Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2351: Short Workouts Vs. Long Workouts for Gains, When Losing Weight Can be a Bad Idea, What to Do When Squatting Hurts Your Knees & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Email [e-mail] if you want to be considered to ask your question on the show. Mind Pump Fit Tip: The order in which you eat your food can have PROFOUND effects on your fat loss goals. (2:40) Making yourself a better communicator through listening. (10:48) Highlighting the inflation impact. (16:21) How creatine may be the greatest longevity supplement. (26:32) The top five countries in the world for citizen gun ownership. (32:30) The importance and value of community and knowing your neighbor. (34:28) Using collagen or bone broth protein powder to improve your skin. (41:44) The systemic effect of strength training. (44:04) Highlighting the Sleep Blend from Ned. (45:56) What makes theft, theft? (49:05) Shout out to the Mind Pump Newsletter! (59:06) #ListenerLive question #1 - What are some good exercise alternatives since I have knee pain when I squat? (1:00:07) #ListenerLive question #2 - How do I begin to reintroduce carbs back into my diet after years of eating a “Ketovore” type diet? (1:11:30) #ListenerLive question #3 - How long can you run MAPS 15 before it starts to be too little volume? (1:22:47) #ListenerLive question #4 - Is aiming to stay the same weight when starting strength training a relevant strategy for someone who is significantly overweight or considered obese? (1:30:11) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Listen to the Dr. John Delony Show wherever you get your podcasts or click the link here Visit Paleovalley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Discount is now automatically applied at checkout 15% off your first order! ** Visit NED for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP at checkout for 15% off ** June Promotion: MAPS 15 Minutes | Bikini Bundle | Shredded Summer Bundle 50% off! ** Code JUNE50 at checkout ** The Myth of Optimal Protein Intake - Mind Pump Media 3 Day Mind Pump Personal Trainer Webinar Check out these charts showing how much fast-food prices have jumped since 2019 Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation Mind Pump Newsletter Visit ZBiotics for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Promo code MINDPUMP24 for 15% off first-time purchasers on either one-time purchases, (3, 6, 12-packs) or subscriptions (6, 12-pack) ** Mind Pump #2117: Fix Your Knee Pain These 3 Exercises Will Grow Your Butt! | MIND PUMP MP Holistic Health Visit NutriSense for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP at checkout** Mind Pump #1815: Improving Fat Loss, Muscle Gain And Fitness With Continuous Glucose Monitors Why Your Tempo Matters When You Workout! – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump #2315: Five Signs You’re Doing The Wrong Workout Mind Pump #2320: Throw Away The Scale! Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dr. John Delony (@johndelony) Instagram Andy Frisella (@andyfrisella) Instagram Dr. Stephen Cabral (@stephencabral) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Right in today's episode, we answered live callers,

questions, people called in, we got to help them out. But that was after our intro portion. Today was 57 minutes long. This is where we talk about fitness, family life, current events, studies, and much more. You can check the show notes for timestamps if you wanna skip around your favorite parts. Also, if you wanna be on an episode like this one,

email us at live at mindpumpmedia.com. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is the John Deloney Show. Great podcast. If you wanna become a better communicator, if you want to understand your children better, your spouse better, go check it out. Go to johndeloney.com forward slash mind pump.

This episode's also brought to you by Paleo Valley. They make incredible paleo-inspired supplements. They have a bone broth protein that's chocolate flavor that literally tastes like chocolate donuts. It's also the easiest protein to digest I've ever had in my entire life. Go check them out, go to paleovalley.com forward slash mind pump,

and on that link you'll get 15% off. And finally, this episode is brought to you by Ned, makers of hemp oil products, high in CBD, that you can actually feel. They have a sleep blend that you take and 30 minutes later you're asleep. Very, very powerful, very effective. Go check them out.

Go to helloned.com, that's H-E-L-L-O-N-E-D.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump, get 15% off. Also, we have a brand new sale this month. The June special is Maps 15, the Bikini Bundle of Programs, and the Shredded Summer Bundle of Programs. All of those, 50% off.

If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com, click on one of those programs or bundles, and use the code June50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. T-shirt time! And it's t-shirt time! Awww, shit, Doug, you know it's my favorite time of the week. We only have one winner this week for Apple Podcasts,

and that winner is Graham and Slann. You're the winner. Send the name I just read to iTunes at mindpumpmedia.com. Include your shirt size and your shipping address, and we'll get that shirt right out to you. and if you would like a chance to win a shirt there's a very good chance because if no one's leaving reviews and you do you're probably going to be the winner so just leave a review on apple podcasts or on facebook and maybe your name will be called next week. The order in which you eat your food can actually have profound effects on your fat loss goals. Note there's no magic here. It's not about some foods digesting

differently than others etc etc. That's not really the key here. The key here is some foods are more satiety producing than others. In particular protein. Also protein tends to come with some fat right? Most protein sources have a little bit of fat so you get those essential nutrients. Proteins and fats are essential, carbohydrates are not. In other words, you could live without carbs for the rest of your life. I'm not telling you not to eat carbs,

but what I am saying is eat those essential nutrients first. Also, the most important part is protein makes you eat less. When we used to tell our clients to eat protein first, they naturally were to reduce their calories. They didn't have to try to. They would cut their calories naturally. They get the protein they needed. They get the fat that they needed and they would get leaner and they didn't feel like they were restricting. So order your food in a way that gets you those results. Protein first. Watch what happens.

You know when we were walking, we were just kind of talking about how the advantages of getting older and how long we've been lifting and it's actually gotten easier to maintain staying in shape and we were more along the lines of talking about just the weight training and how little volume that I have to do to maintain a physique I would have died for at 25 right right? The physique that I was working towards at 25, I can now maintain with very minimal volume. Part of that is also attached to this. I didn't know you were gonna talk about this,

and we were talking about training volume, but I remember when I made this shift of realizing that I just grossly underate protein and then and overate on carbohydrates and foods that were processed and just simply saying, hey, I'm not going to tell myself I can't have these things, but I'm going to every time I sit down to eat, I'm going to go after the protein first and then allow myself to enjoy whatever afterwards. How much one, not only did it attribute to me

increasing my protein intake consistently so I was hitting more optimal levels, but then two, naturally satiate me and make me not want to overeat and over consume. So it's like this beautiful balance of it just organically gave me the higher protein levels, which in turn helped me build muscle or maintain muscle, while simultaneously maintaining my calories

in a much more manageable place so that even if I do over-consume a little bit, I wasn't going way overboard by just making sure that I had the protein first. It's crazy how much that made a difference. Yeah, you know what's funny is the two diets that people will swear by and say, I lost so much weight doing this diet.

And it just was crazy and I thought I was eating so much. It's totally, there's something magical about it. Are the keto or low carb or carnivore diets. Now the reason why people lose weight on those diets isn't because there's some magic in the diet itself, but rather they're eating a lot of protein, especially the carnivore diet. It's so satiating.

You can't, it's hard to overeat when you do that. Very hard. In fact, my brother-in-law, him and I have been going back and forth through diet. I finally convinced him, okay, dude, listen, eat. He's a big guy. So I said, eat 200 grams of protein a day. Don't get it from shakes, don't get it from bars.

Eat it from real food. He goes, but if I eat that much protein, I'm trying to get lean, I'm gonna gain body fat. It's like tons of food. I said, try it from real food. He goes, but if I eat that much protein, I'm trying to get lean, I'm gonna gain body fat. It was like tons of food. I said, try it and let's just see what happens. Five days later, this is the text he sends me. He's like, bro, I can't eat 200 grams of protein.

He's like, I can't do it. This is why I had to abandon it. I mean, I was like, this is great, you know, like losing weight, but in terms of the performance. Oh, you're talking about carnivore diet? Yeah, in the gym, I but to, in terms of the performance. Are you talking about carnivore diet? Yeah, in the gym, I was like, man, I am weak. And I'm like, and it really was cause I was so low calorie cause it was just difficult to consume that much protein

exclusively, not have any other options of variety to then stimulate my appetite at all. So that's just one of those things. And then you start realizing that that's a hack if you are trying to go in a bit of a deficit, but to incorporate all the other food groups and nutrients will help with your performance. And like I said, my brother-in-law's not even

trying to cut things out. I just said, eat 200 grams of protein, eat it from Whole Natural Foods, eat it first, watch what happens. And he's like, I can't. He goes, bro, he goes, I know why this works, for the reason I told him, of course. He's like, I know why this works. He goes, I can't do it, I'm so stuffed,

and I'm getting leaner. He's like, this is so crazy. Now, a lot of people wonder, well, why? Why is this the case? Like, why does protein do this? This is why, evolutionarily speaking, in nature, if you eat high protein foods, you're very likely to be eating meat.

It's very unlikely to find a high protein, non-meat source of calories. It just doesn't, very difficult, but before agriculture was invented, you didn't find these super high protein plant sources. It was probably meat. What comes along with meat is a lot of nutrients, a lot of essential nutrients.

This is why you could, not saying that this is ideal at all, I think this is far from ideal, but could you survive on eating just steak? You could, and you very likely wouldn't get a nutrient deficiency. You can't say that about other foods. So here's what happened naturally through evolution. When your body got lots of meat or lots of protein,

it turned down the appetite signal because you probably got all the nutrients that you needed. When you got lots of sugars, then your appetite signal probably stayed high because you're probably lacking some nutrients that we need. Also, again, protein comes oftentimes with fat. Very rarely in nature do you find a pure protein meat source. There's typically, and also hunter-gatherers

weren't eating like the breast of an animal or whatever and cutting things out. They were eating the whole thing. So this is evolutionarily why this exists. But if you do this, it's very hard to overeat. In fact, most people will be in a calorie deficit. So when you take your plate of food, and you've got all the things on there, all you got to do is this. I'm going to hit my target body weight in protein, so you figure out

what that is per meal. So maybe it's 30 grams of protein or 40 or whatever or 25. Then you take that meal, so you've got your 30 grams of protein, whatever that is, fish, chicken, eggs, whatever, and then you've got the other stuff you want to eat. And then just eat the protein first, that's it. Eat in that order, and then watch what happens. Typically what happens is by the second or third meal you end up leaving stuff on your plate because you don't want to eat anymore.

And what we're not talking about that I would argue is maybe the most powerful piece of all of it is the psychology of it. The fact that you are not telling yourself that like I can't have. You're not resisting, you just don't want it. Yeah, restricting. Yeah, it's not like this diet I have to follow

or I'm punishing myself or I'm saying, I can't have these things. I don't do that. I say like, okay, I can have that. I can have that thing if I want it. But just as long as, I just gotta eat my protein first. So I'm gonna eat my protein first and then I'm gonna see how I feel. And what ends up happening is nine times out of

ten after I have that, I have very little appetite after that. Or the carbohydrate that I have is way less versus I'm hungry, I haven't eaten in a while, my cravings are up like crazy, the plate's in front of me and I go straight to the bread, straight to the pasta and man, I'll eat and eat and eat in that until I eat a thousand calories in pasta and then I go over and work my way to the bread, straight to the pasta. And man, I'll eat and eat and eat in that until I eat a thousand calories in pasta. And then I go over and work my way to the meat. And then sometimes don't even finish the meat all the way through. Versus just going like,

hey, I'm not gonna say I can't have the pasta and can't have the carb or the bread. I'm just gonna make sure I eat that eight ounce or 10 ounce piece of steak or chicken or turkey or whatever it is first. And then I'll work my way over to the other side. And it just makes a massive difference. And so the psychology behind telling yourself that,

yeah, I'm not telling myself I can't have those things, I'm just gonna discipline myself to prioritize what my body needs first, and then if it's still once more and I'm craving that and I haven't had it in a while, why not? I'm gonna allow myself, and it's wild. It turns out that you end up in a great place. So many times, so many times right now.

Speaking of psychology, I've been listening a lot to John Deloney's podcast and clips and stuff like that. And a couple things I realized. One is listening to people who communicate as well as he does, because he has a lot of callers calling. So people don't know he's got a podcast. People call in to his show and then they have problems. Like my husband cheated on me,

my wife is not into me anymore, my son is smoking too much weed, I'm suicide, whatever, right? Like this is what he does for a living, or what he did for a living before he had the podcast is he helped people. So you hear him communicate, and a couple things came to me.

One is listening to someone communicate as well as he does helps me become a better communicator. Two, the communication skills that he exhibits are the ones that I remember as a trainer that I had to really master to be effective with my clients. Obviously I didn't deal with the problems, thankfully. Although sometimes people would share crazy shit to trainers. I wasn't there to help them with that.

But it's like he listens and he listens well He validates he's always always validates the person he empathizes and what he does is he opens there the people open their doors For his advice like without those those things the validation and empathize Empathizing people would stay closed off. He's so good at it. When he talks to people, I'm picking up on it. I always wonder, and I'm sure they have some kind of screening process with the phone calls that come in and everything.

I've seen them do this live. And so you have no idea what kind of questions are coming your way. And to be able to like- On the fly. Yeah, on the fly, just come up with these really thoughtful answers and helpful answers for people

is such a masterful skill. So like you said, just picking up those tidbits and ways to better communicate is helpful. There is a bit of a formula, though. And we talked about this in one of the last podcasts that we recorded, where we were talking about the value of sales and just the art of communication that everything that we do when we're communicating to people is a form of sales.

And there's some rules to that. Like it's like some of the rules, like you don't ever tell somebody no or like, and you agree, you empathize with them right away. Like, yeah, like you can't, you're never going to close somebody on a deal or help somebody out until you can first kind of break down that wall. And we all kind of have one. And some of us have bigger walls and like ones that are tougher to bring down. We all tend to have this.

And when you are initially meeting somebody or talking to them, there's this, whether you realize it or not, subconsciously, you're starting to, you're evaluating, is this a person I can trust? Is this a person that I can share my feelings with or tell them how I really feel in this initial reaction? And people like John have refined that skill

of knowing how to disarm somebody right away. And avoiding your knee-jerk reaction that is normal, like you hear some crazy thing they say, and oh my God, you want to say that, but he's like, knowing like, I can't do that. And I remember this with clients, like, and I remember one of the skills that I used to teach my trainers,

like right away when a client expresses their challenges or how their struggles with weight loss or like their insecurities around that is to make them feel very normal. Validate. It's so important that they don't feel like they're alone on this little island and everybody else gets it and everybody else is fit and it's just them who is.

And so no matter what the thing they said, I had to always practice that like, oh, so many of my clients struggle with this too. That was a statement I would say back. No matter what was said to me to make them feel at peace that it's like, hey, and then also comfortable with me that I've seen this before, don't worry. And I've seen it a lot.

And actually, a lot of people struggle the same way that you struggle with this. You're totally normal. That's a huge bring down the wall. Yeah, because then you can pull so much more out of these people too. And I love how, too, he'll kind of pause and then be like, tell me more about that. And it's like, you know, it allows for that time for them to really articulate more. Cause there's always like so much more to the story. And it's like, you know know, sometimes you wanna just solve the person's problem right away,

but it's like you gotta really just kinda be patient. People who are good at that, well, you'll tell them your issue, your challenge, and then they won't talk right afterwards. They'll just look at you. They'll just look at you and wait, yeah. Yeah, and wait, and then what ends up happening is people will tell you more.

Also another great sales skill. Yeah, exactly. You know what I'm saying? Like, one of the things I always communicate to my salespeople is just like, believe it or not, you're going to become a better sales person when you speak less. A lot of people will come- Isn't that funny?

What a true statement. So many people will come to the solution themselves, or they even know the answer, and you just being there and giving them the space will allow them to get there, which is why I always always say the difference between a good closer and a great closer is this. A good closer, read all the books, knows how to overcome objections, can push somebody into a sale by overcoming objections. But a great closer can pull somebody in.

And the way you pull somebody in is by asking the right questions, shutting your mouth, listening, allowing them to talk, and many times they'll walk right into them. By the way, a lot of people don't know this. I did a sales training for trainers and coaches, like a full one. It's at mindpumptrainercourse.com, right Doug?

So it's a three day course. The last, I wanna say the last day is the one where I do the full sales training. So it's totally free, you can go check it out. Anyway, I wanted to bring something up about inflation because I saw some crazy numbers. Adam, you're gonna trip off this. Let's hear it.

So obviously election season. So it's all this like. Have they admitted it's real now? Instead of trying to change the definition of it? So frustrating, man. It's like economy's great. It's transitory. Yeah, yeah.

Transitory? What the fuck that means? We've been in transition for like four years. Somebody actually said today, because I posted this and I was talking about it, somebody actually told me, inflation doesn't mean we're in a recession. I was like 40 years. Somebody actually said today, because I posted this and I was talking about it, somebody actually told me, inflation doesn't mean we're in a recession. I was like, okay.

Like the semantics that people play. Semantics. Oh, unemployment looks good, and it's like, bro, I pulled up these numbers, and this is what people actually care about. This is the thing that people need to understand. And I don't think they count some of the stuff in the inflation numbers.

They don't, bro, people, first of all. stuff in the inflation number They don't bro that the people first of all they take out all the real the thing like gas food You know your grocery shit that people care about the stuff that impacts everybody like on a daily basis Like oh, we don't count that in the inflation. Okay ready for this So I'm gonna use these are fast food places that everybody's familiar with from 2019 or the end of 2019 to 2024, okay? Here's McDonald's. A medium french fry in 2019 was $1.79.

Today it's $4.19, okay? A Big Mac in 2019 was $3.99. Today it's $7.49. A McChicken in 2019 was $1.99. Today it's $7.49. A McChicken in 2017, or 2019, was $1.29. Today, $3.89. Is that true? Yes. 141% increase in prices.

Wow. In five years. Not that long ago. We have never seen. It's so crazy. In almost, not even five years. End of 2019 to mid-2024. Here's Taco Bell, a beefy, it's funny that we're talking about crappy food.

We're gonna put this podcast. But it just, I think it highlights. You know, it does, I like that you're using this because the way they do inflation is they pull out all these things. Let's be honest, the average person goes to a fast food restaurant or orders from DoorDash or does these things or gets pumps, gas, right?

Those things are the most impactful. So yeah. You're right, right, so like Taco Bell, the five-litter burrito, $1.69 in 2019, $3.69 today. Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A had some crazy ones. Eight Chick-fil-A nuggets was $3.05 in 2019, 2024, $5.99. I mean, you're looking at 50 to 150% increases.

Now, here's a deal. A lot of people in 2019, there's a lot of parents, a lot of people who were making it and saving a little bit, maybe not, living paycheck to paycheck. When you get food prices that go up like that, where know, it was a dollar, now it's three dollars, doesn't sound like a lot, but you add that up with your groceries, and all of a sudden you're screwed.

Added layer of tax. Yeah, dude, it's wild. And I still think that we haven't seen, here'd be an interesting one for Doug to look up, like look up what the, in 2019, since we're doing 2019 and comparing it now, what was the average savings in 2019 versus the average savings?

It plummeted. Yeah, because one of the things that was going around when COVID hit and all the relief money came out and so with that is, and why a lot of people predicted the housing market to continue to go up was because there was record amount of money in people's savings. Between equity and like personal savings, a lot of people had a lot of money in their savings

account. And now I forget what the stat is, but I saw that number and I know it's dramatically shifted. And in addition to that, credit card debt, we're at all time highs. So people's savings have dwindled. We're at record highs in the credit card. So we still haven't seen the complete fallout yet. Like we've just, we stretched that money out to now. And then we now we're on credit cards and we're still around. And it's like, it hasn't fallen all the way. Yeah. It's like, if I feel like it's like at any moment, have you found it, Doug, to see what it was? So the average household had 41,600 in savings in 2019. That's average.

Yeah. Okay. I'm looking up for 2023, the average was 25,898. So it's almost half, and 2024 is probably lower. By the way, where do they get that average from? There must be some people like big ass savings, you know, I'd like to see median. But the median is 1200 bucks. There you go.

So average is, see here's why average is. Because somebody's got millions. You got people with millions of dollars in their savings. So median would be the actual middle, 1200 bucks. Not to mention that, that's a good point too Sal because the people that have those huge numbers, they impact that average much harder. So like you could have 10,000 people that only

average a thousand dollars and have no money in there. You have a billionaire. Now everybody's a millionaire. Yeah. Silicon Valley companies, the number I was looking at that I think it was, it was like, like total savings of, um, how was it? How was it? It was said I brought it on the podcast way back in 2019 or 20 when we were talking about all this stuff about how much, because we were, you remember when you and I were debating about the real estate market, whether we go up or down, how right I was. That was like... So far.

We snuck that in there. So far. We'll see. Well, you know, it's even even when it falls out. Actually, we'll wait long enough and I'll be right. That's a fact, right? Yeah, exactly. At some point we we're going to see somewhat of a correction. But even now, even if we saw a correction, and a 30% correction would be unprecedented,

we'd still be higher. I know. So that's what's nuts about it. Everything's inflated. And seven, like, where are we at? Interest rates? 7 and 1 half right now? 7 and 1 half?

Is that what they are for houses? 7 and 1 half, 8. You know right now. How low were they at 1.3? Oh, some people got like 2.5. I have friends that have mortgages for like 2.5, 2.3. You know what's crazy? What's inflation at?

Well, see, I don't like the stupid numbers because they finagle it to make it whatever. Is it like 3.5 right now? That's not true. If you add actual expenses and stuff, it's gotta be way higher than that. You know what I mean? What do they put in the numbers?

Don't they put like ridiculous, like certain, like there's specific things that they choose. Yeah, that's why I was making a point. They say it's 3.4%. Yeah, so it's gotta be, it's gotta be, if you really look, like look at groceries, everything's gotta be in the double digits, is what I would guess.

That's crazy. It is, I don't. A lot of people don't realize that means that your savings, if let's say the average of the things you buy on average every year goes up 15% in a year, that means your savings, if let's say the average of the things you buy on average every year goes up 15% in a year, that means your savings, however much you have, is 15% less. No matter what, it's still- A big part of what's propping this all up, and I know this because I firsthand was like

this. When I was in my mid-20s, I had already had my house first. I bought my house when I was 21, and at 25, I thought I was rich because my house had gone up to over a half a million dollars and I bought it for $300,000. And I was making six figures. So I was like, in my eyes, in my world.

I got all this money. Oh, I'm ballin'. I'm making good money. I've technically, in my head, I'm like, I've basically got $300,000 in a savings account sitting there, right? So, and I live my life that way, spending it like crazy. Yeah, and then the big crash. So you got to know that this housing boom that we've had has caused those behaviors in a lot

of people that are like, oh, I'm mad. And they won't let it correct because of how many people will be affected and they're not voting. And what's artificially propping it up right now is what we're still seeing. So I was just, my buddy who's a realtor over here and he has a podcast he's been trying to do for a while now and I tuned in every once in a while, just tuned in the other day just to kind of see how he's doing.

And he shared like a really interesting stat about the Bay Area housing market over the last three years because they're all, they're realtors, right? So they're always making the case that everything's gonna go up. Always a good time to buy right because every time which of course he's going to be biased to that right so so but still he did provide some interesting stats so that makes me go wow i mean there's good point there okay so my numbers are going to be off but you'll get the picture right because it was he goes this year available homes on the market

in the bay area like eight it's like it was 840 or something like that. And then he had the guys pull up, what was it this exact time last year? Oh, it was 1200 and something. What was it the year before that? It was 2500. What was it? Yeah, that's the best way to keep prices high.

So supply low. Yes, so supply, is it record low as far as for these houses and even though interest rates are high and we're struggling with all these things with inflation. There's at least that many people who got money. Yeah and so what's happened is these people who have all this equity in their home don't want to sell because they can't afford to get more house because the interest rates are high. So everybody's hoarding their equity. They're because they can't afford to get more house because the interest rates are high. So everybody's hoarding their equity. They're like, I can't, like typically what would happen is so people, if we had like 3% housing right now, which by the way, you see a bunch of houses on the

market, people would be flipping theirs and getting into bigger houses and upgrading their house. But because we increase interest rates, everybody who's got these houses and they would potentially like to go to a nicer house, they can't get a nicer house because the interest rate has gone from 3% up to 7.5%. So they sell their $2 million home in hopes that they're going to get into a $2.5 million home, but they can't. They can actually only afford a $1.7 million home. So they actually would have to downgrade. No one's going to do that. No one's going to sell their house to go downgrade. So you have them all holding onto it. So it's keeping inventory really low which is propping up all the prices and the mass exodus is sort of fizzled out, right? Like in terms of everybody in the state, right? Yeah, so you're left with the people that are just like hunkering down

So yeah, I could see that the inventory is just gonna be low You ever communicate the prices of houses and shit out here to like family members? Well, I tell my I tell my family in Italy, you know? Cause my parents were over there, they just came back, but they were over there. And you know, I'll tell them like, oh you guys have been to my parents' house. My parents have like a middle class modest home

in San Jose, it's not like a rich area or whatever, just a regular south San Jose house. I'm like, oh that's like, you know, almost two million dollars to buy that house, what? Yeah, almost two million dollars. No, I'm like, oh, that's like, almost two million dollars to buy that house, what? Yeah, almost two million dollars. No, I'm like, yeah, yeah, dude. So, it's just that house right there. Crazy.

I know, I know, it's so wild. Anyway, I'm gonna take a left turn. I read the coolest, so Crate Team, which we talk about all the time on the podcast, for the last nine years, in fact, I think we were one of the first people in our space to communicate how Crate Team is just across the board. The supplements, it's our number one.

It's a beneficial supplement across the board. Whether you want to burn body fat, build muscle, improve cognitive function, improve your health, improve the health of your organs, increase longevity. Okay, by the way, creatine is easily the most studied ergogenic supplements. There's thousands of double-blind placebo-controlled studies on creatine, okay?

It's incredible. Another study came out, you guys are gonna love this one. Typically when you take creatine, in order to reap the benefits, right, you would take it and you would start to see the effects after a couple weeks. You wait for ATP levels to build would start to see the effects, you know after a couple weeks you wait for You know ATP levels to build up and rise in the body. Then you start to see the effects etc.

Said well this study came out. This is wild newly published data shows that a single high dose of creatine one one high dose of creatine improves cognitive performance and processing speed during sleep deprivation. So if you're exhausted and you're tired, oh my God, whatever. Interesting. Instead of caffeine.

Immediately? Is it within? They said the peak effects occur at four hours post dose. Wow. And the effects last as long as nine hours. Here's what they saw. Improved memory, faster processing speed, stabilizing brain pH levels,

and the changes in brain energy metabolism, which was good. So, and this is because. What a cool little hack now. Yes. When you have a rough night of sleep to do like a little mega dose of creatine. Yeah.

Interesting. I would've thought of that. I'd hella wanna try that. And now remember, here's why it's such an incredible supplement. ATP is one of the main sources of energy of your cells. I think every cell, if I'm not mistaken, utilizes ATP. Creatine, your body takes creatine,

which is found in meat, right? In animal sources typically where you find creatine. Chicken, fish, beef, eggs. I think some dairy will find creatine, chicken, fish, beef, eggs, I think some dairy will have creatine in it, or has some dairy I should say. So you'll get it from natural sources, but what your body does with creatine is it turns it into ATP.

And most of us don't consume enough creatine to maximize the ATP that we have in our body. In fact, to do so you'd have to eat a lot, a lot of meat. So supplementing with it provides you with all this extra ATP, and like I said, it's one of the most studied supplements. So it's been around now and been studied for over two decades, okay, lots and lots of studies.

And they found it to be not just great for performance and muscle building, but it's healthy. It's healthy to have more ATP because all of your cells operate better, including the cells of your brain. So how wild is that? That's cool. It is wild.

Isn't that great? Is that new, brand new? That's new data. That's coming out. So like you, you know, it's almost like for the average person, if you don't want a supplement with creatine all the time, you gotta go do a big presentation, a meeting,

you gotta study, you know, the day before, take a bunch of kratene, and you'll probably do better. It's come such a far way since being this like potentially banned performance enhancement supplement. I remember that. Like I remember that when I was in football and they were like, we had this big talk about it, and they were very concerned, you know, that it was gonna.

I remember, so when I was in high school, like cell tech was the thing, right? And we used to take, you know, just tubs of that. Which is, by the way, that it was good. I remember. So when I wasn't, so when I was in high school, like cell tech was the thing, right? And we used to take, you know, just tubs of that, which is by the way, that was creatine plus sugar. You are sure. Yeah. And I remember that the big scare back then was that it doesn't, your body doesn't like break it down or digest it. So just sits up in your, it builds up in your stomach. And so, yeah, yeah, that was like, so it was just like huge fear that like, it was just like all this creature. It was like someone building up in my gut. Yeah. And my body wasn't utilizing all of it. I remember that there was a lot of people. I'll tell you what, this is where like, you know, I believe in,

I think God was looking out for me early on. Obviously I did a lot of things. I went healthy through my years of, of, of, of strength training and fitness, taking every supplement, over the counter designer steroids at one point. Just force feeding myself, just terrible unhealthy things. But one thing I did right was I started taking creatine at 16 years old. It was phosphagen by EAS, remember that?

They were the first ones, by the way. Phosphagen HP. Well that was when they added the sugar. But I got the plain old phosphagen. And back in those days, so this was, let's see, 16, so I was probably, it was 1995 maybe, 94, 95, a small like 100 gram bottle of it. So expensive.

Okay, it was 40 bucks back then. Yeah. So I was a 16 year old kid and I washed dishes and I worked and I saved up my money and I'd buy. And it was the first time, I remember, it was the first time I took a supplement and I remember reading it and I took everything. So I was like, whatever, bought it, took it.

And I was like, oh my God, this works. Oh my God, I'm stronger, what's going on here? I remember that too. I remember that was like why they got all my money was because I remember, because all I did was bicep curls and tricep pushdowns all the time. And I was curling like five pound heavier dumbbells, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, it was very. Yeah, within a week. I got two extra reps and bench. I was just like, wow, this is crazy. That's about right. It's about five pounds, two extra reps, all your lifts within a week or so, is what you'll notice.

But what I was gonna say, the reason why I'm like, oh, you know, God was looking out for me, is since I was 16 till today, I've never stopped taking creatine, never. I never went on a break, I never did, I never cycled it, people said whatever. Later on you find out it's like good for you. It's like a great longevity supplement, dude.

So I might have like helped offset some of the other shit that I did in my life. Never taken creatine this entire time. So I might have like helped offset some of the other shit I saw he's looking out for you. I saw some other good interesting stats today. So there was this top five Countries in the world for citizens like citizen gun ownership Okay, so they put in the top five countries. Obviously number one is America. Okay, we're gonna crush everyone with that. Right, but so I was looking at this top five list and the country's in it. So like it was like, I think Iraq was in there and I don't remember all the countries that were in there. There were some Eastern Bloc countries and they were averaging, I think second place was 35 guns per person no no

per 100 People was like 35 per I wrote down the state for America. We're more than one So so it was like 35 one man fifth place was 30 guns per 100 You know fourth place was like 32 and the second place got up to 35 per 100 America is 120 guns per 100 people. Dude. Yeah. Wow. Wow.

Bam. But the title of the article that came in was, you know, America has got to be one of the hardest countries to invade because of that. That's actually true. I mean, think of how scary that is if you were really considering that. You have the longest insurgency in the history of the world. I mean, think of how scary that is if you were really considering that. You have the longest in-

You're like, odds are every person I see is gonna have at least one gun. Yeah, I mean, or there's definitely people out there with 50 that'd be handing them out. I mean, like I said, if you tried to invade this country, not only would it be tough because of our location, but it would be the most bloody occupation and it would never stop.

You would just be fighting guerrillas for the rest forever, for decades, because so many Americans, and we don't just own guns. By the way, when you look at those other countries, they're like regular rifles and whatever. Like these southern states, man. You ever been to Texas or Nevada? Or Arkansas or whatever, like They got some crazy shit.

Military grade stuff. I know, right? I tell you, you know, it's funny. I don't know if this is like the getting older dad thing of me. Like, I was just talking to Katrina, like how much I really love our neighborhood, right? And like my neighbor's like stacked up with guns.

Like, and he's always home. He gets home every day. Like he's a garbage man and he's home by like noon. So you just feel safe. Yeah, I do. And's always in his front yard number. Yeah, of course Yeah, we talk all the time was outside talking to him for like two hours last night. Like it was so I'd love him He's like the mayor of our little our little neighborhood and he's got two other family members that have moved in there live there that Live around the corner and he knows every single neighbor's name like so the so the other- We should make your house the meeting point for a freaking apocalypse thing.

I can't tell you how much I care about this. And I don't know if it's the old thing, I don't know if it's the dad thing, I don't know. And maybe I just didn't think about these things when you're younger, but having that community vibe and feel. Of course, of course. And I feel like a lot of California misses that. And so having that in the Bay Area is rare, I feel like.

And so I really feel like we have this. So I don't know if I told you this the other day, so the car wash guys are at my house, they're washing one of the cars. And he- Did you tell, I think you might've, did he tell us this stuff? I came out, I didn't talk about it on the podcast.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I came out, I came out, and I tell, or I come walking out, and a team goes, hey, I told your car wash guys, keep an eye. And he tells me, he's like, some car, they drove by. And then they went down, they parked down over here near in front of my house. The guy walked out and he goes, it's not a car

that's friends of any of ours. I don't recognize it. So I called Tom across the way and told him to look out, send him a picture of it, this and that. And so then I got on my camera system. I saw the cars, I froze it, took a picture of it. I said, is this the car you're talking about? He goes, yeah, that was them.

And he describes what they look like, sends it to the Facebook group. Facebook groups it, everybody starts. I'm like, damn, dude, this is like the whole neighborhood just out watching for it now. I'm like, that's a- You'll love it until you get a fight with your wife or something outside. Watch.

Then everybody's like, no. Did you know what happened? The whole neighborhood. Adam was yelling. Oh, man, I do. I really, really, really, I like that. I didn't realize how much. Of course you got kids, bro.

You wanna feel community. But you know what, besides that, I think it feels good anyway to know the people you live around. It's so rare to get out for each other. You know what though? I feel like I have to work on me because I had a condo before that,

and we didn't really talk to our neighbors before the house before that. And so I've trained myself to be an awful California neighbor. Where I could easily. Well you're also, you and I are similar in the sense that you and I are both extrovert introverts. Sometimes extrovert, a lot of times introvert. You don't wanna, you just wanna be wild.

You know, you're right. When I get home, I tend to be, you know, to myself. To myself. And so, and I'm aware of that. And so I'm trying to be better. Like part of me talking to them last night was they're always him and like, he was, I came out, I had come back from a drive and the neighbor

I'm talking about was across the street in two houses over working out in my other neighbor's yard. And the day before that, the other neighbor was over in his yard helping him with rocks and so they're always like, and so I was like, you know what, and they're outside right in front of my house and they're talking and they're having a beer or something like that. And I'm like, I would have just walked in the garage and like, you know what, I need to walk over there and go stand. And we ended up talking for like an hour and a half, two hours, what about that? But I have to actively do that,

and I'm trying to be better about being that neighbor too, because I really like it. Yeah, I appreciate it, but it actually takes effort. Like I have to. Yeah, you know, we did, when we moved over where we're at, is we actually went to our neighbors and rang the doorbell and introduced ourselves. Hey, we just moved in over here,

we got this many kids, nice to meet you. And it was a great thing that we did that because now the people, when we see them, we say hi, we initiated it. We try to stop and talk to people. You're right, it takes effort. Because my nature is to just, oh fuck, someone's outside. I'll stay inside.

Oh no, I'm with you guys. I've gotten a little bit worse over the years of going from place to place. I was very embedded in community at my first place. The second place was like, I was like, ah, no neighbors immediately on top of me. This is amazing. And then you kind of do miss that.

And so we take our trash cans. We have to take it all the way to the top of the hill. And so we kept doing that over and over again. And then eventually, the neighbors would be outside. So we stop to take it all the way to the top of the hill. And so, you know, we kept doing that over and over again, and then eventually, like, the neighbors would be outside. So we stop and take our time, we'll chat with them. But now it's like at that point where, you know, we're looking out for their house when they're gone, or like they're looking out for ours now.

And it's like, it's so much better to do that. And like, you know, really like... Relationships. Make it happen. Everybody knows this, with like a marriage, right? They take work, right? Friendships take work, partnerships take work, all relationships take work, including the ones

with the people that are around you or whatever, meaning you gotta put, like nobody's just gonna come up to you and just start laughing. And if you put off the energy that you don't want to be talked to, you're not gonna be talked to. But it's so rewarding because, like I said, my nature when I get home is I don't wanna talk to anybody outside.

I wanna be alone, whatever. But when I make the effort and I do it, it's always so rewarding. I always feel so fulfilled from doing it. It is, it's funny how we can get trained though to be the other way. Because by nature I would think I'm a friendly person, but you're right. Like I've trained myself to just kind of be in my own thing for so long,

but yet I appreciate and value that so much. And I'm, you know, it's, I've been interested in, I've, and I have shared this in the podcast. Also, I told you my sister who moved to Texas, uh, and she's so far away. It's so, it's so sad. I don't get to see her that often, but I'm also very happy for her cause I see every week, like I see on her that often, but I'm also very happy for her because I see every week, like I see on her Instagram stories, every Friday, Saturday, I mean the whole neighborhood is in somebody's yard.

I mean there's like 30 people, lawn chairs out, grillin' like two, three grills are goin' and so every single week over there in Texas. It's like that. It's so funny that we're talking about this. So you know what I started doing, which I never thought in a billion years I would do? You guys know how I am when I work out in a gym. Don't talk to me.

And to have a mean face on top of it because I'm working out and I want to be not approachable. Okay? But I've changed that now. Now I go to the gym in the morning. The staff there knows me. We've had them come in here. When we did our trainer course, we had some come in

and my really good friend My first mentor is one of the the leaders of UFC gyms. So I know him again So I go in say hi, whatever and so little by little the the members there would say hi and I'll talk to them You know what I do now. I'll cut my workout short now to have a conversation I use I would never do that in million years if I'm doing a workout and you're talking, I've done this before too, while someone's talking mid-conversation, I gotta go finish my set and I'll leave. Now it's like I'll see someone, if they say hi,

and I'll just talk with them. And you know what, I get more out of it. I actually get more out of it. Talk about shifting your focus on health because we talk about this all the time. For me this is necessary. Some of you need to just work out. You're not, you're not.

Let me be clear. Some of you need to stop this all the time. For me this is necessary. Right. Some of you need to just work out. You're not, you're not. Let me be clear. Some of you need to stop talking in the gym. I'm the other guy. Get to work. I'm the guy that needs to work out. No, you're right. You can get away with missing some workouts

to build relationships and community. And so I think that's awesome. I think it's great awareness that you know that about yourself. And hey, that's something that an area of self. Speaking of which, one of the front desk people was talking about how they notice when they go into deficit how their skin starts to look not as good.

And they're like, is it because I'm leaner? Is it because I'm losing body fat? And I said, no. I said, are you tracking your protein? And they're like, well, not really. I just kind of cut calories. And I said, you know protein, amino acids are what make up proteins. Those are the building blocks of collagen. Those are the building blocks of your skin as well. And if you cut your calories, your protein is probably low

anyway if you weren't tracking. So it got even lower. And so you're noticing changes in your skin. I said, number one, the best thing you could do is hit your protein targets in a deficit. But if you find that too difficult, supplement with protein powder, and then if you want the one that's best for skin, then do collagen or bone broth protein. So I'll let you guys know what the report is

after a few weeks of doing this. But for sure, if they take my advice, they're gonna notice improvements in the skin. And the data on collagen protein, by the way, shows it very clearly improves the health of people's skin. But that's because people don't eat enough protein and they supplement collagen protein, it makes a big difference.

That being said, whey protein wouldn't do that in that particular context. Now if your protein's really high, it doesn't matter. But in the context of below the upper limit, then the collagen protein makes a difference. So I did talk to them about the bone broth from K. Willow Valley.

Chocodonics. Yeah, I was gonna say, Courtney's big initiative is to really increase her daily protein intake, and she's found that collagen and the bone broth way easier for her to digest. Oh, it's the easiest digesting protein. Yeah, she's had our time with whey. And so that was something that I had to consider.

So I had her try the Paleo Valley Virgin. She really likes it. Is that the primary reason why some people who are big runners, why their skin looks so unhealthy? Is that why? Part of it, the oxidative damage. I think the protein intake is too low. So it's a combination of those things probably.

You wanna know what's funny? That is common sometimes. You see somebody who is thin, they don't have a lot of fat on them, so quote unquote healthy, but then they don't look healthy and it's because they run a lot like crazy and it's not necessarily the running that does it. Well, did you know that they actually,

I brought this up a long time ago on a podcast. One form of exercise has been shown to dramatically improve skin health and quality. In studies, real studies, strength training. Other forms of exercise have not shown this effect. Now the reason why this happens is when you lift weights or you do strength training. Build muscle, better glycogen stores.

Well not just that, it's not even that. You are sending a total body, like if I just train, not even that, if I just train my left leg, it will definitely get a lot bigger and stronger than my right, but my right will also build a little bit. Or, to put it differently, if I work out my legs, most of the gains will go to my legs, but I'll still gain some in my upper body, and vice versa.

Studies have shown this, where people will, like they'll put people in a cast in one arm, and they'll take a group and have them work out the other arm. And then they call it the irradiation effect, or it's not the same thing. It's not the same thing, I don't remember what the term was, but in this study, the people with the cast,

they'll have a group of them work out the other arm, the other group just leave both arms alone. The group that works their arm, works out the other arm, loses less muscle in the arm that was casted up. There is this systemic effect that also happens. Most of the effect with strength training is localized. I work out my bicep, most of it goes to the bicep. Or I just work out my legs, most of it goes to my legs.

But there is this systemic effect that's a much smaller effect that goes to the rest of the body when it comes to protein synthesis. Remember, protein synthesis is when your body's taking protein, turning it into new tissue. So strength training doesn't just build muscle, it actually sends a very low signal for all protein synthesis, which includes

hair, nails, and skin. And that's why the data shows strength training makes your skin look better, where other forms of exercise, not necessarily. Pretty cool, right? Yeah. Pretty lift weights. I love that.

Oh, speaking of our partners, I have a family member that's, they're going through some tough stuff right now, tough medical stuff. I sent them the sleep blend from Ned. I'll give you guys update on what's going on. You guys know. Yeah, I just had I just had Jerry mail it out yesterday So I'll let you guys know because that's the sleep bank of all the sleep supplements we have. That's the nuke It's a great intervention

It's it's something I have to do if I'm caught in that loop where it's been just like a few days And I haven't caught up yet, you know, I'll try to intervene with with the sleep It's just like it's so effective knocks you out It's like a new fresh you're going to fresh. Yeah What what is the blend of everything that's in it? There's valerian root in there There's cannabinoids that I think CBG is one of them that is known to induce like relaxation and sedation. Yeah. Plus CBD which has some calming effects as well. But it also has herbals like I said like valerian root which

have been shown to help you sleep. So it's like this this combination including the cannabinoids that sedate you. Chamomile in it or no? Oh, I don't know if it can. Because I feel like if it doesn't, that's like a great. Doug, look it up. It's got MCT oil, oat straw, lemon balm, passion flowers, cold cap, full spectrum hemp, and CBN. Oh, passion flowers in there as well. Passion flower.

No gabba in there. CBN, I messed up. It's CBN. CBN knocks you out. So have that, sip on a little bit of camomile with it too and be real nice. You know, camomile's a natural sedative that's so safe. In Europe for years, they've given it to children to help them sleep better. Yeah, I've seen some kids' medication with it

in there before. Even like supplements? Yeah, yeah. And Katrina's a big tea drinker. When we first got together, I mean still today she is this way. And she's the one that got me in the house and she's the one that talks to me.

And I'm like, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not. Um, and I, you know, that's Katrina is a big tea drinker. Uh, when we, when we first got to, I mean, still today she is this way and uh, she's the one that got me in the habit of like using chamomile like that. And I love it's actually, I really like it. It's, it tastes good. And then like if I really need to up it and then I can use, so I got years ago, I had, um, like heart palpitations that were kind of happening, couldn't figure out what was going on, wasn't dehydrated or whatever, I think it was stress. We were moving at the time doing some stuff.

And I actually had a doctor client who was really progressive when it came to health. And they're like, start drinking chamomile three times a day. Oh, three times even? Three times a day. I had chamomile tea in the morning, afternoon, evening. It's mild, so it's not gonna make me sleepy.

No, no, yeah, it's not like that. It actually is more like a calming effect. It's not like a sedative. Bro, remember now, evening. It's mild, so it's not gonna make me sleep. You think so? No, no, yeah, it's not like that. It actually is more like a calming effect. It's not like a sedative. Bro, remember now, my heart palpitation, at this point I had worn a halter monitor, they had checked me, like I was kinda freaked out. They're like, okay, it's nothing dangerous, but we could put you on a beta blocker

if it's really bothering you, and I'm like, I don't wanna do that. They did the camomile, within three days it was gone. That's why I think the natural stuff sometimes is so much better than taking something heavy with melatonin or something that kind of knocks you out versus something that's just real mild that mitigates. Seems so groggy the next day too.

Yeah, and a lot of times that's all it is for me is I just need to calm my brain down a little bit and calm down. Less about like, oh I need something heavy to knock me out, I just need something to kind of calm me down. I feel like the CBD products are like that. Yeah, dude, I gotta tell you, I did a post that, I do this every year, right around this time of year,

for us, that just gets people so mad when I bring it up. But you can't argue it because it's true. Okay. And I know I'm gonna trigger you guys a little bit too, because we all hate this topic, but I'll bring it up anyway. Yay. So what makes theft theft? Let's just it up anyway. So what makes theft theft?

Let's just start there. Like what makes stealing stealing? Like if you came up to me and you're like, Sal, give me your taxes. Yes, of course. Thanks for ruining the punch line. Yeah. He's like, that's because you hijacked my transition

the other day. Yeah. Just joke-bought. Yeah. It's happened to me so many times. You take my transitions, I'm gonna get your punch lines. Exactly, no, it's payback. All right, fine.

No, but seriously, if you came up to me, Justin, and said, can I have your phone? And I said, yeah. Is that stealing? No. If you came up to me and said, hey, give me your phone, and I'm like, nah, and you're like, well, if you don't, then I'm going to eventually throw you in a cage,

leave you in there. Lock it up. Yeah, and then I give you my phone, is in a cage and leave you in there. Lock it up. Yeah, and then I give you my phone, is that theft? Yes, that's theft. So I make that point, and boy do people hate it. We all, what do they say? What do they call it, like a societal? Yeah, we benefit from all the other, all these.

No, no, no, what is it called, like a document? Or we all live in society and we're all part of this agreement. I'm like, I didn't sign no contract. Social agreement. Social agreement. Yeah I didn't sign it. I don't know about you guys. And then I hear this is what really pisses people off. This is a fun one. This is what really pisses me off because then I'll get those comments and then I know like okay I'm gonna get this person really spun. I'll say okay if I came to you and I said you're're gonna work for me, and if you don't work for me,

I'm gonna throw you in jail, and I force you to work for me, does that, would that be considered slavery? Like, would that be the definition of slavery in the world? And they're like, well, yeah. Like, well, you know, four, five months out of the year, most Americans are not working for themselves. That's not the same thing, bro. I mean, technically it is, you know?

That really pisses me off. That's the same thing, bro. I mean, technically it is, you know? That really pisses me off. What country do you think has taxation done the best? Oh, man. Who does taxes the best, in your opinion? That's a good question. Hong Kong, for a long time,

Still be Argentina now? Did a really good job. Oh, Argentina still, I mean, they're working, they're still working on it. Yeah. Hong Kong did a really good job. You know, they were a third world country and within a very short period of time

became an economic powerhouse with no natural resources except for a harbor. And what they did is they made it so that you could go there and conduct business. They had low regulations, low taxes, and they just, business exploded and people worked together. They just crushed and became this complete powerhouse.

I don't know what their taxes look like now, but. Yeah, you know. Doesn't Dubai have low taxes? Don't they have? Yeah, low taxes. Yeah. I mean, obviously, everything you're bringing up is really irritating.

But on top of that, I think what irritates me the most is like, okay, well, I mean, I could be all right in getting on board, per se. If it's like, there's accountability, there's pure like transparency with where that money goes. And it's like, I voted and had a say where it ended up. And like, I was like, okay, this is doing good for the community. Like the community that I live in, but also community within the country that I'm a part of. I cannot say that. No, like you mean like the billions that California spent on homeless funding, that they can't now wars and, you know, just like, you know, funding other people's pockets that

like just, we're just not going to account for it. Like's pockets that like, we're just not gonna account for it. Like, trillions of dollars, we're just not gonna account for it, you guys. Nobody's like, nobody's getting pissed off about that. People don't know that they come out with reports all the time and they say, we don't, literally, we don't know where this $50 billion was. If you ran any other business, like anything you're doing,

and you don't have that kind of accountability or transparency like it would be destroyed. Of course. Well if you ran a business that where you could literally force people to give you their money then would it matter? Well that's I mean I just accepted a long time ago that the government's the biggest gangsters of all. The biggest mafia there is. Yeah yeah it is what it is. No matter how you draw it up it's like they don't even care it's like it's like there's no excuse there there's no like, oh well, we're actually gonna do this with it. So I don't even care about it.

I like consumption taxes. No, I'm gonna be clear, I'm not an anarcho-capitalist. I think, I don't know how you could run a society without some type of, and I'm gonna piss off for my hardcore libertarian fans or whatever. Yeah, I don't know how that would work. I've tried figuring that out. But I do like consumption taxes more.

I don't like, I think it's crazy to tax people on what they earn, but I understand taxing people on what they spend, so especially like expensive. You're gonna know that going into it. Yeah, like oh, you wanna buy a $300,000 car, that's taxed heavily. It's an expensive car, that's taxed heavily. It's an expensive car, that's taxed heavily. That makes sense.

Instead of like, oh. You're gonna be, the more money you make, we're gonna tax you more for it, whether you spend it or not. You're just gonna get taxed more. Anyway, I know you love this topic. Thanks. No, it's painful.

And it's painful this time of the year, always, no matter how you do it. And it's ridiculous the way we do it, but it is what it is. I mean, I just accepted, which is probably why I flirted with the gangster side for so long. They're going to be gangster. I'm going to be gangster. We're going to figure this out.

You know what I'm saying? Like you versus me type of deal. I feel like there's the other thing that's not fair either to the average person is that, and I felt like I've learned this in my journey is it really, it benefits a very small percentage of people that can afford to pay for these super, super expensive CPAs. Oh, you mean the tax code? Yeah. Oh yeah, bro. Yeah, the tax code. It's so complicated.

Yeah, they make it so complicated and they make it so far out of reach for the average person So if you fall in like middle class You can't afford to pay the CPA and the accountants and the bookkeepers and the lawyers to structure you in a way That you can play the game So it's not fair that you can't you can't play the game the same way the guy who has Millions of dollars can play the game which that's the part that I think is really that's really

fucked up because the truth is there's plenty of people out there that have found loopholes to not pay a lot of taxes and there's ways around it and ways of doing it for sure but that are legal yeah that are legal that are not illegal they're totally legal to play I mean we example is Trump and how we've seen him do that and there's plenty of plenty of people, he's not an anomaly. There's lots of them that are that way. And, but they make it so unaccessible for the average person.

I mean, just to get a CPA lawyer accountant that you need to basically put all those pieces together, that would be most of someone's salary. Weren't you the one that came up with the idea a long time ago where, okay, you have to pay this much money in taxes, now here's your categories where you can put the money, and then you choose. I would love that.

You know how quickly war would get defunded? I know, exactly. You know how quickly? I know. And I don't think it would be that difficult. And then it would also make all those entities have to really campaign and fight for your dollars and prove to you that they're worth it and they're valuable and sell you on, you know, because here we give

our 10% flat rate, right? So I'm fair with that, right? We need roads, we need some basic shit that's like, I don't know how that needs to get done. Military, right? Yeah, whatever. Here's your 10% and take that. And then the other 25% of my taxes, I can allocate in areas that I think we need improvement or I think like, and you get to choose. I want all of it to go here in schools, because I think our education needs way more help and our future is important. So I'm going to put all mine there. And maybe you're like, maybe military defense guys. So you go, it's like,

I think that would be a better way to do things. I just, I think the way we do it is terrible. I don't, but I don't know an example of a country, I'm not definitely not the history guy here, of like who has done it the best the last 50 years as an example of like, oh look at, look at their country and how it's ran, right? Hong Kong is your best example. You were the tax guy before. Yeah, but I don't know what country has done a good job. You know what, you know you do is, here's the best way to do it, in my opinion. Look at the different state, because there's state taxes as well,

so federal taxes across the board. Look at the different states and look at their tax codes and how well they've done when it comes to unemployment, when it comes to business creation, because of course regulations are in there. When it comes to safety, when it comes to all those different things. How well everybody's thriving in that community.

And then what you do is you don't go one country, excuse me, one state against one state, is you aggregate them and then you make categories. Okay, so these states that are on the lower end versus these states are on the upper end. You know what's funny about that, Sal? And then you compare them and I think you'll see. You know what's funny about that, Sal,

is that in itself is kind of like what I, states, they have, if you're a state, especially if you're in the middle of the country, because I don't know if you've ever seen that, have you guys ever seen the stats on like the percentage of people that live? Like if you look at like- Oh, it's the coast.

The coast is like 80% of the- It's very sparse in the middle of the- 80% of the entire population is like the two coasts, and then like everybody else is distributed amongst the other like, you know, 40 or 30 something is like the two coasts. And then everybody else is distributed amongst the other 40 or 30-something states in the middle or whatever. And those ones in the middle really have to fight for people to want to live in their state.

So because they have to do that, they offer all these great deals for companies like, oh, come build your warehouse in our, we'll give you no, so they have to fight for people to come live with them. And so it makes it competitive. It makes them set great tax codes for, but California, New York, all these coasts,

everybody wants to live there because it's a great location to live. And so they have- We can just hammer you. So yeah, they can screw people and they can get away with it because at the end of the day, people wanna live near water and sunshine.

And those things. And it is beautiful around here. Yeah, no, it's the one thing we got going on. Totally. All right, so today's shout out is our newsletter. We have a newsletter, it's great content. It's not just a recap, but actually educational and entertaining on its own.

It's at mindpumpmedia.com forward slash newsletter. Sign up, it's free, it's great. Z-Biotics is a genetically modified probiotic drink. In other words, you can't find this particular formula anywhere else in the world that breaks down acetaldehyde in the gut. Now why is that important? When you drink alcohol, some of the acetaldehyde from the alcohol gets in the gut and then you absorb it from there and it makes you feel like garbage. It makes you feel like

crap. So here's what you do. You drink Z-biotics, then you drink with your friends. Enjoy yourself and then the next day you feel much better There is no product product like this on the market go check them out go to Zee Biotics calm that Zee B I o t ICS calm forward slash mind pump to four and the code mind pump to four will get you 15% off first-time purchasers Alright here comes the show. Our first caller is Liz from Illinois. Hi Liz, how can we help you?

Hi, good, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Yeah, let me just jump right into my question because I kind of have some limited time here at my work conference. All right. So early on in March, I was doing the pre-phase of anabolic when during one of my last reps of my squats, I had felt my knee pop and then I had instant pain from that.

And that pain is just kind of right below the kneecap. I took two to three weeks off from squatting because I didn't want any lingering injury. And when I felt better, I tried to squat again. Same thing happened. Again, took two weeks off, made sure I primed the best I could, did body squats to ensure there wasn't any pain, Same thing happened. Again, took two weeks off, made sure I primed the best I could,

did body squats to ensure there wasn't any pain. Ice, I have a TENS unit at home, so I used that. And then when I actually put weight back on the bar, the same popping sensation happened, only it was much worse, and I now have like visible swelling and more chronic pain. I even tried to make sure I went lighter on my squat than I typically would,

just because I wanted to ensure I could do it, but clearly I couldn't. I'm just frustrated as I'm not new to lifting and I'm a college, was a college athlete. I ran maps beginner, anabolic and performance and saw significant improvement with my strength. And I really had some big goals when I ran anabolic the second time and I want to continue to continue those gains and growing my glutes. Um, I've tried to do some leg exercises that haven't seemed to bother me any, like RDLs, um, box squats, but I wasn't sure like, should I be doing any type of squatting?

Are there other leg alternative exercises I could be doing instead of my spots? Um, just kind of what, what direction should I go in terms of this injury because I don't want to stop lifting. Like I'm actually probably not going to stop lifting, but I need to kind of know where to go from here. So it's hard to give you advice without a diagnosis. Have you had a doctor look at this to ensure that it's not a tear or? I have not.

I happen to work in a long-term care facility And so I had the PT there look at it and they had one of two things that either thought I might've like slightly tore my patellar tendon or a meniscus. Yeah, that's what I was going to guess. I would've guessed either one. The swelling is what concerns me. Yeah. That the swelling would make me think, Oh, we might actually have an injury. Uh, but sometimes the patellar tendon, uh, it can move in funny ways.

You know, you've got people with like Oskard slaughter, which is like a raised. Yeah. Sometimes the patella tendon, it can move in funny ways. You got people with like Oschgerdschlatterer, which is like a raised tendon. Yeah, I have that on my left knee. You do, okay. And then, so this is on my right knee. Now, when you, do you feel the pain when you walk or do anything else? When I'm walking, the pain is more like

I'm at two or three, it's very minimal. Like I know it's there, but it's not hindering my step or alternating my gait or anything like that. When you twist, when the PT tested you, did they try twisting your leg one way or another to see if there was pain there? No, they didn't. It was just more describing the pain.

And then I have like that point tenderness kind of, kind of where my osc with ladder is on my left knee. I almost have the same tenderness location on my right knee. Okay, well, you could try this. Next time you do something that kind of bothers it, do a long static stretch of the quad. That tends to make a big difference for people with patellar tendon pain and tightness.

The second thing I would say is, you could definitely switch out squats with box squats. That's a great replacement. Yeah, that's a good alternative. Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was worth it because it's not a full range of motion, but that's like when I have the most pain is when I would go down into like the full range of motion squat

and that's when like it would happen. That's okay. In this case, this is where we would modify like that. That's why there's always exceptions to the rule and because we're dealing with something like this, I think that adding like hip thrust, things, movements like that would probably feel good. And when you do, when you say full range of motion,

what do you mean? How deep are you going? I wouldn't say quite like, astrographs, like you guys have said, but I'm definitely going past 90 degrees. Okay, so I would not go that, so you wanna train within the range of motion that you feel good in, And then slowly, incrementally increase

that range of motion while going lighter. What you don't wanna do, cause there's range of motion that you have strength and stability in, and then there's just range of motion. Then you just have range of motion. And oftentimes, oftentimes we have a greater range of motion than we actually control.

So you have to train within the range of motion that you feel good in. So that might be a box squat or a parallel squat. And then slowly, incrementally, you go down maybe a quarter of an inch lower, and you pause at the bottom, and you go lighter. That's how you progress yourself to full range of motion squats.

Because sometimes what people do, they push the full range of motion squat, and it's that bottom part, especially when you change directions. If you have 100 pounds on your back and you squat down, that change of direction, there's a microsecond there where the weight is more than 100 pounds because you're stopping momentum.

So you're stopping momentum and having to reverse and if you don't have the stability at that deep position, then sometimes you can cause problems. So train within the range of motion you know that you own, and then incrementally, very, very slowly, with tiny, tiny changes, you can increase that range of motion. But I would start with a really long, static quad,

like it's good old-fashioned quad stretch, like we did in high school, and test yourself out with something that, yeah, you kind of feel it like walking or something like that. Or when you start to feel pain, do the static stretch, hold it for 30 seconds to a minute, then relax your leg and then walk again and see if the pain is much better. If it's much better, we're probably dealing with some tightness, uh,

in the patellar tendon, which is, it's probably not a tear is what I'm trying to say. Okay. Yeah. Okay, yeah. I think Justin, you had mentioned box squats or I can't remember which one had mentioned hip thrusters. I mean, when I do hip thrusters, I have a ton of, I cannot figure out how to connect to my glutes in that way. And so I try to avoid doing them

because it puts immediate strain on my lower back. I wasn't sure, like I would be more than willing to try hip thrust, but as like an alternative for my legs, but I don't know how to do that without throwing out my lower back. You're stabilizing your body by arching your backs. What's happening? We have a video. Is it the one you did, Adam, where you showed people how to back, low back press first? Maybe Andrew can look up what that video is called. I think it was grow your glutes. It

was like the glute video I did. And then I'd go into, so what you need to do before you go into the thrust is actually press your low back flat into the ground. And so what's happening- It's almost like you're tucking your tailbone. Yeah, that's an exercise on its own first. Yeah, so like you get in that position.

This is with no weight too, just, and we should practice this with no weight at first till we get really good at it. And that's just laying on the floor with your back flat, your knees bent at 45 degrees, and then before you lift your butt off the ground, you actually press the low back flat really hard. So you press it against it and what you'll realize when you do that, it's going to take the hips, it's going to slightly rotate the hips and it's going to engage your abs and core. Then the goal is to, can you lift your hips and maintain them in that neutral position

and then squeeze your butt at the top? Isometrically hold that for an extended amount of time to until we really can feel that connection grow between your mind and muscle there. And honestly, even if we don't like eventually load that, like so let's, I would actually have you do that before you do any of your leg exercises. Just be a good thing to practice.

Because you want to learn to engage your glutes and all these leg dominance. Body weight, no way. Yeah, just your body and prime it. Do two sets of it for 10 reps and every time at the top, pause, squeeze your butt, hold it there, come back down, reset, flatten your back again, get in that position, abs are tight, lift up, squeeze your butt at the top, hold it for like three seconds, and just do 10 reps like that, two sets before any of your leg exercises you start your workout, that'll be good for you.

Okay, yeah, because even when you're describing that exercise, I'm like, oh, I think I'll actually probably have a hard time with that. I don't know, like I was a pitcher in college for softball, and I don't know. Like I really think I have an imbalance in my hips because my right leg was constantly in like the extension and then my left leg was constantly inflection. So yeah, even when you guys were describing that exercise, I'm like, Oh, that's going to be embarrassingly challenging for me. I think. So because you have practice at home, pray out exactly. That's just, it's highlights that we, it's something that when you find movements like that

Liz just if this makes you feel better when you find movements like that for yourself We're like wow that is gonna be very challenging for me. That's where the most Progress for the goal. That's where the gold lies. Yeah, like if you pick an exercise It's naturally good at you I mean, it's ones that you were not good at where you'll see just huge potential. I'm sure that's gonna contribute more to your squat too in terms of having a good bracing mechanism in place and avoiding a lot of the downstream effects

in your kinetic chain. So your knees may get some relief as well. The video's called, what's it, the three exercises? What does that say, Doug? You scroll down, can't see. Oh, I don't have it on. It was Andrew who did it. Andrew.

Three exercises is what you buy. Okay, we'll send you the link. Yeah, we'll send you that link over so you can watch. And pay attention to the cueing that I give in there. Okay, definitely, will do. All right, all right. But yeah, thank you. I think that was my only question,

but thank you guys so much. I mean, your podcast is pretty you. I think that was my only question, but thank you guys so much I mean your podcast is pretty much why I got back into lifting after college because I was definitely that person that just I've been told what to do and how to do it for ten years and I just That was enough for me. So I stopped everything and oh a year I got into podcast again by a friend who listens to Tara So shout out to her and just I, yeah, I've been super excited to get on this podcast. And so excited that you could answer my question.

Thank you so much, Liz. Appreciate that. Awesome. Thank you. Yep. All right, thanks guys. Thank you. Yeah.

Who'd you say, Tara? Who? Taryn? Tara? Yeah. Was that the friend that she called from? The friend, yeah. Oh, I thought she said that's who was on our podcast.

So that's how she found us. No. She introduced her. I, you know, it that's who was on our podcast, or that's how she found us. No. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I, you know, it's interesting. Have you worked with the people that raised hand in, Oshka and Schlatter, I think I'm saying it right, you know? It's like a static stretch, it's like really makes a big difference. That always reminded me of some G.I. Joe character

or something, Oshka and Schlatter. Well, that's because it runs and it inserts on the front of the patella, so if it's really, your quads are really tight, it's gonna be pulling. I mean, it just, it's, I mean runs and it inserts on the front of the patella. So if it's really your quads are really tight, it's going to be pulling. I mean, it just, it's, it's, I mean, and it, and it made a huge difference with the kids that I trained who had it and the clients that I had anytime people would feel now the swelling,

the swelling is like might've torn something. That was what concerned me when she said that multiple times and attempts. Yeah. So yeah, that, that makes me think, okay, you might've torn something. But otherwise like I've had people with that like, Oh my knee hurts. And they point to right here and we do some static stretching and then it's the other the other thing That is a that was like a flag for me was that you know The fact that she can't engage her glutes in a hip thrust But yeah, that makes me concerned about the the mechanics of the squat which we should probably pattern She's probably very quad quad heavy if you look at it at, it's funny too, if you look at,

which again, affects the ligaments. Yeah, and if you understand the biomechanics of a hip thrust, the low back should be minimally evolved. So you say, and people will say this, my low back is tight from hip thrust. Here's what's happening. Your low back is tensing up, trying to stabilize. You're arching your back while you're pressing,

and it's trying to stabilize while your glutes disengage. So yeah, you're gonna feel in your back. It's an easy fix though. Yep. Our next caller is Samantha from Arizona. Hi Samantha. Hello. Hello. How can we help you?

How you doing? I'm good. You know how everyone gets on here and they're always like, I'm gonna try not to fangirl whatever. I'm totally fangirling right now know, uh, fangirl whatever. I'm totally fangirling right now. So thank you guys for my questions.

Thank you. How can we help you? Um, I'm just going to read my question cause I tend to babble and I don't want to do that and take up too much of your time. So, um, my question, uh, I sent it in January. So how do I begin to reintroduce carbs back into my diet after years of eating a carnivore type diet? For reference, I'm a 34 year old mom of two

who has been obese since I was 15, when I moved to America. I've tried and failed every diet under the planet until going Ketobor. I dove headfirst into it when I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. With diabetes being such a huge issue within the Samoan community and running deep within my immediate family, it scared me straight.

I've kept my carb intake at about 10 to 20 carbs max daily, and this helped me lose 80 pounds over a year and a half. I was not a gym person. I just sort of worked out on and off a couple months at a time for the last Like six or seven years and mostly with group fitness and cardio Unfortunately, I didn't realize the importance of weight training until I discovered you guys last year I found your past your podcast last fall after watching one of Andy for Stella's 75 car challenge videos

one of Andy Frisella's 75 car challenge videos, which I had just started. Then after a few weeks of binge watching all things mind pump, I stopped that challenge and purchased Maps and a bullet. I started that program and started reverse diving in November. I started at 1350, which is super low, but 1350 calories a day and worked my way up to 2600 calories. My macros were as followed. Proteins 150, carbs 20, fat 160-ish. Oh my God, I'm shaking you guys. You're doing great. I've noticed increase in my significant increase in my strength, but I'm still not quite able to hit my PR that I had

Years ago before I was doing keto. I listened to enough of your podcast talking about the importance of carbs when it comes to performance So as anxious as I am to do it I decided to start incorporating carbs back into my diet because my goal is to be strong AF my diet because my goal is to be strong AF. My question at the time was should I slowly start adding carbs in or does it matter if I go from 20 carbs a day to 150 carbs tomorrow? Any specific carbs I should avoid when it comes to blood sugars? So again, I sent this email in January and have since started incorporating around 100 grams of carbs a day to my diet. I still don't eat bread, so all my carbs come from rice, potatoes, and fruit. I instantly noticed the increase in my strength, but the bloating was no joke. It's so bad that I started getting new

stretch marks like all over my stomach. I still trusted the process and kept at it for two months and then started my cut from 2800 to 2300 in April. And after six weeks into the cut, I gained almost four pounds. Am I an anomaly? Because I feel like this should be working, but it's not. Should I just stick to keto and hope and pray that I can get stronger without the carbs? I feel like carbs are just not meant for me. Oh, wow. Okay. I got some really good advice for you on all this. By the way, going keto for too long

can actually cause, over a period of time, some insulin issues as well. So now even the most ardent ketogenic advocates advocate for having some carbs once a week or so, because it actually can cause this kind of reverse issue over a long period of time. So that's why you see people who are on keto diets or carnivore for years and then start to slowly

back out of it because they start to notice these issues. But nonetheless, there's two things I think we need to look at with you. We gotta look at your gut health because you should not feel that kind of bloating with carbohydrate intake. That's not normal. Especially those carbohydrates.

It just, I mean, there's something going on with your gut health. I would go and get tested. You could work with our friends over at the Dr. Cabral place and they'll do some gut testing with you just to see if there's anything that you need to work on. That'll make a big difference. Number two, strength training's the best possible thing

you could do for blood sugar. And number three, I think you would benefit tremendously from working with a continual glucose monitor. We work with a company called NutriSense and it comes along with someone who coaches you along the way. What it does is it reads your blood sugar in real time and then they can really individualize your diet. So whether you eat 50 grams of carbs, 100, 150, whether it's bananas or rice or whatever, that will tell you specifically for your body

which carbs are affecting your blood sugar the best. So for someone like you who's like, okay, I was pre-diabetic, I don't wanna go back, like a CGM with a coach is so invaluable. I think that'll be so great for someone like you, like a CGM with a coach is gonna be, is so invaluable. I think that'll be so, that'll be so great for someone like you, because you'll be able to see in real time what's going on with your blood sugar

and how you feel, and then you can modify it and make it really specific to your body. I also wanna highlight something that I think you kinda just, you glossed over, in fact, I think you skipped the part of the four pounds in November, because if I'm reading this correctly, you went from 1350 calories, worked your way up to 2600 calories, and you only gained four pounds in November, because if I'm reading this correctly, you went from 1350 calories, worked your way up to 2600 calories and you only gained four pounds on the scale.

Is that right? That's insane. That's great. That's insane. I know, I was so proud of myself because I was watching the scale, right? Because I'm like, I want to make sure I'm gaining my muscle by strength increase and not just gaining fat.

So I was very, like I followed you guys this, you know, reverse diet to a T. So I was like very meticulous. I have that personality where I'm like, obsessive, you know, like most of your callers. And so I was really good about it. And then all of a sudden just in those three months, the last couple of months, when I incorporated carbs,

that's when I just like, I just feel so inflamed. I'm like, I know. And I knew you're going to say Dr. Cabral, because I already beat you to it. I've been in contact with them and I got, you know, I started the CBO protocol two weeks ago. So I'm already on that one. Yeah. I mean, that's what, that's what made Sal, what's what made Sal go that direction. The fact that you had that much success increasing calories, only put four pounds on, then you cut calories, but it introduced carbs, and all of a sudden you go up. That's a huge red flag

that there's something else going on than a calorie. It's not a calorie intake thing. It's the type of food or what's going on in your gut that you have this bad reaction. So yeah, no, you're on the right track. And I think you're doing great right now. Yeah, I think once you identify what the gut issue is and treat it,

then, because you should not get that kind of bloating with the food. Unless you have some kind of an immune reaction to the food, that shouldn't happen. And that's a hallmark of, like you said, SIBO, when you're like, wow, I just ate some carbs and I'm so bloated, it's painful. But yeah, the CGM is gonna be, that'll be so massive

for someone like you who's trying to avoid, you know, you were pre-diabetic, you don't wanna go in that direction, but you also wanna eat some carbs for performance. There's nothing that'll be more individualized than that. It's so great. And then literally there's a coach on the other end that can text you and message you or talk to you.

Real time. And they'll say, hey, yesterday what happened at 4 p.m.? You're like, well, I ate this and that. Okay, well, that type of carbohydrate for you may be not work so well, try this instead. And you would be surprised at the kinds of foods that some people get a high blood sugar spike with

that they're not supposed to. And how other people, like I know people who, they would have like a bagel and get a better response than they would with an apple. And so there's a big individual variance. And that's not typically what happens. What my point is, that gets as individualized as it gets. So I think that would be huge for you.

Okay. Real quick, since I did start the CBO protocol, I noticed that my strength obviously did decrease because I'm following that to a T and I'm eating more than what they are recommending, right? Because I'm like, hello, I want to keep my gains from running anabolic twice now. So is that still okay for me to do? Like I know like... Samantha, right now you want to kill. So whatever Cabral is telling you to do,

you should follow that right now. And you're working with them or you're doing to work better if you go through. Yeah. Are you working specifically with a, with a functional medicine practitioner? Did they test you for SIBO or are you just doing it on the protocol two weeks ago?

I started the CBO protocol two weeks ago. So you did a gut test and they said, this is what you need to do. Um, no, I just did the little questionnaire thing. Yeah. And because that was the most cost effective option for me. I was like, I check, check, check, check all the questionnaires. So if it doesn't work, it'll probably do well.

It'll probably do well. But if it doesn't work, if at the end of it you're like, oh, my bloating is still coming back and then I would get testing because it could be something else. Because SIBO is common, more common, but sometimes it could be something else, because SIBO is common, more common, but sometimes it could be CFO, which is a fungal overgrowth. And oftentimes treating one will treat the other one, but not always.

It could also be a parasite, which also happens sometimes. But Samantha, I want you to follow what their team is telling you, though. Don't worry, your gains, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be totally fine, and getting you healthy is only gonna accelerate your your results in the future so that becomes priority one is making sure that that's all dialed in and then don't worry we'll take care of the strain training muscle thing for you you're doing good all right awesome all right i love i love i'd love

to hear back from you after this process though with cab Cabral, I'd love to hear how it goes for you, cause you got a great story already. So follow back up with us. Will do. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. All right.

Bye. Yeah. If you're somebody that struggles with blood sugar issues, like a CGM, there's no way to get more. It's the perfect candidate for that. Yeah. There's no way to get more accurate than that the perfect candidate for that. Yeah, there's no way to get more accurate than that. Because your blood sugar can react so interestingly

sometimes to different foods, and it could be stress, lack of sleep sometimes will do it. But keto is not always the answer, and oftentimes going keto, like I said, there's data now that shows going keto for long, long, long periods of time can actually cause a reverse issue. Huge flag there though, for someone to go from,

I mean that's crazy, she went from 13 to 20, she doubled her calorie intake, only put four pounds on the scale, incredible. Everything going great. Then all of a sudden introduced carbohydrates and the ones she listed seemed to be fine, it's not like she's eaten a bunch of crap. It's not all processed.

It's very uncommon to have a legit food intolerance to the carbs that she listed. Those tend to be the most, she's the tolerant. So obviously something else, some underlining issue. And then back to the point too of me telling her, follow what Cabral said. This is a mistake that some people make, is she goes and does the test, she gets a protocol,

but then she's ignoring what they're getting. Half of it or something. Yeah, and she's adding, because she doesn't want to lose her gains. It's like, no, getting healthy is going to give you more gains than anything else, so follow the protocol when given that by a functional practitioner. Our next caller is Rachel from Michigan. Hi, Rachel.

Rachel. How can we help you? Hi guys. How you doing? Oh my gosh. I'm super excited to be here. I just want to say, I love your guys' show and thanks for making podcasts. So I have something to listen to while I'm at work.

Awesome. Right on. Thank you. How can we help you? So I guess before I get into my question, I'll give you a little bit of background on myself. So I'm 20 years old. I'm five foot eight, 158 pounds. I have a history of over training quite a lot.

I have a busy active job. I'm a park ranger. So I take between 10,000 to 20,000 steps every day. So I'm very active and I've been working out for four years now. I've been following your guys's programs for one year. Before that, I did a lot of cardio with weights and I have a goal of building muscle and burning body fat. Um, so I've been running the maps 15 program now for about a week. And I really liked the fact that it's an everyday program with just short little workouts every day. So it can keep me consistent, but it's not really long.

So I guess my question is, I'm wondering how long I can run the maps 15 program before it becomes like too little volume, like before I'll need to switch over to a like three day a week program, kind of like aesthetic or anabolic or something before, um, the volume becomes too little in the 15 minutes. So great question. This is a great question, Rachel, because we've been conditioned, and there's some truth to this, right, that in order to progress, you have to kind of follow the progressive overload

principle, increase weight, volume, reps, that type of deal. But obviously, or maybe not so obvious to people, but to us, it's obviously been doing this for a long time. You can't do that forever. If that were the case, you know, I've been working out now for 30 years, over 30 years, my workouts would have to be, you know, 12 hours a day every single day for me to continue to make progress, but that's not the case.

So it's true up to a certain point. In fact, once you get to a certain point, backing down often gives you results. And then you play this up and down game throughout your training career where you can do more volume, less volume, more volume, less volume, and you work with other variables. And oftentimes it's the novelty in the variables that causes the gains,

not necessarily the increase in the volume. Okay, so now that I said that, there are lots of ways to increase volume that don't include adding sets and exercises. For example, you add five pounds to the bar, your volume is higher. Remember volume is reps times sets times weight. That'll give you a nice general idea.

Now there's a little flaw in that, obviously if you go real light, 100 reps, you got this crazy looking volume, but within the rep ranges that we use in strength training, it's pretty accurate. So if you're getting stronger, you're already adding volume. The volume's already getting added because you're stronger.

The only time I would switch out of Maps 15, are you doing the advanced version by the way or the other version? Yeah, yeah, I've been running the advanced version, the 20 minute one. Okay, you can follow that for a long time and when I would start to switch There's two reasons I would switch one is because you might want to train more unilaterally You might want to work on lateral stability just kind of strength and cleaner

Yeah, so like maps performance or map symmetry would be good to kind of balance out the body The other reason why you would switch is that you're just you're plateauing You're just not progressing anymore, in which case trying like a maps and a bollock or performance would be a good idea. I really like that program for you though, just so you know, because you're very active. So you have a job that requires you stepping

15 to 20,000 steps, and so you're not lacking more activity and movement. So that's what's great about this program for someone like you. Totally different conversation if you were a engineer and you sat all day long and you're like, hey, I'm just running mass 15. At one point, should I move out of it?

It'd be like, well, yeah, I'd like to progress you to moving more, but you move a ton already. So you get great activity and that dose of weight training is probably perfect for the amount of movement and activity that you already do. And so I would, I'd run it quite a bit. I'd run it probably for a year and see where it takes me. And then we could, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Just cause I just started back up as my job, my job as the park ranger. I I've

been off for like the winter and I ran aesthetic and performance over the winter months. So last year I ended up running anabolic while I worked there at the park and it was just too much volume for me and everything. So I was just wondering how long. Yeah, stay in mass 15, stay in mass 15. And I actually love that idea of when all of a sudden it hits winter and now you're inside

and you're not maybe out there very much, then you could run like an anabolic type of routine or symmetry like Sal recommended would be great. But so but so long as you're out and you're, and you're doing that, yeah, stick with maps 15. I think it's going to do you really well. Totally. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Cause yeah, like I said, I was just wondering, cause last year I, I really over-trained hard when I was doing that job with the, a lot of steps and then doing the anabolic, I over-trained, like I gained a lot of weight. Some of it was like I gained a lot of weight.

Some of it was muscle, but a lot of it was also fat too. So I was just, I just don't want to overwork my body like I did last year. It's just too much on me. So you're on the right track and get the right mindset to hear someone your age, uh, who's that aware of overwork and over training is really makes me happy. So you're, you're doing, you're doing so great because typically, you know, strength is your North star. Keep paying attention to that. Such great advice right there. You're getting stronger.

You're on the right track. All right. That's good to know. Cause if it actually, if it weren't for you guys, I probably would have just kept pushing myself a lot. Cause I listened to your guys' podcasts and I realized that strength training is more, isn't just about becoming like the, like just getting the body you want. It's also, it has mental aspects. It's got, it's got all sorts of different things.

So I'm just glad I listened to you guys and I learned all this stuff that strength training can do for you. So awesome. Thank you. So good to hear Rachel. What park are you at by the way? Uh, I live in, um, Northern Michigan. I work at at, by the way? I live in Northern Michigan. I work at Charlevoix County Parks and Recreation.

Awesome. Awesome. Doug and I are on our way out to Michigan tomorrow. Oh, really? Where are you going? We're going to be close to like Detroit area, aren't we? I think so, yeah. So downstate.

Yeah, I'm up in the top of the mitten. Awesome. All right, well, thank you so much for listening. All right, Rachel. Yeah, I'm up, I'm up in the top of the mitten. So awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much for listening. All right, Rachel. Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. It was a pleasure to meet you guys. You too.

Thank you. Yeah, you as well. Good head on her shoulder. I love seeing like the younger generation. That's actually, I mean, oh, so great. 20 years old and you know, here's a little, here's a little cheat sheet with a mass 15 protocol. Okay. If you're following that and you want to add in lateral stability, you switch out one of the exercises. and sit on the right spot. Here's a little cheat sheet with a MAPS 15 protocol.

If you're following that and you want to add in lateral stability, you switch out one of the exercises. You want to add in rotation. Add in some lateral lunges or add in some. You make it more functional. Rotation presses. That, of all the programming that we've done, as complex as all of them are,

that MAPS 15 format has got to be the. Money. Money, and it's the easiest to plug and play than other programs so that's just for people who have that program it's like that's a game changer right there. Our next caller is Holly from Virginia. Hi Holly. How can we help you? Hello. How are you? I'm doing well how are you guys? We're good, thank you. Thanks for calling in how can we help you? Thank you for taking a minute to answer my question. So I've heard you guys talk about trying to keep your clients the same weight when they first

start trying to lose fat and build muscle. And I feel like I've typically heard this in the context of someone who needs to lose like 10 to 20 pounds. But I was wondering if this is a relevant strategy for someone who is significantly overweight or even considered obese. So for a little bit of context, I'm 5'4 and I currently weigh about 190 pounds. So according to the BMI chart, which I understand has issues, I am considered obese. So I was hoping to maybe understand an appropriate mindset and target weight toward losing fat, gaining muscle and achieving overall health. Yeah, probably this very much so applies to you. I'm so glad you called in.

It's a good question. It's a good question. But this is when we talk about that, it's actually I'm talking more to the clients that we had to lose. I think it's like me saying also, someone who only needs to lose five or ten should do that. Even more so my clients that needed to lose more than 30, 40, 50 pounds. This is what I wanted us to do. And really what I'm doing when I first start off a client is I'm really trying to find homeostasis for them because a mistake that people that have a lot to lose right away is they go from this lifestyle of You know being sedentary not a lot of good food choices at all to all of a sudden the other way, right?

All of a sudden they start eating really low calorie lean and they start moving and it's such a dramatic swing and they get excited because they see this initial drop of 10 15 pounds in the first month and You know what that tells me as a coach is that, whoa, we did way too much too fast. We either one didn't need to do that much activity or we didn't need to cut our calories that low. And what that's setting us up for is a hard plateau really soon here.

And so even that client, when we're first kind of figuring out where should we eat, I'm checking in with you on a weekly basis going, all right, Holly, where are we at? And you're like, Adam, we're staying about the same on the scale. I'm like, beautiful. That means I've got your calorie intake to movement about right where I want it right now and then we're focusing on building strength at that moment. So, yes. So to kind of explain the science of what's happening, when you drop your

calories below your calorie intake, below what you're burning, your body tries to match the new caloric intake by slowing down your metabolism. It's a natural thing. It's called metabolic adaptation. One of the ways it does this is by paring muscle down, but there's a lot of other ways as well that kind of work in combination.

So if you start out right now with just trying to lose weight on the scale, you'll probably lose muscle, and you'll slow your metabolism down, and you're setting yourself up for really, really hard sustain, for a really hard sustainability or a hard plateau as Adam would say. Now in the reverse, we have you strength train, build muscle, fuel yourself enough to build strength. You don't really see weight move initially because what happens is you lose a little

body fat and you build a little muscle. By the way, you get smaller when that happens. So if the scale stayed the same and you lost four pounds of body fat and you gained four pounds of muscle, you're going to be a little smaller because muscle is more dense. So that hopefully makes you feel a little better on that initial stage. But through that process, we're actually doing the opposite with the metabolism. Your metabolism is adapting, but it's adapting in a positive way, in the sense that it's speeding up.

Now we're setting ourselves up for easier fat loss later on, and then much easier sustainability. So that's why you wanna start by trying to boost the metabolism, not by trying to slow it down. You wanna have that flexibility. Right. And let me paint the month, two month picture with you, if you were my client, what we'd be doing.

And to Sal's point, we should see. So the only thing I'd probably be watching is circumference measurement, right? I'd have you measure around your waist, right to your belly button, right where we started. And then the goal is to kind of hit the calories to where the scale's not moving much. And then a month goes by.

And what I want to hear is like, Adam, I'm stronger than when I was when I started. And then a month goes by, and what I wanna hear is like, Adam, I'm stronger than when I was when I started, and I noticed my waist is going down a little bit. And then guess what I wanna do? I wanna bump your calories. I wanna go up. And then you're gonna be like, Adam, what? Up, come on.

I'm like, yes, just trust me, we're doing great right now. The fact that we're going down on the circumference, we're staying the same on the scale, you're getting stronger, is telling me, your body is building muscle, and I wanna add more muscle. And it's like, we're staying the same on the scale, you're getting stronger, is telling me your body is building muscle and I want to add more muscle. And it's like, and again the goal is again month two, can I see that circumference go down a little bit but not really move on the scale? But then now we're eating additional 250 to 300 calories more a day. Like and then month

two goes by and you and I you're still like Adam come on this weights really not moving much. I'm like yeah but guess what now we're down an inch and a half on circumference, you're eating three to four hundred more calories a day, you're still like, Adam, come on, this weights really not moving much. I'm like, yeah, but guess what? Now we're down an inch and a half on circumference. You're eating three to 400 more calories a day. You're stronger. Like, and I'm going to keep showing you that until we get to a place where you go, Adam, I can't eat anymore. This is like too much food. I'm like, okay, cool. Now let's come down in your calories, say 500 calories and then watch the weights coming down like crazy and you feel good and you're at a place then you're at a place where you're eating as much or more than you are now

but you're you know 40 pounds lighter or whatever your goal is so that's the sustainable approach and it feels like it's slower at first but in the the full like when you zoom out and look at the total goal of whatever the weight amount that you want to be at like the the desired weight, right? It's actually the faster way. It just starts slow, it comes on hard and fast. Versus what most people do because they're so desperate to get the scale down that they cut so hard, they move like crazy, and they get a head start on me. You know, if we got someone else that's competing with you and I, they get out the gates early in front of us, but then come month two or so, you and I, here we come.

We come roaring past and they're at a standstill. And you're doing less work. Yeah, they're eating more food. Yeah, they're doing more work, they're eating less, they're frustrated and here we come. And we just blow right past them. What's your target body weight, Holly? I guess that's a great question

because I'm gonna be completely honest, I'm over the scale. I'm tired of it making me have a good day or a bad day. I'm that person who I've done every diet. I've tried everything. So I don't know. I honestly just want to feel better. I like that answer. Good. Well, yeah. And by the way, I just want to feel better. By the way, you're really strengthening our position here because you've probably taught your metabolism to adapt downward very quickly

through all the multiple diets and stuff. I mean, what we're saying probably is resonating. You've probably done that before where you lose some plateau and you're like, oh my God, I can't move more and eat less. What's going on? So all right, here's what I want you to do. I want you to aim for about 150 grams of protein a day. Okay?

That's it. All right. 150 grams of protein a day Okay, okay. That's it. All right 150 grams of protein a day from whole foods Eat the coat eat the protein first So you're gonna have to do a little weighing to figure out what this looks like But that's 50 grams of protein for breakfast lunch and dinner eat it first and then you can eat the rest avoid heavily processed foods Drink a lot of water and then what I want you to do is I want you to try and get stronger in the gym. Do that for the first three months and then from there if you want to cut you can start to look at your calories. By the way you'll probably

gonna get leaner in that three-month period as well but then from there you'll be in a nice position to cut but at that point you should be a lot stronger with your lifts. You should feel good. You're like, oh my god, you know, things are feeling different. I'm a little smaller. I feel so strong. I'm eating more food. I don't feel like I'm depriving myself. And then from there we could probably usually start to cut and then it's like an easier process. To add to that, Holly, I want to follow that to a T and then I want to have Doug put you in our private forum And then I'd love for you to check in with me once a month Yeah, once in a month just check in with me to let me know how you're doing

How your consistency in the gym is going? Are you following one of our programs already? Do we even cover that yet? We didn't write. Are you I am not I do have starter just because I can do those I haven't gone through it all the way yet, but I like to be able to have an option at home. That's great. Perfect. I don't always make it to the gym. That's perfect. Because, crazy, everything's crazy.

No, that's perfect. That's your program. Let's start there, that's perfect. That's just what I wanna make sure you got. Could I go into the gym like one day a week and just like focus on big five or something like that? Because I've heard you guys talk about what you can do just with those lifts. Follow a starter to the tee and then we'll do that next. The next program I'm gonna

send you Maps Anabolic. Maps Anabolic you have an at-home version with just dumbbells or you have the one where you can use barbells and then if you go to the gym you can do the barbell version if you're at home you do the dumbbell version. But Starters Perfect for where we're at what we're doing and then we'll then we'll progress you to Anabolic. And then again, just every once a month, just give me a post on there, tag the guys and I so we can see it and we can respond and just give us an update on the progress. And the only thing I want, don't even worry about the scale. I honestly want the circumference is the only thing we're

paying attention to and strength. That's the goal right now. The goal is the waist to not go up and the strength to go up and hit those grams of protein. That's our first month goal. And that will tell us how good how on track we are. And remember eat the protein first. It's going to control the rest of your intake quite naturally. In fact, you'll find like it's going to be kind of hard. So do I need to count calories during this time or just focus on protein? Nope, nope, nope. Just the protein. Eat it first and then the rest.

That's easy. Yeah, and as long as you're not eating heavily processed foods, if you eat your 50 grams of protein for breakfast and you're like, I can eat a little more and go ahead and throw some fruit on it, some rice, whatever, no big deal. But what'll probably happen is you'll find

that it's hard to hit 150 grams of protein from whole foods. It really does, it does an incredible job in satiety. Okay. All right? All right, thank you guys so much. You're gonna do really well. Yeah, we're gonna see you in the forum, Holly. Yeah, you're gonna do really well.

All righty, you all have a great day. Thank you. You too. Have a good one. Thanks. If, I'm so glad she called in because she represents so well the average person. Very much so. And if everybody just did that,

what we just said right here, we would see the success rate go through the roof. I know. I can't wait to help her. I think she's the opposite message. She's being promoted. It is, it is. Just those things that we said right there.

You don't have to count all your calories, you don't have to weigh, just focus on those things. And getting stronger is such an incredible metric to measure because it tells you a lot. If you're getting stronger, you can still do some things wrong, but you're probably not doing a lot wrong. But if you don't get stronger, well, then you know.

It's just so hard because it's such a mental hurdle to get past this. Of course. I need to lose. Of course. You've already made the decision, I gotta lose weight. I gotta lose all this weight, and in in reality that that's actually not what I want us to do for the first month. The scale is going to stay about the same. You know, and when I say it's give or take a couple of pounds here, that's really what we're really looking for is no drastic swings either way.

I don't want to see a massive weight gain either. I don't want to see her put 15 pounds on, but I also don't want to see her lose 15 pounds. I kind of want her to hover around. That's like a four pound up or down. Yeah, yeah. Four pound up or down because you could easily fluctuate that in water. No problem. And the, and, and being strong and feeling good and that waist stay in same or going down is going to be a huge, not wanting to use a scale anymore is amazing. That's already perfect. That's a positive. Awesome. Look, we have a fat loss guide. It's free. It teaches you how to lose body fat, follow the right steps, do it the right way, so that it stays off.

It's a free guide. You can find it at mindpumpfree.com. You can also find all of us on social media. Justin is on Instagram at mind pump Justin. I'm on Instagram at mind pump DeStefano and Adam is on Instagram at mind 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, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform

the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump.