Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 603: Build the Perfect Bikini Body with Melissa Wolf

Episode Date: September 25, 2017

Melissa Wolf never intended to compete but after listening to Mind Pump she decided to give it a go. Coached by Adam, she prepared for her first show using MAPS Aesthetic. Mind you, Melissa is petite, and leading up to her show she ate no less than 1600 calories a day and at times over 2,000. She also did very little cardio. She went on to win her class and brought home 3 trophies. In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss her training, diet, prep as well as her effortless transition to normalcy after the event was over. (No binging). Whether you want to compete or just get your body in tip-top shape this episode is loaded with actionable advice. Go check out Melissa's Instagram @meliwolff, there is a major discount offered there for 48 hours after this episode airs. What got her interested in the sport? (2:21) What finally changed her mind to compete? (5:07) How did Melissa and Adam meet? (6:23) What is she doing these days and what is her background? (10:04) They break down her calorie intake (12:30) Figure out her metabolism first before scheduling show What was her training like before MAPS Aesthetic? What changes did she see? (17:25) How were those final couple weeks leading up to the show? (20:15) What did she learn about her body going through this process? (23:18) When was cardio introduced into her routine? (24:40) Lifestyle change What did she and Adam debate over? She talks about a debate she had in a class (30:36) Carb-cycling What was the hardest part of the whole process for her? (41:17) Nutritional hacks? BCAA’s Another show in her future… (47:38) Related Links/Products Mentioned Melissa Wolf (@meliwolff) • Instagram – Click link in her bio to get HUGE discount on MAPS Aesthetic (48 HOURS ONLY!!) One Workout Vs. Several Short Workouts | LIVESTRONG.COM (article) The Science of Carb Cycling: How It Works and How to Do It Right (article) Brain serotonin content: physiological regulation by plasma neutral amino acids (study) Posing with a Pro - First Time Bikini Competitor Advice | Mind Pump (YouTube) Posing with a Pro - First Time Bikini Competitor Advice Pt. 2 | Mind Pump (YouTube) Organifi Discount Code "mindpump" People Mentioned: Layne Norton, PhD (@BioLayne) · Twitter/Instagram Remonta Khangaldy (@beastmodette) • Instagram Would you like to be coached by Sal, Adam & Justin? You can get 30 days of virtual coaching from them for FREE at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get our newest program, MAPS Prime Pro, which shows you how to self assess and correct muscle recruitment patterns that cause pain and impede performance and gains. Get it at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get your Kimera Koffee at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Get Organifi, certified organic greens, protein, probiotics, etc at www.organifi.com Use the code “mindpump” for 20% off. Go to foursigmatic.com/mindpump and use the discount code “mindpump” for 15% off of your first order of health & energy boosting mushroom products. Add to the incredible brain enhancing effect of Kimera Koffee with www.brain.fm/mindpump 10 Free sessions! Music for the brain for incredible focus, sleep and naps! Also includes 20% if you purchase! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts! Have questions for Mind Pump? Each Monday on Instagram (@mindpumpmedia) look for the QUAH post and input your question there. (Sal, Adam & Justin will answer as many questions as they can)

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Saldas Defano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode, we're in hot. Of mind pumps. We got some estrogen for you. Yeah, we interviewed so Adam. We're in a welcome.

Coach, young lady Melissa Melissa for her first contest and we didn't talk too much about it We just kind of followed along First contest ever and she killed it of course she has first first and second Adam in their corner She's got the jeans and she's got Adam coaching her Adam took her through and we talk about in this episode How what her strategy was like with her nutrition, with her cardio or lack of, how her metabolism didn't get damaged. She actually ate 16,000 calories.

16,000 calories was the lowest that she ate and she's a tiny little girl. So pretty awesome. But we also talk about her training. And for the most part, she followed the program that we have that's designed for, specifically for advanced trainees and for competitors, Maps aesthetic.

That's the program that she followed. So here's what we're gonna do. After we finished with the episode, we decided we wanted to do something kind of cool for our audience. We have never put Maps aesthetic on a massive sale. So we're gonna do a flash sale with Maps aesthetic. You can actually get it for half off.

However, we're gonna give you one hoop to jump through. You gotta go on Instagram and go to Melissa's Instagram page. Her page is Melly Wolf with 2F. So it's M-E-L-I-W-O-L-F on Instagram. Go there. In her bio is gonna be a coupon code. That code is gonna give you 50% off. We're only running that for what, 48 hours?

48 hours when this air. So this episode's gonna drop, it should be Sunday when you're listening to this Tuesday is the final day for this, then the coupon code's gonna be gone. So if you go to her page, on Instagram again, it's Melly Wolf, any L. W-O-L-F-F. In her bio, you're gonna find a coupon code.

It's gonna give you half off of Maps aesthetic. And if you have any questions about the program, you can find out more at minepupmedia.com. So without any further ado, here we are talking to Melissa Wolf. We are a hot smoking smoldering. What's the name of the competition? You just crushed everyone in, Melissa Yeah, I'm quite crushed everyone

What the one you you want you trophy champion? We are sitting with Miss central California, Miss Keeney of the world Champion universe Melissa Wolf. Oh my god. Good job on your on your victory Thank you. That was very very good and you did all naturally too, which is good I really did that's very very what was your experience like competing Overall, that's a vague ass question. Yeah, it is super big Like was it like was it? I'm telling you tell us what do you what do you think about life?

Why are we here? What's that? What do we do? Where are we going? We die? Were you nervous? Were you nervous getting up there and doing all the poses? Oh my god, it was so fucking nerve-wracking. Was it? To say that? Of course you can say that. Mind pumped. Before you even go there, let's talk.

You're fricking. Why don't you share with the audience? Because I think a lot of people don't know that you weren't somebody who has always wanted to compete in bikini. So what even led you to even think about that? Why did you not do it in the past? What made you decide to do it now? Um, okay. So starting out with why I didn't ever want to do it in the past was I think because what I saw of what it meant to compete was people trying to prove something to

themselves that wasn't even there to prove in the first place. So it was like people pushing their bodies to get to this point in an expedited period of time to push their bodies to a point that their body shouldn't even be in in the first place. Did you have friends that did it before? I did have friends that did it. Did they have, do you have friends? Did they get like metabolic damage

and stuff afterwards or? I mean, from my perspective, yes, I'm not somebody who can diagnose whether or not that happened, but I. We do it all the time, don't worry. I see people who have competed that I know, I have a close friend that struggled a lot with Weight gain after shows and that's been something that was probably her experience was the biggest deterrence for me because I would see her jump into a show grind grind grind look really great on stage and then come out of it so hard and so fast

and gain so much weight and just have and get so depressed and upset and down on herself and unhappy and then she would resort to prepping again because that's what she felt. The only way she felt that she could look the way that she wanted to look. What made you finally change your mind to compete? Well, I am a few there are a few factors. I was really into, well, I got even more and more into the gym, more and into lifting. I saw changes in my body that kind of started to resemble what a competitor might look like in an off season. And I got comments all the time, like, you look like you compete.

Do you compete? Like, you should compete. And I would brush it off a lot often all the time, actually. And then eventually I started, actually started listening to Mind Pump and I started hearing Adam talking about competing and you guys talked a lot about competing and I first identified with how you guys spoke about how bad it is. And then Adam would mention every now and again that there's a better way, there's a better way, people aren't doing it right,

there's gotta be a better way. And I thought to myself, well, there's a better way, maybe I should try doing that, and I reached out to Adam. What was that like conversation like, Adam? Well, the very first time that... Like did you try to talk her out of it, or were you like with that?

No, because the way we met first, right? So the kind of the missing first time that like did you try to talk around of it or were you like with no because when the way we we met first right so the Kind of the missing piece to that story she just told was she I know that she started listening to my pump I think it was the Lane Norton episode is what you told me was the first one you listen to right and I think was it It was your boy from that turned you on to late the episode first right so and it was more they were like listening to listen to Lane Nord, because I think he's a fan of Lane Nord. Yeah, so I'd never heard, I'd never heard who, I didn't know who Lane Nord was. And my boyfriend did, and he knew that Lane was really controversial and wanted to see what my opinion was about him.

So kind of sent me, he sent me an episode that I, he thought that I could listen to that wasn't a super aggressive late-norton episode. So he sent me your guys' episode and I listened to it and I got back to it. He said listen to this, give me your feedback and I got back to him. I don't know about Lane Norton but I really liked the guys who interviewed him and I started listening. That's what we do to everybody. She's smart. And I started listening to you guys. And then you started following the MindPut Media page.

I started following the MindPut Media page and Taylor, who manages that page, reached out to me and asked if I would consider coming in to do videos for, I don't know what ever happened. Yeah, it was videos and a photo shoot, because at the time we were getting ready to do some YouTube stuff. So he had, I remember when he had showed me your profile, I'd never met you before. And, you know, we've brought Taylor on board,

and Taylor is, you know, kind of the marketing side of the business and social media back in stuff. So he's working a lot with the YouTube and the Instagram and working with our kind of rebranding that we're going through. And one of the things that I think everybody knows that we're kind of missing this female presence, right? I know we, all of us guys, we're the three of us are in touch with our feminine side, but we're missing a little bit.

Especially just. We're missing that estrogen. And you know, it was really tough because we weren't just gonna attach anybody to us. And so Taylor was kinda on the hunt for a girl who he thought fit our brand and had a good message and was smart and had a very natural real look. We didn't want somebody who was super shredded and all kinds of shit to look that way. And like he was looking for someone, anyone he showed me your profile,

you know, at first glance, I said, yeah, I like it. You know, however come in, I trust you, if you've been paying attention to it. And that's where we first met and you and I shot the. Yeah, and we all noticed the mechanics when you did a barbell squat. I was like, oh finally, you know, somebody that has like really good mechanics,

we can work with this, you know, because we're trying to get all these like exercise photos, accomplish all this kind of stuff. So that was important. So at this time, I think you are really just getting to know us and really starting to start go through the Mind Pup episodes, right? I remember after I came in, you guys mentioned my squat

on an episode and I listened to it. Oh my God, that's right. I have to have a squat. That's right. Right. Right, so I think it wasn't until later that she would thought about doing the competing and that's where she in from like she said, the episodes that she'd heard us talk about. And then she had mentioned it to me.

And I thought it was great because I thought, I already weed the whole purpose why we thought she was a match, we already thought she had the look and we could use for photos and videos and marketing purposes. And I thought, well, this will be cool. She's got, she's a smart girl. She's got the look already. And then she wants to compete.

So I was actually totally pro her doing it because I knew who she was, too. So I mean, you got to know that she's going through DPT school right now. So I was just gonna say, yeah, why don't you like mention what you're doing these days and like what your background is. Oh God, okay.

Well, my back, this is the past two weeks I've been and I started my doctorate graduate program at Samuel Merritt University and oh my God, it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I'd have no time. I live in cadavers and books and it's really fricking hard. And I used to spend a lot of time here with you guys and now, and the past couple of weeks I haven't at all

because I can barely find time to show it. You're all up in organs and yeah, you have your cadaver parts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the only reason why I didn't, a normal person that would ask me, I'm like, you Sal, I would probably try and talk them out of it because I knew her level of education.

And then I also knew her view of competing a bodybuilding and all that stuff before. Because when we first met, we kind of briefly talked about it and she told me she had friends that competed and she was totally turned off by the industry originally and for those reasons. So I think she had the right head on her shoulders to be somebody and then plus I knew I would be guiding it.

So of course, as I'm guiding her through it, there's lots of community, I'm talking to her daily. So there's lots of communication of this is why we do this. And of course, she challenges and asks everything that I do. You know, it's like, why did we do that? You know, well, this is why we're doing that. Or this is the theory why we're doing this. Like, so, you know, a lot of the times, you know, she's asking all the right questions

and I think her relationship with food. I mean, shit, we, what was the lowest calorie I think you ever, we ever took you down to? For an extended period, time 1600 was the lowest that I ever did. Which is that's high that's that's high calorie for someone prepping for a show for a girl. Very high. Especially for someone your size, you're tiny. I'm tiny. Yeah, you're not you're not a super tall girl. Most girls your size walk into a competition eating around a thousand calories. Sometimes less. Yeah, she's a hundred. She knows, she's 115 pounds, so 1600 calories.

And we have one point. And that's towards, that's towards competition. Yeah, that's right. What do we, what do we peak up before we, before we actually started cutting? What'd you peak at? What was the highest? I was at 2600. Which is a man, that's man calories.

Which is man foods. That's half as much as Justin eats. So you, so you, you guys ramped up calories going in. So when you first started your prep, it wasn't, let's start cutting. It was move calories up. Now, when Adam is telling you, listen, we're going to have more calories.

Are you thinking, okay, he's first in it yet? Yeah, he's skeptical. Or were you like, okay, I'm going scab, skeptical, or were you like, okay, I'm gonna trust him because he has a podcast. The door isn't at trust him. Well, I mean, you have a little bit of a conversation. No, this is a great question. I'm actually, I've never asked her this

to be interesting to hear her. What were you thinking when he's like, no, we're gonna increase your calories. Were you thinking like, what the fuck? No, I mean, I know enough about, the way your metabolism works to know that you can boost it and make it more efficient. And I knew that that was the goal and it made sense to me to incrementally boost those calories so that I was then boosting my metabolism.

And how many weeks out did you guys start? Like what was the, how many weeks total was this whole period? You remember when we started? What week it was? We started in, I think it was July, with the boosting of the top of the zone. And then I think that that lasted for maybe a month.

Which we should, I think you should talk about that too because I didn't want to pick a show until I felt our metabolism was in the right place. Let's talk about that because most people pick a show and then start. And it's the countdown, yes. But the way you did it, Adam, which I think is the best way to do it is to start getting ready, see how your body responds, and then start to say, okay, I think I the best way to do it is to start getting ready, see how your body responds and then start to say, okay, I think I can do a show around this period and then start looking around that time.

I mean, Melissa can share this. She asked me, like, when are we going to do a show, right? Right out. When should we look at the date? So you took a little while to even pick? Yeah. So right out the gates, she wanted to know like time frame and shows and I couldn't give her the answer.

I said, I don't know yet. And I said, and I explained too, that I think this is also the big mistake that most these girls do before they get ready for a show is they base it off of, you know, hey, and November, whatever, I wanna get in great shape. Let's do a show, just to do a show.

Like, I was more like, let's figure out where your metabolism is right now and where you're at, like as far as your overall movement and let's figure out where your metabolism is right now and where you're at, like as far as your overall movement, and let's figure you out. And then from there, we can kind of map out what's a realistic timeframe. I did have kind of a map of what kind of timeframe I wanted and needed because I was starting school in September. And I knew that I wanted to do a show before then because I didn't know what school was going to be like.

So I told him that, and he knew that, but that was three and a half months out when we first started. That's right. And I do remember that I remember actually wanting to go longer, and you were like, can we get it before the school? And I was like, okay, we're not pushing it that bad and she was in a very healthy situation to do it, but even in a Perfect world, I think I remember I wanted even more time. I wanted a couple more weeks to feel confident of We're and to be honest with you

Looking how she presented herself on stage hands down. I think we're a first place. I think that she presented But probably one to two pounds stage weight away from a pro physique on that stage. Our conditioning was one to two more weeks. I think we have a pro level physique for sure. Posing is shit. Yeah, it's part of the game. You know that. I told you that from the very beginning. That's probably nerves. I would say a lot of it's nerves. So starting off with the boost in calories, you're doing your training. How are you feeling with the more calories? What are you noticing at this point? Do you remember?

Are you feeling stronger? Yeah, so at first, I was feeling full all the time. I was shoveling food. I mean, I don't know if people, I feel like whenever I tell people that I was eating 2600 calories, they don't, they're like, oh, okay, yeah, but I'm like, no, no, no, that means I was eating this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, and also this, and that too. And then more, it was like, I was eating so much food, and I was stuffed all the time, but I was super, super strong.

I felt like I was throwing weights around the gym, that's what I would say to Adam every day. I'd be like, I threw everything around the gym all day today. But then as, and I started to notice too, as my body would kind of acclimate, I would, I would still be hungry after 2600 calories. I was like, oh, yeah, 2600 and I'm like, delete. And then are you gaining any body fat at this point? Yeah. So I did gain a little bit of weight for sure. I gained maybe like three or four pounds. Well, that's nothing at all. Yeah, so it was not, I mean, and a lot of that was probably

muscle because I was lifting. Now, now at this point, I'm assuming you changed your training or was it how different was your training under, because you guys used a maps aesthetic, that was the, we started on maps aesthetic and then towards the end of the show, I broke down a few muscle groups that I wanted her just touching from there on out. Okay, this is all. Cause all the work had been done. Yeah, this was,

and now what was your training like before doing maps aesthetic, was it similar or was it a very different change? Before I was doing more of a two body parts a day kind of a thing. So like a split more of a split. Did you notice a big change when you changed over to like you know Maps style training? Did you notice any differences in things like strength and the way your body looked? Sure yeah and the way that my body looked I I mean, my shoulders are so

Adam had me focus on shoulders and hamstrings because those I guess are to the big judging points for bikini competitions. And I worked on those as my focus stays. And my shoulders, I mean, they're my rear delts and my delts overall are bigger, much, and my hamstring. I've never seen, I never saw my hamstring tie in the nose, and they're there. It's pretty cool. I sprouted wings.

That's awesome. Part of the, what was really important, and we kind of touched this on the show when we actually talked about metabolic damage, even though this has nothing to do with metabolic damage. But what I knew when I boosted her calories that high, I also knew how she was training before, and I knew MAP's aesthetic would create a new adaptation. So it just go to muscle? Yeah, go to muscle. It's like her body is not used to this, regardless if it's the best program for her or the best gain she'll ever seen her

live. It didn't even matter to me. I knew that it was different enough from what she was currently doing that it was perfect for, especially since in phase one, the way we year in phase one were lower reps and heavy weight. Just like we talked about pulling somebody out of the same theory of pulling somebody out of metabolic damage is the same theory I'm going to apply to trying to speed someone's metabolism up that's the same thing. Yeah, it's the same thing Right, so I'm you know, we're not doing cardio at all

So it's something to she was prescribed I think it's no cardio. So zero cardio and let's lift some heavy ass weight And we you know, we got a chance to actually work it I got a chance to train her you know quite a few times and when. And when I would train her, I would kind of show her like, this is the intensity of this is how I would rather you go heavier right now on these things than, you know, lighter and get more repetitions because it's important to me that we're we are throwing something at your body. It is just not used to while we're also increasing these calories. So I know that even if we do put a little bit of fat on we're going to most of that's going to get allocated over to building muscles. So that was the strategy when we when we first started that even if we do put a little bit of fat on, we're gonna, most of that's gonna get allocated over to building muscle.

So, that was the strategy when we first start off, and it's no different than how I would approach somebody who I'm trying to speed their metabolism up. That's a metabolic damage. Now, during this whole period of time, weeks or whatever, calories are going up, then you start to drop them. You're training a particular way.

You're throwing cardio towards the end. How was that right before contest period? Because I hear everybody who competes talks about that, those weeks leading up to a contest as being hell, as hating life, everything sucks, I feel like shit. What was that like for you leading up to the contest? Was it what you had expected? Was it easier or harder than you had expected? It was not what I expected and everything I expected all the same time because I definitely

I mean I'd be lying if I said that it was easy. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't super grumpy and that I didn't snap at my boyfriend maybe five or six or seven plus times. It was not bad for an extended period of time is what I found is I had bad days and I had good days, but I didn't ever really feel like there was a stretch where I was just like I cannot do this. And the closer I got to my show, which was counterintuitive to me, what I felt better. And peak week, I felt great. And I didn't, I mean, not, I didn't feel strong.

I didn't, and it wasn't even working out towards the end. So you were grumpy, not, not up to the contest, like in the middle? Well, think about this, right? So there is going to come a time, right? And I remember talking to her and like setting her, setting the table for on this like it will get hard and there will come a time where you're hungry like that's part of like getting shredded and cutting right

there at one point when you're getting lean you will face feeling hunger because if your metabolism is roaring and going and you're restricting it you're eating all that food prior to that and it's a pretty stark contrast yeah it's it's inevitable it's gonna come, but the goal was, even when you're hungry like that and that feeling, you'll still be actually eating a good amount of calories that your body is being well nourished, right? So it's not like you're doing damage or hurting your body as much as it's just having the discipline to refrain from eating more calories. And I think that's what you mean by like, it was everything you thought and what you didn't

right as far as the challenge, right? Right, I mean, I think that what I noticed most actually was every time you gave me a change, so every time you're like, okay, we're dropping calories, okay, we're increasing our steps, okay, we're increasing volume and the gym, adapting to that, we're the hardest. Anytime you gave me a change, so for like three days, I was like,

I fucking can't do this. This is hard. And then my body would kind of acclimate and I'd be fine. And then you give me a change and I'd struggle for a couple of days. And then I would be okay. And then you give me, so it was kind of just like a up and down, up and down graph that didn't,

there wasn't a consistent like, okay, we're going down, now we're going down, we're going down, up and down, graph, that didn't, there wasn't a consistent, like, okay, we're going down, now we're going down, we're going down, or consistent, we're going up, we're going up, it was like, okay, this is hard, okay, we're leveling up, so this is hard a little bit, and we're leveling up. Now Adam talks about on the show a lot about how much he learned about his body during, when he competed about, you know,

because he's mentioned this all the time, like I know when I would add this you know, because he said he's mentioned this all the time. Like, I know when I would add this little thing, my body would change. And when I take this thing out, my body would change. And I knew what was doing what, because I was so meticulous about my track and all that stuff. Did you learn stuff about yourself and your body through this process that you, that you otherwise wouldn't have learned, you think? Yeah, definitely. It's hard to pinpoint because there's so many things that changed. And I think that it's really, it's hard to pinpoint things when everything is changing

and your body is changing and you don't really know what it is. But I think that one of the biggest things for me was realizing that I could do so little cardio and be so lean. That always blows people's mind. I had never done that little cardio in my life. I mean, I was the girl who'd get on the stairmaster every day after she left her weights and go for 20 minutes of hit every single day. And um, I've never done so little cardio in my life and I've never been so lean in my life. Let's talk about that. You did cardio when, at what point did you guys start throwing

actual cardio into your routine? Well, I mean, that's a hard question to answer because we never really did throw in actual cardio. He just gave, so Adam would give me movement. I called them movement goals. So he was like, you're neat. My neat. Yeah. So he would tell me, OK, we're trying

to get 13 to 15,000 steps every day this week. Or, and then it would go up to 17 to 20, and then I never really got past 20,000, which is a lot. It's a lot of steps, yeah. It's like 10 miles. So I get that question actually, a lot people will say, you know, okay, well, I don't really get it because you're preaching that you're not doing cardio

and yet you have to 10 miles a day. That seems, that I don't see the difference. And for me, I mean, the different, even though there might not technically be a difference in terms of what you're burning. For me, it was the lifestyle difference. I never allowed it a time to get on the treadmill. And I think that a standard time is two hours

for these bikini girls that compete. And that's standard. And I don't know how much it varies up or down, but I hear two hours all the time. That's like the number that I hear. And I never spent, I mean, towards the end, or days that I was busy, or whatnot, I would get up early and maybe walk on the treadmill for 30 to 40 minutes on, but those were days where, you know, I, that was my only option.

But that's closer to the contest. You're talking about like, closer to the contest. Yeah. Like weeks out and a couple weeks out. So when you're doing, when you're hitting 15,000 steps or whatever, what did it look like for you? Was it like, I did a little walk here? I did a little walk there. So I would go on a hike. I would walk to the gym and so they would drive to the gym.

I would walk to the grocery store. So it was like, for me, it was a lifestyle change deciding, OK, I'm just going to be active in my life versus I'm going to sit on this treadmill for two hours a day and a lot that time. Now, the cool thing about this is the evidence, because they've done studies like this where they've taken people and had them do all of their cardio in one session versus taking the total amount of cardio and splitting it up throughout the day.

And when you split it up throughout the day, you actually burn more body fat and you keep more muscle. And it kind of makes sense if you think about it. When you're doing an hour or an hour and a half a cardio straight, you're really asking your body to become super efficient. You're really asking your body to reduce its muscle mass, slow it some metabolism down,

versus doing 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, 30 minutes there, where it's less of an adaptation towards efficiency, which is another word for slower metabolism. So it makes sense that it would be more effective. It's much easier to scale up and down, too. It's more realistic to take, because you gotta remember two, and I know we say 20,000 steps, but there was a very gradual progression.

And that's towards the context. Right, exactly. That was leading all the way up to almost show time. So early on, I was only asking 10 to 12,000 steps, and then it was 14 to 16,000 steps, and then it was 16 to 18,000 steps. And then really it became a point where, and I remember telling her, like, you know,

coming up to the last couple of weeks, that if you got to get on the treadmill to get to those steps, that's fine. Our goal is to get it through activity. So the goal is to do it through movement. But if you need to, because she did, she'd have some of these days that were, you know, working like a long eight hour day, or gone all day,

or sitting down somewhere, like, okay, well, that then we might have to get on a treadmill at that point just because it's almost impossible not to get, to get 20,000 steps and not do that. But really, the idea was to, like she said, is to incorporate it into her lifestyle. So it doesn't feel like this huge daunting task, which also allows us, it was easy for us to reverse out when we come out of it too. It's just like, okay, well, let's scale back. You don't have to quite do 20,000 steps.

Let's get 15 to 16,000 steps. Let's not quite jump you all the way to 26th-Center Calories. Let's put you back up to 16 or 1800 Calories. And so reversing out of it is way easier. And then it helps, it's not much easier to maintain their weight where she's at. I mean, she went right back, she decided to go right back into another prep and it won't

be a hard transition for her at all because she didn't rebound. I don't even know. You didn't want to put on a couple pounds after a show, right? Yeah, like five, five ish. Yeah, three or four. Average competitor puts on like 20. Oh, yeah. At least after a show.

Yeah, you can guarantee that putting five pounds on it, guarantee you four of it was water. If you talked to any of your friends that have competed before, like you had mentioned previously that did it, you know, the whole martyr away and kind of your whole process. What do they think about them? I mean, everyone's asking me for Adam's contact. I'm for real. Boom! DMs are fl-

This is why I told her not to put me. Hey, people will go back and they're like, just a guy behind the guy. Hey, aren't you helping that girl? I'm like, yeah, but we're not telling anybody that. We're not posting it because the day after she posted that, thanking me, my DM like crazy. Yeah, no, we talked about that on the interview I just did right now. I was like, hey, my wife competes in.

I saw that you helped a little bit, son. I'm like, no, it's a dude, I just, that was something else this night. Yeah, so. But, you know, I'm glad you did because. Not all are there, Adam. Because we're, I think sometimes we come across as anti competing a little bit And it's not that it's that the way people tend to do it is what I'm what I'm definitely anti And if you there is a way to do it that is the right way to do it

And I'm glad you you kind of presented this example of How to compete and not come out of it with a damaged metabolism or with a bad relationship with food and exercise, you know, because it can really promote that. It can really cause you to be a big influencer in this whole process. So was there anything that we did that you did ever question or that? Yeah, what did you guys debate over? Did you, was there anything that you, you pushed back? I know you want, I remember when I first had her carb cycle,

she wanted me to break the science down better. And I'm like, oh, we don't want to go there. We did a little bit though, right? Right? Well, yeah, carb cycling was, was something that I didn't quite understand, I still don't quite understand. And I try, I mean, I reached out to Sal too. I didn't...

She's like, don't tell that. She's trying to fact check me. This guy over here's got me carb cycling and who's the skinny guy in the group? He sounds pretty confused telling me right now. I just want to make sure you trust himself. No, well, it's a gray area, right? We don't have a lot of stuff studied around this

and so some of the things, this is the area that I found myself in when I was getting ready for a show was what do we know for sure? What is supported by science? What is bro science? And then what is kind of like in the air because we just don't have a lot supporting it? And there's a lot of bro science surrounding carb cycling,

but there is a lot of good truth behind it, too. And at the end of the day, the body does very, it adapts. And if you give it the same thing all the time, your body can become desensitized, either hormones, types of foods. You know, cycling macros gives you more variety. It's probably going to give you a more diverse microbiome. It's going to resensitize your body to certain hormones. For example, I do this with my clients,

too. I have clients that I work with and none of them compete, but I have almost every single one of them, you know, cycle their macros, and it's because I know when you go very low carbohydrate, you're going to promote more insulin sensitivity so that when you do eat carbohydrates, they're utilized a better way. And the anecdote, and again, there's no science we just support this yet, but the anecdote's pretty strong. Right. And so that was kind of like how when I was explaining to her, I'm like, yeah, because you wanted to write about it.

So you know what I want to write about this? Could you explain the science better to me? Like, oh, that's going to be a tough one because because you're gonna get this type, you're gonna hear this, and it's gonna sound very broy. And they're gonna hear this, and this is sound very incomplete. And so that's like carb cycling and a nutshell for me, but I believe that, I mean, you can ask her to,

like I can't remember how I topped my head, how many different macro profiles we did too. I mean, how many times did we shoot fat and lower carbs, higher carbs? Like, all, yeah, we incorporated too. I mean, how many times did we shoot fat and lower, lower carbs, higher carbs like all time? Yeah, we incorporated fasting. So she, through her prep, we manipulated macro profile. So those that are wondering right now, what was her macro ratio? Did she run a 30, 30, 40 or what did she run? Like all of them. Now, we literally, we literally messed with them all the time. And just like she said, I would give her these little goals every week or so.

Now, did you notice anything, any changes when you would do that? Like, when Adam said, okay, for the next two days, you're gonna eat lower carb higher fat, or for the next two days, you're gonna fast. Did you notice differences in the way you looked and performance that you can connect to those? Or did you, are you there yet? Or do you need to do it more before you can start to see?

No, I mean, I definitely did. I mean, on the higher carb days, I felt like I could move way more in the gym. And I love carbs. So I was always so excited for high carb days. And I know it's not, it's not your shit cell, but. Oh, what are we talking about? Everybody loves carbs.

Yeah, they're good. Yeah, no, I felt way better when I was eating more carbs. And then I mean, but that's the thing, the carb cycling. So I saw a lot with carb cycling. And I don't necessarily think that's because, so as soon as I started looking at it as fluctuations in calories by way of carbohydrates, that made more sense to me.

I couldn't look at it as carb cycling because it's just really convoluted and I feel like there's just way too much that goes into that for me to see like a straight line. It was like okay we're trying to give you lower calorie days and higher calorie days so that you can still get in good training sessions but we're dropping in on days so that we can promote that fat loss training sessions, but we're dropping in on days so that we can promote that fat loss and we're just gonna take that out from carbs.

So I think that's probably a good thing to expand on because it is something I know that I do different than almost any other coach that I've ever seen coach because the standard is they carb cycle, but then they replace the fat, they replace the carbohydrates with fat. And so the calories are the same. So the calories stayed the same.

And we weren't doing that. It was low calorie, low carb. Yeah, it was a lower calorie, a medium calorie day, and then what a little like 10% over what a normal day would be. So we had established where her medium was. What did you guys were underlating calories? Exactly. So we were underlating calories through carbohydrates.

And that's kind of how I told her to approach it. I'm like, approach it like that. We're not messing with carbs and keeping the calories the same. We're lowering carbs and lowering carbs again, and we're reducing calories. And then I'm refeeding you, and I'm giving you actually more than keeping you low and losing, we're kind of refeeding a little bit

and the idea and theory behind that is that I'm gonna spike leptin back up. We go low, low, low, knowing that's gonna slow her down a bit. And I don't wanna- And there's also, because I do this with my clients too, is when on their high fat days,

their calories are usually lower. And the reason is because fat is satiating. It's very satiating. So it makes sense to have somebody, if you're gonna have the meat more calories on a particular day to make it a higher carb day, because if I say, you're gonna have the meat more calories on a particular day, to make it a higher carb day, because if I say we're gonna have you eat,

1700 calories, low carb, so you're gonna eat all this fat. Usually by halfway through the day, I'm getting a text. I think I can eat me more, I feel so full. I think that was actually, I'm pretty sure, I know I use this strategy a lot with competitors, I'm pretty sure I did this one less aware. We know days that we'd incorporate fasting, then I would, the first meal, she ate, I would say, high fat, you know, go after a lot of fat for your first meal. So that's a strategy that we incorporate

inside there too. And yeah, there was so much different stuff. There was no set like macro profile or, I mean, every week we were tweaking something and that to me again we say this on the show all the time right which oh you have to bring this up Melissa I was just gonna say what I know you got into with your school which was I'm I always say that you know we're always trying to do as little as possible to elicit the most amount of change so the, and you brought this up in class. Which class was it? In my exercise prescription class. What's your teacher's name?

Yeah. Oh, yes, David. What was the problem? There was a problem. She gave us this graph. They were so, okay, so it's an exercise prescription class. So they're trying to teach us, I'm going to school for physical therapy and they're trying

to teach us how to prescribe exercises to our patients or clients and they gave us this with this graph with a bunch of thresholds on it and I just didn't understand the graph and I was asking her, I was like, I really don't get why there are so many thresholds on this graph. Can you explain it to me? And she was trying to... So she explained it, I don't really, I don't remember her explanation, but what came up in my mind was minimal amount of effort for, to a list of the greatest outcome, which is what Adam would always say to me

is what the goal is. And so I thought of that and I brought it up and I said, oh my coach always says, minimal effort for greatest outcome. Heading for big, you refer a coach in a fucking academia world. Oh my God. No, they're all super, for the most part, open-minded people. And I mean, there were still there are two instructors for this class. And one of them was like, oh yeah, that's exactly it, nailed it, right on the head, done.

And the other one kinda gave me a little bit of, I don't know about what you're saying there because in the context of physical therapy, minimal effort is rarely minimal, seeming to be minimal effort. I could see where you can argue that with physical therapy because with you, frequency and consistency and pattering good habits is,

because Trump's actually a listening change. They're thinking, okay, they're thinking minimal effort as an easy, what Adam is saying, I'll translate, very simple. So do the least amount of work for the most amount of change literally means the perfect amount of work. That's all it means. That's the right dose. All it means is you're doing the right dose.

And that's what I told them. But it's just, it's sticky jargon or wording or rhetoric when you're in the physical therapy realm where often times the smallest amount of work is so taxing and it's like somebody can't even sit up straight and that and even maybe sitting up going all the way into a full set is just too much work. So to think about minimal effort, just phrasing something in that way, where you're making it seem easy by saying minimal effort, just sort of the association. The capacity further, right? So they're always trying to kind of increase range of motion

or increase the work that's available. I just don't think they don't like the word. Yeah, I think it's because it started. I think the word. Yeah, I think it's because it started. I think it started because it started. My coach told me, that's why I fucking think it's that. Because it doesn't get better. It applies to the same example you just gave. Pershing can't sit up, then we do less.

We do less to get your change. It's just perfect. It's a perfect prescription. It's all it is. But yeah, I think I agree with Adam. I think starting any sentence with, my coach says, my bodybuilding coach says, I know. And sit discredit right there. I don't believe anything he says. Oh, bro, science. So did it, did it cause, was it just you and the two teachers?

Or did it, I was the whole class. Everyone was chiming in. Everyone was trying to give examples that were missing the mark. I mean, we're all new. So it- No, no, it was the whole class. Everyone was chiming in. Everyone was trying to give examples that were missing the mark. I mean, we're all new. So it's like, we're all figuring it out. It wasn't like a super great intellectual debate that I have a whole lot to report on. Oh man.

It was basically named calling for that. Yeah. I mean, what was the Ken since, as did we, did we win? Did we win or we lose? No, we won. Okay, good, good. That's all I mean. We were just wondering if we had to go up there. Yeah, I mean, what was the Ken since this did we did we win do we win or we lose? No, you won okay, that's all we were just wondering if we had to go up there You ever need backup? You just stay there. You let us be your entourage We went who wants a debate?

What was the what was the hardest part of of the whole process from everything from the dieting the training to Even getting up on stage and presenting your physique. What was the hardest thing? The hardest thing was just feeling really isolated. I think feeling like because I mean I like to socialize and go out with my friends. I like to have a drink. I like to, you know, do things that normal people do. And I just felt like I couldn't enjoy those things that I used to really enjoy because I mean they were more chores than whenever a friend would say, oh, let's hang out on on Wednesday. I'd be like, okay, on Wednesday, I have to hang out with this person, and I really don't want to, but I know I have to, because it's a relationship that I want to fuel,

and I need to make sure, like, making sure that I was keeping the connections that I had with my friends was a chore. I didn't enjoy it. It wasn't fun for me. Unless, you know, they were like, let's go for a hike. I'd be like, oh yeah, let's do that for sure. But if it was like, let's go for a drink, I was like, okay,

I'll go with you and sit there and just wait for it to be over. I think that's the hardest part of competing is that piece right there. Is that people don't realize just the sacrifice that it takes to take your physique to that level and to time it at a certain time becomes very selfish. If it was a lifelong goal to get fitter and better, like, okay, well, you can still incorporate getting drinks and doing these social events. Those are just minor setbacks to the overall journey,

but when you have a goal in mind, and I think this is what I always trying to explain to even people that don't want to compete, but they have these goals that they feel so passionate about. Like, I want to lose 30 paths. Like, it's so, and I want to lose it by my birthday, you know, and it's like, and it's doable. Like, it really is. Like, I can mathematically break that down for somebody and say, yeah, yeah, you could get there. But, you know that that's got to become like your priority.

You know, I can't be like, oh, hey, well, Wednesday, I went with my girlfriend and we had some drinks, you know? Like, did you have any nutritional hacks or anything? Like did you like have mineral water or something when they're drinking? Like, what did you do when you're hanging out? Yeah, I drank a lot of sparkling water and I also drank a lot of BCA's

and I know that there's no... Was your coach telling you to do this? Yeah, I know. I was all about the BCA's and I know that there's no... Was your coach telling you to do this? Yeah, yeah. Just all about the BCA's. I feel like Adam would tell you not to. Yeah, he always told me. He always said that was the good, that was something that I actually really liked

about the way that Adam would coach me is he'd give me a lot of freedom to do what I felt like was the right thing to do. So I... Get to learn mistakes on you. No, tell them how I get to learn mistakes on you. No, tell them how I presented BCAC or how you brought it up to me and then how I handled it,

so people understand. Well, I mean, I when I told Adam that I drank BCACs, he was like, you don't need to do that, don't do that. And I knew that already. I don't drink BCACs because I think I need them. I don't drink BCACs for any reason other than it's like a diet soda for me. It makes drinking water fun and it's pretty. And that's it. That's colorful. And I was okay with this answer. I said, okay, if it helps you not drink alcohol and not drink other poisonous shit for us and it's

your one vice right here, I said it can stay in the diet until we get towards the end. No, I will say this about branching. You know what I said, the over consumption of them will, or can at least, interfere with the production of certain neurotransmitters and has been connected with low levels of depression. So be careful with drinking all those branches.

It's true. But you have to drink. You're doing all that. You have to drink a lot of them, but you know, if you're drinking all those branches. It's true. But you have to drink all that. You have to drink a lot of them, but you know, if you're drinking it all day. So I also got on me for microwaving my plastic. Oh yeah. I'm just fucking up. No, I'm other than that.

I mean, I really liked any way that I could figure out how to increase the volume of my food. It was like, I'm there. I want my plate to look full as full as it can. So I ate so many vegetables. I was like a veggie monster. And that's why I also, and that's part of the thing with carbs and fats for me is just the mental game of like fats are so little

and carbs are so much. And right now, I just the mental game of like fats are so little and carbs are so much and right now I just want to at least feel like I'm eating a lot. And it's crazy because I was never eating a little but it felt like a little as I was pushing my, my neat and moving more and more and more. I was like and not changing the way that I was you're not bumping at my calories at all. It would, I would really just like, I just always diverted towards a kid. How can I make all my food look like it's more than an extra?

And there's a psychological component too, where, you know, 1600 calories for a 115 pound girl is not bad at all, but there's a psychological component of knowing you can't eat more. You know what I mean? Like this is my target, I can't eat more. Now you feel restricted, and now it feels like it's a little bit. Because I have clients that I work with who are heavier than you, that I have them track, and they don't, I'm not telling them to eat anything yet, because I'm just observing them. And they're averaging like 1200 calories a day just because

they don't have that big of an appetite. But you better believe if I tell them, that's all you can eat, then that psychological component starts to set in. And you know that, oh, I can't eat more than this. This is all I'm allotted today. It feels restrictive. And so that's the, that's probably how it assumes got to be the most difficult part of all this coaching. Is the psychological piece. Right. And that's another hack that I used for that was was fasting because I mean, Adam never even really instructed me to fast, but I would I just chose to fast almost every day until like noon or one so that then I felt like I had all this food to eat for the rest of the day. It just made it, It just made it so much easier. If I could

get through that first part of the day, and now I like it, now I choose to eat that way and I choose not to eat my food until later because I don't feel like I got used to it. Excellent. Now you're going to compete again. And now I'm going to compete again. Are you coaching her still Adam? Are you doing it on your own now? Most of everything she's done on her own so far. Like I haven't really, I mean, we talked yesterday about kind of the overall plan, but yeah, she's pretty much...

Have you changed to the focus sessions at all? I know you said hamstrings and delts. Are you changing anything? Is it still those? No, I think that's the same focus to keep developing. Still doing the maps aesthetic stuff. Yeah, because she's only when you think about it, and this is what we talked about, right? Because she asked me, hey, do you think I should do a show right again, or should I wait for, because she's qualified for national.

So she could technically go to the Big Miami show, go to the Big Pittsburgh show, or go to the big USA show, and go after her pro card. And I said, well, there's a couple of things that we can do. One, you can do another show and just treat it as practice. Like we don't really give a shit what you're placing is get up there. I mean, obviously you're going to get there and try and win. But I mean, we're going up there to just get reps in because we know we need to get better

at our stage presence. You're not going to become a pro until you get at least comfortable and you get your, at least your solid poses down. And she's at that point right now, right? She's got an incredible shape. I think we smoked everybody on the stage, it wasn't even close. I think the only thing that we can sharpen is we could have came in a little bit leaner if we're talking about the professional level.

And if she could have, I think we're not presenting her. I think her physique is much better than how we presented it on stage. And I told her I was very transparent from beginning to like, I am the worst to help you in this. Like, I'm like the worst posing pro. So, you know, here I am trying to help her and coach her on getting a better poser. So I'm like, nothing is gonna get you better than just fucking reps.

So getting in there and getting in there. So this next show doesn't really do anything for her as far as- Did you guys see an in Adams bikini routine When he drinks a lot he doesn't I'm a bad I'm a bad men's physique poster. I am a horrific bikini poster Like walking noodle I can't even do it. I can't do it. I can't do it So yeah, I'm over and. And so imagine that, right? Imagine me trying to teach her.

So we were lucky, we actually had, oh my God, drew a blanks on her name. Romanta. Romanta. Dave, yeah, his girl, one of his clients. And she's an excellent poser. Yeah, so she came down and she spent some time, her and Melissa got together quite a few times.

But yeah, this next show... She filmed that, it's on YouTube, didn't we? We filmed the whole thing? Yeah, yeah, it's on YouTube. This show, really, like I said, it's not... Her placing first place in this show right here isn't gonna do anything other than really just give her reps. And then probably feel good to take the whole show if she can.

So that really is what this show is about. How many weeks out is that? It's only three and a half weeks from now. So how are you structuring your training now? Do you go phase one, phase two, or do you go straight to phase three through the training with the static type? So I've been bumping up my calories again. I just, I was eating, well, I got up to 21, 100 calories.

And now I am cutting down again. So this is day two of being lower back to like 16 to 18, depending on how much I moved that day. But this one, this time round's gonna be a lot different. It was for when it's shorter and for two I'm in school and I'm sitting for like 10 hours a day at least so That's really hard and it's already proven to be super super tough because I go to class at 8 a.m

I have class until noon I have one hour break in between for lunch. I don't take lunch. I run to the gym. I left as much as I can. And I go back to class, and then I'm in class until five. I go home, I study for another couple hours, and in between my studying, I take a break, and I go to the gym in my apartment complex,

and I lift more, and then I go to bed. So my day, my day for the past couple of weeks has been because I'm trying to increase volume, which is, I mean that's coaches orders. So I'm lifting more and now I'm starting to move more. So that's going to call for me to get on the treadmill probably at like 5 a.m. in the morning. Really, really at this point, when you think about somebody who is running back at another show, that's only three or four weeks out from the last show, realistically,

we're not gonna make any real gains because we're putting her back in a chloric deficit. So there's only a short period where we ramp the calories back up. So the gain train ain't here right now like we're in a deficit we're catabolic. So the likelihood of her building right now is gonna have such as preserve. Yeah, it's exactly preserving lean get up on stage present the best lean physique we can in that short period of time by doing it correctly and healthy and get up there and get reps

in for now of course her competitive ass I know wants to win, but my attitude and coaching wise is like, listen, it's not about that. You've decided to pick a show that's four weeks right after your other one. And if we wanted to really go and build your physique and re-sculpt it and sharpen it more, we would give ourselves some more time, right?

We would go through a bulking phase and put some more muscle on her then come peel back down again. But to run back another show, and this is, I think this is a great point because I see this a lot with Bikini. A lot of these girls, they get trapped in this show after show after show

and they don't have a pro physique yet. Like Melissa's a little bit different. Like I knew it when I met her that she already had the structure, she put the real work in. Like I knew it when I met her that she already had the structure. She'd already, she put the real work in. Like I don't get the credit for that. Like she, she built that over years and years and years of training and I can see somebody and go, okay, if I peeled her down to 3, 4% body fat, she's got what it takes to win.

She has to look for sure. But I see a lot of bikini girls that get into competitions because they just want to or the girlfriend does it. And they really haven't been training correctly for very long or no one's really built a really good program or they're not genetically gifted and so they don't have the aesthetics. And then they just get in this bikini show

after bikini show and they're catabolic, catabolic, catabolic. And it's like how are you gonna progress your physique if you're always catabolic and doing show after show after show. And the only reason why I would even let her do something like that and be totally not against it is that she already has that physique. I think she already has the pro physique. I think she just needs to get reps under practicing getting comfortable on stage.

And like I said, we could to win to win. I think the overall or to GoPro, I think our conditioning could have been one week tighter, that's it, maybe. And even that, even then, I think she could technically win it where she brought it, thought for sure we had the formula to go pro. Well, awesome. Good luck in the next competition. Where can people find you on social media? And on Instagram, at Melly Wolf, M-E-L-I-W-O-L-F. You had to think about this. I was like, I'm going to spell my whole name right now. Excellent. And the video of you posing, you can find it

on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV, subscribe to it, we post a new video every single day. Also, 30 days of coaching, it's available for free at MindPumpMedia.com. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and aANABOLIC, MAPSPRIFORMENT and MAPSISTEDIC, 9 months of phased expert exercise programming designed by SAU-ANIMANJUSTIN to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs.

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