Transcript for:
Inside the Mind of a Fitness Influencer

simulus ratio is the biggest game changer of the modern lifting world number one would have to be the weighted pull-up Easy Choice 405 bench that's the ultimate bro achievement okay so I want to kick things off by talking about your origin story one that began as a teenager with calisthenics watching YouTube Fitness early with the Hodge twins and training with the three assassinos all of this led you to create the alpha Destiny YouTube channel in 2013 do you have a positive lasting memory from your first year on YouTube I do when I don't in the sense that I started the channel at a very young age literally first year of seup and I hadn't been Lifting for that long I had more calisthenics experience than being in the gym so I had much to learn my personality was not developed very awkward gamer nerd and so I came onto the scene with certain expectations of being like my heroes but I didn't have the life experience or the character to properly convey my message so it was very hard for me and it actually took a whole year to even get a thousand subscribers and it was discouraging because I didn't get many comments either of course those who follow my stuff were very nice and we developed a friend a friendship of sorts but it was very tight and I was still a student and honestly I didn't really have a life at the time I would wake up early go to school come back home eat go to the gym film it edit into the night on repeat and uh from that time frame all the way till 2016 I basically sacrificed everything I didn't go out I didn't hang out with many people I was completely isolated I didn't game uh I was all into this lifestyle trying to avoid working a job for one but also following my passion and so uh that was the early stages but things started to kick off when I hit around 5,000 followers after that it was just uh you know you hit 10K 20K and then 70k 100K and it just started exploding from there on but I did it the slow route and I think it could have been faster had I been a little bit older and at the time I was also trying to hide my age because I felt like people weren't going to take me seriously being a very young man and you could even see it so that's why I tried to you know grout a beard and do all these things to make myself appear more mature and you know you you put on a little bit of a shtick but that's all that's all the ramblings of a young man who doesn't know himself yet so I had much to grow I made a lot of mistakes mes said a lot of stupid stuff but my intentions were always pure to be like those who helped me you know be a part of the online fitness community and that's what I did but before that yeah the the three assassinos I did the Cal CICS and parkour that was like a three to four year journey I don't recall exactly how long but it was inspired by watching a lot of Fitness FAQs mechan mechanimal uh Fortress Hanah ball for King all the New York Street guys right and I did their routines like around the world that was my vibe you know uh pull-ups dips then push-ups just super seted doing 10 plus sets no problem what I can tell you is that the first day I ever stepped foot into a gym I was already able to do 15 muscleups wow and yeah some guys will never get that for me this is day one and same thing with way the pull-ups hitting a plate no problem dips were already over a plate because I was able to do 50 body weight so imagine first day in the the gym this is my starting point and that was built through calisthenics not even doing it right you know just High rep circuit style stuff and calics basically took me from 120 pounds because I'll say this I stopped growing at 15 years old so anyone who says it was just puberty it wasn't you know I'm a short guy my frame has been the same forever okay so I come in 120 maybe 12% body fat always had ABS do calisthenics for 3 to four years with my buddies Alexandro Carlos and beibs actually we were four at the end doing some running every morning as well got myself fit built up my work capacity was doing track and field swimming all that good stuff a little bit of MMA and then I bulk from basically 120 to 143 so I I put on some good muscle with calenic go to the gym eight months later I'm an intermediate lifter benching two plates for reps deadlifting three plays for reps squat same thing they were actually equal at the time I'm not built for the deadlift and uh I bulked up to 167 so from 143 to 167 still a similar body fat and then from there on it's been a slow grind uh bulking to the 180s you know playing in that bare mode range and uh you know just showing people how to actually build a body the proper way naturally with the intention of long-term health so I know it's a bit of a ramble I'm all over the place here my apology but I've always been passionate about this game and I want it to be a fness influencer u very early on I was going to say that you mentioned that you know you didn't feel like there was too much positive in the first year and it was kind of a grind and you know you did things alone and you weren't going out but I imagine that there was some sort of burning desire kind of in the back there that was leading you to those actions and I guess yes a belief in yourself that if you kept grinding at it and learning and improving that that things would work out yeah because I was so young I I knew that part of it was my lack of life experience and that I just had to stay on course and I was also reading a lot of self-improvement books so it would take me an hour and a half to go to school every day and I would take uh the bus and Subway right and so what I did was listen to audiobooks or more comment read self-help books and I would quite literally go through one to two books a week usually one two is a stretch but that's what it was and sometimes I would even wake up a little bit earlier if I was really tired uh read for like half an hour and then go on the bus and I would just nap you know because some of those days I was only sleeping four to six hours you know I still made gains by the way you you work with what you got right oh and I forgot to tell you this I even I even ditched some dates to go to the gym so and then my to work out with my buddy because I promised him we're going to do this workout but then come around when the same thing would happen to him he ditches me so it's like hey you didn't choose the bro but anyway uh I knew that it was a matter of time and I'm reading all these books it's motivating me I'm listening to you know seminars I'm in the library at school so I just want you to I was obsessed with this right I'm reading in the morning I'm reading on the way back from school and when I'm at the library if I'm not doing uh work for my assignments and stuff like that I'm watching videos like I remember being in the library with my head headphones on or earbuds I'm listening to Steve Shaw you know like I'm I'm just binge watching all their content so instead of like being at home just wasting away whenever I had the opportunity straight to Youtube Fitness and it's like I still do that to this day you know when I'm going for a run I'm listening to a podcast I am completely obsessed with self-improvement uh there's not a day that I don't learn something so just with that mindset I knew that it was a matter of time and I couldn't stop and I was too motivated not to like even I used to read a lot of uh bold in determin back in the day and uh Victor convinced me that uh you want to have you know you want to be self-sufficient I I like he painted a bad picture of the alternative like he scared he scared the hell out of me at a young age I can totally relate to that on the self-improvement side of things I think when I was in my late teens early 20s I came across a book at a library here it's like a Napoleon Hill book it's called Laws of Success law of success I read that too I read that in the library in four days it's like 700 pages and I'm not like studious I'm not leader I just crushed through it I got really excited I made a vision board I was just all about that stuff I still chilled in stuff but I definitely would like I was never at home so if people weren't hanging I'd be like I'm at the library come link up with me at the library and then we'll go out so I would just go there and read and focus on self-improvement do any books stick out for you that maybe impacted you at that time the one that impacted me the most is well law of success was a big one so it's funny that you mention that because I found it was even better than thinking Grow Rich because that's the complete work of Napoleon Hill like it's it's unbeatable very long book though I'm surprised he did it in four days it took me like three months to finish that you know but this is just four four days to read but not probably four days to comprehend true so uh law of success uh thinking Grow Rich by Dale Carnegie the magic of thinking big and believe it or not even um Anthony Robbins uh his first book it wasn't awaken the giant within it was uh forget what it was called The Power of something yeah uh those were like the big three big four whatever yeah um but it was man I have a whole library of books that I can go through but they were all kind of saying the same thing so it's more so the lessons that I took on rather than this specific book yeah that makes sense the self-improvement in mindset stuff it's it's really interesting because I think a lot of people people get into it but then they are not able to apply it in the real world and then they get trapped in the selfimprovement Trap as well so you got to be aware am I actually getting benefit and applying this benefit yes in my life and improving myself or am I just becoming a self-improvement junkie who is using as entertainment we we call that action faking and that's the other book I forgot about the millionaire fastan that was the one entrepreneurship book that did it for me if you haven't read it you must okay MJ Demarco even has the fast lane form you you can't go wrong with his work so yeah basically people they read all these books and then they never apply it right in my case though it was very relevant because I was making YouTube videos on a frequent basis and just living the like I didn't have a choice like and I burned that bridge early on like I knew that I was going to be working online that I was never going to have a job and that's what I manifested so for me it was a necessity that I apply this stuff right away and you're always getting instant feedback also when you film yourself you learn things about your ticks it's very uh different from having a conversation with someone because the camera doesn't give you feedback so everything has to come from you you have to be creative think before you speak you know pay attention to your diction your pauses the way you look all that stuff it's uh really in art you know but some guys they get it naturally for me I was extremely introverted so uh it took some time to hone in on that skill awesome all right I'm mooving a different direction here I know we talked about calisthetics and something you've advocated and progressed for years is weighted calisthetics so I know you've said you don't like to do you know top ranking sometimes because there can always be different variations that can be more appropriate under different circumstances but with that being said what are your Mount Rushmore your top four favorite weighted calisthetics exercises in the lens of hypertrophy a measure of Suess or that you just enjoy it okay well I'm a simple guy so I'm just going to give you what works best number one would have to be the weighted pullup medium grip or even if people have access to it the semi supered way to chin up so rather than being on a straight bar you're slightly angled like an easy bar some polar bars have this uh most don't but I really love that variation and you can actually create it yourself by buying specific attachments you know so that's if you want to exactly if you want to fix Implement otherwise the weighted ring chin would be a close second only issue is you often can't get the best stretch in the bottom because the loading pin will hit the floor so you need to use a very shorter like a shorter one or a chain but that can cause the ples to swing a bit so you know you can't go wrong with a regular bar weighted pull-up genup variation secondly way to dip just for the loading potential it is a street lifting competition movement and by the way both are pull-ups and dips you can overload it to the max infinite potential for progression the stability is there contrary to what some optimal Bros like to say because otherwise we wouldn't have guys dipping 400 pounds which we're now seeing so that closes the entire debate and you've seen me do 255 on the way to dip 225 for sets of five that that's if you look at the total number that's over 400 lbs for reps so this idea that you can't recruit a high threshold motor units just baffles me to no end but anyway the way to dip has to be the best press it has the the greatest carryover to lifting as well it's standardized in a sense and um it just makes the most it's it's just practical when you're trying to load it because uh the third exercise would actually be the deficit way to pushup where oh my God it's funny because I thought that I had created it but it looks like Vince jond already figured it out in the 70s he called it the fulcrum pushup so it involves having your hands on parallettes or two PLC boxes or stall mats and then the feet are on a matching height so it could be a flat bench it could be another plyometric box and then you simply wear a backpack to get the loading in and I prefer this over wearing a dip belt on my chest because again the plates will hit the floor you can't get a full stretch so the whole point is to get your arm all the way down like a camber bar bench press and so you're saving space it's uh an exercise where you're moving through space so the carry over to calenic will be there it builds watermelon pecs it carry it'll strengthen your dip as well doesn't cause sternum pain or shoulder pain it's a flat angle as opposed to a slight decline which the dip puts you in so you're you're getting the opposing movement on that as well you can even decline it ever so slightly uh and when I say decline by the way it can be confusing with calics because a decline push-up is like an incline bench press you know but that's what I'm saying the feet are elevator right so that's working the upper chest but all variations of deficit push-ups are amazing better than doing it off the floor and for getting Mo out of less weight because keep in mind you don't want to rip your backpack either right so if you got like 100 to 150 pounds in there that's more than enough but if you're doing it off the floor and you're strong guy you might need 200 pounds if you're like in a low rep range you know so that's my number three and number four it's a very tricky one because like how but I would I would probably have to say the thing is you only you don't even need to weigh this down it's probably the deficit hand stand push-up okay that is your overhead press replacement it'll build Cannonball delts if you can rep these out you can instantly overhead press your your body weight that's actually one of the secrets that Doug heurn and Paul Anderson use and these guys were 300 lounds doing this so that's freaky strength and Doug I believe was the first man to bench five 500 so it'll streng it'll keep your shoulders healthy it'll strengthen overhead press it carries over your dips and push-ups it's hard as hell you don't need to weigh it down that's an S to your lift you know and if you do with the wall support you're just gliding so there's no skill or stability demand you know but uh those are my top otherwise and last place I would put the weighted inverted row because uh it's nice to have a rowing movement for the upper back you can't just do pull-ups if you want optimal gains you know so in the calics context that's going to be the best one and I like doing it with um the kenz weight vest or a backpack so the plates are over here and just to clarify some guys are going to say well why would you not wear the backpack the other way so that you can get more range of motion at the top and my response would be that most free weighted back movements are short and biased by Design so it's not a lever based row like a tar row or a prime machine right and so the top is is a natural sticking point that is not even the most hypertrophic part of the lift it's really the stretch and so if you cut out the range of motion by couple inches which the backpack will naturally do assuming you're rowing from a straight bar or a football bar whatever it's fine in this context otherwise I would also say that the ring variant cuts out this so-called problem to begin with so you can pull through the body and everything's fine so those are your main Mass builders in a calenic context uh there's all kinds of other variations I could share I can go on for days about it but you'll build a good physique with just that for the body base so I think the the weighted chin is probably my favorite overall exercise um oh yeah one thing is I always have done it like chest to Bar do you think that's the appropriate range of motion or do you think it's better maybe doing actually a smaller range of motion because you know that's kind of the shorten position I I think chestar is amazing the only problem is you might think that you're hitting failure but it's just a sticking point and so what you can do is chest the bar until it's no longer possible and then just R it out chin Over the Bar and that but the thing is you're going to limit the Low by doing that and so I'd only recommend this to someone who's already very strong a weighted gin so my standard would be at least two plates for four to six reps if you're doing that then you're eligible for Chester Bar you know the same thing for the super wides the behind the neck we do these extreme variations because we're trying to minimize fatigue so that we can do more volume on the work that comes after you know or maybe we're doing this as a back off set so like what I always do is I'll open up with a heavy weighted chin up variation you know so three four plates whatever the weight may be and then I'll do some back down sets with that so strip off a plate and then I'll actually do another pull-up variation but it's going to be body weight only so it's either going to be super wide behind the neck or like you said chest the bar sternum style and because you're fatigued you won't get as many reps you might get 12 to 15 and that's great there's no need to go very heavy on this and then you can do a mechanical drop set just bringing your chin to the bar whatever but I think the default there's a sweet there's a sweet spot and when we talk about going all the way down like that I mean you got to earn that right so I mean if you're able props to you but I think the average person is better off standardizing the ROM a little bit lower especially given that sticking point like you just mentioned I'm able but I feel like I'm at a point now where maybe I'm not progressing as fast as I could if I just decrease the range of motion um I'm not gonna say I've plateaued it's just uh keep in mind it's taking time now yeah keep in mind right the strength that you develop on the top end part of a chin up it radiates 15 degrees in all directions so what I'm saying is if you bring your chin directly to the bar that will will improve your strength slightly below and slightly above so that's how the strength carryover works and so if you're doing chest to bar right obviously that's going to help you here and even lower it does that as well but that also means that if you're just bringing your chin to the bar it's still going to help you get it over okay and so that's why it's smart to mix in a variety of ranges just to you know maximize your strength development because we're talking about a a free weighted mover where you can't really change the strength curve so you have to do it through range of motion manipulation yeah and it does work it minimizes overuse injuries which is very important and it gets you strong at every position and keep in mind when you change your grip width that too affects the joint angle stress so for example if I'm doing a wide grip chin me just getting my chin to the bar is equivalent to using a medium grip and getting my chin Over the Bar in terms of the stress that I feel when I'm bending my arm so that's why it's fine it doesn't have to be like like every rep is slightly above the bar you can have some deviation cool awesome uh so now what I'm going do is I'm going throw out some Fitness topics tell me if you think it's overrated underrated or fairly rated okay all right first one is stimulus to fatigue ratio underrated why stimulus fatigue ratio is the biggest J the biggest game changer of the modern lifting World anyone who's strong will attest that it allows you to become so much stronger and not feel as beat up thinking about sfr allow me to deadlift 600 pounds without even deadlifting because I have a benches build and whenever I would pull from the floor for a lot of sets or even very minimal volume I would have an insanely difficult time recovering because the absolute load in addition to my leverages just didn't allow me to recover but when I discovered good morning everything change I was now able to get the same stimulus to my posterior chain with quite literally a fraction of the load so instead of doing 500 pound deadlift for reps I could be doing good mornings with 225 for reps and my glutes hamstrings and spinal rectors got the same stimulus I know that's difficult for people to believe but they just need to try it and they'll understand that you're lengthening the moment arm so it's not about weight on the bar it's about load magnification it's the same thing when we talk about the [ __ ] squat you can have a guy who can barbell squat 500 pounds and he has trouble [ __ ] squatting 70 pounds which is actually what I was doing by the way so or someone who for example um is doing reverse Nordic curls and you know they can also squat big weights so there's all kinds of examples I can share but just favoring good mornings finally turned me into an elite deadlifter and this extends to the bench press as well introducing the Larson press for that 10% weight reduction uh squats we're talking about the SSB another layer is reversing it you know it's the same stimulus like people get so wrapped up with how heavy they're going but at the end of the day it's about motor unit Recruitment and being in a rep range de limits fatigue so if if you're lifting in let's say the five to8 rep range it doesn't matter if it's a like an overloading variation or more out or less weight variation if you're training with sufficient intensity and you're progressively getting stronger the gains will be comparable you know uh and then there's also the fact that what if some workout days you aren't feeling 100 or you you want you want some variation that's not high specificity which also beats you up well that's where you have a day where you're doing the overloading variations and another where it's self-limiting so maybe on Monday for example you could be doing low bar squats and then on Thursday uh High bar or SSB so you blend your system like that you know or you just go all in on the more out less weight stuff if you're a really strong guy what we find is that in a hypertrophy context that's usually how it plays out like you'll see guys they get very strong on the heaviest variations and then you see them backing off they just go they switch to you know more Tempo work like for example uh Dr Mike Isel you'll see him doing incline dumbbell presses with 85 pounds you know when I worked out with him he stripped me from 120 to 65 which is a a massive difference but we're talking about a slow Centric bringing the dumbbells past the armpits because a lot of guys will just touch here right but you can actually go further out so it's almost like a dumbbell press hybrid right dumble fly hybrid and so these hacks work but they work for people who need that extra recovery because when you're a beginner you have a m unit recruitment deficit you're not able first of all you haven't mastered the movement patterns so there's a skill component which is affecting your your your Force production and some reps you might misgroove and then there's just a fact that you're untrained the weight is just so light that nothing really fatigues you but when you got some years under your belt like every time I got a bench when I'm not cutting that is it's minimum 315 I don't have a choice like even if my first set I go to failure we're talking 10 reps here that means that the next set is g to be six reps at least and the third set let's say I'm really like done right I'm still going to get four reps but that still counts for the hypertrophy rep range and so I'm in a situation where I'm benching three plates every single workout and that kills you the same thing for the overhead press if you're doing over two 200 for reps and you weigh 180 that's a lot of stress on your body and so you know even extensions of all things you're doing 60 pound dumbbell extensions that's harder on the elbows so if you can find variations that are less tough on the joints that give you the same hypertrophy stimulus and still going to get you strong because at the end of the day your muscle mass is a large correlator of strength in the long term then why would you not offer those variations is that s fatigue is very relevant for those need it I was going to say is that especially important if you're doing a serious cut while your recovery might not be as well oh yeah for sure because uh that's where a lot of injuries come in like PEC tears you know but I would also say it's more applicable to enhance lifters because I actually proved that this year that not only could you max out on a cut but you can also do it at single digit body fat and twice a week which I thought was impossible because the last time I had done that was in 2021 when I was trying to build up my bench breast but this year I was doing double Max effort on weighted dips which are even more dangerous in the bench and weighted pull-ups and yet I got no shoulder injuries no PEC injuries no golfer elble none of that so but what was I doing self-limiting variations I was doing pause weighted dips I was doing weighted dips with chains I was doing uh super wide chins super close close the only time you do the regular variation is for testing purposes you're not going to train like that every single workout so that's what I would say in a strength training context if you're still trying to maintain on the way down all right next one is uh optimal biomechanics I would say it's a mix bag I I could my my default answer would be overrated because I think what's most important is Progressive overload and at the end of the day if these exercises are superior it's by a very small amount we're talking 5 to 10% so those who benefit most are probably going to be Advanced bodybuilders who are searching for that final edge and a lot of times it happens to be uh joint friendly as well so it goes back to the topic of stimulus to fatigue but I don't think there's anything magical about these movements and at the end of the day I'm still not seeing that much of an improv in the natural bodybuilding scene compared to the 40s 50s and even 60s like look at the silver era and see if the top natties today are matching those physiques and for the most part I would say no they're not like do you see guys who look like Leroy Colbert you know even Steve Reeves which is way back is still considered the Pinnacle of Aesthetics or reg park for example guys will debate his Natty status but look I'll believe it you know or Marvin eater he benched 500 pounds as a lightweight I mean you just got you know Marvin Wells there were some sick physiques and of course they could have you know improved a little bit more too they had very limited equipment but it didn't necessarily have to be through optimal movements quote unquote and so I I don't think you know the bar has been raised that much with this and uh you know I guess time will tell but you know it's still important to learn these Concepts because we can also apply them in a classical uh context what I mean is like I actually bought a b mechanics course I was alluding to this some years back but you know coach cast him And1 education yeah I decided to purchase his b mechanics course because I wanted to learn the material you know so I'm not opposed to it I will put my money where my mouth is I want to know all this stuff but even with that I still don't think that it's going to be the game changer just that it could help me not get injured and apply those Concepts to even calisthenics for example like if I know that let's talk about the lats real quick that you can Leverage The Rib cuge by bringing the arm slightly in instead of just doing a pole like this and that you know I can get a better squeeze if I'm you know if I'm not using a restrictive bar like a little V handle well can't I not get that effect with gymnastic Rings like logically I can do an AR arer ring chin up so I'm coming out right and then in over here or I could even uh just by me doing a regular ring chin at the top your your arms are stretched inwards and as you pull down they're coming out so there's an in and out motion so I am leveraging the rib cage you know or if I do a a ghetto lap pull down which is one of my signature moves nowadays where I have the legs up on the power rack now I have spinal Flex so I'm fully lengthening the lower lats which be the same thing if I'm doing an lit pullup the same if I'm doing a rack chin right and if I go if I use the spreader bar same thing it's coming in and out so I didn't have to do an iliac pull down to get those benefits even though I recognize the benefits it makes sense when you you know when you analyze the movement pattern what's being hit but I can still Target those same muscles I can hit the lower I can buyas because I understand the concepts so that's what I'm trying to say um you know let's say people say that you can get a better stretch on your pecs by leveraging the rib cage by coming down here instead of out there well I have a barbell called the arch nemesis bar by bells of Steel so I have neutral handles and it has a camber so now I get the full way to stretch on the pecs have the stability of the bar and yes bars are stable enough I don't know why people keep saying that it's not not these these guys are actually insane uh and I can leverage rip cage so it's like you know you learn the concepts same with the anterior Del press you know um I I can go on but if you know what you're hitting you can buyas with calics you can bias with barbells you could bias with dumbbells you don't have to line up everything perfectly with a cable or do some of these novel movements you know some of the old school stuff is biomechanically sound as well and there's degrees to this and Coach CM will also agree that uh an exercise just needs to be biased enough and the way that I look at it is does it have progression potential above all else you must have that if you don't then I don't care how lined up you are it's not going to be the best in the long term like even though for example I love one arm push Downs because they feel great on the elbows it hits the long head and the short position you know there's no spreading force required you're not going to tell me that that's a better Mass Builder than a closer bench breast and this is coming as someone who is not a minimalist and didn't get the biggest arms by doing that but I can still acknowledge that it's a better Mass Builder you know or a skull crusher with dumbbells for example I'd rather do that you know uh so the ability to progress in the long term is more important than having every biomechanical Factor be present awesome all right so now I'm going to throw out some quotes you said and this is really relevant to what we just talked about uh so here's the first one I've a problem with people who regurgitate people's Concepts without the Nuance an example would be coach [ __ ] people copy and paste from him they do they're they're complete douchebags and uh they should be disgusted in their behavior because they made them look really bad you know because when I rant about the optimal stuff in biome mechanics I'm never ranting about C like I just told you I bought his course I've been following him since 2020 and I respect the man a lot and everything he says makes complete sense you know there's a lot of other natural bodybuilders who are in agreement with his work but there's a lot of people who go on his page and they'll just steal an exercise they'll never give him credit by the way and they'll butcher the exercise and give explanations that are extremely one-dimensional so it's like you're going to the source and you're not even doing it properly and then unfortunately because these guys often have aesthetic physiques which you didn't even build with these movements by the way but they're young they're enthusiastic you know they're playing a certain way or maybe they're putting it on Tik Tok which they're going to attract a younger audience you now have a bunch of noobs doing this without a Bas performing it wrong and then re and then they start regur regurgitating as well and now you have a whole community of guys spewing nonsense and then CM has to come in and correct what they're saying and then of course when I get sent this stuff I'm getting sent the water down crappy version of course and that's what I have to debunk I'm not debunking cassm I'm debunking the extreme nonsense so I do have a problem with that you know the guys who do well okay would be uh Jeff nippard and Jeremy Ethier okay if you look on their YouTube videos they always they credit cast him for one and they say what he's saying with context you know yeah so yeah that's not much else needs to be said yeah it's it's a thing it drives me crazy not just in Fitness but like in finance like people will quote Warren Buffett and say things he's saying but it's not even close to what he's actually saying and it's just oh yeah in a 30- second Tik Tok and it drives me crazy because my like BS meter is really good in that space as yours is in the fitness space so you see it right away 100% you know all right next next one here you have to be in a constant state of getting new information about your Niche because that's what's going to unlock something in your brain to make that new video yeah as a content creator things get stale and there's only so many things you could talk about in Fitness right and that's why if you're only marrying yourself to one philosophy like for example oh I am a u a linear periodized powerlifter that's all I do well after about a 100 videos or so you don't really have much else to talk about and so the only way you can make content is by I guess teasing to your coaching business or just doing q&as here and there but it's going to be very repetitive and you stifle your own growth right so my Approach is not only to be a hybrid lifter for my own personal satisfaction because I want to be healthy I want to excel at calics powerlifting bodybuilding all that but at the same time I'd like to give back to the community in the most complete way possible because we all have different goals and I don't want to just be one guy who does one thing and so that's on a personal note but I would say that in general the moment you stop learning is the moment your Fitness career starts to stagnate or eventually die you can't afford that especially when there's new studies coming out there's new Training Concepts being discussed and you know people are having these discussions you don't want to be living in the past even though we can learn from the past and apply some of the old school lessons but it should be done so in a modern context including the way you make your videos those old days where you're just filming with a webcam or a crappy phone or whatever and just talking and it's just your head zoomed in like this that's not going to fly so you have to pay attention to what other people are doing and it is your duty to deliver your message in the clearest and most professional way possible because your your competitors will do that and often times they might not have the best intentions at heart so you got to one up them for at least match them by spreading the truth and doing it in a way that's digestible for this modern generation of lifters you know and they could be around your age they could be younger older it doesn't matter need to get with the times and learning is a forever Journey you know like if I was still making content like I did in 2017 my channel would have died off a long time ago like how many times am I going to discuss you know power shrugs and rock PES and stuff like that right but you see now that I've Embrace different things like the plant-based diet that gives me opportunities to discuss how to get shredded with it or you know how to die for longevity stuff like that right or you know me learning about calics I okay me learning about biome mechanics perfect example now I can apply that to calics and I'm one of the first guys who's done this on YouTube you know or me learning about the conjugate system I can apply to stuff that's not just powerlifting so learning needs to be every day and that's why if you're a fitness Creator or any whatever field you're in you need to be subscribed to the guys who are also covering those topics see what they're saying and you know build upon the discussion it is a community after all especially in the natural scene you know I guess that's the only Niche thing about it that everyone kind of knows each other but we also know what we're talking about so we're just building on those topics yeah I actually feel like something you have a real talent for is is combining multiple Concepts and turning it into a new philosophy I don't think that's a skill everyone has but it seems like how you just mentioned biomechanics and how you can apply it to calisthetics how the information probably existed before and you kind of combined it all into bare mode so talk through that like is that something that just comes naturally or is that an a skill that you've evolved over time I think I've always been that way um I'm not going to toot my own horn here but it's probably it probably has to do with intelligence or crazy creativeness one of those to like I'm very I'm introverted so I'm in my head a lot I'm constantly thinking and because I'm obsessed with learning and this is my passion it's it's easy for me to combine those Concepts um I I don't really know what to say about it to be honest with you does not just it just happens like I get these ideas they just let's let's try this out like the first thing like when I learn something my immediate reaction is how can I apply this right away you know I have a notebook I write it out and I'm already experimenting and I got this home gym right here so I could be I could be thinking of something on the computer and then oh I got to try this you know and then I I line things up and I'm like oh yeah that makes sense so I get it I have a similar situation and it it drives my family crazy like I could be watching a movie and then in that movie there's something weird like in the SciFi I'm like I could apply that that to my startup let me try that out sure yeah like can you like turn that brain off and I'm like I don't know how like I'm trying here we're watching a movie but like I got this idea and then I have that spark and when I have that spark I need to act on it away or it's G you have to I agree gone the next day like I got to do it right then and there so I'll tell my wife like I know it's 11 I know we're watching TV I'm gonna go up I'll be around tomorrow but like I got something here I go for it now I'm exactly the same way and it's the vibe man you got to catch it in that moment the same thing for making videos like if I'm ready to make that video now and I get Disturbed and it's an like now it's an hour that's passed I'm not making that vid I lost a chance I I could still do it and it would come out informative but the vibe is not GNA be the passion the way I explain myself the tone all that you know the flow you know just all of it for sure for sure all right I got one more quote here uh what you want is moderate caloric restriction in EN environment of micronutrient Excellence that's one of my favorite quotes but I'm sorry to say this Veron but it's not my quote I know it's not it's by it's by Dr Ferman and he he's actually he said it so many times that he's even uh modified so now he says what you desire is caloric restriction with micronutrient Ade adequacy he has very he has like three different variations of saying that quote you know but I love the original one um basically what we're talking about here is getting the biggest caloric bang for your buck while at the same time having foods that are rich in micronutrients such that you're getting the best nutrition for the least amount of calories so you're not suffering any nutritional deficiencies but at the same time you're slowing down the aging process and it's easier for you to stay leaner year round uh so it's foods that have phytochemicals in them so by defi by by definition you're going to beating plant-based they have more fiber you know they're rich in a lot of vitamins and minerals but they're just not that high in calories and you can just pile a bunch of them you can stuff your face and by the end of the day like you're either in a deficit or at maintenance but you got way more nutrition than someone who's just eating processed stuff and they got more calories than you yet you got more nutrition so it's about hyper nourishment that's the best way I would describe it so someone consuming even like 2,000 calories of a plant of like Rich plant foods will be better nourished than someone having 3,000 calories of junk and I would even say that there's degrees to healthy eating as well if I'm on the absolute healthiest diet I can outdo you with 500 calories less you know because they're not all equal there's levels to this and what Dr Ferman always says is that for example with the blue zones uh we can actually do better than them and his his approach to nutritarian diet it's it's very extreme like he factors in every micronutrient imaginable to the point where it's like he won't even Advocate consuming rice because there's better cars to have and I would agree in that sense like if you're only consuming sweet potatoes I mean that that makes more sense compared to having white rice you could have rice it's not going to harm you but why would you not opt for the option that has more micronutrients everything is a substitution of sorts you know or it's like if you're going to have a dark leafy green have the one that has the most you know that releases the most nitric oxide like have favorite arugula instead of spinach don't just go for the boring options you know they're they're not all equal not all the vegetables are the same Dr Gregor says it too choose sweet potato over white potato or uh if you can get it purple that's even better than orange you know have a diversity of you know micronutrient rich foods don't just have one Berry have them all and uh you know just you go you got to think about your health when it comes to this I think what I liked about the quote is it's it's implying like high volume food but it's not forcing high volume food cuz I've kind of fallen in that trap before it's like I'm not eating avocado because it's like too chloric dense and I'm like I should probably eat some avocado because I like it and it's tasty and it's micronutrient and like just kind of changing that framing slightly I I like that yeah well there's um there's a ratio for that too because there there's different varieties of a plant-based diet um what Dr Ferman advises is 15 to 20% fat and protein and then the rest of the calories coming from carbs okay and and that's probably the most complete way of doing it such that you don't end up with any deficiencies it's very precise you know so he'll recommend about an ounce and a half a day of nuts and seeds so you're getting your fat in you're getting some of the minerals and absorption benefits of that uh he recommends a an algae based omega-3 supplement as well just in case and then the rest is coming from Whole carbs so he's not going to Advocate the white rice and bagels and stuff like that you know it's going to be only processed you know micronutrient Rich V variations um then he has this thing called the G bombs so the greens beans onions mushrooms berries and seeds you know you want to have that every single day and what you find is like even on because I did this recently during my cut even on 1,00 calories when you plug it into macro factor or chronometer or My Fitness Pal what have you you're like you're in a surplus of all the micronutrients like it's non exaggeration you're higher than if you're eating a normal diet it's it's actually mind-blowing like there were some days that I was getting between 80 and 120 grams of fiber a day on 1,800 calories how is that possible the only way you could do it is by eating these micronutrient rich foods and you're stuffing it in and it just comes naturally because you know a lot of it is just water and it's not you know it's not dense in that way so awesome yeah cool all right so I'm gonna go back to lifting here I want you to rank these from the one you're least proud of to the one you're most proud of 405 bench press 230 weighted dip 180 weighted pull-up and 242 seated overhead press Easy Choice 405 bench that's the ultimate bro achievement you know the other ones came a lot easier okay uh like the see the seated over at press wasn't that hard to do actually and the weight of chin was just time you know but the 405 bench you really got to know what you're doing like a lot of guys that's their deadlift One Max you know and it took me years and years of specialization to the point of even neglecting legs at times you know uh doing double Max effort perfecting the conjugate system it's it's not easy to do that at 185 pounds being a non-p powerlifter like it's I know that you see on social media a lot of guys are hitting it now but it's a very rare feat of strength and if I was born way back you know if I would have been a silver era bodybuilder you know people would have been freaking out so I definitely don't see it at my gym you'll almost never see it on a natural it's hard it's really and like you're just you're ready for that day and that's it I did everything to the best of my abilities you know it was a hell of a grind years and years and years that'll always be the most impressive achievement it beats anything I've done would you be as proud if it came easier or do you think it's the the struggle and the learning and everything culminating that made it you know so important and that you're so proud of it uh it's it's everything especially the fact that I did it with conjugate when everyone said it didn't work so I proved them wrong but even if it did come a little bit easier because I do have a Ben's build at the end of the day but not a perfect Ben's build I would say I'm actually more built for the squat if anything okay yet it's not my best lift because I intentionally neglected it actually I have um my ape index is like 5 seven and a half yeah my height is five foot five so I have a positive ape index that I'm not familiar with it so it's when your arms are out to the side like this right it your your width compared to your so your horizontal distance versus your vertical distance which determines like you know how long you your arms are in relation to the rest of your body how proportional you are okay so like someone who's really good at deadlifting will have like a plus five ape index or something their hands are so low right okay so mine is like a like a plus two or whatever which which should indicate that I'm not I'm not a pure bench tank I'm close but I'm not like some guys is one to one like their their arm length is the same as their height you know and and you see it they're very stubby looking like when you look at my upper body I don't look stubby not at all what stubby is my leg and that's why I tell you I'm actually built for the squat and so I would say with slightly above average benching genetics like leverages wise because I'm not perfect it's uh it's a damn good achievement and and if people still want to bring up the leverage thing well guess what I did it at 185 yeah so I mean it just gets respect period you know but easy or not 405 is 405 I I respect anyone who's done it like my my friend did it at 260 but Natty and I saw him go from two plates four plates I mean I don't care I don't care what you weigh I don't care how you did it as long as you did it Natty you give my respect awesome so you once said uh that what you wanted to do was create masterpieces that stand the test of time and people will go back to it for years so I'm curious are there any videos or topics that you've covered that when you've looked back you're like this is awesome advice yeah um particularly the videos that I have scripted so I do a bit of a mixture some stuff is more outlined and I just speak at the top of my head other times it's like an essay from start to finish like a 5,000-word piece you know those videos are always perfect and they really do s a test of time they'll be relevant now and in five years you know uh and a lot of those have actually gone viral for example like my my conjugate video that was scripted I had to make it scripted because I'm covering very touchy subjects here you know with percentages and exercise variations you know it might not have been my most popular video but it's something that I'm proud of and at the end of the day that's what I want to release agreed videos that's like I can sleep well at night and I don't have to recover them again like when I repeat myself often times it's because I could have done a better job the first time so if you do it right once then the need to repeat is lessened you could do it every couple years or whatever it doesn't have to be every couple months like you see some guys doing right because you already address it all like I like making guides you know and um I always say that my channel is like an old school MMO RPG best example being Runescape or World of Warcraft right you got guys that have been playing this since they're teenagers and now they're in their 30s they're still playing this damn game why because these games were made right they were they were built to last you know they they factored in you know addictive little habits and they built a good LW around it and they slowly you know develop these games to preserve the original core audience and what you'll find with my channel is that a lot of people have been following myself since 2016 and that's when I had like 10,000 subscribers so how could it be that from 100K to 400k the same guys are still watching well two reasons one they developed an attachment of sorts I probably helped them through their novice phase and whatever and they just never stop watching me CU why not but secondly when I give advice it works yeah plain and simple and they keep coming back for more because they know that I will not steer them in the wrong direction if I was full of [ __ ] my YouTube channel would have been filtered out years ago I would have never lasted this long and I have been making videos for 10 years now so the reason why I'm still here is because people recognize that I'm the real deal I'm not trying to be an egotistical Maniac by saying this but it's true if you follow my advice you watch my videos you know especially in the last 3 four years you're going to go very far you can match my physique surpass it get close to it the potential is incredible and I wish I had this information sooner so what I'm saying is as long as you have the purest intentions and you make videos that are built to last that people can scroll down your page and oh that's all relevant it helps you and it helps them I also feel like like you sometimes are willing to make harder content um and that's not to blast anyone who makes a lot of like reactionary videos but it feels like that's not your go-to you're more trying to create these guides and these things that are kind of Timeless when something like a reaction it's cool in the moment but no one's going to watch that three months from now because it's more entertainment it doesn't provide value as much not saying it can't provide value but it's it's kind of a different modality than creating you know things like guides you're 100% right it's like a week later people forget including for very important use like just look at you know bodybuilders who die you see them all over Instagram and YouTube for one to two weeks and then you don't hear their name ever again or if you do it's rare you're quickly forgotten but if you have the right intentions it's kind of hard to forget about you and I would also say that you know regardless if it's negative or positive news people don't care people are moving on with their lives they're going to do what they got to do there's always something new there's always a cool kid that just showed up and uh you know you got to be relevant by making content that will last not just stuff that you know is relevant in 2024 like if I start talking about home workouts but I phrase it like a like a doom if I upload a doomsday home workout okay it's probably not going to do that well today but if I were to upload that same video in 2020 uh you know five times of views right so there's there's a time and place for that kind of stuff you know like when people are all on a subject you can come in but doesn't have to be a reaction it could be your own take on it very neutral you're not addressing anyone's name you're just addressing the arguments and that is what I like to do you know even though I don't talk about people directly unless forced to I have I've talked about their arguments sure you know and anyone who's familiar with the opposing side will see that I am well versed so I am aware I'm not this delusional guy who's just keeping to myself as I mentioned earlier I'm subscribed to various channels and if you go on my Instagram page I'm only following Fitness stuff that's the only thing I use it for and if I was not a fitness influencer I wouldn't even have social media so the only reason why I use social media is to stay in touch see what people are talking about how can I improve upon this information how can I add to the discussion while doing it in a non-dramatic way and I have no intentions of you know responding to anybody unless people really did want that and I can do it I don't know in a fun but even then it's like what's the benefit I just want guys who are here for gains who are going to roll with me long term like those old school MMO RPGs I don't care about anything else I'm building a brand I'm building longevity you know because The Natty lifting game is slow and long term so I think that should be reflected in the content as well yeah so back to uh World of Warcraft uh oh yeah I think a big part of it for me is it was the first game where I saw like dungeon finder and I remember before that when I used to play Diablo and stuff we used to like run around and be like you want to be in my party and then dungeon finder came out and it was just like yeah they just improved the experience so much and then I had to delete the game at some point because it became too much for most people right so and uh Factor fiction you had a you had a gaming channel at one point on YouTube I did crazy enough and I I don't know if I regret stopping it because that channel probably would have had over 100k followers by now it was it actually did pretty well for the time I had around 5,000 followers you know not bad considering I didn't put much effort into it but the thing with gaming is that I don't really have time for it like I have about 50 games sitting my collection and I haven't played a single one of them they're just waiting and I would love to because I am a gamer at heart but I feel like the only way I can get away with that is by Reviving that gaming channel because I I have to use my time wisely if I'm not if I'm not building it's because I work all day I train I'm editing I'm filming I'm doing all this stuff not to mention you know personal stuff as well and then at night time I'm reading I'm writing so it's like when the hell do I have time to game I don't I maybe have one to two hours a week if I'm lucky and even then it's like maybe I have better things to do so it's priorities right like I always find like I always say I'm going to watch a movie or play games and then I end up just like learning something on YouTube or going down some rabbit hole and I'm like my wife would be like what just happened today and I'm like what did you watch and I'm like no I spent four hours on this random topic he's like exactly and it's that that's just the priority and I don't know why it is it's just that's the evolution yeah it's priorities and uh you know as you get older you realize certain things are more important and those games will always be there like like I said to you before um between 2013 and 2016 I didn't do any gaming you know except for the occasional counter- strike here and there but I barely played anything but then I remember I I literally I went on Craigslist and I met up with a random guy and I bought like all the games that had come out in that three-year time frame and I just binge played them for two months got it out of my system and then I went back to making content for next couple years so it's not a regular thing when I when I enjoy it it's great it's like okay go all in but I know that when I jump on those games because the adct is still in me my the rest of my life is taking a hit like when I when I discovered the Yakuza Series in 2018 I played through all them within uh not even a month you know it was like 80 hours of gameplay I just bang through it and you saw it on my channel I was uploading Q&A once a week it was very short term and I was going through some things in that year but you know that's what I do I binge the games I get them out of my system and then I go back to doing real [ __ ] but me trying to combine it with my productive lifestyle I can't do it we got too many things to do I bought the new Boulder's Gate and played it for three weeks and then I had to delete it that's what ends up happening I go from like and the day I delete it is like the day that I yeah 16 hours because I leveled and then that dopamine hits out there I'm just like what's the next level I'm like oh the gaming addicts coming back like I have to delete it is what it is yeah that's it all right so what I'm going to do is I'm GNA throw some pictures on the screen uh for the first view here just tell me something you learned from the person and what you would train with them if you met them in person cool sure first one is uh Mike machine Mike Mike the machine Bruce so I learned a lot about nect training from him in fact I probably wouldn't be here we enough for his guidance I have interviewed him twice we've had some uh you know personal communication for a number of years now and uh he actually inspired me to do a lot of those overloading movements like the rack PS above the knee he had done 1500 pounds wow like 10 years before I did you know what I'm saying I didn't do 1500 I did U 1140 but still uh he's the OG when it comes to that stuff he did a 300 pound neck extension for I believe two reps brug the harness right he broke the harness got a concussion you know the bridging stuff the the power shrugs like everything like he even had a DVD TNT neck training look at my 2016 content and You' be like oh that kind of looks like uh Mike stuff you know and I I got sponsored by neflex because of him as well so I credit a lot of My Success to this man you know in terms of you know the exercises uh life philosophy as well he had a like a ManUp series that that's a real man right there so if people want to learn more they should check out my two interviews that I did with him all right next one here Leroy Colbert Leroy Colbert you see what I was saying before about the silver era you see guys who look like that today Natty he would win a wnbf competition okay and this was in the 1950s I believe first man in the world to build 21inch arms look at that vacuum you know he was doing 90 lb dumbbell curls you know he benched four five as well he was uh he he said the wide grip uh wide grip pull-ups were the number one Mass Builder the dumbbell pullover was amazing you know the barell back barell back squat was unbeatable because that's all they did back then you know all of his advice is timeless and everything like even when I questioned him uh years later I would go back to his advice and uh it's never failed me once lward Bert had 70 years of lifting experience 70 a lot he was the oldest YouTuber in the Fitness World you can't beat that you know the full body workouts guess what people are talking about that too now to reduce fatigue you know he was so spoton and um you know I watched him when he was alive I remember when he passed away I even made a video rest in peace you know that that's that's a man of wisdom and uh you know he he's it's because of him that I learned about all these old school lifters because he was the only one that was making content on YouTube on the Mr Yorkie lover channel so that got me down the rabbit hole 80s too right he was 81 years old with arms bigger than me so and no trt either so that I think that's a testament to what could be done naturally yeah all right next one is uh John grick picture of un John grii he hasn't really impacted Ed my my life that much uh it's just more so an aesthetic uh ideal like he has like that like that tough bar mode silver eror look you know what would you train with him then how would I train with him I would do overloading stuff because he was doing uh like a th pound pin press holds like he was lifting very very heavy weights uh he used a chess expander as well so a lot of like he's a tank of a man you know uh heavy lifting but I look at him more like an aesthetic ideal rather than an inspiration cool how about this book the book of methods by Louis Simmons what's the Imp I read that book over and over again so I remember I read that book on the bus and because I remember people kept talking trash about Louis Simmons saying that his methods didn't work for raw lifters because keep in mind when I started coming up it was during the time where guys were transitioning to more linear ways of training right it was like a backlash against Westside and articles coming out like west of Westside and all these things you know and I and I can see what they were saying but they were also strong maning his position and I I realized it very quickly when I read his actual book that's why I always say go to the damn Source stop looking at what other people are saying about another man so I read Louis's book I read all his books I bought them all and it completely revolutionized my life like I got a 405 bench because of the Westside system well not Westside but the conjugate system okay uh you know about the max effer method rotating exercises to prevent overuse in the law of accommodation the bands the chains uh the overloads the more less weight everything it's because of him and and I applied it not to powerlifting but even the calisthenics the bodybuilding you know my naturally enhanced system was basically Westside with a yoke emphasis if you really look at it and then some silver ARA stuff mixed in too with the full body but the upper the the upper lower template is very similar to Westside you know so uh because of him I discovered all the other guys as well like Matt winning and uh you know this is the default method that I choose for strength development General strength development because I'm not a powerlifter right but whenever I coach anyone if they tell me I want to get stronger I'm putting them on a conjugate program that is it's going to be my default you know that or more of the way that I'm training now with the two set stuff bit more movements a focus on progression stuff like that but uh Lou Simmons is the goat that was uh you know but I'll say I wasn't surprised when he when he passed away that young you know he what he did do a lot of damage to his body so for sure and you uh got to interview Matt wedding I did and I met him in person as well actually I'm gonna say this in at the the Ohio uh well the Arnold sports festival you you see some people in person and they're like oh less impressive than I thought Matt Wenning actually surprised me he is a Titan okay he is a big man like his videos do not do him Justice I think he needs to hire a different videographer uh he's tall and jacked but he's really jacked like he looks like a bodybuilder when you see him in person he looks leaner too so I was very when I saw him in person I was shocked I'm like holy crap man uh he's jacked up and when you see his numbers it makes sense being able to bench 600 Squad 850 you know it is what it is he did break World Records all right so this next one is an OG YouTuber just tell me what's the first thing that comes to mind when you see this here oh okay I like your list that's that's basically my list right there okay well Johnny candido uh we go way back uh we used to even if you look at some of his 2016 2017 videos sometimes in the intro they'll say dedicated to Alpha destiny like if you watch his overhead press segment you'll see it in the first five seconds he mentions me and we used to comment back and forth on each other's videos you know we've always had that acquaintance I think I used to get on his nerves as well at the beginning because I would write these like these long paragraphs these extremist statements but we we always uh we're always chill with each other we just like messing around you know great raw powerlifting advice uh a great figure for the natural Community uh I with a lot of his you know training and life philosophies as well we've stayed in touch uh for you know almost a decade by this point amazing Source you can't go wrong with information uh Omar isof yo Omar has done a lot for me I'm eternally grateful for his guidance being able to train with him on multiple occasions and just developing a friendship of sword over the years he is responsible for exploding my channel after I hit 20,000 followers so I had done a video for him he hit me up I did a like a yoke training guide and I swear to God after that video I was getting like 10,000 followers a week on YouTube now this would not happen today in 2024 uh the scene has changed if you collab with someone it's it just doesn't work like that but back then if you collab with a big name it made a difference so he really skyrocketed I I gained about 50,000 followers just off that one video that I did with him which is like that was more than my entire Channel at the time and those followers stayed because they were serious Naturals so uh Omar's a really good guy he he even paid for my hotel when I went in Toronto he took care of me um he he showed me to all the best places like he treated me like a king and he's always been a super genuine guy and delivering amazing information for those who want you know solid uh Natty gains so nothing but respect uh Allan th Allan th is the the only guy who was able to teach me leg drive on the bench press I struggled with it for years and you know I watch every tutorial and like the best benching tutorial I found was Dave Tate's bench press cure but I still couldn't get that leg drive down and I I tried everything and then I found Allan and I remember Omar spoke highly about him as well and his tip it was basically he was saying that you want to use leg drive to get into your arch instead of the other way around you know like arching and then putting the leg drive it's it's a subtle difference but if you watch his guide it just changed my perspective and with that my stability and tightness was enhanced and I started noticing uh you know just cleaner form on the bench you know and in general his technique guides are among the best they're very uh starting strength inspired but done so in a clearer way and he's just a a like a good General resource for learning uh proper technique on the big bar mod movements and uh you know he's a family man owns a successful gym transitioned to Natural bodybuilding is very open-minded is is messing with our community as well uh we follow each other he's just uh an overall solid guy and uh videos stand a test of time like they were done in a way like we were discussing before that they'll always be relevant you know like his his older videos are some of his best uh Fitness fqs I'm going through every one of these guys you're cool with that right I love it man that's great okay fness FAQs I started watching him at the start you know we were both young at the time crazy to think about it but uh I learned a lot about Cal cenix from him like the advanced stuff like he he provided the guidance that the New Yorkers weren't giving because the New York scene was all about just basic push-ups pull-ups and dips and muscle ups just High Reps you know it was a street way of working out but Daniel introduced me to the gymnastic rings and so I bought a pair because of him and that revolutionized everything with the amount of variations that you could do like the Pelican curls and you know so many variations he even has a guy he has a A Chorus that you can buy which shows all this stuff but I would say I learned about exercise selection and injury prevention in a calenic context because of him because his background is also with physiotherapy you know um and he's always been like a calm calm cool collected badass who did his own thing he never focused on drama it was about the long-term vision and uh I I feel like our approach to making videos is very similar just that he does it in an even more professional way you know so I respect respect that I respect his work ethic I respect you know his General approach to training he even combines uh weights in some context he's just uh you know a critical thinker who shows what could be done with body weight training like at a very high level so I respect that team 3D Alpha I discovered him through physiques of greatness and maybe 2011 they had done a collab workout together with this other guy who had the longer hair I believe his name was Matt so then I started following him and uh I immediately messed with his Vibe and uh he's Haitian so in Montreal we have a lot of Haitians here so I was able to pick up on that Vibe right away and Megan's just a [ __ ] badass sorry for swearing but the Dragon Ball Z emphasis like we had a very similar like upbringing of interest you know you know when you just click with someone like this I like this guy I always felt that way about him and I felt like he was a high performer as well because he was into self-improvement and he made a lot of videos you know in his car talking about a variety of subjects how he likes to learn non-stop like uh learning about like a historical event every day historical figure you know constantly reading the emphasis on cisic Nucleus overload I learned about that from him so a lot of our training was overlapping at the time like the the full body the overloads you know he was ahead of the game about a lot of these in a way you can say he was more science-based than a lot of people call themselves science-based nowadays like he was talking about he was he was just ah head of the game on every account and uh if you check out our interview that we did together in 2017 you'll see why he's just a bookworm he knows a lot of stuff and since then I watched it yeah awesome but uh he's just a good dude overall um who's obsessed with learning and you know good character so uh now we got my man Brandon Carter so Brandon Carter I've been following him since 2009 he was one of my original Inspirations I still follow him to this day uh what's crazy is I saw him go from broke to rich you know used to live in this like ghetto apartment and he would film with resistance bands and he also uh did like R&B songs you know so covers of other yeah so a lot of people don't know that but I remember watching I because I saw all of his content he even had a a video on a channel called the most interesting man in the world it was like a a parody you know so I've been following Brandon since he didn't even have 10,000 followers like we're talking the very very beginning and I remember when his first channel got deleted so I saw him restart it and then build up you know he was making videos at the park with uh seat belts to as a gymnastic ring replacement so he's doing dips at a children's park with seat belts with his friend Brian right and I just saw him level up and uh he was also an inspiration for reading because he would that's what he loved to do right he had this immense bookshelf and I listened to his recommendations like these are the books you got to read right and yo he really he lived it you saw him like become more knowledgeable evolve his physique also Natty uh just giving great advice great workout ADV advice great life advice and we saw him rise to the top and now he's he's absolutely killing it so just a a person to look up to for gains and life you know uh now we got my man vetruvian physique so it's funny the first interaction I ever had with vuan physique was like a debate about full body workout that's how I discovered him made a video saying that it probably wasn't the best way to train and he gave his reasons why and I got I'm like a young man who got all pissed off at that I'm like hey but I I train full body and I'm like uh I'm bigger than you I'm 182 at 5 foot5 so I got more muscle and look I I bench more and all these things and I just had this massive ego so I came at him and uh you know just responding to his points and then he he did his respon response and then I did another response and that that kind of settled it but it was all fun right after that uh you know I realized like I I kind of misbehaved you know and I remember talking to Omar off about this in person like yo I probably should have you know approached that differently and uh you know started uh you know I subscribed to him I started watching his other content I'm like okay he's a good guy like I'm sorry for being a freaking [ __ ] and uh over the years I've grown to really like his channel actually he inspired me to compete so I watched him compete a couple times and uh in his last classic physique competition I'm like yo I got to do this too so uh full credit to V truvian physique I think he has an amazing natural physique he's uh he's a genuine guy just like the rest of these people here and uh he inspired me to make some big moves and you could even say that a lot of my 2023 growth was because of him because he inspired me because he was the Catalyst a lot of My Success came afterwards and now we follow each other we're cool I think he a good inspiration for young men okay got John Meadows over here he was the first bodybuilder to apply conjugate training principles and that's the main thing that I learned from him some guys will give the generic answer of uh The Meadows row I did those as well actually I used to do like seven plate meow Street rows that definitely works for the upper back overload and it's it's genius because the land mine is a length and bias row so that's the primary uh benefit that uh allows you to get a stimulus that's so potent without needing to spend $5,000 on a prime fitness machine so John metal will save you money and like he discovered a biomechanically sound movement that's freeway based absolute genius for that but the big thing that he was doing was attaching bands and chains to stable machines if you look now on Tik Tok and a lot of social media platforms you got people doing reverse banded hack squats reverse bandage Smith machine JM presses so what they're doing is they're trying to match the leverages of a given movement to the muscle where it has the best leverage at a certain joint angle right so they use bands and chains to correct a strength curve deficit or just you know improve the lift overall and John was the first bodybuilder to do this so you see he even had an elite FTS Mountain Dog pack you know he would train there of and with Dave Tate and uh you know he just came up with a bunch of Genius movements and he was actually an original bom mechanics Guru you could say but he didn't even have explanations for it he just knew that they felt right but then when you analyze the reasons why they just made sense like the Dual rope pushdowns right that's because of alignment the single rope doesn't how wide you are like if you're a big guy like John you can't just use one rope right and the fact that with two you can get that squeeze behind the body uh BRAC curls he's the first guy to do that doing uh dumbbell curls on the lap pole down machine and guess what guys don't give him credit either so when it comes down to stability and resistance profiles for bodybuilding he did it all so he was a true thinker and experimenter now we got my man Eric bogenhagen so I discovered him in 2015 and he is responsible for me training like an absolute animal actually bringing back my love for heavy metal because I had gone through a period where I stopped listening to it but because of him like it just I discovered so many great bands and you know you can even say that I bought a home gym because of him because I was inspired watching him train in his basement then his garage and all that right so the mindset doing one rep Maxes screaming going crazy just lifting heavy uh the attitude of just horse coocking weights as he calls it all credit Derek bugenhagen and we actually did an interview years ago um we had to take it down because of WWE but okay yeah that that was an OG segment you know I did it with my man Phil so Eric and I go way back you know uh I everything that I know about that tough mindset it comes from him like to this day I still I still hone in on that like animalistic energy and I enjoy uh watching his videos to this day you know I've kept up with him over the years and uh we've always wish each other well so great guy if you want to learn how to be hardcore now Scott Herman Fitness I've been watching him again since 2009 same thing with Scooby um he was actually my original aesthetic inspiration I wanted to look like him when I was young I you know I remember being the skinny gamer nerd playing World of Warcraft and uh like that's the body I was like [ __ ] I got to look like Scott you know and he had the best tutorials on the internet at the time I remember he had a video called my chess workout and that that had millions of views even back then which was a lot you know and he just he he always had the blue shorts on the same ones I guess he was bash filming his videos but uh he gave these thoral explanations which was unseen at the time and uh after having like this crazy exercise Library he started releasing like series of workout programs like he has so many of them if you go on his site muscularstrength.com there must be like close to 100 right so that's what that's what he liked to do he built workout series and then he would compare move what's better tar Rose or Barbara Rose so kind of like what I do but with his little flare on it you know so he's an inspiration in terms of physique Still natur Still natural still looking amazing uh the guy doesn't age you know I think that's another benefit of staying natural and uh his his content is timeless like every video you watch from the very beginning till now is relevant so you just you can't go wrong with any of this stuff and he's also a genuine guy you know so uh next we got physiques of greatness Chris Jones I discovered him in 2011 after he responded to a video by Ian McCarthy that that was the original optimal guy so Chris was you know sharing his take on you know why Bro Science might have its merits in certain cases he was doing that video with Vince as well so physiques of greatness uh I saw that come up you know from the very beginning so I remember I I was literally in high school when I started watching uh p and he was the only person alongside the hodg twins where I would watch the Vlogs so I remember he would go to Denny's he had the ghetto spatula like we're talking very early days of p and I watched every single video you know including leading up to the beast mode Jones Channel I actually bought his um his stringers you know you could see it in some of my older videos the PG tank tops nice real big fan you know and uh We've it's it's what's cool is that with all these people here I've got to interact with them over the years like they they inspired me and now I'm talking to them in the DMS you know now we're friends right so Chris is a and he's always shown me Love by the way I remember when he got he had a situation with Vince G I think in 2014 and I defended Chris because I didn't agree with what Vince was doing you know he wasn't producing but he was still taking all the money you know m so I'm like that's unacceptable and I came in and I and I shared my response and uh Chris uh really appreciated that and he's been a supporter of mine ever since and he said you're gonna do big things my man he's like I could see it you're a true Hustler you'll see and he was right so he always believed in me from day one uh I always believed in him too when I saw him come up and uh I mean it's it's always been a really good you know going back and forth with him and then uh when off with mcanal as I mentioned earlier he was one of my calisthenics Inspirations mcanal uh so he he literally first of all I didn't realize how old he was but he started training at like 25 years old but again the guy doesn't age so he's he's like damn near 40 at this point crazy you know becoming a a street lifting Champion I love to see it I saw him you know he used to do like 50 pistol squats in one set you know he would do these extreme fatza strength these extreme jumps and uh he he added a like a black panther kind of twist to the cisic world he was showing that it's not just about push-ups pull-ups and dips you can train your legs you can do Rings you can do like a lot of these Brute Force livs he's basically a combination of Fitness FAQs and the New York scene from back then and it I believe live in New York as well so that's kind of how he used to collab with those guys as well but the difference is that he was willing to learn and improve upon those guys he actually ended up beating those New Yorkers you know in terms of overall performance and just developing skills so he's I see him as someone as a learner you know who never stops experimenting and just like myself he ended up using the conjugate system he's in this for the long term and he's just uh you know someone who doesn't stop he always says it's the mechanimal way you know so I respect his work ethic I think he has one of the best physiques around like he would even do well in natural bodybuilding if you ask me he's just got that structure so he's very smart uh he's not he's not afraid to try all different things he's tough just a great inspiration overall for calics and life so that's quite the list you got there Alex thanks for that Master Class on the ogs of YouTube um it was great to hear kind of the character building moments there but also just the inspiration and your passion for it it's not just a passion for the content you make but the passion for the community since day one is like very very clear I wasn't rambling too much no not at all I have I have like 20 more questions but we could save it for another day because I know we've had a long conversation yeah that might be a good idea uh so Alex thanks so much for your time I really appreciate it hope you had a good time and where can everyone find you I did have a good time thank you for having me on Brun it was a pleasure talking to you definitely got to do that part twoo um if you guys want to learn more about me best way is just on the Alex leitis YouTube channel Alex lit.com or Alex leitis official I'm basically the only guy with this name so enjoy looking me up I'm everywhere all right thanks for your time man thank you