Episode 125: The Ultimate Power Breakfast

0:00:11.8 Mike Vacanti: Hello, Jordan.

0:00:12.6 Jordan Syatt: What’s up, Michael?

0:00:13.5 Mike Vacanti: Tell me about your workouts.

0:00:14.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh man, workouts are going well. Well, I got a broken rib, fractured rib. So I’m taking some time away from Jujutsu, hopefully no more than two weeks. I was stupid with it. It was really hurting, and then I just kept training, kept training, and then my coach got me in this figure-four body lock. He basically just compressed my ribs and I think that might have been what did it. Until, went to the doctor, went to the ER and they were like, “Yeah, you got a broken rib.” I was like, “Okay.” So I’m gonna take a few weeks off. And just hitting strength training hard in the mean time. And I’m really trying to play with what’s the best strength training routine for Jiu-Jitsu specifically. There’s, I love the push-pull-legs, I love that one, but the one thing I’ve noticed is this, ’cause I really try my best to keep my cardio up. And so in order… Like cardio, unfortunately, is one of those things where you can’t just do more high-intensity sprints and improve your cardio. They’re a huge cliff in terms of how much you can do that, and then the point of diminishing returns is very, very quick, and it doesn’t lead to a significantly better gas tank the more you do it.

0:01:33.5 Jordan Syatt: The gas tank is really gonna come more from the Zone 2 work, which is by nature, longer duration. You have to spend more time doing it. And so after 45 minutes, 60 minutes Zone 2 several times a week, is like, man, adding another lifting on top of it, plus Jiu-Jitsu on top of that, it’s asking to spend three-plus hours in the gym on a pretty frequent basis. And so I’m trying to figure out what’s a great strength training routine that requires the least amount of time actually strength training, but will also carry over to Jiu-Jitsu. So I just recently wrote myself a new program. It’s a complete bro body part split, 100%. And basically the way I figured, I was like, listen, rather than trying to do upper lower, which I think is not really the best idea for Jiu-Jitsu, especially if you’re trying to increase your cardio. If you’re just trying to do strength, I think upper lower or push-pull legs would be great. But if you’re also, if you’re concurrently trying to do both cardio and strength, I actually think a body part split might be the better choice. We’ll see how this…

0:02:39.1 Mike Vacanti: Because they’re shorter workouts?

0:02:40.8 Jordan Syatt: Shorter workouts, yeah. I can do something every day. And they’re relatively short. I can do something every day and I still have significant, or ideally, I’ll have significant strength improvements. So I’m literally splitting it up, Monday biceps, Tuesday triceps, Wednesday legs, Thursday upper back or Thursday back, Friday shoulders, Saturday just like accessory work, whether it’s shrugs. Remember those heavy thoracic extensions you saw me doing with the kettlebell, iron neck work, bunch of just straight up one body part a day, that’s it. And it takes 25 to 35 minutes ’cause I’m trying to have a lot of intensity within those sets, but it’s three to four exercises a day, that’s it. And then I get my cardio in.

0:03:25.5 Mike Vacanti: I like it. I like it. I thought you were gonna say that you were doing a… I didn’t realize when you told me that that you designed your own program. That makes a lot more sense.

0:03:33.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m doing my own strength.

0:03:35.8 Mike Vacanti: Sick. When do you start it?

0:03:37.9 Jordan Syatt: Yesterday is I technically started it, but the day before is when I like, yesterday, is I wrote the whole thing up, but the day before I had the idea, I began the day before, then I mapped the whole program out, and I technically started it yesterday. So I’m excited to see how it goes. I just think it’s like, this is why I think it’s so important for people to try the activities and the sports that they’re programming for, and also try the workouts that they’re writing. Because it’s one thing to have theoretical knowledge, or even, not even theoretical, just to have knowledge of the sport and the demand of the sport, it’s one thing to know it by looking at it and watching it and studying, it’s another thing to actually do it and take part in it and feel it. And I’ve tried so many different types of workout programs in relation to Jiu-Jitsu, and it’s very difficult to balance the stressors of Jiu-Jitsu along with the stressors of strength training, along with the stressors of cardio and the time investment. So I’m trying to figure out what is the fucking best, and I’m hoping this is leading me along that path.

0:04:43.0 Mike Vacanti: When you talk about cardio being… Like there’s a point of diminishing returns with high-intensity cardio to increase your gas tank. Do you… Your cardio is in peak condition right now, no?

0:04:57.2 Jordan Syatt: It’s the best it’s ever been, that’s for sure.

0:04:58.9 Mike Vacanti: Is cardio a limiting factor in your Jiu-Jitsu game?

0:05:01.8 Jordan Syatt: As of right now, no, it’s not a limiting factor in my Jiu-Jitsu game. It’s not. I think it also depends who I’m going against. If I’m going against someone in my age group and in my technical level, then cardio is absolutely not the limiting factor at all, especially in my age group, which is funny. I’m in Masters. Once you hit 30, you’re in Masters in Jiu-Jitsu. Which I think a lot of people, I know for me, when I heard Masters started at 30, I was like, “Really? I thought Masters would be at 40 or 50.” But there’s an unbelievable difference between a 20-year-old and a 30-year-old or a 22-year-old and a 35, it’s dramatic, and it really shows more than I ever thought in Jiu-Jitsu. It doesn’t show that much in something like power lifting, and in fact, I think in power lifting, the 35-year-old will probably have an advantage over the 20-year-old.

0:05:52.6 Jordan Syatt: Just like you have that, you generally will have more time under the bar, you’ll have more experience. But there’s something with Jiu-Jitsu, the combination of cardio, flexibility and mobility, dexterity, the skill acquisition, it’s the coordination side of it, so much of it is skill-based, not just strength-based, which I think it gives the young lions more of an advantage over the older ones. And so again, someone my age, my technical level, no, cardio is absolutely not my limiting factor, but if I’m going against a 22-year-old kid who is technically superior than me, yeah, cardio is gonna screw me over, for sure, absolutely.

0:06:32.8 Mike Vacanti: There’s also some interesting, like someone might hear that and be like, “Jordan is only doing 25 to 35 minutes of lower body strength training per week?” But growing your legs is actually detrimental to your Jiu-Jitsu game, so you don’t want quad and hamstring hypertrophy.

0:06:53.2 Jordan Syatt: Not at all. And in addition to that, I have the however many years of high-level power lifting under my belt, no pun intended, where it’s like, I have built up so much strength in my legs, not hypertrophy, but so much strength and so much like, I have my neuromuscular ability to generate force with my legs is much greater than someone who has never strength trained before. So this is where my mind goes, all right, well, if I have a Jiu-Jitsu athlete who’s never strength trained before, I’m probably not gonna have them spending as much time doing cardio as I am. I’m gonna have that person probably spend a little bit more time lifting weights, getting a little bit stronger, building more muscle, because they don’t have the backlog of years of strength training experience and the actual foundation of strength that I have. So it is a little bit different scenario.

0:07:43.1 Mike Vacanti: Well, I’m excited to hear about the updates of the strength training program over the coming weeks and months. Do you have any idea how long you’re gonna run it?

0:07:50.6 Jordan Syatt: I would like to run it for months before I really give much feedback. I’d like to try at least three months. It sucks. Like I was planning on competing in July, my first time in Purple Belt, but I don’t think I’m gonna do that at this point just because the rib, it’s just, I don’t know if it’ll be enough time to recover. We’ll see. I might, but I’d like to run it long enough and then compete and see how things feel.

0:08:12.5 Mike Vacanti: Cool.

0:08:13.4 Jordan Syatt: How’s your training going?

0:08:14.6 Mike Vacanti: Great. It’s going good, man.

0:08:17.3 Jordan Syatt: Nice. Good talk. [chuckle]

0:08:19.8 Mike Vacanti: What do you wanna know?

[laughter]

0:08:22.1 Jordan Syatt: What’s going on? How are you feeling? Stronger? You feeling like you enjoying it?

0:08:26.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, both, feeling stronger and enjoying it.

0:08:29.8 Jordan Syatt: Nice. What’s your favorite day on this new program?

0:08:35.8 Mike Vacanti: Ooh. Probably the squat and bench day. There’s a squat and bench day, and then there’s a deadlift and… I don’t have it around here. Not… There’s a higher rep day that starts with like dumbbell walking lunges for 10, and there’s nothing below 10 in the entire workout, and that one’s brutal. So yeah. Yeah, it’s good.

0:09:03.6 Jordan Syatt: Nice, man.

0:09:04.7 Mike Vacanti: Oh, did we talk about this on the podcast? You sent me the most offensive text message that anyone has ever sent me in my life.

0:09:14.6 Jordan Syatt: [chuckle] No, we didn’t talk about this, but I know what you’re talking about.

0:09:15.9 Mike Vacanti: Oh my gosh. So we know Jordan’s on a fiber journey from last week. He’s going for a gram per pound of lean mass, at least at minimum, goal body weight, one could say. And so I told him, “Hey, just want you to… ” And you felt a little, I don’t know if effeminate is the right word, but the fact that you were on a fiber journey, you were like, and I said, “Hey, I just want you to know,” this is a few days later, texted you, “I’m also on a journey similar to your fiber”. And you were like, “Are you on a fiber journey too?” I said, “No, I’m not on a fiber journey”. He said, “What kinda journey are you on?” “I’m on a hip thrust journey, a barbell, hip thrust journey.” And I think you like rolled your eyes or something and one of your first replies was… I’m gonna read it.

0:10:05.8 Jordan Syatt: I know exactly what I said. Yeah, read it out loud, this will be good.

0:10:08.8 Mike Vacanti: First you sent me a Michael Scott meme from the most overrated show of all time, which is a different discussion. “Why are you the way you are?”

0:10:13.9 Jordan Syatt: No, wrong.

0:10:15.8 Mike Vacanti: And then you said…

0:10:16.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s… Yeah, you said, “I’m on a hip thrust journey”. And I said, “Why are you the way that you are?” [laughter] I forgot I said that. That was funny.

0:10:24.7 Mike Vacanti: That wasn’t funny. “Are you hip thrusting more than 135 pounds?” And I didn’t even understand the question.

[laughter]

0:10:36.8 Mike Vacanti: First of all, first of all, it’s technically very difficult to hip thrust less than 135 pounds because the setup is so difficult. I mean, unless you have big plates, right? If you have bumper plates, then you, yeah, then you can roll it onto yourself, fine with less than 135. But in my gym and in a lot of gyms, you need 135 pounds just to get your setup, unless you have a coach or you have your training partner or someone to put it on you. So that’s one. Two, like, I can’t even, “Hey, Jordan, oh, you’re on a bicep curl journey. Are you curling 12 and a halfs or less?” Like I don’t even… I couldn’t tell if it was a joke, if you were trying to be offensive, I had no idea. And then when I talked to you, you were like, “Oh, yeah, well, hip thrusting anything over 135 is just not fun at all.” Which is just wrong. But anyway, highly offensive comment.

0:11:36.1 Jordan Syatt: The reason I said it is because, one of the main reasons I hate the hip… There are two main reasons, the barbell hip thrust, not a machine hip thrust, first thing I hate the barbell hip thrust is because over 135 just starts getting annoying as you put all the weights on.

0:11:49.0 Mike Vacanti: Same as a deadlift. I’ve always…

0:11:49.7 Jordan Syatt: It just gets annoying.

0:11:50.9 Mike Vacanti: No, no different than a deadlift.

0:11:53.1 Jordan Syatt: There’s no deadlifts in my program, bro. I agree. Second…

0:11:55.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m not talking about your program. I’m talking… Like that’s not a reason to hate the hip thrust, but then not hate all other similar moves.

0:12:02.2 Jordan Syatt: Well, the second reason it will then lead into it. The second reason is, anything, so as it starts to get heavy, it’s just super freaking uncomfortable to have on top of you.

0:12:12.3 Mike Vacanti: I’ll… Next time we’re in person, I’ll give you some, I’ll give you some tips.

0:12:16.4 Jordan Syatt: Thank you. I appreciate the tips, the tips and tricks and hacks for the barbell hip thrust. [laughter]

0:12:21.9 Mike Vacanti: I got you. No problem at all.

0:12:24.3 Jordan Syatt: How was Memorial Day, bro?

0:12:25.6 Mike Vacanti: It was good. Good. Good family time. Little pool action.

0:12:29.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh, nice.

0:12:30.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. How about you?

0:12:31.4 Jordan Syatt: It was good. It was good. Went to a little park, hung out. Yeah, man, everything’s going well. Good weather in Texas. Getting some UV.

0:12:40.4 Mike Vacanti: The sun is the best.

0:12:41.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh man. Sun and then grounding barefoot on the grass, man. That’s one thing I’m excited for, to not live in an apartment anymore. Just have a nice little plot of land that I can just walk on in the grass and take my shoes off, just feel better, like truly feel better doing that.

0:13:00.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. There’s not enough of that today. Let’s rip a Q&A. People know our thoughts on sunlight and grounding, and if they don’t, they got a lot of pods to listen to.

0:13:08.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, you know what? I have a question for everyone who’s listening, could you do us a favor and shoot us a message either on email, what’s the email, Mike?

0:13:18.1 Mike Vacanti: Info@fitnessbusinessmentorship.com.

0:13:21.8 Jordan Syatt: So either email or in our DMs on Instagram @personaltrainerpodcast. If you could just let us know what you’re more interested in, in terms of business content or fitness content. And don’t just say both. So like, if you are more interested in one, be like, “I’d prefer like more business, less fitness, or more fitness, less business,” whatever it is. Or just us shooting the shit, shit-talking each other, whatever it is. Like what… Just let us know stuff that you’re interested in learning about, because sometimes we feel like we’re operating blind. So just give us some insight into what you’re more interested in.

0:14:04.5 Mike Vacanti: I like that. That’s a good call, Jordan.

0:14:06.8 Jordan Syatt: Okay. This one you’re gonna like, and you’re not only gonna like the question, you’re gonna like how this question was phrased.

0:14:11.8 Mike Vacanti: I love that.

0:14:12.9 Jordan Syatt: All right. @cshandley said, “I need a powerful breakfast to start the day. Any recommendations?” A powerful breakfast. I love that word choice. He wants a powerful breakfast. Michael, what’s a powerful breakfast for this man?

0:14:30.9 Mike Vacanti: Well, it depends what he’s trying to do, right?

0:14:33.1 Jordan Syatt: Get more power.

0:14:34.4 Mike Vacanti: Physical power, mental power?

0:14:37.7 Jordan Syatt: Just all of it. Just do an all-encompassing power breakfast.

0:14:41.2 Mike Vacanti: Is he recomping, is he maintaining? Is he trying to make gains? Is he trying to lose fat?

0:14:45.5 Jordan Syatt: Bro, I don’t fucking know. This is in a Q&A box on my Instagram, so I just, whatever you think is a powerful breakfast for whatever people need.

0:14:52.8 Mike Vacanti: You can’t… But…

0:14:53.6 Jordan Syatt: You give your…

0:14:54.7 Mike Vacanti: Hey, how many…

0:14:55.0 Jordan Syatt: Dude, that’s the question. I don’t know. You want me to fucking message him and be like, “I need more context, bro.” [chuckle]

0:15:00.7 Mike Vacanti: Let’s make something up, so that we can actually give a good answer.

0:15:03.0 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Cool. All right, you start.

0:15:07.2 Mike Vacanti: A powerful breakfast. I mean, it’s like asking… [chuckle] All right, here’s the first place my mind goes that might be reasonably helpful. One of the things that most people struggle with, whether they’re losing fat or building muscle, is getting enough protein in. And the standard American breakfast of like cereal or like toast with jam or like a toaster strudel or waffles or something along those lines…

0:15:33.1 Jordan Syatt: Toaster strudel. [chuckle]

0:15:35.3 Mike Vacanti: Completely… [chuckle]

0:15:35.9 Jordan Syatt: Not a powerful breakfast. [laughter]

0:15:36.8 Mike Vacanti: With an orange juice and a toaster strudel with a little extra icing, like that’s a…

[laughter]

0:15:42.0 Jordan Syatt: My ribs are hurting from laughing. Yeah. Toaster strudel is not a powerful breakfast. [laughter]

0:15:48.6 Mike Vacanti: So get some protein in your breakfast, mostly because it’s gonna help you, well, for a few reasons, it’s gonna… Getting protein in your breakfast is gonna help you get closer to your protein target for the day. You’re gonna increase the amount of muscle protein synthesis rather than having a no protein meal to start the day, which is gonna help, whether you’re in a surplus or a deficit. Eating protein early in the morning is gonna help regulate your hunger and is gonna help keep you full longer than having a carb only or a carb plus fat breakfast. Now I’ll just go, I’ll just start throwing out ideas. Eggs plus fruit is a good one. And you can cook eggs in a lot of different ways.

0:16:29.4 Jordan Syatt: Eggs are a power food. Yeah. Eggs are powerful. [chuckle]

0:16:32.9 Mike Vacanti: A super food, one might say.

0:16:34.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, powerful, super. They’re even more, they’re like a power, super food. It’s not like, I… Eggs were gonna be my first one. That’s… I agree completely.

0:16:41.6 Mike Vacanti: So I have three breakfasts for myself.

0:16:43.8 Jordan Syatt: Are they powerful breakfasts?

0:16:45.8 Mike Vacanti: One of them I would argue is not very powerful, but it’s because I’m having it 45 to 60 minutes before training, so I don’t want a powerful breakfast. I just want like a mediocre breakfast. So we’ll go worst to best.

0:17:00.6 Jordan Syatt: We’re gonna title this one, A Powerful Breakfast. [laughter]

0:17:01.9 Mike Vacanti: I love that, it’s a great title. 25 grams of Whey Protein plus Creatine and…

0:17:12.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh, that’s super powerful.

0:17:14.1 Mike Vacanti: Just… No, it’s not that powerful. And then just one piece of bread with like a third of a serving of nut butter on there.

0:17:22.8 Jordan Syatt: Whew. I think that’s a powerful breakfast. I mean, you add Creatine into any meal and it’s powerful. Plus the nut butter, and the 25 gram protein, that’s a power breakfast.

0:17:32.2 Mike Vacanti: So that’s my pre-workout training day. Just get some food in me and then have my pre-workout, and then have a meal post-workout. On rest days, three to four whole eggs, or if you’re in a deficit, like…

0:17:48.6 Jordan Syatt: How do you cook ’em? This is an important part of the power egg, how is it cooked?

0:17:53.8 Mike Vacanti: If my wife’s cooking them, she makes this delicious egg scramble with spinach and onion and chicken sausage and all these different things. And sometimes they’ll get wrapped up in a tortilla or it’s served in different ways. I go over medium myself. I’m a little bit more of a simpleton, so put ’em on there on like medium to low heat and do one flip. And I want the yolk to still be like a little bit runny, but not uncooked, with some sea salt and ketchup. And…

0:18:25.9 Jordan Syatt: One power flip?

0:18:27.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yep, yeah. Exactly. And fruit with it. Or if…

0:18:33.7 Jordan Syatt: What kind of fruit?

0:18:34.9 Mike Vacanti: I mean, there are so many good fruit options, right? Bananas, apples, berries. Those are my go-to fruits. Maybe a grapefruit if I’m feeling like a little wild that day. But really any fruit. Kiwis are underrated. Mango is delicious if it’s quite ripe. And what was my… Oh, and my third breakfast is a higher calorie shake that I also do on a rest day sometimes, which is two scoops of protein, peanut butter, banana, chia seeds, and then almond milk. Although I’ve been mixing in some coconut milk here and there. I’ve actually intentionally upped my saturated fat intake recently and been feeling… I don’t know if this is actually good advice, but been feeling decent on a strength and in like how I’m feeling point of view.

0:19:29.7 Jordan Syatt: What sources of saturated fat?

0:19:32.7 Mike Vacanti: That was the main… Whole eggs and not that much more red meat above baseline. I don’t eat a ton of red meat. But the coconut milk, which is four grams of saturated fat per eight ounces of milk.

0:19:52.2 Jordan Syatt: You said grapefruit and it just reminded me of… I remember in high school there was a period of time where I thought grapefruits helped burn fat, so I would start my day every day with a whole grapefruit and cottage cheese, which is a pretty good breakfast but like…

0:20:04.7 Mike Vacanti: That’s pretty powerful.

0:20:06.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if I could say grapefruit is a power fruit. I would say like a… Berries, I think, are power fruits. I think an apple and a banana are toeing the line of power fruits, but I feel like berries are power fruits. Eggs are power… Eggs are just super powerful. I think they’re the most powerful food ever.

0:20:29.6 Mike Vacanti: Rank berries for me real quick.

0:20:31.4 Jordan Syatt: In terms of power or in terms of taste?

0:20:36.4 Mike Vacanti: No, power.

0:20:36.6 Jordan Syatt: Power? Okay. In terms of raw power, I think blackberries are the most powerful.

0:20:41.8 Mike Vacanti: I agree.

0:20:42.7 Jordan Syatt: And they’re super high fiber. They… I think their taste is just the best of all berries. The texture, everything about them. I think blueberries are quite frankly overrated especially relative to raspberries and blackberries. Out of those three, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry. That’s the order from top to bottom.

0:21:05.0 Mike Vacanti: And you have strawberry in the four hole?

0:21:07.1 Jordan Syatt: I hadn’t even considered strawberry. I think it goes blackberry… In terms of… Yeah. Blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry.

0:21:17.9 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

0:21:18.5 Jordan Syatt: Is my top four ranking.

0:21:19.7 Mike Vacanti: Okay. Not bad. Not bad. I think blueberries are still slightly underrated, and so I would go blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry is a distant fourth.

0:21:33.6 Jordan Syatt: Wow.

0:21:34.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:21:34.8 Jordan Syatt: Not a strawberry guy.

0:21:36.0 Mike Vacanti: I’m not at all. I think… A good strawberry is good, but they’re so hit or miss.

0:21:42.0 Jordan Syatt: Interesting. Okay. All right. Either way, they’re all pretty powerful. But we agree on top spot.

0:21:47.4 Mike Vacanti: Cottage cheese plus fruit is one of your options?

0:21:52.0 Jordan Syatt: Yep. Yep. Here’s… I’m gonna give you what I think would be like the ultimate power breakfast. Eggs, number one. Eggs are the ultimate power protein and high quality fat source. Super beneficial. So many health benefits, good for your eyes, good for every… Like eggs are just fucking amazing. Now, in terms of cook, how they’re cooked… What? I had that inhale.

0:22:13.3 Mike Vacanti: Do you have any preference on where you… How your eggs are sourced?

0:22:18.8 Jordan Syatt: Honestly, I just look at which one is lowest cost and make sure that they’re not broken at the grocery store.

0:22:25.0 Mike Vacanti: Respect.

0:22:26.9 Jordan Syatt: If they’re broken, I don’t buy it.

0:22:29.2 Mike Vacanti: Respect.

0:22:29.3 Jordan Syatt: You break it, you buy it. But no, I don’t really care where they’re sourced from, to be honest. Not from a health perspective. I care for the chicken’s sake but not from the health or power perspective. Do you like white eggs or brown eggs? Do you care about that?

0:22:46.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I like brown eggs.

0:22:47.9 Jordan Syatt: Well, why?

0:22:49.2 Mike Vacanti: They’re powerful.

0:22:50.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, they have more power.

0:22:51.5 Mike Vacanti: Actually, the eggs I buy… I’m quite… You know what, this is actually an interesting sidebar. I’m quite cheap in life and you’re actually not. Like you’re… Something I’ve… I…

0:23:06.2 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m cheap.

0:23:08.5 Mike Vacanti: [chuckle] I’m complimenting you. I’m not… [chuckle] I’m cheap too. You’re actually quite generous. And I don’t mean you’re… I don’t… I wasn’t saying you’re not cheap, therefore you’re careless. I’m saying I think you’re very generous. One of the places where I am…

0:23:28.6 Jordan Syatt: You mean like tipping and stuff?

0:23:28.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure. Tipping, picking up checks, like not worrying… Not sweating the small stuff, like yeah.

0:23:43.1 Jordan Syatt: Go on. Say it. You can say it.

[laughter]

0:23:49.4 Mike Vacanti: No. No, no, no.

0:23:52.8 Jordan Syatt: What? Say it.

0:23:52.9 Mike Vacanti: No.

0:23:53.0 Jordan Syatt: This is an interesting sidebar.

0:23:53.4 Mike Vacanti: I know. It’s a good sidebar. That’s enough of the sidebar for now, though.

0:23:56.1 Jordan Syatt: No, no, no. Come on. You can’t just stop there. You gotta give the people what they want, me being the people.

0:24:02.7 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know if… Here’s what I’ll say. One of the areas where I’m not cheap is on eggs, and I fully buy into the marketing of certain eggs of like this chicken lived an amazing life and was outside for 90% of its life and wasn’t in a cage. And we’re gonna charge you like nine bucks a dozen when you could get it for, I don’t know, $2.50 a dozen. I think egg prices are back down. That’s somewhere where I’m like, okay, I’m hook, line and sinker on this marketing. It comes with a picture of like the farmer like hanging out with his chickens in the egg carton.

0:24:36.2 Jordan Syatt: Marketing on point, bro. Style. [laughter]

0:24:39.8 Mike Vacanti: And…

0:24:40.9 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I want chickens when I have like a house. I want chickens. I don’t know if this is like an ignorance thing that I just don’t know what I’m about to get myself into, but I really wanna have chickens that then I can just have eggs and give them a good life, you know?

0:24:58.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I think that’s a good idea. I think there’s something to be said about being closer to the source and taking out a lot of the middlemen in terms of the industry and something like… Yeah, something that feels right about really knowing where your food is coming from. And we talked about this when we talked about hunting and like… Basically if you’re not comfortable… If you’re a meat eater but you’re not comfortable taking a gun and killing a deer for example, and then eating that deer, but you’re okay with eating deer if it just shows up, like you’re mentally disassociating between what ends up on your plate and then how it actually got there. I think there’s a lot of benefit to getting… As an… Coming from a non hunter, it feels to me like there’s a lot of benefit to getting closer to the source.

0:25:56.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So back to the power breakfast, I think…

[laughter]

0:26:05.8 Jordan Syatt: When it comes to eggs, I think that there’s two types. I think the two most powerful way to cook your eggs are hard boiled and sunny side up for me personally. I know you’re not a big sunny side up guy, you’re more of a medium. But like hard boiled, it’s just… It’s super powerful, bro. You can cook them, store them in your container, in your fridge. In the morning, you wake up, scoop it out, and you could even just have them walking out the door, right? Just boom, hard boiled. Done. That’s super powerful. And then in terms of sunny side up, I love a runny yolk, so if I want to have like some toast or something and I can just scoop up that yolk with the toast, I feel like it’s a power scoop. I just feel like those two ways of eating eggs are super powerful. And then from… Going there. So we got the eggs, I would say three eggs in the morning.

0:26:56.8 Jordan Syatt: Three good eggs, right? And then we got, for me personally, I would have some berries, raspberries, blackberries, blue… I have that frozen bag mixture in my freezer, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and then some type of carb, whether it’s those Bran Buds for that fiber, maybe oatmeal, maybe some toast. I think that’s really good. And then I would also like… You already have some high quality fat with the eggs as well, but maybe adding a little bit of avocado in there. And that for me is… That’s like a true power breakfast.

0:27:36.0 Mike Vacanti: That’s a power breakfast. That’s like… What’s interesting though is that’s also a high calorie breakfast.

0:27:42.1 Jordan Syatt: It is a high calorie breakfast, which I feel like power breakfast should be toeing that high calorie line.

0:27:47.9 Mike Vacanti: So if you’re going to do that, just know that… ‘Cause a lot of the conventional wisdom, especially if you’re in a deficit, is because dinner’s a more social meal, because people are generally more tempted later in the day than they are earlier in the day. Like higher protein, lower calorie early on sets you up better for success. If you’re gonna go this route, your lunch and dinner will be a little bit smaller, which isn’t a bad thing at all, and actually might be a better thing in terms of energy levels over the course of the day and how you feel. But something to keep in mind and pay attention to. Like if you’re going out for Tex-Mex at night, be mindful of how many calories are in your breakfast.

0:28:29.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Always mind your calories in every meal, but if you’re eating a huge breakfast, your lunch and dinner will probably be subsequently a bit smaller.

0:28:39.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:28:39.9 Jordan Syatt: Unless you’re just doing insane amounts of cardio or you’re a huge person already and like you have a huge caloric allotment, right? For myself though, I don’t have a huge caloric allotment. I will say my caloric allotment has increased since I’ve started doing more cardio over the last couple years, right? Which is, I think, so massively under-discussed. There’s so many people who just hate on cardio. And there’s also the people who say… And I used to be this person, I used to say, you can’t outrun your fork type stuff. And part of me still agrees with it, but the other part of me doesn’t, right, where it’s like there’s… Your calories can increase pretty significantly from just getting in an extra 30 to 45 minutes of cardio on a consistent basis. Like not by thousands, but by several hundred, by… But like a well-portioned dessert, by maybe having an extra serving at dinner, something like that. You can absolutely increase your calories pretty significantly just from doing a little bit extra cardio.

0:29:45.3 Mike Vacanti: I like that strategy way more at maintenance than I do in a deficit. But I do like it, but I like it way… I think it plays way better at maintenance. It also plays better in someone who’s experienced like yourself.

0:30:01.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly. Not good for the beginner.

0:30:04.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. There’s a psychological component to it as well with the, oh, I can have this, I’ll do more later. It’s stealing from the future to give yourself pleasure in the present.

0:30:16.6 Jordan Syatt: That’s an interesting discussion to have around like, yes, technically a beginner could absolutely do that, but I think as coaches, we have to find the balance between telling them the truth and also not overloading them with so much information that could potentially lead to a negative outcome by them abusing it type of a thing. So this is one of those things where yes, they could do it, but do we want to say that they can do it? Because then they might end up going overboard and then trying to do so much cardio just so they can binge later. Obviously not the scenario we want. It’s an interesting balancing act that we have to embark on as coaches to try and understand is this worth telling them? And if it is, you have to be very clear, technically yes. But it doesn’t mean that you should do an extra seven hours of cardio just so you can have an entire birthday cake to yourself. That’s not a good idea.

0:31:09.7 Mike Vacanti: Correct. All right. I think we laid out those power breakfasts pretty nice.

0:31:15.2 Jordan Syatt: You know what, let us know what your power breakfast is. Shoot us a DM at @personaltrainerpodcast. Let us know what your power breakfasts are. If we see some good ones, maybe we’ll share them in a subsequent episode.

0:31:25.1 Mike Vacanti: I like that.

0:31:26.4 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Here’s one. I’m not gonna read this person’s name ’cause it’s sort of a personal question, but they said, “I’m not happy with my life. I feel like fitness could help me again but no motivation to move ever.” And this is a… It looks like a young man who’s asking this question, or just sort of stating this, I’m not happy with my life. I feel like fitness could help but no motivation to move ever. What do you think?

0:31:55.4 Mike Vacanti: I completely agree with his intuition that fitness could help. Like I’m… I hear I’m not happy with my life and someone who’s completely sedentary, not working out at all like not moving around at all, yes. Getting on a program is going to almost certainly make you feel better and get you into a state of momentum and teach you lessons that bleed into other areas of your life, into school, into work, into your personal relationships. And so I’m a huge fan of the idea that maybe I should start doing something, taking my fitness a little more seriously. Motivation is a feeling, right? Like if you want the result, you’re gonna have to do the thing regardless of how you feel about the thing. And there’s good news here, and that is that, like a boulder rolling, right? Jordan is the analogy guy here, but I’m going for it. I’m diving in.

0:32:58.8 Jordan Syatt: No, I can see where you’re going with it.

0:32:58.9 Mike Vacanti: I’m diving in.

0:33:00.2 Jordan Syatt: I like this one.

0:33:00.7 Mike Vacanti: In your first week…

0:33:01.4 Jordan Syatt: This is a powerful analogy.

0:33:02.7 Mike Vacanti: Power analogy. In your first week of starting fitness back up, even in your second week or your third week of starting your fitness game back up, it’s gonna suck. You’re not gonna feel good. The workouts are gonna be pretty torturous. You’re gonna be quite sore depending on the program. But even on like a moderate intensity and volume, you’re gonna be quite sore. You’re not gonna see any results in the mirror. The scale probably isn’t gonna do what you want it to do. You’re not gonna enjoy your training sessions. You’re not gonna feel the benefits yet. And so like a boulder that is stationary and you’re pushing it, like it’s barely gonna be going, it’s gonna be really hard. Eventually…

0:33:43.7 Jordan Syatt: That’s what she said.

0:33:45.5 Mike Vacanti: Eventually… [laughter] Eventually, you’re gonna build some momentum. So you’re gonna start to get some feedback. You’re gonna start to… The scale might be moving. You’re gonna see that like week to week to week, you’re adding two and a halfs, you’re adding five pounds, you’re getting stronger. You might start to have more energy. You might start to see the scale come down. You’re gonna be less sore. You’re gonna start feeling a bit more motivation. Not every day. Some days you’re just not gonna wanna work out, even if you’re three months into a program. And that’s where discipline kicks in. But once you get momentum, and once you start getting that boulder rolling, it starts to move a little bit on its own. So my advice would be to push through that sticky beginning period where you really, really don’t wanna do this because after getting some of that positive feedback, you’re very, very likely going to want to stick to the program.

0:34:42.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I love that. It’s the truth. It’s absolutely the truth where the beginning sucks. It does. But you know what? The other thing about… This is so interesting, and I know you know this just as well as I do. So… ‘Cause as a coach we see so many different types of people, right? So there’s so many different types of clients and so many different things that work based on, often the personality of the person. And I think the first coach I ever saw talk about differences in coaching and programming based on personality was Louie Simmons back in like the ’90s. He had articles on this. It was just crazy, far before anyone else… I ever saw anyone talking about it. And there are some people who it’s better for them to start really nice and slow, right? Go in, do a little bit of here, a slow habit build, whatever. But then on the other hand, there are other people who they are like, they go in and they go cold turkey and change everything in their life.

0:35:41.0 Jordan Syatt: And I feel like this is under-discussed in this science-based world where it’s like, well, no, it has to be slow, sustainable habits. And like I talk about that all the time because I think for most people that’s generally the right way to go about it. But there’s I think probably maybe 15% of people who, which is not insignificant, who do really well just from like, hey, on a dime, I’m about to fucking change everything in my life. In this moment right now, no longer doing this shit, no longer doing this shit. I’m gonna work out, I’m gonna walk every day. I’m gonna strength train three times a week. I’m gonna have my power breakfast.

0:36:16.5 Jordan Syatt: And then like 50 years later, they’re like, yeah, I just one day decided. Right? And I think it’s… And it’s important to try and know yourself the best you can and to try and help your clients figure out what type of person they are. It’s funny, I was in the gym earlier this week and there was a guy down there who I see maybe once every two to three months I see him there, and he walked over to me. He’s like, “Man, I feel like every time you see me, it’s my day one back in the gym.” He’s like, “I just can’t stay consistent.” And I had a talk with him and I was like, “Listen, man, you have to remember that consistently good is better than inconsistently perfect.” And he… Like watching… It’s funny ’cause we say this all the time as coaches, consistently good is better than inconsistently perfect. We say it on social media and we’ll get likes or whatever and comments, but to see this guy’s face drop as I said that, he was like, “Holy shit, man, I think you just changed my life,” which will be interesting to see over the next few months, to see if he gets in there more frequently, but I don’t know. There’s a lot to discuss here. But to answer this guy’s question, it’s, you know you’re gonna feel better. You know you are. And you know you’re gonna feel worse if you don’t do it. You’ll feel better if you do and you’ll feel worse if you don’t. You have that knowledge. If you’re waiting to get motivated, I don’t know what to tell you.

0:37:36.2 Mike Vacanti: You’ll just take a long time.

0:37:37.5 Jordan Syatt: You will be. You’re gonna be waiting forever.

0:37:40.0 Mike Vacanti: This is where I actually don’t hate… Like I go completely against the grain on the science-based stuff on here, on like, oh, motivational videos are bullshit or like… I actually like giving yourself a spark early on. Like you’re laying in bed, whatever, like watching porn, jerking off in your mom’s house and you’re 23 years old and you don’t have a job and you’re whatever. Like throw on an Eric Thomas like pump up video with some music track on the background and drag your ass to the gym and go get after it. Like give yourself that fake motivation or give yourself that feeling somehow. I don’t know. Put on a song. Do… Like go to a place where you get that motivation and you can’t go there every single day because you’re gonna go back to baseline. But to get that spark, I like that idea.

0:38:28.8 Jordan Syatt: I love that idea.

0:38:29.8 Mike Vacanti: I completely agree with what you said, by the way. I think it’s more than 15% of people who can go all in. Like I think the ultra tiny habits on the fitness front doesn’t make sense because you need to start seeing progress at some point to motivate you to keep going. And if you’re doing like a serving a broccoli a day, you’re spending a month on it and then you’re just focused on water for a month, and then you’re focused on like an extra 1000 steps per month, right? Like that’s the extreme of it. But you’re gonna quit because it’s not enough. But even for the… Call it 25%, call it 50% of people who want to change on a dime, and who can, like their personality allows them to, and maybe it’s not that high, maybe it is 15%, even for those people, if they’re not doing anything, we’re not gonna throw them into the deep end of like RPE 9s and 25 set workouts and like insane volume and intensity because they haven’t been training. Like we should still be programming them even if they wanna do “a lot”, give them a lot in a way that is not gonna like… Where we’re not going to over fatigue them past what the benefit would be of the training session or of that amount of volume.

0:39:44.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yep. 100% agree.

0:39:47.8 Mike Vacanti: But yeah, I think fitness is the best place to start for changing your life.

0:39:57.3 Jordan Syatt: This is also one of the reasons why… These are the situations that I actually really like pre-workout in. I will only… I don’t use pre-workout if I know I’m already gonna work out. Like if I know I’m gonna get in there, I don’t use it to try and make the workout better. I save pre-workout for when I’m questioning whether or not I’m gonna get to the gym, right? It’s like if I have a workout planned and I’m like, ugh, like I really don’t know if I want to go, cool, I’ll take pre-workout because once I take it, I’m not not going, like it’s gonna happen. So I think a lot of people overuse pre-workout where they’ll use it every single day and they’ll… It’s like… It becomes… Like they get desensitized to it and they have to keep increasing the dosage. It’s like, I don’t think that’s what pre-workout should be used for. I think it should be used sparingly. And then especially for people in this situation. If you’re struggling with motivation, take something that’s gonna kick you into the next gear and get you like ready to go. That’s what I love pre-workout for.

0:41:02.8 Mike Vacanti: That’s a really cool idea. I don’t… I basically… I know very few people who are like you. Like I know people who don’t take pre-workout and I know people who can’t lift without pre-workout. I don’t know people who are like, I take pre-workout one to two times a week or three to four times a month but then I don’t take it for… I just don’t see that as often.

0:41:28.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s what’s helped me for sure. And maybe it might help someone get in the habit. Even if they do have to use it every… Even if they just have to use it to start taking a walk in the beginning just so they can start feeling the benefits of walking, that’s fine. Just get up and make it a habit over and over and over again until you’ve done it for so long that you no longer have to think about it. It’s just like you know you feel better doing it and it’s part of your day.

0:41:54.0 Mike Vacanti: I love it. We have an agreement here. It’s called The Gentleman’s Agreement. If you watched this episode, if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. We put out a lot of content on YouTube. We would really, really appreciate it if you subscribe over there. Personal Trainer Podcast is the handle. Jump over there. Hit subscribe. We greatly, greatly appreciate you. Thank you very much. Have a good one.