November Life / Training Updates | #ETP44

[aaron_straker]: 0:31

Happy Tuesday, guys, welcome back to another episode of each train. Prosper Today is my first week officially living in my new air. quotes home of Scottsdale, Arizona, where I will be for the next four months, and uh skipping winter again. This makes a full decade of skipping winners for me. Uh, so kind of funny, but Brian and I are going to get into some updates we have, and then a theme for today's episode is going to be on choosing the right gym and just some thoughts and values and things that have shifted over the years for myself. I'm sure Brian has lots of input there as well as a prior jim. owner. Um, we're going to get into, but before we jump jump into our updates. we want to kind of push something out to the podcast. The listeners. So for the past uh, almost year it'll be a year next month. Um, when Brian and I started each train prosper, I have been editing the videos and podcast myself, and of kind of just reaching a point in time where Uh, from a bandwidth standpoint it is just not in my best interest to be doing myself. So Brian and I were talking about. Okay, it's time to outsource someone and Brian had this great idea. like Hey, let's maybe ask the listeners if anyone who listens to the podcast is like a video editor or a podcast editor. Uh, if you are in, are potentially interested in taking over some of the heavy lifting of the video editing. Uh, Providing the Utub baset and stuff like that, I reach out to Briryan or myself, Un Instram is probably the easiest. Our Ingram handles are both in the description and we can go from there so now with some of that Uh, business administration stuff out of the way, Brian. what's going on?

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:05

First, I just want to know what the weather is like in Scots sall,

[aaron_straker]: 2:07

It's still fucking hot here. I was kind of blind sideighted by it when we

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:10

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 2:10

drove in. I was super sweaty. Uh, and when we left the Oh man, I can't even remember where we were at Arizona when we woke up. It was so sorry that the day before we got in, it was still. When we woke up and went to get breakfast, it was in the teens right and then that afternoon we roll in and it's like eighty four degrees and I have my pants on it and I'm

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:28

oh man,

[aaron_straker]: 2:29

like dumping sweat in the car and stuff, and I'll like this fock man, but yeah, it's chilly in the mornings. Like when I left to go to the gym this morning At like eight. it was in the fifties still, but it'll get to the like mid eighties by

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:42

Mm.

[aaron_straker]: 2:43

like one two. I think that is going to be changing a little bit and it'll be like midn, high seventies. I could be making that up, but I do not think it's going to be like mid eighties. Still like all winter. I think you're just kind of catching the tail end of that.

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:58

I think even in the winter, though, like your nights probably aren't going to get much below like fifty or fifty five or whatever.

[aaron_straker]: 3:04

I was talking to Um Jeremia, right, you know, Germ.

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:06

Yep. yup.

[aaron_straker]: 3:06

I' been on spot Cas a couple of times, so he's here, which I'm excited for, because him and I will work out and hang out a little bit among with. like, I have a handful of clients here, which trying to get to meet in person too, which is absolutely fantastic and he was saying it will. Even. it might even get until like the forties at night,

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:21

Oh, wow, okay,

[aaron_straker]: 3:21

sometimes in the winter. Yeah, so that's kind of cool. It's like still nice, sunny. Yeah, but it'll It'll get a little chilly. kind of like San

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:24

desert life. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 3:28

Diego, Was you know outside that heat of of summer like it. It' still be pants. you know, like a

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:33

yep.

[aaron_straker]: 3:34

you, a long sleeve shirt or something like that.

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:36

y cool. I. well, I have six updates again. Seems to be like I'm taking half the episodes now with my updates, but Um, instead of me just rambling them off, you know if you have any uh, thoughts or input or whatever you know, raise your hand or whatever. and and ill pass it over to you so I'm not just rambling

[aaron_straker]: 3:51

We do.

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:51

Um, cool. So I spent the uh, the weekend and end of talent of last week in Santa Barbara, Uh, which was cool. It was actually our very first travel with both kids on an airplane. so we've done a number of like long trips. We drove to Wisconsin and we drove to Park City. Um. we've done a bunch of driving with them, but we have never uh. flown so everything was going great. Um. we were approaching Santa Barbara, Is a two hour flight. It was beautiful. We got about three hundred feet above the ground and immediately they pulled back up, and we fly into l. A. because apparently there was this just immense fog covering the ground, Um. Which I later realized,'cause I, when you're above the clouds, you don't realize what's going on below the clouds. So the fog essentially as it looks like from an airplane, just means that the clouds are like on the ground. That's what I think. I now perceive, Fogz, and I don't know if I ever thought of it that way before. It's just when the clouds are on the ground, because literally what happened was we were going through the clouds and I could see the ground beneath us, but we were still in the clouds and then they pulled back up, so, um, so that's fog in my mind now and we got into l. A, you know an hour later than we were supposed to land in Santa Barbara, and we had to wait an hour for a bus and then we had take a bus up to Santa Barbara, and like all things considered, it was about as awful as you could expect for your first trip with two kids. and uh, beyond that everything went fine like uh, the kids were great the whole weekend. The flight back did not have the same issues as the flight in Um. and, and I would say overall, like I give after the initial after the initial night, Um, getting diverted to l. A. I give the trip like at eight point five the kids were great. They did awesome with their babysitter. Um, we had a good time at the wedding. I, uh, I drank both nights, so I think I had four drinks the first night, and for the second night something like that, which is kind of a big number for me. and uh, it was accompanied by all of the the five course. You know, wedding prehearsal dinner and post rehearsal dinners and wedding dinners and all these things. And um, you know my nutrition fell off track again after finally getting it back on track. So, um, it is what it is and back on the horseman, not too worried about it. You know body weight creeps up. It's off season. you know, the calories go to good use, which kind of takes me into my next section, which is, I am. Uh. back in my strength cycle, I had to do a session on Friday in Santa Barbara, which was weird. like I, I didn't bring all my stuff. I didn't bring my old shoes. I decided like I was just going to bring my straps in my belt because those things are things that I can uh take relatively easily in my suitcase, So uh, I did that. I squatted. I. I did my r d. ls, and stuff, Um, Last week was a deadlift deload week for me and I, I basically took that out across all hip hinges, so I did my deadlifts. Um, I didn't do a topset. I just did doubles on Monday and then on Friday, I lowered down my r d l. Volume by half. so I did half the volume I usually do, and then I cut the weight by forty pounds, Um from intended weight, which would have been maybe ten or twelve percent or something along those lines, so it wasn't a huge cut, but I think the big cut was the volume. so two sets instead of four. Um definitely makes a difference in recovery. Uh, the workout was okay on Friday, like it is what it is when you travel. The real dagger of the situation is that I have these rogue leather straps that I've had for ten years since Cross at P. B, and they were like broken in so nice the leather was so soft and of of course I left them in Santa Barbara. So Um, it was just an awful bummer and I, I couldn't. I. I honestly couldn't be more bummed about losing something as as you know, seemingly trivial as straps, but like they're just so meaningful to me at the same time, Um, let's see what else so into my new. Uh, strength cycle this week or the new, the new week, the microcycle, Um, I think my deadlift deload worked exactly as I wanted it to. So last week as I was trying to build up, you know, everything felt heavy and I had no explosiveness. This week. everything felt great like my back spots felt strong. And then as I moved into the deadlifts, I hit a what felt like a pretty easy four sixty, single. Um. The camera angle was weird where I filmed it, so I couldn't quite tell if I had a little bit of back fluction like I usually do when ilift. But, uh, from the perspective that I was looking at, I actually feel really really good about the lift and it felt really good and really clean. so um, it just kind of reminds me again. You know how important that fitness fatigue spectrum is, which I talked about last week, but the the fatigue effect of a heavy deadlift is so large that just taking that one week and you know, continuing to train normal and everything else, but just not doing the dead lifts and the hip hinges, Uh, at such a high level, Really, you know, amplified my recovery. So so that's really cool and I'm really glad that I realized that and can kind of implement that into cycles going forward to

[aaron_straker]: 9:02

Yeah, it's pretty cool with. like all that information we we got from my when we have the D Ds. guyes on. And just

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:08

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 9:08

knowing when you're doing like strength work like grinding through those wraps. you know, and like just trying to hold it together week to week really is just not the approach to take.

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:19

Yeah, no,

[aaron_straker]: 9:19

So it's cool that you're You're literally implementing that with those changes and stuff.

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:23

yeah, I barely have any reps. That have a slow concentric speed at all. I mean, that's kind of like my point to terminate my work for the day is when I feel like the weights that I'm using and I'm getting like a concentric slow on my target rep. I'm like, Oh, well, that's too many sets. Or you know, if I don't have a slow, then okay, I'll either increase, wait next week or I can add sets. So an example there is like on the the flat Dubell press that I'm doing, you know with the new kind of like cassum style where the elbows stay in. Uh, because it's a relatively new movement pattern for me, You know, you're getting some of those neural adaptations pretty quickly, too. But the first week I did those, I used the eighty fives and I only did four sets of five, because on the fourth set of five I, I got some slow, uh, slow rap on the final reapon. I was like Okay, That's enough right Well now, like week five of the program, I did seven sets yesterday, and instead of sets of five that I was doing in the first week it went seven, seven, six, six, six, six, six. So, um, that's a ton of raraps and a ton of volume increased. I would have already gone up to the nineties if I had nineties, but every like both, at the Crossit gym and at home my dumbbells jump from eighty five to a hundred, so I can't seem to find the the nineties and ninety fives anywhere that I that I trained. so, Um, definitely something I'll have to look for going forward. Um, let's see, I have another update. So on the tale of last week, Uh, we were talking about my vasectomy and how it seemed like it didn't work and and I was all bummed about it, so I talked to the doctor finally, and they told me that it is extremely normal for you to not be shooting blanks. Uh, in your first, your first go at getting tested, they said, For some people it takes three to six months. Yes, Yes, see some input.

[aaron_straker]: 11:09

No, but like questions. But like when you are doing your vsectomy like consultation.

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:15

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 11:16

Do they tell you these things or they like honey Dick? You're like No, you sniap your good. you, just you know, yellow

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:17

No, dude,

[aaron_straker]: 11:20

and you can just whatever, then then they'

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:23

Yeah, that's

[aaron_straker]: 11:23

like. Oh, just kidding. It might be six months, so you still need to you know, monitor your wife' cycle and all this stuff.

[bryan_boorstein]: 11:30

so. here's what they told me. this is. This is literally the entire conversation we had before they go. Most people are pretty much back to normal. as far as pain goes in five to ten days. you know, some are a little longer, somewhere a little shorter. and then they said, Uh, Well, have you do a four week? you know seam, an assessment to determine if you're if you're shooting blanks at this point or whatever? Um, some people are, Uh, or most people are are good by that point. Sometimes we need to a second test. Sometimes we need to do a second test. That's it. No one told me anything that maybe there's like a third test and a fourth test, And like maybe it takes six months or whatever. So um, they said, The regrowing of the canal, which I mentioned last week is like so rare as to be like something that they don't even talk about like it's kind of like Okay. If maybe six months later you're still not shooting blanks, then maybe that would be like something that comes to light, but they're like. it's just so rare. we don't worry about that. As as this, it's just something that people take longers. I'll be able to take shorter. It is what it is. so. Um, regarding the fact that I'm not like a hundred percent healed, like I would say, at this point, I'm like ninety five percent healed or whatever they basically were like, it'll heal more or won't like. At the end of the day. You know it's your balls and you have to decide if you want to get this reversed or not, But that's really like. The The thing is like. It's either it like I either deal with the pain and I have of vsectomy, or I get it reversed and it might alleviate the pain. Um, I wouldn't say my pain is significant. At this point. It's It's like a minor nuisance like two or three times a day. I feel like I got tapped on the nuts or something like that. It's like a. It's a very, a very minor thing. that it doesn't really affect me in daily life, but it's definitely not something I want to be dealing with for the rest of my life. So I would say overall, as far as thesectimies go, I think I got like the shaft and I'm in like the bottom one percent of people. So I wouldn't use this as like a scare story for anyone else, but I think that in my situation it it didn't work out as planned. For sure?

[aaron_straker]: 13:27

Did they mention anything that could be like, Um, potentially indicative of something else you might want to look at from my today. Also, do they do anything like labs, blood markers, anything like that. with anything around it

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:41

No, none of that. Um, yeah, I mean, I think that it's just such a minor procedure and it goes well for ninety nine point nine percent of people that they just don't even like. Worry about the point one percent. You know, it's just kind of like we'll deal with it on a case by case basis as it comes, but it's not worth like spending our time and energy on beforehand.

[aaron_straker]: 14:01

Understood

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:01

so yeah, uh, let's see what else do I have to talk about, So the last episode I mentioned my heal, that uh, I had gone for a run and my heel had been hurting, So that day after the episode I contacted Chante the movement Myce Stro, and asked her what her thoughts were, and we kind of went back and forth with some voice, D. Ms. and she sent me some links and some some stuff to do. Uh. her assumption at the time was that it was nerve based, Um, because of the way that it would just be like a shooting pain and then it would disappear. Um, and I agree with that, as it's kind of gone on. Um, it's not getting worse. In fact, it might be getting better. But one of the things she directed me to do was not test it to see if it's still in pain, Because I have this like neuroses where when something's wrong with me, I constantly want to test it and just be like Okay. it's still wrong or it's better or it's wrong or it's better. you know, like I always want to be feeling out and she's like dude, stop doing that like, just just wait. Just don't do anything. so so I'm not testing it every day now. Um, but uh, it is interesting and I and I do think. in retrospect, I think it was a result of the sprinting that I did after having not run for you know, five or six weeks at all, and then my balls were feeling better and I was like Yeah, run. let's sprit. You know, let's do this and I'm sure in that moment like something I. I. I feel tightness in my Achilles would be the way that to to say this like, like when I go to, you know, stand on my toes, or uh, emulate running again. I feel like a little bit of tightness in my Achilles, which I know is something that you can kind of relate to, So I'm just taking it super easy and I'm not running any more obviously and I'm not doing things that are going to overstretch my achilles. Um, I'm just going to kind of let things settle down and heal, and Um, I'm just thankful at this point that I'm not limited in the gym And you know that will teach me my lesson about running. That's why we don't run. I mean come on running. What is that?

[aaron_straker]: 15:55

there, there was a point where I was like. One kind of wanted to contemplate. I didn't want to contemplate contemplating adding like one day of like a short session of hill sprints if I could find like a short hill. not like that

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:08

Mhm?

[aaron_straker]: 16:09

fucking turmoline Hill used to make us run.

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:11

right, right,

[aaron_straker]: 16:11

My God, I have nightmares about that, but like, maybe like a twenty yard thirty yard, like short, intense sprinting for like seven minutes like once

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:18

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 16:19

per week just to do that and I feel like that type of running is because when you running up hill, don't get that same lengthening

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:26

Yep, yep,

[aaron_straker]: 16:26

safer, and just to do like like a baby hit thing for like explosive type stuff, but we'ren't find any hells, and then you know, got cold and stuff, and now it's just a fragment of my imagination from a few months ago, but in the future potentially. Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 16:41

gaining season Ro. yeah, um, cool. So those are four of my updates. I got two more real quick ones. Paragon is coming out with two new programs for the holidays, Um. Laurie put together a really cool six week accountability program. That's going to Um. I. It's free for Paragon members. So if you're not a Paragon member and you want you know, really great training and the accountability group Um, you can join Paragon. If you are a current member, you can jump in on the program. It's basically to help people uh with education, and to have people to talk to Uh throughout the holidays to help you with making nutrition decisions, and you know accountability for working out and getting your steps in and stuff like that. And then we have a um. a new program dropping like literally November fifteenth. It's an accessory program. It's um, p, r, your clean in eight weeks, and it's uh. it's going to culminate in Uh, the the lift off event which I believe is happening in Dallas on January fifteenth. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but um, it's a donation based, uh fundraiser. so uh, check those two programs out if you're interested, and then the last thing of my updates is just that, Um, I am excited to get back to physique training because strength training now I'm five weeks in, and while I love the low reps like I love working for, you know, ten fifteen seconds at a time and not having to do forty five to sixty second sets. Um, I can tell that at the end of these eight weeks my body's going to need a a real severe de load. it's going to need like, uh, it's going to need a little t l c to kind of get myself back into to moving properly, gri. greasing the joints. And you know feeling good, so there's nothing at the moment where I'm like, you know, my shoulders hurt or my knees hurt or my hips hurt or anything like that. But um, but I can just tell you know, like like lifting heavy weights for low raps and things like this. It's uh. It's different at thirty ninth than it was at thirty or twenty five, so um, I'm excited about that and I think one of the things I'm going to do as a gift to myself to get excited, Uh, back into to physique trading. After this, I'm going to find a dual cable machine. It's time for me to get rid of my like single pulley cable machine, And uh, and I'm go. I'm going to buy a dual pulley it's going to have. Hopefully, it's going to be pin loaded so that I don't need to stack plates, and I can just uh, insert a pen and have like a nice smooth gliding cable stack. and uh, I'm probably just going to dump my hip extension, Uh, to fit that bad boy incause. That hip extension sucks without the the calf pad. I'm really not a fan of of hip extensions with no calf pads, so maybe, uh, maybe in the future I'll get a different one, but I think the dual cable machine is more important now. Um, so yeah, that's my plan and I just need to go get on the internet and find a good one and and have it uh delivered now. So

[aaron_straker]: 19:38

I know Jeremiah recently bought one of like one of the prime like cable stacks, and it's like

[bryan_boorstein]: 19:43

yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 19:44

I don't know they. I think they have one that's like their, like Cadillac One that has so many

[bryan_boorstein]: 19:48

the functional trainer or whatever. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 19:48

bells and whistles. Yeah, I think it's like a form of functional trainer, but it's like they like Cadillac one, So um, you might want to talk to him. I know he

[bryan_boorstein]: 19:56

okay,

[aaron_straker]: 19:56

like evaluated a bunch, and like landed on this one and it's liked drawing mo. That type of thing

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:01

you can't go wrong with Prime Man Prime just crushes everything.

[aaron_straker]: 20:03

they're They're making really really cool shit. Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:06

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 20:07

I, um. What's funny that I want to follow up on is like were like it. Just you know, the the heavy strength training isn't as forgiving at thirty nine as it was you, nineteen twenty. And what I kind of want to opposed to is like, Do you think specifically, and this is kind of a little bit of a convluuted question. But do you think it's specifically the age or the compounding effects of all the training and what you did to your joints from twenty to thirty

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:31

yeah, yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 20:31

nine is now they have deteriorated, but they have a lot of miles on them from you.

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:38

it's definitely a part of that. It's also part of the fact that I'm stronger now like I know how to to put more into my lifts. Um, so even when I was nineteen and twenty, like I, twenty, five, even like I didn't. I never prioritizeed leg training like I should have until cross fit. and like you and I always talk about how cross itt you know, like our legs got so much better after cross it for me, Like my legs were almost none existent before cross it. It It for me. It was like all about the show muscles through college, Like I would train legs once every two or three weeks. I'd be like Okay, I should train. I'm just so like they're functional. you know, Um, but I never squatted over two, twenty five. I never deadlifted over three fifteen like I just kind of did the bare minimum to feel like I was working hard and training my legs. Um. So then enter cross fit and suddenly like my, my cleans and my snatches are being limited by my leg strength. And so that brought in a whole new facet of like reason and desire to train the legs hard. So I think my legs made significant progress during cross Fiit. They just made more after. Um. but where I'm going with that is that, Um. The mileage for me was mostly on upper body in those early days. Um, I put so much value in my like one ret max weighted pull up, or six rat max. We had pull up whatever it was. And like the amount of like heavy dips I was doing just like you. Um, you know, I would be doing dips with three plates, and and stuff like that, and those things take their toll on on the the shoulders. I think, Um, all, like, probably more than any other upper body exercises that you can do like deep dips and stuff like that. Uh, so there's that and then uh, When I did kind of get into cross fit and start doing all the leg stuff. I was definitely on like a move weight from point eight to point B spectrum. And so the technique used wasn't super strong And like, So this just brings me back to like what Albero Una said the other day on one of his podcast on three Dmj Is he was like you know, At thirty nine, my movement is so good that I don't have any injuries occurring now. All my injuries and my issues are things that happened. you know fifteen years ago, but you're getting older and so it's manifesting on your body even though you've been really good to it for however many years now you know. so I think that it's definitely like know part of each of those things contributing.

[aaron_straker]: 23:12

Yeah, I will. definitely, you know, kind of piggy back on that my body feels just so good Now it. I mean it feels incredible. It's I do feel very young again just from how my body feels, especially compared to eight years ago nine years ago. You know, Um, but I have do have this interesting Ba. I keep pulling different muscles in my back and then they'll be kind of like achy, and in for like a day for like two or three days. Um. so I have to continue finding like a body worker here in Scot. So I had a really good dude in um in Salt Lake, who literally put me in a world of pain. but

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:46

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 23:46

it was and he was told me like my ramboids were just like rocks, Um, from God knows what you know, over the years, But yeah, it's like a moving thing. Uh, and it's what's really interesting Is it's always when I'm doing a overhead pressing movement like the the, the anterior delt press, and then like I'll like finish like a set. And then I'll like go to move and it's like it locks up and I'm like God

[bryan_boorstein]: 24:08

oh

[aaron_straker]: 24:08

damn it again.

[bryan_boorstein]: 24:09

yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 24:10

Um, so yeah, the most recent one. It's never like my La. It's usually like my, the ramboid, Uh, or like, I forget what the the muscle is like right outside of that, Um, a little bit, um, more laterally. But yeah, so that will? that happened when during the drive it was like super locked up and I'll like okay, but it's fine now. but I know it's like it's like every other week thing, And then I have to kind of be really safe with Um to my my specific La. iner back training. I should say, um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 24:38

yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 24:39

and overhead pressing. But

[bryan_boorstein]: 24:40

if you're not doing it already, try spending like three to five minutes and just grinding that area that you pull out with a lacrosse ball before you do your anteior press, And I bet it like is significantly looser for that moment.

[aaron_straker]: 24:54

yeah, we have. uh, like a, like a peanut right, Um, and it's just like I hadn't done it like the week before we left because we packed it or something like that, but I know it's here somewhere so I'm definitely going to get back into that but other than I said, my body feels absolutely fantastic. It is great. Um, but that is the. the. The physique training is just a more forgiving adaptation. Really, it's friendlier on your joints and that comes with the tempo and reduce the load. and that sort of thing.

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:19

What do you think of the psychological arousal? potentially? or rather, maybe the pain or the effort? However, you want to kind of combine those ideas together in. You know, here's a a hard set of two or three reps, and you have to have a certain level of like arousal and excitement and preparedness. You know to go squat a heavy triple versus you're going to take a set of pendulum or hack, squats to like twelve reps apt from failure, Cause they very different. Like the twelve reraps, one up from failure is is way gentler on your body, but like psychologically like that, one hurts way more right. Like doing twelve rups one up from failure is going to be absolutely painful. Your quads are going to be just screaming with lactic acid versus the like internal pain of like trying not to get crushed by like three hundred and sixty five pounds on the back squad or something like that.

[aaron_straker]: 26:14

Agree it is it. They're very similar but also very different. Um, like mental, Uh pressures. I guess I, ten out of ten times would prefer the hack squat for twelve raps things. I feel it's just less like. Because it. it kind of aches, slowly builds in like little by little. It requires more of you as you go from like rep, three to four to seven. You know type of thing, but like that when you're going to likeuck a heavy double back squad or something like that, like you need to reach that point before you know what I mean Like you don't. you can't get that Okay. That's

[bryan_boorstein]: 26:51

Yeah, Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 26:51

rep three. It's moving well okay. I need you know, my legs are starting to to fatigue a little bit like you can't incrementally, Um, increase your like mental preparedness for it. You need to have it before you unrack that weight,

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:05

yeah, yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 27:05

so I think it's just like from a mental standpoint it's harder to find that like fortitude without any physical representation of it. Already Like pushing against you. Does that make sense?

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:18

no, totally yeah. I think almost like. Maybe what you're saying is that for the twelve reset, you don't have to get psychologically aroused before, because the pain happens gradually like you almost get like psychologically aroused as you are going through the set. Whereas for the twoe of three you got to like. like, How of like, do the thing like do the the meat head about to attack the weights thing. If if it's really that heavy and you need to be mentally engaged for it,

[aaron_straker]: 27:48

Yeah, so I mean, you've just seen it so many times and like, I mean, it's happened to me, especially when people have a a certain number. Like let's say, that number for you is four hundred pounds. right. You'll smoke a three ninety five pound lift and you load that extra two and a half pounds and you get buried in the wholele.

[bryan_boorstein]: 28:05

Mhmolical.

[aaron_straker]: 28:06

It's not the two and a half They're sorry. it's not the five pounds. it's you're It's a psych. It's the psychological aspect of what that what you make that number represent in the fear around it or something like

[bryan_boorstein]: 28:17

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 28:18

that, So I mean it's yeah, it's really really interesting, like phenomenon with the psychological part of lifting big weights and you know being fully transparent, I suck at that.

[bryan_boorstein]: 28:31

well, I mean, are you still to talk about doing the straing cycle once you get out of this gut partticle?

[aaron_straker]: 28:35

Yeah, yeah, I want to. I'm gonna have my. uh, my client, Ryan. Um, I haven't told him yet, But and he? if you listened to this, you'll find out, but I'm go to have him hire. Ah, sorry. I'm going to hire him and have him take me through through something. He's he just wrapped up with me. I put him on my story yesterday. Uh,

[bryan_boorstein]: 28:50

Yeah, I saw that

[aaron_straker]: 28:50

he dropped a bunch of weight, but I mean the thing that's interesting. he's like a power lior, right, and he's like a legit power lifter, but he was like. I'm going to do like a hypertphy block know, 'cause I was like, Yeah, we don't want to be pulling three rat maxes and stuff, you know while we're in a deficit, But his idea of a high pertury block is, he was still squatting like four forty five for like four sets of eight while we were in like a twenty percent deficit And he' like man, My training day was really brutal. I'm like no fucking shit.

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:18

I couldn't imagine like Even if your max is five hundred, five fifty, or whatever, Like four forty five means there's a toll

[aaron_straker]: 29:25

yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:25

for on racking that each

[aaron_straker]: 29:26

yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:27

time's funny.

[aaron_straker]: 29:28

um, cool. So that was all, Uh, all your updates right

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:31

all of them yells. Jump in yourur up dates. Now,

[aaron_straker]: 29:33

cool. so um, the one thing I did this is' an upptic for me, but kind of a just a general update. Traveling does very interesting things with your your weight, your digestion type of deal. So I got here. You know, we left on Thursday. I didn't we myself Thursday morning, so I already packed, but I was like one, ninety one something when I like one, ninety one point two. whatever the day before he left. Um, we get here in Arizona, right, I set it up. I weigh myself. I was up a over like a full four pounds from those

[bryan_boorstein]: 30:00

Wow,

[aaron_straker]: 30:01

days, and I know I under eighte on those days because I like two. The days I actually in putut on my food. like the one day only came in like nineteen hundred calories because we're just in the car so long and like and I was hungry a lot. And it's just like your digestion's off your bow movements shift your hydration status like it just fucks with you, so kind of across the board. Just expect to be up weight when you travel. Except if you're like in a bulking or gaining phase, If you're in a in, like like a period of like, consistent overeeding, just from like not doing that, you'll probably

[bryan_boorstein]: 30:33

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 30:34

dump some some glycogen and stuff like that. But if you're at maintenance or in a deficit or anything like that like, and you get off your schedule, Expect to be up a little bit of weight, just know over the next three to four days it will consistently drop off Like today. I was drown over a full pound from yesterday and I ate way more food 'cause I finally had, like you know, I got in. I got a rotissi chicken. These basic things. I got four flame broiler meal buwlls,

[bryan_boorstein]: 30:58

saw that you love flame broiler,

[aaron_straker]: 30:58

Um, I, Oh, my God, it is. So it is like when we were when we were driving in, we came through. Um, oh boy, it's like a. It's like a city in in upper Arizona,

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:10

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 31:10

Flagstaff, I think and we were like Okay. we'll stop there. Get some gas and switch. And then like Jenny was like Hey, there's a flame boiler here. Do you want to go and I'm like, Oh my god, Yes, like we went out of the way to go to flameby. It' been like it's been like two and a half years since I've had a flame roller bowl and I was so excited and then I looked up. There is one here like thirty minutes away from where we're living and I'm like I'm going to go buy a bunch of 'em like it'll probably be a weekly drive for me down into like tempy to get a uh to get

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:40

that's amazing. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 31:40

some flame brother. But yeah, so I got stuff just to help me get through through this first week 'cause I' have a bunch of work to catch up on and stuff, but just know that your weight's gonna be up.

[bryan_boorstein]: 31:48

y,

[aaron_straker]: 31:49

Um, I think I found a gym here, right. There was two I wanted to test. One is walking distance. It's like a twelve minute walk which I like. There's been a few periods in my life when I've been able to walk to the gym and I just really really like it.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:00

it's a great warm up. It perhapss your mind and everything,

[aaron_straker]: 32:01

Um. it's a great warm up. Yeah, and it's nice to just like spend some time outside. And and you know it gets me away from like the walking for the sole sake of walking, type of deal. Um, so that's pretty cool. There is I to do my du diligence, I am goingnna test the other one. but one, it iss like a twelve minute walk. The other one's like a fifteen minute drive. so I will uh test it, Uh, just to see, but it's likely that I will end up at the one here'cause it is really nice to be able to walk And then I actually have a couple um updates from Lax last week's Dexa conversation, So

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:34

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 32:34

there was a couple of things that I was unsure about and I didn't want to like M. Miss, speak, but uh, when I got my Dexa report back from last week right there, when I was reading through the the, The contents of it, Um, basically it said right there, gut contents. So any food you eat blood water, and basically anything that is not atdapose tissue, Um, all, get counted as lean body mass. So if you go in with a stomach full of like you know, a twelve hundred calorie two pound breakfast, you will positively skew your lean body mass and therefore decrease your body fat percentage in relation, Um, by eating that meal, so like I said, you can skew your gains positively. So this is another reason to go in fasted, or at the very least what I would recommend is because they give you like a print out right there. If you happen to schedule your decks to at noon and you already had your like breakfast or whatever, just write it down on it. so you know when you get another one that like you had whatever right. I had this for breakfast, this many calories type of thing, just so that you could try and recreate that one to one from Dexid adexa. Personally, I recommend just going in fasted, because

[bryan_boorstein]: 33:53

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 33:53

I don't want to positively skew my gains because it to me it just feels like artificial, right. I don't want to do that. I want to my dexer to give me the most conservative information, right, Um, and then the second one. If you wanted to get your blood drawn on the same day, like I talked about last week, what you want to do is get your dexa first,

[bryan_boorstein]: 34:13

is.

[aaron_straker]: 34:14

then the blood draw. So what happened with mine is when I got my Texas scan, My left arm, which was the arm that the blood draw came out of, had a full pound less of lean body mass than my right arm, so I compared to my older exxes, and my right arm is slightly larger than my left, but it was like point two pounds on my other Dexes, and this one was a full pound, So the blood draw definitely did skew that a little bit, And then I had less ble body mass rightights, so in this I slow primary. Right, point seven or something like that skewed my lean body mass negatively. So just know figure, Do both get the Dexa Then get the blood draw. I would recommend doing both fast

[bryan_boorstein]: 34:59

I. Uh, I find it really interesting that your body didn't kind of re. What's the word I'm looking

[aaron_straker]: 35:07

distribute.

[bryan_boorstein]: 35:07

for redistribute the blood in that time like that. It took that long. I. What was it? An hour later? a half hour.

[aaron_straker]: 35:14

no, no, I mean, we. literally. I got my blood draw and mean, near in and out of there in you know, five minutes, and then

[bryan_boorstein]: 35:20

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 35:21

immediately drove maybe ten minutes to the Dexa place, and then I went first, so within within it was under twenty minutes from blood draw to hours on the

[bryan_boorstein]: 35:29

Okay that the I was going to say within thirty to sixty. I would expect

[aaron_straker]: 35:30

Dexa

[bryan_boorstein]: 35:33

your body to like figure that out and be like, Hey, we have a limb that needs blood. Um, but that is really interesting. and Uh, another comment on that too. I had a client who uh, had done two Dexes and she wrote me. It was like Hey, I've been doing your program. you know for a really long time. Like Look. I've lost lean body mass and gained fat. Like what's going on, you know, or lostly body mass? I think was the main thing, And so I started asking her This is a couple, maybe a year ago, but I started asking her about like what she did before going into the Dexa and she goes Uh. Well, this time I did it fasted and I was like good. That's awesome. How about last time and she goes? Oh, I was drinking coffee and eating like a sandwich on the way in or something like that. And and I was like Well, of course, like I, I assumed at that point that that those things would be uh determined as Esleen body mass, and that it's just measuring the adapose tissue, So very good information. Good to know, and I can a hundred percentfidently say then in the future when people get taxes, they need to make sure that they' really replicating that situation as closely as possible.

[aaron_straker]: 36:38

Con, controlling your variables,

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:40

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 36:41

and then kind of the last thing from that is, I have my dexser results right, So one thing that was cooled, my last exxa before this was at the like the week after my diet ended officially, so there I was, uh, eight point eight. Percent body fat, so pretty lean, Um at a hundred and ninety hundred, ninety five point. x. Um, let me check right here in one, ninety six point three total mass, And that includes water and stuff like that in the morning, and I would imagine clothes, too, And I had a hundred and seventy point eight pounds of lean body mass. So when you were talking with Dave from that deck, I had, like you know, four or five years ago.

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:20

y,

[aaron_straker]: 37:21

Uh, I was down about five pounds of lean body masks to lose all that Um. Body fat, and then this week, which was cool, Um, my total mass was up one pound, so it was up to one, ninety seven point three. My lean body mass was up a full two pounds, two point one pound, so one, seventy two point nine

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:43

nice. very cool.

[aaron_straker]: 37:43

pounds of lean body mass, And then the kicker, My body fat percentage went down point six to eight point two. So I'm leaner have more muscle more lean body mass. I should say, Um, which would. I would imagine. Some. Some of that is gligageing, even though my carbs ironically are less now than they were the

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:02

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 38:02

first time, because I'm doing the gut protocol thing and and bone mineral density was identical, So I mean all in all, it's I don't. It literally does not get better than that. I'm leaner. I have

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:13

and you gain muscle.

[aaron_straker]: 38:13

damn near an muscles up, um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:15

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 38:16

and total masses up. So it's man. It's the r. The whole I'm so, there's things that I'm like slowly changing with my my coaching practice and stuff like that and the one of the big biggest things is on. like, really, really, really, placing emphasis on the recovery diet, which is like your post end of calorie deficit, returning to maintenance. staying like very, very diligent in there. and this is really just like, solidified that for me like it's just that is where you can really change. Obviously, you change your physique sorry, um, when you go through a calorie deficit, But when you, when you recover out of that calorie deficit and work on improving your, you know, returning endcrin function, Um up regulating metabolism through, like your, your, your metabolic regulator with thyroid, and doing all these things like that is how you can lock in all that fat you lost slowly, you know, reclaim some of that lean tissue you lost, and like return to maintenance galleries, so you don't have to worry about a lot of that fat accumulation, but it's it's a. Difficult, ask for a lot of people because it's like you're at the end of your diet, right and it's like I want you know. what do you want? You want? cheese steak and these different things. But you're

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:27

yp,

[aaron_straker]: 39:27

like vulnerable at that point, So if you can like, spend another three months or something like that, really being due diligent or really being diligent like that is where you can really change things. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:39

yeah, you almost have to like. Change your mindset so like I was so focused on the end of the diet when I was in it like I kept being like you know, four more weeks to my goal, like photo shoot and like assessment with noon and all these things. And I really did set myself up for that rebound because I just glorified all of the things I was going to get to do when the diet was over. But if I had gone into that and set my mindset to be like Okay, there's this four month diet and then there' like two months or three months after the diet where I need to be diligent. I get to bring my food up, but I still need to be diligent and I think that that reframing that and almost thinking of that as like an extension of the diet where it's like you' still going to be eating the same foods you did on the diet, but you're just going to be able to eat a little bit more of them as we bring calories up, Because that's like that's the way I did it last year when I died and I had a much more successful kind of weight progression back up, and this time. I just like threw myself into the Dee end and I was like fuckt diets over. Let's get fat again. Um, that wasn't exactly my plan. but I think like, subconsciously. that was kind of my plan. So so anyway, it's good information. and uh, maybe at some point I'll have to hire you to work through my issues as well.

[aaron_straker]: 40:53

yeah, the last thing I will say with the with the update is with the travel right. Travel just provides, because obviously don't have like full access to the kitchen. My groceries aren't there. It provides me, you know, by a closer reality towards eating like a, like a normal person out of convenience. and

[bryan_boorstein]: 41:11

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 41:11

what's around type of thing. And it's really like solidified the fact that like I just don't enjoy it anymore. You know, we went like the day before we left. There was like this this burger place that people like you need to go to this burger place in Salt Lake. It has like a million fucking Google reviews and stuff're like Okay, We'll go and it's just like it's just like a bar in a burger and I had it and I was like. You know, if someone told me Aaron, you can never have like a like a traditional like bar, you know burger again and I'm like Okay, Like Okay. I'm good at that and it's just like I just didn't enjoy it and then like I can just feel it. I, afterwards, I just felt crappy. and when you like when you're I'm very, very in tune with my with my physiology, because I, I do. I eat a lot of the same things and I just felt terrible afterwards and I took like my digestive enzymes. Like the whole nine. So was the first part And then when we were in Um page, Arizona, where they have a course, She band, Because that was like our one of our stops too, Because we wanted to see. Um, what the fuck is it called Lake Powell area? There was another suplace Someone recommended this like chicken spot and it's like very limited menu. but it's all like fried chicken and I'm like Okay. whatever I was like. I'll just get these like chicken tenders, right, these like spicy chicken tenders. Same thing I like, got like a quarter of the way through '. And I'm like I don't fuck and want this. And then afterwards I felt terrible and it,

[bryan_boorstein]: 42:37

Well, they have gluten in them in Shi, too, I mean, there are there things

[aaron_straker]: 42:39

yeah, and it wasn't even like gassi, or bloated or anything like. I could

[bryan_boorstein]: 42:39

that you don't usually.

[aaron_straker]: 42:42

just feel it like I was like. M. I just felt like slow and I was like Wow, like this is crazy and it was like I'm I'm just kind of like done eating. You know those types of foods I get. they'. It's just a net negative and like, I didn't even really enjoy it that much and I was like it's it's really really wild and I think a part of it too is like. Because I don't eat those things right They?

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:05

I was going to say that too. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 43:05

if I ate them regularly, you you eventually, and your body will produce different enzymes for things, And you know, kind of get back on board. I'm using you know air quotes here, but there's just like. it's like the barrier to entry, so it's kind

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:18

well, why? why do it? Yeah, like why I put

[aaron_straker]: 43:20

exactly

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:21

yourself through shit just so that you can eat more shit and not feel shit.

[aaron_straker]: 43:24

and it's the. It's like the kind of the opposite thing where people have trying to like shift into that like healthier lifestyle. Like the barrier entrycause. They're like my taste buds. Want you know, whatever spaghetti and burgers and stuff they don't want, like the healthy things. but there's like you get. the. In my opinion, Obviously, I, I'm I'm biased because I'm a healthy nutrition coach. but like you get all these positive adaptations of your health improving me going the other way. It's like it's just negatives. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:53

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 43:54

so it? it was again just an eye opening experience for me, and it it happens in like shifts. you know, in my first year of being a nutrition coach and stuff. I still liked the burger and getting pizza and stuff. And then it's just kind of slowly shifted over time to to where I'm at now, so it's just just interesting. I guess is what I'm saying.

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:13

Yeah, I really think part of your success is not having the foods around too like they are just around in my house like Kim is pretty good with your nutrition, but she likes to have things like at the end of the night Ele, like you know, something sweet that chocolate or whatever,

[aaron_straker]: 44:27

Mhm,

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:27

And the kids are kids, so we always have like bagels and stuff like that around. And Um, breads and and desserts are are things that I have weaknesses for, so, um, it's tough like. I just need to be a little bit more like I need. I. I do need to start thinking about things and reframing them as if I'm like still on a diet. even if I'm not on a dietcause. It's easy to kind of justify things when you go. so, um, I think I was all like a super positive conversation and I think it even in that moment kind of helped me to like, Think about things a little bit

[aaron_straker]: 44:55

Mhm,

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:55

differently. Um, so dude, we have like this whole idea of this episode being choosing the right gym. Um, but I have to let these dry wall people in in eight minutes to start uh, screwing things and nailing things down. so I don't know if we uh are going to get to that today.

[aaron_straker]: 45:11

Yeah, I think let's ah. Let's keep it for next week. So we had a lot of

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:14

cool,

[aaron_straker]: 45:14

different things we talked about this week, and then uh, everyone, uh, who's listening? Just know next week, Brid and I are going to be talking specifically around choosing the right gym, So I have a lot of thoughts around this. Brian obviously will, as well as as a previous Gy owner who owned a very fucking sweet gym that

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:33

mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 45:33

completely changed my life. I should say so. If you do for you guys who are listening. Do you have any questions about anything or would like us to specifically touch

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:39

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 45:40

on anything you know, Uh, specifically with choosing our right. jm, please drop us a d, m, Um, either brid or C on Inram, and we will include it in next week's episode and then just to reiterate from what I said in the beginning, anyone is a podcast or video editor and wants to help us. Uh, potentially

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:57

Yep,

[aaron_straker]: 45:57

reach up.

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:59

so the only issue with what you said about people reaching out to us is that this episode's not going to go out until the day we record the new episode, So Um, maybe we just put a question out on our story and say like, Hey, Any questions about like choosing the right gym or something like that?

[aaron_straker]: 46:13

Yeah, I, it would go out. It'll go out like hours before.

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:16

right right right,

[aaron_straker]: 46:16

Yup, So uh, when you're listening to this, you can laugh at me for not paying attention. So

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:22

I do good stuff. catch Eldar or catch on next week.

[aaron_straker]: 46:22

y all right Yup, talk to guys next week. All right, Yup, talk to goes next week.