 In this episode of Mind Pump, we answer questions from listeners like you. Just like you. They go to our Instagram page, they ask us questions under the QUA meme. QUA is how we pronounce QA, question and answer. We pick the best ones and then we answer them. But in the beginning of this episode, we do our introductory portion. This is where we talk about current events, things that are happening in our lives, and just general baloney stuff. A lot of fun. Malarkey. So here's what we talked about in this episode. So we start out by talking about Kai Greene is one of the top body builders in the world. Six days ago, he said he was going to go on a plant-based diet. Kai Greene went green all the way. Six days later, he wrote an e-book on veganism. So apparently he became an expert in a six day. Six days. That's the new record. Nothing fishy about that. Then I talked about beet juice. This is not a new rap album. This is actually real beet juice. Drank some of this before my workout today had incredible pumps. There's a lot of health benefits to beets. I'm embarrassed for that. Now speaking of beets, we talked about Kanye West's new album. It's number one. He's crushing with his new album all about Jesus. Way better songs than that. It's then I talked about grass-fed meat and how it's better for the ecosystem. I also talked about how grass-fed beef is leaner, takes longer for them to grow. It's just a better animal. Now our best favorite company that delivers grass-fed meat to your door, yes, best favorite, that's a new way of putting it, is Butcher Box. So Butcher Box delivers the grass-fed meat to your door, high quality, good prices. We also have a hookup for you. So here's what you do. Yes. Go to butcherbox.com forward slash mind pump. And we're going to hook you up with a free turkey. You're waiting for it. Plus $20 off. And there you go. That's the hookup. I was going to say more stuff, but that was it. Then I talked about how athleisurewear is exploding in the world. It's a $300 billion industry. Now one of the best companies in the athleisurewear market is Viori. That's what we're wearing right now. And let me tell you, it's so comfortable. It's nice stuff. It's very attractive. We also have a hookup for you through this company, Viori. Here's what you do. Go to Viori clothing, Viori spelled V-U-O-R-I clothing.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code on the page. So when you pull it up as a code, you'll get 25% off your first order. Then we talked about Adam's workout. He's in doing maps power lift right now and he's getting really strong-ish. I talked about the movie Joker. And I compared it to the old school movie falling down, which I think depicted mental illness just as well, if not better. We talked about the four-day work week in Japan of all places. And then I talked about a study that showed that screen time for children can lead to lower white matter in the brain. Not really a good thing. Then we got into the question portions where we answer questions. Here's the first one. This person says, look, I understand you say we're supposed to do nine to 18 total sets per muscle group per week. But what do you define as a set? Like when I'm bench pressing, that's a chest exercise, but I'm also working my triceps and shoulders. Does that count for all of them? So we kind of break that down for you. Next question. This person wants to know if they can stay on Maps Anabolic. Maps Anabolic is one of our workout programs. If they can stay on this one, just cycle through it for a couple years. Will their body continue progressing? Or should they switch out of that program and do something else? The next question. This is a bit of a long one, but this person is 60 years old, working out a lot, taking a lot of steps every day, 12 to 15,000 steps, burning a lot of calories, has a good diet. Wants to know what the hell's going on? Why aren't I responding? Why isn't my body changing? And the final question. This person wants to know if we ever struggled with confidence when we were personal trainers. So we talk a little bit about that. Also this month, it's November, Thanksgiving. Guess what else there is, Justin? What's that, Sal? Maps performance is 50% off. Now Maps performance is an athletic-minded workout program. So what does that mean? It's fun. It's going to build muscle. It's going to burn body fat, and it's different. It also has a mobility component, which is unique to this program over any other program that we sell. Again, it's 50% off. This is a massive discount. Here's how you get that discount. Go to mapsgreen.com and use the code green50. That's G-R-E-E-N-5-0, no space for the discount. Go get it. I meant to bring this up yesterday, and I totally forgot, because I thought it was hilarious. And although he hasn't came out with his vegan supplement yet, your boy, Kai Green, is selling an e-book on eating. He jumped on that train with a quickness. So I had to screen capture it so that I wouldn't forget, and that I would actually have my fact straight on the dates. So literally six days prior to this post. Became an expert. Six days prior, he says, I think I'm going to try this vegan diet. Should we try it? Yeah, that's what he says. His post says, I just watched Game Changers. Oh my goodness, blah, blah, blah. I think I'm going to try this vegan diet. Six days after that, I've got an e-book on a vegan diet. Pretty sure I've figured it all out, and here's all my information for the world. Oh my god. Isn't that great? That's amazing. Who's helping you with your marketing guys? He's just collecting leads off of gullible people. You think that's what it is? That's what it is. I think he's collecting leads. He's getting a bunch of leads off of it. Obviously, he's selling it. He's not free. He's selling it? Yeah. Oh, it's for sale. Yeah, it's sale. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah, so I mean, I don't know. We should buy it. I mean, unless he's not- Is that so, it's so blatantly ridiculous to me. Isn't that crazy? Oh yeah. Six days later, he puts out, you know what though, he's getting a lot of attention about it. I want those leads. Oh, I mean, we're talking about it. We can sell those people anything. So it's a, I mean, I guess, I guess, but I mean, it's pretty obvious if you just go back, I mean, I would at least wait in like a month. Bro, the cover of his client-based diet book is hilarious. He's like a warrior with a big shield that says vegan. Nobody who said that, that's fucking ridiculous. That's the silliest thing. Come on, man. That I've ever seen in my life. You need some people in his life that says, amen. I don't know. That's a football segment right there. We should, we should bring that into the fitness space. Come on, man. Yeah. Come on, man. Come on, man. Geez. What are you doing? Speaking of vegetables though, I'll tell you this. You get nice trends. Oh yeah, well, that was perfect. So this morning, I did an early as- Hey, plants. Hey. I did an early workout this morning and I tried for the first time in a long time, straight up beet juice. As part of my pre-workout ritual. Here's, this is a fact now. Nothing will rise your nitric oxide levels better than good old fashioned beet juice. Is that true? True. 100%. Really? Even a small amount of beet juice significantly- Better than my no explode. It's got vegetables that are high in nitrate cause a spike in nitric oxide. Beet juice being one of the best things. Here's the downside of it. It's fucking gross. You guys ever drink beet juice? I haven't. I can't say I haven't. Oh, it's terrible. Well, I've had beet cake. Like you can put beets in- To make it coloring or whatever. Yeah, yeah, and I'm like, why? Now I am expecting to have red, you know, poop or pee later. You ever do that before, eat beets or whatever? Freak yourself out later. Think your kidneys are failing? Oh, I have a heart attack. That happened to me. But anyway, I had it this morning and I did have insane pumps and doing research on it. Studies show performance improvements in athletes like 16, 20% just from having beets. But so it's just regular old beet juice that you can have. You can buy beet root powder if you want, but you can buy it at the store. So this morning, though, you used just straight juice? Just straight juice and it doesn't taste super good. So I watered it down, right? So I did like a cup of beet juice and then I did another cup of just regular water. What would you compare it to? Cause it has a little bit of a sweet aftertaste, right? It tastes like vegetables, you know what I mean? It's not like a fruit, you know? So it's kind of like a, oh, not a good taste. Yeah, it makes your mouth red too. Cause it kind of stains a little bit, you know? Looks like it had a glass of wine before my workout. But I had a great workout. A clown face. It just goes, it's just funny, you know, all these supplements that come out that promise all these different things and you have a natural, you know, food right there that you can consume that will. And then, you know, here's what other studies show, increases blood flow to the brain. So it's got some potential cognitive benefits. And with a rise in noxious oxide, what else do you think may help rise? Hmm. I like what you did there. Yep, the wang. Boing, boing. That's it. You know, you know how Viagra and those drugs work, right? They inhibit the enzyme that breaks down nitric oxide. So when you take Viagra, it dramatically boosts nitric oxide, which then gives you the ability to have a better erection. Beet juice, drink that regularly, should have somewhat of an effect. So you feel better pumps, but also like more endurance, you think? Better pumps and more endurance. So the studies that show improvements in athletic performance were done on athletes who are training more for endurance type sports. I don't think you're going to feel stronger in stuff in the gym necessarily, but you'll get the veins and the blood flow. You should get better, you know, better feel from the workout. And I did, I had a great pump and I was working out at early dudes like 6 a.m., which those workouts typically suck. You know, this erection talk reminds me... Doug, did you... Reminds you of Doug? Why, thank you. Every time. Doug, did you get that email? Did you see the email from the, you know, anytime we go a little bit off the rails and we, especially the other episode when we talked about masturbation. Yes. Did you get the email? That was a long email. It was a very, it was... I didn't read it. Oh, it was amazing. So one of our listeners, I believe he said he was 60, actually took the time to write a really long email. That was basically, and obviously I'm paraphrasing, but thanking us for that, the boner masturbation talk, because not enough people discussed that and you were talking about the health benefits of doing that and said... Provincing prostate cancer. Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I thought that was hilarious because I know Doug always kind of cringes when he's like, oh my God, can we move away from this? Especially in that part of the conversation. Yeah, because I kept prodding and asking Justin more and more about it. Right. And then you actually... I was getting more uncomfortable. Yeah. Sal took the nerdy left turn and broke down the science and the health benefits. If you don't expel your semen, then byproducts build up and have been linked to increased risks of prostate cancer. That being said, pornography, which is what people tend to use when they masturbate or whatever, it really does have a negative effect on the brain when you consume it on a regular basis. It has a very... In fact, I've been reading about it recently because it's known that November and it just reminded me, yeah, this is going to be interesting. Let me look up some studies on pornography. And man, it really has a terrible numbing effect on the brain, especially in young men. No different than how if you have a lot of salt or sugar, how regular foods start to taste bland, except far more powerful. Right. It means it's novel to you. Totally. Yeah. It changes the way you perceive sexual signals and stuff. And in pornography, it's especially bad because it's their fast hits on a however long basis. If you eat like a cupcake or something like that and then you start eating sugar every day, it's not the fast hits like you would with pornography. And if you look at the things that are most addictive, like compare cigarettes to other addictive substances. One of the reasons why cigarettes are so addictive is because of the repetitive practice of using them. People who use pornography regularly tend to use it on a regular basis and they get that exposure to those images or video or whatever. Just an incredibly numbing effect, which is why I think they're doing this like no, not November thing. I think it's like this market response to it, you know, guys are like, hey, let's turn this off for a little bit. Now, have you had to have this conversation with your boy yet? I know yours are too young, but your boy is close to that age. We for sure have talked about pornography. Yeah. And I told them, yeah, it's a luring. Of course you want to look at it. You know, everybody, yeah, like you got to acknowledge it. Like I'm not trying to scare them. I don't want to feel shame. But I told them, I said, this is how it works on the brain. The more you look at it, the less things in the real world are going to be stimulating to you. And it can cause issues like erectile dysfunction. It can cause feelings of depression because you'll seek this novelty over and over and over and over again. And then without it, you feel kind of like, you know, what's going on here. So I said, just, you know, you just got to be very careful and try not to consume a lot of it. And I also had the regular talk with him, which is this does not depict real life. So if, you know, whatever you think you're learning from pornography, that's not how the real world actually works. You ever wonder what's going through his brain? Like I try and put myself in that timeframe, like when I was that age, and if my dad was like sitting down like, son, too much pornography is going to rot your brain or it's going to make, it's not going to make sense. I know, right? Like what, do you think it's in one ear and out the other ear? Do you think he really takes heed to it? Dude, I don't know because I remember when I was his age in that the pull is so strong. I don't know if anybody could have stopped. I don't have access to it though. I had freaking photocopied pages of a porn. It was hard to get. That's what I had. Yeah. You know. Well, it's interesting to watch now, sort of the response in like you're seeing more movements now to kind of self-regulate a lot of our unlimited access to things like that, like porn and food. Like that's crazy available and all that. So it's like it's more about governing yourself and like getting back to like abstaining. It's interesting. You guys see the new Kanye West albums out now? Yes. Yeah. What's it called? Yes, Jesus is King. Do you know it's, I believe, I'm going to look it up right now. It's one of his fastest selling albums ever. It's just interesting. It's like all these like everything that was not cool, you know, like when we were growing up, all of a sudden now like that's like bring brought to the surface because it was like, you know, those old values. It's actually pretty good. I've already listened to a few songs. I like it. Is it really good? Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't come out and say it's really good. So it debuted at number one. This is his ninth consecutive number one debut on the Billboard 200 chart. Which now he's tied with Eminem for number one debut. So apparently it's crushing right now. That is interesting. Yeah. It's destroying. So it must be really good. No, I listened to a few songs I like. I haven't listened to the whole album yet. I'll listen to the whole album probably by today and I'll give you my complete feedback on it. But I was really curious. Have you guys heard his interviews and stuff where he's talked about why he made it or whatever? No. So I listened to one and I think it's quite fascinating. He talks about how, and of course he's talking about this through like his, you know, how God talks to him or whatever. But he says that he had to go through all these tough times, bankruptcies and drug and sex addiction, a lot of stuff. He says because he doesn't think his story would be compelling enough. So he's like, I think I had to go through all that crazy shit so that now I can deliver this album with this message or whatever. Which I think is an interesting take. The guy's definitely eccentric. That's for sure. Yeah, he's a true artist for sure. Yeah, he's brilliant and kind of out there. I wonder how his in-laws feel about that, the Kardashians, because they're kind of like, you know, they're the opposite. Who knows? That's a, I don't know anything about that family. They're just out there. I've never even watched a single episode. Really? Yeah. Have you, either one of you guys, I got sucked into like one or two and I'm like, what am I watching? It's almost like, it's just, it's any of those reality shows where you're just watching people do dumb shit and you realize 10 minutes in, this is so stupid. Why am I watching people just do everyday things badly? I think reality TV is one of the most fascinating phenomenons that we've ever seen in the last two decades because up until just two decades ago, that wasn't a thing. We didn't watch just regular people doing nothing and the fact that it's that entertaining and enthralling for so many millions of people to get sucked into that. And I even like, I remember, it's sad, man. It's like, you're not living your own life. Well, I remember as a kid, you know, I watched Jerry Springer when I was younger. And, oh my God, what a terrible hour. Right. You watch it though. Like I watched, it was like late night TV. It was like one of those things that I watched in, I think I was in, dude, that was the peak of watching people just self-destruct. Right. And it was, it's like, it's terrible television. And half of it staged. And even though you know all of that, it still sucks you in to see these people. People are natural voyeurs. We like to watch other people. I remember when the gym industry realized this, when big box gyms first really started blowing up, all the cardio equipment was facing TV monitors. And this was a big deal. Like the biggest best gyms had amazing TV monitors with multiple shows on and, you know, great sound systems. And then gyms figured out, if we just have the cardio face, or overlook the workout area, people stay on cardio longer. They want to use more cardio because people don't want to watch TV. They want to watch other people. So then they started building gyms to where the cardio overlooked the workout area. And they'll have some TVs, but nobody gives a shit about the TV. They just want to watch other people. Totally. One of the more popular 24-hour fitness clubs. That is a weird phenomenon. For this was, there's a location in Hawaii where the cardio is out looking like the beach or whatever. So you're on the cardio looking through the windows and you see people outside. And it makes sense. Wouldn't you rather watch that than watch like what's on TV or whatever? Yeah, no. You know, we're just natural. It was one of my, I loved that part. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I enjoyed, you know, I remember where my desk was at the last gym and it was right next to the weight room floor. And, you know, I could catch myself just watching what people's behaviors. Yeah, people do really strange things. And they're all different walks of life and, you know, like different shapes. And it's fun to people watching at the end of the day. It's also how we evolve and learn as humans. Totally. And so it's probably why it's still in us, whether you realize or not. And you're probably, as crazy it may sound, watching Kardashians or Jerry Springer. But there's probably some sort of a biological mechanism in you that's watching it for, should I do this? Should I not do this? And learning from it. Like evaluating. Well, yeah, we're extremely, we're the most social creatures on earth. So it only makes sense that one of our main interests is other people. You're going to constantly watch other people for cues, hierarchies, value, you know, you know, learn things. This is how trends and styles start. Like, why do we, why does something seem so cool today? And then 10 years from now, we look back, we're like, that's so dumb. Yeah. It's all about watching other people following those things. It's a part of our biology. Yeah, I've wondered about this because I've always sort of drifted into places where there's like more weird people. You know, like Santa Cruz, there's so many weird people, but I just, I find it fascinating. It's way more interesting to me than to just like, because when I lived in Chicago in part of the suburbs, it was just like, everybody wore the same shit. You know, everybody talked the same way. Everybody was trying to be like, you know, polite and I'm like, this is boring. You know, this is not exciting. Yeah, not enough furries, not enough like hippies, like just, you know, being crazy. I don't know. It's just interesting. You know, speaking of watching or following people, have you guys been, have you guys been watching Rob Wolf? Have you been watching, I've been like, guilty pleasure every day I go on his Instagram. He's going hard. Oh, so hard. Yeah. Oh man. They become that him hard. I know, but that's why I go there and I don't do this on pages. It's so, but I'm so entertained by how many vegans he is triggering by his post and then to watch. He's not even anti-vegan. He's just, he's pro-Omnivore or anti-bad information. Right. So it's not like he's like Sean Baker, who's literally anti-vegan. Right. He's just putting out, you know, information that's countering some of the bad stuff that's going on right now, because of this politicized, you know, movement actually reminds me of, I did more reading on the impact that animals in particular beef has on the environment, because one of the things that they talk about or that they try and sell is that it's bad for the environment to eat animals. And, you know, you guys know my argument. My argument's always this. Healthy humans. So yeah, the worst thing for the environment would be to have a bunch of unhealthy humans. So what do what's best for your health? And it's pretty clear that most people will do best with an omnivore type diet. Some people will do good vegan and some people will do good carnivore, but most people do better omnivore, less nutrient deficiencies and tends to promote less processed food consumption, that kind of stuff. But I was doing some research and so check this out. And I was comparing grass-fed meat to grain-fed meat, because grain-fed meat is that industrial, you know, processing of meat, right? Where you have tight quarters, you're feeding them one grain, you're fattening them up. I did not know this. So the average weight of a cow who is grain-fed, first off, they're slaughtered earlier because they grow faster. Did you guys know that? No. They grow much faster if you feed them just grain. So it's like it tells their body to just grow faster and fatter. The average grain-fed cow is on average 1,350 pounds when they're slaughtered. A grain, a grass-fed cow, which takes longer, so they take much longer to grow, 1,200 pounds. So they're 150 pounds lighter even though they're allowed to grow longer, because they don't grow as fast and add so much body fat. Body fat to their bodies. Oh, of course. So you're literally eating, to me it sounds like, eating grain-fed cows, you're eating a sicker fatter. Sick, fatty meat. Yeah, an animal that's been promoted to grow all this tissue through the way it's been, you know, fed or whatever, which is obviously unnatural. The other thing I looked up was, of course, like I said, its impact on the environment, grass-fed beef is phenomenal for the ecology of the earth. They call it regenerative agriculture. And it's because, you know, animals graze on the grass, then they fertilize it, and they rotate crops and stuff like that. And a lot of people, scientists at least, say that this kind of farming would have probably prevented the catastrophes of like the dust bowl in the 1930s. You guys familiar with that? No. So in the 1930s, because of over farming and using one crop over and over again, you had lots and lots of land in the Midwest that was just, basically, you couldn't grow anymore. Great depression. Yeah, and it was just dust. And then these dust storms will start that would get absolutely massive. That caused a lot of problems. And it was because the way we used the earth, we didn't do it in a way that was sustainable. Grass-fed animals are much better for the ecology of the earth. Now, as far as methane production is concerned, it's probably right around equal, but then when you look at the carbon-absorbing effects of the grass that you grow to feed these cows, it's actually better also from that standpoint. Interesting. Grass-fed beef is better for the cow, better for your health, because the animals, you obviously can have better fatty acid profile, better nutrients, and better for the soil as well. So that is just a better way to consume your beef products. It's also, I mean, this is why I think these grass-fed companies are just exploding, like butcher boxes on steep explosion and rise in popularity, which, I don't remember meat being delivered to your door being ever a big thing. No. You know? No, no. Really, it was just that you could get other families in your local area to buy in together on one cow, one pig, and there was state fairs and things for this where they'd show off like their best product that they've raised themselves, and so people go in on it, and they basically just had the brilliant idea of making that way easily, more accessible for people so they could ship it to them. Well, that's the origin story of butcher box. Yeah, it is, isn't it? As it started off with just a family going in and buying a cow like that, and then more and more people. They said, why can't we make this easier for a lot of people? Yeah, what happens when you look at societies is they start to become more and more advanced. The first concerns for that society are just production. Can we lift ourselves out of poverty? And that's the most important thing because you have people who are starving, people who don't have good shelter. But then as they become more and more advanced, once you get those base, because you know, let's look at, if you don't have food or shelter, you don't give a shit about your carbon footprint. You don't care about your beef is grass, you're just like, I need food and I need a house or whatever. But as societies become more advanced, then those other concerns start to step in. And because we're in a very successful, wealthy society, the market pull for animals that are treated better, lower carbon footprint, better for the environment, food that's beef that's maybe a little more expensive, but better for me, the market demand is just exploding. So I think that's a, speaking of markets, dude, athleisure wear, have you ever looked up the athleisure wear market just generally? Well, yeah, it didn't exist just 10 years ago. Dude. Right. It's completely become a thing now. What was, I mean, what was the catalyst for that? Was it mainly yoga that sort of started the crossover with the yoga pants and all that? I think so. So I went on a website and looked up numbers. They're saying that the global athleisure wear market is going to rise 9% this year, which is going to outpace the total clothing and footwear market past 2023. Wow. So the growth is just, it's the fastest growing segment of clothing is athleisure wear. The global athleisure wear market size is valued, ready for this, in 2018, $300 billion. Wow. Dang. So 9% growth from $300 billion. Holy shit. That's crazy. Well, they just have done a masterful job of making it more like I could wear it anywhere. It's not, it's not like I have to go to the gym to wear these clothes. Yeah. Who doesn't want to wear pajamas all day long? It's fucking rad. Yeah, and his coffee is fucked. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, that's your suit. Here's the thing, as trainers, we've been doing that forever. Oh my god. I know. Right? I always felt guilty about it. I'm like, I'm not being professional enough. Right. But now it's come and now like brands like Viori have made it stylish. That's what's cool about it. I was talking to Sean exactly about that, just that whole market now it's came, because he was coming over from, he was dressed yesterday when we met, all business-like and everything, and I'm in fucking joggers and hoodies and stuff like that. And we were talking about that market and how it came to be, actually. So it's funny you brought that up because he's like, yeah, no, I used to think it was really lame, like 10 years ago, if you were caught out on the weekday wearing a pair of sweatpants or something like that, you look like a slob. Yeah. But somebody was smart, why not be comfortable but find a way to make it look stuff. Well, you're seeing that make its way into even more of the business professional wear as well, right? You've seen a lot of this more stretchy material that they're using for the athleisure wear, but it's now in collared shirts and they're making stuff with suits that are more easily breathable and things like that. So it's cool, man. It's like, finally, we don't have to be all stuffy and robotic. It's exploding and Viori was brilliant to initially target the male market because they were underrepresented totally and athleisure wear. Our options were just sweats. You look like you're just sitting on the couch watching the football game. No, true. So they stepped in and did that. I was like, crushed. They just blew it up. Anyway, how was your squat workout, dude? This is now what your second or third? So I'm on week two right now. Okay. So I'm on week two. I did chess the last time you asked me and I told you that I think I needed to bump my calories. So I increased calories. Also brought up cholesterol a little bit. And I had a great squat session. So I felt really good. Were there improvements from the first one? Yeah. Yeah. So I was heavier. The weight moves smoother. The second week, you're adding an extra set to your squats. And I can already tell that I'm nowhere near as crippling sore as I was the first week. The first week got me. I mean, yeah. The first week was like. That's how you're walking, dude. Yeah. First week was like, oh, fuck. It's been a while since I've trained just a single muscle group in a workout. And so it was a lot of volume for a single workout. What were the improvements? Was it reps, weight? Well, so the way the program's designed is that you, on the second week, you're increasing a set on the main lifts. So you're just adding volume. So yeah, added volume. But I also increased weight too. So the first week I was doing, I was working with 225. And today or yesterday, I was working with 231. So I increased the weight a little bit. And I increased. That's a big increase. Yeah. And for me to feel good. And the only reason why I did it is because I felt good. The first set moved so well and smooth. I bumped five pounds on each side and moved the weight up. And the workout was way easier. I mean, not way easier. In comparison to the first one, it was a lot easier. Like I was struggling to finish the first set. What did you increase in calories? What were you eating more of? Well, so I bumped up my eggs. And I had more steak this week. So that's where I talk about having more cholesterol. I'm not tracking like, I'm like, guesstimating, right? So I know that's why I said roughly or I bumped a little bit. Because I know that I wasn't eating that. I had like six eggs the day before. I had two servings of steak in that day and the morning of. So that's more than usual for me. Normally like a serving of steak and or eggs in my day is like a typical day for me. Dude, I was reading. Probably doubled it. You just reminded me. I was reading old bodybuilder articles. And one of the things that they used to do to boost muscle growth was dramatically increase cholesterol intake. I've told you guys about this before. Now I'll eat as much as 10 or 12 egg yolks in a day when I'm pushing it. So I pull up this article and it was either written by Vince Garanda or it was written about Vince Garanda. Do you guys know who he was? So he was a bodybuilder from way back in the day, 60s, 70s. And he was known for coaching bodybuilders. He was known as being like the cutting edge guy back in those days. And in fact, when you read some of the stuff he wrote, he definitely was way ahead of his time in terms of his recommendations. But he would have some of his bodybuilders consume ready for this up to 36 eggs a day. And in this article, it was either him that compared it to Diana Ball or it was one of the guys, bodybuilders that did it. Because Larry Scott, who was the first Mr. Olympia, also followed this protocol. So for people who don't know, the very first Mr. Olympia was Larry Scott. And he had a tremendous physique. I mean, he still has an amazing physique. He's got to be in his 70s now. But back in those days, 36 eggs a day. And the way that they talked about it, they compared it to taking 5 or 10 milligrams of Diana Ball a day. Not a big dose for people who take anabolic, but definitely more than nothing. But they compared the anabolic boost from doing something like that. Wow, that's a lot of eggs, man. I know, I don't know if I'd necessarily recommend that. I don't know what that would feel like, or what the farts would be like. Oh my God. Well, it was a thing, when I was first getting into lifting, it was a thing for guys to do like a dozen. That was definitely a popular thing to do like a dozen eggs. That's great. You know, speaking of old guys, you just reminded me of something. Did you, have you guys ever seen Richard Geer and his wife before? No. Doug, pull up Richard Geer and his wife. Like Katrina was reading some article. Yeah, I've never seen his wife. She just had a... Is she famous or she's... I don't know. She's had her second kid right now. I think she's 35. He's 70. Oh wow. Yeah. Well... Yeah, she's champion. That's what they say half your age, right? Yeah, dude. That's a 70 and 35 and having a kid. Wait, he just had a baby? Yeah, yeah, pull it up right now. That's gnarly. Let's see. Oh wow. Yeah, there she is right there. He looks good for it. Wait, no way he's 75. He's 70. He looks good. 75. Did you say 75? 70. Yeah, 70, yeah. He looks good. Yeah, she's like 35 or 36. He's also super wealthy, so I'm sure that played a role. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you don't see too many 35 year old women dating 70 year old average money guys. There's a little bit of a... Dude, he's going to college. He's going to be like 90. Yeah, well, I know, he's like holy shit. We were just talking about the optimal age for us to have kids, you know. And that's what made me think about this when Katrina was reading some article. Well, he's going to die. I should just get remarried. Yeah. You know what I mean? Even if it's a younger dude or whatever. Wow, that's crazy. He looks really good though. That is going to happen. He used to be the man back in the day. Well, yeah, he's been voted... Sexiest man. Yeah, sexiest man alive and just with Sean Connery's up there with him. I think that multiple times they've been voted that before. Dang, that's crazy. Whatever. That's a lot of Viagra. Gerbils. A lot of... Oh, was it him that... Yeah, it was him, dude. I don't know why that rumor came out. You ever hear that rumor? No, no, what's that? You sure it was Richard Geer? Yes, dude. Yeah. Even South Park, I think, did a whole thing on that. What was it? It's like this myth or what do they call it? Like urban legend. There you go. That he... It's like the sex act apparently. You put it up your butt. You put gerbils up your butt and because they crawl around. I just remember this vividly as a kid because you're just like, what? Like it's the craziest thing you've heard in your life. So randomly. Yeah, like people put gerbils in their ass. I feel like it's so random it has to be true. Right. It's so like, yeah, out of left field. You can't put a gerbil. I can make that up. Dude, how would you get it out? Don't they try to keep going? I don't know. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you gotta fish it out. No, that's fake. There's no way. There's no way, dude. There's no way, dude. Look into it, dude. That and Epstein. Look into it. Speaking about crazy, so, you know, we talked about the Joker movie and how you still haven't seen it, right? I haven't. And you've seen it? I have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Super depressing. Doug, have you seen it, Doug? I haven't. You still haven't, huh? So the reason, oh yeah, that's right. You were the first one, Justin. The reason why the Joker, the current one, people are saying why it's so powerful and eerie, and I agree with this, is it so realistically depicts mental illness. Yeah. Just a breakdown in mental illness. Yeah. So everybody's talking about the whatever and then I saw somebody make a post that I thought was brilliant. So it said initially it said, there was like a line and it said, the Joker depicts a man's breakdown better than any other movie and then somebody challenged them and posted the movie Falling Down. Have you guys ever seen that? Oh yeah, Falling Down. You ever seen that one? Man. It was a Michael Douglas? Yeah, it's an old movie. He just goes postal, like, he goes crazy. That's the one with the picture of him holding a suitcase on the front of the front of the car, all about the movie. Is it Michael Douglas or is it a? Yeah, Michael Douglas. That movie. That's the one, right? Doug, where he's holding a suitcase, he's holding a briefcase on the front cover. He just loses his shit. And he's like a professor or something. Isn't that what he is? Something like that. I forget his profession. Yeah, boy, that's an old one. I know. I'm not to watch that again. That's like a 90s movie? That is such a great movie. And I think I agree with the guy's post, that shows a dude losing his shit. Yeah, that's it right there. Spiraling out completely. Yeah, 1993. If you had a shotgun in one hand and a suitcase. If you haven't watched that movie, you got to check it out, man. What a fucking crazy movie. I absolutely loved it. Anyway, I want to bring up an article for you guys I think is very interesting. I'm going to pull it up just so I make sure I don't butcher it. So Microsoft in Japan didn't experiment with their workers. So they did, they experimented and did a 40, a four day work week with their workers to see what would happen. So instead of five days. It's still the same amount of hours, 40 hours? Nope. Oh, less hours. They're getting paid for five. They're only going four days a week. Do you know what happened? Oh, wow. Now, Japan, I find this interesting that they use Japan as the place to test this because it actually makes sense if you think about it. The Japanese are very well known for being efficient, hard working. It's like part of their culture to do so. In fact, it's almost like, I read some article once that, if you fall asleep at your desk in Japan, people actually, it's a compliment. Like, oh, you're working so hard that you have to fall sleep here at the office or whatever. So they tested it there. And here's what they found. 40 work week boosted workers productivity by 40%. Whoa. 40? 40%. Isn't that crazy? That's, yeah. That's way more than I would have thought. Wow. Do you speculate that we'll follow that? I don't know. That's a big number. Isn't it crazy? Yeah. 10 or 15% might be a big deal. That's what that says to me. Look, here's the deal. If you're a company and you see a boost in 40%, that's insane. You're keeping it. You're not going, why would you go back? That's insane. So they also had the, they became more efficient because they had 23% lower electricity cost, obviously, right? Less people in the office. They had, the meetings were slashed from 60 to 30 minutes. So they cut the meetings. That's a big part of it. I guarantee it. I 100%. Meetings are a fucking like a waste of space. Nine out of 10 times. Total waste of time. Unless they're like super to the point, it's like people just want to get on their soapbox and blather on forever, waste their boys' time. Yes. How crazy is that? And the people, of course, enjoyed it because, you know, they had an extra day off. A company in New Zealand, Perpetual Guardian, this is a trust management company, announced a 20% gain in employee productivity and a 45% increase in employee work-life balance after they did the same thing. Four-day work week. Wow. How crazy is that? It's got to become a thing then. Why wouldn't it? I mean, that would be weird, right? If Silicon Valley could only like, you know, take that information and run with it. Now, you are grinding people into the dirt. You know what it is though? It's crazy. I'm back to watching Silicon Valley because of that too. And then it reminds me of that just the, there's like this, it's like, you have to work on the weekends, but you know, we're all going to be here. You know, that's like the norm, you know. I wonder where like, I think of the, like I watched that show and I, from what I've heard, they do a really good job of depicting what it's really like, right? And you see these scenes of coders, you know, staring at screens for like three days straight, like in just, you know, drinking energy drinks. And I can't imagine what that has to do to the brain and your body long term. And we just, we haven't, we haven't been doing like stuff like that for that many generations. So it interests me to think like, okay, what is this going to look like in 50 years, people that were coders for 20, 30 years? That job's not going to exist anyway. There's not going to be any need for that. Computers are going to do their jobs. Well, you know, so I have an article talking about what screen time can do to the brain. But before, before I get into that, you know, what I would predict is if a company starts to implement a four day work week, that because there are lots of competitive individuals, I imagine myself in my 20s, myself in my 20s, no kids. And I'm a very competitive person and my company says four day work week. I think I have a leg up on everybody. And I'm going to push even more. So I feel like the four day work week, I don't even know if it would work because Silicon Valley is so competitive that a bunch of people would be like, oh, cool. I'm going to work anyway, just to out, you know, to beat my competition. I know. I don't know. That's interesting. I don't know. That's an interesting theory. Being a good experiment. I think you're also, I think you're, you're probably the 5% or less. You know what I'm saying? I think most people clock in and clock out and maybe, and you know, maybe they take pride in their job and they want to do a good job, but absolutely would not turn down an extra day off. You know, I don't know too many people that'd be like, oh, when I get Fridays off now, no, that's good. I actually wanted to come in today. That'd be cool though, huh? Four day work week, three days off. Well, I just think there's a lot to be said about efficiency. Don't get any ideas. Yeah. I mean, we need to be more structured and focused and spurts because like, you just lose focus if you're there too long. It's true. And we're, I mean, we're, we're super efficient in our company and our business. I think this is just from the lessons we learned, you know, working as kids. But anyway, talking about the screen, you know, being on computers and stuff. So this article came out, CNN published, this was about a few days ago. New study shows that they did MRIs on preschoolers and they found that lots of screen time led to lower brain development. Oh wow. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Now what's considered. Information's starting to come in. What's considered a lot? Well, it says, a new study scanned the brains of children three to five years old and found those who use screens more than the recommended one hour a day without parental involvement. One hour a day, a lot of kids are being put on screens more than that. Like three, four, yeah. Straight. They had lower levels of development in the brain's white matter. And this is an area that's key to the development of language literacy and cognitive skills. So this is like the first study that documents associations between higher screen use and lower measures of brain structure and skills. Now here's why this is important. The brain is highly plastic, meaning it adapts and it can change based off of stimulus and learning and stuff like that. However, there's a large amount of the brain that is formed when you're a child up until your twenties that is relatively permanent. And if you influence that growth period, you could permanently change the way your brain is structured. This is why when you're a kid, you can learn multiple languages without having an accent. But then once you pass a certain age, you're always going to have an accent because you lose some of that plasticity. It would be interesting to see what they control in that because there's got to be a difference between a kid who sits in front of a iPad or a TV and is watching Disney's Princess Movie or Shark to Do to Do versus Sesame Street and your ABCs and learning colors and shapes. And there's got to be a difference between educational focus versus entertainment. So here's my speculation on that. First off, that's a great question, Adam. But second off, here's my speculation. And sometimes we blame one thing and don't realize that there's other factors that are causing that thing to happen and those are the factors that are actually influencing this problem. So think about the parents that have kids or that put their kids on a screen for three or four hours a day. They're probably busier. There's probably a higher likelihood of being a single parent. Nutrition is probably not going to be as good. And there's also less human interaction. So it might not be so much the screen as much as it is that the parents just leave the kid to their own devices and don't do anything with them. That may be the big issue. That's what I'm sure. I think they're case by case because I know originally after reading both iGen and the other book that I always do, Irresistible, but then we had that great interview, it kind of like changed my perspective on how I felt about that. And I think, and obviously now that I have a son and I'm like, I'm actually exploring like all the, he's not watching TV yet. Actually, I make him watch football and basketball right now. So I find that educational. But I've been exploring like all Amazon and Netflix and YouTube and all the different stuff that they have for kids. And as I'm clicking through it, I'm like, I'll watch a few minutes but just to kind of get an idea of what these kids are being exposed to. And some of it I think is actually probably really good. I mean, they have these songs where they're singing the alphabet and colors and they're teaching them through this cartoon or through this song. And that to me seems like, okay, there's got to be some good benefits to that as a kid, as far as their development goes. So I definitely think there's got to be a fine line between how you're using it, if you're using it more as a tool and to also spend time with your son or your daughter and interact with them in real life. I think that's the big thing because like there's also studies that show that kids whose parents read books to them every single day, higher IQ and this and that. And I don't, it's probably more to do with the fact that the parents are just taking care of their kids and interacting with them. They're involved. Involved. Like imagine, because I can watch TV with my kids or go on the internet with my kids, but we're interacting. We're laughing together. We're watching different things and talking about them. That's got to be different than like... Yeah, and there's a threshold for that. I think you kind of figure that out as a parent too. Like when is like the appropriate time limit to kind of place in front of them with electronic devices and things like that. And like, what I need to kind of check myself on and to get them outside and to be interactive in nature and interactive with each other and try and like be bored and figure it out. Like all that stuff is important, in conjunction with these, really potentially addictive type tools that pull them all the time. Do you guys have any friends or family that actually grew up with like no TV in the house? Do you have anybody? I don't. Yeah, I had a friend that was like that and their parents were like very... I mean, everything across the board. It was like, you know, they only ate like really... I mean, I don't think they were vegan, but they were like very like health conscious like parents and they went like to the full extreme. Like they come up, nothing was boxed in there. Like everything was like grown backyard. Now, how are they as adults now? Do you, I mean, did they... He's a weirdo. Oh, he is. To be honest. Yeah, he's a bit of a weirdo. I don't know that it was like, I mean, it's always sounds great in theory, right? Like this is what I worry about some of these people that go to the extremes. It's like, yeah, that's great, but then there's also the real world you have to interface with. And I think you have to be careful to not jump to conclusions. I'll give you a great example. I've used this in the past. If you go back, you know, 30, 40 years, drinking coffee was associated with an increased risk in cancer. Okay. Now we know this to be false, right? We know actually coffee is associated with a decreased risk in cancer. Coffee is actually... Because if you can tolerate the caffeine, coffee is one of the healthiest... It's like a tea, right? It's one of the healthiest things you can drink. But 30, 40 years ago, coffee was considered unhealthy. It was considered not good for you because studies show that people who drink coffee have higher rates of cancer. Now, here's what the real issue was. People who drink coffee a lot, 30 or 40 years ago, also smoked a lot of cigarettes. So they never accounted for the fact that these people were smoking cigarettes. So you got to kind of look at these things with a grain of salt. So, okay, kids who are on screens three or four hours a day, lower brain development. Is it the screen time that's causing that? Or is it the fact that their parents are not interacting with them and leaving them on the couch alone and not parenting them? You got a factor that in. I think that's the issue if you were going to ask me. Anyway, the first question is from Will Spence. I understand you say 9 to 18 sets per muscle group per week, but what do you define as a set when multiple muscles are working at once? For example, would 5 cents sets of regular bench press count as 5 sets of tricep work as the triceps are still working? You know what, this is actually a good question. I remember thinking this myself as a youngster working out, and it is on the surface intuitive, right? I know that a pull-up is going to work. I know it's a back exercise, but my biceps are quite involved. So are my forearm muscles. I know that a squat is my hamstrings, calves are somewhat involved. There's a lot of muscles involved with the deadlift. So this makes a lot of sense in terms of question. Just to simplify, when we say 9 to 18 sets per muscle group, we're referring to exercises that are specifically designed to target, not just isolate, but just specifically designed for those body parts. So traditionally speaking, a bench press is a chest exercise. Traditionally speaking, an overhead press is a shoulder exercise. When it comes to arms, it's basically the isolation movements that would be considered arm exercise, except for some of the compound ones. Now that being said, I think that's why the studies say things like 9 to 18s. That's a huge range. And it's a huge range because somebody who does all a bunch of machine isolation exercises probably is going to have to be somewhere towards the 18 range to get the similar benefits of someone who's doing a lot of compound lifts can probably just do 9 of a lot of those exercises because they're doing those good lifts like squats and bench press and overhead press that are incorporating a lot of secondary muscle. So I think that's where you see a range like that. I mean, if you're doing 9 sets and you're including the big lifts, I mean, at the end of the day, we've thought through all of this when we programmed every program that we've done. So this is part of when you think of what you're paying for with a program for us is that, we've taken into account what all the research says. When we write it all out, like, okay, where's kind of that sweet spot for the majority of people going to land. So they're getting the optimal amount. In fact, I had a guy message me today about combining MAPS anabolic with MAPS performance. And I was like, whoa, no, no. The same guy messaged me. Oh, dude. Come on, guy. We probably tell the same thing, too. Yeah, like, no, guy. No, no, no, no. What I did tell him, I said, you could if let's say you love MAPS anabolic or you're following that and but you want to do more mobility work. I have told people, like, totally fine to take the trigger sessions out. Swap them out. Swap them out. Yeah, your frequency builders are definitely something to swap. Right. And then swap it out for mobility instead of trigger sessions. But as far as like your foundational days and your heavy lifting and how we've programmed that, no, you're getting ample amount of volume and it's scaled within all the programs. So there's no reason for you to try. You're not going to get more results by adding more or combining programs together. No, you're actually bringing up a good point, though. Isolation exercises, your body has a typically, is generally speaking, a higher capacity and resilience towards isolation type movements than compound movements and typically a higher resilience to machines over freeway exercises. So what does this mean for you? Well, this means that if you want to do a lot of sets and you want to add a ton of volume, but you don't want to over train, then you can start to throw on those isolation movements because the compound ones tend to blast your body and your central nervous system a little bit more. In fact, studies actually show this. Studies show that going to failure, okay, this is where you lift a weight to the point where you can't lift it anymore with good form. So you literally lift until you fail for a set. It's like the top of intensity. I mean, you could push it past that, but that's just insane. And studies show that that, for the most part, is too much intensity for most people, but there is one caveat. Sometimes going to failure for isolation movements, totally fine. And it's because it doesn't hammer the body as much as these compound movements. So that is an important thing to know. When you look at your total workout, if you're designing your own workout, let's say you don't want to follow one of our programs that's written for you and you want to kind of figure out your own thing. Like, you know, I want to add, you know, five sets of volume to my chest workout. You might want to start with five extra sets of isolation type movements on top of what you've been doing, just to kind of feel it out. Throwing five sets of compound movements might be too much. Maybe too taxing. It might be too taxing. So it's totally true, you know, your body's ability to recover and handle and adapt to an exercise. There's a lot of things that contribute to that. Intensity is one of them. And then the kind of exercise, the exercises that tend to be the most taxing also tend to be the most effective. This is why, you know, exercises like deadlifts and squats and overhead presses just give you more bang for your buck. Well, that's why I'm always kind of focused in that direction first. Like, how can I incorporate these compound lifts and the most effective exercises? Then I'll structure in, you know, more of those other like isolation type movements to then build up the volume around those lifts. Yeah, yeah. When I go to the gym on my off days, if just like I'm bored and I want to go to the gym and do some extra exercises, I do isolation and machine exercises because I know that that's my body can handle a little bit more, but not too much more. So I go around, I walk around, I use machines and isolation exercises and I'll push up more towards the 18 sets per muscle group per week by doing it that way. All right, our next question is from Alice in M. Can Wednesday on the MAPS anabolic program for a couple of years and still see changes in their body and strength? Okay, so the way that MAPS programs are designed and MAPS anabolic being the most one of the more popular ones, it was the first one that was designed, they are designed to prevent the plateaus that stop progress in your body. So if you start lifting weights right now and you're doing a semi-good job, you don't have to do a perfect job, you do a semi-good job and you're relatively consistent, right away initially for the first month or two, you're going to see consistent progress. People who are experienced in lifting call this the newbie gains because it's a new, it's novel, your body's just responding. But if you stay and do the same stuff over and over soon, very soon, things stop, the body just stops progressing. Now MAPS anabolic comes in phases just like all of our other MAPS programs, meaning the first three weeks or four weeks of MAPS anabolic is where you're working out one particular way. The rep ranges are lower, there's a certain exercise sequence and exercises. When you move into the next three weeks or four weeks, then everything changes, then you move into the next three or four weeks and everything changes. And this is designed to keep the body through continual adaptations. Now theoretically, you could cycle back to phase one and keep that process going. Now that being said, if you do that enough times, eventually even that will stop working for your body. And I recommend after two or three cycles of MAPS anabolic, you get a change to a completely different program. And so when you look at our catalog of workouts, what you'll find is, you know, 10 different MAPS programs. Now we designed them to follow one after another. So ideally what you'd want to do is follow one program through its entire layout, 12 weeks or 14 weeks, then move to the next program, then move to the next program, maybe cycle through three or four of your favorite ones. And that is more likely to produce better results. You could probably go through red, green and black and that and just cycle through that, that those three for several years for a long time and get some really good gains. That's enough novelty for them and enough consistency in types of lifts and also incorporating things like that. And the one thing that I would caution people that would consider, you know, running one and just staying with one, MAPS anabolic is foundational and I think where everybody should start for sure. But the one drawback of it in comparison to like something like performance, and we just, you know, recently did an episode on functional training and the benefits of multidirectional movements and rotational stuff for longevity, overall joint health and just good function moving well. You know, you, you're going to get incredible stuff from anabolic, but you're going to get so much more of that in moving into performance. So cycling a program like performance in with like a MAPS anabolic program. I mean, that to me, the between those two, you could probably go back and forth for quite some time, especially if you're relatively new. And to Sal's point, the longer that you, you stick to that or the longer you've been training, the less results you're going to say. So this is going to be to each to their own, like somebody, if I have a brand new client who is the MAPS anabolic is the first like program that they've ever did. Yeah, they could definitely stay on that program or that one in performance for quite some time because it's so new. I agree. Because it does it on the surface. It looks like we phase, we have three phases. So it is providing new stimulus, you know, after a couple of weeks, you know, we're jumping you into a different type of adaptation. So, you know, on paper, you are, you know, kind of changing it up. But to that point, you know, you have to consider the support system. You have to consider, you know, the function of the joints, the movement, the longevity aspect to training where, you know, just besides constantly trying to build and gain muscle. Yeah, but like, how is it going to hold up, you know, long term? And so that's something where like cycling in performance or like, you know, a different type of stimulus on top of that will definitely help the body to keep sort of progressing from different angles. And we, you know, we, we answered a question a couple of quads ago, and I talked about how, you know, now where I'm at in my lifting career, that when I change up something, I change up a lot, which we weren't recommending for the average person or the newbie to not do that. So that person, so if you're more advanced, you're going to benefit far more from going from program to program to program, because you need that novel stimulus, you need something that is so, like the difference between anabolic and performance is drastic. The difference between performance and map strong is drastic. The difference between map strong and OCR is drastic. And that's, that drastic change is, is enough for even the really advanced lifter to see a really good new stimulus that forces the body to adapt and change. If you're a brand new person, there's so much, there's such a learning curve to just getting good at squatting and deadlifting and moving. And you're still building the skill of it. Right. So you do want to hone in on that process. So like only doing a few programs would probably be ideal. Yeah, we actually thought of this when we created what's called our Maps Super Bundle. This is where we put together, it was Maps Anabolic, Maps Aesthetic, Maps Performance, Prime, which takes care of your warmups. Anywhere. And then Maps Anywhere, which takes care of workouts that you do body weight or outside of the gym. Now that, right there, if you did a Super Bundle with those programs, you're set. You're pretty much set. You could follow those, that sequence of programs. For us indefinitely. For a very, very long time and continue to see progress each time you switch to a new program. So that's where I would recommend that you go. But again, like I'll echo what the boys say, if you're a beginner, you could definitely cycle through Maps Anabolic a few times before needing to move into a different program. Next question is from Roatan Barb. I will be 60 in two months and weight train three to five times per week and also walk 12 to 15,000 steps per day. I have been on a fitness journey for 20 years and count my macros, but I am struggling to reduce my body fat and increase my muscle mass. I hired a personal trainer a year ago and have increased my weights consistently. I am also following Anabolic. I'm not sure if it's my age, but I'm just not seeing results. I know when I over train, which I tend to do, and I work a high stress 60 hour a week desk job and wonder of stress is playing into it. I watch my sleep and get consistent seven hours per night. Any suggestion? Now, there's a little bit that contradicts itself there because he says that he increases, this is a guy, right? A woman. A woman. Okay. So this, she says she increases her weights. So I'm assuming that means she's adding more weight and getting stronger, but then she doesn't think she's seeing results. So I'm assuming that what she's alluding to is that she's not seeing physical change in maybe her body fat percentage, but if you're not seeing as much definition, right? Because if you're adding weight to the bar and you're getting stronger, that's one of the best positive signs. Right. You're changing it. And a lot of times, if you're not seeing the reduction in body fat or muscles aren't standing out more and you're not looking a certain way, I would address more things related to what you alluded to, which is stress and diet. Yeah. I'll say this just based off of, and I don't know you, but just based off of this message, three to five days a week, you got, you know what, how many steps you're taking, you know what your macros are, you work a high stress job, you watch your sleep very carefully. I think stress is playing a very big role. I think you're over focused on hyper focused on everything. I would guess again, I don't know this person, but I would guess your type A and a bit obsessive with the workouts and the nutrition. Now what I would say is I would take a step back from the exercise that you're currently doing. I would lift weights no more than three days a week and I would incorporate recuperative type activity. Yen yoga would probably be phenomenal. Meditation would probably be phenomenal. Now, if you're listening to this right now and that in your, and when I say Yen yoga, you roll your eyes or cringe like, oh, I can't do that. I can't sit still. That's a sign. That's for you. That you're, yeah, it's probably something you're going to benefit from. Seven hours of sleep, also probably a little low considering all that activity. I would aim for eight hours of sleep, at least two days a week and create a sleep routine. Try this. Maybe on one of the days that you're doing all that, all that exercise, do a Yen yoga class and about two hours before bed, do a sleep routine, turn off all your electronics, go by candlelight or by like a Himalayan salt lamp where blue blocker glasses, relax, calm, try to get eight hours or eight and a half hours of sleep and then see what happens. I was shocked years ago. I had a client who was just fanatical about our workouts and one of her workout days was running and this was early on in my career when I started to piece together the stress piece and I said, you know, let's try replacing the run that you do on Sunday with a yoga class and some meditation relaxation and she's like, I'm going to gain weight. I'm not going to burn as many calories and so let's just see what happens. Well, at first she didn't gain weight. She didn't lose weight or gain weight, but I mean, that was a great plus. I said, wow, you're not burning as many calories, but you haven't gained any weight. Something interesting may be happening. Well, over the course of a few months, her body started to respond positively again and it was definitely that over application of stress. Here's what you need to do. You need to go to Cabo for a week and do jack shit. Don't do anything and then come back and see. I mean, it's going to be a great determiner as to whether or not, you know, you're spinning your wheels too fast. That's right. America's favorite trainer has spoken. It's hard to answer questions like this because we don't know enough information, right? And so we're always reading into it, like trying to figure out like, okay, what exactly does she mean by this? Because it does sound like you're very meticulous about everything. It does sound like you're high stress. It does sound like you're training plenty. If you're training three to five days a week, especially at an advanced age and you're only getting seven hours of sleep. And I don't know where your caloric intake is. And I don't know if what you're not happy with is the visual change that you may or may not be seeing in your body and that's your main concern. And then I would also add that, okay, if that's what it is and you're doing this, and maybe it's a caloric intake and also reevaluate your goals. Asking yourself to build muscle and reduce body fat to look leaner and look better at the same time is tough. That's really tough to do. And if you're somebody who is also burning the candle at both ends a little bit, it's even more tough. That's a very fine dance. You know what this reminds me of? I've trained people like this, where they just got everything planned out. They know everything. They're doing crazy workouts. And they're like, my body's just not changing. And I'm looking at them, and I'm like, you're shredded. You're not going to change anymore. You're kicking ass, like relax for a second. Yeah, I've had a few clients like that where they're just like, oh my God, this little bit of body fat on my hip or this is not working. I'm like, you're fucking obsessive. Well, if I had a client who's 60 and is working like crazy and is training three to five times a week and we're adding weight to the bar, we are celebrating. Now, if my client came to me and said my main goal is to get leaner and get shredded, well, then I'm not really worrying about adding weight to the bar and I'm probably going to restrict their calories more and try and lean them out. And I'm not concerned if they're not adding weight to the bar and building a bunch of muscle because they said, Adam, I really want to get lean. So, you know, you're kind of like wanting your cake and eat it too. It's like you're wanting to, you know, get stronger, build muscle, but also lean down. Also, I'm going to work six days a week. I'm also going to train five days a week. You know, that's a lot going on that you're demanding from your body, maybe be a little more realistic with what your goals are and focus on one of those and celebrate that if it's getting stronger and building muscle, you're probably doing that. You're adding weight to the bar. It's happening. Now, if you don't like what you see visually, we'll switch your goal to be more aesthetic driven, less focused on strength and building muscle and start to do something that, to Sal's point, maybe you're doing less of the weight room training, more recuperative stuff. You're restricting more calories or adding in more walks in your day, stuff like that to restrict or to cut back on calories to lose body fat. So that it's hard to try and Yeah. And then, you know, the part where she says, I know I over train, it's like a, which I tend to do high stress, 60 hour work, hour, a week desk job. She's already saying, I'm wondering if stress is playing a role too. Look, I've talked about this. If you think it is, it probably is. Yeah, it is. And I've told you, I've talked about this, this study several times on the show. The relationships that you have with the people around you have more of an impact on your health than your exercise or diet alone. So maybe one of those days that you're working out, go hang out with someone and have meaningful relationships. What you may actually find is by doing that, you start to care less about and obsess less about how you look. And maybe you are already shredded. Again, I've had clients like this with like, ah, my body's not responding. I'm looking at him like, well, it's not going to respond because you're already at the pinnacle. You're like at the peak, you know, maybe take so much, some focus off of that and focus on other things. And again, those relationships with the people around you can have more of a positive impact. So if you're really focused on your health, if that's an issue where you're lacking, I'd say maybe place a little bit of focus there. The next question is from the Reed Streva. Were there ever times during your personal training career where you struggled with confidence? No, that's a funny question. You know, I've worked with a lot of trainers who've definitely struggled with confidence in training their clients. Oh, bro, before you go on, I have to interrupt you on this. I just pulled up the lady who's 60. She looks good, bro. I knew it. Yeah, I knew it. Yeah, she's got shoulder definition. She's pretty lean. That's my thought. That's my thought. No, she was, I hate to detract you there, but I had to look her up real quick just to see like, you know what, you're right, Sal. I wonder if she's already probably, and you're adding weight to the bar and you're kicking ass at work for 60 hours. You and I, if you were a client of mine, we'd be high-fiving and I'd be talking to you. Take a day off, go hang out with your friends. Right. I would be talking to you more about going easier on the pressure that you're putting on yourself because you look phenomenal. You look phenomenal for anybody. You look exceptionally phenomenal for somebody who's 60 years old. And if you're also adding weight to the bar. So you're just asking that to get you to say that. You're searching for compliments. I'm not beyond sufficient. All right. So back to this question, which was whether or ever times during your personal training career where you struggled with confidence. Okay. I've definitely worked with a lot of trainers who had issues with confidence. They either felt insecure about talking to potential clients on the workout floor. That was a big one. Or they just didn't feel the confidence to train people of a certain caliber. Like, you know, oh, it's this client I'm getting as a doctor. I don't know how I'm going to train them. Or this person's worked out before they have an injury or whatever. Okay. So now personally, I've never really personally had an issue with confidence. I probably had the opposite where I thought I was better than I was. I definitely, I could walk up to people, talk to them, whatever. But here's one thing that I always knew about myself. And here's what I communicate to the trainers that worked with me who struggled with this. 99% of the clients that are going to come hire you. No way less than you do about fitness. Even if you're brand new, even if you're brand new and you don't know a ton, you still know way more than they do. And here's the other piece. Here's the other side of that. Because I would always tell my client, my trainers, just stay in your lane. Just do the shit that you know, it's already way more than they're doing now. And it's going to benefit them. There's no need for you to go do crazy stability exercises or- And it's okay to say you don't know something. You'll find out for them. Totally. That's actually a great move on your part. Yeah. Stay in your lane. I know how to do rows and presses really well, and squats and lunges really well, but I don't know mobility exercises. I don't know all this correctional stuff. That's okay. Don't do it. Focus on the stuff you know. They're going to get a ton of value. And then continue, because here's the thing. This is the truth now. The best knowledge you'll get or the best learning you'll ever do from personal training is just going to be from experience anyway. Yeah. I wouldn't say that I struggled with confidence, but I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself. And so that was- I knew I was going to deliver to my clients because I cared a lot about doing a good job. And I think that you can get into that psychology of, I don't really know this that well enough. And so it kind of affects you in terms of like, maybe sometimes how you're delivering the information, but like putting that extra pressure helped me get better. Like it helped me to go research more. It helped me to go learn my craft more. And to really try to put that type of pressure on us to deliver. I want to deliver to these people. And then it keeps building. Every time you go and you learn something and you apply to your client, you see success, you see results. This increases that confidence. But coming into it, most trainers, if they're smart, they realize they don't know shit yet. Absolutely. I wish I had like a really good story to share about myself in regards to this. And I'm sure there's had to been somewhere where I struggled with confidence in something, but with personal training. But I really feel like that I got these lessons early in life. And so this is the blessing of what I think I went through as a kid, being a kid who didn't have much. I had crooked teeth. You know, I was skinny. So I got picked on. I got all that stuff really early in my life. And it built a lot of character in me early. I quickly found out that the more I fought that or I tried to pretend or try to be someone different when I was younger, the more stressed, the more anxiety, the more of a challenge it was in my life. And the more that I just became myself and authentic and who I was and comfortable in my own skin and owned all my flaws, the more I realized that I was even more accepted. And I think in high school, that has to be like one of the hardest times to do that as a kid when kids are probably the toughest. And so when I learned those lessons then, it just carried over into adulthood for me. So when I came into being a personal trainer, I knew I didn't know shit. I was 20. I was 20. I was just going through my first national certification. Everybody was older than me. Everybody was more experienced than me. Like, I was like, I wanted to learn. I asked lots of questions. I knew not to bullshit my clients and act like I knew more than I knew. If they asked me something, I didn't know the answer. I was very comfortable. Practice saying things like, I don't know. You know, I didn't, I don't know. I don't know that answer, but I tell you what, like I'll look it up or I'll find it. Or my other, the advanced trainer who's been here for three years, he's really smart. I'll ask him and then I'll get back to you. It's amazing how much people will respect that in you. Then if you're somebody who tries to fake it, like I always think of the analogy. I used to give this analogy to trainers when I would be coaching my staff on this exact type of question is, have you ever been to a restaurant and you are, you know, the server comes over and they'd go to take your order and they forget your order. They don't come over to the lot. I mean, they are just fucking up things, one thing after another after another. And you, and like, you know, like an entitled customer, we start to get irritated or we don't give them a very good tip and we're pissed off. And then it comes to find out at the end of the night, you find out, oh, it was like, it was her first night. You know, she's just learning. And then, then a little bit of the empathy sets in. And so I would tell my trainers like, don't be that waiter or waitress that tries to pretend like you've been working there forever and you know the menu and fake it till you make it. Come right out with it. I always used to respect that waiter or waitress that walked up and says, hey, today's my first day. Like right out the gates because all of a sudden, I give you all this like, way more leeway, way more leeway. Like, because right away, I know it's their first day. They're learning. I know they're probably trying to figure it. So as a trainer, I pieced that together early on. And so I wouldn't try and pretend like I knew everything. I came in with, you know, I only know a little bit. I'm excited to teach you the little bit that I do know. I know this, which to Sal's point, is a little bit more than probably what they did. So I would teach what I knew. And if they ever asked questions around things that I didn't know, I wasn't afraid to say, I don't know. Yeah, I think the two big root causes of this type of, you know, lack of confidence or fear is that I need to know everything, which you're not going to. So be okay with saying, I don't know and not knowing everything and be real. And then the second fear is the fear of people saying, no to you. Like I'm going to go talk to someone on the workout floor about personal training. They're going to say, no. So what? I never bothered me. I never bothered me. I'd walk on the workout floor and I talked to them. They say, I don't want any personal training. Okay, cool. Next person in. It just didn't faze me because I didn't take it personal. It's not a personal thing. They said, no, big fucking deal. Who cares? It's because you're a guy. You've been getting rejection your whole life. Maybe. We're used to it. If we've been getting rejection our whole life, so it's a guy. No big deal. I'm used to being told, no. Look, I do have a story around this actually. When I first became a fitness manager, this was four months into my personal training career. So I'm still 18 years old, I'm still a kid. Now I'm managing trainers in one of the bigger gyms in the area. And I was like, cool. Thank you for this. This is great. So we had personal training and back then we sold a nutrition program called Apex. I don't know if you guys remember Apex. And my club was number one in personal training and number one in Apex. And I knew nothing about Apex. All I knew was it was nutrition. And I remember my district manager coming down and celebrating how great we were doing and wow, you guys are breaking records and everything's going great, Sal. I'd like for you to come teach all the other fitness managers of the area how you're like, instead of food, eat this. How you sold so many Apex programs. And I said, I'd love to. I'd absolutely love to do it. And I said, and he was about to walk out. I said, hold on a second. His name is Sean. So hold on a second. I said, I need to learn more about Apex. And he goes, what do you mean? I said, I really don't know what it is. And he's like, how are you selling so many of them? And I said, I'm just honest. I just tell people, hey, you're going to need help with nutrition. You should do Apex. And then they'd ask me, well, what is Apex? Well, I know it's a nutrition program. I don't know much more about it, but you do need help with it. And they would get it. I just, it was honest. And it's remarkable how effective you could be when you don't bullshit people. So there you go. And with that, go to mindpumpfree.com and download all of our guides. They're all free. We've got a whole bunch of them on there for you. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal and Adam at Mind Pump Adam.