2619: The 5 Reasons Why Lifting Weights Is ALL You Need & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth – Episode 2619 Summary

Title: The 5 Reasons Why Lifting Weights Is ALL You Need & More (Listener Live Coaching)
Release Date: June 14, 2025
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews
Producer: Doug Egge

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Introduction

In this episode of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, the hosts delve into a compelling argument for why lifting weights is the quintessential form of exercise, presenting five key reasons that underscore its superiority. The discussion is enriched with scientific insights, practical advice, and real-life anecdotes, making it invaluable for fitness enthusiasts and novices alike. Additionally, the episode features live coaching segments where listeners' questions are addressed, offering personalized guidance.

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1. Building Muscle and Strength

Timestamp: [03:11] – [05:19]

Sal Di Stefano opens the discussion by emphasizing that strength training is unparalleled when it comes to building muscle and enhancing strength. He analogizes strength training to a dragster—powerful and efficient—while comparing other forms of exercise to a tricycle, which, although functional, is significantly less effective for muscle and strength development.

Sal DiStefano [03:55]: "When it comes to the muscle building process and getting stronger, there is no form of exercise that even comes close."

The conversation highlights the concept of progressive overload, a fundamental principle in strength training where the gradual increase of stress placed upon the musculoskeletal system leads to muscle growth and strength gains. In contrast, activities like Pilates or yoga lack the inherent mechanisms to continuously challenge muscles in the same way, making them less effective for long-term muscle development.

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2. Stamina

Timestamp: [09:35] – [12:23]

Addressing the often-debated topic of stamina, Sal asserts that lifting weights can significantly enhance stamina when incorporated with high repetitions and minimal rest periods.

Sal DiStefano [10:10]: "High reps or little to no rest will definitely do this for you."

This approach not only builds muscular endurance but also contributes to overall cardiovascular health. The hosts discuss how strength training can provide general stamina and endurance benefits comparable to traditional cardio exercises, without the specificity required for activities like running or swimming.

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3. Flexibility

Timestamp: [12:33] – [16:58]

One of the most controversial points made by Sal is that strength training alone can enhance flexibility, surpassing traditional stretching methods. He differentiates between flexibility (the ability of a muscle to stretch) and mobility (flexibility combined with strength).

Sal DiStefano [12:42]: "You could use just weights for flexibility and you'll get better results than you would from stretching."

By incorporating a variety of movements and light weights, strength training maintains and even improves the range of motion while simultaneously building the necessary strength to support that flexibility, thereby reducing the risk of injuries.

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4. Hormone Optimization

Timestamp: [16:58] – [24:29]

Sal delves into the profound impact strength training has on hormonal health. He outlines two primary mechanisms:

1. Improved Insulin Sensitivity:

   • Building muscle increases the body's ability to store glycogen, making muscles more sensitive to insulin.

2. Increased Androgen Receptors:

   • Strength training boosts the number of receptors available for testosterone, effectively amplifying its benefits.

Sal DiStefano [21:22]: "Strength training is in a completely different universe when it comes to hormone optimization."

These hormonal enhancements are crucial not only for muscle growth but also for overall health, affecting conditions like PCOS and improving mitochondrial function.

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5. Aesthetics

Timestamp: [24:45] – [26:39]

The final reason focuses on the aesthetic benefits of weightlifting. Sal and Adam discuss how strength training allows individuals to target specific muscle groups to achieve desired body shapes and proportions, something that other forms of exercise cannot offer.

Adam Schafer [25:23]: "There is no form, no other modality out there that even comes close to what you can do with strength training."

This precision in muscle sculpting enables personalized body transformations, catering to individual aesthetic goals.

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Additional Insights: Peptide Stacks and Recovery

Timestamp: [26:39] – [34:06]

The hosts explore advanced topics like peptide stacks for enhanced recovery. Sal shares his experiences with combinations like thymus and BPC157, highlighting their role in accelerating injury healing and improving muscle definition.

Sal DiStefano [27:41]: "Healing is like 40% faster in some cases even."

They caution about the responsible use of such supplements, emphasizing gradual progression to avoid overtraining and potential injuries.

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Live Coaching: Listener Questions and Answers

Caller 1: Noel from Virginia – Knee Issues and PVNS

Timestamp: [61:00] – [82:44]

Noel shares her struggles with Pigmented Villonodular Synovitis (PVNS), a rare knee condition requiring careful training adjustments. The hosts provide tailored advice focusing on:

• Isometric Training: Strengthening muscles without moving the joint, reducing pain and preventing further injury.

• Functional Medicine: Exploring root causes through diet and lifestyle changes to manage inflammation and immune function.

Sal DiStefano [66:20]: "Isometrics are your best friend."

Noel is encouraged to continue working within her limits, utilize tools like sleds and suspension trainers, and possibly adopt a ketogenic diet to reduce inflammation.

Caller 2: Cody from Texas – Training Intensity and Reps in Reserve (RIR)

Timestamp: [73:00] – [82:44]

Cody seeks advice on optimizing his MAPS 15 Advanced program, specifically regarding:

• Reps in Reserve (RIR): Training to leave 2 reps shy of failure to maximize effectiveness without overtraining.

• Adjusting Weights: Techniques to make sets challenging without constantly increasing weight, such as slowing down the tempo of reps.

Adam Schafer [78:33]: "Slowing down the reps adds that intensity..."

The hosts affirm that both increasing weight and manipulating tempo are valid methods to enhance workout intensity.

Caller 3: Sloan from South Carolina – NASM Certification for 16-Year-Olds

Timestamp: [82:36] – [88:14]

Sloan, a 16-year-old aspiring fitness professional, inquires about the NASM certification and career pathways. The hosts recommend:

• NASM Certification: A solid educational foundation in personal training.

• Shadowing Experienced Trainers: Gaining practical insights by learning from seasoned professionals in physical therapy and correctional exercise.

• Corrective Exercise Specialist Certification: Enhancing her expertise in addressing clients' specific needs.

Sal DiStefano [83:19]: "NASM is a great choice for education and learning structured programming."

Sloan is praised for her proactive approach and encouraged to continue her growth mindset.

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Conclusion

Episode 2619 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth offers a robust case for the superiority of strength training, backed by scientific reasoning and practical applications. The hosts effectively address listeners' concerns through live coaching, providing personalized and actionable advice. Whether you're looking to build muscle, enhance stamina, improve flexibility, optimize hormones, or achieve specific aesthetic goals, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide to harnessing the full potential of weightlifting.

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Notable Quotes:

• Sal DiStefano [03:55]: "There is no form of exercise that even comes close."

• Sal DiStefano [12:42]: "You could use just weights for flexibility and you'll get better results than you would from stretching."

• Adam Schafer [25:23]: "There is no form, no other modality out there that even comes close to what you can do with strength training."

• Sal DiStefano [66:20]: "Isometrics are your best friend."

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For more insights and expert guidance, follow Mind Pump on Instagram @mindpumpmedia, @mindpumpsal, @mindpumpadam, @mindpumpjustin & @mindpumpdoug or visit mindpumppodcast.com.

Transcript

[Sal DiStefano]

Hi, Zoe Saldana.

[Adam Schafer]

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[Sal DiStefano]

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[Adam Schafer]

Plus we'll help you pay off your old phone.

[Sal DiStefano]

Up to 800 bucks and you still.

[Adam Schafer]

Get to keep it.

[Sal DiStefano]

There's always a trade in. Not right now. At T Mobile. I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma. That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse. Oh, let's see. Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm good. Seriously. Let me check this pocket.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, mints. Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec. I've got cupcakes in the car.

[Justin Andrews]

It's our best iPhone offer ever.

[Adam Schafer]

Switch to T Mobile. Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple intelligence on us. No trade in needed. We'll even pay off your phone up to 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits.

[Sal DiStefano]

New line $100 plus a month on experience beyond Finance Agreement $999.99 and qualifying ported for well qualified plus tax and $10 connection charge.

[Adam Schafer]

Pay off via virtual prepaid card.

[Justin Andrews]

Allow 15 days credits end in balance.

[Adam Schafer]

Due if you pay off early or cancel mobile.com.

[Justin Andrews]

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.

[Sal DiStefano]

Mind Pump.

[Justin Andrews]

With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer.

[Sal DiStefano]

And Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode. We have callers calling in and we get to coach them on air. But this was after the intro. Today's intro was 58 minutes long. Now in the intro, we talk about fitness studies, fat loss, muscle gain. We talk a little bit about current events and family life. It's a good time. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this one, email us your [e-mail] now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The First1 is mphormones.com if you want hormone optimization, testosterone replacement therapy, if you want to work with the most advanced peptides for accelerated recovery, fat loss, for better sleep, pretty much for anything. Go talk to the [e-mail] this episode is also brought to you by Paleo Valley. Today we talked about their beef tallow. Adam loves using it to cook his steaks in. It's delicious and beef tallow is a saturated fat that's good for high temperature cooking. Go check them out. Go to paleovalley.com mindpump that link will give you an automatic 15. We also have a sale on some workout programs. The Shredded Summer bundle of workout programs and the Bikini Bundle programs are all 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code JUNE50 for the discount. Here comes the show. There are many different ways to exercise. All of them have some value. But is one of them the best? Yes, lifting weights. In fact, there's five reasons why lifting weights is actually all you need. Let's get into this.

[Doug]

All you need.

[Sal DiStefano]

This will be controversial. Now I do want to make this case that you don't have to do it this way, but if you if you wanted to and all you did was have weights, you could accomplish every everything you need from a physical performance health perspective with just weights.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't know why this is still controversial. I don't think it should be. And I think that absolutely this is true. I know that we get into it online with people over the whole cardio thing, but I just, I laugh at that because most people that are talking about cardio, they do or they're talking about lists like slow, low, steady state type cardio. And if you have ever barbell back squatted 20 reps of anything, it is way easier like cardiovascular wise for me to jog for 10 minutes than it is to do a few sets. Those and so the benefits that you get from that are are just as good, if not better.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, let's get into it. I'll start with the obvious one. This we'll start with the easy one. Right. For building muscle and strength. Strength, lifting weights is the best. Duh. I don't think I need to make this argument. But it's when it comes to the muscle building process and getting stronger, there is no form of exercise that that even comes close. This is like comparing a dragster to a tricycle. A tricycle will get you to your destination, but it'll take you forever and maybe never. Yeah. Whereas a race car will get you there quickly and will for sure get you where you want to go. Lifting weights builds muscle and builds strength. It does that better than any other form of exercise. Now other forms of exercise have other benefits, but when it comes to muscle building and strength building, other forms of exercise are completely inferior. In other words, trying to modify other forms of exercise like Pilates or yoga or cardio to build muscle and strength is a complete waste of time. It's actually almost a complete waste of time. Like 15 minutes of strength training will.

[Doug]

Beat all the square pagan around hold.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Because you get people with like, oh my Pilates, you know, we do strength training or my yoga. And what they'll do is try to modify the techniques and the holds to try to build strength and muscle. But it's like they're just so bad at doing that one thing that if you want to build muscle and strength, like even if you lift the weights for 10 minutes, you'd be better off.

[Adam Schafer]

I think we have to unpack that a little bit or define that better for people because obviously there's a little bit of truth in it, otherwise they wouldn't be able to market it and sell it that way. Right. Because if you modify yoga or you do Pilates, there are some, some strength training benefits.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

But very little and for a very short period of time of training that way. Right. So what is it that about traditional strength training that is so different than my Pilates strength training?

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, there's two, there's two main differences. One, the most important one I think is progressive overload. The amount of strength and muscle that you will build doing other forms of exercise, even if you modify them for strength and muscle, is going to be just enough to perform what you're doing. So when you first start doing yoga, you're not strong enough to hold a pose, later you are strong enough to hold that pose. And so what, how you, how do you progressively overload that you hold the pose longer? Well, now you're starting to tip into stamina and endurance when you hold for too long. Whereas with weights you add weight to the bar or do another rep. So long as you stay within a particular rep range, it's all strength and muscle building. So the potential is massive for muscle building and strength building with strength training. With other forms of exercise, it's severely limited because those forms of exercise just don't lend themselves well.

[Doug]

It's very entry. It's like zero to strength stability, which is the first part of any goal towards like building strength. You have to create that environment so it's stable enough so you can. Your body gets that signal that now it can allow for more force production. Uh, but as you do that, you have to then press out of that and progress. And so, you know, using other methods like holding it longer or like making it more an isometric or tempo can only get you so far with body weight Movements versus now we got to add some load, which helps to, you know, give you that external signal a little bit louder.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm trying to visualize it. And if, if I were to draw like a graph and correct me if you, if I'm wrong, I think it would look like this where it's like, imagine the strength training group with traditional weights. The other person, like pilot Pilates in the first six to 12 weeks. I still think obviously weights would, would be climbing as far as results. Faster. Yeah, faster. But it would, but so would also be Pilates. And then after about six to 12 weeks, Pilates would do this.

[Sal DiStefano]

While this continues from a muscle and strength perspective. Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

And so, and so if you were to look at that graph out six months, it's. They're not even in the same universe.

[Sal DiStefano]

Six years. Oh my God.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Right. So for the first time, six weeks of doing those two modalities. They're not on evil even playing fields, but they're at least close. And you can make a case for.

[Sal DiStefano]

In the context of. Yep, right.

[Adam Schafer]

But after that six week mark, it's like they go so far apart. It's like it doesn't even, it's not even this way. And that's where the statement comes. I just want to make that clear for the audience because there's, if you, if you come from that, that place, you've been, you've been taught or brainwashed to, you know, present to people all the muscle building benefits of these, of these classes. Right. And so somebody has been sold on that idea. And so it's like, wait a second, my teacher or my person told me that it does do great for building muscle. And so that when they're, what they're talking about is those first six to 12 weeks that I'm talking about. And in comparison to weights, it does okay for those first six weeks, but just okay after that. It's not even in the same.

[Doug]

I'm picturing a guy on a tricycle like right next to a drag racer.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. The other part of this is just kind of go off on a little side tangent is you'll hear people say, oh, you just lift weights. You come take my Pilates class and see how, how well you do. Obviously I don't do Pilates. It'll kick my butt. That's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about how hard it is. We're just talking right now. And we'll get to other stuff about building muscle and building strength. Nothing comes close. Not even close. Not even the same universe as lifting weights or strength training.

[Adam Schafer]

Not to mention, if you've been listening to us long enough, you know that we've made the case already that how hard something is does not define how good or how effective it is. So just because something is really hard or you get really sore does not equate to more results.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's right. Next is stamina. Now here's what people will make the argument. They'll say, okay, well, yes, for strength and muscle, lifting weights is awesome, but I want stamina. I want lots of stamina. So I'm going to do lots of running and cycling and swimming. Now to be clear, those are excellent ways to develop stamina. They're phenomenal ways of building stamina. But can you get similar stamina benefits? Not specific to the action? Because of course you want to get good at swimming, you better practice swimming. Just talking about general stamina and endurance. Can you get similar results with weights? Of course you can.

[Doug]

Absolutely.

[Sal DiStefano]

High reps or little to no rest will definitely do this for you. It's a very effective way at building stamina and it comes with a minor side effect of some strength because you're using resistance and the movements can be so, so dramatically different. In strength training, I could pick so many different exercises. Whereas other forms of exercise tend to be very specific. Cycling and cycling, swimming and swimming, I can use weights to build stamina in.

[Doug]

Almost unlimited general everyday stamina. You're going to get real good results by just increasing your rep count, as you mentioned earlier, and you know, going through periods of, of training with that type of muscle endurance in your workouts. However, you know, the distinguishing, like difference there and the factors, if I'm working on a skill of swimming or running, that's specific.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And so, yeah, it's not going to translate completely to that. That's where you would venture off. But in terms of everyday overall strength, stamina and endurance, you get plenty of that.

[Adam Schafer]

Just, I was going to say the same thing. Just in other words, right. If you, if you were, if you were doing that, if you were doing cardio for the health benefits of cardio.

[Sal DiStefano]

That come from stamina.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that comes from stamina. Then you're better off doing it through weights. If you have something very specific like I want to be a good runner, well then, then you have to practice. That's different if I want to be a good swimmer. Like if you have a very specific endurance sport that you want to be good at, then of course it doing that sport trumps weights for that all day long. But if you say things like, hey, I do cardio because my, you know, my doctor is a good way for endurance, stamina and health, you could obtain that type of health and stamina as good, if not better, through weights. If you were looking for something specific, well, then that's a different story.

[Sal DiStefano]

The other category again, to go off on a side where I'm like, okay, well then keep running and swimming is you're like, well, it's not that I necessarily want to be good at those things, but I enjoy it the most. Go for it. Nothing wrong with that. But the point of this is, if you really wanted to pick one form of exercise for every physical attribute and health benefits, could you do it with just weights? Yes. Not only could you just do it, could you do it, but you could do it effectively in an effective way.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Here's the most controversial point, and I have data to support this. But the most controversial point is that you could use just weights for flexibility.

[Adam Schafer]

Didn't a new study just come out on that?

[Sal DiStefano]

Another one came out. Yeah, that you could use just weights for flexibility and you'll get better results than you would from stretching.

[Doug]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

From weights. Now people are crazy. What are you talking about? I've never seen a bodybuilder with better flexibility than a yoga, you know, practitioner or whatever. It depends how you do it. It all depends on how you do it. Now here's why. First, let's talk about flexibility and then let's talk about mobility. So flexibility is the ability of a muscle to stretch or elongate. Okay. So you go down to touch your toes. You barely touch your toes. You want to get more flexible. That would allow you to put your hands on the floor.

[Doug]

You can passively get into getting further.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right. But mobility is flexibility plus strength. In other words, having a range of motion is great, but if there's no strength in that range of motion, that's injury land.

[Adam Schafer]

Yep.

[Sal DiStefano]

That is the greatest, that is the greatest risk for injury. The greatest risk of injury is high flexibility, low strength. If you look at the data, it's like a, it's like a two year old. They're unstable, but you can bend them all over however you want. You put load on that person and they're going to hurt themselves. Now, strength training, if you perform it for flexibility purposes or mobility purposes, it looks different. You're challenging ranges of motion. You're using a weight that is far less than what you would use for traditional muscle building or strength building. And you use a wide variety of movements. Because you don't want to get strong in just one direction. You want to get strong in multiple directions, which provides the kind of stability you need to prevent injury. This is the best way to get flexible because you get that range of motion, but you're now strong in that range of motion. And this is what the best coaches know. They know this. It requires a little bit more diligence, but if you want to compare head to head, I mean, this will crush traditional flexibility.

[Adam Schafer]

I like this one, and I find it one of the more interesting ones because I don't know anybody personally who, even though this is what the research says, has actually approached their flexibility program with this intent. Right.

[Doug]

Did he remember he was trying to juju as well?

[Adam Schafer]

But yeah, yeah, juju would be a good example.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, both of those.

[Adam Schafer]

So it. Do it that way.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So he was saying how he wanted to get splits.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So he's doing it with resistance, and he was. He was staying in that elongated range of motion.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, that's right.

[Sal DiStefano]

And adding weight.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Not a lot of people do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, because they don't know.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, but that is. That is the better route to do it. But yet you just don't hear about. A lot of people are like, hey, I'm. I'm working on my flexibility. I'm doing it through strength training. Like, that's my, my. And by the way, you made a point to start that, like, you know, because people use the argument that, I don't know a bodybuilder that's more flexible than a. Any sort of yogi or whatever. Well, no bodybuilder does flexibility to be the most flexible. They do it to stay flexible. Their goal is to build the most optimal muscle. It's not in their best interest. They got up in stage and they have smaller muscle, but they're more flexible than the other guy. They don't win. So they're. They're still approaching it from a hypertrophy standpoint. But if they actually took that type of discipline that they put towards building muscle and strength and put it towards flexibility, they would be every bit.

[Doug]

And maintain a crazy physique. You could. Yeah, you could definitely do that. And that's. I think that's one of the rare examples right away. It's juju mufu. You're like, how could somebody with that much muscle mass get into these positions and also be as dynamic and flexible? Well, really, it's just about the fact that you've been working on the strength in these end ranges.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's right.

[Doug]

And so, you know, a lot of times it's good to work on that first intrinsically. So we talk about skin stretch or ways to like increase tension within these poses. So you, you support that, that position, but then you stress test that position, you add load and so you can actually increase the amount of strength within that.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm so glad you said that, Justin, because I don't want somebody to hear this and go like, okay, cool, I'm gonna get into this deep splits and then hold 50 pound dumbbells or something crazy like this has to be a gradual process.

[Sal DiStefano]

Very gradual.

[Adam Schafer]

And so what the regression to that looks like is kin stretch, which if you're not familiar with kin stretch, it's taking yourself to those end ranges of motion to where like you go into a very deep stretch position and then.

[Sal DiStefano]

You, then you drop, try to flex that.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Then you create isometrics in that position. And you hear Justin talk about all the time where when you do that, you gain 20% both directions of strength. Right. So that's how you start to build strength there. And then over time you can progress it with weight. You don't just go straight into a deep stretch position and grab a bunch of weight and think that's a good thing.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's how you get hurt.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Now there's two things, two caveats. One is, in the higher ranges, or in the more extreme cases, muscle mass itself can become a hindrance to certain types of mobility. Right. You got huge back. Well, you know, they might get in the way when you're trying to squeeze your shoulder blades back or whatever. So like, if you're just got big muscles, they can make mobility a bit more challenging just because they can get in the way. But that requires a lot of muscle. Here's the second caveat. You can strength train in a way that'll actually reduce mobility. And what does that look like? Well, I get really strong in certain ranges of motion and in certain planes of movement. And I don't strengthen other ranges of motion and other planes of movement. Now it happens, my body limits my range of motion because it's like you're so strong moving in this direction that if you move in this other direction, where the ratio of strength is so out of whack, you're going to hurt yourself. And so you start to appear to be tighter. And this is why people think strength training makes you tight. Because when you look at a bodybuilder who trains in these short ranges of motion and really only cares about developing muscle, they start to move around and look tight precisely because their body is like, we're going to keep you confined to what you train.

[Adam Schafer]

Which I love you making this point because now it's more clear to the listener why you hear us when we talk about. There's studies and research to support doing things like partials for building muscle. But we tend to not advocate for it for that simple reason. It's because. For the simple reason of if somebody takes that too far and they do all these partials, because you can still build muscle in partials, what you end up doing is you get really strong in this short range of motion, and then that's unstable. Yeah. Then that hinders flexibility and mobility. And since most people are looking for overall strength, want to build muscle, but then also are not trying to put themselves in a position where they're more injury prone after lifting weights than before is the reason why we don't advocate for that much.

[Sal DiStefano]

All right, next, this is where I think, and I do, I strongly believe we have a lot of data and studies that support this, but it's not a mainstream message yet. But I do believe it will become a mainstream message that when it comes to hormone optimization, natural hormone optimization, strength training is in a completely different universe. Completely different universe. Now, to be clear, all forms of exercise, if applied appropriately, will improve your health. Improving your health generally does improve your hormone profile. Getting healthier, in other words, just getting healthier is great for your hormone profile. Okay. But that being said, strength training directly affects hormone health through a couple different ways or multiple ways. But the two most important ones, in my opinion, are improving insulin sensitivity. So that's number one. So when you lift weights, your muscles, which are a storage containment, a storage container for glycogen, become hypersensitive to insulin, which is great. So you want insulin sensitivity. Right. If you have poor insulin sensitivity, you're much more likely to have things like pcos. You're much more likely to have estrogen imbalances with progesterone. Growth hormone doesn't start becoming effective, you get mitochondrial dysfunction. It's really important to have insulin sensitivity. Strength training is the best for this. Like, you build muscle, you can store more glycogen, and muscle is very insulin sensitive. And we see it immediately post strength training. And we also see this improving over time with strength training better than other forms of exercise. Then the second is when you build muscle, your body increases androgen receptors. So these are the receptors that testosterone attaches to. So whatever amount of testosterone you have, if you double the amount of receptors you have for that testosterone, you essentially have twice as much testosterone. It's that much more effective. And this is important for men and women. For women, testosterone is just as important as it is for men. We just have different ratios. So when you increase receptors, which happens immediately when you start lifting weights, this is one of the first effects. Your testosterone becomes more effective. So you've essentially made yourself insulin sensitive. Testosterone is like having more testosterone. We also see data that supports that strength training may actually directly raise testosterone as well. And then we see balancing of hormones like cortisol and growth hormone receptors start to upregulate as well. So it starts to push you more towards this optimized hormone profile in ways that other forms of exercise don't even come close to.

[Adam Schafer]

I love to see the movement in this that we've seen in the last just 10, five years, even five, 10 years. I mean, how many female doctors now have we had on this show that promote strength training?

[Sal DiStefano]

It's the primary form of exercise.

[Adam Schafer]

See, and just go back say 15, 20 years when we were training, it's like you didn't hear that at all. Not at all. And so it's really cool, so impactful to see all these female doctors that come on here and that has now become like a foundation to all their protocols is like, oh yeah, no, I, I get my, I get my ladies lifting weights right away. And so I feel like we've, we've known that for men for so long because it's so closely connected to testosterone. And so we've, that's always been something that's been talked about or for a long time it's been talked about for like men's hormone health or testosterone in general. But for female hormone optimization, I don't think you hear, have heard about it as much as you've heard about it in the last five years now.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, when I figured this out was as a gosh, I would say probably 10 years into my career I had my wellness studio. At that point I started making great relationships with some forward thinking hormone specialists and functional medicine practitioners. So this was 15 years plus ago, maybe almost 20 years ago and probably 15 years ago. And at the time it was hard to find functional medicine practitioners and it was hard to find hormone specialists that were really forward thinking. Luckily my studio was in the middle of Silicon Valley. So we tend to get the best of the best for certain things. So I found some and I started working with them and they were blown away by the results that my patients got from a hormone perspective by training with Me and working out and working with them. And they would ask me, what are you doing with them? Like, her hormones are. And I'm like, we're lifting weights. Well, how often? Once a week. What do you mean? Oh, yeah, like. And they started to show that when they got stronger, the hormones started to improve and the results in terms of the hormonal effects started to improve. This is when I started piecing this.

[Adam Schafer]

Together at the first time, by the way, though. And I'm glad you went that direction because this can also be bad for you hormonally if not applied appropriately. Because I'm sure there's somebody who's listening right now who's like. The opposite was true for me. I started training seven days a week.

[Sal DiStefano]

Over train, and you're screwed.

[Adam Schafer]

And then the opposite happens. So if you have poor sleep and you are. Your intensity is through the roof, and you're low calorie because you're trying to diet, and then strength training looks like, oh, God, it's not helping my hormones at all. It's the opposite, but it's because of how you apply it. This again, another reason why you hear us advocate for one to three days a week and moderate intensity and two, two reps short of failure because of things just like this. Because applied incorrectly and it could have adverse effects. Applied correctly, it could have profound effects.

[Doug]

Yeah. And two, like, just one more added kind of benefit. Obviously, like, with female clients, I noticed this a lot, and you've mentioned this quite a few times of, like, you know, avoiding osteoporosis and, like, bone health and integrity and strength. You know, the. The most backfold version of that is lifting weights versus all other forms. It just doesn't even touch.

[Sal DiStefano]

If you put. It's building muscle and strength. You might as well say building bone.

[Doug]

Yeah, building bone.

[Sal DiStefano]

Ligaments.

[Doug]

It's all there.

[Sal DiStefano]

Nothing will build your bone like strength or.

[Adam Schafer]

How many times have we already on this podcast given a. A woman the advice to increase her calories? Go build muscle and she regains her period.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, countless times we've. We've seen that on. On live callers. And of course, we experienced that with.

[Doug]

I have Ultimate Balancer.

[Sal DiStefano]

I have two clients got pregnant just from doing that.

[Adam Schafer]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Literally, they came to me and they were having fertility issues. That wasn't our goal. Again, I was a younger trainer, so I'm like, I'm not touching that, but I'm going to. You have to eat more and you got to build some muscle. And then, boom, they got pregnant.

[Doug]

It's all part of the process.

[Sal DiStefano]

Two clients. Finally, this is an easy point to make. Aesthetics. Esthetics are subjective, but generally speaking, there is a general idea of what looks good, what doesn't look good. Name one form of exercise that allows you to pick parts of your body to develop none and shape. Yeah, you can't do that with other forms.

[Adam Schafer]

Only one.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

This to me is. I mean, of course, this is a good selling point. It is. This is. I mean, this is mostly what you. You present as a trainer. I mean, yes, there are some people look for general health. Yes. Some people just want performance and strength. But most people come in because they. Unfortunately, they come in, they finally get there because they're unhappy with how they look. And nothing will reshape sculpt a body like lifting weights. There is no form, no other modality out there that even comes close to what you can do with strength training, to that point where you can be that specific, where someone can come in and say, hey, I wish I had a little bit broader shoulders, but a smaller waist but a big butt. Like, you could literally ask for that. Yeah. And then you can go, cool, let's get to work. Like, we could literally build a routine around those specific goals to obtain those specific goals. That's incredible. There's nothing else you can do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

And in some cases, you can even change the, the way a muscle looks. And I say in some cases, it has to be the big ones, but you can literally be like, I want more upper chest or I want more outer butt, or I want the. The middle of my butt. Like, we can actually do that.

[Doug]

You can spot build, you can't spot reduce. You can spot build. So you could actually work on defining muscles and specific muscles. But, you know, losing, you got to lose overall fat.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

You know, we always have to say.

[Sal DiStefano]

All right, so I want to talk about a peptide stack that now I'm seeing. People are, do you guys remember a while ago when I said that thymus and beta plus BPC157 Wolverine stack. Yes. So we've known. People have talked about this stack as being a great stack for recovery and healing. Fact. We know this, right? You combine those two and this is anecdote. But these are the people that we talk to who go through our [e-mail], this is my own injury. Healing is like 40% faster in some cases even. It's actually kind of wild if you have, like, when I tore my hamstring, that combination. I'm actually cautious working out because I'm like, I feel like I'm totally healed, but this is way too fast. That would normally have taken me four months. It took me 30 days. And I feel like I'm back to normal, so. We already know that. But you guys remember me talking about how when I'm on that combo, I just, I'm just leaner. I just get leaner and I feel like it's like almost like the same muscle building.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, I think there's a mechanism. So I saw Jay Campbell list that combo as one of his top five fat burning peptide stacks.

[Adam Schafer]

Interesting.

[Sal DiStefano]

So he listed now, of course, above that was like the growth hormone releasing ones and the CLP ones.

[Adam Schafer]

He's the best. The best. But he said one of the top.

[Sal DiStefano]

Five, though it's one of the top five. And it's not traditionally known as a fat burning stack.

[Doug]

Your body performs better.

[Adam Schafer]

One of them tamps down inflammation, the other one regenerates tissue. So maybe it's because. I'm assuming that's coupled with lifting weights.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Because if you couple it with lifting weights, then it should theoretically accelerate the muscle recovery turnover.

[Doug]

Like.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, it should accelerate the recovery process. And if it does that, then it should speed up the metabolism, which in turn should burn body fat. That would be the mechanism, I would guess.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So that's what I would guess too. Right. Like as a, like a, like a kind of a secondary side effect. But actually in the data, they both increase growth hormone receptor density.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, interesting.

[Sal DiStefano]

So your, your, your, your body has more receptors, muscles in particular, but also connective tissue to growth hormone. So now your growth hormone becomes more growth hormone, just like I said with androgen receptor density earlier.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Now whatever growth hormone you produce, it's like almost like you're taking growth hormone because you have more receptors.

[Adam Schafer]

Interesting.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so that's probably because I. It's like what you said, Adam. I'm like, you know, is it that?

[Doug]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

But it's more than that. It had to be because I would be on both of them. Like, it just makes me like, look different.

[Adam Schafer]

So is there any benefits in sal than taking something like a. What's one of the Tessa Marlin or with couple.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, interesting.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh yeah. You go in a gross.

[Adam Schafer]

So like a wolverine stack stack.

[Doug]

Be like a fat burning stack growth.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hormone, you know, you'll get with that, like healing. That's like ridiculous, right? Growth hormone goes up, plus those two peptides, which also accelerate healing to it.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, you had me do that right now I was, I was taking. I actually have growth hormone. Right. So I was taking that with that stack when you tore my injury. And I remember you saying that like that I should take the Tessa Maron or the. What's the other one? I always forget the name.

[Doug]

Oh, no, no.

[Adam Schafer]

I. Butamoran. And I mean, I healed fast. I healed so fast, it's almost. It's scary fast.

[Sal DiStefano]

It is.

[Adam Schafer]

So I think that's important to note. That is you.

[Sal DiStefano]

You almost like, you feel like, is this real?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, you got to be careful. You got to be careful because of how fast you. You heal. I think that that's the. That's the one caveat to it is that, okay, you're going to get better sooner, but you still should slowly progress. And you have a tendency to want to heal.

[Sal DiStefano]

I have a theory around that. So because the question is like, well, if you're healed, you're healed. I don't think your central nervous system heals as quickly as your body can with those peptides. So I think the recruitment patterns are still a little off. So take time in getting in, getting back to your old weight, even if you feel like you're well.

[Adam Schafer]

Would there also be a lag on the ligament and tendons, the muscle repair? I would think the muscle will repair faster and then the ligament, tendons, that's.

[Sal DiStefano]

Typically how it is. So maybe, maybe that's the case. Although BPC speeds up the healing of tendons and ligaments, I mean, I definitely just. They're just slower than muscle.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, after we started working with Transcend and doing stuff like this, obviously I've never really been into the peptide world until us recently. Right, you're more into that stuff than any of us. But I'm a sport nut and I 100 believe now that like my buddies and I, long before I even knew what a peptide was, would be like, be like, how the hell is that possible?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

How did they come back within three months?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, he tears an acl, he's out six weeks and he's back on the field, like, and these guys aren't like just healed. They're.

[Sal DiStefano]

They're playing professional sports.

[Adam Schafer]

They're out cutting like, and doing things that. That don't even make. Like that might would just rip my tendons and ligaments off naturally, like, without even being injured. Right.

[Doug]

You wouldn't be confident. Like, it just doesn't.

[Adam Schafer]

It doesn't math from it. Never or never math. For me where it does now, I'm like, okay, these guys have been. These guys have had access to this for way.

[Sal DiStefano]

And they're using all of it.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh yeah. And hyperbaric chambers accelerating it up like they're doing.

[Sal DiStefano]

Come on, dude. If you're, if you're a franchise, how much? How much?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Doug]

You're valuable.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, you're worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Like how much do they pay one of the top like.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Basketball players?

[Adam Schafer]

40, $50 million.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you're looking at them like a 50 million dollar investment. And so you're like, you're gonna get thymus and beta, you're gonna get bpc. We're gonna put red light on you. You're gonna get the best strength and conditioning. Correctional exercise.

[Adam Schafer]

And they, you're gonna sleep. And they have a guy dedicated to them that like that. So it's so serious that when an athlete now gets hurt, they don't even see their teammates. They're like the full, their full time is to, is to recovery. Yeah. It's like they, and they have a very strict schedule of all the things that they do. And I think that, I just think that the general pop doesn't get to hear the, the peptide stacking, hormonal stuff that's going on behind the scenes. They get to hear that the other stuff like. Oh yeah, he does cold plunging and the kind of like the, the basic level. But they're also like taking, they have to be. It just makes it just now it makes sense to me. It never made sense when we talk about those injuries. Like this is. And I get their genetic anomalies. I get that they're, they're freaks of nature with their bodies like. But that still doesn't like make sense. It's. But now it does. Like. Oh, these, these stacks are what these guys, they've had it, they've probably had it for over a decade, maybe longer.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, longer. I'm sure.

[Adam Schafer]

How do you know what the, what the history is?

[Sal DiStefano]

I've been around for a long time.

[Doug]

Yeah, I know, it's like the 60s.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Dude.

[Adam Schafer]

No.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, we've identified some of these peppers.

[Adam Schafer]

Like BBC 157 has been around since like the 60s. No way.

[Sal DiStefano]

We identified it a long time ago. I don't know about the 60s, but it was longer than like five years ago. It was a long time ago.

[Adam Schafer]

93, when we isolated it.

[Sal DiStefano]

So.

[Doug]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

Wow.

[Sal DiStefano]

So fine.

[Adam Schafer]

We barely, we barely started talking.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So fine. Ten years later, they have it now in injectable form. That's 2003. That's still 20 plus years ago.

[Doug]

Still 20 years.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I mean late 90s. You're taking me back to high school. That's what I'm having these conversations. High school, college, you know, after. As my buddies and I are having these sports debates.

[Sal DiStefano]

You don't think that these, you know. You know, billion dollar.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, you know what we used to think back then, because steroids was the only thing that we knew that was.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that was just. That totally. That's old science.

[Adam Schafer]

That was exactly what we all thought. We all thought, like, they had. They're just. They're all beating the steroid tests. They're all taking steroids, and steroids is taking care of all of it. It's like they were. They're doing a lot more than just that prob.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, to be clear, that definitely helps. But like, anabolic steroid and growth hormone, like tech or date. Like, we've had that forever. Yeah, like, athletes have been using it. We've known what they do. In fact, if you go through the plethora of anabolic steroids, most of them were invented in the, like, you know, the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I don't think they came up with too many new ones afterwards.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, so I think it's pretty cool. Anyway, I gotta tell you guys about park incident with my. With my kids. I took them to, you know, that park that's in Los Gatos. They have, like, a nice creek or whatever. And I take my kids over there and we're throwing rocks, like, because I love doing that. The kids love doing it. Throwing rocks. And there's this little boy on the other side of the creek. And I start hearing him yell, don't throw rocks. Don't. You know, he must have been told by his dad, whatever. But I'm like, whatever. He's. Hello. He's far. He's on the other side of the creek. My kids aren't gonna, you know, they're barely throwing it in front of them. So we're just having fun. The kid starts to cross the creek right now, it's not high. It only comes up to, like, your shin. So he starts crossing over, and I see his dad in the back, and he's holding a baby. So he gives his wife the baby, and he follows his kid. So this kid comes over and I'm like, all right, we're just gonna all play together. And as soon as the dad sees me, he goes, hey, man. He goes, he's got atomic energy. My son's got atomic energy.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, he just straight told you?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I said, okay.

[Doug]

Atomic energy.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then he's and then, by the way, the guy was a F of the show, so he's like, hey, your name's Sal, right? Yeah. He's like, oh, I love your show. Whatever, bro. This kid was. You know how I tell you stories of my nephew, how he's just on fire all the time? That was this kid. So we were. They were throwing rocks, but this kid kept trying to throw rocks in the direction of my kids.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, God.

[Sal DiStefano]

Kept trying to splash him. And this poor dad, he was, like, trying to be. He's. You know, you could tell he's a good dad. You could tell he's really involved. He's trying to be calm, you know, redirect his kid. This kid's doing stuff. Let them watch. I was like, watching him, like, that's.

[Adam Schafer]

Got to make you feel good about yours. You're like. Because sometimes your kids can feel like they have that kind of energy to see a kid that's got way more.

[Sal DiStefano]

Some boys are just like that.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, that's. My best friend's son is like that, too. You have to.

[Sal DiStefano]

And he was a happy kid. You could tell he's trying to play.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. You just got to keep those kids busy. They have to be doing something physical. Busy. Like, I mean. I mean, don't you imagine he was probably that kid.

[Sal DiStefano]

Probably.

[Doug]

I was. I mean, I was really into sports, and that was it. Like, I. Every second of the day, I was practicing something because I had to. Yeah. They kicked me out of the house, so. Yeah, probably.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. My brother was like that.

[Doug]

I didn't get in trouble a lot, though.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, my brother was like that, dude. He was just. Always. Just now.

[Adam Schafer]

Were you chill? Were you totally chill?

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

I loved. I. Could you. You give me a book or something on TV that I was into, and you can leave me alone forever. And I was totally.

[Adam Schafer]

I was chill, too, but I liked sports, and I would play, but I got into that later, but I was like. I could just kind of chill. I mean, I'm like, Max. I mean, Max has that. He's like the next level. He's like me with his wife's. My wife's chill personality, which is why he's. He's so chill.

[Doug]

Like, it took me forever to, like, reading. I did not want to sit down. Dude, sitting down was the worst.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah. No, I could sit for age.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, speed of dad stuff. Have you guys seen the new viral trend? I want to do it because I think it would be fun. Have you. Have you guys seen it? The father in law trend.

[Sal DiStefano]

No.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, this is funny. If you guys haven't seen this. Dylan, have you seen the father in law trend yet? Oh, this is good. So this is so like husband and wife. So next time you guys are late, like call, call your wife's father and, and wish him good night just out of the blue like at like 8 o' clock at night, like, hey, hey.

[Sal DiStefano]

Dad, just want to say good night.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, this is Sal's. Just want to say goodnight just and, and then. And people are recording the responses and they're hilarious because I know if I call my father in law like that, first of all, I've never called him.

[Sal DiStefano]

So if I call him to wish.

[Adam Schafer]

Him a good night randomly. What are you doing?

[Doug]

Good night.

[Adam Schafer]

And they're getting like, there's. Some are like, oh my God, you could tell. They're like, they're heartfelt. What the fuck you want? Because it's so in left field. So it's like, it's a really cool.

[Doug]

Guy be so used.

[Adam Schafer]

Wholesome, funny trend that's happening online right now. I mean I love when there's cool ones like that. Like when there's like a cool trend that's happening that's like fun and funny and wholesome. It's like that. I'll tell you about, like I got to do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

I'll tell you about a bad trend that I saw. I was working out at the gym today and they had the TV playing and I saw this news, this news report. I guess there's a, there's a, there's this trend on. I don't know, I think it's on TikTok of tweens posting their skincare routines. So these are like 12 year olds and they're showing that like what they're doing for their skin and whatever and how great it is. And I'm watching, I'm like, why would you let your kid do that? Like, why would you let your kid. Who's watching those videos and who's watching those videos? Who are they?

[Doug]

I immediately go there.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes. Yeah. Like there's, there's people that shouldn't be watching them that are probably predators. And then why would you allow, you.

[Adam Schafer]

Know, I told you guys that that documentary.

[Doug]

Yep.

[Adam Schafer]

Did a whole thing on like because you can, you can totally evaluate the followers of these things.

[Doug]

You can look all that.

[Adam Schafer]

It's, it's not even close. That's why like to me that a parent that lets it happen obviously is very naive because you're not, you're not just kind of throwing them out there. It's like 80 of their followers are like middle aged men.

[Doug]

They're chum, they're just.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. It's like I, I don't give a how famous you are kid or how much you're making in YouTube money or what like that to, to willingly followers.

[Sal DiStefano]

800000 of them are probably.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And if you knew that as a dad, I just, I don't care how much money the kid's making. I don't know how I could sit at, sit let that sit.

[Sal DiStefano]

I think these are parents that value naive. They value fame so much or that it's a vicarious thing.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's like those moms and I'm sure I'm gonna piss someone off, but we're gonna make it. Yeah. They put their kids in these pageants and you know some of these pageants that you see like they're all dolled up and makeup and doing those crazy performances and the parents put all the pressure. I remember I trained this young lady. I'm not gonna say too much because I don't wanna call her out but I trained a young lady who competed in beauty pageants and I agreed to take her on. I trained her, she won. So then I suddenly had moms who were interested in me training their daughters. Now these were all high school girls so probably between the age of like 16 to 18. And I didn't accept any of them because the space felt so toxic. When I went to watch the pageant and I had one particular incident where a mom came up to me with her 16 year old daughter.

[Adam Schafer]

I remember this is what she wanted to tell you, like apples are bad or something, dude.

[Sal DiStefano]

I, I, I, I almost embarrassed her in front everybody. She walks up to me and she, she's like Sal, you did such a great job with so and so can you please tell my daughter that you can definitely gain body fat by eating too many apples? And I'm looking at her like with her 16 year old daughter next to.

[Adam Schafer]

Her like no, I will not say that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh like I almost was like absolutely.

[Adam Schafer]

I will not say that.

[Sal DiStefano]

So I was very said, you know, that's not an issue. And I said I wouldn't discourage somebody from eating fruit. It's much more difficult. And so I tried to educate but part of me wanted to be like.

[Doug]

Yeah, what are we doing?

[Sal DiStefano]

Let me let you have it right now. You know, get out of my face.

[Doug]

Let's get out of this environment.

[Sal DiStefano]

I did not take on any of those clothes.

[Adam Schafer]

I bet, I bet hey, Doug, how was. How was the birthday?

[Doug]

It was great.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

A great time.

[Sal DiStefano]

Doug turns. Can I say your age? Your real age? Yeah, the real age.

[Adam Schafer]

85.

[Sal DiStefano]

Shut up. He turns 60, and it was a wonderful, wonderful time.

[Adam Schafer]

That was. It was a good time, bro.

[Sal DiStefano]

I got choked. I don't. Did you guys tell I was getting choked?

[Adam Schafer]

Yes. Yes. You can tell. You're such a softy.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, I love Doug. I love him, man. You know, he's much more than just mind pump, you know? And so I was saying. I'm gonna get choked up again. I was saying nice things about him. I kept pausing because I was getting choked up, and everybody went around and said something nice.

[Adam Schafer]

I thought that was really.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was so nice, man.

[Adam Schafer]

Shout out to Jamie. Right?

[Sal DiStefano]

Jamie.

[Adam Schafer]

Just want to make sure. Yeah. Jamie who? Your long hairstylist. She's been with you for how many years? 20 years.

[Justin Andrews]

Almost 25.

[Adam Schafer]

25 years.

[Sal DiStefano]

W. Love her.

[Adam Schafer]

So I thought it was. I thought it was so great. It was her. She's the one who kicked that up. She's like, hey, why don't we all go around and say that's her thing, by the way. Oh, it is.

[Justin Andrews]

She loves doing that at parties.

[Adam Schafer]

It's. That's a cool thing. That's a wonderful. I think that's a really, really cool thing. It's always great to have somebody. Somebody who starts it up like that, because obviously Doug's gonna be like, how about you all take turns talking about me real quick? No one's gonna, like, start just talking.

[Sal DiStefano]

About how he wouldn't like it. Could you imagine? Yeah, that was good for Doug, because.

[Doug]

I feel like it was, you know, like.

[Adam Schafer]

You would like that.

[Doug]

Hell, no.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes, you would.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, look, he's getting red right now. Hey, real.

[Doug]

Everybody stop. Let's just keep having fun.

[Adam Schafer]

Feel really weird now, you know, rest of the show today.

[Doug]

I wouldn't like it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you would hate it. You know who would like it? I know I would love.

[Adam Schafer]

Hey, I'll be the first admit it's nice to people. Say something nice about you. I'm surprised that that would.

[Doug]

I don't know why.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that's weird to me. It is. You probably need to look into that dog. You know what I'm saying? I don't think it's weird at all to, like, trauma.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I think it's weird the other way around. I don't think it's weird to, like, have people say nice things about you and it not feel good. I mean, did it feel good? I'm sure. It felt.

[Justin Andrews]

It felt great.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was. I thought it was really cool that we did that. And everybody went around, I thought. Thought it was great and. And found out Doug's a great lover too.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, my God.

[Doug]

That's the best part. They just, just snuck that one in there.

[Sal DiStefano]

We all go around saying really nice things about Doug. Was a range of things from being such a great father.

[Doug]

Don Juan Doug, that's his new to a great friend.

[Sal DiStefano]

How humble he is, how hard working he is. Just all these wonderful things. And it comes to this, you know, this young lady he's. He's. He's dating and she's. The first thing she says is, Doug is a really good lover.

[Adam Schafer]

Everybody.

[Doug]

We died, dude.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, my God. Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

I paid her a lot of money.

[Adam Schafer]

Just. Yeah. Just trumped all the rest of our great stories. Everybody had a great. Nobody, remember.

[Doug]

Where do we go from here?

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't know. Doug, you got a lot of energy. So I can see it.

[Justin Andrews]

That was totally out of left field.

[Adam Schafer]

Still got that same place that we were at was so funny. We're sitting there. I don't know if you guys even heard when it happened, but we're sitting there. Katrina and I are on the, on the end and we're talking and the girl who's doing the. The basically the, the trolley microphone, whatever you call it. Whatever you call. What do you call someone who does that?

[Justin Andrews]

I don't know. Announcer.

[Sal DiStefano]

Announcer?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Tour guide.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah. You go like a tour guide, whatever. She comes walking up and I'm wearing one of our mind pump shirts. And she's like, hey. She's like, like, I saw a mind pump like that. She's like, you know, I, you know, Orange theory Adam. And I go, orange theory Adam?

[Sal DiStefano]

She said that to you?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, she said it to me.

[Sal DiStefano]

Did you know that you were.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, so then I said, yeah, yeah. So that's why I said, that's me. And she's just like, I thought it was you. I didn't want to. I didn't want to say it and not and be wrong or this and that. She's like, I used to take your class. I love your class. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So she started telling me how much she loved the classes back in the days. And then she name dropped somebody else who I've trained. And I was like, him.

[Sal DiStefano]

He was way more jazz.

[Adam Schafer]

That's why she. That's why I do it. That's the first thing with my head. I was like about 30 pounds less muscle.

[Sal DiStefano]

So I get It.

[Adam Schafer]

I get it. You know what I'm saying? But that was cool. And then. And then we get to the second place, and that was when the owner of the trolley followed us over and again, didn't say anything until this. She comes walking over to me and she's like. And I knew right after she said this. It was so funny when she said this, because I had never thought about this statement, how many times we've heard this until she said it. And I went, oh, God, that's a total drop. I listened to the show and she's like, long time listener, first time caller. And then she asked me a question.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh.

[Adam Schafer]

And I was like, oh, she listens to all the live callers. How many times we have a live caller who says that they come on, they go like, long time listener, first time caller. And then they think she walked. She approached me about. I forgot what she asked. She asked a question, nutrition related.

[Doug]

Oh, about wine? Yeah, about drinking that bad?

[Adam Schafer]

Is it that bad? Yeah. And she. But she started it by saying that, so found out she's a fan of the show also. And so that was really cool. But, yeah, it's super undercover. Both of them were like, we were all together for. Well before that and no one said anything. And then they later on.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was a great time, man. It was really nice celebrating you, Doug, for your birthday.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, thank you so much. It was really touching, honestly, to be recognized that way.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I really appreciate you guys.

[Doug]

Oh, I mean, you know, that's a big deal.

[Justin Andrews]

That was more than enough.

[Sal DiStefano]

All right, so, Adam, I want to hear how you use the beef tallow to cook your steaks, because I hear about it. This is Paleo Valley's beef tallow. So what do you. Would you just cook it in the pan with it?

[Adam Schafer]

So once we. Once we got introduced to it. Because that's got to taste amazing. Amazing. So before. Previously, before that, I always use ghee. Ghee. So I would always.

[Sal DiStefano]

I would also taste amazing.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that's traditionally what I've always used. And then we got that beef tallow sent over to us, and I thought, oh, maybe I'll try searing in this and see what. And since then, that is all I see or my meat in. I don't. I've. I haven't used ghee now in almost two years because it's. It just goes so much better with beef.

[Sal DiStefano]

Of course.

[Adam Schafer]

So my tri tip, my ribeyes, that's. I. So I. I do a, you know, I. I sear at the end. So I cook to A certain temperature that I've got down for whatever meat or cut. And then I finish with a minute on the iron skillet of the beef tallow. And it gives the perfect crust on that. And everybody that ever has it comments on it.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so my wife.

[Doug]

Potatoes and fries too. Amazing.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah, exactly.

[Adam Schafer]

To say I haven't done that.

[Sal DiStefano]

So Jessica takes potatoes and she.

[Adam Schafer]

You know what, she boils them.

[Sal DiStefano]

She cuts them in half, and then she puts.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm gonna do that after I do the meat with.

[Doug]

That, like kind of crispy brown. Oh, my God.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Doug]

It's such a good flavor.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's my favor potato dish my wife makes.

[Adam Schafer]

So can I. I've. You know when people make the smashed. Like, do you just. Do you literally? I've never done it before them. Could I. So I should boil them down first?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes, and then smash them.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, so boil them down first.

[Sal DiStefano]

You can cover them in beef towel and then just.

[Adam Schafer]

And then smash them and then I can just.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep, yep.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, I'm gonna.

[Justin Andrews]

You can boil them or bake them.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

If you bake them, keep the skin on, right?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And then you.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, yeah, I'd want it. I like the skin with all crispy like that. So. Yeah, I'll do like a. Do I. Do I under bake it a little bit? Just enough to get it saw or can I full bake it? It.

[Justin Andrews]

I pretty much full bake it.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, so I could full bake it and then. And then I wouldn't cook them to.

[Justin Andrews]

The point they're falling apart.

[Adam Schafer]

That'll go so. No. Yeah. No, I would not smash them.

[Sal DiStefano]

They fall over the place.

[Adam Schafer]

No. Oh, I'm so gonna do that. That'll go so good. With my tri tip or my steak as a side.

[Justin Andrews]

Plenty of salt?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Do you salt while it's why it's in there or after?

[Justin Andrews]

I'd salt it while it's in there.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

And after.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know. You guys know me?

[Doug]

Yeah, you're the salt king.

[Sal DiStefano]

I gotta tell you guys about this. So I was thinking. So it's gonna go a little spiritual, but I was thinking about some of the stuff I've heard Arthur Brooks say about happiness. And I made this connection to, you know, to theology or religion that I think is kind of fascinating. So I'd love to share and hear you guys thoughts on it. So you have. You guys have heard him say this and the data on this is pretty clear, right? Humans are wired to pursue a goal, but when we hit a goal, it's terrible. Like, we're not. We don't do well. When we accomplish what we've set out to accomplish, we tend to flounder, but when we're pursuing a goal, we love it. This is when we get lots of meaning. There's happiness that comes from it. So the problem with. With that, obviously, is, okay, well, like, pursue a goal. Great. Hit a goal. What do I do now? So what people tend to do is they tend to just constantly set new goals over and over again. But then that leads to fatigue because you keep accomplishing what you've set out to pursue only to be disappointed each time you're disappointed each time you're disappointed.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So from a secular standpoint, I was thinking, well, what would be the solution to that? Well, the solution would be to pursue a goal that you could never attain, something that would last the rest of your life.

[Adam Schafer]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

But there's two problems with that. One is the lifelong pursuit of that goal would have to continue to. You'd have to derive benefit from it for your whole life. I can't think of a single goal that would do that. Right. Like you can only get so healthy. You can only get so smart. You can only get. So it's not going to give you dividends for the rest of your life. However, if you pursue God, that will give you benefit for the rest of your life. And then it also comes with grace, because you need grace because you're going to screw up the entire time. And I'm like, oh, here's the psychological, I guess, evidence for why people who really have a strong faith tend to be happier because they're pursuing this unattainable thing.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

They have this endless supply of grace, which is what he offers you, and you continue to benefit until the day you die from. From spiritual. You grow spiritually forever.

[Adam Schafer]

Wouldn't you say that that's like the secular saying, how's it go? Shoot for the stars? Land on the moon?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, that's what that is, you know? So, I mean, not that I disagree with you, but just to play devil's advocate, how is that different than just setting a goal that you probably can't or won't obtain, but in pursuing it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Your whole life because it will eventually stop producing benefit? So let's say, you know, you're pursuing health, health, health, health, health, health. I mean, that can. That could become orthorexia at some point, or you're not going to continue to derive benefit from it, and you'll see your health decline as you age anyway. Not a bad thing to pursue, but it's.

[Adam Schafer]

But again, playing devil's advocate with you, I would say that you could also what some people get, which is like spiritual righteousness, where you know, you continue to pursue that way to where you think you are all knowing and you're so great. And so I would make the case that you, the same person or same type of person that say, is producing ultimate hell and it turns bad is no different than the person who's pursuing God but then also turns bad, then they become a manipulator themselves or become a Justin's favorite cult leader. Like. So I, I think you can make the case that that could also go.

[Doug]

Bad fatigue in it as well.

[Sal DiStefano]

It could, but it's not. That's not the, the ultimate. That's not what happens or what I should say. That's not guaranteed to happen. Whereas if you pursue any other goal, you're guaranteed at some point to reach a point where you're. That's just not good. So the Bible specifically talks about that. Right? Like the only people that Jesus visibly gets angry with in the Bible are not prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners, it's the Pharisees, it's the spiritually righteous. It's the people who are like, no, I'm better than everyone else and I'm leveraging my how good I am because then God's going to reward me and that's why I'm doing these types of things. So they teach specifically against that, that.

[Adam Schafer]

But I mean, but it could still lead to talking about a human man who sets goals. If you're taking an example. Both.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's why I think it has to be. That's right. So I think, I think it has to be faith and you have to believe in the supernatural aspect. I don't think you could do it from a. Like. Well, I don't believe in the metaphysical, but I'm going to continue pursuing this because then it won't.

[Adam Schafer]

Because I mean, I think even people that are pursuing it with the right. I think I've seen it happen more often than not than Pete. I don't know. I don't know any secular people that pursued that without the faith most of them do it with. In fact, many spiritually righteous people don't even realize that they're being spiritually righteous.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that's a big problem. Yeah, I would say they probably turn more people away totally from the faith.

[Adam Schafer]

100%.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. There's more data. The hardest people to bring back are the ones that have been hurt by People in the church or by churches or by pastors or whatever, once they leave because of that, very difficult to bring them back. So I think that they do tons of damage. And it speaks.

[Adam Schafer]

No, totally. I mean, I just think. I think that the. It's. It's so similar to me, the way we give advice about helping your family member get in shape is like, it has nothing to do.

[Doug]

It's got a model.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. You know, you don't minister to them.

[Sal DiStefano]

You.

[Adam Schafer]

You live. You live.

[Doug]

The words aren't going to sell them.

[Adam Schafer]

No. It's like it's yours.

[Sal DiStefano]

They ask you, like, with health and fitness.

[Adam Schafer]

Right. Well, that's, you know, exactly same thing. It's just like you.

[Doug]

If you point, they're interested.

[Adam Schafer]

That's right.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

If you live it to. To the highest level as you can, which, knowing you can never reach the highest level, hopefully it attracts others to pursue or at least be interested in it. And I think I was reading about.

[Sal DiStefano]

Mother Teresa in that case. So you guys know, you've heard who she is, right? So she, of course, she felt a strong calling to serve the poor in India and she took a vow of poverty. So she said, I'm going to live in poverty with them and I'm just going to care for them and love them. She was revered in India not just by the Christians and Catholics, but also by the Hindus and people who are Muslim, because she was. She didn't do that. She didn't preach. Unless you came to her and said, hey, what's this all about? She just cared for people and loved people and in. She was revered so much in that country by everybody. And she literally became the light.

[Doug]

She immersed herself in that culture.

[Adam Schafer]

Was it you who shared it? Someone shared like an AI, if AI generator.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, I did, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I didn't get a chance to read it. I looked at it, but you just made it.

[Sal DiStefano]

If there were influencers. Biblicals.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, yes. So there's a lot of those going around now on Instagram. It's like point of POV from Jesus. You know, hey, I'm, you know, going.

[Sal DiStefano]

Off to, you know, just fed 5,000 people.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Are they, like, funny? Are they designed to be funny or they actually, like, designed to be. This is what we think it would be like.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, I mean, obviously it's funny because obviously they didn't have social media back then. So it's basically taking these icons, if you will, from the Bible and having them be influencers. So it is kind of funny.

[Sal DiStefano]

There was a guy and there Was one guy. There was one where it was like he was. He was behind him. You could see the. The Red Sea was parted. He's like, oh my God, the water just parted. I don't know how this happening.

[Adam Schafer]

I gotta. Those would be pretty funny. Yeah, those would be great. Dude. Bro, the things that. So my brother in law, he's got a old. You've seen Larry's Chevelle?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

So it's all souped up and everything like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Awesome.

[Adam Schafer]

And he had like some issue with like the throttle body. And so he said that he. He literally took a picture. Okay. Took a picture of it and uploaded it to Chat G. Chat GBT and spit out exactly everything. He needed diagnostics, bro, like you. I. He should tell a story because I'll probably mess it up. Because he told me step by step what happened. Because like he even had like a custom part built and it figured that out and told him the modification. He took him step by step. He literally. Okay, my brother's not a mechanic, okay. He's a computer dork. Right?

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Adam Schafer]

He literally took his car, redid his throttle body, redid his, his, his. His fuel system, retuned the car. All from Chad gbt. Wow. And it took him step by step. And any. Even when there was like little. Even when there was like little, little mistakes, he would like thinking. He's like. He took a picture and said, oh, you said this. And then it says, oh, my mistake. I didn't see it from that angle. That there was another part. And like figured out that the picture needed to be tilted a little bit more. And they said, oh, this part is perfect for this. Oh, you got that? Excellent. And it's like cheering him, dude, great job. Now do this and do that. Dude, he was showing me the conversation and I was like so blown away.

[Sal DiStefano]

This is. This is what? The fourth. Is this the fourth generation? That's all it is, is the fourth. You know how. You know how many ex.

[Doug]

I just imagine they upload that to a little robot. That's their coaching. You doing the whole thing.

[Adam Schafer]

Dude, he. He showed me how. He showed me the whole conversation. And I just sat there and read the whole thing. I was so. I mean, it made me consider like, hey, could I do this? Could I just get under there?

[Doug]

Finally we're gonna have our own droids, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, it was so specific to what he needed, where to order it. Send him the link here. You can buy here for this much. Like, then use this, don't use that. Like, oh, bro, it was crazy. It was crazy. And I didn't even think he was like prompting it over. Like he had some real general prompts like, help me do this, I don't know how to do this. Or hey, this isn't working. Oh, we'll try this and do that. It's like that. Yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

It was, was. It's. Him and I were just tripping out because I've seen other ways people are using it and I'm like, when I, I told.

[Sal DiStefano]

I've seen people get diagnosed, they'll upload their medical records and be like, what's wrong with me? And it comes out with a diagnosis because it combines the information from the hormone specialist and the, you know, the immunologist and whatever, and it's able to compile all that.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I tripped out my family member that used it for an argument. Right? They were having an argument and they're. And they upload the, the debate that they were having and what, like, like what the. Basically like, like what the fight was over and like bas and basically. And I don't think they prompted this way. I think I would be like, you know, as if, you know, respond to us as if you were Jordan Peterson. Like, you could totally prompt him to do something like that. And like, what would Jordan Peterson say to us right now? And then him imagine, like, imagine how useful that could be if you just, if you agreed as a partner, as a relationship that, hey, when we get into this, let's just agree we're going to upload this. Ask what, Ask Jordan Peterson or ask some famous psychologists what they would say to us. Us have they just take the advice.

[Doug]

I just don't see any industry that is not going to have benefit or some kind of impact from AI. Everything like you mentioned, even manual labor and skills and trades and all of that, they're going to incorporate it.

[Adam Schafer]

That's why I was tripping so much about that because that was like, the argument is just like, oh, trades will never get touched. It's like, well, you're going to get touched.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you might not have, you know, for a while. You might have robots actually doing the work work. But I already see where they'll. They can, they can but as a caddy, you know, helping you superimpose plans with their phone, with apps and it, it measures everything.

[Doug]

Have you seen like, even with the, the VR, like how now they can, they can do all the three dimensional blueprints and be able to just start. And even with art. Right? So you could do murals now and you just like Follow the lines and it's all like expanded. So now it cuts that time in a fraction of the time to do it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, it's.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean I think that's cool.

[Doug]

I think it's cool that we're.

[Adam Schafer]

The thing that the only thing right now is just, and I was telling my brother is like it's just a lag that so many people don't even realize it. I mean even myself, I still default to Google but there is no reason to use Google anymore. Yeah, like it's going to give you such a better answer than Google ever would. But I'm still conditioned to like look up something through Google when it's like, oh wait a second, I should just add chat gbt. That exact question, like watching cable tv.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know what I've done with it is I've done where I'll say can you compile me the studies that are pro and against X, Y and Z? And it immediately provides the studies that show this particular intervention or exercise technique or whatever is beneficial. Then it'll show studies that counter it. Then I'll have it break down in a summary and it's like it's all right there. And then if I want I can go into the studies, each one and go deeper if I want to. Helpful. That used to take me hours. Now it's like 10 seconds. Joy Mode is a science backed formula that is packed with ingredients that have been proven to really increase blood flow. What does that mean? Better pumps in the gym and better pumps down there, if you know what I mean. It's actually a pre sex supplement although I use it before my workouts. Go try it out for yourself. Go to tryjoymode.com use the code mindpump. Get 20% off. Back to the show.

[Justin Andrews]

Our first caller is Noel from Virginia.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hi Noel.

[Adam Schafer]

Hi Noel.

[Doug]

Hello.

[Adam Schafer]

How are you?

[Sal DiStefano]

How can we help you? Good.

[Noel]

How are y' all?

[Sal DiStefano]

Good. Good.

[Noel]

I usually listen to you guys so it's a little surreal seeing you. I'll get right to my email and not waste any time. I just said I've been listening to you guys for about a year now and I value your experience and knowledge and your recommendations and I wanted to give you pride right off the bat for partnering with really good legit companies. You guys led me to seed which has been an absolute game changer for me with my gut issues. I have a medication injury from long term GLP use and it is remarkable the turnaround I had once I started using that. So thank you guys for picking really good companies to promote and partner with. A little about me I'm 46. I'm a single mom to a beautiful five year old boy. I work Monday through Friday full time. I'm on call 247 for my job so I'm my time's limited chronic dieter yo yo Weight Constantly losing and regaining large amounts of weight. I knew that I needed to be strength training before I found you guys and I was just kind of grasping at whatever program I could grasp at without without really getting any results. My work schedule changed about a year ago and I wasn't able to get to a gym any longer. So at that time I bought a Tempo home gym. I subscribed to their service but I still felt like I was working out too much and not getting the results that I needed. However, people were starting to comment and ask me what I was doing to lose weight. Even though my clothes weren't fitting any different, scale wasn't budging. It was obvious that something was working because my body composition was changing. But my body told me last October that I was in fact doing too much and I came down with COVID and so I was benched. I was down for about six weeks and so I took that time to really prioritize on letting my body recover. I worked on my prioritizing my sleep and during that time I really dove into your programs and I settled on Maps 15 and Maps Starter and I took full advantage of your Black Friday sale last year. So last fall, I think it was around Thanksgiving, I started Maps 15. I was about two weeks into it and my left knee started swelling up. So I was benched again. Fast forward to February. I underwent my second knee surgery in five years. The first one was on the right knee. This time my surgeon took a sample fluid sample and sent it off to the lab and confirmed that I have a disease called pigmented vellonodular synovitis or PVNS for short. So my knees are officially junk. At the time of the email, which was the beginning of April, I was still in physical therapy twice a week. I'm now down to once a week. And my Just a little update from my email. My physical therapist gave me the okay to restart Maps 15 with some slight adjustments. So at this point I guess I'm still asking for your recommendations because you guys wrote the programming. But I can't do Bulgarian split squats. Things like Turkish getups are an issue. So I want to maximize the results. My results also. But I'm also still kind of at that point where I'M starting all over again in that I'm reestablishing the habit of exercising and working it into my day. So I'm not really counting calories. I'm not counting weights. I'm not doing macros. I'm not. I'm not tracking anything, really. I'm not tracking how much I'm lifting. I am tracking reps and time on planks, but that's about all I'm tracking at this point. Right now, I'm just trying to focus on my form so I don't re injure. But I would just love to know what recommendations you have for people who have knee issues. This is something that will be recurring. It's not a matter of if, but when. I will have to undergo another surgery. But keeping strong quads really helps with this disease. So I just want to make sure that I go into this appropriately so I don't re injure myself and so that I can still get the most out of your programming.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, great question. So I looked up. I had not heard of PVNS before, but I did look it up, and so I read up a little bit about it. So I'm going to start with kind of general advice I would give anybody with joint pain. Whether it's, you know, osteoarthritis, there's, you know, autoimmune issues that could cause joint pain, dysfunction, and then something like PVNs, where the synovium, from what I've read, the membrane grows.

[Noel]

Yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

And it can cause, you know, problems. It can cause problems in the joints and degradation of the joint. And so what they do is they go in and have to remove some of the synovium to, you know, to alleviate this. So the general advice I give is always train within the limits of what butt are. Okay. For your body. Okay. And that's true for anybody with any joint issue. So you want to challenge your range of motion, but don't go beyond what. What would cause pain. The wrong kind of pain. Okay. Isometrics are your best friend. So whenever you. Yeah. Whenever you feel like there's a movement where you're like, man, I can't go past 45 degrees in this squat. What you can do is you can get past 45 degrees and do an isometric, because you're not moving the joint. You're just tensing the muscle while in that position. And isometrics build strength within a limited range of motion, but they will strengthen the range of motion that you can't normally get into. So isometrics are safe. They're effective at building strength. And they don't require you to move in the joint, you know, in and out. So you could get into a part where you're like, okay, I can't go down that deep, but you could put your leg in that position, maybe push it up against something and just create an isometric contraction there and hold that for, for 10 seconds just to strengthen that range of motion that you normally can't get into. Physical therapy is great. Correctional exercise is great. And then to look a little deeper with PVNs, and, and I would guess that like other conditions where you have cell division that just kind of goes unchecked, that there may be some root in something immune system related, maybe autoimmune. So I'm not saying this would be the solution, but if I were you, and I'm not a doctor, but if I were in your position, I would go to a functional medicine practitioner and I would look at root cause stuff, which the benefit of will just make you healthier anyway. Maybe it doesn't help PVNs, but you will improve your health. And what they're gonna look at is things like gut health. They're gonna look at, you know, immune function, they're gonna look at inflammatory markers. And then through things like diet, lifestyle, and maybe supplementation, they'll be able to address just root cause kind of stuff, which may in fact improve this situation. It may maybe slow it down or maybe cause it maybe have it not be so bad or not accelerate so quickly. I don't know. But that's where I would look. I would look at, I would go functional medicine practitioner and let me look at kind of root cause stuff, which tends to benefit everything. Not necessarily a solution, but may benefit.

[Doug]

Everything in ter in terms of training too. Just to kind of bring it back to that. Besides isometric training, whenever there's limitations, this is really where I don't know what access you have in terms of machines. This is where I would look towards more of a fixed situation for extension. I would also look at like the sled is a, a very, very helpful tool, especially if you have any kind of knee pain, joint pain, to still get that contraction without, you know, the, the, the added bit of stress that's going to create around the joints by squatting and so to also use props. So if you have like access to any kind of suspension trainer, doing squats with holding on stick as well. The Dunphy squat is amazing for this. If you're pushing up and you're creating tension, helps you to maximize your effort in terms of tension to get that kind of isometric contraction, but also get into ranges where you're going to familiarize yourself there and get stronger and, and progressively kind of lower yourself and get depth. So that would be my suggestion. That's how I would kind of like start tailoring my leg exercises.

[Adam Schafer]

No. Is it, is it all leg movements in the programming or is it just in. Or the Bulgarian split squats and then the Turkish getups that bother you the most?

[Noel]

Well, I haven't even attempted the Turkish getup. I haven't gotten that far. Today is actually I've, I've been back at the maps 15. Today's day nine.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Noel]

So I haven't gotten to the Turkish getups yet, but the issue with the Turkish getups, I mean, I can get in and out of the floor, but I can't put pressure on like on the front part of my knee. Yeah, I can. The right one. Now, granted, I'm five years. There's post op on that knee, but on the left one, that's, that's a no go. I can't put pressure on the front of it and I can't if I'm, you know, kneeled. If I'm kneeling. If you're in a kneeled position and you lean back, I can't. I don't have that kind of range of motion yet.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah. So I, I would just avoid those exercises that, that are at any sort of discomfort to you and switch them out with the isometric holds, wall sits, or any of the movements that the guys are talking about. The sled might work. It'd be interesting to see how that felt because that would be amazing if that, if you could do that with no discomfort because that'd be a great way to keep leg strength. If it doesn't bother you, you're working.

[Doug]

Out, you should be able to do it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. You're working out at home, right, Noel?

[Noel]

Working out at home? Yeah. The living room is my gym. It's our living room, my gym and our playroom.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So they make sleds that are on wheels. Wheels that you can increase the tension and if you have space in your garage or something, you could store it. And then what you could do is a couple days a week, you just push the sled. And it's one of the safest in terms of like, you know, for, for I, I would have people do a sled who had surgery, who had knee problems. There's no eccentric, there's no lowering, you're just pushing. And I would keep the Intensity moderate. And that is great for, for building strength. It's also great for building strength in your foot and your ankle. Ankle as well, which all of that helps with, with knee stability.

[Noel]

Yes. Yes, it does. Yeah. Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. But yeah, move, stay within the boundaries of, of, you know, what you could do without causing the wrong kind of pain. So if that means it's a Bulgarian split stance, squat with 2 inches of range of motion, then that's okay.

[Noel]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you could take any exercise and do that.

[Noel]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then the isometrics are literally like, I could sit down, down, I could put like a, you know, a chair up against the wall, put my foot up against the wall and then just push into the wall.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And that's isometric.

[Doug]

For example, a lot of times just, you know, even if you're in a squat rack or you have a wall accessible just to have that little bit of stability while you're doing that so you can find that range of motion more effectively. So balance isn't as much of a, a factor. We want to like, keep it kind of isolated.

[Adam Schafer]

I know. I thought about the suspension trainer as a cool tool for her to where she could use the suspension trainer to kind of hold and support as she gets down in those positions. So that's, that would be, and I.

[Noel]

Wouldn'T have even thought about doing that, but that makes total sense.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep, yep. So, so always think like that way with, especially with your knees. And by the way, it's only your knees that are affected. Right.

[Noel]

So far.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay. Usually I just literally read for five minutes it says usually it's the knees and it doesn't. Okay. So yeah, I would, I would, I would just stay within those ranges of motion and use isometrics. And I think you'll be, you'll be great with that. And then I would look at, I would, I would work with a functional medicine practitioner because there's been many cases where people have, you know, I, I, I know it's not categorized as autoimmune, but it is immune related because you have cells that are divide non cancerous, but they're just dividing rapidly and causing this synovium to thicken. From what I've read. So that is a dysfunction of the immune system to stop that from happening. And I've had many clients with all kinds of, of interesting autoimmune issues work with a functional medicine practitioner and just notice a reduction in their symptoms, I mean, across the board. So that would be where I would look.

[Adam Schafer]

Also, Dr. Cabral's team is fantastic.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Noel]

Okay. Yeah, we don't. Where I live in Virginia, we don't really have much options for that kind of medicine. We have a few, a handful of them around here, but they're really, really, really expensive.

[Sal DiStefano]

You could do it virtually. Yeah, you could do it virtually and work with somebody.

[Adam Schafer]

They are, they're not cheap though, that's for sure. I know, I know, it's, it's quite the invest. And listen, if you don't do that, then the, you know, self way of would be to do like an elimination diet where you just completely get down to already there.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

So, yeah. And then do that for a while and slowly. Yeah. And experiment yourself by introducing foods and pay close attention to how you feel from it. So that would be the other way to go about it yourself.

[Noel]

Yeah, yeah. So far we've discovered that dairy is gonna be a no go from here on out.

[Adam Schafer]

Are you already in our private forum?

[Noel]

I'm not, no.

[Adam Schafer]

I'll have, I'll have Doug put you in there. That way we can keep an eye on you. And as you go through this process, if you have any more questions, you can just message the guys and I inside there.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know what, Noel, as far as diet is concerned, I do know and this is clinical, ketogenic diets are very anti inflammatory. Have you tried a ketogenic diet?

[Noel]

I thrived on a ketogenic diet and I was on a keto diet right up until I got pregnant. And I just never. Life just really got in the way for a long time. But that is, I am working with a nutritionist so that is something that I could bring up. And I have thought to bring that up with her. But right now we're just kind of working on like really healing my gut from, you know, they're treating me like I have ibs. I did a med reconciliation with a pharmacist who actually said you have gastroparesis from this. The long term use of this medication.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Noel]

So the, you know. Yeah, I just have to be. Right now. I have to be very, very careful about.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, okay. Heard that.

[Noel]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

All right, we'll have you on the forum and then keep us updated please.

[Sloan]

Okay.

[Noel]

Okay. Thank you very much.

[Sal DiStefano]

Thank you so much for calling.

[Noel]

Appreciate y' all.

[Sal DiStefano]

Thank you. Yeah, it's interesting when I read up on.

[Adam Schafer]

That's a first for me.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So it's, it's, it's like think of like non cancerous cell division of the synovium, which is, you know, so it's probably under her kneecap and it's just remove. It thickens and grows and it can cause, you know.

[Adam Schafer]

Sounds super uncomfortable.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I mean, that's from what I've read.

[Doug]

Pressure. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. And so for me, again, I'm not a doctor, but when I look at like cell division, that's uncontrolled immune system. Some by the way, ketogenic diet seems to have and helps with cells.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Say anything that keeps inflammation down would be ideal.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, just. That's just room for that. Just logical. Right. So I'm sure that on the diet, like, even if the diet's not going to most likely heal it, but it should. It should reduce the symptoms. I would think so quite a bit. But you know, the suspension trainer would be a great tool. Isometrics sled. If she can do it.

[Doug]

I mean, investing in a sled. I just think it's crucial.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep.

[Doug]

You know, in a situation like that.

[Justin Andrews]

Our next caller is Cody from Texas.

[Sal DiStefano]

What's happening, Cody?

[Adam Schafer]

How you doing, Cody?

[Cody]

Hey, guys. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

[Sal DiStefano]

How. How can we help you?

[Cody]

I'll just read my questions. I'm pretty nervous. Says, hey guys. I'm preparing my first venture into a MAPS program. I bought several programs, but decided to start with Maps 15 advanced because it most matched the workouts I had been accomplished equip. I had equipment for at home and workouts that I enjoy doing. I wanted to try the 15 style because I'm feeling fatigued lately from where I was in my own programming. I did myself before and I think at times I was over training after listening to y' all. It is also very difficult during the spring with kids, sports and other things sometimes going late into the night. My question is, I did not see a directive on what weight I should be shooting for what rir should be the goal for the work at out. And should we generally get a few reps from failure with every set or what is the target? I like to plan my workouts down to the weight when possible or otherwise. I spend too much time sitting there staring at it and waste time.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, no. Great question. By the way, Maps 15 advanced for people listening is Maps 15 in Mass 15. There's a version that you could do the advanced version. So that's what he's referring to. Train about 2 reps short of failure. No matter. No matter what program you're tra. You're following of already hours unless it specifically says a little bit in the.

[Doug]

Tank still go to failure.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So it's high intensity but not to failure.

[Adam Schafer]

And you may have heard Us talk about this before, but this is the tip that I always like to give clients because let's say you and I are training the first time, we're getting ready to do bench press. I have no idea your strength. And I put a guess a weight, and I just throw it on there and I see and we're going to 10 reps. And you can tell by rep 8. This is super easy. You could have done double the weight. What, what you do in a situation like that is slow those last couple reps way down, down. So if you know you chose a weight and it was too easy, that you could easily do 10 more reps or 5 more reps beyond that, just slow the last few reps way down, and you will get. You will bring that intensity up as if you had more weight on it instead of worrying about, ah, that was too light, I could have done more weights. Like, choose a weight, you know, for sure. You can get 10 reps in. And then if you find as you get to rep 6, 7, oh, wow, this is really easy.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's it.

[Adam Schafer]

Then those last three or four reps, I slow way down and intensify it that way way. And you will reap the benefits of doing that.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's right. No need to add more weight. Okay.

[Cody]

And then, so if you have four sets of 15, do you need to try to add weight or you just still try to stay at that 2rr or whatever you think that weight is as you go, either.

[Sal DiStefano]

Either way is totally fine. Either way is totally fine. And missing the rep target is not that big of a deal. But either way, that's totally fine. By the way, the reason why, there's two reasons why they're sets in a workout. One of them is because volume contributes to progress. The other one is because as you're doing the sets, you figure that out as you go through the workout.

[Adam Schafer]

Yep.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, whether you add weight or take it off. But I mean straight up these days, Cody, for me, my training when I was younger, it was always about, let's see how much weight I could add. These days, it's about, can I make this weight feel heavier without having to add weight? So you'll rarely see me in the gym after a set, go back and add weight. I typically do exactly what Adam said, okay, I want to do 10 reps. Can I make this feel hard at 10 reps is what I do these days, and it gives you. It gives you great results and it perfects your form.

[Cody]

I'm currently in phase two, and with. With sets of 15. It doesn't take much for me to think it's hard, especially in the lower body stuff. That's not.

[Adam Schafer]

No, totally.

[Sal DiStefano]

No. 100%.

[Cody]

Not fun for me at all. But yeah, no, thank you, guys. I really love the show. I don't miss an episode. I don't know, for maybe the past year I've been listening probably every episode. Have a buddy that's been listening forever that tried to get me, tried to get me started and I just, I don't know, for whatever reason, but I finally did now and I love it, man.

[Adam Schafer]

Shout him out since he's the one that's been listening for a long time. Who is it?

[Cody]

Listen to your Jan Bradford.

[Adam Schafer]

All right.

[Cody]

He was a personal trainer for a long time. He's doing other things now, but yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, smart.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's great.

[Adam Schafer]

Smart personal trainer then, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Doug]

Right on.

[Sal DiStefano]

Excellent stuff.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, welcome aboard. We're glad we got you now.

[Cody]

Thank y' all. Thank you a lot. Thank you for everything you do.

[Sal DiStefano]

All right. Thank you, dude. Yeah. What you said, Adam, is that was. That's a fitness maturity. Like that's literally what my workouts look like now. I, I into that, I do one warm up set, then I get into my set and if it's too light, then I make it heavy by making it feel heavy. I almost never add weight and I get better results.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, adding, adding weight adds volume and intensity. Slowing down the reps adds, adds that intensity and, and the volume. So you're getting that by doing that. So it' same. The body doesn't really know the difference. It just, it just. Yeah, it feels intensity and it knows it's being overloaded. So this idea that we always have to stack no weight on all the.

[Sal DiStefano]

Time, that's mostly true. The first one to three years of training. Well, it's important to just get stronger.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

But then after that, it's like, it's.

[Doug]

Really like finding those numbers for yourself. And then once you know those numbers, it's like, yeah. Manipulating tempo and all weight.

[Adam Schafer]

And there's nothing wrong with increasing the weight. So I'm not saying that either. It's just that it's not that big of a deal. If you picked away too light, that's how you solve it. It's just like, that's. Sometimes I pick the weight and it's like perfect. It's like, oh, yeah, right. Last rep or two was really difficult. It's like, okay, it's a good weight for me today. Other times I pick it and I'm like, oh, wow, this is a lot easier. And then I just slow it down so you just don't have to overthink it.

[Justin Andrews]

Our next caller is Sloan from South Carolina.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hey, Sloan, how you doing?

[Sloan]

Hi.

[Sal DiStefano]

How are you? Good.

[Sloan]

How are y' all?

[Sal DiStefano]

We're doing great. How can we help you? You?

[Sloan]

Yeah. So I was wondering what y' all think about, like, the NASM certification for 16 year olds? Because I'm 16 and I am interested in, like, a career in health and fitness. And I was just wondering if, like, that's the best choice and, like, what I should be doing for anything to, like, set me up for success in this field.

[Adam Schafer]

Field.

[Sal DiStefano]

Wow, you.

[Doug]

So exciting.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. First of all. Okay, so I also see in your question that you're also. You're shadowing at a, at a physical therapy clinic as well.

[Sloan]

Yes, sir.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you're. You are way ahead. Yeah, yeah, I have no. If I had to.

[Doug]

If you were awesome, if you were.

[Sal DiStefano]

A company, I would buy stock because you're for sure going to do well at your age doing these things already. NESM is great for education. When it comes to education and learning things like general structured programming, biomechanics, anatomy, I think that they're absolutely the best. So go through them, learn all you can, and then the most important thing you can do that will help ensure your success is to get mentored by other trainers or coaches who are really doing a good job. So the fact that you're already shadowing at a P.T. clinton clinic is excellent. What you're going to learn in the physical and what I'm hope, I'm sure this is what you're paying attention to. But learn correctional exercise there, they're the best at correctional exercise. And trainers that know correctional exercise are so far ahead of other trainers, it's one of the most valuable skills that you can get. So keep doing that. And then when you get old enough to train, because most gyms won't let you train unless you're 18. When you get to that age, then find a train, a gym that has good management and staff that you could shadow and learn from. But NASM is a great, a great choice.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I could only imagine turning 18 years old and you coming in to apply at my gym and you've got two years of shadowing experience at a physical therapist. You have NASM and you have NASM correct Corrective exercise specialists under your belt. Hired, I don't see hired. I don't see anybody not giving you a job. So that would be that's probably what I, what I would do. I think NSM is a great start. That's a perfect foundation for all pursuits related to personal training. Getting the shadowing in like you're doing right now at the physical therapy. And then the next cert I would do is the corrective exercise specialist, which hopefully will be somewhat familiar to you because you're working and hanging around a physical therapist. So a lot of the conversation and the communication around the exercise programming will seem similar and will help you through the that those two certifications. With that experience, it would be, it would be hard for you to not, not find a job. It'd be very easy to get a job.

[Doug]

What's your favorite part right now about training?

[Sloan]

I mean, I just love the idea of helping people and I mean, strength training specifically has just been such a huge part of my life as far as like my mental health and obviously my physical health as well. So I just think that it would be a career where I could share that with people. Sounds really amazing.

[Sal DiStefano]

What got you into this at your age?

[Sloan]

Well, when I was like 14, I struggled really badly with an eating disorder and really the only thing that was able to effectively shift my mindset from being as small as possible to like anything else, you know, was strength training and just the gym and becoming strong. So yeah, and it's, there's nothing, no therapy and no, any motivational, nothing was able to help me as much as going to the gym was. And so. And it's the only thing that hasn't been kind of toxic for me as far as exercise because everything is else. Before then, before strength training was kind of would go downhill very quickly.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, man.

[Adam Schafer]

Who introduced you to fitness? Who got you introduced?

[Sloan]

Well, I mean, honestly, just the Internet, you know, just, I mean people like y' all listening to your podcast and just finding, searching out information, trying to help myself a little bit. And then my dad was definitely a big part of it as well, but I don't think he really knew how, you know, to what extent it has been a part of my life.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you're very growth minded. Has anybody told you that?

[Sloan]

No.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you're very, very growth minded. You're going to do really, really well. Keep staying on this path. You're doing great. Yeah. Do we have you, Are you in any of our trainer groups? Are you following any of our, of our training advice and stuff like that?

[Sloan]

No, sir.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so we have a training page on Instagram and then we have a Facebook group for trainers. Are you watching any of our Webinars or. We just released three episodes for trainers. Did you listen to them those?

[Sloan]

I did, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, you're gonna do great.

[Doug]

Yeah, you're gonna do really, really great, everybody.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I can't even. I can't imagine how great of a trainer you're gonna be just when you first start out.

[Adam Schafer]

You stay in touch with us over the next couple years, maybe you'll come work for Mind Pump.

[Doug]

That's it.

[Sloan]

So thank y' all.

[Sal DiStefano]

Not even joking.

[Doug]

Yeah, for real.

[Sal DiStefano]

Not even joking. Tell your parents, good job.

[Doug]

Keep doing what you're doing.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes. That's so awesome. Awesome.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

That is so awesome.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

She even communicated it so well as a kid. I know over how it helped her, but I mean, she's. I mean, if she's already at a, at a PT clinic, learning from therapy, physical therapists, she's going to start day one light years ahead of everybody else.

[Adam Schafer]

That just a physical therapy background with NASM and corrective exercise specialist through nasm. And you are a lethal trainer right out the gates. Like 90 of the type of clients that you'll get.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Just that alone get you a career.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Well, you'll be able to service most your people. I was just talking to a family friend about this. Like when you get into personal training, you end up training normally not everybody this is but this overgenerization for myself. Most people I know end up training totally different than what you thought you were going to train. I mean, I think as a young, like a young kid like this that was getting into fitness, I thought I was going to be training athletes and bodybuilders and like people that really cared. Like, like none of my clients were like that. Maybe 1% were like that. The rest were normal ass people.

[Doug]

So rare. I mean, she's in that clinical setting. She's learning, absorbing all like the stuff that really matters already. It's like, wow.

[Sal DiStefano]

And you, you called it, dude. As she was talking like, oh, I wish she was old enough to hire that. I could tell right out the gate, like, she has the character and the kind of heart that we're looking for with trainers that work for us. I mean, she would be. She's a killer.

[Adam Schafer]

Hopefully we can find her. Two years.

[Sal DiStefano]

Years. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin's at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at mindpump. Distephano Adams mindpump.

[Justin Andrews]

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 preferably, and Maps Aesthetic. Nine 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 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.