Deep Dive into our Current Training & Nutrition | ETP#106

What's up guys? Happy Tuesday. Welcome back to another episode of Eat Terrain Prosper. This is episode 106 and kind of like we started to or had planned to last week before we completely derailed our conversation on blood work for the entirety of it. Today we are actually talking and diving into our current nutrition and training and our loose plans and outlooks for approximately the next six months. Before we jump into that, Brian, kick us off with some updates please. Yeah. I'm glad to get to, uh, us talking about training finally. And I also realize that I always start with, yeah. Every time you kick that over to me for updates, it's like my first word every time is, yeah. And then I get into whatever I was gonna say. So maybe I can just delete the, yeah. Just get into what I'm supposed to say. Um, but yeah. So we are just coming out of, uh, some really shitty weather here in San Diego, which in Boulder there's like a 63 degree day with like beautiful sun, no clouds or anything. And we were like 52 in freezing rain, um, . So, so, yeah. But then, uh, yesterday it turned around and it looks like everything's gonna be like high fifties, low sixties for the foreseeable future, which is fine. Like I don't think you come to San Diego for like high fifties. At least it's sunny and there's not rain and so you just kind of dress appropriately and stay outside, you know, it's all good. Uh, so on that note, Bryson and I finally, after like four days of not being able to bike ride cuz of all this rain, he was itching. And, uh, we went for a massive ride yesterday, so the longest he's ever made it seven and a half miles. We went all the way to the end of the bay path where it converges with the ocean and you know, where all those volleyball courts are on the, like, the far side of the ocean path, there's like 50 volleyball courts or something. Um, so yeah, we, we biked all the way to there on the bay and then we circled back around and took the ocean path down to PB Drive. Back up. So seven and a half miles, kid, crushed it, got his new bike, um, really amped, just super cool that he was able to deal with all the people traffic on there and, and make a, a really cool outing out of it. Um, I have a couple other things to say, but what is, uh, what's going on with you? I know you have a, uh, birthday coming up too. Yes. Uh, which I'll, I'll touch on here in a second, but it, it reminded me like for, for Bryson, that was like, that had to be like the adventure of a lifetime. Like, Yeah. remember, you know, when I, when I was young, like being able to go, like outside the immediate area on like on the bike is. It's, it's like you, you, I was, I felt like I was like 18 years old and an adult like we are so far from home on this bike. Like he was probably thrilled like that, Yeah. probably be like a legit memory of his on that massive bike ride, which is really, really cool. Yeah, I agree. It's like a feeling of freedom for him because I feel like as a five year old, you're oftentimes constrained by other people's expectations of you all the time. And when he gets on the bike, it's just more or less just go. Um, and he's like singing and dancing on his bike and like, you know, weaving between people and just yeah, he's in heaven. Good. So good point. Bringing that up. Yeah. Like I remember the one bike trip that we, that I did when I was. Maybe like eight-ish, something like that. Before, you know, when I was still like child, child, not quite like becoming like a bigger kid Yep. still like a very profound memory of being able to ride on this like bike path sort of thing super far from home. Um, which is cool. So I k kind of jumping over to me, there was one other thing. Oh, the weather here has been horrendous in insane rain, crazy thunderstorms like so bad. they kind of scare you a little bit because the, like, the wind's blowing so hard, the like doors are shaking and like crazy thunder and stuff, and. Rain, like it sound, it, it sounds like There's like people up like punching the, the roof. Like that's how gnarly the rain is. and it's like, it, it's wild. Like when you, the tr the tropical storms are just like, they hit different then when you're in like, you know, mainland us. So it's been, uh, quite, uh, rainy here and unpredictable. Uh, that's the biggest thing because like, it can be kind of, and then you see that the clouds rolling in like 20 minutes and you're in like a world of shit Yeah. Uh, is it rainy season right now? It is, it's wet Yeah. Uh, and, and then like the, like the week before it, it had like finally kind of opened up and was nicer and stuff, and you're like, oh, maybe it's kind of over. And then it, like, the last couple days it's been insanely rainy again. Um, but it's like kind of hit or miss. You can have a great, you know, nice day and then like three o'clock it just rolls in. Or what ends up happening is like early mornings or, or at the nighttime is when it really does. Uh, now with that, uh, with, uh, I have a birthday this weekend On Saturday, I'll be 35 and Jenny and I are going to Kamodo Island National Park to see some Kamodo dragons, which I Nice. insane. Like talk about, like I just said about these like profound memories as a child. I, I literally do feel that way. We were at our last place, it was more of like an apartment building when we were here last year and we were, had to do something in like the main office and they had all these like books and stuff out on the table and we were waiting and I was like looking at one and it like dawned on me as I'm looking at this book that like, Kamodo Island, where the Kamodo Dragons live, like is in Indonesia and it's a couple islands over. Oh my God. Like we have to go. so I've been like talking a lot about it, a lot and Jenny kind of planned a trip, uh, for my birthday, so I am like giddy about it. It just seems like there's these crazy, you know, literally like dinosaurs that kill that comes near them. and like, it, it, I'm gonna be able to go see them like in person. And one of the best things I'm super excited for is it's not gonna be in like a, a zoo setting where they're on the other side of like a 12 inch thick concrete wall and glass. Like there's just roaming and you get to go to the park and there's like a guide you get to make sure that you, you know, don't get eaten. Um, but it's not going to be like super western, protected, safe sort of thing. It's a little bit. you just, they're that you're, they're on the island and you're like hiking around on the island as well. I'm very excited That is actually really cool. I, uh, I hope you get some, some cool video and, and images of it to share. And also, is that really the only place in the world that the Kamodo Dragons are on that one island? Well, I mean, I think in, in this, they may be in like zoos somewhere, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. But I mean, it's, they're indigenous to that area only. Yep. This, this one Interesting. and they maybe have made it to like one of the other nearby islands. I, I'm not like insanely brushed up on my kamodo dragon facts, Yeah. Yeah. they, they are on this, like this one island. That's legit. Cool. Yeah. Um, and then I just have two other kind of small updates. I have found an egg whites supplier here I am through the moon. Like every morning I crack five eggs and with at least three of them I'm doing the stupid little fucking egg whites dance. And, and hopefully that it doesn't like , I don't miss, which I do like probably 20% of the time. Um, and then I've obviously get shells in it and all this stuff, and I'm so excited to not have to do that anymore. So, Yes, One of my friends here, Matt was like, oh, you don't know the egg white guy. I was like, no, there's an egg white guy. Uh, and that's how it is here. Like, like an island like there, there's like a guy for, for, or, or, or a woman, you know, whatever. There's a, like a, a sole resource for all these different things. Yeah. um, can get those delivered now. And I was kind of joking off air. Mine was still frozen, so I didn't get to use it this morning. But tomorrow morning I will be using it for sure. Love that. And then lastly, I prd my heart rate during my last Thursday cardio session. So I finally breached the 1 180, mark from the that very, you know, back of the nap, can max heart rate math should put me at a Yep. And I know that's obviously quite, uh, it's not a a, a firm concrete thing, but I'm getting close to within peaking. which I, I'm not necessarily sure if, if that is a good thing or not, uh, to be pushing over the, the max heart rate. Uh, but a, a kind of really quick funny story is in my, like final semester in college, I had to pick up extra classes because, To like get my financial aid. I had to be full-time student, but I had already had enough credits to kind of graduate. So I picked up extra classes in one of them for whatever reason. I don't know why, but it was called, uh, physical conditioning and it was literally just like, Hit cardio and hill sprints and all this crazy shit this teacher would make us do, and had to get like a heart rate strap and everything like that. And as a 21 year old senior in college who's basically just been like drinking and lifting weights for four years, uh, it was pure hell. But I would routinely push over that Max Harbor rate threshold and we'd be like, after the session, she would have us like run some calculations on like, you know, with our calculators and stuff like, and I remember it would be like 2 0 8, 2 0 9, half the time. And Whoa. 20, 21 years old. Um, you know, that would put me at like a, you know, a 1 98, 1 99, and I would be like, every class well above that maximum rate threshold, so it's, it's kind of funny looking back on that and having some just, I guess like PTs d of those classes, which were awful, You should do the same thing you did to get your heart rate that high and see what it gets to now. I, I, you know what? I couldn't do it. You know, like, I, I could not do that without like, that the, the only reasons I didn't drop that class was like a pure ego standpoint. and I needed to keep that class so that I could keep all of my full-time student, uh, credits and get my financial aid for my final semester of college. But I mean, it was, it was pure hell. And like every, like every class I'm like, why the fuck did I sign up for this class? Like, I could have picked And Right physical conditioning. That sounds awesome. I took, uh, coaching football as, as a senior to get credits, and it was awesome. It was literally like taking you through the steps from the beginning on how to learn to be a coach and design. Plays in an offense and the defense and, and all that stuff is pretty sweet That is a much, uh, better idea than mine, Oh yeah, totally. Well anyway, so switching gears to lower intensity cardio. Um, so when we're talking about zone two, I know., it is meant to be done continuous on one piece of equipment where you just get in the zone and you just have to stay there. Um, but my personality doesn't do super well with cardio, and I've been hammering zone two for like a number of months now, consistently on like a single modality piece of equipment. And, uh, so I broke the rules the other day and I think that because I had so much time doing zone two mono structurally on a single piece of equipment, and I was so good at knowing what that heart rate kind of feels like for me. I did a circuit CrossFit type thing, functional fitnessy or whatever. And I was able to keep my heart rate in zone two the entire time. It was between one 30 and 1 47. The whole time, and that's extremely challenging. I actually don't think there's too many people that could do a circuit workout and keep their heart rate so consistent throughout the whole thing. Um, I had to be, so I did five burpee pullups, 20 shuttle runs 30 feet each way, and uh, 10 calories on the airbike. And I had to do one burpee pull up like every eight to 10 seconds. I did my shuttle runs., I mean, it must have been like a 12 or 13 minute mile, um, just like casually going through it. And then I got on the Aerodyne bike and held about 200 watts, um, for a minute. And that would get me 10 calories. But I just repeated that over and over and over for 10 rounds and it was 40 minutes and my heart rate was in zone two the whole time. And. I feel like I'm probably going to incorporate some more stuff like that. Um, I feel like the fact that I can keep my heart rate that consistent warrants it to be at least almost as good. Like I still don't think I'm doing the full thing like that, that zone two is meant to do per se. Um, so I do intend to still do some of those more single, uh, modality sessions as well. But, um, this was just way more entertaining just to be able to like do something for a minute or two and then do something else for a minute or., um, was really sweet. So anyways, I think that that was cool for me to, to find out and I, and I look forward to potentially throwing in some more creative stuff like that too. Cause I also enjoy that process of like creating them versus just being like, Hey, 45 minutes on the bike. Um, but anyways, that's pretty much it for, uh, my updates. I have like some other stuff about my hamstring that I feel like I can include in. The discussion around my training. But, uh, why don't we kick it over to you and hear a little bit about your current program. Yeah, so I'll kind of start with. My goals and then how the nutrition and, and training and programming comes into that. And so with kind of, kind of backing up a little bit, so I had in the fall of, of 2021, when we were living in Utah, had like my best physique ever, super lean. Um, kept a, a really good amount of muscle there. It was obviously coming off of a, a pretty good, you know, gaining season. I got up to about 208 pounds. And then dieted down. Uh, and then just a combination of, I think, like I love the gym there in Utah. We were going hiking and stuff like that. And it was, it was a really great, fun environment for me. Um, best physique ever was, was pretty proud of that There. And then last year, um, just did not do a as good, and I think I've touched on this on the podcast before, got down to the same weight and was like, not nearly as lean and was like, oh wow, I like botched this year. This was a, this was a learning year sort of thing. So that was kind of a, a, just a, a frustration. I, I would say because you know, at, at this long playing this game like. it is a, it is an entire year to, to go through that cycle again and then get there, you know, sort of thing. So this. the goal was to beat my best physique and kind of make sure that that doesn't happen again. So with anything like when going somewhere new, right? I'm a big fan of hiring a coach, right? To really protect me from myself, right? My, my habits, um, my second guessing, those sorts of things. So I hired Jackson and, uh, it, what I was really excited for. all I gotta do is show up, eat the food, lift the weights, and, and someone else makes the decisions sort of thing. So, food is high, high on high-ish, 32, 3300 calories right now with the goal of reclaiming all the lost, you know, muscle mass from, from the previous years' diet, maybe if we can get lucky, adding a little bit of new kind of muscle mass with a top end kind of, uh, body. Approximation goal around like 208 pounds. So a little bit like the last one. But I have fortunately, you know, checking photos from that last kind of season and things are looking good comparatively, which is fun. So, uh, I'm like, High 2 0 4 s, low 2 0 5 s right now. Um, body composition is improved over the last time food was going up and I was coming up through that 2 0 4, 2 0 5. Uh, and we will see how things go over the next, maybe like a month or, or six or seven weeks or something like that. Take put on those last few pounds. and. Kind of with my nutrition there. This is the first time, I think, kind of in potentially forever, I was trying to look, think back before the podcast that I've ever kind of just followed a meal plan straight by the book. Um, and, uh, so far I've been really enjoying it. And I guess the reason being is like those decisions are made for me. It's not like a, oh fuck, I have, you know, 60 grams of carbs left and there's, I don't have any carbs in the house, sort of thing. When, when there's more, uh, decisions to be made, have to really rely on yourself to be able to think in an advance to, to make sure that you're adequately prepared for that. And because the decision making process is so much less. I know. Okay. Like Mondays, Thursdays, and like, you know, Saturdays, whatever. I hit the grocery store. These are the things that I order. I have things being delivered to the house, um, from our friends, Matt. And, and he, they run a, a place here called Macro Kitchen. They cook all my meat for me, um, some of my vegetables and stuff like that. So that's like already decided. Taken care. And, and that's been really, really fun to like, not have to worry about that. which has been really, really cool. And then we are taking a higher protein feeding frequency, so really kind of maximizing that, muscle protein synthesis pathway of, you know, 35, 40 grams of, of protein, uh, distributed every like three to four hours throughout the day. And so far it's been, I mean, I wouldn't say eye-opening, but. to have someone else say, Hey, this is the plan, this is what we're doing. It's just easier to buy into it. and I've noticed is like we are able to get more out of less food. anecdotally doing this. So like the last time, you know, I was 204 pounds. There was a, there was like two smoothies per day, like blending oats in those sorts of things. And each meal was like really, really large. But I was only doing like four, four and a half meals per day. But now that I'm doing essentially six with some like pre-workout, or sorry, post-workout stuff, my digestion is much, much better. and I, I'm, I'm not feeling like that really bloated full low energy from taking in a thousand calories post-training or anything like that, and I've really, really been enjoying that part of it as well. So you're basically eating like a bro. You have a meal plan, you're not, you're not, I, I f y Ming it, and you're back to eating six meals a day. So like, you just could have stayed in, you know, the early two thousands and hung out there, man. You know what, something that's really, really funny is the, the deeper I go into, or I should say, the longer I go through, uh, this career path and stuff like that, I often find myself like sitting back and having these realizations that like, bodybuilders a lot of times already have the things solved in, Yep. just like kind of ahead of the game. And like what was really funny is in the beginning I was first getting into this, like I hate, I thought meal plans were, were really stupid and I would, you know, never do that and that sort of thing. And that the six meals per day is completely unnecessary. And, and I would never say that it is necessary, but it can if it fits, if you're able to fit into like lifestyle and schedule and that sort of thing. But it is kind of funny and I've had that realization like multiple times, like bodybuilders kind of figured it out a while back, Yeah, I mean, with training too, like you this Yeah, like benches, bench, bench presses and squats with no lockout at the top, you're biasing the length in position, you know, they, they got it, man. I mean, there's definitely some things that I think we've improved upon, but shit, 80, 90% of it, nothing new there. Yeah. Yeah, Um, so it, can I, should I jump into some nutrition stuff real quick or are you. Let's do that. All right, cool. touch training. Uh, so with my nutrition here, at least for the next five weeks, Um, I don't have a scale, not, not like a food scale, which I also don't have, but, uh, like a body weight scale. Um, and I, I've religiously been weighing myself every morning cuz it's part of my off-season satiety tracking thing where I track my daily body weight, my protein grams and subjective satisfaction. Underfed, overfed or satisfied. Um, so all I'm doing now is tracking subjective satiety and. Ballpark protein grams. And so when I'm in San Diego, that's what I'm doing and I am just going to more or less eat to fulfillment. I'm gonna try to have most of the days be satisfied and have like maybe an overfed day and an underfed day each week. So in theory, I would then go back to, uh, Boulder at about the same weight I am., but I'm kind of confused because a lot of the smart device things that are telling me that I am losing weight, and that would be like a lower resting heart rate, higher H R V numbers., uh, increase VO two max. Uh, but the other thing that could increase all of those things is doing cardio. And so I, I'm a little bit, uh, torn at this point as to whether I am in fact losing body weight or whether I'm just seeing adaptations from doing the cardio. Um, so I, I think this is actually really cool. I'm excited to see what my body weight is in five weeks. Seeing it for five weeks and just kind of see how accurate my assessments of satiety are, um, throughout the spreadsheet over the, the five weeks. So, so yeah, that'll be cool. And the goal is mostly, you know, to maintain. And then after that, um, I think I've decided not to do my spring cut officially this year. Um, I just, I, I've been leaning that way. I've kind of flirted with that on the, the podcast here. And I just, I wanna continue doing my cardio stuff and I wanna make sure that I'm properly fueling my cardio stuff so that it has as minimal impact as possible on my weight training. And I think that it's possible and possible, even likely, that I will lose a little bit of weight just by prioritizing more cardio. And then having the summer months come where in general, my body tends to want to lose weight in the summer as I'm more active, getting more steps in, um, things like. So I think that that's what's gonna happen, but I'm not gonna intentionally try to lose weight. I'm just gonna fuel the cardio, fuel, the training. And uh, I'm actually really excited this year to have a year off of dieting and doing that whole, posting my body weight every day on Instagram thing. Um, I feel like free already that I made this decision. I'm like, yes, I just gained like three months in my life. So, um, so I'm really excited about that. And, uh, yeah, we'll get into training stuff here, but if you have anything else to add, I do the, the first thing was I am very curious to see what happens with the body weight. Um, over, over these five weeks. was kind of thinking about it and I, I really. I'm, I'm just, I'm just really excited to see what's gonna happen, you know, cuz you're like, I'm just leveraging subjective cues and in satiety and I'm just gonna like, see what happens. I would say like, thinking, thinking to myself, and I've touched on this, I believe in the podcast before, like years of, of tracking my food and then even before that, you know, through all our, like the heavy days of cf p b, like pushing food so much, I have really. I shouldn't say broken, but like dramatically misconfigured my satiety in, in hunger cues. And, and I would say like if I did that myself and tried to like, remove myself from my schedule, my weight would just start tanking. Like, like Yeah. like sometimes when I have an off day, like I'll go like six hours. A meal and, and it's almost like a relief, you know? And I would like, I think I would very just fall by the wayside of not eating past, like breakfast. I would probably eat breakfast at like 7:00 AM I might not have another meal till like three or four sort of thing. And then you can only play so much ketchup right. kind of there. Um, but it was kind of like, had me thinking for like longer term, you know, what might happen. And that's something that, that I'm sure we'll touch on. Uh, and then the other thing I wanted to say about, about your diet. Yeah. I think that'll be really, or the, the, the not diet I should say. I, I was agreeing when, when my thoughts were going that way is like, just from all this cardio exploration that you're doing, you'll probably just settle in to a little bit leaner through more activity. Um, and leveraging your kind of, uh, your, your three tier, uh, relative satiety, uh, kind of, uh, model at Yeah. day. I'm I agree. happens with that too. Yeah, me too. It's gonna be a fun, a fun different year. Like first time in four years, I haven't done this, so, so yeah, it'll be cool and it'll be a fun summer, you know, enjoy some of the, the freedoms that, that summer and spring provide. So, yeah, I'm excited about it. Um, what is going on in, uh, training for you? Yeah, so ki kind of like I said when, when I. with a coach, I'm, I just like to go all in, right? And I say, treat me like a regular client. Assume that I don't know very much because as much as I want the, the fruits of the labor of coaching, I just want to, I want insight in to see how other people's, you know, brains work and stuff like that so that I can make sure that I'm doing the best that I can as a coach, you know? So when I signed up with Jackson, I said, take over training. Right? I'll, I'll, I'll follow it sort of. and he, um, for, I don't wanna speak for him, but when, what we're doing with me, I should say, is a, um, much lower volume, very, very high intensity program. And have. Been really, really enjoying it. Um, so we'll have like a few intensity techniques, like per session, uh, generally like rest, pause, style. I think I only have maybe like one or two drop sets in the entire week. Um, but I do really enjoy kind of the rest pause style. the, the reason I would say I've, I've been enjoying it so much, is because like with the top set approach, like you get one set, you know, and, and that brings out like a. Better focus, you know, and, and like, like my phone is in focus mode every training session. I know like, well before that, before I start that set, this is how many reps I got last week. Like this is my target. Um, and I know I'm going to be like pushing, you know, very, very close in proximity to failure. Pretty much like r i r of one or or less on movements that I can like kind of safely. Um, Go to failure on and it just like it, it's made training so much more mental. Than it had been in the past. And that, and that kind of bridging between the mental and physical is huge. Like, like the arousal for, for a set. Um, knowing, you know, that each rep has to be like with precise precision and you can't mis grove it because if you mis grove at like a r i r three that turns into like an r i r of zero pretty much, you know, sort of thing, maybe one. Um, and you botch that, that set for the week. Uh, so that has. really, really fun for me, and I know that, you know, historically in the past when I had done three, four exercises per a movement, you just can't, I, I, I shouldn't speak for other people. I cannot bring that same level of focus knowing that I have like, okay, 160 pounds, like I'm doing it on this set, and then in two more sets, I'm doing that 160 pounds again, it it almost like I kind of will sandbag the earlier. by proxy of knowing that I still have to do it like a few more times. Where this way I know Mike, there's one pitch coming and I'm swinging for the fences, like every time. do really enjoy that from a, from a, like a, a mental in effort aspect. Dude, I couldn't agree more. Like I think you may have just convinced me to think about reducing some of my volume on some movements, cuz I have, uh, I have the superset that I'll get into, but it's the leg extension to sissy squat superset. And man, if I didn't sandbag the shit out of the first round of that today, cuz I knew I had a second round. Um, like I, I ended up realizing after the, the super set, I was like, I can do more weight on the leg extension and I can do more weight on the sissy squat. But I definitely wasn't gonna do that twice. So I did like a lighter. First set to, to save it up for the second set. And so maybe it just would've been better if I would've done even heavier of each and, and just on one round of that thing, and it probably would've been sufficient to cause the stimulus that I want. So like I, I totally get it. Um, okay, so real quick to dig into some of what you said, talk to me about these rest pause sets. Are they on. What types of movements are they on? Are they on the, the demanding like hack spot or RDL stuff? I would guess not. Probably more on some of the other movements. Yeah, so for example, like the leg extension, I have like a one top set of like a 10 to 15. and then back off at like 75 to 80%. Obviously some movements that's gonna be a little bit higher. Some movements that's gonna be a little bit lower depending on the rep range. And then like with a rep target of like 12. For that. And then two kind of like rest pause sets at that, back off weight. Mm. Um, and then for, for me, you know, my rest pause sets, I'm really, think the most, I might have like three. um, and, and on the week, and some of them are, are, um, performance dependent, right? If you can get more than like three reps, keep going. But once you can only get three reps, like you're kind of done. Yeah. like, let's say for example, like yesterday was the, was the leg extension back off, rest, pause. I got, I was able to get 12, um, on, at the, at the back off weight and then 15 seconds rest. I could only get like, I think. and then another 15 seconds. I could only get three. So Okay. we're done there. And Yeah, I want to be done. It doesn't feel nice so you just did 10 to 15 reps and then you dropped the weight like 20 or 25% and you only got 12. And that it's, what's really wild is I have found that like consistently, um, And this, like, we, we kind of knew from my, like historical performances when we would do some of the, like, you know, in our CrossFit dates when you would program stuff where, um, like we would do, I forget, but it was like, you know, 80. 85% of like your one rep max or whatever, and I'm making these numbers up, but like the rep target was like, okay, like seven to nine, and I would only be able to get like two or three. And, and it Yeah. like my drop off is, is quite vast. for example, like the hack squat, you know, um, when I was still at the other gym, could do like 180 kilos. uh, 10 reps, right? And then I would do my, my back off and I would put it to like 150 kilos and I would only get like nine reps, know? So it's just like that first all out set really takes it out of me. And I'm taking over three minutes, you know, before the next set. So it's not like a, I do feel like recovered, but once I get into it, like it just, it just really slows from a performance standpoint. I'd be curious at some point if you ever do this, to try that same experiment but take like five or six minutes of rest. Because I find like when I, I do two sets of my big compound movements, and I do find that three minutes is just. Not enough. Their rep drop off would be significant, or I would have to drop a lot of weight, but I can maintain the same weight and only lose a rep, so it could go from like nine to eight with the same weight if I rest for like five or six minutes between the sets and I mean, it's probably unnecessary, like you're getting the same. Stimulus to the muscle, like the muscle doesn't know. Um, so I feel like you're, you're probably, as long as you're approaching the same r i r, like, it's probably the same to your muscles. So there's no reason you like have to do this, but, uh, but I would be curious if you ever do. Yeah. I mean, I could for, for some of the bigger ones, I could easily do that. I mean, once, does it add three minutes to my Yeah. right? Yeah. Um, so when you talk about that top set back, offset plus rest pause, is that specific to like more or less, like less fatiguing movements and then on the hacker and rdl, you're just doing one top set, or is there a back offset on that too? Yep. Top set back offset. And then some of them will have like a, a very large drop. Um, like the RDL has it, so like after the back offset, I'm stripping like half the weight from the back off and then getting like, just taxing, kind of like the, the, um, almost like the metabolite pathway at that Oh, the weight's really. but you're quite fatigued. So generally when I do the rdl, um, back us real numbers. I need, I need numbers of your top set, your back offset, and then the strip set. like, like loads. yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like the top set I've been kind of, uh, uh, gingerly with the, with the rdl is because of my knee injury a few weeks ago. And like that stability still kind of makes it Yep. my, my top set is only at, um, 130 kilos. Okay. and then the back off I've been doing at 100 kilos. Right. And then the strip set after that is literally like 60 kilos. Like just Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you take one of the 40 fives off or whatever from the back offset. And when I, when I perform that, like essentially drop after the back off, I'm only getting like six reps and I'm like, like I'm there. And, and I always fail the concentric. And I'm like, Hmm. it's not, it's not going And that's immediately after it's like two 20 for 12 or 10 or whatever, and then you strip to 1 35 from there. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. cool. that. I mean, I'm not gonna say I enjoy that. It feels absolutely terrible. Uh, same thing with the hack squat. Like, um, I'll do a very similar, like, you know, 50% kind of drop and like you can just feel the metabolite, you know, And I'm like, the weight feels light. Like it's not, especially like you've just had, you know, 200 kilos on the hack squat. Like now I have, know, uh, whatever, like 60, 80, it feels. but it's still not moving. Um, wild. yeah. And, and it, it feels And that one really is like a push until you of like quit sort of thing, because like they start jack hammering a little bit Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It it, but the thing is now, like, I've been able to get so much quad stimulus out of such few movements, like. For a bit, for like the first few weeks there, there is like a third um, leg exercise in there. I couldn't even do it because like my legs were so blown out already, like insane quad pumps. By the time I got done with the hack squat, the leg extension would be first I would just like do my abs and calves and go home and I would be really sore Yeah, two days. I wouldn't be able to do a third exercise with that type of intensity. Yeah. for sure. that's been like fun. Like I don't, I don't, I don't need it. Yeah. because we, we don't have the leg extension and the hack squat, like just straight up isn't as good. Um, I have a, I have been doing the third, um, and that's been a very like, real experiment into like, how much does the equipment like matter in, in the angle of the hack squat and stuff. And I found like it really, really does, like when you can have a completely flat. You know, heel pressure, toe pressure, all equal and be at full knee flexion as agra in the bottom of the hack squat, like the stimulus you can produce with that, uh, with those angles, it, it is And then when you're on like a hack squat, that only gets you 75% of the way there, 80% of the way there. Like it is a noticeable, uh, like reduction in stimulus on the day for sure. Yeah, dude, I'm, I've, I put on my story the other day, my, my perils with the arsenal hack right now. Um, because I, I couldn't get it to, to get to that perfect position that you're talking about. You know, and I actually had a really good suggestion from one of the, uh, One of the people that follow me, but he said if I throw yoga blocks on the shoulder pads of the hack and then lower the footplate down, because I had it super steep because it was the only way I'd be able to get to the bottom. But he's like, you know, with the yoga blocks, you can flatten out the footplate so it looks more like a, a heel wedge or whatever, like a softer. And I think that's gonna be dope. I just don't happen to have yoga blocks, so I'm gonna have to like, like find something somewhere. But, um, but definitely gonna look forward to showing that. Yeah. But I'm in San Diego, like, do I really need to buy yoga blocks for like four weeks of training Yeah. I'm Maybe Maybe I do. Maybe you, I do. convince the, uh, the owners at the, at the, at the gym. Like, Hey, we should get like a ettling torch and cut these stops off at the bottom. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, totally. So tell the people, uh, what your split is. Oh yeah, that was another part. I can't believe I forgot this. Um, I'm really only training most things once per week, which is the fir, like I am more or less kind of like on a, on an intelligent bro split. And I haven't done this in in years. Um, honestly thought that I would never. Train this way again. I, I did truthfully believe that. So, uh, Monday is, is legs overwhelmingly quad dominant? Right. I'm gonna get some glute stuff from, you know, the, the, the large, uh, degree of. Rum. But other than that, pretty much quads, um, calves and abs. Um, the abs are generally like four sets per exercise that I have three times per week. But that's really, cuz my abs suck so bad. Like I have like hanging leg raises. I'm only getting like, by the, by my third and fourth set, I'm only getting like six fucking rubs Um, so like if I only had one or two sets, like I'm, I just can't get that much volume in because I'm such garbage at doing them. So that's, so that's Monday. The, the, the, the quad dominant split Tuesday is a push day. So chest, uh, lateral dels, delts, triceps, yes. Wednesday is then a pull session. So pretty much everything on the, on the posterior side, uh, upper. That ha when the pool day has abs again, uh, Thursday is, is the cardio day. Friday will be the hamstring dominant day. So glutes, hamstring, calves, uh, no quads really there. And if I'm being honest, like. My quads, uh, are still maybe a little bit sore on that Friday. Yeah. Thursday cardio session really does help them. They feel so much better coming off the bike, wants to like blood pools out and everything like that, you know. But, um, uh, that is ano, that is a lower body hamstring focused day. then Saturday is a mixed upper. abs again. So pretty much one exercise per the larger muscle groups. So I have like one chest, one back, uh, and then I have two biceps on that day and no triceps So it is hitting the upper body twice because your arms are getting hit by auxiliary compound stuff anyways, so like it either that second day is more like a touch up than anything Yeah. you also don't want it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then you don't have any ham stuff on your quad day and you don't have any quad stuff on your ham day. No. And the thing is, is like I, wouldn't be recovered to do it Yeah. really being honest. I wouldn't. Yeah. No, that's super interesting. I'm actually really excited to follow this experiment as well. Um, cuz this is certainly unique. You're literally like, you're eating like a bro and you're training like a bro. And I'm envious, man. I loved those days. Bracelets were the best. Yeah, it has been. Uh, at first I was like really nervous, mostly around my quads, right? It's like one of my biggest lagging Yeah. because I just, I was, I was literally like 32 years old before I really learned how to train my quads, like, well, um, and I was like, I just don't know if it's gonna be enough, like frequency or are we gonna regress? But like, no, I am just, like I said, swinging for the fences on those days. And the thing is like, it's. I was getting the big anxiety about it for, for a bit, but now that I'm like, you know, a number of weeks in like this, this is just, that's just my Monday, you know what I mean? Like, it, it's gonna be hard. Um, but I do enjoy, uh, really just showing up and, and trying really, really hard to, to beat the week before. And then I know I have literally like 5, 5, 6 days before I need to do it again, or I essentially seven. Okay, so wait, if that's Monday and your, you said your pull day is Wednesday. Where's your push day? Tuesday. So you go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all in a row. Yeah. Wow, And that's wild. whenever, when, whenever you'll have those things about like training three days in a row, like I'm, I always, I watch 'em, like I, I can't relate. Like I Huh? on that, that, that we, that Thursday, uh, or sorry, Yeah. like, and then, uh, the cardio day is just, the nuts, but, Right. yeah, That's so interesting. Yeah, kind of what we talked about last week with the labs and stuff. I, I think Cardio's just gonna be in for me and I'm just gonna have to get used to it again. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, very interesting. high, right? Food's high, sleeps good. Like I'm recovering like really, really well. I have a lot of. you know, cards stacked in, in, in that part of the deck. So I, I would imagine maybe once we get into the deficit and that sort of thing, that will diminish there as well. Yeah. Yeah. Um, cool. Well, I am, uh, As you guys may know on a nine day split, because I just have to be different and and not be on the calendar week. Um, so the one super bro thing about my split is that I'm only training hamstrings once over the course of nine days. Um, everything else is getting hit at least twice, but, uh, I just came off a year of basically doing hamstring prioritization where volume and intensity and placement in the session and pretty much everything else was there to try to bring up the hamstrings. Um, and I think it, it worked for the most part, tough to say now, since I just was barely able to start training my right hamstring again after the injury four weeks ago. But, um, I do feel like there, there was some progress there. The strength numbers went up to, uh, in hypertrophy rep ranges, and so that's sort of the best I can hope for. But, um, the hamstring day specifically because, um, , I wanted to talk about it in relation to the injury too. Uh, I got to try this hammer strength seated leg curl, and it was super fine. Um, tons and tons of tension up at the stretch position. When you lean forward, it doesn't quite bottom out, so if you're sitting back all the way, you know your legs will, it'll hit the, the stopper as you try and go. But when you lean forward and you, you lengthen the hamstring to start, uh, I was just shy of being able to get it there and it was super tension up there, uh, with a pretty lengthened overload. So it definitely had a little bit of drop off, uh, at the short position, which I love. Um, things just never feel great for me when it gets harder. Until the short position, and that's like the point of maximum tension. Um, I guess because it doesn't really match the, the strength curve of the muscle super well. But, uh, I was able to this week, train basically bilateral for the first time I was doing all cautious single leg hamstring work up until this. And so I did bilateral leg curl, bilateral, one and a half hip extensions. And uh, I was even able to do r DLS with, uh, a barbell, which I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to do so. Kept that light at like 2 95 and did sets a seven, which was perfect. Uh, tested the hamstring, it felt good. And I'm super duper sore in my hamstrings too. So when you were talking about not being recovered in time, like four days later for something, I've been experiencing a lot of that too, um, because my hamstring. Ubiquitously take a long time to recover. And this is, uh, even worse because I'm only training them every nine days, like they're literally sore for. over half that nine day period, , um, and then quads. I'm training twice and they're also getting super sore, but it's over a nine day period, so it's like just enough time to train them again. So, I have quads once. Actually, I'll just talk about my split real quick. I have torso, push pull, uh, plus some front delts, so that's basically back and chest, and then a little bit of front delts. Then I have quads and uh, biceps.. And then I have another torso, push pull day with some delts. And then I have hams and triceps. And then I have the specialization day. So it's just quads and shoulders cuz this, this cycle is a quad and dealt specialization cycle, um, as, as, as person yells in the background. Um, so, uh, so the day that is just quads and deltas. only has for quads. This superset that I mentioned, that's leg extension to sissy squat, and it is just so, so, so awful. Um, and it actually got me sore, like literally two sets of that. That sequence got me sore for literally four days to the point that I was just recovered in time to do my quad session when it came back around again. Um, Yeah, so that was, uh, that was gnarly. And so I feel like I'm just barely getting enough quad recovery with the nine day cycle. Um, and then that day also has more same muscle group, supersets for the delts. So that day being just quads and delts, it has two uh, Sequences for the Deltas. One that's a front del rear delt combo and one that is, uh, lateral del, lateral del. So it's a y raise to a dual cable lateral raise, which I love. That's an awesome, uh, super set. But, uh, I'm a fan of that day in general. Yeah, I was gonna say like, I remember when, when you first were, were putting it up, I'm like, man, a, a a quads and adults specialization day. Like, it just sounds fun. Like I, I, I would, well, at least I think I would thoroughly enjoy it. Who knows once I got got into it. Um, but I feel like that would be a very, very, day and kind of like what, what you were saying with, you feel like you're just kind of recovering enough for that second quad day. Um, moving forward, do you think you might like reduce the, the sets of that, uh, like say seated leg extension to, to sissy squat, to like, let's say you only did one set. Do you think that Yeah. maybe your recovery or would you just like push it harder and it maybe end up being more the same? Yeah, I don't, I don't exactly know. Um, I'm, I just did it today. Um, so I'm gonna see if repeated bout effect maybe makes me less sore, and then I could potentially use that information to decide. But that's a good question. I, and you're, you're right. I don't know, maybe pushing harder on one set would actually make me more sore. Um, Which, yeah, I don't exactly know. I had a, uh, a really cool suggestion from, uh, Connor St. Gene. I don't know if you know him. He's a, he's kind of an N one bodybuilder guy. Yeah. Yeah. So he, he wrote me today and he was like, dude, you should. Go back to the leg extension for partials after the sissy squat. Make a cast set out of it . And uh, and I was like, man, that is genius. I like really, really should do this. But I'm definitely not doing this twice. So maybe like that is my cue to just make this one massive, like top works set. Like do some warmup sets, get super prepared, and then I have that one shot in the gun. Take the leg extension close to failure, the sissy squat, close to failure, and then go back to the leg extension for some partials. That would rip me up. And I'm, I would really like the fact that I only have to do it once, because even leg extension to sissy squat twice is just like pretty daunting. Uh, but you can, you can really mentally like go there one time. and then it's kind of like repeating it. It's like, oh yeah, I think I can do this, but God, you know, um, so yeah, that's, that's an interesting idea and something I'm definitely gonna consider. I will update you guys if I end up doing, uh, that awful sequence. It sounds just so good and so bad at the same time. Yeah. Do you have anything there or should I just continue? Now continue please. Yeah. Um, So what was else was I gonna say? I actually don't know. Oh, yeah. So I have my, uh, my one arm experiment still going on, and so I'm, I'm really excited for this to wrap up. Um, April 9th, I think is the, the six month mark. So I have a little over a month to go now. And I'm just ready, like I'm kind of bored of training one arm and getting a pump in one side, and I wanna see what my right arm is capable of. Like, honestly, I'm, I'm, I'm, as I'm as much excited about the, the measurements that I'm gonna do over the course of a few days for consistency purposes as I am to see the strength comparison when I do the movements that I've been doing with my left arm only. And then see how the right arm perform. on those movements. Um, I think that's gonna be some cool, interesting data as well because I feel like my left arm has improved in coordination and strength more than I think aesthetically per se. Um, but I guess we'll have to, we'll have to just find out and so I'm excited to get back to training both arms again. and then, uh, I feel like I had something else to say on the training side, but it's escaping me at the moment, so I think that's all I really got. I have Yep. the arms. Um, will, when you wrap up the, the six months, will you be, will. Will you be back in Boulder or will you still be in San Diego? I'll be back in Boulder. Okay. Are you, do you plan on getting a DEXA done at that time? I do, I have one saved up. I bought a two pack and so I had my dxa done. August and I started this experiment in October. So the dexo was just prior to the, to the experiment. And then I'll do another DEXA at the end of the experiment before I start training my right arm again. And we'll see what the comparison is and we'll also see if all this cardio that I've been doing has changed my body composition, muscle mass ratio at all in any way. Um, cuz I'm kind of curious about that, like, . One of the biggest concerns I have about doing all of this zone two is, uh, muscle type conversion, like becoming a little bit more slow twitch, which is kind of, I, I kind of expect that to happen because those adaptations to cardio have to, like, you have to gain slow twitch muscle fibers to get better at cardio. Um, but I'm curious if that has any negative impact on the total amount of muscle mass that I. Yeah, I, I, I honestly don't have a clue there, but it will be very interesting to see that data. I'm super glad we're gonna get to, to talk about it on the podcast. I think that's gonna be really cool. I Yep. I don't, I don't have a clue. I, I really don't have a clue what's gonna happen. Like, I, I think the kind of the nihilists approach would be like, oh, doesn't matter, like training right? matter. Uh, or doing cardio doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. But, but I'm very much, but maybe we'll see, like maybe there's going to be like Yeah. quarters of a pound difference in, in one arm versus the other. Like I just, yeah. I'm just genuinely excited for once that concludes and we get some of that, uh, the information on the back end of that, I feel like my right arm had like a half pound more muscle or something on the original test. I feel like it was like 11.7 and 12.2 or something like that. So yeah, we'll have to see Compared to that, it's gonna be super cool. Um, but yeah, that's really all I have for, for training things. Um, this cycle that I'm in. Is, oh yeah, I was gonna talk about long term, but this cycle, I mean, is probably gonna last for a while. Um, I'm in like week three or two right now, and, uh, so it's gonna go at least two meso cycles, so that will probably take us through four plus months and then into summer. So, uh, yeah, I think for the most part this will probably continue. Um, I will maybe do that leg extension to see squat leg extension, tricep at some point and talk about it. Yeah, I guess the, the last thing I'll wrap up with with my training is as well, mine will stay the same for, for quite a while, and part of that reason too is like I just changed gyms. it's like last week. So that does bring in a little bit of change. For, for example, instead of doing the hack squat, I actually was on the Smith machine squat with like the hand, you know, the, the, what do you call 'em? Like the straps, you know, sort of thing in, in my Oli shoes, because I wanted to really get a full, fully lengthened position so that one may stay in, and then I may be changing gyms again. A month or so when this other gym gets all their arsenal equipment in that they've been waiting on for like six months. those little kind of differences in and of enough create. Uh, oh. At least like a week or two of, of floating data of, okay, these are my new positions on, on these, you know, machines and stuff. So I, I anticipate running this for, for quite a while. And while the progress is still happening, like I'm very big on like, Hey, it's not broken. I'm still enjoying this shit out of it. I wanna see how far I can kind of push it. Um, but yeah, that's about it for my training and maybe. Six months, so you know, kind of maybe around September-ish. We will have a follow up on this episode to see how things have transpired for us over those six months. I love that it'll be an, uh, biannual segment. Yeah. Perfect. All right. Anything else to wrap this one up, Brian? Nah, it's good, man. Yeah. as always guys, thank you for listening. Brian and I will talk to you next week.