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It's using weights Here's how you can win that program leave a comment in the first 24 hours talk about this episode in this episode We talk about the 15 reasons why you might not be feeling good and these are surprising reasons List some other ones that we might not have come up with so give us some other ones and reasons why People might not be feeling good that they maybe didn't consider and if we pick your comment We think you have one of the best comments or one of the best Surprising reasons will give you free access to maps hit isn't that awesome also subscribe to this channel Turn on your notifications got to do those two things and one more thing We're running a sale right now maps prime maps prime pro and the prime bundle all 50% off Go check them out head over to maps fitness products calm Just use the code June prime with no space for the discount. All right, enjoy the podcast. So I wanted to do a podcast on Things that or reasons why people tend to not feel well that are not obvious You know things that we identified in clients often where people like I'm not just not feeling good And you do the usual, you know checklist of things and everything looks okay And then it ends up turning out to be something that's not that's surprising You know, that's not Conventional so I want to talk about some of the things that we've noticed That have caused people or even ourselves to not feel so good that are just not typically not so obvious And once we say them, I think they're obvious sometimes, but we don't often go to them Oh, no, they sound obvious actually what what I think kicked this conversation off I really liked this was fun to sit down and kind of all three of us rack our brains of you know Trying to recall the clients that we had and like the aha moments and the very first one That we'll talk about of the 15 is the one that I mentioned recently on the podcast that I actually heard Justin Was giving this tip. So I had already been a Manager so I was leading trainers if I five years in or so and I have Justin and I he'd already been working with me For a while and I overheard him talking to this client about because she was complaining of like fatigue and Not feeling well or what that and he was talking about water and you know Up into that point That wasn't on my list It wasn't on my top check asking them the questions and I thought because you just think it is so basic and simple that oh Everyone knows he's already drinking water. Yeah, everyone knows that you're supposed to drink water So I just didn't think to ask that and When I saw him do that and then I began to kind of apply that with my clients going forward I found that more often than not that actually solved a lot of problems for clients It's kind of funny because that was one of those things that seems super obvious But unless you're intentionally Constructing your day and making sure that you're seeking out water a lot of times you fall behind and then that carries over into the day after that and for me it was really You know eye-opening because I had Well for clamped you guys I had headaches a lot and this was something that I didn't ever attribute that to drinking water being dehydrated and also was experiencing fatigue and Started to really be intentional about drinking water and it made a massive difference And then also as I was conveying this over to my clients finding out that this was a rare thing like they're more than not They were eating or eating they were drinking a very low volume of water And it was also affecting things like joint pain. Yes all kinds of other things. That's a big one I noticed with my clients with pain and inflammation they would come to me and be like, oh, this is stiff I feel tight and we would do correctional exercise We do all the all the tools that I had in my tool belt to help them and it would help but sometimes it will kind of linger and I remember Hearing this from another trainer that worked with me in my studio was to drink more water And so I said, you know, why don't you try drinking, you know Half a gallon of water a day or a gallon of water day depending on the size of the person and they would do it They come back and be like my joint pain is gone. Yeah, and I couldn't believe that water would do that now for me I pieced this together for something that is I didn't even consider which was the pump I I had no idea that the now obviously this is a huge part of the process This is obvious now because you think about the pump and it's fluid in the muscle But if I drink if I don't drink enough water because I work out first thing in the morning If I don't wake up and have a couple glasses of water, my pump is severely reduced If I wake up have a couple glasses of water before I work out makes a huge difference So now I like to tell people to try to aim for about a half a gallon to a gallon of water a day It's a nice rough estimate and it makes a huge difference suppresses people's appetite That's another big one that I noticed people would have less cravings as a result Less headaches less inflammation and then the other one is more energy Which is strange because you don't think water gives you energy but not having enough water Saps you of energy the next one This one's another big one and this reminds me actually of DMs that I get quite often from people So I'll give you an example of a DM right someone will send me a message and they'll say You know Sal I've been following this this ketogenic diet and I've been doing it now for three months But I still suffer from constipation and I'm not feeling so good How how long do I need to stick to it before I feel good? Yeah, it's not working Yeah, and this is it's basically people following the wrong diet for their body There's a pretty wide individual variance with how people feel eating particular ways I've had clients who thrive on a diet. That's much higher in carbohydrate You know lower in protein and I've had clients who do much better on a higher protein higher fat diet I've had clients were eating plant-based made them feel the best I've had clients on the other inspection where they mostly meet and they feel best This one really has to do with listening to your body And sometimes we stick to a diet because we read about it and we see the studies and we see the articles We say this is what I'm supposed to do But we ignore the fact that maybe that diet's just not working for our body I actually think this is a more common than not and a lot of times It's because Everybody has that friend who followed the Adkins or follow the ketogenic diet or follow the zone diet Or does intermittent fat they do something and they go. Oh my god, like just transformed, right? Yeah, right? They transform they look amazing and like you're sold. That's it. I don't need to read no studies I know my friend Susie. She did this and it changed her life. I've known Susie. She's been fat her whole life Now she looks amazing So I'm sold and then they do it and they stick to it just because it had success for Susie And they come to me and they're just trying to figure out why is this not working for me? And they're trying to force it and you're trying to force a you know, scrown as a square peg in a round hole It's like your body's trying to tell you it's not for you And so I think this this happens more often than you you would you would think because People hear about something or see something work for somebody else assume that it must be great for them, too Yeah, now in our space We see this often with people who eat a lot of protein because we're told a high protein diet is good for satiety It's good for muscle building and recovery, which is true But there's definitely cases where it doesn't affect it affects someone's digestion wrong Or in a way, that's negative or it makes them feel sluggish But yet they doggedly stick to it because that's what the article said That's what the literature says the literature says I need to eat a lot of protein And it's like no man It's you might not be feeling good even though you're eating a health You know quote-unquote healthy foods and you're following the diet to a tea it might not be the right diet for Another aspect to consider with this something that Doug actually brought up Was food intolerances and so you know, so that's something too that makes a massive impact on Individual variances based off of if this diet that you're following and you have foods included in there that may actually be causing you Inflammation or you know, you have some kind of reaction to it Without going through an elimination process and figuring that out That could be a component there as well I had a lady who suffered from Psoriasis and we were trying to isolate what could possibly be contributing to this and it turned out to be bananas Bananas were we're triggering an autoimmune issue or response and she would get psoriasis and her response to me was But I eat bananas every morning. I've been eating bananas for years. I'm like, well, how long have you had psoriasis for? It's not working for your body So you got to pay attention to these things and listen to your body All right, this next one is a bit controversial and I love talking about this because We've been pushed so hard in one direction Not realizing that in many cases, especially with athletes or especially with people that eat a Whole-food based diet people that work out a lot Oftentimes they don't feel good or don't have a lot of energy because they're not eating enough sodium Yeah, this is a big one now if your diet's very high and heavily processed foods You're probably fine heavily processed foods are super super high in sodium But whole natural foods even if you salt them even if you add salt to your Steak and your baked potato and your rice and all your your whole natural foods Even if you add salt oftentimes it's too low For someone who's active for someone who has a lot of muscle or someone who sweats a lot adding sodium Can dramatically improve your energy improve your pump improve your sense of well-being? I think this is even more common in our with our audience Because a lot of people in that are listening to this podcast are obviously health conscious They are working out. They're trying to better themselves and many times they're coming from The opposite side of not eating very well not exercising not doing those things then all sudden you make this switch I'm going to increase activity and exercise and I'm also going to cut out all the fast food and garbage So you take somebody who's used to eating, you know thousands tens of thousands of milligrams of sodium to all of a sudden Reducing that dramatically because just by simply cutting out fast food and switching over to better choices That are our whole foods you cut your sodium like more than in half Like it becomes like a tenth of what your body was used to being taking and then in addition that you introduce exercise Which is also the bodies in a want more sodium for that So I actually think our audience benefits from things like this more more than the average person even yeah When when we were first introduced to this is just a product now that we work with when we were introduced to element I thought I saw electrolyte powder big deal like there's so many of them It's not that big of a deal then you know my like I just like two months later I took a closer look and I said oh shit They put a thousand milligrams per serving in this They're actually doing it the right way because most electrolyte powders remember they're targeting athletes They're targeting people who eat either low carb diet by the way when you eat low carb diet You need more sodium low carb diets your body loses lots of water You need more sodium you you actually lose lots of sodium with a low carb diet or if you'd a whole natural Food diet again like we said earlier your sodium is very low Now remember when we when we all tried it the pumps improved the energy improved because it had a decent amount of sodium along with of course the Potassium and magnesium So if you're that person who's active and fit and you eat whole natural foods and you're still like ah, man My energy is not super good like what's going on Try increasing your sodium you might just trip yourself out at how big of impact it has yeah All right this next one this one's dear near and dear I think both especially to you guys and I'd say probably Justin even more so yes You might be having too much caffeine. You know caffeine is an incredible chemical. It's of course. It's naturally occurring It's one of the most effective if not the most effective. Yeah athletic performance enhancing Compound it reduces risk of dementia it can improve health of the brain it can improve mental function It's beautiful. It's wonderful. We've been consuming it for thousands of years. However, it comes along with side effects which include Fatigue by the way caffeine can produce fatigue at too high a levels You'll actually find that you'll crash hard and be more tired than you were before it contributes to anxiety heart palpitations Hormone imbalances I find this often with women where their cortisol is very high and estrogen and progesterone levels are off balance and that's because with caffeine there's a sweet spot and Taking more caffeine just results in more of the negative side effects and very little or none of those positive effects So you just they may be taking especially if you have coffee and a pre-workout like a lot of people do this They have coffee every morning, then they throw a pre-workout before the workout they never take a day off and They're not realizing the caffeine that they're taking in is just too much It's the glue that's like barely holding everything together a lot of uses and myself included Have used caffeine to really just keep keep me going keep me productive throughout the day and really mask over a lot of the Symptoms like my body's trying to tell me like in terms of not getting enough quality sleep Being not drinking of water a lot of these other things that I should be doing I tend to then Overcompensate with caffeine because now I can get this sort of false energy at least for an extended amount of time But then that inevitably adds up to up in your dose and then this causes You know interrupts your sleep later on in the day In all kinds of things, you know spirals out from there So I actually don't think this was that big of a deal when we first started as trainers. I've seen this Increased dramatically in the last right decade. Yes, the first ten years or even first five years for sure that we were trained I mean that Starbucks was like still on that wasn't even on the scene yet So when Starbucks hit the scene only people that drink coffee were like old people Hardcore trucker journalists Teachers you didn't see fitness people drinking coffee back then it became something that became normalized after After the introduction of Starbucks and then after that you started to see because up to that point too It was an old person thing. It was like I didn't taste very good Not very many people I knew drank it then it became like this ritual that everybody stopped and had their Starbucks coffee Then came all the positive studies that would start to come out because before that too was like Oh, it's just like any other drug you get addicted to it's not ideal for everybody And so we didn't really normalize it yet then Starbucks Everybody's doing it and then we found to connect make all these great connections to how beneficial Caffeine is and now we've swung the complete opposite direction where you see kids in Starbucks now You see the David they make drinks now that attract these little kids We have milkshakes with it That so it has become very normal for people to and then you see the pre-workout market also come out of nowhere That didn't exist. That's didn't exist either during our time. So the beginning of our career This was not a conversation at all. Nope midway. I start to realize. Wow, how much this is growing It's not until not that long ago. Do I start to piece together? Oh, wow This is starting to become a problem because it's becoming so normalized Everybody is drinking multiple cups a day and then now this pre-workout market is exploding And now the race on the pre-workout market is to stay ahead of everybody's addiction So the original hundred fifty to two hundred milligram that was the original dose. Yes Yeah, 150 200 was like a big deal originally and that became not a big deal anymore Then it became 250 than 300 then you see some of these pushing for 450 milligrams of Caffeine and a pre-workout on top of them probably having a cup of coffee And it's immense the idea that you need that before every workout which is not true in a lot of times I've noticed some people like they won't even work out unless they have their pre-workout ahead of time Which is a problem because then that dependency is really something now have to work the biggest negative effect that I see from it is How much it disrupts people sleep when they don't even realize it disrupts their sleep? Yeah, because you don't think sometimes when you have this pre-workout at 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon before you go get your Workout in that how is that how's that have anything to do with me at night at 9 30 or 10 o'clock in bed tossing and turning? And you don't connect the two unless you've paid attention long enough and you tease it out to measure it Which I have done and it blows my mind what a difference it makes when I have either Limited or no caffeine on how much better sleep Did you know that studies show that almost always caffeine affects sleep? Yes almost always Even if you have it in the morning now, there's a degree There's of course degrees to how much it affects your sleep But it almost in fact if you go to a sleep expert and you have issues with sleep The first thing they'll do is have you reduce or eliminate your caffeine, you know You didn't even cover the energy drink market. I remember. Okay. I don't know if you guys remember this when we were kids There was one drink that advertised itself as having a lot of caffeine Joe Cola. Yeah, remember that you know much caffeine Joe Cola like 50. It was like 60 or 70 You know, it was in a can cup of coffee. Yeah, and you drink it and be like, oh my god It's so energized, you know Then Red Bull comes out and now you've got rock stars and all these other drinks that are just packed full of caffeine There's also this huge individual variance when it comes to caffeine tolerance You know, I know if you read the studies They say up to 300 milligrams a day or three cups a day. It's perfectly fine. That's so bullshit It's not true for a lot of people for some people. It's true for other people anything over a hundred milligrams Causes more negative than positive effects. You have to figure this out kind of for yourself I have in comparison to my co-hosts and low tolerance but I know people who haven't even lower tolerance in fact I was working out with a friend of mine the other day and he said if he just has a green tea Which is like 50 milligrams or less he feels negative. He just totally stays away from caffeine completely So he's on the other end of the spectrum But you need to know this for yourself caffeine in high doses because it causes a stress response in the body It's what makes you hyped can really negatively affect your hormones as well So keep this in mind if you have hormone issues can't figure out what's going on It just might be the it's a vicious cycle because you start to do it. It throws off to sleep You're miserable the next day You need more just to get you up again, and it's like you can't imagine going a few days without it And so yeah, this has been one of those things that early on in my career I never thought to ask it where now it becomes one of the first 15 things that I as I'm going through the list of Have we done your water? Have we done have you checked your caffeine? Have you tried to go a week without caffeine and pay attention to your sleep totally now? There's an excellent. I feel like it's targeting me a little bit, but it's true And this is that you might just hit me hard last one You might just be taking too many supplements There's a couple reasons why this is a problem one You don't know what's doing what you know if you're taking four different supplements or five different supplements You don't know it which one is making you feel good Which one is making you not feel good which one is causing gut issues or none of that stuff You have no idea because there's just so many products and supplements that you're taking and by the way Some supplements that are supposed to make people feel great actually can make other people feel really bad I'll give you guys an example, right? If you look at the studies on rhodiola rhodiola is a supplement. That's it's an herb or plant It's been around forever. It's been used for hundreds of years. It's a it's a it's a tonic It strengthens your immune system It's an adaptogenic meaning it allows your body to adapt to stress better It improves athletic performance and energy and alertness all the studies show this okay all the studies show this It's very very it's pretty conclusive. It does all these wonderful things It makes me feel like shit Yeah If I take rhodiola and I take anything other than the smallest dose of all time like if I take a normal dose of your rhodiola, I literally feel bogged down and feverish I don't feel good now if I'm taking five different supplements or ten different supplements I'm taking one supplement with ten different ingredients one of them is rhodiola Like I don't know if it's the rhodiola or is it the cordyceps in there? What the hell is going on that's making me feel real terrible. You just might be taking too many supplements Yeah, no, and you and I are the same way when it comes to that I didn't piece this together until I started to notice I had clients that were like you and like myself I think we're we all a little bit this like I definitely as a kid Trying every supplement under the Sun and you know a lot of people are searching for that Even if they don't they don't realize they are subconsciously. They're always asking What's the best pill for this or what's the best for that or I heard about this or what do you know about that? Supplement because they've been marketed to or a friend told them about it and then when you find out what they're taking They've got seven different pills that they're taking to try and help them burn fat build muscle sleep better Wake up better like all these things and sometimes a lot of them are conflicting with each other So you're you're taking one upper with a downer and you're doing all these things to that you're in pursuit of this better Physique or more energy and what you don't realize is it's just they're either counteracting with each other or just a combination All of them is upsetting you and so that becomes a now on my list well, I think in general too because it's in the health category a lot of times you're going to the store and these are all Vitamins and and supplements so you see you assume and like more is always better Yeah, obviously if I'm obviously if I'm not getting it in my food It's gonna benefit me and it's a lot of times. Yeah people will get into that sort of mode of I need I need vitamin C. I need vitamin D. I need fish on you this I need that and you know Not really even associating a lot of those things with what your current diet is providing. That's a really good point, too This was something I found out later on was you know, especially if you do a lot of like shakes and bars and things that have They're all fortified. That's right They're all fortified and many of them will give you the total RDA of like one nutrient that you need for the entire day and So did the other thing and then sort of the other thing So you got three things that are giving you your complete RDA for the day and You're overdoing it and there's a lot of things that are not better the more you know fat soluble vitamins like okay So vitamin D deficiency is quite common But if you're somebody that's got high levels of vitamin D at the upper level upper limit and you supplement with vitamin D You can cause yourself some big problems because you're taking a supplement that your body specifically doesn't need you brought up An excellent point Adam look at your pre-workout. Look at your protein shakes Look at all your products and see how many of them contain the same stuff not realizing that you're overdoing a few key Nutrients that could be building up in your body. You know, there's fat soluble vitamins and minerals They get stored in the body. So you got to be very very careful, you know with that kind of stuff Here's another one. This one's very common, especially in the fitness space, which is you just you're working out too much In fact, we just answered a live question the other day on our live Q&A episode And this this young lady is talking about all her exercise and workouts And she wants to know why she can't push her body to get to the next level and it became very obvious to me That she was overdoing it, you know, there's a big difference between how much workload your body can tolerate and How much workload is ideal to get your body to adapt and feel good and get stronger? There's a very big difference. They're not the same like there's in it There's a certain amount of volume sets and reps that'll optimize my performance will build muscle will make me feel good And then there's a an amount that's much higher than that that is pushing the limit in terms of how much I can tolerate But by because I pushed it to that point where I can barely tolerate it. I've slowed down my progress I'm tapping into too much energy and my body is always kind of tiptoeing that line Between overtraining and the right amount, which means you don't feel good You don't feel very good when you're constantly pushing how much exercise you can tolerate versus what's optimal for adaptation Well, I think so this is made at number six on our list and they're not necessarily in any particular order because I would actually rank this up even higher because I Found and this is true with myself I mean and this is where the whole saying of you know My goal is to do as little as possible to elicit the most amount of change And that's a mantra that I continually tell myself because you have to yeah Because it just we tend to overreach and that that's talking for sure to the fitness fanatic But even the person who is not a fitness fanatic, but it's just motivated to get started on their their journey Yeah, they're fired up. They're tired. Take it all on that's right They let's I want to do as much as I can because that you assume that the more you do the more results you get and it Doesn't work that way. So I actually think this is one of the top reasons why someone's not progressing or not feeling well Is they are just hammering their body? They're giving it too much at once many times They're doing that also in a caloric deficit. So they're on a diet So they're restricting their body of some of these things we're talking about water Sodium calories and then on top of that you're also pushing it way more than you need to and then wondering why I'm not getting the results Yeah, a lot of times it's the last thing people even consider because what's promoted so much in in like general in the general population in the public view is that you need to be exercising more and you're never doing enough and so For somebody that has been actively Motivated and pushing their body to its limits It has to be good for me And so that wouldn't have been even something that they would have thought if I reduced this It's gonna make my body feel better and I'm actually gonna progress more towards the direction that I want Yeah The dose has to be perfect for your body and that considers your lifestyle your sleep your goals your fitness level the right dose We'll get you there faster More than that will get you there slower a lot more than that will get you to go backwards Always remember that I can't tell you how many times I had clients hire me and I got their bodies to progress rapidly By cutting their volume down by a third like that's all I would do I look at their work I'll be like here's what we're gonna do we're gonna do a third less work And I would always argue with me and I'd say look here's the deal. You're paying me and you do trust me Let's do this for a few weeks. I promise you if you trust me this one time I'll never have to ask for your trust again is one of my favorite lines and they would listen. Okay. Oh my god I'm getting stronger. What's going on doing less work. You were doing too much before it was the it was too much Your body couldn't adapt. It was only worried about healing. All right. Here's another one That's a that's a big one this one you see ice to see in gyms all the time Remember we managed big box gyms for years that's how we all kind of started our career and When you're in a gym and you're running it you're there a lot, right? So especially as a general manager, I would be there from 9 a.m. Typically till 9 p.m. And you start to see the same people There's certain percentage of your members that are real consistent and you see them come in and you see them work out And then after a while I'd notice these people do the exact same thing Every single single time they came in I mean there's one guy I remember he would come in literally always exactly the same thing and not only the exact same thing the exact same piece of equipment So I'd have a lot I'd have a row of stair masters. Nope You would get on the third stair master 15 minutes the same favorite one They need to go over to this chest press machine Then they do this row machine and it was always the same way it was used the same way and I would watch this guy I do this all the time and I remember talking to him and we on this conversation like hey You man you're real consistent. I see you coming in, you know every day at 3 p.m. Doing your workout You know, do you have any you know any questions or anything? Well, you know, it's really fun But I my body's plateau like I don't just stopped responding like well I watch you work out You know you do the exact same thing every single time you come in. Well, yeah, I got a good routine Well, yeah, but your body got used to it Let's change it up and watch what happens and of course he did and he got results This is actually quite common with people where they do the same stuff all the time Maybe not the same like the guy just talked about but they do the same rep ranges Or they always do the same exercises or the same kind of body part split Or they're always bodybuilding and they never try powerlifting or they never try functional exercise like if you're always doing the same thing You're always pressing the same weaknesses. You can cause joint issues You tend to cause imbalances in your body because you're not working in different planes This can cause problems if you never change up your workouts Yeah, or they're the kind of person that Has always done a specific type of plan But they've taken a few years off and now they're jumping right back into that kind of plan that worked for them years ago So they didn't change anything But they try and apply it and it doesn't have the same type of success and progress That they had before because their bodies different now and they haven't accounted for that and they haven't really gradually brought themselves back into shape even to Meet and face that type of demand on their body. So, yeah, it's the creature habit. It's the something You know, that's the familiar like we're all guilty of sort of being drawn back into what's familiar to us and what we know we can do I really think this is the difference between people that exercise and people that train So movement any kind of movement can be exercise Zumba classes exercise You could do the same exercise forever your and your your heart rate elevates and it's better than nothing. That's right It's not bad just movement really. That's right It's not bad for you, but many times this is this is confused with training and training is a goal I have a goal in mind I come to this gym and I am trying to either get stronger get faster lose lose body fat build muscle I have a goal in mind and therefore the work that I'm doing the intent is that I am bettering Myself towards that where if you're just going to exercise to exercise, that's fine I mean if you want to write do the four machine Sal talked about the guy and then you're happy You guys know what I'm talking about Example stay master. Yeah, I know who he is for sure So, you know that fine But if you tell me you you're wanting to make change or you don't feel good or you don't like what's happening And this is how you approach it It's like you you got to change your routine up and it's hard because we do we get Stuck in the things that we like in our habits and you know But if you have a goal or you want to change that the idea is that you're training and not just exercising Now the next one this one people are always like, oh, yeah, I know that yeah I do that but do you really and that's sleep quality your sleep quality sucks Now I've talked to many people about sleep many clients and oftentimes I'll hear but I get eight hours every single night Right, I'm not talking about how long you think you sleep or when you go to bed And when you get out of bed, but rather the quality of sleep within now I'm gonna use an extreme example just to kind of illustrate my point I remember I had a client who was dealing with fatigue and you know Inflammation and just couldn't figure out what the hell was going on Finally we narrowed it down and they went and saw it did a sleep study I don't know if you guys know what a sleep study is But you go and you actually sleep in a lab they watch you and they figure out what's going on And they found that this person had sleep apnea and that they were actually waking up several times in the night They weren't aware of it, but they were waking up several times a night So this person got one of those the CPAP machines put it on and it was life I'll never forget the day after they wore it. They walked into my gym and they're like If I knew this years ago, I would have done this like I am a different person Because of last night. I had no idea that my sleep quality was that bad So although they went to bed and woke up, you know and had eight hours The reality is they got like five hours of quality so every night they were sleep deprived now That's an extreme example But if you're waking up in the middle of night to go to the bathroom or you wake up because you're uncomfortable or because you're sweating Or because the sheets are and this is common for you Your sleep quality probably isn't great and you need to focus on things that improve sleep quality like Turning off electronics an hour before bed or wearing blue light blocking glasses making sure your room is really cool 66 67 degrees maybe wearing minimal clothing in bed not eating too close To bed time like those are just a few common things But they make a huge difference and you'll go to the bed at the same time wake up at the same time But the quality within having a plan and preparing for sleep Yes, I just think that that's still a common thing that a lot of people don't consider They just want to okay now. It's time for bed and whether or not you're watching TV or you're on your phone Answer in your last email and then you set your phone down and now it's just close my eyes And it's magically gonna happen and I'm gonna sleep and all stuff can be great Meanwhile, your brain is still completely active and you haven't been able to really shift over Into that different mindset and so to create that is gonna take a lot of intent Going into that so the the hour proceeding that to really be conscious of how much blue light you're Introducing yourself to and making sure you actually have a ritual leading up into Taking, you know going to sleep is is gonna be a huge difference I can't remember who it was that I first heard that from but I remember that was probably some of the best advice I'd ever heard nothing up at this point I was somebody who just I'll sleep when I'm sleeping. I'm dead and sleep is over. Yeah I was definitely that asshole for a very long time And it wasn't until later. Did I start to really appreciate? Quality sleep and then it wasn't until I heard this and I wish I remember who who said this first But it was kind of like an aha moment for even somebody like me who's a trainer and should know better is that you know We put all this effort into starting our day off, you know, so we have such a great day You know and though you're productive throughout the day and you have this everyone has a morning routine No, whether you you think you do or not you do whatever you do every single morning is your routine And most people at the bare minimum have the go to the bathroom brush your teeth shower, you know We're not talking about that. Yeah, I have a cup of coffee I mean, it's but you have a routine that you do every single morning to set the tone for your day And some people even more extensive and then you ask the majority of people What does your night look like and most people? Well, you know, sometimes this sometimes that around this or and then I just close My eyes try to go to sleep. Yeah, there's there is no effort put towards maybe Some of the most important time of the day when they taught when you talk about recovery and energy and building muscle Longevity overall health mood all the things that sleep impacts You can make the case that then that that the eight hours right there is probably the most important eight hours day yet There's no effort whatsoever that's put around that and so a great place to start somebody and what I began doing with clients It's just asking that like what is your sleep routine nine times at a ten getting a don't really have one Well, let's build one and then that's kind of how you start with this and you know It can start off very basic to get in some good habits that you both alluded to the Television and phone. I think that's the easiest thing that I always tell clients to do first is like, okay Let before I build this huge routine for you Let's first just get rid of what I think are some of the worst habits Which is laying in your bed staring at a screen because you're basically telling the brain It's daytime when it's 11 o'clock at night in your bed So let's agree that one hour before you lay down There's no more screen time no television and start there and then you start to build and what you find is the more Healthy habits that you build around the evening to help you get better sleep the better sleep you get and then the better All those other things are and so this is something took me a long time But then has become probably one of the top five staple ones that I address when talking about Figuring out things like you'd mentioned in terms of being like overheated and sweating and that waking you up Like there's beautiful technology out there now that exists to be able to cool you and keep your temperature Pretty much controlled at night and you know these are products that are game-changing for a lot of people just like finding out You know you have sleep apnea so to go through that Process and figure out what it is that's really like preventing you from quality sleeps a dire importance Yeah, so this next one. I noticed quite a bit especially with my kids since they were not able to go to school during the pandemic Because they did their school at home on their computers Therefore they stayed in their rooms all day long until I got home And I noticed that they were just starting to look more and more like the walking dead like I'd come in and I'd see my kid And I'd be like man you look like Neo from the matrix before he wakes up, you know that real pale Come on and so I started to just I every day would come home They like we're going for one hour walk no matter what going outside and they would him and ha And we go outside and within 20 30 minutes their moods would totally change So one of the problems might be that you're just indoors too much. You're just never outside Going outside makes a huge if so much energy you get just from the sunlight or just from being outside and getting fresh air We notice it here. We're in a studio when we're recording the podcast But and there's many times were in between podcasts We're like we need to go for a walk even if it's only 20 minutes to go outside man We come back inside and we're invigorated. It's total different energy. Well, I would say that this is For sure one of the ones that we all are hard on ourselves about or we would agree that if there's of these 15 We're going through where do we slip up the most? I would say here because we do have this job that we're in this cave where we work And so it's very easy that we we can get stuck in here all day long And so this is one that I'm always having to remind myself to get out there and get out And I always notice it's I notice the difference immediately That's why this one's easy for me to show clients the difference like it's pretty obvious If you're somebody who sits in a desk under fluorescent lights all day long Take that same person and give them a day at the beach for a day and then ask them how the hell they feel It's like you night and day difference so you can feel it immediately It's just you have to be conscious of the of the fact that you may not be getting it on a regular basis And then you have to make that effort otherwise you could string. I mean, I know I could string weeks together Without seeing yeah without almost seeing the Sun getting to work so early It's barely coming up and you're in your car and then you go straight to a building and you stay here all night And then before you know you go like oh shit It's been like a week since I actually speaking to the beach I mean just going there and getting that kind of sun exposure and how your body just it just absorbs and craves that type of Stimulus and what that does to later on for the night like some of the best sleep I have ever had Is after I've been able to kind of introduce more Sun again when I've been deprived of Sun. It's really interesting Yeah, you know, it's funny evolutionarily speaking if you spent as much time indoors for most of human history as we tend to do now It's because you were sick Humans never spent this much. We would you if you're in a cave 90% of the time it's because you were sick and you were away from the rest of the tribe because you had some weird disease Or you're about to die so our bodies almost read it the same way I'm inside all day long no Sun exposure no fresh air and my body's receiving the signal. That's almost like I'm sick I guess I'm not well and you feel that well There's a healing aspect to it and this is something I talked to Courtney about she's a nurse and with you know Sick kids would make a point to take them outside and get them some sun It was like really important for their recovery process Well, have you ever felt that loop before that you're describing? I mean I was just sick not that long ago and I felt this right where you're you feel terrible So you lay in bed all day and start and you just fought and you just feel worse and worse and worse And then I know I got to get out and so I'll drag my ass out to my backyard Sit in there and just absorb something like instantly feel better. I know I know so it's like this loop But you don't feel good you tell yourself you're not feeling good all the signs you're around in this dark room It's just telling you not you're not getting better anytime soon But simply dragging your ass outside and getting the Sun immediately you can feel oh, yeah And if you work on a computer take your laptop outside, that's all right You can look and work outside and and get some of the benefits of being outdoors without you know having to stop what you're doing All right, so this next one is really interesting because over the last year My wife has almost eliminated social media So she's taken herself off of social media for the most part and the Improvement the improvement of her in terms of her her health her mental health. She tells me she's way less stressed way Like a way less anxious. It's been true. It's been tremendous Social media although it's a valuable tool and a way you can communicate to people man If you spend a lot of time on social media You're gonna feel like shit because you're either a comparing yourself to everybody's highlight reel or B You're getting targeted with trigger type articles that are guaranteed arguing all day long for no reason with somebody That may not even be a real person But they've obviously got you Got under your skin got you going and you're very much like Engaged and that follows you throughout the rest of your day Which affects your mood and the way you interact with other people. I mean, it's definitely something you check Go on social media with intention So tell yourself I'm gonna go on for 30 minutes to just you know scroll or I'm going on for 30 minutes to learn Something or to write something and that's it the whole like wasting time on social media Makes you feel like shit. In fact, I know psychologists today A lot of them now are recommending to people reduce their time on social media to reduce people's anxiety Yeah, I think this is a conversation that I was not used to having as a trainer And I've had it more now as a podcaster than I ever it wasn't a thing Yeah, it wasn't a thing at all and I do see How important it is to have if you're a coach and a trainer today and you and you help Clients out. I think this should be in your top three for sure because I think almost everybody is on social media and What happens with clients when they set these goals and I don't know client Yeah, I'm sure you guys have heard people that That are signing up with training today Almost all of them will reference like an Instagram person is like what they want to look like like when I look at my Knees and I look at they have goals. They when they talk to me about their goals They refer to another person on Instagram or on Facebook like oh, I want to look like her I want and that is such a terrible place to start I mean you shouldn't even you shouldn't ever go there. You definitely shouldn't start there It's like oh, I have this goal in mind and you're already Comparing yourself to this other person who again like Sal said presenting a highlight reel of their life like One who knows if it's even real to that's a terrible place Psychologically to be to be constantly comparing yourself to other people So I feel like if you're feeling down, you don't feel good or you have your anxious or whatever One of the first things that you I would tell someone today would be to I would go ahead and go through their Instagram Say let's get rid of all this bullshit. You're following. Yeah, I think definitely that the comparison part of that But also like what is your input like what what are you taking in and consuming and reading and allowing? Within your day and so like social media like you're gonna get a lot in in a short amount of time in terms of your feed And what kind of people are you following? Are they positive? Is it all negative doom and gloom like what are you bringing in? Psychologically that you're gonna carry with you throughout the rest of the day. Yeah, here's another one You're you just might be surrounded by shitty people or your friends your friends might just suck I remember reading I remember it was like three years ago that I brought up the study that blew all of our minds It was a Stanford study and it showed that having bad relationships in your life was as bad for you as smoking I think a packet of cigarettes every single day. I think it was even more not Yeah, it's it's that's how bad it is for your health now. You might be thinking what what do you mean? How do I know that my friends suck or a lot of people don't know that okay, or they're the sucky friend Here's a litmus test good friends Celebrate your victories. They're more excited about good things that happen to you than you are and they also mourn your losses So if you have friends that you bring like good news Oh my god I just got promoted and they kind of come off a little negative or a little bit critical like oh, well Yeah, probably not a good friend or if you have something bad happen to you and your friend kind of doesn't care Or doesn't really come to your to your to help you or show that they're sad along with you That's probably not a good friend and this may mean and I've done this in my life Actually several times that you need to prune certain people off your life there may be some friends that you just slowly start to ghost and Start over and find better people because you tend to become kind of the average of the people you surround yourself Are your friends growth-minded? Are they doing things that you aspire to do? Are they? motivating and showing you You know how to how to live a certain way that you really admire and Just those things like you want to be able to surround yourself with people that elevate you But also, you know our examples of different aspects of life that you can incorporate within yourself And so to find to find different groups of friends really hard because it's comfortable To be around the ones that have sort of stayed the same and it's very predictable and obvious But is that going to be good for you long term something you have to kind of deal with in really address? Well, I don't know who coined the You're the average of the five people you hang out the most with but I believe that I And I think it was referring originally to like financial health, right? Like, you know if you're if you took what your four best friends incomes are like you typically end up Blending an average of those four or whatever I thought they say and I think that's word the origin of it I think but I really do believe that applies to all aspects Like you're just you're an average if they're of there How positive they are how growth minded they are how physically fit they are you you know You really are like an average of your five because that's your circle Who you compare yourself to whether you believe you are or not you are you're doing that and and that means if you change them Your average changes. Yes. How many times have you done that? How many times have you Notice you want to improve something in your life. Look at the you know Maybe there's a few friends that you have you're like man They do not support like maybe your friends like to drink a lot and you're thinking I want to improve my health And so you say, you know, we only really connect over alcohol I'm going to kind of stop hanging out with them and I'm going to start hanging out with maybe more Health-oriented people and then that changes your average and brings you up to a completely different Well, and a lot of times that's who's the client that I get that's guilty of this They're they're the best one of the five and the other four are bringing them down And there's a there's a part of us that get attracted to that It feels good. It feels good to look at your peers and go like, oh, I'm kind of winning. Yeah, you know say, you know Sal doesn't have a job. Justin's really fat. You know, I feel like yeah, I feel like I'm doing things Yeah, I'm killing it. Like I have a job. I'm not so fat. You know say like I feel pretty good about myself But put yourself in a room Put yourself in a room where now you are the bottom of that five and what it will naturally do is bring Your average up and so this is definitely this especially when I'm talking to younger Younger kids or my my nieces or nephews that are in their 20s Like this I think this was some of the best advice that was given to me Took me a long time to be comfortable with letting go or moving on with relationships that I was attached to for a long time But 100% elevated elevated my game. Yeah, this next one is is actually becoming a bigger deal these days And that's that you feel like you have uh, no purpose. You know what this reminds me of um fight club remember the movie fight club where Not brad pit. Who's the other guy? What's his name that actually edward norton edward norton? Remember his character initially he'd get up go to work do the same thing And you know, he was taking care of himself, you know, he was earning a living But obviously you could tell he felt like he had no purpose like he was just floating along This is much more common these days because of all the distractions that we have there's so much entertainment There's so many things that we can do we're very comfortable. Luckily society's become quite wealthy So for the most part people got kind of what they need and they feel like Something's missing. I have no purpose and by the way purpose tends to come with challenge. This is another one I've had friends no joke and this is uh, you know shout out to people in the military I've had friends who felt like this so strongly in high school That they went and enjoying the military because they felt like it would give them purpose and many of them it did Many of them they came back and they said it was life changing because it gave them a sense of purpose And of course there's many different ways to do this, but if you lack purpose in your life You can have all the stuff that you need but you feel like you're just floating around in the wind and that doesn't feel good And I think that community is a big piece to that it's a big component And I think that people might think that they're part of a community based off of who They interact with occasionally or they have like communities online where they might have this type of communication between other people But really like to find that that community that you feel like you're part of something That's greater than yourself and you're giving a lot of yourself to it Uh is something to really consider and really find that opportunity to serve And and to to do something outside of of just your own needs I think if if people could work more in that direction a lot of times purpose reveals itself Volunteer work is a great way to do that. Yeah, I'm not going to try and uh, because I think this is a hard one It's a it's a hard one to tell somebody right? So I I know that it's important I know that a lot of people lack this and I I feel like it's growing how many people lack this Uh, but I also know there's such a huge individual variance what this looks like Uh, we'll give you some books though that I think that are really good the ones that come to mind right away or start with why Uh, the purpose driven life, um, and then the alchemist I think those three books if you are somebody right now who's listening and you're like, oh, this is me Like I just don't really have the drive or feel like I have any purpose and I'm kind of Waffling around like what should I do like read those books? I mean I think that will help help maybe guide you in the direction that what your purpose looks like because It is very different for every person and you have to figure that out for yourself The next one is connected to it, which is you don't take any responsibility You don't take any responsibility for The circumstances of your life. It's easy to sit down and say wow life sucks because All these uncontrollable circumstances I only had one parent or I grew up poor or this terrible thing happened to me Or there was this accident that happened that I was at it, you know that I didn't control And although all those things probably impacted or had very strong impacts on where you're at Because you can't control them You're just you're leaving yourself to the whims of the uncontrollable rather than taking responsibility and saying What am I responsible for and and and what can I do about those particular things that I'm responsible for? It's also just not taking responsibility in life. You know years ago. I had this this kid that I trained I trained this this couple and then they brought me their son and he was a bit of a troubled youth He was they were they were quite wealthy successful. He was a smart kid But he was starting to have some trouble with drugs and he you know some certain issues So they signed him up for one of those like camps for troubled youth And what the camp did with this kid is they actually put they actually made him a squad leader And he was responsible for all these other kids and getting their you know breakfast set up and make sure they set up camp The fact that he had responsibility over these other kids made him rise to the occasion In fact when he came back from this what he told me He said, you know the changing that the thing that really made a big difference for me was I actually had a responsibility And it made me rise to the occasion So oftentimes and Arthur Brooks talks about this. It's a key to happiness. You have to be responsible for stuff You have to take responsibility. Yeah, this reminds me of an image And it used to be in one of the offices that I worked in I don't remember which one I just remember seeing the image and I you talking about this right now made me google it real quick And that was an accountability ladder. I don't know if you've ever seen the the image of that a long time Yeah, so it's it's an eight step ladder and the the first four steps represent victim behaviors And basically being powerless and then the top four when you start moving your way up Up the ladders where accountability behaviors and powerful becomes and so the very first rung the very bottom of it is unaware and unconscious That's like, you've no clue that you have no clue, right? And then the very first step up from there is you blame others Okay, you're aware shit's going wrong and it's all bad But you point the finger and blame others and then the second one is you make personal excuses Oh, it's everybody else's fault and it's like, oh life is so hard for me The third one is I can't I just can't do it It's it's impossible for me to do this and then the last one on the victim is the weight and hope like, okay I recognize I have things that are hard, but it's going to get better. I'll just wait for it. I'll have faith I'll have faith that it'll end up working out down the road It's not until you get to the next rung where you start to move into accountability That's acknowledging reality like this is waking the fuck up the owning your situation Uh, second one that the next rung up is embracing it realizing like, okay, I'm in this situation What do I do here next one is finding that solution and then the last one is making it happen So I used to love that that's a great. I haven't seen that a long time. It's so good Right so powerful and I think we a lot of people tend to find themselves in that that lower portion where they're powerless and And they they're really not going to see much advancement or feeling better in life until they start to make their way It's hard to face adversity a lot a lot of times like that and realize like you're a big component in that and You know to be able to to acknowledge it. I think is is a major step in the right direction You know, this is the key to health and fitness success. This is the absolute key. In fact What you'll find this is one of the things I love most about fitness is if you stick to it long enough It makes you feel empowered because to be in order to get fit and to stay fit you have to take responsibility You can't say it's my genetics. It's the way I was brought up. It's my bone structure You know, my parents were overweight. My parents are athletic at some point you stick to it long enough You say, okay, all those things are true. So what this is what I can do about it. Here's what I can do about it I can work out this way. I can eat this way. I can be consistent It's it's it's a part of fitness success is taking responsibility Owning what you can own and forgetting the stuff that you you you can't own The next one. This is a this is one for people who when they get in kind of a motivated state They tend to want to do like 15 things at one time and that's that they lack focus, right? Maybe you lack focus. Maybe you think you want to make yourself feel better So you do 85 different things all at once. You oftentimes I would see this in fitness where a new client would hire me This is someone who doesn't eat right doesn't sleep good Doesn't work out and they come to me like I want to hire you want to work out six days a week I want a meal plan so I can eat perfectly every single they want to do like 15 different things It never works because it's not sustainable Focus on one thing do it really really well until becomes a habit Then you can move on to the next or you can convince that client To listen to you right and everything is going really well And we've reduced a lot of the activities and a lot of the things that they used to be a part of but You know inevitably like the results aren't enough like it just seems like they're drawn back into like bringing in some more of those chaotic components and and I've I've found a lot of battles between clients where it's like, okay But I also want to do plies and I also want to go to yoga class and I also want to go running on the weekend I want to do this and and like look everything is working right now Like let's not mess this up and you know, this is something I've found myself guilty of doing as well Like when things are going so well Uh, but we also are just like drawn to like adding these chaotic components back This is a common one in business by the way where you have a business and it starts to succeed And you have one thing that you do good and so then you end up wanting to do 25 different things Instead of that one thing it's a big problem. I think matt mark roundoff. In fact, he touched on it in our recent interview with him Yeah, you gotta you have to trust the process and this reminds me too of the the quote, you know How you do anything is how you do everything and it reminds me of people that Can't stick to one thing very long They're always wanting to try something new and and lack that ability to just follow through on something And just trust the entire process. They're always trying to add more or do more Very tough to measure. What is what are you doing that has success and when you're constantly throwing the whole kitchen sink at it? And so many times with clients, I'd have to have this conversation of okay. Listen, this is all we're focusing on I know you want to do this you want to do that you want to do those things? Let's first Let's hit this out the park. Let's be consistent with it Then we'll build upon this so a lot of times the people that are not feeling well It's because it's just you're throwing too much at the body at one time And you're not focusing on one or two things that will really move in Yes, now here's the last one and I feel like this one is a big one These days and that's that you probably need to lighten up a little bit Humor laughter They probably exist in humans and the reason why we laugh audibly Probably exists in humans precisely to break tension and relieve stress And to let others or people around you feel that break in tension and that break in stress I can think of many situations that I've been in that were very stressful and very terrible And what allowed me to kind of get through it was a little bit of humor Yes, that little bit of laughter and now it doesn't change the situation But it definitely changes how I feel for a second and it makes a big difference It's funny because like, you know, you guys know on my instagram I've been reported a few times on on my memes because people get offended or whatever And this is just this wouldn't have happened 20 years ago like people would have either liked it or just not watched But nowadays people seem to be Not just easily offended but ready to be offended. What can I possibly be offended by? And it's because they're just not they need to lighten up a little bit like, okay It's okay Like don't take things so damn seriously all because serious is good when you want to be focused and accomplish certain things But being serious all the time that's stressful. That doesn't feel good You need to lighten up and relax about things sometimes, you know Yeah, this has been one of those um go-tos for me when I'm in a really challenging situation I mean even physically challenging where I've I've been under the the most extreme stress or like football camp or something where I just I feel overwhelmed and and and I have to I have to really just turn that mindset and have fun Have fun with it and and and work my way through it and it helps So much the the mentality of that will carry you so much further and like there's there's studies right with the POWs of how they've been able to Get through like insanely grueling situations where they pretty much if their mentality Was was basically like any different They would have died a long time ago But just because that they were stayed positive and then they kept their mind in that direction They were able to make it through part of what comes to mind for me when I think of lighten up or have joy or laughter is also Learn to be present because part of what causes us to be tense and have anxiety Oh, yeah, you're stuck in the future of the past, aren't you? Exactly you're constantly in the future or you're constantly in the past You're constantly thinking about all the bad things that have happened to you or you're constantly stressing about what may come Versus literally being in the moment being happy with the the breath that you have right now the day that you have The freedom that you have and like being content and happy with your current situation It doesn't mean you can't have goals that you're pursuing Doesn't mean you don't have things that you aspire to be or whatever you can still do that But also make sure you take those moments to become present And where where you're currently at today And I that's what comes to mind when I think of lighten up somebody who is tensed up stressed angry frustrated Not feeling well all those things going on many times. They're not in the moment They're they're they're worried about what's to come or they're still hurting from what happened in the past Yeah, I can't help but think of the example you brought up with You know people trying to change the world and like so as serious and so intense about that but that same intensity Towards acknowledging like, uh, you know all all the good things that are going on in life and around them And to have these affirmations and and be like frequently addressing that and bringing that up their mentality I just it would it would go it would do wonders for that individual and it would actually then Spawn off to more positive things around them. Yeah, you know, you know studies show that laughter And joking and fun Speeds up healing, you know that they actually they'll do this in hospitals oftentimes Well, they'll bring in people that to have entertainment or to make jokes especially in children's hospitals Why because it shows studies show that it speeds up the Recovery process like this is a very important part of health And if you find yourself taking everything so damn seriously all the time that might just be why You're not feeling so good, you know lighten up a little bit and have some fun Look if you like our information head over to mind pump free.com Check out our free stuff. We've got lots of free stuff for our viewers. Uh, that are exclusive just for you Again, it's mind pump free.com. You can also find all of us on instagram So you can find justin at mind pump justin me at mind pump salad adam at mind pump adam Well, what's necessarily wrong with more money isn't money okay like if someone gave me ten thousand dollars That would be a good thing like explain the difference between Money connected to goods and services And money just not connected to anything just more of it existing but not connected to those goods and services