 in this episode of mine pump. So in this episode, we answer questions asked by people like you who post these questions on our Instagram page and then thanks for the content. At the beginning of the episode, we do our introductory portion. This is where we have fun, talk about current events, hang out with each other a little bit. Anyway, you're going to enjoy this episode. Here's what we talked about. We started out by talking about an Instagram influencer, a fitness influencer who said that it's a weird way to say it, right? It's French. It's French. He talked about how you should not be doing super deep squats or mobility work or things like yoga, because it actually increases your risk of injury. Yes, we completely disagree with them. Hey, guess what? You're wrong. You're going to have to listen to this part, that part of the episode to find out why. Then I talked about fasting and the proper way to fast or at least the proper mentality around fasting, how everything else is more of a pathology around fasting. I talked about brain FM. This is the product that we've worked with for years now. If you listen to them, it'll help you meditate and help you concentrate. I was talking about how it helped my son study for his Spanish quiz. If you go to brain.fm forward slash mine pump, we'll give you 20% off. Then focus on Adam talked about how he got hammered because he doesn't vote. That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam doesn't vote, but it's because he's responsible. My God, right? Then I talked about the fertility crash, how modern societies are fertility rates are dropping. I talked about one of the best snack foods ever. Almonds. Almonds are amazing. I concur very high in vitamin E high in manganese high in magnesium. And if you like your almonds lightly covered in chocolate with good macronutrient profile, definitely go to skinny dipped. They're one of our sponsors. If you go to skinny dipped.com forward slash mine pump and enter the code mine pump, you'll get 20% off your purchase. Then I talked about the cannabinoid cannabicromine CBC. This one's not that well known. Well, believe it or not, it may actually help with acne. Where will you find CBC? You'll find it in full spectrum hemp products like the one from Ned. Now we work with Ned because we think they're the best. They have a full spectrum hemp oil products. If you go to hello Ned.com forward slash mine pump, you'll get 15% off your first purchase. Then I talked about the movie Harriet. Excellent movie about Harriet Tubman. She's one of my heroes. And then we got into the questions portion of this episode. The first question, this person wants to know if we had to add an exercise to the big four, what would that exercise be? So the big four are barbell squat, deadlift bench press and overhead press. Everybody knows those are some of the best exercises. What would the fifth one be? Next question, this person says, Hey, what's better leg press or a hack squat? So if you had to pick one, which one would you pick? Third question, how effective is yelling at yourself, slapping yourself or getting angry to lift more weight? And the final question, this person saying, Hey, sports like football and rugby, they're getting demonized because of all the concussions and stuff. What do you guys think the future of those sports will be? So we do a little bit of prophesizing in that part of the episode. Also with bubble tape this month maps performance is 50% off. Now maps performance is our fitness program designed for those of you that want to work on your athletic functional performance. So if you like to look good and move good, have good mobility, good strength, good muscle, be able to move in different planes of motion. So not just front to back, but side to side rotate, have some speed and power, we'll get maps performance and it's half off front back front back. Here's what you do. Go to mapsgreen.com and use the code green 50 G R E N five zero no space for the discount. I'm starting to get fired up man about and I don't know what started it or what. I brought it up on the last episode. I'm getting tagged in it like maybe that's why I said I brought it up and now everyone's tagging me. It's like, remember when you, whenever you buy a car and you think you got the only one that looks like that you see it all the time, right? So that could be what's happening right now. But I feel like there's this movement of you telling people not to learn how to squat or not to squat or not to do deep squats. Now I get tagged in a post today. Don't squat deep. Don't do mobility. Don't do yoga. And it's a Dr. Joel Seidman. Oh yeah. Let me look at that post real quick just so I can get the clear what he says, but it's, he's, I tagged you in it because I saw it and I've actually been tagged on his stuff before. I just paid no attention to him because I didn't care for some of the information he was presenting the last time I looked. Yeah. He's so wrong in this post. I don't know where to begin. It's really, really, really bad how wrong he is. So he's saying, stop doing yoga, asterisk squats, stretching and mobility drills. If you think extreme range of motion and pushing mobility boundaries won't have detrimental mental effects, think again, by the way, he's referring to an article that was in the BBC. BBC isn't like the news channel. Yeah. Like the BBC. Great English. Great reference. In the article itself, it was essentially a physiotherapist who was talking about his observations. So it's not a study. It was a guy saying, Hey, I've had to work a lot on yoga practitioners and in their hips and stuff like that and, you know, in other types of fields where there's a lot of mobility. And by the way, here's, here's, I'll tell you real quick why he's wrong. Mobility is not flexibility. Flexibility is a component of mobility. So and we've said this a million times before, extreme flexibility without strength and stability is instability. It's problematic. Yes, that causes issues. Also, I also don't think it's fair to look at the extremes and to use that as the example, because I could also say, you know, I could also say, Hey, look at, you know, the strongest athletes in the world, the strongest power lifters and look at their injury rates shouldn't work out with weights, because the strongest athletes have, you know, tear, tear muscles or whatever. Doesn't work that way. Mobility means you have control over those ranges of motion. And in yoga, for example, if you do yoga properly where you maintain tension, you should improve mobility. If you do yoga where you sit in these long stretches, but then you don't strengthen and it's a gradual increase of range of motion. It's not like going to the excess of hyper, you know, like mobility, these angles that are like super extreme, it's a gradual increase in order to then gain access to that and to gain strength in that range of motion. So, you know, this is funny because it, I mean, it feeds right into that whole clinical side where they want to limit you to these 90 degree angles only within all your joints. Like that's how you move in real life. It's ridiculous. I would be walking around like a robot. Well, it's part of the motivation of originally what got us to start this podcast is what's annoyed me about our space for two decades now is that, you know, we all get in these pissing contests on, you know, who's more right. And we see here arguing over different modalities and we throw studies at each other to try and prove our ideology. And what we end up really doing instead of truly helping people is we just end up confusing the majority. Confuse the hell out of people. Yeah. I mean, if I'm somebody who doesn't know anything really about fitness, and I come in and I see posts like this and then I hear somebody else who's telling me that I need to go ask, I just, I end up doing nothing because now I'm scared. Like this doctor is telling me I shouldn't do this. This doctor is telling me I should do that. Like, ah, what do I do? Who's right? They both seem much smarter than I am. Fuck this. I don't want to get involved. Yeah. Yeah. And he's clearly, clearly misunderstanding what mobility is. Will getting stronger improve your mobility? Yes. Yeah. So technically doing curls could increase somebody's or improve somebody's mobility because they're stronger. So we have to understand how we define this. It's not just range of motion. Range of motion is a component of it, but range of motion without strength is instability. In which case, yes, I would agree. Don't get tons of range of motion that you don't have control over. You're going to hurt yourself. But if you work on improving a range of motion and controlling that range of motion, having strength within that range of motion, not only do you not increase your risk of injury, you decrease your risk of injury. And then of course, the studies shall also show in terms of muscle development, the longer range of the motion with control, you're going to activate more muscle fibers, you'll build more muscle. But no, he's totally wrong. But he's advocating in that post too, that you only stop at 90 degrees. Well, it's also, it reminds me of wearing the platform shoes and always having these super padded shoes that you're wearing all the time. And then all of a sudden dramatically going to these flat foot shoes and running in those and people getting injured and then saying you should never run in flat foot shoes or minima shoes where they never did the work where like, you know, they gained access to that strength and their feet adjusted and acclimated. No, your goal is to train within the largest range of motion that you have control over. Okay. So if I go and get under a bar and do a squat, that doesn't mean I do the deepest possible squat I can do. What it means is I go as low as I can while maintaining good control, good stability and good form. So that probably, for most people, means that I'm going to have to stop my rep short of what I can actually push myself down to do. Now your goal should be to own deeper ranges of motion. And that means you going to have to do mobility movements. Yeah, this is some work. It's so crazy that he would say, don't do any mobility. Don't do mobility movements. That's insane to me. It's all therapists do it all the time for the irony and it is I think most these guys that are putting out information like this, if we were to sit in a room together and put all of them together, we'd probably all agree on 90% of the information, right? It's pretty clear for most of us that have been in this space for a long time, what's right, what's wrong, but they use these like a, you know, specific study or they take a topic like this that's a hot button and then they put out an alarmist post to get it track. I mean, look, we're talking about it right trying to just be divisive, right? So they get attention. And what I don't like about that, and I get the I get the social media game, I understand that that's, that's part of the strategy to get eyes on you to get attention. So you then can probably try and educate. But the problem is you're, you're, we're probably doing more harm than good because a majority of the people get lost, they get lost in the weeds. And it's what I've always thought was wrong with our space. We get too much of this. We're in our camps, we're in our silos. We've got our own studies that back up our philosophy. And so we're going to put our stake in the ground. And then it's, you know, your way is, is, is inferior to my way. And we throw studies back and forth to prove that I'm more right than you are. And meanwhile, we lose the majority. And, and, and really, that's, that's who I'm interested in. I'm not interested in the kid who's got, you know, his kinesis degree, he's got five national certifications. And he wants to side more with this PhD over that PhD, like, I don't give a fuck about that kid. I'm sorry. I care about everybody else because that's where the real problem is. The real problem lies in the majority that aren't even making it to the gym. And here we are all getting in pissing contest. And really all we're doing is stifling that progress for those people. And it just annoys the fuck out of me. Well, challenging information is important, but also thinking desired outcome, like, you know, when we challenge something, it's because we want to steer the masses back on track. You know, and it's like, you're causing more confusion, which then detours people from, you know, getting to an optimal place in their training. Right. So here you are, average person, and you're like, Oh man, you know, deep squats are just hurt. They're so hard. You read this post, you're like, Oh, cool. I don't have to even work on justification, right? Yeah. I don't have to work on trying to get a deeper range of motion. So I think now I need to just stop it at what he said here, which is 90 degrees or whatever. And then that's the only way. In fact, going lower than that is bad for me. So I don't have to work on my improving or increasing my mobility. Here's the reality. The reality is life doesn't follow those rules. So life follows. When you go to move, yeah, one day you might have to go below 90. That's it. You know, one day I'm sure you will. You're going to have to reach down and twist, or you're going to have to be outside of perfect form. You're not going to be, you know, following these perfect biomechanic type movements. You're going to throw a baseball with your kid, or you're going to stop, step off of a step that you don't realize was there. So you had to catch yourself. You know, that's real life. So, you know, you want to know why so many of these, you know, athletes, not even athletes, I'm sorry, these gym rats hurt themselves when they go to the park and do regular shit. It's because they always train in the same confines. They don't challenge their mobility and work on those deeper ranges of motion. So the reality is if you do it properly, it's better. If you do it properly, you lower your risk of injury. If you're always so scared and focused on, no, I can't improve my range of motion. I can't improve my mobility by working on mobility movements. You actually increase your risk of injury with just everyday life. So it's just, yeah, silly. I just felt the need, we had to address it because over the last, I don't know, year and a half or so, he's been tagged or I've been tagged on multiple posts and people wanting me to address what we feel or think about it. And, you know, this to me was like the straw that broke the camel's back. I was like, you know, I normally don't like giving anybody attention like that. I don't think it deserves it. But this whole movement to stop people from doing mobility and yoga and learning to get astigrat, it's such a terrible message, I think, for the majority. Oh, it's silly. How many people, how many everyday people go to yoga and just drastically improve their health or their mobility and just feel so much better, you know? And you're going to start talking people out of it because you're wrong. Because it gets attention. That's three hours. There you go. Yeah. I think in our space, we have, you know, either we have that side, which is the super, you know, what is that, what do you want to call them? The technical educated people who split hairs and nuanced strength coaches. Yeah. And really aren't doing a lot to help the average person and kind of speaking in an echo chamber type of deal, which fine, if you want to do that, that's totally up to you. And then you have the other side where you have the fitness side where they'll take some good information and twist it into a way to prey on people's insecurities, you know, sell a bullshit product. Like fasting is a great example. Fasting has tremendous health benefits. One of the side effects of fasting is weight loss. So where do you think the fitness industry grabs onto? Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's the first emphasis. It's the newest diet. It's not the newest diet. It's the first diet ever. Understanding from food? Yeah. That was the very first time someone tried to lose weight. They didn't eat. Mind blown. It's not a new thing. Yeah. I actually wrote about this the other day, you know, I was thinking to myself like, okay, because we've done episodes on you know, when fasting is a good idea and when it's not a good idea and when fasting is unhealthy is what when it's used to lose weight, change your body cosmetically or aesthetically, or as a form of self hate self-flagellation. Like I'm irritated or sick of myself. I eat horrible over the weekend or I need to just get away from food because I'm disgusted with my body. Those are the wrong reasons to fast. Those are pathologies. There's only one proper right way or healthy way I should say to fast, which is to practice detachment is really what it's all about is detachment from and you can practice fasting by the way with food, but you can also practice fasting with a lot of different things that you want to practice detachment from. So there are those. Have you guys ever heard those vipassanas where people go? No, it's not. And they go to these like retreats where nobody speaks. Oh, that's what they're called. Yeah, for like a week or whatever. That's detachment from communication. Or you could do fasting from electronics where you detach from the electronics. Fasting from food. When it's done for the healthy aspects of it is that it's the detachment aspect, not the avoidance, not the I shouldn't eat that because I'm disgusting or whatever. It's the practicing of detachment. It's the way that spiritual leaders have practiced fasting for thousands of years. Outside of that, you shouldn't fast. You know what I mean? Outside of that, you shouldn't be using that as a way to agree to lose weight or whatever. We used to call that starving back in the day, by the way. They just rebranded it just, you know, something else. Yeah, it was old school model diet. Yeah. Anyway, I was driving to work the other day with my kid and he was like nervous over his Spanish test. I guess the Spanish teacher is really tough and he's had like his first ever, you know, bad grades on tests and stuff. Kid, what's that a B? Yeah. Well, you know, no, he actually got an F on one of his tests. Oh, wow. Yeah. He's got overall a good grade in the class, but it's like one of his first F. So he's like super stressed out. So we're in the car and he's pulling up his phone. And I always tell him, I don't want you on your phone when we're in the car, because I like to have conversations with him. He's like, no, I'm studying for my Spanish test coming up. I'm like, okay, did you span it? Did you practice yesterday? He says, yeah. I said, okay. So as he's practicing, I put brain FM on in the car. He's like, no, no, keep it quiet. I don't want any sound. I said, trust me. Yeah, let me leave this song for about seven minutes and then we'll let, let me know what you think. So the drive up here from my house is about 30 to 45 minutes. So, and you guys know when you listen to brain FM, right? It takes like, yeah, 10 minutes to kind of, yeah, you just sort of slip into it. Dude, he was in the zone, man. You can tell. He's like, dude, dude, dude, you know, do anything back and forth. So after he's about to get out of the car and he goes, what was that? That's great. Yeah. And I'm all manipulated. Yeah. I'm like, dude, it works. So he's going to get it on his phone now and start using it for so funny, dude. I seriously had a similar experience. Like, so I, you know, I have that like Bluetooth speaker, that small one. And I put it out on the kitchen table while the kids were supposed to be doing their homework. And yeah, normally they don't have any music, nothing, no TV, nothing's on, like to distract them. And they still find ways to like get distracted, start talking about like video games or whatever. And I just, I literally just put that on. I put the focus on and I was doing stuff in the kitchen and they started talking. And then all of a sudden they stopped talking and their heads down and they're like writing and then they're reading and writing and literally for 15 minutes straight, not even a peep out of a six year old, a 10 year old, nine year old. There's a part of me that's a little bit like, what are they doing with this? It's, it's works kind of work. Yeah. Didn't you guys, who is it that said, if you listen to it while you have sex? Was that you? Yeah. Have you, have you used it since? No, we used to do it all the time. I mean, Katrina and I obviously keep you focused. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we went, we had, it's paramount now, dude. Let me tell you. I know, I actually, I actually, we haven't since we've had Max tried using that and I haven't thought about that. It was part of the formula because we had the audio book we were listening to already on, on the speaker. Right. So I have my Bose, I have one of those Bluetooth Bose speakers that's right next to the bed. And we used to listen to an audio book. We'd listen to the audio book for like 45 minutes or so. And then I told you I would, I would smoke and then I would throw the focus on, on brain FM. And it was just like intense, bro. Fireworks. Yeah, you just go, you go in deep for like a long time. You're like, oh, shit, that was like an hour and a half. Oh, he ain't lying. You're so focused on me. But we actually have, we haven't done that in a long time, dude. I mean, I'm just grateful if I can get any sex these days. Oh no. You got that deadline. Oh my God. It's just, it's, which is funny because Katrina is, I never thought I would be that way because she, I have used to, you just heard me talk on the podcast for the last five years. Like, it's a very similar, it's like we're playing my life, dude. It's like very aggressive when I first met her. And then I was like, oh, and then all of a sudden gone. So I can empathize. It's tired, dude. Like I, I miss my massages too, man. I used to, I mean, that's how she got me early on. I went for the first year we were dating. I got a massage. You're not number one no more, bro. And then as, I think as a dad, you're like, you're torn. Like, I can't give her too much shit because I do care about that. You know what I'm saying? At the end of the day, like I'm willing to make the sacrifice. Like dad will just figure it out. She got hell mad at me like the two nights ago because I said, you know, uh, you think maybe you could introduce me to a massage therapist that I can. Oh yeah. No, like I'll barking at me. You can't say that to her, dude. That's why I'm asking you for a personal training. I know, bro. And I'm just, she's like, I'll do it. You just need to tell me heads up. And I said, well, I did text you at 11am this morning. Yeah. After that last leg workout was so brutal. I'm like, oh my God, I miss having my massage therapist that used to rub me after these days. Right. And so I texted her like after like the night before I just rocked her world. Right. So I was like, this is perfect timing. Right. I was just completely rocked her world before. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So first thing in the morning is like 11 o'clock in the morning. I'm like, man, I would love a massage tonight. And she goes anything after last night. Right. She had those the response I got. And then get home. The time goes by. I kind of throw like little innuendos around. Ah, you know, it'd be nice to get a massage. Oh yeah. I lay out later. And then eight o'clock comes around and I'm like, that's when I bring it up because it never happened. Right. And then I get the no. And then I get the, you know, you should have told me sooner. I'm like, well, I did text you like 11 o'clock this morning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Dude, I saw you getting, you said you were getting roasted for your story yesterday. You were answering questions. Yeah. Somebody asked me, somebody, the first one that came in was like, can Trump count on your vote in 2020? And then I just gave a short answer. Oh my God. That is, yeah. Right. So fun. What? Yeah. Yeah. That's what it said. Are you full maga? Yeah. Are you one of us? Yeah. So I said, I don't vote. And boy, did that just, and I, you know, I do those things so fast, right? A lot of times my spelling is off. I'm just quick. I'm just trying to get through as many as I can in a day. And, you know, the short answer to someone who said that about voting is just like, you know, I don't vote. And boy, it just ruffled everybody's feathers. Because you don't vote. Yeah. Well, because then I got this, you know, you don't think it's important to vote and this and that. And I said, no, I didn't say that. I said, you know, and then I went and then I did another post that explained it because I had so many people that were asking because I had some people that were just curious, you know, like, oh, just curious why you don't. I said, well, I don't think I'm educated on the topic. I really don't. Sure. I listened to things like louder with Crowder and sure, you know, one of my best friends is Sal and he's constantly talking about politics. And so I get a little bit of influence in that area, but I haven't sat down and done my own research. I haven't sat down and, you know, checked anything that Sal's told me or checked what I'm hearing from Stephen Crowder or actually gone and done the researches or looked at the policies or see what both sides. I just haven't taken the time to do that. And so I think it's irresponsible for me to go emotionally vote on somebody because I've got influenced by Sal or a Facebook post has influenced me and or it's a party that I supposedly align with. So then I just vote for the party and I fucking disagree with that. The irony of someone telling you it's irresponsible to not vote or you don't respect voting, the irony of that statement because the reality is you respect it so much, right, that you won't do it unless you feel like you've made a good choice. Otherwise, you'll step out, right? And say, okay, I'm not going to, I'm not going to add to this. This is how I feel most people should be 100%. I fucking hate everybody else that doesn't do that. I think it's irresponsible for you to go down and vote. Nobody does that. Well, they're making decisions based on propaganda from both sides, which is horseshit. Totally. One of the worst things ever, one of the worst messages ever was this whole like pop culture, get out and vote, vote or die. That's the dumbest thing ever. If you're casting your vote, you should really know what you're voting for. You should really take the time to respect the decision you're going to make. Dude, the people that were influenced by that, it blows my mind. That was like an agenda, that was an agenda by one of the political parties like a decade or two years ago. Bill Clinton, they went into schools. They went into schools and they made it a thing and now they give the stickers, I voted. They want a specific bias. They want you to vote a certain direction. They got mad that you actually voted, but it wasn't what they, their party. It's like, but you wanted me to vote. Yeah. No, Bill Clinton was brilliant at that. Back in, do you remember when he was on MTV playing the saxophone and answering questions and I mean, brilliant. The guy's one of the one of the most brilliant politicians in terms of, you know, getting elected or whatever. He's a cool guy. Right. Right. And that was that whole MTV push, you know, and now people, if you don't vote, it's like, it's like, you know, disrespectful. Yeah. It's like, people feel so disrespectful. Yeah. All this, this, this like pressure, you know, like, Oh, I have to vote. If I don't, I'm doing a bad thing. No, no, no, no. If you vote and you're not educating yourself on the topics, then you're doing a bad thing. If you don't vote because you don't really know a lot or don't feel like you're educated enough, that's the right thing to do. Well, and somebody came back at me again and they were just like, you know, so you don't think it's important that you, you educate yourself. I said, I didn't say that. I said, I'm not. So I don't right now. My priorities are different right now. A lot of my energy and reading and learning is centered around being a better father. It's centered around scaling a company up. It's, it's centered around giving better information on what we present here on this podcast and all of our platforms. We're, we're trying to help millions of people improve their lives. And I just think that you'd, you would rather me put my energy towards that since that's my expertise and what I've already been researching and studying for two decades versus, you know, get me to go down to a booth and, you know, blindly pick some random people or do a little bit of homework for a day and then think that I'm truly educated on the topic to make a real intelligent decision. Like, no, I'm quick to admit that I'm not informed enough, not, not as informed as I should be if I'm going to go make a decision where that matters. So I would much rather leave that to the people that are doing that. And I'll continue doing what I think is important to me and where I'm, where my place is in life. I'll tell you where the important places are that you vote. If you, if you start to do your research and stuff, the local issues, yeah, the local elections are the most important because we're in California and the way the elections work. California is going to go to whatever the Democrat nominee is 100%. So unless you, you agree with that, your vote is kind of, you know, you can vote for whoever you want. California is going to the Democrat. Look at the local elections, look at your state in city elections. That's where it starts to really make a difference. And that's where people are the least educated, which is funny. People care a lot about the big, the national stuff, but then when it comes out into the state and local stuff, and you know what's what pisses me off. You ever read the things that you're voting on when you get those things in the mail? You ever read how they word them? It's so misleading. Oh, dude, it's crazy. Like the way that they'll word it and then you're not realizing that if you vote yes, yes, yes, yes. Wait, do I say yes? It's like those trick questions in school, you know, when it was like a double negative. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's really, really misleading. I think you're doing the right thing, dude. I think if you're listening and you don't know what's going on, please don't vote. Yeah, that's how I feel. I mean, I had some, there were some intelligent people that responded and said, Hey, I respect that. You know, I respect that you, you're comfortable with saying you're not educated enough on that to make it an intelligent decision on it. And I think that's more respectful than saying like, yeah, I'm going to go vote. On that note, since we got there, since we're going there, you know, one argument that I've heard a lot in terms of helping the environment, this is a political issue now, right, is that people should not have any kids, which I think is the most insane, ridiculous, terrible argument I've ever heard in my life because who's going to enjoy the environment? We don't have people. That's so strange to me. Yeah, I get what they're saying. Don't have kids, less people, whatever, but you know, that's a terrible argument to have is, is that we're not going to have any people. Didn't you say that's like, you sent over a picture of something on a wall in like Europe or somewhere. Where was that? Oh, you're talking about the, the fertility rates dropping? No, you sent a screenshot of a wall that was painted that said, don't it's like, oh yeah, don't have kids get sterilized. That was in London. Oh, London. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're showing me really pushing for people to not have children and stuff like that. You know, the reality is that the fertility rates drop as societies become more advanced and modern, which is poses another problem. When societies start to lose population, so unless we have to replace ourselves or actually more than replace ourselves, we need to have 2.4, the birth rate needs to be at least 2.4 in order for governments to continue the way they are. If it starts to drop below that, what ends up happening is you have more people taking out than paying in and the current way that we run things just won't work. And meanwhile, extremist groups are promoting like the more kids the merrier, right? So like you're going to get like, so if like, we're all supposed to not like, you know, having kids anymore be sterile, like what are we going to be left with? A bunch of fucking extremists, like no, let's have kids, like rational people should have kids. No, come on. The calculation show that the population will start to top out and then start to kind of flatten out a little bit because as societies become more advanced, we start to have kind of less and less kids. It's adolescents get stretched out. So like the amount of energy and effort you put and money that you put into a kid today is way more than it was say 500 years ago because kids now, you know, they're not moving out until they're in their mid twenties. They have a lot, lots of education. Whereas before it was, you know, 15 years old, you know, go out there and have kids, you know, and work or whatever. So, but yeah, it's a, I hate that message. Can't stand that message so much. Anyway, I had a conversation with somebody on Instagram yesterday and I thought this was an interesting one. It's a common question that I get all the time. Do you guys ever get people ask you like, what's what are good snack foods or what are good things to all the time to eat on the go or whatever all the time? All men's all men's have got to be one of the best. They're one of my favorites absolute nuts in general, but all men's are one of the best snack foods you can have very high in vitamin E very high in manganese, magnesium. And then did you know that there's studies that show that all men's in particular of all the nuts have one of the best appetite, suppressing or satiating effects on people. What if my, what if my nuts are covered in dark chocolate? You mean like, what should we call it? Skinny dip. You know, their macros are really good because it's thin chocolate. It's a little bit better. Well, there's also benefits to dark chocolate though, too, right? Sure. There are some, there are some antioxidant benefits. And then all men's have been tied to being anti-cancer. So they've shown that people who replace calories. So they lower amounts of other types of calories, but eat more nuts or all men's. There was one study in particular with all men's that showed a lower rate of breast cancer in women. It's a great snack. I do get actually asked that live because just got asked the other day and that was my advice was, you know, we, we are, we've got skinny dipped almonds. I'm a big fan of and the question was somebody had an office and they, the office brings in donuts and candy and they got all the stuff. And I'm like, I'll just keep, I would recommend and what I used to tell clients is keep a, you know, this before we had somebody. And you weigh them out or whatever? Yeah. Well, before we had, you know, skinny dipped, I would just tell clients regular almonds and a jug of water. I would tell them to keep on their desk and you'd be surprised just by drinking water and keeping your mouth busy with what a difference that makes. And I think, and that's where I am. I am more of an advocate for the carrying that you don't have to carry a gallon around, but, you know, carrying one of those liter waters, we all have them, you know, our mirror cups and stuff like that. I mean, carry those thermos around and make sure you have good water, stay hydrated. A lot of the times that's that signal you think of cravings or what about that is just that you're dehydrated and stay well hydrated. That helps out and then keep, you know, either ration it out yourself if you're doing regular almonds, but that's what I like about the, you know, the skinny dipped packages is that they're already rationed out for you and you know, the calories and it's a good one. I remember when you were competing, almonds was like one of your, Oh, go to, it was always right. Yeah, that's, that's always been one of the better ones. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, not so much. I feel like peanuts encourage overeating at least, but peanuts are not really a nut, right? But I love those. It's like my favorite. But yeah, no, like with this, the skinny dip in particular with like Halloween candy, dude has been saving my ass. Like dude, like, I mean, just having that, I've been trying so hard to throw it away and find excuses to get rid of it, you know, the Halloween candy. And it's like, because it's just there, you know, it's there and it's like, so I was, you know, now that we're on Twitter now, right? We're starting to use that. I was this post I saw, I think the only reason why it popped in my feed, because I follow Amelia Boone, Amelia Boone liked it. And then I read it and this girl had just did this post about, and I'm curious what you guys think, because I'm not there yet, that we shouldn't ration the kids out on Halloween, that you should just allow them to go nuts and let them do their thing. And she, her argument to that was, you know, I came from a home with a lot of regulation and rules and you can't do this, you can't do that. And it just caused her to sneak it around her parents anyways and, you know, caused this, the worst relationship with the candy. And let's be honest, is if it's one or two days out of the entire year that you allow this happen, is it that bad? So what do you got? What's your guys? That's not a bad, that's not a bad argument. Maybe saying something like, you know, you can use as much as you want tonight on Halloween, then tomorrow we throw away, or we give away, she, she also, yeah, we kind of did something like that. I mean, I, I would say flexibility, but still parameters. Like I don't, I don't know about the whole binge thing. Like I'm not a real big fan of like allowing them to just like everything they can't really throw up. So her, her argument that she made, because I saw people, I read the thread and people were kind of going back and forth, agreed or disagree with her. She also made the point that she believes that kids are, are good at naturally self-regulating, unless they have already had a, a bad relationship created from their parents. If the kid, if you just let through all the candy out there, the kids would eat it and eventually their tummy would bother them, or they would be like, oh, that's enough. I'm, I'm over it. And they would stop versus you saying you could only have 10 pieces. And now they eat 10 and they're like, oh, I really want 12, you know, and so then they try. I almost feel like it's got to be on a kid by kid basis, because I could see either way backfire. Because at the end of the day, children thrive on structure. And what is structure? Structure is parents telling the kids, okay, watch this much TV or do this and make sure you focus some effort on this. And, but I can also see how that can go the wrong way. I think it really depends on the kid. I know general statements like that, because I could see a backfire. I think she makes a good point. Yeah. And I think that we've been sort of messing with, with a lot of different strategies with that over the years. And we've, we've sort of had kind of an example of that. The first, so if they're, if they're getting the candy from the house and they decide to eat it, it's not a big, like we're not going to like, you know, say anything about it. It's just like, it's, it's kind of like, well, you know, we're walking, you're kind of getting it, like, so whatever you're, you come home with, like, we're, we're going to go ahead and like put that up and shelve it, you know. And so like, as we're moving and walking all that, you know, they're kind of snacking on it. But then the next day, it's like, you know, we're, they know that they get like one piece and we're just sort of slowly eradicating it, you know, as we go. So do you both still have a Halloween candy lingering around? Yeah, I do. Yeah, it's lost to that long. I do. So on the day of Halloween, I don't necessarily restrict my kids. They'll eat whatever. And then I'll say things, you know, I'll do things like, all right, it's time for bed, you know, let's don't eat too much closer to bed because you're going to kind of feel good. Okay, no problem. But then they keep the candy and then, you know, little by little, a little eat from it. I guess it really does depend on the child, right? Because some kids, like, it's like, there's some kids that need more structure. And I think there's some kids that if you give them too much structure, it causes the opposite. Now, with both the, both of you guys, because you both have two, are they, are they totally different? Is like, when he did one of your kids go bananas, the other one didn't like, is there? Yeah, my kids are totally different. Yeah, my son is much more self-regulating than my daughter. But I think it's because my daughter's more rebellious. So if I tell her no, then she'll go kind of in the opposite direction. But it depends. Like I had friends who grew up in super, super strict homes. Soon as they went off to college, went nuts. You know, alcohol is a good example when they compare European households that allow wine at dinner and kids can taste the wine or whatever. They tend to binge drink less when they, when they come of age versus kids who are like, it's super taboo. So I think it does kind of depend on the, on the kid, you know? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Along those lines, you're making me remind, you're reminding me of another cool study. Candy, you know, it's connected with acne and all that stuff. So I thought of the study that I read over the weekend. Did you guys know that there's cannabinoids that have been shown to be anti-acne? What? Yes. Wow, serious? Yes. CBD. Oh my God. Now I feel like you're making the case for some of like the creams and the oils and stuff. No, no, no, no, no. I actually, I actually wrote it down. I'm going to read it to you. So CBD is one of them, but CBC is another one and CBC is probably the one that's most effective against acne. So CBC is known as cannabis chromine. I think I'm pronouncing it and it's a powerful inhibitor of acne. So what it does is it reduces the sebum production and inflammation in the skin. And the way it does this is it reduces arachidonic acid and it works with the body's natural cannabinoid system. So when you supplement with something like CBC, it increases circulating levels of your own natural cannabinoids, which then regulates your skin and helps prevent the excess sebum production, which is associated with acne. So there's actually some studies that show that it may have a positive effect on the skin. Now, is it, is, do you know, did that study show if it was topical or if it was something that you had to take in? So here's the thing with topical, I don't have, I haven't read a lot of studies on topical applications of cannabinoids. I've read a couple and they're kind of interesting. They show some interesting effects, but most the studies are when you ingest it, when you eat it, when you ingest it, because I'm not quite sure how your body will absorb cannabinoids through the skin, how they get to the cannabinoid receptors. And is it local? Like if I rub it on my elbow, is it my elbow skeptical about that? Yeah, because like I don't know, some people swear by anecdotally, like I know I've had clients where they rub CBD on their joints that have arthritic sort of responses and they felt some kind of relief from it, but I just, I've never personally felt anything, you know, like that. And I don't have other people too, like it kind of varies a lot. Yeah, there were a couple studies that showed that topical application of cannabinoids reduced pain, but then there's some that said that it didn't happen. But all the other studies, I'd say the vast majority of studies involve eating or ingesting the cannabinoids either through, you know, eating it or smoking it or inhaling it. But I've been doing a lot of research on all the other cannabinoids because the popular, the ones that get all the attention are THC, of course, CBD, but a lot of people don't realize that there's lots of cannabinoids and all of them have some effects on the body. And especially when they're, when they're present together, like CBC is one of the, you know, there's CBD, CBG, CBC, those are the more, more common ones that you'll find in something like, like hemp oil extracts. So like when you, like Ned, for example, the full spectrum hemp oil extract. So they have CBC. It has everything. That's why it's called full spectrum is it's got all the cannabinoids that are present in the hemp plant, except for THC, or at least it's got trace amounts of THC, because it's not, it doesn't make them. I still remember the first phone call, you know, a couple of years back that we had with them. And that was one of the selling points. I remember for you, when you heard them talk about them having full spectrum is because there was more and more research that was coming out about all the other. The best research. Yeah. The best research shows that, that they work better in the presence of other cannabinoids and that when you isolate them, they're not nearly as good. Even THC, THC gets you high, have a lot of THC with no other cannabinoids. The odds that you'll get paranoid, anxious, or have all those negative side effects, memory loss or whatever. Way higher than when you combine it with the, you know, with the other stuff. So kind of interesting. Oh, and then one other thing. I went to the movies yesterday and watched Harriet. Have you guys seen that yet? Is that about Harriet Tubman? Yes. So she's awesome. She's actually one of my theater right now. It's in the theater right now. Wonderful movie, well, well made. She's one of my heroes. I think she's an incredible woman. They're talking about putting her on some money. I forgot what bill or whatever or coin that they're trying to put her on, but I learned. So I relearned something that I had learned a while ago, but I totally forgot about. So I knew that Harriet Tubman, she's most known for being part of the underground railroad, personally freeing something like 70 slaves. I mean, literally walking them, you know, hundreds of miles to freedom without anything other than her own navigation, which she said came from God, which I liked in this movie. They didn't hide that fact. I thought maybe that they would take that out because it's kind of spiritual or whatever, but she never got caught. And she says she never got caught because when she was a kid, she got hit in the head by her slave owner and she would have these fainting spells. And when she would have these fainting spells, she said she talked to God. And so he would lead her to keep them from getting caught. And oftentimes it was like crazy different directions that people were like, are you sure? And she's like, yeah, we're going this way. And then sure enough, people were waiting for her over here. And she got, you know, she ended up getting. Anyway, I relearned something else about her. Did you guys know that she's one of the only women, and there's very, very few women in history that have done this, but she's one of the only women in history to lead a war raid, to lead a military war raid. She has no no. Yeah. So during, during the civil war, she led, you know, the North's soldiers or some of them to do a raid that ended up freeing 700 slaves from their Southern slave owners. She led it herself. She told them where to go, told them what to do. She was literally in charge. And she was also a spy during the civil war. Crazy woman. She lived till she was 91 too. What a badass. You believe that? Gangster. Yeah, badass woman. All right. The first question is from Michael Salzel. If you had to add an exercise to the big four to make it the big five, which exercise would it be? So I'm assuming the big, because it's the big three, but easily number four, I would consider overhead presses. So squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press. Okay. That's that would be the big four, right? So what do you guys think would be a fifth exercise if you had to throw it in there? Either either a bent over row would be in there. Here's the thing, I mean, you're doing an incredible job with those big four of kind of attacking everything, right? There's not a muscle that is not going to get worked if you do the big four. But I think another just staple exercise that has so much value, a bent over row maybe. That's what I was going to say. I would say either a row or a pull up or a lunge maybe. Yeah, I was actually going to go in the lunge direction mainly because if I could say like a multi directional lunge, that way I'd get more planes of represented in this list. But again, that's from the functional side of my thought process. Yeah. No, I like that. I like thinking of something that's either rotational or anti rotational. So you get some benefits there that I think are incredible. The reason why these exercises are called the big three or big four or whatever is because the just the results you get from these exercises, they're just huge bang for your buck. It's really, really hard. And of course, this isn't going to be true for every single person, but it's true for most people that, you know, for leg development, for example, or lower body strength, functional strength and lower body development, it's hard to find one exercise that could compete with a squat for most people, right? You know, bench press, great horizontal pressing movement, you're getting the chest and the shoulders and the triceps overhead press. Very important to be able to lift something up above your head. A deadlift, you've got the hip hinging. But I think a row or a pull up because probably a row because you're not getting that like full extension and retraction that pulling back of the shoulder blades, right? I think that would be better. And if you just combine those and it's funny, that's like basically the workout I did for a while when I was a kid. Yeah, I was like those five and I got the best gains doing just those. Oh, if you have to reduce it all down, you're hitting like from every angle. It is. You know, I would even make this argument. I would even say that the big three, you could probably interchange bench press and overhead press in terms of functional. Wouldn't you guys, what do you guys think? Yeah. Well, that's why I think that makes it the big four, right? The four would be the overhead press. Like you've got to have, I feel like that needs to be in there. It's just way too functional and not enough people have the ability anymore to even press things with full extension over their head. Totally. And you know, the more you really, when you really break down like human function and the things that we're supposed to be able to do, believe it or not, running is probably going to be up there. It's something that we just don't do and we suck at. And, but it takes a long time. It takes a long time of training and mobility work to get there. It's just not one of the. And that's why, too, to that point, that's why I'm making the case for like lunging is I think, because we spend most of our time on one leg, you know, we're technically, we don't walk with both feet together. We'd be hopping everywhere. Now from, from an aesthetic standpoint, if you're thinking like just developing an aesthetic body, I'd say the road, it would have to be the road because the deadlift, although it hits the back, it doesn't fully get that, I guess that shoulder blade pullback position that you would get with the barbell row. But I get those would probably be the most important exercises. I'd say this, if you're working out and you're not doing those movements weekly, you're probably missing out. Now it depends on the routine that you're doing, but you should probably do those movements or version of them. Yeah, these are all like hitting your foundational base of strength. And that's why I think it's good to have it all bilateral and like everything is about like that gross motor movement and just building, you know, overall muscular development. And then we can get into the nuanced stuff and, you know, in access to that where we're talking about like split positions, we're talking about, you know, lateral type exercises, like all of that can kind of work around that. Well, the thing that's great too about like the big three or the big four is that it's for most people, it's going to be challenging to perform it perfect. And so the value isn't just in the doing the three movements. It's actually all the things that you should do probably to get better at those movements, if that makes sense. Absolutely. So that's part of the great value of just sticking to those three or four movements. As staples. Yeah, as staples, isn't just that, oh, you just only do those. It's that, oh, wow, I when I squat, I can't, you know, I can't break 90 degrees and I noticed that my knees cave in and it's like looking at it and saying, wow, it's far from perfect. Now, what are all the things I should be adding to my routine to complement this or to improve this movement? And you could spend years and years on just those those movements and all the things that you should do to improve those movements. And that's what makes them, I think, in my opinion, so superior. And then when you get to a point, when you have a beautiful overhead press, you have a beautiful bench press, you have a beautiful squat, you have a beautiful deadlift, holy shit. Now that the carryover that that has to all the rest of your body, I mean, that's why it's called the big three and it's the the irony, although it's more, it's better communicated today than ever. It's still not communicated well enough because the irony is if you go to the average gym, those four or five exercises if we throw in the barbell row are the ones you see people do the least. Yeah, except for maybe the bench press bench press, you tend to see, you know, people get on the bench, probably because it turned into a way of guys that brag or whatever. But it's funny, like you go to the gym and just an average gym, I'm not talking about like a hardcore gym. And how many people do you see barbell squatting, barbell deadlifting, overhead pressing, standing, you know, doing a proper barbell row or whatever? You don't see that much. No, no, no. And I feel like it needs to be communicated better to the average person because the average person, not only don't they know that the benefits of resistance training, but the ones that finally go to the gym and say, okay, I'm going to do some resistance training, the exercises they pick are like, boy, you could be spending that time doing something that's far more effective than the exercises that you tend to do. Right. I mean, this is things I used to do with clients and to get this point across is I would actually take those three or four movements and, you know, split it up over three or four days and like, you know, just two movements, right? We're just going to squat and overhead press today. And the whole routine would be around improving the squat and improving the overhead press. And you could go down the rabbit hole of, you know, and that's, we live in a incredible time to get information, like you could go on YouTube and, you know, improve my overhead press and put, throw that in there. You can go through it for art, for sure, ours. We have a ton of tutorials and videos to help you get a better overhead press to help you get a better squat, to help you get a better deadlift. And all the exercises, movements, mobility drills that we provide in there, I mean, that you should be doing that to compliment and just trying to improve the squat. Like just making that a goal. Like, Hey, I want to get better at my squat. Hey, I want to get better at my overhead press. And all the movements and exercises that you do besides those movements are all ones that are designed to compliment or improve those movements. There's so much value in just focusing on that alone. Next question is from moitz 121. I know squats are best for leg development, but if you had to choose between the leg press and the hack squat, which one is better? Oh God, not even close. You know what? Leg press. You know what? I'm going to just kidding. I tell you what though. Oh God, so. No, you're not making the case. No, no, no. Hear me out. All right. I want to make this exciting. You know, in the 90s, I'd say 80s, 90s, and maybe early 2000s, the leg press was one of the number one mass building exercises for the lower body, for bodybuilders. So bodybuilders would always put leg press near the top. Hack squat was always two or three notches below. And believe it or not, hack squats was considered to be more of a shaping exercise by bodybuilders back in the day. Now, I can see, I could see where I could argue that, right? One of the benefits of bodybuilding, and they're so heavily focused on hypertrophy and the pump, that the leg press lends itself well for that reason. I mean, try, you know, go into failure every time you hack squat or you barbell squat, you know, you're fucking damn near folding yourself into two and potentially risking a lot of injury a lot of times. And so it's just not feasible to be training to failure and drop setting like crazy on a hack squat and a barbell squat. But a leg press, I mean, you could be taxed like crazy, get under there and all the way to the very last rep and you're not going to probably hurt your low back. You're not going to hurt your neck. You're not going to hurt your hips. There's not a lot of risk for chasing that like failure. It's also the load, right? So I'm talking about a hack squat on a sled, not the hack squat that we'll do with the barbell, right? So when you're doing a hack squat on a sled, think about the amount of weight that you can load on it. Now think about the amount of weight that you can load on a leg press. And both of them are relatively similar. Like a hack squat typically is on a higher, higher angle. So you're definitely going to be, it's going to be harder to push with the hack squat, because a leg press is typically at what 45 degrees. Hack squat probably closer to, you know, it's definitely not 45 degrees, a little higher. But with a leg press still, you can load a ton of weight. And I think it's the, the fact that you can load that much weight might be why they tended to pick that one as a mass builder. When I lift a small range of motion, that's the other thing though too, right? It seems it's a much shorter range of motion. You're not getting that full. If you go further, it's really detrimental. I mean, you're, you're in a bad position with your hips and your lower back. If you're trying to get even further into your chest. Yeah, I'm glad you said that. The leg press used to be, people used to think that was a safe, one of the safest leg exercises you could do. That's actually one where I've seen people hurt their back. I've seen people hurt their back. It's bad on those things. Well, because they load it up. They load it up. So, so heavy, because you ain't frivolously. Yeah, you ain't loading that much up on a barbell squat, because it's going to, it's going to fold you up, right? So I, if you were to talk to like our friends, like Brett Contreras or Eugene, like, I mean, they would for sure, I mean, they, they make the case that a hack squat is superior to a barbell back squat many times. So the value of a hack squat, I think is incredible. Because you get similar benefits as you do with the barbell squat, you just don't quite have as much of the instability because you're on a sled and a machine, but you can load it and make it hard as fuck and you can go deep all the way down, just like you would do an astagrass squat. So to me, it's not even close to which one is better for overall leg development. I think the hot hack squat is, although I, you know, I leg pressed a lot early on. And I actually, the way I like presto, I always single leg leg press. Yeah, you're a big advocate for that. I am huge on that for a couple reasons. One, I don't have to be an asshole and load 40 plates on there, right? I can leg press the shit with just about anybody. Like I can leg press single leg press, I can load, I've loaded up to six plates on each side. So imagine if I was doing both legs, you easily can do double. It's not that hard. Right. It's not that hard to get up there. But what I love about the single leg is it does force a little instability. So I have to like stabilize my knee. So my knee doesn't cave and flex in like that. I don't have to load the plates up as much. I feel like it's a little more comfortable for me to go deeper in my range of motion. It's not, it's not rotating your low back so much. Yeah. So I'm a big fan of leg press, single leg press. I haven't done both feet on the leg press in a long, long time. It feels like lifting weights in a recliner to me. It's fucking lazy. I think it's worthless. I feel like I'll do it. I'll do it for like, you know, building volume and stuff my legs, but other than that, I can't justify it. It's like a legit. That's what it's, it's great for that. Right? It's a great volume builder. It's a great way to do drop sets. It's a great way to, it's a, it's a great tool. Okay. I know, I know, I know we're hammering on it a little bit, but it is a great tool. Out of the leg machines, it's one of the better ones. Right. Yeah. You have to say. Yeah. Yeah. You can make that case. Because there's not a good, there's not a lot of grace. It's going to give you more development than a leg extension or a leg girl. You know, it's going to give you a lot more than that or a adductor. I like what you said about the single leg, the single leg version, because when you're doing a single leg version, typically what's the other leg doing at them? You have it down, down below you. Yeah. It fits right underneath the, underneath the machine. So when you're doing that, because one leg is down, it's anchoring your hips nicely and preventing them from doing the rotating up at the top that can cause so many leg prop, excuse me, low back issues with leg press, right? Because that's what the back issues happen is when people are leg pressing both legs, it pushes them down. They get that, that pelvic tilt at the bottom. Yep. And then you get the hurt, you know, discs or, or whatever. Stress all goes right there. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I'm telling you, when you were, if you read bodybuilding magazines in the nineties and bodybuilders were talking about their favorite mass builders for legs, and I know cause I read them all, leg press, leg press was always number one. And my original leg routines were leg press, hack squat, leg extension, leg curl was my staple. And that was it. And I do want to, I do want to end this or close this loop on this by saying that one of the things that we always talk about on the show that, you know, especially in an argument like this where we can kind of make the case back and forth, which one has more value, you know, which one was going to have the greatest value is the one you never do, right? So if you hack squat every single time and you're really good at hack squatting, because that's your kind of go to, or because some other fucking fitness professionals said it's better, it's superior. Well, it's no longer superior when you've got adapted to it. And you're, you've been doing it for six months plus consistently, you know, it's going to be great for you, the leg press, because you never do it. And you do it. And so, and the same thing is true if you always leg press. So you got to remember that the novelty piece with the body and so is so important when we're trying to adapt and change when you're trying to get, if you want to get good at just leg pressing or good at just hack squatting, then you stick with it over and over for as long as you can until you get great at it. But if you're looking for leg development, and we're trying to build legs, build our muscle, then one of the best things you can do is do the one that you haven't been doing the most consistent. Yeah, such an excellent point. And then also I want to add this, this always cracks me up. Do them both. Why can't you just do them both? You know what I mean? So we do this either or all the time, like, oh, which one's better? I better not fucking do them both. Right. I mean, that's my point is like, you know, run one for a four, six week, you know, cycle and then switch the other one for four to six weeks. You'll get the best of both worlds. Next question is from Brandon LPZ. How powerful is self-talk for motivation or having someone yell at you before doing a big lift? Do you practice it? Or should we just slap our faces, get angry and pick up the weight? This is a, you know, it's a power lifting mentality right here. It's an interesting question. Have you guys ever used smelling salts? Yes, I have. What do you guys think about? They work. They're awesome. Dude, I get like hyper focused. My central nervous systems tends to respond a little bit more. It's the same kind of thing. If I have like that perfect song, you know, I already have pretty decent energy going into the lift, but now I have like that one song that I can get to that place where I just, I feel just like, like you get this like internal extra gear somehow. It's true. I, you know, if I get, and this, this works well when I'm going to do a heavy low rep set, like to get just amped or angry, doesn't work so well when I'm doing high rep sets because I'll gas myself out. I need something calmer to keep me kind of, you know, consistent, but it, it does work. Now studies show, I don't know if there's any studies on this particular, but studies show that music makes a big difference. That when you're listening to a song that tends to make you feel uplifted, it actually reduces the perception of pain that you have. So if something normally hurts at a level 10, listening to music that motivates you inspires you lowers it down to, you know, maybe an eight or a seven. It's not only that, it's your, your brain is the main hub where everything starts. So if you're distracted about your day earlier, that was going on or the stress you got at work, or if your mind is in other places, and doing things like getting slapped from your friend or listening to that song helps you stay present. And in the moment, there's got to be a ton of value just from that alone. So how many times have you messed up an attempt of like a PR or like just lifting something heavy because you're mentally distracted? Absolutely. That's so many times. Some of my, my best lifting for sure was during the time that I was into competing, because my mind was so much into it. And I really think that I had a lot, of course, consistency and volume and all the stuff that we've studied and researched and understand as far as being on the build muscle mattered. Yes. But I also think there was a ton of value in just, I was so into it during that time that that's, I went to bed thinking about my workout in the morning. I was at work and I was eating my meals, thinking about what I was going to be training in two or three hours. It was so exciting to get there. I had my playlist already met. I mean, I'm so focused on what I'm about to do. Some of the best lifts came out of that. And even if I was well rested, well fed and all these other things, but if I was mentally distracted somewhere else, it's really tough to call upon everything I need, especially to do a big lift like a squad or a deadlift. It's very similar to when I played sports, and I had a very, very intentional, very specific ritual that I would do every time before like a big game or like something where I knew that like, you know, my performance was on the line, like it was, like it was going to be really demanding. And I would make sure like nobody could talk to me. I was just like completely just by myself and just thinking, thinking, thinking and being quiet. And that really helped me get out there to get to a relaxed state where I was like, I was just there. It was all banked in mentally to where I didn't have to then keep repeating and relaying it in my head. So that's a really good point. And it actually reminds me of something that I answered to somebody who asked about the way I walked up to my deadlift. And I do this thing where I raise my arms. And, you know, when you have a movement like a deadlift or a squad or a head of press, there's so much that's being communicated through your entire body that there's all these little cues. And it's taking me practice and practice and practice to remember all those cues and having a routine of what the way you walk up to the bar helps me kind of settle that the whole lifting the arms thing is to remind myself to activate my lats before I go in there. It's like, it's just it's now become this routine. So I don't have to like you're pushing all the levers to get you into that zone. Yes. So, you know, if there's if, you know, some people might need to get slapped, I guess, to do that. And if that's part of your routine before you do a big lift, I mean, I've seen it helps some of these like power lifters and get a little excessive with it sometimes. But no, your mind plays most of the role and how much power you can generate, how strong you are. It's funny, you know, if you're going to do something, at least I fear this out for me, if I'm going to do something that is causing me already to be hyped and maybe a little anxious, then hyping myself further is a bad idea. So like, if I'm going to go and do a speech in front of 500 people and I'm hyped about it and I'm excited and I'm a little bit nervous about it, hyping myself further gives me too much stimulus, too much stimulation, and it actually reduce my performance. Now before I lift, I have zero nervousness. I've lifted weights a trillion times. So smack me around, give me some caffeine, and you know, I'm going to grab the bar and perform my best. But for other things, it seems like the opposite would be true where you'd want to actually be more of a calm, yes, in a calm zone. You don't necessarily want to go in there super hyped, martial arts, martial artists. So martial arts focus on the opposite. It's funny because lifters do the whole smack your face, get pissed off type of thing. Martial artists practice the opposite. They practice calm and chi and go in there. Wouldn't you think that that has to do more with like CNS, right? Oh, you're going to fight. You're going to go fight someone. You don't need to go in there all because that'll burn you the fuck out because you're, if you've ever done a competition, well, so like before judo tournament or jujitsu tournament, I'm nervous one week before. So if I hide myself, I'm exhausted. You know what I mean? I got to work on calming myself down. Anyways, this reminded me of a story actually. I totally forgot this. I had a client years ago that was training for a marathon and it was a marathon to raise money for cancer research. She had lost her sister. So it's a very important thing for her. She definitely wasn't somebody that should have, she wasn't a runner. She was deconditioned, had, you know, hired me to train her. We'd only been working out for about six months. She wasn't a runner, sister, you know, gets cancer or whatever passes away. And she's like, I want to do this run. It really means a lot to me. So I helped her as much as I could and a marathon is a long run. Well, anyway, her husband made a playlist for her and put her favorite music on there and he did such a good job. And as she's listening to this brings chills as I'm talking about it on the playlist towards the back half of the run when she got down to like, you know, like there was only four miles left or whatever when it's like the most difficult that in between the songs was her kids telling her, mommy, you can do this. You're so strong. Mommy, you're my hero. I love you. And then another one from her husband, another one from her mom or whatever. And she actually got faster at the end toward like the last four. And how crazy is that? Right? It gives you the chills. Yeah. Wow. Next question is from Ali Baxter. Sports like rugby and football are increasingly becoming demonized due to concussion risks. What do you foresee the future of contact sports to be? We're going to live in this nerf world. Yeah. And I mean, we've talked about this a little bit. I just thought that like it is like I do see the the sign ups and definitely decreasing for high school football and for a lot of these like full contact sports where I think the parents are very, very much alarmed and triggered by a lot of the science that's out there in the data that about, you know, traumatic brain injuries and concussions. And so it's interesting to see. But then again, these high contact sports have been around for so long and have been, you know, a vital part of a lot of the development of people like growing up and learning so many like scales with with with working in a team and and self-improvement struggle and struggle and adversity. Like this is like a very much of a microcosm for kids to learn how to deal with those demands and that that adversity you just don't get all the time. No, I think if you want to know what the future, your best predictor of what those sports are going to look like in the future or the success of them in the future is, I think you nailed it, Justin, is to look at the enrollment of kids in these sports. And what you're starting to see is declines. You're starting to see declines in children who are getting enrolled in, you know, tackle football, being the biggest one, right? Rugby being another one. And as you get less and less participation in kids in those sports, you're actually going to, I foresee you, you're going to see these sports start to lose popularity. And it really, it's, I want, you know, I wonder, it'd be interesting to see the stats on this. Like I wonder if the decline in enrollment we see in predominantly wealthy or middle-class areas and what does it look like in places of poverty and those areas? Because I think if I'm a kid coming up poor and I have athletic abilities and I've, I'm surrounded, I mean, I live in a ghetto. I live in the ghetto and there's fucking drugs around me and shootings around me. And my environment is way more scary than any football field will ever be. And my only way out is my athletic abilities. The way I look at it is, I don't give a fuck how scary that football field is. This is my only way out of this potentially. That's what happened with boxing. Boxing, you know, that sport, right, of boxing for a long time was practiced by the wealthy. It was something that the wealthy did. And then eventually it started to become something that the wealthy did not want to do. And it became more of a, you know, people in poverty who started to do it. So, you know, back in, you know, back in the day it was the poor Italians and the Irish and, you know, poor Jewish immigrants that did it. And, you know, later on that started to change because boxing, you know, is now associated with, obviously it's boxing. You're gonna, you're gonna, you're face broken and there's a lot of problems. I think as people become more educated, they're less likely to put their kids in these sports because of these risks. And I think that'll start to either shrink the, the popularity of these sports or they're just gonna change, which they've already, how many times has football already modified their, yeah, I was gonna say. Oh man, with the play calls you see, or the rules you see now in terms of like what is considered like unnecessary roughness is like, it pisses me off. Like it's really, it's pathetic. Like my hero was Ronnie Lott. Oh my gosh. And that guy used to just kill people on the field. And at one point he had, he had, had to cut his finger off. He had to make the decision either you sit out the whole rest of the season or you cut part of your finger off. He cut part of his finger off. That's a fucking man. You know what I'm saying? Like we're, we're just trying to like cut all these inconvenient, you know, things out because, you know, yeah, there's studies that are proven like it has some detriment to, you know, our brain, but also there's, I mean, there's people that make it out that are just like amazing human beings and they've gotten a lot of value out of it. Yes. There's like a, you know, a good in a dark side to a lot of these things for sure. I think it's going to be like everything else we talk about. I think that, you know, nobody was talking about this 20 years ago. Now all the research, the studies, there's been extreme situations that have happened where people have died or committed suicide. Right. Right. And CTI, right? That's happening. And so CTI, right? Yes. CTS. CTI or CTS, Joseph? I don't remember. See, I can't remember because I had too many of them. Hey kids, play football. But you know, what is it? It's CTE. Chronic Traumatic Encelepathy. Yeah. So CTE, so, so there's examples of that. And because we, we, there's more information around it, we understand it now. So of course, there's going to be a big scare around it and now the pendulum's coming back the other direction. And I'm sure like anything else, we always swing it hard the other way where we're going to see huge decline in enrollments. You're going to hear more and more studies coming out. A lot of people and all these rules with the flags, it'll come back the other way. I think it's not going away. That's for sure. And there's also, I mean, there's, there's a lot of progress in terms of the science alongside that where they're treating, you know, protecting them and stuff. Right. And coming back, even from post-traumatic, you know, from coming back from the war and like you're having this stress, like post-traumatic stress from all these things like they're, they're being able now to, you know, find methods and ways to then rehabilitate the brain and to be able to like reconnect a lot of these neurological patterns. Well, you know what the irony of this is too, is that from what I understand about, you know, how, how humans move and how we adapt to certain things, you're going to put your kids in flag football, flag football, flag football. And then, and then all of a sudden you're, you're a big kid, put on pads and now go tackle each other. You're probably going to get more injuries. I would assume because they didn't practice how to hit and how to get hit in young ages. It's a skill. It's definitely a skill that, you know, you need to spend a lot of time like figuring out the technique of it. Yeah. And because I've heard some people say you shouldn't be able to tackle each other until you're in college. Huh? You have a bunch of big ass college kids who've never played tackle football, hitting each other and not having the technique and skill. Humans are pretty smart. I think we'll, we'll eventually figure it out. I mean, isn't all sports, uh, an offspring of what started in an arena where lions were fucking chasing after you and spears getting thrown at you? You know what, are you like skiing? Yeah. Let's cut that out. Cause guess what? People getting hit by trees. Yeah. Well, everything out is dangerous. Well, you know what's, so what's super unpopular is CTE and soccer players. A lot of people don't know this, but because of heading the ball, there's been some push to say. Jet skiing too. Really? Yeah. Just the waves and like just smashing up and down, look into it. Like anything that you're drawing your head is considered, you get like some form of like, uh, you know, brain injury. Head banging? Yeah. Head banging and concerts. It's too far now. Now we've got nothing left. Now we've got too far. No, I think you educate. I think education is good. I think people tend to, I think Adam's right. They tend to react and then, but if you look at the enrollments, they're going down, man. So it might not be, and then kids are playing video games and shit like crazy. So maybe we will play tackle football. It'll just be virtual. Won't be real. Yeah. There you go. Anyway, go to mind pump free.com and download our guides. They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at mind pump, Justin, you can find me at mind pump, Sal and Adam at mind pump, Adam