How to Live Long & Prosper

00:00.00	Max Shank	Welcome back to Monday mornings with max and Mike Hope you guys had a great weekend today. We're gonna cover a topic that I think I have the most expertise in as you know I've just been flying by the seat of my pants talking out my ass for the rest of these topics because. Ah, have no authority on them whatsoever. But today we are going to talk about the vulcan plan how to live long and prosper and there's going to be no bs here. It's not going to be a low salt diet. It's not going to be limiting the amount of eggs that you eat. We're gonna get right to the. Things that really make you live a long time and also enjoy those years the most I'm once again joined by my trusty co-host Mr. Mike blood so. How's it going mike.
00:53.18	mikebledsoe	It's going great I'm excited about this topic. You know there's a lot of information out there and as you were alluding to you know we won't be saying you to telling you to stop eating the egg yolks or whatever I know that everyone's. Probably so by this point seen the on Instagram or somewhere online the picture of the New York Times one month talking about how eggs are bad for you in another month how they're great for you and it's a prime example of just you could you can find evidence to support. Any health claim that you want to make 1 way one way or the other. So ah, what's exciting about that is that's ah, that's a huge opportunity for coaches and there's a necessity for coaches in the world because a coach our job is to help. Create the context we take the context of your life and then we take information that we've learned about such a ah topic that has an infinite amount of information and then distill it down for the individual. So I hope we can do that for you here on this. Show and it it's it can be It's a it's a heavy topic but the solutions are so simple I think that's what you're going to discover by the end of the show. Yeah.
02:16.63	Max Shank	But they're not going to be sexy. Yeah I got ah I got a lot of ideas about that. This is probably what I write about the most um because everything else trickles down from your physical and mental health. Which those together combine for your health and you can certainly have success in 1 area without being healthy necessarily. But that's not really a goal I would like to help people achieve. So I think about this a lot. You already mentioned one of the big problems which is infinite information and along with that information you have a whole bunch of people who have a certain authority and they want to maintain that authority um. You know? For example, the physical therapists and doctors want to maybe ah keep the personal trainers off their turf like we don't want you guys doing any corrective exercise. That's our territory and. There are stories about like the medical doctor boards trying to block acupuncturists and chiropractors and chinese medicine and things like that. So. There's kind of an authority give and take where everyone's trying to promote their specific solution to this. Health thing. So there's infinite information and you also have these different entities who are trying to prop up their authority whether they have the best solution or not and then another big one. We have talked about before is the difference between causation and correlation. It's it's really tragic because I have actually seen a news piece that said salt excessive salt causes. 10% of all deaths in America now that is outrageous to make that claim and I looked at the studies they were citing to do that and it was just a total embarrassment. It could be. That having a higher salt diet is correlated ah because a lot of junk food has high salt but it is just so ridiculous to say that 10% of all deaths in America are caused by salt I mean it's ridiculous. So getting back to.
04:52.80	mikebledsoe	And go.
04:57.85	Max Shank	What you said before which is that it's simple solutions. That's where I have this idea called the popular paradox and things need to look really fancy for people to buy into them. You know I realized as I've been. Promoting my own products and developing some products behind the scenes that people will do something that looks cool before they do something that is good for them if it doesn't look cool.
05:26.98	mikebledsoe	I think part of that is is that people when they when they think about their own problems. They've had such a difficult time solving their problem and so you know I've had this problem my whole life. The solution can't be simple. It's got to be complex and I really think that that's something that plagues people as they go you know I go well have you do drink is the first thing you drink in the morning water and do you go for walks every day.
05:52.19	Max Shank	Um.
06:04.56	mikebledsoe	Ah, go? Well no, but you know I'm doing the you know I'm monitoring my Hrv and I'm ah you know doing all this really complicated on this crazy training program and okay, well unless we and and and people you know just refuse to do it I think well there's 2 things is. Think that because they they haven't been able solved the problem yet that it must be.. It's going to require some Genius solution. That's just they could never have imagined so they're gonna again look for the authority just to tell them what to do whoever they assign that to be um, the other thing is I think that. In our youth for a lot of us. We associate effort with reward and a lot of people never outgrow that and so they think that it has to be hard if it's going to be effective and I think that if we.
06:55.59	Max Shank	A.
07:00.97	mikebledsoe	We take the approach that most solutions are simple and we put our attention on how to be effective versus the amount of effort we put into it people would would go a lot further.
07:21.94	Max Shank	You just said 2 things there that were really awesome. The first is the desire for a complex solution because if the solution is simple. They're like oh god I'm so dumb like how did I not know that if you say. Ah, yeah, double your water intake and walk for an hour every day they're gonna they're gonna go oh that's like I shouldn't pay you for that solution. That's like too simple, but if you have them.
07:53.42	mikebledsoe	I.
07:59.50	Max Shank	Get if if it's true if you have them get blood work done and you're like oh you're ah you're allergic to cashews or something The problem is you're eating too many cashews. Ah then it feels like.
08:13.25	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
08:17.85	Max Shank	Oh how could I have known that you know what I mean it feels like okay that they didn't figure it out themselves. So they're not afraid to feel dumb. Ah so complex solution else I'm dumb and then the next thing you said was.
08:22.91	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well I think I think that's a.
08:34.47	Max Shank	That effort is proportional to the reward. But.
08:40.71	mikebledsoe	Are you are you? okay. Are we on? Ah are we on a lag. Okay, what if your internet's just crawling I think I think it might have caught up. Sorry go ahead, go ahead cause I said something and then it took you like 10 seconds to.
08:45.66	Max Shank	Was that? yeah.
08:55.39	Max Shank	Maybe.
09:01.59	Max Shank	Oh man, it's possible. Oh.
09:05.26	mikebledsoe	Respond go ahead.
09:11.16	Max Shank	Oh no, yeah I just stopped talking. But yeah, basically then the second idea is that effort is proportional to the reward that you get.
09:20.33	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah, yeah, it's ah what it works it works for a yeah, it works it works for a while. Yeah I think our our shit's catching up. Um.
09:29.90	Max Shank	Ah, it's hard to tell if we're on pace right now.
09:38.74	mikebledsoe	Everyone listening I think we're having a little bit of a internet lag issue. Um, yeah, yeah, well you know I I know you and I both spent our youth living in a world where effort did equal reward and I think that there's like a.
09:42.21	Max Shank	Technical difficulties.
09:58.59	mikebledsoe	And and I think that in fitness, especially that definitely proves to be true until a certain point and ah you only know your own body for and so if you if you've been in fitness your whole life like max and I have been It's probably until the age of like 30 that. It almost didn't matter how what the quality of our exercise was to our knowledge from our perspective and then after 38 things start showing up for sure. But ah. You know going back I I look at myself and I and I can say oh I could have trained way more intelligently way more simply had fewer injuries and gotten a lot stronger and I'd be a lot stronger and healthier now. But yeah I there's no way I could hear that message when I was younger because every time I put in effort I got a reward and I didn't know that the reward could have been better but you know it was a reward nonetheless. So I think that I witnessed this and and entrepreneurs have a fitness or military background and. Usually they they choose the hard path a lot There's like a lot of hard path choosing in with in over time the harder the path the lower the reward and so there there's ah a point in time where it's you got to switch tracks. But the the thing that you were getting at or the thing you mentioned with the like the food sensitivity and so needing someone outside of yourself to tell you what it is is is interesting because these food sensivity tests aren't going to test for everything and then they'll tell someone like.
11:28.21	Max Shank	Well.
11:45.12	mikebledsoe	Food sensitive tests would tell me that dates are fine for me. But every time I eat dates I fart for two days they're not fine for me but like if I only but people will will take a test and then they won't analyze their own shit in a toilet and be like oh I'm fine I got the test I don't need. You know to watch my my intake of you know dairy you know every time it I eat it. It bloats me but the test said I'm fine. So but that's that's 1 thing I guess ah I'd like for people to take from this is. Tuning into your own body and knowing what you may have a sensitivity to how do you respond to all these different types of stimulus and it requires a little bit of living a little like habitual and systematic because if you don't systemize anything.
12:32.30	Max Shank	A.
12:40.31	mikebledsoe	You know, doing anything Systematically, you can't really improve it. You got to it. There's a way of decreasing the amount of variables in your own life. So that you can make those systematic improvements.
12:53.79	Max Shank	Man There's a lot to unpack here. Um number one effort is not proportional to reward but effort does bring reward so one of the big risks I think is you will.
13:04.77	mikebledsoe	Right.
13:13.45	Max Shank	Put in effort and you will get a reward and you will conflate more effort with more reward but in actuality the way the body works for athletic performance which I think is the most rational way to train. You want to give yourself more athletic ability more springiness more elasticity more resilience to injury. Um, you're not going to improve your athleticism. When you go into excessive effort. In fact, you're actually going to start taking away from your athleticism with excessive effort. You know the best athletes in the world are the ones who can cycle between tension and relaxation at the quickest interval and it's not about. Maximum effort. It's about maximum skill so you're far better off hovering around that you know 50 to 80% effort level most of the time. So the whole idea that effort is proportional toward is like ah basically a form of masochism. Essentially like if I'm not ah in some sort of physical pain then my workout which is another silly name is not giving me the results that I'm after so that's ah the the myth of effort is ah a huge one. For athleticism and for training in general and then touching on the nutrition thing. Ah there's a ah couple pages in Paul check's book where he shows like a.
15:05.46	mikebledsoe	The poopy police.
15:04.54	Max Shank	The the poopy lineup I don't know if you remember that one the poop. Well yeah, the poopy police and the poopy lineup is like what the different ones look like and what likely the problem is and that there's just there's just one.
15:10.79	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
15:19.93	Max Shank	On the next page which is just this basketball player who's this like gigantic log which is the optimal ah defecation essentially so being willing to like pay attention to that very obvious metric and. Ah, just accordingly is basically the type of thing that we are trying to avoid most people want to avoid paying attention. They just want someone to tell them how many almonds should I eat at nine thirty in the morning. should I have for lunch what should I have for dinner and the reality is people are just trying to get out of the responsibility of having to think for themselves and pay attention to what the fuck is going on and your body. Can survive on like bone marrow and bugs like our bodies are so crazy. Adaptable. We are omnivores. We have these sharp canines we have these grinding molars we have stomach acid. We're able to survive on a huge variety of things I'm not saying you should eat garbage every day. But if you did you would probably still survive as long as you didn't eat actual poison so trying to be perfect with nutrition. Silly, but um, you don't see a lot of obese people make it to ninety years old and we don't need any scientific study to show us that being too heavy is harder on your body like you just won't live as long so you're almost. You are better off eating more rich food that is to let you know a bagette and butter and lasagna. Whatever else gets labeled as bad now as long as you don't eat too much of it and as far as training is concerned. Ah, try to make it as effortless as possible and do something that you enjoy that gives you an expanded range of abilities so you have more options because if you're having fun doing what you're doing. It doesn't require any of that extra willpower. Um, you know that's a little suspect to your mood and the weather and things like that. But if you're really excited about something. You don't have to really think about it. So with the nutrition and with the exercise piece I would say um.
18:09.47	Max Shank	Consistency and effortlessness with your movement so approach it like a skill for movement and then with nutrition is like ah you got to pay attention to how food makes you feel and it's it's easy to want to outsource that to someone else just tell me. How many grams of chicken breast I need to eat. It's like that's not how it works man like you gotta pay attention to your bowel movements and check the color of your piss like if you don't drink enough water and go for walks. You shouldn't expect to get a good result with what you're doing and I actually wrote an article. A while back called are you healthier than a plant and it was one of my better performing ones because I gave people like four levels of health and plant level was the first level and it was are you getting adequate water and sunshine. And if you have made that level then you go to the next level the next level is like I think it was dog like are you getting water sunshine and going for walks and then like the last level was like a ah monkey like are you do you play? Do you do things like that and there are four I can't remember off top the head. But. Should Google it. It's a good little read. Ah, it's not complicated and you shouldn't feel like you have to find a complicated solution to health. You know we we were able to live a long time and happily long before the.
19:44.00	mikebledsoe	Yeah I want to dig into here in a moment by the end of the show at least I want to dig into what it is that you're doing and what I'm doing that is that we because I you and I have both simplified over the years.
19:43.49	Max Shank	Infinite information of the internet.
20:01.74	mikebledsoe	Ah I used to take a much more complex approach to things. Um and and you did too from what I understand but you know I want to really get to the remind people of the point you're making of it. It needs to be simple. It needs to be easy. It needs to be fun. And 1 of the things that I've been able to do in my life is create a lot of structures in my life that support the the habits that I that I want to put in place I tell people a lot you know I'll be at a party and there's brownies out on the fucking island. Counter and I put away more than most people at the party but and I'm also when a few people walk around with a 6 pack but the difference is is I don't have that at home because I don't I actually have a life where I don't have to practice that much willpower. There's a few things I have to practice willpower for but Jesus there. There was a time in my life where that was true when I was in my twenty s it I powered through everything I I did start creating structures that support me.
21:01.35	Max Shank	Imagine if you did.
21:20.45	mikebledsoe	But most of it was was I think being just a bachelor in some ways like at ah at a fucking heavy bag hanging in my living room and you know girls that come over and be like oh you got mats in a heavy bag in your living room. Okay weirdo um, but. When I like like putting those structures in place have been super super helpful and then it really does come down to lifestyle and the more I look at the the health problems in the world man there is. There are some habits that somebody could change like I think about my girlfriend's mom and you know we were talking to her about when she was here for Christmas we were talking to her about you know? are you going for walks. How much water are you drinking. You know, are you supplementing with magnesium before bed. You know there's you know I had to remind my girlfriend. She's like I want to have a ah really good impact on my mom while she's here I'm like okay, let's be happy if she leaves with like 1 or 2 things that she can improve. We don't need to go nuts because you have to restructure.
22:29.84	Max Shank	A.
22:35.17	mikebledsoe	Your entire life to just change one habit you move 1 thing and then that 1 thing moves something else and it's ah it's a big deal to create a new consistent habit and so I'm a big fan of seeing how effortless you can you can. Make a habit you know something like going for a walk in the morning is you know, put your change of like this this was advice. We used to get people that wanted to train in the gym in the morning, put your gym shoes and your change of clothes at the foot of your bed before you go to bed when you wake up, you know you got your.
23:08.60	Max Shank	Right.
23:12.44	mikebledsoe	Bottle of water on the counter you you walk out of your bedroom. You're wearing your workout clothes and you pick up your bottle like the next obvious step is you go to the gym or you you know you go for your walk or your run or whatever it is but I look at the society but then we're talking to her mom. And you know we had all these ideas about what she could do to improve her health and in in conversations I find out that she's in an office with no windows under fluorescent lights nine to eleven hours a day.
23:35.65	Max Shank	A.
23:50.22	mikebledsoe	At work and so she like she says why I do go for walks I get out of my office for like 10 minutes and then go for a walk and I go wow you know what? like that walk is actually not that like it's good that she's doing it. But it's not the highest leverage thing. And her arsenal. You know, just just putting a window in her office would be would be like a huge improvement and so it it does become very situational in a way but when I look at what's wrong with the health of.
24:10.20	Max Shank	Um. M.
24:28.11	mikebledsoe	Average American and then I hear stories like that and you know I try to think about what it's like to work at the grocery store when I go to the grocery store. What's it like to be a barber when I go to the barber a lot of the way these people are living their lives is just it's a lot of screens. It's a lot of artificial light. Um, and so I think that you know if for us to have a ah turnaround in Public Health. It's gonna require a pretty big shift in society at large and I well I was gonna say I don't want to discourage anybody because.
24:58.24	Max Shank	Um, well it's like addiction. It's just ah.
25:07.32	mikebledsoe	You do you do change the lifestyle one habit at a time but it's there. There's if you change one habit a month a year later you've got 12 new habits. Do you have a totally different lifestyle. That's that's very very possible.
25:09.27	Max Shank	The.
25:20.10	Max Shank	Um, yeah, boy you said a lot of really good stuff. There. Um, it's like addiction right? because 1 of the reasons I bring people back to fasting is not because it's the. Cure all um for every illness although it does seem to have like some of the best results in the cheapest way. It's funny that people keep looking for the fastest way to lose fat and it's literally called fasting it costs zero dollars
25:58.37	mikebledsoe	I knew a guy who was charging thousands of dollars for a fasting retreat I was like ah you your main thing that you do is you don't eat.
25:58.80	Max Shank	And people just keep looking for other things. But.
26:05.45	Max Shank	Amazing. Did he also provide free room and board.
26:17.89	mikebledsoe	Yeah, it's like a three day retreat thousands of dollars but you you know you're you're getting the equivalent of like one hundred and fifty dollars room but ah yeah.
26:18.83	Max Shank	Ah, ah.
26:25.59	Max Shank	Amazing. But that's exactly it is you need to the reason I say it's like addiction is um, what could be easier than to you know, stop drinking booze or stop doing heroin. Whatever it requires no effort whatsoever but the whole idea of being addicted to screens and you're substituting or you're using all of this time and all of this energy for things that don't love you back. Essentially. And I think of it like an intervention. The person has to be ready to accept that change first and foremost and there are other things that can help new lifestyle changes stick better. You can do it with somebody. That's huge, having someone that you go on walks with is definitely better. You know I have a standing ah exercise. Um. Session that I do with my friend Anders I have a standing weekly tennis session that I do with my friend Carson so it makes it a lot easier when you have someone else that you are ah doing it alongside your your vibe attracts your tribe right? So if you hang around.
27:49.32	mikebledsoe	M.
27:52.91	Max Shank	With people who tend to do more athletic things you're going to be more athletic yourself and if you hang around with ah food critics or something you're probably going to spend a lot of time eating too much so it's how do you get someone open.
28:06.27	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
28:12.78	Max Shank	To that change and then how do you make that change. Um take the best. How do you get it to stick.
28:21.90	mikebledsoe	Yeah I like this social component I I do a weekly workout on Tuesday mornings with some friends where it's been years since I've I've done a decent amount of intense exercise. But I rarely like pick up the heaviest thing possible. Or like or or push my ah my aerobic or anaerobic capacity very hard. But once a week I go train with a group of guys where everyone has got ah a decent fitness background. So no, one's moving poorly. But we're going to go in and push ourselves. And you know half the time. It's a crossfit style workout and I I get in there and I and I go do that workout because if I work out at home I'll just be moderate all the time I'll push it less frequently. But I go there and I push it really hard and that that. Is really a check-in with myself because I'm a decade older than almost all the guys at the session. So it's it's actually nice to go do that. So having that social component to do something you knew I think is is awesome. Um I'm curious. What is what are some of your like how does your week. Do you have like ah a typical week and do you have your week structured in a way sounds like you got you know that workout with anders and you got a tennis lesson. What's happening. What do you schedule in your week that. Set you up for success and and your day as well.
30:22.67	mikebledsoe	Can you hear me.
30:32.55	Max Shank	Hello hello can you hear me we should we should pause. Let me see if I can fix the the inner all right? So basically my weekly routine is what you were saying. Um.
30:33.87	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
30:52.18	Max Shank	Have my appointments that are set 1 training session with a friend one tennis session with a friend and my goals are longevity and tennis related right now. I was laughing the other day because I was watching a little tennis and I saw this guy there this professional tennis player and I was like oh my god that guy's got an amazing body for tennis and this guy is so skinny is like 6 2 1 70 meanwhile I'm five nine and I used to walk around £200 just like a jacked little like brick shit house essentially and that was how I wanted to be I wanted to be ah buff to the point where I was intimidating that was my that was my fitness goal at the time.
31:37.30	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
31:47.99	mikebledsoe	Ah, sounds familiar.
31:49.32	Max Shank	So My my training reflected those goals heavier weights more weights. Lots of food move bigger weights faster all that stuff and now my goals are completely the opposite. That I want to be able to move around quickly. I don't want to be carrying around a ton of extra weight and it's kind of the same thing that I tell people as far as my morning routine is Concerned. It's like my morning routine would kill you my exercise routine. Would probably not be what you want because you have different goals than I do So I exercise every day I go totally based on feel I'm still you know stronger than. 99% of people in most ways I find that if you don't push to your absolute Limits. You can handle a tremendous amount of frequency when it comes to training you mentioned that you have a heavy bag.
33:02.40	mikebledsoe	E.
33:01.92	Max Shank	Or had a heavy bag in your living room I mean my house is full of various gym equipment like I have a huge like Monkey Bar Stall Bar gymnastics setup in the backyard with several. Ropes and pulleys and a sled and all kinds of stuff and then in the garage I have different isometric trainers that I've built and balance beams and platforms and all this Stuff. So I mean I. Am an experimenter when it comes to this kind of stuff. So a lot of the stuff I do is just experimenting on myself. Um, that being set.
33:46.50	mikebledsoe	But sounds like you've created an environment where we're practicing movement and improving your skills is just so easy. There's there's no friction between you and jumping on the balance beam with a club.
34:02.30	Max Shank	Totally um I do hill sprints about once a week and it's not the most fun. Um, it's about 1% as fun as playing tennis but I still do it anyway. So I guess I do occasionally. Exercise a little bit of willpower. Um, frankly I think most of the exercise plans that people do really don't take into consideration the actual goals they want. It's kind of just parroting what the last guy said when it comes to exercise. I think people want to be able to move around. Um athletically and quickly that's the most important thing because that gives you the opportunity to try more things I think it's important for be. People to be able to carry something kind of heavy. You know a sandbag bear hug Carrie throw a sandbag on 1 shoulder other shoulder do a couple squats with it I don't get down with the super heavy squatting. Don't think the risk reward is really there I don't think it's appropriate for most people I think like a body weight sandbag squat for 10 to 20 will take you pretty much as far as you need to go in that type of leg strength. Frankly I see the squat as more of a resting position than a position that should be loaded extremely heavily the deadlift and sprinting are far more appropriate for loading up the legs single leg deadlifting as well.
35:50.82	mikebledsoe	I agree with that. Ah I've cut out I've cut out squatting I mean I might do some cattlebell squats. But yeah, the load you know it's single arm catabell Squat load is low Sandbag squats. But yeah, pushing on deadlives pushing on on sprints.
35:53.51	Max Shank	Ah, pushing pulling the sled and.
36:10.35	mikebledsoe	And just different plios I'm with you on that.
36:10.99	Max Shank	It depends on what you're trying to get right? What are you trying to get out of it. Um, you know I think of the said principle primarily specific adaptation to impose Demand. That's how you're going to adapt and you're looking for a couple things. You're looking for the actual tissue to adapt so muscle bone Ligament Tendon. So That's the stuff and then you also have. The neurological efficiency which is recruiting more motor units. That's why gymnast and Olympic weightlifter can do greater feats of strength and create more force and more attention more torque even with the same amount. Muscle So they're able to do more with less because of the neurological efficiency and then you have ah motor control which is also specific to the task. So um. Balancing ah targeting like boxing another good example I know you're into marksmanship so being able to hold steady while you move your body around is a pretty good skill as well. So There's the skill aspect.
37:33.66	mikebledsoe	Um.
37:39.90	Max Shank	And there's the stimulus for the adaptation of the tissue and the neurological drive. Let's call it like how much muscle can you recruit with your thoughts which is kind of a trip so to keep things pretty simple. Try to focus on isometrics explosive movements and then the pump which is not necessarily trying to get as crazy of a pump as possible but it's more about trying to maintain tension on what I'm working. For at least a minute plus so I'm not fully locking out. Let's say or I'm not resting in between repetitions. So. There's not really a rest spot. Yeah, exactly So Those are.
38:27.59	mikebledsoe	You getting that time under tension.
38:34.72	Max Shank	Essentially the 3 big things that I try to focus on as far as the type of stimulus is concerned. Um, it also maximizes risk reward so the safety is very high on all those.
38:40.24	mikebledsoe	On that that also. Yeah, listening to you makes me think about the the concept of minimum effective dose and like anytime I Yeah yeah, well, you're talking about. You know the the sad principle and.
38:51.88	Max Shank	Oh yeah, like I'm ah fully autistic with it now. Yeah.
39:05.24	mikebledsoe	Anytime I hear that I think minimum effective dose I look back on my weightlifting career and how many times did I do 2 or 3 more sets necessary to make an improvement between day one and day two and I actually. Diminish the amount of results I would get because I was again going back to what we were saying earlier in the show effort more effort equaled more reward and what would have been a lot better is a little bit of effort for fewer for less volume would have given me a much bigger bang for my buck. Yeah, and so like now when approaching exercise is did I go a little bit harder or heavier than last time. Okay, cool if I did I don't need to go another £10 I just did better than last time chill out I think I think the wendler.
39:40.54	Max Shank	The.
40:00.30	mikebledsoe	System actually does a good job of teaching that.
40:03.70	Max Shank	Yeah I think it really depends on the goal if you are professional then it might be worthwhile to sacrifice some of your health for performance you know sumo wrestler offensive lineman in the Nfl. You're not going to live as long but you'll be a professional athlete and get all this glory. But if you are an amateur that's a huge advantage you can do it for fun and if you are playing the long game. You won't put. As much pressure on yourself with each training session. You won't say oh I have to leave the gym in a wheelchair after leg day and like look the reality is if you exercise for 10 years you're going to be very strong.
40:46.37	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
41:00.67	Max Shank	As long as you are getting the stimulus ah required for a little adaptation and on the other side of that coin a lot of the strongest hands I've ever seen are attached to plumbers.
41:17.99	mikebledsoe	A.
41:20.60	Max Shank	Because they just like use their hands all freaking day they're like twisting pipe on and off and using a wrench and they're like doing hard stuff all the time and then you know there are all these myths that we perpetuate to try to maintain our. Authority somehow they're like oh you're overtraining and I'm like this guy just did 5000 repetitions of the arm exercise that you said the person should only do 3 sets of 10 on like it makes no sense. It's all relative to the individual and you know this nuance.
41:49.50	mikebledsoe	E.
41:58.49	Max Shank	Is what people are trying to avoid right? They're like don't make me think just tell me how many squats I should do on Monday Wednesday and Friday okay, and then we have all of these studies that come out which are fucking embarrassing where it's like oh.
42:04.26	mikebledsoe	M.
42:15.40	Max Shank	We proved that squats were better than leg presses. It's like over a fiveweek period like what are you kidding me like we didn't measure lunges. We didn't measure ah sled pushing. We didn't test sprinting and how are you measuring leg strength are you on the fucking leg extension machine or some shit like that. And what are these people doing when they're not in the and like I understand the desire to do that. But the most difficult cost to understand in anything is opportunity cost. It's very difficult. It doesn't matter whether you're exercising. Or whether you are investing. It's very difficult to say what should I invest in should I invest into ah you know Microsoft or Apple in the you know early two thousand s or something like it's really hard to say like because. You know opportunity cost is about the cost of everything else. You could be doing instead of that thing and that's how I became so hardcore in this philosophy that I've developed which is like what am I sacrificing by doing. Heavy back squats. What am I gaining from doing heavy back. Squats is this applicable to the broader population is it a good risk reward and what could I be doing instead and when you ask what could I be doing instead. It is a mind-blowing experience because you're like man I could like work on my footwork I could lunge I could pull a sled I could do step ups. You know, step ups are another exercise. It's like a friend zone exercise I called it in an article back in the day it was like side planks. And step ups and single arm rows. It's like so ah, that kind of leads me to my upper body training right now is like 80% um, pushing and pulling a cable or a band from a lunge position because it's very athletic position. It gives me the maximum carryover to being able to use that skill from a standing position and wouldn't you know most of the time.
44:28.65	mikebledsoe	M.
44:44.66	Max Shank	You need your strength when you are standing so it's shocking actually like I get some buff dudes coming in sometimes ah and they might bench like a lot of weight or something like that. But I put them in a lunge position. And do band presses at like a 45 degree and they have no rotational stability. They have no integrity through the foot and ankle to connect that entire kinetic chain and I mean we're talking like you know. £50 of force for one arm and they're like stumbling all over the place. They can't hold that position. They can't generate that force through the foot through the kinetic chain and finish it in their hand so being able to. Ah. Hold that athletic stance and shift the weight from a standing position while you push and pull with the upper body and it gives you a good opportunity to explore a diverse set of angles. That's that's like really sweet but it doesn't look that cool and it's. A little harder to measure like if someone says I yeah I benched you know 2 25 or 3 15 or whatever. There's like ah a certainty to it. It's like very cool if I'm like yeah a cable pressed £70 from a lunge position for. 1 minute using a sixty beat per minute metronome people are like I don't really know what to I don't really know what to make of that is that hard is that good and I'm like yes I also did some isometrics from that position earlier and the load didn't move at all. It's like.
46:36.59	mikebledsoe	I I did so good.
46:39.54	Max Shank	It's just not. it's it's it's um it's not quantitative in a way that is very satisfying so people usually avoid that and the same is true. Um in investing also a lot of the time the stuff that's really boring. Just. Quietly outperforms the market by like 20 to 1 you you get that kind of thing sometimes so ah, kind of went off on a good one. There. But basically there are fewer and fewer exercises that I gravitate toward.
46:58.84	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
47:15.20	Max Shank	In the light of athletic carryover and overall efficiency. But I I train a little bit every day because I recognize you don't have to like smash yourself to elicit that adaptation. And since I'm playing the long game. It's It's very psychological if I just train every day There's no confusion I can do what I want to but I'm not not doing nothing unless I feel really banged up which is.
47:50.68	mikebledsoe	Yeah, um, over the years I've I've gotten more into whole body training each day training for like like you athleticism and you know when you're training the whole body and you're you're approaching it from a minimum effective dose.
47:51.24	Max Shank	Pretty rare.
48:09.86	mikebledsoe	Perspective then you're going to get wrecked way less often and because you're not just blowing out 1 group of muscles which means that you can your your movement patterns are Goingnna maintain integrity if you got a wheelchair yourself out after leg day like you were saying. You're you're probably damaging your motor patterns for athletic ability because how many days are you gonna walk weird when you could have been walking walking normal but to get yoke bro.
48:41.94	Max Shank	Well and why are you doing that in the first place. It's a it's no, it's a but that's a trap like we think that. Ah, if we get all these muscles then the ladies are going to be like oh my god your muscles are so big. Ah you know, whatever, but that's not how it works at all.
49:01.30	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
49:01.93	Max Shank	Like nobody cared. It's only a small section of the other like we're talking to mostly dudes I would imagine to this but we've probably scared away but was it se twenty second episode we probably scared away like most of the ladies I think.
49:10.75	mikebledsoe	Um, I I so well I got ah I got a Dm the other day from a woman who listened to our our show on relationships and the one that I think we probably several times during the show said well now that all the women have left.
49:22.73	Max Shank	Ah.
49:29.53	mikebledsoe	She loved it and sent it. She's like I'm going to send this to every guy I go on a date with like I ah.
49:35.84	Max Shank	Whoa That's amazing. There must be something wrong with her. No I'm kidding if you're if you're listening. You're probably really great. Yeah, that's awesome.
49:49.50	mikebledsoe	She's listening for sure. We appreciate you.
49:53.39	Max Shank	Ah, no like if we're talking to dudes mostly like girls don't care about that like that is the trying to build big muscles to attract ladies is one of the worst cost benefit. You could do. It's gonna take so much effort to build muscle. And it's gonna have almost no impact on your love life. It's gonna have you should exercise because exercising makes you feel better about yourself. It makes you more physically capable but exercising specifically for larger muscles is. Ah, trap. You're not going to be as athletic and quite frankly, a lot of the way your muscles look is going to come down to your genetics anyway, I've seen some crazy examples where you get a gymnast I think he was the number 1 pommel horse guy. Can you think of like a more insane upper body exercise than the pommel horse like the pommel horse and the rings those guys are like freaks this guy can't remember his name I have it somewhere. Ah dude he couldn't sell protein powder on Instagram.
50:56.94	mikebledsoe	So crazy.
51:09.23	mikebledsoe	He.
51:11.52	Max Shank	His arms were so scrawny he looked like the before picture for a protein powder ad for like some high school kid but he was so crazy strong and I'm just thinking like man all these programs out there that are like trained like a gymnast and it's like. Now, you're doing pushups and pullups on the rings and that's going to that's good to suddenly turn you into like this jacked gymnast body and you know I understand it's the ah progressive promises of advertising. Right? not not 8 minute abs 7 minute abs not 7 minute abs 6 minute abs 4 minute abs and then it's like you're going to build £10 of muscle in a month and I'm like if you're hitting puberty and doing steroids at the same time that might be possible. But. You know it's just these ridiculous expectations and that's another trap too is don't expect like an 8 to twelve week solution for you know, athletics and muscle building like even the idea of that. Is. It's just crazy to me like if you want to have long-term success. You have to like go into it thinking I'm going to make a lifestyle change and I'm going to train until I'm dead. That's that's the smart play there not like I'm gonna try to you know.
52:42.28	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah, why that but the the further we look out and the further we set our goals the better. Our decisions will be from day to day you know people are setting a twelve week
52:47.35	Max Shank	Whatever in eight weeks I mean I could just go on a good one here but go on.
53:01.77	mikebledsoe	Goal which is you know? ah in twelve weeks I want a pr or I want to achieve this thing if you're always in a if you're always in a twelve week block and that does work when you're younger for sure. But if you're always thinking in twelve week blocks and you're not thinking about.
53:08.37	Max Shank	Can be good.
53:19.14	mikebledsoe	What about 3 twelve week blocks from now you're going to and you know you pick up well back in the day when I was a kid you know picking up a magazine. It's like you know a 6 weekek program or twelve week program to bigger pecs or whatever it is and if you're always training like that then you're.
53:27.64	Max Shank	7
53:37.48	mikebledsoe	You're not going to age well. But if you go what is my 10 year goal like I have I have an end of life goal I'm working 100 years into the future and I say I'm training for 100 years from now. And my my goal is to be able to wipe my ass until a day I die being able to get enough thoracic rotation and be able to stand there and wipe my ass. That's a lot of old people can't do it. They cannot wipe their own ass and so. I um, yeah, yeah, well you know I'm 40 now sorry my my goals have become more practical but ah these the setting a goal that's ten years out you know I look I go what am I gonna how do I want to be when I'm 50.
54:13.53	Max Shank	It's a very practical goal.
54:31.80	mikebledsoe	And it it's and I train how I want to be when I'm 50 I train like that today. Yeah I'm moving towards that which really takes the stress from off of trying to be in a hurry to achieve anything. Yeah, if you're if you. If you're trying to make improvements in twelve weeks you're go to be in a hurry. You're probably not going to abide by the minimum effective dose rule. You are going to give yourself a maximal dose you may value intensity over frequency. I find that having a longer term goal when I when I turned in my short term goals for longer term goals. Um I started seeing the value in frequency over intensity I saw it's like oh I would rather squat every day a little bit. Then to squat a lot a bit one day and then be too sort of squat for a week so um I really like that's another thing that really comes with longer term planning is like you were saying you work out every day you yeah you have a movement practice every day I have the same thing I move. Every day. Um I'd say about once a month I take a day where I just I get up and I don't move I just completely just let it all go which is fine. Um, which I think is pretty healthy. But yeah I value frequency over intensity and I think that.
56:02.52	Max Shank	Become the couch.
56:05.89	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and then that does I think that is impacted by having a longer term goal I'm like look I got 10 years this is more about and it's also a little bit easier for us because we're maintaining a pretty solid base so there's like um if I am as good as I am.
56:21.64	Max Shank	Yeah, yeah.
56:25.32	mikebledsoe	Now in 10 years I'm fucking excited about it. So there's also something to be set for that. No.
56:30.90	Max Shank	Right? Yeah, lots of good stuff there too I think pretty much hurrying or being greedy is what hurts people the most that might be the only thing that hurts people.
56:44.60	mikebledsoe	E.
56:49.50	Max Shank	They're greedy for more range of motion. They're greedy because they're not willing to wait for the results that will come if they're patient. That's true with so many things very novel concept. Um.
56:55.50	mikebledsoe	Um.
57:05.50	Max Shank	However, I would say that just the same way. You could take a year long goal or a 5 year goal and break it down into steps I think it can be beneficial to have a twelve week goal sometimes if you're approaching it with that patience in mind.
57:20.53	mikebledsoe	Yeah I mean I'm I'm a big fan of breaking down 10 years into 3 year to 1 year to twelve weeks same in in business. Um I just when I was younger I didn't have 10 year goals yeah I didn't have 10 year goals when I was 22 I I wanted to make it to.
57:24.81	Max Shank	Yeah, yeah, exactly I figured you meant that too. Yeah.
57:39.87	mikebledsoe	To get to national championships this year and which meant that I needed to qualify you know this year for for that and which means I need to boom boom boom and definitely wasn't planning like i.
57:53.77	Max Shank	Right.
57:56.25	mikebledsoe	In my head I'm like yeah I'll still be doing this in 5 years but I had 0 fucking plan on how to be how I was gonna be doing that 5 years ah yeah
58:04.46	Max Shank	Yeah, it's tribalism usually that leads us toward these very artificial goals like the whole idea that your self worth is somehow going to be influenced by the amount of pounds you can lift. Is one of those absurd things that would be so difficult to explain to an alien. It's like wait. What? like Yeah yeah, if I I if I lift ah a weight in this certain way then the members of my tribe will love me quite a lot more and I will be revered for this. And here's the funny part that 100 % happened with me 100% um, and I felt good and people were like wow max you're so good. Not verbatim. They didn't say that but essentially that was the message. Wow you're so good and I was like wow you know.
58:44.82	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
59:01.23	Max Shank	Feel really good now and I was like how about if I lift a few more pounds Next time they're like then you would be even more good and so it's just this self-fulfilling Prophecy even better. Ah yeah, ah well, it's like sometimes.
59:08.23	mikebledsoe	You be even better Will love you more.
59:21.14	Max Shank	When I'm doing Hill sprints I go I'm not even chasing anything or anybody like what am I doing out here shouldn't I be chasing something ah when I'm when I'm doing Sandbag carries.
59:28.66	mikebledsoe	Um, I used to I used to a warm up where I would chase my dog around the gym.
59:36.97	Max Shank	I'm doing Sandbag carries I'm like shouldn't I be building a wall. It just feels like very silly sometimes so that's if I'm going to be training if I'm going to be exercising. It should be extremely efficient.
59:39.62	mikebledsoe	Maybe maybe you should be.
59:56.43	Max Shank	You know I should be maximizing the amount of force that I can create and minimizing the risk of injuring myself otherwise I should like go play something that requires no willpower. That's fun I mean playing games. Like tennis or wrestling or something like that is like way more fun than lifting weights. But I just know that there is still a value in that minimum effective dose of training.
01:00:25.68	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah, it's actually kind of nice because training doesn't have to be as hard as it used to be getting getting in the gym is a lot easier when when you're thinking through that minimum effective dose mentality.
01:00:33.97	Max Shank	So what is it.
01:00:40.16	Max Shank	Oh my God Well I mean it depends What tribe you're part of dude. Yeah I mean depends which tribe you're part of if your tribe reveres a soul crushing effort.
01:00:45.31	mikebledsoe	Yeah, it's true. Yeah I'm part of a tribe where I don't really ah I'm I'm one of the most fit people. Yeah.
01:01:00.97	Max Shank	Well and our society already doesn't really revere people who are physically strong as much as people who are mentally capable who can deliver value right.
01:01:12.91	mikebledsoe	Yeah, why I I Um I've been in conversations with some people and I could tell that they really value I think we're our lag is fucked up again.
01:01:20.16	Max Shank	So.
01:01:42.10	Max Shank	All right? ah closing thoughts here's what I got if you want to live long and prosper. It's important to have friends. It's important to have. Ah, reason to get up out of bed. We didn't talk about that very much but it's very important exercising is important. But if all you did was walk and do taichi that would probably still allow you to live a very long time. It just wouldn't give you tons of options. For high level athletics like tennis surfing etc. As far as nutrition is concerned. Ah there aren't too many fields that have been more abused with misinformation outright lies and those damn statistics. And nutrition so I would focus on eating food that you like examining your bowel movements and just don't eat too much drink enough water get some sunshine not complicated stuff the more you. Engage with a tribe who also exhibits these healthy habits the easier it's going to be so don't make it complicated but try to make it as attractive and automatic as possible. Ah don't rely on your memory. To think of going for a walk if you are sitting in a desk for a long period of time set a timer like we have this divergence of people who have learned how to use the pocket supercomputers and people who are being used by. Pocket supercomputers so set an alarm 5 minutes is more than enough ah to break whatever pattern you're in to move lymph around There are all kinds of problems that are caused by the lack of lymphatic flow. Cause it doesn't have a pump I mean I could go on and on but I'm gonna go ahead and leave it there today. This is of course all the stuff we're talking about is the philosophy that I have had in mind as I've developed my training programs. So if you want. A more complete understanding of the athletics side of things then you can check any of them out at http://mashank.com.
01:04:12.23	mikebledsoe	Right on? Ah yeah, my my closing thoughts on this is have ah have a 10 year plan for your fitness goals and for your health goals and really avoid being in a hurry. So take your time go slowly I'd say 80% of my training is done moderately at a at a slow pace and then 20%. It's probably more like ninety ten but that ten or twenty percent is done. You know high intensity with some speed or something like that.
01:04:31.53	Max Shank	A.
01:04:50.17	mikebledsoe	And I found that to to treat me a lot better over time and one of the things I didn't mention that that I think is super important is one of the things that I do is I book myself first on Monday morning. So every day i. Log into my computer to look at what he and do for work but on Monday morning. The first thing I do is I book out what I'm doing for my training and what I'm doing for recovery and what I'm doing for my fun so I know and I block it on my calendar. No one can schedule anything during those times and so that ah. You know we do tend to live by the supercomputer in our pocket and I I will program in there like I don't take meetings before ten I don't take meetings after 5 and I have all my social activities scheduled in there and I have. You know I go do my sauna and cold plunge in the evenings and I've got that scheduled in I know what day I'm gonna go to the float tank I know when I'm doing what and if for some reason I mean I I can't remember the last time I sacrificed something that I had put on the schedule. So um I I become. Very protective of it over over the years and so I think that that's if I could advise people to do anything that I think is gonna have the biggest impact is put something in the schedule on your calendar that you're gonna do for yourself. Ah. Check in with that every single week and you're gonna make a lot of progress in that area. So thanks for joining us today really enjoyed having this conversation. We're gonna dig more into this in future shows and yeah. Your coach I've got a a live event coming up the strong coach summit and go to http://thestrongcoach.com/summit and check that out. We'll be doing some movement nutrition stuff there as well. I'm trying to get max out there I haven't gotten a definite answer from him yet. Yeah. But thanks for joining us today. Thanks for joining me max. Love you brother and we'll see y'all next time see you' all next monday.
01:07:05.52	Max Shank	Thank you buddy! Love you.