Welcome everyone to the Noble Just Bacon podcast.

I am your host, Dr.

Allen, and with me here today is Coach Beth to answer all your burning health and fitness questions from around the social media world.

This is a rapid fire episode and we have a ton of great topics to cover today, so let's get rolling.

First topic today, when going to an intensity of RIR zero to 1, essentially close to failure, do you go until your form breaks down or do you grind through the Rep no matter how it looks?

This is a great question because I think that the answer to this is one of the things that holds so many people back from getting in the right intensity to be able to benefit from weight training.

Essentially, I think that when you first start out, you want to focus on perfecting form as much as possible.

So the first six months or so, get your form down.

Don't necessarily worry about pushing within proximity to failure.

You know, 01 RIR.

Once you're beyond that, you've established a base of how you move, you've drilled in the way that you properly move within the exercises that you're doing.

A little bit of form breakdown is fine.

Modest amounts of form breakdown are fine.

And you should expect that when you are getting close to failure.

So when you're working at zero to 1 RIR or reps in reserve, you expect if you're at failure or one Rep away from failure, that's an extremely difficult set to perform.

So if you're doing this and you have absolutely perfect form, I would say that's probably a sign that you're not at 0 or one RIR.

Your form should be breaking down a bit.

A good rough guideline for this is when you're looking at reps in reserve or how many reps away you are from failure.

At about four or five reps away from failure, you will start to see velocity on the bar or the weight slow down.

That's just typical.

Now, there's obviously individual variation there, right?

But when we look at trained lifters, the majority of lifters will start to see velocity slow down in the bar four or five reps away.

You can watch your videos, take a video of yourself from the side, watch the bar speed, watch the weight speed, see where it starts to slow down and then start counting how many reps you see.

Once that starts to happen, you're usually four or five reps away.

So that's a good way to give you an identification of where you may be.

But to answer the question straight up, I mean, you're going to see some issues as far as the textbook perfect form and what you're showing.

And as long as it still feels OK, as long as it as it you feel under control, I would say push through it.

I don't see any issues with little bits of form breakdown.

And the examples that this person gave were like squats, knees caving in butt wink.

I wanted to bring these up specifically because knees caving in when you're pushing out of the hole isn't necessarily even a problem.

In fact, Chinese weight lifters teach it's called knee valgus and it's it's intentional knee valgus because we see in really heavy lifters, some amount of knee valgus is actually functional.

And we've had physiotherapists, for better or worse, kind of scare people and into movement fears.

You know, those constant phrases of butt wink, you know, your butt slightly rounding under at the bottom of the squat.

That's not necessarily a big deal in most people.

Knees caving a little bit is not necessarily a big deal.

I mean, if your knees are caving immensely and you're a brand new lifter, yeah, that's something that will cue you out of most likely.

That doesn't mean that a little bit of knee valgus when you're pushing out of the bottom of the hole, when you're at the very bottom of your squat, having your knees shift in slightly and then kind of wave back out.

It's almost like an in out motion as you go up is actually a a functional movement.

I mean, this is what the body does a lot of the times to produce strength and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.

So I think that a lot of times when lifters, both beginner and intermediate, look at their lips and they say, OK, well, what I'm doing here, my form is really breaking down.

It may not even be breaking down.

You might be freaked out over something that, you know, somebody that that coaches at the YMCA their entire lives has been saying because that's just what they were told when they were coming up.

And we've learned over the years that there's a lot of variance in the way that these movements look.

And having a little bit of form breakdown is not necessarily a bad thing.

Anything to add to that?

No, I totally agree.

All right, so the way this question is asked is a little off, so I want to paraphrase and hopefully I get the right meaning here.

The question is asking for how to set up weight training when you have a repetitive use type of motion in your daily life and to prepare you for that in a way that can both make things easier and prevent or lower injury risk.

The example given here is this is a, a mother who is dealing with a a special niece child and she's consistently carrying the child on one hip.

So the concern here is the same concern that we see with a lot of people, you know, jobs that have repetitive movements in nature, you know, issues like this.

If you're constantly working on one side for whatever reason, people will ask questions of, you know, how do I bulletproof myself essentially?

And the answer is you don't necessarily do anything special.

I mean, weight training itself is what is the most reliable thing to do to reduce injury risk.

Just because you're carrying somebody on one hip, you know, throughout the day doesn't necessarily mean that you have to train the other hip.

Maybe what you do is you switch that hip to give yourself the best chance possible to have a little bit of relief on the one side.

But general weight training in the same protocols that you would use regardless of whether or not you have those demands is what you should be going for anyways.

Because you're going to be auto regulating in the way that you program.

And if you've got, you know, a little bit of a of a, an added injury or niggling injury in those areas, maybe what you do is you lower the amount of volume that you do for that, for the musculature that's being worked there.

Maybe you up it in another area, but I would be hesitant to tell somebody to change up protocols when things are working and when people are functioning just fine in everyday life.

Because general weight training is the exact right thing that you should be doing to make yourself more adept at doing these types of things in your daily life.

All strength is functional so if your weight training.

Yeah, I mean the entire idea of functional versus non functional training is wrong from the start and you know there isn't.

For this specific person's quandary, if if you're lifting, if you're in the gym, lifting weights, like it's going to mitigate a lot of what you're doing carrying your kid on one side versus the other.

So that's what I mean by by that phrase.

It Yeah, well, think about the fact.

That you person like, that's the whole point of weight training.

I mean to think about the fact that when you get stronger, it's going to make carrying that child easier over time.

So building strength is the right way to be able to handle this type of thing.

You know, when you're first starting out, if this is somebody that's, hey, I'm just now getting into weightlifting, as she's saying, you're going to feel tired, you're going to feel fatigued.

It does get better.

You become more and more adept in your day-to-day life just from building strength.

So when she says she's newbies and she's a newbie in terms of training age, it gets better.

Keep going.

You're doing the exact right thing by getting into strength training and it just requires time at this point and consistently building on that.

Why am I so much weaker if I work out in the afternoon versus my normal training time at first thing in the morning?

There have been multiple studies that have looked at the way that timing effects adaptation strength and the way people feel with regards to when they do it during the day.

There's good news and there's bad news.

The good news is you are going to adapt to this if you give it enough time.

If you change the time of day, the bad news is that you're pretty much going to notice it like you are noticing.

You will always feel weaker working out at another time of day than what you are used to.

Typically going from the morning to the afternoon is a lot easier than going from the afternoon to the morning.

In the studies that have looked at this, when people go from training in the afternoon religiously to training first thing in the morning, and we see this a lot of times with people that are just getting into training and are, you know, trying to make it work with the busy work schedule, maybe training before work is the right move.

For me, training early is the right move because I find that if I train earlier in the day, I'm more likely to have a better workout and to get it in.

The problem that people see is that if you're used to training in the afternoon and you go into the morning, it feels like you have no strength and it will feel like that for two or three months of consistent training and then it starts to alleviate.

So in these studies that have looked at this, they found that you do habituate to it.

You do become used to training at a different time.

It just takes training at that time regularly.

So if you are consistently switching things up, you're going to be fine even doing that.

But if you're doing like one offs where OK, well, I need to train in the afternoon for whatever reason, or I need to train in the morning for whatever reason, you can pretty much expect that you're probably not going to feel as strong.

And that's normal.

And that's OK.

If you start to do that long term, it's going to alleviate knowing that you're going to feel a little bit weaker.

I mean, you still go in and you do the best that you can do.

So whether or not you're feeling a little bit weaker, don't get down on yourself.

Just try to hit those intensity marks that you're trying to hit.

Try to hit the weight that you've been doing, you know, previously and and build up in your warmups to see how you're feeling and just make it happen.

You know, so good news, bad news, but it does work out over time.

Does contracting your shoulder blade while doing a chest exercise engage your chest more?

This is a good question with chest because there's a bit of nuance to how you hit the pecs as far as movements go to get the most out of them.

When the question is does retracting your shoulder blade allow you to gain to the chest more?

Yes and no.

It's the reason that you retract the shoulder blades is because it actually protects the shoulder.

Does it engage the chest more secondarily?

It does.

It secondarily engages the chest more because you create a more stable base.

Therefore you're able to lift a heavier amount of weight.

So from a a load standpoint, it allows you to hit the chest more readily, but you're specifically contracting the shoulder blades to protect the shoulder itself under very, very heavy load.

Now, the reason I wanted to talk about this is because there's some nuance here that you can put into play when you're training at home that can make a lot of sense and actually give you better progress in building your chest.

This is true for pressing exercises.

For fly type exercises, you actually do not want to be retracting your shoulder blades throughout that entire movement.

When you think about how the PEC fibers work, it pulls that shoulder blade and that shoulder girdle medial to the body.

It pulls the shoulder blade to the midline to fully engage that PEC.

If you allow the fly to have your shoulder free moving, you can pull that shoulder blade more towards the center of your chest as you complete the wrap.

So when you're doing this as a press, retracting and depressing the shoulder makes a lot of sense.

When you're doing this as a family, this is where I see people usually make their mistakes.

They will do flies in the same way that they do a chest press where they keep everything retracted and pinned down without realizing that you're actually lowering the amount of PEC fiber activation, the mechanical tension on the PEC's.

And you can do that in a family scenario without causing issues to the shoulder itself.

So be conscious of the exercise that you're doing and then make adjustments based on that.

But pressing with a retracted shoulder blade makes sense to protect the health of the shoulder in your last sets.

Is it OK to drop weight to achieve number of reps?

If we're programming multiple sets, you will often find that those earlier sets you are stronger on because fatigue builds up over time.

So what I would look towards when tracking your exercises long term in your training notebook is keep notes of what you're lifting every single set you know.

I did £100 the first set, 100 lbs the 2nd 95, the 3rd 90 to the 4th.

It is common if you're maintaining the same Rep range across the sets to see weight drop by the end.

It doesn't always happen, but it can happen and that's OK as long as you're trying to to fight towards proximity to failure.

That zero to two RIR for non beginners, you're doing exactly what you need to do.

But that will often come with having to adjust the weight if you're trying to hit a Rep target.

If you're not trying to hit a Rep target and you're trying to keep weight steady, you can do that too.

But then you will likely see reps drop off towards the end if you're really pushing yourself on those earlier sets.

So this is a good question because a lot of people have issues with getting the most out of their training because they think, OK, well, if I've chosen 135 lbs to start off this exercise, I'm going to stay there the entire time.

And then they're getting 10 reps, 10 reps, 10 reps, 10 reps without realizing that, OK, well, if I was feeling better, I could have gone up.

If I was feeling a little bit worse, maybe go down.

And that's how you ought to regulate each set.

What are the optimal percentages of dietary fats in a deficit?

So dietary fat, like protein, is a necessary micronutrient or necessary macronutrient.

You have to have a certain amount in your body to maintain overall health and performance.

When you're shooting for dietary fats, .3G per pound of body weight should be your floor unless you're obese.

If you're obese, you can dip below that.

We don't have specific recommendations, but when you are, when you're obese, you have more stored fats that you can pull from for purposes that your body needs.

If you're a normal weight, you know you only have 1015 lbs to lose.

If you're lean .3 lbs point 3 grams of dietary fat per pound of body weight.

You have to hit these numbers because it is necessary for hormone production, for immune function, for micronutrient absorption.

I mean, there are a lot of fat soluble vitamins you need fat in your diet to absorb.

And so, you know, Beth and I can probably both attest to the fact that we see this issue more so in people that have had a history of competitive bodybuilding than anything else.

And one of the issues that we see this in the competitive bodybuilding crowd, the reason that we see this is because a lot of the coaches in competitive bodybuilding are used to working with people on steroids.

And when you're on steroids, you don't need as high of a percentage as a base for dietary fats.

Now, I'm not saying that that .3 grams is your prescription.

That's the floor.

You can certainly eat more if it fits within your calorie allotments, but you don't typically want to go below that because that's where we start to see some of the effects on things like hormone health.

So if you're talking with a coach that has a history of working with competitive bodybuilders, you might see them recommending something lower than that.

They may not even realize that the reason that they can do that is because when you're on exogenous hormones, your body doesn't need as much fat to produce hormones.

So this is where we see those ungodly low levels, like 20 or 30 grams of pro of dietary fat in a day.

And you know, this is where you start to get into some problems.

I mean, this is one of those reasons that often women have things like amenorrhea and.

Falls out like there's, there's a whole slew of issues that happen, especially in women with this type of thing.

And yeah, I know some competitive bodybuilders that, you know, we're a few weeks out from a show and eating like 2020 grams of fat a day.

And I'm like, Jesus Christ.

But and they're, you know, their hair was falling out.

They had no sex drive.

Their nails were super brittle.

So all of those things that you would expect from super low dietary fat intake.

You do see that and a lot of people will like a lot of these bodybuilders.

I remember Dana Lynn Bailey made a post like way back in the day about what she used to eat in a day.

And if you actually like calculated up what she was eating, she was having like 20 grams of fat a day.

And I'm like, I just remember at the time telling people like, please don't.

Please, like if you're a Gen.

pop person, please do not fall.

Like everything was like egg whites all you know, all the usual bodybuilder hacks for eating low fat.

And I'm like, y'all, please don't do like you're going to really mess yourself up if you're trying to adhere to 20 to 30 grams of dietary fat and take a day.

Well, it's funny, one of the, the most irritating questions for a good coach to hear.

And you see this literally all the time on, you know, Facebook groups, message boards, all those different types of things.

Anytime I run AQ and a what are you eating?

What are you eating each day?

You know, what are your macros?

It's not relevant to you.

And, and you know, an individual's macros, there are a lot of things that add into that.

And you know, if we're talking about the people that you want to look like in on Instagram, there's a better chance than not that they're probably on steroids.

Better chance than not because we've become so deconditioned as a society to really understand what a human body looks like.

And so when we look at these people and we're like, I want my body to look like that, we don't realize that it's either not attainable as a natural athlete or it's not sustainable as a natural athlete.

They're two different things.

And that's what's very confusing because I, I had a very distinct conversation with one of my clients and God bless her, she's one of the hardest working people that I've ever seen.

But she's like wearing herself into the ground.

And so this is part of that mental and emotional work that you have with people to really set proper expectations and make it so they don't, you know, drive themselves crazy comparing themselves to something that they can never live up to.

And she is in her, is in her mid 50s and she, she compares herself to all these, you know, 25 year old Instagram fitness models.

And she's like, well, I want to have a body like that.

And she points out these girls that are at like 16 or 17% body fat for a female 24/7, literally all year long.

And that's, that's literally unsustainable for 99.9% of people.

We're really pushing the bounds.

I mean, like 1819% could be sustainable for some natural people that are very genetically blessed and have perfect nutrition going significantly below that.

It's just, it's not happening.

It's just, it's, it's too restrictive and your body just can't hold onto it.

And so one of the things that I really want to point out with these types of things is dietary fat doesn't mean body fat.

Like just because you're eating dietary fat calorie per calorie?

It's going to essentially have the same effect as carbs.

You know, protein is a little bit different because you can't store protein very readily as body fat.

But it's, it's one of those things that people have vilified dietary fats because they're like, well, fat makes you fat.

And it, it could if it's putting you into a massive calorie surplus, but it that's not happening at 20 or 30 grams per day.

And so these people are putting these really big, you're, you're trying to shoulder more than what you should.

And I feel really bad at like for all the people that are doing this.

And I think that the majority of people probably do because like, I, I don't know about you, Beth, but like even myself, like I start to, to catch myself sometimes thinking, Oh, you know, I just, I need to work out because I need to look a little bit better.

And I'm like, well, who am I comparing myself to?

And I'm comparing myself to a guy that's on a gram of tests and you know, Primo and Trent every week.

And it's like, oh, right, I can't do that, you know.

And so if your coach does that, you know, it's understandable that you would.

But there are a lot, and I can tell you from from knowing this personally, from having conversations behind the scenes.

There are a lot of people out there fitness and health related doctors and they're all on steroids.

And you would think, well, they're a doctor.

They're not going to be on steroids 100%.

A lot of times the reason that someone's famous is because they're doing stuff like this.

And so if you look like you have a superhuman physique, there is the chance that it is superhuman.

And so putting this type of pressure on yourself is is not a great thing when it's something that you can't live up to.

So I want to point this out and I know that people know this, but I think that it's something that needs to be reiterated because of how important it is and how much pressure we put on ourselves to look like that.

And it's only going to get worse.

You know, it's getting worse with these telehealth telemedicine companies that are coming out and they're essentially just, they're the same thing as those guys that used to just sell vials in the in the gym in the 90s.

It's the same thing.

Yeah.

And I, I know a bunch of women who are taking like compounded anavar from these telehealth places.

Like it, it's insane.

Like it, it's insane how easy this stuff is to to get out.

And they're all doing it.

They're all, you know, just typing their information into a website and they get drugs shipped to them the next week, like.

It's so there's a lot of money to be made.

It's nuts.

And you know, it's, it's one of those things that like this is it's individual and it's going to be different per person and each person wants something different.

But like, if a doctor is willing to give you something when you're not indicated for it, I would be worried because that doctor doesn't really care about your health.

They don't care about the, the long term effects on you.

They're looking to make a quick buck and it is, it is like buying it out of a van and people will say, well, it's a big company and you know, there are commercials for it.

So it can't be like that.

It's 100% like that.

That's what a compounded pharmacy is.

It's not regulated by the FDA.

There are no checks and balances.

There's nobody there making sure that the ingredient they're saying is in there is in there and the dosage that they're saying is in there.

There's nobody making sure that there's quality control, that it's not contaminated with something else, you know, and that's not to say that that 100% of the time you're going to experience problems from these compounded pharmacies, but that that is to say that there is no oversight to these.

And it's actually surprising to me that they're legal.

Same like I just, I'm I'm blown away by I'm just blown away that they even exist.

It's it's literally just subdued in a.

Warehouse, it's experimental drugs like you're, you're literally because you every time you get a vial of something from a compounded pharmacy, it's going to be different from the time that you got it before.

It could have more or less of whatever you think is in it.

So like for these women, for example, who think that they're taking 5 milligrams of Anavar, you could be getting 10 at some point you could be getting 15, you could be getting 2.

And so for the times that you're getting higher than five, you have to worry.

But all the viralization that happens with that kind of thing.

And you're going to you're going to have a lot of really unwanted side effects that you don't want from everything from, you know, GOP ones to steroids or whatever it is that you're getting.

Like literally nothing is controlled, nothing is the same every time you get it.

And how people are OK with this and willingly putting these things into their body.

Like I'm just.

Well, you got to, you got.

To.

You got to be a little bit concerned about this because like even things like PDE 5 inhibitors, those are the things like Cialis and all those different types of things like that stuff can wreck you if the, if the message is off, if the, the milligrams are off, GLP ones can wreck you if it's off.

Steroids can certainly wreck you if it's off.

And so like, you know, you can see these studies and you can say, well, I, I see that they're safe If I take it for this, I think it First off, if you're not indicated for it, we don't have the data that says that it's safe for you.

We we don't have that.

You're not the studied.

You're not the studied population.

If you've got like 25 lbs of weight to lose, you're not, you should not be taking it.

It's because that's typically really easy to lose if you just, you know, if I'm assuming you're not super small, if you just clean up nutrition, get consistent and, and these are the types of things that you should be doing anyways.

You know which, which these drugs don't replace, but I want people to be conscious of the fact that this is a very, very sketchy endeavour because I don't think that people are aware of that because they seem legit.

They've got a nice website, they've got Serena Williams selling stuff for them.

They've got, you know, so if, if Charles Barkley says that it's good, it's got to be good because I guess Charles Barkley knows how to verify drugs at this point.

So it's it's one of those things that you got to be very careful because these are operations that are like rising and closing relatively quickly right now.

And they can spend money on people like Serena and Charles Barkley and some of these other people because they make so much money because they're not selling these things to diabetics.

Yeah, diabetics are getting them through their actual doctors.

Diabetics are getting the real stuff.

Yeah.

You know, and that, that's kind of the thing, like if you're indicated for them, you don't have a reason to go to these compounded pharmacies.

And if you're like, well, my doctor says that I'm not for them and I want them.

I, I think you just answered your own question.

I've talked about this before, but like, you know, having, having a like ADEA number, I, I feel a certain way about this.

I've had a lot of patients in the past that have said, I want this.

And I know that it is not a good idea for them because the risks outweigh the benefits.

And that's what a doctor goes through when they're deciding whether or not to give you a drug.

And what I find hilarious about this entire situation is before about a year ago, it was always, oh, doctors just want to put you on drugs.

And now it's why won't my doctor give me drugs?

Like we've done a complete 180 to where everybody was vilifying doctors for prescribing drugs about a year a year ago for like the past 30 years.

And now all of a sudden the doctors are the villains because they won't prescribe you a drug when you're not indicated for it.

So we're going to go to a guy with a warehouse and a website instead, because that guy's got your best interest at heart.

And it's just, it's mind blowing that we've gotten into this kind of thing.

So be careful about this type of stuff because you can open yourself up for long term health problems.

And you know, one of the things that Beth was talking about is, you know, things like Anavar, which, which I mean, I know a lot of these health and fitness doctors that are on Anavar, the female health and fitness doctors that are on Anavar.

And you know, you get that wrong dosage by like 5 milligrams for two or three months.

And all of a sudden you could have a deeper voice for the rest of your life.

You could, you know, have a mustache for the rest of your life essentially like this.

There's, there's problems that come from this stuff.

And again, This is why your primary care physician did not prescribe it to you, because there are risks involved in any drug.

And people are mistaking the idea for a lot of these as not being drugs.

A peptide is a drug and people think, well, it's not a drug because I want it.

It's.

A drug.

And so it's, it's wild to it's wild to see this and I and it's not, it's not just GLP wants.

I mean, we see this with my HGH peptides, I pemarellin and, and some of these other ones.

And so I've had questions about those for years.

And what was really funny was up until this the past like 3 or 4 months, every time I would do one of my Q and as on Instagram, which are really popular.

I mean, I get hundreds of questions in them.

I almost every time I do one, I get a question that's like, well, what do you think about peptides?

And so when I, for the first two or three months of like in the past like 3 months, so this first like two or three months that I, I've noticed this transition in the way that I think about it, I kept thinking they're asking about like these HGH peptides and all that stuff, because that's what traditionally it's been.

And then I started looking at it and I'm like, well, all of these are being asked by middle-aged women.

And so that's, it's very odd for them to consistently be asking about HGH.

And so I, I finally started realizing that everybody was asking about either GLP ones or the other ones that are really popular right now are BPC 157 and TB500.

And neither of those have been tested in humans at all.

And so we don't, we don't know what those do to humans.

We don't know if they work.

We don't know at what dosage.

And you know, people are just like, hey, it works, but it's hilarious because people said that about BCA As for 20 years, people said that about glutamine for 20 years people said that about like everything because we are really bad at understanding what really works for us.

And so, you know, just believing in a placebo is an amazing thing.

But what concerns me in this instance is unlike things like glutamine or Bcaas or some of these other supplements that we knew pretty much weren't going to cause any problems because we have enough safety data on them.

We can't say that about a pharmaceutical drug or a research chemical, which is what things like BPC 157 and TB500 are.

And for the people that donors don't know what those are, those are drugs that have potential for injury recovery, but it hasn't been studied in humans.

And so it's it, it's, it's running, you know, through the bodybuilding circles like wildfire.

But there are other things that ran through the bodybuilding circles like wildfire that caused mass.

And probably, I mean, super drawl went through bodybuilding circles for like 5 years.

And then we found out it was giving everybody liver failure.

And so it was when it was when that was invented, it came out and it had the same kind of hype that like GLP ones have right now within the bodybuilding circles.

And everyone's like, it's great.

It's this, I don't, you know, I don't have to eject it.

It's a pill.

The manufacturer of it says that it's completely safe because they did, they they said without a doubt, this is 100% safe for you.

And all these people ended up buying it and it caused liver failure and like 30% of the people that took it because it is massively liver toxic.

And so this is we're, we're kind of in that area again.

And people just like they, they just, they, they want what they want.

And what concerns me here is that these predatory pill mills, which is what things like all those places are, what they're doing is they're getting high profile people to come out and speak for them.

And so that's what's concerning because a, a drug should not be marketed to general population because what are the odds in general population that you should be on it?

It's lower than the majority of the population.

This is something that should be a discussion between you and your doctor.

And so it is, it is concerning to see how people are are consuming these as if they're tic Tacs, which is essentially the way that it's going.

But to put things in perspective, you know when people like Serena Williams or or where Charles Barkley get up there and they say something like this, there is no difference in saying, hey, I took a GL P1, you can get it through.

Really helped me cut down food noise and saying hey, I took deca and it's a lot easier to gain muscle on steroids.

You should just buy steroids.

There's zero difference in that.

There's zero difference because you can argue that deca or Anavar is used legally in muscle wasting diseases.

You can argue G LP ones are used legally in diabetic cases and they are to a great effect and that's who should have it, not people that just want to lose 15 lbs because that's where you're essentially trying to circumvent what you should have been doing already.

And food noise is one of the most bullshit things that I've ever heard of these days.

Not to say that food noise can't be a problem, but 99% of people that are using the term food noise right now do not have actual food noise.

Yeah, I think most of the people that are saying this are just like they have cravings from time to time that they find they've.

Got Hunger?

It's there's a there's a huge difference in that.

And like the pervasive, we talked a little bit about this in the last podcast, like those pervasive thoughts that just don't go away ever.

Like you're, you're quite literally constantly thinking about what your next meal is going to be, what it's going to taste like, what it's going to feel like in your mouth, what it's going to feel like going down your throat.

Like that is food noise.

Not being like, I want a piece of cake.

That's not food noise.

Well.

I mean, if you've got 20.

Pounds.

I'd love to have a piece of cake.

I don't have food.

Noise.

I don't think about this 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

I don't wake up thinking about food.

There's a huge difference.

If you've got like 20 lbs to lose, you don't have food noise.

No, you're just a little hungry.

Yeah.

And you can deal with that because you're an adult.

Yeah.

And I do not feel bad saying that at all.

I will say that I do believe that the vast majority of people that are using the term food noise are full of shit.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's, it's definitely become a buzzword.

And I, I don't think that people actually, I would love for the people who think that they have food noise to talk to somebody who actually has an eating disorder who like legitimately has it, would love for them to have a little chit chat together.

Let me give an example that can probably get through to most people.

A lot of times we have friends, family, ourselves.

I want to have a drink on the weekend.

That is not a problem.

Then there's an alcoholic.

They think about drinking 24/7.

Would you equate the way that you think about food to the way that an alcoholic thinks about drink?

If you do not, you do not have food noise.

It is a food version of alcoholism.

And if you can't say, well, I'm an alcoholic, you do not have food noise.

And this is like the most blunt, offensive thing to say to people that want to lose 15 lbs.

Yeah.

And it's, it's absolutely wild to me.

And so we have these conversations about these types of things because these are the types of things that are going to affect people's health for so many decades beyond this.

And I know that we talked about this a little bit in a past podcast and people might be like, fucking move on.

We don't want to hear about this anymore.

And I promise I'm going to try to not talk about this as much as possible.

But you have to understand this is probably the most important topic in health and fitness right now because it is where people are essentially praying on you.

And it is essentially where you are going to be like, well, should I should I not, you know, like, but putting things into the proper perspective can help you so much long term.

And realizing that there really is no way around proper habit and, and routines and, and getting into the gym and really starting off these, these coping mechanisms and making sure that you're able to deal with emotional eating and, and the stresses that you face in a daily life.

Because if you're going into these things and you're not saying, OK, well, I'm probably going to be on this drug for the rest of my life, then it's not appropriate for you.

And, you know, I mean, we've said that the research shows that literally the large majority of people that get on these, you have to stay on it.

I mean, that's what food noise is.

It's, it's, you need to, you need to consistently keep that out, you know, And so for those short term, like, I'm just going to go on it for like 8 weeks and then get off of it.

Again, we don't know the health consequences of these types of things, you know, and particularly, you know, the gastrointestinal tract seems to be one of those things that that might take some hits.

And I'm not trying to scare anybody off of doing it.

If you need to get on this because the benefits for the people that are indicated for it are far outweigh the the negatives.

They do.

And I agree, I think that's a great thing, but it they don't for others.

And so again, speak with your doctors.

If your doctor's on board with it, awesome.

So are we.

And you know, we can always help out with anybody that's looking to optimize their nutrition and their training to keep up with the GLP one, because it will take a lot of those haven't routine work to be able to be successful long term.

And I think that if people go into it looking like that, that they're going to be set up for great success in the future.

All right, approximately how many calories over maintenance are needed to build muscle?

What a dramatic shift in topics we're having here.

So when we're talking about building muscle, we've discussed in the past that if we look at the majority of the data that calorie surpluses and those that are not obese are likely required to maximize lean muscle return.

So when people are doing this, they want to do it in a way to allow themselves to build as much muscle as possible with the least body fat as possible.

Now, it's important to understand that you're probably going to add somebody fat on in a muscle building journey, even in a lean muscle building journey, you can go slower, certainly add less body fat, but you're going to spend much, much more time trying to build the same amounts of lean muscle if you do it that way.

So if you go into a a an intelligent build for beginners, people that are in their first year or so of training, anywhere between 500 and 1000 calories above maintenance is likely a good target.

For more advanced trainees, anywhere between 250 and 500 above maintenance.

When you are more advanced, you have less of a an ability to build lean muscle every year.

The first year that you train, you can build between maybe 10-12, upwards to 20 lbs of lean muscle in the first year, and then it dramatically decreases every year after that.

And to eventually where you're building maybe 2, three, 4 lbs of muscle in an entire year.

It is depressing, but the good news is your strength tends to go up a little bit better than your than your lean muscle goes up.

So you can still have something to work towards.

So because it goes down the amount of lean muscle that you can build, you require less calories above maintenance to be able to do that.

And so your calorie amounts go down as that happens.

So just be conscious of where you are.

And if you're outside of that beginner stage, I'm sorry, welcome to the to the game like the rest of us.

Is consuming carbs intra workout a good option for better recovery?

You would likely don't need carbs intra workout.

There are a handful of situations where it might make some sense if you are in endurance cardio.

If you are doing extremely high volume bodybuilding work, maybe the real question would be if you're doing extremely high bodybuilding work, why are you doing that much volume?

But if you are spending longer than like an 2 hours or so in the gym, maybe adding in some carbs, some fast carbs could be a good thing.

This is where people will historically try to add in things like amino acids, but carbs would actually make a lot more sense under those conditions.

So for people that are doing endurance work, the people that will really benefit from some intra workout carbs, I've got some numbers for you to be able to feel yourself in the best way possible without taking in any excess for no reason.

If you're working between 2 and 2 1/2 hours, 30 to 60 grams of glucose per hour is a good mark.

If you're working out for more than 2 1/2 hours, 60 to 70 grams of glucose per hour is a GI safe option.

You can technically go up to 90 grams per hour with just glucose, but the problem is, I would say for most people that's probably going to give you some GI distress.

Some it won't, but for most it will.

Now, there is a way around that.

So if you're like a triathlete, a marathon runner, I don't think that there are any CrossFit wads that are that long, are there?

Yeah, I wouldn't think so.

There shouldn't.

Be if it's taking.

If it's taking you that long to do something like Murph, you're you're doing it wrong.

Yeah.

So for those that are doing these ultra long endurance bouts, you can get up to 80 to 100 grams per hour if you use a 2 to one ratio of glucose to fructose or glucose to sucrose.

Those that combination works well because it allows you to absorb more without causing the GI distress.

And the issue there is that the oxidation of the car that you take in becomes a limiter.

You can only use so much in a given time period.

So having that combination, that 2 to one ratio allows you to take advantage of two pathways of oxidation rather than just the one of glucose and it tends to be better tolerated from AGI standpoint.

So if you're going to be doing one of these these big things like a marathon ultra endurance thing, you've gotten into David Goggin stuff for whatever reason, you probably need this to be able to help you out.

All right, post prandial glucose response.

That means the response of your glucose after you eat.

Are there any benefits to keeping this as low as possible?

There are a lot of people online that make their entire living off of glucose response fear mongering.

If you're not diabetic, the the quick answer is no, you don't really have to worry about this.

If you are diabetic, maybe making some adjustments could make some sense, but there are a lot of things that people do here to lower this that really just makes 0 difference.

And particularly if you're not diabetic, it really makes no difference.

The biggest one that I've seen most recently is they'll say hey, get up and go walk for 1/2 hour after you've eaten.

I can get behind that, not because of the change in postprandial glucose, but because it gets you walking.

And I think that that's where the benefits really come from, is that like, people think, OK, well, I'm biohacking and that'll actually make them do it instead of if I just told people to walk, they're like, well, I don't want to do that.

Yeah, like congratulations, you finally started to move more.

Right.

You were doing the things that we said before, but now it sounds more fun because there's hacking involved.

So that's that's essentially what that is.

It gets you doing something that you should have been doing, but but does it in a way that that seems interesting to you.

The other thing that I see a lot of times is meal sequencing.

People will recommend eat this fiber before you eat this protein before you eat this fat.

Now don't quote me on the exact sequence because I don't pay attention to it because it doesn't matter.

But there's, there's an argument to be made that if you eat these foods in certain order, you're going to get a lower glucose response.

And it's 100% true.

You will.

It just makes no difference in life because glucose response is not like your glucose response is not what's like putting body fat on you.

It's the fact that you're eating too many calories.

I mean, if we look at the same data two hours after you've eaten, you're going to be similarly recovered no matter what sequence of food you ate it in.

It doesn't make a difference.

And even when we look at the data that's looking at body composition and health outcomes, like when we vary the way that a person eats or we vary the amount of carbs or the amount of fats in a diet, as long as the protein and calories are equated by the end of the day, regardless of large glucose variability within that day, they have the same results from a fat loss perspective.

So don't worry about this type of thing.

Focus more on, well, how can I get, you know, the protein that I need to get in during the day?

How can I get the the calories that I need to get in during the day?

How can I get in that the essential fats that I need to get in and then eat however you like, because finding a way that you find most enjoyable and sustainable is far more important than any of these other things that we can worry about.

And this is just one of those things that gets thrown around there because it makes a good talking point it it gets people on podcasts, I suppose.

And, you know, I know that people like the glucose goddess have made an entire personality out of it, but it, it really makes no difference.

And so this this also kind of bleeds into the whole, should I get a continuous glucose monitor?

And the answer is no, you shouldn't, not unless you're diabetic, because it, there's no reason for you to know that it makes no difference.

Your body is adequately handling glucose spikes as your body is intended to do.

And you know, these spikes and things like insulin aren't even necessarily a bad thing.

I mean, there, that's what shuttles nutrients to your muscles.

That's what gets protein in to build lean muscle.

That's what repairs that what that's what helps restore glucose after a training bout so you can train the next day.

So it's not always this bad thing, but we kind of look at it as something that's difficult or or scary because of the way that, you know, glucose and insulin and all that has been vilified online.

All right, this one you might have some input on.

Beth, what are some good at home alternate exercises when I don't have access to leg extensions or leg curls?

So for leg extensions, I mean anything that is going to push the knees over the toes is really going to hit those quads in a in a similar manner.

So you can do some heel elevated goblet squats, you can do ATG split squats.

Any type of split squat or lunge variation would work as well.

There's also a version with bands.

It's a banded knee extension where you actually put your hands and feet on the floor and the band is behind the knees and the under your hands on the floor and you push back into the band and then touch the knees down to the floor and push back.

It sounds really silly, but that one actually out of all of those that I just listed, that one tears up your quads like nobody's business.

And if you have heavy bands, I mean, you can take those at low reps like a 6 to 8 and burn the crap out of your quads.

For hamstrings, you can do banded hamstring curls, although I don't love those because you have to kind of scoot pretty far away from your attachment point in order to keep adequate tension on the band.

And usually the band doesn't provide enough tension to always be able to do that.

So when you get down towards the end range, closer to wherever you have the band attached, you lose a lot of tension on the band.

So if I'm going to do a hamstring curl substitute exercise, I'm probably going to do something like stiff like deadlifts or some sort of deadlift variation to target the hamstrings as opposed to a curling motion.

I do know that some people like the version where you're on an incline bench and you hold the dumbbell sort of upside down in your feet and curl the the head of the dumbbell up towards your butt.

But that can be kind of unwieldy and a little bit difficult to get into if you've never done it before.

So that one is OK, but I would much prefer to do like some sort of stiff leg or some sort of deadlift variation to target the hamstrings.

Yeah, I mean those, those are all really good options.

Did you say Nordic curls?

I did not.

I forgot about.

Nordic Nordic curls are what I would one of the first things that I would look towards for a hamstring exercise that's kind of similar to most people.

Can't like oracles are hard as shit and I don't think a lot of people can actually do them adequately without bending too much at the waist to kind of take that tension off the hamstrings.

I would consider, if I was going to do that, I would consider having something like a broom handle or PVC tube.

You would.

Need it.

Around your chest kind.

Of yeah, I mean, there are way, there are ways to use this so you can progress up.

I like them a lot.

I, I actually, when I first started learning Nordic curls before I felt the movement correctly, I was using a, a broom handle as a spotter and that worked really well.

So I think that that's a really good idea.

I mean, everything that you said there was a really good idea.

I think that for quads, there are some other movements that we can start to look in towards one of my favorite, which is all.

Well, I was gonna say a Syswad is a very good option.

Yes, a Sissy squat lean back is another very good option.

They're either called Sissy squat lean backs.

That's what they used to be called.

They're they're being called a lot more commonly now reverse Nordic curls, but they're literally the same thing.

And I I find that that's actually one of my favorite exercises even without, you know, trying to adjust for the fact that we don't have equipment.

I love reverse Nordic curls.

My knee doesn't like it as much since I had that effusion in it because it feels like when I get down into that position that there's like like a ball bearing in my knee.

Yeah, that can be a tough, that can be a tough exercise for people with knee issues in particular.

Yeah, I used to love.

It combine the movement like the deep end ranges combined with the fact that your knees are kind of like smashed into the floor.

That one can be.

It's a great it it's, it is for sure one of my one of my top ones, but that can be a little touch and go for people with knee issues.

Yeah, I mean, it used to be, it's one of the movements that hits my quads more than literally anything else.

And what's funny is, like for most people, you don't even need to weight it because it's so challenging as is.

You know, you can just go up in reps and you're completely fine.

Now you can obviously like hold a plate or something to your chest, but I would say that the large majority of people here would never even need to do that because it's such a challenging movement.

Do longer pauses between reps decrease growth or strength?

Yes.

You know, if you're taking too long with, you know, having a second or two pause in between reps is probably not going to throw anybody off and it's going to allow you to reset and it'll be just fine.

So if you want to wait, you know, you do a squat, you get up, you take a couple breaths, you go back down, it's fine.

Deadlifts, I actually think the resetting and deadlifts is probably how you should be doing it instead of bouncing.

So I think taking a second or two in between those is completely fine.

If you wait too long, yeah, I mean, it can certainly start to wear down progress.

So the idea here is just get a couple breaths, reset yourself, go, and you're going to kind of be completely fine.

Yeah, there's a difference between like a couple seconds to catch your breath versus doing singles.

So you know, if you're taking like 20 to 30 seconds in between reps, I consider you doing singles.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's just like a, that's just a, that's just a single set with two little rest in between.

That's exactly what that is.

The interset rest period is too little.

You're going to have some input into this one, your top lean protein sources to build muscle without the extra calories.

So essentially what we're looking for here is what do we go for?

That has a lot of protein.

We can eat it regularly and has few calories for the amount of protein that you take in.

Fish Baby.

A whitefish shrimp.

We've talked about shrimp in the.

Past Jesus, it's so high volume.

You know, one of the things that I really like to bring up, you know, the the standards fit in there and they're actually really good for travel.

So non fat Greek yogurt, protein powder, egg whites.

Sorry, that's that is an actual answer there.

I know that people hate that answer, but if you're in a calorie restricted situation for whatever reason, you know, maybe you're a smaller woman and you want a smaller man to and you want to have, you know, more indulgence than maybe your dinner.

Maybe you need to control your calories and your breakfast.

Maybe you do eat egg whites, I mean.

There's I'm in a cut right now and I like this morning for breakfast, I added a whole bunch of egg whites to my eggs to beef up the protein content and the volume just to keep me full between breakfast and lunch.

So I don't I never eat, I cannot eat egg whites in isolation.

And I don't know how those people out there like that is wild to me, but they are a really, I mean they have they're literally just protein.

There's no fat, there's no car.

Like it is just pure protein.

Throw some hot sauce on that, throw in some veggies.

You've got you can, I mean, throwing in some veggies like green and, you know, bell Peppers, green and red bell Peppers, onions, some tomatoes, hot sauce.

You can at.

Least get around the.

I mean the biggest issue for me is less the taste and more the texture it's.

The texture, yeah, you know, they don't taste like anything.

They like it.

They have they're they don't have any sort of flavour.

Bland.

It's just the, IT is, it's the, the they're sort of like a, it's like eating a Frisbee, kind of like they're, they're kind of rubbery and.

So beef jerky fits in really well there.

We've said shrimp in the past.

Pork tenderloin for me, and this is the one that's surprising for a lot of people, Pork tenderloin is kind of, I'm kind of skirting that edge on like when we're starting to add a little bit more calories in.

But I think for the large majority of people, because every time that I brought this up to a client, they've been surprised at how lean pork tenderloin is.

Well, I think they confuse it with pork chops.

And I do want to make that differentiation because I've had, this has come up actually with quite a few clients where they're like, I saw a pork tenderloin, you know, is, is an acceptable meat to eat, but not pork chops.

And they're like, I eat pork chops all the time.

And I'm like, and even the ones where they remove the bone, they still usually have that sort of rim of fat around the outside.

And unless you're trimming that off, pork chops have in an are extremely high calorie.

Extremely high calorie.

Yeah, so you got a lot of good choices there.

Pork tenderloin If you want to do a Kahlua, pork is a really good idea because it's literally just pork, salt, liquid smoke, and garlic.

Yep.

And, and it's, it tastes incredible.

You can put like yellow mustard and Pickles on it and it's amazing.

You can literally make like a Cubano.

Yeah.

And, and it, it has like no calories for, for what you get from it, you know.

And so people are like, well, I don't know what to eat.

I, you know, real food is really bland.

It's almost like you're not thinking, like you're not thinking.

And it's not, it's not a person's fault.

It's that you have not trained your brain to like, think about this type of stuff because you bring up a Cubano and people would never think that that's a health food.

It 100% can be.

Well I remember when my parents came to visit me in North Carolina one year and I made them a version of Kahlua pork but it had like a vinegar based BBQ sauce and I had slow cooked.

G Hughes has some good.

Yeah, I had slow cooked the pork tenderloin in that vinegar based BBQ sauce.

It had no, it had no calories in it.

And I remember I like shredded it up and served it on like Hawaiian rolls or something like that with coleslaw.

My dad was like, this is so good.

And I was like, it's pork tenderloin, dude.

Like it's not even.

It's very.

Flavorful.

Yeah.

And it's funny because when you start to switch to these leaner types of protein sources, when you have the fattier cuts, it actually does not taste good to you.

Yeah.

It tastes like.

You're just like.

Like like.

Like I can, I can feel the congealed fat.

Feel the fat.

Like I that's that's where I don't like super fatty cuts, but like understand that when you're first like switching into like a health and fitness lifestyle, it's going to feel dry, I guess.

So what you're going to need to do is you're going to need to spice things up with sauces.

I mean, that's what like the mustards are for.

That's what like the liquid smoke, the Buffalo sauce.

There's a lot of Buffalo sauces you can get Texas, I think it's Texas, Pete.

Is that the one that I get?

Cholula, Texas Pete has a.

Buffalo sauce, it has like almost no calories and it's it's very flavorful.

Cholula is great.

I mean, there's, we're actually going to be coming out with a, a free giveaway on Instagram where we're going to give a, a whole list of the like 0 or low calorie food additions that we use.

And I think that this is going to be really beneficial for people because when they say, I don't know what to do, this is exactly what you do.

You don't change the main foods that you eat.

You don't change the fact that you're eating chicken breast or fish or shrimp.

That's not what changes.

You change how you prepare it.

You change what you put on top of the spices, the herbs, the marinades, the, the, you know, these additions.

That's how you get the variety because people are like, oh, well, I don't like eating the same thing.

You can have chicken every day for a year and have a different chicken.

Have a different chicken.

You're just not thinking and you're not thinking about, oh, well, what can I, what else can I do?

You're like, well, in the past I've made garlic herb chicken and that's the only healthy chicken that I know.

And that's the only chicken that I could ever make for the rest of my life.

That's bullshit.

That's not the way that it works.

So what we're going to do is we're going to give you the guide to be able to figure this shit out.

And I think that that's going to help a lot of people because I think that that you just need a little bit of a, of a push in the right direction, right?

I think the people are smart enough to figure this out.

But when the world is your oyster, you can choose anything.

I think that that's overwhelming.

So we're going to guide you in this a little bit.

So keep an eye out on Instagram.

We're going to put some of those things up there on my on my Instagram.

Is any activity that elevates your heart rate for a sustained period considered cardio?

The answer is no, because you could literally watch a horror movie and it could elevate your heart rate for an extended period.

So there's a few things that make something cardio beyond just an elevated heart rate.

An elevated heart rate alone does not cut it.

You have to have repetitive movements of large muscle groups.

That's required.

It has to raise your heart rate and increase your breathing for extended periods of time.

And this is a bit arbitrary, but I would throw this in my definition.

It has to be sustained for at least 10 minutes.

You have to be doing this type of movement for 10 minutes.

Now that's not saying you can't have like high intensity interval training where you're running really hard for 50 seconds or whatever and then you're resting for a certain period of time.

That's still movement, but it can't be.

I'm going to lift really hard for.

It's not your 10 seconds, right and then?

And then you have your 3 minutes of just sitting there like staring off into the void.

I can't stand that.

That is like one of my biggest.

Well, there's a reason that we don't get the same adaptations in circuit training that we do in cardio.

You do not see cardio adaptations in circuit training.

I just lift weights faster.

I just lift weights.

Faster stop.

Yeah, it's it doesn't.

You don't get the same benefits.

You don't get the increases to stroke volume.

You don't.

You do not get the same adaptations.

You simply do not.

No.

And as far as I as far as I've seen, my definition that I just gave here is probably pretty accurate.

I'm open to people that that want to argue that if they've got anything to say about that, please let us know in the comments.

I'm open to adjusting this.

This is not a hard set rule that I've had.

I've I've thought about this a little bit and that's what I came up with as where I would consider something as cardio.

Well, that's what like, I know what this question is getting at and it's it's like, you know, can my lifting count as my cardio?

Or like people are like, oh, I just have sex for my cardio.

Like like this.

It's people who.

Are theoretically, if you're so D trained that, like anything, will get.

Well, and that then that's a big problem.

Yeah, it's a big problem.

You're so D trained that you're 2 minutes of sex is cardio.

Like we have bigger rocks to move two minutes.

Yeah, I mean, because you know that.

That's a long time, people.

Who ask this kind of question that's that's them.

But like like this is this.

These are people that are looking for a reason, any reason at all, to not do cardio.

That's that's what this question gets at.

It's the people who don't want to have to dedicate time to doing it and think that their sets of 10 on squats counts for cardio.

It doesn't.

Two more questions.

Your lifting does not count as cardio.

Final verdict on that question.

Two more questions and then we are finished for the day.

How do fruit juices measure up to fruits in terms of nutrient density and profile?

So fruit juices are typically pressed juices, not very good.

You'll get a lot of vitamin C, you're going to lose out on a lot of the other nutrients.

You're going to lose out on a lot of the fiber if it's completely blended up, that's essentially the same thing as eating the whole fruit.

So if you're, if you're blending it, in fact, blending something you may actually be able to absorb, you may able to utilize more of the fiber, particularly if you're blending up the seeds as well.

And that's what's really funny is there used to be a thing where I think it was Gary Breca, maybe it was Dave Asprey was like, oh, you can't have blended up fruits because it'll lower, it'll lower the you know, you'll get a higher glucose response.

And actually, if you look at the studies, it's a lower glucose response because the the fiber was be being used more because usually with like whole fruits, a lot of times you're just kind of like avoiding the core of an apple.

So you're not getting all the seeds or whatever it is.

And I'm not saying go out and eat seeds of apples, but I am saying that like I don't have a problem if people want to blend up an entire fruit and view that as eating a whole fruit.

It's completely fine.

Juices when they are pressed and you're losing a lot of the pulp, it's not the same.

You lose a lot of the fiber, you lose a lot of other micronutrients.

You do pretty much get most of the vitamin C, but there's more to vitamins.

There's more to fruits than vitamin C, even though we view them as like, there's only vitamin C in here and then bananas with potassium, and then nothing else is in any of fruits.

So like it, it is a benefit to eat whole fruits.

If you want to blend fruits up, put them in a smoothie.

Don't feel bad.

You're doing a really good job there too.

All right, last question, is it really that bad to flare elbows during dumbbell presses?

But when we discuss proper form for dumbbell pressing like chest presses, the recommendation that we have for people is have your elbows flare anywhere from 45 to 75° away from your body, from your torso.

And when you're within that range, whatever feels most comfortable within that range, you're perfectly fine.

The issue that we see is that when people have their elbows, their their upper arms 90° from their torso, you essentially take a lot of that stress in your shoulder, shoulder girdle.

Remember what we were talking about earlier with retracting and depressing your shoulders in these pressing movements?

You're not going to be able to adequately do that with your arms looking like you're AT, you know, there's just no way to do that.

And particularly for beginners, we see beginners come a lot of times and they're like, well, pressing hurts my shoulders.

This is the exact reason that it hurts your shoulders because you're not able to retract and depress them.

You're having issues with with arm positioning, so please drop them down to 75° and it's going to feel a whole lot better.

One cue that I was given when I first started bench pressing, which actually and even just like shoulder pressing and that kind of thing which has stuck with me and it makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

Think about if you were going to, if you were fighting somebody and you were going to push them away from you.

Look at how your your elbows track when you do that kind of thing.

It's a similar motion when you're doing any type of pressing.

Your strongest pushing position is not going to be here.

Yeah, with your arms jacked up.

It did like you would never be able to do anything here.

Like you're not that you're not going to be able to optimally press.

For those listening, her arms were above 90°.

So I, I always think that that's actually a really good cue for pressing is, is like, imagine you're having to like push somebody off of you or away from you and kind of look at the position of your arm when you're in that position.

And that should give you a decent idea of where you can start at least.

And then kind of tweak things to see what really feels good once you're under the bar.

Well look at people who do sports that rely entirely on pushing.

NFL lineman, sumo wrestlers, rugby.

You will never see a person in a scrum or a sumo wrestler.

Look up videos of sumo wrestlers when they're pushing each other in the very beginning of a of a match.

Their arms are not chicken winged up.

They are slightly off to the sides, relatively close to the body.

They might even be dropping a little bit lower in sumo.

But like in football, your arms are at like a 45° angle and that's where you're pushing from because that's where you're your strongest and that's where it it it's safest for your shoulders.

There's a reason that you push naturally in these positions.

We flare so big in these gym movements and it's such an unnatural position to be in.

I don't know why it is.

I think that people are thinking, hey, when I see chest presses, this is how it should be.

The thing is, even push ups should be in this 45 to 75° range.

Yes, I just went through, I just went through this exact thing with a client who sent me a video of her doing push ups and she was, you know, she had her elbow here and she's like, these always hurt my shoulder.

And I, I had that same conversation of think about pushing somebody away from you.

What position would your elbows be in?

And she's like, they'd be tucked down more.

I was like, try go try that, send me a video of it and then tell me she's like that felt lightyear.

She's like, I've I've been doing these wrong for 20 years.

She's like nobody has ever corrected my form.

Yeah.

And it's, it's like it's up here.

And she's she has always said that.

It's always felt like a very unnatural movement to her and has always hurt her shoulders.

I'm like, yeah.

I think that I think that people will naturally feel this.

I think that you think that you're doing it right.

And I think that once this is brought to your attention, once, you know, oh, well, maybe I should be looking at this a different way.

You're like, oh, shit, that is right.

Like I don't think that I don't think that people would argue this when they've when they've adjusted.

I think that you just don't think about this because you think a bench press, my arms are out.

You don't, you, you, you, I think you, you sort of naturally think that if the, the shoulder and the elbow are kind of in line with the chest, that you're working your chest optimally.

But it's not, that's not the strongest pressing position.

So I don't I don't think people connect the dots between the actual strongest pressing position and working their chest.

And this is one of the reasons that so many people say, oh, you know, my, I've got bad shoulders.

Benching hurts my shoulders, yeah.

Well, I mean, every push ups hurt my shoulders.

All this hurts my shoulders.

Yeah, I mean you're.

Overhead in a proper position.

Yeah, and even an overhead pressing.

Overhead pressing is an interesting one too, because people will often flare their arms all the way back.

So they're, they're like, that's a good transition.

I mean, those elbows are, are so far back that the elbows are in line with the torso.

In a plane with the torso, your elbows and your hands and the weight, whether it's a bar or dumbbells, should be a step in front of your shoulder line.

If they're not, if it's in line with your shoulders, you're in the wrong position.

Well.

This comes into play a lot and cross it with handstand push ups because people try to do handstand push ups with their hands up next to their head.

And again, I go back to that queue of pushing somebody away from you.

I'm like actually think about the logistics of this.

If you're trying to push from here, you're not going to be able to do anything.

Move your hands.

You should have a tripod position from your head to your hands.

And it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's crazy.

It's it's crazy the difference that it makes in how that exercise can feel for you.

Now in trained lifters there is such a thing as behind the neck, shoulder press and it's perfectly fine.

I would not be putting a beginner into this movement.

When you're trained, there's not an increased injury risk for doing it.

And I, I'll, you'll probably see me occasionally post studies about that, but, but keep in mind when we're talking to athletes, we're, you know, and I consider anybody that's, that's working out, I'll consider an athlete.

There are different stages.

And if you have not built up the physiologic resiliency to be in a certain position, I'm not going to put you in that position.

So for general training, follow the advice that we've given here.

There's no situation, even advance people that I would have them chicken wing on like a bench press or horizontal Press of any kind.

That overhead press, there is a little bit of variance of that just because of the fact that there is another movement with the behind the neck shoulder press and that's perfectly fine in more advanced people.

So please don't go out and try to do that as your first overhead pressing.

If you've never lifted weights before, let's let's build you up first to be able to handle that.

OK.

All right, everybody, that is it for today.

Thank you for joining us on Noble Just Bacon.

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Thanks so much.