Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1159: The Top 5 Exercises, Leg Press vs. Hack Squat, Pre-Lift Motivation Techniques & MORE

Episode Date: November 9, 2019

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about adding an exercise to the "Big 4," the leg press compared with the hack squat, the value of self-talk for motivation, and the future of contact sports. Mobility is NOT flexibility! Why Mind Pump is here to educate the masses. (4:17) The ONLY proper way to fast. (15:25) How Sal used Brain.fm to help his son study for his test. (17:38) Adam gets personal. (20:30) Why Adam doesn’t vote. (22:33) Is there a global fertility crisis? (28:50) Mind Pump’s go-to ‘snack’ foods. (31:10) Should you ration your kids Halloween candy? (34:08) Are cannabinoids anti-acne?! (38:14) Why Harriet Tubman is one of Sal’s heroes. (41:58) #Quah question #1 – If you had to add an exercise to the "Big 4” to make it the Big 5, which exercise would it be? (44:31) #Quah question #2 – I know squats are best for leg development, but if you had to choose between the leg press and the hack squat which one is better? (52:15) #Quah question #3 – How powerful is self-talk for motivation or having someone yell at you before doing a big lift? Do you practice it or should we just slap our faces, get angry and pick up the weight? (59:39) #Quah question #4 – Sports like rugby and football are increasingly becoming demonized due to concussion risks. What do you foresee the future of contact sports to be? (1:06:47) People Mentioned Joel Seedman (@dr.joelseedman_ahp)  Instagram Amelia Boone (@ameliaboone)  Twitter Bret "Glute Guy" Contreras PhD (@bretcontreras1)  Instagram Eugene Teo (@coacheugeneteo)  Instagram   Related Links/Products Mentioned November Promotion: MAPS Performance ½ off!! **Code “GREEN50” at checkout** Visit Brain.fm for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners. Global Fertility Crisis Has Governments Scrambling for an Answer Visit Skinny Dipped for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** A mid-morning snack of almonds generates satiety and appropriate adjustment of subsequent food intake in healthy women Differential effectiveness of selected non-psychotropic phytocannabinoids on human sebocyte functions implicates their introduction in dry/seborrhoeic skin and acne treatment. Visit NED for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Harriet (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes Mind Pump TV - YouTube Watersports & Long Term Brain Injury Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, so in this episode we answer questions asked by people like you who post these questions on our Instagram page. And then thanks for the content. At the beginning of the episode, we do our introductory portions. This is where we have fun, talk about current events,

hang out with each other a little bit. Anyway, you're gonna enjoy this episode. Here's what we talked about. We start out by talking about an Instagram influencer, a fitness influencer, who said that. You can do it in two words. It's a weird way to say it, right? I like that. It's French. It's French.

It's French. He talked about how you should not be doing super deep squats or mobility work or things like yoga because it actually increases your risk of injury. Yes, we completely disagree with them. Hey, guess what? You're wrong. You're going to have to listen to this part, that part of the episode to find out why. Then I talked about fasting and the proper way to fast, or at least the proper mentality around fasting, how everything else is more of a pathology around fasting. I talked about brain FM.

This is the product that we've worked with for years now. If you listen to them, it'll help you meditate and help you concentrate. I was talking about how it helped my son study for his Spanish quiz. If you go to brain.fm-sash-mind-pump, we'll give you 20% off. Adam talked about how he got hammered because he doesn't vote. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Adam doesn't vote, but it's because he's responsible. Oh my God.

Right. Then I talked about the fertility crash, how modern societies or fertility rates are dropping. I talked about one of the fertility rates are dropping. I talked about one of the best snack foods ever. Almonds, almonds are amazing. They're very high in vitamin E, high in manganese, high in magnesium. And if you like your almonds lightly covered in chocolate

with good macro nutrient profile, definitely go to Skinny Dipped. They're one of our sponsors. If you go to skinnydipped.com forward slash mind pump and enter the code, mind pump, you'll get 20% off your purchase. Then I talked about the cannabinoid, cannabacromine, CBC.

This one's not that well known. Well, believe it or not, it may actually help with acne. Where will you find CBC? You'll find it in full spectrum hemp products like the one from Ned. Now we work with Ned because we think they're the best. They have full spectrum hemp oil products. If you go to hello Ned.com forward slash mine pump, you'll get 15% off your first purchase. Then I talked about the movie Harriet, excellent movie about Harriet Tubman. She's one of my heroes. And then we got into the questions, person of this episode, the first question.

This person wants to know if we had to add an exercise to the big four, what would that exercise be? So the big four are Barbell Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, and overhead press. Everybody knows those are some of the best exercises. What would the fifth one be? Next question, this person says, hey, what's better? Leg press or a hack squat?

So if you had to pick one, which one would you pick? Third question, how effective is yelling at yourself, slapping yourself, or getting angry to lift more weight? And the final question, this person saying, hey, sports like football and rugby, they're getting demonized because of all the concussions and stuff, what do you guys think the future of those sports will be?

So we do a little bit of prophesizing in that part of the episode. Also, this month's performance is 50% off. Now, maps performance is our fitness program designed for those of you that want to work on your athletic Functional performance. So if you like to look good and move good have good mobility good strength good muscle Be able to move in different planes of motion. So not just front to back, but side to side rotate have some speed and power We'll get maps performance and it's half off. Front back, front back.

Here's what you do. Go to mapsgreen.com and use the code green50, GRE and 50, no space for the discount. I'm starting to get fired up, man, about, and I don't know what started it or what. I brought it up in the last episode, I'm getting tagged and it like, maybe that's why it's been brought up

and now everyone's tagging me. It's like, remember whenever you buy a car and you think you got the only one that looks like that and you see it all the time, right? So that could be what's happening right now. But I feel like there's this movement of telling people not to learn how to squat or not to squat or not to do deep squats.

Now I get tagged in a post today. Don't squat deep, don't do mobility, don't do yoga. And it's a doctor Joel Seedman. Oh yeah, let me look at that post real quick just so I can get clear what he says. But he's, I tagged you in it because I saw it and I've actually been tagged on his stuff before. I just paid no attention to him because I didn't care

for some of the information he was presenting the last time I looked at him. Yeah, he's he's so wrong in this post. I don't know where to begin. It's really, really, really bad how wrong he is. So he's saying stop doing yoga, ass-egg-rassats, stretching and mobility drills. If you think extreme range of motion and pushing mobility boundaries won't have detrimental effects, think again. By the way, he's referring to an article

that was in the BBC. So, the news channel? Yeah, like the BBC. Yeah. Like a great reference. Great reference. Great reference. Yeah. In the article itself, it was essentially a physiotherapist who was talking about his observations.

So it's not a study. It was a guy saying, hey, I've had to work a lot on yoga practitioners and in their hips and stuff like that. And you know, and other types of fields where there's a lot of mobility. And by the way, here's, I'll tell you real quick why he's wrong. Mobility is not flexibility. Flexibility is a component of mobility.

So, and we've said this a million times before, extreme flexibility without strength and stability is instability. It's problematic. Yes, that causes issues. Also, I also don't think it's fair to look at the extremes and to use that as the example because I could also say, hey, look at the strongest athletes in the world, the strongest power lifters and look at their injury rates, shouldn't work out with weights because

the strongest athletes have tear muscles or whatever. Doesn't work that way. Mobility means you have control over those ranges of motion. And in yoga, for example, if you do yoga properly where you maintain tension, you should improve mobility. If you do yoga where you sit in these long stretches, but then you don't strengthen.

And it's a gradual increase of range of motion. It's not like going to the excess of hyper mobility. These angles that are super extreme, it's a gradual increase in order to then gain access to that and to gain strength in that range of motion. So this is funny because it feeds right into that whole clinical side where they want to limit you to these 90-degree angles only within all your joints. Like, that's how you move in real life. I would be walking around like a robot, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat.

Well, it's part of the motivation of originally what got us to start this podcast is what's annoyed me about our space for two decades now is that you know, we all get in these pissing contests on, you know, who's more right? And we see here arguing over different modalities and we throw studies at each other to try and prove our ideology. And what we end up really doing instead of truly helping people is we just end up confusing the majority. Confusing how I'm people. Yeah, I mean, if I'm somebody who doesn't know anything really about fitness and I come in and I see posts like this and then I hear somebody else who's telling me

that I need to go ask, I just, I end up doing nothing because now I'm scared. Like this doctor is telling me I shouldn't do this, this doctor is telling me I should do that. Like, ah, what do I do? Who's right? They both seem much smarter than I am. Fuck this, I don't want it to get involved.

Yeah, yeah. He's clearly, clearly misunderstanding what mobility is. We're getting stronger, improve your mobility. Yes, so technically doing curls could increase somebody's or improve somebody's mobility, because they're stronger. So we have to understand how we define this. It's not just range of motion.

Range of motion is a component of it, but range of motion without strength is instability, in which case, yes, I would agree. Don't get tons of range of motion that you don't have control over, you're gonna hurt yourself. But if you work on improving a range of motion and controlling that range of motion,

having strength within that range of motion, not only do you not increase your risk of injury, you decrease your risk of injury. And then of course the studies shall also show in terms of muscle development, longer ranges of motion with control, you're gonna activate more muscle fibers, you'll build more muscle, but no, he's totally wrong. He even, but he's advocating in that post too

that you only stop at 90 degrees. Well, it's also, it reminds me of like, wearing the platform shoes and like, always having these like super padded shoes that you're wearing all the time. And then all of a sudden, like dramatically going to these flat foot shoes and running in those and like people getting injured and then saying

you should never run in flat foot shoes or minima shoes where they never did the work where like, you know, they gained access to that strength and their feet adjusted and acclimated. No, your goal is to train within the largest range of motion that you have control over, okay? So if I go and get under a bar and do a squat, that doesn't mean I do the deepest possible squat I can do.

What it means is I go as low as I can while maintaining good control, good stability, and good form. So that, probably for most people, means that I'm gonna have to stop my rep short of what I can actually push myself down to do. Now your goal should be to own deeper ranges of motion. And that means you're gonna have to do mobility movements.

This is work. It's so crazy that he would say don't do mobility, don't do mobility movements. That's insane to me. It's so crazy that he would say, don't do mobility movements. That's insane to me. It's just a therapist do it all the time for. The irony in it is, I think most of these guys that are putting out information like this, if we were to sit in a room together

and put all of them together, we'd probably all agree on 90% of the information. It's pretty clear for most of us that have been in this space for a long time, what's right, what's wrong, But they use these like a, you know, specific study or they take a topic like this That's a hot button and then they put out an alarmist post to get it track. I mean, look, we're talking about it Right trying to be divisive right so they get attention and and what I don't like about that And I get the I get the social media game

I understand that that's that's part of the strategy to get eyes on you to get attention so you then can probably try and educate. But the problem is you're probably doing more harm than good because the majority of the people get lost. They get lost in the weeds. And what I've always thought was wrong with our space. We get too much of this, we're in our camps,

we're in our silos, we've got our own studies that back up our philosophy and so we're going to put our stake in the ground and then it's you know your way is inferior to my way and we throw studies back and forth to prove that I'm more right than you are. And meanwhile we lose the majority. And really that's who I'm interested in. I'm not interested in the kid who's got, you know, his kines degree, he's got five national certifications and he wants to side more with this PhD over that PhD, like, I don't give a fuck about that kid. I'm sorry.

I care about everybody else because that's where the real problem is. The real problem lies in the majority that aren't even making it to the gym. And here we are all getting in pissing contest and really all we're doing is stifling that progress for those people and it just annoys the fuck. Well challenging information is important but also thinking desired outcome. When we challenge something it's because we want to steer the masses back on track.

Right. You know, and it's like, you're causing more confusion, which then detours people from getting to an optimal place in their training. Right, so here you are, average person, and you're like, oh man, you know, deep squats are just hurt, they're so hard, you read this post, you're like, oh cool. I don't have to even work on justification, right?

Yeah, I don't have to work on trying to get a deeper range of motion. So I think now I need to just stop it at what he said here, which is nine degrees or whatever. And then that's the only way. I, in fact, going lower than that is bad for me. So I don't have to work on my improving or increasing my mobility. Here's the reality. The reality is life doesn't follow those rules.

So life follows... When you go in a move... Yeah, one day you might have to go below 90. That's it. You know? One day, I'm sure you will. You're gonna have to reach down in twists, or you're gonna have to be outside of perfect form. You're not gonna be, you know, following these perfect biomechanic type movements. You're gonna throw a baseball with your kid, or you're gonna, you're gonna stop step off of a step that you don't realize was there. So you had to catch yourself. You know, that's real life.

So you want to know why so many of these athletes, not even athletes, I'm sorry, these gym rats, hurt themselves when they go to the park and do regular shit. It's because they always train in the same comfines. They don't challenge their mobility and work on those deeper ranges of motion. So the reality is, if you do it properly, it's better.

If you do it properly, you lower your risk of injury. If you're always so scared and focused on, no, I can't improve my range of motion. I can't improve my mobility by working on mobility movements. You actually increase your risk of injury with just everyday life. So it's a silly. So I just felt that we had to address it

because over the last, I don't know, a year and a half or so, he's been tagged or I've been tagged on multiple posts I just felt that we had to address it because over the last, I don't know, a year and a half or so, he's been tagged or I've been tagged on multiple posts and people wanting me to address what we feel or think about it. And you know, this to me was like the straw that broke the camel's back. I was like, you know, I normally don't like giving anybody attention like that. I don't think deserves it. But this whole movement to stop people from doing mobility and yoga and learning to get astagra, it's such a terrible message,

I think, for the majority of the world. Oh, it's silly. How many people, how many everyday people go to yoga and just drastically improve their health or their mobility and just feel so much better, you know? And you're gonna start talking people out of it because you're wrong. Yeah. Yeah, because you're wrong.

Yeah. Because it gets attention. That's the real thing. That's the real thing. There you go. Yeah, I think in our space, we have either we have that side, which is the super, what is it that, what do you want to call them?

The technical educated people who split hairs and nuanced strength coaches. Yeah, and really aren't doing a lot to help the average person and kind of speaking in an echo chamber type of deal, which is fine if you want to do that. That's totally up to you. And then you have the other side where you have the fitness side where they'll take some good information

and twist it into a way to prey on people's insecurities, you know, sell a bullshit product. Like fasting is a great example. Fasting has tremendous health benefits. One of the side effects of fasting is weight loss. So what do you think the fitness industry grabs onto? Oh yeah. Oh, it's the first emphasis.

It's the newest diet. It's not the newest diet. It's the first diet ever. Understanding from food. Yeah, that was the very first time. Oh shit. Somebody tried to lose weight. They did the mind blow.

It's not a new thing. Yeah, I actually wrote about this the other day. You know, I was thinking to myself, like, okay, because we've done episodes on when fasting is a good idea and when it's not a good idea. And when fasting is unhealthy is what it's used to lose weight, change your body cosmetically or aesthetically, or as a form of self-hate, self-flatulation. Like, I'm irritated

or sick of myself. I eat horrible over the weekend or I need to just get away from food because I'm disgusted with my body. Those are the wrong reasons to fast those are pathologies. There's only one proper right way or healthy way I should say to fast which is The is is to practice detachment is really what it's all about is detachment from and you can practice Fasting by the way with food, but you can also practice fasting with a lot of different things that you want to Practice detachment from so There are those those you have you guys ever heard those vipocinus where people go? No, it's not. And they go to these, like, retreats where nobody speaks. Oh, that's what they're called.

Yeah, for like a week or whatever. That's detachment from communication. Or you could do fasting from electronics where you detach from the electronics. Fasting from food when it's done for the healthy aspects of it, is that it's the detachment aspect. Not the avoidance, not the, I shouldn't eat that because I'm disgusting or whatever. It's the practicing of detachment. It's the way that spiritual leaders have practiced fasting for thousands of years. Outside of that, you shouldn't fast. You know what I mean? Outside of that, you shouldn't fast. You know what I mean?

Outside of that, you shouldn't be using that as a way to to lose weight or whatever. We used to call that starving back in the day, by the way. They just rebranded it. Just, you know, something else. Yeah, it was old school model diet. Yeah, anyway, I was driving to work the other day with my kid. And he was like nervous over a Spanish test.

I guess a Spanish teacher is really tough. And he's had like his first ever, you know, bad grades on tests and stuff. What's that a B? Yeah, well, you know, no, he actually got an F on one of his tests. Oh, wow. Yeah. He's got overall a good grade in the class,

but it's like one of his first steps. So he's like super stressed out. So we're in the car and he's pulling up his phone. And I always tell him, I don't want you on your phone when we're in the car because I like to have conversations with him. He's like, no, I'm studying for my Spanish test coming up. I'm like, okay, did you practice yesterday?

He says, yeah, I said, okay. So as he's practicing, I put brain FM on in the car. He's like, no, no, keep it quiet. I don't want any sound. It said, trust me. Let me leave this on for about seven minutes and then we'll let me know what you think. so the drive up here from my house is about 30 to 45 minutes so and you guys know when you listen to Braden fam right it takes like yeah 10 minutes

Yeah, you sort of slip into it dude. He was in the zone, man. Yeah, he's like dude, dude, you know doing this thing back for so after he's about to get out of the car and he goes What was that? Yeah, it's great. Yeah, I it's all manipulated. Yeah, I'm like, dude, it worked. So he's gonna get it on his phone now and start using it for a city fun. So if he did, I had seriously had a similar experience. Like, so, you know, I have that, like, Bluetooth speaker, that small one. And I put it out on the kitchen table

while the kids were supposed to be doing their homework. And yeah, normally they don't have any music, nothing, no TV, nothing's on, like, to distract them. And they still find ways to, like, get distracted, start talking about, like, video games or whatever. And I just, I literally just put that on. I put the focus on, and I was doing stuff in the kitchen, and they start talking, and then also,

and they stop talking, and their heads down, and they're, like, writing, and then they're reading, and writing, and literally they're reading and writing, and literally for 15 minutes straight, not even a peep out of a six-year-old, and a 10-year-old, come on. There's a part of me that's a little bit like, what are they doing with this fuck? It's work, it's creepy.

Yeah, didn't you guys, who is it that said, if you listen to while you have sex? Is that you? Have you used it since? No, we used to do it all the time. I mean, Katrina and I obviously... So you keep you focused. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, we had... Sit up there, you want the business? It's paramount now, dude. Let me tell you. I know, actually, we haven't since we've had Max tried using that, and I haven't thought about that. It was part of the formula, because we had the audio bloke we were listening to already on the speaker.

So I have one of those Bluetooth-boast speakers that's right next to the bed. And we used to listen to an audio book. We listened to the audio book for like 45 minutes or so. And then I told you I would smoke and then I would throw the focus on Brain FM. And it was just like intense, bro. Firewood.

Yeah, you just go in deep for like a long time. Oh shit, that was like an hour and a half. He's lying So focused on but we actually have we haven't done that in a long time, dude I mean, I'm just grateful if I can get any sex these days You got that deadline. Oh my god. It's just it's it's which is funny because Katrina is I never thought I would be that way because she I have used to to, you guys heard me talk on the podcast for the last five years. It's a very similar, it's like, we're playing my life, dude.

It's a really easy one. She was like, very aggressive when I first met her. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, and then all of a sudden gone. So I can empathize. It's tired, dude. Like I miss my massages too, man.

I just, I mean, that's how she got me early on. I went for the first year we were dating. I got empathize. It's tired, dude. Like, I miss my massage just too, man. I mean, that's how she got me early on. I went for the first year we were dating. I got a massage. You're not number one no more, bro. And then as a dad, you're torn. Like, I can't give her too much shit, because I do care about that. I'm at the end of the day. Like, I'm willing to make the sacrifice.

Like, dad will just figure it out. I'm just figuring it out. Like, she got hell mad at me, like, the two nights ago, because I said, you know, you think maybe you can introduce me to a massage therapist that I can't do? Oh, no. Oh yeah. No. Like, oh, barking at me.

You can't say that to her dude. That's why I'm asking you for a personal training. I know, bro, and I'm just, she's like, I'll do it. You just need to tell me, I said, well, I did text you at 11 a.m. this morning. I know, dude. Yeah, after that last leg workout was so brutal. Like, oh my god, I miss having my massage therapist that used to rub me after these days, right?

And so I texted her like after like the night before, I just rocked her world, right? So I was like, this is perfect timing, right? I just completely rocked her world. That's the time to ask. Yeah, yeah. So first thing in the morning is like 11 o'clock in the morning, I'm like, man, I would love a massage tonight. And she goes, anything after last night, right? She had those in response I got. And then get home, just the time goes by, kind of throw like little innuendoos around. Ah, you know, it'd be nice to get a massage.

Oh yeah, I lay out later. And then eight o'clock comes around and I'm like, that's when I bring it up, because it never happened, right? And then I get the, no, and then I get the, you know, you should have told me sooner. I'm like, well, I did text you like 11 o'clock this morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. 100%.

I missed it. Dude, I saw you getting, you said you were getting roasted for your story yesterday. You were answering questions. Yeah. Somebody asked me, somebody, the first one that came in was like, can Trump count on your vote in 2020? And then I just gave a short answer. Oh my God. That is, yeah, right. So fun. Yeah, that's what it said. It's a you full

mega. Yeah. So you won a bus. Yeah. It's a, I said, I don't vote. And boy, did that just, uh, yeah, and I, you know, I do those things so fast, right? A lot of times my spelling is off. I'm just quick. I'm just trying to get through as many as I can in a day. And, you know, the short answer to someone who said that about voting is just like, I don't vote. And boy, it just ruffled everybody's feathers. Because you don't vote. Well, because then I got this,

you don't think it's important to vote in this and that. And I said, no, I didn't say that. I said, and then I went, and then I did another post that explained it because I had so many people that were asking because I had some people that were just curious, like, oh, just curious why you don't. I said, well, I don't think I'm educated on the topic.

I really don't. Sure, I listen to things like louder with Crowder and sure, one of my best friends is Sal and he's constantly talking about politics. And so I get a little bit of influence in that area, but I haven't sat down and done my own research. I haven't sat down and checked anything that Sal's told me or checked what I'm hearing from Stephen Crowder or actually gone and done the researches or looked at the policies

or see what both sides. I just haven't taken the time to do that. So I think it's irresponsible for me to go emotionally vote on somebody because I got influenced by Sal or a Facebook post has influenced me and or it's a party that I supposedly align with so that I just vote for the party and I fucking disagree with that. The irony of someone telling you it's irresponsible to not vote or you don't respect voting, the irony of that statement because the reality is you respect it so much. Right. That you won't do it unless you feel like you've made a good choice

Otherwise, you'll step out right and say okay. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna add to this This is why I feel most people should be I fucking hate everybody else that doesn't do that I think it's irresponsible for you to go down and vote because well they're making decisions based on propaganda from both sides Which is horseshit. Totally. And the one of the worst things ever, one of the worst messages ever was this whole like pop culture, get out and vote, vote or die.

Yeah. That's the dumbest thing ever. When you're, if you're casting your vote, you should really know what you're voting for. You should really take the time to respect the decision you're gonna make. Dude, the people that time to respect the decision you're gonna make. Dude, the people that were influenced by that, it blows my mind. That was like an agenda,

that was an agenda by one of the political parties like the decade or two decades ago. Oh, Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was the man. They went into schools. They went into schools and they made it a thing and now they give the stickers I voted. And now they want a specific bias.

They want you to vote. That's what I mean. A certain direction. They got mad that you actually voted but it wasn't what they, their party. It's like, it's like, but you wanted me to vote. Yeah. You know, Bill Clinton was brilliant at that. Back in, do you remember when he was on MTV playing the saxophone and answering questions?

And I mean, brilliant. The guy's one of the, one of the most brilliant politicians in terms of, you know, he's really elected. And whatever. He's a cool guy. Right, right. And that was that whole MTV push, you know, and now people, if you don't vote, it's like, it's like a, you know, disrespect.

Yeah, it's like, you feel so disrespected. Yeah, all this, this like pressure, you know, like, oh, I have to vote if I don't, I'm doing a bad thing. No, no, no, no. If you vote and you're not educating yourself on the topics, then you're doing a bad thing. If you don't vote because you don't really know a lot or don't feel like you're educated enough, that's the right thing to do.

Well, and somebody came back at me again, and they were just like, you know, so you don't think it's important that you educate yourself. I said, I didn't say that. I said, I'm not, so I don't. Right now, my priorities are different. Right now, a lot of my energy and reading and learning

is centered around being a better father. It's centered around scaling a company up. It's centered around giving better information what we present here on this podcast and all of our platforms. I'm trying to help millions of people improve their lives. And I just think that you would rather me put my energy towards that since that's my expertise

in what I've already been researching and studying for two decades versus, get me to go down to a booth and blindly pick some random people or do a little bit of homework for a day and then think that I'm truly educated on the topic to make a real intelligent decision. Like, no, I'm quick to admit that I'm not informed enough, not as informed as I should be if I'm going to go make a decision where that matters. So I would much rather leave that to the people that are doing that.

And I'll continue doing what I think is important to me and where my place is in life. I'll tell you where the important places are that you vote. If you start to do your research and stuff, the local issues. Yeah, the local elections are the most important because we're in California and the way the elections work. California is going to go to whatever the Democrat nominee is 100%. So unless you agree with that, your vote is kind of, you know, you can vote for whoever you want. California is going to the Democrat nominee is, 100%. So unless you agree with that, your vote is kind of,

you can vote for whoever you want. California's going to the Democrat. Look at the local elections, look at your state in city elections. That's where it starts to really make a difference. And that's where people are the least educated, which is funny. People care a lot about the big, the national stuff,

but then when it comes out of the state and local stuff, and you know what, what fucks, pisses me off, you ever read the things that you're voting on when you get those things in the mail? You ever read how they word them? It's so misleading. Oh, dude, it's crazy. Like the way that they'll word it,

and then you're not realizing that if you vote yes, you're not sure on yes. You're like, on yes, wait, do I say yes? It's like, it's like those trick questions in school, you know, when it was like a double negative. 189, yeah. It's really, really mislead. I think you're doing the right thing, dude.

I think if you're listening and you don't know what's going on, please don't phone. Yeah, that's how I feel. I mean, I had some, there was some intelligent people that responded and said, hey, I respect that. You know, I respect that you're comfortable with saying you're not educated enough on that to make an intelligent decision on it.

And I think that's more respectful than saying, like, yeah enough on that to make an intelligent decision on it. I think that's more respectful than saying, like, yeah, I'm going to go vote. On that note, since we got there, since we're going there, one argument that I've heard a lot in terms of helping the environment, this is a political issue now, right, is that people should not have any kids, which I think is the most insane, ridiculous, terrible argument I've ever heard of my life because who's gonna enjoy the environment? We don't have people.

That's so strange to me. Yeah, I get what they're saying. Don't have kids, less people, whatever, but that's a terrible argument to have. We're not gonna have any people. Did you say that's like, you sent over a picture of something on a wall in like Europe or somewhere?

Where was that? Oh, you're talking about the fertility rates dropping? No, you sent a screenshot of a wall that was painted that said, don't, it's like. Oh yeah, don't have kids get sterilized. Yeah. That was in London. Oh, London.

Yeah, yeah, you're showing me. Really pushing for people to not have children and stuff like that. No, the reality is that the fertility rates drop as societies become more advanced in modern, which poses another problem. When societies start to lose population, so unless we have to replace ourselves or actually more than replace ourselves, we need to have 2.4, the birth rate needs to be at least 2.4 in order for governments to continue the way they are.

If it starts to draw below that, what ends up happening is you have more people taking out than paying in and the current way that we run things just won't work. And meanwhile, extremist groups are promoting like the more kids the merrier, right? So like you're gonna get like, so if like we're all supposed to not like you know

I have been kids you more be sterile like what are we gonna be left with bunch of fucking extremists no Let's have kids like rational people should have kids no the The calculation show that the population will start to top out and then start to kind of flatten out a little bit because As societies become more advanced Mm-hmm. We start to start to have less and less kids. It's adolescents get stretched out. So the amount of energy and effort you put

and money that you put into a kid today is way more than it was say 500 years ago. Because kids now, they're not moving out until they're in their mid 20s. They have lots of education, whereas before it was 15 years old, go out there and have kids and work or whatever. But yeah, I hate that message.

Can't stand that message so much. Anyway, I had a conversation with somebody on Instagram yesterday and I thought this was an interesting one. It's a common question that I get all the time. Do you guys ever get people to ask you like what are good snack foods or what are good things to eat on the go or whatever? All the time.

Almonds have got to be one of the best. They're one of my favorites. Absolute nuts in general, but almonds are one of the best snack foods you can have. Very high in vitamin E, very high in manganese, magnesium. And then did you know that there's studies that show that almonds in particular of all the nuts have one of the best appetite, suppressing or

satiating effects on people. What if my nuts are covered in dark chocolate? Yeah. You mean like what you would call it? Yeah, skinny dip. You know, their macros are really good because it's thin chocolate. Right. It's a little bit better.

Well, there's also benefits to dark chocolate though too, right? Sure, there are some antioxidant benefits. Yeah, yeah. And then almonds have been tied to being anti-cancer, so they've shown that people who replace calories, so they eat lower amounts of other types of calories, but eat more nuts or almonds. There was one study in particular with almonds

that showed a lower rate of breast cancer in women. It's a great snack. I do get, actually, they asked her a lot, because you just got asked the other day, and that was my advice was, we are, we've got skinny diphth almonds, I'm a big fan of, and the question was, somebody had an office, and the office brings in donuts and candy,

and they got all the stuff. And I'm like, I'll just keep, I would recommend, and what I used to tell clients, is keep, this before we had somebody. And you weigh them out or whatever? Yeah, well, before we had skinny dipped, I would just tell clients is keep a, now this before we had somebody, way amount or whatever. Yeah, well, before we had, you know, skinny dipped, I would just tell clients regular almonds and a jug of water I would tell them to keep on their desk.

And you'd be surprised just by drinking water and keeping your mouth busy. Good point. What a difference that makes. And I think, and that's where I am, I am more of an advocate for the caring, the, you don't have to carry a gallon around, but, you know, carrying one of those leader waters, we all have waters, we all have them, our mere cups and stuff like that.

Carry those thermos around and make sure you have good water, stay hydrated. A lot of the times that signal you think of cravings or what about that is just that you're dehydrated and stay well hydrated, that helps out. And then keep either ration it out yourself if you're doing regular almonds, but that's what I like about the skinny-gip packages is that they're already rationed out for you, and you know the calories, and it's a good thing. I remember when you were competing, almonds was like one of your... Oh, go too. It was always, right? Yeah, that's always been one of the better ones. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, not so much. I feel like peanuts encourage overeating. Yeah, at least the, but peanuts are not really a nut, right?

But I love those. Yeah. It was like my favorite. Yeah, no, like with the skinny dip in particular with like Halloween candy, dude has been saving my ass. Like dude, like I mean, just having that, I've been trying so hard to throw it away and find excuses to get rid of it, you know,

the Halloween candy and it's like, because it's just there, you know, it's there and it's like, oh, so I was, you know, I'm now that we're on Twitter now, right? We're starting to use that. I was this post I saw. I think the only reason why I popped in my feed because I follow a million boon, a million boon liked it. And then I read it and this girl had just did this post about, and I'm curious to what you guys think, because I'm not there yet, that we shouldn't ration the kids out on Halloween that you should just allow them to go nuts and let them do their thing.

And her argument to that was, I came from a home with a lot of regulation and rules and you can't do this, you can't do that. And it just caused her to sneak it around her parents anyways and cause this, the worst relationship with the candy and let's be honest is if it's one or two days out of the entire year that you allow this happen is it that bad. So what do you got? What's your guys just saying? That's not a bad that's not a bad argument. Maybe saying something like you know you can use much as you want tonight on Halloween and tomorrow we

throw away or we give away she she also yeah we kind of did something like that. I mean, I would say flexibility, but still parameters. Like I don't, I don't know about the whole binge thing. Like I'm not a real big fan of like allowing them to just, like everything they can't really throw up. So her argument that she made, because I saw people, I read the thread and people were kind of going back and forth agreed or disagreed with her.

She also made the point that she believes that kids are good at naturally self-regulating, unless they have already had a bad relationship created from their parents. If you just look through all the can, the kids would eat it, and eventually they would bother them, or they would be like, that's enough, I'm over it, and they would stop versus you saying you could only have 10 pieces. And now they eat 10 and they're like, oh, I really want 12. And so then they try.

I almost feel like it's got to be on a kid by kid basis. Because I could see either way backfire. Because at the end of the day, children thrive on structure. And what is structure? Yes. Structure is parents telling the kids, okay, watch this much TV or do this and make sure you focus some effort on this.

But I can also see how that can go the wrong way. I think it really depends on the kid. I know general statements like that because I could see a backfire. I think she makes a good point. Yeah, and I think that we've been sort of messing with a lot of different strategies with that over the years. And we've sort of had kind of an example of that the first. So if they're getting the candy from the house

and they decide to eat it, it's not a big, like we're not gonna like say anything about it. It's just like, it's kind of like, well, we're walking, you're kind of getting it. So whatever you come home with, we're gonna go ahead and put that up and shelve it. And so as we're moving and walking all that and they're kind of snacking on it.

But then the next day it's like, you know, we're, they know that they get like one piece and we're just sort of slowly eradicating it, you know, as we go. So do you both still have Halloween candy lingering around? Yeah, I do. Yeah, it's lasted that long. I do.

So on the day of Halloween, I don't necessarily restrict my kids, they'll eat whatever. And then I'll say thing, I'll do things like, all right, it's time for bed. You know, don't eat too much to close to the bed because you're gonna feel good. Okay, no problem. But then they keep the candy and then little by little,

little eat from it. I guess it really does depend on the child, right? Because some kids, like it's like there's some kids that need more structure. And I think there's some kids that if you give them too much structure, it causes the opposite. Now with both of you guys, because you both have two, are they totally different?

Is like one of your kids go bananas? The other one didn't? Oh yeah, my kids are totally different. Yeah, my son is much more self-regulating than my daughter, but I think it's because my daughter's more rebellious. So if I tell her no, then she'll go kind of in the opposite direction. But it depends.

I had friends who grew up in super, super strict homes. Soon as they went off to college, went nuts. Alcohol is a good example when they compare European households that allow wine at dinner and kids can taste the wine or whatever. They tend to binge drink less when they come of age versus kids who are like, it's super taboo. So I think it does kind of depend on the kid, you know? Yeah, totally.

Yeah, yeah. Along those lines, you're making me, you're reminding me of another cool study. Candy, you know, it's connected with acne and all that stuff. So I thought of the study that I read over the weekend. Did you guys know that there's cannabinoids that have been shown to be anti-acme? What?

Yes. Wow. So CB? Yes. CBD. Oh my God. Now I feel like you're making the case for some of the creams and the oils and stuff.

No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. I actually wrote it down. I'm going to read it to you. So CBD is one of them, but CBC is another one. And CBC is probably the one that's most effective against acne. So CBC is known as, and CBC is probably the one that's most effective against acne. So CBC is known as cannabic chromine, I think I'm pronouncing it, and it's a powerful inhibitor

of acne. So what it does is it reduces the sebum production and inflammation in the skin, and the way it does this is it reduces the racodonic acid, and it works with the body's natural cannabinoid system. So when you supplement with something like CBC, it increases circulating levels of your own natural cannabinoids, which then regulates your skin and helps prevent the excess sebum production, which is associated with acne. So there's actually some studies that show that it may have a positive effect on the skin. Now is it, do you know, did that study show,

if it was topical or if it was something that you had to take in? So here's a thing with topical, I haven't read a lot of studies on topical applications of cannabinoids. I've read a couple and they're kind of interesting. They show some interesting effects, but most of the studies

are when you eat it, when you ingest it, because I'm not quite sure how your body will absorb cannabinoids through the skin, how they get to the cannabinoid receptors, and is it local? Like, if I rub it on my elbow, is it my elbow? I'm skeptical about that. Yeah, because I don't know. Some people swear by anecdotally, like, I know,

I've had clients where they rub CBD and their joints that have arthritic sort of responses and they felt some kind of relief from it, but I just I've never personally felt anything you know like that. And I know other people too, like it kind of varies a lot. Yeah, there were a couple studies that showed that topical application of cannabinoids reduced pain, but then there's some that said that it didn't happen. But all the other studies, I'd say the vast majority of studies involve eating or ingesting the cannabinoids, either through eating it or smoking it or inhaling it. But I've been doing a lot of research on all the other cannabinoids because the ones

that get all the attention are THC, of course, CBD, but a lot of people don't realize that there's lots of cannabinoids, and all of them have some effects on the body, and especially when they're present together, like CBC is one of, you know, there's CBD, CBC, CBC, those are the more common ones that you'll find and something like, like, hempoil extract, so like, when you, like, Ned, for example, the full spectrum hempoil extract. So they have CBC. It has everything, hemp oil extract. So like when you, like, Ned, for example, the full spectrum hemp oil extract.

So they have CBC. It has everything. That's why it's called full spectrum is it's got all the cannabinoids that are present in the hemp plant, except for, uh, T H C, or at least it's got trace amounts of T H C, because it's not, it doesn't make it hard. I still remember the first phone call, you know, a couple of years back that we had with them. And that was one of the, the selling points I remember for you when you heard them talk about them having full spectrum is because

there was more and more research that was coming out about all the other kids. The best research, yeah. The best research shows that they'd work better in the presence of other cannabinoids. And that when you isolate them, they're not nearly as good. Even THC, THC gets you high, have a lot of THC with no other cannabinoids. The odds that you'll get paranoid, anxious, or have all those negative side effects, memory loss or whatever. Ways.

Yeah, way higher than when you combine it with the other stuff. So it's kind of interesting. Oh, and then one other thing, I went to the movies yesterday and watched Harriet. Have you guys seen that yet? Harriet Tubman. Yes. So she's awesome. She's actually one of my hero.

It's in the theater right now. Wonderful movie, well-made. She's one of my heroes. I think she's an incredible woman. They're talking about putting her on some money. I forgot what Bill or whatever, or coin that they're trying to put her on. But I learned something, I relearned something

that I had learned a while ago, but I totally forgot about. So I knew that Harriet Tubman, she's most known for being part of the underground railroad, personally freeing something like 70 slaves. I mean, literally walking them, hundreds of miles to freedom, without anything other than her own navigation,

which she said came from God, which I liked in this movie, they didn't hide hide that fact that thought maybe that they would take that out because it's kinda you know spiritual whatever. But she never got caught and she says she never got caught because you know she when she was a kid she got hit in the head by her slave owner. And she would have these fainting spells and when she would have these fainting spells she said she talked to God and so he would lead her. and when she would have these fainting spells, she said she'd talk to God. And so he would lead her to keep them from getting caught. And oftentimes, it was like crazy different directions that people were like, are you sure?

And she was like, yeah, we're going this way. And then sure enough, people were waiting for her over here. And she got, she ended up getting, anyway, I relearned something else about her. Did you guys know that she's one of the only women, and there's very, very few women in history that I've done this, but she's one of the only women and there's very, very few women in history that I've done this, but she's one of the only women

in history to lead a war raid, to lead a military war raid. She has no idea. Yeah. So during the Civil War, she led the North soldiers or some of them to do a raid that ended up freeing 700 slaves from their southern slave owners. She let it herself. So told them where to go, told them what to do.

Oh wow. She was literally in charge of this whole, and she was also a spy during the Civil War. Crazy woman. She lived till she was 91, too. What a badass. You believe that? Gangster.

Yeah, badass woman. This quaz brought to you by Organifi. For those days you fall short on getting your organic veggies Yeah, yeah, bad ass woman. by going to organify.com. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com. And use a coupon code mine pump for 20% off at checkout. BEEP. All right, a first question is from Michael Sousel. If you had to add an exercise to the big four to make it the big five, which exercise would it be? Ooh.

So I'm assuming the big, because it's the big three, but easily number four, I would consider overhead presses. Right squat bench deadlift overhead press. Okay. That's that would be the big four, right? So what do you guys think would be a fifth exercise if you had to throw it in there? Either it would be a good either a bent over row Would be in there. Here's a thing. You're I mean, you're doing an incredible job with those big four of kind of attacking everything. There's not a muscle that is not going to get worked if you do the big four. But I think another just staple exercise that has so much value, a bent over row maybe. That's what I was going to say. Yeah, would I would say, there are row or a pull-up or a lunge, maybe. Yeah. I was actually going to go in the lunge direction mainly because if I could

say like a multi-directional lunge, that way I get more planes of, you know, represented in this, you know, list, but again, that's from the functional side of my thought process. Yeah, no, I like that. I like thinking of something that's either rotational or anti-rotational, so you get some benefits there that I think are incredible. The reason why these exercises are called the big three or big four or whatever is because just the results you get from these exercises,

they're just huge bang for your buck. It's really, really hard. And of course, this isn't going to be true for every single person, but it's true for most people that, you know, for leg development, for example, or lower body strength, functional strength, and lower body development, it's hard to find one exercise

that could compete with a squat for most people, right? You know, bench press, great horizontal pressing movement, you're getting the chest and the shoulders and the triceps. Overhead press, very important, be able to lift something up above your head, a deadlift, you've got the hip hinging. But I think a row or a pull-up because, probably a row, because you're not getting that

like full extension and retraction, that pulling back of the shoulder blades, right? I think that would be, and then if you just combine those, and it'sraction, that pulling back of the shoulder blades, right? I think that would be better. And then if you just combine those, and it's funny, that's basically the workout I did for a while when I was a kid. Really? Yeah, I was like, those fighting, I got the best gains

through in just those. Oh, if you have to reduce it all down, hey, you're hitting from every angle. It is. You know, I would even make this argument. I would even say that the big three, you could probably interchange bench press and overhead press in terms of functional. Wouldn't you guys, what do you guys think? Yeah, well that's why I think that makes it the big four. The four would be the overhead press.

Like you got to have, I feel like that needs to be in there. It's just way too functional and not enough people have the ability anymore to even press things with full extension over their head. It's totally, and you know, the more you really break down like human function and the things that we're supposed to be able to do, believe it or not, running is probably gonna be up there. It's something that we just don't do and we suck at. And, but it takes a long time. It takes a long time of training and mobility work

to get there. It's just not one of the- And that's why too, to that point, that's why making the case for like lunging is I think Because we spend most of our time on on one leg, you know, we're technically we don't walk with both feet together We were hopping everywhere now from from an aesthetic standpoint if you're thinking like just developing an aesthetic body I then I'd say the road right it would have to be the road because the deadlift although it hits the back it doesn't fully get that,

I guess that shoulder blade pullback position that you would get with the barbell row. But I get, those will probably be the most important exercises. I'd say this, if you're working out and you're not doing those movements weekly, you're probably missing out. Now, it depends on the routine that you're doing,

but you should probably do those movements or a version of them. Yeah, these are all hitting your foundational base of strength. That's why I think it's good to have it all bilateral and everything is about that gross motor movement and just building overall muscular development. And then we can get into the nuanced stuff

and in access to that where we're talking about split positions, we're talking about lateral type exercises, all of that can kind of work around that. Well, the thing that's great too about the big three or the big four is that it's for most people, it's gonna be challenging to perform it perfect. And so the value isn't just in the doing the three movements. It's actually all the things that you should do probably to get better at those movements,

if that makes sense. Absolutely. So that's part of the great value of just sticking to those three or four movements. As staples. Yeah, as staples, isn't just that, oh, you just only do those. It's that, oh, wow. When I squat, I can't, you know, I can't break 90 degrees. And I noticed that my knees cave in. And it's like looking at it and saying, wow, it's like, oh wow, when I squat, I can't, you know, I can't break 90 degrees and I noticed that my knees cave in. It's like looking at it and saying, wow, it's far

from perfect. Now what are all the things I should be adding to my routine to complement this or to improve this movement? And you could spend years and years on just those movements and all the things that you should do to improve those movements. And that's what makes I think in my opinion, so superior. And then when you get to a point, when you have a beautiful overhead press, you have a beautiful bench press, you have a beautiful squat, you have a beautiful deadlift,

holy shit. Now, the carryover that that has to all the rest of your body, I mean, that's why it's called the big, the big, the ironie, although it's better communicated today than ever, it's still not communicated well it's better communicated today than ever. It's still not communicated well enough because the irony is if you go to the average gym, those four or five exercises if we throw in the barbell row are the ones you see people do the least. Except for maybe the bench press, the bench press you tend to see, you know, people get under the bench probably because it turned into a way of guys to brag or whatever

But it's funny like you go to the gym and just an average gym. I'm not talking about like a hardcore gym and How many people do you see barbell squatting barbell deadlifting, you know overhead pressing standing? You know doing a proper barbell row or whatever. You don't see that much now And I feel like it needs to be communicated better to the average person, because the average person, not only don't they know that the benefits of resistance training, but the ones that finally go to the gym and say, okay, I'm going to do some resistance training, the exercises they pick are like, boy, you could be spending that time doing something that's far more effective than the exercises that you tend to do. Right.

I mean, this is things I used to do with clients to get this point across to is I would actually take those three or four movements and split it up over three or four days and like, just two movements, right? We're just going to squat and overhead press today. And the whole routine would be around improving the squat and improving the overhead press today. And the whole routine would be around improving the squat and improving the overhead press. And you could go down the rabbit hole of, and we live in an incredible time to get information.

Like you could go on YouTube and improve my overhead press and put throw that in there. You can go through it for art, for sure, ours. We have a ton of tutorials and videos to help you get a better overhead press, to help you get a better and videos to help you get a better overhead press, to help you get a better squat, to help you get a better deadlift, and all the exercises, movements, mobility drills

that we provide in there, I mean, you should be doing that to compliment and just trying to improve the squat, just making that a goal, I wanna get better at my squat, I wanna get better at my overhead press, and all the movements and exercises that you do besides those movements are all ones that are

Designed to complement or improve those movements. There's so much value in just focusing on that alone Next question is from Moitz 121 I know squats are best for leg development But if you had to choose between the leg press and the hack squat, which one is better? Oh God, not even close. You know what?

Leg press. You know what? I'm going to just kidding. I tell you what though. Oh God. So, no, you're not making the case. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and maybe early 2000s, the leg press was one of the number one mass building exercises for the lower body for body builders.

So body builders would always put leg press near the top. Hacksquat was always two or three notches below, and believe it or not, Hacksquats was considered to be more of a shaping exercise by bodybuilders back in those days. Now I can see where I could argue that, right? One of the benefits of bodybuilding and they're so heavily focused on hypertrophy and the pump that the leg press lends itself well for that reason.

I mean try going to failure know, go into failure every time you hack squat or you barbell squat, you know, you're fucking damn near folding yourself into two and potentially risking a lot of injury a lot of times. And so it's just not feasible to be training to failure and drop setting like crazy on a hack squat and a barbell squat. But a leg press, I mean, you could be taxed like crazy, get under there and all the way to the very last rep and you're not gonna probably hurt your low back, you're not gonna hurt your neck,

you're not gonna hurt your hips, there's not a lot of risk for chasing that failure. It's also the load, right? So I'm talking about a hack squat on a sled, not the hack squat that we'll do with a barbell, right? So when you're doing a hack squat on a sled, think about the amount of weight that you can load on it. Now think about the amount of weight that you can load on a leg press. And both of them are relatively similar, like a hack squat typically is on a higher, higher angle. So

you're definitely going to be, it's going to be harder to push with a hack squat because a leg press is typically at what 45 degrees, hack squat probably closer to, you know, it's definitely not 45 degrees a little higher. But with a lay press still, you can load a ton of weight. And I think it's the fact that you can load that much weight, might be why they tended to pick that one as a mass builder. When I lift a small range of motion, that's the other thing though too, right? It seems it's a much shorter range of motion.

You're not getting that full. If you go further, it's really detrimental. I mean, you're in a bad position with your hips and your lower back if you're trying to get even further into your chest. Yeah, I'm glad you said that. The leg press used to be, people used to think that was one of the safest leg exercises you could do.

That's actually one where I've seen people hurt their back. I've seen people hurt their back. Oh, bad on those things. Well, because they loaded up. They loaded up. It's exactly. So heavy. Because you ain't, you're immolously. Yeah, you ain't loading that much up on a barbell squad

because it's gonna, it's gonna fold you up, right? So I, if you were to talk to like our friends, like Brett Contreras or Eugene, like, I mean, they would for sure, I mean, they, they make the case that a hack squad is superior to a barbell back squad many times. So the value of a hat, Hac squat I think is incredible

because you get similar benefits as you do with the barbell squat. You just don't quite have as much of the instability because you're on a sled and a machine, but you can load it and make it hard as fuck and you can go deep all the way down just like you would do an astagrass squat. So to me, it's not anything close to which one is better

for overall leg development. I think the hot squat is, although I, you know, I leg pressed a lot early on. And I actually, the way I leg pressed though, I always single leg leg press. Yeah, now you're a big advocate for time. I am a huge on that. For a couple of reasons.

One, I don't have to be an asshole and load 40 plates on there, right? Yeah, I can leg press the shit with just about anybody like I can leg press single leg press I can load I've loaded up to six plates on each so wow So what if imagine if I was doing both legs you easily can do double hard right? It's not that hard to get up there But what I love about the single leg is it does force a little instability So I have to like stabilize

my knee so my knee doesn't cave and flex in like that. I don't have to load the plates up as much. I feel like it's a little more comfortable for me to go deeper in my range emotions. It's not rotating your low back. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a big fan of leg press, single leg press. I haven't done both feet on the leg press in a long long time. It feels like lifting weights in a recliner to me. It's fucking lazy. I think it's worthless. I feel like I'll do it. I'll do it for like, you know, building volume and stuff my legs, but other than that, I can't justify it as like a legit. That's what it's great for that, right? It's a great volume builder. It's a great way to do drop sets. It's a great way to,

That's what it's great for that, right? It's a great volume builder. It's a great way to do drop sets. It's a great way to, it's a great tool. Okay, I know we're hammering on it a little bit, but it is a great tool. Out of the leg machines, it's one of the better ones. Right, yeah. You have to say, right?

Yeah, yeah, you can make that case. There's not a lot of grace. It's gonna give you more development than a leg extension. That's a leg girl. That's for sure. You know, that's gonna give you a lot more than that or a ad duct or ad duct.

No, I like what you said about the single leg version because when you're doing a single leg version, typically what's the other leg doing out of them? You have it down below you. Yeah, it fits right underneath the machine. So when you're doing that, because one leg is down, it's anchoring your hips nicely and preventing them from doing the rotating up at the top

that can cause some leg problems, excuse me, low back issues with leg press, right? Because that's what the back issues happen is when people are leg pressing both legs, it pushes them down, they get that pelvic tilt at the bottom, and then you get that hurt, you know, discs or whatever, and the low back. And the stress all goes right there.

Yeah, yeah, so, but I'm telling you, and when you were, if you read bodybuilding magazines in the 90s, and bodybuilders were talking about their favorite mass builders for legs, and I know, because I read them all, leg press. Leg press was always number one. And my original leg routines were leg press,

haxquat, leg extension, leg curl was my staple. And that was it. And I do wanna end this, or close this loop on this by saying that one of the things that we always talk about on this show that you know Especially in an argument like this where we can kind of make the case back and forth which one has more value You know which one was gonna have the greatest value is the one you never do right? So if you hack squat every single time and you're really good at squatting

Because that's your kind of go-to or because some other fucking fitness professionals that it's better its superior Well, it's no longer superior when you've got adapted to it. And you've been doing it for six months plus consistently. You know, it's going to be great for you. The leg press because you never do it. And you do it. And so and the same thing is true if you always leg press. So you got to remember that the novelty piece with a body and so is so important

when we're trying to adapt and change when you're trying to get, if you want to get good at just leg pressing or good at just a hack squatting, then you stick with it over and over for as long as you can until you get great at it. But if you're looking for leg development and we're trying to build legs, build our muscle, then one of the best things you can do is do the one that you haven't been doing the most consistent.

Yeah, such an excellent point. And then also, I want to add this, this always cracks me up. Doing both. Why can't you just doing both? You know what I mean? We do this either or all the time, like, oh, which one's better? cracks me up. Doing both. Why can't you just do them both? You know what I mean? We do this either or all the time, like, oh, which one's better.

I better not fucking do them both. Right, I mean, that's my point. It's like, you know, run one for a four, six week, you know, cycle and then, switch to the other one. Yeah, then switch to the other one for four to six weeks. That you'll get the best of both worlds. Next question is from Brandon, LPC.

How powerful is self-talk for motivation or having someone yell at you before doing a big lift? Do you practice it? Or should we just slap our faces, get angry, and pick up the weight? This is a powerlifting mentality right here. It's an interesting question. Have you guys ever used smelling salts?

Yes, I have. What do you guys think about? They've worked. They're awesome. Dude, I get hyper-focused. My central about? They've worked. They're awesome. Dude, I get like hyper focused My central nervous system tends to respond a little bit more It's the same kind of thing if I have like that perfect song You know already have pretty decent energy going into the lift

But now I have like that one song that I can get to that place where I just I feel just like like you get this like internal Extra gear somehow. It's true. You know, if I get, and this works well when I'm going to do a heavy low rep set, like to get just amped or angry, doesn't work so well when I'm doing high rep sets, because I'll gas myself out. I need something calmer to keep me kind of, you know, consistent. But it does work. Now, studies show, I don't know if there's any studies on this particular, but studies show

that music makes a big difference. That when you're listening to a song that tends to make you feel uplifted, it actually reduces the perception of pain that you have. So if something normally hurts at a level 10, listening to music that motivates you, inspires you, lowers it down to maybe an eight or seven It's not only that it's your your brain is the main hub where everything starts

So if you're distracted about your day earlier that was going on or the stress you got at work or if your mind is in other places and Doing things like getting slapped from your friend or listening to that song helps you stay present and in the moment, there's gotta be a ton of value just from that alone. So how many times have you messed up an attempt of like a PR are like just lifting something heavy

because you're mentally distracted about something? So almost every time, some of my best lifting for sure was during the time that I was into competing because my mind was so much into it. And I really think that that had a lot of, of course, consistency and volume and all the stuff that we've studied and research and understand as far as being on the build muscle mattered. Yes. But I also think there was a ton of value in just, I was so into it during that time that

that's, I went to bed thinking about my workout in the morning. I was at work and I was eating my meals, thinking about what I was gonna be training in two or three hours. I was so excited to get there. I had my playlist already. I mean, I'm so focused on what I'm about to do. Some of the best lifts came out of that. And even if I was well rested, well fed,

and all these other things, but if I was mentally distracted somewhere else, it's really tough to call upon everything I need, especially to do a big lift, like a squad or a deadlift. It's very similar to when I played sports and I had a very, very intentional, very specific ritual that I would do every time before like a big game or like something where I knew that like,

you know, my performance was on the line. Like it was, like it was gonna be really demanding. And I would make sure like nobody could talk to me. I was just like completely just by myself and just thinking, thinking, thinking and being quiet. And that really helped me get out there to get to a relaxed state where I was like, I was just there.

It was all banked in mentally to where I didn't have to then keep repeating and relaying it in my head. So that's a really good point. And it actually reminds me of something that I answered to somebody who asked about the way I walked up to my deadlift. And I do this thing where I raise my arms. And you know, when you have a movement like a deadlift or a squad or a head press, there's

so much that's being communicated through your entire body that there's all these little cues. And it's taken me practice and practice and practice to remember all those cues, and having a routine of the way you walk up to the bar helps me kind of settle that. The whole lifting the arm thing is to remind myself to activate my lats before I go in there. It's like, it's just, it's now become this routine, so I don't have to like go. It's like you're pushing all the levers to get you into that zone. Yes. So, you know, if there's, if, you know, some people might need to get slapped, I guess,

to do that. And if that's part of your routine before you go do a big lift, I mean, I've seen it help some of these like power lifters. And I get a little excessive with it sometimes, but. No, your mind plays most of the role in how much power you can generate, how strong you are. It's funny, you know, if you're gonna do something, at least I fear this out for me, if I'm going to do something that is causing me

already to be hyped and maybe a little anxious, then hyping myself further is a bad idea. So like, if I'm gonna go and do a speech in front of 500 people and I'm hyped about it and I'm excited and I'm a little bit nervous about it, hyping myself further gives me too much stimulus, too much stimulation and it actually reduced my performance. Now before I lift, I have zero nervousness,

I've lifted weights a trillion times. So smack me around, give me some caffeine and I'm gonna grab the bar and perform my best. But for other things, it seems like the opposite would be true, where you'd want to actually be more of a calm zone. You don't necessarily want to go in there super hype. Martial artists, so martial arts focus on the opposite. Funny because lifters do the whole smack your face, get pissed off type of thing. Marshal artists practice the opposite. They practice calm and cheat and go in there. Wouldn't you think that that has to do more with like CNS, right?

Oh, you're gonna fight. You're gonna go fight someone. You don't need to go in there. Oh, ah, because that'll burn you the fuck out. Right. Because if you've ever done a competition, well, so like before judo tournament or juditsu tournament, I'm nervous one week before. So if I heighten myself, I'm exhausted, you know what I mean?

I gotta work on calming myself down. Anyway, this reminded me of a story actually, I totally forgot this. You had a client years ago that was training for a marathon and it was a marathon to raise money for cancer research. She had lost her sister. So it's a very important thing for her. She definitely wasn't somebody that should have,

she wasn't a runner. She was deconditioned, hired me to train her. We'd only been working out for about six months. She wasn't a runner, sister gets cancer, whatever passes away. And she's like, I wanna do this run. It really means a lot to me. So I helped her as much as I could,

and Emerython is a long run. Well anyway, her husband made a playlist for her and put her favorite music on there, and he did such a good job. And as she's listening to this, brings chills as I'm talking about it. On the playlist, towards the back half of the run, when she got down to like,

like there was only four miles left, or or whatever when it's like the most difficult. In between the songs was her kids telling her mommy you can do this so strong. Mommy you're my hero I love you and then another one from her husband another one from her mom and whatever and she actually got faster at the end. Talked like the last four. How crazy is that, right? It gives you the chills. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Next question is from Ali Baxter. Sports like rugby and football are increasingly becoming demonized due to concussion risks. What do you foresee the future of contact sports to be? We're going to live in this Nerf world.

Yeah. And I mean, we've talked about this a little bit. I just thought that, like, it is, like, I do see the signups and definitely decreasing for high school football and for a lot of these, like full contact sports where, I think the parents are very, very much alarmed and triggered by a lot of the science that's out there

and the data about, you know, traumatic brain injuries and concussions and so it's interesting to see. But then again, these high contact sports have been around for so long and have been a vital part of a lot of the development of people like growing up and learning so many like scales with working in a team and self-improvement. Struggle. Struggle and over. Struggle and adversity. This is a very much of a microcosm for kids to learn how to deal with those demands in

that adversity. You just don't get all the time. No, I think if you want to know what the future, your best predictor of what those sports are going to look like in the future, or the success of them in the future is, I think you nailed it, Justin, is to look at the enrollment of kids in these sports. And what you're starting to see is declines. You're starting to see declines in children

who are getting enrolled in, you know, tackle football, being the biggest one, right? Rugby being another one. And as you get less and less participation in kids in those sports, you're actually gonna, I foresee you, you're gonna see these sports start to lose popularity. And it really, it's, it's, I wonder,

it'd be interesting to see the stats on this. Like I wonder if the decline in enrollment we see in predominantly wealthy or middle class areas and what does it look like in places of poverty and those areas because I think if I'm a kid coming up poor and I have athletic abilities and I'm surrounded, I mean I live in a ghetto. I live in the ghetto and there's fucking drugs around me and shootings around me and my environment is way more scary than any football field will ever be.

And my only way out is my athletic abilities. The way I look at it is, I don't give a fuck how scary that football field is. This is my only way out of this potentially. Well, that's what happened with boxing. Boxing, you know, that sport, right, of boxing for a long time was practiced by the wealthy. It was something that the wealthy did. And then eventually it started to become something that the wealthy did not want to do.

And it became more of a, you know, people in poverty who started to do it. So, you know, back in the day, it was the poor Italians and the Irish and poor Jewish immigrants that did it. And later on, that started to change because boxing, you know, is now associated with, obviously it's boxing, you're going to, you're going to, you're face broken and there's a lot of problem. I think as people become more educated, they're less likely to put their kids in these sports because of these risks. And I think that'll start to either shrink the popularity of these sports or they're just going to change, which they've already, how many times the team's already modified their,

yeah, as an aside. Oh, man, with the play calls you see are the rules you see now in terms of what is considered like unnecessary roughness is, like it pisses me off. It's really, it's pathetic. Like my hero was Ronnie Lot. Oh my gosh. And that guy used to just kill people on the field. And at one point he had, he had a-

Cut his finger off. Had to cut his finger off. He had to made the decision. Either you sit out the whole rest of the season or you cut part of your finger off. He cut part of his finger off. That's a fucking man. You know what I'm saying?

Like we're just trying to like cut all these inconvenient things out because yeah, there's studies that are proven like it has some detriment to our brain. But also there's, I mean, there's people that make it out that are just like amazing human beings and they've gotten a lot of value out of it. Yes, there's like a good and a dark side to a lot of these things for sure. I think it's going to be like everything else we talk about.

I think that nobody was talking about this 20 years ago. Now all the research, the studies, there's been extreme situations that have happened where people have died or they've been out of it. I mean, it's suicide. Right, right. And CTI, right, that's happening in so CTI right yes CTS chronic CTI or CTS just I remember see I can't remember

hey kids please football what is it CTE there we're automatic and cell up the cell up the's CTE. We're on an electromagnetic and still left the top of the piece. And still left the piece. Yeah, yeah. So CTE, so there's examples of that. And because we, there's more information around it,

we understand it now. So of course, there's going to be a big scare on it. And now the pendulum's coming back the other direction. And I'm sure like anything else, we always swing it hard the other way. We're going to see huge, a decline in enrollment. You're going to hear more and more studies coming out. A lot of people and all these rules with the flags. It'll come back the other way, where we're gonna see huge decline in enrollment, you're gonna hear more and more studies coming out, a lot of people and all these rules with the flag, it'll

come back the other way. I think it's not going away, that's for sure. And there's also, I mean, there's a lot of progress in terms of the science alongside that where they're treating, you know, protect them and stuff. Right. And coming back, even from post-traumatic, you know, from coming back from the war and like you have in this stress, like post-traumatic stress from all these things, like they're being able now to, you know,

find methods and ways to then rehabilitate the brain and to be able to like reconnect a lot of these neurological patterns. So, you know, the irony of this is too, is that from what I understand about, you know, how humans move and how we adapt to certain things, you're gonna put your kids in flag football, flag football, flag football, and then all of a sudden,

you're a big kid, put on pads and now go tackle each other. You're probably gonna get more injuries. I would assume because they didn't practice, had a hit and had a get hit. Oh yeah, and you're younger. It's a skill, it's definitely a skill that, you need to spend a lot of time like figuring out the technique of it.

Yeah, because I've heard some people say, you shouldn't be able to tackle each other until you're in college, huh? You have a bunch of big-ass college kids who've never Smashing play tackle football right hitting each other. That's like a working and not having the technique and skill Human humans are pretty smart. I think we'll we'll eventually figure it out. I mean, right isn't all sports in an offspring of what started in an arena where lions were fucking chasing after you and spears getting thrown. You know what? Are you like skiing? Yeah, let's cut that out. Because, I guess, when people get hit by trees, right? Yeah. Well, just to cut everything out, this danger.

Well, you know, what's, so what's super unpopular is CTE and soccer players. A lot of people don't know this, but, oh yeah. Because of heading the ball, there's been some push to say, jet skiing too, really? Yeah, just the waves and like, there's smashing up and down, look into it. Like anything that you're drawing your head

is considered, you get like some form of like a, you know, brain injury. Head banging. Yeah, banging and, had concerns. Too far enough. Now we've got nothing left. Now we've got too far enough. No, I think you'll educate, I banging and a concert. Too far enough. Good luck. Now we've got nothing left. Now we've got too far enough.

No, I think you educate, I think education is good. I think people tend to, I think Adams, right? They tend to react. But if you look at the enrollments, they're going down, man. So it might not be, and then kids are playing video games and shit like crazy. So maybe we will play tackle football. It'll just be virtual.

Won't be real. Yeah. Lane. Anyway, go to mindpumpFree.com and download our guides. They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at MindPump Justin. You can find me at MindPump Sal and Adam

at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps for performance and maps aesthetic,

nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having sound, and an adjustment as your own personal trainer's butt at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money bag guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family.

We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPump. is Mindbomb.