You asked, we answered. This week Tom and Ben dig into your questions, and as usual, the conversation goes further than the questions themselves.

Five questions, some straightforward answers, some that are anything but, and a would you rather that somehow ends up at Robot Wars.

In this episode:

• How do you stop comparing yourself to others when you start training later than everyone else — and why your brain is actually doing exactly what it's supposed to do
• Is three days a week genuinely enough to build muscle tissue — the short answer, the long answer, and everything that actually matters beyond the training itself
• The best exercise you personally hate doing — Tom and Ben get honest
• How isometrics fit into BJJ training, when they're useful, when they're not, and why most people should sort out the basics first
• What would you do with a thousand pounds you had to waste — somehow leads to remote control cars, Robot Wars and underwater jetpacks
• Would you rather talk like Yoda or breathe like Darth Vader

Got a question for the next Q&A? Drop it in the comments on any of our Instagram posts and we'll get to it in the next one.

The food isn't the problem. That's the thread that runs through this entire conversation, and it's probably not what you're expecting to hear from a nutritionist.

This week Tom and Ben are joined by Charlie Beestone, nutritionist and behavioural eating specialist, for one of the most thought-provoking conversations the podcast has had. Charlie doesn't talk about food the way most people in the nutrition space do. He talks about the behaviour behind it, the environment driving it, and the industry that benefits from keeping people confused about it.

UPFs, GLP-1 medication, AI, the future of coaching — this one covers a lot of ground and pulls no punches.

In this episode:

• Why ultra processed food as a category was never meant to reach the general public — and what happened when it did
• The correlation nobody in the UPF conversation wants to talk about
• Why fear, guilt and shame are terrible tools for changing eating behaviour
• GLP-1 medication — who it's actually for, what the research really says, and why the weight regain narrative misses the point
• How GLP-1s could change the entire food industry, not just the people using them
• Why being lean might stop being a status symbol — and what replaces it
• What AI will actually do to nutrition coaching, healthcare and food access
• Why the coaches most worried about AI are probably the ones who should be

Find Charlie:
Instagram: @foodisthesymptom
Substack: Food is the Symptom
For coaches: @charliebeestone

This one's a tangent episode in the truest sense — and we make no apologies for it.

Tom and Ben dig into something that doesn't get talked about honestly enough in the fitness world: the gap between what superhero physiques look like on screen and what it actually takes to get there. Not to be killjoys about it, but because understanding that gap matters more than most people realise.

From Hugh Jackman's Wolverine progression to Brad Pitt in Fight Club, from the bodybuilders who played the original Hollywood heroes to the machinery behind modern Marvel transformations, this one covers a lot of ground. There's also a story Ben has never told before involving a Zoom call, a fake Hollywood producer, and possibly Margot Robbie.

In this episode:

• Why superhero physiques are designed to be seen for one day, not lived in
• The difference between being inspired by a physique and being harmed by one
• Why comparison is a poison chalice and what to do with that instead
• How social media has changed what people think is normal or achievable
• The Rob McElhenney Fat Mac story and why his honesty about getting in shape matters
• Why bodybuilding in the seventies looked nothing like it does today — and what that tells us
• Ben's never-before-told story about a very suspicious Hollywood job offer
• Wakanda vs Asgard, Mjolnir vs the shield, and other important debates

The would you rather: Wakanda or Asgard? Mjolnir or Captain America's shield?