Top Tips from the Trainer of Superheroes Magnus Lygdbäck | 929 | Dave Asprey

You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. Today's guest is a well known trainer from Sweden who has probably the hardest to pronounce name of any guest who's ever been on the show. Magnus Lugduback.

Did I say it right?

You said it perfectly all right.

I studied actually, guys, for eight hours with my Swedish wife in order to learn how to say that properly so.

Well, you did well.

So does that mean I get like bonus personal trainer points or something?

Sure.

A typical short Swedish response. I appreciate that.

It would be interesting to, you know, do a session or two with you.

It would be.

You'd probably kick my ass. So you're famous because, I mean, You've got a YouTube channel and you've trained Ben Affleck, Katy Perry, like all kinds of crazy Hollywood celebrities, and you have the Magnus method. So I wanted to go deep with you about, you know, how you got to be there and what you do to make these people who are really high performers, like musicians, artists, actors, have the worst life ever in terms of travel and late nights and bad food. And so you're overcoming all that with training because they have to look super superhuman. I wonder how you do it, because I'm kind of lazy and I just want to learn from someone who already did the work.

I hear you. I don't know where to start.

What makes you qualified to even go, hey, Katie, I'd like to show you how to have abs or whatever she wanted?

Well, you know, it all started me doing a lot of sports growing up back home in Sweden. I've been doing this for 21 years plus now. And I started working with all these athletes after my career was over as a hockey player and I got certified as a trainer and I started seeing all these athletes. And when you train with a hockey player or a soccer player, you look at them very sport specifically, what do you need? And then I started getting all these actors and musicians, pop artists. One day a guy walked into the gym and, and he was Max Martin. He's the most successful songwriter and producer in, in history.

I think Rick Rubin might argue with that.

Well, Max Martin. Rick would never argue.

He's.

I'm just kidding. I love Rick Rubin, but yeah, he's, he's, you know, when you look at statistics, he's. He's the man. So I started working with him and he started taking me on his trips and I got an insight in the life of an artist. We would travel the world and, you know, he would record all these pop artists And I started working with them and I realized that no one was looking at these artists like they were athletes.

They are though, right?

100%. It was called being a celebrity trainer and a name that I'm, you know, it's attached to mine now and I don't love it, but it is what it is. It's not who you train, it's how you train. But so I started breaking down, what do they need? If you got Britney Spears and she's doing a 90 minute show in three and a half minute intervals, how should she work out in the gym? So I started adapting the training to the goal and to the client. And just by looking at them like they were athletes, their sport was singing and performing. Then I started traveling with them and I realized that, oh my Lord, I'm seeing someone an hour in the gym. But here we are going from time zone to time zone, hotel room to radio, promo, tv, sound check show, airplane, and on and on. I didn't have the tools.

You know, that reminds me of. So Nikki Bella was on the show, you know, celebrity and also professional wrestler. And she described exactly that life. But it was very similar to what you'd hear even from like Third Eye Blind. You know, I've worked with those guys, been backstage with them, or Pink Floyd, you know, Roger Waters. They get beat to death by the road. Plus all the breathing that they're doing. And I never paid much attention to that until Stephen Jenkins just said, here's all my breathing that's planned out ahead for a show. And I was blown away because it's a different kind of endurance athletics with minimal recovery. Almost like doing a endurance event every day and just traveling around doing that. So they ground down. But I wanted to ask you. So I mean, here we are, you've got, you know, these nice big guns and everything, and you're training these people to look really good. But everything I know about training says that recovery is as important as training. And these guys are minimizing recovery. Like, how do you get around that?

Well, when you film a movie, it's really hard because then you have like 14 hour days when it's all in, it's all physical and then you have a short turnaround. That. That is a challenge, let me tell you. So you do whatever you can, but same thing with an artist. When you're on tour, it's all about finding those spots. When should I be eating? Can we get a break here to do get an hour at the spa with some ice bath and a sauna.

So you Recommend that to your clients as well.

As for me, it's about creating good habits as well. When, let's say when you're on tour, your schedule is created for you to take you from city to city, to do radio promo and to do shows. There's nothing in there that is about you and your wellness.

None at all?

Nothing at all. Nothing to really look. What do you need? So if Katy Perry's got a show for 20,000 people at 8pm, I look at when should she be waking up, what type of workout should she be doing during the day to optimize the performance at night? What is she doing three hours before a show, one hour before the show, or even 20 minutes? So traditionally it's all been warming up the Voice, doing a sound check, sitting in the locker room. But I'm big about looking at the details. What do I do to optimize myself to perform? So when I get on stage, how do I know that I've done everything I can physically and mentally to be at my best? And what do you do after when you get off stage?

I think you're supposed to go out for drinks and make out with fans. At least that's what I've mostly seen from the rock stars I've hung with.

Well, we'll do that for three weeks straight.

I know, right?

See, so that's, you know, when I got thrown into that world, I realized I need more tools. So that's when I got into the lifestyle, coaching, nutrition and really starting working on how I can help someone with structure and optimizing in with good habits, out with bad habits. The training's just a little part of it.

I love that you're saying that. I went through this period when I weighed 300 pounds when I was younger and it's all about the training. So I said, I'm going to go on a low fat, low calorie diet. I'll work out an hour and a half a day, six days a week, half weights, half cardio, and I'm going to do it no matter what. And 18 months later, I was still the same weight. I was stronger, but I was still fat. And it drove me nuts.

But, well, that cardio. 200 calories burnt on the treadmill that 30 minutes and they will not. You know that cinnamon roll that is 850 calories?

They don't match. No. You can't pay for pizza on the treadmill.

Comes down to nutrition.

Yeah.

When it's about weight loss, I love.

Hearing a celebrity trainer say that. Because if Someone had just told me that when I was 16, I would have just focused on my food instead of just beating myself up in the gym.

Right.

So how do you know? Or how would someone listening know? Okay, I want to change my diet, but I still should train some amount. So for a mere mortal who maybe doesn't have to look like Gal Gadot, don't have to be one of them or something. What's a normal training frequency?

Well, let me start by addressing training and nutrition. I always get the question, how much is training? How much is nutrition? Is it 50, 50, 60, 40? Just know that you shouldn't even talk about nutrition and training in the same sentence. You need to get on top of your nutrition and on top of your training, both in a balanced way. So what I would recommend to someone who wants to start that journey is to not be too hard on themselves because we tend to be go from 0 to 100 or going too extreme and then you know, you're good for a week and then you fall off the wagon and you set yourself up for failure. So a system that I use a lot is my 17 out of 20 method, which is bulletproof. There's no you cannot fail. You never fail. You don't need to feel like a failure ever. So if you eat 20 meals, I want 17 out of 20 to be on point.

Cool.

3 out of 20 enjoy life.

Even just like eating complete garbage or.

Just a little bit. Yes.

See, I have a hard time with that. I used to do that. Cheat days.

Right.

Kind of a similar thing.

Treat days.

Yeah. Or treat days.

Sure.

And I'll still do that, but on a treat day, fine, I'll have some extra sugar that day, but I'm not going to eat like the Twinkies. I'm not going to eat hydrogenated fat. I'm not going to eat gluten because I know I'm going to have cravings for three days afterwards and it's going to lower my energy. So how do I feel? Okay. To have a super cheat day?

I'm like you, but most people aren't. So.

Okay, fair point.

What I'm trying to. What I've realized after 20 years plus is that you need to come up with a system that, where people don't feel like they're failing as soon as they make a mistake. So if people really want that Twinkie, they can have it. It's not going to be the greatest thing. Sugar is terrible for you. And I have, you know, it messes with me for days, but at least there's a plan. A plan of after that Twinkie that I know that, oh, I need to get back to my 17 clean meals.

So it's not about perfection, because perfectionism kills everything. And a lot of people say I failed on the diet, therefore it's just all Twinkies. Correct. And you've gotten rid of that with Magnus Method.

So if you're too extreme, you know, one Twinkie and it's over. Oh, I failed. Same thing with training. If I'm supposed to be training really hard six days a week and I don't have it in me and do five, I failed.

Right.

So I think that you should start, first of all, look at training holistic. I'm involved in all these extreme makeovers, right? I build these superheroes for the big screen, but I preach balance. And I think that you should look at training from a much more holistic perspective. Look at three things. One, what do I like to do? Number two, what does my body need? Number three, what do I want to master or get better at? Many times those three things are different things that might be the same that should create your weekly programming. So for me, strength training is my number one meditation. Yoga is my number two. I need it. My three is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Okay.

I don't enjoy it every time. I have to admit, I'm getting my butt kicked. But I love the art form and I love to get better at it. So the, the beautiful thing about that, once you have those three figured out, you can actually make all those benefit each other.

Okay.

So I can do yoga poses that benefits my Brazilian Jiu jitsu, even strength training that benefits that. So I think that's the way you should approach it.

Okay.

So you look to get benefits across multiple goals by just picking this stuff. So it's high return on investment for the minute you spend exercising. It's funny. So I. I don't have the. The schedule of, you know, Rockstar, where it's every night, but I've been through weeks where I'm doing four main stage presentations in different cities, actually quite often. Yes. And you're going to go in front of 15,000 people on Tony Robbins stage or something. I would never wake up and do like a heavy lift, Right. Because I want to bring the energy to the audience. I'm not going to waste it on plates or something, but I'm going to go for a walk and do some stretches or meditation or something. So I've got blood flowing, but I'm not actually already burning out what I'm planning to share with the audience. Right. Is that kind of a similar recommendation.

To what you're doing?

Correct. So that lift that session might have been. If you and I would work together, we would probably do that the day before. And then on the day of, we would do something that helps you to take up oxygen, like a couple of high intensity interval.

Okay.

Couple sprints. Couple of sprints.

Okay.

Stretching, opening up, optimizing airflow in the lungs.

Okay.

Do you do specific breathing exercises with your clients?

I am not an expert.

Okay.

What I do is I work with a lot of isometric exercises to open up your lungs and to line your spine. You see, your spine is the postural muscle. It's always activated. You don't choose to activate it. So you need to work it in a different way. To reprogram it, you need to work isometric, more than six seconds. So I do isometric work on the spine.

Okay.

To reprogram you so you have a better posture and a better airflow.

So when they walk on stage, their posture is perfect. And isometrics. Some people listening may not be into training. So that's when you're pushing against a force that doesn't move. So basically standing against the wall and pushing as hard as you can, you knowing it's not going to move.

Correct.

Okay.

And so you have people that like lean back and push their head back against the floor kind of things.

That's one of my favorites.

Okay. And.

And I think that when me or my clients are traveling, when you're traveling a lot, you can do that. When you're sitting in your seat on a flight as well, just push back your spine, flatten out your neck. So that's a good one that I recommend. Just to reprogram your spine because we're born this way and we die this way. So we constantly got to remind oursel to be up here.

What kind of gear do celebrities travel with? Do they have resistance bands? Do they have magnets? I have no idea.

Depends. Depends. So we could do workout in here. I'll always find something.

Lamp curls.

Lamp curls. We could do pull ups underneath the table. Can do planks. We can use the cushion to.

You.

Know, do stir the pot. I have, I have training bands that I like to send with people.

Okay.

So I have, I have two, two different kits like minivans and super rubber bands that I use a lot.

I find those are really convenient for travel. Because they don't weigh very much.

Correct.

How about blood flow restriction? You ever mess around with that? I have what do you think?

I tore my, my bicep a couple years ago and in my rehab I did that.

Okay.

And I did an episode a while ago on that with guys from B Strong. And it's, it's really interesting. I mean, you put these bands on and you, you don't know that, that restrict, but don't fully restrict blood flow and you don't have to have much weight and you just grow muscle. It's. It's kind of ridiculous.

Yeah. So I'm not an expert when it comes to the science, how backed up by science, if it works or not. But it, a lot of people are swearing by it and it looks like it, it's really beneficial. And that's good enough for me.

I may or may not have done that Yesterday I was doing a bunch of filming and also in the morning I brought my bands and I pumped them up and for about two days afterwards, there's an inch more blood flow. So at least you're getting a pump. But the science that I've seen shows via something called HIF1alpha, it actually is growing more blood flow and by changing lactic acid levels, it is growing more muscles. So fantastic. I'm a believer. But you can't exactly restrict blood flow to your butt. And at least 51% of our listeners like, how do I get bigger muscles in my butt? So tell me, Magnus, what is the secret to having junk in your trunk?

Well, the key if you want to build great glutes is to work all three glute muscles first of all, and not just the big one. I think that you should work all the muscles in your body about two times a week. Anything from one to three times, depending on the load and how many sets. But if you want to develop a nice glute muscle or a bicep, I would say one and a half times per week is pretty ideal with depending on the muscle group as well, anything from nine to up to 18 sets.

Okay.

I also want to know if I'm working out five days a week and I'm having, you know, one of the gazillion plant based protein powders that says in big letters plant based. And there's like four animal based protein powders on the bottom shelf that are more expensive. Like I would buy those.

Yes.

Because I actually get a higher return per minute of exercise. And so I want people listening to just hear and understand that. And that's not like opinion, it's results based.

Okay.

It's facts.

You're seeing that casein versus Whey protein.

Well, whey casein is more of a slow release, so it's popular to take at night. I don't know. I don't know what the science says. I'm not an expert there. I recommend whey over casein, but I.

Would do the same. Casein appears to raise cancer risk, especially in the presence of other, you know, other compounds like aflatoxin, which is actually pretty common in food. Just trace amounts, but it amplifies how bad it is. Whey raises glutathione, but a lot of whey also raises insulin, which is great if you're trying to put on muscle insulin, like growth factor. It's because insulin is a growth factor.

Right.

So raise insulin so you could lift heavy, have some way before, have some way after with sugar.

Right.

Which we're not recommending. And you're going to put muscle on.

Right.

Because of insulin, but you might pay for it later. Do you look at longevity like. I'm an anti aging guy.

Really?

Yes. That's 100% and there's the balance there as well. So when I look at myself and what I eat and what I do, I look at, I do look at longevity and health, but I also look at what makes me happy.

Well said, because that makes you young.

Because I think happiness probably makes life longer as well.

It does.

And the quality of life should, should mean something as well. So if someone told me that, you know, you can't have your burrata and your ribeye on a Saturday night with your glass of red, it's going to take a year off your life, I might be okay with that.

Yep.

So until that last year.

Yeah. Well, hopefully I've had a lot of good years until I would, I would.

Treat the year of life for many years of ribeyes because they're, they're important.

Yeah. And I, I do, I don't think they, they will shorten your life.

Intermittent fasting, yay or nay.

I think it's a strategy that works for a lot of people.

Okay.

I think any diet is a strategy.

Okay.

I've seen, I've seen also how here in Hollywood how we, what a lot of people are now have a name for, for a poor diet. That's what worries me. But there's a right way of doing it and the wrong way of doing it. So. Yeah. Someone who didn't eat anything at all, no breakfast and a little crappy salad for lunch now, now have a name for it. You know, you need to, whatever strategy or diet you're on, you need to do your research and make sure you do it right so it benefits you.

Okay.

Now, we talked about intermittent fasting, and then you said something really interesting. You said, have a little crappy salad for lunch. But isn't salad good for you?

Yes, but not if it's filled with croutons and don't have that chicken that you need.

Yeah.

And it's got bad oils in the dressing and msg.

Exactly. So it doesn't have to be the salad. What I mean is that people that didn't eat enough nutrients before.

Yeah.

Now Have a name for a diet and that it doesn't. It's. It's not fasting only. It can be any type of diet. There, There's. How can I put it? Well, that's what I've seen. To go back to the fasting. I've seen a lot of, many times females that are not eating enough.

That's where I was going. You read my mind.

And who now have a name for the diet. And they can hide behind that and say. And justify it. And then they have misunderstood fasting.

There are some who, okay, there's anorexia that's hidden or orthorexia, which are real, real things for men and women. And in fact, a lot of the bodybuilding community, I think, with men gets orthorexia. Like there can be links there, but not always. Clearly, there's something that happens with women who aren't anorexic, whether they're intermittent fasting or not. They just don't eat enough calories. And I'm not a big calorie counter. I don't think calories will make you fat. Like, I can prove 10 ways from Sunday that that's not what makes you fat. But they don't have enough energy because they didn't bring enough energy into their body because they had the salad with no dressing and they did an intermittent fast. And that. Why am I tired all the time? How do you talk to women celebrities who are always watching their calories because they think calories make them fat. But they're also on a program to bulk up. How do you teach them to eat enough?

Sometimes that's a challenge. The good thing now, after doing a couple of, you know, very public makeovers with, with females, the proof is in the pudding. They know who I've been working with. They can see the proof. So when I say something, they will listen. So. So it's easier the older you get and the more experience and, you know.

You'Re the voice of wisdom. Say Fine, I'll eat some more. And then they do it.

Yes and no.

Okay.

To change your behavior. It's not that easy if you, if. If you're not used to eating a lot of food or eating certain type of food, it's nothing that you change overnight.

So we're both relatively muscular guys. I'm probably taller than you, but do you ever sit down at a restaurant and just order two meals?

Yes. One thing that I teach a lot of my clients is to order an extra starter, a protein based starter. Because also restaurants are being, you know, the protein is the most expensive thing on the plate. Except asparagus maybe. Maybe asparagus then. So, yeah, I like that to two mains is a good option, but even better, many times is to order a protein based starter.

Okay.

What's your favorite protein based starter restaurant?

Well, anything from a grilled octopus to a carpaccio. Beef tartar.

Okay. Similar stuff I would eat. So I like to stress test things by saying, what do extremists do? So what does an astronaut do to recover because they need the most recovery? Or what does an actual superhero on the screen do in order to look like a superhero? Which is why you're an interesting person to have on the show because you're saying the hardest case here where you have to be super lean and super ripped, which kind of go. They oppose each other in nature. Do you use keto as a part of that?

I've done once when I worked with Alicia Vikander on Tomb Raider. And during the final weeks of our cutting cycle, she had to travel to the jungle somewhere in South America. So then I thought it was, this is going to be super simple. If we, you know, I sent some MCT oil with her, she can get fresh fish. It was easy for me to control the diet. So not pure keto that many times. It really depends on who I'm working with.

Okay.

And I do, I do feel like people are responding to different diets as well. And I'm trying to stay very humble when it comes to pushing my diets on other people. When I, when I do these superhero movies, I want to start somewhere and then I monitor and then I make adjustments.

Right. I love that you said there is one diet for anyone. And I've written a book about how to kind of dip in and out of ketosis. But the only thing in there that I'll tell you works for everyone is don't eat foods that cause inflammation. Like that works for everyone. But they say, what is the list? I say, well, it turns out this is likely to cause it for everyone, but maybe not for you. And this is almost certain to cause inflammation for everyone. So let's just say start by getting rid of those.

Yeah.

But then you'll find someone. You know, my ancestors have been eating lentils forever. Like, so you're not from northern Europe, so you can probably handle those. But you know, how do you like lentils in your diet? Do they work for you? They might, I don't know, Northern European. Yeah, they handle. So a lot of northern Europeans and I'm like 99 point something percent from my 23. Andme they don't work because we didn't develop whatever lectin things that we were supposed to develop if we'd eaten it all the time.

Right.

And so you look at that. I can't tell you legumes are good or bad for you. I can tell you they're a risky food. But if you know, they work and you've tested them in isolation, then you know, go for it.

Yeah.

Right.

And so it's kind of frustrating because people always want the one thing that works. And you don't have muffin top there. That's what works.

Well, I think find it fascinating that you say when we're talking about food that causes inflammation, that can be different. And I think that's why you have people on the other side that are saying that no, no food can ever cause inflammation because we can't prove it. But we do. We do know that. Yeah. We're all different. And, and it might cause inflammation for me, but not for you.

And I cook a meal for one of those people.

Yeah.

Because I know how to cause every kind of inflammation. I'd cook a meal that had him feeling hungover the next day, and I'd say, don't worry, the food didn't do it. It's just because you're weak. So, like, you can stack a lot of inflammagens in one meal.

Yes.

You know, some deep fried soybean oil.

Right.

Lots of sugar, some gluten, some casein, some artificial sweeteners, and a bunch of plants that aren't really food that we can eat when we're not starving.

I'll stick to my steak.

Yeah, I'm with you there. All right, let's talk about steak. Grass fed or industrial process?

I order grass fed. So what I do is I order my meat from in boxes that come comes on dry ice where I know that I'm getting in. I want to know where I'm getting My meat from.

I did the same thing when I lived in the U.S. now I just raised the animals myself. And it's nice to have like cow on the cob. Just take a bite and put it back.

Okay.

We have three cows and 25 sheep and 25 pigs. And I feed the pigs a special diet. Otherwise pork fat is kind of in the middle of the road. It's relative high in omega 6s. Cause they feed them corn and so I don't eat that. So when I'm home, I know what I'm eating. Cause I ate it and either killed it or someone killed it for me, but it's like as fresh as it gets. When I'm on the road though, I look for restaurants. My assistant drives her nuts and she helps me find places that have grass fed meat. And I say, grass fed, grass finished. And if so, then that's the restaurant. I'll go there five nights in a.

Row and thank you. Grass fed, grass finished. That's a big one. So being European, we, you know, my, my platform is very mixed. I have a lot of Europeans following me and they are confused when I'm, when I keep talking about grass fed. Because where I'm from, everything's grass fed.

Yeah.

That's why we don't even say grass fed. Meat is grass fed.

Yes. Sweden doesn't have a lot of grain growing.

No.

Right. So what else are you going to feed it?

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

And that's, that's pretty unusual. But if you go further south, you know, you're in Germany or something, a lot of it is grain fed. And so how would you know? And you look at the labels, but there's a noticeable difference. It takes about six weeks of grain feeding to make a cow diabetic. And then it has all that delicious fat marbled through it that also when you eat it, makes you get delicious marbled fat through your muscles, which you don't want. And it's just six weeks. But that also means. I wonder what happens if we go on a crappy diet for six weeks. Does that do the same thing to us? What's your take? Does it.

I, I don't know. Here's an interesting job that I did. I, I worked with Mark Ruffalo on a TV show called I Know this Much Is True. He's playing twins. I was hired to make sure that One twin was 40 pounds heavier than the other. Oh my God.

But 40 pounds of fat, not.

Yeah. So first of all, what I convinced him to do is to. Let's take him down 20 pounds below his normal for twin number one and then gain the 40. So it's just an additional 20. But what we did, I was manipulating insulin and sugar the first thing in the morning, last thing at night, you know, ice cream, whipped cream, banana, a lot of fast carbs, sugar at the wrong time. And yeah, he. I know he. His inflammations came back and he felt crappy. And yeah, we tried to do it as healthy as possible, but that was an interesting six weeks when we did that.

Wow. So you actually use circadian timing as part of breaking the system as well as building it. So you don't have clients eat after the sun goes down kind of a thing.

Yeah, unless you been performing at 9pm and you haven't had anything to eat all day, then it's different. But yes, I do that. Yes. So basically you do the opposite. Yeah, to. To. To mess.

So I have sugar in the middle of the night and the first thing in the morning and you're going to just really quickly put on £20?

Yes.

Okay, £40.

I'm amazed. I think it was Tom Hanks a while ago. He had one role where he had to be like concentration camp gaunt and like, wow, the fortitude to be able to get that lean just for a role. And then another role where he had to be like 40 pounds overweight. And I remember the interview, him just saying, God, I never felt so bad in my life. But I mean, the fact they can pull off that swing or I've had a chance to talk with Gerard Butler and I mean, the amount of muscle that he'll put on in like a few weeks for these roles, I mean, he's the guy from 300 and just, you know, like completely cut. It kind of astounds me because I'm not in the business of change. Other than you want to lose 100 pounds, here's how to do it. And keep it off for the rest of your life without being hungry. Like, that's what I did. That's easy in some aspects compared to just these rapid getting real ripped.

Well, I think it's important to know that you can't put on huge amounts of muscle mass unless you start from scratch. I wouldn't be able to. So when you hear this constantly that, oh, no one can gain that much. I mean, I did a challenge with a female youtuber a couple of months ago who gained 6 pounds in 30 days by me just helping her remotely. Was it all. The DEXA scan said it was all muscle. It might have been other stuff too. Yeah, who cares? She looked great, she got stronger. But here's the thing. If you take someone, let's say someone who's been running to 10k four times a week, you should never hit the gym eating poorly.

Oh, God. They're going to put muscle on like no one's business, right?

Just by changing their diet, they're going to put on muscle. So that's when you can do these extreme transformations. And if they start from anything else than scratch, it won't be that radical or extreme. It just won't. I have many people I worked with when we didn't, you know, can you.

Cheat a little bit?

Like, I.

This is going back about four or five years when SARMs first kind of came on the market. I put on 29 pounds of muscle in six weeks without changing my exercise or diet.

What?

It was stupid. I did like, I went. I remember really well because I packed a shirt that I would wear on stage and I was going to New York to speak for Tony and I get there and I put on the shirt and like the buttons are popping. I can't wear the thing. I had to like go buy a shirt.

What did it take?

I took four different SARMs. The selective androgen receptor modulators like LGD4033, GW500,1516, which increases mitochondrial biogenesis.

You and I need to talk. What's that? I don't really know what that is.

I have a post about this, but basically you take testosterone. Testosterone works. And I've been on testosterone since I was 26. Full disclosure, I used to have less testosterone than my mom in my mid-20s because I was obese and I had all sorts of metabolic dysfunction and estrogenic toxic mold exposure. So my system was just wrecked. And I keep my levels at about 700, which is where they ought to be for a guy my age or guy was younger. So not super high. The body builds are at 2000, but testosterone turns into estrogen through this process of aromatization, which you're familiar with. The fatter you are, the faster you are at aromatazing. There's genetics involved and I tend to over aromatize anyway. I block that with some herbal stuff. And also I don't make too much estrogen and I can excrete it more quickly with another thing that helps your second detox pathway. So I do all that. But these SARMs, they activate the androgen receptors that testosterone was. But testosterone might have like a 2 to 1 anabolic to estrogenic ratio. These things are like 200 to 1. So they just turn on the testosterone without turning on the estrogen. And I mean, it was so ridiculous. I actually ended up hurting my shoulder because you can't grow cartilage and tendons as fast as you can grow muscle. So I'm like, stupidly strong. Like, you hear the spraying sound and then you get to do shoulder rehab. And I'm not recommending this to anyone. In fact, it was probably not good for me, but I'm just like, okay. And I did my post about SARMs. I'm the guinea pig. But I've often thought between some of the stuff we're doing at upgrade labs, it puts muscle on about three times faster than just lifting iron. Things like isometrics, but with a moving force and some other technologies in a new book I'm working on, like blood flow restriction, for example, or the bands that you sell, right? Like, all of these are better than what we did before. So it's. There's all these things, but you combine those with the right chemicals and stuff happens where it could be, can you get those prescribed? A few doctors will prescribe them, but most of the time they're considered research chemicals. But they're rampant in the bodybuilding community, but also the antiaging community. Because my favorite.