Habits and Hustle - Episode 152: Ebenezer Samuel – Fitness Director of Men’s Health, Head of Training Innovation at FlexIt Fitness
Episode Date: January 25, 2022Ebenezer Samuel is Fitness Director of Men’s Health, Head of Training Innovation at FlexIt Fitness. How could you not pick his brain on everything diet and fitness!? Ebenezer approaches every aspect... of his own training, diet, and lifestyle and is open about every “secret” and technique he uses to achieve his success. He’s critical of “fads” and “hacks” and Jen gets him to nail down some true core, concrete pieces of advice. Interested in flexibility? Building chest? Working abs? The myths of “toning” and “getting shredded?” The concept of “calories in; calories out” and what it gets right and wrong? You’re not going to find a better wealth of knowledge or a better host to bring it out of him than in this episode. Check it out! Taped on location at Carillon Wellness Resort – https://www.carillonhotel.com/ Youtube Link to This Episode Ebenezer’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ebenezersamuel23/ Ebenezer’s Articles – https://www.menshealth.com/author/217286/ebenezer-samuel/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email habitsandhustlepod@gmail.com 📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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San Antonio, Texas. Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habitson Hussle, fresh it.
Today on the podcast, we have my friend Ebenezer Samuel, who is also the fitness director
for Men's Health, the largest men's media brand in the world, and he's a personal trainer
to a wide range of clients, including NFL players to working moms.
He's a head of training innovation for a fitness platform
called Flexit.
And what I love about Ebenezer,
his approach really blends everything
from body building, speed training, calisthenics,
helping your body move better and building muscle,
while also avoiding boredom and long-term injuries.
He is literally certified in almost every fitness modality and building muscle while also avoiding boredom and long-term injuries.
He is literally certified in almost every fitness modality.
And so when I say this guy is knowledgeable in fitness, I mean this guy is knowledgeable
in fitness.
He's also started numerous shows including men's health new rules of muscle and the next
top trainer.
In this episode you guys, because it's still
January, we really wanted to uncover some of your biggest questions and
answer them. Really to help maybe elevate your wherever you are fitness or kind
of talk about some of the myths out there so you can kind of go out there and
reach your goals better. We go over how to really build muscle, how to really lose fat, is the workout plan you're
doing even working for you because it's so different for everybody.
We go over some of the most overrated exercises and some of the most underrated exercises.
And so much more, we talk about like the main things that, the main question, I guess, the
main questions and queries that people are usually asking for.
So I hope this episode really does help answer some of those questions for you and much
more.
Enjoy.
All right.
So today on the podcast, we have the one and only Ebenezer Samuel, otherwise known as Eb.
Ebeneyer, actually quite good friend, so I'm super happy to have them on the podcast.
We're happy to have you here on the podcast.
Yeah, I'm excited.
And we are on location.
We are at the Carolon Wellness Resort in Miami.
Both of us are doing some work here, and so we figured one that take advantage of this beautiful location and do this podcast just in time for 2022 the new year.
We thought I thought we thought it would be a really good chance to talk about
goal setting and all those fitness and the health questions or things that people are constantly
like revolution, like revolutions, fitness resolutions that they have usually they put on
for like 2022 and there's no one better to do it with than Ebenezer because otherwise known as Ed, because he is the fitness director for men's health.
And probably one of the most, not just educated, but really in the space, but someone
who practices what he preaches and truly constantly just ups his knowledge in this space.
And there's no one more dedicated than you.
So this is a really good person to be doing this with.
So thank you for coming on.
I'm very, very excited.
And a little bit nervous to be on there.
What do you be nervous for?
I'm not really sure, because you're
an intimidating podcast.
I'm not kidding.
Oh my God, I think he's kind of kidding.
But this is what I love about you.
That you're so humbled and and so like kind of like soft-spoken, but you're like a beast when it comes to it.
Like anything in the health of fitness space. And I know you're probably really not.
If you're nervous, it's more because we have like three cameras staring at you and you usually behind the scenes.
Kind of so speak, doing a lot of the editorial, putting together all the workouts.
But like, at the same time, and you're not doing like, you're not doing a push-up or a lot of use.
Because that's what you're most comfortable with, we know.
Yeah, push-ups.
Push-ups, push-ups.
Yeah.
But anything that's movement or action-oriented.
So, why don't we just go, like, I'm going to jump in because I think that
like let's go through one of the biggies right which is goal setting. Yeah right
everybody for tooth for 2022 or any year and they make these like New Year's
resolutions they always want to you know say oh this year I'm gonna lose 10 pounds
or I'm gonna work out more I'm eat better. And then by like month three, those all dissipate and then you go right back to what you
normally do.
So why don't we start with that?
Like how do, and this is something I'm sure you guys cover a lot with max health, but
how do, what's the best approach when and for people for goal setting?
I think, I think there are two kind of
prevailing approaches now that both work. I think one is you kind of let somebody else set the goal
which I think we're seeing more people do now and that's you do that because um because you decide
that you're going to do like a tough mother race or you're going to you're going to do like a high
rots competition. You're going gonna do something where you suddenly have to
perform for it, right?
And because you have this deadline
and you have this concrete event happening,
that sets the goal for you
and then you have to pursue it.
Right.
And I think that's one way to do it.
And what works about that is it's concrete, right?
There's, okay, I have to compete in this tough motor.
I know it's gonna be three miles
in Incorporated Seas event, so I have to train for them,
so that's gonna help get me where I need to get, right?
And it also helps with accountability too, right?
Because you're putting it out there
that you're gonna be doing this 5K or this Tough Mudder,
or whatever the Spartan, whatever it is.
And then not only are you working towards that goal, but it's out there that you
kind of want to do well by it, right?
So that's a good idea.
So then a really good way to goal set for people is put something on the calendar that
you're working towards.
So like what if someone can't do something like a tough mother? Give other options. Like, through all your career, I'm sure you've had to like
create or like you probably know of lots of different things
that people could put on their calendar
or work towards as something.
So give us a bunch of different examples.
Yeah, I mean, it can be pretty simple, right?
Like again, tough mother is great,
it's quite racist and great.
But it can be something a lot on the local level,
you know, a lot of cities, a lot of towns have like five Ks,
you know, sign up for kind of a local five K.
A lot of people like to try to prep for marathons.
That's insane to me and that's something I would ever...
What's your take on marathons?
It's interesting.
I have a very complicated take on there.
I think anytime you're doing anything physical for yourself
and you're putting that challenge in for yourself,
it's never a bad thing, right?
I don't know that a marathon is a great way
to kind of long-term goal set for your fitness
because one, I think, I just think the repetitive,
the way people tend to train for a marathon
is a lot of running.
And it's a lot of that same pattern over and over and over.
And our body kind of moves in three planes, not just one.
Like we're meant to move forward in front of us, we're meant to rotate.
And we're also meant to kind of move laterally.
And you tend to abandon those other pieces when you train for a marathon.
And that's, it's great that you change for the
marathon you burn a ton of calories you wind up really improving your aerobic fitness but I just
think you miss too many other things so I'm like is that really like the long-term goal you want
and it's gonna pound you knees too so. I also feel like that's where I get I gain all my injuries from right is from running and I'm not I never
I'm a I don't mean myself I don't believe in marathons myself because of the same reason that
actually that you said also because I feel like you're breaking down so much like muscle muscle by
doing something so much like that that pounding and you age, it's really hard for your joints
and for your knees and for your ankles.
So I'm a, I love running.
Don't get me wrong.
And because I love it that much,
I choose not to do the marathon.
It's because I want to be running
for many, many years to come,
not just short term for something like a marathon
and then have all these crazy injuries.
And like I said, I know from just like, I have ankle issues, I have knee issues already.
And that's from just running four times a week for 45 minutes.
So like compound that with so much more, I'm going to be like a total disaster, right?
I think to it's how it's how some people train for the marathon too, right?
Because the way most people train for a marathon is they gradually pile on miles, you just run, right?
Elite marathons are able to stay healthier because they're running a couple of days a week,
but they're also kind of hitting the weight room to kind of work on stability at their hip, at their ankle,
at their knee, and kind of through their core.
That way, they're stride and proves, right?
If you go out there with the bad stride
and you have to repeat that for how many thousand steps
over the course of your marathon
and your marathon training,
you're just, you're compounding
whatever injuries you have.
But if you were to kind of,
I think if, I think what I'd love to see
just on kind of a national level,
is the conversation
around marathon running and kind of long distance running season change for average people
who just go out and compete and run it for fun, right?
That the conversation change and it start to shift to more of, hey, let's run to three
days a week, let's not pile up and stay in mileage, but let's not make that just the only thing
we're doing fitness-wise, but let's also support that with, you know, some sessions in the
waiting room, because those waiting room sessions are what instantly elite runners from getting
hurt when they go out to run. Like you were saying, like, if you did, if people were training properly,
like they would be incorporating the stability because that's a big one. And also to the gain or how you're moving.
If you're moving badly or incorrectly,
and you're doing it over and over and over again,
that's also much more about,
that's how you get injured and injured quicker.
And yeah, I know, I think that's a really good point.
The other thing I find that's gonna ask you just about
the marathon's cut we're on there.
I heard a myth, this could be a myth that some people's body types are much more
Inclined for running or for doing this because I do have friends. I've got a few two or three friends
Who are really lean, lanky tall
Who are ultra marathoners? Yeah,? And they never get injured.
But that's like the anomaly, right?
Is there something to be said for body type
and the way you work out?
Yeah, so it's interesting.
One of the more fun stories we did in Men's Outlast
and this is a project that me and the other
and Chief were super excited about was actually
about all about Levere Length, right?
Which is basically the length of my arms,
the length of my legs, particularly like my thighs
compared to my calves.
And the relationship, when you have different lengths
of limbs, it instantly lends to certain exercises,
to certain sports more, right?
Because if you are that long-limb person,
if you think about it, so I'm five, nine and a half. And you know, I try to tell people
that. But how tall are you? Five, six. So if you and me both go out to
around a mile, right? Just because my legs are longer than yours, right? I need fewer
strides to cover that. So all your, so all your, you're very long-legged friends, right? I need fewer strides to cover that. So all your, so all your,
you're very long-legged friends, right? When they go out to run their alchers,
they can cover that distance in much fewer strisers, which means the last chance of injury and more.
But it goes the same if you, if we go into the weight room, which is where we'll wind up at some point
during this trip. Yes. Today, actually. Yeah. Like, if you ever look at like the bench press champions,
like the very best bench presser in the world,
nine times out of ten, they have very, very short arms, right?
And the reason is because the shorter your arms,
the easier it is to press off, right?
That makes such a, that's so true.
I never thought of that.
Yeah.
I'm not good at the deadlift, right? And the reason I'm not a great deadlifter is because
my legs are very long relative to my torso. So I have to work harder at the deadlift. So when
we did the story last year, one of the things we really explored was, you know, do, like,
there, one of the myths of the gym is this idea that you have to do the conventional deadlift.
You have to be able to do a pull-up.
You have to do certain exercises with the barbell, right?
That's what they claim.
What we kind of tried to show within the story is, that's not true because for me, the conventional
deadlift isn't a great lift, so I do a lot more trap bar deadlift and I still get what
I need out of them. That's such a good piece of information because you know why there's a couple different exercises
for me that just biomechanically are just terrible for me. The exercise where I just see not to be,
my body doesn't really do well with it's when you do the squat with the bar in front of me.
Yeah.
And my body becomes very awkward and I beat myself up.
I'm like, how can I not do this?
This is like 101 for people who are, you know,
vary into the fitness world.
So there is something, biomechanically, there is something about that.
But I'm 56 and why would that front bar be bad for me?
So the front one, the front squad is is an incredibly challenging lift anyway.
Like for a lot of people most of the time it's not that's not a lever issue.
That's almost a lot.
Yeah exactly. It's lat tightness. It's also not for nothing but I have like big biceps right?
I like to think I do. But so I can't necessarily turn my arms, so I have trouble with the lift too, right?
So it's kind of a wrist mobility elbow thing and it's a lat thing, right?
But then the thing, again, you kind of look at, well, why is, I've been asking myself a
lot the question, probably over the last like year and a half, about why is this so important, right?
And what's the goal of the lift, right?
And if the goal of the next... if there's an easier way, and this is what the guys who train
like pro athletes do so well, right?
And that's what I think about when I'm working with like, like, Terrell Owens or like,
an Antony O'Brown, it's kind of like, what's the name's Robert?
No, I'm joking.
What's the, what's the, you know, yes, I can,
you know, and I learned this a lot too,
because I covered the NFL before I was,
I was at Men's Health,
and I would go into NFL Lackrooms,
and NFL players very rarely do power things, okay?
The power things are really good exercise that helps you get more explosive, but it's a
really hard exercise to teach.
So the NFL trainer just wants his players, nine times that attend to get more explosive.
He doesn't care how you do it.
Yeah, so this is actually a tip I got from Patrick Mahomes's trainer, right?
All he has is guys do is take a medicine ball and throw it really
high up in the air. That's it. And if you, it wasn't Patrick Holtz, James Harding's trainer,
right? All he had, all you do is you take a medicine ball and you should do this every
day and everybody can do this. And you just throw it up really high in the air as high as
you possibly can, five times, okay? And it times. And it's actually hitting the exact same muscles
as a power thing, right?
At the exact same speed, except it's a lot easier, right?
So I started doing that
and I have a lot of the people I work with do that, right?
And that's an explosive movement.
And you get the same benefits of doing a power clean.
Exactly, from an ad-like standpoint of doing a power clean. Exactly.
From an ad-lake standpoint.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
You don't, but it's a lot easier to teach.
Throw a ball up really high as hard as you got to weekend.
It's a lot easier to teach than a power plane.
Okay.
That's a really good piece of information.
Just tell everyone, though, what's the benefit of doing explosive movements?
So like, take it to the 101, you know, like fitness 101 for people who are not like,
expert experts like you are.
Yeah, so it's interesting, explosive movements are really,
I feel like we've gotten to a point in society
where we realize we need to build muscle one, right?
And we've kind of heard that.
And still there are times where we don't do that.
But we build muscle and we do it
with kind of these slow reps, right? But one of the things we don't do that, but we build muscle and we do it with these slow reps, right?
But one of the things we kind of lose is, like, your body is kind of meant to be explosive
and that explosiveness that is the speed to kind of do things really quick, right?
That's really what it is.
This ability for me to like, I can punch my hands out slowly, right?
I can punch them out really fast, okay?
And I can do the same thing in my legs.
I can just put my foot on the ground,
or I can stop it as a ground, right?
It's really important, especially as we age,
we lose that ability to be explosive.
So we wanna preserve as much of it as we can,
because that ability for me,
if I'm standing up right now,
if I'm going for a walk and you push me, right?
And I need to all of a sudden catch my balance, right?
It's that ability to move explosively, right?
They're freaking out.
They're freaking out, right?
Exactly. That's what allows me to decelerate it so that I'm not going to fall and hurt myself.
Wow.
So at a base level, at a base level, that's really important.
There's a lot of research now that says we can get stronger into our 50s and 60s, right?
We can continue to build just strength, like the ability to lift more weight, right?
But that ability to lift that weight fast, and for me to reach out and grab this super
quickly, that's what diminishes earlier as we age and that's why it's
so important for us to try to preserve that as much as we can. That's a really good point. So,
you know, as we age, a lot of times people say or think, you know, all, you know, what we just
is like, if I keep my body moving, I'll go for long walks, brisk walks, do some cardio. And
yes, now you're right, people are knowing that they have to do some resistance training
for their bones and for to building muscle mass.
But I think the explosive movement are not very well known because people do, I think
the belief is that for explosive moves, that's for someone who's young.
When I was young, I can do that.
But you're actually saying that it's super important as we age because that kind of helps
you with the ability to move quickly so you don't get injured, right?
You can like, it's good for your reflexes, too, basically.
Exactly, yeah.
How do you feel reflexes?
Yeah, exactly.
Reflexive stuff has to happen very quickly.
Yeah.
And you're kind of training that response when you take the time to train
explosive ideas. The other thing is kind of like, we talk about
in fitness a lot, this idea of having a movement library.
Like the things you do every day, you get really comfortable doing it.
And the things you don't, especially as we age, I notice it even like, for myself, the
exercise I have done in six months, right? It's like start to get hard when I go out
to do them. It's like, wow, this takes work or this doesn't feel as comfortable as I wanted
to feel. And some of that is because suddenly I'm not explosive in that direction
right because I haven't done this I don't have that comfort level so I'm
suddenly tentative so when you kind of train when you I think when you train
that explosiveness it help when you when you try to train that in as many
directions as possible it helps to just preserve your your ability to like play
with your kids and do things again that you don't you you're not doing as
frequently as you want to but you still want and do things again that you're not doing as frequently
as you want to but you still want to kind of preserve that.
That's a great point.
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Um, have a look for people like you saying saying, but like doing the same things over
and over again, which we all become victim of, like, I mean, I do that all, you and I talk
this all the time, because you know when you get super busy, you go on autopilot mode or
just like, all right, I'll go on the treadmill for this amount of time, I'll do the same exercises,
I know, you know, that are just kind of part of my daily regimen.
What happens when that happens?
Do you actually have, you get, obviously you get, you get decreased effects.
But why is that bad?
If you're still doing it over and over again, you're still burning the calories, you're still
moving every day. Let's, can you talk about the whole plateau? Like why would plateau?
How do we stop plateauing so we can actually see results and get, you know, get
to the place we want to be? And how do we trick our brains out of like
constantly going back into that auto pilot? Yeah, it's hard because yeah, you get
into, you get into a fitness conference zone and I kind of do it. I kind of, I think everybody does it because you, especially the longer the because you get into a fitness conference on it, and I kind of do it.
I think everybody does it, because you,
especially the longer the older you get and the longer you're
in the gym, the more you get comfortable with certain exercises.
That's great.
I think plateaus are interesting, because it's like,
it's interesting because you go back to what we talked about about goals, right?
And I think you also play you also play tough you don't have like a strong goal, right?
Because then because then you don't really know it's like when you hop on the roller or the treadmill or anything
Right, you don't really know like why like why are you doing it? You know, and so it's like really easy for it to
doing it, you know? And so it's like really easy for it to freely kind of... Well, I know, no, I know why we're doing it because we're trying to work out, but it becomes
very second nature where then you're not getting the results and your body, I feel, becomes so
proficient. So it's not even like working anymore. Yeah, I think it helps to,
I think especially on the cardio equipment, right?
It helps to, and this kind of goes back
to what we were saying about explosiveness.
And this is actually a debate I've been having
with a friend of mine, Michael Easter,
wrote the comfort crisis.
I don't know if you're afraid of that.
No, but I should read it.
It's an interesting book, but him and me,
he and I have this debate.
It's a long-running debate that we had conduct order text messages.
And he's probably texting me about it right now.
About he's very much a proponent of longer distances and kind of like slow like steady state
running and stuff like that.
I'm very much a proponent of like a little bit more interval training.
Yeah.
Well, isn't it, hasn't I been proving that proven that hit training is the best way to kind of constantly for fat loss and for seeing any kind
of real result? Yeah, and it's because it checks, it's because it checks multiple
boxes, right? Because hit training works because, and it's funny because I'm not,
I'm definitely not like a crossfit person, right? I have a lot of issues with,
with that style, but at the same time, like it checks a lot
like like when you're hit training, your heart rate never really comes, your heart rate never
fully comes down, even though it's kind of an interval, right? And because of that, there's
there's a really strong like cardiovascular aerobic benefit to it, right? But at the same time,
especially if you're if you're playing with kind of intervals. I think one of the issues with hit as conceiving your fitness classes is they tend to have
people not rest enough.
But if you're resting, if you're doing, say, 30 seconds on, 30 off of something, or even
40 seconds on, 20 off, that's probably why I would top out in hit. You still, your body gets a chance to be explosive.
Like you can push hard on those 40 seconds,
on those 40 seconds bursts, right?
So you get to capture that explosive component,
you get the aerobic component
and any kind of explosive motion you're doing
and that's the really, really underrated thing
about that thing I mentioned earlier,
where we're literally just going to medicine ball up,
doing it really fast, right?
All of that, like without getting too physics-y, force is mass times acceleration, right?
So I can do two things.
I can get down in the ground for a push-up, right?
And I can do it slowly.
I'm creating like a certain amount of force, right?
Or I can explode out of it, right? And I can explode with a lighter weight and still
build muscle and be getting explosive and still build strength and I'm still getting
that explosive component and that's what we can do with HIIT when you get on the roller
and you go really, really hard for 20 seconds and then you rest for 40 seconds.
And so that's the best way for fat loss. Yeah, I think I think, I think,
I think if you put a gun to my head,
I would tell you that was the best way for fat loss.
But can you plateau with it?
Like if I'm doing hit five days a week,
is that too much hit?
Yeah, so that's the thing.
Yeah, so that's the thing.
The recovery from,
the recovery from hit workouts, if done correctly,
is, and that's where people mess up,
because they'll think, okay, I can make my hit workout better
by trying to do more work and rest less.
But if you do more work, if you go for like 50 seconds on,
and you take like 10 seconds off every
minute, right? You're doing, you're, it's not hitting anymore basically. Yeah, then it's literally
just like aerobics or something like that. Or at a very high rate. Yeah. As in your body can
probably produce too much cortisol or. Yeah, it's a common date. Well, it's basically your body's,
your body's ATP stores can't recover fast enough for you to utilize them.
So you just start slowing down, right?
And you lose the explosive component
and you also lose the ability.
Your heart rate just, the graph of hit
should look something like up and then kind of down,
up and then kind of down,
because you have a little bit of recovery in that.
When you start to get into the hit,
again, in your fitness,
or when people try to do more,
the graph starts to just flatline, right?
And then I have a one really good friend,
and she would do it.
I was trying to help her with this.
And so she would send me like her graph off of whoop, right?
And I would look at it, and it was like one 10 the entire way across right and we want we want you can get that
heart rate up higher you want those those peaks and valleys yeah but you're saying about your
for okay so for you're saying if a gun was to work at your head hit training is the best way to not plateau and to get the most gains from fat loss. But there's a big
butt if you do it properly. And you can't do it every day. You need that time to recover.
Yeah. If you're training your head hard and correctly, I would max it out at two days a week, maybe three.
Really, too.
That's okay.
And then you were saying something about your friend that you're constantly in a text,
you know, fast with.
Yeah, sorry.
The comfort, no, the comfort, but...
So what is his, does he believe that you should be doing steady state as the best way for
fat loss or for not plateauing or what did he say?
He thinks, he's nuts.
But he thinks his take is that you should be doing steady state is just kind of, I guess
we our discussion is what's the best fitness you should do not necessarily for fat loss.
And his take is his take is the steady state is kind of like the forgotten piece of fitness
And he's like guys like guys like I don't want to do it because they because they have too much muscle and it's too much work
You know, really? So what is his what what is he think and when you say steady state like what else does he think study
Say for how long what's the duration how often yeah, that's that's where he and I go back and forth a little bit because
So so in the grand scheme
Just just to kind of backtrack real quick. I think in the grand scheme what I what I want more people to do and what we really need to do is
Kind of blend the two approaches, right? I'm I think like
Like if you're if you're if you're if you're working for a specific goal, even if it's like a marathon, right?
It's still better to have a blend of approaches in there, right? So in the grand scheme. I would love to see people do hit twice a marathon, right? It's still a better type of blend of approaches in there, right?
So in the grand scheme, I would love to see people do hit twice a week, right?
And then maybe you have like those longer cardio pieces that are a little bit slower,
where it's just like say a 20-minute run or three mile run or something like that.
You can put those in on the days when you're not training hit, right?
And take it a little bit easier and go out there.
You know what's interesting about you?
I find, so what's your take on cardio?
So I would think if I didn't know you,
which I know you, of course, that you would be all
about strength training, resistance training,
because most people who are at level and doing what you're doing,
is they think cardio is just like a total waste of time who are at your level and doing what you're doing,
they think cardio is just like a total waste of time
and you're storing a bunch of fat because of it,
it's putting your body into all these different modes
that shouldn't be in what's your take?
Sounds like you don't mind cardio.
Yeah, it's interesting because I think all, I'm very big on kind of every piece of fitness
has a purpose.
And again, when we look at our lives now, the reality is nine times I attend aside from
going to the gym, it's like, I can order Uber Eats and I can, you know, they're going
to bring us room service and all this stuff.
So I can order everything it just shows up to my house
and they install, they never have to get up from my couch, right?
But so I feel like there's a lot less necessity
for things like cardio,
but if we look at just being well-rounded
and kind of living long and enjoying,
I'm very big on fitness for the average person
as the more well-rounded you can be, the more you're
going to enjoy your life for longer, right?
And that means like, yes, the muscle building, if you, again, gone to my head, I hate making
choices because I think like everybody needs a little bit of everything in their fitness,
right?
And so I hate making choices, but I've gone to my head, I would tell you to strengthen before
you did cardio.
But at the same time, there's a lot of value in just going out for like a 10 minute run.
It's good for mental health.
It's good for mental health.
And it's also good for just kind of, it's just good.
If I can build that aerobic system, right?
If my lungs are stronger and my heart is stronger from going out on those runs, too, it's going
to make me better when I go into the gym and I want to do as many push-ups as I can or
do as many squats as I can.
So I think all of the different pieces complement each other.
So we should have a little bit of cardio on that.
Okay, but do you think that makes sense for all the other other reasons?
I for the for mental, for cognitive, to help you with your endurance.
How about for fat loss? What do you think about cardio for fat loss?
See, that's where I think that's where I think we go wrong, right? Because I think what happens,
I think I think the thinking is,
again, it's based on the idea of do more work, right?
So I'm just gonna run on the treadmill for like three hours.
Right, right, right.
And that's, wow, that's a long time.
No, you know, yeah, I do know you don't even know, but.
Yeah, and I think it's based on the idea of do more work.
But it's not, I mean But it falls apart in two areas.
One is like, yes, maybe you cut your calories a whole ton,
and then you go, I don't exaggerate a little bit,
but you focus on cutting calories, and you focus on doing cardio
so that you can burn calories.
And then you lose the weight, right?
But along the way, you've also, because you haven't taken the time to strength training,
you've also lost necessary muscle, which, you know, muscle that helps you kind of get through
your day, muscle that helps you, muscle that helps you again with all those little deceleration
factors, and you've lost like an ability to be explosive.
And that in the long run, well, both in the short term and the long term is going to
cost you a little bit.
And it's going to hurt you in the long run because we need to be one of the things we're
fighting as we get older in addition to that loss of explosiveness is that loss of muscle,
right?
So we have to work hard to maintain that.
So that's where I think some kind of interval training
is a better, some kind of interval training,
like strength interval training
is a better approach to fat loss
because you can build a much...
That strength interval not being hit.
Yeah, it doesn't have to be hit.
Because again, hit, we can do properly twice a week. Right, so doesn't have to be hit. Because again, hit we can do
properly twice a week. Right. So what kind of strength interval would you talk with? Like give us an example. So I think, um, and I'm kind of calling it strength interval training
because it differs from like the way I string train where I'm going to lift heavy and take,
you know, time between my sets because I'm almost going to have it, right? I think you, I think if
if somebody has a pair of 25 pound dumbbells at home,
right, we can basically work
to say 40 seconds on 20 off, right?
Or even 30 seconds on 30 off of make critical motions,
like we would do, I'm gonna tell you to choose three exercises,
choose like a reverse lunge, a dumbbell row, and maybe a pushup.
And alternating those exercises is 30 on, 30 off for five or six sets. It's only 15 to 20 minutes
that way. So it's a workout that's pretty sustainable and you can do. But you're going to get to build
muscle. You get to move through more movement patterns than you're going to get, you get to build muscle, you get to move through more movement patterns
than you're going to if you just do cardio.
And again, I want you to, in the ideal world, I want your body to move in more ways than
one.
Right.
All planes of motion.
Exactly.
So then, what are some other fat loss myths that are myths?
It's interesting.
I think one, especially for guys,
I think is just the general idea of focusing
on losing fat, right?
Because again, we're talking about,
we want to talk about building muscle too.
And that muscle is gonna have more longevity for you.
And help you burn fat. Exactly, it's gonna to help you burn fat. And it's going to preserve
your body. So I think that's one big issue I see. And another thing, and this is especially for
guys, is that guys think like that fat loss is the key, you know. And what's interesting, what's
interesting is that guys usually feel not to interrupt you, but that guys kind of feel like they need
to always think when a builder chest and like build muscle.
Not so, I mean, I'm made sure I'm sure it's about losing fat, but I feel like guys just
want to get bigger, bigger, perfect example.
Well, I hope not.
I mean, you can barely sit on this couch, but I mean, people want big muscles, guys.
Yeah, that's true.
It's probably more women, I feel like. Yeah, that's true. It's probably more women
And I feel like yeah women want to lose that yeah for sure and they're scared of bulking
Which I know is a to that's a myth right there women are not gonna bulk at all yeah, but
Man more one of them just yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I was having a conversation with somebody a couple weeks ago. You have a lot of conversations. I talk a lot
Yeah, I mean more than I when I asked sometimes. Yeah, um, yeah, I was having I was having a conversation with a really big
YouTube guy and that's what we were talking about. It's like you're athletely
Athletic
Atheninex
Yeah, yeah, I like him. Yeah, um, but that that's what we were talking about. It's interesting actually, because the discussion
we were having is the industry tends to,
the industry to guys does push the idea.
And I think that's why I got caught up on it.
But the industry to guys pushes the idea of fat loss.
It's like, here's a 30-day program to lose weight, right? And
both I and Athlene think, yeah, more guys want to build muscle and more guys and kind of
understand the importance of that right now. But at the same time, I know why the industry,
the health and fitness industry to men push us the idea of fat loss, partly because it's the only
promise they can adequately deliver on, right?
Because you have all these, the industry tends to push
like 30-day program and stuff like that, and you're not
going to build appreciable muscle in 30 days.
Right, you cannot.
But if, building muscle is hard, it takes work, you know,
especially as you age, which I want to get into soon. That's a, that's a topic we're going to talk
about. But, you know, how hard it is to build muscle as you get older, because you lose so much as
you get older. Yeah, exactly. And, and, and, and, and, but it's possible, you know, it just, um,
it definitely takes like, I feel like the older like the order you get It takes like a more
Coordinate and careful approach like when you 25 you can do anything. Oh god. Yeah, yeah
I built muscles so easily now I'm working 10 times as hard and I'm like
You know, I'm not getting any of the results that I used to get it would take it takes me like literally 20 times as much
So yeah the aging and building muscle for sure is a topic I want to get to, but just
finish what you're going to say.
I can't remember what it was.
Oh, yeah, but the industry pushes, the industry basically pushes like these, yeah fat loss
is the key, right?
So I think people have moved past the idea, people kind of understand the importance of muscle,
but you have this industry that's constantly bombarding you with like lose weight, lose weight, lose weight because it's an
easier sell. For like you being at mental health, right? Yeah. Is that the question, is that the
kind of question or the people want to like, does the most wanted or asked question or the your
readership? What's what, what's the, what are they asking for the most? Is it because they want to lose that? Is it because they want to build strength? I think I think so it's interesting and it's
interesting because we have so much more data on them now and we see kind of what what people
read and what we have a lot it's interesting because what's really cool about the mental
leadership is that it definitely the more I've kind of studied the dad and the more
it's like they're actually paying attention right and they're learning because the stories that we get kind of the most
traffic on are like the best 14 back exercises right which is strength though isn't that yeah
strength so I feel like guys guys are guys now want to focus on building strength or they understand
that.
But for the back exercises to be up there too, they also understand that on a pretty nuanced
level.
Because I feel like when you send somebody into it, it's like international bench press
Monday is kind of like a, that's like a very big gym show.
It is.
Well, you know what I like to hear?
That I think the back is super important.
I talked about that in like all of my books
because I think it's all like an illusion, right?
If you have a really sculpted back
with like wide shoulders and like a V-taper,
it makes everything look so much better, right?
And you look so much more fit.
It used to be that six pack abs,
like how do I get a six pack?
How do I get a flat tummy?
Are you seeing less of the questions about abs
and now more on the back?
Where they put, it's basically,
it's back abs and arms, right?
Um, okay, so abs are still high up out there.
Yeah, I feel like they're always
because I feel like it's interesting what you said about back to because back is
like the back is your key to all the other things right? Absolutely. One of the
things like one of the things I get asked a lot is how to get like a really big
chest right and, I think.
They're gonna mine.
But I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm. I mean, anyone can see you. Go on to Ed, by the way, everyone, go to Ed,
what's your Instagram?
Ed and these are, yeah, Ebenezer Samuel.
23. 23. 23.
Go check them out on Instagram because you'll see
like he works out his chest a lot.
He also has great exercises, but you'll see what I'm talking
about.
If you're listening to this podcast and not watching it,
that's how you can see how I'm jabbing him
by just checking that amount on Instagram.
Okay, go ahead, sorry.
But anyway, that's one of the questions that I get the most
over DMs and when I put that Q&As.
And one of the secrets to building a big chest
actually starts with your back, right?
Because if all I do
is chest exercises, it's just going to pull me forward and forward and forward and the fibers
here you get tight, right? And then you just have more of that hunched overlooked and it's
bad for your shoulders, right? Host your back for your posture, yeah. Yeah, but your back is like,
if you, I'm very big into into any kind of row, like a dumbbell
row or a machine row, and I think everybody should have, should do at least, at least
twice a week should be doing like three sets of rows.
And it doesn't matter what it could be with dumbbells, it could be with like a gallon
of water, or it can be in a gym and moving massive weights, right?
But doing that kind of hits your mid back muscles
and the muscles between your shoulder blades,
and that actually lets your chest,
like if I walk around like this.
It opens up your chest.
Yeah, exactly.
So it's like I think whenever anybody tells me
or asks me what do I have to do to get a big chest,
they're like, you know, what should I do
on the bench press and this and that and the other thing.
I'm like, you should start every week
by not bench pressing and your first day
of every week should be training back.
Cause it's the secret to everything.
And it's the secret to, cause if I train my abs, right,
all they're gonna do, again, is like,
kind of drive me forward and into this position.
And so I need all this good back muscle to kind of like
have good posture and also to let my six packs show where else is not going to work.
That's such a great, that's a great secret or such a great tip. I love that. You know what,
you have a lot of great fitness tips. This is just one, two, you've given us so far. I want you
to tell us more, but I want you to finish and you can bullet point them.
Like what are some other myths with fat loss
for people to listen to and they can know for 2022,
but also I want for their resolutions,
and then I want to get into aging and maintaining muscle,
and then we can go into more fitness tips. And you can be pepper those fitness tips and as we go
Okay, I'm working here. Yeah, you are working. I told you you're not gonna sit there
Loaf around and just do a bench press or push up. I'm gonna ask you good question. This is like a mind workout. Yeah
Yeah, so I mean, I think I mean, I think one of them one I feel like we've covered a pretty good amount for fat loss I want one more. Yeah, I mean, I think one of them, I feel like we've covered a pretty good amount for fat loss.
I want one more.
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest uses is just so you can cut calorie.
Yeah, okay, how about that one?
I like that one.
What's your take on a calorie deficit?
There's a big, there's two schools of thought.
Calories in versus calories out will help you with that loss.
That's one, you know, like having a calorie deficit. The other group says, I don't know, that's bullshit.
There's no such thing. It's all about like the quality of calories. What's your, what do you think about that?
It's weird because, um, because I feel like I feel kind of like I don't want to take a side
on certain things or I feel like soft because sometimes I feel like I'm coming down the mill
But I think it's a combination of it. It's calorie deficit. It is about getting into a calorie deficit
But and that like I don't like the calories and calories out conversation because how you get there does matter because
because how you get there does matter. Because calories and calories out
winds up getting reduced to, okay,
so I can eat like, I said that I know this,
but so I can eat like,
I can eat like 12 white chocolate Oreos today
because they're 100 calories up.
And that's my 1200 calories, right?
And that's like not,
so I feel like what we have to do,
and it's one of the things that really gets me about
Fat losses we have to we have to we have to find a way to kind of fuse the two schools, right?
Well one is for health reasons and one is for you know purely
Fat loss or weight loss. So are you are you kind of like in the middle because you're
at loss or weight loss. So are you kind of like in the middle
because you're concerned you don't wanna say something
because then it's gonna,
people are gonna eat 12 Oreos or because, does it work?
I don't, like just getting into a calorie deficit
isn't gonna work anyway.
Because there's also-
The habit of some way guy lose all that weight
or when people are like, you know, I'm gonna eat McDonald's
but I'm gonna only eat X amount of calories and they lose weight. Yeah, I mean, I'm just playing devil's advocate. I'm not saying
yes or no. Yeah, I think and the other backend or one of the one of the issues with fat loss
too is that people go on these on these diets but then it's like can you keep can you keep
their weight off and can you keep it? Right, like long javelin reason. I mean, it's sort of like long term.
Yeah, and I definitely try to take a holistic
and kind of like well-rounded view to things.
Like I don't, one of the issues with kind of the
fat loss conversation is I always feel like it's,
it winds up being, okay, I got there and I'm done, right?
But it's like, how you get there matters in your ability to sustain,
you know? And that's kind of, I think, my, that's my concern with just calorie, with, with,
with or is simplifying to a calorie deficit, because, because how you get there, yes, you,
you may, you may lose the weight and it worked. But what have you done for yourself
when you turn 50? What have you done because you put a lot of saturated fat into your system?
Right. So it's not like, it's probably the worst way of doing it and it's not sustainable
long-term. But so that's the problem, right? Because the second you start, it's you're becoming very
unhealthy and then you have a lot of what you have a lot of visceral fat. Like what does
they? Yeah, well, yeah, you just haven't really you haven't really solved the problem long term.
You have a lot of visceral fat. You have a lot of potential for heart issues, because you haven't.
And also, your insulin levels are potentially all messed up too.
And that's kind of a really, really underrated player in energy levels.
And your ability to build muscle, like being able to kind of, I feel like the underrated part
in the fat loss conversation is insulin, right?
Because if we can, like insulin is,
insulin has a lot of performance enhancing capabilities.
That's why I believe there are Olympic athletes
who have been banned for using synthetic insulin.
Because it has a lot of ability to help us build muscle, it has a lot of good qualities
when you can manipulate it.
And when you have this conversation of calories and calories out and you don't recognize
that there's a difference between simple sugars and complex carbs and you don't recognize that there's a difference between simple sugar is in complex carbs and you don't recognize kind of the difference between taking
it fat and taking it in carbs.
Like you lose the ability to potentially lose the ability to kind of control your insulin
and to remain insulin like sensitive to insulin.
We want to be able to spike our insulin when we want to with sugar and then see that fall off.
And we as a society tend to live with our insulin here
because we so much sugar because calories and calories happen.
So then the myth is, so you kind of believe that it is a calorie deficit.
But it's how you get there. But it's how you get the right.
So it's how that you get there.
So it is a myth that it's calories and calories out, simplified if you're not, because over
time it doesn't work.
Yeah.
It's also a myth.
I think you're going to hear more about this in 2022, to be honest, the idea of metabolic
flexibility.
Yeah.
I was going to ask you about metabolic flexibility. Yeah, I was just going to ask you about metabolic flexibility.
Yeah.
I think you're going to hear a lot more.
It's also a lot.
Yeah, it's also a myth that cars are the enemy or fad-es-e enemy, right?
We should be able to, we want our bodies to be able to use either as an energy source.
So all these keto-palea, you know, keto, paleo, you know,
where it's like, it's like, oh, you're going to, you're essentially going no car or no fat,
you know, neither of those is, is effective. Because again, we want to be able to, you want
to be able to use both carbs and fat. Right. When needed. Yeah. Which is a great point.
So you're winding down with the podcast. Sounds like you have no plans to leave the couch tonight. Nope, you just want to unzip your jeans, slip on a pair of fuzzy slippers, and rip open a bag of
skinny pop popcorn. Because the only place you're going tonight is the bottom of this bag of popcorn.
the bottom of this bag of popcorn.
So, you know, you know what I find actually very interesting. The people I know who have like a really beautiful physique, they do old school shit.
You're one of them, you know, like they eat small meals all throughout the day,
you know, like five meals, remember that whole like five meals a day
They eat it. They eat a nice like some protein some carbs like they're veggie and
Like they look great and they feel great and then all the sudden like over time all these other
The keto diet the intermittent fasting diet all these other things come into play and
the keto diet, the intermittent fasting diet, all these other things come into play.
And people are so overwhelmed and so confused
like what to do.
And now like people are not eating fights,
little small meals, they're just eating
in a four hour window or a six hour window.
Is that a myth?
Like you have to be eating a certain diet
to see the results or let's talk about that.
It's interesting because I mean, to see the results or let's talk about that.
It's interesting because I mean, the, it doesn't even matter what I say
about it being a myth that you have to eat a certain diet
because like people have succeeded in losing weight
by intermittent fasting, by paleo, by keto.
But is it all, is it because of A,
how much they're eating and what they're eating?
Does it matter the time they're eating,
does it matter spacing it out?
Does it matter of like having a fasting for 12 hours
in your opinion?
And what you see with men's health, what is your take?
So I think, yeah, I think all those diets work
because they're also diets, right?
They've kind of given exactly
But they'll work for a finite period of time. Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah
They'll work for as long as you can stay in the frame like what I think the reason the reason a lot of these diets work
It work, quite unquote is because they create a framework for people, right? They create structure. We're kind of
a lot of times where we don't tend to,
you know, it's like you go into a restaurant
and it's like if you don't have a plan,
you order like everything, or you know.
All right, if you go grocery shopping
and you don't know what you're buying,
you're gonna buy like brand and everything.
So you're saying like you need to have like,
it's always good to work within a structure, so you keep some
decorum, so to speak.
Yeah, exactly.
And what it's interesting is all the people you brought up before, like bodybuilders,
athletes, yeah, string coaches, they all eat within a structure.
I eat everything.
I try to not restrict.
I need carbs you need carbs,
like carbs kind of make your muscles look full
because at some point they're kind of repackaged
into glycogen, which creates that depth for your muscles.
And you need healthy fats, right?
Obviously protein is the backbone for everything.
So I don't, I don't personally restrict
anything for myself, right?
But I'm also eating within a relatively rigid framework. Like I
know I want to eat every two and a half hours. Each meal is driven by like a
natural protein. You know, that's not like a shake. Like I try to have you know eggs
or chicken or fish. I want to have something green on the plate by it. And I
want to have three to four ounces of carbs, right? And so that's kind of my restrictive formula.
And everything is portioned perfectly. I try to accept every so often. Every so often is
lit. Yeah, but mostly, and then your portions are like on point. So again, it's about, it's not about
what quote unquote, diet you're following.
It's about, again, what I said,
and that's why I was sitting where you were
and you were interviewing me, I would say,
that it does make a difference about the amount you eat.
Yeah.
And what you eat is what I would say.
Not, not necessarily the time you're reading it
and all that other stuff that goes with it.
Yeah, like all of the time you're reading it has like, bodybuilders do multiple meals.
Right, what I'm saying the time like, if you don't eat until noon or whatever I'm saying,
I think the more that those are also based on your body can't break down food.
Exactly. We overeats and therefore we're stuck with all this food and us because we're not
digesting it because we're eating so much of it. So like having enough time to digest your
food is really good for your system. Yeah, it's interesting because to bring the conversation
full circle that's like intermittent fasting is part of where you get the whole calories and calories that idea because it's like
Oh, I'm gonna take my calorie. I'm gonna take all my calories in like two in like two meals
Spaced and whatever it is four hours, right? Yeah, four I think eight to be getting I think eight for beginners
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think I believe it. I believe it's a year. But, but, but that, and so that gets reduced to calories and I think I think calories and
calories out was in very meat.
It's like a well-meaning idea.
And it was basically the way people are telling you to eat is so complicated.
So it's like, let's just reduce it to this.
Yes.
But then we get so reductive with it that it kind of, it becomes
counterproductive in this own way. How about like, what's the best way to eat if we want to
build muscle and lose fat and just, you know, feel better and look better. What would be in your opinion?
and look better. What would be in your opinion? Um, I would say you want to have like four meals a day, right?
And each meal you want to aim for 20 grams of protein,
which is, and try to get this from a natural source,
make sure to get something green on your plate, right?
And then get, you know, three to four ounces of a cart.
And if you do that, right,
and then you wanna have,
you wanna ideally have some kind of water on the side.
And if you do that,
not some kind of water, I have this water.
Be okay water.
Be okay water, but be okay,
and be okay water is actually perfect, right?
So I think you want to, I think if you do that, it checks a lot of boxes.
And then again, there's a variety in there, right?
Because you're telling guys a protein can be eggs or chicken or fish, right?
And your green vegetable can be something different every time.
You're checking a lot of boxes in terms of getting fiber in your system, which is really
good.
You're checking a lot of boxes with the protein, which your body needs.
We're not eating in a fiber, though, as a society, as a...
So, how do we...
We should up that, for sure.
Yeah, I think it's interesting, because I think we've come a long way in the fiber conversation,
just...
It's funny, because I love white rice, which is...
I can't
I know if you've had like five times since we've been here I mean to be fair I
don't know if they have brown rice they probably have brown rice I probably
could ask for I've kind of enjoyed just getting away from brown rice but I
think my way white rice supposed to be better than brown rice did you know that
I haven't heard this oh it's a it's a it's a it attempt. You should Google it. You should do a story on it. I encourage that.
Bratta, there's a whole myth about brown rice versus white rice.
I don't remember what the myth exactly is.
If I can Google it right now in my view.
But I had someone on here recently who told me about this.
And it's pretty amazing. Actually, I'm gonna Google it, white rice versus brown rice.
I was a brown rice person too.
I've heard the thing that brown rice is overrated
compared to white rice, like it's not markedly better.
It's not markedably better, it's not.
Yeah, white rice tastes so much better too. I'm also Asian, so I'm kind of like...
I know, well, I was gonna say, I mean, you're naturally gonna probably live to 177 because of just all the rice you're eating, but hold on.
Brown rice versus white rice. Okay, if you look at the...
If you look at the breakdown, it's actually the fiber content and bright brown rice
is like minusculely higher.
But yeah, it's basically a little bit higher,
between one gram and two grams more fiber.
And then, I'm not finding it properly right now.
I'm gonna look it up and then get back to you on that,
but from what I heard, it's not that much different.
White rice is, see again, there's another,
I think what happens is something gets traction
and then everyone just follows that.
And this can be happy right now
with the broad, I heard something about white rice
and now I'm following that whole thing
So don't take my word for it. I think I could have sworn I heard someone mentioned that to me and I and they were like adopt
They were a leading nutritionist so
I'll try to find an information. So that but that's like that again
Why I'm big into like it's like if it's like if you if you kind loosely follow, if everybody loosely followed what I'm saying, right?
They're covered, but choose your own card.
Don't let the internet choose it for you, right?
Yeah.
Choose your own mix vegetable.
Like a sweet potato versus a white potato.
It's like, it's like, yeah.
I don't rush it potato.
Yeah, it's like at a high level,
if you're like planning to try out for like you know, like a competition or something. Yeah, but this doesn't matter
Right, so for the average person who wants to like look a little bit more lean and
Healthy and fit have white rice or brown rice. It's not gonna make it so nominally different
It doesn't make make a difference. Okay, let's talk about aging and
It doesn't make a difference. Okay, let's talk about aging and muscle.
How do we do this and do it well?
Because we do break down more muscle as we age.
So how do we...
So that's interesting, because the older we get, the more precise we have to get with all
the stuff, like the healthier we have to eat.
Yeah, I mean, so it isn't a building muscle
when we're older, like I believe after 40,
especially for men,
Sarcophony has become like a major issue.
And I think the two things we wanna do,
or the three things we wanna do, first off,
and this is kind of one of those things we're told,
and it we're told by kind of modern fitness, right? Is you've got to do the, um,
the kind of big exercises, right?
You have to lift heavy, okay?
And older people should definitely try to lift heavy.
I think every human on the planet should work up to being able to dead lift like their body weight,
plus at least 50 pounds.
Um, and that's not unattainable, right?
And you have to take your time to work up there. plus at least 50 pounds. And that's not unattainable, right?
And you have to take your time to work up there.
So I think older people shouldn't be afraid to live tabby.
They should do that at least twice a week.
Well, you say heavy though, right?
Like the other fear is that, especially as you get older,
like you're gonna put your back out
or you're gonna hurt, you're gonna injure
yourself for like injury prevention.
Yeah.
So you're saying that shouldn't be something that we focus on?
Yeah, I think two things.
One, I think for a lot of...
Or do challenging stuff, to go home.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's mainly like challenge yourself.
Like getting working up to that heavy part, working up to say you're your body weight plus 50 pounds in a deadlift,
you might want to train you for that, right?
You want somebody around who can kind of help you master your form,
or you want to like watch a clinic I'll give on the deadlift online,
or do it like do it, right?
But I just think don't be afraid of heavier weights, right?
And the key is the reps scheme, right?
Is it's like you learn with lighter weights,
how to kind of get your form down.
But then you've got, like at some point,
you want to challenge yourself, right?
And you're gonna keep the reps low,
you're gonna do like one or two reps.
And that's fine.
I think a lot of people get caught up in again more work, right?
So it's like oh, I'm gonna these sets of like 12 and 15 reps. I'm gonna tone, you know
Except toning really doesn't is kind of toning doesn't really exist, right? And it's like again
Don't talk about that. I think people don't really you and I may think that but most people don't realize that
So why don't you talk about that?
I told Toning Myth.
That's a myth.
Yeah, I honestly don't even barely even know
what the word means, right?
It's not, it's not, and it's funny because when you read
women's magazines,
do women's magazines say it?
I don't read them.
That's all they say is like, you know,
tone your, you know, upper body,
toning your arms.
The word tone or toning is like synonymous with, you know,
abs, you know what I mean?
Like it's a very common word.
It's interesting because we literally,
I'm actually trying to think back to the last time
I used it in Men's Health.
I mean, in Men's Health for four and a half years now,
and the answer is never.
Like, yeah.
Because women use the word Tony.
I don't think men use the word Tony.
Yeah, I think it, it's almost like,
I feel like it got caught up in societal kind of,
you know, because of, because of that whole,
oh well, well, we can't say,
we can't say build muscle to women, right? And
bulking, it's about, right? So here, we're gonna get them lifting weights because it's
gonna tone them, whatever. I don't, I honestly don't know what the word means.
It means like, not, like, kind of like, it's like, again, the opposite of flabby would
be toned, I guess. I don't know, I guess. These are all like, this is exactly my point,
and that's why I wanted to talk to you and have you on
is because I think so much of everything
is all marketing and branding.
And it's not necessarily accurate or true.
It's just what we've been conditioned to think
because we see it and hear about it all the time.
And especially with social media, and every ding dong now on social media like the condition to think because we see it and hear about it all the time and especially
with social media and every ding dong now on social media is a fitness expert which is
a problem because most people are getting paid for everything that they're doing or they
have no clue what they're doing. So either option is terrible. So having someone who's a trusted resource like you, who
actually takes us super seriously and learns about this
constantly is, I think, a really important thing
to talk about, because you get analysis paralysis and overwhelmed
at all the different information that's out there.
Yeah.
I think that is what it is.
Yeah, you're right. It is so much kind of like marketing and spin and it gets confusing for
people. That's why I'm confused.
And this is what I do for a living practically.
You know what I mean? I don't even know anymore.
I'm like, I'm like, I don't know maybe that.
Maybe I'm like the brown rice white rice thing.
I'm even confused because I'm like, okay, well, I mean, this trusted resource
told me and then I look and now I can't find it. But then I'm sure if I don't have the time,
right, this second, but if you dig around long enough for anything, you can back up that
that resource, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because the internet is a treasure trove of
confirmation bias, which is really bias. Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah.
It's a toning.
Toning is, but I think toning is like,
toning is like the woman way and don't take that the wrong way.
But it's kind of weird.
It's not by podcast.
It's not.
I mean, it sounds like it's in all the women's magazines.
So it's basically like, because I feel like we,
I feel like guys try to cut rip shred.
It's basically the equivalent to that.
It is cut ripped case of for guys.
It's cut. Rick Shred-Build. It is cut, ripped case of for guys. It's cut, ripped, shred, built.
Yeah.
Women, it's tone.
What else?
Chisel, maybe.
It's mostly just tone, isn't it?
Tone.
Yeah.
Tone or burn.
Yeah, burn, burn to big one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Like burn fat, tone your midsection. Yeah, so they're like let, one. Yeah, yeah, we like burn fat
Tone your midsection. Yeah, so they're like let it's like yeah, and are yeah the guy terms if you will are just edgy
Your regions yes, yeah, but the men's magazines do have way better workouts that are more
Effective I will say that that's why you know I have you here today because the truth of matter is I do know enough to know that
lift women are kind of
like kind of shown and taught to be lifting
lightweight, very lightweight and they actually or no way and they believe that's actually going to get them to their goal.
When the truth of matter is you do need to liftvy and heavier and challenge yourself because that's how you, well you can talk about
this more. It's like that that's how you get results and you know cause, what do you call
it in your body? You cause like, what do you call it adaptation? I was just saying, stress
in your body, which then builds and helps with firming.
Firms another word.
Really?
Oh yeah, that's like firm like back your arm.
I can't see that one.
Firms a big one too.
Yeah, no and that's the interesting.
So I do not, I mean like suddenly because goals are different, right?
That's the only difference.
I, or that's the only, because of different
goals, that sometimes I see workouts for men and women, but I think everybody from what
are male or female needs to live heavy, um, and get strong. How do you live, heavy and
build muscle with a, because this is one thing I, I do, I'm curious what you, what you
say. I think I know what you're going to say. Because a lot of time,
if you have too much excess fat on your body, then the muscle is not showing, so then you have like
fat over your muscles. And then you can look a little bit more zoptic or bulky. How do we,
is it at all, how do we take care of that problem? It's interesting. So one, it's really, really hard to build muscle.
I love it when people are like, oh, I build muscle really
quickly, so I don't want to, you know, I'm worried about
what's going to happen to my, it's like, if you can put on,
if you can put on more than five pounds of muscle in a year,
like, you need to start selling your game plans
over.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's interesting, because I think the key thing
is remembering that one, it's really, really hard
to put down muscle.
So what you want to do, because the goal is to,
you worry that there's too much fat that people see,
so they can't see your muscle.
Well, no, like, OK, I'm going to give you an example.
What I'm saying is like, if you are doing a thousand crunches, which is a whole other thing,
like that's another myth that you can actually build a six pack by doing a thousand crunches.
I'm here to tell you, I don't even need to tell me this.
That's a myth because abs are built in the kitchen.
Most of this is done in the kitchen.
Working out can get you so far,
but if you're not eating properly
and in terms of like clean,
then you're never gonna build a six pack ever.
But my point is if you're eating a bunch of junk
and then you're doing a ton of ab workouts,
you'll have like, you may build a strong core,
so you'll have like fat layer over it.
Yeah, and that's what you should be, what you're better off spending your time doing in the gym
is hitting your major muscle groups, right? Because when you do that too, you're going to attack your,
you're going to want, if you're doing them with proper form, and as you master more execution,
you're gonna want to be attacking your abs anyway,
without having to do direct-up exercises.
So you don't even believe in doing anything
beyond major muscle groups,
and then that will just activate your abs or core.
What are you doing correctly yet?
And again, I love training abs,
but I also spend like two hours to sometimes more in the gym, right?
Well, most people don't have that time.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
So if you don't have time and you're kind of working off,
if you're like for for people who can't spend two hours in the gym,
it's like, I think you want to, you want to like,
lifting heavy is going to lift heavy heavy I think in the 8 to 10
rep range at max, right? But don't I would think of if you're gonna do four
exercises, right? Your first one go ahead and pick up something heavy and challenge
yourself, right? And do like three sets of say three to five, which is low. But
if you're going to a gym like like challenge yourself, if you're not comfortable
picking up free weights and you're afraid to get injured like like challenge yourself if you're not comfortable
Picking up freeways and you're afraid to get injured do it on the machine, right? Because most of most of the gyms we're going to have you know like what if let's talk about outside the gym
People don't have a gym members to play now with COVID and people can't tell their memberships. Yeah, some the best movements to do
I think yeah, I think you break it down into into four there are four boxes you
want to hit every bit. You want a squat okay either squat or lunge right? No both. I think you can
shoot they're both kind of similar. Some some people don't squat really well and that's some people
don't squat really well and that's why I say the lunge for those people. Some people aren't really
comfortable kind of stepping back and they lose their balance on the lunge and that's why I say the lunch for those people. Some people aren't really comfortable kind of stepping back and they lose their balance on the lunch and that's why the
squat is better for them. Okay. You want to do an exercise called the Romanian deadlift and
that's an exercise you can do. You can go like you can go pretty heavy on once you learn it
and it's super personal because you're only going down as low as you can. Right? And that...
This is a fundamental one, do you think?
Romania Deadlift?
Yes.
Okay, so you're saying squat or lunge, both, whatever.
Yeah.
The Romania Deadlift, because you can go as low as you can.
Yeah, and it teaches...
The Romanian Deadlift is the most fundamental motion in human life.
Because it's basically teaching you how to properly bend over,
which sounds really bad when I say like that.
But we know what you mean.
Yeah, but it's teaching you how to,
and that's something we forget over time,
and then we start to use our back for it,
but what we're supposed to do is use our hamstrings and our butt for it.
Right. So there's that, and then you need to do is use our hamstrings and our butt form.
So there's that, and then you need to do some kind of row, just anything where you, whether
it's a cable or resistance fan, or you're back, we talked about that.
Anything where you pull back here, and then you just want the other complement to pulling
back this way is you want to push, so you just want to have some kind of push up in
your game too.
And push up, okay. So you said we can iksnay on the planks and the sit-ups.
Yeah, those are, again, if you're doing these other things and you're doing them properly,
like if you take the time to learn a push-up or to master a push-up,
the push-up happens from a plank anyway. So it's like, you're covered.
Right.
Yeah.
And then would you say, what's the difference between split?
Like some people say the best thing to do
is do a workout that you do one body part a day
or do upper or lower or do full body.
What's the most effective?
It depends on how much time you have.
If you're planning to work out
three days a week, then it's better to do full body workouts, because you're going to be
taking a day or two in between. If you're doing four days a week. If you're doing four days
a week, upper lower, upper lower is a better way to do it. And then five days a week, you do body
part? No, I probably wouldn't, I don't think,
even bodybuilders don't,
even bodybuilders don't really just do
a single body part in a day.
I think the profession has moved away from that
because we can hit,
we can hit, your muscles can cover more,
or your muscles can be trained body parts more than once a week.
They don't need six days to recover.
Okay, but when you say like, oh, Jen, we're going to go workout.
We're doing bison tries, biceps and triceps.
So that's two body parts, right?
Yeah.
So are you training, like when do you, when do people train two body parts a day?
Like bison tries one day, legs another day, back and tries one day legs another day
Back and chest or whatever back Just we go. Yeah, I mean it I guess you some people think some people think of it that way
But yeah, and a lot of people are thinking of it
So so like when when I say um chest and tries right essentially what I'm doing is I'm training all the muscles that push
You know when I when we say back and I'm training all the muscles that push, you know,
when we say back and buys we're training all the muscles that pull. So, um, and especially
if you're, it's, it's more important, again, for the long, for your longevity, it's more
important, like, you don't need big biceps, right? But you need the ability to pull, you
know? So it's a lot easier, um, like functional training. Exactly. Yeah, which I try to avoid that buzzword, but that's basically really this. You don't like that word.
I just generally, I try to avoid as many buzzwords as possible because I feel like I feel like they don't really, you know, I try, I try to, I want to like help people understand what those buzzwords are. What does it mean? Functional training is literally training functions.
Yeah.
Or for everyday life, right?
Yeah, it's basically kind of training.
Yeah, in theory, it's training for everyday life,
and then CrossFit took that and made that
another term in its own way.
So that's why I try to avoid it, because I try to, you know,
but.
Yeah, I understand that.
That makes sense. I don't like that word either. But people know what now I think is very
common and how important is recovery and how much should we recover?
Um, so it's interesting recovery is huge, right? Because recovery is when you're growing
under cover recovery is when when I hit the sack at the end of the night, um, that's
when that's one of my body, assuming I get properly. That's when my body, assuming I get
properly sleep, that's when my body can grow, that's when it's repairing most of,
that's when it's repairing most of the muscle damage I created in the gym.
So that's when it's most critical. We're both taking like a water break at the
same time. But water is interesting because nutrition, to me, I've your recovery has anything
that's happening when I'm not in the gym, right?
And that includes, that includes like my nutrition, right?
Which is kind of the water I'm taking in.
I make sure to take in a lot of water.
How do you like this, Ed?
I love it.
I mean, it's interesting because the color throws those you off you don't think it's water.
He's drinking the BLK water that I sense with it. I think it's great because it has, I like it because
of the fallvic in it. And the fallvic, well, fallvic is naturally occurring antioxidant. So it's good
for recovery. That's why it's good for fitness,
people who do fitness stuff because it's good for them to talk to face the recovery and the
detoxification. But sorry, go ahead. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, I think of recovery. So we're only
gonna, if you think about it, you're only like, I train two hours on my day, right? And that's a long
time, right? That means there are 22 hours when I'm not training, right?
And you know, somebody else,
a normal person might train what like a half hour,
45 minutes a day, that means there's 23 hours
where they're not training.
So all of that is time that they need,
that they can recover from their workouts, right?
And if we go into our next workout
and we're not, if you go through a hard 45 minute workout
or a hard to our workout, or you know a 30 minute Peloton ride and then the next day and
you haven't kind of taken the time to recover your body and then the next day
you go back to that Peloton ride or like your 30 minute workout or you two
hour workout and you're kind of dealing and you haven't let your ligaments and tendons and muscles just get like recover and heal and rebuild.
One, you're not going to grow, so you're not going to get the gains you want out of it.
But two, you go into that next workout and diminish, right?
And then each day of kind of poor recovery, you start, you're starting to stack days of poor recovery, then you start to
end up, that's when people get injured. So that's why recovery is, is, is, is your critical
way of, of, of avoiding injury. But then it's also key because it's your critical way
of, of kind of undoing life, right? Because life puts us, so right now, even me are sitting,
I'm realizing this, I don't know how long we've been talking for, but our hip flexors are like
in this awful position right now, like we really should stand up and stretch.
But, well normally I would be doing this on a treadmill in my house, my studio,
however, we're of course in Miami today.
Okay.
And with COVID, I haven't been able to do that.
But I mean, I agree with you.
I do not like to sit for this long.
It's said in there, being sedentary is not a natural thing for me.
And I hope that most people, I think it's habitual now.
Like once you start moving a lot,
it's like an object emotion stays in motion,
which is really good for you.
Yeah.
Right?
Because both of us are not used to it,
and we're uncomfortable by sitting here.
Yeah, especially now that I thought about it.
Right.
But I mean, for the average person,
it's like you spend so much time in this sea
to position, so your hip flexors get tight,
and then you spend so much time hunched over something,
whether it's like a laptop
Right phone or your steering wheel or whatever and so recovery and economy
Corporate recovery tactics into into our lives, right?
Undo's that because we wind up in this in this awful position that like can easily like
He's closing down all this joint space on my shoulder,
tightening my chest doesn't look good posh really either.
And the fix for that is kind of smart.
I mean, one, it's training, but two, it's kind of smart
implementation of kind of recovery tactics, right?
And so I think recovery is because again, it's not just recovery from your work,
it's recovery from life.
You're in a gym an hour, maybe two, but life is wrecking you for the other 10 hours.
So what do you do?
I think to me it's an active recovery?
Yeah, I'm very big on, I think kind of the massage guns, I mean there are a lot of
tools out there.
Oh like the hyperbolt, like hyperbases.
Yeah, I love hyperbases of genius.
I'm very big on the like the Normatec group.
I love that Normatec.
It's expensive though for most people.
That's what I was gonna say.
Yeah.
But you buy the way Normatec is like these like, like they're like boots.
These big boots for people who don't know and it's for like
lactic acid build up, you wear them for like 40 minutes and it's really great.
But like any kind of like, any kind of you can even take a role or even and just roll
out just to help with.
Yeah, well I think I think even like think like formulaing is tricky, right?
Because there's like, there are certain ways to do it.
And I feel like sometimes people don't always, like, people don't always want to form
or have the interest in someone.
Yeah, I hate it.
But I mean, I just say I hate it.
I just don't love doing it.
Because I'm just always forget or whatever else, but I mean, you're the expert
though. I mean, you don't think it's a good way to loosen up your muscles for mobility
purposes and everything else like that. I think it's fine. It just wouldn't be my first
choice, right? Okay, so what's your first choice for mobility?
My first choice is just kind of like is active recovery. Like I think there is.
Do it by doing what?
Like give me an example.
There's a, so my faith, I think it's literally you can, and I think you can do this like
anytime throughout your day, and it doesn't even have to be like a workout, right?
It can easily just be like like two minutes, right?
When you just stand up and I would do something called the Spider-Man Lunge to the Ratchet
rotation, which I think I've made you do a bunch of times.
Probably, yeah. The Spider-Man, what's it called? The Spider-Man Lunge?
Yeah, the Spider-Man Lunge, right?
Oh, I know exactly what you're talking. You have all these names, we all have different names for
stuff, but that's a great one. Yeah. But tell people how to do it, which is...
Yeah, so basically you get into all you do is you get into, you get into a push-up position.
Can you do it right now?
I can see I can do it on a table that we know I mean you could do real
Um if we move the table I do I
Mean I don't mind moving the table should we move the table? Yeah, do you mind helping me move the table?
So I can just and you're saying this is when the best movement for active
This is if there's if there's one thing you do, like every day,
that checks a lot of boxes and helps to loosen
all the stuff that gets tight.
Yeah, okay.
This is it.
This is it.
Yeah.
Where do we think this is?
Just put it right there for now.
Can we put it right there for now.
Can you put it on the floor? Yeah.
This isn't in jeans, so I want to ask them.
It's okay.
You go.
Do it.
Okay.
Do it.
Okay, so all you do is get into push-ups position without
without not even the camera.
Okay.
And my abs are nice and tight, loose and nice and tight.
And all we do is move our right foot as close to our right hand as possible and try to keep
our chin perpendicular to your ground as we can and then live in this position and take like 2D breaths, and try to like sink
into the tip, because this opens up this entire hip hip here, and then also this back
is getting really, really nice stretch.
And then from this position, all we do is reach our hands to the sky, and then I get back
good shoulder blade squeeze on the back at the same
time I'm opening up my chest which has got tight from all that.
Tighten it.
And then come back and do the other side.
And how many should we do of these?
I would literally do.
I would just alternate sides for like two minutes.
I would. two minutes.
Two minutes, okay.
How are you so we do that every day?
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe we should like wake up and wake up and do that.
Or is it before we go to bed?
It's interesting.
You could definitely wake up and do it before you wake up
or when you wake up.
And you do it before you wake up.
In most sleeping?
Yes.
You could definitely do it before you wake up. In most sleeping? Yes. You could definitely do it when you wake up.
I also think it's great too, like if you're in an office or if you have a lunch break
or something like that, it's great to do it at those times too because that's when our
hips are like, you know, you've been sitting for four hours.
Yeah, exactly, they're tight.
Yeah, exactly.
And there's a lot of research now. Just on what's happening more tight here,
isn't just like our fascia that is setting in
to this pattern, right?
And constantly reinforcing to your fascia,
which is kind of this whole living, breathing,
like wrapper on our muscles.
Constantly reinforcing that, hey, we're not in a set position
is beneficial, right?
So it's like, I would do it.
I do it like whenever I'm in the office,
which happens a lot less these days,
whenever I'm in the office,
and I need like, kind of just like,
you know, I'll just do it in the office.
It's interesting too,
because I feel like now,
now the way the world is, is like, people are a little bit more accepting of me doing weird it in the office. It's interesting too, because I feel like now, now the way the world is, is like,
people are a little bit more accepting of me doing weird stuff at the office.
Now? Why now? They should have always been accepting of you,
since it's what you do for a living.
That's true.
Yeah.
I'll talk to the boss.
Yeah, be more accepting of that.
Yeah, now they like me now.
But yeah, I think if you do that one, And be more accepting event. Yeah, now they like me now.
But yeah, I think if you do that one, um, and again, it's super simple. It just hits a lot of boxes.
It loosens up a lot of it loosens up kind of a lot of the areas there.
It's tight. Um, and it's easy.
It's easy to remember all you're thinking is get your foot by your hand and reach for
a soon. I love that.
Um, let's just write a couple.
I want to go back to the goal setting because we were talking about that and then we kind
of went into fat loss myths.
But we started off really well telling people a great way to kind of goal set is to have
something that they're working towards, like a race or done a race or like a Spartan
or a local thing.
I had more on that too.
I know, that's why I want to kind of circle it back and finish with this because coming
into a new year or in a new year, I really want people and anybody like myself even to
have like really good practical things that they can actually put down where they can stick to whatever goals that they have and
reach them.
Because it's no point of setting something, the whole point of setting something is
that you can actually reach those goals, not to set them and then just kind of like
not even have a plan.
So what are some really other good ways to do that?
Okay.
Yeah, so it was interesting because where I had been,
so that we went down like very long ago.
But it was a good travel, I feel like.
Yeah.
A bunch of other rules.
Yes.
But, yeah.
Welcome to the podcast.
Yeah.
I think, yeah, it's interesting
because like, yeah, so what works about
the Spartan races and tough motor and stuff like that,
is they create this tangible concrete goal.
But not everybody wants to have, wants to like put themselves out there and go do a race or whatever. races and tough motor and stuff like that, is they create this tangible concrete goal.
But not everybody wants to have, wants to like put themselves out there and go do a race
or whatever.
But I think the key is what you want to do is create like, and this is where people fall
when they're coming up with their goals for the start of the year.
They're like, I want to lose weight, right?
Well, I want to, I want to get stronger.
I want to build muscle.
I want to, you know, I think what you have to do is you take that general goal, right?
Because that general goal is kind of really what you want.
But you've got to put something tangible to it, right?
So the thing people have to do.
And I think to, if you go back, like you've,
everybody's heard the phrase like invest in yourself, right?
And it's kind of like you've got it, the more investment you put into creating your goal, right?
Which sounds simple, but the more that,
and this is actually how you stick to it though too,
the more investment you put into kind of creating your goal,
the more you're gonna, the more time you put into it.
Like if you're just like, I wanna lose weight,
that's my thing for 2021, if 2022,
so I'm gonna go get a gym membership and that's gonna keep for 2021. If it's 22, so I'm going to go get a gym membership,
and that's going to keep me accountable.
That's not enough, right?
But I think what you want to do is say, OK, I want to lose weight.
I want to figure out how many pounds.
The more concrete you can make it the better.
So I think what people have to do is take two steps
on top of that initial goal.
Come up with that initial kind of more
less form thing.
Like let's say, I want to, I want to,
I have a lot of clients come to me
and they're like, I want to build muscle.
And so I actually flip around and I'm like,
I'm like, what, like, who do you,
and it sounds superficial, right?
But it's not, it's helping to kind of shape
what we're gonna do, right?
And this is actually the season
when I do it with a lot of time.
It's, okay, so you wanna build,
you wanna build more muscle.
Who do you wanna look like, right?
Or how do you wanna perform, okay?
So I think it's, like we have all these kind of,
so I really, yeah.
So these more specific.
Yeah, there's a third step to that too, right?
So, like, it's like for me, like, I want to look like Captain America.
I had a guy, I actually had a guy earlier this year who wanted to look like Captain America.
And so, it was like, okay, so now you've chosen, you've made it initially tangible, right?
You've chosen somebody to look like.
It doesn't have to be look like either.
It could also be like perform like like I want to duck a basketball. I want to look like Jazeal.
Now what do I do? So then let's like outline that more. And it sounds again it sounds silly and
it sounds like I know what you mean. You're not trying to sound vain or superficial but what you're
trying to do is really kind of be as specific as possible.
And then on top of that, have somebody that you can use as a bench marker or an example
so that you pull to or you can like refer to.
Yeah, exactly.
And then you take it one more level and it's okay.
So my guy who wanted to look like Captain America, right, it's like, okay, so we need to work
on your chest.
We need to work on your chest and we need to work on your chest, we need to work on your chest,
and we need to work on your abs,
and we need to work on, you know, your legs, right?
And so off of that, then we chose the certain amount
of exercise, we chose certain exercises,
like we're gonna get your bench press here, right?
We're gonna get your ability to do hanging leg lists to this and that.
But what if it's not physically about how you look?
What if it's like, I really want to have more energy.
So who do you, you can't have, you don't have that type of specificity.
So how do you do that?
So what you do.
Like, because like, let's say, like, yeah, I mean, in general, yes, you want more energy.
But I think, I think part of the responsibility of having that goal of more energy, if you want it to go anywhere,
is to put something, is to put something tangible to it, right?
So that, like, and-
Okay, we're going to put my chat word, detangibility, be with that.
Yeah, so that's what I'm thinking through a little bit bit because yeah, for, you know, I want more energy. It might be, that might be okay, so I want to be able to, you know, run like,
you know, half a mile in the morning and half a mile at night and feel good, right?
I just, but I think you want to have the, like, the responsibility if you have that goal is the responsibility of it's your responsibility to make it tangible and that's what's going to that's what's going to allow you to stick to it, right?
And that's also what's going to allow you to feel like you're winning throughout the year because you know if we took that more energy and let's say maybe that more energy, maybe I want more energy translates to,
I wanna be able to do 20 burpees at the end of the day,
which probably doesn't sound like much fun.
How about for accountability?
Well, so that keeps you, I mean, for accountability,
I think once you go through the trouble,
so I just literally spun that 20 burpees
at the end of the day thing and it's kind of silly, right? So I'm probably not going to take it very seriously, right? But that's what I think it's like
you've kind of invested in yourself and taken the time to do something, right?
Taking the time to like really flesh out the goal, whether that's with a trainer or with yourself
or whatever, and because of that, you'll stick to it because you owe it to yourself because you
took the time to not just like come up with something that was like
20 minutes on on December 31st, but you took the time to kind of research and work something work on something. Oh, I like that. Okay
And the account of like how I think accountability is super important. So yeah, what's the way some great ways to work out?
Is it do you do you think working out friends are good? Like what's other ways to keep your goals?
Yeah, it's interesting because I think I think, yeah,
like if you kind of create, so I'm big on two things.
One, I think, yeah, if you can work out with a group,
that's really awesome,
because they're gonna help you stick to it.
We're finally like, finally a training partner.
One of the hard parts of finding a training partner
is you need somebody who's going to push you and not drag you down. I trained for like a couple of years,
probably like six years ago I was training with like a guy and he would always show up late
to the gym and they have to like call him. So it's like you have to find like the right person.
If you can find the right person, I think that's good. If you can afford a trainer,
and they keep you accountable when they do the work for you, one of the cool projects I've been
part of over the last nine months is I work with a team called Flexit on the head of training
innovation there. And that's an app and a platform that allows for virtual training, which is a really accept a super easy way that anybody can get. Yeah, I just flex it with you. I love that because you
can like train with really top quality people and you could like at your house
basically and it's actually really good also for proper form and technique and to make
sure you're doing things right. Yeah. That's what I like about those types of things too.
I don't think a trainer anymore is just for people who are super wealthy.
I think people who want to get better in anything have coaches and you don't have to be doing
it all the time.
Right?
It could just be like once in a while to make sure that you're on point.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I think you and me did once a week or something like that for a little bit. We did. And then I got busy
my bad. But I did really love the platform. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's like a really easy,
and you're right. There are so many ways that you can work with, that you can work with a
trainer. I think Flexed is a great option. But then there are other ways. I think when I think now to,
even if I draw up a program,
I have a couple of clients where I do
as I draw up a program,
I give it to them,
they send me a couple of videos a week.
Right.
And it's like check ins, right?
But I think when you've kind of spent,
it's like anything.
It's like, if you spend $600 on a new PlayStation 5,
or you can leave it, sit there, you can use it, right? So if you spend $600 on the new PlayStation 5, or you can leave it sit there, you can use it, right?
So if you can, if you can, right?
If you can spend $500 on a workout program,
you're probably going to stick to it a little bit more.
So I think the accountability is like literally,
I think there are ways you can, like working with a partner
is great, working with a partner is great working with a trainer is great
I think people too. I think when you when you set that tangible goal
I do believe like when you make it very very tangible. I want to bench press 225. I want to yeah
It's more tangible the better. Yeah, I think that's I think that's what we'll get people to stick to I also think
setting very, very small goals,
right? Like, if you don't buy it off more than you can chew. I call it stacking days,
right? I think it's literally, so I do this with one client in Virginia. It was actually fun
because I saw it, like suddenly she got into it, right? So I'm like, if you have no interest in fitness at all,
my thing is seven minutes, right?
If you can start with seven minutes once a day.
And I did this with another guy too, in the Bronx,
and we started with like one seven minute workout
like once a day, and then it was like,
and then it was like two of them,
because it's seven minutes, so it's not very long.
Right, two a day, or just, okay, two, seven minutes.
Yeah, so it's a 14-wapping minutes at 24 hours, you know?
But over time, and then over time,
like he was able to, it was like,
oh, I could fit in more seven-minute workouts
because I'm not long.
Totally.
And he wound up losing, I think he lost like 60 pounds.
Amazing.
Yeah, and it was.
What's it called, stacking?
Yeah.
How's that stack? Oh, you stack stack seven minutes. Well, the goal,
the goal is to like it habits and hustle. I thought about this. Yeah, yeah, but the goal is to like
form a habit, right? Because so that's like it's like seven minutes once a day. Okay, but seven,
it's like the first day you do it, right? And then you check in with me, right? And it's like,
okay, you did your workout. now we have to get two days right
it's now you do the workout again now we have to get three days so then you do and then um one it's like
this seven minute thing started because it was like okay I can show these people that um they'll be more
they'll be more active and like have more fun you know and then all of a sudden they like like the
energy so they want the um the lady in Virginia um one is like more where she all of a sudden she was doing like like hour long rolling workouts
And I was like I didn't tell you to do that, but sure
You know exactly just get the hardest parts of the start. So we're saying seven minutes day one day two two
Seven minutes keep day three three seven minutes. Is that what you're saying? No, keep going so seven minutes day one
Seven minutes day two seven minutes day three. There's gonna come a point what you're saying? No, keep going. So seven minutes day one, seven minutes day two, seven minutes day three,
there's going to come a point where you're going to want to do that.
Oh, okay. So you're not saying devil and then triple it. You're saying constantly just
do the seven minutes a day. There's an app by the way for seven minute workouts. I don't
know if you know that. It's a very big thing. I had an app by the way for five minute workouts.
And then the seven minute, you know, a long time ago. And so you're saying, this is like, I totally believe in this, that's why I did the
five minute, hot five, was because once someone starts, that's the hardest part.
And once they get started, then their goodness will more or less.
And the more you do it, the more you get comfortable with it.
So you're saying you did the seven minutes and then second day seven until they get on a
role. Yeah, exactly. And all you're doing is you're kind of like you're mandating for yourself that
you're going to have activity in every single day, right? That's where it starts, right? But then
and then because you're you're creating this mindset, right, of having a mandate for activity and
working out every single day.
And then you just stack that because it's like one day, two day.
Oh, wow, I've done seven days of seven minutes.
I can do more of this.
And then I've done 14 days.
And then I've done 30 days.
It's a confidence building too that you can do it.
Yeah.
Now, I love this.
This is great.
So I don't know how long that was, but thank you for coming on the podcast.
We can do another one like this.
I don't know how long that was, but thank you for coming on the podcast. We can do another one like this. I don't know how long that was, but it's mostly your fault. It is always my fault.
Everyone, you should, by the way, besides, you know, checking out men's health and
Ed has obviously workouts in there and articles and he writes for them, he runs it. But Ed,
check out Ed's, like I said earlier, his IG, he does a great work out.
Tell him again what your IG is.
It's my full name, so Ebb and Ebb and Ebb is Samuel 23.
Joanne Spell, Ebenezer for people, just in case, Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb and Ebb is Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb is Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb is Ebb is Ebb.
Ebb is Ebb is Ebb. Ebb is Ebb is Ebb. Ebb is Ebb. Ebb is Ebb. Ebb is Ebb. E-R-S-A-M-U-E-L-2-3. That's really long.
No kidding.
That's why I call you Ebb.
No, awesome.
Thank you.
This is a great beginning.
Well, I mean, you'll come out again, I'm sure.
And this is a great beginning for people to start their 2022 off on the right foot, so to
speak.
Excuse the pun.
So thank you for coming on. Inspire this is your moment excuses we have been that the habits and hustle podcasts power by happiness
Hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Heather Monahan host of creating confidence a part of the Yap media network
The number one business and self-improvement podcast network
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