My Full Body Workout (with Chris Williamson)

What's the theory behind starting a session with calf raises?

It's like, I can have big calves.

Of course. How could I? How could I forget?

I have started with calves for more than 10 years now straight. And the reason for that is because calves are my weakest body part in terms of, like, proportions.

Isn't this nice?

That's something.

It's meant for two.

It is kind of. It's a funny system. It is kind of cute.

Yeah, that's great. So I actually train my body in reverse order of weakness.

Wouldn't advise it.

Like, my reverse order of my, like.

Worst body part to best body part.

Okay.

If you go ground up, legs wise, it's like your calves are nice and warm. And then I do hamstrings next.

Yep.

And so our knee joints going to be like, nice and locked up. So that when I actually do a leg move, I feel pretty good when.

I put them first. And then I doubled the amount of volume and I did them in every workout rather than like two times a week. That's when my cav started to really grow.

I think that there's something definitely underrated about starting a session with a real low investment movement. It's like no one's ever going to say no to another set of calf raises. Yeah, I really don't want to train today.

Yeah, well, start with cav.

Stand on the edge of this thing. You're actually converting me. You're actually converting me.

I mean, like, I've been doing this for 20 years. Like, I've done iterations. I've been doing this for 10. Like, I haven't changed it. It's like, it's right.

I've heard you say that you do just one body part each session and just consistently get volume in. Is that still the same?

100%.

I don't think that many people have the same approach to training that Alex does. Not many people begin their workout with like 100 repetitions on calves. And not many people do the exact same routine every single session. Full body.

Have you ever had any temptation to do a different training modality, functional thing, A Brazilian Jiu jitsu thing, a CrossFit thing?

Nope.

No desire?

None.

I did my. My experimentation way earlier. Like, when I was in my, like, 20s. I was like, I'll try. CrossFit said I did all body weight for six months. I did only swimming. You know what I mean? I did only kettlebells. I did that for a year.

I didn't know anything. So I started from absolute ignorance. And so I would Read these sales letters for, like, kettlebells, and I'd be like, oh, kettlebells are what I need to do. And then I'd read a new ebook about how body weight training was like, the new thing, and I would just do bodyweight stuff. And then I'd read about isometrics is actually where you can get the most strength. And I would do that.

And so I. I did all sorts.

Of programs and methodologies for a while before I kind of, like, actually learned the few things that matter.

I wanted max muscle, least headache. I train full body every day, so, like, body composition wise, fits the best for me. I can do supersets so I don't have to do cardio, and you gain the most muscle. So, like, why would I want anything that's not the most muscle?

Yep.

And that works for me.

Good.

But hamstrings, after this will feel great.

Yeah.

Because your calves always get involved in hamstrings. So it's like pre fatigue the calves and then only be hamstrings.

Yes.

Pre fatigue calves and hams and only be quads, Right?

Yep. Very nice.

Hips. You want to seated or lying?

We'll do seated, sure.

No, I would.

If I was ever doing seated hammer curls, I would always superset them with leg extensions. Always. Because for me, I'm like, why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I?

Why wouldn't you?

Well, why wouldn't I?

Because then I'll be out of breath.

I thought that the supersets, I thought supersets were cardio.

I would if I was trying to get in better shape.

Today's not cardio day.

In between sets is camera time.

Understood.

And when camera's not here, it's rest time.

Why lean forward?

You'll see. So lock it down as much as hard as you can on your knees, like extra. There you go. So lean forward and put your chest up. See the stretch? Now lean forward even more. Yeah. Arch your chest more so the stretch of your hamstring could catch you. There you go. It stretches the out of it like this. And then also keeps the tension the whole time on your hamstring.

Yep.

So you don't have any rest.

Whereas if you're back here, you're now. Yep.

It's way pumpier that way. But this made this, like, got my hamstring so much better than leaning back.

Yep.

Big stretch, big squeeze. Big stretch, big squeeze.

Multiple gym memberships within the same city. So good because you get sick of training in one place or you're in a different vibe. Kind of the same as the working thing at the desk.

Change your environment. Yeah.

So if I need to prep for a guest, I go to Gold South Central. It's nice and quiet. No one ever hassles me. If you want to get session in with the boys, there's a spit and sawdust indoor outdoor thing that's really cool. And then if we want to do some functional classes on, it's got a gym. Really good.

Come on, Hammy yammy. If you really want to with yourself, point your toes forward. Now try it.

Oh, that's awful.

Oh.

Because it shows you how much your calf gets involved. Yeah. If you flex your cap. Can't use it.

Yeah.

It's crazy how many variants there can be of one movement where you think, I'm totally locked in, but then if I go here and then if I go here, but then if I don't go here.

Totally different.

Yeah. Crazy.

It's actually a cool mechanical drop set that way. Oh. So you start with your toes out.

Yep.

And then you basically go natural. But I usually just go limp feet. So, like, not this way, which still helps you.

Yep.

This way, like, which takes it all out. I just go neutral. Dangly, dangly feet.

Dangly feet.

I've always preferred training with a partner. I think especially after a long time in the gym, a decade and a bit, you end up just running out of juice. I just don't have all that much motivation. When I'm on my own. I'll go in and I'll go through the motions. But if I'm gonna push myself even remotely hard, I need someone else there. Or else you end up scrolling doom. Scrolling on your phone or getting distracted by emails or something.

What? Yeah. Bo.

It's funny because people in the gym are gonna think we're fitness influencers.

All of these videos have got nothing to do with the fitness. In fact, the fitness is just a break from recording content.

Yeah.

Shouldn't they be in better shape? Why aren't they bigger? I ask myself that every day.

Why isn't he wearing a supplement company's apparel?

What's he acquiring?

Yeah, what is he acquiring?

Hasn't he acquired any muscle?

Why don't you acquire some gains, bro? It's like, ideally, you want to lock it, like, right above your kneecap.

Yes.

And then it stabilizes the joint.

Come on, dude. Yep.

All right. That's it for me. Cool.

This is one of those machines where three plates could be impossible. Yeah. Or three plates could be absolutely nothing.

Yeah. It'll be between those two that's my promise. Oh, here. Can you try and touch your hamstring to your butt? Now.

There'S a little bit of rainy side.

I think he's a little puffed up. Can we tell you about this? So I'm trying to make puffy, I think. Yeah, yeah, I'm all puffed up. Oh, my legs are all puffed right now.

Pr.

Oh.

How many vest brands did you need to go through before you decided on the one that every acquisition.com thing is printed on?

You mean this particular vest?

Yeah.

Tank top.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Probably 30 or 40.

Okay.

Yeah.

What were the most common problems that you encountered with other vests?

If you get 10 mediums and they fit different. There's not consistency there. It's one, two. They shrink differently.

Where am I here? Here. And then that out.

Yeah, this turns out. And then hands here. Different ones shrink at different sizes when you wash. Yep. Some of them were, like, too thin up top or too thick up top.

Yep.

Some of them would bunch so kind of, like, float like this above the actual softness of the. Of the shirt. Because sometimes it's just, like, it just feels like paper. So I look for, like, softness.

All too thick.

Yeah. And then some of them don't stretch at all. So I need a little bit, like, elastic in it. So it shows all the good hides all the bad. You know what I'm saying? Those are the big. I actually have a list on my phone for, like, all the things I was rating them on, but those are off the top of my head.

Good.

I'm still not done my shoe test. I'm on, like, shoe number probably 50.

What is it that you.

A lot. Shoes are the toughest by far. You think it has to be able to get me into a nice establishment.

Yep.

I have to be able to work out in it.

Yep.

It has to be able to get wet because I don't want to have, like, a different shoe when I'm traveling that gets wet.

Yep.

My feet can't sweat in it and they can't smell over time.

Yeah, that's hard. I need all the socks.

I don't wear socks.

Yeah, that's difficult. I mean, that's a high bar. Just. That is a high bar.

Yep. Yep. And I've been working out with him, like, doing calf raises and also, like, I have to go to walk in them with no, like, blisters anywhere.

Yep.

And I walk an hour every day. Are you puffy?

Puffy? I'm very puffy, actually.

Okay, good.

Would you be able to get into a nice establishment in those trainers, do you think?

Yeah. The only thing I've ever seen at the nicest places is no sandals. Too many rich guys wear normal.

You heard of the red sneaker effect, right? What? There was a study done at a conference with businessmen, and they tried to quantify the objective metrics of how smart somebody dressed. And there was an inverse correlation between the smartness of dress and the net worth or the job title that this person had. So it's the people who had dressed down the most that had the most wealth.

Checks out.

Counter signaling is a hell of a drug, man.

I mean, usually I try and rest as low as I can between sets.

That's the strange thing about training with a partner. Even though you have to wait for someone else to finish their set, you rest less. You rest less because you've got.

Because you're not on your timer, and.

The timer is the other person's set.

I'm about 50, 50 in terms of whether I train with people or not. There are seasons where I, like, find somebody that, like, we have times that work out for a season and I work out with them. And then there's times when my schedule is kind of crazy and I just get workouts when I can. I would say that I far prefer working out with other people whenever I can just because I. I train harder, I train longer, I do more sets, I probably do better form.

And I.

And I, I just in general work out harder and longer when I have other people around me.

Yeah, three is like perfect.

Optimal. Two to one. Yeah, I would say that that's probably not fun.

And that's exactly what it is. It's two. Two parts rest for one part lifting.

I would say there's two different types of training sessions. So it's like a training session where you're like going in there to die and remove your own soul and look at it like, deep into its own eyes and then put it back into yourself. And then there's training sessions where it's like, I would say a more social training session. And to me, that was like a more social training session. So I still got a workout in, but, like, I wasn't dying.

If you want sneaky cardio, 90 minutes if pickable is a thousand calories. It's fucking insane. And you don't even think. You're just like. You're just chasing a ball. You're not doing cardio, you're chasing a ball. A thousand calories on a concept too. Ski erg or a rower or something miserable yeah, my idea of hell.

So that goes to what Trevor was talking about, where the people who are the, quote, most disciplined aren't actually more disciplined. They figure out something to do in the meantime. So it's like you did the same cardio as the guy on the skier.

He gets off.

He's like, I'm so disciplined.

Yeah.

And to you, it didn't feel like discipline.

Felt like the opposite.

Right. So I think, like, therein lies a pretty big find hashtag.

Find your pickleball.

Find your pickleball, and then get puffy on it.

I don't stop trying to make Puffy a thing. Puffy's not going to be a thing.

Oh, it's going to be huge. Big puff.

Chris and I have a good dynamic on the podcast and off the podcast, I think we very bro talk. So it. We keep it light, which is nice, because, you know, life can be really serious all the time. And it's. It's ironic because he has a podcast on, like, wisdom and deep, philosophical things, and it'd be really easy to take yourself seriously. And I'm glad that he doesn't. And. And he can talk shit with me.

What does that. You think we're on? We'll do one more. Just in case. You know the rule if you have to ask. If you haven't. If you have another set left, you got a new other set. Water. You want me to there? Yeah.

Because the machine makes go up.

Yeah.

So if your feet are too much close enough, that's gonna push you up. So, like, if you go more wide, just like this and more wide, you're going to be more able to fill all this part. Doctor it's my poor.

All right, that's what we're doing.

A little bit more high and the open white, too.

More one.

Yeah. All right. Here. Yep. Oh, all that. Dr. Yeah. All right, Open this. Yeah, yeah.

How will you see this morning?

Yep. Yep. Hey.

That'S why you gotta listen to pros, baby.

The greatest hack of all time, whether it's bodybuilding or business, is getting with people who are far ahead of you. I mean, almost all of the periods of my life where I had huge changes or improvements in my physique was when I had people who were better than me giving me insight. Because the thing is, you can learn a certain amount, but if someone has a decade of experience on something and then they can just immediately spot, even if you're a video editor, someone's like, oh, dude, you missed this. They have more context to give you advice and it's invaluable. Which is why I've tried to buy any experience I can from anybody who's willing to sell it to me. Rather get the lesson without the scar.

All right, let's shoulders.

Yeah. They're a nice seated.

Yes. Oh yeah. The post quad stretch for max pump. Brutal. Likewise. They're on fire right now.

What's the keys here? Any.

So do this right before you start. Push your shoulders like forward, not back. Forward.

So you. Where do you want to have them sit?

As far out as you can. Yeah.

Okay.

Nice. Most people have a smaller media and rear delts so I pretty much just exclusively turn medial and rear. Not even train front. Not my deficiency, not my constraint, not my problem.

Come on.

Yep.

So I would like to enter into your shoe rotation vans old school. Comfy kush. But I think wearing them today, I think they fail on smell and I think that they fail on getting wet. So it depends on how wet. Wet from below. Fine. Wet from above. No good.

So they have a new one that came out that has cork bottom and it's mesh on top. So it's meshy like this.

Oh I've seen them. They're called like the move.

I was wearing them today underneath the table.

I didn't. No, I didn't notice. Good.

So far they. They haven't failed any tests. But these are better to work out in.

Got you slip on, slip off if you've got a shoehorn. Shoehorn?

No.

You're red pilled on shoehorn.

No.

Come on. You ever have to fight to put your shoes on?

These are stretchy.

But what about the bands?

That was a downside for them. I wasn't a fan shoehorn.

And you bypassed that. That's expanded your choice. It has landscape by having a shoehorn.

I usually only do slip on, slip off.

How much do you value the skin on the back of your thumb? Probably quite highly. I would imagine.

Extremely high.

Yeah.

Arguably the highest skin most valuable skin.

Really?

Oh yeah.

Really.

Think about it.

Ah.

Lots of people in America are circumcised, don't they? I forget.

Yeah.

I'm probably the only person in this building with a foreskin. That's probably.

We'll cut that one from the real. Just like he got. See what it did there. Question for you.

Yes.

Who's your favorite person to interview? Who's the fa. Your favorite interviewer?

Interviewers. Rogan. The guy is so good. It's all about people from the outside will see someone that's got a very successful platform but his Use of cadence and silence in a conversation is unbelievable. I thought, I've worked very hard at this, done 600 episodes. I get to sit down with this guy, and it's like being a black belt and going, oh, I get to roll with the 7th Dan. Let's see how good he actually is. And you're like, what the fuck was that? Very, very, very impressive. Like, super impressive interviewer.

That's cool.

In terms of people to interview, one person that I love consistently is Rory Sutherland.

Okay. He's so fun.

Super easy.

Very knowledgeable.

Very knowledgeable. Something about seeing a guy double fisting vapes throughout the entire episode, one of which is on a rope around his neck. So he'll have one on a rope around his neck. So it's never more than a foot and a half from his mouth at any one time. And so legendary.

How does this feel shoulder wise?

Good. Yeah, that's good. It's a quite a weak angle. Like, you know, if you were here, you'd be way, way, way stronger. But it feels like it's kind of. Given that you've done 3,500 hours.

Yeah.

Of writing.

Yeah.

What are the main principles that you rely on to remove friction from the writing process? What are the water desk setup, time of day like? Well, not everything. And in terms of, like, I think the extra writing.

Got it. I mean, I. I pretty much just write the same time every day, which is when I wake up and then I write till noon, and that's basically the only thing I don't do anything else.

Yep. But you're using. I saw you use nicotine today during the podcast.

I do that all the time, so.

That'S not equal opportunity. Very good, Jeff. It's task independent.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I guess the lesson from Chipper.

Calls nicotine a global reward.

What's that?

It's a global reward you can do. You can use it to reward anything.

Something tells me that you and Rory are aligned on this. Come on. Oh, cheeky little drop set. Go on then.

Yeah, cheeky little drop set.

Oh, there it is. So the rule is sit down and write. That's the rule.

It's not even a rule. That's just like when I do it.

But that's your strategy. That's strategy is sit down and write.

I'll say this. My strategy is do the thing that's most important first.

Okay.

And for now, it's writing, and then it'll be something else later.

Yep.

So that's my. I would say the macro calendar is the bigger thing. I don't take meetings until noon or 1.

And then that first slot gets switched with whatever the priority is. Understood. Do you take a break during writing, during that six hour block to have like a shake? Yep.

Half the time I do it while I'm writing. Half the time I take a break if I need it.

Yep. Okay.

But not long. 15 minutes.

Interesting. Was it more difficult before you were in the editing phase? In that there's a maximum number of ideas per minute that you can put out onto paper. So you have to kind of sit and think, what am I actually trying to do or say?

Let's say it's more phases. So it's more like figuring out what I'm going to say first. That's what took the longest then was writing it, which was the easiest.

Yep.

And then basically taking what I wrote, cutting out half of it, filling in the other half, cutting half of it again, filling in the next half, cut it just basically just continue to just compact, compact, compact, compact. The book's probably 270 pages, but it got compressed from a thousand plus.

Yep.

And just like the rule is always like if we read two sentences and if we only read one of them, it still meant the same thing. One of them is not required. And we just do that over and over and over again.

Yep.

So that my hope is that the whole book is literally tweet after tweet after tweet for 300 pages.

You read the Almanac of Nabal Ravikant?

Yeah.

Yeah, kind of like that.

Right? Very dense, high signal to noise. This one's gonna be a bear. Because it's basically like eight books in one. Which sounds ridiculous to say, but like, it shows how to do warm outreach, cold outreach, post content, run ads, hire agencies, hire hire, recruit, train it, train, manage employees, build affiliate programs, build referral systems in one book. And so like each One of those 25 to 30 pages was probably like 150 page relevant book.

Yes.

That just got squeezed until there was nothing left we could cut. And it's like, if you read this, you will know how to set up affiliates. If you read this, you know how to set up a referral system. If you read this, you know how to get your first five clients from one way jobs. If you read this, you know how to post content to get customers.

Was there anything that you had to write that you didn't know?

Yeah, all the time. I have like my best ideas of like this. It's usually I start with anecdote of like, this is what we did. This is what worked well. And then that's what Trevor and I will beat up until we're like, what are the principles behind a good referral system? And then what doesn't? And then we'll try and break and be like, all right, was there one that worked that didn't have those things? And we just. That process is what takes the longest.

Yep.

Because we want it to be valid.

Yep.

And that's the hard part.

Yes.

Because it's very. Like, every marketer has their system in their head and they write it down and they send it, but you can immediately break it, which is why it's not valid, which is why it doesn't get shared, why it doesn't become canon. So the goal was like, if I can make something that no one can disprove, then it can become canon and people can use it.

So first one was offers. Yep. Second one's leads.

Leads.

Third one is fourth one is.

I have a couple ideas, but for now, the next book.

Cool.

There'll be more.

Yep.

All right, last set.

One more.

All right.

If you have to ask.

All right, we'll do. We'll do a double drop.

Okay.

So go 10. 10, 10.

Cool.

All right.

Yeah. I think that was what I was trying to get at today with that bridge between the philosophy and the applicability.

Yeah.

And that because in the world of business, a great philosophy that doesn't make money doesn't matter.

Yeah. The validity of the model is how much money you make.

Correct. Which means that a beautifully sounding theory that isn't effective in the real world is pointless. So everything that you're talking about has been stress tested.

Well, we just start with what worked, and then we try and figure out what makes it work. Always.

Yep.

So it's like affiliates. We're like, how much do we pay them on what cadence? And do we have tears? And what do they have to do to earn the tears?

Yep.

How do we activate them? How do we get them to keep marketing? So this will just bother all the fitness people. But I try and do as many perfect reps as I can, and then I try and do as many imperfect reps as I can, and people are like, isn't that going to only strengthen a certain range? How I see it is I fatigue all the stuff that I can at max range, and then I keep going until I fatigue the stuff that can do partial range. So just for me, it kills it more and I get more volume in per set. I'm definitely not an expert, but for me, once I'm here. This is the end of my delt as I feel it. Everything above that for me is trap. And I get these crazy pains in my neck, so I have a nice stop sign because I feel a shooting pain. But for me, I can just do this and know that that's the end of my delt. And so that's the range I train. But plenty of people disagree with me, and they're probably right and smarter. I think it was. I think this was like when I was training classes at Huntington beach, this was a hot song. So I heard it like 40 times a day. Yeah, I'm sure when you were clubbing, there's just songs like Umbrella.

Correct, Right, Correct. Given that I listened mostly to either, like, British rap or metal, neither of which get played in nightclubs all that much. I knew the words to every single song that was in the top 40 for a decade and a half.

What kind of metal?

All sorts. Dude. Bring me the horizon.

What about Hard sleep or dad metal?

What?

Hard or dad metal?

Dad. No, not dad Metal. Give me a break. So heavy.

One arm. Yeah, one arm.

Yep.

I try to lean my hip out so you get a bigger stretch.

You'll see you on Under?

Yeah, I'm under.

Under here. Here.

Yeah. And then just wedge yourself. You know, you asked me earlier about, do I remember this name of the song that was playing? I don't know the name of any song. Like, lyrics for sure.

It's kind of a crazy claim. I don't know the name of any song.

I'll say it this way. Like, me recognizing a song by name is very hard for me. And I listen to that for.

What do you think that says about you?

I have very bad audio memory. My wife will attest to that.

Wouldn't it be great if you have absolutely great audio memory and forgetting all of these song names is just one long troll. He's really bought in. Keeps saying, forgets the name of Rihanna.

The only song that I know the full lyrics to was one that I had to write out in seventh grade. They were trying to teach poetry, and they're basically saying, look, songs are poems. Like, you know, whatever. And so I remember the Eve 6 song that I wrote down, and that was it. And there's like. You had to find similes and metaphors, like, in the. In the thing.

Wow.

That's it. It's the only one I know the lyrics to because I could read it.

Funny. Come on.

There you.

I actually think that this bag is a very good physical representation of your life philosophy. I Think it's incredibly transactional. It's like, just does the thing, even if it's not what it was designed for. Actually does it better than something else might do it again.

Just stinks of hormozy, doesn't it? Absolutely reeks of hormozy. Zero aesthetics. Very functional. Odd.

It completely disregards convention. How many things did you go through before you tried this?

Oh, plenty.

Yeah. Different types of bags, different types of setups.

Rolly bag.

And you settled on a workman's bag. Yeah.

Also lasts forever, but it still had a bunch of issues with it.

So I ended up modifying a bunch to the bag. Like cutting things off and like moving stuff around. But what I have now is the best, you know, gym bag that I know of. And it kills.

Yeah.

Mid back. Smokes it. Oh.

Other things that I've had to learn since I've been in America. Biscuit isn't a biscuit.

No, not a thing.

Biscuit's a cookie.

It's for dogs.

Biscuit is like a scone that goes on the side of beef. Yeah. At Cracker Barrel.

Yeah. Piece of bread. Yeah.

Yeah.

Fucking piece of bread.

Chips.

Or is it dog biscuit? In which case it's a treat for dogs.

Fine.

Yeah.

Chips for me. Like thick French fries.

Yeah.

They're not very difficult. Assimilating into this new culture has been incredibly difficult for me. And I spent 4th of July here, which was emotionally quite a tough day.

Yeah. Anyone comment?

I wore a T shirt that said happy treason Day. Ungrateful colonists.

Yeah. Was it? And then people were like, winners write history. Do you see any back to back World War champs? No.

That's funny. Yep. Yep. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that smokes.

One of the problems of training with Alex, somebody who has a very dialed in gym routine that for him, he doesn't train his chest. Doesn't train his chest because he says his chest doesn't need to grow anymore. Some of us don't have that problem. Might have been nice if we've done some chest today. But look, I'm in his town. For the back titties. The back titties.

It's a big back back puff. Big back puff.

Oh, stop trying to make puff happen.

Puffy's gonna be huge.

Stay puffy. All right.

Make sure that chapstick's nice and secure in case something traumatic happens during these bicycles.

Yeah. That's my sunscreen. Oh, I see.

Interesting. Yeah.

And Caleb, you see the pocket for it on the side? Oh, meant for it. Meant to be. All right, so I Just move them forward like 2 inches, and then you get the full stretch. Yeah, it's just significantly harder, and you get a mean pump. Am I doing it right? Doesn't give a.

He's busy. It's like, I'm busy being bigger than busy being massive.

Am I doing it?

Come on.

Yeah, right there.

How you did before you go up.

Fight up. Spicy. Very spicy.

That's right. Caleb is bigger. Am I bigger? Am I bigger? I don't know. I don't think I get my leg up.

Good legs. But it's just because normally you have more water on the lower body than the upper body.

More what?

Yeah, more water. And don't worry what's in the upper body. But for a guy, don't do body on digging.

All right, so how do you. How do you not stay egotistical? Is people bigger than you? I feel like that's like a perfect microcosm of what we were talking about.

Yep. Correct. Correct. Come on.

Just catch us up.

Come on. Come on. Oh, yeah. £20. Never felt so heavy. Heard it.

Humbling. Oh, yeah. It's just not heavy enough because, like, you can do adult raise with 20. So, like, this angle. It's, like, not that bad. There you go. Back more. There it is. Money rips. Oh, okay.

Yep.

Must be nice.

The girl, like, the guy comes.

I live for the day when fashion has developed enough for guys that I just need to wear a single piece of material in the gym.

I hardcore considered it overalls, because then it would, like, eliminate so many things in my life.

I mean, if you.

If you had to, I would kill it. The only thing. So I have to find. What do you call the. The girl version of that? A romper.

Yeah.

It'd have to be a Jean romper, because I want the short version. I don't want the. I get hot, I give it a go. Layla would probably revolt, but I would continue anyways because she's more attracted to the fact and I fuck what she thinks.

That's a really interesting point. It's an interesting point that something that your wife would prefer you doing is less attractive than you not doing the thing that she would prefer you doing.

Because of what it means to her.

Yes, correct.

Correct. Just preaching the gospel here of personal. Of personal. Personal brand. We call it personal identity. There you go. Preach the brand of authenticity.

It's like the inverse of the shit test, you know? Like, so test was this thing that came up during pickup artistry that girls would, like, give you a. A challenge of some kind. Oh, I Bet you're not actually that strong in the gym. Or I bet you don't actually have that job. I bet you don't drive. Whatever the. Whatever the thing. And that was a shit test.

Yeah.

And it was the same way that some female frogs will fight with males to test their strength before they actually decide to sleep with them.

All right. And be like, I'm ready.

This feels like the reverse of that. This is like, she's. She's testing you. But the actual outcome that's optimal for attraction is you.

You reject her.

Yeah. You reject the test entirely.

Yeah.

Yeah. You punk the game.

Yeah. Because I feel like I was thinking, I was like, what would I say if some girl was like, you really don't make what you say you make. I'd be like, okay. I just like, rejecting. Be like, I'm sure you have somewhere. I probably wouldn't even say that. I would just say, okay, and keep talking to whoever else.

Come on.

Dude. I just love these reps. They just feel so good.

Come on. Oh, yeah. There it is. Big squeeze.

The largest squeeze. Dude, I'm getting puffy. I can feel it. My arms are puffed. I'm like, three quarter puffed, not full puff.

This is a public service announcement. Alex, stop trying to make puffy a thing. It's never going to be a thing. And it makes me uncomfortable every time that I hear you say it.

Can't even push back against it because you're like, what are you pushing back against? I'm like, well, pushing back against you saying that word. What word? Yeah, the P word. Don't say the P word.

There you go. All right, let's put these back. We'll do some triceratops. So, fun fact, I tweaked the out of my tricep, like, two months ago. And then rather than take off, I just went to the lowest weight I could on this machine, because this is the machine. I tweaked it on. And then I've just been adding ten pounds every week, and now I'm like, back. And it doesn't hurt. It's the best way I know how to revamp.

Keep moving, but keep moving light.

Just basically keep dropping the weight until it does, like, whatever the thing you'd heard it on. It's kind of like with gymnasts, they tell them to give right back on the pummel horse if you fall off, so you don't, like, get fucked up in the head about it. So I hurt myself on this machine, and then I dropped it down to, like, the lowest Thing I do that didn't hurt. And then I just added back rather than being like oh I'm taking like two months off or whatever. I just came right back and did the lowest weight I could without it hurting.

So you like this? It's a little long heady at the top from that. That boy is a little.

Yeah. I just try and maximize whatever the my angle of the trick. Like when I squeeze this.

It's not like.

Because obviously you could do this.

Yeah. But it'd be weird. Yeah. Yeah. It's more like how can I keep this angle as as acute as possible and then get it. A lot of stuff on like warm ups is not like super definitive. It's like stretching. There's like bodies of evidence on both sides that are like doesn't help prevent injury, blah blah. So like I think it's more about warming core temperature rather than like each specific movement. So that's why I do calves first. Because I get warm. Another reason I do calves first. The Bulgarian Olympic team never warmed up. They went straight to squats. Now it's more a testament to the fact that they picked the right people who wouldn't get injured training that way. Correct. Than it is a measure that that training is effective.

So here's something that's interesting. A question I had for you that's more about how you guys work with acquisition.com. there's a very common strategy that people use when it comes to growing a business that's in that kind of region, which is bring somebody on board and then apply ungodly amounts of pressure to the founder. Just lean on the founder like fuck. And the presumption is that they're either going to crush under the pressure and if they manage to stick about the business By Design has made three years of growth in one year. What do you think about that approach?

I think it's actually dictated by the returns they promise limited partners. More so than it's basically like we have to deliver these returns in five years. The only way for that to happen with a VC model, which is usually the ones that do that are that they have to spray and pray on 50 investments knowing that one's going to 100x and cover the whole portfolio in terms of returns and they can afford to have lots of losses.

So what's different with what you're doing?

We don't really think any of them are going to think anywhere 100x but it's not the model. We're not like a tech primary investor. Like we're much more What I would call everyday businesses like mortgage sales, photography shops, you know what I mean, Just normal businesses, insurance like that. And for us I would rather have all of our businesses triple over five years, get same or better returns than those guys do and not burn 49 relationships. Both work financially. It's just also like how you want to live life. And we are also like we're growth partners. But a lot of businesses don't require a winner take all model like Facebook. One guy was going to get the whole social network so you have to do it that way. But like mortgage sales, one guy doesn't like there's no advantage to. You're not going to take the mortgage sales market, you'll just keep gnawing away at it. And there's a lot of businesses that if they didn't have that forced pressure would otherwise be good businesses. Even if they don't have an enormous TAM, they can still generate really good returns. Not 100 extra turns but you can get a 10x and I'd rather take a 10x when I can get it than force 100x and lose the 10x, you know, in the process.

Given that you do full body every day, do you cycle different exercises across the week?

Not a ton.

Do you do them across periods?

I train the same body parts every day.

Yep.

We did hip thing today. If I'm feeling it, I'll do that for a little bit. If I'm not feeling it one day I do a different leg exercise. I just don't have a lot of rules.

But my point being that given that you want a well rounded physique, for instance, if you were to continue to do this, you're never actually going to.

Yeah, I'll use like when I do back my brachialis gets hit. Yep. And I will without trying over time cycle things in and if I ever identify that I have a weakness, like a clear visual weakness, then that moves up in the workout like I'll, I'll really prioritize otherwise. I'm also kind of at like the point in my career like I'm not really going to gain any more muscle. So it's just like I stimulate that keeps what I've got. Try not to hurt myself, do that hopefully until I die. That's my perspective.

How's your dad?

Built physically like me but doesn't have like.

Yeah, yeah.

Muscle, muscle.

So you think he had a good genetic base?

Yeah, I think so. I was, I heard about this from Greg Knuckles. Big, big lifting guy. Some people who are, who are naturally like, big and muscular, have low potential for growth but have a high baseline. Some guys have huge growth potential but are tiny dudes genetically. So people see people, they're like, dude, that guy's a house. Like, if he actually lifted. But they're completely separate genes.

Interesting.

Stay puffy.