NatX's Podcast

E1 - Building A Better Natural Bodybuilding Culture

• NatX • Season 1 • Episode 1

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0:00 | 45:14

We reset NATX with a clear mission: build a better culture for natural bodybuilding with real training, realistic timelines, and honest coaching. We share our backstories, challenge old-school myths, and map out what listeners can expect from future episodes.

• why natural bodybuilding needs a cleaner standard
• who we are as competitors and coaches
• the origin of our partnership and podcast
• outdated prep tactics and what to do instead
• training quality over sheer volume
• upper chest mechanics and anterior delt role
• overlooked muscles: lower lats, rear delts, calves
• matching volume and intensity to recovery
• programming for shift work and busy lives
• accountability and honest coach–athlete communication
• realistic timelines for drug-free competition
• where to find us and how to engage

Please do follow and share and stay for the journey


A Clean Reset For NATX

SPEAKER_01

Not welcome back, but welcome to this new podcast that we have. First and foremost, if you are a natural bodybuilder and you care about is just building muscle with no shortcuts, then this podcast is for you. We've already previously done some seasons and this is a sort of a reset. So this is a Nat X podcast exists just because we are really into natural bodybuilding. And I think natural bodybuilding deserves a better reputation, it deserves a better conversation about training, health, long-term progress, and all that stuff. So I'm Adrian, and this is Brandon right here. And welcome to our NATX podcast, where we promote clean and confident and no fluff. Is that right? Like no fluff?

SPEAKER_00

Is that what is that what you talked about? Yeah, man. Like it's all about, yeah, because there's so much information out there with even natural bodybuilding that there's a lot of bullshit out there. So we're trying to clean it up a little bit with this podcast for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Why Natural Bodybuilding Matters

SPEAKER_01

And since this is uh this podcast is really just for fans, listeners, and even our previous listeners who have followed us, we really appreciate you coming along and listening to us talk about different things. But um, before we get into today's topic, uh for those new listeners who haven't heard our voices voices before, uh, we just wanted to tell you guys uh who we are and why this podcast was created uh and what we actually wanted to preach. Um so of course I we do believe you know natural bodybuilding deserves its own serious platform. There are many coaches out there, there are many um very highly educated influences out there who also preach the same thing, and we really appreciate on that. Uh with social media right now, they they they tell you there's long-term progress, but then they also give you quote unquote shortcuts. So we wanted to clear that up as well. But uh before we get into that, let's talk about who we are. Um, do you want to start, Brandon?

Meet Adrian And Brandon

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, man, I can start. Um so yeah, my name's Brandon. I've been I guess I've been competing for it's been about 12 years now. So I've competed in eight different bodybuilding shows throughout that time span. Um, I've placed anywhere between as low as eighth place to all the way to winning

Brandon’s Journey And Mentors

SPEAKER_00

shows, winning my WMBF Pro card. I've been coaching for the past uh seven years online, and then I was coaching in person for three to four years. Um I've had great mentorships like Patty Lifts, if you guys know him from social media. Um, I worked with Team 3DMJ, Jeff Alberts, uh, worked with Anthony with the Peak Week on the last show. So I've had a lot of uh in terms of mentorships um in the space. And I've I've been like literally obsessed about bodybuilding for the last like 12 years since I did my first show back in 2014. In terms of yeah, coaching and like education, I've literally got my bachelor's degree in kinesiology. Um when I finished high school and stuff like that, I was originally thinking about going into sciences um and then switching to engineering. And I was definitely not the biggest fan of uh sciences or even going into engineering. So I transitioned into kinesiology um where I was working as a personal trainer while doing that. Um, and then yeah, worked as a kinesiologist for a bit and then slowly transitioned into the online space where I've been yeah, working as an online fitness coach for the past um, I guess it's been seven years now, and it's crazy. Time's flew by. Um, so that's pretty much everything about me. This last actually season, Adrian and I got our WMBF Pro cards, which has been super exciting. Um I've uh been able to coach some awesome athletes. I've had uh five guys now get their WMBF Pro cards. So it's been a very cool experience taking people to the stage. Um, definitely something I I love to do. Um, but yeah, man, let's maybe get into you dude.

Adrian’s Pivot To Coaching

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I have a very different story than yours. Um you could see that you have a lot of closer related experience within the fitness space. I started off very, very differently. I had a desk job. I did a desk job well, uh more specifically, I did a design job for 12 years before I actually stepped into the fitness space. I've transitioned from a design job to the personal training job in 2018. So accounting now is what? I can't do math. Is it the seventh year now? Seven Yeah, I think seven or eight years. Yeah, seven, eight years. So I'm still a personal trainer up to this date. Uh worked with uh many different uh type of people from general fitness to rehab to competition prep, as we both are coaches right now. I haven't been in the online fitness space as long as you have, but I'm getting up there. I've started wait, what was it? I've started my online fitness coaching for at least four to five years. I don't remember clearly, but yeah, halfway there from where you are. I've uh managed to work with some quite incredible people, uh, and very, very lucky to have brought some first timers on stage and did some well. Still looking for my first uh athlete to get their pro card, but um right now I'm finding a lot more success and enjoyment in uh I don't think I've worked with any bodybuilding um athletes, but I've worked with a couple of uh men's physique and uh one or two bikinis. Yeah. So those uh those have a bit of success there in in posings and things like that. So that was it's it's very very, very exciting just to see. Of course, uh self-achievement is very, very exciting, as you've mentioned. But also watching other athletes um do a really good job and uh on stage and making that transformation is very, very motivating for me as well. So this is um basically what our our backstory is and how we

How We Met And Started Podcasting

SPEAKER_01

met. Do you actually want to tell the audience like how we we actually don't know each other, we don't even live in the same city, we're not really that close together, but it's a very funny story.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so it was I think it was 2020, I believe, or it was 2019. I'm pretty sure it's 2020. Pretty much right before the whole COVID thing blew up. We were both prepping for, I believe it was the WMBF clone show. Was it the clone show or the Vancouver show? I think maybe it was the Vancouver because the clone show wasn't a thing yet, right?

SPEAKER_01

Kelona was there, but then it was the Vancouver show first. It's always the Vancouver show first, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we were prepping for that, and from what I remember, I think we yeah, we started DMing each other, just like chatting about the show and like how we're like both pumped. And I I don't think we were talking shit. I think we I think we were unless yeah, I don't know, man, it's been so long, but yeah, we just started a conversation from there, and then it just blew up into us like chatting a bit more online, and then all of a sudden it just like I think it was you. You're like, hey, you wanna start a podcast? And then all of a sudden from there, yeah, we we just started our lifting nerds podcast at the time, and yeah, and then I didn't know you had a thing for me.

SPEAKER_01

Do you was there anything I'm missing? I'm trying to think. No, no, that was pretty much it. It was uh it was through the WMBF Canada Instagram. I was really pumped for my first WMBF show in Canada. Um, I've done I've done previous shows in Hong Kong, in uh non-tested shows where uh I did terrible and then and then uh it was my first natural bodybuilding show here. So I was really I was really excited for that. And then uh I was looking through Instagram just seeing who I may be up against. And one of the you know, one of the fewer accounts that I thought was uh oh I saw your account and yeah, this guy looks somewhat formidable. I'll take a look at him. And then noticed that, oh, he's competed like a whole bunch of times, he's got like a really good physique, and it's like, oh shit. I was like, I'm gonna be standing next to him. And that time I didn't know the entire process of what how WMBF works. But then I was like, oh shit, he's gonna be like really huge. And then I don't know what triggered that we actually started talking. I don't remember, it's been too long, but then it's through that that we started just getting really excited for the show, and then it was COVID came, the Vancouver show got pushed backed and pushed backed and pushed backed. Uh, that they decided to group the Vancouver show and the Colonial Show down in fall. So the rest of the shows throughout the country was pretty much canceled. So Saskatchewan didn't exist then, it was just Ontario. There was what else was there? There was Ontario, I don't know, I don't remember. There's Calgary. There's Calgary, right. Calgary was in uh, yeah, it was also in the fall.

SPEAKER_00

Actually, I don't even think Ontario was a thing at that time. Oh no, was it? Was it not? Because I feel like Emmett was a thing, no? Yeah, Emmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, I think were the three ones that were for sure. For sure. I don't I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01

Klona was a thing. I remember Kelowna was a thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I think that was the first every year that Kelowna was going. Oh, for real?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00

If I remember correctly, because I remember like wanting to compete in the WMBF, but it wasn't gonna be in Vancouver or in Kelowna, and then all of a sudden Kirsten and Kyle um started it up. Like I'm pretty sure it was like that that year.

SPEAKER_01

It was 2020. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_00

I I believe so, man. Yeah. I thought it was that recent.

SPEAKER_01

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I thought I thought Kelowna existed um much, much longer.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, I I'm pretty sure, yeah. I'm pretty sure it's been just the six years or so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh shit. Okay. Well, moving forward, it uh it got pushbacked, and then um I ended not we had ended up not competing. And then fast forward to 2020. Did you do anything in 2021?

SPEAKER_00

So I was gonna compete again in 2021, and then it got canceled. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Oh wait, 2021 was also the peak of uh was it 2020 or 2021 was peak of COVID? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I can't remember. I just remember it got like Coda was a thing for about four months or five months, uh, where like everything was locked down, then things were starting to open up, and I was going back to personal training.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And then it uh yeah, it got locked down again.

Old School Prep Myths Revisited

SPEAKER_00

I think that falling, like six months or something later. And like I remember I was like 10 weeks out, I think, or eight to ten weeks out each time. So I was just in that point where like prep was starting to get very difficult, and then oh got cut off. So yeah, but I I just remember being uh definitely a little frustrated.

SPEAKER_01

Did you do any shows in 2022?

SPEAKER_00

No, so 2022, 2020, 2022, no, and then 2023, yes. I think did you do 2022?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because 2022, yeah. So I was I was very eager to step on stage, and for those two years from 2020 to 2022, uh 2021, I was really frustrated that it didn't happen. I was gonna get somewhat sound of pissed. And then uh 2022, I decided to do it. Forgot to say I was working with uh Brian back then. I worked with Brian from 3DMJ for before he even joined the 3DMJ team. So we talked and then he did say, okay, you've been on prep for almost a year in 2020, and uh, if the show's not gonna happen, might as well just go into an off-season before you start getting even skinnier than you are. So I agree with what he says. So we took we took a year off and he tried to extend my show as long as possible. Then 2022 Calgary was uh is the show that I got him to agree. Those okay, you can do that one. Uh so the itch was just so big. So I did 2022. I managed to place fourth in the open men's physique show. Very, very lucky. It was a huge class. It was like a class of what 10, 11 people in just short, and another 10, 11 people in tall. Um, yeah, so placing fourth was uh up against quite formidable people. You were there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, I was watching.

SPEAKER_01

I think did I have a client?

SPEAKER_00

I think I had one client competing.

SPEAKER_01

And then uh and then after that it was 2023, it was you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, that's where I did the BC Cup in Klona, and then I did the Vancouver show, which I uh kept coming second.

SPEAKER_01

It's not quite there, but bodybuilding and and men's physique, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I also did classic physique for the BC Cup, which I think I came third in the classic physique.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, if I remember correctly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah. So there you go. So you're really close. And then 2024, yeah, that was the year before. And then we both didn't do anything, right?

SPEAKER_00

No, I think we were both just in an off-season, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so 2024, that's when we spend a lot of time trying to build in the lifting nerves podcast. We were just doing a lot of business development, just looking at our physique and looking at things that what we can we improve on. I mean, for me, it's quite simple, you know, just overall mass. And this was pretty much what every judge was just talking about. So for natural bodybuilding, that's also a thing that is just time. You just need time to build. It's much more advantageous if you're younger and you tend to have uh build more muscle a little bit easier, but the older you get, they deteriorate faster. So just probably training at a higher intensity is just to sort of quote unquote maintain what you actually had. Your muscles will change over time, they will become denser and a lot more grainier the older you get. It's just the maturity of the muscle. So that's um that's the really beauty of it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like I would say it's it's not impossible. Like it, like obviously a younger person hormonally might be in a slightly better position at like what, 18, 20 or whatever, and then somebody like thirty late 30s, 40s. Um, I there's still potential to grow. Like, even you see like Eric Helm still making significant improvements in his 40s, and like um Jeff Albert's probably starting to get to that age where it's just trying to hold on to it at like the the 50. But um people can even if you are someone that's like 50 and you're um out of shape and you're wanting to get in shape and put in a tension, you can compete in bodybuilding, you can still gain muscle, you can still get to a position where you can compete. It just yeah, it might take a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So speaking of older age, like say Jeff Albert's in his like 50s and he's still doing bodybuilding. Now, because they are very what is that word? Not modern, but upfront. I don't know. What word is that? Old school. Say what? Old school. Old school. No, we yeah, he is sort of old school. But uh the old school thing is and the old school thing is like way in the past. Like the what the 12-week prep

Training Quality Over Quantity

SPEAKER_01

program. Is that old or is that not that old?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's that's pretty old.

SPEAKER_01

So speaking of old, so 12-week 12-week prep program, that's a like a very old version of uh what a typical quote unquote prep would be. Over the course of the years, now it's 2026 right now. What are your views and experience that has evolved over time that you believe what quote unquote old school don't work anymore?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So when I first started competing in like 2014, I think I was doing like a meal plan, but I also was also tracking a little bit. But I was like literally only eating clean food, like chicken, rice, and vegetables um for pretty much every meal. And like breakfast, I think the only different meal I had was my breakfast was oatmeal, protein powder, and then I think some fruit in that. And it was just that rinse and repeat. I think I was doing that for like two, three years. And I don't even know how I did that, but obviously, when it comes to food selection, there's a lot more freedom with it than people think. Um, and I feel like when people first get into bodybuilding, they think they have to be obsessed over just eating clean. Like you can't, if you have pizza, you messed up your diet, you're screwed. It's like, no, like macros can be flexible, calories can be flexible, food options can be flexible when you're prepping. So having more enjoyment with your food throughout a prep can definitely make it much easier. Um, so that would be definitely the number one thing. When you do get closer to your show, like if you're like five weeks out and hunger is extremely high, like um no matter how much food you consume, like you're you're not gonna feel full. In that case, keeping food a little bit more simplistic and a little bit more bland, I find can be mentally easier. Um, just because if you're eating super palatable, like if you're having like cookies and stuff in prep that close to your show, it's gonna be a lot harder to not eat the whole bag. Whereas like early on, it's it's not too bad. Um, so that would be the first thing. And then the second thing would be with training and the amount you're doing. So when I was competing my first couple of shows, like I was probably training six days, maybe even seven days a week sometimes, because I I love the gym and I just wanted to be in there all the time. Um, but it just took up so much time, and like nowadays with how busy I am, there's no way I can be in the gym uh six to seven days a week for like two hours each session. So I've greatly condensed my training and I've I've made it a lot more like um efficient, like so or and uh effective in terms of the movements. Like I'm training very close to failure. Um when I'm training a target tissue, like that's the main thing that's failing, that's the main limiting factor for that movement. So just getting better at training really hard, and then if you can do that, that means you don't need to do as much flying, you don't have to be in the gym as long, you don't have to be doing as many sets. So over time, I'm a big believer in like you can condense it a little bit more, especially as you get more uh efficient

Upper Chest And Anterior Delts

SPEAKER_00

with it.

SPEAKER_01

There is one was a very old school idea on during peak week water manipulation, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so extreme, yeah, like definitely old school was like extreme cuts to water where you're cutting water like three days out or whatever, no water at all, and then but with the research nowadays, it's just showing that like most of your muscle is made up of water, so if you're cutting all the water, you're just flattening your muscle as well. So to try to get that dry look, you're just gonna look end up looking smaller on stage, and you won't have quite as much detail because if your muscles aren't as full, they're not gonna press up against the skin as much, and you're not gonna get that pop and those striations as deep. Um, I do believe there is a point where slightly reducing water towards the end uh might be beneficial, but nothing like completing like cutting water all together. Like that's uh that never tends to look well.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So uh turning back, I think that's a really good point to leave it uh where for old school stuff, but I want to actually just transition a little bit into the training because you just mentioned about the quality of training is far more important. So, for in terms of quality of training, it's the more you practice, then you just get better at it. Just like any skill in the world. Um, if you have a desk job, the more Excel you use, there's just better you get at it. So that's an example. From a natural bodybuilding standpoint, there are body parts where are just harder to build, are a little bit more stubborn to build, and a lot of them I see are upper chest. I struggle the same thing. I don't know if you struggle the same thing, but upper chest is always one of the main factors, a lot, at least for a lot of men, a lot of male athletes that we've worked with have lagging upper chest, at least the majority of them. So, speaking of that, what would you find uh is an overlooked exercise to build that portion?

SPEAKER_00

So, for upper chest, there there's a lot of different exercises that can target it. It's mainly just having an arm path that's gonna be coming up in this direction a little bit more. Um, so you can do pressing, you can do dumbbell flies. Um, seems to be like the research may suggest training it more in a lengthened position, so like dumbo flies can be an effective tool. Um, the upper chest is actually only a pretty small muscle group, too. Um, so it tends to not need quite as much load, I would say. Um Something like so with flying movements, you don't need to be going as crazy. Um, but that being said, I would say for a lot of people, it's not even like the cavicular head of the chest that needs development, it's just like the upper sternal fibers, um, which can often be done through a lot of pressing with heavier loads. But if you're trying to get that small meat that's just right up here with this arm path, um, yeah, flies I find can work quite well and like pressing in general, even like a steeper incline pressing can work quite well too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I agree. So even so what we're trying to uh what I'm also trying to bring out is is besides the small land of your quote unquote upper chest, which is just half your collicular, the other half of your clavicular is basically part of your anterior delts. Now, I'm not saying you should be just doing front raises all the time. There's a lot of pressing movements, is just the shoulder flexion movement, and it covers a lot of that anterior delt movement. Now doing those isolations is actually helpful helpful, and also what you actually said, but they can't see, is uh the sort of an angled from low to high uh fly that will actually take part not only in that small portion of the upper chest, but also the entire anterior delt as well. So that is also something it's uh it's I know it's always looked upon, but it's always difficult to build. But in your opinion, are there any body parts that you think is overlooked that deserves a little bit more attention that it's that it's talking about right now?

Overlooked Muscles And Priorities

SPEAKER_00

Um lower lats for some people for sure definitely uh tend to get a little bit underdeveloped. Um calves are calves. I feel like especially people that um start their journey quite skinny, they're often a body part that can be quite frustrating, though they will build over time. It does seem to be quite uh uh it doesn't seem to build quite as fast as other body parts. Um but yeah, those are the main ones. Um like delts, like with delts, especially like the lateral head of your delt, you can almost never have too big of lateral delts when it comes to like bodybuilding, because the bigger they are, the the more kind of X frame, the Dorito frame for like men's physique you're gonna get. Um, so yeah. I would say those are probably like the main ones that commonly get overlooked.

SPEAKER_01

I agree. Yeah. Calves, rear delts. I I also feel they're uh a little bit overlooked. Um, people just work like to work on the the width of their body. Uh so they're just hammering the lateral raises just to get a medial death just to get us the that ball-like delts. But then they yeah, I just feel like rear delts they they usually get overlooked. Uh like to be fair, if you're doing rows in a lot of your programs, um, they they are getting worked. And if you do pullovers, they also get worked. But yeah, I just think that it's a those those quote unquote accessories that is like I'm too tired for this, I'm just gonna skip it, that kind of thing. So I think that also uh goes with goes with your calves as well. I mean, people as the end of the workout is like, oh, my legs are so fried, and you know, it's just the calves, and then there's no machines, like, fuck it, I'm not gonna do this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I feel like it depends on the individual too. If you naturally just have really big rear delts from doing a lot of rowing, then yeah, you could get away with not doing it. But yeah, if you're somebody like specifically men's physique, too, with trying to get like a really nice back pose, having that nice rear delt pop will will definitely go a long way. I agree, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so what we're actually trying to say here from all that training and all that stuff is we're not trying to preach a lot of different isolate, like the quote-unquote old school golden era bodybuilding where there's a lot of junk volume.

Volume, Intensity, And Adherence

SPEAKER_01

Okay, but yes, training to failure and the quality of the training is is definitely much needed. I think also in the golden era, it's also kind of coming back a little bit. So the Arnold or even that that golden era is actually coming back, and people are trying to follow that uh intensity, which I agree with, but uh the intensity and the amount of volume is uh kind of two different different things. So, what I what I've experimented with is from the past year since uh well post-show, so June, when I got into my off season, I've tried doing my actual program, is just uh I followed what Alberto Nunez program. He only does two working sets. However, he does maybe one or two more sort of quote unquote warm-up sets before. So yeah, it sort of adds up to be like two to three uh two, three to four sets. But the actual good quality working sets is only two. Now, I've experimented with it and I feel tremendously sore from just those two working sets. So we're work we're working with not only the tempo of the reps, but the load of them, as you've mentioned, just heavy enough uh weight. So you can actually manage a lot more weight than you think you can. Even in like prep when your um your joints are maybe not as stable as before. Change it to a machine, I don't know. But then you're you're able to actually hold a lot more weight, uh, and your muscles will actually work at the same thing, uh, the same amount of uh uh performance as you were. So just keeping that intensity like really, really high. Yeah, I know it's fatiguing, but what do you want? How far are you willing to go to actually do bodybuilding, right?

SPEAKER_00

Quick shout out to our sponsor, True North Sportswear, local gym gear that's high quality, comfortable, and built to last. Use code Team MSL to save 15% off your next order. 100%, man. I feel like to bring back to the volume thing too, like when I work with uh athletes, like it's all about their individuality too. Like some people, there's some people I work with that literally need higher volume to see significant progress, but then there's some people that just it doesn't work well with them with the higher volume volume because they can't keep the intensity up there. So like it's gonna depend on somebody's like temperament and all that kind of stuff, and like how much time they have, um, the way they're training. Some people that are a little bit more new to the gym can sometimes benefit from slightly higher volume because they don't know how to quite push to those extreme levels of intensity to get real to true failure and know what that feels like. I do believe as you get more advanced with training, that your ability to push harder just continues to go up. What you thought was failure before is now like something even more intense, or like you're able to push past areas where you have been in the past. You can mentally lock in better and keep the target tissue to the fire, kind of thing. So I do believe as you yeah, train for longer, your ability to push just continues to go higher and higher and higher. Um, which oftentimes when you're pushing harder and harder and harder, you need to adjust volume to make up for that. If you're kind of trying to push volume up while you're pushing intensity that high, it's you just run into stuff. Um, I even like to I even experimented with like some extreme high volume about two or three months ago. I just wanted to see um how my personal body would react to doing like 20 to like 25 sets per muscle group per week um to see how how it functioned. Um, but when I did that, like I slowly transitioned up to it. I was noticing that I wasn't mentally pushing quite as hard. Like um I was it almost felt like I was just kind of going through the motions with the training. The results I got from it, I was still making pretty decent results. Like I was still seeing more fullness in my physique, I was still gaining muscle during that time, but I'm like, man, I'm spending more time in the gym, I'm feeling more beat up, I'm feeling less motivated to continue training. So I I feel like there's an amount of volume that's gonna be that sweet spot for somebody that they can keep going with it for a long period of time. Because, like, for me personally, if I'm doing 25 sets per body part per week for straight for a long period of time, like it's I'm I I was feeling my motivation to train um drop more and more. It could be a little bit too to like fatigue build up and needing maybe a D load. But I was just there wasn't as much love for like getting in there. Whereas if you're only getting there to do a certain amount of work and a certain amount of days, usually you're a lot more intentional and like you push really hard. And it's I for myself, it's very fun doing it that way. Everybody's gonna have their own individual preferences, but yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I agree. Uh, I agree with you

Programming For Real Life Schedules

SPEAKER_01

the same way. Um, from the coaches I've worked with before that that has prescribed me with higher volumes, uh I've tried higher volumes for myself, lower volumes, higher intensity, which I've just experimented with. I find it's it could be potentially because uh we've been doing this a lot longer. So experience it builds up. We have a much more clear intention of what we wanted to achieve every single training session. I used to like staying at the gym for two hours and probably spending at least 30 minutes just chilling, uh just like talking to people next to you and stuff like that. But now it's for me, it's just get in, do the work, and hoping I could finish it within 45 minutes or like half an hour, and then just get out. So my day is just more focused on efficiency. Um, even that includes training. I'm not rushing through the training. So if I do need like especially lower body days, if the set and set requires about two to three minute rest just to peak your performance and get good quality reps out of it, then so be it. It's for me, if it's a low volume, high intensity, it's only two sets. So one set could probably take you what, I don't know, like 15, 20 seconds just to complete one set. You take two, three-minute breaks. It sounds like a power lifter in some ways. Um, and then you do another 15, 15 to 20 seconds of the other set, and then you're done for that one exercise. And you probably, I don't know, I have like what, five, six exercises per body part in one drink in one training session. So yeah, you do the math, which I can't, um, 30, 40 minutes, and then you're done. So that will come with experience. So if you're newer to lifting, uh, I would recommend what I would recommend is of course, we have to manage your schedule. Now you've got your work schedule, you have a life, you have other stuff that's going on, and going to the gym is only a small portion about it. We have to work with what you have and what your capability is. If you can't afford 60 minutes in the gym of training, we have to work around what we can. So that could depend on frequency. That could depend on what was the other one? Volume? What kind of volume?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, frequency, volume, intensity. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah. So it really will depend on that.

SPEAKER_00

It's it's gonna be very individual to the client, right? So based off of even like fatigue levels, too. If somebody's working like a very laborish job and then they have to do training, like you're not gonna be giving them a shit ton of volume because they're not gonna be able to physically recover from that. Um, so giving them an amount of something that's gonna be very stimulus or have a high degree of stimulus, but it's not gonna have the same fatigue costs in the in the program. So working around the person, like I've had people literally train three days a week, so make great um progress in the off season. It's not like and I feel like that's the thing with like natural bodybuilding, is a lot of people think it's like, okay, I have to make sure I'm training like six days a week, two hours, um, or even like thinking they have to train every single day for like two hours to get in the best shape of their life for the bodybuilding stage when that is just not necessary. Like, um, for me with my last prep, I'm pretty sure you're uh your last prep yourself. Like, I was only training four days per week. Were you training more than four days a week? Or are you yeah, four days? Okay, yeah. So we were literally training four days per week. I think my sessions were about maybe an hour, and we both got our programs training that way, but we were making sure to manage things like stress, sleep, and nutrition outside of that. But it's like you don't need as much as you often think you do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That also brings us to uh another topic that I wanted to just quickly touch base on is for individuals who have uh just going back to high labor jobs. So jobs like

Accountability And Coach Honesty

SPEAKER_01

a construction worker, retail, where you're always on your feet, like personal trainers like us, where we're on our feet most of the time. And I think to be fair, retail workers, construction workers, you're not you are doing uh physical labor, but you're not really lifting heavy stuff like in the gym. Now I've had an athlete who was uh a retail worker. Now she was yeah, she's basically at work six days a week. She's at uh she's at work. And it really depends we had to work around on her shift. So we communicated clearly on how her shift works and see if we can fit either a cardio session or a training session in. Now she will let me know is like, okay, I can't, you know, the the the gym closes at I don't know at 10 or something, and she gets off at what 8, 8:30 if it goes with retail, and then there she just doesn't have enough time to go to the gym. So we work around that. So what I was just trying to say is even though you have a physical labor job and maybe time is not on your hand, as you said, you don't have to go every day. Yeah, you can always manage, go before work, go after work, or go in between. Yeah, there's always, always a way. And she still made it to the stage, did wonderful. I'm really, really proud of her. And um, yeah, so there's just not really a an excuse that you can say that it could uh get you out of not going there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I even have a lot of guys I work with that have shift work too, where they're like two days day, two days night, um, and like their sleep schedules getting messed up, but they're still able to make it work. And it's just yeah, it's just planning, incorporating in for most people, like a lot of times just having accountability too. Like some people know if somebody's watching them that they're okay, I gotta get this done. Whereas if you don't have anybody there, a lot of times people can start sh thinking of those excuses in their head and like accepting them, whereas if somebody's there actually chatting with them, they can be like, hey, like I understand it's difficult, but we can like you can do this, like it's not physically impossible. It's kind of bitty aspect is always important too. Like, I know even for me with my preps, like there's been preps I've gone through where it's like in my mind, I'm like, I don't really want to do this, or but just having somebody literally there be like, hey man, like you go off this dude, like okay, let's make this like you can't do that. So let's make this small adjustment to make sure that you can still get it in, right? Um, if that's making training session a little bit shorter, if that's if you literally don't have access to a gym, like doing a small body weight workout from home or something like that, or getting some extra steps in, or shifting some things around, like it's it doesn't have to be perfectly set in place, right?

SPEAKER_01

It would be good, but yeah, it doesn't have to. Yeah, it'd be good. But you are prepping for a show at the end of the day. And from our coach's perspective, is we wanted to maximize communication. Don't feel like we're not that scary, are we? Right, we don't look that scary, but I guess there is a line between you know your homie and then there's uh your coach. Now, in a coach's perspective, I think it's even more important you actually stay as honest as possible. If you missed it, you missed it. We're not gonna really shit on you the same way like we're shit on you like as a parent. But we want to hold you accountable for the things that I understand that you may when you tell us that you've missed such and such, it might feel scary. Oh shit, I'm in trouble. And then uh yeah. Let's just we we'll probably look past it and just see, okay. You fucked it up already. Let's see what kind we can make it up. Yeah, so it's yeah. So it's the this part is I would want to create a a coach and an athlete relationship, uh, but not to an extent where it's speaking to us is really scary.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's a that fine balance between just accepting people for like not taking action on stuff and then being like so like getting like angry at your client. Like it's there's a happy medium in there where it's about okay, like something went wrong. What's the like what happened? Like, what could you have done to ensure that you can stay with this training session or or ensure that you can stay away your macros? Um, it's not that like we're gonna be like guilty and be like, oh, you're such a bad person because you didn't do that. Like, that's not the case with coaching. We never guilt people, it's more about okay, like we're just came up to the case. Maybe in a joking way, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

In a joking way, in a joking way, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but it's not like and then I feel like especially with competition prep, like I've had athletes before where they they messed up, they binged or whatever, and they it took them like a week to confess to it. So, like it's oh my god, like and that's the thing, because like that's why I always encourage like full transparency. Like, I've had preps where I've literally binged out and stuff like that. So, like I always for with athletes try to have this communication where it's like if you've done something wrong, like I've probably done that before. So I'm not gonna judge you for doing that, but it's just okay, we're gonna figure out how to not do that again, right? So yeah, I find that that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so the also another message is we just besides because we have competed many times and we have seen many people prep. We have friends that prep, we've heard stories on how they may I may not have fucked up, but so what we want to say is we've we've seen it pretty much all, so we won't be surprised to hear any news stories. We actually we're encouraged to like hear them, but not asking you, not encouraging you to mess things up. Yeah, no, we're not that. That's not the message. The message is like don't be afraid to come out and just tell us right off the bat. So we we can we can work together and fix the problem before it gets even worse. That's the main idea of what that whole rant was really about. I think we get it, we did made a pretty good job on just letting the audience know throughout the years, after pro cards, after years of training, after years of trying, uh, who have we become right now and how we could understand our audience and how we understand our athletes much, much better. That also comes with age. You know, you might it might not look like it, but you know, I'm really young and Brandon's just like a freaking dinosaur now. So it might not look like it, but that's yeah, so that also comes with experience over the years. What I actually want our listeners to also hear is you could probably tell us what we can expect moving forward from from our uh content in the in the near future.

What’s Next For NATX

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we're gonna be definitely posting our NADX account um on Instagram. We're gonna be posting up some clips of these YouTube clips from the YouTube as reels on there, client testimonials, transformations, and stuff like that. Um, and if yeah, if you guys have any ideas or want to learn a specific topic when it comes to bodybuilding, when it comes to maybe peaking or when it comes to what a bodybuilding prep would look like for you, like let us know. Um, we we do offer consults and stuff like that in our bios if you're wanting to have a chat with us and see which is what if if you even if you have a little bit of interest in bodybuilding and just want to know what it's about, um, we can offer you a consult there. We'll probably be on Spotify and some other platforms too with the the podcast here, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yep. So we'll be on Apple Podcasts, we'll be on Spotify, we'll be on I think we're on YouTube Music, and and a couple, I think we're on iHeartRadio too. Yeah, so we're on a couple of podcasts, uh as much, as many podcasts as uh platforms as as we can, so you can reach out to us. Uh, of course, our main source, if you want to leave comments or anything like that, our main source would definitely be. I I personally prefer YouTube, but I would look through all the if if I get if I get a text or if I get a message, I'll definitely look through the comment section. But that is the way to reach us. Is there anything else you wanted to

Timeline Reality For Comp Prep

SPEAKER_01

add?

SPEAKER_00

Just with like competing, I think I always talk about this because I feel like a lot of people just need to know, like, if you're wanting to compete, like you just need a lot of time to like if if you're wanting to say do a show in the spring, like it's probably too late to be starting prep now. Like at the earliest show, if you were trying to start like a prep right now, would probably be the fall. So if you're thinking about competing in the fall, like now is the time to reach out. If you're thinking about competing next year, right now is probably a really good time to start start out so we can actually build your off season and see uh if we can bring up some weak body parts and everything like that. Um, because I feel like that's like the biggest thing when most people come to like me, I'm sure to you, is just they're not in the best place to sometimes even start prep or their yeah, their body fat's a little bit too high. And like it's we always have I I find I always have to be like, hey, sorry, like this show's not gonna work, we're gonna have to push it later. So the earlier you can read. Out the better we're gonna be able to honestly help you out. So, yeah, if you guys are thinking about it, I would definitely recommend doing it sooner than later.

SPEAKER_01

I agree. And that's also one of the things we we also talked about in the beginning. We preach longer-term progressions than short-term shortcuts. So that's just how it is for natural bodybuilding. Just repeating myself again is if you're in general fitness, then some shortcuts will vary depending on people. That might work. But if we're talking about a prep for a natural bodybuilding show, time is going to be your best friend.

SPEAKER_00

The more time you have, generally, the leaner you're gonna get, the more muscle you're gonna preserve. So the better look you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_01

So exactly. Okay.

Closing And Listener Support

SPEAKER_01

Uh if that's it, then uh we're gonna wrap up this episode, our first episode. Thank you guys for joining us. And do remember if uh we are on all these platforms, so please do follow and uh share and uh stay for the journey. So thank you guys again. We'll see you guys soon.