Members of Technical Staff

Welcome to Members of Technical Staff: week-after-week of prestige narration from the hotbed of San Francisco tech culture. Featuring founders, funders, and fanatics, join Jayden (@creatine_cycle) and friends as they chronicle the culture, scandal, and humourlessness of the most important city of the 21st century.

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Members of Technical Staff

Getting Jacked in San Franisco

March 26, 2026 • Atlas Media Labs

0:00 | 41:33

Due to popular demand I sat down for 40 minutes by myself and talked about my arms (very normal) and where to train in San Francisco.
Also this is a call out to startups: ad space on my arms are for sale and i believe will become some of the most valuable real estate in San Francisco.

Watch on X; listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

addressing the arm allegations

@JoshConstine reaction

@fareehasala @dylanpatel stephen citrus party

@AlexanderTw33ts reaction

@varunram reaction

@pronounced_kyle reaction

addressing chesky’s arm routine and compound movements vs machines

my training philosophy (by popular request)

my bicep routine

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, so you're listening to a special edition of Members of Technical Staff. Now, I had uh a couple of episodes actually lined up for this week, but due to popular demand, I'm going to talk about something completely different. I'm going to listen to the will of the people, to the will of my reply, guys. Because last time I actually did that, the episode did pretty damn well. And so that's what we're gonna be posting. Now, you might be wondering why I'm dressed like this. Well, the answer is I'm dressed like this all the time. Uh, it really is just becoming uh a thing for me to show skin on the internet in order to get impressions on X.com the Everything app. Now I I I really do see what the OnlyFans girls were getting at, because I guess I'm sort of doing a similar version of the same thing. I've always kind of said that if my engagement does actually tank, well, I still have bullets left in the chamber. That is, I still have clothes left on my body, I can take them off when need be uh in order to sort of like fill my engagement needs. Anyway, I'm sort of tangenting into oblivion. What I wanted to talk about today, and it's by popular demand. I'm gonna talk about my arms a bit actually, right? Which is sort of, you know, sort of try and actually avoid the topic. Not really. But basically, yeah, it's all kind of all I've got going for me. Uh my ex actually left me because uh I didn't have big enough arms. So there is that. You can take that as you wish. But basically, with this sort of thing, uh the fitness thing, the arm thing, it's actually something that I have a few takes on. And there were people in my comment section after last week's episode with Nicole because we reacted to Brian Chesky on TBPN and he was talking about his arm workout. Now, I mentioned in that episode that I actually disagree with his philosophy that he laid out, and so I'm actually gonna go into that because people ask me to. And so, who am I not to listen to the people on the internet with weird names like Sex2 Inventor and Forge Gloid EAC that are in my comments section all the time asking me for particular bits of comment c uh comments? Huh, they are asking for particular comments, they're also asking me for particular pieces of content. So, before I actually get into a little bit of the training philosophy, and I actually do think this might actually be useful, especially for those that are in tech in Silicon Valley, those that are trying to escape the permanent underclass, those that might already actually be in the permanent underclass and need to have something else going for them other than their mid-programming skills. And so maybe there's something along those lines. You want to maybe be able to differentiate yourself uh in some other way, shape, or form, other than your intelligence, other than your salary. And I I I would go as far as saying that maybe you want to start doing this now. Maybe you want to start doing this now. If you only have 12 months, why not start getting jacked now? Now, this does not translate to peptides. Of course, I do not endorse peptides at all. I don't suggest anybody take them. I am basically opposed to them until they are legalized. So there's that. We're not gonna be touching peptides for once here. Um, but I will I do want to set the scene a little bit. So, some recent commentary, recent commentary on me, of course, uh, you know, nowadays, whenever I go end up in SF events, uh, the lovely thing about having a schizophrenic little Twitter account is that, uh and also, you know, posting my face and my arms online all day is that people recognize me, and it is honestly quite lovely. Uh, and and so, you know, I end up in these various uh images online. So the original image uh that I want to reference here is from Josh Constein. So he says, be an unfashionable on purpose was Silicon Valley's way to signal where focused on building, not looks or status. But now AI does the building. Will that change? When it's all about recruiting GTM, go to market, and raising, could looking hot signal charisma and appeal to talent slash capital? Now, it's kind of actually getting at what I'm saying here. I would argue that it's already mattered, um, and those that have been attention uh have sort of leaned into this a little bit. Uh, and it's actually has it actually has nothing to do with the the ability to make software, the ability for AI to make your life easier as a quote-unquote knowledge worker. I would say that it's actually mattered for quite a bit now. Um, but you know, do I want to point to any specific data points? Absolutely fucking not. I'm gonna go off of vibes completely and uh make my point that way. But the main thing that I actually want to get to with this particular post is the image. Is the image. So we can actually see here uh this weekend uh on a beautiful Sunday, uh my friends uh Farija, Dylan Patel, they put on oh, and of course, um, of course, Justin's son. So so Farija, Dylan, and Justin, they put on this wonderful, wonderful event, uh, citrus-themed event. So you can actually see in this image, you can see all of these different oranges, actually. Oranges, different citruses, we had lemons there. Um, I actually forget what the tiny little fruits are, but I'm gonna guess that there are some probably some mandarins there as well. But basically citrus themed, uh, I was um I was getting lost in the sauce uh and having uh a bunch of cups of orange juice. So pretty damn nice, I would say. Uh, you know, uh you can you can flame me all you want for not drinking at SF parties. I know I'm part of the problem, um, but of course, Mott's puts their money where their mouth is and hosts rages every quarter or so. So, you know, you can come at me all you want, uh, ask those at Mott's Valentine's Day how much alcohol, you know, how uh what kind of ode we made to Dionysian, the wine god, in that particular evening. I digress. But in this image, of course, we're all sort of dressed in white, or you know, the theme was like citrusy themed, so it was coming in white, orange, yellow, all of those sorts of things. So we have some like like vaguely yellow stuff. You can actually see Farija in the background, she was dressed much more, much nicer than uh I think most of us in that picture. I had a white shirt on, and of course, um, you know, you can sort of actually see these. You can see I was um I was wearing shorts, and yeah, cool. Uh for whatever reason I'm making a particular hand gesture that definitely emphasizes my arms. Let's fucking go. That has been what I have been working on for nine fucking years at this point. So, uh, so that's the original post. Now, a couple of reactions to this. Uh, we got Alexander tweets. Alexander tweets, who I actually met that day, and of course, uh when I met him, he was actually in this image. So this image would have been taken uh just after we had met, or it might have even just been just before we met, actually. In any case, he mentions I got brutally armmogged by creatine cycle. However, I hit back hard by being photographed speaking with double the women he was. Yes, uh, that is actually true. Yeah, yeah, in the picture, he's speaking to Farija and another lovely woman there. And he's like, we'll call this a stalemate stalemate, but I was far too close to an unrecoverable aura loss. Well, there is that. Um obviously I I appreciate that um, you know, Alexander is getting in on this arm act. Uh, and so I bring this up, and I'm still setting the scene here. Uh, but Vern Ram. So Vern Ram Ganesh, uh great friend of the show. Um, he actually screenshotted this tweet from con from Josh, and he says, those arms are recognizable anywhere. So, couple of couple of posts. Um, you know, really, I mean, I first of all, I'm absolutely flattered. Uh, second of all, I am, you know, if if finally like uh some recognition on the timeline. Uh I mean actually actually I wouldn't say finally some recognition on the timeline, I would say finally more recognition from the straight guys, because that is where this always comes from. Okay, one last tweet here to set the scene, and again, I'm just kind of emphasizing the arm thing because for whatever reason, um we seem to be uh visible in the niche San Francisco technology culture, and we're visible on the timeline. So today, uh Christian Kass, a pronounced Kyle, he actually commented on a clip of mine talking about how uh you know uh maybe we could be selling ad space as tattoos on our different body parts. And of course I mentioned my arms because my arms team to uh seem to, team to. Uh it's fucking late at night, I can't seem to speak. But so basically, my arms are probably valuable ad real estate. Let's just say that. So Kristin he says, how much to buy ad space on your bicep creatine cycle? Thinking the A16Z medallion would fit nicely. I of course I mentioned the medallion would go hard. I would have a couple of different rates for temporary tat versus permanent tat. Both are on the cards here. Now I'm actually being serious about this. Uh as far as I'm concerned, well, I well, first of all, I don't have any tattoos. Uh if I were to get tattoos, I I would absolutely love the A16Z medallion, especially if they paid me like half a million dollars to have it forever. Like, you're fucking kidding me? Like, that is a down payment on a house. Like, I could do some like angel investing with that amount of money. Uh, that would be really, really fun. So, Christian, let me know if anything is on the cards there. Would definitely be a first. Uh, and I would love for the first to be, you know, A16Z investing in me by buying ad slots on my arms. I again, if you want access to my audience of decision makers, uh, which, you know, for whatever reason, you know, you decision makers that are listening to this and uh follow my account, again, that's your loss. But uh if you want access to that, maybe buy some ad spots on my arms. More I I I I I put that out there to A16Z, uh 500k for a permanent tat, let me know, please. Okay, so setting the scene here a little bit with my with my arms, because basically I want to actually tell people how to get arms. This is this is the goal of this pod, how to get arms and my training philosophy, and why you, as a startup founder, technology person, uh, you know, gender neutral, can do the same thing. So I want to actually bring up this TBPN clip here. And of course, uh Chesky was talking about. So I'm gonna go ahead and read. Of course, I read this in last week's episode, but just to reiterate here. So Chesky says, genetically I have better arms than shoulders or chest, but I actually don't have an arm day. Uh so he typically does two exercises of biceps, two exercises of triceps, a compound-free weight movement, a machine movement. And so Chesky says, maybe a dumbbell curl followed by a hammer strength cable with a rope or V bar, and then triceps. Always doing a pushdown with a cable, and then maybe a French press or skull crusher. Generally, if you're under 40, you should be doing almost entirely compound movements, free weights, dumbbells, and barbells. I'm 44, so I think transitioning to some more machines is good because of the tax it puts on your joints, but I still try to put in free weights. Okay, so. Um so so uh a few a few little disagreements with that just to just to start off with. Uh I don't think age matters in regards to free weights versus machines. Uh quite frankly, I think the compounds are actually best to be doing all the time. Uh, you just want to manage your weight as you get older, of course. Uh the the good thing about compound movements is that if you've been doing them from a very young age, of course, you're gonna increase bone density, all of these sorts of things. I would say that compounds are fair game at any age, and I say compounds are should should always be the baseline for a strength routine, right? A strength routine in particular. So, for example, what I like to do is I still, you know, I still do push-pull legs. Push-pull legs just in a classic split, and I like to go push, pull, legs, rest, rest. And so on push, I'm gonna hit a flat barbell bench, not because I think it's actually good for aesthetics, just because I really, really have fun doing it. Uh, on pull day, I do a deadlift variation. I don't actually comp deadlift anymore. Uh, I did competition style deadlift up until sort of 2020, uh, and then I stopped even thinking about competing in powerlifting, so I've not really touched the comp style deadlift since. And then, of course, on leg day, uh, I don't really back squat anymore. I actually only front squat, but basically a squat variation, but you still get your SBD, you still get your uh big three compound lifts, and you know, it's like a lot of people ask me, it's like, okay, if you could choose one exercise to do it for you the rest of your life, what would you do? It would be a back squat. 100%. It would be a compound movement. I actually think the machines, the machines, I I I that the machines are fine. It's just that uh I and of course a lot of bodybuilders are gonna absolutely fucking roast me for this, but I I don't I generally don't like that that locked-in range of motion unless you know really, really know what you're doing. Uh I actually prefer the free weights for that. Of course, the free weights, you know, that you might consider there to be uh, let's say higher risk of of failure with free weights. I'm just thinking of something like a obviously like a uh a barbell bench press. It's like a it's a quote unquote riskier movement, uh even, you know, dumbbell press, right? Like uh, you know, is it a risk you're you're working or you stabilizer, those sorts of things. But the machines, right, it's like there there are so many ways for machines to go wrong because you just have you have a locked-in range of motion, uh, and then just like just doing it wrong can hurt you as well. And so I I always err on the side of free weights, I always err on the side of you know, more control, uh, you know, err on the side of of working the stabilizers. So I really, really love stuff like uh uh incline dumbbell press, for example. Uh incline dumbbell press, I've I've worked it back into my into my push days uh quite a bit over the last year, and I think that has what that has been what has done the most to my chest. And I'm not chest dominant, I'm tricep dominant, which is why my arms probably uh, you know, uh hopefully they speak for themselves. Um so what else does he say here? So he said maybe a dumbbell curl followed by a hammer strength curl. Uh he talks about doing two exercises of biceps, two exercises of triceps. I actually I I generally do this too. Um like uh for my for my uh tricep work, uh my tricep work is gonna be on my push day, and I'm gonna do basically I do a lot of skull crushes. So he mentioned skull crushes here. I actually think it's one of the best workouts for triceps to put size on your triceps. I actually think the the the overhead skull crusher is actually better than the cables for size. Um obviously you might not necessarily feel as much of a pump, but you can generally push those skull crushes pretty hard as long as you control the weight. Of course, the the thing that people get wrong with the cables is that they just kind of like pump it out and they end up using all of their, they end up using like a lot of front delt and they end up using a lot of traps to actually uh to actually make the weight move, and all I said that is just go light up. And so all of these different things, um the the he said he mentions the the V bar, right? So hammer strength cable with a rope or a V-bar. V-bar is my personal favorite. So uh uh you have the ropes, of course, people can probably visualize the ropes. I might overlay it, I might fucking not uh probably won't overlay it, uh, but just like I don't know, have the image in your head. But so so the rope for tricep pushdowns or the V-bar, which is just a metal bar in the shape of a V, pretty self-explanatory. I prefer the V-bar. You can actually move more weight with the V-bar. Uh and if you can move more weight safely, then uh that is what you want to do if you're trying to make your arms bigger. Okay. Uh, and so, so, so, okay, let's like move on from this and and we're gonna move into a little bit of my training philosophy because I mentioned that a little bit. So I've already talked about push-pull legs, uh, do that pretty religiously, and I also rest two times. So I like to think of push-pull legs, rest, rest. And so the actual content of my workouts, I would say, is probably less interesting than how I think about it. And then how I think those, especially those technology brothers that are getting into it, should actually think about it. Because I think those that are new to the gym, they are prone to essentially just like one, just picking picking a bunch of movements and trying to hit everything every single week. But two, they're also prone to doing way too much volume, right? And this is the big thing. I think volume early on is actually like a silent killer of gains. A silent killer of gains. So this is why my training philosophy revolves around what I like to call minimum effective volume. Minimum effective volume. So what do I mean by that? I mean that I want to be doing the minimum amount of reps that I can for each movement in order to stimulate growth in my muscles. Like if I break down that further, basically it means I'm trying to go heavier each time with a similar amount of reps. So let's just take my uh push day for example. So one of my push days I like to do, I do flat barbell bench, incline dumbbell press, uh cable flies, so so standing cable flies uh for chest, and then I will do uh I will do uh skull crushes, for example. And so for the flat bench, I might just do something like a three by five. Now, if I'm doing three by five, like I don't know, why not do a three by eight? I mean I could do a three by eight, but it's a heavy compound movement. I can afford to use fewer reps and push it harder, right? So three by five might be something like, you know, for me, I'm five seven and I generally fluctuate between 158 and 165 pounds. So for me, I might be doing like three by five of uh 245 pounds, right? So three five three three by five or two forty-five, pretty heavy for me. Um, and then you know, but but it's like it's like enough. That's enough to be stimulated. I don't need to hit like sets of 10 to 15 on barbell bench. That's my strength exercise anyway. Where that might come in on incline dumbbell is when I'm doing sets of eight to twelve. So, you know, it's sort of it's sort of like like I want to do sets of eight to twelve. I want to hopefully be close to like like for something like an inclined dumbbell press, maybe I want to be close to failure on my last set. I don't necessarily want to be close to failure in my first set. But the bottom line is I'd rather get stronger at incline dumbbell press versus add another three reps, or versus add a drop set, for example. Drop set can kind of feel good for the pump, or I don't know, if you want to get a few extra reps in because you feel like you are utilizing your front delt a little too much versus you know your your chest, which is what you're actually trying to work out with an inclined dumbbell press, all that's fine, but generally I think with that sort of thing, you you uh you want to always leave volume as a tool. That is like the that is the philosophy of minimum effective volume, is that you have more volume. Like you can always use volume as a tool, but if you simply just get stronger, right, and you add five pounds uh on each side, right? Like five pounds per dumbbell, so you go from 80s to 85s and you're doing them for three sets of 12, right? That you're going to get bigger and stronger if you can do that versus if you simply add, I don't know, uh do 80s for for 15, right? You can only you can only continue to add so much volume before you're doing like sets of 20, right? And then you don't actually have the volume as a tool. So, and this is what I see uh beginners get trapped into, right? It's like, okay, well, like what if I just add another exercise? Like, no, you don't actually, you probably don't actually need to add another exercise. Like I said, my push day that I just listed was flat bell, flat bellbell bench, inclined dumbbell press, uh uh cable flies, right? So there's three, and then one for triceps. It'll be like three sets of uh three sets of eight to ten of skull crushes and again I'm going I'm going really heavy. Another way, you know, if you if you can't always add extra weight is you can just slow down the rep, right? Like all of these, you have you have so many of these different tools before adding volume, right, in order to get some extra pump or whatever. Um, because again, you want to have these tools in the tool shed in order to better stimulate you when you plateau. Because newbie gains only last so much, and that's something that that people probably want to think about. So, to sort of continue on, right? I mean, and to address the elephant of the room, I've mentioned my tricep workout. Well, what about my bicep workout when it comes to training arms? Like a like, like people come up to me at events in San Francisco and be like, yo, bro, what is your arm workout? Like, what is what's the what is the what's the secret to the biceps? Um, and I'll give you the secret to the biceps. Well, first of all, uh intra workout calves. Whether it be something like uh I I have Gatorade on hand all the time. Um this is a fucking good idea. Just to eat some candy while um while on um while on camera. So but sometimes I bring a whole pack of uh candy to the gym. And I'm just eating them. Kind of like I'm doing right now. Shout out Trader Joe's, by the way. Not a sponsor. But these Scandinavian swimmers, obviously, a play onto Swedish fish.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Pretty fucking good. Holy shit, what a listening experience this will, babe. Um that's good stuff, that's good stuff, it's good carbs, I'm gonna go straight to my arms.

my supplement stack

gyms in San Francisco

you have 12 months to get jacked in order to escape the permanent underclass

you don’t need peptides for this

SPEAKER_01 21:14

But basically, I really like intra-workout carbs, so I take a full sugar gay rib with me to every single workout. Um, obviously 10 grams of creatine a day. I'm kind of digressing from the arms question. But basically, biceps. All I do on a pull day is when I do biceps. Um I like to do straight barbell curls. Do I do them in a squat rack? Yes, sometimes actually. I'm that fucking guy. Um I really, really like the the feel of a straight barbell. I think it hits the top of the bicep a lot better than an easy bar. Uh easy bar I find tends to uh you tend to engage front delts with an easy bar, actually. You know, for whatever reason that angle, it just doesn't feel it just doesn't feel as good for me, and I don't hit that peak as much. So the straight bar, I I swear by the straight bar. I'm gonna swear by the straight barbell curl. And so, you know, on heavy push days, well sorry, on heavy pull days, I will do three sets of ten, three sets of ten to twelve uh of straight barbell curls. And again, the good thing about the straight barbell is you can generally move the most weight. That's that's so that's the philosophy of the lauded is like, okay, how can I safely move the most weight uh for for my given rep range? And that is what I focus on. I focus on trying to get stronger at bicep curls versus just getting a pump or doing some like doing some drop set because again, you want to use that volume as a tool when you might need it eventually to break through a plateau, all those sorts of things. It is way better to pl break through a plateau by getting stronger if you can, than it is to uh to simply add volume. Um and again, all of this is sort of you know, we get into the realm of subjectivity when you're training for comp. Uh, you know, coaches will do different volume regimes when you're peaking for comp. I am talking specifically about training for longevity. Training for longevity, training for consistency. Uh, you'll probably find that my body year-round doesn't actually change that much, right? Uh, I I would I if you can get if you want to go back to the first few episodes of members of technical staff where I'm wearing this exact young LA tank, uh, I probably look pretty similar. Uh for me, it is about very gradually getting stronger, but also maintaining what I have. Uh, and of course, as I get older and my body matures, like, you know, I'm gonna be able to continue to fill out my frame. There's that, there's that, uh, there's that famous word frame. But yeah, so so three sets, say three sets of barbell curls on my light pull days. I also I do two sets of barbell curls, and I'll do two sets of hammer curls. The hammers are, and again, this is sort of like uh just sets of like two sets of ten, really. And the hammers are just to sort of like target that long head of the bicep. So, you know, just sort of like trying to fill it out, but the barbell, the straight barbell curls, are the ones that excuse me, holy shit, can't even keep um, can't even keep the Scandinavian swimmers down after having a tummy ache last week. Well that's that's one that killed my games, just not not being able to eat for an entire day. Ah gosh. Uh all of these, all of these uh just coming, uh coming to get my mental illness really is something um we're so far down the rabbit hole. Um, but yeah, so so that that really that really is like a little uh a window into my training philosophy. Of course, I was I was I was actually touching on you know some of the supplements, of course, 10 grams of creatine. Obviously the the jokes about the creatine, you know, 100 grams, you like like take fucking like 70 grams to cancel out your sleep. Absolutely don't do that. You know, uh it's like like you you can't drink enough water in a day in order to to utilize that amount of creatine. You're just going to be gasping, like you're going to be, it's it's going to be like you're swallowing sand. Um max 10 grams. Max 10 grams, right? I I have not really noticed uh I've not noticed a serious difference between taking 5 grams a day and 10 grams a day. I I have not missed a day of creatine since probably, well, when I first started, when I was uh maybe 20, 18. So swear by it, uh one of the great supplements, uh one of the great peptides, it turns out. Turns out creatine is actually a peptide. I also take uh zinc magnesium, so so or ZMA, so zinc magnesium anabolic, uh I believe it stands for. Really, really good, really nice for sleep, really, really nice for recovery. Uh, and of course my whey protein. Generally try and supplement 60 to 90 grams a day of whey protein, tend to be way, way on top of it. Calorie intake tend to be in between that 2500 to 3,000 calorie mark uh every single day. I've basically eaten the same thing every single day uh since about 2018. It's just a variation of chicken and rice and and uh and and ground beef and pasta. Um so absolutely fucking like psychotic behavior, quite frankly. Uh but yeah, uh it's one of those things. Uh I think a lot of another question that people ask me about the way that I look and the way that I keep it year-round, it's like, how do I, you know, how do I keep all the fat off, right? How do I stay lean? The answer to that is, well, I've been lean my entire life. Like I grew up like very, very athletic. I was always very, very fucking short, uh, but tried every every single sport in the book, grew up surfing, all of these sorts of things. So you probably find, and I'm not gonna post it online because that's actually fucking weird, uh, me as like a minor, but uh, you know, uh like like if you if you would have seen me at age 17, you could probably see like the outline of my shoulders from surfing, all of those sorts of things. Uh, and I was always you know, I had a bit of a twink build, actually, a little bit of a twink build. So, you know, the the the twinks the you know the twinks have a little bit of power. Um, starting from a lean base, if they're able to actually eat a fair bit and actually detwinkify themselves, they're actually going to be in pretty decent shape. So, what is what it's maybe like like like actionable things, right? If you're if you're if you're just looking to get into the gym, maybe you're looking to be a bit more consistent, maybe you're actually looking to looks max. Uh, you know, like like like what are some ways to approach it? What are some gyms to even go to? Of course, if you're in San Francisco, you want to go to Fitness SF. Um, very, very friendly environment. Uh, it's second to none. I really like Fitness SF Mid Market. That was my local. I lived across the road from the Twitter building uh when I first moved here for about four years. And Fitness SF Mid Market is underneath what used to be the Twitter building. Uh, of course, I've got a whole nice community there. Of course, Fitness SF Trans Bay, where you know, uh myself and a bunch of friends, uh, you know, we we we we all train there together every now and then. Fitness SF Somer, I think, is one of the greatest gyms uh in the city, if not the best gym in the city. It's actually the old Gold's gym. Uh what else, what else? Fitness SF Fillmore is a bit of a dungeon gym, but it's you know pretty decent. Basically, you have access to all of these great facilities. Probably actually the the best commercial gym chain uh I've ever trained at. Usually I'm training at standalone gyms in other different cities, like hardcore bodybuilding gyms, because you know, I like to be surrounded by sweaty big dudes, uh, you know, that that say looking huge king versus, you know, beautiful women that maybe I would want to court someday when I work up the courage to actually speak to one. Um, but that's a weird thing to say. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that Finus SF is really, really good. Equinox, I don't know, uh the Equinoxes that I've been to in the city just kind of fucking suck. The Marina Equinox, I don't know, if you need a wife, maybe, but like the Marina Equinox has like, has like three like it's got two flat bench presses, and it's got three squat racks. Like like in peak time, you just you're just never gonna fucking squat. It's got one deadlift platform. It's like, what is this a fucking gym for ants? This is this is awful. This is awful. Um, it's like cool, you get your eucalyptus scented towels, and you you get to be a part of a country club and you're paying like fucking 400 bucks a month or whatever the hell. Um, and you know, like like there'll be there'll be like women, like the cardio section is like weirdly facing the weight section as well. So like you have like all the cardio bunnies doing their cardio, and you can be, you know, you can be pumping out like I don't know, you know, 50 pound dumbbells on the chest press because uh like like there just isn't that that actually many dumbbells. Actually, it's a bit it's a bit of a dry by. I think they actually go up to 150s uh in the marina equinox. So the dumbbell section is actually pretty good. But basically, if you like the idea of you know having cardio bunnies basically be uh be pointed towards you as you do incline dumbbell bench press, maybe the marina equinox is one for you. Maybe it's one for you. Another gym that I've trained at the the crunches seem to be okay. The crunch on Union Street in uh the marina is okay. Uh the crunch, the the theatre crunch on Polk Street, it is it's actually like a pretty well-equipped gym. If you want to do any free weight stuff, like if you if you're going over 315, good fucking luck getting enough 45s, because there's like four squat racks, and each of the squat racks have like I think like three 45s each, and then they all they obviously like end up around the gym. So I remember the the one and only time I trained there, uh I was, you know, was looking to maybe um you know push my squad a little bit, and sure enough, I just couldn't find enough fucking 45s, um, which is not a good uh which is not a good thing to happen. Of course, the Thinking Machines gym, I've not trained there yet, but of course they have proof of 45s. Very, very grateful for this. Uh I might actually like overlay some of the proof of of 45s because they took on a a couple of new employees recently uh who posted proof of 45 pound plates. Very, very happy for them. I cannot wait to get a session in. Uh uh, Mira, if for whatever reason you're listening to this, or Matt, uh if you're listening to this, or I know, I know, you know, Matt and I will get a session in there soon. I hope. That'll be very, very fun. Uh, not saying that the Thinking Machines gym is a public gym by any stretch, but I I did want to give it an honorable mention. Uh, other ones is like the Bay Club, I've not been to yet, but the Bay Club has like a tennis court or some shit. Uh I believe all of them have tennis courts, which is kind of cool. Uh, another gym that I've not tried is the yard. Apparently it's pretty good. It's like a standalone gym in SF. Uh and I can't recall if I'm missing anything. Well, the 24-hour fitness, you're just going to be dealing with homeless people trying to take showers. Uh, so definitely avoid them. So, yeah, yeah. Start in Fitness SF. Start in Fitness SF. I ended up going on a whole sort of like gym, gym tier list there. Oh, another one I forgot to mention. Good friends at LuxFit. Uh, LuxFit uh Hays Valley. It's one of the one of the probably the only standalone gyms in which you can actually take a shirt off. So you might find me there every now and then trying to get a little bit of uh a little bit of sun on the back, a little bit of uh looks maxing, tan, fucking ziz maxing type of shit. Uh of course they have LuxFit Mission Rock, which is really, really great. We film Swall as a service at LuxFit Mission Rock. Yotam, the owner, is an absolute legend, uh, you know, one of the nicest guys you meet, and of course, his partner, Amber, really, really great. So, like absolute power couple, uh, can't rate them highly enough. Definitely go check out LuxFit. Um, yeah, they're not sponsoring the show either, actually, it turns out. Um, those who are sponsoring the show, however, uh want to just gotta give a quick shout-out, because I've actually not uh not not um not given them anything so far. But basically, uh Zoe Computer, of course, so like your open claw that works out of the box, uh kind of important during these times. I don't know, I don't know if open claw is falling off or not. Uh there seems to be less chat about it, uh, other than Jensen Huang, who seems to be just uh talking the book like he always does, um, which is pretty decent. But yeah, yeah, uh Zoe Computer host in the cloud, no setup required, build personal apps automations, all your context. Uh who else? Who else have we got? Uh Morph LM. They did a really, really cool product release. I think it was last week. Last week, uh, if I can recall correctly. Uh, you know what? It's basically like we're live streaming. Uh I'm gonna pull this up and just make sure that I'm yes, Flash Compact. I was gonna say something along the lines of compaction, but I couldn't remember it off the top of their head. Uh so flash compact, first specialized model for context compaction. Um, so they're just like releasing cool, cool shit basically every month at this point. Um, but of course, what they're solving for is, you know, they they they're building small models for coding agents, right? Of course, they've got their Suegrep model, uh, you know, they they sort of found that that coding agents do spend a lot about 60% of their time actually searching for code, so it's something that they can go ahead and actually solve for themselves. So a quick mention to them, uh, and you know, before I get into the uh the big boy ad reads, because we're playing some catch-up uh uh very, very off the cuff episode here today. Before I get into them, um, you know, I think the the the the thing is, the thing is the more that the more people that move to San Francisco, the more readily available capital is for those that are talented. Hey, maybe I'm totally wrong about the whole white-collar bloodbath. Of course, I tend to be, you know, not as gung-ho. I tend to believe that, you know, a lot of these white-collar jobs are here to stay for for quite a bit longer. But hey, for example, if I've if for whatever reason I'm wrong and you know, this is like the last software engineering job that we're all working, and then uh, you know, some form of like company severance or like universal basic income or fucking like software engineer union or some bullshit comes al comes out and you know, half of San Francisco is just laid off and laying in the parks, and you know, capital doesn't matter anymore. I'm coming up with some super far-fetched scenario. But basically the idea is um if looks are starting to matter more, maybe time it's time to get in the gym. And I'll also say that we don't have to overthink this shit. We just don't have to overthink it. Just get in the gym, start doing what feels good, right? The gym is like a it's like a it's like a it's like a horseshoe, right? So you you train for the first year. Basically, in the first year, you're probably just gonna be doing whatever feels good. And then you start to come up, right, the midwit curve. In the middle, you're starting to get all heady or science-based, right? You're starting to read forums, maybe you're starting to read oldbodybuilding.com, you're starting to watch Jeff Nippard, uh, rest in peace, you know, his beautiful fiance. You're starting to watch his videos, right? You're starting to get into the science of it, you're starting to think about programming, all these sorts of things, and so you're starting to be calculated, all that sort of bullshit. Then you come down the curve, you've been training for a few more years, and then you're just doing what feels good again. Every single time I talk to somebody in Silicon Valley about training, they have some sort of like far-fetched idea of like how they should be like, you know, using periodization and like different percentages of their max compounds and how they should be cutting and like like they're you know, they like it's like like I'd say bulking and cutting is overrated. I think I think a lot of people with twink builds in Silicon Valley should not be thinking about bulking and cutting, they should just be thinking about eating more and just like lifting heavier weights. Kind of old school of me to say, uh, I obviously the caveat is lifting heavy weights safely. The caveat is lifting heavy weights with proper form, but sp spend it spend a bit of time on the proper form. I used to think I used to walk into the Twitter gym and just see software engineers every single day, just basically with a hernia waiting to happen. Or not a hernia, um, a a bulging disc, a uh, you know, uh uh what's what's the um I mean fuck I could say broken back, a broken back waiting to happen. Uh a herniated disc is what I was looking for. Not a hernia, not a bulging disc, a mixture of the two, a herniated disc. So I used to see a lot of this. That yes, the human body is is much more durable than we might think. Um, but you know, I think when it comes to making gains, simplicity is key. Push-pull legs actually works. Push-pull legs with like four to five movements each workout, it's actually gonna do pretty well. You don't have to worry about the Ryan Johnson blueprint bullshit, you don't have to worry about bulking or cutting. Basically, eat the if you're trying to put on muscle, especially if you're a if you're a male tech bro guy looking to, you know, escape the permanent looks under class or whatever the fuck uh maybe you probably just want to eat more and lift heavier. But learn how to lift heavy properly. Okay, so with these, gotta give an ode to my dearest uh my you know, I think it's actually a good a good time to do, well, a couple more ad reads. First of all, I want to actually get into and I want to actually say, you listen to these shows week in, week out, right? Uh and I'm and and you know, I'm I'm sort of giving I'm sort of uh uh giving different ad reads, talking about the the great the great companies that I work with here with Mots and you're listening to these ad reads week in and week out. Um I just want to say if you haven't tried one of these products, whether it be morphLm.com, uh Zocomputer, blackbox.ai, superpower.com, um I just gotta ask, like, what the fuck are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? Like, are you thick you should you should go and check these out, right? I mean, and and you know, so so this is sort of like like the how how how Mott's ad reads are gonna go forward. Uh rather than doing sort of like a Maslow's hierarchy of needs, um, I'm actually just gonna call you an idiot uh uh for not actually buying the thing. So so coming into this here now, blackbox.ai, well what are they doing? They're they're building the fastest way to turn ideas into working software, they're building the best autonomous coding agent. Then this is actually scaled to more than 30 plus million, 30 plus million, 30 plus million users. They're putting like three million users on uh week on week, and they could actually launch uh from from you know they can launch different coding agents from one platform. Of course, they've released Claudex, as you might have seen, where you're able to essentially like from one platform, maybe maybe you want Claude Code to actually write the code for you, and then you want Codex to review, or vice versa. You can have different agents, different models entirely doing different parts of your software engineering workflow. Definitely check out the boys from blackbox.ai, I'm sure they would endorse such an episode because they are pretty jacked themselves, Drocker Wheelix on uh the cap table there, uh doing a bunch of push-ups. Uh, that is pretty, pretty cool. And I must say, just to wrap this up real quick, of course, give an ode to Superpower, which of course are building the command center for your health. I talked about peptides quite a little bit in this uh uh without actually mentioning them. Of course, you don't need peptides to get into the fucking gym. Just get into the gym again. If I want to go on a slight quick tangent here, if you overrate wait, uh overrate? Oh, if you overweight, maybe uh maybe something like it. May try and get a hold of something like an Ozempic. That's the one that actually works. It can help you cut, and then it might help you make you feel better. But of course, if you can try and do that at the same time as going to the gym, great. Uh uh, am I a doctor? No. Uh am I a personal trainer? No. Do I look like a personal trainer? Yeah, uh uh, hopefully. That's what I've been going for. Um, so hopefully whatever the hell I'm doing is working. But yeah, you don't need any peptides to do this sort of thing. Uh, let me just add that. Not a great way to get into the superpower ad read, as I'm going completely against uh uh what that how they might view such a thing. But that's the cool thing. You can actually work with companies that you don't necessarily align completely on with the philosophy of niche, uh niche-like substances. Turns out you can actually be friends with people and uh you not share the same supplement regime as them. Uh uh regime, regimen. Uh it is it is late in the evening. I I think I'm just losing my mind. But basically, um so superpowered's actually not another wellness app or dashboard you forget to open, but a full stack health platform. Full stack not to be confused with a stack of peptides, not to be confused with full stack software engineering. This is a health platform. It's actually pretty different, gives you a proactive view, health view of your body, uh, different biomarkers, uh, gives you real diagnostics, uh, blood work, all of those different sorts of things. I'm actually waiting to get my results back. I've done my my blood test so far. Fucking terrifying because I hate blood tests, but um, you know, the nurse that came in, very, very sweet, very, very lovely. We actually talked about dating, believe it or not. So there you go. Points to fucking superpower. Um, and yeah, basically, you know, if you want to think, here's a here's a cool little line. If the last era of healthcare was reactive, this one is proactive. So talking about preventative, right? So we're talking about uh wellness, but we're talking about preventative health. The idea is that they want to give the kind of care that uh billionaires get, but they want to be able to uh give it to essentially the layperson, to us, maybe that can afford$199 a year. So, of course, be on the lookout for more episodes with Max, more peptide episodes, be on the episode for more uh be on the lookout for more episodes with the blackbox at blackbox.ai guys doing a bunch of push ups, a lot of fun stuff in the works. Hope you found that informative. A bit of a throw together for this one, but I wanted to listen to the people. Um, and yeah, I think that is a good place to wrap. I'm gonna go eat some more candy. Uh, you've been listening to another episode of Members of Technical Staff. I'll go ahead and see you on the timeline again real soon.