Transcript 0:00 In episode number 51, we discuss conquering the first 30 days of your diet and nutrition program with our FuelYou or Fuel University episode. 0:09 So if you're interested in nutrition and making serious change in the next, say, 30 days, check out episode number 51. 0:16 But in this episode, we're talking about our other program, RDF Strong, that's geared towards the novice to intermediate lifter, someone who has some experience in the gym but wants to follow a proven program to put on some muscle and change their body composition. 0:30 So for the first 50 people that go to rdftrainonline.com and purchase RDF Strong, they're gonna get 20% off by using the code STRONG20. That's rdftrainonline.com and use STRONG20 for 20% off. 0:45 [rock music] Welcome to Iron Sights. 0:52 This podcast candidly seeks to create opportunities and deliver impact by sharing the experiences and wisdom of successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders who unapologetically aim to win in health, fitness, business, and life. 1:06 I'm your host, Scott Howell. Welcome to old school meets new school, tradition meets innovation, and imperfection meets excellence. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show. Marcus has gone through this, right? 1:18 Jones and all them. Marcus, Jones. Dude, I, the, the picture that was posted today on Red Dot with Marcus doing the front squats, dude, do you know how much bigger he's gotten? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. 1:28 [laughs] I was like, kinda looked at it for a second, like, "Fuck, he's, he's big." Uh-huh. Yes. Getting thick. He is. He's put on quite a bit- Mm... of muscle, muscle mass. Yeah. 1:35 As a matter of fact, I mean, um, we just had a guy that walked in here a little whi- while ago that I hadn't seen in a couple of years, well, not quite maybe that long, let's say 18 months, and he saw Marcus. 1:47 He's like, "Jesus Christ, what is that kid doing?" [laughs] "Like, that's what I need to be doing." 'Cause he almo- he didn't recognize him. Yeah. And I don't think... 1:54 And then there were some pictures that were floating around of Marcus not too long ago at the- Mm-hmm... Aldoa workshop shirtless. Mm-hmm. And, uh, just in s- a, a couple of postures or whatever. 2:02 And not only has he put on probably 10, 15 pounds of muscle, he's still lean as hell. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can see and appreciate- Mm... every, every bit of the work that he's put in. And so, yeah, the... 2:12 But, you know, the, the [laughs] I just quickly responded to the guy, I'm like, "Yeah, man, Red Dot Fitness Strong, Red Dot Fitness Max. I mean, that's the stuff." He's like, "Dang." 2:21 So I was like, "Yeah, it's good to know that it works, right?" Mm-hmm. 2:23 So that's what I wanted to actually come in and talk with you guys a little bit about today because that, that question prompted, um, a conversation which prompted some, prompted some thought, and then also brought me back to, we've been getting a lot of sort of feedback on our Strong program. 2:37 Mm-hmm. Uh, as folks have sort of s- picked it up, they're starting to hear about a little bit more, u- us a little bit more through the podcast. 2:44 They've done some research and jumped on board with this particular program, which is one of basically three programs we have that we offer online. 2:53 And, and when I say online, they're s- they're, they're what we call self-guided programs, right? I mean, you guys know that, but- Mm-hmm... for the, for the audience of those listening, it's a self-guided program. 3:01 It's basically, hey, you're gonna get access to the program. There's a lot of stuff that comes in- comes with the program that we'll talk about today, but you're doing it on your own time. 3:09 You're not working with a coach. 3:11 Um, but we've tried to pack as much value, uh, instruction, and, uh, information and knowledge in- in- into it so that as people are going through it, not only are they getting a, a good result, but they're having fun and they're learning, which is what we try to do with our clients. 3:26 Uh, and I don't think all programs do that. Like, you get a lot of templates out there. Mm-hmm. 3:30 But what we're trying to do is make, help people understand what the, why they're doing what they're doing so that they can do it on their own, so they're empowered to do it on their, on their own. 3:39 And so it's, again, it's one of three programs we have. We have Strong, Max, and we also have FuelYou, which is the last one there being a nutrition-based program, uh, and, uh, and lifestyle. 3:49 And, uh, the middle program, Max, is more of a, more of an a- little bit of an advanced, uh, I'm not gonna say little bit. 3:57 It's, it's a more advanced power and strength-building program for somebody that has some time under their belt doing some organized strength training. Mm-hmm. It's not something you wanna jump right into. 4:08 So coming back to Strong, which is what we're getting into today, it's more of a program for, uh, that person that may be novice to intermediate. 4:16 Now, when I say novice, I, I don't mean somebody that's never exercised or worked out ever before. I'm talking p- when I, I think we should define novice as somebody that's had some experience around exercise. Mm-hmm. 4:28 Right? And, and, and has some familiarity with the gym, with the equipment, and things like that. 4:33 And 'cause I think anytime you're jumping into one of these types of programs, if you're gonna get the value and the results, you know, that, that you're investing in, um, you, you, you really have to have some kind of awareness. 4:46 And that's gonna vary f- uh, from person to person obviously. And so that's a challenge for whoever's writing the program, whether it's us or somebody else, is like, where do we start with people? So we say, 4:56 uh, novice to intermediate, and immediately what I get, and this is some of the questions, is like, "Well, should I start with Max?" We're like, "Tell us about your lifting history. 5:05 You know, what's your exercise history?" And we're trying to determine what their- Mm-hmm... what their, uh, their exercise age is, if you will. Mm-hmm. And they're like, "Yeah, well, you know, I've been lifting. 5:14 I started about six months ago," or whatever. And I'm like, "Y- you're an infant-" Yep... in all of this. You're a baby still. Yeah. 5:19 [clears throat] So maybe talk a little bit about, so those con- conversations and kinda like the where do I start piece and who is Strong ap- really appropriate for. Yeah. 5:29 So, you know, Strong's appropriate for anyone who, um, has some exercise awareness that has been in the gym before. Um, and let's say they've been out of the, out of the quote-unquote game for a while. 5:42 Maybe they've stepped away from the gym. Maybe they've had a lot going on in life. They're looking to get back into a regular routine. So, um, this would be a great place to start. 5:51 Some other individuals who've started with Strong have been, um, physically active [clears throat] mothers that have gone through pregnancy, and they're, you know, postpartum now 6:03 I don't know, nine months to a year, if not longer than that. And, um, they started with STRONG. 6:08 Some other individuals that have started with STRONG, um, people who have had a very busy, um, I guess, occupation, who've been really involved in, in work and, um, they're looking to, to make a change and they need some structure. 6:23 Going to the gym and just, you know, picking a few things to do isn't working for them. So, um, this has really been helpful for them as well. 6:31 Some of the feedback that I've gotten from, um, some, some of our, our individuals is that, you know what? This program, um, has really helped them with being accountable because it's laid out. 6:45 It's a, uh, four-day-a-week program. And so each day they know what they're doing, and they can look, uh, forward to the next day. They know exactly what they're doing. Um, so [clears throat] 6:57 I really, I really like STRONG for that, in that it's versatile for just about anybody. 7:03 I mean, you, yeah, you hit the nail on the head with all of those sort of, you know, from the business end of things, like the market segments, right? 7:09 I mean, there's so many of them, it just really could be good for anybody. 7:12 A- another, another person that, um, is doing this thing, uh, Midwest, was telling me the other day, like, "You know what I really like about this is I was getting bored with my own programming." Mm. 7:22 Like, I, I was, I was going in, I was doing my own stuff, or I was spending a bunch of time researching, getting different exercises or things like that from different people, whether it's influencers or other programs or research. 7:34 I mean, this, this is a resourceful person who- It's very ra- I was about to say, that's very rare that someone's doing that. So... Yeah, she, she's r- uh, you know, this... 7:41 Yeah, this person's resourceful and, and smart, and has been around the game a little bit, right? So anyway, just kind of jamming around, getting stuff, and going, "You know what?" Like, it, it's, so it's work. 7:50 And I was a little bit bored with kind of what I was doing. 7:52 I think a lot of people kind of, in this particular instance, was, this was the case, is they kind of revert back to what's easy for them or what they're good at, right? And that winds up being very repetitive. 8:02 And you may see some results with that, 'cause you're working out, you're stimulating the body, you're sending the right signals and whatnot. 8:07 But ultimately, there's gonna be a change, and sometimes it's just nice- Mm-hmm... to just follow the roadmap. Mm-hmm. Right? Sometimes it's just nice to kind of, like, "What am I doing today?" Like, trust the process. 8:18 Let me- I was just gonna say, have faith in the process. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. 8:20 And I mean, that's what we do as coaches is, for a lot of our, our clients that don't have, you know, that type of motivation or that resourcefulness or that background, and they're just like, "Okay, I'm here, coach. 8:30 I have an hour. Let's make the most of this. Tell me what to do. I don't want to think about this." And I would prefer that they're, they're connected, right? 8:38 And I want to them to be connected, and so we do our, do our best to help them stay connected in this program when we're not standing right next to them. 8:45 But that's the only other example I could think of, was just somebody that's just like, "You know what? I just need a change. I just... You know, I've kind of gotten into a rut." Mm. 8:53 "I've been working out consistently for years, and, and, uh, I would like to do something that's a little bit more, uh, organized," and we'll just call it progressive, and, and, and in that, a little bit more linear, right? 9:04 It's, it's- Yes. So I think it's, you know, in terms of talking about the program, um, yeah, you mentioned it, it's a, it's a, a, it's a f- four-month program, right? 9:14 And it, l- going back to the novice, you know, to intermediate person, we recommend everybody starts in, in the, in phase one. It's four phases. Uh, it's about three to four weeks per phase. 9:25 And we, we recommend that everybody kind of starts in phase one, because, um, it really will in- reintroduce you to some of those basic movement patterns, uncover some things that you may have, again, in your journey, have ignored or weren't aware of, or just kind of, like, you've been glossing over or working around. 9:44 It's gonna help you do that, but it's also gonna get you sort of in the swing and prep you for those next phases as they come down the, come down the pipe. So that, that f- you know, again, it's four phases. 9:54 Foundational. It's foundational movements in the, in the beginning, and it progresses as we go. I mean, as the title says, it's about gaining strength, and it's about building muscle mass. 10:03 Uh, that's really what STRONG is. And it's a great setup for other things. You know, if you're looking to get into a power and sh- Mm-hmm... 10:10 uh, power, more of a power-based program, or, um, you, you need a base level strength for whatever your activity is, this is, this is what we're doing. We're building muscle and we're building strength. 10:20 So four phases, three to four weeks per phase. And we've carefully kind of lined all this out, and again, tried to make it very, uh, digestible for, again, the type of user that we just mentioned. 10:34 Uh, just try not to make it over complicated, but we're also not dumbing this down. 10:38 Uh, so, you know, i- if you, if you had to take a, like, an overall look, "Well, what kind of exercises am I gonna be doing in this program?" Mm-hmm. You're gonna be doing the basics. 10:46 You're gonna be squatting, you're gonna be hinging. [laughs] You're gonna be lunging. Mm-hmm. Hinging being, like, more of your, your deadlift or RDL-type movements, or if, for those of you that aren't familiar. 10:55 You're gonna be pushing, right? So that's horizontal, like bench pressing, or vertical, like overhead or military-type pressing. Uh, you're gonna be pulling, same horizontal and vertical. 11:06 And then you're gonna be doing some carrying. We're gonna, we're gonna challenge you that way. And you're definitely gonna be rotating, which a lot of programs- Mm-hmm... 11:13 we've, we've come across over the years, you're just not doing much of. Mm-hmm. So we've programmed all this stuff in. 11:18 And really, like, anytime you're doing a strength-building program, may I turn this over to you J- to you, Jeff, and, and I think people start to get... Like, they want fancy, right? Yeah. 11:27 They want, they want, like, sexy. They wanna be doing all these- In a strength program? Yeah. Mm. 11:33 And the reality of that is, is what they need to be doing is they need to be picking some very basic exercises and sticking with those so they can build proficiency- Mm-hmm... 11:42 efficiency, and obviously, uh, provide them with the stimulus to grow. You wanna weigh in on that, Jeff? 11:46 Like, kind of what you've, you've come across with people pushing back or, um, the things that they need to know or maybe spend some more time learning about before jumping into a program like this? 11:56 Well, what I would say is, in the program, right, we are programming specific exercises to get adaptations from them, right? 12:03 And when we're looking at strength, we're looking at, you know, kind of the four major- Mm-hmm... movements, right? And then accessories off of that. Um- There's no bigger bang for your buck. 12:12 I'm looking for strength, so I'm looking from weight on the bar, right? So these exercises- So to speak. Yeah... so to speak. And they might, they might be boring for some people. Like, "Oh, I squat," you know. 12:21 Uh, uh, yeah, you squat. I squat three times a week. Right. Some sort of squat, right? Um, you're gonna be doing the same movement over time, trying to get better at it as a skill, right? 12:32 So looking for fancy things, uh, in programming is not what we're looking for. We're looking for a consistent, gradual, um, you know, um- Improvement and increase... 12:43 ex- yeah, over time in these movements, and they're never going to dissipate or go away. 12:47 We might, you might do a barbell, you might do a goblet squat, but they're gonna be the same movement, and we're loading them differently, different rep ranges, different rest periods, but it's all the same movement that we're getting good at, right? 12:59 So you're getting a baseline, right? 'Cause if you, if you don't have a baseline for a particular movement, then how do you know if you're progressing? How do you know if you're making gains- Mm-hmm... 13:06 you know, or whatever? I mean, there's a lot of way to, lays, ways to evaluate that, but you suggested, like, uh, you know, we're looking to put more weight on the bar. Yeah. 13:13 I mean, that's an easy way to measure- Mm-hmm... you know, your progress, right? It's one way, and that is, like, how much am I pushing? How much am I pulling? How much am I squatting or hinging? 13:22 Uh, that's one way, but the, the challenge comes with that is, like, that's, if that's all you're chasing all the time, that can be problematic. Mm-hmm. Um, it's not about how much weight we're using all the time. Yeah. 13:33 And we'll, we'll talk a f- a- a- about a few of those things. But you make a really good point, man. 13:37 It's just like, hey, we're trying to get some adaptations, and, and the adaptation we're trying to get in strong is strength. Mm-hmm. And also- Acquiring of muscle fibers... w- w- exactly. 13:47 So you're gonna get a little bit of girth as well. So we're looking at, like, um, like, the, you know, in a... 13:53 As we're, we're moving through the phases, particularly this first one, is we're starting to build a little capacity. Mm-hmm. Right? And we're starting to see some increase in muscle, muscle mass. 14:00 We're looking for some adaptation there. And then with that, then you can start to work the strength phases, w- and you'll b- start to build more strength phases. 14:07 You'll start to build a little bit more capacity, and that sets you up to maybe do some of the cooler, sexier stuff if you like pushing heavy loads, right? I wanna make this clear. 14:17 Strong is not about getting to the end and doing a max bench press. It's about being maximal, you know, having the max amount of strength you can have, um, by the time you reach this in these various components. 14:29 It's not to build a bigger bench press. Yeah. It's not to build- Yeah... a bigger squat or deadlift. That would be more like a power lifting type program, and that's very individualized. Mm-hmm. If you've, 14:41 if you've, uh, excuse me, progressed through some type of strength training program like we're doing here, then you have, you have a baseline to maybe now move into your power lifting program, where you're maybe gonna train those more specific movements more frequently. 14:54 And so when you talk about baseline, right, um, everyone out there, like, if you're sore for a whole week off of working out, right, we need to kind of look and titrate where is my baseline and where should I really start. 15:05 Um, what I like to do with a lot of my clients is minimum effective dose of exercise to get a response, and from there, gradually grow and increase, right? Mm-hmm. Where, like, why would I leave all of this volume? 15:15 And when I say leave all of this volume, why would I jump up 100 pounds over what my minimum effective dose is and miss out on all of the gains I had up into that 100 pounds? Mm-hmm. 15:25 If that kind of makes sense to anybody there. Yeah. It, it makes perfect sense. I think what we're sort of talking about is, like, the fitness to fatigue model- Mm-hmm... 15:30 and making sure, hey, at the beginning stages, I'm gonna get, you know, for the intensity that I put in, I'm gonna get a greater result, right? Like, over time. As long as I'm getting my recovery done- Mm-hmm... 15:40 like, I recover and I r- Mm-hmm... and I begin to recover back to baseline, and then I recover beyond baseline, right, to get the gains, right? Mm-hmm. So first I have to get back to where I was. 15:50 And, and if I can't get back to that, then I'm not gonna see any gains. 15:54 So I, I have to, again, provide the right amount of stimulus, give the right amount of recovery, nutrition, rest, you know, all those kind of micro, macronutrients, all that stuff, and then recover beyond. 16:04 And then that sets me up for the next session- Mm-hmm... to where I can push myself. But again, overdoing it, over, overtraining would then basically equate to being under-recovered- Exactly... 16:16 if I'm not managing it right. Yeah, yeah. 16:18 And over time, this is the important thing about periodization, over time, ultimately I'm gonna get to a place where even with the stimulus that I'm putting in, I'm not going to recover beyond baseline. Mm-hmm. Right? 16:31 And that's when I need to readdress my training program and maybe do things like deloading. Mm-hmm. Right? Or, uh, uh, even just, just resting or changing my program altogether and going- Yeah... a different direction. 16:43 And we've accounted for that in this program for people- Mm-hmm... as so long as they are pushing at the levels- Yep... minding their recovery- Mm-hmm... 16:50 uh, pushing at the levels they need to in order to get that stimulus. But to your point, the minimum effective dose to get the maximum result. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Took me a long time to learn that. Yeah. 17:00 I mean, I, I- The hard way. [laughs] Well, that, but then- Me too. [laughs]... you know, so many people, they, it still hasn't, um, hit them because they think that every time I work out, I need to be sore. Mm-hmm. 17:10 And that's not the case. Yeah. Yeah, I think that comes with experience, but it also comes- Mm... with you haven't been in your program long enough to really realize it. 17:17 You haven't stuck to a program or, and organized it in a way to ever realize that. 17:22 Um, so if you haven't realized that and you're listening, I'd be asking yourself that question, have I ever realized what you've just said or what Jeff just said? Um, and that is, 17:32 um, you need to be in a program long enough, and you need to be able to track through that program long enough- Mm-hmm... to know what is the actual result you are or aren't getting. Yep. 17:40 And, and, and that's what we're trying to do is set them up for success from a measurable, a tangible results perspective. And, you know, it starts with principles, right? Mm-hmm. 17:51 Like, what are we really working here within the program? How are we setting up our programs? Any of your programming should be set up this way. I don't care what it is, and this goes back to what you guys are saying. 17:59 Mm-hmm. What's, what's right for me? You gotta start with the principle of individuality. Yep. I mean, you wanna talk about individuality with regard to this, this program- So basically-... or this type, you know? 18:10 Yeah, so, you know, individuality is, [laughs] you know, someone's age, their, um- Training age, so how long have they been training? 18:21 Um, we're talking about, you know, are they male or female as far as, you know, hormones and those types of things. Um, you know, body shape and size. So- They got long femurs and short tibias? 18:33 [laughs] Yep, I was gonna say appendages. [laughs] Appendages and, uh- Everybody-... muscle insertion points. 18:38 [laughs] Everybody's, everybody's different That's gonna impact as far as how much you can pull and lift, believe it or not. Um, so yeah. 18:45 I mean, it, that's, when we're talking about principles of, um, of individuality, we're looking at each individual and, and what their package is, I guess. Right. What are we dealing with? 18:55 And, uh, and obviously you can't design a perfect program for everybody like this. Like, there is no perfect program, even if you have a coach. There's only getting a little bit closer to being- Yep... great, right? 19:06 Mm-hmm. But as long as it's good, and I really feel like we put something together here that's good, um, you're gonna be on the right track. And, and with exercise, we know so much. There's been so much research. 19:15 Um, and we have a ton of time under our belt to where it's like, okay, well, given that, given all those, those factors, like what can we do in terms of putting something together that makes sense for the masses? Mm-hmm. 19:23 Mm-hmm. Right? Um, and going back to, you said from soccer mom or post-pregnancy mom, postnatal mom- Yeah... 19:29 to, you know, dude that's been working out consistently for years and years and now just needs some more organization, uh, to his program. 19:35 Well, to that point, I mean, one of our coaches, they talked to us about going through RDF Strong. 19:41 So, you know, they'd been doing their own thing, and then they wanted to have a change-up, and we're like, "Hey, try RDF Strong." And that coach had massive gains. Yeah, d- and you could see- Massive changes... 19:52 you can see it on him. Mm-hmm. And here's the thing with that, going back to novice to intermediate, dude checked his ego- Mm... at the door. And he's like, "Okay, I can make this program work for me. 20:02 Like, it's not, it, if I just threw that out, how do I apply this specific to me?" Mm. And that comes back to the principle of specificity. 20:10 That's kind of that second principle that we're gonna be d- we're gonna be dealing with here. And basically, um, we're, we're, we're looking for things like we're, we're gonna be working through things like intensity. 20:20 Um, we're, we're gonna be seeing things like metabolic adaptation. There's volume things that we have to work through. Um, but specific movements to acquire specific skills. 20:30 And, uh, Jeff, you know, we were talking about the pull-up the other day. Mm-hmm. 20:34 And, you know, you did a really good job of, of articulating on the last podcast about h- what, like the pull-up being a very specific skill. Mm-hmm. 20:42 And it doesn't matter how strong you are, if you don't have the skill to perform the movement, you're not gonna be very good at pull-ups. It's the same with squats. 20:50 Like, you might be able to squat a house, but if you don't have the skills to do that properly, over time, you're never going to fully maximize your, your gains- Mm-hmm... 21:00 and you're not gonna ever really realize your potential. So when we're, when we're looking at, when we're looking at specificity, that's what we're really, really talking about. 21:08 We're really talking about, like, let's perform skills, right, that, uh, go back to the, the basic movements. Those basic movements have to be, have to be mastered. 21:17 And this isn't what, this isn't like- I need to squat to get good at squats. That's it. Like, my push-up isn't gonna get me good at squats, right? You got it. Right. That's it. 21:23 I mean, it's a really good pl- point to leave it on. The other one which sounds, and we've already talked about, is the principle of overload. Like, we, we g- we have to be overloading. And- Have to... 21:33 and this is the one that gets [laughs] overdone the most. Mm-hmm. I mean, we already talked about it. It's, like, more weight on the bar. 21:41 You have to provide a stimulus or, you have to, you have to provide a stimulus that overloads the system, right? Yeah. 21:46 So I mean, Jeff, I don't, I don't know if we really need to say much more about it, but I don't know if there's something you wanna weigh in with the overload piece. 21:51 Well, for the o- for the overload, I want people to think about, you know, like, and when we talk about form specific, right? 21:57 I wanna have the best form possible when I'm doing this to achieve tension in the desired area, right? So if I'm 50 pounds over what I can, you know, let's say stabilize my form, well, where is this weight going into? 22:11 What joint? Where, where is it getting compensated? 'Cause it's not loading in my quad or my glutes or my hamstrings when I'm coming down into the squat, right? It's going somewhere else. 22:19 So I would just caution everybody to kinda take a step back off the bar, really focus on form, and load from pure form. 22:27 Whatever your pure form is, whatever weight you can do it that way for whatever prescribed reps, and slowly increase from there. You know what? 22:33 That's a really good point because [clears throat] you and I, we had this conversation back, I don't know, a while ago, and I was talking to you about how I was feeling with my own workouts, and you're like, "So when's the last time you changed it up?" 22:43 And so we talked about changing it up. Yeah. And the other thing you called me out on was my bench press. You're like, "CC, try..." 'Cause I was creating so much tension throughout my body. 22:53 Um, and you're like, "Try to think about the muscle group and the joints that you're utilizing with your bench press instead of, you know, contracting your entire body so hard- [laughs]... 23:05 and to, to get to be more efficient- Mm-hmm... with that exercise." And can I tell you what? So I went back through, um, a hypertrophy phase. Mm. And I really focused on not being so tense everywhere. 23:16 I mean, I still kept tension. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, um, and I dropped my loads. 23:21 And can I tell you, so I, I increased, um, my, my loads and I decreased my reps recently, and I was easily four reps per set over with, it was 10 pounds. No, five pounds total from, um, earlier this year. Good. 23:35 So five pounds on each side. 23:36 You know what was marked for me in watching you do that was there was a couple things that happened beyond just your weights going up, and I don't know if we even talked about this or not, but a couple things. 23:45 You started sleeping better, right? You were rec- and you were recovering better. I think this is a combination- Mm-hmm... probably there in the two. Um, and y- your body composition changed in just kinda how you were... 23:57 I mean, I don't, I could see it physically. Yeah. I don't know, you know, what, you know, an InBody or a body comp would've said. Mm-hmm. 24:04 But I could see it physically on you, and maybe that's just because now you're putting on a little bit more muscle mass. I do feel like that. Yeah. Yeah. 24:10 And, and so you look differently just from that minor thing, right? And, and it's, again, it's how you organized yourself throughout the day. It's not like putting- 24:19 Again, it's increasing intensity, decreasing volume maybe, and paying real close attention to y- what- Yeah, what Jeff just said... what Jeff just said. Yeah Which is, let's just, let's pump the brakes a little bit. 24:29 Let's just try to be good at this. Let's practice this- Mm-hmm... rather than, um, going in and train it. Yeah. Like, and maybe that's the way to look at it. 24:36 So I'm gonna go to practice this movement today, and yes, load goes on the bar, and I track that and whatever else. And then lastly, obviously, that goes to what you were saying in terms of the principle of progression. 24:47 Like, there has to be a constant application of all of the things that we just talked about there over a longer period of time in order to really progress through these movements. 24:59 And it does no, does you no good to try to go from level one to level 10- [laughs]... you know, if you need to spend more time at level three or four. 25:07 So again, checking your ego at the door, really focusing on these things pays huge dividi- dividends as you get closer to, or further down the line of that fitness fatigue model that we already mentioned, or closer to level seven, eight- Mm... 25:19 nine, 10. Spend the time needed, uh, at those, at those different levels. But y- y- y- you have to overload things. Mm-hmm. Right? It, that's how you're going to get things. Yeah. 25:29 But overload doesn't necessarily mean just put more weight on the bar. Do you wanna weigh in on that? So, I, I mean, are you talking about tempos and- Things that you're gonna see- Okay... in the program- Yeah... 25:41 that, that are going to help you overload without necessarily adding a ton- More, yeah... of weight, or more load to the bar, or the stack, or the dumbbell, or whatever else. So, yeah. 25:51 In Strong, you know, we introduce tempos. 25:53 So, um, and for individuals that might not be familiar with that, that's where you're going through your, um, concentric and eccentric or ascending and descending phases of your lift at a count repetition. 26:08 So, maybe it's a, a three-count tempo. So, a three-count descending and a three-count ascending. Or maybe you're adding in some pause sets in there. 26:18 So, um, in between your ascension and des- and descension, there's a pause for a certain period of time. So, we've incorporated tempos in an RDF Strong. Yeah. So that, I think, is a little bit of, of nuance there. 26:31 And we, knowing that that doesn't show up well or isn't explained [laughs] well just in a template. Mm-hmm. 26:38 And it can be very confusing if you're, if you're not a, like, if you're n- if y- if you're not good at reading, or you get bored and you just want the information really quick, what we've done is we've incorporated video tutorials on that stuff with examples, uh, practical examples as they relate to the programming within the program. 26:54 So one of the things we didn't mention, when you get Red Dot Strong, what you, Red Dot Fitness Strong, what you end up getting is you get, you get access to a platform, a learning platform. 27:04 It gets easily loaded on your phone or on your computer or whatever. And you're gonna have a, your, or your iPad, whatever your device is that you wanna use. And you're gonna have a, uh, what we call our guide in there. 27:14 And the guide's got all the information in it, including templates that you can print off. But it's also there electronically, and you can store and, and, and do the things there. 27:23 But there's hyperlinks to different videos and different sections in case you're confused. Outside of, or wanna know more- Mm-hmm... not necessarily confused. To s- explain the tempo piece. Explain the tempos, right. 27:33 So explaining, you know, time under load, or sometimes people say time under tension, or, um, what the purpose is when we do add a, a tempo in for, um, maybe one component of a lift, as far as, you know, if it's maybe just the down phase, or maybe it's, you know, working on exploding through the movement pattern after being in a pause. 27:54 Right. So, um, that, that type of thing. So, um, you guys are talking about progression. You know, ways other than putting weight on. 28:02 Uh, let's say I come in one week and I, you know, we do the bench press, dumbbell bench press, 45 pounds for 10 reps, right? Yep. All four sets, just easy numbers. 28:12 The next week, I can come in and I can do 12 reps at the same number. Mm-hmm. Right? It's gonna be an increase in my total volume. Or I can go up 5 pounds and hit another 10 reps. Mm. 28:21 But does going up the 5 pounds, maybe I'm not that strong, right? And keeping the stability there with just that increased five, I don't have good form. Mm-hmm. 28:29 Whereas increasing the reps at the lighter weight might be a better idea, right? As I get more stable and more endurance over time, and then g- going up in weight. But there's multiple ways that you can do this. 28:40 I mean, if we're talking about volume, it's the weights times sets times reps, right? Mm. You can get that number. We want that to gradually increase, however you do that, weights, s- sets, or reps. And it- Good point... 28:52 and what, it's a fantastic point, and, and it, uh, it's a great segue into, you know, anytime you're writing a program like this that, you know, you, you can search online. There's a million of these out there, right? 29:02 We're not the first ones to come up with this, right? There's a lot of, and there's a lot of really great people that have done some really great programs. 29:09 But one of the things that we wanted to do when we came to it was like, how do we teach somebody how to really individualize this so, this for themselves and understand that concept and where to go with it? 29:19 Like, I'm not that, you know, I don't have a really high training agent. 29:21 I don't really know, like, I don't have the confidence yet, or I don't have the knowledge to understand, like, is five gonna be, 5 pounds gonna be too much for me or not? Mm-hmm. 29:30 So we start to introduce things like rate of perceived exertion, or an RPE scale, which, uh, can be a double-edged sword if you're not pushing- For sure... 29:38 your health, yourself far enough or hard enough, and you don't really know that. 29:41 But we'll walk you through how to app- uh, how to, um, basically, uh, assess that for yourself, at least where you are now, so that you can begin working knowing that when you are putting in the effort, and you get to those points where you're like, "Do I put more weight on the bar? 29:56 Do I not put more weight on the bar today? What do I do?" Mm. How to make that determination. That is what we're trying to empower people to do. 30:03 Because those, that stuff is the stuff that really equates, in terms of the progression- Mm... to results in the long run. It could, it could lead to results, or it can re- lead to overtraining or under-training. Yep. 30:14 Right? Where you're not getting the results that you want. So, um, great point there, Jeff. Su- super great point. 30:20 I, the, the, I think as you're- If you're kind of taking all this in, it's like, okay, so what are the different phases then look like? What should I expect in terms of what I'm focusing on? 30:30 So again, program is designed to build hypertrophy and strength, right? This is not a, quote-unquote, "physique, bodybuilding program." We have one of those. It's, it's offered in a little bit of a different way. 30:42 It's in our online membership. 30:44 We have one of those, but those look much different than what we're doing here in this four-day-a-week, you know, sort of full-body strengthening, uh, and g- uh, build- strength-building program. 30:54 So the first phase, going back to like, "Hey, where do I, where do I start with this if I'm a beginner or a, like I'm a novice- Mm-hmm... 31:01 or beginner or a more intermediate," this is more of the anatomical adaptation phase. This is what we kind of refer to it as. So this is- Yeah... 31:08 this is where you start getting in and you're like, "I'm discovering new things. I'm applying new things." Yep. If I'm a novice, uh, I'm learning how to get under the bar. I'm learning how to get over the bar. 31:18 I'm learning how to use dumbbells or cables and things like that. We do keep this, by the way. You know, when you're, when people ask like, "Well, what am I gonna need to do this program?" Right? 31:28 We tried to keep this as simple as we possibly could, uh, from an equipment needs perspective. 31:34 However, not realistic to think that you're gonna be able to gain maximum amounts of strength and hypertrophy with a couple bands and a kettlebell in your garage. 31:42 [laughs] Yeah, or some little, or a couple five, 10-pound dumbbells. Yeah, I mean, you're going to- Yeah... 31:46 if you haven't already, you're going to have to make an investment in something, either a home gym or a gym membership, uh, or something, right, if you don't have access to this stuff. 31:54 Because there's only so much you can do with your body weight, but body weight is part of it, so we will be doing some body weight movements. You're definitely gonna want some plates. You're gonna want a bar, right? 32:04 A plat- some plates and a bar is going to take you a long way in your fitness journey, period. Yeah. 32:10 Um, having a power rack, having s- like a cage or a power rack or at least something, maybe a half rack that's mounted to the wall, something to hold that bar, something to anchor- Mm-hmm... 32:18 yourself to or anchor other equipment to. That's gonna be important. That's a, that would be a great investment if you have that. If you don't, you need to get to a gym that's got one. Mm. 32:27 I mean, there's just, there's just too much that's gonna get left off the table if you don't have access to that from a, from this type of a strength training program. 32:35 And if you're not gonna use that home gym and you're gonna waste all that money on it, just go get a membership. Yeah. [laughs] Just let... You know what I mean? [laughs] That's their model anyway. Yeah. 32:42 Give them the money. They want that anyway. Yeah. You are the customer they want. And, and keep the square footage, right, at home. Exactly. Keep your square footage. You saw that stuff on Craigslist. 32:47 I mean, that stuff goes through, you know, for a premium now. Yeah. So you got that. We love t- we love the tubing and the cables. There's a lot of, uh, uh, utility in those things. 32:56 If you don't have cables or access to cables, there's a lot of stuff you can do with tubing, heavy-duty tubing. Yep. Um, we have some, we have a lot of tubing around here. We double up on tubing to increase resistance. 33:07 Yeah. We make it long to take resistance out of it. We buy it in bulk here- Mm-hmm... which you can do. Uh, maybe we'll make a YouTube video actually on how we make our, our tub- Our tubing... our tubing setups. 33:17 That'd be smart. Oh, that's a good idea. Uh, for the attachments- We need to make some more tubing... 33:19 and stuff, 'cause I, we, basically, we just never found anything that we really liked that held up over time, so- Yeah... 33:26 we figured out our own way to kind of make the tubing last and, and give the resistance profiles that we needed for the different stuff that we do. So tubing's good. Your, again, I already mentioned the barbell. 33:35 Adjustable, um, like bench, exercise bench. Mm-hmm. If you got a rack- 1000%... you're gonna, you're gonna want a bench. Yep. Like 33:41 just make the investment or whether it's in the equipment or, or, or at, you know, for, at, in a membership. You're gonna want some dumbbells, [smacks lips] um, or some adjustable dumbbells. Right. 33:50 Or like the power block things. Yeah, power blocks or, you know, there's a lot of companies out there that make them. And then, uh, a suspension trainer would be great. Yeah. Some webbing. 33:59 You can get like a company like TRX. They do a great job. I like, I like Fitness Anywhere and, and what they're doing with the TRX. There's a lot of companies that make suspension trainers. I think they're invaluable. 34:08 There's a lot of things that you can do with them. They're relatively inexpensive, zero footprint. Mm-hmm. They're mobile if you wanted to take them with you. 34:16 And then lastly, and we talked about this on the, um, [smacks lips] on the Pull-Up Podcast, was bands. Super bands. Super bands. Yep. 34:24 So if you don't already have that stuff, this is some, these are, this is the stuff you're gonna want access to. 34:28 So what, what we kind of describe it as, if you had like a, uh, like a, [smacks lips] a semi put together home gym, you're probably pretty close. There may be a few things you wanna have. Yep. 34:38 Um, but obviously if you have access to a full gym, you just take the program with you to the gym and you do that. 34:42 So anyway, going back to the phases, you, you're, the, the first one is again that, that anatomical adaptation phase, and you're gonna be introduced to all these different movements. 34:51 And if you, if you are more advanced, you're gonna be revisiting some stuff and mastering those things. 34:56 And again, to Jeff's point, like, hey, what are we doing in terms of understanding, okay, I'm strong, but where, maybe what you need to understand more of is where am I weak so I know where to get strong. 35:07 Yeah, 'cause this is the pre-phase, right? Right. Adaption phase. Exactly. And so I use this all the time with my training. 35:11 Let's say if I'm going into a strength block where I wanna get stronger with my, uh, squat, um, I'll use a box squat for two, three weeks. Nothing crazy. Mm. Right? 35:20 Using the same kind of rep scheme and the depth that I want to squat at when I'm- Mm... 35:24 when I'm doing my strength training to lock in the depth, right, get that kind of movement pattern in, make sure there's no kinks in it, and then I'm gonna go and train it over the next couple of weeks. Perfect example. 35:33 Yeah. Perfect example. So again, like people coming into it and they're going, "Ah, yeah, this seems really basic and whatever." To Jeff's point, it is basic. That's, that's exactly what it's for. 35:43 That's exactly what it's for. But we'll also, we'll also tell you, "Hey, look, if you wanted to skip phase one, if you really feel like you're beyond this and you wanna move, go ahead. Skip phase one." 35:52 I think you get more benefit out of the program if you just spend some time there, but maybe you have. 35:56 Maybe you, you, you are a little bit more advanced and you've already come through this phase and in, in some form or fashion from your other training and you wanna jump right in. Great. 36:05 Jump right, right into p- into phase two, which is what we'll call a capacity building phase. Um, and really that's just really upping the amount of work you can do or perform, um- Mm... over time. Mm-hmm. 36:19 So you're gonna start to see those foundatio- foundational strength increases. More strength, yes. They're gonna start happening. 36:25 Uh, you're gonna find that your, your, your rest times between sets will probably be decreased. That'll let you know you may need to be pushing a little bit harder. 36:32 But these are where your, your, the first like, um- In phase two, if we, if phase one was four weeks, as you get into, like, phase t- uh, phase two, deep into phase two, s- week two, week three, you're gonna start to real- you're starting to realize the work that you're doing. 36:47 Mm. I mean, this is the fun part where you're like, you, you may not see it yet. You can feel maybe you're getting a little stronger. Mm-hmm. And you're starting to see your physique, you know, maybe change. 36:57 Your f- you're, you're feeling like your clothes might be fitting a little differently. 36:59 But that friend you haven't seen, that family member you haven't seen in, you know, a few months or, or longer or whatever, sees you and goes, "Dang." They'll notice. [laughs] Yeah. "Yo, what's going on with you?" Right? 37:10 That, that's really kinda where phase, what the, the result that you're kinda getting with phase two. It's not uber dramatic, but it's, it should be big enough at this point for you to... 37:19 Those results should be tangible enough for you to kinda see them, and certainly be able to feel them, and others will, will, will likely see them, see them on you and may be asking some questions. So, um, 37:30 here's, here's one thing about, um, the, the, the transition between phases. So if, if we're going from phase one to phase two, four weeks in phase one. If you wanna spend six weeks in phase one, go ahead. Right? 37:43 If you feel like, "Hey, I need a little bit more time here." Same with phase two. If you wanted to extend phase two out a little bit, you can do that. 37:49 Like, you just, you, you just continue to move through the program through those basic movement patterns. 'Cause at this point you'll know what exercises to do. Right. Right? 37:57 You'll know which ones you need to focus on, and hopefully you'll want to do that. Again, that's the leading the horse to water. Mm-hmm. Um, and making him really thirsty. If you... 38:06 Y- and, and that's where we would love for every client to be, to be able to evaluate that, or user to be, is to evaluate that for themselves and go, "You know what? I need another couple weeks here- Yeah... 38:14 before I move into phase three," which is the hypertrophy phase. So before we get into hypertrophy or muscle growth, um, we're s- we're staying time in this capacity builder. 38:24 If you feel like you still have room to go there, right? Like, I really wanna continue to work on my leg strength here, or my capacity. You're s- yeah, you're still seeing, um, builds in that. Right. Mm. 38:34 So again, going back to that fitness to fatigue model. We're starting to see some really good gains. Mm-hmm. D- don't be in a rush- Yeah... to move forward. 38:42 You know, listen to your body, see what's going on, and if you're getting those, those, continue to get those gains, hang tight in there for a while if you'd like. 38:48 But if you're anxious and you wanna continue to move forward, or you've had some experience and you recognize, like, I'm nearing kind of the end of this, I, I know where my capacity is and I'm feeling like I'm kinda peaking here- Mm-hmm... 39:01 well then, that's the perfect time to move over. Yeah. 39:03 You know, the other thing is, too, as far as staying within this phase, or any of the phases for that matter, um, let's say y- you're having to travel for work, and you're gonna miss a half, half a week, if not, like, four or five days. 39:16 That's such a good point you're making here. I mean, you can go ahead and stick with that phase for an extra week or two. 39:20 Because you're not gonna lose anything in those four or five days, but your body will get a chance to rest a little bit, and then you can come back and you can finish that phase out another week or two, and probably even get more growth in that, in that period of time. 39:35 That's a so- that's a really solid point. A lot of people panic. You're like, "Oh, I've got this program, but I don't wanna start it because I'm going on vacation- Mm-hmm... you know, three..." Shit. [laughs] Yeah. 39:45 [laughs] That's over the... It's not a straight line, guys. Yeah. Like, you know, there's periods of growth. Yeah. And then, like, in the time, even when you're working out, like, you're like, "Oh, I'm pushing so hard." 39:55 Like, body's like, "No, you're not growing, dude. I'm done growing." Mm-hmm. And you stay like that for a long line, long line. 40:00 All of a sudden you get RDF strong or max, and all of a sudden you get another little period of growth, right? Right. So it's doing these and changing these things up. Um, a week off isn't gonna throw off your program. 40:10 Mm-mm. It's just about consistency and s- just keep working out. And your body's not gonna change in a week. It's not. You're not gonna lose anything. Right. 40:17 And, and, I mean, even the science tells us that from the strength perspective. You could walk away from your strength training for up to a couple of weeks- Mm-hmm, yep... and actually not lose any strength. Yeah. 40:25 And what we're really talking about there is the, the connectivity through the neuromuscular system. For sure. The drive that it gets, all the muscle fibers that are being activated, whatever. 40:34 It might feel heavy, but you should... Not you should, but you're likely not going to drop any strength. You might feel a little bit more sorer than you would typically feel- Mm... 40:43 whatever, 'cause your body is starting to readapt back to baseline, whatever that is. And if you're not training it, then it- Mm... it does move a little bit. 40:50 But it jumps back in very quickly, so long as you haven't taken... It's up to, like, three weeks on the strength side of things. We've talked about this- Yeah, cardio's quick. 40:59 Yeah, that's what you were mentioning- Yeah... the other day on that cardio podcast, which was, like, yeah, your cardio's gonna adapt the other direction- Yeah... real fast. Real fast. Same, up and down. Yeah. 41:06 Like, when we say up and down, I just mean increased capacity- Mm-hmm... versus returning to baseline or whatever you're stimulating it with. So phase three is the hypertrophy phase. Okay. 41:15 And this is the phase, you know, that a lot of people wanna get into kinda right away. Wow. 41:19 And so what we've been doing is we've been dealing with, um, in your program, uh, with the, with the reps, the sets, the rest times, some of the nuance you mentioned, you know, tempos and things like that. 41:29 What we've been doing is building capacity. We've increased volume, um, so that you can do more work. And now you have this ability to do this work. Now we're gonna start to maybe increase the intensity a little bit. Mm. 41:40 Right? And, not maybe, we are. So you're gonna feel the weights get heavier. You're gonna feel the workouts get harder. You're gonna feel the volume of work that you're doing decrease a little bit. 41:51 So total number of reps starts to decrease in a lot of exercises. 41:57 But the intensity, or again, your RPE, where you might have been at a seven, right, in the capacity building phase for a lot of stuff, is now moving to a 8, 9, 10, uh, in your hypertrophy s- phase, where again, you're not doing 12 reps, now you're doing more like 8 reps. 42:16 Mm-hmm. Uh, which for a lot of people may sound like if you have a little bit of training experience under your belt, like, you get the whole rep and set thing. 42:24 Um, people say, "Oh yeah, r- 12 to 15 reps is more like endurance." Uh, it's not really. You could build [laughs], you build a lot of muscle with 12 to 15 reps. It depends on how it's applied, right? Mm-hmm. 42:34 We haven't even got into, like, our more advanced program, Max gets into cluster sets. You know, where we're doing the same amount of reps, but we're still, uh, or we're, we're doing it- Volume... 42:43 we're doing more [laughs], we're doing the volume a- along, along with it with the intensity. I don't wanna, I don't wanna get too far down that path. That's a conversation for another time. 42:51 But- Now we have this ability to do more work, now we're gonna put it on you. This is a fun phase, right? Because you really start to see some, like, aesthetic changes. Yeah. Yeah, I was just looking at it. 43:02 And you're really challenging yourself. And I, I love it. Dude, the block pulls and all that. Yeah. Yeah. 43:05 So maybe you can talk about it, like some of the things that they're gonna see that, that might be different or they might get introduced to. It just seems like you're getting a little more tempo. 43:13 Um, you're really having to be more neuromuscularly locked in for some of these beginning exercises, like the block pulls, uh, the tempoed bench press, um, the body weight pull-up, all of that. 43:25 Uh, really skill acquisition has to be locked in so I can perform and get the muscular gains that we've kind of, uh, programmed within this, uh, uh, period. Yeah. 43:35 So the, the, the exercise selection gets a, you know, there's still the basic movements, but it gets a little bit more interesting in how we're applying them. Mm-hmm. Um, and you just mentioned a few of those things. 43:46 But yeah, like block pulls. Like, if you've never done a block pull, you're gonna get inter- introduced to a block pull. Uh, it's gonna allow you to pull a little bit more weight with less risk, right? 43:54 You're gonna be a little bit more efficient at this point. And so what you're fi- what you might be finding is, "Shit, I'm getting sore," right? Mm-hmm. Or, "I'm needing a little bit more time to recover." Yes. 44:03 If you haven't been, uh, addressing your nutrition at this point, [laughs] this is the- You might start to feel it. Yeah, you might- Yeah... 44:09 start to really feel it, and you might, might not get the benefits or all the gains, if you will, that you could get through this phase if you haven't done that yet. 44:19 So this is when things kinda start to get real, like- Yeah... "Holy shit, now I'm doing some stuff. Am I doing all the other things, uh, to, that equate to results in the end?" 44:29 And because we've now upticked this, this intensity for you, we're s- we're, we're gonna program in at the end of week three and four, or three as you move into four, we're gonna program in a deload. Mm. 44:41 Uh, and you, at this point, the whole idea is that you've earned the deload. So Jeff, d- I mean, you wanna quickly go through what a deload is? 44:50 So deload, um, you're either reducing volume through, uh, whether it's reps or intensity. Uh, for me, I like to keep the intensity and drop the reps or the, uh, sorry, the sets and reps, the volume. 45:01 I like to keep the tension on the muscle. I don't really like to take tension away. Um, that's just because most of the time it's in a strength-based- Mm-hmm... 45:08 uh, movement, and I wanna keep that tension on, let's say, my back or whatever. I don't wanna drop weight- Right... if that makes sense, right? 45:14 I wanna keep the CNS firing strong still, but I'm gonna reduce the amount of damage through sets and reps. Uh, yeah, so that's what that is. Um, do you need one? Question being, like, are your joints sore? 45:27 Are you not recovering? Are you not sleeping well? Uh, do you feel like you're hungry all the time? 45:32 Uh, these are some things where you can start looking at nutrition, sleep, and be like, "Okay, I do need a week to deload." 45:37 If you don't at this time, you haven't been pushing maybe hard enough, or you're doing really well in your recovery and your nutrition, and you don't need to deload. You might need to deload next time you come through. 45:48 Yep. Yep. Uh, that's a really great point. Yes. 45:49 So we're deep into, you know, 12, almost 12 weeks into your program right now, and you should have a higher level of awareness of the things that you were talking about there, Jeff, in terms of like, am I sor- more sore? 46:00 Am I not recovering? You know, is this little nagging thing not getting better? Do I feel tired? You know, do I not have the energy, you know, when I walk into the gym? Those are the things you'll be paying attention to. 46:09 And I wanna at this point say, you know, how do I know if a deload is appropriate for me? You were, you were just saying, well, you might not. You might not know. 46:17 So one of the things we put into the program is a biofeedback tracker so that you can keep track of the, uh, more of the, the subjective stuff that's going on in your workout program and in your lifestyle. 46:30 Like, am I recovering? Do I feel tired? Do I have to, you know, am I... Uh, do I, um, do I have lower energy spots throughout the day? 46:38 How did this workout actually make me s- make me feel, say, on a scale of one to five? Like, I got the work done, but dude, I feel like shit. Trash. [laughs] You know? Or I feel like I have more in the tank. Mm-hmm. 46:50 Like, I feel like a five to, okay, well, let's go back to the biofact- uh, biofeedback tracker for the last five days. What are the habits? 46:57 What are, what have, what, what have I been doing on the daily that could be contributing to this? Oh, I slept more, or I feel like shit. 47:04 Ah, well, two days ago, I went out drinking with the boys, you know, on Sunday for Sunday football, and I just haven't been right since. Mm-hmm. Uh, that, all of those things impact you. 47:13 So we, we, you know, we've talked about biofeedback on the, on this show before, but we program in and we put in place this biofeedback tracker for you to use in order to mo- to monitor the subjective feedback or the subjective stuff that's happening along your program. 47:27 Which can really help you ascertain, like, is a deload appropriate for me right now? Mm. Because maybe it's not, in which case, don't deload. Just keep moving through the program. Yeah. 47:35 Like, no, no, I feel, I feel really good, like I'm moving through. Uh, and I should, I can just keep pushing. 47:41 And just like we were saying before, hey, if you're still feeling like that, right, go ahead and stretch the hypertrophy phase out another week if you want. You can totally do that. 47:49 Like, you don't need another set of workouts in this pha- You know what they are. Mm-hmm. Just go back to the, the basic exercises that you're doing. You can, you still have those. 47:58 Again, it's not about picking a different exercise each week you go through it. No. We're trying to master those exercises and get the maximum benefits with the, with the minimum dose necessary- Yeah... 48:08 in order to get it going back through again. Don't get me wrong, I love a new exercise every now and again, too. [laughs] But it's this [laughs] it's the- Right... 48:13 same repetitive movements, the basic movement patterns that we see as being an optimal human is what's gonna be important and need to be trained. Yeah. 48:23 So w- as you're seeing those results, then obviously we're getting into phase four, which is really the max strength- Mm-hmm... uh, phase of this program. 48:32 And so again, as we're pushing into weeks 14, 16, you know, that, that area, depending on if you've, uh, if you've pushed out maybe a week of e, extra capacity building or hypertrophy building or, or strength building, whatever. 48:46 We're deep into the program now, and this is where you get to have fun. This is where we're, we're, we're, the, the exercise selection that's in there, you do get to pull those higher loads, right? 48:55 It's like, okay, p- pull, push, hinge, uh, the, the, the, the vertical pushing, the, the horizontal pulling, all that stuff starts to show up, and we get to really challenge you. 49:05 And the whole idea here is, is not, again, to set any world records, but if you've done your homework, and you've done a good job, you should be significantly stronger also Have more muscle mass at this point, which should be an expectation through the program, that you have gained up until this point. 49:23 Now, in the fourth phase, you're probably not gonna gain a ton of new muscle mass. 49:28 Now go back to that fitness fatigue model, like, we're getting to that point where we're getting, if we're, if we've been doing this correctly and applying things appropriately, we're getting to that point where we're probably nearing a space where the amount of work we do to the recovery we give is not going to get us much past baseline. 49:48 And what we're effectively trying to do in this max strength period is peak that, right? So when you get to the, the end of, of phase four, you are spent, right? The whole idea is that you're spent, but not damaged. 50:01 So you've spent time m- uh, mastering the, the, the skills. You've spent time learning how your body responds or recovers. You've spent time knowing how much is too much. What truly is an RPE eight- Mm-hmm... 50:14 or, or five for me, or 10 for me, or, or whatever it happens to be. What, where am I on this scale so that when you get here, you're really pushing. Um, again, you're gonna be sore. 50:24 You're gonna be learning about your recovery. But this is where it gets fun. This is where we kinda get to cut loose and, uh, kind of reap the rewards of all the work that we've done, um- Maintain... underneath this. 50:34 Yeah. Yeah. To this point. Uh, so I mean, that's ult- you know, that's where people are, are getting, or we want people to get to. And so now to your point, Jeff, like, you've reached this, this phase. 50:46 Uh, n- what's next? You know. Mm-hmm. So where do I... Do I just keep going? What do I do next? Literally, you could go back to the beginning, to phase one, right? That's your deload. 50:58 But you're still, you're mastering these new, these new movements or the, the, the same movements again. You're going back and revisiting. 51:04 This is a time where you're like, "Oh, man," like, "I know if I was more mobile here, or I lost some mobility- Mm-hmm... along the way as I was building." 51:11 Whether it's 'cause it was neglected or it's just simply a result of the stimulus I was giving my body. Maybe I readdress it. And you could go back through it again. Mm-hmm. 51:18 And this time as you go back through it again, you should be doing more. And I mean, again, like, the loads are gonna be more. You're gonna understand your rest periods. 51:26 But everything should be- You're gonna understand your body better, actually, as well Dude, this is literally what I do in training. This is what we do. I come back through the first phase. 51:31 I'm, like, five or 10 pounds over my starting phase- Mm-hmm... baseline. And then you slowly build up from there and go back through the program, right? Y- yeah. 51:40 And for, for somebody that's like, uh, you're the endurance athlete. Like, you're the triathlete. You're the runner, right? 51:45 The, the cross-country runner or whatever, who's not lifting during their program and is running most of the year. This is the four-month or the four-phase or three-phase- [laughs]... 51:54 if you wanted to make it that, uh, program that you do midyear to really build back your strength as you move more into your, you know, your endurance phases of your running program or whatever. 52:03 And now you have this baseline that you can try and maintain- Mm-hmm... through your running. Throughout your season. Throughout your season. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta be lifting weights if you're a runner. Yeah. Have to. 52:11 Right. 52:11 Same if you're, um, same if you're, like, you're on that summer break for, you know, you're that soccer athlete at college or that football athlete, you know, who's in between, you know, leaving school and then being able to go back to whenever the hell they let kids go back to school and practice and, as a team or whatever. 52:27 I mean, I can't keep up the NCAA- [laughs]... and the ridiculousness that's going on there. 52:30 But this is the program that you could be doing before you walk back into the strength and conditioning room with your, with your conditioning coach that sets you up for the stuff that they're gonna make you do, which is generally speaking more of a power, it's a conditioning and power phase going into, you know- Straight from sitting on your ass all fucking, yeah... 52:47 Right, which is not generally a great idea. It's such a good idea. And I think, look, we know some really smart, uh- Coaches... strength coaches. 52:52 But the experience just says it's like, now the next thing you know, you've been on your ass all summer. Maybe you haven't. Hopefully you haven't. 52:58 But you walk in and you look up on the board, and it's like, you're a running back, and you're doing squat, clean, you know, and overhead press today, right? Yeah. 53:06 We're cleaning already, and we're, but I haven't lifted all summer. [laughs] Yeah. You know? Yeah. So, like, we're, we're already doing this stuff. So you, you could come in with, uh, again, that, that baseline. 53:15 Have a base, yeah. Have that baseline. Absolutely. So again, uh, so i- in terms of the workout structures and things like that, I mean, it's four days a week. 53:24 You have, you know, it's kind of like a two days on, one day off, two days on. Uh, could be one day off or two days off again. You could structure that however you want. 53:33 To your point, CC, if you went on a vacation, whatever, just pick up where you left off when you come back into it. 53:39 Uh, you know, if you were gone for a couple of days and it meant you had a three-day off period, just jump back in whatever day you're supposed to be on. We keep that pretty simple. Mm-hmm. 53:48 Um, and we try to make the instructions on how to do that really simple. Let's not overcomplicate this shit, right? 53:54 You, you just need to be doing these movements and doing them in this, this fashion, this volume, this intensity. We're trying to maintain the best, best we can. 54:01 Things are gonna come up and hit you in the side of the head, right? They are. That's life. That is life. [laughs] That is programming. Yeah. 54:06 Um, and, a- and again, hopefully what we've done here is we've taught or we're teaching people through the programming, again, the reading, the videos if you wanna do the reading, and the actual experience that they're going through, to know how to adjust for themselves. 54:21 Um, and, you know, the other thing I wanna put in there is, like, okay, well, I'm used to working out five to six days a week, and you're telling me this is a four-day-a-week program. Sometimes less is more. Yep. 54:31 Yeah, let's talk about that. So again, the, the, the purpose of this program is to build max strength and hypertrophy, right? 54:40 And w- and it starts with the hypertrophy fa- uh, capacity building with hypertrophy and then gets into strength. So more, to your point, is, or, or less, is sometimes more. 54:52 So, but we still get a lot of people like, "Yeah, but what about my cardio? What about, like, I like to go ride my bike. You know, I like to, I like to do CrossFit. You know, I li- I like to do-" [laughs] "... 55:03 you know, whatever." [laughs] There's all kinds of things you could do. I feel sorry for that person. Well, I, I would, I would say, like, you need to really reevaluate or evaluate, what is my goal? Yep. 55:12 I was gonna say that. Yes. [laughs] So what am I trying to do here? So again, like, less is more. This shouldn't take away from your life- No... either. There you have it. It should augment. Like, I... 55:21 But sometimes pe- it blows me away. It's like this, "Oh, well, I worked out today, and, like, I can do no other exercise." And for some people, maybe you shouldn't. 55:29 But, you know, for, I know a lot of people that can work out and it's like, "I'm gonna go play soccer. I'm gonna go- Mm-hmm... play jujitsu," right? There's multiple things that are happening in the day. 55:38 Just are you recovering? Exactly. Is the nutrition there, right? Am, is, am I doing too much? 55:43 Maybe I take the jujitsu out for a bit and I get my endurance up, and now I can do jujitsu, and soccer, and a lift in one day, right? 55:50 So it don't, it doesn't have to be this is my life and I'm not doing anything else outside of it. I, I love that point. I love that point, because if that's what it was, it would be very fucking boring. Yeah. 55:58 [laughs] Oh, my God. It would. And you wouldn't really ultimately be happy anyway. And by the way, this isn't gonna make you better on the jujitsu mat. Mm-mm. Right? Jujitsu. Jujitsu- Yeah... 56:08 makes you better on the jujitsu mat. This is gonna help you be a stronger- Yep... uh, m- more muscularly dense- Mm-hmm... jujitsu athlete or practitioner on the mat. 56:18 And there's a lot that can come into that or, or that goes into that in terms of being successful on the mat. But sometimes, again, maybe a little less jujitsu right now and a little bit more strength training- Yeah... 56:27 is what you need, right? Or maybe a little less strength training and a little bit more jujitsu is what you need. But in that, in that sense, we, we programmed in what we call a choose-your-own-adventure option. 56:37 [laughs] Re- which is like, hey, you have these days, right? You have obviously your, your workout, scheduled workout days, but there's also these other days off. Mm-hmm. 56:45 And choose something to do, as so long as it's not taking away from- Yeah... the programming. 56:50 So what we suggest in general is, is like, hey, if your goal is hypertrophy and strength, doing a ton, like, of long-distance or high-intensity cardio or activity could be or could take away from- Could be counterintuitive... 57:05 could be count- yeah, could be counter to the, to the results we're trying to get here. Doesn't mean it's wrong. Just understand that. 57:12 And so, like, again, I love the jujitsu example, because, you know, I have a really tough time getting jujitsu athletes to come in and get strength training or do their strength training until what happens? You get hurt. 57:23 Till they get fucking hurt. Yeah. Right? And then it's like, "Now I need to do something- Yep... 'cause I can't get on the mat anymore." And then that's when the new, that's when the new strength training gets pulled in. 57:31 It's the same thing with the cycling athlete or the running athlete. Like, it's, they finally just run themselves to death, right? Or, or- [laughs]... crash their bike. They have low bone density. Yeah. 57:40 They have no muscle mass or very low muscle mass. They stick that arm out to break that fall. 57:45 Next thing you know, you got a broken humerus, a collarbone, you know, a clavicle, and they can't ride their bike anymore or whatever else. Oh, now it's time to do some strength training. 57:54 You can, you can implement all different types of workouts in and around this program. Um, and that's why we made it four days- Mm... so that people could do that. 58:02 And we encourage you to be active outside of this program. Just do what's appropriate for you. And so we give you some, some out- we outline some things that you might do. 58:10 Like, hey, if you still like going to that, uh, that spin class or whatever, go to the spin class. Mm-hmm. Maybe you approach it this way. We describe that in the program, right? Yep. Hey, maybe you like, again, jujitsu. 58:20 Well, great. Go do your jujitsu. That's not gonna take away as so long as you're recovering. And so it might not even be the two programs on top of one another that are doing that. Again- Yeah... 58:30 we've talked about that a million times on the show. It's how are you managing your lifestyle, your nutrition, your sleep, your recovery methods. 58:37 We talked about doing, you know, uh, cold immersion therapy and all that- [laughs]... other stuff. Like, what other things are you implementing to make this, make this work for you? 58:44 Well, so I, I like what you said about, you know, uh, this is to make you a stronger person outside so you can do what you love. I love snowboarding. 58:51 Last year, I took a huge fall where I stupidly stuck my arm out and made it a tripod, and somehow I did, like, a one-arm push off of a mogul. I thought I broke my arm. I almost threw up. I was in that much pain. 59:03 Nothing happened. No fracture, not- Yeah... nothing. So lifting weights can help protect you in ways that you have no idea that are gonna help you until they do, right? 59:12 Until you break your arm and now you're in the gym, where I'm the opposite. I just got into a car accident where I didn't have any whiplash. I mean, there's nothing. Yeah. So I see the resiliency in myself- Yeah... 59:21 when I'm going through these crashes that, in other words, would damage a lot of other people. 100%. [laughs] Yeah, I 100% agree with you. 59:29 I mean, we've, we were talking about that the other day, I think, on one of the After Dark podcasts, and it was actually, we talked about it on the, um, on the obesity topic when we were talking about resiliency. 59:39 And so if you're looking to build resiliency in your life, right, and, or specifically around your health and wellness, there's no doubt about it that it's, 59:49 there's, there's no disputing this anymore, that resistance training is one of the most important things you can do. Strength is a, is a, is a direct measure of longevity right now. Mm-hmm. 59:59 Like, the stronger people live longer, right? Yeah. Uh, they're stronger people are more resilient. Uh, they're living longer 'cause they're more resilient, right? They have, they have better metabolic conditioning. 1:00:08 Generally speaking, they have better bone density. They have, uh, the, going back to metabolism, they process things differently. They don't get fat as fast. They're burning more calories at rest. 1:00:19 Hormonally, they're, they're generally better balanced. 1:00:21 Um, that's a bold statement, but we're sending signals to produce hor- anabolic hormones to help our body perform certain metabolic processes, uh, that give, uh, other signals to other areas of the body to be more effective and efficient. 1:00:35 Mm-hmm. 1:00:36 Can't stress how important resistance training is, or, uh, and, and this, this particular program, again, what we did is we, Red, Tough, and Strong is, is for the general population, but it can be modified for anybody no matter what your fitness level is. 1:00:50 Um, again, if you are, if you've never lifted weights ever in your life, you could still do this. 1:00:56 Um, it, it might require you to do a little bit more research on your own and, and again, get over the mindset thing a little faster than maybe the, the person that's been around a little longer. 1:01:06 Or ex- if you like to explore things, if you like to find solutions, and you've never exercised before, this is gonna be a great program for you. 1:01:14 Um, and, and again, it, it gives you some flexibility to do, a lot of flexibility to do the things you need to do that's right for you. 1:01:21 So, you know, in the end, I, the reason I wanted to talk about it today is 'cause of all the questions that we've gotten. So I hope this answered a lot of the questions that people may have or may be thinking about. 1:01:31 But I also wanna let people know you can always reach out to us and, and ask us specifics about, about the program. Um, you know, what's in it? How long is it? Is this the right thing for me? 1:01:41 You know, a lot of people selling online programs, it's kind of a dude who's a good coach, who's done a good job at writing some programs, and, you know, that these things are sold online. 1:01:51 You don't necessarily have access to the coach, uh, h- w- through something like this. That turns into more of a personal training program, and the cost changes and things like that. Um, 1:02:01 with this thing, you can always reach out to us at any time. I mean, we, we have a gym. We have a full staff here. They're here all day long. You can always reach out to get your questions answered. 1:02:09 I mean, we were just yesterday manipulating a program for a guy that didn't have multiple pieces of gym equipment at his house for the aesthetic- Yeah... uh, program. Yeah. So. It's, yeah- Yeah... 1:02:17 it's, it's not hard for us to do. Yeah. Like, all you gotta do is reach out to us. Again, there's a, there's a difference between getting a, a self-guided program like this and having personal training. 1:02:27 And but at the same time, like, if you're gonna make the investment in this, let's just, let's make sure you're getting everything you possibly can out of it, and we're, we're here to help you with that. 1:02:36 [upbeat rock music] Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Iron Sights. 1:02:39 If you enjoyed our conversation, you can support our mission by hitting the subscribe button, leaving a review, and sharing the podcast with a friend. I'll see you on the next episode.
