 First question is from Josh Kaur. Is there a rule of thumb one should stick by when programming their own workouts? Yeah, Josh Kaur there's a lot of rules of thumb But I think the number one rule of thumb probably the best possible thing you could do When you're programming your own workout is the same thing that a trainer would absolutely have to do before training a client Learn how to do a self-assessment. This makes a huge difference in how you train yourself That's the foundation right there right right so, you know Some basic ways to do it like you could have some take a picture of your posture standing sideways This isn't perfect, but it's one simple easy one and you look at your posture like man my shoulders really Round forward. Okay. Now, you know because your shoulders round forward I'm gonna try and insert exercises that focus on bringing my shoulders back That's just a simple example or if you try to do a squat and you notice your hips aren't activating Maybe insert exercises that help you fire and activate your glutes Now if you really want to go the extra mile and get very individualized without hiring a trainer because trainers can be expensive Maps Prime has a self-assessment tool. There's three movements and you kind of feel now Why is it as an assessment so important? It literally Tells you what exercises to focus on and which one which ones you shouldn't do so back to the forward shoulder You got somebody with really bad forward shoulder time to work out their back You know what exercise I'm not I'm not gonna do lat pull downs not gonna do lots of lat pull downs because that's gonna in many times Encourage that forward shoulder. It's gonna encourage their their bad posture And the worst thing you can do is get really strong at moving bad So if you know if you don't figure it out and you just go throw exercises at yourself You may actually make certain things worse now besides injuries and pain and a lot of stuff It just slows down your progress. It just doesn't make you progress as fast I had no idea you're gonna go that direction because you know when you think of a question like this that the typical thing is Talking about periodization and talking about order of exercise and yeah, and those are important to no No, they are but I'm actually really glad you went that way because it that wasn't on my mind but it it it's true that You know, it's one thing to be going to the gym and all you're focused on is losing body fat or building muscle But the the truth is every client that all of us train that that was that was part of their goal They're my main focus always was to address, you know Chronic pain and and posture first or while I was heading towards their goal And when you do a good assessment and you and you find out What's going on with your body? Why are you not able to squat all the way to the ground? Why are you not able to get your hands back against the wall? I just did something on my story the other day you can see me struggling with it and and I show that too I love when people DM me to and like point out like all the shit like oh, you're not doing this very well like yeah No shit, bro. That's it. I'm sharing it working on right exactly. I'm sharing it So people know that even somebody who's a trainer has been doing this long It's not like something that you know, you do one time or that I'm immune to it like I like it's an area I'm on my phone all day I sit more than I've ever sat in my life this last five years And so it's something that I I constantly have to work on and it's a priority It's the first priority before I get into the lift like yeah The bench press parts fun and I love to lift heavy and and get stronger and build muscle But before that, you know, it's me spending ten minutes addressing all the things that I need to work on and to me The most valuable thing I think trainers can give to clients is this now And you don't need to be a trainer to to understand this This was this was a lot of the motivation behind prime was yes It was a tool that we thought about trainers when we when we created it Like every trainer should have this in their arsenal, especially if they're an online coach But we really wanted to simplify it enough that like our my mom could pick it up Could read through it watch the videos and understand the things that she should be doing to help her body out Before she goes into a basic workout and so that was the idea of this program And if there is it and I love that you went this way Sal because it wasn't where I was thinking at all It's true like this should be the place that you start and at the bare minimum be doing that and then the next rule of thumb for me is Working on the big lifts right and getting good at them and understanding that if you're not good at them Which is very common. It's common that you don't have a good dead lift You don't have a good squat You don't have good and the reason why that is is for why you do the assessment and you work on those things because Most people don't move on a squat or a dead lift or an overhead press or a bench press well Because they have dysfunction because they're not good. They're not they don't have favorable movement patterns that they need to work on So that's why what Sal said is the first rule then what the next thing is use those four core lifts and And look at it like you're trying to get good at the skill of it and practice getting good And then when you're not good or you feel weird things when you're bench pressing It doesn't feel right or you notice when you squat things break down the knees come in or you can't get very deep Instead of just saying I'm a bad squatter. I'm gonna give up. I'm not do it Try and dive deeper into your own body and learn why that is I mean to reiterate You know basically what both of you have said it's like for me It's the rule is really you know the assessment part of it is Understanding how the body is properly functioning or it's not you know There are all the joints able to do what they're supposed to do without you know pain and restriction and You know and then it's it's it's a matter of if not in certain things then you know I'm not gonna load that movement and so there there's just standards like that where you know I'm going unloaded with with clients in terms of like doing a squat for instance, you know until We get enough stability support to then like gradually add load But definitely treating the major lifts like a skills a very important thing to then you know aspire to You know get your get your programming towards you know something. That's like like a very admirable Squat, you know bench press overhead lift, you know stuff like that. Yeah, so by the way Do you guys know where the term rule of thumb came from? Yeah, I remember this this was on that movie with a boondock Saints. Oh, did they talk about that? Yeah, yeah, so his big lady was a little beating this guy up about it apparently it was There were laws in certain areas where you could only hit your wife with your partner with a stick with a stick That was as big like as big as your thumb that was the biggest so they you're trying to control the Beating I did not know that so they call it the rule of thumb like you could hit your wife with a stick It couldn't be very PC. Yeah, very very pleased. Anyway, that's I think that that's what I've read Maybe it's a myth. I'm sure people will correct me if it is here's another good rule of thumb, right? And I'm gonna put it very very plainly Practice exercises often train them less often. Yeah, okay, so what I mean bit by that is Rather than going into your squat session in thinking you're gonna hammer your legs More often what you should do is go into your squat session thinking I'm gonna get good at squats and practice them Totally different mentality and it dictates it actually directs your workout in ways that are more beneficial Well, and let's explain what that kind of looks like so let's take for example You've gone through like the the squat assessment on Maps prime and there's certain movements on there that we teach to help improve You know if you have a quote-unquote broken squat So, you know what those movements are it might be 90 90 stuff might be combat stretch when you're going in to practice a Squat sometimes is what it looks like for me I do all those priming movements that I'm supposed to do before I get into a squat Then I go do a set and it's a light set. It's not supposed to be really heavy I want some load on the bar because I want to feel the weight I also feel like when you especially with practice with something right right Yeah, sometimes it helps to get into the movement better even to have some weight than just your body weight So loading the bar somewhat but not like like less than 50% Intensity on it and then I I do the movement and I I love watching myself in the mirror Or maybe I even use my phone to record myself I look at it and I pay attention to what look oh wow I you know, I look like I'm getting a little bit more travel in my knees from my combat So that's great, but oh man. I feel like my knees are caving in so then I go back I sit down I do some more priming movements Then I go back to another set of squats then I look in assess again Then I go back and do some more priming and I'm what I'm doing is I'm trying to get better connected work on my movement patterns And then go and you know I'm teetering back and forth between these priming movements and the squat because my goal isn't how much weight Can I throw in the bar or how strong and it can I how much can I hammer my leg? How sore can I get it's I want to get better at this movement, right? So it's the difference between like if you're learning how to swim and you're you're practicing how to swim well It's a difference between practicing swimming and just going as fast as you can yeah in a meat, okay? That's the difference. So you're gonna approach your your exercises as Practice more often than not and every once in a while when you feel comfortable and form is good You can push it and train yourself. It's a really really good Rule of thumb for most people and by the way practicing exercise, especially if you do it frequently So if I practice squats three days a week I'm gonna build muscle and I'm gonna get stronger the frequency of Practice is what really sends that muscle building signal. So two other things I really consider Well, you know being in a program or program for other clients is you know, how long have they been in you know? Like one plane of motion and and how can I incorporate more planes of motion? So it actually expresses those specific movements that the joint needs to Go through in order to remain healthy remain a part of the stability process And so like I'm always looking through and like kind of scanning if they've been You know equally loaded Too long like should we should we do some unilateral training? Should we do some more rotational movement? Should we go left to right? All these things are you should consider because the body is capable of those things and we should train them Right So in other words train like if you're always doing squats with two legs And that's what you've been doing for a while try some single leg Exercises or try something where you move to the side right like a lateral lunge versus a look if here's the other thing You can do obviously But one of the easiest ways to do this is like, you know get the program maps prime follow the assessment But we also have a YouTube channel with a bunch of free Videos and stuff on there another thing you can do if you want to do that If you want to just use all of our free information is when you do yourself assessment One thing you could do is say what parts of my body tend to bother me Go on our video library and see if you can find something so you know my my hips tend to bother me Or my squat doesn't feel good go on the YouTube channel mind pump TV and just search like squat mobility movements or Shoulder mobility movements because my shoulders bother me or my back or whatever You'll find free videos and those movements more often than not will benefit you and get you better at doing your traditional exercises