Ep 44: "Cardio Rules Everything Around Me"

 It's Men's Health Month, and on this episode of the Gen-Xpertise Podcast, we discuss why cardiovascular health matters for Gen-X men. From the benefits of regular exercise to simple ways to strengthen your heart and improve longevity, we're exploring practical steps to help men stay active, healthy, and thriving for years to come. 

Intro and Outro music by Erin Garris and Khari Garris 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Yo, yo, yo, what it is, what it was, what's it gonna be? Welcome. Welcome to the latest episode of the Gen Expertise Podcast, episode 44, entitled Cardio Rules Everything Around Me. We are your hosts, Main and Rance, aka One and a Half Knicks fan. We gotta give the We gotta give the year. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

You know why we're celebrating. You already know why we're celebrating. But tell them why we're celebrating.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

We outside, inside, but we outside. At the time of this taping, we are a day after from whooping on those San Antonio Spurs, giving them the gentleman's sweep, son. The full one. Not the regular sweep, which is 4-0. It's called the gentleman's sweep. You get one game, so we pull out the white gloves, old school style. Walk up to you, haha, smack you in the face two times with it, put it back. The gentleman's sweep, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

And it was another close one. Another close one, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Another close one. And you know what? It's it's befitting that we're talking about them that they won on the day that we're doing uh our episode on cardio health.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Because they almost gave us a heart attack.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

They almost killed us at least four times, man. At least four times.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I'm telling you, man. And and uh you know me, I'm I'm not a sports fanatic, but I am a New York fanatic, right? Like, like whatever if New York is doing well at anything, I'm I'm down for it, right? Like, so I've watched I've been watching the playoffs, right? Especially the finals, and that game where OG tipped had to tip in at the last moment. That had me on the edge. This you know, the game last night had me on edge. So I'm I'm kind of glad this series is over for that reason too. Like you said, like it's not good for my heart. Like, I'm yeah, we're old. Like I'm getting too old. I'm getting too old for that type of excitement and that type of suspense and and that anxiety is is a bit much. So I'm I'm glad they won for that reason too. But you know, shout out to the Knicks. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

The Knicks, big body Brunson and those guys, the Knicks, and you know what, too? Dogs, we literally waited all of well, I've literally waited all my life for this. And you kind of waited to see.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I've just been passively waiting, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

I've been living and dying by the Knicks since I was about nine years old when I watched them on regular TV and listened to them on the radio to Walt Clyde Frazier and Mark Albert. You know what I'm saying? So if you see a gray-haired man, any gray-haired man, Gen X said in the street wearing anything, Knicks, yo, just walk up to him and give him a hug, B. You don't know what we've been through, son. You don't know. You don't understand. Yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

You see people crying, man, or man.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Man, listen.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

That's the crazy part, too. Like, I teared up too. Like, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Like, like, like, like I said, like I'm not a I'm not a fanatic for any sport, right? But it feels like this story and the way things were going was just so dramatic. It was like watching a movie at times, right? Like, so there was times where I teared up, man. I teared up for that game. That game four, I teared up. Game three, I teared up.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

I was shaken. Game five, I teared up a little bit. Yo, yeah. It's like the sixth happiest moment of my life. It's like the sixth most happiest moment of my life.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, I don't I don't know where to rank it, but but I was definitely excited, man.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

It's top, it's top, it might even be top five for me, but oh my gosh, the Knicks, we did it 53 years with no chip in a basketball town. New York is basketball, son.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

We are basketball town, man. Oh man, it feels good.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

It's crazy. It's pretty crazy, man. And it's crazy. Did you see the way the city reacted, though?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I I can only, you know, I only see in videos, but it looked like like World War Z or something. Yeah, it was crazy. It was like someplace you don't want to be, like, like like the purge, sports and stuff was on fire, cars were getting stomped on.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

It was it was it was bad, yo. It was pretty crazy. The good was really good, but the bad was a little bit like really bad.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, yeah. Real crazy. But the good, but the good stuff I saw was that you know, the city came together.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yes, um, folks were having parties, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Obviously, the watch parties, yeah, the watch parties all over the place. That was good to see too, you know. So it was good, man. Like it, you know, to see everybody kind of unified in that kind of hope. Yes, man is a rare sight. And it's good to see. And I feel like everybody, yeah, sports brings people together. And it I think it was good for people, whoever was watching from anywhere. Um, I think it was a good thing to see in terms of like the unity, and you have people from all walks of life, like people hugging strangers, and yeah, just like that type of unity and being like on the same accord with something is it is much needed. Even if you couldn't be there, it was good to witness something like that, like to see all those different types of people come together and just be hoping for the same outcome together. Yeah, was um it's something, you know. It's something to see. I'm in in the Knicks, like, you know, I'm sure they didn't ask for that type of responsibility, but but but um it's it's awesome that they they they pulled it off, you know, and gave the city something to be proud of, gave all those people something to kind of rally around.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yes, yo, the summer is gonna be lity.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

It's gonna be orange and blue skies, orange and blue summer skies, baby.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

The whole maybe the maybe the rest of the year. It's gonna be the rest of the year. Yo, until let me tell you.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Until the next season.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

And you know it's gonna ramp up even more when the next seasons come because we all in. We all in on the repeat already. You see what I'm saying? So it's orange and blue skies already. Shout out, also, my man Patrick Ewan was there. Oakley was out there. I saw that.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

I saw that. I was really happy to see Oakley because, like, I guess for those that don't know, Oakley was banned from from MST. So it was nice to see him be able to see that go down in San Antonio. You know, that was awesome too.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yeah. He was like really happy. Yeah, it was good to see him. Yeah, it was good to see him. It was like Nick, always a Nick. Like he probably, you know, he feels like he won too, and he contributed to that. I mean, we've had some long years, some dry spells.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

53 years in a basketball town, and you can't win a chip. Yeah, man. I'm about I'm I'm getting emotional right now. Just just talking about it. You know, just just you know, I literally I ran out the house because the babies had fallen asleep, fallen asleep. I was screaming in the middle of the street. I had a blackout on my block, you know, that man, but I was prepared. I was prepared. You know, the the uh the Wi-Fi went out. So so all the streaming sites and everything went out, but I keep I keep a digital antenna on deck, baby.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Wow, that's more prepared than I than I am.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Keep a digital antenna on deck to watch the regular TV, man. It was it was good. And your boy is and will be at that Thursday parade. I will be there, man. I will be there, son.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Make sure you take some footage of that. Early with the launching. Let's give the people some some footage of of of uh the Gen Expertise host.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Gen Expertise takes the Canyon of the Champions. The parade at yes, man. Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Get some footage. Yeah, get footage of that for sure.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

It's gonna be insane.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

You gotta you might have to go live. You might have to go live.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Gen Expertise goes live at the goes live at the watch me at the parade, watch me crying, live at the parade, just crying. Like, I can't believe this really happening. I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

You know what I picture when you said that? I picture you being like um Jesse Jackson, or I've Jesse Jackson, but remember when when Barack Obama got elected and they and the camera pans to to I don't know if you see if you remember this, where there's a time where yeah, would they show Jesse Jackson crying? That's what I that's what I just pictured of for you of you doing. I don't know why that popped in my head right away. I'm gonna be emotional.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I'm gonna be crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

At the time I was laughing.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I'm gonna be straight Carl Thomas out there. And if you if you've listened, been keeping up with us to date, you know that I Rance has made a personal, a personal sacrifice since we lost the finals in 1994. I was so distraught that I I've made a vow to not wear any Knicks merchandise, hats, or anything until we finally, finally win the championship. Because I felt like it was bad luck. So it's all everything. Socks, underwear, you know what I mean, Scullies, hoodies, underwear, and and underwear, everything, bro. All New York, it's gonna be all New York, all orange and blue skies, man. You know, you know, my little man has to get a little, I have to get him a little Brunson jersey. You know, I have to get my daughter an OG jersey, you know. It's oh my gosh. It's gonna be amazing, son. It's gonna be amazing. Woo! The summer's gonna be lit. All right, so now that we've gotten that out of uh out out the way, um, cardio rules everything around me. We talked about the cardio Nicks, the cardiac Knicks, I should call them the cardiac Knicks.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Oh, yeah. Before we start, just real quick, um, I wanted to mention something. I could I just saw, and only because this kind of pertains to Gen Xers, right? And we talked about this a while back, but um, this weekend I also saw the Masters of the Universe movie. Right. So I just wanted to quickly touch on this real quick. I've never been spending time on it. I'm not gonna spoil it for anybody, but I just wanted to mention that. For Gen Xers, go see that movie, right? Like, I don't care what anybody tells you, I don't care what your friends say, I don't like, I don't care what critics say. If you're a Gen Xer, even a millennial, right? If you're in your 40s and 50s, especially, you should go see this movie, right? It's nostalgic, it's fun, it's funny. Um, it it covers things that that you may have thought about. You know, if you if you used to watch He-Man back in the days, um definitely go see it. Like I don't want to spoil it for anybody. I definitely had a good time watching that. We brought the kids. Kids didn't really get it completely, they enjoyed it, but they definitely didn't get all the jokes. And in some cases, I'm glad they didn't get all the jokes because there's gonna be some, you know, there's some jokes in there that might be innuendo. Innuendo, innuendo. So it was a lot of innuendo. Um so yeah, but but yeah, Gen Xers go see Masters of the Universe. That it was a good time, like it's a good nostalgic ride, you know?

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yeah, so go check that out. I'm gonna go check that out, man. I I don't care, I gotta see that he-man son.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

It was definitely fun. That Transformers is coming out that 40th year, that 40th anniversary, so I have to check that out.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I can't watch that again. You're talking about the re-release?

SPEAKER_02 11:47

The re-release, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

I can't I can't ever watch that. I can't watch that movie ever again, and you know why.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Yes, you know why. Because of Optimus, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

It's tragic. Yeah, man. That's trauma. And they did all of that just to sell new toys, you know, like just to just to come out with the Rotomist for the Rotomous Prime. Killed off Optimus Prime just so they could have new toys coming out and have everybody go rush to get this new leader or the Autobots, man. I don't think that was right.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

I'm still had all the 10-year-olds in there crying and sobbing.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

I feel a way about it, man.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Like yeah, I remember watching it and I was I was like, like, like all the little kids, like our jaws drop. Like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

I was yeah, I was in complete disbelief.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Can't believe it. Optimus Prime. Yeah. So, you know, check out that Masters of the Universe if you get a chance. If you're feeling nostalgic, you know, how many stars do you give it? How many stars do you give it? Oh, you know what? Hold on, hold on. How many, how many gen X's do you give it? How many X's? Yes, wait a minute. Hold on. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

We can't do that. We can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I'm not I'm not gonna, you know what? Yeah, yeah, screw it. Let's stick to stars for now. Yeah, we'll go with stars. Let's keep the star rating system going for a minute until we think of something else. But um honestly, man, I give it like a three and a half star rating out of five. Like three three and a half. Yeah, three and a half. It was solid, it was fun. Like I said, it wasn't any like you know, cinematic masterpiece or anything like that, but it was fun. You know, I would definitely recommend, like I said, the Gen X is go see it especially. Take your kids, and um, it's a good time. But but be ready to have fun. Like, don't, you know, like don't go in there too serious and expect it to be like like some some like you know, the Odyssey or something like that. Because it's it's it's not gonna be that, right? But um, if you go in there with with the mentality, like, hey, I'm here to have fun, it's definitely a good time.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Yeah, cool, cool, man. So we're sticking with the star rating.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Sticking with the star rating, man.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Like that wasn't well thought out. That wasn't a well thought out.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yeah, it's it's all in the spur of the moment, man. Like this is a this is a real, this is real, you know. This is jazz, yeah. This is jazz, it's all improv.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

It's all improv. So I have a question for you, mate. And stop me if you if you uh you know this. Did you know that men develop heart disease 10 years earlier than women?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

I knew that it was earlier. I didn't know the the exact number, to be honest with you. Like I knew that that men have a tendency to develop it um more often and sooner in their in their life in their lifetime than women for sure.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Yeah, and it usually rears its little ugly head at around 35 years old for men.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

That's early too, right? And and I I was thinking like in your 40s is when you should start really, really um kind of screening and and asking your doctor, you know, what you should do to prevent prevent uh an event, you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah, that's where it rears its head at 35. And you know, when I think I mentioned the story about the doctor telling me that once you get to your 40s, if you can get past your forties, you is there's a pretty good chance that you're gonna live a longer, healthier life. But that ten that 10 years from 40 to 50 is when everything goes wrong. Because when you think about it, when you're 35, a lot of people start getting married, a lot of men start having children, they're deep into their careers. Um, so the stress levels start ramping up. Now then they're probably not um going to the gym as much as they used to. They're not jogging or running or lifting or, you know, jo playing basketball leagues. They're kind of we're kind of like slowing down, taking our foot off the gas a little bit. But then we're also enjoying the finer things in life. The foods, the things we don't curtail or the things we don't slow down is the food and the drinks and the indulgence. So I can see why at 35 it'll probably start rearing its ugly little, its ugly little head.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

I guess, yeah, that's the sweet spot, right? Like for like we talked about before, there's like you said, there's kind of a slowdown that happens because of all the reasons that you just mentioned, right? If you have a family, your career's kind of taking off around that time, usually. Um if you're in like a career job, um, all that stuff, right? Like that so if you're starting your family or if you're you know you're married and all that stuff, like a lot of things that life just gets in the way around that time, right? Between like your 30s and your 40s, that's when life is really, really at full throttle. Where you don't have time to do all the things that you used to do when you were younger. So I could I could see that too. Yeah. And it's funny, like man, it it feels like we're coming in full circle on a lot of these topics, man. Because I remember talking about this in the very first episode, right? Like we talked about kind of how you're not in, if you're in your 40s and 50s, you're not in midlife, right? Because the average person is gonna live to be, you know, 70 plus years old, like 75, 76 years old, right? So if you think about it, once you get past 40 and you're into your 50s, you're kind of in your three-quarter life, you know, like you're not in midlife. So you have to really, really take these things seriously. Like, you know, heart health becomes paramount because heart health is like in that top five that we talked about too in the first episode, where there's like I think there was about I think there was five, right? Like there was heart, um, diabetes, and and I'm talking about like the top five things that people tend to pass away from at a s after a certain age, right? Like men in their 40s and 50s, if they're gonna if they pass away from something other than natural causes, the top five I think is heart disease, diabetes, um, a neurogenerate a neurodegenerative disease, a stroke, and I'm forgetting the fifth one. Maybe it was on the five.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Was one suicide? Was it suicide one?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Suicide was is definitely on the list. I don't know if it if that was five though. So maybe it was four. We'll do a fact of funny or something on that. But yeah, but yeah, like so basically heart, neurodegenerative disease, diabetes, um, stroke are uh are up there on the on the top five in the list, right? And I realized that heart disease kind of leads to a lot of other kind of peripheral diseases, for lack of better terms, right? Like it when you things that started your heart kind of wind up affecting a lot of other parts of your body. And I learned that the hard way um a couple of years ago. And I think it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

It's like a gateway.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Yeah, it's it's it's definitely it's definitely a gateway. Like if you if you don't take good care of your heart, you're gonna find that a lot of other things start to to fail on you because of the idea that your heart is pumping blood to the rest of your body, um, that's that's delivering oxygen and nutrients, and there's all types of um cascading effects of of neglecting heart health, right? Yeah, so so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yeah, but the good news is that 90% of cardiovascular disease is preventable. So that's a good news. Really?

SPEAKER_00 19:02

90%?

SPEAKER_02 19:03

I said I saw it and I said 90% of cardiovascular disease is preventable with lysom.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

I'm saying there's a chance.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

There's a chance, yeah. That's a big chance, that's a good chance, you know. I'll take those odds, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm talking for myself. Like, I gotta stick around for a minute. So I gotta figure this thing out. Stop eating Oreos and burgers and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

As many of you that have been with us along this journey, you also know that Maine and I, we do our Saturday morning walks. So we take a walk, we get up and we we take a walk every Saturday morning, and and it's yo, it's going on two years. If once we get to the end of this year, it'll be two years of of of consistency.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Sheesh.

unknown 19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

That's crazy. That's crazy to think about.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Uh-huh. That would be two years of consistent uh consistently walking every Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Wow, man. That's that's that's pretty amazing. I'm glad that that we're doing that. I'm glad you um you suggest you're the one that suggested that, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Um, and I really appreciate it. Because sometimes that might be the exercise I get for the week, to be honest with you. Right. And and but the good part is that that might set me on a good trajectory for the rest of the week, to be honest with you. Like, so so it it could go either way. It depends on how my week goes. But sometimes that sets me in the right direction. I like where we do our walk, then the next day I do another little workout, or then the next day I might do another little something. So I get my like three to three days out of five, I'll get it in, right? And I'll feel I feel great and I feel better about myself after I do that, right? So I'm glad you suggested that.

unknown 20:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Because like I said, sometimes it's it might be the only workout I get in the week, but then sometimes it has that cascading effect of like leading me to do it for in other days, right? So it's definitely no positive.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

We just said mentioned about it being a gateway, uh, heart disease being a gateway to other like peripheral, peripheral diseases. Um, walking and making a healthy choice is also a gateway to doing other healthier things. Like Maine just said, getting an extra workout in. My man is sprouting now. He's eating sprouts, he's putting sprouts on everything. He's having sprouts sandwiches, he's putting sprouts in his smoothies. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

He's putting he's putting so so, real quick, that that's another thing that you put me on to. So you don't you've definitely been kind of like my my uh my brother's keeper. My free uh my free fitness and nutrition consultant or something, right? But but yeah, like you put me on to sprouting, right? And for those that don't know, you can sprout pretty much any type of seed, but um the best seed that I found was um it's broccoli seeds, right? That's one of the that's one of the best ones. There's there's a lot of them, like there's mung beans, there's chia, there's regular lentil, you know, all types of beans.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

So sunflower seeds, all types of children.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Sunflower seeds, but you could basically get like these mixes of of seeds, but the one One that I found is is like my kind of a gateway for me, so to speak, is the broccoli seed. And it's supposed to have like something like five to ten times as much nutrients as the actual bropper, right? So you take the seeds, you put them in a jar, you soak them overnight, and then for like five days, you just rinse them in the jar. And I got one of those jars that has a strainer at the top, and you just sit it on the counter, right? Like you rinse them off, you sit it on the counter. Like I said, you rinse it twice a day, matter of fact, twice a day for about five days, and you'll find that by that fifth day about, you'll have a full jar of sprouts, right? And the sprouts are very nutrient dense, they're really good for you, they're filling, they give you fiber, um, so all types of antioxidants, stuff like that. So, yeah, highly recommend. That's another one that's and I'm I'm glad you mentioned that because that's that's something I've been recommending to people just in passing, just randomly. Like, hey, I've been sprouting. It's it's a it's a funny conversation to start.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

But um, but people seem open to it once I start talking about it and how easy it is. Because basically, you're growing pretty much the vegetable nutrition you need. You could just grow it on your counter without any soil, without any sunlight. You just use water and just let it let it do its thing, drain it and let it do its thing for five days, and you got a you got a full jar of sprouts.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yeah, you basically just set it and forget it, like them old Ronco um commercials. Like the rotisserie, the rotisserie chicken. Yeah, remember.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

I have Ronco set it. At least my my family had one of those.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Uh-huh. How did it work? Did it work good? Because we didn't get, I was, I was skeptical about it.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

It was like a I'm gonna be honest with you though, it was hard to clean. Like, it definitely worked, but it wasn't that easy cleanup too.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

That's the thing, like they make it seem like it is like the George Foreman grill also isn't as easy to clean as you would think, man. You know what I'm saying? You know, eventually dipping down.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

We're off on a tangent a little bit, but but eventually, you know, the George Foreman grill, they started upgrading it where you could take off the plates, right? Because that first the first iteration of the George Foreman grill, you couldn't take off the plates that heat up, right? So you kind of had to figure out like how to wipe it down. You couldn't, you obviously couldn't immerse it in water. And like you said, like it wasn't easy to clean the way it showed on the on the commercial or the infomercial, right? But eventually they upgraded the the George. They have all sorts of they have all sorts of George Foreman grills anyway, but eventually they came out too. Yeah, but eventually they came out with one where you could take the plates off, the the heating, the you know, the mechanism that eats up, you could take those off and you could clean them separately, right? Like you could actually wash them and then dry them and put them back on, right? So I'm like, they should have somebody should have done this a long time ago. Long time ago, man. Long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

You know who got offered it first, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Hulkogan, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yeah, and he he picked like the mixer or something. He picked like a like a shake mixer or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

He picked something stupid. Mm-hmm. Yeah. George Foreman's kids are still eating off of that.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Who knew, man? Who who knew?

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Like that's one of those things that you can't. You know, exactly. Like, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Yeah, man. So now that we got off on uh scheduled tangent. Go ahead. We got schedule tangency.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Nah, you know what's funny that it's a it's a tangent, but it feels still very relevant to Gen X for some reason. I like when we go off on tangents that are still like a nostalgic trip down memory lane, because that George Foreman grill was kind of like that. Was like our Gen X, like I don't know, that was my introduction to cooking.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Four minutes, a burger in four minutes?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah, like that's when I could step it up. Like my parents didn't didn't just hold me to to grill cheese and scrambled eggs anymore.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

I could have a chicken breast.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Yeah, I could get a chicken breast, I could throw a burger in there with the lines on it, but it looked like you really cooked it outside. It looked like I really did something. Exactly. Like it looked like I was really growing.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

And to our defense, it's defense, it it is heart healthy because it is getting rid of all of that unnecessary.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Oh, yeah, the way the fat the drip pen, like the way the fat would drip down. Yeah, yeah, all of that.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Yeah, so there you go. It's all relevant. We all bring it, we bring it back.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

We always look it's never irrelevant with us. It's never irrelevant.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, you know, we throw it, we throw it down the street, but then it comes back around the other block. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 26:28

So it's always a point to it. It's always a point to our stories.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, man. Yeah. I also saw that one in five heart attacks are silent. So there's silent heart attacks. One of the things that I found out um is that you can have a heart attack and not even know you have a heart attack. So that indigestion that you have maybe a heart attack, and that if you have a heart attack, it always shows up in your EKG. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_00 26:58

No, I didn't know that either.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

So let's say you had a heart attack 10 years ago and you didn't know, right? You didn't know, you just you just figured it was it, you know, you just was indigestion or you was hungover, whatever. You was just stressful at the job that you might have had. You know, so yeah. So you can go to the doctor and the doctor can see you if there's anything like they're checking a physical and they check your EKG. A heart attack leaves a permanent uh mark in your heartbeat. So your heartbeat it's different for the rest of your life, and they can spot it on the on the printout, on the readout. And the doctor, like, you did when did you have a heart attack? I didn't what you mean I had a heart attack? Yeah, it you had a heart attack because you know it's it's like totally imprinted on your heart.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Wow. I guess that's good in a way, like so doctors can show you, like even if you didn't know you had it, at least the doctor knows if they do that test. So I guess in a way that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

So that's a little tidbit that I found out about heart attacks. So cardio health is very, very important, to say the least.

unknown 28:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Keep talking about it. I also found out that that about one in four male deaths in the US is related to heart disease.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Oh, that's 25%.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Yeah, that's a that's a crazy number. So that it doesn't mean that necessarily that a heart attack or a heart event, but it's like some way, because like I was saying, like I found out the hard way that you know issues with heart disease and and heart health can affect the rest of your body as well, right? Because so that death could be from something that's related to the heart without being a direct heart attack or a direct like cardiac event. Um but yeah, that's it's it's scary numbers, man. Um especially the way things are going in terms of uh, you know, lifestyle and and food. Choice sisters that are out there. Um those numbers are are are I guess it could be scary or it could be kind of a wake-up call, like we were saying in previous episodes. Like even this whole idea about um not thinking of the the idea that we're not in midlife, we're in kind of three quarters, um, is something that you can either take as kind of a scary idea or you could take it as um as a wake-up call to to kind of take your health seriously. Because um as we get older, you said like your life becomes a little more sedentary, um you're you're a little more busy with other things. So it becomes more important to be intentional about your health in terms of like your diet and getting some movement in every week. So there's that word again intentional.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

That's right, that's right. That's a staple.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, we gotta get the shirts pented up.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

You know?

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Be intentional.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Be intentional. But like I said before, the good the good thing about it is that 90% of cardiovascular disease is preventable. So the American Heart Association, they recommend 150. Let me see if I can remember this off the top of my head. 150 minutes of um moderate exercise. Moderate aerobic, aerobic exercise weekly, and then 75 minutes of vigorousity, high intensity.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Vigorous, okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Yeah, so there's a difference between aerobic and anaerobic. You know, aerobic is mostly working with the heart and the lungs and the air and the oxygen, and anaerobic is just like working without the oxygen. So think of like a 50 to 60 or 100 meter sprinter or someone that does like extreme exercise and a short and short burst. Um, and anaerobic, that's anaerobic. And aerobic, I'm sorry, aerobic is more endurance-based. So going for a run, playing tennis, um, walking on the treadmill. These are the things that are more aerobic, which helps strengthen the heart because the heart is a muscle, is a muscle, and get the lungs pumping. So these are things that you can do to combat heart disease, to keep those HDLs and those LDLs low. And if if any of you out there don't know what the HDL and the LDL is, that's uh high density lipoproteins and low density lipoproteins.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Which one is the bad now?

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Like I'm the bad one is the L. Is the L. So think of like low down dirty. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, always I always like I always have those in my head, and and I can never remember which one is the bad one.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

Yeah, the so think of hey, for the high density, which is the good one, and the low, the low down dirty. The happy for the HDL and the low down dirty. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

I'm I'm gonna associate it with taking an L. Yeah, I'm gonna say, okay, if you took an L, that's not a good thing. So I'm gonna always make that association going forward.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

So when you go, and that's one of the things that the doctors check, especially as we get older. So you want to, I think it's measured in what they call micrograms per deciliter. And uh you want your HDL to be above 60, and I think it's the 60 to 80 range, and you want your LDL to be below 100, like I think it's MGDL, something like that. Could be off by a fraction, but that's basically uh what you want in regards to having your LDLs and your HDLs.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Before before we have this conversation, like I was gonna ask you, because you're the you know, the fitness professional and a resident expert. Um I was gonna ask you something that it doesn't seem as relevant now, like because now that we're deep into the conversation, it feels like you know, the relevant part about this is really about the cardiac health. But I was gonna ask you about the difference between, like you said, like the aerobic and anaerobic exercise and which one you think is kind of like more important for like weight loss and fitness, right? Because the reason I ask is because um, you know, I I follow some fitness folks, and sometimes the information gets confusing, right? Like they'll like you're talking about something that is very relevant in terms of like the cardiac um health and making sure that you're doing some sort of aerobic exercise because it's gonna help you with your heart. Um, we could talk about, I'm sure you could talk about like VO2 max and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Um, but what I wanted to talk about is is really quick. Um, you know, people say that at our age we should be lifting heavy. Yeah. Um, and we should be lifting heavy, and that's how we're gonna like really get fit and lose weight, and that people should actually not be running, right? So what I'm saying is that the information is kind of confusing. Like there's a lot of talk about people doing cardio and saying that all the cardio does is make you hungry and and like wear down your wear down your joints, and yeah, um, especially doing high intensity cardio, like running and stuff like that. They say that we should stop running and we should lift heavy. So I guess that I guess that's the takeaway that I'm getting from some of these fitness influencers and stuff like that. Um, so I wanted to get your take on that.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

So you should lift heavy at least one time a week. Uh-huh. But heavy weight lifting is more for the muscles, which I like to call the shock absorbers, which protect the bones, and lifting heavy weight and resistance training helps to prevent osteoporosis. So it strengthens the bone. So think of lifting weights just for as for as a means of strengthening bone density. That's its most important job. Strengthening strengthening bone density and also giving you protection, giving your bones protection. So when you're older and you do fall, you don't break your hip because your muscles are developed. Or you don't have a problem opening the jaw because it's also been clinically proven that grip strength um or the lack thereof can either add years or take years away from uh your life as a senior.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Right. I've I've I've read that too about the grip strength thing, like where humans are kind of unique, right? Like in the in the in the sense that out of all the animals in the animal kingdom, we are the ones that have this ability to grip things and carry things long distances, right? So um the ability to carry things, the ability to kind of shake somebody's hand is like one of those markers of like I guess um virility sometimes, like when somebody's shaking your hand, they're trying to break it almost. Um that becomes like the contest of who's the more like virile, who's who's the manly man, I guess, in the room. But but seriously, like I've heard that, or at least I've read, and you're you're kind of confirming it for me now that grip strength is one of those those markers of of health. Just the ability to carry things around, just the ability to open up a jar and or have like dexterity in your hands and fingers is extremely important, right? And it's one of those things that make us unique amongst the animals, it could save your life, basically.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Yeah, absolutely. So that's what like heavy weight training does. Heavyweight training does nothing really. Well, you know what? I'm not gonna say does nothing really, because I could be mistaken. There could be some some um science out there that this cruiser.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Well, what what about the idea that, and this is only like I said, like I'm I'm taking this from from the the Instagram fitness influences again. So I gotta admit that, right? Like this is not like from my doctor or anything, but um folks saying that that building muscle actually burns more fat, right? Like so the the idea that as you get older you're losing muscle.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

So especially so it so it becomes especially important for people in our age range, you know, to be honest, like to to to lift heavy and to continue to try to build muscle and maintain muscle as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Because it it it not only is a stabilizer, like you said, shock absorb uh absorbing, um keeping up your strength to do everyday tasks, but the idea that you know muscle actually burns fat is another one of those things that they say, like if you want to get fit, you should be trying to build muscle. Um, especially as you get older, because you're actually losing muscle, you know, as you get as you age.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Yeah. So as once we you start losing by the percentages, I think once you start hitting your 40s and 50s, you start losing like 20 to 40 percent of your muscle. So that's why it's that's why it's important to keep working out so that you can slow that down. Um but it is it is true in this aspect. Muscles are the greediest of the greediest aspects of your body. Muscles always want to be fed. So the biggest, strong, strongest muscles always want to consume so that they can continue to be as large as they as they are, as strong as they are, etc. So it is it is true in that in that sense. That is true. Um, it does help you to burn fat. Um but most people aren't going to do that type of high intensity working out to create what's called like the epoch effect, the exercise post-oxygen consumption effect, right? So that's what you get, like what we call the afterburn. And that's when you're doing like the hit classes and the high intensity. And what I like to tell people is that you can always walk further than you can run. Right? So you can it's easier to walk five miles than it is to run five miles if you're not conditioned to do that. Now, you do gain some type of muscle from from doing the more endurance-based, but it's more lung work, it's more heart work. Alright. So, case in point, when you see you see big bodybuilders, bodybuilders drop like flies, and they usually die of some type of a heart disease.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Why is that?

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Well, because they're building their muscles so large that that's that's a lot of that's a lot of surface area for the heart to pump blood and to get oxygen too. And they have bad diets as well. Do you know?

SPEAKER_00 38:59

They're bad diets, they have bad diets?

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Yeah, they have bad diets. You know what I mean? So bodybuilders? Yeah, their diets are terrible. Their diets are terrible. So when you see them on stage looking at their best, they'll tell you themselves that's the closest that they are to death.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Really?

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

What about so so sometimes like I've seen bodybuilders, right? Like where they'll I've seen the big ones, like where they're huge and and you know, yeah, you know, they're just trying to, it feels like they're just trying to get as big as they possibly could get, right? And then I've seen the other ones in competition where they've they get like really slim, like really, like almost emaciated, man. Like where you can see we're having some technical difficulties here. You're blinking. I know I'm blinking. Let me see. Yeah, I don't know what's what that's about right now.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

Nah, you're good. Oh, then as soon as you said it, you was good, and then you look what's going on with this. That's odd. Well, well, we got it, we we got the strobe like on now. Well, well, you never know what you're gonna get on our show.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

In any case, we're having some technical difficulties with the with the video portion of of the show, but hopefully, like the audio will will hold up for this. But the question I was gonna ask, um, really what I was talking about was like you were saying that they have really bad diets, right? Like, so I'm I wanted to kind of dig deeper into that because you do see like sometimes you have the really big bodybuilders, and then you have those folks that are kind of like it feels like they're working on getting it as as thin as possible, if that makes sense, right? Like to show their muscles, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Yeah, the strayations, as they call it, the strayations and the vascularity. So they want their things to pop, they want to get their body fat below. Sometimes they're on stage at 3% body fat. That's basically like skin on muscle. If you pinch them, their skin would like stay in place for a few seconds.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

But is that what you mean when you say like they'll tell you that that's as close to death as they they get? Like, what is it?

SPEAKER_02 41:01

Yeah, your hormones are going wild. When you get that, when you get that thin and there's no fat, so you know fat is a transporter. And that goes back to like the HDL and the LDLs. So basically the LDLs is uh the lipoproteins is cholesterol, and we need cholesterol, it's essential. Cholesterol builds cells, it produces hormones, it digests fats, and it converts, it converts your vitamin D. That's what converts vitamin D. So that's basically your cholesterol and your triglycerides. Right? So now if you're if you're getting rid of all of the fat in your body, or just about all of the fat. Um what what the triglycerides and what the lipoproteins does is it's it's a transporter. It transports these things through the blood because it's blood is basically like plasma and water, right? So it wraps itself in like this waxy material, that's what a lipoprotein is, and it and it transports. It's it's like a taxicab, basically. Right, right? So if you're if you're reducing it and you're like taking these waxy substances off of the um your hormones, your estrogens, and your testosterones, um, they can't go where they need to go. So you're literally like malfunctioning. Your body is just all out of whack. All out of whack. You know what I mean? It's the most miserable that they say that they claim they're miserable, you know, they go through these high and low emotions, and because their body isn't regulating like it's supposed to, you know, and then they don't really do cardio, so they're not doing like endurance where they're getting their zones up, like they're going into the zone one, zone two, zone three, and zone four for extended periods of time. You may see them just walking because fat burning starts at 20 minutes. Once you get out of 20 minutes, you start fat burning, but you're not strengthening the heart muscles, so to speak, and then you're so big it takes so much energy and so much blood now and uh to circulate through the system, and blood carries oxygen, you know, and that's the most important thing. Oxygen. Oxygen being carried to the muscles, to the cells, to the tissue of the body. All right, and without not without oxygen, the the uh the tissue dies, right? So that's how you get like this necrosis, and that's how you get people with heart attacks, and uh where certain chambers and certain parts of the of the body, the arteries are clogged, so you're not getting that blood to the area where so you're not getting oxygen, and parts of the tissue starts dying in the heart. You know, so you have a you have a log you get like a log jam too of uh cholesterol because it can't pass through. So now it's worse than like traffic on Los Angeles. You know what I mean? But endurance, walking, getting You're 10 to 10 to 20,000 steps in this helps to clear out the fat if you're consistently doing it. It helps to clear out the arteries, it clear out the fat deposits. Um, and as the fat deposits they calcify, you know, so then you have hardened fat deposits in the arteries, and that's why you get a lot of these bodybuilders out here that pass away, usually by some type of a of heart disease. A lot of ki I think kidney failure as well, but heart diseases, especially over the last five years or so, they've been dropping like flies, you know. Interesting. Yeah, so it's always it's always best, I feel, if you just want to be healthy, to do endurance, you know, and then take one day where you lift help you lift heavy, or you may do a like a uh uh anaerobic sprint or something of that nature, just to build the muscles to keep the muscles strong. But in general, you know, try to get your 10 to 20,000 steps in a day. Because that's also that's what you're more consistently able to do. It's not too much of a strain. And what 10,000 steps is what four is that like four to five miles a day, depending on your stride, how tall or short you are. So shorter people, it might be for only four miles. For someone with a longer stride, it might be six miles or ten thousand steps. So my recommendation is just to be healthy, is to walk, jog, lift moderately, and then pick one day when you do heavy work and you may do like more anaerobic work. So there's a lot of people out there that just just say things and they confuse.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Right. Right, yeah, I yeah, I appreciate that. I get that. And so so for your clients, you're saying that when you make a recommend, when you it's like let's let's say somebody comes to you, right, as a client, and um they say, Rance, I want to make sure that I don't have a heart attack like in the next in the next few years. I just want to do anything I can to make sure that I don't have a heart event, basically. Right. So you're saying that the type of things you recommend to them is like making sure they they're getting you know that that that 150 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Yeah, I put them on the machine. I put them on first I asked that they I asked that they when's the last time they had that checkup and what are their numbers, what's their cholesterol numbers? True, you know, because you can't just throw somebody on a on a on a treadmill or a bike or an elliptical machine if there's a possibility that they have some blockage, you know. So you need to know I need to know like kind of their health history. If they're fine, then the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put you on like a treadmill. And I'm gonna I'll put you on like an incline. Like, you know, some people they think that just running sprints is the it's the fastest way, but it's just as effective to go a little longer and raise the incline, what they call, I think they call it the third, is it the third, the 336? Or 30 336, something like that, where you raise the incline and you walk on like a 3.5 incline on like 2.5 to 3.0, and you just walk for like 20 minutes, or you'll be dripping with sweat, man. And then if you put dumbbells in your hands, you may walk with with dumbbells in your hands, which I call carrying groceries in the Bronx, because you know we're whole, we're known for our hills. If you're carrying like some smoke, like dumbbells, you know, it's it's it works even more. You're out of breath, man. The heart's pumping, you're getting up into those higher zones. Um, so you're really getting a good cardio, you're strengthening the heart, you're really getting a good cardio exercise out of it. Then if somebody, if I just throw you on a bench press. Just say, okay, we're gonna do, we're gonna just, I'm just gonna throw you on the bench press. Or I'm gonna say, we're just gonna run as fast as you can. You know, it is it's you gotta take baby steps. So there's a difference. There's a difference in this. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 47:55

Yeah. And what about in terms of like, because I know you you have like a background, you know quite a bit about nutrition as well, right? So say the same client comes to you, like, Mr. Man, it's like we got our our workout plan, it's dialed in. I'm I'm good. Um, but what about in terms of like eating? Do you do you have any suggestions for that same plan when they ask you, like, hey, how should I be eating? Like, what do you what do you what do you suggest?

SPEAKER_02 48:23

Um, I suggest lower fat. Some people you think you're eating healthy, like let's say you get a uh like those those trail mix, right? And you take a handful of trail mix. You don't understand how much fat are in those cashews, those peanuts. And really the servant size, if you look at the servant size for most of it, it's like a quarter, a quarter cup. Right. Um, which is nothing. If you think about it, when you look at it, it's really, it's really nothing. So so the one thing that I would say, I ask them is like, what are you eating? Like, what did you eat today? What did you eat yesterday? What do you um how much butter do you consume? How much fried foods are you eating? How often do you fry? Um, when's the last time you had a salad? When's the last time you ate some sprouts? You know, these are things that these are they say, Well, I eat trail mix. I say, Well, what kind of trail mix do you eat? Is it full of sugar? Um, how often what type of portions do you look at the back and see that this one this one bag is actually six servings, and you've eaten three servings or maybe even the whole bag at a time, thinking that you're eating healthy and you're not. So these are the things. The classic you can't tra out train a diet as well. Right, right. So one of the one of the the trickiest things is that you go, you work out, and you really think that you've done this work that you can have a little cheat meal. But in reality, maybe you've burned if you're lucky, you burn 500 calories, and it's hard to burn 500 calories in one setting in a in a in a workout. But let's say you did, and you leave and you're hungry, and you go eat 1500 calories worth of food.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Right, you kind of negated all the work you did.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Yeah, now you're you're you're behind. You know, you're behind. So you've destroyed, you've you've burned 15, you've burned 500 calories, you've eaten 1,500. So not only did you replenish that 500, but now you've put yourself in a 1,000 surplus, and your workout is done for the day.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

It's interesting, but but that's exactly what I was talking about when when I when I say like, you know, some of the influencers online will talk about this in terms of kind of like the danger of relying solely on cardio is that you're gonna make yourself hungry and you're gonna burn, you're not gonna burn as many calories as you think during cardio. Um, and then you're gonna negate your whole workout because you're gonna be so hungry that you're gonna wind up binging on something because you you ran and now you're starving. Now you're pretty much starving.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

Um, so it's just something that they they recommend you should be careful about. But um, but I understand that's the same thing. Or like their video course or or whatever it is, like they're I gotta sign up for some sessions with them, I guess. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

But um Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

That's social media sometimes at its worst. So if you want to get in shape, grab I always say grab the low-hanging fruit. Go for a walk, bro. Try to get your 10,000 steps in during the course of a day. And and mind what you eat. Like, read the back of these food labels and see what serving sizes are. You know, and then and then plan accordingly.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

And you yourself, like you're a vegan, right? Yeah. So what's your take on like being a vegan and it's that the impact of that on your heart, right? Like, because that's another thing. Like you hear like contradictory information now about all types of yeah, like kind of, I don't want to call them diets, but just like people and their eating choices, right? Like, so if if you're choosing, like, hey, I'm gonna be a vegan, I'm only gonna eat um vegetable or or you know, vegetable derived food, yeah. Um I'm never gonna eat any meat or or animal-derived product, right? What's what do you what do you think is the impact of that as opposed to somebody that that's telling you, like, hey, you know, you should go keto, or you should be like high protein, low carb, or you should be like high protein and high fat, and that's that's good for you because you're gonna lose a bunch of weight and all this other stuff, right? Like, what's what's been your experience and your take on on like the difference between like people that are eating all vegetables all day and then and then somebody that's that's trying to go like protein or or high fat because they feel like that's that's gonna be the the way that they're gonna burn ketones as opposed to burning glucose all day?

SPEAKER_02 52:57

It depends on it depends on your needs, like it also depends on your activity level, uh you know. So um, and the one thing that I do say is junk food is junk food because Oreos are vegan, bro.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Are they?

SPEAKER_02 53:13

Yes, Oreos are vegan. It's a science project gone horribly right, you know what I mean? So um that's what Oreos are. Yeah, um you have vegans who eat these meat substitutes. Like I'll have a Beyond Burger or Impossible Burger every now and then, but you have people that they literally they eat it like the how they used to eat hamburgers and stuff, like they're eating it every day, and these things are high in fat because to get something that tastes good, you have to add sugar and you have to add fat.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

Right? So, and they and then that's not even the chemicals that they're they're um introducing into the into these foods. But um personally, it's harder to pack on muscle to being a vegan outside of having like protein shakes and things of that nature. You have to supplement more than you would uh as someone who's a carnivore diet. Uh you have to supplement, like I have to supplement with B12 because B12, you you receive B12 naturally occurring in like meats, where you don't receive B12 naturally occurring in in most plants. Um and I have to eat like uh a small piece of steak would be an equivalent to like two cups of like chickpeas. You know, so you just have to eat more, and but at the same time, it's like that pound of feathers and pound of metal, right? Too much protein is too much protein. If you're eating 200 grams of protein during on a vegan diet and 200 grams of protein on a carnivore diet, it may still be too much for your kidneys to process. So now you you're just you're getting some type of kidney, you can get kidney failure. So you know, it's a slippery slope. I tell people just research it and don't don't always look at the social, find what's best to work for you. And um, yeah, I just chose uh vegan lifestyle. Well, I'm vegan like 99% of the time because I'm not even gonna front. Every now and then I s I slight I steal a slice of pizza, man. I'll sneak a slice of pizza.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

That's good to know, man. I appreciate your I appreciate the honesty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But in terms of like your heart, though, like specifically, like do you feel like your lifestyle is better for your heart health?

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Yes, yes, because just it's just naturally I'm ingesting less fat.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Than I would of of like a processed meat product or steak or burger or or whatever, lamb chops, whatever. I'm I'm naturally not consuming as much fat just in general. And then couple that with a uh like a super active lifestyle. Whatever fat is is going in, I'm burning it off. You know, I'm I'm burning it off through through diet and exercise. But if you're just sitting there, you can be if there's fat vegans, you know what I mean? Like let's keep it up, let's keep it a buck. You know, like you can eat, you can eat like almonds and say I eat almonds, but you're eating too much almonds, and you're maybe doing 3,000 steps a day. That fat is gonna start piling up. You know, so you have to exercise, you have to you have to move move things through the system. You have to get your fiber in, you have to do do all types of things like that. Yeah. So now that we've talked about working out, you know, Rance has some uh do's and don'ts at the gym, man. I got a little I got a little thing that I want to tell the people. I'm I'm I'm pushing you to work out, to go to the gym, to work out, to get your 10,000 steps, work on the treadmill. But some of you may start going to the gym for the first time. And Rance has your gym 101.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 57:02

A few things. Number one, always re-rack your weights when you're going into the gym. Always re-rack your weights. Nobody likes a slob, you know. The worst thing, and one of my friend Gio will contest, will attest to this there's nothing that drives a more crazy than having to pick up people's dumbbells that they lay around. So don't be a slob in the gym. Number two, wipe down your equipment, man. You know? That's a good one. Yeah, man. Number three, the bench is only for bench pressing. So do not go and jump on the bench press and do bicep curls, or jump on the bench press and do core work. Okay. Or jump on the bench press. Yeah, man. That's valuable real estate, man.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

So where should people be doing their curls? Like if you can't sit on the bench.

SPEAKER_02 58:01

You know what I mean? There's plenty of benches out there that aren't meant for bench pressing. That drives us nuts. All right. Um, this is very important too. And this is for you people that just go into the gym. Do not try to be super friendly in the gym at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

Right. That makes sense for obvious reasons.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

At 5 a.m., it's the same like seven to ten people, the hardcore people in there. You don't want to be in there at 5 a.m.

unknown 58:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

But you may have to go to the house.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

You don't have time to talk. You don't have time to talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

You just want to get it in and you just want to get your numbers in, son. And the last thing you want is some new person coming saying, hey, hey, hey, how you doing? Uh, this is my first time in the gym. Um you tell me what you know, they'll be kind of nice, but they won't be nice at the same time. Right. And 5 p.m., you already know. It's a madhouse at 5 p.m. It's the opposite of 5 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 58:51

You know? And when you're using the cardio machines at 5 p.m., there's a 30-minute unwritten rule. Sometimes it's written rules. There's a 30-minute unwritten rule that you do 30 minutes on your cardio machines and you get off. Really? Super crowded. Yes. Some gyms have it written up there, but when the gym is crowded, you're supposed to do 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

The courtesy is 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

30 minutes and get off. Because everybody floods to the treadmills and the bikes and the ellipticals on the afterwork crew. You know? And last but not least, oh no, I have another one. I have two. Don't come to the gym already stink.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

Oh man. Coming to the gym already stink. People do that.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

People do that. Absolutely. And stay off your phone. Stop sitting on machines and looking on your phone and looking through Instagram and sending text messages and some of the things.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

What if you have to record yourself and upload it to your to your fans and to your um to the people that you watch it? Well, you gotta go live in there. Well, you gotta go live.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:01

You know what I'm saying? You set your little phone and your little camera off to the side, you do your reps, and you get off.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

What if I need my tripod? I gotta set up my phone and the tripod.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Well, people do that, but do they? Yeah, people do that. They I I recorded the gym all the time, but we just lean our phones up to something and then we make sure nobody else is in the picture.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:19

Right, that's right. You too. You do record.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

Yeah, yeah. And we make sure or if the people are with the people we know and they know that we'll tape, or we'll ask, like, yo, we're taping. Do you want we'll move? Or most of the time, people are okay if you just ask them, like, look, I'm taping, do you mind? I don't want you being a picture. You don't know where today they may not supposed to be in the gym that day. So you never know. You know?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

You might catch somebody that's on the run.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Yeah, they may be on the run. But the people that are sitting on a machine, especially at 5 p.m. when it's busy, and they're doing three to five minutes, they're reading the times, you know, on their phone, or they're answering text messages, or they're talking. We got a guy that just walks around and talks all the time, and he just sits down on the machines and he doesn't get up. Yeah, yeah. Don't be those people, man. Those be those people.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:09

Okay. Was that two? Was that two? Or was that the was that you had a little bit of a little bit of a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:14

I did the don't come stink, and then I said the. Okay, I got you. Yeah, yeah, you did, you did, you did. So that's Rance's gym etiquette 101. So many many of you guys want to get heart healthy, want to go to the gym, start working out, you know? Just look at the lay of the land.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

Yeah, there's etiquette. There's etiquette, there's emotional intelligence to to to like kind of understanding, like you said, the lay of the land and the culture in your gym.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

Yeah, bad. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

No, that's those are good, those are good ones because going to the gym, like, you don't really think about like what's going on there, and there's people that have been going there for a long time, and you come in there new, and you might be doing something that is is kind of disruptive, you know, without even knowing it. Yeah, without evening. Yeah, you're going in there, make friends, and there's people that are just in there to get, like you said, get their numbers and get out of there.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

Yeah, man. And to be honest with you, if you're somebody who like the regular people that are always at the gym, if they see and they know that they don't, that's just your first time, because you always look like your first time in the gym, you look like it's your first time in the gym. You're walking around, you don't know anything. They will walk up like 80% of the time somebody's gonna walk up and they'll walk up to you and they may not introduce themselves to you, they just feel like, yo, what you looking for? Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

They may ask if you need help or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

They may need you if you need help. They won't let you die on the bench press. You know what I mean? They'll be like, yo, do you need a spot? Do you need this? But don't just go walking up, hey, you know, I'm Ranch, man. This is my first time here, bro. What like this is not at 5 a.m., man. You know, not it'll be the worst experience of your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:51

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can imagine that. No, that's those are good tips because I wouldn't know that. You know, I haven't been to a like a public gym in a long time. So if I went into a gym, I wouldn't know what to do in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:04

Yeah, man. Yeah. And and be careful, be leery of the people that always want to run up to you and volunteer information too. If the the normal gym goers are actually too, too friendly with you, you know what I mean? They're trying to, they're trying to sell you something. Some detox tea or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:24

They sign you up for a session.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:26

Yeah, you know, they may be like a uh a personal trainer on the low that's trying to get you jammed.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

Some detox tea. Yeah, so they sell a seaboard.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Those watery jars.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:46

You got the herbal life people in there. Nah, shout out to the herbal life people though.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

I don't want to just Yeah, you know, so that's the that's gym etiquette 101. That's one of the things. But notice layer of the land, you know, just go in there, do your work and get out, man. Go there often enough, and then you become part of the landscape.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:07

Yo, this is a little off topic, man. But speaking of like people selling stuff, yeah. Have you seen these videos of these people selling pineapples?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:19

Oh, the Kool-Aid pineapples.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

The Kool-Aid pineapples, man. And you know, usually, like, I wouldn't give this any airtime, this type of thing, but I find it fascinating, man. Like, I I I can't get enough of it, to be honest with you. Like, it's it's I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

It's your guilty pleasure right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:39

It's something about watching this, these people make the the they're making this stuff, right? Like, so bottom line, if you never heard of this, people are going to Sam's Club or Cosco. I don't know where they're going. I think it's Sam's Club or Costco or something, man. Like some big box store where you can get things in bulk. And what they're doing is they're buying these, like, they're they're pineapple spears mostly, right? They come in a jar, there's these pineapple spears, and what they're doing is they're taking packets of Kool-Aid and they're soaking the pineapple spears in Kool-Aid, right? And it's it's changing them colors, it's giving them the flavor of the Kool-Aid, obviously. Sometimes they're putting like half a cup of sugar or something in there, and like, well, however much sugar that they're putting in there to make it even sweeter than it is. And it's already sweet, right? Like, so because the pineapple spears come in in coconut water, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

So they're already sweet, right? And pineapples are naturally sweet themselves. So I don't know what's going on that people need they need this stuff even sweeter, but they're putting sugar in it. They're putting sugar in it, and then they're putting the Kool-Aid in there for flavor and and for like the fancy coloring, right? Like, and they're actually taking the Kool-Aid packet and they're they're taping it to the jar. So now you know what flavor you got. And and people are going across the apparently people are driving across the country to sell this stuff, they're selling it in their neighborhoods, and people are lining up to get these. Pineapples, which I think are probably about eight dollars a jar, something like that, and they're selling these jars for like twenty dollars, fifteen dollars, you know, the little two for thirty, stuff like that, right? And I just wanted to know if one, have you seen this? Am I spending too much time on social media? Because I'm like this, and I I guess the the answer might be yes to both of those things because I have I'm I'm finding myself like I'm fascinated with the fact that this becomes such a phenomenon, right? It's gone viral, and it feels like more and more people are are taking this as a role to like to really give some extra money.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:36

Entrepreneurs that are.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

Yeah, like then they're treating this like a real entrepreneurial venture. And not to say that maybe it is. Like, I'm not I can't take away anything from somebody trying to get some money, and if it's working, and and it's not, you know, you're not hurting anybody. I mean, well, you you're not trying, you're not purposely hurting anybody because if you're putting that much sugar and Kool-Aid into the pineapples, you might be hurting somebody, but not intentional, right? But what have you seen this?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

Yeah, absolutely. I've seen it because because we're friends on Instagram and you look at it so much, it it it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

Oh, yeah, like the algorithm is is sharing my stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:13

The algorithm is like in rants. Guess what? Guess what Maine is watching right now? You wanna see? You wanna see? So, yes, man. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, I am. Yeah, you know, yeah, it's it's it's crazy. And you know, you know, some of the pineapple spears come in syrup too.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

So wait a minute. So so they don't just come in coconut water, they come in syrup.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:36

Some of those pineapple spears actually they'll come in like like syrup. Like, remember the fruit cocktail? You get the fruit cocktail in water or the fruit cocktail in syrup. And then they're pouring more sugar on top of it, yo.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

Yeah, that that's even worse than I thought, man. Like the buttons.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:50

And then you got the dyes. You know how we feel about the blue raspberry dyes and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:55

Blue raspberry man. I even I even posted on our Instagram one time. I'm like, hey, we're on the orange and blue you want, but please don't be uh out there eating orange and blue food. Like you guys are out there eating blue food just because the Knicks, because the Knicks in the finals, y'all since when we start eating all this blue stuff, man. Like, stop that. Yeah, don't let you give you a blue bagel.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

Yeah, cut it up. Blue and orange bagel.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:22

Yeah, blue and a blue and bright orange bagel. Y'all out there eating blue and orange cookies. Like, come on, guys. Like, go next, but come on, take it easy. Y'all are out there eating blue stuff, like what nothing in nature appears blue, like that that color blue? Well, well, there's the ones that spirulina spirulina blue spirulina. We we saw that blue spirulina is the only naturally occurring, and I still want to do a little bit of research. Yeah, because I'm like, yeah, even that is kind of missing me. But blue spirulina might be the only thing that has that natural color, right? Yeah, but that that color blue doesn't really exist in nature, right? Typically. And I see a lot of people making all this blue stuff for in honor of the Knicks, man. I I we're going off for too many tangents today, but yeah, yeah, but I think it's relevant because your heart probably is not enjoying it's probably doesn't want you to be eating all all this blue and orange cookies and and and and bagels.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

Yeah, especially if you don't walk.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:31

Yeah, that blue dye cannot be good for your heart. I don't I don't know that for sure. I'm not a doctor.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

But we can take a we can take a uh um I'm gonna take an educated guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

Yeah, I'm gonna guess that that blue dye is not good for you. And the amount that they gotta use, the amount of blue they gotta use to make all this stuff, yeah, that cannot be good for you, man. That bright orange either.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:55

Yeah, just eat a pineapple, man. You know, pineapple delicious.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:00

Just eating the pineapples.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:01

Yeah, just please, just eat the pineapples, yo.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:04

And and then I'm I I went down a rabbit hole on this, so I'm watching the videos, and they're actually putting Kool-Aid and other things too. Like they're putting them in all types of stuff. Like I saw Hawaiian punch flavored um shrimp to believe it or not.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:19

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:20

I saw I saw I saw somebody made chicken wings, like that were like a grape flavor, like purple soaked chicken wings, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:30

Oh, I don't know how I I I don't know how I feel about that though. I'm just trying to do that. I feel terrible about it. I might want to try one though. You don't want to try one?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:39

No, I don't.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

I don't know. I'm gonna be honest with you. I might try to try one.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:43

There's some things that I won't try. Like the thing, you know, in the 80s, there was a bunch of stuff that I didn't try, and I'm glad I didn't try it. Yeah, yeah. And now in 2026, there's some things that I'm just not gonna try.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:55

I lean on the fact, like, I'm like, yo, I put in 30,000 steps yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:59

I'm gonna negate it. You can't you can't outrun it. One purple soaked wing. Yeah, you can't outrun, you can't outrun a grape wing. Grape flavored wings cannot be outrun.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:15

I'm willing to throw veganism out the window. Everything for something purple.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:21

Do not eat eat that that that wing soaked in the water.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

Yeah, stay away from cool stuff. Maine is right. Stay away from that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:28

No, I'm just I'm just saying, like, I'm not, I don't want to knock anybody's like, you know, hustle, so to speak. Uh if that's the way you get your money, like that's fine. But I just I'm just fascinated by the fact that people are doing this and they and it's it feels like they're they're putting a lot into it in terms of investing in not just not money per se, but like the time it takes to to be out there hustling that is like, I don't know. There's I feel like there's other ways to to do things, man, and then peddling Kool-Aid. That feels, I don't know. It feels in 2026. No, I'm not saying that. Like, no destructive. I like no, I don't want to say this in a in a way where like I get it, right? Like you, if if you're making money, go ahead and make your money, but it feels like it just feels like there's better, there's better, there's better ways. Yeah, there's other alternatives, there's healthier ways to go about this, man. Yeah, there's healthier things that you could be selling than Kool-Aid soaked pineapples, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

Yeah, but I'm sure they're delicious. At the same time, we're sure they are delicious.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:31

I'm sure they're I'm sure they're delicious, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:33

But this is the this is men's health month. So there we go, throwing it around the corner, and it's coming back, yo. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:42

Yeah, I guess, yeah, I guess I have to say it because it's men's health month. It is men's health month, man. Yeah, like don't give your men don't give the men in your life these this Kool-Aid soaked.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:54

Yeah, man. And stop giving people blue stuff, man. All you bakeries out there, cut it out, man. It's all you know, the next one is over. Stopping, man. Stop with the blue. Stop it, man. You know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:10

Yeah, cut it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:11

You're not eating that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you're not taking a lunch break to eat an orange and blue flavored bagel. Orange and blue straight through, too. It's straight through. Yeah, cut it out. You know, don't do that. Don't do that. Take care of your bodies, man. Mayne and Rants are here to tell you, take care of your bodies, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:30

You know?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:31

Buy some sprouts.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:33

Yeah, yeah, get some sprouts.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

Eat a carrot.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:40

But the oh, the other funny thing though, like, is like, I guess it's come full circle because some of the healthier folks online, they're doing alternatives to that Kool-Aid pineapple, right? Like, so they're taking like natural juice, and you're soaking the pineapple with natural juices and things that that change the color naturally and stuff like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:59

So there's there's natural alternatives to this that are healthier. And um, so that's interesting to see. Like, like people always take something that goes viral and they put their spin on it. So for me, it's just been interesting to see, man. Like, I'm not trying to knock anybody's hustle there. Like I said, I'm being honest. Like, it's funny to talk about in a way, but honestly, like it's just been fascinating to me to see this type of viral sensation go the way it's gone. Um, you know, there's people like with PSAs out there like warning people to not eat this because uh the amount of sugar is like more than like 36, um, 36 Krispy Kreme donuts. Yes if you eat that whole jar.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:37

And it's so addictive. How can you not eat a whole jar of it? Because it's so good. You know, you know that sugar fix is crazy, son. Like you eat one, you're like, yo, I'll just save the rest, and then the rest is literally saved, it's like five minutes later, is when you saved it for the rest. And you done ate a whole 176 grams of sugar.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:58

And I see people, I see people like tasting it online, right? Because you gotta you gotta get the testimonial. Like when you're selling it, you let people taste it, you get them on video, and you know how it goes. Like, people taste it, and they're like, oh, this is you know, this is you know, they're not doing it like this, you're doing it different, and like, oh, sip the juice, yeah tell them about the juice.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Yeah, they have a little spoon, they have a sample spoon.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:19

Nah, they're drinking it straight out the jar. The person will take the jar, take the jar right to the head, right? They're like, oh, how does that juice? Tell them about the juice. Like, yeah, yeah, the juice is it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:31

I'm like, seriously, I've seen pickles, Kool-Aid soap pickles.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

Yeah, yeah, that's kind of old school. I remember those uh early in the earlier years, the Kool-Aid. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:41

I was out, I was out of the loop. Like, I never seen that until 2026.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

At least those were still like sour. You know what I mean? Like, this is just straight unadulterated sugar dogs. And you know what's next. You know what's next. You know what a corporation's gonna get get a hold of it. And not only is it gonna have the sugar, it's gonna have the high fructose corn syrup. And it's gonna have to be. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:42

I don't know what to make of it, but it's it's just been kind of fascinating. Like I said, like it's just a viral sensation that that I'm just kind of like, I can't get enough of watching this. Like when I see a video of it, I I can't, I almost can't help but to watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:54

Yeah. You know, as soon as we as soon as we go, we get off this and we put open our phones, you know what's popping up, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

I know, I know it's gonna pop up right away because the algorithm, that's the way it works. It's it's all it's all in sync.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:06

It's all in sync, sir.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:07

It's watching us right now, it's listening to watching us right now. So I know it's gonna pop up a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:14

Yeah. So you got anything else to add?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:16

Nah, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:17

That was a good main's minute, though. That was a good main minute right there.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:20

So I don't know if it was or not, you know. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:22

So brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:24

I'm not sure, man. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Um, because I feel like some people being introduced to this because I mentioned it. And that that's yeah, that's on my conscience now.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:33

Yeah, yeah. I never I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:37

So don't if you're out there, don't do this.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:41

Don't please don't do this.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:43

Yeah, don't just drink sugar. So yeah, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:48

If you take anything away from this, don't don't drink sugar. Because sugar can lead to you know, diabetes and and sugar, insulin, and stuff. That's cardiovascular disease, which we've been talking about this other day. That stuff can lead, yeah, that stuff can only exacerbate problems with your heart, right? Like, so yeah, if you want to take anything away from that, don't do it. Watch the videos, they're highly entertaining. Yes, but do not, for the love of God, don't eat don't eat pineapple, soap and cool-in sugar, please.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:21

All right, so this concludes our latest episode of the Gen Expertise Podcast. Shout out to our now day 44s. We're getting up there, yeah. Our day ones and everyone in between, and as usual and as always, shout out to our day one, day one, and we outside, Nixon Five. Absolutely, Nixon Five, absolutely. And you know what, man? Since we are prolific, that's right, we are prolific. We will be back next Wednesday, same Gen X time, same Gen X place once again. Shout out to that orange and blue, orange and blue skies, brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:08

Orange and blue skies, but not orange and blue food, please.