Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 121: Mass Building Exercises & Polka Dot Shoes

Episode Date: July 29, 2015

What's with Adam's shoes? Maybe they are the key to his muscle building success. OR maybe it is just because he, Sal and Justin do special mass building exercises. Listen now to hear their analysis of the best exercises to put on size.

So Justin that gym that you're working at the what is it North Cal Functional Fitness North Cal Functional Fitness they have openings for trainers. Yeah right now and it's very limited space So how many are they looking for they're looking for at least I think four or five trainers right now Okay, so spot so so in other words if you're an aspiring trainer or you want to be a trainer or you are a trainer And you're looking to run your own business and a facility with excellent other trainers and a place where you could charge high rates because you're surrounded by great trainers in a good area. This is a great place to train. Well, I think it's important we tell these guys too that the reason why we're doing this is because this this first of all we know Greg really well the guy who owns this facility. Fucking awesome dude. Yeah, and it's not often this place

even has openings because the atmosphere and those that have been in mind publishers for a long time, if you're a trainer and you're looking for like a kickass atmosphere of other trainers, what I mean by that is other guys that are educated and are have all different types of backgrounds that you can learn from and grow like it's such a great place to like foster a good trainer. So, and that's why there's rarely ever any spots that are open. Right, and you want a good environment too

to bring your clients that's professional. And we've all been to that gym that's, you know, not so professional, let's just say. And you're bringing your client in there and that affects your business. So, you know, something like this is definitely something you want to consider being that everybody there, it's their career.

It's for the trainer that has sort of elevated their path, right? It's somebody who stepped out of the corporate type setting and then now wants to really make this into their career. Also, every trainer there runs their own business out of this facility. Right. So you own your business and you run it. It's a rare thing.

And it's in a great location. It's in Campbell, which is a great area in Silicon Valley. People do pay a lot of money for personal training in that area. So it's not uncommon. It's actually quite common to be able to charge around $100 a session. So if you want to make that kind of money and you don't want to pay, you know, 70% of it to your gym, then you want to work for yourself. And that's what a place like NorCal Functional Fitness offers. Tell us about the equipment because I feel like last time we go into it. Oh yeah, it's like a functional wet dream. Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of

really unique tools and what's great about Greg and Mike, both of them, Mike's son who also manages the gym. They're great about listening to the trainers, what they could use and what we're looking to have in the gym. A lot of equipment is out of the box equipment, like we'll have, like, I don't really know anywhere else it has a pegboard or has like bamboo bars or has trap bars and has platforms that it's okay if you make a little bit of noise and I mean it's not a real loud situation so calm down cross with people. But yeah, I know it's It's a very professional environment, and that's kind of what we're hoping to keep. So that would be great.

You've got the rogue setup, you've got the TRX, you've got tires, sledge hammers, you've got the bod pod in there, you've got a track, you've got. You've got a dumbbells, barbells, all that stuff. Multiple types of sleds that are going inside there. I mean, you've, you got everything. Literally everything you could possibly think of

as far as toys for a trainer and for functional training. I mean, it's so fucking fun and to go over there and work out. Well, if you're interested in elevating your career in the fitness industry, this is a place that mind pump endorses, we recommend this place. You can contact them. It's what you want to do. You want to call them or go on their website to get in contact with them to see if you

can put in your application to be able to train there. The phone number is 888-523-6724 or you can go to NorCalFF.com. Again, it's NorCal Functional Fitness located in Campbell, and you can call them at 888-523-6724 or go to NorCalFF.com If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, please only one place to go. Mite, ob-mite, ob-with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Adam, what? Explain to us about your polka dot, Nike's.

There's, there's, there's, there's, what's all this distraction over here? There's no explanation for them, brother. They're just, they're fucking cooler and style, man. They just came out, they just got released. They had them in a green white. It's literally Mickey Mouse like her skirt. That's the kind of polka dots.

Red polka dots. I know this is so foreign for you, bro. I know this is, I know you're still wearing white socks with black shoes over there and a black fucking pair of pants. I know that this is tough, but you know what though? So, sounds always soccer ready, I've noticed. So, so red polka dots are, I'm sorry. He's the exactly this guy.

Yes. No, no, I'm asking you for your help. So what you're saying is shoes with red polka dots on them. No, that's not true. It's more about as your personality. So you couldn't wear these because it's not your personality. You wear something that fits your personality, but there are certain things, it's kind of like what you said

the other day with fitness. With fitness and stuff, the way we do things, there's this huge spectrum of different modalities that we can use and tools to get to your goal. But there's some foundational rules. And like one of those rules is you can't wear black shoes and white socks, it's just a rule. But you can wear... Well, it looks like me and Justin are fuck. You can wear soccer shoes.

I'll tell you what that means. You can wear soccer shoes. You do our own fucking shit. That's true. And that's what you renegade. You want to be able to express yourself and do wear shoes that in pants and things like that that express who you are and the individual that you are. But then there's certain rules

that you're supposed to follow too, that, you know. So your shoes reflect you. Yes. I'm a little loud. I'm a little loud, a little loud, a little out there, a little fun, a little fun. So what do they call those? You know, they all have names, right? All these like kinds of shoes.

Yeah, these are, these are Nike Roche or Rausha where you want to pronounce it's ROSH. So is that like a, uh, uh, right out of like a Mustang, Raush? I have no, it's it's spelt. Right, that Roche is with a C, isn't it? Or is that an S-O? What's that?

What's that shoot you were in? I'm a 12. Are any of you guys 12s? I'm a 12. You want to try these on? Have you ever put a pair of these on? No, I've never worn them before. Wow.

Take your shoes off. Can I do it right now? Yeah, yeah, on here. I'll just try one on. No, no, no, try them both about these. You need to be stinking. No, no, no, no, I just came out of shower, bros. Wow.

You do your toenails. I'm not worried about you. This is not the first time we've shared something on our feet. So what? I want you to put them on. I mean, you guys want some athletes foot? Oh, hook you up.

And they don't stand up afterwards. I want you to feel how comfortable. Hey, so you're three inches taller than me, but my foot might be slightly larger than yours. You know what that means. You have to wear big socks. I could never wear a polka dot shoot. Actually, I'm looking at it on you and it actually looks pretty good.

I could never wear a polka. It actually looks pretty good. I don't know if the shoes are just that looking. No, I could never. The inside. No, look at that. Is that me? Well, Alama stand up. Yeah, I want you to see.

I want you to feel comfortable. The shoes are the most more important. Wow. You know, it's comfortable or what? Do you to feel comfortable the shoes are that most more important Wow, he does comfortable or what? Do you almost feel like no no? I just you know how you know what my feet are comfortable leave. I don't they are extremely comfortable and they're very liked Yes, but the because of the way they look I also feel uncomfortable at the same time It's a weird like competing comfortable, uncomfortable feeling.

Now, if you like, if you like the style as far as the fit, this, this, there's tons of simple colors and stuff, you guys have seen me wear some, some basic ones that are, you know, just regular looking. I've never seen you wear basic shoes in my life. I guess I'm a huge. She's not a basic. I'm a, I'm a huge guy. Yeah, I'm not a basic bitch. It's a basic bitch. That's like the thing right now. I'm so basic, you're so basic. Bro, I've been wearing Adidas indoor soccer type shoes like, you know, like Sam Sombos and since I was like 14.

Well, I get that. I get that because you played soccer for 15 years of your life, so it makes sense. No, I've never played soccer. By the way, I'm horrible at soccer. Just indoor soccer. I think it's kidding. But Nintendo soccer, at least you played

some sort of soccer to justify it. No. And you know what? And Chucks couldn't fit just that. Because he says, oh, lay a lot. I know this. Oh, lay, lay, lay, lay. It's like, okay, so how we get it.

So my shoe, uh, FedEx, or whatever you want to call it, actually started when I was a, when I was a kid and I played basketball. So when I played basketball, you, you know, you were not basketball shoes were like back then, basketball shoes were like the most expensive shoes really, you know, I'm saying those like, oh, yeah, we were comps and Jordan. Yeah, and, and so we grew up in the Jordan era. So I had all of those. Yeah. So Jordan's were like the, the thing back then. And I, once again, I was a kid who had a lot of money

or anything like that. So I got like once a year, I got a pair of these things. And you know, I used to like after everywhere, clean them. And I keep them elevated in my room so they wouldn't be on the ground. Yeah, I had the first Jordans. Did you? Yeah, I totally begged and pleaded and like forever.

And I never like asked for anything like expensive ever, but I was like the one thing. And so my my parents actually were like, okay, you know, they spluttered a bit on that for me. So I was like that kid that had the Jordans at school. And I was felt like you guys remember Parkas? Do you remember one park? For sure.

Starter Parkas, bro. Everybody. Did you guys, did you guys have the beads on your fric, on the, the, what is that the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,, what is that the on the cross string? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the different color and you matched him to eight. Yeah, what was your team? What'd you guys wear? I was at Cal World and UCLA broons one miners miners. Nine years nice. Yeah, no start those things were fucking cool. A while. Parker had a New Zealand. Yeah, I had before the before the big fluffy

park is that you're talking about that's the one I had even the before that the starter the starter jackets that were more like the you know sleek. Yeah Yeah, yeah, I had a Celtics one like that. Oh, that was sick all green. Yeah, remember the gold nine or one Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had that one too. So I want to ask you guys something About style are we moving? No, we're down. I'm done. Okay Overload for you. That's enough that was enough for you today right there. Yeah. So so I've been I've been messing around with this little technique and you know we're always looking we've been working out for a long time. We're always looking for finger technique exactly middle or or index finger. No it or two. No what we're you know we're always looking for new ways

to get our bodies to adapt, to change to what we're doing, especially if you've been training for a long time. Well, I was looking back through some old workouts and I looked at some old Doreen Yates workouts. So you guys remember his blood and guts philosophy of training? No, it's planned to me. If you say it, I'm sure it will. I don't remember anything about bodybuilders,

just FYI. So I love that he referenced them all the time. I'm just sitting here like, yeah dude. I might as well be talking Chinese. Well, if you mention athletes, I'm like cool, but I literally have no fucking idea. The ironic part is that's kind of my world and I still feel the same way as you just,

who the fuck watched bodybuilders back in the fuckin' world. Bro, I was a fan boy. No, this was the 90s bro, Doreen Yates, anyhow. I don't want to detract you, I just had to put that out there. So, so Doreen Yates, you would train to failure, that was this big thing, but one thing he did was, is he never did more than like one or two sets

for an exercise, but he do a lot of exercises versus doing a lot of sets per exercise. Let me explain. So yeah, so let me explain. I get what you're going on. So typical, just for the listener, so let's say you go and you do three exercises for your chest and you're doing three sets each

for nine sets total. Rather than doing three exercises, three sets each, each, excuse me, you do one set for nine exercises. So it's a total different variety and you get to do all these different angles. So I've been kind of messing with that because I do full body workouts and that's kind of what we tend to preach here,

those type of workouts. And I'll typically do anywhere between maybe four to six sets per muscle group, but typically that's broken down into one or two exercises. Well, what I've been doing is I've been doing four or five exercises, one set each. And I'm getting some interesting results from it.

Well, I most certainly can see that just because it's new to your body. For many, many years, although I never used that method, I was a three set guy. I was never a exercise. Yeah, per exercise. I didn't graduate to like four and five till a way later.

Back then, I just used to hate doing four or five sets of the same exercise. It was just daunting. So I used to do three and then move on to the next thing. And now I attribute a lot of, you know, my changing or morphing on my body later on to actually graduating from that because I feel, you know, sets four or five, six, and into a workout. And that's the ones that I feel like really are the money makers in count. The first one or two, it's like I'm warming up.

I'm really getting that mind muscle connection and focusing on where I want to feel it. I'm honing in on the weight I should be using because I feel like the first set like that, sometimes you grab a lightweight and you're like, oh shit, I'm feeling good today. I go more or sometimes you grab a weight. It's like, oh, fuck, I thought I was gonna get 12 of those.

Looks like I'm getting eight, you know? So. Well, here's what's interesting about that. So if you look at different types of modalities of training, right, let's, and we'll use two extremes. We'll use bodybuilding and then we'll use a strength athlete. Um, and I'm talking about modalities that utilize weights. Strength athletes like power lifters and Olympic lifters tend to do very few exercises, but they do a lot of sets per exercise. That's funny, you mentioned that. Like, I was waiting for my turn to kind of explain my methods right now, because I've been doing like one to two exercises,

but doing like almost eight to ten sets. And, you know, using it sometimes with like a drop set, so I'm going all the way up, and then I'm coming back down and repeating the process. a drop set so I'm going all the way up and then I'm coming back down and repeating the process. But yeah, I'll split it. So I'll do usually two big movements and then in between, sometimes I'll do four a week because I mean I want to get all of my major lifts in. So and then the rest of the time I'm doing the trigger sessions and I'm doing athletic movements and stuff in between. But yeah, I've been working just on getting strong and focusing on those movements. Yeah.

So, strength athletes tend to do fewer exercises, but more sets, bodybuilders of the opposite, bodybuilders tend to do more exercises, but fewer sets per exercise. So I think there's pluses and minuses to either, to both sides. On one hand, doing lots of sets of an exercise. You're going to get lots of central nervous system adaptation. Have you guys ever done like 10 sets of squats or bench press? Yeah. You ever notice your strength goes up like by set four, five, and then kind of stays

higher than it was in the beginning, even though you're more fatigued than it starts to dip again? Isn't that strange? It is strange. That's central nervous system adaptation, right? Yeah. See, I, like, for a long time, I thought that was more of like, well, I guess I didn't do enough of an elaborate warm-up, right?

I wasn't responding yet, you know, like I should be, but yeah, like, now that you mention that, that makes a lot more sense. Yeah, and, but doing less sets, but more exercises might be more beneficial for maybe muscle hypertrophy or the pump is what I'm noticing. So not saying one is better than the other, but just kind of mix it up in different weird ways that you haven't thought about. So on my big muscles, right, back, chest, legs, yeah, calves now. Yes, thank you. Thank you for noticing that. You have, Cav-Jazzlin yet? Not yet.

I'm working on it though. I heard I saw on the forum that a lot of people were pro that so I made start that actually. I do that, I'll do those. What are those things? Those still in style where the girls put fucking studs in their body or what that's so crazy. Who my ex had that.

The only stud in her body. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I'm gonna get you., I'm gonna get you. But I'm gonna get you. Below the belt. So, I'm on fire.

So I, what I'm doing big muscle groups, like I was saying, I, I typically like kind of my foundation, I would say, or what I build off of, or probably the most consistent I am, is four to five sets. But I always, I mean, shit, just two days ago, I did a 10 set workout. I'll pick, sometimes I'll pick one or two exercises.

I've done that before too. I've fucking squatted for an hour, you know? Just straight up, just squatted for an hour before. I do all the time. Especially if it's like a, or deadlifted for an entire hour You know just did that so you know what actually it's kind of when it When I'm and I guess when I go in with that man type like today's a deadlifting day like you know You kind of slowly warm it in you warm yourself up into it and you get after it and then you know kind of come back down a little bit

So it's to me. It's not like it's actually kind of refreshing. It's easier mentally. It is. It is. It is. Because I know I know exactly. Sometimes it's tough to like I did it just yesterday, which is deadlift and then go put it in another 45 minutes of other exercises just for Bruno Brutal. You know, then I'm like, well afterwards. So Most brutal workout that I've done over the past few years was I did 10 sets of deadlifts 315 pounds for 10 reps and I rested 45 seconds remember I was texting you guys your rest to that. I was texting yeah 45 second rest 10 reps 315 10 sets just exhausted bro It was I over did it my low back. I just I just fire I wanted to see if I could do it and I could I could throw

Three 15 around like nothing, but by the time I got to the fifth set Bro by the fifth set. I was like this is fuck what am I but I've already told myself I was gonna do it And even though 15 is light for you. It's still not light. It's still you're still good weight Oh dude 10 reps you're like bink bink bink bink bink. mean, you start to get winded and tired and just, you just feel like shit. Your grip starts to hurt and it was, remember I was texting you guys a whole time. I'm like, set five, set six. I'm like, I know if I tell these guys

that I'm doing this, I'm gonna have to finish it. Yeah, it could be to it. Incidentally, two days later, I became ill. I got like a cold. So I think I just fucked myself up too much and killed my immune system. So I train other people so much better than I train myself. I mean, that's everybody, right?

I mean, I'm like that too. Yeah, I never hurt you. Well, you know, I'm like a, that's why we always talk about CrossFit, but that's what scares me so much because I could totally have some idiot coach tell me do shit. I'm like, yeah, fuck you, I'm gonna do this. I'll do it. I'll grind it out to the death. That's just how I am.

But that's why I have to be real, I have to pre-screen it. That's why I have such a hard time working out with somebody else. As much as I would love to be like, conuddling with somebody and working out and getting extra gains that everybody feels like they get from a workout partner, I just, nobody knows my body better than I do. And I'm competitive like that, that if you told me, let's do it. I'm like, all right, let's do it.

You know, say in reality, when I'm by myself, I'm like, should I do this? Probably not a good idea for me to do this, or maybe I'll go and then sometimes I decide I'm gonna do something that maybe halfway through. I'm like, yeah, okay, I'm probably good now. I don't need to go any further You know what I think would be fun is if the three of us worked out together

But we did like maybe three workouts and each workout one of us is the guy who runs it Gonna be all pushing over here. It's like all deadlifts Adjustments like accessories We're gonna do okay guys Okay, we're gonna go over here. Dude Adam. I haven't been on the machine in 20 years Table fly we're gonna do cable flies. I really don't I you know, I know we we tease the shit out of me But stuff like don't don't go around and justify like I know dude we know your legit. We I know no no, yeah, but you know what the fucking 10,000 people are listening

I know don't they're like, what's the third guy you guys? You guys are so smart. You guys do barbell and in dumbbell workouts. I know. Thanks. You explained yourself very thoroughly in these podcasts. Series. I think they know. Yeah. Know what, you know what? I was at I actually got to, did you see the post I did the other day on the vertical press? That was actually the first time I got to use that. I never used a vertical leg press. Oh, old school leg press. It's basically a Smith machine upside down with your legs.

It looks scary. I mean, it's been doing it wrong. Here's my worry with it. My worry with that machine, this is the reason why I've never used it myself. Oh, you've never used it. I've never used it. That's my first time using it.

I'll tell you why. Two, number one It's it's such a so when you do a normal 45 degree leg press your legs are not coming straight perpendicular to your body You're kind of at an angle so it's it's not it's not gonna smash into you right And I feel like if you're tight and you lower the weight you're gonna get lumbar Yeah, you're gonna start to flex and extend it your lumbar with weight, which is not oh I could tell I could tell when I was doing, I had to be very careful of my range of motion because a little too deep and I can feel that. Oh, yeah, I can feel the buttwing happening even with it like that. So, you know, but it was kind of cool. It was kind of cool,

just, I mean, anything new. What was the difference in feel? Did you feel more posture or your chain? It seems like you would feel more in the lutes and hands. Because I know. Yes. Yes. I mean, my my ass was freaking way way sore than I thought it would be. Because you still felt a major quad pump from it, but not. I mean, I definitely liked it way more than leg press.

It was a standard leg press because which I have to admit, I haven't I mean, I don't really do that hardly at all. And if I do leg press, I typically do a single leg leg press when because which I have to admit, I haven't, I mean, I don't really do that hardly at all. And if I do leg press, I typically do a single leg press when I do, but it's been a long time since I used it. That's what I do, but I use it. Yeah, I mean, once I started squatting three times a week, it's just like, fuck the dual, other stuff, it's just like, ugh.

Plus your legs look better now than they've ever looked anymore. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm sure squatting three times a week has done a lot for that. I would, you know what I think is super overrated is, or underrated, excuse me, super underrated exercise is lunges. Oh, that was my staple leg exercise before I was getting into squatting like I am now. Bro, do some barbells, backhand lunges.

Yeah, I mean, depends on, you're talking about getting gains from it. Yeah, totally agree. Yeah, but like, it depends on, you're talking about getting gains from it. Yeah, totally agree. Yeah. But like, getting balanced and my phone just fucking fell there, threw me off. Yeah, no, in terms of like getting people to be coordinated and balanced and move with resistance,

I think there's a place for that. No, I'm talking about like, what do you mean, Justin's elaborate? Just saying right now. I'm coming. So what I mean, what I mean is, you are having somebody in a split stance, right? And then having that kind of balance while weighted. Oh, so you're saying I'm saying this is a fucking like a walking lunge. Either a walking lunge or barbell. One of my favorites is to put the barbell in my back and do a back step one. I get what we're talking about. I'm what I'm asking is your opinion on it on gay or nay

and why that's what that's what I'm getting at. Oh, well, I guess, I guess why we do this show right here. Yeah, no, my opinion towards it is that it's not, it's not in the same, remember how Sal was kind of rating the exercise he made up his fucking weird ass numbers? Yeah, I'm probably put that on me. I totally see. Sal said it.

From what Sal, I don't know what your rating is for the lunge, but I would definitely put it under like your squat and deadlift. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like Barbellist, but I feel like it's a great functional exercise. So I would put it on a high priority for functionality Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah different planar motion to and I'm doing transverse lunges. I'm doing it. There's just a way of, when are you taking it to home with them?

Yeah, the creativity that you can go with that exercise. So that's why I use it. Well, here how about this? Name the top four mass building leg exercises. What are the top four exercises you can think of? Squats, dead lunges. And then squats, deads, good mornings. Good mornings, you think, really?

You think so? Well, for the posture you're changing, but I'm talking about the overall legs, right? Yeah, I think squats, deads, lunges. We gotta put front squats there. Well, now we can break down on a squat and 10 different types of squats. No, I think they're totally,

I do think they're completely different exercises. Okay, well then if you're going to do that, then I say Bulgarian squats. Yeah. I think Bulgarian squats are floppy. What do you mean with your foot up on the bench? Yes. Yeah, I don't even know why they call that a squat. It's not really a squat.

I mean, that squats more or less. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, that's what I'm saying is that if you're a single leg isolating, if you're going to, if you're going gonna single out different types of squatting I would single that out from a different type of lunge I would say a walking lunge or a traditional lunge like an alternate lunge and then a squat and then a deadlift and then like a Bulgarian squat if you're gonna do that. What do you like better Bulgarian split stance squat or or a walking lunge? Well, I like walking lunges better, but I hate walking in a squat,

because they're so fucking hard. My legs, I'll tell you something. Nothing with you to do. Tinnitus, what you hate though, is some of the best shit in a moment for you. My legs get fucking massive when I combine squats, front squats, and walking lunches.

Those three exercises, my legs explode with size. It just gets silly. Those are the three top, I would say. That's where it was your fourth. You gave us four. You gave us four. Oh, dead lifts, of course. Dead lifts are full of deads, okay? That's where was your fourth. You gave us, you gave us four. Oh deadlifts, of course. Deadlifts are dead. So, okay. Yeah, I was just saying, hey, we should just keep this going.

What's the top? What are the top three chest exercises? Okay. Bench press down, brush. And you know what? Either, I know you don't like machines, but either a dead fly or a dead, I mean, nothing is more, even they can't isolate. Nothing's more.. Yeah, I love ring pushups, man. Olympic ring pushups, they'll fuck you up. Yeah, but for chest size, combo that with a flat bench. Yeah.

Is now getting more mobility and strength in that movement, because you're stabilized. Some sort of a fly cannot not be in there, because a fly, there's nothing more, or I want to get it to be in the fly. You know, instead of just getting, you know, constantly getting hypertrophy, I want to get depth and range of motion

and get stronger. Which fly is gonna be any sort of a fly. Yeah, I would say flat bench, incline bench, and a flat fly. Oh, there you go again, you're now you're breaking up, you know, flat bench, incline bench, you're just saying a press. Yeah, a barbell press.

A barbell press. Some kind of a fly. Some kind of a fly. And then some sort of a dumbbell press or, you know, yeah. There's not much, much, huh? There's not many variations of it. There's not, I mean, you could say like,

if you're going power, then it's totally different story. Well, how about this? This might be a better question. Name some underrated exercises you can think of. Because I said lunges. I think lunges are underrated. What are some other exercises you guys think are pretty fucking awesome that are just underrated? Or you don't see them done?

Let's go to a muscle then, like you just said, let's give me a muscle and then let's talk about it that way. Otherwise my mind's all over the place. Well, one exercise for me just pops up that I don't see a lot of people doing, but is a fucking awesome exercise and used to be used to be prized by old school lifters and it's the pullover.

No, okay. The cross bench dumbbell pullover. Well, it hears you. So you had marked that as a, you know, up like as far as it's a good. I don't, I mean, it's not gonna. It's an overrated. It's underrated. I think it's a great, it's not gonna. Or is it overrated. It's underrated. I think it's a great extra.

I think you put dumbbell pullovers, man. It gets the front and the back of your body. It's a movement that's very different, right? Cause you're not. Yeah, I'll give you that. You want to tell me what my, I agree with you. And you could use a lot, you can't, if you get strong in that shit,

you could use, I mean, at one point, when I was doing it for strength, I could, I was using 120 pound dumbbell. Oh, yeah. Well, it's cause of the stretch of it for more than a year, right? So I have a theory on that and why that is, and it's very similar to why the deadlift is,

what it doesn't do is it doesn't fatigue out all your other secondary muscles as much and it puts direct emphasis on it. It really isolates your back when you're doing that, when you think about it, because your arms are in a fixed position. How many back exercises do you actually do where your arms are in a fixed position. How many back exercises do you actually do, where your arms stay in a fixed position? Oh, it's all pullover movements.

Whether it be a straight arm pull down, pull over. No, you know, even a pull down, you're elbow. No, straight arm pull down. Oh, yes, yes. So any movements like that, where you can, that's just like the chest fly wide. Well, then it becomes more core too, because when you're doing the pullover, straight on, pullover, pullover, pullover. Yeah.

That's why I love that. So I told you when I quit doing the deads, I replaced it with pullovers. And I used to start my workout with that. So I'd get this great little back pump without my arms being fatigued at all. So then when I went to a lad pulldown or a dumbbell row or something like that,

I still had a lot of juice in my buys and my arms that I could still rip some good weight versus somebody who might go start like on seated row and you start on seated row and your buys and shoulders are already fucking tired and fatigued. And then you think you're going to go to a big compound movement and like a T-bar row or some of that and it's going to be hard because your auxiliary muscles are fatigue. Well, here's what's funny with back, 99% of time when you're working your back, what auxiliary muscle are you also probably working? Biceps. Biceps.

A pullover, you're not. A pullover, your triceps are stabilizing. I know, that's what's strange about it. Your triceps are stabilizing. So that changes the combo of muscles. That's why I think it's great. Right, so same thing with chest. Nine at a ten times, what works with chest?

Triceps. Triceps with it. What does it fly? Biceps. Biceps and chest. Exactly. So it's that whole combo thing that's going on that changes it up, that could be part of it, right? So here's your little tip for those that are listening right now.

If you have not started your back workout in a long time with some heavy pullover. Oh, yeah, you'll fatigue the last and then go ahead everything. So I love to do that. So let's say I do, you know, back gets hit twice this week. And, you know, the last time I did it, I did Dead's, you know, and so maybe this time I start, and I'm going to stick, because I love to start a back workout with Dead's. And then this maybe this time I'll come and I'm going to do pullovers. Instead, I'm going to start with pullovers.

Same thing goes for your chest. If you're somebody goes right to the flat bench right away or somebody goes right to You use some sort of a machine exercise for chest try starting with some chest flies whether you do dumbbells or machine first And get a nice little chest pump then go do one of those and watch how your chest fills up to that Yeah, because you already got a nice little pump But then you got that because for elite especially if you're a tall guy like me, I feel like this is even more important because um, yeah, I have a very long arms. So, you know, basically, typically when I'm doing a, you know, bench press, the first thing to give is not normally my chest. It's normally my exories. You know, it's normally my try, my arms can't get that lockout position, you know, so, um, you know,

by me doing a little bit of fly or something before, I get that great chest. And then I still can push almost this. I mean, it doesn't, I can do heavy flies, go over and do bench press, and still press the same weight that I would do even if I went straight to it fresh. So then it really gets that chest. Well, what do you guys think about exercises

that we used to tell, I mean, we back in the day, they used to teach us don't tell people to do these exercises. They're bad for you. But now I find myself doing them because I know how to use them and they can be effective in the wrong way. For example, a behind the neck,

barbell, shoulder press, or a behind the neck pull down. You know, these are exercises. You guys remember it's, oh yeah. Anytime you put anything behind your head was always a red flag. They would say that, right?

But when I work out, I work out my shoulders and I go light, I go very light, but I'll do a shoulder press sometimes behind the neck and get a real full range of motion, totally different feel from a standard military press. Right. I would say playing with the position of my feet. So for, and that can be squatting calf raises, we used to, we used to not, you know, tell people like, you know, you always want to be in the anatomical position, you know, toes pointing forward and straight.

And you know, if you do, you know, externally rotating or internally rotating your feet to do any sort of, you know of leg exercises, ridiculous or silly, which I play with that all time now. Or even lifting my heels up off the ground, I used to tell people that people used to use that as a crutch, I'm saying if you were to someone to put plates. A block or something.

Yeah, a block under any of your heels. That's somebody who's crutching their tight calves and you need to address your tight calves instead of, you know, Crutching a, a, a deviation like that. Yeah. Where these are things that I totally play with now. Well, yeah, and for me too, like, um, I want to say going through, like full rotation, like, so if I'm doing a shoulder press even like instead of you know how they always say to come down to like a 90 almost Yes, like I got rid of the entire 90 degree bullshit like it's complete bullshit. Yeah, here's the thing with the knees like everything

Here's the thing the body If your body can move in a certain position then your body can move in a certain position now if you're Exactly if you're experienced and you understand how to work with your limits and train within your range of motion, then that's the range of motion I think you should play with. And I think you should always seek to increase your range of motion smartly. And I've noticed, like I have, like my shoulder has been sore.

So trip off this, my shoulder's been sore, right? So here's what I've been doing. It's kind of avoiding certain movements that hurt it. It's been taking fucking forever to get better. So what I started doing is going lighter in the weight and going in a really deep range of motion. And guess what? Shoulders are starting to feel better.

Right. So it's like, you know, I've had people come up to me and say, it's clients, like, oh, I'm not supposed to twist because I have a back problem. I'm not supposed to do any twisting. It's like, well, you're eliminating your byes ability to twist then, you realize that. Yeah, I'm like, you fucking twist every day. Like, what do you mean?

You know, we're gonna work within, we're gonna play with that edge is what we're gonna do. We're gonna move the edge of where it gets uncomfortable and come back out of it. And over time what I've found with clients and with myself is that edge moves further and further. So. I wanna reiterate what you're saying, I know,

because we have a lot of trainers that listen to us. So I think it's important to note, you know, what you learn in your national certifications and NO or possible your degrees, they are going to tell you a lot about the 90 degree rule and things like that for safety and stuff. Right. And that's it's a general rule. It's like the same thing like when a doctor tells somebody like when they just had surgery not too long ago, like don't work out or something like that. You don't lift anything over 20 pounds. Yeah, I don't, it's like, no, there's, there's, there's not this rule that you can't do that or it's bad for you.

It's just that you're, there's a risk versus reward thing here. And you know, you're, you're putting yourself at risk, possibly if you don't do it correctly. And as a trainer, if you're training somebody and you're teaching them, only go down to 90 degrees on a squad or like Justin said with a shoulder press, well, you're kind of eliminating that risk factor of their body really deviating from going too far, too deep. So like Sal was saying is as a trainer, you know, if you're a really good trainer, you do want to play with those range of motions and try and push those limits, but in a smart

way, in a safe way, in a controlled manner with a weight that control and manage and that you can guide and say, hey, you know, you go a little bit deeper that. And what you're looking for is as they're decelerating the weight, is you're looking for their body staying in neutral spine and keeping that core integrity. If you see it deviate out, then you go back to that kind of rule, or you go back to that that's their range of motion. Or if you're in a range of motion that you know is directly affecting ligaments or something like that.

Where are the stress? If you look at the stress points of the angle, so if your biomechanics are in such a way that say my knee is protruding forward really really far and I'm putting all this stress and load and getting even further depth, you know like a rubber band. You can see that that's going to be completely stressing out your ligament. So that's not worth it, right? But like little tiny deviations from 90 degrees, you know, as sort of the standard, just based off your body's flexibility

and the length tension relationship, I keep kind of bringing it up. That's really where you want to enhance. Now to be fair, I don't ever, or maybe rarely will I have a client do, let's say, a behind the neck pull down. But it's not because the behind the neck pull down is bad necessarily, it's because most people can't do it

with the kind of muscle, mind and muscle connection. That's where I was going. That I can do it, where I can do it behind the neck pull down and I can move within a safe, you know, and keep my form so that everything's safe and I'm working what I want to. A lot of people don't have that kind of connection to their body.

Well, you can keep your, you're sure or somewhat retracted as you're doing that. Yeah, well, yeah, I know I know I know how to move into it. I know how to move into it to get it to work right. Whereas someone else at throw them in and then before you know it, it's gonna be all forward head and yeah, I'm protracted shoulders. So I guess a lot of this comes with experience. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, a big part, think about this right now, like and and I know trainers, sometimes they forget this, but I'm sitting in a chair right now relaxed and just by thinking about flexing my back, I can flex my back without standing up, without moving my limbs, that anything, I can flex my back. Most people cannot do that. Most people do not know how to do that.

Well, how many times have you had a client say this while you're doing an exercise? What am I working on? Where am I supposed to feel this? Yeah, like what? I know. Or they'll say a muscle why are you doing an exercise? What am I working on? Where am I supposed to feel this? Like what? I know. Or they'll say a muscle completely different, like you're doing tricep press. I'm like, I really feel that in my abs.

Well, it's stabilizing you, but that's not where you're going. Whoa, that last we got my ass on fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reverse crunches. Yeah. And for your lower abs. And that same, and that same token too, I believe all of us can, I mean, I can do a squat, a standard squat, and I can focus more on my quads, I can focus more on my glutes,

I can focus more on my hand by literally just thinking about it as I'm going through the exact same range of motion, the same movement pattern, but learning how to, to fire that way. That's, I mean, 60% of working out is mental. The mind muscle connection piece is so big. I find that when you start playing with range of motion and challenging the range of motion, that becomes very important. That becomes very important, understanding core integrity and neutral spinal alignment and how to have that, I think that's... It's like a proactive versus reactive when you're going through a movement, you know what I mean?

That's sort of the mentality. So if I'm going through a movement and I'm already, I know what I'm trying to do in the movement. And I know which muscles I want to fire. And as opposed to just momentum carries you and your muscles pick up for you. This is an automatic thing that, I mean, you literally don't have to think about, but guess what? Like to be more optimal

in your movement, you know, there is this relationship. There is something you can establish that, you know, you can get your body to respond at a higher performance based off of like, you know, training your body to be stimulated and to fire the correct muscles to support your joints in specific movements. So, you know what this makes me think about is how exercises, they're so different. Some exercises, you wanna focus on perfecting your biomechanics, your form, and then moving weight.

I know where you're going with this. And then moving weight, like a squat or a deadlift. And then there's other exercises where you're just trying to feel the muscle, like a curl. You know, like I'm not trying to just lift more weight with a curl, I'm trying to feel my bicep more with a curl. Whereas with a squat, you know, for most people,

perfect your form and get stronger and stronger and stronger at it. And I think when you mix that up, when you see guys in the gym with, you know, 13 inch arms, you know, curling, you know, more than me in the gym. And I know they're looking at me thinking, ah, what the hell is arm is so much bigger, but I'm curling more weights like, well, we're doing curls, you know, I'm trying to feel my bicep. Let's go do a heavy pull. And then, you know, we're, it's not so important to feel my bicep. I'm just looking to move weight. Right. So, um, yeah, it's interesting how exercise

is very different in that sense. Yeah. Well things like things like you're saying too, when if you're somebody who pulls like you do or you're pulling four, five hundred, six, almost six hundred pounds, then booking biceps are getting pretty stimulated. So when you I don't want to contribute. It's and and I have to admit this that, you know, ever since we've been rolling on, I mean, it's been a couple of years now that we've been doing maps. So, I mean, when we made that big transition,

that was, would I made a huge transition to basically get away from doing my buys and tries ever? So, I just, this is literally this week. So I'm always changing and fucking around with shit. So this week, which we all are, which you were just talking about earlier. So my thing right now is I've actually never paired like pool and pool like I've never like back and buys today. So Because I've always been such an arm guy that I love that you I love buys and tries together by themselves or whatever

You know like I like doing them so they're fresh and I can, now I've got some pretty strong fucking biceps and triceps. But when I parent like that and I, because I don't really work them out very much, they're really not. But they're just as developed, you know, and I pull mad weight when I do deadlifts and other big compound movements like that. And I don't feel like, I feel like I'm more symmetrical

than I've ever been in my life with a lot less emphasis on even training heavy on those at all. So I'm like, I noticed the other day, I was doing bicep curls. And for me, I can do isolation curls with 50, 55 pounds control, comfortably like 10 reps. I'm doing like 35 pound dumbbells.

It's like, that was what I used to warm up with to get me going to get up to 40, 45, 50, 50 plus. And I was like, you know, getting worked on 35. And I'm like, fuck, I just don't do these enough anymore. I used to do them all the time. I used to do, you know, isolation dumbbell curls like twice a week, you know, for years and years and years. So to see myself return to it and throw it into a workout

and see how weak I am in it. But then when you look at my overall physique, it's far superior than what it was. Well, it's cool as we've been able to share some of these things on the forum. And some of these maps members have been sharing with us, some of their modifications and what they're finding. And it's cool, even as experienced as we are,

to hear some of these people saying, oh, I actually tried doing this in my workout. And even though we've been doing this for so long, you hear these things, then we mind you. Like, yeah, you know what? I haven't tried that in a long time, or I haven't messed with the tempo in my workout in a long time. And so it's pretty cool to be talking with other people.

I think it's important. I think it's important if you're into fitness, pay attention to your body, listen to your body, and then talk to other people. Oh, yeah. And get new and then talk to other people. And get new ideas and listen to Mind Pump. Mind Pump! Absolutely.

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. For more information about this show and to get valuable free resources from Sal, Adam and Justin, visit us at www.mindpumpradio.com. Until next time, this is Mind Pump. MindPumpRadio.com. Until next time, this is MindPump.