 I never did singles, doubles, or triples until we all got together. What it feels like is you're practicing, maximizing your force and you're practicing the skill of the lift. That's what you should feel like. So it should feel like you just, you're getting more in the groove. You're getting tighter, you're generating more force. Um, so it's a different feel, but you will see very rapid gains in strength and then muscle, the muscle follows the strength. So first you'll see the strength go up a little bit and then you'll start to look in the mirror and be like, huh, the other thing too, and this is an anecdote, um, so there's, I have zero studies to support this, but training this way creates a very dense, uh, hard look to the muscle. They just, the muscle looks really dense and hard. So it's a bit of a different, a different feel, uh, in a different look. I know Arnold used to do this, um, in his early days of training because he would say the same thing. It would give him a denser look to his physique. So it's, it's really interesting. It's a lot of fun. And if you don't do this, do it for like four weeks, watch what happens. Sometimes the best workout for muscle and strength are heavy singles and doubles. Okay. So what does that look like? Literally pick a weight that's probably moderately heavy, not your max, and do a set of one rep rest for two to three minutes and then repeat that. Try to keep it high volume, but few exercises. In other words, three or four exercises, five to eight sets each. You know, I like to communicate that because a lot of people have no idea. They think that's just a pure powerlifting workout. Yeah. But if you don't train that way, do like a four week cycle of that. Watch the gains explode. Did you know that I, I never did that until we all got together? Yeah. I remember what it did to your back. No, never, never did I drop below five reps ever. And even that was very infrequent. So like that was really just to interrupt my other phases of training and then to go back to more hypertrophy and super setting. Like I never did singles, doubles or triples until we all got together. Cause I was never that strength focused. Yeah. And it blew my mind what a difference it made in my physique. This was literally my favorite thing to do with my female clients. Cause it was just so drastically different than anything. Most of them have ever done before. And it was like to see the progress and the strength gains, you know, from when we would start doing that versus like all the high rep, high volume stuff, it was like a dramatic difference. Yeah. You know what the challenge is? It's that it feels so different from traditional workouts. In other words, you, you do this, you know, six sets of two reps on the bench press. And you, again, you don't go to, you don't max out. So you're not maxing out two reps, but it's a heavy, you know, challenging two reps. You don't get a pump. It doesn't burn. You don't sweat completely different experience. Yeah. So you're like, is this really doing anything? Like what's, you know, what am I doing? I didn't do this until, or I didn't practice the style of training until I read a dinosaur training. I think it's called, uh, which is an old school strength book. And the guy in there advocated so much for doing this. And I had done five and six reps, but never sets of like one or two. And I started doing this and my strength exploded. And I got some incredible gains from doing it because it was so different. And so you're, you're not maxing out, but you are now moving a weight that's heavier than you probably ever really moved. If you didn't do singles doubles and triples before, because if I did, if I did a weight that, uh, I can move five to six times, um, it was never as heavy as what I would be working with for singles doubles and triples. So even though it wasn't technically my max, it was much higher than a weight that I would choose to do three to four sets at, you know, five reps plus. So for me, that was, it was such a shock to my system. This also, I attribute this to, uh, you know, to Justin's point, I think this is what, uh, shaped Katrina's body the most since we were together. Cause she had never trained that way. And I remember getting her really excited about like getting strong on the deadlift. I think she would got all the way up to like 275, which is pretty legit, you know, for someone who didn't deadlift ever. And it was always been like, yeah, she's not heavy. She's small. Yeah. So, uh, she got up that and I swear the amount of muscle that she, she put, especially on her butt and her glutes was the biggest leap in our relationship that I ever saw her make. I attribute it to that. Another key to this is, you know, your traditional strength training workouts typically will consist of like two or three exercises per body part. You're hitting different angles with something like this. You do less exercises, but more sets. That's the best way to do this. So if I'm doing chess, for example, rather than doing, you know, bench press, incline press, flies, I'm doing like seven sets of just bench press. And I'm doing like one or two reps, uh, with like two, three minute rest in between. So it's a different, it's different. You just feel so strong doing this because you're fully recovered. And those like rest periods are a little bit more extended. And so it's, I know this is like a mental challenge for a lot of people too. That want to shift into this style of training because it just feels like I should be doing something in between, uh, but really what you need to think more is like, well, I guess I could have probably loaded it a bit more. Like it's, it's so much more of a mental game, uh, to be able to generate that much more force, uh, in that shorter period of time. So it's not like, you know, fatigue is pretty much not part of this. This is all about generating force. Yeah. So to give an example of the kind of weight that you would use in relation to what your actual max is. I don't know what my max is, but I'm going to estimate, uh, cause today I did box squats and I went up to about four or five. I think I probably could have gone up to four 35 or something like that for 40 for a max, but I stayed at four or five. And that's what I did for one. Okay. With the bench press, I think today I went up to two 95. My max is probably around three 15, three 20. So just give you an example, you're not going to your max. You're actually going, you know, 20, 30, 40 pounds lower than that. Or if you're, if you're not quite a strong, maybe 10 pounds, you know, lighter. And really it's, it's heavy and challenging, but you want to really feel the connection. You want to feel the force. And what's interesting about this is let's say you do, and I'm just letting people know what this feels like, cause you'll experience this when you do, let's say six sets of a squat as you work up to the weight you're going to do a single for the second or third or fourth time you do the single with that weight, you actually feel stronger, which is kind of weird. So like I did, you know, a rep with two, nine, five, I feel real heavy. Then I knew the second one, I'd actually feel stronger. This is your CNS adapting and your skill with the lift improving within the workout. And that is really, really good for muscle definition and of course strength. So I always liked like a protocol of where I would, I would be, I'd choose a weight that I would be doing like three. And then as I kept going in the sets, I would drop to two and then dropped on a weight to get a feel of like where my, where my, like not quite maxes, but getting as close as I could. So I put on a weight. So if I'm deadlifting, I put a weight on there, like, okay, I'm pretty sure I can get this, you know, at least two or three times. And then I, if I could get it three, I'd get it three, add a little bit more weight, see if I could still get three, maybe only get two, then I had a little bit more weight. And then now I've got my single weight and I do singles for another two or three sets. Like that training that way for a training block, you know, so for a phase, um, and then going back to like five by five or like hypertrophy, oh, but that's where you, to me, that's where you really notice it. One, like if you, if you're really pushing strength levels in that block and trying to get stronger and then you go back to kind of how you probably traditionally train, boy, do you really see like your amplitude increased, right? Like the ability to, to produce more force is just, you stretch that out now because you've trained it to do that. And now it's like you have more access to, to more muscle fibers you didn't before, which is a fun feeling. But again, I want to hammer this point because someone might go try this and might be like, I feel like I'm wasting my time. I'm not getting a pump. I'm not sweating. There's no burn. You're not supposed to feel any of that. Um, it's a very different feeling. It's what it feels like is you're practicing maximizing your force and you're practicing the skill of the lift. That's what you should feel like. So it should feel like you just, you're getting more in the groove, you're getting tighter. You're generating more force. Um, so it's a different feel, but if you don't train this way, um, you will see very rapid gains in strength and then muscle. The muscle follows the strength. So first you'll see the strength go up a little bit and then you'll start to look in the mirror and be like, huh, the other thing too, and this is anecdote, um, so there's, I have zero studies to support this, but you know, bodybuilders and strength athletes have, have speculated on this for a long time. Training this way creates a very dense, uh, hard look to the muscle. It's like that, uh, like, uh, Pavel, the, the, the kettlebell guy, he talks about this a little bit where they just, the muscle looks really dense and hard. So it's a bit of a different, a different feel, uh, in, in a different look. I know Arnold used to do this, um, in his early days of training, because he would say the same thing. It would give him a denser look to his physique. So it's, it's really interesting. It's a lot of fun. And if you don't do this, do it for like four weeks, watch what happens. I think part of the reason why people don't do it is maybe they try it and then they experience what you're saying where they doesn't feel it. I don't get this pump. I don't get a sweat. And then I think the other thing, which is probably why I avoided it for so long is I just didn't identify as a power lifter. I was so focused on aesthetics and how my body looked that I thought like, why, I don't care. I don't really care if I could lift 10 or 15 more pounds. Like, all I care about is how I look. So why would I train that way? And I was really missing out on all the, the benefits of like the point I was making that, you know, even if you just run it for a block or phase of three to four weeks of training that way and then return back to the training that you kind of love to do, I saw a huge carry over into that and didn't realize how much I was missing by not training that way simply because I didn't identify as a power lifter. So I think a lot of people, they see like who, who lives singles and doubles and triples. It's always the power. You never see that in the gym. Yeah. You don't see, you don't see the, the petite little girl doing that. You don't see, you don't see the cross fitter guy doing that. You don't see, you don't see these typical athletes training that way. It's the power lifter. And so you go, oh, I'm not really a power lifter. I don't want to look that way or I'm not interested in that. So you avoid it, but it has tremendous value. Oh, huge, huge value, huge physique value. And it was one of my secret weapons. I think you said this, Justin, with your female clients. It was a secret weapon because nobody ever trains that way. Look, I tell you what, you add 15 to 50 pounds on a compound lift, you're going to look different. Okay. Does, it doesn't just happen. You, you're going to look different and you're going to have some muscle. There's a direct relationship. Now you can get stuck here and staying here all the time, in which case now you're, now you're straight powerlifting. Yeah. But if you do it, I suggest people try it for four, five, six weeks, see what happens. Go back to the other way of training and you hit the nail on the head at them. You go back to hypertrophy training and it's like, boom. Oh my gosh, what's happened? I noticed like, and I don't know, this is like the CNS benefit that I got from it, but the, the control of, of weight, uh, when I went to other, like it reminded me of, uh, you know, I, I've told this story before. I think you guys have shared similar stories of when I was really young and lifting, I was lifting with these older guys that were like these big buff, like power lifter, bodybuilder type dudes and they, they love to go super heavy. And I remember like the first time that they made me squat, like, like, and for me back then, like two plates was unheard of. Like I could barely squat a plate back, back this far back, right? And I remember them sticking two plates on my back. I'm like, I can barely do one plate. There's no way. Like I can't, he's like, I just want you to feel the weight and just getting onto there and he would make me unrack it and then just stand there and just let my, let my body adapt to not the, the, the verbiage that he used back then, I don't think he was communicating it the same way we would probably today. When you talk about what your central nervous system is having to do to adapt and figure that out. But I think there's something there that when you go and you lift close to your max load like that and you get good at generating all that force like Justin loves to talk about, you then go back to this five or 10 or 15 rep. And I just had this different control of the weight. It now seems so easy to control this five or eight rep set where maybe before I would feel myself a little unstable at first and kind of adapting to get used to it where I'm now I've trained in a block where I'm lifting singles, doubles and triples. I'm lifting significantly more weight than what I'm now doing when I'm doing eight reps. So that just the control of the, of the weight seems so easy. Look, it's, uh, there's, there's, I mean, there's more than this, but to simplify, there's two things that are lifting the weight. There's your muscles. And then there's the command center, the central nervous system that's telling your muscles what to do. The central nervous system can fire harder. It can fire more efficiently. It could make, make your muscles perform better. And your muscles can get bigger and that'll also make them perform better. They're all connected. So if you want to see what an extreme on one end looks like, you look at an Olympic lifter. You have a hundred and 85 pound, you know, male Olympic champion whose lifting weights that a 280 pound bodybuilder could only dream of lifting. How is that possible when he's 185 pounds? His central nervous system fires with incredible power, effectiveness and efficiency. And then on the flip side of the other extreme, you have a bodybuilder who learns how to maximize the muscle. So the muscles are big. Now, is there value in both? You better believe it. If you can do both and train both very well, you'll develop this very balanced, strong, incredible physique that will last you your whole life, not just focusing on one or the other. Welcome back to the best podcast on YouTube ever. Mind pump. All right. Here's the giveaway for today. Maps symmetry. This is a program designed to balance out your right and left side to give you a symmetrical sculpted physique. And you can get it for free, but here's what you got to do. Leave a comment in the first 24 hours that we dropped this episode, subscribe to this channel, turn on notifications. By the way, you got to check out our other channel, Mind Pump Clips. This is where we do short clips of really cool things that we said about exercises and workouts. So if you just want to consume a ton of knowledge, Mind Pump Clips is the place to go. But anyway, subscribe to this channel, turn on notifications. If we like your comment underneath, we'll notify you and then you'll get free access to map symmetry. Also running a sale this month. Okay, so we have a workout program bundle that we put 50% off and then we have an individual workout program that we put 50% off. So the bundle is the shredded summer bundle. Maps aesthetic, maps hit, maps prime and the intuitive nutrition guide. So that's 50% off. And then the individual program that's on sale is just maps hit. So that's also 50% off. So if you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code June 50 for that discount. All right. Here comes the show. I want to talk about something really interesting that I've been observing at home. You know, I was talking to Doug about this and Doug Doug said, you know, how kids are so like in tune to things because they don't necessarily have words or things that get in the way. So let me let me tell you guys, you know, little kids or what kind of kids little kids, little kids. So before we even knew this is a while back before we even knew Jessica was pregnant, my my baby son Aurelius would go up to her was going up to her tummy. He'd lift her shirt and he'd hug her and then he'd make this little voice where you go, oh, he does that whenever he plays with like stuffed animals or whatever. And we're like, what's he doing? So weird. And he'd like squeeze her stomach and hug it. And then we found out she was pregnant. We're like, this is so weird. He still does this. He goes up to her belly lifts her shirt. And he and he you could tell he's like playing with a baby. Yeah, so freaking weird. I mean, a year and a half years old. Yeah, it's like he knows something's in there. So strange. Well, don't you believe? I mean, I brought this up when Max was really young and I was going through all this. I mean, I believe that and we've seen examples of this like in adults, right? So if you're an adult who like was born deaf, right? Or you can't see, yeah, other senses are heightened. You're more in tune to them, right? Yeah, those other senses become very heightened because you become attendant that body adapts like, oh, you no longer have your sight. So then all of a sudden you're you're hearing your smell. Those things get super heightened for that person. Like, so you think as a baby, when you haven't developed like the ability to communicate as well, even their sight isn't all the way there. They're relying on other senses to feel the smell, like the energy and they don't have the doubt. Like they don't have the voice that says, ah, that's silly. Yeah, you don't even know anybody. They have to go fully off into. So I totally believe that's why I think the way we are as parents around them at that young of an age is so, so much more impactful than I think we even communicate and talk about because we just assume like, oh, they're not fully developed yet and they're not, they can't communicate. And they're never going to remember what mom and dad were saying or doing. It's like, I don't believe that. Maybe they'll never be able to communicate it and say it. But I think it's being downloaded. And I think that their senses are extremely heightened and they pick up. I mean, I notice it just the other like last night, the Warriors are playing and Katrina and I are like, our energy was so hyped because of the game. And I could tell that Max wasn't sure how to read it. Like, because we're not like that normally, we're very even kill most of the time. It's not like mom and dad yelling at the screen and like getting all into it, both of us. And he's, you could tell he was trying to fill us out. Like he'd walk over and he would tell Katrina, stop, stop. That's his new thing right now. That's his new thing. I don't know where he learned this. This is the funniest thing ever though. Like, you'll be like, we'll be talking. Katrina will be talking and he'll come walk over, stop. So, or I'll be tickling him and like play with him. Stop, stop. So, what did you do that? You guys are on your phone. He goes like, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's hilarious right now. So, he's, this is like one of the new tendencies that, but I mean, I noticed that last night because I mean, and I made a comment to Katrina and I was like, oh, wow, I wonder if he thinks that like we're angry or we're mad because we're like yelling at the screen and stuff like that because we're just not like that. And I could see it changed his behavior and him trying to piece it together and figure out what it is. So, I totally think that. They just have a different consciousness. They're just experiencing. Jessica said something to me interesting a long time ago. She said, don't tell, don't tell him that's a flower. Just let him experience it. And I thought about that. I'm like, what do you mean by that? She goes, because once you say what it is and you name it, then you create this expectation or rather they experience it. They don't know what it is. Have them look at it and observe it. And you can even do this to yourself. You could look at something and try to eliminate your preconceived understanding and notions and just experience the thing. It's a very strange, if you've ever, and it's really hard to do, I've been able to do it a few times. It's a very weird, sometimes a little scary feeling. You want to snap back in. Well, I remember when we were going through the speech therapists with Max and one of the things that they teach you to do is to kind of along the lines of what you're saying right now, a bad habit that we have as parents is when you have a kid that's that young that's developing is they see a flower and you tell them right away versus allowing them to try and piece it together first, right? So, you know, you always want to have that pause. So like when I'm reading a book to him for the first time and I want him to figure it out, is you want to wait versus always giving them the answer. Like, oh, that's like, there's a video I posted a while back of Max on my story of he has all these Mario carts and there's like all the characters, you know, Yoshi, Luigi, Mario and like instead of me telling him who they all are, I let and then I let him be challenged and you could see he's getting frustrated that he can't remember, but I know he knows it's been said before and so really giving them that time to allow that to make that connection and then communicate versus just telling them all the time. Here's how it is. Yes, yes. Yeah, it's interesting to hear because like I'm at the point now where I'm, I'm, you know, putting the kids to bed and then with Everett, I'm making him read for me. And so it's like the role had kind of flipped and I want to see like how he thinks about it. I want to see like, you know, like the way he pronounces certain words and like, if he struggles with the bigger words or if he doesn't and so, and he's actually doing really good in terms of like his verbal fluency and like how he understands things. And to the point where he's actually like, he's starting to mess with me a bit. And so we're like reading the story and I'm like, okay, yeah, that's how you pronounce it. Sometimes I'll help him out. And then he's like kind of going through with his finger, just kind of like reading it and whatever. And so he'll, he'll keep reading and then he starts to block out words and he's starting to figure out ways of like, sort of like omitting certain things. So they, they look totally inappropriate. Oh God, that's your son. Yeah. That is your son, bro. I was like, oh my God, he's a figure on his own, figured this out, right? So we're reading like a whole just, you know, fun facts about dogs and whatever. And so there was this one dog, I think it was called like the Essex Spaniel. And so he just like omits the first part and the last part. And he's just like right here and he's kind of looking at me like, seeing if I see it and then he starts laughing. It said sex spa. I was like, dude, what? What? Like he just knows their words are inappropriate. He doesn't really know it. Like, you know, it means. Every once in a while, your genetics come out and you're like, oh, there's my genetics right there. I didn't even know what this means, but I was dying. I was on the floor. I love that. You know what else was really cool? This was a big, like, you know, I didn't do this with my older kids because I just didn't understand. Like when you're, you're trying to clean up the kitchen and you're trying to hurry so that you can then play with your kid. Versus integrating him. Yeah. So it's like, it's like, you know, my youngest, he's like trying to help and I'm moving him out of the way so I can go fast so we can go play. And then, you know, Jessica's like, well, that is play. Like, have him help you. So it'll take much longer, but that's then part of the play. Like, oh my God. Like, I can't believe I was like, hurry up. Not only that, I think, I was telling Katrina that. So now he puts away the dishes and stuff and it's all part of the game. Yeah. I also think that, I mean, not only is it become like play and fun for them, but you're also setting the table for the future. Totally. That's a normal behavior now. Totally. To help mom out, clean. You help mom out with making the dinner. You help, like, the dishwasher. Like, that's a real. You know how good that is for them to feel like they are a part. Yes. Yeah. It makes it makes a huge difference because they feel like they're contributing and helping out. And we did this. So I'm doing this right now. I'm getting him ready because he's going to have a baby sister. And I did this with my oldest when his sister was born. And if you, we see him now, like there's not a shred of envy or jealousy from my oldest with his sister because he was so we made sure he was involved. So I'm doing that with Aurelius too. And I bought him like this. I think it's called a squishmallow. It's like these stuffies that, you know, I don't know, the kids love them. So now that's his baby. I got him a stroller. I put it in there. He gives the baby a walk. I have him change the baby's diaper. He's like, so that when his sister's born, he's going to be super involved. But it's funny because he's totally embraced this, right? So the other day he was running with his squishmallow and he bails hard. And you're like worried about him, you know? And he gets up and he goes, my baby. The way he says it is so funny. My baby. He was like, what? And he didn't have the pinchers. He said, my baby, my baby. My baby. That's hilarious. Just the way he says it. Where are you guys at right now with his sleep training? How's that been? Oh, he sleeps good. Yeah, so you guys have a routine now? And does he sleep at night? Yeah, no, there's no more. I mean, he's still a light sleeper in the morning. So around 5 a.m., 6 a.m., that's like the, you got to be careful if you make any noise. So wake up and that's it. You won't go back down. But no, he goes to bed or goes to sleep. It's super easy now. Sleeps most of the night. Unless, of course, he's not feeling good or something like that, but it's way better. Thank God. I hope this next one doesn't have the same challenges because that was such a ho. I mean, you guys, it's not bad. I mean, he's barely over a year. So you guys got that done by a year. So I mean- But there was a period there. Well, I remember you guys having a really hard time with the sleep for a while there. But I mean, that's kind of normal for everybody to kind of take a little bit of time to figure it out till one. Well, you know what I noticed? Either your kid has challenges of sleeping or they have challenges with eating or something like one of those common ones. So really, this was sleep. Food never an issue. I've seen parents where we'll have friends and they'll be like, oh, our kid goes right to sleep. Oh my God, trying to feed them is the hardest thing in the world. So I mean, pick your poison. You know what I mean? We're gonna have to, I mean, I feel like the sleep training thing never stops. I think you're always, I mean, hopefully- You get regressives constantly. Yeah, yeah. Up until like five. Yeah, you feel like you're, oh yeah, things are going great. And that's like, oh, like right now we're in the middle of having to break him again because we went on that run from like October of last year till now before we did the surgery of him just being sick. And so when he's sick, like I'm totally flexible with him like coming in. The guy feels terrible, he can't breathe. Like, so when we would put him down, he'd wake up around like midnight or one and then he'd come in the room and then he would climb in the bed. But now he's feeling much better and we're back on the recovery, but then he's been trained so well to like just come in there all the time. And so having to re-break that of like, okay, stay in your bed, dude, let's get back to bed. So we're working on that again right now. Dude, I read this article on a study. And you know, these studies just keep confirming old wisdom, but it was a study done on, God, what are they, they're not Native Americans. They're in Canada, what do they call them? They have another term for them. Inuit? No, no, no, there's a like traditional, I don't remember what they're, but it's the natives of Canada, okay? And there was a study that was done on the best type of diet for them because their rate of diabetes and obesity was even higher than the Europeans that came to Canada or whatnot. So, and you see that here in the US as well. And in the study, okay, here's one of those duh studies, they found that the traditional diet was absolutely the best for them. In other words, eating the way that their ancestors ate produced the best outcomes. And I think that this is indigenous peoples, thank you. The first nations, yes. So this is true, this is true, somewhat true across the board, generally true, I should say, because there's always individual variances, but traditional diets work best for most people. And the question is why, why is that? Because our bodies didn't evolve in a vacuum. We co-evolved with our environment. We evolved to the point where the foods that were available that we ate and the way we prepared them is what are the people that survived and procreated, that was what was best for them. So if you're ever like curious or confused as to what the best diet is for you, a great way to start is to go with it, what they would call ancestral or traditional type of diet. It works for, generally speaking, it works best for most people. I mean, isn't this where you start kind of factoring in some of those epigenetic variables where it's like whatever your potential to unlock and express based off of your past history, you may have like a certain intolerances or certain things that you may find based off of what your gene pool had previous to you. 100%, absolutely. This is why I don't like though, when they take from like a very specific blue zone and then whatever diet that they're running in there and try and make the case and argument that that's the diet for everybody. We had somebody on our YouTube channel, like a couple, I don't know, maybe a month ago or a week ago, I was kind of going back and forth with them because they're some vegan advocate and they live down in Lolo Limo or Lolindo, what's the blue zone? Loma Linda. Loma Linda. And what's the seventh day adventist? Yeah, and I think they're all, are they vegan? Is that what the? Vegetarian, so and it's part of their religion. So they're really strict about it. But there's other things that they're also part of the religion that have to do with health as well. So there's a lot of living people. Well of course, yeah, community and they're walked or out by sun. Like there's a lot, that's what I'm saying. Like, and so because they, this person was arguing with me back and forth and like, I live here, I know. You know, it's like, okay, dude. I'm like, whatever, you just keep believing that. They keep drinking the Kool-Aid that for you, for that group, for that area, like that has worked really, really well for those people. That doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the world are gonna get the same results as that, that community did for the, because that probably goes back like hundreds of years of people eating that way. Also what it is, people are looking at the wrong things. They're looking at the diet and saying it's the lack of meat. That's not what it is. If you look at traditional diets across the world and you look at long living peoples across the world, there's commonalities among them. Now, some of them are higher protein, higher fat. Some of them are higher carbohydrate. But here's the commonalities. They're all whole food-based, okay? None of them are heavily processed food-based. Number two, none of them overeat. So whether it's a traditional diet that is lots of goat cheese and goat meat and goat milk and berries, or it's a diet that's high in tubers and certain starches and fruit and fish, what you find is whole natural foods, they don't overeat and there's some form of daily activity and then there's community. Those are the things that they all have in common. So when I say about traditional diet, that's where you should start. Then if you wanna get into the details and say, oh, I do better with carbs, I do better with protein, I do better with fats, I do better with meat or fish, that's totally fine. But that's what you find, what you won't find are any traditional diets that are high in packaged processed foods or that are super high in calories. That's it. Well, what is there? Seven or eight blue zones in the world? Yeah. And I don't think any of them are that, like as far as- Identical? Yeah, identical as far as their diet. Or all over the port. No, the longest living men in the world are in Sardinia. This is an island off the coast of Italy. Okay, so I have family in Sardinia, so I have a little bit of insight on how they eat. If you live on the coast, you eat a lot of fish. You live in the hills and the mountains, you eat a lot of products from goat and pork, okay? In fact, old school, there were people that lived in the mountains, they didn't even know how to swim, okay? But they were active every single day. It was whole natural foods and they didn't overeat, you know, it was like one larger meal and then like really small meals in the morning and that was pretty much it. Do you ever think we're gonna be able to really pinpoint this to the individual in terms of like tying in ancestry.com with like, you know, your whole nutritional profile and then kind of linking, tracing back like what's worked in the past within, you know, your own specific environment now and all that kind of stuff. I agree with Adam. I think a CGM is one step towards that. Where a CGM, you see your individual blood glucose response, okay? Which can be very different from person to person. It's really interesting. Like there's people that have, that we've observed have a glucose response that's high to like avocado, like a bunch of fat, like what the hell? Obviously they have some kind of intolerance so it's an immune response. So CGM is the first step and then I think the next step will be monitoring other reactionary factors like inflammatory markers and stuff like that. But CGM is pretty damn good. And with Nutrasense, which is that's what a company we invested in, you actually work with a dietitian that helps kind of pinpoint. That's about as individualized as it can get right now. I don't know anything else that gets more yeah, that's pretty specific to the individual which is cool to see that. And I mean, we all had hopes for that with CGM being more of like a mainstream thing because before that it was like medical and you had to like go through your doctor to kind of receive one. No, well it's moving that way right now. I read, I forgot what the statistics were on the amount of people that use glucose monitors and where it was just a year or two ago, where it's at now and where they project it in the next year or two. So it's making its way to mainstream. Could you imagine if we had this tool as trainers? Oh, I know, I would have ran laps with this. It would have been awesome to get that insight. You could show your client and say, hey, look, your glucose spiked here. Well, I didn't eat anything. Well, yeah, but something stressful happened. Oh yeah, I got an argument with my daughter. Or oh my God, lack of sleep is causing that? And say, look, when it drops after the peak, do you remember how you felt at that time? Oh my God, I was cravings or I felt irritable. So they start to connect. I can't get more individualized in that. We used to just base it off of reporting how you feel and stuff, which through that process is you can get really good too, but it's not as objective where you see the number and the data and it's right there. I mean, I've identified for myself that the best foods, and I know a lot of people like this too, the best foods for me are typically meats. Red meats, I do really, really well. Same, yeah. Really well with red meats. I do better with red meat than I do with chicken, and I do good with chicken, and even better than fish. When I eat a diet that's higher in either ground beef or bison or just, of course, steaks, I just feel my absolute best. You say that, but I actually, for me personally, I feel I do better with white meats and fishes, and then if I do red meat, I can actually tell a difference. So last night, we actually had lettuce wraps from five guys, and even though it was a lettuce wrap, I didn't have the gluten and stuff like that, I still, the cheese and the meat, the combination of two of those. The inflammatory for you? Yep, still, and, but I do that, now if I were to do that with like grass-fed beef, I don't get the same feeling. Wow. So I notice a difference between even- Even if you had the cheese? So that's, so what I haven't teased out yet is to see if it's more the red meat that I'm getting from them that's not grass-fed or it's the combination of both that and the cheese or the cheese. I don't think it's a cheese because I'll have dairy in other aspects of my diet, and it by itself is not enough. I feel like it's the combo that insults it enough to where I get this inflammatory response. So I get really bloated from it. Like that's a light meal for me to have two burgers in a lettuce wrap. It's not a lot of calories, but afterwards I literally feel like I'm super bloated. Now it goes away by morning time, so I'm fine, but the initial response, I feel that way. And it sucks because I love it and it going down and it's easy and convenient. It's one of Katrina's favorite meals. She doesn't get that reaction to it. If I go have like our grass-fed beef, I don't feel that way. So the majority of the meat that I eat is from butcher box, so it's all grass-fed. But I also noticed that if I go off that and I eat a lot of, I don't know, conventional red meat, that it doesn't feel quite as, so it's got to be the fatty acid profiles of what I would point to. Because that's the biggest difference. I think it's the combo because maybe that by itself doesn't, but with the cheese also, because cheese by itself doesn't, I have cheese on all kinds of stuff, and it doesn't bother me the same way. Like we have one of our favorite dishes, we do shredded cheese, avocado, rice, and like make like almost like a burrito bowl or a homemade burrito bowl. I crush that all the time. No problems. Katrina makes this healthy kind of lasagna pasta dish that we make that's got cheese all over it. Because it's not grass-fed, so it's going to be higher in the Omega-6s. Obviously saturated fat cheese, very high in saturated fat and Omega-6s. They use the plastic cheese though. That's like the American, like it's the, to me, that's not even real cheese. Like let's be honest. So that's what it could be, right? Like I'm getting that kind of crappy fake cheese. I'm getting that the highest quality of beef and the combo of both of them. And if it's a crazy storm, if I have it on a bun, if I have it on a bun, like- For a gluten on top of it. Yeah, yeah. Then it's just, it sucks that I get that reaction that way. Have you guys tried the, they have this pack, I don't know if it's available anymore, but it's like a Soprasata, you know, Capicola Mortadella type deal from Butcherbox. So it's got like the Italian deli meats, but they're all minimally processed, no nitrates. No. Oh, bro. It's, I mean, I love that. I grew up eating that kind of stuff where my family would smuggle it from Italy. You literally had to smuggle it, by the way. Don't they have like charcuterie stuff? That's what I mean. That's what you're talking about, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's so good, dude. I'm a big charcuterie, yeah. Yeah, I know. Butcherbox has that? They, I was, I've ordered it now two or three times. I don't know if it's still available. So now you can do add-ons. You can, you can do an add-on and it'll give you the sliced, you know, like Italian style charcuterie type deli meat. And it's really fricking good. Oh, I love it. Doug just pulled up. American cheese isn't even considered to be real cheese. It's called a pasteurized cheese product. Isn't that funny? Yeah, that is funny. Pasteurized. It's called American cheese, yeah. And it's only used your 51% real cheese, so 49 of that shit's fake. If it says cheese product. Yeah, even real, dude. Then you know. I remember one time I- I wonder if that's, I say, so I wonder if that's an FDA thing, like the fact that it's 51, they can call it cheese. If it was 49 and flipped the other way, they could call it cheese. You're 100% right. But they can't call it cheese, they can call it a cheese product. Like it has to be 70%. Cheese-like, yeah. I remember one time buying candy for, it was for Easter and there was this chocolate bunny and it was like inexpensive or whatever. And I looked at it and it said chocolate flavored candy. And I'm like, wait a minute. What's the difference between chocolate and chocolate flavored candy? Just like wax? Yeah, I didn't buy it. It's probably what it is. Yeah, probably like a wax, right? I didn't buy it. I was like, oh, I get the one that says chocolate. Not the chocolate flavored one. Oh, wow. Hey, check this out. Look, there's a lot of companies out there that sell vitamins and nutrients, but the problem is you don't absorb them well, okay? Enter a company we work with called Live On Labs. They use liposomal technology. Now, to kind of not go too deep into the weeds, what this is, is they take these nutrients, they surround them with a liposome, which is usually phosphatidylserine or something like that. And that allows it to get to the target tissues. So the absorption rate is much higher. In fact, if you were to take regular glutathione versus liposomal glutathione, only liposomal glutathione will raise glutathione levels in your blood. So this company, Live On Labs, does this with all their nutrients. And right now, you can actually get lipoglutathione for free when you bundle it with B Complex and Vitamin C. This is a promotion they're running right now. So go check this company out. Go to liveonlabs.com. That's L-I-V-O-N-L-A-B-S.com forward slash M-P for that offer. All right, here comes the rest of the show. Our first question is from Danny H. Z. What are your guy's thoughts on the keto diet for muscle growth? Sucks, unless you're a buck 05. That's right. Next question? There you go. That's not it right there. I mean, it's kind of true though. It's kind of true. There's general, I mean, we can answer this generally, but then of course, on an individual basis. That's just my opinion. There's definitely cases where this is a good idea. Generally speaking, it's really hard to gain size and strength on a ketogenic diet just because it's so hard to eat the right amount of calories. Yeah, calories are so low in this diet. It's just, and you wouldn't think so, right? Because keto's high in fat, fat's high in calories, but it's so satiating. It's really hard to eat in a bulk this way, and that makes it tough. And then carbohydrates are also great for performance. So studies are pretty clear on this. For maximal strength, carbohydrates give you better strength. Ketogenic diets for like long, stamina, endurance can be pretty good, but for strength, not so great. But I had challenges with this just because I couldn't eat enough. It was just so filling. I was like, I can't eat another avocado. I can't eat more steak and bacon. Where it makes sense, and I'll steal what you, I'm sure you would say anyways, is that if you're somebody who, if you don't eat the ketogenic diet, like you have issues, right? So if you have all kinds of autoimmune issues and your guts all messed up, and the only way you feel good is by eating a ketogenic diet, then it is the best diet for you to build muscle on. Because you're healthy now. If you're performing better. Yes, if you're following the ketogenic diet because you find that it helps keep you better about eating lesser calories and you are your friends doing it. And so you want to try it too. And it's worked well for losing body fat. And now you're asking, is this a good diet for me to try and build muscle on? I would say absolutely not. That was, so when I went through it years ago on the podcast, when it was just getting really popular, for shits and giggles, we all decided to do it, right? Let's just see how we feel. We'll go through it. Not any of us felt that we needed to or had to. I think Sal was feeling good on it. And that was kind of what promoted all of us to like, okay, let's give it a whirl and see how we all feel. I was in the height of competing at that time and was eating close to 5,000, 4,500 to 5,000 calories or so, give or take. And it was really tough just to hit my maintenance for that. So much less if I had to build or grow. It's just so satiating. Yeah, and what I found was in order to hit my calorie intake from my side, and that's why I made the joke of a few 105 pounds, maybe, okay? But if you, in order for me to hit 4,000 plus calories, I found myself eating tons of macadamia nuts, butter, avocado, just there was a handful of foods I was eating a lot of. Super limited. Yeah, I was very limited on my choices to fill those calories up. And I remember thinking to myself like, this can't be ideal for me to be consuming this much of the same foods just so I could hit the calorie intake. I wonder if this question was spurred because of like Dom Di Agostino, right? Cause he did a deadlift. I remember from like being in a fasted state or even like going through the ketogenic diet quite a bit. And he's a really strong guy. And it's like, we just have this sort of again, like looking at somebody else and thinking that that might work for you individually, it definitely is, the variances are crazy. Yeah, so I mean, I've had on and off gut health issues and a ketogenic style diet in the past has been good for my gut health issues. Carbohydrates tend to aggravate them. So in the past, when this would happen, I would eliminate carbohydrates, I'd increase my fat intake, keep my protein intake high, and it would improve my health and that's what made it a good diet for me for strength and for muscle because the other option was to feel inflamed and bloated and have gut issues, right? So if it makes you healthier, it's gonna work for you. Now, today my gut issues right now are all but nonexistent. So now I eat carbohydrates because it works better for me. I'm stronger and I feel better, but I will say this, I do notice a difference in my mental clarity between the two. If I wanna be mentally sharp, if I get my body to run off of ketones, I do feel very sharp. And I've heard people talk about this. I don't think this is true for everybody though, but for me personally, even now, I know that if I'm gonna be on a podcast or I'm gonna do something where I wanna be really, really sharp, I'll avoid carbohydrates for two or three days. You're going off of ketones, yeah. It does the same for me in terms of mental clarity. This is another question too that highlights why I'm so annoyed by diets in general though too. Like, okay, so let's take you for example, there's very few people that I know that are like, what is, Makayla Peterson, right? That where she was like just everything affected her and the only thing that didn't make her feel terrible was just meat, right? Very few clients I've ever met are like that. Super rare. A lot of clients I've met, there's specific carbohydrates that they're doing, primarily things like gluten and sugars and stuff like that that tend to upset them, but things like rice, sweet potato, yams, I've yet to meet a client that can't digest that and doesn't feel good eating that. So why follow a diet as specific as like the carnivore, the keto diet? If those things don't make you feel bad, why not run a keto-ish or carnivore-ish diet where you eat primarily meat, but then you allow yourself to have these things like rice, sweet potato, yams, maybe some vegetables that don't bother you. Yeah, or fruit, right? That doesn't bother you, that really will compliment those energy levels, will help compliment building muscle. Like this idea that we, if we decide that we're gonna go keto or we're gonna go carnivore, that we have to like follow the guidelines. Like I have to be so strict about it. It's like, well, maybe what it is that makes you feel so good about following that diet was certain things that you eliminated. That's what, in my experience, whether it be a client that swears by being vegan, a client that swears by being keto or swears by being carnivore or swears by being paleo, it's not the fucking diet. It's what they got rid of in their diet that was previous. And so instead of falling in love with these diets and saying, oh, I need to follow this diet, maybe look into what was it you were eating before that didn't make you feel well, keep that out the fucking diet, but then start to introduce some of these other foods that have tremendous value for you. Yeah, and also it changes as you get older, as the context of your life changes. I know, for example, for me and for a lot of people I've worked with, a ketogenic-style diet is very satiating, okay? That might make it a good option for cutting. It is for me. If I'm trying to get leaner, then I tend to go higher fat, lower carbohydrate with my lower calorie, just because it's easier for me to deal with hunger. And so I have less of the hunger, less of the cravings as a result. Also, I said earlier, mental sharpness, it's on a different level when I ketogenic. So I'll modify it depending on when I need that kind of stuff. Or if I'm feeling kind of down or tired, I may eat that way. Or if I wanna go on a strength cycle, I wanna start adding muscle. Well, that's when I'll throw the carbohydrates in. So this is where it's really good to know yourself, know what works for you, and then always stay open because things can change. Your body can change, your reactions to food changes. And this is what allows you, because if your diet is rigid, your lifestyle's not the same. Your lifestyle's not rigid. So if everything stayed exactly the same all the time, you never aged, you slept the exact same, all your stress was the same, everything was identical. Yeah, well then you got your diet that works, so stick to that. But things change. It only makes sense that your diet should change along with it. Next question is from Dukali84. How do you get yourself back into lifting when depression has taken over? This is discipline. This is where discipline kicks in. So you're not gonna have your best workouts. You're not gonna have your kick-ass fun workouts. What you're gonna do is you're just gonna do it and just go through the motions. And it's way better than not doing it. And I've gone through periods of this where I went through a really, really tough period years ago in my life, and there was a lot of really challenging things that happened and my workouts sucked, but I showed up and I literally went through the motions and it really helped a lot. And Arthur Brooks is an expert on happiness and I always turn to him for stuff like this and he says, you know, when you're feeling really down, oftentimes the things you don't wanna do is exactly what you need to do. So like, when you're depressed, you wanna be alone, you don't wanna talk to anyone. He's like, that's when you should probably go and be around people. Yeah, you know, or go outside. Oh, I really don't wanna go outside. It always says, you know, just kinda do it, go through the motions. So that's the discipline part. What you don't wanna do is allow your feelings necessarily to dictate what you do and what you don't do in terms of taking care of yourself because when you feel down, you get this feedback loop where I feel down, I don't wanna work out, I don't wanna move, not working out, not moving makes me feel worse and then you kinda goes down. And this is especially important to, you know, start getting rid of that pressure in terms of like having to be so effective and productive in the gym and crush your workouts. Like, you know, this is still something that a lot of people struggle with in terms of like, is it even worth my time to go, even if it's like the shortened amount of time or I just don't feel like I have that kind of energy to really get after it. Well, just moving in general, but also like just going through those exercises that maybe a lower weight will help to start, at least stimulating that and pull that momentum back up so you can build upon that again. So I like what you said, and not necessarily that I disagree with Sal, but I think one of the things, and I've been through this before, that used to hang me up and I think where is, people have this idea that, you know, oh, you just gotta discipline yourself and you just have to get through it and that's the best thing for you. But it's, that seems like such an overwhelming task when you're in that space, when you're depressed, when you don't wanna move, when you wanna do anything. An hour workout sometimes sounds really hard. So the strategy that I have for myself employed is, okay, I'm not gonna say that I have to do this hour workout and follow all of my MAPS anabolic routine. I'm just gonna go there. And maybe I'm just gonna do, maybe what I'll do is I'll set the bar really low. I'm just gonna do a set of squats. One, one set, and what you'll find out is if you set that bar really low, and that's not a waste of your time, that's better than what you were potentially gonna do, which is gonna sit on the couch and feel sorry for yourself. So all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna go over there and I'm just gonna do one set, one set, I could do, anybody could do one set of something, right? So I'm gonna give myself this really, and what ends up happening is go like, oh, I can do another one. Well, I'm still here. Yeah, I'm here already, the bar, the weight, so I can do one more. But it's a win even if you just did one. Well, that, you're right. It is, you can just walk out. That's why, and you gotta have, you're gonna be okay with that. We look at it as like it has to be this kind of all or nothing thing where it's like, oh, either I'm sitting on the couch doing nothing, or it's like, oh, I gotta really push myself and get in the gym. It's like, no, you don't. Go in there and just go do one set, and give yourself that freedom to potentially just go do one set, saying, you know what, I'm just not feeling too heavy. That's exactly what I did. So I mean, to get more specific, and I had somebody tell me this once for writing content, because I remember, if I'm really in the mood, I can write so much content. If I'm not in the mood, it's really challenging, and I told a friend of mine who, they were a writer, and they said, well, here's what you do. Every day, if you have a big project, every day schedule, whatever it is, 30 minutes or an hour, and the only thing you're gonna do is you're sitting in front of your computer, and do nothing else. If you write, you're right. If you don't, you don't. But you got that hour to sit there. And I did that, and it was so effective. Now, there was some times where I just sat there, and that was the deal I made myself. I'm just gonna sit here and not do anything else. Sometimes you just stare at the screen. Right, but usually I would write at least a sentence or a paragraph. So that's exactly what I do with my workouts is I showed up, and I'll give you some examples of my workouts to look like. I would, and this was, I mean, this was a really hard time. I had somebody really close to me that was slowly dying, and I was going through divorces. It was all within the course of a two, three-year period. I showed up to my gym, and I said, okay, I don't remember what the time was, but it's like from 12 to one is my workout time. And I'd sit down, and I'd sit on the bench, and I'd look at the clock, and sometimes I'd go do a set of squats, other times I would just stretch. Sometimes I'd do three or four exercises, but I would do something, and I was there and I showed up, and it kept me afloat. It really did keep, that's what I mean by go through the motions. It's like, that's the discipline part. As you show up, and you say, okay, I'm gonna try and do something, even if it's the smallest thing, but one thing you have to understand is it's not gonna be your PR kick ass. If that's your mindset, and you think, well, these are what my workouts have to look like, then you're gonna be disappointed. You're not gonna wanna do anything. Next question is from James Ayres, 95. I'm six weeks into my summer cut, and I just hit a squat PR. How does this happen? Oh, man. This has happened to me before. And it's happened to me too. Yeah, this is when your workout programming is so damn good that you get better at the lift. Your skill improves, your CNS fires better, and you actually are able to lift more. A lot of strength is a skill, a lot of it. It's not just the size of your muscles, but the skill of the lift and the technique. Continual practice of it. Yes, yes. So this is happening to me before we're all going to cut. And because my programming is so dialed, I'll see my strength. This is, by the way, this is like the best place to be on a cut. If you get stronger on a cut, you are really moving in the right direction. I actually experienced this quite a bit when I was competing, and I attribute obviously good programming because I had to be during that time, and just consistent. And never in my entire lifting career had been so consistent, and that just highlights what you're saying that it's such a skill, especially with things like squatting and deadlifting. And never in my life had I strong months and months and months of not missing and being showing up and showing up, regardless of my calories were up or my calories were down. And so many times I would be in a cut getting ready for a show, but because of the consistency, the great programming, not missing any days, I would see like, oh my God, I just hit a squat PR. Oh my God, I just hit a deadlift PR. That's crazy, I'm in a calorie deficit. How is that possible? But it does, it highlights how much those movements are a skill and that if you are just consistent as shit with those things, how much that can start to build up? Yeah, I haven't had that quite as much. I mean, like one thing I did notice though was like as I cut down a bit, like my stamina was substantially better in the left too. So if I was doing a few reps, like I was able to feel stronger in that regard in terms of like getting through them like super easy. Yeah, I would say it's not common. If this happens to you, man, everything is working really well. You do see this though, when the cut improves someone's health. So I would see this with clients, but they're more like beginners, right? Where they're cutting and their health is improving and they haven't been lifting weights for five or 10 years. So it's like they've only been working out for a year or six months and then diet is really improving their health. And then you would see this, the strength come up through the roof because their health was a lot better. But if you've been dialed for five or six years or 10 years and you train really well and then you cut your calories, you can expect to at least not get stronger. So I don't want people to take the wrong thing away from this and be like, oh, my workout program. It's been an anomaly, but I have seen it happen for sure. Yeah, like I said, it's happened to me, but it's not, 95% of the time if I cut my calories, my strength, my goal is to keep my strength the same. Usually I see it go down. So that's the more common thing. But if you're one of those people, your strength goes up on a cut, like you are, this is amazing. Like you should bask in the glory of your workout program because it's amazing at that point. Next question is from Kirsten Kamura. What still surprises you guys about each other even after all these years of knowing each other so well and working together? Oh man, I'm gonna change the question because I don't think, well, maybe you guys, I don't think anything surprises me anymore with these guys. I've been, we've all been together now for eight years plus. So I would say what continues to impress me because I'm still impressed, but nothing surprises me. I feel like I think we've built a brotherhood and a bond and a consistency with each other for so long now. At least that's how I feel about you guys. Like when I think about- I don't like you guys that much. Like I can't remember the last time someone did something and I was like, wow, I was really surprised Sal did that. It's like, I feel like I know you all so well. That's true. But I'm continually impressed with what everybody individually does. So I would say- That's a good way to say it because I can agree with that. I think what's interesting is just when I think I figured one of you guys out, what I mean by that is like, oh, these are the challenges that they have. And this is the thing that they like or whatever. Everybody's so growth minded that what I expect now is the unexpected. So now I expect the unexpected. I expect that someone's gonna act in a way that is evolved from where they were yesterday. And that constantly happens. And what's cool about that is, and this is, I think one of the, my favorite things about working on this team is that it pushes me to do the same thing because otherwise I'm left in the dust. Everybody else keeps rising up. I'm a less than the dust if I don't do that for myself. And that's fun for me at least. I enjoy that. I think for me, yeah, it's just noticing those elevations within you guys and then seeing that and being like, oh wow, like Sal's on a new level. Adam's on a new level. Doug's really like killing it. And like for certain aspects of whatever we're handling within the business or just like the thought process now that goes into some of our content, you just start to see like just where we used to be and like what the struggles used to consist of. And then all of a sudden, now that's not even an issue. It's not even something we're even talking about or trying to figure out. Each individual person is figuring out their own way of elevating their process. Well, I'll go around and I'll be specific for the audience so they know because I do have things for you guys. Like one of the things that continues to, Jesus Christ, God, somebody in my eye. So you're gonna cry right now? Yeah. You wish. Oh, it's the emotional one. You wish to get that emotional one. No, I'll tell you something. Maybe I will, maybe I will when I get going here. One of the things that continues to impress me with Sal, right? So it doesn't matter what is going on in his personal life. He could be dealing with some crazy shit behind the scenes that nobody knows about whether it be someone in his family. Him and I could have just got into like a crazy fucking heated argument. He has had the ability to like turn it on immediately. I mean, we rely heavily on him to be the voice of the brand. He does the most interviews, he gets on big shows and it doesn't matter what's going on. His ability to turn it on and be professional and elevate us every single time is the consistency is unreal. And I think that it highlights the professionalism and talent to be able to do that. If you're feeling it and you're in the mood and you love what you do, it's easy to go out there and do it. But I think what separates, and I feel like this is like in sports too, like the greats have the ability to have a shitstorm going on in their life and then still be able to show up and perform at the highest level. So that continues to, now I'm not surprised by it anymore. So that's why it doesn't surprise me because we've been doing this for so long and there's been so many of those situations where I'm like, God damn dude, he just went from like yelling with me to like all of a sudden, hey, I'm Sal DiStefano. No, no, no, no. It's like, that's really, really good to be able to do that. The switch just goes on and on. Right, I've seen that so many times now that I'm never surprised, but I'm continually impressed by it. Justin has this ability to, no matter what critics say about him or think that what he needs to do, like he allows to, he shuts down all the noise about everybody else and continues to focus on himself and his personal growth and doesn't get distracted by that stuff. He's continued to take on so much responsibility that doesn't get a lot of knowledge, get acknowledgement because it's not like Sal where he's on the forefront and the voice and talking about it. There's so much that has to happen behind the scenes. He's gotta be one of the most secure people I know. That's right. And then also to share this platform with two motor mouths like myself and Sal and to not allow that to affect his ego. Behind the scenes, I've talked about our team. This is a perfect time to talk about this too because the Warriors just won the championship. I talk about how our team has that similar chemistry of you have the, and I would think of us as like the three core players and the Warriors and why they work so well is that none of them feel like they have to be the superstar, but yet all of them are true superstars. And Justin, I think is the glue to that. He embodies that the most, has the ability to bring as much to the table as the other guys, doesn't need the same attention from it, the same accolades from it. And so again, doesn't surprise me because I've known this guy for 15 years, it's why we were so good together back in the days. Similar to him and that Doug is like this. So hands down, nobody I think outworks anybody more, nobody outworks Doug. And they're in fact, if you were to probably ask the other guys, everything Doug does, I guarantee they would miss at least 75% of actually what he does. Probably truth. And he does, and he just does it. I think he just searches Google sometimes for us when we ask him. He does it so consistently and doesn't complain about it, doesn't bitch about it. He takes a lot of the stress and pressure of the ugliest part and the unfun part of the business, the parts that the other three guys definitely do not like to do, don't wanna do, but is necessary to scale something to this size. And it's not been for a stretch or he's hot for a while and then he's off and then he turns it on a little bit. He has been fucking consistent day in and day out for eight years and doesn't need anybody to pump his tires and tell him he's great. And again, it doesn't surprise me because I've been with him for eight years. So I know that he's just gonna show up every single day. And so, but it continues to impress me because I have my moments. Like I get hot and cold. Like we can talk to me about Moody. I have moments where I'm on fire. I'm hitting on all cylinders. I feel like I'm managing all these things. And the other times I'm like, fuck, I'm overwhelmed. And I'm like feeling sorry for myself. I feel like Doug is never like that. I feel like he handles more than anybody handles and he never needs anything about it and doesn't need anybody to tell him that he's doing a great job and he's just consistent. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Doug is a master splinter like with the Ninja Turtles. No, I swear to God, you know how many times I've looked back to how Doug reacted to some of the crazy stupid shit that we've done or wanted to do. And he's so ninja about it, he allows us to think that or feel like we're the ones that are doing it when in reality he's guiding us. And I only see it when I look back. I never see it in the moment. Like how many times we've done something and Doug's like, yeah, let's see, okay, we'll go with that, that's fine. And then what about this? And what about that? And then afterwards I'm like, God damn it, Doug totally moved that in the right direction. And you know why this is so like ninja because the three of us do not like to be told what to do. So the way he does it is so brilliant that like I said, I can't tell until I look back. So, and then I said that about you, Justin, just I've never met someone to secure with themselves as you, which is pretty cool because you let people be who they are. Cause when you're around someone that's really secure then you don't feel like you have to be anything. But Adam can see business trends and identify talent like a psychic. It's really interesting. Like he'll see things in the business cycle. He'll see things in people. He's the all watching eye. And he'll see talent and put things together like a genius and it's really, really interesting. He manages the business side of things and everybody else doesn't just let him do it. We're all happy that he does it cause he's the best at it. So no, it's pretty cool. It's a cool team to work with. And what's cool now is we're developing a team outside of what you guys see here on the show. That is really, I mean, we have a YouTube team now that we're all excited about. That's putting the show together on YouTube. So, and you'll notice that the show continues to improve on YouTube. And that's largely a result of this team that we're kind of putting together. So, but you know what, you know what's really cool about this and I like to go as a Tarik. So here I go. So everybody, everybody get ready. Sal's gonna get as a Tarik. Well, I, you know what it is is that the, the, the everybody is believes in the bigger purpose and what we're doing. So we have fun, we joke around, we talk about the business, but it all boils down to all of us really believe in what we're trying to do. And that has saved us a lot because there's many times we've turned down opportunities and money because it didn't jive with the bigger purpose. And on its surface, you would say stupid decision. You just turned down $50,000. You just turned down this big opportunity. And all of us, and even though we toy with the idea it always boils down to doesn't feel right. That's not, that's not, you know, in line with what we're trying to do. And then it works out. And then it works out. And it works out the way it's supposed to. So, it's really exciting. I think, you know, Sal and I voice our opinion. I really want to hear what Doug and Justin have to say about that. I think this is a really cool question to ask the two of you, what you think. And I'm sure the audience cares more about what you guys think actually. The observers. Yeah. Exactly. Because I feel like you guys are the ultimate observers and Sal and I constantly give it our opinions all the time. So, I believe the audience probably gives two shits with Sal and I think actually probably would like to hear from the two of you. There's definitely differences with you guys but there's also so many similarities. It's kind of crazy. And again, that's I think where sometimes there's a bit of a clash. But honestly, look at you two guys more as the push and the pull. And I think that Adam is amazing at keeping us really focused on growth and really like driving us further than I think we would go collectively on our own. I just really think that you are the best fitted for driving and steering us further than I would have thought we'd ever be. So, I think that's it's just been an amazing to see how you've been leading our team. And I definitely give you a lot of credit for that. And like everything else you do behind the scenes with managing, I mean, I don't even know how many people you manage. You manage to fucking everybody. So, and you don't get a lot of credit for that. And I want to make sure you're highlighted for that. And Sal is just a machine. I've never seen somebody like so just on the spot, just has like this fire hose of content ready to go. Like, I don't know how you do it. I know that like there's a lot of things in there that you banked over the years, but just your ability to communicate has made me better. Like I picked up a lot of that from you and that's been my biggest weakness. So, most of my ability now to communicate and talk through opinions and arguments and just conveying information has been a part of like how you communicate. It's really been helpful for me. And then just also to just keeping us grounded. So I think you probably do the best job of keeping us grounded on the mission like the integrity piece, like always just kind of filtering through whatever we're doing is like, is this really who we are? You know, is this what we're about? And I think that that's probably, you know, the biggest role here is, you know, you definitely like embody that. And then with Doug, it's, again, it's just it's rock solid Doug. Doug is the guy that just like, man, you don't even have to think that Doug is Doug doing something. He's Doug's doing something right now. And we were asking for questions. He's like doing some financials. He's doing, you know, he's talking to our accountant. He's like, you know, Doug is, again, to his ability to work and just stay consistent and just, you know, press. Like I haven't seen somebody work on that level before. And I think it's amazing, you know, and we were, again, we'd be dead without Doug. Let's be honest, like he just, he does so many things. So definitely want to give you credit for that. And also just like your attitude, I think is definitely what keeps us, and I'm trying to be in that kind of mentality of keeping it chill and like kind of bringing it back and calming us down sometimes because we get so hyped up. But Doug is definitely Zen. And we need you to always be Zen, Doug. I don't know how you're Zen when you're dealing, I hate financials. That would drive me insane. I would be constantly raking. He smiles too the whole time. I love it. So, but yeah, honestly, it's really cool to just see everybody in their roles just increasing their abilities and developing to a level I've never seen. It's called grin and bear it with the financials. I mean, I love what we do, but I hate half the things I do, okay? But I do it because I love it. But, you know, going back to you guys, I mean, Adam, I mean, you know, echoing what Justin said, you are the CEO of the company because you are the best at that. You see the big picture. Again, you're touching all types of things. I mean, you oftentimes bring up things like have we monetized YouTube clips yet? And it's like, you have your finger on the pulse of so many different things in the company. And I also wanna say that you have incredible negotiating skills. Oh yeah. I have listened to Adam on the phone with partners and he does not budge, you know? I'm the type of guy who would crumble under most of these circumstances. Like, okay, yeah, we'll give you more of this. We'll do that. No, Adam doesn't do that. He'll get you the best deal. He'll get you the best deal. So if you ever need anything negotiated, ask Adam. All the sponsors are not gonna call him anymore. We're gonna talk to Sal. They were still the potential ones. They're like, oh, we're gonna deal with that motherfucker anymore. Yikes. And as far as Sal is concerned, one of the things that always, it doesn't necessarily surprise me anymore, but every time it happens, I really enjoy it is that you're super empathetic. And so if somebody is having a challenge or just touching base with people and doing things that are very thoughtful, things I don't think about doing. Sometimes I just get caught up in my own world. I don't think about other people, to be honest. It was a solo entrepreneur for so many years. I just kind of thought of my own thing, but you're really good at seeing people, getting the pulse on people, and really checking in with them and being very empathetic. Now, Justin, again, extremely creative guy. I bring this up every time, but he's always shocking me with some of the things that he comes up ideal-wise with just like his zbiotics commercials, for example. Super creative stuff. And your delivery on these things is just always improved. And that includes with the show, just watching you grow with the show. I mean, you get definitely the gold star for that. You've come from, a guy that was not really excited to be in front of a microphone was not your thing. And now you've made it your thing, which is absolutely fantastic. And because of that, the level of the show has gone to the next level, because it was just Adam and Sal. It'd be very informative, it would be fun, but not quite as fun. A lot more hate. Nothing surprising though, right? That's how I feel. Nothing really surprising. I feel like that we've been together long enough now that that's everybody's character, man. I mean, it really has. And maybe the first couple of years together, there was a little bit of surprise like on those things, but I think that we know each other so well now. But it does continue to impress me, because eight years of doing something and to consistently show up and be that, and then to the point that Sal was making, is growth on top of that. So it's continued to improve, but I can always count on that. And I think Justin said best too, is just like, if I'm not growing level up, I know the other guy, we're all doing that so much that I always feel that pressure to be pushing myself because I know my partners are. And so I'll never let off the throttle because of that. The best thing is that you hear about this whole time like a band or a group and then one or two of them get the big ego thing. No, there's no question about that at all here, at all. Like I know it's like do or die. So this whole thing could burn down. Someone could do something stupid. We're all going down with the ship. So I just want people to know, we're uncanceable in that particular way. If you take one of us down, we're all gonna hold on together and we're gonna sync with the ship, but we'll be back. So turn the bridges. It's a good time. Look, if you like our information, head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal. You can also find all of us on social media. So Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump. Justin, Adam is on Instagram at Mind Pump, Adam. And you can find me on Twitter at Mind Pump Sal. The rules that apply to somebody who is going from, a man who's going from 20% body fat to 15%. The rules that apply to that person are the same as the rules that go from 10% to 5%. The difference is everything that we talked about.