---
title: 'Your Workout and Nutrition Questions Answered - ATHLEAN-X LIVE'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=BoJzV2rmBmk'
video_id: 'BoJzV2rmBmk'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 3242
---

# Your Workout and Nutrition Questions Answered - ATHLEAN-X LIVE

> Source: [Your Workout and Nutrition Questions Answered - ATHLEAN-X LIVE](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BoJzV2rmBmk)

## Summary

In this live Q&A session, fitness expert Jeff Cavaliere answers a variety of viewer questions on topics like diet soda, bulking vs. lean muscle gain, supplements, and specific exercise techniques. He provides practical advice on training, nutrition, and recovery, emphasizing a balanced approach to fitness.

### Key Points

- **Diet Soda Safety** [1:14] — Jeff explains that the amount of artificial sweeteners needed to cause health issues is extremely high (462-560 packets per day), so moderate consumption is not unhealthy. However, diet soda alone won't help you get lean.
- **Bulking vs. Lean Muscle** [2:19] — Jeff opposes the bulking/cutting cycle and recommends a balanced approach with quality foods and high training intensity to build muscle while staying lean.
- **Creatine Alkaline Benefits** [4:23] — Creatine alkaline is preferred over creatine monohydrate because it doesn't cause bloating, requires a lower dose (2g vs 5g), and doesn't need cycling.
- **Deadlift Form** [9:49] — Jeff demonstrates the deadlift as a pushing exercise through the glutes and legs first, then a pulling exercise past the knees.
- **Lower Chest Exercises** [28:01] — For targeting the lower chest, Jeff recommends dips and a dumbbell adduction exercise (bringing the dumbbell up and across the body).
- **Increasing Pull-ups** [33:55] — To increase pull-ups, Jeff suggests doing as many as possible, then using a deload method like jumping pull-ups or resistance bands.
- **Reducing Muscle Soreness** [42:54] — Jeff emphasizes stretching at night, proper nutrition, and 7-8 hours of sleep for reducing muscle soreness and promoting recovery.
- **Training for Ectomorphs** [45:19] — For ectomorphs, Jeff recommends high-intensity, shorter workouts (30-40 minutes) with proper recovery to build muscle.

## Transcript

all right so first off um let me start
by saying that um these these live
streams that we can do every now and
then uh I I love them and I know we
we've been doing some on our Facebook
page uh in you know without the video so
if you haven't been watching those and
you're not already on our our page as a
fan make sure you go over there it's
just
facebook.com
aex and uh secondly with these things
here I tried to position myself a little
bit more uh in a setup here where I
might be able to demonstrate some things
if I have to behind me uh you know so
you can see physically an exercise or
something like that um I don't know if
this going to be ideal but I I do have
the ability to maybe stand up and show
something so if that's the type of
question that you want to see we might
be able to do some of those too and then
lastly guys I want to answer every
single one of your questions but they
come in so fast that I can hardly uh get
to them all so so I'm just going to try
to scan through uh see ones that I think
might be helpful things that I maybe
haven't answered in the last live Q&A
that we did and then go from there so uh
right off the bat I see one right here
what do you think of diet soda um I'm
not a I I don't think that diet soda is
unhealthy for you um as people some
people would say especially because of
the artificial sweeteners that are put
in uh the diet soda again research is
showing that the the amounts of the
artificial flavors like Splenda that
you'd have to get in a in a day would be
equal to around 462 to 560 packages or
so it was you know of of Splenda every
single day or grams but you don't that's
a every packet's one gram so you're
you're looking at that many number of
packets it's just ridiculous you're
you're not GNA uh you're you're not GNA
I don't believe you're going to consume
enough of that stuff to cause uh
problems in in your health but again if
you're drinking diet soda and then
eating like crap you're not going to get
cut you're not going to get lean it's
just a Band-Aid you might as well be
drinking the soda okay so you gotta
either be all in or or all out but you
know diet soda alone is not going to
help uh let's see what else
um uh let's see I want to bulk but also
be lean what should I do well that's
something that we covered in last in the
last video um I'm totally against the
bulking cutting uh solution because it's
not really a viable solution um if you
want to be lean and you still want to be
built it's quite possible you just have
to sort of balance out the two big
factors that uh play into that one is
your training and the second thing is
your nutrition now if you want to get
bigger you need to eat bigger but it
doesn't mean you you need to eat bad you
want to focus on good quality sources of
protein
good quality sources of carbohydrates
starchy and fibrous carbohydrates so
your your your Breads and Rices and
oatmeals and things like that plus your
vegetables and and and fruits bring them
all in larger quantities more often
throughout the day keep your metabolism
fueled up just so you can support your
muscle growth and at the same time you
got to bring the workout intensity to
the gym okay you can't think that you're
going to get bigger if you're not giving
your body a reason to get bigger just
like everything else the reason the body
adapts to a response based on the stress
that's placed on it so these calluses on
my hands right here they're they're
produced from grabbing these these iron
bars that we lift with all the time and
irritating the skin in that area to the
point where the the the body says look
if you're going to keep doing that I'm
going to lay something extra down to
protect myself from that thus the cuses
the same thing happens with muscle
unless you give it that irritating
response in the beginning through the
workout that that that aggravation the
muscle won't respond with bigger size or
growth to be better prepared for the
next time so you need to have both
components in play and when you do
that's what the whole athl neck system
is about is providing you with a way to
get bigger and more athletic but still
stay lean and
ripped um let me scan through the
questions here um let's
see what do you think of crealine is
supposed to not cause bloating like Crea
to monohydrate um you're exactly right
we uh we love cre alkaline here I love
it so much that I put it in the athlean
rx2 which is our post-workout supplement
um because there's a couple advantages
number one it doesn't cause the bloating
and it's mostly because it doesn't
create the creatin and byproduct that
creatin monohydrate does so you don't
get that water retention uh outside the
muscle you get the you get the water
absorption inside the muscle so you
eliminate that and because of that you
ALS also don't need as much of it so
your daily dose of crealine could be
down in the 2 gam range versus the five
grams of Maintenance dosage that they
want for um they suggest for Crea
monohydrate and because of all that
there's no cycling needed between uh uh
creatin crealine versus creatin
monohydrate because you're basically
again avoiding any of the the byproducts
of supplementation of creatin that you
might that some people might want to
avoid so you you you're able to take
consistently so for all those reasons
you don't have to cycline it off less uh
less dosage and less bloating crealine
is definitely where what I favor and and
so much so like I said I put it in the
athleen rx2 supplement again after your
workout
um let's see um maias says I enlisted in
the Army in Denmark and I got a workout
for my trainer in the gym which is
basically based on 10 reps of I lost
your question where' it Go Mias it up it
updated with where the heck did it go oh
here it is 10 reps of 10 with the same
amount of weight throughout the
exercise I guess he's basically asking
me what I think about that 10 10 sets uh
10 sets of 10 I think that could be an
intense uh workout technique I actually
when I was growing up I did a um a
workout that I still remember to this
day um it was 10 sets of 10 of barbell
squats right and this is probably what
contributed to the bad needs that I have
the this day um but you had you had a
minute to rest in between sets and I
mean by the time the Clock Struck 60
seconds you had to be already starting
The Descent on your first uh uh your
your first set of the of that next the
first rep of that next set and I used
around 225 pounds to do that and my God
I couldn't move for days after that
again but what you have to analyze what
is a what is what is it about that
that's
working in athlex 2 we have a a density
training phase okay where I basically
said the analogy of you want to take
what normally would you do you would do
in 30 minutes you want to do it in 15
okay in half the time what the 10 sets
of 10 is doing for me especially because
I don't think it works unless you're
keeping to the the this the strict uh
rest time again that very strict you
better be starting that next set what
makes that work is the density of it
that you're you're doing a uh a set and
even if you're not fully recovered you
still fully haven't caught your breath
you're doing your next set and your next
set and your next set and it becomes so
difficult to squeak out those last 10
reps the first two or three sets don't
feel like anything but by the time
you're getting into that seventh eth
ninth 10 set it's it's it's almost Agony
but I think the secret behind that is
density training and it's one of the
principles that we work into all the
Athletics training uh programs just to
try to keep your workouts intense by
keeping them short so I I like that but
but I don't know how I don't know what
the rest time is that he's doing that uh
let's
see how do you get rid of the little fat
around the nipple area of a well-built
chest um I've seen that before sometimes
it's a little bit genetic it's uh it's a
tendency for some guys to have a little
extra breast tissue there I know it
doesn't really look pretty um the best
thing I think you can probably do is try
to develop um your entire chest so that
can round everything out you know for me
uh dips usually work well for for
targeting a little bit lower down on the
chest especially when we say we say chin
to chest dips so you're keeping your
chin dug into your chest for that little
extra on the bottom and then uh
obviously incline bench pressing and
stuff like that for your upper chest to
try to develop it round it all out
because what I normally see is guys that
have flabby lower chest or undeveloped
lower chest that nipple becomes more
noticeable right if it if it if you have
a uh a more well-rounded fully developed
chest you might not notice it as much
okay but there's no real if if it's
something that's coming again either
hormonally or genetically there's not
much you can do to change that other
than to try to develop the chest around
it and reposition all right um let's see
Jeff what do you think about
deadlifts uh I love deadlifts if you do
them right okay because the problem with
deadlifts and actually I can show
something so this will be our first time
I can actually jump up and show uh an
example here um let me use just a a
kettle bell here for demonstration
purposes okay so on the
[Music]
deadlift we did the video the other day
where I talked about you have to preset
your back before you do um any type of
lift so you make sure your back is
secure but also so you can transfer your
power more but here's the one major key
when you're doing deadlifts it's not a
pulling exercise as much as it is a
pushing exercise okay so the first thing
we do is when we get over here again I
could use a barbell or I could use just
this kettle bell to show but with
deadlift you want to narrow up your
stance which you're not going to really
be able to see there on the video but I
got my feet about shoulder width part
inside of shoulder width part I just
preset the back okay from here when I'm
all the way down to the ground I'm
leaning forward this is where I'd be
grabbing the bar if I didn't have the
kettle bells the very first part that
you want to focus on is not pulling from
here it's a push through the glutes and
through the legs it's a pushing exercise
okay so I'm pushing through my legs here
again hard to see better to feel so if
you can stand up and do it do it but
pushing through through and when I get
up past the knees then it becomes a
pulling exercise as I pull my my hips
through okay and my shoulders
back all right so it's here pushing
exercise pull it all the way through and
up if you do that and you can handle
more weight then it becomes a great uh
mass building exercise and strength
building exercise
because you can you're using basically
every muscle group from your toes all
the way up through your shoulders but
you got to make sure you're doing it
right um let's see
next can I use a school bag instead of a
pair of dumbbells for shrugs um yeah why
not you know I'm I'm all about being
resourceful you know that uh if you've
seen any of the the the videos we put up
here we've used tupperware container
tops you have to do uh uh slick floor
type um you know bridge and curls and
stuff like that we've used dog leashes
here as a dip belt right so go for it
man school bag uh for dumbbell shrugs
absolutely load it up with books pull do
your shrugs you know put some dumbbells
in there I mean dumbbell you don't have
dumbbells but put some extra weight in
there sand whatever you want to do
create like a sandbag out of it and go
to
town uh Jeff how do I get bigger triceps
for hard
gainers bigger
triceps are not really you know it's not
an isolated muscle group that is going
to provide a a problem for a heart
Gainer like it's you're not going to
find many guys that can't build bigger
triceps that already have a bigger upper
body because they're so instrumental in
every pushing exercise you do so when
you're doing your chest work when you're
doing your shoulder work your triceps
are going to certainly uh be involved
okay but if you wantan to again if you
want to get bigger triceps you're going
to want to devote your workout a workout
towards your triceps so just doing all
compound work which I've seen people say
here a lot that's not going to cut it
it's not I mean it sometimes you have to
do a little bit more direct work if you
want to try to get a specific body part
or more muscle group to respond I mean
that really is forms the foundation of
our TNT series you know which we have
some specific targeted workouts that go
towards a specific muscle group that
might be lagging or slow to grow you
target it you work on that you include
that with your regular program and
you're able to provide that overload
that you might not be getting based on
your other compound lifts or the other
parts of your your lifting program your
other pushing workouts so if it's a weak
muscle is specifically you know need
needs a little bit more extra work
because you're it might be causing you
to compensate with the stronger parts of
that motion so chest and shoulders will
dominate triceps will stay uh in the
back because they're not strong enough
to really contribute to those pushing
exercises and still continue to get
overlooked so the two stronger exercises
will dominate uh muscle groups will
dominate and the third one won't so even
more reasons so a little bit extra work
keep the Reps um in the 10 rep range or
so at most keep the uh intensity High
keep the workout short no overtraining
okay
um Jeff what are the differences between
good quality weight protein and
lowquality weight protein uh a lot of
muscle growth I can tell you a uh a
little story here when I was recovering
from my uh my actually the last time we
did this was when I had my appendectomy
uh which was at the end of June into
early July and I had lost about 12 to 14
pounds during that whole period not
being able to eat uh just no no time in
the gym a little longer recovery time
than I thought because I had some
complications so all that contributed to
me losing a lot of weight I used again
this is no this is no blatant plug for
my supplements what it does do is it
shows you that I I was extremely careful
when I put together my supplements to
make sure that I chose the highest
quality protein for exactly the reason
why you're asking this question because
high quality protein is much more usable
by your body and able to be put to work
it's it's like it's the same thing as
when we talk about food calories in
general you have your constructive
calories and then you just have your
calories constructive calories you can
have 100 calories of of sugar and 100
calories of protein the 100 calories of
protein are going to be much more
effective in helping you to build muscle
even if it's not directly from the
protein itself but just the usable
calories that your body can use to fuel
his metabolism versus 100 calories of
sugar which don't really contribute much
in terms of usability Factor so in terms
of protein they have different gradients
of the quality of protein 80% pure 90%
pure 95% pure they have whey isolate
proteins they have whey hydroxate
proteins they have whey um you know
concentrate proteins the the more
concentrates a little bit less on the uh
the scale of Purity than an isolate so
the more pure the the the protein
becomes the the more bioeffective it is
so the more Can it can impact your
ability to build muscle so it may cost a
bit more money the higher up on that
chain that you go more towards uh you
know more isolate protein but I could
tell you right now it's worth every
penny Okay because I was able to gain
back all of that weight in a very short
period of time over the course of two or
two or three weeks I think again from
providing my body first and foremost
with the highest quality of protein not
just through my supplements but through
eating the right types of protein in my
meals and then you know supplementing
that again with the right types of
protein through supplementation and my
body was able to use that and help me
build back up quicker build muscle
tissue that I have lost and build it
back up
quicker
um let's
see what do you think about yoga that's
good I haven't answered that one
actually I think I did mention something
about this in the last um the last one
we did uh I think yoga is great and we
all know how important flexibility is to
your training because just like I just
showed you back there on that deadlift
if you can't get into the proper
position for a deadlift don't do
deadlifts because you want to start
loading up the weight like that and you
can't get the uh the the uh the right
position of your low back because your
hamstrings are too tight and then you
try to go lift a whole bunch of weight
tell you're going to blow out your discs
and your back a lot faster and need a
physical therapist in order to help you
to not just work out but to stand up
again so you have to be able to make
sure that your your flexibility is being
address and I think the one thing that's
nice for guys that like to train with
weights is that yoga provides a a cool
way to do that because yoga in in of
itself by having certain poses are many
challenges right you guys that are that
are doing the athletex program you know
that we have challenges all the time
challenges every week athletex
challenges that we say hey you got to
score this level or or or in order to
proceed or or you got to stick back with
this week and repeat it yoga provides
that I think in many doses this this can
you master this pose can you master this
pose and if you can can you master the
pose up here the next one in difficulty
and each one of them requires a little
bit more flexibility a little bit more
strength some dynamic balance between
the two and I think that's it's Unique
and it fits in well with guys that like
to train with weights especially guys
that are athletes so what better way to
incorporate training for flexibility
while still having that same competitive
uh element to the workout that keeps you
wanting to do more so yoga yes I I think
it's great I think an extra two or three
times a week if you're into it uh could
really benefit you oh good qu multi M
multi Mr parkour what about the team
program the team program is almost ready
uh we've been working on that now for
weeks since I was down in Atlanta as you
saw in the video
um putting the finishing touches on it I
would say it probably be I hate always
giving a date because we can never stick
to dates but I would say it's probably
going to be available
sometime um in in the fall for sure
sometime in the fall so hopefully
sometime at the end of September or
October
um Jo yo Jeff why am I Stronger by using
dumbbells than
barbells huh well you know most of the
time with it it's usually the other way
around because the barbell allows you to
compensate with your stronger arm so if
you're doing a barbell curl compensate
with your stronger arm and then overcome
any weaknesses you have and lift more
weight but when you have more strength
with your dumbbells it might be that you
actually aren't really suffering so much
from uh strength discrepancies as you
are basically the the ability to control
the bar some guys I know aren't good
with the long lever arm of the bar you
know you have the the weights way out on
the ends as opposed to the dumbbells
where the weights are nice and tight and
close to your body so yours might be
more of what we call a propri acceptive
issue you know where your joints aren't
very good the longer the the weight gets
away from your body controlling things
like that so what you could do is I you
certainly shouldn't avoid your your
barbell work um I would still attack
your weaknesses by including those those
uh those uh activities but the best way
that you can that you can do that is
that work on your strength with your
dumbbells so if you're going to do let's
say barbell curls use as much weight as
you can on the dumbbells and then in a
drop set or or a burnout pick up the
barbell and do it then so you have less
weight to have to control but you're
still not avoiding the whole issue of
the apprpriate setion where you can't
control those weights the further out
they go right the longer that lever arm
get so work on the heavier weights to to
make sure you still tap into your
strength and your your muscle growth and
then uh come back and work on the
burnouts from the um uh you know from
the the barbell stuff uh Jee what do you
think of isometric
lifting um again well isometrics
are it's a it's a it's a remember guys
we always talk about concentric and
Ecentric lifting right so concentric
lifting is when you uh when you go in
lift the weight up against gravity or do
the the actual execution of the lifting
part right the Ecentric part is so so so
important we always talk about this that
lowering slow lowering of the weight
isometric is just tension generated with
no movement so it's not eccentrically
controlling the weight or concentrically
going against the Against Gravity but
it's eccentrically I mean but it's
isometrically being able to just execute
weight uh execute force with no movement
The Joint so think about athletically at
what point will you not have a movement
of a joint
athletically sometimes you want to be
stable sometimes you want to be able to
keep your core stable and tight while
other things move around it but I think
the types of isometric exercises you do
would want to focus in on that things
where you want to keep something uh
stable like again I think core stability
is going to be is going to be key but
times when you want to have your limbs
stable or where you want to have your uh
your leg stable it's going be very few
and far between so you want to be
sporadic when you when you do your uh
your isometric lifting don't do too too
much of it if you're Olympic ring guy
and you got to be able to hold out here
that's a good example of an isometric
exercise that you want to practice and
work on but unless you're doing
something like that stick more to your
concentric power exercises and your
Ecentric control of those uh let's
see um
let's look to what are your tips for
college body uh College
bodybuilders uh you know guys I was not
a bodybuilder in college but I was uh I
was a guy that liked to work out in
college I found that in college it was
easier for me than ever to be able to
get into a routine because the first
thing I would do is again it's all about
routine in college you usually have a
nice structure you got structure of
classes throughout the day each semester
where do you have to be at a certain
time of the day so each time each
semester for me I used to have a whole
new uh time that I would go to the gym
because it was based upon what my
schedule of classes were I found that to
be almost super effective because it
kind of got me out of the routine if I
used to go at 4 o'clock during the the
fall semester in the spring semester I
might not have been able to go because
the classes so I to go at 8:00 in the
morning is a completely new uh
experience I felt like it was refreshing
and I got consistent results I probably
got more results through college you
know than ever because because when I
went into college I certainly didn't
have any muscle and I I think I got into
my routine in my groove and I was able
to do that now we can talk about a whole
another time nutrition in college and
that's a whole another challenge but
from the mere routine of it college
should provide you with a good chance to
schedule in just like a class when
you're going to go to the gym and that
should be that should help you
out uh
let's see Jeff how does being sick es
affect your body especially your muscle
I think I just because I touched on it
before it's uh actually the good way we
can talk about this is what should you
do depending upon how you feel in the
gym should you skip your workout should
you
not I generally say if you are if you're
feeling symptoms from just the head up
so sore throat stuffy nose headache
things like that um working out usually
is a good thing to do um because it
generally makes you feel better uh
especially if you have a stuffy nose the
the extra blood flow can actually help
to uh decongest you uh if I found many
times if I've had a headache it could be
a little bit of a of a a glycogen
depleted headache right so as I started
to work out I could or I or glucose
depleted headache I can start to work
out I can start to break it down and
start and feel better my headache will
go away by the time I'm done those are
the type of symptoms you want to work
out with anything down below chest you
know um stomach things like that you
don't wanna you don't want to try to
work out but what working but what
sickness will do to you though is
definitely dehydrate you usually most
often we don't tend to uh to eat or
drink enough when we're when we're uh
sick so the dehydration will play uh a
major part in making you look a lot
flatter if you're not eating you have
again some of that um that water loss
because you don't have have the
carbohydrates to hold on to the water so
generally you can bounce back quickly
from a workout or from a sickness but
you don't want to um you don't want to
overdo it because your body is trying to
tell you not to to eat as much when
you're sick because it doesn't really
feel like it needs it at the time so you
want to make sure that when you do come
back from a layoff that you do so at a
at a rate that only your body can
handle uh let's
see what is the what are the Jeff what
help what's the best exercise is to hit
the lower chest um well all right first
and foremost guys we I know I have
there'll be some guys out there that say
you can't Target lower chest and upper
chest and you know because the chest is
a muscle that contracts all at once and
that's what yeah that's how that's how
muscle contraction happens it happens in
all or none uh fashion but there are
different areas of the chest the upper
chest has fibers that connect up here to
the clavicle okay then we have the St
sternal cicular portion uh that the
stern cicular up here we have other
portions of the chest fibers that run
down this
direction because of the influence of
the direction of the fibers you can
actually Target them a little bit more
easily by putting them in a more
favorable line of pull does that make
sense so if you if the pull of the
fibers is more uh in its favor it can
execute the contraction a little bit
more in that from those you know from
those muscle fiber those motor units
there so if you're looking at lower
chest the the best exercise you can do
is the dip because it allows your body
to I'm going to show you another one the
dip allows you to to Target that but
there's a cool little exercise that I do
you guys might like it's so small and
subtle but I want to show it to you
anyway
um you grab a dumbbell right here okay
and we know that the arm part of the job
of the of the chest is to adduct the arm
okay so abduct would be AB would be to
move it away from your body adduct would
be to move it across your body so
horizontal a deduction is in this way
right across your body so what I do is I
take it from down low again putting the
fibers down low at a more advantageous
angle here and I just bring it up and
across just like this up and across my
arm is almost like a little bit of a
shrug but it's crossing the body
so you can see if you look here up right
on the lower part of the chest as I come
across up and across right here you can
see the muscle being targeted from all
from down low and in the
middle okay just up squeeze and hold it
okay when I want to Target a little bit
lower that's what I
do uh let's see what else
let me let me uh scan through
here uh what is Jeff what is your
favorite kettle bell
exercise uh my favorite kettle bell
exercise is definitely the swing I love
the kettle bell swing uh it's because it
offers the triple extension that so hard
to reproduce especially in an athletic
way and a lot of other exercises right
so when I talk about triple extension
I'm talking about extension through my
ankles through my knees through my hips
and you don't necessarily do a lot of
that in an explosive way if you're doing
lunging or if you're doing squats you
know or even if you're doing deadlifts
like we talked about before but with
swings you're you're doing in an
explosive manner you're doing it in a
way that you can take advantage of the
kinetic chain the way that it's set up
from the ground all the way up through
your hips to not only naturally reprod
reduce the Motions that your body wants
to do but do it against resistance so
we're going to get stronger with it and
then that will have a higher functional
carryover to a lot of the other things
that we do um out on the field in
competition or just making more
explosive uh more developed lower
body
um the ab wheel what are my thoughts on
the ab wheel uh the ab wheel I love the
ab wheel I've been doing the ab wheel
forever and uh you probably saw a while
back if you haven't the Fast Five ab
workout just go search that on on
YouTube um I love the ab wheel I don't
know what to tell you it's like it's
like the cheapest thing um 10 or 12
bucks I I bought one um when I was up at
college so I made sure I had one and
when I used to go to spring training I
used to bring one too because it was so
easily uh portable and what I like about
it is again it's sort of it's basically
um Advanced plank modifications
right you're you're either planking on
your knees and then rolling out and
you're trying to control that plank so
you have elements of stability but then
you have to overcome the the force and
the long lever arm when you're way out
to come back so it's a concentric type
exercise too getting again flexion
through the spine which is important for
an ab exercise so I love the ab wheel
you can go in different directions uh to
work more of the obliques um but it's a
great great thing and if you again if
you haven't seen it make sure you check
out the uh uh make sure you check out
the uh Fast Five workout um let's see
what
else Jeff what do you think of the nasm
personal trainer course
um be quite honest I don't know much
about every single uh personal trainer
course that I see um there's a few I I
don't I don't want to name uh specific
names but um one of them
uh we were going to film a video on this
but we never W up doing it my dog
Charlie actually got a certification in
it so uh we might break it out one day
Charlie might come out my black lab
might come out and start doing some
videos for you guys because he seriously
did earn a u a credential in this
organization's uh um you know as a as a
as a certified personal trainer he did
it he I'm proud of him he's a smart boy
but uh that kind of shows you what I
think about a lot of the weekend
certification course courses or the ones
that you can sort of just apply for
online and get one um I certainly
wouldn't want my family members or
friends being treated by or or trained
by somebody that uh that had just that
and that's all that they're bringing to
the table um but I do know that there
are some good organizations out there
and I I I obviously would speak highly
of the one that uh that I'm part of
which is the national strength and
conditioning Association um they require
a college diploma they require a lot of
things that put them at a whole another
level and it's a much more rigorous uh
course than it is you know than some of
these other fly by nights so you know I
have a lot of respect for everyone that
wants to get into the business just make
sure that it your heart's in it and that
you're uh pursuing the the education the
degrees are going to put you in the best
position to help people okay you know
and and give them the right information
and not just you know um become a
trainer and be able to call yourself
that uh let's see Jeff how do I increase
my pull-up number that's a good question
um best way to increase your
pull-ups is to do as many as you can and
then have some way to deload okay so we
talked about it a while ago I again
another one of these videos I did uh
where I showed you a bench press
technique where you lift more than you
can and then back off and do more more
of your reps so you want to touch those
higher weights you want to touch those
higher resistances so your body can feel
them and know what it's going to be like
get it to over adapt to almost be over
stimulated to say wow holy crap that's
hard to do and then back it up to a
weight that you can start to push out
and you'll see that as you continue to
touch higher and higher weights just
even for a rep or two before you drop
right down you're able to start lifting
more and more and more so on pull-ups
some guys can only do one or two full
reps do those come right back into a way
you can deload which would either be a
jumping pullup so you get up there and
then East Cent Ally allow yourself to
drop down so you work on Ecentric only
or use one of the resistance bands where
you can do an assisted pull-up so again
if you're using the um affle and
elastics bands the Red Band would be
you'd wrap it around the pull-up bar put
your foot in it go up and it's going to
basically unweight you by around 60 or
80 pounds and allow you to do sort of a
drop set with resist with assistance um
if you're at the gym you could use one
of the assisted pull-up machines but
always start with the even if it's one
the number of pull-ups that you can do
um and be able to do that um let's see
difference between athlean X1 and the
woman's program the woman's program
kicked my ass that's the difference
between the the the
programs um no let me tell you this the
difference between ax1 and the women's
program for women I believe there's a
there's a there's a specific way to
train first of all having trained some
you know some women who I think we we we
had a a a a large sample of of women who
gave us great feedback women generally
don't like to sit around during a
workout you know they don't want to do a
set wait a minute do a set wait a minute
do a set wait two minutes they really
want to be kept in motion and the
interesting thing about that is that's
what plays best into a woman's
physiology this what plays best into
getting their heart rates up where they
have to be maintaining them so we're
getting our cardio benefits but at the
same time challenging them with heavier
weights so what we did was we focus a
lot on circuit training in the woman's
program and using heavy weights though
so it's not all about this is not a
cardio routine ladies this is this is
circuit training with weight training in
it all at the same time again with ve
just like all all athlet next workouts
brief and intense so the intensity is
going to be high but it's designed to
specifically work for a woman's body
type we found that not only do they like
that type of training but they respond
best to that training whereas athl X1
has more of the traditional what we say
what we see for guys approach to lifting
certain days dedicated to certain muscle
groups certain days dedicated to certain
muscle group actions and then a little
bit more of that that of that um uh rest
period that we would see with 45 to 60
seconds between sets sometimes 90
seconds depending upon the phase that
we're in so you could certainly do it
and I mean both programs the exercises
are always changing a lot of variety
hitting you from all different angles
always keeping you athletic always
explosive but a little bit different
frequency and a little bit different
scheduling in terms of how we lay the
programs out but we've had women follow
both programs and get amazing results um
and we've even had some guys admit to
using the woman's workout and saying
that it kicked their butt I'm not the
only one that would that would say that
so just try the the 400 uh the Double XX
challenge video that's on YouTube here
and tell me if it doesn't kill you um
let's see Jeff what is your post-workout
meal my post-workout
meal um it varies it varies I think the
most important thing um for me is again
I always say that that post-workout time
is the most ideal time to fit exactly
what your body needs uh into that window
right and that window being somewhere
around 45 minutes again I always say
don't look at your clock and think that
as soon as you hit 46 minutes you you're
out of your opportunity but the most
important thing is what you put in your
body then um for me I use again athlan
rx2 you know we talked about it before
it has crealine in it
um it's got everything I need in it's
got my carbohydrates it's got um you
know in the form of um uh waxy maze uh
so it's a little faster digesting and
absorbing we've got Branch chain amino
acids extremely important post-workout
extremely important post-workout Branch
T amino acids um again crein all that
stuff in it at the right time and it's
it's very low calor and easy to digest
it's very it's very um it's not a real
thick type Shake because I don't like
that consistency
so if I had to which is I think this
will help you sometimes I'll come home
6:30 or so at night I'll work out and I
don't want to be eating dinner two and a
half hours later so I'll eat dinner like
an hour and a half after I or an hour
after I've have my post-workout Shake
but I make sure I get the post-workout
in then I have my dinner about an hour
later but because the post-workout is
not really filling it doesn't just sit
in your stomach because it's full of all
fillers and and uh and and basically uh
chalk we'll talk about that another time
they literally put Chalk in a lot of
your supplements um the like like eraser
chalk is in a lot of supplements because
it doesn't sit in your stomach like that
it goes through quickly you still have
an appetite you can still eat a regular
meal and that's how I get it in you know
but when I'm when I'm that tight ideally
if I had the time to wait I would have
my post-workout shake and then I'd have
my meal about two two and a half hours
later um let's see what else
uh I got some of your questions here how
do I loosen my
hips well there's a there's a there's a
lot of uh there's a lot of different hip
problems you could be having so it's not
so easy to just say loosen my hips in
general but one of the things that I
think guys should start doing before you
work out are again dynamic stretches we
don't like to do um we don't like to do
static stretches before a work so
dynamic stretches and one thing we used
to do in Spring training every single
day before a workout is just our leg
swings okay so when we do our leg swings
you're trying to work on again adduction
of the hip and and and uh and Abduction
of the hip okay I'm GNA see if I can get
myself a little bit more out here so you
can see it but as I kick my leg out I
rotate my foot up to the ceiling here
okay up and then across my body and as I
go across I point point my foot across
my body that way okay so up and across
up and
out okay like that and we also can do
our front to back leg swings up and
through here again don't lean forward
don't lean forward when you do these
because you're not really getting
extension through the hip you want to
just get up and back up and back okay
there are a lot of stretches you can do
on the ground as well um one of my
favorite stretches laying on my back
cross my leg over the top here ankle
over knee getting pull back behind the
leg here towards my uh let me see if I
can show it to you real
quick so down
here cross your leg over I'm waiting for
my feed to catch up with me cross your
leg over the top lay
back pull in through here okay pull back
on the leg over
here so what this is going to do is get
the internal rotators to stretch out by
externally rotating the right
hip if you find that when you look at it
from the side that this knee is way up
here because you can't get any kind of
external rotation at all in your hip
then start by anchoring your foot on
something this foot the left leg and
pushing down here okay that will be your
stretch as soon as you can get it to the
point where you're parallel across here
then work on pulling the other leg back
so that you can increase the stretch on
the hip on the right hand
side go back
up all right guys got time for a couple
more
questions a couple more questions
um Jeff how do you reduce muscle
soreness that's a good question question
um one of the things I just showed you
right there is to do some stretching and
make sure that you're
stretching at the end of the night okay
so the best time to do your static
stretching is at night from the the the
the muscle groups that you work that day
so if you worked your chest stretch it
before you go to bed that that night if
you worked your uh your legs stretch
them before you go to bed that night
that's one thing the next thing believe
it or not is sleep in proper nutrition
believe your body can only handle so
much and it's one of the main principles
I talk about with athl all the time rest
and Recovery okay Muscle Recovery is
what we're talking about when we talk
about recovery rest is sort of total
body rest if you don't build that in and
if you don't support that with nutrition
at the right times when you're resting
you won't grow you'll constantly be sore
you won't see your body changing you
won't see yourself losing fat and that's
that's a major problem so the attack
plan make sure part of recovery
stretching and makeing sure that you're
that you're you know like we instruct to
make sure you're stretching at night
have the proper nutrition before you go
to bed give your body some protein
before you go to sleep fast acting and
slow acting protein so again I keep
coming back to this guys there's a
reason why I keep coming back to it
because I believe in them highly the rx3
supplement reconstruction has um fast
acting whey protein so when you first go
to bed you can kind of trigger that
anabolic response because remember you
do all of your growing when you're
resting when your body is having a
chance to recuperate not when you're in
the gym that's where you stimulate
growth but you actually do the growing
when you're resting so you make sure you
have a fast acting weight protein to
kick it off and then about four times
the amount of a casin protein slower
acting to take you through the night to
be there to support muscle growth at
night as well so that's what we do we
put in about a 4:1 ratio have that get a
good night's sleep make sure you get
around seven or eight hours of sleep get
up the next day you'll feel better
you'll be able to attack your workout
again with intensity and that's the
whole key you know keep keep getting
your workouts the intensity high and
making sure that you're resting and
recovering um let's see three more
questions is athlan X suitable for
ectomorphs absolutely you know again we
talk about building muscle and having
the right intensity in place and kind of
right off building off that that last
question if you have the intensity in
place you can you can produce amazing
results as ectomorphs I mean I'm a I'm
an ectomorph I've always been an
ectomorph but I've been able to add lean
muscle because i' I've been able to
increase the intensity of my workouts
but also at the same time decrease the
length of my workouts I was not unlike a
lot of you guys out there were in high
school I was at the gym at 4:00 in the
afternoon and I'd be done at 6 6:30 and
I was pounded away set after set after
set and I did not see nearly the results
I have the more I started to cut it down
and I and I've credited this guy a long
time ago with sort of triggering my my
mindset about it and it's what got me to
really researching the concept and
seeing how much it makes sense was a guy
like Mike mener you know who yes he even
admitted he was using uh uh steroids and
he you know he wasn't a natural
bodybuilder by any means but he
understood recovery and he said you know
he had the whole one set to failure and
you're done but the more I started to
see why it was so important especially
as he would say for guys that were drug-
free uh it made just a lot of sense it
made a lot of sense in terms of recovery
and the the whole point now is that if
you guys can attack these athletex
workouts they're set up perfectly for
you to to to you got to be intense if
you don't bring your intensity to them
forget it but if you can attack these
workouts I'll get you out of the gym in
30 30 to 40 minutes tops but I guarantee
if you attack the workouts you're going
to be able to add muscle so whether
you're an Acom morph like myself or
whether you're uh a mesomorph or or a
guy that just needs to to you know lose
some you know some extra weight it
you're going to get results from your
training as long as you're providing the
right type of train right type of
intensity with the right type of
workouts to keep your to keep you in
that zone strategically not just
throwing exercise out at you but with
the plan and then you recover you're
going to you're going to see results and
I think you know we have a lot of guys
as you'll see in our our testimonial
board that looked like probably like you
do you know that that need that you need
to uh um that need to get results as
skinnier guys that certainly did uh
let's see last
one uh let me see look back see if I
missed anything I know I missed a lot of
your questions guys uh it's tough to get
to all of them it really is so I'm just
trying to uh
uh you know we'll we'll hold more of
these so I can do that and I might even
be able to answer a few more of your
questions uh after the
fact um let's
see recovering from a torn
muscle um it's a good question you know
I guess what you're asking is you know
when when should you start working out
again what what's the best practice you
know to come back from that you don't
want
to jump back into training when you have
a torn muscle um what you want to do
that for me I think the biggest thing
you you want is a progression so you you
got to make sure that you're allowing
your body to do things that involve that
muscle but not directly hitting that
muscle so let's just say you were doing
you had um uh let's see a torn bicep
okay I don't know what muscle Ur whoever
wrote the question but we know that the
direct action the direct actions of the
the bicep are to flex the to flex the
arm we know it will superate the forearm
and we know that it will Elevate the
shoulder now in its order of priority
the thing that the bicep does the most
is probably Flex the elbow we know that
right the thing it does the second most
is probably superate the wrist right
it's probably a tie between suating here
and also elevation of the shoulder so
what I would do is as you're starting to
make your way back into actually
exercising because obviously you need to
get through the whole recovery phase
first controlling the inflammation
getting back your range of motion all
that that must come first but I assume
what you're talking about is getting
back into the strength training aspect
you want to choose the the secondary
motions first so that you're involving
the bicep because we know that it
controls those motions but it's not
directly there not directly stimulating
the muscle to the point where you can uh
you're doing too much right so you'd
stay away from flexion of the of the
bicep right off the bat and work more on
the supering F factor of it maybe just
taking a band walking backwards until
you have adequate tension on the band
flexing just enough just enough to get
the the uh the bicep activated through
there and then work on the back
superation and stuff of the of forward
and backward pronation of the of the arm
forearm or you could work on just some
front raising some band front raises so
underneath your hands all underneath
your feet lift your hands up and work on
front raises again targeting some bicep
work but indirectly all right so think
of ways that you can indirectly hit the
muscle that you're uh that you injured
without directly going at it and you'll
know when you do too much because you'll
start to feel that and you might even
get some swelling next the next day all
right guys so um I think that's uh I
think that's it the uh let's see do we
have one extra one
um oh here's a good one hey Jeff I was
wondering how much body fat you have the
H twins said they had about 5% body fat
uh right in that same right in that same
ballpark probably uh just a little bit
um just a little bit under you know
right right around 4% is really where I
sit um again mostly it's going to come
guys from proper uh proper nutrition you
know making sure and again for me it's
super simple if you're if you have a
meal plan that you follow that allows
you to like a lot of the things that
you're eating it's going to be real
simple to follow and and that's when I
when I put the xfactor meal plan
together in athletex as anybody that's
followed the program can say it is super
super simple all right it's super simple
you can follow this plan because there's
so many options and there's so many good
tasting options that are realistic that
guys can actually afford and make that
if you can't find things that you like
then you don't then you this is if you
can't find them on this on this plan
then there's nothing that you like and
what you could do is you don't have to
follow it directly meal by meal by meal
by meal you find the things that you
like and you can repeat them because
most guys wind up eating the same four
or five things that they like all the
time but if they're good for you and you
actually look forward to eating them
you're going to wind up uh you know
you're going to wind up doing a great um
you know great things for your for your
body and mostly your body fat and by the
way uh yes I do like the Hodge twins I
think they're they're extremely
entertaining am guys and uh my hats off
to them they create videos man every
single day and and I just I admire their
I admire their their work ethic and
their ability to keep coming up with
funny stuff and good stuff and
entertaining stuff and if you guys are
liking them uh then we like them too so
all right guys uh if you haven't already
guys we talked about it a few times here
but I know if you're watching this
become part of Team athl come over to
athlet x.com grab the athletex training
system uh it it really is I think the
the best out there right now the best
thing that you can do to get in in in
the shape of your life by training
athletically and explosively you know
there's a lot of programs that will
claim that but they don't really have
the science behind it as a physical
therapist I like to try to put real
science into what we do don't overdo
anything we do get you the most uh the
most effect from what you're doing and
then get you out of the gym I realize
you got other things you want to do in
your life you know you want to look good
you want to play hard you want to do all
those things my job is to get you what
you need to get in here in the gym as
fast as possible and then get you out so
guys thanks again we'll do another one
of these uh real soon if you uh haven't
already thumb this video up if you like
if you like these so I know that we'll
do more and leave your comments I'll try
to answer a few of these questions down
below if I see a lot of common questions
I'll answer a few more after the video
is over all right guys thank you again
and I'll see you over at athleanx.com
see you
yeah