 Our next caller is Matt from Pennsylvania. Hey Matt, how can we help you? Hey guys, first of all, I discovered you guys like two months ago And I've been I've been watching you all over and all the time and Like my YouTube feed is only mine pump and nothing else. So I really appreciate what you guys doing. Thank you. All right So I'm originally from Slovakia and I played basketball from a very young age till I was about 22 and I always had a problem to gain some muscles Obviously because I was running a lot a lot of cardio and I Stopped doing sports at all when I was about 22 and I moved to US. Um, I I ate very bad I ate a lot of junk food because I thought that I just came can't gain weight So I wasn't paying attention at all and then in a span about in a span of like two or three years I gained like 60 pounds and I was I'm like 64 65 and when I was playing I was Like 180 190 I couldn't go over 180. So I changed my diet. I stopped eating junk and trying to avoid sodas and stuff like that and I went down to like 210 and now I'm at 210 For like two or three years I've been doing some Like whole body workouts three days a week, but I can't take a consistent and now I'm moving back to my country to Slovakia and I know that because I'm gonna be working from noon till Evening basically so now I know that I have that window from morning to noon what I can start working out and pay attention to my diet so basically my question was I Want to start one of your programs and I wanted to know which one would you guys recommend and I have two little kids. So that's why I couldn't stay consistent for the whole time So first of all, I would like to know which one would you guys recommend? What should I be focusing on during the? That the program you guys will recommend and then Which in my main main focus be as a as a hard-gainer? Yeah, okay good good question So I'll give you three tips that generally will give you the biggest bang For your buck right in other words these three things will make a pretty big difference for you number one Is gonna be to follow maps anabolic that program was specifically designed for people Who really want to build muscle who might find it challenging with other workout programs now in maps anabolic? It recommends two or three foundational workouts a week for you do three foundational workouts a week That means you may alternate workout one and workout two and some of the phases But then on the off days right on the days in between it's very important You do at least two or three trigger sessions as explained in the program those make a huge difference I think sometimes people skip those because they still get great results with the program But they're missing out because the trigger sessions are very very valuable now second piece of advice I'm gonna give you is gonna be to eat Eat more than you think okay, so you want to eat a lot of calories eat foods That are easy to digest because you don't want to encounter the the bloat or digestive issues that can sometimes happen with eating a Lot of calories so pick foods that digest very easily of course eat a lot of protein But you're gonna have to jump your calories up, especially if you're a hard-gainer Probably more than you think and then the third thing would be to supplement with creatine creatine is gonna Benefit you quite a bit in the muscle department and again with maps at a ball like what you're focusing on is building General strength. I mean here the bottom line is this if you get stronger Consistently over time and you feed your body. You're gonna build muscle. That's just the bottom line Matt How how active are you in comparison to back when you were playing basketball and the job that you're starting? That's a noon noon on what's yeah, and that's what I forgot to mention So I'm sitting at the office, and I'm pretty inactive on the day. I mean on the weekends I'm active because we go out with the kids and But during the day I'm sitting in the office and Yeah, those days I'm inactive when I work out when I work out three times a week I would I would consider that active, but I'm not really active in the days when I don't work out and I forgot to mention also that at home I'm doing my like a home gym or whatever it is So I'm gonna have a squad wreck and barbell plates. I have some dumbbells and the resistance band So that's this is what I perfect so that's perfect for maps and a ball like I'll add one little thing So first of all, I mean for a hard gainer the new sedentary job will probably work in your favor a little bit So, you know, this is very similar to my story I played basketball for a long time and I was always moving around and burning calories like crazy and When I finally switched to a job where I was sedentary It may not be the best for overall health But it definitely helped me when in the hard gainer department because I was burning so many calories I had to eat 5,000 a day, which I'm sure you know eating that many calories with all from healthy calories is tough to do where You now being in a more sedentary job. That'll probably help you out But I also would take that just to make sure this is where I see a lot of value in like Step counters or Fitbits or if you have an Apple watch or whatever is kind of track track your activity level and make a conscious effort On the days that you find yourself like you see you mentioned weekends you tend to be more active So I don't know if you still play pick up ball or you go do physical active things here and there But during the COVID I wasn't able to so okay So so it so you start tracking your movement and really use it not to get hung up on the exact numbers that it says Calories burned or how many steps but so just to get an idea of what a very active day Looks like for you compared to a very sedentary day and then make a conscious effort to boost the calories on those active days That will also help you but other than that I would follow the maps in a ball program to a tee and in just for My own question. Have you ever done any? Specific exercises where you've limited it down to one to five reps and that was your entire focus Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did but for the past couple of years I've been doing like a full body workouts and I live in the apartment complex where we have a gym But we don't have a barbell. So they pretty much what I was doing was a lot of dumbbells body weight works and Some gym rings. I love gym rings. So I did that I bring that up Just because like I know a lot of the tendencies for athletes and people like myself is to really You know keep going and the rest periods are really tough to you know stick and lean into that so To go through especially that first phase of anabolic and stick to that protocol You know and limit yourself, you know to those five reps And really just focus on you know grinding your way through that but then going through those rest periods, you know Trust the process with that and really really try to challenge yourself Not to to keep going ahead and pushing yourself Matt if you don't have maps at a ball like we're gonna send that to you right now, okay? Perfect. Thanks so much. No problem. Thanks for calling Matt Yeah, you know that this in you your question was great Justin because now it's kind of revealing how he's been working out Right body weight and dumbbells. Yeah, I kind of sense which is it'll build muscle It's built some muscle on him, but if you really want to pack on the mass He's gonna have to really build strength barbells are great Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that because I almost Recommended away from anabolic because I thought maybe he was following something very similar to anabolic originally originally He was like oh a three-day a week full-body routine. I'm like, okay. That's very man anabolic s Maybe we'll put put him like in power lift or a different direction But knowing that he was doing body weight dumbbell work He's missing out on one of the best parts of anabolic which is phase one Which is a barbell strength heavy heavy That new stimulus is gonna provide quite a bit and he'll be shocked what that does. Yeah