229 - Q&A: SFAS Comebacks, Training Through Injury, Performance Plateaus, 18D + More

[00:00:01] Kevin Smith: Hello, I am Kevin Smith, and you have found the Terminator Training Show, your one-stop shop for no BS training, nutrition, and health information. For more, please go to Terminatortraining.com. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy the show. What's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I am Kevin Smith. Today is going to be a QA from this week's Instagram Ask Me Anything, where I go through and answer some of the questions that I got from my IG followers and hopefully give you guys some good solid information that you can take and apply to your lives to become a better athlete, a more fit individual, better soldier, better husband, better person, better golfer, maybe. I don't think I got any golf questions this week, which is uncommon. But anyway, yeah, I am on a minor time crunch just because my dad is actually coming into town this afternoon to visit my or to visit us and meet his grandson for the first time.

[00:00:58] Kevin Smith: So we're super pumped about that. The usually my dad comes down, we play a bunch of golf. But of course, I haven't had a grandson or I haven't had a son. He hasn't had a grandson before in past trips, so it's not just a golf trip, but we will be playing some golf too. So I am trying today's Sunday, I'm trying to get as much work on like that I would normally get done on Monday and Tuesday done today so that I can play golf guild-free. But anyway, we're gonna hop into some questions today. No real big announcements, so let's hop into the first question. I'm an incoming LT lieutenant. How would you recommend I schedule PT for my unit Monday through Friday? This is awesome that you're actually outsourcing this because honestly, most army leadership they think they're good enough at programming to just do it themselves, or they just don't have the humility to outsource it.

[00:01:55] Kevin Smith: And the fact is, if you go to a military installation between the hours of 6 30 and 8 a.m., you will quickly learn, and you know anything about fitness. You will click quickly learn, even if you don't know much about fitness, you can probably see it, but you'll learn that it is a complete nightmare shit show. Most military group PT is horrendous. So that's not to say that it's like super easy, sometimes it's a little bit impractical, and there's only so many things you can do that are actually fruitful, even though most people try and do a bunch of things that they think are fruitful but really aren't. So, what I would do is a couple things. One, I would focus on conditioning. Most guys are gonna do their lifting on their own. Most guys who are like serious about training, if you gave them the option, like, hey, if you're gonna do training on your own, would it be well-programmed conditioning or would it be solid lifting?

[00:02:48] Kevin Smith: Maybe their lifting may not be well-programmed, but but would it be like consistent lifting? Most guys are gonna choose lifting. So if you're trying to work strength training into group PT, you're gonna mess some guys up as far as like what they do on a regular basis for training, so that's gonna limit their progress and whatnot. But also it's just impractical because trying to go to an installation gym at PT hours, it's just a complete like it's it's a feeding frenzy. There's so many people there, and oftentimes it's like one squad on a lap pull-down, and there's nine guys, and one guy does his set, the other eight dudes just wait till they're set. So you're doing your set and then you're waiting for eight guys to do their set.

[00:03:34] Kevin Smith: It's just really half-assed, it's really non-fruitful. So, for those reasons, I would mostly focus on conditioning, also like running, rucking, etc. You don't need any equipment, which is very practical. And most people just either aren't gonna do it or they're just gonna do it really, really poorly. And so, beyond that, I would split your guys up into ability groups. If you can do a big AFT or ACFT or whatever fitness test they're gonna have by the time you get there, and split them up by score. How you do that, it's kind of on you. But what I would do is guys who like max the test, if this is an option, let them do their own training because clearly they are disciplined enough to keep themselves in check to max fitness tests.

[00:04:19] Kevin Smith: That doesn't mean they're like fit across the board, the AFT, really no army fitness test, covers everything, but at least they are they take their job seriously enough to do that. But what beyond that, I would do like two or three different ability groups. So you have like the really out-of-shape dudes that need a lot of base style work, then you have the middle dudes that maybe need a little mostly base stuff, but a little bit maybe speed work and like basic, basic speed work or threshold work, and then you have the more advanced guys that can probably do a little bit more speed work, threshold work. They don't have to do like super easy, basic base building running, and then train accordingly. So typically, let's say you're talking about like the advanced group. I would start with like mostly intense stuff early week when guys are more fresh, and the less intense stuff later in the week when guys are a little bit more fatigued from the week, as well as doing the more intense stuff, lower volume stuff at the beginning of the week.

[00:05:15] Kevin Smith: That being said, a lot of guys in the military, like regular army, their weekends, they don't really treat themselves all that nicely. They go out and party, they eat shit, they stay up late, they don't really do recuperative stuff on the weekends, so they might not be like fresh. They might be fresh because they haven't worked out, but they're not gonna be like super prepared to train. So maybe like move that to Tuesday, maybe do something more easy on on Monday. A lot of people will kind of set up a super hard, crazy workout on Monday just to like punish people. That is not very smart. Guys are gonna do what they're gonna do, and punishing them by putting them through a ridiculously hard workout is just gonna make them less fit and also put them at injury risk. And you just gotta you just gotta accept the fact that guys are not gonna do the right things over the weekend.

[00:06:00] Kevin Smith: That's just how it is. So, what I would do is do something easy on Monday, do some harder stuff on Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe do like some sort of cross or like maybe like uh strongman style training where you're doing like sled work, carries, things like that. And then towards the end of the week, for the fitter dudes, maybe you have like threshold runs or threshold intervals, maybe do some hill repeats, and then maybe a long run on Friday. Maybe the long run everyone joins in on it, but you're split into ability groups. So one group might go 11, 12 minute miles, one group might go nine, 10 minute miles, one group might go eight, nine minute miles. I don't know how fit these guys are, but just for examples, and then have guys do their lifting and their stuff like that on their own.

[00:06:46] Kevin Smith: And then one other thing you consider, can consider is occasionally, whether it's bi-weekly or once a month, whatever have you, do some sort of like team cohesion event. Even if it's kind of a smoke session, it's like okay to do that once in a while, even if you're not like chasing progression. Maybe you're doing a bunch of litter carries, maybe you got like tires or sandbags or sleds, and you can come up with some sort of team building style PT that the whole team does or the whole platoon does, or maybe you break it down into squads, whatever have you. Not that you're gonna like make a lot, you're gonna not gonna move the fitness needle per se, doing that, but you are gonna build culture and cohesion, and you're gonna give some guys the opportunity to practice their leadership skills and things like that.

[00:07:39] Kevin Smith: And sometimes suffering with a team is totally worth the fact that it's not very fitness friendly. So that's what I would do. I mean, that's definitely an overview, and it's not super detailed, but I would have to make like a whole episode to get really down in the details. But that's a good start, and again, good on you for actually thinking about it. Next question Best tips for eating out on date night with a wife and staying locked in. Yeah, so really the first choice, the first thing that comes down to is choosing the right restaurant to go to. I wasn't wouldn't choose like a fast food place or a place that just serves like burgers and fried food and whatnot. I would choose a place that has good solid cuts of meat and decently healthy options. And then go with something like before you eat, maybe uh salad with grilled chicken or salmon or shrimp or something like that.

[00:08:27] Kevin Smith: You have vegetables, you get lean protein, and then have a lean meat, some starch. Ideally, when you order the starch, get it as plain as possible. So when there's let's say there's two options. One is mashed potatoes with a bunch of mystery stuff, probably butter and other stuff that they put in it, or like a baked potato, plain baked potato. Maybe you can get some other things to add on on the side. I would go with the baked potato. And then usually they have like seasonal vegetables that they put in with it, or you can choose your vegetables, and you're good to go. That's what I do. I usually get the dinner-sized salad with grilled chicken on it, and I get another dinner with usually some steak, whether it's a fillet or a leaner cut, some sort of leaner cut of red meat.

[00:09:12] Kevin Smith: Usually I guess we go to places that have good steak, and yeah, it's more expensive, but also it's we don't do this multiple nights a week, and I would much rather feel good and nourish my body for the most part than pay for a cheap burger because I can make a better burger at my own house that is way healthier as well. So that's what I do. It's pretty simple. You know, if you're doing this just once in a while and it's a special occasion, then nothing wrong with eating whatever you want and just being dialed in elsewhere, that's fine too. But if it's like a regular thing and you, like you said in the question, want to stay dialed in, then choose the right restaurant, eat the right foods. I mean, just accept the fact that they're gonna probably cook in some stuff, like there they might add extra butter and other seasoning, you don't know exactly what it is.

[00:10:00] Kevin Smith: They might cook it in mystery oils and way too much of it. But I mean, that's just a trade-off. You're gonna have to accept you could get really, really ridiculous with it and be like, no, just cook it plain, but that not at all restaurants are gonna comply with that, and you never know what they're doing back there. So I would just accept the fact that it's not perfect, but it definitely is way better than just getting fish and chips or chicken nuggets or a fried chicken sandwich or something like that. What's up, guys? Real quick break in the action before we get back to the show. There's this really, really trite quote: fail to prepare, prepare to fail. And guess what? Quotes don't become trite accidentally. They become trite because they are actually true. Almost everyone experiences it, and so it becomes a quote.

[00:10:46] Kevin Smith: And this quote is applicable to nutrition more so than almost any other aspect of life. Those who prepare their meals ahead of time will see more success, regardless of what their goals. Honestly, any successful nutrition intervention I've ever been a part of, whether it's coaching, my own, or people I know, have had some sort of planning or preparation involved. And although you can absolutely do your own meal prep, let's be honest, most people either do it for short periods of time and then they fall off for several months, and it's on and off like this roller coaster, and therefore they fail half the time. That's not a very good percentage, or most people just don't have the time or the bandwidth or the gumption to do their own meal prep every week. And that is where a meal prep delivery service comes in.

[00:11:34] Kevin Smith: And I have tried dozens of them, and absolutely nothing touches Mega Fit. It is hands down the best I've ever tried as far as macros are concerned, and as far as taste is concerned. Me, I prefer to get some of the meals custom made. You can actually go in and choose the meat, the produce, the starch, and the macros that you want. They also have pre-made meals that are also delicious, and the macros are fantastic for performance, body composition, and just overall vigor and well-being. I usually eat five, six, seven of these per week, and they make my life very, very simple and low stress. I typically like to cook them on the stovetop with a little bit of bone broth, let them simmer for a little while, but they also work great in the microwave.

[00:12:21] Kevin Smith: And I've got a discount code for you if you want to try it. You can either go to the description and click the link for MegaFit, you'll get 10% off, or you can go to their website, megafit.com, type in the code TTM at checkout for that 10% off. Alright, guys, back to the show. Next question Best low impact slash mobility cardio for keeping run and ruck base LCL injury. So, I don't know what mobility cardio is. If someone wants to drop in the comments what mobility cardio might be, then I'm all for it. But we'll just talk low impact cardio. I would not right now worry too much about the thing that's going to carry over most to running and rucking. I would worry about what or or I'd choose cardio based on what is not painful for your LCL injury.

[00:13:08] Kevin Smith: So, I mean, technically things like doing a high RPM erg bike or spin bike or something like that, or an elliptical would be, I guess, the most like running or incline walking, something like that, because you're on your feet. But can you do those things? I don't know. If you can, great, do them. But if you can't, like let's say you can only do ski erg and swimming, then do ski erg and swimming. It's not like you're gonna have that big of a difference when you get back to being able to run between whether you did something that sort of resembles running or doesn't really resemble running. If you were an elite runner or you had a different injury that wasn't knee related, but you could do really any form of low or non-impact cardio, that'd be one thing.

[00:13:53] Kevin Smith: But I would just choose based on what you're capable of doing. And then the good thing about this is you're gonna build that aerobic base. So when you get back into where you can run, you won't have to also build your aerobic base. You'll just have to get used to the skill of running, it'll be a little foreign to you, and you'll have to develop that tissue tolerance for repetitive impact when you're going out running. But you're in a much better situation than if you just didn't do any cardio, like a lot of people do when they get injured. Good on you, by the way, for actually still training when you're injured. A lot of people get injured and they don't train at all, which is insane. So if you were to not do that, you'd have to build your aerobic base plus all of the other components of a running base, and that would just take longer and be a much more, it would require a lot more meticulousness than just having to build the running skill and the running tissue tolerance.

[00:14:45] Kevin Smith: Next question: Do you have a field notebook that is separate from training log for daily thoughts and reflection? Yeah, I have lots and lots of notebooks. I don't go to the field anymore, so I don't have a field notebook, but I have, let's see, I have a notebook that I use for planning. I have a notebook that I use for client notes. I have a notebook next to my bed that I use for thoughts, like if I'm if I have anxiety at nighttime or if my thoughts are racing and I think it's gonna interfere with my sleep, or if I wake up at nighttime and I just start thinking about random shit and I'm struggling to go back to sleep, then I write whatever I'm thinking about down in that notebook. Even though usually it's really stupid stuff, still getting it out of my head on paper actually really does help. I have an end-of-day recap notebook.

[00:15:31] Kevin Smith: I've got a lot of different notebooks. I honestly don't train, I don't keep my training log in a notebook anymore. Just I if I had like really, really specific strength goals or running performance goals or conditioning goals, then I would. But right now I'm just like trying to get Jackson strong, and I've been doing this for so long. And every single week my strength's gonna fluctuate a little bit. I go off my coach's program, but normally I don't even plug numbers in there. I just kind of know what I did last week and go in with low expectations. If I'm a little stronger this week or I can do more reps, great. If not, no big deal. I just kind of like a part of life. For most people, if you have like legit fitness schools, definitely keeping a training notebook is a good idea. But yeah, I have a ton of notebooks. I do not have a field notebook because I do not go into the field anymore.

[00:16:19] Kevin Smith: Thank God I am past that stage. Not that going to the field always sucks, and there's cool parts to it, but I am totally happy that I get to sleep in my own bed every night or if I'm traveling in a hotel room or an Airbnb. Next question: What are your tips for going back to SFS after failing once for a non-fitness standard? Land nav. Well, I would for sure ensure that you do the necessary land nav prep while you're prepping for selection. So you go back and you're very confident in your skills. So whether that is joining an orienteering club or doing it on your own, this would be one case where because you have some experience with it, you went the first time, even though you didn't pass, you at least have done it before and you know generally what you're doing. This would be a decent case where like going on your own and just refining your skills would be fine, as long as you like let someone know where you're going and you don't get lost and things like that.

[00:17:11] Kevin Smith: But Orienteering Club, you could consider TFudu's land nav muster. You could do something like going down if you're in the military. I'm guessing you are in the military if you're going back. So you could go down to 5th RTB down in Delawanega, Georgia, and they have a really, really good land nav course down there. It's definitely overkill for Hoffman, but if you can land nav down there, you can definitely land nav at Hoffman, and you would go back to selection feeling extra extra confident. The best way to do that would be to go on Google and type in fifth RTB staff duty, and it should bring you like one of the first links should bring you to a page that has their number, and you call that number and you go. So those are your best options for land nav specific. But additionally, I would also consider the fact that it's a good idea to show the cadre that you are improved across the board.

[00:18:05] Kevin Smith: Not just you can pass land nav now, but also it would be a good idea to make sure that you're better at running and better at rucking. You don't have to be like way better, but of course you were good enough last time to get through gate week, so that's great. But you don't want to just focus on land nav and you're worse at running and worse at rucking, but you pass land nav, that's not a really good look. So ideally, you get a little better at those things. Hopefully, you have some time to train and you have better performances, O course, CRA, etc. You didn't do team week last week, last time, so I would ensure that you are working on your communication skills, you got strong character, you're doing some things that build fortitude throughout the day. You are maybe practicing your knots, maybe practicing certain skills like engineering skills. I mean, that's a little bit overkill, you don't really need to do that, especially if you're a physical stud or you're just a really good leader, you're charismatic, whatever have you, but at least knowing your knots would be a good idea.

[00:18:59] Kevin Smith: And then you go back and you crush it. That is honestly pretty simple stuff. Just make sure you're good at the thing that failed you last time, as well as the other things, and you should be totally fine. Next question: why don't your programs have a lot of circuits? I feel like they're crucial for the tactical athlete. Okay, so circuit training, there's a lot of misconceptions around circuit training. Because circuit training, aka cardio with weights, aka lift editioning, I call it lift editioning, lifting, combined with conditioning, you would think that combining them would be a really, really efficient way to train them. Where in reality it is you're dampening the response for for both. So you're getting less of a cardio stimulus than you would from doing cardio solo, and less of a strength/slash muscle building stimulus than you would do from doing those things than you would get from doing those things solo.

[00:19:53] Kevin Smith: So even though it sounds like the best of both worlds, it's a worse of both worlds. It's a slightly dampens to a lot dampened stimulus from both worlds worlds. These are like two opposing ends of the spectrum as far as adaptations. Generally speaking, the more things you're trying to improve at the exact same time, like you're not compartmentalizing them, you can to be clear, you can train conditioning and lifting and power and speed, etc., all at the same time, like in the same block, but in the exact same session, the more things you're trying to adapt to, the worse adaptations you're gonna make across the board. It's gonna dampen all of them. So ideally, you train these separately. The people who are the best hybrid athletes, for example, which generally speaking, if you're a tactical athlete, you want to be a really good hybrid athlete.

[00:20:44] Kevin Smith: You want to be pretty darn good, not great, but pretty good at endurance. You want to be strong, you want to be muscular, you want to be mobile, you want to be agile, you want to be powerful, and so on. And the people who are the best at all those things, they train them separately. Even if it's in the same training block, maybe even in the same training session, but not like all at one time. So, for example, if I wanted to get really good at cardio or some sort of conditioning modality, and I also wanted to get strong, and I was doing those on the same day, I would either do a lifting workout, then conditioning, or I would split them up into two sessions. Or in some cases, if I'm doing something easy conditioning-wise, I might do it before lifting, but usually I don't prefer doing that.

[00:21:30] Kevin Smith: Or you separate them on different days. Now there's a time and place for things like strongman work where you're doing things like sleds and sandbag work and maybe some carries, kettlebell carries, and whatnot, or some short duration Metcons that are very, very intentional, that ideally don't involve super high skill movements that are really, really short. If they're really intense, they should be really short. If they're a little less intense, they can be a little bit longer, but they shouldn't be like crazy, like 90-minute AMRAPs or anything like that. But circumstances. Training typically is stuff like you do a really light set of calisthenics, and then you might do some burpees, and then you might do another light set of like I don't know, lunges with overhead press with dumbbells, and then you might do some mountain climbers and so on and so forth.

[00:22:18] Kevin Smith: You're just going thing to thing to thing. You're not really giving your body enough of a strength stimulus to get stronger, enough of a hypertrophy stimulus to get more muscular, or really enough of a conditioning stimulus to get all that much conditioning. Is it better than nothing if you are like deciding between sitting on the couch and doing circuit training? Yes, it absolutely is. But it is definitely not the best way to train if you want to become as robust as you possibly can. Tactically, not even close, and I make programs. To answer your question, I make programs so people can become as robust as they can, tactically and physically. So that's why I don't have a lot of circuits. Next question: Will the new hypertrophy program include jumps and other explosive work? Yes, but I mean not a whole lot.

[00:23:03] Kevin Smith: It is a mainly hypertrophy program, but it's gonna include some things that I think that most people, regardless of their goals, even if they're trying to just get jacked, should do year-round. So it's gonna have some cardio, like very, very minimal cardio, just to maintain health and the ability to recover in support of hypertrophy training. It's not gonna be a hybrid program by any means. And then it's also going to have on some of the training days, at the beginning of the workout, it'll have some jumps, throws, swings, etc. Because that stuff's really easy to implement and plug in, and it's just a really important trait to maintain, and that is one fitness capacity that detrains very, very quickly. It is the fastest speed and power, the fastest things do detrain. But they're also really easy to maintain. If you do a few sets of jumps and a few sets of throws or whatever have you, every week, you're usually gonna be good.

[00:23:54] Kevin Smith: For the most part, I'll have two sessions per week that have one jump and one swing, or one throw and one swing, or one throw and one jump, something like that. Very, very simple stuff, not very time consuming, not very complex, but enough to maintain and get the adaptation that you're looking for. Next question: how would you say Ranger School makes you a more well-rounded professional? There are a few different components that I would say apply to being a more well-rounded professional, but the main one is the ability to lead guys that do not want to do what you want them to do. So you're gonna be in really, really shitty conditions. And typically, let's say you're leading a mission in real life, typically, guys are gonna be pretty well fed, pretty well arrested, they're gonna be very motivated to go and do the mission because it's a real thing, and their lives are probably at stake, or there's some like really, really serious thing in the balance.

[00:24:54] Kevin Smith: And so guys are gonna be very motivated, they're gonna want to follow you. At Ranger School, because everyone knows it's not real, but it is training, and also you are sleep deprived, you're food deprived, you are just physically exhausted, you're a shell of yourself. Nobody who's not in leadership wants to be there. They have no motivation to like, for the most part, I mean the good dudes, the really, really studly dudes are like motivated to help the guys out that are in leadership. But most guys are just like trying to get by. They're trying to get through the rest of the day and then get through tomorrow. And if you can lead men to accomplish a mission and get a go on a mission in those conditions, you can lead men in any condition. And it also teaches you a lot about yourself, how you deal with food deprivation, sleep deprivation, uh being super fatigued all the time, your decision-making ability in those conditions, your attitude, your tendency to maybe snap at people or lash out or lose your cool, things like that, things that are really good to know about yourself, just in case at some point in your career you're in a situation like that.

[00:26:03] Kevin Smith: But even if you're not, I mean, for most people that go to ranger school, you're not gonna be in that situation at some point in your career. But still, it's teaching a lot about yourself and your overall ability to endure difficult times and things that you don't want to do, but you just do them anyway. There's a lot more to it, but those are probably the main things. You're just becoming a much stronger version of yourself. You're becoming more self-aware of how you react in shitty situations, and you're getting really, really good at leading people in the worst possible conditions. And if you can do that, you can definitely do that in really, really favorable conditions when everyone is on your side and everyone's fucking ready to go and crush. Guys, a little break in the action to tell you about Pride Foods, Rice and Grimes, and Stacks. If you have been listening to the show for a while, you guys know my stance on carbs and the fact that most people with extreme performance goals or body composition goals eat nowhere near the amount of carbs they should be eating.

[00:27:01] Kevin Smith: And one of the easiest, most simple, most delicious ways I have found to get more carbs in is rice and grinds as well as Stax, which are the two main products that Pride Foods creates. Rice and grinds is a fantastic oatmeal alternative. It's a cream of rice, but it tastes exponentially better and digests way easier than the cream of rice you're gonna see at any grocery store. The Stax pancakes are fantastic as well. They are yam-based, and the only macro in these products is carbohydrates. So I eat these things for breakfast. I eat them around training, oftentimes in the evening after dinner when I've already had all of my other macros and all I have left is carbs.

[00:27:49] Kevin Smith: I can't have any more protein or fat. I'll throw a bowl of rice and grinds on top of some frozen berries, mix it up, it thaws out the berries, and the berries cool it off so you can eat it instantly, and it is fantastic. So if you need to up your carb game, check out the link in the description. You can get 10% off. Try any flavor you like. My top flavors are chocolate brownie and brown sugar cinnamon, but all the flavors are honestly pretty damn delicious. Or you can go to pridefoods.org and type in the code TTM for 10% off. Alright, guys, back to the show. Next question: pros and cons to adjusting running workouts slash zone two to impact free options, bike slash row while injured. So assuming you have a injury to your lower body that is making it so you can't run, there wouldn't really be any cons to this.

[00:28:42] Kevin Smith: It would be a very good idea across the board. I guess the only con would be like if you have an upper body injury and you're doing this for no for some reason. But if you're running and you have an injury that gets worse when you run, or maybe it was caused by running and it gets worse when you run, whether it was caused by running or not, I guess, if you can't run and you decide to do something like this, the pros are almost like all the pros. Like you're still getting aerobic benefits, you're not further injuring yourself, you're not lengthening the timeline it's gonna take for you to recover from your injury, and so it's a really, really good idea across the board. There really aren't any cons. A lot of people, I I chose this question because a lot of people think that, like, oh, like, is there some way I can circumvent the fact that I should not run?

[00:29:32] Kevin Smith: Like, am I doing a bad thing because I'm choosing to do non-impact conditioning even though I can't run? Is there a way that I can like still somehow be good at running and maintain my running even though I can't run? Blah blah blah. It sounds insane, but like it's a real thought process that a lot of guys go through, especially with shin splints. It's a very, very common thing. Hey, I have shin splints and they keep getting worse every time I run, and I've been continuing to run on them for weeks, however many weeks, and they keep getting worse. Can I somehow continue to run and get better at running without worsening my shin splints and having them, oh by the way, go away, despite not doing anything different. No, you can't. Like, I'm sorry, you can't. The sooner you stop running, when you start developing shin splints and do some cross-training, the shorter it's going to be until you can get back to running, and also the sooner you're gonna get to your running goals.

[00:30:27] Kevin Smith: Even if it doesn't seem it that way, because you're gonna have to stop running for a little while, that is still your best bet. And it's hard to wrap your brain around when you're actually in it, but it's a real thing. So I have no idea what the injury is this question asker has, but it's always a good idea if you have uh injury to your lower body that's limiting your running, and it gets worse when you run and you want it to get better, it's always a good idea to stop running, and it's also a very good idea to not do anything, to not not do anything and actually do some cross-training. So that's I guess pros and cons. Next question: when following a program, is it normal to regress on certain fitness metrics midway? It can be, but it also can be a sign that you're just overdoing anything, everything.

[00:31:14] Kevin Smith: So there's something called functional overreaching or intentional overreaching, where you are pushing yourself really, really hard. Ideally, you're doing this under the watchful eye of an experienced coach, or you have a program and you're doing the right things outside of training to actually recover from that program. Maybe your program is like a selection prep program, it's very performance biased. And towards the end of like a training block, you might find that your fatigue and your fitness levels are kind of similar. So because you're so fatigued, you're not able to actually display what you're capable of fitness-wise. So if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll be able to see my hands. But basically, your fatigue and your fit every time you train, you give yourself a stimulus, but you also accrue fatigue.

[00:32:05] Kevin Smith: So there's going to be fatigue along with stimulus. And when you're training really, really hard and like pushing the limits of what you're able to recover from, sometimes that fatigue might be a little bit ahead or a little bit higher than your fitness, the fitness that you'd be able to display at that time. And it's okay to be there for a period of time, a week, two weeks, maybe three weeks, just depending on the situation. But eventually you're gonna want to get to a point where you either deload or you taper or you significantly dial things back, or maybe you take several days off and you allow that fatigue to subside or unmask the fitness that you're capable of displaying. And when you do that, your fitness isn't gonna go away that quack that quickly. Your fatigue subsides pretty quickly when you do the right things.

[00:32:52] Kevin Smith: And so even if let's say last week you were still capable, let's say you're capable of running a 1232 mile in good conditions, but right now you're really fatigued. So if you went to run a 1232 mile today, because your fatigue is masking that ability, you wouldn't be able to do it. You might run a 1245 or a 1250 or something like that. But if you gave yourself a nice week of deloading or tapering to allow your fatigue to go away and, so to speak, unmask your fitness, you'd still be capable of running that to 1230, and you'd also be able to go do it and show it because you don't have the fatigue masking it. So that is just one example of just running. This can happen with strength as well, depending on what you're doing, but generally, it's usually not a great idea to push it with strength just because strength you want to train generally sub-maximal anyway, and if you're just getting weaker and weaker on your sub-maximal lifts each week, that's not a very good thing.

[00:33:52] Kevin Smith: But usually for endurance training, sometimes functional overreaching is a really good thing, but this also could be a very bad thing. Like if you're trending just worse and worse on things and you don't have like a D load coming up, or you don't have a taper coming up, or you're feeling things outside the gym, like you just have no energy, you have no motivation, you are having sleep disturbances, maybe your heart rate is higher, your HRV is just in the gutter, like day after day after day, you got brain fog, joint pain, appetite changes, things like that. That's a sign that you're past functional overreaching and you're getting into like non-functional, non-productive overreaching. So there's a lot of nuance to it, and I would need to know a lot more about what you've been doing, what program you're on, how long you've been seeing regression, like are you just regressing this week?

[00:34:43] Kevin Smith: That's one more thing that I should bring up. Let's say it's a program like the two and five mile, and halfway through you have time trials, and you maybe didn't make the same type of progress that you thought you were going to from your first time trial before you did the program to the midway time trial. One, there's no taper or delo going into those time trials. So it's gonna be at the end of a training. This this is annotated in the intro. Most people don't read the intro, but it's gonna be at the end of a regular training block. So there's no taper going in. So you're gonna be more fatigued. Basically, you're gonna have a little bit of a fatigue mask on going into your time trial week. Additionally, sometimes you just have a bad day and you run slower than what you're capable of.

[00:35:30] Kevin Smith: For example, I've had a client in the past run a minute and ten seconds faster on his two mile, which is significant. That's like three or four minutes on a five mile. Minute and ten seconds on his two mile, three days after he ran a minute and ten seconds slower. And all we changed was he fueled better and he paced better. So that goes to show you can't make that much a minute and ten seconds fitness gains on a two mile in three days. He didn't run at all in those three days either. And so that was just a pacing thing and a and a fueling thing. But also you can just have bad days if you're a little bit more fatigued, maybe you got a stressful event going on in your life, you had a bad night of sleep, you didn't eat well the last few days, something like that, you might have a really bad performance halfway through.

[00:36:18] Kevin Smith: And that's not because you're not as fit, it's just because you're not able to display your current fitness that day for whatever reason. So, again, lots of nuance to it, but hopefully that kind of gives you an idea of what to look for. Next one, not a question, but one that I definitely want to address. Love your advice to not stay up late for something you're not willing to wake up early for. Yeah, this is a huge quote that if you can live by it and you can remember it, and I'm gonna get into kind of what it means here in a second. You are setting yourself up for a lot of progression and not a lot of regression. So, what do I mean by that? Think about what most people get up extra early for. And then also on the flip side, think about what most people stay up super late, really late at night, into the wee hours of the morning for.

[00:37:05] Kevin Smith: Typically, they're not the same thing. Now, if you're like a true night owl, a true night owl, you make most of your life progress at nighttime. You get your best training in at nighttime, you do your best thinking at nighttime, you produce your best work at nighttime, like really late night, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, and then you go to sleep and then you sleep in till pretty late the next day. A lot of people think they're night owls, but what they do at nighttime is nothing close to that. They scroll in their phones, or they video game, or they binge watch TV, or they binge watch YouTube, they binge eat, they drink, they party, etc. And they call themselves night owls. That is not night owl activity. You are literally regressing. Every single night you do that.

[00:37:50] Kevin Smith: And probably sleeping in the next day and missing out on lots of opportunities to potentially progress during the day. Most people are not waking up at 4 a.m., 5 a.m. to do those things. They're usually waking up super early to move the needle, and they are making sacrifices at nighttime. They're not doing all those things at nighttime because guess what? They're going to bed so they can get enough sleep, wake up early, and start their day on a positive note by going in training, starting working on whatever their most important task is for the day, maybe getting some reading in, maybe getting some studying in, whatever have you. So if you can remember, don't stay up late for things you would not get up early for. You're gonna be setting yourself up for success.

[00:38:36] Kevin Smith: And you, of course, remembering it and thinking it is one thing, but actually following through on it is another thing. But it's a really, really good motto to have in the back of your mind, and something that I have definitely lived by for the last probably half decade, and it's paid dividends in multiple areas of my life, not just my business, but just my overall mental health and outlook on life. When I sleep in, I just feel so behind the power curve, and I feel like kind of mentally drained and not very good throughout the day. So no matter what, almost every night I go to bed around 8 o'clock and I wake up around 4 a.m. Sometimes if I'm doing something social and it's worth it, then I will stay up later, and that's fine. I might sleep in 30 minutes, maybe 45. The next day is not great because I didn't get enough sleep or as much sleep as usual.

[00:39:24] Kevin Smith: But I would much rather still get up early and not feel like I'm behind the power curve, and then I just get right back on track the next day. And it's way easier when you don't sleep in several hours later to go to bed again at the normal time you go to bed, maybe even a little earlier because you didn't get as much sleep last night. And I am absolutely all about it. So I'm glad you like that quote. Next question is there anything that increases chances of getting assigned 18 delta? Yes. So number one is to get a good GT score. I don't know exactly what the standards are, but I would say if you're anything under 120, you might want to take the GT, the the what is it, the ASVAB again, to get a higher GT score. I don't know, like, I'm sure there's probably been 18 deltas under 120, but probably not a lot of them.

[00:40:11] Kevin Smith: I would say most of them are probably in the 125 to 140 range. I don't even know what the highest is. I had a dude in my class that was like two off the highest. This dude would he sat next to me. His name was Dave. I'm not gonna get into his last name. I don't know if he's still in or not, but I think he's pretty sure he's a surgeon. I think he went to he did one tour and went to med med school and now he's a surgeon. But anyway, he sat next to me in class and he would read a novel the entire time of almost every class. A novel that had nothing to do with medicine, nothing. And he would still raise his hand, like a teacher, like the teacher would ask a question, he would come up from his novel, raise his hand, answer the question correctly, go back to reading his novel.

[00:40:57] Kevin Smith: It was the most insane thing. Like, we called him Rain Man, like he was the smartest dude I've ever been around. He was a weird guy, but anyway. Most guys are probably in the 125 to 140 range, so that's number one. Number two, probably the hardest part, is to get selected. You gotta get selected in order to be a Delta. So that is one big thing that is standing in your way. Number three, put it on your wish list as number one. You don't always get what you wish for, but that would be your best bet at getting Delta if you put it number one, you get a solid GC score, and of course you get selected. Aside from that, it's kind of up in the air. Whatever they're looking for, whatever they need, you may not get it, you may get it, but best of luck. Next question: how much am I losing if I split up a superset into separate exercises, especially when the gym is busy?

[00:41:43] Kevin Smith: Nothing at all. In fact, in the margins, probably even better to do straight sets. The main reason for supersets, for the most part, especially if they're different muscle groups like antagonistic, like a push-pull superset or like a lower upper superset, the main reason for it is convenience and time saving. Not necessarily that it's more effective. In fact, the way most supersets are programmed, it's less effective. Or executed, it's less effective because people don't rest long enough. I really like stagger sets. So a stagger set would be like two compound lifts. Let's say you're doing a bench press and a pull-up. You do your bench, then you rest for about 90 seconds. Maybe even two minutes, but probably depending on how strong you are, but about 90 seconds. Then you do your pull-ups, then you rest again for about 90 seconds, then you go do your bench.

[00:42:30] Kevin Smith: Supersets would be something like you do your set of bench and then you walk over the pull-up bar and you do your set of pull-ups, then you rest. The stagger sets are a little bit better for compound lifts. You can do supersets for isolation movements, totally fine. Usually my programs, I have stagger sets for compound lifts and supersets for isolation lifts, but the downside of the going straight in, especially a compound lift, going straight in the next one, is you're still systemically fatigued. So you're not going to get quite as much out of that second exercise, and it's in the margins going to make a little bit of a negative difference. Now, if you have the time for it and it's less convenient because the gym's packed and you can't do supersets or stagger sets, totally fine.

[00:43:15] Kevin Smith: Absolutely fine, probably a little better. You're just getting more, you're able to focus more on one exercise, then you move on to the next, and you're gonna be a little less fatigued going into the other exercise from the first one, even if it's a different muscle group, you're still developing that systemic fatigue. Now, there's a time and place for things like a short and lengthened superset or like a same muscle group superset where you're doing something like a leg extension followed by a reverse Nordic or something like that, if you have like really stubborn quads and you want to bring them up. But for general supersets where you're doing different muscle groups, totally fine to split them up into regular straight sets, honestly, a little bit better. Next question My unit is making me go to the field for a week right before SFAS. Any advice? Yeah, man. This one I answered on IG and I also made it a post because I don't know.

[00:44:08] Kevin Smith: This stuff irritates me so much. Some people think that, oh, you have no right to not go to the field before SVS. You shouldn't expect to get special treatment before you go. Sure, you don't have a right. You shouldn't expect to get special treatment. But if you have a leader that has any sort of wherewithal and actually cares about his men, he would ensure he would go out of his way. And this isn't even going out of your way. He would put things in place to ensure that you have the best possible conditions to go and crush SFAS. Because he knows that the army doesn't look out for their dudes, and dudes have to look out for themselves. That is a fact. And if you want to better yourself, you're gonna have to go and do it yourself. No one's gonna do it for you.

[00:44:53] Kevin Smith: And this guy is trying to better himself by getting out of his unit and going to SFAS. Chances are, the fact that his command or leadership is having him do this is one of the main reasons he wants to get the fuck out of there, which I don't blame him. However, it is not in your control. Even if your command wants to be horrendous leaders, which I think this is a perfect example of horrendous leadership, you can't control it, and you're gonna have to do it. And some people commented, like you can go get an ATP ETP exception to policy from your recruiter, which you can do that if you want, but even if you can't, you can control lots and lots of things before this field event. And generally speaking, if you have a really, really good prep and you do the right things from now until you go into the field, you can almost use the field as like a pseudo-taper.

[00:45:45] Kevin Smith: Yeah, it's not perfect conditions for tapers. You're not gonna be sleeping great, you're probably gonna be eating MREs, you might be doing stressful things throughout the day, lots of activity, but you're not gonna be like training super hard like you would for SFS. And you're even if you show up to SFAS in slightly worse condition because you had to go to the field first, it's still not, in my opinion, an excuse. If you do the right things and train up for several months leading into this, you crush your training, you crush your sleep, you crush your daily habits, you crush your nutrition, you crush your hydration, you think about the right things, you keep your mindset where it should be on the next closest task to make yourself as prepared as you can from s to for selection, and you don't think about all these things you can't control and let them stress you out and let them throw you off, then this is just a little tiny blip in the radar.

[00:46:41] Kevin Smith: You go to the field, you get it done, you go back, you go to selection, and what I would strongly recommend is using this as fuel, having this in the back of your mind. My command is doing this, most likely. Here's the deal: there's no way in hell, no offense, but you're not important enough to be a hundred percent needed on this FTX. Your command could easily leave you out of this FTX and you'd still be fine. The whole company, the whole platoon, your squad would be fine. What they're probably doing is making you go so they make it harder for you to pass SFAS. Mainly because either A, they have had a bad experience with SFAS in the past, or they just don't want to lose you because you're a really studly individual.

[00:47:30] Kevin Smith: I don't know. Could be one or the other, like a lot of people have bad taste in their mouth because they failed SFAS, and therefore they want to make it so that other guys don't go and do better than them, or whatever. Some guys are just really good at their job, and they maybe they think that you're trying to betray the unit, or they just don't want to lose you because you're really good at your job. Either way, use this as fuel in the back of your mind. I'm gonna go and prove these guys wrong that I can go and crush selection, even if they threw the speed bump at me to try and make it so I couldn't pass selection, and use that as like whenever you want to quit, whenever you think that things are getting difficult, I'm not gonna be that guy. I'm gonna continue and I'm gonna show them that even if they have me go in the field for a week before going to selection, I'm still that dude that can make it.

[00:48:19] Kevin Smith: And then you move on, and yeah, you'll have to go back to that unit for a little while, but who gives a shit? Eventually you'll move on and you'll go to the Q course, and that'll be a thing of the past. So don't let it bother you. Focus on what you can control and go crush. Alright, next question: how would you program for someone who wants to do BJJ during the week? Alright, so I use this question for an example, a teaching point. How would I program for someone who wants to do BJJ during the week? I don't know anything about what your goals are. I know that you want to program for fitness, and I also know that you like to do BJJ, but the way I'd program for someone who is doing BJJ to get as good as they possibly can at BJJ, and the programming is in support of that, is way different than how I'd program for someone who is doing BJJ because they enjoy it, but their main goal is to get fit in some way, shape, or form.

[00:49:13] Kevin Smith: And I would need to know what you're trying to get fit at. Are you trying to get jacked as fuck? Are you trying to get strong? You're trying to improve your hybrid athleticism? Are you trying to prep for selection? In which case I probably wouldn't do BJJ on the side. There's just so many different things that are missing here that I don't know. Like, how would you program for someone who enjoys BJJ but also wants to run faster and get stronger? That's pretty vague too, but it's at least something. It gives me something to work with. How would you program for someone who does BJJ five or six days a week, and that is my main goal, but I want fitness to support it, I want programming to support it, something like that. And if it doesn't fit in the character limit, change the wording a little bit and you can make it fit.

[00:49:58] Kevin Smith: So it really depends. I would program multiple different ways depending on what the additional context of this question would potentially be. But because that's lacking, I can't really answer it. So just remember if you're asking questions in the future and you want some useful information that you can actually apply to your life, insert some context. And it's I've said this a million times, but like it's really, really important. It's a really, really high-leverage skill, high ROI skill to be good at question asking because you get better answers and you get answers that you can apply. If you ask random questions or you ask really vague questions, thoughts on creatine or thoughts on whatever, you're gonna get a really vague answer, and it's not gonna help you at all.

[00:50:44] Kevin Smith: So if you want to get helped, put some time and effort into asking the question. And I put quite a bit of time and effort into answering these questions on Instagram as well as on the podcast. So, I mean, I don't think it's that much to ask if you, one person, can put a little effort into your own question, and you might just get an answer you're actually looking for. So rant over. Let's do a couple more questions. Next question cooking with butter slash oil too much fat? Question mark. Any alternatives you recommend? No, it's not too much fat unless you are using way too much of it, and it's therefore putting you over your fat needs. So a lot of people will use way, way, way more oil than is necessary, or way, way, way more butter than is necessary.

[00:51:31] Kevin Smith: And you know, they could be using a quarter of the grams of fat worth of the same thing of it, but instead they use just way too much. Just use a very, very small amount, and it should be more than enough. Like use a little bit of spray, olive oil spray. Those things say zero calories on them, they're not zero calories. But if you spray for like a really, really quick less than a second, you're not getting that many calories. But a lot of people will take those things and be like, oh, zero calories. I'm just gonna spray the fuck out of this. And even though the serving basically it says zero calories because the serving size is so small. It's olive oil or avocado oil, whatever. There's calories in it. But because the serving is so small, the nutrition label can say zero calories.

[00:52:18] Kevin Smith: That doesn't mean there is actually zero calories in this magic olive oil that has zero calories in it. You just typically don't spray it for as short as what the serving size is. People usually spray it for way, way, way longer. I think the spraying, the serving size is like a quarter of a second spray. If you spray it for several seconds, just douse the pan with it. You're putting probably a couple, I would say probably a couple hundred calories of olive oil on your tray, and that olive oil doesn't just disappear, it goes into your food. So good on you, first of all, for actually thinking about cooking oils and butter and other things. A lot of people think it just doesn't count or it just evaporates or they don't have to count it. That stuff does add up, and if you're not keeping track of it, then you might be eating way more calories than you actually think you are.

[00:53:06] Kevin Smith: Most people eat way more than they actually track, and they wonder why they're not losing weight. Whether you track food or not, if you eat it, it's still counts. So if you don't track it and you're not aware of it, then and you're not losing weight, it's probably because you're eating a lot more than you think you are. Nobody in the history of the world has not lost weight in a calorie deficit. Plenty of people in the history of the world think they're in a calorie deficit, but think they're special because they're somehow not losing weight. In reality, they're not in a calorie deficit because they're missing out on things. And this is one perfect example. So as long as you make it A fit into your macros, you can use some. Just be weary of the amount that you're using. Just use enough to make it so that it doesn't stick, and you should be good to go. Next question thoughts on going to unit selection from National Guard, not SF.

[00:53:54] Kevin Smith: If you want to go to unit selection and you apply and you get in, awesome. It is quite difficult to get into unit selection these days. I have had experience with clients in recent times that are studs and they have not gotten in, so ensure that you are crushing everything. You have a really good resume and you're taking the application process super seriously. The application process is very, very, very painstaking and very detailed, and also that you go and show up to the pre, like the acceptance PT test that they do at whatever base that they come around to different bases and they'll do a PT test with the recruiters as well as an IQ test and like a brief. You want to really put up good numbers for that. I have no idea what the standards are, but you want to be fast, you want to do a lot of push-ups, you want to hold the plank for the max, that's super easy.

[00:54:44] Kevin Smith: And then ideally, you do good on the IT IQ test, and you have the application they're looking for, but it's not like this thing where you can just decide to go and you go. Like way more people than actually go to that selection apply. Probably several dozen times more people apply to that selection than actually get in, because there's only a couple per year, and most selections are 80 to 90 guys, maybe a hundred guys. And so I'm sure probably hundreds, if not thousands, of guys apply to each selection, and that's how many guys go. So it's not like the super easy thing where you just decide to go. But if you want to go and you want to pursue it, pursue it. By all means, whether you're National Guard, SF, not SF, whatever have you, if it's something you want to do, go do it and take it seriously, and maybe you'll get in.

[00:55:31] Kevin Smith: Next question hardest school you completed while active duty. Definitely ranger school. And nothing even comes close. If I had gone to dive school, that might been that might have been up there, but yeah, ranger school. Alright, let's do three more questions. One is how do you shut your mind off at night? Always stuck thinking about things. Yeah, so this is a common type A individual type thing. And I've struggled with it a lot in the past, but some of the things that I've implemented to make it a little bit less of an issue. One, I if I'm worried about something or if I'm anxious about something, I and I can do something about it, like I can actually do that thing, then I do it. I just get it out of the way. Even if I don't feel like doing it, I do it. And then I'm not thinking about it anymore.

[00:56:18] Kevin Smith: I'm not worried about the fact that I'm putting something off. I just freaking do it. So that's huge. Another one is I have like a hard and fast closeout at the end of every day. So I am working throughout the day, and then at a certain time for me, it's 5 p.m. almost every night. Once in a while, it's a little later, depending on what's going on. But 5 p.m., that is my closeout. And I do a recap of my day. I write down a few things that I did well, a few things that I didn't do well, and I need to improve tomorrow, and how I'm going to improve them tomorrow or next time I do them. And anything that is a loose end. So if I'm I try to tie loose ends up, so like if I have unanswered emails or what I don't really do emails, but if I have any sort of loose ends that like I haven't addressed and it's a minor thing, I'll make sure that things done so I'm not thinking about it.

[00:57:06] Kevin Smith: And then I have that like hard and fast laptop shut, close out. Now it's time to stop thinking about work. Now it's time to stop thinking about fitness, although I don't really stop thinking about fitness, but like stressing about things throughout the workday. And now it's time to go and enjoy my evening and be present with my son, my wife, eat dinner, relax, and so on. And then I do a very, very strict evening routine where I turn the TV off an hour before bed, we go for a walk, we have an agreement that we don't just talk about finances or stressful stuff, business stuff at nighttime. My wife is part of the business, but we don't talk about that stuff in the last hour before bed because that gets our minds going, especially mind going. My wife can just like compartmentalize this stuff and not think about it. But I if I if I start stressing about business stuff or finance stuff or kid stuff, whatever, anything stressful, then I'm gonna be thinking about it as I lay down for bed.

[00:58:00] Kevin Smith: So we don't talk about that stuff, we just chill out, hang out with the our baby boy. He's very entertaining. We pet our dogs, we prep for the next day, and it's very, very low-key. And then we get into bed and like I read and relax, maybe do some breath work, maybe do some stretching, really relaxing things that calm my nervous system down. And when you're in a very, very relaxed nervous system state, typically you're not thinking about all these things, you're not ruminating about these things. Usually that works pretty well. Now, some nights I am still thinking about things. I have a lot going on, whatever it have you. And those nights I have a notebook next to my bed and I brain dump whatever I'm thinking about in that notebook, and that works really well. Sometimes I wake up, sometimes I'm fine going to bed, like right before bed, I am not anxious.

[00:58:48] Kevin Smith: Once in a while I'll wake up at like 1 or 2 a.m. and my brain will be very, very much running and thinking about things that I don't need to be thinking about. And that just is a tendency of certain people that have a lot going on in their lives and that are very, very driven and very, very that have a lot on their plate type thing and have really high standards and worry about lots of things, which is just like the way I'm wired, and that's the way a lot of people that are listening to this are probably wired. And so I have that notebook next to my bed and I write things down, and it helps. And then I'll usually do some breath work and usually get back to sleep within 30 minutes, 45 minutes. So that's what I do. I mean, does it always work perfectly? No, there are certain periods of time where I'm just more stressed than other times, but for the most part, doing those things, having those hard things in place, the main thing is making sure that you close open loops and that you do things that you are putting off or that you are feeling anxious about that you know you can do something about.

[00:59:48] Kevin Smith: Even if it's something you can't do something about now, let's say you're anxious about something that's going to happen in the future, but you can do something to prepare every single day. Let's say it's a public speak speech or something like that. I'm anxious about this speech and it's 60 days away, and I'm thinking about it right now. I can't help it, but what can I do? I can get better at speaking, I can practice it, I can rehearse, I can go to Toastmasters, I can do something about it to make myself more confident and less anxious about it. And that helps quite a bit. So hopefully that helps getting it out of your head. Next question. Have my first half marathon this weekend. Course has 3.5 feet, 3.5k feet of gain. How to fuel during. Oh man. So you have already made the mistake of waiting way too long to ask about fueling.

[01:00:38] Kevin Smith: You should have been fueling for all of your, you should have been experimenting with different types of fueling for all of your training runs or most of your training runs that are longer than like an hour. So you have definitely missed the boat on that. Ideally, you practice fueling in training so that you know exactly how to fuel on race day and you're not figuring it out on race day and hoping that whatever you choose for a fueling strategy doesn't give you GI upset. And also another bit advantage of practicing it in training is you can go from you can increase your tolerance to carbs per hour. So at first, when you've never really fueled before, you've never practiced it before, you might only be able to take in 50, 60 grams of carbs per hour before you start running into GI issues. But over time, you increase that, you bump that up over weeks and weeks and weeks of practicing it, and you also learn like what type of gels you like, what type of liquid carbs you like, what type of hydration you like, how frequently or infrequently you want to take your fuel in, and so on.

[01:01:39] Kevin Smith: But you get to the race day and you know exactly what you're gonna be doing. So next time I would definitely do that. But for your upcoming race, I would probably just shoot for a couple gels per hour and also ensure you're hydrating well, probably taking in 24 to 32 ounces give or take of fluid per hour. Make sure that a good amount of that has salt in it. But in the future, definitely make sure that you are practicing that and training so that you can really, really optimize and you know exactly what works for your body. And on a race day, you don't have to like worry about figuring out how to fuel and experimenting with things because it's never ever a good idea to experiment on race day. Because best case scenario, you're probably gonna be totally fine, but you're gonna underfuel compared to what you could have if you had gotten your gut ready for more carbs.

[01:02:30] Kevin Smith: But worst case scenario, you're gonna have some GI issues and not have a good time. So, best of luck though. Next and final question: how to transition from tracking macros every day to eyeballing it slash eating out occasionally? Really pretty simple. You should now, like if you've been tracking for at least a little while, you should know generally what a decent size serving of meat and starch and things like that look like. So if you've been having six to eight ounces of chicken breast for your meals for a long time, or if you've been having two or three eggs plus egg whites for your meals for a long time, you should kind of know what that looks like, even if you're not actually weighing it. And even if you're off by a little bit, you're trying to eyeball it, you're not going quite as strict, which is totally fine.

[01:03:16] Kevin Smith: No big deal. And how to eat out, just make the right food choices when you're out. Choose a pre- go back to the question that I answered earlier about eating out with your wife. Get a lean protein, get some starch, ideally, very plain starch, and some vegetables, and you're probably pretty good. Or if it's once in a while you want to go eat out and enjoy yourself and not worry about tracking, that's fine too. Not worry about like healthy food, that's also fine. Enjoy yourself. But yeah, there's the thing that makes this easy is that you just spent so much time tracking. So you got used to what certain foods look like, how they make you feel, certain portion sizes. Now the only difference is you're not putting it on a scale and actually weighing it and entering it. You're just putting that same similar food in front of your face, and you know generally what it looks like, and even if you're off by a little bit calorie-wise, not a big deal because you're being more intuitive.

[01:04:07] Kevin Smith: And then you can kind of spot check yourself every so often by using the scale, using the mirror. Am I getting a little chunk, chunky, a little water weight? Am I getting a little soft? Am I gaining weight? Am I losing weight? Am I staying around the same weight? Then you can adjust accordingly. And if you're not trying to lose weight, but you're getting leaner, you're not eating enough. If you're getting bigger, you're gaining weight, or you're looking soft and you're not trying to, you're eating a little too much. Then dial things back. That is intuitive eating in a nutshell. It takes a little time to get used to it when you go from tracking to intuitive eating, but over time, especially if you go on and off, like you spend a period of time tracking, you go back to intuitive eating. You spend a period of time tracking, back to intuitive eating. That's generally what I recommend for most people. Because even if you've tracked for a long time in the past, but you've been, let's say, intuitive eating for the last several years, you might be quite a bit off as far as like what you think you're eating, especially for macros.

[01:04:59] Kevin Smith: If you're tracking your body weight and your body composition, chances are you're probably in the right spot calorie-wise. But macros, like if you want to start really maximizing performance and you haven't been tracking for a long time, chances are you're probably eating way more fat than you need, fewer carbs than you could be eating, and protein is kind of hit or miss depending on the person. But you can fix that by getting more in tune with it by tracking for a short period of time and really dialing yourself in. And then you do that for a little while, you hit your performance goals, you lock everything in, and then you hit that goal, and then maybe it's time to go more intuitive after that, and you're a little more relaxed with it. So, not really that difficult. You just basically just take the tracking away and you take the scale away, and you're good to go. So that's it, guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. I'll be back soon with another episode.

[01:05:45] Kevin Smith: Keep the awesome questions coming. Till then, Terminator Out. Thank you for listening. If you like this show and want to start crushing your goals, please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And for more fitness content, follow me on Instagram at Terminator underscore training, or check out my website, Terminator Training.com. All right, guys, Terminator Out.