Latest / The Dan John Podcast / EP 373 - Fat Loss, Deadlifts, Breaking Through Plateaus, Weight Loss Drugs, Squats & More

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EP 373 - Fat Loss, Deadlifts, Breaking Through Plateaus, Weight Loss Drugs, Squats & More · The Dan John Podcast

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back everybody to the DanJohnUniversity.com podcast. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Dan John and each and every week I sit down
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and answer your questions. So if you have a question,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: please send them to the podcast at this address, podcast
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: at danjohnuniversity.com. You know, I really try to answer every
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: question every week, and there's a question I'm not going
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to answer, but I want to show you what I
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: usually do with emails on questions I don't answer. So
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: follow along to the end. Our first question comes from Drew,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and I like the way he wrote this. Drew, I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: want to reach out with a question that I've been
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: struggling with. I bought your program in January. Eight months later,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I'm still running it. Well, hats off to you, Drew.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: That's great. I have progressed from 12 kilogram bells to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: 20 kilogram bells in that time, which is a nice improvement.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: You know, depending on how you call it, it's either
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: 100% improvement, almost 100%, or a 50% improvement, depending on
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: how you do the math. And that's impressive. And good job, Drew.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And I'm the strongest and most muscular that I've ever been.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: All in 30 minutes, three times a week on my
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: lunch break. Drew, you really, I mean, that's what I
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: want to hear. Busy guy, lunch break, three workouts a week.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Good job. Thank you for giving me the tools to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: achieve this. Now onto my problem. The 20s are heavy, man.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I've never been strong, hence starting on the 12s, but
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the 20s are a real fight to progress. I can
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: hit 20s on the ABC, and I love the way
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: you write this, at 1.5 minutes every minute on the minute,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: if that makes sense. So he's doing every minute on
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the 90 seconds. Someone should patent that now before it
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: becomes a thing. But the press is a real grind. Now,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: if you're a kettlebell, calling the press a real grind
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: is actually a bit of a pun, but I appreciate it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: What do you recommend to consistently put out volume on
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the press and build up to the reps of 20K?
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I struggle on the sets of five, so I've been
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: dropping to double 16s on the fives. Should I add
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: in 10s with the 12s also I say, I like that.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Should I just focus on pressing the 20s as much
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: as possible? Max has been, and it says 39 reps
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: in 30 minutes. I guess you're totaling the two, three,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: fives up. Okay, it makes sense. Though I remember reading
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and hearing you say that press likes volume. True. So
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: what is the best for me to fight the 20s
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: all the way up to 100 reps? Does dropping the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: weight on some sets still move the needle on the 20s?
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I'm also trying to do all this in 30 minutes,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: which I manage with the double 16s. The 20s feel
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: like they want a longer rest time between each set,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: but that takes me beyond a 30-minute workout. Is that
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a problem? How long should I take? Ideally, I'd like
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to keep the 30 minutes, but I feel that's unrealistic now. Well, Drew,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you're doing great. First off, everyone, I want you to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: listen to what he did because this is what I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: was going to recommend to him, and he already did it,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: so I don't even need to be here. Yeah, I
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: would stick with the double and the triples with the 20s.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: And I would do this. I would do exactly what
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you're doing. Go to those double 16s for the fives
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and go to those double 12s for the 10s. Over time,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I'd like you to try and give yourself weeks to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: do this, weeks to do this. So go two, three
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: with the 20s and then maybe do a set of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: four with the 20s And then just do it, when
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you jump to the 12s, do an 11. And then
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: over time, I just want you to, so you can go,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you can go 2, 3, 3, 12. You can go 2, 3, 4, 10.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: And build yourself up to 2, 3, 5, 10. And
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: give yourself plenty of time. Then the next thing I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: want you to chase, of course, is building that 10s up.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So obviously, when you figure this is a good idea.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: And here's one idea. So when you're doing, so maybe
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: one week, try that idea doing the 20s nudge up.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And on the next time, especially when you have, let's
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: say your presses are the A workout. So ABA, on
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: those week, maybe on the Mondays, you know, chase the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: 20s increase. But on the other workout, the Friday day,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: go ABA. Two with the 20, three with the 20,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: five with the 16. Then do another set of five
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: with the 16, and then... Okay, I just confused myself.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Two with the 20s, three with the 20s, five with
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the 16, another set of five with the 16, five
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: with the 12. Next time, try to go two, three, five, six, four, two, three, seven,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you know, just keep building it up until one day
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you're at two, three, five with the 16, 10 with
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the 16. That little nudge up is really what you
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: want to do. So just play with adding reps. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not, I don't, it doesn't bother me at all
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: if you decide to do tens and just have these
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: weird numbers like, you know, say like you did on
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the 20s day. You did two, three, and then with
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the you know, the, the, the 16s, you went two, three, seven, 10. Oh, okay.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: So that's, so that's some extra reps. That's fine. Just
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: keep going. Make sure you note it down. And what
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you're trying to do and Drew and every other listener
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: needs to remember this when it comes to building pressing power.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: And I would even say squatting power. Um, you want
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to squat a lot. You want to press a lot,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: but you also want to nudge it up a lot. The,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the issue with presses is to improve the press. And
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: this is Norm Schramansky. This is nothing new. Um, you
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: got to press a lot, you got to press a lot,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and it's been true my whole life, and it continues
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to be true. When I travel, and I've been on
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: trips to this year to, well, California, Chicago, Crete in Greece, Australia, Ireland,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and it looks like I might have another trip coming up,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: you know, I miss when I'm gone for two or
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: three weeks, the lift that drops the most for me
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: is my press, and I'm I'm a good presser, but
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I still, it just drops off. So don't be afraid
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to nudge those weights up. And I love the fact,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and I think there's a couple things every listener can
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: get from Drew. First off, I love your hard stop
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: at 30 minutes. I think that's something to write down.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: My workouts are about 40 minutes, but I try to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: have a really hard stop at 10 o'clock. So I start,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I get, when I get in the gym at about 9.20,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I do a warmup. You know, the goblet squat, the hang,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you know, those are the two big ones for me.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: A few other, you know, just moving stuff around and
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: getting ready. And sometimes I'll do an opposite workout. So
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: for example, if I'm doing a lot of presses, I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: might warm up with, well, Mike will show up and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I'm doing curls and Romanian deadlifts and bent knee leg raises. Yeah,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: it's part of the workout, but it's a warmup to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the workout. And then once I go, it's 30 minutes,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: hard finish at 10 o'clock. And it works out really
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: good for me because I think racing against the clock
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: actually gives you one more thing to work on in,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: you know, keep your, keep your focus. So number one,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: I like that 30 minutes. The second is don't be
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: afraid to play around with nudging up the five weight,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: nudging up the 10 weight over time. Don't focus too hard.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Like I'm not going to tell you, Oh, go buy
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: 24s and do singles. No, nudge up those weights. You're
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: not far, Drew, you're not far from doing two, three, five,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: 10 with straight 20s for the 100 reps. You're closer
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: than you think. You've been making great progress. So, hey,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: keep it up. And that's a good lesson for both
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of us. The 30 minute time limit and the idea
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: of nudging the weights up and to stay within that
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: time limit. The kettlebell's greatest... gift to the community is
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: density training. Same amount of effort, pardon me, same work,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: less time, or more work, less time when you start
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to get more advanced. Great question. I hope it helped.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: We have a question from Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy. I just
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: want to say thank you for all the awesome programs
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and information that you give out. It has been very helpful.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I recently suffered a hamstring tear, ouch, in jujitsu, and
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I'm going through rehab. I was working on planning my
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: fall winter work following clearance from my physical therapist to
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: return to sport. I have ran the Armor Building Formula
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: as written in the Armor Building Formula 2 four times now, excellent,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and finished it with double 28s for 30 rounds and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: 30 minutes, as well as even easier strength following the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: repeated two-week template you lay out in the Easy Strength Omnibook.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: So anybody who's never listened to my podcast before, hey,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: good luck on understanding that, okay? That's awesome. Armor Building
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Formula is a kettlebell program and even easier strength. It's
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a very focused, easy strength program where I just lay
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: it out for you, kind of a do this program.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Going back through the armor building formula too, I got
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: an idea from one of your templates combining ABC and
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: easy strength, the armor building complex and easy strength. You
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: have a five day a week template and I was
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: thinking of using the template of a general warmup, five
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to 10 rounds of the armor building complex complex. It
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: basically says it's a timeless warm-up. Pull-ups, ab wheel, carries,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and adding some deadlifts with the thick bar following the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: even easier strength repeating two-week template. I have spent the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: last two years really working on my deadlift prior to
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: this injury and figured the axle bar, and I agree
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: with you, would be a great way to practice my
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: technique and be limited by my grip so as to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: not taxing the posterior train so much next spring or
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and go back to my classic 5-3-1 training. So the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: one thing I would recommend, and Jeremy, is when I
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: got those thick bars from Mike Rosenberg, and Mike, thank
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you for everything you've done for me. One of the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: things we did, especially with our high school athletes, especially
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: for our American football players, is we always make sure
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: we use the Raptor grip, the C grip on the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: thick bars, not the you know, the classic competition deadlift grip,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: but like this. And what that does is it makes
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you focus so hard on holding onto the bar that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: without even thinking of it, you do perfect deadlifts. There
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: is no way you can yank. I think our biggest
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: was a three inch. We had a three inch bar.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Now it doesn't seem like much until you try and
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: put your fingers around it. And just like, it's like, oh,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you know, and once you start to lift Once you
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: start to lift, you're squeezing so hard and it's kind
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of fun. Weirdly, it's mentally exhausting to do this. I
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: think if you decide to do some weird work, some
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: hard work, I shouldn't say weird, but like if you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: decide to do Pavel's The Bear using thick bars, yeah,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I think you'd be taking a nap every afternoon after it.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: It seems to really, and of course the connections between
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: your hands your wrist and your brain are really, that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: is a homoculus man, you know, with his massive hands.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: If you've ever seen that diagram, that's all the nerves
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that we go through there. So it is draining. I
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: like this idea quite a bit. For those of you
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: who are wondering, okay, now this is my, this was
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: sent to me by Joey Yang. He put together a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: really nice copy of the book for me on the website, danjohnuniversity.com
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: slash podcast. It comes to you in a PDF and
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you can print it off any way you want. But
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I like this. So one of the things that I
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: have in the first book, and I'm not sure it
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: was a perfect idea, but I add easy strength to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the barbell ABF. And I think it's in the second
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: book that I add easy strength to a kettlebell template.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Though easy strength doesn't always work well with kettlebells because
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: you don't have as many options to lighten up. I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: love your idea, Jeremy. I think this is great. So
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: for those of you who want to write this down,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: general warm-up with 5 to 10 rounds of the Armor
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Billion Classic. And then he's going to do basically, and
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to simplify it, two sets of 5
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: in the pull-up, one set of 10 in the ab wheel,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: some loaded carries, and then the thick bar deadlift. And
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I think there's some real wisdom that you are getting
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: squats in there with the ABC. You're not getting a
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: lot of overhead presses. But as a wrestler, you might
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: not need to press as much as the rest of us.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: You're going to get my absolute approval. Are you ready
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: for this, everybody? Thumbs up. I think it's pretty good, folks.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Nicely done. Okay, thank you. Good question, and I hope
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: things work out with your hammy. I've got a question
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: from Mark. This year I have ran the 10,000 Swing Challenge,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the Armor Building Formula Double Bear Challenge, double bell variation,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the armor building formula, single bell version. I actually love
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this version. Good. And I'm right in the middle of
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: easy strength for fat loss. Not a huge fan, but
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I'll finish the eight weeks. Well, Mark, and if you
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: hate it, if you finish the eight weeks and you
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: hate it, you have my respect because I think an
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: important thing to do is finish programs. I've always thought
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: that even when I've been doing something and just stare
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: at the wall going, why I did a program 89,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: that I look back on, it was the dumbest thing
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I've ever done in my life. And that's a high
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: standard of dumb. I'm looking what to run next after
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Easy Strength for Fat Loss, most likely Armor Building Formula,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and then it says keep reading. I have read both
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Armor Building Formula books, and I am intrigued by Armor
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Building Formula for Fat Loss. However, you stated that the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: program has evolved from what it is in the book.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Could you please give a current version of the armor
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: building formula for fat loss to follow three days a
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: week for eight weeks? Thank you for all your help
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and dedication to the health and fitness of all of us. Well,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: it came. And even as I say this, there's going
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to be another variation coming out of my head. So basically,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: let's just go as simple as we can first. So
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: armor building formula, you do the high press day. one day.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: The next day, you do the armor building complex. The
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: next day, you repeat the high press day. And I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: recommend you do that. So that's week one, ABA. Week two,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: BAB would be the arm building complex, middle of the week,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the press workout. And then, of course, you repeat the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: ABC again. If it's the fat loss program, it's by law,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: you have to go out right after and do like
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: a 30 to 45 minute walk while you're still kind
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: of breathing hard. It's much easier to breathe hard for
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: me after the armor building complex. For some of you,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: you're probably thinking, oh no, man, it's the press. And
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that's just the way we're built. So what I'd only
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: say is we didn't, I added a few things and
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I'm going to just tell you some ideas. Now you
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: can do the first thing in your warmup. So it's either,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and you know, it might even be a good, let's
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: do this. I'll even make it better for you. On
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the days you do the press workout, I want you
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: to do the hanging bent knee leg raise. I'm doing
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: them now. I have 20 and 25 pound sandbags and
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I squeeze them between my knees and I try to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: bring my knees to my chest. Why do I love
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: this exercise? It's been around a long time. You get
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: that great shoulder stretch from the hang. As your knees
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: come up, you get that nice little lower back stretch
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and it helps your ab wall the harder your ab wall,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the better your ab wall gets in resilience and strength,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the more your anaconda, you're knitted together, and the healthier
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: your back's going to be. So I like that idea, okay?
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So on the press day, hanging bent knee leg raise.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: On the ABC day, when you finish, let's keep it straight. Okay,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: before you do it, Let's do the ab wheel. And
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be much. And the workout I'm
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: doing now on my ab wheel day, I do three sets.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And a set of ab wheel is, you know, hard
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: to say reps, but I probably get in that 8
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: to 15 range. And I work really hard on staying rounded.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: And I had an umbilical hernia. I had an umbilical hernia,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: so I'm really careful about keeping knitted here because I
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: don't want to mess with that again. finish those three
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: sets of eight, whatever, and then do the Arm Rebellion Complex.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: At the end of each of those workouts, you should
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: always do a suitcase carry. I got this from one
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: of the guys in the Inner Circle, and it was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a good point. Sometimes after you clean everything up, this
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: is a good point, your heart rate starts to come
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: down a little bit, and that three or four minutes
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you're putting everything away. But if you add that suitcase
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: carry in, You can get back to where you were
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and all you're going to do is make a couple
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: of loops and then come back and put it in
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the rack or on the floor and then out the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: door you go. Those would be the biggest ones. The
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: abdominal work in the start and that walking core work after.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Some other people have added a few more things. Here's
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: my concern. When I first started pushing the ABC for
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: fat loss, the arm ruling complex, even before the formula,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: I was having people go do heavy hands or heavy rucking.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: And you know what? Yeah, it makes sense right on.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Problem was that 40 minutes of heavy hands or 45
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: minutes of rucking, they got back and they were so
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: hungry that it was too much. So what I learned
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: over time is let's, actually I learned this from our,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: we used to have a Friday workout that, was nothing
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: but loaded carries. Now, the hungriest I get after a
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: workout is Tonic Thursday. Tonic Thursday, we spend an hour
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: doing original strength, mobility, and flexibility work. And I just
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: think it, you know, I get in some of those
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: strength positions on stretches and stuff, you know, and I'm
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: doing all that mind work with the cross crawling and,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: you know, elbows to knees stuff. I think I think
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I have a strange like neurological reaction and it manifests
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: itself in hunger. But when we're doing the Friday loaded
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: carry days where, I mean, we actually have people puke
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: in the street and stuff where we just go back
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: and forth with farmer walks, suitcase carries, waiter walks, sled pulls, drags,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: just every combination of stuff you can imagine. Those were
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the days we kind of look at each other like,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: let's go get pancakes and waffles and put chocolate on
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: them yeah so i started to notice that if you
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: work out too hard you almost went the wrong direction
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: so armor building formula for fat loss if you just
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: do the basic abf program and add the walk after
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: every workout i think you're on the right track the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: next thing i would suggest you do yeah make sure
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you got to make sure you get your sleep you
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: know like Sleep is such an important part of body composition,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and I feel we constantly ignore it, but it's so important.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: You know, I do a couple interesting things. For example,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: right now, as I'm doing my podcast, I have my
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: sauna on, and as soon as I finish my podcast,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I'll sauna, and then after that, I have this acupressure
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: mat that I lay on. I put on my Music Cozy,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and I put on Brain FM and I listen to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: rain reflection, and I gotta tell you, doing that meditation
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: post-sana gives me so much more calorie control than anything
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: else I can think of. So I'm a big fan
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of sleep and meditation. So I think sleep and meditation
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: calm all those engines down for eating calories. And then
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: if you get a good solid workout followed by a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: realistic walking pace, I think you take care of most
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of the exercise needs you have. The reason we added
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the hanging bent knee leg raises and the ab wheel
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and the suitcase carry is that a lot of people
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: need a little bit more control here. Like I notice
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: when I do my hanging bent knee leg raises and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: ab wheel and suitcase carries that I have a lot better,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: like if I look down at my belly, I can
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: tell whether I'm bloated or fat. It seems like a
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: strange sentence. But I travel a lot, and I do
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: get this kind of bloat when I travel. I can
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: put on eight pounds on an international flight. I mean,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I know I eat and drink a lot on the planes,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and it's a lot of salty food, but eight pounds?
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on. Three plus kilos? I mean, come on.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. So those would be the big ones I'd
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: like to tell you about. If I wasn't clear on ABF,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the Armour Building Formula for Fat Loss in the updated book,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I'll try to do a better job in the materials
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I'm coming up with now. Okay. Thank you so much.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Great question. And yeah, I'm working on Armour Building Formula 3. Yeah.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I think that might be the title, you know, it's,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: but these are the kinds of questions that keep making
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: me think they're so, the, my listeners are hungry for
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: more of it. So Let me keep working on it,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: come up with some better ideas, and we'll keep going
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: from there. So thank you. Great questions, okay? Thank you.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: We've got a question from Espen, and I have a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: friend named Espen from Norway. I'm 33 years old, and
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: for the last year, I've been chasing a couple of milestones.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I want to be able to say that I have
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: back-squatted 200 kilos, 441, power clean 150, about 330, and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: power snatched 100, 220 for my Americans. My primary focus...
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: is getting my back squat numbers up. And since I
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: started this journey, I've been experimenting with famous internet programs
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: to see what works for me. And the famous program
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to try next is the Russian squat program.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I would assume you know what it looks like. Yeah,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I did it. It's really hard. The plan on squat
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: days for the other exercises are as follows. I will
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: work up to a working max on the power snatch
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: and power clean, and then drop down to 80% of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that max and do a set of five. I experimented
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I've experienced good progress with this before. Then I will
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: finish with five by five on either weighted dips, pull-ups,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: or military press. Anyway, this is just context, but feel
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: free to comment on if this plan sounds awful. You know,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: when I did the actual Russian program, the real one,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: not these hybrids you see online, where it's got that
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: day that you do six sets of six with your
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: projected max, it was one of the hardest things I
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: ever did in my life. I, uh, You know, at
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the time, I missed a lot of front squats and meets,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and I fixed it later on with isometrics. But, you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I was getting buried sometimes at meets with 185 kilos
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: in the clean. And so we did the Soviet program
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: front squat style, the way we were told it was
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: supposed to be done. And there's a day we do
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: six sets of six. And so I had 145 kilos
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: on the bar. I did a set of six and
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: my training partner goes, what's wrong? I go, I got
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: to do that five more times. It's one of the
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: hardest things I ever did. Having said that, at the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: end of those six weeks, I finished that last, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Dave Turner told me, don't go any heavier. I got
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: up to my lifetime best in the front squat. I go,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I'm good for more. He goes, just stop. Then I
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: walked over and I slapped 165 kilos, 363 pounds on
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the bar. And I cleaned and stood up with it
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: like I had a, sat on a bunch of nails, man.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: It's a great program. So, okay, now to my question.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I really like how my body feels when I do
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: kettlebell exercise. And man, if anybody else's head just felt
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: like you were a trap, boom, boom, my neck just bounced.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Talking about the Russian squat program, and now he wants
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to talk about kettlebells. It's really, I really like how
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: my body feels when I do kettlebell exercises. I feel
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: it complements the barbell exercises nicely, and I want to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: add two kettlebell days into my training week. I have
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: tried before on a different program. It worked really well
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: for me at the start, but I have a tendency
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to go too hard and eventually burn out. Yeah. Did
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: you even read what you wrote so far? But okay.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe I didn't eat enough. The old standard, there's no
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: such thing as overtraining. It's under eating. Do you have
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: any tips on what to do in these kettlebell days
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: that are sustainable over time? Which exercises, what volume and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: intensity should I go for? So you're doing the Russian
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: squat program, your power snatch and your power cleaning. Then
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you're doing five sets of five on either weighted dips, pull-ups,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: or military press. And you want to add kettlebells to that. Well, sure.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know why you're not training for a marathon.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Toughen up, okay? Yeah, man. Okay, so I think the
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: best kettlebell exercise is are the double press and the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: double kettlebell front squat. Now, you have to be able
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: to get them in place. You've got to learn the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: double kettlebell clean. And for there, you end up doing
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the armor-building complex. So there you go. For me, why
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: don't you just, and since this is my blog, my podcast,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: why don't you just do, on one of those days,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the armor-building complex, and on the other day, since you're
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: really not doing much overhead presses, besides those occasional militaries,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: do the high rep press day of 2, 3, 5, 10.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to danjohnuniversity.com
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: slash bookstore and buy the Armor Building Formula books. And
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: I hope I helped, but this is two questions back-to-back
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: on this podcast where I don't feel like I'm the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: person to reach out to. But I'm happy to help
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: any way I can, okay? Jackson asks a question that
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: is really interesting, and I get little notes on these
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: from Ozzie and Brian. And here's the question, and it's
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: an important question. My name is Bob, and my doctor
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: recently started me on ZepBound. He said I needed to
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: exercise to lose fat and maintain as much muscle as possible.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I own Easy Strength eBook and completed eight weeks of
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Easy Strength 18 months ago. Yeah, you might want to
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: be a little bit more consistent. It worked well for me.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I think it would be a perfect because it keeps
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: me active and not wear me out. What are your
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: thoughts for people on GLP-1s and exercises? You know, about,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: oh gosh, it might be a year ago now, I
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: bought Oprah's book on GLP-1s called Enough. And I got
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: to tell you, I've never been more unimpressed with a book. Basically,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: it was an ad to buy these drugs. But fortunately,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: at the same time, and the book is, right there,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I think. Lyle McDonald came out with his book, and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I found it brilliant. He went through the history of
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: where it came from. There's like some gila monster or
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: something like that the drug originates from it's really a
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: cool story but over and over in the book he
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: tells us that if you're going to take these drugs
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and these drugs are literally everywhere now everywhere that you
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: have to lift weights you have to lift weights and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: maintain lean body mass so for those of you We're
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: thinking about taking them. And by the way, hats off
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: to you. I mean, I don't have people. I did
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: a workshop recently. A question came up about these. And
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I get that. I'm fine. And
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: someone came up after and thought that I'd be really
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: anti this drug. First off, it's a medicine. And the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: second thing is the American, and I blame America, food
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: industrial complex has worked overtime since World War II. To
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: find ways to make you eat more. I mean, breakfast
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: was invented by Kellogg's. And if you study that guy's story,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: interesting dude. The graham cracker was invented by Sylvester Graham.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Another magic food. That's funny. The Salisbury steak was invented
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: by Salisbury as a diet food. And that was just
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the start of it. And here we are now. You know,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: we have these fake fats showed up when I was young.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: When I was young, everybody had these little coffee cans
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: filled with bacon fat. It was interesting because that bacon
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: fat that hardened over, I was told, is far healthier
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: than those industrialized fats that they make out of chemicals.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, there are so many sugar sweeteners now. And
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of natural ones are showing up
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: now that are calorie-free. That's great. But when the GLP-1s
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: came out, the food industry did something interesting. They started
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: making things crunchy. And I heard that on John Barbin
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: and Brad Pilon's podcast. And I mean, I think I
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: was listening in the car and I almost crashed. I
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: was like, you've got to be kidding me. So I
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: guess crunchy GLP-1s have no impact. So now you'll see
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: crunchy foods everywhere. So I'm like, listen, we're designed to
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: live in hard to get food situations. We're designed that way.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: You know, humans, like most mammals, live in kind of
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: a feast or famine kind of thing. But the food complex,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: the food industry complex figured out how to hotwire all
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: those things. really built in. You can't even, you know,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: you can't even fight them impulses because that's how you're
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: hardwired for survival. And survival, man, is much different than just,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: you know, whether you should do three sets of eight
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: or not. So I support, I support you gentle listeners
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: who've made this. You and your doctor have made this decision.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, from some of the research coming
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: out is really good for a whole bunch of other
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: things just besides, well, of course, losing weight, losing fat
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: does a lot of work, especially visceral fat does a
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: lot of good for you in all kinds of ways.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Losing fat, all the other kinds, is probably good for
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: you in other ways too. But losing weight is shockingly
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: good for you in a lot of ways. So maybe
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: it's just that trifecta, visceral fat, the other fats, I
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: don't know what. subcutaneous. And then, uh, you know, just
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: losing weight, losing mass all seem to be good health markers,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: but there seems to be even more to it than that.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: So hats off to you. Yes. I think easy strength
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: is the way to go. I think it's a great idea. Um,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: anything that gets you to lift weights, uh, I'm in
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: favor of one thing I would like to say, uh, Bob,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: is that at your age, 78, I would suggest maybe
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: even getting to a facility that has a lot of machines.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: So in the last few years, in fact, I've had
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: a few people who've made comments, kind of hurt my
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: feelings a little bit. I've moved to more and more
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: machines in my own training. I own a leg curl,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: leg extension, arm curl, tricep extension. Of course, I had
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that when my girls were little too. I have, you know,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I use the ab wheel more. I have special grips
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: and the pull up to save my elbows. One of
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the things I like about machine work as you age is, okay,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: clearly safer, but it also allows you to, you know,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: get in the groove and push yourself a little harder. Absolutely.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: I think the issues of doing like one arm, one
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: leg stuff for the balance that you get out of it, phenomenal,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: very important. But I think for you might want to
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: consider some of that. And if you do go to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: a gym with machines, maybe go to three days a
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: week and use more of the hypertrophy numbers. That was
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a great question. I hope I helped. Now, our last
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: question today, I'm not going to answer. I'm going to
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: reach out to the questioner and answer offline. And it's important,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: you guys, my gentle listeners, you know some things. Let
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: me read it to you. So, James. James. You were
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: a lecturer on my strength conditioning master's degree at St.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Mary's University. And James, it's an honor to have taught you.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And St. Mary's University took it in. And I have
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: followed your excellent work since. Thank you for all the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: work you continue to put out. It has been incredibly valuable.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: And then James asks about a certain training for a
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: certain kind of sport. And I've leaned in in the
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: past and tried to give advice on people training there.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: But then the week after this podcast comes out, there
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: are several places online, certain forums, including Reddit, but other
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: forums too, where I just get attacked for talking about
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: the kind of competition you're going for. The funny thing is,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I know this competition and I know it well, but
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: it's not a big event. It's not a very popular sport.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: But they're very tribal. And one of the things I'm
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: trying to get away from, James, and forgive me if
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not answering your question, is I've been very concerned
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: about the tribalism we're seeing online. And I honestly don't
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: want to be part of it. You know, some of
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the stuff that people wrote, the funny thing is you
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: can find who they are pretty easily. A couple, two
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: years ago when I wrote about this same thing, I
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: was attacked and I was able to find... Both people
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: are now out of business. They had businesses that have failed.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: And I got to tell you, part of the reason
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: their business has failed is the secret I have came
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: up with a couple of years ago. A few years
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: ago when I was going through my tough time, the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: dark night of the soul, I went through every journal
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I had. That goes back to 1971. And I wanted
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: to lose weight and increase my income. For losing weight,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: one phrase kept coming up, walk more. And the phrase
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: that kept coming up on income was be kind online.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: And since that time, James, and all you other listeners,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I've decided that the only thing I can do online
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: to confront this tribalism that we see everywhere is to
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: just be kind. So James, you have my email from school, okay?
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: And if you don't, I want you to email the
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: podcast and then they'll send that right to me. And
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: then we'll either set up a phone call or I'll
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: send you some thoughts. But I'd love to talk with
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: you And because, I mean, I love my time at St.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Mary's in Twickenham, London. I mean, I still think of
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: every night at the Pope Pub. And of course I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: stayed there and how great you students were and how
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: wonderful you all were and how we all, a lot
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: of us fought through the COVID thing together. And those
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: are some of my best memories of my teaching and
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: coaching career. So thank you. Well, that does it for today.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: That's all we have, but that's okay. Now, remember, if
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: you have a question, please send it to the podcast
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: at this address, podcast at danjohnuniversity.com. I'll do my best
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: to answer each and every question. And if I can't
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: answer your question, I'll do my best to reach out
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and help you any way I can. And until next time,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: let's all keep on lifting and learning. Thank you.