 Contrary to what a lot of fitness influencers are currently saying, ice baths can be utilized to maximize muscle gains. Ice baths for muscle gains. You know what? You're crazy. Here's what annoys me. Here's one thing that annoys me. There's a lot of things that annoy me about fitness influencers and, you know, people on social media is that they don't, they don't look at the full picture. They look at one thing and then they, uh, they don't realize that you could use something in a way to maximize progress and don't just look at it as a potential negative. So I'll be more clear. Ice baths reduce inflammation. Inflammation or the signal for inflammation is part of the muscle building process. So if you use ice baths often, you reduce that signal and you could potentially build less muscle. So everybody's like, don't do ice baths because you're not going to build as much muscle. Um, here's why that's stupid because, uh, and you guys will know that you guys know this because you guys know how to program workouts. If you have a tool that could potentially lower inflammation and speed up recovery that allows you to increase volume and frequency. And now you could do more work and get better results. Now, why would more work give you better results? Because there's value in practicing exercises frequently. And the limiting factor is always recovery. Like if you could practice deadlifting 10 times a day and recover from it, you would get so good at deadlifting so quickly, but the limiting factor is always going to be recovery. Well, what if we had a tool that allowed us to work out harder, more often and longer so we could utilize that practice and get better and more proficient at these amazing exercises, uh, more rapidly. Well, we do have that tool. It's called an ice bath. So it's not as clear cut as, Hey, reduces the muscle building signal. Don't do it. It's like reduces the muscle building signal. Wow. How can I use this to my advantage? Man, nuance hurts my bro brain. Days like this that I'm reminded why I like you so much. Yeah. I just, but this is, you've heard me say this already several times on the podcast lately because I'm just, I'm so annoyed by this messaging that, and by the way, Lane says this really well, right? Even though I think he was actually one of the people that did this is you can find a study for almost any, to prove almost any point that you want. So if you want to find something to say, to like, like a trend is going crazy. And by the way, this is the social media game now, right? Is to counter whatever is trending because then you can hop on the wave. That's right. So there's this massive wave of like everybody finally getting on board and realizing, Oh wow, which by the way, people like Wim Hof have been touting for well over a decade now of the benefits of it. There's great documentaries on it, all kinds of great stuff about it. It's finally getting popularity. Now it's got all this popularity. Now it's starting to go viral. Everybody that's doing all these ice bath challenges and all this stuff like that. And then here comes the, the other way, right? So, okay, that's trending now. Let me find a study that will shit on this, this new thing that everybody's talking about and let me make a case on why it's going to hurt your gains. And so now you have. And so what we're doing is we're playing 3d chess. We're waiting for the counter to the counter and then we're going to counter the counter's counter. That's right. Yeah. No, I mean, look, here's a deal. Like, um, when you're, when you understand how to program workouts, there's a lot of factors that you want to, or pieces that you move in order to maximize progress. And being able to speed up recovery and lower inflammation is a piece that allows you to increase frequency, increase volume, increase intensity. Is there, is there value in doing, doing those things? Apps are freaking looking. You get really good at skills. You get really good at skills. Like you're able to do more, more often and recover and heal faster. Is that now for sports, this is obviously a no brainer. This is a no brainer. Like if I could practice my, my sport more often, I'm going to get better at it faster. So ice baths become extremely valuable, but with muscle building, for some reason it becomes just like black or white muscle building signal, uh, lowers muscle building signal, good or bad. The number one limiting factor to always across the board to somebody's ability to build muscle. Always is they're hitting the recovery wall. Like how much can I do? How much can I play with recovery and adaptation? Yeah. Where's that line? Oh, I did too much. I'm not doing enough. Well, I mean, if you have something that allows you to move that meter so that now you could do more. Um, now you've got a tool that allows you to, you know, like I said, increase some of those other factors and get your progress. I mean, you know, to accelerate, this is a great point to bring up because I mean, it's commonly accepted that if you're red lining, like say you're double days for football or you have like a, um, you're playing a sport that's like super demanding and you're always doing high intensity exercises and this is just a way to add a bit of longevity throughout the career without getting hurt. Like everybody can accept and, and get behind that and support that, but you're manipulating, uh, that ability to, to lower down that inflammation. And so to do that in a way where it's advantageous towards muscle building is totally feasible. Yeah. So if you're smart, so like if you're, like, if you're, if you don't know this, um, and you're doing a workout and you add, and you're already like recovering and at, at adapting well, and then you add an ice bath. You might see reduced, uh, muscle growth. By the way, it's almost trivial, but fine. You're going to see some reduced signaling for muscle growth. But if you're smart and you're doing the same workout, you add an ice bath, then you add more exercise or you add more practice or you add more volume or you add more intensity. Right. Now, not only do you offset the lowered muscle building signal, but you have the added value of being able to do more, being able to practice. And then you can always ramp up your intensity and add that type of inflammation in order to really hyper focus or as you already acquired this new skill or you use a pre-workout instead of a post thing. Oh, that's great. So use it as, as, which is how I use it. I use it before, I don't use it after I work out. That's before I were, I'm going to steal man, this, this argument too with another angle. Uh, one of the, there's no argument, right? About the, the importance of recovery and sleep when it comes to building muscle, right? We all know that's actually at the top of the priority list. One of the most valuable things that Katrina and I have done, she's really good about noticing this when I'm tossing and turning and my brain is going like crazy is my breathing and getting me to calm my breathing down to get me in that state where my body will go fall into a sleep versus it going like crazy. Cause I don't even recognize how I'm breathing and she can, she hears it and catches it before I catch it on myself. This practice has got me so good at being able to recognize that and then shift to the, you have to be able to hang out. Yes. If you sit in that cold ass water for two to five minutes, you have trained yourself to be able to calm your breathing down and under control in under a crazy stress like that. Obviously I'm not in a, in a bed in an ice bath. And so it's even easier when, when I become aware of, oh my God, I'm sitting here chest breathing right now. Let me calm it down and then I relax. So now you're in a highly intensified situation and to be able to find, obviously this applies easily to athletics. And when you're in a sporting event and the highest performers out there are the ones who are, have the ability to stay calm under that crazy, surmountable amount of pressure. Uh, and so to be able to train that with the ice, uh, is incredibly valuable. You haven't got a great study on that. You know, they did a great study on some, they did like some basketball players. They didn't think they did some downhill skiers and they took these like gold medalists, professional athletes and the, the, the most common theme, all of them in those crazy high pressure moments, like game on the line, got to hit a free throw or something like that. Going downhill to hit the triple backflip crazy stuff like that. Is their heart rate was like almost like arresting her lower. Yeah. Which is crazy thing. You're in the middle of a like a high intensity sport and your heart rate, anybody's done anything even remotely close to that crazy and stressful. Most of us are like, heart is pounding and racing, but the best of the best have that ability to stay calm in those moments. I'm sure you guys have experienced this. I know I did when I competed in, uh, like in grappling sports. When I would first start competing, I'd get so nervous that I'd exhaust myself faster than I did when I burned so much energy. Yeah. Like I'd start the match and I'd be like, you know, 30 seconds in and I'm dead. I'm like, man, I can go and train with guys for 10 minutes without getting tired. It was cause I was so ramped up. So I mean, that's a skill that can benefit, potentially benefit your athletic performance, benefit your ability to recover. You know, it's not, it's never black and white. This is the thing that people need to understand. For example, I'll use a silly example, right? Like, okay, generally studies show that eating a high protein diet builds more muscle. Well, what if you have for whatever reason, high protein diets affect your digestion poorly? Well, then it's not a great muscle building strategy. In fact, the lower protein diets probably going to help you build more muscle because you're healthier, right? Health is another thing that we need to take into consideration. Poor health, you don't build as much muscle as good health. That's another thing that you want to consider. So it's never that black and white. So I, you know, I waited because I see, you know, ice baths, great, you know, benefits, health, you know, benefits. And then people went a little too crazy in that direction. Everybody's like, Oh, no, here's a couple studies. It shows that you might build less muscle. Therefore never ice bath. I'm like, okay, you guys are, that's not, as somebody who designs workout programs, I take a tool like that. And I don't say this isn't good. I say, how can I use this? Right. Oh, this lowers the inflammatory. Yeah. What is the supply best? Totally. And again, like there's a lot of value in being able to practice a movement more frequently because you're, you get better at it and you can utilize its benefits more, you know, more readily and you can tap into its ability to make you stronger. It's just, you know, don't forget that strength training exercises are skills. And a lot of your ability to extract the benefit of an exercise is how well you could do it. Somebody who could do a deadlift really well is going to be able to extract more benefit than someone who does it poorly. They'll be able to generate more force. They're going to have less injury. What makes them better at doing the deadlift? They practiced it. They practiced it more often. I find it's the same clown saying the same thing too. About the deadlifts and the squat. So say, you know, it's the hardship and it's so easy for those things to go viral and people to jump on board because they all didn't want to do it in the first place. I don't want to do no deadlift. I didn't want to do no squat. They're hella hard to do. So let's, so as soon as I find something that it comes out, yes, yes. So I glom onto that right away. Same thing with the ice baths. Ice baths are hard. They're difficult. They're not easy to do. So, oh great. Somebody told me that they're worthless and it's not going to hurt my gains. That's why I don't do it. Not because it's fucking hard. Today's program giveaway maps aesthetic. Here's how you can win. Leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop this episode. Also subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. If you win, we'll let you know in the comment section. We're also have a sale this month. That's going to be ending in 48 hours. So there's only two days left. Maps anabolic is 50% off and maps split is 50% off. If you're interested, you have to click on the link below to get yourself signed up. So it's the link in the description below. All right, back to the show. Anyway, speaking of gains, Adam, I got to ask you about your diet and workout. Your body is changing every day. It's pretty annoying to walk. What's going? What's the next step? What are your steps right now? He's about to sing John Mary to you. Yeah. So. So I was waiting for that. Wow. Wow. So I I'm I'm just about to I this is the most intuitive eating, intuitive training I've ever done to get into the shape that I am now and to continue. And I kind of wanted to see that I was like, you know, I always tell you like, I'm more of the tracking guy. And I'm like, let me see how much I can just do this intuitively before I really start to get granular. Right. And that's served me up until about this point right now. I kind of feel like I'm in this little my first like little plateau on the journey. It's been like you said, I felt like week over week, I've been improving, improving, improving. And that's purely been out of just intuitive training, intuitive eating, listening to my body and trying to figure out what I should do every day. So I just started to kind of track protein and see. Now, granted, when I say I'm intuitive eating, I already know my behaviors around protein. And so I already consciously made sure I started going after. You're coming from a point of experience and knowledge. Yeah, you can't have like your intuition without experience is nothing. Right. So, so there, so even though I'm not tracking, I already know my old behaviors and patterns when I when I am off the wagon or I'm not really like hardcore consistent or really dieting or anything like that. I know my tendency is to meal skip to not get enough protein. I know that that's one of the first things that I need to do. So right away, I already started eating breakfast right away. Like, so the very one of the very first things I did to introduce was and it's so easy for me when we get here is the creatures of habit. It's got 30, 30 to 32 grams of protein in it. So just by adding that, you're already ahead. Yeah, I'm already starting to move in the right direction. Have you done the two packets yet? So I just did that the other night. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I did that for a night snack. I actually had the munchies and I'm like, dude, what can I eat right now? And I'm like, oh, you know, let me go try and eat two packets. I've heard Sal do that before. 60 grams of protein. It was. And it actually, you know what? Because it's the plant protein, I actually think that it sits all right on my side. If I were to do a double dose of whey protein, I would, it would, yeah, I would be up. My stomach would be upset or I would be on the toilet shortly after. It did not bother me whatsoever. So I definitely noticed a difference in doing that. So that's become a staple. Creatures of habit is like almost every single morning for me. And then I have like a second meal. I'd like late breakfast, early lunch, and I'm bringing my meals right now. So and I'm not weighing. I'm not like weighing and measuring exactly how much rice, how much. But I, again, been doing this so long, if I had to guess, I'm probably eating eight to 10 ounces of meat paired with a rice, a quinoa pasta. What are you aiming for, grams of protein-wise? So I, now that I'm going to start tracking, I want to be at 200. 200 is hard, though. It's hard, dude. Yeah. That's what I try to hit. Yeah. So yesterday was the first day I really tracked. And I was only landing about 160. And I would say that was probably a normal day of what I've been eating like. So I already know that I'm still, I still have room to go with the, with the protein, which is why I talk about that so much on the shows. I just don't think that a lot of people, and every meal I've got, I'm eating protein-based. It's either a 30-something gram, you know, protein-packed oatmeal, or it's eight ounces of chicken and rice. Like it's crazy how much you have to do in order to hit that and hit that consistently. I've only been able to do it by adding two shakes a day. It's so hard with food because it's so satiating. Yeah. And then I just started a different peptide, Tesselfensin, which is a, it's a serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, reuptake inhibitor. It's like a cognitive booster. It's also, people use for fat loss because it, it suppresses appetite. And it does suppress appetite. So I don't know if this is one, I do like the mental aspect of it, although the energy might be a little too high because I notice it's harder for me to go to sleep, but we'll see if that settles. But the appetite dropping plus trying to hit 200 grams of protein, I'm like choking my food down. So I'm going to give it a couple of weeks to see if it's okay. So I know I mentioned the other day about, I could see how it could be beneficial to someone who overeats, but like this is, I don't know if it's going to work for me. Yeah. You know, I, yeah, I brought up how I wanted to try Ozympic because of all the, you know, hoopla around it right now. So you can comment on it. Yeah. So I can comment on it, but I don't want to do it right now because I know I'm on this path of like trying to get enough protein in right now and that'll just be counterproductive for me. I already know I struggle to eat enough. That is something. And I know there's people right now too that are listening. They're just like, oh, I wish I had that same problem. I, you know what, you'd be surprised if people who think that they, they, they overeat, they overeat carbs, carbs and saturated fat. The stuff to taste amazing. It's hard to overeat lean, good protein. It really is. I mean, that was like one of the easiest hacks ever for clients was to say, Hey, I'm not going to put you on some crazy diet. I'm not going to tell you can't have anything, but you just have to go get your protein and go get it from chicken, steak, fish, all these sources. Just go hit your number every single day. Then after that, go ahead and have some things. And like people almost always, they couldn't eat anything. And a lot of people wonder why, why is protein so satiating? Like, why did we develop this satiety effect from protein in nature? So obviously we evolved for mostly human history, you know, like hunter-gathered, right? So in nature, food, foods that were high in protein were typically animal. Like it really wasn't a high protein, non-animal source. You're not going to go find plant protein powder growing on a tree or whatever. So it was animal and animal sources of protein are extremely nutrient dense, right? High in nutrients to the point where organ meats, you can actually overdose on certain nutrients if you eat them all the time. So it makes sense that we evolved to continue to have an appetite when we were eating, especially carbs and maybe some fats, although fats oftentimes were found with proteins. And then we hit those protein targets, our bodies slowed down the appetite because we probably got all the nutrients we needed. Right. So it makes perfect sense. So you're right, you know, most people, you bump their protein. But I mean, you know, I know some people, they like the appetite suppressing effects for me. I don't know, man. It's, it's a, it's weird. Like yesterday I was eating chicken and I found myself like, like, oh my God, I don't want to eat more chicken. I'm like, uh-oh, we got to see if this is going to work out for me. This might not be a peptide. Yeah, I just, that's the reason I'm not a big fan of those type of peptides. I just don't think that's ever been a great strategy for my clients that need to lose significant body fat. I think people that need to lose a big amount of body fat, 30 plus pounds. First of all, even though I know the calories, the calories are a result of something else, right? It's normally like a root, the root cause is related to something actually emotional. There's normally some sort of, uh, damage that they've done in the past trauma that they're dealing with, they're, they're self-medicating through food. And so any sort of weight loss pill, appetite suppressant, metabolism, speeder up thing, like all of those things are all temporary because the person still has the trauma. They still have all those things. And so either one, they utilize that tool and they lose a bunch of weight and they're temporarily happy until it ends up coming back on, or they switch, medicating with, uh, food to another drug or some other fix, uh, fix. They don't do that. I'd rather teach somebody how to deal with, uh, feelings of cravings and appetite and how they use food to maybe distract themselves versus, uh, take away all those feelings. And now you just eat less because you want to eat less. You never learn those skills. You have to learn those skills at some point, right? Yeah. And if you can learn those skills and you can navigate the world, uh, of high, heavily processed foods and foods that are, you know, super readily available. So, and those are important skills, uh, in order to maintain good health. Anyway, um, I want to tell you guys something funny. You know, having kids, you end up doing things you never thought you'd end up doing because obviously you love your kids so much. So like last night I'm putting, um, Aurelius to bed and he's going through a little phase where he, he he'll get a little bit like you won't want to go to bed or he's a little scared or something like that. So I put him down, um, I put him in his bed and first he's like, can I have some water? So I get him some water. Can I have a tissue? I give him some tissue. So I'm like, okay, he's stalling and I can tell he's a little bit like worried, you know, getting a little nervous. So I started singing to my son. I started singing to him a song and I was making up lyrics and I was just like a song. He just, I just want teams to come up. I just made, I'm not going to, and I will not. I'm not going to sing on the podcast. We'll lose every listener. Oh man. But the lyrics are like, you know, like in tomorrow you're going to have a fun time and you're going to play in your sandbox. Your mom loves you and your dad loves you and you love fast cars and your favorite color is blue and I'm singing this song and he's, he's like laying down. He's making this like little smiley face as he's laying down and it was really cute. Right. So I did that. So this morning, I guess he woke up and he goes to Jessica and he goes, but boss sings to me every night. And I'm like, oh, great. That's giving me like an every night thing. Dude, you know, you gave the advice the other day about, you know, we were talking about me leaving and then, you know, telling my son a story about, Oh, before you actually do it, before I actually do it. So I did it last night. Right. Well, here's what's so funny was I was like, so he's laying, I'm putting him down. And after we read, we do the story. And I tell, I forget what I said. I said something like a daddy's going to tell you a story. He's like story dad. So I said, yes, story. I'm going to tell you a story about a dad and a boy and his dad going off to work or something like that. I can't remember. I said something like that. And he pops his head up. He goes, I don't want to hear that one. You know what that means. So he's literally feeling those feelings. So going through the story helps him process. Well, so when I did, I tricked him, right? I said, okay, well, what do you want to, what do you want to hear? Right. He's like Spider-Man, right? So, so I told him like a Spider-Man dad and a son story and I, I weaved the dad leaving off to go fight, fight crime or something. And he had to go for like three days to come back. So I'm like, I'm not getting away from not getting my moral. I have a moral that I'm trying to teach you here. So the hobgoblin, you know, I ended up still teaching him that through the story, but it was so funny because it was like top of mind. You had just said something. I'm like, oh, I'm telling, I'm actually putting him down that night as normal as Katrina. I'm like, oh, it's a good opportunity to, to utilize the tool that Sal said. So, and I'm going away in the next coming weekend. So I went to do it. He just, he popped his head up real quick. No, I don't want to hear that story. Yeah. So I thought that was so funny. That's funny. If you bring that, like, I appreciate anybody else that like starts just singing things randomly because I feel like I'm like, that's, that's like my love language. Like I, it's one of those things where it's like, I'll jock rock my way through life. You know, like I just like, yeah, I'll just walk around and see, and I start picking up like my kids are like, even Courtney will just be like, I'm doing the dishes. So the whole house, the whole house, I got them doing it, you know, just like, can't help it, dude. Bro, what did you think of that video I sent you yesterday about that, what that composer was saying? Yeah, it was, dude, like you said, profound is the best word I think to describe it. I think it was just one of those things where you don't have a lot of words to articulate music because it's kind of when you really stop to think about music and what it does and it being like a vibration and like how that's the whole thing starts with that and how it affects us on like such a deep level and how he related it to being the way that you communicate love was just like, well, so he's a compli- I love listening to people who are super passionate about a subject who can communicate it in a way to where you could feel the passion and understand why they're so passionate about what they're talking about. And he did that. So I'm listening to him like, wow. And he's like blowing my mind. And when he said that, I remembered how when fMRI machines first started getting used and to watch how the brain gets lit up during different experiences, music lights up the entire brain. Like there isn't like one music part of the brain, the whole brain turns on when you listen to music. One other thing does that, the feeling of love, it lights up the entire brain. It's this it's so profound and how it affects us. It's why it affects our memory. Like you can remember, if you want to remember something, you put it in a song. Yeah. It's how we communicate. It can elicit feelings. Almost any feeling can be elicited through through music. And it's really weird. Like you earlier we were talking, you said it's chaos. It's or it's taking chaos and then making it organized. Yeah. Yeah, it directs it. It organizes it all together. So it makes sense. It's because you're right. Because if you take a bunch of random notes, it sounds like noise. Organize in the right way. It becomes music. Yeah. So cool. I love stuff like that. It is fascinating. Yeah, it's really, really interesting. Yeah, I mean, that gets me tripping out too of like my preferences and where I'm at with like my mood. And I can always tell kind of where I'm at, like if I'm too stressed or if I'm like if I'm feeling good or if I, you know, I'm optimistic or I'm negative or like, you know what I'm doing and going to my well of music and like different artists that kind of inspire me in different ways. It's always heavy. What are you talking about? Well, it is around you guys. You know, this is my happy music. There's a lot of chaos at. This is my meditative soul. It's all the same. Disonant like chords and like. And then it just I'm able to kind of funnel that into like a, you know, like a direction where I'm like actually moving forward. I think I'm probably the most diverse of all of us when it comes to music is what I listen to. I go all over the place. Yeah. You I feel like just is the most narrow. I think you have a little bit. You have a little bit of mix of like your house and your. I appreciate all like lots of music, but I only listen to on a regular basis, like a couple genres. I think you mean. Yeah, what Doug, like if like if you were to go through a good exercise to do this is ask somebody like, you know, what what's playing in each car you have, what's on your stereo, what's in your on your, you know, playlist, right that you listen to last and you can tell real quickly like how how diverse it is. If it's all like the same type of stuff that you listen to. What do you listen to, Doug? I listen to everything really. I do like I listen sometimes to jazz, sometimes rock, sometimes to classical really everything. I like a mix. Honestly, I'm not the type of person that I go, I have a favorite song and play it over and over again. Yeah, I like something new all the time. You know, you're right, Justin, I went in your car once you were playing classical. I played classical all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like I show you guys probably the heavier stuff all the time. Because like I said, like it's I think it's it's for me more of a drive like it's like I want to be productive. Like I want to get up. I want to get after it. Like I it's just it hits my central nervous system differently than everything else. But classical music gets my brain firing and all cylinders. Like it's it's just a very cognitive thing for me. I can think more clearly that jazz is interesting because when you go deep into jazz, it makes zero sense to me. You hear jazz when they just start going off. I think that's the point, right? Different kinds of jazz, though, it's like three form, you know, improv style jazz. And then there's others that have kind of a melody. I don't really appreciate the ones where they just kind of go off with these crazy sex solos on Spotify, a playlist called dinner jazz every night. So every night. While you're cooking. Yeah, no, I'm not only cooking. Katrina, we cook. I clean when I clean at night. That's part of our routine. She takes Max up the bath. I turn on the dinner jazz and I clean the whole bottom half. Has your son has he shown a preference? You know, he likes so he really likes right now that the what is the trolls, the world tour. So that's rock. That's good music. Oh, yeah, it's got classic rock. So it's all classic rock that they're that are in there. So he'll listen to classic rock. Justin Timberlake about that. So that's the other one. And he does listen to that. So the two trolls, the second one, the second right? Yeah, it's the one where the the the the the metal troll comes over and takes over all the other trolls song strings. Have you seen that? Oh, I've seen that. You would love that. It's literally OK. So each the the the concept of the the show or the movie or whatever is there's, you know, the jazz trolls, the rock trolls, the EDM trolls. Yeah, the and they all they all got a string from the guitar that represents their type of music and they all live in their own little, you know, country or whatever. And they don't go outside of that. And the one girl who has the rock, the heavy metal, she decides she's going to take over all the and she comes in and like, yeah, yeah, stills all and so it's a it's a the whole thing is based on good music. It is. It's got great music. OK, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's it's a it's a it's a good watch. It's one of the ones I didn't mind my son like kind of watching over and over a month. I get behind the music, the soundtrack from it. So I love when they consider the parents when they make some of these movies. Yeah, smart. Dude, I'm like I try to introduce new movies because he'll get stuck. My son will get stuck on the same one over and over. And I have to like convince him to try a new one. And so like for a while, it was Toy Story and it was Cars. Then it was what's what's the other one that Monsters, Inc. But I finally I'm trying to get him to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I love that. That's a great sound like I could watch that one over and over. I don't think I've seen that one. Oh, you haven't? You know, it's a really funny one. There's a Storks. Hilarious Storks. Do you see that so funny? Like I was like I didn't have any expectation about that movie and then because it being like this kind of cheesy cartoon, but it was like really fun. So Max has this book. It's a Sesame Street book. And each page is, you know, alphabet, numbers, shapes. And one of the last pages is opposites up, down, big, small, long, short, dry, wet and out. And I made the mistake of, you know, doing the voices and characters one time. And there's one of the things is it's Ernie and Bert. And Ernie is inside the house. Bert is outside the house. And then when you has a little flap on it and when you you flap the door, Ernie is now out, then he's in. And when you do that in a like a real small like picture, they change Bert's face because he slams the door on his face. And so Bert has got like this angry face. And so I turn it into like a like he's intentionally slamming the door and make a big deal about it. And it makes him laugh like crazy. And so this has been going for months now where I have to keep doing it over. And that's all he wants me to do. Like he'll tell Katrina like, Daddy, I want Daddy to read me. I want Daddy to read me. And then he'll get me. And then he'll go opposites. And then he just wants me to do that. And I'll do it. And then he tries to do it the same way. And then again, again, it's just back and forth until finally, like Katrina will hear me have done it for like 10 minutes strange. Like, OK, it's mommy's turn to read now because he will he won't stop. He won't make me do it. Yeah, there's a lot of time you spend as a dad repeating the same shit over and over because the kid likes it. People have realized that that's a big part of being a father. Speaking of parents and stuff, did you guys see that controversial post that went up? I think it's a professional pitchers wife that he posted about. I'm going to look it up right now just to make sure I get it right. But she apparently was on a flight with her two young children. OK, here we go. This is a Toronto Blue Jays pitcher and he posted about his wife and the post said that it says the flight attendant just made my 22 week pregnant wife traveling with a five year old and a two year old to get on her hands and knees and pick up the popcorn mess that was made by my youngest daughter. So he posted that, right? And the controversy is all these people who are like, clean up after your kids. Of course, you're supposed to pick it up. Your kid threw it on the floor or whatever. I'm like, none of you guys have kids and none of you have had a wife that's 22 weeks pregnant. She's traveling with a five and a two year old, 22 weeks pregnant. You're going to have her get on the floor and pick she up. And so I'm watching all these posts, all these comments of people who are like, yeah, she needs to clean it up. Her daughter made that mess. I'm like, you guys have no idea what that's like. I know I can't believe people were actually not siding with them. But I guess they just don't understand. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, there's a disconnect there, for sure. You know, from people I think to and I guess the hard part for me is, you know, some of these people have like a, I guess, like this, this repulsion to kids or being around kids. And I'm like, motherfucker, you were a kid. You're probably a shitty kid on top of that, you know? And you're sitting here complaining about all this, like have a little compassion and relax. Yeah, I wonder how I don't think I would definitely side with the people that would be all up in arms about that. I would have compassion, especially seeing. Dude, I would have picked it up for her. Could you imagine seeing a 22 week pregnant woman who's by herself the five material on the floor trying to pick? I think I would just be like, whatever. I mean, I've seen plenty of people spill and make messes and not pick it up. And so of all the people I wouldn't freak out about doing that, it would be somebody in that situation. So I think that's really, you know, it's our culture now, man. It's so weird. This, this anti-kid, anti-family, you know, type of deal, that's just like you got people that are just, and I can, there's a part of me that I was 25 at one point and even at a point in my life where I didn't know if I was going to have kids that totally like would just, oh God, I'm on one of those planes with the screaming baby. Sure, I get that. Right. Not enough to be so angry or I'm like, shut your kid up. Like I would never do something like that. But enough to where I'm like, God damn it, of course. Yeah, of course I'm on the wrong plane or of course I got this plane and like frustrated. But I mean, and now I don't, it doesn't bother me at all because I get it. You know what I'm saying? And I know that when you're as a parent, there's not much you can do in that situation. And the more you react as a parent, the more it makes it worse. So it's like, I wouldn't be helping the cause. I just feel like people aren't raised with like general manners. I think that's general manners. Like when I was a kid, like if I was sitting close, if we were at a restaurant, okay? And I was sitting next, like within like, like three steps of the door to a restaurant. And let's say an old lady was trying to walk in with a cane having trouble. If I didn't get up to help, like my dad would get up and help and then he'd tell me afterwards like, you see that, you go, or if you're sitting on a bus, old person goes on, get up, let them sit down. You see a pregnant woman, first of all, she doesn't have to be pregnant. You see anybody, any parent traveling with a five and a two year old, do you have any idea what hell that is to do? Nobody has an idea. People don't know this. Traveling with one child by yourself. Helping with their bags, you know. Oh my God. Two by yourself and on a plane, the whole deal. Like that's crazy alone. I feel the same way. Let alone being pregnant. I feel the same way about the young guy who doesn't offer to put the, you know, seven year old lady's bag above. Yeah, I saw that. It just happened at the flight we were just on right now. Did that used to get? I had a lady in front of me who's, you could tell she was at least, you know, 65 plus, probably 70 plus. And I saw that she had a good size carry on. And before she even got to her seat, I tapped on her shoulder and said, hey, let me get that for you when you're there. And she was like, oh yeah, thank you so much. You know, I'm like, I just, I've seen young guys like standing right there and seeing the lady like struggle. Dude, I saw the same thing as this gymnastic term in this, this old lady was like trying to make her way back to the bleacher seats. And it's just like, she's losing her balance. And like, she's going past this whole row of young guys. And they're all just like, whoa. You know, like moving out of the way. And I get up and I grab her arm. And I'm like, oh, thanks. It's just like, dude, do something helpful. You're right there. No, it's sad as we live in a society now where they're more likely to grab their phones out to catch a video filming. And so it'll potentially go viral than they are to probably step up, grab her hand and help her watch. It's like when you watch those videos of like someone like getting like violently assaulted and there's like 10 people filming it. Go do something, dude. I'm filming it for the police. No, you're not, bro. You're filming it because you're gonna post it. You're hiding behind your phones. Yeah, get over there and help people out. I don't know, it's kind of crazy. Yeah, different world. Yeah, it made me mad just to see that. Anyway, so go ahead, Adam. No, I just, I was gonna ask you guys, because before I was, I think it was in the restroom, I overheard you guys talking stuff about Elon and AI stuff. And is there something going viral right now that he said or did? Yeah, I guess he was talking to, he got interviewed and he was talking about why he created, why he was one of the founders of Open, was it Open Source? So originally one of his friends was one of the founders of Google. Larry Page, right? Larry Page. Okay, and so they used to hang out like in Palo Alto and discuss these things. And they would talk about the potential of AI and Elon talked about the potential dangers. And the reason why he helped found Open AI was so that they could keep it open and produce something that's safe because it's inevitable, this intelligence, this artificial intelligence is gonna get built. So he's trying to head it off at the pass and create like a safe version. And he's saying that Larry Page was like, I just wanna create like an AI God. Like I wanna have like a digital God that just does. And he's like, bro, like that's like, do you not understand the potential dangers of that? Yeah. I know what's crazy about this is every week something else comes out. Like I just read that Paramount, like one of the executives at Paramount did a presentation and generated images of some of their top like characters of money making movies and then animated it with an instant. And everybody started freaking out. They're like, oh, shit, our jobs are done. We gotta figure out how we can either make money off this or protect it. It's not just coming, it's here. Yeah. That's sort of the sentiment. I think everybody just needs to finally kind of reconcile with the fact that it's here and now we need to start paying a lot more attention to it. So what does that look like? Casey, I've thought about this a lot. I'm constantly obviously talking about this right now. And I think about how entertainment's gonna look in the future. And what I predict it's gonna be like, which is gonna be really interesting is that we'll pay for a AI service, like it won't be Netflix unless those guys get smart and build themselves, which I don't think they're even building in that direction. But like an AI service that can create a movie from scratch just like that, whatever you want. Whatever you want. And I think that you will program it like, I wanna watch a two hour movie that is a blend of a few good men and remember the Titans mixed with like, and you could reference a bunch of things at that. And then instantaneously, it's script and create a piece of entertainment for you that you can like. So my brain goes immediately like, there's gonna be a lot of shitty ideas, right? So you want a platform where people rate and review. So that way it's like, somebody comes up with an amazing idea like that, and then it gets all these five stars and then elevates itself to the top and then they start generating money in that direction. So it's like, everybody, it's almost like YouTube on steroids, right? Like so you have a way to be that creative, but are your ideas good? You know, and then we'll see. That's actually a really brilliant theory because obviously there's gonna be a way to monetize this stuff. There's gonna be a, someone will find a way to create it because the initial thought that we have and we say is like, oh, everything's gonna be free. Everyone's gonna be able to do all this like that. No, there's gonna be people that are smart that harness this power and drive it in a direction that the consumer wants it and then find a way to monetize it. That's a really good theory that you're right. Like I could plug that in and then the AI just spits off this. I mean, I said a football movie, a lawyer movie. And so there's this weird blend of like a football player that becomes a lawyer and it's like stupid. And you're like, that's not very good. But if you had it built into a piece of software that then rated it based off of everybody else. Well, what would happen is the AI would learn how to make your ideas entertaining. That's what's gonna happen. It's not just an order taker. Remember, these are machines that learn and they learn from each other. So you could create something. And then you rate it low. And then it gets better. And then it gets better. That's my point. Say what? Some people are dull. Yeah, well, they are, but the AI isn't. So the AI is like, well, I think I know what you want but here's what you're gonna get and you're gonna love it. Well, right. Your input is what's going to steer it to be more accurate to you. And that idea, like maybe my collection of AI movies is shitty in your eyes, but it's gonna be. But it says you love that. But you love it. That's a good point too. So that's what it's gonna look like is like, and that's how you're gonna steer it is you're going to, oh yeah, that was no good. Oh, that was excellent. Okay, which is how the algorithm on Netflix already works right now. True. You rate it and then it curates the movies for you. And which is why I always get irritated when other people use my Netflix cause it's just like, it starts to change my curation on like these weird ass films that I'm not into. It's getting weirder and weirder. Like after I started renting out our place in Palm Dome. Oh, you're now, cause they're using your Netflix? Yeah. You're like, I didn't even know this existed. No, I have no idea. It's like this whole world of potential. That's how I feel when I get online and someone's been using it. I'm like, oh my God, I didn't even know these were like, yeah, does the CW still exist? Like, what is this? Did you see that video that Rogan posted of that UFO? Oh, yeah. Did you see that? No. Like a pilot, like it was a Navy pilot posted it. Yeah, Navy pilot. It literally looks, and I saw how my, like it almost looked like a Mandalorian just zipping by real quick. Oh God. I mean, there was no jet. There was no like propulsion system. It just was like this floating, yeah, metallic looking object. Like diamond looking thing. I feel like these are happening more and more often because I think your idea, I think you're the one that told me your idea that, oh, that's it right there. I haven't seen this yet. Watch this. It's gonna watch, it's just gonna. Into frame, then out. What the fuck, right? I told you. Exactly. And that's not a satellite, okay. What the fuck? I mean, it could be like an experimental drone or something, which I saw in the comments, maybe it's like a Navy drone or something. Yeah, look at that. But yeah, look at right there. It's like a diamond looking thing. Dude. So, you know, okay, so Justin's theory, he said this a while ago, I gotta share this again, because I think this is brilliant, right? Like there's just like this alien, you know, intergalactic federation and Earth is like this protected habitat. Sounds so nerdy. It does, but listen, it makes sense because all these UFOs have been popping up lately. So they're just watching us. So like, you know, here's our rules that we've made. This is a protected habitat. Do not interfere with them whatsoever. So we're like a giant ant farm? Yeah, like we're not gonna interfere with them unless they start eating each other. They start to threaten the universe. So they're watching us create AI and now they're watching very closely. Like, eh, we're gonna step in. Yeah, you saw him pop up a lot when we had nuclear power and when we were going through that. So now we have AI is a big enormous threat. So yeah. Does that align with your AI Satan idea too though? Can you intertwine those stories? The antichrist, but yeah. Get it right. Sorry. Get it right. Yeah, yeah. We usher, but we have to usher it in, right? And so that's why my whole thought of like we're creating and building, I mean, there's this weird sense that we're programmed to build and innovate and press us somewhere, right? But why are we all pressing towards AI and like building out this program and this thing to become basically our overlord? Like that's just so weird. I think it's our narcissism. We're like, we're gonna create something we can control. Yeah. That's better than us. That'll be this ultimate tool. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But it's like, that's like the most naive thing to ever say or never. We're gonna create something that is better than us that we're gonna control. Think about that for a second. Again, it's completely like narcissistic. But yeah, I mean, the whole thing is that there has to be like one leader that everybody subscribes to and trusts. And there's no way a human being is gonna fit that role. Well, so the challenge, I watched the talk on this in the past throughout all history, totalitarian regimes have always aimed to control people, always control your thought, your movement, what you use, what you don't use, all that stuff. But the best they could get was spies and threats and fear. They couldn't really control everybody and watch everything. And that's also true for markets. The reason why free markets are so effective is the pricing system makes them so efficient. And so trying to control it from a central place, it's just so inefficient that you end up, you just collapse the economy. You become inefficient. Well, AI now allows you to read all those signals and control those people. So it's like a dictator's wet dream. Like he has this tool he could totally adjust on the fly to just kind of feedback. That's right. And he could direct it to do whatever, I know. It sucks. Meanwhile, we're gonna be rocked to sleep with all of our movies that we're all watching. Seriously. Everything's fine. We're so excited. Everything's okay. Everything's okay. You got your great movies. He's getting sad. He's getting sad. Here's some more serotonin, sir. Well, think about how crazy that is. Okay, we already know how everyone in here has experienced a binge session of watching a television show or a series. Like imagine when you can make it that good all the time that it's all binge worthy. Every episode makes you cry. Well, yeah. Every episode takes you on that emotional cliffhanger and then leaves you with a cliffhanger that makes you have to turn it on again. Like I'm sad already that this is the finale of Man Lorraine. I mean, we have you talked about this entire series. That's because I haven't watched it. He hasn't watched it. He hasn't watched it. He hasn't watched it. Well, whatever. Terrible Star Wars fan. Yeah, catch up, man. Cause it's- I got only kids, bro. I can't watch TV. I got not kids. Yeah, we get it. But it's, it's that good in our- It is good. Yeah, there's spoilers in there, but I loved seeing our boy Tate in there too. He had a great role. Yeah, he was one of the main Mandalorians in there. So it was, it's just leading up to finally like a cool place where I wanted to see Star Wars go. And that's, I think that's why I'm excited to get about it. I was so flat about Star Wars there for a while and was just like, like, I just don't, I don't like anything they're coming out with. And this is finally like getting my feels back. Have you, have you read the statistics on how many new like hardcore Star Wars people have came on since the like this, all the new stuff on Disney and everything like that. And are they losing more people off? Like is the community growing? Or is it shrinking or is it maintaining because there's a fall off of old radicals, you know, original purist? Can I guess Justin before we say something? Because John Favreau, is that his name? Favreau and Filoni is the other writer. They write, the Mandalorian is written by like real Star Wars fans. Authentic, yeah. Yeah, so I would imagine it caters to the real Star Wars fan, not trying to get new ones, but it's like the fans that are there already. Which in fact has been their most successful show and has brought on the most new subscribers. So that's the recipe. They fucked with the formula because of all the other things they wanna smash in there. Which has just been entertainment in general. Like you've seen this across the board of just it's not just about a good story. It has to have like all these other like social issues and all these other things kind of just smashed in there. And I just think that if you just keep the story and it's compelling enough and it holds its own weight, it's gonna do very well. It's gonna perform at a high level. I still feel like they sprinkle a little bit like the social stuff. I thought that the episode where they were, they remember I brought it up on the episode where, and you haven't, so you haven't seen this yet, but the episode where I forget what planet it was and that all robots basically run everything. And so it was this like conundrum that they were in of like. Like, I mean we're. But that's cool though, like, okay. So that's a cool, real social issue. Okay, so that's a good point. As Stowers has always incorporated that and that's why they deal with really deep social, like the structure of society. Like, you know, like tyranny, oppression. Like, so a lot of that is wrapped in religion and like how people reconcile with it. Like, so there's a lot of really like deep thematic things that they throw in there. So that makes sense, right? Like, I think it's the, it's the surface. I guess it's like, I guess the trends of what the culture is doing right now. I guess it's more like the lightweight kind of woke bullshit that we get right now. That's just like, okay, they didn't need to make its way in there because it's not like a deep thought out. Yes. To me, what I loved about that episode is like, that's a very real possibility in the very, to the conversation that we were just having. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Very near future, like, you know, it's very real. And they paint it as like this utopia, right? It's like this, oh, this amazing place where everybody's so happy and it's like, all these robots take care of everything. But then what happens if like, they've built the entire system so much on it's like, oh shit, what happens if they start malfunctioning? And we have this button that's supposed to shut them all down. But then if we shut them all down, that means everything stops. I mean, that's how people eat. That's how they get their entertainment. That's how they get all, it's like, oh shit. So we're in this weird conundrum of these things are starting to over, like, overthrow us or hurt people. And what if the robots have personality, you know, and they have their own meetups? Like they want to get away from the human. Yes. And they had this bar together. Yes, it's so great. I love that. Dude, that's such a great angle. Oh, I can't wait to get to that. Yeah, yeah, no. See, there's good stuff. Well, so we're supposed to mention Organify. You know what I picked back up from Organify? Pure. I haven't used that in a while. Oh, I saw you do that yesterday. Love it. Love it. I don't know why I stopped. I love it. It's such a mild, calm, I definitely mood boosting product, but so mild and calm that it's something you can use on a regular basis. Not worry about it affecting your sleep negatively or anything like that. I could throw it on top of the fact that I'm already having a lot of caffeine right now. So it's... Actually, it balances out caffeine. It does. It does help. Really well. Oh, really? Yeah, it does, bro. Take it with caffeine and you won't get more amped. It'll just be smoother. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Oh, maybe I'll have to do another one. I'll have to do another one. And then anytime somebody mentions it, I'm like, oh my God, I'm back on it. Yeah, I know. I just started back up. We gotta do another episode today, so maybe I'll do it right now to get me over the hump. So let's give a shout out to Thomas DeLauer. We just... Great meeting him. Great meeting. That episode will drop at some point in the near future. Great guy. He's a legit... Very like-minded. Authentic person. Really enjoyed talking to him. Good dad. Yeah, great dad. If you don't follow him, go check him out. Check this out. There's a company called Butcherbox that delivers grass-fed meats and wild caught fish to your door. If you're interested in healthy, high protein meats that are also inexpensive, this is a great company. And if you go through our link, you get a fat hookup. So if you go to butcherbox.com forward slash mind pump and use the code mind pump, not only will you get 15% off, but you'll also get chicken thighs for a year. And you'll also get $20 off your first box. All right, here comes the rest of the show. Our first caller is Matt from Ontario. Matt, what's happening? How can we help you? How's it going, guys? Good, man. All right. Good. Yeah, I just kind of recently started weightlifting, I would say. And I'm kind of transitioning out of a boxing-based workouts, I would say. It's kind of just my passion, what I enjoy doing. Big combat sports enthusiast. And I don't know, every time I go to the gym, it's all right, but I find myself just kind of struggling to do the transition. So I guess my main question is like, if I continued to train more as like a combat sports athlete, is this, would I end up seeing long-term issues? Is this like a good way? Like, is this a good way for like, training for longevity and strength? Yeah, I mean, yeah. So here's, so Matt, the thing with all training is that you have to modify it as your lifestyle changes, as you get older, as just things start to change, maybe injuries start to compile. For example, you like combat sports, right? You could spar for a while, but that's probably gonna be the first thing that you'll stop doing as you get older, right? Getting punched, that's pretty damaging, but you could hit the bag, you could hit the mitts, you could do all the training, plus if you've been boxing for a long time, you can maintain the skill pretty well by simply practicing the technique and maintaining that level of fitness. Grappling, wrestling, judo, those are probably the sports that you'll have to cut the hard sparring a little sooner, like getting thrown and doing takedowns more dangerous than like jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu you could do for a long time, but you just have to scale the intensity a little bit. My question for you is, Matt, what made you want to transition? Why did you move more towards, I guess, gym work and away from the combat type training? I'm a smaller framed guy, so I was just kind of looking to put on a little bit of size. That was one of the main things, but then I just, it's not as enjoyable as what I was doing before. So now I'm kind of stuck in that mindset of do I really care to get bigger? Is it really that big of a deal? Yeah, that matters. I mean, it sounds like someone like you would do great with just like one day full body lifting and then just compliment it. Yeah, that way it's not like a huge focus. You're not hitting the weights like crazy, but literally one day a week of a full body, good routine falling like a maps, anabolic type of routine. If you don't have that, we'll send it your way. And then the rest of it, what you love doing and you will put on some muscle. If you weren't doing any sort of strength training like that, just simply doing that, feeding your body correctly and well while doing your sport and stuff that you love to do, you can absolutely put on a little bit. Now, are you gonna be a competitive bodybuilder by doing that? No, of course not, but that's not your passion. That's not your goal. And so I think that would be a great compliment to what you're currently doing. Yeah, I really think just maintaining strength and then just considering the impact that you're getting towards your joints and just trying to keep them healthy and go for that longevity by implementing really good solid mobility rituals and routines that you do continuously. So this is one thing that in conjunction with your martial arts training, I would highly suggest that this is just gonna be a part of your daily lifestyle in terms of making sure your wrists, your elbows, your shoulders, your knees, your hips, all that stuff is operating properly and you're giving it proper stimulus so that way too, like you're recovering and that repetitive stress is being accounted for. Matt, what combat sports do you train in? Is it just one or do you try and kind of cover all of them? So it's been cut back to just boxing, but I used to also train in Muay Thai. So yeah, Muay Thai boxing the most harsh on the body. Most aggressive, yes. I would say, but you know this, how long did you box for and do Muay Thai for? About seven, eight years. Yeah, so I'm sure you saw dudes in there that were 50s, 60s that didn't spar, but they would hit the bag, they would practice technique, they would do the drills. You could do that for a long time. If you like combat sports and you're open to something that's a little easier on the body, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is probably one of the best in that sense because you can spar with Jiu Jitsu for a long time. Now I'm not saying it's injury free, it's still combat sport, but you'll see guys in their 60s, 70s rolling and they know how to roll properly, they're smooth with their movement, they're not over aggressive or three egos and they could do that for, if you like to go against other people, that's a great way to do it. Now if it's just the technique and skill of it, then I would say maintain just the skills training. The other question I have for you is, what is it about you that wants to get, why do you wanna add size? Because in my experience for guys, the reason why we wanna add size is it makes us feel more secure, but nothing made me feel more secure than knowing I could kick somebody's ass. So being bigger makes you kind of feel like that, but it's kind of fake, yeah, you're stronger, that's great, but you know, as well as I do, that when you're sparring and you're fighting, like you feel way more confident. So is it a confidence thing or is it just a looks thing? I think it's still looks thing, maybe there's something in the back of my head I'm unaware of, but I would say it's definitely not a confidence thing, and boxing has done its job there. I think it's just like, I hang around with a lot of other guys and they're probably the smallest of the group. They're probably the toughest. I just feel like I'm a smaller guy. I just feel like maybe I need to put on some size, but as soon as I start trying, I'm just like, I don't know, I don't know if I care. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, hey, that's a great realization. Look, what Adam said then, once a week full body training, do your combat training, and then if you wanna gain or lose weight, it's diet from there, that's it. Increase calories, decrease calories, get a leaner or bulk up a little bit. But I think what you're gonna find, Matt, is you'll probably experiment with gaining size and then you just won't like the way you feel and move because you like combat sports so much. You'll notice that you won't move as well for the most part, so you'll probably, it sounds like you're coming to that realization now where it's like, eh, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, okay, cool. I do have MAPS anabolic, by the way. Oh, okay, yeah, you're good. I wanna send you Prime Pro. Yeah, Prime Pro for the mobility. That's gonna, you'll be able to use that for the rest of your life to help compliment everything you're doing. Yeah, that's awesome. I don't, Matt. Yeah, thanks for calling in, man. Thanks guys. Thanks. You know what I love about this question is a lot of times I do on my Q and A and I have one here before where I'll kind of rail on somebody who has these like specific aesthetic goals and they're like, oh, and I wanna do my martial arts all the time. And then I'm like, well, how bad do you wanna do your martial arts because what I'm hearing from you is like, you really wanna build this muscle or you really wanna look a certain way. And that's not ideal for that, right? But from what I'm hearing from him is like, he loves what he's doing and that's what he's been doing for seven, eight years, probably listens to us and thinks like, oh, I probably should incorporate some more strength training. But here, this is where it's different, right? If I had somebody who played basketball, five days a week, they love the sport, keeps them healthy, they're in shape, they play every day at pickup games and stuff like that. And then they're like, man, here on Mind Pump, I should be strength training, strength training is the best. Building muscle, you know. Yeah, and they sell that all day. Yeah, and then they go to lift weights and they're just like, ah, I'm not into it. Well, you don't have to. No. You don't have to. But if that same person, by the way, the basketball player or the MMA guy goes, hey, I wanna get down to 5% body fat or I wanna build, you know, 15 pounds of muscle, but I love playing basketball. I don't wanna give that up. Oh, okay, well, now we have a different conversation here because you care so much about putting 15 pounds of muscle on. Your sport may be getting in the way of us doing that. So, but that's not what I'm hearing from this guy. I'm hearing that. I just love doing it. Maybe I'd like to put on a little bit of muscle, but I don't really care that much. Anything keeps you physically active and up and moving and driven. I mean, that's what we're all kind of seeking. And so, and two, that might change for him. Like he might, you know, be there a few years and be like, you know what? Like I do wanna kind of like spend a good stint in just pure strength training or whatever the pursuit is. Like, you know, if you're more focused on that pursuit, I think that's really where we all wanna be. Yeah, there's, when it comes to muscle, there's definitely some benefit with certain populations to simply add muscle. So you could be underweight, you can have low lean body mass and that can have some negative effects. And so you wanna build some muscle, but past a certain point, and it's not big. It's not like, oh, I'm already, you know, massive. And I got big muscle. It's like, no, it's like, not that much. You gain some muscle, then the benefit simply comes from being stronger and having better fitness. So yes, you can just try to look better, but when it comes to like health and performance, you know, adding size oftentimes isn't gonna benefit you. In fact, it may actually be detrimental past a certain point. Especially in like combat sports. Yeah, especially- Where you have to be fast and loose. Yeah, like some sports, you want, you know, being heavier might help like football, but even with football, like past a certain point, like, okay, you're bigger, but now you're slower and you can't move as fast and- I can attest to that 100%. Yeah, you did that, right? Yeah, I got way too big. Yeah, so that's the thing. That's the thing people need to realize. And the beauty about strength training is you can modify it to complement anything. So whatever sport you're in, you can lift weights to make you better at that sport, period, end of story. Our next caller is Tammy from Texas. Hi, Tammy, how can we help you? Hey, guys, I'm so excited to be here. I have a confession. I have a cougar crush on all four of you. Oh my gosh. I really do appreciate your content, though. So thank you. Thank you. So after nine years at a desk job, I'm going back into the summer camp world. I used to run a camp for children with disabilities. And so I know how physically demanding the role is. And so I need your help. So for a little history, I'm 59. And I've been lifting and working out since I was 16 years old. I've never really lifted heavy weights. I was more focused on running. And I've done triathlons, just the sprint distance, not the monster ones. And then I have run several full marathons. Weights have always been there, but they've always been kind of secondary to those other goals. I still have decent muscle. I think my legs have atrophied a little bit. But everything else, I think there's muscle hidden underneath some of the flap. My last marathon was in 2017 at Big Sur. I went yaw's way. It was awesome. And I've not run since, although I do walk a lot. In the last year or so, I finished resistance and then cardio. And I just finished phase three of symmetry. I have crime, and I've been incorporating mobility into my sessions for about a year now. But I know I still have some imbalances and hip problems that my massage therapist is trying to help me with. So my goals, I need to lose about 25 pounds that I gained after some trauma a few years ago and then just manage to hang on to. I know I need to increase my steps and time on my feet to prepare for camp, because I anticipate walking eight to 10 miles a day just back and forth across the location. I want to maintain my muscle. I need to keep up with young people, because this is a young person's job. And then for my 60th birthday, I want to celebrate with another sprint distance triathlon. So later after summer camp, I want to get in shape for that. So my question, what programs should I follow over the next year knowing those are my goals? I don't have a gym anymore. I used to work out at a purple one. And that's how I finished symmetry up to phase three. But now I'm home in a very, very, very, very, very, very small apartment. I have some dumbbells and stuff. But I'm wondering if I should try to finish phase four of symmetry at home? Or should I do something else in between now and the time that summer camp starts, which is at the end of May? I'm thinking that 15 minutes is right for that 12 weeks or so that I will be basically working from 7 in the morning until 11 at night at summer camp and getting all those steps in. And then I'm wondering after summer's over and I can get back to a gym, I'm wondering what I should do if maybe performance or something else would help would be a good precursor to triathlon training. Yeah. What a great question and thorough detail for us. And I think you actually are leaning the right direction already for that. You know what to do, I think. You got the right answers there. I love symmetry. You don't have to do the last phase of symmetry. You could just stick to the unilateral. So for people who aren't listening right now, don't know the last phase is a bilateral kind of five by five. You don't need to do that. You could stick to just the first three phases. Performance, wonderful program. Yeah, perfect for that too. For you, the home version. MAPS 15, another great program for you. MAPS suspension would be another great program for you. By the way, bless you for doing what you do. My mom works with special needs. So I know how demanding that is. And that's really great work. It's a calling. I was just going to ask it. My mom says the same thing. It gives her a lot of meaning. With the trauma and the weight gain, have you identified what the food was doing for you during that period of time? Because if we don't address that, it's going to pop up somewhere else. And I'm sure you already know that. Yeah, you know, back in, after that last marathon, when we ran Big Sur, my husband was dying. And he ran 24 marathons and he decided, you know, his bucket list, when the doctors told him there was nothing else they could do, he said, I want to run Big Sur and you're going to run with me. And I say, you know, honey, most people go to Europe or something on their bucket list, you know? And so we ran Big Sur and he ran it five months before he died. Wow. And I mean, it was wild. And so at that time, he and my mother were both sick at the same time. They ended up dying a few months apart. And while my husband was in at home hospice with me, Hurricane Harvey wiped out our town. And so I had him in a hotel and our business, his business, I left my disabled camp to learn his business, which is commercial insurance specializing in windstorm. So every one of our customers was affected. I'm in a hotel trying to help them while I'm caring for him because the hospice nurses had all been displaced and they weren't able to come see us or help. So I'm caring for him, trying to keep the business running and help our customers. And I'm in a hotel. So I started then just eating out all the time and definitely self-medicating wine and margaritas were my go-to. After that, I start kind of getting a little bit better, get the house put back together, get the business office put back together. He died, start kind of, and then, I mean, COVID hits. And this also was the first time I'd ever lived alone in my life at 54, I think I was. And so I just, I developed horrible habits, eating out all the time, Mexican food and margaritas are my go-to. I've gotten to where it's not a purposeful thing to intermittent fast, but that's what I'm doing. It's, I'm not hungry. I work out or walk mostly in the mornings and then I'm not hungry until nine or 10, so then I eat breakfast and then I don't eat again until three or four because I'm not hungry. And then, so two meals a day, I know I'm not getting, I'm not getting enough calories and I'm not getting enough protein for sure. And so I've just developed those habits and then now I'm trying to focus on changing those habits and cooking for myself and trying to eat three meals a day, not whining down at night. And now the Mexican food and margaritas though, that's the hardest part to give up. Tammy, I'm gonna say this. You're going through what you went through. Jesus Christ. And eating out and drinking some margaritas, like that's pretty damn good. Yeah. Especially all that shit. Yeah. And the way you're talking, I'll tell you something, I've worked with people for a long time, okay? And I can tell whether or not somebody is on the right path or not on the right path, how much I need to guide them, how much I don't need to guide them. You're on the right path. The way you're talking right now, what I'm hearing from you, you're processing. You're totally self-aware. Yeah, you're gonna get there. I mean, you already figured out everything you're saying is exactly the right direction. So eating out less, hitting the protein targets, planning, I think planning would help quite a bit for you. So you have the food set up. Did you see in the notes that she's met with Cabral too? Oh, oh, I didn't see that. Yes, I did. And at 59, my hormones are in really good shape. They did not recommend any kind of therapy or all they did was put me on some of their supplements. My cortisol was a little bit high at night. And they said, that's probably because of my nightly wind down habit. So they wanted me to quit doing that. But I mean, for the abuse I've put my body through, and I'm really pleased, and I'm not on any kind of medication at all. So just, oh, but you would love my supplement cabinet. I would love it, I'm sure. You would love that. I mean, I really think that, I think this is a testament to your 40 plus years of being in and out around that health and fitness. Exactly, exactly what I was gonna say. That's really what, to me, that's what this is. And you've hit everything on the head of what you need to do. You already know you need to get those calories up. You need to start hitting the protein intake. You need to build strength and muscle. That should be the main focus right now. Add the walking in like you're doing already. And then of course, cut back and hopefully eventually eliminate the alcohol, especially at night, those, that's it, man. You really, you do that and you stick with that and be consistent with that. You're on the right path. I tell you what, I almost wanna ask you for advice because of how you handled all those challenges. But the best thing I could tell you, Tammy, which you probably already know, is when you look at the list of things that you're like, okay, I gotta change all these things. Do one at a time. I wouldn't go all at once, because what might happen, what's likely to happen is you'll work on one, let's say it's the wine. So you're like, okay, right now I'm drinking every night. So I'm gonna allow myself to maybe drink twice a week or let's say you're like, okay, I'm ready to just cut that out, but I'm not gonna work on the other stuff yet. Every step you take, feelings are gonna pop up and you're gonna have to process more stuff. And then you gotta stay with that for a little while and then it's gonna feel like second nature and you'll feel like you're getting back to your old self and then you gotta take the next step. I don't necessarily think doing everything all at once. Well, for the most part, I don't think that's a good idea. Now there are some people who can just do everything all at once, but it feels like a light switch to those people. Like it feels like that's it, I'm just gonna do everything. I almost never say this because this is almost never the case, 99.9% of people, terrible advice. Because of your history of exercise and how consistent you've been and just hearing you talk, if you feel like that's you, if you feel like that's it, I'm just gonna do everything, I would trust that for someone like you. I would never tell that to anyone else. But if you're like everybody else, one step at a time, because feelings are gonna pop up as you remove things that are kind of numbing you right now. Well, not only that, but you, and I like doing it, even with all of my experience, this is how when I get back into my kick is, and I know like, okay, there's a list of things. Okay, you gotta stop the social drinking. Oh, I gotta cut out the ice cream every other night. Oh, okay, I need to start walking more. Okay, I need to be more consistent. I have the same list of things I know I need to do. I actually don't do them all at once. Because what I know is just simply by eliminating the alcohol or the ice cream, I'm already gonna start to see changes and feel better. And it's gonna give me a momentum. And I'm like, oh man, I haven't even dialed the other things in yet. And so, and then the next week I attack the next thing. And then the next week I attack the next, and then, you know, you're six weeks down the road and you're finally addressing, you know, one of the last things on the list and the whole time you've been seeing this like nice little momentum. So even with lots of experience, I still like to personally attack my fitness goals in that manner of just attacking one thing at a time. Yeah, same here, same here. So I mean, especially because things are probably gonna pop up that are gonna be challenging. Tammy, when you did Cabral, do you remember or did he go over magnesium with you at all? Cause I'm thinking of like the relaxing thing. So mine's not wine, mine's smoking weed, which I also try to curtail if I feel myself being consistent with it. And a good old mellow drink, which is loaded full of magnesium and the theanine in it. And then like a chamomile tea or something. I tell you what, I get that feeling of relaxation. I don't know if you've tried that yet. Well, maybe I can try that because they did, he did prescribe, not prescribe, but on the supplement, they recommended one of their magnesium supplements. And I can't remember which one it is. And they said one to three and I've been taken one. And so maybe I should stop that. Okay, if you haven't tried mellow yet from Ned, one of our partners, try that for me, okay? Try that at night. It's a great little thing to drink at night and have that. And then if you also want like some chamomile tea, the combination of that has been unbelievable for me. Tammy, because I wanna give you something, I'm gonna send you a box of Ned, okay? So why don't you email whoever you're talking to on our team, email them your address and we'll mail you. We got some in the back here. I'm gonna send you a little sleep pack so I got a bunch of other stuff we'll send you. Yeah, I'll send some over to you. And- That's awesome. Yeah, you got it. So one quick question on, I've been, I pay attention and I've been up in my water. So I'm doing, I'm adding things in rather than, focus on taking things out yet. Love it. So I think I need to focus on increasing the protein. So what should my protein go be? I would use lean body mass as your target. Okay. Yeah, so you said, how much weight have you gained above what your typical body weight was when you were kind of working out and stuff? I had gained about 30 pounds and here just with the changes I've started I've lost about five. Oh, you've already lost five, wonderful. I would go, I would hit the protein targets one gram per pound of target body weight. So what your body weight was when you felt really good use that as your protein target. And go one to one with that. Okay. And make it, and make it a personal goal to try and do it through Whole Foods, only use the protein powders, bars and shakes and so that if you have to, but try and try and do that Whole Foods if you can, you'll see better results that way. Okay. Okay. All right. All right, Tammy. Make sure you give us your, make sure, yes, make sure you send back your, your mailing address so we can send some, so we're gonna send some stuff to you. Okay. And that's exciting. Thank you so much. Thanks for calling in. Appreciate it, guys. Thank you. You ever wanna hug? God, I love her. I just wanna give her a big hug. I absolutely love her. What an amazing woman. I can't believe all the stuff that she's got. I got all choked up, dude. That's like the shit that, could you imagine? No. The, no. The order of that stuff and the magnitude of that and then she's all happy and chipper-y like shit. Well, she's got, it sounds like she's got a lot of purpose in her life. You know, she works with these kids and I think that's what, you know, keeps you going and keeps you moving forward. She's a big driver, yeah. But you hit the nail on the head, bro. That 40-year relationship with exercise, you cannot maintain that kind of consistency, appropriate, I'd say, consistency with exercise without developing a wonderful character and becoming a better person. You just can't. At some point, you gotta face certain things, you have to work through certain things and you really learn, and it takes a long time. Obviously, you can have a bad relationship with exercise, but that doesn't last 40 years. At some point, you gotta figure it out. And I think that it's also what gave her the latitude to kind of abuse herself. Totally. And then her blood work came back and she was good. Yes, and that's because somebody else who's lived a more normal, say, life for the last, you know, 40-something years. Yeah, with no stress would have had probably poorer blood markers. Totally. So yeah, that's such a testament to what she's done. So I'm excited for her. I mean, she, and she, boy, talk about knowing, I mean, she was on, with the MAPS 15, what she needs to do, protein-wise. That was already on point. Yeah, no, you could tell that she knows what she's doing. Yeah, those are the kind of clients I used to like to train, not because I help them, but because I used to ask them questions. Yeah. And I'd work out with them and be like, Well, they'd fill our cup back. Exactly. I mean, just, yeah, just her overall positive energy towards facing, like, these odds, yeah. Totally. Our next caller is Brie from Colorado. Hi, Brie, how's it going? Hi, guys, it's good to meet you. I'm happy to be here. Thank you. So my question was, how many times can I run anabolic back-to-back before I need to switch? I did it, I've done it three times, mainly because of hectic schedules and it's familiar to me. So essentially, do you have to phase the phases? No, and you could almost run it indefinitely as long as you're doing something probably mobility-wise to complement it, because the only problem, I think any of us have with running anabolic indefinitely, as far as like a result, like losing body fat, building muscle, you could do it forever for those reasons, because of the way it's phased. But what people tend to feel is issues with like their joints, because so much of it is just the sagittal point. There's not a lot of multi-planar stuff. We don't have any sort of mobility built into that. Side-to-side rotational movements. Not a lot of unilateral stuff involved in there. So it's limiting because of that. From a results perspective of building muscle, losing body fat, absolutely. It's programmed. You could run it over and over. But what I would recommend is that if you start noticing your joints talking to you, that's a sign that you either need to incorporate mobility or like the order that we wrote them for, which was MAPS Anabolic, then performance. Performance really addresses all that stuff. Yeah, and you can address that in the trigger session days as well. So if you want it to replace like some with mobility sessions like we have in MAPS Performance, or just like be more deliberate with body weight exercises where you're moving side-to-side and you're getting some rotation in there, that's one way to sort of address and handle it. Brie, let me ask you why you're asking this question. Why would you want to run it consecutively over and over again? Well, so I took a temporary job out of town where I'm working nights. So I'm off and up for over 24 hours. And so on my days home, I essentially do the foundational workouts like on the days I'm home back to back to back. Like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, instead of separating them. Haven't been great at the trigger sessions because of my work schedule. So I didn't know if there'd be something better for that or I'm just sticking with what I know. No, no, okay. So this is more about a just familiarity and it works with your schedule. Simplicity, yeah. So if I could customize what you're doing, this is what I would like. So I'm gonna have Doug send you MAPS Performance. And I think- I have that one. Oh, you already have it. What I would do is actually go one foundational day of anabolic, do a mobility day in between, and then do another foundational day of anabolic. Yeah, I wouldn't want to, yeah. I don't think you should do the three foundational days. That's why I wanted to break it up with mobility. Yeah. So how long have you been on this schedule? A few months. And I'm only, my contract's only till the end of June. So then I'll be able to go back and do like aesthetic or something as it's laid out. Oh, so okay. So after June, then you'll be working on a more normal schedule where you could work out, space them out type of deal. Okay. Here's what I want you to do until June. I want you to do MAPS 15 because you're hammering your body with your schedule and you're probably already noticing that. You're what, three months in, you said? Since December, so I guess a little bit more. Yeah. How you feeling? Tired. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go MAPS 15, Honda. It's beating you up. Look, schedules like this, people don't realize just how demanding it is on the body. It's especially when your circadian rhythm is all totally thrown off. It's a major stress on the body. And I'm going to assume that your job is stressful. Anyway, most jobs that you work those kinds of hours are quite demanding. You mind if I ask what you do? I'm an ER nurse. Yeah, good God. Oh wow. You're doing MAPS 15. Yeah. You're not doing foundational work. It's a lot of stress. Yeah, yeah, yeah, MAPS 15. You're up at night, you work 24 hours. Then you got three days off in a row, then you're back at it. Like you need to do MAPS 15 because you're already taxing your body and you're starting to feel it now three months in. And that means it's probably, you got to back off quite a bit. After June, I would go give yourself like a month of like easy workouts and then go ahead and get back into MAPS and Ebola. If you don't do what I say, your body's going to start talking to you in big ways with hormone imbalances, anxiety issues. You'll start, if you aren't already noticing those things. So I'm glad to ask you because, I mean, ER nurse, I've trained a few of you guys, you guys are maniac. So MAPS 15 is the way to go for now. Do you have that program? I don't. All right, I'm sending it to you. Okay. Thank you guys so much. You got it. You got it. By the way, it looks easy, but it's appropriate. And I'm saying this to you because I know your type. You love the stress. You love the cortisol. You love the excitement. So you're going to look at MAPS 15 and be like, I want to do something hard. No, do MAPS 15. Stick with that. Don't overdo it. Just think about it as you're doing it every day. So you're setting yourself up. Just 15 minutes. That's it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I'll trust it. I'll do it. Good. All right. Thanks for calling. Have I? Thank you so much. You got it. Did I ever share my girlfriend ER story? No. Right here. We'll do that sometime. Remind me. Oh, come on. Not right now. This is not a good time. It's more of a funny story. It's not related to it. If it was related, it would help her. I would talk about it right now. It's nothing to do with that. You know what the irony is? Well, the crazy part about these, almost every job I've ever, every client that's ever worked a job where they work nights, it's not only the stress of the nights, it's also a stressful job. It's almost never like an easy job. It's always some kind of a job that's- You're putting out fires everywhere. I actually had to tell my girlfriend at the time to stop telling me her work, talk about her work because it was stressing me out. Tell me about it. Yeah, bro. I mean, every night it was like, oh, some dude fell off the second floor and landed on his head and like, oh, some other dude drove a nail through his hand, like just everything was like crazy. I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm cool. These kids came in and you know, there's this horrible accident and like, oh my God, I can't, you know, I can't deal with this. And two, to her testament, like she's in great shape. Like that's something like I want to keep promoting amongst nurses and doctors. Like if you've been in the hospital in a while, man, there is not a lot of fit people working there anymore, which is, you know, something I, like I'd commend her for that. Dude, I used to train an oncologist, which is a stressful job as a doctor. You're working with dying people, okay? And he smoked. He was an oncologist who smoked. And I dealt with the stress. And he was embarrassed about it, but we talk about it and he goes, you don't understand. He goes, listen, I know smoking is like the number one cause of cancer, and I'm a cancer doctor. He goes, but my job is so stressful that I go outside and I smoke so I can go do my job. I'm like, I get it, bro. Like I know, right? But I get it, like, I don't know how you could do something like that. So, and ER doctors, ER nurses and doctors, it's emergency after emergency. Yeah, no, it's not. It's not regular patients. It's like, I'm dying. And a special person does that job. So you hit it wrong. I'm glad you asked that because obviously my recommendation, I would have changed it to how I know the stressful job she's doing. Although I will say this, and I didn't want to say it after you said it because there was no reason to even go back and forth on it. Because your recommendation, I think, is better. But you could modify what I said. Like, if you're really good about, you could do an anabolic day that is a normal anabolic day. You could do a mobility day, so we could, and then you could do like a very low intensity third day and actually make that work. But you have to really... You have to have very good self-awareness and control of that and that personality. I know. So once, that's why I didn't say anything. Because I'm like, okay, she's probably gonna be the person who leans more towards getting after it. Her normal is everybody else's stressed out. So she cannot gauge. She's not gonna be able to gauge the right intensity. I know this. I've worked with people like this. Yeah, no, you were here. And you tell them, just scale it down when you feel like you're a little tired. You can't do it. You're scaling it down. Scaling it down. Yeah. That's fifth gear. That's it. Our next caller is Xavier from Oklahoma. Hey, what's happening, man? How can we help you? Hey, thanks, guys. Hey, Sal, Adam, Justin. I'd like to first off, thank you guys for taking my call. I really listen to you guys a lot. My in-between class is when I'm working, stuff like that. Good deal. So for context, I wanted to say that I've ran the RGB bundle a couple of times. Also ran the map split and maps pile if twice. And my question I was wanting to ask you guys is like, how would you guys kind of make maps pile if more focus on the bench? And kind of, because that's where I'm kind of having a hard time bringing it up. Okay. So your bench press seems to be stuck but everything else is... You know, how much do you mess with that because it's so specific to increasing those lifts? Those three lifts. You know what? I actually think less of modifying power. The first thing that comes to mind to me is actually running something else and then maybe including chest exercises that you don't do regularly or that are in there. Like... Yeah, get some unconventional options in there. Hold on, he's been working out for a while. What are your lifts, if you don't mind me. How much do you weigh? What's your deadlift squat and bench? So right now I'm weighing like around 182 right now. My deadlift, I recently had 505 squat, 440. And then bench is, it's kind of been kind of stuck at like 285. Okay. You're pretty damn strong. Yeah, you are strong. Part of the reason why your weights are stuck is because you're fricking strong for your body weight. So you're at a level now where... So incremental. Especially for your size. Like everything's gonna move slow now. I mean, you're hitting numbers for your body weight that you're really, really high. Like that's really good. I can't hit any of those numbers right now. Yeah, so you're pretty strong. So here's what, so this is, it's gonna change now. My advice is gonna change. I'm glad I asked you that because if you weren't so strong that would give you different advice but because you're so strong, you're probably the areas that you're probably, I don't know, lacking or could improve upon probably have to do with stability and balance more than anything at your strength. Now, if your bench was like, win 85, I would just be like, keep focusing on your bench, add frequency, take it away from your deadlift, blah, blah, blah. But at that strength, there's probably something there that's preventing your body from adding another five or 10 pounds to the bench. And it's probably a mobility or stability thing is where I would guess. It tends to happen. So let me ask you this. When you start to push your bench, do you notice anything in your shoulder, your elbow? Do you get any like in pec insertion pain, your wrist, anything like that? I feel like whenever I'm benching my left shoulder might kind of roll a little bit forward than my right. Okay, map symmetry. I'm gonna have you, have you done map symmetry yet? No, I haven't. Yeah, do map symmetry. So like I said, at a certain point, like initially just getting stronger is just getting stronger. At a certain point, when you get to, when you start to get to big numbers, it's like these things that are getting in the way have more to do with your body's ability to like stable. It's like, okay, it's like you have a car and you can increase the horsepower, but at some point the tires spin. You can add all the horsepower you want, you're not gonna go any faster. So then you gotta look at traction. You gotta look at, can I make the tire stick and so I can get faster? You gotta get into the fine tuning of it. Yeah, so I think map symmetry will address some of that. Then go back into mass power lift and then see how you feel. I liked that direction because what was on my mind, I was gonna ask you, because you're so power lift focused and getting the bench press up, would you say that you barbell press way more than you dumbbell press? Right now, I've been kind of working in some dumbbell pressing because I recognize that myself too. So I've been kind of adding some dumbbell pressing. I haven't really done it for like, I've only been doing it for like four weeks right now. So I probably should maybe stick more to it right now. And then go back into it. Yeah, you're gonna get that in symmetry. So that's why I like Sal going in that direction is I had a feeling that there's some opportunity there for you to get really good. And that is gonna address mobility and stability stuff because you can go real deep by the way. So when you're doing dumbbells all the way down real deep, make sure you're doing incline. I love incorporating that. And then if there's any opportunity in areas like heavy weighted dips, I'm trying to think of like these movements that I remember when I was neglecting or I didn't have it and how it carried over to the bench. So looking for exercises that you kind of suck at that will help your chest strengthen growth, incorporating that. Definitely the symmetry and the dumbbells are there. And then anything that you can think of that you probably could spend more time addressing versus just continuing to get good. You're probably really good at the barbell bench press because you've done it so long. I think it nails it in the head. I really think it's, if you spend the time to really address each individual joint and you are able to kind of uncover any kind of weakness there in the chain that we can strengthen up and support you better when you get to that weight again. Cause then if I had any advice as you're going back and kind of benching and really getting after it, some progressive kind of resistance for me was helpful. And I know like with chains and bands, but even like a sling shot I've used before, I don't know if you messed around with that at all just to get me a little more acclimated to heavier weights and then kind of work my way through that. But that's after we address, you know, the instability. Xavier, how old are you? 19. Oh my God, bro. You're that strong, right? So listen. I don't even want to talk to you anymore. No, no, no. You're doing good. No more advice. No more advice for you. It's because you listen to people. We want him to be better than us. Listen, listen, I'm going to say, so I figured you were young. So I'm going to say something to you because here's what's going to happen, okay? You're going to do map symmetry and you're going to be like, I want to go lift heavy. You're going to do map symmetry and be like, this is boring. I want to go pound some heavy ass weights. Okay? Here's the truth. That's phase four. Here's the truth. Could I train, could I get a powerlifting coach to get your bench press to go up faster than if you did what I said? Yes, you could get your bench press to go up faster if you did like powerlifting techniques. Here's the problem. And you'll figure this out as you start to meet more power lifters. They start to wrap their elbows, their wrists. They start to lose mobility. They start to acquire injury after injury. So because you're so young, do it the way I'm saying it. You might progress a little slower right now, but ultimately you're going to hit bigger numbers as you get older. You got a lot of time, bro. You're 19, you're not going to hit your peak and strength until about your early to mid 30s. So you've got a long way to go. So don't do the like. You'll need the artificial stability support. Like that's a hundred percent where that direction goes. And you'll see that with these guys. Yeah, don't ignore little things because you're like, now I just want to add another 15 times my bench. Don't Larry Wills yourself. Yeah, yeah. Or Lane Norton yourself. He figured that out the hard way. So do what I said. It takes a little longer, but you'll get bigger numbers as you keep working out. And then you won't get to the point where like I know power lifters my age were like, yeah, I used to bench. Now I can't anymore. So that sucks. So map symmetry. It's not going to be what you're used to. Trust the process. Get in the mindset and then go back to power lift and see what happens. I'm going to add one more thing that I would love, love for you. And this is all the advice Sal saying spot on. I would even one time run power lift all dumbbell as get rid of the bar for the bench press and just see how fricking strong you can get following the protocol. But instead of the barbell bench press, you're actually doing dumbbells and run a whole cycle like that. And you could do that later too. Yeah. And then come back to the, and then run it again all barbell and see what you notice from that. I think that would benefit you. And because we're so young, we got so much time at some point, do that for yourself. One more thing I'm going to ask you, what time do you go to bed at night? What time do you wake up on a regular basis? Be honest. Probably I would say midnight and then waking up like around eight. Okay. So that's not bad. And that's consistent every single night? Most nights, yeah. I mean, sometimes if I'm going out with my girlfriend and stuff like that, I might, you know, push it later at night, but I work in the morning, stuff like that. All right, that's not bad. All right, yeah, just do what I said. I think you'll be good. I have another question, kind of what Justin was talking about, if you guys have time. You're too strong. Of course. No more questions for you. We're going to start giving you wrong advice now. No. We're just going to talk about that. Whenever he was talking about like the bands and stuff, because I haven't worked with those. I haven't added them to mass parlifts. I've added like heavy weighted dips and stuff like that. Maybe you guys talk about that. So I've incorporated some of those things. But I was wanting to ask, like how would you guys maybe incorporate bands and the mass parlifts? What I do like on the heavy day, just do like how it is. And then like on the hypertrophy day, do like with bands, with resistance, or maybe like a slingshot, or maybe even add like a third day on bench, like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or something like that. All right, here's what you could do. I wouldn't add, that's for sure. Yeah, here's what you could do. Don't do this though. Yeah, until you do map symmetry. Right, this is after symmetry. Yeah, because I feel like you're asking me a question because you don't want to do this. I know, you know what? He's gonna do this. We're not giving this answer until you go do what we told you. You promise us you're on video right now, okay. Smart kid, that's what I would do. Okay, cool, I'll do that. But anyway, so if I did do. All right, so here's how you would add bands. You would add it. You could actually add it to any of the workouts. I would do it on the heavy workout days. And what you'll find is you can add weight to the bar because of the progressive resistance. So it'll just, it'll change the way. Especially the slingshot. Yeah, so you'll feel that instant support and help too when you're at the bottom position. Yeah, but bands are not gonna be as long-term useful for you now. Now, let's get your body balanced out, especially at your strength. Okay. All right, man. Thanks for calling in. Yeah, keep us posted bro. It's good. Yeah, I'd love to hear back from you in a couple months. Yeah, I'll give that dumbbell thing a try now. Hit you guys up after that. We're gonna send you symmetry too, by the way. So that's, that way you got it. Okay, thank you guys. All right, bro. You guys have a good day. You got it, have a good one. Aren't you glad I asked him what his less work? 19 years, that's strong. Dude, I know. Oh, it's a little jealous. Hey, so what I said, like I would love to see him just do a whole phase of eliminating the barbell, going all dumbbell and seeing just how strong. Sure, that'd be a fun experiment. Well, I was trying to think back to being a young guy and like the thing, of course, I think we've all been in a phase of our life where like we just cared about getting the bench press up and the things that really move the needle. I remember heavy dips being that way. I do remember going on a phase where like I just said, I'm eliminating the barbell and I'm gonna get hella strong on the dumbbells. I got really good at dumbbells, came back initially was not as strong on the barbell. But then I passed it. And so I think he would really benefit from symmetry for sure, which are gonna get that dumbbell unilateral work. So of course I think that's a great recommendation. And then I'd even run power lift and get rid of the barbell and include a dumbbell. Now I'm gonna say this, cause I know, I know right now there's some power lifters and power lifting coaches who are like dumb, stupid advice you should do. Just stick with the bench only and get mastered. Here's the deal, like power lifters, I'm talking to you. You guys are performance driven, your competition driven. You can, yes, he can definitely get stronger faster by following your advice, but he's 19 and he doesn't want or I don't want him to end up like you, where now you're, you got all his nagging injuries and shit. So the S.T. advice- He's building a support system intrinsically. And at his age, think about this right now. If you're watching this and you're a power lifter, power lifting coach, if you could go back in time, what do you think you would have done? Yeah. Knowing what you know now, right? That's why I'm looking at you all wrapped up and wearing shirts and elastic shirts. That's why I made the Larry Wills comment. I mean, that's a young guy who's been, that's moving like that. And he's not doing no mobility work and stuff like that or unilateral shit. I mean, the guy is just on a mission to get stronger and stronger. And you can, and then eventually you, you blow out your suspension, you know? Yep, yep. Look, if you like Mind Pump, head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal. You can also find all of us on Instagram. So Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam is at Mind Pump, Adam. Today, we're going to teach you everything you need to know to build a strong, well-developed chest. When I think of weak points and areas that I struggled with developing for a really long time, chest was up there with the- Yeah, it was for me, it was for me for sure. I got more caught up in the weight I could lift versus how I was developing my body. I think it's one of the most challenging muscles to develop for most people because the form and technique.