208 - Q&A: Faster 5k, Cut Without Losing Performance, Z2 vs Joints, Ruck Prep + More

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What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. Today is going to be a q and a from this week's Instagram. Ask me anything. If you want your question answered in the future, go ahead and follow me at Terminator training. There's also links in the description wherever you're listening or watching, and look out for my weekly q and a's where I go through and answer some of the questions on Instagram, as well as some of the questions on here, a little bit more in depth. Sometimes I double up. Sometimes it's just on IG or sometimes it's just on here. It really just depends on the week. I usually [00:00:30] get quite a few questions today. I've gone through and preselected certain questions. I'm going to try and get to as many as I can so it'll be a little bit more rapid fire, still provide enough depth and nuances, but still try and get to as many questions as I can because honestly, I just don't have the ability as a one-man show to get to every single question every single week.

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And to be frank, not all the questions are all that great. So that is where we're going to do today before we hop in. A couple housekeeping notes. One, the soft prep bundle is currently on sale. [00:01:00] Every product in it, you can purchase one, you can purchase two. You don't have to purchase the entire thing, but the bundle includes both selection prep programs, SFAS and Rock Run Lyft both run programs two and five Mile and Run advanced all three hybrid programs, Jack Zel one, two, and three, and the soft prep recovery guide, which is a 67 page ebook that dives into nutrition, sleep, and other aspects that are critical for recovery. So they'll work really nicely alongside any of those programs. That sale will run until the end of the day on April 21st, [00:01:30] and there is no code, so it's automatic. Even if you want to pay full price, you're out of luck.

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You're going to have to take the 25% discount. Additionally, I've also started working with Pride Foods, the Rice and Grinds that I always talk about, and the pride stacks, basically sweet potato based pancakes. I'm talking about 'em all the time on the show and finally paired up with them if you guys are interested in trying that or if you've already tried it and you want to get more of it, code TTM at checkout will get you [00:02:00] 10% off or you can follow the links in the description and that'll take you straight to the discount already applied. Essentially. Rice and Grinds is probably my go-to out of Pride Foods products, they're all really good, but Rice and Grinds, you've heard me talk about it a million times, is just a great alternative to oatmeal. It's more like cream of rice than oatmeal, but it just digests so easy and honestly, I find it digest easier than white rice, which is saying a lot because white rice is generally accepted as one of the most easy digesting foods in existence.

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So I really love [00:02:30] it. It's delicious. They got tons of different flavors and for me, I can eat a little bit of oats and be all right depending on the quality of the product. But typically after I eat oats, if I have a high carb bolus of oatmeal, I am just sluggish and I want to take a nap, which is not really what I want from my breakfast food. So rice and grinds is a solid alternative and you can mix it with different things. I usually mix it with frozen fruit and some chopped up banana, sometimes some maple syrup if I need more carbs, sometimes some sugar free syrup if [00:03:00] I don't need more carbs and usually pair it with some protein and it's a great, great meal, great fast digesting carbs, great around training, honestly, I eat it for breakfast and then oftentimes I eat it for dessert as well if I need more carbs without a bunch of other stuff besides carbs.

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So that is my go-to and and I am just coming off a run outside and it's hot out and I showered and I'm also sitting in the ac, but I can feel myself still sweating, so you might be able to see me a little bit shiny towards the [00:03:30] beginning of this episode, but hopefully that goes away. It's just that time of year in North Carolina or I'm sure anywhere in the south where you go and you run, you sweat your ass off or you go outside and do really anything active and you sweat your ass off and then you take a shower. I took a nice cool, relaxing shower. Then you get out and it's still 15, 20 minutes later after your shower and you're still sweating. So desp right now. But anyway, we're going to work through it and we're going to get to these questions, so let's hop in.

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[00:04:00] First question, drop three minutes off my 5K with two and five mile down to 1910 will run advance get me even faster. Yes, absolutely. Will you drop another three minutes off your 5K? No, because you've already made quite a significant amount of progress, which that's really good. Three minutes off of 5K in, I think it's like a 14 week program is really, really solid. However, the fitter you get really this applies to anything like the more jacked you get, the stronger you get in this case, the more running endurance you develop, the [00:04:30] smaller increments your progress are going to be. So you might knock another 30, 60, 90 seconds off your 5K, which is really, really solid and you will also just be able to develop, you'll develop the ability to tolerate higher volume and that can give you future success. You're basically building your base for future success.

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This is not a base building program, but you're doing plenty of mileage and it's going to act as a nice way to increase your foundation. So I wouldn't expect to gain that much, [00:05:00] but you definitely can and should gain significantly more. How much is just going to depend on lots of different factors? It's mostly going to depend on what you do outside the gym, sleeping, nutrition wise, lifestyle wise, that plays a huge, huge role. But yeah, the main reason for that program is to follow after two and five mile. You don't have to follow it after two and five mile. You could go on a hybrid program, you could do two and five mile leading into selection prep or you could hop on run advanced even if you didn't do two and five mile before. If you did, Jack is L three before [00:05:30] or if you already have a really solid running base, you're already running 20, 25 miles a week and you're used to speed work and things like that, then you can hop straight into it.

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But the main reason I originally created it was to follow two after two and five mile. So definitely a great call if you want to continue making gains. Next question. Fasted early morning pre-breakfast zone two runs, is it detrimental or fine? Generally it's going to be fine. I would say some exceptions would be if you are doing a training session later that day day and you want to be as maximally prepared for [00:06:00] that training session as possible, I would at least get some liquid carbs in. You could start sipping on some Otago or tailwind or scratch liquid carbs, some water, some electrolytes which are not calories that would still be fasting, but the carbs are making it so it's not fasting, and that way you have some circulating glucose in your bloodstream and you start recovering from that session a little bit faster. Even if it's an easy session, you still want to have topped off glycogen stores as quickly as possible afterwards, so you can go into your second training session as maximally prepared as possible.

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So [00:06:30] that's one exception. Another exception would be if you are someone who struggles to get enough calories or enough carbs in throughout the day and you are say waking up at six, you're having some hydration, you're drinking coffee, you're hanging out until seven 30 or so, then you do cardio and then after your cardio you're not eating until after your cardio. That's quite a while. It's kind of a missed opportunity to get some carbs in some calories in for someone who struggles. That's not I would say the common avatar, but there are definitely people like that. I have some clients that [00:07:00] really struggle getting their carbs in and I kind of take every opportunity I can to get them some backdoor. I call these backdoor carbs. Do you absolutely need them to perform in a zone two run first thing in the morning? No, absolutely not.

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Totally fine doing it fasted performance wise, however, it's a good way to just get some carbs in that you don't really notice they're not filling and if anything, they're just going to play a very, very minor supporting role. Aside from that, I would say the only other potential, this is kind of far out there, but if [00:07:30] you don't eat any food or barely any food in the evening prior to, so maybe you had lunch and then for whatever reason you skipped dinner or you barely ate any dinner or you had a low carb dinner, you might struggle a little bit on that session. Just depends on your overall carb intake and your overall calorie intake, but that is kind of uncommon. Most people eat dinner and most people have some carbs with their dinner, in which case you should totally be fine If you're going longer than I would say like 75 minutes, maybe 90 minutes, I would consider at least some intro workout carbs, [00:08:00] whether it's gels or liquid or both, but if it's 30, 45, 60 minutes zone two session, you should be totally, totally fine.

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Now is it going to make this big difference as far as performance or fat loss or anything like that? Not really. It potentially can make you a little bit more fuel efficient, better at burning fat for fuel on longer runs, but the data's really mixed on that and it's also not this magic thing for fat loss like some people think it is. It's not going to be anti-fat loss, but it's also whether [00:08:30] you eat beforehand or drink carbs beforehand or not, you're not going to see major differences in your fat loss. Really the big thing that drives fat loss is being a calorie deficit, so whether you're fasted or not fasted for your training doesn't really matter. Now, if you're doing something more intense, then you definitely want to consume something if you're doing intervals or if you're doing tempo work or if you're doing sprints, I would say sprints are kind of hit or miss, but longer than 200 meter repeats or if you're doing a higher volume lift or if you're [00:09:00] doing a lift followed by a conditioning session all in the morning, you absolutely want to have some pre-workout carbs as well as intra-workout carbs and of course maintain your hydration throughout the entire time too.

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So yes, generally speaking, totally fine, but there are some exceptions. Just make sure you're not breaking one of those exceptions. Next question, what are the essential types of runs during a base phase besides strides? All zone two strides in zone two are going to be your main meat and potatoes. I mean zone two is going to be the primary thing that you do by far. Generally, [00:09:30] a base phase might have two or three runs throughout the week, two or three easy runs all in zone two or at RPE five-ish, give or take, or at a conversational pace whether you like to use heart rate or not or a mix of things doesn't really matter all that much for a base phase unless you're running a really, really high volume, in which case you don't want to get a little bit more into the weeds with it, but most people aren't because most people listening to this have more goals than just running and therefore are not running absurd amounts of volume.

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So throughout the week, those easy runs and then a similar [00:10:00] run just longer on the weekend, so a long run, similar intensity and throughout that time, especially if you've already built a base before and you're kind of getting back into another base phase to get into a speed phase or to get into a race prep phase or something like that, which is a good idea in general to readdress building your base. You don't just build it one and done. I think I talked about this recently, but generally you're going to want to do base phases throughout your running tenure and if you've done them before, you can hop right into strides. I [00:10:30] would say first week you can absolutely do two or three stride sessions if you haven't done them before. I would wait at least a few weeks before you start doing any stride work or any faster running.

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Essentially what a stride is is just a way to practice you running mechanics at a higher intensity but at a lower fatigue cost, so you're going short 15 at the most 30 seconds. You are going at a fast endurance running pace, not a sprint. A lot of people mess them up by doing sprints and then you're resting adequately probably staying in [00:11:00] round in zone two for an entire stride session. If you're getting up in a zone three or four and you're starting your next stride and you're already in zone three or higher, then it's going to be more fatiguing and also less quality. The goal is to keep it really high quality, really focus on your mechanics, really focus on your leg turnover, your cadence and things like that, but also not smoke yourself. Honestly, strides are very, very minimally fatiguing if you do them right and if you don't do too many of them, usually 3, 4, 5, six-ish strides either after a run or you can do them before runs too.

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[00:11:30] Generally I like to do strides either post easy run or pre as part of a warmup speeded work or tempo work. It's a great way to kind of ramp yourself up, get used to running fast and again, very low fatigue, just let your heart rate come back down before you start your speed work and you're going to be really, really well off. Other things you can consider for base phases, one, I would definitely consider a hill sprint day where you go really, really steep hill max effort and you're resting a long period of time between hill [00:12:00] sprints, so it might be something like you might start with four or five reps of eight second hill sprints, yes, eight seconds, very, very short, but you're going really hard. I wouldn't go straight to the hill and go all out In your first one you want to ramp up to it, maybe do a nice little easy run warmup, maybe some butt kicks, maybe some hops and skips, and then get into the sprints.

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I would also do something like an RPE six, an RPE seven and a half, an RPE nine sprint and then get into your actual max effort sprints. The main goal for this is power development [00:12:30] and fast twitch muscle fiber specific to running development, so you don't want to turn this into a cardio session. That is the biggest mistake most people make is they either go longer and therefore they're not really biasing that A-T-P-P-C energy system, AKA developing power or they don't rest long enough, you're going to feel way ready to go and do your next one way before you should go and do your next one, especially early on your first eight, second sprint, you're probably going to be ready to go depending on your fitness levels [00:13:00] and depending on how hard you can go in the next 30 to 45 seconds, that does not mean you should go and do it.

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You should probably rest a minimum of one 30. I would say at least two minutes would probably be a better option, and again, you should not be smoked from these. You should not be super out of breath. Yes, they're hard. Each individual one is hard, but you're resting plenty in between each one. Those are huge, and then over time you can add another sprint to that session, so next time you do five or six, seven and eight, you probably don't have to do more than eight to 10 and [00:13:30] I would max them out at like 12 seconds at the most, and again, you want to really, really steep hill for those. The last thing, this is kind of a, you don't have to do this. This is an optional thing and it's I would say more advanced. You should do this later in your base phase if you do them at all is pickups.

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AKA surges is basically a stride, but it's done during easy run, so you're running along easy say every eight minutes, you do a 22nd surge to say your one mile time trial pace, give or take, or a fast endurance running pace. Again, not a sprint, and then you get back [00:14:00] down, let your heart rate get back down into that easy chill zone two and go from there. And I would say doing those about as many as strides would be a pretty solid option. You can do longer pickups or surges, but I would not consider longer pickups and surges to be part of a base phase. It would be more of a actual speed development phase. So that's what I would do and that's really it. That's all you need. Next question. I'm following JG two allegedly in a cut, but the scale isn't moving, but I am getting more vascular.

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Should I increase my calorie deficit? Great [00:14:30] question. I don't know if you knew. This is a great question, but it really is because it's absolutely a thing, especially with hybrid training, especially if you have a little bit of weight to lose, but you're not in an extreme cut, which I wouldn't really do anyway. If you're following a hybrid program that's geared towards performance and really high workload, so the way you're doing it right now, honestly, I would say you sold what you got. You're probably comping if you're visually looking different and you're making progress, even if your scale weight isn't moving, you still could be losing fat. For example, rudimentary, [00:15:00] this would take really, really long. It wouldn't be instant like this, but let's say you lose a pound of fat and you gain a pound of muscle, guess what? Your scale weight is not going to change, but you're going to be objectively leaner.

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So there you go. That's like a little recomp thing. Recomp happens at a very slow rate unless you're brand new or unless you have a ton of fat to lose, then it can happen a little faster. If you're more advanced, it's going to be very slow. But one of the best ways to track recomp if you don't have access to a body fat measuring device, whether it's [00:15:30] a DEXA scan or something similar, is to take photos because your scale weight may not move as much. Chances are you're probably in a very, very, very minor deficit and you are executing it really well. If you're gaining muscle and losing fat, you're definitely already eating enough protein and you're also for sure not into drastic of a deficit, so you're probably performing pretty well too. Will that last forever? Probably not Generally, the longer you're in a deficit, the fewer calories you're going to have to eat over time because your body kind of adapts and moves less throughout the day and so on and so forth.

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But for [00:16:00] now, I would probably hold it if that stalls out a little bit or if you have some sort of weight target, which for most people, unless you're in a weight class sport, I wouldn't really consider chasing a weight target. But if you do or if it stalls out and you notice that you're not really recopying anymore, then only then would I decrease the calories and make your deficit a little bit bigger. But for now, it's working really well and I would hold what you got. You're in the goldilock zone right now. It's not going to last forever, but for now, I would not fix it if it ain't broken [00:16:30] and I would say it's not broken. Next question. If you were to recommend a year long training plan, Jack is L two two and five mile jack is L three, then run advance, then repeat.

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I would say that is pretty much your best possible option. I mean, if you have more pressing run goals, you could follow both run programs first, then both hybrid programs if you have more pressing strength goals or muscle gain goals the other way around, follow both hybrid programs, then the run programs, but going back and forth, honestly, these programs are kind [00:17:00] of made to cycle back and forth, cycle on and off. Depending on what you've got coming up. Depending on where you're at, you can only put so much in one program. As far as fitness development and hybrid programs are pretty much the max of different things that you can realistically improve throughout one training cycle and running programs. These two running programs are definitely more running bias. They do have lifting to support the running, but they're not necessarily hybrid programs, although some guys do gain some strength, especially on two and five mile, but because you're [00:17:30] going in and out and in and out, you're cycling through all of them, you're kind of touching all your bases, you're not letting any major fitness quality slide too far and you're maintaining all of the really important ones for most people at least, like endurance strength muscle and a little bit of power, a little bit of work capacity as far as strongman stuff goes.

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So this would be a pretty fantastic option and again, those programs are all on sale right now, so set yourself up. Next question, is it okay to skip out on zone two? Recovery runs 60 plus minutes and Jack is L 2.0 [00:18:00] when joints are feeling beat. So just to clarify, I don't program recovery runs honestly. You'll see high level running coaches and high level runners program recovery runs. You'll also see recovery runs in hybrid programs as well as other programs that are not really really run specific, but I am not a fan. Most people are not struggling to recover because they aren't running enough. Most people in order to improve their recovery need to [00:18:30] sort out their lifestyle or manage their training load. Maybe your lifestyle is just not quite appropriate for this current program right now it's a relatively high workload program, so typically it's sleep more, eat better, or eat more hydrate better manage your stress better or manage your training load better.

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So I would focus on those things before I know you're not asking can I go and do recovery runs, but that is things that I recommend people focus on before they start adding more running to try and enhance the [00:19:00] recovery. If you're a high level runner and you've maxed out pretty much every other aspect of your recovery and you can run without it beating up your joints, which most people can't, most people just don't have great running form and therefore it's more stressful on the joints, the connective tissues, the bones, et cetera, then okay, recovery runs. Got it. Maybe it might help just a little, little tiny bit, probably more of a placebo thing, but for everyone else it's probably not the best option. However, can you not do the run if you're feeling banged [00:19:30] up? I would say not only can you not do it, but I would recommend subbing it out.

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I wouldn't skip it altogether, but I would sub it out with some sort of non-impact. So rowing, biking, swimming, you could do low impact stuff like an incline walk or a StairMaster or something like that. Elliptical would be a good no impact option, any of those. Or you can do a mix. You could do 15 minutes on four different machines for the duration of 60 minutes. You just switch every 15 minutes and you stay in zone two and it's great. It's less boring that way. You don't have to sit on a bike or a rower [00:20:00] and just bang your butt or your taint up forever on a 60 minute continuous session. Not that those are not okay, but for most people they're generally mixing it up a little bit is usually a better idea. So that is what I would do at least for the time being.

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What I would also consider is all the lifestyle things I talked about earlier, getting your recovery up to speed. Now, that's not always going to be the answer for everyone. These programs are for the masses, so everyone's different in how much they can handle. However, Jack is L 2.0 does not have [00:20:30] a ton of running volume, so I would argue if you are banged up from the running, it's probably one of two or both of these things. Poor running mechanics, you probably have a low cadence. I would try and bring your cadence up over time. You can implement some strides and do that. You can also just be more mindful of it on your run. Try to bring it up two or three strides a minute every week or two up into the one 70 to 180 5, 1 90 range. You could also be lifting with [00:21:00] poor technique and that can mess your joints up too or it can just make your joints feel more banged up.

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So those are some things I would consider because it's really just not a ton of running volume such that it's going to be beating people up because of the volume cost. It's not like ruck run lift, like some people might be beat up at the end of ruck run lift because of the volume, not because of their mechanics. It's just a really high volume program running and rucking wise, but for Jack L two, it's a hybrid program, so the running volume's nothing crazy. So those are some things I would consider, but yeah, no [00:21:30] real sense in trying to run through a long run or really any run when you're banged up, just let that subside by doing non-impact stuff. Still develop your aerobic system, your anaerobic system, and still get that good cardio stimulus, but without the impact, it's usually a better option. Next question, what is the ideal body comp for a NS?

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Spent half of prep in a cut selection with more fluff or no, I'm guessing you're talking about the long walk, so that's what we're going to focus on here. Should you go a little bit more fluffy [00:22:00] or should you get a little bit leaner or should you be okay with going a little leaner? I would say it depends on how lean we're talking about. If you are 12 ish percent, give or take, you're probably in a good spot, a little bit leaner than that for some people is totally fine. A little bit fatter than that for some people is totally fine. Honestly, most guys are fatter than that. Most guys are probably going to be in the 13, 14, 15, 16, 17% range. That's just kind of how it is. Even though they probably think they're at like 10 to 12%, usually [00:22:30] they're a little fatter than they think they are, which is not a big deal.

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I mean, you can still be totally fine with that. The extra fat's not really going to help you though. You don't want to be too lean because that can really mess with your hormones, your recovery, and you don't want to go into selection with already suppressed hormones because they're just going to be more suppressed while you're there. However, at a NS, at the Long Walk in particular, the food situation is highly favorable for maintaining, mostly maintaining your weight. It's definitely favorable for recovery and maintaining your [00:23:00] wellbeing, your overall wellbeing, fueling your training because the DAC is amazing and you can get as much food as you want in the dac generally before you go got to stress week, which is the last week. Prior to that, you're eating two meals a day in the dac, you're also getting MREs. Additionally, you can bring whatever food you want so you can bring as many snacks, as many supplements, whatever it is.

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There are certain things that are restricted, but for the most part you can bring a ton of food and you can snack on those if you need more food throughout the day. In the earlier parts of selection, in the later parts of [00:23:30] selection, you get three MREs a day, but you also can bring whatever food you want in your little kit bag out to your RV sites for the night, so you're sleeping out in the woods, but you can have mountain house meals, you can have stickers, bars, you can have really whatever you want, whatever you can fit in that bag, there's definitely a limit to it. You can't bring 45 mountain house meals because then you won't have anything else, but that's your comfort item bag pretty much, and I would definitely favor food in that bag for sure. Generally when I was there, I had three mountain house [00:24:00] meals a day and all three MREs, and then I would also snack.

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Basically, I would just try and eat as much as I possibly could when I was not out rucking, I would fuel on my rucks of course, like taking in goose and bars and whatnot. But when the day's over, your best bet is to just eat as much as you can. You might even eat sometimes till you're physically uncomfortable. And I did that and I still lost a few pounds, but I didn't lose a ton of weight compared to SFAS or definitely not ranger school where you only get two URS a day, in which case going to ranger school, you definitely want to go in with a little bit more fluff. [00:24:30] 14, 15 ish percent body fat's probably a good spot, maybe 12, but for that selection, again, give or take 12%, you're not going to get two crazy, crazy lean as long as you're eating well and you are sticking to a good solid fueling plan.

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But also if you go in a little too heavy, you're just going to have extra weight to move around. So if you can have time and you have the gumption for it, getting a little leaner, getting down to that 12% range, if you're say at 15, 16, 17%, it's only going to help you. You're just going to be more [00:25:00] efficient, you're going to be able to move, you're moving less weight overall whether you're rucking or running, and that's a very, very ruck based selection. So every pound, every ounce matters and may as well go in lean and healthy and you're just going to be healthier at 12 ish percent body fat too. As a male, not everyone feels great at 12%. Some people need to be a little bit thicker than that, a little have some more body fat than that. Some people can be totally fine at nine, 10% and honestly, I wouldn't go if you're under 10%, probably not an ideal body fat percentage to go at.

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I probably was in the 10% range when I went, [00:25:30] which arguably was a little bit too lean, but I was totally fine. I felt good at that body fat percentage. And also I'm just really, really, really gung-ho about continuing my calorie intake and eating as much food as humanly possible. So ensure that you're doing that. You should be good to go. Best of luck. Next question, is it a good idea to hit speed work interval slash sprints and lay day on the same day? It can be, but this goes back to something I talk about all the time, is what you do on a single day of training doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. You [00:26:00] could have the perfect training day, but if the other six days of that week are not perfect, then you're not going to get much out of it.

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Or you could have a terrible training day, but the rest of your program is pretty awesome and you'll get a little bit more out of it. It really comes down to your training block, your whole training program, your whole training, like macro, macro cycle year after year after year. That is where the results come from. So could this be a great way to set up a hybrid style training day? Yes, absolutely. [00:26:30] You'll see this in a lot of my programs, not always, but oftentimes I'll have a leg day plus repeats on the same day or I'll have leg day and the following day is repeats on its own day or I'll have a full body lift that includes some leg exercises as well as repeats on the same day. It is a way to consolidate stressors. So essentially you're giving your day, your body a big high stress day, you're giving your lower body and your nervous system doing really intense stuff is kind of nervous system stressful and you want to do it generally when you're fresh.

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So I wouldn't do [00:27:00] a repeat day plus a leg day on the fifth straight day of training throughout the week. You're way better off doing it on the first day or maybe the second day or the first and then the second day with each session than you are doing it after you're already fatigued from your other training throughout the week. So by consolidating that stress, you're basically giving your body that big shock, that big stressor, and then immediately after that you start recovering from it while you do other things. Usually less intense stuff or maybe upper body. So say for example, maybe you do a high intensity low [00:27:30] volume leg lift plus 400 meter repeats on a Monday, maybe on Tuesday you do a high intensity low volume upper body lift. Your upper body is still relatively fresh even though your nervous system is probably a little bit fatigued.

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Basically you're getting those two high intensity days out of the way early in the week, and then you can start recovering while doing lower intensity stuff throughout the rest of the week or moderate intensity stuff, bodybuilding style training, tempo work, longer runs that are really easy and things like that. So it can be a really good way to set it up. If you don't have [00:28:00] strength goals and you really, really want to work on your running speed, I would mostly do your speed work on its own day when you're fresh and not around leg day. You can do legs later in that week or you can do full body lifts where you're not really stressing your legs all at one time in one big session. But if you have multiple goals, like you want to get strong and you want to gain muscle and you also want to get fast, then it can be a great way to do it, not the only way, but it is one great option.

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Next question. I'm currently 235 pounds. Should I just be walking while rucking until I [00:28:30] get down to 1 95 to 200 pounds? I would not necessarily base whether you walk or run with a ruck on your body weight, although it can be a factor. I would base it on what you've got coming up. If you don't have selection coming up, there's no reason to get out and ruck run. If you do have selection coming up, then ruck running is a really good idea, at least probably once a week or every other week because the top dogs in every selection class are going to ruck run. I just made a post about this. Some people will recommend not ruck running and just doing it while you're there during the actual gated [00:29:00] events, and that is flawed because you are not going to be able to if you don't adapt to the stress of ruck running, which is very high stress before you go and then you get there, and oh, by the way, the best way if you're not a great Rucker that can run the whole thing, the best way to get your best time is to run downhill, which is way more stressful without a ruck on.

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It's way more stressful to run downhill on your knees, on your quads, on your connective tissue in general because your feet are landing [00:29:30] below the running surface. Throw 50, 60 pounds on your back and you can do the math. It's even more stressful. So if you haven't adapted to that at all in training and you go do it at selection, you're going to be smoked after the first ruck. By the way, after the first ruck, guess what? You're going to have to do lots and lots and lots and lots of rucks after that and per before. So that is not a great way to go about it. Should you ruck run though, if you're not coming up on selection, there's really no point to it. All you're rucking in general should be walking if you want to run. I would just go run without any [00:30:00] weight on because you're going to stay more available that way.

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Ruck running is very stressful in the body and if you don't need to adapt to the rigors of it, the stresses of it for an upcoming event, there's no reason to just put yourself through that. You're just going to beat yourself up and not do well regardless of your body weight. This goes for pretty much anyone. If you are training for selection, I would say in your case, if you want to get down another 30, 40 pounds, which is kind of what you said in your question, you probably want to focus on putting selection [00:30:30] to the side burner down the line and focus on getting lean first. Unless you're already able to meet standards, that's one thing. But if you have to lose all this weight in order to get to where you can meet standards or in order to get to where you can run consistently without beating yourself up, or if you just have a lot of excess body fat to lose, that is a lot of weight to lose and it should be a very slow process.

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It should not be concurrent with your selection prep. When you're inside three, four months before selection, you want to be eating for max performance, [00:31:00] max recovery. And oh, by the way, eating for max performance and recovery is not the same as eating for fat loss or weight loss. In order to perform well, you have to be around maintenance, maybe a little bit of a surplus depending on what you're performing well in, but in this case, definitely around maintenance. In order to lose weight, you're going to have to be in a deficit and to lose 30, 40 pounds, you got to be in a deficit for a long period of time or you have to go really extreme and then you put yourself at injury risk and you're going to feel terrible and you're more likely to [00:31:30] rebound after your metabolism's going to take a hit.

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So the slower and more gradual approach is the better way to do that. But if you have selection coming up and you're wondering whether you should ruck run, but you also have that weight to lose, I would spend the next three, four months losing that weight and then start going into selection prep where you're eating at maintenance and oh, by the way, ruck running will be actually appropriate for you because you're prepping for selection and also it'll be less stressful on your body because you're 30, 40 pounds lighter. So that is how I would attack that. [00:32:00] Hopefully that makes sense. But yeah, I wouldn't really base ruck running decisions on body weight. I mean there could be something at play as far as a factor body weight factor, but for the most part, what do you have coming up? If you have to ruck run soon, then ruck running is good.

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If not, then you shouldn't really bother with ruck running. Next question, what are your thoughts on doing pushups and pull-ups every day? Easy sets throughout the day to bump up my numbers? Yeah, so this is commonly known as greasing the groove, and there's tons and tons of different ways to do it, so I'm not going to get into a specific [00:32:30] weight because there's 10 to 12 to 15 different options. Some of the principles though, that really should apply to anyone regardless of what greasing the groove they're doing. One, you really want to keep intensity low like you said in the question, but low intensity for a type A individual is not actually low intensity. Low intensity for type A is not quite the failure. If your max is 60 pushups, you're doing sets of like 55, so you're not quite getting a failure, but you're pretty close, not like that.

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[00:33:00] Low intensity is like RPE three or four, so if you can do 60, I would do sets start out with sets of 15 to 18, something like that. You also want to do them highly frequent throughout the day too. I would much rather you do six to eight sets, spread out throughout the day, spaced out by an hour or two, then do four or five sets all at once, even though they're low intensity sets, you're just getting that stress all at one time. It's going to be a little more fatiguing that way. It's going to be less fatiguing and you just get more practice sessions. You get to practice it [00:33:30] at more instances throughout the day and throughout the week and throughout the entire time you're doing it if you're spreading them out like that. Another thing to consider is not to do this for too long.

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There's definitely a shelf life on greasing the groove. So if you're trying to do it, say you want to be really good at pullups and pushups six months from now and you do greasing the groove the entire time, that would be overkill. I would just do general training where you're emphasizing pullups and pushups in your training maybe twice a week for each, and then when you're six weeks, maybe eight weeks [00:34:00] out, that's when you go into greasing the groove. So the longer you do it, the more you're just going to end up potentially running into elbow issues, shoulder issues, and at best like points of diminishing return, you're just going to kind of hit plateaus quite often. So this is really good as an ace up your sleeve, you make as much progress as you can with normal training over the next several months, and then when you're a couple months out, that's when you get into the higher frequency stuff.

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Now it's not the only way to improve. You definitely don't have to do this in order to get better at these. It could be a great way to improve in a [00:34:30] short period of time, but you also have to consider another principle that you want to consider is your other training. If you're also doing a bunch of other pulling and pushing a couple days a week plus you're doing this, and I wouldn't do it seven days a week, I'd probably do it five or six days a week, have one day where you don't do any upper body pushing or pulling, but if you're also doing say two or three upper body sessions and you're doing this greasing the groove, you can see how it starts to get to be a little bit too much. So it has to be programmed effectively and it has to be, you got to really keep in mind [00:35:00] some of the limitations and how your body feels and your shoulder health and your elbow health, especially with pull-ups, generally pushups aren't going to be as bad for most guys, especially hand release pushups where you're taking that rest in between each one.

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You're not going through the stress shortening cycle, which is kind of more stressful on the shoulders than doing an actual dead stop hand release. But for pull-ups, I mean most people don't have great pull-up form this, absolutely. If you focus on technique and really mastering pull-ups, this is a great way to improve your skill at the lift because you're just practicing it [00:35:30] so often under very low fatigue, but you can still run into issues, especially if you're overdoing other stuff or if you are going too intense or if you just do it for too long, like I said earlier. So those are some of the main principles you can go and Google or Chachi pt, like what are some good ways to implement greasing the groove, but just keep those principles in mind as you go through it. Next question, is pasta a good carb source for lean bulking or should I stick to other sources like rice and potatoes?

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Pasta is usually going to be fine if you can handle wheat well, [00:36:00] if you don't have a gluten intolerance or if you don't eat pasta and then you want to take a nap after the main thing with bulking that you want to consider, of course you got to feed a calorie surplus, but if your GI is all fucked up, your digestion's all fucked up, you're bloated and gassy all the time, burping all the time, constipated all the time, then it's going to be really hard for you to eat in a surplus on a consistent basis. It's one thing to do it a couple days, it's another thing to do it every single day for the duration of your bulk, which should be several weeks to a couple months. So consider that [00:36:30] if you handle pasta oil, totally fine, great source. I would say it's a little bit more filling than things like white rice.

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So if you're struggling to get your calories in, you're struggling to get your carbs in white rice would be a better option or rice and grind something really fast digesting like that, but there's nothing wrong with it. Potatoes, I would say for most people in a bulk, you want to be a little bit cautious of going crazy on the potatoes. You have to eat a lot of potatoes to get a good solid carb bolus. A bowl of rice with the size of my fist of rice in it is [00:37:00] probably close to a hundred grams of carbs, maybe a little bit less. In order to get a hundred grams of carbs from potatoes, you have to eat a few potatoes and they're going to be really, really filling. They're higher in fiber, and potatoes are just a generally filling food, especially if you boil them. Boiled potatoes are like the most satiating food in existence, so consider that.

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I would say potatoes are usually better for a cut. White rice is usually better for a bulk, but that does not mean you can't have either one in a cut or a bulk. Totally fine. Some people have no problem getting their calories, in which case you can definitely go with more potatoes. [00:37:30] But if you have any issues, getting your calories in white rice, rice and grinds will be better options. And again, pasta can be totally fine. Just make sure that you're digesting it well and feeling good after you eat it. Next question, what does a full day of eating look like for you right now? So generally I eat very similar things at similar times. Every day I wake up in the morning and I have eight ounces of orange juice before I have coffee. Just kind of gives me a little insulin spike. So when I'm having that caffeine, it doesn't further increase my cortisol even higher generally, especially [00:38:00] if you have just a history of if you're type A, you have a history of just hard charging, you love to be stimulated, you love to be amped up, and you're always looking ahead, always living in the future, really hard to stay present, then you're probably going to have, you don't want more of a cortisol bump in the morning than you already have.

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Your body's generally going to have highest cortisol in the morning, but if you just go straight into coffee, it's going to put you in that further sympathetic state. And for me, I just don't feel great. So I have some orange juice before that and then usually around eight [00:38:30] or nine, I'll have my first meal today, which is a couple eggs, whole eggs, a cup or so, sometimes three quarters of a cup of egg whites. I have 200 grams of low fat cottage cheese from good culture, which by far is the best type of cottage cheese there is. And then I'll have some rice grinds, usually two scoops of rice grinds, pour that over some frozen berries, which act as a nice way to cool it. Also, when you pour the hot rice and grinds over the frozen berries, it throws the berries out so you're not eating [00:39:00] frozen berries.

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And then I'll add a banana to it if it's a higher carb day, a K training day, I'll also add a little bit of maple syrup to it. If it's a lower carb day, not a training day, I usually go either no syrup at all or sugar-free syrup For lunch, I'll usually have a mega FITT meal and a bowl of something like Greek yogurt plus a bunch of Rice Krispies thrown in there, so extra carbs. And then for dinner, once in a while I'll have a mega FITT meal if we do mega fitt [00:39:30] for dinner. Oh, by the way, also if you're interested in trying mega fitt, TTM discount code just started working with them as well. So figured I'd add that. And they're delicious. They're by far the best meal prep I've ever had, and they're really, really good for performance. Not crazy high fat like some of the other meal prep companies are.

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They have great, great macros for performance as well as body composition. So check that out, links in the description. But I'll have sometimes for dinner too, if I have a really busy day and my wife does too, and we don't cook for dinner, we'll [00:40:00] just eat those super simple. I just throw 'em on the stove top, throw some bone broth in there, let 'em simmer, and they're awesome. Or my wife will make something like a Greek bowl with chicken and veggies and some goat cheese. Some white rice is like the main base and that's delicious. Or we'll have burgers with homemade sourdough bread. My wife makes sourdough every week, so we kind of mix it up a little more at dinner, but my lunch and my breakfast are pretty much the same. And then around training, I usually have my [00:40:30] trusty cup of Rice Krispies with dried cranberries or craisins mixed in, and I put it in a shaker cup and I just drink it on the way to the gym and then I'll drink it throughout my training session.

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Not that that's special or anything, but I've just found that if I put it in some sort of container and I eat handfuls of it on the way, it just gets all over my truck. So put it in a shaker cup and then just drink it and you get a nice mix of the craisins plus the Rice Krispies, and it goes down easy, and that's a great per workout [00:41:00] meal. So right now I think my macros are 2 25 protein, 50 fat, and 4 85 carbs, and I am kind of maintaining, I'm gaining, if anything, just gaining a little bit on those macros and I'm about to start going into a cut for summer, but pretty crazy how I am eating that many carbs and still maintaining. The main reason I'm able to eat that many carbs is because my fat is low. I'm not also eating a hundred, 150 grams of fat.

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A lot of people when they go [00:41:30] high carb, they don't touch their fat, so they just go into a calorie surplus and they're like, oh, I started eating more carbs and I got fat. It's not because of the carbs, it's because you didn't touch your fat and now you're in a calorie surplus and therefore you're just the law of thermodynamics, you're gaining weight. So consider that if you want to go really high carb, which I recommend for most people for maximum performance as well as body composition, consider going higher carb than you're eating right now. Most guys, and I've talked about this a lot in the past, but most guys don't eat anywhere near enough carbs. But if you're [00:42:00] going to do that, make sure you adjust your fat down as well. Next question. Thoughts on Mike Menser or Doreen Yates approach to bodybuilding? So I am going to speed this up a little bit because I have not been going super rapid fire, but I'm a big fan of a lot of the principles.

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These guys, for those not aware, are kind of the first people to consider lower volume in higher intensity as far as proximity to failure is concerned in the gym, especially men. But Dorian was well known for doing very low volume compared [00:42:30] to the guys that he was competing with. And he would go generally one set per exercise, but he would go all the way to failure. Oftentimes also do some forced reps or other intensity techniques like drop sets or rest paws or something like that. And of course, the results speak for themselves. The thing about bodybuilding though, there's so many different paths to roam. You look at a group of 10 bodybuilders on the Olympia stage, the top 10. There's definitely some principles in their programs that are common to all, but they all got there in a slightly different manner because [00:43:00] there's so many different ways to improve your hypertrophy gain muscle.

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You don't have to have this perfect, perfect plan that is optimal or ideal. A lot of people think you do, but you definitely don't. Hypertrophy is really easy to program for. However, I think their approaches are a little bit too extreme for most people that are listening to this. However, there's definitely some principles that I would consider really a good idea to consider. I use them a lot in my programming as well. So I am a big time proponent of lower volume, higher intensity, [00:43:30] a fewer sets per muscle group per week, but closer to failure, especially in a hybrid context because basically everything you do in training is going to contribute to your weekly fatigue. And generally speaking, doing more sets per muscle group per week, even if it's a little less intense, is going to be more fatiguing physically as well as mentally, as well as on the soft connective tissue, the joints, et cetera, than doing fewer sets.

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But making those sets harder, very close to failure. Most people, there's no real sense in going all the way to failure [00:44:00] for most lifts. There are certain lifts I've talked about in the past that they lend themselves better failure, but one rep in the tank, like a true one rep in the tank, maybe two for certain lifts, most people when they go train, they do a ton of sets and they leave 4, 5, 6, 7 reps in the tank. They think they probably think they're leaving one or two reps in the tank. But plenty of studies. There was actually a recent study on bench press that showed that people on average are six sets, six reps shy of failure. They're stopping what they think is like one or two RAR six reps shy of failure. So that's pretty significant. And that's with upper body [00:44:30] too. Lower body people tend to leave more reps in the tank on lower body.

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Basically, if your first rep and your last rep look the same as far as not just technique wise, they should look technique wise the same, but if they're the same speed or very close to the same speed, you're not training hard enough unless you do a ton, a ton, a ton of sets, but that's just going to be more fatiguing, it's going to take more time and so on and so forth. So I'm a huge fan of that principle, especially for hybrid. But honestly, for anyone right now, I'm not training hybrid, but my coach has me doing relatively low volume and high intensity, and I love it. And I just feel [00:45:00] great. I don't feel super fatigued all the time. My workouts take 50 to 65 minutes depending on the day, and it's awesome. I will say Menser got a little bit out of control towards the end of his tenure.

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I don't even know what to call it. His time that he was giving out information with very, very infrequent exposures to lifting. So he'd hit legs every 10 to 14 days or something like that. And then same with every other body part. So I think that's a little bit too extreme. I think more frequency is a good idea. If you're training really, really hard, if you're like Dorian, Dorian [00:45:30] did everything once a week, which is very, very appropriate for him. If you haven't seen Blood and Guts, you should definitely see it's like a Dorian lifting documentary, and he was an absolute animal and it showed on the stage. He's one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, and he's also really, really smart. He still puts out great information. He was recently on the Huberman episode where talked a good deal about his training, so you want to listen to that.

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Definitely go for it. But again, I would say not super applicable to most people listening to this exactly what [00:46:00] they did, but some of the principles, high intensity, low volume, definitely something to consider. Next question is doing metcons throughout the Q course. A good idea, I mean, it's not necessarily a bad idea or a good idea, but you want to ask yourself before you do metcons, just like any other training, but especially Metcons, what is the purpose of this? What am I trying to get out of this? And if the only purpose you can think of is I'm trying to get really tired and fatigued and smoked and sweaty, then it's probably not a good idea to do that. Metcon, you'll see in some of my programs, I have metcons [00:46:30] usually once a week, and some of the things I focus on for metcons, there's one very short, so they should be relatively intense if not very intense.

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But the more intense they are, the shorter they should be. Also, the more intense they are, the lower skill the exercises in them should be. Honestly, I don't think having high skill or high impact exercises in a Metcon, unless you're training for a CrossFit event, that's a different story. But if you're just training to be more fit, if you're trying to improve your Q course fitness, doing all these things like barbell snatches [00:47:00] or muscle ups or something like box jumps where you jump back down off the box, you try to get as many reps as you can in a certain amount of time and things like that, it's just not worth it because when you're doing these lifts, you don't want to be fatigued. Going into a high skill lift, especially something like a snatch, which involves a ton of skill, a lot of focus, a lot of shoulder overhead mobility.

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A lot of people can't do one snatch that looks nice, let alone 21 15 9. Oh, by the way, in between each set of snatches, you're also doing muscle ups and box jumps or something like that. That [00:47:30] is just a road to destruction in most cases. But if you are doing lower skill stuff and you're keeping it relatively short and you're doing lower skill stuff would be things like maybe you're doing a 15 calorie row, then you do 12 kettlebell swings, then you do six man makers, or you do something like three sandbag, get ups on each side, then you do some kettlebell swings, then you do maybe some walking lunges or something like that. Low skill, still very fatiguing, but they also serve a purpose. You're also stimulating [00:48:00] muscles that you need to use. You're building aerobic capacity as well as some muscle endurance, and so that can be really beneficial.

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No one's ever going to need to do 21 snatches in a row with a barbell. No one's going to need to do 21 or 15 or 10 or however many muscle ups. It's just you don't have to do that. And those things are so stressful on the body as is, let alone, if you don't have the mobility, let alone if you're already fatigued, let alone if you've just done a two hour training session prior or you're doing this Metcon that takes 30, 45, 60 minutes, then it's excessive. [00:48:30] So during the Q course, you definitely want to train hard, but also you got to keep in mind that you're going to be probably stressed. You're probably not going to have the greatest sleep. You might not have the greatest nutrition throughout most of it. If you're in language school, that's one thing. But throughout most of the Q course, your main focus is to of course, maintain your fitness and build your fitness as you need to.

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But it should be very specific to what you need to be fit for. You don't need to be fit for all these random metcons. You need to be fit to run fast ruck. Well, generally, upper body and lower body strength have a decent amount of power [00:49:00] and agility and capability and coordination, but you don't have to be able to crush Fran or Helen or whatever your favorite Metcon and Watt is. So consider that, but also that's the main question to answer. Ask yourself before you go into a Metcon, what is the purpose of this? What am I trying to get out of it? If you can't think of anything other than getting smoked, then it's probably usually not a great idea. Next question, is T eight 50 a good option for someone who wants to maintain running and gain muscle and strength? Yeah, it's probably, I mean, other than my hybrid programs, which are very similar, they're just in PDF [00:49:30] format, T eight 50 is in long standing subscription format where you just follow it for however long you want.

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Every six weeks a new cycle begins, but it's probably one of my best options for that. It'll absolutely help you honestly, you'll probably gain strength and improve your running at the same time, even if it's a little bit smaller. Deltas, just because you're fighting for resources, recovery resources, you can only gain so much and so many different things at the same time. But at worst, you'll maintain your running and gain strength at best, which is probable. If [00:50:00] you're doing the right things outside the gym, you'll improve by small amounts across the board. Next question. Thoughts on sub max? PLIs like hop skips and jumps as a warmup to run training? Huge fan, especially for higher intensity stuff. Do you need it for long runs and easy runs? No, but if you are doing some speed work or if you're doing some tempo work, a nice easy run to warm up, maybe throw some strides in, maybe do some A skips, some B skips, some butt kicks, some pogo hops, some single leg pogo hops, let your heart rate come back down and start your workout.

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You're [00:50:30] going to be much better off doing that than you are just going straight into it for sure. But a lot of people will just do an easy run, then they'll go straight into it, which is okay. It's better than doing nothing, but I like doing a more dynamic warmup prior to higher intensity runs. Again, you don't need it for easy stuff. Like the first 5, 10, 15 minutes of your easy run will be your warmup. You don't really need to do much more than that. You can if you want. It's not a bad thing to do, but it's not necessary. But I would strongly recommend doing it for the faster stuff. Next question. If you were at swic again, [00:51:00] what would be something that you carved out time for every single day? That's a great question. So swic, for those not aware, I'm guessing you're talking about being a swic student, not a SWIC instructor.

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I was never swic instructor, but I was a student. Of course it is where you go and go through the Q course. It's basically special warfare training center in school, JFK, special Warfare Training Center in school. The short abbreviation is swic. So what I would do is something regarding personal development. I honestly used to scoff at people [00:51:30] that read self out books, that took courses that hired coaches, that joined masterminds, that wanted mentors. Really anything that would help them develop more as a person. No joke, embarrassingly, but no joke used to scoff at people who did that, and I could not have been more wrong. I finally started doing that later in my career, but man, I wish I started doing it a lot sooner in my career. So I would carve out time to either read a self-help book, like a business book or [00:52:00] a character development book or a charisma book, something that's going to help me in life, finances, things like that.

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Things that are going to help you not just in your current life in the Q course as well as in group, but things that are just going to help you as a human being overall and after your career. By the way, there's still more life to live and more progress to make and more goals to chase. So I would definitely do something like that, or I would maybe spend time listening to podcasts or listening to audio books or watching informative YouTube videos, not entertaining YouTube videos, [00:52:30] not just binge watching how I met your mother and Dexter like I did in all my free time back then, so that maybe some meal prep. I never was really gung-ho about my nutrition back then. So I think I would, not every day, but I would dedicate some more time once or twice a week to actually prepping my meals and being set up for success.

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And I would probably do a little bit. I would set more time up for quality relationship building, meeting up with friends for something other than going out and getting hammered at the bar. So [00:53:00] that's three things right there that I would be a much more well-developed person today had I not waited so long to start prioritizing those things. But if you're in the Q course, if you're at swic and you got downtime, which you probably will, it's always different, but for the most part it's not as streamlined as it should be. So you're going to have downtime either when you're not at class or between phases or whatever have you finding something that's more productive than just binge watching TV and doing other things that aren't going to drive you forward, like going out and drinking is a very [00:53:30] strong recommendation. It's going to help you in many, many ways, not just in the queue, not just in group, but in life as well.

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Alright, we'll make this the last question. How would you go about starting a page with personal training like you have? Great question. So I started this page originally not as a, I basically started TTM overall, not as a business, but just as a way to share my knowledge about general fitness. I've always just been obsessed with it. I've always taken extra time to read and [00:54:00] learn and hire people and go to courses. That's one thing I did throughout most of my career. Not really personal development in other areas besides fitness, but I definitely always was eager and curious about fitness and I learned a ton on my own time. So because of that, I figured I would start sharing some of my knowledge and getting it out there and putting my name out there and not really putting my personal brand or my personal name out there.

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I was still in SF and I wanted to do the quiet professional [00:54:30] thing. Now that I'm out, of course I put my face and my name out there, but before I got out, I wasn't doing any podcast video. I would just do audio. I wasn't talking at all about soft specific fitness or anything like that. I was just putting general fitness information out and the niche. I kind of fell into the niche over time after I got out. But really don't hold back from a giving out as much free shit as you possibly can, as much free information. Don't keep things behind closed [00:55:00] doors if you wanted to. Even though I have to charge for certain things, I charge for my coaching, I charge for my programs, et cetera, but 99.9% of the stuff I put out is free 99. And a lot of people have this scarcity mindset where if they give away their secrets, which by the way, there's no real secrets out there, if they give away their secrets, then people aren't going to buy their stuff.

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It is the exact opposite. If you give away your secrets, everyone's going to want to pay you for how to apply [00:55:30] those secrets without them having to do all the guesswork. Basically, you give them the secrets, I give them the program, you follow the program, I tell you how to eat and sleep to recover. You do it instead of you having to piece together all of it, you could if you had the time and the gumption, you go through all my podcast episodes, all my Instagram posts, I've got 16, 1700 Instagram posts and all my articles, all my YouTube videos, and you could probably piece together every single thing that you could [00:56:00] possibly find in any paid product that I have. However, that would be a big time chore. It would take forever, and it would be really, really difficult to put it all together in a way that makes sense.

(00:56:09):

So that is basically the style of my business is I give away as much information as possible, but also if you want it all in a streamlined one-stop shop type area, you either hire me for coaching or you purchase a program or you purchase one of my eBooks. So don't be afraid to give stuff out. Also, don't be afraid to speak on camera and [00:56:30] for you to suck at first. You're just going to suck if you go back and you won't be able to watch these videos because I didn't start putting my podcast on YouTube until episode 100, but some of my first episodes, I was absolutely terrible. It's painful for me to listen to because I was so bad at speaking. I was not very articulate. I wasn't good at simplifying things. I would say all these filler words. I still say some filler words, but I'm getting better.

(00:56:54):

I had absolutely no body language, no charisma, no movement whatsoever. I do [00:57:00] now on my shows. You get better at that stuff over time, but guess how? You're not going to get better at it if you never start. A lot of people are really, really apprehensive about putting their name and their face out there and actually speaking on camera and explaining things to a wider variety of people, a bigger audience because they're scared about what people are going to think or they're scared about negative comments or they're scared about internet trolls. If you're scared about those things, what is even the point? Why do you care about what this kid who sleeps in his mom's basement thinks [00:57:30] about what you have for fitness information? This kid is probably saying something negative on your post because he's miserable, and you just got to accept that. Also, even if you do completely flop, say you put your first episode out there, your first podcast, for example, you don't have to do podcasts, but I would say podcasts are a really good thing to consider starting, and it's terrible, and two people listen to it.

(00:57:52):

Honestly, my first episode, it's got more listens now, but my first 50 to 60 episodes probably averaged 30 to 40 downloads total, [00:58:00] which is mostly like family and friends. Now they have more because more people have found my stuff and now my episodes get more downloads. But at first they didn't. No one was really listening to what I was doing, and I also sucked at it just relatively speaking. But if you never start and you never do it, you're not going to get better at it and you're not going to gain any traction and no one's ever going to see your stuff. That's the thing. If you want to sell something, you can't just keep it under wraps. You have to actually tell people, Hey, I have this thing. You can buy it if you want, or you can ask me questions, or I'll happily try and give you all the information I possibly can.

(00:58:30):

[00:58:30] But if you want to apply it, if you want to have it in one-stop shop like place, you can implement it. Then I also offer paid services, so that's another thing. Just don't be afraid to do that. And whether you do it on video or podcast or articles writing, you do written style content, there's a bunch of different ways to do it. I would say I do all of the above, but I would say my strong suit is mostly writing. I would say my articles and my written word posts [00:59:00] usually do the best, but everyone's a little different. Some people are great speakers and they can't write a sentence that's coherent. Other people are great writers, but they do not want to be heard or seen on video or audio. Find what your strong suit is or try a little bit of both and see what you do better.

(00:59:17):

See which one you enjoy more. See which one you find is a better way to get your message out and go from there and just get better at it, get better at it, get better at it. And lastly, stay curious. Be [00:59:30] as curious as humanly possible. This doesn't just go for building a fitness business online, but you always want to be learning. You always want to be getting better. Don't be afraid to pay other people a good chunk of money to get their mentorship, get their coaching, get their help. I have a fitness coach and I have two business coaches right now, and I'm not going to share what I pay them, but I pay them a pretty damn good solid chunk of money because they help me so much. I get massive returns on those investments instead of trying to figure it out myself.

(00:59:59):

And also, I'm [01:00:00] building relationships with people in the industry that are ahead of me that have done what I want to do. And a lot of people are apprehensive to pay for that stuff, and I think that's a huge mistake because a lot of people just don't understand the difference between a cost and an investment. A cost is something that you pay and you don't really get anything back. Like if you're paying for a streaming service on your tv, paying for Netflix, you're not really getting much back. You're getting some entertainment. Most people think it's worth it. I pay for streaming services too. But an investment is when you pay usually at [01:00:30] a larger sum of money, whether it's for a program or a course or an actual coach, and you get so much more peace of mind, you get so much more clarity. You take out so much of the guesswork and the pain and the struggle because they've been there, they've done it, they know how to execute.

(01:00:48):

They tell you and show you how to execute, then they hold you accountable and then you go execute. So those are some top things that I would recommend. Honestly, it's really hard. You definitely want to find something unique about yourself [01:01:00] and really exploit that and leverage that because there's so many people who try to go out and start fitness pages. What I would do also, although I did not do this, I would say for most people it is a really good idea to get in-person training experience before you go online. A really, really, really good idea. I kind of had pseudo in-person experience because I coached people for free throughout most of my life, whether it's my teammates or guys in my company or friends, family, et cetera. So I really [01:01:30] developed my ability to coach in person like that, even though it wasn't my actual business, I wasn't doing that for an actual profession.

(01:01:37):

I still gained a ton of experience from that. But had I not done that and I'd just gone straight to online coaching, I might've been able to make it work, but I would not be anywhere close to as good. My client sent me a video of their lifts, and I'm giving them critiques. If I had never coached anyone in person, I would not be capable of giving them really digestible and understandable and easily implementable feedback [01:02:00] via video on how to fix their technique. Had I not ever done that in person or studied it like crazy. So little things like that really add up, and you can try and go straight online, but for the most part, most people don't really have a lot of success that way. And again, it's a really, really saturated market. But if you find something unique about yourself and you stay authentic and you continue working at it, even if it flops, even if no one cares about it for a while, [01:02:30] even if you feel really uncomfortable and it's not working, guess what?

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Most people quit when they reach a point where they don't think things are working. They just kind of get to that point. They're like, eh, I'm done. And that's why most people aren't successful. The people who are successful, they start, they continue getting better, they stay curious. They continue to invest in personal development, their time, their effort, as well as their money. And even when it doesn't work at first, they continue [01:03:00] going forward. And eventually, if you're at least somewhat competent and you find something that you are interested and passionate enough and competent enough in, it's eventually going to work. But if you quit before that happens, or if you just never start, then there's zero chance of it happening. So I kind of jumped around there. Hopefully you got something good out of that, but that's a really good question. Maybe it's something I'll discuss more in depth in the future. But anyway, that is it for today, guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. Don't forget to check out [01:03:30] that sale if you're interested in a program. And I will be back soon with another episode. Till then, Terminator app.