 You only have a few more days until 2018. What if I told you you could have the entire year, all of 2018 programmed out for you in terms of exercise? In other words, you could start the year off knowing exactly what exercises and workouts and what things to focus on and having, you know, trainers demo exercises for you for the entire year. You could literally make 2018 the most fit year of your life with mind pumps expert programming with our maps programs. We have something called the maps super bundle, which includes several of our maps programs. And when you do them in order, your body progresses and it becomes stronger. You get better mobility, better aesthetics, fat loss. We move you through the process through that entire year. Your workouts are different every between two to four weeks. So things change all the time with your workouts. It's not boring. You have videos with me, Adam and Justin demonstrating exercises, teaching you how to do this. Everything in the programs, the way that only experienced personal trainers can do. This is the best bundle we offer if you're trying to get 2018 settled. Now, if you're serious about this, that's what you do. Go to mind pump media dot com, get yourself signed up for the maps super bundle. One last thing, all of our programs come with a 30 day guarantee. So if you're kind of iffy or if you haven't been consistent in the past, I recommend getting enrolled in the super bundle and do it for the first 30 days. Like follow the program for 30 days. And if it doesn't blow your mind, if it's something that you don't think you can stick with, return it. No questions asked. Again, you can find this at mind pump media dot com. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews. Our good friend Josh Trent from Wellness Force podcast. Highly recommended. We interview JJ. JJ is the host of a podcast, fit to love podcast. She's also written some books, one of which is the invisible fitness formula. She's, her take on fitness is right along the lines with ours. She's got a lot of experience in this industry. We had some great conversation with her in this episode. You can find her website. It's JJFlaZanes.com. I'll spell that for you. It's J-J-F-L-I-Z-A-N-E-S dot com. So without any further ado, here we are talking to JJ FlaZanes. Tell us about your show first and why you started it. I started my show because as a trainer for 20 years, I was feeling stuck and stifled. I wanted to talk about many different aspects. I'm all about integration. And when I started as a trainer, of course, I started down the path of the science. For 20 years? What did you train at? New York Sports Club. Oh, cool. You're from New York? Yeah. Oh, excellent. We were all trainers at the same time then for sure. Yeah, no, I heard you guys all 24 are fitness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, but I was New York Sports Club. Which is that like a 24 over there? Yeah, Town Sports International at the time. I don't know what they're doing now. Had New York Sports Club, Washington Sports Club. There were two more. Maybe Chicago. So similar EFT model, something. I think they're a higher, I think they're a little bit higher. Higher end. Class or higher end, yeah. Yeah, more like a club one. And they had, they had a higher end called the Vertical Clubs and they were sort of the sports club LA. They were like the next level. And I actually worked for the Vertical Club first before because I worked for Ballets first. Oh, wow. There we go. That's, okay, 1996. I started working for Ballets. Very cool. Yeah. And I went from Ballets to the city, to the Vertical Club in New York City and then from the Vertical Club to New York Sports Club. I actually even became director of education and I was teaching trainers because they had, they were moving at such a rapid speed of opening gyms and hiring trainers. They just wanted people with good personalities, not necessarily education or even certification. So they're like, can you create a certification program? Me and other people and we'll make them go through this in order for them to get to the next pay level. And, but we do want them to still get a national recognized certification. So yeah, it was a lot before I was like 22. I was doing a lot of stuff. And so why did I start my show? Because obviously over those years, I asked questions because that's just who I am in terms of like, why? Why this? Why that? Why do you want this? Why do you like this? Why not this? I also go by intuitive feelings and something never felt right about making it about the way that you looked only. You were like this in your 20s? Yeah, that's right. I was very self-aware, yeah. But I'm the ad annoying kid though that asked all those questions and people didn't have answers. You're in good company. Okay, good. Well, you are podcasters, you know. Podcasts and trainers probably is like the best world because it means... I challenge you. That's what we do. Right, concepts and understanding. And so, you know, fast forward. It's now I've written two books and I still, I'm trying to like coach my clients and besides the food part, there's the mindset part and mind you, it's all the stuff I've learned for myself. It's not stuff that I tried to teach them that I didn't experience or didn't use on myself first. And so here I am wanting to talk about all these things and they're like, no, no, no, I heard you to help me lose weight and to teach me how to exercise. Like, I don't want to know about this stuff. And it was so frustrating and I felt like what I, things like a backed up hose, you know, like you turn the water on a hose and then you, you clench it, you kink it, right? And it's all that pulsating energy wants to come out, but you've closed it off. Here I am with all this information and I didn't know what to do with it and I didn't know where to go with it. I didn't know how to make it happen. And I had went to a writer's workshop for a new book for my third book. And in the second book, by the way, had been put down because the publisher stopped publishing and I needed to find a new publisher and I didn't. So I thought, just, just put it down, walk away. It'll come when it's ready. So I go to this writer's workshop and I learned about podcasting and also I was like, oh, that's where I can put it on a podcast. I can do video. I can do audio. I can do five days a week. I can do six days a week. And I was off and running. And so that's how that happened. It was just, I kind of thought, I'm all about putting out the content and at least let me get it out. Let me get out what I teach, what I try to, I don't want to write. Blogging is not my thing. I can write, but I'd much rather talk. Well, you've been in fitness as long as I have in terms of, you know, personal training, whatever. And did you, so the path that I went along through fitness was like a lot of trainers what motivated me initially was my own insecurities with my own body. That's why I started working out. I thought I was too skinny, wanted to build muscle, but I also loved people. So I was training people and doing all that. And through that process over the years, I started to identify the real truths behind fitness, the real motivations, what really gets people healthy, what really gets people fit. Also, what really does it for myself and it evolved through this process to where it is today. Did you start in a similar way and evolve or were you always in it the way you are now? No, I was an actor. I heard you guys talking to Rob and I did video, I did Google that thing that he was in that commercial as you guys were talking about it. I was in the acting world and what I realized early on was that I needed a job that wasn't waiting tables. I realized later on that I have like 50% right and left brain. And so there's a part of me that needs to be physical and be doing things and be performing. I've been performing since I was three, but the other part of me is be problem solving. Like there was the left side that was like, no, you need to problem solve. You need to figure something out. And prior to personal training, I didn't think I was that smart in a science way. And then when I started to learn personal training and I went to my first National Academy of Sports Medicine at the time in 1997. Which was the business back then? Yeah. I mean, that was like the gold standard. It was the gold standard for sure. You guys remember Tom Purvis? Oh, no, no. Neil, Neil Spruce. Neil Spruce, Tom Purvis. Yep, yep, yep, I was with all those guys. I remember Neil Spruce from Apex. That's how I got my Apex certification way back when he was at Apex Nutrition. Yeah, yep. So I was a big, you know, I got under the wing of Tom Purvis and then I stayed there for a long time because he made science and when he taught science it was a way that I understood it because it was in the body. And so all of a sudden now I'm really interested in helping others, but it didn't come necessarily from me feeling so insecure. I'm not saying I don't have body shame or that I didn't have wanted to look better especially as an actor. I dated a gymnast in college and I've been a dancer my whole life so I had strong muscular legs but I have a picture of me and Tim together and I had these like really skinny arms and it was really like a pair because I had no muscle on the top but I had all this muscle on the bottom and he said something in a very nice way like you may want to build some muscle and I thought, oh, okay. Like I didn't, I wasn't offended by it and then I went to work in retail. God help me. And it was a retail person that with me said let's go get a job at the gym because then we can get a free membership. And I was like, okay. And so we get a job at the gym and I'm at the front desk and I'm multitasking like a pro and I see the trainers and I went, whoa, whoa. How do I get to do that? And so they gave me a number here. Take the ACE test, right? So here's the ACE test and I remember not passing it the first time. And then I thought, okay. When it was mostly about business, like don't get sued. Do you want to be a social proprietor? Do you want to be an LLC? I'm like, yeah. And it wasn't really that specific about health and then I fast forward and I'm taking it again. Didn't study anymore past it. I'm like, hmm, interesting. Walk into the gym at the Vertical Club in New York City. My manager at the time was a physical therapist. She looks at all the equipment and I'm looking at thinking I'm a certified personal trainer and I don't know what to do with any of that. That's a problem. So then she proceeded to teach me some things and of course I don't know what I didn't know, what she knew. And one of my other personal trainers there, I was working with a woman and doing all the stupid things that you do when you don't know anything. And I knew I didn't know anything. It's like I keep trying to keep a little profile and Martin comes up and says, JJ, come here. So why did you choose that exercise? And I answered it and he said, and was that woman prepared for that? Did she have the right kind of hip stability to do that exercise? And I was like, oh my God, I'm found out. So then he puts to a machine and he goes, okay, explain what's going on here. And it was a row. And I remember, I guessed and I guessed right, but the fact that I guessed and I was really like, oh my God. I said, okay, Martin, where do I get this information? And that's when he sent me off to NASM. So part of for me, the personal training industry gave me confidence in my ability to learn and my ability to know science. And then, and then I was really good at it and it was easy and it was much easier than any science I'd had ever taken in school or math. And again, like I was good at it. So that's what it gave me confidence. Yeah. So you mean for me, when I started in training, it was started with my bodybuilding information that I got from magazines. Then I went the science route like you took these certifications and courses and then I became inundated and dogmatic about the science of fitness macros, calories, proteins, fats, carbs. That's really all that matters. And, you know, and as I continued along my path with training, I started to realize that was driven by aesthetics, right? That was, I was all aesthetics, but it was also like very, I remember I take the classes and the courses and nutrition and they'd be like, no, it's calories in versus calories out. That's pretty much it. Here's your macros. That's pretty much it. Like it was nothing about food quality. There was nothing about the psychology behind, you know, fitness. It was all about move more, eat less. And I became very dogmatic about it because that's what I was being taught. And then, but as I'm training people, I'm realizing like this isn't working very well. Like why? And at first I thought to myself, it's because people are just lazy. They're just not motivated enough. They're just not, you know, people just don't want to do the work. And but I, as I continue to start to realize like it's, there's, it's more important to understand the psychology behind what we're doing. Food quality is extremely important. It's not all just about calories and macros, but it took me a while to learn all that. It did. It really took me like 10 years before I started things really started to click. We came from that background more with the bodybuilder aesthetic kind of focus. I think for me, it's always been about performance driven, like athletic pursuits. And so that was sort of my background and being always being in a sport. My identity was, I'm an athlete or you know, I'm in some kind of a sport. Like this is where my home is. And you know, for me, the battle for me to overcome was, I was overdoing it. I was going super intense on every single workout. I was trying to kill everything. And that was something that, you know, stood out right away. Like once I started getting into your, in any sense, once I started getting into, you know, integrative style training and, you know, learning about how to like address my joints and in a proper way and like build integrity around the joints and you know, get into more functional type movement patterns and all that kind of stuff. It really like, you know, transformed my whole approach to training and training other clients and all that. So, I mean, I was saying what you had the same dogmatic approach to where your, your thing was high intensity. You had to hammer your body. So, I was applying it to my client's athlete mentality. Yes. And that's, you know, again, like I admit that because I was young and I, you know, this is the way that I understood things from an athletic perspective. Like, you know, you have to, it's, it's overcoming, you know, things like forces against you. You're, you have to overcome them and everything is like this mental discipline driven, you know, pursuit. So, yeah, like, like Sal's mentioned the psychology of, you know, that's completely changed for me. I remember the first year of being a personal trainer and I was solely focused on being the top trainer. That was where I, where I was heading. I wanted to be the best trainer and what took to be the best was who sold the most training. And I remember finally reaching that milestone and becoming the best trainer. And then I remember like looking at my clientele and going like, oh shit, only like 80% of my people, or 80% of my people are not seeing results. Maybe 20% are seeing results. Out of that 20%, nobody's keeping it long term. What am I really fucking doing? Am I really the top trainer? Am I really the best? But everyone's telling me I'm the best. I got trophies that say it. Yeah. You know, but that was a wake up moment for me like, wait a second, I'm celebrating on this. I was so focused on becoming that selfishly that I wasn't really paying attention to the advice and the information. I was like, that really wasn't that good of a trainer. I just, I didn't know that much. I knew a little bit more than they all knew and I could convince them of that and I sold a lot of personal training. And I remember that weighing heavy on me. Once I reached like the milestone of being good and making money from it, it was like, oh shit, like now I want to find the purpose in it. Now I want to actually help these people. This doesn't make sense. How can we keep them? JJ, when did you realize in fitness that most the information that we're being told is bad? Yeah. At one point where you like, oh shit, this is all bad information. It's the opposite. Right. You know, oh, what a growth, right? Personal growth. I mean, do you remember those moments? Yes. Oh, I am sighing. I'm like remembering your triggering those moments when I after my first NASM certification, I say first because I took it. I took the standard and then I took the advance and then I went back and I bet because you just don't learn science in a weekend. And at that time back in 1997, it was science, a lot of science and they were teaching physiology by drawing versus when Adam came out and it was interactive and the color coded it and you can see electro and chemical processes happening which made it easier to remember because it became functional and mechanical instead of chemical and it was sort of like this idea in the sky. It took me like so many times to try to learn physiology but when I came out of the first NASM certification and I understood biomechanics on a new level. Oh, was I a bitch? I walked into the gym and wanted to challenge every year. You're doing it wrong. Every man with a weight belt. Oh my God. Let me show you this core exercise that's just going to break you, right? Stand on the physio ball. You know what's funny? I remember trainers doing that. Do you guys remember that? Because I managed gyms for a long time and I remember trainers going off and taking these courses and coming back and they're like, I know everything now and I'm like, calm down. Not yet. It takes a long time before you and the thing about certifications is they some of them do very good job of teaching you the science. NASM is excellent with that especially when you go with the advanced certifications but none of them really tell you how to become a great trainer because it's only one piece which is why I started my show back to the original question. I started my show because it's you cannot focus on one piece and think you're going to be successful all the time. Not only is it a one piece, it's the smaller piece of the two when you talk about the psychological piece and now that took me years to figure out because here I am trying to become a better trainer so now I'm getting more certifications, I'm getting smarter and I'm applying all this stuff that I'm learning and I'm realizing that it's still not working. I'm still not increasing my percentage of people I'm helping because I'm still not addressing the root issues which is psychological and that's what's driving all the behavior and that was like oh shit like all that other stuff we're not even ready for that yet. I wish we just would have measured like retention am I still with this person? Am I still helping them? Are they still progressing? Like what am I doing in that direction? Like am I really making an impact? Or am I not? Like Adam said it was like a competitive thing like I want to sell you I want to get the most sessions out of you or like it was very like just that environment I mean it was great for learning business because like and I don't take anything away from that process in the beginning because that's what I mean being a personal trainer you're selling yourself always and people are watching you and there's a huge business to what we do and this is what people need so we should be even more passionate about selling it to people because they need it right? So yeah but you just realize that like if that's your only focus there's a lot that's being missed What's the question of why are they doing it? We could all write a perfectly balanced program exercise nutrition why don't they do it? It's a psychological and emotional piece it's a habitual understanding it's the belief system and it's how they integrate it whether they think it's separate and it's a diet mentality of it's something I do for a short period of time or how do I integrate this into my life? How do I make it fit? How do I make my life around this instead of do it separately which I could get rid of at any time? And so the integration is what I'm always interested in and so I don't know when it started happening that I started asking those questions of why but I learned I got certified as a nutrition specialist back when that was legal and so now I have the exercise and I've got the food thing but I'm still questioning people's motivation I had a couple well I didn't have a couple one of the male trainers in the gym had the husband and I had the wife and I remember asking her like we were she was on a treadmill warming up and then we went to go do something and she wasn't really that interested and I could feel that and I said so she's like yeah I don't really care I said so why are you doing this? She goes because my husband wants me to and I was like I wanted to say well then stop doing it because I interpreted that I can't be your motivation well you know in retrospect because of where I was and where I am now was your own trigger right? Right it was my own trigger it could have been that he actually just wanted her to be healthy sure and in that case I wouldn't have been so but at the time I took it as he wanted her to look good and I was like not having that I'm like I would just quit if I were you know like I would demand that you know if you don't want to be here then you shouldn't have to be here well when you start looking at the psychological part you start to realize that a lot of this stuff is deep it's not like oh last year I heard this is the right diet it's like I got shit that I'm dealing with that goes way back that's navigating the things that I because most people they don't they have no idea why they're even they think they know because they want to look a certain way but it's all short-lived if you're chasing an aesthetic goal or somebody else or a birthday or a wedding like it's not gonna last you'll be right back the other way man I had a couple a lesbian couple who I was training via Skype and and a 90-day program and they from the beginning in fact there were like six other people six other women on this on this program and by the end of it because I did it very different than they had done anything else and they had been they called themselves lifers they they were lifers they've been on every diet and exercise program and they'd lost weight and they gained weight they'd lost weight and they gained weight so now they're here they're expecting me to weigh them in they're expecting me to give them calorie counting tell them the bad foods they can't eat they're expecting me to track their exercise and by the end of it they said this has been like nothing else we've ever experienced and now I realize that I didn't know I had emotional issues with food and I didn't have emotional issues connected to why I either over eat or whatever like before that they thought oh I just I'm just not being good I'm not it's right it's that shaming and judgment of oh I'm just not being good this is good food this is bad food right and so I just I'm just not disciplined enough that's what some people think even people have been doing this for a long time they've been struggling and so what I'd like to bring to the table is the conscious awareness of okay well why and and where is the deeper part and the fitness industry doesn't address that hey because most trainers aren't qualified to do that of course right I'm not suggesting that trainers should be able to be a psychologist you need to work on yourself first and learn something but but the fact that we're not integrating and asking those questions and referring people out as trainers in gyms you know what about this piece and do you understand why you do this you know because you can move the needle with the food and the exercise only so far but if they get triggered they're going backwards potentially because if food is how they and lack of self-care is how they cope or or deny or repress their feelings then you haven't solved that because you gave them a good workout really really too it's you know you have to appreciate if you're a trainer you have to appreciate just how difficult this is for people and I don't mean difficult in the discipline sense I mean difficult and then even just knowing just being aware of you know the connections to these things because I'll give you a story I had a client who I was training and I'd train her like three days a week and she wanted to lose weight and she wasn't losing weight and I knew why she wasn't losing weight and because she was eating a particular way and she comes in or she sends me a message and she says you know my schedule is getting really busy Sal I think I can only start to work out twice a week so I'm at this point I'm a young trainer I'm thinking like oh I'm going to have a come to Jesus talk with you like you're going to go and you're going to work out hard or I'm not going to train you anymore like this is the only way and she comes in and I sit down with her and I basically hammer her and make her feel terrible and she never comes back she never comes back and I felt proud of myself until I realized that I had done nobody any favors I had done nobody any favors in fact if that woman had just come to the gym one day a week that was one day more than she would have ever done on her own and I need I didn't appreciate just how difficult the process of awareness is and how every step is a step and I like to teach people that because when I talked to people about that and when I trained people in that way then you know I have you know I'll have clients will train me for two years not lose a single pound and then all of a sudden things start to click and then they lose 30 pounds but it's the right way and it's not a discipline thing it's well this is just the way that I live now and it becomes permanent it becomes it's just how they are it's getting harder before it's getting easier it's with the where we're at with being plugged in and being so disconnected from ourselves that's why this message is important this message is important because it needs to be heard because eventually it will come back sooner or later the pendulum is going to swing so far and we're starting to see this kids that are like seven, eight years old having back problems you have you go to now I go in a restaurant blows my mind when I see this and I see sitting at some restaurant and all four you know mom, dad and two kids and everyone is just detached nobody nobody is even present right now and so this topic that we're talking about it's going to get harder before it gets easier so I'm doing a live event in January and I'm and it's been interesting to hear some of the reasons why some of the tribe is like oh I'm getting shamed by this by my husband or by my parents about spending the money yet they they crave the personal connection and they crave the experience but they're but with the limiting beliefs that stop them and that's exactly why I'm doing it that's exactly why I want to continue doing it because we need it now we are so disconnected like I love podcasting and I love podcasters and I think it's a way to bring people together but it needs to come out from behind the mics and meet people in person the relationships that I have with Josh and with Rob and these podcasters that I've been hanging out with this year is amazing why? because we've all talked we all know each other we believe in concepts but we're taking it to the next level of actually connecting in person and having this kind of energy which is why this setup is great but people people crave that they know but no they crave it because they want to be validated by knowing that other people are out there with the same struggles that they're having and here is this person as an example who's making it happen in this way and oh I could learn from them and oh I could support them and they can support me I think that that the disconnection is an issue but because of this connection we're going to be craving more community oh absolutely it's already you see like the rise in Spartan race that's the reason why you see that stuff is because it makes you feel again muddy and dirty and pushing hard like that freezing cold water I'm alive again that's why it's on the rise no one no one wanted to do that shit 20 years ago 20 years ago if you were someone who got dropped in you saw people doing be like what the hell you know working out and exercise wasn't even cool yet so that is is because it's the extreme it's the it's the we all think that we're more connected now because all the social media and everything else that you know you're I can have access we are in a virtual sense so I can have I can have access to somebody's easy right I can get a hold of you like through any means you know text email whatever it is and it's just we're finding out that's not real that's not a real connection and so there's there's this gap there this emptiness there that well it's we need interaction it's a real connection it's a real connection with a technical it's with a tool yeah you're connected to that you're not connected to yourself right or anybody else that's around well that's yeah and so how are you going to pick up on the what your body is trying to tell you if you're not if you're so disconnected from it so we can use we can use the same tricks and stuff and tools that the food industries used on us to condition us in particular ways you can use the same things for yourself if we if we think from an exercise standpoint so we'll start with exercise then we'll move to nutrition if I'm trying to correct someone's posture a bad way to do it we'd be to have someone someone stand up and for me to tell them stand like this put them in position this is good posture see you later because posture is not something that's conscious it's an unconscious thing I have to change muscle recruitment patterns I have to change how their body literally sits in an unconscious state so that good posture becomes very natural the same thing is true with nutrition it's no different the same thing is true to exercise it's no different so how do we do that well there's a couple ways you do that with exercise one is you start to view exercise not as a punishment but as something you're doing because you love yourself and you want to take care of yourself so what does that mean well that means it looks different sometimes for everybody that means sometimes I'm going to the gym and I'm lifting weights because my body needs that and I'm taking care of it and that means sometimes I go for a walk or sometimes I meditate that will drive you to make better decisions than almost any coach or fitness you know professional will ever do just that whole I'm doing this because I love myself and I'm taking care of myself and sometimes again sometimes it means you don't exercise and you go to the spa or you get a massage or you relax when it comes to nutrition the same thing use those same tricks the food industry did a great job of connecting the dots for you when it came for particular foods for example you know in the morning I wake up I eat breakfast foods eggs bacon milk that's they're just food but we associate them with breakfast so they've made that connection to us so that's what I crave in the morning to eat for breakfast same thing with lunch same thing with dinner same thing with popcorn at the movie theater or whatever pay attention to how foods actually make you feel not just the taste because that's one signal palatability is one signal that you can and you should pay attention and it's been hijacked in most foods and it's being hijacked by highly processed highly palatable foods but also pay attention to how foods are really making you feel for example I may not necessarily like the taste of vegetables but I notice when I eat them my digestion is amazing my skin looks really good I'm not below I'm not I have I have I have I have I have got really good attitude feels great I've got better energy I seem to be more patient with my kids or whatever pay attention to those things make them conscious and eventually become unconscious signals and you will actually start to find yourself craving those types of foods because you'll want those feelings and the food industry has already been doing this to us for a very long time so it is not a crazy abstract you know thought or process it's literally these this is how the body works and what you'll find over time when you do this is because really the solution is this the solution all boils down to this if you enjoy exercising and you enjoy eating healthy it's never going to be a problem it'll always be something that you'll do you'll never gain the weight back because I just love doing it I mean I have clients I've been working with for years they'll go on vacations and we'll be texting to texting each other and they'll say oh my god I've been eating out for the last five days I cannot wait to get home and cook myself some vegetables like this is what they're craving now initially it wasn't because they didn't like to taste the vegetables because of course if you compare it to a donut that palatability is totally different well initially it was feeling but initially it was I need to lose I need to lose this this five pounds I put on on vacation that's what it was driven by and that and that is so short-lived it's absolutely short it's all that's driven by hating yourself and you can't hate yourself for very long at some point you're going to want to stop hating yourself you're going to go off the wagon and you'd be like screw that I'm going to eat whatever I want I'm sick and tired of hating myself and punishing myself so that's it's really that takes time be patient with yourself it's a little by little process don't give yourself these time goals or I need to lose 30 pounds by this wedding or whatever I get that and you can do that as well but don't give it just make those connections and watch what happens and over time it becomes something that's just this is just the way I am and it's the only way to do it long term unless you become orthorexic in which case that's not healthy either so the second book is called fit to love how to get physically emotionally and spiritually fit to attract love of your life and that book is all about changing the relationship with exercise and changing it from a self loathing to a self-love what a great what a great book to write because I would walk into you know I live here in LA could go into any gym any moment and you can feel it's palatable who is there because they're doing this exercise because they actually love and respect themselves and who is there on every step saying I hate myself I hate myself I wish I was then I need to lose count you can feel it and that was where the book kind of it's my story but it also encompassed what I really believed and that was my brand and that's the show was based on that the show was fit to love physical, emotional and spiritual fitness for the happy life you deserve and that was the original show with that exact goal of having people stop and examine am I doing this because I don't like myself or am I doing this because I love myself because the more you come from the place and like you said it's going to look different every day I'm dealing with a little bit of coming out of adrenal fatigue so what what my workouts have been this week walking on the sand do a little earthing to reduce do some inflammation yet I'm still in my zone because I have adrenal fatigue but you know it's not but there's the oh you should be lifting well you need to you need to first get some rest and then you come back from vacation because lifting is still another stress and if you got all these other stress markers that are off the radar right now lifting actually may not be the best thing absolutely right well and I'm it's I never not do it for too long but you know take a week or two off is one thing because I'm so run down or I have so much to do and I'm going away and but I love myself and that means I'm not going to should myself into something that I think I should do because should should means that I don't have a choice and most of us rebel against that kind of idea of shooting yourself and so I tell people instead of saying should replace with want and if you don't want to exercise yet say what would it be like to want I want to want to exercise I want to want to exercise and then eventually that'll become I want exercise versus I should exercise and you'll find I mean the the irony of all that by the way what's funny about because you will say that message and we'll we'll preach that message and you'll still get people that'll go in one ear and out the other because they're so focused on wanting to change how they look like it's so like listen I just want to I know if I look better I'll feel better I know if I lose weight I'll feel better which is false but you can't convince some of that I think with Jim Kerry a lot of people don't know that they don't feel good but a lot of people think I feel good I feel great but you you've just never felt what your body feels like at when it's running optimally so it's running at its best it's become adapted to what you've been doing to it for years so yeah it's it's running pretty good for what you do to it but watch what happens when you actually start to optimize it and pay attention and so well it's funny that's the problem I think Jim Kerry recently said like I wish everybody could be rich and famous so they can realize that that's not the answer and it's very it's very similar with looking a particular way but the irony of all this is if you do truly train and eat because you actually you're caring for yourself the physical representation of the effects of that are actually the way you want to look so the irony is if you do what we're saying you're actually going to get the aesthetic and the cosmetic goals if you don't do what we're saying and you just chase I want to look a particular way you will actually get neither you will get neither maybe in the short term you'll get some of the cosmetic but in a very short period of time and I'm talking like literally I've seen people go from hammering their bodies looking like they belong on Instagram within a year their body rebels shuts off all of a sudden these people are coming they're hiring me because Sal I you know the same routine I've always done I'm eating this diet I've always done my body won't respond anymore why am I holding on to 15 extra pounds why am I so tired like why do I why is my hair falling out why don't my libido gone like what is going on it's like you know if you chase that health aspect if you chase taking care of yourself you'll get the physical representation that you want but it doesn't happen the other way around and so I like to say that because I'm trying to sell the idea but it's also true so if you're listening and you're like I don't care I just want to look good still do what I'm telling you it's basic law of attraction this is why I put that day in of the week on my sixth my fifth day was freedom Fridays a.k.a. law of attraction and it's my most popular rebrand of spirit purpose and energy and it's because here's the law of attraction when you energetically do exercise with hate and self-loathing you activate do you think your body's going to respond to that you're going to get more of what you focus on which is that I'm trying to look a certain way and again you may manipulate part of that but you're going but it's never going to be long term because you're you're activating that connection that vibration which is not love it's self-loathing and so you're just going to keep getting more of that your body's going to say F.U. I'm not going to change for you because you don't respect me so it's literally a law that you are not at a frequency where you're going to get what you want because it's you're not you're not activating that you're down here and you take it to them I mean you you take it even to the scientific level we know this now this this was woo woo what you're saying you know 20 or 30 years ago but we know now for a fact that a literal thought or feeling can change the physiology of your body we could measure this in real time to where you think something chemicals and hormones and responses and reactions change with the body so when when people say in the past when wellness experts will say thoughts or things and they were laughed up by the medical community because it sounded like you know mystical spiritual baloney this science completely supports it now your thoughts are literal things in your body so it's not a you know a baloney application something else I find that's very interesting on this topic is people will hear the message of love yourself and they will confuse it with body acceptance which then means well now I don't care I'm not gonna eat whatever I want not move and it's because I love myself and I don't care if I'm obese because this is the way I look and this is I love it and I whatever very very different that's not necessarily loving yourself of course or caring for yourself that's that's your because that's there's body image and their self image and you are accepting that your self image is good about yourself but you can also have an objective body image and say I'm not healthy right now and I'm really not caring for myself as although I accept and love myself I'm not caring for myself so and I want to be clear with that because I can I'm seeing that how this body acceptance movement is getting perverted by some people it looks like hey man I'm not gonna exercise I don't need to do all that I care I love myself or I love the way my body looks or what am I care it's dad bod and things like that and really what they're doing is they're also pushing it's the same thing it's just different they're pushing poor health to themselves by saying things like that or by doing those things not saying that you need to hate yourself but you could be objective and say you know I do love and accept myself but I'm not caring for myself from those places and if I care for myself from those places that I'm not gonna be you know 80 pounds overweight I'm not gonna have diabetes I'm not gonna have all these issues so and I like to cover that because it's an interesting you see this two ends of the spectrum well in my my old self would have said to the person who said oh yeah I love myself I'm not gonna work out I'm gonna eat whatever one I'd say bullshit and I'd want to uncover the real truth in that because that's just a that's just a shield that's not the truth sure but the newbies like whatever that's fine go eat yourself into death I don't care it's your body you can do what you want and when you're ready you know where I am I'll meet you where you libertarian I'll meet I'll meet you where you are you know and as I've grown I grow pretty quick and like I love learning and I try things out and my clients aren't all on my you know same path necessarily but I've tried to meet people where they are and I have someone who I've worked with now for seven years and only recently did he tell me about having an argument with his wife and he got in his car and he screamed he's a thought of me and he screamed because he was upset this is someone who represses all of his emotions and has had back pain for many years and had things you know quarter zone shots through his back to numb it and you know what happened today who triggered you today right but it's that sort of a hi yeah yeah I kind of know what you're talking about but I'm not really gonna like dive there and then he came in and he's like I need to hit something we need a box I was like okay what happened and he told me and he goes I really I get it now and I was like how long have we been doing this seven years it took seven years you know it's funny about that when people laugh about you know pain and in their back for example and they say and you know we'll tell them like oh it's it could be emotional it doesn't have to be a physical cause of pain the funny thing about that is when you have the the people from the western medicine community laugh at that the irony is one of the prescription one of the the most popular off-label uses of prescription SSRI drugs is undiagnosable pain so you go to the doctor with back pain and they do MRIs and stuff like that and they oh nothing's wrong with you they will actually think about prescribing you an anti-depressant drug and in many cases it helps so yes you could definitely feel you could definitely feel physical representations of emotional pain and it's all it's all the same it's all the same stuff it's funny I used to train a lot of doctors and surgeons and one of the surgeons I worked with when he first started his career in medicine he was a pediatric surgeon so he'd work on children and he would tell me how you do these major surgeries on these little kids and within a couple days they're up and running around with stitches and stuff like that and he's like it's hilarious because I do the most minor thing on an adult and they're in bed and they're taking bedridden and they're taking 15 different pills for painkillers and I got and I told I said why is that? Is that because kids don't you know feel whatever he goes no it's cause they don't know that they're supposed to be sitting in bed and super pain he goes it's so much of it is mental and it's it's totally true and it cracks me up but when people debate it like no I'm sorry but it's all connected it's not just connected it's actually all the same yeah well it's all the same it's funny that when you like an animal we find a new species right study it it's environment where it's it's sleeping patterns what it hunts like it's exercise it's muscle it's physiology it's metabolism like we study everything about it where what part of the earth it's from and the light exposure that they get right right temperatures you know the human body comes in for work to the doctor and it's like one person with one specialty in one area of the body is the one giving you this advice and it's like it's all one system all the other things it's like and we've modeled so many things after this like the vehicle a car is a perfect example it's like you came into the pulled in and you saw a specialist just for exhaust but your belt your timing belt is off your tires are flat and he's like I got you fix your exhaust it's like okay well what about all the others you like my car still going to run like shit if you do that our bodies the same way we're all we're treating like one part of the entire system would have been some of your biggest personal challenges with fitness as you've done because you've been doing this for a while and I notice when I meet other personal trainers who've been doing it as long as we have or the passion that we have for it a lot of our growth and learning comes from our own personal growth and learning through this process would have been some of the biggest challenges for you challenges in information challenges with clients for your own personal fitness nutrition like or your own personal challenges with any of that that you've grown through and it's applied to your clients can you identify yeah absolutely I had to think about that for a second because you know it's this this like where was I then okay so it like the like I mentioned sort of that you go driven I'm right you know remember I just learned science for the first time and I'm like I'm good at science and you guys are idiots for doing okay right and so I come in and I'm raw you know wanted to play testosterone game so it's been the identification of self-worth through clients getting results or them listening to me which I think for any service provider you come up with your information you present to them and you tell this is what I think you should do or this is what you should do whatever and then they don't do it or they go backwards and it's whether you take that personally or not and I think a lot of people maybe have you might feel embarrassed if their clients aren't getting results right and now mine you from the place of what you're talking about before if you didn't know anything it didn't matter right but if you have all the best information and someone still not doing it do you take that personally and there been times through this one client that just mentioned who for seven years it's taken this long there have been moments of very like real frustration for me I have a desire to help I have a lot of tools in my toolbox and I don't like to see people suffer more than they need to and one you know back surgeries or being out for so long or you know being frustrated when I'm like here I have the tools for you so it's really coming to peace with understanding everyone's journey and being able to accept that I'm a part of your journey and for some people I'm a bigger part of your journey and for some I'm not and to be okay with whatever that means and to every time I'm triggered in whatever way to make that about me and not about them and to say what is it about me so how did you know it's interesting about that it completely parallels parenting Oh my God yes exactly what you're talking about absolutely your kids here teach you it's not the other way around yes yes what you realize that you could be way better off absolutely yeah that's been such a learning process for me and then yeah because I totally have that same thing I know so much and don't do this and then you're trying to create all these like barriers and you know safety nets and you're like they have to learn it they have to learn it they have to let them come to you which one of you was it whose child when you got out of the car to go raw with the kid that throw against the oh shit yeah your your son yeah that was my son that's yeah see I would have been like you are so smart like as I heard that and I thought good for your kid oh yeah yeah he called me out and I I mean I totally called you called me out and I had to like I had to go with it with a great ego check I'll tell you totally I'll do that so in the past how would you handle clients who challenged you that way and then how did you handle them after what was the difference would you get mad at them and be like no you got to do it this way so I had so I had a break them off session or something I had a celebrity client who he would go away on set to film something and he comes back and he would tell me oh yeah I worked out with this in this gym and whether be with a trainer or not and I was I was punching with weights and I went okay and I thought about that and then when he after I left him I called him on the phone and I left a message and I was like you know I love you I think you're great I said but yeah when you tell me you're punching with weights it tells me you're not listening to anything I'm saying and that's cool you don't have to think I know anything maybe it's cause I'm a girl maybe it's cause I'm not an athlete maybe it's cause I'm not a bodybuilder that's fine I accept that I go but maybe I'm not the right trainer for you because because really you're not getting hurt on my watch when you go somewhere else and you're doing stupid the company's right we all went through this you to launch people right celebrity client I'm like Nope I don't care who you are your shit you're just still stinks I'm you're no I go so I love you but maybe maybe I'm not the right person for you he calls back it's like no no okay it's fine I won't do it again like yeah do you are you listening to me so there are times where you know I I release people or I say it's not a fit because of where we are and the gap is too wide and I have said that to people before I want I mean I'm at that place right now I'm moving into a membership model and some people don't want all of it you know I'm like you know what I've been frustrated for years because I'm using this much in my talent you're getting this much and I want to do more now that's partly about me I need an outlet to feel that so I'm not going to play like people don't have to work with me in all ways in order for me to feel good that's not how that works but if I see that you know you what bugs me the most I'm sure all of you can agree when someone says they want change but they're not willing to do anything towards that change or you you could identify places where they get stuck but they really really want change and they tell you I've tried it millions of times well but you haven't you didn't do it right how much do you want change so that bugs me when people when people come and they want change I can give you change get on board I can give you change I got a step by step process all laid out for you for five months that you're going to get change if not you're going to at least identify I need to meet if I'm going to benefit the client at all I have to meet them where they're at that's the only way to do it and am I providing any value to them if I'm providing some value to them then I'll hang around I'll be honest with them and I'll tell them like hey look you know John you you keep eating the way you're eating you're going to keep feeling the way you're feeling but you know you're still meeting with me twice a week we're still exercising twice a week we're getting some benefit there so let's just continue doing that and at some point if you have questions then if you don't that's okay too but at least and I know that I'm giving them some value but in the past it was a problem like no you got to do it this way or I'm not going to help you at all and doing that I would lose not only would I lose clients but the clients would not go any they wouldn't get any of the benefit of the exercise and many of them would just stop this is why I love the podcast though because to that point like as far as people not even really wanting to change or really make the effort if you're not like I we have so many episodes now we had 660 or something 400 YouTube videos there's I don't know how many blogs or we have talked about this I have talked about what your issue is and I'll send you in the direction to go read or listen and if you're not even willing to make that step like and you're not ready and it's it's up to you you're not ready and a lot of people won't do that though they'll ask you for stuff and it's like okay and you point in the direction they won't even take that first step it's like oh you know we're near ready I definitely meet people where they are when they're coming to me and they know who I am and what I do but I'm too expensive for people to just for me just a babysit I'm not interested in that it doesn't serve me your integrity you don't want to take their money if you're not really yeah getting any help right and it's not my way or the highway with that client I was more concerned about like do you understand your shoulder joint is the the joint that gets injured the most it's at least stable joint in your body and it's the most injured because people do stupid stuff you're and and that was more but I didn't say you know I don't give him workouts to do when he's off doing other things it's not that controlling it's just the idea if you're not listening that I give I care about your joints and I care about longevity for joints that you don't get injured and that you're not wearing down cartilage unnecessarily because I'm about preservation as well as efficiency not just do it and work hard go hand in hand they do because you know all the people doing some exercises are going to feel their joints probably in a couple years and and they don't need to because you can get the same benefit doing an exercise doesn't wreck your joints so I'm looking down the line you know do you guys oh god that's the old school right right so Lenny at my first or second an ASM certification and I can I don't can't say that too many people so that's why I I'd ask you um I was sitting in the audience and he got up and to do his physiology talk whatever he was talking about the time and he said I have 11 injuries don't do what I did and I went okay okay I won't do what you did and that's all I needed to hear I'm like I get it exercise in a way that wreck your joints and you'll have injuries and you'll have to compensate for that in the future sooner or later the body will let you know don't do stupid shit learn something use science and there you go yeah and you know the thing when it comes to movement the one of the things the paradigm shattering moments for me it was really realizing that you your body is capable of what it's capable of doing and that can change that can change where for most people you know a shoulder press with the bar behind the back behind the head is they have the joint integrity they have the recruitment patterns and mobility to where that's absolutely fine and not all exercises create equal some exercises you could be looser with than others some exercises if you lose even a little bit and you're probably going to hurt yourself but it was for me it was like wow like the really isn't like I mean I'm sure there are but for the most part there aren't exercises that are just bad and ones that are just good it's what is your body capable of doing and as that changes you're also changed so it's funny I used to tell clients like don't do this or don't do that and now I'm watching the move and be like well you have the stability the movement patterns be able to do that and if we train that then you're able to do that particular movement and we do it in a smart way and you get like real world mobility real world functionality well I shared that I remember when I shared that journey that was what two years ago and the shoulders remember I could 225 shoulder bodybuilder shoulder press over my head but I couldn't take the 45 pound bar and bring it behind my head and because I just did not have the show me I was so anterior dominant and so here I am this big meathead bodybuilder guy in there with just the bar they're behind your neck yeah just working on the movement like I'm not trying to build a bunch of huge muscle but as a byproduct my muscles are going to build and I'm going to feel a lot better and I'm going to protect my joints but we have a really hard time making that connection again I keep going circling back to the being so disconnected from ourselves because it's getting worse oh my God disconnection from the body is is crazy I do something that I can't even explain like I have to show people just why I had to do video and I don't know if you guys do it I know I worked with a did a video podcast with a trainer he was like a military guy and was getting into training and we were talking about this and by the end of it he's like can you coach me I was like yeah it's about Russell recruitment but it's about neurological muscle recruitment it's about actually thinking about the muscle so that you're activating more motor pattern more muscle fibers and motor units and but it's that really honing in on only pulling from where the muscle inserts and originates so for instance apps right most people like lift their head they use their back on their shoulders I when I teach people how to actually recruit from the ribs and pull themselves up as if and focus on the fact that they're being pulled into a crunch they are not right they're being pulled into a crunch by here I make them exaggerate as if they're rib cages moving first and they're literally dragging their heads they can go this is what moved me not this not this I use this sorry this is a podcast and none of you know what I pointed to but just putting in a big toe right this is why I had to do video my first book was about apps and I was like I don't want to write this book No you're addressing a big thing that I'm passionate about and that's something that has led me in that direction of like you know to bring the awareness back to that neuromuscular recruitment and like what's favorable what are the favorable patterns like where where do you want to focus on and what are we doing constantly what's your day look like you know what are the movements that you're doing all the time repetitively and you're getting this position you're creating like your posture you're creating how you move every day all these things happen as a result of you know this constant repetition and so you know how do we address that in a way where now let's add you know a different routine let's add a different ritual that that will compliment you better and making more it's a stabilizing muscles that that we want to bring into these movements as well you're your body gets really good at what you do a lot of so if I take if I take a woman you know modern you know Western woman who walks around high heels all day long and I take a modern hunter gatherer and I have them put their feet next to each other their feet will look completely different they'll pull the both probably be disgusted with each other's feet because it doesn't look like their own but the woman who walks around high heels all day long her foot and her recruitment patterns in her body has completely morphed and adapted to walking in those heels and if she took those heels off and walked around barefoot all the time she would experience pain she would experience discomfort all the way up the kinetic chain to you know knees back hips and you name it and if I took that hunter gatherer and I put them in a high heel shoe and had them walk around they would experience experience pain going all the way up the kinetic chain your body gets very good at what you practice very efficient and what you do and that's really the basis behind correct correct exercise and just like if I were teaching a hunter gatherer to walk in heels without pain we wouldn't go from flat feet all the time to heels all the time we would slowly progress you to be able to do that not that we'd want to but in same vice versa it's like that that's like the barefoot movement when that started happening with running and stuff like that all of a sudden all these runners are like oh my god I read this book on barefoot running we're supposed to run barefoot I'm going to just run barefoot from now on and I'm going to feel awesome and then all of a sudden they had foot injuries and ankle injuries like Moonshoe to like barefoot you don't know how to run barefoot first of all let's slowly progress you through and that approach with exercise has completely revolutionized my approach to how I train people and how I recommend exercise once you understand that you can see that exercises are not the end there are means to the end and once you utilize them in that way man the body responds and so with such incredible ways that's pretty awesome with your audience where do you what do you find the biggest or the most common questions that are asked of you like or do you get a lot of questions that tend to be repeated to you where you you need to kind of hammer home particular messages it's you know it's that integration piece it's the food piece it's the exercise piece it's you know if I only have so much time what's the best thing for me to do or if I'm trying to you know people have their sort of limiting beliefs and excuses about being able to eat healthfully or I eat out a lot and so what can I do there or oh it's really challenging to to have to cook for myself I'm not going to cook for myself so how do I how do I figure that out so I find that when it comes to the nutrition side and the exercise side the releasing weight side there has a lot to do with integration and how do I how do I fit this into my life so that I'm not overwhelmed that's a big piece how am I not overwhelmed how am I how does it taste good how do I not have resistance to it and the exercise piece as well depending on if they're working out with me or not it's getting it in at a time that makes sense it's about putting it with some other thing in their life so that's not again that separate mentality of put it in as a routine that couples with something else you're already doing so that way it becomes part of your habitual daily routine versus it's something extra that you're trying to find time to do yeah and you know one thing I like to communicate to people also is when you devote time of course there's you know you can take this to the extreme as well which isn't good but if you devote time to taking care of yourself with exercise you'll actually get more time back not just a longevity not just because you live longer but literally you'll find that you're able to do more things during the day it's a it's not a one-to-one tradeoff it's in business they call it training dimes for quarters like if you have advertising that costs you a dime and you get a quarter for every dime that you spend you're gonna spend all your money on it and get tons of you know you're gonna keep making money with the body with time that you have during the day if you're busy with your kids and you find like oh my god how do I find time to exercise if you devote a little bit of time to making yourself feel better through exercise you'll find that you actually become much more efficient you'll have more energy to do the things that you do you'll be in better mood you actually become much more effective whatever you are it's one of the first things it's funny it was one of the most shocking things is when I first became a trainer when I trained these business people and they they'd be like you know they would always tell me like it's so tough to find the time to exercise and then they'd finally say okay I'm gonna devote X amount of days to working out we would start working out they'd be consistent and they'd tell me it's really weird man like I'm actually better at work now like I'm working less time but I'm much more effective and efficient at work because I feel better and I have more energy I discovered that with meditation it was like you know I hated sitting down for ten minutes to meditate because it was ten minutes of nothing in my mind like I'm sitting here doing nothing I've got so much stuff to do right even though I spend you know an hour and a half on Instagram sometimes so but I would do these you know these ten minute you know meditation sessions every day and I found that by you know whereas before up until the time I went to bed I was busy doing stuff because I had things to do that actually had like two hours left at the end of the night where I finished everything all of a sudden I'm like what's going on here I'm becoming much more effective at what I'm doing I love to to sell that message to people because it isn't a sacrifice you're not necessarily getting rid of you know devoting all this time and now you've lost that time you get a lot of that back and energy effectiveness efficiency companies know this now yep companies know this I'm when I used to manage gyms for 24 fitness we they were so hard to get corporate accounts remember how hard corporate accounts we were back in the days because they just weren't that we weren't thinking that way 20 years no and they know now companies know now that when now most of all your best companies have got a gym built in and they have a training team that's there they know if you exercise and eat right it's better on their bottom line because you're a more efficient more effective employee you're healthier you cost less money and health insurance you're you're absent less like you've got a better attitude so productivity goes up really if you're the kind of person that's like I'm super busy and you want to optimize your life your health is the biggest player in that and you optimize JJ what do you think what do you think about where do you stand on like counting like tracking and all your tools that are out there for Mac Rose these that well I love Josh to death it drives me nuts um it drives me nuts because it's not I don't want to be tied to a device I don't need the data although mind you on my walk today I did wear my heart monitor and I have you know this and I had the chest strap on and I and I just just for information I don't I can plug into can look but um I think that again meeting people where they are some people that's very motivating but I I want to tend to be careful because there are people have control issues and it it feeds into that control issue and again I have a chapter in the book called divorcing the scale and it's that idea that we keep putting our self worth and and giving our power away by a device or by a number on a scale or by our body fat percentage or by whatever that we then associate that that's our self worth and I'm trying people only get on the scale when you feel good you look in the mirror you like what you see that's when you get on the scale because you know what you haven't given your power away yet and you can then decide it's just a number and pass that if you want to go track your progress to make sure what you're doing is working then you make sure you do all the numbers you do the body fat percentages you do the circum you do the um measuring the circumference measuring but you don't just step on the scale because you could have lost used very very heavily in the cosmetic aesthetic based come competitive world where you have bikini competitors physique competitors bodybuilders stage presentation athletes who track so religiously that they get so orthorexic about it to where if they have days where they don't track it becomes either binging panic it's binging I go crazy off or they panic and freak out I actually think I think all the everybody's doing all the wrong things it's the people that are doing all the tracking that the ones that aren't need some of it in their life yes and the same thing goes with for awareness right and consciousness yes and understanding what they're doing and what they're not doing feedback same thing applies to the way you train even like the there is there is a place for intensity there is a place for you know challenging your body but typically the people that gravitate to that are also the people that have high stress jobs not sleeping very well and then they're hammering their body in the gym no you need to go fucking meditate a little bit you need some yoga in your life you need to go for a walk every now then and then you got the other side the crunchy hippie people that are just all they're doing is meditating and walking and you could probably use a little bit of peace mode in your life you need a little bit of intensity so all of everyone's doing all the wrong things and if we could just like to have a little bit of detachment and perspective and go like okay you know we all kind of tend to gravitate or what have I been gravitating towards so much and what could I use more of in my life one of the things that you had mentioned about adrenal fatigue right or some people call it HTPA axis dysfunction or one of the hallmarks of that one of the one of the symptoms of that or issues of that is or is cortisol resistance cortisol resistance in low levels really and by the way this is not controversial your body can actually become resistant to anything that it has high levels of it'll down regulate receptors it'll alter other hormones so that your body no longer gets this crazy effect from whatever it is it's cortisol now what happens when you get to this state of whatever you want to call adrenal fatigue HTPA axis dysfunction or you know cortisol resistance when you start to get this the symptoms of cortisol resistance where you start to get excess fatigue I need lots of stimulants to get myself to feel more energy one of the things that this is us this is us right now yeah one of this is us right now we're all going to be home tomorrow we're going to get on a plane after this and you better believe none of us will be in the gym tomorrow morning hammering our body we're pushing the limits right now so we're human too like we well people don't really with these boundaries all the time right and and that's the step is just becoming aware of what it does when you start to have some of this cortisol type resistance is it actually drives your behavior so like Adam was saying with the type a high-stress individual who gravitate towards a super intense workouts and they love the way they feel right after that workout and this is what I need oh my god brings that temporary relief it brings them temporary relief because insulin you know they're insensitive to insulin they get insulin crash they get temporary relief for meeting a high sugar diet right this individual gets a temporary relief from the high cortisol type workout and so when you talk to these people in the state and I tell them you know you look your type a your high stress right now we need to do these you know yin yoga or we need to do these workouts that are very low intensity they're like they don't feel good the high intensity ones make me feel good feel so unproductive it's because those are the ones that are squirting out more cortisol kicking the opposite and then get addicted to that and then identify with that it's just learn how to weave in and out of the two and knowing when when when which is the right one to use at that particular time and the why and the why why are you doing it which it's always why should always be to be better right to feel better to be a better human I mean when you think about it everybody's why technically should we were trying we're all trying to evolve right we're all as a species where I think that's everybody's why I think it just takes some people longer to get to that yeah and what you you are going to manifest whatever is going to put you know stop you or your body's going to say you know what I'm done and I'm going to crash and you're not going to have any choice in this because you haven't listened to me I've been giving you signals and now you haven't listened and so I'm going to take over and I'm going to put you down but what the why is what I mean sort of the type A adrenaline junkies have control issues one of things that I address that's different I think in the book and in my program and what I talk about is is identifying your addiction because we all have them so let's get real and call it what it is because someone who's that type A who doesn't know how to slow down that it can only do high intense workouts is addicted to the adrenaline why what are you trying to avoid how come you can't sit in your body how come you can't listen to your thoughts and your feelings because they're too afraid of what they'll feel so anything that we do that avoids so smoking drinking working out too much is an addiction of course right I mean bodybuilding can be an addiction right just like an alexia right can be it mostly I know I wanted to be respectful of you know no you're talking to one you know that was this is what why I did it and why I should wanted to share with people is when you get back there and you find out these are the people that cover magazines giving out all the information they have some of the worst body image issues yes they have some of the most they had the worst relationships with food they had the worst relationship to the exercise and they're the ones giving the advice yeah it's worse there that I've trained thousands of people in my career so I've seen all kinds of poor relationships with exercise and food and it's worse in the bodybuilding community the ones that are the so-called experts on fitness that I've seen anywhere else yeah it's crazy it's depressing is what it is well like you were saying about body about self-care and and taking care of yourself versus you know it's we have to go back to understanding that how who doesn't know a beautiful good-looking person who's miserable and depressed I mean right that's not logical and that's how I started out with fit to love to say you know you why do you want to lose weight why do you want to look this way is it because someone else is going to give you attention because you're going to like yourself or is it because for me why we know after Lenny did his screen about his joints I saw my future and went I don't want to have pain I see people walking down the street who are in pain walking down the street because they didn't take care of their body and they have the opportunity everything we do now is an investment in our future when it comes to our body and while you can make more money you can get a new car you're not going to you can replace your joints but it's not optimal right cutting into our skin is not optimal for the nerve damage and things that have to happen so we don't we're giving one set of joints and the conversation of what bugged me the beginning of personal training was back in that day I don't if you guys remember there was like that NASM versus ACSM thing that was going on right and a right right and ACSM was about the physiology and about endurance training and and they were so sort of anti-resistance training right versus NASM to me or Tom was very much about biomechanics and so which comes first a chicken or the egg to me it's the biomechanics has to come first because you get one set you can rebuild muscle it may not be optimal but you're only going to get one set of joints and if you wreck them doing stupid exercises you're going to stop exercising because it hurts so why not take care of the of the structure and then you can have the physiology after you take care there's prerequisites right and I think we just we just skip right past all the prerequisites to like you know do I even have the capacity to produce you know types of forces through this joint at that you know acceleration can I even do that in a safe way and I think that we just don't even think about that because we just think about what we're not doing and what you know what kind of exercising I should be doing just based off of like what's out there and what's marketed to us like your P90X's and these type high-intensity type workouts that you know your your neighbor or somebody else is doing somebody's recommending to you but yeah it's but that's always it it's like how can you get people to think long-term earlier and it's just it's such a it's something that's always going to be a struggle and that's that's something that's it's really hard to really get somebody into that I think we're all going to have to like to fuck up in the next the next five to 10 years we're getting we're speeding up fast I mean when you start seeing kids with the autoimmune issues the posture issues we're accelerating really quick we're supposed to be evolving getting smarter more information more more more technology out there but yet we're getting worse is a human species like it will just like the smoking when everyone with smoking was cool 30 years ago you know and if now if someone lit up right next to you would freak out I think this we will eventually get to that point where you you'll see somebody eating a certain way and it'll be like and and it'll be growing pains there'll be people shaming at first and then there'll be a push back on that we're going through that right now but eventually it'll be like you'll kind of see them up to each their own but it's it's obviously don't love themselves it's crazy right now the greatest threat to modern Western societies is the is insolvency due to poor health that's actually a fact the biggest investment we talk about debt right politics is so much debt whatever the greatest expense that we have is actually towards healthcare and it's only going to get worse and grow to the point where the amount of investment will cover the cost and you we will see the decline in destruction of our civilization Chris Crescer talked about this Chris Crescer oh that's a great interview with us yeah yeah he he believes that we'll we'll eventually medicine is what we're going to bankrupt yeah oh no if it's we're on that path we're a hundred percent on that path and if things don't reverse and change and there's good look I tell you what there's good news and of course there's a lot of good news there's I'm starting to see some changes I'm seeing now parents actually they're feeding their kids a little bit better than our kids were fed when I was a kid oh yeah there's schools that I mean we're who is just interviewing yesterday a day before that has the kid in school that's all that serves and all a rich role and all organ they have a school that plant-based organic and it's it's become that didn't exist 20 years ago so we we are we're heading that way and I think the I think it's not too late yeah but we're we're all trying I mean I did a spot on San Diego TV back in September and it was on focus foods for kids about how to get kids to focus and one of the first things I talked about it was that it's about what we're obviously in our foods and the first thing I had mentioned is die dies actually are proven to reduce your child's IQ yet it's in every drink it's in every snack food it's in every Gatorade right oh my God Gatorade don't get me started it's one of the number one triggers wait I thought Gatorade is organic this week what is it oh they just get it with organic Gatorade oh good everything's good it's die-free I don't know right that's why you have a five-day week show that's why I have six different shows we're trying to get the word out and spread the word out because some people just don't know that they're not asking those questions there's always going to be the bell curve of consciousness right and so all we can do is to do the best we can give people information I think podcasting is a great way to do it because they don't like you they don't listen and you're not trying to be forceful and force people to like do something they'll like you or they won't and then we get to be the examples because what will be very clear in those times is who's living well and who's not our healthcare system is not healthcare it's sick care but functional medicine is is is on the rise start to grow it's on the rise I just saw so another physician I were I work in a medical clinic with a functional medicine physician and a nutritionist and who are both paleo and keto and and they went to a book launch for a doctor who wrote a book called your doctor's wrong and I was like yes I'm going to get that book your doctor is wrong I got to get that book so I think that we are it's but that's always how evolution and expansion happens there has to be contrast in order for us to have a reason to go against it right absolutely it's coming well we could talk forever yes unfortunately we have to go here in a little bit but we got to do this again for sure yes if you're ever up in the San Jose area did you ever go up the bay area ever I can come up I've got friends up I can come up just to talk with you guys I don't have to have it doesn't have to be a excellent we'll set something like that but yeah thanks for sitting down talking with us yeah yeah thank you guys thank you thank you for listening to mine pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at minepumpmedia.com the RGB Superbundle includes maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers but at a fraction of the price the RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money back guaranteed and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at minepumpmedia.com if you enjoy this show please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review and by introducing minepump to your friends and family we thank you for your 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