Setbacks + January Q&A Part 2 | ETP#103

[aaron_straker]: 0:36

What's up, guys, Happy Tuesday. Welcome back to another episode of Eat Train Prosper. Two things we were going to cover in today's episode first is going to be a finishing of January's Instagram Q and A questions that we started last week, and then in a rather ironic twist of fate, Brian injured his ham string a few days ago, and then yesterday I injured my knee, so we are going to be talking about those recent injuries, our plan of action a little bit, and some of them Mind set and action items in to set backs. So as always,

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:11

Hm,

[aaron_straker]: 1:11

Brian. can you kick us off with some updates, please?

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:15

Yeah, I mean, I think most of my updates pretty much center around the initial topic here, which is our set backs, so I'll start with that, but yeah, you all know I've been on this huge cardiokick and we actually have two questions in our Instagram Q and A coming up that are going to address cardio to kick us off, But before we get to those, essentially what happened to me was that I was going out doing Zone five cardio, which is the higher intensity kind of interval based cardio where you push your heart rate pretty much as high as you can, and there's a number of different ways you can do Zone five. It doesn't have to be like all out, twenty second or thirty second sprints and they definitely don't have to be running like you can do these prints on bikes and rowers and other types of machines. But it was a beautiful day out and I was feeling super good and I really wanted to sprint. It had been a while since I Printed, which is probably also part of you know why things happen the way they did, But I warmed up. I liked to warm up for sprints or just any sort of high intensity cardio by getting my heart elevated a little bit, So it's not such a shock. going from like zero to sixty And so I did. I ran. I jogged four minutes. Everything felt good, and then I started my my sprints and my plan was to do six. I wanted to do six twenties Econd sprints, and then I was going to walk around for two minutes and forty seconds, so I adsentially do a sprint on the on the three minute mark six times and one of the things that I've been really interested in as far as metrics go, is cardio recovery, and I don't know. Like how important it is. like, Yes, you want your cardio recovery to be good. Essentially, this just means that once your heart wait is peaked, How quickly does it go back to like a base line level again? And so I finished my sick Sprint and it was the hardest one. My heart rate was racing. I think it got up to one, seventy six or one, seventy seven, Something like that and I forgot to stop my watch, because when you stop your watch, it tells at your work out is over, and then it records your cardio recovery metric. Well, I started walking back and I saw my heart rate like one, forty, one, thirty, five, one thirty, and I was like funk. I forgot to stop my watch. Okay, I need to do one more sprints that I can get the cardio recovery metric. And then of course I went and did the seventh sprint, and on like the fourth step, I felt a pop in my ham string, and this was super scary for me because it was a very similar pop to what I felt in my planter Fatha in June, when once again I was sprinting and pop my planner, Fashia went, and I was out for a number of months, and so this time I felt a similar pop in my ham string and I immediately knew it wasn't good. Like I Hobbled away from where I was running. I kind of started grinding it out gently on some playground equipment because I was like a kid's park, so I like you know, loop my leg over one of the climbing pieces and I get like some pressure into my ham string and tried to walk again And it was worse and I was, you know, doing through all the emotions in my head, and I was over half a mile from my house, but I was like, You know, it's probably going to be better For me to just try to walk this thing out and keep some blood flow going to it instead of just immediately succumbing to. I'm really injured. And you know I just need to get home an ice it type thing, so I hobbled home as soon as I got home, I started icing it. I iced it six or seven times throughout the day, Like pretty much every hour I wrapped compression around it immediately as well, so I took an a bandage and wrapped it really tight. W while I was icing it, and Um, obviously I was a little down about it, but I took it to Instagram, and I had a number of people respond basically with some interesting opinions on the differences between what you'll feel immediately from like a grade one, grade two and grade three hamstring tar, and almost immediately from the responses I got, I knew that it wasn't a grade three because people were saying that that would mean that you can't even bend your leg at all. You'd be Completely incapacitated And I knew that I could bend it. I knew that I could now walk with a limp type thing, so I knew it had to be like grade one agreed to, and it didn't really improve at all throughout the day. But when I woke up the next morning it felt a lot better, like forty forty percent better, something like that. And and I posted on my story that it really felt like an extremely deep soreness. more than it felt like Excruciating pain. like I would put it akin to. you know, if you hadn't done r d ls in six months, and then you went and did like five sets of r d ls to failure or something like that Like that's That's kind of how my hamstring felt, and that still is kind of how it feels now. but it's It's like day three of if you did five sets of r d ls to failure and you hadn't done them for six months, so it's still progressively getting better and better and like, I still can't walk without a limp, Which makes walking a poor choice for getting general movement in. But I found yesterday that I could bike with with no pain at all, no limitation and it was it was cold out. I'm not usually a huge fan of biking in cold weather because it feels even colder once you get like the wind in your face and stuff like that, But it was the only way I could move yesterday and so I went out and did a forty minute bike ride and was able to get my heart rate up to about one. eighteen. one One kept that I couldn't get out of the saddle and do, like you know, full, hard core biking or anything like that, but I was in the saddle and I was pressing equally with both legs, and it just felt good to move And then the hamstring felt even better after the bike ride like it felt nice and loose, and Um, so, all in all, I think that that I, I am extremely lucky. I know I know I'm extremely lucky, but I'm extremely thankful. I feel like I learned Dave Very important lesson and I learned it in a way that could have been a lot worse, but I was able to learn it in a much more mild manner, And that lesson is that when you're forty years old and you have a ship tone of muscle mass and explosive power, you probably shouldn't be going out and sprinting Chante the movement, Mitre, I talked to her about it. She's my. She's my go to on things like this, and my first question was is the Pop like Like, Why is it that my hamstring isn't completely obliterated when I felt a pop And she said that it depends essentially that there there can be a pop. and depending on where it is and and how big of a pop, and et cetera et cetera it can, it can have, and it depends answer. And so in that way I think I got really lucky and then the second thing she brought up was kind of what I just said about. you know, I'm I'm a dude that is extremely strong relative to to my body, and I can Create a ton of power, a ton of output, and I just I didn't ramp up to it like I didn't do. I don't even know like, like, Yes, I had been running a little bit. I've been doing like some four minute on four minute off stuff, but no, I haven't been doing sprints. I don't know exactly how I would have ramped up into sprints like it. Just to me, I think the lesson is, as I'm probably just goin to stop sprinting, at least all out like top end sprints. I think I'm still going to continue running once this thing heals, because I actually have Kind of enjoyed it in some odd kind of way, like a self challenge type thing, but maybe like it's a one minute on one minute off, or you know, three minutes on three minute off, but something where the running is still challenging within each interval, but it's not a top end running speed where you need like a ten to one or a twelve to one rest recovery period, trying to keep the running still challenging, but more of like a one to one or one to two or something along here Lines, so I fully have absorbed this lesson and I'm extremely thankful for for not being extremely injured. I'm taking my dad to ski on Thursday for his sixty eighth birthday. It's the first time that I've been able to do something like this for him, which I'm excited about, and I think that I'm going to be able to actually skee on Thursday, which was a huge surprise after you know that injury occurring on Saturday, So All in all, things are okay on my end, but I know you have a more recent injury and so let's let's tell the people all about this.

[aaron_straker]: 10:24

Yeah, the notes that I had here for for my updates this week is literally like this past week, so like from last podcast episode until yesterday was by far the best week of twenty twenty three, Like food was firing on all cylinders, like my body was just like sucking food up, but felt really God, don't feel like uncomfortably full at the end of the night any more or anything like that. training went amazingly like I progressed pretty much everything across the board last week Minus Dumbelllateral. raises.

[bryan_boorstein]: 10:54

A.

[aaron_straker]: 10:54

Um, but like some things, I was getting like a, like a three rep increase in a week, and you know at A at a consistent r. R. and when you're training to failure, That's the one nice thing about training to failure is it's easy to gauge your r. r Ee week. You know

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:09

Yep.

[aaron_straker]: 11:09

what I mean.

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:10

Yep,

[aaron_straker]: 11:10

So that was like awesome. Like this is great like you know. Great, checking for my coach is like perfect. This is like the week. like where we're on our way and then first training day of the week. I'm like, you know, leg extension goes great. I progress its first week at at a new weight. I'm like dead center in the Rep range. I'm really really pumped about that awesome pump heading into the hack squat. I loaded up with the most weight I've ever had on it because I I topped out my Rep range last week and after the top, as I'm like warming up, it feels like kind of like a little bit strange, but like I'm like, but sometimes it does feel a little bit off. Um, never bothered me before And Do my top set. I'm happy I get six raps with a twenty kilo. You know load. I'm good with that at the bottom end of my rep range and get off like my knee feels like kind of weird, and kind of like a little bit like tender. As I'm stepping on it, you know, walking around and like do I call it? Do I do my back offset in Mike, It felt fine in the rep. I was like. I'll do like one or two raps of the back off, and then I'll call it so I get into my back off. It doesn't bother me at all on the hack squad, so I make excuse me ten raps on my back off, which is a two progression There. Like great, I get off and I'm like, Oh no, I am in. I am in trouble and I'm like scared unloading the hack squad because my knees super unstable, right and I have fucking five, four plates to unload on each side and carry them you. I'll all in the gym to put back and I'm like having to hold on to everything because every time I step on that knee, it's just like buckling on me and I'm like Oh great. here we go. so basically just drop everything and I come home and it just kind of gets worse throughout the day, so that is like super super bumps me out. And then that takes me to today. I woke up. It felt a lot better today. Um yesterday, any kind of like lateral movement standing, and like turning to The play or whatever, it would get like a sharp pain in it and I really didn't know, but today I've been able to really isolate what it was and I went and tall physio because I was like. I just want to. I want to. whatever it is. I want to get this moving as quickly as I possibly can, And I thought it was my M C l. at first, and then she took me through the M c l protocol where they basically like you know, hold the outside of your knee and kind of purposely bend your knee into like vagus, Because I'm like. No, there's no pain there. Like whatsoever. She takes me through. like the A C. L. You know what's the one in the? Is there a P? C. L? Is there a posterior Cruchot?

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:52

There

[aaron_straker]: 13:52

Like

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:52

is

[aaron_straker]: 13:52

I

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:52

a

[aaron_straker]: 13:52

meant

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:52

P. seal.

[aaron_straker]: 13:53

Okay,

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:53

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 13:53

takes me through all them like none of that range of motions like perfectly fine. It's only like a very small range under pressure when I'm on that foot that it bothers it. I can forcefully extend the knee. If I'm like laying down. It's just a very strange, you know small piece. so by the time this episode, As I will hopefully have some some Instagram answers that as well, but I am just super super bumped about it because things were going so well and I was, you know, sick, the last two weeks in a row before that good week. So I was like, I finally have a week of the roads cleared swinging for the fences, And and this happened so you know I'm bumped. But like we kind of briefly talked about of fair, I'm just going to focus on what I can do tomorrow. I'll be back in the gym. I think like an exercise bike. I should Have no problem with It is definitely like the very very bottom of the v. M. Potentially one of the potendons on the inside of the knee. Potentially even one of the the adductor muscles that kind of attached down there. I'm not really sure. I don't know. I'm ever really going to know, but I'm just going to start working on getting blood flow movement, making sure I still have end range of emotion, and then probably backing off of the hack squat a little bit in terms of Uly, deep flexion, at least next week, but we'll see more in the coming days. There.

[bryan_boorstein]: 15:19

Yeah, so I have a few questions. Um,

[aaron_straker]: 15:21

Course,

[bryan_boorstein]: 15:24

so given that you kind of felt a little monkey warming up the hack squat, is there any part of you that thinks it may be happened on the leg extension?

[aaron_straker]: 15:35

I don't think so, Because like sometimes, well, so here's the thing I am, and this is one thing that I realize you know hindsight twenty twenty, I am never in full and range of motion unless I am in that hack, squat under a considerable load, so it could be like Hey, you're not like, Kind of like the same thing like you're like. The sprinting one is like you're never really like you haven't been sprinting. and then you go Max, you know, push yourself as hard as you can full sprint. I, My mobility is, you know, pretty good, but the only time I am in like an asse to grass Bottom Squad is on that hack squat with it very very loaded. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:20

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 16:21

and I think that's probably what it was you're pushing and range that I haven't been exploring. Really, I haven't been in that end range. and then I'm only in it under a considerable load. That's probably what it was. Um, especially like Leg extension here. It's not under a stretch or anything like that, And you know it's not a great leg extension. Obviously, I'm just speculating here, but that's what I think there.

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:49

Most injuries happen at the length and position anyways,

[aaron_straker]: 16:52

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:52

so that that makes sense, And then do you think that it happened during a warm upset because things felt lanky, or it didn't feel lanky enough for you to think it was anything outside of the normal.

[aaron_straker]: 17:03

No, it didn't feel lanky enough for it to feel outside of the normal, and I know like, So like with me, right for a leg day. I get on the exercise bike, whether that's like an assault, like big fan like, or just like a traditional spin bike with a dial, and I'm on there for seven to ten minutes until I have like a decent little bit of like fatigue in my quads and pump so like I know there's blood in there. Um going to leg extension to those and then I'm into the hack squad, so it could just be a lack of war Ing up adequately, especially from like unilateral style movement lunches. You know, getting the adductors adequately in engaged, sort of, because everything I've been doing is pretty much bilateral and not you know, moving through any of the adductor range, and I do have a history of auctor strains and pulls and stuff, probably like four or five of them by now, so that is probably if I were to kind of put my money. That's probably what it is. something with like the end, Ange, the of the adductor there. But yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:06

There's so much stuff that connects in there. Like the sartorius, The Doctor, There's the area that I had been bothered by the Pizanserine Bersa, which runs along the inside of the knee

[aaron_straker]: 18:19

So I looked at that one. that one because I think someone recommended that and I found that that one's actually is a little bit lower than where the pain is. Though mind would be like. You know, if you have like, Obviously like your your timer, and then like your what is hat Match is the femerisit? The what's the big one on the bottom, The tibia.

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:36

Tibia. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 18:37

I think so so those are like the two, kind of like knuckle shaped sort of things that go together

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:41

Yeah, yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 18:41

minds like North of it's on the femer side of

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:44

Got

[aaron_straker]: 18:44

the joint.

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:44

it.

[aaron_straker]: 18:45

I should say,

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:45

Yeah. I feel it sounds like what we were discussing before the show in D. Ms is like when when I had my mansus M, r, I before getting p, r P in my knee, they found a small tear in my lower V, M, O and U. And so the Pr. P was super helpful for that, Whereas I don't think it actually like heels a maniscus. Per,

[aaron_straker]: 19:06

Hm.

[bryan_boorstein]: 19:06

I know that it doesn't neeliminiscus,

[aaron_straker]: 19:08

hm.

[bryan_boorstein]: 19:09

but I think that the Pr p was super effective for that small quadtar that they found its Sable, that you had the same. But the thing that kind of throws me on that is the instability piece, because I feel like if you just had a small tear in your v, M, O. I don't know and I could be wrong, but I feel like it wouldn't cause instability in your knee like one of the accreciatic ligaments or a maniscas type thing would. so yeah, I'm curious what people say on your D. M. I'm sure you're going to get some responses so we'll have updates obviously next week on that, but I love. I love the Titude of the can do and that's something we also discussed as well prior to the show Because I have a number of people that hit me up on Dem, and they're like, Oh, I just heard my Achilles, or I just did this and like I'm so bumped. Like what am I going to do? I was following this program and now I can't do it And I think it's really just, it's a mind set in a perspective thing, and you just kind of focus on what you can do and you're thankful for the ability to still move and use medicine as movement or movement as medicine.

[aaron_straker]: 20:13

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:14

And and, and yeah, so I think it's a really good sign too that you woke up the next day and already started to feel it better. That's that's huge. Instead of waking up the next day and having it be like stiff and worse and all that stuff, so I think I think it's going to be okay and I think I think you, your mind is going O be okay too.

[aaron_straker]: 20:34

Yeah, today was was the hard one and I kind of about what we've talked about multiple times before, Like I enjoy the training and stuff so much that when it's like taken away, I'm what the fuck am I going to do? You know, like I, and there's only so much work and stuff you can do, especially like earlier times of the week like I'm waiting on checking. like when I get caught up on checkens, I'm like.

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:00

Gonna

[aaron_straker]: 21:00

What

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:00

sit

[aaron_straker]: 21:00

am

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:00

around

[aaron_straker]: 21:00

I?

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:01

and watch a movie

[aaron_straker]: 21:01

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:01

today?

[aaron_straker]: 21:02

what am I going to do? You know sort of thing, and uh, yeah, it really does help kind of put things in perspective, but I mean, I've had so many freak ing injuries over the years. I know it's just it's a cost of playing the game. especially when you're in order to continue to progress. you have to push so hard. Were unfortunately

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:24

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 21:24

not machines yet and things will break down. Fortunately,

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:29

Yeah, I, actually, I can't believe that my injuries over the last few years have almost all been. Well, none have really been from lifting. the two big injuries I've had have been running. So so yeah, I think there's There's definitely a lesson there.

[aaron_straker]: 21:47

Definitely anything else you want to add before we jump into the finishing up last week's questions.

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:54

My episode that I did with your lovely girl friend. Jenny just dropped. So I thought it was really good. I actually went back and re listened to some pieces of it. It was basically an episode that we did where. So she has a number of clients of hers for girls that follow Paragon programming, and a lot of them have questions about things like progressive overload and effort and when to increase weights, and just kind of general questions like that, but we spent like over, Or kind of delving into a lot of those topics and trying to clarify a lot of things around progressive overload, So if anybody listening is curious on kind of a deep dive into something like that, I'd recommend checking that out is the Create your shape podcast. And yeah, I don't think I have anything else at the moment.

[aaron_straker]: 22:46

I remember when when you guys just wrapped recording that Jenny came to me and she's like the episode is so good. She's like it's so so good. I'm so pumped for it, so I haven't had the opportunity to listen yet, but I feel confident based on how excited Jenny was that that is going to be

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:03

Hm.

[aaron_straker]: 23:03

a fire episode. For sure,

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:05

Yeah, cool. should we jump into questions?

[aaron_straker]: 23:08

Let's do it This.

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:11

All right,

[aaron_straker]: 23:12

This first one I'll

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:12

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 23:12

kick over to you. I have my own thoughts about it, of course, but let's get Brian's first, So the question is when doing cardio. Should I do it by minutes or calories burned?

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:25

So my first thought on hearing that question is that it sounds like this person is probably trying to use it for weight loss for a fat loss period of sorts in a defisite, and I'm not a huge fan, as I've discussed before of using cardio initially in a deficit for a variety of reasons that you can probably find on prior episodes, but I guess the t. l d r would be that there's an increase in In cordusall production and fatigue cost. When you do cardio, It also is an inefficient way to burn calories, because when you're in a deficit, there is energy compensation, and if you think you're burning three hundred calories you're actually probably burning two hundred. It's a lot easier to just not eat the piece of pizza than to go out and have to run for thirty minutes. and like I was saying, the fatigue costs of of doing cardio as well, and the impact that that has on your strength training. All of these things being hugely negative associations of doing cardio in a deficit. None of those things really apply in the same dramatic fashion if you're at maintenance or in a surplus. So if you are an amatenanur surplus, I still don't think you should really focus on calories burned or minutes per se. I think that the more accurate approach would be to focus on an exertion level And you could use like an r, p. E system. You could use a heart rate. Um. you could use a subjective measure of how stressed your conversation is or if you're doing intervals. Maybe it's not even conversation level at all. Um, but essentially when you're doing cardio, you know if you're doing it to burn calories, I don't think it should be used that way. Um. and instead, if we're looking at cardio And health markers and things along those lines, then I think heart rate and exertion level are probably much better metric to use because they'll let you know which zone you're in so zone one being more like a walking rate, zone five being intervals and sprinting, and then zone two being that kind of sweet spot for for just general health outcomes, mitocondrial function, things like that. And so zone two is actually a. It's a zone that's really hard for people to be in and stay in because it, um, I guess a good subjective metric. There is one eight minus age, and then once you take one eight minus age, you would knock five to ten beats per minute off if you're not in great cardioshape, and you would add five to ten beats permit if you are in good cardioshape, but one Igh minus age gets you into the Park. Um, the thing is that it's really hard to stay in that really tight zone, so my zone two is about one, thirty, five, to a hundred and forty beats per minute, and if I'm running, I fall out of that zone within a minute, like I'm already up into the one, forty, five, one fifties, one fifty, five. Um, I had to run on a tread mill. It sounds ridiculous, but I put the incline at four and I put the Speed at four point three. so four point three is like a speed where you could pretty much walk it, but when I was walking it my heart rate was too low, and when I was running it it was perfect, but running at four point three is kind of like, like you're barely running. You're kind of like shuffling your feet sort of so most people are inefficient runners. and therefore it's a poor choice for zone two. If you can get yourself on a bike, you'll probably have a better better luck staying within the zone Two spectrum. Um, but like we've discussed on the show, I can't do a bike for zone to because my legs burned too bad before my heart rake gets high enough. Um, so I need something that has both the arms and the legs working simultaneously. Rowing is also a bad choice, much like running for most people, because most people are in efficient rowers, just like their inefficient runners. I happened to be a pretty good rower, so I'm able to sustain zone to pretty well on a rower Using something like an assault bike and air bike where the arms move is probably going to be your best bet to stay in that kind of tight heart rate zone. And then, if your goal is just to go out and do cardio and you don't want to necessarily do like interval zone Five stuff, and you don't want to necessarily stay in zone two. then yeah, you can just kind of go out and and just work. I guess work work work is one, three, zone four kind of oscillating between those zones, but I think there Probably less beneficial long term health outcomes than staying in that like zone one, zone two for for those mitocondrial function pieces, and then zone five for vio to max pieces, I think zone three and zone four, at least to my knowledge, has a little bit less health applicability. What are your thoughts?

[aaron_straker]: 28:45

Yeah, so I mean first, I would say with the The for the zone to My favorite way to do it is on the stair master, and it's because it's the least you have to kind of manipulate to keep yourself there. You're going to find one of the settings. It's going to be a lower setting. To be completely honest, and it will basically just keep your heart rate, you know, and you just move at a steady pace and it provides you your pace pretty much, and then you know with the difference of you doing step ups, You're supporting your body weight, which is going to increase your heart rate of itself through that. So that's always been like When I want to do. Zone to. That's what we'll do it on. Um, getting back to the to the question itself. Though minutes versus calories burned. I would say, If you do want to do the one to right the minute, it's a good base line because it's going to be a little bit longer. Or if you're like, you know what, I really don't want to spend forty minutes two or three times per week and you only want to spend Like fifteen minutes. The hit cardio is going to be the way to go like Brian's head. for long term. You know health outcomes. It doesn't appear to be as beneficial as the like longer, kind of steady state zone to stuff. But if it's just like Hey, I'm here primarily lifting weights, but I just want to spike my heart rate and get sweaty Is a kind of. If you don't use it, you lose it, sort of thing. That's what I would recommend and that's what I bpersonally end up doing most of the time myself, and for an overwhelming majority of my Clients, as well the last thing I have here before we kind of move on. The reason I really don't like the calories burn is it's grossly inaccurate, grossly grossly grossly inaccurate, and I thought I had a really funny recent experience where I was doing my mycardio and I will like you know, I have my watch track because I want to see my heart rate information, but it also tracks like calories burned in stuff. But I was also one thing that I like to do when I'm doing my cardio. Generally on like the assault bike is Set it on. the calories function right calories is just an energy are sorry, unit of energy, a unit of work. So unfortunately, something like on the assault bike, the fan bike. The calories there probably decently accurate because it's just measuring now an input generating energy. but when I finished like the assault bike goes out like five hundred calories are four hundred. I can't remember the exact one, but my watch set Burned like four hundred and twenty four calories, only like twenty four calories more. and I'm like this is such like hog ship, because if I, if the input just end to the bike was twenty four, Like, your body has to do all these metabolic and Nzmatic processes in order to you know, put things together to make the energy. So if like everything coming out of me going into the bike is you know four hundred everything your body has to do in order to you know, move things art On to generate the reaction stuff. In order for you to produce, the energy is far greater than just twenty four calories over the work that is being measured on the other side, so that I thought was like a very funny that I was like this isn't even fucking close. Sort of thing.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:01

Yeah, it is interesting, and then I guess my final thoughts on this are that minutes are probably the better thing to focus on if you're doing zone to, but I think using adage like how many watts you're putting into the machine is really good to, because that can also help keep you consistent. so once you know that your heart rate is, say, in zone to, or whatever your target zone is, you can look at the watts that you're creating at that heart rate and then you can kind of just stop thinking about your heart rate once you know that it's stable there, and you can Focus on creating the same amount of watts into the machine consistently, And so that's what I do when I row as I just look at the watts, and I'm like Okay if I'm between a hundred and sixty and a hundred and sixty five or something like that, that's going to keep my heart rate right about in zone two. And so that's just kind of the thing that I focus on for however many minutes I'm going Cool. The next question is regarding my hi, do spring diet. you know as you guys are aware, if you're a regular listener every spring, I do a deficit and I don't do cardio during it because I, for all the reasons I said above, I don't really believe in cardio when dieting. I think cardio is a great tool for being at Maidan in maintenance, plus. So the question asked, how will this new approach to cardio for health span play into your spring cut, And I actually think that's a very insightful good question to ask, and probably super helpful to a number of people that are considering dieting, but also have health span goals. Um, so I'll answer the question on a general level, but I think for me specifically, I'm kind of leaning toward not dieting this spring. It would be the first time in four years that that I wouldn't do it, but I'm really just since January first. I've made a number of you know, these positive changes in my life. like I discussed on the January episode. I stopped smoking weed, and now I just eat weed. Everyone laughs at that. I think it's so ridiculous, but but yeah, not, I'm not smoking any more. I'm really incorporating this cardio stuff. You know, you guys have known that I've been mouth taping now since my birthday in August, so I'm really focusing on a lot of these just health outcome goals for myself, Above and beyond typertrofegols, and uh, since January first, when I had all my awful eating experiences from. you know, that period from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I waighedin on January first at two hundred point zero. It was my first two hundred pound weight in. Uh, God in years. I don't think I've weighed over two hundred pounds since my diet back in like two thousand, twenty, or two thousand nineteen or something like that, So I saw two hundred on the scale on January first, and I just in co ordination with all the other things I'm doing to clean up my life. I just wanted to clean up my diet too, And so another thing I discussed on new years was eating more fiber. And so I've been implementing all of these things and in one month were now February, February six, There's something like that, So it's been five weeks and I'm down five pounds and I don't really feel like I'm dieting. I'm just you know, I'm eating the things I want to eat. I'm never hungry. I just meeting cleaner food and I think that I'll probably continue to lose weight without really even trying to, just because I think that if I'm going for health, my body kind of wants to be a little bit smaller. I've discussed this as well, and in my last year's diet I discussed this how I feel like, In some ways my body just wants to be smaller, and that all of my blood markers and my health, my subjective health markers seem to improve all the way until I get into like the mid to high one Tis like it seems like the high one, eighties, low one nineties. I seem to be extremely healthy on most of the subjective markers, so yea, I'm leaning towards not dieting this year is kind of the end result of that, and so therefore the cardio for health span piece won't really play into it, but I think on if we're looking at this question from a general person being like, Hey, I care about health, but I also, I'm going to be dieting in the spring or whenever they're goin Dieting. How should I incorporate cardio into that? You know, I think the key is consistency in what you do, and that's kind of the main reason that I don't love cardio for deficits is because it blurs these diagnostics so much and you're like, you know, I don't know how many calories I'm actually burning, But if you're not looking at cardio and you're not worried about how many calories you're burning from the cardio or its impact on your energy output and energy Take for the day your energy balance per se. I think that you just do it like you. You do one or two zone two sessions a week. You may be do a zone five session and you just do them every week. And you, you know that it's consistent. Your your minutes that you're doing is consistent. Your output level is consistent, And so there's just fewer variables and you can compensate for that additional energy expenditure by taking in more calories. And then that just becomes Of the equation that goes into to your diet.

[aaron_straker]: 37:28

I really like how you frame that Because you, I mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head perfectly from from my standpoint, in that, I think people kind of bastardize cardio in the context of a deficit. You know where it can be a tool. but people like put you know the carriage before the horse, sort of thing were like. if you want to deficit, Like manipulating your food is the eighty five percent for ninety nine percent of people Like. If you wan Get on stage different scenario, you're going to have to do cardio, for you can't really, probably can't take your food lower. For the you know, ninety nine percent of the people that that doesn't apply to most people, bastardize the approach by thinking they need like cardio, and all of these things where you really aren't burning that many calories where, like you said, instead of running for two hours, just don't have to fucking slice of pizza. Like when, when you look at it in the unfortunate reality of like that's, Alten Numbers really play themselves out. Everything's opportunity cost, and I think the time investment, the energy investment into doing all the cardio that people do. that energy time is better spent just understanding nutrition a little bit better, and you get better outcome sort of thing. But

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:47

Yep,

[aaron_straker]: 38:48

by just keeping it like as a base line for health of hey, get your heart rate up one or two times per week. Get a little bit sweaty. It's generally going to have a positive outcome on your health. Do that at periods of deficit maintenance, surplus, et cetera.

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:04

I think it's also important to note that you don't need to do cardio necessarily when you're in a deficit, because most health markers like if you're if you're if you're out of shape, Like if you have over fat would be the term. But you, if you're over fat and you lose weight, that improves your health markers. So um, it's kind of an end of one thing there as well like you can improve your health markers significantly without even having to do cardio, depending on where your starting point is All right. Next question, I'll kick over to you. Do you really need to consume fewer carbs with insolent resistance or just fewer calories?

[aaron_straker]: 39:47

So how I'm first going to approach this is on the terminology used of need. Do you need to go low garb to improve insolent sensitivity? Now, first, you, pretty, the pretty, the first pull. Pretty much as you want to get your calories down right, You want to remove the clogging of the pipe Or sorry, I really should say remove putting new clogging materials in the pipes that the pipe can kind of clean out, Sort of thing That being said in terms of the insolent response to the macronutrience, right, Yes, you can still get an insolent response from protein, and even from fat in certain context as well. However, the inslent response relative to carbo hydrate at a general level is greater than compared to protein and dietary fat. So do you need to No, If you are someone who has insolent resistance. Would it probably behoove you to modify the types of carbohydrate you're eating and probably bring them down a little bit? Yes, I would generally say, in most contexts this would provide the best outcome fastest. then then you can return to going higher, carbohydrate with proper foods. Once the initial. The kind of issue has been mitigated.

[bryan_boorstein]: 41:21

Um, Insolent resistance is kind of a broad term. So are we assuming that insolent resistance does not mean that this person has diabetes? Maybe they're prediabetic or maybe they're not even prediabetic Like how would you define it in that case?

[aaron_straker]: 41:35

Yeah, so how it works is the first thing. There's kind of three markers that I'll look at on labs. The first is going to be a fasting blood glue Coast, the second is going to be a hemoglobin A n C. Generally, What's that? What's that fucking word where you shorten in h, B, a n C. Right is generally what it's called, and then also use a fasting insult. There's other markers that can be used as like a proxy for insolent resistance. One is one of the lipids over trygliseride. I want to see H. H, L. to try. Glisseride ratio is like a proxy that some some people will use for insolent resistance. However, I really just like looking at the basic three. The first thing That you will kind of see is the insolent number rising to keep the fast and glucose lower, so that's kind of the first thing you'll see another kind of subjective proxy that people will use sometimes is like, If you're in gaining period and you're really pushing food, you'll notice that you're like pumps are starting to feed. You're not able to achieve the same kind of like pump that you. You had, you know, maybe when you're a maintenance, or when the the gaining phase was starting, And that's generally what insolent resistance starts looking like, as you're the number of the amount of insolent that your body has to produce your pancreas. Really, To keep your glucose within that good range increases because the body loses sensitivity to the um, um. presence of the gluecosyeah.

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:16

Well, that's good clarifying information. Okay, I'm an early lifter Five thirty a m of started incorporating pre workout carbs. Do I need pre workout protein?

[aaron_straker]: 43:28

Need. Do you need

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:30

Oh,

[aaron_straker]: 43:30

it now? Will it benefit you? Yes, um, lifting at five thirty a M. Something like this. If I have a client, I'll be super honest in this. What I really like Vanilla way with a one of the with a gate, The blue, ice blue, or whatever the it's called, or yellow, is generally my favorite. If you mix like you know, those kind of citrocflavors with a vanilla based way, The flaw Or is okay, You do it with chocolate. It gets real weird real fast. It can almost taste like a kind of like an orange sherbet, sort of thing. So that's what I would do if if you're someone who hasn't been at all, start small, maybe twenty, five, twenty, five, or twenty and twenty, and go from there, But yes,

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:16

Yeah, I agree. I think some protein would be a good idea as well. I don't really think you need it like. I think the carbs give you the initial energy boost, but yeah, I think the protein is nothing but helpful in that case,

[aaron_straker]: 44:27

Exactly,

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:27

especially after an overnight fast. Ah, when I travel with friends, E g skiing it is hard to hit protein. Is it okay if protein is low for three or four days?

[aaron_straker]: 44:41

It's not going to be the end of the world, and this is one of the hardest context with food like most mountain resorts have got awful food. Like the best thing that you can hope for is pretty much going to be like an apple or a banana. and and some sort of like other carbohydrate may be a fried protein source, sort of thing like

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:05

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 45:05

chicken,

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:05

that's I get chicken tenders.

[aaron_straker]: 45:06

chicken tenders,

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:06

Yeah, yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 45:07

french fries, and like a banana

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:08

yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 45:08

or an apples. Probably one of the best you're going to. It Is what it is right. it is it great? No, it's not the end of the world for three or four days, especially coupled with like you're on the mountain, your altitude. you're going to be breathing hard. You're going to be getting sweaty skiing snow boarding like it could be a lot worse. Let's put it.

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:28

I agree. I, I've become much less neurotic about protein and take in general, and there are days like, especially when I ski. For whatever reason, I love to ski fasted, and I don't often even stop to eat in the middle of the day, because I feel like when I stop to eat, it kind of slows me down. I don't like having to unbuckle get warm than go back out and get cold again. Type thing, Um, so I'll usually just fast until like two or three P. M, when we get off the slow And then I'll have like a big meal with protein like a burgher or something like that at three, and then I'll have a big dinner at six and it just becomes one of those days where I eat twice and I probably get a hundred and forty grams of protein and like it is what it is, I don't really think about it too much.

[aaron_straker]: 46:14

Yeah, in acute setting is not that big of a deal.

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:17

Yeah, I guess I'll take this one.

[aaron_straker]: 46:21

Yeah, this one will kick

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:21

Should

[aaron_straker]: 46:21

over

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:22

we

[aaron_straker]: 46:22

to you.

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:23

yea go for it?

[aaron_straker]: 46:24

Should we keep r i r and weekly volume per muscle the same in a mess, O, or alter it every week?

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:33

Yeah, well, I definitely don't think that changing volume is a good idea throughout a sod. I think that that's like a sledge hammer of increase. So if like, you're talking about progressive overload and you're like Yes, I added a rep today or something like that, that's that's one thing, but adding a set is like doing ten more reps, so that's such a massive, big increase that it can lead to just a number of kind of downstream effects That eventually will result in overreaching over training. or they need to de load something along those lines, so I think volume weekly volume increases. It's just a runaway train that you don't really want to really want to have to deal with. I think moving from an intro or a de load week into a work week you'll generally see volume increases, so like in a de load week you know there's a number of ways that you can de load, but assume that you're de loading by cutting volume. Then yes, you would increase volume In into your work weeks. and then I think maintaining volume more or less. it's probably a good idea. I mean, I think as you get more advanced, you have to be ready to auto regulate and make adjustments. So like if you're doing cable spider curls and you're like two sets just doesn't enough in week three. Okay, I'll do a third set of cable spider curls like I think that's fine, like I'm not. I'm not going to judge you for adding a set of cable spider curls if you feel like you need it. Um, it's different when you're talking about adding a set of like back suas or pendulum squads or something like that, As far as r r i r goes. Um, it just depends what progression model you like Like I, I, very much kind of a line with the revived Stronger Guys, or they actually had a cool episode just the other day of their improvement season, which is the one they do where they two of them pass Allen, Steve, Just talk. They don't have a guest on or whatever Their topic was, Set progression throughout the week. it was literally this question and they both were kind of on board with what I was saying regarding not increasing weekly volume, but much like me, they also kind of prefer this approach of descending r r week to week for a number of reasons. I think my main reasons are that I like that it gives you small winds week to week. So you go into the gym and you kind of feel like you're making improvement. And yes, it Can blur diagnostics a little bit, but assuming you keep the same movements, the next mess O cycle through, then you can compare like week three of this messocycle to week three of the next messocycle, and given that changes don't really happen that quickly anyways, a more advanced level, you're probably not going to be adding reps week to week unless you're striker, and you're going into a massive surplus for the first time in a while, and just hammering and crushing everything. then That's kind of an anomaly in this thing, but The end of the day like I don't think it necessarily is better to decrease r r, week to week, Nor do I think it's better to just keep a static r i r, and just kind of keep plugging away and chugging along. I think the answer there is much more what appeals to you psychologically.

[aaron_straker]: 49:51

I would say I don't like the volume ramping approach whatsoever, I would say with with the r r progression that like you really like to use Brian, The one place I would say that I know. historically we may deviated a little bit in terms of preferences. I don't like the pre planned like de load model because something that I've just found myself, and then, when with certain clients who have things like really really dialed in, you might be able to swing at that one, r r, or even zero r, R. You know ter For multiple

[bryan_boorstein]: 50:29

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 50:29

multiple weeks on end, And and I don't like to like Okay Last like this week we did one or I are next week. Zero. Okay, Two weeks we de load. Like if you're recovering and weights are moving like let's swing at that zero r R. until our body says Hey, we're kind of tapped out, so that is one, especially depending on the context Right, if you're balls deep in a calory deficit, that may not be the smartest move, but maintenance surplus. Where recovery capacities higher. you can Push it a little bit. In my opinion.

[bryan_boorstein]: 51:02

Yeah, I don't think that just because you descend r r, week to week, that doesn't necessitate that you pre plan de loads, so I'll keep swinging at one or zero, r r, or whatever that is, for as many weeks as I feel like I can until that psychological burden is so high that usually I need to take a de load. and like we've discussed, it's usually not that I can't progress any more. It's usually that I just like I'm like I don't want to progress any more. And then you know the De load happened, So yeah, Think auto regulating De loads is probably a smart move. Regardless of what your approaches, Cool Aron. Do you have a recommendation on any app or system to log work outs? Reps? Notes r, i, R, et Cetera

[aaron_straker]: 51:47

Yeah, here we go for Is what I recommend using is an Ap called heavy H, e v Y. I believe Strong app was a big one for a number of years, but they stopped development on it for like well over a year. Now it seems like it's an M on supported project. There's a newer one called My Work in Progress that is pretty decent, and there's another one. The Train Heroic app actually has like a. like a. like, Just I'm a solo person who. I'm just want to use this as like a workout logger. That one is pretty decent as well that you don't have to have like be following like a program on. Those are the ones that I generally send to my clients that ar Apple users. for if you're using an Android phone, all three of those are options as well. However, my favorite on Android is called Fit notes. M.

[bryan_boorstein]: 52:44

It's what Abel uses

[aaron_straker]: 52:45

Fit

[bryan_boorstein]: 52:45

here.

[aaron_straker]: 52:45

notes is ball, Or it's amazing. I've been using it. I actually think I got it from Abel a couple of years back, and it's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing you can. It's you can customize so much. It's really really good. I really like that one.

[bryan_boorstein]: 53:01

It's too bad that's not available on is to Um.

[aaron_straker]: 53:04

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 53:05

I also didn't know that Train Heroic offers like a free, just non participant program option.

[aaron_straker]: 53:11

They do have a free tier That it is limited because it's a free tier. But then you can upgrade to the like, I don't know, six dollar a month or some basic thing, where, then you can put however many like exercises in it, and you get access to more stuffit's. kind

[bryan_boorstein]: 53:26

M.

[aaron_straker]: 53:26

of like hidden, though like they don't have it on their website. I think you have to if you download the app and then you're just like Sign up. You can get to it through that, but I remember being like this is like strangely hidden from their like marketing kind of tiers. sort of thing.

[bryan_boorstein]: 53:42

We host our Paragon programs on Train Heroic and we love it like it's been. It's been a huge asset for us. So if this person is looking for a tracker and a great program to follow, Hey Paragon, okay, um, Aron, tips to get over the fear of the cut, lose body fat percentage and feel small, Makes me want to balk again.

[aaron_straker]: 54:05

Yeah, I mean that that is the nature of natural body building. In what you want to call it, the unfortunate reality is, and I think this is a whole episode we could talk about in and of itself, but like I'm assuming, this is you know, coming from a male perspective, but everything that we have seen from you know, youth to Super Heroes action figures. Like everything is P. e D physiques. That is, that is the base line You know, and then as you get into like adulthood and you know you learn that it's just not gonna. You're not going to look like that. Probably it is a little bit. you know that fear is there. It's warranted. Um that being said, when you do lose the body fat, when you do have like a good pump in the gym and stuff, you will look huge and that will be fun. Apart from that, you know when you're outside or whatever you're going to be pretty, you'll be lean. You'll have abs Stuff, but you won't feel very big, and I guess what I would say for that is just spend more time in the gym getting pumps and you'll feel bigger more than you otherwise. but yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 55:18

This dude follows my program Bryant's program on on the Paragon app And he's a big dude. He's like to ten and he's my height. So yeah, and he's got some as that. He's there a little blurred. but but yeah, he's got some abs, too. So what I'll say, dude is just that when you get lean the The, I can't even think of the word I'm trying to say right now, but essentially what Aron was saying and that when you do have your shirt off and you, you get pumped up like you are going to look like a monster And that's the type of like monster look that you can't have when you have body fat on you, because you just don't have that separation. So if you want that like Alberto Nunes, type like freaky vane, just monstrous type appearance like you just have to get rid of the body fat and show it Underneath And I mean dude, Jerry, you're a big guy like you have plenty of muscle. I wouldn't be scared of cutting. You know, I think you need to kind of embrace it, but I also know that I think that you're actually looking to ball right now, so maybe this will be like a future conversation. The next question. I don't exactly say question for me, but how the F is your H, r V? Two, twenty seven, What do I need to change in my life? And so this is a question. It comes, because occasionally I'll post my h r V readings in the morning on to my story and they are these kind of like really big numbers like funk last night while I was sleeping, So this usually my h. r V numbers that I post are my morning meditative ones, so I'll be like breathing really purposefully. I'll have my eyes closed in and out. you know, really big deep breaths. And so my h. r V readings will be in the two hundreds, Usually when I do that, but throughout the day and throughout Uh the night while I sleep, most of my random readings that my watch pins me for are going to be between thirty or forty and one thirty. They're kind of in that in that range, which is much more normal for people, but last night and it's been happening more and more recently as I've been mouth taping the last six months, but I had a two seventy eight reading last night at four a m, the highest reading of Or had while sleeping, and I've been having some other two hundred plus readings over the last few months. Two just randomly and I don't really know what to correlate it with. To be honest, I don't really think that H, r V is a super reliable metric because it just depends on so many factors like there's so many in puts that go into it. the number one being just the speed of your heart in general, So if you have Like a slower heart rate than, there's going to be more time between each beat, which means there's more heart rate availability. heart rate variability, rather, um, whereas, if your heart rate is beating really fast, like sometimes it'll ping me like right after I finish a workout and my heart rate will be like one ten and it will pick me untill me. my h. r v is like eighteen and I'm like Well, ship. of course, it's eighteen because my heart rates beating like a little teeny bird right now and there's no room for there to Variability between the heart beats. Um, so I, ultimately, the answer to this question is that there was a study. I heard this on the petrtpodcast about H r V. He did a deep dive into it, and the study basically was talking about mortality risk in H r V. And the outcome was if your H r v is above fourteen point five, then you have less mortality risk than if your heart H r v is below fourteen point five. Um, I wouldn't really worry too much about whether your heart H r v is at two twenty seven or not. I think a lot more about what it is in relation to you, and using that potentially as a basis for recovery. Like how how do you compare to you, and so for me like because my H. r v tends to be high If I see like a one sixty or one seventy in the morning. when I do my meditative reading. That usually means to me that my H r V is low, when Like a two twenty seven, do two seventy. That usually means my H r v is pretty good, but I think as far as general health goes like, if you're above fourteen point five, that's the science that we have right now that says Hey, you're probably not going to die any day soon, so

[aaron_straker]: 1:00:07

The the only thing I'll add on to that is I. I remember seeing something I said like Yeah, like your H. r V is relative to yourself. That's what you want to look at just to add in my own personal anecdote. Like I had a whoop for well over a year and would always use it. I think I saw my h. r v above one hundred, like maybe once or twice, but it was very regularly like sixties, seventies, So like pale in comparison to Brian's Um, and I think that it's It's a marker that like hire is better relative to your own, like lows, but your high relative to someone else is high could be completely irrelevant.

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:00:48

Yeah, I agree a hundred per cent with that and then I'll also add the last thing is just in the last few months because of how sporadic H, r V can be, then how dependent it is on so many things, I've found straight up resting heart rate to just be a much better predictor of daily readiness, and so like my right now at my body weight that it is currently if I'm in good readiness preparedness. My morning heart rate when I'm resting right when I wake up is in the mid forties, If I see it creep up into the low fifties. That usually correlates with me not feeling great, and I can usually feel this as soon as I wake up. like I'll wake up and be like. Oh, like, I just feel like something isn't fully right, And then I'll go take my heart rate and it kind of is in that low fifties mid fifties range. I know I'm just not in a great state that day, or that I didn't sleep well, or maybe I ate food too close to bed time, or whatever number of fat Actors. Um, but resting heart rate has been a much more reliable metric for me than arve, Right, Aaron, Do you do any hot and cold therapies, And if so, how do you incorporate it for hypertrophy?

[aaron_straker]: 1:02:06

I honestly don't. um, I would love to like hit a sona, maybe like two or three times per week. That being said with the context of hypertrophy, which is my goal, and in this question we know that the cold therapy can blunt the inflammatory response that is correlative with with hypertrophy, post training, so we don't want to do that And then also like post training, I want to get food and I want to get in my protein bolus, in carbohydrate en. I don't want to be sitting in a son or anything like that, And then the reality of it is like that. Once I'm away from the jam, I'm not just don't really have time to go back and like sit in the son or whatever, Like I said, In a perfect world, I do like the son. A. um. but, but right now I just I'm not incorporating any. Um, Yeah, Brian, your thoughts there?

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:03:05

Yeah, the cold therapy thing like I understand, its correlation to health. It's actually been shown to improve mitocondrial function, which is now this kind of buzz word. because Zon, to cardio. that's what it does, improves mitocondrial function, which has all these downstream effects on like your metabolic, your your risk of metabolic disease. So mitocondrial function is very, very important, but it's interesting that the two things You can do to improve mitocondrial function, which are long, steady state cardio and cold plunges, are also anti hypertrophy, Um. so I think when you're looking at those two zone two cardio is significantly less of a negative impact on hypertrophy, and can be compensated for through eating more food, Whereas when you do cold therapies, you can't just eat more food and reverse That effect like it literally is blunting the inflammatory response of hypertrophy, So so yeah, I don't do any colttherapies at this point. I think that that's something I may do once I've fully given up on my hypertrophy journey Right now, I'm teetering on the top of this hill, but I'm not completely ready to to give give it up. As far as hot therapies go. There's a lot of good research on hot therapy before Bed to improve sleep and so I think that that is probably the number one use case for this, and I have a steam shower at my house Very rarely. at this point in my life with a five and three year old do I have the ability to spend thirty minutes in a steam shower at eight p M at night, so I have not been incorporating that, but it is something that has as the kids get older and become more self sufficient. I think that that's something I'm actually going to include as a staple into my pre bed regime. Um, and I like that it will kind of dehydrate me before bed because I do have a bit of a night ping problem. And so I think the steam shower heat plus the dehydration will both help my sleep.

[aaron_straker]: 1:05:24

That is until the night cramps start showing up

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:05:29

Yeah, so maybe there'll be another issue. I need to work out at that point. Take the magnesium or whatever, right potassium.

[aaron_straker]: 1:05:36

Cool.

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:05:36

Okay, yeh, go ahead,

[aaron_straker]: 1:05:38

Can

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:05:39

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 1:05:39

you explain why it's better to hit the short muscle lengths first?

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:05:46

Yeah, because when you hit the long muscle lengths, it fatigues things significantly more, just on. like a global level, Essential nervous system fatigue level, as well as training along muscle lengths, just is going to fatigue the entire muscle, both the proximal and the distal portions, so distal being further from the insertion, proxima being closer to the insertion. Whereas when you do short movements, it prime Marily fatigues. the proximal region of the muscle Um causes significantly less overall global fatigue on your body, And then you still have significant amounts of juice left so that you can hammer the length and movements really hard. Whereas it wouldn't quite work and reverse the same way.

[aaron_straker]: 1:06:38

Yeah, the only thing I will add on to there that I like personally is I can use less load, and

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:06:45

Yeah.

[aaron_straker]: 1:06:46

at the end of the day like what we've learned over the years like it's not. It's the intensity, proximity to failure, sort of thing, like if, by doing the seated leg girls first in taxing, that means that I only need you know a hundred and twenty kilos to max out my rep range for an Ard l instead of a hundred Sixty kilos. I'm going to take that because that's less load than on. you know, actually loading, and other things, but I'm getting just as much out of the glue, tonaumstring, sort of thing,

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:07:20

Yeah, the muscle only knows tension, so I agree a hundred percent with all that.

[aaron_straker]: 1:07:27

Cool. And then, in our last question here, what do you guys think is more significant when training? If your goal is hypertrophy, training the muscle until failure or time under tension. I see a lot of back and forth around this and I'm curious to hear you guys. S take

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:07:48

Yeah, so I think ultimately time under tension is irrelevant if you don't go near failure. So I could you imagine you know, you just take like some really light weights or just moderate weights whatever, and you're like Okay. My goal is sixty seconds of time under tension. So you like a metronome and you do like four seconds up four seconds down, which is eight seconds of rep. And say you do that eight times so you have sixty four seconds of tension. But What does that actually tell us? You're like sweet. I got sixty four seconds of tension. But did your muscles fatigue? Did they work hard? Um, it's completely irrelevant. I think it is relevant in how it works with failure. So what we know is that if you're doing sets of one to five reps, that's probably not enough reps for hypertrophy, But why do we say that It's not enough reps for hypertrophy? It's not because of the number of reps you're doing, it's because of the amount of time that you're under tension. Um, However, what if you're doing five reps, but your reps are six second negative, one second, pause at the stretch position and then an explosive concentric. So now your reps are taking eight seconds each and you're doing five of them well. Now we have forty seconds of time under tension, So now five Reps is enough for hypertrophy, because that's the same time under tension as if you were to do ten reps with a faster rep cadence. And so time under tension is relevant to determine whether you're in a strength or power zone or whether you're in a hypertrophy or muscular endurance zone, but all of them need to be some proximity to failure Here Relevant of the time under tension.

[aaron_straker]: 1:09:52

That was very, very eloquently, put. I don't think I could add anything beneficial on to the back end of that and it's

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:09:59

Sweet,

[aaron_straker]: 1:10:00

like this. That question stems from just like and I don't mean this to be like, rude or anything. Just like. like a bit of a misunderstanding. Like understanding what Brian just said Like when you actually understand that, when people argue about those things, it becomes like you know, kind of irrelevant because they're just coming from places of like you know it, A misunderstanding, sort of thing.

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:10:26

No, awesome. Well, I think that was that was super effective. We got it done just in time. All the questions all the injury discussion.

[aaron_straker]: 1:10:32

Yeah, so next week, Brian and I will come back with positive news on our injuries and how we are moving forward and things are looking very, very bright in green for us on the other side of the fence as always, Guys. thank you for listening to a train. Prosper, Brian and I will talk to you next week.