2576: Top 5 Superfoods Trainers LOVE for Their Clients & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
Episode 2576: Top 5 Superfoods Trainers LOVE for Their Clients & More (Listener Live Coaching)
Release Date: April 16, 2025

---

Introduction to Top 5 Superfoods

In this episode, hosts Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews delve into the Top 5 Superfoods that elite trainers consistently recommend to their clients. These superfoods are selected based on their nutrient density, accessibility, and proven results in enhancing muscular development, performance, and overall health.

---

1. Grass-Fed Beef

Sal DiStefano introduces grass-fed beef as the first superfood, emphasizing its unparalleled nutrient density.

Sal DiStefano [03:10]: "Grass-fed beef is extremely nutrient-dense. You could eat just beef forever and probably never get a nutrient deficiency."

Key Points:

• Nutrient Profile: High in B vitamins, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids.
• Health Benefits: Enhances strength, improves blood markers, boosts energy, and supports better sleep.
• Client Success: Switching to grass-fed beef led to significant strength gains and improved overall well-being, especially in female clients.

Adam Schafer adds that grass-fed beef counters the negative perceptions from mainstream media about red meat, highlighting its role in providing essential proteins naturally.

---

2. Wild-Caught Salmon & Sardines

Sal DiStefano discusses the benefits of wild-caught salmon and sardines, noting their high omega-3 fatty acid content.

Justin Andrews [10:04]: "Blueberries is a staple. Berries in Greek yogurt is like a go-to meal for my son. He thinks he's got a dessert."

Key Points:

• Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Essential for reducing inflammation and supporting heart health.
• Clean Protein Source: Sardines are low in toxins due to their short lifespan, making them a safer option compared to larger fish like swordfish.
• Versatility: Easy to incorporate into various meals, enhancing protein intake without the need for supplements.

Sal emphasizes that wild-caught salmon is superior to farmed varieties due to its cleaner flesh and better fatty acid profile.

---

3. Blueberries

Justin Andrews champions blueberries for their high antioxidant and fiber content.

Sal DiStefano [13:36]: "Blueberries are super high in beneficial flavonoids, antioxidants, super high in fiber, super accessible. It's the best fruit."

Key Points:

• Antioxidants: Protect cells from oxidative stress and support immune function.
• Digestive Health: High fiber content aids in digestion and helps alleviate constipation.
• Versatility: Can be easily added to yogurts, cereals, and smoothies, making them a favorite among both trainers and clients.

Justin shares his strategy of prescribing two cups of blueberries to clients experiencing digestive issues, noting the significant improvements observed.

---

4. White Rice

Sal DiStefano presents white rice as a superfood due to its ease of digestion and versatility.

Justin Andrews [16:04]: "White rice is just compliments everything. It's a great, and it's also very easy to measure and track."

Key Points:

• Digestibility: Easily absorbed by the body, making it ideal for those with digestive sensitivities.
• Caloric Efficiency: Provides a clean source of carbohydrates without the anti-nutrients found in whole grains like brown rice.
• Versatility: Pairs well with a wide range of proteins and vegetables, simplifying meal planning and macro tracking.

Justin highlights that white rice is preferable to brown rice for clients who experience digestive issues, as it avoids the fiber-related complications of the latter.

---

5. Zucchini

Sal DiStefano includes zucchini as a top superfood, distinguishing it from typical vegetables.

Sal DiStefano [17:33]: "Zucchini provides you with a lot of the benefits people are looking for from vegetables but is easier to digest."

Key Points:

• Ease of Digestion: Being technically a fruit, zucchini is less likely to cause intolerances compared to other vegetables.
• Nutrient Content: Rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, which are beneficial for eye and skin health.
• Versatility: Can be prepared in various ways, enhancing meals without compromising on nutrition.

Adam Schafer concurs, noting that while cruciferous vegetables are nutrient-dense, they can cause issues for some individuals, making zucchini a preferred alternative.

---

Muscle Growth: Mechanical Tension vs. Damage vs. Waste Buildup

The hosts engage in an insightful discussion on the mechanisms behind muscle growth, focusing on mechanical tension, muscle damage, and waste buildup.

Sal DiStefano [22:38]: "The data has shown that it's probably mostly mechanical tension, where more data is coming out showing that it's probably all mechanical tension."

Key Points:

• Mechanical Tension: Identified as the primary driver for muscle hypertrophy, involving the tension on muscle fibers during contractions.
• Muscle Damage: Once thought to be a significant factor, recent data suggests it's less critical compared to mechanical tension.
• Waste Buildup: Commonly associated with the "pump" and lactic acid, but also linked back to mechanical tension rather than muscle growth directly.

Justin Andrews adds that soreness is not an indicator of a good workout but rather a sign of potential overtraining.

---

Red Light Therapy: Enhancing Recovery and Performance

The conversation shifts to the benefits of red light therapy, particularly focusing on its role in skin health, muscle recovery, and hormonal balance.

Sal DiStefano [40:07]: "Red light therapy reduces inflammation, stimulates collagen production, and enhances muscle recovery."

Key Points:

• Skin Health: Boosts collagen production, improving skin elasticity and appearance.
• Muscle Recovery: Accelerates the healing process post-exercise, reducing downtime and enhancing performance.
• Hormonal Balance: Can aid in balancing hormones, contributing to overall well-being.

Justin shares his personal experience, noting how red light therapy helped prevent severe sunburns and accelerated muscle recovery after intense workouts.

---

Listener Live Coaching

The episode features live coaching sessions with listeners seeking personalized advice.

Caller 1: Shawna from Canada

Background: Shawna is a 37-year-old mother of two who has been actively engaged in fitness but feels stuck after parting ways with her online trainer. She has experienced significant weight loss but has regained some, aiming to build muscle, especially in her glutes and lower body.

Key Advice:

• Program Recommendation: Sal suggests the Muscle Mommy program, tailored to her goals.
• Training Volume: Recommendations to reduce workout volume to prevent overtraining.
• Hormonal Balance: Emphasis on maintaining a balanced diet to support muscle retention during cutting phases.

Caller 2: Chris from New York

Background: Chris is a 39-year-old father who successfully lost over 60 pounds and aims to transition from a sedentary job into a fitness career. He has completed various certifications and seeks guidance on balancing his current career with his new aspirations.

Key Advice:

• Program Transition: Sal recommends the Symmetry program to continue his progress while managing calories effectively.
• Career Transition: Justin encourages integrating his personal story of overcoming challenges with mental health into his fitness brand.
• Community and Mentorship: Emphasis on joining supportive communities and seeking mentorship to build his fitness career authentically.

Caller 3: Sean from Canada

Background: Sean, a 41-year-old father diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, seeks advice on transitioning into a fitness career while managing his responsibilities and mental health.

Key Advice:

• Program Enrollment: Sal and Justin advocate for joining their training courses to gain structured guidance and community support.
• Building Authentic Brand: Justin emphasizes the importance of sharing his personal mental health journey to connect with clients authentically.
• Practical Steps: Sal advises seeking internships, shadowing successful trainers, and gradually building his client base to ensure a smooth transition.

---

Conclusion

In Episode 2576, the Mind Pump hosts provide valuable insights into effective superfoods, the science behind muscle growth, and advanced recovery techniques like red light therapy. Through live coaching segments, they offer personalized advice to listeners navigating their unique fitness journeys, emphasizing the importance of structured programs, community support, and authentic brand building. This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for both trainers and fitness enthusiasts aiming to optimize their health and career trajectories.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Sal DiStefano [03:10]: "Grass-fed beef is extremely nutrient-dense. You could eat just beef forever and probably never get a nutrient deficiency."
• Justin Andrews [10:04]: "Blueberries is a staple. Berries in Greek yogurt is like a go-to meal for my son. He thinks he's got a dessert."
• Sal DiStefano [22:38]: "The data has shown that it's probably mostly mechanical tension, where more data is coming out showing that it's probably all mechanical tension."
• Justin Andrews [16:04]: "White rice is just compliments everything. It's a great, and it's also very easy to measure and track."

---

Final Thoughts:

This episode underscores the importance of evidence-based nutrition and training strategies. By highlighting scientifically backed superfoods and debunking common fitness myths, Mind Pump empowers listeners to make informed decisions. The live coaching segments further enrich the episode, providing real-world applications and personalized solutions to common fitness challenges.

Transcript

[Aaron Manke]

Are you a lover of all things dark and creepy, of graveyards and monsters.

[Sal DiStefano]

Haunted houses and spooky legends? Then welcome to Lore.

[Aaron Manke]

I'm Aaron Manke. For close to 10 years now, I've been sharing history's darkest stories with millions of listeners around the world.

[Sal DiStefano]

Tune in each week as we explore.

[Aaron Manke]

The folklore, ghost tales and local legends that delivered the chills you're looking for. Learn more and subscribe today [e-mail] if you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.

[Sal DiStefano]

Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode live callers called in. We got to coach people on air. But that was after the intro. Today's intro is 58 minutes long. In the intro we talk about fitness studies, fat loss, muscle gain, exercise workouts. It's a good time again. After that, we got to the live callers. If you want to be one of those live callers, email [e-mail] Send us your question and what you want Coaching on this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Joovv. This is red light therapy like you see in stock studies, so improves the health of your skin, boosts collagen production, improves recovery of your muscles. Some cases can balance out hormones not making this up. The studies that support this are numerous. Go check them out. Go to Joovv.com that's J-O-O-V-V.com forward/mindpump. Use the code mind pump. Get 50 off your first purchase. This episode is also brought to you by Mphormones.com our doctors will do blood tests with you. They can recommend hormone therapy. They can also recommend peptides for you. In fact, right now they're having 25% off all growth hormone releasing peptides. These are peptides that'll boost your growth hormone production. So you have growth hormone like you did when you were 18 years old. Go check them out. Go to mphormones.com we also have a sale this month, Maps hit in the extreme fitness Bundle. They're both 50% off. You can find them both at maps fitnessproducts.com Just use the code APRIL50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show.

[Justin Andrews]

T shirt time.

[Aaron Manke]

And it's T shirt time.

[Justin Andrews]

Ah, shit, Doug. You know it's my favorite time of the week.

[Aaron Manke]

Two winners this week for Apple Podcasts, none for Facebook. The Apple podcast winners are Wild Red Hot Babe and Periwinkle Clover. Both of you are winners to the name I just read to iTunesIndPumpMedia.com includes your shirt size and your shipping address and we'll get that shipping shirt right over to you.

[Sal DiStefano]

We are about to reveal to you the top five superfoods that the best trainers and coaches love to recommend to their clients because it gives them the best results. Let's go.

[Justin Andrews]

Super food. Most interesting part about this is I don't know if, if you were to Google 10 superfoods, I'm not sure. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Would these all pop up? I think one of them would.

[Justin Andrews]

Maybe one or two of them. So I'll start this should. How come these are unique? Normally, as I say, normally you have a title like that. These are the most unique because.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so let me give you the first superfood just so people aren't like, you know, tuning out and then we'll back up and explain what's going on here. So the first superfood is grass fed beef. It's extremely nutrient dense. In fact, you could, and this is not, I'm not saying do this, but you could eat just beef forever and nothing else and you'll probably never get a nutrient deficiency, especially grass. And you really can't say that for pretty much any other food.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Not just the one food item.

[Sal DiStefano]

No.

[Adam Schafer]

I can't think of anything else.

[Sal DiStefano]

No. All right, let's back up for a second. Superfood has been completely bastardized.

[Adam Schafer]

It is magazine like, you see it all over the place.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's a marketing term. And they'll pick some random nutrient and say, this food provides this thing. The more exotic and weird the food is, the more likely it is to be labeled a superfood. Y In reality, a superfood is something that gives you lots of nutrients that is easy to digest because it doesn't matter. A rock is a super mineral food, but you can't eat a rock. It's not going to do anything for you. It needs to be accessible. Because who cares if I name some leaf in the Himalayas that you can only get at a particular, like, nobody's going to eat it. Why were you talking about it? Okay. Unless I'm trying to package it and sell it as a supplement, which is what they also do. It needs to be accessible, easily digestible. In other words, digestible for most people because who cares otherwise? And are you going to eat it? Is it something that you would actually eat? And again, is it nutrient dense? Does it provide wide ranging health benefits backed up by not just data, data is very important, but also by experience. And we train lots and lots and lots of people. And so the foods that we listed here are the ones that we just noticed bang for buck. Like when we had our clients eat these foods regularly, we just saw improvements in their performance and their health and their fitness and their fat loss, muscle gain, everything. And at the top is grass fed beef. When I had clients who didn't eat beef or who ate conventional beef and switched to grass fed, or especially people who didn't eat beef, and this is more often female clients than male clients, when I would have them switch to grass fed beef and include it in their diet on a semi regular basis at least three days a week, they would notice strength gains. We would see their blood markers improve, energy would improve and they would all come to me and comment on it. They come to me and say, you told me I would feel better eating beef more regularly. I have been. And I tell you what, my energy's up and I'm sleeping better and it's high in B vitamins, it's good iron content in there. It's one of the most nutrient complete foods you can find. Yeah, grass fed beet has a great fatty acid profile. That's why I said grass fed.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, especially because like when we were training and I'm, I'm not sure if that's swayed a bit now. I think it's kind of shifting, you know, from a lot of the, the vegan propaganda. But we had a lot of clients coming in where, you know, a lot of TV shows, a lot of magazines were really like demonizing red meat specifically and, and talking about all these detriments to it and saturated fat. And like they're, they're putting all this together so they're just eliminating a, you know, source of, of protein, a huge source of nutrients like from their diet that they were eating before. And so to bring them back towards grass fed beef, it had like just this, this crazy significant change in their, in their, you know, energy and everything else.

[Justin Andrews]

So I, I love that you did those qualifiers because I think that's, because if you were to, like I said, if you were to Google superfoods and get the big list, you get a.

[Sal DiStefano]

Bunch of weird stuff. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You get a bunch of random stuff and it's like, okay, of those things, like how many of these things did I really like?

[Sal DiStefano]

You would see kale. Okay, just eat kale. See how long it was always how.

[Justin Andrews]

Long you survived for not only that, but even just eating kale, like the foods that you've listed on here. And really I'm like, I'm spot on with you on four of the five, So I can't wait to get to the fifth one because I'm curious where that's coming from.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't know about that one.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So it'll be a good discussion around that one. But I, I 100 recall recommending these foods to clients and it making a significant impact. Like it was like a big, like it was a. This really helped this client and so, and that more than once. So that is the qualifier for me is like, what are the foods that I said, hey, just add this to your diet or just do this thing, and made an impact. That's kind of where this list is coming from, I feel.

[Sal DiStefano]

Now let's go back to what you said, Justin, about saturated fat. Now there are polymorphisms or, you know, people who don't respond well to a lot of saturated fat. So what they'll see with the high consumption, if everything else is healthy, if they have too much saturated fat in their diet, their blood lipid numbers won't look so good. Now there's debate as to whether or not it's that important. People that I really trust would say it probably matters. So with those polymorphisms, you probably should watch. And you know, this, you know, this is if, if this is you. Right. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Your doctor will describe that, you'll see it.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're eating healthy, but your blood lipids are a bit off. And so you got to reduce your saturated fat intake. Well, here's what's great about grass fed beef. It's leaner, it's a lot leaner. So like 8 ounces of, you know, a ribeye, 8 ounces of flank steak, whatever that is, grass fed, it's lower in total fat and the fatty acid profile is higher in omega 3 fatty acids than conventional beef. So I've had clients like this, this is why I'm saying this. I've had clients like this who were very. I had a few clients like this, were very diligent, healthy. Their blood lipids were a little iffy and everything else looked good and like, well, should I eliminate red meat? And I said, you know, before you do that, let's switch you to all grass fed and see what happened. And that did the trick. That did the trick. They switched to all grass fed without realizing the protein went up anyway because it's leaner. So it's got more protein per ounce and calories, their fat went down a little bit. Calories went down a little bit. The fatty acid profile was different and it made a difference. So for people who eat a lot of beef this makes a lot of sense especially for people who have those polymorphism. But nonetheless it's a superfood. It really is. It's again it's one of the few things you could only eat ever for the rest of your life. I don't think this is ideal at all.

[Adam Schafer]

Right. But you probably getting more protein per capita, you know, especially for like a lot of the young athletes and trying to recommend because they're just going to go right to shakes and to get like it from real whole food and really up their protein with that and like ground beef and easily assimilate it. That's one of the best options.

[Sal DiStefano]

By the way. I also made this list somewhat balanced so you know, you're going to have some proteins, you're going to have some, you know, foods that are, you know, more starches or whatever because I want to include all of those in this category. So next up, sardines or wild caught salmon. I put ore because some people don't like sardines.

[Justin Andrews]

Well I'm glad you said or. Because I've actually never recommend sardines but I have wild caught salmon.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

All the time. All the time. So. But that's just because I Have you had sardines yet?

[Adam Schafer]

No.

[Justin Andrews]

You and me both.

[Sal DiStefano]

They're not. I don't know why you guys. They're not bad. They're good. I think people confuse sardines with like anchovies or something. They're not bad at all.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean they come in a can and you're eating like a whole looking fish. It looks pretty disgusting. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Get them skinless if it really makes a big difference. I'm all. They get it without the. It's no, it's. It's actually I'm going to go buy some when we're done with this. We're going to try add a little salt and olive oil. Doug will tell you that it's really good. It's not a hyper fishy tasting fish either. Yeah, but sardines are so high in healthy omega 3 fatty acids. It's also a clean fish. Here's the deal with, with certain fish. And by the way, this is why I said wild caught salmon. Right?

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Salmon's a bigger fish. If it's farmed, it can eat. It tends to have higher levels of toxins. The, the fatty acid profile isn't as good. Still not bad, but it isn't as good. Wild caught, much cleaner. Yeah. Sardines, because they are small, they don't accumulate toxins. Like, if you like, for example, a good example of this would be, like, the mercury content in swordfish. You can only eat swordfish so many times before you get too much mercury. Sardines are extremely clean fish. Very high in omega 3 fatty acids, very high in protein and other, you know, key nutrients. It's definitely a superfood when you. In that category. Wild caught salmon. Also very, very good, though. Also very, very good. So. And you. And you said you recommended that one.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, because Omega 3s is like a very common thing that most. Most clients need to supplement and again, are the goal. It's kind of like how we recommend protein. It's like my goal is always to try and get these nutrients through whole foods. And so if I have a client that is being told that they need more omega 3s, which is very common, it's probably one of the most common supplements that doctors recommend. It's that, hey, yes, we can take your omega 3s, and I'm not saying I'm against that, but it's like, we could also try and incorporate some salmon once or twice a week, every week, and probably get those numbers up just from that. And that's a better route.

[Sal DiStefano]

And it is higher per ounce in omega 3s and salmon. Doug, if you could look up for me a serving of sardines in a can. How many Omega 3s are in there? It's super concentrated. Like, you know, one can every, you know, three of those a week or something like that, and you'd be getting a really high, nice dose.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I mean, I. You had a lot of success getting clients to do that, huh?

[Sal DiStefano]

That's interesting. I did a lot of people. So There you go. One. One little can. 18 grams of protein. So you're not even getting, like a huge. It's not even a huge serving. 1800 milligrams of omega 3s and one of those. 70 of your daily value of vitamin D. One can in one can. It's just so it's. It's more nutrient dense than. Than salmon. And now when I had clients and I recommend sardines, they all had the reaction you guys had, like, oh, sardines. Then when they buy them in olive oil, you put salt on them or something, and everybody's like, that's actually pretty good.

[Justin Andrews]

Is there. Do you have any tricks to disguising it or anything like that? You just. Because I think it's the eating out of the can that's like, put it.

[Sal DiStefano]

On a plate with olive oil, throw some salt on it, See for yourself. I'm just telling you it's not bad. It's not bad at all. You like tuna fish?

[Justin Andrews]

I'm.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, it's less fishy than tuna fish.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm open to giving a try. I've just. It's always been a tough one for me. It's just like, that just looks disgusting. So I mean, I'm like, you can, you can get me to try stuff like that. I mean, I'm not that resistant to it. I just. Because I was. I always went the salmon route to clients, regardless of why. I didn't know how beneficial that was in comparison.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Obviously the better route at the bench client, I just.

[Sal DiStefano]

You don't like anything.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, exactly. I'm a bad example to bring in this conversation.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

So, yeah, I supplement.

[Sal DiStefano]

He likes fish shaped nuggets. All right, next up, blueberries. Blueberries. So here's what I love about blueberries. If you were to compare. A while ago there was this craze over the acai berry. Remember that? Like this. Now that you can find it.

[Justin Andrews]

The company Monavie.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes. So for a long while ago, it was like 20 years ago, they talked about this like exotic Amazon berry high in antioxidant. It's a blueberry in the Amazon. It's literally the same.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, the same thing.

[Sal DiStefano]

But because it was so exotic and it is very high in antioxidants.

[Adam Schafer]

It's exotic, but it's so like, it's everywhere in Brazil. Yeah. It's just like blueberries here.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was all marketing. Yeah. Blueberries are super high in beneficial flavonoids, antioxidants, super high in fiber, super accessible. It's the best fruit.

[Justin Andrews]

It was. This was a, this is a go to one for me for the fiber, antioxidants and low calories. So it's a great way for your clients to get that.

[Adam Schafer]

Everybody lost a ton of calories index. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

If I had clients that had a lot of time, had any sort of constipation or digestive issues, a I would literally prescribe two, two cups of this for the next three days. And like, although they would be cleared up, it was like a go to move easy tastes good blueberries go on so many things so well too. So this would actually be on probably the top of my list of like when I think of the. That I recommend those. Not that blueberries trumps grass fed Beef. It definitely doesn't. You couldn't live.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, but I wanted it to be balanced.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. I wanted a fruit like, you can't just eat blueberries and live off it. But again, using the qualifier you said of like, these are the things that we recommended a lot made an impact on clients, hands down. Blueberries was probably actually number one.

[Sal DiStefano]

If you were to look at like, you know, because you always have antioxidants and anti inflammatory compounds or whatever, and you were looking at different foods. Blueberries crushes. The reason why nobody talks about blueberries is because it's not sexy.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, and by the way, blueberries, berries in general, right? Any berry?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Raspberry, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, BlackBerry. All those are very similar in the fact that they're high in fiber, high in antioxidants, and very low calorie. When you compare it to other fruits.

[Sal DiStefano]

By the way, this is like a staple. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries are staple foods for my kids. Like, they're so good for you and kids love them. This is one of those.

[Justin Andrews]

It's like a treat.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. It's one of those foods for parents where. Cause you sometimes like, okay, it's healthy, but they won't eat it.

[Adam Schafer]

He's.

[Sal DiStefano]

Kids eat, they eat berries. Let them eat it.

[Adam Schafer]

High in fiber.

[Justin Andrews]

Berries in Greek yogurt is like a go to meal for my son. Yeah, it's like just. And it's like a treat to him. Sprinkle a little bit of granola on top of that and he's just like. He thinks he's got a dessert.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep. Next up. This is not at all a nutrient dense food in terms of micronutrients, but it's extremely easy to digest, it's very inexpensive, and it's the most versatile starch that you'll find anywhere, which is white rice. White rice is the best if you want a starch. Yeah, it's the best. Everybody digests it well. You can add it to anything. It's inexpensive. It's like a very easy, cheap, clean, effective source of carbohydrates.

[Justin Andrews]

This is my favorite one on your list because I think it'll be the most controversial as a superfood. But again, using the qualifier that you said, there's probably nothing that I've recommended more than just plain old white rice. There's nothing I've ate more than plain old. It just goes with everything. You can have it mixed with eggs and stuff for breakfast. You can have it for every. Every single meat that you eat or enjoy it Goes with fish. It goes with beef. It goes with lamb. It goes. I mean, there's. It just goes with everything. And it's so good. It's new. I mean, to me, like, white rice is just compliments everything. It's a great. And it's also another reason why it's very easy to measure and track.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

And when you're working with clients and you're trying to be consistent with their tracking and their macros, I mean, nothing measures easier than a cup of rice. You know, it's such an easy way to stay.

[Sal DiStefano]

Have you guys ever had a client have, like, specific digestive issues?

[Justin Andrews]

Digest so easy?

[Sal DiStefano]

Nothing. Yeah, it's the easiest, cleanest sources, by the way.

[Justin Andrews]

Better than brown rice, too.

[Sal DiStefano]

Way easier. Because brown rice, the fiber and brown rice can cause problems for actually anti nutrients. By the way, brown rice on paper looks healthier, but through the digestive process is actually less healthy. Actually can cause nutrient deficiencies.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Brown rice, massively overrated. White rice winner.

[Sal DiStefano]

White rice is it. All right, lastly, here's where you're probably. Yeah, debate me a little bit. Zucchini. Now, here's why I wanted to include a vegetable. Now, zucchini is technically not a vegetable, which is a good thing. Right. Zucchini is a fruit from fruit are, generally speaking, easier to digest, very rare to have an intolerance to fruit versus vegetable, if you were to compare them. But zucchini provides you with a lot of the benefits people are looking for from vegetables. In particular, motility. Well cooked zucchini for digestion is amazing. It's also very low in calorie. Now it is high in certain nutrients, lutein, zeaxanthin, which are both great for inflammation of the brain, eyes, skin. But it's just this one thing that you. If you want to eat more vegetables to improve your digestion, but you also may have issues with food intolerance. Whatever.

[Adam Schafer]

So we're thinking digestion is. Is a big process because I would be like, well, nutrient wise, I would have gone cruciferous. But then some people can't.

[Sal DiStefano]

A lot of people have issues with cruciferous.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, they can't. Yeah. Process it as easy.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, this is. You threw me for a loop on this one. Something like avocado. Spinach would have been more likely.

[Sal DiStefano]

I like avocado, but we had our F there. Otherwise I would have put number six.

[Adam Schafer]

Would have been avocado.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, I guess that's true. You have plenty of fat. Okay. So that's kind of where you're.

[Sal DiStefano]

No.

[Adam Schafer]

No seeds or Nuts.

[Justin Andrews]

And then, and then sell me on why so much better than spinach.

[Sal DiStefano]

So there are. So now, okay, now people are going to be like, why are you saying that? Okay, so the carnivore enthusiasts, they make points that have some truth. I think they're all super extreme. I do think they're cases where some people have just autoimmune issues where they react to everything and they go on just a pure beef diet and it solves problems for them. So I get that. But the argument they make against vegetables in particular is vegetables have compounds in them that, that are in them to prevent animals from eating them. Okay. So in other words, if you're going to have an intolerance to a food, vegetables can kind of be high. Same thing with legumes. Right. So you see, legumes will have issues. Nuts will have issues. Egg whites, you'll have issues. Why the egg white protects the yolk. And so the theory of vegetables are like, like spinach doesn't want you to eat the leaf. Yeah. They don't want you to eat the roots. What a plant wants you to use the fruit. It wants to eat the fruit. So fruit is very easy to digest, whereas vegetables, sometimes yes, sometimes no. So you talk to people about spinach and you'll get people who will say, man, if I eat too much spinach, it messes me up. And the way they get around it is they cook the hell out of it. Yeah, they'll boil and cook the hell out of it. Same thing with cruciferous.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you cook it.

[Sal DiStefano]

I made this mistake once. I ate a bag of raw broccoli.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, no.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, bro, do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was terrible.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, people can you cook the.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hell out of it? But see, with zucchini, it's like it's a fruit essentially. It wants to be eaten. So it doesn't have, you know, pose those issues.

[Justin Andrews]

That's a new one to me. I like that. I mean, we do zucchini, though. We do it a lot. I just, I don't know if I ever went that way. But that makes sense. That makes sense. If that's something that you are challenged with, more than likely they're going to be able to have zucchini over the other ones.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, my wife makes it real well too. She'll. This way it's really good where she slices it. Actually, my son will slice it, now my 4 year old, but it'll be sliced. Then she cooks it with olive oil and a cast iron. So like olive oil, garlic. I'm not sure. Salt. And she kind of blackens it a little bit. And the cast iron. Oh, man, that's good. And that is like. That is, like, the best for digestion.

[Adam Schafer]

So.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

What does that say there, Doug? So are vegetables real?

[Aaron Manke]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So is this on the moon?

[Aaron Manke]

It's more of a culinary term rather than a class of, you know, Plant.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

That's funny.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Aaron Manke]

It's root, stems, leaves, flowers. Some fruits are included in that group of vegetables. Like zucchini.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Interesting.

[Justin Andrews]

That is interesting.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's a culinary term.

[Adam Schafer]

Was it just that they have seeds? Is that the class of the qualifier?

[Sal DiStefano]

That's what it used to be for fruits. Yeah. If something has seeds in it, the plant is growing it and wants it to be eaten, because that's how it.

[Adam Schafer]

So then they. Yeah, you poop. And then it grows. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Because of the.

[Adam Schafer]

And then it's a fertilization. Yeah. That's fun.

[Sal DiStefano]

I know. Isn't that hilarious?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I know.

[Sal DiStefano]

I love it. Anyway, I was looking up, or I actually came across this post on what actually causes muscle growth. So, as you guys probably know, there's always this, like, debate. Is it damage? Is it waste buildup? Is it mechanical tension? So the debate was. So mechanical tension is just the tension on a muscle fiber as it's contracting, whether it's concentrically contracting, you know, shortening, eccentrically lengthening, or isometrically just holding. Right. So that's mechanical tension. Then there's waste. Waste buildup, which is like the burn and the pump and the lactic acid that you feel. Yeah. Or some. Some people will say lactic acid. That's a debate as whether or not that's a waste, but.

[Adam Schafer]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's the burn. It's the, you know, the pump, all that stuff. The other one is like, damage. Is it damage? So you damage a muscle fiber, then your body goes in, heals it, and then it makes it stronger. So there's been this debate back and forth, and for a while now, the data has shown that it's probably mostly mechanical tension, where more data is coming out showing that it's probably all mechanical tension.

[Justin Andrews]

So what we're finding with damage, if that's true, then. I mean, I've talked about this for a long time that I remember when I first read this as a trainer, that technically soreness is a sign of over.

[Sal DiStefano]

Too much.

[Justin Andrews]

Too much. It is. Then it's. Then it's completely overrated. I mean, if you're. If it's all mechanical tension, then the signal of soreness the next day is more likely a sign of over training than that you had a good workout.

[Sal DiStefano]

So here's where it gets interesting. Right. Like applying enough mechanical tension to a muscle fiber to trigger muscle growth probably will elicit some damage. So it's hard to separate the two.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then the waste byproduct when you get a pump and then you do subsequent sets, it probably increases the tension on the muscle fiber because of the fluid buildup in the muscle, but it all points back to mechanical tension. So. Interesting, right? It's interesting. What does this tell us? I think what it tells us is what's most important is trying to get stronger, at least for the first few years, which is what we've always kind of preached, longer rest periods. Right. So you don't necessarily need to chase some of those other things. But yeah, it's interesting what the, what the studies are coming out.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I feel like that points to the, the soreness thing more than anything to me is that it's not necessary you. If you create good tension, that there's. There's a very good chance you're going to adapt, grow, build muscle. You don't necessarily have to be sore. Now could you be tension? You create a ton of mechanical tension and then also become sore. Yes, but I think that just points more to that. That's more of a sign of overtraining. And the goal is, can I create mechanical tension in this workout without actually getting really sore is what maybe is the Goldilocks zone.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. The reason why I was also reading about eccentric contractions, because they've shown an eccentric contractions build more. If you were to compare it to other types of contractions.

[Adam Schafer]

So for people more likely to get you sore.

[Sal DiStefano]

Correct. Yeah. So that's the other side of it. But so for people don't know, like an eccentric contraction would be like me curling a dumbbell. But now I'm lowering the weight. That's. That's consider controlling the lengthening. Right. Eccentric concentric will be curling it up. But the reason why they say eccentric probably builds more is because you can apply more tension.

[Justin Andrews]

So if you can curl four times more.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So if you curl 50 pounds up, probably lower, a lot more.

[Justin Andrews]

It's four times control. They've actually done it. This is on average the. Whatever you can do.

[Sal DiStefano]

I remember reading.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. On the concentric motion, you're. You can load four times more. It's. And I've tested it before, just like, okay, this is what I can curl. Then you have somebody like lower.

[Adam Schafer]

It's like the spotter.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Adam Schafer]

They used to work out like that, where they just hold the weight and then you're just eccentrically bringing it.

[Sal DiStefano]

But then the other side of that is, with that much tension comes damage.

[Adam Schafer]

Sure.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're going to get some damage along with it.

[Justin Andrews]

Totally.

[Sal DiStefano]

This is why I think for a lot of people who don't, who've never trained with really heavy weight, when they do, it's like game changer, like their body. Just because there's a lot. I mean, you can get a lot of tension with higher reps, too, but it requires, in my opinion, more work.

[Adam Schafer]

Way more focus, too.

[Sal DiStefano]

More work? Yeah. Like. Like heavy sets. Like, it's heavy. You're going to have a lot of tension.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're exerting a lot.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, so I think that may be why you see that. Especially, you know, we get female clients who never train in the three, you know, four or five rep range.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Switch them over and it's like, boom.

[Justin Andrews]

So yesterday was technically an off day for you.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, yesterday was workout.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, so yesterday was a workout. Today is.

[Sal DiStefano]

Today was today. I just did sauna and stretching. I just sat in the sauna and did some gnarly stretch. Which is. Man, it's gnarly, dude. 30. I did 35 minutes in there. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

With really deep static stretching.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hard static stretching.

[Justin Andrews]

No. Now, have you had poses? You doing?

[Sal DiStefano]

I did quad stretch. I'm focusing on stretches that are beneficial for jiu jitsu. So in jiu jitsu, when you're in someone's guard on the ground, you need to sit back on your heels. And my quads are just tight.

[Justin Andrews]

A lot of happy, baby.

[Sal DiStefano]

So I'm doing that. No, no, that's. But that's when you're the other guy.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Like stretch.

[Sal DiStefano]

Say what?

[Adam Schafer]

Couch.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Which one's couch?

[Adam Schafer]

So you put your foot back on the bench.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Did that press your hips forward?

[Sal DiStefano]

Pigeon. Did a lot of pigeon. It's for some of the S mount stuff that I would do hamstring stretches. That's not super important.

[Justin Andrews]

But now are you finding yourself. Have you had to have like, like an inner talk? Like where it's like, you know, today is you're supposed to go in like that and there's like, wow, maybe I'll just do one little exercise. Like, are you. Are you even having that kind of a challenge where you're where you are tempted even though you've. Because you. You've decided Monday workouts, Monday and Thursday is supposed to. I'm assuming you've. You've picked a day so you don't do this right. So Monday, Thursday, you get to lift. Other days not. Are you coming in on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and going like, maybe I'll do it today.

[Sal DiStefano]

So I, I don't know if this will change, but the first week was tough and I just felt sad. I just felt depressed and sad. You know, it's true.

[Justin Andrews]

I just felt now that you're getting stronger, you're happy.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, no, no. You know what? I didn't even really pay attention. It wasn't until you asked me how much I was lifting. I had to go add it up because it's purposely not. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay. Something switched again. I don't know if it's going to switch back. I'm sure I'll struggle at some point, but I feel totally okay.

[Justin Andrews]

I think so. I think it's. What are my guess.

[Sal DiStefano]

But we're in the third week.

[Justin Andrews]

Even though you're. Even though you're not trying to focus on strength, focus on the mirror. I have a feeling that you're gonna see positive both in either strength maintenance or maybe even strength gains. And aesthetically looking as good. Unless you. Which I don't think you're going to do, like fall off the wagon, diet wise. I think what you're going to realize is that you're gonna look as good or better and you'll be as strong or better with significantly less. And so it'll. At that point, I feel like it'd be motivating. At least that's how it's been for me is like as I've reduced my volume down, I'm like this maybe, maybe.

[Sal DiStefano]

Comforting might be the right word.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah, maybe that. Maybe that. That's probably how I.

[Sal DiStefano]

But I can feel. I'm letting go of it. Of course, a lot of prayer. I think that's helping a lot. I'm sure at some point it'll pop back up. But it's interesting for people listening who are stuck in that place. When you kind of. When you move in a different direction and kind of stay there, eventually those chains start to break. You start to feel those chains break. It's initially, it can be hard. It's like if you always track your food, always track your food and you go off at first you feel like, ah, you know, I'm going nuts. But then after a few weeks, what you'll find it feels freeing. Or like you weigh yourself all the time so you Know, but I don't know if it'll come back. You know, when it'll come back. It'll come back if I go start lifting weights a lot. If I make it all about lifting weights and bodybuilding, then that old monster starts to come back. But the fact that I'm not doing it, I think has helped. And I'm actually enjoying the, the mobility. Well, enjoying is a strong word. I'm not hating it. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever love it.

[Adam Schafer]

Teaching yourself to enjoy it, you know.

[Justin Andrews]

But then you, you recorded yesterday too, right? Yeah, yours. And you've, you've dramatically reduced the amount of volume you were doing.

[Adam Schafer]

Dramatically. Yeah. Which is funny because like, then like, you know how that goes. I, I verbalize, I'm talking with you guys about it and then I'm out there like, yeah, I'm gonna cut all this out. And then I just keep, you know, this set. Well, I'm gonna do another set. I'm gonna do another. And I caught myself ramping it back up and then I failed. Yeah, I was feel good and then I failed on like 275. But I was like, oh, okay, I, I should stop. You know, I was like, I was gonna do it again. My ego wanted to really just get back at it. And like, I've done this before forward and like, you know, because that's a new, that's a new, like, that's a new bar. Bar for me. Like I just got back and I'm like, I want to keep, you know, hammering at home. Like this is like a consistent thing. So that was an ego shot that like kind of hit me real hard. And then I was like, you idiot. Like, you were just talking about feeling good and strong and, and you know, reducing a lot of volume. And so. But anyway, it's all part of the process. Like I need to, I need to exhausts. Like, I just need to start like going off of a new playbook and really stick to it, you know what the.

[Sal DiStefano]

So years ago when I was chasing a 600 pound deadlift, I would make this mistake. I'd hit a PR and then it.

[Justin Andrews]

Tried PR next day and I'd be.

[Sal DiStefano]

Like, that's my new. Yeah. And then what I.

[Justin Andrews]

Hard not to.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's hard.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, because you're like, maybe I got a little more.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, so then what I did, I was reading like, like Soviet era training methodologies and what they would do with their athletes is when they would hit a pr. Go back, they go way back. And then they'd Focus on SPE for a while.

[Adam Schafer]

That's exactly what I know. Like, logically, I was like, yeah, that's what I should be doing. And then I didn't do that. So now I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonna try really hard to discipline myself to do that.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, it's resisting that temptation. There's a part of you, when you hit that PR, you go like, well, could I done 10 more of them?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, exactly.

[Adam Schafer]

And then I give, like, five more pounds.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, that temptation of like, man, that went. That went down pretty good. Maybe. Maybe next week I'll do a little. You know what I'm saying? Versus, like. Okay, PR. Now reset. Go back. Change it to way light speed.

[Sal DiStefano]

I got a question for you. Are you using the defranco grip thing before your workouts?

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, to see.

[Sal DiStefano]

No. Oh, I wonder if that would help.

[Adam Schafer]

And you know what else is a factor too? And this is why I'm really looking forward to going. Working with Thursday. I'm going to work with Jordan. But there's the. What we have set up here is so not conducive to what I'm trying to do. Because Dylan. Poor Dylan. I'm like, okay, we gotta lift it back up. So we have to. Every time, like, I do, like, I drop, I have to pick it back up and then put it back on the rack. And I was like, I didn't want to complain because it's like I'm getting exhausted just, you know, with that for seven boxes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Like, pulling it and bringing it back up. And then I was like, you know, when I. When I hit it before, I did a lot less laddering up to that point. Like, I started at, like, you know, like, to.

[Sal DiStefano]

So no fatigue.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, no fatigue. Fatigue wasn't there. And then also to the. The in between. So anyway, I have all these excuses, but. But that's. I'm factoring all that in for when I really try to, like, you know.

[Justin Andrews]

But when the day. When the day comes and you're towards the end of this program and you're going to go try after these pr. Sal and I will come be your. Your weight bitch, and we'll. So that way you got.

[Adam Schafer]

Bro.

[Sal DiStefano]

He's so strong.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, there's two of us. I figured by myself, I can't.

[Sal DiStefano]

Dylan will appreciate.

[Adam Schafer]

He's, like, trying to film.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, poor Dylan. These guys are the cameraman and put.

[Adam Schafer]

Him through the ringer, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

That's not fair to him at all, man. You know, I mean, we. I know one of the things I've always enjoyed is when we have these conversations and the stuff that we continue to learn or even if it's a lesson we've already learned. But again, how it's still challenging. The PR stuff I'm reminded of just man, how I, I really, when I'm not tracking and I'm not really going after protein, I'm definitely guilty of like dramatically like way less than I should. I just know I'm this.

[Sal DiStefano]

Where do you fall when you don't? What do you think?

[Justin Andrews]

80 grams.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So like two, two protein meals.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Or three medium sized ones or whatever like that. Yeah. So I, if I, if I don't actively go after protein, I probably fall right around 80 grams. Crazy. Maybe as low as 70. Maybe I'm lucky 1 20, 1 30. But dramatically under.

[Adam Schafer]

And what is your, your breakfast? Is that like a determiner?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. So if I'm, if I'm breakfast skipping like I'm doing sometimes that's right away that, that guarantees I'm not going to get even anywhere close. But yeah, you're normally lunch and dinner. Then there are these kind of big protein meals. But even, even a big, a big protein meal is, you know, 60 grams.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, 120 if you're lucky.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So that's huge. That's a big like, big is like 45, 50, you know what I'm saying? That's. You're talking about 8, 10 ounces of meat or more like. Yeah, that's like a pound and a pound just to get 160. So it's just, it's hard to do that. And what. So when I was in Mexico, I trained two of the, the three days that or two of the four days I was out there and overreached in. Man, it really is a night and day difference on how fast I recover when versus when I'm huge, huge, huge. And I'm reminded of that. So I wanted to share because I'm like here we are, I'm almost a week since then. Right. So it's. Or it's like six day. I'm still really sore and I'm like to a point where I was like man, I didn't overreach that bad. Like, you know what, I've been so low protein the last three, four days. I'm like, I, I'm just not giving myself enough and what. And I can feel how much the recovery is dragging for me.

[Sal DiStefano]

If it's, it's sleep one protein second. If those two things will affect My recovery like nothing else.

[Justin Andrews]

Ironic you say that, because I've been sharing the whole thing going on with the eight sleep and getting that all fixed and stuff right now, waiting for them to send over the new one. And my sleep has been terrible. So what I'm probably noticing is a combination of deprived, because I shouldn't. I bear. I really was. I did a workout that was intended not to do a lot of damage. I was like, oh, this is just. Just a nice, light, easy whatever. Shouldn't be that sore. And then I ended up being pretty sore. A lot sore than I thought. I'm like, God, here. How am I still sore? But then I'm like, low protein, terrible.

[Sal DiStefano]

Sleep, plus your wimpy.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hey, I want to ask you. You had the sunburn, you said, we're using the Jew for it. Oh.

[Justin Andrews]

So, yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

What did you notice?

[Justin Andrews]

So I brought. I didn't get burnt. I mean, it didn't burn and peel for sure. I overdid the sun. I mean, I was in Cabo, so we were like, this was after the fact.

[Sean]

You used this?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. You know what made me do it? So the house had. I mean, did you guys see the video of the house?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Insane. That was an insane house.

[Justin Andrews]

Shout out to Jim. Did. I don't. When. When Jim came to the studio, did we tell the people, the audience on air, that he was there? I don't remember if he just got there.

[Adam Schafer]

I think that was.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. So the audience knows we had a guest come in. He's. He's been a longtime listener. I'm sure he'll listen to this. So shout out to Jim and, like, really listens to the show. Like, he's listened to a lot of episodes. Came in. I can't even remember how Katrina set up the visit for him to come by, but he came in and watched the live recording, and he goes, he knew that I go to Cabo a lot. Katrina and I go to Cabo a couple times a year for a very long time. And he's like, hey, I'm building a place out there. And then he goes, you know, I would love for you to check it out. I know you and Katrina travel and do stuff like that and love to hear your opinion on it and give me feedback. And I'm like, oh, cool. Yeah, well, I'll hit you up when I'm gonna head out that way. And so we kind of stayed in contact back and forth a little bit. And then this trip came up where I'm going out there for a wedding, and I Reach out to him, said, hey, I'm gonna be out there around this time. Is the house available? And he's like, oh my God, it's finishing up right now. This would be great. I'll be like the first guest to stay in it. And he's just like, would love to hear your opinion and feedback. And he sent me over a little bit of a hype video on it and I could tell it's a nice place. I'm like, oh, that's a really nice place. This is cool. So I'm super excited we go with another couple. But the video did not do justice. Like I went there and I went, holy. I mean I told Katrina it's a ridiculous bro. I. I've stayed in, I've been blessed enough to stay in a lot of really cool Airbnb. We've stayed in a ton of Airbnbs together. We look for really cool spots. I don't think I've ever been in a house this cool. Like as far as everything it had like he has really thought, I mean.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, there was a spa in there.

[Justin Andrews]

A full, A full spa where you actually can get facials done and a massage. I mean and, and the details, like I think a warmer for the sheets, the red light therapy sitting right, right by the thing. There's was a cold plunge, a sauna steam, a shower to rinse you off between the gym. I mean that was the biggest.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was like better than hotel gym.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, it was the, it was the.

[Adam Schafer]

Biggest home lit up bar surface.

[Justin Andrews]

A body fat tester.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean the detail that he put into this place and he, his goal, he said like, I really want to attract a high end health, health conscious client. And so I mean, I'm like, bro, you just hit it out the park.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you use the red light there.

[Justin Andrews]

So I use it there and back. So nice. I got. I know I overdid the sun and I was like, oh, we just were talking about juve and you're just talking about the sunburn thing. And I'm like, I've actually never intentionally.

[Sal DiStefano]

1.

[Justin Andrews]

I don't burn that easy. Takes a lot of sun for me to even probably need that. I'm like, oh, this is. I knew it was coming on. I could just tell the way my skin was turning red. I'm like, oh. So I right away the next day did it there. So I did it two days there. And I've done it since I've gone back and it like it kept it from turning into a burn, which obviously we all Know what our skin is like and so you can tell when like oh this is going to be a sunburn and peel or whatever. I knew I was on that path but just from doing the light the two days there and then I've done two more days since I've been back. Kept it from turning into a burn and peeling and just turn it into a nice tan.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, it reduces inflammation for people who aren't familiar. So red light, this spectrum of light activates mitochondria. It's well known, well studied, it's been studied since the 1970s. It's not new science. And it reduces inflammation, stimulates collagen production, reduces damage. By the way, what it does for skin, it'll do for muscle. Right. So if you do hard training and you get the wavelength of red light that penetrates through the skin because you can get deep penetrating or something that just focus on the skin. And I know Joovv has the panels that do both.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So the big panels will do both.

[Justin Andrews]

So I've tested what you're talking about now I've trained legs really hard, intending or trying to get sore and then red lighted one sided, not the other side.

[Sal DiStefano]

And you notice the difference?

[Justin Andrews]

Oh yes. Oh yeah. You will, you will. Absolutely. And I don't recommend you do that. Like, like. But I was so curious because I remember when we were reading all the studies and it's like, could it be making that big of a difference? Like, come on. Well, easy way to test it is I'm going to train hard, trying to get sore and then I'm going to use one side and one side only and then see if I can feel the difference.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh yeah, well think about it. Right. Well how does this benefit you? Well, we just talked about mechanical tension stimulating muscle growth and damage not being the thing that stimulates muscle growth. Well, what if that allowed you to apply more mechanical tension more frequently and subvert the damage, not get as much damage? Well now you got better results. In fact, I think I've never thought of this before but I think red light therapy would be a great way to bring up a weak body part. So you increase the volume and frequency of a weaker body part, add red light therapy, specifically targeting that area and you'll probably get faster results.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, you make the analogy all the time. When you try and teach people the adaptation process. You always use tanning as the example of that and that really mitigated the damage I would have done. You know, like you always say just 10 minutes at a time. Well, I didn't do that. I stayed out there for hours. Definitely overdid it, like, over training. But because I did the red light therapy, it ended up adapting just fine. I got a great tan from it. And so of course it would apply, I would think very similarly with training is like, it now allows you that, that, that ability to maybe overreach a little more than what you normally would because you can still recover and go back.

[Sal DiStefano]

Dude, I got to tell you guys a story that happened over the weekend that was just. It was, it was pretty awesome to see. In the moment, though, it was a little scary. So my wife, she was superwoman. So we're. We're all hanging out at home. We have friends over, they hadn't been over. This couple that we met. So we're all hanging out. Everybody has little kids. So the kids at one point are watching tv. We're all having a little bit of wine together at the table and the kids are eating snacks. My wife bought these like granola ball things or whatever, and the kids are eating them. And my 4 year old gets up and he starts choking.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, God.

[Sal DiStefano]

And he makes a face and listen, I'm not. This is not an exaggeration, okay? You'll meet these people at some point. They'll tell you, this is not. My son stands up, he starts to gag a little bit. Bro. My wife from the kitchen, I listen. Flew in there, swooped him up, turned him upside down, Pop, pop, pop, pop. Hitting him. He spits it out. I mean, so fast. Everybody there, like, the couple we had over were like, super mom. Oh, yeah. They're like, oh, my God. You went right into action.

[Justin Andrews]

You flew over.

[Sal DiStefano]

And I was laughing because. And I was making a joke. I'm like, but if it was me choking. She flipped me upside down.

[Adam Schafer]

But she.

[Sal DiStefano]

Action so fast. In fact, she was wearing a dress. And she's like, I'm pretty sure I mooned everybody. I don't think we noticed. We were looking at my hand.

[Justin Andrews]

I think every parent has experienced something like that where you, I mean, I told the story where I like pulled my groin muscle because you just, you get. I heard him going down the stairs. It's just, it's a weird thing to, you know, to reflect on after it's happened. It's like, I moved faster than you. You could pay me all the money in the world and I couldn't replicate.

[Adam Schafer]

There's another level you don't even know you have. Yeah, that's the thing. It's crazy.

[Justin Andrews]

She.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was. I'm not, I Mean, again, it was split second as I. As we were processing that he was. Is he like, what? Is he. Is he. Boom. She's over there, and she literally snatches.

[Adam Schafer]

Extra sense.

[Sal DiStefano]

She snatches him up. She's holding with one arm upside down, hitting the bat. I was like, so scary.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah. I had that when Courtney was at work, and.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, that's. That's.

[Justin Andrews]

I remember.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, that was even. Yeah. Even with Ethan, too, at both kids. Like, I've had to do that. And it was just like, oh, that's terrifying.

[Sal DiStefano]

So we have. We bought those choking. I don't recall, but we got them too, though. You pull the plunger.

[Justin Andrews]

I got the same thing, bro.

[Sal DiStefano]

The Facebook ad got me those. That ad scared the shit of me. I was flipping through.

[Justin Andrews]

I bought three of them, you know.

[Sal DiStefano]

And there's a video. Listen.

[Adam Schafer]

I know there's a.

[Justin Andrews]

They're still sitting in the plastic in the floor pants.

[Sal DiStefano]

I get it.

[Adam Schafer]

Like, yeah, it's the worst.

[Sal DiStefano]

I bought one of every size. It's the worst ad. It's the worst, most effective ad ever. I'm flipping through Facebook, and you're watching because you're like, what's. It looks like a. A security cam video, and there's a mom running outside holding your kid who's choking, trying to help him. It's like, don't let this happen. I'm like, oh, bye, Bye, bye, bye.

[Justin Andrews]

It's tough, too, because there's a lot of value in the kids. Big chunks of meat and learning to chew and stuff. And so that's been a constant battle, Katrina and I, because there's this temptation to want to chop it up.

[Sal DiStefano]

All the fear.

[Justin Andrews]

All. Yeah. All small for him so he doesn't have to worry about it. But it's like, man, there's. You're. We're also depriving him of building all that muscle in his jaw and that digestive process of him chewing on something like that. Yeah, there's a lot of value to that. So it's like, ah, how do you balance this? Like, this is.

[Sal DiStefano]

We know parenting in a nutshell, right? It's everything. Oh, they're climbing the tree. Oh, man. If he falls, that's not gonna be. You start to get afraid.

[Adam Schafer]

Risk on here.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Sit in it. You know, it's like, oh, dude, have you guys seen. I wanted to bring this up because I just saw a video, and it's so wild and, like, something I didn't really foresee in terms of, like, technology and how, you know, they're going to come up with these crazy products, but Kawasaki, I believe they came up. I think it's Corleo they call it. It's like a quad, right? But it's a freaking. Like an animal.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh no, I've seen that.

[Sean]

Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

So it like has legs and it like runs and then jumps.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, it doesn't.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes, you sit on it. You sit on it and it's like. I mean, for conceptual. Conceptual. But they said that they're actually gonna put it in production.

[Justin Andrews]

I thought you're gonna talk about the big wheel that I sent you guys. I totally did not.

[Adam Schafer]

No, dude, this tripped me out. I was just thinking like, if you're in the forest and then all of a sudden somebody's on one of the things.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, no.

[Adam Schafer]

And it looks like, oh, oh.

[Sal DiStefano]

I did see this video, but that's not real.

[Adam Schafer]

It's conceptual.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's a hydrogen powered robot horse. Oh, that's cool.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, if you play the video.

[Sal DiStefano]

Seriously though, like, if you roll up, I was like, imagine being like so.

[Adam Schafer]

Sketchy if I saw that in real life.

[Sal DiStefano]

Imagine being a young dude.

[Justin Andrews]

Would mechanical horses become a thing?

[Sal DiStefano]

Could they?

[Adam Schafer]

I know, why not? It's kind of weird.

[Sal DiStefano]

They would because arms, they can get.

[Adam Schafer]

Further like in terms of like terrain.

[Justin Andrews]

That's what I'm saying. Like what? I never. That never even of all. All robot never thought like, wow, mechanical.

[Adam Schafer]

Horses, that'd be like going backwards, right? Yeah, but, but you're like, wait a minute, there's imagine value to that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Now imagine you're like a, like a young dude and you got one of these for the first time and you roll up to like, like a bunch of girls. Hey, like how cool would you be, you know, get on my robot horse.

[Adam Schafer]

Like jumps. Like you think about jumping over like some crap.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh my God.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh my God.

[Sal DiStefano]

Dude. Scary dude. That would be. I kind of want one.

[Justin Andrews]

I didn't even know that was.

[Adam Schafer]

I know. I actually, I was like, I would.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, you know what?

[Adam Schafer]

I don't know.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, there's so many like conceptual things now. It's like, which one are we really going to get? I think Doug was talking about this the day somebody else had shared this with me and I heard this. And I think this is true in the organize. I believe that Porsche is working on like a like a synthetic carbon neutral fuel. So that basically it's going to be like going to be light gas powered cars, but it'll be carbon neutral.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so does that mean carbon neutral?

[Justin Andrews]

So. Well, right now gas is not right sure. So it'll. I don't know, it's like a synthetic type of.

[Sal DiStefano]

I think hydrogen does.

[Adam Schafer]

How's it.

[Sal DiStefano]

I think hydrogen. Hydrogen powered cars, they just emits steam, right? Or, or water vapor.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, water vapor is the byproduct.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Aaron Manke]

So it's called E fuel. It's made from water and captured CO2.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, that's why. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's so whatever. It's capturing and then putting it back out. So it's carbon neutral and you can.

[Aaron Manke]

Use it in a regular gas powered engine.

[Justin Andrews]

That's what makes it so crazy. So imagine having this badass gas powered car. That sounds awesome and is all the things that people love that are enthusiasts but you're not polluting. Yeah, yeah. I mean that could be game changing. That would be if that happens.

[Adam Schafer]

Let's wait where this electric nonsense.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, if they made it cost, you know, if it was.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, look it up.

[Aaron Manke]

Yeah, that's the challenge right now.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not cost effective, but they're working on it. You know what I'm saying? Like most everything that we, we figure out, like it's, it's really not cost effective at first.

[Sal DiStefano]

Until since you guys are talking about this, you know, it's funny crazy. I've been contemplating just because I'm trying, I'm doing different things to stay active. I'm like, maybe I should go buy a bike, you know, because I live in a good town, you know, or it's a nice bike riding town.

[Adam Schafer]

I want to get you a good helmet.

[Sal DiStefano]

And I had. I know, dude, why would you point to your.

[Adam Schafer]

Just got a match.

[Justin Andrews]

Super aerodynamic.

[Sal DiStefano]

Just because you wear. Just because you wear a triple X helmet.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah. I got a big ass dome, dude.

[Sal DiStefano]

Anyway, so I was talking to my buddy about this because I mean, you know, it might be good. It's good activity. I used to like riding my bike when I was younger and there's these electric bikes that they're not the electric ones that are like little motorcycles.

[Justin Andrews]

Like what we have.

[Sal DiStefano]

You still have to pedal them.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So it's got, it's got just an engine that helps you. And I'm like, why would I want that? And he goes, bro, you go. He goes. You go all over the place. It's a mountain bike. You go up hill, downhill. He goes, you just enjoy the scenery. He's like, you still have to work changer.

[Justin Andrews]

I know you have that already, right?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You know, you know you own that already, right?

[Sal DiStefano]

That's the one we have over there. I haven't used it.

[Justin Andrews]

That's exactly. So it's cool.

[Adam Schafer]

Is that so awesome?

[Justin Andrews]

You. There's all these levels of exactly how much assistance you want. So if you want a full on pedal, you can full on pedal. If you want just a tad of the electric to kick in, then it just. Which is awes. So it's like.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, but we have the cheap ones. He was showing me this like $7,000, like amazing.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, I mean it can get. Yeah, those are nice. Dude. They're not, they're not. I mean I guess they're cheaper than that, but they're not.

[Sal DiStefano]

They're not.

[Justin Andrews]

This is crap.

[Adam Schafer]

I haven't even talked about this because you're guys kids and you know, I don't know, we have different kind of like stages like, but like my older. He keeps borrowing my, my E bike and it's like the range in the accessibility to like in terms of going further than we would have gone as kids, like it's crazy. And, and two, they're having major problems with a lot of groups of kids because they'll make their way onto the roads and so there's. They're starting to try and crack down and like, you know, and take the bikes from them. Like the kids are getting arrested.

[Sal DiStefano]

So this is the one. Yours is the one that it doesn't go on its own. You still have to pedal.

[Adam Schafer]

You still have to pedal.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so that's what I was talking Super 73.

[Adam Schafer]

But, but they're, they're trying to class them now so like based on how fast they go, like, you know, it's legal, you know, otherwise you got to get a license or like. And so they're trying to kind of organize because right now it's the wild west and you see kids like, you know, doing wheelies like in, in traffic and doing all this crazy.

[Sal DiStefano]

So my buddy was telling me because in this area we have some of the best biking trails around, best mountain biking trails around the easy ones plus and advanced ones. He goes, yeah, yeah. Me and my wife go. And he's fit, but he's like, I'm not trying to go on this crazy.

[Adam Schafer]

Trail, but it opened up a whole new world, dude. It's crazy. Like I would have been so into it if I was a kid.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, it's really cool how you can decide like do. Is this going to be a workout day? You're really trying to get after it or do you want. It's more about the scenery and going distance and like so you can really ramp up the assistance. Or you can really bring it down and make it feel like you're pedaling. And so it is cool to have that flexibility.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I might get one.

[Justin Andrews]

I get one. I mean, you can probably borrow your own and see if you use it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well. Yeah, it's all the way up there.

[Justin Andrews]

I remember, though, when I was like, I. I remember I bought bikes for Katrina and I. When I thought I was like, I'm a bike kicker, but I think, no, I did it for like a little while digging, so I'd be interested for. Yeah, you're probably the most likely one to probably do it. Doug rides his little moped over here every night too. So maybe Doug.

[Sal DiStefano]

But yours is not an E bike, right? Yours actually can drive on its own. Or is it also an E bike?

[Aaron Manke]

It can drive on its own.

[Sal DiStefano]

It drives on its own.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Can you pedal it too or not?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Justin Andrews]

So you have the same thing. Yeah. So most of them are like that.

[Aaron Manke]

Where they can turn it on if you want, without pedaling.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, I'll give that one a shot. You know, speaking of my neighborhood, there's all this construction work where I live right now. They're doing all this work. And anyway, when I go on walks with the kids, we see all these construction workers, and I always tell my kids to say thank you to them or whatever. And the other day we got them, you know, breakfast and stuff. And I thought to myself, I'm like, they would probably like, element, Element, element. Because it's hot. They're working outside. That's gotta be one of the best supplements for people who. Blue collar workers who work outside. It's gotta be one of the best things.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Is to have that electrolyte in powder in your water as you're working. The amount of sweat that they put out, especially these guys working on roofs and stuff. Now these guys are working on the roads. But it's starting to warm up. Like, you're outside all day doing that. You are sweating your butt off.

[Justin Andrews]

It'd be interesting to see who's buying a lot of that. Obviously, that company is growing like crazy.

[Sal DiStefano]

And it's athletes, a lot of athletes, but blue collar workers. Has to be.

[Justin Andrews]

I would think that would be other two. I mean, I. I remember. And you did, too. We all did. We all worked construction with our parents and stuff like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

My dad used to add, it was.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, well, it was. Gatorade was like the thing back then. Like, that's what all the guys did. They all had Gatorade. Stuff like that. Like, this is such a superior product now that you would think that they would move, make that. I mean, I would think that's just smart if they would. I mean, imagine I'd go rolling up to all these big construction job sites and drop it off. I mean, absolutely.

[Adam Schafer]

We did that. Yeah. For, you know, the guys working on our house. It was funny, too. Before that, it was like, we're giving them beer. And they're like, we gotta stop giving them beer.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's cool.

[Justin Andrews]

And all that building our house, it's.

[Sal DiStefano]

Probably not a good idea. It's all misaligned.

[Adam Schafer]

It's cool. But, you know, whatever. But it's. So we dropped off some. Some element and it was like, you know, had. There was one guy that really appreciated, but the rest were. I should have qualified it better because it's not Gatorade. It's not something sweet. It's not something like. It's so. So once they kind of understood that, you know, what its intention was, like, you have to kind of explain it first, because otherwise it's just like, oh, wow. They thought it was like ocean.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah. The salt is over. If you don't understand the. The value.

[Sal DiStefano]

Especially if you add it to a little bottle of water. Yeah, that's half a packet.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's too much. Too much. It's too much.

[Justin Andrews]

We love. We stock the outside fridge. Our contractors are ready to drinks already. And they were all. They were. They've been drinking them, so they definitely. They definitely appreciate.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. My cousins love it. For Jiu Jitsu. They love. They say they notice a big difference in the performance in Jiu jitsu.

[Adam Schafer]

For sure.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. When you.

[Adam Schafer]

Sodium's a huge part.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, it is a loss of performance. And these are the old studies, right. This is the original Gatorade studies. The. The loss in performance that a lot of athletes will see. There's a lot of factors, but one of them is the loss of sodium through sweating. And when you replace that, you get back a lot of the performance you lost.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, I wanted an old formula.

[Justin Andrews]

I want to circle back Sal. Because I had. And I just forgot about it until you start talking about this stuff right now. Getting back to my being out in the sun and, you know, everybody always talks about, like, getting recharged. You know, like when you go to these vacations, like, oh, I just, you know, did this thing and what. What. What's the literature say about the. The exposure to sun and like, direct relation to things like vitamin D hormones in. In my body and like, and how much does that impact, like, hormonally? Like, I, obviously, I know sunlight is important to us, but what's the literature say about the, like, can I, in that short of a timeframe, See, like a.

[Sal DiStefano]

So vitamin D is fat soluble, right. So if you were to, if you had low vitamin D and the doctor were to give you a supplement, there's two ways you could do it. You could take a little every day or you take one big ass dose. Yeah, Right. So you could take 5,000 IUs every day, or you take a 35,000 dose, you know, IU vitamin D capsule, and that's it for the week. So once a week type of deal.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, I didn't know that you could do it like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, in fact, that's how they often do it. So like, my dad was low vitamin D, which by the way, the amount of vitamin D you synthesize from the sun, I think it's a pretty significant amount per hour. Maybe, Doug, you could look up, I think it's like 40,000 IUs for an hour of sunlight. But there's a wide individual variance because if you're dark skinned, you're not going to synthesize nearly as much as if you're light skinned. Now, my dad, we're Sicilian, we go out in the sun, we get very dark. Like this is me not being in the sun. If I go out in the sun for a week, I get, get like several. Several.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, we're alike like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes, they get very dark. So my dad works outside a lot. He's retired, he likes to work out the backyard. And he was having all these symptoms of low vitamin D, but didn't know. He just thought he had lots of aches and pains. My back's hurting, this hurting, that hurting. I don't feel good. And finally went to the doctor and they said, you think you have maybe you might have low vitamin D? My dad's like, there's no way I'm outside all day.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And they checked him. He was. So they gave him, they gave him be like massive doses of vitamin D just a few times to build it up. So what does that say? 22%. So a thousand IUD can be synthesized. So 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure will give you a thousand IUs of vitamin D. Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Just 10 to 15 minutes on a.

[Sal DiStefano]

Sunny summer day, a child wearing a bathing suit can generate 10,000 to 20,000 IU's of vitamin D in 15 to 30 minutes. Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

In just 15 to 30 minutes. So I'm spending four hours out there. One day I can get a mega dose like that. And then. And I didn't know you just said something I had no idea about because one of the things that I. So I. I was supplementing with vitamin D, 5000ius. Then I remember we got those Cabral tests and it came back I was extremely low still on 5,000. So 10,000 is now what the ones I get are with that. But again I'll be really good for like four or five days and I'll forgive for two. I didn't realize I could triple it up.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. You could buy a 50,000 IU vitamin D. This is why people don't recommend it. Because then sometimes people forget gut and they end up taking too much.

[Justin Andrews]

Too much.

[Sal DiStefano]

You can get toxic. Right. If you take too much vitamin. Yeah, but you could buy. Yeah, you could take a. I had no getting a big dose on Monday.

[Justin Andrews]

I had no idea about that. Otherwise that's exactly what I would do is on when I. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

My mother in law, she had low vitamin D and the doctor gave her 50,000 IU capsule and she was taking like one every four days or something like that. Yeah. So you could. Because it's fat soluble, it just builds up in your system.

[Justin Andrews]

I did not know I could do it that way.

[Sal DiStefano]

You don't pee it out like vitamin C. Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

And then of course that impacts hormones and everything like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

But yeah. Going outside, man, you synthesize a lot.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. A three day hanging out in the sun.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh yeah. You got a big ass dose of vitamin D. Wow. Yeah. The only way to know would be to test your vitamin D levels. See how much you made. Yeah. How effective it was.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

But you seem to not absorb a lot of it supplemental. You have to take a lot.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

To make it, to move it.

[Justin Andrews]

And nothing feels the same getting it through the sun.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I mean the only way to know is to get tested. That's why I think it's so important to get tested with your nutrient levels. Like our [e-mail] can test that and then based off of that determine what kind of supplementation you eat and. Or hormones. Low vitamin D can cause low testosterone.

[Justin Andrews]

You know, it's one of the first things I do right now. Obviously all of us get questions all the time from family and friends and I've now ever since we. We made the partnership at MP Hormones. I just like go there first, go get all that. Then when you get all your results back then we can talk about the programming, the diet all the other things, whatever supplements you need is like, like that's become my default. Like go take those steps first. Because that always tells me too how serious someone like, you really want to work, you want to be healthier. Like, let's go see your baseline and then we can go.

[Sal DiStefano]

I gotta tell you guys too. So are they running a special dog on growth hormone releasing peptides?

[Aaron Manke]

Yes, they are.

[Sal DiStefano]

Tessa Maryland is on there, right?

[Justin Andrews]

Okay.

[Aaron Manke]

That is correct.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

So I gotta tell you, you love that one.

[Sal DiStefano]

My wife, my wife was taking Tessa Maryland. Okay. And then she was getting her growth hormone levels tested and she was taking the recommended dose. Her growth hormone levels were like in 18 year olds from the taking the test of Maryland. She actually, she actually lowered the dose. That's how much it'll raise your growth hormone.

[Justin Andrews]

Wow.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

That's cool.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was, it was, it was at a. It was still good, but it was at the upper limit.

[Justin Andrews]

Wow.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so she wanted to reduce a little bit because she's like, I don't want to have, you know, whatever.

[Justin Andrews]

Now did she, did you ask her or she reported any, like, things that she actually feels sleep.

[Sal DiStefano]

My wife noticed huge impacts on her sleep from the Testament, Maryland. But you'll get like the fat loss skin.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Body composition 1. There's a Tessa Fensen for Courtney was like magical.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, that's a different. Yeah, which is.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that was that helper big time.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, like.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, it was, it was like one of those things that like sometimes you find something that just unlocks results almost like within a week. It was like crazy like if you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Find the right one. But yeah, there's hexarelin, Tessa, Marilyn, Samarilin. These are all the growth hormone releasing peptides and they legit will bring your growth. I mean they're very predictably will bring up your growth hormone levels now just by making your body produce more.

[Justin Andrews]

And for the rest of the month, they're 25.

[Sal DiStefano]

Is it 25% off?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I think so.

[Sal DiStefano]

Element is an electrolyte powder. You add your water, no artificial sweeteners, no sugar, and it gives you the right amount of sodium to fuel your workouts. If you don't eat a lot of processed foods, especially if you're in a low carb diet, you'll probably benefit from adding element to your water. Go check them out. Go to drinklmnt.com mindpump on that link. You'll get a free sample pack with any drink mix purchase. All right, back to the show.

[Aaron Manke]

Our first caller is Shawna from Canada.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hi, Shawna. How you doing? Shauna, how are you?

[Doug]

Hey, guys. I'm doing good. This is so surreal. I can't believe I'm here. Thank you for everything you guys do. I know everybody says that, but I just wanted to start off by saying that because I'm really nervous. Yeah. So if I can just give you guys a bit of a background before I jump into my kind of questions. Is that okay?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, sure.

[Doug]

Okay. So I'm 37, I'm a mom of two, and I've been listening to you guys consistently for a year and a half now. I've gone through all your podcasts to gain as much knowledge on strength tips as I possibly can as I embarked on my strength training only journey for the first time since January 2024. I've essentially been active my entire life. Prior to kids, I was one of those workout class junkies for years, did Dragon Boat for a couple years, went through an endurance craze phase with running, completed a triathlon, and always trying to find new ways to be healthy and fit. I hired an online trainer in January 2024 and worked with her for nine months. Over those four months, I won the New Year New you program, which essentially was who had the most results overall on their transformation journey. I am, however, feeling stuck without the help of a trainer as it didn't work out with her. So I kind of just. Just tried new ways to do my own thing. Since not being with her, I felt really tied to her app and her programs that she used to provide me phased out workout programs. I lost 23 pounds from January to May of last year and now I'm back up 11 pounds since reverse dieting and working on my metabolism. My goal is to build as much muscle as I can and work on my glutes and lower body. And now I'm kind of at a point where I think I'm getting too fluffy and I want to cut for the summer. I currently train five days a week and I work out solely from home. I'm starting to cut down from eating about 23 to 2400 calories a day over the last four months. And I've been trying to build my lower body and also bring in my waistline, which has been slightly challenging due to having diastasia recti. I've seen some gains in the right places, glutes mainly and legs, but at times I tend to think I overtrain. And I did this with my trainer as she had me doing it this seven days a week to bring my macros down too Fast is also a challenge for me as I don't want to lose what I've built. And I also struggle with some hip mobility issues on my right side. So it makes it harder to connect with my glutes as I would like to when it comes to squatting. So I try to stick to unilateral movements. My kind of open ended question would be is how can I change my workouts accordingly without overtraining during this cut? All while trying to help with my hip mobility issues and SI joint pain. And is there a program you could recommend that I could use for a cut and only do this from home? I have like the interchangeable dumbbells, barbell incline bench, squat rack plates, rotted bowflex, and a power tower. And my original goal is to grow the glutes and legs. And I understand that I have a little bit of a setback not having all the equipment. So if I can get to a gym every once in a while, I'll use whatever I don't have at home. So my ultimate goal is to get to a place where I can see the muscle growth, maintain a cut look, and continue to grow off season while maintaining a metabolically good place. If you guys can provide any advice, that'd be greatly appreciated.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, Shana, we're looking at your great question, your before and after pictures.

[Justin Andrews]

Incredible.

[Sal DiStefano]

Great job. Exceptional job. You're doing great. I think, I definitely think you're overdoing it with the workouts. Yeah. So Muscle Mommy would be a great program based off of the areas you want to focus on. I will say this with, with online coaches, there's always, there's always good ones and bad ones and then there's ones in between. And the ones in between, what they do well is they'll coach people, but what they don't do well is set the person up to be able to do this on their own. So it tends to feel like this, like I'm dependent on this coach and I'm not really being coached on how to do this in a way to where I can develop this relationship and understanding of how to modify my workouts, how to change my diet so that I can just do this for the rest of my life. You're. This is. You're the perfect candidate for that because you've been doing this for so long. It's something that you value and that you take seriously. So I think a good coach again would be very valuable for you. And I can have someone reach out to you and call you because we have some Coaches that we know are really good that can help do that. As far as program is concerned, I think Muscle Mommy would be ideal for you. And then with diet, I mean your calories are good. I think if you were to cut your calories, follow a good program, I think you're gonna see that nice smooth fat loss without muscle loss. I think you'll be good.

[Justin Andrews]

I was even considering symmetry for her.

[Sal DiStefano]

Symmetry would be another great one.

[Doug]

Just because I was thinking of that one too at one point because I did end up getting Muscle Mommy on a side point. And I was thinking scared to start it because when I looked at it I was like, I'm used to doing ppl and this was more of like a full body.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Doug]

So I got a little nervous and I put it aside until I was able to sort of like, I'm still kind of like stuck in my coach's mindset of ppl. So I've been like just doing whatever.

[Sal DiStefano]

So. So I don't know if this, if.

[Doug]

You think it'll benefit me. I could always.

[Justin Andrews]

100. It will always remember like if, if whatever you do, whether it's push, pull legs or you do a body part split or you do a full, full body, whatever you do most the time, almost anything else is going to be better. As far as like the novelty, like it's going to be a new stimulus for you. If you're used to doing push, pull legs and you've done that for the last year, going to full body may be one of the best things you possibly do. Just that alone and then reducing the volume if you're training seven days a week. I like something that's more like three or four days a week for you. That alone with the calorie reduction I think will lean you out nice. Keep the muscle you've built, you're not going to lose it. I think you'd easily scale back that much. What about like activity? Like I don't. I didn't know if I heard you say. Did you say steps and how much you're moving. Are you doing any cardio, anything?

[Doug]

I try to hit 10000 steps a day. I have a sedentary job but I'm always making sure I listen to you guys when you say to do those, how important it is to take the 10 minute walks after each meal. So I'm really trying to make a point to do that now that the weather's nicer here because we had a lot of snow. But I've always been very consistent with anything that I've done like steps, sleep, water, getting the seven, eight hours of sleep. Like, I'm really good at following something when it's laid out for me. So active wise, I think I'm in a pretty good spot with my steps. I even kick myself sometimes when I only get 6,000, which isn't very often.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're going to respond really well to a change up in your routine and a reduction in volume and full body, I think is the way to go, especially if you've been ppl for, for a long time. I do think someone like you would get a lot of value if you're still open to working with a coach, to having a coach work with you. And then the idea with the coach is to work with them for a little while and then say, hey, I'd like to work with you for a bit. Here's a goal I have for summer. But then my idea is like, I want to be able to learn how to do this on my own. I don't want to work with a coach for the rest of my life. What does that look like? So to give you an example, this is how most of my clients train with me. This is why I had clients for 10 or 12 years. They didn't train with me two or three days a week for 10 or 12 years. Initially they did, but eventually it turned into like once a month or some clients had once every other month they'd come in and see what they were doing. Some clients I just worked with through text here and there, but they were able to really be able to learn how to do this for the rest of their life because you don't want to be left feeling like you are now, where it's like you're not with your coach. You feel a bit lost, like, okay, what do I do? You have good idea of exercise, you know how to eat healthy, but you feel like you're kind of floating around a little bit. What tends to happen with that is you cling to what you were doing before, which is what I heard. You're afraid of changing from this ppl routine because that's what you've done or what you did.

[Doug]

And I don't have a program exactly. She gave me programs. So I don't really know what I should be following where I'm at now, like in the cut phase and volume reduction, et cetera.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, I think I'll have a coach reach out to Shauna and I think that they're going to be able to recommend which if you end up working with them, you get the program included. If you don't, I'll make sure we give it to you regardless. But they'll be able to recommend which program will be best for you based off of, you know, talking with you for 30 minutes.

[Justin Andrews]

You've done an incredible job.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And you're before and afters is incredible.

[Sal DiStefano]

Amazing.

[Justin Andrews]

Incredible. I, I actually just think, I think you can do a lot less and get as good a results, maybe even better. Like doing less. Like that's what you've done such a good job. You've done such a good job building a great base. You've got good muscle mass on you. I think you are training more than you need to and I think you can maintain and improve your physique with less work, a better balance.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I think what you'll find is you'll actually get a better metabolic boost as well. I think you, you've done really well in spite of the fact that you're doing so much strength training, which is more than not just more than necessary. It's probably, I would bet definitely more than what is ideal. So you can tolerate it. So your body's recovering, probably. But it's probably not getting you the best results because it's so much if you do.

[Doug]

And just to make note on that, not really because I actually started like losing a little bit of hair, like more than I and I figured that was probably from a bit of the over training part.

[Sal DiStefano]

And I'll tell you what, Shauna, with your history, I've done this a lot. Enough to know that when I work with somebody who used to be lots of classes, endurance stuff, triathlete, the battle is always that they always slowly inch towards the max they could tolerate until the signs get quite obvious. So I'm positive that a more appropriate routine is going to give you more time on your hands. But really you're going to get results that are going to blow you away.

[Justin Andrews]

The other thing I want our trainer to do with you too is to customize a priming routine before you get started. Because of what you've talked about your hips, you should have a series of movements that you do every day and every day before you work out for sure that, that they teach you so they'll take you through that when you go through prime and get set up. So that's something that just you pointing out the hip stuff. There should be a series of movements you do every single day before you work out in addition to what we're talking about. Scaling back.

[Sal DiStefano]

So typically, SI joint pain from bilateral movements like squats or deadlifts, typically fixable. I mean, I'd say probably, you know, nine out of ten times I could. I could fix that with a client. Uh, there's a 10% of the time where it gets a little tricky, but. So this is pro. And because you're fit and active, this is not going to be an issue. You just have to identify, like, what the issue.

[Doug]

Pelvic tilt part is that from. Does that stem from, like, hip mobility issues, would you say? Because I only recognize that when I started squatting in strength training, whereas in classes, I didn't even think twice about it. Because you don't really know what you're looking for.

[Sal DiStefano]

Depends on what you mean by that. So what do you mean by pelvic tilt? Anterior tilt, posterior tilt? Is it asymmetrical?

[Doug]

It's when I go down to do the back squat, I have that curve in the lower back, like, it can't get down low enough. So I try to just stick to 90.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you get the.

[Doug]

I can't. It tilts, so then I can't feel it in my glutes.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you're getting some. Some. Some movement in the low back as you go down.

[Justin Andrews]

That could also. A little bit. Yeah, her abs, too.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So she could. She might be. Not what might be happening. Yeah, we might not be bracing and engaging the core.

[Sal DiStefano]

Could also be ankle mobility.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, you can prime that.

[Justin Andrews]

This is all the stuff that you're going to go through when they take you through prime. So they'll take you through the assessment and they'll look at all this stuff, and then they're going to be able to tell by your squad assessment.

[Sal DiStefano]

So not uncommon, what you said, by the way.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah. Not uncommon at all.

[Doug]

Okay, well, thanks, guys. So I. I'll give that a shot. And I really appreciate your time. I appreciate everything you guys do. It's it. You guys mean the world to me. I listen to you daily, so that's awesome.

[Sal DiStefano]

And again, I got to say this. Great job.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Like, really.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, crushing it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Are you. Do you. Are you looking at your before and after you. I mean, that's crazy.

[Doug]

I know. I sent you. I. Yeah, I am. I'm very happy with the results. I just. I'm that type of person that always strives for more, and then when I see the fluff, I want that cut again. So just trying to figure out how to go about that.

[Sal DiStefano]

So hopefully you're in a good place.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, we'll find that balance, Shauna. Don't worry.

[Doug]

Okay. Thank you so much, guys.

[Sal DiStefano]

Good job. Thank you.

[Doug]

All right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Very good. Yeah, great job. I like seeing that. I like seeing. I mean, her calories aren't in a bad place. She can cut from there. You know her, she's definitely leaner than she was with more muscle. I mean, yeah, I don't think you can ask for more, but, yeah, you know, just speaking to the coaches out there, you could be a great coach or a good coach, I should say. But your goal should always be, can I get this person to be able to do this without me?

[Adam Schafer]

Give them guidance of where to go after we get.

[Sal DiStefano]

And I know that sounds crazy, right? Because as a trainer, you're like, what do you mean? I want me to get my clients to stop training with me. Well, yeah, but here's what ends up happening. They stick around. You work with them less, you get more clients. You develop this client base that never leaves. It just looks different and you make a real long lasting impact. And then the referrals you get from that are just insane.

[Aaron Manke]

Our next caller is Chris from New York.

[Sal DiStefano]

What's up, Chris?

[Adam Schafer]

What's happening?

[Justin Andrews]

What up?

[Chris]

Hey, what's up, guys? Great to meet you and thanks for the opportunity to be on Big. Thanks to Doug for getting me in. So like Doug said, my name is Chris. I got introduced to you guys by my nutritionist and trainer, Anthony Castigliola. He swears by you guys. So shout out to Anthony. And I've been lifting in training for probably about 25 years, really, with minimal interruptions over the years. Last January, I turned 39 and I was the heaviest that I had weighed, So I was 255. I'm only 5 8, and I was approaching 40. So I just knew that if I didn't get on track, it was just going to get worse. So I was also confident that I could do this because I had lost, I think a little over 60 pounds when I first got sober back in 2010. I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew that I could get it done right. And at the time, and a big motivator. And I hear you guys talking about this all the time, right, is I promised my 7 year old son that I'd be back down to my wedding shape. And I was mindful of not saying wedding weight by the time I turned 40, which was this past January 15th. So, you know, and you guys know this, as a father of three young kids, like, I just knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I had to make it work.

[Doug]

So.

[Chris]

So I started on my birthday, January 15th. And in June of last year, I was able to get down to 210 pounds just through my own programming and diet based off of what I've done over the years. And I just knew that if I wanted to get to the goal and I kind of needed to kick start things back up and really dial things in, that's when I started working with Anthony. So at that time I started tracking my food, focusing on 200 grams of protein a day, along with many other things that he had suggested. And then I also went from high intense cardio sessions down to focusing on just getting like 10 to 15,000 steps a day, which was, you know, a great situation to be in. So, you know, all that to say I was able to get to 180 pounds exactly one year after I started. So on my birthday this past year, after being in a calorie deficit for so long, Anthony guided me through a reverse diet, which I was nervous about, as you can imagine in the beginning. But, but it really ended up being great. And I started the reverse diet the same time that I started the MAP split program. And last week I finished phase three of the program. I was weighing in at 195, so I put on roughly 15 pounds through the three month program along with the reverse diet. Originally, I had planned on starting the aesthetics program once I finished Maps, but Maps split, but it was, you know, once you go from that, I feel like it's really hard to, to try anything else. So now I'm kind of in between whether, do I go to Maps, do I do the split program again now, this time in a calorie deficit, or do I try, you know, Maps, aesthetics, or frankly any other program that you guys would suggest? So that's my first question. I got two questions for you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Where do you, what are your calories at now?

[Chris]

So right Now I'm at 2500, so I'm making my way back down, but I'm still, I'm still dropping a pound or two each week at 2500, which is great because I'm 1700 before.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, go to map symmetry and stay where you're at with your calories if you're dropping body fat. But I think symmetry is a great follow up to, to split. Great follow up and you're going to continue to see results. Yeah, if you're losing weight at 25, don't cut your calories. Yeah, yeah, don't.

[Justin Andrews]

That's exactly what he said. And. And the fact that we're going to switch over to a programming that will be like a novel stim. So different than split. That will help. That'll keep. That'll keep it going perfectly. Have Doug. We'll have Doug send that over.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Great progress so far, bro. You look incredible.

[Chris]

Yeah, thanks. No, I appreciate it. It's been great. You know, as it relates to the only other question I had, I think it probably still applies to the program that you guys are suggesting. I. I think over the three months, guys, maybe I missed like three weeks where I didn't get six workouts in and I got five workouts. So instead what I did was I combined the leg and the pull day and I just took like the core exercises out of those workouts and combined them into one. Would you recommend that I do that? If, if like, you know, life comes up, right, Whether I'm traveling for work or whatever the case may be, would you suggest that I try to combine to get that fifth day in or. And I don't know anything about the program you guys are suggesting, so I'll definitely look into it and look forward to starting it, but. Or would you suggest that I just pick back up on a Monday where it's. It's day six. Let's just use the split example. So I was kind of curious on your thoughts on that.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, I don't think there's a wrong answer here because that's not that much a missed workout, One workout out of six days a week.

[Justin Andrews]

I do want to point out though, this is one of the reasons why we're like, such big fans of full body routines. And most of maps programs, even though we have a split, are full body for that exact reason. Because if you, if we were doing full body, I'd be like, don't even worry about it. We're good to go. See like, and you're going to be balanced still because you're doing full body routine. So I do think that's something to consider, especially if, you know, that kind of occasionally happens. If it only happened one time, it's like in a year, then who gives a. It's not a big deal. Like you. There isn't like Sal's saying there's no real wrong answer. But if that's, you know, happening once a month to you and you notice that like where you're. You don't get the all six days in a split, this is where it's like, dude, like a three day a week type of Full body is like, is probably even better for you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, it's not a big deal if you miss a workout, especially when you're training on like a high volume routine like split and, and you know, split, everything's getting hit twice a week. So missing one workout means you still get that body part. It's not going to really change it. And to be honest with you, with that much volume, missing a workout probably is good for you. Yeah. So, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but with symmetry, I mean you're going to be set and it's, it's less volume than.

[Justin Andrews]

Split was if, if running a split program and you had. So I'll tell you how I used to do this when, because I ran a lot of split when I was bodybuilding and stuff. And of course even when bodybuilding I would run into would happen and I would always start over on the muscle group that I care the most about or that I'm trying to progress. So if it was. So, even if I did it like say I did it yesterday, so let's say I, I, I ended on legs, but legs is my main focus. And then that week I only get five workouts in and then technically it was supposed to be chest that I missed. And then I'm going on Monday again. I start back at legs. I always start on the weakest muscle group group in my split, no matter when it landed because I'm trying to increase frequency and volume on that muscle group to catch up to the other one. If I missed a week of chest, it ain't a big deal. It's one of my strengths, so I'm not worried about it. So if you have a body part like that that you've, you feel like you're trying to bring up, that's a good strategy too is that anytime you miss a day, you're starting back over on that day always. So that, that's, and what that does is actually increase the frequency on that, on the muscle you're trying to catch up up. So that's a, that's also a good strategy.

[Chris]

Yeah, great advice. Yeah, I can do that. It's legs for me too, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

So there you go. So that's, it made it easy for me. It's just like if I, if I miss a day, I. Hey, another, another leg day. Another leg day in there. Yeah, yeah. So start back to that. That's a good strategy.

[Sal DiStefano]

And like I said, I think keep your calories where they're at, keep going where you're going with and follow symmetry. I think you're going to continue to see progress with that.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Doug will send over symmetry for you.

[Chris]

Awesome. Symmetry it is.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Thanks, boys. I appreciate it.

[Justin Andrews]

I.

[Chris]

You guys are doing great work. Appreciate the positive message. Keep. Keep grinding, boys.

[Justin Andrews]

Appreciate it.

[Sal DiStefano]

You got it, man. Thank you.

[Chris]

All right, see ya.

[Sal DiStefano]

You guys think his trainer was Italian?

[Adam Schafer]

I was gonna say.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, my God. There's a lot of vowels in there. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Is he Russian?

[Sal DiStefano]

What's going on? You know, I mean, so what people don't know is he was a college athlete. He's been training for a long time, and so he probably has this kind of genetic ability to handle a lot of volume anyways. Right. So split is a lot of volume.

[Adam Schafer]

All right.

[Sal DiStefano]

For most people, but he's progressing well. I think his calories could go even higher. I really do.

[Justin Andrews]

He can, but he's not in a bad spot.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, yeah, he's in that. He's sounds like he's in the Goldilocks, though.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, he's in a good. He's in a really good spot. Sounds like a healthy metabolism. He's lost a lot of body fat, built some good muscle. He's in a great place right now. I mean, this is a great example of two where people tend to overcorrect or overdo when they're right where they need to be. You know, I'm saying it's like he's cruising right where you need, but, you know, everybody wants more, you know, more results, faster. It's like, oh, so I'm gonna rant this like, no, dude, just stay right there. You're in a beautiful spot.

[Aaron Manke]

Our next caller is Sean from Canada.

[Sal DiStefano]

What's up, Sean?

[Justin Andrews]

What's happening?

[Sal DiStefano]

Hi.

[Sean]

How's it doing? How are you doing, guys?

[Justin Andrews]

Good.

[Sal DiStefano]

We're good. How can we help you?

[Sean]

Okay, first, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to hear me out. I know you guys probably get a million requests, so I really do appreciate it.

[Justin Andrews]

It.

[Sean]

I'll read you the email I sent in, and then I'll just update you where I am today.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay.

[Adam Schafer]

All right.

[Sean]

So I just wanted to thank you for spending the time you do giving out advice, coaching, helping people to be the best versions of themselves. I've been listening to the podcast for about now, about eight months. I found it incredibly beneficial, and I've been able to relate to each of you on some level. I find your takes on life, parenting, relationships, and fitness inspiring and extremely relatable and insightful. I'm 41 years old. I'm divorced, father of two girls, age 15 and 12. And after finishing university, I landed up working in the family automotive business. And I've been there ever since. I've always been hesitant, actually I would say like more afraid to take risks and pursue my passions. I kind of like stay in the safe zone and don't like to get out of there. The years sort of just passed by and I felt almost stuck for a while now for quite a long time. I feel like I'm my own worst enemy. I overthink, overanalyze, and as a result I land up looking at the negatives, which has led me to shoot down a lot of my ideas before I even attempt them. I think this has become worse since I had my daughters and became a father because I'm more extremely like fearful of taking risks and, and I don't want to jeopardize any of the security I have for myself or my kids. I suffer and have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I had a really tough time and I was diagnosed with that. I did the CBT and I did. I've taken medication and it's been life changing. Fitness has always been like a tremendous help and it's become a huge passion of mine. I started working out in the gym as a teenager and I've played sports, basketball my whole life. But when things got really bad with my anxiety, I found like solace in the gym. It was sort of like my safe place. Since then, it's become a place of escape for me. Over time, my passion for health and fitness, as well as I feel like advocating for mental health, especially for men, has continued to grow. And now I've come to the point where I'd like to try and pursue a career and finally do something with my life that I find meaning in and that I can make my kids proud in something of my own that I'm passionate about. After listening to you guys, I recently pulled the trigger and you motivated me and I enrolled in the nasm, cpt, ces, CNC and the pes, the Elite Bundle course.

[Adam Schafer]

Wow, man.

[Sal DiStefano]

Good for you.

[Sean]

Yeah, I just wanted to know what your advice would be with regards to next step. Once completing my certifications, I could continue with my current career and like build up a fitness career in the evenings on weekends. I just don't know how to transition fully into a new field with a mortgage, two children, other financial obligations. And as, as well as I'm doing now, I know my anxiety will come up and I feel like I'm going to doubt myself and put pressure on myself to kind of like stay in the safe zone and stay safe and stay in my current situation. If there's any tips you have, just for believing in myself and abilities to go for it, would you recommend contacting successful trainers and mentoring with them, shadowing with them and learning? And so that's where I, I left the email off.

[Justin Andrews]

Sean, you, you, we have to get you in our course. You got to get in there with all of our trainers. We've got, we've got. Yeah, yeah, we've got a thousand trainers in there. They get, they're, they're getting calls, support calls every week with our team. It's an incredible community in there. So it's not just the course that you go through and everything you're going to learn from that, it's the community and communication that ongoing that's going to help you. I can tell you right now, already, just from the little bit time we're talking, there's an opportunity for you to share your story. And I mean, I love the, the mental health angle for you since you've personally dealt with that. And there is a big need in the fitness space for men like you to be vulnerable enough to share that. And there's not a lot of people doing that. So you being you, there's a lot of opportunity for you to help a lot of other men in that space. And if you were in our course and I was helping mentor you, this is the direction I would be really trying to push you into building your, your brand around that because it's authentic. It's you, it's you. It's what? And it will help a lot of people and not a lot of guys in the, in the fitness space. It's all macho. Everyone's macho, everyone's got it together, but deep inside they're all up. And nobody wants to admit that it's a lot of what the success of Mind Pumps was because of us being vulnerable like that and sharing, sharing about ourselves. That's why it's done well, because there's not a lot of people in the.

[Sean]

Space that are definitely a stigma to it.

[Justin Andrews]

There is. There's a stigma to it.

[Sal DiStefano]

And Sean, I got to tell you this, look, there's. There's two things that I think are important to understand. One, your, your, your fears and wanting to stay safe are valid because you're a dad.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Sal DiStefano]

You got, you're not just some dude on your own. You know, you can go sleep on somebody's Couch, no big deal. You're. You're taking care of your kids. But there's another side to that coin, okay? The most motivated men on earth are fathers. That's a fact. When you look at the data, when they talk about men make the, you know, men make this much money. What they're talking about are married men with children or men with children. When you look at single men without kids, they actually make less than single women do. So being a father, yes, there's a responsibility there. And it can definitely be scary because it's not just you, but it's also extremely powerful and motivating. Now, I identify with you quite a bit with what you're talking about. The gym was my safe space as well, and it's someplace I felt the best at. What helped me the most with that was helping others. So there's two directions that I would, I would move you in. One, if you. To continue to be able to pay your bills while pursuing this career, a big box gym is going to allow you that opportunity because they have a structure, they have a system, they have the leads, they have people in there. Two would be working with our community. And now if you work with our community, you're going to get. So our course specifically teaches coaches how to build their business. You've got all the education, so you've got the best education. The NASM courses that you, you're enrolled in.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, you're good.

[Sal DiStefano]

Are the best. They're the best with education. But for building a business, that's what we specialize in. And then the, the part that makes us different is our, the, the coaches that we have in that run our course are there helping coaches build their business. And they're teaching them how to do this. And kind of you get semi. You get a little bit of coaching along with our coaching course to move you through along with this. And then one last thing. I'll say so I think helping people is going to help you a lot with your own personal stuff. It did for me. And then if you have a spiritual practice, the data is very clear. Nothing helps generalize anxiety like having a higher purpose, a purpose bigger than yourself. And a spiritual practice does that better than anything. Anything. I can tell you that personally and I can show you what the data shows. Nothing comes close to that. So those are the two big things that I'd recommend.

[Sean]

Yeah, because I have what I do now. I'm successful in that. And financially it's great. But I'm missing the fulfillment. Some things. It's not fulfilling Me, and I'm feeling like I'm stuck and it's like I'm treading water and I'm not getting anywhere.

[Sal DiStefano]

Me.

[Justin Andrews]

You're being called to something. You're already making the right steps. You already have a great story and message to share. You're, it's literally, it's. If you were my buddy, I'm, I'm pushing you off the cliff right now. I'm, I'm gonna show, I'm shove you off you, you're, you're, you're in the right headspace. You know, you, you, what you want to talk to is what you should talk to. You're the right guy to talk to.

[Adam Schafer]

Jump in and build it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. I mean, as soon as you are in a place where you can get into our course, I want you in there because I 100% think that's what you all you need right now to help.

[Adam Schafer]

You need an accountability group. You need, you need peers with you with this process because really, it's just that constant reiteration that, you know, there's, there's definitely a plan and a way to construct this that's going to be successful. And, you know, it's, it just needs, you just need that constant kind of accountability around you to help.

[Sal DiStefano]

There, there's two, there's two things that differentiate trainers that build a successful career and ones that don't. One of them is they feel called to it. So it's definitely a purpose driven industry. So good trainers, successful trainers, ones that really feel like, I want to do this, I want to make a difference. But the second part is they understand and they learn how to turn this into a career. And it typically comes from good mentors or a good system. And if you're missing that, it's very difficult. But when you have that, it's guaranteed, it's guaranteed that you'll build a career doing this.

[Justin Andrews]

Have Ann, have Ann call.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I think let's have somebody reach out to you from our team. At the very least, you can kind of give you a little bit more detailed advice. We have somebody on our team that's really, really good at getting people like yourself going in the right direction.

[Sean]

Amazing. Thank you. And I just want to update you. So I've done the nesm, I've completed the cpt, I'm doing the CES right now.

[Sal DiStefano]

Great job.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, wow.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that's huge.

[Sean]

I've also reached out to my gym. It's more of, of. It's not a big box gym. It's like a Tennis, like racket club. They've got a gym, but it's more like an older clientele. And I asked them if I could sort of, they were open to like an internship with just somewhere I could shadow.

[Justin Andrews]

Brilliant.

[Sal DiStefano]

Perfect.

[Sean]

I feel like there's so much knowledge but without practice and I don't want to like half ass it and put like an Instagram profile, start charging people to train.

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't feel like good integrity.

[Sean]

I want, I want to first know, I sort of want to have experience before I go there.

[Justin Andrews]

Sean, you're gonna do good, bro.

[Sal DiStefano]

Forget Instagram.

[Adam Schafer]

You're gonna do right on point.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, dude. Everybody thinks you build your, your personal training business with Instagram. You don't.

[Justin Andrews]

You're doing the right thing.

[Sal DiStefano]

And by the way, the, the kind of gym you just described is a perfect personal training gym is better than a big older clientele. More, more disposable. And I thought I could put the.

[Sean]

Corrective exercise into practice there with that.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, yes, yes, dude. That's where the business is at. Your, the, the things you want. You, you have the right mindset, bro. You're going to do fine. You're going to be fine again. I'm just, I'm going to push you off the cliff. You got, you got to jump.

[Sean]

And then just one, one last thing I'll just add you is the one thing that pops up a lot is I'm 41. And I know you guys, you guys always mention that you notice when you're like 60, the gap between if you're physically in shape or mentally in shape compared to your peers. And I feel like I noticed that now even in my early 40s. There's a big difference.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sean]

But at the same time I feel almost like I feel like I'm still in my 20s or 30s. Like I feel no different. But when I start going into this like venturing off into becoming a trainer and I then like, it's like a double edged sword. I start telling myself I'm too old for this.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh God.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hey, listen, can I just be to be Frank with you, two identical trainers, identical in every way except one is 41 and one is 21. You know who's gonna get more clients? The 41 year old. Yeah, dude. The reason why there's young train, there's a lot of young trainers is because people pursue this career typically at a younger age and they're working out whatever people want.

[Adam Schafer]

Wisdom.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, dude, are you kidding me? If I became a trainer now, I would crush my old self. Even if I had the same wisdom and skills just because I look like I'm older.

[Adam Schafer]

So yeah, that's an advantage.

[Justin Andrews]

It is an event. It's an advantage for you, bro. You're gonna be good. You're gonna be good. I'm gonna have appreciate, I'm gonna have Anne call you, help you out with some things, share everything with you and I hope to see you inside of our community. Dude, you should.

[Sal DiStefano]

I will be.

[Sean]

For sure. Thank you, guys.

[Justin Andrews]

All right, Sean, you got it.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Take it easy. That's, that's such a funny actually opposite perception because I've heard people say that. Like I feel like I'm, I'm 45. Am I too old to be a trainer? Everything being equal, if you appear to be a middle aged and fit, plus just the clientele alone, they probably relate to that. Yeah. Dude, you know how hard it was harder for me as a 19 year old trainer getting clients because of my age. I was actually a hurdle I had to overcome initially and I did a good job of doing it. But yeah, dude, you're now age is like actually do better.

[Justin Andrews]

He's, he's on the right track.

[Adam Schafer]

Totally.

[Justin Andrews]

This is. If he doesn't get in our course and he listens to this. Sean, what you do right now is what you're doing. Get your seat, get done with the CPT like you did. Do your ces.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Go intern. Go intern, Work for free, do whatever to get around people, to get around clients, to help people, to build relationships, to get good at your craft. Like that's the, that's number one. Number two. And then as far as, like as I start to build my personal brand, I'm building around the story you just told me, what you just told me that you've built, that you've dealt with how fitness has helped you share that message. Be yourself, be authentic. There are probably millions of men that are not openly sharing that and saying that and that they need help, they need guidance. Go be yourself, share that message and you'll help a lot of people.

[Sal DiStefano]

Good. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin and I'm at Mind Pump. Distefano adams@mindpump.

[Aaron Manke]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically, improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, anabolic maps, performance and maps, aesthetic 9 months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other videos valuable free [e-mail]. if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.