Episode 196

Ep. 196 - Q&A: Ranger School Prep, "Secrets" For My High Rating in Team Week, Ideal Bodyweight for SFAS, ADHD: Advantage or Flaw?, Sleep deprivation Training, Muay Thai & Hybrid Training, Run/Ruck PRs + More

01:04:35Hosted by Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith works through Ranger School ruck failure, How to earn strong peer ratings during Team Week, How to deal with ADHD, Bodyweight vs run/ruck…

Ep. 196 - Q&A: Ranger School Prep, "Secrets" For My High Rating in Team Week, Ideal Bodyweight for SFAS, ADHD: Advantage or Flaw?, Sleep deprivation Training, Muay Thai & Hybrid Training, Run/Ruck PRs + More

Key takeaways

Apply this to your training

  • Ranger School ruck failure
  • How to earn strong peer ratings during Team Week
  • How to deal with ADHD
  • Bodyweight vs run/ruck performance
  • Deadlift swaps in JG3 (hex bar vs RDLs)
  • Sleep prep vs selection reality
  • Ruck Run Lift + odd-object carries
  • Naps, sleep debt, and recovery

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Episode overview

Kevin Smith works through Ranger School ruck failure, How to earn strong peer ratings during Team Week, How to deal with ADHD, Bodyweight vs run/ruck performance and 7 more listener questions in this episode of the Terminator Training Show.

Chapters

  • 00:01:19 — Ranger School ruck failure
  • 00:07:33 — How to earn strong peer ratings during Team Week
  • 00:15:54 — How to deal with ADHD
  • 00:22:36 — Bodyweight vs run/ruck performance
  • 00:25:40 — Deadlift swaps in JG3 (hex bar vs RDLs)
  • 00:29:24 — Sleep prep vs selection reality
  • 00:33:38 — Ruck Run Lift + odd-object carries
  • 00:35:04 — Naps, sleep debt, and recovery
  • 00:40:59 — Muay Thai during selection prep
  • 00:48:25 — Five-mile PRs & endurance benchmarks
  • 00:49:25 — Sugar intake during training

Topics covered

  • SFAS Prep
  • Hybrid Training
  • Running
  • Rucking
  • Recovery & Sleep
  • Q&A

Full transcript

Read the full transcript

(00:00:01):

Hello, I am Kevin Smith and you have found the Terminator Training Show, your one-stop shop for no BS training, nutrition, and health information. For more, please go to terminator training.com. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy the show. What's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I am Kevin Smith. Today is going to be a q and a episode going over some of the questions I got from this week's Instagram q and a. And that is, by the way, the best way to have your question answered or potentially have it answered on the show [00:00:30] or on Instagram. Sometimes I do some double ups, sometimes I just answer on the show. Sometimes I just get too on Instagram. Kind of depends on a lot of different factors, but either way, if you have a question, that's the best way to do it. If it's a really good question, I will eventually choose it, even if it's not the very first time you ask it.

(00:00:48):

I try to get to as many as I can, just understanding that I can't quite get to all of them every single week just because I get quite a few, which by the way, I really appreciate all of you guys asking [00:01:00] me questions. Gives me a lot of fun stuff to talk about and I like to challenge myself and answer some of the more nuanced ones, some of the more questions that I don't talk about that often. And so I love it and not a lot of updates today. So without either way, let's hop into today's questions, starting with went to ranger school with a 498 AFT, cramped a ton during RAP week and failed the ruck time. Help. Yeah, you [00:01:30] definitely need some help. No, just kidding. Well, yeah, you do need a little bit of help and luckily I'm here to help you.

(00:01:36):

So let's start with the AFT. So you got a 498, that's two points shy of maxing, but obviously, and I've talked about this a lot on the podcast, I've written articles about this and I've made posts about it. The AFT is not all encompassing as far as fitness is concerned, and well-roundedness is concerned. You could be highly, highly capable [00:02:00] of crushing the ACFT or AFT, whatever they're going to call it. By the time this episode airs probably change back to something different but AFT and you could also be at the same time, not very capable of doing your job to a high level shoot, move, communicate, medicate as a soldier because it does not test a hundred percent of things. You could have big time fitness gaps and still do well in the ACFT or AFT, but the reverse is not true.

(00:02:28):

If you are really good at your job [00:02:30] and really proficient and well-rounded as a tactical athlete, solid endurance, solid strength, solid strength to body weight ratio for calisthenics and whatnot, a decent amount of power, a decent amount of speed, a decent amount of agility and mobility and durability ability, you would do really well on the AFT regardless of whether you actually train for it or not. Most people, honestly, I've talked about this, I've been outspoken about this. Training for the A FT is a complete waste of time [00:03:00] trained to do your job better and as a byproduct you will do well on the A FT, you should crush the A FT. That doesn't mean you can't practice the hand release pushups as you get a little closer just to get the timing down and the technique down. Got it. Most people, you probably aren't going to be doing those year round in your training anyway, so I get that.

(00:03:19):

But like the deadlift, you should be able to do that on the drop of a dime. If you train consistently and you do the right things outside of training and you take training seriously, the plank, I mean the plank is [00:03:30] there's no excuse ever to fail the plank. Probably a few months ago now, I mentioned on an episode I could pass the plank three 40 without training for it. I could just do it. I have not done a plank since I was in the army. So last A FTI took was probably 2023, maybe 2022, and someone commented in the YouTube video, I bet you couldn't do it without training. And so of course I did it and filmed [00:04:00] it and did it for four minutes. Could have held it longer, but I was just kind of getting bored. The plank is mostly mental, but anyway, you should be able to pass that.

(00:04:08):

You should be able to pass, what is it, the sprint drag carry. I mean that's just a decent aerobic system. The run, it's not really that much to ask to run what is it, like a two mile and 1330 or something like that. And you should be able to do that without really preparing for it to get there. You need to have some sort of sound training approach, but it really isn't that much to ask. [00:04:30] However, for ranger school, that's not everything. Obviously this is a pretty clear indication of one of the gaps just because you can cross the A CFT or a FT, you clearly can't ruck 12 miles in three hours because that's what you would've had to do in order to get through wrap week and you didn't. So the cramping thing is probably just an overall indication that you are not aerobically conditioned well enough in order to continue to subject yourself to day-to day to day [00:05:00] stress.

(00:05:01):

Rap week is definitely a higher stress week as far as physical fitness is concerned. That's really the only week that really requires you to perform a certain way for physical events. You got to do the ranger PT test, which whatever that is these days, you got to go land nav, you've got to do, I dunno if they still do the buddy run, you got to do a couple obstacle courses. You have to of course finish the week off with the 12 mile and yeah, you're not in the best condition by the time you get to the 12 mile. I think it's day four or day five, first [00:05:30] thing in the morning basically at nighttime at least they started us at 3:00 AM or something like that and they kept us up the night before, all but half an hour. And so yeah, it's not ideal, but it's three hours, it's 35 pounds with a little bit of R training and honestly just doing enough running and lifting weights, having enough strength, you should be able to get through that.

(00:05:53):

Maybe not your best time ever, but three hours. I don't know. It does not seem that insurmountable of a task. [00:06:00] So to get there, improve your fitness would be my best recommendation. If you need help, which I strongly recommend getting help, any of the following programs can help. T eight 50, you could hop on that indefinitely. It's subscription based, so you can follow it for as long as you want. You can hop on, hop off whenever you want. There's a free one week trial. You could do something like Jack is L two, Jack is L one, Jack is L three. I would say Ruck run lift would be an option, but it'd be overkill for sure [00:06:30] for Ranger school. You don't need to do that much training for Ranger School, but guys will do it. Guys have done it and will continue to do it.

(00:06:37):

So that's another option too. You could follow SAS, you could follow the two and five mile. If running was a real struggle for you but you were good at rucking, I would recommend the two and five mile. But that doesn't seem like it's the case because in order to make it to the ruck you would've had to pass the runs. So any of those programs can work. I strongly recommend just getting yourself together and making sure that you are prepared to go be a high level [00:07:00] tactical athlete and as a byproduct, oh by the way, be able to get through wrap week and be able to crush an A FT, which you already are pretty good at the A FT, but again, you could just train specifically for the A FT and get really good at those things, but you're still lacking elsewhere. So just something to consider, but at the same time, hopefully you get a chance to go back and hopefully show up a little more prepared next time.

(00:07:22):

And yeah, don't get too down on yourself. Don't think that this is like the end. It's not the end. You can get back and redeem yourself. [00:07:30] Just show up a little more prepared. Next question, anything specific you think you did to get yourself rated so high during team week? Yeah, so for those not aware, when I went to selection in 2012, I was the number two rated candidate by Cadre and the number three rated candidate in my class by peers and I was an 18 x-ray. I was young, I had no experience. I really had no idea what I was doing military wise. I was just very good at what [00:08:00] they asked me to do at selection. I did really well during gate week. I found my land out points and I got highly rated during team week. What did I do special, really not all that much.

(00:08:11):

The main thing that I focused on was my strengths. I really leveraged my strengths and didn't try to be something I wasn't. So for example, I recommend this pretty much to everyone go into team week. There's this common misunderstanding that you have to just be a stud across the board at every single aspect of team week. You have to be crushing fitness, you [00:08:30] have to be crushing knots, you have to be crushing the ability to build apparatuses. You have to be an amazing leader, you have to be an amazing communicator. You have to just be perfect with navigation and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, you don't want to be incompetent completely at any of those things, but you don't have to just be a stud at all of 'em. And I wasn't a stud at all of 'em. My two things were one, well first of all, the thing that made it the easiest was I had a really, really good team.

(00:08:58):

My second team, my first team was [00:09:00] a little bit rough, but my second team was really good. A bunch of studs we got done before anyone else on both days, well before everyone else, and we just worked really, really well together, really cohesive. And so it made my job as well as everyone else on the team's job a lot easier because we just gelled really well together. So that's probably one of the main factors to be honest, it had nothing to do really with me and my skills and my abilities more so just a really good team. So it made me more able to display my skills [00:09:30] and my abilities in that situation. But as far as specific things that I did, my strengths were my strength and my conditioning, my overall selection, specific preparedness. Even more specifically, my team week specific preparedness. I could carry stuff forever.

(00:09:47):

I could ruck forever. I could just continue to take extra shifts. I didn't really need any breaks. I wasn't showing any signs of fatigue or breakdown or anything like that because I prepared really well [00:10:00] for selection, although I didn't do anything that basically my train up then would not look like my train up now it doesn't look anything like my client's train up. I know way more about fitness now, but I knew at least I was going to have to carry a lot of things. So I did a lot of carries and training. I knew I was going to have to wear a rock, so I did a lot of rocking and training. I did a lot of running, so I had a really good solid aerobic base and when I got to team week, I was pretty fresh, relatively speaking. Of course I was a little fatigued because I had just [00:10:30] done the first two weeks, but I was compared to other guys quite fresh and even after team week I could have kept going.

(00:10:36):

If selection went again, I could have done it. Not everyone is like that, but that's what is possible if you put enough preparation into it and you really, really work your ass off. And something I've always been able to do is just outwork people. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but it's just kind of the case whether it's fitness or business or [00:11:00] whatever it may be. Golf right now I'm working my ass off at golf. I just love to put the work in and see the fruits of my labor even though usually it's like a delayed ratification thing. You are not going to just go and train for a week and be ready to roll or two weeks or three weeks. It's going to be years. And I had years of an established aerobic running base on foot and I kind of transferred that to rucking a little bit as I got closer to selection and it paid off.

(00:11:27):

So I was very reliable as far as [00:11:30] physical capabilities, I could go above and beyond during that week compared to a lot of other guys. I was really priding myself on being the last guy to sit down when we took breaks, if at all. I was really intent on being the first guy to stand up and get ready to go rucked up. It seems simple, but you will see it if you go. There'll be guys who are the immediate first guy to ruck flop and they're just like, oh, I'm done or whatever, I really need this break. Or I'm really, really tired. You're [00:12:00] not the only one that's tired. And there will be guys who just lolly gag when it's time to go, always waiting on this one guy or two guys or whatever it is. Never be like that. That is my strong advice whether you feel like you're smoked, more smoked than the other guys are not.

(00:12:14):

Just fake it till you make it. So that's number one. Number two is I was a team captain in all three sports. I played in high school and I felt like some of my leadership skills transferred very well to team week. But again, I wasn't trying to [00:12:30] reinvent the wheel, I wasn't trying to implement crazy leadership strategies. I had never read a leadership book at this point. I've read several since then and if you don't have leadership skills, I would start there. John Wooden on leadership is a really good one. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek is a really good one. Extreme Ownership by Jocko is a really good one. Those are good ones to start with. But also when you read these books, make sure you actually go out and put these things into practice. Don't just read so 'em read so you can go out and do them and develop your skills.

(00:13:00):

[00:13:00] I think it was two episodes ago I talked about how it's your responsibility to become a better leader. It's not someone else's responsibility or some system's responsibility to teach you leadership skills. It's your responsibility and if you don't have any leadership experience, then develop that leadership experience because there's resources everywhere and these resources by the way, were not really a thing back then. Yes, you could read books, but no one was telling me, go and learn these things. I'm telling you guys to go learn these things. There's so much out there that I wish I [00:13:30] had done, but I just never knew any better until I actually started doing personal development and figuring this stuff out myself. So those are probably the main two things along with just the fact that my team was a bunch of studs, so I got most of my positive peers, my blue slips on the second team.

(00:13:47):

I think the first team I might've gotten two or three and on the second team I got probably close to double digits and I didn't get any pink slips. Surprisingly, I didn't get any negative spot reports. Not to say that you can't get negative spot [00:14:00] reports and still rate highly. Oftentimes guys who rate really highly among all the studs might get a negative spot report from the lesser studs that are easily offended or they like to play the victim or whatever. There is definitely a time and place to kick people in the nuts, not literally, but get them the fuck to cooperate. And sometimes that means using some force. That's what I did a lot at Ranger school. When I was at ranger school. I'd usually get 98 to 96% peers, [00:14:30] like positive peers, but I would always get one or two negative peers and usually it's because I was a dickhead to the people who deserved me being a dickhead to them because they just were lagging behind or just hurting the team in some way, shape or form and they just needed a kick in the nuts or kick in the ass, whatever you want to call it.

(00:14:49):

So don't feel like you have to be like Mr. Nice guy. In fact, I would say lean towards not being Mr Nice guy, but also people ask me about these specific things. How should [00:15:00] I react to this situation? How should I react to this situation? It's impossible to game and if you try to game it too much, you're probably going to overthink it and overanalyze things and you're probably just going to make it worse for yourself. So go in, be yourself, make sure that you have some social skills, some teamwork skills, some charisma, the ability to lead when it's your turn to lead. But like I said, don't try and be all these things you're not. If you are not a master or you're not a engineer [00:15:30] mind, then don't try to be the guy who leads the knots or leads the apparatus building. Just be willing to help do what you're told to do in those situations and then find something you are good at.

(00:15:42):

One aspect of team week, two aspects of team week and go from there. Getting a little passionate about this. So really good question. Glad you asked. That's probably my overall assessment of it. Next question, any tips for dealing with A DHD? I'm a college student in ROTC and it's really screwing over my life. [00:16:00] So number one is to stop playing victim to your disorder or I don't even know if, I guess you can call it disorder because it's got disorder in attention deficit, hyperactive disorder, stop thinking of it as a disorder. That would be my number one recommendation. And you're not going to hear this from your psychiatrist or your doctor or anything like that. So this is like my non psychiatry expert answer for you. Think of it as a superpower. [00:16:30] Honestly, I have many, many, many signs and symptoms of A DHD. I know a lot of other guys who have many, many signs and symptoms of A DHD or have full on diagnosis of A DHD.

(00:16:42):

There are incredibly successful people out there that you probably know about. You may not know they have a DHD, but they do and they're out there crushing it because first off, they're not having that narrative that it's going to screw their life over or that it's some sort of thing that they're always [00:17:00] going to deal with and they just are hopeless. So with that out of your mind, then you can kind of focus on ways to attack it or use it to your advantage or weaponize it. One, you're going to have to really, really fight everything that's going on here in 20 25, 20 26. Now in the world there's hundreds of things every day that try their hardest to grab your attention and as you probably know, you're really able to focus [00:17:30] on whatever it is you're focusing on if you're interested in it and you're probably terrible at focusing on things that you're not interested in.

(00:17:39):

At least that's what happens to me. And although I curate my life in my job to mostly have to do things that I really enjoy doing and therefore it's really easy for me to focus on, sometimes I don't with that, sometimes I have to put rules in place or restrictions in place or certain things throughout the day that I know are going to [00:18:00] try and get my attention and try to distract me. I have to be aware of those things and make sure that they don't or set my environment my life up so that they don't. So if you go back to the last episode, I talked about the first two, last one rule where I don't look at my phone first two hours of the day or the last one hour of the day. That one's huge. That's three hours that you can focus on something or that I focus on things that are important to me.

(00:18:25):

The last hour of the day, I'm focusing on setting myself up for a really good night of sleep. [00:18:30] The first couple hours of the day I'm focused on doing something that's going to move the needle forward for me. Right now it's work, but for you it may be going to train, it may be studies, it may be learning a new skill, it may be doing something on your own time that you're interested in that's potentially going to help you in the future, whether it's professionally or just life skill wise or whatever it may be. Other things like setting rules around when you can use social media when you can fuck off. I talked about this last episode too. [00:19:00] Every Sunday I plan out my week and I have time blocks and although I don't stick to it perfectly every time because sometimes I do get distracted, if I didn't do this, I would just be a complete ball of a complete mess.

(00:19:15):

So I plan out my week and that includes times where I'm allowed to let my A DHD happen. I can get distracted, I can fuck off. I call it fuck off time or I go on YouTube or I go on Instagram, but I'm allowed to do it because I planned it and that's what I'm supposed to be doing [00:19:30] right there so I'm not feeling bad about it. And then once that's over, you might have to set alarms to remind yourself when you're fuck off time's over or you might have to set an alarm for like, okay, the only thing I'm going to focus on right here is this for the next hour until this alarm goes off. I don't necessarily do that always, but I do set certain alarms and reminders for certain things. But setting rules and putting systems in place for your life to help you focus on [00:20:00] the task at hand, even if it's not something you love, but especially if you can find something you really love doing, find some sort of major that you can focus on and put all your eggs in that basket, put all your focus towards that.

(00:20:13):

You'd be surprised at how much of a superpower a DHD can be because you can focus on something for way, way, way longer than what other people can focus on. The problem is if you focus on the wrong stuff or a bunch of different things that are a little bit more attention grabbing, a little bit more pleasure seeking [00:20:30] and not quite as much delayed gratification involved, that's when you get into trouble and that's when you get to where you think this thing's ruining your life and making things really hard for you. That's what I recommend. Obviously that's kind of just scratches the surface and I'm not an expert, but those are some things I do. You want to make sure that you have a good solid regimen in place like a daily ritual, whether it's like a morning routine, you do something similar each first part of the day, you do something [00:21:00] similar the last part of the day, you do something similar every night before bed.

(00:21:04):

That way it's just more routine and it's more of just an automatic thing. It's more of a habit. Of course, I get it college, it might not be easy to do stuff like that, but at least on some days or some portions of some days, you can kind of set something up, you can set your life up that way. But again, I can't emphasize it enough. It really does start with you not thinking that what did you write screwing over your life like giving something that type of power over [00:21:30] you is never going to work out. It's either you're going to let this continue happening and it is going to screw over your life and no one really cares by the way, or you take control of it, you try to weaponize it, use it as a superpower and make something of yourself and kind of overcome the potential slight deficit you may be in certain situations, but I'm telling you, if you can find something you really love doing and really direct your focus, your extreme focus, your ability to focus way longer [00:22:00] than someone without a DHD in that thing, you're going to be set up for massive success and you can go big places.

(00:22:07):

So that's my overall recommendation. Again, I am not an expert. You're not going to hear this from a psychologist or psychiatrist. They're just going to give you some pills, probably some amphetamines or whatever they give these days, Adderall, Vyvanse, and nothing wrong with that if you need it, if that's what you need for sure. I'm not saying not to take prescription drugs if you are actually prescribed them, [00:22:30] but you can't overcome it. You just got to point your focus in the right direction. Next question, how much should I prioritize my weight if my run in ruck numbers look good for SFAS? So I wouldn't really think about your weight all that much unless you're like 120 pounds and super weak or you're 300 pounds and somehow good at running and rucking, which I doubt your body weight is just kind of a very poor proxy for your potential success.

(00:22:59):

I've seen Green Berets [00:23:00] that are a hundred and thirty five, a hundred forty pounds real little guys that are studs and they crush. I've seen guys who are 250 pounds, big, huge former lineman who have maybe lost a little fat since then who also crush. So your weight is just honestly a number on the scale. The more relevant things are like you have in the question which you're already pointing in the right direction, your run and your rec times, your ability to do calisthenics, your general overall full [00:23:30] body strength. Yes, weight can be a proxy for strength, but there's plenty of little guys who are super strong, stronger than guys who weigh more than them and there's plenty of big guys who are also kind of weak relatively speaking. So it's just a very, very down the road proxy. That's not even one of the first things I would think about. Also, your body composition too.

(00:23:50):

Are you fatter than you need to be? Are you outside the 10 to 15% body fat range? In that case, maybe getting a little leaner would be a good idea. If you're super weak, [00:24:00] yes, you need to gain strength and oftentimes a good way to gain strength is in combination with muscle by eating in a calorie surplus. That's one thing, but the weight's just kind of the byproduct. It's not necessarily the target. So that's my recommendation. If you can perform too standard and you are not crazy weak or crazy fat or anything like that, then I would say don't even worry about your weight and go and just for reference, I've talked about this a lot, but when I went to selection, I'm six foot one [00:24:30] at least. I used to be six foot one, I'm not six foot one anymore. I'm a little over six feet.

(00:24:34):

I lost height in the military. That'll happen. But I was six one because I hadn't been in the military before. I went to selection and I weighed 168 pounds when I went. So I was very, very skinny and I wasn't even that strong gym wise, but I was strong at the right things. I could carry stuff for a long time. I had good solid core strength. I could get in different positions, I could carry stuff on my back. I never once [00:25:00] at selection thought, oh man, I wish I a weighed more or B, I wish I could squat, bench or deadlift more because it never even became a factor because I was strong at the right things. So that's just a little anecdote from my story. A lot of people think they're like too skinny when they're six foot to all 185 pounds. I'm way too skinny.

(00:25:21):

No, if you're not strong enough, it's six foot tall, 185 pounds that has nothing to do with your skinness or your being too small. It has everything to do with probably your training. You're not [00:25:30] training properly for strength. So that's my spiel on body weight. It's often over indexed by a lot of guys and it's not a really good thing to focus on. Next question, remediating alternatives for the hex bar deadlift and JG three. If R DLS straight bar deadlifts don't hurt. Yeah, so this is kind of uncommon where the hex bar deadlift bothers you more than a straight bar deadlift. But that being said, just because it's uncommon doesn't mean it's not a thing and I'm not saying you're lying, so I totally believe you. [00:26:00] Generally speaking, let's completely forget about these lifts altogether. Generally speaking, if you're going through a program and you're doing a lift that you don't have to be proficient in, for example, the hex bar deadlift.

(00:26:11):

I guess if you're prepping for or if you have to be ready for an A CFT, not prepping for one. If you go back a couple questions ago, yes, you probably should do that at least once in a while. But that being said, if you can deadlift a ton with a straight bar, then you'll be able to do on the day of the PT test, you'll be able to [00:26:30] do three 40 for three. I know this because I never ever trained the hex bar deadlift. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, I just never trained it. I trained stiff bar or straight bar stiff legged deadlifts, RDL and I was plenty strong enough to do the hex bar deadlift for three 40 for three, not because it bothered me, it wasn't really part of my training plan. I would do R DLS with hex bar but not deadlifts.

(00:26:55):

But that's just one example. As long as you can do that on a PFT day or a [00:27:00] FT day, then I wouldn't worry about it and I'm also just assuming that you're in the military. If not, then I wouldn't worry about it even more. So anytime you see a lift that you don't have to be proficient at for your job, for example, you don't have to do that lift. So barbell deadlift, barbell squat, barbell bench press, some sort of row if they bother your shoulders or your hips or your knees or if you find that they're just super fatiguing for you and they interfere with other training or your overall [00:27:30] recovery, switching that lift out is a high IQ move in this case. Absolutely, I would switch out for the first couple of phases. I think those are the only two phases that I have hex bar deadlift in there.

(00:27:42):

I would do R DLS or stiff legged deadlifts or what you could do is a deadlift with a straight bar, but just start it a little higher. The only reason I recommend against doing straight bar deadlifts is because you're going to really do those. You're going to crank down on those in the last couple phases, like very, very heavy low rep strength biased, [00:28:00] and generally speaking, I believe the program's like 16 weeks long, that's a little longer than I recommend heavy deadlifting throughout an entire program. And also those other lifts are just going to enhance your ability. Once you get to the later phases and the deadlifts come in, they're going to enhance your ability to lift more and be less fatigued and less smoked all the time. So I would do R dls, stiff leg deadlifts, good mornings, really whatever hinge you kind of prefer and you should be totally fine.

(00:28:29):

But again, just that [00:28:30] applies to pretty much every single lift. If something bothers you and you have an alternative that's very, very similar to it work similar muscles is a similar movement pattern. Like if you were asking if you could switch this out with bicep curls, different story, but if it's reasonable and it's a very similar lift, always switch it out because there's just no point in grinding through lifts. Even if your buddy says this lift's required, or even if you're weaker at this lift than someone else or you're comparing yourself to others, it's just not worth it and your longevity [00:29:00] is going to be a lot higher, you're going to be able to lift for longer relatively pain-free and your other training's also going to be more enhanced because you'll be more prepared for it, less banged up for it, less stiff, whatever it may be.

(00:29:13):

Whatever the deadlift kind of causes in you is not going to be an issue for you because you're doing a lift that is more appropriate for you for whatever reason. So totally, totally fine. Alright, next question. I'm going to read this question word for word and then I'm going to try and translate it because it [00:29:30] is an important concept, but the question's just, I don't know how I'm, I'm going to guess how to translate it. So you guys tell me why need to fix sleep schedule while in the selection you're going to meet the sleep deprivation. That's how it's written. Alright, so what I'm thinking he's saying is why before selection as you prepare for it, would you fix your sleep schedule and sleep better and try to optimize your sleep when you're not going to be able to do that at selection, you're [00:30:00] going to be sleep deprived at selection.

(00:30:01):

They withhold sleep from you. And yes, this is actually a pretty common question and the main reason is because you are not necessarily trying to mimic every single selection condition as you prepare for selection. Selection is the test you want to show up as well prepared for the test as you possibly can, and the best way to show up as well prepared as possible to the test is to train in as optimal conditions as you possibly can. Now if you're in the military, [00:30:30] some things are going to be not optimal. You might not be able to sleep great every single night. You may not always have access to great food, but when you possibly can or when you have control over it, you want to optimize because every time you go into a training session in preparation for the test, remember every training session you do matters and the net result of all of your training sessions is your preparedness to show up to the test a k, a selection and do well.

(00:30:56):

So every time you go in with poor sleep or with poor nutrition [00:31:00] or you are just overdoing it, whatever the situation may be, you are not going to get as much out of that training session. You're not going to recover from it as fast, you're not going to adapt to it as much and it's therefore the net result down the road is you're going to be less prepared for selection. So in selection prep, you want to do everything you possibly can to optimize your sleep. You want to do everything you possibly can to optimize your nutrition, your hydration. You want to do everything you can to reduce stress in your life because training for [00:31:30] selection is not just physically stressful, the stuff that you're doing, but you're also stressed about the fact that you're about to go to selection. There's probably some worry and some doubt and some uncertainty, and if you can put measures in place to reduce those things, it's going to only enhance A, your recovery, B, your performance, C, your mental state, you're not going to be quite as strung out and overstress.

(00:31:52):

And so then you show up to the test with as many really, really, really good workouts as you possibly can get stacked on top of each other and therefore [00:32:00] as prepared as you possibly can be. Once you get to selection, sleep deprivation and eating MREs and just being deprived of calories and just being super high stress, that's where the mental fortitude aspect comes in. It's just a bridge you cross when you get there. It's not something you prepare for long-term. You don't practice getting sleep deprived. I'm sure most if not everyone listening to this has probably been sleep deprived before, just whether it's their fault or not. So you know what it feels like. Honestly, if [00:32:30] you don't have the mental fortitude to deal with a little bit of sleep deprivation and food deprivation, you're not the guy for the job anyway to be honest with you.

(00:32:37):

So that's when you just grid it out and get through it. I get a lot of people who ask, how do I deal with sleep deprivation or food deprivation? You just deal with it. You just show some mental fortitude and you get through it. It's not that difficult. And if it is difficult for you, then you're probably not the guy for the job. It's not for everyone. The job is only [00:33:00] for certain people and if you can't deal with a little bit of sleep deprivation, then it's probably not for you because oh by the way, that's just a taste of what's to come. You're going to get plenty of sleep deprivation throughout your career and guess what? You're going to be asked and expected to perform at a very high level regardless of the conditions. So that's my recommendation. Don't practice sleep deprivation. Don't eat res leading in just to get used to performing off res.

(00:33:25):

Treat every workout as if it's very, very, very important because it is. And [00:33:30] the more workouts you treat like that, the more good solid, fruitful workouts you're going to get and therefore the more prepared you're going to show up. Next question is ruck run lift suitable for one kilometer carries with odd shaped objects at 50 pounds while rucking? Yeah, every single training session in the entire program is exactly this. You will have an odd-shaped object, you can choose whatever you want and you have to walk exactly one kilometer. If you go any longer, you messed it up. If you go any shorter, you messed it up [00:34:00] and also you're going to have a ruck on. So it is the perfect program. I wrote this program with this exact training session in mind or this exact event in mind. So you're good to go? No, just kidding.

(00:34:11):

Is it suitable for it? Yeah, I mean it's going to make you stronger, it's going to make you better at rucking, it's going to challenge you carry wise, there's plenty of carries odd objects or sandbags. You can kind of choose whatever you want for carries in certain workouts in the strongman sessions. So yes, it will prepare you for it. Are you going to see workouts [00:34:30] that look like this? No, that would be, I mean honestly, if I programmed this exact workout, I wouldn't expect anyone to buy it because they just indicate that I don't know what I'm doing. You can prepare for things like this by not actually doing the exact thing. As long as you're doing something similar relatively often or you're training the different types of fitness capacity involved in something like this, you're going to be good to go. So good question kind of, but yeah, it'll prepare you, but not specifically exactly [00:35:00] down to the exact word of your question.

(00:35:04):

Next question, what are your thoughts on naps? Can they supplement a night of poor sleep and lead to proper recovery? Very good question. This is a really good example of a thoughts on question that is actually a solid question. Some people will just say thoughts on naps. Had you just said thoughts on naps, I would've either chose it and given you a facetious answer or just skipped it. So good context, naps can be great. They are not going to replace a poor night of sleep completely like [00:35:30] one for one. And also I wouldn't do this intentionally like, oh, Kevin said naps are good and if I get bad sleep then I can just make up for it with naps, so I'm just going to do that every day would not do that. But in the scenario where you don't get great sleep, which happens, I totally get that to pretty much everyone.

(00:35:50):

Naps can be a great way to reduce the negative effects and like you said, enhance the, maybe not enhance the recovery process, but at least [00:36:00] mitigate the negative effects on recovery from the poor night of sleep the night before. So there are ways to do naps and there are ways not to do naps. If you just go pass out for however long, like three hours, four hours, even if you just get a really bad night of sleep, I would not recommend that because it's going to mess your sleep up the following night and then maybe the following night and you're just going to be all out of whack. Generally you want to be kind of structured with your naps. So a few little rules, one either really short 20, 30 minutes, not a full sleep cycle. Some people might not even fall asleep [00:36:30] during this time.

(00:36:30):

When I lay down for 20 minutes, I don't fall asleep during the day, but I still feel refreshed afterwards. I just close my eyes rest. Usually I just focus on my breathing and whether I actually fall asleep or not, doesn't really matter. I'm not stressing falling asleep, but I do feel better afterwards. Or you can go a full sleep cycle. If you've got a really bad night of sleep and you got the time for it and you're doing it again at the right time of day, which I'll get into in a second. Then going a full sleep cycle about 90 minutes, it's a little different for everyone, but you don't want to go 55 minutes [00:37:00] or an hour and 10 minutes necessarily in most cases because if you set an alarm for an hour for example, it's going to wake you up right in the middle of your sleep cycle and you're going to feel worse after most likely.

(00:37:11):

So if you go one full sleep cycle and hopefully ideally just let yourself naturally wake up, but I would set a backup alarm just in case you're out and you're potentially going to go multiple hours and screw yourself up. But that's another option too, that timing, you don't want to sleep too close to bedtime. You don't want to nap too [00:37:30] close to bedtime. So if you're napping at like 5:00 PM or 4:00 PM, it's going to screw your sleep up that night most likely. So generally, as long as you're finishing your nap, at least about six hours before you go to bed, then you should be fine. So if you're going to bed at nine tonight and you take a nap at one done with that nap by two 30 should be fine. Everyone's a little different though, so experiment with it. If you take a nap at one day and you try to go to bed at nine, you don't sleep as well and it messes you up the next day, maybe move your nap a little bit earlier or just [00:38:00] shorten that nap.

(00:38:00):

If you take a 20 minute nap, you could probably take that a little later in the day, but for a full sleep cycle, you don't want to get too close to bedtime. But aside from that, I mean if you like naps, you can definitely take them. They're absolutely a great way to, even if you do get a good night of sleep, the night prior naps can enhance your overall effectiveness as a human. Are they going to measurably move the needle as far as measurable recovery? Maybe, maybe not, but also, unless you're really focused on tracking that [00:38:30] kind of stuff, which is kind of probably overkill for a lot of people, then it doesn't really matter that much. If you feel better on naps and you feel like you perform better and your just outlook on life is better, if you take naps, even if you do sleep well, then there's nothing wrong whatsoever with taking naps.

(00:38:44):

Some people don't do naps very well. I really don't do naps very well. Once in a while, like I said, I'll lay down for 20 minutes and close my eyes and I feel better after, but it's not really a full nap. I wouldn't be able to sleep during the day. That's just me personally. But some people can sleep wherever whenever, [00:39:00] which is great. One thing you can do in place of a nap is do some yoga nidra. There's a YouTube channel. The woman's name is Ali oid and she has some great yoga nidra techniques. Basically you just type it in. Ali Boid, she's got all the way from eight minutes all the way up to an hour of yoga nidra and it's also known as NSDR, nons Sleep Deep Rest, and she just basically walks you through a body awareness scan and you don't really sleep.

(00:39:29):

Although I have fallen [00:39:30] asleep just a little bit certain times when I've done it in the past, when I'm really, really tired, I doze off. I don't get fully asleep, but you stay mostly awake or at least I stay mostly awake, and you're just focusing on your breathing and you're focused on whatever part of the body she tells you to focus on. And sometimes she'll paint a picture of an environment like a nice secluded area in the woods or a nice tropical beach, whatever it may be. It just feels good and I feel great afterwards. It's kind of a nervous system [00:40:00] reset, so to speak. That's not exactly what's happening, that's not the scientific term for it, but you just feel more calm but more able to focus, not tired, calm, but at ease, calm, and it can be a great thing to do if you're either running on low sleep or you just feel like you're a little bit overwhelmed, high strung, you got a high stress day, maybe you had too much caffeine, something like that, or a combination of these things, which sometimes happens to me, I feel better afterwards and it's definitely something I would consider [00:40:30] when I do it consistently.

(00:40:31):

Admittedly, I have not been doing it consistently lately, but when I do, I just feel significantly better and more calm, able to deal with stress, and I just feel a little bit more effective as a human. So that could be another option for those of you guys who don't nap very well. But remember, it's not going to completely be a get out of jail free card for just not sleeping well, but it happens sometimes and it can be a good way to kind of mitigate the downsides. Next question, [00:41:00] what is the feasibility of incorporating Muay Thai into a program? I imagine it's not optimal. I don't know. Yeah, so is it optimal? No, it's not optimal, but that doesn't mean everything in your life has to be perfectly optimal. In fact, maybe Muay Thai is something you love doing and it makes you feel really good and you look forward to it all the time.

(00:41:20):

And even if it comes at the cost of some of the gains you might get from the program you're doing, maybe that is optimal for you. Optimal is not like this one target for everyone. [00:41:30] Optimal is kind of this moving target. It's got a bunch of different components. What's optimal for you now may not be optimal for you in three months. What's optimal for you may not be optimal for your buddy. If you were about to go to selection, I would say probably the most optimal thing you can do is really just focus on selection and not focus on weight tie. If you're eight months out, 10 months out, 12 months out from selection and you're in pretty damn good shape and you want to follow a program, but also you want to do wait tie a couple times a week or [00:42:00] anything, this could be like any extracurricular, wait tie, BJJ, pick up basketball, rock climbing, whatever have you.

(00:42:08):

Then oftentimes it's totally fine. What I would do is just make sure that you are a really dialed in outside the gym. If you're a really high stress time in your life, if there's just a lot of stress going on in your life, not just training stress, stress from relationships or family or school or your job, then maybe I would take a look at what you're [00:42:30] trying to do, maybe not follow a super high volume hybrid program plus du Muay Hai multiple times a week. That's just kind of common sense. You're probably going to overload yourself, but if you have a reasonable stress load in your life, you sleep well, you take your nutrition seriously, you are well hydrated, you've got good relationships. You don't do anything crazy on weekends. You don't go out and party and just get hammered all the time and you feel good and you're not banged up, then try doing the program and doing your [00:43:00] Muay Thai.

(00:43:00):

Now, if you're doing Muay Thai multiple times a week, that may be different, but if you're doing it once or twice, it could be that you can implement it and not have to change anything about the program. However, what I would do regardless is ask yourself what one is your main goal and then what one do you want to still do, but just not, it's not like your number one, it's like one B. You have your one A and your one B. If your main goal is to make hybrid progress, like hybrid gains on a [00:43:30] hybrid program, maybe a jackel, it also depends on what program you're following. I'm guessing it's probably one of the hybrid programs, but if that's your main goal, then dial back way, tie a little bit. Maybe just go once a week and go to a lower intensity session that still makes you feel good.

(00:43:44):

You still get that in, but you're not going ham or beating yourself up all the time, like the day before you have to go do heavy deadlifts or something like that. If it's Muay Thai and your backup goal, your one B is hybrid gains, then maybe reduce some volume from the hybrid program or cut [00:44:00] out one of the days, maybe every other week you do the speed day. So you got a speed day. In most weeks of most my hybrid programs, there's a speed work day and there's a tempo day. Maybe every other week you do the speed day and in the following week you do the tempo day or you look at all the lifts and every time you see a compound lift, you drop one set. So if you see three sets, you do two sets. If you see two sets, you do one set.

(00:44:24):

Yes, you can get really good gains on one set if you go hard enough in that set. One other thing you can do [00:44:30] is instead of most weeks have three training sessions, some weeks have four, what you can do is extend out the program and just hit two lifting sessions per week. So instead of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, maybe you do Monday session on Tuesday, you do Wednesday session on Thursday, and then you do Friday session the following Monday, and then you do the second Monday session, the following Thursday, and so on and so forth. So it just basically extends the program out. You're still doing all the training, you're just spreading it out over a longer time horizon. That way you get a little more [00:45:00] recovery and you're training a little less frequently, but you're also still getting all those training sessions in. It's just a little bit of a, if you write it out on paper, it's really not as bad, but that's another option too.

(00:45:13):

Or you could put mutai on the back burner or the side burner for a little while, not do it, do the program, come back to it, any number of different things. So is it optimal for maximum hybrid gains? No, it's not optimal. But for your life right now, it could be just depending on what [00:45:30] you're going for and what else you have going on and what your optimal is for right now at the moment. Next question. It's not really a question, but cool to address. I don't know if you consider yourself a fitness influencer, but regardless, I appreciate what you're doing. Yeah, I appreciate you guys and happy to help. I would say that I kind of have worked my way into influencer status, but not because here's the deal, there's a difference between coaches who are also influencers and [00:46:00] people who are just influencers.

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So you guys probably have followed people who are just influencers. They're not actually coaches, they just post usually videos of themselves training, which is, by the way, I'm not talking shit about these people, but just to give you guys the distinction between who to take advice from versus who to use for inspiration. A coach generally is going to post informative content. They're going to have usually some sort of long form platform like this is a podcast. I can talk for a long period of time about my [00:46:30] area of expertise. I can write about it. I can go on other people's podcasts and answer questions about it. I write long, very detailed captions. Most of my posts take me several hours to make because I put a lot of work and time and effort into them to try and teach people. Once in a while, I will have an influencer post where I'll post a picture of me or I'll post a video of my training or something like that.

(00:46:53):

Usually it has some sort of lesson tied into it, but sometimes it doesn't. But the brunt of it is mostly informative to [00:47:00] other people. And my main thing that I consider myself is a coach to one-on-one clients as well as guys in my training team, as well as people who follow my program kind of by proxy. So although certain people will consider me an influencer, and I would say I don't disagree, I would consider myself a soft fitness influencer or a hybrid fitness influencer. That's not number one thing. People who are just influencers, people who you can definitely follow for inspiration, [00:47:30] and maybe that's probably about it. Entertainment, I guess, are people who don't coach. They almost always post about themselves. They almost always post pictures about themselves. Usually they're really good looking or really funny or really charismatic or really, really fit, really jacked, whatever it is.

(00:47:49):

And some of their stuff might be inspiring, but if you try to get a full explanation about some sort of fitness concept from them, you're not [00:48:00] going to get much. And by design, they don't usually have long form platforms. They don't do a podcast, they don't write in-depth articles, they don't have in-depth YouTube videos, whatever, something that's longer form than just an Instagram photo or video or reel with an inspirational quote in the caption or just a list of all the stuff they do. So that's the way I would make the distinction between a coach who is also sort of an influencer versus someone who's just [00:48:30] a flat out influencer. And I would listen to fitness advice from a coach, someone who coaches first because they have that knowledge, they have that experience. Just because you're super fit and just because what I'm talking about influencers now, just because what they do for training helps them doesn't always mean it's going to help you.

(00:48:49):

In fact, oftentimes influencers will write programs for the masses and they'll sell a ton of 'em. I have bought a lot of these things. I buy almost every program I come across from influencers, especially hybrid influencers [00:49:00] who aren't coaches. So I can see the destruction that's about to happen to all the people who buy them, to be honest with you. But that's something to just be wary of, who to get your advice from versus who to follow for entertainment purposes or for motivation. But thank you, I appreciate your followership, and I will continue to coach first and then influence second. Next question. What was your five mile pr? 1 39, 12 mile is insane work. Yeah, [00:49:30] so my 12 mile PR was actually 1 37, but who's counting five mile PR was 28 17. That was in 2013 or 14 in the Q course. Towards the end of the Q course we did A-U-B-R-R upper body round robin, which is a fitness test they used to do in the Q course.

(00:49:46):

That involved a five mile and it was for a fall slot. The top 20 finishers would get a free false slot, and I was the number one finisher. I got my physical fitness award and everything for my graduating class. But the day before [00:50:00] I was supposed to go get my free fall physical, they told me I needed a waiver for a really old injury I had in high school. Basically I tore my meniscus and for whatever reason I needed a waiver for that and there was no way I was going to get one in 24 hours through the Army. So I did go to free fall school later when I was actually in group and they told me I didn't need a waiver for that, so someone messed up. I was kind of upset about it for a little bit. But yeah, I used to be a solid runner.

(00:50:26):

I used to run a lot, a lot, a lot. And kind [00:50:30] of like I mentioned earlier, I was just a lot more built for running. I was just smaller, skinnier and could therefore move pretty quick today. I don't know, I barely run anymore right now. I'm going to start getting back into running very soon, but I might be able to break 40 minutes maybe, probably not honestly right now if I'm being dead honest with you guys right now. So there are seasons of life and that was a fast running season of my life and my 1 37, 12 mile [00:51:00] ruck was around the same time. It might've been the same month, but I was definitely an endurance beast back then and I'm not so much anymore and I was not even the fastest guy in my class. I had, you guys might even know him, Robert Killian, who is a big time Spartan racer or he was at least a big time Spartan racer.

(00:51:18):

He was a National Guard officer and he, by the way, has a public Instagram, so I'm not giving this guy's name away or anything like that. You could probably look him up. But he ran 26, he ran a 26 minute [00:51:30] five mile and he would pass me, so I was in second. He would go and turn around and didn't even look like he was trying that hard. But I outdid him on all the other UBR stuff. So I got the overall victory, but he beat me in the run. So anyway, funny stuff. Next question, how much sugar is too much wind training? So I'm guessing you're referring to interwork workout nutrition. So usually sugar, some form of sugar is going to be the best way to fuel longer [00:52:00] training sessions, and I've talked about it a lot in the past, but I've never actually given a too much sugar limit or anything like that.

(00:52:08):

Not that there really is one, but generally speaking, certain types of training you're going to want to consider intro workout fuel. If you're doing a lift for 60 minutes, you can have an intra-workout drink. I do, but it's mostly a mental thing. It's not really given me a crazy physical boost. If you have a really high carb need and you struggle [00:52:30] to get your carbs in through food, putting 60 grams of carbs in a shaker cup and sipping it while you're training, even if it's not long enough or hard enough for you to need ones necessarily, that's totally fine too. It's almost like sneaking some carbs in the back door or if you are in a calorie deficit and also you're not starving all the time, you're not in an extreme deficit, but you want to get that workout boost. Having some sort of intra-workout carbs or maybe you start sipping on 'em as you drive to the gym and then you finish it throughout your workout can be a good [00:53:00] idea.

(00:53:01):

Not always, like I said, if you're struggling to eat enough, you want to probably save those calories for actual food so you can get that in and you don't feel so deprived, but there's a time and place for it. Or if you're doing something longer than say 75 minutes, any sort of endurance session, longer than 75 minutes, you're going to want intro workout fueling to get the best results from it to keep yourself as well fueled as possible. It's going to enhance not only your performance in that session, but also your recovery thereafter. Generally speaking, you want to find a [00:53:30] carbon intake that is as high as possible within a certain limit I'll get to in a second. That doesn't cause GI distress. AKA doesn't cause gas bloat run into the bathroom to have to shit run into the woods, to have to shit nausea, whatever it may be.

(00:53:48):

Everyone's a little different with what type of GI distress they experience and to get there, you want to start a little bit low. You want to start conservatively and then work your way up over time because just like you get better at running [00:54:00] by running consistently and adding volume, adding intensity over time, your GI tolerance to carbohydrate intake during these training sessions in a stressed out state also gets better over time. But you want to start low and work your way up. So usually starting in the 50 ish grams per hour, this is for most males, 50 grams per hour is a pretty solid place to start. Probably not going to experience any GI distress. That's like two gels. Maybe you have a gel at the 20 minute mark and then another one at the hour or at the 40 minute [00:54:30] mark, another one at the hour, another one at the hour and a half, so on and so forth.

(00:54:35):

That should be totally fine. And then over time you can increase that in small doses. Maybe for three or four runs in a row, you have 50 an hour and then you go up another gel. So you're now at 75 and you do that for several runs in a row and then maybe you go up another gel. They do make gels that are not quite 25 grams of carbs, but I would say the average ones about 25. So it makes 25 car bumps, pretty simple, but [00:55:00] if you do 25 every single time, you're suddenly going to be at a hundred and then 125 and you might run into some issues if you go that quickly with that much of a bump, you could kind of ration them off and do like 50, then 60, then 70, and so on and so forth per hour. That's fine too, but it's also okay to make bigger bumps if you allow your body a few times to get used to a certain number before bumping it up.

(00:55:27):

That being said, there is a limit. You don't want to go much [00:55:30] higher than about 120. Even if you can handle more than 120 grams of carbs per hour, like GI wise, it's really not doing much. When your body's in a highly stressed out state doing a hard endurance activity. It's not really like prioritizing digestion, it's not prioritizing moving food from your gut to your bloodstream to provide nutrients in this case, provide quick acting carbohydrates for you to use for energy. So at some point you're going to get to a point [00:56:00] where even if you can handle it, it's not really doing you any good, it's kind of just a waste of money. You're taking maybe another gel to get up to one 50 that gel is you're not really utilizing it, you're not utilizing that substrate, it's just physiologically not happening. There are certain cyclists in the Tor De France that have experimented with 150 ish grams of carbs per hour, but that's also cycling.

(00:56:24):

Running is another little bit of a nuance because of the up and down, the locomotion and the [00:56:30] jousting, jousting, I dunno what you want to call it, the different movements, whereas cycling, you're just sitting on a bike so you're not moving up and down like you are running. So that's another consideration is usually cyclists are going to be able to take in more per hour than runners, but not by a ton. I would cap it at, if you can get up to a hundred, that's pretty damn good. If you can get up to 120, that's even better, but don't feel like you have to force it. For most people listening to this, you're not at such a high level, no offense, but [00:57:00] you're just not where a hundred versus 120 is going to make a huge difference. If you were competing for the best ultra runner in the world or something like that, you're going to Western states 100 and running with David Roche and Killian Jne and Jim Wamsley, that would be one thing you'd really, really, really want to get that dialed in.

(00:57:19):

And you can do that if you want, but honestly, if you take in a hundred grams of carbs per hour, you're putting yourself in the 1e-05% of tactical [00:57:30] athletes that actually give a shit about performance. Most people just have a cliff bar halfway through a rock and sip on some plain water and call it good. So you're way ahead of the pack in that scenario, but you can get up to one 20 and see how it goes. But again, work your way up there slowly over time, once you get up to that 80, 90 per hour range, that's when you want to really, really slow down and be mindful. In worst case scenario, in a training run, you go a little overboard and you have whatever GI symptom you may experience [00:58:00] and you learn that about yourself. That's honestly not even that bad of a case scenario.

(00:58:04):

A, it's a training run so you can go take care of business and then go back out and run. Or worst case, you just have to stop that run and you go back out next week and you know better. But also you just get to learn more about your body and what you experience because if you're training for a really long event, most likely at some point you're going to experience some sort of GI distress, not necessarily because you went overboard on fueling, but just because that's what happens when you're running for really long periods of time or rocking for long periods [00:58:30] of time or both. So that's what I'd recommend for workout fueling and definitely take it seriously because it does make a huge difference. But whether you're getting 90, a hundred, 120 doesn't really matter all that much, but may as well if you got the funds for it, especially to buy all those gels because I mean five gels per run, if you have 5 25 gram gels per run, that's about 125 grams of carbs, which is about probably the limit that I would cut it off, that's going to be like, I dunno, [00:59:00] five by, they're probably about three bucks each, so that's like 15 bucks a run.

(00:59:03):

So you got to consider that too. You can use other things too. You can use tailwind. I generally recommend going back and forth between liquid and goos or gels or chews, whatever you prefer. You can also just use gas station candy. It's not the most optimal form of sugar necessarily compared to what they put in most runner gels and most actual endurance supplements. But it's still good enough, it's still better than nothing and it's definitely cheaper. So that's what I'd recommend [00:59:30] for that. Next and final question, this is more of a PSA on my part just because it's a very common thing and I want more people to hear it. Can I DM you for program tailoring and specifics or what is the best way to contact you? Yeah, so I'm glad you asked. I do really appreciate you asked because a lot of people will just send me their life story in like 5, 6, 7 full Instagram character length dms and expect me to be able [01:00:00] to give them a highly nuanced answer with all these different things and read through it and personalize everything for them.

(01:00:06):

And in fact, some people even get upset when I don't respond within a couple of days to these things as if I'm just sitting there on Instagram waiting for everyone to ask me their very specific, highly nuanced questions about their exact plan and their exact structure. And oh, by the way, no offense to you guys. Sometimes it's all over the place and sometimes I'll say, Hey, just follow this program. [01:00:30] And then sometimes people get upset about that even though the program's going to take them a lot further than what they're doing anyway, that's beside the point. I unfortunately don't have the bandwidth for it right now. I get probably a dozen of these per week, and that might be generous. I may get 15 to 20 on some weeks and I simply wouldn't be able to in the 24 hours every day that I have and all the things I have to do in order to maintain my job and maintain the ability to [01:01:00] continue doing stuff like this, giving as much free information as I possibly can.

(01:01:04):

Yes, I ask for money for certain things, I sell things, but that's how businesses work for the most part. I'm willing to give everything away for free. Everything you'll ever see in any of my paid products I've talked about or I've written posts about, or I've written articles about the reason you guys pay is because it's all together in one seamless, easy to follow thing. That being said, I wouldn't be able to do any of that stuff. I wouldn't be able to, all my clients would fire me. [01:01:30] I wouldn't have any time to actually help my paying clients, guys who pay me quite a bit of money every single month to help them. I would not have time to sit here and make podcasts for the masses. I wouldn't have time to write articles, eBooks, new programs. I really wouldn't have time for anything or bandwidth, mainly bandwidth, more so than time.

(01:01:52):

Yeah, if I did it all day, I could probably get to my client's questions, but I can't handle that mentally. [01:02:00] I have to look out for my own mental sanity and my own mental health. And turns out sitting on Instagram all day, DMing people just SAPs the shit out of me. And I used to help people out as much as I possibly could, and I still do. If you ask me a simple question on Instagram, I will do my very, and I see it because I get lots of dms, some of 'em go to my hidden folder and so on and so forth. I'll do my very best to point you in the right direction. But sometimes it may not be the most elaborate answer, and it may not be a personalized answer on every single [01:02:30] thing you just asked me. So this is more of a PSA than anything else.

(01:02:34):

I wish I could give everyone a perfect answer and help them out and just tell them, do this instead of this, do this instead of this. Get really, really into the details. I actually really love doing stuff like that and doing big time program breakdowns and whatnot, but I just don't have the bandwidth for it right now at all. And it will continue to not have the bandwidth for it either. So the best way to contact me is to apply for [01:03:00] coaching, and if you have a really good application, then I will see it and I will reach back out to you with some options. Right now, I don't do any consults. I just again, don't have the bandwidth for it because 12 people per week ask me for a consult and I just can't do it. So sorry. I appreciate your trust in me and keep asking me questions on these.

(01:03:24):

Keep asking me DM questions like more simple ones and I'm happy to answer. You can email me as well, and [01:03:30] generally my wife handles the emails, but if it's a more simple question that I can sit down and type for a minute or two minutes or three minutes and not have to spend 45 minutes trying to decipher all these different things, then I'll do that. But people ask me questions that are 10 times more complicated than something a client that pays me a lot would ask me. And hopefully you guys understand that. It's just I'm only one person and I can't answer everything like that. I just [01:04:00] simply do not have the bandwidth or the time, and I would not be able to do stuff like this if I did. So thank you very much for understanding. And with that, we're going to end it here. Thank you guys very much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode. Until then, Terminator out. Thank you for listening. If you like this show and want to start crushing your goals, please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And for more fitness content, follow me on Instagram at terminator training or check out my website, terminator training.com. Alright guys, Terminator [01:04:30] out.