Conclusions: Diet End & 8 Weeks of Ab Training | ETP#38

[aaron_straker]: 0:29

Happy Tuesday, Everyone, welcome back to another episode of Eat Train Prosper today's Brian myself, But before we get into today's episode, I have a question and ask for some of you guys. if you are listening to the podcast. If you enjoy the podcast and you are using the Apple podcast app. If you feel like Brian and I provide sufficient value and you enjoy this, We would really really appreciate a review. I'm not even asking for a five serve of you am asking for an honest review on the podcast Brian and I, this podcast, How we reach audience. How we get clients. And I think that we try to strive to do our best to provide as much objective, valuable information and our own kind of insight in what we have learned. So if you could take a time, I leave us a quick review. Um doesn't have to be lengthy. By any means, we would both really appreciate it and help the pot gasro reach a broader audience and help get this quality information out to more people. With that out of the way, let's jump into today's episode. Brian. What's going on with you?

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:25

I'm cold if you're watching on Youtube right now. You can see that I am in full winter. Uh, get up here. I got three layers on. I got a hoodie. I got a beane at sweat pants. Got shoes on. It is cold for today. It's forty five degrees outside and then I think we're going back into the seventies for another week, but um, definitely getting that little taste of winter here. and uh, let's see beyond that, I had my uh minor surgical procedure yesterday, so uh, it's uh, the doctor. I asked him what it would feel like for like a few days afterward and he goes, You know what you get kicked in the balls. and like you know, five minutes later it doesn't really hurt anymore. but you just kind of feel like something's happening down there and I was like Yep, I know that feeling and he said Yeah, That's what you're going to feel for about two or three days, and uh, and it's right. That's basically what I feel like. it's not actually painful. It's just kind of like a hyper awareness, and uh, and very much that I don't feel confident, like bracing hard and and lifting. so um, it's good that I'm taking these five days off. Um, Let's see what else is going on. We just had the awesome episode with the data driven strength Guys last week and it was so good. I. I literally went back and listened to the whole thing over the last two days, and um, I love the way they think about things like they have such a good mind for combining strength and hypertrophy. and uh, I. I just really enjoyed listening to them and and loved the input that they had on kind of the ideas around how I could build out my strength phase coming up that I'm goingnna start on Monday. Here and one of the things that they suggest. I think the main thing that I was like super ampted on is the idea of using like a daily single or double, and then basing your back off work on that singular double. So, uh, just as a refresher for anyone that missed it, their idea is kind of that you would work up to like an r, p, E eight for the day, whether that's like a single or a double, r p eight, about two reps from failure. And then you use just a, either your ear intuition or some online like calculator and determine what what your one rat max would be if you had taken that to like the full limit, And then you do seventy five or eighty percent of that for your triples for the day. Um. So that approach is really cool and I like that because that auto regulates the amount of effort and then fatigue that I'm go to accumulate in the back off sets. based on how fresh I feel from Um, going into that top set So really cool. Definitely gonna implement. that. Also going to use someha what they talked about regarding doing more sets further from failure for kind of some of the accessory movements, so I'm not talking about like you know, curls necessarily in push downs, but you know pendulum squat r d, l, like still big movers, but instead of you know two top sets of eight to ten reps close to failure. It might be five sets of five or five sets of six, Uh, with five reps from failure or something along those lines using maximum concentric intent that love that love that. I've heard a lot about that in the last you know, few months, and then they really harped on that here, which essentially just means lifting the weight as fast as you possibly can. Pretending that every rep is like the hardest rep you're doing. So that's how I lift anyways, but I really love that as a term and I think that that makes a lot of sense as kind of a message to relay to other people. So anyway, I was just reflecting on that and listening to that episode and enjoying my days off as I kind of heal up and prepare for my strength cycle. And then I have a bunch of reflecting to do, so I want to kick it over to Aarin, but I have. I have a few different topics of my last week or two to discuss with you guys after that, but uh, what's going on in your world? dude,

[aaron_straker]: 5:18

preparing? Um, preparing. We are leaving Salt Lake City in about a month. Um. we' going to go to Arizona, Uh, the Scotsville area for winter, So any listeners out there if you're in the Scotsll area, I want to meet up. get them coffee. Lift some weights. I would love to do that. Um, so let me know as salt expense, super super cool. I really do love it here. and if you as me, if I had to stop traveling where I would settle down, I would literally just stay here. It's been my favorite place, but the travel life living out of a suitcase. Uh, doesn't leave a lot of room for winter clothes. Um, so we're just not really equipped to do winter somewhere yet, but in the next couple of years whenever we do stop, Um, I do want to settle back into having seasons in the winter again. For sure. So that's kind of the the. The big thing. Um, I did have a. I have been like my neck has kind of been bothering me. Like, not really so much my neck, but like my traps, raboid um area. so I finally I was like, Okay, I got to go get this. Get this taken care of. So it was like on the you know, on the Google found this place called Reas Altis, Um, here in Salt Lake, In this guy named it Dylan, and I just like had great revies'm. like, You know what fucking? I'm just going to book it and see what happens. It was one of the best like body working sessions I've ever had. Um, big dude lifts weights like you know, very, very similar to myself. and he put me through a world of pain. It and I haveve like a high physical pain threshold. You know, I mean I deal well with like my long tattoo sessions. Everything like that. this was very not pleasurable. Um, and it was my back too, 'cause you know if you're getting a massage done or whatever like the back can like, kind of take a beating

[bryan_boorstein]: 6:59

y,

[aaron_straker]: 6:59

compared to like if it was like your quads or hamtrings or cals or something, God forbid, and it was not fun and he told me he was like your ramboids are a disaster. So it's probably why I've kind of hadt having some like you know, back of my neck trap problems when I'm like working too long or something like that. Um, so I was I opening? I'm definitely going to go try and go back to him. He was booked out like weak sus. I'll tell you know, a place is pretty good when they have zero availability for a while. Um, So that was on Tuesday and I'm still like pretty beat up from that, but Um gave me some things to do. Some'm, pumped about that to really kind of help. That kind of setll back in and then the other thing with me is I will officially start my gut protocol tomorrow. Um. the Fedex product that I had been waiting for finally got to me last Thursday. I needed to run seven days of that, Um. to help with just increase, Um, the capacity of of liveroxification, so that when the die off of things happen, I don't get super crappy feeling, brainfog, really low energy type stuff from all the toxins Um releasing into my body, so we'll start that tomorrow. Officially. I'm very, very excited to. Really, just hopefully take care of my like shoddy digestion. you know, really iffy digestion. Um. that's really kind of just slowly gotten worse over the couple of years. I talked about this two podcas cigar. I believe, with all the international travel bacterial infections I've gotten and stuff, it's just kind of been. Um, like a house of cards. Really, over the last, you know, a couple of years, so really just going to prioritize that. Trainings come back to four days per week and just taking that for what it is and just accepting, really that training is going to be at maintenance for probably through the end of the year and I might make some like you know, neurological adaptation gains or anything like that, but we're not going to be pushing calories high enough for me for really making true hyperchphy, um, progress and just using understanding. That's a trade off for the gut health thing. Um. The upside is physique wise. It's responding really really well, Um, I had a couple new lows, which I dipped into the one eighties, which I'm go, to be completely honest. I didn't feel

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:12

you hate that

[aaron_straker]: 9:12

great about. I do not like it. Uh, to be completely honest, I don't like being under two hundred pounds. Um, but realistically for me to be at like, at this level of lean, I need to be one, ninety two to one ninety, or sorry, like one ninety to like, one, ninety, three, one ninety four. I think I, you know, maybe one ninety five if I, I had this idea of like, What happens if I basically took like the Jeff Albert's approach. I'm goingnna diet for a really long time, but like have multiple diet breaks and see how much muscle mass I can retain right. That might be a like a that. probably not next year. Maybe a two year type of, Um, some some, uh, an experiment type

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:51

Mhm, Mhm, Mhm, Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 9:51

thing to see how much I could retain if we really just kicked it out and did a bunch of refieds and stuff, but I just don't like seeing the one eighties'cause it it makes me start questioning whether I'm you know if I'm how much how much muscle I'm losing type of thing, So it does it. A, admittedly is a bit of that like bigorxia type thing with me. Um. But what I wanted to say is because with my shift in my nutrition periodization in the gut protocol, we just have to bring carbohydrate down right, So carbohydrate comes down. And what do we do to keep calories? The same fat comes up. and historically, I have just really always followed a lower fat diet because I just prefer palaability carbohydrate. Um, and then I don't enjoy a lot of like fatty meat and stuff anyway, so it's really just kind of very conducive for my lifestyle anyway. Excuse me, so now with that kind of shifting fats come up, I'm really kind of like. Okay, what can I do to get all these fats in? like most days it's around like one twenty, my fat, so I'm like putting olive oil on my vegetables and rice at the end of the night And fortunately I found this incredible oliveil. I haven't shaed on the pot guest yet. It's at whole foods. it is like an Italian, um herbs infused olive oil, so it's like a really quality like yellow, super super flavable olive oil. And then they soak soak a bunch of herbs in it too, So it's I mean, it's fantastic. I've never been like a huge olive oil person, but this is absolutely fantastic. It's at whole foods. They also have a spicy one with like chili peppers, which I do enjoy, but has y less utility.

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:26

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 11:27

I would saycause, I've been so oh, not like soaking, but I've been putting like ten to fifteen grams of olive of oil with like my dinner to round and stuff out Brazil nuts, walnuts. Um, I would like to do avocado, but I'm going little foud map because of the digestion right, so I don't want a bunch of Um, fermentable sacriides and stuff that are going to not play nicely with the whole cut protocol thing So fortunate. Unfortunately, no avocados for a little bit, but has been interesting just shifting my diet and then figuring out like Oh shit, I need another twenty grarams of fat and it's nine P. I'm like where can I get this from? Type of deal So ga, see it's ground. Fllaxy've. Been doing some different smoothy type things with vegetables just to get things in, So it is different, but physique wise. my body has responded positively, which has been interesting. Now granite lower carbs come down. You're go to drop some glycogen and that's probably why I've I'm been dipping between, like the down from like the one ninety twos, into the one nineties one eighty nines, but it is still been interesting. Is um, just shifting over has responded positively for for my physique just today, my coach told me he. you're literally ready to step on stage for immense physique show like you need to do it. I'm not going to.

[bryan_boorstein]: 12:43

Yeah, men'sysiquere can be at that like eight percent body fat range, And then

[aaron_straker]: 12:46

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 12:47

to do bodyuilding yearly, Got to just get those hands and glutes, in which is my problem,

[aaron_straker]: 12:52

Yeah, I, I mean to be completely honest. I just I don't like the smell of the competitions Like

[bryan_boorstein]: 12:56

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 12:56

when when Jenny did it and I went, The smell was overwhelming for me,

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:00

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 13:01

so I couldn't imag. It's something I eventually will do, but I just don't want to do it right now. I have zero interest and have a lot going on, but that's kind of been the biggest

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:05

no rush, ma'am

[aaron_straker]: 13:09

update for my week this week. What about some of the other things with you? Like the N one? How? how? pools n one Hq. How is the video demo? anything you can share with us there?

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:18

Yeah, yeah, so that was the last couple of days on Monday and Tuesday this week. I, uh, I spent a little bit of time up at N one with cassum, and uh, on Monday I just went to train with him. It was just kind of like a cool experience to be invited up there. and uh, he was hitting shoulders and arms, so I was like Yeah, I'm doing upper body as well. So um, I did shoulders and arms with him. for anyone that followed my story. I put it all on Uh, on the story that day, so it was like it was a very interesting set upp, to the way that I usually would do like a shoulder arm focusog day, cause he uh started us with. the first circuit had three movements in it. First one was a lateral delt, second one was a front Delt, and the third one was a rear Delt, and we just kind of rotated through them. Uh, we did five sets of each, so it was fifteen sets just of that first sequence, but it increased from like a warm upset on the first set and then it. Basically the last set or two was, you know, within two reps of failure to failure or whatever, So there was like you know one or two hard sets for each movement, but my shoulders were like blown up by the end. that, just because of the volume like, I'm not used to doing fifteen sets of shoulders, even though it was like five lateral five, front five, rear, Um, there was just a lot of blood flowing there.

[aaron_straker]: 14:34

What was a repranges about?

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:36

Yeah, so we pretty much hung out in the six to ten or twelve rep range. Like the earlier warm upsets were like ten or twelve, but they were still super easy. And then, um, maybe like our second to last set. I think I did eight reps a repts, Shi a failure, and then the last set. I think I did seven reps to failure with like three partrcials or something like that, so uh, yeah, mostly like six to ten or twelve repergee, and it wasn't supersted like it was like I go, Then cassum goes, then I go, then cassum goes. So it was like a good, like minute, minute and a half between sets and we just kind of rotated through like that. Um, that was only part A and then we did part B and it was uh, more shoulders. so we did a uh a ye ray. Then we did uh a behind the body cable curl. We did a overhead, uh cable tri of extension. We did an anterior delt press and we did a prone rear delt dumbbell row. So now we were up to like shit. That was three more exercises for shoulders, And then there was one for biceps and one for triceps. Um, and we did three rounds of that one where the first round was a warm up and then there was two work rounds. Um, so that's like a significant amount of volume. That was pretty much all that we did on the program that day, And then I added in a little bit of dumbbell fat, the dumbbell press, and a little bit of uh, lap focused row, so that I could complete my final upper body workout before going in for my little surgery. Um, so I smashed my upper body on Monday and then on Tuesday, I went in, and the point of Tuesday was for me to do some olympic lifting stuff with Uh, the Intt equipment. So part of the deal that cast made with Intt was that when they would give them this free equipment to use at the N one, H, q, and Cass would compose and edit Um, a video essentially promoting the Intt Barbll and bumper plates, So Uh, I came in and did some snatches, some cleans, some poles, some dead lifts. Um, and maybe one other thing, and artyel, I think, and did all that with the bumpers, Uh, dropped a couple of bars. He got a couple of cool shots of like the plates bouncing, and I'm pretty sure that entire like two hours of time I spent is going to get condensed down into like three one second clips that are like shot between something else. you know, But um, but it was a cool experience and I, I really hadn't done any olympic lifting for four plus years, so rusty at first like it felt so off my. My foot workk was awful, but the worst thing was my mobility, like I had not sat in the bottom of like an overhead squat like at rock bottom with weight over my head in so long and I thought it was go to be my shoulders, But it was it was my upper back that felt like really limited and tight. Um, in getting into that position, so I had to essentially warm up for like thirty minutes and it reminded me so much of why I hated Cross or not why I hated cross it, But why I amm, glad that I don't train Cross Foodood anymore, Because I always hated that thirty minute period of time where I felt like I had to warm up just to hi, be able to hit the positions that were required for the day, you know, Um, and it really, that's what it took like I had to do like bandit arms stretches. Overhead, banded stretches like banded hip stretches like you know, Uh, a doctor, an abductor, and like all the different things just to like, rotate my body through these positions and then you know, sit at the bottom with an empty bar bell. sit at the bottom of fifty five pounds. Do a snatch balance. Like all of the different progressions that you go through trying to prepare your body for the loads for the day, and Um, my c n s was shot, dude, Like all I did was snatch ninety five for some triples, and clean one thirty five for some triples, but by the end of the two hours I was like man like Crush City, You know, Um, so on my own, just 'cause I knew it was going to be my last workout before Wednesday's Uh surgery procedure, I ended up adding in some weighted hip extensions and uh some. Dumbbell artyls, and then I did a couple sets of that glue press the glue press machine that he has the Atlanta glue press Is is so rad. it's like a leg press. but it's on a pendulum, so it really uh, hits the glut perfectly And then, for anyone that saw my my story as well, you would have seen Uh using the Atlantis hip extension machine, which is just a monster. This thing is so large and you can adjust so you can adjust the the height both ways so you can adjust how far the pad goes out, but also how far the hit pad comes up, so I was able to adjust it so that I could literally extend my arms fully with a barbll and plates in my hand and it still didn't hit the ground. Um, so that made for like a really cool way to load a hip extension Because at home when I do them, I'm holding dumbbells and they're like clenched to my chest, and like my bicepts are getting sore. just holding them. you know. Um, so this was. this is so much better. I mean, this is like the Cadillac of hip extension machines, and uh, so overall super cool. I'm glad I got to connect with Cas, and uh, kind of begin to to build a relationship with someone that I respect a lot in the industry and happens to be ten fifteen minutes away from me, which is really just a huge stroke of luck.

[aaron_straker]: 20:02

Yeah, is the gym in like the Boulder area?

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:04

Yeah, it's actually in gun barrel, so it's between Boulder and Longmont.

[aaron_straker]: 20:08

Okay, I know decor that is. that's really really cool. Um, did he say anything about when they plan on doing any um, seminars or anything like that? Once they're up,

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:19

Yeah, they're already sold out the October, November and December.

[aaron_straker]: 20:22

Are you shooting me?

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:23

No, So there's a seminar The five days, October, ninth or fourteenth, coming up, and that sold out. There's one in November that sold out and December sold out. So he said those

[aaron_straker]: 20:33

I have been looking for them and man, maybe they're just not having any, and I have no idea how these have just snuck under my nose. I've been literally

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:39

Rachel Gregory just hit me up and said she's coming to the one in October,

[aaron_straker]: 20:40

waiting for

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:43

So somehow she knew about it. Maybe you need to get on their email list.

[aaron_straker]: 20:47

so of a bitch. I'm so pissed right now.

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:53

Yeah, maybe they'll open up some more spots. I don't know. Um,

[aaron_straker]: 20:56

Okay.

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:57

so yeah, that was. that was super cool. That was. uh, all at like the tail end of of what has been going on with me the last two weeks, Because we didn't really get a update with Uh, having zach and Josh on last week, but uh, my diet ended. I think I alluded to that the week before that, or even in the podcast with Joshan zac. The diet's over. Um. I had my my photo shoot on Sunday the twenty second of September, I believe Um, and I think it went really well. I actually just got all the photos back and put a few of them up on my story, Uh late last night, So overall, like I I could, I couldn't be happier with the way that the peaking process went. Uh, I think that it was better than the prior year. and then when you look at the the pictures comparing similar poses from two thousand twenty to now, I think you see significant difference and I, I don't know that you. It's necessarily a wonder. one. Uh, just because I think I did peak slightly better this time, but I think that the differences are significant enough that that it's obvious either way, and and to be completely honest, like, I think the changes were more significant than I even hoped for. Uh, at least in my back picture like the back one, I remember looking at the first backack picture that I took last year and being like Wow, That's pretty solid. like my back and shoulders look good. And then I look at the one this year and I'm like Oh, the one last year was awful, like my delts had no development and like there's no definition in my, my Rom, boyoys and terries and it's just nuts,

[aaron_straker]: 22:37

What the we? How? What was your weight difference between the two photos?

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:40

So my low. The lowest I ever got was three pounds lower this year, but on the actual day of the shot I was one pound lower than where I was last year.

[aaron_straker]: 22:51

Okay, Yeah, I mean the photos. Yeah, I mean, you got to put them up on a post because they're obviously gone in the story or whatever,

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:57

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 22:57

maybe just the back one comparing them. But yeah, I. I was very very shocked at the difference it was. It seemed very obvious to me just drastic improvement in that year. So that's really really cool.

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:08

yeah, yeah. it. it's nuts. to be honest. I think it's more improvement than I made the prior year or like the year before that. so uh, so yeah, there's there' Something to. I guess the way I've been training and the the, the execution of the movements and all these like crazy things that we're talking about on here that seems so nuanced and and sometimes I even think they're silly. you know, like like Helms comes on and he's like Dude, If're squatting and you're going down, you're coming back off like your qua are working. Um, but like that's how I squatted forever and nothing ever happened and then I start squatting with this other type approach, and not to say that that Helms is wrong in his assessment, because he knows a lot more than I do. But for me there is something too squatting this way and I wouldn't be surprised if that carried over to other people.

[aaron_straker]: 23:51

I would agree with that. I. I mean same thing. I. I think maybe it's a little bit different because we have that per We. We were those people who squatted all the time, and like our legs just dit our quads. I guess I should say what we really

[bryan_boorstein]: 24:03

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 24:04

cared about just didn't get the stimulus. Um, or like a subjective stimulus. I guess you should say, and since we've switched like my legs look much better than they used to. Same with yours. Um, we. I'm squatting significantly less weight less load. I think it. it may be just a little bit individualized. I suppose

[bryan_boorstein]: 24:22

For sure. Yeah, but I mean there's nothing like you can't go wrong with squatting in a manner that gets more ankle and neflection. I mean you, just if you prioritize that and the way that you're squatting, it's gonna, it's going to help. And then I mean, I guess it's my back that we were talking about. So it's it's crazy that I just somehow move that into into quads. But because I'm always thinking about quads, but uh, but even in the way that I'm trading my back, I mean, like the things I've done this year that have been different are that I've added partials in for the last like four months. I've been doing partials on the last set of of almost every back movement that I do now, and uh, and I stopped using momentum in my back movements. I literally just am static the entire time and and I know how to grind through reraps. Like. I actually think it was funny watching you do your your row on your story yesterday because you didn't actually have a repid. slow down, but you could tell that it was getting really hard you know, and uh, I finally like got that skill of like learning how to to grind through like a back wrap. And and somehow I feel like that's had a positive impact too. I don't know.

[aaron_straker]: 25:27

yeah, I mean, especially because they' that shortened overload

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:31

Yep, yep,

[aaron_straker]: 25:31

position with back G. if you don't get it for a lot of people, at least if you' not if it's not moving well in the beginning from like a velocity standpoint you're probably not going to make that rap. But cause you just never pulling quite. I't want to say hard, but just, I guess it's just

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:47

you just get stuck at it with your mechanical advantage. Um, lessons. as

[aaron_straker]: 25:47

different is what I'm saying.

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:51

you get higher up, it's just you just get stuck. You know to say you get there and you're like either I use momentum or I'm just not making the rep.

[aaron_straker]: 25:59

Yeah, y

[bryan_boorstein]: 26:00

Um, so yeah, since the diet ended, I, uh, have eaten a lot of food in the last week, and uh, I know my my actual body weight scale number isn't reflective of of what my body weight would be right now if I stopped eating like a donkey, But um, but I waited in at one eighty nine this morning, so that's about five pounds up in a week. Um, so I'm pretty sure once I dial that back, I'll lose a few pounds there. but uh, but I definitely have gained a nice two or three pounds just in this last week. Um, and I feel good. I'm enjoying food again. I've baked four times and uh, and I've eaten cheese, steak and pizza and french fries and and all the things that I wanted, and I'm approaching that point now where I'm like. I think I'm good like I've I've gotten all the the things out of my system that I really wanted to, and I think I'm ready to to revert back into my off Seaon satiety tracking protocol protein grams, body weight and subjective satiety, Um, and just kind of tracking those on a daily basis, and uh, and going from there, Um, and then the last thing that I had to talk about was Uh, I also had an cool opportunity last week to go up to Fort Collins and train with Uh, Albero Unas, and Brian Minor, and uh. The point of going up there was to train with them and connect, of course, but it was also to use their expert eye as professional natural bodyuilders to kind of give me a realistic assessment in person and be like, Yeah, here's how much further you would need to go. Uh, if you wanted to like, be really competitive on stage, and uh, and they both kind of agreed that it's pretty much the low one seventies, which is which is about what I figured. When I went up there that day, it was a couple of days after my photo shoot, so I had already been, you know, carbing up and stuff. so I went up there with a morning way in of one eighty four point eight, like one eighty five, something like that. And uh, they thought that I had like at least twelve pounds to go. And then Noonia said that, maybe even on like the lower end, I might see like a one, sixty nine point six or something, but he's like that would be before you know your peak week where you car bop

[aaron_straker]: 28:07

pe week

[bryan_boorstein]: 28:07

andies like you would stand on stage somewhere in the like low one seventies. So um, that's about what I thought, and it's also a bit further than I want to go. I mean it. Maybe it's because I'm I'm on the the Ed de tailent of a diet and I just kind of I like fuck like I'm just done with this mentally, you know, but um, getting to one eighty two wasn't what I would say, was like, really really hard, but it wasn't like a walk in the park either, And so I know, getting from one eighty two to one seventy two, or even one seventy or whatever it is like, it's gonna be really really hard and I I am not sure if my life can accommodate that right now. Um, So something for me to think about over the course of the next few months as I eat more food, And then maybe I can get myself back in the mindset? What? Uh, what Brian proposed? Because they both Albero and and Brian both were like You know from the front, and like front lat spread like you look pretty good. Like not, You're not stage ready, but like you look pretty good. You have quad separation. Whatever. There's nothing going on in my ham strings in Glus, like it. It's partially because I don't know how to pose them, Which is which is something that would need work. But like you, you really have to. I have to get into like a stretched position like the bottom of an ry. l. For you to see definition in my hams strings, And that's not like what I should. I. I should be able. I need to be lean enough that I have definition back there without having to go into a complete um stretch position like that. So Bryan's suggestion was, uh, to do a hamstering and glued specialization cycle for the majority of the next year. Um,

[aaron_straker]: 29:53

times fun.

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:54

yeah, um. Well, the the one thing I mentioned to him though was that Uh, my hams strings are getting sore from like the minimal amount of work that I'm doing right now, so I'm doing like eight to ten sets a week for hams strings, which isn't a lot. Uh, actually, maybe it's like eight sets 'cause I have a little that I put on hamsting day that's actually gluts. So, um, so I'm probably doing like eat sets a week of hams strings. So I was like, What am I supposed to do Like if I have a session of four sets of hams strings that it gets me sore, and then four days later I do four more sets of hamstrings that gets me sore. Like, how do I increase hamstring volume? And he brought up something that I actually hadn't considered, but makes a ton of sense, which is that if you don't actually change your hamstring volume, but you decrease volume elsewhere, the hams strings will receive more of the recovery currency and so they'll grow and recover faster. And then I might actually find that I can add more volume to the hams strings by backing off on the other stuff, because my body can just recover a little bit better, so that's obviously something that I could consider. Um, and then noony', brought up that he spent this whole year. Um, basically not going above what would be considered like maintenance volume for his quads because he's put a lot of that into his shoulders, Uh in arms, and he said his Cths still grew. So he's like You may just find that like even when you reduce volume on your strong body parts, they just keep growing. And and you don't even need to worry about them. Like, just do enough so that they're they're not shrinking and and they'll take care of themselves. You know,

[aaron_straker]: 31:37

Another part of it too, could be. I mean the deficit right, obviously

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:40

yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 31:40

reduced recovery capacity.

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:42

yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 31:42

When calories come back up, you have more cover

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:44

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 31:44

capacity. especially then, coupled with reducing volumes and other places, now you're freeing a more recovery capacity for the hamstrings. You might even be able to increase volume there and remain relatively same. Mos are now

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:56

yeah, no, that's actually a really good point, too. I hadn't really thought of that either. That's so. I definitely need to keep that in mind. but um, essentially my objective here is to get through my strength cycle without trying to think about prioritizing my hams strings. And just you know, get out of the hypertphy mindset for four to eight weeks or whatever it is, And then when I jump back into a dedicated hpererphry training probably designs some sort of cycle that is going to prioritize hamshings, and and gluts kind of along with it. Um.

[aaron_straker]: 32:29

Mhm.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:30

So

[aaron_straker]: 32:31

and I think's I mean with obviously your dead, not dead love cycle, Your strengths. Youre going to be deadlifting. It's hard to not hi your glus and hams strings. when you're deadlifting,

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:40

for sure, yeah, I mean, I'm definitely not going to let them shrink. Uh, and I have r d l, So I've dead lifts on one day. I have ry ls on another day and then I've legg curls on another day, So there's like good hampshs are going to get hit three times a week Is just going to be with a little bit lower volume than I'm that. I'm used to doing.

[aaron_straker]: 32:55

Mhm.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:55

Um. so yeah, all that is cool. Um, I probably won't be getting on stage any time soon, which is also pretty cool and uh, overall like. I'm just kind of excited to to get into the strength cycle and start eating food or continuing food. and uh and move along from there.

[aaron_straker]: 33:16

Question for you,

[bryan_boorstein]: 33:16

Yep,

[aaron_straker]: 33:17

where do you anticipate and you can tell me. Obviously, if you have zero connection to it, where your body weight is going to kind of shake out where you really want to go Or you just going to just don't really care.

[bryan_boorstein]: 33:31

it's a good question and I do care. Um. Another suggestion that Brian had when I was up there with them was he was like. I think if you looked to compete in Uh, two thousand twenty three, he's like you could literally spend this next year and you could just like go up to the load to mid one nineties, and then do a quick mini cut back down to the mid oned eighties, And then he's like go back up to the lowad to mid oned nineties Min, cut back down to the mid one eighties. Um, and that was kind of his suggestion, because he was like, Then you can more or less start your diet like around one ninety, instead of starting it around two hundred. and he's like that one seventy number is going to be a lot less daunting if you started at one ninety, then if you started at two hundred, which is is a great point. I mean, I think you know to reference what you said earlier with Jeff Alberts, with the reason he takes these year long diets with all these diet breaks is because he stands on stage at one seventy two, but starts at two oh five or something like that. So who's got thirty three pounds to go, Even if he's losing a pound a week? That's thirty three weeks. But then you got a couple of diet breaks in there. You have a couple of weeks where you're losing only half a pound because you're almost in contest shape, and before you know it, there's a year you know. Um, so I think for me if I could make it a six to eight month diet and make it twenty to twenty two pounds instead of thirty two pounds. I think that that's a good place to be, but, but again, like I'm so far removed mentally from even like considering that that I think my main objective right now is just not to allow my body weight to get above. I would say one ninety five would be my cut off. Like if I start seeing a morning way in at like one, ninety three, one ninety four, creeping up to one ninety five. Then maybe that's assign to minica, or that I'm going too quickly or whatever, Um, but as as a reminder to anyone that you know listened to the podcast last year, and leading up to my diet this year I was able to utilize my satiety tracking method to gain a third of a pound a week, so essentially one point three pounds a month over eight months. That was what I did my off season last year, And so I gained about twelve, thirteen, fourteen pounds. Something like that over eight months, and that would be kind of along the lines of what I'd like to do this time like I'd love to enjoy the foods, and he be, you know, allow myself to to slowly creep up over over maintenance a little bit, but not like I've been doing this last week where I'm probably eating. you know, five thousand calories a day or something like that,

[aaron_straker]: 36:06

Yeah, yeah, it's something that I kind of have thought about in the past, Have always been so quick to like diets over. I got lean. Get it. Now I want more muscle type of thing, and then you know in three months all that it's hard work diing to look cool and finally have that ki one. It's like you're back to being in thirteen percent body fat.

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:28

Like Fck up fat again,

[aaron_straker]: 36:29

Yeah, and and the? the? But The part of it that's kind of. I'm feeling a little bit different. Dis go around is like I don't. even. I'm not even confident that I'm putting on any more muscle. Really, it's just like we know. It's such a slow process now of that. Like last year I went from like one ninety six up to two, oh seven point five, so I put on like eleven and a half pounds. How much of that do we realistically think is muscle?

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:53

maybe a pound.

[aaron_straker]: 36:55

exactly?

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:55

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 36:57

So I spent eight months uncomfortably eating, you know, up to forty, some, forty, forty five hundred calories per day over eight months To maybe put on

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:08

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 37:09

a pound of muscle that I hopefully kept when I re when

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:14

right, which, maybe,

[aaron_straker]: 37:15

I got back lean again, which maybe I

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:16

yeah, yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 37:17

didn't realistically. Maybe if let's say, let's say maybe a point four of that pound I think is probably at the top end. Realistically. I'm just like I don't know if that's worth it to me right now. You know to go through like, Oh, okay, like, I don't really look so good anymore. I'm not really like. I don't feel like great about myself. Um, not that I feel bad, but like, I mean, Let's be clear. You feel probably the coolest one yearre, leaner. Um, except like when I get really big, like back when I was like, Oh, like over like over two twenty. I, I really like that

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:50

that's so funny,

[aaron_straker]: 37:51

because I just liked being large, but everyone else did not

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:53

Dud.

[aaron_straker]: 37:54

like it. Jenny hated it.

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:55

I like being smaller like I. actually, I enjoy the feeling of being in the one eighties more than I enjoy the feeling of being two hundred. like I just feel like on my frame, I walk around almost like I'm likembing and' heavy, and I'm like my footsteps are heavy. you know, and when I'm at like in the mid eighties, I just feel like lighter and and like freer. I almost. It's hard to describe to the point that like I, I'm waiting on my blood work to get back, but it almost wouldn't surprise me if my blood work at one eighty three when I got it tested, or one eighty four or whatever I was is better than it. What was it? Two hundred pounds? Just because I feel better like it's it's like. Aside from the fact that I just want to eat more foods and not be so restrictive like all the rest of my, my signaling is better at a lower body weight.

[aaron_straker]: 38:46

I would probably agree with that subjectively. Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree when I was over a hundred, you know, kilos up in the two twenties. my blood work probably is not very good. Actually, I know it wasn't good because when I, I got some blood work done, Um it. it. ironically, Thyroid wasn't really, Uh, great. Um, even though I was obviously eating so much food, That's when I first found out about my whole, the whole blood glucose. I mean, we're talking back in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen now, But that's when I first had that first, kind, of you know, um for into that and learning about it and I was cool. I'm going to test mine and then I was like, Oh shit, this is bad.

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:19

Well, you were

[aaron_straker]: 39:20

Um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:20

really big, though, I mean me at two hundred, I feel like I'm still like fifteen percent body fat.

[aaron_straker]: 39:25

yeah, I

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:25

It's

[aaron_straker]: 39:26

was probably creeping and I was definitely creeping into the high one. one. teens, Um, I still have all those photos.

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:30

yeah, I mean it's not that far apart. Like Yeah, it's just interesting though, because like you, you usually hear that people you know if you're in the fifteen to twenty percent body fat range, that's pretty much healthy range. Less's normal. It's it' healthy. Um,

[aaron_straker]: 39:40

Normal. Yeah, Mhm.

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:43

and then you hear you know, as you get down into like the ten percent or the single digits, like I would say, when I got my blood worked on just now is probably nine or ten percent body fat. Something like that, Like you would think that blood would would be worse in that state. but I don't know. I mean, I guess we just need to see it come back and then well know more.

[aaron_straker]: 40:05

From my understanding, it's when you get like

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:07

really.

[aaron_straker]: 40:08

ten can ten can be pretty optimal health outcomes, especially testosterone levels and stuff like that. So long as calories are restored.

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:17

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 40:18

Um, once you get into your sevens and sixes and stuff, you're going to negatively impact

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:22

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 40:23

hormones, and and and healther, or just too lean for you know, day to day life, but I think that nine to ten percent Um, from a pure, you know physiological standpoint not bringing in food psychology, any of that sort of thing from a pure, like body number thing, I um, from my understanding, from what I have read on it from a pure hormones health standpoint need, there should be no negative um consequences at those levels of body fat for a. Male, you know

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:48

so

[aaron_straker]: 40:49

who's O, obviously active and everything like that.

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:51

you wouldn't think that just because I've been in a deficit for four and a half months that that you would see some decline inostroone and other hormones? Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 41:01

No one hundred percent. but let's say like, like, like me right now right, I'm I've I did my deficit, for you know, four four months and change, Um, and calories got down to like twenty four hundred on my high days. Now my calories are at thirty two hundred on my high days. I'm still the exact same weight. Um, So it it's It's a slower process, but let's say like your blood work, you know, obviously like last week. Let's say you go through the recovery diet. You're super super diligent to not you know. Put on any. Let's say you're not having cheese steaks and pizza. and and that sort of thing, and it's now five months down the road and you're eating thirty, three, thirty four hundred calories a day, and your body weights, you know, within a pound or so, and you're still approximately ten percent body

[bryan_boorstein]: 41:46

then it would be better,

[aaron_straker]: 41:46

fat that Brian. Those labs

[bryan_boorstein]: 41:48

Got

[aaron_straker]: 41:49

should be pretty much pretty pretty, uh, pretty good across the board.

[bryan_boorstein]: 41:52

well. I'm really excited to see how it is at the end of my diet in the depleted state. You know before I began refting back up and all that stuff, so we'll see how much worse if it is even worse, or whether the the fact that I feel better maybe has some impact on what my hormones show as well. But I should be getting that back any day now, so I'm sure that we can talk about it next week.

[aaron_straker]: 42:15

Yeah, yeah, I should. Um. the last thing for me, Uh, today was uh, the end of the Ab training

[bryan_boorstein]: 42:21

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 42:21

experiment. Um, so it took me a couple of extra weeks. I. I put them my into grandmpst yesterday because the first like two to three weeks, I was just having a hard time finding the movements I wanted to do. I couldn't find the Ab wheel at the gym and then I found it type of deal. So it was a couple of weeks until I actually started training them consistently. I think there's been some benefit, Um. I know I. I'm fortunate that my comparisons were pretty close. I was one pound exactly within Um of of July eighth when I, when I started it or when I took those first pictures, and I've been training them like hard. probably the much harder than I have in. you know, Ma majority of my entire training career and I've purposely selected movements that I would like you know, take them through flection and extension under load, right, like you would trade any other muscles. So it's not like I was doing scissor cakes and butterfly bullshit and things like that that people do, and they train their abs. Um, and I think I saw there was some some some positive benefit there. um, uh,

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:21

I would agree. I actually think Yours. Yearss, did look like you had some change, and I love that you had the similar or same body weight comparisons as well, because my, my experiment. for many reasons, Given the different body ways, the fact that I was in a deficit. There are just a number of extenuating circumstances that may have contributed to to the way that I felt underwhelmed by the experiment, but I think that yours, at least for you, as in an end of one, provides some some good information and and has shown positive benefits. For sure,

[aaron_straker]: 43:56

yeah, so ultimately, um, my conclusion from is I'm going to continue training them. Probably uh one exercise either on my pull day or my puschet or my upper body day, like it is now and then I'll do basically t between, basically, uh, four to let me see six times, S or no, three, four to six sets per week, Um, basically a to failure. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:17

Yeaht,

[aaron_straker]: 44:21

the one thing someone didate common was a gol. If I'm doing like heavy, dead lifts and stuff like that in squats, I should I, and I mean it depends. Maybe the thing that kind of came to mind and it's kind of sparked from when Um Cassum commented on that post

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:36

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 44:36

you had when you're doing like squats and dead lifts. It's like an isommetric

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:40

Yep, exactly.

[aaron_straker]: 44:41

contraction through the movement. You're not taking the musculure through flection and extension under load. So it's like If you always, if they like, trained your biceps by like holding from a pulo bar

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:52

Mhm. Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 44:52

or something like that. You know what I mean? It's they're getting low, but they're not getting that full range of motion, you knowction, and extension.

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:59

it's the length and position and the contractive position and all of the metabolites that accumulate through that process, and then getting out of the length and position And and yeah, there's all you. you. You have to have dynamic movement to get full hperchphy. So uh, doing a squaty deadlift would be like the equivalent of doing a plank, which like will increase

[aaron_straker]: 45:18

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:18

your course stability and your strength output. But you wouldn't expect to get abs from doing planks

[aaron_straker]: 45:25

yeah, or like Htphry of your abs, which is ultimately. the goal right.

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:27

right right right, right. yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 45:29

I want to make them bigger.

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:31

yeah, if you

[aaron_straker]: 45:32

Y.

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:32

just want them to be strong, there's tons of things you can do like dead leftft and squat and use them functionally, but um, like much of hypereterry work, it's not super functional. I mean, I don't know too many times that that you're going to do like a perfectly flection curl, But you

[aaron_straker]: 45:47

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:48

do need to use your abs dynamically to like, get up off the floor and things like that, so so they do get used. Um, but they get used a lot in like a deadlift in the same way. so Um. Turkish get ups another another way. That's kind of like an isometric way, but very functional. Uh, which I would say would contribute more to strength than aesthetics. Um, even though you're moving dynamically through the movement so Um. exercise selection is important as it is in anything.

[aaron_straker]: 46:14

yeah, so I mean that's kind of my wrap up. Yes, I will continue training them, but it's it's for me. it's movements right. So like the Ab. the Ab wheel. Great, Um, pulling my. The idea you gave me of lifting my knees

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:26

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 46:27

up on the eccentric was fantastic because it took my reps from like twenty two down to like twelve

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:32

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 46:33

Because it's so much harder.

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:34

it's so hard. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 46:35

Yeah, um, so that one was really great. Obviously, I'm still working on mastering the cable crunch, which is something I avoided for literally like sixteen years because I couldn't fuck and do it right. Um, that one's been fun. One thing. I'm the last thing I want to find is like a leg up under lowad type one. I have some ideas, but I want to find something in that and then those will basically be with three that I rotate and then I'm basically good from there.

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:59

I think Uh, like the hanging knees with a dumbbell between your feet is dope and then uh, using the monkey feeat would be like a really good use of that silly piece of equipment that

[aaron_straker]: 47:11

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:11

that that company came up with for for hanging new

[aaron_straker]: 47:14

W

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:15

raass. I think would be awesome.

[aaron_straker]: 47:16

one. I see people do. Um, that it's much more applicable in like a cross fit style gym Is they'll take like your your rack right. They'll move the jay hooks to the ground or like the last hole, and then put a band around the Jay

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:28

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 47:28

hooks and then you stick your feet between like you know the opening in the

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:32

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 47:32

band and do like single leg,

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:34

Oh, interesting. yeah.

[aaron_straker]: 47:34

um leg raises, and then you have the band tension.

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:36

yeah. yeah.

[aaron_straker]: 47:37

Um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:38

it's

[aaron_straker]: 47:38

so I have done

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:39

It's going to be a shortened range overload movement anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 47:42

exactly. Yeah, so that's like a another one. Um, but yeah, those kind of cut would I think cover my basics? Everything I did was really kind of mid core and upper in this one and nothing really lower. Uh, I think then that I'll get you some hipflexer type stuff too, which

[bryan_boorstein]: 47:56

I think roll outs are going to be lower. I mean a lot of

[aaron_straker]: 48:01

they never felt that way too much to me. Um, and then when I would get sore, it was still kind of that mid mid position.

[bryan_boorstein]: 48:09

I get that deep soreness of no, that like goes below my belly button.

[aaron_straker]: 48:15

Yeah, the roll out. they're They're narly, but it was a cool experiment. I, uh, ultimately. I' happy, kind of with the results. Um, and I change my train philosophy. Be of it cool. I love learning something new.

[bryan_boorstein]: 48:25

Yeah, cool. well, I haven't trained abs a single time since I stopped my experiment. It's been over a month now and uh and I. I do think I am going to include them again, though I've just been kind of dilly daddling and being like fucking hate ads. I don't want to train these. Um, but I do think I'm goingnna add them in and I think it'll be easier because itsp. I'm jumping into the streng cycle right, which is literally three days a week, and I haven't trained three days a week in a couple of years now. But I remember the last time I did three days a week. I was kind of just itching to find stuff to do on the in between days. Like you know, I didn't want to do things that would detract from the strength work I was doing because I knew I needed a recovery. Um, but back in those days it was like you know, I'll just do some intervals on the rower or like something like that. I feel like now it would be a great time to be like. Okay, I have like a Tuesday and Thursday with no training. I'll just do some like calves and abs, and it's not going to affect the shit that happens around it.

[aaron_straker]: 49:23

Yeah, that would be easy. I mean that's five minutes. you know. it's pretty

[bryan_boorstein]: 49:26

Yeah, exactly cool. Well, that's uh. I know we both got a bounce here. Uh,

[aaron_straker]: 49:26

simple.

[bryan_boorstein]: 49:31

but uh, I think that was a solid, a solid recap on our last two weeks.

[aaron_straker]: 49:35

Yep. so as always, Gus. thanks for listening. If any questions about any future episodes, please set in the Brina myself will include some good ones. Give you some great contact, specific nuance answers. And if you could leave us Re viewew, we would appreciate it. So that guy, we will talk to you next week.