I've also worked with people of that gastric bypass who've gained the weight back. It's not a guarantee by the way. Your stomach will stretch right back out. You need to rebuild your body. You're not gonna be able to rebuild your body without applying the right amount of time. So if you just wanna get right to the end, you didn't learn anything. No, no, here's what I would do. I would tell somebody in this situation because if you look at all the money that's gonna, you look at the procedure, you look at the time loss that work and the turmoil and all that stuff. I think you could safely invest $5,000 to $10,000 for a year of good training and good therapy. People spend more than that on plastic surgery all the time. A breast augmentation procedure is more than that, right? Five to 10 grand, take that money aside. If you need to get a loan to do it, it's probably gonna be worth it for something like this, your health. Find yourself the therapist, find yourself the trainer, make sure they communicate with each other because that's what I would always do. I'd always talk to the therapist and we'd talk about like what's going on and here's what I'm doing with my training and oh, you know, Carol didn't show up for a workout, is everything okay? And we go back and forth. It was such an effective strategy that I found that in these people, just like I said, years later are different fundamentally happy. One of them became a personal trainer. One of them actually became a pro. Do that, take that money, invest in that, figure out the route. Now, here's what it's gonna take from you or from your siblings. This is because we're talking about your siblings. Here's what it's gonna take. It's gonna take courage on their part to face their demons because I think a lot of times when people get these surgeries, a lot of times they don't wanna face their demons and so they go get the surgery and they're like, I just wanna get rid of the symptoms of my demons but I have news for you. Make sure you communicate this to your siblings. If they get gastric bypass surgery and they don't wanna face their demons, they will be forced to face their demons anyway. That's what's gonna happen with the surgery because you're gonna take away their drug, they're gonna have to face their demons and if they don't want to, their life is gonna be very, very difficult. Well, if they want to, that's exactly why it's such a high rate for them to get addicted to something else. It's because, okay, well, you just got rid of the symptom. I can't no longer get the food like I was because now my stomach's shrunk but I still haven't resolved this issue. Oh, so let me go into drinking or let me go into gambling or let me go into sex or porn or whatever the fuck your next addiction goes to. I remember we had this one lady that worked at our gym who got this procedure who was just- I dealt with this a lot too. She, and it was crazy, dude, she, and this was an individual- We were right across the street. Well, Santa Teresa was right across the street from Kaiser and Kaiser had the first one, or that Kaiser clinic I've had a few, yeah. Had one of the first ones. So we had a lady that came in who ended up losing 100 pounds but she was in the not doing it right category and she would show up for her sessions. I'm not exaggerating. She would sit at the front of the gym, parked in her car and this was post-gassard bypass and she would force feed herself and I could tell it was painful because she had gastric bypass so she couldn't fit much food or something. She would force feed herself like two bacon egg and cheese biscuits or something from McDonald's. Then she'd come in, so she'd be 20, 30 minutes early to her workout, then she would come in, she'd go in the bathroom and destroy it, like literally destroy it because her gut was fucked up, probably had her, you know, she had severe diarrhea, would kill the bathroom, we'd have to open the doors and it was just horrible in there and I could see what she was doing to herself because she wasn't dealing with the root cause and yes, she lost weight because she was forced to. Eventually she started gaining a back because she continued that process of doing that. So listen, I'm not saying this because I'm making fun of anybody. I'm not saying this because I think anybody's stupid. I feel for anybody in this situation have tons of empathy. This is a demon. It is a very difficult, difficult thing to tackle. So you need to acknowledge how difficult this is gonna be in a true sense, acknowledge it and say to yourself, I am not gonna do this alone. I'm gonna hire some professionals. I'm gonna give myself a year. I'm gonna take this money. It's dedicated to that and it's gonna suck. It's gonna be hard, but I'm gonna grow through this and I wanna do this for myself because I care about myself. Go in with that attitude and I promise you give yourself a couple years and watch what happens. So check this out. You can find us on our own social media pages. That's right, I have mine, Adam has his. Justin has his. You can find us on Instagram. So my page is Mind Pump Sal. Adam is Mind Pump Adam. Justin is Mind Pump Justin. Also, we have free guides like the butt guide that we referenced earlier in the episode. You can find all of our guides at mindpumpfree.com. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. 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