Ep 139 – The Junk Volume of Life

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Vegan Protein Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Giacomo.

Dani

And I’m Dani.

Giacomo

And this is episode 139. Thanks so much for tuning in. You give us a reason to do this thing. We are pretty excited about this week, or at least we will be by the time this episode is published, if it is when I believe it will be, because we will be headed out to plan build. Well, it’s technically Mr. America, but I like to think of it as plant built. But this episode’s also coming out on the day of our anniversary. Dani, did you know that?

Dani

Such a jerk. I was like, what date does this one come out? He was like, October 3rd. And that is plant built. I was like, that is actually our anniversary. And he was like, yeah, duh, I knew that. And plant built. Such a liar. Which plant belt actually isn’t until, I think the fifth and sixth and seventh, I think. But yeah, it’s close.

It’s close. So it’s very exciting. Heading down to Atlantic City to go do that. And as we’re recording this right now, we are very, like, eyeballs deep in the planning phase of the vegan strong plant built team, which is. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. The planning for an event of this size is so much.

Giacomo

I love it. This is like a dream come true for me. I get to do my favorite thing, just plan ginormous events and deal with all kinds of people.

Dani

All right, well, we gotta, like, pick up the pace on that because I feel like we’re a little bit behind on some of these things, and it’s not my favorite thing to do. Like, we legitimately eloped because I didn’t want to plan a wedding because that sounds like literal hell on earth to me. But here we are not planning a wedding, but instead planning an annual event where 40 athletes fly in from all over the world to compete in various sports on the same weekend.

With media coverage and many photo shoots and parties. And it’s with uniforms, multiple uniforms that they need and a fundraiser. But. But, you know, I eloped on a tiny farm because I didn’t want to plan a wedding.

Giacomo

So I think this is exactly the way that this week should go down. I think it’s fitting. It speaks volumes about what you ask for and what you get when you marry somebody. Right? See, you get exactly what you need. Right?

Dani

Anyway, if you guys are in the area, like, please come down, support these athletes. They train all year for this event. It’s going to be really, really awesome. There is nowhere else where you are going to find this number of high caliber vegan athletes all competing at the same time. It doesn’t exist.

It’s just this. So if you’re nearby, I know I’m giving you like one day’s notice, but hey, we’ve been talking about this for months, so if you’re just listening now, like, that’s on you. So. But if you’re there, come by, say hi, introduce yourself to us. We would love to see you.

Giacomo

So what are we talking about today, Dani?

Dani

I. Well, the way we had this written was, are you doing too much? And are you being counterproductive towards your goals? And it’s funny because we wrote all these topic ideas for the podcast actually in December of 2022, and now circling back around to actually record them, it’s like, hmm, what did I mean when I wrote this thing down? What exactly was I referring to? So we kind of have, like, reinterpreted them a little bit, which is why sometimes you’ll get Giacomo’s take on it and

sometimes you get my take on it. But the gist is, are you doing too much? Are you putting too much of your energy into stuff that is not helping you? And I specifically wanted to talk about junk volume in the gym because I think it’s really super duper common. But I’m curious what your take on that particular title was.

Giacomo

Well, my initial thought, if you didn’t pick up on what I felt about this topic, was doing too much in general and thinking that you’re getting the job done. Meaning, like, trying to focus on doing everything all, like, in your. Whatever.

Dani

Are you attacking me? Is that what’s happening right now?

Giacomo

I could be. If it helps further the conversation, I’d be happy to attack you.

Dani

Well, the audience tends to love it when we pick at each other.

Giacomo

I got my weapon of choice.

Dani

Yeah, I’m saying that because I try, though I might. I consider myself to be, like a pretty focused person, but I’m always focused on like eight different things at once and, like constantly switching between tasks back and forth and they all get done. And I think I’m being very efficient, but Giacomo does not think it is particularly efficient.

Giacomo

So we should retitle this topic. Is doing too much and is it counterproductive to vegan protein?

Dani

Oh, he’s got jokes, guys. He’s got jokes today. All right, so junk volume, that’s what we’re going to talk about. Just kidding. We’ll talk about your thing too. So I know we’ve mentioned junk volume in other episodes before. But just for folks who haven’t tuned into other episodes, what would you consider junk volume? Like, what is it? Define junk volume.

Giacomo

Well, it’s different than what I was thinking. What I feel like drunk volume actually is, is when you just do extra reps for the sake of it, as opposed to the idea of not resting enough and being in the recovery and just continuing at the gym or programming more for yourself and then doing it. I feel like that’s a

way to do too much in general. When I think of drunk volume, I think of being sloppy in the gym because you want to do more work.

Dani

Just because kind of. I mean, that’s pretty close. It’s basically like any exercise, and particularly we’re talking about weightlifting, but I assume this is likely true for endurance sports as well. Any exercise that you do that, like, exceeds what your body can actually, like, use to adapt is just junk volume. So there’s a certain amount of work that gets us results based on research, and we’ll get into that in a minute. And anything above that amount, especially if it’s done,

like, in a certain period of time, like, it’s junk. Yes, you’re doing it. You’re showing up, you’re putting in the work. So you can give yourself a little gold star for that. But is it actually doing anything? Is it actually helping you get to your goal? Or could you have, like, cut your workout in half and actually had it be just as effective? That’s the junk volume. And I see a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, lot, lot, lot of junk volume in the gym.

Giacomo

Example number one. Specific example, number one, hitting a one rep max and doing it, like, once a week when it’s not part of your program. Why are you doing it? For example, That’s. To me, that’s a perfect example. You’re shaking your head.

Dani

I don’t think that’s.

Giacomo

Nobody can see you shake your head in a podcast, Dani. We’re going to have to record you as well.

Dani

Listen, if we had a better podcast setup and we weren’t sitting in our closet, maybe we could do a video version of this and you could get the full spectrum of the variety of faces that I make when we’re recording this.

Giacomo

Or we could put a camera in our closet.

Dani

That’s gonna be a hard no for me. But sometimes we’ll get messages after the fact, like from people who know us personally, and they’ll be like, oh, I was listening to this. And when. When Giacomo said this thing, I could Totally. Picture your face.

Giacomo

Anyway, here’s another. Here’s another specific example. Specific example number two. How about you have four sets across the board program for your exercises, and now you just go in the gym and you randomly decide you’re going to do a fifth set across the board. Why do you do that?

Dani

That’s, that’s a. I mean, that’s a better example. I mean, I do, I do not recommend doing one rep maxes every week. That’s just stupid. But, but I wouldn’t call it junk volume per se. That’s just not bright, honestly. But okay, so let’s get into some of the research and what the research says. And bearing in mind that research is generally gonna be the average of people that have been studied and it doesn’t apply to everybody.

Yes, there are outliers, but the research suggests that the optimal amount of sets to do for muscle hypertrophy for building muscle is 10 to 12 sets per body part per week. And there’s crossover within that. So for example, in a lat pulldown, yes, you’re working your back, but you’re also working your biceps.

So if you did four sets of lat pulldowns, that would count for your back and your biceps. You just got four sets of each of those suckers right there. Okay, so 10 to 20 sets per body part per week is way less than what most people are doing, correct? Would you say that’s correct?

Giacomo

Less than what most people are doing?

Dani

Yeah.

Giacomo

Oh yeah.

Dani

The people who go to the gym, that is because there’s way more people just sitting at home on the couch. But the folks who go to the gym are doing way more than that, I think. So, you know, they’ll do like four sets of flat bench and then three sets of decline bench and then go over into a chest press machine and a pec fly and finish it off with some dips.

And it’s like, wow, you could have done so much less than that. And it’s like, I admire the drive. And if you’re just doing it because you love it, that’s great. But not only do those whole second half of that workout not do anything for you, I’m getting ahead of myself. Say, Dani, stop. Back up.

Giacomo

Stop it.

Dani

Okay, so 10 to 20 sets per week, but more than that, only six sets per body part per session is optimal. Everything past that point, roughly, again, there are outliers. Doesn’t really add anything. Six sets per body part per session. Now they have to be good sets, and we’re going to talk about that. Version of junk volume also. But if you’re doing six good, hard, you know, getting one rep away from failure, one to two reps from failure, that’s all you need to stimulate muscle

hypertrophy and then 10 to 20 sets total per week. So based on the workout that I just described, flat decline, pec deck dips. Like, half of that workout is junk volume. It’s not actually helping you. Which is why things like a bro split, where you do, like, legs one day, chest one day, back one day, delts one day.

Like, in order to hit that 10 to 20 body parts per week, you have to have 10 to 20 sets per workout per body part. And we just said past six, it’s not really helping you. So that’s why you should probably split your week up into hitting body parts multiple times per week, if you’re able to.

Giacomo

But bro science dies pretty hard. I can still remember the days that this stuff came out. Reading through the magazines and hearing coaches talk about it and you. We’re so much smarter these days. But unfortunately, there’s information overload and just some stuff dies hard and just continues to get recycled and repeated. Unfortunately, in the fitness industry, and it leads to people training improperly.

Dani

Well, I think there’s also a lot of really poor programs online. Like, if you just go Google a program and Google, like, write me a chest workout, like, it’s gonna have way more than what we just said. And I wonder, is that because the person writing it just doesn’t know any better, or is the person writing it

assuming that people are not gonna push very hard?

Which leads me to my next bit about junk volume. And I think this is probably the biggest thing that I see is people just not pushing hard enough during their actual sets to make them optimal. So they’re just not lifting heavy enough, period. Like, for the rep ranges that they’re working for, they’re not lifting heavy enough.

Giacomo

General context here, Dani, in terms of junk volume, though, what do you mean by that?

Dani

Okay, so there was a study where they asked groups of people to. I don’t remember what the exercise was. Let’s just say it was a bench press. I’m just. I don’t remember what it was. They asked a group of people to pick a weight that they would Normally do for 10 reps, and the people all picked their weights, and then they had the people perform one set. And of those people, only 22% of them actually got 10 to 12 reps.

Like, it was so hard, they couldn’t do more than 10 to 12 reps, 22% of people are lifting heavy enough, Basically, I forget the exact numbers of the next group. I don’t know, maybe 20 to 30% got, like, 13 to 15 reps. So they could actually do five more reps with that weight than they thought that they could do. And a full 50% of people got closer to 20 reps. They are leaving almost 10 reps in the tank regularly.

Giacomo

So it’s junk in the sense that they’re doing the reps, but they’re not actually getting anything out of it because.

Dani

They’Re not intense enough. The reps are not intense enough in terms of weight. And I know this is like a very macabre saying, but I often tell people, like, I will literally say, like, gun to your head, how many reps can you do with this weight? And that’s what I’m thinking when I’m at the gym also, because my brain sometimes is telling me to stop. Like, squatting is a perfect example. I hate squatting, guys.

My brain, after, like, rep three, my brain’s like, you’re good. You’re good. You got three. You could put it back. No, really, this is hard. Put it back. Just put the damn barbell back. And then I have to, like, play games with myself in my head, and I think, gun to my head, how many more reps can I get? Just like this. And I try to get, like, one to two reps away from that number, unless I’m trying to go to failure.

Giacomo

Which is very rare, which is repetition, reserve or rate of perceived exertion kind of way. Managing your fatigue by measuring your fatigue, the intensity of the lifts, as opposed to just trying to hit a number. And for those of you that aren’t already familiar with that concept, you’re literally rating your lifts. The easiest way to do it would be like, to grade your lift easy, normal, hard, failure. And, like, where do you rank in terms of those, for example?

Dani

You’re right. But people are notoriously bad at this. And, I mean, I know that I’m not the best at this. There have been times where I’ve been the exact person in that study. I think I’m lifting really heavy. And then one day I say, let me take this to actual failure and see how many reps I can get. And then I’m like, crap, I have been underselling myself on this exercise for a while, haven’t I?

Giacomo

Or the alternative where you think you could actually do more and you wind up not being able to.

Dani

Yeah, that almost never happens to me personally. And I don’t think it happens to a lot of people, and I think especially it doesn’t happen to women. Women are much more likely to err on the side of caution in terms of the weight that they’re picking up off of the rack, and they’re often leaving way too many reps in the tank. And I’m even talking about women who have fully, like, embodied the idea that strength training is good for them.

They’re not afraid that they’re gonna get bulky and manly looking. They’re, like, into the weightlifting. I still think a lot of women are leaving some on the table, and it makes a lot of the reps that they are doing not count as much as they could have. And I actually heard Greg Doucet. Who watches Greg Doucet? I would be very curious to hear if anybody else does.

I actually really like him. He’s a very polarizing guy. You’re gonna like him or you’re gonna hate him. He’s annoying as hell, but it’s like a character. He kind of sounds like Gilbert Godfrey a little bit, but the stuff that he actually says, I think is pretty good, actually. I think the man knows his stuff for sure. Anyway, he said something at one point, and it stuck in my head, and I thought it was a really great idea.

And his whole philosophy is, train harder than last time. Which to me is just like a really catchy way of saying progressive overload. But he said, like, if you’re doing a set and you’re supposed to do 10 reps, like, and you know you have more in the tank by the time you get to 10, do another rep.

Do another rep. After that, he was like, rep 11 will count more than the first 10 combined, and rep 12 will count more than the first 11 combined. And it’s kind of like what Bruce Lee said, where. I think it

was Bruce Lee who said, like, I don’t start counting the reps until it starts to burn.

Giacomo

Or Muhammad Ali. Same thing. He actually.

Dani

Yeah, maybe it was Muhammad Ali.

Giacomo

I think it was Muhammad Ali you’re thinking of.

Dani

And, you know, I don’t recommend people actually do that in the gym. Like, count all of your reps, please. But the concept of, like, it’s only after a certain point of intensity that, like, it’s really doing something to stimulate your body to change. And anything that isn’t there is junk.

Speaker 3

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Giacomo

Those who show up.

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Giacomo

So the idea is to make sure that the intensity is there to not create junk volume when you’re lifting according to the program. Then the other idea to reiterate to drive that point home is that don’t do a whole bunch of extra stuff just because you’re feeling it.

Dani

Right?

Giacomo

And then outside of that, what are some other examples of ways that. Well, what about lifting with poor form?

Dani

Well, yeah, I mean that’s junk, but it’s not like junk volume. That’s just poor lifting like junk volume is a very specific thing. I think the only other thing that I can think would be considered junk volume is kind of for a similar reason is really high rep sets.

Giacomo

Okay, so aside from not getting the kind of results that you are looking for, assuming that you could create an infinite amount of junk volume without any consequences, which is obviously not true, what are the actual consequences gains aside of creating junk volume, I think that’s an important spot right now to pivot with.

Dani

Okay, well, gains aside, which yes, you’re not, you’re not making gains with those, you are wasting your time. And I don’t know about other folks, but that is like, that’s a cardinal sin to me. I don’t have time to

waste. When I was younger and I had more time, I would totally be the person in there doing a lot of this stuff because I had very few stressors and lots of time.

And I just do whatever I felt like in the gym that day. Now, like, my workouts need to be as efficient as humanly possible. From the second my foot, like, steps out the door to go to the gym to the second I get home, I’m not wasting time at all. When I’m at the gym, I’m going to optimize every single thing I’m doing there.

Also, depending on what you’re doing, it could hurt your recovery. You know, like, if you’re doing more than you can well recover from, then by the time you go back to do your next workout, you might still not be totally recovered. And then you’re wasting some of your really good sets not being fully recovered.

Giacomo

So you’re wasting your time. You’re not recovering properly. The obvious thought that keeps repeating in my mind is the idea that you’re putting strain on the wrong areas of your body, like just repeating stuff like your connective tissue, for example. So, yeah, those kinds of repetition injuries that were easily avoidable. That’s kind of tragic when you think about it, that you’re hurting something else and you’re not even working the muscle you want to be working for

various reasons, whether you’re not hitting it hard enough and now you’re just. It’s a repetition injury on your connective tissue or whether you’re doing too much and now you’re hurting your muscles and your connective tissue, as an example, both bad.

Dani

Yeah. Your muscles, like your skeletal muscle, can handle more than your tendons and ligaments can. They can handle more stress. They adapt faster, I should say, than your tendons and ligaments. So you definitely don’t want to hurt those. They also, they heal so slow. Tendons and ligaments, they heal so slowly. Don’t hurt them if you can.

But to me, I think that’s really, really important, is just to make sure. And I guarantee you a lot of people listening to this can relate like the workout needs to be optimal. Now, the flip side of this is some people are kind of okay with, quote unquote, doing some junk volume because they’re not lifting for muscle hypertrophy specifically. They’re lifting because of, like, mental health benefits.

It de. Stresses them. So they’re not like, super hung up on, like, needing to lift Close to failure and all of your sets being perfectly intense, they’re just like, there to get moving and pump some blood through their muscles and feel really good. And that is totally fine. Everything we just said is pertaining to muscle hypertrophy.

Giacomo

I guess I’d still argue that they could do different things to get that endorphin rush instead of too much of the same thing and potentially hurt themselves for the sake of.

Dani

But if they’re not going heavy enough, they’re unlikely to hurt themselves.

Giacomo

I suppose you’re right.

Dani

Yeah. It’s just at the end of the day, whatever makes people feel good and move their bodies, like, I support that. But for people who want to optimize what they’re doing, you know, that’s. Those are the people who would want to pay attention to everything we just said. And then when it comes to strength, I actually think it’s even less.

I think when it comes to building your strength, like actually getting stronger, I think it’s even easier to do junk volume. Believe it or not, but I am not. I’m not. Well, read enough on those numbers for me to just spout them off the top of my head.

Giacomo

No, but you are right about that. You can hurt yourself pretty easily when you’re listening for strength.

Dani

Yeah, it makes sense again, because you’re lifting much, much closer to failure more frequently. I would say, even though you should not, even if you’re training for strength, be pulling your one rep maxes every week. That’s like a coach’s nightmare right there.

All right, so let’s. There’s my. There’s my bit on junk volume. So let’s pivot to what. What you were saying, Oh, like just doing too much and wasting your time, I assume, not getting to your goal. Tell me. Tell me what you’re thinking.

Giacomo

Well, there’s the idea of doing things efficiently and doing them well. And then there’s the idea of trying to do everything. And for those with a growth mindset, those who like to overachieve, those who have big goals, big ideas, big dreams, sometimes I feel like it’s hard to figure out when you have to do as

much as possible efficiently and still take care of yourself. And when you’re shooting yourself in the foot because you just have to do everything.

I don’t know if I’m really making sense here, but I see a lot of people caught up in a hamster wheel. When you’re caught up in a hamster wheel and you’re not doing brain dumps and you’re not Analyzing your process when you’re caught up, making sure all of your boxes are checked and you’re not.

Dani

Now, are you still talking about, like, health and fitness, or are you just talking about life in general?

Giacomo

Life in general.

Dani

Okay, just checking. I mean, no, I’m just checking.

Giacomo

Yeah, you can relate it directly to health and fitness. I suppose we can go there as well. You’re not focused on your. On other areas of your nutrition planning and programming. You’re not focused on other areas of your training, planning and programming, and you’re just doing it. I have to eat these meals and prep them on these days and these exact foods, or I have to train these exercises on these days and do it efficiently and not create junk volume.

Yeah, but are you looking at the big picture of how you’re training throughout the year and what your goals are? For example, you’re missing the forest for the trees, or are you making sure that you’re eating a variety of foods? Are you actually focused on what your goal is for your body composition?

Are you looking at that, or are you just making sure you’re doing everything? I feel like it’s very easy to get caught up in the idea that you’re accomplishing, and you’re doing lots of things, and you know if you don’t do those things, you’re going to falter.

Dani

He is attacking me.

Giacomo

I’m attacking anyone that absolutely gets caught in their own way and they cannot see it, and they need to hear it, including myself. Honestly, I’m attacking myself, quite frankly. And it can be really hard to get out of that state of being. It can be really hard to take your mindset and be like, I cannot get out of this. This feels good. And I just.

Because it feels good, that’s not a reason to keep doing it this way. What can I assess? How can I change what I’m doing? Even if the fear and the anxiety around assessing is enough to stop you from doing it, it’s all the more reason to, like, find a way to assess what you’re doing as opposed to doing everything that you feel like you should be.

Dani

So, okay, that was a lot. That was a lot. But I think I kind of mostly follow you. So I’m the type of person to literally add a thing that I already did to my to do list so that I can cross it off and get, like, the world’s tiniest dopamine hit. Because when it comes down to it in terms of, like, constantly feeling like we’re accomplishing when we’re not actually moving Ourselves forward, I think, is what you’re talking about.

I think sometimes for certain people, that can be really motivating actually to like be giving yourself little gold stars for every little thing that you’re doing. Because sometimes the big picture view, I think is really overwhelming for people and they have to break it down into little tiny chunks. Now, whether they even need to be doing those little tiny chunks in the first place I think is a really important thing to analyze.

Because I have worked with some people who are like, okay, but Dani, if I take all of my goals and I break them down into steps and I break those steps down into habits, well, now I have like 30 habits that I need to do every single day. How the hell am I gonna, like, actually have a life when now I’m trying to do these 30 habits every day so I can reach my big picture goals.

And I’m like, well, that is actually a wonderful question. And then, you know, hopefully we start to whittle away at some of those goals to our habits to see, like, what is truly necessary here and what might be too much. And I think that’s also a really good way to analyze if your goals in the timeframe you have laid out is actually realistic. Is when you break it down into little habits, is it going to take up your whole day to do this?

Well, then it might not be realistic. And you might have to take some of those goals and push them out for a while until you reach other goals and then cross that off and then replace it with a new goal. You don’t have to be working towards all the goals all at once.

Giacomo

No. And just because something’s overwhelming and you’re breaking it down into smaller steps doesn’t mean you have to live there and actually focus on, think about, calculate, and execute every little step that you’ve just broken down. All that means is that you’re taking a look at your big picture. You’re assessing, reassessing and thinking about the chunks and the ways that you’ll break down your projects and your goals over the course of a year, as opposed to getting

caught and stuck in your own lane and in your own way and in your own processes without thinking about what you’re actually doing. And I feel like it helps your mindset realistically. No, you can’t do all those steps all at once. And you can’t even necessarily understand how you’re going to do all those steps.

However, if you don’t chunk things out throughout the year by thinking about them a couple times a year, you’re gonna find yourself mentally unhealthy while you’re overreaching. At least that’s my opinion.

Dani

Yeah, I don’t know. I think most people, they’re just not gonna be able to keep up with it, and their goals are just gonna totally fizzle out. I had a couple goals I set at the beginning of the year that completely fizzled out, and I just had to realize just what I just said. Like, it was. These particular things were just too much all at once. Maybe we’ll give it the old college try again next year, but this year I’m gonna have to let this one lie because I have too going on.

Giacomo

That’s a fine thing to do. As opposed to not accept the fact that some things can’t happen in the timeline in which you want them to happen, so that you can not let go of that. But be more realistic about when you’re going to do things and your priorities are going to fall in line the way that they need to, as opposed to worrying or taking up more of your brain power than you need to doing things.

You can make smarter decisions that way for sure. So maybe less directly related to quote, unquote, junk volume, but still, I think there’s some similar junk volume of life.

Dani

No, it’s true. Like, I’m a huge fan of just, like, trimming the fat. And I don’t just mean, like, physically. I mean, like, in my entire life, sometimes even to my own detriment, I will just. And Giacomo is even more guilty of this than I am. If it’s not 100% essential, like, it’s gotta go and we gotta get rid of it. And that could be things that could be, like, relationships.

That could be things on our calendar that could be all sorts of things. Like, if it doesn’t. If it is not adding to what we need to do, it has to go. And I actually don’t think that’s the greatest way to live, because then you never actually, like, rest and stop and take a break and smell the flowers. But, you know, there is a lot of stuff that I feel like people are spending a crazy amount of time on, and then they turn around and they’re like, but I

can’t reach these goals that I set. And it’s like, well, based on your little time journal that you’re keeping here, you spent four hours watching TV last night, so maybe.

Giacomo

Ouch.

Dani

Maybe we could. I wasn’t talking about you.

Giacomo

So still a little saltiness there.

Dani

Giacomo watches, like, the least tv. That’s funny. You would Think that’s about you. You watch like, one show one night, and you think I’m low key attacking you on the podcast? No, I’m talking about when people are like, but I don’t have time to do XYZ and keep a time journal for a couple days. And then we go over it and it’s like, okay, well, here are some places where you’re saying you want this thing, but you’re actually doing this.

They’re not in line with each other. So either, like, you’re not living in line with your goals or your priorities are different than what you want them to be. And that’s a really hard pill to swallow when you have a list of things that you want very much to be a priority, but the fact of the matter is, right now they’re not.

And it would take a big shift to change them. But first you have to acknowledge, like, okay, right now I have been prioritizing my downtime more than my fitness, and I would like to prioritize my fitness more. So you have to rearrange that and.

Giacomo

You have to think about the downtime that you’re prioritizing and whether or not it feels like actual downtime. Because how bad is that when you can’t stop it and then you look at back and you’re like, this doesn’t feel like downtime. This is just me worrying about what I’m doing and quote unquote, calling it decompressing or downtime. That’s the worst.

Dani

Jack, Mo and I have had that conversation privately this week that I struggle with that so much. I think I’ve mentioned it before. Like, I really, really, really have a hard time, like, relaxing. I can do a lot of things that look like relaxing, but am I actually relaxing? Unlikely, because my brain is always going 100 miles an hour, and that’s a me problem. But I think probably a lot of people can relate to it.

You know, you get a minute and you’re like, oh, I’m gonna watch this thing that I really wanted to watch. You’re sitting down and you’re looking at the tv, but your brain is doing something else. Or you found yourself picking up your phone, scrolling through this or checking your email, or yada, yada, yada, coming up with podcast ideas. I kid. I kid. All right, let’s move this on to our question and answer.

Giacomo

Dani, I have a really, really hard time counting calories. Yes, I have my fitness pal, but what about when you make a 15 ingredient meal and you don’t know how many Portions it will be, how do you handle all that? Or do you just eat super, super simple to make it easier?

Dani

So I don’t think the answer is to eat super, super simple for that reason anyway. There are other reasons somebody might want to eat very simply. But if they have MyFitnessPal, what you would do is you would go to recipe, create recipe, enter your entire recipe.

So you enter every ingredient of your recipe. Let’s say you’re making a stew or something. You’d give it a name, Dani’s Stew. Enter an idea of how many servings were in it roughly. So this is what I do. To start, I’ll be like, I think.

Giacomo

I don’t know.

Dani

I think that’s like eight servings. And then the next screen, you enter all your ingredients, and then it will spit out the macronutrients per serving. And if you’re like, whoa, that was way less than I expected it to be. Let me go back. Change the servings to six, and then voila. Then you’re like, that’s more what I was thinking. And then all you have to do is split your pot up into roughly 6 servings.

Or, I mean, you don’t have to get soup super, super precise. Like, you can eyeball a sixth of the pot and move on from there. Of course, if you’re meal prepping, it’s easier to just split it up into roughly equal servings right into your little containers. But that’s what I would do. I have hundreds, hundreds, maybe even like a thousand at this point.

Recipes in my fitness pal that I have written many of those, which are in Vegan proteins Muscles by Brussels membership, because that’s what I wrote them for in the first place. But that’s why that’s. That’s like how I learned what the macros were in those recipes in the first place. And then we also made sure those recipes are, like, easily searchable in MyFitnessPal as well, which is a different thing, but hopefully that’s helpful.

That’s how you would track a recipe. All right, moving on to our next question. What do you guys use as far as deadlifting goes? Straps or hooks? The heavier I go, the harder it is to keep the bar in my hands. Any suggestions? Welcome.

Giacomo

Well, the very first thing I want to say is to try. If you want to try the hard route and build up your grip strength, you can do a mixed grip. Or if your fingers are long enough, you could try a hook grip. If you don’t mind busting up your thumbs, which your thumbs will get busted up. Both of those are painful and harder routes and not necessary if you’re not powerlifting.

However, as a side benefit, your forearms will even out in size, which is kind of cool if you like nerding out over symmetry and your aesthetics all over the place from head to toe. And it’s nice to have both your arms just as strong and for your grips, the grip strength to get stronger and your. But you can build up your grip strength in other ways and you can do things in a less painful way and also arguably a more productive way if your goal is more hypertrophy focused, where you can use

something like straps. But hooks. I’ve never found any success with hooks. I’ve. I’ve dabbled with them. When I think of hooks, I think of actual metal hooks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t. To me, it’s. You’re too detached from the bar and they don’t feel right. I don’t feel like you get a good barbell. Like the barbell doesn’t really feel like an extension of you when you use hooks.

At least that’s been my experience, so. And then with straight up straps, even if they have the padding on the side, they tend to break really easily and they’re not the most comfortable. They slide up and down your wrist and they’re like really hard to wrap just right. And although they have a true kind of feel to them, I don’t know, I don’t, I just don’t.

I don’t like them. I think that they can get a little troublesome to use. Versagrips, to me are the best because they are comfortable on your wrists. They have a true bar feel. They’re super easy to set up. Anything with a vinyl tongue, they have. I saw. I’ve never tried the knockoff, so I can’t speak off them. Versagrip, that was their patent, their tried and true invention, as far as I know. And that vinyl tongue that comes out of the wristing, the Versagrip sting, you wrap it around

like super fast. You unhook super fast. You got a good feel in the bar and you can use them for stuff like rows and pulls. And if you really want to work on your grip strength, you can do things like farmer’s walks or forearm curls or pinch grip stuff. You can get those. What do you call those things, Dani?

Dani

Like this, I don’t know, forearm trainer.

Giacomo

Those things you can work on your grip strength in all other kinds of ways. So that would be my recommendations when it comes to deadlifting use those Versa grips over straps and definitely over hooks. And if your goal is powerlifting or you want to, if you don’t mind it being a little more of a harder learning curve, you can also do like a mixed grip and or hook grip.

Dani

All right, everybody, thank you so much for tuning into another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. If you have any questions that you’d like answered on the podcast, please send them to us, coacheganproteins.com along with any coaching inquiries. You can also join our Muscles by Brussels membership to get workouts, recipes, our app, live coaching calls, et cetera.

You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, all at VeganProteins. Once again, thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Dani and I’m Draco and we will talk to you soon.