 Our next caller is Andrew from Texas. What's up, Andrew? How can we help you? Hey guys, thanks for having me on. I am brand new to weightlifting. I think my girlfriend, not so subtly, introduced me to y'all two months ago. And so in the first month, I spent my time just working on owning the movement as you talk about stability and flexibility. So I could do compound lifts. And then about a month ago, I started a max aesthetic. I'm absolutely loving it. But one thing I've noticed is I've gone from about six to seven hours of sleep a night to about eight to nine hours. And I'm also now taking like a 20 minute nap at least once a day. And want to know if this is probably just an adjustment period because my body's taken on, you know, those extra stress and working out. Or if you guys see this long term, is this what happens with weightlifters? Yeah. So I have two questions for you. First of all, sleeping eight to eight hours a night is usually better than six to seven for most people. But you're also taking a nap. So I need to ask you two other two questions. Number one, are you doing this because you're tired? Are you finding that you're more fatigued? And then number two, are you noticing consistent strength gains in MAPS aesthetic? Oh yeah. So to answer the second question first, absolutely. I'm putting on, you know, I'm adding more weight to my lifts. It seems like every time I go out, those newbie gains you talk about have been great. It's really just, I feel like my body's been exhausted. And so I mean, I'm going, I feel like I lay down and I fall asleep like that. It's great. It's just something I'm not used to. Like I said, I went from pretty much not working out at all to now doing MAPS aesthetic. And I'm like eight weeks into, I guess, weightlifting now. And so I feel like it's just my body adjusting to the extra stress and movement. What's your caffeine intake look like? I pretty much just take pre-workout right before my lift and that's it. Okay. Now, before when you were sleeping six to seven hours a night, did you feel like you needed more or did you feel like you were fine? I think I needed more. I just think I just literally wasn't sleeping as much before probably because I had more of a sedentary lifestyle. And now that I'm breeding you guys as nutrition guide and I'm going, I'm listening to your podcast a lot more. I'm starting to take like walks in like every hour at work and stuff like that. So I just feel like I'm moving more. And I'm also, I'm also now in a calorie deficit if that contributes at all. Okay. Well, that's contribute. Yeah. And so could the pre-workout too? Yeah, well, so I, so here's the thing. If you weren't getting stronger, I would say it's probably too much to have you back off. But there's a couple of things you said that makes me think that your body needs the rest and it's good for you. One is you're getting stronger, right? So if you're getting stronger, you're, you're usually not over-training. In fact, I'd say you're probably not over-training. If you're noticing that you're consistent, especially the way you put it where, you know, every time you work out, you seem to be lifting more weight. So that's a good thing. And then the other thing is that you said before you slept less, but you felt like you needed more, you just couldn't get better sleep. Studies show that when people work out, especially when they do resistance training, they get better deeper, you know, types of sleep. So the sleep is more recuperative and the body just seems to, you know, be able to sleep better. So this doesn't sound like a bad thing. Now, if your strength stalls or you notice you're weaker or you notice that you sleep eight hours, you take a little nap and you're still super exhausted, I would say bring the scale, scale the volume down by about a third to see. And, and, you know, that might even still be the case. Maps aesthetic is still a lot of volume for a first time workout. I mean, I would have had you start with maps anabolic and then maybe eventually move you to maps aesthetic, but the fact that you're getting stronger every single time, I think this is probably, you're probably okay. I would also investigate more of the caffeine intake. So if he said he's new to lifting, so I'm assuming you weren't taking a pre-workout six months ago. Correct. Okay. And now, were you a coffee drinker before at all? No. Okay. So you take a guy, okay, who's never had caffeine, probably on some 200 and plus milligrams of caffeine. That's a lot of caffeine in those drinks. Yes. And a lot of times when you, especially that much caffeine and somebody who's not used to always taking it, you can have this, you know, tons of energy from it and then a hard crash come from it afterwards. So I would actually recommend like either one theanine, which you are a big advocate of, of taking that with his pre-workout. So a theanine to kind of keep a more even kill and, or maybe even replacing the pre-workout with something more like red juice or something out or cordyceps or something along those lines. Yeah. You could try, you could definitely mess with those two things. But I mean, the fact that you're getting stronger as consistently as you are, that's a good sign. That's the best sign. And I can think of a more objective positive sign that it's working. And I actually went through, like, I go through spells of this too. And I forget that I'm in a deficit and I'm actually lowering my calorie intake and wondering why, you know, towards the end of the night, like I'm getting really tired. And after my workouts, especially, and that was definitely one of those things that a factor in that whole equation that, you know, is something that has repeated itself from showed itself for me. But definitely the caffeine thing is a real thing, especially if you're not used to it, like there is an inevitable crash, especially with those types of caffeine products. I would also, so what, can we get your, your weight and how much do you weigh right now? And then what, what the calorie intake looks like? Yeah. So I'm 511. I weigh 200 pounds and I'm getting like 1800 to 1900 calories. Okay. Yeah. And that's a cut from what you were at before. Okay. You're, I mean, you might, you're probably okay. If you're on a cut and you're getting stronger though, that's a really good, that's the strength part is what, what tells me you're doing okay. If you're, if you've got the new beginning, yeah, you're not even, you're not gonna, this might not always be the case, but you could take a newbie and you could over train them. They're not going to get stronger. They're going to be sore. They're going to feel terrible. So the fact that you're getting strong now, if you stop getting stronger or you start going backwards, I would scale the volume down because it might be too much or bump the calories. Okay. Thanks guys. I appreciate all that you do. No problem. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm a little torn, right? Maps aesthetic is a great workout program, but it's, it's probably not the one that I would start with. Right. It's a lot of volume right out of the shoes. Yeah, I would go Maps Anabolic. Maps Anabolic is, is a great way to start. I mean, Maps Anabolic is a great program period. You can go back to it even if you're advanced to get great gains. You're just biased because you're on it. Yeah. No, no, I mean, I'm over covered. No, I agree. We all agree that. I mean, we, it should be addressed, right? Because obviously we always have new audience. The way the programs, we originally wrote Maps Anabolic performance and aesthetic to be followed in that order. So even though there's exceptions to the role, and yes, you can, some people can start in their places. The thought process when we thought about the amount of volume that is in each one of those programs and the things that we are addressing with each one of those programs, the ideal thing for most people is to go anabolic performance and then aesthetic. I, you know, a couple of things we didn't get the chance to say. So hopefully Andrew listens to this. I would also have like three days in a row where I give myself a calorie surplus just to see what happens. He might be 1800 calories is pretty low for a 200 pound young man that's lifting five to six days a week. I would rather see him somewhere on a cut like 22 to 2300 maybe, you know, and again, these are generic numbers. I don't know where his metabolism metabolism is currently at. So I'm just throwing stuff out there. But that's a pretty low calorie intake. And that could be a big part of it. And then again, the caffeine, he wasn't taking caffeine in it at all. And also you take two, 300 milligrams. I'm wondering if he started his workouts, he's never worked out before, and then added the pre-workout like doesn't really drink caffeine, like both of those right out of the shoots. It's like, it would have been interesting to see if he just worked out without any kind of like stimulant. Yeah. Or like the red juice. That's why I would push him in the direction of trying that out and seeing how he feels with that or messing with theanine or quarter steps in there. I just think that maybe that, I'm thinking of the nap, right? Because the sleeping at night, that's great. If you're getting eight, nine hours of sleep, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it's probably really good for him. His body's wanting to recover. His strength is going up. Like you're saying, the only thing that I would try and figure out or get to the bottom of is the midday nap. And the midday nap could be just we're so low of calories or I've all of a sudden went from never taking caffeine to taking, you know, 300 milligrams of caffeine. And it's the crash that he's feeling. If he probably trains it early in the morning, it sounds like. So earlier in the day, takes this huge spike by noon or one is feeling tired. Yeah. But I mean, here's the deal. Going, leapfrogging a program doesn't get you there any faster too. That's something that I think is important to explain. So if maps and a polych is appropriate for you and the progression is anabolic to perform as to aesthetic, jumping to aesthetic doesn't mean you get there faster. It actually means you get there slower because you started with a program that wasn't the perfect dose or the right dose, you know, this is for your body. This is something that's Katrina, right? So I mean, you guys know, obviously off arrow about her situation and just getting back from surgery and stuff like that. And she had to reset and I made her start with starter. And she's never ran starter before. And it was such a mind fuck for her. And I kept telling and I'm asking her as she's going, she's now in the third week of starter right now, go, What are you seeing? Are you still getting sore? She goes, Yeah, no, the, I mean, the workouts that when I'm doing them, I feel like they're too easy and too basic. But I do get sore from it. I said, then why, why would we go to anabolic yet when you're still seeing these results? And she's so antsy to get there. I'm like, you're seeing progression right now. Totally. There's no reason to do that.