[aaron_straker]: 0:27

Happy Tuesday, guys, welcome back to another episode of Train Prosper. Today is Bri myself and we are going to be talking around some deload approaches and then potential nutrition strategies you can use to apply to these periods before we jump into today's topic. Brian. want to tell us about the trip back to San Diego and the latest going on?

[bryan_boorstein]: 0:49

Dude, we're in San Diego. That's the most important part. We made it. so regardless of how the trip went, we're here right. Um. but no like overall. Um, it was an a super easy easy trip. The kids were amazing in the car almost the entire way. Um. they slept they played. they watched the eye pad. Whatever stayed pretty cool. Um, I forgot the pack and play for Viviy, who just turned two. So, uh, so of course you know. it's like she's right at this age where um, you kinda begin to transition them out of the crib and into a regular bed anyways, So we were like art. Let's just you know, See what happened. So we had this place. our first air. B and B was Uh, a king bed and two queens s Bry, and took a queen. We got a king and we put Viviy right in the middle of her queen bed, and we stuffed pillows down either side, You know, in case she falls, and she slept twelve straight hours straight through the night. No big deal, loved it. She woke up, she was so excited. She' was like my bed, my bed, like basically owning it. So then the next place we were at, we also had a queen. and and she slept again through the night perfectly. She was so happy and now we're in this place here in San Diego, and again there's a queen bed for her so we didn't even have to bring the pack in play. We just have this like two year old baby that has perfectly adapted to sleeping in an adult bed. now, Um, which is great and makes our life so much easier. and um, let's see we are in San Diego. We have a place right on the beach, which is cool. The weather's been awful, though, Uh, boulder. When we arrived, the boulder was sixty three and sunny and it was fifty five and rainy here. So so we looked at the weather and we werere like. Oh no, we made the wrong decision right. But you know this, like cold storm that se ing through the entire country right now or the northern part of the country.

[aaron_straker]: 2:28

No, I, I did not,

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:29

Um boulder's going. D you didn't know about itcause? You're in Scotsdale,

[aaron_straker]: 2:32

but I'm leaving.

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:33

right, so so literally, Ha, half of the country from like Oklahoma up, is basically going through a massive freeze right now with like endless amounts of snow and cold weather. So boulders going down to like negative, six degrees and getting a bunch of snow. Um, so we're just like super thankful to be here right now.

[aaron_straker]: 2:51

You

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:51

Um,

[aaron_straker]: 2:52

don't say. I had no idea what're leaving next week in a week or no, a week from tomorrow, so

[bryan_boorstein]: 2:58

where are you going?

[aaron_straker]: 2:59

we are driving back across the country to set up in Virginia for a couple months.

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:03

sweet cool? That's awesome. Do you do that the same time of year last year as well,

[aaron_straker]: 3:07

Oh man, in't. I'd have to think about it for like, I, Just the years literally run together. I cannot put them together

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:11

cool. no worries. noories are good. Uh,

[aaron_straker]: 3:15

fast enough.

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:17

you're cool, man. Your cool. I know, you guys had just gotten back from Columbia and you settled in Virginia for a little while.

[aaron_straker]: 3:22

Yeah, I think was that was like in twenty twenty at this point Now, Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:26

Oh, wow. okay, because then you did Denver, and then you did Austin, and

[aaron_straker]: 3:29

Denver, Mexico, Yeah, so it's it's

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:30

then you went to Salt Lake. Yeah. yeah.

[aaron_straker]: 3:32

a lot.

[bryan_boorstein]: 3:35

cool. well, uh, so I've done two sessions now in the gym, San Diego, the Mecca, bodybuilding, and uh, so far so good, I haven't been able to follow my program verbatum Um, which was kind of as expected. The first day was pretty close, aside from the fact that I had a different la cension machine in a different pendulum machine, but I basically emulated it as close as possible, and then uh, today was the one I knew was going to be the toughest one because it's six different movements that all want to use a functional trainer, and uh and I, I just, I knew I wasn't going to be that guy that just like hogged that functional trainer for ninety minutes, but I did jump on it for forty five minutes and got Uh three. Of my movements done and had two people work in with me and it it was cool. Like not a big deal at all. You know, I take long breaks between sets anyways, so um let people work in it. just like arms do their thing. Um, I' adjust it back to my nextck set and alternate back and forth and everyone seemed happy. So Um, so that was a really good kind of first sign in in, you know, doing my best to sustain, Um, as similar of a setup as I can. So that was cool, and then today I actually got to train with Ihaq, who goes to the same gym. And uh, we did a a narly, uh, lengthened overload row with the prime machine is so legitim man, Uh, we basically did uh, like two or three working sets with Um a biased to mid lengthened, So none of the plates are on the short one. They were all on the mid one and the length one, and uh, did two sets there, and then on the third set we did a drop where we went from a mid range overload to like two r i r. and then we moved the plate to the lengthened overload and basically went until we couldn't do any more from that position. And uh, so I got nine reps and then nine reps and so that was a legit. Like, really metabolic, Eighteen reps set, Um, but super fun to play with. Like all this new equipment very similar to like some of the stuff that Cass has, but Um, but overall you know I, I have one hundred percent two days in Miss my home gym. Like I love the the ease of access and having everything I want there. And like no one you know, trying to work in with me or Aj, wreck my flow or anything like that. So um, so two days in this is how I feel, but I feel like as time goes on and on, I'll miss the home gym less, and I'll become more comfortable back working in a commercial gym again, so I'm interested to kind of see how that goes. Um, but I think for the most part that's my updates. What about you

[aaron_straker]: 6:01

Big update. Is I talk about it on on last week episode A little bit. I have client roster spots open. We will be starting in March when this episodeleases so I will say that preferentially. I want to give these co these spots to other coaches, Uh, new and aspiring coaches entering or in the space who really want to take their own physique, education and understanding of functional nutrition, Princi, How that applies to physique? Uh, we apply it to yourself so that you can then learn in, in return, apply it to your clientele. So those are open. Uh, all that information is linked in the show, not on my website. You can find it very very easily. Do you have any questions? please ask me, and outside of that, the other big update is we are leaving Scottsdale, Um on Wednesday March second, So whatever those dates work out to be, Yeah, and uh, driving across the country again, So I'm excited. I, I just like I don't know. It's it's like the adventure, you know, and that's kind of why we started this lifestyle and then twenty twenty One was the first year that like businesses really started taking off and required just a lot more. Like it required a required evolution of of me. how I knew how to run a business, And what I did was throw more time at it because I had more time to give it. So before we would like try and plan like, uh, a little weekend trip every weekend when we were in like other countries, whatever, like it turned into a lot of S. seven days of working. You know, Uh, like there was a period. I think. Um, I remember counting where I had worked Like twenty nine days straight, type or something like that, and it was like Well, this is what I have. like I have to. I don't know what other ways to get it done Like I just going to throw more time at it. Un. Fortunately, I have the time since it's just me pretty much. Um, but I'm excited for like a little an adventure thing is, even if it is just driving across the United States, and we've like, Jenny was just telling me she was like Okay, what 'cause we're going to drive like straight through like Oklahoma City, so that we can spend my birthday in Nashville, which is March fourth. Um, I've never been Uh, so we were like Okay. Where iss there like a cudoba or a chapotley or a Kava, or somewhere easy that W. like we can get good food. and then like stay a hotel right there, and like just go for a little bit a little walk and go to bed. So

[bryan_boorstein]: 8:20

right? Exactly

[aaron_straker]: 8:22

uh, just interesting thinking around. Like how we we plan things like Okay, where's the Cdova around or tripotle? And like, what's the nearest hotel to that? We're going to stay there.

[bryan_boorstein]: 8:32

the important things?

[aaron_straker]: 8:32

Um, yeah, so I'm excited. We have some like audiobooks and stuff lined up some business. Some. I guess, which would be like pleasure. like, uh, like we're going to listen to the Will Smith book, which I, which I've heard was pretty good, Uh, from multiple different people. Uh, which is surprising to me on on the surface level, but uh, I'm excited for it. and then uh, we will be in a very remote and tranquil part of Virginia, which I am itching for a little bit after living in like apartments again, and then just like having to deal with other people's noise at times when I don't want to like when I'm're recording the podcast and the previous place had fucking dogs. It wouldn't stop barking or like here. The people upstairs just stump around at three a M. and

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:16

Yp.

[aaron_straker]: 9:16

just these little things I just don't want to deal with, so I'm I'm excited for it. Um, and just the adventure and then the change. I love the

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:23

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 9:23

change.

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:26

cool. Yeah, we were actually talking about potentially taking the southern route back to Colorado in the end of March when we come back and then seeing you guys, but now you'll be gone so there's a little bit less motivation for that.

[aaron_straker]: 9:35

I, it will not be. I think we're taking the sub. I, I couldn't even tell you to be complete honest, haven't looked. Jenny does a lot of that planning.

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:46

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 9:47

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:47

Do you know If you, so you going to Oklahoma City the first day and then are going from Oklahoma City all the way to Nashville on the next day?

[aaron_straker]: 9:52

I'm to be completely honest. I don't have a clue. Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 9:55

Okay, Yeah, that would be a pretty long trip.

[aaron_straker]: 9:55

I. I just know Okla. Oklahoma City's the first, the first leg and it's like eighteen hours or something.

[bryan_boorstein]: 10:02

Gota cool. Yeah, that's prettyly

[aaron_straker]: 10:05

Yeah, but that was it for me. You ready to jump into? Uh, talking about deloads.

[bryan_boorstein]: 10:10

Yeah, totally. uh. Something you want to, you want to frame it up.

[aaron_straker]: 10:14

Yeah, so I guess. Um, how? I. how I figured we would frame. is, we would obviously approach it from a training standpoint and then from a nutrition standpoint because there are th. I mean, So the interesting thing with Deloads is there's no like there' no Deload blueprint protocol. There are different methods you could do, but really the entire goal is to reduce fatigue right, and give yourself a little bit of a of a bump in uh recovery capacity. In addition to reducing that fatigue that you feel much better going

[bryan_boorstein]: 10:43

Mhm, Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 10:44

into the subsequent week of training. So we're going to handle it from those two two approaches. Then, obviously, like with all proper Eat train pros, episodes will hit some asides or side notes where we can provide more contextual value.

[bryan_boorstein]: 10:58

Yep, cool. cool. Yeah, So as you, as you said, the the Delo doesn't really need to follow a specific, like rules and regulations or anything like that. Um, If you think of a graph where there's like a curve and like that curve represents your accumulated fatigue over the course of your messocycle you're going to start a mesocycle with relatively low fatiguecause. Theoretically, you will have just come off a deloader an introduction week or something like that, and then as your messocycle goes on, and you add weight and wraps or intensity techniques or whatever it is, overt time. Eventually that curve on the graph climbs and climbs and climbs until it reaches kind of like a peak of fatigue. And then that's usually the sign where it's like Hey, my fatigue's really high. Now. I need to do something to deload, but the reason I say that is because if you, I just want you to picture this a graph that has this kind of like uh, upside down Eu curve, Right and the way that you deload is anyway. that's going to be under that curve. So the top of that curve is your peak fatigue. You can deload in any way. That's less than what caused you to get there. Um. so when you look at kind of the different variables that you can manipulate along the way, Uh, primary ones would be volume. That's probably the main driver of fatigue is how much volume you're doing whether you're doing six sets or three sets or one set, or whatever. Um, that volume is the thing that's that's causing you the issue. Um, I think the secondary one to manipulate is intensity, which would be your proxim failure. But you don't have to deload by reducing volume. you could only reduce intensity, or you could only reduce volume and not reduce intensity, or you could take a little bit off of both, and and do less intensity and less volume. or you could just not train. So all of these different ways are ways that get you under that curve and are going to create an environment where you have less fatigue and can therefore facilitate recovery. Any any thoughts on any of that?

[aaron_straker]: 12:59

Yeah, I mean the. I think what's most important there is to do what is going to make the most sense to you, or or I, I, something that I find too so often is like people like fight it because they don't like. For for instance, let's say, let's say you like Love the volume right. It's just like how you train you enjoy. You know, maybe that seventy minutes O in the gym is like you're just time for you and you don't want to cut it to thirty minutes, because now you're taking less time for you, right, Let's just reduce the intensity then right, take those. take those. take a. an A. An approximate similar amount of sets. But now it's just strain to like four reps shy of failure, and then maybe just give yourself a little bit of extra recovery time between sets, or find a a way to you know, take up that same similar amount of time without adding volume, Actually decreasing volume. which we or

[bryan_boorstein]: 13:53

Y.

[aaron_straker]: 13:53

intensity. I'm sorry, and still take that time for you. Or maybe it's like you ride the bike for ten minutes afterwards at like a pair of sympathetic pace or something just to help shift you away from that. Um, really high Court is all driven. You know, Um, proximated a failure style, But it doesn't have to be like. you

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:10

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 14:11

need to completely cut your session in half or something.

[bryan_boorstein]: 14:15

for sure. if you' somebody that just likes that time and it's your time to be in the gym, then you know maybe you are of that mindset like Aarn said, and you don't want to reduce a volume, So then you, Yes, you take a much bigger drop in intensity, but you could reduce volume just by, like you said, Kind of resting more between sets. Um, if you wanted to, and then you can still get that time in the gym to, to you know, fuck around on your phone or people watch, or whatever it is, you like to do. Um, And and that's still your time. but you're able, but you're able to kind of create less fatigue overall. So so that's a really good point. I love that. Um, So kind of some of the common ways that I have deloaded in my life are. Um. I guess the two primary are the. Um, the way that R. P did it. I did that for a number of years because it makes sense to me. essentially what R P does is they, Um, they reduce volume by something like fifty percent. I would call it like forty to sixty percent. It kind of kind of depends on each exercise, but fifty per cents a good safe number. So if you were doing four sets of an exercise the prior week, you drop it down to like two, and then you generally Ca, cut all of your sets to something like you know, six, seven r i r. so that you're not even really getting close to what would be considered effective reps where they fatigue causing, or anything like that. Um, and so, therefore your sessions are are much shorter because you're cutting volume and they're significantly less intense Because you're you're stopping everything like seven, r, i, r. I did this for a while, and I can in retrospect say that it's certainly not my favorite way to Deload, and I'll give you a couple of reasons. Why, Um, psychologically going into the gym with this mindset of trying to do the minimum makes everything feel much harder than it should, and it kind of fucks with me psychologically, So what I mean is like Okay, I'm squatting three, fifteen for ten in the the week before Deload, and it's really hard and it crushes me. So then I, I cut the the weight down to two, seventy five, two fifty, five. Something like that and I do a similar number of reps, because the goal is to leave, you know, seven, r i r or something, So I'm doing two fifty five for ten. That's not easy. That's still a hard set. And because you're in this mindset of oh, I did three fifteen last week. It's deloed. We. This two fifty five should feel really light, and then you go to unracket. You're like What the buck did I just get myself into? You know, so obviously that's less significant on a movement like a curl than it is on a squat. Like you know, you cut the weight on a curl and you cut some raraps on a curl And suddenly it feels like you're just lifting air And that's not really a big deal. Um, but some movements like uh, like a squaw or a pendulum or a leg press like if you take that approach, those are still hard sets and it's not that the hard set is the problem because you can still do hard sets. Like I said, You could still do like one set to failure, and that could be a deload. If you were doing three sets to failure, you're now doing a third of the work that you did the prior week, so that's still a deload. right, Um, so that's not the issue. It's more that psychological piece of expecting things to be light and then they're not light, and so I feel like that doesn't facilitate recovery psychologically and that's one of the biggest pieces of deloading for me is. uh. I, actually, I talked about this on Jordan's podcast. If you, if anyone hasn't check that out, I highly encourage you to check out the one I just did with Jordan Lipses channel. It's called Uh, when optimal meets practical, but we talked for like an hour and a half about hyperchphy and we had a big section on deloads in there, too.

[aaron_straker]: 17:55

I make sure you put that in the show. nots.

[bryan_boorstein]: 17:56

um. but one of the things I, s. yeah, co, um. One of the things I said on there is that I don't remember the last time that I took a Dload, because I had a performance drop where I literally went into the gym and I was like Oh my God, I just lost a wrap, or I can't do the same amount of weight I did the prior week. Like every single time that I decided to deload, it's because psychologically I look at what I'm supposed to do that next week and in my mind I'm like I don't want any part of that. So maybe that psychology that psychological peace is a representation of the fatigue that I'm feeling physiologically. But I never actually get to that point where performance drops so some people could look at me and be like due yourre panzi, Like, whyn't you pushing yourself harder? If you haven't at a performance drop, you're just mentally weak type thing, right, Um, Which is very possible. I mean it's It's very possible that like somebody else with a different mindset could go in and ignore the psychological weariness that they're feeling, and just you know, continue to push through, but in my case, I kind of look at that as like being part of my sustainability in my journey. So if I never get to a point where I'm doing a week of training where I literally just dread it like I, a little anxiety expected. I'm not trying to say you should like look forward to every worko you do, but, but you don't want to dread your workouts. So when I reached that point where I start dreading it to me, that's my sign of like Hey, you know you've been at this six, seven, eight weeks like you probably need this. This decrease in fatigue. whatever that means for you, So thoughts on that,

[aaron_straker]: 19:28

Yeah, I think I like that because it shows one shows the maturity obviously and too, it. I like it much more than the like planned Deloads, and I get they have their their place personally For me. it's just always been harder to follow that because things will, and and I guess the reason I want to say this is because we're all going to be a little bit individualized there. But to me personally, when I follow a new training program, I don't really feel like I'm at cruising altitude of where I'm really like hitting it hard until week three, Right and then if I'm deloading after week forth, I means to get two. like actually true weeks that I'm not just like learning the movement. still making sure I have

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:21

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 20:22

the right load and then deloading. I, I like that approach you you are, or it could be like, And which you say six to eight approximately is what you said we.

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:31

S.

[aaron_straker]: 20:31

That's what I meant. Yeah, weeks.

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:33

yeah, I mean, it usually happens somewhere in there. It could be five. It could be nine, like sixy eights. Pretty average,

[aaron_straker]: 20:40

okay, Yeah, but I, it's it's It's more of a range and I really really like

[bryan_boorstein]: 20:40

though,

[aaron_straker]: 20:45

that approach and I just find personally that has been much more of the norm for me. that being said with my own personal deloads, we've talked about this, Uh previously on Potcasic, my life deloads for me, So like next week we'll be a deload, because I will be in a car driving across the United States. Um, we might train in Nashville on my birthday. That's like something I wanted to do. I want to go the gym on my birthday, just because I like that's what I like to do. But realistically Wednesday, Thursday, maybe lift on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I might get back to the gym by Tuesday, so that'll be two times in the gym when Friday, and maybe Tuesday over that week you know, period, Um, and that happens every three to four months, you know. And like there's there is my de load, then it's a hard deload. And then I will have periods within where I don't have training like I was sick in January right now, I'll have like two full weeks away from the gym within two months of each other within eight weeks, you know, with within an eight week period, two of them have been no gym time, and I, those other like there are parts where life you know deloads for you a little bit as well. So that was like the one kind of the the curve ball. I guess type of deload that can come in is one. your life. We will kind of do it for you.

[bryan_boorstein]: 22:01

so I love how you frame that up and I love that you actually pointed out that you know you have this one week period where maybe you'll get two training sessions in, because that is exactly the type of deal that I was going to talk about next, which is called a frequency deload. So I don't know what your intention is with your like training effort in those two sessions that you might get in during that week. But when I do a frequency deload, I don't change anything. I do the same amount of volume. I do the same amount of intensity. I still work a failure. If that's what my program calls for, I just will do less sessions over more time. so Um, usually my microcycle runs with six sessions over nine or ten days. When I feel like I need to recover. My much preferred method of doing this is the frequency Deloaded, where, instead of six over nine or ten days, I will do six over twelve to fourteen days, and I'll just be based on how much recovery I feel like I need at that point, Um, so literally, a frequency deload is, like I said, my favorite way, but the caveat to that is that a frequency deload only works if you're keeping your program the same, So a lot of times deload weeks act as transitions from one programming style to another. This could be like a shift of stimulus like I'm going into a strength phase or I'm going into a metabolic phase, but it could also just be a a switching of movements. So Um, like man, it's It's very subjective and a lot of this comes from experience. But if I'm changing out a lot of big movements in my program like, maybe I'm going from instead of going from a pendulum for six to eight reps to a pendulum from ten to twelve reps, Maybe I'm like, you know the pendulums coming out this cycle. I'm going heals, elevated back, squat and leg press or something like that, like. in that case a frequency delo doesn't work because you need to have this more gentle reintroduction of these movement patterns back in. Um. So in that case what I really like to do is uh, take some time off, Uh, three or four days off, instead of going in and just going through the motions for a few days, and then I'll have what is what I would is an introduction week. Basically, and in the introduction week I don't treat it like the R P style Deload, where I go in, and just kind of like practice movements at seven, r, I r, Um. I look at it as like What would be a? a, sort of like a week, one effort, maybe so. Like you know, big compound movements are like three to four r i r. but I might just do one set or two sets instead of two or three. Um, but still three to four r i R. And then, as far as isolation movements go like, I really see no reason that you need to sit there stressing about whether you're taking your Dubell, lateral rays or cable spider curls to four r i r, or one r i r. I mean like the amount of fatigue that you're worrying about in that situation is so small that Um, I would just much rather get to one r i r on something like a cable spider Cral. And then that gives me a really realistic starting point for the cycle to be like Okay, I'm at one r r. While I'm going to have some neural adaptations, so I can probably add five pounds this week and five pounds next week. Can still you know, keep one r i r. And then maybe I add five pounds the fourth week and it drops me down to zero r. I r. And then the next week I' do some partials, and maybe some more partials the next week, and then before you know it, I'm at six or seven weeks of my microcycle, and it's basically time to take a frequency deload again. So, um, so I think people really kind of miss the boat with putting too much emphasis on fatigue cost of small isolation movements, especially short, overloaded isolation movements. Like the amount of internet arguments I've heard like dude, Why are you taking your curls to one r, i r on dealo week. It's like it's under the curve, man.

[aaron_straker]: 25:48

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:49

It's less effort than I was doing before you know, Um,

[aaron_straker]: 25:51

a single armed cable girl. It's like that. It's short at the top.

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:53

right, right right, I'm W. really worried about this fatigue cost associated

[aaron_straker]: 25:56

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 25:57

here. Um, so so frequency deload is my favorite. If I, if in cycle, and then, um, a few days off, like half a week and then an introduction week is kind of my preferred method when it comes to to shifting things up and changing stimulus or changing movements and stuff like that. So that's kind of basic. Uh, My preferences of the different delo styles

[aaron_straker]: 26:19

and I would agree one hundred percent on on the ladder of what you said of might preferred way as well, especially considering that introductory week. Um, I know for for me personally, right my when I'm writing like my, my own new programs and itself, I'm testing them right before I will give them to to clients and that sort of thing and that intro week is always like Okay. I put this down on paper. Does it make sense? You know, practically, and what I found with this most recent cycle is I had to reduce my leg volume. I consider black, You and I haveve talked about this. I, I have that leg day that buries me, absolutely buries me with five sets. So I had originally

[bryan_boorstein]: 26:55

y

[aaron_straker]: 26:56

planned like three sets on the pendulum and I'm almos like No, there's no way in hell like after two sets I could go home and have an incredibly productive. uh,

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:04

right, right,

[aaron_straker]: 27:04

Kd's secesion that there's no way in hell I'm doing a third set. Uh, so I, I think it's it's really that introductory period I really really love Because it. It's just you want to see how you respond to it right first, and then you can decide like what volume you may need and you can always add more right if you adapt to that really quickly and you find that you're not getting the stimulus you want, But you don't want to like overcommit in the beginning, and then you're already like your fatigue is accelerating faster

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:36

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 27:37

than your potential rate of adaptation, which you don't want to end up upside

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:40

Yeah, I will say, the the people sor sorry I didn'

[aaron_straker]: 27:41

down in.

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:44

cut you off. The timing iss kind of weird with her. Okay, Um,

[aaron_straker]: 27:44

I was done. Oh, yeah, I was done.

[bryan_boorstein]: 27:48

the one point that the people have that give shit about like you know, or, or very, um, strong proponents of you know four r i r, even on isolations is that at least then you head your bet to the other side and at least you know you're not going too hard and stunting your potential progress going forward. Um. so I mean that might be like supernit, picky and stuff, and it's definitely more of a risk on on like bigger compound movements. Um, so I would much rather see you air on the side of it being a little bit too easy on something like uh, a pendulum or a hackwat or like press? whatever, Um. But I mean, as long as you are are shy of technical fatigue, and you do have room to progress week to week from there, I think he did find. And then another thing you said is that, Um, you like to use that introduction week as kind of a way to find tune things, And that's a really good point, because I feel like every time I do one of these introduction weeks, and I, you know, change the stimulus or change movements, Et cetera, Um, I do find myself kind of shifting things from what my plan was throughout that intro week, so I'll be like, Ooh, I program this many sets, but I think this money is fine or like I chose this rap range, but I. Think I'd rather use this Rep range, or uh, I paired these two movements together. I think I'd rather pair these two and then keep these two together. So there's just little like logistical things that that inchro week is really good for. Because once you get into work weeks you don't want to be messing with stuff 'cause you don't want to mess with your diagnostics. Um, so intra week is a really good. A good. a good thing to do there,

[aaron_straker]: 29:13

Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:14

Um, and then one other thing you have any thoughts on that. No

[aaron_straker]: 29:16

I was just going to say like there', there's theory in what looks good on paper. And then there's like your application, and when you're in the

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:22

practicality. yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 29:23

practicality when your balls deep in it here like Okay, good on paper is not good for right now. Let's

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:29

y. Yep,

[aaron_straker]: 29:29

make some adjustments.

[bryan_boorstein]: 29:31

yeah, and then, uh, one other kind of type of delo that I think is is worth mentioning. Um, and Eric Helmes talked about it on on our podcast as well. is. Uh. he actually likes to to max out. He makes it an Am rarap week. So if he was in the week before Deload, doing you know, four or five sets of bench press at one r, i r, or something along those lines, Um, what he would do in his deal old week is, he would just go to one set from four or five. But he would take that set to the house and basically test himself and go to failure. But because he's doing one set instead of four or five sets or whatever, that's significantly uh, lower fatigue under the curve. So for him that keeps him excited to do le deload weeks, he's like, Oh, snap. it's my duald week. Like I don't have that that mental psychosis of the way is supposed to feel light, Because you're actually going in with the opposite mindset of like Yo. I'm about to go ham on this bench press right now. Um. But then you just do one set and then you know you're done and you move ont to your next movement and kind of do the same thing, so significantly lower volume approach. But it works because Uh, the volume is the primary driver of fatigue cost. So Um, so that's certainly one option. And then I kind of took a similar idea, and in the most recent Paragon cycle we're doing a metabolic phase where we just transition from a strength phase to a metabolic

[aaron_straker]: 30:53

I've heard

[bryan_boorstein]: 30:54

phase And so one of the things we're doing is Uh, the I. R, M method from N, one on on, Uh, the leg extension and a few other movements. But basically what you do is you take your fifteen ret max, and then you do between six and eight sets of eight reps. With that fifteen ret max. you only rest thirty or forty five seconds between sets. So by the time you get to like the six seventh eighth set of that sequence you're you're up against it right. So for the deload week for the metabolic phase I just bay was like, Hey leg extensions. you're working up to a fifteen r M. One set. That's it. we're finding our fifteen r M. And then that way when we get to weak one, we're already like Okay, Now you're going to do six sets of eight with that fifteen r m that you established the prior week. Whereas if I just had people going through like this, nonchalant deload of like, let's just go through the motions and leave seven reps in the tank on our leg extensions, Well then we get to weak one and now I need to use weak one to find your fifteen ret maxs. So it was just a much more efficient use of our time, and we still accomplish the goal of keeping fatigue under the curve of where we were before.

[aaron_straker]: 31:57

it very very co. It's a very practical implementation of that cliente Immediately find okay like this is the purpose of this for next week. Now you know that's very, very cool. I have heard a lot from my clients who use Paragon about the metabolic face that they have adjusted to multiple people.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:16

That's really.

[aaron_straker]: 32:17

Felt it was important enough to bring up in theircks and it was pretty funny.

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:22

Yeah, it's been Bruto man, like more and more comments of like you know, the gift of the baby giraffe trying to walk like just that, Think its posted over and over again.

[aaron_straker]: 32:30

Yeah, cool. Anything else?

[bryan_boorstein]: 32:33

So yeah, what I'm really curious about is, Um, obviously the nutrition side of it, but like how might the nutrition differ not just based on phase of whether you're in fat loss or surplus, but based on like the type of deload that you're doing right. So if you're taking like just a week off, or you're doing a frequency Dload, where the stimulus doesn't change at all, versus pulling all the way back versus doing an intro week, kind of like these different models. And if you think that there' any reason that you would even want to worry about the nutrition during that, or if it's just kind of like, Hey, stay the course of your goal type thing,

[aaron_straker]: 33:10

That's the way I I wanted to. uh, I look at it and I wrote it out and think it's most practical to talk about Because there could be some. I'm sure I don't want say there could be there Should be. Let's say that some variance between you're doing like a frequency D a deload versus a you know intensity sort of thing. However, I think it's secondary towards two your like periodization goal that you that you're currently, and I think that is what. what would make the most amount of sense. So how I have it broken out as in uh, maintenance, fat loss periodization and then a surplus or gain. I didn't. I purposely didn't include recovery dieting and reverse diting pizations because generally these we have a like an increasing youre you're transitioning out of like a low energy availability state into an increased energy availability state.

[bryan_boorstein]: 34:02

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]: 34:02

Fatigue is generally decreasing because we're ending dieting in your runways just longer. There. Because of all these other, I don't want to say more impact full, but you have these other large moving pieces that are like adding fuel to your recover your proverbial, you know, recovery, fire type thing. Does that make sense

[bryan_boorstein]: 34:19

yp, Yep, yep,

[aaron_straker]: 34:20

cool? So with maintenance I recommend keeping calories the same Um. Whether you went wither, you're doing any of the The The Deloads specifically because the at a surface level, the point of maintenance is staying the same right. So we want to reduce Um. external variables that were adding into it because we know that there is some degree of auto regulation that takes place at maintenance. anyway. there might be a couple of days We are a little bit over your calories dazery, or a little butt under same thing. Let's say we're doing like a. Um. a volume. deload. Maybe be instead of four hundred calories per workout. you're burning three hundred. you know. Over those. Let's say you're training four times per week. four hundred calorie minus under an entire week. It's it's negligent. We're talking tenths of a pound. Maybe so. In Terms of that, that auto regulation is going to keep you the same and it just helps. Uh, simplify the process right, and generally periods of maintenance. they are much less often used because people actually want to stay the same. It's basically like giving your body time away from a calorie deficit. Usually, or you're in like a primeer phase or something like that going into the next one in a fat lost phase. so I broke this out into kind of two separate parts. The first is if you have been seeing consistent progress in this fat loss phase because there people you can be in fat loss and okay, I've been dieting for five weeks. I'm down like two pounds. I wouldn't really say could call that like a consistent progress. Um. so I would actually recommend if you are, have been dieting for at least like four, six, eight weeks and you have been seeing like consistent progress. I' would recommend bringing calories up to what would be an estimated maintenance based off this new lower body weight for that period, and we will kind of use it as a brief, like Um, Rec, kind of like a diet break face,

[bryan_boorstein]: 36:21

hey,

[aaron_straker]: 36:21

Um. It's kind of like a pseudo recovery fatigue period that we wrap up in terms of reducing what I'm looking for reducing volumete, and increasing increasing decreasing fatigue, and then also increasing your recovery capacity from a diet standpoint to then prolong the amount of Um you can potentially have before your next. What? looking for de load? there you go and then if you on the other side of that, if you haven't been seeing a consistent progress, I would suggest keeping your calories lower and maybe tightening things up a little bit. Maybe be reducing your frequency of free meals or really hammering sleep or stress management and reducing stress in other capacities. That could be why you are not see the rate of progress you want to be on your calorie deficit, So that's the the two um aspects there. Yeah, Bri got

[bryan_boorstein]: 37:23

so I want to throw out an idea that I've heard being talked about a lot regarding nutrition and Deloades, and I think the common sentiment is kind of like what you said if you're in a fat, Los, phase is kind of bringing those calories back up to maintenance so you can really get that recovery going and. Prioritize that and kind of come back Youresh. But in theory, if you know that the week before your deload is your hardest week, you know that you're pushing as hard as you can. your volume potentially is at its highest. What about the idea that you bring your calories back up to maintenance that week to facilitate muscle growthrophy? Give your body the nutrients that it needs to get through this super tough period of training and then when you go into the Deload week where either efforts are lower, or you're just straight up off the gym, you can kind of go back into that fat lost ph and give yourself something to focus on, maybe mentally during a period of time where you're not at the gym, kind of working toward that goal that way,

[aaron_straker]: 38:29

my only in in theory. I think that's It's a fantastic theory. Th. it requires you to commit to your De load prior. because

[bryan_boorstein]: 38:39

Hm,

[aaron_straker]: 38:40

let's think like Okay. it's Monday and I'm like I've that that. like, let's say it's Monday right and I've been planning a deload for the next week, right to the like, seven days in the future from right now, So I'm going to increase my calories through this increased calories. Maybe I sleep a little bit better. Obviously my recovery is a little bit better. I can fuel my training sessions a little bit better. I go through that week, and like man, I feel great. Maybe I don't

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:06

I don't. Need to deal it anymore? Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 39:06

need a deload exactly, so it's a slippery slope. because then you might be like. What's there's? a. There's a term for that like it's like. Oh, this, like just a little bit more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more. And then before you know it, you're like in the hole trying to chase that feeling from like three weeks ago, so that would be like my only

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:22

right.

[aaron_straker]: 39:23

rebuttal to that. But if you are someone who like plans right, and you know like Hey, it's weak eight. I am deloading. I think that could be an A. A, a reasonable approach, as long as you can can stick to it.

[bryan_boorstein]: 39:34

Yeah, that's kind of how. Yeah, that's kind of how I like. because mentally and psychologically like knowing myself. I kind of can tell like Okay. I have like one more week in me and then I'm probably going to you know, Go to de. I to need a deload or frequency or whatever it is. Um, so that's generally what I do in a fat lost face is during the hardest week of training, I will increase calories a little bit, and then you know the reason I said mentally or psychologically during the delo, to give you something to focus on, Because when I am out of the gym, I tend to also not be as reliable with my nutrition. Um, and it's also like two hours of the day. where, or an hour and a half or whatever it is where I'm not working out, so I'm sitting there potentially thinking about food, and like other ways to to to to mess my progress up. So so giving me that de load week to be like, Hey, this is you just increase calories last week, so you have to. If you want to hit your goal like you have to be focused during this period of time, it kind of gives me something else to focus on. I become a little more focused on food prep. Um, I go for more walks like. I kind of have this goal to to work towards when I'm not in the gym, working towards the goal type thing. So, so that could be a me thing, but I've also heard a number of people on the internet kind of theorizeed about this idea is potentially being more beneficial. Um, and I know I've heard varying opinions on it. So I was curious on your thoughts

[aaron_straker]: 40:59

Yeah, and kind of like the the entire discussion we're having it's there's no, like hard and fast Rule Like this is how you deload. It's more like guidelines. and these are frameworks you can use to. I mean the entire goals to is to to reduce fatigue. Right So there, there are definitely a bunch of different approaches that. I think some of them are just cool to explore and find out like which ones will work for you personally, knowing myself in my like tendencies, I would be that person that like chases that last week like. Oh, I don't need a deal Now like this this week was great. Maybe I, you know, and then it would turn into like four weeks of that and I'm like I feel terrible. Like why I just take that deload.

[bryan_boorstein]: 41:40

right. Well, so I think you would have to lower your calories again right? So like, even if you're feeling like Superman coming out of that peak week, then it's like Okay. Well, you're probably not going to get multiple weeks of that in a row because you ultimately have to drop those calories back down to continue working toward your fat law, Like I could see if that was maybe the end of a fat loss phase. And then you're like reverse diting and ramping calories up where that could become a slippery slope. And you're like suddenly at eleven weeks, and you're like I still don't need the deload type thing. But

[aaron_straker]: 42:07

I don't know.

[bryan_boorstein]: 42:08

if you're like jumping right,

[aaron_straker]: 42:09

I don't know that. Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]: 42:10

if you're jumping right back into fat loss, your body should be like Hey, like I don't feel great. I need some time. you know,

[aaron_straker]: 42:16

exactly. yeah. Yep, um, the last one to talk about is then, uh, gaining periods or surplus. So what I put here is everything depends on your rate of gain. So, if you are within your anticipated rate of gain and I pulled some um, approximate intermediate and advanced numbers, so that would be approximately if you are in an intermediate, one to like one and a half per cent of your total body mass per month, and then for an advanced, about approximately half of a per cent of total body mass per month. Uh, running those numbers at my current size, I'm I'm advanced. Ah, that would be around a little bit under a pound per month, and that is pretty realistic with what I shoot for these days. so if you are within those anticipated rates of gain, I would recommend that you drop to what would be an estimated maintenance for your deload. Um, especially if hunger or appetite isn't going to be there personally. That's a big one for me when I am in surplus or gaining phases. I almost look forward to those days off just because I'm so sick of eating so much food and my appetite drops considerably on rest days, and it would be hard, or you may potentially need to reduce your food quality, potentially pushing you outside the bounds of that rate of gain, because you're not sending that true. like hyperchrophy. You know, adaptation, signaling muscle protein to Thisis signal because your training is produced. Um, So that's the first part. if your rate of gain is lacking. If you are behind on those rates of gain, Sorry, you got to keep eating pre straight forward. There. this could be a. This could be a potential scenario to help you catch up to

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:08

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]: 44:08

that rate of gain.

[bryan_boorstein]: 44:11

do you yourself or with your clients and all, I guess, do anything additional, and youalad weeks, like, get more steps in or anything like that.

[aaron_straker]: 44:20

It depends on the person. so there's if someone is like very high stress. And if they're not going to, and like they're not going to go the gym, they're just going to work more or something like that. I will try and get them getting steps just to help shift into that pair of sympathetic nervous system. If they are someone who generally has like a really high amount of steps, I'm just going to try and get them to chill more like watch some Netflix, Maybe sleep a little bit extra, like just relax, because we don't like. we just don't need the extra activity. It almost kind of defeats the purpose for someone who's super superactive, so it really depends uh, upon the person personally. I will fall into that like I, I just won't do anything. I won't leave the house. I'll just sit in my sweat pants all day long and sit like right here at my fucking computer from seven a m until nine p M. and do nothing else, so for me I'm like, Yeah, let's just go outside and get out of the Goddmn house. You know what I mean? Uh, so it. It really depends on the person is how I handle it from a coaching standpoint.

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:23

Yeah, very interesting. Um, cool. Well, I, uh, I haveve been racking my brain to see if I had anything else to say and I think we. we slave that one. pretty well.

[aaron_straker]: 45:32

I think we slay the deloads pretty good. So a lot of different, uh, very realistic and reasonable approaches from both the training standpoint, the nutritional standpoint, and then a little bit of just from like a stressed standpoint in the type of person you are too

[bryan_boorstein]: 45:46

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]: 45:46

approaching that. And I think the ultimate thing is like you can't really go wrong as long as you don't skip them, Which is saying a lot, 'cause a lot of people skip them myself. Included. I was someone who didn't just, I just never did. ' because I thought I needed to do more more and more. Um, Conversely, there, kind of what I want to say is uh, eventually I learn that it's it's complete opposite right When you, when you scale back and take it you' then like leap frog forward, as opposed to just increasingly, uh, uh, contracting your diminishing returns as you try and do more and more

[bryan_boorstein]: 46:19

Yeah, this might actually be a really good time to reiterate that study that I've talked about a few times on Herecause, And it's um. It's great for people that kind of feel hesitant to take time off or worry about vacations and stuff like that. So man, I wish I knew the author, but um, basically what they did is they had two groups. One group worked out for twenty four weeks straight, and then the other group went six weeks on three weeks off, six weeks on three weeks off, six weeks on. And what they found is at the end of the twenty four weeks that both groups had the exact same gains and strength muscle mass. Um, and these people literally took off six weeks out of a T, a twenty four week period and trained for eighteen weeks. So, um, whether that's because you know you don't lose much in a short amount of time, or maybe it's that you gained back whatever you lost really really quickly. Whatever the answer is, it doesn't really matter because at the end of the day you're going to be right back where you were And uh, if that deloaded, Maybe maybe that deal you know, didn't allow you to work forward a little bit a little bit more. But what it did was keep you sustainable, and potentially, as a result of the study, you didn't actually lose anything. So so mentally it maybe helped you physically. It maybe helped you and you lived life more. so, um, so don't be scared of delods. Don't be scared to time off and understand that it's kind of what you do, the like forty five weeks of the year and not the fifty two weeks of the year. That that really matter? It's the consistency.

[aaron_straker]: 47:43

y, exactly such a fantastic note to end on. So that guy's thank you for listening, Brian and I, we'll talk to you next week.