Bodybuilding Science versus Aggressive Work Ethic

Hey guys,

I hope you've all been doing well and killing the gym and your nutrition. A big shout out to my new favorite email correspondent Mr. Iso-chronic for his questions on a few topics that I pick apart in this podcast.

I discuss my take on bodybuilding science versus limited knowledge with superior work ethic.

I also talk about my beliefs on the real truth about what Golden era bodybuilders claim versus what they really did, and the differences with exercise selection and what I think is inferior or superior.

Mr. Iso-chronic sounds well on his way to greatness and I'm glad the podcast can help him out and help out a lot of listeners also!

FYI, I'm working on releasing a new e-book hopefully before the end of the year. This one is a little more basic and geared towards the person who wants an education on diet and training to help go from sedentary to getting in great shape but wants to avoid the pitfalls of failed dieting from fad diets and possible past attempts that fell short on results! It's coming soon!

Click the play button below to listen to Bodybuilding Science versus Aggressive Work Ethic

A big thanks to everyone that follows and listens, you guys give me motivation to keep training hard and continue to push forward no matter what!

TRAIN HARD, NO WEAKNESS!

-JD

Prefer to read? You'll find a transcript of the podcast below!

(Podcast transcript is abridged for easier reading.)

What's up everybody? I hope you have all been well. Thanks for joining me for another episode of the JDB podcast.

I figured I'd bust one out while I'm waiting to pull this chicken out of the oven. Hopefully I remember my rice so it doesn't burn. Occasionally I do that. I get off on a tangent. I start talking. I forget I'm cooking and fuck up some food. I'm trying to do this meal prep, and I'm already getting sick and nauseous at the smell of this chicken permeating through the house.

Thank God for G motherfucking Hughes barbecue sauce. In my case this week, it’s the sugar free Polynesian dipping sauce. Take any meat that’s getting old, anything that you want to throw up from, and put a little bit of G Hughes motherfucking sauce on that motherfucker and motherfucking indulge your motherfucking ass, motherfucker.

You know, I'm really getting sick of people talking about the racism with the food labels. I mean, they did away with Aunt Jemima. What the fuck is so wrong with a woman that's proud of her maple syrup… Just a proud black woman out in the woods plugging trees to get syrup? What the fuck is wrong with that, man?

Never in my life did I look at a bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup and be like, “Hey, that’s fucking racist.” Never did I go to make some Uncle Ben's rice and be like, “Oh, that’s fucking racist. Why does the black guy have to be in the kitchen slaving away at the fucking pot of rice?”

You know what makes it racist? White people. Woke, white fucking assholes make this shit racist. Or maybe some degenerate that was part of the family that was living off somebody else's name, and now they're just sitting around collecting a fucking welfare check, and they realize, “hey, maybe there's something in this for me because they expose my grandmother on the maple syrup sauce bottle.”

What the fuck? It's fucking bullshit. It's not racist to anybody until you make it racial. If anything, you’d think that it was more racial to associate barbecue sauce with the slave days and cooking hogs and shit or pig's feet or chitlins or whatever. You think that that would have been done away with quicker than Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben. But no.

You know what? I have a theory about this. There's a wave of these black guy barbecue sauces, which are fucking awesome, by the way. When I go to a grocery store as a white guy, the first thing I'm looking for is that black guy on the fucking label. Fuck those white barbecue sauces. I want the black guy on the label. That way I know it's good and it's guaranteed.

Come on, man. I guarantee you that half of these people don't even exist. It's a group of white CEOs, white upper management people, probably in Chicago or LA or something, sitting at a conference table being like,

Listen, guys, listen. Sales are down this month. We need a new black guy. We need a name. Somebody, anybody. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yes, John. Yes, John. What is it?

   How about Leroy Jones?

No. No, no, no. That sounds too made up. We need this to be believable, people. Joseph, what was your suggestion?

   How about Rufus?

Rufus Teague made some sauce. I like it. I like it. When I hear Rufus, I think of a black guy. I think of somebody down and out in the fields or on the streets. Rufus. That is definitely a name we can use. Rufus Teague . It's got a ring to it. And you're describing on the label what he was doing. He made some sauce. Well, we've got to try what he made! Fucking excellent. Thank you. You're up for promotion next month, Sir. Excellent idea.

That's half these fuckers on these barbecue bottles. That's half of them. I guarantee they’re not even fucking real. It's a bunch of white woke fucks being like, “We need a black guy to save us.” Meanwhile, over here on the other side, they're banning Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima. What the fuck?

I started looking for, like what do we have? What do the white people have? The guy on the Quaker Oats, the fucking racist on the Quaker Oats package, man? *laughs* Who do we have? Nobody. Nobody. Throw a white dude on a fucking food label, it's automatically racist. In all honesty, the ones they use couldn't look any more racist, right? Like Colonel Sanders or I don't know. Find one in your own mind for me, because I can't think right now, but find one.

Anyway, I get super excited when I see a new black guy’s sugar free product out there. I fucking love it, man. I get so excited if I see G Hughes come out with a new flavor. If you've never heard of this and you're just getting into dieting, I'm telling you, man. G. Hughes is awesome stuff. There's all different kinds of options of sugar free sauces. The ketchup he makes is incredible. I would go for it over regular ketchup with sugar in it every time. You don't want to go back to regular ketchup after you try the G motherfuckin’ Hughes.

If my black person voice offends anybody, you probably don't want to listen to me any further. That's how racist this world has become. Black people laugh at my black guy voice, right? My black friends think it's fucking hilarious when I talk like I'm from the hood. They think it's fucking hilarious.

It's not racist because we see beyond that. We know each other. We make fun of each other's fucking race. We'll be in the gym sometimes, and I'll be working out. First off, I don't give a shit what color you are in the gym because the gym is a place where we can all come together. It doesn't matter, man. Strength is strength. You can't talk shit in the gym. Your weakness is exposed. Your strength is shown. So nobody gives a fuck. We're all there for the same reason.

So that’s another reason I like the gym. The gym is not limited to color unless you're living somewhere where there's still segregated water fountains and gyms or whatnot, which I don't think is anywhere anymore.

But anyway, yeah, if this offends anybody, don't get the wrong idea about me. I just have fun. I pick on everybody. I pick on white people. I pick on black people. I pick on Mexicans. I pick on Indians. I pick on Chinese. I just pick on people because it's funny.

Back to what I was saying. I get so excited when I see a new black guy sugar free barbecue sauce that I will literally pull my cellphone out… If anyone saw me in the grocery store, they would I was a fucking loony tune. Because I will record a video. I'll be like, “Bam, motherfucker. Bet you didn't know there was a Polynesian sugar free sauce out there for dipping your chicken in. Try it, motherfucker. I dare you. I double dare you, motherfucker. Try it.”

I will send that video to five or ten of my friends and they'll send stuff back. This is what we do. I genuinely get excited over it because it's another way to make the dieting process easier.

Look, as hardcore as I am, I'm not eating plain ass egg whites. I'll drink them, but I'm not eating them like that. I'll put some salsa or hot sauce on them. Then with the meats, some of the stuff definitely helps. This shit can be downright miserable sometimes, eating like this.

Anyway, that's that. I know I just went on a freaking eight minute rant here about race and sauce. I don't really know where I was going with that. Let me try this one more time.

Let's answer some questions submitted by a listener. I read this guy's email, and I automatically like this guy. Sir, you are very cool. I thought that I was reading an email from someone like myself that was submitted. So let's get going here and finally get your questions answered.

The cult of science and bodybuilding

“Some people get so wrapped up in the studies, and none of these people ever make any progress or look like they even fucking lift.”

I already like the guy. He had me at don't even look like they fucking lift.

“They'll debate all day on the internet or by the water fountain in the gym about how X amount of reps at Y RPE equals Z amount of gains. Hitting a muscle two or three times per week is optimal and anything less means you won't make progress. Starting strength, no more than five reps, no isolation work, that's the only way for beginners to build a foundation. So tired of this bullshit.”

Me too.

“Scientific studies translate to real world results maybe half of the time. There are dozens of internet personalities with their little PhDs that look like shit and people flock to them for information because of “the science” instead of lifters that have been there and gone through the shit.”

Iso-chronic, (That’s his name) I fucking love it. I'm a fan, buddy. I'm a fan. Awesome question. I agree with you. I agree with you 100%.

Just on personal experience. If I can think back on everybody that charted, plotted and graphed and was very analytical and scientific about everything and the results that they got compared to people that just kept the process simple but killed it in the gym and had an awesome work ethic and were good with the consistency of a program; The people with less knowledge but more consistency or work ethic would win every time.

I think that one of the problems is all this stuff becomes so overwhelming that people become lost in the idea of “the superior way” or, as you said, “the science” behind it rather than just the practice of it and keeping things simple and effective.

It's almost like a business. Maybe you own a business and you have this great idea, but it's so complex, and then when it plays out, it's just not hitting on anything. But then you could just keep something simple, and you work hard at it and you're consistent with it and something takes off and it explodes.

It's kind of like that because you can just become so lost in the little details of everything or the hypothetical this or that, that you're making an easy process harder than it needs to be.

It's like trying to tell somebody you're going to build this explosive device to blow off their hand, but it's not going to happen until you find all these different chemicals to build something really powerful. And so I'll come back when I find everything or source everything out…

I know this is a fucking horrible, gruesome analogy here, but in reality you could have just had a fucking stick of dynamite, duct taped that bitch to their hands and blew them off. Right? Simple but effective. I don't know what made me come up with that, but hopefully you get the picture.

So yes, Sir, I agree with you. I think it's absolutely retarded. It's funny because every once in a while you'll hear a little snippet or a clip from somebody that's being interviewed that is elite in the bodybuilding world. I want to say it might have been Jay Cutler that said this. I may be I'm mistaken, but he said back in the day he wouldn't even pay attention to his heart rate. He just did cardio. He didn't look at the little electronic graph in front of him. What do they call it? Your Mets? All that fucking bullshit. He never paid attention to it.

I think Mets is basically how many times your metabolism is working over, whether it's working three times over the norm or four times or whatever. It's a roundabout estimate.

He said he didn't pay attention to any of it and I would agree. Look, let's get down to the basics. If you're breaking a sweat and you're pushing yourself in the gym, does it really matter? You know, go by the mirror.

Starting strength, no more than five reps, no isolation work… I just don't agree with it because I did do bigger moves at first. I did bench. My shoulders severely overpowered my chest, and I almost had to really learn to chest press a different way to get my chest to catch up.

This was probably the first few years I was in the gym. It just got to a point where I was like, “look, this isn't working” But if I only did the flat bench, I don't think I would have been able to find a way around my stalled progress with chest development. Because, yeah, I wanted to be strong, and I think that it's good to get stronger. You have to get stronger at first. But I wanted results. I wanted to actually look bigger.

So if there was something that was building something else, but it was making me imbalanced then I had to find a way around it. Now, if I had been pig headed and just said, “Nope. bench, squat, deadlift. Bench, squat, deadlift.” then I might not have been able to find my way around that. How many people do you know that could bench press a shitload of weight, but they just kind of look half-assed?

I think that something like Starting Strength would be a really good program for someone that doesn't know anything, but I think it's leaving a lot on the table. It's not the only way for beginners to build a foundation.

It may not be the best way for beginners to build a foundation. I think the best way might be a balanced routine that focuses on more than just sets of five reps. Me, personally, I'm going to agree to disagree or disagree with the majority that agree with that. I believe high reps are better with somebody who doesn't really have a lot of experience, and then they condition themselves to work down in reps as they get in better shape.

I think that there's nothing wrong with sets of 15 or 20 reps and as you become more conditioned, then you work down in reps. Maybe after you've been to the gym a few months, there's nothing wrong with five reps. But to just go in there on day one and do five reps of everything, I don't agree with it, man. I just don't.

I think that there's a lot of football teams in high school all over the world that are training their athletes wrong because they're trying to make the biggest, strongest athlete in the shortest amount of time. But I don't think it's number one.

I think they're working with limited time, and that's why they don't do more reps in a larger variety of exercises. Now, back in the day, they did. I want to say football from the 1930s to the 50s was different. They did train their athletes differently than they do today.

But to take a kid who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground about weights, and then the first thing you want to do with them is compound his lower back with something like a squat or a power clean, you know, all this stuff. Yeah, I get it. You're trying to create explosiveness but there could come a point where that gets overrated, man. Being explosive in a power clean is not the same as real brute strength, real muscle fiber going to work.

So I think if you could take that same athlete, give them real retainable muscle, and then work on explosive strength, I think you'd have a much stronger athlete that would outperform 99% of everybody else out there doing these half-ass programs by these dickheads that have some strength coach degree.

A lot of these strength coaches, I'm sorry, they don't look like shit, man. To me, they just don't. A lot of them, for only training that style, should be a hell of a lot stronger than they really are. But again, they're the experts and they have the degrees.

I've had strength coaches in the past that hired me. I'm not blowing smoke up anybody's ass. They hire me and then they come to me and ask, “hey, man, I'm feeling this injury. What do I do to work around it?” And kind of in a nice, charming way, I say, “well, you stop being so fucking pig headed that you only have to do these exercises. Let me show you a way around that.”

And once they see that it works, they all say the same thing. “Jesus, I should have been more open minded 20 fucking years ago. What the hell was I doing?” You were doing what everybody else says you need to do. You're doing it the scientific way.

Anyway, I'm not going to get too much more into that, but yes, sir, I agree with you 100%.

I've seen these videos of these bodybuilders in Africa that have very little money. They don't use supplements. They kill and eat their own fucking food and they look amazing. They're not the biggest guys in the world, but they're bigger than most people here in the States and they're hunting and killing their food. They're fishing for their protein. They're not on a piece of cardio equipment looking at their mets or looking at their heart rate. They're working hard. They're working hard, and they're using what they have.

So if your fucking inner bitch has to have the electronic fancies or you have to be one of these people, that has to be scientific enough to say, “hey, instead of doing this kind of cardio, I need to do so many steps a day.” Well, how do you count that many steps? Will you wear a fancy watch that counts your steps?

Look, if it works for you, fine. Keep doing it. All right? I'm not trying to start an argument here with anybody because I know I'm always going to have that one guy, “hey, no, I was fucking overweight and I did this and it worked for me, so fuck off.”

Well, congrats. You lost weight, but I'm telling you that you could have lost it regardless. You didn't need to be so damn scientific and over complicated with everything. It doesn't need to be that way.

So, yeah, I agree with you 100%, dude. 100%. And your email, that topic of your email, it fucking pissed me off. I read it and I'm like, “Fuck yeah, man. I like this guy and he's right.”

All right, another great topic. You're killing it, dude. I ought to have you on the podcast one day.

The differences between what the golden era bodybuilders said they did versus what they actually did.

“I've heard you talk about this before and a powerlifter who taught me to lift used to train with the bodybuilders of that era and told me how vastly different it is from the bullshit they talked about publicly.”

It is. Listen, human beings in no way, shape or form have evolved in the past, like 40 or 50 years, okay? I've thought this myself, where these guys are talking about these keto diets and no carbs at all. I don't buy that when I see how long a day they were in the gym.

And you’ve got to remember something; these guys lived like bums, okay? It wasn't expensive to live then and a lot of them were like scavengers, man. These dudes would go out to eat in some places, like restaurants and such, and they would grab other people's plates, like people they didn't even know. If they didn't finish their fucking chicken salad or something these dudes would grab their food and be wolfing it down.

There was no shame in their game. They lived like fucking bums. They laid around all day in the sun when they weren't in the gym. They just soaked the lifestyle up, man.

And something else that a lot of you guys probably don't know about is there was some gay for pay shit going on back then. That shit has been going on ever since the fucking 60s and 70s, man. I know, I know. It's hard to believe. It wasn't open back then, really.

But yeah, there were a couple of doctors in the Los Angeles area that were gay and they wanted to be around bodybuilders. They wanted their presence and they would pay for them. They'd put a roof over their head. They'd give them cars to drive. They would buy their groceries or their drugs or whatnot. So here it is. You have these big, muscular guys who were pretty much fucking bitches, really.

You know, I think that's not my definition of a man. I don't give a shit what you look like. But, yeah, that shit has been going on for decades, all right? There's a large population. There's a dark side of this lifestyle that a lot of people don't know about and it's still going on to this day.

You take a place like California that costs as much as it costs to live, okay? How do you think these dudes are making it without working a fucking job? I mean, how do you really think they're making it? They're either doing something kind of shady or they're sucking dick.

But the whole carb thing, I don't buy it. I just don't buy it. I think that they were low carb in general throughout the week. I think they were lower carb. But were they as low carb as they said they were? I don't fucking buy it.

One of my friends, he was training partners with Bob Birdsong, all right? Bob Birdsong ate spaghetti like every fucking second or third day. He also trained his hamstrings every single day when he was trying to bring up his hamstrings and made hamstring gains. Despite what people say about over training, Bob trained them every single day and brought his hams up.

But my buddy, who was personal friends with this guy said every two to three days, he would eat a giant plate of spaghetti because he needed to refuel, he needed the carbs. So I'm not buying everything that they said they did.

Another thing, you could go online right now and Google search Arnold Schwarzenegger beginner bodybuilding program or Serge Nubret bodybuilding program. If you looked up Arnold's beginner program, but then listened to Arnold talk about how he would always train around his friends; and one day, one guy wanted to do this exercise, and another day, another guy wanted to do that exercise. Well, how does that go with your program here, Arnold? Right? Because that's not what you said in the program. It has to be Monday chest and back. Tuesday, arms and shoulders. Wednesday, legs, and then repeat it through the six on one day off split with no carbs, might I add.

And I don't even know what he's talking about. He would say, “no more than three eggs a day.” Like eggs were the anti-Christ. “No more than three eggs a day. No more than three eggs a day.” I don't know what that was about. No more than three eggs a day. Most bodybuilders now would be like, no less than three eggs a day.

Take Serge Nubret’s high volume routine for example. If you thought Arnold was high volume, Arnold’s shit had nothing on Serge, but Serge didn't train super heavy. Serge trained light to moderate with his weights. And funny enough, if you watch the movie Pumping Iron, it does not look like a big size difference between Serge Nubret and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm sorry, it doesn't. I mean, they look pretty close.

Of course, I don't believe Arnold was 240 on stage either. I heard a story from that same friend from the golden era who said that was fucking bullshit. He said that somebody bet him one day, I want to say Ken Waller bet him $100 that he wasn't over 215 pounds. Arnold got on the scale, and before the thing stopped, he jumped off and paid his fucking money.

So not everything these guys talked about was the way it really was. Everything from the dosages. Think about this logically. If you know steroids help create strength and help create a bigger physique, and you're competitive so much so that you don't work a job; your life is bodybuilding; You're living in the moment, and you'll do whatever it takes to be better. Why wouldn't you use more? They were legal back then! They were legal. What would prevent you from using more and more and more and being reckless? If you want to win, you'll use more.

So this whole, “oh, you know, one shot a week and three pills a day.” Fuck off with that, man. Tell that to someone that doesn't know any better. I think that maybe that was a staple for a lot of guys, but OK, Primobolan. All right. What was rumored to be Arnold's favorite anabolic. How the fuck do you do just one shot a week of Primobolan? Right? Because I'll tell you right now, it's 100 milligrams per milliliter in most cases. Occasionally you'll find it 200. How do you do that once a week and get up to 700 to 1000 milligrams? Because you could go read another article that this is what it was rumored that his dosages were for 20 weeks on end. 1000 milligrams a week of Primobolan How do you do that one shot a week? You don't. It's fucking bullshit.

I know I sound like I'm getting a little bit passionate about this podcast, but I am. They fucking lied. They fucking lied. Point blank. Everybody has this idea in their head of how much better things were back in the day and how guys would really work for it back in the day. And guys, they don't have it in them now. Fucking bullshit, man.

I mean, a lot of guys in the gyms now, yes, they're distracted by their phones. They get distracted with conversation. But wait a minute. You mean to tell me that there was no conversation back in the day? That they enjoyed this camaraderie so much and going to that fucking deli they talk about eating at every day, Zucky’s or whatever it was called. And then they all went to the gym together, which I think is awesome. I'm not knocking that at all. I think that's cool. But there was no joking? There was no conversation? It was just like balls to the wall, set after set, no small talk? Human communication and socialization, it just doesn't work like that. I don't buy it. I don't.

There are still guys today working hard, and there's guys today working even harder. Is it a select few here and there in pockets? Yes. Because I think that society and technological advances and stuff such as phones and sifting through your music or whatever, it has made people weaker. It's made people distracted.

But you mean to tell me that it was so much different back then that guys didn't joke around in the gym between sets? I mean, for God's sake, you see this one scene in Pumping Iron where Franco is doing the bench press with another guy’s nuts in his face and I'm sorry, Arnold, I think it's Arnold spotting him and he made some kind of joke, and then Franco dropped it on his chest and started laughing hysterically and then just pushed it back up like it was nothing.

That was probably Dbol. If there was one steroid that I think can make you bust out in laughter like you were done and then just power up like it wasn't shit, I would think that water retention Dbol could help with that. That's my opinion.

But anyway, another good point, Sir. Another good point. Did they actually do what they say they did? No, I don't believe it. I don't think humans have evolved in the past four or five decades to the point where they can train five or six hours a day on zero carbs and feel good or function. I just don't think that's possible. I think you're burning your candle at both ends.

I'm not saying you can't go low carb. I'm not saying you can't taper down in carbs. But these guys want to lead you to believe that that's what they always did. Really? So no carbohydrates and not really a lot of fat, and you make gains? But funny enough, you can go online anywhere now and read that fats, especially fats, are essential for muscular gains and carbohydrates.

So what's changed? You tell me. I don't know. Probably the level of bullshit that people are talking and their view on what they did in the past versus what they really did and how warped that could really be. I don't buy that either.

Exercise Variety

All right, next question on exercise variety. It’s not really a question, I guess, but maybe it's a question.

“For the intermediate/advanced lifter, Does it really matter which variation of row or press you do week to week as long as you're pushing intensity harder than the last workout?”

I don't think it does. I will say this. I think there's something to be said for building up stabilizer muscles with free weights. That is a little bit different, but I think once you build that initial foundation, I really don't think it matters.

I'm going to tell you why. I'm a perfect example of somebody that had to change certain lifts due to some injuries and I didn't get any damn smaller. Despite what everybody says that “hey, if you don't use free weights, it's not the same or you can't make gains.” It's bullshit. If you're pushing, you're pushing. If you could come at it with intensity, you're going to get results. I think that free weights are good in the beginning. I think that you should learn. I always think simpler is better until you progress to a certain point.

What's the simplest thing you can do for your chest? To me it's a push up. I think the guy that does push ups first or includes them in his routine is better than the guy who only does a bench press. You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk. Push ups is learning to crawl before you learn to walk. I think so many people are getting ahead of themselves that they're just kind of lost.

Oh, you were saying for intermediate and advanced lifters. I'm sorry, let me back up. I'm talking about beginner lifters. I had to reread this question. No, 100%. You are right 100%. For intermediate and advanced lifters, it doesn't matter.

A lot of times I switch the exercises up for the boredom factor. I really do. Take the bicep, for example. What is the purpose of the bicep? It's to pronate and supinate the wrist and it's to lift things up and put them down. I lift things up, I put them down. How many different exercises do you need to do to do that?

If you take somebody who only has the barbell curl available, and then you take the other guy that has the ten different wonder machines and everything else, but the guy that's only doing the barbell curl, that's a hardcore motherfucker that has his nutrition in order. He's on the right stack of shit to continue to grow past what Mother Nature allowed. He's getting rest and recovery.

Then the other guy is drinking his tail off on the weekends and snorting cocaine and doing a bunch of stuff so he can't really make any gains. He's eating out every day at work.

No, that guy who only has the barbell available to him is going to absolutely kill that other guy in terms of results. So a lot of times, again, the exercise variety, to me, is for the boredom factor because your body's going to grow a certain way. You don't change your muscle tie ins and assertion points. You're not going to change genetics like that.

Now, does an exercise like a dumbbell fly do something different than a press? Well, yes. Yes, it does. But that's one of those exercises that works hand in hand to stretch the pec and as you know, when you stretch a muscle, you allow more room for growth. So that goes hand in hand with a press.

But again, somebody that has all the intensity in the world and is a fucking die hard presser; If all you knew to do was bench press and you just destroyed it every time you walked in that gym, would you look better than the guy that's doing flies and maybe incline cable flies and then I don't even know what they're called, the flies where you're standing up with dumbbells. It's almost like you're coming low and then meeting in the middle and squeezing together. It's like a low fly, I guess. I mean, the guy that is only doing a bench press that has that intensity and all those other elements involved. That dude is going to crush the other guy.

I don't think that it really matters a lot in terms of variety of exercises unless there's just an exercise that you're not doing that's not hitting an area. So if you're not doing deadlifts or hyper extensions, you're probably not hitting your spinal erectors in the way that somebody is hitting them when they're doing deadlifts and hypers. There's nothing that a pull up is going to do to build this area better than the guy that's doing these movements. So that's different.

But when you start talking about a dumbbell shoulder press versus Smith machine shoulder press versus a Nautilus machine shoulder press, does it make that big of a difference? I don't think it really makes any difference at all. For an intermediate/advanced lifter who already has their foundation, who has already initially built those little stabilizer muscles; I don't think so.

I think it's a good idea to go back to free weight movements once in a while to intermittently throw them in there so your body just kind of recognizes what it's like to balance weights.

But I can give you another side of this coin here. There are certain things that you can't do as easily with free weights that you can do with a machine when it comes to a high intensity technique to bring even more intensity to the table. It's harder to do but I'm not saying it's not impossible. Things like a 1 minute static hold or a super slow set, like ten second negatives and ten second positives, something I do a lot. Most people, they just don't do slow positives because it's fucking hard and they wouldn't look as strong if they did it. It hurts their ego.

But again, I like the Rocky Balboa style of training. I like to be strong when I'm fucking beat up. That's kind of what's made me excel in the past couple of years. That's what's really just thrown me light years ahead of where I was.

Those things are more realistic to do with a Hammer strength machine or something over dumbbells or barbells. I'm not saying they can't be done, but I'm saying that there may be some advantage to using machines for those things. You can hang in there a little bit longer without the danger factor of dropping it on your face. Maybe if you don't have a training partner that's the better option to use.

There's positives and negatives with each, but to outright say, “No. This is inferior, you can't make any progress.” I have just known too many people, especially a lot of middle aged guys. I know a lot more middle aged guys with impressive physiques than young millennials, and a lot of them are in the same camp I come from where there might be a little tweak or an injury here that they have to work around. How is it that they switch to mostly machines and still look better? Because they have that work ethic, they bring that intensity despite maybe that injury or something they have to train around.

So no, I think that's beginner bullshit. I really do. Having that mentality is only going to hold you back.

Anyway, it's time for me to hit another meal. Mr. Iso-chronic, thank you so much for some awesome podcast topics, and I think that can answer a lot of questions that a lot of listeners have had. I’ve thought all the same things myself and I know other people have too, but it's nice to have that information fresh from your email submission so I can put it out there for people. That's just my take on it.

Anybody else, if you have any information that you want to put out there or want my take is on something, feel free to email your submissions. Even if it's personal stuff, like if you need help with maybe a relationship. I'm not a therapist, but if you want my opinion on what you should do, I'm going to give it to you. I'm not going to candy coat that. I'm going to give you my honest opinion. You know, some bitch you think might be screwing around on you, but you don't know for sure. Some things have happened. Let me know. Let me know about it, and I'll try my best to give you an answer that's going to make you feel your worst. *laughs* No, I'm just kidding. I try my best to help people. That's what I'm here for. I try to help people.

Anyway guys, thanks for listening to another JDB podcast. Everybody be well. Remember, train fucking hard. Do you want to turn into a fat slob over the holidays?

That brings me to my next point. I do have another book I'm releasing. This is not really going to be necessary for the advanced people to pick up, but it's a diet book. It's basically an e-book that debunks a lot of bullshit with fad diets and really just talks about how to design your own diet.

I get into the psychology of dieting more and ways you can stick to it. It's basically if you didn't know anything about this and you wanted to go from person with no direction, no discipline, to lifestyle change, this is what I got to do to look good. That's what it's geared towards. Okay?

It's not for everybody. It's not just one program. It actually talks about diet. It actually explains calories. It explains carbohydrates proteins, when one can come out, when the other one can come in, what difference it makes.

So, that's coming out in a little bit here. I'm going to try to get it completed before the end of the year, before Christmas, because I know a lot of people are going to be wanting to get ripped up.

But don't be one of these guys that just because that's what everyone else is doing… I like to get cut during the fucking holidays because I don't want to be like everybody else. I don't want to fall weak and be like, “Oh well, I'm expected to eat like shit because it's Thanksgiving.” I'm not telling you not to have a cheat meal, all right? I'm not telling you to live your life in a box.

What I am telling you is don't let one thing lead to the other and just think that it's cool to be a fat fuck because you're going through some months that are a little colder. Because it's not cool to be a fat fuck, all right? It's not.

You know what's cool? Walking your own path, having some fucking discipline, bringing some training intensity to the table, walking in the gym like, I'm going to make this gym my fucking bitch, man. I'm a warrior. I don't care about everybody else around me sitting around, playing on the phone, getting wrapped up in all the distractions. I'm here for one thing and one thing only, and that's to fucking kill shit!

Train hard. Till next time. It's JD. I'm out.