Part 1: N1 Training Practical Recap | ETP#49

[aaron_straker]: 0:28

Happy Tuesday, guys, welcome back to another episode of Train Prosper Today is the awaited episode of Brian and Eyes Recap On the end, One bioechanics. Practical that Brian just wrapped up this past weekend, Ied two weekends ago, So just a little bit of a heads up. This will be a two part episode because it is just going to be a little bit lengthy in a lot of big takeaways. Really. so I think by us breaking up into two episodes will help you guys with some more tangible takeaways from, as opposed to things that we cover later in the episode You getting from the former part. So before we jump into this, we have some quick updates, Brian. What's up?

[bryan_boorstein]: 1:06

Well, the good news is that I've survived. I am alive. I'm here. I showed up and uh, it only had seven workouts over four days to uh to put me in this position where I actually needed two days off of training and uh, I actually don't know if I needed two days. This is one of our one of our off, kind of dis. uh, off camera discussions was about, You know whether we were sore and why we might be sore or not sore. In kind of implications of that, so I think a great way to open this would be to uh, immediately mention that I get up seven workouts. The final day was kind of the one that is known as like the The one that destroys you Right. It's like this this leg day that has essentially six major compound movements Like you have a leg extension. Miserable, Cas, set you a leg C cast. you have a hackquot of pendulum squad. You have a hip extension and an ordel, and all of these are like heavy works sets. So like three hamsterrings, three quads get to work. Uh, the one thing I was really excited about with that day is that it's only one workout. So all the other days we had an A M and a P. M session and so I went into that day thinking that this is what I needed to prepare for. And then I realized quickly that there is just one workout and you give your soul to that thing and then you're done. So. Um,

[aaron_straker]: 2:26

Ssssssssssssss.

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:28

so that was super cool, but regarding my soreness level in general, overall, Um, very surprisingly, I think it was quite minimal, so my upper body didn't get sore in the least. Uh, I would say I had maybe maybe some slight soreness in like my romboid area just because there was so much like upper back rear delt work, Um, Across the first of the first day was really the the culprit of it. So maybe like you could say, it was like a one or two out of ten in my upper back. The soreness that was prominent was from the second day, which was the glue hip focus day, and so with all the single leg work and all that stuff, it, uh, for sure caused me maybe a three out of ten doms the next day, and then by Sunday it was essentially dissipated and I was ready to go again. Um, I had no soreness from the chest and lat day on Saturday, and uh, honestly, I'm really surprised for a few reasons. One because I just came off a strength cycle where I haven't really been doing high volumes or tons of hyperch. You work. Um, and then second, I had a few days where I wasn't eating above maintenance. Um, I think the way that my nutrition actually went over those four days was I had one day where I could barely eat at all because of the first day. I was just like so overwhelmed with everything which will get into later, but uh, my mind was just so clogged up thinking about everything and the double workouts and everything that I actually went to take a bite of chicken breast at one point and just couldn't do it. So I just stuck to like liquid calories most of that day. Um, and so that was an underfed day. Then the next day I was really hungry, so I ate way more that day and then the day after that I was not hungry again, and then the day after that I was. so I. The way it played out was on the leg days I was really hungry, and on the upper body days I. I was not hungry, so I think that that actually works my favor. Probably, but either way that was the the very you know birds eye overhead view of the experience and I know that we were going to jump into with a ton more detail. so let's any updates from you. And then I have a question for you and we' keep going.

[aaron_straker]: 4:44

Yeah, so uh, obviously I'll cover my. Um, how I felt. I was really surprised as well, not not very sore. and I think we will talk a little bit more about it, but I think it just goes to show about like how I train. I guess outside of it generally, so, um, with that it's just kind of interesting there. Update for me, I had another conference. Uh, uh, this weekend was back to back work conference weekends and it's just like it's still kind of like surreal to me that like work conferences are literally like the end one practical and then going to this nutrition conference. You know this weekend, learning about the things that I love and it's like completely legitimate right. There's no like Gy, A, like their legit work conferences, which is super super cool and I had seven different people come up to me like. Hey, are you? Are you errand Did? Did I buy that that checking system for you and I'm like, Guess that's me. like. Like, How do you like

[bryan_boorstein]: 5:32

So

[aaron_straker]: 5:33

it like? Is there you know what? What things would you change? You know. I wanted to get feedback and everyone like loved it, Which was really really cool. It was. Um, it was very interesting to me, because like ever since I, really, since I started, you know Striker Nutrition company, it was like W. I started it and we left great. We left one like this travel slow travel lifestyle. So it's really just been like me and my girlfriend living in random Arab and Bs all over the world, pretty much keeping to ourselves because we're you know, only in a city or whatever for a for a few months at a time, so we don't do too much in person. S. So it was like the first time I'd actually been like out at like an industry event, you know, and people knew me, which was like really wild to me. And it. it just was very very different. And uh, it was just a really cool weekend just to meet new people, learn new things. There's a lot of like notes I have that I can't wait to incorporate. So, for all my clients, you know, Fair morning a lot is changing coming, Um all for the best, but it was really really cool for that and we act, We got to hang out Gen Rine for three days. So

[bryan_boorstein]: 6:33

love her. That's awesome. So jealous.

[aaron_straker]: 6:34

yeah, so obviously that was just a fantastic, um, fantastic time to to hang out with her. And I told her like we need to get you on the podcast. So eventually,

[bryan_boorstein]: 6:43

Yes, for sure.

[aaron_straker]: 6:43

Uh, in the new year she will. She will definitely come on, but it was a very very cool weekend for me and I was just two, very very really awesome. you know, Uh weekends here here in December, just learning and just having fun and enjoying what I do. and I'm just very grateful. I guess so that is my update this week.

[bryan_boorstein]: 7:00

Yeah, so I'm really curious on. uh, your perspective, Given that you've done two of these things in a row, one being nutrition based, one being much more training based. It seems like you know the natural path is that you become all consumed with the thing that you're part of at that time. So you know the four days that I was at N one. That's literally what consumed my thoughts. Even when I wasn't there. I was like thinking about the things that I was doing there. So, Um, specific to N one, how has your perspective changed? You know from being two days out last week on the podcast versus now ten days out or whatever it is, And then do you feel like your brain is trying to fit in like all of these things. Like you have this this Nci thing that is most recent in your brain, But then you also have this really profound experience you had ten days earlier at this other conference. Like how do you kind of jumble that up and make sense of it in your brain?

[aaron_straker]: 7:51

I comp parttmentalize. I believe. Um, I think the the N One stuff, especially because it's uh, I would say I don't have as firm grasp on it. It will be mostly experimental with myself before I really start incorporating more of that in into client stuff. Some of the basics of programming right, Like one of the examples, Uh, that I will will take away almost immediately Is like the the ratio of lengthened overload versus shortened overload for the goal off pertrophy, Right, So the goal is I pertphy in a program you probably want more length and overload type volume, then shortened. Um, so that's like a pretty easy one, but a lot of these things like I, I'm just curious right so I don't want to be like. I don't want to use the word like band waagon hopper, but that's immediately what comes to my thought, My mind, but like okay guys, we're not doing. You know this anymore. Everything's press around and pull around. you know, in with the new out with the old type of thing I, but I'm going to personally experiment myself A. But

[bryan_boorstein]: 8:49

Mhm, Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 8:50

can I get you know more? Uh, can I can of become more efficient in my training right, And that's one thing now is like, as the business is growing and requiring just more of my time like I can't spend two hours at the gym anymore because there's just not enough time in the day. Uh, so I want to know like Hey, can I be in and out and forty five minutes sub days and get like a really really quality workout type of deal. Um, so those are my kind of initial ones and then with the nutrition stuff it, it was a little bit more, you know, on just the delivery of my coaching, Um side of things, which I was already planning on making some updates and stuff anyway. So just streamlining things a little bit more, improving client experience and making sure that really solidifying that my you know coaching offering and services are on like kind of the bleeding edge of the industry And that's somewhere that I've al, I will always do my best to to be at.

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:42

I dig that awesome. I absolutely agree about kind of the way to implement the stuff that we've learned this weekend as like a broader perspective is. No, it's not going to be a complete overhaul. where like you know, I'm never doing another press because everything is a pressed around. I mean that's a great example like I'm only doing these like cable. You know, Illliaccalat movements, et Ctera et Ctera, I like basically that whole thing, but, but I think what was the most profound for me about the experience was the understanding of the arcs of motion, which was really like the big Um focus for the first day, And why it was so complicated because you have these arms like these bicepts in these tricepts and these delt the posterior and the anterior and their agonist antagonists to each other. Um. So the thing that's important to know about that is that a motion that trains the bicep by pulling the opposite motion, or essentially the same motion trains the tricep Um by pushing. And so the same works with the anterior Delt and the Pos year delt, And then we learned the same thing again on Saturday, as far as the different regions of the chest, that then um are the same motion, the same arc of motion and the same uh movement pattern as the back motions in the lap, Right that the the clvicular, the top of the chest coordinates to the top of the Lat and the bottom of the La coordates to the to the bottom of the chest, Um, And so once you understand the motion that trains. That most effectively, then it's just a matter of pulling instead of pushing. and now you have the motion that trains the back movement most effectively literally following the same arm path that you would for the press. so like as an overriding precedent of things that just were like. Wowow in my brain. Understanding those arcs of motion Made all of those movements make so much more sense to me, Like trying to follow cassum and end one stuff on line on Instagram, Like free content. You almost, can't you. You don't understand that you see him doing a one armed pull down and and you don't understand that there's actually an aduction quality to it that the arms coming across the body. Um, and then, of course there's the setup of the body and et cetera et cetera how you can little things that you can do to to shift the movement emphasis. But but for me, that was for sure the most profound takeaway just from the whole weekend in general. How about you,

[aaron_straker]: 12:10

Yeah, the the thought that came to my mind and I agree one hundred percent, When we, you know, I know for for you and I as adolescent teenage boys. Really, anyone who gets into training, you get into lifting weights. For you know, mean whatever reasons, but you start with the very very end, so it's like you're starting at the end of the alphabet right, Which is like doing the movement and there', some like. Oh, what is that like? Oh, that works your back and you're like. Oh, okay, so you just identify like a movement with something on your body, but you don't understand. Like really anything else about it. and with the whole the whole process of N one is, you are starting at the front of the alphabet and be like. Like this is your humorous. It attaches to your you know spine or I, sorry, it doesn' attach to

[bryan_boorstein]: 12:56

Cap is scapula

[aaron_straker]: 12:57

your spine. But like there's a yeah, and there this is that muscle right and it moves in this arc. So when your arm moves in this kind of pattern you train thiss and you're like, Oh, Oh, that's interesting. I never knew that like my lap attached to my humorous air, but then like when you think about it, it makes perfect sense because your arm

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:14

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 13:14

moves back of that. But unless you've you know, went into like, unless you have the Huuman anatomy courses in college or whatever, Like you, just never think about these things 'cause you don't think that it actually matters And here you know, Cass, and and and one team is showing me like it does matter Because like when you are doing like an an example of a movement, someone's like. Oh, when I do lateral raises like I, I get like a C joint pain and like, Yeah, because at that angle you're shoving your humorous into that like I can't do you not to say that aur acro. whatever your a C joint. Yeah, the a C joint like under under load end

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:44

The the bony process on your shoulder,

[aaron_straker]: 13:50

velocity. So it's that that pain is A is a tangible, s, uh signal from your body, and like asshole, don't fuck and do that, but like that, but that's what we do because. Oh, you need to do it in this like you know motion. and then he shows like Hey, if you shift a little bit and we have like a skeleton here. We have these anatomy, uh, aps, and stuff that show you when you move at. you know, forty, approximately forty five degrees of of motion as opposed to ninety. Now your bones and joints aren't jamming into each other, so you're

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:21

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 14:22

like. Oh, that's why it's pain for you here. but there it's not. but it's just everything is is so backwards and how we

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:28

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 14:28

learn that we don't understand. like our bodies, you know, kind of. and that was just so so eye opening for me in. Really. just okay, you should probably move in if you want longevity right, If you want to feel great and never be restricted in training, should probably move in pathways that do not give you pain.

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:47

Yeah, absolutely, um. and then the the reposition you would be referring to in the lotter rays would be the scapular plane, which would just be the way that you can utilize the rib cage and the scapule so that the scalpula moves freely around the rib cage. Um, so if you want to find the scapular plane on yourself, what you essentially want to do is just kind of move your arm up and in about fifteen or twenty degrees and that's going to probably be uh. the position so it's not quite fully lateral, but it's definitely closer to to to the side than it would be to the front. Um, if you want to say it like that, Uh,

[aaron_straker]: 15:21

Yeah, yeah, forty five was a bad example for me.

[bryan_boorstein]: 15:23

Yeah, For sure, it's just a few degrees off and it's going to be an arrange for everybody. Everyone's going to be a little bit different. Um, so I think even to back up further one of the things you and Jenny said when you had just finished your first day of the practical, and you came over to my house for dinner and you were trying to explain what this is like to Kim, who literally has no idea of any of it and you were talking about lining movements up with muscle fibre orientation And so I think that that's a really E, cool visual and it actually kind of helped her understand it, so kind of for the listener the idea would be. That, like, if we're using, you know the pecks, um, the clvicular head which attaches to the clviical, kind of has these fibres that run upwards along the clivical and the sternal head, Uh, the sternal compartment which attaches to the sternam is the middle range of the pack. Kind of what you would think about would train with like a flat press, Um, and those kind of come along the body more horizontal, and then you have the coststal fibers that attached to the ribs down at the bottom and they, um, they come down kind of at this angle. So that's why when you see people do things that are for upper chests, you see them press up, and you see people do like a flat press. and they say it's for the middle fibers. Because you're pressing kind of along that that range and then the bottom fibers. You're usually pressing down. Like assuming you were doing like a cable crossover, Like a typical movement that people understand. The one where the cables come from high to low is going to be the bottom fibers, and the one where the cables come from lowad to high would be the top fibers. Um, so when you can actually see that on the the anatomy chart and stuff and see the fibers in the muscle, you kind of get that sense and then you know you can also even see like, Why am I stronger at Uh, at like coststal pressing than I am at Cllovicular pressing? And you can see that the clvicular fibers are like a third the size of the fibers in the coastal region, which are significantly larger than the ones even in the sternal region, so of course those muscles are going to be stronger, Um, so I. Think that all that's really important and that it applies to all of the muscle groups that we talk about. whether it's like the front delts, The which antagonist is the rear delts. Um, those fibers all kind of go in different directions, which is why, like something like a wide grip, pull down would train one part of a rear delt, versus like a different style of pull down. That's more narrow, would potentially train a different part of the rear, though, so these are the things that that we learned and then which movements are going to to best train those areas based on elbow path, and all these other things, lining that movement pattern up with the the fiber Uh path of the muscle right,

[aaron_straker]: 18:03

Yeah, and the for for me with that those were there are so many like explosion moments in my mind. Oh my God, it's so simple. but it's yet still very very complicated. But like the basic of it is very very simple. It makes sense. so with like the kind of going. Like, how did you feel with the combination between the the education part of it and then like the training part of it, Because that's something that I thought was done really really well where it made sense like In that flow of just how the day laid out

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:39

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 18:40

Knowcause, I feel like I definitely needed so much of the education part of it first before we transitioned into the movement.

[bryan_boorstein]: 18:49

Yeah, Absolutely, it was set up beautifully, so for the listener, the kind of the general structure of the day was that we would come in in the first two hours or so, would be uh anatomy and understanding the body. Parts that you're going to train that day, literally spending two hours on those body parts, and Um, in the second hour there we would go over to the A. We would go over the skeleton and kind of manipulate his body and see the bands that represent the musculature and the tendons and stuff like that, and be able to kind of see the paths of motion of where things should move, and then even after that, so first you you have to sit down where you learn anatomy. Then you look at the skeleton, then they take you around and demo every single movement that you're going to do in the workout that day, and in the demo of the movement again you get to a ask questions. But be you get to see like the way the body is positioned, the way the arm travels in relation to the torso, Um, all these different things, and uh, and you see all of that It implemented over like a thirty or forty minute period And then while it's still superfresh in your mind, then you go ahead and you actually do the workout, Um, and that, that's essentially the morning portion of the The plan until luncht time, and then in the afternoon there's another hour, hour and a half, two hours of kind of anatomy and stuff. On, there's like a review of the first part and then there's a um. kind of an introduction of a second area of the same part of the body right. So like an example. that would be like The first day we had uh, delts and and arms, But the first session in the morning uh, had like a certain variation of movements and then in the in the afternoon they changed up the movements and you, you did kind of a different orientation of them. So to speak,

[aaron_straker]: 20:33

Yeah, one thing, um, that I thought was super super helpful and that I was very very happy about was just the total amount of like questions. Like Cass would sit there and be like we wouldn't leave until he answered. like every single person's questions and they Okay. there's no more questions. I guess like. Okay, What we can be done for the day type thing. But everything was answered like super super in depth in just like plenty of time to just any in all questions you have. Like, let's make sure everyone understands like the best of their ability

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:05

there's a large part of me that kind of wished I was in a group like yours because one of the uh, pervasive messages that Cas kept saying in our group was that nobody talks and that were dead. So it was just like nobody has questions. You guys apparently all know everything like I was literally the only person asking anything the first day I kind of was, you know. I added some trepidation because it was new and I didn't know how how the culture would was going to be and everything, but um,

[aaron_straker]: 21:32

and you feel dumb. right.

[bryan_boorstein]: 21:34

right. yeah, yeah. so so then in days two, three and four, I was like Well, if no one's going to ask anything like, I'm going to ask questions. You know. So I had like this, Bo, like this long list and I think every day I got like four to eight questions in, because literally nobody else asked any. Um, and so the last day he was like, You know, this is your last chance to ask me questions like you know anything on on your chests, you know, and I had like three programming questions. and and one other guy had one question. But we were out of there on the last day about like three o'clock

[aaron_straker]: 22:02

Oh

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:03

because nobody had any questions.

[aaron_straker]: 22:05

yeah, I guess I had a pretty good group. Everyone was asking like some pretty insightful questions

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:09

I know,

[aaron_straker]: 22:09

and stuff, which was pretty cool.

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:11

I feel like I could have learned a lot more. Um, but it's all good. like my group was cool. It was actually really nice because we only had Uh ten people in our group

[aaron_straker]: 22:18

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:19

and I think yours was fifteen plus

[aaron_straker]: 22:21

yeah, I think probably like fifteen. seventeen. I never really

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:23

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 22:24

counted it, but you.

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:25

so there was a lot more, Um, a lot more there. But one of the uh. one of the cool things that happened this weekend was Albero, Unas came down on Saturday and did the chest and lat day with me And that was super cool because I got to hang out with Berto for like an entire day, and uh, talk about training and G, you know, just continue to to kind of develop Um. These relationships, which is, which is awesome like, it's just so rad to be able to have these people so close, and uh, and uh, yeah, we were able to help each other out and give each other some good tips. And then he was supposed to come back on a Sunday and du leg day, but I think he, uh, he couldn't hang. He couldn't. he couldn't do it, you know, as his old body couldn't handle it. Actually, that really wasn't one. it was. I think he had something going on, but, but I like to joke on him about

[aaron_straker]: 23:17

Yeah.

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:17

it. uh, yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 23:19

what? like moving moving along here? Like what are some of the biggest takeaways You would say you have for it? So maybe like what sort like from a conceptual standpoint and

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:28

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 23:28

then we'll move more into like specifics.

[bryan_boorstein]: 23:31

yeah, so the arks of motion was for sure the big, like Profound one, and kind of how that impacts all movement right, Um, and along the lines of that there's a few notes that I made about other things that I thought were pretty pretty interesting, and and um noteworthy. So one of them is, uh, How turning of the hips in a lot of these single arm movements can change everything. Uh, so a perfect example of that is the pol or the pull around, or or press around, whichever, when you're doing La, or chest. Um, but essentially you can face forward and it will be a little bit more for for pulling, If you face forward, it would be a little more short overloaded. but for pushing, if you face forward, it's a little bit more lengthened overloaded and vice versa. So, if you kind of twist into it when you're pressing, you're going to get more short overload. And if you kind of twist into it when you're pulling, you're going to get more lengthened overload. And the coolest thing about that is Uh, that you can then actually go if you want to, and within the context of programming you could go beyond failure right, so you could theoretically take one of these movements to concentric failure in the short position, and then you could straighten your body up. Continue doing presses with your shoulders forward. And now you're going to accentuate a little bit more of the length position. And so I did this. And you know I hit failure at eight. nine, ten reps. whatever it was on the press around. And then I turn my hips face my shoulders forward, and got three more reps. So that's really cool that you can kind of manipulate your body position and change the impact of the movement. How about you?

[aaron_straker]: 25:13

Yeah, to kind of pick you back on what you sit, what you're saying and you said this a little bit earlier than episode And I really just want to drive a home. Like for any movement there is an antagonist movement that is going to train your. You know, the muscle on the opposite end of on the opposite side of your body and I mean, I. I. I should be a little bit, um, trepid, Uh, In trepidacious. Is that a word whatever

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:36

Yeah, it is

[aaron_straker]: 25:38

in that statement because I'm sure there is some context where it doesn't hold up. but like the example is like Okay. If I'm doing like a a vertical push. for like this division of my chest, there's like that same exact motion By just

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:48

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 25:49

attaching the weight in front of me instead of behind me, is going to train like the antagonist muscle to that And it just helps you conceptualize to think about things a little bit more specifically. Um, but it's like it's one of those things. It's that's that's a very simple concept, right, but I had never heard it before. You know. I've been lifting weights for damn near twenty years and it's just like you. Just it was never talked about in anything that I had ever you know. found

[bryan_boorstein]: 26:15

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 26:16

myself in. I suppose so, just like understanding, like body awareness and just simple movement patterns will allow you to like one. Choose a exercises based on the Uh, equipment limitations you might have right just by understanding. like some basic movement patterns and stuff like that really allows you to be a lot more creative and uh, broaden the types of movement and exercises and training you could do. limited, you know equipment situations just by understanding these principles And that was

[bryan_boorstein]: 26:46

yep,

[aaron_straker]: 26:47

a massive you know concept over my brain from that weekend.

[bryan_boorstein]: 26:53

yeah, For sure. For sure, the the agonist antagonist relationship is is huge, and um, and it definitely, while it isn't going to have like an immediate impact on me being like, uh, I'm going to completely shift the way I train As a result of this. I think that that knowledge kind of just being in your brain floating around there. it will have kind of these subconscious impacts on the way that you program. and just think about training in general.

[aaron_straker]: 27:20

Definitely

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:21

Um, yeah, for sure, Uh, so I, I have a bunch of things that that I thought were really interesting on like the programming side, Um, and less like, kind of conceptually. but um, there are a few things that I think. Are you know cool to discuss so like for me as uh, the way my structure is, Cass, noted that when I'm doing a flat dumbbell press that it's essentially an inclined press for me, Um. Because when when my my dumbbells finish they're they're finishing up over my clavical, um, over my neck line, instead of finishing over the chest, just based on like my scalpulous, structure, and the way that I'm built, So essentially he was saying, If I want to train primarily my sternal fibers, I would need to go to a decline, um a decline

[aaron_straker]: 28:11

like a slight decline.

[bryan_boorstein]: 28:11

bench A. And he said, when I trained flat, I'm actually training incline. And so when they did the uh, the the anterior Delt press on the first day, Like every video I've ever seen of that being done, the bench is probably like sixty to seventy degrees like it's It's definitely not straight up like a normal overhead press. but it's for sure more than forty five yearsrees. Um, so they set me up on, probably like a thirty five or forty degree incline and they were like this is your anterior del press. So I was doing that shit with like the weight that I usually use for inclined dumbbell presses. And what I realize is that I essentially have been doing inclined dumbbell presses as a dealt exercise even though I've been thinking they were a chest exercise. Uh, based on the way that I execute it where like, kind of my elbows pop out a little more, and uh, and I go into a little pronation. And then the fact that the top position of the movement ends up finishing like over my head, like over my face when I inclined press. Um, so I never really like realized that, but it's it was so wild for me to to learn that and on top of that it's wild that I actually inclined press more than I flat press. like. my chests must be really weak because I'm really bad at flat dumbbell pressing, which would be like my inclined press or whatever. Um, but I'm really good at incline pressing, which means I must have really strong, like interior delts, and never like thought about it. But that's just kind of knowing that it. Ch. realizing that you know where the Dubells finish is kind of the arc of the dumbbell and where it finishes kind of tells you what area of the muscle is being trained, I thought that was really interesting be cause, because we all know there's no tension at the top of a dumbbell press anyway, Like it doesn't really matter where the dumbbells finish. You can essentially support them on your structure, like on your joints. Um, you don't, you? don't? your muscles aren't being taxed at the top of the movement. Um. but you can use that arc of motion in the path that the dumb beells take to kind of determine which part of your structure is receiving the most stimulus,

[aaron_straker]: 30:14

One of the big takeaways for me with with continu with what you're saying is when finishing my dumbbell pressing movements. bringing like the cue of bringing the elbows together instead of touching them the dumbbells at the top Because you can really like just angle the in or use your. but like trying to squeeze your elbows in towards each other like that gets you like that chest contraction.

[bryan_boorstein]: 30:35

innerbicept to chest.

[aaron_straker]: 30:37

Yeah, yeah, and I was man. That's brilliant. That is so good. That was like a really really good one for me.

[bryan_boorstein]: 30:43

Yeah, and it actually like makes it a lot harder, which of course I love because as I try to move further and further away from things that my ego gets involved in, you know, I have these numbers in my head like I used to incline and press one tenths for eight, you know, and like now I'm like. Oh, well, I suck at flat pressing and flat pressing is actually a chest exercise for me based on these criteria, you know, so so it's cool that I'm using the eighty five of the ninety fives or whatever it is, as I kind of like get comfortable with that motor pattern, then finishing the wp above the chest, So like if if I can set myself up in a manner where instead of finishing above my face where everything is just stacked and it can just rest, I'm finishing in a position where there's still some tension on the. Chest, meaning I can't just hang out there, Um and count it to that point, Cass said that for me, maybe the best way for me to do dumbbell presses in general across all types of dumbbell presses is just not to fully lock out at the top because of the way my structure is that at the top I almost going, always be using delts, unless I'm in a decline, So it's like you could just come up like you know, three quarters of the way and then return back down, which just sounds like a an awful way. Way trade, but I'm sure it's very painful, but also probably effective.

[aaron_straker]: 31:54

Y. um. one last thing I, I had here before we move into some of our favorite exercises. One of the big takeaways for for me is whenever someone would ask a question and I would catch on to this throughout the weekend and then try and like, change my question. But someone would ask me what's the best for this. Then he would immediately break down and be like. What's the go? and he would

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:16

right.

[aaron_straker]: 32:17

make them realize, like the fault, and how they' asking questions best is. I mean, it's not helpful because what is the context? What is the goal structure? What is the You know? The what is the purpose of that specific session and really just like, Made you think you know and unravel the layers of the onion. You, here, you know. Why are you performing this movement And that could really dictate how you would take it or use it. And one of the many, like really big eye opening things is just getting very specific. Why you are doing something.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:52

Mhm. Absolutely no. I fully agree with that. I mean everything is is. It depends in context and and all that, but even more so, when like in his model of programming, you know where they have the three different phases which we can get into in the in the next part. But um, it becomes even more relevant because it's not just I'm training for body building, it's Are you trying to achieve a metabolic stimulus and nearl stimulus or a mechanical hyperchphy stimulus? Um, So I think that that is like the the biggest context right. Like every question I askedk him about programming. You know. it's uh. I asked about. like you know, say, muscle group, super setts, and how to bias certain parts of muscles or of certain portions of the movement. I eat the lengthen portion because I'm obsessed with it. Um, and so so all that stuff I think we should talk about on the next episode?

[aaron_straker]: 33:39

Mhm. Definitely, so with this like what were some of your favorite exercises from the experience?

[bryan_boorstein]: 33:47

Yeah, for sure. Uh, well, I think that without a doubt you know the first one that comes to mind is that Atlantis, uh hip extension that's attached to the cable and that is just phenomenal. I mean, the machine itself is phenomenal, So I did it last time I was there a month ago. Um up there training with gas or whatever, I did it with a bar bell and that was really cool. Like to me, that was the best at that time and men, now this time he attached it to the cable and I was like Okay. this is even better.

[aaron_straker]: 34:16

It's really good. there. There is a couple times when I was there like this makes so much sense. Why is this the first time this is been done? Type of deal? you know, And that was one of them Like It's just it gives you. It prevents you from doing really strange things with your upper body to in in that movement. It gives you constant tension and a lot like it's It's it needs to be that needs to be like an attachment. That's at gyms like regularly. You know what I mean. That one was absolutely fantastic. It just felt so good. You could train those body parts well. You know you could manipulate your load. really really. Well, you don't have to worry about balancing things like you could literally just train the muscul. Well that one was fantastic.

[bryan_boorstein]: 35:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure it. uh, it just like locks you in right, and in such a way that your hams strings and glues. they just they take all of it without any of the uncomfortable like pulling and yanking on your body That comes with other hipsensia machines. Sometimes,

[aaron_straker]: 35:20

definitely

[bryan_boorstein]: 35:20

um, my, uh, my favorite of the rear delt exercises was for sure, the one where you cross the cables and then row. I had never thought to do that in a row movement before, Like it's always done in the trie movements and in the like rear the the like polapart type movement. But I hadn't thought to like actually use elbow flection when uh, when doing that with the cross cable. So that's one that I'm absolutely going to be putting into Uh to my program because my functional trainer has the low cable where they're really close together and I can cross them over like that. The same, and uh. The purpose of that is that it adds a little bit of Uh. additional tension stimulus at the length and position.

[aaron_straker]: 36:08

exactly. Yup. the

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:09

How about you? What you got?

[aaron_straker]: 36:11

the Oh man. I. I can't even remember the terminology of it too. and one thing that was interesting is like the terminology was would be very. I don't want to say vague, but like hyper specific, so it would be like you know, Cvicular, Peck, press around everything to make like very. you know, uh, easily identifiable, but basically the split squat, right.

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:30

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 36:31

The the split squat where you could really customize it to like. What is the purpose? Where're doing this split squa for? Do we want a lot more quadrucep? You know, Uh specificity, which of course is exactly what I want. We need to set you up like this. And it was really like your stance is going to be so much narrower than you would think in the goals. To really drive that knee

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:53

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 36:54

forward, we were using a a. a wedge to to help uh, facilitate that, and then to basically manipulate Uh with uh, you know, boxes and other wedges whatever to give you room to get your back leg out of the way. And that's something that's like always plagued me. It was like you know, I have really long femers, like My. My knee would hit the ground or something like that, and they're like. This is how we we. We changed that and then I mean, I'd never really loved split squads because it would end up being like kind of taxed my low back, or I would feel it more in like my glut and it's just like I just never had enough. I guess maybe creativity or foresight to manipulate my environment to set it up for my structure, and that was like. I think I did like a set of twelve with the with just like twenty pound dumbbells in each hand. After doing like a warm up in my quads were like ballown the fuck up and I was a holy shit like this is this is this is these are, these are like little. This is game changing things for me in terms of stimulus with just a little bit of creativity and understanding, you know, proper, M, proper mechanic Setu.

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:04

So what was your determined up? So for the less, essentially the idea, our challenge was to create using blocks and wedges to create the most optimal split squad. That would uh, for you, for your structure biased the quads the most. So what was your setu?

[aaron_straker]: 38:21

both feet had had wedges, so front front wedge back wedge and both feet ended up being elevated as well. um,

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:28

Mine was the exact same. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 38:30

yeah, I mean, we're very similar sized.

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:32

cause I had to, so I tried it with just the wedge in the front without the box and my knee hit the ground.

[aaron_straker]: 38:37

same.

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:37

And then we added two of those little boxes, still have the back foot elevated with the wedge, and that just was just right, like my knee would almost touch the ground, but not quite get there. And that was really good. So that's actually how I used to do them. I had them in my cycle like a year ago where I was doing them with the safety bar and I' be holding on to the rack for support

[aaron_straker]: 38:57

I remember that.

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:57

and that's how I had him with the rear foot A on the front foot elevated with the wedge, So I know, Like for me, split squots that are done properly for the quads are just one of the best stimulus that I can get personally,

[aaron_straker]: 39:11

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:11

especially because you and I both have that ankle dorsyflection so we can really get there.

[aaron_straker]: 39:15

Yes, it's It's not an issue like really driving that, Um, and then another one that I really liked that is Comp. that I will change. Moving forward now is when doing split squats, having your back foot the balls of your feet down, instead of laying the top of your foot down from a puer

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:32

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 39:32

stability standpoint because you're much more stable there and then when you're more stable you can increase load and obviously drive. You know more mechanical tenion in that in that way, So and then I would always learn cause like I would try to do it with the the rear foot like that, but I would run out of space because like my rereck Fam would be super stretched. It would pull on my hip. It would twist my you know body because the bench was too high, So it's really just like you just have to be more creative and think outside the box instead of thinking. Okay, I'm doing. You know, rear foot elevateds, butt squats. The picture has a person using a bench. I use a bench, knowing that like that person might have, you know short femers relative to their tibule length or vice versa. And really just understanding, you know, kind of uh, uh, cornely, here that we are all ends of one, and when you understand that you may have different, you know lengths and mechanics than someone elselightly. you may need to change things and modify to better fet your structure in order to elicit the stimulus that you want to

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:33

yeah, for sure, totally agree. I actually think that with the split squat I still prefer the foot flat when I'm doing the hip dominant split squ. Um, 'cause I tryed it. I've tried it both ways and I. I. I feel like there is for sure reason to use the the ball of the foot up when you're trying to lengthen the Rereck Fm in the

[aaron_straker]: 40:53

Mhm.

[bryan_boorstein]: 40:53

back, But when you're lengthening the so offs in the back morere, and you're getting like, Uh, you're going for that hip fllexing component. For whatever reason for me, it just feels, it feels still more comfortable with foot flat. So that is what it is. But that's why I guess one of those things where I won't just like you know, arbitrarily start doing it that way because I was taught that like I still, you know. Make sure that it feels right for me type thing, Um, another, really cool. And this is the movement style that we did, or whatever are using the functional trainer for the the one arm polons. I, I always like I didn't. I always thought that I needed to be like you know, further away from it, Um, but realizing that I can literally be super up close, like literally, the same setup that you can use for your press arounds, you can use for your polar arounds, And so that also makes the the programming and the stability much easier.'cause the further you walk away from the functional trainer, the more you have to use external objects to create stability like benches and things like that. but when you're right in there, tucked inside tight to the functional chainer, and you just kind of brace with one hand and pull with the other. Um, I mean that stability is insane and I, I don't feel like I got any like bad fatigue from those movements. I think I could do a hundred sets of single arm poll ros, and like, barely get sore because they're just like I. I don't know. they just don't feel like ex so demanding on me, at least systemically. Um. but you can also feel that the muscular tissue is just being like, tensed so hard in every wp, Like it's like cramping up in my lumbard lat when we're doing the lumbar lat pull around, Right Lombarlat would be the one where it's about even with the body. So, instead of the cable being up or the cable being down, the cable would be about, even with the body maybe slightly up. I would think slightly up, but not, but definitely not like as high as the Illliac lot. One. Um, that was my favorite one. I mean, it's just like every wrap I did, my elbow would come into my side and I would get like a a cramp in my lap, so that was so cool. I'm going to be for sure incorporating those in.

[aaron_straker]: 42:57

Yeah, so I've had a couple of sessions, Um since and I always have started with those. And that's like one of the small takeos took. I'm like Okay. I'm going to start with some shortened overload movements, Um, a little bit that I can work on practiing these things that I've learned and after the first I was like. Oh, wow, like my las are actually like, kind of sore. and I like. I mean, it's a rarity you, and I've talked about that a lot like my back

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:17

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 43:18

doesn't get sore. Like, unless my low back rate, unless I fuck something up

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:21

right, dead left,

[aaron_straker]: 43:22

and I do too. Yeah, and I do too. much Like the the last time I was driving home from the gym, I did heavy r. d. ls. and then I finished with like two hard sets on the forty five degree hip extension and I had just the lower back pump from hell and

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:33

Yp,

[aaron_straker]: 43:34

I was like trying to get home so bad, and I was like Jenny, You need to fuck and push on my back. I'm like dying right now. Um, so yeah, but with the lats, it's yeah. it's it's rare. so I, I was just I'm just excited. I'm excited. I feel like I have. I. I talked about this very briefly on last episode. A whole new tool box of things to just explore and play within and see, so just

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:52

Yp.

[aaron_straker]: 43:53

super super excited. Anything you want to add? Uh, from exercises on this one before you wrap it up

[bryan_boorstein]: 43:59

No, I have a bunch to talk about programming and you know the other topics for a part, too, but let's save that and I will come back to it.

[aaron_straker]: 44:05

cool. So next week, guys, we will have the follow up part too. to this conversation. I hope you guys get some sweet takeaways from this. If of anything you want to share with Briryn or myself piing us on Ingram, and we will do our best to uh, help you, so thanks for listening.