205 - Q&A: CAG Selection Prep, Pre-PT Test Nutrition, Fat Loss While Performing, 18X Timeline + More

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What's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. This week is going to be a part two from last week's q and a where I'm going to go through, actually I've already gone through and picked out some of the better questions from last week that I didn't get to in the recent podcast and I am going to go through and try to answer as many as I can. I picked out quite a few so I probably won't get to all of them, but I will chip away at it and see where we go. Some of them are a little more nuanced, a little bit more explanation requiring other ones are a [00:00:30] little quicker so we will see, but before we hop in, the soft bundle sale is still going on, 25% off every product in there, whether you're interested in run programs, hybrid programs, selection prep programs and the ability to recover from all that kind of stuff, go ahead and check that out.

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The details are in the description and the sale is automatic. There's no code, so 25% off that whole thing, that sale will end at the end of the day, Saturday the 21st of March, so [00:01:00] you should have a little bit of time after this show comes out to jump on that. But aside from that one other thing, I don't know if you guys can hear it, but there is a true green guy out in my yard right now doing our lawn care for the spring so his truck is on and I hear it. It's like a low level buzz and hopefully it just stays that way and doesn't get any worse. And also my male dog, who you guys have probably heard in other episodes before, likes to make sure that we know that the true green guy [00:01:30] that we hired to come here at this time is actually here.

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So you might hear him barking a few times even though he's been here for like 30 minutes. Every time my dog sees him, he likes to bark. So that is just Rowan Smith in a nutshell and hopefully it's not too much of a distraction that or the noise of the truck, but either way, let's get into the questions for today. First question, why do my pull-ups feel heavier on some days this is actually really, really common and you're not broken or anything like that. Why [00:02:00] does it happen? There's a lot of different factors at play. The main one though is the fact that your body weight fluctuates. Some days you might be two or three pounds heavier than other days. Other days you might be a little lighter and that two or three pounds, it doesn't sound like much, but it absolutely can make maybe a rep or two of difference on certain days, especially when also combined with the fact that some days you're going to be a little more fatigued, some days you're going to be a little less fatigued.

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Some days your shoulders or elbows maybe a little more inflamed. [00:02:30] Other days they won't be depending on what you've been doing for training, leading in, depending on what your recovery looks like, your preparedness is always going to fluctuate. It's really like anything, but it's usually more noticeable in pull-ups because guys are so attached to their rep count, but it could be a similar thing. For some days your tempo runs feel awesome and you can just burn 'em down. You feel great. Other days your tempo runs feel like time trials and if your tempo run feels like a time trial, you are going too fast anyway and you should slow down. But sometimes maybe the same pace you ran a proper tempo [00:03:00] run at last week might feel like a time trial this week or close to it. So your preparedness is just always going to fluctuate and with pull-ups it's a little bit more apparent, so not something to stress about.

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Some days you're going to have good pull-up days, other days you're not, and hopefully your better days are on test days, but even if they're not, as long as you're not blade running with pull-ups or this is assuming you're going to get tested on pull-ups, assuming you're not right on the edge of the maximum pull-ups or the minimum pull up requirements, you should be totally fine. But yeah, [00:03:30] just something to expect. Totally normal, you're not messed up. Next question, will the two and five mile get be ready for run advance? Yep. I kind of created them in the reverse order because two and five is going to be a little more appropriate for most people looking for run programs to start out at least because it's a lower volume, a little bit lower intensity and a little more basic and the run advance I created afterwards for a follow onto that.

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Or if guys are coming to look for a program and they're already a little more advanced, generally my recommendation [00:04:00] is you're at least familiar with speed work. You've been doing a little bit of speed work, you've been doing a little bit of threshold work and you're running at least 20, ideally like 25 miles a week. That is a good kind of litmus test to determine whether you're ready for run advanced or if you just finished two and five mile, you're good to go. So yep, send it. And those programs are both in the soft bundle sale. Next question, what should I eat the night before a PT test? Honestly, the big thing to consider is nothing novel just eats the same foods or similar foods that you usually eat. You [00:04:30] don't need to a carb load for a PG test. It is so low volume compared to doing a half marathon or a marathon or a 12 mile ruck or something like that, in which case I would recommend strongly that you carload but also eating the same things you normally eat.

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But in this case, just make sure you have a good solid balance of macronutrients and it is foods that your gut is familiar with. The biggest mistake you can possibly make is reinvent the wheel and try to eat something different. And believe me, this happens all the time. Guys will be like, oh, I've got this [00:05:00] big event and I've heard these things are really good performance foods. Oh by the way, I never ever, ever eat these foods, but tonight I'm going to eat them. And sometimes you're going to be totally fine just depending on your gut health and what you eat and how your body reacts to it, but you're kind of just playing with fire a little bit. It may mess your gut up. Is it the end of the world if you have GI distress on a PT test? Not really, but I would much rather not have GI distress when I'm trying to run my fastest two mile time than have GI distress or being [00:05:30] burpy or having heartburn or having the shits or something like that.

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Just feeling bloated. So just keep it the same. Make sure it's relatively healthy. Ideally you eat healthy foods on a regular basis, so that shouldn't be any different, but you don't feel like you have to carb load or anything like that. You can go a little higher in carbs if you want, but it's nowhere near the amount of volume required for a full on carb load. So just keep things the same. Next question, can I begin running at 300 pounds body weight or should I trim down first? This is a great question. You absolutely can begin running. There's no [00:06:00] restrictive body weight that if you're higher than this body weight, you should not run. That is not a thing. That being said, you want to make sure you have the right foundation in place. So what I would do first if you're not already is increase your walking step count, get to where you're walking.

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I would say at least 8,000 steps a day, maybe 10,000 steps that way you're just used to your body and your limbs and your lower body joints, your lower legs, your feet, et cetera are used to the repetitive impact from movement. Also [00:06:30] at your weight. If again, if you're not doing this already, that's going to be a pretty solid cardio stimulus for you. If you've been doing it for a while, different story or if you're 300 pounds but look like you're super jacked and strong and most people aren't super jacked and strong and shredded at 300 pounds, that would be pretty much impossible. But let's say you're alignment and a lot of that body weight is muscle, you're probably in decent shape, at least somewhat decent shape. You might not be in great long distance running shape, but you're at least probably used to being on your feet.

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If you're 300 pounds and it's mostly fat, [00:07:00] different story but still work your way up there by walking, once you get a few weeks under your belt of walking, then you can consider when your body's feeling good and walking is not just completely strenuous for you, it's not putting you in zone two plus generally speaking, you want to stay in zone two or at an easy conversational pace for a while regardless. Even if you were lighter, you'd still want to do that when you first start out. But assuming that goes well, you can start implementing a little bit of running. What I would do is start on a treadmill and put [00:07:30] it on a three 4% incline or so when you first start out, that's going to reduce the impact a little bit. It's going to make it a little harder and you might not be able to run very fast.

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It might be just faster than your current walking pace, but still it is a good way to do it and also not just destroy your joints. Once you do that for a few weeks, maybe a little longer, it's going to be different for everyone. It depends on how much you're doing it, how little you're doing it. I would lean towards for you going more frequent but shorter at first. So for example, let's [00:08:00] say you're running for 60 minutes a week. I would much rather you do four 15 minute runs than 1 45 minute run and one 15 minute run or one 60 minute run. That's just an example. But each individual dose is going to be less fat fatigue and less stressful in your joints, but also it's going to allow you to practice more often running four times a week, even if it's shorter, you build more skill and therefore you increase your future potential to A, be better at running and be less injury prone than you would if you just run once a week, even if it's longer.

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Even [00:08:30] if you're getting more time in that aerobic zone eventually you should definitely work up to where you're doing at least one longer run of the week. Maybe you can do five minutes to each run to start out throughout the week and then maybe a few weeks of that. Then maybe you add 10 minutes only to your long runs. So maybe six to eight weeks after you start, you're doing like three 30 minute runs throughout the week and then 1 45 to 60 minute run something similar to that. So there's nothing wrong with it, but just make sure you're not going from sitting on your couch all the time and being completely [00:09:00] untrained and unfit to immediately starting to run, especially if you're going to run on flat pavement. And by the way, once you have done some time on that incline, you can slowly over time decrease that incline down to where it's flat and then you can get outside.

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I would start when you go outside, not on pavement, I would start on either a track, it's a little less stressful on the joints or you could start on some sort of dirt road or non-technical trail with a bunch of trees and roots. Generally not what you want to start out on and [00:09:30] over time, continue to eat in the calorie deficit. Try to trim down a little bit. Don't do anything crazy extreme. Make sure you're not just on some crazy crash diet because you're not going to feel good, you're not going to have a lot of energy and you're going to increase your injury risk. If you're barely eating any calories, make sure your protein's high enough, and I would also do your best to get at least a couple of training sessions, some lifting sessions in per week. That way you're doing your best to maintain muscle.

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So best of luck. Next question, can you get lean and dense, lean and dense? I like it without tracking macros but eating [00:10:00] all whole real foods or do you have to track? Fantastic question. What I would start with is before even getting into tracking, I would clean up your diet if you haven't already. This is for like I'm assuming this person who's asking this already kind of has a clean diet, but for other people, life is so much easier when you are eating the right foods, you're eating clean foods, you're eating enough protein, carbs and fat, but also you are eating enough micronutrients to support health, wellbeing, satiety, and [00:10:30] just general overall effectiveness. From there, honestly, if you don't really have a history or if you do have a history of eating shitty food and you switch to all whole foods without even tracking, you're probably going to lose a good amount of fat.

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It's really hard. It's not impossible, but it's really hard. If you're eating at least somewhat sensibly, like you're not just eating ribeyes and avocados, but you're eating a good blend of lean meats and clean starches and fruits and vegetables, [00:11:00] it is very, very likely and almost definite that you're going to start losing some body fat. Now if you want to get really lean and dense, because lean and dense definition is different, but if you want to get really lean and you haven't tracked in the past, it is very difficult if not impossible to do it without tracking at all. If you have a very extensive history of tracking in the past and you're really good at intuitively eating, you can look at a plate of food and guess approximately what the macros are [00:11:30] and the calories are at least very, very close within say 150 calories and 10 to 20 grams of carbs, 10 to 20 grams of protein in like three to eight grams of fat.

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Then you should be able to do it, at least get pretty lean. Now, if you want to get completely bodybuilding stage ready, lean, you're going to have to track. That's just how it is. You could really, really undereat and know for sure that you're eating way, way, way below your maintenance, but then you start running into health issues and wellbeing issues and energy issues. So [00:12:00] you want to be in a reasonable deficit, which is really hard to do without tracking. So yes, you can definitely start getting leaner and go a pretty long way by just switching to eating mostly whole foods or continuing to eat mostly whole foods if you have been for a while. If you have been for a while, you're probably already pretty lean. It's again, just difficult to overeat foods when you're reasonably eating single ingredient foods, but to take it to a really, really lean level for most people, I would say under [00:12:30] 12 ish percent, maybe under 10, you're going to have to track.

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For me, for example, right now I'm not even tracking. I'm making sure I'm eating 460 to 480 grams of carbs a day, but my protein and my fat are kind of just automatic. I eat about the same amount of food every day. My carbs, I kind of switch up a little more, so I keep a loose tracking of them. I don't weigh them, but I've been doing this for a really long time, but also I am not really trying to change my body composition much. I just kind of got out of a [00:13:00] bulk and I'm transitioning back into getting lean for summer. So right now I'm just kind of hanging out at maintenance and I track using the mirror and my body weight, but also because I've tracked so much in the past and also because I'm not trying to be super duper shredded or ensure that I'm absolutely in a calorie surplus to get bigger every single day, it's really easy for me to stay at maintenance.

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Some days I might eat a little bit higher than maintenance. Other days I might eat a little bit lower than maintenance and that'll show up over time on the scale in the mirror and just my intuition because [00:13:30] I'm just so experienced with it. But once I finish this phase, which will probably be another month or so going into late April, early May, I will probably go into a cut to get really lean by July, for example, I'm not that far away from being lean. I'm probably 10 or 11% body fat and I'll probably get down to seven or eight, so it won't be a super long crazy cut. It'll take me six weeks or so, but at that point I will start tracking that way I know exactly what [00:14:00] I'm taking in and I know I'm not undereating because a lot of people when they're in a cut and they don't track, they have a tendency to underdo it.

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Some people have a tendency to overdo it, but that's pretty apparent. If you're not getting leaner and you're not making any weight loss progress on the scale, then it's pretty obvious that you're not in a calorie deficit, but you could be in a severe deficit and way undereating and just giving your body nowhere near enough nutrients, not enough of the right macros, [00:14:30] but you're still going to be losing weight. So a lot of people have the tendency to think that they're on the right track, but you don't want that, especially if you care about performance and vigor and feeling good throughout the day and just maintaining your health. So great question. Love it and kind of you can, but to a certain extent can't when you want to get really extreme. Next question, what is your running shoe rotation? Hell yeah, so I'm not taking running super seriously right now, but I've got a few different types of shoes.

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For example, when I was doing my ultra prep a year and a half ago [00:15:00] or so, I had so many different types of shoes. I don't even know how many, but right now I, I just bought a pair of the Brooks Glycerin 20 threes by the way, I've had the glycerin 20 ones, the glycerin nineteens, the glycerin. I think I had the seventeens too, but I love the Brooks. Those are great. And I also have been using the Nike Ultra Trail. I think they're ultra trails. No, they're basically the Nike trails super shoes. What are they? Vapor Trail, [00:15:30] trail Vapor, ultra trails, I don't know, whatever they are. Super shoe Nikes. I've had those for a while and for my speed work I will use or usually my threshold work, which I don't do a ton. I do very, very infrequently these days. I just don't really care about running speed, but I have the vapor flies that I'll use for that, the super shoes.

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So those are the kind of the three. I just bought a new trio of Vivo Barefoots, but I don't run in Vivos. I just don't find it worthwhile to try and run barefoot, but I wear those for walking. I wear them [00:16:00] for lifting and I wear 'em for a lot of other activities as well and love vivos, but that's what I got right now. But at the same time, don't feel like those are the best shoes for everybody. If you've been listening for a while, you probably know my stance on shoes. Everyone's different. Everyone's individual. Just because those shoes work well for me does not mean they're going to work well for everyone else. So just remember that next question, strength is decent run times run. He used an hourglass for run times. Dude, that is innovative probably because of the character limit strength is decent [00:16:30] run times represented by an hourglass aren't great.

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Should I do the two and five mile then JG three then run advance? Does that make sense? Yeah, that's honestly a great way to do it. If you want to get faster run times a little bit sooner, you could do two and five and then run advanced and then Jack is L three, but honestly Jack is L three has pretty close to the same amount of run volume as two and five. It just has a lot more strength bias. So essentially this would look like [00:17:00] you are kind of building up your run ability. You're getting used to speed work, you're getting used to pacing, you're still going to maintain at very worse, you're going to maintain strength. A lot of guys do end up building it, but if your strength numbers are already really good, like I said in the question, you're probably going to about maintain, but I would expect your run times to improve significantly, and then you get into the Jack L, which is going to be more strength, so you're going to gain more strength.

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You're probably going to continue making more subtle run gains, maybe most likely not quite as drastic [00:17:30] as the two and five mile, but that'll allow you to build some strength back or build some strength when you've been maintaining strength, not that you'll lose it, and then you'll get into two and five mile and the run games will take off and you should be able to maintain strength in that as well. Again, there's not a ton of strength. It's a running program, but it's definitely enough to maintain. But I love this order and all those are on sale right now too, so you're in luck. Next question. Priorities for eating at selection, carbs for performance, protein for muscle breakdown and fats [00:18:00] for calories. Unfortunately, unless you're talking about the long walk, you're not going to be able to choose what you eat, although I will say you're going to have res, you're going to probably have three res a day and a lot of guys don't eat everything that's in the res because they don't like it or whatever.

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That is a huge mistake. You should be eating every single calorie that is given to you, every single calorie that is given to you. If you don't, you are knowingly leaving performance and recovery [00:18:30] on the table to be clear, it is nowhere near enough calories to sustain your performance and sustain your recovery and not lose any muscle. However, by not eating some of the calories that are given to you, it's even less optimal for that, and you're going to be in a sleep deprived state, a stressed out state, you're going to be just completely smoked the whole time. So to me, it just makes zero sense why people would, even if they don't love a food, like suck it up and eat it, it's going to [00:19:00] help you. You're not going to have anywhere near the amount of protein that would be optimal for these conditions.

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You're not going to have anywhere near enough carbs. I mean carbs is probably the closest res are mostly carbs and fat. Honestly, they're more fat and carbs than protein, which is ridiculous, and the fats just really unhealthy fat for the most part. You might get some trail nuts or something like that, but yeah, eat everything you possibly can. Unfortunately, you're not really going to be able to decide what your macros are. Now if [00:19:30] you're going to the long walk, that is the only selection that I know of that you can choose what you eat. You can bring your own foods, you can also, you eat whatever you want in the defect, which is frigging amazing. You basically have all the resources to recover and perform as well as you can. You're also sleeping way better there. That doesn't make it an easier selection by any means, but that selection would be nearly impossible.

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If all you got was res every single day and you couldn't bring any of your own stuff, it would just be would run you into the ground, it would run anyone into [00:20:00] the ground. It would probably be doable. But anyway, they give you the resources or they allow you to bring the resources too. So even with that selection though, guys still undereat. Either they don't bring enough stuff or they do bring stuff but they just don't eat it or they eat very light in the DAC because they're not hungry or whatever. Sometimes you're going to have to eat when you're not hungry. That is just the name of the game at selection because you are fueling yourself. You're not eating for enjoyment at that point. Yes, the food at that defect [00:20:30] in Camp Dawson, West Virginia is by far the best defect I've ever eaten at before, but still you're not really eating for enjoyment.

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You're eating for, I need this to repair muscle and most of all, I need these carbs to provide glycogen and reduce my stress levels and help me chill out a little bit because one of the indirect but underappreciated and very, very real benefits of carbohydrates is helping you mitigate stress. It releases insulin. Insulin [00:21:00] can act as a cortisol modulator that keeps your cortisol a little bit more at bay. That is one other example of interwork workout training or interwork workout fueling is even if you don't necessarily need it, so you're going to lift for 60 minutes, you're not going to burn enough glycogen or lose enough glycogen to really need intra-workout carbs unless of course if you're going and doing more training after conditioning after, you definitely want it for that reason. But even if you're not, you don't need it to necessarily replace your carbs [00:21:30] super quick or glycogen super quick, but it can help reduce the stress of that session by kind of keeping cortisol levels a little lower.

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So that is one like very, very rarely discussed benefit of carbs, but either way, for most elections, you don't really have a choice. Just eat everything they give you for certain selections that you can bring stuff and you can choose what you eat in the DAC and eat as much as you want. Make sure you bring the right stuff and eat in the DAC as much as you want or as much as you possibly can. That is my recommendation. Next question. Advice for someone in colder states, [00:22:00] Wisconsin, getting ready for SFRE. I'm assuming it's going to be in a hot state soon. Yeah, so you want to adapt to heat. Unfortunately, you don't have the access to hot weather, which is fine, although it's not quite as robust to use things like saunas, hot baths, hot tubs, steam rooms as it is to use a little bit of that and also train in hot weather.

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So you're used to that actual training aspect. Active heat training versus passive active means you're actually training in the heat. Passive [00:22:30] means you're using heat from other sources like the things I just listed. Getting heat exposure and increasing your heat tolerance is as close to non-negotiable as anything I can think of. You could show up and be the fittest dude there and if it's hot and you trained in Wisconsin the whole time and you never expose yourself to any heat leading in, it's not going to matter. It's probably not going to matter. There's a genetic component. Some people can tolerate the heat a little better than others, but still you're [00:23:00] going to be performing way below your potential and it's also going to be more dangerous as well because your body's just not used to managing that extra factor of added heat. So what I would do is go and listen to, I will try and post this in the description, but I made an entire episode about heat training and it goes over how to use heat training if you do live in hot weather and also how to use heat training if you don't, and in your case it's going to be mostly sauna, what I would do is something like four days a week, I don't like giving a time [00:23:30] recommendation because saunas are so different as far as temperature dry saunas versus infrared saunas and so on and so forth.

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And also maybe you don't have sauna excess. You can also do it in a hot bath. You can also take a hot tub, really any hot exposure and just over time go until you're relatively uncomfortable but not like on death store. So I'm starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. It's time to get out next time you're probably going to notice or overtime, maybe not next time because heat tolerance fluctuates, [00:24:00] but over time you're going to be able to stay in a little bit longer and a little bit longer, and if you're exposing yourself to heat a few days a week, three or four days a week, you are at least going to get most of the heat adaptations, not quite all of them. You're not going to be used to training in the heat, and by the way, when you're sitting in the sauna, just sit in the sauna, don't try and train in the sauna or do some crazy shit like that.

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Just sit there. But over time you're going to develop that tolerance and your body's just going to become better at sweating. You're going to sweat out less sodium. You're also going to start sweating faster. You're also going to sweat more [00:24:30] and sweating more and sweating faster. All these are good adaptations, assuming you're rehydrating because they help keep your body cool and obviously when you lose less salt, that's a good thing too because sodium is one of the most important things for performance and it's also the electrolyte that you lose most of when you're sweating doing high intensity stuff. So that's what I would do. I would also listen to that episode, and this is going to apply to a lot of people in the upcoming months coming off the winter, guys are always kind of upset with their run times at first because they're not used to the warmer temperatures [00:25:00] and guys think they're getting less fit, you're not getting less fit.

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It's just the fact that the temperature's warming up, it's getting more humid and you're not used to it yet. You're not going to hit massive PRS in the middle of July most likely, unless you are just inexperienced and really unfit right now and you continue getting fitter, then yeah, you might hit prs, but if you're usually pretty damn fit, you're more likely to hit PRS in the middle of March than you are in the middle of July. That's just kind of how it is. It's a factor that affects everyone. No matter how fit you [00:25:30] are, no matter how good of a runner you are, basically every long distance running world record has been set in like 45 degree weather, give or take. Rarely are guys burning down two hour low, two hour marathons when it's 85 degrees and super humid. So that's my recommendation. Good on you for thinking it.

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A lot of people aren't going to think it and the guys who didn't think of it, they're going to show up and they're going to be kind of shocked and not performing as well as they possibly could because they are not able to tolerate that heat. Next question, can [00:26:00] one train acceleration and top end sprint speed and endurance in the same program and progress? Yes, you can. I mean, this is like two opposite ends of the spectrum, but if you have a really solid program and you recover really well and you don't do a bunch of extra shit, that's what's going to hurt you the most is doing extra stuff beyond what's needed. As long as you're doing basically the bare minimum endurance to continue making progress and you're doing the bare minimum speed and power and acceleration training to continue making [00:26:30] progress, you should be able to make progress in both of them.

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You're not going to maximize progress in either of them. It's just like any hybrid training. If you want to be as strong and as jacked as you possibly can, doing a bunch of running is not going to help you get there. However, you can still get better at running and you can still get more strong and more jacked. On the flip side, if you want to go set a marathon pr, doing a ton of heavy strength training all the time is not going to help you get there. Some strength training can help. Running too much strength [00:27:00] training is going to interfere with running. That doesn't mean you can't get better at running and stronger. It just means you're not going to maximize your gains. Same here, two totally different energy systems, two different types of muscle fibers that you're kind of biasing. Two very different training approaches like for speed and acceleration training.

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You want fatigue is your enemy. You want to be as fresh as you can, like your CNS. You want it all ramped up, you want it primed. You want to be super well recovered. Going into speed training like that, you have to train it more often, [00:27:30] but in smaller doses, whereas endurance training, I mean the main factor is time and duration and just getting more miles and more miles and also doing some speed work of course too, but for you, you're probably not going to be limited by your speed. If you're doing all the speed training, you're going to be limited mostly as far as your running gains, your longer distance running gains, you're going to be limited mostly by your aerobic system, so you want to really focus on keeping that intensity, low volume, relatively high, but not so high that it's interfering with your other stuff, but high enough to continue making gains.

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And then [00:28:00] same with the speed stuff, more frequent smaller doses, very, very intentional, very, very intense. If you start getting slower in a workout, probably almost definitely a good idea to just cut that workout and just the general speed training, power training principles apply. Also, you want to make sure you're eating enough, sleeping enough, doing the right things outside the gym. That's going to be a factor always, but the more dialed in you are with that, the better gains you're going to get and just remember that you're not going to be a pro and [00:28:30] super advanced at both. Which one will you get better at? Kind of the one you bias more, but also there's major, major genetic implications in this too. If you're just genetically very fast twitch, you're probably going to make more gains than that unless you've already close to max those gains out.

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If you are more slow twitch, you're probably going to make more endurance gains, but at the same time, it doesn't matter. It's just cool to chase these different things. Just make sure you manage your expectations going in. Next question, what was your easy pace or zone two pace when you were going through SFAS? [00:29:00] I'm only laughing. This is not a bad question at all. I'm only laughing because honestly, I had never even experimented with zone two. Honestly, I don't think I had heard of zone two or easy running or base building when I went through SFAS, and that is not to say that that's a good thing or that I maximized my performance because I didn't do any zone two training. I did some zone two training, but just kind of like by accident. It just kind of happened to happen throughout some of my training, but most of my training was way too intense and I got away [00:29:30] with it because I made a post about this recently.

(00:29:33):

Genetically I am a lot more endurance prone, slow twitch, long lasting, but not very fast, not very quick, not very powerful way, way more. That is my genetics in a nutshell are endurance genetics. It's tough for me to get faster as far as sprinting, I don't jump very high, never have. It's hard for me to gain muscle. It's pretty hard for me to gain strength and it's super easy for me to gain [00:30:00] endurance. It happens really, really quick. Even I just took six months off basically from running altogether and I'm already back to running 8 45 pace for zone two after six weeks, so that stuff just hangs on for me. For a lot of people it's muscle. For a lot of people, it's strength, power, whatever it may be, it's just genetics. That being said, I would say I was very, very fit because I did a lot of running when I grew up.

(00:30:24):

I just went out for runs with my dad and we would just go run five miles at a relatively [00:30:30] hard pace, definitely not zone two, probably closer to a tempo pace, not a time trial, but closer to threshold. I would also do a ton of hills. I would do a ton of repeats. I would not pace my repeats properly, I would just go as hard as I could and just hang on, and it was not great training because I just didn't know any better. But because of that, I kind had a pseudo base because of my genetics as well as the fact that I just did enough volume and I could recover fast enough and so on and so forth. So if I had to guess, I would say my zone two back [00:31:00] then was probably in the low sevens, maybe mid sevens. I would say probably low sevens, but also I was the fastest dude in my selection.

(00:31:07):

I won all the runs. I came in second and one of the rucks, I won the second R, the longer ruck, so I was on the top end as far as the gate week performances are concerned. So I am not saying that to toot my own horn or anything or say that's required. I'm just saying that is why my zone two pace was probably around there. It does not need to be around there. If [00:31:30] you're slower than that, not a big deal. Honestly, it doesn't really matter. What matters most, and I've talked about this a lot, but I'll reiterate it. Your zone two pace can be a proxy for fitness progress. If you're doing mostly easy running and your zone two pace is getting faster over time, it's not going to be every run but just trending faster over weeks, months, et cetera, that's a pretty good indication that you're getting that something is going right, you are getting more aerobically fit.

(00:31:53):

However, oftentimes it does not really coincide with your higher end paces, your five mile time [00:32:00] trial paces, your two mile time trial paces, whatever your distance you're going for generally, I would think that you'd probably want to focus more on those. If you're going to SFAS, you definitely want to focus more on those than your zone two pace. Zone two, think of it as systemic adaptations. You are trying to improve your aerobic base, you're trying to increase your mitochondria, you're trying to improve your stroke volume, you're trying to improve your health. You're basically trying to improve your foundation. It does not matter if you're running at 10 minute pace or nine [00:32:30] 30 pace or nine minute pace. It doesn't matter what your buddy's running versus what you're running. What matters is that you're going at the right intensity, the right output, the speed work and the threshold work.

(00:32:40):

Those are when pace matters. Those are more specific adaptations, not systemic. Yes, you're getting systemic adaptations from all of this, but those things your pace is a lot more relevant for, and again, most relevant is how fast can you run your five mile? How fast can you run your two mile? Not that you're going to run those exact distances at selection, you will run a two mile, but the other runs are unknown. [00:33:00] They're probably not any more than like 10 K for the long run and probably closer to 5K, maybe four miles for the short run. I don't know exactly, but those are the things that matter. Those are the things that you want to really focus on and getting too attached to your zone two pace or easy run pace is just completely missing the forest for the trees. Next question, how far out from CAG selection would you start doing your specific prep?

(00:33:23):

It depends on the person and their background and what they've been doing leading into it. For me, I did a 10 week [00:33:30] CAG selection prep, specific CAG selection prep. Then again, just what I was just talking about, I always had a really strong base. By then I was 28, so I had started doing longer actual easy runs and rux and so on and so forth. So that was six years after I went to selection, maybe seven SFAS, so I knew a lot more back then or I knew a lot more by then, but 10 weeks is probably on the very short end if you're really, really already [00:34:00] aerobically super fit and really good on your feet as far as running and rucking are concerned, you can probably get away with 10 weeks, but for most people I would say three at the minimum months and probably closer to four and I would say that's probably the average, which is why I created ruck run lift to be four months long.

(00:34:16):

It's about four months, it's like 17 weeks, so honestly that would be probably your best bet is to follow Ruck run Lift going into it if you're less than three months out, which you wouldn't be because there is a class starting [00:34:30] if not today, very, very soon. So you're at least six-ish months out because the next CAG selection class is not until September. So you've got time. If you are interested in a program between now and when you want to start ruck run lift, I would say probably the run advance program would be pretty solid or Jack L 3.0 if you want a little less running, a little bit more strength, you don't need a ton of strength for that selection at all. You can go and just be an endurance stud and as long as you're strong enough to carry your ruck day after day after day [00:35:00] and do the required amount of pushups, of course I don't know what it is, but it's not nothing crazy.

(00:35:04):

It doesn't really involve a lot of strength. It's more strength, endurance and skill. As long as you're there, then you're going to be totally fine. It's not as multidimensional as fast prep. It's very, very one dimensional. You have to run one time two miles and the rest is just rucking. So you got to be a ruck beast and that is kind of what I'd recommend to make the proper adaptations about four months if you're super fit, two or three months. Next question. I'm running your programs, but looking to cut from 17 [00:35:30] to 10% body fat, what should my macro goals be to still perform? Good question. So it does depend on your body weight mostly because someone who's 170 pounds versus someone who's 270 pounds would eat very, very different calories and macros or should eat very different calories and macros and I've talked quite a bit in the past on other episodes about how to calculate your calorie needs as well as your macro distributions.

(00:35:59):

So I'm not going to [00:36:00] go through an entire example, but I will give you some numbers generally speaking, if you're trying to cut body weight times 15, maybe 16 depending on your metabolic rate, depending on your activity level outside of training and so on and so forth, body weight times 15 to 16 is a pretty good starting point as far as calories are concerned. For protein, really simple body weight times one, you're 17% body fat so you're lean enough to wear 17 or body weight times one is going to be a pretty solid recommendation even though that's [00:36:30] technically more than you need when you're in a cut, you want to favor slightly higher protein anyway, so this would be perfect for you for fat somewhere around body weight times 0.3, maybe 0.35 maybe for short periods of time for some people down to body weight 0.25.

(00:36:46):

If you are on TRT, I don't think many people on this who listen to this are on TRT, but if you are, you can go lower on fat. The main reason you want to keep fat at least to a reasonable amount if you're natural is because of the hormonal effect. It will keep your hormones in [00:37:00] check, especially your testosterone, but other things as well, guys who are not natural can go a little lower because they have exogenous testosterone coming in. But that being said, you don't want to go crazy low because there's other benefits, health benefits of fat too, but anywhere in that point, three times body weight range is solid, then you just fill in the rest with carbs. So whatever you get for that calorie amount, you put in your protein numbers, multiply that by four because proteins, four calories per gram, you put in your fat numbers, body weight times 0.3 and then you multiply that by nine because fat [00:37:30] is nine calories per gram.

(00:37:32):

Whatever's left over that still puts you in that deficit is carbs. So for you, I mean I can't really give numbers, I don't have your body weight, but that is a pretty simple equation. But once you get that equation, make sure you give it a test period, a trial period, first 10 days, eat that amount, eat those macros and weigh yourself every day. If you are trending down over that 10 days, if you lose about a pound, then you pretty much nailed it. [00:38:00] A little less than a pound is good too. A little tiny bit more than a pound, although I wouldn't push too much more than a pound per week. Generally speaking, while you're trying to perform. Also fine if you lose three pounds, you went a little bit too aggressive on the cut, you just have high metabolism, so the body weight equation didn't work for you.

(00:38:19):

It sometimes doesn't. There's outliers if you stay about the same then you probably are eating at maintenance. If you increase your weight, then you're in a surplus. I highly doubt that you're going to increase your weight [00:38:30] on those calories, but that should put you at a 300 to 500 calorie deficit or so and that is a reasonable amount to sustain. What I would also do is calorie cycle and make sure you're eating more calories on your higher output training days. So any day that has two training sessions or any day that has a long run or a long ruck, I would definitely consider going higher on the calories. So maybe on those days you eat maintenance calories and you just add maybe a hundred grams of carbs in those days, maybe one 50 on the days that are really low intensity [00:39:00] or like rest days you can eat in, you make up for that, the calories that you ate by eating the same amount below your maintenance and then maybe on the normal one session days or the days that are a little bit lower intensity, lower volume you can eat around maintenance.

(00:39:15):

So that's the way I would do it. If you want more information on all of this, setting up your exact macros based on your body weight, based on your goals, based on your leanness and how to distro your macros and how to cycle your calories, I would check out the soft prep [00:39:30] recovery and nutrition guide lays it out all in there and it's usually $25, but right now it's 25% off, so less than 20 bucks. I just lost power. One of my lights went out. Hold on, let's get a little more brightness in here. Alright, we are back. That is extremely weird. I have a lamp over in the corner there. It's like one of those long skinny lamps that basically has a little block where you press the button. I basically just use my foot to press the button to turn it on, but that's [00:40:00] the only way to turn it on and it turned off.

(00:40:02):

I figured it died but it just turned off and I just turned it back on and it's working fine. I also just adjusted my light so the light's a little different, but anyway, maybe my office is haunted. That is the moral of the story. Anyway, let's continue. Next question. At what point would running high mileage weekly interfere with hypertrophy? So many factors that go into this for most people probably don't have to worry too much about it unless you're going crazy, crazy high. [00:40:30] This is really going to come down to ensuring that your overall training plan and also your calorie intake and your outside the gym habits are in check and it's going to be different for everyone. For some people, if you have a crazy high stress life, you might not be able to handle anywhere near as much running volume and still make gains.

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If you are really dialed in and your life is pretty chill and maybe you like most of your obligations are centered around working out, then you can probably run quite a bit. Alec, I don't know, [00:41:00] probably most people who are watching this have heard of Alec Lenis, if not, definitely a great follow is a major hybrid athlete and he is jacked. He's not very big. He's a smaller dude, but he's super jacked, super shredded, and I think he runs like 60 plus miles per week and he runs like a two and a half hour marathon. I think he's going for a two and a half hour marathon if I'm not mistaken, and he's trying to build muscle throughout the entire thing. Actually, he's making a YouTube series about the entire thing. It's like two 30 marathon plus building muscle or something like that. There's a few episodes already, [00:41:30] so I would check that out, but again, it's going to be really different just because that works for him.

(00:41:34):

He's an absolute stud genetic freak and also works his ass off and also is really dialed in with his nutrition and also a fitness professional so he knows exactly what he's doing. He's probably going to be able to do it, but not everyone's going to be able to run 60 miles a week and still gain muscle. In fact, a lot of people wouldn't be able to. Mostly not because they're running too much or not because they're not lifting enough oftentimes because they're running and lifting more than what they're able to recover from, [00:42:00] and that's going to be different depending on what you do outside of training. So if you're a mess outside of training, you can get away with a lot less. If you're dialed in outside of training, you can get away with a lot more, but also there's genetic components and lots of other factors that go into it.

(00:42:14):

But what I would do is see for yourself, run high mileage, make sure you build up to it properly. Don't just start ridiculously high mileage that you're not ready for, that you haven't worked up to and lift, and if you're gaining muscle [00:42:30] and you are continuing to increase your mileage, then boom, your experiment is working. Once you start getting to that point where maybe you stop gaining muscle or maybe they really slow down or you just feel really over fatigued, over worked or you're running is kind of taking a hit, then maybe dial it back down. That's really the best way to find out if any of these hypothetical things can work. So that is my best shot at answering that one. Best of luck. Next question, 24 plus hour fasts. Do you do them? [00:43:00] I absolutely have in the past. Recently I have not been because I am trying to get my nervous system and my thyroid and my gut health and all that kind of stuff in check.

(00:43:12):

When you fast for a really long time, it's kind of a stressor on your body. Doing it once in a while, not a huge deal. I personally am not once in a while. I will generally once a week actually, I will do an 18 hour fast where I don't eat until one o'clock and I'll just eat lunch and dinner that day once a week on a rest day. Pretty chill. Not [00:43:30] a super long fast. Mainly that's just for, I feel way more focused and dialed in when I'm fasting, but that is because my cortisol is higher. A lot of people think that fasting every day they feel so good, it's because their cortisol is high. It's not necessarily a good thing, especially for a type a hard charging individual. Doing it once in a while, not a big deal, longer fast can definitely be beneficial, especially for gut health or maybe spiritual reasons or maybe just breaking your attachment to food.

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This is not to say that if you have an eating disorder where you're [00:44:00] obsessed with food that it's a good idea to fast or if you've had a history of bulimia or anorexia in the past, I would definitely stay away from fasting. I'm not an eating disorder expert, but those generally are not the best people for fasting. It kind of just enables what they already do or what they've done in the past and they think they're doing something okay because it's fasting, but for them it would not be ideal, but it can be beneficial to do once in a while for your overall health and wellbeing. It's not really a performance thing, but if it does, it could have a roundabout effect on your performance If your gut health's [00:44:30] all jacked up or if you're just generally unhealthy or something like that. It could not acutely improve your performance, but it could just make you generally more healthy and improve your wellbeing, which can down the line, improve your performance.

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So I don't think there's anything wrong with, for a lot of people doing a weekly or biweekly 24 hour fast, if you're going over 24 hours, making sure that you're eating enough calories and you're not just doing this as a way to just fast your body weight off. I would not do it for body weight reasons. Honestly, [00:45:00] that would be, it does work, but that'd be one of the last things I would think. I want to do this to get leaner. Something like I want to do this to improve my digestion and gut health, or I want to do this to prove to myself that I won't waste away after I don't eat for two hours or three hours. If you're someone who just has to, feels like you have to eat every couple hours, you don't, but give it a whirl if you haven't already.

(00:45:22):

It's not like some major game changing thing. Some people will say it is, but it's also a totally fine thing to practice on occasion. [00:45:30] Another really underrated benefit of doing periodic 24 hour fast. I wouldn't do this every week If you are this avatar, which I'll get into in a second, but maybe once a month, maybe biweekly or something similar, as long as you're still eating enough overall is if you're in a bulk or in a surplus and you are starting to struggle with digestion or if you are just a hard gainer and eating is just a massive chore for you and you basically have to force feed yourself all the time. Having one day every so often where you don't have to eat gives your GI system a [00:46:00] break, which is a really good thing and it also gives you a mental break from eating so much all the time.

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It's almost like a cheat day on a diet. You've been on a diet for three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, whatever it is. You have a cheat day. Yeah, it's way more calories than you normally eat, but your body can only store so much of those as fat. And also the net effect because every other day you're in a calorie deficit, it's still not going to throw you off. You're probably going to feel terrible speaking from experience, you probably will [00:46:30] feel terrible. I've done this, but having a cheat day every so often resets you mentally. It's definitely not a digestive enhancer, but you're kind of going for different things. Generally when you're in a calorie deficit, you're going to be digesting food just fine as long as you're eating well. So similar to that, but just kind of the opposite direction. So send it if you want, but don't feel like it's some magic thing or some make or break thing.

(00:46:53):

Next question, I'm 6 3 2 30 and wanting to lean out and maintain or build strength. What are the most advantageous methods? So [00:47:00] this is all going to come down to ensuring that you are giving your body a stimulus to grow muscle. So you're lifting weights and you're progressing and you are doing it in a reasonable way. You're not doing crazy amounts of volume and just all the basic principles of strength training that I've hurt talked about like ad nauseum on the show and making sure your deficit is not too extreme for you. Something like a 300 calorie deficit would be a good spot. Maybe three 50, maybe four, and eating enough protein, eating enough carbohydrates so that you're performing well and [00:47:30] you're able to get pumps. It's just you don't have to eat high carbs if you don't really care about endurance performance or overall performance, but still usually it's going to just make for a better experience for you.

(00:47:39):

If you have at least a good solid amount of carbs and you do it generally around your training would be a good time to have most of those carbs, if not just throughout the day. But other than that, as long as you're going about it reasonably and not trying to do anything extreme and again, able to recover from your training and seeing weights go up, [00:48:00] you might not gain strength on every single lift, but you absolutely can gain strength in a deficit for a long period of time, as long as you are reasonable with it and you have really good programming, and again, your diet is not such a crazy deficit that you're just depleted and smoked all the time. Eventually, if you do it for long enough, you're probably going to start losing a little bit of strength. Losing strength, however, does not always mean you're losing muscle.

(00:48:25):

Oftentimes it's a leverage thing. For example, when I was in my cut several [00:48:30] months ago in the fall, getting my gut health in check, I gained strength on most of my lifts, but all of my presses, I lost strength on pressing for me at least. And for a lot of people, for whatever reason, they lose strength when they're in a cut, and it's not because necessarily they're losing chest muscle size or their muscle fibers are decreasing in their chest. Oftentimes it's a leverage thing. For me, pressing has always been my worst movement pattern as far as I'm just weaker in it. I've got long arms, skinny [00:49:00] arms. I don't have really like a barrel chest. I'm just a skinnier guy overall. I can pull really well. I can squat pretty well, but pressing for whatever reason, just doesn't go well for me. So that's the one that I lose for a lot of people that'll be similar, but I would expect if you do things right, you can definitely gain.

(00:49:16):

You can gain muscle. It's going to be really slow and gradual and minor if you're natural especially, but you can recomp. It's just not usually the best way to do it. But if you're eating just in that small, small deficit, [00:49:30] expect to at least maintain your strength and muscle for a while. But also if you're doing things right, you can actually build it. So that's what I would do. Next question. If hitting legs and running on the same day, would threshold zone two or repeats be optimal? Yes. What you do on a single day doesn't really matter that much. There's no way to say it's optimal. Not optimal, perfect, imperfect. I mean, yes, I could look at a workout and be like, this would be really dumb to do today because it's just [00:50:00] way too ridiculous. Or in a rare case, maybe just not enough.

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But honestly, what matters is what you do on a regular basis. You're not going to make fitness gains from one day of training. You're not going to make fitness gains from a week of training. It's what you do week after week after week, your entire program, your entire training block, your entire training career. That's where the gains are going to come from. So generally speaking though, I would prefer if I'm hitting legs and running on [00:50:30] the same day to do either a really easy super chill zone two run, so like 20 to 30 minutes, really, really simple run or something more intense. So something like 200 meter repeats or 400 meter repeats, and a lot of my programs, you'll see either days that have legs plus repeats or they'll have full body days that include legs plus repeats. The main reason being, if you are doing, say a hybrid program in multiple days a week, you are running and lifting.

(00:50:59):

A great strategy is [00:51:00] to consolidate stressors. So hitting lower body and doing higher intensity, running not the same thing, but a similar stressor on your body, a high stress day basically, instead of doing those on different days where you're doing say, a high intensity lift, then maybe a low intensity day, then a high intensity run, basically you're getting high intensity, low intensity, high intensity, low intensity, doing a bunch of high intensity stuff in the first couple days of the week when you're fresh, coming off the weekend [00:51:30] and then doing more moderate to low intensity stuff throughout the rest of the week is a great way to get that intensity in. When you're fresh and you're nervous system's primed and you're well fueled, you're well rested and you have the preparedness for it. And then while you're doing the moderate intensity and the lower intensity stuff later in the week, you're just recovering from that higher intensity stuff.

(00:51:50):

Certain energy systems are recovering, your mental state is recovering, your nervous systems recovering, not that low intensity and moderate intensity training don't affect these. [00:52:00] They're not stressors. They absolutely are. They're just different stressors and they're lower stressors. So you can recover, especially after a while, you get used to doing this stuff. You can recover while you're training those things. That being said, that's not the only way to do it. You absolutely can spread out. Your high intensity runs and your high intensity lifts. You absolutely can. I usually like to have one day on a hybrid split. This is just a very basic example. It is not the only way to do it, but I like to have one day where you're pairing lifting plus running like [00:52:30] higher intensity running, and then one day where you're hitting a run more fresh later in the week or something like that.

(00:52:34):

Maybe Monday you do leg day plus 200 meter repeats, and then maybe on Wednesday you hit an upper body day and then maybe on Thursday you do some threshold work when you're more fresh because you haven't done high intensity running or lifting in a few days. So again, one day of training can't really say whether it's optimal or suboptimal, but in general, that's the way I would do it. Just ensure that it makes sense in the context of your entire [00:53:00] training plan and don't think that this one day what you do on one day is make or break. Next question, is there any time in the 18 x-ray pipeline after Ossit and Airborne to prepare or do you go straight to selection? Yeah, there's plenty of time. It depends on where you're going, what time of the year you're going mostly, but you'll probably have at minimum from the day you finish OIT to the day you go tosi sosi, by the way, if you're an 1818 X, you're going to go to S sosi, so you're definitely not going to go straight to selection, but from the day you finish [00:53:30] oat tos, sosi day one, you're probably going to have at minimum eight weeks, it's probably going to be a lot more than that.

(00:53:36):

That's based on guys. A lot of my guys right now are kind of in that period or they're going tossi or they have recently, and I've coached them through that and most of the time they have quite a while. If you go at a certain time though, if you finish airborne in the late spring, you're probably not going to get into the April Sosi class and therefore the [00:54:00] May selection class. So you're going to have the entire summer. You probably won't go to SAPs E until August and then selection in September, so then you'll have even more time, but no matter what, you're going to have a good amount of time. The problem is a lot of guys will not take advantage of it or they'll rely on the pre-ops e training that is required. Mandatory pt, they won't do anything extra on their own, and that is a mistake because although yes, they do train you and you have forced PT and it's not the best programming, it's quite a [00:54:30] high intensity, but it's just not very well thought out or well implemented.

(00:54:34):

It's still not enough. You're still going to go to sasi with some weak links, so you're going to want to train on your own, but you'll have plenty of time to do it at Airborne School. And S sosi is also a good way to ramp you up for selection. You're not going to make a ton of fitness games at s Sosi, and from what I've heard recently, it's not ideal as far as what to do. I had a client that just got selected and before that he went to ssy and [00:55:00] he said they didn't do any carries at all at Ssy. So basically the month leading into selection, no carries, which is a mistake, but I have all my guys that are in this boat do a ton of carries before they get to Ssy, and even though they're going to lose a little bit, it's not the end of the world.

(00:55:13):

But if you are in that case, make sure you do plenty of caries leading into ssy. I don't think you're going to do a lot of caries in soapy prep in pre opsi where they have you do mandatory stuff that's going to be mostly running rucking and calisthenics and weird smokers, but ensure you do that. It's not ideal. [00:55:30] But at the same time, x-rays are historically the most X-rays who make it to selection historically perform the best at selection compared to guys coming from the regular army compared to guys coming from National Guard and so on and so forth. So common thing to stress, but I wouldn't stress it too much as long as you get yourself back to training on your own, once you finish o sit when you're going through Airborne school, at least get some training under your belt. Airborne school is not the perfect environment to train really, really hard, but at least [00:56:00] doing something, at least taking your weekends and getting some long runs and long rucks in, at least getting a lift or two per week and getting some runs and speed work throughout the week is definitely going to serve you really well.

(00:56:11):

Next question, what is the highest hand release pushups you've seen in two minutes? Grading has to be a big part as well. Yeah, grading is a big part, but at the same time, if you're a stud pushup guy, it doesn't really matter all that much, much. The most I've seen in two minutes. I don't know. I got out pretty quickly after the A FT started or [00:56:30] the A CFT at the time. Now it's the A FT. The first time I did it, I got like 61 because I went way, way, way, way too fast at the beginning and burnt myself out. If you think about it, hand release pushups are not like regular pushups. You can't use any momentum. You're resetting every single time. The only time you have to rest is when your chest is on the floor. So the best way to do it is to go nice and slow and steady, get about a rep every second, one and a half, 1.75 seconds, and you're going to have plenty of time to get 60, and also you're getting that slightly longer rest.

(00:56:59):

Whereas if you're [00:57:00] on the floor for half a second per rep, you're only getting half a second per rest, so you just build up a lot more acidity and fatigue. So that is one pro tip on hearing release pushups. I did have a client recently who did his pre-selection, selection PT test, I don't even know what they call it, just to allow him to go, you have to do a selection if you're in the regular army, you have to do a hand release, pushups, pullups, and two mile I think it is, and plank within a month of when you go to selection.

(00:57:27):

In a minute 15. He did like 64 hand release [00:57:30] pushups and they told him Just stop, get up. So he probably could have done 80, maybe 85. He said he could have just kept going, but they just told him to stop at one 15. So he's a freak though, and not everyone's a freak. I would say a really, really good two minute hand release push shovel would be like 70. 70 reps would be damn solid, but if you're anything over 60, you're good. There's no extended scale. If you get 63 or 67, you're not getting extra credit or anything like that. As long as you're getting 60, you're maxing [00:58:00] it. So wouldn't worry too much about it, but just make sure you can pound 'em out. Next question. Not really a question, but a good one to end on. I am preparing for basic training soon, but the current state of our government is demoralizing me.

(00:58:14):

Cool man. No one really cares. If you want to do it, go do it. If you don't want to do it, don't go do it. The state of the government has such a minuscule effect on your time at basic training and even your time operationally. [00:58:30] Never once, and I was in for most of Biden's presidency I was in when Obama was president, and honestly never once was I like, oh man, whoever's in charge right now is really negatively affecting my life or my mindset or our effectiveness as an ODA or before that, it wasn't affecting my ability to pass the Q course or anything like that. It just doesn't really bleed [00:59:00] down that much. Yes, it can, depending on what kicks off in the world right now, there are some things kicking off in the world right now. It might affect your life, but at the same time, either go do it or don't go do it and leave it at that.

(00:59:15):

No one really cares what you feel about it, to be honest with you. If you want to go challenge yourself and do something bigger than yourself and play a small role in keeping our country safe, then go do it. If not, [00:59:30] then just don't go do it. We don't need people in the military in general that feel like this and also allow it to affect other people around them, allow it to affect their mindset, allow it to affect their performance. So tough luck if you don't like it. You don't have to like it. You can still go and do big things and it doesn't really matter. So that is my 2 cents on that one. I would strongly recommend not letting other people or entities or governments or things affect [01:00:00] your disposition. Just go and do what needs to be done on a process oriented basis.

(01:00:06):

Hey, what do I need to do today to have the best day possible? Break that down even further. What do I have to do this morning to have the best morning possible? How can I eat? How can I act? How can I think? Who can I interact with? What can I learn? What can I produce? What can I create? How can I train? Things like that. Those are all things that are going to affect you in the long-term, and they're [01:00:30] all things that are going to make you less stressed and less reliant on the outside world for the stability of your mood and your mindset and your general way you go about life. So do what you want, but strongly recommend not letting these things bother you. So that's a guest. Thank you very much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode. Actually, next episode is going to be a good one. It's going to be an interview with Cody McBroom, who is a stud fitness professional in the industry. I was on his show [01:01:00] recently, should be out pretty soon. And we're going to talk all about performance nutrition, and it's going to be a really, really good one. So stay tuned. Alright, guys. Later.