Mindset and Performance Optimization with Ben Pakulski
Today on the Brain Biohacking Podcast, I am speaking with my friend, Ben Pakulski. Ben is one of the world's top mind and body coaches. Ben has been an inspiration to me for years. We discuss mindset in and out of the gym, why someone may fail in the gym, how limiting beliefs can hold us back, and so much more.
More About Ben:
Ben is the founder of Ben Pakulski Fitness International, the Muscle Intelligence podcast and the Muscle Intelligence and MI40 brands. He is a former Mr. Canada, and IFBB Professional Bodybuilder. Ben is most well-known for his intelligent approach to building maximum muscle and has helped 100,000 men and women change their body and life with his methods. Ben began building his body at 15 years old and turned professional at his 6th show at 26 years of age. Ben's first pro show was the 2009 Tampa Pro where he placed 3rd and qualified to compete in Mr. Olympia. Highlights from Ben's career include placing 2nd at the Arnold Classic, the second largest bodybuilding show in the world, twice competing in Mr. Olympia and placing 1st in the 2016 Vancouver Pro.
Since retiring from competitive bodybuilding, Ben focuses on spending time with his wife and three children while building the Muscle IntelligenceTM brand. The mission is to empower men and women with the knowledge and skillset to build their greatest body and live their greatest life.
Ben's passion for helping others change their body, and live their greatest life led him to create the world's foremost muscle building and body transformation educational brand, Muscle Intelligence™ which offers a simple framework around the 6 Pillars of a Lean and Muscular Body.
Follow Ben: https://www.instagram.com/bpakfitness/
Visit his website: https://www.benpakulski.com
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
KAYLA BARNES (00:00)
Ben, it's such a pleasure to have you here with me today.
Ben Pakulski (00:03)
KAYLA, you're one of my favorites. Thank you for inviting me.
KAYLA BARNES (00:06)
Oh, absolutely. Before we started recording, we were chatting a little bit about all sorts of stuff we're going to cover today, like Mindset. But the things that you talk about on your podcast are so incredibly important. And I love it, by the way. Ben has his own podcast. But before we dive into the really meaty stuff, can you talk about your background a little bit? I mean, you're a legend in Bodybuilding, and so just tell us a little bit about your background.
Ben Pakulski (00:31)
Keep padding my ego. Kelly. Keep padding. Thank you. Well, so I think the thing that makes me or maybe people resonate with me is that I didn't start out this way, right? And my struggles as a child turned into my strength as a man. And so I grew up in a family of obese alcoholics that I literally didn't know what a gym was. No one in my family even ever finished high school, let alone college. It grew up on Captain Crunch and Doritos, and it wasn't healthy. Right. I grew up an overweight kid. And actually the irony of my life is that I was very young and I was obese and had a learning disability and a speech impediment. And the irony of that is being obese. I made my living on stage as an adult in my underwear. So I turned that around pretty quick, having a speech impediment. Now I have a podcast and I teach people, like, hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and learning disability all I turn that into now being an international educator. And sometimes your challenges become your strengths. And so I've been through it, all right?
Ben Pakulski (01:31)
I've been through the struggles. I've been through being fat and I don't know what to do about it. I've been through the mental struggles of thinking you're stupid or the mental struggles of thinking you're not capable of doing something. And the thing that maybe made me succeed and maybe still makes me succeed is that I don't ever say that I can't. I say, how can I, right? So if there's something in front of me and I'm like, well, if I decide that I want to make $100 million, it's never like, I can't do that. How can I, right? And it's this figure it out mindset. And so everything in my life has evolved from not taking no for an answer. It's evolving into like, hey, I know this is going to be very hard, but I'm just going to keep going. So when I was 17 years old, I went to my first ever bodybuilding show, which happened to be the Mr. Olympia in New York City. And I just fell in love. And so I decided on that day that this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be the best bodybuilder in the world.
Ben Pakulski (02:28)
And I was this £160 crony kid, and everyone was like, all right, dude, whatever. And I just didn't stop. And I think the haters was my gift, and I think the gift of saying, I just won't stop. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there. And I didn't hear other people putting me down, and maybe I did, and sometimes I use it as fuel, but it never slowed me down. I never doubted myself for a minute until I got to where I wanted to go. There was never a doubt. So that's something that was easy along the way, right? It was incredibly challenging. But I think our struggles and our obstacles create our character, and that may be where I have some value to provide in people's lives. Because I've probably been through where you are right now, struggling your life. Chances are I've been there.
KAYLA BARNES (03:10)
I love that. And it's so important because you're a testament to exactly what can happen. So walk us through that process a little bit. So you were overweight at what age, and then what did you do to get out of that? Because I know a lot of people are struggling with weight issues, and they feel like they can never figure it out.
Ben Pakulski (03:27)
So as a young kid, I mean, I was born into a family that didn't know anything about nutrition. And I don't fault them, they just didn't know anything, right. They kind of let me do whatever I want. So you let a kid stay to his own devices and he's going to live on, like I said, literally, captain Crunch and Chips Ahoy, right? So probably by the time I was twelve, I was obese. Maybe even certainly sooner I was obese, but by the time I was twelve, I knew I was obese, right? Earlier, I didn't know. Maybe I did, but it didn't really bug me. And by the time I was twelve, I was like, okay, I don't want to do this. What's going on here? And I felt I had a really interesting distinction. When I was like seven or eight, I remember just feeling like I was different than my family. I didn't want to be like them. I was like, I don't want to be like that. I don't know what it was. My home was very chaotic. There's a lot of fighting, there's a lot of alcohols, and there's a lot of abuse, a lot of verbal abuse.
Ben Pakulski (04:15)
And so it's like, I don't want to be like this. I started looking outside of myself, outside of my family, for models. Right. I think every child models someone, and some of those models came on television, and some of those models came from the neighbors and whoever really had access to. So I think learning to model other people became a very good skill or maybe a good gift of mine. So I hear people oftentimes talking about the detriments of social media, right? Even though I didn't grow up in a social media environment, the fact that I can look at somebody else example when I was 17 years old, I looked at Mr. Olympia, actually, I looked at Flex Wheeler, who was not Ms. Olympia, got second that year. I said, I want to look like that. Until I look like that, I'm not there. And you get so many compliments along the way and so many people saying how great you look. And I'm just like, no, until I look like that, it doesn't matter. So I created a standard for myself, a model. I think some people look at these instagram models or these beautiful bodies and they put them down, or the people who are making money, like they put them down.
Ben Pakulski (05:15)
I'm like, Listen, use that as a model. Say, gosh, I would love to look like that one day if you do, right? Or I'd love to have that much money one day if you do and work toward that. I think that's the mindset that really allowed me to, the curiosity mindset rather than I feel this society has become very derogatory toward people who succeed, which just baffles my mind. Like, if someone is succeeding, man, good for them. Like, gosh, they put in the work, they succeed. They did more than I did in that space. And if I want to do it, I'm going to do it too. I think that's an important framing for people to take away. So my childhood was a challenge, but by the time I reached probably 15, I was relatively capable of sports. So I had opportunities to play at NCAA Division One baseball. And so I started training in the gym for baseball because I was like my coach was like, hey, man, if you want to get faster and better, go lift weights. I was like, Cool, I'll go do that. And then as soon as literally within weeks of me training, I was like, this is it.
Ben Pakulski (06:16)
This is what I want to do. And I started going twice a day. So, like, I said £155, like fully grown 510. I was kind of skinny, fat, and started training twice a day. So I gave up sports relatively quickly and I just started pursuing bodybuilding. And within, I think, 18 months of starting, I went from like £155, about 225 to 30 to put on muscle very quickly. I was all natural. I just was obsessed with bodybuilding. And that's kind of how it started for me.
KAYLA BARNES (06:44)
Yeah, I love that. And I don't talk about it a lot, but you and I have so many similarities in terms of upbringing that, yeah, I get it too. I came from a very similar household, grew up, like, on government assistance, food, so I had a lot to repair. But it's given me the mindset that I have, and that's why I'm so inspired by your mindset. So some of us just have a really strong mindset naturally, because I actually felt the same way. I was like, I don't want to have the same life that I'm seeing. So I know I'm going to have to work really hard to change that because I didn't really have the tools. But what tools do you use? So do you have any mindset practices? And then we'll go into like a morning routine. What do you do to keep your mindset that strong and that disciplined?
Ben Pakulski (07:30)
I'll tell you what. The first thing that I want to acknowledge is that people believe that their circumstances create the reality, and I tend to believe that's not true. And I'll give you an example. So the best example that I can think of is my children. I've got two wonderful children, and sometimes they're extremely energetic and rambunctious a little bit crazy. And so let's say on one day, I come downstairs and they're just being completely chaotic, and it starts to rub me wrong where I start to feel agitated. I feel like I'm getting a little irritated with them. They're starting to make me angry, and I feel like I want to yell at them. And the next day I come down and they're doing the exact same thing, and I don't react. I'm like, oh. I just smile. I'm like, oh, kids are being crazy. The exact same circumstance can happen on multiple different days. And I feel different about the circumstance. Right? I think we've all experienced this before, and it's just this acknowledgement that my perception of the circumstance has nothing to do with the circumstance itself. It has to do with my state when it enter that circumstance.
Ben Pakulski (08:35)
So if I didn't sleep well last night or I've been in a stressful circumstance where I've been eating poorly, my nervous system is tightly wound. If you think of like a guitar string, that guitar strings really tightly wound, any little thing is going to set you off. Versus if I actually do something to make sure that my nervous system is not super tightly wound and I'll talk about what I do, then it allows you to change your perception to life. Right? I can never be a victim to an environment because I realize I'm the creator of it. I'm literally the person who's perceiving the events. So if I don't like the way I'm perceiving the events, I can't change the events. I can change my perception to it. So when you come to the conversation around, well, what do you do? Like, what needs to bring up the morning routine? I think every morning when you wake up, it's this amazing opportunity to curate your consciousness. I get to curate who I am. I always say it's like a white canvas. You get to put on whatever you want. You can put sunshine and rainbows.
Ben Pakulski (09:25)
You can put dark clouds and whatever. Anger. Right? It's your choice. And so I literally sit down and meditate and say, who am I going to be today? How am I going to show up? What's my strength? Right? I literally can sit down and be really granular on it some days. Some days I just kind of go, I feel good, I'm good. So if you just close your eyes, everyone could just do it right now with the listing, and just feel your body. Like, do you feel anxious? Do you feel stressed? Do you feel tight? Right? And where's the tension? What's your feeling tone of emotion? Like, what's the general tone that you feel? Is it happy? Is it sad? Is it anger? Is it any of these spectrum of emotions? And to identify what that is. And I realized in that moment that I can curate it. I can decide what it is. So if I want to take gratitude with me into the day, I can literally embody gratitude. So first it's an intellectualization or verbalization. I think about it and I verbalize it, and then I start to feel it. Or if it's happiness or if it's joy, I can embody all of those things.
Ben Pakulski (10:23)
And if I do them over and over again, just like a muscle, eventually I feel that, and I'm like, I can just bring this back at any time. And now I realize that I'm no longer a victim to my circumstance. I'm no longer a victim to my emotions. I'm the creator of my emotions. Is it easy? No. Is it simple? Yes. It just takes daily execution, right? And this is the quote unquote, discipline, but it's not disciplined, because for me, it was paying. I remember people in my life being able to rub me the wrong way, specifically, like, partners. And for me, like, siblings. I'm like, Holy jeez, these people really make me angry. Like, I want to smash them. I'm like, I hate that they have this control over me. So I learned to control my state so that they could no longer have that impact on me. And I felt so empowered by that. I was like, I want to do this and everything. I don't ever want to feel like I'm a victim to anything. And so that started me down this path of, like, I'm going to curate my emotions. I'm going to curate who I am.
KAYLA BARNES (11:20)
Yeah, that's super powerful. And I talk about that too. And Joe de Benz does a great job of saying that our bodies don't know the difference of our situation. It's all really life is just a set of stories that we tell ourselves. Is it a bad story? Is it a positive story? I completely agree with that. Was there ever a time that you had to so I think some people have such a difficult time remembering to be, like, strong or remembering that they can do things. Was there ever a time you kind of, like, stuck little notes around? Or did you have to tell yourself kind of some of the mantras that you had in your mind throughout the day, or you would just do it in the morning, they would stick with you all day.
Ben Pakulski (11:59)
I've tried pretty much everything. It's important to acknowledge that nothing came easy, right? Throughout my body building career, I struggled. I had so many struggles, but yet I just persisted. I was like, I think the thing that made me succeed and I recently talked about this in a podcast, was I created a goal that I wasn't willing to give up on, right? I created something that was like, when I wake up every day, I have a reason to eat well. I have a reason to move well. Because I think most people in their life become too easy, right? Modern society, life is just so easy. Food is right there. Money comes in. You go to work. You don't have to do anything challenging. You come home after work. You sit down on TV, couch, watch Netflix. There's no adversary. So if I all of a sudden said to you, kill, on Monday, you're going to run a marathon, or even if you walk, you're going to do it. All of a sudden, as soon as you decide to do it and you're like, there's no getting out of this, all of a sudden, everything in your life changes.
Ben Pakulski (12:57)
You're like, oh, shit, I don't want to die in this. So I got to make sure. Maybe I'll do some training for it, or maybe I'll eat a little bit better. Maybe I'll sleep a little bit better. As soon as you put at least a little demand on yourself, I call it a worthy adversary. Soon as I play a little bit of a demand on myself, all of a sudden my expectations of myself change. So the gift that I gave myself was that I put a world class expectation on myself. I said, I'm going to be the best bodybuilder in the world. I didn't want to be the best in the gym or the best in the country. I was like, Forget that. That's not it. I know my best is going to be the best in the world. I think placing that standard on myself every day allowed me to just like, okay, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this. I don't want to do it, but I have to do it should be an I get to attitude, right? But during bodybuilding, it wasn't always an I get to. It was like, fuck, I have to do this workout.
Ben Pakulski (13:43)
I have to eat this food. And then I also have spoken about as soon as I realized that's actually when I get to, it completely changed my life. So the metaphor or the story I tell, which is a true story, I was climbing a mountain. As soon as I retired from bodybuilding, I decided I wanted to climb a mountain. I'd never climbed a mountain before. It was a nine hour mountain climb up. And so I was about an hour and a half into this mountain, and I was just dying. I was like, there's no way that I could do 9 hours. I was dreading it. I was like, oh, my God, I have to do seven and a half more hours. I was like, My legs are burning. There's no way I'm going to make this. And I stopped myself, and I was like, what the hell are you doing? I put a smile on my face and I said thank you. I looked up. It was a beautiful sky in California. It was two of my best friends in the world. And I said thank you. I get to do this. My legs are going to carry me up this.
Ben Pakulski (14:29)
I'm going to enjoy this beautiful sunshine and enjoy this beautiful day. Thank you. And I literally felt like I floated up the next 7 hours. This is like, the easiest thing I've ever done. So I went from charging through mud, which felt deep, to like, now I can feel like I can fly up this thing. And it was just a flip and mindset. And I'll tell you, it wasn't instant when I did it. It was a few moments before it flipped, but it definitely flipped. I was like, God, I'm really enjoying myself. I brought joy into my body, into my nervous system. All of a sudden, now this is easy. I think as soon as people realize that you are the creator of your mind and you can change it in an instant, all of a sudden it's an empowering feeling like, oh, okay. You have to be willing to do it and stop being a victim. Because everyone likes to commiserate, right? Everyone likes to hear their own sub story.
KAYLA BARNES (15:10)
Yeah, I think that that's a really addicting behavior, to be honest, is attracting that negative energy kind of, and I don't know how else to say, but feeling bad for yourself, it's addictive. Or your body gets used to it, and then you want to stay there. So that's to be really intentional to get out of that. So in your morning routine, you have your meditation. What else do you do?
Ben Pakulski (15:33)
Cold showers every morning. And I'll tell you what, I know it sounds like really cliche, like everyone's doing it right now, but the benefit I see is tremendous. I try to not do it. Some days I'm like, do I actually feel a benefit? The benefit I feel is just unbelievable. What I feel is all the stresses for the rest of the day are less. So, like, as soon as I get into this cold shower, a cold tub and I have to calm myself down, the first reaction when you get into tubs, like, I want to panic, I want to breathe. Everybody's the same, but if I have to go, I have to calm myself down. So now I'm literally training my brain and my nervous system to calm down in a stressful circumstance. So now when I get in it, now the time it takes me to calm down is less. And if I do it every day and then all of a sudden gosh, you know what? I find myself way more resilient to stress throughout the day. So no matter what happens, I'm pretty chilled out. Crazy things can go on, and I'm like, okay, I feel it.
Ben Pakulski (16:23)
I feel it coming up. I'm like, I can chill down. So it's meditation. It's always some type of shower, and it's always movement. Some type of exercise for me is important, and it's such a big pillar in my life that I just feel so much better when I do it and so much worse when I don't. Like, I'm not going to train today, or I've been traveling. I'm like, I'm not going to train for a couple of weeks. I just feel better. I'm in a better mood. My productivity is better. My dietary choices are always exceptional when I train, and when I don't train, they're not always exceptional. So I'm just like, you know what, I'm going to do this, because it makes me feel great and it sets my tone for the day. And literally every day there's some type of movement, whether it be just mobility work. Sometimes I'll just do some yoga or sometimes I'll do really hard, intense training sessions, or sometimes I'll do a little aerobic fitness and I just kind of build it in, and I'd say probably nine days out of ten, I make sure I'm getting outside as well.
Ben Pakulski (17:18)
Ideally 20 to 30 minutes, getting some sunshine, obviously, bright light in my eyes to kind of set my circuit in biology, and that's pretty much it. I'm a big writer, so I write a lot. So I don't necessarily write in the morning. Often I do, but I always write throughout the day. That's a big part of who I am. So, gosh, I write hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of words every day. So that's a big part of my day. So I don't always include it in the morning routine, but if I know I can't write later in the day, then I'll write for a little bit in the morning.
KAYLA BARNES (17:44)
Yeah, that sounds great. Cold showers give me or cold tubs, depending on where I'm at. I do both, but it gives me so much natural energy. If you wake up and you're just kind of like, okay, I'm off, but I'm not super energized. You take a cold shower, you're going to be ready to go.
Ben Pakulski (17:58)
There you go, adrenaline.
KAYLA BARNES (18:00)
So I love that practice as well. So talk about mobility. And this is why, obviously I have so much respect for you. And guys, Bet and I are going to be doing a little workout program soon. My workout program, so you can crush it. Yeah, hold me accountable and make sure that I look even better was mobility. And you have such a comprehensive approach to your training, which is super unique and rare, I feel. Was mobility and yoga and breath work always such an important part of your training schedule?
Ben Pakulski (18:34)
No. So, to be honest, early in my life, when I was a kid, I was very mobile. I just love to stretch. I don't know why I would just stretch. I love the discomfort. This is a disclosure they don't often share. When I was a child, I don't know if it was because of, like, self discontent. I don't think it was. It was never, like, self mutilation, but I liked to inflict discomfort on myself. I don't know why. And I didn't think I disliked myself. It was just like, I want to do something that hurts. It's weird, but I did. So maybe that's why I chose buying. But yeah, mobility work didn't really become a thing for me until I was probably about ready to leave bodybuilding. So it was 2016. So yoga and meditation started in 2007, which is even before I became a bodybuilder. But that was out of necessity. That was me trying to calm my mind. But I don't think that I have the aspiration of being particularly mobile. I just did yoga because it was like, this thing is going to help me calm my mind. But it wasn't something I really pursued.
Ben Pakulski (19:34)
But as soon as I retired from bodybuilding, I had this flip in my mind. I was like, I want to get a lot of weight off fast. And like I said, my characteristic of, like, I want to do things that are very uncomfortable for me. So what does the 320 P man do but walk into a yoga class and say, all right, man, I'm here. Let's do this, which was interesting. And I tell you what, I was terrible, right? Funny story. The first time I did it, it was a Wednesday night, I went to a night class, and it was the first time I was first time ever in hot yoga. And the class was completely full. There's probably 120 people in the class jam to Matt, right? And I ended up getting in the very back corner, the opposite end of the door. And because a friend of mine had taken my mat and put it in the spot for me, he said that, here, I got a spot for you. I went deep beside each other. I was like, Cool. So I get to the old class in this back corner, and I'm an hour in, and it's hot.
Ben Pakulski (20:28)
I was like, I'm big. It's hot. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm dying. 55 minutes down. Like okay. I made it. And the instructor comes on and she goes, all right, guys, 30 minutes left to go. I'm like, It's a 90 minutes class. I was like, oh, my God, I think I might die. And because I was in the opposite end of the class. I was like, I can't leave. I got into this. So that's such a great learning opportunity for me to learn to calm myself down. And so that's really when these things started becoming a big part of my life. And I have a very strong attachment now to mobility. And I'm like, I'm happy to share why, but if you're interested, I'll share how I kind of integrate it as far as the thought process.
KAYLA BARNES (21:05)
Yeah, I would love to hear.
Ben Pakulski (21:07)
Yeah. So as men and women, too, men specifically, spend a lot of time focus on contraction. We focus a lot of time on heavy lifting. I want to get strong. And if you just think about that at the root of what it is, it's shortening, right? We're shortening muscles. We're compressing her spine, we're compressing her ribcage. It's like the shortening of the body. And that's great if you want to develop strength, because it's also creating more density in the muscles, this compressive force. But one thing that I've taken on is, like, if I'm going to do things that are incredibly compressive, like lifting very heavy weights, which I always want to do, then I also want to bounce out and do things that are expansive. I want to do things that create space in the joints and create space in the muscles and create space in the spine, in the rib cage. I spend probably equal amount of time now with mobility work as I do strength training. So if I find myself doing very heavy strength training, I noticed myself getting tighter. I'm like, Gosh, we spend so much time in single positions that I build mobility into my day.
Ben Pakulski (22:08)
I'm almost always trying to do something that initiates lengthening, initiates blood flow, and just get my body feeling really good. And that's a big part of what we do. And the way I explain it to people is, like, let's say you're dancing or you're boxing. There's a degree of fluidity. Like, you have to flow, and there's a degree of rigidity. Right. I want to be rigid. And every endeavor we do, whether it be boxing or lifting or dancing or tennis or whatever, has points of fluidity and rigidity. Right. And I think the more the wider you can keep that spectrum as we age, the better. So I want to be able to flow really, really well. So, like, the absence of rigidity, right. I want to be able to move and flow and be fluid, and I also want to be able to create rigidity, which is the ability to lift or punch or even when you're dancing, there's some degree of, like, you got to hit those positions. So it's this dynamic balance between rigidity and fluidity. And my aspirations, I want to be able to do all things at all times.
KAYLA BARNES (23:05)
Yes. I think it's super important as well, and something I'm excited to incorporate more of. That into. I used to do it so much. I'm super flexible. But yeah, I think it's important. So what is the protocol potentially look like? So should someone obviously people are training at different intensities, but would you recommend 30 minutes of mobility a day? What does that kind of look like?
Ben Pakulski (23:27)
Well, I think I kind of say it's as little as I could possibly do to still move really well, right? So I don't want to spend 2 hours a day doing it if I don't need to. It's like, well, how much do I need to maintain the standard that I want to? Like, if my standard is being a yogi, then it's probably 2 hours a day. My standard is just moving the joint through its entire excursion. When I train, then that's different. So personally, it's probably I'll usually alternate days, so my trainings will usually be Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, and my mobility and cardio days will be Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. And actually, I like to do a little bit longer, but just because personally, I want to push the weight training hard, and I feel like if I push the way training hard, I should push the mobility training hard. But it always starts with an assessment, right? So if I have a standard of what I want to uphold for myself, I should probably do some type of analysis or assessment of what my body feels like right now. If I've been sitting a lot, it's going to feel one way.
Ben Pakulski (24:21)
If I've been moving a lot, it's going to feel differently. If I've been jumping on the trampoline a lot, it's going to feel different. So I want to assess in the moment well, which joint feels like it needs a little more attention, a little more love, right? So it's start at the ankles and feet. Work your way up to the knees, work your way to the hips. Then it's the spine. There's the ribcage, shoulder, and even sometimes the wrists. And so I'll just often do things like lunges, right? I'll start okay, go to the bottom of the lunge. A lunge, if you're doing it well, is a really good way to assess ankle, knee, hip, and spinal mobility, like what I have access to in these positions. So I'll say, okay, I'll just take what I call inventory, right? Take conscious inventory of my body. And if I feel something that needs some attention, where do you feel tight? Where do you feel tight? Where do you feel tension? And so if I feel something, then I'll make a note of it. I'm like, all right, I have to take the necessary action to make this thing go back to where I want to be, to back to that standard.
Ben Pakulski (25:11)
That's it. I think everyone, if you learn to listen to your body and pay attention to your body, which I know is probably easier said than done, for some people, it becomes relatively intuitive. Like I can feel when things are tight but I can feel when it's out of place. I can feel when I don't feel my best and I just move.
KAYLA BARNES (25:27)
Yeah, that's a really good point. Do you do all of your mobility before your workout? After your workout? Or do you ever do some Like I've been trying to squat a lot deeper. You may tell me on Monday that I'm doing it wrong, but I was advised to squat a lot deeper, but it's kind of bothering my knees. So I'm trying to do a little bit of kind of not me rehab, but knee exercise before I'm squatting. How do you kind of break up your mobility?
Ben Pakulski (25:53)
It depends how I feel. So as I said, I'll always do it on a day on its own. And as far as doing the workout, usually what I call flow before Like I'll do some animal flow type stuff where I'm just kind of moving through different joint positions with less intention of passively lengthening muscles. And sometimes before I train, I'll do some PNF stretching, which is proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, which is basically like contract, relaxed type stuff. I'll do that before I train. Sometimes if I feel a difference left to right, I'll always do some PNF. So I try to balance it out. So the big thing that causes injuries to most people is if there's imbalance left to right. So if you feel like one side is tight and the other side is moving, well, that's when you get hurt. So if I feel that, I'll always find some way to mobilize. But in general, I avoid stretching before or during the workout unless I'm stretching something other than the muscle I'm training. Because you're actually giving a conflicting signal to the nervous system. The nervous system. You're telling it to contract, and then you're saying, okay, well, now I want to turn you off.
Ben Pakulski (26:51)
And it's like, okay, no, which one is it? And so I prefer to save most of my mobility for afterwards or at night and on the days off.
KAYLA BARNES (26:58)
Okay. Yeah, that's a really great point. And does yoga fit into mobility or is yoga separate?
Ben Pakulski (27:04)
Yoga Fits In Mobility. Yeah, I Love Yoga. I don't know why I have attachment to it. I Love It. I think it's so great, I think, for me, because it was so hard and I learned from an amazing instructor, I was very blessed, just by accident to fall upon this man who is just an absolute gift. He's in his late 60s. He's from Romania. And he just happened to be very local to me. And we would do 90 minutes sessions multiple times a week. And I learned yoga at a level that I mean, you can't learn it at your conventional crappy local yoga place where these instructors are these young girls who have been doing it for a couple of years. It's Not The Same. This Guy's Been Doing 45 years, I was like, oh, my gosh, this is what I needed. This guy's, like, he's truly a guru, and that's my level of desired understanding. Right. I want to do something I'm like, I want to understand from the guru. I don't want to understand from the weekend warrior. So I was very blessed to dive in and understand it, but yeah. And I guess I also feel in the same breath, I feel like I'm spoiled.
Ben Pakulski (28:01)
Like, when I want to go into your class, I don't want to do this with this person on board. I hate their path or I hate what they're doing. But you surrender to it, right?
KAYLA BARNES (28:10)
Yeah, absolutely. Great. Well, I love that. So this is going to be kind of a straightforward question, but why do you think not so many people we won't say so many people fail, but why do you think people sometimes fail in the gym?
Ben Pakulski (28:28)
We define fail in the gym, so.
KAYLA BARNES (28:30)
Meaning they don't get the results, meet their goals. Yeah, they don't get the results that they're looking for.
Ben Pakulski (28:35)
Well, the list is long, right. So start off with one. They don't clarify their goals, and that's the biggest one. I'm just going to go to train. I'm just going to go, I just want to go work out. Well, that's just stupid. It's like saying, I want to go open a business. I'm going to go, what business? I don't know. Well, what are you going to do in the business? I'm not sure. What's your business plan? Don't have one. I'm just going to try to make good luck. Right. It's not happening. And even like, hey, I'm going to go pull a business plan off the Internet and I'm going to use that. Well, what's the business? Does it fit your business? Does the business plan fit your business? People are like, I'm going to pull this workout off of whatever, like, cool, good luck. Your body is not the same as everyone else. If you really want to get results, if you're serious about results, you need something customized, like without a question, without you need someone to write a program for you that's built for you based on your objectives and how you move.
Ben Pakulski (29:21)
Right. If you're serious about your health, make an investment in something else they're doing now. Finding someone who knows what they're doing is a whole different story altogether because unfortunately, there's not a lot of great coaches out there. Right. So I coach a lot of coaches, right. I mentor a lot of coaches around the world and they're exceptional. But still, to walk into the conventional gym, like your average lifetime early fitness or whatever, and they're just poor. Right. People have taken a weekend course and they're really bad. And it's sad because people are investing money in that and they're putting their faith in people but failing. So people definitely fail because they don't say goals. People fail because they don't have a process. People fail because they have a very low standard. So I usually tell people maybe six things, right? I usually say four. If I want to give you the two first ones, because this is important. The root of any change is awareness, right? So if I want to change anything, first I have to become aware of what I want to change. And that sounds simple, but it's not. Because as you know, Kayla, by the time we're 35 years old, 95% of the things we do are unconscious.
Ben Pakulski (30:26)
So how then do we become conscious of them? Well, you have to create a consciousness practice. I have to literally practice becoming aware and present in the moment. And that's actually how I teach exercise, right? So all exercise we do and we will do together is going to be upgrading your consciousness. And that sounds odd, right? People talking about, like, a bodybuilder being a conscious person. I'll tell you what, bodybuilding is what made me a conscious person. If I can become supremely aware of every little nuance that my body is moving through when I'm training, my level of consciousness is exceptionally high. I could become aware of the way that I breathe, the way that I feel my emotions, the way that I speak, all of it. And I can become aware of my senses in the moment. And that's huge. So, yeah, that's been kind of a game changer for me. So what question am I answering for you specifically bringing back to focus?
KAYLA BARNES (31:16)
How can someone create a process? And I love all that, but yeah, what's the kind of protocol for creating this process?
Ben Pakulski (31:22)
Yeah. I don't know. So I'll share my process. So skills, habits, beliefs and process are the kind of the four things that are necessary for people to take action. So if you don't have the skills, then the skills may be like, half the bill. You can think of this in any endeavor, right? I'm trying to play golf or tennis. Well, first I need skills, habits, beliefs and process. So what are the skills I need to identify that ultimately I want to have? So it could be the movements, it could be the cardio, it could be the breath work, it could be really anything. It could be cooking. All those things could tie in. And then what are the habits? So if I identify someone who has what I want and I find that avatar, I go, what are their daily habits? Around food, around nutrition, around hydration, around training, around sleep. So identify the high impact habits and then identify beliefs or maybe limiting beliefs that are either going to be necessary for me to take on or things that may be holding me back. We could talk about that and then process. And process is where we simply build progress into the plan, right?
Ben Pakulski (32:21)
And we have to identify the most important things in the beginning for you and we say, okay, Kayla, based on where you are now, these are the things that I identify. That will be the potential roadblocks for you. Right. So as someone who's done this thousands and thousands of times, I could look even before you open your mouth, and I guess probably this and this and this. Now let's talk about it, right? Because your body tells a story, and your body tells a story of what's going on on the inside. Your face tells a story of what's going on the inside. Your body is telling stories. So if I can identify the way you move, the way you breathe, the way you express, the way you emote, I can identify kind of what's going on on the inside. So that's how I would begin creating a process for somebody, and I think you send it over to me what you eat and tell me how you move and that stuff. If I can see that, we can start creating a process. First thing is, like, remove the barriers, remove the bottlenecks. Right. If we can remove that, all of a sudden things start to lay out more effectively.
Ben Pakulski (33:15)
It's often not even about doing a lot more. It's like, hey, what can we get rid of that will first take the breaks off? That's sometimes the most important thing.
KAYLA BARNES (33:24)
Absolutely. And I saw a big difference when I started to when you talk about tracking, I love that you're discussing, like, if you just go into the gym, aimlessly with not a specific goal, and yes, it's good for health. It's good for mindset to go in there and do something. But if you have really ambitious goals, you have to track, you got to know what the KPIs are, or else you're never going to get there. So I think that's a really important piece. I think you had a couple more. So we were talking about potential reasons people fail in the gym. So not having a process. What are some other ones?
Ben Pakulski (33:56)
Well, maybe if I were to pick maybe the biggest one, again, this is very subjective. In my opinion. This may be the biggest one is values. Right? And so if we get into the values conversation, what do you value unconsciously, right? So if I were to ask people what they value, like, everyone says, I want to be wealthy, I want to be healthy, and I don't know, they want to have a great family, maybe. Right? Maybe. But do you actually value that? Right. So you think you're familiar with Dr. John D martini? You familiar with him?
Somewhat.
Ben Pakulski (34:27)
Oh, you should be. He's just absolutely wonderful. He's a gift to the world, and I think anyone listening. If you haven't listened to John de Martini, he's been on my just recently on my podcast. It's phenomenal. So he's the guy who kind of leads the conversation on values. And so values are not what you necessarily consciously think are your values. It's what actually is demonstrating coming true. So if you say I value wealth, but you have no money in the bank, you don't value wealth. You may value like trinkets or you may value comfort, you value wealth. Or you say you value wealth because society says you have to value wealth. Or if you say you value health, but it's not showing that it's coming true, then you probably don't. So identifying what you actually value and if you don't actually value your health or being in shape or being lean, healthy and muscular like I always say, then you simply won't do it. Something that supersedes, that will always knock it down. However, what we do as coaches now is we teach you how to bridge the gap between what you do value and the goal that you're setting.
Ben Pakulski (35:24)
So for example, if you value family, we can directly draw a line between, hey, if you're lean, healthy, muscular and fit, all of a sudden your family life is probably going to get better, your sex life is going to get better, your ability to have energy for your kids is going to get better. Whatever you're trying to improve, or if it's finances, you're like, hey, you know what? I really want to be rich. And you're like, okay, well, how do we draw a direct line between being lean, healthy, muscular, and fit to being rich? Well, that's a very straight line. People we know that are very healthy and fit tend to be more successful in all areas of life. So we just got to draw that line for them. So one of the processes I do with all clients, I start to identify values. I have them do the value determinant system, which is Dr. D. Martini's process, and then we just walk through them. So let's determine your values and let's see how we can draw a straight line between what you do actually value and the outcome you're trying to determine.
KAYLA BARNES (36:12)
I love that. It's so good. I think that's a great exercise. People listening this can do. Write down what you are telling yourself your values are and then see if your actual actions align with that. I think that's super important. So what about some little maybe like recovery tools? We have mobility. What else do you do when you do the cold showers? Do you do anything else like red light or PMF?
Ben Pakulski (36:36)
I do it all. I'm a nerd, but so I often do it all. Not necessarily because I think I need it, because I want to learn what it does, right? So I'm like, hey, I want to try it all because I want to be able to have a conversation about with my clients or yourself. I'm like, yeah, I try this. This is what it did for me. Or I'll read the research and like, hey, this is what the research says and I'll see if it lines up with me. So yeah, I mean, I do a lot of things to accelerate my recovery, but maybe the biggest one that I do that I might be obsessed with is nature. If I can be in nature, I just heal. My brain is at peace. My body is at peace. Ideally, the greatest place in the world for me is if I can be in the ocean looking at the mountains. Right. So maybe it's me being a little greedy. I like both because some people like the oceans and like the mountains. I like both. So, yeah, like I said, I'm thinking about going to Europe next week and, like, finding a place.
Ben Pakulski (37:26)
We could be at the mountains, and we can have a nice body of water. So rejuvenating to me, I just feel like I can think. I can be so productive. I just feel like my body's at home when I'm there. So that's probably my greatest recovery modality, is, like, go outside and put your feet in the grass. Right. I often don't wear shoes. I'm like, yeah, find me. I'm like walking in the grass somewhere. I'm trying to put my feet in the water, trying to be on the beach if I can. That's enormous. Sunshine is so great. I'm pretty I don't say obsessed, but I'm pretty meticulous with sleep. I try not to disturb sleep because I think that's the biggest lever. Right. We spend a third of our life as sleep as humans. That's important. So all these other things are kind of like they're little drops in the bucket compared to sleep. I think sleep and nature, I think, probably are the biggest levers you can pull. I mean, sleep, nature, and food are probably the biggest levers.
KAYLA BARNES (38:19)
Yeah, absolutely. I've been diving really deep into research the past couple of weeks on grounding because I want to be able to share really accessible things. And the benefits are so incredible. I mean, all backed by science from reducing inflammation, reducing blood, viscosity wound healing. Studies covering diabetic wounds that weren't healing for eight months and spending 30 minutes grounded are quickly healing. It's really incredible. So I agree with you completely.
Ben Pakulski (38:52)
Is it an ironic that we're told to heal our bodies, you have to spend time in isolation in your house?
KAYLA BARNES (38:57)
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I don't even know.
Ben Pakulski (38:59)
We go inside now. Let's go outside.
KAYLA BARNES (39:01)
Yeah. One of the biggest healers sunshine and grounding in nature don't make contact. So you brought up limiting beliefs and very, very important topic, and I'm interested to see because I'm sure this kind of lends itself to the gym as well. How can limiting beliefs in all areas? I would love to hear your opinion on it, but I'm sure it can also hold you back in the gym, right?
Ben Pakulski (39:24)
Anything. Yeah, so I think the place where it often comes up is, like, people look at other people and they think it's easy for that person. For me, it's hard no, it's not. You just haven't figured out how to do it for you yet. Or maybe you don't value enough yet. And that's the conversation. I just say I call people on their bullshit. I'm like, Nope, that's your own bullshit. Like, how about we fix that right now? You know? I think that's the thing missing in people's lives is that everyone is always so quick to validate people's bullshit. Like, hey, man, I want to kind of feel bad for you. I want people to feel bad for me. I'm not going to feel bad for you. I'm going to tell you I think you're full of shit. And if you want to take action on it, you have to be empowered, right? Like, hey, whatever it is, here's my theory on beliefs. Beliefs like hats. You get to try it on if you like, it great if you don't change it. So limiting beliefs if you're like, okay, well, does that belief serving you? So if you say something that's like, yeah, I have a belief that X, Y, and Z, I'm like, okay, does that belief serve you right now at this point in your life?
Ben Pakulski (40:29)
And you're like, yes. Great. Keep it. If not, change it, because you can very easily change your beliefs, right? Just like, no, I'm going to decide to believe something else today, okay? I'm going to decide to believe that I'm naturally genetically very lean. I'm genetically very brilliant and very handsome. That's my belief right now. That's what I believe. And making money is very easy for me. Whatever it is for you, it's like, yeah, I believe that. And it means kind of like you talk about affirmations, right? It's like just changing the belief, but start to believe it because it will come true.
KAYLA BARNES (41:04)
Yeah, change it and feel it. If you have to walk yourself through what it feels like to be that person that you're saying you are. So totally agree. And I'm sure there's also some people that might have limiting beliefs as to, like, they don't deserve to look that good or something.
Ben Pakulski (41:24)
Just right before our call, I had a conversation with a client of mine around that, and it's interesting to dig into that and identify it because he's like, man, I'm doing all the starts and stops. What am I doing? I was like, no, you tell me. And so I was like, well, I said, tell me your goal. He said this. I said, okay, do you feel like you deserve it? He's like, no. I'm like, okay. Are you confident in your ability to do it? No, it's like, okay, well, let's work on that, right? Let's change that. It's often there like, they know, you know, what's stopping you. You just sometimes don't believe in your ability to change it. But I'll tell you one thing that I got from my mom. That's just a gift, and it resonates in my unconscious mind, and she would say to me as a child, she's like, Benjamin, anyone in the whole world can do it, so can you. And my mom wasn't around a lot as I was a child, but when she was, that was, like, the one thing that just stuck out to me. She wasn't like my cheerleader.
Ben Pakulski (42:19)
She wasn't someone who talked positive to me. She wasn't like a happy mom, but she said she just had an undying belief in me. She's like, what you say or you do? I was like, wow, it's so important for a man again, I can't speak for a woman. It's so important for a man to have the belief of somebody behind you, like a woman, I think, right? So whether it be your mom or your partner, like, somebody just has this undying belief in your ability. Like, oh, yeah, I can you start to believe in yourself. So not everyone has that. And I know that was a gift for me, and that's what I do for a lot of my clients, right? And I'll say, like, I believe in you more than you believe in yourself. So when you need someone who believes in you, let's go. Not only will I believe in you, but I'll stand right there beside you with you, right? And we'll do it together.
KAYLA BARNES (43:00)
That's so important. And everyone listening. This is why Ben is like an unparalleled coach. I know you train other coaches. I'm sure they have a similar philosophy. But when it comes to achieving anything that you really want in life, whether it be the financial success or the body, sometimes I think you have to go back to the beginning, to whatever is holding you back. Once you resolve that, I think other things will come a lot easier.
Ben Pakulski (43:23)
Yeah, it's all living in your system, right? The stress, the beliefs, it's all unconscious. It's so important for people to realize I know everyone knows this, but repeated, like, 90% of what you do is unconscious. Right? It means it's happening below the surface of your conscious awareness. So you have to create a practice to become aware of it. So when you feel an emotion that you don't love, when you feel a way that other than you want to feel, stop in a minute and go, what's actually causing this? Because it's not the circumstance that you're blaming. Right. You're making yourself a victim by blaming the circumstance. That's not the circumstance. It's your belief about the circumstance. Or it's some preordained notion that you have of like, oh, this is the way things are. I'm like, no, you can change it. So you feel an emotion other than what you want to feel. Stop, spend a minute and go, where's this coming from? And how do I get rid of it?
KAYLA BARNES (44:11)
Absolutely. And one kind of tip I always give, too, is because it is so hard to identify when we're having a thought that we don't want to have just log all of your thoughts for a day or two. I know that sounds annoying, but that can change your life because you'll be on this whirlwind of rumination and you don't even notice it. But if you're actually writing down my thoughts, you will notice it and then you can say, okay, what thought serves me, what doesn't? And how can I replace the thoughts that don't?
Ben Pakulski (44:38)
I love that. I'm picturing your journal right now and I just picture it like this really neatly written meticulous journal. And I think that's important to acknowledge because some people will do it and they'll do it in a messy way and they're telling their unconscious that they're a slob, that they're messy, that they're not neat, that they're not organized. So he sit down to write a journal. I've become better and better at this. I'm going to write down and take my time and write really neatly because I'm a guy tend to rush stuff. Let's get it done. Like no, because when I look back at this, I'm like, oh wow, I did a good job with this. I spent time on this. It's telling you that you matter. Right? I can just picture I don't know if I'm right, but I assume I'm right. It's probably neurotically organized and beautiful and different color beautiful pens. Like you're buying the nicest pen for sure it's you, right? But yes, I think a lot of people listening are like I just jolt stuff down. I'm like, Whoa. Like slow down. Right? Neatly. Do it well. It doesn't matter if it takes long.
Ben Pakulski (45:37)
Do it right and eventually that becomes who you are.
KAYLA BARNES (45:41)
Absolutely. One of the, I think biggest kind of quotes reminders that I live by is age old. But how you do anything is how you do everything. And from first thing in the morning I just think about this all the time. I've actually really built that into my own neural networks at this point to think about that when I'm doing different tasks. Because everything if you're putting in the effort to do it, then you should give it enough. It should deserve your full attention and time and effort. I agree with you. I want to talk a little bit about diet. So what does your diet look like these days? Because I think when people think about a bodybuilder diet, I mean the first thing that comes well, I've actually tried it a couple of years ago. I trained with a coach. It wasn't a great fit, but the diet was really strict. Eating six times a day. I was eating rice like every meal. I felt like I was on Fear Factor or something because I went from being really low carb and then having rice all the time constantly, I felt like forcing myself to eat it.
KAYLA BARNES (46:45)
But what is your diet believe, what is your food philosophy in general?
Ben Pakulski (46:49)
Well, I can get into that for sure. And I. Think for the audience, listening, hopefully speaking to the audience, the first thing is like, don't stress about it, right? The worst thing in the world is like, stress. So that's number one. It's like, I don't stress about it. I eat very well, and I really enjoyed the food I eat, but I don't stress about it. If I miss you, I'm like, cool. If I end up eating something, I shouldn't be cool. I don't do it all the time. But I think the more you stress about it, that's what kind of sends off that slippery slope that spiral into eating terribly. So that's the foundation of it. First don't stress. Then I'm going to eat really simple whole foods, right? So if you go through my list of priorities of, like, how I eat is first minimize inflammation. So I'm going to eliminate all the primary inflammatory foods. Those things just go away. Those are caleb, for the audience sake, is like the vegetable oils and the grains and the gluten. And for me, dairy, not everyone dairy, but for me, dairy, I'll eliminate corn and soy, probably a bunch of other things I'm forgetting.
Ben Pakulski (47:48)
But those general things, I'll try to eliminate as many pesticides as I can to minimize anything that's not that's been sprayed with pesticides. Only artificial sweeteners, official colors. In general, I have some stevia from time to time. I do enjoy some stevia, but none of the other stuff. I just try to eat as naturally as I can. Whole foods keep it super simple. I have about 1 gram of protein per pound a day, which is a lot, and I don't even know if I need anymore. Lately, I've been cutting down to about 200 grams, about 232, 35 body weight right now and about 200 grams of protein. And I eat a lot of vegetables, a lot of different diverse vegetables because I believe that's fueling my microbiome. And then I tried to find the highest quality fats I can find, and that means fresh, right? So I'm trying to find fresh avocados. I'm trying to find fresh olive oil, fresh pressed olive oil or fresh olives. I do some coconut oil. Kind of it, right? I eat vegetables and fats primarily as my carbs. I ate a lot of berries and I eat some sweet potatoes and squash.
Ben Pakulski (48:47)
It's kind of it. I keep it super simple. And don't you do a lot? Again, if occasionally if I have some rice cakes or something like that, that's fine. But it's usually on training days. And with respect to carbohydrates day, I go higher. Low carb? Yes, I go low carb. And I take the stance if I earn my carbohydrates. So I'm training hard that day and I really crush it on increase my carbohydrate consumption. If I didn't, I don't have them. I might have some berries because I think berries have additional benefits as far as, like, snack foods. Everyone's like, what do you eat for snacks. You don't have berries? Sometimes I have a protein shake. I eat some dark chocolate from time to time and that's kind of it. I know there's anything else, but that's the foundation of my day. Lots of water. Lots of water. Lemon. I'm neurotic about my water and my air.
KAYLA BARNES (49:28)
Very important. Yeah, me too. My water process, I'm looking at it's like five steps. How many meals are you eating a day?
Ben Pakulski (49:38)
Probably two and a shake. Usually I tried the fasting thing for a long time and I do it now, but I do reverse. So I usually eat early in the morning. I'll train first thing in the morning and I'll eat maybe at 09:00, say 90% of my calories are in before 01:00 p.m.. And then I'll have a little bit later in the day and I'm done typically. And so I tried the early morning fasting, but I found it screwed up my sleep because I found myself eating more late at night. So if I would do like a noon to six eating window or noon to seven eating window, I found my sleep was disrupted, so I moved it back. I eat first thing in the morning or since I'm done training, and then again at like twelve or one. I'm about done for the day. If I want anything because I'm hungry, I'll have fruit, like an apple or a shake or something.
KAYLA BARNES (50:21)
Yeah. What time do you usually go to bed?
Ben Pakulski (50:25)
I try to get to bed by ten. I'm usually like a ten to 530 kind of guy.
KAYLA BARNES (50:29)
Yeah, I always stopped eating really early and I always had great sleep. And more recently I've been eating a little bit later just to test it. And I can also agree in a test too, definitely three to 4 hours before bed is best. I think so. Ben, this has been incredible. If you had to give one piece of advice to the listeners so that they just go out and crush it in the gym, in their lives, what would you tell them?
Ben Pakulski (50:57)
Well, I'll tell you the thing that I build into my workouts is the concept of being here now, right? So I think it sounds maybe foreign to people who exercise, because most people exercise, they use exercise to disconnect from themselves, right? They put on loud music, they just get in and they just grind through it. And I'm like, that's the opposite of what you should be doing. You should use that exercise as an endeavor into meditation. Like, how can I become supremely present in my body? How we do that? We'll become present in our five senses when we're training, right? So be acutely aware of what you feel on the inside of your body, your breath, your hearing, and be acutely aware of it and use that to become better and better and better at the nuance of movement. Here's my belief, Kayla, is when we age, people talk about longevity all over the place and look great. That's awesome. But what's the single thing that if you talk about vitality in old age, what's the single thing that comes to mind? In my mind, it's quality movement. If I see somebody who is 90 and they move really well, like, they can walk and they can squat and they can play, that person is living a great life.
Ben Pakulski (51:59)
I don't want to be 100 and be not able to move and be decrepit. So the way we learn to keep quality of movement all day, just first by tuning into our body, checking into what this joint can do, what muscle feel like, and how do I regain quality movement joint by joint? So I guess the takeaway is to be here now and apply that into everything in your life, right? Be here now in this relationship and our conversation. Be here now in this workout. You're now with this meal. I'll be present and talk and feel what this food is doing to my system. I think that, to me, is the greatest gift that any human can take away from life, is the ability to be present.
KAYLA BARNES (52:35)
I absolutely agree. I have another question, actually, and of course, we would ideally like to get all of our nutrition from food, but if someone's on, like, a new fitness journey, are there, like, a couple of supplements that you think are really beneficial?
Ben Pakulski (52:52)
Yeah. So I think everyone should take magnesium. In general, I usually give most of my clients fish oils, magnesium, vitamin D and K. Two vitamin C. And again, if longevity is the thing, I think that's your audience. So obviously, we were just talking before we started recording about the IV drips through a lot of vitamin C IVS. We do. Nadivs. We do. I'm sure you're more advanced in the Ivy than I am. That's it. I don't recommend anything all the time. Actually, there's one more thing. I think everyone should take his digestive enzymes. I think everyone should be taking digestive enzymes over the age of 35 because chances are your digestion is suboptimal, especially if you're consuming high amounts of protein. I think everyone should take digestive enzymes. I use a product called US. Enzymes. If you know them to it, but you can't actually get them unless you're a practitioner, but they're super high quality. They're awesome. Or I also use a company called Masszymes, which is just a proteolytic enzyme.
KAYLA BARNES (53:52)
Yeah, I take those two. I need to be a little bit more. So you take it with every meal, right?
Ben Pakulski (53:57)
I actually take it with meals and between meals. So there's a lot of data showing that proteolytic enzymes taken away from food actually helps with systemic inflammation. So I take it first thing in the morning without food, and I often will take it before bed without food. So it helps to break down any undigested protein in the GI tract, and it actually can help to break down any undigested protein in the system so it can drop systemic information.
KAYLA BARNES (54:18)
Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. Well, Ben, it's been such a pleasure. Thank you for coming on.
Ben Pakulski (54:23)
Thank you. I appreciate being here.