Hacking Your Health
Hacking Your Health Podcast with Ben Canning and Dave Kennedy - Two guys setting out to hack body, mind, business and beyond. We are here to provide a single source, bullshit free guide to understanding your body and how you can live better, for longer.
Hacking Your Health
Pushing Boundaries: Surviving a 72-Hour Fast and Unlocking Success // Episode 164
In this episode, we dive into our journey of fasting for 72 hours, exploring the physical and mental challenges we faced along the way. We share our craving for food, the anticipation of meals, and the insights we've gained about our relationship with food and time management.
• Discussing the physical and mental challenges faced during fasting
• The liberation and productivity found in not preparing meals
• Navigating temptations and smells from food during the fast
• Experiencing mental clarity and its contrasts with hunger
• Planning our post-fast meals and the significance of choice
• Reflecting on how fasting changes our perception of food
• Encouraging listeners to explore their own relationships with food
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Ben Canning. Yo, hey, what's up everybody. Welcome to Hacking Health Podcast. I'm your host, ben Canning, with Dave Kennedy. What is up everybody? Welcome back. As promised, we are coming back with the almost at the end of the update of the fast.
Speaker 2:I am at 69 minute, 69 hours and six minutes I'm gonna say I'm at 69 hours and six minutes as well, because I want to eat faster, but I'm at 64 hour, 64 hours and 54 minutes. So, to be true, how you feel I'm ready to eat, I'm ready like it comes in spurts, you know like it's, like last night was lunchtime again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's lunchtime again. You're right, a hundred percent comes in spurts for me about when I would eat. So last night was probably the hardest for me. Like, I literally walked into the fridge. Well, first of all, I cooked the kids pizzas, which is a fucking mistake because, like, I'm smelling the pizzas, I'm, it's right there, the food is right there. I can literally just grab it and put in my mouth. And then I gave it to my kids. So then, um, so then I, then I, then I just sat there, aaron is was watching tv and you know, um, if you keep the refrigerator open for a certain long time, it starts to beep. Yeah, yeah, and you would have stopped because I was just staring at the refrigerator, the food that's inside there.
Speaker 2:I like I will literally drink mayonnaise right now. I will drink pickle juice. I don't care, I'm just so hungry. But I didn't do it. I shut the door, went to bed, woke up this morning. I did cardio again this morning. I did a hit training this morning. Actually, it was really good. I had a great session this morning. First of all, I felt super light. Obviously, I have nothing in my system, but two, my performance was fantastic. I was off the hook in there with a lot of energy, which I was really surprised that. I thought I would be drained as hell. And the crazier part about it is again no caffeine, no pre-workout, nothing like that. I literally went home, showered, went into work, feel great Again, starving, want food, but I'm doing really good, good cool, good, but you're ready to eat tonight?
Speaker 2:I am. I guess 707 is the time and I will have copious amounts of food. I'm gonna, I'm gonna kill a cow like it's gonna be the entire cow. I have the cow outside ready to go. He's milling, he's milling.
Speaker 1:He knows it's happening what's the plan for it? Because this, this has consumed my thoughts today, like I've been I would say I have been fine, like I genuinely haven't felt hungry. Um, the biggest thing that I have missed is looking forward to what I'm going to eat, because I'm I love food. Like I'm like oh yeah, I'm gonna have this for dinner. I can't fucking wait to have that. So I've missed that for the past couple of days. And I did say to myself yesterday I was like tonight, so eight o'clock, 8 pm, I'm due to break fast, and I was like maybe I could just extend it to thursday morning and d84 hours. As I get closer, fuck that idea. Um, I'm just, I'm just gonna eat tonight, but it has consumed my thoughts of the like, right, what? What is my first?
Speaker 2:this morning like, oh, I'm gonna go another day. I'm like that's cool, bro. I'm not like I'm definitely not, I am not going another, but I'm not going.
Speaker 1:The rest of the night I'm eating my thought was like I could go out for breakfast and I was like I would really enjoy it, but I think as I get closer, I have mentally prepared myself for what I'm gonna eat. So, 707, what are you having?
Speaker 2:so I already have it planned out. I have, I have a nice uh 10 ounce filet that I bought from the butcher and I also have. So I'm going to do steak and eggs with wheat toast I'm really excited about it yeah with butter. Yeah, that is my go-to. And then afterwards I'm going to have a massive strawberry sundae. I'm just kidding, that's not what I want. I'm actually not a sweets guy. I don't like sweets. I don't know, I've never had a thing, for I need chocolate or I need ice cream or anything. I love other types of food, but I never like candy and stuff like that. I mean, I'll snack on it sometimes, but it's not a staple of mine. Steak with, uh, you know some some uh uh sunny side up eggs and some wheat bagels uh, so wheat wheat, uh uh toast with some butter and some salt on there, and that's gonna be my go-to for today that doesn't get.
Speaker 1:That doesn't get.
Speaker 2:I know I want that because I'm just gonna have eggs. You got the runny the drippy eggs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I know exactly how it's gonna go. Yeah, yeah, no, I know, yeah, uh, I'm gonna have a bowl of oats, okay, uncooked uncooked oats, yeah well, yeah, you'll put water in it, though I'll put yeah, I'll put milk in it and I'll have some chocolate protein in it.
Speaker 1:I went, I specifically went to the store just before we came on here and I bought loads of, like, different types of berries. I got some almond butter, I got some pistachios, so it's going to be the the best bowl of oats that I've ever had in my entire life.
Speaker 2:You're gonna heat it up, correct?
Speaker 1:no, I'm not gonna heat up, okay. Okay, well, that's what I'm gonna have, but now maybe I'll have eggs after that. Eggs sound good? Yeah, we'll see. But other than that, I feel good. Like jenny a couple people have asked me, I had a couple calls today and like I feel like I honestly feel good. I've had a couple of really productive days. I made a mistake of going to a coffee shop yesterday to work in and they were cooking food and I was like I got to leave this place, fuck this.
Speaker 2:The smells get you Like. When I was cooking the pizzas I was like this smells like the best pizza I have ever made in my entire life. Like it, honestly, is probably the best pizza I've ever made.
Speaker 1:And you missed out and I missed out, but no, I have felt good. Like I said, I had a couple of productive days, as I said to you before we come on. There were a couple of times yesterday I was like I don't know if the words that I'm saying, that are coming out of my mouth, make any sense. So if none of this makes sense, please bear with us. Um, but all in all, like I feel good, definitely. I took some photos just again before we come on the center with James. I'm definitely leaner and I think, uh, from Monday morning to this morning I was down about seven pounds, so it'll be interesting to see how that takes back up over the next couple days when we introduce food. But I will say you've done it differently in terms of you've trained, you've done cardio, I haven't trained at all, um, and I my my biggest observation of this whole thing is, if you don't eat and you don't train, you have so much more time in the day right, yeah, right, and even even like my, you know, I didn't.
Speaker 2:I didn't lift yesterday. Um, I just did cardio monday and today and there's obviously lifting as part of that. But like I mean, I will agree with you, like it's amazing, like I worked through lunch. I worked through, I was, I was, you know, getting a bunch of stuff done. That dinner, like I was like working at dinner, I was like this is great, I'm getting so much stuff done and accomplished.
Speaker 2:But I will say, like I was expecting like a like a epiphany of brain function that was going to happen, like I was going to be like the clearest I've ever been before, and it's actually the opposite. I feel like we were talking about this before the podcast started, but I feel like sometimes I would just like start talking. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Like you know, it's just kind of like babbling on is the best way of explaining it and I mean, while I feel good, I feel clear, I feel fine, I don't feel like I'm like as mentally sharp. Um, when I have energy and the food to kind of sustain that, I don't feel as immensely, as acute as I would normally be yeah, they'll.
Speaker 1:We have the call on monday um with the group and that was like, yeah, you were a lot more chill and I guess that's why, but I have felt pretty like productive and clear monday and tuesday, but it did start to run out last night. So that is that is my observation, that. But I mean I'm curious how you're handling.
Speaker 2:How are you handling the uh, the lack of caffeine? Because, like for me, I, I I tapered off a caffeine quite a bit before I even started this, so I was on low, low, low, low caffeine. I was only drinking maybe one cup of coffee a day and that was it, uh, from a caffeine perspective. So I was already pretty much down. So the caffeine didn't really impact me, other than I had a horrible, horrible headache the first day, but I don't equate that to caffeine. I think that was just more so like, hey, give me some effing food, man, you know, or dehydrated, whatever it is I'm being. Maybe I wasn't drinking enough water, but you know, the next day that went away. I haven't had a headache since.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I don't really drink that much caffeine. I would maybe have one either can of Monster or coffee in a day and then pre-work out if I'm training and that's it. So it's been fine. I did buy myself a new coffee machine that came here yesterday and it was sad putting it together and not being able to use it until tomorrow.
Speaker 2:What kind of coffee machines did you?
Speaker 1:get Sage Barista Pro Nice. Yeah, so I'll be able to like flat whites and latte art and all that sort of stuff, apparently.
Speaker 2:I got a. I got a Tara cafe I think is what it is and it does the same thing. It's, like you know, all automated system that makes you the flat whites and things like that. So I'll send you a photo, I'll share it with you. I'll share it with you, yeah no-transcript.
Speaker 2:The thing that I'm looking forward to the most is eating breakfast food I know a lot of people say, like they, they try to kind of keep it as a light meal. You know, when they go through it, you know because, like you know, your body's just kind of getting used to the food digestion again. And um, for me I'm like you're like I want a steak. I want some eggs.
Speaker 2:I want to eat 2,500 calories I'm gonna get 2,500 calories in one sitting here. All right, you know we are. We are going all out. So my just my digestive system is going to be like hold on bucko. Here we go.
Speaker 1:So I'm looking forward to training again tomorrow, like I'm trying to get a session and I think it'll be much better. Um, but yeah, I mean with like we'd recommend we'd do again, probably feel like, oh, you're crazy. I'm like like, genuinely, hasn't been that, it hasn't been it hasn't been that bad.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you if you can make it past the first 24 hours.
Speaker 1:The rest of it's fine I will say, if you hadn't been doing it, I probably would have been that off. If you hadn't been doing it and I put it out on the internet, I probably would have sucked it off yesterday and just had something.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely no, no question, no, no question. Yesterday, that piece that was being eaten if we weren't in a competition, right?
Speaker 2:now it was absolutely gonna be pizza, there's no question. I think like it was, it was already in my head. I'm like, listen, I might just do this. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, I can't let ben, I can't let ben know this. So you know, and I have to be honest with you, honest, so it's like you know. So, yeah, I was, I wasn't gonna risk that, but if, if, if we weren't in a competition and I hadn't been posting on the internet, I would have been like, yeah, I'm devouring this pizza right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I guess the lesson here for anybody who wants to do 70 or 5 tell someone and get someone to do it with you. Put it on the internet, so you have to do it. Yeah, people are invested. Like I posted on instagram like what should I eat? And people give me endless amount of was. Like, no, this is what I want. I just want to build the boots. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2:So far, that's so good. We're at the home stretch here, so I got what? Six and a half hours to go, six hours to go? We have three, three and three quarters. You're close, very close. I should have started at the same time as you so I could eat right now, but it's all right. I was at the Cavs game. I was like all right, you know, they have some good food there and stuff.
Speaker 1:So I was like all right, whenever I'm eating, I'll record myself and I'll send it to you, or I'll just FaceTime you.
Speaker 2:I was thinking about eating Taco Bell at the first time. No, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:Your digestive system has a break. Your digestive system has a break. It does not need that right now.
Speaker 2:I, I thought maybe it's kind of like a fast because it goes in and out the same calories, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, taco Bell is zero calories. Follow for more follow-ups, right? So this week you want to talk about a video that you watched for Dr Mike on his biceps Dr Mike's amazing best ever bicep training program period.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So Dr Mike came out with a new lift. It's not really a new lift, it's more of a gesture or a joke, but he calls it. I think, something like the Dr Mike's most incredible bicep workout exercise you could possibly do for your entire body and you have to call it that, that the entire time. So, but you know what, what I, and there's a lot of information out there around different types of exercises and which ones are better, which ones are superior, which ones give you the most amount of growth. The truth of the matter is that it does come to feel in many cases of you and your body, and when you start to recognize that, you figure out which exercises work best for you. And so there's a lot of exercises. I'll see like a lot of these influencers or scientific researchers, things like that. They're like this is the best one and I'll do it, and I feel like one. My arms will feel like shit afterwards, like I bend them in weird ways or I feel like I'm not getting enough volume, I can't get enough momentum on them. It's just weird angles, things like that, and maybe it stretches my shoulder in a different way that I just don't like, and so, while they might be acutely sound, to kind of put that muscle in a stretch position and then from there, you know, give you the best benefit. They may not be ideal for you and you know what what Dr Mike was kind of explaining was you really want to continuously load that muscle with as much weight as possible to give you that pump, to give you that feeling of exertion and to fatigue that muscle in the most efficient way possible. And what he would say is he would do all of these crazy bicep workouts that he'd see, or he'd research or study you know, research or study and he'd have to do like an additional, like four or five sets just to equate to what he would normally do and let's just say a bicep routine. That would fatigue the muscle in the same way. So he had to do more for essentially less in those types of of positions.
Speaker 2:And so I think it's important to note that, just because you know a, a lift may have a lot of buzz around it, it may not be the best for you. And what you're doing and what he was talking about in his bicep workout that I thought you know was good, is that you know he was talking about how. You know, bicep curls are still an amazing. You know, dumbbell, bicep curls are still an amazing exercise or workout. You know, just sitting there with dumbbells and lifting them up and putting them down, hammer curls, lifting them up and putting them down, hammer curls, lifting them up and putting them down. You know those are phenomenal workouts that you will feel the burn and the tension and everything else.
Speaker 2:Today at Orange Theory, you know it was bicep workouts and I literally used the 50-pound weights and burned the hell of my muscles out to where I couldn't even lift my muscles up anymore. Right, so you it's. It doesn't mean you have to get super complex and do these massive types of things. But then he goes into the ones he likes and I was like I'm not, I'm not effing, doing like half of these. First of all, one of them was laying down so taking, um, taking a, uh, uh, a rope machine, um, um, what am I? What am I looking for? The not not our brains aren't working like, yeah, a cable machine.
Speaker 1:There we go. That's what I I looking for.
Speaker 2:This is where our brains aren't working like, yeah, a cable machine, there we go. That's what I was looking for. So taking a cable machine and lying straight down and putting your feet on the machine and then doing bicep curls laying completely flat right. So taking like a bar, attaching it to the curl and doing those right, and that's actually a pretty good one because you're isolating the muscles. You have enough torque on your legs to keep that tension moving forward and you can do some heavy weights that way, which I would consider doing.
Speaker 2:That one Incline dumbbell bicep curls really good. So you have an incline position. He said the lower you can go on that incline machine, the better with what you're doing. So sitting in an incline position like you'd be doing like an incline bench press, but keeping your your arms behind you and coming from that stress position up, we'll keep the load on the head of the bicep the most as you're going up and pushing up in that that routine which is, you know, going to be a superior type of thing, cause the amount of stress on that that muscle is is really isolating those biceps.
Speaker 2:And then his magic one, the Mike. You know Dr Mike's most magical exercise movement ever was was a laying down, um, bicep curl, where basically you take, you know, if you take a normal bench and you have the long part of the bench and then the short part where you typically sit your butt at, you move that up just a little bit, where your butt would typically sit up in, and use that as kind of a headrest to keep your head upright and then you do bicep curls that way laying down, which he said was by far his favorite exercise. He could feel the most amount of load on those. He also said using, you know, sitting down, using your knee and using your knees for bicep curls. I can't remember the name of the exercise offhand Concentration curl.
Speaker 2:Concentration curl, thank you. That's why you're here. You know being able to do lower weights with that, to be able to isolate the bicep in that position too, also in a stretched position, very good bicep curl for you to go and do. So you know. Again, you know these ones might be ones you're already doing, might not be. I will say, as of right now, my favorite one is the incline dumbbell bicep curl. I feel like I get an amazing stress position.
Speaker 2:It's also kind of an ego hit as well, because you have to go lighter weight as you're going and doing, because you're in such a backwards position you don't have enough. You know, like if you're just doing normal bicep curls and you're standing up, you know you can get a lot more weight and momentum and movement because you're leveraging portions of your back and your legs and everything else that goes along with that, whereas you can't use any part of your body. In an incline position you're literally focusing on just those biceps and moving those biceps up. So you know, usually when I'm doing those I'm only using, you know, maybe 30 to 35 pounds of weight, where normally a bicep probably doing 50 to 60 pounds on those. So you have to remember, hey, it's not about the, the weight itself.
Speaker 1:it's about how you're using and the types of positions that you're in yeah for sure, and I think that all of those different ways to do a bicep curl, they're manipulating, like, essentially, how your body works. This is where, like, it delves deeply into biomechanics and like understanding where the force comes from, where your strength profile is and other bits and pieces that put that together, which is actually the full 12-week course that I'm going to start I think it's next week um, so I'm excited to play around with that, because I actually had a call with sean earlier on today and he was asking me about the incline dumbbell chest press and what's the best angle. I'm like, well, what's the best angle? It feels for you? Because it's going to be different for me and you and everybody else. So it's like play about with, like how you actually feel it and where you feel it, so understanding, number one, what it is that you're trying to achieve, like what muscle you're contracting and what that actually feels like to contract it. Number two, as you said, with the the land down ones, or even the incline ones, like taking as much of everything else from your body out of it as possible, like no momentum. So, like, obviously, the ones where he's talking about land on the floor with the cable. There's no momentum there, like you have to actually contract your bicep to do it same with the one where he's landing the bench, same as you're talking about with the incline. It's all going to come from your bicep because you're taking everything else as much as possible. You can't swing into it, even the concentration curls. The reason you put your your elbow against your knee is because it's taking any other momentum out, so you're forced to actually use the muscle.
Speaker 1:So playing about with that, but also I think the main part is what one works for you the best, the same as everything that we absolutely talk about the nutrition plan, the way that you eat, your training schedule, your cardio, your steps, like your whole life. It needs to be the thing that works for you. So, yes, dave can sit here and say he really enjoys incline hammer curls and that's cool. But there might be shit for you, and the one that I get to that I get the most from is doing like a single arm dumbbell pre-church, so setting the bench at an angle and putting it, tucking the the bench right into and we did it actually, uh, in your gym with a cable as well that hero photo that ryan took of you many, many years ago. Um, so it because it takes out the momentum and it gives me the best like concentrations for my bicep as well.
Speaker 1:And the other one is doing the standing cable ones, either seated on, either seated on the bench or standing with the pad on my back, because, again, the cable machine that I have downstairs, the pad can go out on your back so you can lean against it and then obviously the cables are coming from behind you and then you get that fully stretched position. There's no momentum in it because you're leaning against the pad and then you have to contract the whole way up. So, just understanding like your muscles will go through a fully lengthened to a fully contracted position and that's what you need to work through essentially, and you can do it in a lot of exercises. You can do it with the one exercise.
Speaker 1:Some muscle groups require you to do one or more exercise. So, for example, if you think about hamstring, you can do the fully lengthened position in an rdl, which is, as we know, my finisher move. Um, but to get the fully contracted position you need to do something like a seated hamstring curl or a line hamstring curl or something. So you need to do two different exercises to get both parts of the, the muscle, in the fully lengthened, fully contracted position.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, mechanistically, what we're looking for here is what can we do in a specific muscle group to target that muscle group in some sort of position that allows it to get that full contraction and the most amount of volume and load on that weight, to create that distress signal in your body, to build more muscle, to build stronger muscle, to add more muscle in the best, most efficient way possible. And you know it, it doesn't always mean copious amounts of volume that you have to put into it and I think if you know, if you're doing so much volume, you're probably not doing the right exercises to hit that muscle group in a way to, to, to fatigue it faster. Right, and you know I attest to the way that I like to lift is just me personally, is the way that I program, the way that you program, but but it's also fully sending it every single time right, it's. You know that that first exercise I'm doing, you know, like, let's just say we're talking about, uh, the programming around, uh, uh, right now, with, with, with, push day. You know, my, one of my first exercises is going to be an incline bench press, uh, incline smith machine press, okay, uh. And there's a another day too where I'm doing, uh, dumbbells as well, but, um, but on that incline, uh, smith, machine press, you know it's it.
Speaker 2:You know we have a couple warm-up sets right, just to kind of get the muscles going. You know feeling good's. You know we have a couple of warmups sets right, just to kind of get the muscles going. You know feeling good, everything else, you know, to kind of get yourself a little bit heated. And then the next set is going to be an extremely heavy set, and then I'm going to have a back offset right. So when I'm doing and this is just the program I'm going through right now, I'm not saying you have to follow the same't push anymore and I'm almost dying right and and but, but at that time I'm fully exerting myself and my muscles. At point I'm gonna push, push the most amount of load as fast as possible into there, and then I do a back offset, you know, of lighter weight again until I can't do any more. So you know, let's just say, you know my first set's gonna be, you know, like to be, not today.
Speaker 2:My last push set was what, saturday. So Saturday, on my push set I loaded up 300 onto my bench and I did six reps of those and I was about six and a half. I was getting up and I was failing, right, and I'm getting there and I can't get up. And then I kind of and a half I was getting up and I was failing, and I'm getting there and I can't get up, and then I kick my arch and arch my back up more and I cheat a bit to get the rest of it up there, just to get that last little inch and I was able to get that seventh set or rep into there. But I was fatigued. At that point I could feel that pump already starting to hit my chest. I could feel I could feel my chest already feeling fatigue just from one set.
Speaker 2:Then my back offset was what I consider kind of the extreme pump, right, because now you're putting a lot more volume in a place. So instead of doing 300, you know I drop I take two. You know 45s off, you know I take. So I'm taking 90 pounds off. So I'm only sitting at 210 and I'm repping out until I can't go and I can probably hit. You know I think I hit like 14 of those and I'm dying at the end of that. You know I can't get it up and again I have to arch my back just to get it up, you know, to be able to do it, and in two sets my muscles are fried, right, but then I still have, by the way, you know, two or three more exercises to go after that. So you know you can be way efficient in what you're doing and not have to do, you know, 15 sets on a muscle group, you know a exercise.
Speaker 2:I'd probably say that that's counterproductive. You know, for me I'm trying to stay now around the eight to nine set range of what I'm doing in a given time. And those last sets, by the way, are typically kind of the burner set, so like chest flies, for example, right. So you know, chest flies, I'm just kind of depleting the rest of what I have in my chest to get all those out. And I'm usually, I usually start heavier and go lighter. So I, you know, by the time I get to that last set and my first set of my chest flies, the last rep, you know I'm exhausted, right. So I have to go down and wait to get the same type of rep range that I want to, because I'm already fatigued that point. So I keep just going down basically. It's like essentially running the rack, for lack of a better term.
Speaker 1:Um running the rack on a test flight like pack deck is serious like it is here. That's the best.
Speaker 2:If you ever want to get the best disco pump of your life on a chest like, just go downstairs and just run the rack, chest fly, you will have you.
Speaker 1:Everybody be like damn, he's got some, some, some nice boobs, you know like I will say like I'll have to put a caveat in here because this is cool for us to say and I think that being able to do that is a learned skill like if this is your first time ever listening to a podcast and you've never been in a gym before, do not do this like. You need to learn how to actually do the movement, contract the muscle and feel it. Like people could go and do eight reps and not actually feel the muscle. So if you're earlier on in your training career like I'm always a fan of more sets, more reps just actually learn the movement. Like literally put the reps in to to feel it. But I agree like this is my preferred way of training too. It's like one set that you just fucking send it on and then a back off set. There's no like fluffing about with three or four sets doesn't need to be a lot. It's just you give a lot to the stuff that you're doing.
Speaker 1:And actually had another call with a client earlier and his training set up the minute that there's five exercises per session. I was like I reminded him again today. I was like there are only five exercises. You sure shit should be sending every single fucking one of those because there is only five. Yeah, I think that that's the important thing. So it is a learned skill. You do need to be able to contract them. You need to understand what actually going to failure is because, again, if you're new to the gym, like your mental failure will come before your physical failure. So, learning to see what that actually feels like and understand, like what you can actually push to.
Speaker 2:So if it's your first day in the gym and it's january and you're just starting out, don't do what they said that my mind muscle connection takes time to develop right and and I've talked about this before the podcast my chest was the hardest one. For me to develop the relationship with my chest right. It was the hardest. My chest just fought me. It never wanted to communicate, never wanted to talk to me. I was upset, upset. I'm trying to talk to you right now. It was a very hostile relationship.
Speaker 2:It would not and honestly it's funny because it wouldn't grow either. My chest was the worst developed area that I had in my body for the longest time until I just switched strictly to incline. All I do now is incline and chest flies period. Just build that upper chest up. But I'll tell you a couple of quick hacks that I learned to develop that relationship. So on chest flies, so you want to be in a stressed position, so you want your shoulders to be back right. You want to feel that stretch in your shoulders because that's going to stretch out your pecs, to be in that stressed position and it's most vulnerable slash, most tension.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to say that that picture of you right now is the one that I'm going to put for the thumbnail, and you're like this just so you know, hold it, hold it, hold my.
Speaker 2:But when you're, if you're watching us on the, on the on YouTube stream, you'll see this. But I'm, I'm, I'm, go all the way in to where they're touching their hands. Okay, you want to touch your hands, but I also want you to do is, when you're coming up, rotate the palms inward like this and come in and really push that chest out. When I do that, I feel a completely different contraction. So if I just go like this in a stress position and I come up and I do my chest, yes, I feel it. But when I do this, I really feel it because I'm, I'm kind of. It's almost like a scooping motion underneath, where my arms are kind of coming underneath, like this in that machine, and it causes the chest to just really freak the heck out and I and I can feel it, but ten times more than not just doing that.
Speaker 1:That's trying to get into the fully contracted position. So the way that I used to coach it when I coach face-to-face was like imagine that you're trying to almost bring your elbows underneath your chest to like bring it up as if you're trying to present your cleavage. That's how you switch it, if you think about fully extended, as you said, and as you rotate in, so internally rotate your, so you think about your thumb, bring your thumb up and internally rotate through your shoulder and then try and bring your elbows together. That's when you get the most contraction from that. But yeah, I agree, and even that muscle connection, like I'm sure you can do it too, like I can feel the connection right there I can feel.
Speaker 2:As soon as I do it, the entire chest is locked in Right and the same thing by the. The way you can do on that pack deck machine is the rear delts. So when you're doing rear flies on the machine, what I want you to do is is is kind of and dr mike actually talked about this and this is how I kind of learned this one is is is think about grabbing as as far out as you can and that you're you're like literally reaching as far as you can outward and you're reaching all the way out.
Speaker 1:So when you're doing that he talks about turning in his money. That's exactly what he talks about Turning in your money, yep.
Speaker 2:So you reach out as far as you can and extend your arms as far as you can. As you're going through that range of motion. You're going to get a better contraction on your rear delts doing that because, again, you're stretching that muscle as far as it can go in its most vulnerable state, putting the most amount of load into it and how that muscle is designed to work. That you're going to notice. You're going to feel your rear delts really hitting that fire. Motion, that fire, that fire feeling that you get um and um with the lactic acid buildup and everything else um in in that specific type of movement. You can do that for for very similar motions of movement. So like when I'm doing uh, incline, uh, um, dumbbell presses, I do the same thing, you know, when I'm coming up, when I rotate, I kind of rotate downward and I keep my elbows inward as I'm coming through and I push up again and I'm doing kind of the same thing as I would be, you know, on that chest fly as well, trying to get as much as I'm holding my chest again, um, but they all work the same way. Same thing for legs, right, you know. Same thing for for your, your glutes and your hammies, um, your quads, um, you know, everything works in the same way mechanistically. So it's it's trying to find that, that exercise where you can really feel that burn. And that's why, for me, like, like, um, hack squats work really, really, really well, because from a quad perspective, my feet are further outward. Um, you know, in that motion and as I'm coming downward, it's putting all that load onto my quads and I'm not using my back, you know, to be able to like, if you're doing a squat, you're obviously using your spinal erector, you're using your erectors, using, you know, large portions of your body and your back, your spinal erector. You're using your erectors, using, you know, large portions of your body and your back, um, you're using your glutes and your hamstrings as well, um, but in a hack squat position you're literally eliminating almost all of that, just completely putting that load on the quads.
Speaker 2:And I have that, um, the the rogue ISO leg press, and I'm not typically a leg press fan, um, I don't like leg press machines, uh't feel like I get as much load on the quads, but with that ISO leg press machine I do, because I can kind of torque my body a little bit and I can get that exact position to where my leg now is fully. You know, my quad is in a fully contracted state as I'm pushing up and I get some amazing burn on my quads now because of that. And you can also play, um, play with your leg placements, um, on on the uh, where your, where your feet go, on the on the front of the leg, press on the plate and um, you can hit different muscle groups too. You can have, you can make leg press machines, um, predominantly, you know, gluten hammy focused versus quad focused or a combination of both. So if you, you know gluten hammy focused versus quad focused or a combination of both.
Speaker 2:So if you, you know, if you're, you know in a, in a hurry and you don't have enough time for like another exercise, like an RDL or something you can do, a leg press that will also burn out your glutes and hammies and your quads at the same time. So there's a lot of cool things you can do to play with, you know your exercises to get the most amount of value for the most amount of time, the most bang for your buck. But, as Ben had mentioned, this requires you know being knowledgeable in the gym, getting that mind muscle connection with what you're doing and you know, as you start off with this, more reps in the, you know, eight to 12, eight to 15 rep range are going to be more, much more desirable for you starting off than not, and then from there kind of progressing and seeing how you go from there for sure.
Speaker 1:And top tip on the like press, like a quick like thought of how to do quads versus hamstrings. If you go narrow and whenever you're doing it, imagine pushing your foot up the plate you're going to get more quad focus. And if you go slightly wider and imagine dragging your heel down the plate, it's going to get more hamstring glute focus yep, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:When I'm doing mine, typically because I'm focusing on quad, my, my feet are are higher up and closer together, um, and and there's, there's a sweet spot there for me, because if I'm too close, my range of motion, because I'm so long, gets cut back, so I can't go back as far. So I have to keep it kind of in between, close and spread a little bit, because my, my range of motion is cut a bit, cause if my knees just come directly back, um, then I I'm not able to get a good range of motion on that, but if they're just out a little bit more, my knees are kind of bent inward a little bit. I am able to push back much further still, hitting the quads predominantly, but also not hitting the glutes and hammies, and so it's, it's, it's feeling what works best for you. And my body type is different. I'm six, four, I'm basically all arms and legs, um, you know I have to be able to do it. It's funny.
Speaker 2:My son Gavin, he's now uh, wait till you see him, dude, he, he's as tall as you and me. Like, he's, he's, he's, he's a, he's a lengthy boy, and you know he's getting back into lifting again and I'm trying to show him all of these, these techniques, and it's. It's great because I can show him what works for me, because it works for him, cause he's the exact same body type as well. He's, he's just a rail Like. He's got no muscle mass whatsoever, yet he's working on it. But my son, mason, I, have to teach differently because he's shorter, his limbs are shorter. So when I'm teaching him certain movements, I have their positions in different locations based on the body types that I'm working with on them, because things like chest fly, for example, that'll be the same across the board, based on stretch position when you start getting into your legs and things like that, even like flies and things like that are different mechanically with shorter people versus longer people.
Speaker 2:Because my arms are so long I have to go so far up and so far down as I'm going and doing it. Um, you know there's things you can do to kind of um, help that a bit like angling yourself a little bit one way and going up, you know, putting a little bit more strain on that or the other way, you know putting a little more strain on, on your, on your deltas. You're coming through if you're using, uh, dumbbells, um, I, I actually prefer when I'm doing um, if I'm doing dumbbell lat raises, I actually do it on, uh, the bench and I hang over the bench and I do it that way, so I take my back completely out of out of play as I'm going and doing it. Um, I don't prefer like I I almost never now do dumbbell lat raises, period, I don't like them. I like the cable machine with the wrist strap.
Speaker 2:To me, that is like the cheat code lat raise that you could possibly do for your delts, because you're putting continual tension. So you think about it crossing your body and you can use just a normal hand grip as well. You don't have to use a strap, but just taking the grip and putting it across your body and you're already in a stress position for your delt. So even if I look at this right now, just what I'm doing, my delt is popping out right now, it is in a stress position, it is engaged right now as I'm doing this and I don't even have any weights on it, right, and you have weights on it right, and you have weights on it and as you start to come up because the cable is putting that constant tension on your body. You're going to have the same amount of weight as you're coming up through the whole range of motion and as you get up to here, this is going to be the least amount of weight that you're going to have on your shoulder, but still it's pulling down, still engaging that side delt as you're coming through and doing it.
Speaker 2:And so, again, you know it's a great, great type of thing and you can do them too, by the way, with two. You know you do cross body and you can do two kind of coming up like this as well. I prefer to do single arm and kind of putting my hand on the, my left hand on the machine, and then kind of to stabilize my body, so I'm not using my back as much. You can also do it again, um, you do the same thing on a, on a, uh, on a bench, so you completely eliminate, um, your ability to use your back, but I like to put my hand on it and you can do it also sit, uh, uh, kneeling on your knees, uh, which also again takes a lot of that, that, uh, that back motion out of it, and again just getting that, that full stretch into that position, that load onto that, that side belt and being able to build it that way again, really, really cool.
Speaker 1:Uh, movement and exercise to actually work through on your, on your side belts have you got you to try the dr mike super range of motion, lateral raises yet?
Speaker 2:no, what's that?
Speaker 1:we'll save that, we'll leave that for a couple weeks weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, that was. That was kind of the main main point of today was like hey, look at the types of exercises you're doing and is it the most efficient for what you're actually accomplishing and what are ways that you can improve, getting away with less, right? You know loading the muscle more and being more efficient at what you're doing, and you know like there there are certain movements like, for example, I bought a preacher curl machine um, just the bench, and I don't like it. Um, I don't, I don't like it. Uh, for me personally, and I know, um a lot of people do, but I feel like I'm hurting my arms as I'm going and doing it. It feels unnatural for me as I'm going and doing it. I have a preacher curl machine that locks the back of my tricep into position and allows me to isolate my bicep. I get a much better pump that way than I do with preacher curls. Again, that works best for me because of a machine and a lot of times machines are far superior than actual dumbbells and things like that. I'm not saying across all of it, but machines many times can be phenomenal for what you're doing.
Speaker 2:If you look at Jay Cutler. Jay Cutler only uses machines. He will do barbell, back squats and things like that as a finisher for the end, but really his entire exercises are all on machines, period. You look at Ronnie Coleman exact opposite. I don't think he ever uses a machine. So it's what your personal preference is, what works best for you. But at the end of the day, trying to find that best type of exercise that works for you to grow that muscle and to give the most amount of strain to get you that feel, that burn the fatigue to where you can't get it again, you get that amazing pump. That's what we're trying to go for, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly that, exactly that. And I think that the biggest thing, even with machines, like play about with the position of yourself, like I'll challenge you whenever I'm there about that preacher, like the bench version, I think we can make it work. But it's just about playing about with not being totally sold on the little sassy man that's on the plaque of the machine, like you don't need to look like him, like you can play about with that to make it Cool, Right?
Speaker 2:Well, that was it for this podcast. Everybody. Hope you enjoyed it. We're. We're now. Uh, I am now 65 hours and 31 minutes into my fast, so I'm getting pretty darn close here.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm 69 minutes and four, 69 hours and 45 minutes, so we're almost there. I will keep you posted on the food.
Speaker 2:Yep. Well, thanks for listening. Tune in next week for an amazing podcast and catch you all later. Thank you, guys, again very much. And if you haven't checked it out, hacking Health we just did a new blog post on the science driven approach to our supplement brand. So, checking out HackingHealthcom, go to the blog section. We break down a lot of the ins and outs of the ingredients we use, why we use them, everything else and of course, you know full transparency on everything we do and you know we'll give a little bit of teaser. We have some new things launching here very shortly and some really big announcements coming that have been multiple years in the making. Can't wait to talk about it soon. But just a quick teaser and hope you enjoy what we're doing here. And, you know, definitely share us around with your friends and family and friends and folks and things like that.
Speaker 1:So thank you all, see you in the next one, see ya.