The Jordan Syatt Podcast

The BEST Number of Sets & Reps, Dad Bods vs. Gym Bods, The Dangers of Processed Foods, Flexibility vs Mobility, HIIT vs Zone 2, "Smart" Gyms, and More...

In this episode of The Jordan Syatt Mini-Podcast, I shoot the breeze and answer questions from listeners with my podcast producer, Tony. We discuss the BEST number of sets & reps, dad bods vs. gym bods, the dangers of processed foods, flexibility vs mobility, HIIT vs Zone 2, "smart" gyms, and more... Do you have any questions you want us to discuss on the podcast? Give Tony a follow and shoot him a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tone_reverie/ . I hope you enjoy this episode and, if you do, please leave a review on iTunes (huge thank you to everyone who has written one so far). Finally, if you've been thinking about joining The Inner Circle but haven't yet... we have hundreds of home and bodyweight workouts for you and you can get them all here: https://www.sfinnercircle.com/ .

Duration:: 58m
Broadcast on:: 21 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) - Antonio, what's your Spanish word of the day? - Auxilio. - Is that auxiliary? - No, no, but it sounds like auxiliary, right? - Auxilio, what does it mean? - Auxilio means help, which I feel like is a good thing for people to know how to say if they're ever traveling. - Is that like a command, like help? - Auxilio, okay, okay. - But if you think about what auxiliary means, right? It's like additional something, it's almost like support. - Yeah, support, so like. - Interesting. - Auxiliary support over here, please. - Is that the same word if you're trying to say like I am helping you versus like the command of like help? - No, because that would be like from Ayuda. - Like what I have to say is like to help someone. - Okay, okay, okay. So this is like the command help. - Help, yeah, they specifically like help me. - Got it, got it, got it, yeah. - Auxilio, okay, I like that. Is there a difference between men and women and how they say it or no? - No, no, it's, the command isn't gendered. - Okay, okay, okay, okay. All right, Hebrew word of the day, we've got musleg, musleg, it means fork. And it's a very easy way to remember fork because, oh my God, I've got a fork in musleg. So I need to, that's pretty good. - Right? - Yeah, so you can always remember what fork is. I gotta, ah, it's in musleg, ah. - So if I were to say like I eat a cool cucumber with a fork. - Yep, yep, yep. - Would all three of those words be in that sentence? - Well, so the, the sabbabah would not be, I don't think you'd probably use-- - Sabbabah more is like, oh, that's cool. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, you wouldn't say like a cool cucumber. You wouldn't say like, "Zima la façon sabbabas." (laughing) - But yeah, yeah, musleg and axilio, I like it. All right, before we dive in, please do me a favor. Leave a five-star review on the podcast. I need to get better at asking this at the beginning. I think by the time I ask you the end, some people are like, all right, podcast is over, I'm out. Please, please, please, please leave a five-star review. A written review is definitely the best and it helps the most. If you could just explain why you enjoy the podcast, why you listen, it would mean the absolute world to both me and Antonio, axilio, help us. Please leave a review on the podcast. Look at that, see, right away. So yeah, that's it. What do we got for today, Tony? - We're doing a Q&A session. - I like it. - I've got some pent up questions that need answers and I think you're the person to answer them. - I hope so, if I'm not, then I will say I don't know. - Let's see here. - Si se puede. - Si se puede. Do you like low-key speak like pretty Spanish? - Dude, I didn't even know what axilio meant. - Can I ask you a question? - Of course, you can ask me anything you want. - Do you encounter Spanish speakers more in Dallas or did you encounter more of them in New York when you were living there? Like in your day-to-day life. So it's different. It's a great question. It's different because in New York, I was out and about in the city all the time. I was walking everywhere. I was out like I was going to Jujitsu and I was going to the gym and I was going to different like all the time, restaurants, but like I was out constantly. In Dallas, I would imagine, I would imagine there are way more Spanish speakers. Maybe I'm wrong. Actually, I could be wrong on that, but. - Yeah, I don't know about Dallas. I would say like San Antonio, for sure. Like yeah, maybe I'm wrong on that, but I also don't leave my house nearly as much. You know, I work out at home. I'm with my wife and daughter. I like, when I go to the grocery store or sometimes. But no, so I mean, I would encounter way more in New York, but part of me thinks it's just because I was out way more. But then again, I also know there's a lot of Spanish speakers in New York. So, you know. - Yeah, I was just curious. - Yeah, it's a good question. - So, this question is from Taren, 138. Hi, I love the podcast. I have a question for Jordan. I've had a (beep) coach for six months and have been lifting consistently. Don't worry, my contract ends this month and I plan to join the inner circle, smiley face. - Let's go. - She has always started my reps at eight and gone up to 15 over the weeks before increasing weight and dropping back down to eight. I recently started going rogue and just doing higher weight with eight to 12 reps. Is there a benefit to staying at that lower weight for longer or is it all preference? I much prefer the higher weight lower reps. Thank you. - So, first Tony, and you can keep this part in, but can you just bleep out the name of the company that she's using? - Sure. - I just don't want, I don't want anyone from any kind, I don't like to, you know what I mean? I just don't want that in there. So, Taren, it's a great question. I am very excited to have you in the inner circle if you're not in there already. And I wouldn't say either one is right or wrong. A lot of it is based around preference, but also a lot of it is based around what your goal is. But I think the most important thing here is going to be what you enjoy the most and what keeps you the most motivated. So, I would say this, if your main goal is to get as strong as you can as quickly as you can, I would say to maximize the rate of your progress, and you can talk about this in a second, then I would say you're doing it the more optimal way, where you keep it between reps of eight to 12, heavier weight. I think that's going to be the more optimal way to build that strength. If, however, your goal was a little bit more of strength and strength and endurance, in that scenario, I'd say going up to those higher repetitions of 15 and even 20s would make sense. Either way, you're going to be getting stronger when you do this. When you say, all right, so I'm going to use the same weight until I can accomplish whether it's 12 reps, and then I'm going to go back down to eight and increase the weight, or I'm going to use the same weight until I can get 15 reps, then I'm going to go back down and increase the weight. Either way, you're getting stronger. You're progressively overloading. One of them is just getting a few more extra reps in, which is taking it a little bit out of that strength range and bringing it a little bit more to a strength and endurance range. So, especially as you'll see in the inner circle, there are times where the rep ranges are between like four to six, and other times where the rep ranges are between eight to 10 or eight to 12, and other times where the rep ranges are between 15 and 20. And usually, the beginning of the workout is heavier weight, fewer reps, and towards the end of the workout is lighter weight and higher reps. So, they all have a time and a place. Personally, I don't think it's optimal to only operate within one repetitional range. I think all of the ranges have their own unique benefits, and especially right now in the social media fitness world, there's a huge focus on muscle building. And when we're talking solely muscle building, you can operate within any rep range, and as long as you're giving it enough intensity, then you'll be able to build muscle. But I think a lot of people, especially right now, are in such a muscle building focus in the fitness world, we often forget muscle growth isn't the only goal that we can go after. There are other goals, whether it's maximal strength, whether it's strength and endurance. There are many different goals that we can accomplish here. And so, my general recommendation is always go with your preference and what you enjoy the most, but also understand different rep ranges have different goals and have different outcomes that you might be excited to achieve. So, it's sort of a long round about way of saying, if your main goal is getting as strong as you can as quickly as you can, you're doing it right. But if you want to add a little bit more of a strength and endurance component to it, then I would say do what your coach is doing. What I'll also say is this, I think it would be remiss if I didn't mention, it's very nice to hear the idea of, okay, we're gonna get as strong as you can as quickly as you can. My question is, why do you want to, and I'm not saying this to you, Taryn, I'm saying this to everyone listening, why do you want to go so fast? Like, what's the rush? Why does it have to be as quickly as you can? If you gain, I don't know, 5% more strength in, I don't know, two months faster than you would have otherwise. Two months, three months, four months faster. Who gives shit? Practically, what is that going to do for you? And I'm assuming you're not a competitive power lifter, competitive Olympic lifter, which I would imagine that most people listening to this are not competitive in that way. Why do you care about going so much faster? And it's funny 'cause it's not even that much faster. And I'm talking like a realistic rates of strength gain, 5% to 10% more strength gain over the course of two, three, four, five months. And by the way, it's not linear, it doesn't just keep compounding like that. After a certain point, the gains will slow down, the rate of progress will slow down no matter what. So either way, it's a relatively short period of time where you're making faster progress. I would much prefer you make a little bit slower progress that is more enjoyable than faster progress that is less enjoyable. So keeping, that's why when I look at the pyramid of what's optimal, whether it's for nutrition or strength training, consistency or runs the length of the pyramid, it's like what you enjoy has to be the base of it. So just keep that in mind. I think it's very easy to chase the fastest progress when the reality is like even if you make progress faster, doesn't mean you're gonna be happier or any better for it. - Yeah, I do wonder in the question when she says she much prefers eight to 12 reps to your point of it being more enjoyable. I do wonder if those 15 reps sets are harder and less enjoyable, there's more of a burn, there's more, I've done that exact same protocol and I also loved it when I went up and wait and dropped down reps because it's just like less time, less time under tension, right? But also like with just less achy pain, right? When you're burning out those last few reps. - You also feel more badass. Yeah, I'm lifting heavier weight. It's time to look heavier now. And it's like, oh geez, like I might be stuck on this rep scheme for another six weeks if I have to get up to 15 reps. Like that's not as necessarily fun. Which then the question is, okay, are you doing this to avoid addressing a weakness of yours, which might be those higher repetition ranges or are you just doing it truly because you don't care about the strength endurance and you just more enjoy the maximal strength right now? If it's the latter, you just more enjoy the maximal strength. That's totally fine. But what I would say, especially for someone who's really trying to achieve a high-level performance, you're only as strong as your weakest link. And so if you're always ignoring that one-week link, it's sort of like, it's funny. I only do Jiu Jitsu twice a week right now. But my coach, he always, when we're doing a drill, I have to do it on one side. Like do it drill and move on one side. And then he'll always make me drill it on the other side and I hate it. It's really annoying. He's like, all right, now I have to do it on the other side. And the other side is like, I'm a purple belt on one side and I'm a blue belt on the other side. It's like it's just not nearly as good. And so if it was up to me, I would probably just ignore the other side and just get really good on my one side. But again, you're only as strong as your weakest link. And so if you really wanna maximize what you're doing, I would say, is this just because it's a preference or is it because you're deliberately ignoring something that is difficult, which might be something you actually wanna address? - Yeah, congrats on two days a week. I think you've gone up since we last talked about how you're doing work once a week. So I bet that feels awesome. - That's it too. Yeah, it feels good. It feels very good. Especially with the recent mobility gains, man. Oh my gosh. - Oh really? - Yeah, yeah, the mobility gains have just been, I mean, dude, I'm almost, I'm so close to these front splits. Like, I don't know if you saw that. Do you see the picture of me doing the front splits recently? - Yeah, yeah. - Dude, like, it's pretty crazy. It's like, it's actually wild to me that my body can do that. - Over what, like six months or? - Since December, and it's Mayna, so January, February, March, April, May. Yeah, five, six months, yeah. I just count on my fingers. I'm not a math guy. (laughing) Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. - Can you bend into advantageous positions when you're rolling? Like, do you find yourself like having more reach in that way or just like less stress when someone puts you in an uncomfortable position? Or what's the game here? - Both, both. So I mean, there's the ability where like, if I'm like lying on my back, for example, and the guy is trying to get around me, like I can extend my legs further and make it much more difficult for him to actually achieve the position he wants because I can block him with a greater reach of my legs. Which by the way, this is the perfect example of the difference between flexibility and mobility, where it's like flexibility would just be the ability for my legs to go a certain distance. Mobility is if I can actually force my legs to go that distance, right? So flexibility might be if someone can push my legs into that, whereas mobility is if my muscles are strong enough to actively achieve that range without anyone else or another force pushing me into that position. So that's one of the reasons why the mobility work I've been doing has been so effective 'cause it is so heavily strength based, but yeah, massive, massive improvements in Jujitsu, but also improvements in everyday life and just feel so much better. It's really awesome. - Dude, congrats, congrats. - Thank you, man. Thank you, I appreciate that. - I do wanna tease out one more part of that last question 'cause I thought, I think this is an interesting dynamic. She's hired a coach, she has a coach. They're programming a specific rep and set scheme. She said she's gone rogue. So there's the advice that you're giving in the context of what her goals are and what she wants, but what advice would you give in terms of her relationship with the coach? - Yeah, this is tough, right? Because number one, I would say, I think honesty is gonna be, honesty is the best policy. I think what you should make it very clear and you should say, "Hey, listen, I really enjoy the programs, "but personally, I don't really like "the higher repetition schemes." And I understand you might be doing that because there are other goals you want me to achieve, but as of right now, I'm really getting the most joy out of that eight to 12 repetition scheme. So would it be possible for the next few phases just to focus on that eight to 12 repetition scheme so I can progressively overload there. And then maybe after the next three months, we can have a chat and decide, okay, is it worth it to add the extra repetitions or could we just keep this in the area that I'm more, I just enjoy more right now. I do think that would be good, a really good idea, not just from the perspective of your actual programming and the honesty between you and the coach, but also, and this is probably a different answer than you were gonna expect, but I think it's important to have difficult conversations from a mental and emotional health perspective. And just as a human, as a growing human, as we're all growing ideally and becoming better people, I think it's important to have a difficult conversation. And if the idea of saying something like that makes you nervous, it's probably a really good idea to have that conversation. And if your coach comes back, and says, absolutely the fuck not, we're gonna do what I say, I'm the coach, well, that's not a good coach. A good coach would come back and say, yeah, absolutely. Like here's why I'm programming that way, but if you'd prefer to do this, then yeah, we can absolutely do that no problem. - You could open a conversation and that could be really fruitful in its own right. - Yeah, there's a limit, obviously, like if a client said to me, hey, I really wanna be doing single leg Bosu ball overhead presses, no, you're not doing that on my watch. Like if you wanna do that on your own, you're welcome to, but I'm not putting that in your program for so many different reasons. So I'm not doing it, but if you feel like doing that, go for it. But it's something as innocuous as repetition scheme that you prefer, there's no reason why your coach shouldn't allow you to do that. That shouldn't be an issue. So I think having that conversation would be good from a relationship perspective, mental and emotional health perspective, and also your progress perspective. There is also, for whatever it's worth, my hire a new coach every year. I've done this for many, many years. And there are many times where my coaches have done things that as a coach myself, I didn't enjoy or I didn't agree with even. I thought like, ah, this seems either excessive or inappropriate or whatever it is. And I would either have a conversation with them or I would do it, right? 'Cause they're the coach at that point. And again, there's a limit to this. If it was something I thought was dangerous or it was something I just couldn't physically, mentally, emotionally do, that I would say, hey, we need to change this out. And every time, yeah, no problem, we'll change it out. But if it's something, you really have to decide, is this something that you don't want to do because you're not good at it? Or is it something that you don't want to do because you really have a preference for something else? Or maybe you think it's just inappropriate or excessive? You need to have this conversation. And I think having that conversation is great for you and the coach. - Mm-hmm, right on, right on. Yeah, a lot going on with that. That's great answers. Next question, let's do it. So this is from Fran G Gibson. Hi, I'm a longtime follower of Jordan but recent podcast listener and I'm loving the more in-depth conversations. I love that, thank you. I have an overall good diet. I don't track but I eat nutritious food, plenty of protein and exercise six to seven times a week, hybrid style training. My question is regarding highly processed food. How careful should we be about them? The examples that are a daily staple in my diet are tortilla wraps and protein yogurts and protein puddings. Should I also be careful about seed oils? - So can you just quickly read off her examples of highly processed foods again? - Yeah, tortilla wraps, protein yogurts and protein puddings. - Okay, so this is a really interesting and unique question. I'm glad that she asked this. Number one I'll say is unless you are growing your own food in your own garden, everything you eat is processed, technique, like everything. Like even the vegetables that you get from the grocery store, they're processed. Even the organic ones, they're processed. Everything is processed. There's more of like a spectrum of processing. So that's number one. In terms of process, I'm not worried about processed really at all. Like my level of concern over how processed a food is is relatively low. My concern, if I had a concern, it would be more over the hyper-palatable, hyper-satiating foods. The foods that are very high fat, very high sugar, very high fat, very high salt, like whether it's chips, ice creams, cookies. If I had a concern, it would be the overconsumption of those. Tortilla wraps, protein puddings and high protein yogurts, well, technically they are probably a more processed food. I am so not worried about those. I am overjoyed that those are foods that you're eating and potentially eating a lot of. Like those are amazing options for you. I wish that most people were like, I think I'm having too much of these. Like those are just such phenomenal options. And again, on the scale of process, they're more processed than like a sweet potato. They're more processed than, I would imagine they're even more processed than just like a regular yogurt because they are infusing protein into it, right? So, but I would say it's probably less processed than like the, I don't know, Oreo yogurts that I've seen with the M&Ms that you put into hot. So like, but that's why looking at it from the scale of processing is still a bit disingenuous. It doesn't even come close to telling you the full story. I'm more focused on the hyposaciation and hyper palatability of it, which is like sugar, fat, salt, that type of stuff that can make something very, very, very desirable to eat and almost eat too much of without getting full. Whereas, I mean, you're not having too much protein yogurt without getting full. Like you're getting full, you know? I have like one of, yeah, you get super full. So I think, and it's funny, a lot of people talk about the dangers of hyper palatable foods. And I think it's an important discussion, but I think an equal part of that discussion, if not an even greater part of that discussion is how those foods don't fill you up and how you can just keep eating, keep eating. I mean, could easily have a whole canister of Pringles. No problem, like that's nothing. And it doesn't, it literally, it's nothing. I could have that and then go have a whole meal, not a problem. That's the issue, is that you have these hyper palatable, hypo satiating foods. So when we're talking about the tortilla wraps and the protein yogurt, it's not that I could not be less worried and I'm super overjoyed that you're eating those. So again, it's less about the processing and more about the behaviors that that food and also like, all right, is it very high sugar? Is it very high salt? Is it very high fat? And are these foods allowing you to eat large quantities of them without getting full? That's, I think, something to be much more concerned over. - And then she asks at the end about seed oils. - Yeah, that I'm not worried about at all. Again, I've been in the industry for a long time and any time, like every couple of years there's always a new thing to be scared of, a new thing that's killing you. I mean, I'll tell you what, like, no one has, like, Tahini, for example, or if you were using, in the Middle East, like Trina, it's a seed and you can make it into an oil and no one is getting sick from Tahini or Tahina or whatever you want to call it. It's a gross, gross misrepresentation of a food or an oil or whatever it is you're eating when you just say blanketly, like it's inherently bad for you and especially with seed oils. Seed oils have been getting a lot of hate. There are actually many health benefits to seed oils as long as you're having them in appropriate portions, surprise, surprise, the dose determines the poison. All right, that's really what we're talking about here. So I would not worry about seed oils at all in any way, shape, or form, I'm not concerned about them. And when you hear someone say, oh, they cause inflammation, just ask them, what does that mean? What does that mean it causes inflammation? And then if they start telling you how bad inflammation is, just so you know, without inflammation, we die. Inflammation is necessary. Again, it's a level and there's a spectrum to it. So just someone saying, oh, it causes inflammation, gives you literally zero context as to what is going on. So I would not worry about seed oils at all. - Yeah, speaking of the studies like every couple of years, I just read one the other day about fish oils. And they were basically saying, yeah, actually fish oils, according to the study are like more correlated to heart problems and other things than less. And they were talking about the quality of supplements and that kind of thing. Anyways, it was just like, yep, like the merry go around continuously. - Yeah, exactly. - It's like everybody needs it. And then it's like, actually, maybe not. And it'll probably flip back again. - Yeah, it'll go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. It's, yeah, that's why it's funny. Like once you're in this industry for, once you're deeply embedded within this industry, for I'd say at least seven years, that's when you start to see how this, this merry go around works. It doesn't take that long for you to realize everything is either villainized or put up on a pedestal. There's really no in between. - Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, when it comes to like processed foods, to me, that was always more of just like a heuristic. Like, oh, like if you're generally eating stuff with very few ingredients that on average might be healthier, but it doesn't actually tell you anything, anything other than that. Like it's just, it's like a best guess. This is probably better for you than something. That's gone through a lot of processing. - Dude, I completely agree. It's a really good point. And it's funny 'cause we get people on either side of this. We get the people who say you should only have foods with a single ingredient. And then you get other people who are like, it doesn't matter at all. And I tend to lean more, it's funny. I think I'm right in the middle actually. On one hand, I do think that a diet that is largely made up of foods that are relatively few ingredients is inherently going to be a more natural, minimally processed diet where, you know, potatoes, rice, chicken, beef, fish, apples, bananas. Like, it's generally how I eat usually, but I also have foods with a lot of ingredients in it. And you can't tell the value of a food or the danger of a food or anything based on the number of ingredients or based on whether or not you can pronounce the ingredients. Just, it doesn't make any sense. It's a logical fallacy. I don't like the idea where people say, were they almost completely discount food quality entirely where they're just like, yeah, just eat whatever you want as long as it's within your calories. - It's just the macros or just the calories. - It's just the macros, just the calories. It's like, no, that's not true. It's not true. We do want to focus on the nutrient density. We do want to focus on higher quality foods, the majority of the time for so many reasons. So I think both sides, the extremes per usual are the loudest. And the truth is there's a lot of nuance in the middle where it's like, yeah, I think the majority of your diet should be a whole minimally processed food that they just happen to have one or very few ingredients. It's not because very few ingredients is inherently better, but it's those foods generally, like the foods that I think should make up the majority of your diet happen to have fewer ingredients. Whereas the foods that should make up a smaller portion of your diet happen to have more ingredients. It's not like the number of ingredients are what makes it better or worse for you. It's just, that's just how it happens to play out. Yeah. - Cool. Leigh Richel says, I have a question for the next Q&A episode. I'm a 41 year old female who spent 15 to 20 to 35 years doing one hour cardio sessions. At 35, I started seriously weight training and I'm prioritizing strength in a periodized program for the past four years. Let's go, love that. I take Jordan's advice and I've pretty much next all cardio with the exception of my 8,000 step per day goal, which I get largely from a morning walk, 45 minutes first thing. I'm aware that I do need some kind of cardio in my week for heart health and I'm thinking about adding some sprints into one or two of my daily walks each week. What would the optimal dose look like? HIIT sprints for 20 minutes a week or twice. What would be the recommended intensity interval time? 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off. I want to keep a spot on my calendar for heart health and would love some advice. Thank you. So first, I love that your following strength program makes me super happy. It's been four years. It's not like you're doing this for a while. That shows a high level of consistency and dedication which I love. One thing I want to clarify, I think she said that she took my advice and nixed all cardio. With the exception of my 8,000 step per day goal. So I want to clarify, I've never said to nix all cardio ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Like, I want to make this abundantly clear. I have never said stop doing cardio, just get your steps. What I have said is if you are not doing anything, then start by getting your steps for sure. But I have never said stop doing cardio and just get your steps. Very important distinction to make. One is going from like the bottom of doing nothing and starting to do something. And the other is if, I've never said stop doing cardio and I don't want anyone to stop doing cardio. It's very important for your heart health and for your mental health, emotional health, physical health, all of it. Never said that. Never. Yeah. My eyebrows raised up when I saw it. I was like, I'm gonna ask this one. I want to see. Yeah. So that's really important. What I have also said is that in terms of the importance of cardio, I would say lower intensity, longer duration, is you're gonna get way more benefit from that over the long term than doing high intensity, interval training type cardio, especially on a more frequent basis. I think the vast majority of benefits comes from the lower intensity work. Not to say that you should stop doing high intensity work or that there's no benefit to it, but and if we're looking at the pie, I would say 80 to 85% of the pie comes from your zone to lower intensity work and then 15, 20% comes from the higher intensity work. So if you want to add high intensity, interval training, one to two times a week, absolute max is really all you need. That's totally fine. Keep in mind when I say high intensity, middle training, it's not an hour long workout. High intensity, middle training, it could be as few as eight minutes, depending on which one you're following, it could be up to like 20 to 30 minutes at most, but it's a pretty quick workout. So it shouldn't take that long. If your HIIT workout is taking you an hour, then it's not true HIIT. It's not, you're not truly doing HIIT because it would, it doesn't take that long and if you're doing it for that period of time, you're not physically capable of doing HIIT for that long. Otherwise it's just, it's sort of like, if someone says, "Yeah, I sprinted for three miles." No, you didn't. You might have sprinted for the first like 100 yards, potentially, maybe, if you can make it 100 yards in a full sprint, most people can't. But then after that, like you're just sort of running as fast as you can, which actually might work out to be a jog after a certain point. So definitely love the strength training. I love that you're getting your steps in. Never said Nick's cardio. I would say if you wanted to get a few days a week of zone two in there for 20 to 30 minute sessions, you could even incorporate that into your steps and then getting one to two days of 12 to 20 minute HIIT workouts, that's totally fine. - Nice. I do think there's a lot of confusion out there, right? About how to balance cardio training with strength training. I don't think she heard that from you necessarily, but I do think there's a lot of advice out there where it's like if strength is the goal, cardio might be impeding that goal, right? And so I think people do get the idea like it's a zero sum and you can only do one or the other. - Yeah, I mean, cardio would only impede your strength for a couple of reasons. Number one, if you're doing so much cardio that it is a completely and utterly inappropriate amounts, that's number one. If your cardio is so intense, that it's completely and utterly inappropriate with the intensity that you're bringing to it so that now it's affecting your strength. And or if your strength training program is really shittily designed, in which case it's not the cardio, it's the shitty program design. So there's, in fact, I would argue that cardio programed appropriately would actually improve your strength. It would improve your capacity to recover quickly in between sets. It will improve your ability to maintain your strength throughout the duration of the workout because you can recover better. It will probably, not probably, it will improve your sleep quality, which will allow you to have better strength in the gym. It will often reduce muscle soreness, which will allow you to work harder in the gym. I mean, when you do it appropriately, I think cardio will actually benefit your strength. So you're right in that there's a huge movement of people who say that cardio will ruin your gains. And I think that that movement is unbelievably dangerous 'cause it's actually harming people's physical health to a tremendous degree. And it's actually inhibiting their progress and what they say that they're focused on, but it's also being unbelievably detrimental to their health. - Yeah. So this question is from, I'm a jillionaire. Couldn't help but smile when I read that. - Does that mean her name is Jillian? - Yep. - Got it, got it. I like that, I like that. - Hey, Tony, this is for the Jordan Sye podcast. I have been doing great in a calorie deficit and I'm down 20 pounds. Let's go. - Right. However, summer is here and we take frequent trips, sometimes three to four weekends in a row to our extended family's cabin to play at the lake and go boating. It's a ton of fun when I'm not in charge of the meals and there are a lot of guilty pleasure foods around. I have a hard time resisting these foods. How do I stay on track while at the cabin? If we didn't go so often, I wouldn't worry so much, but I feel like when we go for the weekend, it takes me two to three days to get back to where I was and then the weekend rolls around again and repeat the cycle. Help. Huge congratulations on your progress, Jillian. That's incredible. What I would say is you have a really important question to ask yourself and the question to ask yourself is, do you want to continue to try to make progress as quickly as you've been making it? Do you want to stay in a calorie deficit throughout this time period, which is only a couple of months, or would you prefer to move into more of a maintenance phase that will allow you to enjoy more food, enjoy these vacations, enjoy these times away with your family, and then re-initiate a more consistent calorie deficit when you get back, when it's all over. Now, the only person who can answer this is you, but number one, it goes back to what we spoke about earlier in terms of who cares about how fast you make progress. What's the rush? And along the same lines, when you're 90 years old and looking back on your life, and are you going to look back and say, I'm so glad that I restricted myself on those vacations so that I could lose another 20 pounds over that summer, or you're going to look back and say, I wish that I just stopped being so uptight, moved into a maintenance phase, ate a little bit more, enjoyed those vacations with my family, and then once the summer was over, got back in a deficit. Once everyone was back in school, whatever it is. I can almost guarantee you, you would be like, I'd rather look back and have fond memories of those summers and enjoying the food, than white knuckling it through the entire summer, and not actually enjoying it. I'm sure there's someone out there who'd be like, no, I would rather look back and say, I white knuckled it and that I lost the weight. It's like, cool, if that's what you'd want to do, fine. Me personally, so much of what I do is based around like what I'm going to look back on, God willing when I get older, and say like, what will I be more proud of? And especially now with a daughter and God willing another daughter on the way, so much of what I do is based around, well, what are they seeing with me? Like, what are they learning from watching this behavior? And, you know, it's funny. There is a viral video that I came across recently. I've seen it a couple of times now, where these people ask, they separate the parents from the kids. There's a bunch of different parents, there's a bunch of different, and they have all their kids. There's probably like, I don't know, 10 to 12 different families, parents and kids. And the interview is asked the parents if you could have dinner with one person or one group of people, who would it be? And all the parents are saying like JFK or whoever it is, or saying all these like famous people, then they ask the kids, if you could have dinner with one person, a one group of people, who would it be? And all the kids say, my parents. All, they just say, my parents, that's all the kids, I just want it. It's amazing. And then they showed the parents, the video of the kids saying that, and the parents like, they're like, oh my God, they just want to have family dinners, they just want to eat with us. And, I mean, especially when you're going on these vacations and these trips, it's like, that's the best part, is when you're together having meals and joy. It's like, what memories do you want them to have of you? Do you want them to have memories of you where you're like, oh no, like, I'm not eating this because I need to lose another 15 pounds. I need to do it this summer, so I can do it as quickly as possible. Or do you want them to have memories of you? Like, I don't know, eating chocolate with them and having little like food fights with them, I don't know, like making baking with them, whatever it is that you do, you're really going to ask yourself, what's the most important? Now, if you're severely overweight and you're 500 pounds or whatever it is, and you need to lose weight immediately for your health, I would probably imagine number one, you're probably not going on these vacations so often. But number two is if you are, then that's a different story and you need to get your health in check first. But if this is more of an aesthetic, I just want to lose a couple more pounds, you've really got to ask like, what's most important to you? And always recognize you can always kick-started again once the summer's over. So that'd be my recommendations. - Cool. So no strategies or tips for-- - I mean-- - Or perhaps resisting all of them. - Definitely not during the vacations. Like what I would say is during the week when you're just at home doing your normal thing, be on point, like be on point during the, it's sort of, it's funny. It's sort of like during the holidays. And we have this conversation every holiday season. You know, like, oh yeah, the holiday season's so tough. I'm like, let's break it down. Most people in the United States, you've got Thanksgiving in November, you've got Christmas, and you've got New Year's. That boils down to about like five days, if we're including days before and after the holiday, right? It's like five, maybe six days of excess food. It's not much, it's nothing. It's if you're counting entire weeks and months where you're just writing the whole thing off, that's a problem. But the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the week leading up to Christmas, the week leading up to New Year's, like, you can be on point and you should be, especially if this is something you care about and you want to maintain your fitness level over this time period. If you don't want to, fine. But if you're like really concerned about this, you control what you're doing in the week before, the weeks after, it's not that much time. In which like, there's a lot of excess food around. So during the week when you're not on these vacations, crush it beyond point. Hold yourself to a super high standard. And then go and enjoy yourself more and don't count calories and don't be focused on being a calorie deficit when you're on these mini vacations. It's just, it's ridiculous. - Yeah. Yeah, try to let go of the anxiety around it, you know? - Yeah. - All right, this one is from Marcy Joe 3. Hi, Tony. I love the podcast episode with Jordan regarding home gyms. You guys are great. - Thank you very much. - I'm curious what Jordan thinks of smart home gyms such as tonal or speedy ants. Thank you, Marcy. - Speedy ants, whatever. - Are you familiar with either of these? - I'm not. - I know tonal, yeah, a speedy ants. Okay, I just found it. Speedy ants, I'm just looking at images of it really quickly. I know tonal, I've never used it, I've seen it. Interesting. Okay, so they're smart home gyms. They've got like a big screen on the front and it's basically an everything you need in one and it has like a barbell and cables attached to it. - Yeah, it's like a platform. - Yeah, you know what's funny? What was that thing Chuck Norris had? Chuck Norris. - Oh yeah, we were talking about that the other day. - Exer says, what was that called though? - Was it total gyms? - No, no, no, no, he had the total gym. Chuck Norris, total gym, I think is what it was called. It's just so funny because the tonal and this speedy ants for anyone who wants to Google it, S-P-E-E-D-I-A-N-C-E. They look like the modern version, the modern day version of this total gym that Chuck Norris had. It's so funny just to see the difference and how things have advanced with technology. It really is the modern day version of the total gym now that I'm looking at it. Here's what I think. Something is better than nothing for sure. I think that technology has really allowed us to have access to really incredible amounts of tools and weights and variety in a very compact space, which is what these things offer. I don't have anything against them per se. I know for me personally, it's not the most enjoyable. Like I would either prefer to go to a regular gym and have different pieces of equipment that are specifically designed for each thing. But if I'm being very objective, I think they're great. I mean, they're very expensive and definitely not, I think in most people's budget. But here's what I'd say. If you have the space and the money and the desire to outfit an actual home gym with more equipment, I would say that would probably be a better option. Not better. That would be a better option. But if you are very confined on space or confined on money and you don't want it to take up much space at all, and you just want it to be pretty efficient, then go for one of these things. It's totally fine. What I will say, I know I'm pretty sure LeBron James is sponsored by Tonal. - Yeah, there's a picture of him on the website. I was like, is that? - Yeah. - Just so you know, LeBron James isn't using this for his actual workouts, just so we're aware. Just, I just want to be very clear. Like, LeBron James is not training for the NBA using the Tonal. Like, and I'm not saying he's never worked out on it. Maybe he has probably just for the photo shoots, but when LeBron James is working out, he's using a legit gym. Just, you know, it's influencer marketing 101. They just get a really famous person to stand by it and say that they use it. So yeah, it's, I think they're fine. They're definitely not my ideal, but yeah. I think it's fine. - Yeah, it's hard for me to tell from the photos what all is exactly available because it looks like a lot of resistance band type stuff. - No, like it's, it's not even band. It's, it's actual weight. - Oh really? - Yeah, so the way the technology, I don't know how the technology works. I don't know how they actually do it, but it's actual weight. Like you can program how much resistance you want and it will literally create that amount of weight resistance. It's, it's pretty incredible. It's, yeah, I mean, it's, it's incredible. Technology really is extraordinary. So you actually do get, as far as I'm aware, I mean, tonal weight resistance. Let me see how much you get. Up to 220 pounds of digital weight for the speedians. So you can get up to 220 pounds on the speedians. Let me see for the talk. Digital weight, interesting. - Tonal goes up to 200 pounds or 100 pounds per arm. So I mean, it's, it's pretty significant. I would say for obviously for lower body, you're going to be pretty limited pretty early on. Like you're just, you're going to be limited relatively early on. It's also, I mean, whether you're limited in that, like you can't do something like a walking lunge or it'd probably be very difficult to, to do lateral movements with it. You're sort of just standing on this one platform. So again, it's better than nothing. Realistically, if I had to choose between a tonal or a speedians and just a really good set of adjustable dumbbells that go up to 50 pounds, I'd probably go with the dumbbells to be honest with you. There's just so much more that you can do with it in terms of movement capacity. And I think 50 pound dumbbells will give you a greater range than this 200 pound resistance on the, on the tonal, but I also, I can feel my bias coming out. Just for whatever, like I can feel the bias within me. So take that for what it's worth. But if I was going to choose, I would go with the adjustable dumbbells. - Nice. - Nice. - Nice and you've got an Amazon, an Amazon link with all your, your home gym equipment picks. - Yeah. - Yeah, we'll drop that in here again. - Yeah. - So I was going to try something a little different for this last couple of minutes. I did a, did an Instagram story with a question box. And so I got a couple, just like shorter questions and I was going to maybe do, let's do like a rapid fire, like no more than a minute on each of these. What do you think? - Cool, let's do it. Let's try, I mean, I can try. You know I like to talk. I'll have like the ticker going down and the big buzzer at the end. - Yeah, yeah. - Nah, just kidding. But yeah, all right. So let's start with C Marie 724. Why do calorie trackers set calories lower than what Jordan recommends? - There are so many different calculations, number one. So I mean, we all have different calculations. So they might just have a different one. And here's what I think. Here's my conspiracy theory. My conspiracy theory is they deliberately set them lower so that you will lose weight faster and that you will attribute that progress to that calorie calculator. But it's lower and far less sustainable. So then when you eventually can't sustain it anymore, you end up eating more, you gain the weight back, you blame yourself, you don't blame the calorie calculator. I set mine higher deliberately, it's slower, but it's also more sustainable and enjoyable. So even though we have different calculations, I think that they will deliberately set it lower so that you'll lose weight more quickly and then think that there's something special about their calculation when a reality is you're just eating less. And with the lower you go, the more you lose more quickly, but the less sustainable it'll be. - Yeah, yeah, the harder it is to keep it going. Nice, I notice you're like talking faster too, like you're ready, you got it going on. All right, Dee Grandin says no questions, but thank you for keeping it real hard. - Oh, much appreciated. Thank you, my friend. - Candy Kane says, "Why do people think supplements will help them so much? It's annoying for us who put the work in." (laughs) It's just marketing, people are duped by marketing. And it's not just fitness, this is in every, I mean, marketing is an insane industry. Like I can't even comprehend how much, how many trillions and trillions of dollars are in marketing, but yeah, people are just duped. They're duped by it. And I would use your empathy very well here and understand that they're not deliberately or consciously trying to be rude, or they're just, they're duped, they're duped. And so I would look at it as your responsibility to encourage them to continue putting in the work, 'cause they still have to put in the work too. Whether they're taking supplements or not, they also have to put in the work. They're also just wasting a lot of money, right? So it's like, it's sort of, they get the shaft where it's like, they have to work hard and they're wasting money. You have to work hard and you're saving money on not buying useless supplements. So I would just, they've been duped by marketing. Fortunately, you're in an environment and an ecosystem that has led you, has shown you the truth. And so I would spread that truth in a very loving and empathetic way. - Yeah, nice. Have you, real quick, have you watched Mad Men? - Dude, I haven't, my buddy Mike tells me I need to watch it. - Yeah, if nothing else, just like, even in like the first season, Don Draper is the main guy. And he'll just come up with like this emotive story about a product, like a cigarette. Like, you know, there's a man sitting on the bench, a woman sitting next to him. He pulls out the lighter and like offers her a light. It's like, yeah, it's not about the cigarette. It's about the story. It's about how you want a person to feel. And so with supplements, I think about that. It's like, oh yeah, it's like, you wanna feel like you're fit and succeeding and healthy. And so that's what they're really going for. - Correct. - All right, Antigua Productions, it's fine, I know him. He says, "Are dad bods more fit than gym bods?" - Man, that's not a rapid fire question. That's like a whole podcast. Are dad bods more fit than gym bods? There's so much, it's such a unique question. It's almost like, this could be a really philosophical discussion, if we really wanted to dive into it. But got a couple of minutes, we can-- - No, here's what I would say. It's not a fair question in that you can't judge someone's fitness level based on how they look, based on their body, right? I mean, it's funny, like, what's the boxer's name, Ruiz, boxer, Ruiz, Andy Ruiz, Jr.? Dude, this is one of the greatest boxers of all time. If you want to Google Andy Ruiz Jr, look him up. And by the way, if you've ever done any boxing, you know how insane, how much insane cardio you need. This is one of the greatest boxers of all time, and this dude is, I would probably classify him as obese at least. His body fat level is pretty astronomical. And you can even look at, make martial arts fighters, you can look at so many different athletes who might not look like a gym bod, but they're super fit, and they're very athletic. So it's important to not judge someone's athleticism or fitness level just based on their body fat level or what they look like. Another person, another, what's his name? Oh my God. - Tyson Fury is one of them. - Tyson Fury, Tyson Fury. He's another one, Tyson Fury. Like arguably the greatest boxer of all time. Also, like relatively high body fat percentage. It's not about how they look. It's about how they perform and also how their health is. It's very interesting. I think our minds have been talked about marketing. Our minds have been warped by the people that we see on social media who are ripped and shredded to bits. I mean, how many times do you go to the gym and see someone that looks like all of the insane people you see on social media? - Very rarely, very rarely do you go to the gym and you're like, oh my God. Look at all of these crazy, ripped and shredded people. Like almost like never, I've never had that happen. And I've been at some very famous gyms that are notorious for that. I think our minds have been warped by-- - The goals in LA or something. - Yeah, goals like all over. People are, their minds have been warped by steroids and drug abuse number one. Also by lighting and posing number two. And it makes you think that that's what a normal, healthy, fit person looks like. When the reality is, if we're looking at why someone might blow up on social media, well, maybe that person is specifically blowing up on social media because they look that way, right? And then how many hundreds of millions of people are using social media? Well, there are always gonna be statistical outliers, but you see, I don't know, let's say you follow a hundred people who are shredded to bits and ripped. It's like, now your feed is filled with people who are shredded to bits and ripped out of their mind and insanely athletic. So you think, oh, this is just what fit looks like. It's like, no, these hundred people specifically went viral because of how they look. And it's not how most people look. It's not how the most average normal human beings looks. Even it's not how most above average, very fit people look. So the discussion around maybe like, what's more attractive is a different discussion entirely, but in terms of judging fitness level and especially in terms of judging health, you can't judge it based on whether they've got the dad bod or not. - Yeah, have you heard of like dad strength? - Yeah, old man strength, dad strength, yeah, for sure. - Yeah, it's just like, man, they've been doing stuff for a lot longer than us and, you know, like they'll surprise you and have strong there. - Yeah, dude, I think I'm getting it. I think I'm getting it now, like, I'm feeling - You get the dad humor, you're getting a dad bod. - I don't even add a dad humor. - No, I miss out the dad jokes all the time. Like I really, I miss them. People will point them out to me like, ah, that was just like up for grabs. I miss the dad joke, but dad strength though, right? - I do love a good pun, I do. I just need to get better at recognizing them and pulling them out. But it's funny, like, when I roll with these young bucks and jiu-jitsu now, like late teens, early twenties, mid twenties, late twenties, I'm feeling the dad strength come out now, which is great. It's a real thing. But then I go against a dad who's a little older than me, late thirties, early forties. I feel his dad's strength, like, oh geez. - Interesting. - It's a real thing. - Yeah, that's awesome. - Well, cool, man. Any final thoughts before we wrap this one up? - I appreciate you. Oxilio, Oxilio Tony, Oxilio, I'm asking for help. For everyone, please leave a five-star review, a written review, it would mean the world to me. Please share the episode. I think I'm gonna start doing contests if you share an episode on your story and tag me in it. I'm gonna pick one person to, I don't know, win a hundred bucks or something. I need to think about it. I'm not doing it on this one. Just please share on your story. I'm gonna start doing contests so you can get people sharing the podcast. Please leave a five-star review. I love you. I appreciate you. Have a wonderful week. I'll talk to you soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]