Eat Train Prosper

July Instagram Q&A ⎮ ETP #78

July 26, 2022 Aaron Straker | Bryan Boorstein
Eat Train Prosper
July Instagram Q&A ⎮ ETP #78
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Our (mostly) monthly Instagram Q&A episode is here. This is another really fun Q&A episode with fun questions from Instagram. Here are the top 10 questions covered in this episode.

  1. How to do a strength phase to support hypertrophy 
  2. How would you fuel and plan around hiking a 14er?
  3. Which is better for Hypertrophy, DBs or cables? 
  4. How do you avoid burnout as a coach? 12+ years into coaching and struggling with this. 
  5. The ratio of lengthened to shortened per muscle group? 
  6. How do you measure effective reps 
  7. 23% BF and female. How to decide to bulk or cut? 
  8. What was the highest (we) or a client went with volume for a given body part?
  9. When should you either increase the weight or increase reps?
  10. What do you do for stubborn muscle groups?


Thanks for listening


Coaching with Aaron ⬇️
https://strakernutritionco.com/metabolic-performance-protocol

Done For You Client Check-In System for Online Coaches ⬇️
https://strakernutritionco.com/macronutrient-reporting-check-in-template/

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

Coaching with Aaron ⬇️
https://strakernutritionco.com/nutrition-coaching-apply-now/

Done For You Client Check-In System for Online Coaches ⬇️
https://strakernutritionco.com/macronutrient-reporting-check-in-template/

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

oh actually going to make you

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

bigger

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

so i don't have to look at myself which i love right here we

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

go

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

what's up guys happy tuesday welcome back to another episode of train prosper today is out july instagram q and we try to do this about onch per month sometimes it ends up being every other month brian and i will put up a question box on our stories and take in call sorry it calls questions from our instagram followers and then we will compile the best ones and put together a pretty robust and comprehensive podcast episode answering questions with full of what ton of context in nuance like we like to do before we get into today's q and a brian has some updates for himself in a little bit of a teaser for next week's episode brian kick us off

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah next week we have our buddy cast on hanson back on the show again and i'm really excited about this episode because he kind of actually came to me and said hey do you want to do an episode on the current state of research regarding muscle length and i was like yeah that's like hundred percent exactly what i want to do of course so basically cast is going to go over some of the nuance around training it long and short muscle langs like it kind of seems like the industry and we as part of that have swung so far in the direction of long muscle lengths and i think that in some ways cast has some good information that can maybe help us understand the benefits of using more short overloaded movements especially kind of in the face of some of the stuff that paul carter has been putting out and i know i've received a lot of d ms with like links to paul carter's stuff being like look the triceps and biceps and gluts all respond better to short overload and they're not like responsive to stretch mediated hypertrophy and all this stuff and i have my thoughts on it but i'm really curious to have cast come on so that we can get some of his thoughts on it as well

[aaron_straker]:

i have some thoughts as well that i am excited to talk about with that next week and some of them were revelations from my training today which i'll touch on a little bit

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

in my updates

[bryan_boorstein]:

nice nice i can't wait cool well quickly on my updates because we have a bunch of questions to get to but poor night of sleep last night for me which is unfortunate bryson had a bad dream around two a m n i couldn't fall back

[aaron_straker]:

a

[bryan_boorstein]:

asleep till four and then my alarm goes off at five for this podcast

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

so one of those kind of nights however i'm really glad i took monday off of training yesterday and it was kind of up in the air like i had trained shoulders on sunday so i was planning on doing legs on monday as they we're supposed to be recovered but i woke up and just didn't really feel it my legs were still kind of sore and one of the things i discussed on our last episode was compensation injuries around my ruptured planner pasha so my opposite leg the one that i've basically been putting all of my weight on i limp around every day for the last three weeks it's been bothering me a lot i think it started like a week and a half or two ago where it just got like really tight and i couldn't like fully flex my leg so i was kind of hesitant to want to do a bunch of really hard deep quad training when the kind of feels like it's swollen back there when when i go down super far so i just took a guest yesterday in the morning when i woke up i was like man i wonder if this is my it band like it just you know i'm constantly putting the weight on that foot the i t band can can cause lot of the similar symptoms that i'm feeling and so i spent the whole day while i was working basically grinding out my it band with this massive ball that i have it's like bigger than a cross ball so it works pretty well for something like that and this morning i woke up and it's like fifty sixty percent better so i think i may be nailed it with the i t band and so i'm going to train today see how it goes one thing i'm actually changing in my training as i think now that i'm in a surplus i'm taking out the hack press that i had discussed in prior sods as a replacement for the pendulum and i'm going to go back to the pendulum and i want to try it this time using the prime wedges but i think that using the prime wedges is going to force my feet to go too low and so i don't know if i'm going to be able to go all the way to ask to grass type thing in the pendulum i don't know i you've seen bardo do them at all in his stories but he basically just goes to parallel where like his knees flex forward as far as they can go comes back up so i'm thinking with the prime wedges on my pendulum that might be the case for me as well but i have no idea so today is going to be an experiment with that i'm excited about that the new split over all has been really awesome changing it into a five way split instead of a four way split however i think i'm going to need to do it over eight days i was thinking that by splitting up the fourth day into into halves and doing five days and i'd be able to do it over seven days but i just don't like training that five days a week it's just it's just a little bit too much for me in four days or five out of eight seems to fit me much better and then to touch on body weight stuff real quick i am always amazed especially this year how adaptive my metabolism is both directions but even more so going back up and so to provide context like when i was on my way down in this diet to get even into the mid to upper one eighties i was went four twenty five twenty six hundred calories and then to get below mid one eighties i was like twenty two twenty three is calory three hundred calories and now i've been every day for the entire week i've been basically between one eighty seven and one eighty eight and i'm eating between thirty five hundred and four thousand calories every day and it just like boggles mind that i can be eating that's over a thousand calories more on the way back up than i was on the way down and i don't know man that just feels like it's larger than the adaptation that most people experience going up but but i could be wrong do you have you have any kind of insight on that

[aaron_straker]:

i mean my initial thought is tracking accuracy at those higher intakes because i mean i mean at four thousand calories per day for and then especially coupled on the back of what happened on the like once the diet was over

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

i mean from if you just ran those numbers it seems unlikely to me it could be like maybe an entry that's just incorrect and one of the apps that's generally one of the

[bryan_boorstein]:

i don't

[aaron_straker]:

biggest

[bryan_boorstein]:

use

[aaron_straker]:

things

[bryan_boorstein]:

apse i check everything by hand

[aaron_straker]:

okay where

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

some of those sources are my next question so i mean like how

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

are

[bryan_boorstein]:

i

[aaron_straker]:

you

[bryan_boorstein]:

mean

[aaron_straker]:

hitting four thousand calories like is fat super high i don't think you're doing

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

eight

[bryan_boorstein]:

meeting

[aaron_straker]:

nine

[bryan_boorstein]:

a

[aaron_straker]:

hundred

[bryan_boorstein]:

bunch of brownies every night

[aaron_straker]:

i

[bryan_boorstein]:

for the most part

[aaron_straker]:

okay are those

[bryan_boorstein]:

so like if i if i make a batch of brownies it's like four thousand calories for the batch and then

[aaron_straker]:

hm

[bryan_boorstein]:

i'll like a quarter of it

[aaron_straker]:

hm understood understood

[bryan_boorstein]:

i'm pretty confident that it's like around a thousand calorie you now and

[aaron_straker]:

hm

[bryan_boorstein]:

then that's like after dinner where i'm et around three thousand colors it's certainly ambiguous like that's why i said i'm between thirty five hundred and four thousand calories like i don't exactly know what the number is know that it's not three thousand and it's it's certainly more than that so so whatever like i just think it's interesting it could also be a result of the fact that for a week and a half or two i was eating five thousand calories and so now four thousand to my body it's like oh well this is a diet essentially like at least for the moment and then maybe a from now everything figures itself out again and the scale starts climbing you

[aaron_straker]:

ye

[bryan_boorstein]:

know so so it's just it's just a weird maybe hiatus in the system

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

or something along those lines but

[aaron_straker]:

one thing that i have found is i always want to be very cautious when i say this but like the leaner you are and the longer you have played the game the more you can get away with because when you really zoom out over that time horizon like you have been incredibly focused health you know quality food focused over years and years and years and years and that is like your metabolism and body's base line and like you can go on these what was the term from like two weeks ago planned hedonistic deviations was

[bryan_boorstein]:

what

[aaron_straker]:

that it

[bryan_boorstein]:

exactly

[aaron_straker]:

okay

[bryan_boorstein]:

ph d

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

baby

[aaron_straker]:

so i mean like you could go to vegas and entreat your body like an absolute dempster fire for four days you come home for five days you're back on your ship and it's like besides maybe some like energy and d

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

hydration it's like you never went sort of thing but if someone who's just been doing this for like four or five months goes and does that like you're not going to bounce back like someone who's been like in your position would so that is like what i'm leaning to and i know that to be true of myself i just generally don't do that because i feel so terrible afterwards

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah ah

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

i don't which is so weird that's like been the hardest part for me because i keep eating this stuff and then expecting to wake up and being like oh i feel awful like i wish i hadn't eaten that you know but i wake up feeling great and

[aaron_straker]:

we

[bryan_boorstein]:

like ready to go so then like

[aaron_straker]:

okay

[bryan_boorstein]:

you know i'll commit and like i'm like today i'm going to stop eating the brownies and then night time will come and i'm like hey what's what's the drawback i'm just gonna at the brownies you know

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

um

[aaron_straker]:

why not

[bryan_boorstein]:

so so i feel i feel a litte a little bad about it like i feel like at this point you know three weeks three weeks post diet i should be cleaning myself up a little bit but it's almost it's almost as interesting to me as an experiment to see what get away with and it's definitely not something i'm going to going to continue throughout the off season but i think it's interesting for what it is real quickly just to finish up my last

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

two up dates very rarely in my life these days with twenty five years experience do i hear something on a podcast from somebody that isn't like a ph d scientist you know that or like someone you know like john meadows who's just an extremely intelligent veteran of the game but i was listening to french youtuber on abel's podcast the other day his name is natural hypertrophy and i was listening to him talk about a bunch of things that i don't agree with and then one thing that was a really interesting idea regarding ab training and so he was like now just super set your ab work or alternate it however you want to approach that with your lower fatiguing upper body movements and and in my brain i was like yeah like why why wouldn't i do that like say and for the end i end up skipping it eighty percent of the time i'd say like i might train abs once every four weeks or something in a blue moon but imagine like i'm not talking about doing it superseded with free weight barbell upper body movements that would require course ability so i'm not talking about like dumb bell bent over dum bell rose or like overhead press like standing or something like that but if you have a chest supported movement or you're doing like a lying down pressing movement or a lateral rays or something like that there's really no reason you can't do a set and then take a couple of breaths and do some abs and come back and do another set of lateral raises so yeah i thought it was an interesting idea and it's something i'm going to potentially experiment with just as a way to maybe keep me on track training my abs um and then the final thought i have in my update is since my foot is since i ruptured it three weeks ago i haven't been able to walk like you know at any pace worth mentioning i think i'm walking at a two point o pace right now as i kind of hobble around and it's just not comfortable to walk so i don't go for walks i walk as minimally as as i can as needed to get through life and so what i've been doing instead is biking a lot and the thing with biking is that m it's not as low intensity as walking even if you're going like when you're outside you know you have to deal with hills and and there's undulations and um and i really hate biking on a low turnover rate where you're just you know super fast the whole time with your legs i like to put the bike on the hardest pedal amount so it's kind of almost like a laborious grind to turn the wheels each time so heart rate gets at a minimum to the hundred say and then on the higher end if i'm going up a hill it can get to like one fifty one sixty and so i've been doing this one or two times a day for twenty it's instead of going for walks and i'm like truly enjoying it i don't i don't there's something about getting my heart rate elevated in this fashion that is different than doing it from doing like a hard set of pendulum and it's definitely different than doing you know just going out and go walk and uh yeah i'm just in the first few weeks the infantile stage of kind of adding cardio back into my life but so far so good and as i i say i think the best time to do cardiois when you're in a surplus because you actually have the glycogen and the fuel to support it so m yeah i'm going to continue i think doing this even after my foot heels kind of see how it facilitates my conditioning throughout the off season

[aaron_straker]:

i love that there's something that i've been thinking about a little bit as well of adding it in just because

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

it's like i mean re getting older brian you know

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

what i mean and like

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

i don't i don't do anything but lift weights you know what i mean and it's like i should add it in there just from like a hedging bet sort of thing for like zone to type stuff maybe like twenty

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

well let's be real we're gonna start it like ten minutes maybe pushed to like fifteen on a stair master may be like twice per week or something like that or or the bike i love riding the bike i generally will ride it as like a warm up for leg days but it is something that there was a period where i was adding in like two hit sessions like very short to bata on the bike right like the air line i did like that it's like fast enough to where i will actually do it in sucking form and it's right but

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

yeah i definitely do kind of agree with that just from like just checking crossing your teas and dot in your eyes sort of thing

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah yeah i can't even imagine doing this stationary bike that's one of my least favorite ways to cardio

[aaron_straker]:

i love

[bryan_boorstein]:

like

[aaron_straker]:

it

[bryan_boorstein]:

i actually think stationary bike is less preferable to me than treadmill

[aaron_straker]:

it's probably the top one in fiers buy like if i could only buy like one piece of gym equipment i would buy the station like the spin bike

[bryan_boorstein]:

but like i'm talking about in comparison to being out on my bike and actually like riding my bike around instead of sitting on a bike and i

[aaron_straker]:

ye

[bryan_boorstein]:

in a gym with i don't know it's just like

[aaron_straker]:

m

[bryan_boorstein]:

you have

[aaron_straker]:

okay

[bryan_boorstein]:

option to be out in nature it's like the equivalent between treadmill and running but i'm trying to make like running outside

[aaron_straker]:

hm

[bryan_boorstein]:

you know versus running on a treadmill but for some reason like the bike to me is even more mondaine than the tread mill

[aaron_straker]:

yeah okay i could see that

[bryan_boorstein]:

you can like it that's fine you're allowed to

[aaron_straker]:

i

[bryan_boorstein]:

like

[aaron_straker]:

do

[bryan_boorstein]:

it

[aaron_straker]:

like i think i kind of think i fell in love with it between my injuries you know like when i had the

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

achilles rupture i could ride the air dine and and then when i had my patella repair riding the bike was like the only once i had just i could set the seat

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

trying to think the seats super high so my need never bent too far and i was able to get movement in again and then that's

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

what i did to re have my patella like a lot as i just rode the bike and as my range of motion improved move the seat down so i think like between those things i just really grew to like it because it was

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

like it allowed me to move when i you know whatever soon after those surgeries

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah and with your nomadic life style like i'm sure you don't even own like a regular bike or it's in storage somewhere

[aaron_straker]:

i do not own a bike jenny owns

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

one but she's never seen it and it took two years to

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

get shipped and it's in virginia i think

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah i mean it would be easy for you to rent one in bolly too but like

[aaron_straker]:

there's no way to ride

[bryan_boorstein]:

i don't know

[aaron_straker]:

like

[bryan_boorstein]:

like everyone has their

[aaron_straker]:

this

[bryan_boorstein]:

thing

[aaron_straker]:

the roads are small they're packed with

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

scooters in cars and stuff there's not really any way to write it so i ride the stationary

[bryan_boorstein]:

gotcha

[aaron_straker]:

body jim happy a ship

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool perfect all right let's hear what's going on with you dude

[aaron_straker]:

so i am into my second week on the hypertrophy block and i am really really enjoying it like

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

the metabolic

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

as kind of put things into perspective like the strength my strength block was still hypertrophy as i was still like between four and eight so the was a lot of the same movements and stuff i did have like dead lifts in but other than that it was a lot of similar hypertrophy movements just at lower up ranges but it's just like i forgot how much i just like i mean it's been two months essentially a little over

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

so it's been fun just getting back in and hitting like sets of like ten taking them the failure

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

for them most part is fun and i've just been really really enjoying it and then from a body weight standpoint this is the first time with a calory

[bryan_boorstein]:

hold

[aaron_straker]:

yeah go ahead

[bryan_boorstein]:

can i can i jump in with some questions on your

[aaron_straker]:

course

[bryan_boorstein]:

training real

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

quick

[aaron_straker]:

let's do it

[bryan_boorstein]:

what's your split and do you have any idea how many sets per muscle group per week

[aaron_straker]:

ye

[bryan_boorstein]:

you're doing at this point

[aaron_straker]:

yeah so we do a a anterior focused day so like chest um interior delt triceps and then that's monday then we have a lower which is hack squat dum bell bent ney r d l like extension like curl with some abs and then then i have an off day and then i have a posterior focused upper day then another lower

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

and then an entire upper focus day where it's like one exercise of every muscle group on the upper body

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

except

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool

[aaron_straker]:

for

[bryan_boorstein]:

i

[aaron_straker]:

as

[bryan_boorstein]:

like that so upper lower upper lower well it's push lower pull lower full upper

[aaron_straker]:

yes sorry no push

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

upper

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool

[aaron_straker]:

pull upper then like an upper with the lowers in between

[bryan_boorstein]:

no

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeh know i'm saying it's a push day for upper

[aaron_straker]:

yes

[bryan_boorstein]:

then a lower

[aaron_straker]:

yes

[bryan_boorstein]:

day

[aaron_straker]:

yes yes

[bryan_boorstein]:

then a pull day for upper then a lower day then a full upper body

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

day yea

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

we were saying the same

[aaron_straker]:

m

[bryan_boorstein]:

thing i think we were just saying differently

[aaron_straker]:

yeah i like

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool

[aaron_straker]:

it

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

i do not know how much each one

[bryan_boorstein]:

okay

[aaron_straker]:

you know and that's kind of i did have a note here that maybe

[bryan_boorstein]:

my

[aaron_straker]:

i wanted to talk about more next week but it's something that i've been really really thinking about as i've been trying to like with anything when i have things that i disagree with or questions with i always start with myself and the whole like i was actually talking to jennie about it today but i have like this it's really big evolving question in my mind around training to failure especially on lengthen tight movements and how people lquantify things for example my second or my last my final set of the hack squat supposed to be taken to failure right a set to failure on the hack squat absolutely burries me absolutely barres me i get nauseous i have to sit for like fifteen seconds afterwards and i collect myself it just requires so much of me

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

and it's just like when i see

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

and programs and sufrund people are like oh you know we took three sets to failure on the like on like the leg press on mike you know seventy percent of one at max whatever in like a study i'm like no the funk you didn't

[bryan_boorstein]:

doing like twenty

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

raps twenty five

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

raps to failure

[aaron_straker]:

yeah and it's and it's just hard for me to relate to that because i'm just what is the failure and like today i didn't even

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

cut it at nine reps and here's the reason why i'm on the hack squad i pull the stop pins out so i can get full range of motion and on my ninth reap like my core brace like broke down a little bit i could feel that and i'm like okay well if i take this ten throw to failure and i'm like doing all these check downs in my mind really quick i'm like i took the stops out so i can go as deep as i want but if this pins it's

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

like going to pin my fucking knees

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

into my chest and i'm going to be sucked

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

there's two other people in that side of the gym and they're both girls doing like booty band work out like they are they're fucking worthless if to help me so i was like okay i'm racking it

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

like i don't want

[bryan_boorstein]:

well

[aaron_straker]:

to

[bryan_boorstein]:

i mean you would call that like a zero to one r i r so you like you may have had another rep but like

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

you were close enough like you were within the proximity

[aaron_straker]:

that's exactly

[bryan_boorstein]:

you know

[aaron_straker]:

what i wrote it down as that's zero to one i may

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

have had another rip but i may have died trying to get it end oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

i don't often fail when i don't intend to fail like i would say my default is to take things to zero to one r r and less like i'm in the point of my cycle where i'm going into like partial and stuff like that and then you know the purpose is to do that but yeah if i'm like on a movement like that where there are no partials like a length no movement

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

zero to one r r is as far as it goes like maybe once a cycle i'll fail like a like a hack or a pendulum something like

[aaron_straker]:

ah

[bryan_boorstein]:

that but it's very rare

[aaron_straker]:

and that's kind of what i would how i generally approach it to like i learned my lesson taking r d ls to a zero or so like i'm not going to do

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

that any more i'm going to cut them it's generally like lower body stuff but obviously like a and range movement or even something that's like safer like a seated light curl is generally a more like length and ham

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

string but fail it's just like whatever you're good sort of thing but upper body stuff

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

even like a dumb bell bench press or whatever if you're if

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

you're missed if you fail you just kind of dump them off to the side aside from like barbell bench press hack squat

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

and dead lift type things i feel like a lot of things can be much more safely taken to failure

[bryan_boorstein]:

all right continue on

[aaron_straker]:

and a little bit about body composition stuff it's been interesting like not modifying nutrition and really just letting training in time make the body composition changes there lower but it has been interesting to see because it's obviously something that i'm generally just going to pull the nutrition level because it's much faster and easier to facilitate so that's just been interesting finally like do it a different way that i normally otherwise wouldn't

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

and then the last thing i had which i get especially with new clients questions around like hey how should i i have an apple watch a garment or whatever for you know managing my activity and stuff one of the one of the cardinal sins is like sure adding back the calories that you're like calory tracker said you burned and while i think they're like tracking steps are fine and maybe if you're more like endurance style athlete can be more beneficial but after that hack squat set that one to failure that i was just talking about where i was like mess and like you know needed to collect myself i was always like walking to the other side of the gym to start my next

[bryan_boorstein]:

ye

[aaron_straker]:

exercise my garment sent me a notification it's like it's time to get up and be active and i was like you can get

[bryan_boorstein]:

uh

[aaron_straker]:

you can get fucked

[bryan_boorstein]:

h you've been sitting too long in this hack squat you got to stand now

[aaron_straker]:

it's like like i literally just took a set to death and you're

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

telling me to get up and be active okay i'm questioning like how this thing is built for sure

[bryan_boorstein]:

that's amazing

[aaron_straker]:

yeah but that's it for me

[bryan_boorstein]:

mine does that sometimes too

[aaron_straker]:

yeah okay

[bryan_boorstein]:

sweet all right should we do some some questions here

[aaron_straker]:

hell yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool

[aaron_straker]:

a

[bryan_boorstein]:

so actually i think i'm going to kick this first one over to you even though i had normally come to me because you just finished one so i think you'll have some insight on how to design a strength phase to support hypertrophy

[aaron_straker]:

yeah so it's it was the first for me because i think kind of collectively we we like to really separate the two of like if you're doing a strength phase that me you need to barbell back squat you need to dead lift

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

and you need to be doing barbell

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

movements

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

but you really don't like have to and what

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

i liked about how alex designed it for me was we took pretty much a lot of this am hypertrophy style movements but we just did lower reps and it was fun really getting to like push like a dumb bell bench press for like sets of four and just see like hey can i move to like one fifteens with this you know it's actually fun to try and be like strong again but with those hypertrophy style movements um so that is a way you can do it so that you're not like re learning new movement patterns or com pletely changing your training and really the goal is to just take enough time away from the like you know rep ranges of traditional more you know singer quotes your traditional hypertrophy and the like to twelve eight to twelve something sort of rep

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

range and just train a different stimulus a little bit more because we can have hypertrophy across you know what we know i think even as low as like three to five rebs right and it's just kind of covering your gaps a little bit and resensitizing to some certain rep ranges

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah very well said i love all of that the key word i think here is that is that it's a this person is asking about a strength phase to support hypertrophy not just a strength phase and so it's very much along the lines of what you said like it actually wouldn't even make any sense for to be

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

like well i usually do

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

a pendulum and an r d l

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

but fuck it

[aaron_straker]:

ye

[bryan_boorstein]:

we're doing strength work so i'm going conventional dead lift and back squat you know like like where's the carry over at that point you're just like having to learn a new movement that's inherently quite complicated and it may have transfer over to your hypertrophy work but like what's the cost how many weeks do you have to put in to like really get past those nur adaptations in the back squat and the conventional dead lift when what you're actually trying to do is build strength

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

and neural efficiency in the art and the pendulum or whatever the same movements were that you would and to do in your hypertrophy is so much like you said i think it's a factor of lowering reps um that four to six repranetis perfect if you're doing pendulums r d ls dumb bell bench presses things like that i wouldn't want to go below four and then i like the way that that you had mentioned alex structured that where it was like six six four four or something along those lines where you're increasing weight each set so maybe it's like r p e six even eight nine or something along those lines um and you know taking longer rest periods slightly lower volumes i think the key when looking at the strength face support hypertrophy is that you're trying to increase neural adaptation so you're trying to get better performing the movements of heavier weights and then you also like you said the word resensitize or you want to like um create or decrease anabolic resistance to the higher rep ranges so so by doing the lower rep sets with the longer rest periods et cetera that's exactly what you're doing and it's kind of a way to do this in place of a de load which would also accomplish the same thing of of resensitizing you to the hypertrophy stuff um however this also potentially could have a tangential benefit of increasing neural efficiency

[aaron_straker]:

very very well said

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool this next one is really funny best way to eat a kee

[aaron_straker]:

here we go we take a knife and we cut it in half and then you just eat the two sides

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

and then you just don't eat the little butt whole part but other than that what i'm going with no spoon

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

or scooping a meat in the skin

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah i cut and scoop along with seventy seven per cent of the other people that took my pole

[aaron_straker]:

what's

[bryan_boorstein]:

so

[aaron_straker]:

it's

[bryan_boorstein]:

um

[aaron_straker]:

really funny as real quick before we move on you're the whole reason i started eating k was like man brian really loves kees

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

just ike saw him at the grocery store one day

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

and i was like brian at me i'm eating him it never

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

crossed my mind to not the skin so

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah i kind of wish i was introduced to them that way so i was a super protected little child and my mother would not even scoop them she would actually hand peel them and then cut them into into bitable slices

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

for me

[aaron_straker]:

ye

[bryan_boorstein]:

and so i just grew up not eating it and it's been one of those things but so so while that may be a negative and i'm getting less nutrients from the skin one positive in the way that i was brought up is my mother also never let us have any soda growing up ever and to this day i don't like carbonated drinks like beer beer i drink because kind of developed a taste for it but i wouldn't say that i like search out beer and i'm like

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

beer um but like i literally i don't drink soda i don't think i've ever had a soda once in my entire life i've had like i've been like you know that's disgusting type of thing so so there's some things where

[aaron_straker]:

yah

[bryan_boorstein]:

this this has benefited me

[aaron_straker]:

yah

[bryan_boorstein]:

and others

[aaron_straker]:

okay

[bryan_boorstein]:

where now i'm eating

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

less nutrients from my k so that was a funny question from our or director of operations a paragon laura

[aaron_straker]:

cool

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

let's kick this

[bryan_boorstein]:

uh

[aaron_straker]:

one over to you i have

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

some thoughts on it and some questions but we'll have you start how would you fuel and plan around hiking a fortteener so that's basically going to be a mountain that is fourteen thousand

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

feet or above an elevation or peak

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

elevation i guess

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep so she's saying that the hike itself is five to nine miles and there's going to be three thousand feet of elevation and then it says no sleep i'm actually curious

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

about that last no

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

sleep comment because my guess is that it's not actually no sleep that it's just less sleep because i think the idea is that you wake up at like three or four a m and drive to the mountain from there so like there you could still get like five hours of sleep or something like that so i'm going to assume that it's like less sleep and not no sleep um but the way that i would feel this is i would have a massive meal the night before with a ton of carbs

[aaron_straker]:

asta

[bryan_boorstein]:

m and then i would pack my back pack for the hike with my standard weigh gate aid protein drink you know make sure i have like some quick um some quick sugars from the gate aid some protein for more sustainable energy there i'll bring a bar or two i usually bring an apple and a banana um and i probably for a hike this long would bring something more substantial like an actual like maybe turkey sandwich

[aaron_straker]:

ye

[bryan_boorstein]:

or something where you actually some like meat protein and some some bread something a little longer to digest than the liquid food or bars or something along those lines make sure to have a ton of water i would have some lent mentelectrolit during with me as well and i think that would probably cover most of my bases i'm sure you'll have additional thoughts on that though

[aaron_straker]:

yeah what's really interesting is i generally find that you and i brian like i'm obviously going to be the more like slightly cleaner style of eating sk type person in your i bake brownes and eat brownies or whatever

[bryan_boorstein]:

uh

[aaron_straker]:

in this context were like switching sides so like i was going to say like

[bryan_boorstein]:

eh

[aaron_straker]:

i would feel this with

[bryan_boorstein]:

eh

[aaron_straker]:

just like carbohydrate and fat pretty much like i would bring a little bit of protein maybe like a protein shake but something like i want to have options in case something bad happens where like energy depletes and you're running out of like glycogens

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

or or something like that so you don't want all like rehydrated type stuff like i would probably pack a sleeve of rice cakes i would also bring some candy

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

for like really quick sugar things because you don't want to be carrying a lot of weight either and something like this definitely

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

the electrolihts you want a big meal the night before like post is generally going to be the easiest to get the most carbohydrate in for you know the least amount of volume sort of ing um and then like some nuts seeds different things with some dried fruits again getting more getting some fruit dose in you want some glucose in packing like gate things like that but yeah i would generally air for like more non quality carbo hydrates that are just going to get in really really fast because it's something like that at elevation right you're going to be way above that lactic threshold your heart rate is going to be pounding

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

as you get up in that elevation and you're going o be pretty much burning carbohydrate exclusively until you hopeful do not run out but

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

yeah basically just throw carbis at the problem is what i would recommend

[bryan_boorstein]:

what about the idea of like you don't want to miss an opportunity to spike m p s no matter what your situation is especially if you're in a super catabolic state like that like that's more where my thought was going like if i have like some way gator you know in the beginning of the hike maybe even pounded in the car on the way there and then i have like you know a quest bar something for two or three hours in to make sure that i get another bullets of protean type thing i think for the most part a hundred percent agree with you that it's the carbs that are going to fuel you with the quick energy but i still would want to make sure to be gitting those of those mpsbullases

[aaron_straker]:

yeah i think it's going to be i mean you can have some to help you prevent catabolism but it's hard to get that amount of protein of things that are like on your back you know like may two protein

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

bars could be helpful as well i mean that might be one of the one times that i would recommend protein bar as the thing you want to be careful with is eating a bunch of food that you don't normally eat because of digestive

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

stuff especially out on a mountain

[bryan_boorstein]:

it's

[aaron_straker]:

you

[bryan_boorstein]:

fair

[aaron_straker]:

don't want to have diary with all your friends around and you're shipping on the side of a mountain especially once you get above the tree line and there's no where to suck and hide so

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah yeah yeah

[aaron_straker]:

it's

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

a

[bryan_boorstein]:

totally

[aaron_straker]:

it's a safety kind of thing there i would come from

[bryan_boorstein]:

i always eat bars so there you go i would of no problem

[aaron_straker]:

exactly

[bryan_boorstein]:

meeting bars um cool all right is an interesting question but also extremely narrow but what is better for hypertrophy dumb bells

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

or cables how about both

[aaron_straker]:

how about both yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

so for

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

more perriferal

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

tissues i would say we're generally going to use a little bit more cables which i know brian and i generally agree on biceps triceps lateral it's rear delt be some interior deltas as well as you move closer to your larger tissues um maybe lean a little bit more of dumbells just for load ability i would say for certain things but

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

then obviously certain things like back you know cables are going to be fantastic for your different pull you know unilateral pulls and pull around and things like that but i would say as

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

you lean towards your like smaller muscle group generally further away from like your center line of body may be a little bit more cables but then as you move in a little bit of both

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah that's actually like a really interesting way of looking at it because because i agree i just

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

probably would have said it a little bit differently but i think that the way you said

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

that was awesome i do think that in general cables are probably just as effective even for the torso as dumb bell so when you're talking about like back and chest i think you know you could dumb bells or cables dumb bells are going to get you more of that length and overload for your chest where as the cables are going o be a little more even slashed short and then for back like you're going to be short overloaded whether you choose dumb bells or cables and i think that cables allow you to line things up a little bit better but i mean i think the answer for upper body is a mix of bo th may be skewed slightly more toward cables for the reason you mentioned that you just have more of this like perifhery over here as far as legs like i think

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

neither of them are soup effective so i mean

[aaron_straker]:

in

[bryan_boorstein]:

if i had to choose it would a hundred percent be dumb bells because you can do a lot more with dumb bells i've seen people rig up cables for like split squats and r d l's i've done red with cables but the load ability

[aaron_straker]:

a

[bryan_boorstein]:

like you said is just not great and it's always pulling you from like a bit forward so when you're setting up a cable r d l you're hinging and it's pulling you away from your body which

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

increase the moment arm but it also makes stability a little bit harder um so yeah i think i think that would probably be our answer i think we covered that pretty well

[aaron_straker]:

yeah it's and it really depends on like what you have access to as well that's another thing but

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

yeah it's with a little bit more context we could have won a little deeper there for sure this next one i'm really really interested to talk about

[bryan_boorstein]:

let me kick it over to you real quick how long have you been coaching for

[aaron_straker]:

me full time

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

about three and a half years and then i had my business on the side for about a year before that was like learning

[bryan_boorstein]:

so you're still relatively infantile into

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

the end of the game but let's have you attack this first and then i'll i'll jump in with a couple of comments if

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

that's cool

[aaron_straker]:

of course

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

so how do you the question is how do you avoid burn out as a coach this person is twelve years into coaching and currently struggling with this yeah the way i'm going to approach it is really

[bryan_boorstein]:

okay

[aaron_straker]:

managing your expectations and how you manage your clients coming in so something that especially now

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

that i have a service which is basically like a coaching mentor ship for for newer coaches in the space and helping them on their like it's basically what i call my coaching capabilities container but what i see is a lot of people do not manage their business like another business like a checking could come in on monday that same clients checking could also come on like saturday and you're just responding like whenever they come and where is i

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

really don't know why but i just had this idea that like i'm going to run a professional coaching business everyone is going to have checking du dates

[bryan_boorstein]:

yah

[aaron_straker]:

and if your checking day

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

is monday and

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

you submit your

[bryan_boorstein]:

yah

[aaron_straker]:

checking on thursday

[bryan_boorstein]:

h

[aaron_straker]:

like you don't get a response until your checking day like we have an agreement were all adults here we operate such um and what i have seen is the people who are kind of getting into burn out like they don't have these boundaries set right they don't have working hours if a client message is them at saturday night at nine p m they you know think they have to respond in those sorts of things and i think it's like at the end of the day like you have to fill your cup first so that years is full for you to spill over into others really managing those expectations setting boundaries for yourself making sure that you're taking care and prioritizing yourself so that you can show up in the best meaningful way for your clients and that's the way phrase it is like we have check in days so that i have time carved out so that i can dedicate to best helping you if you submit your check in on thursday when you know mike jason and and are supposed to get it it's not fair

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

to them that you couldn't hold up

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

your

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

end of the agreement sort of thing

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

so i think really making sure that you're managing expectations on the front end

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

is the biggest thing that i generally see and then the last part i will add there is like as you've been coaching

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

for twelve years this is more of a question how has things shifted

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

are you serving a population of client that you no longer really resonate with

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

um there's a reason why i personally

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

don't coach busy moms

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

of three and help them get their back one because i have no fucking clue how they're supposed to do that because i

[bryan_boorstein]:

uh

[aaron_straker]:

can't relate and that's

[bryan_boorstein]:

uh

[aaron_straker]:

not from being

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

a deist like i just don't know i don't know what t's like to be a busy mom of three you know so i in theory on paper i can help them but i cannot relate sort of thing and the question there is like as these twelve years have gone by have you may be found yourself serving a majority of a population that you don't really relate to or engage to it's purely transactional so that one that part is more of a question

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah that was actually exactly how i was going to start is what type of client are you working with maybe like a super needy population where you know you find yourself almost acting more

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

psychologist

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

than coach and for sure you know being a coach is a mix of both without a doubt it's a bit of psychologist and a bit of bit of coaching but when it starts skewing more and more and more to being like i don't want to say emotional punching bag because i doubt that that they're treating you like your kids would treat you but but maybe more that you're having to absorb a lot of their emotional stress that could be i really hard and so it may just start with you being able to dictate more about what type of client you decide to work with um and you may you may not be in a position where you can do that but if you are you know twelve years in you think you'd have your business relatively established and maybe you are able to be a little bit more selective maybe you raise your rates and that would narrow down the amount of people that would want to work with you and then you feel like you're getting more for your time so maybe it becomes more worth while of an opportunity cost in your brain you can also look into potentially doing group coaching like aron does because i think that not that group coaching attenuates your the emotional neediness of your clients necessarily but but it does kind of clump them into what to these group atmospheres i'm not exactly sure how if i'm saying this if i'm saying this right but but you you're addressing your group at once as opposed to always communicating with this person one on one even though i'm sure there is some one on one time two but maybe the other people in the group are able to then kind of almost help coach as well like they can kind of drop some of their personal experiences that may be this person can relate to and suddenly some of that emotional need drops off of you ah so that would be one thought and then another one like for me given that i am at this point thirteen years in i guess where we probably both started this around the same time i have re invented the way that i feel about training and programming or it's it's meandered its way into something that looks completely different now than it did thirteen years ago and so i don't know your situation like i don't know if you are say in the cross fit space and you've just been in the cross fit space for twelve years like that would drive me crazy i don't know how i would still be doing it if i was still doing across it because that's not something that i'm as passionate about any so it's possible that may be your own passions no longer reflect those of what your clients passions are so i remember many years ago i basically stopped coaching cross fit clients i have one girl left that i've been with for eight years i think seven or eight years and we started as cross fitter she was a competitive cross fitter and then we started more like evolving into more of a hybrid method and then we went into more of a pure body building route and now we're back to a bit more of a hybrid approach so it's kind of meandered a little bit but i think that identify ing in yourself what it is that inspires you and then trying to take on clients that kind of follow similar inspirational patterns and are interested in that type of design would be helpful

[aaron_straker]:

i love that part you added about the like as your life trajectory sort of meanders a really

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

good term to use there having that reflect in your business that is something that i have always really planned to do i've done it a little bit i will speak more along the lines of health

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

and understanding you know how to order labs for yourself as being like the patriarch of a household and you need to be able to be there for your family you know you need to know what your collestoral markers look like you know so like speaking to those things because it's something that i want i know i will have to move in to

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

um so i definitely definitely really really agree with that and just making like being

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

inspired for what you're currently doing with with your

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

life style and how that into your business i think is a really really big part of it because i couldn't like i mean maybe for the super committed like one off but i couldn't imagine myself at like forty three years old being super jazzed about trying to coach night ten year old because he thinks he's going to bang chicks if he gets you know bigger arms or something like that so

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

i think that is

[bryan_boorstein]:

like

[aaron_straker]:

big part of it is like it's actually resonating with your life

[bryan_boorstein]:

m for sure for sure and as i've gotten older i've attracted more clients that are older two like i work with a couple of guys now in their forties which i'm almost forty so it seems to make

[aaron_straker]:

definitely

[bryan_boorstein]:

sense you know

[aaron_straker]:

definitely anything else you want to add on

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

that one

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool this next one i i'll attack first ratio of lengthened sorry

[aaron_straker]:

i was

[bryan_boorstein]:

what

[aaron_straker]:

just asking if we were done with with that question

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah ratio of length into

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

shortened per muscle group so this kind of falls into just the way that i generally feel about these overall and so most most groups on like seventy percent length and thirty per cent shortened

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

i think that that may skew slightly higher for for lower body movements and slightly lower for the periferal muscles of the upper body to use the term that you used earlier so we're talking like s and shoulders um so you might have more short overloaded movements for those but yeah i think in general like seventy thirty sixty forty is a pretty safe good way of going about that

[aaron_straker]:

yeah i think the sixty forty to seventy thirty is a great starting point obviously certain muscle groups are going to be a little bit harder than others like the two that come to mind are like rear el lateral doubt it's largely going to be you know shortened overload

[bryan_boorstein]:

yes

[aaron_straker]:

aside from doing like the the cable wrist height like dol cable lateral rays or like a lengthened

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

partial dumbbell lateral rays i can't really think of any one other way they're really going to train them thine something with back right it's going

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

to be overwhelmingly shortened but for something like you know chest triceps yeah quad something like that having a little bit more of the lengthened is probably going to be the most beneficial for hypertrophy however we are going to have an expert you you know forbade

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

him what to do next

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

week

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah yeah the back one is interesting because you like people have been building really good backs for a century

[aaron_straker]:

ah

[bryan_boorstein]:

people have had great backs from bent over rowing and doing pull ups on both of those are i mean it's depending on how you execute them you can get a lot more out of the length and position than you probably can with like a pull down i think but if you're goin to to relegate yourself to doing a lot of cable work which i do for back because i just think it feels better i like the even resistance curve i think employing things like you know post failure marshals reverse drop sets and then even progressing into just heavy as weight where you can't even get a full rap and then letting no range of motion drop off so that's something i only used so far on hip extension in my last cycle i ended up for i do three sets at the end of a cycle start with two work up to three um at

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

the end of the cycle and i'll do like two kind of normal sets where it just stops at you know zero or one r r or you're limited by the short position type thing and then my final set i'll grab weight that's really heavy won't even allow me to really even complete more than one or two full reps and i'll just do like eight or ten reps with it and just kind of let that range emotion fall off and so that will certainly buy as more of the line position and it's something you can institute quite effectively with back movements

[aaron_straker]:

definitely

[bryan_boorstein]:

too and then this question the next one is from the same guy but it's so i don't know if it's in relation to the prior question like the way

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

he phrased it was ratio of lengthen to shorten per muscle group and how do you measure effective reps and so i don't know if how do you measure effective reps is in relation to the first part of the question or if it's a completely separate question itself

[aaron_straker]:

i

[bryan_boorstein]:

what do you think how would

[aaron_straker]:

i

[bryan_boorstein]:

you

[aaron_straker]:

think

[bryan_boorstein]:

interpret

[aaron_straker]:

it's probably

[bryan_boorstein]:

that

[aaron_straker]:

a separate question

[bryan_boorstein]:

okay yeah it was just when you have a question box the question

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

box is already short so i'm always surprised to get like two questions in a question box

[aaron_straker]:

shoot your shot bro

[bryan_boorstein]:

so how do you measure effective reps well chris beard the guy that created effective reps would say that it's the last five rebs before failure but it gets extremely ambiguous and maybe this is where the guy is going with it i don't i can't remember how close he follows my stuff but like when you start going into likepartials and reverse drop sets and and stuff like that like then how do you measure effective so that's like one interesting route that you could take it and then you could also take it from a completely different route

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

and say you know maybe effective rep start before five maybe chris beardsley you know didn't give enough credit to rep six seven and eight so i don't know what do you think how do you want to attack this

[aaron_straker]:

man the best the only honest answer i could say is i

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

just do not know i really really do not know because

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

i do not know what i recommend what i personally do is i'm going to err on the side

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

of training harder and closer

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

to failure

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah

[aaron_straker]:

as opposed to not how i know if i am overdoing it recovery

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

capacity diminishes i have noticeably perceived increases and stress i get other subjective perceptions of increased stress poor sleep i desire to train goes down but i generally er on the side of like i'm going to air on doing a little bit more as opposed to like not doing enough and i also think where you are on your training kind of heroes journey or trajectory matters if you're like a very new inter media you probably don't need to train as hard because your margins for gains are still quite large once you get to the years of brian and myself like scrapping for fucking scraps scraps

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

um and i think even periods of not quite training so hard and stuff like i will regress i don't know i can't say off the top of my head but some of those studies on maintaining muscle man so i don't know if that was like what type we're talking what peak of person sort of thing and we've we've heard this from things like bardo right where he's had like he's

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

done worse in shows because he pulled off training intensity and i don't want to put words in his mouth but something along those lines of like getting

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

complacent in that sort of thing so i

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm

[aaron_straker]:

i'm just going to err on the side of like i'm going to train really hard close to failure and if i and if the gas is too much i just pull off the gas a little bit or increase food recovery capacity

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

take an extra rest day et cetera et cetera

[bryan_boorstein]:

i agree yeah i was gonna say the same thing and just basically like kind of to add on to that i wonder if this is maybe reaching a point where you're over thinking too much because we already have hard set and so yeah it gets a little ambiguous if you're like well a hard set could be four r r or a hard set could be to failure so why don't we just say like hey i'll count a hard set if it feels hard like if i have to

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

grind and really work to complete a wrap you know put more effort in than i do for the first few raps then then it's probably a quality that should count in you know i don't even know how i would measure or count effective reps if i'm doing like post failure partials or something like that i just know that that's a progression that i use so essentially it's like if i am recovering and i am subjectively you know not going backwards then i can add more and if i i don't then then i don't then i can't so it's just it's very ambiguous it's an interesting question maybe it's like something i can ruminate on and we can talk a little bit more about in future episodes but i do think that for the most part it's probably beyond what's necessary for you to think about to get results um yeah that would be my thoughts on that i

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

think we should move on

[aaron_straker]:

do you want me to take this one over to you want me to take it first this next one

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah sure

[aaron_straker]:

all right

[bryan_boorstein]:

i'll

[aaron_straker]:

twenty

[bryan_boorstein]:

take

[aaron_straker]:

three

[bryan_boorstein]:

it

[aaron_straker]:

percent body fat and female how do we decide to bulk or cut oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah what's your goal i mean twenty three per cent is actually somewhat lean for a female i mean it's

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

not very lean but it's also definitely

[aaron_straker]:

it's leaner

[bryan_boorstein]:

not

[aaron_straker]:

than

[bryan_boorstein]:

not

[aaron_straker]:

average

[bryan_boorstein]:

lean

[aaron_straker]:

for sure

[bryan_boorstein]:

if we it's like a fourteen or fifteen percent

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

for a guy so that's like

[aaron_straker]:

ah

[bryan_boorstein]:

where i mean i would say that that's a little lower than where i hang out in the off season like the end of my off season is kind of like the middle of the off season maybe it really it really just depends like what you're comfortable with i think you could go either direction here and so if i didn't have anything coming up

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

like no competitions no events that i needed to cut for or anything like that i would just base it on some feedback that your

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

body is giving you like what does your you want to do like do you find yourself hungry or do you find yourself like

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

full a lot and then also what time of year it is in the summer

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

like it helps to cut just because it's hot out and eating a lot of food makes you hotter so

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

like if you have no other it means that taking you away from it like i really like the idea of cutting in the summer and balking in the winter like put a coat on and stay warm so that's my simple answer

[aaron_straker]:

yeah i would say the first thing i'm going to say is where is this twenty three percent body fat coming from and how do you want to verify it that i think any time a body fat number comes around that's the biggest first thing that has to be said because you might think you're twenty three percent body fat

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

you could be nineteen percent body fat on greatly changed the context to this the answer you could also be like a twenty six percent body fat which would really really help there generally when people are asking this i'm going to say let's get lean and see how you feel about yourself then if you get lean and you're like man i look like a swimmer and i don't have any muscle well then we're going to put some put some muscle mass on the second

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

or last part i will say there is how easy is it for you to go through a calory deficit right because the last thing if dieting is hard for you and you get

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

the food focus is a problem minute how it

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

impedes your social life if these things

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

become a problem and it's harder for

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

you

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

getting further away from that and then meaning you're going to have a larger diet in the future um i would probably say get down to where you're going to feel happy with your physique and then re evaluate as opposed to going in the opposite direction from it first

[bryan_boorstein]:

love that so we have thirteen minutes left and

[aaron_straker]:

it

[bryan_boorstein]:

we have five or six more questions

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

so we got to kind of spend like maybe two or

[aaron_straker]:

we

[bryan_boorstein]:

three

[aaron_straker]:

got

[bryan_boorstein]:

minutes

[aaron_straker]:

to pick

[bryan_boorstein]:

of

[aaron_straker]:

we

[bryan_boorstein]:

question

[aaron_straker]:

got to pick

[bryan_boorstein]:

here

[aaron_straker]:

the best ones

[bryan_boorstein]:

all right so this guy i'm goin is going to do this one real quick this guy de me twice he's a he's a regular listener to the podcast but he was saying suggestion for best exercise

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

for the gluts

[aaron_straker]:

oh oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

he has leg the seventy

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

five point seven five inches shorter than his other leg so he struggles with some of the basic movements and then he sent me a follow

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

up and said that he

[aaron_straker]:

ah

[bryan_boorstein]:

did hacks leg press and r d l's tonight feels like he got quads from the hacks glues from the leg press and a bit of ham strings and gluts from the r d ls and he's like is that good and i'm like yeah that's perfect so i think that this question is really simple because yeah hacks quads leg press can certainly

[aaron_straker]:

that

[bryan_boorstein]:

be gluts if you want more gluts out of it raise your feet up a little bit because i think he even noted that he went

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

low with his feet so try raising your feet up a little you might even get more

[aaron_straker]:

no

[bryan_boorstein]:

glue out of that leg press and then the red it should be an

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

equal distribution of glue and hamstring um

[aaron_straker]:

it's interesting

[bryan_boorstein]:

my suggestion initially before you wrote me the follow up was to say why don't

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

you prioritize more single leg work so if you have an leg that's that's shorter than the other leg then it clearly has to be awkward for you to squat and do already els on both legs so you

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

could potentially do single

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

leg work or

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

you could wear a lift and uh and put your feet at equal height so those would be my quick answers to

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

that

[aaron_straker]:

but that one the thought that i had was like a forty five degree hip extension then you can put a lift

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

in on the shorter one because you have like less balance

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

really an option there or a limiting factor that would

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

be

[bryan_boorstein]:

no that's

[aaron_straker]:

simpler

[bryan_boorstein]:

a good idea yea so so you this person listed three lengthened overload movements hack leg press and already also a forty five degree hipiccension is a great addition to that all right cool aaron you don't

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

really do a whole lot of programming but what is the highest we or a client has went with volume for a given

[aaron_straker]:

i

[bryan_boorstein]:

body

[aaron_straker]:

have

[bryan_boorstein]:

part

[aaron_straker]:

a really really hard time answering this one because it's how you equate the volume you know and like the more i

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

learn the deeper i go the less i feel confident saying anything

[bryan_boorstein]:

it matters

[aaron_straker]:

um because

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah because like it could be like

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

it's thirty sets at four r r r or twelve sets at zero r they're kind of like the

[aaron_straker]:

yep

[bryan_boorstein]:

same thing so

[aaron_straker]:

man i

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

you what i would say is start on the low end and you have to monitor you want to see what those sets look like you want to see what a two r r looks like you want to see what a one r r or a zero r r looks like because i would bet those one r rs or failures are really like a three to four realistically if you are doing higher volume

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

because if not you're going to fall the funk

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

apart

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah yeah

[aaron_straker]:

you just can't can't

[bryan_boorstein]:

ah you can't do

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

thirty sets to failure um yeah so for me the highest i've ever gone i've done back over twenty sets a week

[aaron_straker]:

yes

[bryan_boorstein]:

before and as far as clients and i think i've had female clients over thirty sets for for a few muscle groups here and there but again like you know they're not going to failure and so yeah i think the twenty to thirty not to failure would be as high as i've seen and then with sets to failure i mean twelve to fifteen maybe

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

okay next question is when should you either increase weight

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

or increase reps

[aaron_straker]:

yeah so

[bryan_boorstein]:

any quick

[aaron_straker]:

the

[bryan_boorstein]:

thoughts

[aaron_straker]:

first thing is like can you increase weight and stay within a target rep range right let's say you're doing like sets of eight with a fifty pound dumb bell if sixty pound dumb bell is the next dumb bell and your webs go down to like four it's probably not in the

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

best you know decision to increase the weight you want to increase reps one thing i really really like doing is microloading if you are trying to stay within a target rep range that's adding like maybe a two and a half pound plate maybe a one pound plate half pound things like that but i'm generally going to recommend and what i like to personally follow is increasing reps within a rep range when i reach the top end of the rep range increase weight which drops me back down to the bottom of the repraine and repeat

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah i am i agree that that's definitely the simplest way for anyone general population to implement like just a standard double progression hit the top of the red range increase the way drop the rebs work back up type thing meet solly i love the lower end of my rep ranges almost any time i program a rep range for myself i'm just going to hang out in the bottom of that rep range so for me i may as well i mean it's like it's like a micro co of what you're saying because instead of making my rep range six to ten i could just make my rep range like five to eight

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

and then i would be it would be like the same exact thing it would just be that i'm trying to hit the top of the rep range instead of the middle of the rep ring um

[aaron_straker]:

m

[bryan_boorstein]:

but i very rarely try to hit the top of my rep ranges before i increase weight um so i'll hit the middle of the rep range and once i hit the middle of it then i'll increase

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

weight as long as my final set doesn't take below the rep range so in the example of like the six to ten rep range once i can hit eight on on something i'll usually increase as long as my second set that doesn't take me below six um so that's kind of how i look

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

at it but mostly

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

i like the idea of just trying to match that's my my favorite favorite approach is not even to worry about increasing reps and just try to match reps with micro loading and micro loading is specific to the movement so when i'm doing my hack press and i'm doing five hundred and fifty pounds i can add five pounds and that's less than one percent of an increase but if i'm doing a ah that's a good example a leg extent leg curl with a hundred and ten pounds then you know i might add one pound or one and a half pounds to keep with that same like one percent increase and i find that i can usually

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

match ups while doing that

[aaron_straker]:

like that

[bryan_boorstein]:

what do you do for stubborn muscle

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

groups could be small

[aaron_straker]:

ah

[bryan_boorstein]:

or bigger groups huge

[aaron_straker]:

so

[bryan_boorstein]:

fan of the podcast

[aaron_straker]:

first of all thank you for enjoying the podcast i'm sure brian feels

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

the same the

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

first thing that comes to mind

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

is is the muscle group stubborn or you just not quite adept yet at per forming the movements for that muscle group like we're all going to have some that we have like better propensities to perform well like mine from a very young age was like chest it's just like oh wow i can just contract this well

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

sort of thing but one that took me literally like over a decade to get good at is quads and i

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

got my ass kicked on it for a very very long time

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

so the firs thing is like learn how

[bryan_boorstein]:

h

[aaron_straker]:

to

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

perform the movement

[bryan_boorstein]:

my

[aaron_straker]:

like correctly how you should be and in the muscle group that you want

[bryan_boorstein]:

oh

[aaron_straker]:

um that's the first thing learn how to

[bryan_boorstein]:

m

[aaron_straker]:

better contracted select movements that are going to require you to contract the muscle better

[bryan_boorstein]:

to

[aaron_straker]:

for example

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

if the muscle that is stubborn for you is chest like a bar bell bench press is probable not going to be the greatest for

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

helping you learn how to really contract that because you're gone so many compensatory kind of muscles that you can use to still move that bar bell sort of thing that's the first um and then i would say taking more sets closer to failure and then if you're still able to recover from that start adding in a little bit of volume but make that you are training the muscle group or groups that are stubborn from their different divisions angles that sort of thing

[bryan_boorstein]:

hm yeah yeah i agree with all of that and i like the order that you did to our volume is like the last piece that you manipulate there so i think exercise execution and selection are going to be extreme important here because especially if you're going to be

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

prioritizing a also

[aaron_straker]:

uh

[bryan_boorstein]:

group that may eventually

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

lead to increased intensity

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

and down the road

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

increase volume

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

you want to be selecting exercises that aren't going to cause you burdensome issues

[aaron_straker]:

oh

[bryan_boorstein]:

as you're doing it so like a common thing is you know people are like oh i want to i want to do it a biceps need to build my biceps but then they're doing barbell curls and dumbbell curls and suddenly they get elbow and on it is because they're just doing way too many free weight curls so this is where using a cable station and being able to line up properly with your musculature is going to be much more giving to your joints super important and i think that that can be extrapolated out across all of the different muscle groups as well how specific and refined you can get with your execution so i love what you said

[aaron_straker]:

yes

[bryan_boorstein]:

and oh yeah i think manipulating frequency

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

would be an interesting one too because depending on you know if you're going to be if you're going t be doing more movements for a muscle group then there inherently is probably gonna be more short movements like any time i'm doing a prioritnization cycle i like having a more short overload movement in there so maybe it almost becomes like fifty fifty or sixty forty in favor of short overload movements because then that facilitates your ability to increase frequency so if you're trying to specialize on lateral delts you know you could do those four days a week because most of those movements are going to overload you short and then maybe you have one day in there where you're doing that dol cable behind the back ladelrays and then the other three days you're doing short overload stuff and then gluts could be similar where you have like two days a week where you're doing like your squats your dead lifts your hinges your lunges and then you have two or three days a week you're doing like hip thrusts and glut bridges and forty five degree hip extensions and other like short overload movements that aren't going to cause you as much

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

fatigue

[aaron_straker]:

yah

[bryan_boorstein]:

i feel like i was just speaking on one

[aaron_straker]:

you

[bryan_boorstein]:

point

[aaron_straker]:

definitely

[bryan_boorstein]:

five speed

[aaron_straker]:

are the last thing i will say there that you

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

you kind of brought up but then didn't cover the point that i wanted to say is because like if it's a stubborn

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

muscle group for and you're not you don't feel great performing and contracting it yet by going with a higher frequency you're getting like more frequent attempts to learn how to perfect the movement patterns and stuff in that can be beneficial

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

as supposed to like oh hey i figured it out i figured out

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

the leg extension this week and then you don't do it again for like eight days you're going to forget as opposed to ike if you do it again in three

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

days or something like that

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep

[aaron_straker]:

you're just getting more wraps in a more dense period

[bryan_boorstein]:

for sure no neural efficiency um cool so real quick last question here and then i actually think maybe you could answer number fourteen

[aaron_straker]:

i'm

[bryan_boorstein]:

on

[aaron_straker]:

just

[bryan_boorstein]:

your

[aaron_straker]:

going

[bryan_boorstein]:

own

[aaron_straker]:

to pin

[bryan_boorstein]:

after

[aaron_straker]:

her

[bryan_boorstein]:

i bounce

[aaron_straker]:

on

[bryan_boorstein]:

it's up

[aaron_straker]:

instagram

[bryan_boorstein]:

to you

[aaron_straker]:

and

[bryan_boorstein]:

if

[aaron_straker]:

i'll

[bryan_boorstein]:

you

[aaron_straker]:

get

[bryan_boorstein]:

want

[aaron_straker]:

back

[bryan_boorstein]:

to do that

[aaron_straker]:

to her with it

[bryan_boorstein]:

okay

[aaron_straker]:

yeah

[bryan_boorstein]:

and do it individually cool all right so the last question then is is walking ten to twelve steps sufficient or should i do regular cardio two and i actually think this goes back to our introduction where i was talking about biking i almost think we answered that question there so ten to twelve steps should be should be good for health is consistent gives you diagnosis for how many calories you're burning stuff like that cardio can then complicate that a little bit which is kind of why i love cardio during surpluses and not as much during deficits but i do think you know there's a ton of research out now on like zone two and stuff like that and so if you're walking briskly you are doing zone too but if you walk really slowly you're probably not doing zone to um so i think you could add some cardio i think that if you're going to do it like i said to reiterate i i do think you should be at matanancorin plus if you're going to do cardio in a deficit it wouldn't be for health benefits it would be to facilitate caloric deficit

[aaron_straker]:

pretty much at the nail on the head i think for your most

[bryan_boorstein]:

yah

[aaron_straker]:

general type person tend to twelve thousand steps most people's quality of life and fitness and stuff it will improve with daily tend twelve thousand steps that is above average really depends

[bryan_boorstein]:

yeah

[aaron_straker]:

on how the ambitious ness of your goals really

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep all right hit's all we got we got him are except

[aaron_straker]:

so as

[bryan_boorstein]:

one

[aaron_straker]:

always thanks for listening guys next week we will have cast on the podcast to talk lengthened versus shortened and the latest stuff there

Episode intro/life updates
No need to relearn new movement patterns or change your training, just take enough time away from traditional rep ranges
Meat protein and bread - take longer to digest than liquid food or bars. Have a ton of water with hydrate electrolytes during the hike as well
In general cables are probably just as effective even for the torso as dumbbells for hypertrophy
Avoid burnout as a coach by making sure that you're managing expectations on the front end
Bryan says - seventy per cent length and thirty per cent shortened
Measure effective reps - the last five reps before failure
When to cut or bulk as a woman? how easy is it for you to go through a calorie deficit?
Micro loading if you are trying to stay within a target rep range
Better contracted select movements that are going to require you to contract the muscle better
General type person tend to do 12 000 steps most people's quality of life and fitness activity