This one steps away from the training and nutrition stuff to talk about what actually built our careers in fitness. It came out of a question Aaron sat with before he left his software job to coach full time, which was basically, if it takes me ten years to make it, is it worth it? At 30, the answer was yes, and the episode kind of works back from there through the decisions that got us both to where we are now.

The fitness space is a weird one. A ton of people want to work in it, and most of them end up washing out, so we get into why that did not happen to either of us. That starts with what making it even meant early on versus what it means now. In the beginning it was just not drowning, then it was comfortable, and eventually it became actually being able to provide for a family, which changes the math completely. There is also a lot in here about the stuff nobody really warns you about with self-employment, like how you kind of become unemployable because you know too much, and why the number you are at matters way less than the direction you are heading.

The back half gets pretty honest about the expensive lessons. Aaron turned about 60 grand into almost nothing on an ad team and a mentorship he had no business buying into, and Bryan took two gyms that were both crushing and consolidated them into one, which ended up being the beginning of the end. We also get into the accolades we figured would change everything and mostly just did not, the pro card included. Then we close it out with the one piece of advice each of us would give someone who is a year or two in, or still sitting on the fence about quitting the day job.

Covered in this episode

• The question that started it all: if it takes ten years to make it, is it worth it
• What "making it" meant in the beginning versus what it means now
• The three phases: not drowning, comfortable, then providing for a family
• Why you eventually become unemployable because you know too much
• Reverse engineering money problems instead of living on a fixed income
• The no-days-off reality of self-employment, and how we each frame it
• The turning point where the gym finally felt sustainable
• Why trajectory matters more than whatever state you are in right now
• Aaron's never-going-back moment: a year of 10 out of 10 sales calls and a launch that sold out in 15 hours
• Whether the pro card, or any accolade, actually changed anything
• The frustrating truth that the same advice lands differently once you look the part
• The biggest money mistakes: ad teams and expensive mentorships
• Bryan on consolidating two gyms into one and bleeding members
• Regrets, moving to Asia, and the Undefeated bet that has not paid back financially yet
• The group bodybuilding class as an underserved idea
• One piece of advice to your younger self, and protecting your name along the way

Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro and updates
00:10:25 - The question that started it: if it takes ten years, is it worth it
00:11:49 - What making it meant then versus now
00:13:15 - The three phases, from not drowning to providing for a family
00:18:10 - Becoming unemployable because you know too much
00:22:04 - The no-days-off reality of self-employment
00:24:19 - The turning point where it finally felt sustainable
00:29:01 - Why trajectory matters more than state
00:30:01 - Aaron's never-going-back moment: sales calls and a sold-out launch
00:32:55 - Whether the pro card or any accolade actually changed things
00:38:40 - The frustrating truth about looking the part
00:39:16 - The biggest money mistakes: ad teams and mentorships
00:44:18 - Consolidating two gyms into one, the beginning of the end
00:50:01 - Regrets, Asia, and the Undefeated bet
00:54:32 - One piece of advice to our younger selves

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
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Another month, another stack of questions pulled straight from the Instagram audience. This one was packed, 21 questions deep, so we skipped updates entirely and went straight into answering them. The range is wide: programming and split design, nutrient timing, eating well on a tight budget, a thoughtful testosterone question from someone with a real medical history, the psychology and physiology of dieting, and a long closing thread on what still excites us about training this far in.

A few of these go deeper than the usual Q&A. There is a full breakdown of whether a 150 pound person and a 200 pound person have it equally hard in a proportional deficit, and where that logic quietly falls apart in the real world. There is a careful answer on taking testosterone when you have an autoimmune and cardiac history, where the honest advice is to get a real cardiac workup first and not expect a magic energy fix. And there is a surprisingly good exchange on volume versus frequency that ties back to the training day question from a prior episode.

If you have sent us a question before, odds are good we got to it here. Timestamps are mapped to every single question below so you can jump straight to whatever you care about.

Covered in this episode

• Whether the fifth training day actually adds anything, and why it earns its spot in a prep
• How much nutrient timing really matters, and why it only starts to count at the extremes
• Eating healthy on a budget, and why it is one of the cheapest things you can do
• Fixing digestion by peeling foods back instead of piling supplements on top
• A testosterone question with a real medical history, and why the cardiac workup comes first
• Whether trap bar deadlifts can stand in for barbell RDLs long term
• Two pulleys versus one for single arm lat pulldowns, and why it barely matters
• Whether a proportional deficit hits a smaller and a larger person the same
• How we would come back from a year or two away from training
• Dynamic double progression when your reps fall off faster than they should
• Volume versus frequency, even when the volume is only once weekly
• Hitting a set volume with more exercises or fewer, and what your gym decides
• Coming off a 12 week cut, and why the real question is why you stopped
• Training and recovery for sand volleyball feet and calves
• Navigating hypertrophy and strength training through perimenopause
• Balancing lifting and cardio when you do not have unlimited hours
• Making the low bar squat hold less miserable on your shoulders
• What still excites us about fitness and nutrition this far in
• How a push pull legs arms rotation holds up for an advanced trainee
• Whether we would ever bring a gym to the US
• Reordering push, pull, and legs for better upper body recovery

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:31 - How much difference does training five days a week make compared with four? If it does matter, how much? I’m planning to compete next August. In a prep, how much would keeping that fifth day be worth?

00:06:46 - How much difference will nutrient timing make to muscle/fat accumulation?

00:12:25 - How to eat healthy on a budget

00:18:08 - Digestion and gut health must haves

00:23:00 - Testosterone, energy, and health concerns with an autoimmune history and previous myocarditis

00:28:23 - Do you think someone could do trap bar deadlifts from the floor to replace barbell RDLs indefinitely and get the same hamstring/posterior chain gains?

00:31:33 - Do you think a lat pull-down set up with two pulleys is better than the single pulley for seated single arm lat pulldowns? 

00:33:15 - Is it "easier" (in terms of cravings, will power, etc) for a 150 lb person to be in a 10% calorie deficit than a 200 lb person? Or does a proportional deficit hit the same across weight classes? 

00:36:23 - Imagine you had to take a long break from training, how would you go about coming back. How would your training look like - what would you prioritise? What if it had been a year or two since you last trained?

00:39:15 - For dynamic double progression that you talked about in the last pod- I feel like I fatigue faster than I should, where my reps fall off to hit the same RIR. When I have followed plans that have built in progression I usually can’t keep up with what they have written, even if I feel like I’m hitting the intended RIR targets. I’m more of a beginner, would this get better with training? A sign I’m not resting enough between sets or going too hard on the first set?

00:42:56 - Bryan mentioned that he’s doing more volume with the bro split than the upper/lower. How do you make sense of your experiences and the research in determining whether more volume is better than more frequency; even if the volume is once weekly?

00:46:47 - For a given amount of volume, do you think it’s better to achieve it with more or fewer exercises per body part? I.e. 10 sets of chest with 10 exercises versus 10 sets of chest with 2 exercises.

00:49:51 - What do you recommend for coming off a 12-week cut? Go straight to maintenance or increase cals 10% a week until you hit maintenance? Additionally… how long should you stay at maintenance if you have more weight to lose? 

00:55:27 - Sand volleyball training & recovery // I find my feet and calves get super tight and sometimes extra tired from all the sand time. This is even worse in the spring when I’m back out on the courts after a long winter of no sand time.

00:59:00 - Hypertrophy and strength training during perimenopause….How to navigate training loads during this phase? Some people say to stay in the 5 rep range but I like hypertrophy ranges for body composition

01:02:56 - How to balance weight training and cardio when you don’t have unlimited hours to train? You want to be strong, but also not be out of breath walking up the stairs… thanks!!

01:05:45 - I just started the strength cycle. Holding the barbell on the low bar back squat was uncomfortable, any suggestions on how to fix that?

01:08:16 - At this point of the game, are there still pieces of fitness and nutrition that excite you guys?

01:15:22 - How well would a split of: push-pull-off-legs-arms-off work for an advanced trainee?

01:17:26 - Any plans to bring an undefeated gym to the US?

01:17:44 - I’m running Push, Pull, Rest, Legs, Rest Upper Rest, with the goal of bringing up my upper body for a future MP competition. Would it make sense to move legs after push to give my upper body more recovery between sessions, rather than running push and pull back to back?

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
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Dynamic Double Progression. A favorite progression model. Here is your short version of it: take standard double progression, where you move up in reps or in weight inside a set range, and lets every set climb on its own instead of forcing them all to move together.

Here is the core of it. You pick a weight, you walk up the rep range week over week, and when you top it out you add a bit of load and start the climb again. What makes it dynamic is that your first set and your third set are almost never in the same spot, so you progress each one independently rather than sandbagging an early set to keep the numbers matched. Done well, it lets you hold the same RIR across every set, and it accounts for the fact that some exercises fall off a cliff from set one to set two while others barely move at all.

Most of the conversation is about what changes when you run this inside a real nutritional phase, because that is where people get tripped up. In a deficit your progressions dry up on a fairly predictable schedule, so we get into how to read a true stall versus a bad week, when to hold the load as reps slip versus when to pull weight back, and why how lean you already are matters more than how long you have been dieting. In a surplus it flips, and we cover what a realistic rate of progress looks like week to week, why glycogen saturation shows up first, and how much your training age changes the whole picture. We wrap on volume and the sweet spot, strength as the cleanest proxy that growth is actually happening, and the program design details that decide how many sets a given exercise can even support.

Covered in this episode

• What dynamic double progression is, and how it differs from standard double progression
• Walking up the rep range, then adding load to restart the climb
• Why forcing every set to the same number just means sandbagging your first set
• Progressing each set on its own path instead of all at once
• Using the model to hold a consistent RIR across every set
• Why some exercises drop off hard from set one to set two, and how to set load for it
• The question that sparked the episode: eight reps, then no progress the next week
• Reading a real stall versus a single bad week of sleep or fuel
• The indirect factors that stall progress: sleep, fueling, hydration, fasted training
• How a deficit dries up progressions, and the body mass thresholds where it happens
• Whether to hold the load or pull it back once reps start slipping in a deficit
• Why a deficit behaves like a spectrum and not a light switch
• How long progression lasts in a deficit for a natural versus an enhanced lifter
• Why how lean you are matters more than how many weeks you have dieted
• Running the model in a surplus, and a realistic rate of progress week to week
• Why muscle glycogen saturation shows up before any real strength change
• How training age changes what progression should even look like
• Late stage natural progress, and running a movement far longer than you want to
• Volume, the sweet spot, and why too little is as much a problem as too much
• Strength progress as the number one sign that hypertrophy is happening
• The cleaner proxies a natural needs: body weight up, food up, performance up
• When a gaining phase has run its course and it is time to change priorities
• Why chasing a lean look right now quietly caps your rate of progress
• Program design: matching rep ranges and set counts to the exercise
• Using dynamic double progression with as few as two sets

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro and updates
00:10:00 - What dynamic double progression actually is
00:11:00 - What makes it dynamic: progressing each set on its own
00:13:00 - Using it to hold a target RIR across every set
00:15:00 - Per-exercise drop-off, and setting load per set from the start
00:17:00 - The question that sparked it: eight reps and no progress next week
00:19:00 - When it's a real stall: indirect factors and the deficit effect
00:22:00 - Dropping reps in a deficit: hold the load or pull it back
00:25:00 - How long progression lasts in a deficit, and why leanness decides it
00:32:00 - Running it in a surplus, and what to expect week to week
00:35:00 - Training age: why late stage natural changes the whole picture
00:38:00 - Volume, the sweet spot, and strength as the proxy for growth
00:43:30 - When a gaining phase has run its course
00:47:00 - Program design: rep ranges, set counts, and using DDP with two sets

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
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For the first 5 years of Aaron's coaching business he kept a running doc of every question a client ever asked. Hundreds. The single most asked question was a form of: "What actually counts as a training day?" Sounds simple, right up until you have to draw the line. And that line quietly decides whether you run one set of macros or two, and how you feed a surplus, a deficit, and everything in between.

The definition we keep coming back to is dead simple: a training day is something you need to recover from. That alone drops a lot of the confusing stuff, big step count days, hikes, a long zone 2 ride, into a gray area, and the call there is about duration and cost, not a hard yes or no. A 30 minute spin is not a training day. A 90 minute zone 2 ride is. From there we run the whole thing through nutritional periodization, because the phase you are in changes the answer. Maintenance, surplus, and deficit each get an argument for splitting your training and non-training day macros, and an argument against.

The deficit is where splitting really earns its keep, so that is where most of the episode lives: protecting training intensity as the number one lever for holding onto muscle, pulling food off rest days to hit your target rate of loss, and the psychology of dieting that no spreadsheet ever accounts for. That last part goes deep, from why hard training kills your appetite while rest days leave you bored and food focused, to the counterintuitive move of eating less on training days, to how going bland on purpose and cleaning up your Instagram feed can pull your hunger right back down. We wrap on the constrained energy model and step counts, HIIT versus low intensity cardio, why your wearable's calorie number lies but its trend does not, and the non-bodyweight reasons, stuff like metabolic flexibility and quality of life, that never make the spreadsheet but matter anyway.

Covered in this episode:

• The one definition that cuts through it: a training day is something you need to recover from
• Why needing to recover from something every single day means you are probably doing too much
• The gray area of big step counts, hikes, and long zone 2 rides
• Why a 30 minute zone 2 is not a training day but a 90 minute ride is
• What happens if your expenditure is genuinely too high, and why body weight tells the truth
• Using nutritional periodization to decide when to split training and non-training macros
• Maintenance: absorbing meals out and protecting insulin sensitivity versus keeping it simple
• Why maintenance is the only phase where letting appetite drive the bus makes sense
• Whether biasing calories toward training or rest days matters if the weekly total is met
• Surplus: nutrient partitioning, GLUT4, and intra-workout carbohydrate
• Loading carbs pre and post workout so 8pm does not become a 100 gram carb problem
• Monitoring a surplus with photos, performance, and a well-timed DEXA
• The build calculus: is the extra muscle from the last six pounds worth dieting it back off
• Deficit: protecting training intensity as the number one driver of muscle retention
• Pulling food from non-training days to hit a target rate of loss around 1% per week
• Bryan's opposite approach: eating less on training days to manage food focus
• Why hard training blunts appetite for a couple of hours and rest days do not
• Going bland on purpose, and how the Instagram algorithm quietly doubled the hunger
• The constrained energy model, step counts, and where movement stops paying off
• HIIT versus low intensity cardio in a deficit, and why your leg days pay for it
• Non-bodyweight reasons to split: metabolic flexibility, fat digestion, and quality of life
• Higher carb versus higher fat by phase, and why a deficit favors higher carb
• Why a wearable's calorie number is unreliable but its trend is accurate to you
• Consistent inaccuracy: pick the same food entry every time and let the trend guide you
• Why we pull cardio before steps when the rate of loss runs too hot

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro and updates
00:05:00 - The six minute cardio ramp, and why lifting isn't a zone 2 substitute
00:09:00 - What actually counts as a training day: recovery as the definition
00:10:30 - The gray area: high step days, hikes, and zone 2
00:13:00 - Nutritional periodization and the maintenance phase
00:17:30 - Appetite blunting, rebound hunger, and the weekly average
00:22:00 - Surplus: insulin sensitivity and nutrient partitioning around training
00:29:00 - Monitoring a surplus: DEXA, and whether six more pounds is worth it
00:31:30 - Deficit: the phase where splitting matters most
00:34:00 - The psychology of dieting and Bryan's opposite approach
00:37:30 - Going bland on purpose: flavor, the algorithm, and hunger
00:42:00 - The constrained energy model, steps, and the Pontzer research
00:47:00 - HIIT versus low intensity cardio in a deficit
00:50:00 - Non-bodyweight reasons: metabolic flexibility and quality of life
00:54:00 - Wearables, the trend over the number, and pulling cardio before steps

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

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ETP226 comes from a DM question posed to Bryan wondering whether we have taken the "abs are made in the kitchen" idea too far. That question opened up into a bigger one, and it is the question this whole episode chases: for muscle groups like abs and arms, how much does training them directly actually change your physique relative to the extra time it costs you?

We work through it from a few angles. Whether a base of prior ab development carries over through years of compound lifting, how core stability from free weights compares to braced machine work, and where the honest line sits between a six-pack and true influencer-level abs. From there it moves to the more interesting half of the conversation, the arms. The thought experiment at the center of it is a natural lifter who has gotten genuinely strong, think a 200 press, 300 bench, 400 squat, 500 deadlift plus weighted pull-ups and dips, and whether that person ends up with basically the same arms as someone who added years of dedicated direct arm work on top.

That leads into some of our favorite tangents: why body fat distribution is largely hormonal and splits so differently between men and women, whether the size you get from direct arm work is real myofibrillar growth or mostly transient sarcoplasmic pump, whether muscle and fat compete for the same space, and Bryan's one arm experiment as evidence. It all ties back to the one question worth actually sitting with, how much optimization is worth pursuing for you, which comes down to what you care about and what your time is better spent on.

Covered in this episode

• The DM that started it: have we taken "abs are made in the kitchen" too far?
• Why nutrition, not ab training, is what stands between most people and visible abs
• Whether prior ab development is maintained through years of compound lifting
• Core stability from free weights versus bracing on machines
• The ex-powerlifter example: big lifts leave developed midsections behind
• Defining the goal: a six-pack versus influencer or Ryan Terry level abs
• The arms thought experiment: the genuinely strong natural lifter
• The strength benchmarks that mean you have put in the work
• Why weighted pull-ups and dips matter for elbow flexion and extension
• How execution differences change how much arm you get from rows and pulls
• Body fat distribution as a largely hormonal, sex-linked pattern
• Whether long term TRT slowly shifts where you store fat
• Sarcoplasmic versus myofibrillar hypertrophy from direct arm work
• Why the pure compound-only lifter is a bit of a hypothetical purgatory
• The one arm experiment and what it suggests about transient arm size
• Whether muscle and fat compete for the same space
• Why more developed abs can actually look worse if you are not lean
• How much optimization is worth pursuing, and how that answer is personal
• The earlier lifter: get strong on compounds before chasing direct arm work

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Episode Intro
00:02:00 - Have we taken abs are made in the kitchen too far
00:05:00 - Core stability from free weights versus braced machines
00:07:00 - The ex-powerlifter example: big lifts leave a developed midsection
00:10:30 - Defining ab development: a six-pack versus influencer abs
00:12:30 - The arms thought experiment: the strong enough natural lifter
00:15:30 - How execution changes the arm you get from rows and pulls
00:18:30 - Body fat distribution, hormones, and male versus female patterns
00:22:30 - Whether long term TRT shifts where you store fat
00:24:30 - Sarcoplasmic versus myofibrillar hypertrophy from direct arm work
00:27:30 - The one arm experiment and what it suggests about transient size
00:29:30 - Can muscle and fat compete for the same space
00:34:30 - Why developed abs can look worse if you are not lean
00:38:30 - How much optimization is actually worth pursuing
00:40:30 - The earlier lifter: get strong on compounds first

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
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Another month, another batch of questions pulled straight from the Instagram audience. This one runs the full range, from how to build a bro split around daily cardio, to the zone 2 discourse currently making the rounds, to a couple of surprisingly good questions from Bryan's nine year old. We take each one in turn and give the honest answer rather than the tidy one.

A lot of this episode lives in the nuance. How to read research when you do not have a science background and whether reviews are the better use of your time, whether an 80/20 commitment can really get you to 95% of your muscle gain potential and why the way you define that 80/20 changes the answer, and Aaron's transparent take on TRT after being on it for a while, including what he would do differently if he could start over. Bryan revisits the one arm training experiment and what it actually proved, and we get into practical troubleshooting for the classic wake up after two to three hours sleep problem.

Covered in this episode

• Building a 5 to 7 day bro split that still fits daily cardio for health
• Managing beat up legs when cardio stacks on top of lower days
• The Dr. Mike T. Nelson zone 2 discourse and where it actually holds up
• Why hard lifting already lives close to zone 2 for a lot of people
• Reading primary research versus research reviews as an enthusiast
• Picking one or two reviewers and knowing your actual goal for reading
• Why "more research is needed" is the most common and most frustrating conclusion
• Whether an 80/20 effort can reach 95% of your muscle gain potential
• The difference between 80% every day and 100% for 80% of the time
• How a 9 year old should train abs, and the minimum to get jacked at puberty
• Stepping back evenly on reverse lunges, and whether it is worth thinking about
• Training through pregnancy, autoregulation, and taking advantage of a good day
• Aaron's honest TRT regrets and what he would do differently starting over
• Why buying less TRT content and finding one trusted person beats the noise
• What the one arm training experiment proved and what comes next
• Troubleshooting the wake up after two to three hours, starting with caffeine
• Food and water timing before bed, and breathing tools to fall back asleep
• What we are currently enjoying and excited about

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro and updates
00:06:00 - Programming a bro split around daily cardio for health
00:14:00 - Dr. Mike T. Nelson and the zone 2 discourse
00:22:00 - Reading research versus research reviews as an enthusiast
00:29:00 - Can 80/20 get you to 95% of your muscle gain potential
00:34:00 - Bryson's questions: training abs and getting jacked at puberty
00:38:00 - Stepping back evenly on reverse lunges
00:40:00 - Training through pregnancy
00:44:00 - Any regrets about starting TRT
00:50:00 - The one arm training experiment, and what's next
00:54:00 - Waking up after two to three hours and can't fall back asleep
00:58:00 - What are you currently enjoying or excited about

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

This week we have a slightly different kind of episode. We talk less about the mechanics of training and more about the benefits of using your fitness out in the world, specifically outdoors. We talk about environment, how the right gym or the mountains can pull effort out of you when your own motivation is low.

The back half of the episode revisits the Misogi Challenge and the value of planning something with a real chance of failure, why hard physical challenges reframe everyday life, and how the pursuit of hard things changes from your twenties to thirties and forties. It closes on the big one, using your fitness to buy a longer and more capable lifespan, why your 30s are when the trajectory of your actions starts to show, and why 56 does not look so old looking forward from 44.

Covered in this episode

• Pushing a session to a day you can actually give it a better effort
• How environment, the right gym or the mountains, pulls effort out of you
• The carryover that lets you hike well even at a heavier body weight
• Awe as a real mechanism, and why noticing is the key word
• Dacher Keltner's book on the science of everyday wonder
• Keeping the mountains from ever becoming just another Wednesday
• Revisiting the misogi and planning something with a real chance of failure
• Why hard physical challenges reframe everyday life as manageable
• How the pursuit of hard things changes from 24 to 34 to 44
• Using your fitness for a longer, more capable lifespan
• Why your 30s are when the trajectory of your actions starts to show
• Mountains versus the ocean, and the wildlife you only see out there

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:05:00 - You don't have to train every day to keep your fitness
00:09:30 - Environment and how the right gym pulls effort out of you
00:13:30 - The benefits of using your fitness outdoors
00:16:30 - Awe as a mechanism, and Keltner's science of wonder
00:20:00 - Revisiting the misogi and planning something hard
00:24:30 - Doing hard things, and how that pursuit changes with age
00:32:00 - Using your fitness for a longer, more capable lifespan

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

This one came straight out of the DMs. Aaron gets messages from people who are interested in coaching and they usually lay out everything they have been doing and everything they have tried. The same handful of problems keep showing up over and over again, so instead of answering them one at a time, this episode is the full breakdown.

The whole thing is built around three buckets. Poor metrics, where the plateau only exists in perception because there was never a baseline, a rate of loss target, or any real objectivity built into the approach in the first place. False plateaus, where the deficit is actually intact but something is muddying the water and making it look like nothing is happening. And true plateaus, where the deficit on paper simply does not match the deficit in reality.

If you are coaching yourself through a fat loss phase, this is the episode to have open when the scale stops moving and you are trying to figure out whether to change something or hold the line. Bryan spent a good portion of this one saying he had nothing to add, which is probably the best endorsement it could get. Before that, Bryan talks about the ten day family road trip through the canyons that has him off the mic for the next couple of weeks, and Aaron recaps the boys training trip he put together in Dallas.

Covered in this episode

• Why an emotional goal like fat loss needs objective metrics to save you from yourself
• Establishing an actual baseline before you start, and why "intuitive eating" is not a plan
• The problem with subjective labels like eating healthy or eating good
• Daily weigh-ins as data points, not verdicts, and how to use weekly and seven day moving averages
• Weighing under identical conditions so you stop importing noise into your own metrics
• Why the mirror is a terrible short term progress tool
• Setting a target rate of loss, 0.5% to 1% of body mass per week, and reverse engineering the timeline from there
• Why the first week whoosh on low carb is gut contents, glycogen, and water, not fat
• Water retention and inflammation from hard training, travel, poor sleep, sickness, and menstrual cycles
• Fat loss is not linear, and what a huge week usually means for the week after it
• The gut check question: have my actions actually changed, or am I still running it by the book?
• Getting leaner makes you more sensitive to stress, sleep, and digestion
• Recomping as an explanation, and why you probably should not hold your breath on it
• Too much flexibility and macro Tetris, and why more opportunities equal more errors
• When to suspect user error versus when to actually go get labs
• Overconfidence from early success and why the corners you cut early stop working later
• Inversion of control, or too many meals sourced by hands that are not your own
• Untracked sauces, oils, bites, tastes, the mom tax, and the zero calorie spray technicality
• Alcohol as its own macronutrient and the weekend pattern robbing weekday progress
• NEAT quietly dropping the longer you diet, with an important caveat on improving health
• Metabolic adaptation, why it is real but often overblown, and Pontzer's constrained energy model
• Body temperature after meals as a real time readout of energy availability
• Sleep as the unsung hero of fat loss and the one natural cheat code that actually exists
• Building in non-progress weeks proactively because life is going to happen
• Accepting that rigidity has to increase as your ambition increases

Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro: Is Your Fat Loss Stalled? Then Do These
00:00:55 - Updates: Bryan's road trip and Aaron's Dallas training trip
00:06:25 - Bucket one: poor metrics
00:07:25 - Establishing an actual baseline
00:10:15 - Weekly averages and seven day moving averages
00:13:40 - Setting a target rate of loss: 0.5% to 1% per week
00:16:45 - Setting realistic goals and running the math
00:19:40 - Bucket two: false plateaus
00:22:45 - Fat loss is not linear
00:26:20 - Too much flexibility and macro Tetris
00:31:00 - Inversion of control
00:32:15 - Bucket three: true plateaus
00:36:20 - NEAT dropping the longer you diet
00:38:00 - Metabolic adaptation: real but often overblown
00:41:20 - Sleep is the unsung hero of fat loss
00:43:30 - Take homes and building in non-progress weeks

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

Episode 222 is our July Instagram Q&A, and per usual the questions did not disappoint. We dig through a big stack covering everything from exercise sequencing and deloads to GLP-1s, telehealth companies, and what we actually learned in our late-stage natty years that still apply.

There is a lot of practical programming talk in this one. Where RDLs should actually go in your session, how to build a minimum effective program on three 45-minute sessions per week, the five exercises we would pick if we could only use five for an entire year, and how to structure a four day split when chest and arms are the priority.

We also cover softer but equally important stuff: advice for new online coaches, why most people do not actually need a reverse diet, health habits we'll never stop doing, and the best sub $100 purchases that have improved our training. Fun one this month.

One quick note: a number of pregnancy and fertility questions came in this round. Those were forgotten. They are getting saved for an upcoming episode so they can get the time and depth they deserve instead of a rushed answer at the end of a Q&A.

Covered in this episode:

• Life updates: Bryan's program drop July 20th, Aaron's boys training trip in Dallas and September Refining Hypertrophy seminar in Utah
• Exercise sequencing for barbell RDLs and whether exercise order actually matters
• TRT telehealth recommendations in the US and what to look for in a company
• Educational courses vs in-person seminars for coaches
• Top advice for aspiring online coaches
• Why most people think they need a reverse diet but usually don't
• High protein deficits, low carb diets, and nutrient timing around workouts
• GLP-1 use for gen pop: tool or crutch?
• Current thoughts on deloads now that the dogma has died down
• Lessons from TRT that still apply to natural lifters
• Minimum effective programming and desert island exercise picks
• Lazy healthy meals, favorite health habits, and best cheap training purchases

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Intro and life updates: Bryan's travel and July 20th program drop, Aaron's Dallas boys training trip and September Refining Hypertrophy seminar

 00:02:30 – Exercise sequencing for barbell RDLs. Why do some coaches program them at the end?

00:05:25 – Where will Aaron get TRT in the US? Any reputable telehealth companies?

00:08:25 – How often do you complete educational courses? Any you would recommend? 

00:12:15 – Top tips and advice for aspiring new online coaches 

00:13:50 – Can you talk about how people think they need reverse diets but usually don't? 

00:18:20 – Does setting deficit macros with super high protein make an aggressive deficit easier to tolerate? 

00:20:00 – What is your stance on casual GLP-1 use for gen pop clients struggling with food noise? 

00:25:50 – What are your thoughts on a low carb diet? 

00:27:25 – The dogmatism around deloads has dissipated. Current thoughts on whether they are necessary? 

00:32:20 – Biggest thing you have learned since going on TRT that still applies to natural lifters? 

00:37:15 – Is there a point where a trainee should stop focusing on progression by weight entirely? 

00:40:45 – Minimum effective hypertrophy program for a busy parent with three 45-minute sessions per week 

00:43:00 – If you could only pick five exercises to build as much muscle as possible for a year, what are they? 

00:46:25 – Do you still put any value into food timing around workouts? 

00:50:10 – What is a health habit you have adopted in the past few years that you will never stop doing? 

00:53:30 – Best purchase under $100 that has improved your training the most? 

00:55:25 – Favorite lazy, healthy meal when you don't feel like cooking? 

00:56:40 – Does the order of exercises matter when training? 

00:59:05 – How would you strategize a four day push pull legs upper split to bring up chest and arms?

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

We have covered volume a handful of times on the podcast — ETP#167 (Personalizing Your Training Volume), ETP#188 (Quality Volume), and most recently ETP#207 (The Training Volume Model). This one comes at it from a different angle: not "what's the right number of sets," but how that number can change over a training career as skill as a lifter improves.

The whole thing started with Aaron's quads. They used to be the body part he was almost ashamed of, and now they're on par with everything else. Except he only trains them once a week, six sets, and they're in shambles for five or six days afterward. That low a dose creating that much stimulus had Aaron questioning a lot of things, mainly: what actually makes a lagging body part lag? Is it genetics, or is it that you just haven't figured out how to contract the muscle well enough yet? Aaron's honest belief is leaning hard toward the second one.

So we get into the precision side of volume. Why a row isn't always a 1.0 stimulus, why your weak points might not need more sets so much as better execution, how strength curves explain why back and delts get buried under volume while quads light up off almost nothing, and how to actually manipulate all of this with rep ranges and resistance profiles. Plus some personal updates up top, including one of Aaron's that went unexpectedly viral.

Covered in this episode:

• Why volume needs can drop as your precision and skill improve, and the asterisk on "more volume is better until it isn't"
• Aaron's theory that lagging body parts lag because you haven't learned to contract them well — not because of genetics
• The Kyle Baxter pronation/foot-pressure cue that finally unlocked Aaron's quads
• Why quads hold post-workout stimulus for days when nothing else does (blood flow, lengthened overload, and the fact that we walk on our legs)
• Strength curve vs resistance curve, and why short-overloaded muscles like delts and back need more volume to reach the same inroads
• The leaning lateral raise trick — disadvantaging your own bad habit to force a better stimulus
• Using the 15/10/5 rep scheme to go short on the high-rep sets and lengthened on the low-rep sets
• Prioritization: deprioritize what's already good and pour the days into what you actually want to bring up
• Hamstrings/biceps vs quads/triceps, the cramp problem, and why some muscles just don't follow the same rules

Timestamps:

 00:00 Intro: How Much Is Enough? + The Prior Volume Episodes
 01:00 Bryan's Update: 15/10/5 and Why Full Body Is "For the Birds"
 03:00 Aaron's Personal Update + The Post That Went Viral
 05:00 The 1989 LA Raiders Mug
 06:00 The Real Topic: Volume Dose Response Per Muscle Group
 07:00 Can Precision Change Your Volume Needs?
 08:00 Aaron's Quads: From Lagging to Wrecked on Six Sets
 09:00 What Actually Makes a Lagging Body Part?
 10:00 Lengthened Overload and Leaning Into the Stretch
 12:00 Squat Variables: Stance, Knee Tracking, Foot Pressure
 13:00 The Kyle Baxter Pronation Cue
 15:00 Aaron's Current Quad Setup (Leg Extension + Squat Pattern)
 17:00 Six Sets, Shattered for Days + Repeated Bout Effect
 21:00 The Post-Workout Stimulus Window: Quads vs Everything Else
 22:00 Double the Chest Volume, Lower the Stimulus
 23:00 The "Washing Your Hair" Delt Test
 24:00 Splitting Volume vs One Big Day
 25:00 Aaron's Theory: Lagging = Not Contracting Well Yet
 27:00 The Leaning Lateral Raise (Disadvantaging the Shrug)
 29:00 Strength Curve vs Resistance Curve
 30:00 Why Beginners Can't Feel Their Legs
 31:00 Blood Flow, Bro Splits, and Dispersed Stimulus
 33:00 Prioritizing: Deprioritize What's Already Good
 34:00 Building a Program Around Your Weak Points
 35:00 Aaron's Back Days: High Volume, Still Can't Feel It
 37:00 Why Back and Delts Need More Volume
 38:00 Manipulating Resistance Profiles Across a Whole Day
 39:00 The 15/10/5: Short on the Highs, Lengthened on the Lows
 41:00 The Asterisk on "More Volume Is Better"
 42:00 A Row Isn't Always a 1.0 Stimulus
 43:00 Finding the Rep Range Before Weight Takes Over
 44:00 Pausing in the Short Position to Build the Pattern
 47:00 Hamstrings, Biceps, and the Cramp Problem
 49:00 Biceps Femoris: Pullers vs Pushers
 50:00 Why Quads Are Just Different Post-Workout
 52:00 Closing: Training Maturity and Looking Inward

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST

ETP#220 is the part two follow-up to last week's episode, and this is the one we really wanted to get to. We ran out of road last week before doing CrossFit Pacific Beach any justice, so this episode picks right back up there and runs all the way through the rest of the arc: going online, the failed business that taught Bryan everything, the origins of Straker Nutrition, building Undefeated, and Aaron winning his pro card on the first try.

The throughline is the same as part one. Spotting the gap in the market before anyone else does, putting in the reps when no one's watching, leaning on the people around you, and making things so simple it'd be unreasonable to screw them up. A lot of what looks like luck in hindsight is really just opportunity meeting preparation, over and over again.

Before we get into it, Aaron's got some big news that we're both pretty fired up about.

Covered in this episode:

• Big news: a little baby Straker (a boy) is coming in December, and Bryan's headed to Steamboat to celebrate his wife's birthday, twelve years after the trip that made him want to move to the mountains in the first place
• Updates: new Paragon hypertrophy cycles starting 6/22 with the core challenge, and a reminder on Good Labs (code STRAKER for an additional 20% off the cheapest labs in the US)
• How CrossFit PB built its reputation as the gym where everyone was actually jacked, and why Bryan refused to just do CrossFit for the sake of CrossFit
• The first real business goal: getting to $35K a year each so they could quit their day jobs, and the absolutely brutal 5:30am-to-midnight grind it took to get there
• Sharing a wall with an urgent care, opening a second location as a safety net, then maxing out both
• When the love started fading: the CrossFit burnout, the animosity with Anders, the balloon rent payment, and the slow unwind
• Going online before it was a thing, building Evolved Training Systems, and spotting the price gap in the market
• The failed business (Active Traveler Network) and why underpricing the market and failing taught Bryan everything he needed to succeed later
• Jenny's "I'm not rolling any fucking dice, I'm making this happen" moment and how reframing it took failure off the table
• The COVID inflection point: dumbbell-only programs ready to go the day the world shut down, and why removing everyone's excuses produced better results
• The origin of Straker Nutrition: spotting the gap between female-led coaching and male bodybuilding prep, and serving the people in the middle
• Building Undefeated around equipment because bodybuilders build better gyms than businessmen do
• The pro card: going from "natural Aaron who said he'd never compete" to winning on his first attempt, the TRT goal physique that left him feeling empty, and the pressure Jackson put on him
• Structuring the prep like a pro, turning the brain off, and the "crack in the dam" philosophy
• Why posing is the worst, and using accountability to your circle as the thing that actually drives you
• Closing thoughts: don't fear failure, expand your network, and drop the ego that keeps you from hiring a coach

Timestamps:
 00:00 Intro: Chasing Big Goals Part 2
 00:55 Updates + Bryan's Big Party Weekend Recap
 01:35 Steamboat Springs and the 12-Year Mountain Dream
 03:15 Aaron's Big News + Good Labs Reminder
 05:05 How CrossFit PB Differentiated on Training
 06:50 Bodybuilding First, Metcon Second
 11:25 The First Business Goal: Quitting the Day Jobs
 13:30 Two Locations, the Urgent Care War, and Maxing Out
 14:10 Falling Out of Love: Burnout and the Unwind
 16:50 Going Online and Building Evolved
 20:00 The Paragon Partnership and the COVID Surge
 24:00 The Failed Business That Taught Him Everything
 26:30 Jenny's "I'm Not Rolling Dice" Reframe
 28:50 The COVID Inflection Point for SNC
 33:30 Lockdown Life and Spotting the Software Exit
 35:00 The Origin of Straker Nutrition
 39:00 Building Expertise (and Hiding in Education)
 40:00 Building Undefeated Around Equipment
 42:30 The Pro Card: From "Never Competing" to First Try
 43:00 The TRT Goal Physique That Left Him Empty
 45:30 Deciding to Prep + Jackson's Pressure
 47:00 Structuring the Prep Like a Pro
 48:30 Making It Too Simple to Fail + The Crack in the Dam
 51:30 Why Posing Is the Worst
 55:00 Get Your Circle on Your Side
 56:00 Closing Thoughts: Network, Ego, and Hiring a Coach

Training hard, but don't look like it? Aaron closes that gap ⬇️
https://coach.strakernutritionco.com/bio

Paragon Training Methods Programming ⬇️
https://paragontrainingmethods.com

Follow Bryan's Evolved Training Systems Programming ⬇️
https://evolvedtrainingsystems.com

Find Us on Social Media  ⬇️
IG | @Eat.Train.Prosper
IG | @bryanboorstein
IG | @aaron_straker
YT | EAT TRAIN PROSPER PODCAST