All right, all right.

Welcome everybody to the Stronger Weekly Podcast.

I'm your host, Jesse Carajed.

Thanks for being here.

Happy October.

It is the week of October 6th, at least that's when I am recording this.

We've got some really interesting health and fitness headlines to cover this week.

Before we dive into that, just wanted to say a big shout out for anybody who's participating in Sober October.

I mean, this thing has ballooned up where millions and millions of people do it every year.

I'm doing it, some awesome health benefits.

Just a nice challenge to do to kind of reset everything as we go into the fall.

So if you are doing Sober October, keep it up.

We're going to cover some health and fitness news around that in just a little bit.

And then my good friend Justin Mazars rejoins the show.

We are going to talk about the worst health and fitness advice we've ever gotten.

him and I are both have been training and focused on health and fitness for a couple decades now.

And we bought into all the fads, all the trends over the years.

So we're going to talk about fitness, nutrition, supplements, recovery, mental health, just the worst advice we've we've gotten.

So hopefully you can avoid some of the things and mistakes that that we've had in the past.

But with that said, as always, we are going to jump into our health and fitness headlines of the week.

Stay with us On the other side.

Justin Mazars joins the show.

First up, big news when it comes to pharmaceutical prices in America.

Thank God.

So President Trump announced this week of voluntary agreement with Pfizer to sell a large share of its meds in the US at steep discounts and to align Medicaid pricing with rates paid in other wealthy countries, paired with a new federal portal called trumprx.gov.

I'll say it again, trumprx.gov to help customers find those discounts.

The White House says other major drug makers in addition to Pfizer are expected to follow suit and sign similar agreements next in the Oval Office.

Trump said the discount list will include popular primary care and some specialty brands with cuts quote between 50% and even 100% and that future Pfizer launches would come in at quote, most favored nation and quote levels.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called American patients quote the big winner and said tariff threats spurred the action.

Analysts note the deal also gives Pfizer a multi year tariff grace period.

It may set a template for Eli Lilly and other major pharmaceutical companies to follow.

So for listeners, if you rely on branded meds, look out for trumprx.gov to route you to manufacturer direct purchase pages as they go live.

And of course, check with your plan on how these prices interact with your deductibles, HS, AS, etcetera.

But essentially, if you're using pharmaceuticals, keep an eye out because there could be some huge savings coming your way.

Next up, some new fitness and grooming standards coming for the United States military.

So at a rare in person gathering of top brass at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30th, Defense Secretary now known as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth laid out a sweeping return to stricter fitness and grooming standards.

What he framed as quote highest male standards quote for combat roles twice yearly PT test for all ranks, daily hard PT physical training and no more beards outside limited exceptions.

So think like special warfare, COVID OPS, things like that.

He tied the move to a broader rollback of post 2010 waivers and Pi era policy saying, quote, it all starts with physical fitness and appearance.

If the secretary of war can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our joint force.

And as an aside, he also said no fat generals in the Pentagon.

If you haven't heard that one yet.

So critics inside and outside the force warn the beard ban raises religious and medical concerns and gender neutral quote, highest standard language could sideline some women from combat roles specifically.

Supporters say it will boost combat readiness and culture for listeners.

If you're in the military, especially if you have military ties, you can expect service by service directives in the coming months and tighter compliance checks on PT, body comp and grooming.

And for the most part, go on the record.

I'm all for it.

Next up, as I mentioned in the intro, it is October, which means sober October is back.

So Sober October, which started as a 2014 McMillan Cancer Support fundraiser, has become a global month long alcohol reset, boosting health and productivity and obviously punishing alcohol industry profits.

And who cares about that?

So benefits most people report in just two weeks of dropping alcohol include better sleep, clearer thinking, less anxiety, improved hydration, fewer empty calories and overall better well-being.

So some tips to succeed, set a start of week plan, journal, write it out, just kind of think through and maybe even talk through how you're going to be successful.

Remove triggers from your home, especially you can remove alcohol from your home.

Schedule workouts and socials that don't revolve around drinking and track your daily wins.

Put that big zero at the end of the day, every day and look forward to it the next day.

So if you haven't jumped in, it is not too late.

You can always do partial sober October.

You can jump on the bandwagon now, but highly, highly encourage you to do that.

I've had great results every year that I do this.

So jump on in.

It's sober October time.

Next up, a concerning study has found rising cancer in younger adults.

So a growing body of reporting shows breast, uterine, kidney and colorectal cancers are rising among Americans under 50, even as overall cancer deaths keep falling every year.

So the Independent reports that a new study synthesized NIH and ACS data and found that early onset colorectal cancer saw a 50% relative increase in younger adults around 2021 and 2022, with oncologists.

So cancer doctors noting the trend disproportionately effects women.

So researchers suspect a multi factor mix which is causing it and those causes include obesity, alcohol, diet and possibly micro plastic exposure rather than genetics alone.

With one scientist noting quote our genome does not change that fast.

So in other words, something else is causing this and it's external or behavioral.

So the take away for listeners, know your family history, mind the modifiable risks such as weight, alcohol consumption, diet, activity, etcetera.

And don't ignore symptoms especially GI changes.

So if you are 4045 plus or even younger with risk factors, talk to your clinician about earlier screening, school based test, blood samples, colonoscopies, etcetera.

But essentially, don't just assume just because you're young that you are not at risk for cancer.

So be proactive and you might possibly be saving your life and your last health and fitness.

Headline of the week.

The nonprofit Mental Health America has released its annual State of Mental Health in America report, ranking all 50 States and Washington, DC on rates of mental illness and access to care.

The top performers this year are New York at #1 followed by Hawaii and New Jersey, my home state.

And I'll be honest, I did not see that coming.

New York and New Jersey cracking the top three.

So at the bottom of the list, if you're wondering, the bottom 3, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona, where high prevalence and limited access to healthcare remain major, major challenges.

So the report is designed to spotlight where systems are working and where gaps persist.

And I don't know about you, but I, I took a look at the whole list.

I, I live in Colorado.

I was expecting to see Colorado in the top five.

I think it was like 46 or 47.

The Northeast really seem to be shining in this survey.

I'm going to link to it, so go check it out.

But if you live in a state that is ranked low on this list and you are struggling with access to care, look for community health centers, telehealth, go online, look for resources, especially with like alcohol use, sort of substance use.

You can find a lot of options out there if you look for them, especially these days with telehealth options.

But yeah, definitely surprise their to see some Northeastern states in that top three.

So that's it for this week's health and fitness headlines.

Just a quick word for our sponsor, Stick with us.

Justin Mazar is going to join us on the other side and we're going to talk about the worst health and fitness advice we ever got.

See you there Look, one in ten Americans today struggle with alcohol use disorder and I was one of them.

Did you know that there is a safe science backed daily pill that you can take to drink less or even quit alcohol for good?

It's called naltrexone, a doctor prescribed medication that you get online and our sponsor or Health is the nation's leading provider of naltrexone to date or health has helped over 35,000 people find freedom from alcohol and I'm proudly one of them.

To get started, text strength to 710710.

Again, that's strength to 710710 and get started on your journey to finally find freedom from alcohol.

All right.

Welcome, Justin.

Welcome back, should I say.

Hello, hello.

Thanks for having me man.

Of course dude, happy, happy October.

It's October 2nd when we're recording this, so happy sober October if you're doing it out there.

Spooky season.

Yeah, man.

Well, it's, it's sober October for me because I do drink sometimes and I'm not drinking in October.

But for you, this is your fifth straight continuous sober October because you've been sober for five years.

So keeping it rolling, man, keeping it rolling.

I thought before when I was building the script for the show, I thought I'd, I'd like maybe make it about sober October and ask you like, what are you doing to be successful?

But you're like, I'm just doing it.

I'm just doing life.

We're we're, we're doing the same thing we did yesterday.

November 30th 6 years for you.

Right.

November 30th, God willing, will be 6 years, man.

The fact that I'm going to have to use two hands to count the years is a big deal to me.

It's a big deal.

That's a big deal, man.

I'm looking forward to it, man.

But we'll, we'll get there when we get there.

I'm proud of you, dude, and we are.

We got a, we got a fun topic, I think.

So we're pivoting from the Ask Us Anything this month, and we might even put that on hold for a little while.

And what we're going to do here is we're going to talk about the worst fitness advice we've ever heard from anyone.

And we're going to break it up into topics.

And they're all going to be sort of around health and fitness.

But it's going to focus on the worst training advice, the worst nutrition advice, the worst supplementation advice, the worst recovery advice, and the worst mental health advice that we've ever gotten ever.

We're going to unpack it and we're each going to kind of give our answer our worst advice.

So you ready for this?

I'm ready man, this is a good one.

All right, so the first topic is training.

Physical training, right?

Strength training, sprinting, running, all the things.

And I, I'm, I'm pumped about this one because you and I have both been been training for basically 2 decades, which means that we probably bought into whatever the trends were.

My gosh.

In.

An in an abundant and pathetic way.

Exactly.

I've done a lot of stupid stuff over the years and it's resulted in injuries and wasted time and all those things.

So let's start with the first one.

So do you want to go first?

Do you want me to go first?

I want you to take this one very this one I'm very excited about to hear your answer.

All right, all right.

The worst training advice I've ever gotten.

And it's still out there.

It's still persists.

This place.

This isn't even like a trendy thing, but it's that it's it's twofold.

1 is that barbell back squats are the king of all exercises.

Yeah.

All right.

But I think just to drill down a little deeper that barbell anything.

I was going to, yeah.

Is, is absolutely necessary.

In other words, if you're not training heavy with a barbell, you're you're not doing anything, you're not getting the results.

And I think the the reason is this.

It's, it's like I bought into that, Justin, many people have and I have had so many injuries over the years training.

And I would say 90% of my injuries are directly a result of barbell back squats, right.

And it's, it's, I think the prevailing thought has always been like, you can only load heavy enough if you use a barbell.

I don't think anybody would disagree that a squat is an absolute staple movement that everyone should be doing, period.

You should be, you have to be squatting.

It equates to like the movement that's needed in our lives in general, but a barbell in particular, the the pressure that it puts on your spine, while it does activate, obviously it's a full compound movement, so many different muscle groups.

It's good for you, but the pressure it tends to put on your spine, your lower back, everybody that you talk to that's been lifting for that, they'll always say, yeah, I eventually got hurt, barbell back, but it my form was off, whatever.

It's just going to lead to injuries.

And I think there's so many safer ways to load your quads and your and your glutes and your hamstrings doing a squat pattern that doesn't put the pressure on your lower back and your spine.

So if your goal is muscle growth in your quadriceps, you can do that doing Bulgarian split squats, you can do it even versions of deadlifts.

There's, there's just different ways you can do that without having to have the risk.

And I think everything that I'm saying carries over to like a bench press, right?

It's it's not like anatomically speaking, it's not safe to lock your wrist.

In No.

Full range of motion.

So I'm, I'm happy that these days a lot of the smarter people in the fitness lane are talking about like dumbbells, 'cause you can rotate their smoother, better range of motion.

But when people talk about the the three main lifts, right, your deadlifts, your squats and your bench press, all of them typically historically connected to a barbell, there are versions of all three of those movements that you can do without a barbell that are safer, better for you, you can still stimulate muscle growth.

Can you load dumbbells as much as a barbell?

No, right?

So like right now if I put 225 on a barbell and did a flat bench, I can do 10 reps, right?

I mean dumbbells I I can't quite do that same load because it's just the difficulty of stabilizing.

Yeah, that's so much more, yeah.

Do more reps or or slow down your reps whatever.

So that's it for me, man.

I think that's it.

The Barbell Back Squad is the king of all lifts.

Yeah, I think, I mean that was force fed into our brains too.

I mean, the big three is all you need to do in order to, you know, and that's there's is there truth to some of it?

Yes, but not for everybody.

I mean, as your goal to step on stage in six months or is your goal to live a happy, healthy life and be functionally fit.

But to your point man, IA 100% was sold into that.

And I have the amount of videos of training of me over the years that I used to send you all the time to of super setting, squatting 4 plates to then going into dead lifting 4 plates right after it and then wondering why five years later, wow, why is my back blown out or why am I in a sling rate?

My old my old training styles had anything to do with that.

But like with anything in life, I mean, things continue to evolve and we've learned more.

The science tells us more as it evolves.

And like the amount of studies that we have for, you know, how does you know, muscle recruitment look for a hack squat compared to a barbell back squat or a front squat or any kind of squat movement that is more anatomically anatomic.

What you know what I mean?

It's more sound to your body.

And, you know, do I love barbell back squats?

Absolutely.

They're great.

Anyone would love to pack the weight on a barbell, throw it on their back and move heavyweight.

But that isn't sustainable for as many people as much as much as they think it is.

And I mean, I know there's people listening to it, like shut up, dude.

Barbell back squats.

My feel, I'm never not doing that.

And that's great.

I like that.

Check in with me when you're 75 years old.

Let's see how.

And I again, it all depends on, in my opinion, people's goals and what they're doing.

Like if you're competing to be an Olympic athlete, then you're going to do some back squats.

But if you are not like and you're just somebody who loves to work out to be healthy and fit and, you know, be the best version of yourself.

Like if you can do barbell back squats without it hurting you and not like taking more of a toll than it is giving you benefits, then by all means.

But there are so many more tools that you can put in your tool belt outside of just the barbell back squat.

And to your point, just about being stuck in a fixated plane of motion, like I would question all the times like back in the day doing only flat barbell bench press for like one of my heavy chest lifts and being why do my shoulders hurt?

Like understand, like why my elbows feel weird?

It can't be the barbell bench press because that's good for me.

Yeah, what's yours, man?

What?

What's the worst training advice you ever heard?

I had a lot unfortunately, but I think the one that I wanted to pick for this was the fact that like if I wasn't walking out of the gym crawling and in physical pain, borderline puking, that my, I shouldn't have even worked out because it didn't count.

And like over the years, like the training sessions that you and I have had in your Moloka Hill garage where like we are questioning our lives afterwards.

Like I love, I think those are needed every now and then 100% do.

But six days a week of completely destroying my central nervous system in order to feel like I was getting any kind of muscular growth and then questioning why everything else was falling like my sleep, my like everything.

And now understanding that like you don't have to be dead after a lift and a workout in order to feel accomplished.

And I think that goes back to like the whole mentality with the barbell backspots of like, no, you this has to be in order to be successful.

The science has been our friend the last 10 to 20 years of additional ways that we can, you know, get muscle growth and, you know, progression outside of 1 long piece of metal and some plates.

I agree.

I agree.

I think most people, most smart people in the fitness space would agree that of all of the principles of training, consistency is the most important.

Your point, If you're just burning yourself out and taxing your central nervous system and going in the red, as they say, every time you train, you're going to start dreading training, you're going to get hurt.

And then you have these kind of like ebbs and flows.

You're like, all right, I'm on point.

And then I burnout and you wonder why I had a guy in the show, actually just last week, Jason Khalifa talked about what he what he does is he used rate, rate of perceived exertion on a scale to 1 to 10.

And he tries to keep most of his workouts mentally at A7, But then he'll always have a peak.

Like one day a week, he'll do an all out conditioning session where he gets I love that like a nine and then like you're, you're getting a good mix.

But then it allows him to just like, enjoy training.

Without dreading it because.

He's exactly.

So I love that man.

So next one, let's talk about nutrition.

I'm going to kick it over to you first.

What is the worst nutrition advice you've ever gotten?

I would say that the worst nutrition advice was the carbohydrates are the devil and that they needed to be avoided at all costs in order to, you know, shed the way that you wanted to shed.

And I have learned that that is actually the opposite for at least for me.

Like I don't function well without them and have done the let's do three days low carbs and then one day high or 40 days of no carbs at all and then one day of 800 grams.

And like trying to just and then I have fun with it.

Oh my God, I loved it because it was like a human science experiment on myself.

But like, I immediately heard, you know, all of the fad diets of cut your carbs and you're going to cut your weight.

You know, it's going to super easy.

But like, will that happen?

Maybe.

But you're not just going to lose fat.

You're going to be losing muscle, you're going to be losing energy, you're going to be losing your happiness, in my opinion.

But yeah, I think, you know, at any kind of diet fad that you see on social media is what 80% of the population is going to start following.

And I feel like the the low carb, no carb diets were a huge thing for many, many years that I feel like we're starting to get away from a little bit, I hope.

But putting any big aspect of nutrition or training or something in a cage and immediately saying it's bad just because that's what someone says is very dangerous game that can get you in trouble.

I agree from experience.

I agree.

I'm with you.

I don't like carbs are the enemy.

I do get like thoughtful around my carb timing though.

Well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I don't cut down the amount of carbs I'm having a day, I just eat them around my.

Training workouts, yeah.

Fuel but mine Justin would be cheat days are important yeah Remember Remember like I have a cheat day.

I'd see people online in front of like a pizza and then they were like so proud to to eat the damn thing.

Dude, I got to be that's one.

It's bad advice that I actually never tried.

I intuitively I was just like, why the hell do I got to do that?

Like what it does is it's psychologically it keeps food as like this big like reward that you can overindulge on.

Like I'm working.

Yeah, I'm working so hard so I can just crash and I never felt like I needed to, man.

Like I enjoy eating healthy most of the time now Will on a Sunday, like if it's a birthday party, will I have a piece of cake?

Yes, occasionally I'm really on point.

I'm feeling good, I'm looking good and I just want to have like, you know, a piece of pizza.

Like I'll do it, but I'll just kind of like moderately weave them in whenever I feel like it instead of having this like this big, you know, prize meal at the end.

So I think it's just stupid.

I, I pulled a quote here just from the science of it.

I'm just going to read it real quick and then we'll move on.

But it says, quote, studies on diet adherence consistently show that rigid cheat days increase binge restrict patterns and can spike weekly caloric intake by thousands, erasing the deficits that are needed to truly lose weight.

And it says from from a hormonal standpoint, there's no benefit either.

I know that, like, when I really originally got into fitness, it was all about your daily caloric intake and then some.

Some thought leaders started coming in and saying like, OK, that's good, but really you should look at it more like on a weekly basis.

And I think this speaks to that.

Like if you're on point and then all of a sudden you just crash on the weekend and you up your caloric intake so that you're no longer in a deficit, you're going to lose some of your fat loss goals.

But I think cheap meals are stupid.

I've never done them and I don't find them to be necessary.

Look, life can be hard and stressful sometimes.

We all know that.

But when it comes to supplements, why is it that nobody talks about stress and resilience?

For me, I take the Adaptogen stack from Momentous Supplements.

It's a daily blend of ashwagandha, rhodiola, and L theanine, all clinically backed to help you stay calm, focused, and resilient.

I'm proudly partnered with Momentous Supplements because they are the industry's best.

They don't cut corn.

Everything's third party tested, used by pro athletes, and high quality.

Head to livemomentous.com and use code strength for 35% off your first order.

Again, that's live momentous.com code word strength for 35% off your first order and get started today.

Supplements.

The worst supplement advice you've ever gotten?

Worst supplement advice I've ever gotten.

If I don't take a scoop of whey protein within 5 minutes of walking out of the gym, then I lose any chance of gains from that workout session.

The whole anabolic window man.

Dude, if I could shatter that window again and again and again I would.

But I fell victim to it dude.

Like any piece of reading material or, you know, research back in the day of like, you got to have, you know, at least 20 to 40 grams of protein within 30 minutes of your workout.

And like, did you think, oh, I just worked out?

That makes sense.

Like, I have to get it in now.

But it's like, actually that window's a lot longer than you think it is.

Were you one of the guys with like a shaker bottle and you're like run into it to make sure you.

Get a great arm day today bro.

I got to get my $25 GNC whey bolic shaken.

Agreed, mine is BCA as remember.

Those, yeah.

Remember those they were.

On my bank account does.

Yeah, dude, they're, they were around for like, I felt like a decade where, yeah, you know, the prevailing thought was if you don't have enough branch chain amino acids in your bloodstream, when you lift, there's gonna be like a cat of like a breakdown of your muscle fibers and you're gonna cut your gain short.

And it's complete, complete BS.

I feel like it started in like the 2000 tens.

I mean to do it for me it was.

Like for a long time it.

Was originally it was like pre workout Bcaas, creatine shake shake shake go and then some pre workout or some supplement companies got smart to it and they started making pre workouts with Bcaas.

Right.

Yeah, that's everything I need.

The price went up and everything, but I think it's a it's a waste of money.

I mean, the reality is if you're just eating enough protein throughout the day, it's not as though the branched chain amino acids that are in natural protein just kind of like leave your body when you urinate or something.

It's like just eat enough protein and you have the BCA as.

And if you for some reason can't, like if you're on a maybe a plant based diet, which just kind of cuts your protein down a little bit, like maybe, maybe there's benefit.

But man, it used to be like gospel that if you it was, it was.

Box of protein synthesis.

It's not accurate.

Good, Mark, sorry.

Yeah, sorry any supplement executives listening to this, but do better.

All right, recovery, worst recovery advice, just a little clarity on that.

Things like sleep, stretching, mobility, etcetera, etcetera.

But anything that helps you recover emotionally, mentally, physically.

What's the worst recovery advice you've done?

I think I, I mean, it's, it's an easy one to go to, but I'm going to, I have to say sleep too, just because I never get 8 hours and I don't think I've had in a very long time, You know, benefits of sleep are always going to be huge.

Not discounting that, not discounting the fact that we all need it, but I think the realistic level of, you know, people getting consistent at least 8 hours of sleep every single night.

It's just not realistic.

Like it's not and if you have kids job, you're travelling, you're you're doing everything you got shit to take care.

Like there's just not enough time in the day to get all that done and prioritize ensuring that your eyes are closed for at least 8 hours.

If other people are hearing this and saying that's not true, I am jealous of you and I'm proud of you for being able to prioritize sleep and get everything else done.

So kudos to you.

I'm not one of those people, but I think, you know, I that 8 hours has turned into like maybe I'll get 6 if I can get to that.

Like that's great.

But understanding that, you know, I'm not going to not go to the gym if it requires me to wake up early and I'd be losing another out.

Like I would rather sacrifice sleep then not get it at work out.

And if that makes sense, you know what I mean.

Yeah, yeah, mine.

I have the same answer by the way.

It's, and for me specifically, it was, it used to be everyone needs, regardless of who you are, how active you are, how old you are, whatever, everyone needs 8 hours of sleep.

I remember I used to feel like I was failing when I wasn't getting that.

And I think it's bad advice.

And since you already hit on a lot of things I say, I, I, I pulled out a quote.

This is from the studies from the sleep research society, right?

It says, quote the eight hour rule comes from population averages, but sleep needs vary by genetics, training load and circadian rhythms.

And then it says sleep quality, which is R.E.M.

plus, I'm sorry, R.E.M., R.E.M.

plus deep sleep balance, consistency, circadian alignment has more impact on recovery, right?

And just to, to get super granular and specific is why I don't believe that I need 8 hours of sleep every I I wear a whoop to track my sleep, right?

Last night I got 7 hours of sleep, of which an hour and 44 minutes of deep sleep and an hour and 44 minutes of REM sleep, and I was awake for only 5% of my sleep.

Right point there.

That's 3 1/2 hours of restorative sleep that I got in seven hours of actual sleep.

I'm a very efficient sleeper because of my general health and fitness, my bedtime routine.

When I go to bed, I'm out.

I get deep sleep and I'm I'm back at.

It then you're up, yeah.

Important for me now, if you looked at my wife's same 7 hours, she doesn't get near as much R.E.M.

or deep sleep.

So why should we both have to get the same objective amount of sleep?

If I'm more efficient in my sleep, then she is.

And to me, that's objective and it's true to me.

So clearly, back to that quote, whether it's genetics, my overall fitness levels, there's something about me that allows me or affords me to get six to seven hours of sleep and be healthy.

And I can show you my HRV, my resting heart rate, my biological age, like I am good to go and I'm not getting it.

I was just sleeping.

If I were, I would feel like a sloth.

I'd be like, it feels indulgent to me.

I'm like I don't need.

This.

Yeah, I'm.

Doing it I got stuff to do so so anyway.

Understandable.

Sleep and sleep, buddy.

All right, last one.

This is fun mental health which?

That's important.

Recovery ish but what's the worst mental health advice you've you've ever gotten?

I think this is not a cop out, but I feel like this is the the a lot of what men were felt like, at least in our generation of, of, of growing up and everything is that just just toughen up.

It's not that hard.

Like it's not that big of a deal.

Like get over it, move on.

And that, I mean, speaking from my personal experience of just shoving everything back down that wasn't deemed accessible or deemed appropriate to talk about by society or men in general.

So like the whole mantra of a man, I should be able to handle my shit.

Like, I don't got to talk about it.

I don't have to talk to you about it.

I think it's a very slippery slope.

And you know, having that mantra in my head of me being, I should be able to figure out my shit by myself.

I don't need any help.

I don't need anyone to tell me what I should or shouldn't do, and anything other than that is a sign of weakness.

Yeah, mine is this idea around mental health that community and vulnerability is absolutely necessary in abundance for everyone.

Slippery slope, that was.

That's what I meant by that.

So let's hear this.

I'm curious.

Yeah, it's like, you know, there there is and I and I I love this there is this movement focused these days on like how isolation is like just like a weapon against health.

And I agree with that.

Like if you're if you're alone or you only have like an online basically identity and relationship IA 100% agree that that's not healthy for you.

It's going to hurt you.

But there's this, I think there's this over emphasis on this need to like get in front of people and just be vulnerable all the time.

And just like it, it almost implies that we all have this hurt and weakness that if we're not out there continuously every week, like sitting in front of someone and like being like, here's my struggles, here's my struggles.

Yeah, I, I think there's goodness in that.

And, and I think it's good for like guys in particular to meet up and, you know, have a relationship and, and if there's something on your mind and have you to share it.

But I think it's over emphasized.

And I'll go back to the sleep comment.

In the same way that 8 hours of sleep doesn't work for everybody.

We're all wired differently, right?

I believe it or not because I'm doing a podcast and talking.

I'm an introvert and if you give me a window, like last night, a window came up.

My wife went out and got dinner with friends.

I put the kids down and I had this like 3 hour block immediately.

I'm like amazing.

I can sit by myself and read a book and be quiet.

My first instinct wasn't who's available?

Who am I calling to go hang out?

Because I need to recharge and I recharge with reflection and solitude.

So I don't like for me, there was a while I was like, oh, I'm I'm not spending enough time with guys.

And then I need to be proactive and be like, let's go get coffee, let's go do this.

But then when I, when I actually did it, I was kind of like, this isn't energizing me.

It's draining me.

It's.

Draining.

It right and there are times when I have some heaviness and maybe I want to share it and then I'll reach out to a friend and but like for the most part, I'm like, I'm feeling pretty good.

And anyways, to me, it's like for your mental health, everything in moderation, even connection, because a guy like me, you can over connect and then you're just draining and then you don't feel better.

So that that's my I, I think.

I don't know that it's bad advice, but it's just not.

No, it's a very fair, a good point.

You know, I think there's a difference between getting together with a group of guys and wanting to, you know, share your struggles with the end goal of, OK, let's walk away from this with a plan in place of how we're going to move forward from this and what we're going to do about it.

Because I'm a firm believer of like, look, whatever happened to you in the past, whatever happened in your life, your childhood, the trauma that you experienced is not your fault.

Like none of you can't control any of that.

But what is up to you is what you're going to do about it.

So getting together and just complaining for the sake of life.

Oh, look at me and my poor story.

It's so much better than yours or I had it worse than you.

Fuck that.

Like that's the exact thing.

What's wrong with these types of groups is glorifying your war stories and not focusing on the other side of what we are going to do about it and how we're going to change and how we're going to give back the people who are in the positions that we used to be.

Because how lucky are fucking we to still be alive and have that opportunity, you know?

Yeah, minus the fucking preach, Pastor Justin, Preach I.

Agree, Pastor.

Well said.

And Speaking of Speaking of churches, I know and we got to.

We're running out of time, but I do feel as though like certain churches have this culture that overemphasizes vulnerability and weakness and doesn't emphasize the strength in the agency and the power enough.

And I, I think what I'm trying to preach here is like everything in moderation, even even vulnerability, right?

Like I, I think like at some point you got to be like, OK, this is what happened.

This is what I'm freaking doing about it.

And let's go, right.

And then I think that's that's the right healthy mindset in, in my opinion anyway.

Yeah, buddy, this was fun.

This is cool.

I like this Little Mix up from the.

To everybody, it's October.

If you're doing sober October, power to you.

Keep on, keep coming back to the show for, you know, advice and motivation to get there.

But Justin, man, it's been great seeing you.

Thanks for joining again.

Always is just thanks for having me man and looking forward to the next one.

Happy October everyone.

Happy October.

Well, that's it for this week's episode.

Thanks for listening to the Stronger Weekly podcast for your health news, fitness insights and motivation.

Wishing you a strong and healthy week ahead.

We'll see you next time.