[01:19:58]Carl Lanore: [01:19:58] Welcome back to another [01:20:00] episode of superhuman radio. We have a great show plan. Today we're going to be talking about blood flow restriction. This is a followup to previous shows that we've done. We actually have a real human beings from the audience live listeners that are gonna tell you their experiences, good and bad.

[01:20:16] About using blood flow restriction, uh, to build more muscle, uh, before we do that, today is February 10th, 2020, uh, for those of you listening to the show a hundred years from now, and, uh, of course, we have to pay homage to our title sponsor, uh, legendary foods, eat legendary.com, uh, the tasty pastries and amazing thing.

[01:20:37] If you haven't, if you're not friends with me on Facebook or Instagram. Then you didn't see the creation I made with two tasty pastries, strawberry tasty pastries, which looked like  but tastes better than pop tarts and actually have nine grams of protein, less than one gram of sugar and three to four grams of impact carbohydrates.

[01:20:57] And I took two of them, and then I took. [01:21:00] Legendary foods, uh, cashew butter with the, it's called blueberry cinnamon bun, cashew butter. It's so good. And smeared it on one of them and then put them together. And I made a sandwich out of them and they were amazing. And I put it up on Facebook and Instagram, and everybody's saying they're going to try them.

[01:21:20] Uh, if you don't have the things you need to make that. You can go to eat legendary.com and get it there and show them some love because they are our title sponsor. Okay. So I am going to bring people on a one by one here in no special order. Uh, the first guy to come on is going to be, uh, uh, Tommy Duncan.

[01:21:43] As soon as I get my solo turned off. And, uh, here comes Tommy, and then of course we're going to have, uh, Rigo Vargas. And then lastly, uh, Gerard Venton and here he comes. Now, there we go. And now we're [01:22:00] all on the screen. And, uh, how are you guys doing? Let's go. First of all, Tommy Duncan, where do you live, Tommy?

[01:22:08] Uh, he can't hear me. It looks like, huh? Let's see what's not working? Uh, Rigo can you hear me? I can't. Okay. And Gerard, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay. But Tommy can't let you see what's going on here. Let me just look again, this is the first time I've ever had this many people on, and sometimes you have to look for little buttons to press.

[01:22:32] Tommy, can you hear me okay? Tommy Dunkin, Tommy, Tommy, can't hear me. I don't know what's going on. Um. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to take Tommy down for a minute and we'll put them back up here in just a moment. Um, Tommy, if you can hear me while you're in the lobby, can you hear me, Tommy?

[01:22:56] Oh, this is turning out not the way I want it to. Let's see something here. [01:23:00] Tommy, if you can't hear me, uh, we're going to have to keep you in the lobby for now and we'll get him fixed here in the next commercial break. Uh, so let's start out with, uh, uh, Rigo and Gerard for a second. Um, talk about your team.

[01:23:16] Tell me about yourselves. First of all, Rigo what do you do? And then we'll get to Gerard, uh, what you do, what do you do for a living?

[01:23:23] Rigo Vargas: [01:23:23] I'm a forensic scientist. I worked for the, uh, Mississippi forensics laboratory here at the, uh, Biloxi lab.

[01:23:30] Carl Lanore: [01:23:30] Okay. All right. Very exciting lifestyle. I would imagine that, that sounds like really cool stuff.

[01:23:34] And from forensic, uh, are you talking about like. Um, post crime type forensic stuff, or what are you looking at and what are you trying to, to unravel? Yes,

[01:23:45] Rigo Vargas: [01:23:45] of course. Crime. So a lot of folks think that when you do someone who does a forensics does all the trends.

[01:23:50] Carl Lanore: [01:23:50] Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Hold on. He just, he's working now.

[01:23:54] Hold on, Tommy. There you go. We didn't have your volume Tommy before, and I need you to, [01:24:00] there we go. I need the top of your head is missing. So if you could fix that while we're talking to Rigo, that'd be great. So again, it is crime based, huh?

[01:24:08] Rigo Vargas: [01:24:08] Yes, yes. I'm actually a forensic document examiner. So forensics is extremely specialized.

[01:24:13] A lot of folks don't realize, if you're a a firearms examiner, that's all you do. If you're a DNA analyst, that's all you do. So you know on TV when one guy or one woman does. Multiple disciplines. That's just, that's fake. So, but I, I analyzed mostly handwriting, but anything that's related to a document that it's, uh, it's questioned

[01:24:34] Carl Lanore: [01:24:34] really.

[01:24:35] So, so like forgeries, like somebody who is forged a will or something like that, that would be your, your wheelhouse then.

[01:24:42] Rigo Vargas: [01:24:42] Yeah, exactly. I was just in Louisiana last week for a. A case of forgery case. That was, that was a private case. They allowed me to do private work on the side as long as it's civil cases.

[01:24:52] And so I had gone to Lafayette, Louisiana for a case. It was exactly that. It was a holographic will that a family [01:25:00] was just union and grandpa and didn't write and didn't sign.

[01:25:03] Carl Lanore: [01:25:03] Interesting. Gerard, can you adjust your cameras or your head comes up a little bit and Tommy could, you could still hear me right?

[01:25:09] Tommy. Tommy, can you hear me? I don't understand what's going on with Tommy's a connection here. He can hear me and then he can't hear me. I'm Tommy. I'm going to have to take you out of the mix right now because we're having too much trouble with your, uh, with your camera. But we'll get you, we'll get something set up during the break.

[01:25:29] So let's just do this. Let's hide him. Okay. So, um, that's actually very fascinating. Um, you know, it's, it's gotta be. It's like putting puzzles together. How did you even get started in that? What made you want to be a forensic analyst of documents?

[01:25:46] Rigo Vargas: [01:25:46] It was fate, I guess. I wanted to be a forensic scientist originally, and it was kind of a, just back in 1997 so it was a while back and it wasn't as popular as it is now.

[01:25:57] It was a little harder to get your foot in the door. And [01:26:00] so the handwriting discipline sort of on my lap, that's, that's. Completely and just sort of a, like I said, it was a funny thing, but it's good. Very glad. After I saw all of the things that some of the other examiners have to deal with, I'm glad I was one of them.

[01:26:13] Carl Lanore: [01:26:13] I was going gonna say, I was going to say you're lucky. Your dot document related cause I was going to ask you, Jeffrey Epstein, did he kill himself?

[01:26:22] Did he leave a will? Anyway? Okay, let's let, let's go over to a Gerard now. Gerard Benton. How are you and what do you do for a living?

[01:26:33] Gerard Benton: [01:26:33] I'm good. Uh, I, uh, I'm a technology analyst for a large financial firm. I work from home. Um, so that, that's really nice. But, uh, yeah, I, I'm mainly responsible for getting a lot of financial data into the firm in the morning and, you know, out a little bit later on in the day.

[01:26:51] So, um, that, that sums up what I do. Um, been doing that for quite some time now. Um, and, uh, it, [01:27:00] it's, it's, it may not sound fun, but it's something I actually enjoy doing. Uh, a lot of times it's. Fixing issues and, you know, it's putting the puzzle pieces back together and, and you know, that's always keeps things interesting.

[01:27:15] So,

[01:27:16] Carl Lanore: [01:27:16] um, are you from the East coast originally? I am, yep. Where

[01:27:21] Gerard Benton: [01:27:21] are you born and raised in Saratoga Springs, New York.

[01:27:24] Carl Lanore: [01:27:24] I hear it. So I hear the, I hear the East coast and I forgot about that. I forgot your, your, you're originally from Saratoga. I spent a lot of time in Saratoga as a kid because I worked on the race track when I was a kid.

[01:27:35] Yup. I dropped out of high school and I went to work at aqueduct and every August we would go to Saratoga Springs with the horses. And I have such fond memories and some scary ones of a, of Saratoga, you know, uh, Lake George, uh, they had, uh, they had a club up in Lake George called DJs disco. We used to go to all the time and, um, I'm, I'm 61, so I don't expect these places to even still be there, [01:28:00] but, uh, such fond memories of the rip van dam hotel.

[01:28:04] Yup.

[01:28:05] Gerard Benton: [01:28:05] Oh yeah. The, I, I went to school just a block away from that. So, and, you know, the, I, I spent many days at the track. I've even worked there. Um, you know, and a, I always, I always got a little excited, the author, the years listening to this show, and you would talk about Saratoga and, you know, so yeah, that's where I'm from.

[01:28:22] So, you know, it was kind of cool. It's a great city. They, you know, it's, it's. It's a lot of fun, a lot of things

[01:28:28] Carl Lanore: [01:28:28] to do. Tommy, if you can hear me sit tight, we're going to bring you back in during the commercial break. Just nod if you can hear me, Tommy. He can't hear me. I don't know what's going on with that connection.

[01:28:39] Anyway. Um, okay, so let's start with, uh, with Rigo. How had you been thinking about blood flow restriction? What made you step up and first of all by the BFR band from ? I

[01:28:53] Rigo Vargas: [01:28:53] had never heard of it until your podcast though. And you guys talked about it a lot. And one of the [01:29:00] things that interests me is, you know, I'm 49.

[01:29:02] I'm not young buck. And I just had a recently had like 15 years of chronic back pain. Uh, that just sort of rectified about two years ago and I didn't really want to, you know, I was just starting to get back into gym pretty heavily. But I didn't want to reinjure anything. So I was a little, a little bit tentative and, but I was starting to not, I mean,

[01:29:23] Gerard Benton: [01:29:23] I'm not a big guy, you know, I'm not, I'm,

[01:29:26] Rigo Vargas: [01:29:26] I'm a very regular joke, you know, I don't do any iron man triathlons.

[01:29:30] I, you know, I've never won any bodybuilding competitions or nothing like that.

[01:29:34] Gerard Benton: [01:29:34] But, uh,

[01:29:35] Rigo Vargas: [01:29:35] you know, I started getting to some pretty decent squats and dead lifts in the back. My back fell to the little bits. So when the opportunity to maybe get. Heavyweight results, but with using, you know, a lot with less weight.

[01:29:51] You know, I thought, you know, I'm, I'm all about that, you know, I definitely want to try it. So that's what got me in

[01:29:56] Gerard Benton: [01:29:56] trouble. You know, I

[01:29:57] Rigo Vargas: [01:29:57] never knew there was such a thing. And when you, [01:30:00] and I think coach Rob were talking about it, I thought, that sounds like something I'd definitely like to try. So I, I pause a little bit and I find, pull the trigger and then, yeah, so that, that was why I wanted to get some of them.

[01:30:12] You know, have you weighted results without having the, you know, shadow my back.

[01:30:15] Carl Lanore: [01:30:15] Yeah. And I'm where you are right now. I'm actually, you've been going through a kind of a Chrysalis moment in my life. I'm looking at the way I've trained in the past. I think, I sh, I don't know if you've heard some of the recent shows, but I shared that, um, my level of training in the past couple months elicited a response.

[01:30:37] That raised, uh, a protein called probian P, which is indicative high levels of it are indicative of heart failure. Now I'm not, I don't have heart failure at all, but the level of stress I was putting on my, on my heart, day in and day out, training the way I train, and I was training three days on and two to three days off.

[01:30:59] And by the [01:31:00] third day of training, I was pretty wrecked. And I always thought that that's the way you have to train to make progress. And I'm really rethinking it because at 61 years old, soon to be 62 it's more important to finish the race. Now for me, I've done all the heavy things, you know, I've squatted and I've dead lifted, and I've done all those fun things that today people have Instagram videos of.

[01:31:23] And I had no camera when I was doing that stuff. But the reality is that I am actually looking at making BFR. A forever thing for me because I want to maintain the level of muscle I have. I want to be able to still look and feel a certain way, but I don't want to put myself into positions where I may.

[01:31:46] Ever injure myself already again, because I've had surgeries that some of them I haven't had. I've just lived with the broken parts. I don't want to ever have surgery again. Gerard, what about you? What made you step up? Had you been thinking about [01:32:00] BFR? W what's your story on that?

[01:32:03] Gerard Benton: [01:32:03] You know, I've been hearing of BFR for, I don't know, five, six years now.

[01:32:07] Um, I think where I first heard of it was probably, um. Layne Norton, uh, you know, was, uh, brought it up. You know, I know him and some of his buddies, really, we're big proponents of it. Um, you know, and. I tried, you know, the, the 10, $15 Amazon bands years ago, and, you know, they, they did nothing. You know, they, cause you, you couldn't regulate the pressure.

[01:32:33] All it did was make your arms hurt, you know, um, you know, and, uh, they weren't being enough for legs, you know, to wrap around your legs. So I didn't do anything with that. Um, so, you know, there was probably three, four years ago, I, I, you know, dabbled in it, so no results, but, um, you know, but a little bit of black and blue on my arm, um, you know, and, and kind of gave up and said, you know what, I'm not a, I'm not a [01:33:00] scientist.

[01:33:00] You know, I'm not in a lab. I'm not a professional bodybuilder. So, uh, you know, be a first, not my thing. Um, and then when you brought it out, or, you know, were talking about it in November, I think. I said, you know what, it's a little expensive. Uh,

[01:33:18] Carl Lanore: [01:33:18] but I th I think it's where

[01:33:20] Gerard Benton: [01:33:20] I think this is really worth the investment.

[01:33:22] Um, you know, and, uh, so I, I took the plunge, uh, and, and got the BFR, uh, the be strong bands, you know, because I thought,

[01:33:32] Carl Lanore: [01:33:32] did you take it back? Did you take advantage of the th the special kind of, uh, financing that they have.

[01:33:39] Gerard Benton: [01:33:39] I, I didn't, uh, you know, I, I'm not, I'm not a huge fan of it. I take, I, I take that initial hit if I can, and just, and just then I don't have to worry about it later on.

[01:33:48] So it was a big purchase, but, um, you know, the, it was a, it, it was something I could do and it was definitely worth that. Um, so I, you know, and you know, the, the, the

[01:34:00] [01:33:59] Carl Lanore: [01:33:59] superhuman code, you know,

[01:34:01] Gerard Benton: [01:34:01] definitely took a few bucks off me and it made it a little easier. Um, but, you know, the, it was. I, I'm glad I did it.

[01:34:09] Cause you know, I, I figured this is a cost that, that I'm going to be, you know, seeing the benefits of for quite some times. So, um, it really is something worth

[01:34:21] Carl Lanore: [01:34:21] doing. And, and, and a lot of people make investments in supplements that do nothing, and they'll spend 60, 70, a hundred dollars a month on supplements that have questionable results.

[01:34:32] And the science behind blood flow restriction. We first talked about blood flow restriction on superior radio in 2006, uh, when I had one of the, uh, Japanese scientists on the show, uh, because then they were looking at it as a therapeutic approach. To bring someone back from an an injury. So if you, if you injured your leg and you weren't even able to do much of anything, they would use a [01:35:00] BFR bands, just like the ones that be strong makes these were, uh, pump up.

[01:35:04] They actually used blood pressure cuffs back then, which are too expensive to use, but they actually use blood pressure cuffs and they pumped them up to a certain level that creates the, created. Restriction, not occlusion. The big difference. And they had these individuals do light stuff and what they saw in their research was the muscle responded like they were doing heavy stuff.

[01:35:29] Uh, growth factors increased. The, the, the muscles got bigger. They did get stronger, and then people were able to transition away from that and then just live their lives. And that's where this whole thing started. But those of us within the physical culture community, we decided, wow, if this works for people who are injured, what would it do for people who are healthy and going to the gym and training and the results has played out?

[01:35:53] Uh, this is a very, very effective way. At building muscle. Now I have a good friend that I [01:36:00] asked him, I said, you know, was actually going to buy a pair for him for Christmas? And he said, no. He goes, I want to lift big boy weights. And so there's this, there's this illusion that in order to use blood flow restriction, you must be lifting light.

[01:36:15] And even though it's recommended by be strong in all their literature, and by the way, we have a typo. Uh, their, their,

[01:36:24] Gerard Benton: [01:36:24] uh,

[01:36:24] Carl Lanore: [01:36:24] their, uh, URL is actually truncated there. The full URL, I'm going to put it up right now, is be strong.training. Foad slash superhuman. And if you use the code as HR, you will get a 10% discount.

[01:36:41] Uh, but, but he said, you know, I, I wanna I wanna I want to lift heavy weights and you can still, I find it very effective. You don't have to do the 25 or 30 reps. But if you're just using moderate, let's say 70% of your one rep max, you could still do 12 to [01:37:00] 15 reps with it and you feel that insane pump. And I kind of feel like that's the happy medium for those of us who are like, I don't want to do curls with 20 pound dumbbells just because it's effective.

[01:37:11] I still want to lift heavy weight. And you can, with the, uh, w w with the blood flow restriction, have you found any truth to that? Regal.

[01:37:22] Gerard Benton: [01:37:22] Yeah. So

[01:37:24] Rigo Vargas: [01:37:24] I followed the protocol pretty to the, to the letter cause I was afraid of, you know, cause when you, when you purchase them, you get access to their like website.

[01:37:33] It's got a breakdown of, you know, and they want your age and your gender and you work out regularly, that kind of thing. And then based on the size of your arms and your legs, they kind of give you the millimeters stability, milligrams of a

[01:37:45] Carl Lanore: [01:37:45] real margarita.

[01:37:47] Rigo Vargas: [01:37:47] And so. But there's also a bunch of safety videos to talk.

[01:37:51] They talk about hydration and  or rhabdo. And I thought, yeah, I don't want any of that. So I really [01:38:00] sort of was to find it. I guess I did definitely low weight, uh, you know, 30 reps, 32nd pause in between reps in and 30 again. And

[01:38:11] Gerard Benton: [01:38:11] that,

[01:38:12] Rigo Vargas: [01:38:12] I mean, the, the pumps are insane. Like they really are. And I'm like nothing like truly.

[01:38:18] And.

[01:38:18] Gerard Benton: [01:38:18] But then

[01:38:20] Rigo Vargas: [01:38:20] I also loved the unilateral leg workouts that you and coach Rob did. So I put a lot of those in there. And for some of them, like some of the pistol squats, you don't need any weight. And if you can even do 15 I'd be impressed, you know? So I found out that, you know, even doing 10 or 12 reps with no weight at all with the leg bands on doing something like pistol squats work.

[01:38:44] Great. So I guess, yeah, I do find the same thing. Uh, if you want to raise their weight a little bit and do maybe 12, 15 reps as opposed to therapy, that works really good.

[01:38:56] Carl Lanore: [01:38:56] Right. How about you? Oh, Gerard, what's your experience? Have you [01:39:00] ever gone a little bit heavier with them?

[01:39:02] Gerard Benton: [01:39:02] Not really. Um, I, I've kept everything, uh, probably between a 10 and 30 reps.

[01:39:09] Um, you know, I, I, I don't think, you know, a 10 rep is something too heavy. Um, you know, I, I

[01:39:16] have

[01:39:17] Carl Lanore: [01:39:17] gotten into

[01:39:18] Gerard Benton: [01:39:18] lower reps where, you know, I'll just keep doing sets until, you know, I can only do, you know, three or four reps left with that weight that I started with. Um, but I, I've kept it, you know, the weights probably in the 50 to 60%.

[01:39:32] A range, um, and really try and hit the reps, um, with the bands, uh, and separated the strength work with the, you know, the, the three, five, eight rep work, uh, for, for non BFR training.

[01:39:47] Carl Lanore: [01:39:47] So, uh, dr Dominic D'Agostino, you guys know him right. Yeah, dr , uh, the kedo guy. So, uh, he was communicating with a friend of mine.

[01:39:57] Uh, so someone warned me like, don't go too heavy with them [01:40:00] because dr dag, he literally passed out one day with BFR bands on a training. And squatting really, really heavy. Now the squad is a different movement. I do not suggest anybody squat heavy with BFR bands because you already have a propensity to develop Al alostatic hyper hypotension where your blood pressure can drop dramatically, uh, cause your body is trying to.

[01:40:25] Keep the work going and people pass out squatting without BFR bands on, you know, so like putting those on and then going in and try to do a 700 pound squat. I don't think that's smart. But I do find that, especially with the machine movements, I can go just as heavy with the BFR bands on and do, you know, a lower number of reps, eight 10 12 reps, and get an a massive pump, a massive pump from it.

[01:40:52] And so that's a. That you know, again, I know that the folks at be strong were like, no, don't do that. Because they [01:41:00] have to do that. They can't recommend people go real heavy with these because you could damage a lot of tissue in your muscle, but if you're in tune with your body, you can probably go 70% even maybe 80% of you one rep max, keep the reps.

[01:41:15] In a, in a sane place, eight 10. Don't try to hit 15 and 30 with it and still get some great results. Now have either of you ever put the leg bands on and just gone for a walk? Yup. Yeah. You have not. Okay. So, so, so Gerard, did you do that after I talked about it or did you just do it instinctively and say, let's see what this does?

[01:41:38] I

[01:41:38] Gerard Benton: [01:41:38] think, um, I think I did get the idea from you. Um, I know that, uh. The first time I did it, um, we were, we were traveling, um, and I wasn't going to have access to a gym for a few days. So I said, uh, you know, we're, we're going for a two hour long walk, you know, let me put them on. Uh, I won't put the crazy pressure on.

[01:42:00] [01:41:59] I'll do a little bit lower pressure, but there still be, uh, some pressure and I'll go for a walk. And, uh. And I had a really nice pumping my legs, you know, after that. And you know, I've been doing it, um, during cardio ever since. Uh, if I'm on a, a bike or the treadmill, I'll put the, the, the leg bands on, um, and, and knock that out.

[01:42:24] And it really, uh. It really is quite a pump from just simple walking. It's, it's, it's insane how that works.

[01:42:35] Carl Lanore: [01:42:35] I literally, so the first time I did this, I put the leg, and by the way, I get my, I get the pressure up to around 300 to three 50 milligrams of mercury, which was pretty close to the top end of, of the recommended, um, level.

[01:42:51] And I go for a walk. Now, the only problem that I have is, you know, the, the bands tend to want to rub together. [01:43:00] So I find that putting them on under, beneath my sweatpants and then putting my sweatpants on, that layer of cloth gives me that. I don't notice that as much. Um, but. I first time I went for a walk with them.

[01:43:14] I literally like ever I got them off and was walking around the house. I feel like I squatted. I feel like I had just done a leg session. My quads was so pumped and my calves were pumped as well, and it was insane. I thought this has to be good. And so I am starting to think that doing uh, some moderate level aerobic work with the bands on.

[01:43:36] Uh, I'm not saying go out CrossFit and you know, and do that crazy stuff. Although I would imagine if you lighten up on your loads, you could, you could. But I got a funny feeling that adding a, an aerobics component to training with them may actually be very beneficial. Any opinions on that? Regal.

[01:43:53] Well,

[01:43:54] Rigo Vargas: [01:43:54] like this morning I did some rope.

[01:43:56] I jumped some rope this morning before I headed out to work.

[01:43:59] Carl Lanore: [01:43:59] Most of [01:44:00] most under valued, underestimated workout in the world right there. But go ahead. I'm sorry.

[01:44:05] Rigo Vargas: [01:44:05] Absolutely. And uh, I, I almost put them on, I

[01:44:08] Gerard Benton: [01:44:08] thought about them like I put them on and

[01:44:10] Rigo Vargas: [01:44:10] I'm like,

[01:44:10] Gerard Benton: [01:44:10] yeah, cause

[01:44:11] Rigo Vargas: [01:44:11] I'm in the cycle right now of like work.

[01:44:14] I do three days on working out, three days off, and I'm trying to cycle the M Tor and K, Pat, you know, that's what I didn't know. It would be aerobic for sure. I didn't know if it would trigger him tore by doing that, so I, I didn't do it, but maybe I should. You guys are doing it, you know, for walks. Uh, maybe I'll put them on next.

[01:44:33] I'm tomorrow morning. I'll be jumping rope again in the morning, so maybe I'll, uh. I'll give it a try, I think. I mean, it sounds like a great name to try. It

[01:44:41] Carl Lanore: [01:44:41] really. It really ramps up cardio. Let's just get this up here. So Roger Paget says he used BFR to help stay in shape after a back surgery. Great pumps, but low weights regardless of recovery from surgery, a relative.

[01:44:56] And then he, then he added in relatively light. And I have a [01:45:00] good friend who. Oh, was it a car accident? I'm not gonna mention his name because, uh, there's a lot of stuff going on around it. Um, and he literally lost like a vertebrae in his spine, and his right leg is shorter now than his left leg. Uh, and one of the things he did was where the BFR bands, uh, around his upper legs just throughout the day.

[01:45:27] And he would get up, and this is one of the things about BFR that people need to understand. So if you put the BFR bands around your legs, everybody just thinks, well, that's just her helping your legs. But it also helps everything North of where they are because there's, there's restriction in blood flow that's, that's occurring up here because the blood can't get in past the gatekeeper fast enough.

[01:45:49] So you have kind of like this back. Pressure, and he would get pumps in his lower back from wearing them on his thighs. And he swears that that [01:46:00] contributed to his ability to come back from this devastating car accident. And, and he's back in the gym and he's training hard again. So there is something to that.

[01:46:10] There's no doubt about it. Um,

[01:46:14] Rigo Vargas: [01:46:14] well, I still live in the glues, you know, and that's, that's North.

[01:46:17] Gerard Benton: [01:46:17] Yep. Well when

[01:46:18] Carl Lanore: [01:46:18] I, when I wear them on my upper arms, my shoulders get pumped, my pecs get pumped more because the same phenomenon is happening. It's, it's back pressure trying to get in there and those bands that keeping the blood out.

[01:46:29] So you, you, it's almost like a compartment. Compartmentalization of blood. It's really fascinating. I actually have wondered if there was any research that shows that. It's beneficial to people who have heart conditions because you literally by compartmentalizing blood in the limbs and taking blood out, let's say, of the core, then theoretically pulmonary, a blood pressure should drop [01:47:00] and pulmonary blood pressure's a big problem for people who have heart problems.

[01:47:04] And so I know no research has been done on that. I know. But when you apply some critical thinking, you realize. That, in fact, since you know that you can feel pressure here from wearing them on your upper arms, that's compartmentalizing blood all around your body by putting them on.

[01:47:23] Gerard Benton: [01:47:23] Well, I, I think if you train with them, you know, uh, the legs especially, um, you know, th maybe not necessarily, you know, the, the blood, but just the, just the, the hormonal response you'll get from, you know, the, the leg muscles working.

[01:47:40] More than they would. Um, you know, if you're just walking around or just standing around, I mean, w when you were talking about jumping rope, you know, I think everybody says, you know, they have the smallest calves in the world. If you D, if you did BFR with they jump rope for a month, you could add an inch to your CAS.

[01:48:00] [01:47:59] I, you know, I, I would not doubt it. I think that, that nothing would get you a calf pump like that.

[01:48:06] Carl Lanore: [01:48:06] No, you're right. And that's something I have to focus on right now cause my left calf is atrophied from the two surgeries I had in 2018. Uh, here's what I want to do. I want to take a break and I want to see if I can try to get Tommy Dunkin back in this discussion cause I know he has lots to offer as well.

[01:48:22] And uh, I'm going to ask you when we come back about the downsides. I, you know. A lot of people claim, Oh, I don't want to have to wear those. I feel goofy going to the gym with them. They're a pain in the ass. So I want, I want to find out, you know, if there's any downsides in your opinions, we're going to take a quick commercial break, be right back with more super human radio.

[01:48:51] that was in fact Marky Mark on that image he uses . Been strong bands. Pretty cool. I actually liked him [01:49:00] of all the Hollywood celebrities out there, the guy's a solid dude. Keeps his politics to himself. I love that about him. Yeah. The question Gerard

[01:49:11] Rigo Vargas: [01:49:11] mentioned hello response, you know, for BFR bands, and I know, you know, one way to increase testosterone is to move heavy weight, you know, lunges, squats, that sort of thing.

[01:49:22] So BFR bands mimic. You know, using heavy weight, do you, do we know

[01:49:28] Carl Lanore: [01:49:28] they don't, they don't mimic using heavy weight. So let me, let me, uh, so for decades now, possibly even hundreds of years, I don't know. Um, there has been an ongoing debate, uh, about if strength follows size or if size follows strength. And I don't think they, I think they are mutually exclusive.

[01:49:53] And so let me say this first and then I'll tell you about the hormonal changes that we see from a blood flow restriction. [01:50:00] So there's a lot of bodybuilders out there who build huge muscles who don't lift heavy weights. I mean, Ronnie Coleman was an anomaly, and that's why he was so fascinating to watch as a human being.

[01:50:10] I mean, the guy was so strong, but so big. But if you look at Ronnie's training, he moved heavy weight, but he did high reps. Ronnie didn't do anything. I mean, okay. He didn't front squat 600 pounds that day for 12 reps. I think he only did it for five or six, but you know, everything else he did, he did 12, 14, 15 reps.

[01:50:32] But he was just so strong. Then he was using the entire stack, or he was using, you know, three 15 in the, uh, in the, in the, in the seated shoulder press. So. Here's what we do know. And I think that dr Brad Schoenfeld has been, uh, the best example, and he's a state university of New York guy. So Gerardo, uh, he, he, you know, he showed that you can build a [01:51:00] big muscles by doing high volume.

[01:51:04] Without heavyweight. He's shown this, and we know this already. We know people like Lee Haney who's going to be on the show soon. He didn't, he wasn't squatting five, 600 pounds. Lee's motto was stimulate, don't annihilate. Yet he built massive muscle. So it's pretty understood now that working with heavyweight creates a neuromuscular adaptation.

[01:51:30] Okay. But, but doing volume, which we could say is high reps changes the architecture of the muscle and there's a lot of things to change in the architecture of the muscle. One of them is stretching the facia. The facia restricts the muscle from growing. The facia is like the room that the muscle lives in, and if you want bigger muscles, you need to move the walls out a bit.

[01:51:58] To make the room bigger. And [01:52:00] so the pump does that. The pump does causes facia to stretch, which causes micro tears, and then new collagen is laid down and it stays there. It's like, have either of you ever had to blow up. Those balloons that you make into an, uh, dogs and animals. Do you ever see the balloon sculptures?

[01:52:21] The first time you blow that balloon up, you'll get pain in your jaw and then your neck from blowing it up. But then after it deflates, it's a little flacid and every time you blow it up after that, it kind of expands more and more and more until it's actually has some different shape to it. The muscle is very similar.

[01:52:40] Every time you get a pump, you're actually pushing that facia to grow, number one. Number two, when the facia grows, then fluid can be taken up by muscle cells. So the muscle fibers actually start to get plumper, if you will. So those are the structural changes from the pump. But [01:53:00] the hormonal changes have more to do with growth factors.

[01:53:03] So IGF one is made. Inside the muscle when lactate builds up as a, as a, as a super compensation approach for next time we train. So the body is always looking and trying to predict what it has to be prepared for. And so when lactate builds up in the muscle, which we associate with the pump that. Triggers.

[01:53:30] Growth factors. IGF one, MCAT, IGF one a, which is McConnell growth factor. There is some evidence that it actually can increase, uh, some other hormones in, in the muscle that it happening in the muscle exclusively so that the muscle can be prepared for the next workout and say, Hey, we have to, we have to get stronger.

[01:53:49] We have to get bigger. So when you have the pump, you. Are triggering these changes in muscle. Now, I [01:54:00] would argue from an evolutionary perspective that being a person who gets a pump easily is actually an evolutionary deficit. Now think about this. You're running from a saber tooth tiger. You don't want a pump in your legs and you don't want lactate to build up.

[01:54:17] You actually. Don't want those things cause they're going to slow you down. Now you have to push through pain to stay out of the jaws of this animal. So I would argue from an evolutionary perspective, which is this is very counterintuitive to most people. Those who get a pump easy easily are actually.

[01:54:35] Evolutionary compromised, they would have ended up probably becoming food at some point in time because they, they wouldn't be able to hold onto the tree long enough. Their muscles would start burning and they'd fall and boom, you know, they'd fallen and be into the jaw of an animal. So one of the things that we know is that those who tend to get a really easy pump build larger muscle.

[01:55:00] [01:54:59] Well, you can't depend on supplements to do that. The amount of L-arginine you'd have to take to actually increase nitric oxide production in the muscle will give you diarrhea. So most of those supplements don't work. But here's a way to mechanically cause congestion. And that's what we're talking about here.

[01:55:17] We're talking about muscular congestion. If you are a super human, chances are your body is designed not to develop muscular congestion easily so that you could run longer so that you can work harder so that that, that that doesn't become a deficit. Here's a way to mechanically change that and actually cause muscle congestion on demand.

[01:55:41] Even without weight. You could put the bands on and you could just flex and you'll get a pump. Yeah. So that those are the hormonal changes. Those are the architectural changes, and those are the challenges for some people to actually get a pump.

[01:55:58] So did that answer the question? [01:56:00] We go, well,

[01:56:02] Rigo Vargas: [01:56:02] I mean, yeah, but I was just curious if there's been any showing that working out with BFR bands can increase testosterone levels.

[01:56:11] Carl Lanore: [01:56:11] Like, I don't, I don't think that study is out there, but it may be. It may be. I think that Sean Whalen is listening to today's show, and if he is, he's over there at the be strong and maybe he can actually get us some information about that.

[01:56:25] Um,

[01:56:27] Gerard Benton: [01:56:27] I think there, there's been some evidence in the elderly, so, you know, take that with a grain of salt because you know, their drone is already lowered by age. Um, and untrained. So, you know, anything, you know, is, is probably any type of exercises is going to result in some type of difference. But I, I think it, that, that has shown that, uh, BFR training, um, can inquiry increase, you know, the testosterone, um, [01:57:00] you know, but.

[01:57:01] It will

[01:57:01] Carl Lanore: [01:57:01] in select select groups of people you're saying?

[01:57:04] Gerard Benton: [01:57:04] Yeah. And select exactly. You know, if you're, you know, 20, you know, a healthy 20, 25 year old, then, you know, BFR isn't going to give you the hormonal response that it would, is if you were a, you know, somebody who's 70 years old and has it trains, you know, since they were, uh, in college, you know, so, um, yeah, it depends on the population.

[01:57:26] Carl Lanore: [01:57:26] Absolutely. I completely agree with that. Uh. And then also, um, we have a comment up here. So let's just get this up here from the audience. Uh, there's the a B strong.training folks. They're superhuman and use the code SHR to save 10% off. Plus they have some unique financing, but those people who go, wow, this is a little expensive for me.

[01:57:48] Well, they'll break it out over the course of months for you. Make it easy. So Andy, uh, Cruz shank. It says, interestingly, strength gains have been seen with BFI. I don't doubt this. I don't doubt it. This could be [01:58:00] due to increase recruitment of type two muscle fibers. So I got a friend who was a former army ranger and owned a gym here in town that I trained at.

[01:58:10] It was one of the original powerhouse gyms, and his name is Jeff Rui. And Jeff used to say to me, if you lift weights, you can't help but get stronger. As long as progression is your goal. And of course, we're going to see strength gains, um, with BFR bands because we know a larger muscles are able to recruit more fiber.

[01:58:37] There's also a geometric does a geometry thing here. For those of you mathematicians, if you have a skinny fiber, so it's pulling side by side. Imagine you have a weight, you have a rope. And you and the other person pulling that weight, uh, standing close together versus the two of you are standing very far apart.

[01:59:00] [01:59:00] You actually sh you will develop more strength or more force for power if you are further apart. And geometry plays a role in that. We know that about things like poli systems and so on. So as the muscle. It's fiber goes from being very narrow to being plump. It actually changes the geometrical ability for that fiber to develop force.

[01:59:24] Uh, and, and, and so a plumper muscle fiber also has more, uh, calcium channel activity, which is one of the things that causes it to contract. So there's no doubt in my mind that training with BFR bands will make you stronger. Uh, and. But that is not the type of central nervous system adaptation that you get from lifting heavy weight.

[01:59:51] And you're not doing it from a lot of reps. a lot of times. I mean, you know, guys who are squatting, th they have a, they'll do a five by five, that's high reps for them. [02:00:00] They'll do three, two, and one. You know, that's what they're shooting for. So they're very, very different styles of training that elicit very, very different results.

[02:00:08] Uh, uh, uh, responses from the body. But that doesn't mean that there isn't carryover guys who are strictly about strength get big muscles. And guys who are strictly about the pump and more of a bodybuilding, uh, a training, they get strong. So they, they're not mutually exclusive, but they are in, if you're focused on, I only want this to occur fastest.

[02:00:35] If you're saying I want to be big fast, then you would. Focus more on volume training. If you said, I want to be strong fast, then you would focus more on low reps, high weight type training, and that's pretty, pretty established, but you're absolutely right in he, there's no doubt about it. You will get stronger using BFR bands and then the weight that you're, the weight that you're doing for 30 reps is going to continue to go up.

[02:01:00] [02:01:00] Now think about that. So, so the first time I got stuck at four Oh five when I first thought it dead lifting. I don't know if it was psychological, whatever. And so I don't know. I, I've talked about this on the show before, but it's worth talking about again. And so what I ended up doing was I dropped the weight down to three 65 and I did singles.

[02:01:24] But what I did was over the course of a couple of months, I changed the rest time. So I started out doing a two minute rest. And doing singles with three 65 and that was a lot lighter than what I could handle, but it's okay. And then after two, one or two weeks of that, depending on how I felt, I went from two minutes to a minute.

[02:01:44] 45 I went from minute 45 to a minute 30 I went from a minute, 30 to a minute, 15 I went from minute 15 to 60 I went from 60 to 45 by the end of the exercise, this training style, I was doing 10 reps with four Oh five. [02:02:00] Because I got that three 65 down and I was doing 10 reps, and then I just went back to my original, uh, heavyweight four Oh five, and I brought that right up to 10 reps in a couple of weeks.

[02:02:11] So by condensing the time and sticking with a specific weight, you, you can get stronger very quickly. And it's a, it's an interesting concept.

[02:02:22] Gerard Benton: [02:02:22] One thing I wanted to add is, you know, this is something that I noticed just the other day actually, is, um, you know, my example is not as heroic as your deadlift example, but, you know, it's, it's,

[02:02:36] Carl Lanore: [02:02:36] uh.

[02:02:37] Gerard Benton: [02:02:37] Arm work? Um, pretty much I've, I've done BFR only arm work, um, since, since I purchased the, the bands and, uh, I haven't done any curls or extensions or push downs without the bands for a couple months. And just let, uh, this past Saturday, uh, I, I picked up a set of [02:03:00] dumbbells and planned on doing, you know, what, uh.

[02:03:04] A set of eight, cause that's what I did, you know, before the band. And, uh, and then, uh, you know, by set 13 I was, I was done. So, you know, th that you know that, or I'm sorry, rep 13, I, I w I was,

[02:03:19] Carl Lanore: [02:03:19] so your upper threshold for reps went up with that same weight. So you're getting a strong.

[02:03:25] Gerard Benton: [02:03:25] Oh, wait, that I was getting eight reps for before the bands, you know, two months ago.

[02:03:30] Um, you know, and didn't train without the bands on arms. You know, the, I, I curled it for, you know, 13 mainly easy reps, you know, they in, they weren't, they weren't cheater reps. They were, you know, uh, struggling. It was. 13 quality reps for something I just picked up. You know, I'm planning to get eight done, you know?

[02:03:50] And so, you know, you definitely do get stronger w even when you're not training for strength with the bands.

[02:03:57] Carl Lanore: [02:03:57] So one of the things I talked about early [02:04:00] on when we first started talking about BFR was. I think I was a little judgmental when I saw people coming in with bands on their upper arms and their, or even their legs.

[02:04:07] And mostly it was just the upper arms. I didn't see a lot of people wearing them on their legs. In my head I would be like, kind of snide about it and like, ah, you know, you know, just lift weight, man. Come on. What are you doing? Right. Uh, and also, um, when I started, when I got my BFR bands, I felt a little dorky walking into the gym with them on the few times cause I would put them on at home.

[02:04:30] And then I would drive to the gym and I'd walk in with them, and I would even wear them for hours after the training, which I found very effective for upper arms, by the way. Uh, and so, you know, part of the, part of the, the lack of adapting this technology, I believe, is the stigma of, of wearing the band's Rigo.

[02:04:52] Did you feel that way? No,

[02:04:55] Gerard Benton: [02:04:55] I'm not. I'm a very,

[02:04:56] Rigo Vargas: [02:04:56] I don't give a crap of guy. So, [02:05:00] uh, yeah, but no one's, I've got a buddy at the gym who I, you know, I'm housed with, and he was like, Hey, what does that, we're not, you know, I kind of gave him the quick run down, cause I go to the gym before I go to work. So I don't have time to really do a lot of check.

[02:05:13] I get in, get my work done and I get out of there. So

[02:05:17] Gerard Benton: [02:05:17] I gave him a real quick,

[02:05:18] Carl Lanore: [02:05:18] uh,

[02:05:19] Rigo Vargas: [02:05:19] spiel about, you know, what they were. And, but no,

[02:05:23] Carl Lanore: [02:05:23] I

[02:05:23] Gerard Benton: [02:05:23] mean, I go again so early that

[02:05:27] Rigo Vargas: [02:05:27] there's not a lot of folks there. You know, it's usually maybe 10 12 dudes or you know, a couple of ladies in there and you know, at that time, which is what I liked.

[02:05:35] So I don't know

[02:05:36] Carl Lanore: [02:05:36] how anybody else ever asked you, like, what are those like out of the blue, do people ever say to you, what, what are you wearing?

[02:05:41] Rigo Vargas: [02:05:41] No one's ever said no, not, not in the box, but a month and a half I've been using them and no one's commented.

[02:05:47] Carl Lanore: [02:05:47] Okay, what about you? Oh, Gerard, I'm sorry.

[02:05:52] Gerard Benton: [02:05:52] Yeah. I, um, I, most of the time, you know, I, I ha I have a home gym, so, you know, I don't have to deal with, you [02:06:00] know, uh, what other people said.

[02:06:01] Um, but, uh, you know what the, the few times that I've used them when traveling, um, you know, I. I've gotten some looks, but in, nobody's ever really said anything to me. Um, you know, who knows. Maybe the look is coming from, you know, the fact that, you know, your arm feels an inch bigger than it was, you know, before you started training.

[02:06:23] You know, that's what I want to tell myself at least, you know, um, you know, but I, I can understand why a lot of people might be a shy, you know, w when using them the first time, what, you know, cause cause it's. You know, it, it is an odd behavior. Um, you know, but a, it's proven to work, you know, and the, uh, you know, I, I've always said, you know, when it comes to food, I'll leave just about anything.

[02:06:50] I'll eat cardboard if it's going to help me, uh, you know, uh, improve and make progress, you know, so you know, it, you know, unless, unless we're talking [02:07:00] about the, uh. Th those eighties, uh, Jim, Jim suits, you know, I, I think that might be crossing the line of things I would do right. To, to get bigger in the gym.

[02:07:10] Carl Lanore: [02:07:10] So, um, you also mentioned, uh, Andrew that, um, Andrew, I'm sorry, where did that come from? Um, why do I, I just Gerard, I'm sorry. Uh, it's too many things going on in my head right now. You also mentioned that. You like them because you can travel with them and so you can walk into a crappy hotel gym and actually like ramp up the quality of the, of the workout.

[02:07:40] Gerard Benton: [02:07:40] Yeah. I mean, you know, how many times have we gone to a hotel gym and, um. Of course, there's no way there's a barbell there. So, you know, squatting a dead list thing is out. Um, you know, and if you're lucky, the dumbbell rack goes up to 60. Um, but you know,

[02:07:58] Carl Lanore: [02:07:58] if you're lucky, if you're lucky, and if [02:08:00] you're lucky, both 50 pound dumbbells are there.

[02:08:02] Cause I've been to  it was just one. I don't know. I'm like, what happened to the other dumbbell? How was the only one? Yeah.

[02:08:11] Gerard Benton: [02:08:11] Exactly. You know? But if you go there and you know, with the right mindset and the bands, you grabbed the 50 pound dumbbell and, uh, do a set of 30 goblet squats and, and see how your legs feel with the bands, you know, and then when you're done with that.

[02:08:27] Uh, grabbed the other 50, and then do a, you know, a set of 30 RTLS  you can do that way with the bands, you know, and, and then, you know, you just got a phenomenal leg workout in, you know, with no weights, you know. Um, and I think another place that the bands Excel is, you know, if that, if that hotel gym, they had the leg extension machine, that dreaded leg extension machine or a leg curl machine.

[02:08:53] You know, do leg extensions superset with lay curls for 20 minutes and see how your legs feel.

[02:08:58] Carl Lanore: [02:08:58] Oh, I know.

[02:09:00] [02:09:00] Gerard Benton: [02:09:00] You know, and so you can still get a great workout in when traveling, and you know what? It may, it may be good for you to miss squat, you know, squatting and deadlifting with a barbell for a week and just get focused on a, pumping your legs.

[02:09:14] You know, you'd get that. I noticed that, um, we, we were traveling over the holidays. Um. And, you know, I didn't have any, uh, access to any barbell equipment. So, uh, it was just a dumbbell exercises for the legs and, uh, uh, a leg press machine. Um, you know, and so, so I, I really hammered, you know, the legs with the bands and in those exercises.

[02:09:39] And then when I got back home and, and, and started squatting again, my squats felt better. Um, you know, whether that's from taking a week off or, um, you know, they just, the, the, the different exercises, you know, it, it, it. It helped, um, you know, and if nothing else, it, [02:10:00] the, the bands helped me keep my sanity where, you know,

[02:10:02] Carl Lanore: [02:10:02] I was able to

[02:10:03] Gerard Benton: [02:10:03] still get what my mind thought

[02:10:05] Carl Lanore: [02:10:05] was a good workout in,

[02:10:06] Gerard Benton: [02:10:06] um, you know, without really just, you know, destroying the body while traveling.

[02:10:10] Carl Lanore: [02:10:10] So, Aiden Ray asked the question, I'll let each of us will answer it separately. I'll let you guys go first. He says, how long does the pump generally stick around? Uh, once removed after lifting? Let's, let's start with you Regal.

[02:10:25] Rigo Vargas: [02:10:25] I would say so I have a, you know, I have an automatic, I have a stick shift car that I drive.

[02:10:32] So, uh, after legs I get in the car and it's

[02:10:35] Gerard Benton: [02:10:35] hard

[02:10:36] Rigo Vargas: [02:10:36] to push the clutch and I get, I'm walking kind of wobbly,

[02:10:39] Gerard Benton: [02:10:39] get to work.

[02:10:41] Rigo Vargas: [02:10:41] I mean. It's, it's, I'm still filling out me half hour and I talking about like, Oh, I feel a little sore because I worked on, I mean, there's a pump, there's still 30 minutes in it, so, you know, it starts to taper off after that for me.

[02:10:55] Uh, arms and legs, especially

[02:10:57] Gerard Benton: [02:10:57] legs.

[02:10:58] Carl Lanore: [02:10:58] How about you Gerardo?

[02:11:00] [02:11:00] Gerard Benton: [02:11:00] I, I've noticed the. The BFR pump compared to a, just a regular pump. It for me, it lasts probably, I would say double. Um, you know, if I, if I do a a. A real intense arm workout. Um, I'll have

[02:11:19] Carl Lanore: [02:11:19] a pump

[02:11:19] Gerard Benton: [02:11:19] for maybe an hour or so after, and then you can notice it starting to go away.

[02:11:25] Whereas with the BFR bands, I've noticed that my arms still look and feel pumped probably close to two hours after the, after the, the workout. Um, you know, which, you know, the, the, it, it, it's. It's something, you know it, it really shows there's a difference. A w I've noticed,

[02:11:46] Carl Lanore: [02:11:46] so I've, every time I've used them, I've never taken them off.

[02:11:51] After the training, I'll come into the studio wearing them and I'll continue to work, and while I'm sitting here, I'll just do these [02:12:00] imaginary tricep extensions. Curl tricep again, and I get the pump back that fast and then it stays for like another hour. And if I don't take them off, I can continue to milk that pump.

[02:12:16] I'll sit here and I'll straighten my legs out, like I'm doing a leg extension and let them drop and the quad gets, the truth of the matter is. If you wear them continue after the gym, say for an hour or two, you continue to have that pump for an hour or two. That is going to have a profound effect on reshaping the facia.

[02:12:36] That's going to have a pro profound effect on causing fluid to be trapped in the muscle and stimulate that growth, provoking a hormone drive. So my attitude is, if it's not occluded. Right? If you're not completely cutting off blood supply, and we're not talking about that because that's dangerous, that actually will cause necrotic tissue that'll [02:13:00] injure you.

[02:13:00] But if we're talking about restricting blood flow, which means you're still having blood passing through in and out of the muscle, but it just being met with some resistance on the other side from coming back, what you can maintain the pump for six hours if you want, just leave the damn things on.

[02:13:17] Gerard Benton: [02:13:17] That was one thing that, you know, that I, after I made the purchase, I wanted to reach out to the company and asked what their thoughts were.

[02:13:26] Is, uh, is this it? Are the bands something where I should leave on, um, after training? Or is there a benefit to, uh, saying, for example, like, just releasing the muscle? Um, you know, and I,

[02:13:44] Carl Lanore: [02:13:44] I've tried.

[02:13:45] Gerard Benton: [02:13:45] Both. You know, I never, I never got to, you know, uh, contacting the company to see what they would say. Um, but you know, I've tried both.

[02:13:53] Um, you know, uh, and I haven't seen any negative effects from leaving [02:14:00] them on. Um, they, your honor, I know arm's for sure. They definitely stay pumped. Um, if you keep 'em on and you know that what I've done is, uh. If at any point it starts to feel uncomfortable that that's when, when I, when I've removed them,

[02:14:19] Carl Lanore: [02:14:19] so I've left them on so long and I know you don't make right.

[02:14:24] Like I do everything to the wrong, to the T to the wrong degree. I mean, Elisa tells me that all the time. She's like, you know, you just take things too far all the time. But I left them on so long that I actually got like, you know, when you pinch your skin, you get a little blood, like a little liquid blister, like a little.

[02:14:41] Just fluid caught underneath the skin. I left them on so long that I had like blisters where the bladder has the seam because it kind of pinch the skin right there. And when I took them off, literally I had like a piece of skin come off. And so I learned to [02:15:00] put them on the outside of the shirt. Now when I wear them for long periods of time and that, and that's all you have to do so the bladder isn't right up against your skin.

[02:15:09] Right. But yeah, I think it's fine to wear them for prolonged periods of time. But the one caveat I would say is if you're somebody who has been told that you have a problem with blood clots, you have a high thrombotic index. You've been told that you probably need blood thinners. I wouldn't, wouldn't wear them for long periods of time.

[02:15:28] I'd stop wearing them after my workout because we don't want, if you already have a problem. Like that. We don't, we don't even want to occlude the blood in the muscle for long periods of time. And I take a baby aspirin at night before bed. I take, you know, curcumin and ginger, and my blood is usually a little too thin, to be honest with you, but I think that's actually a better thing to have than too thick.

[02:15:55] Rigo Vargas: [02:15:55] Well, one of the say that I think the website says, you know, you shouldn't leave Vermont for over [02:16:00] 20 minutes, is what they see, I guess, man. And start getting a little more experimental.

[02:16:04] Carl Lanore: [02:16:04] Well, no, but you got on the stand. They, they have to stick to the guidelines created by the original katsu scientists. Of course, outside of that is if, like for me, right?

[02:16:18] Like, let's say I have them on foot for 10 hours one day and I ended up, uh. With some sort of thing related to a thrombotic event, and I'm going to say, Oh, you know, I got to Sue them because they told me to leave them on. So you have to understand they are, they're towing the line. Of what science has shown, how effective they are and how to best use them.

[02:16:40] But you know, us in this community, we take everything, you know, and well, if a little bit's good, a lot may be made. And that's not always true with me. I know that a lot isn't always better, but I just wanted to see if my muscles would remain pumped if I continued to wear them throughout the day. And they definitely do.

[02:16:57] There's no doubt in my mind about

[02:16:58] Rigo Vargas: [02:16:58] this [02:17:00] sort of thing.

[02:17:01] Carl Lanore: [02:17:01] That's cool. Okay. I want to take a quick commercial break. You guys can stay with me, right? Does anybody have to rush off right now? Okay. I want to take a break and when we come back, I want to tell you what bad things, if any, bad things, and then I want to know about it.

[02:17:13] What your progress is. What are you noticing? So stay tuned. We'll be right back. We couldn't have Tommy on. He ended up leaving. We'll have him on another show at another time, but stay tuned. We'll be right back with more supervision. This is the superhuman channel where we use oxygen for the power of good.

[02:17:35] Gerard Benton: [02:17:35] Welcome back.

[02:17:38] Carl Lanore: [02:17:38] We're

[02:17:39] Gerard Benton: [02:17:39] talking to Gerard Benton.

[02:17:42] Carl Lanore: [02:17:42] Rigo Vargas their loans after real quick. So professional. I'm doing good with video, man. I gotta tell you, I like it. I like this. I got to get, eventually I'll have a producer who sit and do the things I want done. Uh, but until that, it's, uh, I'm the chief chief cook [02:18:00] bottle washer.

[02:18:00] I'm the waiter. I'm the maitre D. I'm doing it all. Anyway. We're talking about BFR blood flow restriction training. If you haven't heard about it, it's something that's really worth. Looking into, uh, and, and actually, uh, I have a question here that kind of leads us to some of the topics I want to cover now.

[02:18:19] So James Villa pig says, uh, so what is the general consensus from you guys? What is it? Is it, it, was this a worthy investment? Uh, is it providing what you had hoped and is it performing as well as you expected or, or, or, or better or not? Well, we'll start with Rigo. Go ahead. We go.

[02:18:38] Rigo Vargas: [02:18:38] Yeah, I think they're great.

[02:18:39] Especially I originally I got the armbands cause I thought I might as well get the complete set, you know, but I originally wanted them for legs mostly. And uh, I think I, my original email to you, I said that I wasn't going to use the arm bands as much, but I've been, I've been using them cause it's, it's so much an amazing pump [02:19:00] that, I mean I would have to do drop down sets.

[02:19:04] You know, dropping down to, you know, where you're doing five pounds, but you can only do one. You know, I don't have time for all that. So you get the same pump from really, really getting after it. And as far as investment, yeah. I mean, absolutely.

[02:19:19] Carl Lanore: [02:19:19] So you feel like your money was well spent. You don't feel you, you don't feel like, Aw man, I, I should have saved that money and done something else with it.

[02:19:27] Rigo Vargas: [02:19:27] No, I don't.

[02:19:28] Carl Lanore: [02:19:28] Definitely not. Okay. And so Gerard, how about you?

[02:19:32] Gerard Benton: [02:19:32] No, I, I agree. Uh, I think that it was definitely worth it. Um, you know, the, the, the,

[02:19:39] Carl Lanore: [02:19:39] the

[02:19:39] Gerard Benton: [02:19:39] main reason, like we already talked about for me was, uh, to try and, you know, keep up a, uh, what in my head was a, uh, an aggressive training, uh, schedule or training session, um, while traveling and not having, you know, uh.

[02:19:57] Access to, you know, the, what I'm [02:20:00] normal, uh, when I normally train with at home. Um, you know, and, uh, I, I think that they've definitely accomplished that. Um, you know, later this year, um, I, I think they're going to be even more valuable to me. Uh, you know, my wife and I are expecting, so, you know, that's going to take a big chunk out of training time, you know, so if I can, uh, put the bands on.

[02:20:21] And, uh, you know, if I didn't sleep last night cause of the baby, you know, so, you know, put in three 15 on my back really isn't something that I'm interested in. But if I can put a, you know, a 200 on the bar and, uh, put the bands on and, you know. Get her a good pump in and in a real quick 20 minutes, you know, and the, and then, and then go back to work with the baby, then, you know, I think that that is some, that was one of the main things I had in the back of my mind was, um, you know, when, uh, when training time isn't going to be as available as it is now, [02:21:00] I can, I can kind of condense, uh, an advanced training session in, in, in a, in a short amount of time.

[02:21:08] Carl Lanore: [02:21:08] Yeah. And, and I kind of feel, I feel similar, you know, there, there are days where I just want to get a good workout in, but I may have been maybe didn't sleep well and I can put them on and I can get it done. So have either of you recommended them to other people? Are you keeping it your own secret? I mean,

[02:21:26] Rigo Vargas: [02:21:26] I tell anyone who asks, um, like I said, if someone in the gym came up and was like, except for the one buddy of mine, no one's asked.

[02:21:33] But if someone said, Hey. You know, what do you think? I'd say, you know? Yeah. Give them a try.

[02:21:39] Carl Lanore: [02:21:39] I w yeah,

[02:21:40] Gerard Benton: [02:21:40] I, I've mentioned it, you know, that, you know, that I can get a great workout in, in, in a short amount of time without having to, you know, lift, you know, the, these heroic weights, you know, so I, I've certainly mentioned it to the, you know, the people that aren't as interested aren't as.

[02:22:00] [02:22:00] They don't enjoy the gym the way that I do.

[02:22:02] Carl Lanore: [02:22:02] Yeah. Right. Just training. I know some of us in this audience, we just love to go in and train. It doesn't matter. Um, what, what, what, where do you see opportunities that the company can capitalize on making modifications and changes? Rigo you're, you're, you gotta be a very pragmatic guy just by nature of how you work.

[02:22:22] You, you must look at these and go, man, it would be great if they had this or it'd be better if they had that or where are the short, the shortfalls in this.

[02:22:29] Rigo Vargas: [02:22:29] Um, to the little nuances, and you know, this is just

[02:22:33] Carl Lanore: [02:22:33] what I thought.

[02:22:35] Rigo Vargas: [02:22:35] You have the pump, so you know, your, your crops, you know, to minor, like in two 30 for the arms and two 80, two 80 for the leg.

[02:22:43] So that's set. But when you put the bands on the detective Velcro of tail straps. You don't always get in the same spot. And so that can affect what pump. So it's still, even though they said, getting the gentleman who is in [02:23:00] the company said, it's idiot proof, but maybe my level of video is we'll hire them some, but even then it's hard.

[02:23:06] You don't have little consistent rapping. And so that makes the pressure inconsistent as well. So I don't know, maybe put numbers on there a little.

[02:23:16] Carl Lanore: [02:23:16] You're talking about on the actual Velcro itself. Right. So, so, so I find this too, this is interesting. Yeah. I find this too. And so I have to start out, every time I put the bands on, I make sure that the bladder is completely deflated.

[02:23:35] And then I pull it to the PO. I pull it to pretty much the same point where, where the, the the to the material at the edge of the bladder. Is about that far apart, almost pinching my skin if I don't make sure that the skin doesn't get caught in it. I know you're talking about you have to really, um, you have to really pay attention when first putting them on.

[02:23:58] The other thing that I do, I don't know if you [02:24:00] do this. But like w I make sure that the the arm or the leg is completely limp. Like I'll pick up, I'll pick the foot up off the floor and let my knee break just a little bit and just let the leg dangle there and I'll move it around until the, the, the, the, the indicator on the dial.

[02:24:20] And I go, Oh, that like, that is. It's the lowest pressure right there because my leg is completely relaxed and then I pump it up in that position, so I always make sure that my arm on my leg, I look at the the dial and make sure that it's the lowest pressure. I'm not adding resistance by having my leg a certain way or my arm flexed a certain way.

[02:24:41] Gerard Benton: [02:24:41] Yes. Yeah. I definitely think that. There's a lot of trial and error in using them that I know that when I first got them, you know, I went on the manufacturer's website and

[02:24:54] Carl Lanore: [02:24:54] watched

[02:24:55] Gerard Benton: [02:24:55] the videos too. See how, how they should be applied. [02:25:00] Um, and I thought that was a good starting point. Um, but there was a lot of times where I, I just had to experiment with them myself.

[02:25:08] You know, there were times where I would put the arm ones on and, uh, I, I could barely feel my hand

[02:25:15] Carl Lanore: [02:25:15] and my right arm,

[02:25:17] Gerard Benton: [02:25:17] my left arm, it didn't even feel like I was wearing the band yet. The pressures were the same, so it took a lot of practice in. Um, eh, put, putting the bands on. And like you said, you know, the, that depending on the position of the limb can affect the pressure.

[02:25:35] You know, I, I've put the band on, you know, and I'll have my arm hanging at my side, and that if you lift your arm above your head. Without changing the pressure, the pressure, reading changes, right? You know, flex your muscles, the pressure reading changes. So you know, the it, it takes some practice in getting, um, your limb completely limp so you can get [02:26:00] an accurate pressure reading and accurate on both sides of your arm

[02:26:03] Carl Lanore: [02:26:03] or.

[02:26:05] Interesting. You know? So a lot of us who are using them are starting to understand that. And probably there would be an opportunity for the company to produce a good video showing that like, you know, if you lock your leg out, you're going to see the pressure go up. You don't want to start there. You want to make sure that you're at a point where the pressure is the lowest it possibly can be before and then keep your arm or your leg there and then stop pumping from there.

[02:26:30] I agree with you. Yeah, I've, I've found the same thing. And I think most people who are intelligent will start to notice like, wow, when I do this, uh, it changes it, it goes up. And when I do that, it, it goes down and I need to be in the lowest possible spot in order to do this. Right. Yeah. I

[02:26:48] Gerard Benton: [02:26:48] mean, the videos are for, you know, their general recommendations.

[02:26:52] So you got to the, they're a good starting point, but you got to pay attention. To the feedback, you know, every time you [02:27:00] use the bands. I think, um, you know, I, one thing I noticed, especially with the arms, um, I think the video has a woman, uh, demonstrating them, you know, and she's got, you know, a sleeveless shirt on.

[02:27:16] Um, you know, whereas, you know, I, I don't re real rare, I've rarely trained, uh, without sleeves. Um, so I found that, uh. If I, if I wore sleeveless shirt versus a tee shirt versus, you know, something like a sweatshirt material that it

[02:27:33] Carl Lanore: [02:27:33] was completely different.

[02:27:34] Gerard Benton: [02:27:34] And, um, I, for me personally, I, I found it best with like a tee shirt underneath.

[02:27:43] Um, you know, the, for the legs, uh, I found it best if you can use like, you know, the, the, those compression pants or a thin layer, like that works best for the legs. Um, you know, sweatpants that they just, they seem to get,

[02:27:59] Carl Lanore: [02:27:59] yeah, you got [02:28:00] sweat pants. You got to get underneath. You've got to get right on your leg.

[02:28:03] Gerard Benton: [02:28:03] That's what I found. So it's what I've noticed is a lot of trial and error to find out, uh,

[02:28:10] Carl Lanore: [02:28:10] what,

[02:28:11] Gerard Benton: [02:28:11] what is most comfortable, but, you know, the co in, and by comfortable, I mean, um, you know, you're not, you're not hurting yourself, but you're still. Uh, getting the desired effect out of the bands.

[02:28:24] Carl Lanore: [02:28:24] And so I want to take a last commercial break and when we come back, I want you to tell me about what you've noticed.

[02:28:29] Have your arms gotten bigger? Have your legs gotten bigger? Do you see the progression changing in you? This is our last commercial break. Stay with us. I gotta go clean up our feet every time I do a Facebook live, I always get some schmuck who decides to post stuff that has nothing to do with the discussion.

[02:28:49] Uh, I got a guy who's an ex mr universe, and he usually puts paragraphs of stuff, have nothing to do with discussion. They just dropped this stuff on me. So the interesting thing is I'm very close to [02:29:00] 5,000 friends on Facebook. If I accept anymore, I'm going to be like a forced to start a new page, like a, I dunno, public figure page.

[02:29:08] I don't want to do that. So I've been thinking about how do I start deleting people from. My Facebook friends list. Oh, I just found out I'm going to lead this guy and take his crap off the off the thread, and the other guy who always comes over and drops a little bombs promoting himself as a genius. I'm going to delete him to today's today.

[02:29:26] Pupil bright back . It's super human radio.

[02:29:35] Welcome back. Thanks for staying with me

[02:29:37] Gerard Benton: [02:29:37] guys. So

[02:29:40] Carl Lanore: [02:29:40] let's just summarize something. Uh, let's, let's, let's go ahead and start with the Gerard. What have you noticed? Have you noticed that your muscles a bigger, yeah.

[02:29:49] Gerard Benton: [02:29:49] I don't have numbers for you. Yeah.

[02:29:53] Carl Lanore: [02:29:53] I don't, you don't take your arm in the bathroom when no one's looking.

[02:29:56] Gerard Benton: [02:29:56] You know, I did it for years when I started and then, [02:30:00] and the, I'm so afraid of the tape measure now because I would measure and it would never change, you know? But I, when I look in the mirror, I, I do feel bigger. I, I feel like my legs. Uh, are, are more defined. Um, and, and I, my arms just feel bigger. So, you know, they, they, when I, I, we have

[02:30:20] a

[02:30:20] Carl Lanore: [02:30:20] mirror that I

[02:30:21] Gerard Benton: [02:30:21] walk by a lot of times during the day.

[02:30:24] And, uh, you know,

[02:30:25] Carl Lanore: [02:30:25] you're like wider. Yeah. Yeah. What do I do? I go, what about you?

[02:30:33] Rigo Vargas: [02:30:33] Uh, well, my legs,

[02:30:35] Carl Lanore: [02:30:35] I'm

[02:30:35] Gerard Benton: [02:30:35] going to buy, actually,

[02:30:38] Rigo Vargas: [02:30:38] I was put on a tape measure right now, actually. How about

[02:30:40] Carl Lanore: [02:30:40] a quarter? Inch

[02:30:41] Rigo Vargas: [02:30:41] more on the thighs, you know? Um,

[02:30:46] Carl Lanore: [02:30:46] no, it's

[02:30:46] Rigo Vargas: [02:30:46] a good name. You're not, you know, you never know.

[02:30:49] Carl Lanore: [02:30:49] Well, wait a minute, but you've only been using them for about a month, right?

[02:30:52] Yeah.

[02:30:53] Gerard Benton: [02:30:53] By a month. In about a week.

[02:30:54] Carl Lanore: [02:30:54] Yeah. That's not Chevy. I mean, you know, I mean, look, man, I've done a lot of juice back in the day [02:31:00] and no, I did, and I never put on the muscle. I thought I was going to. With that, a level of gear that I was using and I always trained hard and I always ate a ton of protein.

[02:31:10] Uh, I saw changes in my, my, my arms never grow. I'm one of those guys. Like, have you ever seen bass rooting? You know, bass rooting is the MMA fighter. He's got the tiniest little biceps, but they'll, they're almost like hydraulics. They're, they're so fast and they're so strong, and I'm one of those guys that never really saw the equivalent growth in my upper arms as I have in my chest and my back and my legs.

[02:31:37] My legs are pretty skinny right now. But with that being said. And wearing these just like five or six times and going to the gym and wearing them for hours. After I trained, I immediately saw changes in my biceps and I thought to myself, I didn't see these changes on two grams a test and a gram of of a, of DECA and a 600 milligram of a trend a week.

[02:31:58] I didn't see those changes in my body [02:32:00] that fast.

[02:32:02] Gerard Benton: [02:32:02] No, I, I agree. I think in a short amount of time they definitely. But my limbs appear bigger. Uh, and, and like I said, they, they seem more defined, you know, whereas, you know, the, it's not just like, you know, they, they don't just look bigger. They're, they're, they look leaner too.

[02:32:21] You know, I, and, and you know, the, the, the veins, what, when you do have the pump, the veins definitely

[02:32:27] Carl Lanore: [02:32:27] show more 

[02:32:30] Gerard Benton: [02:32:30] than they used to.

[02:32:33] Carl Lanore: [02:32:33] I'm sorry, go, go.

[02:32:34] Rigo Vargas: [02:32:34] Yeah. Even when you take them hunting, just walking around, I got a lot more vascularity now in my arm, or it is definitely a lot more definition for sure. Um,

[02:32:43] Carl Lanore: [02:32:43] yeah, so for me it's like, why wouldn't everybody use these?

[02:32:48] What do you think? Whoever, I

[02:32:51] Gerard Benton: [02:32:51] think they're still somewhat cost prohibitive, uh, and you know, in that, but I mean, the a, you know, everything is cost prohibitive [02:33:00] when it's brand new. You know, the, I, I, yeah, I think. Eventually over time, you know, they, they may come down, uh, in price, you know, the, whereas, you know, they, you can go out and get, get a pair for $150, you know, they, you know, so you know that that's what the, a month's worth of Starbucks coffee right there.

[02:33:18] So, you know,

[02:33:20] Carl Lanore: [02:33:20] right now they're, they're around $400 and then you get a 10% discount using the code SHR but the other thing about it is they have like a six month, same as cash program. Yeah. You could break out the payments over the course of six months. And that to me, that kind of like  that that lowers the threshold of entry completely because people are paying, you know, 50 $60 a month for supplements that don't work.

[02:33:46] Rigo Vargas: [02:33:46] I think that's just it. I think folks don't really crunch those numbers and go, man, I just spent, you know, $120 a month on some protein potters, other things where they could do this one hit. And we'll be done with it. I guess it's hard for folks to grasp their mind [02:34:00] around that. That idea.

[02:34:01] Carl Lanore: [02:34:01] Yeah. Yeah. But it's definitely a worthy investment, and I, and I, I get it.

[02:34:06] When people look at that money, they think, man, I'm going to spend $400 right now. But I think that if be strong, wants to take a page out of my book, they'd get rid of that. You know, when you see these expensive things on TV right. They never say the price. They only say just three payments of 1499 a month, you know, or six payments of $75 a month, and you're thinking, Oh, $75 I can handle that.

[02:34:33] I really think that they, as a, as a marketing company, they should change their business model. Not even put the price out there and just say, you know, five easy payments of $60 a month or whatever it comes out to be. You could have them too. People have an easier time saying yes to $60 over the course of six months than they do to $400 Oh.

[02:35:02] [02:35:00] Rigo Vargas: [02:35:02] It might be the stigma too, like you mentioned earlier about having to put them on at the gym. You know, if you work out at like a douchebag, he sort of gym. I can see where some guys, you know, mind and I don't need to do all, I don't even want to hear it. You know, I don't want to do that. So that could be a tube and it is expensive as jr said two, but it could be a little bit of a, I don't know.

[02:35:22] Carl Lanore: [02:35:22] I don't, I see. I think that's what it is to me. I don't think if the price, cause people will justify spending big money all the time. I think it's that, that stigma of putting these on and wearing them to the gym. But, but here's the difference. Here's Marky Mark wearing them. Hold on, let me put them back up again.

[02:35:41] So here's Mark. Mark Walberg wearing them. Mark is no slouch. He's a dynamite guy, and here he is wearing them. So I think the more people wear them, like you and me, uh, and people see them and start asking questions to find out, wow, this is a more efficient way to build muscle faster [02:36:00] while handling safe, controllable weight.

[02:36:05] I think the more people, once we get to that hundredth monkey. Threshold where there's enough people in the, in the, in the gym wearing them. That stigma's going to go away and in the meantime we will have been using them probably for a couple of years ready by then.

[02:36:21] Gerard Benton: [02:36:21] Well, I mean, you gotta you gotta think, I mean, everything is going to take time.

[02:36:24] You know, I'm sure there was a time where the guys in the gym that were wearing squat shoes and a belt where they, they were ridiculed because, uh, you know, you, you, you, you, you lift with, uh, you need a belt to lift this weight. You know, that, how do you call yourself a man? You know? Right. You know, so, you know, I, it, it took time in now.

[02:36:45] Now, everybody has to have a belt. You can't

[02:36:47] Carl Lanore: [02:36:47] lift heavy without a belt,

[02:36:49] Gerard Benton: [02:36:49] you know, so, you know, the everything, you know, I'm sure you know, uh, needs time to be accepted. And you know, who knows, maybe Mark Walberg someone that's going to help it cause it needs and [02:37:00] everything needs a name. You know, they, you know, the, the, you know, it seemed with kettlebells, you know, the kettlebells, you know what, 15 years ago.

[02:37:08] What is this odd shaped

[02:37:09] Carl Lanore: [02:37:09] thing

[02:37:11] Gerard Benton: [02:37:11] nobody used? And now, you know, every gym has

[02:37:14] Carl Lanore: [02:37:14] to have kettlebells. People got them at home now. Yeah, you're right.

[02:37:19] Gerard Benton: [02:37:19] There's the miracle equipment at home, you know, because you had, you have this one value, can they, you know, at home you can get a full workout. It. Yeah. Whereas, you know, they, they were the weirdest artists things years ago.

[02:37:29] So, you know, who knows, maybe, you know, the, the bands will be the same thing, you know, in, you know, 10 years.

[02:37:35] Carl Lanore: [02:37:35] I want to thank you guys for staying with me for the whole show. I told you originally was just going to be an hour, but we had a lot to talk about and I want to give each of you plenty of time to discuss.

[02:37:43] And I think in summary that these are a win. I think anybody who invests in them, you will see good results. You'll be happy you spent the money. And if you take advantage of the, um. Terms that they offer, uh, at B strong.training forward slash super human use code SHR not only [02:38:00] 10% off, but you could break it up into six monthly payments that make it very, very easy to swallow.

[02:38:04] Guys, thanks a lot for first of all, listening to the show and being part of the audience and being willing to come on the show and talk about your personal experience today and they were given nothing in return for this interview. I should have said that at the beginning. No one's offered them any money.

[02:38:17] Nobody's offered them anything at all. It's just been two guys who wanted to share their information and we'll get Tommy Duncan on so he can share his as well. Thanks a lot for everything and we'll see everybody tomorrow. Tomorrow's Tuesday. We'll have a coach Rob on and uh, it'll be a blueprint power hour.

[02:38:33] We got great shows planned all week. I think we're going to have Ben Greenfield on on Friday. We're working out the details of that, about his new book. All right. Thanks for listening. See you later. [02:39:00] .