All right, welcome back to another episode of chasing excellence.
I'm ben bergeron, and this is the second crack at this solo type of episode.
Uh, where just me?
Um, no patrick today for the second time.
So this is the five by five.
We built this around the five factors of health.
Uh, you guys know that those are the fundamental behaviors that most directly affect our performance, our vitality and our longevity.
They're how we eat, sleep, train, think, and connect each episode.
I'll take five listener questions on one of those five factors and it's only about five minutes each.
So we'll see how I do today's factor. is the one that we're probably most jazzed up about.
It's why we're kind of all here in the first place, which is train.
We've got questions about HRT for men, training through forced rest after surgery, rucking and the minimum effective movement for busy parents.
And then finally, essential home gym setup for complete training.
So if you want to get a question into a future 5x5, check the link in the show notes.
And let's go.
First question is from Chacho.
Chacho asks, what's your take on HRT for men?
Is there a way to approach it that's genuinely health-focused, not just a shortcut?
Okie dokie.
So HRT, good question.
It usually gets pulled into one of two extremes that it's either cheating or that everyone should be on it.
If you listen to sports radio, like I do, you think that everyone should be on it, because the commercials come on and you get your first test dose in the office, or maybe that's.
Maybe that's erectile dysfunction.
I don't know.
You guys get the idea, but the the punchline is that neither of those two extremes are right.
But there is something that uh yeah, some people can and should, but let's uh let's, let's talk about it.
Um, HRT, what is it?
It's testosterone replacement therapy.
And it is meant to clinically treat low testosterone, not to optimize already normal levels.
And once you get to normal, there really is no benefit to going to like superhuman.
Like I'm going to take this to get myself jacked.
That's not the idea behind TRT.
The idea is you've been tested.
You have the symptoms.
And you've done multiple morning tests.
It's actually like it can fluctuate.
So you want to do multiple morning tests to make sure that this actually is a thing.
If your testosterone is below 300, that's usually considered low.
So here's the thing is if that is the case, It can be a tool, but it can be a tool as a bridge.
But the kind of the big thing about this we have to recognize is, if you decide to go this route, it's not a fix all thing.
It can be the bridge to get you to some better lifestyle choices, which we'll talk about in a second.
But the big thing we have to recognize is that you're basically making a long-term decision.
That TRT is kind of like I'm going to be on this thing for kind of forever because it suppresses your ability to produce testosterone naturally.
The other thing we don't do is recognize that this is to get us back to normal levels.
This is not to become superhuman gigachats.
This is I am low, medically diagnosed as low total T and I need to get some injections to bring it back up.
I would say that that might be a viable option if you have again big diagnosis, multiple times with low, and you have yet to work on dialing in the lifestyle factors, because the lifestyle factors can change this, that you can change this without it.
Things that we can do to kind of bring it up would be the things that we talk about all the time.
So this could be no kind of mystery to anyone.
The biggest one is losing body fat.
So adipose tissue converts testosterone into estrogen.
And if you lose 20 to 30 pounds of that extra body fat, you can see 20 to 30 increases in in your total testosterone.
That is not a small number.
Again, if we're thinking about, if we're like 280 and we're trying to get above 300, that does it by itself.
The next is, next most important factor would be sleep.
Consistently sleeping less than six hours, we know can decrease testosterone by 10 to 20%.
So just think about those two things together, just losing some body fat, sleeping better.
You could get your best self back to normal numbers just there, without being on this sort of lifetime prescription.
You have to manage injections all the time.
And there is other side effects, cardiovascular and otherwise.
There are other ones that come into play.
Probably not as powerful as those, but they're worth talking about.
They're the popular ones.
Resistance training certainly helps, but it probably is closer into that 10% range.
And then alcohol and stress.
Lowering stress and alcohol will certainly have an effect as well.
So here's the thing.
It's like if you're already managing those lifestyle factors and you have low T and you have all of the symptoms that kind of come along with it brain fog, low energy, low libido then yes, you might be a candidate for it.
But it is not the magic pill.
What you want to do is take it and then use that as sort of the bridge to get yourself to those lifestyle factors.
So I would say, in short, it is not what people are saying.
It is in terms of I'm going to take tea to get myself jacked as a competitive advantage to be able to get myself from 15 body fat down to below 10.
I'm going to do it because I want to go from a 250 pound bench press to a 315.
That's not what TRT is in place for.
It is essentially somebody that is clinically been diagnosed as someone with low T and they can be used as a tool.
But I'd only use that tool after The other lifestyle factors have been kind of put into place.
Question number two comes from Vinny.
When training is a cornerstone of your life and you're forced to take three to four weeks off for surgery, how do you get through that stretch without everything else falling apart?
Okay, so Vinny, it's a good question.
It sounds like you or someone you know is probably in the midst of surgery recovery, or it's coming up.
So first is sympathies.
It's a challenging time for sure.
I would start the whole thing off with things aren't going to fall apart in three to four weeks.
So that actually sounds like a fairly minor surgery.
You know, an ACL or something more major back surgery, shoulder could be three to four months.
And usually it's six months before you're full.
So three to four weeks, not, not going to let everything kind of go off the rails.
Next thing I would do is try to change as little as possible.
But the shift is going to change from performance and trying to better PR and try to become the fittest possible version of yourself to recovery.
But the who you are and your identity.
This is what usually happens, and if you're talking about things falling apart, maybe this is what you mean is who the heck am i?
I used to be this guy that went to the gym every morning at 6 am.
I used to throw down.
I used to, you know, be able to work so hard and that was part of my identity, and i'm an athlete.
That doesn't need to change now.
In the first bits of this, you want to just set expectations.
And I would allow yourself seven to 14 days, so one to two weeks of truly nothing more than walks.
And usually this is the case because the doctors say you can't even sweat because of stitches and possible infection.
But after that, that 10 to 14 day period, I would get back on it.
But you're just going to get back on it differently.
I would still get up at the time that you get up or go to the gym at the time you go to the gym and maintain that routine.
Hold onto it.
That's who you are.
It's a big part of what makes you who you are, but the focus changes.
It changes from I'm going to do my squat dead and bench and then my conditioning and I'm going to make sure that I'm the hardest worker in the room to taking care of yourself.
And it means I'm going to start off with walks and my PT.
And that's what you do.
And you do it at the gym at the same times.
So this is what ends up happening when people go through PT is they stop the gym process and they pick up this other PT and they try to do it at home, or they try to do it in between sessions and they don't actually do it as well as they should.
Your training now is your PT.
It is the road to recovery.
And then from there you do what you can with what you got for where you are which, if you have a shoulder surgery, you're going to become legs for days and an aerobic monster.
Just become – use this month, which is not a long time, to build up your bike and just become the cyclist that you never were before.
If you have a leg thing time to get good at pull-ups and push-ups and all the other things that you could have been doing otherwise.
But it's not about things falling apart.
Hold on to.
Brian Johnson talks about this a lot.
When things go off is when you double down on the protocol.
Your regular protocol isn't there.
We got to double down on the protocol, which you are a person that trains.
So continue to go to the gym and train, just do what you can with what you got.
And then you don't lose the identity and everything else that comes along with that.
That becomes the hardest part is when you struggle with kind of like the the mental aspects of these challenging times.
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Moving on.
Question number three comes from Javanka.
Michael Easter's new book.
I have not read it yet, but it's called Walk with Weight The Definitive Guide to Rucking.
Her question is, is rucking as functional as he claims?
And if so, Why aren't we seeing it in a comp train setting?
Okay, so Michael Easter also wrote The Comfort Crisis, which I have read, and he does talk a lot about rucking in that.
I do agree that rucking is a very functional movement.
It is a very beneficial thing to do.
It is one of the things that we as human beings were designed to do.
There's not a lot of other animals that can carry as much as we can over long distances.
There are other animals that carry things, particularly like horses, camels and stuff like that, but they don't really do that on their own.
The ones that do it on their own are the ones that carry their young kangaroos opossums, things like that, but they don't go very long distances.
We can.
It's one of the very unique things about us as a species.
We would hunt over a long period of time to kill our prey, and then we would move it very, very long distances very, very heavy loads.
Think about killing a deer or an elk, and then moving it back to camp.
So this is, in terms of functional, I think of functional in two terms.
Is it natural?
Is it the way that we were designed to do things?
Certainly checks that box.
And the next is, which I love, is CrossFit's definition of functionality, which is does it move large distances, large loads, large distances quickly?
And this is where it sort of bridges the gap between these two things.
It can certainly move large distances incredibly.
A good friend just rucked the marathon with, I think it was 40 or 50 pounds on his back.
Did it in five hours.
That's really, really cool, but that's not quick.
So, as those things get, it's basically an, it's an expression of, it's an equation that you can kind of determine the function, the functional benefit.
And it's just the weight times.
The distance divided by the time equals the power expressed in the movement.
So in this case, Moderate loads, 50 pounds.
This is not what we're talking about rucking.
This is not the weight vest walking that every suburban mom is now doing, where they put a six-pound little scarf around themselves and go out for a two-mile walk.
That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about true rocking.
We're talking about 2040 5060 pounds on your back.
There's a lot more to that.
Because remember, the equation is load times distance divided by time.
So the problem with this is that there's the power goes down so much because the time is so long.
But I do like the movement a lot, particularly if it's over varied terrain, not just on your sidewalk, but getting out into the woods and navigating rocks and steps and roots and uneven terrain, ups and downs.
That's where I particularly like it.
Maybe even where you have to put your hand on the ground to kind of navigate something.
That's where it becomes really functional.
I love that aspect of it.
As the end-all be-all, it is not that.
It is not like stop the other things to pick this up.
I think that Michael Easter likes it particularly a lot, because it is a really good way to kind of combine the things that we already combine, which is heart rate, work duration and load.
Most people don't do this.
And I know it sounds weird in our setting, but most people don't do this.
They either lift the load, but they don't do it with a high heart rate or it's a very short period of time.
And we know through our conditioning pieces, we do that a lot.
So we're getting the benefits of this a lot.
But it is a good thing that I think should be incorporated.
And that is actually why it is incorporated into our comp train setting.
So this is what we call slow down Sundays.
And it is where we go for longer zone to work.
And in there you can choose running, biking, or rucking.
Even walking works, but it's where you want to kind of go longer and slower.
My disclaimer to that is If you're a hard charger, that's doing five to six days a week of strength and conditioning sessions, I would not choose rucking as the slowdown Sunday.
It's too much work.
That's why it's good.
I would let this kind of replace something else along the way.
And I think it's cool to have it replace something along the way, meaning one day can be rucking.
But if you're going to do it, my suggestion is work with actual loads.
This is not just go for walks.
But if you are doing slow down Sunday, a walk might work really, really well.
They're going for a four mile walk on Sunday.
No headphones, no screens.
Hopefully even better in nature, detached.
Love that.
Excellent.
Next question is from Jovanka again, a longtime Chase Club member.
So really appreciate it.
Got a chance to meet her at a Coaches Congress.
So awesome to see you jumping in with a double question.
She asked this time for a mom of three kids.
Under four, holy smokes, say it again three kids under the age of four who can't always make it to the gym.
What's the next bite-sized movement to add beyond our sets of squats, presses, and deadlifts?
Okay, so press for time.
We're going to do our squats.
We're going to do our presses.
One day we do our squats.
One day we do our presses.
One day we do our deadlifts.
What's the next best movement to add into that?
There's kind of two pieces to this answer.
The first one is the most beneficial would be based off of your athletic profile slash goals.
So if you're a phenomenal endurance athlete but you struggle with some strength things, the next bite-sized thing would be an accessory movement of strength in that same movement pattern, which is the second part of the question or answer, which is you want to keep and maintain the same movement pattern.
Squat days are the days that we go below parallel.
You can assume that the next day we're not.
So we're kind of preserving that to keep the adaptation curve happening with squats, but allowing ourselves to still train without going below parallel the next day.
So you want to stay as true to that as possible.
So if we were to do squats, you have a really strong endurance background, but you're limited with strength.
On the squat day, a next best movement would be something like lunges or Bulgarian split squats.
On a presses day, you would kind of choose the other.
Did we do bench press?
If so, do some strict presses.
Do we do strict presses?
If so, do some bench presses.
And it could be with dumbbells maybe as the accessory piece.
And then for deadlifts.
The next best thing after deadlifts would be any sort of other hip hinge thing.
Romanian deadlifts single leg RDLs.
Maybe a sled push something to work on the posterior chain, maybe some hip thrusts or glute back extensions.
Other part about that is if you're trying to build up not just your strength, but you are looking for more well-roundedness and maybe you need to work on your aerobic conditioning, The next best bite-sized thing after that would be a short conditioning bout.
And that would be something – I'm assuming that this means that you're not doing the conditioning thing, that you're just looking to get this really quick, really quick.
Press for time.
Do a very quick kind of conditioning piece that would get you –
What we're looking for, which is high heart rate, lots of work done in a short amount of time.
That would be something like that doesn't involve a lot of muscles.
We can preserve the muscles for the other ones.
Something like a run, a box jump and a kettlebell swing.
Very hip and ankle dominant as opposed to something like wall balls.
And presses and lunges that would be very, very muscular.
So we go to our conditioning piece.
If we want to keep it truly conditioning, you make it as cyclical as possible, which means that's not going to be limited by muscle stamina.
It'd be.
Your cardiovascular capacity would be the biggest limiting factor, which usually means ankle or hips.
Meaning run, jump rope box jump kettlebell swing, things like that.
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Okay, and then the final, Harry.
Harry is asking...
What equipment is essential for building a home gym that can actually support a program like Comp Train or similar?
What equipment is essential for building a home gym that can support some well-rounded training?
I've thought a lot about this.
So the first thing I would buy is a barbell, a barbell with a full set of bumper plates.
I think there's nothing more powerful in a training program than a barbell.
Cause if you can do a barbell and then you can run for cardio and do body weight stuff like burpees and pushups, you're pretty much good to go.
That is the number one.
So I'm going to kind of tier these things.
Number two for me would be a rack with a pull-up rig.
Once you get a rack, you are now have access to more movements that you could not do strike movements with the barbell that you could not do before, particularly things like back squats.
And then when you bring in the pull-up bar, now you have access to upper body pulling in a vertical plane that you did not have before.
And introducing things like burpee pull-ups, strict pull-ups and total bar really creates an awesome next level of variance and capacity in your training program.
The third thing I would add in and this is where I put these kind of all in the same tier would be a secondary cardio piece of equipment.
So you're not just running now.
You're either biking or rowing.
I love the bike just because it's not as musculature.
We do so much pulling stuff, especially from the ground that rowing also mimics.
Not to say that rowing isn't awesome, but I just think a bike kind of fits with our programming better.
And that could be a C2 bike or something like an Echo bike.
I would also put into that category the other kind of three things which would be dumbbells, getting a pair of something like if you're a strong guy 20s 35s, 50s and 70s.
I would also put a bench and I would put a box on that category.
I really think if you have those, you're kind of done like that's.
Everything else outside of that is a real nice to have.
Would it be nice to have a kettlebell?
Yes, but you can kind of get away with doing anything with dumbbells.
Would it be nice to have a jump rope?
Yes, but you could just run or do plate hops or something else.
Would it be nice to have a second cardio machine?
Yes, but you can get away with it.
Would it be nice to have a GHD or something like that?
Yes, but you can get away with plenty of other things.
I really think that that is the core of a home gym setup.
If you have those things, you can do everything that you would want to do to become incredibly, incredibly fit.
So there we have it.
There is our solo 5x5 episode focused on training.
Thank you so much to the listeners to Chacho Vinny, Ivanka and Harry for submitting those questions.
If you guys have questions, submit them, and we'd love to hear from you.
Thank you so much.
Until next time, my friends.
Thank you so much for being here.
Two quick things before you go.
First, the 531 listener guide for this episode is in the show notes.
Five big ideas, three reflection questions and one key takeaway.
Check it out at the link in the show notes.
And second, if you're ready to do the daily work, not just listen to the show, the chase club is where the crew does that together daily lessons, monthly challenges, a friday chase club, chat club all of it at the link in the show notes.
And chasing excellence dot email.
