 In this episode of Mind Pump, we answer four fitness and health questions from listeners. One, two, three, four. Just like you, but the way we open the episode is by talking about current events. We tell funny life stories. We have great conversation and we mention our sponsors. So here's what we talked about in this episode of Mind Pump. I start out by mentioning a crazy, crazy new supplement that I just started messing with. You're going to have to listen to the episode to find out, but it's gross and it's weird. That led Adam to talk about the new documentary on Amazon called Sups. I can't wait to watch it. I'm a huge fan of the supplement industry, which is kind of cool, which brought me to talk about protein powders and their qualities through the years. I mean, when I first started taking protein powders way back in the 90s, they were basically dry milk powder. It was disgusting. And if you wanted to go with a vegan protein powder, because I had an intolerance to dairy that I figured out later on, it was like ground up dry soy. It was a terrible quality. It wasn't good. Well, these days you have quality products like OrganiFi's plant-based protein, which has a mix of plant-based proteins to give you a good amino acid profile. And it tastes really good. That's the other thing. I remember the old protein powders. You deserve to build muscle if you could stomach those things. But the new ones are really delicious. Anyway, OrganiFi is one of our sponsors. They make phenomenal supplements. If you want to discount off their products, here's what you do. Go to organifi.com forward slash mind pump and use the code mind pump for 20% off. Then I talked about the conversation I had with Doug in the car on our way up to our house up in Truckee. And we were talking all about trigger sessions. That's a concept found in MAPS anabolic. Very effective technique you can use on any workout to amplify the muscle building and fat burning signal that you send with your normal workouts. Then we talked about a Russian training technique that the Soviets used to dominate weightlifting. Then we talked about the show The Biggest Loser. Oh, yeah. They just had their premiere the other night. Our good friend Erica is on that show. She's one of the trainers. We love her. The show, quite entertaining, but we have our criticisms. You'll have to listen to the episode to find out those. Then we talked about all states mayhem advertising campaign. It was pretty brilliant. And then I talked about the high protein demonization that is starting to happen. So stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen, they will be demonizing protein next. They did it to pro to carbs and fats. Proteins are all that's left. Then we got into answering the fitness question. The first question had to do with painful joints. This person's joints hurt and they work out. They take fish oil. They stay hydrated. They want to know what they can do to get better joint health. In that portion of the episode, we talk about correctional exercise. That's one of the best ways to solve joint pain. Then we also mentioned certain supplements that you can take. I mentioned Organifize Move. It's a combination of four supplements. There's turmeric in there, holy basil. Picnogenol is also in there. Holy basil! All proven to help regulate your natural inflammatory response. Again, that code I mentioned earlier works for that product as well. Then we talked about how to connect to muscles and why that's important to developing. The question was, can you build muscles that you can't connect to? So we talk all about that. The next question, this person wants to know what our thoughts are on the carnivore diet. Some people call it the lion diet. This is where you eat only meat. Wait for it? Yeah, that's it. Just meat. Nothing else. So we give our opinion there. And the final question. This person wants to know how often you should take diet breaks and how long they should last. We talk all about diets, breaks, not having breaks. Are you on a diet at all? Do they even exist? Yeah, we got real philosophical towards the end of that one. Also, everybody, listen, you have 24 hours left. One day left for the 50% off, MAPS hit sale. So MAPS hit is a workout program that's all based off of high intensity interval training. So high intensity interval training made a lot of waves years ago because they showed that 20 minute hit workouts burned as many calories as 40 or 50 minute traditional workouts. In other words, burn as much body fat in a shorter period of time. Now the problem is if you do hit wrong, you can hurt yourself or you can have your muscle, your body burn muscle as well as body fat. So what we did is we designed a hit program that helped you build muscle, burn body fat, take advantage of the, the how hit burns a lot of calories. So we did it all the right way. So when you get the program, there's video demos, there's workout explanations. Basically you're hiring Adam Justin and myself to train you through MAPS hit. Again, it's 50% off. The sale will end 24 hours of the launching of this episode. Here's how you get your discount. Go to maps hit.com. That's MAPS H I I T dot com and use the code hit 50. That's H I I T 50 no space for the discount. Anyway, I did something the other day that I haven't done in a long time that I used to do a lot. So I used to, and this is just, it was a fun thing that I did. I just don't have the time anymore to do this. But I used to back in the day, hang upside down and whack it. Whoa. I'm going for it. I've never done that. No, actually never done that. You know those vertical machines? No. Okay. Just as like, that's what I did. Yeah. No, I don't know. I wonder if it'd be hard to get an erection like that. I bet it would. Because the blood has to go higher. Yeah. Yeah. And what happens when you fail? It's not the astronauts do it. That's what I heard. No, it's not the same thing. Anyway, yeah, what I used to do back in the day is I would go online and I would read forums or reviews to learn about new and up and coming trends or especially supplements because I would always learn about a new supplement on the forums before it became kind of a big mainstream kind of thing. I'd read about it first and I'd read people's reviews and then I'd learn the history and then you'd have to, you know, you dive in on the internet and do all that stuff. So anyway, I did that again with another supplement. So I was reading some forums on obscure supplements that I'd never heard about and I came across something called, I'm going to read the technical term and then I'll tell you guys what it means. Polyrachis vacina. Hope I'm pronouncing it right. So P O L Y R H A C H I S. Polyrachis vacina. And this is a bees vagina. It says it's not that. Sounds like that. No, do they have them? A vagina? Yeah. No, I don't know. Okay. Bees have a vagina. But this supplement, this herb or whatever has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries. It's known as a very, very potent key booster of your life energy. It's got a yang component. Put it out. What is it? Hold on. I'm not done. So it's supposed to boost libido energy. It's supposed to be very powerful from what I read. It's even ranked higher than ginseng, which ginseng is extremely prized in Chinese medicine for its key and yang boosting exotic animals, private quality. So I was thinking, you know, it's like sounds to go to. So I read you guys a technical term. The actual, like a layman's name for it is black ant extract. Black ants? Black ant extract. So like the, did they have like a poisonous venom or anything in them? No, they literally take a certain species of ant and no, they just fucking grind them up. Really? Yes. It's ground up ants, the specific type of ants. Why? That, well, they've been using it for centuries. Well, you remember there's like those, those birds, right? That intentionally go and they, and they scoop all the ants underneath their wings and then the ants like sting them and it gives them hot, gets them high. Have you ever seen that? Yeah. Well, ants have, I mean, they're high in nutrients and all stuff, but I don't think that's what, what's producing the results or something else. So anyway, I'm looking this up. I'm reading all these reviews and people are like, oh my God, this raised, I mean, my libido went through the roof. I love this as a pre-workout so much. I mean, tons of reviews. I went on Amazon and I found the product. I looked up every product that sold this and I looked up all the reviews and majority of them were good. I went on forums. I looked at Chinese medicine and read up about it or whatever. So I did this a while ago. So I'm like, I'm going to try this out. This is kind of interesting. So I ordered some. Of course you did. No affiliation. We're not working with no company. I'm not selling this. I've only tried it once. So this is not me, but I tried it and I swear it legit has some weird stimulating properties. Like, yes, dude, I took a half a scoop and it's black and it's powder, right? What? Yeah. So I took it and I drank it and 45 minutes later. You have to add that to my rhino ball powder. 40. It's bull semen. No, it's not a bull semen. Bull semen is only effective if you get it out naturally. I was watching, so I got tagged on a new documentary on Amazon, The Sups. I haven't seen it yet. Really? I tell you what, really good. Really? You liked it. I loved it. What I loved about it, let me, okay, hold on, let me back up a little bit. I loved most of it and the whole first half of it is literally like the history. Oh, it's going to be nostalgic. Oh, you're going to love it. You're going to love it because a lot of the things that go all the way back to the snake oil, they go back to the very beginning to the very first examples of any sort of supplements and the evolution of it and where it came from and they step you through the introduction of protein, who were the big ones, why they were the big players, how they market and advertise. Oh, beautiful. Oh, it goes into, it's really a cool. Weeder was the first marketing genius in the supplement space. He was one of the best, actually. Oh, yeah, they talk. And then Bill Phillips invented the modern supplement. They go through each and every one of those. They actually talk about a couple that I wasn't familiar with and I've never heard you talk about before that rivaled them actually around that time and why they did. Do you remember their names? If you said them, I would know, but I don't know. I can't remember the name. Did they mention like Dan Dukane? Oh, yeah, it was all about him. He was all in it. Oh, no, everybody we've talked about about the history of supplements. It's right in line with everything we've discussed, but even more detail around it and they go deeper with the marketing genius behind it and the people that were behind all those companies. And they talk about back then, there was this opportunity for a science guy, a marketing guy to pair up and that's what just made these companies dominant. And Bill Phillips was an example of that because the team that he had surrounded around him, he had like the best doctor at the time in the protein world. They were doing some of the best studies like back then and then he was a marketing genius and then that's the formula. You take a little bit of science and you market it really well. Was he the MetRx guy? No, that was Dr. Scott Connelly. Did they talk about him? Yes, they got into MetRx. MetRx was one of the first companies to present their product in that way. You know, scientifically, Meta Myosin protein and it's supposed to work differently. They talk all about that, cybergenics they talk all about. Oh yeah. And when they started using transformation picks. Oh yeah, they got into that. They got into the... That's so funny, I did cybergenics. They talk about the orange pre-workout, the first pre-workout. Yeah, ultimate orange. Ultimate orange. And Duquesne. That was the first one that had like a Fedra. They discussed all about a Fedra and its benefits. So they went, it was a great documentary, actually probably one of my favorites. I was cool, I'll have to check that out. The only thing that I had, then, so the first 30, 45 minutes is all that thing is phenomenal. And then it did cause me to start going down the rabbit hole of like, okay, who funded this? Who is it? Because then they start like, the whole time it's almost like they're mocking supplements, like how it came to be, how it was all, it's all hype, it's all built around. And so I love... Did they sell it at the end? And then they kind of like sell it at the end a little bit. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, okay, so somebody's behind this. Somebody who is a part of this, of course, is connected for sure to some. And I was suspicious of what's the cat's name that's over the caged muscle guy. Okay, I don't know his name, but I know who you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about, right? I can't even think of his name right now, tattoos, Mohawk, like a candy. He was featured in it quite a bit. And when they started making the case for different types of creatines, that's when I went like, okay, here we go. And that's... He makes a case for his creatine in it towards the end. And I thought, okay, I wonder if he's tied to... Creatine is a wonderful case example of how the supplement industry will take a product that is a blockbuster and then branch off of it to continue to sell you off of the blockbuster itself. So creatine was one of the first supplements that actually built muscle. It was by... I mean, besides protein, right? Protein helps build muscle if you eat a high protein diet. And one of the ways protein powders can help is if you can't get all that protein through diet. They even tell the story on how Bill Phillips first came up with creatine. And it's... What's the bodybuilder's name? He's Russian Milo... Sarchev? No, no, no, no. I'll think of it. But anyways, old Russian bodybuilder guy, he's not old, but older, Russian bodybuilding guy, he came over from Russia and was giving Bill Phillips injectable creatine and said that, you know, told him all the benefits of it. And then this other company sends over an example of a powdered form. And he tells him, Bill Phillips says to him like, man, if this was in powdered form, this would go bananas, right? Do you have it? No, we don't have it. It's only injectable over there. So that was the end of the conversation. And then the company sends the powdered form to him. It sits under his desk for like a year. It doesn't even use the creatine. That was his blockbuster. That's what made him. Oh yeah, it was everything. It exploded and went gangbusters. Well, again, creatine is a great example because here's a supplement that actually worked, that was legal, that had no necessarily negative side effect or whatever. And so at first when he first sold it, it was expensive because he was the only one that had it. Then everybody started, you know, producing it. And so companies are always trying to figure out how can we, how can we jump on this bad wagon? So they started coming out with different versions and they would sell the different version like creatine citrate and mixes better on water. Or this is buffered and this is a different one. And this one doesn't cause bloat. Yeah. And funny thing is creatine monohydrates. Time release. Yeah, good old fashioned monohydrates, the best form. Yeah, they kind of mentioned that in the show. And then maybe 10 minutes later, then they're filming guys making cases for the different types of creatine. It's funny because Bill Phillips was the, I want to say the editor of Muscle Media 2000. Yes, he owned the magazine. Right, which was the, that magazine in those days was the black sheep of the fitness space because they talked about steroids. They talked about drugs. They talked about all the crazy sides. Well, you actually, you want to know what they attribute Bill Phillips doing the best about as far as his marketing. That was so unique and different. Joe Weeder was the first and brilliant who owned his magazine line, had all the bodybuilders. Muscle and fitness. But he spoke to the body, but he used all, he had all the pro bodybuilders, he had Arnold, he had all the big names. Body for life was all. And what Bill Phillips did was introduce it to the masses. And they say that he's arguably, right, Joe Weeder, they, we give all the credit to in the supplement world as being the OG and original guy to really start to put it on the scene. Bill Phillips is what took it to what they believe to what today is today. If it wasn't for him, it would still be this niche product that is 100%. He started to make, he would use just kind of models. He would use fit people, not people that necessarily won a competition or were famous in the bodybuilding world. He just used great bodies and physique. He did two things. He did a supplement review that he would sell as a book. And it was a review of supplements, but it was owned by him. So of course the products that they had were always at the top, very, very brilliant marketing. Then he had the body for life challenge, which actually reached a lot of everyday average people. And, you know, for all intents and purposes, it got more average people to lift weights than anything else that that space had done. Well, and that's the, that's why they were making the case that he arguably was one of the most important people in this whole, the whole storytelling is, you know, what he did for everybody else besides the group of people that were. But boy, did the products change? Because I remember the first protein powder, I started taking supplements young. I was 15, maybe 16 years old. And my dad, you know, he had a weight set and he had bought one bottle of protein powder. And it was the one with Weeder, you know, with his arms flexed like this. And it was called Muscle Builder. That was the name of it. And so I saw that. No 5000. No, no, no. Just Muscle Builder. They always added all that old school. And I thought, oh, this is, this is the secret to making a box or whatever. And I started taking it. And really what it was was, it was like dry powdered milk. I mean, it wasn't a lot of ingredients. It was very basic. It all originated from Ovaltine. Yeah. Yeah. Ovaltine was the first one. Ovaltine was the first one. And when they saw the formula for Ovaltine, it was actually, Ovaltine had been around for quite some time. Long time. Ovaltine was like the first like multivitamin. And when the, when the research came out of what the benefits of it, they tied that to bodybuilding and went like, oh, look, there's a whole opportunity for a market here. And that's where the first powders came from. So they went into a way isolate, concentrate. They talked all the difference in that. They got into twin labs. They got into, God, who else did they talk about that was really interesting. It was a really good documentary as far as the history goes. Oh, check it out. How it evolved. But yeah, protein powders went from being basically dry milk. And then later on, you know, milk extract, then it went to whey. The plant proteins back then were horrible. They were soy protein and it was just basically ground up powdered soy. To today, where you now can get, you know, like Organifize protein, which is a mix of plants, which is better. I mean, you know, acid profiles, it tastes really good. It mixes really good. It's come such a long way from the early days of protein. There was a big player too that I was not familiar with that was, that bought up Isopure designer and another one, man. It was a company I never even heard of. They were like, they were just, they bought them. They saw the opportunity and they were, they were a company that had dairy farms like ready. Yeah. Yeah. So they were, they literally saw the writing on the wall with all these supplement companies, but like three of the biggest ones up they already had. So they had distribution. They had the market already and delivery system. And then now they had the production side of it. So they were, you know, all the way from stem to stern and they just dominate. And I had never even heard of them before, but they were just the parent company. You've heard of Isopure designer. Those were all twin labs. Those were all. The designer was the first big whey protein. And they, and they were the first ones to really market it in a different way than just attracting bodybuilders. Like back then it was, you know, sciency looking or it was bodybuilder looking or, you know, or very sex appeal with, you know, muscle twin lab look or, and then all of a sudden they do this like very colorful for everybody. Oh, in those days, it was the supplements were like Flintstone vitamins or you went to, you bought like, you went to like these herbal health shops and you would get supplements there. But most people didn't. It was like health fanatics that did it. Or like you said, Adam, it was like the muscle building space. Today, you know, a huge segment of the supplement market when you count all supplements is the average person trying to improve their health or skin tone or, you know, fat loss or, you know, energy, sleep, whatever. It's a massive market. And I hope it remains the way it's currently regulated, which is not regulated like medicine. They talk about they talk about the documentary. Yeah, that would be a terrible. Once they got into Costco, right? What company was that they got into Costco? Like really? Yes. Yes, got into Costco. You know, they even share like, so when Joe Weeder was coming up, there was two other guys that were on the East Coast that were simultaneously growing at the same time, which had a lot to do with where Tim twin lab came from. So twin lab was like just as was, was a growing, you know, East Coast business that ended up rivaling Joe. You know, a supplement for twin lab was just the just crush. Yeah, it was rip fuel, rip fuel. It was the first that was the first to Fedra supplement. Yeah. So they introduced to Fedra into the market. That's what blew up. Bill Phillips introduced creatine. That's what that blew up. That's all speed stack is with that too, right? The original one. Yeah. The twin labs was the first to to drop the Fedra. And you know, they talk, they have a lot of people that they interview that are talking on the show that are talking about their experience when they were younger, like you share, like when you first, and they're like, Oh my God, this shit gets you shredded because you were like flocking on one. Well, your appetite is running in place. Your appetite's gone. And you're in your, in your hype, you're stimulated. It's definitely a terrible long term approach. And it doesn't have as its own, its own problems, but damaging. But yeah, you're, I mean, remember what you know what they use a Fedra for, you know, if you go to the, okay, so pseudo Fedran is the, the synthetic form of a Fedran, right? A Fedra in the supplements came from an herb called Mahuang, which is a Chinese herb. And what they, what, if you go to the store right now, if you go to the, to the, you know, your, your pharmaceutical store or whatever, and you go to buy over the counter drugs and you go buy Sudafed, Sudafed is the synthetic version of a Fedra, pseudo Fedran. Do you know these to make meth? That's right. That's why you got to give your driver's license every time you go buy a box of Sudafed. I mean, I've tried. So that's the shit that they take to make meth into. So yeah, you're not taking meth, but you're using its distant cousin. And that's what it feels like. You're, oh, you're hyped. You're not hungry. And you lose weight. You lose teeth too. You know what I'm saying? I know. I went through a whole, it's fine. Yeah. I went through a period of using that all the time. Yeah. I know it was, it was really crazy just seeing the whole evolution of the supplement industry. Yeah. So crazy. It's been pretty well. So crazy. Anyway, you know, the other weekend when we were up in, at the house up in truck, I got the opportunity to hang out with Doug, because we were in the car for a long time and we were talking a lot about a lot of different subject, but we started talking about training. And, um, you know, Doug started just recently utilizing, you know, good old trigger sessions found in MAPS anabolic consistently. And, you know, we're talking about he's like, man, I always get blown away at the, just how well they work, which motivated me to start using them again. And I mean, really using them, you know, two, three times a day on the off days, the days you're not doing a hard workouts, every time I do them blows, I still to this day think that that is one of the most, uh, this universal, um, revolutionary training things that came out of, of MAPS that I still think people still have yet to really grab onto. I think it's challenging because you have to do it so often. You know what I mean? Well, that's what you just have to have bands that you tote around with you. If you've got them around and you've, you've got the good habit of like, Hey, when I'm watching TV or I have a break, uh, from work or working on the computer and you start to incorporate it. But we were, I think we were talking and promoting it a lot more when we first started. Uh, we just haven't mentioned it that often. I mean, I feel like we got to remember that, you know, there's obviously a big portion of the audience listening right now that aren't even familiar with what probably trigger sessions are. Yeah. So what's funny to me is so MAPS anabolic is, uh, our, our most popular in terms of just numbers, uh, uh, program, right? Most people or most of our, our program sales or, or a small majority is well, we encourage you to start there. That's our starting. It is. And a lot of people love it, great results and all that stuff, but a big portion of those people had never consistently used trigger sessions, which is in the program. They have no idea what they're, what they're missing. It's one of those things that, okay, so here's a trigger session. If you don't know what that is, right? Trigger sessions are low intensity workouts, eight to 10 minutes long. What you're doing is you're trying to get a pump in the muscle. You're feeling a little bit of a burn. I don't even like calling them workouts. Cause then I think people think of it like, Oh, it's like a scheduled work I got to do. It's even less than that. It's like you're spending to get reps out. Yeah. You're spending eight to 10 minutes, literally at most just trying to send blood, just get some blood into your muscles and calling it, it quits. You're not trying to break a sweat. You're not trying to freaking feel the burn and make it really hard. It's like you get a little pump and you're done. That's all you got to do. That's it. And you do it a few times a day. So you want to do it really frequently, two or three times a day on the days that you don't do your heavy lifting. So if it's today's an off day, well, that's the day I'm going to do the trigger sessions. And do this one, just do it once or twice. That's it. Once or twice, you'll see what I mean. Immediately you notice kind of this all day pump that you feel in your muscles. And then give yourself two weeks and watch what happens with the fat loss. It's one of the, like the fastest, I noticed composition changes in a short period of time. It's from doing the easy trigger sessions. So Doug motivated me. I started doing them again. And it's again, blows me away every single time. I always notice how better I recover when I do it. That speeds up my recovery time when I'm doing that in between my heavy lifting. I notice that the biggest difference. And I think the challenge is what you're saying. People think it's a workout. I have to have access to a gym or weights. It's easy. Go easy, bring bands with you, do them throughout the day. And then just what I need to do is what I did at my other house. So the other house I had, I had set it up in my living room where it was on the, like I had a closet door, like right by where our living room and the TV and everything was. And I just had them hanging, hanging there. So I had to see it all the time. So it was like, if I was watching TV or I caught myself sitting there for a few hours, I'd get up and just do, you know, some chess flies rubber bandits thing. Like I would take, so they have that where you can put it in the door, anchor and I use it all the time. I have it like that, like at a closet or upstairs. I have it like in the pantry. And so I'm just like doing that while I'm kind of waiting around. And I used to be real consistent with that. But yeah, it is one of those things you just got to remember. Oh yeah. Like this, this is really beneficial. Like totally would energize, you know, the rest of my workouts too, going back to it. And I didn't, I mean, you know, it was in the first program, right? And it's like I invented it. It was, versions of it have been used for a long time. You look at the Soviet athletes, used versions of this kind of thing. I've heard other bodybuilders call them feeder sets, where they're doing them in between workouts to give themselves a better pump. Grease in the groove. Grease in the groove. Or you've heard that term or people, how they work out in prison. Sometimes in prison, you don't have access to, so what do they do? They do push ups. Yeah. Throughout the day, right? And pull ups throughout the day. And they get phenomenal results. And then that reminds me, we were also listening to a podcast, podcast with Pavel Pavel. How do you say his last name? Setsuin. Setsuin. He was talking about the Soviet training technique that where, you know, normally you'll work out and then as you get stronger, you progress. So like, Oh, add five pounds, add five pounds, add five pounds or whatever. He said a very effective Soviet training technique was to pick a weight and use that same weight, same reps, same weight until it gets really, really easy. So first week, it's challenging. Next week, even though you think you could do more, do the same. Next week, you feel like you could do way more, do the same. When you feel like you could do a substantial jump in weight, that's when you, that's when you add the weight. So instead of adding five pounds here and there, wait until you think you can add 20 or 30 pounds. He's focusing more on the skill. Yes. And like really learning that like with the CNS and like being able to respond at a higher level. Yeah. And if you research this technique, I can't remember the name, they have names for it, this type of training. It was one of the reasons why the Soviets dominated everybody in weightlifting for so long was that technique right there. So really, really cool. Anyway, so biggest loser, we're going to talk about it. We got to talk about this. We said we're going to watch it and do we all watch it? Yeah, we did. We did. So what'd you guys think? You know, here's the thing that I noticed. I'm going to start off with the positive thing, right? Like I hadn't, so I haven't watched this in almost a decade, maybe longer actually, because it was the first couple seasons. Been around for a while. Long time. It's been around for a long time now. In fact, yeah, let's see how many seasons they've done. Yeah, that'd be interesting. I would get, I'm guessing 15 years. Maybe more, maybe more. My guess is 15. We'll see. And I know it's been about a decade since I watched it. And one of the things that I noticed right away watching it was how much, even someone who's not a fan of the show, how much I get sucked into it. They do an incredible job of casting the people that are going to be on the show, so the biggest loser contestants. They do an incredible job of doing that. And they do an incredible job of editing and sucking you in emotionally. And I don't know if it's the new dad of me now or what, but I felt myself like holding back tears a few times. Am I really getting pulled into this thing right now? How long has it been around? Oh, since 2004? Yeah, it looks like that. Wow. That's a long time. That's a long running show. Yeah, it definitely has that emotional draw. They do a great job of storytelling throughout the whole thing. And I think that's, I mean, that's really what even I caught, Courtney was kind of watching a little bit because I was like, I got to watch this for the show and give my fair analysis of it. I'm already sort of looking at, of course, the trainer, then everything else that everybody's doing, but the storytelling in there and all the different types of people and their backgrounds, you're very much sucked into that. I felt like immediately emotionally pulled and I'm like, felt like just got wrenching things sometimes with some of these people's back stories. So this is what it feels like watching the biggest loser as a trainer, right? Somebody I've worked with, we've all worked with people for decades and worked with lots and lots of clients. We've been doing this for a while. Lots of them that are just like these people. A lot of them are just like the people on this show. Let's say you're a Navy SEAL or a Green Beret in real world and you go out and you do these operations and you do real shit and then you watch Rambo. It's like that. Like you're watching Rambo. You see the guy with the bow and arrow shoot down a helicopter and part of you is like fucking bullshit. This is not, but then you got to just got to take a step back and enjoy the entertainment. Great. That's how I felt watching the biggest loser. It is pure entertainment based. It is exceptionally entertaining. Do not watch it for information on how to work out or eat right or any of that stuff because you're not going to get it. They're not learning anything they're going to take with them. That's possible. No, the way that people are being trained, the way that they're talking to them, very entertaining, very fun to watch. It would be, if you did that in the real world as a trainer, your long-term success with your clients would be terrible. Would absolutely not. And here's the thing that really bugs me or the part that I have a hard time with, I think watching it is, for example, the guy who gets eliminated the first, the first guy to get eliminated. Not fair. So he's a... I forgot about that part. Like they eliminate people. I was like, oh, shit. Right. So the first guy gets eliminated, right? And then they ask the coaches afterwards, like, oh, what do you think? And then they kind of give their response of like, I've got to step up and just be a better coach or whatever. But the reality is like, there's a couple of things going on here. One, he's a 400-pound ex-athlete football player. So high level. He was a college. Yeah, high level. So he has trained probably very intense in his life in the past. And he's also probably built a lot of muscle that he has. And we've talked about muscle memory and how your body will respond. If you're somebody who has trained, like probably he trained for a long time, his body will probably respond to the weights a lot faster than everybody else's. Meaning, from just lifting a little bit of weights, he'll probably build a little bit of muscle mass. And then also, because he's trained intense and hard for so many years in his past, his body is more adapted to that type of training than somebody who is completely foreign to that. So the fact that he lost is no surprise to me. Like I, the only reason why I may not have guessed him is because he had such a big weight discrepancy, but since they do the percentage of weight. He'd have to lose a lot of weight. Right. He'd have to lose a significant amount of weight. So it was inevitable that he was probably going to be the first one eliminated. And then, you know, of course, Bob and then the trainers, they're kind of baffled by this. What could it be? What do we do next? He gained muscle. Right. That's what I think because he had that muscle memory. He was an ex-football player, even though they were doing circuits, which is not very conducive for muscle building. You take somebody who had a lot of muscle at that level, loses it all, and they can do almost anything, and they'll gain muscle at twice the rate. Well, that, and if he's also been somebody who's trained intensely for many, many years, his body is more adapted to that than somebody who never has. You take two people that are exact same weight, obese, 400 pounds. One of them is an ex-athlete, played sports. The other one is not. Sure, the one that played sports has the mental advantage because they've pushed themselves to limits, and so maybe they can have a higher gear to push them. But they're at a disadvantage metabolically because of how many times they've probably trained that way in the past versus the person who's 400 pounds never done that before. Right. So there's a very obvious reason why stuff like this happens. Meanwhile, the approach, the training approach, now for winning the show, it makes the most, and I- If you want to win, how long is the time frame? I believe that, yeah, I think it's, I think we're up to it. I think it is eight weeks. I want to, I'm guessing. Eight or 12 weeks, probably. I'm guessing. But I know that they have two sessions a day of training. I don't know if they're limited to the time, if it's an hour or two hours, the exact limit that they have. But basically, I know they have somewhere between two and four hours of exercise a day that they're allotted. Right? So in that time, we know that running and circuit training is going to burn the most amount of calories per se. The problem with that is, after doing this with them for a week or two, and we'll see this as the show progresses, it's going to get harder and harder for them because their body is going to quickly adapt to that high intensity and then the weight loss will slow down. It's also just, it's 30 weeks. It's also just a- Oh, wow, 30 weeks. Yeah, it's 30 weeks and they're beating the crap out of them. They're restricting their calories really low. And that will cause a lot of weight loss. But the training is very inappropriate. First episode, you see several people throw up. They're throwing up in buckets. Oh, my God. Just for me, that to me is the most cringe-worthy part of the show, that I have to address that, that mentality. To me, it just screams a bad relationship of exercise going forward from then on out. Yeah, they're being punished. The motivation is very much, you can do it. You're never going to be fat again. And if you train, if you're a trainer in the real world and you make your client throw up, you fucked up. Really bad. You did a bad job. You trained them inappropriately. That's not a good thing at all. So the training is inappropriate for long-term success, but for short-term entertainment and short-term winning this weight loss contest in 30 weeks, it's very appropriate, right? The same thing with the diet. So you have to look at it through that lens. Well, and this is what I struggle with because then the first guy gets eliminated and then part of the show what they do is, because obviously this was filmed earlier, right? So they give you what he's been doing for like the last six months. So they've filmed, during the whole filming of the show, when someone gets knocked off the show, they still have a film crew that follows them and does an update on them. And I know they do this obviously for to make it continually to stay inspiring and motivating, but you hear him talk about it. And he, over that course of those six months, he was down, I think, another 48 pounds, right? Which is still way far from where his goal is. He has done that through double days of training every day. So he's just been ramping up his intensity. Right. And he went through a three-week plateau of where he didn't move whatsoever. And then the way he talks about it is all about motivation for his son. And so we're playing on all these heartstrings of, it's all about push and motivation and do it for your family and do it so you don't die. And it's driving into this hardcore mentality of pushed. So that well dries up. Well, exactly. And eventually what ends up happening to these people is you end up putting all the weight back on and the statistics on it are crazy. It's like within the first five years, they like 80% put on that. That's not what the next 10 years. And sometimes the people that make the five-year mark, I know Erica's on five years now that she's been, that she hasn't. A lot of those people just, they've had the mental discipline to keep that up. That they're still training double days, they're still doing it. But seriously thing, that's not the secret to success. No, and heavily that you fall off of that. You're one tragic thing in your life that happens to have put it right on the edge. Right, yes. Yeah, there's your one hard, hard, rough, injury, tragic thing in your family away from letting that all, and then when it comes on this next time, it fucking comes on fast. Yeah, and for some people, for a very small percentage, that is the key, is that hardcore discipline and motivation. But the vast majority of people, it completely fails exactly for what you're talking about, Adam. You can't be in that mental state all the time. And you want to look at the environment of a show like this. You're leaving your home. You're not working. You're on TV. The pressure of- You're completely in a bubble. You've got a trainer there. You're working with the team. It is so different from your regular life. Then when you go back to your right, see the secret to long term success is how do I integrate- Crazy behaviors. Yeah, how do I integrate this into my life to where I can maintain this and keep it up and develop these good relationships? The show doesn't do that, but it is very entertaining. And I'll tell you what, I think who do you think's gonna be the winner? And I don't mean the winner on the show, but I mean, which trainer do you think's gonna become the most successful from the show? Oh, well, we said that Erica would be. We knew Erica would be that way. America is gonna love Erica. Oh, she's great story. She's so likable. She connects so well. She's more empathetic with everybody there and has this sort of like, went through the same kind of an experience. So therefore, they're more responsive to that. But yeah, she just has more of that emotional pull, which is the whole shows about that. And to see Steve Cook whatever on the other end of it, it's completely different from him trying to hammer his way through everybody and get that coaching discipline established. Yeah, have you guys done this yet where you think to yourself like, okay, how would I do this if I was on the show? How would I do, how would I both win the contest, but also do it in a way to where I'm communicating things with integrity? You brought that up and I said to you, it's not possible. It'd be so hard in that environment. And you think it's, not only do I think it's impossible, but I also think that what you would try to do wouldn't get aired. Probably. So you would just fuck yourself anyways. You would go in with the attention frame. You're boring. They're like, when am I gonna put that on the show? I'm smart enough to win this and teach them. Like get the fuck out of here. No, you're not. You're gonna get cream, bro. What'll end up happening is you're gonna try to do the right thing. Because here's, how are you gonna keep these people motivated to drive through these circuit workouts while you're also telling them, hey, in the real world, I would never train you like this. I think it would be conversations, but you're right. They wouldn't air it. There's no way. It wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be exciting. And you would also, you gotta think that right now, everybody is throttling down on the emotional button on these people. It's all about your die. You're gonna die. It's all about your family. For 30 weeks, that's the way you're gonna win. Right. In a 30-week period. Right. So, but if you're gonna communicate to them that, hey, in the real life, this is how you should be training, I mean, if you let them in on that secret, you know, that this is not the way to do it, who the fuck in the right mind is still gonna be motivated. If they're so motivated about staying alive longer or changing their lives, and you're telling them the real way to change their lives is not this way, but hey, to win this competition, we're gonna do this. Like, yeah, right. Well, the reality is, if they had a contest like this, let's say it was like the biggest loser, but real like good trainers and appropriate training and good diet in a 30-week period, it'd be boring. It'd be so boring to watch. It would be boring. And here, how about this? You're like, oh, he's stretching them. You know, who wins the biggest award for me after watching episode one is Planet Fitness. Oh, wow. Planet Fitness gets the big W on this, because let me tell you, not only are they fucking 2,000, you know, 2,000 locations now. Wow. So, not only are they exploding and they got their hands into this show, but they're also, this is their demographic right here. Oh, yeah. We don't, these are the people, we don't, this is exactly who they want. The people- Oh, they sponsored the New Year's Eve ball drop, everything, and then now they're sponsoring this show. They're outfitting it with all their equipment. We want the people that are gonna come for the free pizza, try to work out hard for a little while, give the fuck up, but still keep paying their membership. That is their clientele, man. They are literally marketing beautifully. By the way, this is- Hey, you tried it. Good job. Now, keep paying me. This is not a dig on people who sign up there, and, you know, look, whatever gets you in, and it makes you feel better, and you're trying things, that's a very, very good thing. I know how hard it is to get started, but the business model for gyms for a long time, and Planet Fitness is the best at this, and you can tell by their pricing structure. They're very, very low priced, lots and lots of gyms, and you think to yourself, how can a gym profit, because they're expensive to run. People don't realize how expensive a gym is- Very expensive. To run and put together. Millions of dollars get started, lots of money in paying staff. It's a big facility. How do they make a profit when they're charging 15 bucks a month, or 10 bucks? Right, and only 500 people are allowed to fit in here at once. Exactly. They have a lot of volume, a lot of volume of people that pay a very small percentage of them actually use the gym, because if everybody who had a membership came to use the gym, it wouldn't have enough room. So the model literally is to target people who will initially sign up, but then not come. That's the perfect model. That's a perfect avatar for a gym. And part of that is, how do we keep them paying, but not coming? Oh, I got an idea. Let's throw them free pizza once a month. So when they go- They feel like they're valued. So they go, wait a second, I had four slices of pizza this month. That's $10, like, fuck it. Piece of it. Like, for itself. I'm not going to stop paying for this, because if I want my money, it's worth all you got to do is swing by on Fridays, grab a slice or two of pizza, and it warrants my $10 a month. It's fucking brilliant. And when you sit there, and I know this, I know this because 24-hour fitness, although it was far more expensive when I was there, they still kind of had a little bit of this model. And it's when you're sitting at home going through your finances and you're looking, oh, we need to save some money. And then you go, what about this $10 a month gym membership? It's $10. It's not that much. You know what? I really should go. I paid a little bit of a joining fee. Let's just keep it. And it's only $10. What is that? Two coffees? It's not a big deal. And so they keep a shit ton of people who never use their gyms, and it's like pure profit. Yeah. And it's low enough to where it's like the idea that they're still have a gym membership is just all they wanted anyways. You know? It's like, oh, I still, I'm still a member. Yeah, so funny. So along the lines of brilliant schemes, this is an old one. But I had to share this with you guys. I don't know what I was doing. I came across this article and then I just, of course, went down the rabbit hole, started reading more about it. But it was on Allstate. And Allstate did this in 2015. It was called the mayhemsell.com. Did you guys know anything about this? Mayhem Sale? Yeah, mayhem sale. No, because I've seen their commercials where they're like preventing you from mayhem and he does like crazy shit. What about the dude that's super low voice? So that's Justin's hitting it on the head. That's who that is. And the way they launched this campaign. So this campaign ran in 2015 and it was don't overshare on social media. So the idea of the campaign was that their insurance company, right, is to tell people that, hey, right now we're in this new social media world where everyone's sharing things like that. You can get robbed easily. And so what they did was they set somebody up. They ran it during the Rose Bowl. So during like when all the, everyone's watching the game stuff. And what they did was they reached out to somebody, told them that they won two tickets to the Sugar Bowl. Sugar or Rose Bowl, one of those. They give these people the tickets to the whole event. They're all excited. They go there. And of course, they're tweeting. They're at the Rose Bowl. They're all excited. So what Allstate did, because they were already paying for advertising for commercials instead of on the show, they ran a commercial. First, what they did was put up a fake profile of these people using their social media, showing that they're at the game and they're not home for burglars to go get their stuff. Then they staged all of their stuff that's in their house and they sold it online. And then they broadcasted it live in the stadium and on TV for people to see. So these people who are watching their shit get sold. It was this big thing. To show how easy it was to show how easy it was to rob them, sell all their shit online, and then all while they're at the game having fun, telling everybody that they're not home, right? They can't do anything about it. So it went so viral that Allstate made millions and millions of dollars. The website got some of the most traffic ever by a website before. I didn't even know it. I didn't even know they did that. I didn't know that either. Do you ever think to yourself sometimes that these brilliant marketers just give people more criminals better ideas? Sure. Oh, wait a minute. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. I didn't even thought of that. I think that was just brilliant marketing from Allstate seeing that that was something that was happening already. Because I do remember people saying things like that. Like, hey, be careful how much you share on Facebook, showing your location all the time, stuff like that. Post it when you get home. Right, right. So be careful of doing things like that. And I think Allstate saw that there was growing awareness of that and they just accelerated it by doing a campaign like this, which was crazy, hilarious, all this. How brilliant. No, that's so smart, man. Do you guys remember that one company that would protect like your identity? I don't remember the name of it. And the CEO to prove how awesome his company is, because what you do is you hire them and their job is to protect you against identity theft. So the CEO to prove his point posted his social security number on trucks and billboards. And he was like, I'm not afraid because I have, because of my company. But anyway, he got it stolen like six times. Of course he did. He got it stolen a bunch of times. Baiting a bunch of hackers to have at it. They were serious. Totally backfired. I did not, dude. I was like, you can't steal my identity. And they did. They did a bunch of times. Oh my god. It was so funny. I did not. I deserve that. Anyway, dude. So I've been getting this study that came out. You guys remember a while ago? That one was like four years ago. We were talking about what new trends we saw in the future for fitness. And I was talking about how, oh, it's a matter of time before they start to demonize protein. Protein is going to be the targeted macronutrient next. And basically, the reason why I predicted that was because I went off of the carbs and fats were done. So what's next protein? Sure. Only a matter of time before the whole vegan movement. Yes. And then I saw the vegan movement. And I said, oh, here we go. Because one of the criticisms against a vegan diet is that it's hard to get a lot of protein. Right. So let's say that protein really isn't that necessary. Well, and that's their defense is that it's not. And to some truth to that, right? Yeah. Because they're right. Well, the message has been that we need so much of it. And then they're like, you really don't need that much of it. Well, the first thing that the vegans tried to do was say, oh, you can get lots of protein through vegetable sources. And then they realized, well, this isn't working very well. It's actually pretty hard. Because really, protein sources from animal sources are easier. They're better on a gram per gram basis and all that stuff. So then the next stage, of course, was let's attack protein. So they're finding studies to show that protein may be bad for you. And this new one came out. It says that high protein diets could increase heart attack risk. Well, you have to understand, by the way, when you read these titles is could. Could is the operative term. And so in these studies, they find that high amounts of protein stimulate something called mTOR, mammalian target repamycin, which is something that is a part of muscle growth. It's not a bad thing. But in a certain context, it can be a bad thing. For example, in a pro-cancer context, high mTOR could stimulate cancer cells in a high inflammatory, high-calorie, shitty diet context. Lots of mTOR could prevent mitophagy and could actually increase the risk of heart disease and issues like that. So that's what these studies are showing, which isn't really groundbreaking. High anything in the context of a high inflammatory, high-calorie diet can be bad, like high carbs. But this is the latest one now. So now they're going to start saying too much protein, bad for the heart, too much protein, can cause cancer and all sort of stuff. Can't wait. Oh, it's coming off. Can't wait for this to start. It's coming off. I wonder if I, you know, I will have to talk to Organifi and see if they feel a difference by stuff like this, if they can even notice. Or if it's just, sometimes I wonder if this is kind of like the alarmist strategy thing that we talked about before where they'll take one person who's like crazy that's saying something and then make it like a big deal where it's like, no, I think at the end of the day, most people understand the importance of getting protein when it comes to building muscle. There's plenty of research around that. So are we going to fall for this demonizing it? Or is it just a few people that are alarmist that are trying to, or a few people that are trying to defend veganism that are saying it and really the majority? Dude, it's so funny how predictable it is. It's just like they're going to go from one macronutrient to the next and they just keep, it's like a cyclical thing because it's like that way you can sell specific products and, you know, divert people from this way of doing things to now like we're going to jump onto this way of doing things. And it's just like a matter of, you know, a few studies that will, they'll try and like, yeah, vilify whatever it is they're trying to vilify so everybody jumps on board. Well, demonizing fat and protein is funny to me because they're essential. Well, and yeah, it has to have them. To me, proteins are having a balance is a hard one, especially in the muscle building fat loss community. I mean, when I was watching that documentary that that is the one thing that like of all the things to make a case for that have value, it's, you know, the protein powder just because a majority of people struggle with getting enough protein, especially if you're weightlifting. So if you're weightlifting and you're also dieting to get in enough protein and take on a regular basis unless you're the 1%, the bodybuilder who carries around six chicken breasts a day, if you're the average Jane or Joe and you're getting into exercise and fitness, one of the most valuable supplements that you can get your hands on is a protein powder. Which I would say like, yeah, most people, so they're trying to vilify protein, but that 1%, it's like your gym bro, it's like your bodybuilder, it's like those are the people that are the ones that, you know, would even fall in that category of like overuse. It's not even a thing. And again, context matters. I'll even go in the reverse. Sugar, right? Sugar we know has potentially some bad effects on people, especially when you consume a lot of it, but sugar, even a higher sugar diet, if your calories are low, way less dangerous for your body causes way less problems. And there's even studies that show that it doesn't cause any issues in the context of a low inflammatory, low calorie type of diet. So, but now when you calories are really high, if you're eating more calories than you need and you're constantly in that state where your body's gaining body fat, you can have a great diet made up of healthy foods and you're still going to have some health issues and high protein or high fat or high carb in the context of a lot of calories. Each one of those, I could show problems and issues. So context makes big difference. You got to pay attention to that. Right. First question is from Ansari, Jr. My joints always seem to be hurting. I work out four to five times a day, take fish oil and stay hydrated throughout the day. Am I doing something wrong? Four to five times a day? That's probably, that's what it says. I'm sure he was a typo, I hope so, because then maybe that's why your joints hurt. That explains everything right there. You might be working out too much. Back off the workouts. Here's the places that I would look with clients who had pain, you know, kind of chronic pain in their joints. By the way, there's two general types of pain. There's the chronic variety. This is where like, oh, my knee's been hurting. It's been bothering me on and off for the last five years. And there's the acute variety where it's like, my knee hurts, why does it hurt? Yesterday I twisted it, so I'm actually injured. So I'm going to assume that this person, and they says always seem to be hurting. Yeah, chronic. Has the chronic variety. So the first place I would look is movement. Always. You know, your joints will last you your lifetime, and they'll feel relatively good your whole life if they're moving optimally. There is an optimal way. And they're supported. That's right. If they're moving an optimal way, then they should be doing pretty well. It's like, you know, this reminds me of a story. So, you know, years ago when I bought my first house, there were some doors that were hung already. I had remodeled the whole house, but there were some old doors that didn't change. And the doors just kept making sounds and noises every time I'd open and close them. I'd grease them up and they'd keep doing it. Finally, I had my dad come over to look at it and he goes, well, the way that these things are hung, the joints, the hinges are being stressed more than they should be. And this is the reason why they're grinding and making all this noise and why the door isn't opening and closing the way it is. We have to set this up so that the hinges work optimally. Okay. So that's like your joints. If your joints are moving in suboptimal ways, they are going to cause, they are going to have pain over time. So poor mobility is usually, it's always the first place that I look when I would have a client. And to that point, taking supplements for it is like oiling it. So it's fixing the squeak for the moment, but it's still not fixing the root cause. So if you're going to use supplements to help aid that, which I think is there's definitely value in that, but you can't stop there. You can't just take your fish oil, take your turmeric, take something like that. And then that thing that resolves the problem. The problem is in the way your body is moving. And this is where Maps Prime Pro came from. I mean, this is why we created this. It's designed to address every major joint in the body. There's a test for it to see if, how you do. And then there's movements connected to it that you should do to perform better mechanics and to support that joint. Yeah, this is where the conversation of posture, you know, really comes into play. And like really understanding how to line yourself up and stack your spine properly to where everything is in an optimal position. So what does that even look like to start? A lot of times people don't even put that kind of work in before then trying to go through these movements and put stress on them by adding weight. So it is one of those things like, or over time, it's something that was very subtle, very subtle angle or something that was a little less optimal that over time, the volume of it has created this pain and created this signal of your body of wear and tear. And so to be able to come back and address it, you really need to dive into that specific joint, how it's functioning, what your end ranges are, like how much strength you can connect to. So how connected are you in rotating it, moving it, getting, you know, flexion extension and seeing what the quality of that is and then really staying there and trying to express that even further. Think of it this way. So think of a sliding screen door or a sliding glass door and when you look under the door, there's a track and then there's the door glides along that track and typically there's like a little wheel that it glides on and if the door is balanced, it'll slide back and forth on that track and it'll do pretty well for a while. Now imagine if that door, there was pressure on that sliding door pushing it back. There's just enough pressure to push it back to where rather than balancing right on the track, it's grinding a little bit on the side because there's a little bit of pressure there. Now initially you might not notice the problem. You slide the sliding glass door or the screen on and on. You don't notice a problem but over time because that door is not balanced and moving perfectly or optimally on that track, over time you start to create problems. The wheel starts to grind. It starts to roll improperly and over time you start to cause problems. This is what happens to your joints. Now oftentimes it's not the joint itself that's the problem. Oftentimes if your knee hurts, it's not because the muscles on the around the knee aren't doing what they're supposed to. Oftentimes it's because surrounding joints are moving properly and your knee joint is just compensating. It's just doing more than it should, more than it needs to and this can cause lots of issues. So that's the first place that I would always look and I had a lot of success with this. I would say 70% or 80% of the time I could successfully get someone's joint pain to get a lot better just through working mobility. There is a diet component too though. I noticed this with myself. When my diet is poor and it's in an inflammatory diet, if I drink a lot of alcohol or a lot of processed foods or I'm not well hydrated, I can also start to feel stiff and start to feel pain. It restricts movement and causes more pain and I think that lowering that inflammation is something to consider. Right and then you have this feedback loop where it's like okay I'm stiff because I'm eating foods that promote inflammation in my body, sometimes it's a food intolerance, other times it's just a general overall bad diet. Now because I'm stiff because of that, I'm moving in a way to try to avoid that pain but now I'm creating movement patterns that are also not ideal. So now I'm actually causing joint pain so then you get this kind of spiraling effect that causes more and more pain over time. Well that's the value of the supplements, right? That's the value of using something to help aid bring down inflammation so you then can go put in the work. It's like foam rolling like we talked about too. It's like you're alleviating something temporarily right now but it doesn't mean you're not fixing the problem. So in order to fix the problem you have to go through the movement but there is value in using tools like that to bring down. Yes, now when it comes to working with inflammation, trying to bring it down through taking something, you have the really strong over-the-counter drug options which are the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen is a good example. Aleve, naproxen is another good example. Now the problem with those is that they block inflammation. They don't modulate inflammation. Blocking inflammation, very strong anti-inflammatory effect, very strong. My pain is, wow, it's way better. You taking a leave or you taking a leave? Isn't that hard on the liver too over time? It is. It's not only that though. Blocking inflammation can actually promote problems in the future. Studies now show that the chronic use of anti-inflammatory drugs causes joint degeneration or joints to degenerate faster because inflammation is essential to send a signal to your body or as part of the process of the body to repair and heal. For example, as other studies that show, taking anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen post-workout reduces the muscle building effect because you're blocking the signal. You're not modulating it. So inflammation, you want appropriate levels. You don't want it to be gone. I like supplements for this because if you take a supplement, for example, OrganiFi's Move supplement is a phenomenal for this. I've been using that and I love the way it works. So it has ingredients like hypotency turmeric. It's got holy basil in there. Pine bark. Pine bark, which contains pycnoginal. All of these things have been shown to modulate inflammation. So they don't hammer inflammation like ibuprofen would, but they help your body produce a more appropriate inflammatory response. Now that being said, if you're not drinking enough water, you're not getting good sleep and you have a really shitty diet, it's like you're putting a Band-Aid on a problem. It'll help, but it's not going to help enough to overcome your poor diet and all that stuff. But if you do work on your diet, you do work on mobility. I do think supplements like OrganiFi's Move, maybe throw some fish oil on top of that, high doses, if that's appropriate for you. Boy, they can make a pretty substantial difference. I've noticed huge differences in myself. And then my clients, that's my approach typically is like, okay, we're going to go mobility. We're going to look at diet, hydration, sleep. Definitely mobility. And then we're going to throw some supplements that can help with this kind of temporary high inflammatory state so that we can move better in our workouts. Next question is from Leanqueen 2019. Can you build muscles that you can't connect to? They're all rhymed. Well, we need to correct this first or help be accurate with it. You're connected to all your muscles. Yeah. So unless you're paralyzed, you are connected to your muscles. When we refer to poor connection, what we really mean is just a movement pattern that's not conducive to developing that muscle. So we'll use a squat as an example. When you're squatting, you're using a lot of muscles to do that squat. The main movers would be your quads, your hamstrings, and your glutes. There's more muscles than that, but those are the big ones, right? So let's say you're squatting, but the way that your movement pattern is set up, and maybe you developed this because you sit a lot or you only run or whatever, the movement pattern means that your movement pattern may have more quad doing more of the movement than glutes doing the movement. So now when you do lots of squats, you build big quads, but your glutes don't seem to get that much of a response. This can be true for a lot of exercises. Bench press, for example, you may be able to get a really strong bench, but you notice your triceps and your shoulders really get well developed, but your chest doesn't. Changing your movement pattern, or was like we like to say, connecting to the target muscles better, can change how effective that exercise is for your target muscles. So the way she said it isn't ideal, but yeah, there's some truth to what you're asking too. Like if you have a poor connection or you have a less ideal pathway to like your squat and your goal is to build your glutes and your quads are carrying muscle load, yeah, it doesn't make it impossible. It makes it very unlikely that you're going to develop that muscle very much. Your glutes are going to work. If you're going to squat, even if you have terrible recruitment pattern, they're still working. They're getting some work in there. It's just not dominant. And if it's not dominant, it's not getting the loudest muscle building signal. The muscle that's most dominant that's taking care of that movement is getting the loudest signal. It's going to get there. That's where the body's going to adapt and grow more muscle. So it's not that you're not actually connected to it. We're connected to all the muscles. It's that you're not using it properly through the movements that you should be. And if you don't address that, then yeah, it's going to be very challenging for you to try and develop that muscle. In fact, there's camps of people that anytime they see somebody that has an underdeveloped muscle, they always relate it to poor connectivity. They don't have a very good character. Well, there is a way to consciously recruit more muscle. And I think that's what we speak to that in being like taking the time out to really try to summon more from neurologically, to be able to really focus in on trying to activate certain muscles and get their involvement within the movement. So there is a way to really consciously focus in on that and improve that process, but which then in turn will help the muscle to develop. Well, and this is the inspiration of Maps Prime. So we talked the last question, shamelessly plugged Prime Pro. But that's what that was designed for. You've got joint issues. You're trying to address that. You want to figure out the right way to do it. You're not looking just to put a bandaid. You want to fix that chronic pain. That's what Prime Pro is for. If you're looking for something to get better connected to certain muscles because you have muscle imbalances like most people have, Maps Prime. That's what priming is for. It's designed to help you get connected to the proper muscles before you go into exercises. And that's why we created that. And that's why their standalone programs because we know that those things are so challenging for people that it should be a program by itself to figure that out for you. Like, yeah, yeah. And the people or the athletes, I should say, that are just the best at learning how to connect to muscles besides correctional exercise specialists. They're really good at this for functional purposes. But in terms of just developing and building muscles, bodybuilders. Bodybuilders are the experts of the resistance training world when it comes to figuring out how to connect to a muscle and figuring out how to feel and develop a particular muscle in a particular exercise. And you can watch really good bodybuilders will do an exercise and you can tell they're targeting the glutes in that leg exercise or they're targeting the quads in that leg exercise. And it is funny. You'll notice this. I don't know if you guys notice this, but you'll have clients who, you know, oh, I squat and lunge all the time, but my glutes don't develop well, but what do they have well-developed quads? Or, oh, I bench press all the time, but my chest doesn't develop and I'm really strong and you look at them and what do they have really well-developed? Shoulders. Shoulders and triceps. I had a client years ago who was a competitive arm wrestler, both hands. He was a highly competitive, both right and left. Of course, arm wrestlers use a lot of biceps and forearms in their sport. And when we did back exercise, first off, this guy could pull tremendous amounts of weight in rows. He could do one arm pull-ups, but it was all arms. It was all arms when he would do them. So he would do all these rows and stuff and his arms would get bigger and more develop. But his back wouldn't get a lot of stimulation. So I had to teach him how to connect to his back with a lot of these exercises. And he had to change his technique and form and feel completely, even though he's doing the same exercise, just so he could connect to, again, quote, unquote, connect to or target the muscles that we were trying to work. So if you're trying to develop your body, it's not just enough to do the right exercises. You have to do the right exercises the right way. Yeah. If you don't do the right exercise the right way, believe it or not, the right exercises can be the wrong ones for you. Not only can they be terrible for developing the muscles you're trying to work, but they can even cause problems. And I'll give you a great example. One of the best exercises for somebody who needs to correct forward shoulder, that's the posture where the shoulders roll forward, is a row, a cable row, for example. Best exercise you could do for forward shoulder. But if that person is doing the row with just their arms and their shoulders are forward and they're just pulling to their midsection and shoulders stay forward, not only are they not going to get benefits, they're actually going to make their forward shoulder worse, even though it's the right exercise. So it's very important that you do the right exercises the right way. Otherwise, you're not only going to not get results, but you'll probably get the opposite of what you're looking for. Next question is from Justin other Mike. What are your thoughts on the carnivore diet and how long should you run it? I think if you like ice cream and cake and popcorn and tortilla chips, it's a fucking terrible diet. I mean, if you like any of those things or want any of those things or fruits and vegetables and nuts and anything else, that's not me. I mean, I think it's terrible. It's pretty limiting. You know, do it now. Do I think the science to support the health benefits of all of it? Like, yeah, there's a select group of people that are going to do really, really well. Actually, there's probably a big majority of people if they switched from the American diet and they went to carnivore, they would see all kinds of health markers improve. And if you're a carnivore advocate that's going around talking about how great it all is, these are the things you're sharing. You're talking about what happens when you take somebody who is on all these foods and then you put them on all these markers. Oh, yeah, autoimmune issue. You have like SIBO, you have all these different like underlying issues and you're limiting it down to one nutrient source that's pretty manageable. Right, so it's incredible for that. Yeah, it seems, yeah. I mean, I remember when I was on the ketogenic diet and I fucking wanted to shoot myself. Yeah. I mean, I can only eat so many macadamia nuts and olive oil and butter and... Yeah, it's like, ghee. You're like, what am I supposed to do? You know, it's a lot of fun at first, just like I think if I were to do the carnivore diet, like, yeah, I love... Steak four times a day. I love steak. I love burgers, too. Yeah, I love ribeye and diet, too. Yeah, but at one point, I want a little bounce. So, you know, that's how I feel about these. And here's the thing, too. This is not just for this diet. It's for old diets. Yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly. And people need to understand that, like this whole diet world is just... It's designed to divide and conquer all of you. That are, you know, it's like... Wow, yeah. I don't understand why they're so adamant about like having everybody conform to one specific thing. It doesn't work like that. Well, the carnivore diet has all the makings of a successful marketing-wise and fad-wise type of diet. It's got all the wonderful... Because it's extreme. It's... It eliminates the one food everybody told you was super healthy or the two foods, right? Fruits and vegetables. Huh? You got my attention now. Yeah, I always hated vegetables. This sounds interesting. It's low calorie. All diets that make you lose weight are low calorie. I don't care what kind of diet you follow. And why is carnivore low diet? You've just eliminated almost all food. And eating only one thing, you're probably not going to eat that much. I don't care what that one thing... It's going to be really hard to get calories. That's 100% like what I experienced like going through it too. Yes. And it's the thing is like, you just get like full, you get satiated, so you get like all of that going for you. But it's at the end of the day, like man, it was a real big challenge to just meet my caloric needs. It's also basic and simple. And if for a diet to become successful marketing-wise, it has to be clear and simple. Don't eat carbs. Don't eat fat. Don't eat vegetables. Don't eat meat. Whatever. It's people like that. It's very catchy. Like, oh, I can do that. I can just eat meat or just eat, you know, no carbs or whatever. So it's got all the makings of something that could be successful marketing-wise. Now, in terms of is it a good diet for people? So there's two things I want to say about that. One, there is no perfect diet for everybody. None. I don't care who you are. First off, there are going to be some people that are going to do well. On a carnivore diet, my guess is the vast majority of them have lots of immune reactions to other foods. They have lots of food intolerances. And carnivore diet's the ultimate elimination diet where you eliminate most foods that people might have reactions to. So that's, and that's the big thing about this particular diet is that some people have a lot of food intolerances. They eliminate that, you know, like McKayla Peterson, great example. She had some legit immune issues and eliminating all those foods made her feel really good. And for her, I have no doubt that this is the best diet, but for most people it isn't. The second thing is this, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should because I think there's a lot of people that are like, wow, I only ate meat for a month and I didn't die. And they think, oh, that means it's a good thing. No, not necessarily. I mean, you could eat the typical American diet for, you know, 60 years and not die either. That doesn't mean it's ideal as well. It's very extreme. There's lots of value to consuming a variety of foods, vegetables, and fruits, and nuts, and even grains have their own values. Well, and some of the values that I think are important that when you eliminate them in a diet like this is the ones that we talk about that aren't just nutritional value. It's not always just about that. Sometime, like, you know, try being the guy who has to tote around, you know, a tri-tip everywhere you go. And you're at a birthday party or you're at a, you know, a dinner party or you're going over for somebody's having wine and cheese event. And now you're a social leopard. Right. So, and if those things are important and you like to do that stuff, I think that eliminating that becomes really challenging. And so, personally, and we've done it. I've, aesthetically, I've been able to keep myself in good shape, running all types of different diets. Now, I haven't done a pure carnivore although I ran keto, which is close. It's just even less stuff, right? And it kept myself in great shape. So, if it's just about getting shape, you could do anything. You could do vegan, you could do keto, you could do zone, you could do, they all work and have success with people. Well, you have a lot of people who are navigating the diet world and they're want to lose weight or whatever. And it's like, oh my gosh, everything's so complicated. What do I do? Do I count macros? Do I count calories? Yeah, this is the least complicated out of all of them. Yeah, it's like, hey dude, just eat me. You'll lose weight. If you just eat me. And it's like, I can do that. I could totally do that. I think that's where the appeal of it is though, to be honest, even for myself. But, I know there's a short window to it. Again, looking at it from an elimination perspective, I think there's some value to that. But other than that, the other value is that there's a counter to veganism. So, I appreciate that from an entertainment value. That's really the only thing I can think of. It's so funny, because they're in the same, without realizing it, they're on the same. They're like at war. They're in the same camp though. Yeah, they're so extreme. They're both extreme. Next question is from Nan Duff 61. How often should you take diet breaks and how long should they last? Okay, so if you're doing everything right, then there isn't a break. And there isn't a diet. There isn't a diet. Yeah, there isn't a diet either. It's just eating. It's eating, it's eating. It's like the scene from the Matrix, you know, when Neo's waiting in the waiting room for the oracle for the first one. It's a spoon. Yeah, and the kid's bending the spoon with his mind, a little bald kid or whatever, and Neo's like, you know, how do you do that? He's like, I can't do it. He goes, the key is to realize there is no spoon. There is no spoon. Oh, yeah. That's really the key to proper eating is to realize that you're not on a diet. It's just how you eat. And what does that mean? That means that sometimes you're going to go to a birthday party or you're going to enjoy yourself with your spouse and you're going to eat food for the sake of its hedonistic value. Because yes, that is a value for the sake of the enjoying it. So sometimes, you know, we just came back from a trip with, we all had our families together and, you know, there were a couple of meals that we ate and we drank and the entire value of that meal was hanging out with you guys and the hedonistic value of it was fun. Well, we were at the slope snowboarding. We were, we all had, you know, carne asada tacos and chips and guac and beers. Like, because that sounded amazing after riding and burning 3000 calories. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm going to enjoy that at that time and not worry about it. And I'm not taking a break from the diet. It's just, I'm in his part of your diet. Right. And I think, I think how I try and help somebody who asks questions like this, too, is to understand that doesn't mean, too, that I'm giving you carte blanche to go do whatever the fuck you want. Just eat. Well, every time you want bad food, you eat bad food or whatever, every time. Now that I said, you can have chips and guac and beer, you go have chips and guac and beer all the time. There's, there's moments where I make the decision that, then there'll be, you know, three days before that where I'll come home from work and it's been a day where I've been at my desk all day long. I didn't get my workout in this night. And Katrina goes like, hey, I'm craving five guys tonight. Do you want some? I'm like, oh man, that sounds so good. But no. And I go, no, because I know I didn't move all day long. I didn't get my workout in. Yeah, that it sounds good right now because I haven't eaten much and a burger always sounds pretty damn good. But I also know that I'm also, it's not a major sacrifice to pass on it. And you know what, I'll have, you know, some taco salad tonight instead, or I'm going to have the chicken breast that's in the, in the refrigerator from yesterday instead. And it's not like I'm fucking sacrificing a lot right there. No. But if I, if I feel like it's always on or off all the time, then you're playing this, this game that you can or you can't. It's not that you can or you can't. It's just, no, I don't want to do that right now. The root of the problem with it is not realizing the total value of food. So I'm going to give you two scenarios, both unhealthy. Scenario one is the nutrition freak, the fanatic. The only value they see in food is the macronutrients, like proteins, fats, carbs, the calories, and how it fuels their body. Now, why is that unhealthy? They have an unhealthy relationship with food. They can't enjoy themselves with their friends. They probably have, you know, missed lots of opportunities to develop relationships. They never enjoy food for the moment for the pleasure of it. I've worked with a lot of these people. You see a lot of them in the hardcore fitness space. They're dysfunctional with their eating because they only see food for its nutritional value. Now on the flip side, which is most people, because that's not a lot of people, but they exist. On the other side, you have the other people who only see food for its hedonistic value. Yes. All the value of food is how it tastes and how enjoyable it is. That's, and if you, and you know this because when they decide what they're going to eat, that's what they base their decision off of. What do you want to eat? Let me think about it. Oh, I feel like Mexican or I feel, and it's all based off of its hedonistic value, how, oh my God, the taste of it, the smell, the enjoyment. Now that is a value just like the nutritional values of food are also a value. But if you worship one and you don't understand the others, you have dysfunction. What you really need to do is understand the total value. So in the example that Adam that you gave, it's like you came home and Katrina says, let's get five guys and you recognize the hedonistic value. Oh yeah, that does sound like it's going to taste good. But then you realize the other value, the nutritional value, and at that moment, it's more important to you. That's how you develop balance. This is why you won't need a diet break because this is the internal dialogue that you have with yourself when you're deciding what to eat. What is more valuable to me at this moment? Right now, I'm with Adam, Justin, Doug, and our families. We're up on Lake Tahoe. We're at a ski lift. We haven't hung out together in a way that wasn't business-related. And right now, what I value is I want to enjoy this beer. I want to talk to my friends. I want to have this carne asada taco and have a lot of fun. Most of the time, that's not the case because most of the time I'm just feeding myself and so I'm going to value the nutritional stuff for food. But if you have that approach, then you don't have a diet break because here's what a diet break encourages. It encourages you to go on your diet and off your diet, which looks like restrict and binge. That's exactly what it looks like. It's like, right now, I'm on a break. What is a break? Anytime you take a break, what does a break look like? I'm going the opposite direction, everybody. I'm on a break. I'm going to eat everything I want. I'm going to go crazy with the cake and the alcohol and then I'm going to go nuts. And then, uh-oh, got to get back on the diet. What does that look like? Perfection. Looks like restriction and perfection. And we all know how that relationship works out. It takes a lot of extra calories just to put one pound of body fat on. So it's, you know, you may be thinking right now, the two coronas I had and the four carne asada tacos, that's what, maybe a thousand calories, maybe or so. That's not even enough to put one pound of body fat, especially considering that I'm going to be riding and moving around like crazy. It's the compounding effect and the spiraling down that ends up happening to people when they get on and off. And that's what that relationship promotes, the I can or can't have or I'm on a diet break. That diet break now turns into a I'm going to eat whatever I want because I'm on a break. And then now it goes from the thousand calorie lunch that I'm enjoying with my friends because I'm on a ski lift to the every day, every meal for the next five days. I'm over consuming and now I've over consumed 7,000 calories. Here comes the two pounds that I added. It's just too neurotic. I mean, people just need to relax. Like for me, it's about seeking foods that I know, like the nutrients of it I need and I want to get foods that make me feel good and help to promote better movement and keep me active and healthy, like foods that make me healthy. Now there's going to be times where it's not available, whatever. I don't want to sweat about that and hammer myself about that. The more you hammer yourself about it, the more, again, you get into that, like, okay, well, I'm going to go off the rails and then it just becomes more of this accelerated thing. Oh, I've known lots of people in our space who are fanatics about their nutrition and exercise, but it's such a stressful way to live and that it's, and the fact that they don't have lots of deep relationships. The only relationships they have are with other fanatics. They don't like to go out with friends. They don't like to go to parties. They don't like to connect with people or they judge people for not being as fanatical as they are. And so what they end up doing is harming their health because stress relationships documented. This is documented. Scientific studies have shown that those things are as important to your health as your diet. So it's like, you're going to take one and completely destroy the other one. You just traded one for the other. So you might as well eat bad and have good relationships. It's not that big of a difference. So it's really about, look, if you want to navigate in a modern, prosperous world where you have access to all these foods all the time, because I mean, let's be honest, for most of human history, we're kind of forced to eat healthy because that's all that was available. You know, when you're caveman, you're not walking by a McDonald's or Chinese food. It's like, what do we have to eat? I don't know, go kill that or pick that thing over there. And that's what you can eat. So we live in a very prosperous world. The only way you're going to navigate it right is to have that type of relationship with food. Otherwise you're screwed. You are screwed and you're going to go on and off and you're going to have breaks and you're going to get on the wagon and now I'm serious and now I'm off and it's just going to end up with poor relationship and poor health and the long-term. And with that, go to mindpumpfree.com and download all of our resources and guides. They cost nothing. Go check them out. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find me at Mind Pump Salon, Adam at Mind Pump, Adam.