212 - Q&A: Pushup Plateaus, Army PT, PEDs for Selection, Fat Loss While Performing, Injuries + More

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What's happening guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. This is going to be a q and a from this week's Instagram. Ask me anything where I go through and choose some of the better questions that I was asked, and some of them I answer on IG and not on the show. Other ones I answer on the show, not on ig. Some of them are doubled up and most have to do with fitness, nutrition, et cetera. But I also like to incorporate some questions that either I just don't talk about very often or that are just fun to answer. The first one's [00:00:30] going to be a fun one to answer and go from there. So if you want your question answered in a future episode that is the best option for you, give me a follow on Terminator training Instagram and look out for my typically weekly ask me anything.

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And if it's a solid question, I may not get to it the very first time. I get quite a few questions, but keep asking it and I will get to it. If you keep asking a question and I never answer it, there's a decent chance that it's not a very good [00:01:00] question. So if you can clean it up a little bit, put a little more effort into it, then you're increasing your chances of getting an answer. So hope everyone had an awesome Memorial Day. I am coming off a PR golf round. I would say maybe not a PR as far as score is concerned. I've shot a 70 before, but it was on a par 70 course this round. I shot a 72 on a par 72 and it was frigging awesome. I [00:01:30] was too under through the front nine and unfortunately I was three, no two over on the back nine.

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So I had to par the 18th hole to break par and shoot a 71 and I bogeyed it. I hit a bad drive into a bunker and then I went into another bunker and then I tried to get up and down and miss the putt. So unfortunately went away with par, but it was pretty cool. Honestly, I didn't really even play all [00:02:00] that well as far as striking is concerned. For those who are interested in golf, you probably have had those rounds where you just don't play great, but the scorecard shows otherwise and vice versa. Sometimes you play awesome and you just have a couple bad holes and it screws your score up. But yeah, it was pretty cool. Looking forward to getting a bunch more golf in before our new baby son arrives in August and I can't just go play golf whenever I want.

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But anyway, let's hop into today's questions starting [00:02:30] with the most important question ever asked on the TTM show, which is espresso versus regular coffee. I'm guessing he's asking what my preference is between the two and I actually currently have a nice cup of regular coffee here because usually I record these a little later in the day, but right now it is 8:00 AM and I'm recording this morning. I got some stuff to do later, but man, that's good. I honestly am going to kind [00:03:00] of cheat because I like both. If it's first thing in the morning or early in the morning, I like the ritual of sitting down with a nice cup of freshly brewed coffee. My wife and I are kind of coffee snobs, so we get the really high quality stuff and it just feels good to do that. Even if it was decaf, I would still enjoy it, but usually I have a cup and a half, maybe two cups in the morning, and then I also really like espresso.

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I wouldn't wake up in the morning unless it was the only option. I wouldn't wake up in the morning and just have [00:03:30] espresso shots. Not to say that that's a bad thing or anything like that, but I like espressos a little later in the morning. I try not to drink coffee past 11:00 AM because it messes my sleep up. I go to bed pretty early, but if it's 9, 10, 10 30 and I'm either out at a coffee shop or we have a little espresso Keurig style machine that you can just put a pot in and it makes espresso. We don't always have those in the house, but when we do, they go pretty quick because I'll have one or two a day and I love those. So [00:04:00] I like both. Is one better than the other? Not really. I mean they're both just a caffeine source with some coffee.

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Coffee itself does have a underrated health profile. It's actually really good for your overall health. It has antioxidants in it and it can be also great for liver health, but it can also have some downsides if you have caffeinated coffee and you have too much of it, just overstimulating yourself has a myriad of potential downsides, but [00:04:30] in moderation, coffee's awesome and so is espresso and I like both of them. Let me know in the comments which one you guys like better and we'll start a little discussion on it. So with that extremely important question out of the way now, I love it. We will hop into the next one, which is using body weight exercises daily, IE pushups, lunges, dips, pull-ups, warmup pre lift, adding too much volume. Is it adding too much volume? It just really depends on what your [00:05:00] other training looks like and it does depend on what your goals are.

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If your goals are to get really good at body weight exercises like this, then starting most of your lifts or some of your lifts with them is probably a good idea because you're doing them while you're more focused. And generally you're going to want to do most of your top priority fitness disciplines when you're more fresh and more focused. Not always, but generally, if your main goal is to get jacked in strong from your lifts and you're doing a bunch of higher intensity, so closer to failure [00:05:30] calisthenics before you get to your main lifts with load, then you're going to sell those lifts short and potentially because you're going to be more fatigued going into them, you're potentially going to make them a little bit less safe. Like you're lifting sessions are a little less safe because you're already fatigued from your prior calisthenics that you did beforehand.

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If you're doing body weight exercises as a warmup, so you're keeping the intensity low and you're just trying to go for some blood flow and maybe practice [00:06:00] the skill of those movements, then it can be fine. So what you should do when you're determining whether you should do this or not is just ask yourself what your goals are with it. What is the point of you doing these things? And if the point is something like I want to improve at them, or I'm doing them with low intensity because it makes my main lifts that I do afterwards feel better, or you just want to get more skilled at them but you're not pushing them really close to failure, then great if you're just doing it for the hell of it. Or if you get a program, there are some programs out there [00:06:30] that just kind of bewilder me.

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They have a ridiculously high rep, high intensity calisthenics prior to getting into the lift, and for most people that is just not serving much of a purpose. If anything, it's going to detract from your actual lift. So not always wrong, but also not always right, impossible for me to say whether it's too much volume or not because I just don't know what else you're doing for training. But if you ask yourself that key question then it should give you at least a starting point for going in the right direction. Next [00:07:00] question. Thoughts on weighted movements being better for building ABS than body weight? In general, they will be because a lot of people, for whatever reason think the abs are some special muscle group that respond to super duper high reps and body weight and circuits with no rest and they're not. They are just like any other muscle group.

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So if you wanted to get really jack legs, would you do something like three sets of six to eight squats and three [00:07:30] sets of six to eight hinges and maybe three sets of 10 to 12 leg curls and leg extensions, or would you just go for a run with body weight? Really, really long run high reps? Generally most people are going to choose option the actual lifting because that would be a lot more effective. Running long periods of time, which is essentially just like doing a million reps of flutter kicks or a million reps of some other AB exercise with no rest are pretty similar as far as what [00:08:00] you're doing to your body. And it shouldn't be a secret that going for lots of long runs is not the best way to grow your legs. So instead you would train them just like any other muscle group and you'd get a lot more stimulus for what you're going for, which is muscle growth.

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And this question asks, is weighted abdominal work a better way to grow your ABS than not like high rep stuff that most people do and yes, it [00:08:30] absolutely is. You can if you are training for something like BUDS or CDQC or if you know you're going to have to do a high rep sit up test or something like that, then doing higher reps is a great idea. You're improving the endurance of your abdominal muscles as well as your hip flexors and you're going to need that so it's more specific. But if you want to gain muscle in your abdominal muscles, you want AB hypertrophy, you should train them just like any other muscle group. And with that includes rep ranges, [00:09:00] you want to train them close to failure. So within a rep shy of failure, maybe two rep shy of failure, some AB exercises all the way to failure.

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And if you're hitting failure well outside, let's say 20 maybe 30 reps in a set, then it's not really very practical and it's going to be more fatiguing and it's going to be more endurance biased than actual muscle growth biased. So adding load can help keep you down in that six to 12 ish rep range, which [00:09:30] for most AB exercises is going to be a great rep range to be in. Now you don't necessarily have to add load to every exercise. There are certain exercises you can set up to where gravity is going to be enough load at least when you're starting out, but when you're first starting to train ABS properly, which is another can of worms, most people don't train abs properly, that will allow you to hit failure in those low rep ranges. But there are other exercises, for example, cable abdominal curls or other sit up variations [00:10:00] where you maybe hold a dumbbell or a plate near your chest or up over your head or something like that to create more stimulus to basically allow you to hit failure sooner in a lower rep range.

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Yes, adding load to those would be a good idea. So you are going to get a lot more hypertrophy from training them just like any other muscle than you will from even if you feel a burn, even if it's fatiguing, even if your abs get sore from your million rep AB exercises or circuits, you're not really getting much [00:10:30] out of those other than just endurance. So definitely important to just treat the abs just like any other muscle group, which most people don't do, and use that to guide your training decisions for growing them. And lastly, if your abs are a little bit more muscular, you actually gain muscle size in the abdominals, which some people need to train them directly in order to do that. Some people just have really good genetics and their abs are really, really jacked just as is a lot of high level bodybuilders do not even train their [00:11:00] abs at all.

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They're just lean enough and their AB genetics are good enough to where they can see them, they really stick out. Some people aren't like that, but if you do train them and you don't have those great genetics, you'll find that at higher, slightly, slightly higher body fat percentages, you'll see your abs a little bit better. So maybe if you don't have great genetics in your 12% body fat, you might not be able to see them all that well. They might not really stick out if you don't train them, but if you do train them or if you just have [00:11:30] really good genetics and they're jacked anyway and you're at 12% body fat, it's not like you're going to have a magic eight pack or anything like that, but they will stick out a little bit more. You'll be able to notice them more. So that is another consideration for app training.

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Next question, what is your opinion on any form of PED when training for the soft pipeline or during your soft career? So I would separate these into two categories, soft pipeline slash pres, soft pipeline like prepping for selection Q course and things like that versus when you're already in soft. I mean you did kind of [00:12:00] do that with a question, but my answer will be different for whether you are soft or actually in soft. So when you're pres off, I mean would it potentially help if you had a really, really sound PED cycle and you knew exactly what you're doing, you're very savvy with it. You do your research, you plan things out, you plan after when you're coming off the cycle, your post cycle actions, it could potentially help. Here's the deal though. When you go to selection, you're not going to be able to bring that stuff and when you go to certain parts of the Q course, [00:12:30] you're not going to be able to bring that stuff out to CAM McCall and generally when you take peds for a period of time and then you come off them and you're unable to do the right things after a sound post cycle therapy and keep your lifestyle maintained, continue training and so on and so forth, you're going to feel absolutely terrible and you're going to perform absolutely terrible and your health may kind of take a turn for the worse.

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Your hormones are going to be all jacked up, so going to SFAS in that condition is not ideal. [00:13:00] Even if you use them in prep and you got super fit and you benefited them from them greatly. What happens when you go to SFAS and you can't use them, it's not going to be a good time. So that is one reason, one huge reason, probably the main reason I wouldn't recommend it as far as the Q course, you'll see that a lot of guys do, but it's still not very logistically intelligent because every time you go out to Cam McCall and you can't bring that stuff and use that stuff, you're just going to feel terrible. Even though most other than [00:13:30] SUT, most of the times you go out to KA McCall, you don't have to be like a fitness stud necessarily still, you don't want to feel terrible.

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You don't want to have really low motivation, really low drive inability to focus low energy. That's just no way to go about daily life out there, especially because you're going to be in conditions that aren't really naturally applicable to that or don't really support that. You're not going to be sleeping the way you usually do. You're not going to be eating the way you usually do. You might be in a higher stress scenario than you usually are in day-to-day life, so [00:14:00] you don't want to be coming off PDs every time you do that. Later on in the Q course. A lot of guys will go on during language school, and again, this is usually just the way most guys do. It is just not very sound, it's not very intelligent. They'll go on peds that help them get super duper jacked and they look really, really jacked, but they also can't run or they don't run, they don't do any ear conditioning or minimal conditioning, or maybe they do try to do conditioning, but they're just on such a stupid [00:14:30] cycle that it doesn't really allow them to do consistent conditioning.

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Maybe it increases their injury risk getting super big inject, but their tendons and ligaments and other soft tissue aren't really keeping up with their muscle growth and also it's just more an impact when they're running because they're bigger. That's not a very good idea, and I'm telling you, it seems obvious, but a lot of guys will do this if you're on the right style of peds, which by the way is very, very difficult [00:15:00] to determine and use properly and again, plan for after effects properly, then it could help. But just practically in reality from what I've seen, most guys don't do that and therefore I would say you are way better off not using them at all. Even if one potential unfortunate circumstance that could be rough for certain guys is if say they have tried a lot of things [00:15:30] naturally to bring their testosterone up, they have just low testosterone.

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It's becoming more and more common in younger individuals these days, and sometimes lifestyle interventions just don't work well enough. Oftentimes it's something like a past injury or past history of head injuries, TBIs, et cetera, or other things that limit natural hormone production, which is not common, but it is a thing and if you try lifestyle measures and it doesn't bring it up, [00:16:00] you honestly are a pretty solid candidate for doctor prescribed TRT, which is honestly different from most people's idea of peds. It would make you a little bit stronger and a little more driven and a little more able to focus. You'd feel better, you'd be more motivated, but it wouldn't be like this superhuman thing wouldn't make you into an absolute stud. However, still logistically from what I just talked about, even if it's prescribed by a doctor, I'm not exactly sure how that would work when you go to selection, when you go to other parts of the course that occur [00:16:30] at KA McCall, so in general, soft before you actually get there, doing your very best to hold off would be a really good idea.

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Once you're in soft, honestly, you don't need to use anything in order to maintain very high levels of fitness. Almost every super fit stud that I knew throughout my career, and I'm not talking about the most jacked guys or the most power lifting strong guys, I'm talking about the most SF specific [00:17:00] fitness dominant individuals that I knew throughout my career were natural. Yes, you will see guys that are super jacked, super strong, but not very well-rounded that are taking peds and their peds are really helping them get super jacked and super strong, but you don't have to be super jacked and super strong in order to thrive as an SF guy. So consider that if it's later in your career or you are someone like I was talking about earlier where you're trying your lifestyle [00:17:30] interventions, and by the way, soft is not super favorable to get all your lifestyle interventions in check just because there will be certain obligations from the job that limit it.

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You'll go overseas where you don't have the best access to food, you'll have times where you're not sleeping great, the stress is very, very high in the job. You might get your bell rung several times and it can be really, really hard to bring your T up naturally in those conditions and it's not really your fault. Even if you are really trying. In that case, getting [00:18:00] on doctor prescribed TRT can be a very, very beneficial thing. You are much better off health wise and wellbeing wise and day-to-day performance wise being on TRT and having high normal levels of testosterone than just allowing your testosterone to stay low, that is not very good for your health at all. Not to mention your day-to-day wellbeing, even if it is exogenous, it is still going to be better assuming that you're doing things right. You have a doctor that's really monitoring you, really [00:18:30] taking care of you, giving the right stuff, you're taking the right dose, you're taking it at the right intervals and so on.

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You're going to be way better off that way and there's a stigma attached to it because it's the same. It's testosterone, but it's in replacement doses, which is way different than bodybuilder doses of testosterone. But people just hear testosterone, they think it's the same thing. Yes, it's the same thing, it's just not the same goal. You're not taking the same amount of it, you're not getting the same effects, the same potential side effects, the same potential [00:19:00] health long-term and acute potential effects. So TRT is something that honestly would benefit tons and tons of soft guys, and it does benefit a lot of soft guys because a lot of guys use it, whether it's through the army, you have to have a really, really low T for a prolonged period to go through the army. It's kind of a nightmare or they go out of pocket, which is not necessarily allowed, but it is usually going to be a much better level of care.

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So it does depend. [00:19:30] There's a lot of nuance that goes into it. I would say just as a general heuristic, pre-selection during the pipeline, hold off if you need TRT, not necessarily super duper high doses of testosterone in all their peds, but if you need TRT later on in your career because you're trying to bring it up naturally and it won't work and the job is just not very conducive to having high testosterone, then considering that would probably be a very good option for certain people. Next question, having a hard time hitting required [00:20:00] carbs, my fats are good quality, but too high. Any advice? Yeah, this is a very, very common problem among pretty much all of my clients who do nutrition when they first start working with me is getting their fats to a reasonable intake and also replacing those calories they're losing from dropping their fat with carbs, which would be a great option for pretty much anyone who is interested in performance, better recovery, better day-to-day, vigor in wellbeing, body composition, strength, muscle, whatever [00:20:30] have you.

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Carbs are going to be a huge, huge benefit to all of those things. And so dropping fat to make room for more carbs is a really good idea, which sounds like what the person asking this question is trying to do. So just know that you're not alone. Very, very common. I would instead of trying to completely reinvent your diet and drop your fat to exactly where you need to eventually be and raise your carbs to exactly where you need to eventually be, just do it in small increments over a [00:21:00] couple of weeks. For example, maybe this week you drop your fat by 10 and you increase your carbs by 40, then maybe next week you drop your fat by another five, you increase your carbs by another 25 and so on up until you get to where you think you need to be. Now a couple things go into making sure you're not eating too much fat.

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There's honestly two main things. One is tracking your calories and tracking your macros. A lot of people just have no idea that they're eating 90, [00:21:30] a hundred, 120, 150 grams of fat every single day. And also with that, they're eating very low carbs compared to what they should be eating. So tracking for a period of time will open your eyes to just how much fat you're potentially adding to your food, whether it's oils or sauces or you're just getting meat that isn't lean enough or you're eating full fat dairy versus low fat dairy. Just tracking and being mindful of it just gives you that objective data without your feelings where you can make [00:22:00] informed decisions based off that. Another thing is being very mindful of the macros on the foods you're getting, especially animal products. For example, you could get a pound of ground beef and it could be either a complete fat bomb or it could be very, very low fat, very high protein, lower calories, and really, really excellent in supporting of your current goals and your current diet.

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So something like 85, 15 [00:22:30] ground beef, a lot of people think that's really lean. If you look at the macros, you'll quickly learn that is not lean, even though 85 is much higher than 15, it's higher percentage protein compared to the number of grams. Here's the deal, fat has nine calories per gram protein only has four. So for one calorie or one gram of protein, you're getting four calories. For one gram of fat, you're getting nine calories. So 10 grams of fat is 90 calories, 10 [00:23:00] grams of protein is 40 calories. So even those percentages kind of lead you to think that this is a really lean meat or a relatively lean meat. It's actually not. And other things like eggs versus egg whites, A lot of guys will have five, six eggs in the morning for breakfast, which is not always wrong, but eggs are typically one-to-one, give or take protein to fat where you could do something like two whole eggs.

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You get about 12 grams of fat from that and about 12 grams of protein, and then you could hit whatever you need for protein [00:23:30] for the rest of that meal with egg whites. And egg whites are literally just pure protein. So you can get liquid egg whites, add them in. You have 45 grams of protein and 12 grams of fat instead of having seven eggs where you get 45 grams of protein, give or take, and also 45 grams of fat. Additionally, things like dairy, full fat dairy versus 1% dairy versus 2% dairy versus zero fat, dairy, big difference. They absolutely add up. And even if it doesn't look that [00:24:00] big on a single serving, think about how many servings you're eating of these things throughout the entire day. It does add up. So you could literally have a breakfast that has the same amount of protein, the same amount of carbs and 50 grams of fat, or you could have a breakfast that has the same amount of protein, the same amount of carbs and 12 grams of fat or eight grams of fat or 15 grams of fat.

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Then you have plenty of fat calories left over for later meals throughout the day. So it's just really being mindful, it's tracking, getting an idea of what you're eating [00:24:30] and when you go to the grocery store, actually looking at the macros and seeing how many grams of fat per serving are in the things that you're eating on a regular basis. And then from there, as you continue to reduce the fat over time, you're going to make room for more carbs. And a lot of people will kind of either incorrectly choose the type of carbs that they're eating or they just don't have the metabolic health yet they're working their way towards it, but their metabolic health is such that they're not really able to eat a [00:25:00] lot of food. They're not hungry all the time. When you have a really, really good metabolic health, your metabolism is super duper rip roaring.

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You should be hungry a couple hours after every single meal. You shouldn't be full all day. You should have a really good solid appetite, not starving like you can't stop eating, but able to eat, willing and able to eat on a relatively regular basis. And if your metabolic health is poor, then you're just not going to want to eat all that much. You're not going to be able to eat all that much either without gaining fat. [00:25:30] And over time as you make these correct decisions, you're more mindful of it, you track, you train hard, you make sure your activity level's high and you continue to bump up your carbs over time and your calories as a result of that, your metabolic health will improve and you'll be able to eat more in a sitting, physically able to eat more because you're more hungry. You'll be able to eat more times throughout the day and you will be able to eat more without getting fatter.

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It'll just improve your performance and enhance your performance and [00:26:00] your calorie maintenance will be higher and higher over time. Jumped around there a little bit, but hopefully that gives you a good idea of a why it's not something to think that you're the odd man out in the only one struggling with this. A lot of people struggle with it, but two, a way to or a couple ways to go about determining how to fix it and get to where you're eating plenty of carbs and keeping that fat in check. Next question, going to SFAS in August, I'm doing R run lift. My pushups are lacking. [00:26:30] Should I add a couple sets a week or just trust the process? So I would for now trust the process. Here's the deal about pushups. You still have three months before you go to selection, and it's not like you have to be maxing hand release pushups three months away.

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You have to be maxing, hand release pushups when you get tested on them, which will be around day one of selection. So you still have plenty of time to improve those numbers, and you'll notice in the program the frequency and how much you focus on hand release [00:27:00] pushups increases as the later phases. You'll get to the later phases and you'll see increases in the focus on these things. So I would for now trust the process. If you get to one of the later phases, or if you're a month out six weeks out and you know that your pushups are still lacking, I think halfway through the program, you will test your two minute max. So if you're still well below where you want to be, you could add some sets throughout the week. I would go mostly low intensity, high frequency, sort of like a greasing the groove thing, but not quite as intense [00:27:30] and just practice the form, practice the mechanics, practice how you want to pace them and so on.

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Then you can do that, but for the most part, you should be totally fine. There is plenty of pushups in that program to get almost anyone unless you're just starting from complete scratch, which I would not follow that program. If you're starting from complete scratch, you're probably not going to go to selection and do very well if you're way behind. You can't do barely any pushups, but there are plenty of pushups in that program to make [00:28:00] you as proficient as you need to be. And also just remember that pushups are just one little tiny thing. Yes, you want to pass them, but even if you're just borderline failing pushups or passing pushups, you're almost close to failing them, but then you crush everything else, you're still going to be totally fine. It doesn't really matter what you did for pushups. So that's not to say that you should chew for the minimums by any means, but just don't put so much stock into them and forget about all the other stuff and do so many pushups that it interferes with your other's training because you think [00:28:30] that you just need to crush pushups, but forget about everything else.

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Next question, how to manage following one of your programs and having to do army PT in the morning? Yeah, so this is a tough one and it's an unfortunate situation that guys who are self-sufficient and self-starting as far as doing their own thing and trying to improve their fitness in a meaningful way by following a sound program have to do also a bunch of dumb army stuff. I've never once seen a unit [00:29:00] or a team or a squad have a PT plan that really makes sense. That's anything other than a soup sandwich. So that sucks, and it can be really hard to follow a higher volume, high intensity program when you are also doing required PT that you really have no choice over, and it's also poorly programmed. First off, I don't know which program of mine you're following, so it's really hard to give you an exact answer.

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And [00:29:30] also, even if I did, I don't know what you're doing for pt. I don't know what your PT looks like, but I can assume that it's a lot of running. I can assume that it's a lot of circuit random bullshit. So what I would do is just follow some principles. One, listen to your body. If you are feeling spent banged up like you can't recover, like you are just not getting better week to week or on at least a trend, maybe not every single week, but you're not trending better fitness wise, or if you feel like what you're doing isn't sustainable practically, [00:30:00] then you want to dial something back. Typically because you can't dial back your required pt, you're going to have to dial something back from the program. So generally the most fatiguing things in training are lifting volume. So if you're going to dial something back in the lifting, it would be volume, fewer sets.

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So if you see three sets of most lifts, you do two sets. If you see two sets of a lift, you do one set. If you see four sets, which you probably won't see almost ever on any of my programs, you do three sets. [00:30:30] That would be one simple way. You still train hard, make sure you're going closer to failure and executing them properly, but not having so much volume in your weekly training. For conditioning, it's typically intensity. So if you're going to drop something from the program because you're not making progress or you're just feeling beat up, I would drop some of the faster running the speed work, the threshold work, either cut it if you're doing something similar with your pt, with your unit pt, or just reduce [00:31:00] the volume of it, maybe do half or two thirds of what's programmed in there.

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Another overarching principle is if you are making progress in general, and you also, going back to the last one, don't feel like you're completely spent and don't feel like you can't sustain it and it feels like a reasonable training load. You're getting good sleep, you're getting good nutrition, then what you're doing is working pretty well, making progress. A lot of guys will stop doing what they're doing and [00:31:30] hop to another program or change a bunch of shit up even though they're making progress because they think they could be making better progress and faster progress and more progress. Unless you're brand new to training, fitness progress is a really good sign, even if it's a tiny bit of progress. Yes, if you're brand new, you've never trained before, which most people listening to this that doesn't really apply to, you're probably going to make pretty fast gains, especially strength gains, but honestly gains across the board in most fitness disciplines.

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If you've been training for a while, then slow [00:32:00] progress is still a really good thing. You'd be shocked at how many programs out there people will follow and not really make any progress just because the fatigue is so much higher than the actual stimulus and it either hurts them or they're just so under recovered that they can't continue making progress. So if you're making progress, then I would stick to what you're doing, what you're doing is working, but really it just comes down to if you see something in your unit PT that you can't get out, of course because you're required to do it, that is similar [00:32:30] to what's in my program than either dialing it back or skipping it or maybe adjusting it in some way shape or form would be a good idea, but hopefully you can see why it's not super simple to just answer, oh, I would just make this adjustment, this adjustment and this adjustment, especially if I don't know those two things, what program you're following or what you're doing for Army pt, but using some of those principles, listening to your body, auto regulating.

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If you're making progress, continue sub out like items in my workouts [00:33:00] with what you're doing for required pt, then you should be good to go. And if you need to take extra rest days or if you need to take a weekend off once in a while because you just had a ridiculous week of training with your unit and also your fatigue from my training on my program, then doing that is always going to be a really, really good idea. You're going to feel like you're not making progress because you're skipping a long run or a long rock, but in most cases, you still are doing the right thing for your body even if it doesn't feel like that mentally. [00:33:30] Next question. Did you get to travel much in sf? Can you travel outside of work? Yes, and yes, you travel quite a bit, not just overseas for deployments, which you will do that, but also you'll travel around the country as a team for various training opportunities as well as personally for certain schools, especially if you're not at third group, if you're at a different group, a lot of the schools that you'll go to throughout your career are at Fort Bragg, so you'll travel to Bragg for several schools.

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If you're at [00:34:00] Bragg, you'll still travel. There are certain schools that are not at Bragg like dive school and free fall school and a SO level three, things like that. But also your team will travel to various different places throughout the country, mostly for different training opportunities. As far as outside of work, can you travel? Absolutely, just like any other army person, you're going to get leave throughout the year and you can travel if you'd like. I personally traveled a lot more earlier [00:34:30] on in my career. I was long distance with my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife, so I would go out to California when I was at 10th group. I'd go out to California once in a while or she'd come visit me and we'd go up to the mountains and ski or go up to Denver or whatever, or I'd go home and visit family.

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Towards the end of my career, I did not travel as much. Mostly I was working on TTM, and that was what I spent most of my free time doing, and also I was just kind of over it and sick of it. I do love traveling, but you travel a lot, a lot [00:35:00] for work, and it depends on the person. Some guys travel way more than others, really just depends on the career path you choose. But yeah, if you want to travel outside the country, you can. It's a little bit more paperwork, but it is absolutely acceptable. If you want to travel inside the country, yes, you have to do paperwork, whether it's a four day weekend, you're filling out a pass or if it's actual leave, like a longer prolonged period of leave and you're filling out a pass or a leave form to go wherever you want.

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That is totally fine, but it just kind of [00:35:30] mostly depends on the person. If you have a family, most likely you're not going to travel a ton in your off time. You're probably just going to want to chill out. But at the same time, if you love traveling or if you're single and you want to go explore the country and the world, then by all means go do it. Next question. How to lower stress in cortisol? As a hybrid athlete, it seems my stress is always high. So there's a lot of different ways you can go about this, and honestly, a combination of all of them would probably be the most effective strategy. So generally speaking, people who pursue [00:36:00] hybrid goals are going to be type A individuals, naturally hard charging, go-getters, very ambitious, really thrive on being go, go, go and kind of thrive in more of a chaotic scene.

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And this can feel good. It can kind of give you the perception that you're doing something right, and there are certain periods of time where going hard in the paint is a really good thing. However, if you let this play out for too long and you don't manage it, which I'll get into how to here [00:36:30] in a bit, then it can really wreak havoc on your overall health. Even if you don't feel it, your objective health markers, your labs, et cetera will show it and eventually you'll start to feel it no matter what. If you're just burning the candle at both ends for too long, you're going to start feeling it and it's not going to be a great time for you. So a few different ways to attack stress. One is to drop needless stressors from your life. Another one is to increase your stress capacity, your [00:37:00] ability to handle stress.

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Another one is to manage the stress that you can't drop from your life intentionally. Do things throughout the day that help you manage it. So let's talk about the last one first, managing it. There are certain stressors that you just aren't going to be able to get rid of. They're just going to be in your life no matter what. And honestly, that's a good thing. If you had no stress in your life, you would really, really, really struggle. But if you have too much stress in your life, you'll also really struggle. So the stressors that you do have, you want to manage them. What does that look like? A, it's doing [00:37:30] certain things in your lifestyle that make it so that your body doesn't have so much of a bad reaction to stress. So getting great sleep, making sure that you're not drinking booze all the time.

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Things like booze or instant pleasure. Things like looking at your phone, scrolling, binge watching gambling, watching porn, binge drinking, things that bring you very, very instant. Dopamine hits and instant stress relief. They often [00:38:00] almost always kick the can down the road and you're going to be just as stressed if not more stress in the future because you are succumbing to these instant things that don't really push you in the right direction, and that will increase your overall stress load in your life. So really good habits, making sure that you're not doing all these instant pleasure things and you're choosing to do things that are still stressors. They're still hard, but they're actual beneficial things and they result in that slow drip of dopamine. So working on a [00:38:30] really hard project or going to train or ensuring that you're meal prepping, and even though you don't really enjoy meal prepping, you'd rather probably sit on your phone and scroll in the long term that is going to help you in a big way and it's going to make you less stressed throughout the week ensuring your nutrition is dialed in.

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Honestly, if you're eating a bunch of processed foods and your gut health is terrible and maybe you're overweight, you're super inflamed, you're just going to have worse outcomes, stress-wise training, but not overdoing your [00:39:00] training for a lot of type a's, especially on a hybrid program, the main thing that's going to be problematic stress-wise is overdoing it rather than underdoing it. So training is great. It's a great stressor acutely, and if you can recover and adapt to it over time, it's a really good stressor. But if you are subjecting yourself to way too much training stress way too frequently or way too hard and you can't recover from it, then it's going to negatively impact your overall stress load in the longterm. Having some sort [00:39:30] of stress management practice where you intentionally go and are in some way shape or form, mindful and present. So this could be anything from meditation or journaling, writing down your thoughts.

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I would recommend writing down your thoughts to pretty much anyone because getting it out of your head and on paper is a huge thing. You don't have to do diary entries, but if you're thinking about something and you don't want to be thinking about it, then simply taking it from your head and putting it [00:40:00] on paper makes a huge difference, and it also gives you a little bit of an objective view on oftentimes the things you're stressing about are things you can't control or really stupid, why am I even stressing about this? It's not that big of a deal. Generally, people are just wired that way. I'm wired that way. I stress about things that have no business being stressed over, but I still do. But when I write 'em down, it really helps. Yoga nidra is a great one. This is what I do probably five days a week, sometimes seven.

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If it's a crazy week, there's a great YouTube [00:40:30] channel. It's Ali Boothroyd. She has these yoga nidra videos that are anything from 10 minutes to an hour and you lay down, you do basically a body scan, some breathing exercises, and you feel way, way better after a lot more calm, a lot more able to focus, and it's great going out for walks in nature is a huge one. That's something I do every single day. One of my walks every day does not involve my phone. I just go out with my dogs and I'm just present for a while. I allow my thoughts to do [00:41:00] what they may. I find that it helps my creativity, and I also find when I come back, I feel less stressed, more clear, a little more calm. You could also do certain things like therapy. I mean, if you have trauma in your past or you think you may have things that are just really bothering you or lingering, going and talking to a qualified therapist can be a really good thing.

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Even though most SF guys scoff at it, they think that they can just handle it on their own. Usually they would be way better off not handling it [00:41:30] on their own and actually talking to a professional. And then there's also increasing your stress capacity. So being able to handle more stress is a great way to let stress affect you less or feel less of an effect from stress. So intentionally doing hard things, I was kind of talking about it earlier, but going in a cold plunge, going in the sauna, doing a hard workout, doing something difficult that you don't want to do but you know need to do because it's going to [00:42:00] move the needle and overcoming that resistance at the beginning, even though it's going to feel acutely stressful later on, you're going to feel good about it. You're going to feel less stressed in the future because you're getting that quality life enhancing stress that is not so much that you can't recover from it.

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It's not so burdensome that it just overwhelms you. So intentionally doing hard things that are needle moving on a regular basis, but not so excessively that you can't overcome them and it can't recover from them. [00:42:30] And lastly, it is removing things from your life that you're stressing about that don't need to be there. For example, poor relationships. If you hang around people who bitch moan, complain, gossip or that kind of undermine your goals or that are maybe fake positive people like they say this, they support you, but whenever you do something that is not aligned with their values, they maybe discreetly just don't really show their support or they try and talk you off [00:43:00] the ledge like, no, you don't need to do that. Just come in live. A little people like that are energy suckers and they're stressors, and I understand certain people you can't remove from your life.

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Like if it's a coworker that you have to see every day, that's one thing, but creating some space would be a really good idea. But bad relationships are huge, and if you can cut ties with certain people that bring you down, that is going to be a massive one that frees up a lot of stress capacity. Another one is going to work at a job every day that you hate. [00:43:30] I understand you got to pay the bills absolutely, and just quitting your job instantly without any plan in place would not be a good idea. But if you absolutely hate your job and you continue to go work there and you continue to wonder why you're so stressed, well that is a huge factor and there are other jobs available out there also, you could start your own thing. Yes, that is going to be more stressful at the beginning, but it's also going to be a lot more fulfilling.

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And stress with fulfillment is usually a positive. Even though when I first started TTM for example, [00:44:00] it was very stressful because I was also working my day job as well. I didn't hate my day job, but I had to work it and I also had to get my business up and running. It was very, very stressful. I worked almost all the time and I was anxious and so on and so forth. However, I was also fulfilled because I would see the fruits of my labor and I really enjoyed what I was working on even though it was hard, even though it took a lot of time and energy and focus, and sometimes I didn't want to do it, but I'd do it anyway long-term that benefited me tremendously. [00:44:30] Then there are certain things that people stress over that they don't have any control of the outcomes.

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So for example, if you're four months away from selection and you are stressing like crazy about the potential outcome of selection four and a half months from now, that is not serving you at all. I know it's easier said than done to just stop stressing about things that you don't have control over, but oftentimes you're thinking about these things that you have no control over because it's a habit. It's just your body's natural default and [00:45:00] because you can make your default to stress over things that you don't have control over, you can also over time with intentionality and certain strategies, make it so that your default isn't to stress things that you have no control over. You start thinking about things that you do have control over. It really helps to write these things down. If you write down a list of all the things you're stressing over all of them and then go through that list and say, okay, I can't control the outcome of this.

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I can't control the outcome of this. I can control the outcome of this [00:45:30] and what you can do with that. You don't have to do it as you're going through the list, but afterwards, all the ones that you can control, you can make a plan for how you're going to attack that and how you're going to make it so it's not as stressful for you typically. It all comes down to preparation, actually preparing and making sure that you have the ability to perform that thing, whatever that thing may be. Let's say it's a public speech or let's say it is a paper that you're going to have to do, or let's say that you are creating something for your [00:46:00] business or for your profession that's going to be stressful and you're stressing over it, but there's something you can do, actions you can take to make it so that thing goes better and comes out on the other end as a quality product or quality performance, and it really just comes down to preparation, putting the work in to make it so that those things aren't stressing you as much.

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So that is how I would kind of go with a three-pronged approach to becoming better able [00:46:30] to manage stress, reducing stressors that are not needed, increasing your stress capacity and managing stressors that are still in your life. If you can put those into action, it's going to take some time and practice. It's not like you're going to be magically clean slate of stress, no stress tomorrow, but over time those things can, just being mindful of those things can really, really help significantly in managing your stress. Next question. I know your thoughts on mobility, but stretching post run calves, [00:47:00] hips, hammies are always tight. Yeah, that's totally fine. I mean, is it going to be some magic thing that you have to do post run? Not necessarily, but a good time to stretch in general is post-workout definitely better than pre-workout. You could also stretch in the evening before bed.

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You could stretch in the morning. You can stretch random times throughout the day. Honestly, my preferred strategy for stretching, I don't stretch a ton, but I do once in a while, I do it every few hours throughout the day. I'll go down into my garage and maybe hang from my pull bar, maybe sit in a squat for a little while, maybe [00:47:30] do some hip stretches like elevated pigeon or 90 nineties. I might do some couch stretching, especially if I'm sitting a lot throughout the day and my hip flexors are tight. So I like doing that. But also, if you feel good from stretching after a run, that's totally fine. I don't am not against stretching. I am mainly against how many people think it's this absolute make or break thing that you absolutely have to do or else you're screwed. It's not that it's going to make you more flexible.

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It might make you feel a little better, even [00:48:00] if it's not doing much, but you feel better. This kind of goes from for a lot of things. If you feel better after doing something and it's not something that's detrimental to your health, then there's nothing wrong with doing it because you feel better doing it. You perceive yourself to feel better. You may be perceived that it's helping, and even if it's placebo, it still can be beneficial. Now, there are certain things that feel good that you probably shouldn't do on a regular basis because they're just not really serving you long-term, but stretching would not be something like that. If you feel better from stretching, do it, and [00:48:30] if you like doing it after a run, you're totally fine, but just know that it's not going to be some crazy make or break thing that just opens new doors of potential fitness for you.

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Next question. I have an A FT for CST next month, CST. I dunno what that means, but either way, a FT next month, is it worth continuing jack L 3.0 or should I switch to an A FT program? Please, please, please do not switch to an A FT program, not just now, but ever training for the PT test. I've talked about [00:49:00] this a lot in the past, but to rehash it is not a good idea. The PT test or a FT or whatever your PT test may be is intended to, even though most people don't treat it this way, it is actually intended to assess your overall year round fitness maintenance or your fitness capacities, your overall year round training. Think of it like college. If you want to get the most out of your college education, would [00:49:30] you just cram for tests and only study for the test the day before, the night before, two days before, and maybe pull all-nighters, maybe get a good grade on the test, but you don't really retain any of that information?

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Or would you just study on a regular basis, maybe a little bit more before the test study, the things that you may need a little extra work on or study things that you maybe haven't studied yet but you need a little bit more work on going in? You would retain that information and you'd probably do just as well, if not better [00:50:00] on the test. Same with AFTs and other PT tests. If you train in a sound manner year round, which by the way, Jack is L three, like you said in the question, is a very sound manner to train for a tactical athlete year round. Then when the PT test comes as a byproduct, yes, you can maybe do a little extra work on certain things that you know, struggle with the PT test, like hand release pushups or something like that, but you're just going to be already prepared, always prepared to go and put up a solid score on the PT test.

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That [00:50:30] is the way you should look at your training as a tactical athlete in general, not specifically trained for this test, which includes five events but also does not include a lot of fitness capacities that would help you overall for your job versus train all of the fitness capacities that would help you for your job and when the test is approaching, maybe putting a little extra effort into certain things that you struggle at. That is by far the best way to go about it. Every single time I see [00:51:00] an A FT program or some other fitness test program. I die a little bit inside because it is absolutely retarded to train specifically for them. I would rather eat a bowl of broken glass with unlimited refills while watching paint dry on a wall than train for an A FT or something similar. So if you agree with that and you'd rather do the same thing than I would stick with JG three, and if you're getting close to the test and you know are lacking something, maybe a plank, there's not a lot of planks, if any, [00:51:30] inject L 3.0, but if you have something to brush up on the last couple of weeks going in, you can do a little extra work on that, but it should be very, very minimal.

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Next question. Can I use ruck run lift with minimal rucking to train for ultras? You could, but the speed work is, there's more speed work than you need in ruck run lift and it's not as appropriate for ultra-marathon specific speed work. It's mainly for two and five mile improvement, so it's faster than what you're going to need to do for your ultra, but [00:52:00] the running volume, I mean it depends on how long your ultra is. The running volume is probably enough for like a 50 K. It's also enough for you to go and finish an ultra, but maybe not do great on it, but you're going to get way better results on an actual ultra plan than you will on ruck run lift just because it's not really made for people to go and crush ultras. There's also a little bit more lifting than what I would consider necessary for Ultra Prep, but [00:52:30] if you have the program and you just want to do pretty well and finish it and not get injured, and it's not something like a hundred plus miles, maybe it's a 50 K or a 50 miler or a hundred K, maybe 62 ish miles, you might be all right.

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But again, even though I'd love to say yes, definitely follow my program, it's perfect for it. I can't actually say that with full integrity, but I will say it's probably going to be sufficient, just maybe not optimal. Next question, if you're willing to talk about it. Why did you wash out of OTC? [00:53:00] Yeah, so I've talked about it a few times in the past, but I'm not going to get super into the details other than the fact that I did not perform two standard mainly on CQB. The most common thing that gets guys dropped from OTC is CQB performance. They take it very, very seriously. They watch you like a hawk, especially if you're struggling, which most guys when they get dropped, they're struggling a little bit more before they get dropped. They get dropped warnings and if you get a drop warning, they put an extra instructor on you so you got two guys watching you [00:53:30] at the same time every single time you enter any room and do any sort of CQB exercise.

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So they highly scrutinize it, which they absolutely should because cags bread and butter, they're the best in the world at CQB, and if you're not keeping up to speed, then you don't deserve to be there. That is just how it is, and I was not keeping up to speed, so I got a drop warning probably about between half and two thirds of the way through and then was pretty good for five or [00:54:00] six weeks after that and then had a really bad day and that bad day, if you have bad days, you can have somewhat bad days and be okay, but if your bad day is on the heels of a drop warning, which mine was, or B, if it's just certain things that they're looking for and you can't do them, then unfortunately you're going to get the boot. So it had nothing to do with physical fitness.

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I was one of the top physical performers in my class. It had nothing to do with disciplinary things [00:54:30] or being a bad dude or anything like that, but it was purely my CQB performance pretty much, and when you don't perform to standard, you get dropped and that's how it should be. I blame absolutely nobody but myself for not performing the way I know I could have and the way I needed to. I was very, very upset and depressed about it for a long period of time, but at this point, honestly, I think it's more of a blessing in disguise because I [00:55:00] am almost positive I would not be sitting here talking on this episode or doing anything that I do right now. I'd still probably be in the military had it not happened, I'd probably still be serving with a unit because that was my all time number one goal.

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Don't get me wrong, maybe I would've hated it and gotten out, but I'm pretty sure I probably would've stayed in and when that didn't work out, that's when I started to shift gears and focus on something to do post Army, and that's exactly what I'm doing now. So thank you for asking. [00:55:30] Sorry for the vagueness, but that is just how I'll always be when I talk about anything regarding the unit. Next question, would you recommend easy runs with no GPS or heart rate monitor? Yeah, for certain people, if you're very, very caught up in trying to get this perfect heart rate or stay in this perfect zone, or if all you do is just look at your watch your entire time you run slow down, basically make all your decisions whether to speed up, slow down, stay the same on what your watch is telling you, [00:56:00] and you're just really not in tune whatsoever with your body.

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Then going without a heart rate strap or even just putting some tape over your watch or even just putting your watch over around your ankle so you know can look at the data afterwards and how far you went and so on and so forth is a good idea. Could you do it without a watch? Absolutely. If you have a pre-planned route, you know how long you're going or how far you're going, that's totally fine too, especially when you're early on in your training career. If you are running really high volume and you've been doing it for a really long time [00:56:30] and you're kind of pushing the limits of what you can recover from, then it's probably a better idea to have more objective intensity gauges like heart rate, but for a lot of people that's totally not necessary. However, if you are a lot better able to separate yourself from your watch, maybe you look at your watch for reference once in a while and maybe make some certain decisions based on what your watch is telling you, but for the most part, you're in tune with your body and you're making most of your decisions [00:57:00] based on how you're feeling, how you're breathing, how your legs are feeling, the terrain, the weather and so on.

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Then wearing watch is totally fine. Wearing heart rate monitor is totally fine, but for a lot of people it's totally unnecessary. And like I said, if you are the type of avatar that just is way, way, way too obsessed with your watch and what it's telling you and you make all your decisions based on it, which is honestly a lot, a lot of people, especially early on when they read all about these running zone two running and all these different strategies for how to [00:57:30] build a base, they just get way into the weeds. They major in the miners. Then going either no watch or just not looking at your watch somehow because you're using tape or putting it around your ankle is a really, really good idea. Next question, is it a good idea to use straps to manage fatigue while training for selection? Yes, it is a very good idea to use straps for non grip specific lifts.

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This is always a controversial take and it's always a point of contention, but when you break things down to first principles, which is what I try to do [00:58:00] with almost every, that every piece of advice that I give as well as every way I solve problems, it makes sense to wear straps for certain lifts in selection prep. So a lot of guys will say, if you can't grip it, you shouldn't lift it. In fact, I was just in a heated discussion on Reddit about this exact topic where someone chimed in and chimed in and said, if you can't hold onto a load, then it's too heavy for you. What that's really saying [00:58:30] is if your hands in forearms are not stronger than, let's say you're doing an RDL, so r DLS would be hamstrings, glutes, low back, mid-back, upper back. If your hands and forearms are not stronger than all those muscles combined, then you shouldn't lift that weight, which is asinine.

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Your entire posterior chain essentially should be stronger than your hands and forearms, which are the main muscles involved in your grip. [00:59:00] If they're not, it's oftentimes because when you train those muscles, like when you're doing hinges or other exercises that involve gripping something while you're actually targeting those muscles, you're selling them short because your grip is limiting you. So you might stop the rep or the set several reps shy of when those target muscles would fail because your grip is failing. And a lot of people will say, oh, my grip is so strong that it doesn't limit my lifts like that. What you're really saying is that your posterior [00:59:30] chain is so weak that your grip is stronger than your posterior chain. That is a problem, that's not a good thing. So wearing straps in that case would be a really good idea. Additionally, think about when you're training your grip, say you're doing carries or dead hangs, are you also trying to get really jacked quads and glutes and back and lats and so on, or are you trying to improve your grip?

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Probably you are focused mostly on your grip because you're going to train those other [01:00:00] muscles separately with lifts that are intended to grow those muscles or strengthen those muscles. The same thing applies in reverse when you're trying to get more jacked legs and glutes and hamstrings and lower back and mid back and upper back. Why try to also include the grip. Why try to also train the grip at the same time when you could train the grip separately with more effective exercises for grip while also not selling those muscles short. Additionally, when you're in [01:00:30] selection prep, you're going to be doing, hopefully if you're doing something quality that's actually going to prepare you for selection, mainly team week, you're going to be doing a lot of grip specific training, and when you never use straps, you basically are using your grip for almost every other lift.

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So let's say you have three days a week where you do actual grip work carries and whatnot. If you're also doing lifts throughout that training session that involve the grip and you're not using straps and grips, you are gripping things quite a bit and just like every other muscle [01:01:00] grip and system of the body needs to recover, so too does your grip. So by using grips or straps for exercises that are not intended to improve your grip but could if you don't use the straps, but also going back to the last part, you're selling other muscles short, would allow your grip to recover so that you can train it specifically and allow it to recover and actually make that progress instead of just gripping things day in and day out and day in and day out and potentially over [01:01:30] doing grip. It is harder to do overdo grip than it is for certain other exercises in muscle grips because most grip work is isometric.

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You're just holding onto something for a long period of time, something heavier, but it can be overdone, and when you overdo it, then you're not going to get the same type of stimulus and the same results and the same preparedness for selection because your grip is cooked and you didn't make the same progress you could have if you trained it separately and allowed it to recover while you're training your other muscle groups, which oh by the way, are also going to be [01:02:00] stronger, bigger, more effective, more functional because you did not allow grip to be your limiter for those. So I think that should give you a pretty good idea of why it's a high IQ move, not a low IQ move like a lot of people think it is, but a high IQ move to wear grips for non grip specific exercises. One exception would be pull-ups because you're not going to be able to wear grips at selection for pull-ups, probably not wearing grips for your pull-up work.

(01:02:27):

You can do it for certain weighted pullup [01:02:30] exercises, but make sure you're doing a decent amount of pull-ups and chin-ups without grips. Most people honestly are not limited by their grip strength on their pull-ups. Usually they can hang onto the bar longer than they'd be able to actually do the set before their musculature fails, their lats, their arms, et cetera. Not always the case. If that is the case, you might need to strengthen your grip a little more, but for the most part, if you're doing split squats or lunges with dumbbells or R DLS or heavy rows [01:03:00] or really anything like that, wearing grips and straps is a really good idea and I will continue to fight this because a lot of people are still going to disagree even though I explain things very, very in depth, most people who say don't use grips, have no business, they have no ability to explain why.

(01:03:17):

Usually it's because they heard someone once say it or they think, oh, I need a stronger grip, so I'm just going to use grip for everything and they just don't think about second and third order effects and I make my living off thinking of second and third order effects. And if you're going into [01:03:30] sf, by the way, you're going to have to think of second and third order effects in pretty much everything, not just training, ideally not with training because hopefully someone else is doing your programming throughout most of your career unless you're qualified to do it, but for certain things on the job. Second and third, order effects are massive and getting used to thinking of them, which I kind of just went over a good solid example of it would be a really good idea. Alright, let's just answer a couple more in a more rapid [01:04:00] fire manner.

(01:04:02):

Next question, mindset for injuries that sideline all training for extended periods. So first off, I would make sure that your injury is actually sidelining you from all training. A lot of people think because they injure something they can't train at all and in almost every case they can train something. So if you have a spinal injury or you got a TBI or something, then yes, if your doctor says, don't train, don't train. If you can't move, [01:04:30] you're completely immobile, don't train. However, even if you have a serious upper body injury, you could probably do leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises. If you have a serious low body lower body injury, you can probably do pushups, pull-ups, presses, even if it's on a machine, even if you're very stabilized in a machine because you can't stand up or whatever, you can do something even if you have most of your body injured, you can probably squeeze a gripper, you can probably do some mobility drills, you can probably grab [01:05:00] a cable machine and do something.

(01:05:02):

So I would ensure that you actually can't do anything first of all, and if you can do something, because even if you have a serious injury, but there's certain parts of your body that can still be trained on certain equipment, actually doing that is a really good idea because it's going to make it so that the parts of your body that are injured are still getting a little bit of a stimulus even though it doesn't seem like it, your nervous system kind of crosses over and gives that part of the body a little stimulus. So it's going to get less weak and less small. [01:05:30] It's going to atrophy less while it's injured, then that it is a really good idea. But as far as mindset beyond that, I mean try and focus on things that you can improve while you're injured. So can you increase your knowledge base?

(01:05:43):

Can you become a better communicator? Can you learn a new skill? Can you start working on a project that challenges you but is going to give you some sort of good result or fulfillment at the end? This is a rhetorical question because yes, absolutely you can. So even though you can't [01:06:00] do exactly what you want training wise, you can still find things in your life that you can challenge yourself with and improve and feel fulfilled about and feel motivated about and see the fruits of your labor about. So getting a little bit of training in if at all possible and then focusing on things that you don't need to be physically robust for would be a really good thing instead of just sulking and feeling bad for yourself, feeling bad for yourself has never solved anyone's problem ever. It's not going to make anything better.

(01:06:29):

It's [01:06:30] only going to make things worse. There's always something you can do action wise that will improve your situation even if it's not training exactly the way you want to train because you're injured. Next question on Jackies L three. Should I stick to flatland for my rux or should I go hit up some trails in the hills? The ladder? Most likely, if you are training for any sort of selection that involves any sort of rolling hill terrain or off terrain stuff, like if your selection that you're going to has land nav in it then, or honestly, [01:07:00] if you're not training for selection but you want to do some rucking, I would stick to walking only, but you want a little better scenery and a little more challenge and a little bit less monotony going up, going down is a great way to just give yourself extra challenge.

(01:07:12):

And if you are training for something that's going to take place in that terrain, you want to be actually used to it. You want to train in it. So even if you have to drive a little bit extra, maybe not every single time you ruck, but at least maybe twice a month, maybe three times a month, you drive an hour to go to a better area to do your R training. That [01:07:30] would be a really, really good idea. If you are training for something like the Long Walk, most if not all of your rucking should be at minimum in rolling hills. Sometimes it should be off to terrain because that is literally the entirety of that selection. You're going to be in undulating pretty arduous terrain. So I would strongly recommend doing this. A periodic flat ruck, no big deal. But if you are going to need to ruck on any sort of non flat terrain in the future, then training on that terrain would [01:08:00] be a good idea.

(01:08:01):

Next question. Is it worth cutting at 18% body fat? If I can run a sub 35 minute, five mile, relatively easy for SAS, yes, I think it absolutely is 18%. You're not crazy fat, but you could be leaner and you'd be healthier, you'd feel better, you'd be less inflamed, you'd have better insulin sensitivity, you would be able to run even faster pretty easily, 34 minutes, 33 minutes assuming you get there in a reasonable manner. You don't crash diet or anything crazy like that. And [01:08:30] overall you would just be put yourself in a better scenario performance wise, health wise, looking the part wise, again, 18 percent's not crazy fat, but you'll look more imposing. You'll look more like you care for yourself in the kitchen. You're more squared away, you're more disciplined overall. If you get a little leaner down in that 12, 13, 14% range would be a pretty solid target to shoot for.

(01:08:54):

Now, if you're really close to SFAS and you're going within the next, well, actually [01:09:00] there is no way you'd be close to SAS because the next class is August 28th I believe, but which means you have a little bit of time to get a little leaner. I wouldn't go crazy with it, just really, really reasonable. Try and drop a couple percent body fat percentages over time. But if you're really close, if you're listening to this and you have selection coming up, maybe you're listening to this episode way after it comes out and you're 18% and you're within six weeks or four weeks, generally kind of holding what you got is probably a better idea going into a cut as [01:09:30] you go into selection, not the best call, but if you have more time, which if you're listening to this when it comes out, you do have more time, then getting leaner for you would just be in every sense a good idea.

(01:09:42):

So just because you can hit physical standards at a certain body fat percentage does not mean there are not other potential negative effects or things that you're missing out on or potentially missing out on by being leaner. And in this case, it's all those things I listed at the beginning, health, insulin sensitivity, [01:10:00] performance, wellbeing, inflammation, and of course looking the part which a lot of people will say, looking, the parts not that important. The only people who ever say that are people who don't have themselves together enough to ensure that they look the part. So just remember that next question. Is your self-development guide from the new SFAS plan available standalone, or do you have any plans for that? Yes, I am going to make that available standalone. It is not going to happen right this [01:10:30] second or super soon, but it will happen eventually.

(01:10:32):

Basically, I need to make it a little less SFAS specific, so I have to change certain parts of it that are more applicable to people who have that plus the program and are going to SFAS. But that can absolutely help really anyone, whether you're prepping for selection or not, it's just going to make you a better developed individual. It's going to increase your overall success potential. It's going to increase your wellbeing, your day-to-day wellbeing, your mental health, your performance, [01:11:00] and day-to-day life. So it is definitely a very valuable thing and I honestly should charge more for that program plus the guide than I do. But that's what we got right now. And yes, that will be out probably sometime before the end of summer. So appreciate your interest and stay tuned for it. Alright, one more question. I am in a calorie deficit. Should I eat back my workout calories or stick to my calorie target?

(01:11:27):

I would not concern yourself [01:11:30] with calories burned working out because it's never going to be accurate. Whether you're using your watch or you're using a cardio machine or you're using some kind of calculator online like you burn this many calories per hour from doing this type of training for this long and so on, don't listen to that stuff because it's just going to be way off and it's way more things than you need to think about. Instead, I would just eat what your deficit is. So if your maintenance, I'm assuming you've calculated your maintenance by eating around maintenance for a while or eating [01:12:00] normally and tracking and seeing what your body weight does and determining that as your maintenance. You can use online calculators for determining your calorie maintenance, but they're not always perfect and they definitely should be checked with a 10 day trial period where you eat that many calories, you weigh yourself, you make sure it's actually accurate, and then you adjust from there.

(01:12:17):

But I'm assuming you've already determined your maintenance and eating in whatever your desired calorie deficit is, whether it's 300 calories per day or 500 calories per day, and just continuing to do that consistently. You can [01:12:30] cycle calories up or down if you want, but for the most part, if you're not very experienced with tracking, I would just eat around the same each day and that will put you in a calories deficit. You won't have to worry about, oh, I burned this many calories today, so I need to eat them back versus I didn't burn this many calories that day. Don't need to eat them back. Over time, it kind of evens itself out. So even if one day you burn more calories and you're in a bigger deficit, let's say the next day is an easier day and you eat around the same amount, you're just in less of a deficit, more reasonable [01:13:00] of a deficit.

(01:13:00):

And over time that kind of evens itself out. Now, if you're losing weight really, really rapidly or if your performance is going to shit, or if you're feeling all these different side effects of being in too extreme of a deficit, then your deficit's probably too extreme. I still wouldn't base it on your calories burned, but I would just increase your overall calorie intake on a regular basis. So you're still in a deficit, you're still losing fat, but you're not in too much of a deficit where you're potentially losing muscle, really screwing your performance up, messing up your hormones, [01:13:30] potentially just not having a good time, day-to-day life and super hungry all the time and so on. So that is the way I would do it. I would not ever really get into the weeds with trying to eat back calories. That's just a losing strategy. So that's it guys. Thank you very much for listening. A little bit of a longer episode today, but hope you guys got some good stuff out of that. And as always, I'll be back soon with another episode. Till then, Terminator out.