So, you can't be lean, strong and natural. I disagree with that.
Well we're going to find out today, actually. We're going to talk about this
in the form of Ax Jeff question. This is coming from TimothyDubnick44.
Jeff, I watched a video on good, fast or cheap when it comes to nutrition. It was super helpful.
Would you say the same thing applies in the case of lean, strong and natural? You can
only be two, but you can't be all three. Well, first of all, to go back to what he
was talking about with nutrition, there was a video I made talking about good, fast and cheap,
and you can only have two of the three. In other words, if you want to have good food,
then you can only get one of the other two options. You could either make it fast by,
let's say what I do, ordering out at the catering department in large quantities, but it's not
going to be cheap. Or it could be cheap and good, but it's not going to be fast because you're going
have to prepare all that food for yourself. So, you only get two of those choices ever. But is it
the same scenario when we're talking about being lean, strong, and natural? It's not the same
scenario here, guys, because I believe all three of these can be achieved at the same time.
Just like I said. Just like you said. You're always right,
Jesse. You re always right. Aw, man.
But if you add a fourth element into this, then I believe it's not achievable.
Okay, what s that. And that will be fast.
Okay. If you want all three of those things and you
want them fast, then no, it's not in the cards. However, if you're willing to allow the time,
Jesse, as you have-- Yup.
--then of course you can have all three. But let's talk about you as a perfect example here.
Okay. All right. You certainly
have built your strength up. Yeah, for sure.
You've gotten yourself to a what, 515. 515 deadlift.
515-pound deadlift, good to go. Thank you.
Now you've got yourself here also looking pretty damn lean.
Yeah. Now I'm going to question the lighting there,
it looks a little bit a little favorable. I think my abs look good in any lighting.
It looks like you're on the set of Tron, for crying out loud. I don't know what that's about.
But meanwhile, you haven't had to sacrifice your leanness to any appreciable degree in the pursuit
of that strength? No.
Right. And certainly natural. Right.
I don't think anybody's going to argue that Jesse's not natural.
Although there are some people out there-- Yeah, if you can believe that.
--that claim--that it must make you feel good. So now here we are we've got all three, even in the
example of Jesse himself. Yup.
However, I do think that you're going to have to sacrifice time in order to do that.
Well, think about how long it took me to get there.
Right. So, Jesse, we've showcased here, it's been like a five-year journey, although there's been
starts and stops. Yes.
Jesse losing interest or picking up interest, but he's been on a pretty consistent flow here
now for probably what, the last year or so. Yeah, that's a year, year and a half maybe.
So, if you're willing to put in that time, then I think these are all achievable. However,
we do know that if you wanted to, let's say, pursue strength and maximum strength,
there's a lot of research out there that gaining more body fat is going to allow you to start to
experience more of those strength levels. Okay.
Interestingly and ironically through increased lean body mass that comes with
those increases in body fat levels. But if we look back at your scenario, again,
I have to question maybe the desire to pursue that road at the expense of leanness in this case.
Right. Because you're looking at--what?
What do you weigh in at 155? About 155, yeah.
So, this is about a 3.3 times body weight deadlift. 3.3 times body weight deadlift
in any shape or form, that is a strong person. That is a very strong deadlift.
And though Jesse could potentially max out even further, it's an indication like that if he
was willing to let go of his eight pack. Yeah, I started to put on some body fat.
Right. Could he do more? I'm sure he could. But to what end? Is that important to, you?
What, top end strength? No. Well, how strong do you want to be? I mean, what
if it's possible to be four times body weight? I mean, that'd be nice, but that's not my goal.
So, what is important to you at this point? Why is lean, and this a very
individual question I'm asking you guys the same thing, why is leanness matter to you?
I like looking good and I like feeling good because at my body fat level,
I still feel really, really good. All right. And your body fat level
is currently at, what, like 10%? I'd say about ten, 10 to 11%. Yeah.
So, I am going to qualify this because I think that it's very important. Whenever you talk about
body fat levels, it is very subjective, right? What you see, my eyes see what I see. For example,
when I look at this picture of Arnold at 6 2 , you know, my eye likes what I see. In other words,
that was the physique that when I was a kid I wanted to sort of build towards knowing that I
never was going to really get there, but at least I liked the esthetics of it. I can compare that to
a 6 2 Jim Carrey here, and it just doesn't do the same thing for me. I don't want to look like that,
though I recognize that some people out there might be perfectly fine with that and not put
in the extra work it would take to get to the level of Arnold. Or you can say that, look,
Arnold obviously was clearly not natural. So, I could take a different example, just a stock photo
of somebody who is obviously on a leaner side and say, that is something more preferential to
me than, say, somebody who still works out but is carrying a higher level of body fat. Again,
your preferences might be different than mine. However, I believe that when you're
looking to sort of round out the package, if you could appreciate high levels of strength,
not necessarily maximum levels of strength and still have a certain esthetic that you desire.
Is that not a better scenario? Oh, I definitely think it is.
Without having to go through sort of the ups and downs of bulking and cutting. And I've mentioned
before potentially getting stuck in one of those bulks because some of the habits that are learned
in the bulking process are sometimes harder to break for some versus others. So now some will say
that I just favor this because of Athlean and I'm always about being athletic and lean and ripped
and, you know, the athlete side of training. Guys it s a different scenario when we're talking about
athletics and athletes. And it's all over the map, quite frankly, because it depends on even the
athlete you're trying to define. Certain athletes are required or even naturally selected by their
sport to be at a certain level of body fat. Sumo wrestlers.
There's a perfect example. Sumo wrestlers, if you're going to be 5% body fat, you're
probably not going to do too well in that sport. On the contrary, if you're a distance runner or a
marathon runner, you likely are going to see guys that are a lot leaner, even sprinters,
a lot leaner in their body fat levels than guys who are going to carry a lot more body fat. So,
what happens is the level of body fat you carry as an athlete should always be determined by
whether or not it becomes detrimental to your performance. So, if your sport requires more
strength and we know that higher body fat levels tend to help people to reach their maximum levels
of strength. Then by all means, you would want to increase your levels of body fat,
but only to the degree that they don't become an impediment to your ability to perform right.
Right. If at some point they impaired your ability to
perform then they're no longer serving you, even if they're increasing one element of your overall
performance, which is strength. Right, because that can
hinder your athleticism. Right and we have so many examples of people
that sort of do things that all different levels of body fat. You take D.K. Metcalf excelling at
an incredibly lean body fat level. Or you've got guys that are heavier that are just as effective.
The same thing can be said about baseball. I saw all kinds of body fat levels. Jose Reyes,
who is with me for three seasons with the New York Mets and stayed healthy for all three seasons,
did so at a high single digit body fat percentage every single year, very steady. And he performed
at a highest level that he possibly could. What about a guy like Bartolo Colon?
Well, there's your exception. You know, you've got a guy like Bartolo Colon who was dominating
at his position, or even at David Wells is a heavy guy who is dominating his position,
and they certainly weren't the prototypical lean athlete. So, you can't really define when
you're around athletes and you're training them like I do, you don't really find a prototypical
body fat for an athlete or one that's required. You just know that based on the position they
play or the sport that they play, there tends to be a certain guideline for where they
should be in to perform at that level without sacrificing some of the other elements.
Right. Right. Now, when we come back,
though, to your scenario here where you're talking about the ability of strength that
you've been able to achieve. My biggest argument is before you start jumping to the fast route,
thinking that increasing your body fat levels is what's important here in order to experience
these better strength gains. And I'm not even talking about max strength gains, but improve
strength gains, stick with where you're at right now and actually put in the work.
Yeah. Because you never had
to sacrifice your abs in this process. No, I never-I never increased my body fat
percentage from where it is consistently been for the last couple of years.
Right. So, you've been able to sort of continue to increase your deadlift strength substantially,
again, to a point where it's 3.3 times your body weight. And again, admittedly,
maybe not even close to your top end strength. You might be the biggest genetic freak going,
Jesse. Imagine that. Can you imagine?
Can you imagine that? But I'm saying like you might be at elite level strength levels
but keeping yourself lean is holding you back from that. But you have to ask yourself that
question again, to what end? Isn't it worth the other part of it? For you it happens to be.
Yeah. Can you possibly be lean,
strong and natural? My answer is very clearly yes, you can. As long as you're willing to take
that time factor out of the equation, maximize your capabilities and your capacity within the
comfortable level of body fat that you are. And then sort of forgo potentially some of the maximum
levels of output in terms of strength because you're more pleased with the total picture.
Right. And again, never sacrificing your natural status
in the first place, because that's something I think that we always preach here is incredibly
important. And speaking of important, guys, if you're looking for a video that's going to help
you to get lean, if that is what you desire, the no BS Way to get Lean is one of the most helpful
videos that you will find here on YouTube to do exactly that. Guys if you're looking for a step
by step plan, you can head to Athleanx.com and also click Subscribe, turn on your Notifications
so you never miss a new video when we put one out. All right, guys, see you soon.