Living Lean #3: He Actually Died!

Mark Smith: About 20 years.

Joseph Chestnut: 20 years of training in a gym setting like this. And what’s your max bench you’ve ever hit?

Mark Smith: 525 pounds, that’s the most I’ve ever benched, 525.

Joseph Chestnut: So guys, you know how much weight that is. You’ve probably never done that before, if you’re watching this video. Because most humans on the planet haven’t benched that much. So as you can see, he’s just jacked, and what he’s doing right now, he’s doing one of my coaching programs to really just burn fat and get like just shredded to the bone, and so we’re super excited about that.

You just started one of the programs a week ago, and how much weight have you lost so far?

Mark Smith: So a week and one day, and I’ve lost a little over 10 pounds already.

Joseph Chestnut: A little over 10 pounds, which is amazing. So he’s just cruising, and he has that discipline, that mindset that many of you guys are after where you’re trying to go to that next level in your Fitness.

You’re trying to get lean so that you know when it comes to getting lean it takes discipline and that’s what he has. So he knows what it feels like to go through that process and to push it in ways that most of us don’t. So guys we’re going to make a video for you today. And we’re going to talk about a method that we use in one of my coaching programs called The 5-4-3-1 Training Method.

And we’re going to take you guys through this workout. I’m super excited about it. He’s been doing it and loving it, and so follow along with us guys, it’s going to be fun.

So guys the first exercise that we’re going to do is we’re going to do the five which is going to be five sets of pull-ups. We’re gonna do a wide grip pull-ups to start off this workout with. So the workout, the whole program is basically based around we have the five, we have the four, we have the three.

So these are all progressing you through different exercises. And then when you get to the one, it’s actually a mega set of 50 reps at the very end. And the whole program kind of takes you through this whole process of changing up the different rep ranges to build the muscle and keep the muscle on your body while you’re burning the body fat in that process.

So guys are starting off with five sets of 10 to 12 Wide-Grip Pull-Ups. So let’s do it.

We’re about to be on round 5, set number 5, of wide-grip pull-ups, and we’re crushing it already, and the heart rate is up. We’re feeling it, so let’s keep going.

Mark Smith: Let’s do this.

Joseph Chestnut: So guys the next exercise we’re going into here is bent over dumbbell rows. And so we’ll show it with just single arm bent over dumbbell rows. Follow along with us.

As you can see these dumbbells, they have the marker written on them for the poundage. So if you ever just find some dumbbells out in a field somewhere, and you need to know how much weight they are, just write a number. It don’t even matter what it is, just write a number on and it’ll…

Mark Smith: Or you could put it on a scale and find out.

Joseph Chestnut: So guys, on this fourth set here of these bent over single-arm dumbbell rows, what we’re going to do is we’re going to focus on contracting as hard as we can, and then we’re actually gonna come down really really slow on the negative, and just stretch out those lats. And just stretch out all those… that whole back complex back there. So let me show you what I mean.

So I’m going to come up here, and I’m going to squeeze it, and then I’m going to come down nice and slow, and just stretch it.

And for me, it’s difficult with this much weight. So you just have to find a weight you’re good at, where you can still do it.

Mark Smith: That’s still looks good. It still looks really good. Come on!

Joseph Chestnut: There we go. Get those a try as well.

You guys will notice that with Mark here, it’s a lot easier to bring it down super slow because he’s use to doing so much more weight than this. So unfortunately we don’t have enough weight for someone of his strength level in this facility. But so he’s doing the best he can to just let those muscles stretch and contract so they are going to overload those lats.

He crash-landed on this planet from a place called Krypton.

Alright guys, so the next exercise, so far we’ve done five sets of wide-grip pull-ups, and then we’ve done four sets of good heavy bent-over dumbbell rows, single-arm. And now we’re going to jump into some barbell curls here, heavy barbell curls, and we’re going to do three sets of these.

So as you know, a lot of back exercises involve a ton of the bicep as well. And so we don’t need to do a ton of bicep training in every single workout that we do where it’s a pull workout. So we’re adding in three sets of good heavy barbell curls, and then we’re going to finish off with that last 50 rep mega set at the very end. So let’s jump into this.

This is what it looks like to do a proper bicep curl. As you can see he’s controlling it. His elbows are coming forward just a little bit with that shoulder flexion in there, which is really targeting the bicep super well, and that’s exactly what this is. This is literally the perfect form for a bicep curl from somebody who’s been doing it for 20 years.

Here’s a really interesting thing. So Mark, whenever he approached me about the program that he’s doing right now, he was talking about how when he loses weight, when he loses body fat, a lot of times he has trouble maintaining his muscle mass. And so one of the things that we’re doing is we’re focusing on keeping the weight super heavy for him over the course of these next eight weeks and really keeping his protein super super high, and I have him on my meal phasing system that I created and so it’s working…

Mark Smith: Which is unbelievable, by the way.

Joseph Chestnut: Yes, it works guys. So one of the things you need to focus on when you’re trying to burn body fat and maintain or maybe even build your muscle, is to keep your weight high. Don’t go high reps and low weight, go low reps, high weight whenever you’re really trying to burn body fat.

That’s going to tell your body, hey, I need to hold on to this mass because I’m going to need it, right. So keep on doing that.

Alright, put more weight on for Mark on this next set because he’s a monster.

You need to focus on controlling that weight. Don’t just let it come on down. Don’t just go up and down. You need to really focus on the muscle that you’re working and that’s what he’s doing right now, which is beautiful.

Alright. so ah, so Mark was telling me about what happened last year. And so what happened? Why are you just like give us the rundown. This is a wild story.

Mark Smith: Well, over the course of my life. I’ve had a hard time with like passing out when I get sick like to my stomach. And I just always thought that is always thought it was one of those things, you know, like when somebody sees blood they pass out. So, in the past couple of years, as that was happening, it was just getting worse. I was passing out. And my unconscious was staying longer, and my body was reacting very badly.

So, I decided to make a doctor’s appointment. Of course, I was still working out, and doing the things I do all along, and they sent me for a tilt table test in October of last year.

Well, I did this tilt table test, and when they had me on there, when they brought me up and gave me the nitroglycerin to test my heart to see if everything was working correctly, I knew that I was getting sick, and I could feel it like, you know, like I was gonna pass out again. I told him that, and as I leaned forward, as I was getting sick, that’s the last thing I remember.

And the next thing I remember was waking up in a room of about 15 people, and they were yelling my name like, “Mark, are you okay? Are you alright?” I’m like, “Yeah. I’m okay.” I just felt really weak and really tired after something like that, you know, and the doctor came in who has been in medicine for almost like 40 years.

He’s said, “Mark”. He’s like, “I’m Dr. Nandra.” He was like, he said, “You kind of left us buddy for about 35 seconds.” My heart completely stopped’ for 35 seconds.

But you know, one of the most compelling things that doctor said to me in the course of like the time that I was with him, he said, “Mark, he said, “It’s a good thing you’re a gym rat.”

And I always remember that because my heart is strong. You know, I gave it an echo. My heart is fine. It’s just the vagus nerve that runs on my heart was really weak. But, because I’m a lifter, and because I stay in shape, and I stay active, it helped my heart to restart again. Which is…my family is very thankful for. My wife has no problem with me going to the gym from here on out, you know, it’s okay.

So, but you know, like I said, it was a very interesting experience. And I do thank God here that He has kept me healthy, that He has kept me in the gym, that, you know, that my heart started back up so I could be there with you today, there Joseph.

Joseph Chestnut: That so incredible. That’s so awesome. And so, and you said something else happened. You pulled something, you did something to your back?

Mark Smith: Yeah, I hurt my lower back, my SI joint on my lower back last year because I was running a lot, and, of course I spent seven years in the military service. I think I ran from like here to Saturn in that time. And it was really hard on my SI joint. So I’ve been recovering from that as well. But all the while keep moving.

You know, I keep on moving, keep on working out, keep on doing this, not hurting myself or doing things to injury it. It’s just one of those things where the nerves along there are pinched, and I tell you what, for about three months, I was in a lot of pain and a lot of recovery time. That’s a lot of weeks.

Joseph Chestnut: Yeah, and I mean, I mean he’s been through so much as you guys can see, this is a lot of stuff to go through within a year physically, and he’s still in the gym, and and that’s the thing, guys.

You don’t have to kill yourself in the gym. Like, we just had an incredible workout using my 5-4-3-1 Training Method, and we… I mean our muscles, like we’re feeling it, right? Where we simulated muscle growth, we overloaded our muscles, and, guys, that’s all you need to do. Get in there, work hard, have a plan, and then get out.

Guys, God created you to move your body. That’s what it’s created for. So, let’s start moving our bodies, and, like the doctor told him, it’s a good thing he works out because that’s what’s kept him healthy through different things. So guys, I just want to encourage you, keep on going, don’t stop, and if you need some help, reach out, and I would love to talk with you, schedule a free strategy call, and we’ll make it happen.

God bless you guys. We’ll talk to you soon.