 Our first caller is Emmy from Maine. Hey, Emmy, how can we help you? Hey, yeah. Thanks for taking my call. First, I want to say thank you for all your great content. I'm actually board certified in emergency medicine and obesity medicine and I've shared your content with fellow physicians and patients. Awesome. Wow. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. My question is this. I'm a recovering marathon addict. Stopped running a couple of years ago in the setting of osteopenia and other health problems. Started lifting. I started with Maps Anabolic and a personal trainer to help me get my form down. Didn't like it, but stuck with it. And now I'm really, really into it. So I tried. I started Maps Aesthetic a couple, probably a couple of months ago, and my focus areas were glutes and back. And what I found was about three weeks in, I was constantly sore, like more so than would be expected because the foundational movements involved posterior chain, but then I was also doing my focus areas, posterior chain. So that meant I was lifting for my posterior chain, my back, my glutes, almost daily. Full disclosure, I'm type A, so I probably do everything too much. So I was just wondering how I could. So I stopped. It's been a couple of weeks. I'm doing body weight, getting massages. I'm feeling better and I'm ready to start again, but just wondering how I do that without getting too sore. Yeah, good question. I mean, okay, so now you work with patients, you work with obesity patients as well. So let's change the conversation a little. Let's pretend that you're one of your patients. So type A person comes to you, they were addicted to exercise or a form of exercise before, and they're coming to you with these types of complaints. Listen, I'm sore all the time. I'm tight. I'm not feeling very good. What would your advice be to this patient that you really wanna make sure does the right thing? I mean, of course I would say you probably need to cut back. Now, would you probably say that? Or is that like what you would say? This is a true question. I would most likely say do some more rest and recovery days, stretching, yoga, walks and whatnot. But I really like, I like to exercise. It is my stress away from a crazy job. So that's hard for me to swallow. And I feel like there's gotta be some way to do this program, to have your focus area. There's gotta be a middle ground, right? A middle ground somewhere there? So I would actually wanna know a little more detail about your exercise selection on focus days. So maybe you are doing some things on focus days that are a little more taxing than I would want. And then maybe I could just adjust some of those exercises so you don't feel so sore. Yeah, I mean, I definitely like my favorite, I'm really tall, I'm 5'10". My favorite kind of way to feel my glutes is like a sumo deadlift. So that's probably a little much. Oh yeah, that should not be on your focus days. Yeah, that absolutely should not be on your focus days. So here's, so that's what I thought. Okay, so even though you're type A and the overdoing it thing, like Sal said, I mean, that's definitely, you're overdoing the exercise selection. If you were doing fire hydrants and glute kickbacks and hamstring curls on the machines and doing some hip bridges on the floor, single leg, that type of stuff, I bet you would not be as taxed. You're choosing one of the most taxing compound lifts that you could do on your body on what we have designed as focus days. And focus days are completely different than foundational days. And that's where that stuff belongs. So foundational days are built for compound lifts, things that tax the CNS. On your focus days, you should be doing the things that are much easier. Single joint movements. Yes, single joint movements, pumping type exercises. And I bet if you just adjusted that and got rid of the, you know, compound type lifts and treated the focus days, like you're just kind of touching and getting the pump. You're just trying to get a pump, work on maybe some of the mobility, flexibility, stretching stuff, which you already alluded to that you think that you would recommend and get away from doing the stuff that's really, really hit you. I fully agree. I mean, you can stay busy. I know that's a big part of it is you can stay plenty busy doing those exercises. You just got to bring that intensity level down and pick the right types of exercises in between to, you know, be able to recover properly. So that way, you know, your progress is going to keep moving forward. But yeah, this is where machines come in body weight bands. I mean, staying that sort of mindset. Yeah, is it like the band days, like the trigger sessions in MAPS anabolic? Is it like kind of more intense than that, but not like a step up? Maybe a little bit more intense. In your case, I wouldn't go too intense. Look, okay, you're an emergency room physician. I've trained a lot of emergency room physicians. I'm going to make a guess here that your sleep probably isn't the greatest. Yeah, so your body is very taxed. Now, I know you like the daily activity or to do something and admittedly you've been addicted to marathons, which kind of give you that push and that grinding feel. I'm going to say, you know what? Your best options on focus days may not even be resistance training at all. It may be yoga. I know you don't want to hear that, but if you were my client, that's what I would make you do. I'd make you do two or three foundational workouts a week max, and then I'd have you do some kind of mindfulness recuperative movement on the other days. I would not focus on causing any additional damage to the body, because what you're doing is you're running yourself out of the ground. You mentioned that you had some osteopenia issues. Okay, that is that, and you were active, right? You were active and you still got osteopenia. Oh, I was running marathons. I actually, it's all resolved now that I've been strength training on a DEXA, by the way. Yeah, so resistance training is great for that. Now, here's the deal though. If you push resistance training too often and too hard, you'll run into similar problems. So you're starting, your body's breaking down, and you have to, this is a very mental thing. The best advice I could give you is to train yourself like you were training one of your patients. I've had to do this to myself time and time again. I've said this so many times on the show that trainers, coaches, doctors, especially. We're the worst clients. We're the worst patients for ourselves. We're so much better with other people than we are with ourselves. So my, I mean, if you were my client, I mean what I would do is I would have you do two foundational workouts a week. I wouldn't even have you do three. And then all the other days, I would do something recuperative, whether it be a yin yoga, walking, mobility, stretching, you know, maybe light focus session type work, but really work with your body. Otherwise you're gonna hit a wall and be in a similar situation to where you were before. And the more you hit that wall, the more often you hit that wall, the harder it is to pull back. You can cause some issues that might take a while to recover from, to where the body's so fried, you have to take all exercise off completely to let your body kind of get back to, you know, a place of health. So, you know, go into this really slow and then kind of trust the process and it's gonna be a mental, this is gonna be a big mental challenge. So just kind of refocus your energy. You know, I can relate to you. So oftentimes what I'll do is I'll change my focus is I sometimes I need to change my goal, right? So for example, if I'm trying to get leaner, it can mess with my head that I'm dieting and I'm weaker in the gym. So then what I'll do is I'll change my workouts so that they're faster paced or super set. So I have to go lighter anyway. So kind of helps that situation, right? So maybe change the focus and say, okay, I'm gonna try and get stronger with two foundational workouts a week. And then on the other days, you know what my goal is? My goal is to improve mobility in these areas that I lack mobility or improve connection or you know what I'm sore and I'm tight and I'm stiff. My goal is to see if I can make myself feel much better by the end of this mobility session. And you just kind of change that focus. So you're still goal oriented. It's just not the, you know, the hardcore, you know, build strength or endurance or stamina type goals if that makes any sense. I don't completely disagree with Sal's advice at all. Although I'd probably compromise a little more with you just cause the training type A people is definitely what I train more of than anything else and trying to take somebody who was training five to seven days a week and like you are and then say, okay, I'm gonna cut you all the way down to two and then do yoga is like so opposite of what you probably like and want. I also would be concerned about you sticking with that. And so I would probably take more of a weaning off approach with you where I'd say, listen, I'm not gonna tell you to completely change everything you're doing. I would just want you to say, let's get rid of the compound lifts and the really taxing exercises on the focus days and really do more recuperative trigger session type of stuff. So like Justin said, bands, body weight stuff and really start to reduce there. And that doesn't mean I disagree with what Sal's saying though. My personal goal as a trainer would be to get you to where he's at. I would be afraid to tell you to go there right away in fear of that you won't listen to me and follow it to a T. Well, you know yourself, okay? So you're gonna have to, okay. So you don't have to answer here now but if you feel like you'll slip into old patterns by compromising, then I think you should rip the bandaid off and go full on to what I said. If you feel like doing what I said is gonna discourage you so much that it's gonna make you go in the opposite direction then I'd say go in the direction that Adam is saying. I know myself, I know that compromising there's no compromising for me. It's all or nothing. And I tend to slip back into old patterns but you know yourself better than obviously we do. So you're gonna have to step outside of yourself and make that right decision. But I think you know the answer. I think you really know what the right answer is. You just have to convince yourself to follow through. I mean, I definitely don't wanna get when I was running marathons getting to the point where to get my health back, I had to not exercise for four months. That was like the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Yeah, no, I feel you. You know what? I don't wanna be there. So I'm willing to do cut back if I don't have to ever do that again. Demi, do you have access to Maps Prime Pro? I have Prime Pro, yep. Okay, if you decide to go in the direction that I said on those other days, why not pick mobility movements in Prime Pro and focus on those on those days and you can spend 30 minutes doing different mobility movements. You can't do those movements too much. Yeah, that's the beauty of it. Really hard to over train with those and they will, they should help with your recovery. And then of course, I know sleep is an issue. I'm sure I'm preaching the choir here but make sure you prioritize sleep when you can because I think that's a very, very big factor with the type of job that you have. And since it's posterior chain stuff that you're feeling where you're fried, really put a lot of emphasis on the hips and the ankles and some shoulder stuff like that. Do those the most at a Prime Pro? I think that you'll get the most bang for your buck for what you're dealing with. Yeah, good advice. Okay, that was really helpful. Thank you. Yeah, no problem, Demi, thank you. Hey, good luck, okay? You know, are you in our forum? No, no. Okay, let me, I'm gonna let you in our forum. I would love to get some, just some follow through. Like let us know how you're doing. There's other coaches in there. We have other doctors in there. You're a great story for there too. People need to hear you talk more. Totally, you know, obviously people don't expect what you say because of your position too. Well, and I think, you know, it's really some of your episodes like that focus on that talk about the weight loss. There was one episode a long time ago on the no cardio, something about weight loss and not doing cardio. And like I said, I've shared that with some medical directors of obesity clinics. And it's really, really helpful because the way that you explain things gives physicians the language to talk about with patients because sometimes it's hard to find that. Oh, that's one of the best compliments I think we could ever have. That's our goal. So thank you very much. I appreciate that feedback. All right, thanks guys. Thanks, Demi. Thank you. Boy, I tell you what, is there any truer statement than trainers, coaches, doctors are way better with their patients than they are with themselves? I mean, I love this. This is, this was the bulk of my clientele right here was, you know, Taipei, Middle Age, Go-Getters, CEOs, VPs, doctors, nurses, like that love to get after it. You got to pull them back all the time. Yeah, and that's the only reason why I challenged your advice because I know that depending on the personality, they hear that and it goes in one, you're out there, they're like, fuck that. Like, this guy's going to take me from five days a week and he's telling me to and then take you out. You know what's funny? It's really hard to reach. And you know, you make a very good point. The reason why I went the direction I did is because of her history. Well, because it's the right answer. Well, not just- I mean, you're giving the right advice. Well, it's not just that, it's that she had osteopenia as a result of overtraining. That means your body is literally breaking down. She's a, look, I've trained emergency room physicians. They are adrenaline addicts. Their favorite thing to do. She's a cortisol junkie for sure. My ex was an ER nurse. And they absolutely are that way. They love that rush. And your advice is right. What I was not challenging was not the advice. The advice you gave, 100% where she needs to go. I'm just like, I'm a little more about ripping the, I'm more slow-pulled depending on the rip it off. But you're right. It really depends on the personality because some people will just, you know, they'll kind of do that, but then they'll go slow back. You're actually like that. I've seen you change your goal and you don't slowly do it. No, you're right. You change it completely. And that helps me too, because if I do the slow thing, it's like I end up, I end up doing what I wanted to do anyway. Yeah, you're right.