2631: Five Tricks to Boost Protein Intake & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
Episode 2631: Five Tricks to Boost Protein Intake & More (Listener Live Coaching)
Release Date: July 2, 2025

In Episode 2631 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, hosts Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, and producer Doug Egge delve into practical strategies to enhance protein intake, explore the effectiveness of resistance training versus cardio for fat loss, discuss the benefits of the skincare peptide GHK-CU, and engage in live coaching with listeners seeking personalized fitness and health advice.

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1. Introduction to High Protein Intake

Justin Andrews kicks off the episode by emphasizing the critical role of protein in muscle building, fat loss, and overall health. He states, “We've heard us talk about high protein... It can be hard getting the right amount of protein, or to put it differently, optimize your protein intake” (03:07).

2. Five Tricks to Boost Protein Intake

The core of the episode revolves around five actionable tricks to increase daily protein consumption without relying heavily on supplements.

Trick 1: Incorporate Bone Broth into Rice

Justin introduces the first trick: using bone broth instead of water when cooking rice. This simple substitution can add approximately 10 grams of protein per meal.
“If you eat rice throughout the day...instead of using water, use bone broth. Boom. Instant Collagen.” (04:59)
Sal shares their experience, mentioning, “We've always liked it tastes better, too.” (05:39)

Trick 2: Switch to Leaner Cuts of Meat

The second strategy involves choosing leaner cuts of meat to maximize protein intake per ounce. Justin explains,
“You're going to get like 12 more grams of protein with the filet than you would with the ribeye because per ounce it's higher in protein.” (07:14)
Adam adds, “Grass-fed meat has more protein per ounce than traditional because it's lower in fat.” (08:02)

Trick 3: Utilize Hard-Boiled Eggs as Snacks

Hard-boiled eggs are an excellent, convenient snack to boost protein intake. Justin suggests,
“Hard boiled eggs are compact, so it's not super filling...easy way to boost your protein intake.” (09:38)
Sal complements this by highlighting their efficiency in increasing daily protein without significant calorie addition.

Trick 4: Add Protein Powder to Meals

Instead of mixing protein powder with water for shakes, Justin recommends incorporating it directly into meals to enhance protein intake without feeling overly full.
“Instead of drinking water with your meal, just have one scoop of protein while you're eating your meal.” (11:52)
Sal notes the practicality, saying, “It’s easy to take it down with dinner.” (12:37)

Trick 5: Opt for High Protein Desserts

High protein desserts can satisfy sweet cravings while contributing to daily protein goals. Justin shares recipes such as Greek yogurt parfaits and protein cheesecake cups.
“One of my favorites is like a Greek yogurt parfait... you have some mixed berries, some chia seeds, add a little bit of honey.” (12:37)
Sal echoes the sentiment, emphasizing the balance between taste and nutritional benefits.

3. Building Habits and Consistency

The hosts discuss the importance of habit formation in maintaining consistent protein intake. Sal shares his personal journey, explaining how integrating these protein-boosting strategies transformed his diet into a sustainable lifestyle:
“Consistently missing protein was preventing me from progressing. Building habits around snacking and eating became a part of my lifestyle.” (16:36)
Justin adds that habit creation is crucial for long-term adherence and success.

4. Resistance Training vs. Cardio for Fat Loss

Justin presents a meta-analysis comparing the effects of resistance training and cardiovascular training on fat loss. He emphasizes that while cardio may result in slightly more immediate fat loss, it often leads to muscle loss, whereas resistance training preserves or even builds muscle mass, offering long-term metabolic benefits.
“Cardio without diet intervention is a terrible way to burn body fat... It’s harder to lose substantial body without fixing your diet.” (18:07)
Sal concurs, highlighting the importance of muscle retention:
“The strength training group didn’t lose muscle and possibly even built some.” (21:44)
They conclude that resistance training, combined with proper nutrition, is superior for sustainable fat loss and overall health.

5. Peptides and Skincare: The Power of GHK-CU

The conversation shifts to skincare, focusing on the peptide GHK-CU, renowned for its skin-rejuvenating properties. Justin shares personal anecdotes about its effectiveness in reducing wrinkles and repairing UV damage.
“GHK signals skin cells to increase the synthesis of collagen and elastin...you look younger.” (33:37)
Sal adds his experience, noting, “I use it on my psoriasis and it works wonders.” (33:42)
They discuss how integrating GHK-CU with other skincare routines can amplify benefits, emphasizing its role in skin health and appearance.

6. Empathy and Emotional Triggers in Social Interactions

A noteworthy segment delves into the psychological aspects of empathy, particularly in relation to cosmetic procedures like Botox. The hosts explore how altering facial expressions might impact one's ability to empathize and connect with others.
Justin theorizes,
“When you paralyze your facial muscles, it can decrease your ability to connect with other people.” (38:27)
Doug reinforces this by mentioning studies that suggest Botox may alter emotional expression without necessarily affecting empathy.
“Botox could alter how people perceive and express their own emotions...” (41:05)
The discussion underscores the intricate relationship between facial expressions and emotional intelligence.

7. Listener Live Coaching Highlights

The latter part of the episode features live coaching sessions where listeners seek advice on personalized fitness and health challenges.

Coaching Derek from Florida

Derek, a 42-year-old who gained 40 pounds after the birth of his son, seeks guidance on managing his calorie intake and muscle building. Justin advises,
“Focus on building muscle first by increasing your calories to around 2,700-2,800 and prioritizing high protein intake.” (70:00)
Sal emphasizes the importance of not cutting calories aggressively and suggests using their MAPS Anabolic program for structured guidance:
“If I were your coach, I’d send you Maps Anabolic so you can follow a structured protocol.” (75:25)
Justin adds that ensuring sufficient protein and strength training will naturally aid in fat loss while rebuilding muscle mass.

Coaching Gabriel from Texas

Gabriel, a 28-year-old powerlifter experiencing hip imbalances while on a reverse diet, seeks advice on addressing potential muscle or mobility issues. Justin recommends switching to their MAPS Symmetry program and incorporating unilateral training to identify and correct imbalances:
“If you notice asymmetry in your exercises, address that to fix development issues.” (94:00)
Sal further advises observing functional movement to determine if the imbalance is due to muscle development or mobility constraints:
“We need to see your squat form to pinpoint the exact issue.” (95:17)
The hosts emphasize the importance of performance over aesthetic perfection, encouraging Gabriel to focus on movement quality and balance.

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Conclusion

Episode 2631 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth offers a comprehensive exploration of protein optimization strategies, the benefits of resistance training over cardio for sustainable fat loss, innovative skincare solutions, and insightful live coaching that addresses real-life fitness challenges. The hosts provide actionable advice backed by scientific research and personal experiences, making the episode a valuable resource for listeners aiming to enhance their health and fitness journeys.

Notable Quotes:

• “We're going to talk about five tricks, five easy ways to boost your protein intake, and this does not involve lots of supplements.” — Justin Andrews (03:07)
• “Use bone broth instead of water when cooking rice to add protein.” — Justin Andrews (04:59)
• “Resistance training preserves or even builds muscle mass, offering long-term metabolic benefits.” — Justin Andrews (18:07)
• “GHK signals skin cells to increase the synthesis of collagen and elastin...you look younger.” — Justin Andrews (33:37)
• “When you paralyze your facial muscles, it can decrease your ability to connect with other people.” — Justin Andrews (38:27)

For more detailed workout protocols and resources, visit mindpumppodcast.com and follow the hosts on Instagram @mindpumpmedia, @mindpumpsal, @mindpumpadam, @mindpumpjustin, and @mindpumpdoug.

Transcript

[Sal DiStefano]

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[Doug]

If you want to pump your body.

[Justin Andrews]

And expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we had callers call in. We got to coach them on air, we got to help them out on air. But this was after the intro. Today's intro was 61 minutes long. In the intro we talk about fat loss, science, muscle building, longevity, family life, current events. It's a good time. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this one, send us your [e-mail] now this episode has some sponsors. The first one is Entera. Their skincare product Luminos by Entera has the highest amount of GHK CU you'll find anywhere. What is that? That's a peptide that will change the way your skin looks within one or two applications. It's extremely effective at boosting collagen production, reducing wrinkles, taking away UV damage. And they have a sale from July 1st to the 5th. If you use the code mpm, you get 15% off. Just go to enteraskincare.com mpm that's e n t e r-a skincare.com mpm Again, the code is NPM for that discount. This episode's also brought to you by Joy Mode. This is a pre sex supplement. Take it 45 minutes before you're gonna get intimate for better blood flow and better performance, if you know what I mean. Go check them out. Go to tryjoymode.com mindpump, use the code mindpump, get 20% off. We also have a brand new sale this month, Maps Split and the Anabolic Metabolism Bundle. Both of those are 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code 7uly50 for the discount. Here comes the show T shirt time.

[Doug]

And it's T shirt time.

[Sal DiStefano]

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

[Doug]

Two winners this week. One for Apple podcasts, one for Facebook. The Apple podcast winner is Endo Love. And for Facebook we have Jared E. You see, both of you are winners. Send the name I just read to itunes mindpumpmedia.com include your shirt size and your shipping address, and we'll get that shirt right out to you.

[Justin Andrews]

All right, you've heard us talk about high protein. You know, the studies builds more muscle, helps you burn more body fat. There are health benefits, but it can be hard getting the right amount of protein, or to put it differently, optimize your protein intake. 1 gram of protein per pound of target body weight. We're going to talk about five tricks, five easy ways to boost your protein intake, and this does not involve lots of supplements. Let's go.

[Adam Schafer]

I like this. Eat all the meat.

[Justin Andrews]

Let's talk about it.

[Sal DiStefano]

You think about some of the most practical tips that we've given to clients that move the needle and made the biggest difference. I'd have to say that this is probably one of the more important conversations, just because most clients under eat protein. You've heard us say it a million times on here. But then, okay, it's great. You know, you under protein. The next step is like, how do I get it? And, and do that in ways that doesn't radically change my current way of eating. Because I think that's the, the hard part. Obviously, meal prepping five meals a day with high protein is a, is optimal. Yeah, but I mean, not everybody does that. So what are some little things that you can do to boost.

[Justin Andrews]

Give you that boost?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And, you know, here's a real challenge. Eating your target body weight because there's, okay, there's essential protein, which is low. Then there's what's considered optimal for fat loss, muscle gain, performance. Okay, that's about a gram per pound of target body weight, roughly. Some studies actually show a little more, some studies a little less. So we'll use the average, about one gram. So if you're a woman whose ideal body weight is 130 pounds, that's 130 grams of protein a day. Or if you're a woman whose ideal body weight is 150 pounds, which is more realistic? That's 150 grams of protein. It's 50 grams of protein for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But if you're a guy, 180 pounds, that's a, that's, you know, 60 grams of protein or, or more per meal. Or eat four meals that are high protein. It gets very challenging. And so we're going to talk about it as a kind of. They're tricks. They're essentially hacks to squeeze in Extra protein. Because when I work with clients on this, they would be able to do this here or there, but consistently they'd miss. Yep, consistently they would miss because it was so challenging. So I'll start with the first one. And I. I figured this out when we were on the podcast.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

This actually is one of my favorites because it's the easiest way to add, like, you know, 30 to 50 grams of protein per day. Just do this. Like, if you eat rice throughout the day. Right. If. If, you know, lunch and dinner involve rice or some people, three meals or four meals involve rice. Instead of using water, use bone broth. Like, boom. Instant Collagen.

[Adam Schafer]

You said 30 grams, actually.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, he's probably saying, like, 10. Per meal.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Per meal.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. You're probably bumping up close to 10 grams.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. So now your meal, you. You have the rice you're gonna eat anyway. Now that. Because it's made with bone broth instead of water, you've added supercharged. You've added 8 to 12 grams of protein, we figured. And it tastes better, too.

[Sal DiStefano]

We figured this out on the podcast when we were sponsored by Kettle and Fire back in the day.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep. I remember that. I remember. I remember getting it, I think. I don't remember how it came about, but we were talking about different ways to use it. And I don't remember who did it first, but put it inside the rice and said, you know, that to this day, that's how Katrina makes our rice. We've always like, it tastes better, too.

[Adam Schafer]

Tastier, gives you more protein. It's funny, I used this same tip when I was coaching the football team because the parents were finding it so difficult to hit these protein storage, but also to get the kids to, like, eat more volume. And so, you know, kind of like the monster mash thing, but, you know, the ground meat but the rice to now, like, optimize the rice a bit so it has more proteins, everything.

[Justin Andrews]

That was my d. That's the dish right there. Rice, lean ground beef. And then you cook the rice with bone broth. Add a bullion cube if you want it to have some, like, saltiness to it.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And it's like. It's extra protein that, again, you're eating the same volume of rice that you normally have, except now, instead of water, which has zero protein, you've got bone broth in it, so it tastes better, and it bumps the protein content. And again, for somebody who's eating rice three times a day, you know, there's an extra from. From a. You Know, a whole natural source.

[Adam Schafer]

Pretty small change in to really help out with that.

[Justin Andrews]

And again, it tastes really good. Number two, this one's, this one's an interesting one because you can eat the same ounces of meat but your protein intake will go higher if it's lean.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So you know, 12 ounces of lean red meat, for example, like filet mignon, will have 72 grams of protein. Excuse me. Yeah. 72 grams of protein versus a 12 ounce rib eye which has less. I don't know why. That's, that's like backwards right there.

[Adam Schafer]

That's backwards.

[Justin Andrews]

That's backwards, right? Yeah, yeah. So you're going to get like 12 more grams of protein with the filet than you would with the ribeye because per ounce it's higher in protein. So you can do this simply by switching to leaner cuts, especially red meat. So ground beef for example, if you go with ground beef, instead of going with the fattier amount, go with the leaner amount. You're eating the same amount. But the protein intake.

[Adam Schafer]

Isn't this what we found too like butcherbox and the grass fed grass finished beef being like less fatty?

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, yes.

[Adam Schafer]

Get more protein per ounce.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Grass fed meat. Grass finished meat has more protein prounce than traditional because it's lower in fat.

[Sal DiStefano]

So love that. I love this strategy.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. Chicken breast, by the way, not my favorite cut, but it's a protein bomb.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Like if you want just 50 grams.

[Adam Schafer]

Of protein going for.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. Now to make it taste good, I.

[Sal DiStefano]

Prefer to do this with red meat. So I prefer to do a leaner cut with red meat.

[Justin Andrews]

Doesn't make a huge difference with the chicken, does it?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, no. Well, it doesn't make a huge difference. Not only that, but it's just like the reheating of chicken breast is just rough. I mean it just really is. Now you can, by the way, you can cook your chicken. You can crock pot it in like bone broth and it'll make it more moist and it's a shredded version of it. And so that's a, that's a strategy. So your, your chicken breast, isn't it? So if I would do chicken breast as we do, we still do occasionally Katrina will crock pot it. So we'll crock pot it and that'll really keep it like the moisture in it. And so that's still decent when we, when we, and then we'll shred it and then we'll put it over rice or something.

[Justin Andrews]

The red meat example, we should use a skirt Skirt steak. That's a better, I think, choice for high protein of lean. Yeah. For high protein content. Here's another one. Actually, you know, I forgot about this one. But back in the day I'd have clients do this as an easy whole food way to boost protein is I would have them mass boil hard boiled eggs and then in between meals as a snack that have like two hard boiled eggs. So you do that?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, it's convenient snack.

[Justin Andrews]

Dude, you do that three times a day. What is that? 12, 24, 36 grams of protein. And you know, hard boiled eggs are compact, so it's not like super filling. So if you eat two of those in between your meals, you have 12 grams of protein each time. High in amino acids, very anabolic, very inexpensive, easy way to boost your protein intake.

[Sal DiStefano]

So I looked ahead and I saw all your five tricks and none of them are my favorite. One is not included. What is it that has to do with eggs? So I'll share it here. Since you're bringing up eggs. And I think the. When you make dinner making double the size and then throwing in for breakfast, you just throw three eggs and some cheese on whatever that is. Like literally scramble it. Y think of all the different dinners that you have. Chicken, ground beef, name it. And it's normally rice or sweet potato or something that you is your carb in the morning with a couple eggs and cheese over it into a scramble. It makes such a great high protein.

[Justin Andrews]

Versus scrambling 10 eggs.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, exactly. Instead of just having 10 eggs. Because I don't like that. I'm not a big egg. I don't even like eggs that much. But I think mixed with like a good meat rice type of dinner, it makes this great, almost like a burrito bowl that I have for breakfast. That's like a staple for me.

[Justin Andrews]

I had a buddy that was a trainer that worked for me and he, you know, on a budget. He wasn't. Didn't have a lot of money and he would like, like I said earlier, he would boil a bunch of eggs and he would have.

[Adam Schafer]

Ronnie.

[Sal DiStefano]

Huh?

[Adam Schafer]

Why do you guys have Ronnie? Yeah, you do that. But he would also. It was that and turkey burger patties.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh. And just eat them.

[Adam Schafer]

That was it. Yeah, that's all he ate. I swear on my life.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, no, this. He would have a. He would have a bag, like a zip up ziploc bag with hard boiled eggs. And then throughout the day, every once in a while, because they're easy to eat, you put a little Tabasco sauce on it and boom.

[Sal DiStefano]

Tabasco yeah. On hard boiled eggs.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Just salt, man.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I like salt.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, salt's easy. I've never.

[Justin Andrews]

I've never seen no even Tabasco. Sauce it and then crush them each time. Okay, next step. All right, this one involves a supplement, but this is, this is easy way to add protein. And it doesn't require a lot of protein powder to do this. But instead of drinking water with your meal, just have one scoop of protein. You know, like a chocolate. A little bit of a chocolate drink while you're eating your meal.

[Sal DiStefano]

So I used to do this as a kid and this was before I'd seen things like, like Paleo Valley has a great boat. Their. Their. Their stuff is so light and easy that this. Yes. Goes really like. I remember we used to do like EAs and stuff like that when we were kids. Yeah, it was like too filling. Oh, man. It was like just. It was cake batter trying to get that down. And that was.

[Adam Schafer]

That was more like collagen.

[Justin Andrews]

Collagen weight can be pretty thin too, if you just use a scoop.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you shake it with water.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, you just shake it. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm talking about.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that's true. That's the trick here is to just like shake with just water, make it really thin and light, and then it. Then it is easy to take it down with a dinner. If you do like a blended thick shake with dinner, it's like the opposite effect. I feel like.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep, yep. Lastly, try high protein desserts because they're. They taste kind of sweet. I'll give you a couple recipes. They taste kind of sweet, which, that sweetness, you know, it's. It's a different flavor. It avoids palate fatigue at the end of the day. I don't know what it is about it, but I don't know about you guys, but at the end of the day, I'm always available. I'm always open to have a dessert like food. And you can make a high protein one. One of my favorites is like a Greek yogurt parfait. Yeah, you just literally one cup of unsweetened Greek yogurt. There's 20 grams of protein. Add some mixed berries, some chia seeds, add a little bit of honey, and you can mix it all together. You can chill it so that it's got a better texture.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, I like this one a lot too, Sal for. So a lot of times when somebody struggles with getting protein, it isn't just that they have a hard time getting protein. They're also eating something else like a. They eat sweets. So they eat a lot of carbs. They eat some. They snack on chips or they, they tend to get calories from other. Because they're obviously normally non protein sources. Right. And so this is something that has worked so well for me because I have the dessert cravings. I have a sweet tooth. After dinner, watching a movie or doing something, I always tend to want to have ice cream or snack. I have those cravings. And so replacing it with Greek yogurt is close enough that I get that feel like especially if you make it cold afterwards. Yeah, no, so the, the Greek yogurt with the, the berries and a little bit of granola and some honey is just an incredible dessert. I, I mean I love having that afterwards. And even if you just finished dinner, I still seem to be able to get that down.

[Justin Andrews]

So here, here's one that protein powder cheesecake cups which are delicious. Now I don't have these because these are dairy, but I've tasted them and this will give you about 15 grams of protein per cup. So you take a half a scoop of protein powder so you could use like whey, vanilla, a half a cup of low fat cream cheese, 1 tablespoon almond butter, 1 tablespoon teaspoon, excuse me, of stevia, a quarter cup of crushed graham crackers. Then we do is you mix the protein powder, the green, the cream cheese, the almond butter and the stevia until it's smooth. You put it into cups, you top it with the graham cracker crumbs and then you put it in the fridge or the freezer and you have 15 grams of protein. Peanut butter cups, Almond butter cups. Yeah, essentially.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean all these can be made in your ninja Creamy too. Yeah, I mean that, I mean you.

[Justin Andrews]

Do this all the time. This is like your thing.

[Sal DiStefano]

These are all the stuff I've like. You name it, I've tried them.

[Justin Andrews]

Have you done the cottage cheese chocolate mousse one that I have there?

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't think I've done some of.

[Adam Schafer]

The peanut butter chocolate cups.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, we've done peanut butter chocolate cups a bunch of times. I don't know if I've done the cottage cheese chocolate mousse.

[Justin Andrews]

It's a half a cup of low fat cottage cheese, 1 tablespoon or tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon maple syrup, quarter teaspoon vanilla extract. And then you can add chocolate shavings if you want. You blend the cottage cheese, the cocoa, the syrup and the till smooth. You chill it, then you put the chocolate shavings on it. And it's. Apparently it's supposed to be dang super good at that. Yeah. And that's. That's 14 grams of protein. I mean, if you do stuff like this and you plan. Because most people will miss, in my experience, when they miss their protein, it's around 30 to 50 grams. Regard. I don't care who you are. People are trying to hit it and they're off by 30, 50 grams. That's typically what I feel doing what we just said, you'll hit that, no problem.

[Sal DiStefano]

So the same way that you do that, you made the point about the eggs. So Katrina makes these protein peanut butter balls. You've probably seen them in my refriger refrigerator before. And she makes them in bulk, so she'll spend a Saturday where she makes 20, 30 of those things or more. And we just put them in a big Tupperware thing in the refrigerator. And each one, I think is. I think a single bite is 8 grams of protein. And so I eat two or three of those at a time throughout the day. And it's just another way to boost that. But yeah, I think if you do planning like that, the bone broth thing, the breakfast tip, like that. And a lot of this for clients was always just getting them to create these new habits.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Around snacking and eating.

[Justin Andrews]

Totally.

[Sal DiStefano]

And if you could get them to, like, focus on hitting their protein intake and doing it with these habits, then this becomes a part of your lifestyle. Like pre me getting ready for a show and really having to dial my diet into the level that I had to. I didn't do a lot of this stuff. I just being honest, like. And so I fell into the common trap of, you know, sometimes I'm hitting my protein takes, sometimes I'm not. And that was enough to really keep me from really progressing consistently. Consistently. And it wasn't until I competed did I have to show progress consistently. And the diet was the thing that I was most dialed on. And at first it's a bit challenging because it's different from how you eat. But over year or two of doing that consistently, you start to build this habit and routines around snacking, eating desserts, all the above. And now it's just become a lifestyle. I. I do attribute that. I mean, I've been talking a lot on the show about how fitness in my 40s has gotten easier. I do attribute not only all the muscle mass from training that I got, but also some of the habits that I picked up from competing that have now just kind of stuck around like, for, like the Greek yogurt for dessert. Yeah. Like, I mean, forever. It was either a dessert or just white knuckle it and do nothing. Where it's. Now it's like, oh, no, I'm not gonna. I don't need a white knuckle it. I'll just go have that. And that just feeds into my protein intake and it's a good dessert. And so that was a habit that I created that I didn't have before. That is it helps me stay healthy, fit, and keep my muscle.

[Justin Andrews]

Awesome. I read a meta analysis on resistance training alone for fat loss in comparison to cardiovascular training alone for fat loss. In other words, what do the studies show when people just start strength training? They don't change their diet, they don't change anything else. And then what does it show for cardio when they add that and they don't do anything else? Okay, so income. How do you. How do they compare? How do they compare for fat loss? So here's what the meta analysis, because I found a meta analysis for both. Here's what they show cardio without. By the way, I want to preface this exercise alone with no other intervention, no dietary intervention is a terrible way to burn body fat. So, yeah, if you don't fix your diet, it's gonna be very hard to lose substantial body. You'll improve your health, you'll improve your mobility, your function.

[Sal DiStefano]

Can we speculate on what happened?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. What do you guys think? Cardio by itself versus I actually think.

[Sal DiStefano]

Cardio by itself lost more. More fat. Not a lot, but I bet it lost a little bit more fat. But I also think it lost equal amount as muscle. And so. And then the different. And then the. I think that the just. And again, we're saying no intervention of diet. So I'm assuming that these people just all they had.

[Justin Andrews]

They just had these people work out.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

One way or the other.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right. And so I, I would think that somebody would run like crazy and they would end up losing some. A decent amount of body fat just purely out of the extra activity they weren't doing without the diet intervention. But they would also lose quite a bit of muscle. The people who lifted weights, I think would. Would be just barely behind the body fat. I think it'd be close, but then they would actually retain or build muscle. And so the overall recomposition, like they.

[Adam Schafer]

Built muscle, but the same amount of body fat they came in with was sort of kind of the same.

[Sal DiStefano]

But yeah, body fat percentage would be better in the muscle people or the lifting people that body fat percentage. But I think fat percentage, there's more fat loss.

[Justin Andrews]

So. So you guys don't have much faith in your strength training.

[Sal DiStefano]

So it's even better than strength training.

[Justin Andrews]

Edged out just a little.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so for fat loss. Okay, well, so that's. I, I said barely edged out another.

[Justin Andrews]

Way for weight loss. Cardio one.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes. Why muscle? Yeah, that's exactly what I said.

[Justin Andrews]

No, you said cardio would lose a.

[Sal DiStefano]

Little more fat, but barely edged it out. I said. So it's a percentage of body that.

[Adam Schafer]

Have been better for the strength, but.

[Justin Andrews]

Strength training still lost more body fat.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So that's impressive. It's impressive that even it even edged it out.

[Justin Andrews]

Now think about, think about. So again, I'll just, I'll just say it again. It's just very now.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so one more thing because I just want to know more of the study. Were they. Were they exercising an equal amount of time?

[Justin Andrews]

So this is a meta analysis. Those either studies of studies at looking at both interventions. Because by the way, it's not much. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, the average fat loss for people who just lifted weights was like three pounds. Okay. So. And for cardio, it was like 2.8 pounds. You don't lose a lot when you don't change your diet as well.

[Sal DiStefano]

Sure.

[Justin Andrews]

That's just what happens now. Health will improve. So you don't have to. If you don't change your diet, you just exercise. Regardless of how you exercise, so long as it's appropriate, health improves. I'll argue. I'll argue. And I have data to support that. Strength training, if you had to compare the two for overall health would win mainly from the insulin sensitivity.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. The building muscle part and the benefits of that.

[Justin Andrews]

Now weight on the scale went down more with the cardio group, but that's because they, they paired some muscle.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, because they lost. I mean, I was close to what I said. I. But I'm surprised actually, the, the muscles still edged. I mean the lifting weights and the.

[Justin Andrews]

Speculation was because of the boosted metabolic rate. Of course that came from the strength. What happened if you stretch that study out, you, you stretch that study out.

[Sal DiStefano]

Five years, it gets worse.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah. It would get better. Oh, strength training.

[Justin Andrews]

It would crush it.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so people need to understand. Okay, so what is happening if, if there's no diet intervention. Intervention. What is happening so positive for the people that are lifting weights? Well, what's happening is that. And we talk about this all the time. The beautiful part about lifting Weights and, and, and in, in conjunction with, like, let's say not having the best diet is at least when you overeat, some of those calories are getting partitioned over to building muscle.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's the benefit with cardio. It doesn't work that way. Like any overage of calories, fat goes to fat, it doesn't go to anything else. So, so if all things are equal as far as the exercise part, the, the, the added benefits that you get from cardio, there are none.

[Justin Andrews]

And I will argue this all day long because these are meta analysis of studies and these studies typically are, you know, what are they three months long, four months longer than most. You stretch this out over two years, three years, five years.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, that's just compounding.

[Justin Andrews]

Strength training will beat it on all, all fronts because of the metabolic advantage. By the way, you might be wondering, well, why, how is it that they're, they're not losing a lot of weight. Your body adapts very quickly to activity. It learns how to become more efficient with your overall calorie burn. So you can. So because here's why. Cardio burns a lot more calories than strength training. That's a fact. You run for an hour or you lift weights for an hour, you're going to burn way more calories on an elliptical or running or cycling or swimming. That's true. The difference is strength training. The adaptation that it triggers is metabolically advantageous. Building muscle speeds up your metabolism. It makes your body want to burn body fat on its own more and it makes you more sensitive to insulin, meaning your hormones start to work better in terms of fat loss for you. Insulin sensitivity is great for fat loss. Insulin resistance is terrible for fat loss. But in these studies, the meta analysis, the scale went down more for cardio, but fat loss was roughly the same. Why? Because the strength training group didn't lose muscle. And in some of those studies that they took, they actually built a little bit of muscle.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's what I figured.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. Now you combine it with fixing your diet. Now you've got the formula, you take.

[Sal DiStefano]

Those examples and you give one piece of advice. Go hit protein intake.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And that radically first. Yeah, that radically shifts that, that those results too positively for the people that are lifting weights. Where it does, it's negligible for the, yeah. To the, to the runners. The runners. You, you tell both groups now all I want you to do. So since we didn't do anything, no diet interventions and all we've done is cardio and building and lifting weights to, to do this. All right, Next thing I'm going to tell this, these two groups, target body, hit your target body. Weight and protein change. Nothing else, just that. And that muscle building, it's synergistic with.

[Justin Andrews]

Strength training because of the muscle building.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

It's going to benefit the cardio group too. That's going to be more muscle preserving. It's going to also reduce calories because it's satiety producing. But it's synergistic with strength training because you're fueling the muscle growth that the strength training is triggering, thus improving the metabolic advantage even more. But I like this study. I like it. But I also like to communicate to people. And I trained people like this, by the way. All of us did. I had lots of clients who did nothing with their diet and they just came and worked out with me twice a week. And it took me years to get them to change their diet. Why? Diet's hard to change. That's the hardest thing to change. It's the most ingrained in us. It's the, it's the. It's just the most challenging. There's much more attached to how we eat than there is to. I can make it to the gym twice a week, but. So I had lots of clients that didn't change their diet. Here's what happened to those people over the years. Because it was a slow process, because they didn't change their diet over the years, they got leaner and leaner and leaner and leaner and they got stronger and stronger. And there wasn't this radical change in body fat. There was radical changes in health, radical changes in strength, radical changes in mobility. But fat loss was a slow, gradual process. On the flip side, managing gyms, you see these people, they'd come get a membership and they would just on the treadmill four days a week. That's all they did. You would see this initial weight loss and that was it. That was it. The rest time. The rest of the time. They were members, you know, for years and years and years. They look the same, exactly the same. And they would. They had good stamina and endurance.

[Adam Schafer]

But it's always a mystery to me.

[Justin Andrews]

But further on, I know, you know.

[Sal DiStefano]

Since we're talking about fat loss, did you guys see the recent thing that the news with the OIC recently?

[Justin Andrews]

No.

[Sal DiStefano]

What the. They failed to file for their patent renewal. To lose billions.

[Adam Schafer]

What a stupid, costly mistake.

[Justin Andrews]

Who's that guy?

[Doug]

I think it was up in Canada.

[Sal DiStefano]

Is that what it was?

[Doug]

Yeah, up in Canada. They didn't File their extension.

[Justin Andrews]

So up in Canada, they can generic it.

[Sal DiStefano]

They can sell generic, which will result in billions of dollars. Imagine how fast that dude got fired.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, imagine if you're that guy in the meeting. Imagine that.

[Sal DiStefano]

It was literally just the market. It was.

[Justin Andrews]

I turned it. I turned it in a day late.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It was like, literally they just failed to respond to the renewal thing in time. And then it. The patent expired, which opened the. Open the door for good news for people. Yeah, for sure.

[Justin Andrews]

You're gonna start smuggling peptides from Canada. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

You're going to Canada. Can you bring me back some. Some aglutide?

[Sal DiStefano]

Did we talk it openly on the podcast yet about our conversation with Dr. Seeds and just the speculation around that? No, because I want to have him on the show. We're gonna have him on it. But I still think it's fun for. Because to our credit. Okay, I remember when we had Israel tell on the show and he was. He was basically breaking the news to us. What's. What's coming down the pipe. And then we saw the news and we talked about it and right away just. We were very, like, hesitant as far as, like, this seems. And we speculated on what we thought might be some of the dangers of this. Like, and I thought that was a really like. Like smart on your part of thinking. Like, okay, if people on ozempic and these GLP1s, what we've seen, really struggle to get enough calories to contain a sustained muscle mass, and then you take a drug that ends up still building muscle in this calorie deficit, but that tissue still needs energy, then won't it rob other organs and stuff like that in order to do that? Which I thought was a really a pretty strong theory and idea by you, but we brought that to seeds and he brought up a whole nother.

[Justin Andrews]

So, so, so what happened? So there was a study that we talked about in a previous episode where they took monkeys and they took groups of monkeys. One group diet alone, another group GLP1. Another group GLP1. Plus myostatin and activin A inhibitor. So both myostatin and activin are inhibitors of muscle growth. And when you take the brakes off, you just build muscle. So, like, all right, what's going to happen here? And what happened was the monkeys got lean and built hella muscle on a.

[Sal DiStefano]

Low calorie diet, which is insane.

[Justin Andrews]

Crazy. And now my. And they're not working out. Like, they're not making these monkeys lift weights.

[Adam Schafer]

No.

[Justin Andrews]

So. So My speculation was if you take the brakes off myostatin activin, you're gonna fuel muscle growth at the expense of the rest of your body. Yeah. You're gonna steal nutrients.

[Adam Schafer]

It's going to be functional muscle tissue.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, that's what seed said.

[Adam Schafer]

Which Dr.

[Justin Andrews]

Seed said this is not going to be a.

[Sal DiStefano]

Which kind of blew all of our mind. Right.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. You're gonna. You're gonna have layers, build layers of muscle tissue that aren't useless.

[Adam Schafer]

Which makes a lot of sense. Why? You know, you've seen the whippet dog or the bull, and you haven't seen them actually move or do anything, like, video wise.

[Justin Andrews]

So the Belgian pictures. Doug, Google Belgium blue bull. So the Belgian blue bowl is a myostatin deficient, for lack of a better term, bull. Now, it wasn't done in a lab. This was. It was bred this way.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

We just figured out that's why they were so muscular, because we learned about myostatin. We tested these bulls, like, oh, we bred these bulls to have this myostatin deficiency. So when you look at a picture of this bull, there it is right there. It looks like a bull. Like a cartoon bodybuilder bowl.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay.

[Adam Schafer]

They just slapped on top of.

[Sal DiStefano]

Now what Dr. Seed said that, like, was such a duh moment for me or like a aha moment was, we've seen these forever. We've talked about these bulls.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. See how long they've been around, Doug.

[Sal DiStefano]

But we've never seen an example of, like, this bull, like, pulling, you know, this. The strength of 15 other bulls. Like, why, like you would think.

[Adam Schafer]

These aren't all that muscle.

[Sal DiStefano]

Useless muscle.

[Justin Andrews]

These are not to work. These are not the work. These are not the work bowls. When you want a bull that's strong. Ox. So the early 20th century is when they were made and they're in there. What do they use both for? Doug, scroll down. Both for dairy and beef. There you go. So they were. They were bred for more meat to eat. They were not bred for more work.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Working bulls are not Belgian blue bulls. In fact, Belgian blue bulls are bigger and not stronger. In fact, they're just tastier. They don't. They don't even perform as well. So now picture this. Muscular people, really muscular people that are weak who are similar to obese people where they're walking around like lumber.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

With, you know, big muscle that's kind of useless. So that's what Dr. Seed said will happen with these drugs.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Which is really interesting.

[Justin Andrews]

And talk about pure, like, just adopted Immediately bodybuilders. Listen, we have.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't care about like function.

[Justin Andrews]

This is like, this is the equivalent of like butt implants and you know, breast implants. You're gonna have buffed dysfunctional people. Like dysfunctional in terms of muscular, like strength and performance.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So it's all for the whole category.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So you're gonna be a big like can't move really? Well, that's weird.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then, and then who knows what are all the downstream effects of that? Right. Because then, because then I still think your, your theories of like organs being robbed of nutrients, like you think you got all this extra useless muscle that can't be better for the organs keep.

[Adam Schafer]

Up that amount of consumption.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. That can't be better for the heart. It's got to be, that's got to be worse.

[Adam Schafer]

I predict that this BMI actually would matter.

[Justin Andrews]

There you go. I predict the risks will be more like obesity than they will like having muscle.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Because you have more weight, not necessarily more insulin sensitivity tissue.

[Adam Schafer]

That's not beneficial, it's not functional.

[Justin Andrews]

It'll look a particular way.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, but you're not very healthy.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, that's going to be weird.

[Adam Schafer]

You'll look more impressive in a weird.

[Justin Andrews]

Way that you'll push a guy like that. That's so anti.

[Adam Schafer]

I already feel like that already.

[Justin Andrews]

That's like Justin's anti.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, it's like the ultimate balloon animal guy.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean the other fear is this Justin, the mtor, which is a signaler of muscle growth, which is fine. I know they like to say, oh, MTOR for cancer. No, no. In the context of a healthy, it's fine. But we don't know what hammering MTOR into the sky, what that could potentially do. Will that increase the cancer risk?

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

That's where you might see some weird tumors and shit start to grow. Like, whoa, nice biceps. That's a tumor. It's actually not a bicep. You know, speaking of compounds and stuff, I gotta, I gotta mention ghkcu, that for skin, that peptide is so crazy. Yeah, it's so crazy. It works so well. I've been going into the. The more the research on GHKCU and skin and skin health and how it helps with UV exposure and sunburn and all that stuff. That peptide is incredible. So the company Luminos, the entera product, Luminos, they have a very high concentration of GHKCU in there. The highest.

[Sal DiStefano]

You'll find that that in Caldera is all I use on my psoriasis now. That's it, those two things.

[Justin Andrews]

It is so powerful. Like, we have family friends that'll come over. My wife will have them put it on when they come in. And then by the end, by the. By the time they leave, they're like in the mirror and they're like, what?

[Adam Schafer]

I had some in my house, and we had been talking about this, I don't know, a while back about it. Anytime I got a sunburn, I was out working the yard all day long and didn't have my hat on or anything. I had, like, the total, like, stereotypical redneck, you know, where it was just everything was red and had this huge line right here on my face.

[Justin Andrews]

Did you put it on?

[Adam Schafer]

And I put it on, and then the next day, didn't have anything.

[Justin Andrews]

It's. It's crazy. Yeah, Yeah. I tell you.

[Adam Schafer]

Weird.

[Justin Andrews]

I tell you guys. My niece, right?

[Sal DiStefano]

So what. Okay, what is. What is the peptide signaling or doing? Is it like mitochondria health or. It's like regenerating faster?

[Justin Andrews]

Skin repair. It's a signaler that says repair. Repair, Repair. It's like turbocharging your. Your skin's ability to repair, to repair and handle stress.

[Sal DiStefano]

Interesting.

[Justin Andrews]

So collagen production skyrockets. So you put it on and it's like your. Your skin. I mean, I hate saying this because everybody says this, but you look younger. Like, wrinkled everything. You look younger.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Because you basically, what you're doing as you get older, your skin stops being able to do what it did when you were younger.

[Adam Schafer]

But ghs more weathered and.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, dude, it's this way of doing it.

[Adam Schafer]

Wrinkly.

[Justin Andrews]

I know, it's pretty cool. I read a study on coffee that you might like. Just.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

Is it a positive one?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, it is.

[Adam Schafer]

Keep up your habit, you addict.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, here we go. Look. So GHK signals skin cells to increase the synthesis of collagen and elastin, which is what makes it look more.

[Sal DiStefano]

So is there any studies that share or show.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, wound healing. That's right. It's good for wound healing, too. Of course, I forgot about lots of studies on that.

[Sal DiStefano]

I imagine that's why it's good for putting it on my psoriasis. Yeah, so it's healing that. Because that's so. Okay, so ghk CU paired with, like, a collagen. Collagen protein. Any benefit supplement? Yeah, in a.

[Justin Andrews]

Probably.

[Sal DiStefano]

Any benefits to doing together?

[Justin Andrews]

Probably.

[Sal DiStefano]

I would think so, too.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, it might be a good idea to, like, take a bunch of essential amino acids and then. And then use It. That might be a good idea. I would say put it on and get in front of the red light.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, does she.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah. After she gets our night shower, her routine is she rubs.

[Justin Andrews]

We ran out, dude. They need to send me.

[Sal DiStefano]

She rubs on, and then she sits in front of the red light for 10 minutes. That's, like, her thing. She's better at it than I am. She's.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, it's better than. I wish. Women, like, like, Botox do this. Oh, yeah, this looks like Botox, except you. Your face doesn't become paralyzed. That's how big of a difference?

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, that's. It's the opposite of what Botox does. Botox, you inject, and it kills all those cells. Right. It basically kills all those muscles, and that's what they do. Right. And then this is, like, basically rejuvenating or making healthier, younger, atrophy little muscle.

[Justin Andrews]

We were watching. Which show is it? Love Island. Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, my God.

[Justin Andrews]

Listen. My choice.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, we're all guilty of watching some trash island. That's, like, real trash tv.

[Adam Schafer]

Is that where they're, like, trying to see if they still got it and they're like, yeah, they're tempted by everybody.

[Sal DiStefano]

Break each other up.

[Adam Schafer]

Is that like Temptation island or.

[Justin Andrews]

Love island is just. It's.

[Caller]

Bro.

[Justin Andrews]

It's everything that's wrong with the world on a TV show. I was, like, going, I have connecting with my daughter, and.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, she likes it.

[Justin Andrews]

One of the things, you know, we do is try to meet her where she's at, you know, so she wants to watch sing. All right, let's watch it. So we could be a part of her life. Sure. And then hope. And then, you know, through that, you have influence.

[Sal DiStefano]

Get down that.

[Justin Andrews]

So she's like, oh, I like the show.

[Sal DiStefano]

It probably sparks a good conversation.

[Justin Andrews]

It's so hard not to, like, comment the entire time.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Because, like, oh, the way that they're coming out, these people coming out, it's, like, so ridiculous. And then they're like, okay, you're gonna make out with two guys and do it. And, like, my daughter's watching this, and I just want to rip my hair out, you know? Like, you know, but we're watching it. I'm trying to, like, again, influencer. But anyway, the host of that. This really beautiful woman. But something was wrong, like, with her face. And I. This is. It's gonna sound mean, but I was watching. I'm like, something's not right. My wife's like, that's Botox.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm like, oh, my God, you're right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

No matter what happened, like, her mouth would move, but everything else looked identical. Yeah. It's got to be the Botox.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, I mean, that's the part, too, that's, like. It's starting to make a lot of people look the same, which is weird. That's part of the beautiful thing about humans is that we. We're also. We have all our.

[Justin Andrews]

You know what's crazy about that? When you. When you paralyze the muscles of your face and you're not able. You know how much communication.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Is subtle communication?

[Justin Andrews]

Subconscious.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, I don't know why. You know, I feel a particular way by talking this person. I can feel their energy or whatever, what's happening. My brain is picking up cues on.

[Sal DiStefano]

Subtle changes on their posture.

[Justin Andrews]

Your face, your eyebrows, nose.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, if you paralyze all that, it actually can decrease. My theory is it'll decrease your ability to connect with other people and not just then.

[Sal DiStefano]

Interesting study to show, like, on average, if it makes people less likable. Like, if they did, you know, they did that one study with, like, the scars faces, and you just, like, grade them like that. If they did something similar like that, where you have all these Botox faces and there's like, are these people more trustworthy or would you like this person on a scale of 1 to 10, and see if they would be less liked.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, here's my. Here's my theory.

[Adam Schafer]

There's degrees of it, for sure.

[Justin Andrews]

Hear me out, because I. I've read psychology studies on psychology around this. Right. So there are subtle cues that my brain picks up on that I'm not aware of. That'll. That'll give me a feeling about you, whether it's happy or sad or tense or even empathy. Empathize with you a little bit. And a lot of it is based off of your posture, your voice, inflection, the health that you. You know, how you appear to be healthy, but also the subtle changes in your eyebrows, your eyes, your nose, your ears, all the things that I'm not fully aware of. So I can't empathize and connect as well with you when that's all paralyzed. Here's the flip side. When you're looking at a face, people don't. There's studies on this. When you look at a face with the facial expression, your face slightly mirrors it just a tiny bit. And they think the reason why you're doing that is it's helping you empathize as well. So. So I bet You. I bet you we could find studies on this. I bet you they exist that lots of Botox reduces your ability.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

To empathize with other people, not just their ability to empathize with you.

[Adam Schafer]

Some of the other day I was watching just kind of. I had my headphones in and I just. Sometimes I like the people watch. And I was noticing that when. When people were interacting and talking to each other, the person that was listening to is still like subtly mouthing the words of the person in front of them talking. And it was like. You don't pick up on that a lot, but like it's. It's like subconscious.

[Justin Andrews]

It is. You're finding yourself those cues, changing your accent just a little bit because you're talking to somebody.

[Adam Schafer]

Dude, that happened to me in Ireland when I was with my brother. I just started.

[Sal DiStefano]

I'm guilty.

[Adam Schafer]

That's the inflections.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're around it enough to naturally do it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, that's just. That's just. That's just showing you kind of what I'm. Doug, look up. Does Botox affect your ability to empathize? Now imagine this, a mother, you have a newborn baby, and all they can read is that. And the baby's looking up at you while you're breastfeeding the baby. And the baby sees a face that doesn't emote. Could that change. Could that potentially change the development of the brain, of the baby's brain?

[Sal DiStefano]

I'm sure the question is how much, Right. Is it negligible or is it like a lot?

[Justin Andrews]

I don't know, man, because you add that up over years. I mean, I think it's gotten effect.

[Sal DiStefano]

There's gotta be a ways that we could probably.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you see any studies on this, Doug? Yes.

[Doug]

So it does show that Botox could alter how people perceive and express their own emotions, but does not seem to affect their ability to empathize.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hey, speed of that, I had someone. I had one of our listeners who question asked me a question on my question and I answered it. So I'm curious to see you guys. What is empathy to you?

[Adam Schafer]

What is empathy?

[Doug]

Yeah, I feel empathy is the ability to project yourself into somebody's situation.

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's music.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's one way it's being able to.

[Justin Andrews]

Perceive how they feel so you can empathize with them. Is that right?

[Doug]

I feel like that's what it is.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I don't think there's. I don't necessarily.

[Justin Andrews]

Let's see what the Internet.

[Sal DiStefano]

So it's. It's. Yeah. Your. Your ability to understand somebody else's perspective. Right. So how. How. And how well can you do that? Like, how well yourself.

[Justin Andrews]

In their shoes.

[Adam Schafer]

Walk in their shoes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. How well can you tolerate. Understand somebody else's thoughts and beliefs? And like.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, we're. Right. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It involves stepping into someone's shoes. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I'd say it's a real. When you think about. It's. We throw it around. Like, we. People say it all the time, but it's like, it's a. It really is a true art and skill, and it's only really challenged when people say things that you disagree with or you don't necessarily empathize naturally to. Like, it's really easy to empathize with somebody who. It's like they lose their father, and it's like, okay, it's easy for me to have empathy with that because I understand that feeling. And it's like, that's not real empathy to me. Real empathy is the ability to do it when it's not natural, when it's like, I actually have to actively, actively think. Yeah, I don't know what it's like to do that. And let me try and understand why maybe this person comes off this way or maybe why I don't like them is maybe that's because I am having a hard time empathizing with their situation or their beliefs or their. Their perspective. So there's a real.

[Justin Andrews]

Real art to be, you know. You know, that's. This is a. It's a female superpower.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, so the way I. I actually answered this and said, I. I am. I think I'm not very good at it. I do think that I try and work on it. I said, I follow my wife's lead. She's incredible. Katrina has this ability to empathize with everybody, and it obviously is a women in natural gift.

[Justin Andrews]

Women in general have this gift, which it comes with its own challenges. Right. Women are really. Men are. I mean, if we were to be.

[Adam Schafer]

We're good at picking out predators.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Adam Schafer]

That's what we have to. Because, you know, we want that trait. Well, this is somebody to empathize.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're right.

[Adam Schafer]

We want somebody to always see that, but we have to protect that.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's. It's a what a what a. What a great way to highlight the differences of sexes and why we. Why we make such a good team. Because. You're exactly right, Justin. So my natural inclination when I run into a stranger that seems off or suspect is Danger and like, oh, that guy's a creep. Or this that hers is like, you know, he might had a really bad day today, hon. Like, you have no idea. He might have just got bad news at work. And like, what you're feeling is that. And so why are you crazy? He's creepy. You know what I'm saying?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So, you know, but together you balance each other out, right? So you kind of put her on alert a little bit. Maybe you don't just go cuddle up to that guy or whatever, what's going on with him. But then at the same time too, it makes me go like, well, maybe I won't be so knee jerk reaction to something he says or does. Maybe I can understand. So it's like the combination of the two works.

[Justin Andrews]

You guys have empathy.

[Adam Schafer]

Very interesting.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you guys have empathy triggers? Like if you watch a movie. What's. What are the. What are the things in movies that.

[Adam Schafer]

Get you anything about kids? Yeah, me too. Yes. Yeah. Especially, yeah. Like they're sick or whatever. You know, it's like some sob story or they lost their kid or I'm like, ah.

[Justin Andrews]

So I, I was watching Lilo and Stitch. Now it's live action.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, just got you.

[Justin Andrews]

And. Well, because first off, I don't if you guys remember the cartoon or whatever, but live action, same thing, same story. Right. But you got this little girl. First of all, they both lost their parents, so now it's bigger sisters taking care of the little sister. And the little girl is. She, she, she feels left out and the kids are kind of poking fun at her. So I empathize with the little girl right away, but I empathize a lot with the older sister because I was the oldest. So I immediately was like, oh, my God, if I had to take care of my siblings, I could totally feel what that would feel like. And the responsibility because the older sister in the movie, she foregoes going to college because she has to stay home to take care of her little sister. So that's a trigger.

[Sal DiStefano]

So if I see a movie and there is a feel good part around like the father, it just, I fight back tears. There's obviously a lot of therapy that needs to be done there. They're like. Because it's a feel. It's not, it's like a feel good moment for like, where the, like the dad and did something good. Yes. And the dad and the child are like really like bonding, connecting like that. It, it takes everything, I mean, not to break down crying. So it's like there's Obviously something there that, like, that's like, why it's okay. It shouldn't be something I cry about because it's like a happy moment in a movie. It's not like, it's not like we're. It's not a kid losing something or pain. It's actually a feel good moment. Yeah. So there's this like, emotion. This emotion comes up and I have to, like, I have to pull the Justin. I'm like, I'm not supposed to cry right here.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm not supposed to cry. Everybody's so open here.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, I have my. I have no moments and I'm very aware that I've told you, like, it was something in my. Probably my last. This is like at last decade of like introspective stuff for me is like, why does that always come up? And it's in weird parts of the movie. It's not parts that are traditionally like people like Old Yeller. When the dog dies, you cry. When the. The. The family member died, like, that doesn't get me. What gets me is like a. A feelgood comeback moment with dad or something like that. And it was like, like, oh, God.

[Adam Schafer]

You don't know where that makes sense.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, I'm sure it comes from my childhood of not having a dad. I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. And so it's also, you know, I always question, like, queso that is, you know, is it a weakness or is it a strength? Because it depends how you use it. Right. Because I think it's also what has driven me to be a good dad.

[Justin Andrews]

Of course.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

It could have made you a shitty dad too.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

It's all in how you choose.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I do, I do. Like, I. I understand that too. Like, I understand that. That also you.

[Justin Andrews]

You.

[Sal DiStefano]

You typically choose one way or the other. Either they're because of that. You're this totally disconnected dad. You don't know how to connect to your child because you weren't taught. You didn't see it. You don't know how to do it. Or you probably go the other extreme where it's just like. That's all I think about is like how to. How to be a good dad, how to handle those situations.

[Justin Andrews]

No, anything with kids gets me. And then after losing someone close to me who suffered from cancer, if I see somebody with cancer in a movie, oh, that really messes me up. Just because it's a personal.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Experience. Yeah. See that, that's what. See, things that are typically sad don't get me so sad. It's more. It's the other way.

[Justin Andrews]

The one what's we weird. What will get me tearful, which is weird, is anytime there's, like, a battle movie and then the good guys, like, come out out of nowhere and start to win, I start to get emotional. I'm like, what's wrong with me?

[Adam Schafer]

Sometimes the triumphant, like, moment.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. And it could be the stupidest movie, bro. It could be like, dude, what was I watching? Pacific Rim. This is like robots fighting monsters, you know, and the robots, like, almost dead. And then they. They come out and they win. And I'm, like, getting emotional. My kid. I'm like, why am I just emotional?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. There's been, like, a handful of times where I've. I've cried in public. And it was like, that was one of those. I. My career had ended as a football player, and we're just sitting there, we're going around, we're kind of talking about our experience, and then, you know, knowing that I wasn't doing it anymore, it just all hit me.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

And then that. That was, like, hard. But it was the. Also it was the championship. Like, we won, and because it was the hardest year, like, had all these fact against us, like, and just that effort, you know, I don't know what it is, but, like, just everybody with that type of effort and, like, perseverance, and then, like, seeing it pay off was just like, oh, yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know?

[Justin Andrews]

You know, it gets. You know what'll make me cry every time to the point where you guys have seen me. I'll turn, I'll close my phone. If I see stupid Facebook memories, or now your phone does this, like, memory, you know, video. And I see my kids from two or just two or three years ago.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And I watch it. I got to turn it off. So I'm gonna cry in front of my friends, right? I'm gonna wait till I'm in the bathroom.

[Sal DiStefano]

So the thing that. So what always interests me, and this is just the. I guess the introspective part of me is that when I have emotions. And I've said, I've shared this for a long time, right? Why, yes. Like, people have asked, like, because I talk a lot about, like, self awareness is like, I think it's one of the most important or powerful things that you can ever learn. And it's like, okay, well, how do you train that? I said, well, for me, me learning to train, that started with dissecting my emotion, my emotional highs and lows. So I lay in bed and think back in the day and go, like, man, there was that moment where I got really angry at Sal for something. Like, what did.

[Justin Andrews]

It's always me.

[Sal DiStefano]

I'm just using this example. It's not a real example. I've never had to go introspective on how I've never gotten that mad at you or I had to think about it. I knew where the. I was mad at you.

[Justin Andrews]

All right, all right.

[Sal DiStefano]

But using that example, right, so, you know, I got really upset and frustrated with him. What. What was that? What did he do? Or what did he say that triggered that? Which then in turn says, what does that say about me and what's going on there? And also the opposite is true. Like, boy, I just had this day, like a good example. This was Doug and I did the car thing and like, boy, that I just. So much joy from that. Like, and it's not just like leaving at that. Like, what was it about that I always try and unpack that I always try and unpack these emotional swings that we have, north or south. And then. And then say, what does that say about me? What is it? So do you do that? So, like, when you get emotional and you want to cry over the kids because they will memories, do you try and unpack it or you just chalk it up as I get.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, no, I unpack it because I miss. I feel like I missed it. Like, oh my God, I wasn't present enough. Even if I was, it still feels like I missed it. You know what I mean?

[Sal DiStefano]

So do you think. And so this will be really interesting since you. That you've connected that, that I wonder if as the two young ones right now get older and you look back, does it shift the way you feel?

[Justin Andrews]

I don't know, because I know it's still early. I just saw a video of my 4 year old when he was 2 and I lost my marbles.

[Sal DiStefano]

So that's interesting. And you're. You're very. You were very, very present for that.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not a. I just.

[Sal DiStefano]

And you didn't definitely feel gone.

[Justin Andrews]

You know what it is? It's that. That.

[Adam Schafer]

That's the giving tree, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

That. God, hate that stupid book, dude, don't ever be. I know.

[Adam Schafer]

That's all I'm saying. Facebook hits you just like that.

[Justin Andrews]

But it's just. I saw him at 2 and he was giggling and he was hella chubby back then. And we're, you know, we're playing and. And that little boy's gone. He's a new boy. And I love that little guy's.

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't get that. I get really killed when the Facebook memories pop up. I get. I get. I get more joy. I get, like. I look back, oh, it's a joyful.

[Justin Andrews]

Tear, but it's still like, oh, that little guy's gone. That little. You know, And I. And then I think to myself, like, who he is now. That's gonna be gone soon. In a year or two.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So fast.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. I wonder if it'll change if. Because I'm. I'm still so early in the game of fatherhood that I still am thoroughly enjoying every stage so much. And you guys told me this, that this would happen. You said that each stage is different and you love each one more than the last, but they're different. Right. And so have you.

[Justin Andrews]

So when you watch videos of Max when he was 2, it doesn't make you choke up. Like, oh, my God.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, no, I. I get more like a. Like, oh, man, that was. I remember that. That was fun. Or I. Oh, I remember that day. Like, I totally remember. Especially the way I have trailed his. His personal Instagram is that I've strategically made an effort to, like, only post, like, once a week of his life for his whole life, and so I can really timeline and go back and, like, go.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you guys have any weird anger triggers? Like, things that are like. I have one, like, getting lost. Only because I have the worst sense of direction.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I've actually been told by. I was told by a client who was an expert in the field. She said it's a form of dyslexia. I could get lost. So, like, I drive home from here every day. We've been working here for eight years. I can't get home without gps. Okay. I cannot get home without gps. I get lost so easily, and it's been like that since I was a kid. So if I get lost, it triggers something inside of me where I'm so angry, and it's the weirdest thing. But. But that's obviously why.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Oh, you're waiting on me.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're so used to me just going right away. I just thought.

[Justin Andrews]

I throws.

[Sal DiStefano]

I already have mine. Just a little bit.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Well, all right. I mean, I'll be honest. Like, I. For me, a lot of times, redundancy. So if I have to go back and do something that I know is good or. But somebody else has convinced me that I got to go back and redo something or, like, I lose my. I did not like that. I did not like, I Like creating things and letting it be and then moving to the next thing. Because my brain just keeps going this direction. I don't like going backwards.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

And I feel like, you know, first I was like, I was always trying to work on that. I was like, I gotta get better at this. I gotta, you know, I gotta look back and I gotta tweak and I gotta, you know, work on making things more perfect. And I just, like, now I just abandoned it completely. I don't have to do that. Like, I just stick with my strength. And that's my strength, is keep creating. Keep moving forward and build people around me that can help me with that instead. And so. But that used to be a huge trigger for me because I would clap back real hard when somebody had, like, a, you know, different opinion about, you know, the way they would have done it.

[Justin Andrews]

Did you have to do your homework a lot or something? Redo it over and over again?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I'm trying. I don't know.

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't know.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't know what that is.

[Justin Andrews]

It must have been the right place. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. It must have been part of school, I think, brought that out of me. But in. And two, I think it's just that, like, I've. The way that I do things, I like to do it myself and I like to figure it out myself. And. And I don't, like. I understand. People have written books and they've. They've had processes and. And ways to, like, do it the most effective, efficient way. And, like, sometimes I just don't care. I don't. I want to learn it for myself, the way that I process it and the way that I want to do it. And I just don't care. Like, I don't care about your book in. In the way that, you know, you figured this thing out.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, I have. I have an analysis for you of being one of your best friends and being around you for so long. And I think I know you really well, and I've said this about you before. I think that you're your own biggest critic, and you don't need anybody to tell you that you up or you did something wrong or you could do something better, because nobody is going to assess and analyze that more than you and care about it more than you. So. And I've known that about you for a very long time. That it's like, I don't need to go. If Justin didn't do something perfect or great, I don't need to go point it out because he's already Overanalyzed it enough, and it's just going to annoy you if I come over and remind you of something you already know.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so I think that's a lot of what that is.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, you're right. I mean, that's. That is a lot of that. And it's brought contention. Mean, we've worked through it, me and Courtney. Like. Like, that has just been a big one.

[Sal DiStefano]

Because it's like, oh, I can imagine.

[Adam Schafer]

She's. She's like, well, and you got to think about different brains. Like, hers is very clinical.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

And it's very like. Like, I. I read this. This is what I'm stuck on. Like, I don't have any vision of anything outside of. This is the protocol. And so that's like loading the dishes. That's like you taking things and putting the trash out this way and then closing the lid this way.

[Justin Andrews]

And.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I need to tell you, you know, and there was a lot of that in the beginning, and it was just like.

[Sal DiStefano]

We were like, oh, I can only imagine. Because I can only imagine if I didn't make that read on you trying to lead and manage you that way would be. We would not get along. No, we would not get along.

[Adam Schafer]

It was probably one of the first managers that did give me a space.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Because that was, like, in coaches, too. Like, I had to go through a few coaches before I got good ones that, like, understood that. And then. And then I thrived. But it's just. That's just my personality, so.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mine's. Mine's tied to the. The empathy thing, so I lack a lot of empathy for people that complain about their life. Boy, that's just a. I've seen you do that. That'll trigger me.

[Justin Andrews]

Dude, I don't like when people tell you you're privileged.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, God. Or they. Or they just bitch about their life. Like, you know how hard. How bad that's. I lack. That I really lack. And I. That's an area I have to try and work on. On. Because that. I'm quick to be triggered to that. Just like, I. I don't have a lot of patience for. I just.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, because you had a hard life.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's not. But not even just that, though, Sal. Like, forget my. Like, I don't tie it. Like, I don't try and have an oppression Olympics with them. Like, I was moral. Like, that's not how I feel about it. It's more like, you are. You are doing none of that any service or good. So we all have had hardships. They just look different. Like, I don't think that my life was any more harder than anybody else in this room. I just think it was different. And I think you wasting any time talking about how hard and how shitty it is for you is like wasted energy. And if you really want to get out of that situation, the best thing you could do is be trying to solve those problems and talking about it and, And. And you're only going to manifest more of it by. By bringing light to it and saying, it's so hard, it's so bad. Poor me. It's just like, dude, get over yourself. Like, so I. I might have a really hard time with having empathy for people. And that's not to discount. Say they don't have it hard, but we all have it hard. Everybody hard is different for everybody. And, and there's all different levels of it. And getting into this, like, comparing who's had it easier or harder is just. It's just a waste. To me, it's just like. And the more you and the. And again, to what does compare to my child is like, I've learned that that's a superpower, because if you've had to go through a lot more, you've had to solve more problems and figure more things out than the guy who got all the privilege. So give me all the shit. And I don't want the privilege. The privilege is people think it's the easier route. Like, no, it's like, I'm. My biggest fear of my son is having as much privilege as he has because he's not gonna have to solve as many problems as I had to solve by the time he's a young. When I set him off when he's 18. If we were to compare our child's. Forget the trauma and the bullshit, but think of just all the problem solving I had to go through and figure out that made me into the man that I was. By time I was off on my own by 17, that. That he just didn't have to do that. So that's. That's a. I don't think it's an advantage. And people that talk about it is such an advantage is a massive trigger for me.

[Justin Andrews]

So do you have an anger trigger that's like your, like, weird one?

[Doug]

I don't know if it's weird maybe. I think everybody probably feels the same way. Anything that wastes your time, for example, you're on hold for 45 minutes with a bank, and then all of a sudden it just goes blank.

[Sal DiStefano]

You have to call again. Oh man.

[Justin Andrews]

That, that, that.

[Doug]

Oh boy. That one will trigger me.

[Sal DiStefano]

You and I are a lot alike in that. In that area. Like. Yeah. I mean God bless Katrina like that if there's. She has completely. And that I don't lose my mind too. She knew it or what about me. But part of my super. The. The ability for me to do what I've done today is that she knew. She found that out about me so early and she just took all that off. My play was just like she had. That doesn't bother her. The multiple calls, hang ups, wasting hours of time. Oh bro. If I do something and. And it wasted 30 minutes of my time and it's some like that I just lose my. I'm just like I could have been doing so many other things with my time right now. And this so where she's just like so chill about it. Like she can be managing seven different time wasting things at one time and she's learned to just like, like clear my plate of all that. And I'm like, oh, that allows me to Very fortunate. No, it is because I. That is. I forgot how much that's a huge pet.

[Adam Schafer]

That reminds me. I. I did have a moment where I kind of like lost it. But thankfully nobody was really around. But I was driving the. The new car I got and then I drove it home and had it like. So I took my son the other.

[Justin Andrews]

Day.

[Adam Schafer]

And we were late for something, so I just made like a protein shake and we drank it and all this and he had it in the back seat and I don't allow him to ever bring food. Nobody ever brings food in the car. And I get home and it. My car had been baking in the sun.

[Justin Andrews]

No, no, no, no.

[Sal DiStefano]

Rancid.

[Adam Schafer]

And thank God he wasn't there because like, like it's a huge trigger for me if so if the smell is rancid and it like smells so bad and I know that I have to clean it and I know what I'm in for.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Kind of a thing. Both those things together. And so. So yeah. So like you have Katrina like Courtney like just knows ahead of time how angry and like how like really bad like my. I lose it on that level. And so I. I came out, I was like, oh my God, smell my car. Like, go. And she's like, like go for a walk. Like, let me handle this. And she's like, oh, that's awesome. Steam cleaner thing in there. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I don't want you to do that. Like, no, I don't like you when you're like this. Go for a walk. And I'm just like, all right. And thank God. Like, she's learned. That's like, that saved probably everybody.

[Sal DiStefano]

I would say that's one of the most ultimate things in a partnership is when you find a partner who has that ability to see those things in you. And like, no, like, this is. And vice versa for us too. Right. Like, if I can see those things that. That Katrina just does not. Not want to deal with, can I step in and take care of those things? And. And. And she does that for me. So that's.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Huge. Huge.

[Justin Andrews]

All right, little. Take a left here. The ingredients. So joy mode, right, the pre sex supplement. Well, I like to take it before working out because it increases the pump. The ingredients in joy mode, I believe you could actually measure a difference in your blood pressure when you take it. That's how much it dilates your blood vessels. So the ingredients in there have been shown in studies to improve endothelial health. This is blood vessel health because of the boost in nitric oxide. And I would like some listeners to take their blood pressure drink Joy mode. An hour later, take your blood pressure again, and you'll probably see it be a little bit lower. The nitric oxide.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, interesting.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. The ingredients in there, if you take them regularly, you should get a measurable difference.

[Adam Schafer]

Good for all the different types of pumps.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, that's why it's a pre sex supplement. That's what they made it for. It was for.

[Sal DiStefano]

You use it for working out.

[Justin Andrews]

I use it for.

[Sal DiStefano]

I use it for sex, actually.

[Justin Andrews]

And you guys like it?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean it for working out.

[Adam Schafer]

It's not together, just separately.

[Justin Andrews]

You guys use it together.

[Doug]

I'm glad you clarified.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I have to make sure that there's a distinction there.

[Sal DiStefano]

Was it. Who was that? Was it Sal or Justin who made the. Who did that to the clear guy? He got all weird. He said, like, are you guys together?

[Justin Andrews]

And then you're like, oh, yeah, together.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then he got all like, oh, he got all awkward. Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

It's like.

[Adam Schafer]

It's a joke.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you can. We're not on the Bay Area, but.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, for blood flow, that's like the best supplement. So, Ned, is hemp oil extract that you feel. It's high in CBD, but other cannabinoids. Listen, take this. 45 minutes later, you feel euphoria. It really works. Try it for yourself. Go to helloned.com. that's H E L L O N E D.com mindpump. Use the code mindpump. Get 20% off. Back to the show.

[Doug]

Our first caller is Derek from Florida.

[Justin Andrews]

What's up man?

[Sal DiStefano]

How you doing, Derek?

[Caller]

How you guys doing? Thank you for everything you guys do and thank you for having me, guys.

[Justin Andrews]

You got it. How can we help you?

[Caller]

So I'm going to jump right into my question. That cool?

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Caller]

All right, so I'm a typical story. I'm 42 years old. I got a four year old son. Around the time that we had him, I just started letting myself go. Time was I just didn't have enough time to work out. I made every excuse in the world, got super lazy, gained about 40 pounds. About a month ago, I decided I wanted to start trying to get myself back in shape. Start waking up early in the mornings, doing some workouts at night as well, trying to not overdo it, Trying to follow some of the rules that you guys have put forth where I don't want to put too much of a toll on my body, but at the same time kind of struggling with the diet part of it. So my main question that I have is when I put in a like a daily energy expenditure calculator, all of my details, it pumps out a number that's around 3,000 to 3,200 depending on which calculator I'm using. I know that I need to be at a deficit if I want to lose some fat, but I also don't want to go too hardcore. My issue is that in the past, anytime that I eat over about 2,400 calories with a cheat meal at the end of the week, I tend to gain weight. So I'm worried if I jump up to 3,000 calories, am I actually giving my body too much food and too many calories, or am I going to be in a point where my body's actually getting what it needs and maybe I'll stop storing fat and using it for what I actually want it to do, which is build muscle.

[Sal DiStefano]

Derek, how far into this are we? Like you put on the £40 and then you started to make. Wanted to make change. How long have you been attempting this?

[Caller]

Right now it's been about a month. Now I do want to preface this by saying before I had my son, I was down at like 10 to 12 body fat, 205. I'm 6:2, so I had a pretty decent physique.

[Sal DiStefano]

Physique.

[Caller]

It just, it went to hell after, after we had the kid.

[Justin Andrews]

Are you and you're tracking right now, Is that how you know you're eating 2400 on average?

[Caller]

Yeah, so I'm eating 24 on average. But I do add the cheat meal every week, and that varies. Some weeks I'm only adding like 400 calories. Some weeks on that Saturday, I'll add like a thousand. It just varies on what we decide to choose.

[Justin Andrews]

So that's your maintenance then. If that's what you're eating on a regular basis, those calculators are a rough estimate. They can be off significantly. So I always tell people it's a good starting point, but tracking is where you're going to get your maintenance.

[Sal DiStefano]

I also wouldn't start you like that though, either, though, I mean, at 24. Well, I mean, here's the thing. I mean, I wouldn't even be cutting right now. If you put 40 pounds. Okay. On in the last couple years. I don't even have to ask you questions. You were eating. I mean, you were doing some damage. So probably, I don't know if you drink, if you eat a lot of fast food, but to put. Okay, yeah. So if you put £40 on, you were around, like, for real. So I'm gonna go like, hey, let's. If you were my client, I, I would assess that with you and be like, let's. Let's just knock out a couple of these really bad things that you're probably doing that you know about already. I don't know, your mind would be binging ice cream at night and drinking on weekends or something like that. And so I'd be like, like, that's all I want you to do. And let's go after eating protein, because I guarantee if you're eating all that, you're probably under consuming on protein, over consuming on empty calories or trash calories. I don't actually want you to cut yet. I really want to. I want, especially a guy that, like, you who was in really good shape, who probably had a lot more muscle because you probably lost muscle and put body fat on. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna focus on building right now. I'm not tripping about the scale. Even though I know you may be a little bit in your head. I'm like, like, I want to feed your body correctly. Get out. Let's cut out of. And I wouldn't go crazy either, because if you were eating that out of bounds, I just need to tighten up a few things that are probably the. The gross offenders and really go after eating protein and building muscle, especially for the first Couple months. I mean, it would look very similar. I don't know if you paid attention to my comeback story. I did on YouTube, but I, I didn't. I didn't quite fall out of £40 out of shape, but I'd fallen out of shape for me, and I hadn't been training consistently at all. And I documented how I ate and how I trained to come back, and what I didn't do was go right into a cut. Even though I needed to lose body fat, it was. Listen, I got. I. I've lost a lot of muscle the last couple. You know, for me, it was months. For you, it's been years. So let's go get that muscle back, because that muscle is going to make the getting lean and shredded way easier if I do that. So the focus should be, in my opinion, should be that first. Wouldn't you guys do the same thing?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I would. So you're what, 230 now? 2:40.

[Caller]

About 240.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. And you said. So you've just started last month. Does that mean you started working out again last month?

[Caller]

Yeah, I went extreme because I can't do anything in moderation. So I went out and bought a full rack, home gym, functional trainer, everything I would need at the gym so that I had no more excuses. So I've been doing about three full body workouts per week, and then I add in a little bit of core work on a fourth day.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And every day I'm walking about a half hour.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, you gotta feed. Yeah, yeah, I agree with Adam. Feed. Feed the. Feed the muscle growth that you're gonna go. That you're gonna start noticing, and that's gonna be more effective for fat loss than going to cut. Going in a cut right now, especially at 2, 400 calories guy your size, I don't think that's a good idea. Yeah, I'd put you. Yeah, I'd put you up to 2700 calories to start with high protein. Try to hit 200 to, you know, 220 grams of protein a day, and then just focus on getting stronger and you're getting a nice body composition change is what's going to happen. And then at some point when your calories start to ramp up, which they will, as you start to build muscle, then cutting won't be a problem. You start to cut right now, you're going to find yourself.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, we're not even there yet.

[Justin Andrews]

You're going to find yourself in a situation where you're eating 1800 calories a day. Yeah, I bet your workouts are going.

[Adam Schafer]

To amp that up quite a bit.

[Sal DiStefano]

I'm guessing if you're, if you're cutting down to those calories and you're also allowing a cheat night, you probably have a hard time hitting your protein. I imagine you have a hard time hitting 220 grams of protein every single day. It would be hard to do that unless you're eating super clean every single day.

[Caller]

Yeah, I've been eating really clean the last month and I've seen the scale move a little bit. Not that much, I think, because I'm building some of that muscle back as well. But I'm averaging between about 175 to 200 grams of protein a day. But this is new. It's not like I've been doing this for very long.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. 220 a day. Focus on strength training. Get your calories up to 27, 2800 calories and your body will change in the right way and then slowly increase the calories over time. The body fat will come off.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Through that process, if you go straight into a cut right now, you're going to end up in a situation that's going to be. It's going to suck.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's going to suck and really slow. It doesn't mean you couldn't see some body fat loss that way. You're just, it's going to be a slow process, which you're probably already feeling that it's because you're not. What you've done probably in this month isn't horrible. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be surprised if you've made decent progress. You might have. Have lost a couple pounds of fat and got a pound or two muscle back, but you'd be far better off leaning into. I'm gonna go build muscle right now. I'm not gonna worry about the scale going down and losing right now. Like, my goal now is, let's go get back that muscle that you had before and put that on your body. Because that, it's like building your engine. It's like, hey, you want to go race right now? It's like, it's not time to race. Let's go, let's go put the horsepower in this engine and then we'll, then we'll race and then you're gonna, you have a better time winning that race that way versus, hey, let's just go start racing right now. It's like, no, let's, let's go rebuild that engine. And what's great is that you've been here before, so you'll get it back pretty fast. Dude, that, especially if you're leaning into it, you're feeding the body enough calories to actually build muscle and protein. So if you're feeding it enough to build, then it'll build it back way quicker than the average person because you have that muscle memory on your side. So lean into that. And then what we do is we. And if you got your size, I'm wanting you to be up over 32,3500 calories before I bring you back the other way. So what, this is what. If you were my client, this is the way I'd be communicating this. All right, Derek, this is our first goal. Our first goal is I want to get you up to 3, 400 calories and not gaining any weight. That's what I want you to do. And if we've done that, then I know what's happening is you're, we're ramping that, that metabolism up and you're now your new maintenance level is like 3400 before I'd even think about cutting you on your first one. You're a good sized guy. You're not a little petite dude. So I, I don't want you cutting from 20 something calories. You should be well over 3, 000, especially if you're training three days a week and you're walking and you're, you're doing some decent activity. So feet, we need to feed you and focus that way first and then come back and cut. And if you haven't had a chance to kind of watch the journey that I had on my comeback, it would be good for you to watch it because you hear me me have the conversation of why I'm doing this and why am I focusing on eating more now and only training this much and you get to hear me kind of walk through that whole process because you're in a similar situation where you've lost a bunch of muscle, put on some body fat, been out of it, but you know that'll come back quick for you.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. And do you mind if I address more of your email in, in part of this?

[Caller]

Yeah, absolutely.

Man.

[Justin Andrews]

The testosterone that you're, that you're treating to get it elevated, that'll be really hard.

[Sal DiStefano]

I didn't realize we were even doing that.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, that'll be really hard. With low calories in a cut, like a cut tends to lower testosterone. So if you're in this process of trying to bring levels back up, what we're saying is the most effective dietary and exercise approach, building muscle. It's a great way to make your testosterone more effective and also in many cases, raise testosterone. So I wouldn't go into cut for many different reasons, that being one of them.

[Sal DiStefano]

Are we. Are we. Are you taking TRT or.

[Adam Schafer]

No?

[Justin Andrews]

No, it's on the Clomiphene.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, okay. So you're trying to get back, like. Okay, I thought.

[Caller]

Yeah, I didn't want to. I didn't want to just cut off my, My production. I was hoping to. To increase it naturally. I. I don't know the pros and cons, and I don't think you. I don't know if you guys want to get into all that, but I thought that was the best decision for me right now.

[Justin Andrews]

I. What I would. What I would. What you'd want to do hgh.

[Sal DiStefano]

I would have thought they would put them. Or htg. I mean.

[Justin Andrews]

No. So what you'd want to do is go on this path. Path that we're saying ramp your calories up, high protein, lift weights, get stronger. You're on a Clomiphene, Go off in Clomiphene, stay on this path, don't over train, don't go in a cut. Two months later, see where your testosterone levels are at. If they stay high, then you're great. If they drop down, then TRT would be the next approach. But if you go on enclomiphene, raise your testosterone, do all this stuff, then you go on a cut and you go off. Off in clomophene, your testosterone goes down. All right, was it the cut? Did I go too aggressive? Like, what's going on here? So, yeah, that's. That. That's.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's how I didn't even read. I didn't even read further into this and realize that this is even more important that we focus on building muscle right now. Like, if I didn't even realize we have lower tests, this. That's just also, by. By the way, why it feels very slow for you right now is low testosterone. If testosterone's low and you're trying to. To build muscle and get lean again, like, it's. It's going to be a slower process. So. So part of building the metabolism up and building muscle and increasing calories should also boost that. It will boost that testosterone. Whether it puts you in a really good range or just boost it a little bit, it's gonna boost it. Versus if you're in a cut, in a deficit right away and you're low testosterone, it's only gonna Sink it. So the getting your calories up, but.

[Justin Andrews]

You'D have to go off in clomiphene and then be off for a couple months to see if it sticks.

[Caller]

Okay, cool.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Caller]

And you think the. The program I'm on right now, three days a week, full body with some walking.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's. That's great. Yeah, I like that.

[Justin Andrews]

If you're getting stronger, it's working.

[Sal DiStefano]

Are you following maps? Is that anabolic? Is that what you're following? Are you doing your own thing right now?

[Caller]

I'm just doing my own thing. Just kind of winging it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, well, we could. Why don't we. We'll send you maps, anabolic, so you can follow that, which is basically that protocol, but it's already planned out for you so you don't have to think about it. So just follow that. I think it's a great program for. For where you're at. And then I'd love to hear back from you in like, 30, 60 days, just shoot back to me kind of where you're at. And we can assess more of the testosterone stuff, because if. If it doesn't go the way you want, then that's where we can have. Talk about some different options to. To support and help that. And just so you know, you can. You can take synthetic testosterone and you can still keep your. If you still want to try and have another baby, you can still do that. If you get off of it, it doesn't ruin it forever. There's a lot of myths around taking testosterone and how it just, like, ruins your natural testosterone. That's. It's not true. You could. Especially a therapy, therapeutic dose. We're not taking bodybuilders, super physiological doses and. And doing it all wrong. Like, you would do it in a very therapeutic way. And they can. They can manage keeping your natural levels up. Also by taking hcg. I got Katrina pregnant on testosterone, so I had already been taking testosterone for years. We knew we want to get pregnant, so I took HCG with it, and that brought up my normal levels, and we had Max, so totally not a problem.

[Caller]

Okay, good enough.

[Sal DiStefano]

But, yeah, circle back with us, Deck. I'd like to hear back maybe in a month or two after you, where you're at your testosterone, see if we can help you from there.

[Caller]

Perfect. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Awesome.

[Justin Andrews]

Got it, man.

[Sal DiStefano]

I didn't even see the testosterone thing. That makes it even more strong.

[Justin Andrews]

And, you know, this is my experience. In my experience, taking a man around his age from, you know, not exercising, eating poorly, exercising, eating well, testosterone reliably. Not always, but will reliably double.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, it'll go up. I don't. I feel super comfortable.

[Justin Andrews]

Clomophene raises it artificially, so. So that's going to throw off, like, is it working or not? That's why it's go off for a couple months to see if it sticks. It's an interesting approach within Clomiphene.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Why enclofem and not hcg?

[Justin Andrews]

So HCG is more used for boosting fertility. Enclomiphene is. It's like Clomid, but it's a. The, it's the isolated isomer.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. It's what you take when you come off of a cycle.

[Justin Andrews]

So it attaches to the estrogen receptor, tricks your body into thinking you don't have estrogen. So your male body, what happens is it produces more testosterone because that's where we get estrogen from. But I don't know, I find it interesting because I don't know too many people who went on that and went off and then it stayed up. Tends to be up because you're on it. Then you go off, it goes back down from the people I know. But I'm not super familiar with the literature, but, you know, when you combine it with like, lifestyle change, that's the way to go.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. And then addressing kind of the point I made with the £40. You put £40 on. In a, in a relatively short period of time. Like, you're, you're eating like an. You know it. You know what I'm saying? Like, you don't hard. Yeah. You don't need to get crazy change that. You don't need to go radical. So I, without even diving deep. I'm sure he's doing. Was doing a lot of things. I'm saying, I'm drinking, I'm eating out like crazy. I mean, if you're eating like that, out of bounds, like, you just, you just get rid of a couple major offenders, all alcohol gone or something, and then hit my protein tick. And you'll see.

[Justin Andrews]

And lift.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, and lift. And you'll see crazy change just from that. And then we can start adjusting. Like, there's no reason to go into a cut aggressively already. Especially considering he's coming from a guy that sounds like he was pretty, pretty buff. Prejacked before 12 body fat, 220 pounds. Like, you know, he had some muscle on him. So he's got that working in his favor too. To not feed the body enough calories and protein to grow would be a huge mistake.

[Justin Andrews]

Most people do well growing into fat loss.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Gabriel from Texas.

[Justin Andrews]

Gabriel, what's happening?

[Sal DiStefano]

What's going on, man?

[Adam Schafer]

What's up?

[Caller]

Hey, how are you guys doing?

[Justin Andrews]

Good, man. How can we help you?

[Caller]

So I just wanted to say that I. I'm kind of like a newer listener to you guys. I believe I found out about you guys last year when Sal did that podcast with Bradley Martin.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And dude, your testimony was very powerful. Just wanted to throw that out there before I got into my question. I'm kind of like in a newer walk with Christ again myself because I kind of fell off and like, hearing those type of things makes me believe like, okay, yeah, like this is the real deal now.

[Justin Andrews]

Thanks, man. I appreciate that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Very cool.

[Caller]

Yeah, so before I get into my question, I was just going to give a little bit of context. Context. So I started powerlifting in January of 2024, and then I moved to Houston in June of 2024. So I kind of had like a little bit of trouble adjusting to the weather, like, you know, the type of weather change. But so since then, my 1 rep max numbers for squat was 440, my bench was 293, and my deadlift was 480. And that's competing at 82.5kg. So now I'll get into my question. Since I had started powerlifting in January, I had a recent change in my career path. I now work graveyard hours. So I work from 1am to 11am and if I was gonna ask you guys, would I have to prioritize more my meals or more my sleep if I wanted to improve those numbers? Because I know both are like pretty important.

[Justin Andrews]

Sleep. Sleep's gonna hurt you faster. So first off, you're strong, dude.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Great numbers. Yeah, great numbers, dude. And thanks for the encouraging words. So here's what you want to do with your work. Graveyard shift. And it's not a. It gets really hard when somebody works graveyard two days a week and then two days a week they work different hours. But you're consistently graveyard, right?

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. You want to mimic nighttime as much as possible when you get home and you're going to go to sleep. Okay. And you want to mimic daytime at night as much as possible. Okay. To keep you awake for work. So bright lights, that's fine. When you're at work, keep that happening about an hour before you're off. I would put on blue light blocking glasses. Now, depending on your job, you can wear the mild ones that are maybe slightly yellow tinted or maybe clear. Then when you get home, switch to red.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Red, blue light blocking glasses. Get blackout. Your windows, get blackout shades in your room. And make yourself go to sleep like it's nighttime. Then when you wake up, start your day with your meals. But that's going to do because you have to trick your brain into thinking night is day and day is night so that you don't suck. Suffer some of the consequences of sleep.

[Adam Schafer]

It has to really be an aggressive approach to, like, creating that environment. It's. Yeah, because it's, it is such a. You know, this schedule is so tough and it's tough to give advice because it is really like something that's not beneficial long term.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. But when somebody does what I'm saying.

[Adam Schafer]

You, you can make it through.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. And I've seen a lot of the negative effects dissipate, but it's kind of an intentional thing. And then on your wake hours, just be structured with your diet and make sure you get your food intake and your nutrition. This may mean when you're at work that you use. I don't know if this is available to you, if you could bring one or two meals at work with you or if a shake is more convenient. But it's going to require a little bit of planning. But if you do it the way we're saying, I think you'll be okay. Okay.

[Caller]

Yeah. I was just asking because, like, my work is very. I don't want to say unorganized, but, like, there's not a set time that we go to lunch. My typical time is like around 5am that's usually when they'll send us. But if it's busy, they'll send us like closer to 7 or 8am and that was one of the things that I was telling my coach. I, I forgot to mention I do have a coach.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay.

[Caller]

And I told him, like, hey, man, it's hard for me to get meals in because sometimes when they send me at 7am I get off by 11 and it's like, I just ate four hours ago. I'm not hungry anymore.

[Sal DiStefano]

Like.

[Caller]

But on the days that they do send me at my normal time, I am able to kind of get most of my meals in. I just don't know if that affects anything because I know you guys say protein is one of those things that doesn't roll over. So, like, I, I just wanted to see what you guys thought because my coach did tell me the same thing. He was like, dude, you need to prioritize yourself. Sleep way more than anything right now.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep, yep. It's the, it's the, it's the, the largest contributed injury, which is a big deal for powerlifting, is, is poor sleep. So what about a shake or something like that where, you know, you could add the extra protein? You know, when, you know, just go grab it real quick and take it. Are you able to do that at work when you don't have a break?

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Justin Andrews]

There you go. That would help.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so the guys both are talking to you like good coaches and trainers. I'm going to talk to you like you're my boy. And I'd say, bro, this is not the time to try and be a power lifter in your life. Like, yeah, only because. Okay. And I know, because you're good at it, obviously. And so I know how hard it would be to probably tell you that. But if I was your boy looking out for you, I'd say doing something that is redlining, like as far as max reps while also risking good sleep or bad sleep is just you putting yourself in a risk category that is just not ideal, you know, and is like this time of your life. I'm like, man, it's like you're. I don't know if you plan to work this way forever or this is just a period of your life right now. And it's not. It's probably the worst time to also try and become the strongest guy too, or strongest version of you, just risk wise. So I would, I'd be in your ear about that. Like, hey, is this like necessary? We do this right now and you really, really love it. That bad? Because probably not the best way to be training yourself right now.

[Justin Andrews]

Usually I'm the guy that says something like that. But there's more, more. You know, I have more questions. Right? Do you have a wife and kids?

[Caller]

No, sir, I'm single.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. There's always compounding factors.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's okay to destroy yourself.

[Justin Andrews]

No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not okay to destroy yourself. But, but, but you can't. You do have the ability, the time to be much more disciplined and structured.

[Sal DiStefano]

You could be selfish right now.

[Justin Andrews]

So. And you can do that because there's a lot of guys I know who go to bed, you know, they have a normal schedule, but they got three kids, a wife and a job. And that's their compounding factor. So it's just going to require discipline and structure. Now if you're that guy, no kids, no wife, single dude, you work swing shift or night shift, but you also like to go out, you like to do you know, hang out with your buddies and lose sleep, that's going to mess you up. But if you're disciplined and structured and your coach adjusts your programming when you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Need it, that's a really good way.

[Justin Andrews]

I think you're. Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's a really good way to put it, because I'm assuming you're a younger guy and you probably still have a social life, too, because I think that something's got to give here.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so if you are. And I guess that's. If you were my boy, I'd be really questioning that. I'd be like, hey, man, how much do you love this powerlifting? Because if you love it, then, then do it and then. And then sacrifice the other stuff. But I think to do all the things you're doing and then also have somewhat of a social life and do that, you just got to be real disciplined.

[Adam Schafer]

Can you just train without competing? Can you just emulate that and, like, keep building, you know? Because it is. Is really not ideal. Like. Like, I just don't see a lot of, like, forward progress with this type of scheduled environment. It's just really the odds are against you.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, unless your whole life revolves around that. Because to Sal's point, like, yeah, if you. But, I mean, I don't know, young, single guy. Do you still go out with your buddies every once in a while and have drinks and do your thing?

[Justin Andrews]

Or maybe all your buddies are like you, and they're all power lifters, which is that. Which is. Is cool.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that'd be cool.

[Caller]

It's pretty rare that I do go out, only because, like, I'm still new to Texas in general, so I don't know many people there. That's kind of why, like, I decided to do this, because I can dedicate all my time to it and because it's fun. Yeah. Like, in terms of going out, I'll maybe go out like, once or twice a month, usually when it's only my week one or week two. But my friends that I have met over there, they kind of already know, like, okay, he said something about week three, so he's not coming out tonight.

[Justin Andrews]

How old are you?

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, if you're.

[Justin Andrews]

How old are you? How old are you, Gabriel?

[Caller]

Say that again, sir.

[Justin Andrews]

How old are you?

[Caller]

28.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay, listen, one of the best things you could do is just stay focused and disciplined anyways, so I don't think you're missing out by not going out with your buddies all the time. I think focusing on powerlifting, your job, personal growth, I think that's great. I think it's gonna serve you more in the future anyway. So I don't think you're missing out on a ton if you have a social network that you'll hang out with here and there, but you're not, like, you know, hurting yourself. You're not drinking a bunch or whatever. I don't think that's a bad thing. In fact, when you talk to young men like you, the ones that do well are the ones that tend to be disciplined in some area. Otherwise, lack of discipline. We tend to go all over the place. So it's really on. You sound pretty disciplined to me, and I think you can make it work so long as you stay. You plan and you stay structured. But if that's not the case, then, yeah, I mean, Adam's 100, right. You try and do everything and forget it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I agree with that. Like, if you're. If you're all in on this, bro, then you can do it. You absolutely can do it. I just. I don't. I don't know enough. And if I was talking to you as my boy who hangs out with you and drinks every once in a while, probably not a good idea right now, bro. But, hey, if you're. If you're all. All in this, I mean, I like it. I mean, but you do got to get really disciplined. Sleep becomes the number one priority. Nutrition becomes the number two priority, and you build your routine and stuff around that, and so it can be done. It definitely can be done.

[Caller]

Okay. Do I have time for one more quick question? It kind of ties in.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, sure.

[Caller]

So usually my coach tells me not to do, like, heavy accessories on week three and four because we're more pushing, like, those primary lifts.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Is it. Is it bad if some days that I skip them? Because, like, so let's say for an example, on Tuesdays, I have my secondary squat and secondary bench day, but I will skip accessories because I slept throughout the day, and then I have to go to work or go home to get ready for work.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes.

[Caller]

I go at night time. So is that. Is that a bad thing that I skip accessories sometimes?

[Sal DiStefano]

No, no, it's a better way.

[Justin Andrews]

Especially since you're doing the accessories week one, week two. You know what I mean? Mean, now you're getting into the heavier lifting. That's actually what I would tell you to do. Yep.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Caller]

When. Whenever we get into the heavier, like, week three and four, he dials down the volume. He actually listens to you guys. I had asked him at my Very first comp. If he knew about you guys and he was like, oh, yeah, I listen to them a lot. And so, like, when he told me that, I was just like, okay, I, I really trust what this guy is saying. I just really wanted your guys's opinion about the sleep and food as well.

[Sal DiStefano]

You got a good coach.

[Adam Schafer]

He's on point.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah, dude. And I don't know, I get, I, I definitely think you, you give, you, you're giving me the vibe. Like this is something you're serious about.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

That you're a serious young man. You want to do this. So you got the discipline and you, you structure your night. You know, you sleep and all that stuff. Do it. Go for it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Okay, so then you guys say to prioritize the sleep more.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yes.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah. It should really dictate a lot of everything, right? Even like your intensity towards the workout and stuff like that. So that's how you stay. That's how you stay healthy.

[Caller]

Yes, sir. Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I'd love to hear back from you after your meet. Hit us up.

[Justin Andrews]

When's your competition?

[Caller]

I just had one in March, so that was a rookie one. And I'm talking to my coach about finding maybe a local one again sometime in October or November.

[Justin Andrews]

I'd love to hear back from you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Reach back out.

[Sal DiStefano]

Let's know how it goes.

[Caller]

Okay. Appreciate you guys.

[Justin Andrews]

Thanks. Thank you. Yeah, dude, I mean, okay, because you're right, like, typical 28 year old, not very single.

[Sal DiStefano]

28.

[Justin Andrews]

But think about us.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

If and how we were at 28, not saying that we were everything right. But when we were focused on something that would have been like, I'm gonna do this.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And he kind of gives me that, that vibe. And, you know, and so I think you can totally do it. But you do that plus your night shift, plus you're going out and partying, you know, twice a week. Like, no way.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

No way.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Claire from the uk.

[Justin Andrews]

Hello, Claire.

[Sal DiStefano]

How you doing?

[Adam Schafer]

Hello.

[Caller]

Hi, guys. It's such a pleasure to be able to meet you all. I appreciate how much you've changed my training for the better.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, thank you so much. How can we help you?

[Caller]

So currently I'm in a reverse diet trying to gain muscle. But recently I've started to notice an imbalance in my hips. When looking at progress photos. I'm unsure what is causing it, whether it is fat muscle or maybe a hip mobility issue. I do have a hard time growing my quads, so I Do wonder if it could be related. I attached pictures to give a better representation.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay, where do you. Okay, what do you mean a hip imbalance? Like one side? Let me see. I'm looking at the picture here.

[Caller]

Yeah, so like one side's like quite square compared to the other.

[Justin Andrews]

You might be a little over critical. But I will tell you this. If you notice an imbalance in exercise, that's always what we want to pay attention to first. So if you do like one legged exercises or movements and you notice asymmetry, there's an asymmetry or big difference. Addressing that will address the, the development issues that you think you might be seeing. Do you have our program map symmetry? Because that would be the perfect program for you.

[Caller]

So island minute. I'm actually following aesthetic, which is being quite good to be fair. But to be fair, when I've been doing my front squats, I have been noticing like a bit of tightness in my left hip. I've got the imbalance because I don't really tend to do for squats usually.

[Justin Andrews]

I would like to send you symmetry and I'd like you to switch to symmetry.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, go to symmetry.

[Justin Andrews]

You'll get better results.

[Adam Schafer]

Good to do unilateral training for a bit. You'll notice a lot more if there is any kind of difference in discrepancy there.

[Sal DiStefano]

I'd love to go to symmetry and then I'd love for Doug to put you in our private forum and then if you show me videos of you squatting, it'll really help us because if I can see the way you move, move, we can address where the potential imbalances is coming from. It's hard to just tell from a picture. I can kind of see what you're talking about. You are being pretty critical, but I can, I can see what you're talking about, but it's hard to tell if it's, you know, due to over development, lighting and inflammation. Like it could be a host of different things. And so seeing you squat and move will really help us get to the bottom of, of what could be potentially going on. Do when you do like, do you ever do 90 90s for hip mobility? Have you done those before?

[Caller]

Yeah. So before bed, in the nighttime, like I always stretch.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Yeah. So when you do 90 90s, can you lift your back foot off the ground and do you notice a difference between left and right?

[Caller]

I'm trying to think.

[Sal DiStefano]

I do.

[Caller]

I think I've actually like taken my feet off the ground before, but I certainly, when I'm stretching Like, my left leg in front, like, it does feel tighter.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay, so. So do. So there's a video on YouTube, on our mind pump YouTube, where I do 90 90s, and I show the progressions of it. So if you can. Look, I don't know if Doug or Dylan can send that over to you, but I'll have them send that to you and watch the video. And then what I want you to do is to do those 9090s and try and lift your back foot up. What that will do is you're. If there is a discrepancy. Right. And an imbalance, one of them, you'll be able to lift up a lot further than the other one, and then that'll tell us something about that hip. Right. Or the opposite.

[Justin Andrews]

So also, I do want to say this, because how long have you been strength training in doing this?

[Caller]

I've been strength training for about 10 years. I know I probably look younger than what I actually am. Yeah. But I've just started aesthetic. Like, I'm in phase one currently still, so.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. Yeah, you do look a lot younger than that. When did you start lifting weights? At 10. But when you're no body, there is no body that's perfectly symmetrical. And sometimes the trap we get into oftentimes is we take a picture of ourselves and we look at ourselves, and we study our bodies, and we focus so much on any. What we could perceive to be impressed. Imperfections. And I want to communicate this to you because if this mindset or this challenge will never go away until you stop studying yourself. So. And the best way to do that, in my opinion, because I could tell you not to do something, but that's. I need to tell you to do something instead, is focus on your performance and how you feel. It's a great. It's a great way to take you off that direction. Otherwise, I'm gonna tell you this right now. You can strength train for the rest of your life. And if you study your body, you will always, always, always find areas that need this or that or that's not perfect or whatever. And then fitness is not really improving the quality of your life. It's becoming a problem.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know why Sal's saying this, right? You already have an incredible physique, so it's. It is very balanced, very symmetrical. You've got a great physique already. And so we're definitely nitpicking right now for sure. So. But I'm more interested in the feeling different or pain or any of that like that. So that's what I want to get to the bottom of that as far as the way you look. You look amazing, and you're doing great, and you've done great. Obviously, I think you have a very balanced physique. You look like you could compete, so I'm not critical of that. I'm very curious to. Do you notice impingement or pain or anything? Discomfort. And that's why I want to see your squat, because then I can help break that down and get to the bottom of that and. And symmetry is the right program.

[Justin Andrews]

Symmetry. You'll get great results. A period, end of story from symmetry.

[Sal DiStefano]

So we'll send symmetry over. I'll have Doug put you in the private forum, and then if you get a chance, I'd love for you to shoot a video of you squatting. Give me a good view. Front, side, back. You know, just put. Prop your phone up and, you know, do five. Five reps on each side. Right. Five from the side, five from the front, five from the back. That'll really. And then tag us in the forum, and then we can take a look at your movement it. And then get to the bottom of what. What potentially could be going on.

[Caller]

That's perfect. Thank you. I was just wondering as well, just out of curiosity, like, when should I actually, like, cut down from a reverse diet?

[Sal DiStefano]

When you get to the point, like.

[Caller]

I'm kind of stuck at the moment.

[Justin Andrews]

When you get to the point where you feel like you're just eating a lot of food and you feel strong and you feel good, you're like, okay, I don't.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't.

[Justin Andrews]

I don't think I want to eat anymore. Then that typically is a good place to start.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. How many calories you at right now?

[Caller]

Two. 200.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

How tall are you?

[Caller]

Five, six. Like, five foot six?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Oh, you're tall.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. I would. I'd keep going.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I'd probably get you up to 26.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

27. And then do a cut.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Yep. Yep.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Sal DiStefano]

If you.

[Justin Andrews]

Thank you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Once we put you in the forum, you can communicate with us in there. So we're gonna have Doug put you into our private forum, and then as you're going through this process, you can just ask questions and tag us in there. We'll help you out.

[Caller]

Oh, that's perfect. Thank you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

You got it.

[Sal DiStefano]

All right, we'll see you in there.

[Caller]

Thank you. See you.

[Justin Andrews]

Bye.

[Sal DiStefano]

Bye.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, just the. The overly critical Adam is saying, and I want listeners to really pay attention to this. This asymmetries from a performance and pain perspective are important to pay attention to. Asymmetries from you studying your body typically are not. Now there are asymmetries that are massive. These are the ones you go to the doctor like what is happening to my arm or whatever. But the ones, I mean, I could study anybody and I could point out imperfections because what's the ideal? It's an ideal that's unachievable and you want to get out of that trap. Otherwise fitness becomes this, this, this tyranny and it's terrible.

[Adam Schafer]

We don't move completely balanced and so therefore, you know, it's just never going to equate to that.

[Justin Andrews]

No.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, no. No normal person would look at her and go think that she has any imbalances. The average person would go, oh my gosh, she's incredible shape. Right? So yeah, I mean, but the things I'm listening to is the, the hip pain discomfort. Like you notice that or you notice when you do front squats, something's off. Like okay, let's get to the bottom of that. That's, that's important. That's a, that's could be a movement issue that we can fix. And so I am interested and curious about that. As far as how critical she is of how she looks, I think, I think she's beyond good right now. And this is her in a reverse diet too. This is not even her leaned out so she leans out. She's a little crazy. She can compete with a physique like that.

[Justin Andrews]

If you like Mind Pump, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mindpump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump. DiStefano Adams at Mind Pump Out.

[Doug]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to be build and shape your body dramatically, improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes Maps, Anabolic Maps, Performance and Maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, 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 like. Love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump. To your friends and family, we thank.

[Justin Andrews]

You for your support.

[Doug]

And until next time, this is Mind Pump.