## Detailed walkthrough
### [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=0s) Teaser Highlights and Obesity in the Age of GLP-1 Drugs
The episode opens with a flurry of provocative teasers, featuring Coach Greg Doucette sounding off on bodybuilding as the single worst sport someone can choose, the effectiveness of fat shaming, 16-year-olds abusing steroids, and Dr. Mike Israetel's doses and public persona. When Graham Stephan and Jack Selby introduce the format—a gauntlet of fitness claims where Greg must agree or disagree—the conversation immediately dives into modern weight loss. Asked whether there is any excuse to be obese in 2026, Greg agrees unequivocally, declaring: “Definitely. I've said that a number of times with the GLPs nowadays, you can use them, everyone can use them, if you can afford it, that is, and you will absolutely lose weight.” He points to GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic, tirzepatide, and retatrutide as game-changers that level the playing field and make shedding weight straightforward for anyone with access to them.
When the hosts ask how much of obesity stems from genetics versus personal accountability, Greg estimates it is roughly a 50/50 split. Some individuals are biologically disadvantaged from birth with a higher number of fat cells and elevated levels of ghrelin, the body's primary hunger hormone, which produces relentless "food noise." While people can consciously choose to consume lean meats, fruits, and vegetables to suppress calorie intake while increasing physical activity, bad genetics make the process exponentially harder. However, with modern GLP-1 medications effectively silencing that physiological hunger, Greg argues that those biological hurdles can now be removed.
- **Key GLP-1 medications cited**: Ozempic (semaglutide), tirzepatide, and retatrutide.
- **Biological hunger driver**: Elevated ghrelin levels and higher baseline quantities of fat cells create persistent food noise.
- **Genetics vs. Choice ratio**: 50% genetic predisposition and 50% personal choices regarding diet volume and exercise.
---
[02:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=138s) Ideal Body Fat Targets and Why Overweight People Are "Clueless"
Turning to measurable health baselines, the hosts ask what body fat percentage every viewer should aim to stay under. Greg clarifies that while an arbitrary universal cutoff does not exist because every individual has an innate physiological comfort range, optimal health generally requires around 15% body fat for men and roughly 25% for women. As body fat climbs higher, negative health consequences mount. For someone who is morbidly obese at 50% body fat, dropping directly to 15% might be unrealistic or unnecessary; getting down to 25% would represent a massive victory. Ultimately, the closer someone can safely get to that 15% male baseline without triggering metabolic or lifestyle problems, the better off they will be.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Recommended Body Fat Targets and Adaptation Spectrum
accDescr: Chart showing male and female target body fat ranges compared against morbidly obese starting points.
subgraph IdealTargets ["Ideal Health Baselines"]
M["Men: ~15% Body Fat"]
W["Women: ~25% Body Fat"]
end
subgraph PracticalAdjustment ["Harm Reduction Spectrum"]
Start["Morbid Obesity: ~50% Body Fat"]
Milestone["Intermediate Realistic Target: ~25% Body Fat"]
Start --> Milestone
Milestone -.->|"Optimal long-term"| M
end
```
The discussion shifts to a recent video Doucette published titled *Clueless Fat People*. When asked what people are actually clueless about, Greg explains that they do not understand how to lose weight or the discipline required to maintain it, noting that if they truly understood, they would take action. Rather than simply being an issue of willpower, Greg views it as an avoidance of thought: people choose not to think about the consequences of their lifestyle, much like drinkers who tune out the fact that alcohol is a designated Class 1 carcinogen, or gamblers who focus on winnings instead of losing their homes. People living at 35% or 40% body fat adjust to their baseline and assume they feel fine because they can perform everyday tasks like walking to their car. Reflecting on a reaction video he filmed about a 400-pound woman claiming to feel fit, Greg remarks: “And I'm like, if I felt like you, I would be in the worst state of my life.” Only after people lose the excess weight do they realize how severely compromised their day-to-day existence was.
---
[05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=300s) Hunger Genetics, Somatotypes, and Biological Limits
Addressing the mechanics of appetite, Greg confirms that obese individuals genuinely experience significantly stronger hunger cravings than naturally lean individuals. While disciplined people stay lean through sheer willpower or extreme activity—such as Greg logging ten or more hours on his bicycle every week alongside heavy weight training—he admits his genetics simply do not permit him to balloon to extreme sizes. Even if he neglected his training and ate poorly, he might reach 20% body fat, but never 40%.
To illustrate how biological limits work, Doucette addresses the classic body-type classifications—ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph—framing them on a continuous spectrum similar to height. Just as being 5'6" puts him on the shorter end of the height spectrum without making him three feet tall, somatotypes fall along a bell curve. An endomorph can reach massive weights, whereas Greg's own biology would actively reject that degree of mass. To drive the point home, he insists: “If I tried to be a 400 pound man for a billion dollars to save every soul in this world, I couldn't do it.” He explains that his stomach would physically reject the calories and he would vomit before ever approaching that size, whereas genetically predisposed individuals fight an uphill battle every day just to get under that same 400-pound mark.
---
[06:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=411s) Fat Shaming, Enabling, and Setting Boundaries with Mike Israetel
When the conversation turns to social messaging, Graham asks when compassion turns into enabling. Greg argues that modern online culture coddles people by handing out metaphorical participation trophies for minimal efforts like hitting 10,000 steps. While critics argue that shouting at people fails, Greg contends that excessive body positivity and unconditional acceptance lead directly to accepting mediocrity. He insists: “I think fat shaming can absolutely work.” He points out that male friendships rely on blunt, reality-based honesty—telling a friend directly that he is fat—whereas women frequently tell a 300-pound friend she is a "10 queen," creating an echo chamber that shields people from the harsh medical truth that they are cutting twenty years off their lives.
```mermaid
flowchart LR
accTitle: Constructive Criticism vs Unchecked Enabling
accDescr: Flowchart contrasting the social dynamics of tough honesty against unconditional praise and boundaries.
subgraph HonestFeedback ["Tough Love / Reality Check"]
A["Direct Confrontation: 'Lose weight, you are harming yourself'"]
B["Urgency & Health Motivation"]
A --> B
end
subgraph EnablingDynamic ["Unchecked Body Positivity"]
C["Participation Trophies: 'You're a 10 no matter what'"]
D["Acceptance of Mediocrity & Chronic Health Decline"]
C --> D
end
subgraph Boundaries ["Personal Boundary Threshold"]
E["Explicit Request: 'Stop, this hurts me'"]
F["Line Crossed: Cease comments immediately"]
E --> F
end
```
The hosts ask where tough love crosses over into cruelty. Doucette draws a clear boundary: teasing or calling someone out becomes unacceptable the moment that person explicitly asks you to stop because it genuinely hurts them. If someone makes that boundary clear, he respects it immediately. To test this principle, the hosts bring up Greg's frequent content targeting Dr. Mike Israetel. Although Israetel publicly stated that creators can talk about him however they want, Greg notes that they have spoken privately in the past, leading Greg to soften his coverage for a long period until Israetel published a specific research thesis paper. Greg reveals that he has taken down multiple videos throughout his career whenever creators have messaged him privately to express genuine hurt. Ultimately, he compares chronic obesity to alcoholism or steroid abuse: while body positivity should accommodate people with permanent disabilities or handicaps, letting preventable lifestyle decline off the hook without an intervention is doing people a grave disservice.
[10:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=609s) The Side Effects and Overprescribing of GLP-1 Drugs
Greg Doucette and the hosts discuss the societal perception of obesity and whether weight-loss medications will make obesity far less prevalent over the coming decade. Doucette asserts that obesity is already declining thanks to GLP-1 receptor agonists, but he warns that these medications come with real risks that users must weigh. Beyond physical symptoms like nausea, Doucette points to psychological consequences such as anhedonia—a blunting of emotion, drive, and pleasure:
> "And so your drive to be human or to enjoy things is diminished."
People using these medications frequently report losing interest in gambling, drinking, and sex, along with a generalized dip in excitement for life. While the hosts speculate whether that apathy stems merely from eating less food and running on low energy, Doucette acknowledges that a severe caloric deficit definitely curbs libido and focus, but he believes GLP-1 drugs themselves directly suppress dopamine-driven behaviors.
Doucette argues that anyone capable of maintaining a healthy body fat percentage without pharmaceutical assistance should stay away from GLP-1s entirely. He also highlights physiological risks; for instance, Retatrutide can elevate a person's resting heart rate by 5 to 11 beats per minute. In his view, the vast majority of adverse effects stem from inappropriate dosing protocols pushed by doctors and pharmaceutical companies looking for dramatic first-round results.
- Greg estimates that roughly three-quarters of patients start at far too high a dose rather than titrating up gradually.
- Doctors often prescribe heavy doses out of the gate so patients drop weight immediately, but Doucette advocates finding the lowest effective dose that keeps a patient happy and functioning.
---
[12:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=755s) Why Getting Leaner Trumps Building More Muscle
The conversation shifts to male fitness goals, with Doucette adamantly agreeing with the statement that the average man should stop trying to get bigger and instead focus entirely on getting leaner. He points out that the modern baseline for human health has fallen dramatically, noting that the average American woman is roughly 5'3" and weighs approximately 171.4 pounds—numbers he describes as horrendous. Because the statistical median has shifted toward obesity, Doucette warns that being "average" is no longer a neutral benchmark:
> "Like being average is an insult."
When testing clients, Doucette often sees individuals at 33% body fat who take comfort in being near the statistical average, unaware that they are crossing into clinical obesity. He argues that prioritizing extra muscle mass is wildly overrated for long-term health and vitality. Most people already possess plenty of functional muscle, and unless someone is in advanced age facing sarcopenia, carrying an extra 20 pounds of mass places unnecessary strain on the body. Despite his background as an IFBB Pro bodybuilder and powerlifter, Doucette reveals he now lifts weights only twice per week, directing the rest of his physical energy toward cardiovascular endurance.
The hosts introduce show sponsor BetterHelp, discussing how obsessive body-image standards and physical health goals can consume excessive mental headspace. Jack Selby shares his personal experience managing lifelong ADHD, recounting how he turned to sessions on BetterHelp to understand his diagnosis and turn it into an operational advantage in his career. The ad outlines recent changes to BetterHelp's pricing structure, highlighting insurance integration that allows eligible US members to access therapy sessions with copays as low as $15, and in some cases $0, while maintaining the flexibility to switch therapists or communicate via phone, video, or text.
---
[15:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=935s) Stigmatizing GLP-1s and the "Not Natural" Critique
Returning from the break, the hosts ask why the fitness community tends to look down on individuals who use Ozempic or other GLP-1 drugs to lose weight, often framing it as a lazy shortcut. Doucette explains that this hostility rarely comes from people who are genuinely secure or succeeding in their own routines; rather, it is a defensive reflex from observers who want an excuse to invalidate someone else's progress:
> "The people who are putting you down for taking a GLP are not people on GLPs."
Doucette draws a direct parallel to the criticism he receives for being open about using Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). In fitness culture, peers will often offer hollow encouragement while someone is struggling, but the moment that person surpasses them in leanness or strength, observers seek ways to diminish the achievement by labeling it "not natural." Doucette sees this as basic human jealousy: people tear down pharmaceutical assistance to protect their own egos.
---
[16:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1005s) Body Fat Testing: Scams vs. Looking in the Mirror
Jack Selby asks Doucette how everyday lifters should assess their body fat percentage, pointing out that clinical methods like underwater hydrostatic weighing are inconvenient and out of reach for most people. Doucette pulls no punches, labeling popular commercial tests outright scams. He notes that when he tested himself, an InBody bioelectrical impedance scan clocked him at over 19% body fat, whereas a DEXA scan measured him around 8% at the exact same physical condition.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Body Fat Assessment Reliability Hierarchy
accDescr: Flowchart ranking body fat assessment methods from clinical scans to visual honesty.
subgraph LabScans["Machine Scans (Prone to Inaccuracies)"]
A["InBody Bioimpedance<br/>(Can swing wildly inaccurate)"]
B["DEXA Scans<br/>(Subject to algorithm & calibration variance)"]
end
subgraph ClinicalManual["Manual / Operator Dependent"]
C["Hydrostatic Weighing<br/>(Accurate, but impractical)"]
D["Skinfold Calipers<br/>(Great only if evaluator is elite)"]
end
subgraph PracticalEvaluation["Doucette's Recommended Assessment"]
E["The Mirror Test<br/>(Honest visual evaluation of physique)"]
F["Peer Feedback<br/>(Ask trusted friends for candid assessment)"]
end
While Doucette considers hydrostatic weighing and skinfold calipers far more reliable than commercial machines, calipers are only as good as the technician holding them, much like an MRI image requiring an expert radiologist to read properly. Furthermore, Doucette warns that Body Mass Index (BMI) is useless for muscular individuals, noting that his own muscular build classifies him as clinically obese on standard BMI charts. Ultimately, Doucette advises cutting through technological gimmicks:
> "You should be able to look in the mirror and decide for yourself."
If an individual cannot honestly look in the mirror or ask trusted friends whether they are carrying too much fat, relying on flawed machine metrics will only feed their denial.
---
[18:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1105s) The Fastest Way to Lose Fat: CICO, Incline Walking, and Zone 2 Cardio
When asked about the most effective protocol for dropping body fat, Doucette emphasizes that energy balance governs everything:
> "Well, the S tier, God tier is calories in, calories out."
Any dietary or exercise approach that successfully produces a caloric deficit qualifies as top-tier, whether that is high-volume cycling, intermittent fasting, One Meal a Day (OMAD), increasing fibrous fruits and vegetables, or taking a GLP-1 medication. The key is adherence to what works for the individual rather than forcing an unsustainable routine.
Doucette pushes back strongly against the viral trend of treating a 10,000-step daily walking target as a silver bullet for fat loss. Citing a recent viral experiment where a 190-pound man wore metabolic mask equipment measuring oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange, Doucette reveals that 10,000 flat steps took 93 minutes and burned only 285 calories above resting baseline—roughly equivalent to half a cheeseburger.
| Fat-Loss Activity | Time Commitment | Caloric Impact / Efficiency | Doucette's Verdict |
|:--- |:--- |:--- |:--- |
| **Flat Walking (10,000 steps)** | ~93 minutes | ~285 net calories burned | Low return on time investment |
| **Incline Treadmill Walking** | Flexible | Roughly 2x calories burned vs. flat | Significantly better alternative |
| **Zone 2 Cardio** | Minimum 150 min/week | High caloric burn; builds cardiovascular engine | Non-negotiable baseline for health |
Doucette advises trainees who prefer walking to jack the treadmill up to an incline, which roughly doubles the caloric expenditure of flat walking in the same time frame. Beyond caloric burn, Doucette insists that every person should perform a bare minimum of 150 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week purely for cardiovascular preservation, though he personally recommends doing double that amount.
Doucette closes by contrasting aesthetic appearance with internal health. Looking around at the elite competitors at Mr. Olympia, Doucette observes that almost every competitor on stage sports a world-class physique while harboring terrible internal biomarkers. Having a shredded, ultra-muscular body is by no means synonymous with being healthy.
[20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1200s) The Mirage of Fitness and Greg Doucette’s Personal Stack
Greg Doucette dismantles the common misconception that an aesthetic physique equals internal health. He explains that if you were to draw blood work from competitive bodybuilders, men's physique competitors, or bikini athletes right now, their health markers would likely test as poorly as someone who is morbidly obese. Looking shredded does not make a person healthy, and one of the single most crucial fitness markers is VO2 max, which can only be developed through cardiovascular exercise. When Jack Selby and Graham Stephan ask what specific biomarkers go wrong in bodybuilders, Doucette points out that anabolic steroid usage tanks natural testosterone levels, degrades cholesterol, strains or destroys the kidneys and liver, and drastically elevates the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and future cardiovascular events.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Bodybuilder Appearance vs Internal Health Markers
accDescr: Diagram illustrating how external muscularity contrasts with internal cardiovascular, hormonal, and organ strain.
subgraph Exterior["Outward Appearance"]
A["Low Body Fat & High Muscle Mass"]
end
subgraph Interior["Underlying Health Markers"]
B["Tanked Natural Testosterone"]
C["Severely Deranged Lipid Profiles"]
D["Elevated Heart Attack & Stroke Risk"]
E["Compromised Kidney & Liver Function"]
F["Low Cardiovascular VO2 Max"]
end
Exterior -.->|"Masks True Biomarkers"| Interior
```
When asked directly about his current personal stack, Doucette reveals a remarkably minimal regimen compared to public assumptions. He takes 140 milligrams of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) per week, split into 80-milligram doses every four days, denying any use of growth hormone, insulin, or SARMs. In addition to HRT, he takes 5 to 10 milligrams of Cialis daily. Beyond providing an incredible muscle pump in the gym, Doucette argues that low-dose daily Cialis is actively beneficial for health because it increases blood flow to vital organs throughout the entire body. He states plainly that while natural hormone production could return without it:
> “Technically, I don't need HRT. My testosterone levels would go back to normal, but I function great at 700 to 800 nanograms per deciliter. I'm really happy with that. I'm sure I would survive at 500, but I don't want to.”
- **HRT Protocol:** 140 mg per week total (administered as 80 mg every four days).
- **Target Testosterone Range:** Stable between 700 and 800 ng/dL.
- **Daily Cialis Dosage:** 5 to 10 mg per day for vascularity, organ perfusion, and training pumps.
---
[22:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1350s) Cialis, Longevity, and Daily Supplement Habits
The discussion shifts playfully to the lifestyle and bedroom benefits of daily Cialis. Doucette jokes that he would much rather log 10,000 steps in the bedroom than outside, urging both hosts that they ought to give Cialis a try. He points to longevity entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, who spends millions of dollars optimizing his biology and takes daily Cialis because nocturnal erections correlate directly with cardiovascular health and longevity. Better systemic blood flow translates directly to living longer and functioning better, while leaner individuals also enjoy far more visible vascularity.
When Jack admits that establishing a routine with vitamin D3 and creatine makes it easier to stack more supplements, Doucette agrees, noting that he takes around 15 pills every morning from an organizer. Among his top supplement recommendations is GO2 Max. Doucette highlights clinical studies where subjects taking the compound walked significantly faster over a mile than the control group without undergoing any prior training or dietary changes. The improvement was strictly dose-dependent, confirming its efficacy for cardiovascular endurance and stamina.
- **Bryan Johnson Example:** Highlighted as a prominent advocate for daily Cialis to boost nocturnal blood flow and long-term arterial health.
- **Habit Stacking:** Taking a multi-compartment pill organizer makes compliance effortless compared to opening individual supplement bottles.
- **GO2 Max Trial Data:** Showed dose-dependent speed improvements in unconditioned subjects during a timed one-mile walk.
---
[25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1500s) Blood Work Over Hype: The 80/20 Supplement Foundation
Addressing how consumers can cut through online misinformation—such as debates over specific forms of magnesium or branded vitamin D3—Doucette warns against falling into analysis paralysis. Instead of blindly following generic influencer stacks, he emphasizes getting a comprehensive blood panel. Despite his diverse, whole-food diet, Doucette discovered through blood testing with Algorx that his own vitamin D levels were deficient, altering his longstanding skepticism of multivitamins. He points out that while many people require supplemental iron or vitamin D, individual biology dictates what is truly necessary.
When asked to outline the essential "80/20 rule" for supplementation, Doucette selects creatine, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and GO2 Max. Although he produces Turk Builder Max for strength and physique definition, he firmly insists that cardio and endurance health take precedence over muscle mass:
> “Cardio trumps weights, trumps muscle anytime. I mean, I've made videos where I'm like muscles don't matter as much as you think. And they clip me and say, 'Oh, this is stupid,' but I'm like, you're just coming from a bodybuilder that has retired from bodybuilding and powerlifting and now does cardio.”
- **Essential 80/20 Core Stack:** Creatine, vitamin D, omega-3 fish oil, and GO2 Max.
- **Diagnostic Testing Priority:** Blood panels must precede supplementation to identify true individual deficiencies rather than following generic online advice.
- **Cardiovascular Supremacy:** Doucette maintains that longevity and general fitness correlate far more strongly with cardiovascular capacity than with packing on excessive lean muscle mass.
---
[27:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1650s) Sleep Optimization and the Impact of Recovery
Graham Stephan shares his experience using Function Health for blood work, which flagged deficiencies in vitamin D and zinc. After consulting Claude to generate a targeted, low-cost over-the-counter regimen from Amazon, Graham felt ten years younger within three months, waking up without brain fog and experiencing sustained energy. Doucette affirms that addressing real biological deficiencies transforms daily well-being, but emphasizes that sleep remains the most overlooked pillar of human performance.
Doucette stresses that whatever aids sleep—whether magnesium, zinc, melatonin, a pre-bed meal, THC edibles, or prescription medication when insomnia strikes—is worth utilizing. Recounting a night where he laid awake for two hours, Doucette describes taking two milligrams of zopiclone to prevent the lack of rest from ruining the next day's physical and mental performance. He argues that restful sleep cascades directly into superior cardio, better strength sessions, improved mood, and reduced stress.
> “When you don't get a good night's sleep, it ruins the next day. So whatever it is you need to take that helps you sleep is so important. Better sleep, better cardio, better weights, better feeling, less stress, everything.”
- **Graham's Routine:** Target supplementation based on blood markers (zinc, vitamin D) resolved chronic morning grogginess within 90 days.
- **Sleep Aids:** Doucette endorses whatever works for the individual, ranging from OTC zinc, magnesium, and melatonin to occasional THC edibles or prescription zopiclone for acute insomnia.
- **AG1 Sponsorship:** Graham transitions into a sponsorship mention for AG1, highlighting it as an easy foundational daily habit for busy routines.
[30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1800s) Sponsors: AG1 and Ethos Life Insurance
The hosts highlight the importance of daily consistency with nutrition and financial preparation. AG1 Next Gen is presented as an all-in-one daily foundational nutrition drink featuring vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, probiotics, and superfoods across more than 75 ingredients. Backed by four separate clinical trials, consistent daily use has been demonstrated to improve key nutrient markers within three months while providing immune defense support. Rather than overcomplicating meal planning, it mixes in about 30 seconds each morning, providing a simple way to fill dietary nutritional gaps. A limited-time promotion at drinkag1.com/ich includes 20% off plus a free immune support bundle and a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2 with an initial subscription order.
The conversation transitions to financial security through Ethos. While life insurance is frequently postponed by young and healthy individuals, securing coverage early locks in the most favorable rates. Ethos streamlines the process with online quotes generated in seconds, an application completed in minutes, and potential same-day coverage without requiring medical exams—users simply answer basic health questions. Standard policies begin around $30 per month. The hosts point out that employer-sponsored life insurance rarely covers an entire family's long-term needs and typically terminates when an employee changes jobs. Ethos maintains an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars across more than 4,000 reviews on Trustpilot.
[31:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=1910s) The Dangers of Retatrutide and Known GLP-1 Side Effects
When asked for his assessment of Retatrutide, Greg Doucette immediately urges caution because the compound has not yet received official regulatory approval. While he acknowledges it will likely be proven effective and eventually approved, he considers it the most hazardous of the emerging incretin therapies compared to established options like semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound). Because it acts as a triple receptor agonist, its metabolic acceleration carries substantial cardiovascular risks, most notably an elevated resting heart rate. Doucette—whose own resting heart rate sits at an athletic 48 beats per minute—notes that he recently reviewed a case of an intelligent user who took a conservative starter dose of just 0.5 milligrams, only to suffer severe nausea, an inability to eat, and an immediate 11 beat-per-minute spike in resting heart rate. Greg argues that basic, FDA-approved GLP-1 receptor agonists are far safer, cheaper, and more than adequate for suppressing appetite and eliminating intrusive "food noise."
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Comparison of GLP-1 and Triple Agonist Weight-Loss Compounds
accDescr: Diagram contrasting standard GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic with experimental triple agonists like Retatrutide.
subgraph Standard["Standard Agonists (e.g., Ozempic)"]
A["GLP-1 Receptor Agonist"] --> B["Slows gastric emptying"]
B --> C["Suppresses food noise & appetite"]
C --> D["Known risk: Optic nerve ischemia (rare)"]
end
subgraph Experimental["Triple Agonists (e.g., Retatrutide)"]
E["GLP-1 / GIP / Glucagon Agonist"] --> F["Dramatically accelerates metabolic rate"]
F --> G["Substantial spike in resting heart rate"]
G --> H["Unapproved: Higher acute health risk"]
end
```
The discussion turns to whether long-term complications from widespread GLP-1 usage will surface decades down the line. Doucette stresses that severe, underreported adverse reactions are already occurring in clinical practice today. Chief among them is ischemic optic neuropathy—insufficient blood supply to the optic nerve—which has led to irreversible vision loss and prompted lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturers. While Doucette emphasizes that severe obesity and type 2 diabetes carry even deadlier baseline health risks, the trade-offs should never be trivialized.
- “You're playing Russian roulette with your health; you're basically a guinea pig,” Doucette cautions regarding unapproved compounds like Retatrutide.
- “I don't think there's anything that works amazingly well that has no potential chance of some people having problems with it,” Greg explains regarding the medical reality of powerful pharmaceuticals.
[34:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=2040s) Volume Eating, Protein Ice Cream, and the Nighttime Snacking Trap
Jack asks whether people struggling with obesity could simply be told to stop eating, or if they could drink an expanding gelatinous pudding to stay full. Doucette dismisses the "put the fork down" and "push away from the table" clichés as total failures of conventional diet advice, explaining that human willpower is biologically outmatched by extreme hunger. While GLP-1 agonists medically mimic the sensation of a stomach-filling gel by delaying gastric emptying, Doucette achieved the exact same mechanical fullness naturally throughout his 15-year competitive bodybuilding career via high-volume, low-calorie density eating.
Doucette reveals that nighttime bingeing is the universal failure point for nearly 95% of dieters. While most individuals maintain caloric discipline during breakfast and lunch, evening cravings routinely derail progress. To combat this, Doucette relies on massive bowls of high-volume foods that physically stretch the stomach lining without adding excessive calories. His primary protocol combines a massive two-liter bowl of home-made "protein ice cream"—thickened with binders like guar gum or xanthan gum for roughly 300 total calories—followed immediately by a jumbo salad made of spinach, lettuce, and lean protein like egg whites or chicken breast. The sheer physical bulk leaves the stomach so completely full that even if high-calorie junk food is available, it is physically impossible to consume it.
- “Put the fork down—that doesn't work; no one has that much willpower,” Doucette states regarding traditional dieting advice.
- “The protein ice cream is probably the thing that curbed my stomach the best in all my years of doing anything,” Greg notes regarding his personal prep strategy.
[36:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=2180s) Identifying Trigger Foods and Overcoming the Buffet Mindset
When asked whether any single food should be 100% prohibited, Doucette clarifies that absolute dietary bans are counterproductive because denying cravings eventually triggers severe binges. Instead, individuals should practice dietary sequencing: eat a high-volume salad, vegetable bowl, or protein ice cream first, and only then consume a small portion of the desired treat, whether it is pizza or chocolate. When asked about viral treats like Crumbl Cookies—frequently targeted by health influencers like Santa Cruz Medicinals—Doucette dismisses them as mediocre pastries that only rate between a 3 and an 8 out of 10, asserting they are fundamentally not worth the calories.
The hosts delve into individual trigger foods—items that trigger compulsive overeating once a single bite is taken. For Greg, cereal and store-bought ice cream are non-negotiable trigger foods; if a box of cereal enters his home, he will eat the entire container in one sitting. His solution is absolute physical exclusion: trigger foods are never kept in his house, though he allows himself to enjoy them casually when attending social events or visiting friends.
Graham admits his primary weakness is not a specific snack, but anything offered for free—specifically warm, buttery bread brought to the table at sit-down restaurants. Because Graham views turning down complimentary food as wasteful or rude, Jack often has to intervene directly at dinners to stop him from eating it. Doucette relates this scarcity reflex to his own past struggles with all-you-can-eat buffets, recalling how he and his partner Marie recently approached a $50-per-plate buffet. In years past, Greg felt compelled to "beat the house" by eating until he had to physically hold up his distended stomach. Graham confesses to a similar compulsion with Las Vegas all-you-can-eat sushi, tallying pieces of nigiri to ensure he consumed $60 worth of fish for a $25 flat rate, only to spend the night in physical misery. Doucette shares that after a bodybuilding contest, he once ate himself into such an extreme food coma at an all-you-can-eat buffet that he was nodding off on camera during a national television interview with TSN. It took him until his late 30s—having struggled with bingeing for decades—to adopt the psychological realization that food is abundant, you do not have to consume it just because it is free, and true victory is walking away feeling energized rather than incapacitated.
- “Never think that you have to eat it now or else,” Greg advises when overcoming the compulsion to clean out free or buffet-style food spreads.
- “Winning is not eating until you're full,” Greg emphasizes regarding the mental shift required to overcome overeating.
[40:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=2400s) Post-Show Rebounds and the Peanut Butter Trap
Reflecting on the psychological and physiological toll of bodybuilding contest prep, Coach Greg Doucette describes the uncontrollable urges that hit after months of starving down to 5% to 7% body fat while doing two hours of daily cardio. Once a competition ends and an athlete hits a buffet, instinct completely overrides willpower. Through this extreme suffering, Doucette realized he understood the biological reality of obesity without ever having been chronically obese, noting that a 400-pound person trying to cut down to 300 pounds feels that exact same overwhelming, primal hunger. That empathy motivated him to develop low-calorie, high-volume recipes for his cookbooks, and it informs his belief that regular people should never diet down to unsustainable single-digit body fat levels.
When the conversation turns to common "health foods" that sabotage weight loss, Doucette immediately calls out peanut butter and Nutella. While peanut butter might suit an Ironman triathlete or a high-mileage cyclist burning thousands of calories, it makes no sense on a standard bodybuilder's diet prep. He points out that whole, unprocessed peanuts are far superior to peanut butter because roughly 30% of their calories pass through the digestive system unabsorbed. When Graham Stephan mentions adding a tablespoon or two of peanut butter to his Optimum Nutrition whey shakes purely for flavor, Doucette recommends swapping it for powdered peanut butter such as PB2, which strips out the fat while preserving the flavor and boosting the protein content.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Peanut Butter vs Powdered Peanut Butter Decision Flow
accDescr: Chart illustrating when whole peanuts or PB2 should replace standard peanut butter based on activity levels.
A["Nutritional Strategy"] --> B{"High-Volume Endurance Athlete?"}
B -->|"Yes (e.g., Cyclist/Triathlete)"| C["Standard Peanut Butter (Calorie-Dense Fuel)"]
B -->|"No (Weight Loss / Lean Physique)"| D{"Primary Goal?"}
D -->|"Snack / Satiety"| E["Whole Peanuts (~30% Calories Undigested)"]
D -->|"Shake Flavor / Protein"| F["Powdered Peanut Butter / PB2 (Defatted)"]
```
- When eating whole, hard peanuts, about 30% of the ingested calories pass through the digestive tract unabsorbed.
- A standard Optimum Nutrition protein shake serving is roughly 120 calories for 24 grams of protein per scoop.
- Doucette stresses that suffering down to extreme body fat is pointless for general health: “So I don't want anyone to diet themselves down to like single digit body fat. It's not worth it.”
---
[42:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=2550s) Fueling Competitive Cycling and Why Bulking Is Flawed
Doucette reveals that his personal nutrition has completely inverted from his bodybuilding days. Because he now burns 1,800 to 1,900 calories on intense outdoor bike rides, he is actively trying to prevent weight loss and finds himself eating foods like ice cream cake rather than his own diet recipes. He runs the HDLT bike racing team, competing weekly in tiered club races ranging from beginners to athletes targeting world championships. For those looking to gain weight and build muscle, he advises cutting out excessive high-intensity interval training (HIIT), getting the baseline 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, and focusing effort in the weight room. He highlights influencer Sam Sulik as a rare example of someone doing a lean, progressive muscle gain correctly while maintaining consistent cardio and staying relatively lean, in contrast to old-school dirty bulking.
Addressing the concept of traditional bulking and cutting, Doucette insists it has virtually no place outside of competitive bodybuilding, where competitors drop to dangerously low body-fat levels for the stage and must rebound to a healthy baseline afterward. For everyone else, he strongly advocates "maingaining"—maintaining a stable, healthy body fat percentage year-round within a narrow three-to-four-point window. When Jack Selby and Graham Stephan wonder if they need a calorie surplus to add size, Doucette shuts down the idea immediately, warning them not to listen to friends pushing hyper-bulking regimens.
- Doucette currently burns 1,800 to 1,900 calories per training ride with his competitive HDLT cycling team.
- Doucette defines the proper context for bulking cycles: “Bulking and cutting is only good for people who are bodybuilders who get too lean in the first place.”
- For non-competitors, the ideal path is maintaining a consistent baseline body-fat range rather than oscillating through heavy weight swings.
---
[45:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=2700s) The Tristyn Lee Example and Debunking Caloric Surpluses
The discussion shifts to fitness influencer Tristyn Lee as the extreme archetype of an ultra-lean physique who actually could benefit from bulking. Doucette shares that when he tested Lee with body-fat calipers, Lee registered in the 3% range—the single leanest human being he had ever measured, even leaner than professional bodybuilders on stage. Despite this, Lee refused to compete because he could not stomach the thought of dieting any further, which Doucette suspects is compounded by the immense psychological pressure of living up to an online reputation as the leanest person alive.
Doucette warns Graham that pushing past 20% body fat actively blunts muscle growth by worsening hormonal profiles, cautioning him against the illusion that rapid scale weight equals muscle. He breaks down the math: building a single pound of muscle tissue requires an energy surplus of approximately 2,700 calories. Over the course of a year, an optimal surplus translates to roughly 30 to 140 calories a day—an amount impossible to track accurately because everyday Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), such as nervous fidgeting during a podcast, easily burns that off. Instead of obsessing over tracking calories, Doucette recommends weighing yourself five to seven days a week, picking the median number, and tracking whether that middle value is inching upward or downward week over week.
- Tristyn Lee measured at roughly 3% body fat on calipers, surpassing professional bodybuilders in extreme leanness.
- Crossing over 20% body fat degrades the body's hormonal environment, making it harder to build lean mass.
- One pound of muscle requires roughly 2,700 surplus calories, meaning realistic daily surplus targets are far too small to calculate manually.
- Doucette explains why precise daily calorie tracking is flawed: “Plus your NEAT, like your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, is going to vary—like maybe I burned 30 extra calories just fidgeting during this interview—it's too hard to track, so there's no point in tracking calories to that extent.”
---
[48:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=2880s) Muscle Gain in a Deficit and Optimal Training Frequency
Doucette emphasizes that as long as a person sits at a healthy body fat level—roughly 15% for men—they can build muscle even while operating in a caloric deficit. Because body fat represents stored energy, the body can mobilize its own adipose reserves to synthesize muscle tissue, provided there is a progressive overload stimulus in the gym. When Graham complains that all his fat accumulates on his belly and refuses to vanish until he hits 10% body fat, Doucette jokes that he should take Turkesterone to lift heavier and train harder, reiterating that progressive overload, not excess food, is the fundamental driver of hypertrophy.
Jack and Graham then debate their lifting intensity, with Jack noting that while Graham is more consistent, Jack pushes for grueling, grunting half-reps to failure on his final sets. Doucette validates pushing hard close to failure, noting that lifters rapidly hit diminishing returns once they approach their natural genetic ceiling. For natural lifters, roughly 80% of muscle gains are achieved by hitting each muscle group twice a week. Doucette explains that he only lifts weights two days per week to maintain his current physique, and adding any meaningful new muscle would require tripling his gym volume. While hitting a muscle group three times a week might offer marginal benefits, it requires drastically reduced volume per session, making twice-weekly frequency per muscle group the sweet spot for the vast majority of lifters.
- Around 15% body fat represents a healthy baseline where men can build muscle in a slight caloric deficit by utilizing stored fat for energy.
- Progressive overload in the weight room serves as the primary mechanical driver of muscle hypertrophy.
- Hitting a muscle group twice per week yields approximately 80% of potential maximum muscle growth.
- Doucette outlines the diminishing returns of high-frequency training: “So I lift weights twice a week. That's it. I have a lot of muscle. If I wanted to put on more muscle, I would have to probably train three times as much.”
[50:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3000s) The 2-Day Full-Body Routine and the Myth of Lifting for Fat Loss
Greg Doucette breaks down the time efficiency of a twice-a-week full-body split compared to an exhaustive six-day bodybuilding routine. Training the entire body every three to four days—dictated by muscle soreness—captures the vast majority of potential progress with a fraction of the time commitment. Rather than doing multiple exercises per body part, Greg advocates choosing a single exercise per muscle group and performing just two or three challenging sets. To eliminate wasted time, he runs this as a machine-based circuit: while the back rests from lat pulldowns, he immediately hits chest press, alternating between opposing muscle groups before moving on to shoulders, calves, and triceps. With roughly a minute of rest on the heaviest sets and machines eliminating time spent loading weight plates, a complete session wraps up in an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half.
The hosts discuss the common misconception that lifting weights is the premier strategy for dropping body fat. While clients frequently demand six-day lifting routines to get lean, Greg points out that weightlifting burns only around 200 calories an hour. The popular belief that muscle mass substantially ramps up baseline metabolism is wildly exaggerated: ten pounds of fat burns about two calories per pound, whereas muscle tissue burns roughly eight calories per pound. What genuinely drives fat loss is actively working the muscle through cardiovascular exercise. Greg explains:
> “When I do zone cardio, zone two, I burn 900 calories in an hour.”
He notes that leaner teammates on his bike squad burn up to 1,200 calories per hour, easily burning triple the energy of a 200-pound bodybuilder lifting weights. Furthermore, hard bike riding engages the upper body when standing out of the saddle, transforming cycling into an effective full-body endurance stimulus where stamina and caloric expenditure continually adapt and compound over time.
- **Split Comparison:** A twice-a-week full-body workout delivers approximately 80% of the muscle-building results achieved by a six-day split.
- **Metabolic Cost:** Muscle tissue burns roughly 8 calories per pound daily at rest compared to about 2 calories per pound for body fat.
- **Caloric Expenditure:** A 130–140-pound cyclist performing Zone 2 cardio can burn 900–1,200 calories per hour, whereas an hour of intense weightlifting burns around 200 calories.
---
[54:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3272s) Compound Efficiency vs. Isolation Obsession
Jack brings up modern fitness culture's obsession with isolating every obscure muscle group, from direct neck training and forearm work to lower-back hyperextensions, abductors, and adductors. Greg argues that trainees complicate their programs unnecessarily when compound movements already recruit these areas simultaneously. A squat stimulates the hamstrings, quadriceps, and glutes in a single movement, just as lat pulldowns and chest-supported rows recruit the biceps alongside the back, and chest presses heavily work the triceps. By prioritizing heavy multi-joint exercises first, only a couple of direct isolation sets are required at the end of a session to top off the arms or smaller muscles.
Greg admits he has almost entirely abandoned traditional leg training in the gym because his intense cycling sprints provide sufficient mechanical tension. Pushing 1,000 watts for a 30-second sprint on a bicycle, he contends, is just as grueling—if not harder—than a heavy ten-rep set of squats. When considering longevity and overall wellness, Greg highlights that the cardiovascular system dwarfs every other muscle group in importance:
> “If it's just for your health, the only muscle you need to really work out is your heart.”
- **Compound Overlap:** Exercises like rows and presses pre-exhaust the biceps and triceps, leaving a need for only two direct sets per arm muscle at the end of a workout.
- **Cycling Power:** Sprinting on a bike at 1,000 watts for 30 to 60 seconds generates lower-body fatigue and development comparable to heavy compound squatting.
---
[57:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3425s) Training the Neck and Childhood Lifting Memories
The conversation shifts to aesthetic priorities and whether direct neck training is worth the effort. Greg jokes that Jack might need to thicken his neck to enhance his romantic appeal, affirming that a wider, more masculine neck visibly improves overall aesthetic presence and attraction. He recalls starting his own neck workouts at age ten using an old Ben Weider exercise chart from the 1960s, applying manual resistance against his own hands or wrapping a shirt around his head to create isometric and concentric resistance. Greg claims that simple manual resistance can increase neck strength by 50% through consistent application of high-effort isometric holds.
This prompts Jack to ask whether lifting weights at ten years old is healthy. Greg defends youth training enthusiastically, reminiscing about working out in his basement with his father and twin brother. Rather than playing outside all evening, he would count down the minutes until 7:00 PM so he could send his friends home from freeze tag and head downstairs to lift:
> “I fell in love with lifting weights with my twin brother and my dad in my basement at 10 years of age.”
Looking back more than four decades later, he considers those early training sessions foundational to his lifelong discipline and athletic career.
---
[59:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3570s) Overrated Exercises, Underdeveloped Rear Delts, and Why Abs Are a Waste of Time
When asked whether certain popular exercises are entirely useless, Greg pushes back against gym elitism. He defends disciplines like CrossFit, HYROX, yoga, and Pilates as legitimate sports and conditioning tools. Even specialized grip training has purpose for athletes like rock climber Magnus Midtbø, whom Greg recently met—noting that Midtbø even broke his thumb during an intense grip challenge. However, Greg highlights that front dumbbell raises are largely pointless for anyone who already performs regular bench presses or overhead presses, because the anterior deltoids are already disproportionately dominant. Most gym-goers suffer from rounded shoulders due to excessive pushing movements, making face pulls and rear delt work vastly more crucial for muscular balance and postural health.
Finally, Greg singles out direct ab training as the single most unnecessary workout for the average lifter. Abdominal definition is entirely a byproduct of achieving low body fat, not endless crunches. Core musculature is already heavily engaged to brace the torso across compound lifts, cable presses, and tricep pushdowns. When asked about his personal ab routine, Greg is unequivocal:
> “So abs are going to be worked regardless on everything else. So I don't train my abs ever.”
The discussion then pivots to recovery and performance enhancement as Jack asks for Greg's perspective on peptides, which Greg considers beneficial for mature adults who research them carefully.
[01:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3600s) Peptides: BPC-157, TB-500, and Injury Recovery
The discussion opens with the therapeutic potential of peptides, with Greg Doucette noting that while GLP-1 receptor agonists are technically peptides, the broader category holds promise if approached prudently through a doctor and a legitimate compounding pharmacy. One of the hosts shares a personal dilemma: having torn his hamstring on April 1st during an indoor recreational soccer league match, he remains in physical therapy months later and is contemplating taking BPC-157 due to widespread online acclaim regarding its rapid healing properties. Doucette confirms he has personal experience utilizing both BPC-157 and TB-500 to manage injuries, endorsing the compound as a calculated gamble for stubborn soft-tissue damage. While acknowledging that it remains an unapproved research peptide without definitive long-term clinical safety data, he argues that the guaranteed physical degradation of a recurring, unhealed tear often outweighs the theoretical risks of trying it.
The conversation turns to whether older individuals dealing with chronic wear-and-tear could benefit. The host mentions his 64-year-old father, who suffers from persistent foot soreness and minor strains after playing pickleball. Doucette agrees that healing peptides make sense in those situations, though he issues a cautionary note about the compound's regulatory and athletic status. BPC-157 is not FDA-approved, cannot be legally retailed in several jurisdictions, and lands athletes on the wrong side of anti-doping regulations. As Doucette puts it, “Hey, if I'm injured, I'm using it.”
- **Compounds Mentioned:** BPC-157 and TB-500, both categorized as experimental research peptides.
- **Regulatory & Doping Status:** Banned under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code and not recognized as natural ("natty") for tested competition.
- **Applications Discussed:** Acute muscle tears (hamstring) and chronic age-related athletic soreness (post-pickleball inflammation).
[01:03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3810s) Experimental Stem Cell Therapy in Mexico
Picking up on extreme recovery treatments, the hosts bring up Ronnie Coleman’s well-publicized trips to Mexico for stem cell therapy and ask Doucette whether he has explored the procedure himself. Doucette reveals that less than a year prior, he traveled to Mexico alongside three close friends to receive stem cell injections. Seeking relief for accumulated wear and tear, he had the cells injected directly into his shoulder and his hip—an area compromised by a major surgery years earlier—as well as his scalp, complementing two previous hair transplants in an ongoing bid to look “younger than last time.” He notes that the clinic presented the material in a sealed box with authentication paperwork, comparing the ritual to fine dining where servers present a certificate of authenticity for Wagyu beef before preparing it.
Doucette explains that the biological material was derived from human umbilical cord tissue rather than an embryo. When pressed on the regulatory transparency and whether patients can ever verify the sourcing beyond taking a leap of faith, Doucette admits he did not interrogate the medical staff about origin chains, assuming it was handled legally. Regarding the actual efficacy, he remains skeptical of definitive miracles, pegging the likelihood of noticeable improvement at roughly fifty-fifty. While he reports feeling improved joint function, he concedes that identifying a pure cause-and-effect relationship is difficult. The procedure also commands a steep price tag: Doucette estimates that even with a friend's promotional rate cutting the bill in half, the treatments cost roughly $15,000, placing them primarily within reach of well-off clients and professional athletes seeking any permissible biological edge.
[01:05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=3900s) Looksmaxxing, Clavicular, and Progressive Overload Dating
The dialogue pivots to the online looksmaxxing phenomenon popularized by internet personalities like Clavicular, and whether elevating facial aesthetics via the "halo effect" is more valuable than relentlessly pursuing muscular hypertrophy. Doucette draws a hard dividing line between benign self-improvement and radical physical alterations. He advocates for "soft looksmaxxing"—basic grooming, fat loss, flattering clothing, and age-appropriate styling—while fiercely condemning "hard looksmaxxing," which encourages extreme measures such as bone smashing, invasive jaw surgery, chin implants, limb lengthening, and early hormonal intervention. He voices deep concern over the psychological damage inflicted on vulnerable adolescents: “And so I think Clavicular overall is a horrible influence on the world. He's extremely popular. And I think that the people that look up to Clavicular are all people who are messed up. And they're probably 13 to 16 years of age.”
Doucette argues that indoctrinating impressionable teenagers into believing life is futile without an idealized "Chad face" strips them of self-worth and resilience when cosmetic efforts inevitably fall short. Instead of cosmetic surgery or facial trauma, Doucette suggests applying gym training logic to social anxiety and dating through a concept he dubs "progressive overload with women." Rather than attempting to approach the most intimidating women first, shy young men should build social stamina gradually:
> “Talk to a girl who's a one, you're too shy. Talk to a one. She's not intimidating, work your way up to a two, three, four.”
When the hosts mention using modern AI models (like ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude) to score their faces out of ten, Doucette reminisces about the internet's early rating culture in the early 2000s. Hailing from the small town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where dating options were limited, he joined the website *Hot or Not* in his early twenties, uploading black-and-white modeling shots showcasing his lean physique. He concludes that online rating tools only flatter the top tier: “So I joined Hot or Not and I would upload all my best model type photos where I'm like very lean and it's black and white, all the different things. And I would get rating. So it was good for me. But if you aren't at least an eight, it's useless. There's no point.”
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Looksmaxxing Approaches vs Progressive Social Growth
accDescr: A comparison showing soft looksmaxxing and social progressive overload versus dangerous hard looksmaxxing practices.
subgraph Harmful["Destructive 'Hard Looksmaxxing'"]
C["Extreme Interventions"] --> C1["Bone Smashing & Facial Trauma"]
C --> C2["Limb-Lengthening & Bone Surgeries"]
C --> C3["Underage Testosterone Usage"]
C1 & C2 & C3 --> D["Erosion of Self-Worth & Dysmorphia"]
end
```
[01:07:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=4072s) What Women Actually Find Attractive in Men's Physiques
The conversation turns to the physical traits women prioritize in men, with Doucette countering common male gym myths. He contends that women are drawn to a classic V-taper—broad shoulders paired with a trim waist—and standard "beach body" musculature rather than monstrous bodybuilding mass. He emphasizes that the single most neglected and misunderstood muscle group among men is the glutes, arguing that men routinely train for the male gaze or self-gratification while neglecting what women actually admire:
> “The most underrated muscle that men don't work on is by far the ass. By far. Every guy works out for themselves. They think they're training to impress girls. They're trying to impress boys and themselves.”
Doucette points out the contradiction in men spending endless hours on bicep curls and bench presses while refusing to perform hip thrusts, even though women watching American football are primarily admiring players' posterior chains. He notes that competitive Men's Physique competitors ironically wear knee-length board shorts that completely hide the lower body. While Doucette claims his own legs and glutes are his strongest body parts due to competitive cycling, he notes that maintaining a prominent rear end is difficult at single-digit body fat levels, since extreme leanness strips fat from the buttocks.
When the hosts bring up popular Reddit threads where women overwhelmingly claim that vascular forearms and broad, rugged hands are the most attractive male features, Doucette dismisses the claims outright. He argues that women often misstate what drives their primal physical attraction, noting that the internet thread had absurdly prompted young men to start performing specialized hand workouts: “Women are liars. Remember the last time I came on here, we said that you don't ask women what they think. You tell them what to think. Women do not care about the forearms.”
[01:10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=4200s) Arms, Looksmaxxing, and the Body Dysmorphia of Bodybuilding
The conversation opens with practical dating advice: rather than obsessing endlessly over minor physical details, men should spend less time on vanity and get a job, because women ultimately care about financial security. However, the hosts bring up an inescapable trend on social media and dating apps where women fixate on men’s arms. Greg Doucette notes that while women definitely appreciate a good arm, the standard required to impress people is actually quite low—far easier to build than impressive glutes. An individual does not need 17-inch arms like fitness influencer Will Tennyson to look remarkable; even modest muscle development looks striking. Greg points to popular YouTuber MoistCrITiKaL (Charlie / penguinz0), who weighs only around 155 pounds and is not an imposing guy, yet looks genuinely impressive whenever he flexes his biceps.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Coach Greg's Top 5 Self-Improvement Priorities
accDescr: A sequential flow illustrating the five primary steps Coach Greg recommends for men to improve their attractiveness.
A["1. Lose Body Fat<br/>(Single most important step)"] --> B["2. Complete Grooming<br/>(Get a sharp, modern haircut)"]
B --> C["3. Dress Well<br/>(Full wardrobe down to shoes)"]
C --> D["4. Straighten & Whiten Teeth<br/>(A great smile is noticed immediately)"]
D --> E["5. Build Noticeable Muscle<br/>(Develop modest lean mass)"]
```
Greg reflects deeply on the perils of becoming overly conscious about physical appearance. While bodybuilding gave him fame and an audience, he candidly admits that it pushed him over the edge into extreme body dysmorphia and led him to abuse anabolic steroids for a decade—a decision he deeply regrets. After competing in 42 shows completely natural, his desire to earn an IFBB Pro card finally drove him to use performance-enhancing drugs. He warns that the sport sets a psychological trap: after stepping on stage tanned and dehydrated, gaining back even 20 pounds of normal weight makes competitors feel “fat,” even when they remain leaner than the average person. Now 51, he cautions younger men who rush into PEDs at 16, 17, or 18: “I wish that people would realize that growing up is realizing Coach Greg was right all along.”
When asked to provide a checklist of the top five things a man should immediately fix to maximize his attractiveness, Greg outlines concrete steps:
- **Lose Weight:** Dropping excess body fat remains the absolute number one visual upgrade.
- **Get a Good Haircut & Groom:** Complete personal grooming is non-negotiable.
- **Upgrade the Wardrobe:** Wear well-fitted shirts, pants, and quality shoes rather than defaulting to gym tank tops and beat-up sneakers.
- **Fix and Whiten Your Teeth:** A bright, straight smile makes an instant first impression.
- **Build Lean Muscle:** Adding muscle fullness elevates physical presence, even if it falls far short of pro-bodybuilder proportions.
[01:12:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=4367s) The Hair Loss Dilemma: Finasteride, DHT, and Side Effects
The discussion shifts to men dealing with disadvantages such as being short or broke. Greg's blunt rule is simple: if you are short or broke, make sure you are not bald and fat, as being bald, fat, and short is the ultimate dating handicap. This prompts Jack to ask whether he should start taking finasteride to protect his hairline, especially since high DHT drives both his receding temples and heavy body hair. Greg firmly discourages him from starting finasteride, recounting that he and several friends experienced debilitating sexual side effects, including erectile difficulties and a loss of libido. Greg warns that drugs like Cialis (tadalafil) only resolve mechanical blood flow rather than restoring lost desire: “If you take Cialis, it doesn't make you want sex more; it just makes you ability to perform it if you're in the mood easier, but it doesn't increase that desire.”
Instead of finasteride, Greg recommends his HTLT supplement line's product, Fadogia Max (or considering dutasteride under supervision), arguing it helps maintain hair with fewer side-effect risks when dosed infrequently. Graham Stephan interjects with the opposing viewpoint, having taken finasteride daily for seven continuous years—initially 1 mg and later 0.5 mg—without experiencing any sexual dysfunction whatsoever. Graham notes that much of the initial fear is a nocebo effect driven by horror stories online. While Greg concedes that Graham has tolerated it well, he still advises Graham to cut back from daily usage to every other day, claiming an individual can capture roughly 80% of the DHT-blocking benefits with half the dose.
The hosts debate looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular's dramatic claim that losing one's hair means "losing everything." While losing hair hurts marketability, the group agrees that men with the right bone structure—such as Joe Rogan, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Statham, or even viral AI renders of a bald Logan Paul—can rock a shaved head with intense, masculine confidence.
[01:17:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=4625s) Why Modern Dating Apps Are Broken
Addressing the modern dating landscape, Greg Doucette pulls no punches: “The modern dating scene is a mess. Online dating is done. It's over.” He argues dating apps function solely for casual hookups reserved for men who rate an 8 out of 10 or higher. Because men vastly outnumber women on these platforms, average women (a “6”) consistently match and hook up with top-tier men (“8s, 9s, and 10s”) for casual encounters. This dynamic artificially inflates women's relationship expectations: after securing a high-value partner for a night, they assume they are entitled to commit to that caliber of man full-time, leaving ordinary men completely sidelined and ordinary women chronically unsatisfied.
```mermaid
flowchart LR
accTitle: The Online Dating Feedback Loop
accDescr: Flow diagram showing how skewed app ratios lead to hypergamy and broken dating dynamics.
subgraph Apps ["App Imbalance"]
A["Male-skewed app ratio"] --> B["Average women match with top 10-20% men"]
end
subgraph Loop ["Distorted Expectations"]
B --> C["Top men use matches for casual hookups"]
C --> D["Women anchor expectations to top-tier partners"]
D --> E["Women reject average men in real life"]
end
```
The hosts jokingly challenge Greg by pointing out that his partner originally direct-messaged him online. Greg counters that social media is distinct from blind swipe apps—she had watched his YouTube videos daily for three years and already knew his personality and character. To fix the modern dating market, Greg argues that traditional chasing dynamics need to invert:
- **Women as Gatekeepers:** Women are historically the gatekeepers of sex, while men act as the gatekeepers of committed relationships and marriage.
- **The Chasing Problem:** When men chase indiscriminately simply to obtain sex, women cannot decipher genuine romantic interest from casual lust, leading to heartbreak and cynicism.
- **The Solution:** Women should proactively initiate contact and chase the specific men they actually want long-term partnerships with, cutting through games and misaligned intentions.
Turning to finances, Greg asserts that men should shoulder financial obligations and pay for everything they realistically can within a relationship. Even if a woman earns a significant income—such as his own partner, who makes over half a million dollars annually—providing fosters safety, comfort, and masculine attraction. To close the segment, Jack asks Greg to rate his looks on a 1-to-10 scale. Greg rates Jack an 8 out of 10, assuring him that between his height, appearance, and internet notoriety, he easily surpasses the competitive threshold needed to thrive.
[01:20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=4800s) Meeting Women Through Shared Hobbies vs. Instagram DMs
When discussing where Jack should go to meet romantic partners, Greg Doucette emphasizes the necessity of stepping away from screens and engaging with people in physical settings through shared passions. Jack jokes about loitering around the aisles of Trader Joe's, but Greg insists that participating in real-world recreational activities is the premier route to finding compatible partners. Jack points out his love for pickleball, though Greg playfully cautions that the average demographic on public courts consists mostly of 60-year-olds. However, Greg shares that his personal circle back home in Halifax breaks that mold completely: “We had the Zaddy Cup at my house not too long ago.” He hosts an annual tournament on his birthday filled with athletic, good-looking players. His broader point remains firm: whether someone is into pickleball, basketball, or curling, immersing oneself in group activities naturally sparks conversations with like-minded individuals.
Graham Stephan interjects with his own comedic matchmaking efforts on Jack’s behalf. Rather than relying on public encounters, Graham routinely scrolls Instagram, hunts down profiles that look intriguing, and sends them directly to Jack as potential candidates. Graham notes that because he has sent Jack so many recommendations, the Instagram algorithm has completely warped his personal feed into endless clips of female pianists and visual artists. Graham explains that he deliberately filters for women demonstrating genuine artistic craft—such as someone delivering a beautiful performance of the "Moonlight Sonata"—in hopes of locating someone with authentic substance beyond generic influencer photos.
Jack admits that while sending unsolicited direct messages from the comfort of his couch is far less daunting than approaching strangers in a grocery store meat aisle, the reality of Instagram dating is brutally competitive. He observes that when an attractive woman crosses the threshold of roughly 10,000 followers, approximately 85% of her audience consists of men. Within that pool, there are invariably elite suitors: wealthy entrepreneurs, exceptionally handsome men, or seasoned players who constantly practice their game. With so many high-status men actively sliding into their direct messages, breaking through the digital noise requires immense luck.
---
[01:23:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5016s) The "Shotgun Effect" and First Date Rules
Greg analyzes how global connectivity has severely distorted modern dating standards. Because attractive women on social media receive constant attention from international jet-setters offering luxury trips and yacht vacations to Dubai, expectations across the board have inflated unnaturally. As Greg puts it: “This is just a horrible thing on the internet is that the whole world is able to date these people so that everyone thinks that their guy is two levels up from them.” Under this skewed dynamic, women rated as an eight strive exclusively for tens, while sixes pursue eights, leaving nobody willing to date within their realistic peer bracket.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Modern Dating Funnel Strategy
accDescr: Greg Doucette's process for navigating skewed online dating dynamics and filtering dates.
subgraph S1["Outreach: The Shotgun Effect"]
A["Identify 10 attractive prospects with shared interests"] --> B["Send direct, forward invitations"]
end
subgraph S2["Date 1: Low-Cost Filter"]
B --> C["Casual venue: coffee or walk in the park"]
C --> D{"Filter: Genuine connection vs. financial opportunist?"}
end
subgraph S3["Date 2: Serious Investment"]
D -->|"Passes filter"| E["Invest money & plan formal dinner"]
D -->|"Fails filter"| F["Move on to next prospect"]
end
```
To combat these odds, Greg advises Jack to adopt what he calls the "shotgun effect"—casting a wide net by reaching out directly to roughly ten women at a time rather than agonizing over one. He cautions Jack against being overly hesitant or polite, recommending an upfront, straightforward message acknowledging their talent, expressing attraction, and inviting them out that very evening. However, Greg outlines a non-negotiable rule for the first outing: keep the financial investment near zero.
- **First Date Discipline:** Avoid expensive dinners or flashiness; choose simple activities like grabbing a casual coffee or taking a walk in the park.
- **Filtering Motives:** Low-cost dates immediately weed out individuals who agree to meet solely for a complimentary luxury meal or a man's wealth.
- **Escalation Rules:** Only after compatibility, genuine interest, and shared values are established on date one should money be spent on higher-end second dates.
---
[01:25:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5128s) Bulking Debates and Rating Kevin's Physique
The conversation takes a sharp turn back toward bodybuilding protocols when Jack brings podcast producer Kevin into the studio to settle an ongoing fitness disagreement. Jack reveals that Kevin had previously advised him to follow a traditional bulking phase—eating at a surplus to pack on mass before undergoing a grueling cutting phase to get lean. In contrast, Greg had just spent the earlier portion of the interview arguing that Jack should lean down first and build muscle gradually from a lean baseline. When pressed, Kevin admits Jack would look aesthetically better lean, but claims he only recommended a bulk because Jack's stated priority was purely adding muscle mass.
Greg firmly dismisses the idea that one must choose between staying lean or building muscle, asserting: “You can stay lean and put muscle on at the same time.” Jack relishes the vindication, playfully rubbing it in Kevin's face before revealing the true motive for dragging him on camera: having Coach Greg inspect and officially rate Kevin’s physique.
Kevin obliges by pulling off his shirt, and Greg is visibly blown away by the dramatic physical transformation Kevin has accomplished over the past year. Greg immediately awards the physique an elite score: “It's a 9.5 out of 10. Are you kidding me?” Greg breaks down Kevin’s standout genetic and training strengths, marveling at how drastically he has bulked up while preserving aesthetic conditioning. He highlights Kevin's exceptionally tight, small waistline, his pronounced and visible abdominal wall showing through without even flexing, broad shoulders creating a sharp V-taper, and vascularity already surfacing across the muscle bellies.
[01:25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5100s) Critiquing Kevin's Physique and the Sculpted App
Kevin turns around so Greg Doucette, Graham Stephan, and Jack Selby can inspect his back. Greg awards him an immediate "nine and a half out of ten," telling him bluntly: “You don't need any more muscle to attract girls. You're set where you're at, right?” Kevin jokes that he is running "600 milligrams of TRT," but clarifies he has simply been lifting consistently for the past three months after having originally started training around age 16. Greg points out that muscle memory made the rapid rebuild possible, remarking that Kevin already looks insane and warning that most women actually view excessive muscle as a turnoff. Comparing Kevin's look to Bruce Lee, Tristyn Lee, or a lighter-muscled Hussein Farhat, Greg reiterates that wide shoulders and a tiny waist are all a man truly needs. When Kevin asks which muscle group he should prioritize next, Greg jokes about seeing his glutes on camera before giving his real bodybuilding recommendation: bring up the side delts to stretch the shoulder width even wider. Because Kevin is currently lean, Greg notes he has room to bulk, whereas bulking with an extra ten pounds of body fat would be foolish.
The conversation turns to fitness technology when Graham asks about an AI system that could assess weak points. Greg explains that he and Eric Janicki developed the *Sculpted* app, launching on October 1st. The app was built by feeding in roughly 200 bodies, using Greg's own body-fat assessments to train the model. Users upload physique photos from angles including the back, wait a few minutes for processing, and receive an automated breakdown of their body-fat percentage, lagging body parts (such as undersized biceps), and a custom training plan designed to balance their frame.
---
[01:28:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5280s) The Normalization and Dangers of Teenage Steroid Abuse
Greg tackles the premise that most men who take anabolic steroids would have been far better off never touching them. He agrees without hesitation, emphasizing that unless someone is addressing clinically diagnosed low testosterone under the direct supervision of a prescribing physician, unsupervised use inevitably turns destructive: “most people who take steroids are not doing so with the advice of a doctor.” Users take excessive doses, shave years off their life expectancy, and only realize their mistake when they are old and the damage is irreversible. Greg stresses that steroid culture has grown horrifyingly normalized, with 16-year-olds openly running gear and bragging about their cycles online.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: The Social Media Steroid Pipeline
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how older influencers using steroids create downstream cycles among younger teenage fans.
A["Influencer Uses & Flaunts Steroid Physique"] --> B["Gains Fame, Likes, and Brand Sponsorships"]
B --> C["Sponsors Younger Fans (Ages 12-16)"]
C --> D["Teens Emulate Idols by Starting Cycles & Peptides"]
D --> E["Health Deterioration & Premature Mortality Risks"]
```
Jack asks whether preaching transparency about steroid use serves as genuine harm reduction or inadvertently acts as promotion. Greg admits it cuts both ways. While honesty prevents fans from expecting unnatural results without drugs, it also spreads awareness of performance-enhancing compounds—resembling old anti-drug or sex-ed dilemmas where talking about a taboo subject leads some people to experiment. Greg estimates that for every 5,000 people inspired to hop on a cycle because of his channel, at least 10,000 decided against using steroids or quit after hearing his warnings. Still, if he had a 16-year-old son wanting to copy his bodybuilding prime, he would strongly advise against it: “bodybuilding one of the worst sports you could do in the world so i wouldn't if i had a kid be like happy that they want to follow my footsteps and do the same sport.” He would steer his child toward running, basketball, or pickleball instead of subjecting themselves to the exhaustion, misery, and drug pressure of competitive bodybuilding.
---
[01:31:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5460s) The "TRT" Excuse and the Rise of Cosmetic Drug Culture
Greg argues that the surge in testosterone replacement therapy is largely fraudulent: “If I had to put a percentage, I would say at least 90% of people on TRT don't need it. And it's just an excuse to go on a cycle.” Jack compares this pipeline to Adderall abuse, and Greg agrees, noting that people get a taste of enhanced recovery and muscle fullness, want more, and escalate their dosages. Even a standard clinic dose of 200 to 250 mg per week is a light steroid cycle rather than true replacement therapy, and Greg admits that even his personal dosage of 140 mg is higher than what most men naturally require.
Greg reflects on his own career, recalling that he competed naturally across 42 shows. Instead of receiving respect, he faced relentless pressure from gym peers asking what he was waiting for and urging him to jump on drugs. Unlike Olympic track athletes who treat doping as clandestine cheating, the bodybuilding community treats gear as a baseline expectation. Most testosterone users today are not athletes aiming for athletic performance; they are regular guys trying to look ripped with their shirts off in the summer. Even so, Greg maintains that fitness influencers as a whole make society healthier, as the vast majority promote exercise and nutrition rather than elite-level bodybuilding cocktails.
---
[01:33:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5610s) Eric English and the Perils of Teen Influencer Culture
When asked to name the single worst fitness influencer today, Greg points directly to Eric English. Because English is only 16 years old, his audience consists of impressionable kids between the ages of 12 and 16. Greg points out that English has openly taken steroids and promoted banned peptides to the point where Instagram banned his account, yet he continues pushing the same content on TikTok to chase size. While Greg condemns the behavior, he feels sympathy for the teenager's circumstances: “the way I see it is it's almost not his fault because he's so young. He was almost groomed to be like this.”
- **Family Background**: English rose to fame around age 11 alongside his sister, presenting wholesome fitness content; his mother passed away from cancer a couple of years ago, leaving only his father to guide him.
- **Industry Peer Pressure**: Signing with fitness apparel brands like YoungLA placed English around older, enhanced creators whose physiques set an unrealistic standard.
- **The Validation Loop**: Rather than classic body dysmorphia, Greg diagnoses English's reckless drug use as an intense dopamine addiction fueled by social media metrics, where every added pound of muscle yields hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of comments claiming he will be the next IFBB Pro.
- **Generational Fallout**: With millions of teenagers watching a kid achieve fame, wealth, and status through steroids, viewers naturally conclude they should hop on gear as well—a cycle Greg warns will soon drag the age of first use down to 12.
[01:35:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5700s) The Lethal Cost of Teenage Gear Abuse: Eric English and Steroid Rebound
The conversation shifts to teenage fitness influencer Eric English and the severe physiological toll of his extreme steroid regimen. Coach Greg Doucette notes that English recently posted about being diagnosed with sleep apnea at only 16 years old. When someone rapidly packs on sheer muscle mass, the neck thickens dramatically, creating heavy pressure against the airway. This mechanical restriction leads to nocturnal suffocation, repeatedly waking the individual throughout the night and depriving vital organs of oxygen. Greg emphasizes that sleep apnea is merely an initial symptom of systemic breakdown; unchecked steroid abuse cascades into devastating damage across the kidneys, liver, and cardiovascular system. At English's current rate—having gained roughly 80 pounds of muscle in just a year or two and bench-pressing 405 pounds at age 16—Greg issues a dire warning about his life expectancy.
When asked whether English has sustained irreversible damage or could recover by stopping immediately, Greg explains that while youth allows some resilience, lasting structural harm is almost guaranteed. Greg shares his own experience with left ventricular hypertrophy (pathological heart enlargement), an irreversible condition caused by his past performance-enhancing drug (PED) use that remains despite currently being off heavy cycles. Halting steroid use cold turkey presents its own physiological crisis because endogenous testosterone production halts completely while running exogenous compounds. Without a structured post-cycle protocol using compounds such as enclomiphene or hCG to restart natural production, users experience profound hormonal crashes lasting six to twelve months. Greg recalls that when he stopped abusing gear after a decade, his testosterone crashed to a catastrophic 47 ng/dL, forcing an endocrinologist to step in.
“I think if he continues to abuse steroids like this, he'll be in his mid-20s.” — Greg Doucette
“And I know that if I don't prescribe this, you will have worse health than if you do this because your body is not producing testosterone, which is bad for your heart and all these things.” — Greg Doucette (quoting his endocrinologist)
- Eric English put on an estimated 80 pounds of muscle within one to two years and achieved a 405-pound bench press at age 16, a feat Greg did not reach until his mid-20s.
- Left ventricular hypertrophy involves permanent remodeling and enlargement of the heart muscle, often shaving years off long-term life expectancy.
- After a decade of steroid use, Greg's natural testosterone dropped to approximately 47 ng/dL before medical intervention with hormone replacement therapy (TRT).
---
[01:37:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5868s) Togi's Redemption and the Remaining Vice
The hosts ask Greg whether his assessment of influencer Togi has evolved over time. Greg acknowledges that Togi underwent a massive turnaround. He went from being one of the most toxic voices in the fitness space—openly glorifying heavy anabolic abuse and recreational drugs—to finding religion, getting clean, and donating half of his earnings to charitable causes. The primary ongoing criticism Greg has is Togi's persistent promotion of online gambling. Greg reflects on the psychology behind it, comparing Togi's drive to promote gambling to his own past compulsion to promote competitive bodybuilding: when someone is consumed by a destructive passion, they naturally want to share it with their audience, even if it harms others.
Greg takes pride in having contributed to Togi's shift through his public critique videos. Togi himself has made videos referencing Greg's critiques, stating goals such as wanting to get better blood panel results than Coach Greg. Seeing an influencer respond to accountability by actively monitoring their health markers and stepping away from hard substances validates the utility of calling people out publicly. When asked for his direct advice to Togi today, Greg's prescription remains concise: keep up the positive lifestyle transformation, continue charitable efforts, and completely drop the gambling sponsorships.
“Well, Togi used to be the worst influencer, but since that time, he went from promoting steroids and using recreational drugs all the time to basically donating half his money to charities and not doing drugs and finding God.” — Greg Doucette
“It's like, you love it so much. You want other people to share your passion, but that passion is horrible.” — Greg Doucette
---
[01:39:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=5947s) Realistic Aesthetics vs. Extreme Suffering: Brad Pitt & Cristiano Ronaldo
The discussion turns to a visual evaluation segment where the hosts present Greg with photographs of celebrity and athlete physiques to assess whether they can be attained naturally by average individuals. Looking at a shredded Hollywood build in the style of Brad Pitt's classic movie physique, Greg estimates that approximately 25% of the population possesses the genetic capacity to reach that look naturally. However, doing so requires relentless discipline, structured cardio, and potentially a GLP-1 receptor agonist to suppress hunger. Even for those genetically capable, the chronic suffering required to stay at that sub-10% body fat level makes everyday life miserable, leaving people depleted just to harvest compliments on their conditioning.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Natural Attainability of Celebrity Physiques
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating the natural genetic feasibility and lifestyle trade-offs of Brad Pitt vs Cristiano Ronaldo physiques.
subgraph Pitt["Brad Pitt Physique"]
P1["25% Population Feasibility"] --> P2["Extreme Caloric Restriction"]
P2 --> P3["Constant Hunger & Fatigue"]
end
subgraph Ronaldo["Cristiano Ronaldo (Photoshopped)"]
R1["10% Population Feasibility"] --> R2["5-10 Years Rigorous Training"]
R2 --> R3["Elite Genetics Required"]
end
```
The hosts then display a widely circulated, heavily Photoshopped image of soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. Greg points out that the manipulated image sets an unrealistic standard that even Ronaldo himself does not match in real life. Greg estimates only 10% of men could ever match that combination of fullness and leanness naturally, requiring five to ten continuous years of peak athletic training and dietary sacrifice. When the hosts ask how their producer Kevin and co-host Jack would fare, Greg notes that Kevin actually has the structural aesthetics and narrow waist needed to potentially surpass Ronaldo's look in five years, whereas Jack lacks the specific skeletal framework and muscular belly insertions to duplicate it naturally, regardless of how strictly he trains.
“Without extreme suffering and having a shitty life, definitely not.” — Greg Doucette
“A Photoshop version of Cristiano Ronaldo is way harder to get than Brad Pitt.” — Greg Doucette
---
[01:41:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=6100s) Hollywood Physiques: Michael B. Jordan and the Diminishing Returns of Training
Evaluating Michael B. Jordan's muscular, low-body-fat appearance from the *Creed* films, Greg states outright that the actor is not natural and relied on anabolic compounds. Greg clarifies that while one in a thousand men with elite genetics could conceivably build that physique naturally over a lifetime of training, the dead giveaway in Hollywood is the timeline of the transformation. Natural lifters average roughly five pounds of lean muscle gain per year once they pass beginner stages; gaining 20 pounds of dry muscle in a four-to-six-month movie preparation window is biologically impossible without chemical assistance.
```mermaid
flowchart LR
accTitle: Diminishing Returns in Natural Muscle Growth
accDescr: Diagram showing the jump from basic training to optimal effort yields only modest incremental gains.
A["Baseline Training (6 days/week)"] -->|"Delivers"| B["80% to 90% Maximum Potential"]
B -->|"Optimization (Sculpted App, Diet, Sleep)"| C["Remaining 10% to 20% Growth Window"]
```
When Jack suggests he could naturally achieve the physique of a massive, heavily built screen actor (speculated to be around 6'6") within a single year of hard training, Greg dismisses the idea as completely delusional. Jack protests that he could push harder and tighten his diet, but Greg explains the principle of diminishing returns: since Jack already works out six days a week, he is already capturing 80% to 90% of his natural genetic potential. Upgrading from moderate training to absolute perfection—flawless macros, targeted training, and using Greg's Sculpted app—only moves the needle by an incremental 10% to 20%. Turning into a massive Hollywood action lead within 12 months would require exogenous testosterone, not merely more effort. The segment concludes with Greg looking at a photo of fitness model David Laid and instantly shutting down any natural comparisons.
“So Michael B. Jordan is not Natty. So he's using steroids to look like this.” — Greg Doucette
“Like the difference from training moderately hard to like perfect and having the best app, like using my Sculpted app, doing everything, you're only going to talk about 10 or 20% difference here.” — Greg Doucette
“Now there's 0% chance you can look like this guy.” — Greg Doucette
- Rapid Hollywood muscle gains (e.g., 20 pounds of lean mass packed on in four to six months) serve as the primary indicator of PED use rather than the static physique alone.
- Consistent gym attendance of six days a week captures 80% to 90% of available natural adaptations, leaving only a 10% to 20% upside for program optimization.
[01:45:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=6300s) David Laid, Past Physiques, and Samson Dauda
Coach Greg breaks down the physique and history of fitness influencer David Laid, describing him as one of the most aesthetic individuals the industry has ever produced, ranking right alongside Jeff Seid. Standing roughly 6'3" and around 200 pounds completely shredded, Laid rose to fame off a viral transformation that began when he was a skinny 13- or 14-year-old with virtually no muscle mass. Greg addresses whether Laid achieved this naturally: while Laid has admitted to using banned peptides—which officially disqualifies him from being natural—Greg points out that his most suspicious phase occurred during his late teens. Back then, Laid managed to jump his bench press by 80 pounds (from 315 to 395 pounds) in roughly three months and was deadlifting between 675 and 700+ pounds at only 18 or 19. While Greg believes Laid might be natural today aside from peptide use, he previously labeled him "not natty" because a natural lifter could not reach that level with those proportions.
The hosts then pull up an archival pool photo of Greg from around 2006, taken the day after a bodybuilding contest. Greg explains that he was strictly natural at the time, weighing only around 164 to 166 pounds. Despite weighing far more today, that contest conditioning made him look deceptively massive. Graham wonders how long it would take for him to reach that condition, and Greg bluntly quips that it simply won't happen. The conversation shifts to a side-by-side morph of Samson Dauda carrying an extra 100 pounds of muscle. Asked how long it would take for Graham to attain Dauda's build, Greg jokes that it would take “until they develop AI robots and he can transfer his brain into the robot.”
[01:46:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=6418s) The Genetic Ceiling of Sam Sulek vs. Anton Ratushnyi
Discussing viral phenom Sam Sulek, Greg expresses astonishment at Sulek’s scale: even at his peak around age 40 while on heavy gear, Greg was never as big as Sulek is at roughly 230 pounds shredded in his early twenties. When asked if Sulek could ever become the number-one bodybuilder in the world, Greg gives a flat, definitive answer:
> “Zero percent chance, not even a one in a million shot of being number one him, not even close.”
Greg argues there is barely a one-in-a-thousand chance Sulek could crack the top 50 in the world. He explains that Sulek has already maxed out the weight cap for the Classic Physique division; adding even five more pounds of muscle would force him out of the category. The core issue is skeletal genetics and silhouette. Sulek lacks the narrow waist, expansive shoulder width, and classical lines required to match elite champions like Chris Bumstead (CBum), Ramon Dino, or Mike Sommerfeld. While placing eighth in a pro show is remarkable, Sulek simply has nowhere higher to climb.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Genetics vs Mass in Classic Physique
accDescr: Diagram contrasting Sam Sulek's genetic limits with elite structural ideals in Classic Physique bodybuilding.
subgraph EliteAesthetic["Elite Structural Standard (e.g. Anton / CBum)"]
E["Tiny 4-inch Smaller Waist"] --> G["Crisp Muscle Insertions & Full Bellies"]
F["Extreme Clavicle Width"] --> G
G --> H["Unbeatable V-Taper & Stage Presence"]
end
B -.->|"Blocks competitive jump to"| EliteAesthetic
D -.->|"Loses comparison against"| EliteAesthetic
```
To illustrate, Greg mentions 22-year-old phenom Anton Ratushnyi, whom he saw backstage right before the interview:
> “Anton is 22 years of age. Anton could not diet for a month and still beat him at the future best that he could ever be. It's not even close.”
Greg explains that Anton’s waist is about four inches smaller, his muscle bellies are rounder and bubblier, and his detail is far crisper. Elite aesthetics rely on specific genetic advantages rather than total muscle mass. Greg notes that while Chris Bumstead has mediocre quads and hamstrings from the front and average biceps, he dominates because of his unrivaled clavicle width, side-chest pose, and signature vacuum. Sulek possesses great individual parts, but lacks the total genetic package.
[01:49:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=6586s) The Dark Economics of Pro Bodybuilding
The discussion moves to prize purses and the financial realities of competing at the highest level. Greg details that smaller pro shows pay as little as $2,500, while premier events like the Arnold Classic and Mr. Olympia award between $500,000 and $600,000 to the champion. However, preparing for the Open division costs an exorbitant amount:
> “The top guys, not classic, but like open bodybuilding, and it's mostly on growth hormone, would be upwards of $100,000 a year to prep for that.”
Because of these massive expenses, most competitors go broke pursuing the sport. Greg reveals the industry's open secret:
> “Most bodybuilders are selling steroids to pay for the drugs that they're doing themselves in order to compete. So most pros for a living sell steroids. It's just it's in secret.”
Because top athletes boast world-class physiques, fellow gym-goers naturally want to buy performance-enhancing drugs directly from them under the table. Others make ends meet as trainers who quietly supply products to their clients. Unless an athlete achieves rare social media celebrity like Sam Sulek—who is already a multimillionaire—competing at the highest level requires deep personal funds. Greg notes that while exceptional genetics allowed him to win shows naturally in his early days, he relied on a standard nine-to-five job, teaching school all the way up through the year he earned his IFBB pro card.
[01:52:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=6736s) Evaluating Brett's Physique and Shoulder Training
The hosts invite their friend Brett onto the set to be evaluated by Greg. Standing 6'3" and weighing 205 pounds, Brett strips off his shirt. Greg rates Brett's physique a 9.9 out of 10 for everyday appeal, remarking:
> “This would be a physique that all the girls would like. All the girls would like this physique for sure.”
When assessing Brett under competitive bodybuilding criteria, Greg notes that his waist is not exceptionally tiny and his frame is not ultra-wide. Comparing Brett to the earlier guest Kevin, Greg says that if both took steroids, Kevin would have the superior competitive bodybuilding structure, even though Brett looks far more attractive to the general public.
Greg assumes Brett is not natural due to his sheer muscle fullness at 6'3", but Brett insists he has only taken an over-the-counter prohormone once, a decade prior. Brett admits he carries most of his mass in his upper body—displaying a full chest, broad arms, and lean abs—while hiding skinnier legs beneath sweatpants. Greg points out that Greg himself weighs 190 pounds despite being eight to nine inches shorter, illustrating how Brett could add lower-body mass.
To improve Brett's frame and create the visual illusion of a smaller waist, Greg suggests focusing heavily on shoulder development, pointing to Mr. Olympia winners like Derek Lunsford and Andrew Jacked as examples of extreme V-tapers. When asked for the single best shoulder exercise to build overall mass, Greg recommends machine shoulder presses over lateral raises, though he emphasizes that lateral raises remain essential for adding side-delt width.
[01:55:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=6900s) The Reality of "Victim Weight" and Ideal Body Size
After guest Eric English finishes showing off his movement routine and heads out, Greg Doucette, Graham Stephan, and Jack Selby discuss his height and build. Greg notes that while Eric is impressive at 6'3" and 205 pounds, his legs are likely on the leaner side relative to his massive upper body, because someone at that height with that much visible muscle would typically carry even more weight. Jack shares that he is 6'0" and 175 pounds, which brings up the popular gym trope of "victim weight"—the internet stigma that any adult male under 200 pounds is scrawny and weak, regardless of their leanness or conditioning.
Greg pushes back strongly against this obsession with hitting the 200-pound milestone. He explains that friends often complain they cannot get below 200 pounds, to which he bluntly points out that they are simply carrying excess body fat and would look fantastic at 170. When asked what an ideal weight for a six-foot man is, Greg clarifies that there is no universal number, but 180 pounds lean is an exceptional, healthy target. He cautions that being a lean 200 pounds at six feet tall means you are an absolute physical monster, citing an IFBB Pro named Julian whom he coached; Julian placed 13th at the Mr. Olympia while standing six feet tall and weighing in the 190s. Greg reminds them that he himself earned his pro card at just 175 pounds, concluding that for the vast majority of six-foot men walking around at 200 pounds, they are simply overweight.
- Eric English’s stats discussed: 6'3" tall, 205 pounds.
- Jack Selby’s current stats: 6'0" tall, 175 pounds.
- Coach Greg’s benchmark for a healthy, lean 6'0" male: approximately 180 pounds.
- Pro example: Julian, a 6'0" IFBB Pro who competed at the Olympia weighing in the 190s.
- “So if you're six foot and 200 pounds, you're probably fat,” Greg points out, confirming that most guys at 6'2" and over 200 pounds are carrying unnecessary fat rather than pure muscle.
---
[01:57:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=7025s) Coach Greg's Business Numbers: GNC, Cookbooks, and Algorx
Graham asks Greg for an updated breakdown of his business earnings, prompting Greg to explain where his revenue currently comes from. He reveals that HTLT Supplements recently secured a major retail partnership with GNC, which he views as a critical milestone for expanding the brand internationally beyond just the "Coach Greg" persona. On YouTube, his ad revenue has dropped from peak years of over $1 million annually down to around $800,000, partly because his raw view counts have decreased. He also earns over $20,000 per month on Snapchat.
While his famous digital cookbook sales have slowed down to a few hundred thousand dollars a year—down from their multi-million dollar peak—his primary financial engine is now Algorx (a compounding pharmacy/telehealth and peptide company), where he is one of three owners. Greg notes that Algorx does approximately $20 million per year in sales and has grown roughly sixfold since he began heavily promoting its doctor-prescribed peptides in his videos. He emphasizes that if you count Algorx, he is making more overall profit than ever before, though he has zero interest in releasing another cookbook because the creative excitement is gone and he simply does not need more money.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Coach Greg's Business Revenue Streams
accDescr: Diagram illustrating Greg Doucette's diversified business ecosystem across retail, content, and telehealth.
- Cookbook sales peaked historically when Greg made $104,000 in a single day by selling 1,004 books at $100 each.
- Following that record day, cookbook sales maintained an average run-rate of roughly $25,000 per day for an entire year.
- Greg asserts that HTLT's retail presence in GNC is designed to build a sustainable, science-based legacy with innovative products like Turkesterone from Uzbekistan and Ferula Max.
- “I think after a half a million dollars a year, all the money is just like useless,” Greg remarks about personal wealth. “It's not increasing your style of living. I don't need to be on a private jet.”
---
[02:01:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=7310s) Fitness Influencer Tier List: Trend Twins, Togi, Liver King, Larry Wheels, and Will Tennyson
Graham and Jack hand Greg a tier-list board to rank popular fitness figures from S Tier down to F Tier based on two separate metrics: their physique and their overall impact on the fitness community.
Greg starts with the Trend Twins, slotting their impressive physiques into A Tier but dropping their overall influence to C Tier because their heavy association with trenbolone and open steroid usage encourages young followers to turn to performance-enhancing drugs rather than sustainable health. Next, Graham shows a photo of Caleb Hammer; Greg immediately laughs that the personal finance YouTuber is an obvious F Tier for both physique and fitness influence.
Moving to Togi, Greg rates his physique as A Tier due to his lean, wide-shouldered frame, but assigns his influence an F Tier because he openly glorifies steroid cycles without promoting consistent hard training. Liver King receives the same split: an A Tier physique for his shredded, vascular condition at his age, but an automatic F Tier for influence due to his lies and fraudulent marketing. Larry Wheels is given an S Tier for his freak-of-nature powerbuilding physique, but placed into D Tier for influence, as Greg feels viewers watch him for sensational strength stunts rather than practical fitness guidance. Finally, Greg looks at Will Tennyson, praising him as S Tier for beginners due to his entertaining, positive, and relatable approach to health. However, Greg catches himself and debates whether he should bump Will down slightly because aspiring lifters might assume every elite aesthetic physique is achievable naturally.
| Influencer | Physique Tier | Influence Tier | Coach Greg's Reasoning |
|:--- |:--- |:--- |:--- |
| **Trend Twins** | A Tier | C Tier | Incredible, jacked physiques, but their name and steroid use encourage dangerous shortcuts over fitness. |
| **Caleb Hammer** | F Tier | F Tier | Financial creator; not a fitness influencer. |
| **Togi** | A Tier | F Tier | Great height and taper, but glorifies reckless gear usage and erratic gym effort. |
| **Liver King** | A Tier | F Tier | Exceptionally shredded for his age, but built on blatant deception and deceptive carnivore marketing. |
| **Larry Wheels** | S Tier | D Tier | Phenomenal elite mass and strength, but serves as shock entertainment rather than a guide for health and cardio. |
| **Will Tennyson** | S Tier / High Tier | S Tier (Beginners) | Excellent, approachable content for newcomers, promoting fitness and health in an accessible format. |
- “And I do believe that if you follow the Trend Twins, you're more likely to want to use steroids and not as likely to be pushed for fitness and health,” Greg says when explaining their lower grade.
- On Larry Wheels: “I don't think that he's a positive influence for most people like he's more of a of a shocking freak factor.”
- On Will Tennyson: “For a beginner, he has an S-tier channel in terms of promoting fitness and health is definitely what you want out of a person.”
[02:05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=7500s) Rating Influencers: Will Tennyson, Derek, David Goggins, and Sam Sulik
Greg Doucette continues grading prominent fitness personalities across two categories: their channel/information quality and their physique. Starting with Will Tennyson, Greg places him in A tier across the board: “Will Tennyson, I'm going to put him as a fitness influencer in A tier... a tier for physique, A tier for being a fitness influencer, and the only reason he's not S tier is because he's not really a purely a fitness influencer, he's more like a guy that does a bunch of different things.”
Next is Derek from More Plates More Dates. Greg admits it is hard to rate someone who has effectively stopped uploading content: “Derek doesn't do videos. I'm going to give him a C tier because he used to be great, but he doesn't do anything anymore. And I'm going to say his physique, probably B tier.” Greg adds that Derek ran gear in the past and considers him essentially retired from the fitness space.
For David Goggins, Greg awards an A tier in both categories, praising his sheer drive: “David Goggins for fitness and whatnot, I would say he's A tier because he's exceptionally motivating and inspiring. And if you even have 10% of what he has, you're going to do really good.” He notes Goggins walks around in single-digit body fat and stays extraordinarily fit.
Greg then evaluates Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. While acknowledging his muscle mass and motivational appeal, Greg docks him heavily for perpetuating unrealistic expectations: “The Rock for a fitness influencer... A tier. I mean, he's got a lot of muscle. He looks great. For motivation and inspiring, I think he's really good. But the fact that he's lying about being natural and that he's used steroids for years, I'm going to put him at C tier because he's going to encourage a lot of people to do steroids.”
Turning to Sam Sulik, Greg gives him an A-tier influencer rating and an S-tier physique. Although Sulik uses gear, Greg notes that he never promotes or glorifies performance-enhancing compounds to his viewers: “I normally would penalize him more for being a guy that's on steroids, but he doesn't encourage steroids. And he has a really, really good channel. And so I'm going to put him up at A tier. One step below from being S tier. If he was natural and did the same thing, he would be S tier.”
When rating himself, Greg puts both his physique and his channel in A tier. He refuses to put himself in S tier for the exact same reason he penalized Noel Deyzel: because he is open about his past steroid use and current hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which might unintentionally tempt impressionable viewers down that path.
Chris Bumstead (CBum) receives a B tier for fitness information but an “S-tier plus” for physique. Greg observes that since retiring from competitive bodybuilding, Bumstead's channel has felt less dynamic: “I think Chris, his information for me is for like guys who are like older, like 30 plus, but most of his fans are probably younger.” However, Greg praises Bumstead's high-level mental approach to training.
Finally, Jeff Nippard earns an A tier for both information and physique. Despite past public squabbles, Greg credits Nippard's production value while noting a minor critique: “I think a lot of his information studies a bit too much and he omits how he really feels about something just to show the science and so I don't think he's 100% honest in some of the things that he presents, but overall A tier for most people, amazing editing on videos, great quality videos.”
---
[02:08:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=7725s) Evaluating Mike Israetel, Lean Beef Patty, Joey Swole, and Mike O'Hearn
Greg moves to Dr. Mike Israetel of Renaissance Periodization. He assigns Israetel a D-tier physique purely due to midsection distention: “For physique, I would say he's got a D-tier physique. It's because of the stomach, unfortunately. I don't think that anyone aspires to have his physique. It's not F. He's not fat. He's still got something. But I think for abusing steroids, it's not very good.” For information, Greg awards him a B tier, calling him very smart with high-value educational content, though Greg feels the channel is brought down slightly by crude or off-the-wall humor.
Jesse James West is rated as having an A-tier physique, almost touching S tier, but his channel sits in B tier because the content is heavily entertainment-driven and aimed at a younger crowd, lacking substantial take-home fitness education.
In contrast, Greg heaps praise on Lean Beef Patty (Patricia Parker):
- **Physique:** S tier.
- **Channel / Information:** A tier.
- Greg highlights her vulnerability and honesty regarding past and ongoing battles with eating disorders, making her an exceptional role model, particularly for female lifters.
When Joey Swole appears on screen, Greg hesitates on the name for a moment before recognizing him by his catchphrase: “You need to do better.” Greg assigns Joey Swole's channel a C tier due to repetitiveness: “Joey Swole is great, but he's one-dimensional. He's only got one thing... once you've seen one Joey Swole video, you've seen all of them.” While Greg respects Joey's anti-bullying gym culture crusade, he assigns him an S-tier physique while warning that Joey's year-round single-digit conditioning requires an unnatural regimen that lifters should not emulate.
Next is Mike O'Hearn, who receives an S-tier physique ranking:
- Greg notes O'Hearn is 57 years old, looks incredible, and that they had just met in person for the first time earlier that day, chatting for 30 minutes.
- For his channel, Greg ranks him at C tier due to his decades-long insistence that he is natural, alongside training advice that leans heavily on old-school 1970s and 1980s dogmas rather than modern sports science: “If he came out and said 'I'm a fake natty,' I would have to then put him up to A, but we've got to keep him there.”
Alex Eubank earns an S-tier physique and a B tier for content. While Greg notes Eubank uses HRT at dosages that exceed replacement levels, he respects Eubank's openness about it, as well as his personal ethics: “He could be making half a million dollars extra, a million dollars a year if he promoted gambling, which he didn't do. You got to give him respect for that.”
---
[02:12:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu2Jx1vz7s&t=7935s) The Search for an S-Tier Creator and Outro Banter
When asked why nobody received an S tier for their channel, Greg explains that nearly every top male creator either relies on PEDs, spreads misinformation, or acts purely as an entertainer. He asserts: “I think that if Noel Deyzel were natural, S tier. Outside of that, do we have an S-tier fitness creator? S-tier fitness influencer? I can't think of any.”
When Tristan Lee is brought up as a candidate, Greg immediately dismisses the idea: “Tristan Lee is not even close. I don't think Tristan Lee is natural and he's 5% body fat all the time. I would have him as a B tier. Tristan Lee is not close to S tier.” Greg predicts that an S-tier creator might emerge in the future, or might already exist within female fitness creators who remain natural, combine cardio and strength training, and focus on holistic, balanced health.
| Creator | Physique Tier | Channel / Info Tier | Primary Factors Noted by Greg |
|:--- |:--- |:--- |:--- |
| **Will Tennyson** | A | A | Broad variety content rather than pure fitness; solid physique. |
| **Derek (MPMD)** | B | C | Essentially inactive/retired; past gear usage. |
| **David Goggins** | A | A | Phenomenal conditioning; extreme mental drive and inspiration. |
| **The Rock** | A | C | Huge muscle mass, but penalized for claiming natural status. |
| **Sam Sulik** | S | A | Phenomenal physique; avoids preaching gear use to his massive audience. |
| **Greg Doucette** | A | A | Self-rated; caps himself due to HRT/steroid past. |
| **Chris Bumstead** | S+ | B | Legendary physique; channel is less urgent/engaging post-retirement. |
| **Jeff Nippard** | A | A | Elite video editing and research; occasionally over-relies on studies over lived nuance. |
| **Mike Israetel** | D | B | Distended midsection hurts physique tier; sharp scientific knowledge. |
| **Jesse James West** | A | B | Great aesthetics; entertaining stunts over deep instructional lifting knowledge. |
| **Lean Beef Patty** | S | A | Top-tier physique; open and vulnerable about eating disorders. |
| **Joey Swole** | S | C | Incredible condition; formulaic content and unnatural look. |
| **Mike O'Hearn** | S | C | Unbelievable shape at 57; penalized for fake natty claims and outdated advice. |
| **Alex Eubank** | S | B | Great aesthetics; honest about HRT, turned down predatory gambling sponsors. |
Following the tier list, Graham Stephan and Jack Selby thank Greg for coming on the show and admire his luxury watch. This sparks a lighthearted debate about watch fit: Greg explains that his watch band is fitted to maximum length and is actually slightly too tight on his wrist—leaving indents and forcing him to take it off in the cab ride over—whereas Graham thought it looked loose and remarks that he prefers his own watches fitted snug, while Greg prefers enough room to slide a hand under.
The hosts close the episode by thanking the viewers and pointing channel members to an early preview of an upcoming episode featuring a creator who boasts a verified Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices IQ of 160.
## Video description
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:56 - Is Fat Shaming Effective?
00:10:09 - The Hidden Dangers of Ozempic
00:14:12 - Sponsor: BetterHelp
00:15:53 - The Fastest Way To Lose Fat
00:20:53 - The Supplements Coach Greg Takes Every Day
00:29:37 - Sponsor: AG1
00:31:14 - Sponsor: Ethos
00:32:34 - How To Stop Overeating
00:43:27 - Why You Should Stop Bulking
00:54:32 - The Muscles You Can Stop Training
01:02:09 - Sponsor: Claude
01:03:30 - Stem Cells & Looksmaxxing
01:07:52 - What Women Actually Find Attractive
01:17:05 - Why Online Dating Is Dead
01:27:45 - Will Steroids Kill Eric English?
01:39:07 - Can You Look Like Ronaldo Without Steroids?
01:49:46 - How Pro Bodybuilders Really Make Money
01:57:05 - How Much Money Coach Greg Makes
02:01:50 - Fitness Influencer Tier List
02:16:01 - WATCH THE NEXT EPISODE!
*Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan & Jack Selby will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan & Jack Selby are part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available.
Coach Greg Doucette argues that modern fitness culture harms long-term health by overemphasizing excessive muscle mass, normalized steroid abuse, and extreme bulking over sustainable leanness and cardiovascular conditioning. He asserts that while GLP-1 receptor agonists make obesity largely solvable, genuine health requires honest baselines, volume-focused nutrition, and prioritizing aerobic endurance over cosmetic bulk.
Body Fat Baselines, GLP-1s, and Social Accountability (0:00)
Doucette contends that obesity stems roughly 50/50 from biological hunger drivers and personal accountability, arguing that the availability of GLP-1 medications removes practical excuses for chronic obesity. He identifies optimal health targets at approximately 15% body fat for men and 25% for women, cautioning that commercial assessment tools like InBody bioimpedance are inaccurate scams compared to honest visual appraisal or clinical hydrostatic tests. For harm reduction, dropping from morbid obesity (around 50%) to 25% represents a vital health victory.
While Doucette acknowledges that GLP-1 receptor agonists level the playing field, he warns against side effects like anhedonia, dopamine blunting, and elevated heart rates—particularly with unapproved triple agonists like Retatrutide, which can raise resting heart rates by 5 to 11 beats per minute. He also critiques excessive body positivity and participation trophies as enabling chronic health decline, arguing that blunt, reality-based feedback is often necessary to push individuals toward medical accountability.
Cardiovascular Priority and the Flaws of Bulking (12:35)
Rejecting traditional bodybuilder 'bulking and cutting' cycles, Doucette recommends 'maingaining'—holding a stable, healthy body fat percentage within a narrow three-to-four-point window year-round. He points out that the statistical average person in modern society is already crossing into obesity, meaning that striving to add scale weight is counterproductive. Pushing past 20% body fat degrades hormonal profiles and hinders lean growth. Because a pound of muscle tissue requires only roughly a 2,700-calorie surplus—averaging just 30 to 140 calories daily over a year—it is easily offset by daily non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).
Doucette stresses that outward muscularity masks severe internal decay, noting that blood work from competitive physiques often reveals wrecked lipid profiles, tanked testosterone, and organ strain comparable to morbid obesity. Having shifted his own training from heavy lifting to competitive cycling, Doucette maintains that the heart is the most crucial muscle and that VO2 max dwarfs skeletal muscle size for longevity. He advocates a streamlined twice-weekly full-body routine using machine circuits and compound movements over time-consuming split routines and isolated muscle targeting.
Volume Eating Over Willpower for Appetite Control (34:00)
Conventional dietary advice to simply exert willpower fails because extreme hunger biologically overwhelms restraint, leading roughly 95% of dieters to binge in the evening. Doucette explains that the mechanical stomach distension mimicked by GLP-1 drugs can be achieved naturally through high-volume, low-calorie density eating. His personal protocol pairs large two-liter bowls of thick, 300-calorie protein ice cream with massive salads composed of leafy greens and lean protein to physically stretch the stomach lining without caloric surplus.
He also advises dieters to beware of high-calorie 'health foods' that sabotage fat loss, highlighting peanut butter and Nutella as dense calorie traps. Doucette notes that whole peanuts are preferable to peanut butter because roughly 30% of their calories pass through the digestive system unabsorbed, whereas concentrated nut butters make maintaining a caloric deficit exceptionally difficult.
Teenage Drug Abuse and the Cosmetic TRT Wave (88:00)
Doucette strongly criticizes the unchecked normalization of performance-enhancing drugs, estimating that at least 90% of men claiming to be on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) are using it as an excuse to run cosmetic steroid cycles. Standard clinic protocols of 200 to 250 mg per week represent mild steroid cycles rather than true replacement. He warns that social media algorithms create toxic feedback loops where teenage creators, such as 16-year-old Eric English, are incentivized by brand sponsorships and viral metrics to abuse anabolics and experimental peptides, causing irreversible physiological damage.
He further highlights the grim economics of professional bodybuilding, noting that Open competitors often spend over $100,000 annually on growth hormone and compounds to chase show purses that may pay as little as $2,500. As a consequence, many competitors quietly sell anabolics under the table to fund their personal drug habits. When rating online figures, Doucette penalizes influencers who glorify PED abuse, dishonesty, or dangerous shortcuts, praising instead creators who display transparency, advocate sustainable natural training, or prioritize balanced cardiovascular health.
Doucette maintains that true physical health requires dismantling the illusion that muscularity equals wellness. However, questions remain regarding how regular trainees can navigate the gray area of longevity medicine, given Doucette's concurrent skepticism of recreational PED abuse alongside his commercial promotion and personal use of unapproved peptides, stem cell therapies, and compounding clinic protocols.
[0:00] bodybuilding is the worst sport you could possibly do. What do you think about fat shaming? I think fat shaming can absolutely work. Is it really bad that I don't want to be fat? That I don't want to be unhealthy? So if someone's trying to ascend, give us the first five things they do today. Number one is Mr. Mike is delusional. He's convinced himself in order to cope that he's on low doses. What if Mike Isretel came to and said, look, I don't like it when you make these videos you want, talk about me whenever you want. Just because I'm popular. And if I fall off tomorrow, Greg will never make another video about me again. What muscles do you think women look for most in men? All these guys doing hand workouts to try to impress. I'm like, I don't know. Look, spend less time of that and get a job and have some money. Girls care about your wallet. How does a 16 year old look like this? A lot of steroids and a lot of working out. Like 16 year olds are doing steroids now and bragging about it. It's at this point, it's, it's insane. Who is the worst fitness right now. Greg, thank you so much for coming on the Ice Coffee Hour. So we have a series of fitness claims and that you're going to either agree or disagree and they're sprinkled throughout the structure of this video. You ready? Sure, let's do it. In 2026, there is no excuse to be obese. Definitely. I've said that a number of times with the GLPs nowadays, you can use them, everyone can use them, if you can afford it, that is, and you will absolutely lose weight. So if weight and use a glp and by glp's i mean ozempic terzipitide retitutri you can and will lose weight it is literally easy now how much of that is personal choice versus genetic it's probably 50 genetic and 50 personal choice because some people are born with more fat cells and more ghrelin which is a hunger hormone and so if you're born with more fat cells more ghrelin it's way harder to stay skinny there's always that food noise but you can choose to eat healthier foods more fruits and you know, cuts of meat, whatever, to allow yourself to eat less calories and do more exercise. And so you can overcome it. It's just way harder for people with bad genetics. But with the GLPs, literally, Easy. Everyone's in a level playing field. No excuses now. So what percentage of body fat should every single person watching this be under for male and female? There's no number to be under. It's more so to do with your own health and your range. Everyone has a certain range of body fat that's comfortable for them. But in general, a man should be at about 15% body fat for ideal health reasons, a woman around 25%. As you get higher than that, there's going to be more and more negative consequences. say somebody that's, for example, morbid obese, let's say you're a guy with 50% body fat. I'm not going to tell him you get down to 15, but maybe for him, 25 is healthy. Somebody else that's at 30, maybe they can only get to 20. But The closer to 15, the better, assuming it doesn't cause any problems. You recently posted a video just titled Clueless Fat People. What do you think fat people are clueless about? How to lose weight and what it takes to get there. Because if they knew, they would literally do it. Do you think that it's actually a problem of education? I think it's half education and just half people not giving it. Like just literally just... I don't care. I'm just not going to think about it. People don't think about the things that they're doing. For example, with alcohol, they don't want to think that it's a poison. They don't want to think it's a class one carcinogen by the World Health Organization. So rather than think about it, they just put it off and don't actually do any thought on it whatsoever. Is it a thought though, or is it more about willpower? I think it's a lack of thought. When I was drinking, I didn't think, oh, it might give me cancer. I'm just like, it's just drinking. It's fun. Or if somebody's gambling, they're I might make some money. They're not thinking, what if I get addicted and lose my house? Same thing with food. So what changes psychologically in someone's brain if they go from something like 25 or 35% body fat down to 15 to 17% body fat? Because it's hard to get someone to care about something if they don't care. Is this something that they could start to care about so they don't have to force themselves to care about something if they decrease their body fat? Well, they could absolutely start caring about it. And the biggest thing is when people are at whatever they are right now. So let's say there's a viewer at home and they're at 40% right now. Life isn't bad. I'm sitting here watching Coach Greg. iced coffee hour, this is a good time. I walk to the store, I walk from my car to wherever, and I feel good. They don't realize how unhealthy they actually are until they actually get in shape. So there's one woman that I was doing that response to where she said, I feel fit. She was 400 pounds. And I'm like, if I felt like you, I would be in the worst state of my life. I would be absolutely hating my life. And if you felt like me, she would think, what you're missing. So the people who are overweight, they think everything is great until they lose the weight and then they then realize
[5:00] wow, my former life was terrible. Is it true that sometimes people who are obese feel the craving of hunger stronger than other people? They absolutely do. Almost all of them. That's why they're obese. My opinion is that people who are obese, it's mostly like a genetic thing, or at least it's 50% genetics. Now, there's a lot of people who are not obese who are not obese because they fight through it. They have the willpower or they're doing cardio. Like if I wasn't doing 10 hours on my bike every single week or more and lifting weights and eating healthy, I wouldn't be this lean. I would maybe be at 20%, but I wouldn't be at 40%. And so my genetics don't allow me to get that fat. So I'm lucky. I'm fortunate that way. So I mean, I wish they had the same genetics as me, but a lot of people have great genetics and they still don't care. They eat horribly and they end up overweight. How real is the ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph thing? Like can someone actually distill their physique or like natural body type down to one of those groups? It's on a spectrum for all of them. So it's kind of like height. I'm... a manlet, I'm five foot six, I'm short. Somebody can say you're short, Am I really short? It's on a spectrum. I'm not three feet tall. I'm not six foot six either. So it's the same like that. If you have an endomorphic body, which means you're going to be really, really fat and you weigh 600 pounds, it's absolutely true. If I tried... to be a 400 pound man for a billion dollars to save every soul in this world i couldn't do it i could try i could just to save every person on this planet everyone be cheering for me i couldn't get to 400 pounds my body wouldn't allow it i would eat that much food i would throw up it wouldn't stay down i physically physically couldn't do it those people some of them they have to struggle to get under 400 pounds when do you think compassion turns into enabling a lot of people online will be nice to people who are overweight it's okay don't worry you're trying oh you took 10 000 steps it's like you're just giving them a participation trophy and i don't think that that works and they're on the other hand they're going to say yeah but you yelling at them and calling them fat isn't going to work either well there's maybe there's somewhere in the middle that would be the ideal point but every person that's watching videos if you're watching me saying you're fat and you need to start exercising healthier if you don't you're watching, if it's mine and it makes you lose weight, awesome. If it's not, don't watch me. Watch somebody else. But as long as it works. That's the bottom line. Is fat shaming effective? I think fat shaming can absolutely work. I think it's a great thing for many people. For some people, it's not. But I think without fat shaming and with body positivity and accepting everybody, then we just accept mediocrity. I just think that people will say, oh, you're 300 pounds. Oh, it's good. It's okay. We love you no matter what. I'd rather hear them say, do you realize you're taking 20 years off of your life? What is wrong with you? Lose some weight. Look how fat you are. You think a girl's going to want to go out with that way men will say to a guy friend hey you're fat Women will say to a girl that's 300 pounds, no, you're a 10 queen. But imagine telling that girl saying you look like her. What are you talking about? So I feel like men treat other men more in a reality and women treat other women more like, oh, no, it's OK. But behind the scenes, they're all fighting. So. So then when can fat shaming become cruel? I think when the person tells you. Look, what you're saying bothers me. I don't want you to do it anymore. And if you continue, that's when you're crossing the line. But without that, then why not keep going? Like if you have to stand up for yourself, you don't like how somebody's treating you, how they're talking to you, how they're teasing you, whatever, what name they're calling you. Like if they're saying fatso, say, look, I don't like it when you call me fatso. Can you please stop doing that? It offends me. If somebody said that to me, I'm not going to do it to them anymore. And so without that, where do you stop? I mean, are you not trying to treat other people like you're a dad or an uncle trying to stop people? it when you make these videos on me you have these titles and they put me in a bad light and mike israel has literally said you can do anything you want talk about me whenever you want let's say he calls you and he changes his mind and he says hey man this this hurts my feelings what you're saying about me i'm really self-conscious about my calves He's self-conscious about his tan. If he said, let's see. Mr. Mike is selfish. The rules for these, not for me. Mr. Mike is selfish about his tan. We've had talks in the past, and I eased up on him quite a bit for a long time until the... That research thesis paper there came out. So I have stopped in the past on several different people who have wrote me in private. I've taken multiple videos down. It depends. Every situation is different. What do you think the body positivity movement is getting into? I think that it should be more accepting for people who are, for example, have handicaps or disabilities. If they're trying and they're making an effort, then you should accept that. But if it's a lack of effort and whatnot, then I don't think they should let them off the hook. I don't really see it as much different than if somebody is an alcoholic or a drug addict or they're abusing steroids and you say, "Look, you need to stop doing what you're doing." No one would say that that's bad. Like if we see somebody who's literally a drug addict and we say, you need to stop doing the drugs, it's bad, you're going to kill yourself.
[10:00] So, no one would say that's a bad thing, but if somebody's eating themselves to death and you say you should stop eating themselves to death, then people are okay with it. It's just what's socially acceptable. That's the only difference. So, do you think obesity is going to become a lot less common over the next 10 years? It's already becoming less common with the obesity drugs. Absolutely. With the GLPs, way, way less people are going to be obese. What about the risk of taking these drugs? Like expanded over the course of the next 10 years, what do you think is the worst case scenario? And what do you think is the most realistic case scenario? I think there's definitely risk to taking the GLPs like anhedonia, like laugh of feelings. I mean, there's some people taking these GLPs that are not wanting to gamble anymore. They're not wanting to drink. They don't have as much excitement in life. They don't want to have sex as much. They don't want to gamble as much. And so your drive to be human or to enjoy things is diminished. So that is a bad thing. Now, overall, I think that people who don't need to use GLP shouldn't use them. So if I said I'm going to use a GLP, you'd be like, well, why would you do that? I'm already lean enough. And so if you're overweight or obese, to me, No problem. But if you're already able to maintain a healthy body fat percentage without it, then you shouldn't use it. Isn't the lack of drive, though, purely due to consuming less food and having less energy? The lack of drive for sex and gambling? I don't think so. But partially, I think that it would be a partial reason for that. Yeah, because if I'm trying to lose a little weight and I'm eating a lot less, I just find myself, I got brain fog. I'm not as motivated. Versus if I'm just kind of eating whatever, I do feel that like a little more energetic. Like when I would diet for bodybuilding competitions, my desire to have sex would go way down. Although something like smoking cigarettes, I don't think would be the same. I think if people eat less, they probably want to smoke more to reduce their drive to eat. But definitely that's you've got to be onto something there. So is there something that's harmful about taking these weight loss drugs? Definitely. For example, Retta. increases your resting heart rate by sometimes five or ten or i did a video on a guy he has a 11 beats per minute higher resting heart rate he was uh feeling sick he had nausea so there's a lot of side effects but almost all these side effects are people are doing the drugs at too high of doses i'm just from my own personal anecdote on friends and people i've coached i think three quarters of people start with too high of a dose i think the doctors are prescribing too much and i think it's because pharmaceutical companies want the drug to work the first time they want people to see and a really low dose to start and titrate up if and when they need it. The doctors are prescribing really high doses. People are then losing weight really quickly thinking it works. But I think the lowest dose that makes you happy is what people should be doing. So if we use The same drugs, but in lower doses, I think we'll have better effects. Now the next quote we have here... is that the average guy should stop thinking about getting bigger, and start thinking about getting leaner. Oh, yes, absolutely. The average guy is too big. Like most people are fat. Most people are overweight at this point. The average person is pathetically like a horrible looking body. The average female I think is 5'3, 171.4 pounds. 171 pounds. Exactly. It's horrendous. Is that really the average? I'm almost positive that's the average. The average woman is about 5'3 and just over 170 pounds. And so if you look at 5'3 and 170 pounds, it's not pretty. It's not an ideal. So when somebody says, "Hey, I'll tell people, I measure their body fat and it's at 33%." I say, "Hey, that's just a cut off of obese, but you're almost average." That's not a compliment. Like being average is an insult. And so, yes, lean, way more people would live longer, have a healthier life and look better by being leaner. And the drive to be bigger, even if it's just muscle, most people have enough muscle, to be honest, like most people are not dying because they don't have enough muscle unless they're like really old. But having a lot of muscle, it's honestly overrated. I mean, it's coming from a bodybuilder and powerlifter. I lift weights twice a week now. I still have plenty of muscle. Like you don't need as much, but I do a lot of cardio. And I think that leaner is going to give you way more benefit in life than having like 20 pounds more muscle than you have right now. One of the things that I noticed is that it seems like a lot of people are on the GLP ones, like the Ozempics and all that. It seems like a lot of that is looked down upon. Like, oh, you're relying on those. Why? You couldn't just like diet and exercise. Why do you think that is? Now, look, the pressure to look a certain way can take up a lot of your headspace. You can be making real progress while also feeling like you're not doing enough. And when you're thinking so much about your physical health, it's easy to overlook how try, it might be worth another look. We partnered with their sponsor BetterHelp, and they've just made a huge change. For eligible members, insurance options may now be available with co-pays as low as $15. So I've mentioned this briefly on the show before, but I have had ADHD my entire life. So I actually signed up for several different sessions on BetterHelp, and I was genuinely, extremely pleasantly surprised with the results from those. 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It seems like a lot of that is looked down upon. Like, "Oh, you're relying on those. Why? You couldn't just like diet and exercise. Why do you think that is?" looking for an excuse to put you down because they're not doing something. The people who are putting you down for taking a GLP are not people on GLPs. The people who put you down or myself down for being on HRT are not on HRT themselves. So you're trying to lower other people to bring yourself up. People will cheer for you when they're down, but if you get ahead of them in any way, then it's like, okay, I don't like you now. So as soon as somebody hears that somebody's on a GLP or HRT or a peptide or any of these things, basically they're like, well, that person They're leaner than me. They're stronger than me. And so I want to insult them. And so you didn't do it natural. And so that's the put down. On the topic of getting lean, what is the best way that you would recommend someone do that? And how do they know their body fat percentage? Because the actual way of figuring that out is like getting in the water, right? Like the water displacement and stuff like that's very complicated and exhaustive. Like not the average person has access to that. Like how can the average person assess their body fat percentage as well as get it to a nice level? Well, body fat assessment, the problem is most of the things that people have thought were accurate are actually scams. So, for example, the in-body scan, it's an in-body scam. It guesses your body fat. Mine was 19 plus percent. And on the DEXA scam, I was... 8% give or take and I was 19% on the in body so both of those are not really accurate methods the skinfold caliper test I like it more than that the hydrostatic weighing test I like more than the others as well but that's a lot of work the skinfold caliper test is great if I'm the one doing it but the problem is it's only as accurate as the person measuring it so you have to interpret that same as an MRI machine even an MRI machine which is like the golden standard for everything you still have to be able to interpret that data it's like if you're a radiologist and you're But it doesn't really matter because most people are fat anyway. And so if you can't just ask your friends, Am I lean? Like, Is this good? Or even yourself. That's all you need. You should be able to look in the mirror and decide for yourself. Am I fat? Now, BMI, not really a great method because with more muscle, your BMI is going to be higher. My BMI is actually obese. My BMI is too high. So if you can't look in the mirror and decide if you're fat or not, then that's a big problem. And then in order to decrease your body fat percentage, what would you say are the best ways of doing that? Because I see a lot of people saying, oh, I just started walking 15,000 steps per day. I cut these things out of my diet. I started doing this exercise. What do you think is the best way of doing that? Well, the S tier, God tier is calories in, calories out. So being in a deficit. And whatever makes you do that is S tier. So for me, doing a lot of cardio, I love it. If you hate cardio, I'm not going to tell you. All you have to do is ride 10, 15 hours on a bike a week and you're going to be lean. Yes, they would be, but they might not want to do it. Maybe for that person, GLP is the way. Maybe for somebody else, it's OMAD or it's intermittent fasting or it's eating more fruits and vegetables or it's eating more protein. So whatever works for you, that is the ideal method. So just find out what works. Now, one thing that's not going to work is taking a bunch of steps. There's just been a guy, he posted and it's kind of went viral. He did 10,000 steps. How many calories does 10,000 steps burn? It only burns 285 calories and it took him 93 minutes above what you burn off at rest. He did 10,000 steps, 93 minutes. He's wearing a mask. It measures your oxygen and carbon dioxide. That's all it is. He's a 190-pound man. He's about my size. 190 plus calories for an hour of walking. That's like half a cheeseburger. What about walking on an incline? It'll double the calories burning on the flat. Way better. So for me, I would advise everyone, you got to do zone two cardio. At least 150 minutes a week. That's the minimum. That's not to lose weight. That's like the minimum just for basic health. I would double that. So for me, cardio zone two, over time, get better at it. You can burn more calories. What's the difference between having good health and having a good physique? A good physique, like we're here at the Mr. Olympia. watching this they all look like they have great physiques and almost all of them have horrible health almost every single one if I took the blood work of every classic physique body
[20:00] bodybuilder, men's physique, bikini girl. If I took their blood work right now and tested them, they would probably be as fit as somebody who's morbidly obese. Almost all of them. So just because you look super fit doesn't make you fit. And so some of the most important things is your VO2 max. And how do you improve that? By doing cardio. So if somebody isn't doing cardio, I'm going to argue that they're not nearly as fit as they could be. What do you look for in the blood results like that? Like what's going to show up out of range? Well, see, one of the problems with bodybuilding steroids your testosterone levels are going to be tanked if you're using steroids your cholesterol is going to be horrible and I guess your chances of having a heart attack or a stroke or any kind of cardiovascular event in the future is going to be bad you could lose your kidneys your liver could be like a down i mean on the downward path to being a problem like what's your current stack right now okay i do 140 milligrams of hrt a week 80 milligrams every four days um so that's all i'm doing for like testosterone or steroids or growth hormone or insulin people oftentimes think i'm doing a bunch of other things that's it for as far as anabolic i don't do sarms i don't do any things i'm doing five to ten milligrams of cialis a day um that helps me in the gym it helps me in Honestly, it makes you look way... Just using Cialis in the gym can give you such a great pump and look so much better. Is that healthy? Cialis at 5 milligrams a day, I would argue, is healthier than not taking it. It increases blood flow to all the organs, not just the downstairs, but your muscles as well. But let's just say you're functioning normally as it is. You're getting blood flow. Do you need to take it? Nothing is in need. Just like you don't need HRT. Technically, I don't need HRT. my testosterone levels would go back to normal but i function great at 700 to 800 nanograms per deciliter i'm really happy with that i'm sure i would survive at 500 but i don't want to so for me i i like that so nothing is really a need but it's really just for the pump at the gym or is there like a hand in the bedroom and in the bed is there a health benefit and in the bed is there a I would argue that the bedroom benefit is a good benefit. I'd rather do 10,000 steps in the bedroom than 10,000 steps outside. What are you looking at me? I don't mean to look at me. He's staring at me. I'm just listening. That's it. My ear is closer to his mouth. First of all, he recommended you do Cialis. I think you both should be doing Cialis. You've got to try Cialis. One person especially should be doing Cialis. Actually, one thing, well, I guess this is not a really great example, but I think it was Dr. K, if you're familiar who that is. Dr. K? I'm familiar with that. I don't recommend it. I think it was testosterone. I could be completely misquoting him. Definitely not testosterone, but maybe better blood flow or leanness. The more body fat you have, the more you're going to cover up the veins. You're not going to see any of this. But if you're leaner… But if you take Cialis, then you're going to be able to see just generally… Much more. I mean, there's like Brian Johnson, the man that wants to live forever, not the liver king that kind of lost his mind. He takes Cialis every day, and he's invested multi-millions of dollars to live longer. And there's a correlation between how much hardness you have during the night and longevity. So it increases more blood flow better blood flow you live longer But I mean who wants to live if you can't get the blood flow in the right spots? So even if I'm very satisfied with my overall body I should still probably take Cialis. I don't think there's a you should take it I think that you could take it if you want it to be more optimal, but if you're already happy I would love to be maximally optimal because I have like now introduced vitamin D3 into my diet previously to take my creatine because I would skip because I've introduced vitamin D3. It's now like the more things that I take, the more easy it is to remember to take them. So I'm at the point now where I'm like, bring it on. Like, give me everything. I find it easier to remember because I open my... little chart of like 15 pills I take every morning with the G02 Max and the Turk Builder and all the different things. And it's like, it's just easy. It's every day I take it. If I had to just remember one bottle at a time, I would do it. I think G02 Max of the pills that I take would be one of the best ones. The studies have shown it's like, dramatic improvements in cardiovascular endurance and they're not even sure if it's so much is it improving your cardio or is it making you want to do more cardio which is improving the cardio so like which came first the chicken or the egg but if whatever pill you can take that's going to make you do more cardio it's going to be better for you increase dramatically they're they're what if you take it but you don't do cardio the people that took it in the study they didn't they didn't tell them go do cardio they didn't say practice they didn't put them on a diet they didn't do anything and they basically put said walk a mile and we'll see how long it group and the group that didn't take it. And the group that took it walked way faster, like dramatically, huge improvements, which was dose dependent, which is even a stronger correlation that it's effective because you take a little bit and you were a bit faster, but you took a lot and you were a lot faster. Very, very good.
[25:00] indicator that it works. So I would recommend GO2 max highly. So what else? I really believe in the Turk Builder Max. I think that that's great for improving people's endurance in the gym and strength, drive, determination, wanting to push harder, build more muscle, leaner, drier appearance. Also, omega-3 fatty acids, I take that. So just your basic omega-3 from Costco, for example, Cialis. Other than that, I mean... Do you need it? Not really. None of these do you absolutely need. But I think if you're looking for optimal performance and having things that actually will move the needle, I think these are effective. So two things. One is what about a daily multivitamin? And then second of all, of these pills that people could be taking, like the vitamin D3, how do you make sure that they're taking the right one? Because I've heard from so many people online saying, oh, take vitamin D3, but only take it if it has this. Take magnesium, but only take it if instead it's glycinate, it's three and eight or it's this or it's that. Like, how do you know what is honest and what is not? I think there's information overload. And if you start worrying about, okay, it has to be this brand and not that brand. And it has to be this or that, that's too much. What I recommend is you get your blood work done and you get a full panel. You test everything because you might not need vitamin D at all. Like you need to look in your blood work. I got mine done. I mean, I got it from Algorx of course, which I own part of the company, but my vitamin D was low. And I'm like, well, really? Cause I did not believe in taking a multivitamin because I eat so much food and such a variety of food, fruits, vegetables, like everything. I'm like, there's no way I could possibly need a vitamin. And then here it is that I do. And a lot of people need more iron. So I don't need iron. Iron's great, but a lot of people are low, low iron. And so with the blood work, you can then say, I need this or I don't need this. So to just say, yeah, you should take vitamin E or vitamin D or coenzyme Q10 or whatever. It's like, What do you individually need? And so if you said, my sex dive is amazing, and I take a pre-pump, and I go to the gym, and I train great, and my veins are popping, I feel, scallus is not needed. But if you're like, it could be harder. Or if your girl says, yeah, you could be harder, you want to take it. So what would you say then is the 80-20 for the average person to do? Where if they just want to get the basics for 80% of the results, they do this. I would say the most important supplements to take would be creatine. I think, like you said, vitamin D. I think that's a really important one. Omega-3 fatty acids, I think those are really important. And I would say G02 max just because... As good as Turk is, it's more for like lifting weights in the gym. And so I'm more a fan of cardio. Like I really think cardio trumps weights, trumps muscle anytime. I mean, I've made videos where I'm like muscles don't matter as much as you think. And they clip me and say, oh, this is stupid. But I'm like, you're just coming from a bodybuilder that has retired from bodybuilding and powerlifting and now does cardio. So I think that what makes you do more cardio is more important. Yeah, what I did since our last podcast, I did a full blood analysis with function health. And it turned out I was deficient in vitamin D was one of them. And there were like a few others. It was like, I think it was zinc. And like there were maybe three or four. But I plugged it into Claude. And it said, based on these readings, I'd recommend these just over-the-counter supplements that I bought on Amazon. And it was just all easy stuff. Did not cost that much money. And I started taking them. And I think within about three months, I felt probably 10 years younger. Wow. In terms of like, I would wake up. wasn't like groggy. I felt like more energetic. I'd have just clearer thought. It was incredible. I think one thing that can make a difference that we haven't spoken of is anything that can help you sleep better. I think sleep is one of the most underrated things in this world. If there's something that can help you sleep, like you mentioned zinc, magnesium, these things, if it works, I mean, sleep is a good thing. Whatever it is that makes you sleep better, I don't care if it's eating before bed that does it even. I don't even care if it's weed. Sometimes I'll take edibles with THC to help me sleep better. I've got put down on the internet for saying that. When you stare at the night, like last night I was up for two hours straight and I had to go in and get like two milligrams of Zolpacone to get back to sleep. I'm just staring. I couldn't sleep. I'm like, I need to sleep. And so when you don't get a good night's sleep, it ruins the next day. So whatever it is you need to take that helps you sleep is so important. Like if it's melatonin, that is paramount. Better sleep, better cardio, better weights, better feeling, less stress, everything. What do you think about Reddit True Tide? things to slip when life gets busy, especially this time of year, because the days are getting shorter, the holidays are coming up, and having your routine you could actually stick to, trust me, makes a huge difference. Which brings us to our partner, AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink. One scoop, cold water, shake it up, and you've got
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The link is also down below application times may vary and rates may vary what do you think about reddit trutide reddit i think that it's not legal yet and so i don't think people should do it i don't think it's uh approved yet it's a you're you're playing russian roulette with your health you're basically a guinea pig overall i think it's going to be approved i think it's going to be effective but of the three glps that that are out there like those epic truzipatide reddit i think it's the most dangerous one and it's has the most potential to help you lose weight, but it has the most risk. And that's the one that can increase your resting heart rate. So my resting heart rate's 48. I just did a video on a guy. He was like resting heart rate in the forties, intelligent guy, but he started on red and he did a very low dose. It was only at 0.5 milligrams and it ruined him. He couldn't eat. He felt sick. His resting heart rate went up 11 beats per minute. I'm like, do you really want something that increases your heart rate that much more? Like it's literally speeding up your metabolism. It's like when you're sick and your heart rate's going up. Like, do you really want that? And so why not start with the basics? Ozempic, GLP-1. It's the cheapest and it reduces the food noise. And if you're less hungry, you're going to eat less. That's all you need. Do you think, though, with taking some of those GLPs that like 20 years from now, there's going to be some side effects that we're just not aware of today? There's already side effects that we're aware of that people don't talk about. Like ischemia of the optic nerve from Ozempic. It's causing some people to go blind. There's lawsuits. They're suing them. I think it's there. it's a chance but i'm not saying people shouldn't take it because you're probably going to get type two diabetes or something if you're obese, so it's going to help you. But that does increase the prevalence of this. So it is a concern. It's there, but I don't think we should ignore it, but there are going to be people that suffer from it. I don't think there's anything that works amazingly well that has No potential chance of some people having problems with it. What about just telling people not to eat? It won't work. We've told people that for years. Put the fork down. I've had so many of this. You know, how do you lose weight? You do some push, push away from the table. Ten sets of that. Put the fork down. That doesn't work. You need, no one has that much willpower. Couldn't there just be like this gelatinous thing? Pudding that you just like drink and it just makes it just expands it makes you you're literally talking about a GLP without literally you're kind of talking about the GLP because it makes you less hungry slows gastric emptying so when you do eat food it sits there longer and it takes longer to digest but I'm just talking like it like a pudding so what I wanted to get my cup book and get one of my protein ice cream shakes where I put like some of these guar gums or whatever that
[35:00] It thickens it up more and then put it over the head and it fills you up. It's like a 300 calorie ice cream and it fills you up. I did that for... 15 years of my life dieting for bodybuilding competitions starved out of my mind. I never used a GLP. So I was just so hungry. I learned to do volume eating. I learned what fruit and vegetables had the lowest calories. It filled me up. And that's what allowed me to stay like. full and lean. So what curbs hunger the best? What curbs hunger the best? Anything that fills your stomach up. Like what would an example be? The protein ice cream is probably the thing that curbed my stomach the best in all my years of doing anything. That combined with massive jumbo salads with like spinach or lettuce, like I'm talking about massive bowls, those two pair together in the evenings. Like the evenings when everyone cheats on their diet. No one's cheating on their diet for breakfast and lunch. I did good all day. And then the evening came as I started snacking. That was my problem. It was everyone's problem. Not everyone. I'd say 95% of people coach it's the night time there's a few that was like not that most people's evening and for me my evening involved getting home from the gym having a protein ice cream like i'm talking one of these massive like two two liter ones i'm getting half full then i'm eating a massive bowl of salad with chicken or egg whites or whatever and i'm so full i can't eat anything else that's it i'm full now i can't even if there was a pizza in front of me and i want to eat it i can't i'm full that's what allowed me to stay lean for 20 years so what foods should people 100 avoid there's nothing that you because if you're craving something, you should allow it. But I would say more so, what food should people eat? you should be eating the salads or the protein ice creams fruits and vegetables eat that first and then eat whatever the food that you're trying to avoid is let's say it's pizza let's say it's a chocolate bar eat those things is there anything specifically that's like i know that santa cruz medicinals hates the crumble cookie like what are you know foods in general that you think are just like cookies don't even taste good i've done videos it's like awful i'm actually i think i give it like a three out of ten to an eight out of ten the foods in that list it's not that good So, So this is what it is. Avoid trigger foods for you. It's going to be different for you than me. Me, it's like cereal and ice cream. I just don't want to stop eating those. For somebody else, it might be like crackers or pretzels or chips. I don't need that. Pretzels? No. Cookies? I can not eat a cookie, but cereal, oh my God, the box is gone. It's not something to have in the house. So you keep trigger foods out of the house. Doesn't mean you can never eat them. If I go visit you for a party and you have cereal, I'll eat at your house. But it's not in mine because then it's a constant temptation that I have to avoid. If I go to your house once a week, hey, I can eat pretzels, chips once a week. No problem. What are your temptations, Graham? *Sigh* I think I could answer this for you. I don't really have no trigger foods. Well, that's probably why you're so lean right now. There's nothing that's really struggling. in all seriousness, is when someone uh brings me food and it's in front of me and it's free or going out to a restaurant yeah and they say hey listen we brought out some free bread it's like dessert on buttery bread yeah i can't say no to it because then i feel like i'm being rude and i i eat it well it's because it's free and yeah i'll have to like actively because not because i want to do this but because i know graham would be happy i'll just be like don't eat that graham like i'll literally great about that like i'll just be like graham will be like do you think i should eat this and i'll be like I'll say yeah it's fine but most of the time I'm just like stop eating this it's funny because we me and Marie just had this conversation like two hours ago we're at a buffet it's like almost 50 dollars per meal yeah I'm like just pretend it's free but you don't need to eat it all because before in the past once I paid the money for the buffet it's like okay I'm gonna beat the buffet and I would leave holding up my stomach Because I'm like, no, there's room for one more plate. Now I'm like, whatever. If I want to eat a buffet later, I'll just go again. So having a mindset of there's always going to be food. Just because it's there in front of you and it's free doesn't make a difference. You can get it later. Never think that you have to eat it now or else. That was hard for me with all you could eat sushi because that is my one splurge in Vegas. And for a while, I took that as a challenge to try to triple the amount that I paid. And I'd add up each piece of nigiri and be like, all right, I got $60 for $25. I feel like a winner. But I would feel... awful the rest of the night. Yeah. Winning is not eating until you're full. Correct. That's the change in mindset. I stopped eating at a certain point and now I feel better by doing that. But that was tough for me to be able to cut that off. Like it feels so good to be here having gone to an all you can eat buffet and just be chilling and not be like I did a show once like a bodybuilding show and I had all you can eat buffet and I interviewed for TSN's TV show and I sat there like this and I was like half asleep eating because I'd eaten myself into a food coma. over buffets. The saying was, "No buffet is safe." I would eat, I would eat, I would eat anyone. And so I had to stop. And so now I can go to a buffet and eat a normal amount and leave. And I couldn't do that until probably the last 15 years. And I'm 51, so it was a lot of years of me suffering. I'm going to binge, I can't
[40:00] stop. There's no control. You got to imagine I'm dieting for three or four months for bodybuilding. So I'm getting down to five, six, 7% body fat suffering every night, starved out of my mind, doing two hours cardio day to try to not eat. And then suddenly the show's over. Now I get to eat whatever I want. And then you go to a buffet. It's like there's no stopping you. Something takes control of your body. So I know what it feels like to be fat. I know what it feels like to be morbid obese because I dieted myself sick, trying to stay lean for so long and following why I developed all these like recipes in my cookbook because I knew what it was like to be obese without having been obese. I just imagine any person that's overweight, like 400 pounds, they even diet to 300. They feel exactly like me at five, six, 7% body fat. And that control, that hunger, it's not pleasant. So I don't want anyone to diet themselves down to like single digit body fat. It's not worth it. But can you do a little bit better? Like, can you get halfway to your goal? Somewhere where it's manageable. And if you need to take a GLP to healthy but is really not healthy it depends but i would say peanut butter is one of the most common some people even think nutella is healthy but peanut butter no like not at all healthy could peanut butter be a fine part of a diet though if you're a cardiovascular king like if you're me if you are an iron man triathlete but every single bodybuilder that eats a tablespoon of peanut butter on their diet prep i'm like your coach is just giving you the old cookie cutter program you peanut butter is not it if you're going to eat peanut butter eat the nuts before you take it to peanut butter because when you eat peanuts peanuts like hard peanuts a lot of those calories aren't even digested it comes in it comes out half undigested so about 30 percent of calories you get from a peanut you're not even eating so so one thing that i'll do is i get optimum nutrition protein powder and i'll get two scoops of that and i think it's like 120 calories for 24 grams of protein or something like that. Yeah, that sounds about right. Two scoops of that. And then I'll do like maybe one tablespoon or a tablespoon and a half of peanut butter. Why? I don't know because it makes it taste good. For taste. The protein and calorie ratio is pretty good. So why not put in – PB2. Or put another scoop of the peanut butter. What is PB2? Oh, PB2 is like, is that a brand name? What's a brand name? Powdered peanut butter. Oh, yeah, I suppose I could do that. Like there's all those kinds of... Is that just fatter? More of those. Well, what they do is they take the peanut butter and they take all the fat out and they add more protein. So you're going to eat even more protein and less calories. Yeah, you do that. That would be way better. There's like some of my recipes literally were that, like a powdered peanut butter powder protein powder with PB2. When is the last time that you ate peanut butter? We had peanut butter about a week ago. You have to understand, I'm burning off 1,800 or 1,900 calories on a bike ride, and I'm like, I need calories. I'm literally eating ice cream cake at my house now. I used to have a cookbook on how to lose weight, and now I can barely eat from my own book because the cardio that I'm doing burns so many calories and I'm trying not to lose weight. You just do less cardio at that point. I'm trying to win bike races. As much as I was a bodybuilder at one point or a powerlifter, I'm a cyclist that works out now. So I even have an HDLT bike racing team. We race every week. We're on clubs. We have the super advanced guys that want to go to world championships. And we have like lower level tiers for like, you know, beginners and stuff. It's my new passion. That's what I love to do. So yeah, I'm not going to stop doing cardio. It's the most fun thing I do in a day. So what about flipping it around for the people who want to put on muscle and put on some weight? What do you recommend? Eat peanut butter. Yes. A lot more peanut butter. cardio. Don't do a lot of hit cardio. It's going to make it too hard to recover from. And obviously focus more on the gym than doing cardio. Just getting your minimum 150. I think Sam Sulik does it really well because he's trying to jack himself up. He's quite lean. He also promotes cardio. He's a great channel, great advice for people. And he's a lean guy and he's slowly putting on muscle. The old Sam, I didn't like that version where it was like eat this many calories and bulk up too much. He does everything right. So I would say go follow Sam if you want to bulk up because he does it right. What do you think about the bulk and cut? Or do you think that someone should just get lean and then just grow themselves from being lean? Bulking and cutting is only good for people who are bodybuilders who get too lean in the first place. So Sam Sulik's perfect example. Myself, when I was a bodybuilder, you shouldn't maintain four or five percent body fat year round. That doesn't make sense. So after a show, you need to bulk up. But for somebody who doesn't compete, always keep a roughly the same body fat level within something like three or four percent points of what's best for you and stay there all the time. to 9% body fat for the last six years straight. That's maintaining your body fat at a certain range. training hard and just hoping to put on muscle. So you would advise for me that I should... Main game for sure. You should not bulk at all. That's exactly what I was thinking. So I was thinking... You were correct. I was thinking the exact same thing, but then my friends are telling me that... Don't listen to friends, unless your friends are me. Kevin... Stop telling me.
[45:00] me what to do with my physique. Kevin's trying to sabotage you. Well, Kevin is like naturally the most ectomorph person ever. Is he like a lean guy with a full six pack, like under 10%? Super lean. Do you know who Tristan Lee is? Yeah. So Tristan Lee is a guy that can bulk. he's always single digit body fat he's been as low as like three point something percent i measured this guy i'm the calipers the leanest guy i've ever measured in my life leaner than pro bodybuilders and he's like yeah i just i'm like why why don't you compete i wouldn't want to have to diet i'm like you've done the diet you're the thing like you're there just step on stage but he didn't want to diet anymore but he was so lean why doesn't tristan lee compete i think that probably in he would have so much pressure to try to win or to look good. Maybe he wouldn't be able to handle the pressure of like, let's say he gets third or fourth or fifth or doesn't do good. Being as famous as he is from such an early age and everyone's saying you're the leanest person that's been around. I think that would be a lot of pressure to actually compete. I think it would be tough on the mind. So in terms of bulking, I feel like I'm in the same predicament as Jack. So You shouldn't bulk either. You look great right now. This is main maintenance. So here's the problem is that I feel like I'm not eating enough to be able to put on more muscle. You're definitely eating enough to put on more muscle. So how do you, how do you know that? Okay. After 20% body fat, it's going to actually be harder to put on more muscle. Like your hormones are going to get worse. So if you get fatter and fatter and fatter, it doesn't make it easier to gain more muscle. You just have been tricked into thinking that it's muscle that you put on. So if you put on 20 pounds, hours a day you you now put on 20 pounds you're now going to be in a more difficult place trying to gain weight just how did it work out but i should be in a but i should be in a little surplus though right like something or no no even okay to put on muscle a pound you need about 2700 calories and so if you divide that out it's like i forget was it 140 calories a day to put on one pound of muscle a month or something like that which is a tremendous amount you can barely even calculate pounds of muscle per year of of like a surplus okay no one can track 30 calories of a surplus plus your your neat like your non-exercise activity thermogenesis is going to vary like maybe i burned 30 extra calories just fidgeting during this this uh interview it's it's too hard to track so there's no point in that so there's no point in tracking calories to that extent i even tell people i don't even think you should track calories you should track your weight you take your weight five to You circle the middle number, and that's your weight for the week. Rather than a lot of people do the once a week weighing, it's ridiculous because it could be on a heavy day or a light day. Sure. Every week, you track the median number, and if it's going up slowly, then you're doing it right. If it's going down slowly and you're trying to cut, then you're doing that right. That's all it takes. What if I'm in a calorie deficit slightly, but I'm lifting really heavy? You'll still put on muscle. That's the beauty. If you're at a healthy body fat percentage, which for men is about 15%. Tristan Lee is too lean. he's probably not going to be able to put muscle because he's that lean. But if you're at a healthy weight for yourself, like 15% for most people, if you're in a deficit for a week, a month, you're still going to put on muscle. Because to build muscle, you need energy. And that energy can come start from the body fat on your body. Yeah. No problem. You don't eat calories. My problem is that I always just get fat right here on my belly. That is it. And so this doesn't go away unless I get like 10% body fat. You need to get on the Turk. What, just to lift heavier and build more muscle? lift heavier you will go into gym train harder you will progressive overload which is the driver of muscle growth and that that's how it works you don't need to eat more food if you put on five pounds of muscle and stayed the exact same weight you would just be a little bit leaner your body fat percentage probably down by like three percent you'd still be healthy and that's all you need to do i will say the times that i have at the gym with you like i said you're much more consistent but i see you kind of like and then that's it but like when i go to the gym i go less and maybe i'll times a week, but I'll be like, oh, oh. And then I'll fight for the last one. - You're doing those noises, Jay. - And I'll go all the way up, and they'll do a couple half reps, just to squeeze out a few extra-- - So the thing with muscle is we all have a certain genetic potential to put on a lot of size, and once you put on more muscle than your genetic limit, it's then so hard to get better. If you had never lifted before and you look like this, in a year from now, you'd be like, holy, I can't believe how much muscle I put on, but if you're consistently training, hard to make much difference. 80% of the muscle you growth is gonna occur from just a week in two days. So I lift weights twice a week. That's it. I have a lot of muscle. If I wanted to put on more muscle, I would have to probably train three times as much. It would be so hard to put a little bit of muscle on. So you think the optimal amount of time to hit the gym is twice a week? Twice a week, each muscle group, that would be optimal. Some could argue that maybe three times a week would be optimal, but then I think you'd have to do a lot less each day. But for example, you training, let's say you went six days a week and you had a three day
[50:00] versus my full body and I just do it twice a week, I'm going to get 80% of the results that you're going to get with only two days of training versus six. So walk me through a twice a week workout. So you do your whole body. each day about twice a week so every three or four days depending on if i go by soreness if i'm not feeling sore on the third day sure if i am wait till the fourth day so what you do is you're just doing one exercise per muscle group and that's all you need to do so maybe two three sets per muscle so what i do to keep the most amount of uh time efficiency because it's a whole body it's a lot of working out i go from one exercise to another so it's basically circuit training so i'll start that. Then I go and do a chest press. And then I go back and do lats and I go back and forth. So while my back is resting, I'm doing chest. And then while my chest is resting, I'm doing back. And I only need to do two, three hard sets of that. Then I move on to the next one. So for example, my chest is done. Okay, I'm gonna do shoulders now. Two, three hard sets of that. Now that's done. Let's do the triceps. When you do shoulders, what are you doing? I'll do, for example, calves between the shoulders. I'll do shoulder press. And it's all machined, so I don't have to worry about loading up a bar and taking a lot of time. Right. But there's a couple things that I'm curious about. One is like the overall cardio requirements of being able to go from workout to workout. Because sometimes I still rest, I would say, a full minute between sets, especially when it's like a harder set. Like my first set is like a warm-up set. I don't rest. I just like whatever. It's like I use maybe two-thirds of what I can lift for my main set. And so it's easy. I'll do like 12 reps. And I just walk over and do 12 reps. I come back and I put the peg down. And I'm like, okay, this time I'm really going to push. And I start resting a little bit longer. But it's only about a minute. a full body workout for me an hour and 15 minutes It would be 90 minutes would be like, okay, I'm lazy today. I'm resting a bit longer. You're going to get 80% of the results. So for most people, and when I program people, when they first hire me, I'm like, what are your goals and for most people their goals are they want to look leaner and i'm like okay we need to focus more on cardio and less on weights because you're going to get 80 of the results by training your full body twice a week most people are like i just want to lift weight six cents i'm like yeah but you're wanting to lose weight Like, how are you going to do that? You're only going to burn, like, 200 calories. I heard that lifting weights, though, is a great way to... lose the weight. That's another myth. It's not a great weight. It's a way, but it doesn't burn enough calories. I heard that lean muscle mass burns calories faster than fat does. Fat, like if you have 10 pounds of fat on you, it'll burn two calories per pound and muscles about eight. So it's maybe four times as metabolically active, the muscle tissue. But what really burns calories is using that muscle. So when I do zone cardio, zone two, I burn 900 calories in an hour. So you can Yeah, right. It's not really a stress. I could do it for like three hours straight, no problem. So I'm burning 900 calories per hour sitting there. And I'm not even the fastest one on my bike team. There's guys that can do like 1,200. So imagine you're burning 1,000 calories per hour. Person B is lifting weights. They're burning about 200 calories per hour. So in one hour, the person that does cardio is burning five times more calories than that muscle man. So we got guys on our bike team that might weigh 130, 140 pounds burning triple the calories of the 200 pound bodybuilder on steroids. But is... the one lifting the weights keeping and retaining more muscle because they're training the muscle oh absolutely if you lift weights versus you're just doing cardio the person that lifts Weights is going to have way more muscle. But we talked about this earlier, maybe 30 minutes ago, and we talked about what should people be going for, trying to get bigger or trying to improve their cardio or get leaner. The leaner is much better. And when people underestimate what cardio can do, like when I'm on a bicycle, I'm literally lifting weights the entire time. Like Marie will attest to this. She's riding a bike. She doesn't really train her upper body. But when you're on a bike and you're standing up, you're going like this the entire time. So it's a full body workout. like a set. It's like a workout. And so your muscles are being used in a very good way, consistently for a full hour. You're burning so many more calories. Then your body gets used to that. It adapts. And the next time you do that cardio, you're a little bit faster. And the next time a little bit faster. So maybe the day one, you were out of shape, you're fat, you burnt 300 calories an hour. A year later, you're definitely burning 600. You're doubling it easily in a year. You're not going to double the amount of calories you're burning in the gym by just lifting hard. bodybuilding in the world i don't care who that is he's not going to burn more calories than i am in zone two on a bike the thing that What complicates things for me is feeling like I need to hit every small muscle group. Like I know people are now saying, oh, you need to hit your neck. That's something that people are saying. What? You need to do like forearm workouts specifically. You need to go on that one machine that like you hunch over and it has the thing behind and you like. Yeah, the back. I like that back machine, though. Well, yeah, you can like it because it's not that hard. And then you have the abductors and the adductors. And it's like, well, how many things do I need to hit? Because if I did a full body work,
[55:00] I don't know how much I'm hitting my hip adductors. The best way to answer this is to pick muscles that are being worked out, like a variety of muscles in one exercise. So, for example, if you're doing a squat, you're training hamstrings, you're training your quads, you're training your glutes all in one exercise versus if you're doing an isolation one-arm curl. Like everything I do, it's two arms at the same time. So when I do lat pull-downs, my arms and my back are working. And when I do chest press, my chest and my triceps are working. over row or chest supported row biceps and back so by the time i get to biceps you only need like two sets by the time you get to triceps i only need two sets at most so work on like compound movements that work out the majority of the body and then only do those little things after but like in general If you're, see, if you're doing what I'm saying, you're going to be bike riding, you're going to be doing cardio. So do you really need to do a lot of legs? Like if you're, if you're training for bike racing, like some of the things I do is I sprint on a bike for a minute or 30 seconds. It's like, it's just as hard as doing a squat. I'll argue harder, like 30 seconds all out on a bike, trying to do a thousand watts for say 30 seconds. It's just as hard as doing 10 reps on a squat. So you're doing your weightlifting workout with your legs on the bike. So I hardly even train my legs. I do a little bit of adductors and abductors, some calves. at all. I gave it up. What muscles do people not really need to work out? the average person not need to work out i mean you need to work out whatever you want to look your best in if it's just for your health the only muscle you need to really work out is your heart everything else is just bonus or icing on the cake like i would argue the heart is more important than every single muscle combined so think you have your heart and your body if you work out your heart Everything else is going to be worked with that as well. Like if you're walking, up an incline or something, your legs are getting stronger. Right. But people's neck, like, should you be working out your neck? If you want to look more aesthetic to get a girlfriend, a thicker neck is going to increase your desirability. You might need that, Jack. So being a bit thicker here, yes, will help you attract a girl. How do you work out your neck? Well, when I was 10 years old, we had like Ben Weider's whatever exercise program. This is from a chart from like the 1960s. Literally, we just put our hands on our head and do this, I remember we had to have a shirt and you hold it around, hold it. And we're just doing these exercises. Does that actually work? That would work. You can push. You actually see it. You actually build muscle. A hundred percent. You could easily, I think you increase your strength by 50% by just using your hand. Like just do this, push and do 10 sets of that. You can train your neck absolutely. It's hard, way harder than you think. I remember doing these things when I was 10. I'm like, I don't want to do this, dad. Do the exercise. The program says to do it. We just did the exercises. You were 10 years old doing this? 10 years old is when I started lifting, seriously. Is that even healthy for a 10 year old to start lifting weights? I would say absolutely, especially if you like it. I mean, I fell in love with lifting weights with my twin brother and my dad in my basement at 10 years of age. It was such a good time. I was with my friends, you know, you're playing freeze tag stuff, and it'd be like, it's 7 o'clock, it's trying to lift weights. Yeah, I can run in the house. Guys, you gotta go home. Couldn't wait to lift weights. It was the best. It's such great memories of lifting weights when I was 10. Like even now, 41 years later, yeah, like absolutely great memories what's a workout you see people doing that's completely pointless none there is no pointless like some people are gonna joke around crossfit and high rocks i think they're all great exercise great sport yoga pilates what about the grip strength one if you want to have a strong grip like your magnus like i met magnus last month he actually broke his thumb in an event oh my god but this guy's got millions of followers it's the strongest grip in the world this guy's got one of the strongest he has like records for his weight he's a mountain climber he it's insane so if that's important do it what about these front like i don't do that exercise because i've such a strongly uh developed uh anterior doubt like from doing so many bench presses like being a record holder i did this so much i didn't need to do this but if you have weakness in these muscles then why not but for most people the rear delts are are underpowered or underdeveloped most people do a lot of pushes and they don't do a lot of like this like to Yeah, all the time. you've got to open up and get the shoulders back. So I think that that exercise is overrated, but for some people it's beneficial. It all depends on the person's body. But generally speaking, what does the average person not need to worry about? Like what sort of workouts? Yeah, yeah, abs. Because if your abs, you can train your abs every single day and if you don't have a low enough body fat level, you're not going to see it. And if you lift weights, you're lifting your abs. Like... All you have to do is pull your abs or have an injury and you'll find it real quick. You can't do a tricep press down. You can't do almost anything if your abs are sore or if you have an injury. So abs are going to be worked regardless on everything else. So I don't train my abs ever. Not needed. What are your thoughts on taking peptides? I think peptides for many people are great, so long as you're an adult, if you're not a kid.
[60:00] GLPs are peptides. So, I mean, I'm for it. I think that peptides can be great. I think they can be abused. I think that young people shouldn't use them. But overall, with the right advice from the right person and assuming you're getting it from a compounding pharmacy prescribed by a doctor, absolutely. So I tore my hamstring on April 1st of this year and I'm still going to physical therapy. in my indoor recreational soccer league. And so I started going to PT, but I'm thinking about taking BPC-157 because I've heard a lot of really good things online about how it heals injuries very quickly. What are your thoughts on BPC-157? I've used BPC-157 and TB-500 to heal injuries. I believe that it can work. I don't think it works for everyone. I think it can work. Some people are going to say, oh, maybe it's not going to. It's risky. It's clearly risky to have an injury that keeps getting re-injured. So I would say it's worth the effort, worth the try. I would do it. What's the risk? The risk of using it? I don't know. I haven't seen anybody have like a death from it or anything. But it's a research chemical. It's a research peptide. It's not been proven to be safe beyond any reasonable doubt. So there's potentially something out there. I wouldn't know what possibly could happen. What about more chronic pain? my dad i think he should look into bpc 157 because he's like a 64 year old guy but he goes and plays pickleball and his feet are all sore the next day and he can get injured here and there and i said hey i think you should look into these like healing compounds do you think it makes more sense for people that could have more chronic things as well or not really definitely i i believe in ppc 157 despite the fact that it's like it's not really fda approved in some countries you can't sell it it's kind of on the fence it's not really natty like if you use it you're it's banned by water and drug tested and all this stuff. You got to be careful, but... Hey, if I'm injured, I'm using it. And what about stem cells? We were speaking with Ronnie Coleman, and he actually went down to Mexico. Went to Mexico. To do stem cells. When did you use stem cells and what did you see? By the way, there's a lot to keep track of in this conversation. We're talking different treatments, claims, studies, and making sense of all that information is one of the ways we've been using our partner, Claude. Even preparing for this episode, researching topics, and saving the iced coffee hour real time and money with our systems and AI for problem solvers. It's the collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you, not for you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model, or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. No joke, we use this all the time for video titles, drafting emails, and analyzing channel data to spot patterns, and then figure out how we can improve. We've also been using Claude to actually edit our YouTube videos, and this has been a ridiculous unlock. to take to edit all because of Claude. If you are not using Claude, you are seriously, seriously missing out. Plus it connects with Google Drive, Gmail, and Slack, so it could work with the context you already have. And you keep the final say. You review the work and approve anything that ever gets sent or posted. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at claude.ai/icedcoffee. That is claude.ai/icedcoffee and check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features Bye. When did you use stem cells and what did you see? It was less than a year ago. In like three of my really close friends, we all went. I had injections, my shoulder and my hip because I had a hip surgery many years ago. And we also did it for the hair. Like I've had two hair transplants trying to look younger than last time. I believe that it works. This is from in Mexico. It was from a placenta, I believe. Does that sound or an embryo? Or no. The umbilical cord. Oh, I'm going to have you there. Yeah, umbilical cord. So there's different laws in different countries. I'm like, look, I'm going to use whatever can possibly work. To me, it's like BPC 157. Do we know it's working? Maybe. To me, it was like a 50-50. So did it work? I would say I feel better, but I'm not certain. How much was it? I would say excessively expensive. I think my friends got it for half price, maybe $15,000 or something. Oh, wow. So it's not cheap, but it's something for people that are more well-off. But if you're in an NFL or something and you can get away with it, I mean, yeah. And where do they get it exactly? Did you ask any questions of how did you get this? Remember they brought it out and it was in this sealed box in the scene. front of you it's like the wagyu where they show you like the certificate yeah it's like look at this this is uh you know honestly i mean you you have to have a leap of faith here and trust it like i can't guarantee i didn't see the placenta that it came from and how do they get the plus is that just donated or are we hoping it's
[65:00] You don't ask the questions. You don't want my answer. Honestly, I don't know. I'm assuming that it's all 100% legal above board. These guys were advertising on Instagram and whatnot. What do you think about Claviculum and his looks maxing? Do you think that looks maxing could have a positive impact on people? And do you agree with the sentiment that maybe it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to like body build to the max to get super jacked in the gym and instead focus more so on your face with the halo effect and how that can improve your life? you appropriately and keeping somebody's age in mind is a great thing. I think we should all looks max. People call it about hard looks maxing versus soft. I think soft looks maxing is good versus hard. I don't think people should be smashing their faces. I don't think people should be using testosterone at the age of 14. I don't think you should be promoting looks maxing is the most teenagers or kids going through puberty who don't have any sense of self or self-worth and trying to tell them you have to look a certain way, I think it's bad. And so I think clavicular overall is a horrible influence on the world. He's extremely popular. And I think that the people that look up the clavicular are all people who are messed up. And they're probably 13 to 16 years of age. What do you think is the result of people following people like him? I think they have less self-worth, less confidence, and I think that they think that the world only matters if you look good. And so if you tried to ascend and you tried to do all the things and it didn't work, then what? Like, what do you do then? So, but if you tell them, hey, work on yourself, work on your personality, maybe, you know, progressive overload with women. Talk to a girl who's a one, you're too shy. Talk to a one. she's not intimidating work your way up to a two three four that that to me would be better advice than saying you have to smash your face and get a nose job and a chin implant and jaw surgery and and and limb lengthening and all this stuff and if you don't have a a a chad face then you're screwed it's not good speaking of a one one thing that i did really recently that i thought was fascinating was you could just upload a picture of your face to all of the different Chachi piti. Grok. Claude, etc. and ask it what it rates you out of 10. Have you ever done that? I did what's, see I'm old school, I'm older than you guys. We had something called Hot or Not when I grew up. And so there was even a TV show. And so when I first, I was in a small town of Yarmouth, there weren't many girls. I basically was like, I'm 22. I had to wait till girls turn 18, 19 at this point to start dating. It's a very small town. So I went to the internet for dating. So I joined Hot or Not and I would upload all my best model type photos where I'm like very lean and it's black and white, all the different things. And I would get rating. So it was good for me. But if you aren't at least an eight, it's useless. There's no point. So I've done all those things. What muscles do you think women look for most in men? Women on average, like a small waist and wider shoulders, and they're going to look at the beach bod muscles more than anything. They're not going to be looking at your legs so much. They definitely notice your glutes without question. The most underrated muscle that men don't work on is by far the ass. By far. Every guy works out for themselves. They think they're training to impress girls. They're trying to impress boys and themselves. Men will go into the gym and we'll do curls all day long and bench presses and so on, but they won't do some hip thrusts, which is what the girls are looking at. Like girls will look at guys playing football, the women are watching football, that's the only thing they care about. They're looking at these asses bent over throwing the football around. So you got to work your glutes. That is a must for the men. Men don't work their legs because you can wear pants and they don't need to see that. Or look at the men's Olympia here and they're in board shorts. Like literally the best attractive men in the world and you're covering up their legs. That doesn't make any sense. So men know that Abs is going to help. And so they'll go on a diet and they'll work their abs, but they can still cover their legs up. So men still don't have legs, but I would say that my legs are probably my best body part. And I don't even train them, but I do the bike ride, which is technically training them. And so I think if you want to stand out as a man, the wide shoulders, small waist, so lean enough. And having still an ass, which is still going to be hard because if you're very lean, just like women, you're going to lose the glutes. So just like as a man, if you're very low body fat, your butt's going to be a lot smaller. Absent of a butt. Yes, but... Only... But only because on Reddit... That exact question was asked and most women said forearms. Women are liars. Remember the last time I came on here, we said that you don't ask women what they think. You tell them what to think. Women do not care about the forearms. Okay, that was like the number one thing of like women before the guys. They also wrote on the Reddit about their hands. There was two hands that said which hands you like. And it's like, yeah, the thicker hand was better, but they had all these guys doing hand workouts to try to impress. I'm like.
[70:00] I don't know. Look, spend less time of that and get a job and have some money. Girls care about your wallet. One thing I'm seeing a whole lot more recently is on the apps, girls talk about biceps. And I've seen it on like Instagram reels of like girls grabbing guys biceps. They do like a big arm, definitely. I knew that this was a thing like a long time ago when I was in like, you know, middle school and high school. And then I completely forgot it as a thing. And I thought they kind of just liked, you know, abs or whatever. And then all of a sudden, I feel like it becomes all of the rage once again is like big biceps on a guy. The thing is... The impressiveness of an arm is so... low standard like it's So much easier to get a nicer, impressive bicep than a glute. Like my arm is two inches bigger than it needs to be to be impressive. Like you don't need 17 inch arms to have a decent body. It's like just have a little bit of bicep. You guys know Charlie Penguin Z Zero? He's got like 20 million dollars. You ever seen him flex his bicep? Yeah, he's got it. He's got the arms. He's only about 155 pounds. He's not a big guy. He does a little bicep shot and is like, whoa, impressive. You don't need like Will Tennyson arms to have a good impressive arm. Is it a good thing to be so conscious about the way that you look? I don't think it's a good thing to be overly conscious. And I think I'm definitely over the line of consciousness for that. And I think it's because of my involvement in bodybuilding, which is why I warn a lot of people. Be careful of bodybuilding, even though it did great things for me. It also did some bad things. I abused steroids for 10 years. I regret that. I took it as far as I could natural. I did 42 shows, 100% natural. I did the best I could. But eventually I was tempted to use steroids because I wanted to get that IPB Pro card. that gets into bodybuilding does good eventually they're gonna be like i want to use steroids and i see all these amazing physiques they're natural they're 16 17 18 and boom they're on steroids why because they want to bodybuild and so bodybuilding it can play mind tricks it can make you think you're too small and so when i was younger i always thought i was fat because i would do a bodybuilding show and then i would gain 20 pounds after still i'm still pretty lean for a normal guy but i'm like comparing myself to that day on stage with the the tan and the oil and i'm like oh man i feel dysmorphia so you don't like the way you look you're always thinking about it so I really caution people be careful if you get into bodybuilding because it is a tough sport and I say that from my own experience I wish that people would realize that growing up is realizing coach Greg was right all along I mean guys I'm 51 I've done the things I've done the shows I know what it's like I was in your shoes at one point and so when I tell you like it's a scary sport it's a scary sport so if give us the first five things they do today. Number one is to lose weight for sure. There's no, nothing more important than that. They need to get a nice haircut. They need to like to groom themselves, like grooming completely. They need to dress nice, including like shirt, pants, like all the way down to even shoes. I didn't realize this when I was younger. I used to just wear a tank top and sneakers all the time. So that's three. And then having more muscle, like putting Spending? Money. I would say probably getting your teeth fixed in white. Like straightening your teeth and having white teeth. I think teeth is a huge thing for people. Like you notice it right away if somebody has a nice smile. And what do you do if they're short? And what do you do if they're broke? If you're short, make sure you're not bald and fat. And if you're broke, make sure you're not bald and fat. So bald, fat, and short. This is the three worst things you could be. Do you think that I should start taking finasteride right now? No. I use using Finasteride and it has potential and for me negative sexual side effects. So less bedroom performance. But what if I started taking Finasteride and Cialis? That could counter. But rather than taking Finasteride, I would use Ferula Max, which are company cells, A-HTLT. Ferula, I'm taking it right now. You just take one pill every three or four days. It's going to have the same effects of the Finasteride in terms of keeping more of your hair. So that's one of the huge side benefits of this product. as something that boosts testosterone so finasteride stops production of dht right that's the thing though like i have a lot of body hair and so i don't want i and body hair comes from production of dht and then hairline up top recedes because of production of dht so it seems like the exact perfect thing for me would be dht inhibitors i would take dutasteride if i had to recommend something over finasteride finasteride there's the sexual side effects like the potential to like not be able to have a an erection but also not have the same what if i just took it if i had that problem if you take cialis it doesn't make you want sex more it just makes you ability to perform it if you're in the mood easier but it doesn't increase that desire we're not talking about like oxytocin or something where it's like have that side effect with finasteride. I've had two of my friends have that effect, including me. So I don't know if it's underreported, but I mean, from the sample size that I've had, it's not really worth it.
[75:00] I don't think it would be worth it just to try it out. And if I notice that, then I just say, I was telling, try it. I've been on finasteride for seven years now. And I was really half a milligram or one milligram a day. And I was really worried about the side effects. And I was very cognizant about everything. And I was in my head, I think, the first month because I heard horror stories online. Even the thought of it could trigger it. Yeah, and I was aware of that. And at the end of the day, I was exactly the same. I noticed zero difference whatsoever. Low before, low after. If anything, I would lower your dose to every other day instead of every day. I think that would be more beneficial. I don't think you need to do as much as – to me, that's a high dose. I think that you would get as many benefits as you're getting, or at least 80% with half the dose. And so why – Even if I've been on it for seven years now, I would still – yeah, I would still lower it. See, I like the – well, that's – but you're not experiencing side effects. No. my hair is totally fine right now and But I just know over the course of the next 20 years, it's going to continually slowly, slowly, slowly recede. And as claviculum says, if you lose your hair, you lose everything. You lose a lot. You don't lose everything. What does he say? Like if you lose the game, if you lose your hair or something like that, like if you don't have your hair, I think in a video, he said he'd rather chop off his and lose his hair. And I'm like, well, if you can, chop off your and you have hair are you gonna what are you gonna you're not gonna do anything anyway so at least does it matter i feel like it only matters if you don't have a good like shaved head look joe rogan looks amazing yeah shave your head and you own it you can look great like the rock looks great certain people um no problem but if you're losing your hair it's just you're automatically less attractive you know it's funny there's this ai picture of logan paul without any hair he looks really good without the hair like really good and i feel like if you just had that look It looks better than having hair in a weird way. Yeah, some people... It's an intimidation. It's a powerful thing to not have hair. Jason stays them. I think this is another guy. Some guys can really pull it off, but not everyone can. What are your thoughts on the modern dating scene? What do you think women are getting right and wrong? And what do you think men are getting right and wrong? The modern dating scene is a mess. Online dating is done. It's over. It's okay for hooking up if you're at least an 8 out of 10 or higher. The women who are on there, because there's so much less women on there, are being able to hook up with the guys who are 8, 9s, and 10s, even if they're 6s, but for one night. And so then the women, because they've had that guy one time, think, well, that's what I deserve. So then they think they're more attractive than they are. So anyone that's on online dating, you're ruined. And so what you need to do is go out and meet people in person. Online dating isn't going to cut it. asked me. And so, Yeah, she sent me a DM. So you met online? She messaged me. It's not online dating. You guys met online and you started dating. I would say the biggest problem. What's that? I was a follower. I was watching you every single day for three years. So I knew who I was meeting. What women need to do to solve the problem is they need to stop making men chase them. Women need to say... I like this guy. I'm going to go after him because that would solve everything because – So women are the, I don't know, the gateway to sex or whatever the word is, the gatekeepers of sex. And men are the gatekeepers of, let's say, relationships or marriage. And so the women need to go and chase the men that they want. Because they're the ones that are the gatekeepers. Men are just chasing all these girls. Half the time, you don't know if they actually like you or not. They're just trying to get laid. And so the women don't know what to do. Should I have sex with this man? I want to be with him. And then they have sex. And then the guy dumps him. And it's like, it's just a big game. So there's problems there. But if women go after the guys that they want, life would be, all life problems would be solved. This is it. That's all that women have to do is just start to make the first move, chase the guys that they want. And how much should a man financially support the girl that he's dating? For example, in your relationship, she already makes a lot of money. She said she makes over half a million dollars a year. How do you know what you're supposed to pay for and what she's supposed to pay for? I think you should pay for as much as you can as a guy. So it's a guy's job to pay for everything. I think that in general, that's what women want. And I think that the ones that say that they don't are lying. And I think that women want a guy to provide. It makes them feel safe and comfortable and it's attractive. And so I think you should pay as much as you can. If you can't afford it, then don't. If you're poor, you're working the best you can, you don't have money, you're going to have to go for a girl that doesn't want that or need that. If you're with a girl that needs more money, pay as much as you can. Do the things that you need to do. The only reason they're with you isn't for your money. If they're with you for other things, and hey, the money's a bonus. What's your advice to Jack? To do for dating. Do you think like, what would you rate me out of 10? On what scale? A clavicular scale or like my scale? You're scared. I would say 8 on 10. Okay, I'll take it because then that means I meet the threshold. Oh, yeah. Successful in dating apps. You're also famous. I think he would probably give me like a four. Yeah, his scale is horrible. I mean, he would say you're probably six or something like that, which is.
[80:00] Probably pretty good on his scale. So... For dating, you would recommend that I go out to Trader Joe's. You need to meet people in the real world. And I think that the best way is to meet people that you like. Now, unfortunately, you like pickleball, which is the same thing that I like. But most women who I've seen play pickleball are 60. So you're going to have a hard time meeting some hot girls. But if you were at my crew in Halifax, you'd see, oh, these are hot girls playing pickleball. We had the Zaddy Cup at my house not too long ago. So we're big on pickleball. We had tournaments. Every year, we have a pickleball tournament for my birthday. We're all into pickleball and these are good looking people. So you do the events that other people like. So if you're into pickleball, I would go to pickleball and I would start talking to girls who are playing pickleball. You have the same interest. If you like basketball, go do that. If you're into, I don't know. curling whatever it might be go and do the activities that they're doing and eventually you start talking and then you can start dating these people that have similar interests see my strategy has been i scroll instagram I see someone who looks interesting, Sandra Dejac. And I hope he reaches out. I like... My feed right now, because I've been sending Jack so many messages, it's all women playing the piano for some reason. And artists. Look at this. they're all potential wives for jack so like so you're just you're finding these girls who are playing the piano and sending them to him and saying yes go talk talk to her yeah it's usually a dm them so here is the current meta you're famous enough where that actually could work but this is not normal advice for like the people watching and we're talking about jack right for you you could just message a bunch of girls that you think are hot and just be like hey i think you're hot we should go on a date That would work. I have not tried that yet. You should. That might be a little too forward. Yeah. I don't know. For me, what I like, I'll typically just like have a random message that I'll send off to them. And it, work sometimes but the problem is a girl that has what i've noticed like over 10 000 followers on instagram 85 of them are going to be guys and then of that 85 there's probably going to be like 10 of them right so like 85 dudes that are gonna be like really really really good right like they're either making a lot of money or doing really cool things or they're super attractive or like they're all players around cool people exactly and they have they have game because they practice it and But girls on Instagram are generally very attractive. And so it's like, okay, well they meet the first threshold. And it's easier obviously if you're like sitting on your couch and you're like sending out Hail Marys. - I'm trying to filter these. - You're trying to approach a girl in the meat aisle. - I'm trying to filter them and get the ones with talent. You know, if I see they're a great piano player, they're a great artist. I'm trying to come up with people who actually have some substance. Because there's a lot of them that just post these pictures. And then I send them off to Jack, and I'm like, yeah, they're probably getting too much attention versus this, you know, they're playing the Moonlight Sonata really nice. See, that's the problem. All these girls that you're talking to, if they're good-looking enough that you're interested, then there's probably a bunch of... attractive guys. They're also interested, but they're not all going to be the ones that are going to be good for them. They might be the ones that have a yacht and say, I'll pay this much to come to Dubai and hang out with me. This is just a horrible thing on the internet is that the whole world is able to date these people so that everyone thinks that their guy is two levels up from them. So most eight, Out of 10 women, try to get 10. Six out of 10s, try to get eight. No one wants to date where they're at. They're all dating above. So it's a huge problem. So all you can do is just... Ask a bunch of them out. I call it the shotgun effect. Ask out 10. Yeah, yeah. Say, hey, I think you're really cute. I like that you play the piano. I'm not going to beat her on the butch. I think we should go out tonight. i'd like to do this and just take her out something simple don't spend a lot of money on the first date because you want to eliminate the girls that are only using you for your money and do something fun walk in the park go for coffee chat whatever whatever it is that's simple that you like and then chat and see if you have anything in common. Then get a more serious date after that. You can start spending money on day two if you want, but not on day one. So, Kevin what Greg was saying is that I should get lean and then start building muscle from being lean as opposed to right now trying to like Bulk and get more muscle and then cut and be lean you recommended the latter. He just said the former is better What do you have to say about that? Uh, I mean, I think you would look better lean, but you told me your goals were what building muscle. Mm-hmm. You can do both. You can stay lean and put muscle on at the same time. There you go. You can have your cake and eat it too. Screw you. I'm right and you're wrong. Alright, now the real reason why we brought Kevin here, aside from vindicating me, is you're going to rate Kevin's physique. Okay. Alright, go ahead Kev. We've got to see his abs. Kevin, you really bulked up. Let's go. Take off your shirt. I remember you like a year ago. Holy. Oh, yeah. Great physique. When did this happen? It's a 9.5 out of 10. Are you kidding me? Oh yeah, it's great physique. He's got a small waist, he's got abs, he's not even flexing, he's got wider shoulders, he's got a vein coming.
[85:00] down his arms Turn around from the back here. Oh, yeah. Nine and a half out of ten. This is a physique. This is... You don't need any more muscle to attract girls. You're set where you're at, right? Yeah, absolutely. Can we cut this, actually? He's like, this sucks for me. He's been working out for, like, three months. Yeah, it's genetics. What are you... Are you taking anything? Yeah, I'm on, like, 600 milligrams of TRT. I'm just kidding. No, I've been working out consistently for, like, three months, but, like, I was... No, but I was I was I started working out like when I was 16 and it's like I've been on and off with the workouts and then I recently picked it back up there months ago. Okay, so you got muscle memory used to work out and you're just back into it. It's like three months of working out. This is already there. Insane. Imagine with three years if you hadn't trained but yeah, you don't need to train like guys think they need like so much muscle to look good. It's ridiculous. Most girls will say if you have more muscle. It's actually a bad thing. Yeah, the frame Bruce Lee thing going on. You know, why do you see Tristan Lee Bruce Lee? Yeah. He's got the leads. You're only comparing a variation of him. He's just with less muscle. He's a physique like Hussein Farhat with less muscle. But Hussein is like quite big upper body. Yeah. Remember what I said earlier, what guys need, the wide shoulders and a small waist? It's like, this is the most important. He'll probably work on his glutes, I'm sure. We don't see the legs or anything. But like, and he's in pants. You don't need to show the legs. See what I mean? Guys can get away with it. They don't need to show their legs off. All right. Well, Kevin, thank you for... I have a question for Greg if you want. Yeah. Speak in the mic. Okay. Based on my physique, what muscle group do you think I should focus on? Glutes, but I don't see them. Like upper body. No, show me glutes. No, no, no. Right on the camera. This will be for members. For like bodybuilding purposes, shoulders, the side delts. Because if you got it even wider, it's just going to make the frame look even more ridiculous. Yeah, that's what Thank you. Alright, sweet. I appreciate you guys. Alright, yeah, thanks, Kev. Yeah, so, I mean, he could afford to bulk because he's so lean right now. Yeah. But, like, if you had 10 more pounds of fat on, I would be like, why would you bulk? That would be stupid. Greg. You know what? Crush. If you could come out with an AI, something or other, that tells you what you need to work on. Yeah, that would be. Well, we have it. my uh me and eric janicki the sculpted app it drops october 1st it literally has like we fed in like 200 yeah bodies and i gave the body fat analysis trained ai to treat to teach how to do a body fat assessment it analyzes your physique from the back takes whatever a lot of several minutes yeah and then it shoots out which body fat or sorry which muscles you need to work out so your biceps are a little bit too small and it designs a workout catered to developing that physique so that's in that app. So the third claim is that most men who take steroids would have been better off never touching them. Yes, most people definitely, because most people who take steroids are not doing so with the advice of a doctor. If it's a doctor that's, telling you to take them and prescribing them or you're low on testosterone, then absolutely you're better off with them. But most people are taking them and then when they take them, they're taking too high of a dose and it's shortening their life. And when they get older, then they'll regret it. By then it's too late. Do you worry it's becoming too normalized? Of course. I'm not worried that it is. I know that it is. It's way too normalized. It's gotten crazy. Like 16-year-olds are doing steroids now and bragging about it at this point. It's insane. What's the outcome of something like that? Well, people are going to continue to use them even more. Every person that uses it has a fan a couple of years younger. And so it trickles down to younger and younger people using steroids. And then what we're going to see is in the future, more and more people are going to die. All these side effects are going to come through and we're going to see people dying younger and younger and younger. Now, you've previously said that people should be transparent about using steroids. And that's almost a form of harm reduction if people are open about it. But do you feel like people being open about it is also advertising it? Definitely. That's the negative part about it. So the positive about me saying, hey, I've used steroids, I've done this, is so that they don't think that they can get the same physique without steroids. It doesn't put unrealistic expectations, but it also allows people to know more about it. But it's the same thing like anything. Like when we were kids, they would say, oh, don't teach these people about sex because then they'll want to do it. Or it's the same thing like drugs. Oh, if you'd start telling people that this is a drug, this is what exists in the world, there's going to be more people who want to do it. But I always think that like honesty is the best policy and admitting things that's going on. you're better off admitting the truth than to just to hide it from people and then to have them find out on their own. Do you think people have taken steroids because of your videos? Definitely a hundred percent for sure. But I think there's more people that have stopped or not taken it than who have started because of me. And so if there's, 5,000 that took it because of me and said, I want to be the next Greg or I want to do it because of what he's done. Then there's probably 10,000 that stopped because of what I've done. So I think there's a net positive, but there's certainly some people that have had that because of my videos, it's done bad things for sure.
[90:00] What would you tell your 16 year old son if he says to you that I want to look exactly like you did? I would say how bad of an idea that is. It's like it's not... good that there's too much pressure i would explain how hard it was to bodybuild how much uh low energy i had the the feelings i had the the pressure that i had and i'd say it isn't worth it i would probably try to steer my own kids if i had one to do a different sport i'd say can we not try maybe running or basketball or pickleball there's so many other sports that we could do aside from bodybuilding um bodybuilding one of the worst sports you could do in the world so i wouldn't if i had a kid be like happy that they want to follow my footsteps and do the same sport What about people taking TRT? How many actually need it versus how many people are just taking it because they want to get more muscle and have more energy? If I had to put a percentage, I would say at least 90% of people on TRT don't need it. And it's just an excuse to go on a cycle. At least 90%. What's the harm if they start taking TRT? The harm is that once you start getting used to it and you like it, you're going to do more. So it's kind of like, let's say- It's like Adderall. Yeah. Everything that's bad that we could list, gambling, drugs, anything, it's the worries that they're going to do more. And so most people's TRT is not TRT. It's a small cycle. Even my dose at 140, for most people, it's way too high. TRT are doing 200 or 250, which is way too much. It's ridiculous. What's the worst part about it? And what's the worst thing that you've seen? The worst part about bodybuilding is the pressure to use drugs and the encouragement to do it. It's not just like you can use it. It's like, why aren't you using it yet? Like you have to imagine I was natural 42 shows and everyone's that you're natural and you look like that. Why aren't you on drugs yet? What are you waiting for? And so it's kind of like I should take steroids. Like you're encouraged. You're like molded into doing this. They're like, why aren't you on drugs versus other sports? Let's say you're doing the 100 meter dash. win but in bodybuilding it's not cheating it's expected what percentage of guys who use testosterone are doing it actually for performance as opposed to replacement well the majority of people doing using steroids is are using it for cosmetics and not for performance most people on steroids is to look better it's certainly for the aesthetics and not for performance so it's not mostly by athletes so we all picture the bodybuilder competing it's almost none of those people it's such a small always guys who want to look better with their shirts off in the summer. Have fitness influencers made people less healthy or more healthy? I think that overall more healthy because I think most fitness influencers are not encouraging steroid use. They're actually healthy people. But just that maybe some of the people that come to mind are guys like... guys who are on steroids or competing in the Mr. Olympia. But most fitness influencers aren't bodybuilders. We just maybe think of it that way. Who is the worst fitness influencer right now? Eric English. He's 16. So his audience is all, I'm going to say 12 to 16 years of age. And so knowing that he's on steroids, knowing that he's promoted peptides, so much so that Instagram had to ban him and he's still on TikTok and he's still promoting these horrible videos and he's still trying to put on more size. It's horrible because his influence is so big. It's because he's such a famous guy and he's so young. And I think when he gets older, he's going to regret what he's doing. But the way I see it is it's almost not his fault because he's so young. He was almost groomed to be like this. What do his parents think about this? He only has his dad left. His mother passed away from cancer maybe a couple of years ago. He became so famous as like an 11-year-old, like a really young kid with such a great message, him and his sister. But you get into the fitness industry. I think he's sponsored by like Young LA or whatever it is. And it's like all the people, not all, a lot of those athletes are also on steroids. So you meet your peers and they're on steroids. you're tempted to do the same thing and then you do it and then your followers are younger than you and you see him doing it and then they do it and it keeps trickling down younger and younger and younger before you know we're gonna see 12 year olds on steroids so do you think it's body dysmorphia at that point or do you think it's more just peer pressure i actually i don't think it's body dysmorphia at that point like he's not not that he's competing i think it's that it's a it's it's the dopamine the addiction the the bigger you get the more compliments you get every time you add pound of muscle, every photo that you post where you're doing the bicep and you're getting a thousand likes, a million likes of comments, you're going to be a pro. And it's, it's so addictive. Like, how do you tell a kid to stop wanting that? You can't. So the social media is ruining it for everyone. So what do you think of the long-term consequences of Eric English's usage? There are millions of teenagers right now being... shown somebody who's extremely successful because of using steroids and they're gonna think why wouldn't I
[95:00] the same thing. But in his own personal life, what do you think is going to happen to his health? Well, he had posted, uh... Three, four days ago, I have sleep apnea. I just recorded a video on Eric. It's posted right now. It says Eric English is going to die. So what is going to happen? He's literally going to die. Like literally what's causing the sleep apnea when you put on much more muscle and your neck gets thicker and you have more muscle, there's more pressure on your throat and you can't breathe is probably so during the night you're literally suffocating and that's taking years off of your life. It's really, really bad. So during the night you wouldn't be able to breathe. So you're basically like. waking yourself up multiple times a night without being able to breathe. That's just like early on, and that's going to continue to progress and it's going to spread throughout the body, different problems, kidney, liver, heart. Horrible. At his current rate, how long do you think he has to live? I think if he continues to abuse steroids like this, he'll be in his mid-20s. It's bad, really bad. Imagine sleep apnea at 16. He's already, he put on, 80 pounds of muscle in like a year or two. And he's bench pressing 405 at 16. Like I trained, I was mid 20s before I could do that. Do you think he's... now suffered permanent damage for the rest of his life or do you think if he stopped everything tomorrow that he'd be fine it's there's a chance that it's not permanent but Probably there is. To the same extent, I'm sure that I have permanent damage that I'm not aware of that's happened. So for example, left ventricular hypertrophy, so enlargement of the heart, it's getting bigger. And even though I'm off steroids right now. There's probably damage that's there that I'm not aware of that you won't see. And so let's say I live to be 80. I probably would have lived to be 85, 90. You just don't know. So hopefully he stops sooner rather than later. And just like anything, if you're smoking cigarettes for 10 years, well, if you stop, you're going to live longer than you can do the one more year. Is it safe to quit steroids cold turkey? It's safer than continuing. Okay. It isn't really safe because when you're on steroids, you're going to have a whole lot of testosterone. body isn't producing it anymore. Your balls are basically on vacation. It's going to take a long time to wake them up. So you'll have a period of time, probably six months, maybe a year, because he's young, probably closer to six months, where he's going to have extremely low levels of testosterone. So when I cut out testosterone after abusing it for 10 years, my testosterone levels wasn't being produced. So I went to the doctor, testosterone levels in the toilet, 47 nanograms per deciliter roughly. Sent me to an endocrinologist, a specialist in hormones, who did not want to prescribe testosterone or steroids or whatever for me. But he's like... you not having TRT is worse than you having TRT. And I made an oath to do no harm. And I know that if I don't prescribe this, you will have worse health than if you do this because your body is not producing testosterone, which is bad for your heart and all these things. So not just your heart, your mentality, everything. So yeah, it's bad, but It'll bounce back, but if he really should stop, he should probably be taking something like emplomaphene or something to get him to bounce back, HCG, these different things. Have your thoughts changed on Togi? Togi's a lot better now. Well, Togi used to be the worst influencer, but since that time, he went from promoting steroids and using recreational drugs all the time to basically donating half his money to charities and not doing drugs and finding God. except he still promotes gambling. So that's the only bad thing. I would say only, but it's pretty bad. But like, I can understand why he would. It's just, it's, he loves doing it. It would be like me promoting bodybuilding when I was a bodybuilder. It's like, you love it so much. You want other people to share your passion, but that passion is horrible. Do you feel like you had any part in that change? I would think so. You're making videos and calling them out. I would like to think so. And I mean, he said in some videos, "Hey, I want to get my blood work better than Coach Greg." Or, "Greg's going to look at my blood work." So maybe he's thinking like, "Geez, if I keep doing these things, my blood work is going to keep getting bad." Or maybe if I stop, it will get better. So I would like to think that I've made a difference. What's your advice to him today? keep doing what he's doing, and stop gambling. So we have pictures of different physiques and then you're going to answer questions about these physiques. Can someone achieve this physique naturally? Yeah, many people can. Probably... 25% of people could get that physique naturally. Can the average person achieve this naturally, though? Without extreme suffering and having a shitty life, definitely not. Like, in other words, if you're an average person and you use a GLP and you train hard for 10 years and you dedicate yourself six days a week and you do your cardio, I would say a lot of people could achieve this physique, but they would hate their lives looking like that. They would like the compliments. Yeah. it's not worth it. I think that's way too lean for somebody to try to maintain. It's not healthy to be that lean. And so that's like, to me, not a type of physique that somebody should be aspiring to get to it's it's too hard you Although it's not impossible to get.
[100:00] What's the hardest part about this? The leanness. Being that lean. Like he probably suffered to get like that. So yeah, very hard to get. Yeah, what about something like this? What's his name again? Cristiano Ronaldo. A Photoshop version of Cristiano Ronaldo is way harder to get than Brad Pitt. Cristiano Ronaldo. What did I say? Cristiano Ronaldo. I can't pronounce this guy's name. This is way harder to get than Brad Pitt, for sure. And this is like, he doesn't even look like this. So how long would it take someone that's starting from average to look like this? I would say 10% of people could get like this maybe. And it would probably take five to 10 years of training. What about Kevin? And they would suffer like crazy. How long would it take Kevin to look like this? How long could Kevin take to look like this? It would be different. I think Kevin could surpass this look in five years. Really? Yeah. See, with Cristiano Aldo, the problem is his waistline is a bit thicker. But his conditioning is really good. but he has a much better aesthetic physique so he could look better than what about jack could jack look like that i don't think you could look like this could i look like that no with steroids for sure like absolutely both what would it take for me to look like that without steroids Better genetics Let just say I want to look like that I said I want to dedicate. Do you know how many people hire me that say these kind of things? They'll be like, Greg, I want to look like you. I'm like, I want to look like me, but I have great genetics. I'm not going to look like you. I feel like I have a chance. If I said, hey, all I want to do for the next five years is dedicate my life to looking like that. At the end of the five years, I want to look like that. I'll eat whatever you say. I'll do whatever we're naturally. I think you could look like your own version of what you would look like, but it would be different than this. It's just a different look. It's like you could look for you amazing, but it would be a different look than this. You could get that body fat percentage in two months easily, but you wouldn't have the size. So you would need to train for a long time to get that. And remember, we're looking at a Photoshopped version of Ronaldo, who's one of the best athletes in the world. What about this? No, he can't even look like this without steroids. What's this guy's name? He's that Creed guy, the fighter? Michael B. Jordan? So Michael B. Jordan is not Natty. So he's using steroids to look like this. And so to look like this, you would also need steroids. Now, what percentage could do this natural? One in a thousand guys could probably achieve this look natural Like I think I had probably a better build than this when I was natural but i also had great genetics i trained my whole life for it and you know a hundred percent he not natty no nothing a hundred percent but i would bet a lot of money that i would what are the giveaways the size and the fact that see i i know his transformation more i know how much muscle he put on a certain period of time so just looking at that physique i can't tell if he's natural or not it's how fast somebody puts muscle on in a short period of time and when you say oh i put on 20 pounds of muscle in four to six months it's like what do you mean especially if you haven't like if you average five pounds of muscle a year and suddenly put on 20 well that year you did something but just having a physique like that doesn't mean you don't now what about this surely i could get that uh still no no still still no these are some of the best physiques in the world in the movie entertainment. You've got to imagine this guy is famous not just because of his acting skills, but because of his physique. We're thinking about all the people that would want to be in his shoes. There's probably a million. They're all actors. They pick out who has the acting skills and then it's like who has the physique to go with that. To compare to the top 10 actors physiques on movies that a top standard Let just say I want to look like that and I do whatever it takes Then probably within a year If I, what do I have to do to do that? Just test. Just testosterone. I think he's also 6'6". Well, it doesn't matter the height. Yeah, but just disproportionate. You could tell me he was 5'6 or 6'6. I can't tell. I feel like I could look like that naturally, working out consistently and eating a good diet uh in a year aren't you working out now though yeah but not as strong as i probably could and i could eat how often are you working out right now six days a week but some of those are really just like some of those are cardio days right just i put on a podcast listen to a podcast uh you know you're lifting already six days a week if you told me i only lift weights twice a week and mostly i do cardio and i only train half ass i would say Maybe, but because you're already, the fact you're going to the gym six days a week, even if you're training half-assed, you're getting 80 to 90% of the benefits that you could get already. Like the difference from training moderately hard to like perfect and having the best app, like using my sculpted app, doing everything. You're only going to talk about 10 or 20% difference here. Now there's 0% chance you can look like this guy. Thanks. David Laid. Yeah.
[105:00] He didn't know who David Laid was a month ago. David Laid is one of the most aesthetic physiques in the fitness industry of all time. He's up there with Jeff Seid. He would be the next guy after Jeff Seid in this world of aesthetics. He's about 6'3 and about 200 pounds shredded. He made a crazy transformation, which made him famous. He was 13, 14 years of age. He basically had no muscle, and then he got huge. Is he natural? He's not natural either. I think he's probably natural now, aside from peptides, which he's admitted to, which is why we know he's not natural because he's used banned peptides. But he also had a period of time when he put up 80 pounds on his bench press from 315 to 395 in a matter of like three months. And he was also deadlifting 675 pounds at about, or maybe even 700 something at like 18, 19 years of age. And so David laid, all of a sudden, there was a period of time in his teen years, he just blew up in terms of strength. And that was when he was most suspicious. So I've done a natty or not, and I didn't think that he was natural. So I've stated not Natty, but crazy proportions. He is the most like what this guy looks like, except for he would not be able to get to that level natural, I don't think. So here's an old photo of me. And we talking about Kevin Yes Yeah Yeah Okay This is an old photo of me Yes What about it Yeah How long until Graham can look like that Get back to that Oh, I was going to say, how long did I take to look like that? Yeah. This is not going to happen. Were you on steroids during that? This was natural at the, I think I was 160 something pounds at the time. So this is a lot of muscle, which is oddly enough, I'm way bigger than that now, but you can't tell. It looks, it looks like a lot. it's me in the pool i i i'm 160 something pounds and this is the day after competing in a bodybuilding competition so you seem to really remember this day what was your first meal after oh god no i don't remember this is probably 2000 i'm gonna guess 2006 i think is 2006 and i believe i was 164 5 6 pounds somewhere on there and so we have samson dota morphed into 100 extra pounds of muscle this is absolutely crazy how long until graham can look like that until until they develop ai robots and he can transfer his brain into the robot lastly we have this sam sulik yeah i don even at my biggest i wasn even that big so even with steroids and i was like 40 i still wasn as big as him at like 25 do you think 230 pounds shredded in there do you think he'll end up being number one yes zero percent chance not even a one in a million shot of being number one him not even close the better question would be could he ever win a pro show could he ever be in the top 50 in the world, I would say no. Maybe one in a thousand chance of being in the top like 50. Sam has almost maximized what he can do in classic physique. He's basically at the top of the weight class. And so if he put on five pounds more muscle, he can't compete in that category. And so the reason he can't be the best in the world in classic physique, which would be like C-Bomb or Ramon Dino or Mike Sommerfeld, all these guys, is because of the frame, like the genetics of his body. he doesn't have the aesthetics the smallest waist the widest shoulders the that pleasing look he's just really good at what he does and trust me being an ibb pro and where he is like he's like he gets i think eighth place or so in his last bodybuilding show as a pro it's hard to do but there nowhere to go like i saw anton at the at the show here just before i came in anton is 22 years of age anton could not diet for a month and still beat him at the future best that he could ever be It not even close What makes Anton so superior Anton waist is like four inches smaller. All his muscles are more bubbly. The insertions look better. The detail, the crispiness, like there's certain parts of a body that just look better. Like some people's bodies look amazing like c-bum has horrible legs from the front like the the quads don't look that good his hamstrings don't look that good regan grimes his hamstrings look phenomenal they're they're insane c-bum looks good because he can do an incredible vacuum pose and he has the widest shoulders in the world and on a side chest he looks unbelievable like right up there with the ipb pro like in the open class um it just certain things look good c-bum's bicep doesn't really look good it's just the certain genetics and this anton guy everything looks insane it doesn't make sense so sam sulik has a lot of good body parts but as a whole aesthetically he's not close to the top of the top how much money do you make if you win a bodybuilding competition depending on the show between twenty five hundred dollars and i think it's a half a million for the olympia maybe it's six hundred thousand now the
[110:00] Arnold and the Olympia are at least a half a million. How much money does it take leading up to that? Like, let's just say you win $500,000. Like how much body, how much muscle? How much have you invested? How much you spend on drugs to compete in a show? Just everything, yeah. The top guys, not classic, but like open bodybuilding, and it's mostly on growth hormone, would be upwards of $100,000 a year to prep for that. So when they win. You're going broke on it. Most bodybuilders are selling steroids to pay for the drugs that they're doing themselves in order to compete. So most pros for a living sell steroids. It's just it's in secret. How do they legally sell steroids? Well, you don't. You don't tell anyone that. So they're making money under the table. Yeah, because you need to spend about, you need about $100,000 a year to compete at the top of the top levels. And you have the physique to back it up. And so if I'm trying to buy steroids and I see that guy and he's one of the best bodybuilders in the world, I'm thinking, well, I'll just buy it from him. The stuff he has clearly works. So that's extremely common. So unless you're like Sam Sulek doesn't need to sell anything. He's already a multimillionaire from being famous. to be trainers who coach people and when you coach people typically you sell them the products that they need and so that's how you're making your money so for an average person who wants to compete and win Could they do that without being already financially independent? I used to win shows natural against people on steroids as a natural, but I had really great genetics, so I could do it without spending a lot. But I would say most people need to have money absolutely to bodybuild. Is it possible to win and still hold a job from like nine to five? I was a school teacher until… Until I turned pro. The year I turned IFBB pro, I was a school teacher that year. So absolutely, nine to five job, no problem. So I've also brought one other person. This is my most ripped friend. Out of everybody. And he's come over here. Brett, get over here. Brett's also 6'6". Oh, good to meet you. What's the height? I'm 6'3". 6'3", okay. yeah go ahead take take off your shirt like yeah show off show off the physique come come over here like in the camera right yeah yeah right here right in between he's too tall. I'm just getting crotch. You might have to... Oh, do I kind of get lower? Go ahead. I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10, his physique would be for most people like a 9.9. He's not as lean as the last guy, but honestly, he doesn't as Kevin. Kevin. But way more muscle, taller. More attractive overall. So I would say like, this would be a physique that all the girls would like. All the girls would like this physique for sure. And does he need to do anything? No. If you want to be a bodybuilder, it's going to be very hard because the shoulders aren't really, really wide and the waist isn't really, really small. So Kevin, if Kevin took steroids and you took steroids, I think Kevin would have an overall better physique. Damn, Kevin. But you don't need to take steroids unless you're already on them. Then, you know. Do you think he's natty? No. You don't think I'm not? No. I'm ready. I don't know if that's true. I'm hearing it, but that's what I would say that. I took like a pro hormone like 10 years ago. That's all I've done. That's nothing. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Tell me this pro hormone. Whatever you took is what I want to take now. No, as a natural, it's a top tier physique for sure. I thought you were going to say Natty, so that's surprising. What makes this look unnatural? The amount of muscle he has being 6'3. How much do you weigh? Like 225? I'm like 205 right now. That's it. Wow. Incredible. Do you have much leg development? Probably not. A lot of these guys can get, see what I mean? Why guys don't need to train legs. They come in here with jogging pants. They have incredible upper bodies. So he's got the full chest, big arms, um, and he's leaning up his abs, but maybe not as much quads. Like I weigh one 90 and I'm like eight inches, nine inches shorter. So what do you think he could improve upon the most? The legs. Yeah. But if you were trying to impress more girls, I mean, probably just wider shoulders like here. Because the clavicle width is like set in stone and you can't just widen it. But if you had wider shoulders, the muscles would just sit wider. So your waist would look smaller because you would have that illusion. Like Chris Bumstead, his shoulders are like this wide. Or even like, who's a Mr. Olympia from last year? Derek Lunsford, his shoulders are like this wide and his waist is this small. That's what makes him so good. That's just why they stand out. Or Andrew Jack. Like, all these guys, like... Yeah, bodybuilding, it's all about the frame. It's laterals after this. Yeah. Best shoulder exercise, what do you mean? For overall development, I would do shoulder press with a machine. full press yeah i mean side laterals is great but like this is going to build more overall muscles if i had to pick one i would do this one over the other but other than that side laterals so like in
[115:00] Not many exercises I've done other than this. and this. That's basically it. Don't do anything else. Do you need me any longer? No, you're free to go. You're also free to hang out. Oh, you can hang out. Yeah. All right. someone. All right. Well, thanks, bro. Thanks for making a can. Yeah, good to meet you. Thank you. I thought he was taller than that. No, he just looks really tall. Maybe because we're not... yeah we're all sitting also in fairness we're just sitting how tall is kevin kevin's like five seven i think yeah five six five six five seven that's why i was like cozy that's all yeah yeah at six foot three with that much muscle and and 205 i would say his legs are small probably in relation to how the upper body is built because like six three two oh five i mean you'd expect a guy to weigh a lot more. Like what do you weigh? 175. And you're how tall? Six foot? Six foot. yeah and people think that if you're under 200 pounds you're basically like um what's the victim weight victim weight exactly weight yeah yeah literally oh it's like everyone makes fun of anyone that's under 200 pounds they're like really yeah you have abs but you you don't even weigh 200 pounds you're literally victim weight like you're useless you're under 200 pounds it's a big thing all the guys think they need to weigh 200 even like my friends yeah they'll be like I can't get under 200. I'm like, yeah, but you're fat. Like, of course you can get, you should weigh 170. Oh my God, I could never be that small. And I'm like, but you would look great at 170. What do you think someone that's six feet tall should weigh? I mean, there's no should. Like a really good weight at six foot to be healthy and lean, 180 pounds would be like awesome. 200 pounds, like you're huge. Like six foot 200, you're a monster. Like if you have muscle in your lean, it's massive. There was a guy down home, his name is Julian, he turned IBB Pro, he was in the Olympia, he got 13th, I was coaching him for a while, and he was 190 something and 6 foot. It's monster, like just massive. I'm like, that's 190 something pounds. You turn pro at 175. So this is all you need. So if you're six foot and 200 pounds, you're probably fat. For most guys, yeah. Most guys who are 6'2", overweight. Definitely. How's the business been doing over the past year? You were transparent with your numbers back then. I'm curious, what do your numbers look like now? Well, we just got into GNC. And so I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about how much their orders were, but it's like, it's great. It's certainly a big step up in the business. I think that because we're in GNC now, the company has a great chance of growing into other companies like being worldwide. And so it's I have no idea how to answer. I don't know the answer to this stuff. You don't know how much money you're making? No. percentage spent here and there percentage on advertisements just roughly we make you know 20% of our revenue from YouTube, 30% from... My revenue on YouTube is down from like more than a million a year to maybe like 800,000 in a year because I don't have as many views as I once did, even though right now YouTube has changed the way they count views. So my videos are all getting way more views, but I think it's like inflated artificially by perhaps 40%. I'm still making pretty good money on Snapchat. It's like 20,000 plus a month on average. I hardly make any sales now. I think that's I'm only selling maybe a couple of hundred thousand in cookbooks a year. The biggest difference from then is I'm a part owner of AlgorX, which is selling maybe $20 million a year. Wow. And so that's a huge difference. difference and i advertise algorex in every single video um the sales have gone up i think maybe sixfold since i started in the last year so like every single video i tell people about the value peptides where you can get them the fact that it's you know from compounding pharmacies from doctors are you making more than you've ever made more profit than i've ever made i was like if i counted algorex yes but without counting algorex no how much have you made from your cookbook in its Oh, crap. That's really good. Are you considering writing another one? No, because honestly, the amount of money I would have to spend on another one wouldn't be worth it for me. And I'm not as passionate about it. I've lost the excitement of just creating new recipes and doing it. And I wouldn't want to do it just for money because I don't need more money. So if I'm not passionate about something, it's not fun. So with AlgorX, it was like a new challenge, something to take on and promote and have fun with it. And seeing the growth and being part of a company. There's three of us that are owners of this company. I think that's a great new thing and I want to see that get into the 100 million plus range and so that's the next big thing. The supplements is now in GNC. That's huge for me. So I tell people go to GNC, don't even buy it from my website, I don't even need this because there's only so many years that everyone's going to come and watch Coach Greg. Like I need HGLT to not just be Coach Greg but yet a bigger like a bigger thing
[120:00] beyond me like imagine me not making videos and it's still being a huge uh company which is science-based it's throughout the world like we have so many products that nobody else has like the terkesterone from from izbekistan now we have ferula max to boost testosterone like we have so many things that no one else has the innovation in hlt is beyond what anyone else is doing at what point do you think you stopped needing more money because you said i don't need any more money now Probably the day I sold 1,004 books in a day at $100 each that day when I made $104,000 in one day, I didn't really need any. I could have retired that day because the money every day after that was like $25,000 per day for $104,000. a year straight. It was ridiculous. So that was the year I made the most money on cookbooks. I made more money in a year from cookbooks than from supplements. Although some days where I sell Turk would be like, astronomical, like well, well, well over a hundred thousand in a day, but I don't need any more money. I could retire now for sure, but I just enjoy it. So it's not about money. It's about the fun I have in being good at something. What do you think is the right amount of money to have for? It's not too much. You become a target, but it's enough to kind of, you could do almost anything. I think after a half a million dollars a year, all the money is just like useless. It's like, it's just like, If you want to get a Bugatti, is it better than having a Lamborghini? It's a nicer car, but it's the same. It's not increasing your style of living. I don't need to be on a private jet. I don't need to do this or do that. It just doesn't excite me. It's not even fun for me. So I don't need more money, but it's fun, the challenge of trying to make more. It's just like bike racing. I don't need to be faster to have fun, but the challenge of trying to get faster is the fun part of it. Lastly, what we have for you is an influencer tier list where you're going to assign people from S all the way down to F tier. And this is on their general influence as a fitness influencer. Like positive or negative? Yeah. Okay. Rank all of these people in terms of their impact on the fitness community and also their physique. Okay. The Trend Twins, I'm going to say they are C tier for influence, mostly because of the name Trend and the fact you're on steroids. And I do believe that if you follow the trend trends, you're more likely to want to use steroids and not as likely to be pushed for fitness and health. Their physiques are A tier. I mean, they're both jacked. They're incredible shape. So I'm going to put them in C tier overall. This guy. Caleb Hammer. He's that money guy. He's not a fitness influencer. Okay, well, okay, he's clearly F tier for both. Physique and influence. F tier. I did watch Togi on this channel. It was interesting. Togi for a fitness influencer is going to be F tier. So not good at all for promoting fitness. I mean, he's openly on steroids. He... doesn't really train all that hard. Sometimes he locks in. It's not that great. So for fitness, not very good. But for physique, I'm going to say he's actually S- One below S tier, A tier. Crazy physique, really good shape, lean, wide shoulders, tall. So kind of like your friend here. Really high level physique. Liver King, F. or influence for obvious reasons. His physique would be A tier. It's pretty high level. Like, bro is shredded. He looks pretty damn good, especially for his age. Um... What do we got here? What's his name? Is that Larry Wheels? Yes. I'm just bad with names. I know exactly who he is. I'm going to say he's a deer-tier influencer, not because of the – stuff he does with the girls in that drama but because he's on steroids um i don't think that he's a positive influence for most people like he's more of a of a shocking freak factor like he's boxing or he's doing all these different sports but i don't think you watch larry to learn how to do like how to be fit and healthy and do cardio and whatnot um but his physique is s tier Well, Dizel, I think for... Beginners. How do I slide this up? Oops. For beginners, he's s tier for more advanced people who are more familiar with things it would be below that but for a beginner he has an s tier physique uh sorry he has an s tier channel in terms of promoting fitness and health is definitely what you want out of a person his information is not at the level of like highly scientific but definitely of great influence and i would say he has an s tier physique he's an ipb pro like he's as high as up as you could go um oh I'm gonna have to lower him down, because he's not natty. I can't have mist here because some people are going to want that physique and because
[125:00] He has a lot of muscle. He's going to be an influential person to have people take steroids. So similar to me. Will Tennyson. I'm going to put him as a fitness influencer in A tier. where we go here a tier for uh um what do you want to call it a tier for physique a tier for being a fitness influencer and the only reason he's not s tier is because he's not really a purely a fitness influencer he's more like a guy that does a bunch of different things so i think his channel is more revolving around him trying things out it's not necessarily like just about fitness and so one step below s tier for physique one step below s tier for information. Derek, I'm going to say... How do I give Derek a rating? Derek doesn't do videos. I'm going to give him a C tier because he used to be great, but he doesn't do anything anymore. And I'm going to say his physique, probably B tier. Pretty good physique. He was on steroids. He doesn't He doesn't do fitness anymore. Essentially, I would say he's retired. David Goggins for fitness and whatnot, I would say he's A tier because he's exceptionally motivating and inspiring. And if you even have 10% of what he has, you're going to do really good. And at Physique, I would also give it A tier. Guy is like single-digit body fat. He's super fit. And so you've got to love David Goggins. The Rock for a fitness influencer. A tier. I mean, he's got a lot of muscle. He looks great. For motivation and inspiring, I think he's really good. But the fact that he's lying about being natural and that he's used steroids for years, I'm going to put him at C tier because he's going to encourage a lot of people to do steroids. Sam Sulik. I normally would penalize him more for being a guy that's on steroids, but he doesn't encourage steroids. And he has a really, really good channel. And so I'm going to put him up at A tier. One step below from being S tier. If he was natural and did the same thing, he would be S tier. And his physique is S tier. It's like... He's an IPB pro. I mean, the physique is crazy. Myself, I'm going to rate my physique as being A tier. And I'm thinking that I'm an A tier influencer. And for the same reasons as like Noel, because I'm not natural, I can't put myself in the top level because some people are going to see my physique, know that I've used steroids in the past. I'm on HRT and are going to be tempted to do that. Sebum for fitness information and for learning how to do bodybuilding and whatnot. I'm going to put him as a B tier. I don't think there's as much excitement. I think that at this point, he's just like running around and... Thank you. He's just not doing fitness the way he used to. um he still has a decent channel but i i don't find it terribly exciting it's not as engaging i don't think that a lot of young people would go and watch cbomb right now and now that he's retired i think that he's going to get less views on his channel but the mental aspect is really high level i like that the most about chris like so when i watch videos from chris i like the mental aspect of things but i don't think most people are at a level where they're advanced enough and they're training to see it the way that chris does i think you chris his information for me is for like guys who are like older like 30 plus but most of his fans are probably younger um and his physique is s tier plus it's like off the charts jeff nippard for information and for physique i also think he's a tier even though i've had beef with him in the past i think a lot of his information studies a bit too much and he omits how he really feels about something just to show the science and so I don't think he's 100% honest in some of the things that he presents but overall a tier for most people amazing editing on videos great quality videos and definitely you know close to the top Mike Isertel For physique, I would say he's got a D-tier physique. It's because of the stomach, unfortunately. I don't think that anyone aspires to have his physique. It's not F. He's not fat. He's still got something. But I think for abusing steroids, it's not very good. For overall as a channel, I would give him a B tier because although he promotes a lot of steroids and things like that, he does have a lot of good information. And I think he's very smart and has a lot of good information, quality information that a lot of people can learn from despite all the... I'll call them gay jokes and crazy jokes. I still think that he has a good channel that if he wanted to, it could be S tier, but he just lowers it for some reason. Jesse James West has an A tier physique. very good almost s tier and for a fitness channel I'd say it's B it's not all about fitness sometimes it's about fitness I think there's so it's a catered
[130:00] more to a younger audience like let's go but not a lot of like actual take-home information that you could learn from uh lean is this lean beef patty lean beef patty i would say she has uh an s tier physique like top level physique and an a-tier channel i think for women more so than men they could learn a lot from her she battled um eating disorders and stuff in the past and still to this day i do believe and she shares a lot about it she's very open about these things and i think that she's vulnerable in her videos and so i think she has a great channel that people can watch This is... oh jeez, how do I not know his name? Do Better, what's his name? You need to do better. Joey Swole. Joey Swole is great, but he's one dimensional. He's only got one thing. And so I'm going to put him in C tier because once you've seen one Joey Swole video, you've seen all of them. So he could do way better, but I mean, if I were Joey, I'd be doing the same thing. Like, I don't blame him. He's viral for calling out people in the gym. But it's one thing that you can learn from. And he's absolutely not natural. And so if you watch Joey, I think you'd be tempted to use steroids. That isn't good. His physique, I think, is S-tier. Like it's ridiculous that every day he's single-digit body. That is so much muscle. He looks so good. But I think that it's... uh it's a scary thing that if you watch joey swall the time that you might want to look like him although his message is amazing like for what he says to to not make fun of people in the gym and whatnot now we have mike o'hearn who has an s tier physique for sure ridiculous physique he's 57 i met him for the first time today in my lifetime we chatted for 30 minutes i was talking to his kid we were talking his channel If you can get over the fact that he's a fake natty, because we know he's not natural and he's lied about that for years. He does have a lot of good information, but he also has a lot of bad information. It's like he's on the fence. I'm going to give him a C tier because... For older people, I think he's great. I think his information is from like the 70s and 80s mostly. I don't think he's learned a lot of the newest information, but he's very inspirational and motivational. And just the fact that he's been able to train as hard as he can for as consistent as he's saying, he's kind of like a David Goggins. But some of the information, it's like counterintuitive. It's like against what it should be. And so I can only put him as high as a C. I wish I could put him higher, but. If he came out and said I'm a fake natty, I would have to then put him up to A, but We've got to keep him there. Alex Eubank has an S-tier physique. It's a top-level physique. I can't put him at the highest levels because he is on HRT and he is on steroids a bit too high. I think he talks a lot about the mind and mental aspects. I'm going to put him in the B status. I think that he has a lot of information. He tries really hard. He's a Christian guy. He wants to help. He wants to do good. sponsorship. He could be making half a million dollars extra, a million dollars a year if he promoted gambling, which he didn't do. You got to give him respect for that. And he is at least honest about taking HRT and whatnot. So I'll give him a B tier. I think that he's close to an A tier for information, but I'm just going to give him a B based on what I see here. And so why no S tier? And if someone had to be S tier, who would it be? I think that if Noel Dysel were natural S tier, outside of that do we have an s-tier fitness creator S tier fitness influencer. I can't think of any. We're missing here. I'm not somebody that could come up with names off the spot. Like if I had to say who would I recommend to follow over all these guys, I mean, I don't think there is one. Maybe in a few years from now, somebody watching this video will come out and be that person. Maybe somebody just Tristan Lee is not even close. I don't think Tristan Lee is natural and he's 5% body fat all the time. I would have him as a B tier. Tristan Lee is not close to S tier. Somebody will come out of nowhere and be that S-tier influencer. There's probably women who are S-tier influencers who I don't follow as much, but are S-tier for women. They're probably natural, motivational, and they do all the things. They promote both cardio and weights and a healthy diet. I don't follow women content as much, but I bet there are some out there. Cool. Love it. Well, Greg, thank you so much for coming on the iced coffee. Thanks for having me. It's always a blast. Also love the watch. That thing is sick. That's what I said. I love it. I love it. Those bands are great because I actually don't pinch the arm hair so much. I need it. I actually brought one or like my wrist is a little bit big. It's a little bit tight. You can see it. You know what's so funny? In my car. I can't try to add a link. To add a link? You mean remove a link? No, add. This is the maximum amount of like the links. So I have an extra two links. I thought it was a little loose on you. It's like for me. It needs, you need a link taken out.
[135:00] link added so that it's looser my two Rolexes are way looser I can put my hand underneath like when I do yeah that's probably too loose then it's fine for you you like a tight watch yeah I mean this is what I do it just it's snug it snugly fits and yours is looser than mine no it's not like it'll like during the day it'll like dig into my hand and I literally have to loosen it oh interesting like I get the marks on the side like in the cab on the way over I couldn't wear it it not quite a half a centimeter, but maybe up there a bit looser for me. Okay, interesting. Well, Well, you guys heard it here. Thank you so much for coming on the channel. Yeah. And for all the for star guesting. Thank you. And for all the channel members out there really appreciate it. If you want to see our next episode. It's already live for the channel members, so here's a preview of it. I really hope you enjoy. Thank you so much. All your information is down below in the description and until next time. From not loving the gym to actually enjoying the time spent in the gym. As you come to the gym and your body changes, you look in the mirror like, oh my god, I'm becoming a superhero. Should anyone work out seven days a week? Is it the best idea in the world? No, I would not say it is. My IQ is above 160. We don't know how high because they don't do standardized IQ tests above that. How do you know that to be true? The Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices IQ test, which is a maximum of 160. I got every single problem correct. What percent of their max potential could they achieve by working out twice a week? Mr. Mike, he knows that what he's doing to his body is stupid. If I fall off tomorrow, Greg will never make another video about me again. Can you lift heavier if you're screaming? Oh, oh, oh.