Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1675: Eight Ways to Get the BEST Muscle Pump

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover eight was to ensure an amazing pump when you work out. Hack your pump. (2:14) Eight Ways to Get the BEST Muscle Pump.  #1 – Stay hydrated. (4:18) #2 – Eat carbohydrates 2-3 hours going into your workout. (13:04) #3 – Get good sleep. (17:55) #4 – Do higher reps. (22:35) #5 – Slow down your tempo. (23:46) #6 – Utilize shorter rest periods. (24:30) #7 – Apply full-range of motion exercises. (25:55) #8 – Take supplements after you utilize all the free tools. (27:46) Related Links/Products Mentioned October Promotion: MAPS Anabolic and NO BS 6-Pack Formula – Get Both for $59.99!    Visit Sunday's Dog Food for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MINDPUMP” at checkout for 35% off your first order** The Pump: Ego Booster or Muscle Builder? - Mind Pump Blog Visit Drink LMNT for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Ok, What's All This About FSU "Inventing" Gatorade? Mind Pump #1345: 6 Ways To Optimize Sleep For Faster Muscle Gain And Fat Loss The Science of Saunas - Ben Greenfield Fitness Summary of Citrulline Combining citrulline with glutathione could increase your pump Pros and Cons of Creatine – Mind Pump Blog Summary of Beetroot Summary of Pycnogenol Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MINDPUMP” at checkout** Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Ben Greenfield Fitness (@bengreenfieldfitness)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Alright, today's episode we talk about the pump, how to hack the pump, maximize the muscle pump. We all love the pump when we work out, but there are things you can do that will dramatically improve the feeling and fullness and muscle building effects that you get from the pump.

We give you eight things that you can do right now to make that pump amazing. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Sunday dog food. Now this is the first and only human grade, air-dried dog food. Now it combines the nutrition and taste of all natural human grade food with the ease of zero prep and ready to eat formulas. I mean, the ingredients are incredible. Like you're talking about USDA beef, beef heart, beef liver,

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You can get this bundle of programs right now for $59.99, but after today, the sale will be over, and it'll be over $100 more expensive. So if you wanna sign up, head over to mapsoctober.com. I got one for you. What you got? All things pump. Mm-hmm.

Like all things, okay, that contribute to the most massive pump that you can have in a workout. How to hack your pump. I like the filthiest pump possible. I like this conversation because, I mean, as a young kid, when I first started lifting, that was like one of the first, most amazing feelings to feel all aired up

and look like you grew two sizes and to feel your muscle strips that way. And very addicting feeling for somebody who's just getting into working out and feeling that for the first time. And then for the rest of my lifting career, I sought out ways to enhance that. And along the way learned a lot of different things that can promote the pump. And I think we should share some of the stuff that we've learned over our two decades plus of lifting away.

It can't be overstated what you're saying in the sense that it's an enjoyable feeling. Now, some people are like, well, does it contribute to muscle gain and performance? We'll get to that in a second. But even if it didn't, right? Does the enjoyment of the workout contribute to performance,

muscle building, fat loss, consistency. Of course it does. Because you enjoy and you love it. Remember Arnold's famous quote from Pumping Iron Ball about the pump, right? It does. It feels great, especially when it's a muscle group that you're trying to develop. And now you can see what it looks like being more developed. It's fuller.

It's this great feeling. That also being said, also, there are muscle building benefits to getting the pump. It's been proven. And your ability to get a pump also is a great environment for muscle building. So just the ability to get a pump oftentimes means that things are in place that are optimal that will help your body to build muscle. So the pump is a good thing and there's a reason why body builders and muscle builders

seek it out and you know, praise it so much. It's got a lot of value. So let's talk with the first thing. The first, and I would argue most important thing and actually the one that took me the longest. I was gonna say you put this as the first one, but I almost didn't wanna talk about it as the first one because it was actually one of the last ones

that I piece of gotta end, arguably the most important one. Like that, when this one came together for me, I was like, oh my God, this actually makes a bigger difference than almost any other factor that I had figured out over the previous 20 years. Which is funny, because it's like fluid related. And so you'd think you'd associate it,

but yeah, I'm with you. I would have never really thought that water had such a big contribution. Well, I mean, a majority of what goes into your muscle when it gets pumped up is fluid. Actually, 77% of the overall size of your muscle is fluid. Does that mean that your muscles will shrink in size in the way they feel if you're dehydrated?

Yeah, it does. Does it mean your muscles will feel fuller and bigger if you're more hydrated? Absolutely. I didn't piece this together because I thought it was all about supplements and the workout itself. I remember, I'm not your socks side.

Bro, it literally, I was in my 30s when I figured this out. When I realized, oh, if I drink a half a gallon of water during the day leading up to my workout and then I have a workout, the pump was, for like, it was like 25% better than if I didn't do that. So I figured this out when I was competing. And it was only because that was the first time

in my life I really tracked water. I mean, I never tracked water like I did for getting ready for a show. And, you know, exactly what you said is that I would have, like, you know, a gallon or a gallon and a half goal for the day that I needed to hit. And what I quickly realized was if I was going to hit a gallon or more of water in a day, I had to get ahead of that early. And so I used to have like this goal of, oh, can I get a half gallon down before I go hit my workout at noon or whatever time I was lifting? And I started to notice I was getting these massive pumps. And I noticed that it had, it was a direct correlation with the days that I really pushed the water intake leading into the workout and during

the workout, right? So the goal became a half a gallon leading up to the workout. And then another quarter gallon while I'm working out. And I felt like I grew two sizes, and they were the most massive pumps that I ever had in my life. Yeah, so for me, it was when I started working out first thing in the morning. So I was in my 30s when that really became a thing,

and it was because of kids and a lot of stuff in my work, and so I had to work out first thing to get it done. And because it was first thing in the morning, I, it's like, you don't wake up and have a bunch of water, you know, you wake up, maybe have a little bit of water and then go work out. And I remember I was, I was drinking this pre workout and I'd mix it in this big cup of water. And then I had some other supplements that required water. And I noticed when I did that, I got a better pump. And then I started to piece together, it has more to do with the water than anything else. And so what I would do when I wake up,

this is what I do now. So I still work out early in the morning. I was in here this morning at like seven, it was like seven, 30 this morning working out. I wake up in the morning and I have at least three glasses of water, at least leading into the workout. And then during the workout, I have a big shaker cup filled with water that I drink throughout. And sometimes that plus another half of that, into the workout and then during the workout, I have a big shaker cup filled with water that I drink

throughout and sometimes that plus another half of that into the workout. Huge difference, just water alone, huge difference. Yeah, but one of the things that you add to water, which is like your, is the second point is the element T, right? Sodium. Yeah.

This is huge. Now, here's where I figured this out. When you go low carb or keto One of the I guess negative side effects is you just don't get as good of a pump Yeah, you don't feel the same kind of a pump you did before yes at all I the one of the things I hated about keto was how flat I felt and depleted I felt in my workhouse It was one of the more discouraging things about running that diet sure you lean out on it pretty well Because you're it keeps your calories pretty low, eating all basically protein or fat.

But men did the pumps suck. Yeah, psychologically deflating, right? It's, you know, that's another factor to consider as you're going into like a different phase of training, like how can I keep, you know, motivated, stimulated through this process? Yeah, so I remember, you know, I was reading about how oftentimes, so obviously when you cut carbs, I was reading about how often time,

so obviously when you cut carbs completely from your diet, because you're cutting carbs, initially you'll lose weight and the initial weight loss is water. And what comes out with that water is sodium. Your body sucks out some electrolytes. This is why sometimes people will feel, they'll go that keto flu, they'll call it, or they'll get cramps from going keto,

because their electrolytes are lost. So people in the keto community have known for a long time that you need more sodium, a lot more sodium when you're going keto. We started working with element E and they make an electrolyte powder that has appropriate levels of sodium. So all the other electrolyte powders

are they don't have enough sodium to really make a difference. And that's because sodium's got this kind of, you know, negative, you, negative connotation or stigma, which is totally overblown. In fact, it's false for most people. So I threw in element T, I had some before, had some during, whoa, what a difference.

Sodium is a big key with the water to give you that pump. So if you're gonna drink water beforehand, throw in some electrolytes or some salt, and then watch your muscles inflate as you that pump. So if you're gonna drink water beforehand, throwing some electrolytes or some salt, and then watch your muscles inflate as you work out. And what is it about that? Is it, because I know with carbohydrates, which is the next point, it pairs with that, right? The water actually pairs with what's happening with the sodium.

It'll keep the water in your body. So it's less likely to get rid of it from doing that. And you also need, look, you also need those electrolytes for self-functioning and muscle firing. So like, and this is an extreme example, but there have been deaths in bodybuilding and professional bodybuilding from athletes using doretics or cutting sodium.

And it's like their heart can't function. Their bodies, there's two things that will happen. Either they'll go limp and they can't activate anything and they'll die or muscles will seize up. I think it was 19, I wanna say 1994 Arnold Classic, Paul Dillett, one of the biggest bodybuilders of all time, seized up on stage. Little scary.

And they had to carry him off stage and they said that he was like a stiff as a board. I've seen that happen to somebody that just started locking and it was like this overall body cramp that happened. Yeah. The entire body was just sort of contracting and convulsing. Why is it when I load sodium like that where I push it with either element T or in my diet,

why is it too? I tend to notice a difference in energy in the workouts too. Because it's an important signaler for all your cellular function. So if it's low, you're not able to, your body's just not able to function ultimately. Like sodium is essential for health and function. And so especially, you know, here's the thing.

It's kind of like a two-pronged benefit that's happening here. It's like not only your body gonna hold on to more water, that's gonna push the pump, but you're also gonna have better energy, which is probably gonna push you to get a better pump. Plus someone like you, especially when you were competing,

you had no processed food in your diet. Right. And even if you salt your food, still low. It's low. You're sweating, you're working out. I used to have big old kosher dill pickles, I'd have like two of them a day.

Yeah, because you needed the sodium. This is obviously well before we knew LMNT, I would have done something easier like that, but I had to eat two pickles a day when I was getting ready for a show. I'm sure it monitors too. With athletes, how your core temperature raises substantially when you're a bit dehydrated, but keeping that being able to retain that water would help with the cooling process. Yeah, and I used to, when my endurance athletes, I would have them put a pinch of sea salt in their

water and they'd have improved performance. It's because of the past, kind of poor information that we've been told. Here you are, you're a healthy person, you value your fitness and your health, and you're reading or hearing from mainstream health advice, low sodium. You're doing low sodium, not eating processed food, trying to be healthy, plus working out like crazy, bad combination. So, and I mean, there were, there were early studies done out of Florida University, I think it was at University of Florida. That's where a gatorade come from, came from, was they did studies on, on their

football players, was so hot and humid. By the way, original gatorade had way more sodium than it does now. Oh, really? And they found that when they gave the athletes Gatorade, which was really an electrolyte, you know, drink full of like, sodium. Just a powder with like, like really high sodium. Yeah, they had great performance. So that's where that's where the original... I wonder why they eliminated that.

They made it mainstream. They wanted me to taste good. Because, and also because, well, sodium tastes good. Here's the thing, it's taste good, right? But the problem was we get all this messaging about sodium being bad. Right, I bet I mean, Gatorade was coming around the same time the whole salt is bad for you.

Yes, so how interesting is that? Like they lessened their product, you know, or made it commercial. Right, to make it more commercial, even though it was probably more effective with the original formula. That's really interesting on me. All right, so let's talk about carbs, right?

Carbohydrates do make a huge difference when it comes to the pump. I've noticed that I need to have carbs, at least a couple hours before I work out, or when I work out early in the morning, carbs with dinner. So I have carbs with dinner, then I'm storing some of that glycogen, then I go work out and I get better pumps.

So this was another one that was new to me that I really figured out back when I was competing because I was measuring and weighing stuff. And I actually had this like down to the gram. I knew exactly what was the optimal. You said you needed two meals before. So yeah, so basically my meals were about 50 to 70 grams of carbohydrates in a meal. So and really what it was was the number of carbohydrates is what I needed. So, I needed somewhere between 150 to 200 grams of carbohydrates going into a workout.

Now, ideally, I would get one or two meals and then I would get another, you know, 30 to 50 grams of carbohydrates before I went into the workout and I would end up just getting these massive pumps. And what I noticed was, anything beyond that, I would end up just getting these massive pumps. And what I noticed was anything beyond that, I didn't get any more benefits from it. So, and the beginning threshold was like 25 to 30. I could notice a difference in the pumps and hanging onto water at about 25 to 30 grams.

And then it got better at 50, it got better at 70, it got better all the way to about 150 range, right? Like that's where it started to really peak. Anything kind of beyond that, 200, 250, 300, if I slammed that, it would actually start to have an adverse effect, almost had filled the tar jig or I didn't feel like I got a better pump from it. So I had it down to the gram of what I would have.

I'd have that half a gallon of water, I'd have that 75 to 150 grams of carbohydrates ahead of time. So before two hours before, I'd go into the workout and then I would train. And I remember when I was reading up on like, okay, how does carbohydrates work with water and what exactly is happening? And I remember reading that,

it was for every three grams of carbohydrates, you intake your body holds on to three ounces of water. So I mean think about that. This also would help me like coach clients that were just weight loss clients that would get frustrated with the scale. Maintaining or going up or going down and I would explain this to them when I figured that out like well think about this like if yesterday. figured that out. Well, think about this. If yesterday you had 50 more grams of carbs than you normally would do and you had four glasses more of water, and put that many ounces, do the math of what I just said, right? The three grams to three ounces.

How many ounces of water is that that your body's holding? Put that on a scale and see what it weighs. There's a few pounds of water in here. There's your two pounds right there of this water, just from that one simple thing. And then of course sodium and other factors play a role, right? So that blew my mind what it did for me, pumps. And that was the main reason why I was reading up on it. But it actually even helped me as a coach communicate that

to my clients that couldn't understand why, out of my fault, that died exactly what you said, and we trained, we exercise, but yet the scale went up or down to many pounds, and I would explain to them how the body holds on to water, and that could play a massive role in the difference of one or two pounds upper. Now, I did notice the difference

between carbohydrate sources, mainly because some carbohydrate sources for me are easier to digest than others. The best source of carbs for me for a pump rice, white rice. Mine too. Yeah, white rice. I would try bread and pasta and sugar and fruit juice. No, it was the white rice just, it was the best for the whole thing.

I actually had this all the way. So, sweet potatoes weren't fast enough. So I would eat the same amount of grams. so we'll talk about the 75 to 150. If I did that in sweet potatoes, the time for it to get in my system and get the full benefits from it was just slower. It just did not. I didn't get the same. If I did that with all white rice, I felt it.

I felt so much faster. And this helped me with like when I was... Getting on stage? Getting on stage and I, right, getting on stage and I wanted to have the optimal full look. I couldn't die and what I messed up was one of my shows. I did all sweet potatoes as my carbs for the, that, what's it, my week, the final week.

Oh, yeah. I think it my peak week. Oh my God, she's been so long, huh? Oh, man. My peak week, I decided one show, I would do all sweet potatoes as my main source of carbohydrates, and I could never keep the pump. I couldn't stay in, like filled out.

Like I would just for a minute, I'd get it, and then I would deflate back down where the rice kept me pumped up. It was really interesting to figure that, and then I got going forward. I never did a peak week with sweet potatoes anymore. I always did it either with white potatoes or with white rice.

I always noticed a bigger difference. Interesting. All right, so this next one, I figured out, not because of the good pump, but rather what happened when this didn't happen, the terrible pump I would get, which is get good sleep. Or in other words, if you get crappy sleep,

you can expect to get no pumps the next day. Now, is there a form of dehydration that's happening here, like when you, because you're not sleeping very well, or hormonally, what's going on? I think it's all the stress hormones, your body's in this kind of elevated fight or flight, you know, situation. Yeah, blood flow is probably more restricted. And it's just when I get bad sleep, and well, first off, the flow is probably more restricted.

And it's just when I get bad sleep, and well, first off, the performance is worse also. I'm not as strong, but then the pumps are like gone. I'm just flat, and I've done this so many times, I know bad sleep the next day, forget it. This workout's not gonna feel nearly as fun. I'm not gonna get great pumps from it. Yeah, so it's cool to see,

both of these as metrics is something that you can, if you're doing things correctly, if like everything's lined up for you, you'll have strength and you'll have, you know, good pumps and everything in the gym. If that doesn't happen, you gotta really go back and assess, like if you're not getting sleep

or if you're not recovering properly, you know, it's gonna affect everything else you're doing performance well. So I always knew this. I just didn't quite understand what the mechanism was that was causing it to be that way. I mean, it was just, I always knew this. I just didn't quite understand what the mechanism was that was causing it to be that way. I just attributed to a shitty sleep and so it's a terrible workout, but I always felt that way. I never felt like I could get a really

good pump if I had a really terrible night of sleep. Yeah, and some keys to this are to try. By the way, sleep is extremely important. I mean, with poor sleep, you can forget about your healthy diet and workout like poor sleep is gonna Just mess you up But the best way to to get an insure good sleep is to prepare for your sleep and in be serious about it So what I mean by that is if you are a fitness fanatic you probably treat your workouts Like their sacred in other words an hour before my workout I'm mentally thinking about it.

40 minutes before I have my caffeine or my coffee or my pre-workout, I do my warm-up, I know what my routine is, I know what exercise I'm gonna do. So you're like, you're ready, you're prepared, your workout starts at this time, and then you do it. But we expect ourselves to just go to sleep and don't treat it that way. If you prepare for sleep an hour or two before dimming the lights, wearing blue light blocking glasses, not eating foods that tend to cause issues for you before you go to bed, maybe having, not having stressful conversations right before bed.

Like if you treat it as sacred, then your sleep is, your far more guaranteed to have good sleep. Now let's, let's say that formal guarantee to have good sleep. Now let let's Let's say that I didn't get good sleep and I'm gonna go work out Is there something that you would recommend either like supplement wise like maybe like a either a mushroom or Ashwaganda or maybe the infrared sauna is there something that I could do if I know I got shitty sleep But I also want to get a good workout and get a good pump here? And, and, and, or is things like a pre workout going to be kind of counterproductive?

Because I'm already like, not, not, not short term. It's probably not. Um, so if it's like one night of bad sleep, you know, you're, you're, you're then a stimulant has got lots of value. Okay. It does improve wakefulness and response time and performance. If it's chronic poor sleep, like you could band-aid it all your way. Yeah, no, that's not, I'm saying, let's, like the one off.

Yeah, it's one off and I don't want to miss my workout and take the day off, so I'm going to do it anyways. Stimulant. So, it's stimulant to do that. What I mean, I remember Ben Greenfield talking about the infrared sauna to reset your circadian rhythm. Yeah, I didn't try that. I know you did. I have.

And again, I can't explain the mechanism very well, but I did apply it, and I still do this now. Like if we fly somewhere, whether it's a time change or we've been grinding workwise and just not getting good sleep. One of the things I'll do is I'll go sit in that sauna for 20, 20, 30 minutes and do it. It does. I feel complete. I feel it almost feels like my body got some sleep. And I'm obviously not sleeping. I'm sitting in the sauna. And I remember him explaining that to me. That's like one of his like every time he travels, especially when the time zone change, right?

He will find a infrared sauna in the town somewhere and he'll go do it right away. And after he gave that advice, I started to try it myself. And I noticed a big difference from him. So have you had to try it? But that sounds very interesting. Yeah, you need to, especially since you've had some messed up sleep lately, I'd be curious to hear what you think after having it one of those nights where you don't sleep all night and you're about to work out.

Try hitting the sauna first, which is something you probably wouldn't normally do, and see if you notice a difference going into the workout. That's interesting. I think I will. All right, here's the next one. And this one's more common knowledge, I think,

than the other ones, which is higher reps. Higher reps do have a tendency to give you a better pump. Lower reps, especially really low reps. One of the downfalls of low reps, higher reps do have a tendency to give you a better pump. Lower reps, especially really low reps, one of the downfalls of low reps, not that they don't build muscle, but rather people really enjoy the pumps, and we're doing sets of three and four, they tend not to get them.

Like you get the reps up to 15 with good form, you're gonna get more of a pump doing that than the lower reps. And that's, I mean, this is because pretty obvious, right? I mean, you're just more blood, more oxygen, moving forward, more fluid is being pumped into there. Therefore, you're going to have a greater pump. You guys have a rep range that's like the best for the pump for you. I mean, if anything, 15 or 15, I mean, you

started, it's once I started, yeah, anything over 12, definitely, but even 15, 20, supersets, I mean, you start pushing that or blood occlusion where you're doing the 20s, like, yeah, those, I mean, I get a massive pump. Yeah, for me, it's like 12 to 15, 20 sometimes, but if I go too high sometimes, I don't get that effect. I need to have at least some resistance, but yeah, that 12 to 15 for me is great. The other thing in real and this isn't on our list, but in relation to that, the other option is slowing it way down.

So it's the same time under tension. That's right. So I could actually do five reps and get a massive pump. If the five reps take the same amount of time as the 15 reps did. So at a point, let's say like I'm doing bicep curls and 15 reps takes a total of let's say like I'm doing bisip curls and 15 reps

takes a total of let's say 30 seconds to complete the set. If I did five reps and I made it take 30 seconds to get those five reps, I'll have just as much of a pump. Yeah, six seconds each rep, right? Yeah, makes a lot of sense. So that's also I think valuable to use that as a tool. So if not only just including high rep ranges, but also slowing down the tempo when you're doing lower reps. Yeah, and then right along with that

is the shorter rest periods. Now, there's a bit of a diminishing return if there's no rest periods. If you're doing like circuit style training, forget the pump, you're not gonna get it. Now you're training more for endurance. But shorter rest periods, probably around the 30, 45 second range, where you're still doing, you're still resting in between sets,

but it's short. Boyd is that, produced crazy pumps. And I remember really putting this together for myself when I would have a time crunch for workouts. So, especially back in the day when I would manage gyms, I always like to work out during the slowest time of the day, which was in the middle of the day, right? So when you know big box jams, you know morning, you have your your rush and then you definitely have your rush

in the evening. So I used to like to work out right around noon. Was the time I'd like to work out. The problem was sometimes I'd get a call My district managers on the phone or there's a meeting or On the way to my workout and employee asked me a question. So now I take 20 minutes helping them out. Oh, now my hour workout, I need to complete in 30 minutes. So what I would do is I was short in the rest period and oftentimes those became my best workouts because I did such short rest periods that I'd get this crazy massive pump. This is what you notice in like phase three of our of a lot of our maps programs

like maps in a ball. You know, supersets and short res periods. The goal of that phase is to maximize the pump and a lot of it has to do with the short res period. Yeah. The other thing is the full range of motion, right? The full range of motion, the squeeze at the top, the pause at the bottom. Oh, dude. I remember, we talk about like mostly higher reps, it takes right to get that good pump, but shoot full range of motion squats for five or six reps will even pump me up. Because it's such a lot of time under tension, because of how long the movement is,

and if you do it with a slow control tempo, I'll get a massive pump even from that. Yeah, you're expressing like each component of the muscle too, and it's stretched positions. So now you have more opportunities to pump blood throughout the muscle, like pre-effectively. Yeah, if I do, like, let's say I pick two or three exercises for a body part, and the goal

is to get a really good pump. I'll pick one where the squeeze is really important, and I'll pick one where the stretch is really important. For example, a fly with dumbbells, you don't get much of a squeeze at really important, and I'll pick one where the stretch is really important. For example, a fly with dumbbells, you don't get much of a squeeze at the top, right? Because you're not directly opposing gravity, but the stretch can be real intense. I'll focus really heavily on the stretch.

And then maybe I'll do an exercise where it's a squeeze like a cable crossover, for example, or for biceps. Spider curls and then preacher curls. Yeah, right. And when I focus on the stretch and the squeeze and really get that range of motion, oh my God. And if you really want to take, pair those.

Super-sum, yeah. That's the best. I like to go from the stretch to the squeeze often. Yes, if you do, if you pair those together, you want a massive pump. Yeah, in fact, I did one for triceps today. I did behind the neck overhead extensions, which is a tricep stretch.

And then I went to a tricep press down, which is a squeeze. And it's like that combination just fills the muscles. And what it is, right? It's just that we're taking it through, we're emphasizing the both end ranges of motion of that muscle and both those exercises. So you're just maximizing the amount of fluid being sent there.

Now last, and this is last for a reason, is supplements. Now the reason why it's last for a reason is all this other stuff that we said leading up to this way more important. We'll make way bigger of difference in terms of whether or not you get a pump. That being said, supplements can make a little bit of a difference. And mostly the way that they make the difference is by increasing vasodilation, so by improving your capillary's ability to relax and open, and by improving blood flow. Okay, so when you improve blood flow and blood vessels are nice and relaxed and open, the ability to fill up with more blood and get a better pump is improved.

Very few supplements actually deliver on this. I remember back in the day, the first pump, because you gotta understand, like obviously, I've been doing this for so long. I remember when there were no supplements that supposedly improved the pump. There was no category of supplements that did this. and then I remember when they first hit the market Which and it was by the way was brilliant because and I'm surprised nobody hit on this before

Obviously one of the things that people enjoy the most about workouts is a pump if you could sell a supplement That promise to give people a better pump You're gonna sell a lot of your product and to to take it a step further, if as part of your marketing, you show a before and after picture, not of a 30 day transformation, but a before and after the workout pump, which let me tell you something right now. If you do all the steps that we said in this episode,

with the water, the carbs, the sodium, and your lean. You have a crazy difference. And you're not like overweight, you're a lean person, so you can see the muscle. The before and after dramatic, I mean, I post pictures on Instagram, sometimes with me after my workout.

I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't look like that when I'm not pumped. I look like I gained 30 pounds of muscle because of the pump. So it's really brilliant marketing. I remember when it first came out, and what they promoted was, one of the main things that they promoted was the amino acid,

argonine. Argonine is utilized by the body to turn into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is this compound of the body that causes blood vessels to relax. By the way, your erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra, Sialis, the way that they work is they inhibit an enzyme that breaks down nitric oxide. So what they do essentially is they increase an arachycoxide and boom, you get more erections or better quality erections or whatever.

Well anyway, Argonine is in the, using the process of making an arachycoxide. Here's the problem. Argonine is destroyed in the gut when you consume it. So very little has gone to the, into the blood to contribute to nitric oxide. The studies that were done on arganine were done through intravenous injection.

Nonetheless, that's how they sold the products. Well, later on they figured out if you use citralline, that gets converted to arganine, you actually get more arganine in the blood through consuming citralline than you do through arganine and studies confirm this. If you use citralline, which now is what you're gonna see in all your pro-pump supplements,

you're gonna get a higher boost of nitric oxide. So that's the first supplement that'll help. So does that mean that viagra and siallus don't do anything? Cause I remember when I was a kid that you would see viagra pills on the floor inside. Oh no, they do. Okay, so yeah, because they inhibit, it's called a PDE5 inhibitor.

So it inhibits the enzyme that breaks them nit not your oxide the result being way more nitric oxide Okay, in your blood so yeah, so they could affect you getting a pump You just might have a bone or two when you're If you work out turns Your arms will be pumped, but so you're dick See and you're talking about like supplements that hit the market like a dress in this I just remember all the ones like just emphasizing the nitrous oxide. Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, it no explode all this kind of stuff

But it wasn't like talking about now like sitrally and all these it like then contribute towards yes elevated nitrous now Now even though we didn't order this we left supplements last which I'm glad we did because if if you're on a budget I highly recommend you go through all the things that are free that we set. Like you could literally do. And they make a bigger impact. Yeah, exactly. So go do all that, because I know the quick thing everybody wants to do

is go spend the 30 to 50 bucks on the supplement. No, if your sodium is off, your water intake is low, you're not eating carbs, you're getting bad sleep, you know, any of those things, and then you take a bunch of citrally, you ain't gonna get a pump. Yeah, and you'll get a much better pump if you do all those other things and not take that.

Correct. Go do all that stuff first. So let's, now let's say you did all those things. And now I'm also in addition interested in all the supplements that we've mentioned in talk about. How would you order them, including the sodium element E.K. So we've talked about element E.I. mentioned ashwagandha stuff.

We talked about pre-workout. We've talked about creatine. We've talked about beetroot, citrilline. If you were to order these in priority of what would be the best- Most important? Yeah, most important, how would you order those?

You know, I think it's pretty much what we did, except maybe put sleep at the top, because I think if you have bad sleep, everything's screwed. Well, you know, we're pretending that's all in order. That's in order. Oh, I see. Everything's in order. Oh, I see. Everything's in order.

Now I'm also wanting to put supplements in. Oh, I'm doing good sleep. I'm doing the carbohydrates. I'm just listed first. Yes. Oh, so, and we've mentioned all these supplements right now. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so is gonna give you, I mean, if you've never taken creatine, you're gonna get way better pumps from creatine. Yeah, I would put that at the top. I, creatine was, so I did a video along,

this is a long time, way before my pump and I first started my YouTube channel. I gave it as a hack for a ectomorph guys that are leaning out, right? So, one of the things that I would always be discouraged about when I was cutting was, I'm already kind of a, I'm an ectomorph body type, so I have a small bone structure, and when I go to lean out, I just, my clothes hang on me. I look like, and even underneath if I'm all shredded and diced up,

I just don't look that way because of my bone structure. If I look lean, I look skinny, and it would, of course, fuck with my head because I was my insecurity as a kid. So one of the hacks was I actually wouldn't take creatine for most of my training cycle until the cut. Oh, so you can feel the opposite. That's right. And so then on the cut, I would bump the carbohydrate up

before the workout. I would increase the water intake and then I would take creatine. That was kind of like my triple threat to kind of fill me out a little more while I was training to kind of psychologically trick myself into thinking that I'm not shrinking. If you're not taking creatine, you take creatine, you'll get better pumps.

Okay, so creatine's number one. Number one, according to the studies, to boost natural oxide, it's still not citrally. The next one would be like beetroot powder or another often lots of people aren't familiar with a supplement, pichnoginol. I think there's this pine, like French maritime pine bark extract or something like that, maybe doubt could look it up.

But it will boost nitric oxide pretty significantly in your studies. You don't see it very often in supplements, probably because it's expensive and or it tastes like crap. I think if you put pnogel on powder form and mixed up your drink, probably wouldn't taste very good. But it does work pretty well. Beetroot powder works very well.

Study show it. So you would even put beetroot above. I would. Wow. Which actually that makes sense why I like the organifi red juice so much because I actually get a little pump from that, taking that before. So beetroot above that. Okay, so creatine

beetroot what about elementary sodium? Where would you put sodium? Oh, well sodium's above all of that I mean sodium's up there with a crate team and if your sodium's low for it about it. Oh, okay So then you would actually put arguably sodium up there higher than creatine. That's essential Cratee is not I mean creatine is not essential so long as you're doing enough protein That doesn't mean you don't benefit from supplementing it, but it's not essential. Sodium is essential. And if your sodium isn't optimal,

you're gonna feel like... Okay, so sodium, Crateen, beetroot, b-rood, and then I'd go, then you're looking at... Citrule, something like that.

Absolutely. And you can buy all these individually or you could take a pre-workout that might have a lot of these. Pre-workouts also include things like beta-align. That doesn't really improve the pump, but it does improve performance or at least stamina and endurance. It also gives you that itchingly feeling that you know.

I think that's the main thing that I hate that feeling. Some people will love it because they can feel it, you know, and say, oh, it must be working. I enjoy it. I enjoy it. It's like the shampoo that tingles your scalp. Yeah, totally. So there you have it. I mean, if you want to hack the pump,

and I know those people watching right now that are super into their workouts, try to schedule all this stuff together, plan it all out, work it all out. Yes, start with the free stuff, and then if you want to pile on that stuff. Yeah, and then let us know what happens, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of you

are going to be tripped out over how good your pump is look pumps crazy pump If you like our information Head over to mine pump free.com and check out all of our free guides They can help you with all of your fitness goals. You can also find all of us on Instagram So Justin can be found at mine pump Justin. I'm at mine pump Salon Adam is at mine pump Adam Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance,

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