 You are listening to the number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is mine pump in today's episode. We answer fitness and health questions that are asked by our audience. In fact, the last question today was asked live by one of our listeners. So we answer those fitness questions, but the first half of the episode, in fact, the first 37 minutes, we have fun conversation. We talk about current events. We mentioned our sponsors. If you just want the hardcore fitness stuff, you can fast forward 37 minutes. If you like to be entertained and want to have a lot of fun and listen to mine pump, the way it was meant to be listened to, start in the beginning. I'm going to give you a breakdown though of the whole episode. So we open up by talking about why the brain is the most important organ, according to the brain. Of course. The brain told us that. Then we talk about Christmas gifts and stuff we're buying for people. We talk about the UK vaccine warning for people who are getting the COVID vaccine. You have lots of allergies. That's kind of interesting. I talk about a study that says that poor sleep leads to a 40% increase in heart disease risk. That led us to talking about blue light blocking glasses. Another study showed that wearing those throughout the day when you're on your computer improves productivity and sleep. Now, if you're looking for a good pair of blue light blocking glasses, the company we like the most is Felix Gray. They're stylish and they're not orange or red. So they don't change the color of the whole room. Go to felixgrayglasses.com. That's F-E-L-X-I-G-R-A-Y glasses.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump and get 5% off your entire order. Then we talk about Elon Musk leaving California. He's gone. Oh man, another one bites the dust. Then we talk about the worst Santa of all time made a kid cry. You jerk. Oh dear you. Adam talks about his dog eating the food off the floor. Then we talk about the value of eating organ meats. By the way, if you don't like eating liver because you're normal, you can supplement with organ complex from Paleo Valley. This is a supplement made with heart, kidney, and liver. It gives you all the nutrients of those things, but it's in a capsule. By the way, Paleo Valley also makes amazing grass-fed meat sticks. And because you listen to mind pump, of course, you get a discount. Just go to paleo valley dot com P-A-L-E-O valley dot com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump one five. That's mind pump 15 and get 15% off. Then we got into answering the questions. The first one, this person wants to know what our favorite ways are to improve cardiovascular fitness without interfering with muscle growth or strength. The next question, this person wants to know if there's any negative effects for meeting too much protein at one sitting. The third question, this person wants to know if our wives are equally interested in fitness. And so we talk about our personal lives a little bit there. And then the final question was a live caller. Daniel Lane calls him from the UK, wants to know what the best way to do an assessment with a brand new client. He's a personal trainer. Great question. By the way, this month, we've done a new thing. We've never done this before. We put together three bundle packages for three different levels of fitness. Okay. So we have a bundle of maps, workout programs, perfect for the beginner. Somebody's brand new to resistance training or maybe somebody who's had a long break and getting back into it. The next bundle is a transformation bundle. It's called the body transformation bundle. This one's great for people who are intermediate. So we've been working out for six months, maybe a year. You want to get a workout bundle that's going to suit you best. That's the body transformation bundle. Then the third bundle, that's for advanced people. We've been working out for at least a year or two consistently. You want intense workouts. You've got great recovery. You've got some pretty good goals. That's called the New Year Extreme Intensity Bundle. You can get all three bundles at mapsdecember.com. That's M-A-P-S December.com. By the way, all the bundles are massively discounted. Go check them out. And it's t-shirt time. Oh, shit, dawg. You know it's my favorite term of the week. Oh, so stank in there. Oh, yeah. We have three winners this week. We have two from Apple Podcasts, one from Facebook. The Apple Podcasts winners are Christine Jarjor and Dr. Pengloss7171. And for Facebook, we have Marcos Rodriguez. All three of you are winners. Send the name I just read to itunesatmindpumpmedia.com. Include your shirt size and your shipping address. And we'll get that shirt right out to you. Hey, so if you guys had to list, what organ do you think is the most important in your body? Brain, heart, the heart? Of course. Without it, you're dead. Brain. Really? So if they had a fake argument. You could get a fake heart and still live. Like if you had any part of your body go bad, which one would you least want that to happen to? I mean, brain. It's obvious. Yeah. You know, so I was reading this article. This guy wrote this great article about that, right? And he says, most people say that the brain is the most important. Oh, you're about to school me right now. No, no, no, no. Most assholes would say that. Yeah. Okay, I'm ready. I'm glad you said that, Justin. Thank you. Because you're wrong. Founded by trap. That's actually not, that's not what I know. So I would say the same thing, right? So I read this article. This guy read a hilarious article and he says, you got to ask yourself what organ is telling you that. It's like your brain is telling you that your brain is the most important. They're like, oh, shit. Preservation. He's right. The brain just told me that. That's silly. I thought that was absolutely hilarious. That's pretty good. Yeah. Hey, so where are you guys, where is everybody at with their Christmas shopping right now? Are we done yet? Has everybody caught up? I'm still doing it. I still haven't got you guys gifts. Still. I'm going to be honest, I'm probably not going to get you guys anything though. Yeah. I got you guys gifts, but it's, yeah. I got you some. No, you didn't. Teeny, tiny stuff. I got you some. I did already. Bro, we have Christmas together as a family. Yeah, we're actually going to- I got you and your kids gifts. Come on. No, you're not. Wow. Yeah. Don't buy you something. You get the kids, right? Yeah, I haven't done that yet. Gosh, damn. I'm glad I made that joke. You should feel guilty, too. You should very get on it, dude. Wow. Dude, so your families all do like Christmas lists and all that and like spread it out to everybody? Do you get Santa and all that? We do the all adults exchange names everybody buys for kids. So if you're under 18 or you're in school still. So we all buy for college kids if they're going through college. So if you're in school, you get gifts from everybody. That's a great deal. Right. And if you're an adult, we exchange names. No, in my family, we buy gifts for our God children and our own kids. But we don't buy them for other people's kids. Unless they're like a new baby or whatever. I'm sure my son's probably going to get a ton of presents from people. And then you just buy your spouse a gift. So there's this like recurring lame pattern within my family. Like so we've been doing this like exchanging people. And dude, every time I get somebody now they get lazier and lazier with what they're putting out there as part of their list. Now I'm just getting like Amazon card, you know, and another gift card. And that's it. And it's like, okay, if we're just going to do that, here's just I'll just throw it like a stack of cash on your face. Wow. It's like, dude, it's so lazy on your face. Yeah. Like, come on, dude. I'm trying to break this cycle because it started out as like, well, I kind of like this because how fun is it to just open up like a little stupid card? It's so lame. I know. But it's happened. It's like everybody's starting to just like reduce it down to this. Well, I can't think of what I want. Everything's all about shortcuts. Nobody can think of what they want. Katrina and I were getting into it last night about shortcuts. How funny is that? So we were talking, so she just found out about the feature on iPhone that you know, when you're in a thread, how, you know, you like thumbs up, thumbs down, hard, haha. Yeah, or reply to that thing. She just like has piece this together. And she's like, this is you do this all the time. It's so stupid. It's so lazy. I'm like, wait a second. Okay. You sound just like the old lady who is making fun of somebody who's using LOL for laugh out loud. You use LOL all the time and OMG. I'm like, that's sure. Oh my God. There's still people out there that like write out laugh out loud. Yes. Does she write in cursive too? No, but I mean, that was like, come on, that doesn't even make sense. Some of you, it's just everything's getting fast. She's like, you know, next thing is just emojis. I mean, actually a lot of people do that. A lot of people just use emoji to get across what they want. I'm one of those people that actually likes it when people want a gift card, Justin. You know why? Because I'm one of those lazy people. Get buying gifts. Exactly, lazy. Exactly. I'm admitting it. I get a little stressed out. I'm like, oh my God, what do I get? Yeah, no, I used to like it. I guess now, I don't know. It's been a recurring theme like so many years in a row that I'm like, why are we even doing this? You know, like I'll just buy shit that I want anyways. You know, and then I started to get in that kind of zone of like, I just buy things for myself. Like this is annoying, you know, but then I'm like, no, I got to change this because like I'm trying to like get back in the spirit of it and whatever. And it's like people enjoy actually watching you open something. That's actually something. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, let's see if we can get back to that. So I've been challenging everybody like when they, because there's been a few that put on the list and I was like, oh, that's the laziest. You know, and I was like talking shit and everybody, whoa, whoa, whoa, like you're saying like, oh, you cringe. You know, you're the Grinch. It's like thieving the spirit of the whole thing. It is. It is kind of funny though. I remember what movie it was, but it was like some celebration in the movie. And then one guy gave one guy like a hundred bucks, and then the other guy gave him a hundred bucks. So it was like the same. Yeah, exactly. So kind of, it's so lame. Yeah. It's like, here's your $20 gift card to Amazon. Oh, thanks for my $20 gift. Yeah, I agree with you. Just be thoughtful. Now, I have a question for you guys, because you guys both have older kids. How do you decide how many presents or how much money you spend? Do you have rules that you give yourself, or do you just get what you think you want to give? Whichever kid I like more. You get more. I know, right? You're just weighing it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know. You use that, right? I used Santa. You should have had a better year. You should have had a better year, huh? You were an asshole. Maybe Santa didn't think you were doing a lot of good things this year. I don't know. You get socks. You get a PlayStation. Ah, yeah. No, so I think it's different from family-family. So in Jessica's family, they would get a lot of little gifts. So she'd come downstairs or whatever for Christmas, and then there'd be a bunch of things to unwrap. And this is how she explains it to me. Part of the fun was unwrapping all these little gifts. So she's like 15 things that she could open or whatever. In my family, when I was a kid, when we'd come down for the Santa gift, it was one big gift, and it wasn't wrapped. It was just there. And we got it. And that was from Santa. Santa. Yeah. And so that's how I've done it with my kids. So my kids will come downstairs or whatever, and then there's their one gift. And the real truth is you're just lazy. You don't want to wrap the present. No, I asked my mom. I asked my mom about that, and she said, I thought it would be weird that Santa would wrap a gift. He's got elves that do that. Yeah, but I don't know. One time she left. She fucked up a little bit one time, because the label, the price label, was half ripped off. I'm like, why was there a label on this? Oh, I do a terrible job wrapping, but I'll still own it. And it's just like, I'll wrap a big. Sometimes I'll just take, you do the old thing where you take a weird object, and then you wrap it up, but you put the present on the inside, so it totally throws them off. Yeah, so they have no idea. And my brother would have competitions with that, and you're like, what the hell is this? And then you open it, and it's just something totally normal. Yeah, like Russian dolls, or like 15 boxes? Exactly. Now, how do you guys decide, though, if, I mean, I would expect like you, right? You have your son and your daughter. Your son is in high school, so I imagine he has things that he wants, like the new PlayStation, right? Like a $500. Expensive. And then you have a daughter who is into unicorns, and she probably wants a stuffed unicorn. She wants a real unicorn. No, expensive, those are crazy. So, I mean, do you not go by a price amount? And you just say that's her biggest gift that she wanted, so we're going to get her, this is his biggest gift, and it doesn't matter that there's a $200 discrepancy? I kind of go by price, and $500 is just insane to me. Okay, how much money I make, a $500 gift for my kid? Because I get them shit all year for stuff that they want, and I think you start to set a precedent. Whatever you start to get them when they're little, they start to expect more and more. So, I don't know, I'm a little bit funny with that. Well, it's an interesting conversation, because this year it seems to me like it's a little different. Like we went a little bit overboard, just because we started thinking of these things that we're like, oh my god, they would use this outside, and do so much cool stuff with their friends, or like, so you start kind of justifying a lot of these things. I'm like, oh my god, we're like stacking all these up this year. Like they're getting a lot of stuff, but also too. It's just been, I guess it's just been hard, you know, like for everybody, obviously, but you know, to have them look forward to this, and then have them use it outside, that was the sort of the focus with that. So I think I'm like, I'm fine with it. I do kind of try and limit the amount, because it seems kind of ridiculous once you get past like a 200 mark, or whatever like that. Like that's pretty ridiculous. I got, I already gave Jessica her Christmas gift, but it wasn't because I'm terrible at keeping secrets. Or wrapping again. Or wrapping, yeah. Although I am. Seems to be a theme here. I am one of those guys though. I'll buy a present, and I just get so like, I want to give it to you right now. But that's not why I gave it to her. I gave it to her because of its value. So she uses the breast pump, and they, you know, if you've ever seen a breast pump. I like how you're doing the hand motions for this. I know, it's boobs right here. You put it on, it's got the tubes, the big machine, you plug it in, and you're stuck. You're doing the breast pump and you're stuck. You're sitting there, it's doing its thing. And you can't, you can't even hold the kid. Like a factory. Did you get like a portable breast pump as a gift for your wife? Well, I did. One that you put under your bra. You guys don't understand, dude. Bro, what do you mean I don't understand? I'm around it all the time. That's literally like buying her a vacuum, or a fucking, or like a pot. You say that. You say that. She was so happy. Like this is, this was a big deal for her. It's a big deal, dude. She's got this thing stuck there. She can't do anything else. I get it, bro. I get it. It's hella hard, too, to cook without the mobile factory. It's hard to toast bread without a toaster, too. Hey, what do you get to do? You know what I'm saying? No, we don't have a toaster. You know, I kind of thought that, too, but she loved it, so fuck you. I feel like right now it's just completely registering for you instead of you're like, oh, fuck me. No, I did say that to her. I did say, oh, I felt like maybe you've been, and she's like, no, she was emotional. It'd be so great if you accidentally switched the labels and one of the kids got it. You know what I'm like, no, what's this? Santa, look, it sticks to my back. This is so weird. What's this? Yeah, anyway. So you guys are done with your shopping? Yeah, we were done by Black Friday, man. Wow. You know, and it's taking, I think when we first started this podcast, I think if those that have been listening since day one, I think I shared the first year that Katrina and I started to really do that. Like, you know, we've been together 10 years. I think about year four or five, we started shopping online a little more and a little more. I mean, just 10 years ago, though, it was still very popular and common to go to the groceries or go to the store and go shopping. That was part of the experience, right? Oh, let's go. And we used to do that together, right? I needed it. And when we first met, I think I was still doing the tradition where I would adopt a family and stuff. So the whole like going and shopping, like it was a whole thing for me, right? Since then, we started shopping more and more online. And I remember one year, like we just did all of it online. And I remember Katrina and I both going like, whoa, that was amazing. And it was so easy because not only is it obvious because you don't have to go to the store or dress away, you also get it in a box. You know, half the hardest part about wrapping presents is actually finding a box for the presents to fit in and get all that stuff. Like so, I mean, it gets shipped to your house in a box. It's so easy to set it all up that way. So yeah, we knock it out. Did you guys ask for anything specifically? Me personally? Yeah. Would you ask for a secret? Yeah, it's a secret. What? Why is it a secret? No, it's not a secret. Okay. I just wanted, I wanted one of these. It was like a super 73. It's like this, this almost like a moped bike, but it's like, I don't know how to describe it other than it's like, you've seen them up in Tahoe. Like they have like these tough like tires and it's like electric bike that's like, it looks kind of like a cafe racer. Pretty sick. They're out of stock. And of course, like, yeah, so I'm like, well cool. Just get a motorcycle then. Yeah. Yeah. So I had all this other like clothes and whatever stuff, you know, like that were sort of my backup plans and like, yeah, but I want, I tried to get a BMX bike and all that and it just wasn't the right size. And so that was another one on the list for me is to try and do that because I want to like, you know, start doing that with my kids and go on these pump tracks and get that become a thing. So. How about you, Adam? No, we don't really. So Katrina and I for Christmas, maybe a couple of Christmases I've done a bunch of gifts for. Like sometimes I'll, even though this is kind of our tradition, I'll still go do that because I like to see her open stuff. But we, our kind of our tradition is that we, we book a really nice trip for Christmas. Not actually going on Christmas, but that for like, like Christmas day or before, like that will be our gift to each other is that. That's weird to do right now though, right? Yeah, it is a little weird. But we'll probably book it for like next year, the end of next year sometime, or get something that we could potentially, you know, use later if we have to, or if it gets postponed, whatever. So yeah, that's kind of been our tradition is we just, we on Christmas, we normally sit down and we go, okay, where do we want to go this year? And, you know, and that was, and as far as gifts, like we buy that stuff for each other throughout the year. And I do, I go kind of big for birthdays, right? So her birthday, I normally, I feel like a birthday is like more of like a big thing. And so for the birthday, we normally kind of go all out. And then for Christmas is kind of like, because we're both getting something on the same day, we go instead of like just exchanging a bunch of stuff, you know, that neither one of us really needed. I asked for a pair of white converse, you know? Because they're like falling apart, and I'm due for a new pair, which is like $40. Yeah, you totally are in need of shoes. And it's not even because I need it, I just think it's like an easy gift for someone to get to me, right? If you want to get me something like I need that, like that's kind of how what I say is I like, I put, I think, so I own my list, right? I had, and I normally like Katrina make it, right? So she normally makes my list of the things that she wants for the house, right? So sheets and like curtains and like pillowcases. And, you know, the one thing that I know, that thing that was mine was like my converse, you know, that was the one thing. But I used to be a huge grinch about Christmas because of the expected aspect of it, the expected aspect of buying gifts. And I used to hate going to the mall and there's so many people and doing the whole thing. Oh yeah, that always sucks. Yeah, but Jessica's such a, she's such a fan of Christmas, like the spirit of it and the whole thing that I like it again. Did you start like right after Thanksgiving with the Christmas music? Like did that all, is she like that much of a fan? Huge, but okay, so that's been the Courtney. Right, we have a new baby, so it's a little less now because obviously she's much more occupied, but she would, she'll jump the soap containers, the towels, the, I mean, decorations, you know, all over the place, Christmas cookies, Christmas music, like it's a big deal. And she loves it. And so that made me like the holiday, but I used to hate it, I used to hate it because of the whole, oh, I'm expected to, doesn't mean anything, I'm expected to do it. So you know me, you know my history, right? I've talked about how I, the holidays are always rough for me or whatever, but I like the whole leading up to Christmas, I really do. Even though like it was always weird for me, like the receiving gift thing and all that bullshit, I've always liked the, I liked the time of year, I liked the cold weather, the cold nights. Did you ever not get a gift for Christmas? Oh yeah. Really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I should remember, so part of like, I mean, what stands out to me the most, right? Of course you always remember the bad memories. There was plenty of times like also got shit too, so don't feel fucking sorry for me. But there was times for a birthday, like I would get like, you know my aunt or my grandma or someone they would mail checks in, $100, $50, whatever for my birthday, and I would have to give that money to my family to get food on the table and pay bills. And you do that to a kid enough times and then I become resentful, right? So I was a little shit back then and you know, selfishly it's my birthday or holiday and I want, I want, I want. And enough times of not getting what you want or stuff being taken from you, you just become numb to it. And so as an adult, I've now become numb to like the receiving thing. So I actually like, I love giving, like so that's why I adopt the family and I like to get for people. What I struggle with is receiving. And I'm also, you know, ran 40 years of my life being very selfish, so if I want shit, I buy it. Like if there's something I really want, I buy it. So I'm really hard to shop for. So you add in the fact, I'm hard to shop for and then on top of that, I'm awful with my response when you give it to me. Well, this is gonna be an interesting Christmas because I think they're doing the restrictions again, like they did for Thanksgiving, you know, where they're telling people not to hang out with anybody because of COVID and all that stuff. So it's gonna be a kind of a weird one. People are gonna do what they're gonna do. I think so. I think people are starting to- They'll say whatever they want. Turn our podcast into a drinking game, right? Every time we say COVID, they take shots. Really? Yeah, you'll be careful. I'm still over talking about it. Hey, well, speaking of which, the vaccine, I think is approved in the UK already. They're already giving them out, but they're putting out warnings for people's severe allergies because people's severe allergies are not typically part of the trial. But we'll see. See, so far, so good. What ends up happening? Has it been? I thought I've heard- Starting to hear news that it's not so good. No, that was just- There were a couple adverse effects from people who have severe allergies. So it must have caused some kind of immune response. And is that pretty common? I mean, I would imagine that's pretty common with all vaccines, right? Everybody has a great experience with them. Usually if you're someone, so my sister's kids have severe food allergies and they're very careful with them, with certain vaccines because of that, because the immune response can be so strong to a vaccine, because that's what a vaccine does, right? It stimulates your immune response, you build up immunity. And if you have this kind of hyperactive, hypervigilant immune system, then it can kind of, it might cause problems. So, interesting. Hey, I got a sleep study for you guys, actually. I want to tell you guys about this. There was a recent study that came out that showed that chronically por- or chronically poor sleep, which they counted as six hours or less, so people who don't get at least seven or eight hours, increased heart disease risk by over 40%. Just that. They did controls too for everything else. So sleep on- More reasons, it's so important. Sleep on its own causes some pretty bad, I mean, that's huge. That's a huge jump, 40%. I feel like such an old man that we talk about that all the time, but I- Because people need to hear it, though. I know, I know, because when we were, I mean, when you were 25 as a trainer, did you ever talk about it? How about this? How about this? Never. How often did you train your clients and talk to them about it? That's what I mean. That's what I'm referring to. It was like, when I- Even training clients and helping them, which most of them were obviously much older than I was when I was 25. Yeah. I was terrible. I just never talked about that. I just figured that, you know, they're going to get whatever sleep they get, and, you know, all the stuff about, well, I get calls in the middle of the night, and I got to take care of this and that, and like, okay, that's your own, you know, like personal lifestyle, whatever. I would just try and like patch whatever I could, like during the day, but not even consider the fact that, well, there could be a better way to do this, actually maximize whatever sleep you can get. I honestly just, I really didn't think it made that big of a difference. I really didn't. I thought it didn't, unless it was terrible. Right, right. Like, obviously, like I know that someone who not sleeps for three days in his exercises, like whatever, but like someone who's like chronically not sleeping well, like by missing by an hour or whatever, or getting up, I didn't think that was as crippling as it really is. Or else, you certainly wouldn't see me wearing blue blockers at night. Like that is something I used to make fun of, dude. So the fact, every time I put them on, I kind of laugh at myself a little bit because I was that guy that used to walk. Dude, even on this podcast, you could like go back and hear our evolution of like making fun of like the blue blocking glasses to now it's like, oh my God, like life changing, like for a lot of people. Another study came out about that too and showed that people who wear blue light blocking glasses while they're working in front of their computer are more productive and get better sleep. So it's another study that confirms that. But I never, I never ever, and I feel so bad because sleep is up there with diet and exercise. It's like the core, one of the core things. Well, it's like one of the number one things I address now. So if I talk to somebody, it's like I'm asking about sleep and movement, diet, all those things are the first things that I'm gonna cover with anybody. You know what the problem is? The problem is that we do such a good job compensating for lack of sleep that we don't realize the impact it's having, unless it's extreme. Like if you're totally missing sleep or you have insomnia, then it's a big problem. But if you're like, oh, I get six hours here and seven hours there, but I wake up a couple times a night, then I drink coffee and whatever. Yeah, our culture is all based off stimulants now, which is definitely masked that natural signal that, oh, maybe I should try and get better sleep tonight. It's just like, well, that was a crazy day. I'll just keep drinking coffee to make up for it. It wasn't till the very end of my career when I started talking about it a little bit and then I remember seeing the huge results people got. It would fix their sleep and it was like I changed their diet. I'm like, holy cow, this makes kind of a big difference. It's a huge difference. That was at the end of my career. That's like 20 years later, right now. Sorry, all your other clients are... Another thing to slap ourselves on. Hey, did you guys hear about Elon? Oh, moving to Texas. Yeah, he's out. Another one. I know, dude. Another one's out. There's an exodus going on right now, California. Doesn't mean anything though, yes. What was the article that Jackie sent over about Gavin Newsom's company and all the loans? Oh, I don't know. Oh, you guys didn't hear that? PPP loans. Did you hear that, Doug? Three million. I saw the article, but I didn't read it yet. Oh, see, my buddy shared something out. He shared a different article. I didn't get a chance to read Jackie's. I just saw it and I was like, oh, I've heard about this, but supposedly a lot of his... He's... What company is it? God, I'm... Doug, maybe you looked this up. Gavin Newsom's company. It's a very popular name. So what was Elon... What did he say was his reasons? I don't know. I think it had to do... Well, because you remember he had a battle with California about opening up his... So I think it's just... But I thought he won that and just was still allowed to be open. Yeah. When people typically leave a state like California, it's due to... The number one thing they say is cost of living. So they'll say it's just so expensive to live here. Then the second thing that they'll say is the business. It's not a business-friendly state. So a lot of entrepreneurs will leave because... Sure, fair critiques. Yeah, it's very difficult to open up a business here. And then now what's coming up towards it is quality of life. People are complaining about things like homeless problem. For example, if you're in Los Angeles, homeless population there is massive. But that's just another celebrity to leave California to go to Texas. So it is kind of interesting. I've always thought it was interesting that someone like that would be in California in the first place. Again, you have a business... California is physically beautiful. It's its own... Yeah, like economic powerhouse at one point. I don't know what it's at now, but... It still is. It's still like what, number five or number six, as far as one of the biggest economies in the world. In the world. Yeah, in the world. Exactly. And it's also physically one of the most beautiful states, period. You have some of those beautiful mountains and snow. You have the ocean right there. That's what I hold on to, honestly, because I've lived in the Midwest and no offense to Midwest or anything, but it's just... I wasn't used to growing up in that extreme shift of seasons. And you just... It's so mild and temperate here and coastal and... We don't have seasons. We use a lot of things you take for granted here. We don't have seasons. We don't. I mean, that's just it. If you live in the Bay or you live in LA... Well, you have really mild versions of it. I think what's the... San Diego, another place, right? Well, that does no change. Average temperature is 72 the whole entire year. That never changes. Anywhere else in the country, it's like you have the seasons, you know? Which I don't know. I guess I've never... I haven't lived in extended period time. We lived in Colorado for a while. Yeah, you appreciate it, I think, if you grow up with it. But if you didn't, it's just like... I think shoveling... Shell shock. Shoveling snow every morning and going out in really cold weather, that might get old. Well, it's still not every morning either. It's a season. You do it for three, four months, you know? Depending on where you're at, obviously, some places might be five, six months. But most places, it's a few months that you would be shoveling snow. Well, I mean, look at this one. You have all this... And by the way, if you live in a place like that, you have all the latest greatest stuff to make it easy. Well, here's the thing that my dad always says he appreciates is that there's parts of California that you're a few hours away from the snow and you're a few hours away from the beach. So you have both and you're in the same... There's lots of things to do all around you. So that's what I love about it. You got to pull this up for me, Doug. You guys just reminded me of some things. Speaking of living in different areas and snow, I was looking at these pictures from Australia and it looks like snow. Oh, don't tell me the spiders. Yes. Oh, my God. Listen to the... So, Doug, look up a spider season in Australia, webs on trees. Yeah, yeah. If there's so many webs, it looks like snow. It looks like snow. I think I've seen a video about this. This was a long time ago, though. Is this a recent one? Yeah, well, I don't even remember where it popped up. And the only reason why I remember that is because what you guys are talking about. Yeah, they all like collectively make webs together and it just like... And then they all hatch and there's so many of them. Yeah, there's so many. Dude, it looks spooky to me. Like, I could imagine walking by the park and seeing something like... Yeah, look at that. Doesn't that look like snow? Oh, my God. Yeah. You imagine just someone just pushing you in that field all over you. Oh, spiders everywhere. Oh, my God. Is that wild? Yeah, yeah. It was so funny. We have nothing like that here. No. Well, Ethan was going downstairs the other night and there was a little black spot at the end of the stairs and he thought it was a piece of fuzz from the laundry or whatever and goes and actually picks it up and it just... And he freaked out. He's like, super loud. And I thought he got hurt and I ran downstairs. He's like, oh, there's a spider. And I'm like, it's not that big a deal. Like, it's a spider. He's like, it was in my hand. And then I look over it and it was this huge spider too. And I was like, whoa. It was huge. It was like one of those wolf spiders. He was holding it in his hand? He had it in his hand and then it jumped out of his hand and he freaked out. So I was like, I get it. I get why he gave the reaction he did. Yeah. I'm gonna freak me out. You get a pass. Yeah, you get a pass. Yeah, I think there's like an innate fear of spiders but then there's a lot of learned, you know, part of it, right? Yeah. Because like I don't like even little ones. Yeah. Yeah. Could you guys see a louder with Crowder's post yesterday? Oh, is this about the Santa? Yes, it was so good. So you didn't see the Santa, right? So there's this kid that asks, you know, they line up and they sit on Santa's lap and then they ask Santa. This is current, right? Kids all masked up. He's in it. It just happened. And then Santa's like, what do you want for Christmas? Uh-huh. And the kids, what do you say, wanted a Nerf gun? You know, he said I want a gun first and the Santa goes, no, no guns. And then the kid goes, a Nerf gun. And he goes, no, no Nerf gun either. And then the kid starts crying. What? Yeah, it gets down from the Santa and the mom takes so many leaves. Who's this? So Louder with Crowder finds out who this kid is and his parents are, gets all Santa dressed up and then calls the kid. Oh, that's awesome. And he did a whole thing. Did he give him like a bunch of- He didn't even, I mean, it was, it was even better. Like he, it wasn't just about, obviously there, I think they're sending him over like a ton of Nerf guns and stuff. But the, the call, I mean, he, he played like he was real Santa and the kid, you could see the kid light up and like, and he- Oh, that's great. It was a very classy way of kind of shitting on the other Santa, like just that, like he wasn't vetted properly and he apologized for him and everything. And then he, and he obviously collected some- Why are you gonna make it political? It's the kid asking for a toy. It's the Nerf too. I wonder if Nerf is gonna, like, how they're gonna react. Oh yeah, right. As a, as a response or whatever. Yeah, maybe they'll, I mean, if they're smart, as far as advertising, the top, the top 10 lists for Amazon has like three or four like Nerf products that are guns that are, that are in there is like the top selling. So it's like, it's not like it's, you know, people are, are, are shying away from it. It's like the, the Goya beans thing. Did you guys see that too? That was hilarious. The what's her name, uh, Alexandria. They made you see, uh, the- Employee of the Month. Because she said to boycott them and they sold, I think their sales went up like a hundred percent. Thousand percent. Yes, it's crazy. Like a record. A little bit of a backlash. Now, you know what that reminds me of with the Santa? Do you guys remember, um, a Christmas story? One of my favorite Christmas stories? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know the BB gun? You'll shoot your eye out and Santa says that to him. He's like, oh, devastated. Yeah, yeah. When I was a kid, those were my favorite gifts. I'm just straight up. I loved swords and I loved, uh, play guns. Those are my absolute favorite things. I don't know what it is in the DNA, but boys, like they, if they see a stick, they're gonna fight, you know, swords with sticks. If they see anything that resembles, it's just like they're playing, you know? And so like to, to, to try and monitor that, I think is ridiculous. Do you think it's a learned behavior or do you think it's in and of us? I think it's in and of us. I think it probably is a part of, at this point, I mean, I'm sure it's existed for so long. It might be a part of who we are. It's like passed down so now. I don't know. Yeah. You ever seen, okay. I don't know. This is my personal experience, but you see boys play with Legos. What do they make with Legos? Yeah. Guns and swords. Guns and swords. Every time, you know? It's like we've been in so many battles and wars like from the, you know, from the beginning of time. It's like it must have been passed down somehow. And it's something that they just, they naturally are drawn to or gravitate or is it such a learned behavior by all of us that we, because I'll be the first to admit too that, you know, my son comes walking around the court. So he has like an area where Katrina lets him get in with all the Tupperware and like the plastic ladles and things like that. And he'll have two of them. And then it's my natural thing to, he comes walking over and I start hitting it like a sword, you know what I'm saying? So was it my fault? Did he, was he, was he, would he have never done that? Or is it now because dad did that right away and now it's a thing? Yeah, cause you could be like, TV shows. Yeah, I could pretend like we're cooking. Yeah, cooking. You know what I'm saying? You turned it into a weapon. Yeah, right. That's a good point. That's what I'm asking you. I'm sure it's, yeah, both. Yeah, and I'm sure you do the same thing too. Of course. That probably the first time your kid picked up a stick, you probably did it, did the lightsabers with them for sure, you know what I'm saying? Totally. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I exposed them to Star Wars real early. Yeah. Well, Nerf has some pretty incredible guns. Oh, they've got like, they've got like, Gatling ones with like chains of bullets on them. We have like 30 of them. Do you really? Yeah, cause it's so fun. Cause we have a property where it's like, you can hide behind trees and stuff. And so I've actually like placed ammo around different trees. So the kids that come over, they love it. They just put on goggles and then they go, you know, ham with it and then they have a good time. Do you guys remember, they don't, I don't know if they make these anymore, but do you remember the guns when we were kids, the play guns that shot the discs? Yeah. Yeah. The plastic discs. Little foam discs. No, no, no, no. They weren't, the original ones weren't foam. They were hard plastic. And you could, I mean, you, you feel them a little bit. That's what made them fun. Well, those airsoft ones, yeah, you could, those got like real crazy. Oh yeah. And I never did the airsoft. Oh yeah. Well, they have like, they have like leagues for that and shit. Yeah. Yeah. That's like, all those first came out. It was bad news for me when I'd come back. I got a couple of class actually, somewhere in my garage. Have you seen the video? There's this one guy that goes to these airsoft tournaments. And I guess they're legit. People wear armor and if you get hit, it hurts and headshots are not allowed. And so this guy films himself and he's narrating it. You can watch this YouTube channel and he snipes people and he shoots them in the, like in the ear and he laughs and then they're looking around for him. It's terrible, but hilarious. Oh yeah. Because the guys, you see these guys perked it up, they're waiting and then they get in the face and he comes down and he starts laughing. It's terrible to put on. But it's also funny. I got something that funny that happened yesterday. Did you guys, so yesterday Katrina came in here, right? You guys saw Katrina come in with Max. And have you guys met the new nanny? Okay, so you guys met her, right? So she's new, right? So she's still kind of like feeling us out, the family out. It's like, you know, we're on like month one right now still, right? She saw your search history. Yeah. Almost. Yeah, yeah, right. Almost. Right. So we're like learning all that. Couple has sex with nanny. No, we have did not, right? So she, yesterday, before they're heading over here, Katrina's carrying Max and she's carrying Max's breakfast. So we, you know, he's got his pancakes and his banana. And she's got it on a little plate. And I guess Katrina says she walks out the door and she, instead of saying anything, she stops to go to the bathroom and in there, you know, our downstairs floor right before you walk out the house. And, you know, instead of bringing the food into the restroom, she politely sets it down on the floor outside the bathroom. And Katrina was like, a few minutes went by and she hadn't walked out the door. So she opened the back door to see and she goes, she sees that the lights on the bathroom and then she looks down and Bentley is just destroying it. Oh, of course. Yeah. And she, and in her defense, she was like, oh my God, he was upstairs asleep. I'm like, yeah, if they're like in our food. So we don't, and here's the, here's like the rule in our house. Like we do not feed the dogs off the table. They don't eat human food at all. But anything that goes on the floor or if it's, if we set it down, you have to accept that they're going to eat it. Yeah. That's their, that's their territory, right? So we don't like, no one feeds them off the table. They're not used to doing that. But if we put something down there, it's for them. And so, and Bentley's just got like radar like that. He was upstairs sleeping on the couch, like out and she sets that down first a minute. Yeah. And then down there, it was pin drop. Well, I know when we're eating in here, your dog will be sound asleep. And then next thing I know, he's standing right in front of me, looking at me. Yeah. He's waiting for crumbs. Yeah. Waiting for something to come on the floor. He loves Justin for that reason. Yeah. Justin. So he dropped it. He usually gets hooked up. Yeah. Yeah. He's full after. Yeah. He's full after. That was Justin. He gets a full meal for my crumbs. That's totally funny. Do you feed your dogs? I know you have like a special diet. Do you give them like organ meats or something like that to give them? You know what? Okay. So I don't, and I was, I'm glad you brought this up. I was going to ask you, right? So I didn't even know this till you, just literally, this is funny. My sister reached out to me about this the day before. I just started consistently using the Paleo Valley organ. I didn't even know that they had. Organ complex. Yes. I didn't know they had that. And I know we were talking to another company for a while that we were potentially going to do business with. And I know I should remember because I think Shauna did bring it up. I think you've even brought it up, but this just shows you. I use the organ complex all the time. Yeah. I don't pay attention to you that often, right? So. Thanks. Anyways, I'm in our, I'm in our closet and I see it. He filters us all the time. Yeah, I do. So I start, I start using him, but then it got me thinking because Bentley's got all kinds of stuff going on with his hair and his eyes. Right now he's getting old. And I was going to ask you what your thoughts were on of me feeding that type of stuff to the dogs. Oh, fine. Yeah? Yeah. I mean, all it is is it's, it's freeze dried organ meats. I think it's heart, liver and kidney. And you can totally do that. And do you have You have the capsules and put it in his dog. Okay. So now that's for my dogs. Okay. That's one of the questions ahead. And then for me, so the back says four pills that I'm supposed to take. Do you have an idea what that is equivalent to of like if I was going to eat it in whole foods? Because I don't get very small serving. So here's the thing with organ meats. They're so nutrient dense, right? So like I like, like liver, like let's say you ate chicken liver and you're eating it because it's got the iron and the vitamin A and all that stuff. If you ate a couple chicken livers every day in a relatively short period of time, you may reach too high of levels of those kinds of nutrients. So organ meats are very, they're super new. It's like the, it's like nature's natural multivitamin. So you don't want to eat a ton of it all the time. You want to have maybe a little bit all the time or some and then go for a while with that. Okay. So let's, so let's do like a, and I know this is a generic question. So do your best and not, I know we can't be completely specific, right? But let's take me through a couple of weeks of eating and I consistently don't have any liver at all, right? So I don't have or any organ meats. So I sell, I'm supplementing every day with these pills. Now let's say it's a good, I go buy it. I buy it and I'm going to include it. I'm going to include it in at least three meals this week. I'm going to include it. Do I take off just those days? Of eating it from the pills? Or do you think that's enough? If you ate a couple ounces of, okay, this is very individual, right? I know, that's why you gotta understand. I get that, right? Depends on the nutrient deficiencies in the person. But if you ate like a couple ounces of organ meats once or twice a week, you would never, that's it, that would be enough. You wouldn't need to supplement or anything like that. The problem with organ meats is that people don't know how to cook it. And even when you do cook it, it tastes, it doesn't taste like a steak, right? Yeah, it's different. You eat heart or kidney or liver. People just don't like the flavor. So I treat it similar the same way that I treat my Omega-3s like with fish. Oh, so if you have fish, you don't eat them? Yeah, so if I eat fish at least two times to three times in the week, I don't worry about Omega's. If I realize that I haven't had fish for an entire week or two in a row, I get back to taking my Omega's on a daily basis. Is that similar, you think? I would. And so again, for people who don't eat organ meats, they would, they may see some value. You know, it's funny, back in the day, bodybuilders. I know, that was one of the number one supplements. Desiccated liver tablets was huge. And they would supplement them by the handful. Vince Garanda was a big fan, for example, of doing that. I mean, actually all the bodybuilders of the 50s and 60s, they would take handfuls of desiccated liver in between their meals. Now remember, this is before multivitamins. This is before most supplements, but they swore by them. Until this day, desiccated liver tablets are kind of popular among some bodybuilders. Now you see these types of supplements are popular with wellness professionals. And really it's just the bioavailability of the nutrients in them. You're going to utilize typically more of the B vitamins and the iron and the A and the CoQ10, for example, like heart is very high in Coenzyme Q10. It's very important for the heart. You're going to get, you know, there is some evidence that suggests that you'll, it's more bioavailable if you eat it in heart versus if you take a pill that has it, which I believe that to be true with most food. I think that's, you're probably better off eating fish than you would be taking fish oil, for example, in my opinion. Right. I mean, to me, that's always a goal. The goal is always to get it through whole foods. The reality of it is I don't always have perfect weeks where I eat all the fish like that. I rarely do get organ meats. And so if I'm going to supplement it, I'm going to do it daily. Unless I get it two or three times in the week. If I get it two, three times a week, then I'm not going to worry about it. That's how I'm going to treat it. Yeah. But I mean, I tell you, if you're really into fitness and you're working out and your diet's really good, and you want to, and I say really good because there's other important things to look at, right, first, but let's say everything's really good and you want to just, you want to really see what you could do with your diet. Try throwing in a few ounces of organ meat once a week or so, and then see, see how you feel. And most people, women in particular, really gain a lot of benefit. And I think it has to do with the fact that they lose blood once a month. When you have the meat liver, you know, my clients, when I've had the meat liver, you know, one ounce, two ounces a week, like a small amount, all of them came back with great results. First question is from Pat of Blanc. What are your favorite ways to improve cardiovascular health and capacity without interfering with muscle growth? Okay, so first let's be real clear. If you want to maximize muscle growth, some cardiovascular health will help with that. So there's, I don't want people going the opposite direction and think I do no cardio because I want to build the most muscle. Cardiovascular capacity and health will contribute to muscle growth for most people as well. That's true, but I also want to challenge that a little bit too, though. Well, I mean, it all depends on the context, right? Because if somebody is also struggling with not eating enough food and they're a hard gainer, then any sort of extra activity is only going to make building muscle that much more difficult. Well, have you ever been in a situation where your cardiovascular capacity limited you from doing 20 reps of squats? Yeah, that's the argument for how it can help. So I'm not going to, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying context matters here because of course, if you have a kid who, like I was, who was a hard gainer and struggle, and the reason why I was such a hard gainer was, one, I had poor programming. I didn't understand nutrition as well. And I just struggled with getting enough food. I couldn't quite, and the very first thing that I did that showed the first like 10 pound gain for me was cut out basketball. And I loved it. And so, yeah, did my cardio suffer? Like, could I handle supersets the same way? And did I fatigue out probably a little bit in my training? Okay, maybe. But I also now was burning, you know, 400 less calories every single day, which meant I didn't have to eat 400 more calories, which is what I struggled with. So, I mean, I've seen all the research to show the benefits that it can have with building muscle, but you also have to take into consideration who I'm, who we're talking to that could be asking. Yeah, always. I can agree with that. I'll say this with cardio, the most anabolic form of cardio, the form of cardio that will, that is the most muscle preserving. And in some cases, muscle building is sprint. Yeah, fast twitch hit. Yeah, type of exercise. And this is where I tend to kind of lean. And so, I bring up ways that I'll try and incorporate that. Usually, I'm intermittently weaving in cardiovascular just to maintain a certain amount. So, I feel like I'm in condition. I feel like I want to be able-bodied, athletic. So, it is an important aspect to be able to have some kind of an endurance. And again, to Sal's point, having like a 20 rep change is really exhausting. The fatigue sets in, it will contribute and help in that arena, which also builds you muscle from that perspective. But to keep it kind of fast twitch and not extend the time length with that, I think is definitely an advantage to preserve muscle. Yeah, years ago, so I was like you, Adam, a hard gainer, skinny, fast metabolism. But I had gone so extreme with the anti-cardio that my cardiovascular fitness wasn't very good. And I didn't really realize it, right? I was like, no cardio, burn no extra calories. Then I had this trainer that worked for me. This was back when I was an assistant master. I was probably 18 or 19 maybe. And I had this trainer that worked for me. I was at Saratoga, the 24th up in Saratoga. And he was really lean. And I was relatively lean, but not lean as him. And so, I said, hey, I want to get lean. What do you do? And he says, well, I do a little bit of cardio. And I'm like, yeah, but don't you lose muscle? And he goes, don't do too much or whatever, but it'll help you get lean. So he convinced me to do some cardio. Now my cardio consisted of getting on elliptical for 20 minutes, a few days a week. So it wasn't a ton of cardio. I actually built more muscle when I did that. Now it wasn't the cardio that directly built more muscle, but I noticed in my workouts that I was able to do more sets. I was able to do more reps and things like squats and pull-ups and deadlifts and supersets. In my case, the lack of cardiovascular fitness was actually taking away from my ability to build muscle. So I went through this exact same thing too. And the way I actually solved it was improving my mile time. Because if I was able to keep my mile under eight minutes, there was no weight training set that was going to gas me more than that. So if my mile time was over eight minutes, I wasn't as good of, I didn't have as good of endurance enough to power through some of these exhausting sets that you're talking about. Like 15 sets of squats, four or five sets, is exhausting if you have no cardiovascular endurance. 100%. But if you can run under an eight-minute mile pretty consistently, being able to do that is tremendously easier. Then it's mostly muscle fatigue that'll limit you. Exactly. Whatever then, right? So and what I liked about that, or what I liked about that for me was that it's eight minutes. It's eight minutes of cardiovascular endurance that I'm doing to make sure I've got enough gas tank to make sure that I can really fuel my workouts, get all the benefits, those studies that you're referring to that we're talking about right now. And then at the same time too, not spend so much time on the cardio. Now, later on in my career, once I got into competing, I did HIIT post-workout. And I only did it for the last two or three weeks. Like 12 minutes, right? Yeah, 12 minutes. 12 minutes. And it was the final weeks leading into a show. And it looked kind of like this, right? So and every show is a little bit different, but I'll give you a generic. It was I'd start off with three days a week after lifting 12 minutes of HIIT. Normally the elliptical or an incline on the treadmill or sprints or ropes, anything, right? So and I don't go by some generic protocol of one minute on, 10 off type of deal. I go as hard as I can with a burst of about 15 to 30 seconds. And then I let my heart rate come down. Sometimes that would take 30 seconds. Sometimes it takes a minute and a half. I let it recover and then I do it again. And I would do that for a block of 12 minutes. I did that three times a week for the first week. Then the next week I did it four times. The next week, five times. And then it would end on my final week of doing it every single day. Go ahead, Justin. Yeah. I also like really focusing a little bit more on work capacity. So if I'm doing farmer carries for an extended amount of time and just doing loaded things slowly, and it's not something that I'm doing very rapidly, quickly where I'm getting the heart rate screaming initially, but that heart rate starts to go up like substantially. But I'm still loaded. I'm still struggling and working through this, you know, this full-bodied, tense experience, which I feel has like a tremendous carryover going back into lifting weights. Totally. My favorite way to improve my cardiovascular fitness now is to do supersets, giant sets, to have very short rest periods, high rep sets of big exercises, like squats or standing overhead presses and that kind of stuff, maybe kettlebell swings. For most people, I'll say this. Most people, the best form of exercise for your general cardiovascular health is walking, walking and hiking. And the main reason is because most people can at least walk with decent technique and form. Running can be awesome for a lot of people. Unfortunately, most people just don't practice running and it can cause a lot of problems, can cause a lot of injuries for people. But walking for most people is excellent. And if you walked, seriously, if you did like 15 minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner, that's 45 minutes of walking every day and the average person would get all the health benefits they want from doing that. Remain as active as possible all day long. Next question is from Nathan Teal. Are there any negative effects when consuming too much protein in one sitting? Yeah, the shits. Mostly, most of the negative effects you get are going to be digestive, for sure. Eating too much protein in one sitting for a lot of people can cause some pretty bad constipation. That's the biggest thing that I've noticed with clients. Aside from that, you're going to absorb the protein that you eat. And there's a myth out there that says, you can only absorb 30 grams or 40 grams of protein at a sitting. This is a myth that's put out by supplement companies. I used to think that was true. I know, me too. I used to tell clients that. Oh, after 40 grams, you're not going to absorb it. But that's a myth because, of course, supplement companies, look at protein bars and shakes. How many grams of protein is typically serving? 30 to 40. Now, that being said, though, wouldn't you agree that overwhelming your digestive system in one sitting could hinder how much of the absorption of the nutrients that you get? Well, you could get gastro-distressed. Right. That's what I'm saying. So I mean, there's got to be some value or some truth to that, right? Like, if you go and have 150 grams of protein in one sitting, imagine the size of the meal that that is that you're trying to digest. And if you have problems with digesting that because of how massive of a meal you're ingesting, like, are you getting all the benefits? That's like a huge brick in your stomach. Yeah. Well, yeah. If you're bloated, inflamed, you got some low-level inflammation or you get diarrhea, does that affect your ability to absorb things? Probably. Will it affect your hormones? Probably. Sleep. You know, I already said inflammation. So really base it off of your digestion. Now, for me personally, okay, this is just me now, I have way more problems eating too many carbs at one sitting than I do protein. I can eat a, and I've done this before, I can eat a massive steak that's 100 grams of protein. And if I eat some vegetables with it, I'm totally fine. If I eat 70 grams of carbs at one sitting, sometimes it just really bothers me. So it's really an individual thing as well. A lot of my female clients did not do well eating a ton of protein at one sitting. This happened quite a bit when I would talk to female clients about increasing the protein intake. What some of them would do is they would get behind the eight ball. So they'd eat breakfast, they'd eat lunch, and be like, oh crap, I need to eat 70 more grams of protein to hit my target. Then they'd have this huge protein meal, and they'd be like, oh my gosh, I was- Just destroy their stomach. Yeah, I didn't feel good. I couldn't sleep. What was the deal? And so I said, okay, let's cut that down and see kind of what your limit is. And from my experience, for most clients, it could be pretty wide range. I've had clients who, more than 25 grams, bothers their gut. I've had people who can eat like I do. 100 grams at a sitting, it's not a problem. Well, and I think too, there's a training element to that as well. I remember talking to Christina Rice about how much protein that she was intakeing going through the carnivore diet, and it just blew my hair off. I couldn't believe it, but she had gone through and had all these autoimmune issues and things she was struggling through. So this is something that really was helping her out. But I was just amazed at how much protein that she could eat, and she's tiny. Yeah, I really think it just depends on how much it affects you. I have seen this, even if I have a client, because a lot of times too, Sal, you have to be pretty aware to know if you have digestive issues. People just think it's normal to have like a little food belly afterwards. And sometimes it's a sign of something going on, or you have some issues. But a lot of times people just, or they have the shits afterwards, and they just think that's normal to feel that way. So you have to first become aware of that, right? Like how do I feel after I do this? What I would notice with clients that would cram all the protein in is their lack of motivation to want to go do something afterwards. You know, after you have a massive meal. Lethargic. Yeah, you feel lethargic and tired and lazy. And even though their body maybe digested it all, and they can get their, they hit their protein intake, but it now affects their movement and what they do afterward. If it's hindering that, then I would adjust what they're doing and say, hey, listen, I know you get behind protein all the time and we're hitting this 80-gram meal right here, but we'd be far better off and we'd cut that in half and get it in. Now, when you were competing and you were eating, you know, 220, 30, or 40 grams of protein a day, which I'm sure you were hitting at times, right? What were your increments? Did you find a number that worked well for you? I sure did. Yeah, right around, no more than 70, between 40 and 70 was like my sweet spot. So more than 70, you need to feel good. Yeah, and that's also why I used to break the meals up. And I don't know if it was a calorie and a carb thing that went with that too, if it was so much the protein thing, right? So I'm saying what my grams of protein was, but it was also my carbs. I never took in more than a, I could, back when I was competing and I was, my body was adapted to taking in that, I was taking 600 grams of carbs in, right? So I could get 100 grams in a meal and be okay. Today, I couldn't. Today, if I eat over 60, 70 grams of carbs, like you, I feel completely bloated and lethargic afterwards from it because now I've gone the other direction. After doing keto and us kind of adjusting my macros, I haven't been that high of a carb eater since I competed. So, but I did notice a major difference in how I felt and how I performed by breaking up the small meals. So my body just, when you're eating that many calories, that much protein that I was eating and carbs, for that matter, it was a lot easier to take in these 600, 800 calorie meals than to take in four of them that were 1,500 calories. That's just was daunting. Maybe one meal here and there, it would be okay, but to try and do four big 1,500, I would just, I would feel like a terrible all day long. Very crazy, yeah. Next question is from Renee Flow. Are the mine pump wives equally as interested in fitness and health? Is it a shared hobby or do you balance each other with opposite interests? Well, my wife worked in the fitness industry. She loves it. Now, she's not currently working, but she was an online coach. And before that, she was a personal trainer, worked out consistently. Nutrition is an important thing. So for her, yeah, she's pretty damn interested in fitness and health. It's something we both share. Now, I was married before to someone who was not interested in it at all. And to be quite honest, I prefer being, I prefer having a partner that is really into the same things that I am, because it makes it easier. We both respect each other's workouts. We both eat in a way that values our health. So it makes things a lot easier, but yeah. Oh, I definitely think so. Go ahead. No, no, I just wanted to ask Sal more about that. Like, are there specific things that you, that are different, like that you recognize? Like, oh, wow, like I didn't realize how much I appreciate that now. Well, working out with Jessica's awesome, you know. Because of the music. Yeah, because the music, she hates it when you guys breathe in. She gets so annoyed. She could be playing Slayer from now on. I'm trying to help you out, dude. So you know what I'm saying? No, no, the workouts are great. Nutrition is great. You know, we're both on similar wavelengths with that. The stuff that we're interested in, the articles, the things that we like to talk about, new exercises, how things feel, workout programming, like it's cool to share that, you know. But so she's super into it. I don't know if she's as it. I mean, I tend to get a little fanatical sometimes about it, although I will say this. She's probably more on the wellness side than, and I'm more on the like workout side, I would say. So we balance each other out a little bit there, but it's not too extreme or pretty similar. Yeah, I think it's a lot easier when you have similar interests. I mean, that's just, I just can't imagine having to, you know, motivate constantly somebody who's not even into what you're into, to be into that. And we met in the gym. So, you know, that's kind of where we started. Our whole relationship was based around, you know, her being in there, trying to improve herself. So we definitely share that in common. However, like, I just loved her personality about, you know, giving shit right back to me, as far as me trying to kind of come in and tell her exactly what to do and all these things. And then she would challenge my ideas in a funny way that would throw me off. And so it was like, we still have that dynamic. Like she's really passionate about, you know, making sure like her health is on point and, you know, very much as a priority. But also if I, you know, I put some stuff together or whatnot, you know, we still have this like kind of joking relationship about that like, oh, I'm not doing that. That's stupid. Or like, yeah, I'll totally do that. And like, so it's just, it's just kind of fun, you know, kind of dynamic that we have around fitness. I've had, I've had both, right? I've had relationships where the partner is absolutely not into fitness whatsoever. And then I've had like the other extreme where, you know, before I ever competed, I dated a competitor, right? So I know what it was like to be with like someone who was fanatical about it. And I would say Katrina probably lands somewhere in the middle. She's definitely not fanatical about training, but she's also very serious about it. Like she's very consistent. I mean, most all of our relationship, she's maintained about 12% body fat. And so for that, for a female is pretty crazy, is to keep that for as long as she had, obviously not when she was pregnant. And she's been very, very consistent with her training. When we met, she, I met her also inside the gym. That was the first time I'd seen her was working out in the gym. And she was a collegiate level athlete. So she came from like the sports athletic background. And she trained that way. So she lifted like an athlete that was, you know, before CrossFit was really popular, the very CrossFit type of a routine where she was like circuit training everything. And when we first dated, I had already learned from previous relationships that I am typically the fanatical one out of the two and to not be that guy and to just kind of let her do her own thing. And I really didn't start like coaching Katrina on her nutrition and her training until like five, six years in. It wasn't until she came to me. And it was after she started to see me really start to manipulate my body composition. And she was like so blown away by how much I could change my physique over the course of just like a couple months. And that was when she finally like perked up and was like, I think I'm ready to listen to what you have to say about nutrition and exercise. And then I completely changed the way she lives. And she's also the only partner I've ever had where I actually do enjoy training with her. She's, since day one, she's always like respected that as my like, my special time that I might my time that I like to do my thing. And so we can go to the gym together and enjoy the workout space, but also not communicate. So it's like, and it's okay. It's not like this. You can't talk to me, but it's like she knows that I'm into my working. And then I also am there if she needs something, right? So there's times that she'll come walking over and hey, I had a question on this and I can answer it and I'll go back. But and every very rarely, but every once in a while, we'll actually lift together, but that's rare. Like we normally don't lift together. And what I love about her balance with nutrition, she likes food. She loves food just like I do. And she actually like, she prefers drink over in the house. So she's like, she loves like her alcohol beverages. So that's kind of like her thing that if she wants to, she'd rather do that. I'd rather dip into ice cream. But we balance each other. So if, you know, one of us has been not eating the greatest. Normally the other one is more dialed in. And when we come to the dinner time and somebody is like, oh, I really feel like a burger. It's rare that we both align and are in the same place. We both have to feel good about our training and our consistency of our diet to go, oh, okay, let's go ahead and order some five guys or, oh, let's go ahead and have some drinks tonight. And so having another partner that holds you accountable. For me, that was something that I think is so important to, for me in my relationship, because I know that I've been in ones where the partner doesn't do those things. And I'm easily persuaded as much as I'm a fanatic about fitness, you know, if you're bringing home candy and ice cream and you're cooking and you're baking and you're doing those things in my house all the time, like, shit, I'm human. I will eventually start diving into that. And if you're never motivated to get up and work out because we're tired and we're lazy and you're never, and it's always got to be me to motivate, I give in, you know, eventually I lose. Dude, it's so great that Courtney has this, you know, like health conscious attitude towards cooking. And she's a phenomenal cook. But, you know, beforehand, she really loved baking. And we'd get, we'd get in these cycles of like having cookies and like, all these like amazing like bake treats and things. And then we're just like, we can't keep doing this, you know. So we finally came to conclude like what works best for us as a family. And we're very active in everything, but it's been great to see her evolve, you know, in terms of like what the interests are, which benefits the entire family's result. It's very rare that you see it work out like with maybe Sal and his act, well, obviously it didn't work out, but you know, with people like that, with people like that, it's rare though, right? It's rare that you find somebody who is very fanatical about fitness and the person that is the opposite, because it is such a lifelong journey and it takes so much discipline and commitment to lots of behaviors that encompass. Well, it's more than that too, because it's okay. So one of the, obviously the side effect of being consistent with fitness and nutrition is you look good, right? You have a nice body and your fit, but that's not the main reason why, at least for me, I appreciate being with a partner that is into it. That's nice. It's a great side effect. Don't get me wrong. I like that. But the main thing that I like is when you have a healthy relationship with exercise and nutrition, you are a personal growth, personal growth-minded individual. You like improving yourself. That's really what fitness really is all about. If you have a healthy relationship to it, it's constant personal growth. It's constant improvement. It's constant examining yourself. It's being humble. Do I need to work on mobility? Do I need to get stronger? It's looking at your diet in a way that says, is this making me feel the best? And am I really feeding myself in a way that shows that I take care of myself? And so when you're partnered with someone who values that a lot, from a healthy standpoint, of course, there's the unhealthy fanaticism, right? If you're dating the super fanatical bikini competitor or whatever, that's totally different. I'm talking about a healthy relationship. When someone has a healthy relationship to those things, they value that in the rest of their lives. They're just into being better people. And so this is the thing that I love the most. So I tell the suggestive all the time. I say, look, we're going to get old one day. We're going to get old together. We're not going to look like we do now. But the thing that I love the most, the thing that turns me on the most about you, the thing that I find the most attractive about you, is that you're always trying to improve and be a better person. And fitness and nutrition is a big part of that. That's all it is. It's a big, big part of that. Yeah. All right, the next question is from a live caller. So let's take this call. So full name, where are you from? So my name is Daniel Lane. I live in the UK in a little town called Burkhamstead. Awesome. How long have you been listening to the show, by the way? It's probably coming up to about two years now, I think. The first time I heard of you guys was through Ben Greenfield's podcast. Oh, Ben. Very good. About two years ago. And then I went to you guys and I've been with you ever since. Excellent. So, okay, so you're a trainer out there? Are you working the fitness space out in the UK? Yeah, I'm a personal trainer, yeah. How long have you been doing it for? Again, probably about two years now. I started quite late to the game. I'm 35 now, so I was quite late to it. But I guess it was my calling, I think. Oh, beautiful. Never too late. All right, so what's your question? How can we help you? So the question was up until now, I've kind of just every session I do, I sort of plan it individually or whatever. But I want to set a standard of what I test my new clients with because a standard testing and assessment plan for every session, the first session in particular, I was wondering what you guys would recommend and suggest for that first session, what to test, what to assess, and to go from there. That's a really good question and it's an important one for trainers. There's two things before we answer that question that I think we need to address. What is the purpose of an assessment in the initial session, that first session? So what's the purpose and what's its value? And then also we have to realize what it isn't. So I'll start with what it isn't. An assessment is not going to give you all the answers that are going to last you for months and months and months with your client because their bodies are going to change as you continue to train them. So I think a lot of trainers make a mistake when they do an assessment, is they do this super-ultra-comprehensive physical assessment that's extremely detailed. I mean, you could throw that all out once you start training them after about a month because things start to change. Yeah, you want to look at more like a conversation that you're having. You're gathering information about this individual, what they really want. Because a lot of times people come in and they don't actually know what they're trying to do specifically other than some general health goals. And to be able to fine-tune that and see maybe where there's some dysfunction, maybe where you can kind of peer in and give them a real detailed plan just by gathering some basics, I think that's a good start. Yeah, now a couple, these are general and I find generally valuable. Posture is a great way to kind of give you some clues as to what muscles may be weak, what muscles need to be worked on. A squat assessment. Is it an assessment of that, of the posture or? Yeah, so you have them stand relaxed. So tell them, say stand up straight and just relax. And then walk around them and look for things like forward shoulder, elevated shoulders, forward head, their pelvic tilt. And then that will point you in the direction of maybe some other exercises that you may want to look at. For example, let's say they have forward shoulder, then I may say, okay, it looks like you may have a weakness in your upper mid-back. Let me have you try this cable row. Let's take a look at those muscles. Another one would be a squat assessment so I can see how the lumbel, pelvic, hip area is moving. And then there's general exercise assessments that can overhead press, allows you to see a few different things. Now, do you have maps primed by any chance? I don't at the moment. I've been waiting for you. I was going to buy it on your deal for the $100 deal with Prime, Prime Pro and anywhere, but I couldn't get it on PayPal credit because it didn't quite hit the 100. That's all right. We're going to give it to you. We're going to give it to you anyways. Yeah, so we'll give that to you for free because in Prime there's a compass test. I love the compass test for an assessment. Now, here's the important thing though. I want to communicate this to you as a trainer. The assessment is as much for the client as it is for you. So when you see something, you make sure you explain it to the client and also explain to them why this particular posture deviation or imbalance may be causing them problems or pain and then make sure you show them that you know how to work around it or work with it. So you could say, hey, you have forward shoulder that might cause tightness in your neck. Let me show you an exercise that can work on that area because it's really important that you show the person value so that they hire you and work with you because the reality is you'll be assessing them throughout the whole time the train with them. And you need to know too that what Sal's saying right now because I mean, at least in my first two years that would sound a little scary and daunting to be able to do that. That's what Prime was all about, right? So we took the three of us, all of our experience, what we thought were some of the best moves to assess somebody. It's really a tool for trainers. I mean, it helps the average person who wants to learn themselves, but we really designed it with the trainer in mind. Like, how would we build the first assessment? What would it look like? So I think Prime and Prime Pro have to be the two most valuable things that you can own as a personal trainer for this reason. And so make sure you go through it. Justin did actually a free webinar too. So if you haven't taken that and gone through that, that's extremely valuable. It complements the program and that's at what mapsprimewebinar.com. Yeah. Yeah, so go watch that. That's very valuable information. That's what the assessment was. I'm going to add something too that the guys didn't talk about that I think you'll care about. A lot, which is don't forget too, this is an opportunity for you to lay out what their program's going to look like for being able to set them up for a re-sign too. So this was something that a lot of trainers made as mistakes, I feel, when I was coaching and leading trainers. Was we're also heavily focused on helping people and getting better at our craft and furthering our education and talking about anatomy and understanding nutrition and that stuff is all extremely important. But at the end of the day, this is also a business for you too. And this time when you assess somebody is also your opportunity to start to lay out the plan for them. So as I'm taking them through this assessment and we're looking at all these different areas of dysfunction or talking about their goals, I'm also telling them what we're going to be doing over the next two months, three months, six months, depending on how long I think they're going to need to be with me. And the first few times you do that, it might feel kind of uncomfortable because it's the first time you're really presenting this way. But the more people you see, the more comfortable you get with being able to look at somebody and go, okay, her goal is this. These are the issues that I got to work on. That should take me five to six months to implement that and we create good behaviors around it, teach her the exercise you need and you start to let them know like a forecast of what to expect. You know, first month, we're going to address all these imbalances. We're also going to work on a little bit of foundational strength and core strength and your posture. You know, month two, I'm going to transition you into a little bit more of fat loss or then month three, we're going to work on nutrition. And by the way, this is all just me being very vague and giving you an example. But that assessment time is a great opportunity for you also to lay out the plans that you want to do with that client. This sets you up for the re-sign, right? So most people that sign up with you, session one, they probably bought a handful of sessions to try you out and then they start and you do this full assessment. Don't forget to set yourself up business-wise by presenting to them what you plan to be doing with them over the next course of whether it be weeks, months or even years for some people. Yeah, yeah. So, Daniel, I think I'm going to send you Prime Pro also for free because that's got a lot of correctional exercises in there that I'll think you'll find a lot of value in. You've been training people now for two years. Are you full-time? How are you liking it? So, yeah, it's about two years now. Is my full-time job. I also do a bit of elderly caring on the side, but it's my primary job. I love it, especially when you get a client that listens to what you say and they get results, then it's like, it's not, you're not at work. It's not even work. It's just great. You get the old challenging client they really are. You know, sometimes think, my God, but I'm loving it. It's, I wish I'd done it years ago. I kind of thought my way out of it 10 years ago, thinking, ah, you don't see many trainers older than sort of 30, but that's ridiculous because there's so many routes that you can go once you've, you know, established yourself and with nutrition and things like that. So I'm loving it. I absolutely love it. Hell yeah. I mean, we have, and you got, go ahead. I've got a lot of information from you guys in there. Yeah. Thank you. We have so much respect for trainers. You guys are on the front lines. You're the ones that are really making the long lasting changes. So we really appreciate, you know, what you do out there. How's the fitness culture out in the UK? Is it, you know, from what I've heard, it's pretty big. It's the gyms are getting pretty popular and personal training is a pretty big career out there. It's the same, I assume, as in the US, you know, Instagram has made it very popular. I remember when I was 25, I didn't know anyone that went to the gym or, you know, 18 to 25. I didn't know anyone here that went to the gym and now everyone goes. And I, you know, yeah, it's become huge, huge, just the same as the US. Right. Excellent. Exciting time to be in the space. Awesome. So Daniel, here's what we're going to do. I appreciate you asking us the question. Thanks for listening to us. What I'm going to do is I'm going to DM you on Instagram and I'm going to get you. No, Doug said he's already got it. Oh, Doug already hooked you up. So check your. Wow, just like that. Check your library. It'll already be in there. You got Maps Prime and Prime Pro already set up. Well, thank you, guys. I really, I really appreciate that. It's very kind of you and I. Yeah. Thank you for all you do. It's been a great show to follow. I love it. Awesome. Excellent. All right. Thanks for listening, man. You have a good one. Thanks, guys. Cheers. And with that, Mind Pump is recorded on video as well as audio. Come check us out on YouTube, Mind Pump Podcast. You can also find us on social media, Instagram is our favorite place to go. Find Justin at Mind Pump, Justin, me at Mind Pump Sal, Adam at Mind Pump, Adam and Doug at Mind Pump, Doug. Tell me it again. The idea here when we talk about managing stress, we talk about meditation, stillness is your training yourself to learn to reframe these things that end up being like chronic stress for people in their life. If you train yourself to do that, it becomes easier and easier to be able to do that real time. So when the stress hits you, because it's inevitable,