Episode 35: Myth or Fact? Fitness Edition #2 with Damien Michel, MS, CSCS, CPT and Brendan Adams, CPT
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Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
All right, everyone. Today's episode we'll be doing another edition of Mr. Fact Fitness edition. And we are joined by two previous guests, Brendan and Damien. If you listen to episodes eleven and 16, you probably these names sound familiar to you. And if not, go back and listen to those after this episode. Brandon and Damien are both personal trainers. They both work currently in the fitness world. So they really gave a great perspective on some very common fitness myths. So if you guys are wanting more perspective on the fitness side of things, this is a great episode for you. Enjoy.
Participant #1:
Alrighty. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Upbeat Dietitian podcast. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Pod. Today we are joined by two guests you have heard from before. We have two of our favorite fitness I don't want to say influencers. That sounds like a bad thing. Fitness trainers Damien and Brendan. So guys, thank you for joining us today. Happy here. Okay, well, we will jump right in. Today we're talking about fitness myth. Emily and I had a podcast on this earlier this season. I forget what episode it was, but we'll link it down in the description. But that was just from our perspective. So today we want to get a perspective from some personal trainers and see their thoughts on controversial fitness questions as well. So let's get right into it. Our first one is the myth that men and women should do different types of exercise. So guys, what are your thoughts on this one? We got a thumbs down from Brendan. That's a Dubble down. We're doubling down on this. That's right. You want to go first? Yeah, I got you, man. So with this, I always like to try my best to find the origin of them so we can kind of understand the context. Right. This one from my understanding is kind of just like I guess you could say stereotypical cultural thing of like, men do this, women do this, and of course, go on and on hold. Other podcasts, people smarter than me talking about men and women differences. But overall, when it comes to training, what we see is that men and women tend to respond pretty much the exact same way when you equate things like body composition in terms of muscle mass. Right. So I think the origin is like, hey, women need to have the hourglass figure. Men need to be wide at the shoulders and narrow at the hips, right. So that's kind of like the perception of, oh, you want to look like this, you got to train this way when in reality, training should just be based on your goals, your preferences, your timetable, et cetera. So anyone who says like, hey, you're a woman, so you can't do these exercises, you're a man. This is going to be better for you. Number one, that's not true. So I would caution that advice. And then number two, as I mentioned, we got some cool research that shows like guys are girls. People might say, oh, women because of testosterone is hard to gain muscle mass. No, actually I'll throw a study to Hanna and Emily showing that if anything, from what we have, women might do a little bit better with getting stronger organic muscle mass, relatively speaking. Right. Obviously, you're not going to get more Jack than a stereotypical man, but you have maybe a greater capacity, if not equal, across the board. That's interesting. I did not know about that correlation there. That's really cool. Yeah, the study, it was like a small effect size. And I'm going to guess it was probably just like an outlier that study. But it's cool to see that because it's just kind of like a spit in the face of that kind of myth. It's like, hey, overall probably is equal just in this one example. Look, it was even higher. So take that. Brendan, what are your thoughts on this question or dismiss? Yeah, absolutely. First, I'll say this is why the Damien trains me, because that man just knows his stuff. I have a couple of physique clients where I work right now that they do want to look like a very specific way. So I will have some of my female clients that want to look like that hourglass shape, do some things that are obviously different than what I have. My guys that want to look like big arms, wide, broad shoulders, certain clients want specific physiques. And like most bodybuilders will do, you will just work those muscle groups a little bit more than the others. So you will only really be training differently, like Daniel said, for your goals specifically. But it's not going to be a gender issue here. It's going to be what do I want to look like? What do I want to grow? And then how do I implement that? So I really have like an hourglass program just in a way that I made for some of my clients where they do a lot of laughs, they do a lot of glutes. That's what they want to grow. So they hit that like three times a week compared to like the normal two. So that's pretty much my two cent for what Damian didn't already cover in great detail. So it will matter. But for your specific goal, not just like, am I a guy? Am I a girl? Right. You could have a guy do that hourglass figure style workouts if they wanted to. But I know most guys aren't looking for the hourglass figures, so that's where the discrepancy is for sure. Booty for the boys. We got a short friend.
Participant #1:
That's right, 600. Thank you. You wrote the program. Not expecting this to become a hip thrusting competition, but I'm glad that it happened. We never know what direction it's going to go with Brendan and Damien. That's so true. Absolutely. So kind of then going into our next myth to debunk is you should exercise in the morning for the best results. I think I've heard a lot about timing of exercise, and I'm typically I know Hannah and I talk a lot about it from probably a nutrition feeling perspective, like eating around that. But from the perspective of getting the most out of your workout, is this statement true? So I'm sure Damien, like we were in the last question. We'll cover a lot more of the science behind this. The man reads way more research studies than I could even fathom. Essentially, my two cent on the subject is it depends on how intense your goals are and what kind of fitness goals you're aiming to achieve. If you are just looking to start out and you're not a morning person, do not work out in the morning. Go after work when you feel like you're going to want to go find what works in your schedule and your routine that will get you in there first and then if you're like, oh, cool. I just enjoy working out. I don't care what time of the day it will be. Then you can start to go into the little nitty gritty details of all these studies that will benefit you in the long run. But it's so minuscule. It's not a deep that we need to worry about when first getting into the gym, if that makes sense. Yeah, totally agree. That's what we always say about almost every topic, Emily, is like, just find what works for you. If you don't like broccoli, don't eat broccoli. Have another green vegetable instead. There's no one perfect way to do it. But you're right. Damian will probably be the one to go over like the science behind why there are certain times that are beneficial. If you are one who is genuinely curious, like, I don't care if I go in the morning or later in the day, just tell me which one I do better for me. Yeah, absolutely. And first off, Brennan is really smart and he actually simplifies things a lot better than I do. So take that for what that's worth. But kind of to go into the reasoning. Why? Because I couldn't have said it better myself. When you think about again, going back to the origin, where does this kind of idea come from? When people say you got exercise in the morning or maybe it's better at night, right. Where does that idea come from? In my experience, it's been like a hormonal thing. Typically I see it. I don't haven't seen too much regard for women. Maybe just like bias in the media I consume. But I've seen a lot with men where it's like your testosterone is generally high in the morning, although it can fluctuate throughout the day. But also other hormones like insulin and cortisol, they have different times in which they fluctuate. So if I train at a certain time and I can maximize those things, will that promote better gains? It's kind of the big thing am I maximizing out of patients? So I'm going to focus on three main ones real quick. Testosterone, insulin, cortisol, of course, not necessarily being a hormone per se, but focusing on those three, I guess, physiological aspects of your body. So disaster is a tricky one. The first big thing to think about is like this is a whole other podcast, but hormone levels fluctuate so much throughout the day and then the range for certain ones is so ridiculous. I'm not a doctor, first and foremost, and I'm not reading people's testosterone levels. But testosterone for men can range roughly between 300 to about 900 nanograms for dear, that's a really big window. Right. And if I read your testosterone at one point part of the day and then at another point of day, it could be drastically different. So this is what makes it complicated, like with TRT or like finding out someone has low TV, right. It's not as simple as one blood test. You're low and then you get Medicaid. So the premise is testosterone is generally high in the morning. So that should work out because testosterone is high, right? It's tricky. There's a lot of things that can boost testosterone. This may sound a little silly, and again, these are just studies, but not with a grain of salt. But things like certain stimulants can temporarily boost testosterone. Caffeine, nicotine. So technically, if you want to get down, there is the potential where smoking a cigarette can boost your testosterone in a short span of time. Now, does that mean that cigarette smoking is anabolic and you're going to gain muscle mass? Absolutely not. Right. So understanding that short term. Yeah. Prospect. No, understanding that, like, short term boost in hormones does not mean long term gains. It's just the fluctuation throughout the day. Insulin kind of. I'm sure anonymity can talk about this in great details, and I can, but you can think about it as simply as your body's way of regulating sugar. And it's looked at as kind of like this anabolic assistor in your body. I believe some people even use it as kind of a supplement or a substitute for steroid, which is kind of interesting, but it is high post meals. So again, depending on the time of day, it changes. And again, it may not really matter, like when you train for insulin, if that's what you're looking for. Last one is cortisol stress hormones. We know about it. He gets a bad rap when he's actually a very important hormone for our body. There's even some research showing that maybe cortisol helps with the muscle remodeling process, which we need to grow. So people always think cortisol is bad. I want to work out when it's low, but when you work out, your cortisol goes up no matter what you do, and then it might help with the repair process. So wouldn't worry about it too much. So big takeaway. Just because your hormones are elevated or lower acutely doesn't mean it has any impact. Chronically so good. That stuff like hormones, I just don't love them. I feel as a dietitian, I have to really master them, and it's so overwhelming to me, to be honest. So that was, like, mind blowing to me. I love that. That was so good. I see. So our next myth to debunk is a very popular one. So very simply put, are ABS built in the kitchen or in the gym? And why we'll rotate? Who goes first? Damien, how's that sound? So you go first this time? I thought we were at that point in this relationship, this friendship, man. We're like, we already established that. I knew you were going next, so I was waiting for you, big dog. Oh, well, you would have gone next. I'll just go, how's that sound, guys? It's going to be both right? You can't just never activate your abdominal muscles and just eat super clean and expect to have muscles pointed out. Abdominal muscles are still muscles. We have to remember that constantly are like, oh, yeah, I just got to get a six pack. Like, those are still muscles. You still need to work them like normal muscles. So if I'm trying to get a client that wants, like, better core strength instead of giving them starting with a 1 minute plank and then go into, like, a 20 minutes plank, that's working their muscle endurance, I'll put a plate on their back and have them work on strengthening those muscles with more weight, more resistance, just like normal muscles. So if you want them to pop a little bit like you with a bicep or adult, you still need to activate them to a certain degree. Now, as a power lifter, I don't do a lot of core because I brace so hard on a lot of my lifts and have utilized that aspect of my core strength. If I'm doing a set of twelve months squats, I'm bracing my core for a while. Thanks, David. I know how that feels. Very recently. It sucks. We're like my ABS hurt after a set of squats because I'm breathing so effectively with my core. So you have to think about that in the gym. But also you can't outwork a bad diet. So you do have to be a decently low body fat percentage as well in order for your ABS to show there are a lot of strong men who have a lot of fat on the outer side of their belly. So they don't look that they have ABS, but their core strength is insane. So it's got to be a little bit of both. Yeah, I agree. Definitely. What Brendan said, I would say visible ABS are built in both. Right. So the strong man example was perfect. Sometimes you can kind of see the outline of it, but at the end of the day, it's a training thing to emphasize them, but it's a body composition thing to visibly see them. The only other thing I would really add is there's a huge genetic factor to it. Some people just genetics plays a role in body composition, but also plays a role in anatomy. Right. Where some people it's like how close their skin is to their muscle and like the way the whole water is different. Some people have a four pack and some people have an eight pack, like, just genetically how it looks. So genetics is kind of only that last little piece I'd add on top.
Participant #1:
Forgotten. I usually hammer that one home because it's huge. Some people just I've had apps since I was, like, born. Essentially, I was a skinny kid that always had ABS. Yeah. Call me out. I came out of the womb with a six pack. That was an image.
Participant #1:
That'd be great, though. There are some three year old kids that are, like, shredded because the gymnastics already is the same. Oh, yeah. Another podcast for a different day. I can't even describe the visual that just put into my head. That's great. All right. Yeah, that was great. Thank you guys for that one. Yeah. I think I'm really excited for this next myth that we'll talk about because I think it's kind of up there. I think we might have talked about sweating in our last myth or fact one and this. I feel like it kind of correlates with that, just in the sense from a success rate. But the statement is Doms a good indicator. Domsindicates a good workout. And as we learned last time, and I remember I struggled through this, what Dom stood for. But it is delayed onset muscle soreness. Thinking out of HK classes, really retaining that knowledge. But yeah. Is Dom a good indicator for a good workout? Put it in one word, none. Deal, right? Yeah. The take home thing, people think like, well, I'm sore, means it was hard, means it was a good workout. And this is actually one of my pet peeves. When it comes to programming. I always tell people anyone can make you Puke or be sore. It takes a trainer to make a good program that's going to help you, right? So if I told you we are all relatively fit, we work out somewhat regularly. If I said tomorrow we're doing 100 burpees, followed by an hour on the bike of heavy resistance, I guarantee you we'd all be pretty sore. Does that mean that we're out of shape or that it was a good workout? No, it just means that it's a crap tone of work that we're not used to. And so that's what Dom is, right? Doms is that feeling of excess muscle damage not always a bad thing. Sometimes it's just you're new to training and then it's like, hey, this is what happens. It's to be expected. But I always tell people if you have a coach in your programming or if you're programmed for yourself, and after two or three weeks, if you're still feeling like severe DOMS, check your program. The only real time that you should have major changes is the first couple of weeks you start. If you make a major change, like, you go from one type of training to another, like, you swap out the exercise, you swap out the training parameters because it's a brand new stimulus, or if there's just your programming, like, all over the place and you have these huge jumps in training volume, you're changing the exercise every day, which probably isn't the best thing for particular goal that you might be chasing. The last thing I forgot to mention, I just thought of if you got everything checked off, like, my program is good, everything like that, maybe your coverage is not very good where you aren't sleeping or getting proper nutrition. Yeah, I was going to say nutrition. That's probably a big one too. That is often neglected for sure. I'm glad you brought that up. We literally have gone across that in my training with Damien since he makes my workout program stop. And I feel like trash and I think it's my nutrition. I'll fix it for a couple of days and I'll be like, wow, I feel a lot better. My recovery feels a lot better. Isn't it crazy that what I put into my body can actually affect the way I feel and my performance? Why crazy? Yeah. What are you guys'thoughts on people who say that the hardest part of, like, being a generally fit person is the nutrition? Do you agree with that or do you think it's more the fitness side of things. The exercise. Oh, that really just depends on what kind of person you are, because some people love to Cook. I hate cooking. For me, it is 100%. I hate cooking. I literally just had fried chicken and fries before the podcast started. That's like my cheat meal. I've been good the past week. I felt a lot better. But nutrition is just tough for a lot of people. Some of us just don't like to Cook or like, we really like certain foods, but it's all about balance. Like, I allow myself to eat that fried chicken because I've been good. I want a little snack. I'm not going to want fried chicken for a little while now because I usually don't feel great after and it usually affects my performance. I will see what the squats go tomorrow, Damien. But some people are just really good at cooking. They love to Cook. My mother's a great example. She just hates sweating. She doesn't like to sweat. So the actual workout portion of that aspect is so much tougher. Whereas she loves to Cook, so she'll Cook something happily and it'll be healthy, but just can't actually do the work out. Different people have different tastes. I feel like for most people who are working out fairly consistently, the harder part is going to be their nutrition, because they usually just don't know what they're doing. Because not a lot of us truly have cooked amazingly our entire lives. Yeah, I was just curious. I see that on like, TikTok a lot. They're like the hardest part of becoming a fitness guru or whatever isn't the gym, it's the nutrition. So I was just curious if you guys have thoughts around that one. Yeah, I agree with Brandon. Yeah. Any more thoughts on Dom before we move on to our next one? No. Dame knocked it out of the park, so we can go ahead and move on. Okay, sounds good. This one's a good one too. I think they're all good ones. These are all very common questions, but I'm excited for your thoughts on this one as well. So question is or I guess I'll put it in the form of the statement, the myth, your knees shouldn't go past your toes when you squat. Why is this not true? I got this. So have you ever noticed that people have different physiques and sizes and not everyone has even the same like sized head? I got a bigger head than Damien does. Not everyone has the same bio. We can't just put it into an exact science where like, you need to be here, here we have our guidelines, but there's no specific form that's going to work for every individual person. We just have some really good tips and cues that are the best for performance and safety. I'm definitely not going to tell you to push your knees in when you squat. They're not going to be people that do that. That's where biomechanics breaks down to those severities. But some people just have incredibly long legs, and I have a large femur and their knees might suck over their toes when they squat. But then you ask your client, if I'm working with a client, I'm a trainer, and I go, how's that feel? And they're like, oh, it felt great. And then they never complained about knee pain because we're doing a program safely and effectively. Maybe their body just does that. And as long as they're doing the basic things, like keeping their feet down when they squat, like their heels on the ground, if you're squatting on your toes and your knees are trekking over, that's probably going to be a lot of knee pressure. But essentially each person is different. That's something to keep in mind with both nutrition and fitness in every realm is that everybody is different. So you have to treat everybody different. Yeah, I like it, man. The different anatomy is a big thing. But I don't have data on this. I got to speak on this portion of it. And then I'll kind of go into the origin of it. Yeah. Most people, when I watch them get past 90 degrees in their squat, their toes at the very least come or their knees come to where their toes are or go past. That's just how it is if you go below 90 degrees. And yeah, the test I always give someone like, I do this in my prep course sometimes because a lot of people come in with that myth of like, oh, yeah, your knees shouldn't track past your toes in a squat, a lunch, whatever. I'm like, here's what I want you all to do. I want you all to take we'll usually go up to a box or something that goes up to that knee height, and that way their upper body can still move forward. And I'll say, I want you all to squat, pull your toes up to that box, and I want you to squat without your knees touching that box. And all of them try and stay upright as best they can. Eventually their knees touch or they have to fall backwards. So from a balance perspective, like the knees for most people will just eventually track forward to kind of balance out there, the back part of their body, and the theme are tracking forward. The origin of this kind of this actually has a direct origin, which is pretty cool. There is a Duke study out in 1978 looking at shearing courses. Shearing courses, if I remember correctly, are compression going down and then moving perpendicular to parallel to each other. Excuse me, once they're down and then they go here. So kind of like you can think of almost like a grinding action, which sounds bad when you think about it. And it was thought that, well, because the shearing force on the knee is extremely high when they go past the toes. That must be bad for the knee joint. So my question here is, number one, why is stress bad? Because whenever we go to the gym and we train ourselves, we stress our body. So I think there's an issue with saying that stress on a particular joint is bad. I think we have this fear when it comes to exercise that putting stress or pressure on your back, on your desk, on your elbows, on your shoulders is bad. No, it's not. Your body is meant to deal with stress and you adapt through stress. The issue is stress that isn't regulated properly, meaning you don't progress over time in a gradual way. You go from never training before throwing 135 on the bar and you squat. Ask the grass for ten reps and you're like, wow, my knees hurt because my knees went past mine. I was like, no, it's because you squatted ass the grass and you haven't done it before. Right? So that study kind of caught fire and they're like, wow, shearing force greater than when you don't go past your toes. This isn't good, but biomechanically, if you want to get better benefit from your exercise, you train the whole range of motion. And if you train with the stress properly, you actually have greater adaptation. Also another study, I can't remember the name of it exactly. But they were also looking at like during the hip joint, if you don't go past your toes, the stress, the shear stress on your hip joint goes up by an absurd amount. I think it's like, yeah, I got right here. It's about increase in sheer core. So if you don't go past your toes, your hip gets the stress. If you do go past your toes, your knee gets the stress. So it's like, if that's true, you lose either way. So then what? Just don't lift? No, it's silly. Yes. Double edged sword, for sure. I feel like this podcast is going to be great for people who lift weights or want to lift weights and have these common questions and also for maybe new trainers who didn't know why your knee shouldn't go past your toes. So a lot of good target audiences here. This is great. Okay, we have one last myth to debunk, and this one really probably isn't much science. There is a lot of science that needs to be talked about to answer this. But the myth is that the step machine. So you guys know at the gym, like the stair separate thing where you're just like walking on stairs in one area for however long. Is that the best for, shall I say, hashtag booty goals? Interesting. I thought when you said the step machine, I was thinking for some reason I always see people do like the assisted chin dip and they step down on it, which is kind of like the same thing. You're talking like a StairMaster master. Got you. I mean, you will put a specific amount of volume in your glutes when you do it. However, when you're doing it, you're probably working for muscular endurance because you are constantly stepping. Unless you're someone who does, like, take a step up, for example, you do a weighted step up that's going to help you so much more build muscle, because if you're going to add weight and add more weight over time, whereas unless you're adding weight to your StairMaster workouts, oh, my God. But then once you get to a certain amount of time, you're going to be working so much more aerobically and it's not going to be as good for muscle building specifically. So again, kind of like my ABS answer, where I give my clients weighted planks instead of just progressing their plank in length if they want to build muscle is you want to do things that are more effective where you build volume over time in those muscle groups where you will probably see a small amount of booty games when you still do muscular endurance and you keep going on that StairMaster and you're really stuck in your hips and activating those glutes while you go up. But it's not going to be the most effective in the shortest amount of time. But you will have some people that have seen some progress with it because of their genetics as to what they're doing. And like, imagine if they were doing the right things, how much faster they could or how much more muscle they could gain. And you'll have those people do those because it's easier to just hold onto machine for 20 minutes and just like, zone out doing the exact same thing than it is to lift some heavier weights when you're not used to it, especially and progressively go heavier and heavier over time. Have to worry about a bunch of other stuff. So it will be effective, but just not as effective as a lot of other things could be. And I wouldn't recommend if you're trying to grow your glutes specifically, do some hip thrusts and do some actual weighted step ups. Weighted step ups are another great one. You can activate a lot of gluten weighted step up same motion. Just you're progressing it toward muscle building instead of muscular endurance and or cards. You endurance step ups are killer. I never really feel it in the glutes unless I do a step up like that. Those get me going. I also really like how you mentioned that it seems much easier to just do it for like 20 minutes because I feel like StairMaster is pretty straightforward. You just go up the stairs. Most of us have done it. Yeah. But actually step ups and hip thrust, that takes a bit more knowing about like, where should I place the bars or how should I be holding weights? And that's weight. Yeah. That's not quite as straightforward, user friendly as a StairMaster. Weeds are also becoming, I guess, more of the norm nowadays than they used to be. But I mean, for years, most of us, we're all in our 20s, right. Years ago, I have some trainers that I work with that are their 30s, 40s. And they're like, yeah, I mean, cardio was just like what we had a lot of our clients do. It was just go, go more science that even for fat loss, muscle building is very effective. And a lot of my clients see some fat loss with their muscle building goals just because weight lifting is actually really effective for both. So we've changed our knowledge a lot. And stairs are good cardio. So when that machine was brought in, it was very well thought, just, oh, cool. It's just like it's comfortable. It's familiar. Like a treadmill. You're just walking, you're just walking upstairs. It's very easy to just correlate that with the easiest way to go about things mentally, which plays a big part in a lot of people's programs. They mean anything to add to the hashtag booty goals. Yeah. I think Brendan summarized it really well. Yeah. Like, anytime you want to work with boots, you got to go into hip extension or external rotation. So going upstairs, you flex and then you extend the step. Right. Can definitely work for a little bit. But all the exercises Brenda mentioned, the hip thrust step up, the lunge, the squat, you're going to get better range of motion, like in a step up, unless it's a really high step or you have really short legs. Like, you're probably not going to get a full hip flexion and then extension. So I would argue that maybe the range of motion is the best on that, but you'll get some benefit for a little bit. But I would be more of an advocate of, like, let's do some squats and Hip Thrust and you can do some smaller, like what they would call it, booty exercises externally, like donkey kicks, fire hydrants, et cetera, for other aspects of it. Okay. I'm excited for this question today. Last time we had Brandon on for a bonus question, it did not go as planned. So hoping today is less messy. Damien, did you happen to see what happened in that one? I don't remember. I don't even remember what happened, to be honest. You spilled sauce all over your computer. Remember? That's right. I was eating cane that day, too. I just had the exact same chicken podcast. Was it a different computer? Did you ruin it? It was a different computer, but it was also like, fine, I just had to clean it up. But in the middle of it, I just spilled it all over my keyboard. Oh, my God. He was like, showing the camera, and then he like, tilted in. I got everywhere because it was about what restaurant has the best type of stuff. Yes. It's got to be raising Canes. And they just spoke with everywhere. And you were just so excited that you had it to show and then just got everywhere. Yeah. Because I just got into raising case. I just tried it for the first time. I was so happy. Yeah. Well, today's bonus question is, does ketchup belong on a hot dog? And we have our guest go first. You guys can kind of fight over who wants to talk about this, but what are your answers? Is this a controversial thing? I mean, hell, yeah, it goes on a hot dog, man. It depends on which region you live in. I think that's the thing. Is that a Midwest thing, like different places do different things kind of thing. Yes. A specific city like Chicago might not be very happy if I were to say anything with ketchup on hot dogs in Chicago. It just doesn't happen. So now that I live here, I legally have to say no. However, I did it all the time when I was a kid. Yeah, I know that in the chat.
Participant #1:
Yeah. I knew that Emily and Brendan would likely have a particular answer about this. I think I raised to say catch up should not be on a hot dog because that's not a Chicago style hot dog. Chicago style hot dogs catch up. But I'm also someone who likes everything physically possible on hot dogs. So that kind of overpowers my childhood. I don't know what I've been taught, so I say it does belong on it. But I know every Chicago hot dog place would disagree. I feel like we had a best pizza episode, too, and things got controversial there, too, in terms of Chicago style and others. Yeah. So why don't people from Chicago, like, catch the hot dog? Don't talk about it, Damien. They will just scream, dog bears are better, and ketchup does not belong on hot dogs. And you just got to run at that point. You just got to make sure you get out of there because there are some history behind us. Is someone like getting murdered by a tomato. Like, what's going on? It's like an unspoken thing. You just don't what goes on it then? Does anything go on? It mustard relish. They put a bunch of stuff on Chicago hot dogs are the best hot dogs. They are. Oh, yeah. We have to admit that. However do you think put your ketchup on it? Just don't be seen by someone in my city. All right. Yeah. Well, I am from Auburn, Indiana, where we just do boring ketchup mustard relish on a hot dog. So absolutely all about it. I have no affiliation with Chicago or any other fancy hot dog kind of place. So team catch up. We all agreed. Yeah. That was way easier than the fast food sauce one that got messy. What was our question for yours, Damien? I can't remember. We had you once in a while ago. It was our muffins bread. No, it wasn't about muffins what was it? Our muffins cupcakes? Yes, that's right. I don't remember what I said, but I'm sure I have a different thought on that now. I'm older, wiser, wiser. Well, thank you guys so much for being on the podcast today. Before we let you go, let our listeners know where they can find you. If they want to hear more about what you've got to say, you can find me on Instagram at Body bybrendon 40.
Participant #1:
You can find me on Instagram TikTok at the underscore shift underscore method. If you're interested in any kind of apparel like you see me and Hannah Rocking, you can go to the shiftmanthod.org. We got hats, we got shirts, anything you want. We probably got it. And of course I do personal training. I do in person down in Boca Raton. So if you're in South Florida, you like to share with me, I'd love to work with you or if you want to do some online coaching right in the perfect example, he's up in Chicago right now, but I'm programmed for him. Regardless of your goal. You want it, I can help you do it. So head to the shipment.org, click one of those take action buttons or just DM me on Instagram. I'd love to go over. Thank you. We will link all those below too, in case you guys weren't able to get your fingers fast enough into the search bar while they were saying that. Okay. Thanks again, guys, for joining us. Once again, we'll have to do like a once a season kind of thing. Maybe we'll have you guys be our go to fitness, you'll be our resident personal trainer. Yeah. Let's go. All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Hope you learned something and we will see you next week. Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. Bye bye. Bye.
Participant #1:
All right, everyone. Today's episode we'll be doing another edition of Mr. Fact Fitness edition. And we are joined by two previous guests, Brendan and Damien. If you listen to episodes eleven and 16, you probably these names sound familiar to you. And if not, go back and listen to those after this episode. Brandon and Damien are both personal trainers. They both work currently in the fitness world. So they really gave a great perspective on some very common fitness myths. So if you guys are wanting more perspective on the fitness side of things, this is a great episode for you. Enjoy.
Participant #1:
Alrighty. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Upbeat Dietitian podcast. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Pod. Today we are joined by two guests you have heard from before. We have two of our favorite fitness I don't want to say influencers. That sounds like a bad thing. Fitness trainers Damien and Brendan. So guys, thank you for joining us today. Happy here. Okay, well, we will jump right in. Today we're talking about fitness myth. Emily and I had a podcast on this earlier this season. I forget what episode it was, but we'll link it down in the description. But that was just from our perspective. So today we want to get a perspective from some personal trainers and see their thoughts on controversial fitness questions as well. So let's get right into it. Our first one is the myth that men and women should do different types of exercise. So guys, what are your thoughts on this one? We got a thumbs down from Brendan. That's a Dubble down. We're doubling down on this. That's right. You want to go first? Yeah, I got you, man. So with this, I always like to try my best to find the origin of them so we can kind of understand the context. Right. This one from my understanding is kind of just like I guess you could say stereotypical cultural thing of like, men do this, women do this, and of course, go on and on hold. Other podcasts, people smarter than me talking about men and women differences. But overall, when it comes to training, what we see is that men and women tend to respond pretty much the exact same way when you equate things like body composition in terms of muscle mass. Right. So I think the origin is like, hey, women need to have the hourglass figure. Men need to be wide at the shoulders and narrow at the hips, right. So that's kind of like the perception of, oh, you want to look like this, you got to train this way when in reality, training should just be based on your goals, your preferences, your timetable, et cetera. So anyone who says like, hey, you're a woman, so you can't do these exercises, you're a man. This is going to be better for you. Number one, that's not true. So I would caution that advice. And then number two, as I mentioned, we got some cool research that shows like guys are girls. People might say, oh, women because of testosterone is hard to gain muscle mass. No, actually I'll throw a study to Hanna and Emily showing that if anything, from what we have, women might do a little bit better with getting stronger organic muscle mass, relatively speaking. Right. Obviously, you're not going to get more Jack than a stereotypical man, but you have maybe a greater capacity, if not equal, across the board. That's interesting. I did not know about that correlation there. That's really cool. Yeah, the study, it was like a small effect size. And I'm going to guess it was probably just like an outlier that study. But it's cool to see that because it's just kind of like a spit in the face of that kind of myth. It's like, hey, overall probably is equal just in this one example. Look, it was even higher. So take that. Brendan, what are your thoughts on this question or dismiss? Yeah, absolutely. First, I'll say this is why the Damien trains me, because that man just knows his stuff. I have a couple of physique clients where I work right now that they do want to look like a very specific way. So I will have some of my female clients that want to look like that hourglass shape, do some things that are obviously different than what I have. My guys that want to look like big arms, wide, broad shoulders, certain clients want specific physiques. And like most bodybuilders will do, you will just work those muscle groups a little bit more than the others. So you will only really be training differently, like Daniel said, for your goals specifically. But it's not going to be a gender issue here. It's going to be what do I want to look like? What do I want to grow? And then how do I implement that? So I really have like an hourglass program just in a way that I made for some of my clients where they do a lot of laughs, they do a lot of glutes. That's what they want to grow. So they hit that like three times a week compared to like the normal two. So that's pretty much my two cent for what Damian didn't already cover in great detail. So it will matter. But for your specific goal, not just like, am I a guy? Am I a girl? Right. You could have a guy do that hourglass figure style workouts if they wanted to. But I know most guys aren't looking for the hourglass figures, so that's where the discrepancy is for sure. Booty for the boys. We got a short friend.
Participant #1:
That's right, 600. Thank you. You wrote the program. Not expecting this to become a hip thrusting competition, but I'm glad that it happened. We never know what direction it's going to go with Brendan and Damien. That's so true. Absolutely. So kind of then going into our next myth to debunk is you should exercise in the morning for the best results. I think I've heard a lot about timing of exercise, and I'm typically I know Hannah and I talk a lot about it from probably a nutrition feeling perspective, like eating around that. But from the perspective of getting the most out of your workout, is this statement true? So I'm sure Damien, like we were in the last question. We'll cover a lot more of the science behind this. The man reads way more research studies than I could even fathom. Essentially, my two cent on the subject is it depends on how intense your goals are and what kind of fitness goals you're aiming to achieve. If you are just looking to start out and you're not a morning person, do not work out in the morning. Go after work when you feel like you're going to want to go find what works in your schedule and your routine that will get you in there first and then if you're like, oh, cool. I just enjoy working out. I don't care what time of the day it will be. Then you can start to go into the little nitty gritty details of all these studies that will benefit you in the long run. But it's so minuscule. It's not a deep that we need to worry about when first getting into the gym, if that makes sense. Yeah, totally agree. That's what we always say about almost every topic, Emily, is like, just find what works for you. If you don't like broccoli, don't eat broccoli. Have another green vegetable instead. There's no one perfect way to do it. But you're right. Damian will probably be the one to go over like the science behind why there are certain times that are beneficial. If you are one who is genuinely curious, like, I don't care if I go in the morning or later in the day, just tell me which one I do better for me. Yeah, absolutely. And first off, Brennan is really smart and he actually simplifies things a lot better than I do. So take that for what that's worth. But kind of to go into the reasoning. Why? Because I couldn't have said it better myself. When you think about again, going back to the origin, where does this kind of idea come from? When people say you got exercise in the morning or maybe it's better at night, right. Where does that idea come from? In my experience, it's been like a hormonal thing. Typically I see it. I don't haven't seen too much regard for women. Maybe just like bias in the media I consume. But I've seen a lot with men where it's like your testosterone is generally high in the morning, although it can fluctuate throughout the day. But also other hormones like insulin and cortisol, they have different times in which they fluctuate. So if I train at a certain time and I can maximize those things, will that promote better gains? It's kind of the big thing am I maximizing out of patients? So I'm going to focus on three main ones real quick. Testosterone, insulin, cortisol, of course, not necessarily being a hormone per se, but focusing on those three, I guess, physiological aspects of your body. So disaster is a tricky one. The first big thing to think about is like this is a whole other podcast, but hormone levels fluctuate so much throughout the day and then the range for certain ones is so ridiculous. I'm not a doctor, first and foremost, and I'm not reading people's testosterone levels. But testosterone for men can range roughly between 300 to about 900 nanograms for dear, that's a really big window. Right. And if I read your testosterone at one point part of the day and then at another point of day, it could be drastically different. So this is what makes it complicated, like with TRT or like finding out someone has low TV, right. It's not as simple as one blood test. You're low and then you get Medicaid. So the premise is testosterone is generally high in the morning. So that should work out because testosterone is high, right? It's tricky. There's a lot of things that can boost testosterone. This may sound a little silly, and again, these are just studies, but not with a grain of salt. But things like certain stimulants can temporarily boost testosterone. Caffeine, nicotine. So technically, if you want to get down, there is the potential where smoking a cigarette can boost your testosterone in a short span of time. Now, does that mean that cigarette smoking is anabolic and you're going to gain muscle mass? Absolutely not. Right. So understanding that short term. Yeah. Prospect. No, understanding that, like, short term boost in hormones does not mean long term gains. It's just the fluctuation throughout the day. Insulin kind of. I'm sure anonymity can talk about this in great details, and I can, but you can think about it as simply as your body's way of regulating sugar. And it's looked at as kind of like this anabolic assistor in your body. I believe some people even use it as kind of a supplement or a substitute for steroid, which is kind of interesting, but it is high post meals. So again, depending on the time of day, it changes. And again, it may not really matter, like when you train for insulin, if that's what you're looking for. Last one is cortisol stress hormones. We know about it. He gets a bad rap when he's actually a very important hormone for our body. There's even some research showing that maybe cortisol helps with the muscle remodeling process, which we need to grow. So people always think cortisol is bad. I want to work out when it's low, but when you work out, your cortisol goes up no matter what you do, and then it might help with the repair process. So wouldn't worry about it too much. So big takeaway. Just because your hormones are elevated or lower acutely doesn't mean it has any impact. Chronically so good. That stuff like hormones, I just don't love them. I feel as a dietitian, I have to really master them, and it's so overwhelming to me, to be honest. So that was, like, mind blowing to me. I love that. That was so good. I see. So our next myth to debunk is a very popular one. So very simply put, are ABS built in the kitchen or in the gym? And why we'll rotate? Who goes first? Damien, how's that sound? So you go first this time? I thought we were at that point in this relationship, this friendship, man. We're like, we already established that. I knew you were going next, so I was waiting for you, big dog. Oh, well, you would have gone next. I'll just go, how's that sound, guys? It's going to be both right? You can't just never activate your abdominal muscles and just eat super clean and expect to have muscles pointed out. Abdominal muscles are still muscles. We have to remember that constantly are like, oh, yeah, I just got to get a six pack. Like, those are still muscles. You still need to work them like normal muscles. So if I'm trying to get a client that wants, like, better core strength instead of giving them starting with a 1 minute plank and then go into, like, a 20 minutes plank, that's working their muscle endurance, I'll put a plate on their back and have them work on strengthening those muscles with more weight, more resistance, just like normal muscles. So if you want them to pop a little bit like you with a bicep or adult, you still need to activate them to a certain degree. Now, as a power lifter, I don't do a lot of core because I brace so hard on a lot of my lifts and have utilized that aspect of my core strength. If I'm doing a set of twelve months squats, I'm bracing my core for a while. Thanks, David. I know how that feels. Very recently. It sucks. We're like my ABS hurt after a set of squats because I'm breathing so effectively with my core. So you have to think about that in the gym. But also you can't outwork a bad diet. So you do have to be a decently low body fat percentage as well in order for your ABS to show there are a lot of strong men who have a lot of fat on the outer side of their belly. So they don't look that they have ABS, but their core strength is insane. So it's got to be a little bit of both. Yeah, I agree. Definitely. What Brendan said, I would say visible ABS are built in both. Right. So the strong man example was perfect. Sometimes you can kind of see the outline of it, but at the end of the day, it's a training thing to emphasize them, but it's a body composition thing to visibly see them. The only other thing I would really add is there's a huge genetic factor to it. Some people just genetics plays a role in body composition, but also plays a role in anatomy. Right. Where some people it's like how close their skin is to their muscle and like the way the whole water is different. Some people have a four pack and some people have an eight pack, like, just genetically how it looks. So genetics is kind of only that last little piece I'd add on top.
Participant #1:
Forgotten. I usually hammer that one home because it's huge. Some people just I've had apps since I was, like, born. Essentially, I was a skinny kid that always had ABS. Yeah. Call me out. I came out of the womb with a six pack. That was an image.
Participant #1:
That'd be great, though. There are some three year old kids that are, like, shredded because the gymnastics already is the same. Oh, yeah. Another podcast for a different day. I can't even describe the visual that just put into my head. That's great. All right. Yeah, that was great. Thank you guys for that one. Yeah. I think I'm really excited for this next myth that we'll talk about because I think it's kind of up there. I think we might have talked about sweating in our last myth or fact one and this. I feel like it kind of correlates with that, just in the sense from a success rate. But the statement is Doms a good indicator. Domsindicates a good workout. And as we learned last time, and I remember I struggled through this, what Dom stood for. But it is delayed onset muscle soreness. Thinking out of HK classes, really retaining that knowledge. But yeah. Is Dom a good indicator for a good workout? Put it in one word, none. Deal, right? Yeah. The take home thing, people think like, well, I'm sore, means it was hard, means it was a good workout. And this is actually one of my pet peeves. When it comes to programming. I always tell people anyone can make you Puke or be sore. It takes a trainer to make a good program that's going to help you, right? So if I told you we are all relatively fit, we work out somewhat regularly. If I said tomorrow we're doing 100 burpees, followed by an hour on the bike of heavy resistance, I guarantee you we'd all be pretty sore. Does that mean that we're out of shape or that it was a good workout? No, it just means that it's a crap tone of work that we're not used to. And so that's what Dom is, right? Doms is that feeling of excess muscle damage not always a bad thing. Sometimes it's just you're new to training and then it's like, hey, this is what happens. It's to be expected. But I always tell people if you have a coach in your programming or if you're programmed for yourself, and after two or three weeks, if you're still feeling like severe DOMS, check your program. The only real time that you should have major changes is the first couple of weeks you start. If you make a major change, like, you go from one type of training to another, like, you swap out the exercise, you swap out the training parameters because it's a brand new stimulus, or if there's just your programming, like, all over the place and you have these huge jumps in training volume, you're changing the exercise every day, which probably isn't the best thing for particular goal that you might be chasing. The last thing I forgot to mention, I just thought of if you got everything checked off, like, my program is good, everything like that, maybe your coverage is not very good where you aren't sleeping or getting proper nutrition. Yeah, I was going to say nutrition. That's probably a big one too. That is often neglected for sure. I'm glad you brought that up. We literally have gone across that in my training with Damien since he makes my workout program stop. And I feel like trash and I think it's my nutrition. I'll fix it for a couple of days and I'll be like, wow, I feel a lot better. My recovery feels a lot better. Isn't it crazy that what I put into my body can actually affect the way I feel and my performance? Why crazy? Yeah. What are you guys'thoughts on people who say that the hardest part of, like, being a generally fit person is the nutrition? Do you agree with that or do you think it's more the fitness side of things. The exercise. Oh, that really just depends on what kind of person you are, because some people love to Cook. I hate cooking. For me, it is 100%. I hate cooking. I literally just had fried chicken and fries before the podcast started. That's like my cheat meal. I've been good the past week. I felt a lot better. But nutrition is just tough for a lot of people. Some of us just don't like to Cook or like, we really like certain foods, but it's all about balance. Like, I allow myself to eat that fried chicken because I've been good. I want a little snack. I'm not going to want fried chicken for a little while now because I usually don't feel great after and it usually affects my performance. I will see what the squats go tomorrow, Damien. But some people are just really good at cooking. They love to Cook. My mother's a great example. She just hates sweating. She doesn't like to sweat. So the actual workout portion of that aspect is so much tougher. Whereas she loves to Cook, so she'll Cook something happily and it'll be healthy, but just can't actually do the work out. Different people have different tastes. I feel like for most people who are working out fairly consistently, the harder part is going to be their nutrition, because they usually just don't know what they're doing. Because not a lot of us truly have cooked amazingly our entire lives. Yeah, I was just curious. I see that on like, TikTok a lot. They're like the hardest part of becoming a fitness guru or whatever isn't the gym, it's the nutrition. So I was just curious if you guys have thoughts around that one. Yeah, I agree with Brandon. Yeah. Any more thoughts on Dom before we move on to our next one? No. Dame knocked it out of the park, so we can go ahead and move on. Okay, sounds good. This one's a good one too. I think they're all good ones. These are all very common questions, but I'm excited for your thoughts on this one as well. So question is or I guess I'll put it in the form of the statement, the myth, your knees shouldn't go past your toes when you squat. Why is this not true? I got this. So have you ever noticed that people have different physiques and sizes and not everyone has even the same like sized head? I got a bigger head than Damien does. Not everyone has the same bio. We can't just put it into an exact science where like, you need to be here, here we have our guidelines, but there's no specific form that's going to work for every individual person. We just have some really good tips and cues that are the best for performance and safety. I'm definitely not going to tell you to push your knees in when you squat. They're not going to be people that do that. That's where biomechanics breaks down to those severities. But some people just have incredibly long legs, and I have a large femur and their knees might suck over their toes when they squat. But then you ask your client, if I'm working with a client, I'm a trainer, and I go, how's that feel? And they're like, oh, it felt great. And then they never complained about knee pain because we're doing a program safely and effectively. Maybe their body just does that. And as long as they're doing the basic things, like keeping their feet down when they squat, like their heels on the ground, if you're squatting on your toes and your knees are trekking over, that's probably going to be a lot of knee pressure. But essentially each person is different. That's something to keep in mind with both nutrition and fitness in every realm is that everybody is different. So you have to treat everybody different. Yeah, I like it, man. The different anatomy is a big thing. But I don't have data on this. I got to speak on this portion of it. And then I'll kind of go into the origin of it. Yeah. Most people, when I watch them get past 90 degrees in their squat, their toes at the very least come or their knees come to where their toes are or go past. That's just how it is if you go below 90 degrees. And yeah, the test I always give someone like, I do this in my prep course sometimes because a lot of people come in with that myth of like, oh, yeah, your knees shouldn't track past your toes in a squat, a lunch, whatever. I'm like, here's what I want you all to do. I want you all to take we'll usually go up to a box or something that goes up to that knee height, and that way their upper body can still move forward. And I'll say, I want you all to squat, pull your toes up to that box, and I want you to squat without your knees touching that box. And all of them try and stay upright as best they can. Eventually their knees touch or they have to fall backwards. So from a balance perspective, like the knees for most people will just eventually track forward to kind of balance out there, the back part of their body, and the theme are tracking forward. The origin of this kind of this actually has a direct origin, which is pretty cool. There is a Duke study out in 1978 looking at shearing courses. Shearing courses, if I remember correctly, are compression going down and then moving perpendicular to parallel to each other. Excuse me, once they're down and then they go here. So kind of like you can think of almost like a grinding action, which sounds bad when you think about it. And it was thought that, well, because the shearing force on the knee is extremely high when they go past the toes. That must be bad for the knee joint. So my question here is, number one, why is stress bad? Because whenever we go to the gym and we train ourselves, we stress our body. So I think there's an issue with saying that stress on a particular joint is bad. I think we have this fear when it comes to exercise that putting stress or pressure on your back, on your desk, on your elbows, on your shoulders is bad. No, it's not. Your body is meant to deal with stress and you adapt through stress. The issue is stress that isn't regulated properly, meaning you don't progress over time in a gradual way. You go from never training before throwing 135 on the bar and you squat. Ask the grass for ten reps and you're like, wow, my knees hurt because my knees went past mine. I was like, no, it's because you squatted ass the grass and you haven't done it before. Right? So that study kind of caught fire and they're like, wow, shearing force greater than when you don't go past your toes. This isn't good, but biomechanically, if you want to get better benefit from your exercise, you train the whole range of motion. And if you train with the stress properly, you actually have greater adaptation. Also another study, I can't remember the name of it exactly. But they were also looking at like during the hip joint, if you don't go past your toes, the stress, the shear stress on your hip joint goes up by an absurd amount. I think it's like, yeah, I got right here. It's about increase in sheer core. So if you don't go past your toes, your hip gets the stress. If you do go past your toes, your knee gets the stress. So it's like, if that's true, you lose either way. So then what? Just don't lift? No, it's silly. Yes. Double edged sword, for sure. I feel like this podcast is going to be great for people who lift weights or want to lift weights and have these common questions and also for maybe new trainers who didn't know why your knee shouldn't go past your toes. So a lot of good target audiences here. This is great. Okay, we have one last myth to debunk, and this one really probably isn't much science. There is a lot of science that needs to be talked about to answer this. But the myth is that the step machine. So you guys know at the gym, like the stair separate thing where you're just like walking on stairs in one area for however long. Is that the best for, shall I say, hashtag booty goals? Interesting. I thought when you said the step machine, I was thinking for some reason I always see people do like the assisted chin dip and they step down on it, which is kind of like the same thing. You're talking like a StairMaster master. Got you. I mean, you will put a specific amount of volume in your glutes when you do it. However, when you're doing it, you're probably working for muscular endurance because you are constantly stepping. Unless you're someone who does, like, take a step up, for example, you do a weighted step up that's going to help you so much more build muscle, because if you're going to add weight and add more weight over time, whereas unless you're adding weight to your StairMaster workouts, oh, my God. But then once you get to a certain amount of time, you're going to be working so much more aerobically and it's not going to be as good for muscle building specifically. So again, kind of like my ABS answer, where I give my clients weighted planks instead of just progressing their plank in length if they want to build muscle is you want to do things that are more effective where you build volume over time in those muscle groups where you will probably see a small amount of booty games when you still do muscular endurance and you keep going on that StairMaster and you're really stuck in your hips and activating those glutes while you go up. But it's not going to be the most effective in the shortest amount of time. But you will have some people that have seen some progress with it because of their genetics as to what they're doing. And like, imagine if they were doing the right things, how much faster they could or how much more muscle they could gain. And you'll have those people do those because it's easier to just hold onto machine for 20 minutes and just like, zone out doing the exact same thing than it is to lift some heavier weights when you're not used to it, especially and progressively go heavier and heavier over time. Have to worry about a bunch of other stuff. So it will be effective, but just not as effective as a lot of other things could be. And I wouldn't recommend if you're trying to grow your glutes specifically, do some hip thrusts and do some actual weighted step ups. Weighted step ups are another great one. You can activate a lot of gluten weighted step up same motion. Just you're progressing it toward muscle building instead of muscular endurance and or cards. You endurance step ups are killer. I never really feel it in the glutes unless I do a step up like that. Those get me going. I also really like how you mentioned that it seems much easier to just do it for like 20 minutes because I feel like StairMaster is pretty straightforward. You just go up the stairs. Most of us have done it. Yeah. But actually step ups and hip thrust, that takes a bit more knowing about like, where should I place the bars or how should I be holding weights? And that's weight. Yeah. That's not quite as straightforward, user friendly as a StairMaster. Weeds are also becoming, I guess, more of the norm nowadays than they used to be. But I mean, for years, most of us, we're all in our 20s, right. Years ago, I have some trainers that I work with that are their 30s, 40s. And they're like, yeah, I mean, cardio was just like what we had a lot of our clients do. It was just go, go more science that even for fat loss, muscle building is very effective. And a lot of my clients see some fat loss with their muscle building goals just because weight lifting is actually really effective for both. So we've changed our knowledge a lot. And stairs are good cardio. So when that machine was brought in, it was very well thought, just, oh, cool. It's just like it's comfortable. It's familiar. Like a treadmill. You're just walking, you're just walking upstairs. It's very easy to just correlate that with the easiest way to go about things mentally, which plays a big part in a lot of people's programs. They mean anything to add to the hashtag booty goals. Yeah. I think Brendan summarized it really well. Yeah. Like, anytime you want to work with boots, you got to go into hip extension or external rotation. So going upstairs, you flex and then you extend the step. Right. Can definitely work for a little bit. But all the exercises Brenda mentioned, the hip thrust step up, the lunge, the squat, you're going to get better range of motion, like in a step up, unless it's a really high step or you have really short legs. Like, you're probably not going to get a full hip flexion and then extension. So I would argue that maybe the range of motion is the best on that, but you'll get some benefit for a little bit. But I would be more of an advocate of, like, let's do some squats and Hip Thrust and you can do some smaller, like what they would call it, booty exercises externally, like donkey kicks, fire hydrants, et cetera, for other aspects of it. Okay. I'm excited for this question today. Last time we had Brandon on for a bonus question, it did not go as planned. So hoping today is less messy. Damien, did you happen to see what happened in that one? I don't remember. I don't even remember what happened, to be honest. You spilled sauce all over your computer. Remember? That's right. I was eating cane that day, too. I just had the exact same chicken podcast. Was it a different computer? Did you ruin it? It was a different computer, but it was also like, fine, I just had to clean it up. But in the middle of it, I just spilled it all over my keyboard. Oh, my God. He was like, showing the camera, and then he like, tilted in. I got everywhere because it was about what restaurant has the best type of stuff. Yes. It's got to be raising Canes. And they just spoke with everywhere. And you were just so excited that you had it to show and then just got everywhere. Yeah. Because I just got into raising case. I just tried it for the first time. I was so happy. Yeah. Well, today's bonus question is, does ketchup belong on a hot dog? And we have our guest go first. You guys can kind of fight over who wants to talk about this, but what are your answers? Is this a controversial thing? I mean, hell, yeah, it goes on a hot dog, man. It depends on which region you live in. I think that's the thing. Is that a Midwest thing, like different places do different things kind of thing. Yes. A specific city like Chicago might not be very happy if I were to say anything with ketchup on hot dogs in Chicago. It just doesn't happen. So now that I live here, I legally have to say no. However, I did it all the time when I was a kid. Yeah, I know that in the chat.
Participant #1:
Yeah. I knew that Emily and Brendan would likely have a particular answer about this. I think I raised to say catch up should not be on a hot dog because that's not a Chicago style hot dog. Chicago style hot dogs catch up. But I'm also someone who likes everything physically possible on hot dogs. So that kind of overpowers my childhood. I don't know what I've been taught, so I say it does belong on it. But I know every Chicago hot dog place would disagree. I feel like we had a best pizza episode, too, and things got controversial there, too, in terms of Chicago style and others. Yeah. So why don't people from Chicago, like, catch the hot dog? Don't talk about it, Damien. They will just scream, dog bears are better, and ketchup does not belong on hot dogs. And you just got to run at that point. You just got to make sure you get out of there because there are some history behind us. Is someone like getting murdered by a tomato. Like, what's going on? It's like an unspoken thing. You just don't what goes on it then? Does anything go on? It mustard relish. They put a bunch of stuff on Chicago hot dogs are the best hot dogs. They are. Oh, yeah. We have to admit that. However do you think put your ketchup on it? Just don't be seen by someone in my city. All right. Yeah. Well, I am from Auburn, Indiana, where we just do boring ketchup mustard relish on a hot dog. So absolutely all about it. I have no affiliation with Chicago or any other fancy hot dog kind of place. So team catch up. We all agreed. Yeah. That was way easier than the fast food sauce one that got messy. What was our question for yours, Damien? I can't remember. We had you once in a while ago. It was our muffins bread. No, it wasn't about muffins what was it? Our muffins cupcakes? Yes, that's right. I don't remember what I said, but I'm sure I have a different thought on that now. I'm older, wiser, wiser. Well, thank you guys so much for being on the podcast today. Before we let you go, let our listeners know where they can find you. If they want to hear more about what you've got to say, you can find me on Instagram at Body bybrendon 40.
Participant #1:
You can find me on Instagram TikTok at the underscore shift underscore method. If you're interested in any kind of apparel like you see me and Hannah Rocking, you can go to the shiftmanthod.org. We got hats, we got shirts, anything you want. We probably got it. And of course I do personal training. I do in person down in Boca Raton. So if you're in South Florida, you like to share with me, I'd love to work with you or if you want to do some online coaching right in the perfect example, he's up in Chicago right now, but I'm programmed for him. Regardless of your goal. You want it, I can help you do it. So head to the shipment.org, click one of those take action buttons or just DM me on Instagram. I'd love to go over. Thank you. We will link all those below too, in case you guys weren't able to get your fingers fast enough into the search bar while they were saying that. Okay. Thanks again, guys, for joining us. Once again, we'll have to do like a once a season kind of thing. Maybe we'll have you guys be our go to fitness, you'll be our resident personal trainer. Yeah. Let's go. All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Hope you learned something and we will see you next week. Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. Bye bye. Bye.
