230 - Overrated/Underrated: SFAS Rucking, Macro Tracking, Carbon Boots, Sandbags + 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 up guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. Today is going to be an overrated, underrated from this week's Instagram followers. Usually I do Q&A's. This week I switched it up and did some overrated, underrated, where I have you guys basically you guys give me a topic and I let you know whether I think it's overrated or underrated. And I specifically wrote instructions that said pretty much that, but I still got some that said what they what the person who follows me thinks is overrated or underrated or both.

[00:00:48] Kevin Smith: And I'm actually gonna do one. If I get to it, I'm gonna do one because I disagreed with it. But I did get some really good topics and I've pre-chosen them. I'm gonna try and get to as many as I possibly can and go from there. So one announcement, it is our fall sale. We have all of our programs, all of our products, I should say, are currently 25% off. And the code is fall 25 to get that discount. Act quickly. It is not gonna last forever. But you can see the details in the description if you want to get yourself a program or a couple programs or an ebook. We've got you covered, and I've talked extensively about all those progress products. You can go to the website and read the reviews if you want. We get some awesome reviews on all of our products. Anyone who's left a review, by the way, whether it's on a program or one of the ebooks or really a review anywhere, it could be a podcast review or a podcast five-star review that you don't write anything if you've taken the time to give us some feedback.

[00:01:47] Kevin Smith: We really appreciate it. I think we've gotten like one four-star review on anything ever, and it was for a couple typos that we've since fixed. So anyway, appreciate you guys for the support. And obviously, we put a lot of hard work into our products, and I put a lot of hard work into trying to give you guys as much free information as I possibly can with the podcast, and we're trying to get one out per week, and we've been doing pretty good on that streak. So gonna keep them coming. So anyway, with out of the way, let's hop into the overrated, underrated for today, starting with a goofy one. Taking a breakfast ball. Alright, so for those not aware, a breakfast ball means you off the usually off the first T, you get to re-T and hit another drive if you hit a poor drive.

[00:02:35] Kevin Smith: And I would say it's underrated. I mean, maybe properly rated. Usually when I'm playing with buddies or my dad or family, whatever, we get a breakfast ball. Sometimes we do it like if you don't pr if you hit a really good drive on the first T, you can take a breakfast ball on a later T. Especially because usually someone in the group is gonna take a breakfast ball off the first T. So it's only fair that like if you hit a bad drive on the third hole or the fourth hole, whatever, you can take a breakfast ball then. It's kind of like a mulligan and it's not super officially if you're playing an official tournament, it's not necessarily acceptable to do it. But if you're playing with buddies or whatever have you, taking a breakfast ball, I think is totally fine. And I don't really like breakfast balls as far as anything other than T-shots.

[00:03:22] Kevin Smith: I think it should be just off the T. You can't take a breakfast ball putt or a breakfast ball iron shot into the green. It should just be T-shots, and I think it is totally acceptable, especially if you don't get a chance to warm up. If you get a chance to warm up, debatable. But if you are getting to the course and there's no warm up, maybe you're playing a super early round. I play early rounds a lot. Usually I do get some balls hit off the driving range before I play, but one of the courses that I play with by myself on a regular basis, you can't hit anything over 220. So you can't hit driver, I can't hit three wood, and I hit driver off the first T on that hole. So I'll usually just give myself a breakfast ball, just on the first hole, if I'm playing by myself, like a real handicap round. But yeah, good times.

[00:04:08] Kevin Smith: Anyway, let's hop into the next one. Civilian life, overrated, underrated. So this one's really interesting. I will say absolutely underrated. However, if you had asked me this 10 years ago when I was a few years into my special forces career, whether special forces or being a Green Beret was overrated or underrated, I would have said underrated because I had a great time doing that. But now I am in a different part of my life, a different chapter of my life, so to speak. I think that's kind of like trite, but whatever. Different chapter. I'm a dad now, I'm a business owner, and I am very grateful for the fact that I spent 12 years training for and serving in special operations. But at this point, I am also very grateful that I'm not doing that anymore and that I'm running my own show and doing what I'm doing now, helping the next generation go and be the best versions of themselves, whether they go and be a Green Beret or Navy SEAL or Ranger, Delta Operator, or just people that follow along that have no military aspirations, but they just want to be a fitter, stronger, healthier, higher performing, more effective version of themselves.

[00:05:20] Kevin Smith: And I find that very, very fulfilling. And I also really enjoy the fact that I have the freedom to set my own schedule. Now I work my ass off. I work a lot of hours, and I really love working. And I am, if you know, if I didn't, then I wouldn't have the success that I had, that I have had. But also, today is a Sunday, for example. I'm recording this on a Sunday. I've been working probably seven hours or so today. I went and trained, and other than that, I've basically been working. But it's also rainy out today, and tomorrow's supposed to be super nice, and so the golf courses are gonna be empty because it's Monday, so I'm gonna go play golf in the morning. I'm getting a lot of my Monday tasks done on Sunday, which I can do and feel fine with it, and I don't have to answer to anyone.

[00:06:08] Kevin Smith: I don't have to get permission to go play golf, I just go play golf because I'm my own boss, which is sick. So, and also I think it's I would much prefer to have our kid. Basically, we just had a baby who's two months old. Pretty much he's he's about to be two months old tomorrow, I believe. I would not have really had the same, I mean, it it would have been a very different thing had I had that kid when I was still in the military, and I still might be in the military. It would have been a bigger risk for me to get out because I wasn't really making any money at all off TTM other than like a periodic program sale when I got out. And since then I've made I've I've definitely built a business and I'm making a lot, lot, lot more money now than I was from the military, but I didn't really have any way to predict the business to take off the way it has.

[00:07:02] Kevin Smith: So who knows? Maybe I would have gotten out, taken the risk. I felt like I had the raw materials as far as the work ethic and the ability to just not quit and go out of my way to put in a lot of work to build my business and make it successful. But who knows? Maybe I would have stayed in, maybe I'd still be in. And I'd also see my kid a lot less frequently, and that would be a little bit different. He'd be older now, of course, too, if I had a kid earlier. But I think the way it worked out is pretty awesome. So just going back to the original one, civilian life, overrated, underrated, in my opinion, underrated, but also because I have a different perspective. I've done things in the past that make it extra underrated, and I'm doing things now that make it extra underrated.

[00:07:50] Kevin Smith: Next one, overrated, underrated, asynchronous splits. So for those not aware, an asynchronous split basically means you are setting up your training in a way that doesn't mimic the seven-day work week, the seven-day calendar week. So maybe you have like a nine-day training split, or an eight-day, or a ten-day, eleven-day, whatever have you, where you go through your training split instead of Monday through Sunday, and then restart. You may have it it doesn't really have to do with the days of the week. This is something that I do right now. I pretty much lift every other day and I do cardio every other day, although some days I don't do my cardio. But I always get my my steps in. These days I am a little bit off track with cardio. Anyway, I think it is underrated on paper, but practically speaking, just for most people's lives, it's not very feasible because a lot of people like to set up their week.

[00:08:48] Kevin Smith: They have an usually a five-day work week, and they like to set up their week so that they are doing generally the same type of training every day each week. So they usually do the same things on Mondays and the same things on Tuesdays, and so on. That being said, there are certain cases where an asynchronous split, like I said, on paper, it's usually a really good thing, especially for a performance athlete. It can be a really good thing to have longer splits. A lot of really, really high-level bodybuilders, for example, not that that's necessarily a performance athlete, but like Chris Bumstead had, I believe, like an eight or nine-day split when he was in his prime. And a lot of other bodybuilders have too. A lot of runners have like 10, 11, 12-day splits just because of the way they set up their training, and it can be really, really effective, but also these people are like their main job is to train and or to perform because of their training.

[00:09:49] Kevin Smith: Like runners are racing, they're running races based on what they do for training. Their life is set up to be successful in those areas. So it's very practical for someone like that. For someone with a nine to five that works Monday through Friday, not as practical. That being said, there's other cases, especially if you have a more obscure schedule, like you're a firefighter and you work maybe two days on, you have four days off, or you're a cop and you have like an interesting schedule where you do a lot of working and then you have a lot of days off, something like that. It can be, or you just have a very, very strict schedule, like you have a very time-consuming, high obligation life, and a seven-day, let's say you're following a program that's seven days each week, basically each training week, like my programs, each training week is seven days, but you're not finding that you're recovering very well.

[00:10:43] Kevin Smith: What you can do is pretty much take that seven-day split and add in a couple more rest days. And this is what I usually recommend to people who have weird schedules or who aren't recovering, let's say from Jack Gazelle, instead of having like one rest day every seven days and doing six days of training every seven days, they're still doing those six days of training and they're still taking the rest day that's programmed out of the seven days, but they're also adding in a couple more rest days. So they're extending it out to nine days or ten days. So basically the program just lasts longer. And that can be a really, really good way to do it, especially if you're just not recovering. Like instead of dropping things from the program and therefore not getting the same stimulus from it, you are still doing the program. You're just taking more rest days, and that way you're able to recover from it, but you're also able to get as much stimulus as what's written in the program.

[00:11:33] Kevin Smith: So overall, I would say, like I said, asynchronous splits on paper, and or if you have a weird schedule or if you're not recovering very well can be awesome. But if you have a typical seven-day week where you like to do the same things, like this is most people, you like to do the same things on each day, each week. It's just a little bit less practical. And oh, by the way, people have been getting fantastic gains on seven-day splits for a really long time. So it's not like it doesn't work. But I would say, like, if someone really wanted to optimize and they just had freedom of schedule, and I were writing a program for them, and they really, really didn't care whether they did a seven-day split or if they had an asynchronous split, I could probably write a slightly more optimal program over eight, nine, ten days, just depending on the person's goal, than seven days.

[00:12:19] Kevin Smith: 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. 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 stacks, 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.

[00:13:09] Kevin Smith: 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. 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.

[00:13:56] Kevin Smith: Or you can go to pridefoods.org and type in the code TTM for 10% off. Alright, guys, back to the show. Next overrated, underrated, in-to-out swing path. I'm currently fighting for my life with swing changes. Okay, so I'm gonna say this is overrated, mainly because, first off, I am big time into golf, but I am not a big golf mechanics guy. I've never had lessons. I don't like doing anything crazy with my swing. Once in a while, I'll by feel, change my grip up a little bit, maybe make my grip a little weaker or a little stronger, or do something in my swing that just feels a little different and have a different swing thought, but I don't break down my swing really mechanically and get super into the details.

[00:14:42] Kevin Smith: And I think the reason that I'm gonna say this is overrated is because there are so many different ways to hit a golf ball well. If you watch the PGA tour, some guys have beautiful swings, some guys have kind of ugly swings, some guys have really unorthodox swings, some guys are a little into out, some guys are, you know, some guys draw the ball, some guys fade the ball like they prefer to. Most pros can do both, but all that to say is as long as you can do something repeatedly and consistently, and at impact, you have a square club face and you can strike the ball on a consistent basis. Obviously, you're not going to be perfect. Nobody can strike the ball perfectly every single time. Even pros mishit it, their miss hits are not as bad at or as frequent as amateurs, but they still do, they don't hit it perfectly every time.

[00:15:32] Kevin Smith: Golf is a game of like millimeters. As long as you can do something consistently and repeatedly, and you're not like overthinking the hell out of it, you're usually gonna be alright as an amateur. And I think a lot of amateurs put way, way, way too much focus into trying to get these perfect positions and these perfect swing paths, and feeling like getting into the slot and all these different terminologies and like things that you can pinpoint and fine-tune and really, really break down and get into the weeds with when they should just be focusing on creating something that's repeatable and ensuring that they are striking the ball in a consistent manner, at least like relatively consistent, hitting good shots.

[00:16:19] Kevin Smith: And I've heard some really high-level golf coaches talk about this too, that amateurs get way too into the weeds with their swing mechanics when they really, really should be focusing on the last few inches before impact and after impact. Like that is the most important part of the swing. That's when you're hitting the ball. So you want a square club face, you want it to at least not be super out to in, into out. So you're not putting way too much spin on it. Of course, you want to maybe sometimes put some draw spin, some some fade spin. Some people are just naturally gonna have a draw or a fade. I used to hit a fade, and then somehow, like over the last year or so, I've changed to hitting mostly draws. Once in a while, I'll hit a fade off the T. But usually my irons are more draw-like, and that's just like kind of how it is.

[00:17:06] Kevin Smith: I don't know. I I can definitely hit a fade if I want to, if I like intentionally try to, but it's less like my stock shot is a little bit of a draw. And I'm okay with that because I know it and I just play the draw a little bit more. Unless I have to hit a fade, then of course I'll intentionally try to hit a fade. It's not quite as consistent or as trustworthy. But it's just kind of how it is. And really all I focus on is doing something repeatable and consistent that feels good, and giving myself not too many swing thoughts, usually one or two swing thoughts. And these swing thoughts can rotate, they're not always the same, just kind of depends on the flavor of my current swing right now. But it you don't want to like overload yourself with too many different thoughts and too many different mechanical breakdowns, in my opinion, in my experience.

[00:17:52] Kevin Smith: I really like being a field player. I know more people, some people are really into the mechanics, they're really into super, they're really analytical people, they like getting really down into the minute details, which I guess is fine, but that's just not the way I roll in golf, and I'm kind of fine with it. Like, I think if I just continue putting the work in and getting a better short game and becoming more consistent, especially off the T, I've been hitting really good drives lately. Hopefully I can keep that up. But that is kind of my plan moving forward to get closer and closer to scratch. Hopefully, get to scratch someday, maybe even get below scratch, who knows? Next, overrated, underrated, heavy walking only rucking for SFAS prep. So this is going to be partially overrated, partially underrated.

[00:18:38] Kevin Smith: And I say partially because it depends on what you mean by heavy. If we're talking real heavy, like 80, 90, 100 pounds, then way overrated, not a very good idea at all. Totally unnecessary, totally arbitrary. If we're talking 55, 60 pounds, and we're talking about at least doing some of your rucking in a walking manner and trying to focus on walking fast so that you get your baseline walking speed faster and faster and faster, especially when you're further out, but even during SFS prep, then that would be really underrated, exceptionally underrated. Honestly, most people just don't work on their walking pace. They they work on their ruck running, their ruck trotting, their shuffling, whatever have you. But when they're not doing that, they're just kind of like leisurely walking without thinking about picking up the pace or really pushing it.

[00:19:26] Kevin Smith: And that's a mistake because I haven't talked about this actually in a while, but just for anyone new or to rehash it for people who have been listening for a while. Even if you are not going to be walking as fast as you humanly possibly can at SFAS the whole time, let's say you're out on the land nav course, or you're doing team week, or you are recovering from a running bout during gate week, so you're walking, you're not going to be going as fast as you humanly possibly can walk, like you maybe would on certain training rucks. However, if you can get to where your max walking pace, let's say you're walking as fast as you possibly can for, let's say, a 10-mile ruck, if you can average 13-30 miles doing that, when you're not going as fast as you can, you're preserving energy.

[00:20:17] Kevin Smith: Let's say you're walking a 16 or 17 minute mile pace. And you're really like that's leisurely. You're not really expending a lot of energy. Maybe you're out on the land nav course, you're probably not walking that fast during nighttime, but you could definitely walk that fast during the day. If you're accurate with your land nav, you know what you're doing. You don't, you're not always stopping and looking at your map like you're comfortable and skilled at land nav. And that absolutely adds up compared to someone who never ever works on their fast walking. Oftentimes, their max walking pace, if I told someone who never practiced this, go walk as fast as you can, their max walking pace might be 16 minute miles or 17 minute miles because they never practice it. They're not used to it, they haven't made adaptations to it, or maybe they've tried it once and they write it off, which is usually what happens.

[00:21:02] Kevin Smith: Oh, I don't like walking fast. How many times have you tried it? Once. Of course, it's not gonna feel comfortable when you do it once. When's the last time you did anything and felt like a natural at it the first time you did it, especially something that's just inherently uncomfortable, like rocking. You gotta do this over and over again in order to make adaptations and get used to it and get faster. But anyway, I digress. So having a really fast baseline walking pace pretty much allows you to preserve energy and chill out at a much faster pace than someone who's slower with a slower baseline walking pace who might be chilling out, preserving energy at 19, 20, 21 minutes per mile. So it helps you on gates because you're gonna be walking faster when you're doing your recovery sessions.

[00:21:49] Kevin Smith: Assuming you're not a super stud that can just run the whole time, which is most people. To be clear, most people can't run the whole time, they're gonna have to walk some. And if you have a faster walking pace, you're gonna have a faster finishing time. Also on the Land Nav course, minutes add up over a 12-hour span of Land Nav. Walking 16-minute miles, 17-minute miles during the day versus 19, 20-minute miles, that definitely makes a difference. And the trek, things like that, just basically it allows you to have that solid ace up your sleeve where you're walking faster than everywhere everyone else around you because you actually practice it. So that part of it is very underrated because not a lot of people do it. My clients do. And if you follow my programs and you really read the instructions and follow it to a T, you work on it. Or if you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you know my stance on it.

[00:22:36] Kevin Smith: But a lot of people don't. And they just shuffle and they walk leisurely. There's nothing in between. But the potentially overrated part is what you mean by heavy. If it's at the most, sometimes with my guys, I'll get them up to a 70-pound ruck once or twice in their entire prep. And this is not a go walk as fast as you can ruck. It's go get a feel for it for an hour or 75 minutes. And again, that's once or twice. Most of the time when I have my guys work on their walking only rucks, it is 50 to 55 pounds at the most, and no more than that. So very, very good idea to practice it. Not a good idea to overload it, just totally arbitrary. Next, overrated, underrated, sandbag work. If any good, do you recommend any programs? I'm a cop seems useful. Okay. So this one is fine.

[00:23:22] Kevin Smith: He didn't really ask, he kind of asked a question, but he also asked whether I thought sandbag work was overrated. Underrated first, which is great. And then I can kind of tailor my answer towards the rest of his question, which is very acceptable. So, sandbag work, I think, is underrated, but I would say it's overrated to follow a program that just biases sandbag work. Unless, of course, you're in a weird environment and all you have access to is a sandbag and maybe some other equipment, then that's one thing. You're you're deployed or in a weird situation like that. If you're a cop, you know, you should be doing regular strength training and some cardio, but also you can throw some sandbag work in there. Whether you put it into a strongman medley, where maybe you're doing some sandbag getups, maybe sandbag ground to over shoulder, sandbag over shoulder carry, sandbag zercher carries.

[00:24:14] Kevin Smith: Maybe if you have one of those sandbags that has handles on it, you can do some sandbag cleans, sandbag front squats, sandbag thrusters, whatever have you, as part of like a Metcon. Or you can just do, you can add sandbag work to like the end of a workout. Almost like you'd add carries to the end of a strength training session. You could do sandbag stuff. And in fact, in my upcoming program, my hypertrophy program, which should, by the way, be out in a few weeks, there are a couple days that have some sandbag work to it. Not that it's gonna make you super jacked, but I also think that doing some sandbag work is just a good manly trait or manly activity to do. And it's not gonna not make you jacked. It's it's not gonna detract, especially if the main meat and potatoes of the program is hypertrophy, which it is.

[00:25:00] Kevin Smith: So sandbag work, because a lot of people don't really do it, I would say is underrated, but following an entire program, just sandbag stuff, as a cop, you're missing out on a lot of potential gains that you could make in the gym with regular strength training as well as conditioning, but adding it into your training would be a really good thing. I have sandbag work in a few of my programs already. Jackazel 3.0 definitely has sandbag work. I'm not sure if 2.0 does. I think it might. SFAS, which I don't recommend if you're a cop, you shouldn't follow SFAS, but that has it. T850, my training team, if you want to try that out, it's a week, you can get the first week free. And there's usually sandbag. I think there's some sandbag work in this current phase or optional sandbag work for one of the strongman days and or Metcon days.

[00:25:50] Kevin Smith: But it's a really, really useful tool. Very useful tool, just not something I would do all of my training with. Next, overrated, underrated, tracking macros. I would say this is highly, highly underrated, maybe not for, or definitely not for ever, everything you eat for the rest of your life, but for periods of time and pretty much for anyone. Regardless of what your goals are, whether they are more performance-biased or health-biased, or you want to get shredded, you want to get jacked, you want to go into a gain phase, whatever have you, you want to get strong. Being aware of what you're taking in, having some checks and balance, some objective, not by your feelings like, oh, I think I'm eating enough, or I think I'm eating well, or I don't think I'm eating too much fat, I think I'm eating enough carbs. Guess what? You're probably thinking wrong.

[00:26:37] Kevin Smith: Most people are. Even people who have histories of tracking. Oftentimes, I've tracked plenty of times in my life for periods of time, and if I really want to dial things in, I track. And sometimes I'll have like a random tracking day when I'm eating intuitively, and it turns out I'm eating more fat than I think I am, less carbs than I think I am, and usually protein is usually pretty spot on. Usually it's a little higher than it needs to be. But that's me, and I'm like, all I do is think about nutrition and program nutrition for my clients, and I take my nutrition pretty pretty seriously. So the average person who's not obsessed with it like I am, they're probably a little bit off too, to a lot off. So I think it's really important to periodically do some objective tracking and weighing your food and ensuring that you are eating the right amount of calories for your goals, eating the right amount of macros, the my the right dispersion of macros.

[00:27:31] Kevin Smith: The average person, regardless of their goal, eats, I would say the average person listening to this, a type A individual who's really into fitness, usually performance bias, but maybe body composition as well. Usually, if they're not tracking, they are eating too much protein, more protein than they need. To be clear, you can eat way more protein than like one gram of bat per pound of body weight and be okay health-wise. However, if you're eating that much protein, like way over a gram per pound, it's not helping you gain anymore. And it is taking potential macros away from the carbs you could be eating. But anyway, they're eating pretty high protein, usually way too much fat, way more fat than they need, and way fewer carbs than they need. And it's usually by a long shot. For example, when I have nutrition clients, I sign them on.

[00:28:18] Kevin Smith: I have them do five days. The first week I have them do three weekdays, two weekend days of tracking. I tell them to eat normally and just track their food on my app. And 98% of them, I have to make significant changes. The other 2%, I still have to make some changes, but not all that much. Usually they're the the two percent that I don't have to change much have been listening to my podcast forever and following my stuff forever. So they've kind of applied it themselves. But usually guys are eating two to three times more fat every day than they need. Yes, two to three times more fat. And with that, they're eating maybe half the carbohydrates they could be eating for like optimizing their performance and their health and their body composition, etc.

[00:29:04] Kevin Smith: So I have to make significant changes. Now I don't like completely renovate everything and revamp it all at once. I make small incremental changes with these guys, especially guys that are eating way too little for their size. For example, I just had two clients sign on. One was 220 pounds, the other one's 160. The guy who weighs 160 is eating a thousand was eating a thousand calories more per day than the guy who weighs 220. So although there are certain like body weight equations that work pretty well for a general estimate on your daily maintenance, they're not perfect. And I've seen this play out many, many times. Guys are way bigger than another guy that comes on and they're eating way less, and they're both maintaining their body weight and their body composition at these calorie intakes.

[00:29:50] Kevin Smith: So I have to make some serious adjustments. Basically, a lot goes into it. It's thyroid, it's metabolic health. It's a long story why this occurs, but it is fixable. It just takes some time, it takes some expertise from a coach, and it can be done. I do it all the time with my guys, but it is kind of a painstaking long process, and it's a little bit uncomfortable, especially for guys that think that if they start eating a little bit more, they're just gonna get fat. That's usually not what happens. They might gain a little bit of water weight, but over time their maintenance bumps up, and we can then cut from a higher ceiling and they have more room. It's just a lot. There's a lot that goes into it. But either way, being aware of what you're taking in on a daily basis for periods of time when you have serious goals is a really, really important thing.

[00:30:36] Kevin Smith: And population wide, I mean, a lot of people, like three out of every four people that you're gonna see in America, are gonna be either overweight or obese. Now, it may not be that in your circle if you hang out with a lot of fit people, or if you live where I live in Southern Pines, North Carolina, most people take care of themselves. But we're population wide, American-wide, three out of four people, 75-ish percent, are overweight or obese. And it's not just because they don't track, but it is a lot of people, they think they're eating well and they think they're eating in a calorie deficit. But because they're not actually tracking, they're not doing it objectively, they're just going by what they think and feel. They're actually not, because physiologically, if you're eating in a calorie deficit, you can't gain weight. So, whether you think it or not, if you eat the food, whether you track it or not, you still ate the food, there's still calories in that food.

[00:31:27] Kevin Smith: So, anyway, I think it's a really good idea for anyone to track for periods of time. And some people will argue it's an eating disorder or it's leading to an eating disorder to track your calories, which is insanity. If you care about something, you're gonna want to track it, like your finances. No one would ever say like you're disordered because you're tracking your finances, your paychecks, your income, your investments, your credit card statements, things like that. That's not disordered. You care about saving more than you spend. Tracking it is a good way to do it. Same with calories. So I find it laughable when people think it is disordered. Yeah, certain people are more prone to becoming or getting eating disorders, but that doesn't mean like just anyone who goes and tracks is gonna have an eating disorder because of it. So, anyway, really good idea. Do you have to do it forever?

[00:32:13] Kevin Smith: No, but definitely underrated. What's up, guys? A 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. 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 are. 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, well, 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.

[00:33:09] Kevin Smith: 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. And I have tried dozens of them, and absolutely nothing touches MegaFit. 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.

[00:34:01] Kevin Smith: 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. 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 overrated, underrated, nasal breathing on zone two runs. I would say this is overrated if you are using it for a means of gauging your zone 2, but probably underrated if you are just trying to remain a little bit more calm. No one should have to breathe through their mouth on a zone 2 run.

[00:34:47] Kevin Smith: If you're in zone two, you should not be desperately needing to breathe through your mouth. And when you breathe through your nose, you remain in a more sympathetic state. You remain a little bit calmer than if you're breathing through your mouth. This is why people who breathe through their mouth throughout the day, they're oftentimes chest breathers as well, not like diaphragmatic belly breathers. They are often very, very anxious. And if they are mindful of their breathing and they breathe through their nose and they breathe with their diaphragm, their breathing kind of slows down a little bit. It makes them more relaxed, it makes them more parasympathetic, rest, relax, chill, and they feel less anxiety, they recover better from their training and so on and so forth, and they don't get made fun of for being mouth breathers. So generally, most of your life you want to breathe through your nose.

[00:35:33] Kevin Smith: Unless, of course, you're doing exercise that forces you to breathe through your mouth, which would be for a lot of people zone three, zone four, or higher. So, zone two, I mean, if it's like super cold out, you're really snotty, forcing yourself to breathe through your nose is impractical. It's not a huge deal. Like you can kind of when you're doing zone two, easy running or easy conditioning, you can kind of breathe the way you want to. But I personally prefer doing nose breathing, but I don't like go out of my way to make sure clients do it. I just think it's a good way to, in the margins, keep a little bit more calm. But a lot of people will say it's a good way to gauge being in zone two, and it can be for like a newer athlete, but people the more you practice it, the more you do it, you'll find that you can easily continue breathing through your nose into zone three.

[00:36:21] Kevin Smith: Some people even into zone four. Some people take it really over the top and they like try and do nasal breathing for all of their training. I think that's totally unnecessary. Basically, you want to breathe in a way that allows you to get the most oxygen into your body. But when you're in zone two, you don't really need to be doing that through your mouth. You shouldn't be needing to. Like it should be very easy for you to breathe through your nose. And as long as it's not snotty and cold, may as well do it, in my opinion. Next overrated, underrated, Miller Light and Glizzy at the turn. I don't know what glizzy is. At the turn, for those not aware, is usually on golf courses they have what's called a halfway house, or sometimes golf courses just go back by the clubhouse after the ninth hole before the tenth hole. And honestly, one of my biggest pet peeves on the golf course is when people spend way too much time at the turn.

[00:37:13] Kevin Smith: I am first of all, not I don't drink anymore, but even when I did, I usually didn't drink on the golf course. I play bad when I drink on the golf course. I'd rather go play golf and like have a good time and have a good time by playing well and not handicap myself by drinking. A lot of people who are just not good at golf, they just kind of use golf as an excuse to go get drunk. And cool if you want to do that, but like I'm not a huge fan of that. And I'm really not a huge fan of people taking a lot of time at the turn because it just backs everybody else up. And oftentimes, like if I'm playing by myself and a foursome is in front of me, they usually go into the turn and I just jump them and I don't give a fuck.

[00:37:59] Kevin Smith: And even if I'm playing as a two-some or a threesome, and people are gonna lolly gag at the turn, I'm just gonna jump ahead. Unless someone else, often some sometimes on weekends, this is why I don't usually play on weekends, unless I'm not in a hurry, I'm just kind of playing with friends. Oftentimes multiple groups will do that at the turn, and it just gets backed up, and I cannot stand slow play, and I cannot stand when people just don't give a shit about the people behind them. But either way, I digress. Miller Light for me, I mean, even if I still drank, I still wouldn't get Miller Lights. I'm not a huge fan of Miller Light. Never really drank light beer, other than like when I first started drinking in college when I was 21. I was much more of a beer snob, so I would drink IPAs and dark beers and things like that.

[00:38:45] Kevin Smith: But now I don't drink, now I don't really stop at the turn. Once in a while, maybe I'll get some sort of drink or something like that. Like if I'm running low on water and the course doesn't have water coolers out there. But usually my ninth hole to tenth hole is the exact same pace as it is any other two holes on the course. I just like to go play golf. I don't really care about all the other stuff that goes along with it. Now, if I'm at like a world renowned course like Pebble Beach or some other place that has like a famous certain courses, like very, very prestigious courses, have like famous types of food at the turn. In that case, yeah, I'll grab whatever it is, even if it's not healthy, if it's like a crappy, like I don't know, chili dog or something like that, but it's world renowned or something like that, then yeah, okay.

[00:39:30] Kevin Smith: But for the most part, I'm just playing through. So this one's overrated for me. Next overrated, underrated magnesium supplements. For most people who are watching this and listening to this, underrated if you are getting the right type of magnesium. Most of the magnesium, so first of all, most people who train hard are gonna be magnesium deficient. And if they don't take it, they usually are gonna notice things like sleep disturbances, you're not gonna sleep as soundly, you might get some more cramps, and it's not ideal. You want to have solid levels of magnesium. However, there are several forms of magnesium, and the one you find at grocery stores usually, if you just go get it off the grocery store shelf, it's gonna be magnesium oxide, which essentially does not actually do much other than make you poop.

[00:40:19] Kevin Smith: If you want a laxative, and there are better options for laxatives, but if you take magnesium oxide in very small doses, it's not gonna do anything, and it's probably not gonna make you poop. But if you take like 300, 400, 500 milligrams of magnesium oxide, you're probably gonna be going to the bathroom. And it's not very bioavailable. What you want is a highly bio bioavailable form of magnesium. So very, very good options are magnesium bisglycinate or magnesium glycinate, kind of the same thing. Magnesium threonate, that is one that crosses the blood-brain barrier. And then magnesium citrate is another really good one. I personally take magnesium glycinate pretty much every night. Sometimes I'll get a magnesium blend with multiple different types of magnesium in it.

[00:41:05] Kevin Smith: I think it's called, it's by bioptimizers. I think it's called magnesium, I can't remember what it's called. Mag breakthrough, magnesium breakthrough or something like that. But usually I just take bisglycinate in the evening, and I find it helps me kind of relax, chill out, sleep a little bit better. If you train hard, you sweat a lot, you're probably gonna benefit from taking a solid magnesium supplement. So for most people listening to this, definitely underrated. Next, overrated, underrated, 5-3-1 method for hybrid goals. Overrated, mainly because there's, as far as I know, no conditioning in the 5-3-1 method. Now, could you tailor the 5-3-1 method if you have your hybrid goals are mostly squat, bench, and deadlift gains plus running or whatever cardio gains, and you use the 5-3-1 method as the lifting portion, and then you added conditioning to it in a way that actually makes sense.

[00:42:02] Kevin Smith: Ideally, you're not doing this yourself unless you're a fitness expert, and it could work, yes. But 5-3-1, the only 5-3-1 I know is just lifting, and it's more of a beginner style lifting strength gain program. I'm usually not a fan of percentage-based training, and I think 5-3-1 is there could be a version that uses RPE, which would be a better option, in my opinion. But I don't like percentage-based training for most people unless you're using a percentage range and you're attaching an RPE to it, because everyone's percentage is gonna fluctuate based on their preparedness. Especially like this question or this prompt said, hybrid goals. When you are also doing conditioning, your weekly preparedness for lifts is going to fluctuate tremendously.

[00:42:49] Kevin Smith: You're not just lifting, you're also doing conditioning. So some weeks you're gonna feel great, some weeks you're not gonna feel great. And if you're just shooting for this exact percentage for this exact amount of reps, usually at best case scenario, you're gonna be frustrated sometimes because you're not gonna be able to hit it, you're gonna have to fall short if you're doing the right thing and stopping when you know you're just it's not, you don't have it that day. Sometimes, oftentimes with type A individuals, when they are using percentage-based training and it's just one number and one amount of reps, they're gonna do it at all costs, no matter what. Even if their form breaks down, even if they're they get injured on rep three, they're like, oh, I could probably grind out these next two reps. Not intelligent. So either way, you're gonna be frustrated. Best case scenario, you're just frustrated. Worst case scenario, you're frustrated plus injured, and therefore probably even more frustrated.

[00:43:37] Kevin Smith: So I'm not a fan of that in particular. Can 531 work if you're just starting out strength training? It's not like a true beginner, it's more of like a beginner post beginner stage intermediate style strength building program. It's not like a strong list five by five or something like really, really simple like that. But if your main goals are strength and you're that. Level of lifting can be great. Would I consider it a good option for hybrid, even if you try and intertwine some conditioning? Not my preferred technique. Next one, carbon plated boots. Super overrated. Probably the one of the most overrated things ever on the show. Here's the deal. When you are rucking, if you're doing a time trial, for example, this would be like hypothetically a carbon-plated boot, kind of like a super shoe, except in boot form, would theoretically help you ruck run faster and get a better time on a let's say 12-mile ruck or during gate week at SFAS.

[00:44:39] Kevin Smith: That being said, unlike running, let's say a five-mile or a two-mile, and I'll get into carbon-plated shoes here in a second, which are also overrated for people listening to this, but either way, it's not like you're going all out the entire time, like you're going at your threshold pace for like a five mile or faster than your threshold pace, like you're doing as fast as you possibly can the entire time. When you're doing a ruck time trial, and it's longer, and you're not a super freak that is able to just run the entire thing, but even then, they sh don't need carbon-plated boots. You're gonna be running a little bit, you're gonna be trotting a little bit, shuffling a little bit, walking a little bit. Whether you have carbon-plated boots or not, that give you a little bit more spring, does not make a difference.

[00:45:25] Kevin Smith: And even if it does, it might be a five-second difference. And I've never used these and I don't recommend them to my clients, but sometimes my clients get them anyway. And all I've ever heard back is that they A, fall apart apart really easily, they are not very durable, and B, they tear up my guy's feet. And oftentimes guys have knee issues, shin issues, etc., from wearing them because they kind of change your gait a little bit because they're a little bit more springy. So to think that it's even worthwhile, they're usually more expensive too than regular boots, to think it's even worthwhile to consider these is just insane. You're majoring in the minors. You want to get better at rucking? Fix your rucking training, fix your recovery habits, sleep more, eat more, actually eat enough carbohydrates.

[00:46:14] Kevin Smith: Don't eat so much fat so you can eat more carbohydrates without eating too many calories. Fix your lifting training, fix your running training, stop doing so much damn damn training, stop building your own program as someone who's not an expert in programming. That is gonna make you a better rucker than wearing carbon fiber boots. But even further than that, carbon plated shoes would be a little bit more practical and a little bit there's there's a time and place for them. Typically, that time and place is for like a really high-level runner who has maxed out everything else. Their running economy is great, they have a super high lactate threshold, they have high VO2 max, they treat running as a skill, they've been doing it for years and years, they have really high weekly volume, their training is dialed in, they sleep 10 hours, 9 hours, 10 hours a night, they eat 700, 800 grams of carbs a day, they live, eat, and breathe running, and they've done, they've checked off every other box.

[00:47:15] Kevin Smith: That runner using a carbon plated shoe can potentially run a little bit faster. We'll probably run a little faster in a race or in their training runs, and that's great. But for anyone else who like I've just rarely met anyone who's that dialed in, that it's gonna make any real difference. Like if you got 155 cadence and every time you go out and run speed work, you're just going all out and you're turning into sprints. Or if every threshold run is a time trial, or if your zone two runs, you're 188 heart rate, you have no business flirting with carbon-plated shoes. You have bigger fish to fry, is what I should say. You're doing the crazy stuff outside the gym, you're not recovering well.

[00:48:02] Kevin Smith: Those are your bigger fish to fry. You're gonna make way more run progress, just going like going back to the run rucking, the boots, you're gonna make more way more run progress by covering those bases than you are by getting a$350 pair of shoes that are probably honestly a lot of guys that don't have their I's dotted and T's crossed when it comes to all the other things that go into running. When they get these super shoes, they end up hurting themselves because it changes your gait up a little bit. And you gotta kind of learn the new gait and then the new running mechanics when you're wearing them. So going back to the original carbon-plated boots, do not waste your money, do not waste your time. Get a pair of boots that are normal boots, that are comfortable, that are durable, that'll last you, and do the groundwork, the needle-moving things, not worry about an extra 2% or whatever they claim in the boots.

[00:48:56] Kevin Smith: It's probably bullshit anyway. Next one, overrated, underrated, eastern block training method for strength gains, squat, bench, deadlift. So, there are lots and lots of different eastern block training methods. And some are good, some are good, some are bad. Some are really like unbelievable, the best in the world. So underrated, I guess maybe properly rated if you're a fitness fanatic, underrated if you are just getting into it and you're like looking where to start. Yuri Verkoshansky and Vladimir Vladimir Zatskiorsky are by far the two best strength and conditioning authors of all time. They have a handful of different books that you can read. They're definitely dry and you gotta be a nerd to actually enjoy them, but they're incredible. You can probably get them off Amazon.

[00:49:43] Kevin Smith: So learning how to program for strength is honestly like where I think anyone should who wants to learn how to program should start because strength is objective. You either got stronger or you did not. Training for hypertrophy, for example, there's a lot of different ways to skin that. Of course, training for running, that's a different thing. Training for hybrid, you gotta be you gotta be an expert in lots of different things in order to put a good hybrid program, a good hybrid training plan, and actually understand what you're doing and have some rhyme and reason behind it together. But Eastern block training methods, there are many. So things like the small love squat program, which is an insanely high volume, high frequency, high-intensity squat program where you usually, if you're gonna follow that, you're gonna break yourself down.

[00:50:30] Kevin Smith: You might make some strength gains on it, but afterwards you're just gonna be completely destroyed. Anyone who's like come was really obsessed with lifting in 2008 to 2012-ish has probably followed Smalloth. I've tried it and yeah, I made some gains for a little while, but I just it just broke me off. And it's gonna break most people off, the vast majority of people. Now, Eastern block lifters are some of the best lifters of all time. So obviously they have really, really good programming. That being said, it's kind of self-selective. What do I mean by that? Well, oftentimes they will get like a crew of a hundred people and put them through their training method, their training programs, and six of them will be able to get through it because it's so intense and so insane.

[00:51:18] Kevin Smith: In that case, for most people, it's not really gonna be a very good idea. But learning the basics from books by those authors is a really good idea. And there are certain programs, I can't think of any off the top of my head, from the Eastern Bloc, like old Soviet Union era programming for strength that are very, very high quality, but not all of them are small, and then there's some other sort of iconic old school programs with like very, very Russian names that are super crazy intense. German volume training, I guess that's not Eastern Bloc, but it's kind of similar. I mean, anyone you can try those things if you want, but you're probably not gonna fare very well. You're probably gonna run yourself into the ground andor hurt yourself andor just get some sort of nagging issue.

[00:52:06] Kevin Smith: But I can't really say overrated, underrated just because it's not specific enough. It's very ambiguous, but certain parts of it are overrated, other parts are underrated. Overrated, underrated, compression boots for recovery. Another overrated one. I mean, these are a little bit better than things like taking an ice bath right after a lifting session or a run because you think it's gonna help you recover, it can help you feel better, but it is gonna blunt the inflammatory process, which, if you're trying to make adaptations and gains, is not very smart. Now, if you're doing something like a competition where you go hard one day and you got to perform again the next day, you don't really care about adaptations. You just want to get to where you're feeling better. You don't you want to actually keep inflammation down. So doing a cold shower or ice bath or something like that would be a good idea.

[00:52:52] Kevin Smith: Not cold showers, totally different. Cold shower is not going to really blunt the process, but like an ice bath, cold plunge, or something like that. Compression pants are a little different in that they don't blunt the inflammatory process. They can help increase blood flow to those areas. So they can help a little bit in the margins. That being said, they are way, way, way down the list of what I would consider the biggest needle movers for recovery, especially because most people are nowhere near maxing out on their sleep, their nutrition, their hydration, their training load management, their training volume management. Most people are all over the map with those things. Their stress management. I forgot that one. You would be way, way, way better suited focusing on those things first and foremost before you go spend seven, eight hundred bucks on a paranormal tax.

[00:53:43] Kevin Smith: If you are super dialed in across the board, if you're a unicorn, that is getting great sleep, high quality sleep, going to bed and waking up at the same time almost every day, if not every day, doing the right things before bed, getting sunlight in the morning, cutting your caffeine off, not drinking alcohol, things like that. You are eating plenty of calories, plenty of carbohydrates for your goals and your needs. You're doing, you're dropping needless stressors from your life, you're doing stress management techniques, whether it's yoga nidra, journaling, breath work, walks in nature to actually manage the stress that you can't drop from your life, so on and so forth. You're following a really, really sound program and you want a little bit more in the margins as far as recovery is concerned. Yes, those can help. Normatech pants, or if you want to go a little cheaper and lower tech, you can get some 2XU compression pants.

[00:54:32] Kevin Smith: Those help as well. But they're not going to really move the needle if you don't have your other big rocks covered, like sleep nutrition and training load management. So focus on those things first for 98% of people listening to those, to this, focus on those things, and then once those are dialed in for on a consistent basis, then I would say it's reasonable to try and find things that will help recovery in the margins. And I would consider this to be something that helps in the margins. Alright, let's do three more. Overrated, underrated, stretching for knee pain. Very overrated. I have had more clients by a lot. I've had more clients hurt themselves doing their own stretches than running, rucking, lifting, any sort of actual training combined.

[00:55:25] Kevin Smith: Listen to that again. More clients have hurt themselves stretching than any actual training. Rocking, running, lifting, whatever have you, combined. So that does not mean stretching is bad. What it does mean is when you tweak something or you hurt something, or if you're in pain somewhere, going about stretching it is not a very good idea unless a physical therapist who's actually seen you and assessed you and knows what's going on tells you specifically how to and what to stretch. Even though it's the intuitive thing that most people do when they hurt themselves or they tweak themselves or they have like extra soreness somewhere, the intuitive thing to do is stretch it, that does not mean it's right.

[00:56:13] Kevin Smith: In fact, at very best, it's not gonna help. In most cases, it's usually gonna make it worse. I actually just talked to a client that I'm onboarding this week. I talked to him in our original first call yesterday, and he can't run right now. And guess why? He was doing a mobility program. He hurt himself doing mobility. So again, stretching is not bad. Doing mobility is not bad. Being more mobile is not a bad thing. Being more flexible to an extent can help. That's stretching versus mobility. Mobility is active range of motion, flexibility is passive range of motion, both have their time and place. A lot of people think when they stretch, they're doing like passive stretching, that they're helping their mobility. You're not, you're helping your flexibility, which is different.

[00:56:59] Kevin Smith: Either way, these things aren't inherently bad. But when you're hurt, or if you think stretching and mobility are gonna help you recover better, or if you're really sore and you think that like, let's say your hamstrings are sore and you go and stretch them because you think it's gonna help. It's not. You're already inflamed in that area. Stretching, although it's very, very minor if you aren't doing anything crazy, it's still going to further stress that area, further inflame that area. So doing that when you're hurt, when you have inflammation somewhere, and you especially if it's the knee and you have no idea like what it actually is, what's causing it, if it's an acute knee injury, that's one thing, but you still shouldn't stretch it. Oftentimes, if people have like chronic knee issues, it can stem from poor mobility in the hips and or the ankles.

[00:57:49] Kevin Smith: Usually that's what it stems from, because the knee is a hinge joint, whereas the ankles and the hips articulate. So usually with hinge joints, when you have pain there and it's not like an acute knee injury or an acute elbow injury, for example, it comes from dysfunction or lack of mobility in the joint above and or below. So, although this is not like an acute treatment, like, oh, I have this knee issue that I don't know where it came from, it's not like this is an acute knee injury, it's just knee pain. You're not just gonna solve it by like making doing some ankle and hip mobility, but long term improving your ankle and hip mobility can be a really good thing. My two favorite ways to do this: one for hip mobility, lifting with a full range of motion, especially squatting, squatting very, very deep.

[00:58:35] Kevin Smith: You can also sit in a squat several times throughout the day. 9090s are a really good hip mobility drill, like active 9090s where you're pushing into the ground, you're bringing that back heel up off the ground. And then for ankle mobility, the by far dorsiflexion is usually going to be the cause or one of the factors that goes into the issues. The best way to improve your dorsiflexion is loaded dorsiflexion, which another way to do that is calf raises with a very long pause at the bottom. You're actually trying to drive your top of your feet up towards your shin, so you're dorsal flexing, and you're doing like five to eight reps, really low rep range, really heavy, really, really long pause at the bottom, slow lowering. That is a great way to A, strengthen and build your calves, but also to improve your ankle mobility. And it's a good way to like kill bird two birds with one stone.

[00:59:23] Kevin Smith: So, all that to say, when you hurt yourself, whether it's your knee or any part of your body, my recommendation would not be to just go and do random stretches. And my clients who have hurt themselves doing this have done it despite me telling them when they let me know, like I tweak something or I hurt something. Okay, don't stretch it. Guess what? They still stretch it, and guess what? They make it worse. And it goes from like a sore or tweaked or slightly inflamed area to a freaking injury that they have to actually take time off certain training that they otherwise need to be doing or want to be doing because they stretched, despite me telling them not to. And just make sure when you're stretching, you're doing mobility. You are doing it for the right reasons, you know the reasons behind it. You're not just doing it because someone told you to do it or because you find it virtuous.

[01:00:12] Kevin Smith: A lot of people think like, oh, I do my mobility, I do my stretching. Like, why is it your mobility? Why is it your stretching? It's not like this virtuous thing to go and do all this mobility and all this stretching. If you guys can't tell, I'm very passionate about this because so many people over-index the shit out of it. Guys will go do mobility and then not lift with a full range of motion. It blows my mind. Or guys will go and warm up for longer than they train for, and that blows my mind too. Or they'll think like one of the most important things that they can do is stretch and do mobility. If you were to take, let's see, the four what people consider like really four four really important things as far as overall robust fitness is concerned: mobility, strength, cardio, and power.

[01:01:04] Kevin Smith: If you were to take stretching away from that, and you you're assuming the person who's strength training is lifting with a full range of motion, if you took stretching away from that, you'd still have a very robust individual. If you were to take any of the other three away from that, you would have a very, very lacking and non-balanced individual. You stretch, you lift, and you do power. Where's your cardio? You stretch, you do cardio, and you do power. What strength are you building that power on? You stretch, you strength train, and you do cardio. I mean, that's a little bit better, but you're still missing out on power, and power is a super important thing for being an effective human and also longevity. So it's not this thing that it's not this like magic thing that is going to solve all your problems, or people will over-train, they'll train way too much, and they think that doing all this mobility is just gonna get them out of jail free.

[01:01:54] Kevin Smith: That is not how it works. It's just not. So make sure you're when you're gonna stretch, when you're gonna do mobility, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. You do it in a reasonable manner, if at all. Lift with a freaking full range of motion. Remember that the training you do, not the preparation for training, but the training you do is what's gonna move the needle. That is all I'll say about that. But yeah, if you hurt your knee, don't stretch it. Next, overrated underrated, carbs before bed. Very underrated. Assuming you're not eating a ton of carbs by themselves right before you go to sleep. So we're talking like carbs with dinner, a higher carb dinner. Really, really good idea, mainly because carbs release insulin, and insulin can kind of increase your blood levels of tryptophan. Most people are familiar with tryptophan from Turkey on Thanksgiving.

[01:02:43] Kevin Smith: Honestly, most people want to sleep after Thanksgiving, not because of that, but because they just ate so much food. But carbs can help increase levels of tryptophan, which is a precursor for serotonin, which is like a feel-good, relaxing hormone. And serotonin can help stimulate melatonin. And everyone knows melatonin as a supplement, but guess what? It's also something your body creates and it helps you fall asleep. So oftentimes people on low-carb diets will struggle to sleep. And this is one reason. If they were to either eat almost all their carbs that they are eating in the evening, or even eat more carbs, most people listening to this, I hope you're not on a low-carb diet, but just an example, if they were to eat a little bit more carbs at nighttime, they usually sleep better. And this is one reason why.

[01:03:29] Kevin Smith: So, really, really good idea. Again, assuming you're not eating like 200 grams of carbs by themselves without any protein and fat right before dinner. You want to generally eat, you want to finish eating at least like an hour before dinner, maybe two, unless you're eating a really small amount. But a lot of people think like, yeah, carbs at nighttime will help me work out or get a good training session in tomorrow, especially if you're training like early in the morning, which they will, but also they can help sleep. And that's like a really underrated, less discussed benefit to eating carbs at nighttime. No, they're not gonna make you fat. The only thing that makes you fat is eating in a calorie surplus. Eating carbs at nighttime used to be this like myth: like, you can't eat carbs after 6 p.m. or else you're just gonna store them all as fat. Totally not how it works. You can have carbs at nighttime. The only way to gain body fat is to eat in a calorie surplus.

[01:04:17] Kevin Smith: Doesn't matter if you're eating carbs in the evening. Next and final one, training with bands and chains. Super underrated if you are doing it for the right reasons. And oh, by the way, the right reasons is not just to look cool. A lot of people will train, especially with chains, not so much with bands, but they'll train with chains just to look cool. And sometimes people will also take bands a little bit too far. I'll give you guys some examples. So the good thing about if you set them up properly and you know what you're doing, like I said, very, very underrated. There's a couple really, really beneficial things about bands and chains or reverse bands. You can also use reverse bands. I like reverse bands on certain things like a hack squat or a Smith machine press, something like that. So, what it can do is enhance the resistance profile.

[01:05:06] Kevin Smith: So we'll talk bands first, but the chains are kind of similar. Let's say you have a reverse band on an inclined bench press, let's say flat bench press on a Smith machine. So you put a band on the top beam of the Smith machine, and then you have a little clip, like a carabiner, and you put it around the bar. What that does is as you lower it and the band tension increases, it deloads the bottom a little bit. On presses and squats, you're gonna be weakest in the very bottom. So when the bar's really close to your chest, you're weaker there. Or when you're at the bottom of a squat, you're weaker there. But we're talking bench right now. So I'm weaker here. Also, my shoulders are a lot more vulnerable in the last couple inches that I'm lowering it and the first couple inches off my chest, especially if you're doing it the way most people do, where you go super fast and that that transition from eccentric to concentric, not a good idea.

[01:05:58] Kevin Smith: But either way, your shoulders are more. Vulnerable and you're weaker. So it's a good idea to have the bar a little deloted there. And as you push up, the band tension decreases and it gets heavier as you get stronger. So it matches what's called your strength profile. On a squat, like a hack squat, for example, ideally you put a reverse band on a hack squat because as you lower it, you get close to the bottom. Again, your knees are the most vulnerable down there. Even if you are going nice and slow, which most people don't, most people bounce, but if you're going cam strings to calves and you're going nice and slow at the bottom, you're going to be a weaker, your knees are also going to be a little bit more vulnerable. And so it deloads that part of the lift. And as you push back up, the band tension decreases and it gets heavier.

[01:06:44] Kevin Smith: So it matches the strength profile. Chains kind of do the same thing, they just have a very different feel. So let's say you're doing a bench press with chains, just a regular bench. Usually you don't put bands or chains on a Smith machine. You could, but let's say regular bench. As you go down, if you set them up right, so ideally you set them up so very like one link, maybe two links of the chain is on the ground at the very beginning, like when you're up here. As you go down, more of the chain goes on the ground, and therefore the bar gets lighter. As you push back up, the chain links come off the ground and the bar gets heavier. Really, really good for matching the strength profile and also deloing the bottom, making it a little bit healthier on your shoulders.

[01:07:29] Kevin Smith: Just a different feel. And then bands like regular bands where you actually attach the bands to the floor and you push up, very similar to reverse bands, it just has a different feel. The reverse band is kind of slowing down the eccentric a little bit. It's like deloading the eccentric a little bit more. Whereas the bands pulling down, it's it's kind of yanking down on the eccentric, but because the bands are less tense at the bottom, it's still deloading. It's kind of the same thing, it just has a different feel. All three of these have different feels. The classic use of bands and chains is for like speed training, like West Side Barbell conjugate method, and that's great too, but they are very underrated for things like dips. I love, love, love chain dips. I program these often. Not everyone has access to chains, but most people, when they think chain dips, they think, oh, look cool.

[01:08:18] Kevin Smith: I'm gonna put them around my neck and do dips like that. That's not what I'm talking about. Chain dips, you actually use a dip belt. And if you've done weighted dips before, usually you use the dip belt with a little chain on it. Talking a different chain, the chain on the dip belt, it goes through either a barbell plate or you maybe loop it around the end of a dumbbell, so you're doing weighted dips. What you can do is attach a chain to that, like an actual lifting chain, a heavier chain, like you'd put on a bench press bar, to that dip belt. And it does the same thing. So you have like two links maybe at the very top of the dip on the ground. You gotta set it up properly, so it's like that. As you go down, more of the chain goes on the floor and it deloads it. Most people, if you have shoulder pain during a dip, it's probably gonna be down here at the very bottom because that is where your shoulders are most vulnerable.

[01:09:10] Kevin Smith: Even if you do a dip properly, it's still a good idea, and your shoulders don't hurt, it's still a good idea because you're weaker in this position. More of the chain is on the ground. As you push up, the chain comes up off the ground, it gets heavier. So your chest and your quads are gonna have a strength profile that is weaker at length or when the bar is closer to you or at the bottom of a squat, whatever have you, and stronger further away. Now, sometimes people will also use these for, especially bands for pulling movements. You can use bands for a deadlift a little different, but for upper body pulling movements, you're missing the forest for the trees because your back has different, your back muscles, most of them have a different strength profile than your chest and your quads.

[01:09:59] Kevin Smith: Your back is usually gonna be strongest when you're fully lengthened. So if you're doing a row when the machine or the barbell or the dumbbells are furthest away from you, or if you're doing a pull-up. If you think about where you fail a pull-up, usually it's not like the very beginning. Usually you struggle to get the you struggle to get your chin up over the bar. Oftentimes with a row, you can do the beginning of the row, but as you're getting closer to failure, you can't fully get all the way to the contracted position because the back muscles get weaker as it gets closer to you or as you pull yourself up on a pull-up. So by using a band, you are further worsening the you're you're basically making the profile backwards. And a lot of machines don't understand the difference.

[01:10:45] Kevin Smith: This is a very nuanced thing and a very nerdy thing. A lot of machine engineers don't understand the difference between a pushing strength profile and a pulling strength profile. So lots of back machines like hammer strength machines and honestly most brand machines are heavier where they should be lightest, and they are lightest where they should be heaviest. So by adding a band, you are further enhancing that and making it even worse. So using a band on a row just kind of shows you don't really know what you're doing. But some machines, like prime machines, have multiple different pegs. If you load most of the load on the top peg, it's gonna be heavier at the beginning, lighter at the end, which is how it should be. But those are very, very rare breed of machines. So, anyway, roundabout way of saying when set up properly and not just used to look cool bands and chains are super underrated.

[01:11:36] Kevin Smith: So, hopefully, you guys enjoyed that nerdy lesson. Anyway, I will be back soon with another episode. Thank you guys for the awesome topics. Thank you for if you're still here sticking around. Don't forget to check out that sale if you need a program or an ebook. And hope you guys have a great week. Till then, Terminator. 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.