Episode 105: Exercise Analysis: Lunges, Overhead Press, & More

0:00:11.5 Mike Vacanti: Hello, Jordan.

0:00:12.0 Jordan Syatt: Hello, Michael.

0:00:14.9 Mike Vacanti: What’s up?

0:00:15.2 Jordan Syatt: Episode what? 104?

0:00:17.2 Mike Vacanti: ‘5. 105.

0:00:18.5 Jordan Syatt: 105. Wow. Let’s go.

0:00:19.7 Mike Vacanti: I got something for you here. We got an email this morning. I assume you haven’t seen it yet.

0:00:23.6 Jordan Syatt: You assume I… Of course, I haven’t seen it yet.

0:00:26.0 Mike Vacanti: Actually, it was from yesterday. Mr. Jesse Rosenthal. By the way, this is just a complete humble brag to everyone listening. “Hey, Mike and Jordan. Happy New Year. I just wanted to reach out to you guys and let you know how much I appreciate both of you. I realize that I’ve been in the mentorship for about three years now, and I’ve made a ton of progress in that time. 2022 was the best year yet for my business, and I could not have done it without you guys. I remember just wishing just a couple years ago, I had a business which was half the size I currently have, and I still feel I have a long way to go. So thank you guys again and see you in the next live Q and A.” Shameless plug, sales tactic. Jesse’s the man. Jesse’s jacked out of his mind, by the way. But we do have a sale coming up for the mentorship in roughly one month. Get on the email list if you’re not on it already, that’s where the notifications will go. Thoughts Jord?

0:01:17.8 Jordan Syatt: Jesse’s awesome man. Jesse is… He’s jacked out of his mind. Every time I see his post, I’m like, “Dear Lord, this guy is fucking yoked.”

0:01:24.1 Mike Vacanti: Makes me want to do more curls. [laughter] Truly.

0:01:29.6 Jordan Syatt: I just, I love that. Like he’s doing so well. He’s been in there for about three years, and he shows up to basically every single Q and A, like almost every single one he’s there. I’m not surprised to hear that. He’s doing very well. He’s there all the time. He’s putting in a ton of work. He walks the walk, he talks the talk. He’s just a badass. So I love that. So, huge props to Jesse. And yeah, man, that’s amazing.

0:01:55.4 Mike Vacanti: Shout out, Jesse.

0:01:56.1 Jordan Syatt: Is your video on?

0:01:56.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Oh, you can’t see me?

0:01:58.5 Jordan Syatt: I did see you, but then it stopped working, and I think it might be…

0:02:01.8 Mike Vacanti: It’s definitely the hotel internet.

0:02:04.2 Jordan Syatt: Oh, “live video will return when the internet improves.” Yeah. It’s your hotel internet.

0:02:08.8 Mike Vacanti: Oh man, is this gonna be awkward?

0:02:11.5 Jordan Syatt: No, no, no. It’s okay. It’s okay.

0:02:11.5 Mike Vacanti: Okay. Because it’s pick… It’s recording my end. It’s recording your end. We’re good.

0:02:15.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah.

0:02:17.0 Mike Vacanti: But yes, New York City Hotel internet for today’s pod flew in for four days with Gary. Bro, I’m actually really enjoying New York City right now.

0:02:27.7 Jordan Syatt: Really?

0:02:28.5 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:02:29.1 Jordan Syatt: It was because Gary was in such a good mood?

0:02:30.2 Mike Vacanti: No, just yesterday, coming in, kind of nostalgic. It’s been a while. Staying in the city. What’s or not WhatsApp? Seamless. No, not Seamless. What’s the other one? Door Dash. WhatsApp is not a food delivery service, by the way. [laughter]

0:02:49.6 Jordan Syatt: WhatsApp, some food over. [laughter]

0:02:50.0 Mike Vacanti: WhatsApp some food.

0:02:53.1 Jordan Syatt: WhatsApp some food.

0:02:55.2 Mike Vacanti: This place called DIG that I always used to get living in the city that has “Healthy food”, which is… It’s delicious, so it’s very high in oil, etcetera. But this chicken, brown rice, sweet potato, brussel sprout, carrot combination just has me feeling micronutrient supercharged.

0:03:14.0 Jordan Syatt: Man. Good. Would you ever move back?

0:03:16.5 Mike Vacanti: No, no, [chuckle] but…

0:03:20.2 Jordan Syatt: Just for a few days. It’s nice.

0:03:23.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, exactly. For little spurts. Little work trips. No, I don’t personal… I mean, just being closer to family was the main reason for the move, and I’m really happy where I am, but…

0:03:34.7 Jordan Syatt: Good. Good.

0:03:36.4 Mike Vacanti: It’s been good trip. How you doing, bro?

0:03:38.3 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m good, man. I found out, I was telling you before we started recording that if I lightly bite my daughter’s belly, she’ll just start losing it uncontrollably laughing. So I’ve been doing that and it’s hilarious. It’s like a little baby’s laugh is I think the best thing ever. So of course, I just go over the top with it and just do it over and over and over and over, and I milk it for everything that it can possibly be done for. So yeah, did that. And then my wife and I are starting to look at potential properties for buying a home, which is very not fun. So [laughter] I just love… I love renting. I absolutely love renting. And the idea of buying a home and having a home and all the responsibilities that come with it is not exciting to me at all.

0:04:37.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I’ve really bad news for you. The looking for the house part is not the difficult part at all. So if you’re not enjoying the search process, it’s the managing the property that you own, that is work or outsourcing. But either way, like outsourcing and managing not fun. Would you ever just continue to rent?

0:05:00.8 Jordan Syatt: If there was literally the perfect property in a great school system that someone was renting, then yeah. But like, that’s just…

0:05:11.5 Mike Vacanti: You wanna be in a house?

0:05:11.6 Jordan Syatt: I mean, for me, if it was just me, I could live in a cardboard box. I don’t give a shit. But for my wife and kids and all of that, I want them to have a yard, I want them to have a house. Yeah, for sure. I don’t wanna have them in a apartment, you know?

0:05:27.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:05:29.6 Jordan Syatt: Just for me.

0:05:31.1 Mike Vacanti: The market for renting a house is much smaller than renting an apartment, so…

0:05:38.6 Jordan Syatt: Correct. Yeah, exactly.

0:05:40.1 Mike Vacanti: Why are you not enjoying the purchase process or the searching process?

0:05:46.5 Jordan Syatt: It’s just it’s my personality. I remember, so when I went to West Side, when I trained at West Side, before I went there, my mom was like, all right, well, you need to get an apartment. And I was like, “Oh, let’s just… I’ll find one online and I’ll just book it online.” She’s like, my mom was like, “No, we have to go and we have to look at the apartments.” And I just hate doing that stuff. I don’t like it. So we literally went to Ohio, or no, we were already there after Louie said, “Okay, yeah, you can train here after the two day awful tryout.” And so we went like to a… And I vividly remember, I went to the very first… The first apartment we went to, I was like, “Yeah, this is fine. I’ll just stay here.”

0:06:24.1 Jordan Syatt: And my mom was like, “No, we have to see a number of them.” And I was like, “Ugh, I hate… I just, I would just stay here in the shitty little room. So you went to like, spent all day going to these different apartments and I was like, “I hate every moment of this.” And we did get a great apartment, and it was definitely… It was worth it, but I just hated that process. And I don’t know, I would rather not be doing that stuff. [chuckle] It’s shopping. I hate shopping. Shopping is…

0:06:53.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, the worst.

0:06:55.5 Jordan Syatt: It’s the absolute worst. I don’t like it. I would rather be doing basically anything else.

0:07:01.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Clothes shopping is really the worst, but I get what you mean. Going to the houses and looking at the properties and that aspect of it.

0:07:10.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I can’t stand.

0:07:11.5 Mike Vacanti: It’s not the like plugging in your parameters into a Zillow or whatever app you’re using, and like, that’s okay looking at them, but it’s all of the going to look at them in person. The time suck, the energy suck. The fact that you could be doing something else.

0:07:25.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s exactly right. Yeah.

0:07:27.1 Mike Vacanti: Well, but then there’s also like, if you’re gonna be in the house for a long time, there’s, like by making bad decisions in the process and by shorting the front end, you’re really screwing yourself for a long time.

0:07:41.6 Jordan Syatt: There’s no question that it’s worth it. It’s definitely worth it. I just absolutely hate it. When I’m there, it feels like I’m in school again. It feels like I’m being forced to sit in class and the feeling inside my chest is just what I had every time I was in school. It was just this like unrelenting feeling of just like a tornado inside my chest being like, “Get out, get out. This is awful.” But I have to sit there and listen to this teacher talk to me about geometry. I was like, this is the worst. And so it… I get the same feeling when I have to, this is why I work for myself, because if I had to sit at an office or a desk and do someone else’s bidding, it would just be torture for me. So, yeah.

0:08:31.3 Mike Vacanti: Yep, I feel you. I feel you. Hey, do you have your 2023 goals yet? [chuckle]

0:08:38.3 Jordan Syatt: I knew you were gonna bring those up. [laughter] I knew you were gonna bring that up. I do not have them written out yet, but I will.

0:08:44.4 Mike Vacanti: I can’t wait till you do. Make sure to screenshot them and send them over, because I’m gonna copy your homework.

0:08:50.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you will have them, you will have them very, very soon.

0:08:55.8 Mike Vacanti: I think I know one that is… Well, actually no, I don’t think this will be a goal of yours, but I do think it will happen in 2023.

0:09:01.6 Jordan Syatt: What? What? What do you think?

0:09:03.4 Mike Vacanti: Purple belt.

0:09:04.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man, yeah, probably, unfortunately. I hope not. [chuckle] I might not go to the belt promotion. [laughter]

0:09:14.7 Mike Vacanti: “I really don’t feel good, man. I’ll see you on Monday.”

0:09:18.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. “Oh, sorry. I can’t make it. I can’t make it. Oh, sorry. All right. Well, [laughter], you only give out belts, the promotion. So I guess I’ll just be blue belt for another year.” [laughter] I think you sign up at a Muay Thai Academy?

0:09:35.6 Mike Vacanti: We’ll see.

0:09:35.7 Jordan Syatt: 2023.

0:09:38.8 Mike Vacanti: My fitness pillar goal is getting 90 minutes a week of Zone 2 cardio in consistently as a minimum is the one thing on my mind right now in addition to lifting.

0:09:47.3 Jordan Syatt: Really?

0:09:48.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:09:49.0 Jordan Syatt: Just for heart health?

0:09:52.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yep. For all purpose health, yes.

0:09:54.5 Jordan Syatt: I like that.

0:09:55.5 Mike Vacanti: Primarily heart, but just making that a habit. But well, when we actually have the goals fleshed out, we’ll come back.

0:10:06.7 Jordan Syatt: So set three separate 30-minute Zone 2 sessions a week?

0:10:10.7 Mike Vacanti: Probably two by 45, just because… Otherwise it’s not 30 because either the first eight minutes I’m not in Zone 2, so they’re really 22 minute Zone 2 sessions or I have to do a legit 10-minute warm-up before. So they’re really 40 minute workouts anyway. I think I’d rather do a seven minute warm-up plus 45 minute incline treadmill walking session twice a week. I think that’s probably how it works out.

0:10:38.3 Jordan Syatt: I like that. And it’s just, that’s… It’s just two days rather than making it three or four or whatever. Yeah, I love that.

0:10:43.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah. Well, when we have our goals real fleshed out though we’ll come back here with them. What else is going on?

0:10:48.8 Jordan Syatt: Is the incline treadmill your method of choice?

0:10:55.4 Mike Vacanti: It’s the best. [chuckle] The best.

0:10:57.9 Jordan Syatt: I can’t even see your video, and I know what face you make. [laughter]

0:11:02.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I just can’t stay in Zone 2 running. And I don’t have any interest in running. Biking, I’ve never liked, I’ve always found it quite uncomfortable…

0:11:14.7 Jordan Syatt: Huge.

0:11:14.8 Mike Vacanti: Posturally, and yeah, sitting on that seat.

0:11:19.9 Jordan Syatt: So uncomfortable.

0:11:20.0 Mike Vacanti: Elliptical is reasonable and I think is probably my number two speed, but I really enjoy a good incline walk started at 6%, 2.7 speed and gradually increase the percent into the 12% range and end up with a speed between 3 and 3.5 miles per hour for the majority of it. And my heart rate within 15 minutes is probably in the 130 range and dialed.

0:11:47.5 Jordan Syatt: I feel like your walking pace is naturally like a Zone 2 walking pace. Trying to walk with you is very difficult, ’cause I’m a leisurely walker. I’m just like a zigzag short, short stride, just… We’ll take it slow. And you are a purposeful walker, like walking with you is really, I don’t care if we’re just going to Citarella, the grocery store, going to CVS, just going on a walk around the block. You walk fast and I’m always like, “oh man, I gotta keep up with this guy.” So that makes sense that you like this faster walk a little bit of an incline.

0:12:25.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. That’s… And a lot of people don’t realize how much of a benefit, or I shouldn’t say benefit, but how much a slight incline increases your heart rate and how much difficulty it adds. Like walking flat compared to 12% doesn’t sound like a large incline, but… Or 12 degrees. But if you’re walking that compared to flat, it makes a huge difference. And it’s funny…

0:12:51.4 Jordan Syatt: It is awful.

0:12:52.6 Mike Vacanti: My heart rate hit 148 this morning. My hotel’s probably 20-ish plus minutes away from Gary and I walked there which felt great. And there’s a spot where it’s a pretty decent incline and I was walking at a brisk pace, and yeah.

0:13:08.8 Jordan Syatt: Was the stress of the city at all increasing the heart rate, or was that just purely the incline and speed of the walk?

0:13:13.3 Mike Vacanti: No. No. This is actually my favorite time in New York City, which is early morning on the weekend.

0:13:24.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, no one’s out there.

0:13:24.4 Mike Vacanti: Which is the only time that… Yeah. Just dead, a ghost town, which is amazing.

0:13:27.8 Jordan Syatt: Was it cold out today?

0:13:30.2 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm. No, not Minnesota cold, because coming from…

0:13:33.7 Jordan Syatt: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:13:35.4 Mike Vacanti: It’s at least 20 to 25 degrees warmer here, so it felt great, but it would’ve been cold for Dallas standards. [laughter]

0:13:47.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah. I did an incline weighted vest walk last night, and dude, yeah, it’s brutal. I did that while watching Game of Thrones, by the way.

0:13:58.5 Mike Vacanti: Oh, that’s…

0:14:00.5 Jordan Syatt: Season one, episode one.

0:14:01.5 Mike Vacanti: Did you finish season one, episode one?

0:14:02.7 Jordan Syatt: Well, I’ll clarify for everyone listening. I’ve already seen it once, the whole series. No, I did not get to the end of… Wait, did I get to the end of episode one? I have to check now. One sec, let me look. Oh, yeah, I did. I got to the end of episode one. I started episode two.

0:14:20.9 Mike Vacanti: Oh, wait, does episode one end with Bran getting pushed out of the…

0:14:26.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh shit. I didn’t get to the end of episode one. [chuckle] No, I didn’t.

0:14:29.8 Mike Vacanti: “Yeah, man, finished Batman. I can’t believe he died. Like, kind of crazy. [laughter] Anyway, thanks for recommending that movie, Mike.” [laughter] “Did you finish Batman? Are you sure?” “Yeah, yeah. Finished during my cardio.” “Oh. Check your phone and see if you actually finished.” “Oh, nine minutes left. [laughter] I guess he doesn’t die.”

0:14:55.7 Jordan Syatt: Oh my God. Yeah. No, I did not finish it last night. Okay. Oops.

0:15:01.7 Mike Vacanti: Weighted vest is awesome. I used… My good friend Jordan Wyld, who was my training partner in the summer after junior year for hockey heading into senior year, his dad had a weighted vest in their home gym. And I remember using it for random stuff then, but I haven’t used a weighted vest in many years. And actually that’s a great idea for, especially just for normal walking, like street walking and trying to get more elevated heart rate.

0:15:29.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And it’s crazy. You don’t need a huge weight on to… just 15 pounds and it is dramatic, which is pretty crazy. Thinking about it, if someone gains 10, 15 pounds, [chuckle] makes things way harder.

0:15:47.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, it really does.

0:15:49.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:15:49.9 Mike Vacanti: Which just shows the opposite how much easier life can be with a little bit less body fat or going from an unhealthy range to a healthier range. Which everyone knows, right? Like we’re… But sometimes even…

0:16:03.1 Jordan Syatt: Not everyone.

0:16:03.2 Mike Vacanti: No. I think everyone knows that. Maybe not tangibly, like they can’t feel the difference. They don’t know how much better it would feel to be healthier, but I think everyone knows like, “Okay, I would feel better if I was healthier.”

0:16:19.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah. There’s willfully blinding themselves and posturing on social media to say they wouldn’t. [laughter]

0:16:26.5 Mike Vacanti: Great use of willfully blind. [laughter]

0:16:27.0 Jordan Syatt: See what I did there?

0:16:29.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Yeah, I did.

0:16:30.9 Jordan Syatt: I thought you were gonna say “great use of posturing.” [laughter]

0:16:33.8 Mike Vacanti: That was a great use of posturing too. And I’m not on that corner of the internet, so I don’t see that.

0:16:42.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, God bless you.

0:16:44.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:16:44.8 Jordan Syatt: We need to get you on that corner. No, actually, nevermind. It’s a terrible idea.

0:16:49.2 Mike Vacanti: My Twitter in the last 48 hours got a little more cancerous. I don’t know why. And so I’ve tried to stop going on there.

0:16:54.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I try not to consume on Twitter.

0:17:00.0 Mike Vacanti: The plan for this episode is Jordan’s Q and A, by the way.

0:17:03.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, is it? Okay.

0:17:03.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:17:05.5 Jordan Syatt: Good to know. [laughter]

0:17:06.7 Mike Vacanti: None of the rants I had done. It just feels like a P-ing episode.

0:17:12.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, you know what? Here might be a good one. I feel like the coaches like this type of discussion. What are some cues for overhead press? Like we could dive deep onto different exercises like overhead press. Let’s talk about the overhead press.

0:17:28.1 Mike Vacanti: Let’s do it. Standing barbell?

0:17:29.7 Jordan Syatt: Well, that’s… I think with the first place we could begin. What is your favorite variation of overhead press?

0:17:38.0 Mike Vacanti: For myself or for clients?

0:17:41.3 Jordan Syatt: How about both?

0:17:42.9 Mike Vacanti: Okay. And for what purpose?

0:17:45.6 Jordan Syatt: For every purpose. Just give your overall favorite for yourself and your clients and then explain why.

0:17:53.2 Mike Vacanti: Okay. And I think this is probably similar for both myself and for many clients, we’ll say, my favorite, if my purpose is pure strength and hypertrophy gains is a high incline back supported dumbbell overhead press.

0:18:16.6 Jordan Syatt: That’s what I was doing last night, by the way, when you guessed it on your first shot.

0:18:21.8 Mike Vacanti: Yep. Yep. Guess the exercise while talking on the phone. That’s a good one to play with your friends if you haven’t.

0:18:27.3 Jordan Syatt: We were on the phone and I was like, “Guess this exercise?” Mike listened to me breathe throughout the exercise like four times and he guessed exactly that variation.

0:18:35.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:18:35.5 Jordan Syatt: So that was impressive.

0:18:35.4 Mike Vacanti: I knew you were doing a full body workout, and that was… It had to be an overhead press based on the way you were breathing. Okay, so that’s my favorite for strength and hypertrophy. My favorite overall is probably a standing single arm dumbbell overhead press.

0:18:58.6 Jordan Syatt: Really?

0:19:00.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:19:01.1 Jordan Syatt: Interesting. Okay.

0:19:01.8 Mike Vacanti: Uh-huh. I like that variation. I also like a half kneeling, but I actually like the standing variation even more because it requires you to create so much stability through your core to maintain proper position throughout the move. That I like that side benefit, not direct to the shoulder or the tricep or the muscles being worked, but feeling what it’s like to properly brace your abs and your glutes and to learn that stable position. And then from the purpose of a health perspective, I also like this relative to the back supported, because on the back supported, you’re getting very little scapular movement; whereas when you’re standing and when you don’t have something on your back like that, you’re getting your shoulder blades moving through that range, which is just beneficial from a health perspective and for those tissues and just learning how to elevate and depress your shoulder blade while doing that exercise.

0:20:15.3 Jordan Syatt: I like that, upwardly rotate the scapula. Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. I like that. So my favorite is definitely the first one that you said that high incline back supported dumbbell overhead press. I like the half kneeling or the standing single arm, I like it, but I don’t love it. And it’s nothing to do with the effectiveness of the exercise, it’s everything to do with just my personal preference and a lot of efficiency, and I’m just like, “Ugh, I did one side, now I gotta do the other side” [laughter] type of thing.

0:20:55.3 Jordan Syatt: I will definitely program that if I’m working with someone who does a lot of overhead work, maybe they’re an athlete, volleyball player, tennis, maybe they’re a recreational tennis player or whatever it is. I will definitely have someone do that exercise ’cause it’s super important for their shoulder health and stability. But if I have a client who hates working out, and they want to be in and out of the gym as quickly as possible, I’m not giving them many exercises that are… We’re gonna do one side, then pause, then the other side, just ’cause I know it’s gonna increase how much time they spend in the gym.

0:21:34.8 Jordan Syatt: So, yeah. It’s funny how we’re talking about overhead press and neither of us opted for the barbell. I just, I like the barbell for so many things, but for the overhead press, I think the barbell overhead press is one of the most overrated barbell lifts. What do you think?

0:21:57.0 Mike Vacanti: Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, right? If you’re trying to get really good at barbell overhead press because you just read Starting Strength and you’re like, “This is cool,” then I think everybody should go through that phase. If what you’re trying to accomplish is get stronger, gain lean mass, not hurt yourself, program enjoyable workouts, yeah, it’s definitely not at the top of my list. If we’re gonna go barbell, the barbell overhead press, I would still go high incline and I would probably do it on a Smith machine. And you gotta line it up, because you’re on a fixed track there, and if you’re too close or too far away it just isn’t gonna groove right. So it takes some practice with a little bit lighter weight to figure out your setup. But I like back supported high incline Smith machine barbell overhead press. But standing barbell overhead press isn’t my favorite move. And overhead movements in general aren’t my… Personally at least I’ve just experienced more tweaks not like real injuries, but more like, ah, my neck, ah, my shoulder going overhead and overhead barbell specifically that it’s something that I don’t do a ton of.

0:23:15.0 Jordan Syatt: You know what you could also do if you don’t have a Smith machine is I do this very frequently with this exact variation. I’ll do like a… It’s a seated high incline overhead press with the barbell, but if you don’t have a Smith machine, you can just set it up so the bar is like pushing backwards slightly into the rack. So you use the rack as the guide and you obviously don’t want to push a such a severe angle that you just push directly into the rack, but you lightly press backwards so that the bar is guiding up the rack throughout the whole movement. So it’s still on a fixed track, if you will, but you don’t need it to be in the Smith machine, and I love that variation.

0:23:58.1 Mike Vacanti: Nice. I’m into it.

0:24:00.7 Jordan Syatt: Did that make sense?

0:24:03.3 Mike Vacanti: It did, yep. What percentage of your shoulder work come, and we will take rear delts out of the equation, so what percent of your non-rear delt shoulder work comes from overhead pressing versus other movements like a lateral raise, for example?

0:24:21.9 Jordan Syatt: Probably about like 50%.

0:24:24.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:24:24.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It’s about like 50% pressing, 50% lateral raise. And we’re not talking about rear delt work, so we’re not talking about like face pulls or rear delt rows.

0:24:31.9 Mike Vacanti: Interesting. Reverse pec-deck. Yeah.

0:24:34.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, probably a 50% pressing and 50% raise type movements.

0:24:40.3 Mike Vacanti: Cool.

0:24:41.9 Jordan Syatt: What about you?

0:24:44.0 Mike Vacanti: Probably either 50/50 max, probably closer to one-third overhead pressing and two-thirds other movements. Just back to injury risk for myself personally and in general, really, I like going a little bit higher rep on the isolation movements to hit the shoulders compared to heavy compound overhead.

0:25:09.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I just, and this is a probably a good distinction between goals, I like the pressing because of how it impacts different aspects of my athletic performance. I’m not lateral raising for athletic performance. That’s like, I’m not doing lateral raise for jiu-jitsu performance or anything like that; whereas pressing, there’s definitely real needs for that and for a lot of those specific movements. Whereas if the goal is just pure hypertrophy or even just muscle endurance, then having more raises in there might be beneficial.

0:25:44.9 Mike Vacanti: Cool. Next question.

0:25:47.4 Jordan Syatt: All right. So I don’t know if you’re gonna wanna talk about this one. So someone said, how can women improve upper body strength? I find it so much harder than lower body and feel like I’m spinning my wheels.

0:26:02.8 Mike Vacanti: If you wanna talk about it, we can. I don’t know if I have enough context to give a good answer for this person.

0:26:09.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I just spoke about this with someone the other day. Oh, actually I spoke about this with the Inner Circle member the other day. The reality is like almost always, not every single time, but almost always, women are gonna have a much harder time building upper body strength than men. Women generally are much stronger with their lower body. It’s one of the reasons why, especially with things like hip thrust, we can see women hip thrusting 405 after not outrageously long doing hip thrust. They’re just generally stronger with their lower body. And obviously men are stronger with their lower body as well, but men have an easier time building upper body strength than women. It’s just biologically I think it’s generally easier proportions, all that stuff.

0:26:58.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. And that’s not an offensive thing to say. That’s just an objectively…

0:27:02.9 Jordan Syatt: It’s a fact.

0:27:08.0 Mike Vacanti: True scientific, biological thing to say. Yes. And no one should be offended by that fact.

0:27:09.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It’s not saying women are weak, it’s just saying that it’s gonna be harder for you to build upper body strength. Almost every single time. It’s why I think there are many men who the first time trying, they can do a chin up. And for women it usually takes a long time. I think it’s much more impressive when I see a woman doing a set of five chin ups than when I see a guy doing a set of five chin ups. When I see a woman…

0:27:35.1 Mike Vacanti: Of course.

0:27:35.8 Jordan Syatt: Doing a set of five chin ups, I’m like, “You put in fucking work.” There are some men who, a significant percentage of men, I think, who they could just walk up to a bar and do a chin up, five chin-ups without ever really having trained it before. Whereas you don’t get many women, if any, who can do a set of five chin-ups who’ve not deliberately been trying to do that for probably years. So the reality is like… The other aspect of this that, and this woman said she feels like she’s spinning her wheels, is it takes… It’s going to take an unbelievably long time, and the improvements will likely be marginal at best especially on a monthly or even every three month basis. You’re probably not gonna be like, “Oh my God, I gained 20 pounds on this upper on this row or on this press.” It’s probably gonna be like a month, two month, three months go by and you put on 2 1/2 pounds, maybe, something like that. And it also depends on the movement. I know a lot of people get upset when they’re like, “Oh, I don’t know why. I’ve been training for years and I’m still only lateral raising like 12 1/2 pounds.”

0:28:41.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s the lateral raise; even when you’re at your strongest ever is not gonna be a very high amount of weight. Versus something like a dumbbell row, you should be actively seeing more significant improvements on that. To feel like you’re spinning your wheels, I think it’s pretty normal, [chuckle] especially for a woman on an upper body lift. It doesn’t mean it’s not working.

0:29:08.7 Mike Vacanti: Because it sounds like this woman is comparing her upper body speed of progress to her lower body speed of progress, for a guy, for a girl, for anybody, if you’re putting the same amount of volume and intensity and effort and goal selection on upper body strength versus lower body strength, your lower body strength is gonna progress faster. And even more so with women. But for both, you can’t compare your bench press speed of progress to your deadlift speed of progress, because if you’re doing them both with equal intensity and volume and you have the same amount of experience on both, your deadlift progress is going to be faster than your bench press progress. And then you bring in what you just brought up, which is look at exercise selection. I’ve had people be like, “Yeah, I’m so weak, I can only chest-supported dumbbell rear delt flye, 15 pound dumbbells for 15 reps.

0:30:03.0 Mike Vacanti: And I look at their technique and it’s perfect, I’m like, “You’re not weak at all. We’re working a very small muscle group, very small relative to your other muscles, and we’re not using any other muscles to get the weight up. And you especially are not because you’re doing it with such dialed technique. 15 pounds is awesome on this movement.” We can’t just… And most listening to this know that we can’t just compare like, “Oh, my barbell back squat, I can do so much in my rear delt raise like I do so little,” it’s like, “No, those are comparing two completely different things,” and it makes sense that one is a fraction of the other.

0:30:40.5 Jordan Syatt: You know, dude, I wonder… I bet a fair amount of people listening to this might think that we’re dialed in with the analytics on the podcast, who’s listening? How many… I have no idea how many people are listening to this and I don’t know the demographics at all. I don’t think you do either. I would imagine there might be a fair few people who don’t know this type of stuff, or there are new coaches or are thinking about becoming coaches and hearing this might be like, “Oh, that makes total sense. I wasn’t aware of that,” but yeah, we don’t know the demographics of who’s listening.

0:31:14.3 Mike Vacanti: Good point. I had a woman who signed up for coaching about a week ago, week and a half, two weeks ago maybe, and she said, “By the way, I just found your ‘how to become a personal trainer’ podcast, and that is the best kept secret. I thought it was just for personal trainers, but started listening, and like, this is awesome.” [laughter] And so shout out, Heather, but yeah, it’s… When you say that it is, I think you’re right.

0:31:45.8 Jordan Syatt: All right. I’ll answer this one. I like this question. You’ll laugh. [chuckle] Someone said, “Why does jiu-jitsu give some people cauliflower ears?” So this is a… It’s a good question. Basically, if you’ve seen some fighters, if you’ve ever watched fighters, whether it’s a jiu-jitsu fighter or mixed martial art fighter or whatever, you’ve seen their ears, like, they get puffy, they get puffy and they look like cauliflower, like mushed cauliflower. [chuckle] It’s bad. It’s basically what’s going on is when you’re taking part in one of these types of sports, there’s a lot of contact often in the head, the ears will get smashed. So if the cartilage in the ear gets broken, then it will release fluid. And at first it’s unbelievably painful. I don’t have much on my right ear. I have a very small amount.

0:32:34.1 Jordan Syatt: The people watching the video pods can see just a little bit. It’s not much at all, but it’s unbelievably painful. And if you want, you can drain it. The issue is if you drain it, it’s probably just gonna keep coming back. So, long story short, it happens because of a severe contact. You get smashed in between someone’s head and your head or something like that. There’s a joke among some people in jiu-jitsu who say, like, “the only people who have it are people who’ve gotten smashed.” But some of the best fighters in the world have it. A lot of it also has to do with your ears, genetically your ears. I have harder ears, they’re more… I feel like they’re… I would only know this… I think only people who do these types of sports would know this. My ears are much harder. Whereas like a lot of people, if they have very soft, delicate ears, they’re more prone to getting it. So yeah, it’s just based on the contact of people smashing interior ear or something. But it’s super painful when it happens.

0:33:42.1 Mike Vacanti: And if you’re out and it’s 1:00 AM and you’re outside of a bar and you start talking trash with some guy and you notice that his ear looks like a piece of cauliflower… run.

0:33:53.0 Jordan Syatt: Or if you’re in the parking lot, someone takes your parking spot and you’re pissed, [laughter] and then you wanna make a big stink about it, and you walk up and you see they’ve got these big mushy cauliflower ears, just walk away. Just walk away.

0:34:11.2 Mike Vacanti: Just get out of there. Give them your parking spot. It’s okay.

0:34:14.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. There’s actually…

0:34:16.1 Mike Vacanti: It’s not worth it.

0:34:16.3 Jordan Syatt: And I cannot corroborate this, this is just what I’ve been told, but it makes sense to me that in Russia, there are some places where people where fighting is just very, very, very, very common. And I should say mixed martial arts in other cultures is huge, like Russia, for example, Japan, for example, like it’s… They’re the superstars. And we’re starting to see it more in the United States, but fighters in other cultures are the superstars of that nation. Japan, China, Russia, the cultures love fighting. And that’s where some of the greatest fight promotions have been born out of, like Pride. But in Russia specifically, I’ve heard that people will pay to have someone smash their ear, to hurt their ear to get cauliflower ear. And I’ve heard that the left ear, they charge more for the left ear. And the reason is because when you’re driving the left ear is what is seen out of the window. [laughter] And so if you want to look more intimidating, then they’d charge you more to do your left ear.

0:35:34.4 Mike Vacanti: That’s wild.

0:35:34.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

0:35:36.8 Mike Vacanti: And crazy that people pay for that service.

0:35:40.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It’s unbelievably painful. Let’s just smash your ear and then let it…

0:35:45.3 Mike Vacanti: It’s like the Synthol of cauliflower ear. [chuckle] It’s like none of the work that went into it, but listen…

0:35:52.9 Jordan Syatt: Correct. It’s exactly right.

0:35:54.6 Mike Vacanti: A similar looking result.

0:35:57.7 Jordan Syatt: Is three times a week enough to see strength improvements?

0:36:01.2 Mike Vacanti: Absolutely, it is.

0:36:04.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah. I think three times a week is plenty, and we have to differentiate between strength and other athletic qualities, whether it’s muscle hypertrophy or there are many other things that we could talk about. But three times a week, like strength. Can we just talk about this for a second? Strength is… I’m gonna say this and I’m deliberately choosing this word. Strength is easy to build, especially early on.

0:36:27.0 Mike Vacanti: Yep.

0:36:28.9 Jordan Syatt: Especially within the first year of training, strength is very… It’s so easy. It’s so easy to get stronger, especially in that first year of training. And I say easy, deliberately not simple, it’s literally easy because, number one, is you don’t need to train that often. You could do it three times a week, but even as an advanced lifter, you could do it three times a week and still get super strong. But also you don’t need to lift a massive percentage of your one-rep max in order to get stronger. As you get stronger and more advanced, you’re gonna need to lift closer to 70, 75, 80, 85% of your one-rep max.

0:37:12.9 Jordan Syatt: And so then, yeah, it’s gonna get more difficult, more challenging, it’s not gonna be as easy; but when you’re a beginner, you could lift 40%, 50% of your one-rep max and consistently get stronger from that. So, lifting 40% of your one-rep max, 50% of your one-rep max, is like it’s lifting nothing. It’s so easy to do that for 8, 10, 12 reps. So yeah, it’s three times a week is plenty for anyone, regardless of where you are on the spectrum of strength, but especially in that first year, getting stronger is literally easy.

0:37:50.4 Mike Vacanti: And we’re not discounting like you need to be consistent, you need to like…

0:37:57.9 Jordan Syatt: Right, obviously, yeah.

0:37:58.0 Mike Vacanti: But relative to what most people think they need to do to get stronger, you’re absolutely right, and you make a great point about the relative intensity needed, which is very low to make strength gains as a beginner. Yeah, 3x a week is plenty to make strength gains. 3x a week is a decent amount to make other gains too, you can make solid muscle gain progress, you can… Especially like 3x a week for someone who doesn’t want to be training four or five times a week and wants to lose fat and retain muscle in the process and retain, maybe build a little bit of strength early in the deficit or retain strength, 3x week, is a great split or a great frequency. I think a lot of people end up wanting to train higher frequency and higher volume, and they aren’t bringing enough absolute or relative intensity to their workouts, meaning they aren’t training close enough in poundage to their one-rep max, and on their accessory work when the absolute intensity is very low, they’re not bringing those sets anywhere near failure.

0:39:10.8 Mike Vacanti: So their total intensity is very low, and they’re saying, “I feel like I’m not getting a lot out of this workout. I feel like this isn’t doing anything. I feel like I could be doing more.” I actually had a woman say something similar to this, and so I had her send me a couple of technique videos ’cause I wanted to see how close to failure she was getting, and she actually was bringing a lot of intensity to those sets. And so I was like, “Oh, okay, cool, we can add a little bit of volume here,” but for most people who say this, there isn’t enough intensity, they’re not lifting heavy enough or hard enough, and you would actually benefit from doing fewer total sets and as a result potentially lower frequency and training harder during those working sets.

0:39:58.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, so true. I think three times a week is plenty for almost every goal, but I just like training more often. It’s getting out of the apartment, being in the gym, having that time to yourself, I like how I feel when I’m working out, when I’m done working out. It’s not necessarily because I think it’s better from a results perspective, especially when we’re talking about strength or hypertrophy or anything like that, I literally just think it’s fun, I enjoy it. It’s a great use of my time. And what would I be doing with that time otherwise? Maybe when I was in the grinding stage of my business, train less to work more, but at this point in my life, it’s like, what? My daughter is asleep, my wife is getting ready, whatever, it’s like, “Cool, I’ll go workout.” I enjoy it.

0:40:52.6 Mike Vacanti: And you’re also doing daily cardio and 5x a week jiu-jitsu. So if you were lifting three days a week, you’re doing a lot of total time in the gym.

0:41:05.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah.

0:41:08.1 Mike Vacanti: But if your sole goal was strength and muscle gain and you really wanted to spend a lot of time in the gym and you weren’t doing any sports or anything else, then yeah, bumping frequency can make sense, but yeah, three-day a week training has a lot of places where it makes sense from a program design perspective.

0:41:26.3 Jordan Syatt: Alright, here’s another one. I don’t know if you’re gonna like this one. But it’s another exercise one.

0:41:32.0 Mike Vacanti: You lead every Q&A of these with you either, “I think you’re gonna like this one” or “I don’t know if you’re gonna like this one.” [laughter]

0:41:40.6 Jordan Syatt: I think this is a good one. I’m starting to like all the exercise questions that we can sort of break down the exercise and the benefits and…

0:41:47.8 Mike Vacanti: As long as this isn’t about a Turkish Get-Up, I’m okay with it.

0:41:51.3 Jordan Syatt: Well, do you wanna talk about Turkish Get-Ups and how much you hate them?

0:41:53.9 Mike Vacanti: No, we’ve talked about that before, and I don’t actually… I don’t objectively hate them, I just hate them because I’m not gonna let… I don’t care what studies come out, I don’t care what Krieger or Schoenfeld or any of these guys say, deep in my core, the bro in me, the Arnold, Olympia era will never cross a certain line no matter what all the science in the world says, just because it’s part of my core and my identity.

0:42:20.8 Jordan Syatt: Just ’cause it’s annoying to do?

0:42:22.5 Mike Vacanti: No, it’s not even that it’s annoying, it’s just like… Just ’cause it’s nerdy to do, I’m just not gonna do a Turkish Get-Up or program it ever. Now, what was the actual question you’re gonna ask. We’ve already talked about Turkish Get-Ups. I don’t wanna go in depth on Turkish Get-Ups, I don’t wanna hear you talk about the benefits of Turkish get-ups, that’s for sure.

0:42:41.6 Jordan Syatt: I wasn’t gonna say the benefit of them.

0:42:42.5 Mike Vacanti: Alright, cool.

0:42:42.8 Jordan Syatt: I wasn’t gonna say that… I was gonna say that it’s really annoying to teach it.

0:42:45.5 Mike Vacanti: “Hey kid, Hey kid, you’ll make a great waiter one day.”

0:42:51.1 Jordan Syatt: That was so funny. I was doing Turkish Get-Ups in Boston. When was it? Like a year and a half ago, it was in August of 2021, and I was doing Turkish Get-Ups and this guy, it looks like he literally just got off work, as a construction worker, he was wearing his Timberland boots, and I don’t know if I put this on in my head and my memory of this that I just dressed up, or if he actually did have the construction vest to make sure you have all the construction vest that they wear, I think he was still wearing that. And I’m doing Turkish Get-Ups and he just walks by me, he’s like, “You’ll make a great waiter one day, kid.” [laughter] That was so funny. Alright, alright, here’s the question. Is there any difference between walking lunges versus doing them in place? [chuckle]

0:43:44.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yes, there is. One of them you’re walking and the other one…

0:43:50.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You bet your ass there is a difference. One of them you’re walking and one of them you’re doing them in place, now what about different reasoning for…

0:43:56.2 Mike Vacanti: You can lead this one.

0:43:58.0 Jordan Syatt: You want me to do this one?

0:44:00.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, you can lead on this one.

0:44:01.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, there’s definitely a difference. And there’s pros and cons to both. Generally speaking, I would say doing walking lunges is a more advanced progression. Doing them in place, we could call them static lunges or even let’s say something like a reverse lunge where you’re sort of technically in place, you’re not walking forward or backward, you’re just staying in the same place and doing reverse lunge.

0:44:26.7 Jordan Syatt: That’s an easier regression and walking is a more advanced progression. Now, the thing about this is, it’s just because it’s an easier regression does not mean that it’s bad or worse or that you should stop doing it once you reach a certain level, because a simple way to make an in-place lunge, make it more difficult is just to lift more weight, progress with that weight or progress with your range of motion, progress with your technique, progress at the time under tension, any of that stuff. But when I’m talking about a more advanced progression, I’m specifically saying the movement skill required to do it, it is more difficult and taxing from a coordination, proprioception, perceptual awareness, kinesthetic awareness, it is more difficult to do a walking lunge than it is to do an in-place lunge, not to mention, there is a little bit more stress on the joints and tendons when you’re doing a walking lunge because you have to decelerate and then re-accelerate and absorbing the force.

0:45:33.4 Jordan Syatt: There’s a lot more going on. So I’m not gonna give someone new to the gym a walking lunge, I will 10 times out of 10, 100 times, 100% of the time, start off with an in-place lunge, and then throughout our time working together progress to walking lunges. And there are some people who I will never give a walking lunge to, I will never give a walking lunge to some people. For example, if I have someone with a consistent knee pain, I’m not giving them a walking lunge until the knee pain is gone, and if the knee pain is never gone, then I’m not gonna give them a walking lunge, it’s just it’s not worth the risk. I will not give someone who’s severely overweight a walking lunge. Absolutely not.

0:46:19.0 Jordan Syatt: They could get the best they can be amazing at in-place lunges, and every single variation forward in-place lunge, reverse lunges, static lunges, Bulgarians, they could be great in all of those, I’m still not gonna give them a forward lunge because the risk is too high. And for that person, I would say, “If you want to progress to a walking forward lunge, then you need to earn the right through getting to a safer body weight, because I’m not willing to risk this. And if you wanna do it on your own, go for it, but I’m not programming it for you ’cause I think it’s too dangerous.” So yeah, the stress, the anterior shearing stress that’s put on the front of the knee, especially as you’re doing a walking forward lunge requires more strength, more coordination, more ability to decelerate appropriately. So yeah, they’re big differences, and it’s just it’s a more advanced progression to walk.

0:47:16.1 Mike Vacanti: Mic drop. Putting on a lunge seminar here on the how to become a personal trainer podcast.

0:47:20.7 Jordan Syatt: Clips nation, baby.

0:47:24.0 Mike Vacanti: I don’t think I have anything to add to that. I agree. One thing that I think about when programming various types of lunges, in addition to level of difficulty, are muscle groups most highly targeted, and those differ based on, are you in a lateral lunge, or a reverse lunge, a forward lunge, a walking lunge, a static lunge? And as well as what kind of equipment are we using? And how are we loading it? Are you holding dumbbells in each hand? Do you have a goblet hold with the dumbbell? Are you barbell back-loaded? Are you barbell front-loaded?

0:48:04.4 Mike Vacanti: And so, the further forward you’re leaning your upper body and the further forward the weight position is, the more you’re targeting your glute relative to your quads, and the more… The higher up the weight is, like a front-loaded, barbell front-loaded, alternating forward lunge, you’re crushing your quads, where as like you got the dumbbells by your side and you’re doing a reverse lunge, you’re heating more glute relative to quad. So that’s something I think about in terms of programming lunges, but I completely agree for 99% of our clients, what matters most is not creating an injury or not re-aggravating a previous injury or just not creating real knee pain and joint pain during the movement, and so programming something that they can do without pain is what’s most important.

0:49:01.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Mike, what’s the email address for our business?

0:49:06.2 Mike Vacanti: info@fitnessbusinessmentorship.com.

0:49:11.9 Jordan Syatt: If you have any specific questions that you want us to answer, email that email, but also if you have any specific exercises you want us to review in this fashion, just send us an email and we’ll do that.

0:49:25.0 Mike Vacanti: I love it.

0:49:29.8 Jordan Syatt: Alright, here’s a question. Mike, what is the favorite… What is your favorite thing that you did for you in 2022?

0:49:38.9 Mike Vacanti: My favorite thing I did for me?

0:49:42.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. What was your favorite thing…

0:49:43.3 Mike Vacanti: Are you trying to get a clip out of me, or did someone ask you this and you just changed it to my name, or what’s…

0:49:47.5 Jordan Syatt: No, someone asked me this. Boy-mums asked, “What’s your favorite thing you did for you last year?”

0:49:52.2 Mike Vacanti: Boy-mums.

0:49:53.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, Boy-mummins.

0:49:57.6 Mike Vacanti: My favorite thing I did for me.

0:50:01.1 Jordan Syatt: I’m not trying to get a clip out of you, I’m interested.

0:50:03.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I don’t think… Okay, good. I don’t think this would be a great clip. What did I do for me in 2022? So, what happened in 2022?

0:50:14.0 Jordan Syatt: “You trying to get a fucking clip out of me?” [laughter]

0:50:19.7 Mike Vacanti: What did I do for me in 2022 that was my favorite thing? I’m such an ISTJ, I’m just like, well, I got adequate sleep in a dark room and it was cold and the right temperature, and that was really good for my health, and I did that for me. I was relatively consistent with my strength training. I could have eaten more micronutrient dense foods, but I did really solid. What did I do for me? Yeah, I don’t have a good answer. Jord, how have you been using fasting recently for yourself, if at all? [laughter] “Are you building… Or is this a subject change?” This is a subject change, because I’m fasted right now and beginning to need some nutrition and some sustenance. I’ve been awake for six, seven hours, I don’t really fast these days, and I’m just… my mouth’s watering at the thought of the Chipotle I’m about to go get after this. But, have you been using fasting at all for yourself? And if so, how?

0:51:23.1 Jordan Syatt: I do, but I don’t do it deliberately. I’m just, I’m not hungry in the morning, and I also… So there’s a couple of things. Number one is, I’m not hungry in the morning. Number two, and this is probably the most important, is I usually do jiu-jitsu around 10 or 11 AM. It’s one of those two times. And I do not like to eat before I do jiu-jitsu. It has taken me several years of doing jiu-jitsu to really, really internalize the fact that I never am happy if I eat before I do jiu-jitsu. Which makes sense. I’m having someone smashing me from on top into my stomach. I remember one time I had meatballs before jiu-jitsu, and it was the worst day of my life.

0:52:06.1 Jordan Syatt: So I don’t eat before I do jiu-jitsu deliberately. So, because jiu-jitsu is at 10 or 11 AM, I usually don’t have my first meal until 12:30 or 1, and I don’t even… It’s funny like I don’t even consider that fasting, even though I know it is, and I know that’s a form of a 16 and 8 or a 14 and 14, and 10, whatever it is. See that math right there? Is like, “Oh, fuck!” [laughter] I was really feeling the pressure, I was like, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” But I don’t even really consider it fasting just because at this point I’m not hungry in the morning and I don’t wanna eat before jiu-jitsu, and I’m not doing it for any other reason than just because I don’t want to eat before jiu-jitsu. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

0:52:56.4 Mike Vacanti: Cool. Remember a few weeks back when I sent you the picture of the Purple Wraath, the BCAA supplement that has beta-alanine in it that I found in my supplement cupboard, and I just woke up one day kinda angry and just for old time’s sake I was like, “We’re gonna do a fasted lift,” and threw a scoop of the grape Purple Wraath in with some pre-workout, and it was the worst lift of maybe the last 7-9 years that I’ve ever had.

0:53:23.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man.

0:53:24.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:53:25.3 Jordan Syatt: Do you think… Was it ’cause you were fasted, do you think?

0:53:26.5 Mike Vacanti: I do. I think that had a lot to do with it.

0:53:28.4 Jordan Syatt: What time was the workout?

0:53:31.9 Mike Vacanti: It was earlier in the morning, my preference is in the 9 AM to noon range, and this was probably closer to 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, but I had had a cup of coffee, I was awake, I’d done some emails and did that fasted lift and I didn’t even get through it. Yeah.

0:53:47.7 Jordan Syatt: I wonder if the Purple Wraath was still good how many years had that been in your cupboard?

0:53:51.2 Mike Vacanti: That’s a great question. [chuckle] I don’t know. I’m actually gonna check that. It might have been expired.

0:53:55.9 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I bet that thing was expired 12 years ago. What year did you get the Purple Wraath, 2008?

0:54:02.5 Mike Vacanti: No. Well, no, no, not in college, probably 2010 or ’11, Martin Berkhan recommended Purple Wraath, and I got it.

0:54:12.8 Jordan Syatt: That thing was not good.

0:54:15.6 Mike Vacanti: No, I don’t know, but I’d bought it many times, because Purple Wraath with a scoop of grape pre-workout was my pre-workout for like 2013, 2014, 2015 or at least 2014. So yeah, maybe it was nine years old, I’ll have to look into that, that could have been it. [laughter] But I feel so good training on a little bit of food rather than fasted, sample size is low. I might have to get the…

0:54:42.2 Jordan Syatt: It was nine years old.

0:54:44.6 Mike Vacanti: I might have to give the fasted lift another go. But I’m such a breakfast guy these days, between one and three hours after waking and once in a blue moon, like today, if I’m really doing things and have a decent amount of caffeine, I can get away with not eating for the first six, seven hours of my day, but beyond that, yeah.

0:55:04.1 Jordan Syatt: What’s your go-to breakfast?

0:55:07.0 Mike Vacanti: A scoop of protein powder, which is now half Legion, half Gold Standard Whey, which is a real like… You wanna dial in your personal finance, that’s with creatine in there, and 5 ounces of cold water.

0:55:20.7 Jordan Syatt: You really mix them half and half?

0:55:21.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:55:23.3 Jordan Syatt: You just don’t do like one one day and then one scoop the other… Like you mix them?

0:55:27.0 Mike Vacanti: It’s delicious. Coco Cereal Legion with Double Rich Chocolate ON with 3-5 grams of creatine monohydrate is absolutely delicious and 5 ounces of cold water, and then I have one piece of red with a little bit of almond butter on it.

0:55:43.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, that’s your breakfast?

0:55:44.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, on training days.

0:55:48.0 Jordan Syatt: One piece of bread with almond butter and then one scoop of protein in milk or in water?

0:55:53.6 Mike Vacanti: In water. All I’m looking for is 25-30 grams of protein and 25-plus grams of carbs because I’m gonna be lifting an hour after that.

0:56:03.2 Jordan Syatt: And what about… Do you measure the almond butter that you put on the bread?

0:56:08.8 Mike Vacanti: No, I don’t measure it. And it’s barely any. It’s probably less than 5 grams of fat worth of almond butter.

0:56:16.1 Jordan Syatt: Shut up. Less than 5 grams of fat?

0:56:20.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, like a third of the serving size. It’s very little.

0:56:23.7 Jordan Syatt: This is like the size of a ball point pen.

0:56:26.6 Mike Vacanti: That’s not true. It’s a little bigger than that, but yeah, it’s very little. [laughter] I’m not… It’s not for enjoyment, Jordan, eat the cardboard, I do it because if I wanted to glob on 30 grams of fat, one, I don’t have the fat later in the day, two, it’s slowing the digestion of everything, so I’m gonna have a little more in me while I’m trying to get my lift in. 5 grams of fat worth of almond butter, try it, it’ll change your life.

0:56:51.5 Jordan Syatt: I need to see a video. That should be your first piece of Instagram content back.

0:56:56.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m going to. I’m gonna make that. I’ll be like hey.

0:57:00.0 Jordan Syatt: Is you showing, “Get ready with me. He’s my [laughter] morning breakfast. This is an appropriate amount of almond butter to put on your bread. Alright, everybody?”

0:57:09.2 Mike Vacanti: “Five grams worth. It tastes dry, doesn’t taste good. Enjoy.”

0:57:14.3 Jordan Syatt: Eat the paper, alright?

0:57:14.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, you have more fats for later in the day, there’s more oil in that dinner than you think there is, so it offsets anyway, this is the way.

0:57:23.9 Jordan Syatt: That’s so funny.

0:57:25.3 Mike Vacanti: This was a fun podcast, I enjoyed this.

0:57:28.2 Jordan Syatt: Oh, we’re done? Alright.

0:57:29.7 Mike Vacanti: It’s an hour of the Vikings play in eight minutes, [laughter] and this has just worked out seamlessly and phenomenally. My day and my schedule is really working out for me. Thank you very much for listening. We’ll be back next week. Weekly uploads 2023, how to become a personal trainer podcast. I hope you have a great day, a great week, and we will see you soon.

0:57:48.5 Jordan Syatt: Talk to you soon.