198 - Q&A: Building a Running Base, Injury Recovery, Overrated SFAS Exercise, Self-Doubt & More

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What's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. Today is gonna be a q and a and it's also gonna be a little different from what I've been doing. I am going to do a little bit more of a rapid fire approach where I go through more questions than I usually do. I usually get to recently 12 to 15 questions per episode and I'm gonna try my best to double that so it'll be a little bit less context per answer, but it'll be more questions. That way I can get to more people and not leave really good questions out because inevitably every single week [00:00:30] I have to leave lots of good questions out just by default. And of course I'll still leave some questions out today. There's, I usually get, I don't even know how many questions, but it would be impossible for me to talk that long and answer all the questions coherently, but I will try to get to some more.

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And before we hop into that, just a quick announcement reminder, the sale on the soft bundle is still going, that'll be going till the end of the day, Saturday the 24th, which is probably when this episode airs [00:01:00] either the same day or the day prior. So every item in that bundle is individually on sale. The information for that is all listed in the description. The code for 25% off is run lift 25, all one word. And you can see what those programs are down in the description. If you want a deep dive on pretty much all of my programs, I will have links to episodes that go over my most recent one, Jack Gazelle, as well as the one before [00:01:30] that rock run lift, as well as another episode that kind of talks a lot about the first two Elles as well as two and five mile.

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And then it also brush brushes over the other programs too. So if you're interested in hearing more about those or if you're interested in that bundle, act quickly, you can still get 'em for 25% off. The sale is gonna end pretty soon. So that of the way, let's hop into the first of many questions. When's the new running program drop? It is probably gonna be [00:02:00] dropping by the end of February. I don't have an exact date yet, but the goal is by the end of February and that is gonna be a little bit more of an advanced program compared to two and five mile. It's gonna have higher volume and it'll have some cool runs that you probably haven't seen before, at least in my programs. So that one, I'm having a really good time building it and yeah, it is getting there so thanks for asking.

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Next question, how many carbs pre long ruck or run? So it depends on lots of different things. It's pretty big range. It depends on when [00:02:30] you're eating, it depends on whether you're talking about a full meal a couple hours prior ish or if you're talking about just a quick bolus of carbs right before you go out, both of which can benefit you depending on what you're doing for training, how long your training session is, et cetera. So 75 minutes or longer is generally the litmus test for whether you need a good amount of carbs right before your training session. Honestly, if you're doing something that's really high intensity, like a time trial, even if it's less than 75 minutes, [00:03:00] you can have a bolus of carbs like a gel or some sort of liquid carb supplement or some Gatorade or something like that right before, just so you have that circulating glucose levels along with full glycogen stores, which you get from your more macro carb intake over a longer period of time.

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As far as full on meals, if you're eating closer to training, you want to keep it a little bit lower carbohydrate if you're eating further away from training, you can have more carbohydrates, you can also have more fat, you can also have more fiber. [00:03:30] Generally fat and fiber are things to keep low only, not just in general, but people always get this wrong, not in general but low prior to training. If you're eating relatively close, if you're having a meal like four hours prior, three hours prior, then you can have some more fat and fiber. I wouldn't go crazy on it, I wouldn't eat like four avocados and a bunch of Metamucil, but you can have a little bit more of a mixed macro meal as you get a little closer 90 ish minutes prior to your training session, maybe two hours. [00:04:00] It's kind of individual, but around there you wanna keep fiber and fat a little lower so the food digests quickly and it doesn't just kinda sit in your stomach and cause any number of dif different digestive issues.

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So somewhere if you're in that 90 minute to two hour range and you're like an average size male, let's just say, and you're not in some crazy calorie deficit or you're not eating a very unconventional diet of some kind, you're kind of eating for performance, 80 to a hundred grams of carbs is pretty solid. You [00:04:30] can get up to one 20 if you have very fa, fast digesting carbs like white rice or rice and grinds, if you're eating two and a half, three, three and a half, four hours prior, you could probably double that for the most part. You could get a hundred fifty, a hundred seventy five grams of carbs in. But that being said, you don't necessarily have to, as long as your general carb intake over a long period of time, like on a regular basis is high enough, you don't have to necessarily have a massive, massive carb meal before a training session, especially if you're also fueling during it.

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And that 75 minutes is [00:05:00] kind of the litmus test for whether you should fuel during your training or not. So any of those numbers, obviously that's a really big range, but it just depends on the person, it depends on mostly the duration that you have between that meal and when you actually start your training session, but you can kind of go from there. Next question, tips on maintaining pace on runs. So pacing comes down to two things. One skill which you get from practicing in training. The other is discipline. So you could [00:05:30] have all the ability in the world to pace, maybe you practice it all the time, but this is very, very common in the military. The start line, everyone's just pumped up. Everyone's about to go on their two mile or their five mile and they say Go and everyone just takes off at a PR 400 meter pace for a five mile run or even worse, an unknown distance run at at selection or something like that.

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So really trusting your pace pacing skill which you develop by training, honestly like if you are following, hopefully [00:06:00] you're following some sort of run progression, one run program, whatever it may be. Hopefully there's pacing in it. Generally what I have guys do is really focus on their pacing in their repeats as well as their tempo work. And usually unless you're a little more advanced, sticking to a negative split, which means you get a little faster with each mile or with each whatever interval, you kind of choose. If you're running a one mile, maybe you get a little faster with every 400 or 800 meters. If you're running a two mile, maybe the first mile is a little slower, second mile [00:06:30] is a little faster. Five miles, same thing. Although five mile and longer runs you can kind of go half and half. So like a five mile could be faster, mile by mile or it could be like the first two and a half miles, a little bit slower than the last two and a half miles.

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If you're a little more advanced, something like a strong start strong finish where you kind of coast in the middle, if you finish you start with your first mile or maybe a little less than a mile, you go pretty damn hot out the gates but in a controlled manner, not just full on sprint like you're gonna just die [00:07:00] off immediately and then you kind of coast in the middle, kind of a more maintainable, a little bit less of a, oh shit, I'm about to go too fast pace. And then you turn it on at the end and finish really strong. That's a little bit more of an advanced technique and it definitely takes some more discipline and it takes some more skill and practice, but that's another option too. But really it just comes down to practicing it in training and then when you're actually on race day, having the discipline to be like, I need to run my pace, not [00:07:30] everyone else's pace.

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Generally people are gonna take off that have no business taking off whatsoever and you're gonna pass them anyway pretty soon, honestly sooner than you might think, especially if it's a longer race. Like if guys take off and set a 400 meter PR on the first 400 meters of a five mile, you're probably gonna pass them pretty damn quickly. Two mile they might be able to hang on a little bit longer just 'cause it's a shorter overall run and you guys are going at higher relative speeds. But still just trust your pacing and [00:08:00] practice it and be disciplined on race day and you should be totally good and it's not gonna happen like next week like oh I stuck to my paces this week, I'm gonna be really good at paces. Now it comes over time just like any sort of running progress. It takes time, it takes repetition, it takes weeks, months, et cetera and overtime you develop it.

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So that's really all it comes down to. Next question, I can't get into zone two rucking flats in Jack 3.0 should I incline treadmill ruck or just run instead? So if your main [00:08:30] goal is to get better at rucking, I would definitely ruck and not worry right now about your inability to get into zone two. A lot of people, I would say most people I should say can't get into zone two walking only when they first start rucking because they don't have the the leg turnover that's required to do it. So you know if you're ruck walking and you're rucking a 16 minute mile pace and you're in decent shape overall but you're just not used to the actual act of walking really fast with a ruck on, you're probably not gonna be able to get into zone two, in [00:09:00] which case you know, you can either, you could do the incline walk if you want, but if you just care about the zone two adaptations then I would just run.

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But if you want to be good at rucking, I would continue practicing rucking, not necessarily on an incline, but the more you practice it over time, the easier it's gonna get for you to get into that zone too. 'cause you're gonna be going so much faster. You know if you're going from a 16 minute per mile pace for example, and you continue to do it again, not like twice or three times, but a lot of times [00:09:30] eventually you're gonna be able to get to where you're walking 12 30, 13 minute mile pace. This is very realistic. It sounds insane to a lot of people but it's very realistic. I have lots of clients that have cut four or five minutes off their per mile pace with a ruck on and generally if you're walking a 1230 mile, a 13 minute mile, unless you're insanely insanely aerobically fit, you're probably gonna be in zone two.

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But it's just kind of getting the skill down and getting the leg turner over down and being more accustomed to walking [00:10:00] really fast, which comes over time with repetition and you should be able to get there. So what should you do now? It just depends on what you're going for. If you want to get better at rucking, I would be okay if just not quite getting into zone two The first few times you ruck and eventually hopefully you'll get there. Or if you don't really care about rucking, you just want to get more fit and do a zone two session, then you can do any number of different things. You can run, you can do some incline walking, you can do some [00:10:30] StairMaster, you can hop on a bike, you can do a bunch of these different things as well. It just depends on what you're going for, but that is the main thing I wanted to address with trying rucking out and trying to walk fast enough to get into zone two the first time, you're just not gonna be able to do it.

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And this is a point of contention among like everybody I talk to, oh it's so uncomfortable for me to ruck walk. How many times have you done it? Three, like have you ever done something three times and just been a complete natural at it and felt amazing at it? Any sort of exercise let [00:11:00] alone really anything. No, probably not. Probably takes you more times than that. So I'm not saying this is like not trying to like give the person who's asking this question shit, but I get this stuff all the time and it's like you're just not used to it yet. You need to continue doing it and you build skill and you get used to it and it gets easier, it gets easier to actually do it. It also gets easier to go at higher intensities to where you get your heart rate up because you're able to move faster.

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Next question. Opinions on tactical barbell program. So I just don't have the same [00:11:30] philosophies as tactical barbell. I think that obviously they have a tried and true program and it speaks for itself and I don't think that like what they do is wrong. What I do is right necessarily. We just don't have the same philosophies. I am not anti barbell but I am definitely anti barbell for everything and anti straight bar for everything. Pretty much everything in their program is either a straight bar of like pull up or a fixed position dip or presses, rows, et cetera, all with a barbell. And [00:12:00] I have been around way too many people throughout my career, both in SF as well as a coach to know that using a barbell for everything in a straight bar for everything is just not a longevity friendly way to train. So it can be a great way to kind of build our initial general strength and get really strong in the barbell lifts, which I think is really important, especially starting out like early on in your lifting career.

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But it's not how I train for most people. I think having some more variety where your joints can actually twist through a range of motion, rotate through a range of [00:12:30] motion. You can pick machines that are a lot more appropriate for your build. You can rotate the barbell in and out just depending on your build. Not everyone's built well for squats, not everyone's built well for bench press. Not everyone's built well for deadlift and mo actually I should say almost no one is built well for all three of those lifts, most people are gonna have a problem lift unless you're ed cone, you just have like the most perfect genetics for power lifting. By the way, he's like the best power lifter of all time and he's one of few powerlifters whose squat bench and deadlift are all insane. Most [00:13:00] power lifters have two lifts.

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Most great power lifters have two lifts they're really good at and one that they're lagging behind a little bit, just be mainly because of their build, not because they don't work hard on it, they probably work hard harder on the lift that they're not built for than the other lifts. But Ed Cohen was built well for all of them and he's the best of all time. He has like 81 world records or something like that, but most people are not like that and therefore they're gonna have a lift from the big three as well as potentially the overhead press. [00:13:30] The row is a little bit different but the row definitely still does involve some solid mobility and really good form and lack of ego, which honestly just most people don't have At some point when you just continue doing those lifts, you're gonna run into joint issues, you're gonna run into general fatigue issues and I think it's a better idea to rotate those out.

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Then again if you wanna do a tactical barbell program and get strong in the barbell lifts, then I think it's a great option two each their own. Next question, what programs would you recommend to set up a solid base of running to build on? So [00:14:00] I have base faces built into two of my programs. One is my two and five mile program, the other one is Jack L 3.0. The main difference between those programs, just real quick, two and five mile is more biased towards the two and five mile run. There is some lifting but I wouldn't consider it a true hybrid program although plenty of people do gain strength on it. There's enough strength in there that if you're not like a super advanced lifter you should be able to gain some strength in certain lifts but it's more so focused towards running whereas Jack Iselle is 3.0 [00:14:30] is very much more strength bias.

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It's still a hybrid program, you're still gonna get better at running and it's still important to follow a base or get build a good base whether you follow that or you already have a base going into it but it's a little less run biased. So I would expect your gains to be more broad spectrum rather than very, very specific to the two and five mile run. Next question, how frequently and how many sets should I do for deadlift to maintain strength at basic there's a X bar, hell yeah, you got a X bar, [00:15:00] that's great to hear. So strength maintenance is very, very, very, very minimal compared to strength gain. Once you gain a bunch of strength in a lift, you can do something like one fourth to one sixth of the volume depending on the lift, depending on the person and maintain it. So honestly, if you're hitting one or two sets of dead lifts once a week, you should absolutely maintain it as long as it's a intense enough set, not necessarily to failure, not with your one rep max not maxing out but somewhere 90% plus if you are [00:15:30] looking for your one re like to maintain a one rep max somewhere 90% plus of your one rep max and you can do that for a couple sets of one or two if you're looking to just maintain general strength, I wouldn't really recommend going like 90 plus percent for ones.

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I would say probably in the 85 plus percent range and it, I say these numbers generally because your fatigue's gonna fluctuate, your preparedness is gonna fluctuate, you're probably gonna be sleeping decently sometimes and poorly other times your food's gonna be all over the place. [00:16:00] So just listen to your body, don't get this certain percentage just stuck in your head and always chase it. But if you're lifting north of 85% for north of 1, 2, 3 reps every so often, probably once a week, once every 10 days you should be able to maintain it. For example, I am currently doing deadlifts. I have a six day split, I have two leg days, two push days and two pull days. They're on kind of an AB split so I hit deadlift on my leg day B [00:16:30] every 12 to 13, sometimes 11 days. It's kind of an asynchronous split.

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So some days I, some weeks I trained three times other weeks I trained four times and I have gained strength in it throughout that time. Doing one set of four to six, I started with like 3 25 which definitely was undershooting for me. I wanted to kind of start low and work my way up and the most recent time I did it was a few days ago and I hit four 40 for four. So you [00:17:00] can maintain it, you can build it even on very low volume of course that's not the only lifting I'm doing, I'm doing other stuff that are gonna kind of translate well to my deadlift, hip thrust squats, glute hand raises, things like that. But it is not a very hard lift to maintain if you are actually looking to maintain it. If you want to build, you can do that too, maybe hit it twice a week for two or three sets and you'll build strength on it If you're programming a sound and you don't just force it and of course you're able to like eat enough and sleep enough, which you know is kind of a, who [00:17:30] knows that basic.

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But yeah it doesn't take much at all and that goes for really any strength, any muscle like it's so much easier to maintain than a lot of people think. Yeah it takes a while to build and takes even longer to build if you're more advanced but it is definitely easy to maintain very, very little volume compared to what it took to build. Next question, purpose of unweighted long zone two stairs for CAG prep. Cross training is the main purpose. I believe he's referring to rock run lift, which [00:18:00] is my multi selection choose zero adventure program including CAG selection prep and I have unweighted stairs slash incline incline treadmill work on some of the days towards the later phases mainly because that is gonna be a run day for most of the selection goers but because CAG selection is very much RU dominant and not very run dominant, there's not a lot of running for the CG selection option towards the end of the program [00:18:30] it's a lot more rucking and instead of having a another ruck day, which would be kind of overkill going on a zone two long stair climb or incline walk or mixing both is gonna be a great way to still get time on your feet but in a much lower stress manner and also just not have any load on your spine.

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So it's more specific. Cross training is basically what it is. You're gonna be climbing a lot while you're there and you know getting a little bit of uh, [00:19:00] roundabout stimulus for climbing on stairs or an incline walk is a great way to still be a little bit specific towards rucking but not quite as specific. And the trade off of less specificity for it is less joint wear and tear as well as less load in your spine because you're gonna do plenty of rucking during the program. It just can't be like every single training session. So that's the main reason why. Next question, what will your new running program look like in relation to the two and five mile? [00:19:30] Alright, so it's gonna be much higher volume, it's gonna climb basically on the two, two and five mile. It's gonna start with slightly higher volume and work up as it goes.

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It's gonna fluctuate a little. A lot of running programs have just higher volume every single week, which is not the best way to do it. So it's gonna fluctuate but it will definitely get quite high probably in the 45 to 50 mile per week range. Generally that's, you know, way more than anyone really needs in the military but it's probably a pretty manageable [00:20:00] way to train for short periods of time for a lot of people, especially if you just did two and five or you just did jack gelle or you just did a nice long base phase and you're somewhat experienced with running. I would still probably start with two and five mile if you're just coming off a layoff, even if you do have a really strong base, but not everyone's gonna do that. It's gonna have a very unique lifting split that's gonna be a little asynchronous.

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One week's gonna look different than the next week and the next week's gonna look different than the next week. They're gonna have similar lifts but it's gonna be more of like a biweekly split. [00:20:30] Very, very nuanced and probably the only time you'll ever see that in a program. I just, I don't do that just to be like weird or special but I have certain programming principles that I follow, especially for run programs. So it'll be a little bit asynchronous, it'll have some speed work, some five mile development, some two mile development, plenty of tempo, plenty of short hill sprints, plenty of longer hill sprints or hill repeats long runs. Some of the long runs will have some quality and also in this program there's [00:21:00] gonna be options to add rux in or not add rux in but replace certain runs with rucks basically every weekend you can either ruck or run and if somebody is following this like going into selection prep or something like that, what I'll recommend, and I'll definitely have this in the notes, but I'll recommend that someone alternates back and forth week to week, rucking running, rucking running, so it's gonna be a pretty sick program.

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I'm pump for it. It's definitely a challenge to build it, just getting all the speed work down and making sure I'm [00:21:30] not doing anything too much or too hard or too easy. So that's like the main thing that I have to work on quite a bit but I'll make sure it's good to go and ready for you guys to follow. So super pumped for it. Thanks for asking. Next question, why do you recommend not to run before lifting? So generally if you are, if you're ru running is your main goal, like all you care about is running and your lifting is done in support of your running. Ideally you do runs and lifts on this separate days, but [00:22:00] if you have to do 'em on the same day and you have to do them back to back, it's probably okay to do your run first.

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Assuming you're not doing anything crazy in the gym as far as like you're doing basic runner style lifting, not like going and squatting and benching and deadlifting super heavy right after a run, that wouldn't be very smart. The main reason it's not very smart and the main reason I recommend anyone else who has hybrid goals or even if you do have like a slight bias towards getting better at running but also you're lifting even if your [00:22:30] lifting is you know you're comfortable with it. I still recommend lifting before running because running is going to A dehydrate, you B deplete your glycogen stores C, stress your joints out. So this is especially important on lower body days. D, it's also gonna mentally fatigue you a little bit. So when you go into a lift with slight levels of dehydration, glycogen storage, depletion, a little bit of mental [00:23:00] stress or a little bit of mental fatigue and a little bit of joint stress because you just went running, especially because most guys honestly just don't have very good running technique.

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So their runs are a lot more stressful on their joints than they otherwise could be had they worked on their technique. But that's just kind of how it is. That's not the best way to go into a lift for a max performance and B, safety especially like I said, if you're doing heavier lifts that really require a lot of focus, that little tiny mis grooves or [00:23:30] lapses of in judgment or lapse of focus can result in either dumping a lift and getting embarrassed or hurting yourself. So that is the main reason why yes, lifting still does those things too. Lifting will deplete your glycogen to a small extent. It'll usually dehydrate you to a small extent but it's way easier to kind of maintain the hydration as well as the glycogen stores During a lift you just sip on carbs and electrolytes and water in between sets [00:24:00] so it's really neg negligible and it also doesn't drain them as much as running does.

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And additionally you can go out for a run if you're a little bit mentally fatigued from lifting 'cause lifting's, yeah it's gonna mentally fatigue you a little bit, but running's just a cyclic activity. You don't have to like really, really focus on every single thing you do. Like when you have 500 pounds on your back, that's just an example. But if you have a big barbell on your back or you're about to pull a barbell off the floor or if it's over your chest and you're about to bench it, you really wanna be able to [00:24:30] focus and you don't want any sort of lapses in mental judgment. Whereas if you're going out for a run or even if you're doing faster runs, like not everyone's like super duper focused all the time, every single second of the run, which you don't necessarily need to be.

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You wanna be mindful when you're running but it's not quite as acutely focused requiring as lifting is. So, and the joints as well, like lifting's gonna stress your joints out a little bit but if you lift with good form, if not in a bad way, honestly most people don't have great lifting [00:25:00] form but you're gonna mess your joints up. Your lower body joints a lot more up if you're running with poor form than you are squatting with poor form for example. So that's the main reason why you can do it if you want. Some people do, if you're doing like a really light run to warm up, no big deal. But if you're going and doing like 400 meter repeats before you go and do a squat session or something like that, not the best idea for like I said, performance and safety reasons. Next question.

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Achilles injury took me out of base building for two months. How do you mentally deal with [00:25:30] this? Yeah, so this is huge. I got a few questions that are similar to this. So I'll kind of just talk a little bit about how I would mentally deal with an injury that takes me away from something that I want to do that I otherwise would be doing. So in your case you can't run even though you just built a base, which sucks of course, but feeling bad for yourself has never solved a single problem and it never will solve a single problem. I get it. Have your couple of days where you feel sorry for [00:26:00] yourself, but beyond that focus on things you can do. You can lift weights with your upper body, you can lift weights with your other leg, you can probably lift weights with both legs.

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You know you can probably do leg curls and leg extensions with your bad leg. You could probably do pretty much everything other than jumping, running and maybe certain other leg movements that may stress the Achilles. So you got that. Also, you can just get good at other things that don't involve fitness. You can do some sort of self develop development journey where you read a bunch of books, [00:26:30] you go implement what you read in these books, you watch podcasts, you listen to, you listen to podcasts, you watch YouTube videos on something you're interested in or on something that you think is gonna make you a better person in life, whether it's leadership or charisma or business or creation of some kind, making things being productive, like being a a useful human being. So there's almost an endless amount of things you can do of course besides a couple of different things that you want to be doing.

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But [00:27:00] just focusing on that and just feeling sorry for yourself, it's just it's not gonna get you anywhere. I know it's difficult. I've been injured several times where I can't do what I wanna do right now. My upper back is bothering me and I'm supposed to go play golf at TPC Sawgrass, I've already paid for the round and it is not a cheap round next weekend and I can't swing a golf club right now because my back's messed up because I did something in the gym and then I swung a golf club too many times and now [00:27:30] I sit at this computer all day and it's not the best for upper back health. I just have a history of upper back issues anyway so it sucks, but at the same time like I just, other than take some peptides and lay off it and hope for the best, like I can't do much about it so it will suck if I can't play 'cause I can't cancel, you have to cancel two weeks out and it's too late already.

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But if that's what happens, that's what happens. I'm probably gonna do my very [00:28:00] best to play through it even if I am hurting. But for you I would be patient and if you jump the gun getting back into it too quickly, like your cost is definitely higher than my cost would be if I go and play golf too soon when I'm not ready for it because then you're just gonna not be able to build a base for even longer. But just focus on things that you can control, things that can move you forward in life, things that can improve your fitness as well as your well-roundedness as a human and before you know it, hopefully you're healed [00:28:30] and ready to go and you spent as little time as possible feeling sorry for yourself. That's my best advice. Next question, would a plate carrier walk on treadmill be a good sub for rucking because of weather?

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Yeah, it'd be totally fine or you could just wear your ruck on a treadmill. A lot of people are worried about, oh what are people gonna think about me? Honestly, the sooner you stop thinking about or worrying about what other people think of you, other people who by the way don't have the same goals or probably the same disposition as you do in life, the [00:29:00] better. You're just gonna be way, way better off that way if you do what is right, not what you think other people will think is right or wrong or whatever you feel like. So all that being said, yes you can definitely do a plate carrier walk on an incline treadmill or on a treadmill in place of a ruck, but at the same time you could also consider just rucking if rucking is your goal. If rucking iss not your goal, you just wanna get some cardio in by all means, yeah, do the plate carrier walk or go for a run or something like that.

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It's not gonna translate over perfectly well [00:29:30] unless your plate carrier is like 45, 50 pounds or unless you're rucking with not a lot of weight or something like that. But it's still a fine substitute every so often when the weather's shitty. Next question, if someone you loved was being held hostage, which unit would you send for the recovery? I would send Delta force in a heartbeat and if recent events have not suggested why that would be, then I don't know what will. But I do know plenty of people who have served with both Delta and Sail [00:30:00] team six as well as the SAS as well as EV basically every unit in the world. Not served in them but like worked with them. I've got a bunch of buddies who are PJs, air Force PJs and they get attached to these guys and I've heard nothing but CAG is by far the best of all the units, especially at this.

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So in a heartbeat, hostage rescue, CAG calling 'em up. Next question, I'm in a calorie deficit. Can I still expect performance gains? Yes, absolutely. [00:30:30] Now if you are trying to get as strong as possible or build as much muscle as possible, which isn't really performance, but one could argue maybe it is like if you're building muscle to give yourself more potential performance in some area like strength, then being a calorie deficit, you're probably not gonna perform that well. But overall performance, like if you're a hybrid athlete, you're trying to get strong or maintain your strength, you're trying to get a little more muscular and most of all you're trying to improve your conditioning, then I would expect you to [00:31:00] improve your conditioning, especially the other ones may or may not happen. It depends on how advanced or not advanced you are. It depends on how much of a deficit you're in.

(00:31:08):

Ideally you wanna be in a pretty mild deficit, but you can definitely get faster, especially if you have a lot of weight to lose. Being smaller as you continue running is just gonna likely enhance that progress even more. Again, assuming you're not in a crazy deficit, if you are in a crazy deficit, you might still improve your performance a little bit, but it's gonna be a little bit more blade running because [00:31:30] being in a big deficit is also an increased risk of injury. So I would be very reasonable with it, maybe 300 calories a day on average, maybe 500 at the most and take some diet breaks every so often where you go to maintenance for a week or 10 days and then go back into the cut and really focus on your other recovery habits, your sleep, your stress management, showing up, hydrated, just kind of like being focused, making sure that you don't have all these distractions in your life.

(00:31:59):

The nutrition is [00:32:00] definitely an aspect but it's not the only aspect and honestly like people, most people need more work on other things besides nutrition more, most people need work on , chilling the fuck out, especially type A individuals who are just go-getters and driven. The more you can chill out, the better when you're not training and the better you can sleep or the higher quality your sleep is, the longer you can sleep, the better off you're gonna be. It's, I know it's hard. I'm the same way. It's really hard for me to chill out and sometimes it's hard for me to sleep, but [00:32:30] there's always something you can do. Even if you're not eating quite enough food to make your performance conditions absolutely perfect, you still can make some gains and if you do things right, listen to your body, don't push anything too hard and you're just patient with it, performance gains might be a little bit slower but they won't be non-existent.

(00:32:48):

Next question, most overrated exercise for SAS prep, I wouldn't necessarily say there's one. I would say things like squat bench and deadlift with a barbell or Olympic lifts [00:33:00] are probably over-indexed by a lot of people just because they're not required at all. You're not gonna get some sort of pop quiz power lifting or Olympic lifting meet at selection, yes, these lifts, I've talked about this a lot so bear with me. There are definitely some new listeners that probably haven't heard my spiel on this, but the only exercises you have to do before selection are the ones you're gonna be doing at selection. So that's rucking, that's running, it's pull-ups, it's hand release pushups, it's carries, there's no like standard for carries [00:33:30] other than just carry stuff as long as you can during team week and don't be a week bitch . But there's no like you have to carry this amount of weight for this long necessarily, but you still, still should definitely do carries.

(00:33:43):

But really aside from that rope climb, you wanna make sure you can rope climb. Aside from that, there isn't much, there's no specific gym lifts other than the ones I just mentioned that you have to do. If you like the squat bench deadlift with a barbell and they make you strong and you feel good and they don't destroy you and you have solid technique, then doing [00:34:00] those by all means would be a good idea because they're great lifts for strength. If you are a very, very, very advanced Olympic lifter, honestly even Olympic lifters I would usually recommend for the last couple months before going to selection not to do them just because they take a lot of your bandwidth to do them properly. A lot of people think they Olympic lift properly but they don't. I get questions quite often, why don't you have Olympic lifts in your program?

(00:34:24):

I think I talked about this last episode about Jackel 3.0 but I don't [00:34:30] have Olympic lifts in my for the masses program because the average person that I make programs for has no business doing Olympic lifts. They just don't have the technique down. They're very, very, very high skill lifts and you have to spend a lot of time learning them and working on your skill and it just takes a lot of time bandwidth and also even if you do have really good skill, oftentimes guys who are really good at those lifts, they push 'em pretty damn hard. So if you're doing all those things during selection prep, even if you are really good at them, but especially if you're not good at them, [00:35:00] it's just gonna take away from the specificity of what you need to be doing. For selection prep, it's kind of just another distractor especially because it's not like there are no substitutes for Olympic lifts.

(00:35:11):

There's tons and tons of different things you can do for power jumps, throws swings, sprints, speed lifts, things like that that will all build power but in a much safer and less bandwidth snatching way. And that's what I would kinda recommend. So I would say just the big three in general are overrated with the [00:35:30] barbell. You should definitely do those movement patterns, but you don't have to do those exact movements. You can, you don't have to as well as Olympic lifts. I've seen on Reddit, this is a while ago, but I saw on Reddit some guy said like you've gotta be able to snatch three 15 or no not snatch clean and jerk three 15, which like there may be one guy at every selection class on average that can do a clean, probably not a jerk with three 15, you might have said 2 95 or something like that, but something crazy high.

(00:35:56):

Not a lot of people can do that. And so anytime you see someone [00:36:00] recommend certain lifts that aren't done at selection, like you have to hit those lifts or you have to hit even worse, a certain number for these lifts, just disregard it. It's not true. They're good proxies but they're not required lift in a way that's comfortable for you, that helps you build strength and that also supports your conditioning and doesn't beat you the hell up so you can't do your rucks and runs or you're always just hurting your lower back or whatever it may be. Next question. Hi Carrie Prep. Prior to SFAS, is it necessary, I know [00:36:30] it's a struggle at SFAS for many, yeah, so high carry is gonna be carrying stuff on your shoulder, carrying stuff on your back, like apparatus, sandbags, random stuff like that. Is it a good idea?

(00:36:41):

I would say yeah, it's a pretty solid idea. However, a lot of people take yolk carries this kind of the main thing I would do would be yolk carries a, not everyone has access to yolks. You can definitely use a barbell if you want, but the main thing with yolk carries is they are not to be taken lightly. It's a lot of weight on your spine, you're moving with it [00:37:00] and they can be fantastic if you do them without ego and you're reasonable with it and you don't just yolk carry your life away or you try to like run with a yoke on your back or just overload the hell out of it. That's probably what most people do is they put way too much load on it, like too much as in they're not capable of it and also it's more load than they need to be training with to be sufficiently strong at it at as Fs.

(00:37:26):

So you can do that, you can definitely, I would strongly [00:37:30] recommend doing sandbag carries on your right shoulder, on your left shoulder, probably some zercher carries, bear hug carries, you can put sandbag up on your back, things like that. That can be a great substitute for the yolk if you don't have one. A little bit more practical than carrying a barbell through the gym, but then again you could do that. Generally speaking though, if you have really good solid general rucking ability and you're aerobically fit and you're strong like you do enough [00:38:00] full body strength building lifts in the gym that get your core stronger, that get your upper back stronger, your hips, your glutes, et cetera, you should be totally fine. You should be able to carry it. I personally didn't do any yolk carries and I was not that strong when I went to SFAs.

(00:38:15):

I was really good at rucking, I had a really good aerobic base and I did a lot of low carries, but I didn't do a single yoke carry or any high caries. I didn't use a sandbag even even though I recommend guys use sandbags, I just didn't know any better and I didn't really struggle at all with [00:38:30] the high caries. So of course that's an end of one, but I've also never had a client that came back and said I couldn't carry the apparatus or anything like that and I don't have my clients do yolk carries. We do a lot of sandbag work but we don't do any yolks and it's been totally fine. We just make sure that we build a very robust base and a lot of good full body strength and that should suffice. That being said, if you're worried about it or if you are proficient at yoke carries and you know what you're doing and it's well programmed and you have access to [00:39:00] it, yada yada, then nothing wrong with throwing it in there maybe like once a week.

(00:39:05):

Next question. Did you ever experience self-doubt before or during selection? Damn right, it did. I can't remember the last day of my life that I didn't feel any self-doubt. I mean that's just a totally normal thing for people who are interested in achieving difficult things that most people don't achieve, like type A individuals generally speaking are gonna feel lots of self-doubt. That's just how it is now, [00:39:30] there are ways to manage it, but there's no way to just completely get rid of it. But also you want to do your best to manage it, not necessarily let it just eat you up and interfere with your life. A lot of people will feel self-doubt and they'll be like, ah, you know what? Nevermind I'm not gonna try. Or Oh well now I just have this excuse this cop out to get out of whatever thing they're feeling doubt about.

(00:39:54):

That's not the way to go about it. Managing it, honestly, the best thing you can do is focus on [00:40:00] what you can control and even more so than that, focus on things that are a lot sooner in your time horizon. So focus on crushing the next hour of your day. Focus on crushing your entire day. Did I crush my sleep? Did I crush my nutrition? Did I crush my training? Did I do all the right things outside of training to give me a better chance at showing up better prepared, breaking things down and really thinking about the process more so than the potential outcome that's gonna occur. Whenever you're done with selection, which is [00:40:30] probably a solid while from now, that is definitely your best bet at managing it. It's gonna keep you sane if you're always thinking about the what ifs, like what if I'm not ready for this thing on team week and oh by the way you're not gonna selection for like four months.

(00:40:45):

What is the point in stressing about that? I know it's easier said than done. I stress about things that are gonna occur in the future that I sometimes don't have control over. Yeah, I get it. But your best bet is to chunk things down into segments and focus on the most [00:41:00] pressing task, which is basically what you're gonna do in the next hour of your life. And ideally, most of the things you do most hours of the day are driving you forward. You know, most of hopefully you're not just spending most of your day wasting time on Instagram or binge watching shows or drinking or hanging out with people who are Debbie downers that bring you down that bitch mo gossip, complain, play victim. Hopefully you're hanging out with bad asses. Hopefully you're crushing your workouts, hopefully you're crushing your nutrition plan. Hopefully [00:41:30] you are doing everything in your power throughout the day to set yourself up for really good sleep.

(00:41:35):

You're doing the right things before bed, you're gonna bed at the same time you're waking up at the same time every day. All those things are in your control. Most of those things are in your control if you're in the military. Yeah, the sleep time's not always in your control, but it is sometimes at least. And when it is, that's when you focus on it. But you also have control over those other things and they're gonna happen a lot sooner and continually crushing those things day [00:42:00] after day after day after day until you go to selection. That's really all you can do. And then you show up and you're gonna have some self-doubts, but the best way to get over self-doubt is to outwork it and put your best foot forward and put as much effort as you possibly can into everything. And if that's enough, great.

(00:42:19):

If it's not enough, hopefully you get a chance to come back. But just letting it crush you or using it as a cop out is no way to go about life. And honestly, like I have felt [00:42:30] self-doubt multiple times a day every single day for a really long period of time. I can't remember the last day, I didn't have any sort of self-doubt. It's just part of it. But my approach to it is to continue working and continue to prove to myself that I am the person I say a am and that's really my best advice as a nons psychologist. Next question. Not really a question, but a cool update. 2025 with TTM was amazing. Drop 30 pounds, gain [00:43:00] strength, gained endurance, sleep and recovery improved. Thank you, I love hearing this. Thank you. Really good job on your part. I am just playing a very small role.

(00:43:10):

Whatever my role may be, I'm glad it helped and that's why I do what I do. So appreciate you man. Keep crushing it. Next question, how do you know your base is good enough for running mileage heart rate over time? Generally my more rudimentary way to assess whether you're ready to start going into some more, you know, speed work or a speed phase or [00:43:30] something like that is 150 ish minutes per week running in zone two and also not banged up. So if you can put together a solid 150 mile week, not mile minutes minute week and you feel good and you're not just getting immediately to one 50 and then like Monday starting speed work, maybe you get a couple weeks of 150 minutes, maybe you go up to 160, maybe you have a couple more weeks at like one 20, dial it back a little but right around there you should be good to go.

(00:43:57):

That is very rudimentary. It is not like this [00:44:00] perfect thing, but for most people listening to this, you're not trying to be like an elite runner is my guess. Otherwise you're in the wrong spot. You're trying to be a good military runner, you're trying to be a good athlete who runs well and that should suffice. Again, assuming you're feeling good, a lot of guys will get to their one 50 as if that's it. They'll hear me say this once and they'll be like, I'm good to go. But they have like bilateral shin splints and runner's knee and they're having to walk half the 150 just to stay in zone two. That's not [00:44:30] it. You gotta be able to actually get there and feel good and ready to go into a speed phase. And then I would definitely ease into speed. If you haven't been easing into speed, what I would do is spend a couple weeks continuing with your easy runs but also doing some short hard hill sprints on a very steep hill.

(00:44:48):

Eight to 10 seconds maybe start with four reps, work your way up to eight reps long rest periods in between. It's not a cardio session, it is for fast twitch fiber development, A-T-P-P-C energy [00:45:00] system, very short, quick, intense, that's gonna help your running in the future. If you do it right and you don't try and turn it into cardio and rest 30 seconds and all these different things that guys try to do to make their workouts harder, you probably wanna do some strides and or some pickups. Probably start with like once a week strides and then maybe go to twice a week and then maybe get into some pickups for a couple weeks and then get into your speed work. You're gonna be way better off. Again if you haven't been doing this, that can be part of a base phase, but not [00:45:30] everyone does that for the base phase, which is fine, but if you haven't, I would do that as a transition into getting into actual like legit speed work.

(00:45:38):

And then I'd probably start with 200 meter repeats at the most and kind of work your way up from there. Next question. Recommendations for lifting straps slash grips for daily gym use. Trying to build a massive back. Yeah, that's what's up and good on you for thinking about this. Obviously I've talked about it quite a bit, why it's a good idea to use straps or grips for your back. Generally [00:46:00] your back's gonna be stronger than your grip and if your grip is limiting you on your back exercises, then you're gonna be limited by your grip and therefore not able to put as much stimulus on your back muscles. So I know the person asking this knows this, but just a little bit of a reiteration of what I've said several times in the past. I really like vers grips. I've been using Versas grips for a long time.

(00:46:23):

I've tried Cobra grips, which are a little cheaper but they don't last as long. The Velcro wears out way faster. [00:46:30] So even though versa grips are like 20, maybe 30 bucks more, they just last exponentially longer. I've been on the same versa grips for the last probably three, four years. No issues with 'em whatsoever. The Velcros as good as new. That being said, not everyone likes grips. Some people like straps and you can definitely use straps if you want. I don't have any real like brand recommendations. I would definitely get a good solid pair off of a website. Like don't just go to Dick's and get the harbinger ones. Those can work, but they're not gonna work that long. They're gonna eventually [00:47:00] rip and they're just not great. They kind of dig into you so you can kind of experiment with different types of straps or grips and go from there.

(00:47:07):

But versa grips highly, highly recommend. I use them every single time I train back as well as anytime I use dumbbells or a barbell for lower body lifts and can't complain one bit about him. Next question in Jack is, oh one, can I just do hill and track repeats every week instead of airbike repeats? Or is that too much volume? So if you've worked your way up to enough running volume to do [00:47:30] that, recover from it and recover from the entire week of training, nothing wrong with it. I would still probably every, generally I go back and forth between repeats on air bike or rower and then repeats on the track. I wouldn't do repeats every single week, the entire 16 weeks, maybe once a month. So you do like three repeat weeks in a row running and then one week where you do on an air bike.

(00:47:56):

That would be a lot more reasonable than doing 16 straight weeks of hybrid [00:48:00] program repeats as well as all the other stuff that's in the program. That's my recommendation. But if you've worked your way up to it and you feel good and your goals are a little bit more run biased, nothing wrong with that at all. Next question. Ooh, this is a good one. Only enough money for one. Best ROI Rower or airbike? Whew, that's a tough one. I'm gonna go with rower only because I really like rowing a lot more than sitting on an airbike. The Airbike, I have one of each and the Airbikes great. It's a amazing piece [00:48:30] of equipment, but I like the rower A because it's a little bit more skill involving, like to get good at rowing, you actually have to develop skill whereas you know Airbike, yeah you definitely, there's some skill involved to be really good at it, but it's not a lot of skill and it's also a lot more, I would say less appropriate for longer duration rides.

(00:48:54):

You can definitely do a long zone two session on it, but it kind of eats up your taint a little bit and [00:49:00] if you get the echo bike especially you have to like put in some actual work to keep it going. An assault bike, the resistance is a little bit lower so not that it's bad or anything like that. I love assault bikes, but you actually can kind of just coast, you don't really have to put much effort into it. So I find it a little easier to stay in zone two on an assault bike than an echo bike, especially if you're just not in shape for it. I've never gone through any periods of life of my life where I've done enough biking to get into really good biking shape, so [00:49:30] my like biking fitness compared to my rowing fitness and running fitness is like terrible, like the specificity thing.

(00:49:38):

So I'm sure if you're someone who bikes regularly on the air bike, on the echo bike, you probably are totally fine hanging out, coasting in zone two, but for me it's a little bit tougher. I put a lot of time in back probably starting about a decade ago I started to take rowing really seriously like the skill of it and it's super fun I think [00:50:00] because it is so, so, so rare to see someone on a rower that actually knows what they're doing. , most people have no idea how to row, they put the damper on 10, they just go as hard as they can. Their sequencing is all messed up. They're doing like a row boat around their knees. There's a bunch of different form breakdowns. I actually have made some videos in the past about all the different ways people row that are just not ideal.

(00:50:25):

You're not gonna really hurt yourself on either of these. They're both pretty longevity friendly [00:50:30] so whichever one you find more appealing, whichever one you enjoy more is probably what I would go with. There's really not like a huge difference between between the two other than I would say it's a little bit more mentally engaging to try and build your skill on a rower. Next question. Your opinion on fat grips for caries occasionally for pull-ups, et cetera. Great idea If you're training for selection, absolutely great idea. If you're just doing regular caries, nothing wrong with them at all. They're not, they're not make or break. I would say for selection they're also not make or break but if [00:51:00] you have smaller hands or if you just know you're lagging in the grip department, doing some fat grip carries not only fat grip carries but some would be a good idea.

(00:51:08):

Generally what I do for my guys is I will have them one week, they'll do normal grip farmer's caries and then fat grip suitcase carries and the following week we'll alternate. It'll be fat grip farmer's caries normal grip suitcase carries and so on and so forth. That's usually what I do. I don't have my guys do 'em with pull-ups. Nothing wrong with doing 'em for pull-ups, like if you want to improve your pull-up grip or you [00:51:30] want to improve your specific overhead grip, you can do that. Is it gonna translate, you know if you're doing a bunch of pull-ups with that grips but you're not doing carries with them, it's not really gonna translate all that well 'cause it's completely different position that you're in. Like some people can have really good dead hang ability and not great carrying ability and vice versa. Generally you're gonna have both, like if you have solid grip you're gonna be able to do a long dead hang and or a long carry with a bigger grip but it's not quite as specific.

(00:51:58):

But there's nothing wrong with using [00:52:00] fat grips and if you're gonna selection, I highly recommend getting some, they're like 30 bucks totally worth it. You can wrap 'em around pretty much anything even if they don't go all the way around. The handles of a kettlebell still a really good thing to do, especially again if you have small hands or if you know you have a weak grip. Next question, what program would you recommend for Air Force Special Warfare? I'm assuming you mean selection prep, in which case I would go with ruck run lift. If you're just talking about general maintenance, you could either hop on T eight 50, try that out for a week, there's a free week trial [00:52:30] or you could do any of the Jack Elles or if you have a little bit more of a run goal, you could do two and five mile.

(00:52:36):

Any of those could work, but definitely selection, prep, ruck run lift. Next question, tips on recovering from runner's knee slash overuse. How to get back to training hard again? Yeah, so this is super duper duper common and even guys who have really good programming will succumb to running induced injuries. One thing I would really focus on, assuming your programming wasn't insane before, I would start with that. Make sure your programming and your [00:53:00] rein intro to running is not anything crazy. Start with a base building phase like three 15 minute runs a week. Build on those extra five minutes, maybe have a long run where you add 10 minutes and so on and so forth. Get into some strides, get into some hill sprints that I was talking about earlier. Just listen to your body, make sure that you're not doing anything super crazy or progressing too fast.

(00:53:21):

But beyond that, definitely take a look at your cadence and your honestly your, your whole entire run mechanics could be a major factor [00:53:30] but one of the most rudimentary yet effective ways to kind of identify that is to look at your cadence and make sure your cadence isn't like one 40 or one 50 or one 60. In my experience, most guys that don't have an extensive running background, maybe you took a long time off from running, you got jacked or you played other sports that are not distance running related. Most guys have very low cadence like I'm talking like 1 50, 1 55. There's no perfect cadence for everyone, but you want to be in some sort of 180 range. If you're a little shorter, [00:54:00] maybe a little higher than 180 if you're a little taller, maybe a little lower than 180 but definitely not in the one fifties or one sixties or even probably the low one seventies, although you could get away with that just depending on who you are and how much you're running.

(00:54:13):

But getting a baseline cadence, seeing where you're at every single time you run with your current cadence. If it's low, you're just ingraining that further into muscle memory and it's just gonna be more to unlearn at the end. But if you identify your cadence is low, you can immediately [00:54:30] start with your very next run. I actually just made a post about this because it's a recent theme that I've seen just guys hit me up via DM and this question generally the simplest and also the best way to improve your cadence is just to be more mindful when you run and try to add one, maybe two, maybe three steps per minute at a time and kind of hang onto that for like a week and then the next week, 1, 2, 3 steps a minute get used to that. You're kind of doing it in a stepwise fashion rather than [00:55:00] a lot of people.

(00:55:01):

This is like a prevalent thing that I've heard a lot of people do. They will hear that they have to run a 180 cadence and so they just go get the metronome app and play it at 180 and immediately go from their 1 55 cadence to 180. They've gone on hundreds of runs at 1 55 and they think that they're just gonna go straight to 180 and be totally fine. Yes, you want to get there but you want to get there gradually. You don't wanna just jump straight there. Generally metronome [00:55:30] can be a decent option like training wheels, but it shouldn't be like your first resort. Most people are athletic enough and most people can be mindful enough, especially if if you know you're prone to running injuries and you think that you may have a mechanical issue, which by the way, like most people do, like I don't have perfect running form.

(00:55:48):

Almost no one does other than like very high level runners. You shouldn't be running distracted listening to music or podcast or book at least for now until you get your form sorted out, until [00:56:00] you get your cadence sorted out. If you're distracted, it's gonna be very hard for you to be mindful of that slightly faster leg turnover, which is gonna yield higher cadence, which is gonna yield better mechanics, which is gonna yield hopefully not getting hurt as much, assuming your program's solid. So that's what I'd focus on, just easing back into it, listening to your body, make sure you do some cross training too. Make sure you train your lower legs, make sure you do like sound solid strength work and not too much not too soon and just be patient [00:56:30] with it. Next question, exercises to better engage the lat. I have a herniated disc and now I can't feel engagement of the lat.

(00:56:36):

Yeah, so lats are a tough one for even people who are totally fine in the back to connect to mentally. Mainly it's gonna come down to execution. What I would always do when you're learning how to connect to your lats is always do unilateral lifts one arm at a time. That way you don't have to focus on both sides, you get to focus on one side and it's obviously 50% of what you would otherwise be [00:57:00] focusing on with a bilateral lift, that doesn't mean you can't train the lats bilaterally, but even so like lats are best trained single arm, whether you're doing a pull down, a semi pull down row or if you're doing like a a straight up row that's lat biased, you definitely want to at least to start out use one arm and I would probably start with your bad arm too and really, really focus on execution.

(00:57:23):

So unlike upper back movements, you're not really like wrapping your shoulder blades around your rib cage, prota, protracting [00:57:30] and retracting them. You are kind of in this fixed position with your lat shoulder blade back and down almost as if you're putting in your back pocket and you're driving your elbow. Think elbow to hip, not elbow back behind you elbow to hip, whether you're pulling down semi down or straight across as a row, that is the cue elbow to hip and you're not necessarily like wrapping your shoulder blades at the at the top position like you would for an upper back movement. [00:58:00] It's kind of staying locked down and packed down in your back pocket and it really just comes with time. What you can also do is what I, I really like this is single arm lat prayers so you can do a lat prayer except just one arm at a time and it's almost impossible to do a lap prayer properly at least without engaging and probably feeling your lats lat prayers are not like the best exercise to get massive lats.

(00:58:25):

They can be a beneficial thing to do but they're really good at helping you [00:58:30] engage it. Additionally, things you can do like that have nothing to do with training throughout the day. Flex each lat, just sit there and flex your lats. You can also pretend you have like a weight in your arm, you're doing a row and you're just flexing each lapt over time with repetition and a lot of focus on it. Again, this is something I would probably not listen to loud blaring music when you're doing this so you can actually be mindful over time you'll develop that better connection and this is important for every muscle group but especially one that you know you can't connect to because [00:59:00] until you can kind of connect to it generally doing bilateral or both arms at the same time, lat movements, it's probably gonna just lead to further imbalances and you might be okay.

(00:59:11):

It's not like your lat is just dormant, it's not doing anything if you can't connect to it, but it's I think a really worthwhile skill to develop the ability to connect to each and every muscle group in your body that you train the major muscle groups, it's just gonna make your training more effective and it feels better. You get a pump more easily, which is you know, not make [00:59:30] or break, but it feels good to get a pump and it's gonna improve your technique, it's going to improve how your joints feel. It's you're gonna look like you care about training in the gym because you're gonna have really good form execution and look like you care about like mastering your craft. So that's what I'd start with. Over time you should be able to develop it unless of course you got something else going on in which case you know if you have like a serious injury or if you have nerve issues back there, I'm not your guy.

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I would definitely go see someone in person that specialize [01:00:00] in that stuff. Alright, let's do a couple more. Next question. Ways to help with heavy legs slash feeling fresh on time. Trials a warmup. Ideally you do a solid, really, really solid warmup. Generally the shorter your time trial, the more you're gonna wanna warm up duration wise, which is kind of like this counterintuitive thing if you're about to run a marathon for example, you don't necessarily have to go and do like a very, very thorough warmup because you're gonna be starting [01:00:30] at the beginning. That's gonna be kind of your warmup. You're gonna ramp up into that. Of course, unless you try to set a PR a 400 meter PR in the first half mile or first 400 meters of a marathon, then that's a different story. But marathon runners don't really warm up for as long as say a 1500 meter runner or a 5K runner.

(01:00:48):

You want to get a really good solid, thorough warmup because when you go from resting heart rate to basically running as hard as you can for let's say 5K or five miles, [01:01:00] your body doesn't like that. That's a big shock. Your legs don't like that you don't have enough blood flow to the legs yet your legs are just not warmed up. It's like anything, if you tried and went and squatted without warming up, like your first set of squats is not gonna be a great set. It's gonna look awkward, it's gonna feel awkward. You're not gonna be as strong, your nervous system's not gonna be ready for it when you warm up for a especially a time trial. But I would warm up for speed work. I would warm up for tempo work too. You don't have to warm up for long runs, but when you warm up for these things, it preps [01:01:30] your nervous system.

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You get that muscle memory, you're like, oh I was just running awesome. I'll talk about how to do it in a second and it also gets your heart rate up a little bit. Generally you wanna start with your heart rate probably in like zone one, not necessarily resting, not like zone two going into zone three or anything like that, but you want your heart rate up a little bit. You want to have maybe a little sweat going and most importantly you wanna have your legs warmed up. So what I would do is something like, let's just say you're warming up for a five mile to keep things simple. If it's shorter, maybe [01:02:00] consider a little longer run. If it's longer, consider a slightly shorter run, but I would do something like a 10 to 15 minute run. Really, really easy run during that run you can either do a few pickups where you pick up to like your goal pace for that upcoming time trial for like 15, 20 seconds.

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Maybe do three or four of them total or you can finish that run and then do some strides after. Same thing. Basically pickups are inter run strides. Then I would do some pogo hops, maybe some single leg pogo hops, some [01:02:30] A skips, some B skips, some knee hugs, some butt kicks, leg swings, kind of whatever you want as far as just getting your legs loose and getting the blood flow down there and getting your joints warmed up. Then you wanna rest. Of course you don't wanna just go straight into the time trial immediately, but you wanna rest till your heart rate gets back down a little bit and then go for it. Now I understand this is not always possible if you are like in the military and they walk you over to the start line and you just go, that sucks. That's one of the [01:03:00] main reasons that I, well it's one of many reasons that I recommend starting a little bit conservatively on runs like that, that you just don't have any time to warm up, but you can at least run in place.

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You can do some pogo hops, you can do some single leg pogo hops, you can do some skips, you can do something to get some blood flow down to your legs and warm up the joints a little bit, warm up the nervous system a little bit and you're gonna be way better off doing that than you are just going straight into a max time trial. So that's like the main thing. If that doesn't work, it might [01:03:30] be a fueling thing, it might just be a fitness thing, like you might not be in good enough shape to run the speed that you you're trying to run. It could be a lot of different things, but a good solid sound warmup is something that a lot of people don't do honestly, unless they are like privy to it, they know about it and you could literally, especially for shorter runs, you could literally cut 30 seconds, 20 seconds off your two mile.

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That could be like a big difference for a longer run, maybe not quite that much, but you're also just gonna feel way better [01:04:00] the entire time. You're not gonna be as miserable in hating life the whole time. So solid warmup and you should be feeling quite a bit better. Thoughts on threshold plus speed, same week at around six to seven quality miles total per week. Sounds reasonable to me if you've built up to it, there's no like magic number for all speed, work, quality work, whatever you wanna call it, but if you've built up to six to seven miles a week, it definitely doesn't sound like you're overdoing it assuming you're doing some foundational stuff, some zone two, some maybe some [01:04:30] easy running and things like that. Totally normal, especially if you're training for something like if you're doing like a two and five mile prep or if you're doing something like selection prep.

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I think that's a great solid number to be in. I think it's pretty reasonable. And of course listen to your body, make sure you're not doing a bunch of other crazy stuff that's also gonna interfere or make you just miserable all the time or hurt you like super high volume, lower body days or something like that. Or you're not just doing crazy stuff outside of running and [01:05:00] you're recovering well, but should be totally fine with that volume. I don't really see an issue with it. Next question, I'm on week seven of SFAS prep SF National Guard tryout in six weeks. Should I do a two week taper at the end of a program? I would not do a two week taper unless the tryout is something crazy. I'm pretty sure these are just one or two day events, in which case you definitely don't need a full on taper at all.

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You definitely don't need a two week taper. I would maybe dial it back your training a little bit, especially your [01:05:30] volume going into that, your running and rucking volume going into it like the last week, maybe 10 days, but probably not even 10 days. But it doesn't have to be like a significant taper. Honestly, if you're in pretty solid shape, you could take the last three days before you start really, really easy. If not off, maybe do some easy runs with pickups, shakeout runs, and maybe do some practice calisthenics for the last couple days and go in fresh. You probably will be totally fine if you do that. [01:06:00] You know, I wouldn't, you know, say it's on a Friday and you are hitting the speed work, I think the speed work in that program is either Tuesday or Monday. I wouldn't like go and run 10 to 12 four hundreds that week and I wouldn't do a big long ruck run the week prior.

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But aside from that, you should be totally fine with just dialing things back a little bit. You wanna still touch on speed with, like I said, some strides or some really short repeats with really long rest periods at your goal paces, but it doesn't have to be anything super [01:06:30] elaborate and you should be golden. Next question, what books or podcasts episodes would you recommend someone to build an online business? Cool question I, it's gonna be tough for me to come up with everything off the top of my head, but just some things that come to mind. Podcasts, definitely the game. Alex Ozzi in a heartbeat. Ed Millet, what is Ed Millet? I think it's called the Ed Millet Show. That's a great one. Real AF with Andy Fer. Another phenomenal one. [01:07:00] I would definitely listen to Modern Wisdom. It's not necessarily about business, but they definitely have lots of different people who talk about lots of different aspects of business that come on.

(01:07:09):

Diary of A CEO. Certain episodes are really good and other episodes not great. Don't get your nutrition advice from Diary of a CEO unless it's Lane Norton or someone who's actually like not a zealot. I would say Huberman Certain episodes by Huberman are really, really good for like focus and memory and things like that. Just being able to do deep work is huge Books. Read [01:07:30] The Perfect Day Formula and The Perfect Week Formula by Craig Valentine. I would definitely read Crucial Conversations. I would read the one thing I would read Essentialism, I would read Effortless, essentialism and Effortless are both Greg McCowen books I think, and they're both fantastic. I would read How to Win Friends and Influence People, how to Talk to Anyone. I don't know what kind of business you're building necessarily, so that's kind of tough. But if you're [01:08:00] building a fitness business, read the book Change Maker, listen to the online train, I think it's called the Online Trainer podcast.

(01:08:09):

Jordans and Mike Ti, I think it's called How to Become an Online Personal Trainer or something like that. That one's really good. Again, this is assuming it's a online personal training business and let's see, what else do we have here? What other books are really good? I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but this is a really [01:08:30] good question and potentially I will come back and rehash it next week and have some more resources for you because really good question. I just can't think of many more off the top of my head even though I know there are tons more. But what I just went over right now, that's a pretty solid start and honestly it's an amazing experience. Just don't give up When you first run into your first issue, you're gonna run into tons and tons and tons of different issues and problems.

(01:08:56):

You're gonna have imposter syndrome, you're gonna feel like a fraud. You're [01:09:00] gonna feel like it's not gonna work and that's why most people quit. So the bar's really low. You just gotta continue doing the right things over and over and over again. Even if they don't work the first time or the 10th time or the hundredth time, eventually they're gonna work. If they don't work after several times, it's probably the wrong thing, but you kind of get what I'm saying. So best of luck. Alright, last question. What are some signs? How can you know that you're building muscle? The best sign for most people is are you getting stronger if you're adding [01:09:30] weight to your lifts or if you're adding reps with the same weight over time, not necessarily every single training session, not necessarily every single week, but trending over time, that's a really good sign that you're getting more muscular.

(01:09:44):

Of course the scale can help too. You know if you're maintaining the same around the same body fat or if you're barely getting a little fatter, but you're also getting stronger and gaining weight on the scale, that's another really good sign that you're gaining muscle. And then of course if you want to go pay for a DEXA scan, [01:10:00] that would be if you want to get some sort of body composition scan or assessment done, DEXA scan would be the way to do it. In bodies a lot of people use in embodies and they take it as gospel, which I wouldn't take any of these as gospel, but in bodies are definitely not very accurate at all. They can show trends if you do them in the same state as far as Fed or what I would do is do it fasted first thing in the morning.

(01:10:25):

Dehydrated, like you get up, you use the bathroom and then you can do your InBody scan as soon [01:10:30] as you possibly can. I know that's not super practical for everybody, but if you're gonna do InBody, that's what I would do. But a DEXA scan is pretty solid and it's great for showing trends and it'll at least show you you're going in the right direction, but honestly you don't even need to do that if you're gaining weight and you are getting stronger. Rest assured, unless you're a very, very, very advanced athlete, rest assured you're probably gaining muscle. So that's it guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. I got to a lot of questions today. Like I said, I would, so I'm pretty pumped about that. [01:11:00] I'll try probably doing these rapid fire style questions again at some point. Let me know if you guys like these better or you like the more in depth, longer answers and I will take that into account. So thanks again for tuning in. Appreciate you guys and I'll be back soon. Terminator out.