[Aaron Straker]: 0:29

What's up guys, happy Tuesday. Welcome back to another episode of Eat, Train, Prosper. In this episode, Brian and I are just gonna cover some things that have been on the top of our mind. For those of you that do not follow my social media activities, I have been, I guess by myself for about a week now, traveling back as I settled back home here in Bali, but I had a little stopover a few days, like three days in Hong Kong, and I've really just spent. literally seven days not speaking to anyone besides myself, besides like ordering food or signing up at the gym. So I've just had a lot of time to sit and think and then it's been quite revealing for some things. So we're gonna touch on some of the things off the top of my mind, touch on some of the things off the top of Brian's mind, but like always, Brian, can you kick us off with some updates, please?

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:16

Yeah, I feel like the updates are like a lot of the things on my mind So it all kind of maybe blends together and it's all just like one big running chat topic, chat GPT in my head or something like that. But yeah, dude, I love the time that I used to get away from Kim and not because I don't want to be around Kim, but because like you kind of alluded to that time where you are by yourself and you're not speaking to people really is a time where A, you can just do what you want and you don't have to like check in with anybody, which is really nice. But it's also time for you to explore like what's going on inside your head. And as you... as we'll discuss on here, I know you've been getting 30,000 steps a day or more. And when you're just going around doing that, exploring things, there's a lot of like self-talk that also kind of occurs along the way. And so I'm excited to hear kind of everything that's been going on with you. So I have a decent amount of things here that are on my mind. I'll just kind of start with one or two of them and pop it over to you and we can kind of create a dialogue out of this. But... The first thing on my mind is that a cast just hit me up last night as I was going to sleep and said that Milo is going to be in town today, uh, doing some collab stuff with N1. And, uh, I knew Milo was in the U S cause he just posted that he was in New York with Schoenfeld doing something. Um, but now apparently he's at N1 today. So, uh, my plan is to get up there and, uh, say what up to Milo. Unfortunately, uh, or, or if it's unfortunate or not. But as I mentioned on the last episode, I'm getting this really thorough blood panel done on Thursday, which is two days from now. And so yesterday, which was Monday, was my last day training. I did kind of a moderate effort, deload a full body session, knowing I wasn't gonna train again for three or four days. Also got a really solid zone two session in. I have some additional. discussion points around cardio as we get going. But that was pretty much my last workout of the day. So today I'm either gonna like just very casually bike up to N1 and say what up to Milo or maybe even just drive so I don't exert any energy. And the plan for the next couple of days is just to do 10 or 12,000 steps and stay away from any weights for anyone that missed the last episode. I had just found out in the last couple months that you're supposed to take a few days off of intense training before blood work, specifically for kidney markers, liver enzyme markers. And then I think things like oxidative stress and reverse T3 and stuff like that are probably affected by training at some level as well. So my plan is to... just kind of chill these next few days and then get ready for my new cycle that's starting on, I guess officially for everyone else following the program, it'll be starting on Sunday, June 4th, because I will have taken three or four days off. I'm probably gonna start this thing the day that I do my blood work and come home and do a session right after that. But I'm excited to see what, say what up to Milo today, see Cass and just kind of spend the next couple days working a bit and... And that's really all I got on my mind at the moment. It looks like Aaron just popped off. So I'm not sure if he's having internet connection issues for the moment. So let me try and just continue with some discussion points here. So after I, oh man, where is this document? Sorry guys. Yeah, so Aaron's having some internet connectivity issues, I think. But basically, on uh... There he is, Aaron's back. Hey buddy.

[Aaron Straker]: 5:30

Yeah, I don't know what happened.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 5:33

Um, did you catch anything that I was saying or are you just freezing?

[Aaron Straker]: 5:37

I did and then

[Bryan Boorstein]: 5:39

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 5:39

it kicked me out.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 5:41

Okay.

[Aaron Straker]: 5:41

I don't so.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 5:41

Well, I was just finishing up talking about, um, talking about going to end one and seeing Milo and taking the next few days off for blood work. So, um, I was just going to kick it over to you from here.

[Aaron Straker]: 5:55

Yeah, so the biggest thing for me is my month long trip back to the US and then obviously the few days in Hong Kong. At the end of that is over and in my notes here I had in parentheses like thank God. And it's been like an internal battle because at one point, like on one hand, just like three or four years ago, like doing this was a dream. You know what I mean? Like to be able to go back, spend a week in Denver. Like have the money to rent a car and pay for an Airbnb and stuff while we're still paying rent here and just be free. It was a dream and now I've been able to do those things. Obviously see my mom and sister who I haven't... I saw my mom last year, but I haven't seen my sister in four years. But then it was kind of overshadowed with the fact that right now and in my current phase of life, I am very, very goal oriented. And I think a little bit of that is like, I'm really enjoying the business side of things with clients and delivering results and that sort of thing. I'm really enjoying like swinging for the fences on my own physique and pushing this gaining period and stuff. I know that time is of the essence per se and as we age, things don't get any easier. You're not doing yourself any favors as things get, as you get older. And just the time, which we're gonna talk on a little bit more is like, I literally made zero progress for an entire month, like zero progress. My weight average only continued to slide. And that was very, very frustrating for me. And I just realized like I'm at a period in my life where I just wanna work on goals. And I literally want to just eat, train, work. have like one or two meals per night where I hang out with Jenny and we catch up and shit and that's all I'm really interested in doing. And this was like an entire month of everything kind of but that, like suboptimal training sessions, doing the best I can of like getting meals in, but just being on the go, seeing friends, family, like timings off, being in different equipment, lots of hours back and forth in the car and then it just frustrated me. you know, more than I should say it should have, but it really did quite frustrate me.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 8:21

Yeah, I mean, I guess you really do have this like sweet spot, this pocket of time before you guys like move back to the US have kids and and life happens and stuff. But I mean,

[Aaron Straker]: 8:32

Exactly.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 8:32

like, like, like, I understand and I empathize with your plight. But at the same time, I think there's a number of people listening right now that would be like, Oh, poor Aaron, like he takes a month to travel the US and he loses weight because he can't get all his meals in and like. You know, it's like it could be the opposite way where you go on vacation and suddenly like you know, you gain a bunch of pounds because you're eating like crap and you're not being active and like all this stuff. And so yeah, I guess there's there's two sides to that coin a little bit.

[Aaron Straker]: 9:03

Yeah, and I get that part as well. But I mean, the really funny thing I find with that is like, I lived that life. You know what I mean? I had that office job, you know, slinging code and that sort of thing. The best example I really love is back when I still had my nine to five and everything like that, I had a friend group and the one friend, his name is Jordan, he was an entrepreneur and he did different things and stuff like that. And one of the running jokes is he never knew what day of the week it was. And one of the things that people would be like, must be nice, must be nice Jordan to not know what day of the week it is. But like the funny thing is like now, and if it's not Monday or Tuesday, I forget sometimes, especially like Wednesday through Friday, I mix up, especially when Thursday and Friday, I get mixed up a little bit. And the reality there is like, if you are someone you're like, oh, yeah, must be nice Aaron, like do these things. Like Roll the dice, quit your job, sell your car, cancel Netflix, Amazon, sell your shit. Take the jump and then when you've gone on the other side of it, you have the freedom to complain and those sorts of things because Brian and I, we took the jump. We took that leap and bet on ourselves and we're fortunately on the other side of it, but we've touched on in other episodes. There was a lot of... ups and downs, especially in the beginnings sort of thing. So it's always like hindsight is always kind of 2020 and looking back on it. But

[Bryan Boorstein]: 10:36

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 10:36

it was, like you said, I'm in a pocket before life like gets real for real. And I know I'm never going to have this time again. So I'm really just trying to be of the, capitalize on it per se.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 10:49

Yeah, well for sure. And one of the positives, I guess, to like when you do settle down and you do have kids and you have like a home base and stuff like that, is that yeah, you have the kid and that's going to have like some impact on the amount of time that you have to like build your business and potentially train and whatever, but it also has the positive benefit of actually like keeping you in one place. And so you don't have a lot of these experiences where you're out traveling around. at the peril of whatever the food is that's available. Like you literally are going to live in just as a structured of a manner as you are now, which I think is one way in which like, Father Aaron is going to be pretty conducive to like Aaron's goals. And so there's certainly gonna be challenges, you know, along the way with having kids too. But I think that that lifestyle is actually gonna be pretty in line with the way that you want to live with the regimented style that you have.

[Aaron Straker]: 11:48

Yeah, and the really funny thing is... It's not at least how I perceive it. It's not like I'm like, I mean, I want that routine. It's just how I do better, I've found. You know, like in theory, we all want the like, oh, just eat, you know, whatever you feel like and like have work whenever you want to, work at the beach, you know, like all that. Like

[Bryan Boorstein]: 12:14

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 12:14

I tried that, I'm fucking miserable. I

[Bryan Boorstein]: 12:17

Hehehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 12:17

hate it. I'm unproductive. Like I don't feel good. I don't look. I'm not happy about how my physique is. It really stems from just how I do better. I thrive on routine and it's not really sexy, but it does feel a lot better for me.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 12:39

Yeah, interesting.

[Aaron Straker]: 12:40

One of the things I have a little bit later on, but we can just rope this in now, I have here one of the silver linings about getting older is you find out more. about yourself. And I know like in, for example, like I touch on, like I haven't talked to anybody besides very, you know, minor interactions in like seven days now. Before, like if I was like in my mid-20s, whatever, I would try and force myself to go like socialize. You'd be like, oh, you're being too introverted. You need to go like do these things and like meet people. But now I realize like I'm really perfectly content with just having conversations with myself in my own head. for like days on end. And

[Bryan Boorstein]: 13:23

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 13:23

so much so to the point where like on the one day in Hong Kong, I was like, I wonder how long it would take me to feel lonely. Like, I don't really know. You know, like me and Jenny will be apart for like two weeks by the time she gets back. And then later this year, we may be apart for a month. And I'm really like curious. I'm like, I wonder how long it will take me to be like, I'm lonely. I'm gonna go try and have like social interaction. I'm afraid at what... how long

[Bryan Boorstein]: 13:49

Hehehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 13:49

that might actually go, you know? But it is something that I found, like you just feel a lot more like comfortable with yourself as opposed to trying to change things about yourself. And like, don't get me wrong, there's things, of course, I always want to improve upon, but then there's like some personal characteristics that I'm like, I'm okay with this. It's no longer something that I want to actively try and like change. I just enjoy spending time by myself.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 14:17

Yeah, it's interesting that you put it as like a silver lining of getting older, learning more about yourself. Cause like, while that is true, I often look at it and feel like as we get older, we get more stuck in our ways because we know more about ourselves. And we're like, well, I like things this way and I want this to be this way. And like you get all cromagony when things don't go your way, you know? And so it, there is something beautiful about being young where you just like are so and ready for any experience. Like Kim and I were lamenting on this the other day how we need so much introverted time now because everything is so busy with work and kids and social life and everything that we really value that time where we have nothing to do. But when you're younger, it's like, man, you were just always looking for something to do. Like if you're sitting around in your college apartment or post-college apartment and you're just like, shooting the shit, watching the TV by yourself. you're always just ready for someone to shoot you a text and be like, bro, you want to go to the bar? You want to go like play disc golf or whatever it is, like any opportunity to get up and do something. And it doesn't even matter if like it fits in line with your goals or your vision of yourself, because you're still forming that vision of yourself. It doesn't really even exist. It's like at the peril of those are around you and they're helping you form this vision of yourself. And so anyway, I thought that was kind of an interesting dichotomy.

[Aaron Straker]: 15:42

Yeah, and I guess the thing that I'm gonna kind of turn this into is one of the downsides, I would say, to getting older is you're less impressionable. And this is something that I have here in one of my notes about Hong Kong. But if you remember, like, so something that's very pivotal for me, and I was just explaining this to someone last week. When I was like... I think this song came out in 94 or 95, so I'm like seven-ish, maybe eight, the Nas and Lauryn Hill, If I Ruled the World song and that

[Bryan Boorstein]: 16:21

Yep.

[Aaron Straker]: 16:21

music video. I vividly remember where I was sitting when I watched that, and I just remember being like enamored by how cool it was in the music and that was the fire start of my life long. enjoyment of listening to like rap and hip hop music and that sort of thing. In those moments of when you're like super impressionable as you get older, they get so much smaller because there's just less to experience, you know, for

[Bryan Boorstein]: 16:50

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 16:50

the first time. And then when I was in Hong Kong, what was really cool and obviously kind of challenging is when you're in a completely foreign culture, you know, when you're by yourself and you don't really know things. You there's new impressionable moments again, which was like really, really cool. Being able to experience something for the first time in the, in the, the kind of the notes I wrote down is I went to get sushi a few times because it was like a familiar food and I was out all day long and I know it's not gonna potentially crush my stomach and create a 911 scenario. So I'm like, I'm gonna go with safe options. Sushi there is done a little bit differently in that you go in and you don't have like a server. You just order either from like an iPad at each table or in the second place, like they just handed me like a QR code with like my seat number on it. And I ordered from my phone, but I go in and I'm like, oh, just for one, they sit me at like the sushi bar. They sit me next to a straight up child, right? I'm between like a man and his son on one side. On the other side of me is like an eight year old girl. So immediate and I'm like. where is this girl's parents? You know what I mean?

[Bryan Boorstein]: 18:00

Hehehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 18:00

I'm like, we cannot communicate, nor am I going to even try to communicate with this child. That's another thing about getting older. Like you just can't speak to random children anymore. So I'm like, not even gonna approach that.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 18:11

Be like a creepy American trying

[Aaron Straker]: 18:13

Yeah,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 18:13

to do it.

[Aaron Straker]: 18:14

yeah, I'm like, okay, I'm not even gonna look to my left, but I'm thinking like, who just lets this child eat sushi by themselves

[Bryan Boorstein]: 18:20

Hehehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 18:21

sort of thing. So it's first. And then... I figure out how to order. I'm like, okay, that worked out pretty straightforward. But then I noticed there's like, the drink menu was like limited to like soda and then like random other things. I'm like, I just want some water or tea. And I'm like looking around and there's like a little dispenser of hot water in front of me. And I have a teacup, but I have nothing else. So I'm just like, okay, maybe there's something I'm missing here. So I'm kind of just like looking around at people and I see this lady like shaking something into like the tea mug. So I'm like, okay, do I have one of those? I do, I open it, it's like pulverized green tea leaves. Ah, okay, I put the powder in the cup and then I push the hot water dispenser and now I have green tea. Like, okay, figured that one out, right? And then the next part of it is like your food, your sushi comes out on like these trains on a tray in front of you. And I'm just sitting there waiting and all of a sudden like food like stops in front of me and I'm like, oh fuck, this is my food. And I'm like.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 19:22

Hehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 19:22

Do I grab it fast enough? And there's just so many brand new concepts and you're trying not to fuck things up. And yes, people speak English there, but it's not great. And it's in a very thick accent. So I was like, I'm going to try and rely on that as least as possible. But it felt like I was playing a puzzle of like, okay, I want sushi, I'm gonna order it. There's these pieces I have to put together to figure it out. But it all worked out and it was just like, like that was a little bit nerve wracking in the moment, but it was a brand new experience that I got to like figure out for the first time. And like, you

[Bryan Boorstein]: 20:01

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 20:01

know, I was saying like those, the times that those opportunities present themselves get fewer and fewer as we get on. So, I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 20:09

I actually like fully resonate with that completely. And I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but toward the end of the period of time where Anders and I owned the gym and before I had my first child, so we're talking like 2015, 16-ish, I fell into this like super repetitive, monotonous approach to life where it just felt like every day was Groundhog Day almost. And I lacked a lot of I would call awe and wonder. And you called it like impressionism or I can't remember exactly the words you used, but like I really felt like I lacked that awe and wonder. And that's one of the things that I think as you get older, you can only get in a few ways. And traveling is one of the amazing ways in which you can just feel kind of like a child again, like. this awe and wonder around you, like the unknown. Like you go somewhere and you're just like, I don't know what I'm in for in this moment. And so having kids is another example of that, of like every day you wake up and I mean, in many ways the days are the same, but in many ways they're also very unpredictable. And so I love that aspect of traveling and how it really kind of forces you outside your shell. And like we've talked about, it's like getting on your bike for the first time and going for a ride or. doing something that you did as a child, you know, so that actually parlay's me into this next discussion point, which is I just bought Kim a bike or we bought Kim a bike the other day and she hasn't actually ridden a bike in five years, maybe even more since we were in San Diego. So we brought her beach cruiser to to Boulder with us and it sat in our garage and it has not gotten used a single time. I just want to like pump this thing to the curb because It takes up so much room and we're never going to use the stupid beach cruiser. So we, uh, so we went out and we bought her like a really nice mountain bike. It was actually, it's actually nicer than my bike, which I had some hesitation about, um, but we have this friend here in town that's a mountain biking coach. And that's like her job is she was a professional mountain biker. And she was like, whoever's the worst biker should have the nicer bike so that it evens out the playing field. And of course I'm just like, Oh, but my bike was $2,000. Like really, how much nicer do we need to go? You know? Um, but we got her a bike and we took her out biking and we did a really, I showed her around the trails of Boulder. Like we didn't do any dirt biking or gravel or anything. We just stayed on paved and she got to like go out and bike. And, um, we did 12 and a half miles her first day. And it was like, she, she noted that she noted that experience of like, wow, this is like being a kid again. And like, This is so invigorating, you know? And then to her credit, I think I was a little condescending because I was like, look, when I zone two, this is how fast I go. And I don't think you're gonna be able to keep up with me because, you know, whatever, whatever. And she's like, I have been Pelotonning. I am in good cardiovascular shape. Like don't tell me I can't keep up with you, you know? And we almost got in like a mini fight before going because I was like, look, I keep 180 watts and I need to keep 180 watts or I fall out of zone two. And so eventually I just basically decided that I was gonna approach this day of rioting with her, not trying to get in zone two and just let it be whatever it was, you know? So I had to relinquish control of that situation a little bit. but she was impressive, man. Like the first five miles of our 12 mile ride was a gradual incline, like maybe one or two degrees, but it was uphill the whole time. And she literally was on my ass the whole time for me to stay in zone two. I was like, babe, I'm in like high end zone two. Like we gotta slow down a little bit, you know? So that was a bit of a slap in the face for me, but. I was redeemed on the way back. So after the first five miles where we went up, then we had a one to two degree down for about five miles. And she was way too timid to go fast enough downhill to keep heart rate high. So while she was able to push me a bit on the incline, once we got to the downhill, my heart rate dropped into like the high 90s. And I was like, All right, like this is what it is, you know? But when I do that same downhill on my own, I put the bike in the hardest gear and I literally pedaled the entire time and my heart rate is still 140 as I'm going downhill for five straight miles. So we'll work on that, we'll get there. But ultimately it was like a really cool experience and I think the first of many where she and I are gonna be able to get out and kind of do that together is, you know, experience some of that novelty and awe in life.

[Aaron Straker]: 25:15

Yeah, that's really cool. And it's funny that she made you kind of like eat your words as you

[Bryan Boorstein]: 25:21

At least

[Aaron Straker]: 25:21

guys

[Bryan Boorstein]: 25:21

on the

[Aaron Straker]: 25:21

are

[Bryan Boorstein]: 25:21

uphill, yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 25:22

on the uphill. But then on the downhill, the like the trepidation and I always didn't say fear, but the trepidation on her part and then the lack of fear on your part. Like, ah,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 25:31

Right.

[Aaron Straker]: 25:31

see, I'm gonna let my weight and gravity pull in my lack of fear. Just pull me ahead sort of thing.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 25:36

Yeah,

[Aaron Straker]: 25:37

That one's funny.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 25:37

yeah. Yeah, what else you got?

[Aaron Straker]: 25:40

I joined a new gym today. I am very, very excited. So there is a gym that opened here in the fall. It's a full arsenal kit, but unfortunately the arsenal shipment was delayed by like seven months or something like that, something

[Bryan Boorstein]: 26:00

I

[Aaron Straker]: 26:00

outrageous,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 26:00

remember you saying that.

[Aaron Straker]: 26:01

but it's finally here. So I went today. I mean, it's good. They make good equipment, like as every piece, like great, no, but like the leg equipment, which is, you know, I would say for me, the majority of the things I care most about because we can obviously modify so much with like cables and that sort of thing on upper body, you know, the pendulum, the hack, the leg press, like seated leg extension, prone, it's good. I'm excited. And then the other gym that I was at, like... It's super popular and it's really, it's been really, really cool from my standpoint to watch like two gyms open at pretty much the same time, watching the different approaches. The gym that I was previously at, Obsidian, is like killing it. They have like hundreds of members. People come there all day long to hang out. It's like a culture sort of place. But it's a Panada kit and there's not

[Bryan Boorstein]: 26:56

Hmm.

[Aaron Straker]: 26:56

a lot of space. And personally, I'm not gonna lie, I think the Panada equipment kinda sucks.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 27:02

Hmm.

[Aaron Straker]: 27:02

Like I'll be super honest. Like there's a couple of good pieces, but like everyone in the space, it's like, Panetta's the best. I'm like, I don't think that word means what you think it means. So

[Bryan Boorstein]: 27:13

Is,

[Aaron Straker]: 27:13

like.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 27:13

uh, do you- is there a Panada pendulum there?

[Aaron Straker]: 27:16

No, they don't have that.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 27:18

They have one at the compound in San Diego, but it arrived like the day I was leaving so I never got to try it

[Aaron Straker]: 27:25

Yeah, it's, I mean, don't get me wrong. The equipment's beautiful. The upholstering is like very Italy sort of thing. But like the actual things that like you and I care about or you should care about, they're

[Bryan Boorstein]: 27:37

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 27:38

like, they just, it's not great. So yeah, and then, you know, so getting back to what I was saying, this other gym didn't do as much heavy on the like marketing and that sort of thing. This new gym's a ghost town. Like the other gym is popping, popping. It's packed. There's a million people hanging out, like at the pool, doing all this, the other place, this one, it's a ghost town. Fortunately for me, like what I was talking about, I prefer the ghost town, right? I want to show up, no one's in there, great. I don't want to talk to anyone anyway, and

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:08

Hehehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 28:08

no one's on any equipment that I want, and I don't get caught in a conversation. I don't want to be in those sorts of things. So for me, it's kind of a home run, and I'm excited to have like pretty decent equipment for a lot of things. I spent... a couple minutes at the end of my push day on the pendulum today, just like, you know, feeling it out and that sort of thing. And they have the adjustable, you know, angle

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:31

Footplate.

[Aaron Straker]: 28:31

pitch on the foot plate.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:32

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 28:33

It's damn good. And you know,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:34

So

[Aaron Straker]: 28:34

it

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:34

that's

[Aaron Straker]: 28:34

covers

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:35

the arsenal

[Aaron Straker]: 28:35

my,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:35

one.

[Aaron Straker]: 28:36

the arsenal one yet goes

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:37

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 28:37

all the way down my ass to where I could keep my whole ass glued into the seat. It's pretty damn decent.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 28:43

But the hack, they have the arsenal hack, I assume as well. And that's the one that I struggled with at the compound in San Diego, where I had to put the yoga pads on the shoulder pads to make sure that I could get it up depth and flatten the foot plate out and like really do some kind of personal modifications there to make it decent.

[Aaron Straker]: 29:01

Yeah, yeah, that I think what I'm going to do is like, I've pushed the hack for so long in my program. I'm just going to think starting next week, I'll just start the pendulum.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:10

Sick, that's gonna be dope. Progress that thing all the way through again. It's almost a new way of excitement and approach

[Aaron Straker]: 29:15

Yeah,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:15

to progressive overload.

[Aaron Straker]: 29:17

in that one too, it's like, I feel like it's a little bit less scary to like fail on how it's set up and how you can adjust the like, the stop of that like little bump stop, how it's set. So I think I'll get very spicy in how I push that as well without as much fear of like peeling myself out of the bottom, like

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:37

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 29:37

how you have to want to hack squat, which can be a little bit sketchy. So I am quite excited to be completely honest.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:44

Um, is there a counterweight? I don't think there's a counterweight on the Arsenal one. Is there,

[Aaron Straker]: 29:50

There

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:50

or there

[Aaron Straker]: 29:50

is,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:50

is?

[Aaron Straker]: 29:50

yep.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:51

Do you load it manually or it's already

[Aaron Straker]: 29:53

It's

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:53

there?

[Aaron Straker]: 29:53

fixed.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:53

Okay,

[Aaron Straker]: 29:54

Yeah, it's fixed.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 29:55

interesting. Cool, well that's dope, man. I'm excited to see how that goes. I know you've been hammering that hack for shit at least six months now, if not more. Cool, so I have been diving in to, this podcast called Inside Exercise. And it was sent to me by a person that follows me on the gram. I've gotten a lot of people coming out of the woodwork now that are either ex cardio junkies or those that are kind of hybrid-y style where they're combining cardio and lifting kind of like I do. But a guy sent me a podcast from Inside Exercise which The reason it was sent is because I have been, I think somewhat closed-minded or maybe just unexposed to other forms of experts outside of the Peter Atiyah and Inigo Sanmulan and those people that also promote Zone 2, as you would say. And so this first episode that was sent to me was with Andrew Coggin, who is, if you have heard the name, He's kind of like the person that discovered power output and how to use it in cardio programming. He's the guy that came up with, I think, the seven zone system for cardio instead of the five zone system. And so the point of this podcast was basically for him to argue that there is really no magic in zone two. And... part of the argument was that the whole thing and this whole energy system exists on a continuum, which makes 100% sense. When you look at it, it's not like... So the idea promoted by Inigo Sanmilan, who coaches some of the top Tour de France cyclists in the world, and I think that's why he has this pedestal of respect from people, but his statement is that if you're in zone two, you're not accumulating lactate, that you're essentially below this two millimole lactate level and therefore you're not accumulating fatigue. And Andrew Coggins' approach or belief is that this whole thing exists on a continuum and there's something called critical power. So it's either something that you can do forever for the rest of your life, like maybe it's moving your finger up and down, like maybe that's low enough effort that you can just do that for the rest of your life. or maybe it's breathing. Like it's basically things that are like critical to your existence. And then anything else above those repeatable tasks that you could do forever, they accumulate fatigue. And so this idea that you're in zone two and therefore you could do it forever and not have your lactate rise is essentially a naive thought because the fact that you're doing anything like biking, pedaling, even walking probably, eventually you're gonna accumulate so much fatigue that you can't continue. And so trying to define zone two as this range where you just don't fatigue is a bit naive, right? It would be probably the word I would say, maybe even a bit ignorant. So yeah, anyway, I thought that was, it was really interesting. And this was the first podcast from Inside Exercise that was sent to me. And so I listened to it and it opened up my mind and expanded my thoughts a little bit and made me realize that I have been a bit biased by being exposed only to one side of maybe this argument. And so through this podcast, I've then started listening to, I've probably listened to like 20 of them now. And there's a very cool variety of experts on both sides of that argument that you can kind of get into and. learn the physiology associated with it and stuff like that. So that was really cool. If you have any thoughts on any of that.

[Aaron Straker]: 34:06

I do, I mean, first let me touch on something that you said like very, very related and then I'll kind of extrapolate it at a more kind of theoretical level. I found out over my three days in Hong Kong that just walking will fatigue you quite much. And what's really funny is like, it would be my calves, like high calves into the back of the knees is what would start first like really bothering me. And I'd be like, fuck, I'm kind of far from the hotel and like my... My calves are like not doing okay. Okay. And that was on the first day. And I have a pair of Vans, right? Like for anyone out there, like the comfy Kush Vans are amazing. It's like a different soul in them, but it's like walking on clouds, you know? Whereas the traditional, like authentic Vans, they're really heavy and it will beat up your feet. But these are, it's literally my favorite pair of shoes, like of all time. I literally just keep buying the same pair like every four months. My feet were like really, really beat up. And then, you know, it was first my calves, then my feet, and then what would happen by the end of it, because I had three days in a row of 30, like 32,000 plus steps, my ankles felt like they were sprained. You know, like when you sprain an ankle and like you're starting to walk on it again, and every step you get that kind of like wincing pain, like in the

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:23

Yep,

[Aaron Straker]: 35:24

ankle

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:24

yep.

[Aaron Straker]: 35:24

joint, both feet were doing that.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:27

man.

[Aaron Straker]: 35:28

Yeah, but like when I was in the airport that last night, like I was on fumes. I was not doing so hot and it was super late. It was like midnight and I kind of botched some timing cause I don't know if you saw, but I bought my flight for a week ago, you know?

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:46

Yeah, I

[Aaron Straker]: 35:46

I

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:46

saw

[Aaron Straker]: 35:46

just,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:46

that. That's

[Aaron Straker]: 35:47

so

[Bryan Boorstein]: 35:47

ridiculous.

[Aaron Straker]: 35:47

I had to like scramble and try and like, holy fuck, it's 8 p.m. I'm supposed to go to the airport like two hours. I don't have a flight. So I, and then I just didn't eat cause I was like rushing and then you get to the airport, everything's closed and I'm like sick. I probably had my last meal at like, six, I'm not going to be able to eat till like 8 a.m. the next day at the earliest sort of thing. And I just walked, you know, 30, 34,000, 33,000

[Bryan Boorstein]: 36:15

Yeah,

[Aaron Straker]: 36:16

steps that day.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 36:16

for three straight days.

[Aaron Straker]: 36:18

Yeah. And I trained on that Sunday as well. So I was like, I fucked this up royally. But yeah, so that kind of thing with fatiguing for sure. And then a little bit of what you said, like, maybe just like... I mean, I would never say that you are a closed-minded person, Brian, but just unexposed to some of the other

[Bryan Boorstein]: 36:38

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 36:38

things, right?

[Bryan Boorstein]: 36:39

It's just not my specialty. Like I just hadn't, I don't know the cardio world. Like I heard something and I dove into it and now I'm expanding.

[Aaron Straker]: 36:48

Yeah, and something with that that I've been really big on this past year is like, the deeper that you go into topics and the more you learn about topics, the less concrete things become. That has been a very, very big one this year for me with like training and nutrition and clients in that sort of thing. It's funny because now I have a number of like professional years, you know, and stuff in this. And when people make absolute statements around something, I'm like, that's funny. You're just not quite far along enough on your journey sort of thing. Like when people play the calories game, right? Like, oh, you're 180. You get two people, right? Both five foot 10. This person's. 180 pounds trains five days per week. This other person is 205 pounds trains five days per week. Let's say they have the same office job. Basic theory is like, oh, the person who's 205 pounds needs more calories to put on weight than the person who's 180 pounds, right? That doesn't always hold true. And if you're like someone that you're gonna put your foot down on it, you just haven't experienced enough or learned enough or been around enough. to see it with very educated people. And that was something that was like, I've had a number of those things happening, I wouldn't say recently, but in the last like nine, 10 months or so, and it's been really opening my eyes to like, it's deep and it's incredibly individualized, and just being careful around how people say things, or especially myself, how I communicate things. And to kind of wrap this part up, I think like Lane Norton is someone who will make kind of not absolute statements, but very like cut and dry. And it really used to bother me for a while because I'd be like, I know that that's not true in a hundred percent of the cases. But then I realized like, when you have a platform that is a million people or whatever he has, you need to speak to your 85% of people. And there's things that you're gonna say that are not contextually true to that 15%, but if you try and extrapolate everything to the nuance and everything to that many people, like it's gonna go way over the heads of the people that really, really need it. And it's something that I've realized that he does a really good job of speaking to a massive wide audience of really drilling like what everyone needs to understand, but even though it may not, you know, contextually apply to some small sub. units of the population sort of thing.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 39:39

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I mean, I think even going back to our episode from last week about lifting to failure, like you can the way that that meta regression has been polarized in the last week after it dropped from the data driven strength guys, it's like you have so many people being like, yeah, see, I'm so validated, vindicated, like training to failure, you know, but like, at the end of the day, if you are so naive or novice in your interpretation, that you just look at that and you say, well, training to failure is better than not training to failure, then you haven't considered all of the context that goes into the program that you're actually writing as far as how much volume and exercise selection and like, man, they just, the list can go on and on and on. And if you aren't deep into the thing and you just look at that and take it for what it is, it's kind of like how I was taking zone two as like, Hey, look, you just got to stay in zone two and you get all these mitochondrial benefits. So just to wrap up my thoughts on that and tie it all together here. So there's some experts that are on, that one guy came on and he's been doing a bunch of research for a while. And he basically said that he believes that it's an 80-20 rule and that you need to spend 80% of your time under VT1 ventilation threshold one, which is essentially like the beginning of zone two. And so his proposal is that you spend most of your time under zone two, and then you spend 20% of your time testing or racing or basically going super hard. And so he calls that polarized training. Like you're either really easy, like at recovery pace, or you're pushing the pace and you're going super hard. Andrew Coggins view, the guy that created the idea or they put forth the idea of critical power and the fact that it's a continuum. He basically was saying that these mitochondrial benefits that people are after with zone two, they actually occur all the way along the chain. And it's just a matter of whether you're getting this extra fatigue that comes with the mitochondrial benefits. And it's a matter of you can't actually look at this whole continuum without coming together with the idea of intensity and duration. And so that's one big piece that I gathered from this whole discussion. And I think it actually relates to weightlifting super well too, because we would never talk about programming without intensity, frequency, and volume. And so in cardio, it's like, look, you can go short amount of time really hard and get mitochondrial benefits, or you can go really long, really slow and get mitochondrial benefits, or you could go kinda in the middle for like a medium amount of time and... get mitochondrial benefits as well. And it literally, to me, it was like a light bulb went off and I was like, of course that's the way it is. Why wouldn't it be that way? I know this to be true with strength training, so why would I even think that it's any way different with cardiovascular activity and the aerobic system? So it was in many ways very eye-opening for me. and change the way that I kind of, to the way that you said, like think about a lot of this stuff and kind of middling these worlds, you know?

[Aaron Straker]: 42:55

Yeah, a quick follow-up question for you there. What's kind of fascinating is again, we're often so deep in this and we've been doing strength training and talking nutrition and that sort of thing for so long. We're so very well versed in intensity and explaining that. But when it comes to cardio, to be completely honest, I do know very little. So when you were talking about these things, I'm like, it's quite... I'm super green to it. So I was like, I wouldn't know what to believe. You know what I mean? Like I could have these three arguments and I'm like, if they were to say like, hey, two of these people are telling a truth, the other one's like a complete charlatan, like pick what's what. I'm like, I don't

[Bryan Boorstein]: 43:36

Right.

[Aaron Straker]: 43:37

fucking know. And I'm like,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 43:38

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 43:38

oh my God, that's how people feel in the like gym world and stuff like that, you know? And with like your Joel Seidman and crazy

[Bryan Boorstein]: 43:45

Right,

[Aaron Straker]: 43:45

shit

[Bryan Boorstein]: 43:45

right,

[Aaron Straker]: 43:45

like that.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 43:45

right.

[Aaron Straker]: 43:46

So it was kind of just eye opening for me there. But do you know, like for example, progressive overload, right? The first time you do three sets of eight at 20 pounds, like you get the stimulus and then eventually the adaptation. Eventually that three sets of eight at 20 pounds no longer elicits like a stimulus and adaptation or a stimulus sufficient to produce an adaptation.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 44:08

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 44:09

Does that hold true to with cardio? For like example, we're in zone two, 140 beats per minute, 40 minutes twice per week. Like if after you do that for two months, do you need to start to, like do you know anything around that if it has a similar kind of carryover?

[Bryan Boorstein]: 44:27

Yeah, yeah. So I think that with cardio, it's even almost more important to take that Brian Miner philosophical approach to progressive overload because the definition of your improvement in cardio is going to be the amount of watts that you can output and not your heart rate. So if you're just watching your heart rate. then you don't know if you're actually producing more power at a higher heart rate. Like you could say, and I got caught in this trap too, where I was like, I'm doing my zone two at 135 beats per minute and now it feels too easy. So I'm going to 140 beats per minute. But if I don't know that I'm producing more power at a higher heart rate, then I don't know that I'm actually improving. And then on top of that, another thing that I was introduced to in these podcasts that again makes a hundred percent intuitive sense. And I think that I knew it and it just, there hadn't been a term to it, but it's called heart rate drift. And it essentially means that as you exercise, your heart rate goes higher for the same output level. So if I'm doing, if I'm starting a cardio session at 180 Watts and I can do that at 135 beats a minute, if I maintain 180 Watts the whole time. my heart rate will eventually drift up. So it'll be 138 beats a minute, then it'll be 142 and then it'll be 144. And so if you're just looking at heart rate and you're not looking at power, then what will probably naturally happen is your power will actually go down because you're trying to keep your heart rate at the same place that it was before. And so if you don't have a way to have both. and heart rate as your metrics that you can work together and middle that ground, then yeah, you're probably not going to know whether progressive overload is actually occurring or not.

[Aaron Straker]: 46:25

Gotcha.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 46:26

Yeah, so anyway, that's that. And then the last thought that I have on this whole cardio thing, I was talking to Jordan Lips about this. I sent him the same podcast that the guy sent me with Andrew Coggin. And one of the things that we were discussing was that these guys on this podcast are 100% endurance. They don't lift weights. They don't care about lifting weights at all. And it made us both think critically about how much cardio you really need to do for health and performance if you are lifting weights. And so then this made me think about, and I've mentioned this before on the podcast, but. how high intensity interval training, these 20 to 60 second hard intervals that we do and then rest and recover, they're very similar to lifting weights. The energy systems are very similar. When you finish a heavy set of hack squats, pendulum squats, RDLs, whatever, your heart rate's probably like 160, you're in zone four and then you recover and you do it again, right? So in many ways, lifting weights is attacking the same energy system as interval training. So that, almost makes me think that maybe there's even less benefit to these higher intensity intervals. And maybe there's more benefit to the lower intensity, steady state stuff because of the stimulus that we're already getting on the energy system from lifting weights. And also when they talk about like just the health impacts associated with cardio, it's like, man, you're getting so many of those positive health impacts just from lifting weights already. Like there is mitochondrial. biogenesis occurring by lifting weights. You're creating a glucose tank for yourself, making yourself more glucose sensitive. Like all of these positive physical adaptations are happening because of lifting weights. And so maybe the amount of dose of cardio that you need to optimize health is lower than what the endurance community would say that you need to do.

[Aaron Straker]: 48:30

Yeah, I mean, I have nothing to add onto that. It would not be like purely of

[Bryan Boorstein]: 48:37

speculation.

[Aaron Straker]: 48:37

this exact moment speculation. Yeah, I mean, it's hard because I think it's, there's, it's so open, you know, to so many different things. Like I've been doing that, the hit cardio. I've got a lot of benefit from it. But I do not know that that is actually like, you know, mitochondrial efficiency, those sorts of things. I don't know if there's like actual, like heart markers sort of thing, but it has been very beneficial in terms of like, testing your metal sort of thing.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 49:13

Mm-hmm.

[Aaron Straker]: 49:14

And yeah, I do not know is all I'm really saying there.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 49:19

Yeah, I don't know either 100%. Like it's 100% speculation. And I'm just, it's just cool that I, I'm continuing to learn, open my mind. And it's, it's forcing me to kind of think about things from a multifaceted perspective instead of just the one train of thought and information education that I had, you know, three weeks ago, compared to where I am now.

[Aaron Straker]: 49:45

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 49:48

Cool, what else you got?

[Aaron Straker]: 49:49

Um, so I'm through my updates here through your updates, um, which is a lot of the episode, but we kind of knew it would blend together.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 49:56

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 49:56

The last thing I kind of had here is from my trip. I again, I was just doing a lot of thinking, especially around the, like even someone like myself where 80% of my decisions are, are going to be, I'm in control of a lot of it. I have zero problems from a social perspective being like Oh, Aaron, the group decided we're going to get like, whatever, fucking hot dogs. I'm like, okay, cool. I'm not coming. Like I have zero

[Bryan Boorstein]: 50:26

Hehehehe

[Aaron Straker]: 50:26

qualms about being like, yeah, go, please. I'm not fucking going. But it was still like that 80% of me being on literally was regression. It's not even like, oh, I didn't improve. Like I literally regressed. And it really had me thinking about that like 80-20 principle that's like very, very big and pushed in the fitness community. And I see it with a lot of clientele that come in and depends on the type of client, right? There's times where this will be for certain client, very applicable, someone who's quite overweight, leads quite an unhealthy lifestyle and is prone to like catching a case of the fuck it so that I'll start again on Mondays. Like... 80% in that context, wonderful. But what I have here is like, this is that often gets sold is like as a fitness principle that gets misapplied to the population that it is no longer a needle mover for, where it becomes at best auto

[Bryan Boorstein]: 51:33

Mm-hmm.

[Aaron Straker]: 51:33

regulation, which has its place, right? You go on a family vacation or something like that. You're like, hey, I just don't want to add fat while I'm gone. Great, great, great use case, right? But then, you know, the worst case in the context of myself, like that's a regression. And I think understanding that, and I kind of pulled some numbers here from, so these are from the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, right? And it's all on body fat percentages. So healthy body fat percentage is based on age. So there's kind of two age ranges, but the numbers, you know, change by like 1%. So for women, we're really looking at like 21% to 33%. That is the definition of a healthy, I'm using air quotes here, body fat range. Quite a massive range. At a woman, 21% is quite lean. Not on stage, but you're in damn good shape sort of thing. Potentially even around the loss of cycle, leanness sort of thing for some people on the lower end of that. So the upper range of that is around like 33%. So remember that number. And then for males, we're looking like 8% to like 21%. That's like the definition of healthy. For people on the lower end of that, 80% is a regression, right? Let's call that what it is. For people on the upper range of that, if you're like a male at like 21%, a female at like 32%, that 80-20 kind of principle is probably not enough to continue to move the needle for you for the context of your goals, right? The majority, I would say like 90% of, you know... People who are interested in health and fitness are working with a coach or something like that are looking for fat loss or some physique improvement sort of thing. And for many of those people, that 80-20 principle just is not enough to consistently move the needle. And I think it's something that, it's like sold as a, as like a simpler buy-in sort of thing, but then it just doesn't, deliver enough on the back end. And I think because we know they're so, in life especially, let's call it like, probably the average age of like our listenership, children, significant other, career, those sorts of things, you're already getting wild cards coming in and if you're already planning at an 80% plus some wild cards, like, it just, it's not enough to move the needle is what I've really, really found. And that has been a big one over the past, I would say like six months of really drilling that with clients who are in that gap of like, hey, you come to me, you don't have abs, but you're 20% body fat. We're not overweight, we're not unhealthy. Everything that we're chasing is almost purely aesthetic. That's just not gonna, the beers unchecked on the weekends and those sorts of things, they don't, they won't cut it. anymore sort of thing.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 54:51

Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I mean, that makes total sense. I think that it's a, like you alluded to, it's a matter of how close you are to your goal. And so somebody who's at that higher end of the range or maybe even above it, like they could do 50-50 and probably make progress initially. Like if you're just doing whatever you want and not thinking about it at all, just the fact that you're thinking about it and having like one or two meals a day that seem to be... healthier than what you were doing, that's progress. And then as you get to like the point where 80-20 works, like maybe you're approaching some of your goals and you're like, wow, I've really got it dialed in like five days a week. I'm crushing it. Like during the weeks, I'm on point on the weekends. Eh, you know, I have a couple of beers, drink, eat some fried food, like lose some sleep, whatever 80-20, you know? And so that'll work for a while. And then you continue making progress. And as you get closer and closer and closer to your goal, it's like, okay, now 90-10 works, and then 90-10 stops working, and now 95-5 is working. And then eventually you get to Aaron's level and you're like, man, if I am any worse than 99-1, I am just totally screwed and I make no progress, you know? And so, yeah, it's the same idea as how you have to optimize your training as you get closer to your goals too. Like at some level for people that are new, just showing up and lifting weights works. And you don't have to think about proximity to failure or exercise selection or optimizing anything. You just show up and you do stuff. And then eventually you have to worry about, man, is my hack squat one rep from failure or two reps from failure? How am I gonna progressively overload this? Where am I gonna pause? What's my exercise order? Am I doing the hack squat first or second or third? What other exercises am I including? I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And so all of that can be extrapolated out to the same idea of, is it 80-20 or is it 90-55 or 60-40 or whatever? Like, it depends where you are in your journey, right?

[Aaron Straker]: 56:55

Yeah, yeah, it was just, that was one of the four, like that was probably the biggest light bulb thing for me this time, is it was like, I've had some feelings around it, but nothing that I really like wrapped my head around from a framing standpoint. But as I said, I've done a lot of thinking, spending time by myself, and that was one where I'm like, I feel rather convicted at this point.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 57:19

Yeah, so when you look at the total number of clients that you have, that you know the majority of them aren't gonna be at the same level that you are, of course, where they need to be 98 to or whatever the ratio is for you to actually make progress. What

[Aaron Straker]: 57:36

Mm-hmm.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 57:36

do you think like the average is of your clients? Like where do you think they need to be to make progress?

[Aaron Straker]: 57:46

higher than I would say people really like to think. Because their progress is, I shouldn't say it's a subjective term, but it's a spectrum, right? And the way that I frame it is, I find it in, I think this is a big kind of like downside of the rise of like flexible dieting and stuff, where it's like, with flexible diet, you have planned variation, right? The whole nature of it is variation. When we have more variation, what do we have? a lesser control. Lesser control, less progress. Right? And something that I find in conversations I have is like, we're doing, like we're having progress, but let's say our average drops by like 0.3 pounds, like week over week or something like that. I'm like, listen, we can do this and diet for like 10 months to lose these 20 pounds, or we can put the fucking hammer down for seven or eight weeks and get it done with. And then... you can come back and start having beers and that sort

[Bryan Boorstein]: 58:47

Mm.

[Aaron Straker]: 58:47

of thing. So I think like it's a, I've been, I found myself having that conversation like more and more, cause people try and do like the one foot in, one foot out, and then things just stretch on for months and months and months, because there's so many non-progress weeks or regression weeks. And it's been something I've been like, hey, how about we quit drinking for two months, we lose these 20 pounds, and then we just go into auto-regulation, you know, instead of... trying to run in circles and be like, ah, yeah, they got out of hand this weekend. And then it's like, okay, we are, we have literally a zero effective progression from an average this week. And then just shutting some of those down. So it really, it really depends on the client because there's the people who, hey, Monday through Thursday, it's to a T. You know what I mean? We're good. And then we have like a meal, like a work meal and maybe some. some whiskey or something like that straight on like Friday and Saturday night. I'm like, okay, we can get away with that. Within the people were like Monday through Thursday is like macros look pretty good, but we have like 200 grams of carbs with dinner sort of thing. And it was far away from training time and those sorts of things. That's where it's like, yes, the macros are on point, but your timing's way different. It really is hard to say. But I would... I would say the more again that you plan for the deviation, the less progress that there is inherently because you're planning

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:00:20

Yeah,

[Aaron Straker]: 1:00:21

for deviation.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:00:22

yeah, interesting. Yeah, you actually, you mentioned timing and that actually spawns another kind of what's been on my mind recently thought. And that is this idea of eating with circadian rhythm. And I've obviously been listening to people talk about this for a number of years now between Sigma Nutrition and Grant Tinsley and the other kind of experts that are out there doing the rounds on this. But like as a... personal N of one anecdote, I can definitely say now that I notice significant decrease in the quality of my sleep and the way that I feel the next day if I eat too close to bedtime. And so it's something I've been like really cognizant about is trying to make sure that the last food I consume is at least two, if not three hours before bedtime and how much of a difference that makes. which is kind of counter to the way that I generally would approach nutrition, which is I would fast in the morning, at least skip breakfast, and then backload most of my calories. But I've realized when I do it the other way and I tend to eat more in the morning and through the earlier parts of the day and then have my final meal at 5.30 or six, things just go better. My body functions better, things are more regular, I sleep better. And I have better attitude about things too. So I thought that was interesting and just kind of not one of the things I wrote down, just spawned by your comment there. And I know you, you're in your gaining phase, so you just eat whenever you need to eat, but have you noticed any of the similar way that it impacts you?

[Aaron Straker]: 1:02:05

Personally, no. With clientele, yeah. And that's one of the really cool things about coaching is like once you get to a certain threshold where you have enough exposure to different people and things like that. Like I have my, like, it's not like my proprietary system or whatever, but I'm like, these are my like tenants of the things that we are going to work through because I'm confident that they are going to be a very good base for us. And then you get people who just respond differently. Like some people... Yeah, if they close to bed, it's awful. Other people, they need to eat close to bed or they get way too hungry in the middle of the night sort of thing. So that one I found is very, very individualized. And there is some things that you can do to kind of modify it a little bit, but that is one that I found is very, very individual and you don't really know what you're gonna get until you try some things and then see what works for that

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:03:02

have

[Aaron Straker]: 1:03:02

person.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:03:02

you noticed any correlation with age with that one? Because from my experience and talking to others, I have had no problem eating close to bed up until the last few years. Like I would say most people are fine until their early mid thirties. And then at some point, as we get older, it's like the metabolism doesn't, I don't know if it's a metabolic thing. Like I don't feel like my metabolism has slowed down a lot, but I know that that is a common. thing that people tend to feel like they experience, which is as that one meta that showed a number of years ago, it seems to be a result of lack of activity and change of lifestyle more than just aging. But yeah, my body just doesn't seem to process larger meals close to bedtime as well as it did before. Like I just feel like, you know, a little bloo, kind of like gurgling in the stomach as I'm laying down versus... I don't know, anyway, if you notice any age correlation.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:04:02

I think if I'm correct, our bodies produce less HCl, stomach acid, as we get older. I think that from that theory, or that if I am true with that or correct with that, that would be indicative of things. You just, less acid, your digestive capacity decreases with that,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:04:27

Right.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:04:27

especially in an acute time period sort of thing. That... I believe should be correlative if that is true, but I haven't really put that together with clients yet. Like the client that I know we have to put aside a snack for like late at night, I wanna say he's like 45. So I haven't found

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:04:46

Interesting.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:04:46

to be hold true across my client population yet.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:04:49

Yeah, cool. Well, I have one more thing on my mind and we touched on it in the last episode too, but like in the prior episode, we kind of discussed the length and partials and the two different ways that I approach it versus the way that like the evidence or Milo would approach it. And so as somebody that likes to explore and be as open-minded as possible, I have continued experimenting in the last few weeks with doing these more like evidence-based lengthened partials, if you wanna call it that, where essentially you establish a predetermined range of motion stop, and then you go to that range of motion stop each rep, instead of letting range of motion fall off as you fatigue rep by rep. I still think there's, of course, utility in both ways, and I think it's very movement dependent, but I've been experimenting with these. And there's one specific case that I've found for both myself and my client, Jeff, that has been not surprising, but I think maybe something that I apply much more commonly for myself going forward is on tricep movements. Pushdowns, so the cross-cable pushdown or the cross-cable. overhead extension or the single arm versions of either one. There just seems to be something much more comfortable about not forcing the lockout on the elbow at the short position of these tricep movements. And it's weird, because like you're watching the video or I watch the video of myself doing these or of my client doing them. And it almost looks like you're doing a full range of motion. but when you compare it to actually doing full range of motion where you have to like fully lock the elbow out to get that contraction of the tricep versus you're just kind of like hitting a point and releasing on video, it almost looks like you're doing the same thing, but in practice, what you're feeling it just feels so much cleaner not to have to force through that last like few degrees of that range of motion. and you just get the stretch on your tricep, you contract and release without actually getting it fully short. And both myself and Jeff have commented in the last week and had a discussion around how much cleaner it feels, how much the stimulus seems to be improved, and just less aggravation on the elbow joint in general.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:07:27

I literally did those today and it's been, I don't like it. It's literally like the last like maybe five degrees

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:07:36

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:07:36

of the, but to me it feels like a second motion, you know? Like I feel like I almost have to go into like shoulder extension to like try and, like you're trying to do a lot of things just to get that elbow to like lock out. And yeah, I don't like it. And many times like I can avoid elbow pain if I don't do that.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:07:57

Mm-hmm.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:07:58

portion and I might, I literally might just, you know, take this and run with it and just stop trying to get that last one. Like I was literally today I, um, I've been doing some like more metabolic style-esque work with my triceps because I have that like tricep tendonitis, you know?

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:08:13

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:08:13

Um, so I was doing like a, like a six by eight sort of thing to wrap up just to get some in there and I had to like cut the weight in half because I just, that lockout is, I couldn't use the next, the next... weight stack, but if I was only doing like a 80% ROM or whatever, I would have very easily been able to do it. And it, yeah, it might be something that I just kind of... take that approach and not go for a very full range because of just, I guess, the difficulty there

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:08:47

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:08:47

in it.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:08:48

Yeah, it seems to be exponentially more difficult. And like you said that, like the saying going into shoulder extension, it really is like a really good way of describing it. Cause you're like, you're almost like at full elbow extension, but then to get the last bit of elbow extension, you're having to like almost use the rear delt and a bit of like you said shoulder extension, like opening up to just get that arm to lock out. And it just doesn't seem worth it. Like it's so hard to get there. and so unnecessary. And then it's kind of like the opposite problem on the overhead version, because there's no resistance at the top. So it's

[Aaron Straker]: 1:09:24

Mm-hmm.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:09:24

like, why am I going there? It's kind of like the top of the back squat. Like, why are you going to the top of the back squat and hanging out when there's nothing happening there? And it's kind of like the same thing in the overhead extension, where you get to the top and you're like, oh cool, I'm just resting right now, like all good. And if you avoid that, then it makes it a lot harder. I've been experimenting with this approach as well on some of my compound leg movements and I tried it on both the pendulum and on my hack press and man I Am very torn because it does feel harder Because you're not getting that like moment of reprieve at the top But it really does like It it forces you to have to use less weight And I don't know where I stand on that issue. Like in some ways my mind says, well, if you're using less weight and you're still taking the muscle to failure or close to failure, then you're getting more stimulus with less fatigue. So maybe that's better. But then the other side of me is like, well, if I just lock out at the top for a split second and descend back down, I can use a lot more weight, which then exposes my muscles to potentially. deeper levels of mechanical

[Aaron Straker]: 1:10:39

Thanks

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:10:39

tension

[Aaron Straker]: 1:10:39

for watching!

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:10:40

at the stretch position. And so I don't know what I think about it, but I know that whatever I do as a partial for my compound leg movement, it feels like a partial to me. And then I look at the video and I feel like I'm going up almost all the way to lockout. And I'm like, man, how low do I really need to go for this to be like a 60% range of motion rep versus what it feels like? And I... For somebody that's been training 25 years, I'm still struggling with this idea of just getting barely above parallel and descending back down. Like my natural inclination is, you need to get through parallel and almost lock out and then change direction. And it just, it doesn't look like what it feels like in my brain. You're

[Aaron Straker]: 1:11:29

Yeah,

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:11:29

on mute.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:11:29

that one, I don't know. Like you said, I don't feel confident speaking in either direction. I think there is a dude, oh man, we live in this strange world where you don't know people's names. You only know they're like Instagram handles.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:11:48

Yeah, yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:11:48

And it's like, it's TNF something. And he's a little bit bro-y and he kind of pushes some BS supplements and stuff like that. But his... advice and stuff on training is like, there are things I agree with. I think he does a quality job there and he has stuff about his like, he's only training quads, you know, once per week, but he does a lot of like, I take the leg press to failure, you know, and then I do like bottom range partials as far as I can get until it pins me at the very bottom. And then I like wheel my, you know, roll myself out of it. And he does that with different things. And like there, I think that utility... is there, but again, it's you're in the pain cave to get there.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:12:30

Yeah,

[Aaron Straker]: 1:12:30

Hardcore

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:12:31

yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:12:32

hardcore. But I think like if I if and when I may incorporate some of that sort of style of it, but man, I've been getting such bad quad doms doing what I'm doing already. I couldn't imagine.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:12:46

Right.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:12:47

Yeah. And that was a I guess one last thing for me to wrap up this. The stimulus to recovery thing has been very, very interesting for me. I had a period, great example, my mom and sister were in town, I was like, we're gonna eat healthy foods, I was in charge of food, but I just wasn't getting the volume in calories and carbohydrate that I needed. Because I knew I had the week of traveling, I was like, I'm gonna train legs on Sunday, right after they leave. I go in, I'm doing the best that I can, I cannot get the quad stimulus that I'm after. I basically, some sets of leg extensions, I was like, I'm gonna do one mile rep set. on the leg press and like make it suck sort of thing. And then I did like two sets of Smith machine squats, like literally like six, seven working sets on the day. I wake up in a world of pain on Monday and I shit you not, it didn't go away until Saturday, six days.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:13:42

Man. Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:13:43

And it was like, they were so bad. And I think it got kind of, I wouldn't say it got worse, but I had the travel day in the middle where

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:13:50

Yeah.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:13:50

you're sitting on an airplane for, you know, my first flight was 14 hours. I get up like halfway through to pee and like my legs would barely move. And I was like, I had to like hold on to the seats to fucking walk back. This is now Wednesday, I trained them on Sunday.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:14:06

Yeah, that's

[Aaron Straker]: 1:14:06

And

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:14:06

insane.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:14:07

it really like made me think about just like the recovery aspect and like getting food in on the back. And like when your training is reaching those upper intensities, that's when like your timing and being carbohydrate compensated and sodium compensated. and really electrolyte compensated, like those things matter so much more. Cause you're talking

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:14:27

Mm-hmm.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:14:27

like, that's the difference between like a three to four day recovery and like a fucking six day one. Like

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:14:33

Yep.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:14:33

I.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:14:35

No, that's really interesting. And it actually, just to wrap it up, it's kind of related, but somewhat unrelated. The most recent Iron Culture episode with Eric and Omar, they were talking about the meta-aggression from Data Driven. And Eric was kind of, toward the end, was wrapping up with some thoughts. And he goes, you know, one of the things that I think has come to light with this meta-aggression and with some other stuff recently. is it's almost been vindication for the bro split. Because a couple years ago, he's like, if you would have asked me, I would have told you that frequency by itself was a separate indicator of stimulus that, you know, if you can train something three days a week instead of one day a week, separate from volume, just the fact that you're training it more seems to be an indicator of a higher stimulus, of more muscle growth, whatever, whatever. And he goes, now it seems like what we've seen in the last few years is that frequency simply is an artifact of volume. That if you, you will use frequency as a means of distributing volume. Like if you're doing more than 10 sets per muscle group in a session, then you probably should split that over two sessions. But he goes, more than anything, like this research has shown that if you are doing a relatively low volume and you want to take it to the house once a week and then recover and do it again a week later, that seems to be just as effective as splitting that volume across multiple sessions. And it just made me think about that because what you were saying where you're like, man, I was sore for six days. And it's like, if you, if you do a significant amount of volume for certain muscle groups, like quads, hamstrings, other muscle groups that are susceptible to high levels of damage with highly lengthened movements and stuff like that, then maybe you don't need to feel like you're on this treadmill having to train that muscle every three or four days or else you're somehow leaving gains on the table, you know?

[Aaron Straker]: 1:16:41

Yeah, I mean, kind of what I alluded to earlier in the episode, like the deeper I go, the more I learn, the more I realize how much there really is to learn and how not I don't say on concrete, but how I guess shaky some of the concrete becomes over the years.

[Bryan Boorstein]: 1:17:01

Yeah, yeah, no, well said. Yeah, I got nothing else to add, dude. That's a good way of wrapping it up.

[Aaron Straker]: 1:17:06

Cool, I think this was a really, really fun episode. Shared a little bit about us and some of just our thoughts presiding on some things. As always guys, thank you for listening. Brian and I will talk to you next week.