0:00

Welcome to syntax today. We have a

0:02

fitness for developers episode. We're going to

0:05

be talking all about, uh, getting

0:07

in shape and why you as a

0:09

developer might want to go to the

0:11

gym and, or why you might want

0:13

to be working out and nutrition and

0:15

motivation supplements, all kinds

0:17

of interesting stuff. So it's going to

0:19

be a awesome. We did the show

0:21

probably three, four years ago. I think

0:24

we're, we're due for another one. Certainly

0:26

a lot has changed in my fitness

0:28

journey. And Scott certainly knows

0:30

a lot about this as well. So excited

0:32

to talk on about it. How are you

0:34

doing today, Scott? Hey, I'm doing super good.

0:36

And actually West, I believe we've done, we

0:38

were doing at one point in annual fitness

0:41

show. We did fitness and nutrition as episode

0:43

20 fitness for developers as episode 84. And

0:46

then as you'll get into kind of around the

0:48

pandemic, I would put a fitness show on the

0:50

calendar and you'd be like, and I'm

0:52

not really, probably not a

0:56

whole lot to talk about here. So, uh, I'm

0:58

stoked that it's back on the calendar. We're going

1:00

to get into why you shouldn't ignore this episode to

1:02

it as a developer. This is one of those things

1:05

where it's really quite easy. You'd be like,

1:07

I don't really care about code. I don't care about

1:09

this kind of stuff. I think, I think it's definitely

1:11

going to be worth the listen. Um, we'll

1:14

talk a little bit about why it's important, but

1:16

let's say your code's getting a little too

1:18

small. Maybe you want century in your corner to

1:20

let you know that your code is,

1:23

uh, really beefing up lately and you got

1:25

to slim it down. So that way you

1:27

can, uh, make sure your applications can fit

1:30

through the door. That's right. They are loading

1:32

fast and they're nice and spry. That's what

1:34

we want our applications. We want them supple

1:36

and spry, uh, me personally. So if you

1:39

want all that head on over to century.io,

1:41

you can get a ton of performance tracking

1:43

features. In fact, that's going to be even

1:45

more important now with Google's changes, uh, that

1:48

are coming to make sure that your applications

1:50

rank high because they are quick and fast.

1:53

So what's up, Wes?

1:55

How's it going? Not

1:57

much excited to talk about fitness.

2:00

And gear and I've become a

2:02

gym gear. I

2:05

built a home gym a couple, I don't know, six

2:07

months ago or so, eight months ago.

2:10

And I've become a gear

2:12

head for all of this gym

2:14

stuff. And it's a really

2:16

interesting area. And I went, we'll talk about

2:18

the actual gear in a bit, but I

2:21

went in the deep end and I absolutely love it.

2:24

Yeah, I am going to warn you

2:26

here because I know that you

2:28

are not newer to this

2:30

stuff, but you might not know. Gear

2:34

in the fitness and lifting world, is

2:36

often referring to steroids. I

2:39

know all about that too. Not that I do that,

2:41

but yeah, that's probably

2:43

not a good thing

2:45

to call myself a fitness gear head.

2:47

Yeah, that's, I appreciate that. To

2:52

be clear, none of us are on

2:54

performance enhancing drugs. I think that's pretty

2:56

clear from looking at us, but definitely

2:58

something to be cautious about. You

3:00

can't say juice and you can't say gear.

3:03

I'm not juicing and I'm not on gear. I

3:05

say those things a lot in my day to day,

3:08

so yeah. Certainly. Quick

3:11

disclaimer, Wes and I are not trained fitness

3:13

professionals or doctors. These are just our own

3:15

person. I have a doctor, a

3:18

code doctor. Okay, I'm a doctor

3:20

of bugs using centering, but do

3:23

not take any of this advice as if

3:26

we were actually doctors or fitness professionals. Do

3:28

your own research. Yes,

3:30

we don't want anybody getting hurt. Me

3:33

personally, let's talk about some history really quick with our

3:35

fitness stuff, because it's been a little while, like I

3:37

said, since the last time we talked about this stuff

3:39

was episode 84. So, give you

3:41

some background. Man,

3:43

I've been moving my whole life. I

3:46

played all the sports as a kid.

3:48

Played soccer, roller hockey and that stuff.

3:51

I started rollerblading, like aggressive in line

3:53

when I was like in fifth grade

3:55

or so, and eventually became

3:57

like a sponsored skater and was living. at

4:00

the skate park, like every day moving, right? Then

4:02

in 2004, I started dancing. I've been

4:06

dancing ever since then, even if my body

4:08

has gotten beaten up from it. I've

4:10

suffered many injuries, but you know, I've been dancing

4:12

a long time at this point. I still make

4:14

it part of my weekly life. And then on

4:16

top of that, I started lifting in 2011 and

4:19

I've been weightlifting maybe three,

4:21

four days a week for

4:24

man, since then, forever

4:26

and ever. So I've been lifting a long

4:28

time, and you know, your goals change or

4:30

your progression changes. But at this point, I

4:32

have a lot of experience there. And I've

4:34

been grinding up those gym sessions ever

4:37

since then. So yeah, big fan. It's always part

4:39

of my life now to the point where if

4:41

I don't do it in

4:43

the week, yeah, feeling feeling like

4:45

I'm really, I'm really missing it. So it's gotten

4:47

to the point where like it's firmly ingrained in

4:50

in both who I am and like what I

4:52

do. Yeah, that that feeling

4:54

of wanting to go back to it is

4:56

like I've just got off of a week

4:58

of vacation. And I hadn't worked

5:01

out in a week now. And I'm cannot

5:03

wait tonight. Once the kids go to

5:05

bed, I cannot wait to go back to the gym and and

5:08

get at it, which is an odd thing that

5:10

I never thought I would say. But certainly I've

5:12

got to that space. So for me, I've had

5:15

like, like, when I was in university, I would

5:17

go to the gym and work out quite a

5:19

bit. And I got in a decent

5:21

shape then and then probably about 2019 or so. I got back

5:26

into it, had a gym nice and close to my

5:28

house and I got in pretty good

5:30

shape then as well. But when

5:32

the pandemic hit, obviously, the gyms

5:34

close, life gets crazy. And I sort

5:37

of let that slide and I

5:41

gained a bunch of weight and I and

5:43

then we moved houses and I was actually

5:45

we didn't move houses. Our gym closed completely,

5:47

which was a bit of a

5:49

bummer as well. And I didn't really stay

5:51

on top of it. However, in the last

5:53

we moved houses. Now we have I built

5:55

a home gym, which I'm a gearhead now.

5:57

And I've been. I've

6:00

been at it for about six months. I've lost a bunch of

6:02

weight, still a little bit more to go. And

6:05

just like, thank you. I'm

6:07

getting super into the whole just

6:09

lifting heavy things. It's

6:12

very primal, but also spent a bunch of

6:14

money to do primal things.

6:17

And yes, it's good. Maybe

6:20

we'll transition that to the next section, which is

6:22

like, why would you want to do this? And

6:24

for me, it's just

6:26

about two things. First is

6:28

the focus and the calmness that you

6:31

feel at

6:33

being a developer when you are working

6:35

out is a major

6:37

hack to me, which is

6:39

wild. Being able to focus and double

6:41

down on your code, when

6:45

you are working out, I notice a

6:47

significant improvement on that focus and

6:49

ability to just get stuff done, which is

6:52

crazy that you can become... We

6:54

talk a lot about developer productivity. And

6:58

one of the big productivity hacks is try

7:01

to get into some half decent shape,

7:03

and that will certainly help you in

7:05

your day-to-day job. So that's one.

7:08

And then the other one is just like, I

7:10

don't want to get old and frail. Like

7:14

I'm starting to get old. I'm 36 years

7:16

old now. And I don't

7:19

want to be like that 45 year old that

7:22

has a bad back and type of thing.

7:24

I carried all three of my kids up

7:27

the stairs because I saw a TikTok where a dad carried

7:29

his three kids and I was like, our kids are bigger

7:31

than that. And I did it. I carried all three of

7:33

them up the stairs in one go. So

7:38

we're having a fourth kid. And

7:40

my goal is to be able to hulk all

7:43

four kids up in one go.

7:45

So that's me. Oh my gosh. Kids will

7:47

humble you on the strength tip. I've been

7:49

lifting for so long. And then the first

7:51

time I had to carry the little

7:53

baby car seat,

7:55

the little girl car seat. Yeah, the first time I

7:57

had to carry that thing for an extended period of

7:59

time. I was like, holy cow.

8:01

This is way more intense than going to

8:04

the dad strength. Oh, it is totally different

8:06

It's totally different the strength required to do

8:08

this I when I was thinking I was

8:10

like man, how do people who don't work

8:13

out do this? It's so heavy to me

8:15

So I I hundred percent agree with you

8:17

and I think there's enough to say about

8:19

like man longevity If

8:22

you have muscle mass, there's definitely

8:24

correlations between longevity and muscle mass I

8:26

I don't want to be the type

8:28

of person who's also getting old and

8:30

frail as well I want to make

8:32

sure that I maintain my my muscle

8:34

mass to be able to yeah I

8:37

saw through those stages of life where you

8:39

know, if you're not paying attention or

8:41

whatever It's going to you know, sneak up on you

8:43

next thing, you know, and you have 36. I'm 38

8:47

Just turn 38 and I am I

8:49

said I was feeling great on on on Twitter

8:52

and sure I am but it's definitely feeling

8:54

harder every Yeah,

8:57

that's for sure. It definitely it beats up on

8:59

you over time. Not not like working out but

9:01

just like Getting older in

9:03

general the stuff that yeah longer to heal when you

9:06

do get hurt you trip and fall next thing You

9:08

know, you're you're out for too long and we want

9:10

to avoid some of that stuff So,

9:12

you know if you're starting out here, you

9:14

kind of got to know what your goals

9:17

are your goals for longevity Are they to

9:19

get super muscular and look good at the

9:21

beach? Is it to increase your overall health?

9:24

Like what do you want to do here?

9:27

It's important to know because I all

9:30

of these things are valid and important, right? And

9:34

everybody has different reasons for wanting to

9:36

do it mine. I want to Be

9:39

able to do my athletic dance stuff better. I

9:41

want to be able to Feel

9:44

more comfortable as I age I want to

9:46

be able to Lift

9:49

things in a practical way if I'm

9:51

working on projects Heck carrying

9:53

groceries in the house carrying kids. I want to be

9:55

able to do all that stuff with more more. You

9:59

know, yeah Yeah, you see that meme where you're holding

10:01

20 grocery bags? Give me 30. Give me 30. I'll

10:04

take it. Yeah,

10:06

I had that. So when I built this

10:08

office, I was

10:10

carrying drywall in

10:12

front of me and I

10:15

kept being like, ah, I had a shoulder

10:17

injury from back when I was working out

10:19

last time. Every

10:22

now and then it would flare up when I was holding

10:25

my arms out and trying to lift up

10:27

at the same time. And it was like

10:30

that for years. And I

10:33

finally just looked it up on... That's

10:35

why I love TikTok. I just looked

10:37

that up on TikTok. And there

10:39

was a couple TikToks that were like, just hang. So

10:43

I just went into the gym that I was

10:45

building and I just screwed something

10:48

to the thing. And I hung for like three minutes. And

10:50

I'm not trying to sell

10:52

you on anything. I certainly talked to your

10:55

doctor, but it's gone. It never came back.

10:57

And I had been bugging me for years.

10:59

And it's wild that sometimes you think, oh,

11:01

I shouldn't work out because this thing is

11:04

hurting. And no, it's the

11:06

opposite. Maybe you should be

11:08

working out to fix those things. Yeah,

11:10

the solution to fixing things isn't to

11:12

go heavy and go hard

11:14

and all that stuff. But the solution

11:16

is also not to do anything either

11:19

because you do need to

11:21

prescribe movement into that. But

11:23

it is incredible how many things hanging

11:25

can fix, whether that is back or

11:27

shoulder or lower back or whatever. People

11:29

buy those expensive inversion tables where

11:31

it hooks your ankles into the thing and

11:33

you hang it down. Well, it turns out

11:36

that's the exact same as hanging up the

11:38

other way. There's no difference there. Or

11:40

you could pick up a small dumbbell with

11:42

your feet and hang and just stretch yourself

11:44

out. Oh my gosh, it works so well,

11:47

especially the decompress our spine. We're just kind

11:49

of like, yeah, we get into that compression,

11:54

shoulders inward mode, whatever. Yeah, hang and

11:56

stretch it out. Hanging is, I'm

11:58

glad you said that because that's such a good thing. to

12:00

do on a regular basis. Yeah,

12:02

I've been, it's something I

12:04

do just as my warm up now. I'll just grab

12:07

onto the pull up bar. I actually,

12:09

in the gym that

12:11

we built, it's in our basement, and I put monkey

12:13

bars in the joists so that

12:15

our kids can do the monkey bars. I

12:17

built a rock climbing wall up, and then

12:19

there's monkey bars across, and then down the

12:22

other side is also a rock

12:24

climbing wall. Those monkey

12:26

bars are fantastic for just hanging from without

12:28

having to, like they're high enough that I

12:30

don't have to worry about my feet hitting

12:32

the ground. Yeah. When

12:35

I say you do that, Courtney said, hey, can

12:37

we get this in our house? And I said,

12:43

I guess though I'll figure it out. I

12:45

do have those stall bars, which I built.

12:47

They're like stall bars, which are great. They're

12:49

just basically like a little wooden dowel ladder.

12:51

Those things are incredible for all kinds of

12:53

stuff, whether it's bands or handstands against or

12:55

hanging off of, but I do wish I

12:57

had some monkey bars in

13:00

that room because the kids sure love climbing on

13:02

that stuff. I bet they would climb through the

13:04

monkey bars too. Oh yeah. So

13:07

let's talk about getting started. You say, okay, hey,

13:09

all this stuff sounds good. Where do I go?

13:12

What do I do? Well, to get started, you don't

13:14

need a whole lot. You can do a whole lot

13:17

with just your body weight. You can do pushups in

13:19

your office while your code is compiling, right? While you're

13:21

waiting, you got five minutes for that next meeting. Hey,

13:23

you get a little quick pump on, right? Do

13:27

some pushups real quick. Body weight squats and lunges.

13:29

You can just, did you know this? You can

13:31

just squat up and down and that's good for

13:33

you. That'll help you or

13:35

do lunges. Or like Wes said, hanging

13:37

on a bar. You can also do pull ups on

13:39

that bar. Even if you can't do pull ups, you

13:41

can just try to do pull ups. That also works.

13:44

So all of those things are low

13:46

effort. You don't have to have a gym

13:48

membership. You can just start doing. You

13:51

don't have to spend any money here to have

13:53

some degree of fitness or even whatever. You just

13:55

have to find the time for it. And there's

13:57

definitely time for it. Next

13:59

one is. Stretching. Hey, I

14:01

stretch every night. I try

14:04

to stretch every night and my habit tracker

14:06

app that I've been working on, I have... Man,

14:09

I have a long consecutive streak of stretching

14:11

right now. And I think that's a hack

14:13

that not enough people take advantage of because

14:16

stretching is one of those things that is

14:19

relatively easy to do if

14:21

you make time for it. And guess

14:23

when is the perfect time to stretch?

14:26

When you're doing absolutely nothing. You're watching

14:28

TV. Heck, I stretch with a beer

14:30

sometimes. I got my hops laying there.

14:32

I'm watching TV. That should be the rule.

14:34

Perfect time to stretch, right? You know? Yeah.

14:36

So like you don't have to sit on the couch.

14:39

A good hack for this is that when you're

14:41

watching TV, you can make a practice of like,

14:43

oh for this entire show I'm gonna sit on

14:45

the floor. Why? Because when you're sitting on the

14:47

floor, it's way easy to just

14:50

lean over and start stretching here and there. You don't

14:52

have to like go crazy.

14:54

You don't have to do a gymnastic stretching

14:56

routine. But heck, just trying to touch

14:58

your toes or whatever or grab a towel if

15:00

you can't touch your toes, wrap it around your

15:02

foot and use it to pull a little bit,

15:04

drink some water. Man, that goes a

15:06

long way. I'm telling you,

15:09

if you do 10-15 minutes of stretching

15:11

most nights, heck, four nights a week,

15:13

whatever, without even thinking about it, you

15:15

make a massive amount of progress in

15:17

like three months time. And then by

15:19

the time you do it for a

15:21

year, two years, whatever, you're

15:23

gummy. It's wild. It works. Yeah,

15:27

you did a whole episode on on

15:30

stretching because you've read that book,

15:32

How to Be a Supple Leopard, is that

15:34

what it's called? Great book. Yes. Yeah. I

15:36

need to get a little bit more into

15:38

stretching. I have been doing the like the

15:41

squats while I'm brushing my teeth, which is

15:43

hilarious. But because

15:45

I've been getting into actual squats, like

15:47

with the barbell and stuff like that,

15:50

I've always been very, very

15:52

inflexible. And it's

15:54

amazing that like now that

15:57

I am squatting, I feel like I'm getting a little bit more.

16:00

flexible of how low you can

16:02

go because you have to make sure the form

16:04

is correct and whatnot. So

16:06

I do that and then like yeah when I'm watching

16:08

TV or something like that are often our couch is

16:10

really low like the back of it. So I'll throw

16:12

my leg up on there and try

16:14

to get above a stretch in as well. Yeah,

16:17

yeah, that is such a good good tip.

16:19

You know another good one we look we

16:21

talked a little bit about something that goes

16:23

a long way especially for people with you're

16:25

sitting in chairs tight backs just do the

16:28

like basic arm swings back and forth will

16:30

obviously you gotta move your head when you

16:32

do it. It'll just loosen up your spine.

16:34

It's something I like to do every morning

16:37

when you're you're brushing your teeth

16:39

or whatever just get some get some spine

16:41

movement in and loop things up and get you

16:43

ready to go. So I'm a big

16:45

fan of doing any of that sort of thing. Another

16:48

really good hack for adding

16:50

fitness into your life is to

16:53

do things that don't feel like you're working out.

16:55

I go to dance once a week. What

16:58

you take your daughter rock climbing

17:00

that's really good fitness anything

17:03

that's like I just watch but yeah

17:05

well yeah I mean that's a workout

17:07

for the eyes but your daughter is

17:09

getting some exercise and yeah anything that

17:11

like that feels like play

17:14

or feels like movement without necessarily

17:16

being like home lifting weights.

17:18

I'm going for a run. Let me tell you I hate

17:20

running. That's something that you will never catch me doing but

17:22

I need to have you in my life. So how am I

17:24

going to do it while I'm going to go to dance.

17:27

We have the exercise bike. Guess

17:29

what I do on the exercise bike. I pull

17:31

up my steam deck and I play Rocket League

17:33

or video games while I'm on the exercise bike

17:35

because makes the time pass and I hate

17:38

doing the exercise bike or cardio. So

17:40

it makes it easier. Anything you can

17:42

do to make it fun rather than

17:44

oh I'm going to go one count.

17:47

Yeah. Lastly here in

17:49

the getting started thing we have

17:51

lifting weights. Now lifting weights is

17:54

a hack for getting fit in a

17:56

lot of ways. If

17:58

You had to ask me like. Hey. He's

18:01

got like I wanna get more said

18:03

in life it's not necessarily you know,

18:05

get muscular, whatever. I just want to

18:07

get healthier. I would say be number

18:09

one. Best thing you can do in

18:12

that regard is lift weights. You.

18:14

Can see a massive amount of progress

18:16

really quickly. You burn more calories at

18:18

rest if you have muscle muscle burns,

18:20

more calories that residence at us are

18:22

just by doing nothing. You're in a

18:25

burning more calories and I like to

18:27

eat. That means I get to eat

18:29

more which is great as yes, yeah,

18:31

all other things. But all all in

18:33

all, you get to see a lot

18:35

of improvement in a lot of progress

18:37

in lifting. so it's also really motivating

18:40

to be able to get going so

18:42

you might be thinking like okay, Do

18:44

I just go to the gym and pick

18:46

up weights? Know you go to some place

18:48

like Reddit or you tube and you find

18:50

a program where you'd you doing a program?

18:52

What What program are you doing and how

18:54

did you find which program to do? Yeah!

18:56

so I started looking around and see what

18:58

their in the Us is A Big ones

19:01

is. I think starting strength is the one.

19:03

I'm using an app called. But.

19:05

The Hell's a call? Why am I forgetting the name of it?

19:08

Strong. Less That's what I'm using.

19:10

Report an yeah, he comes by default.

19:12

A comes with like a very simple

19:14

they one and a two and each

19:17

day has squats and then one of

19:19

the day has a bench press and

19:21

as I forget what everything is and

19:23

it just it's very simple. It's only

19:25

three things you can get through the

19:28

whole thing and probably forty five minutes

19:30

with decent rest in between and. It's.

19:33

It's been awesome. I since like modified it

19:35

because they wanted a little bit of like

19:37

I want a little bit more like I

19:39

have all this equipment and I wanna just

19:42

change it up and and do a little

19:44

bit different but I did like think four

19:46

months of the in it just slowly increments

19:48

the amount you can do and it was

19:50

vines getting too heavy you can d load

19:53

and kind of really nice apple watch app

19:55

so I was amazed at. How.

19:58

simple Though

20:00

the things could do like yeah, you can get a

20:02

bunch of equipment but if you

20:04

just have some very simple weights

20:07

and Maybe a bit of

20:09

a squat rack or something that you can put

20:11

a barbell on You can you

20:13

can get a lot a lot of

20:15

progress with just some very simple aspects Totally

20:18

and I think that's the thing that's important is

20:20

you start slow you you don't

20:24

you're not gonna get like you know

20:26

a crazy amount of Improvements

20:29

overnight, but you also don't want to get

20:31

hurt So you start yeah,

20:33

you follow the program and

20:35

the programs typically tell you every workout You're

20:38

either adding five pounds or two point five

20:40

pounds or whatever to your list You

20:42

do that and you can imagine

20:45

it's extremely logical for those programmers

20:47

out there It

20:49

can feel like a game you're just

20:51

slowly adding on every single time and

20:54

every single week it kind of feels about the

20:57

same difficulty and Next

20:59

thing you know, you're lifting twice what

21:01

you used to lift you look way

21:03

better You feel way better and

21:05

you're way stronger overall. So the most

21:07

important things about a program is picking

21:10

a program Preferably

21:12

a beginner's program. I did starting strength,

21:15

which is a good one because it

21:17

teaches you the main core lifts And

21:20

again, yeah is a very similar thing to strong

21:22

lifts where it's just here's what you're

21:24

doing each workout You do it you show up you

21:26

just come back the next day or whatever and do

21:28

what it tells you to do and You

21:31

see a massive amount of progress. You don't

21:33

need to go down the rabbit hole of

21:35

Optimizing yet. You don't need to go down

21:37

like all what are the best bicep workout?

21:39

No, you just show yeah All

21:42

of the do what it says to do. Yes That's

21:44

that's the biggest thing for me attack. Yeah,

21:47

you just open the app and it tells

21:49

you what to do next There's no guessing.

21:51

There's no like oh, is it

21:53

better to do? multiple

21:55

like a thousand reps or something a little

21:58

bit lighter or ten reps like Don't

22:00

fuss with any of that. Just simply do what it

22:02

says on the can and It's

22:05

it's gonna work out for you, which I've been

22:07

really happy with that And also that you

22:09

said that you start super light like

22:12

my first probably month was just a

22:14

joke wait Because I was

22:16

like really wanted to nail the

22:19

form of it, especially cuz like I was

22:21

brand new to squats I had

22:23

never I had done like a little

22:25

bit of Smith machine Which is like not

22:28

really squats and and like a

22:30

bunch of machines at the gym But like I

22:32

had never done just like like a barbell on

22:34

a squat rack And

22:36

I was like really concerned and same with deadlifts

22:38

as well. I was really worried about Yeah,

22:41

and just like throwing your back out or like

22:44

hurting yourself So and also you can do

22:46

a lot of like bad form with that

22:48

type of stuff, you know Like if it's

22:50

too heavy you try to try

22:53

to account for that and arch your back So

22:55

I like went really really light for a

22:58

whole month And it

23:00

didn't it's frustrating because it doesn't feel like you're

23:02

doing a whole lot But I was really focusing

23:04

on getting the form down pat and I feel

23:06

like I'm I'm pretty decent with the form these

23:09

days Yeah, and that's just

23:11

like training your your mind there to do

23:13

the correct muscle movements and gaining your form

23:15

another thing you're doing is you're building some

23:17

of like The smaller muscles the

23:19

stabilizing muscles the one yeah come into handy

23:21

so that way when you do get heavier

23:24

You're not like unstable or

23:26

unable to do things that

23:28

like the bottom of the lifts or the

23:30

places that you're weak So you're slowly building

23:32

up your entire like Foundational

23:35

muscle you're building this this foundation of

23:37

strength. You're learning the JavaScript the CSS

23:39

and the HTML You

23:42

can start to do the reacts and stuff later

23:44

And yeah, we said like though

23:46

you don't have to get crazy into like

23:49

complex movements or anything like that They're very

23:51

well may be a time when you you're

23:53

bored You've done you know a year six

23:55

months of this stuff, and you're like alright.

23:57

I got it. I'm making a lot of

23:59

progress Like, what can I do

24:01

to optimize? But don't try to get

24:03

too deep and don't try to optimize first, just

24:05

show up, right? One

24:08

more thing I want to talk about is like, how often should

24:11

you do this type of thing? So I

24:14

have it down to pretty

24:17

much an hour from putting

24:19

my shoes on to being done, which is quite

24:23

a bit. So that includes setting

24:25

up, getting changed, all of

24:27

that. And it's been a

24:29

major, major improvement, like with not having to like

24:32

drive to the gym or something like that. And

24:35

like, I know people say like, Oh, I don't

24:38

have excuses in one hop, but having it at

24:40

home has been a, like a major improvement for

24:42

that type of thing. And I generally will do

24:44

it about three or four times a week. My

24:46

wife and I take turns putting

24:48

our kids to bed. So once

24:51

a week I can do, I put the kids

24:53

to bed three times. And the other week I

24:55

put them to bed four times a week. So

24:57

basically the nights that I am not putting my

24:59

kids to bed, I go downstairs and I get

25:01

to go work out in the gym. And that's

25:03

been just been so dead simple

25:05

for me because I know what I'm doing that

25:08

night. Yeah. If you can

25:10

find an hour in the day, four days

25:12

a week, three days a week, if you can find

25:14

an hour, three days a week. I

25:16

mean, I feel like most people can find one

25:18

hour on three days a

25:20

week to improve your life. Oh

25:23

yeah. I spend longer on Twitter or TikTok

25:26

than I do at the actual gym. Yeah.

25:30

You can go on Twitter while you're resting.

25:32

Yeah. Yeah. That's

25:35

one thing I love about the Strongless app is that

25:37

it will buzz at you and it's time to put

25:40

the phone away and do your next set.

25:43

Slippery slope if you forget about that thing. I

25:46

know. No kidding, right? But I do think

25:48

that's important that you mentioned like the home gym thing.

25:51

Having a home gym is a hack. That doesn't mean

25:53

it has to be expensive. Doesn't mean

25:55

you have to have a fancy weight rack.

25:57

It doesn't mean anything. My first squat rack.

26:00

And the one that I had up until very recently

26:02

when we sold it for the same price that we

26:04

paid for 10 years later I I

26:06

thought I felt the thing during I feel high

26:08

on it I felt during the pandemic which is

26:10

a great idea because I essentially rented this thing

26:12

for 10 years But

26:14

you can get a squat rack

26:16

for really cheap Especially someplace like

26:18

dicks sporting goods or Facebook marketplace

26:20

or whatever you can find these

26:22

things out there and for

26:25

Yeah, 300 bucks if you're saving up for

26:27

that 300 bucks will get you a long

26:30

long way You can get it for less than

26:32

that. You didn't oh, yeah I buy a bit

26:34

of dumbbells and get it for way less than

26:36

that But I got mine on Black Friday at

26:39

Dick's sporting goods and the rack itself was a

26:41

hundred and fifty dollars brand new And it's like

26:44

I'll take that all day But

26:46

having if you can find some room to

26:48

put it in your basement I had a

26:50

buddy who had a a small apartment and

26:52

he was on like the The

26:55

fifth floor in in Denver and

26:57

he still found a way to get a squat rack

26:59

into that a little tiny apartment in his Living room.

27:01

So if you can find the room for it, man

27:04

You you can you can like that

27:07

that hour to go to the gym becomes that much

27:09

easier anytime Oh, yeah, I find you just roll over

27:11

in it. So it's a it's a big hack I've

27:13

been a huge home gym fan for a long time

27:15

Heck I put our first one at

27:17

our house in Denver in the garage and nowhere

27:19

else to put it That's a place if you

27:21

have a garage You can always classic home gym

27:24

spot is the garage and also test your mental

27:26

fortitude out if you're in the winter That's

27:29

oh, yeah Freezing

27:31

there's there's guys in this Facebook

27:33

group that barbell warmers because like

27:36

like it's those barbells get cold it's

27:38

like a heat sink and You

27:41

can get folding racks now and like

27:43

it's amazing you some of these setups

27:45

that take Maybe 10

27:48

inches deep the whole your whole

27:50

gym can be on the thing and obviously you got to

27:52

pull the car out or move Some stuff when you go

27:54

to use it, but Everything

27:57

will just fold out and you can you can get

27:59

using it You don't need a whole

28:01

bunch of space to make it work Totally.

28:04

Yeah, a lot a little hacks there, but the

28:06

home gym is a big one So look what

28:09

kind of stuff might you want in your your

28:11

home gym? you could go really minimal and get

28:13

a set of the Adjustable

28:16

dumbbells and maybe like a bench Adjustable

28:19

dumbbells and a bench will get you a long

28:21

ways you can do everything with those from squat

28:23

the bench press to even do Everything

28:25

with a set of adjustable dumbbells and

28:27

they're not necessarily cheap But like Wes

28:29

has found gotten lucky with some some

28:32

a book marketplace finds and stuff like

28:34

that You can always keep an eye

28:36

out But nothing is as

28:38

versatile as a set of adjustable

28:40

dumbbells that they'll give you increments

28:43

From all the way from zero or all

28:45

the way from like 2.5 pounds to 90 pounds at 2.5

28:47

pound increments Like

28:50

that's versatile you get so far from

28:52

that next step up go with

28:54

the half rack. I had a half rack That's what

28:56

I had. It was just a basic Rack

28:59

barbell and it stand up so it

29:02

didn't it didn't fall over and that's all that matters

29:04

And then the bench with a rack in the bench

29:06

You can put a little bit more weight on that

29:08

thing gives you a little bit more access to do

29:11

The the movements like a bench press easier. You

29:13

usually have some safety on it So you can

29:15

set it down easily without hurting yourself when you

29:17

get into heavier weights But those

29:20

are all those are all like a good next

29:22

step next step And then next thing you know,

29:24

you've got a glued hand deck in your basement

29:26

like I do Which

29:28

I do you have right? Yeah, I got that an

29:30

open box at a rep

29:32

fitness in Denver It was it

29:35

was a good buy I use it very frequently. Yeah,

29:38

the adjustable dumbbells are awesome. So I

29:40

found a set of 90-pound

29:43

power blocks out of yard sale

29:45

for 50 bucks, which is Like

29:48

it's like you have like a thousand dollar set So

29:50

I was really happy with that and then I found another

29:52

set a Marketplace that was

29:54

missing one of the increments. So

29:57

the guy just had them like spilled out on the

29:59

floor But I knew the color, so I

30:01

looked at the colors in the photo, and I offered them

30:03

20 bucks for it, and he took it. And

30:05

then I just contacted Powerblock, and they sent

30:07

it to me for the cost of shipping. So

30:10

I have two sets of them, and you can

30:12

also buy a bar and a

30:14

curl bar that go into the Powerblock. So it'll turn

30:16

it into a, yeah. So

30:19

those are pretty cool as well. I

30:21

also had a set of the Bowflex ones

30:23

that turn. Those are garbage. They're

30:26

so long. They're not garbage. I know a lot of

30:28

people like them, they're really

30:30

long, so it's kind of hard to, if

30:33

you were to curl them, they'd hit your leg as you're

30:35

curling them. So Rep

30:37

has a set as well. They just

30:40

released a thing called the Quickdraw Dumbbells,

30:42

and they seem really, really nice. Yeah.

30:45

I've had my Powerblocks forever, though. That

30:48

was one of the first pieces of equipment

30:50

that we got, and they're indestructible. They've

30:53

lasted for a year. Mine are from, I think mine

30:56

are from the early 90s. They're

30:58

probably almost as old as I am, and

31:01

they will last forever. I'm part of

31:03

the Facebook group, and I see, there's

31:06

like Nuo bells, and these ones where

31:08

you turn the handle, and they click

31:10

up. Those guys, they fall

31:12

off a bench. The whole thing breaks. They're

31:15

a little bit more fussy. They're nice. They

31:18

look better. But the Powerblocks are just so

31:20

primitive. You slide the little thing in, and you

31:23

get the amount of weight that you want, and

31:25

you can put the 2 1 by

31:27

2 pounds into the handle. They

31:30

will last you forever. Yeah.

31:34

But let's talk about what else we have

31:36

in the home gym. So Scott

31:38

was saying you can get a little 2-post rack.

31:40

I went with the 6-post rack. So

31:43

I contacted a manufacturer and

31:45

got the whole thing custom made, which

31:47

is really cool. It

31:49

was technically cheaper than just going directly to

31:51

a retail. And

31:55

it's really cool, because I got my logo laser

31:57

cut into all of the pieces. It

32:00

has a whole cable system in it. So it has

32:02

a low row lap pull down and

32:05

then two adjustable Pulleys

32:09

that you can put on there. So Quite

32:12

honestly, I use the whole

32:14

cable system with the weight selector

32:16

stack. I use that for a

32:20

lot of my barbell exercises aside

32:22

from squats and deadlifts and Benchpress

32:26

Because it's just so simple to clip

32:28

on the little bar and adjust

32:30

it rather than having to schlep the whole

32:32

weights on So

32:34

big fan of that and you have like a whole

32:37

cable system as well, right? You got rid of your

32:39

rack Yeah, I got rid of my rack Because

32:41

I got the tonal system

32:43

which I'm gonna tell you upfront. It

32:46

is very expensive So only look at

32:48

this if you're serious, like I said,

32:50

I've been I've been lifting for a long time

32:53

And we got this thing. It's great It

32:56

costs about a gym membership's worth of money

32:58

all the time and it's no it's it's

33:00

a luxury good I'll tell you that right

33:02

now But what the tonal does is

33:05

it's kind of like your app that tells you what

33:07

to do every day Built into

33:09

a unit that does magnetic based

33:12

weights and the cool thing about the

33:14

magnetic based weights is that it can simulate

33:16

lifting with chains or Lifting

33:19

with bands or doing like things words

33:22

Actually adjusting the amount of weight you're lifting

33:24

at different parts of the lift So

33:27

that way I like the weak points in the

33:29

leaf You're maybe getting a little bit less weight

33:31

and the points where you're naturally less injury prone.

33:33

It gives you a little bit more So

33:37

it's really kind of awesome. I show up every day.

33:39

It automatically tells me how

33:41

much weight I'm lifting I don't even have to

33:43

pick up a plate ever. I don't have to

33:45

calculate anything I don't have to do the whole

33:47

math of like alright a hundred and fifty pounds

33:49

is how many plates here? Yeah,

33:52

so as a luxury good man, this thing

33:54

absolutely rules if you you have the ability to

33:57

do it You know, I've been a big fan

33:59

for a long time I've gotten two

34:01

years out of mine. In fact to

34:03

give you some context about my lifting

34:06

schedule. I'm now approaching

34:08

two years of weekly

34:11

usage of this thing I'm going

34:13

for that two-year badge I I

34:17

want that two-year badge. I have a

34:19

I have a hundred and twenty seven

34:21

weeks consecutive of using this thing and

34:24

at 130 I get the badge that says I've used it

34:26

for 130 weeks straight Yeah, I

34:28

want that badge. That's good. It's honestly

34:30

like Two years of using

34:32

it consistently and like your

34:35

wife uses it as well. That's Pretty

34:37

much what a gym membership would have cost For

34:41

that type of thing so we can share and

34:43

track each other's workouts. We can do

34:45

all kinds of stuff on it I've lifted

34:47

five point three million pounds on

34:49

it. So yeah, I'm pretty sweet

34:51

to have those metrics But I don't

34:54

know also good to like see exactly your

34:56

progress over time either way definitely luxury good

34:59

What else we have I got a

35:01

I have a little leg press in

35:03

there as well and I totally understand

35:06

What you yeah, like I I bought and

35:09

I also been just been hacking the crap out

35:11

of my gym Because like I I've been like

35:13

cutting metal and and building my own little attachments

35:15

so I bought like a leg press attachment for

35:18

a different bench and I Adjusted

35:20

it and cut a couple things and made

35:22

it work with my bench And I totally

35:24

get what you say about what the resistance

35:26

curve of the cable machine

35:28

because with with mine it's you have

35:31

your your leg and as you lift up your

35:33

leg that though the last like 20% of

35:35

the Lifting it

35:37

up is is almost nothing and that's where it

35:39

should be the heaviest so you got

35:41

I have to take a elastic band and put it

35:43

on the on the weight horn so that

35:47

The further you get away the more resistance

35:49

it has But if

35:51

it was magnet based You wouldn't

35:53

have all that. I also hacked it to work with my

35:57

cable system as well because the cable

35:59

system Just goes up and

36:01

down. So there's there's you don't have

36:03

the whole resistance curve issue Sometimes

36:06

you do with cable stuff, but not with this one Yeah,

36:09

yeah, it's been weird kind

36:11

of replacing everything with since I was

36:13

doing straight barbell stuff for so long with cables

36:15

Yeah But you know it it is really nice

36:17

because now you can do all of the movements

36:19

that I would at the gym with a cable

36:21

system just Or

36:23

I can also do barbell stuff with it as well.

36:25

I also have Swedish stall bars I posted a link

36:27

in the show notes to some rogue fitness ones so

36:29

you can get an idea what these are But I

36:31

built mine you can build it out of you know

36:33

a few Flabs of wood and some

36:36

dowels which it like really wasn't that hard It took

36:38

me a little bit some gluins and nails and I

36:40

had some Swedish stall bars. This thing is great You

36:42

can use it with bands. You can hang off of

36:44

it. I use mine like a

36:46

monkey I'm doing upside down on it and

36:48

stuff. So yeah big fan It

36:51

looks really cool too Like I thought about looks

36:53

cool just building these on one of our walls just

36:55

because of how much I love how it looks

36:57

I I

37:00

think I might do that at some point. It

37:02

doesn't take Yeah, it doesn't take

37:04

very much space. You know like it just a

37:06

couple like I was half a foot deep or

37:08

something Yep, yep. Yeah mine's right up against the

37:10

wall. It was easy. It was an easy build

37:13

for sure Yeah, so program you mentioned that you

37:15

have an app for years There's a lot of

37:17

these apps that cost a lot of money subscriptions

37:19

on your iPhone anything like that The

37:22

easiest way to get started with this stuff is

37:24

just With Google sheets

37:26

you can pop into Google sheets. There's a

37:28

ton of them online if you're doing starting

37:31

Strength or strongless you just do strongless

37:33

Google sheets There'll be a massive amount

37:35

of these that people have made on

37:37

reddit or wherever you don't need a

37:40

whole lot There's like so many excuses

37:42

to You

37:44

know working out the last thing you need is

37:47

More resistance. Oh now I got to spend nine bucks

37:49

in that month on that. No, you know, yeah, just

37:51

use Google sheets, whatever Just

37:53

keep going It's it's

37:55

amazing how many apps like I

37:58

did go down the rabbit hole trying to find

38:00

the different apps. And it

38:02

feels like half the apps out

38:04

there are made by web developers because it's like,

38:06

oh, I think I could make something

38:08

like this. Even like there was one

38:10

app that I was using when I was learning

38:12

to squat that would track your

38:15

up and down. Because when

38:17

I was first starting, I would squat and

38:20

I would move forward as I was squatting. And that

38:22

doesn't give you a good bar path. And

38:24

then I found these apps that will track

38:27

the circle of the barbell. And it

38:29

will overlay it on top

38:31

of the video to show you how up

38:34

and down you're going or what your bar path looks

38:36

like. So if you have a little bit of a

38:38

wiggle or you're going too far forward at the end

38:40

of the squat. And the

38:42

amount of self-will that I had

38:44

to not build that was killing

38:47

me. Because I was like, I

38:49

could do this in Canvas. I could put

38:52

a little circle on or a

38:54

data matrix or a QR code. I could

38:56

just slap that on the end of my

38:59

barbell. I know how to track QR codes

39:01

in Canvas. And then I could record the

39:03

video and overlay it on top and then

39:05

show my bar path. And I was like,

39:07

Wes, Wes, Wes, stop. Like, you're not building

39:09

this. There's already apps out there for it.

39:11

But there's so much fun stuff

39:13

you could build. I've experienced the

39:16

exact same thing in a very different way here.

39:19

There's an app that costs like $19 a month.

39:21

It's outrageous for stretching. What

39:24

it does is essentially building a skeleton, whether

39:27

you're a TensorFlow skeleton or something of you

39:30

as you're doing a stretch. And

39:32

it calculates the angle. So let's say

39:34

you're learning the splits. It'll say, this

39:36

week, your angle was 45 degrees. And

39:40

so that way, it's like an actual

39:43

definitive subjective or objective

39:46

way to calculate that you are, in

39:48

fact, making progress on your stretching. And

39:50

it's the same thing. I'm like, I could build this. You're

39:54

just calculating the angles from the video there. And then I

39:56

wouldn't have to pay. I'm not paying for this app,

39:58

by the way. That seems like an outrageous amount of money. money for

40:00

that. But yeah, I

40:02

know. Same developer problems, right? Yeah,

40:06

what I do like about the Stronglifts app

40:08

is you can pay monthly or you can,

40:10

if you think you're gonna use it for more than two

40:12

years, you can just pay a one-time fee. It's

40:16

pretty expensive, but the Apple

40:18

Watch integration. Yeah, yeah. Or

40:21

you can just do Google Sheet. The

40:23

Apple Watch is nice though, because it buzzes you when your next set.

40:25

It's like, all right, you have to come. Yeah, oh, I love it.

40:28

Or like, if I only did four out of

40:30

five reps, you can say I did four reps,

40:32

and you can look back at that over time

40:35

and say, oh, I

40:37

didn't hit that. But like you said, it's

40:40

not that important versus actually doing it. Yeah,

40:43

I would say start with something lo-fi and

40:45

work your way up. In fact, I could

40:47

probably find an old Google Sheet of mine

40:49

from when I first started, because that's definitely

40:51

where I started as well. Let's talk about

40:53

diet really quick. Diet is one of those

40:55

things that nobody likes to hear because

40:58

it actually makes a giant difference in everything, and

41:00

it sucks to hear that because I like what

41:03

I eat. I eat a lot. I don't want

41:05

to stop eating what I'm eating. But if

41:08

you're looking for benefits in terms of weight

41:10

loss, you

41:13

can't do it with just cardio

41:15

alone. You can't out cardio. Yeah,

41:18

you cannot out cardio your calorie

41:20

intake. So it's always calories in,

41:22

calories out, and you don't have

41:24

to calculate it. You don't have to get into the

41:26

weeds there. So for me, if you want to say

41:28

the 80-20 of this, the

41:31

80-20 of this is six out of

41:33

seven days of the week, cut out the

41:35

garbage, the pop, the soda, the fast food,

41:37

the junk, just the junk.

41:39

Cut out the junk six out of seven

41:41

days of the week, and you will see

41:43

an improvement. You don't have to

41:45

get into crazy salads for lunch or anything like that. Add

41:49

more chicken, add more just

41:52

general protein into your diet, find ways

41:54

to add protein, and just

41:56

reach for maybe the protein or

41:59

healthier option. here or there and

42:01

it will make an impact. But again,

42:03

you don't have to like really crazily

42:05

change your diet entirely.

42:08

I'm not like one of those health freaks

42:10

that won't have fast

42:13

food here and there. I'll get a good

42:15

times or a burger or whatever and be

42:17

totally satisfied. But I can't do that most

42:20

days of the week. So you do need

42:22

to have a decent diet.

42:26

People make it one of those

42:28

things that you can't sustain because when people make

42:30

big changes like this, it's impossible to sustain that

42:32

and to keep that going. But just cut out

42:34

the junk here and there. So does

42:36

man. I can't tell you the last time

42:39

I had a pop and your body acclimates to it to the

42:41

point where like you don't even miss it anymore.

42:43

But occasionally, I'll get a Dr. Pepper from

42:46

the fast food place and I'll be like, wow, this is a

42:48

really great little treat. Yeah.

42:50

My biggest tip here is for me, it

42:52

was like cut out the beer.

42:55

You're heavy. If you're like

42:57

maybe once a week, I'll have it, which

43:01

it makes you feel a lot better as well. You're

43:03

not feeling like garbage. It's nice in the time, but it

43:06

doesn't make you feel good the rest of

43:08

the week. So for me, it

43:10

was mostly just cutting out the beer. I

43:13

already eat pretty heavy protein. I've

43:15

always been somewhat low

43:17

carb, but just trying to focus

43:19

on actually doing that. My

43:22

biggest tip for people is if you don't

43:24

necessarily know these things, grab

43:27

one of these tracker apps and run it for

43:29

a month or two and track

43:31

everything you eat. And

43:33

you're going to get a really good

43:35

feeling of actually if you

43:38

should have that or not or sort of like

43:40

where it is. That's generally what

43:42

I'll do as well as I'll track things for a month

43:45

or two when I'm just starting

43:47

out. And then you get a really good feeling

43:49

for how much budget

43:51

you have for these types

43:53

of things. And then after that, you

43:56

have a good feeling and you don't have to

43:58

stress over absolutely every single thing. I

44:00

feel like that's a pretty good one and Scott

44:03

just pasted a link here for the macro factor

44:05

app that Scott picked it a while ago. It

44:08

is so good. I had been using like the

44:10

daily burn one for many many years and

44:12

then they I think they nuked it or

44:15

started charging for it. The macro

44:17

factor app is very very

44:19

good. It's amazing. I

44:21

really I can't believe it. The

44:23

UI is just. Yeah,

44:26

the UI is great. It's one of those things too is

44:28

it's made by lifting

44:30

professionals. They're like not you

44:32

know they know what they're doing. It's not some big corporal.

44:34

It's like some guy who

44:36

started this who does a podcast I

44:38

like but you know what's great about

44:40

this app like you said is visibility.

44:42

You don't need to get crazy into

44:44

calorie tracking unless you're not seeing any

44:46

progress in your your weight loss

44:48

journey if that's what you're looking for. If you're

44:51

looking for weight loss and you're like why are

44:53

things not moving. Well macro

44:55

factor will find that out instantly for

44:58

you for me like I

45:01

greatly underestimated the

45:03

little snackies that I had here

45:05

on my desk is a big

45:07

bar you know. Oh yeah.

45:09

These are good. Oh Randy's got one

45:11

too. Randy's got one too. Yes, they're fantastic. My

45:16

problem is I'd pop a two

45:18

or three of them a day not like Newton's

45:20

themselves but actual packages because because you're just like

45:22

oh they're a little whatever. I'm just grabbing them.

45:25

Next thing you know that's 600 calories and then

45:27

I'd rather be eating 600 calories or something else

45:29

but I'm doing it because I'm bored or whatever

45:31

and if you don't realize where you're

45:34

adding the calories you don't realize

45:36

that and so the macro factor will

45:38

show you. Pick up on

45:40

you. Yeah exactly like where

45:43

that burden is coming from and then you

45:45

can adjust from there and it

45:47

also makes you very cognizant for me personally

45:49

because it breaks down by your your macro

45:51

nutrients so like what I was saying man

45:53

I was getting way too many carbs and

45:55

way too much fat and not enough protein

45:58

in my diet and that was like. The

46:00

biggest thing for me, it's like your daily protein goal

46:02

based on your weight. And you know what you're looking

46:04

to do is this. And I would

46:06

get like 10% of that. I'd be like, how

46:09

is that possible? I feel like I'm eating a lot

46:11

of protein, but it was possible. I was just wasn't

46:13

eating enough. Uh, I was eating the wrong things. So

46:16

yeah, it'll, it'll open your eyes, but you don't need

46:18

to subscribe to it. You don't need to do it

46:20

like daily for the rest of your life.

46:23

Do it for a couple of weeks,

46:25

get the feel for what's going on.

46:27

And then you'll, you'll get the vibe for where you

46:29

need to be. Um, but yeah, you

46:31

know, diet's one of those things that's touchy. It's,

46:34

it's interesting and it all depends on what your

46:36

goals are. Lastly here, before we

46:38

get into like supplements and stuff, motivation, uh,

46:41

the motivation can be all sorts of

46:43

things, but how do you get motivation

46:45

to get to the gym? For me,

46:47

the motivation is that like you said,

46:49

Wes, I have more daily energy. I

46:51

have better daily focus ADHD folks. It's

46:53

a scientifically proven that if

46:55

ADHD folks work out their focus

46:57

is better. Uh, their mood is

46:59

better. Depression mood is better clinically

47:02

proven. So if you're,

47:04

you're suffering from those things, I don't want to

47:06

say like, I'm not a doctor, go, go do

47:08

the studies and stuff yourself. Don't, don't take my

47:10

word for it. Go, go look it up, but

47:13

it could make you feel better in all kinds

47:15

of ways. Could give you better general comfort. And

47:17

if those kinds of like external or those kinds

47:19

of internal motivations aren't, aren't big enough, you can

47:21

get some external motivations. Like for instance, have a

47:24

workout buddy. Somebody you always go to the gym

47:26

with. Um, just like showing up to

47:28

do the podcast, they're expecting you there. You show

47:30

it up. You show up every day. And next

47:32

thing you know, you've got, uh, 770 episodes of

47:34

the podcast. Next

47:37

thing you know, you're super swell. Look great at

47:39

the beach. So, you know, uh,

47:43

let's talk about supplements, uh,

47:45

what we're taking every day.

47:47

Um, I take just basically a bunch

47:49

of. Vitamin supplements.

47:52

I'm trying to remember what they all are. I

47:54

bought like a little, one of

47:57

those like pill containers that has like

47:59

the AM and PM. thing in there

48:01

and try to remember

48:03

what is in there. A protein powder I'll

48:05

take every day, fish

48:07

oil every single day, a multivitamin,

48:11

a D3 and K2 supplement,

48:14

a magnesium supplement. I

48:18

think there's a few more in there that I'm

48:20

totally forgetting. Basically once a

48:23

week I'll go through all the bottles and refill it.

48:26

I can't tell you if it's working or not but I

48:28

think they're good for you. There's

48:30

a rabbit hole with supplements. Some of them are expensive.

48:32

You don't need to spend a lot of money on

48:34

supplements. I think the big thing for

48:36

most people, if you are lifting

48:38

weights, you want to make sure you're getting

48:40

enough protein in your diet. Protein shakes are

48:42

a great way to accomplish that. You don't

48:44

have to spend a crazy amount of money

48:46

because they can be expensive or you can

48:48

spend a crazy amount of money and get

48:51

some fancier protein shakes. Either way, protein shakes

48:53

are good if you're lifting weights. Daily

48:55

vitamin, I just do it men's daily. Some people

48:58

question whether or not that's needed. I just do

49:00

it just to be sure. It's not hurting me.

49:02

I do a krill oil for my Omega 3s

49:04

because Costco has it in their little and cheap.

49:07

Probiotic, I do that for my tummy. My

49:09

tummy is not great so a probiotic is

49:11

something that helps me get the good bacteria

49:13

in my tummy. Magnesium

49:16

helps me sleep and then

49:18

psyllium husk I take for fiber

49:21

because we're also mostly not getting enough

49:23

dietary fiber in our day to day

49:25

life and psyllium husk is literally just

49:27

like crushed up husk into

49:29

a pill capsule. You can take three

49:33

of them at dinner, three of them at

49:35

breakfast. Next thing you know, your dietary fiber

49:37

needs are completely met without having to eat

49:39

a massive amount of vegetables. I think

49:42

eating vegetables is good. It's

49:44

great but the psyllium husk

49:46

makes it easy no matter what. That's

49:48

what I take. I don't take anything too crazy.

49:51

I also take creatine for your muscles. It's

49:55

proven to be one of the most effective supplements.

49:57

It helps you recover your muscles better. Not

50:00

a lot of important, you know negative downsides or

50:02

anything like that. There's Really

50:05

no reason not to take creatine if you're

50:07

having yeah, I've been scooping that one in

50:09

as well The only thing I don't like

50:11

about it. It's not extremely water soluble. It's

50:13

always it's gritty They just got I've been

50:15

mixing it with my protein shakes, which

50:18

is as decent, but yeah, it's still

50:20

a little gritty I'll tell you what I

50:22

do for this because I don't like that either. I This

50:26

is going to sound outrageous because creatine Creatine

50:30

is like it's one. It's super cheap creatine is

50:32

super cheap You do one little scoop of it

50:34

in your protein shake and yeah, you

50:36

get over the grit It feels fine.

50:39

What I do is I instead I

50:41

take seven creatine pills at dinner seven.

50:43

They're like man I

50:46

do that because I don't like the grit. I feel

50:48

so I can't like Yeah,

50:51

I don't I don't mind taking pills. These are

50:53

these are cheap They're from bulk supplements on

50:56

Amazon bulk supplements is always

50:58

good prices for stuff So, um, you know, it's

51:00

not like a huge problem in my life, but

51:02

I have chosen to take a pill for it seven pills

51:05

I asked Courtney the other day. I was like, hey, uh,

51:07

hey you want to you know, you should be

51:09

taking creatine Do you want to just do one scoop in

51:11

your drip in your drink every day? Or do you want

51:14

to take seven pills at dinner and she was like, what

51:16

do you like? Why would I why would I ever take

51:18

the seven pills at dinner? That feels like a ridiculous question

51:21

So Yeah, sweet Awesome.

51:24

Well, hopefully you enjoyed a thing or

51:26

two with that. Let's get into some

51:28

sick pics I'm going to sick pick

51:30

something that I bought for my gym that I've been

51:32

really enjoying and that is a set of resistance

51:35

bands and I bought this

51:37

set basically what I've learned

51:40

is that all

51:42

of these resistance bands are exactly

51:45

the same and you can spend

51:47

a Shoot load

51:49

of money on the rogue

51:51

fitness ones, but the ace pow

51:54

nom Wom whatever ones from

51:57

Amazon are the exact same

52:00

thing and they are so I bought

52:02

the one two three four five set

52:04

of six Resistance bands

52:07

and they are fantastic. So I use them in a

52:09

couple of ways. First of all, I've

52:11

been trying to like

52:14

get my squat Knee

52:17

over toe a little bit better on one

52:20

side I twisted my ankle like like ten

52:22

years ago and I realized that that side

52:25

I have less mobility than My

52:27

other side so I've been doing a bunch

52:29

of stretches with the band Pulling

52:33

on your foot to try to get it. There's

52:35

this really good guy YouTube

52:37

tick-tock squat University and he's like

52:39

he's more of like a rehab

52:41

doctor That focuses

52:44

on people who who do weightlifting

52:46

and he has lots of really

52:48

good tips of like how to

52:50

overcome those limitations and one

52:52

of them was to put a resistance band on

52:54

your foot and stretch

52:57

it out that way and then the other the other

52:59

way I use it is I have the pull-up bar

53:01

and I Can't

53:05

do as I can't do like a like

53:07

ten pull-ups, you know, I can maybe do

53:09

right now if you maybe four So

53:11

I'll put like one of one of the

53:14

thinner ones and do assisted pull-ups and

53:17

You just put your foot I put two band

53:20

pegs into the rack and wrap a bit wrap

53:22

a band around that and then if you put

53:24

your feet on it And that that mimics like

53:26

you being like 25 30 pounds lighter And

53:30

then it then you're able to do the the

53:32

the pull-ups So if you're having trouble getting

53:34

the pull-ups done check out the resistance bands.

53:37

Yeah Speaking of pull-ups. My

53:40

daughter finally stopped wearing pull-ups and it's

53:42

been awesome. Finally We

53:45

are officially out of diapers West We are out of

53:47

diapers and out of pull-ups and that is a

53:49

wild place to be right now So I'll

53:52

sick pick these booty bands because like you

53:54

said with the resistance bands these things are

53:56

super cheap You can find a ton of

53:58

different ones. But unlike the resistance

54:00

bands tend to stretch a whole lot, right?

54:02

These are much tighter and

54:04

for like more like leg-based types of

54:07

things and they're much more, a lot

54:09

of resistance. So these

54:11

are work really well for

54:13

doing like, like sidestepping or

54:16

keeping your knees together. And again, they're, they're

54:19

mostly drop shift, whatever, but these ones are

54:21

14 bucks and they're cloth and they have

54:23

some elastic on the inside to attach to

54:25

you. But we've bought these ones in 2021

54:27

and we still use them every

54:32

other workout or so. So they've

54:34

held up super well. And

54:37

yeah, I use it all the time, even for

54:39

just anything where I'm trying to increase the sides

54:41

of my legs or gain stability there. So in

54:43

that regard, a nice little piece

54:45

of equipment here. Well,

54:48

that's it. I don't have anything else. Wes, anything

54:51

else? That's it. For today, let's

54:53

let us know what you do.

54:55

I'd love to see, I'll try, I'll send

54:58

Randy some photos of my gym and we can

55:00

overlay them on the video, but love

55:02

to see photos of yours and any other tips you

55:04

have, just tweet us at syntax FM. All

55:07

right. Thanks for tuning in. Peace. Peace.