2635: Secrets From a Top Trainer With Jordan Syatt

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
Episode: 2635: Secrets From a Top Trainer With Jordan Syatt
Release Date: July 7, 2025
Host/Author: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews
Producer: Doug Egge

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Introduction

In Episode 2635 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, hosts Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews engage in an insightful conversation with Sal Di Stefano himself, delving deep into his experiences as a top fitness trainer. The discussion spans various facets of the fitness industry, content creation, public health policies, and the intricate balance between professional life and family.

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The Evolution of the Online Coaching Industry

[02:31] Adam Schaefer:
"You're one of the most successful, if not the most successful coach that I know."

Sal reflects on the rapid growth of the online coaching industry since 2019, noting how its expansion has introduced both genuine trainers and less credible entities promoting "get rich quick" schemes. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining integrity in coaching, stating:

[04:13] Sal Di Stefano:
"Anytime there's a place for someone to make money, like the industry around selling coaches on how to get rich quick, you're getting a lot of horseshit."

Sal criticizes the influx of coaches motivated solely by financial gain, highlighting the detrimental impact on the industry's reputation and the importance of prioritizing client welfare over profits.

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Creating Content for Kids: The Birth of Coach J

One of the standout segments of the episode revolves around Sal's initiative to create fitness content tailored for children. Motivated by the lack of quality workout videos for kids, Sal launched Coach J, aiming to inspire young minds and promote healthy habits from an early age.

[07:51] Sal Di Stefano:
"Anytime someone tells me they just want to start off as an online coach because it's going to make more money, it's just like, that's fucking stupid."

Sal elaborates on the unexpected success of Coach J, mentioning how it's not only engaging children aged 2 to 12 but also inadvertently reaching adults seeking accessible workout routines.

[09:24] Sal Di Stefano:
"It's my most shared content right now. Like, Coach J is my most shared content."

He shares anecdotes of parents appreciating the content, with some even requesting personalized videos for their children, further cementing Coach J's value in the digital fitness space.

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Public Health Policies and the Future of Fitness

The conversation shifts to broader public health initiatives and their implications for the fitness industry. Sal expresses cautious optimism about increased government focus on health but remains skeptical about the effectiveness and intentions behind certain policies.

[18:07] Sal Di Stefano:
"I don't trust government, period. Like, I just don't."

He critiques the performative aspects of public health campaigns, using the example of RFK Jr.'s actions as not aligning with true public health goals. Despite this, Sal underscores the importance of grassroots efforts, especially initiatives targeting children, as foundational for long-term health improvements.

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Faith, Family, and Purpose

A personal highlight of the episode is Sal's discussion on faith and its profound impact on his life and career. As a devout Jew, his faith provides a cornerstone for his sense of purpose and direction.

[31:12] Sal Di Stefano:
"In Judaism, a major theme is bringing God's light to this earth."

Sal shares how becoming a father deepened his spiritual commitment, emphasizing the importance of integrating faith into all aspects of life, including his professional endeavors. This integration ensures that his work remains purposeful and aligned with his core values.

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Balancing Parenting and a Demanding Career

Sal offers candid insights into balancing a thriving fitness career with parenting responsibilities. He discusses the sacrifices made, such as sacrificing sleep to ensure he never misses putting his daughters to bed, and the strategies employed to maintain this balance.

[44:10] Adam Schaefer:
"So that means no work. And like, what are the rules on that?"

[44:15] Sal Di Stefano:
"The main thing is like, I'm just going to take time off of work."

Sal highlights the importance of setting strict boundaries, notably during Shabbat, to prioritize family time and maintain a healthy work-life balance. This commitment underscores his dedication to both his family and his professional obligations.

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Training Philosophy: Emphasizing Mobility and Flexibility

Sal delves into his current training focus on mobility and flexibility, challenging traditional notions that equate stretching with weakness. He advocates for loaded stretching and Flexible Body Training (FBT) as powerful tools for enhancing both strength and flexibility.

[50:55] Sal Di Stefano:
"It's strength training and greater ranges of motion."

He explains his training regimen, which includes intensive flexibility sessions combined with strength training to achieve impressive feats like the front splits. Sal emphasizes that true flexibility stems from strengthening the muscles through extended ranges of motion, debunking myths that stretching inherently weakens muscles.

[55:00] Adam Schaefer:
"If you tore the muscle off your body and threw it on the floor, it would have maximum flexibility because there's nothing telling it to tighten up."

This holistic approach not only enhances physical capabilities but also contributes to injury prevention and overall athletic performance.

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Nutrition Advice: The "Don't Eat Like an Asshole" Principle

Concluding the discussion, Sal offers straightforward nutrition advice aimed at the average person striving for better health.

[64:33] Sal Di Stefano:
"I'm going to specify I'm only talking to the majority of America... don't eat like an asshole."

He advocates for moderation and self-awareness in eating habits, encouraging listeners to make healthier choices without falling into the trap of extreme dieting or shame-driven behaviors. This principle fosters a sustainable and positive relationship with food, crucial for long-term health and fitness success.

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Conclusion

Episode 2635 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth provides a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted world of fitness training, content creation, and personal growth. Through Sal Di Stefano's experiences and insights, listeners gain valuable perspectives on maintaining integrity in the coaching industry, the importance of early fitness education for children, and effective strategies for balancing professional and personal life. The episode serves as both an inspirational and practical guide for fitness enthusiasts and professionals alike.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Adam Schaefer [02:31]:
  "You're one of the most successful, if not the most successful coach that I know."

• Sal Di Stefano [04:13]:
  "Anytime there's a place for someone to make money, like the industry around selling coaches on how to get rich quick, you're getting a lot of horseshit."

• Sal Di Stefano [07:51]:
  "Anytime someone tells me they just want to start off as an online coach because it's going to make more money, it's just like, that's fucking stupid."

• Sal Di Stefano [18:07]:
  "I don't trust government, period. Like, I just don't."

• Sal Di Stefano [31:12]:
  "In Judaism, a major theme is bringing God's light to this earth."

• Sal Di Stefano [50:55]:
  "It's strength training and greater ranges of motion."

• Sal Di Stefano [64:33]:
  "Don't eat like an asshole."

---

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights shared during the episode, providing value to both regular listeners and newcomers seeking to understand the nuances of the fitness industry.

Transcript

[Sal Destefano]

If you want to pump your body 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

Most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today we have World Class Trainer, one of the best personal trainers in the world. Jordan Syed on the podcast. Great conversation about training clients, building your business, trainers. You won't want to miss this. By the way, you can find them on Instagram. Hyatt Fitness. That's at S Y A T T F I T N E S S. It's pretty awesome. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor, element. This is an electrolyte powder you add to your water. It's got the right amount of sodium to make a difference. And there's no sugar, no artificial sweeteners. It's all natural. Go check them out. Go to drinklement.com mind pump on that link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular free flavors with any purchase. We also have a sale this month, Maps split in the Anabolic Metabolism bundle of programs. All of that is 50% off. Head over to maps fitnessproducts.com and then use the code july50 for the discount. Here comes the show. Jordan, welcome back to the show.

[Sal Destefano]

Thanks for having me, boys. It was a great seminar.

[Justin Andrews]

You just got. Yeah. Good day.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah. That was a good time, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

Hanging out with a bunch of new trainers, potential trainers.

[Adam Schaefer]

I love talking to that group, you know.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And you. It looks like you do, too.

[Sal Destefano]

It's. Yeah. I think it's my favorite, like, because I was there not long ago. And it's cool, like, because I remember sitting in crowds of other coaches and looking up at coaches who I admired and being like, one day I want to be there. So it's really cool to see that young, hungry crowd of coaches. And like I was saying, you know, it's there. This is a very saturated industry with people who call themselves coaches. Yeah. But it's very unsaturated in terms of people who want to be really good and great coaches. So for the people who make time out of their day or out of their weekend to spend time and money to come to a place like this to get educated, it says a lot and it's really great for our industry.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Yeah. You're. You're one of the most successful, if not the most successful coach that I know. Coach both online, in person. I don't know if you do in person anymore, but I Think it's mostly online now. And since we first met you now it's been, it's been a little while, I think 2019, the growth of the online coaching, coaching industry. So these are, these are people who teach coaches how to build their business. And here's. That's exploded along with that has come a lot of, you know, funny business. I need to say that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

How do you feel about that? Because I've never seen coaching or personal training being pitched as a fast way to make money until relatively recently. Now it's like this get quick rich scheme, which is interesting because it's fitness. It's like there's way better ways to make a lot of money. So what do you, how do you feel about all that? Because a lot of the stuff they say just, I mean, it's like nails on a chalkboard for me.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I mean it's very recently that being a personal trainer became like a lucrative, it could be a lucrative career. I mean, my whole family still that my mom is always, still waiting for.

[Justin Andrews]

You to get a real job.

[Sal Destefano]

100%. My mom is still very much just like, you can always go back to school to be a doctor. Like just very Jewish mom, like, be a doctor, be a lawyer. Actually, you know, the thing that actually made my family as a whole more like, oh, wow, maybe this is legit, is when I published a book. Publishing a book because they're doctors, there's lawyer, there's their professors. And so a lot of them. So for them to have a published book, that's success in their eyes, not like helping people and like having people who've like, you've improved their lives. It's like, oh, you've published a book. Okay, successful. It's like, motherfucker. And I don't even, you know, it's, I don't even push the book. It's like it's, it's not even the most, not even close to the most important thing. But listen, it's. Anytime there's a place for someone to make money, like the industry around selling coaches on how to get rich quick, you're getting a lot of horseshit. So we see people pushing passive income models and scaling your business and the easy way outs. And so that's when people see other coaches who are presumably doing well and they're like, oh, I could do that, I want to do that. And they get into the industry not because they want to help people, but because they think it's easy to make money. And that's when we end up Getting a really good name in the industry.

[Justin Andrews]

It's such a. It's such a hard profession to expect to try and make a lot of money. I mean, you could make the argument that almost any profession is like that, but I feel like if you understand finances or day trading or things like that, you could get in there and start making money relatively quick if you did the work. But training is not like that. Like, you have to train. You could. You can have all the education, you can have all the national certs, you can have all the degrees, but if you still haven't got in front of people, you're still not going to be a very good coach and trainer until you learn how to communicate and help every day, everyday, average people. It's hard. And that just takes years. It takes a long time of failing and not doing so.

[Sal Destefano]

It's.

[Justin Andrews]

It's interesting that we are in this time where you. There it is being sold to trainers that you can make all this money really quick. It's like it was. Was not really quick for me.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what happened to me. I was Easter, had my whole family. So extended family, like a family room. It was like 150 people. And my cousin, my generation, her son, who's 16, listens to the show. So she's like, my son wants to meet you. He's a huge fan. And I've met this kid just like a few times when he was little, so I don't know him very well. So he comes up, he's super nervous. He starts talking to me and he's like, I want to be an online coach. I'm like, oh, really? How come? He goes, you can make a lot of money. I'm like, oh, my God, what happened?

[Justin Andrews]

Who told you that?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. And he's like, so how do I get started? I'm like, well, first of all, I said, you should probably train people in person first. I think that's a great idea. And he's like, well, I watched so and so. And he says, you could just go online. And I know who he's talking about. It's the guy that show, you know, it's one of those guys that's like, I'm gonna have a private jet and I got this new car. I'm like, no, dude, that's not, that's not how it works. How do you communicate that to coaches that you talk to? Because there is this impression that I like fitness. So therefore I'm going to become a virtual trainer without ever Training anybody in person.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I mean, listen, you just saw me speak to a group of people. I try. I'm pretty blunt. I'm pretty blunt about it. In the same way, with my fitness content, like, I don't see much value in beating around the bush. And I feel like you're gonna get people who are more aligned with you and you just are honest and straightforward about it. So in the same way, when I'm working with someone in fitness, I'm not gonna lie to them and be like, yeah, you'll never be hungry in a calorie deficit. I mean, yeah, you'll get, it's, you're gonna get hungry and like, this is normal and it's gonna be difficult. Same thing with fitness coaches. You weed people out as soon as you say, like, hey, this is gonna be tough. And by the way, I'll say from the very beginning, if your main goal is to make money, I don't want to work with you. If that's your main, like, your main goal should be, I want to help people, that should be your main goal. And like, making money is not a bad thing at all. And I think the more you help people, the more money you're probably going to make. But if your main goal is making money, odds are, number one, you're not going to make it past the first year or two, tops. Because, like, the first year or two, you're not going to make much money, if at all. And then you end up doing stupid shit that isn't actually going to help people, which then further secures that you're not going to do well. The best way to build a business is especially fitness business, in person, becoming a great coach, helping people, getting referrals. That is how you start off at the great, great online or personal training business, which then often the people who are in person will become your first online coaching clients. And then you know them, you better understand them. Their family members, their friends, their colleagues will become online coaching clients. But, and I think I've said this on the podcast before, and I know you guys agree, being an in person coach will make you a better online coach, but being an online coach will not make you a better in person. So it's, listen, anytime someone tells me they just want to start off as an online coach because it's going to make more money, it's just like, that's fucking stupid. And I'll just tell them right to.

[Adam Schaefer]

Their face what's, what's motivated you. Recently, you've created a lot of content for children Yeah, I know. You're a dad. Is that what motivated you? Was it just becoming a dad and.

[Sal Destefano]

You'Re like, it was becoming a dad and then realizing there's not any good content for kids, for work, like, because nothing. So I'm not the no screen family. I know there are some families who are like, my kids are never gonna look at a screen. I'm like, well, eventually they're gonna fucking look at a screen. So like, I laris. It's more just about moderation. Like, we go outside, we go hiking, we play, and then occasionally you can use the screen. And when she was looking at the screen, my oldest daughter, I was like, you know what? Let's. I wanted to. It started. Cause I wanted to find dance classes for my daughter online. And they have like, these, like, there's this one woman who, with her daughter, they do like, ballet classes on YouTube. And I was shocked at how bad it was. The audio quality was terrible, the structure was terrible. And my daughter actually really enjoyed it, though. I was like. So then I started, I wonder if there's fitness stuff. I started looking and there's none. There was just no good fitness stuff for kids. So I spoke to my videographer. I was like, we're gonna do this now. I was like, once a week, every week for six months, we're gonna make a new kids video just to see how it goes. And it has gone super well. It's gone. Yeah, it's gone great. I mean, there's a lot of room for growth, but, like, I'm getting video. It's my most shared content right now. Like, Coach J is my most shared content. Like, when people are tagging you and stuff. That's the one I'm getting tagged in most is my people showing their kids doing my kids workouts, which is just fucking awful.

[Justin Andrews]

So cool.

[Jordan Syed]

I have to. I have to have you tell, like, the unintended sort of person that's using that content as well. You told me that, you know, this is obviously geared towards kids. It's fun, it's engaging, it's entertaining. But then you found another demographic that actually was surprisingly using it.

[Sal Destefano]

People in their 30s and 40s who have never worked out in their life, who are like, I didn't know where to start and I don't have any equipment. So I started doing your kids workouts.

[Justin Andrews]

Really?

[Sal Destefano]

Which are, by the way, like. Like dinosaur workouts or safari workouts. And they're literally DMing me being like, and it's fun and like, I get a laugh and a kick out of it. But they're 10 minute workouts and so they'll do three or four in a row. It's like they're doing 30 or 40 minutes of these workouts. Like by the time, by the end of one, I'm tired. It's tough. But it's also foundational movements and it's teaching. And so like these 30 or 40 year olds are getting legit workouts in.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And also another really cool benefit. Cause in my mind, I made them for between 2 and 12 year olds, which is a pretty significant age range. But then I've gotten people like, hey, my son is 16, he's like severely autistic and he loves your workouts. It's been very cool to see different age groups, different demographics who like otherwise aren't moving very much, are like now for almost an hour, moving non stop, which is really, really cool.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. So step the audience through how you test a theory like this. Right. I think this is so valuable. A lot of people get like paralysis by analysis. Right. They're think they, they're going to start this kids channel or an idea and they have this huge grand idea and they spend months trying to plan it. It's like you came across, oh, there's nothing out there for this. I want to make it. How did you test that hypothesis? What did that like that step by step you realized it and then the next day were you shooting your next video and what did it look like and how did you like step me through what that process looked like?

[Sal Destefano]

So I will say I have a videographer. If I didn't have a videographer, I still would have done it. I just would have shot it on my own camera and then I would have uploaded it and it wouldn't have been as well produced and as good, but it would have been fine. Like I still think it would have been. I mean, you guys saw my first YouTube videos today. They sucked and it turned out fine. It builds up over time. And especially when you find something where there's white space where no one's done it, that's when you've got to go fast. And so I found this white space in which no one was making good workout videos for kids. I was like, great. Like, this is it. So I was like, I want to jump on it. I called my videographer and we already filmed every week anyway. And I was like, so now we're going to add this to it. And I was like, we're going to do it at least for six months, every single week. Because you need time, like you need time for it to build up. And usually I like to say a year, but right now I'm losing money hand over fist on this project. I'm spending thousands of dollars every month creating these videos and I'm not making any money directly from it. There are parents who are watching who will then join my inner circle as a result of it because the parents are getting involved in the workouts and they're seeing me more, so I'm becoming more of a household name and. But in terms of like, I'm not doing any ads or sponsorships or they're not like going. There are a couple of videos have done like very well for a very small channel. But like they're not going viral or anything. It's. I'm losing money hand over fist every single week with these. But it's one of those things. It's like, it's a long term investment. Yeah. I'm going to do this for a long time and hopefully within three to five years they'll pick up.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

What's the now making? Because you've been making content for adults for a long time, getting their attention, communicating value, you know, giving them things that they can apply. All important skills you've learned over time. How to make a video effective. How big of a difference is it for kids videos? Like, that's got to be so up, so different. Like, did you just watch other kids videos and go, okay, I'm gonna make fitness ones that look like this. Like, what was that like?

[Sal Destefano]

No, because there were no kids videos that were for fitness that existed that were good at all. So I really, I just made it up. And like, I, I love, like, I love my kids and like, I'm pretty good with kids, so I just wanted to make it fun and exciting. So literally every video starts me like, what's up kids? I'm Coach J. And today we're gonna do an under the sea workout. So we're gonna be doing shark fin slaps and whatever and like that's how it starts. Then we jump right into the workout and I'll like be communicating with them throughout the whole time being like, what's your favorite fruit? Mine is kiwi. Tell me, let me know. And then I'll like wait for a second and be like, oh, that's a great fruit. And then like, as though I could hear what they said. But it's, it's, it's just trial and error. I can already, I've done, I don't know, maybe 20 plus videos already. What have you learned so far, man? I've learned a lot, but I would say it's. For me, it's. It's just about keep. I'll. I'll tell you this. This is what I've learned. So the most common, aside from people tagging me with in the videos, their kids doing it. A lot of parents ask me to send videos to their kid and I do it every time. Oh, that's cool. They're like, I'll pay, you know, you don't need to pay me.

[Justin Andrews]

That's almost like, what's the cameo? Cameo?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. I've asked literally people like, hey, do you do cameo that my kids want a video from Coach J? No, no, I'm happy to do it. So oftentimes I'll screenshot them. Yeah, I'll wait until I'm in my Coach J dress up and I'll have the headband or the wristbands on or whatever. And then that's how you build your cult following.

[Justin Andrews]

It's equivalent to what you were teaching the trainers out there. Right. You the trainer that complains about his engagement, this and that, and then emoji, thumbs up. It's just like, you actually have parents that want you to make videos for the kids because they love that much. It's like, do it. You have the. They'll come a time when you won't be able to. Just a fact. Right. If that channel blows up to be, you know, Blippi size.

[Sal Destefano]

Exactly.

[Justin Andrews]

You will not be able to do that. But while you can, like 100, like, you got to do that. So.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah, it's great. I mean, these kids, they, they go nuts, like, awesome.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, I was just gonna ask you, is a two and a half year old, eight month old, correct?

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

Just wait till like a little five year old says something mean to you. You'll see how you.

[Adam Schaefer]

You suck.

[Sal Destefano]

YouTube kids.

[Justin Andrews]

You have big ears, Jordan. Weird eyebrows.

[Sal Destefano]

No comments on YouTube kids.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, there's no comments on YouTube kids.

[Sal Destefano]

It's great.

[Justin Andrews]

That's good.

[Sal Destefano]

Which is actually really great.

[Adam Schaefer]

Schoolyard. Like, they're bald.

[Jordan Syed]

How does that work in terms of like advertisement and all that? If you're going through like the kids channel.

[Sal Destefano]

So I use my email list and I use my, my main, like Instagram account. Every time I post it, I'm like, I'm sharing it. I'm like, hey, go, like, please. And I'm listen, it would mean the world to me if you would share this. It would help. And like, it's starting to reach people who don't follow me on my regular fitness page. Like, people who are just finding it. Yeah, it's really, really cool. It's. But it's now it's over six months in, and, like, it's now it's just starting.

[Justin Andrews]

And so are you more excited about. More or less excited? Because you're also, you know, last time we talked, you, you're, you've been really building, like, us to kind of the trainer side. Like, you guys have mentor trainers. You have that. I would imagine those are two major focuses right now for you. Does one excite you more than the other? How do you feel about each other?

[Sal Destefano]

I think it's pretty equal in terms because you really get an opportunity to reach more than just the one person you're helping. So when you help coaches, it's great because then you essentially directly help every single client that they work with. For me, I love the kids stuff because especially right now, like, in everything we're seeing with. With Maha, right, we're seeing a huge focus on public health, and there's a lot of resistance from both. Like, there's a lot of resistance, and there's politics and da, da, da, da, da. I love being able to directly impact the kids. I love to directly get these kids, getting them understanding how great it is to feel strong, to eat more protein, more fruits and vegetables. Like, that for me, is amazing. Because if we could talk all the politics that we want, all the policy that we want, it's like, for me, it starts with the kids, and if the kids are focused on it, then the parents are more. Like, if you have your kid being like, hey, I want to do a Coach J workout. It's like, parents are gonna be like, okay, then I'll do it with you. And in the videos, I'm like, if your grownups are sitting there, get them to stand up and get them to do that. And especially if I'm doing, like, some type of a stretch or something, like, for, like, something for their low back, like a scorpion. I'll be like, your grownup needs this. Get them on the ground right now with you. Oh, cool. And so I'll speak to them throughout these videos to get the grownups involved as well. But I, I. If we're really being honest about how we can improve public health, I think it does start with the kids.

[Adam Schaefer]

Sure.

[Sal Destefano]

Absolutely. So that's. That is something that I'm super excited about.

[Adam Schaefer]

How do you feel about? Because there is a lot of awareness, more so than I can remember. In terms of health, with public policy, and they are tackling things differently than we have in the past. I'm never optimistic when it comes to government policy health, however, I'm more optimistic than I have been before just because of the focus. What do you think about some of the stuff they're saying? I know some of the direction they're going is like, well, I don't know if that's gonna make a difference, but what do you think?

[Sal Destefano]

There's a lot of nuance to it, right? On one hand, I love that health is at the forefront of the discussion. That's great. I love that. Like you were saying, I think that they're focusing on stuff that is like. So I think a lot of it is publicity and performative as opposed to, like, hey, how much is this really gonna help? Like, for example, RFK Jr going to the burger place now. This is in beef tallow. Instead, I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, really? That's so that, to me, seemed performative. And early on, like, I really was the reason I was most hopeful about RFK Jr. Because he was the only politician that I've heard that was really striving for unity, to bridge the gap across the aisle because there's so much divisiveness politically in this country. And he was the only one who was really like, I don't want to talk shit about this side. I don't want to talk shit about that side. I just want us to come together as a country. And I was like, fuck, yeah. Like, that's what I want. I'm tired of this just divisive rhetoric, propaganda nonsense. And I don't agree with a lot of what he's doing in terms of, like, the order of events. Like, realistically, I think if we're going to talk about what we need to do as a society and as from a policy perspective, incentives we can create for people to get exercising and focusing on their health. More seed oils would not be number one on that list at all. Nor would food dyes. Now, am I mad that they're potentially getting rid of these things? No, I think it's very cool to talk about it. But imagine, like, a client comes to you. Yeah. And like, hey, I need to lose weight.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm obese. Oh, get rid of your seed oils and your food dyes.

[Sal Destefano]

Pre diabetic. I'm like, how many food dyes are you eating? You know, it's like, come on, that's not what you do with your client. So on a larger Scale. I don't think it makes sense as like anywhere near the first thing. And I think that they're realizing, okay, public opinion is really supporting this, so let's go after this. Rather than what does public health actually need?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Jordan Syed]

Do you think there's strategy to that though, in terms of attacking some things that you can legally with big business and sort of steering, I guess, I guess big business first and then having that sort of affect the public as a result and then kind of working on the bigger things as he goes. Or do you think it's just like, yeah, what's popular right now in public opinion?

[Sal Destefano]

I'm going to give you a really pessimistic answer. Unfortunately. Yeah, I don't think that anyone in very high level government is gonna be necessarily going after the most important things unless it makes sense for their political party. I think political party reelection power, of course, is always gonna be number one. And so public opinion will dictate their decisions. Not necessarily. This is what's best. And I think this is both sides of the aisle. So the very like, I don't trust government, period. Like, I just don't. And I think.

[Justin Andrews]

But don't you think that. Yeah, maybe that's why he's not touching.

[Jordan Syed]

Against the big rocks, because there's a.

[Justin Andrews]

Lot of red tape there.

[Sal Destefano]

I don't think that we should have career politicians. I think it's a major fucking problem. And when I'm looking at how the government operates and how like how lobbying works and how much money is behind the scenes, I think putting your trust in the government regardless of the side is a really fucking bad idea. And they're like, yeah, so I mean, I don't think that they're putting public health first. I think they're putting what is popular right now to get us more, more votes. And so. Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Unfortunately, my biggest hope.

[Jordan Syed]

I don't disagree.

[Adam Schaefer]

One of my biggest hopes isn't, I mean, and this is just to go to how the low the bar is. I think that the food industry with processed foods, I think that's a big part of the problem. Just the way they've engineered the foods and they make, they make people overeat. And, and that's a, that's a big piece of the puzzle, I'd say. And I don't, I've never seen an effective way to tackle that because it's so big and powerful and it's like there's so many problems associated with trying to even tackle that until GLP1s.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And now for the first time in a long time we're seeing the sale of. Of processed foods drop. Yeah. Because the other evil giant now is competing with them, fighting each other. Because you're big pharma versus big food.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is crazy for me. You know, it reminds me of. I was a kid, I was a fan of like those monster movies with like Godzilla versus, like monster. Yeah. And it's. They're both like destroying the city.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But I get to see the two monsters fight.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I'm like seeing GLP1s affect heavily processed food companies, but now heavily food processed heavily. It needs to be a meme like that. Yeah. Like what's happening between. It's got interest. It's kind of interesting.

[Sal Destefano]

Right. It's historic. Yeah. And especially now with. With GLP1s becoming more and more mainstream and more people using them and it's like, this is a wild time. And I like, this will be in history books and everything we're going through right now. I think it's gonna be. I do think. I'm sure you've seen that the food companies are now trying to figure out ways to bypass. Like, it's fucking crazy. It's crazy what we're living through. It's really extraordinary.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is a cultural. I think there's a cultural moment. I think it's similar. It's akin to the birth control pill or, or the introduction of antibiotics. I think we're gonna. We're gonna. It's gonna be Pre and post GLP1.

[Justin Andrews]

You know what, though, is crazy to your point.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

About that? Because I think that's so fascinating. I think, you know what's even more crazy or fascinating to me about that point is that the, the public will be aware that these processed foods will come up with some sort of a chemical or something that is engineered that makes it bypass that GLP1 and you. And we will just eat it.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, knowingly that they're like, hey, we figured out how to hack this GLP1 and we're going to put it in your Ho Hos and you're going to go eat those Ho ho. Still, like that is. It is wild because.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because we like the way they make us.

[Justin Andrews]

I know, but that's. It's. We're going to willingly do that. Like, okay, we found this great intervention that helps me not do that and then yet we will turn around and still do.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's not. That's. That's nothing, dude. We talk to Dr. Mike Israel recently and he talked about this generation of drugs that are coming up because of the popularity of GLP1s. And this generation of drugs is designed to make you will help preserve muscle. It's one of the side effects of cutting your calories so low. By the way, everybody, it's not the GLP one making you lose muscle. The fact that you're not eating anything are these myostatin blocking and other types of drugs which will basically make anabolic steroids look like Flintstone vitamins. So we're gonna have a whole class of drugs that'll build muscle like we've never seen before come up as well.

[Sal Destefano]

That's crazy wild.

[Adam Schaefer]

We're in a weird time with all of this. Which begs the question, are trainers and coaches going to be obsolete when you have medical interventions that, that are going to solve some of these issues?

[Sal Destefano]

Man, before you said that part about drugs that like build and maintain muscle. I would have said absolutely not. Because now, and I was talking about this earlier today, it's like more people now are going to want to go to the gym. They're like a lot of people. One of the reasons people wouldn't go to the gym before is they were not confident in how they looked. They insecure. And now people are losing weight on GLP1s and I'm getting more and more people being like, what do I do in the gym? How do I. I want to get trained.

[Adam Schaefer]

I think the odds of someone going to GLP1 and wanting a coach is higher than someone not 100%. They're more likely to want to hire a trainer.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, completely agree. So from that perspective, I think we have a massive opportunity. The question is if, now, if there are going to be drugs that build muscle that well, now you've got another fucking problem.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, let me ask you this. So because you're also, I mean, you're a great coach, also an exceptional athlete. Okay, cool. You built a lot of muscle. Can you move, create a better function?

[Sal Destefano]

Correct.

[Adam Schaefer]

Do you still have better mobility or are you just more muscular?

[Sal Destefano]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I don't think. I think what's going to happen is you're going to get. I'll paint a scenario for you. Mrs. Johnson down the street goes into GLP1, myostatin inhibitor, loses weight, gets leaner, builds muscle. Then she hires a coach because she feels strong and feels good so she can move well and be able to express all this new muscle.

[Jordan Syed]

All I can think is the potential for injury.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Jordan Syed]

Accelerated amount of muscle that you can build and then, you know, you don't have that kind of maturity in that muscle.

[Sal Destefano]

But then you have drugs that could take away pain. So it's like, I might not move well, but I don't feel it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Pain is a good signal. It's a limiter and it's supposed to be there.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, let me ask you this too, Jordan. Although I do think that, I think trainers and coaches, the value of them is going to, is going to continue to grow even with more of these interventions. But let me ask you a question that you can communicate to our audience. Of all of the values that you've gotten through your own personal fitness journey, aside from being fit and healthy, are there any of the values you've gotten from the struggle and the challenge and the growth and the learning and the process and the discipline?

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, I, I don't even know if there's a, a way to articulate it fully. Like it's changed my life in so many ways. What I would say and sort of cutting back for a second. It's like, let's just say we have like we have GLP ones help people lose weight. We have different things that'll help people build muscle. The most joy I've ever gotten out of training is when I have a specific goal. Like right now you're trying to get 3:15 push, press, right? It's like no matter how many GLP1s, no matter, like the only way you get that is that skill and the program for that thing. And then when you accomplish that thing, it's one of the most amazing feelings in the world. And so I do think that it would be great. And I having performance based goals and getting people to be like, I want to do that. Like I want to do whether a marathon or a ninja warrior competition or I want to deadlift X amount of body weight, like, I do think that that will be pushing people.

[Justin Andrews]

The optimistic side of me says that like, okay, so we have so far the conversations somewhat pessimistic on what's going to happen because they're going to be all this. But maybe making the building muscle and burning body fat part easy. Yeah, Irrelevant. They now start to focus on movement and strength becomes fun. And it's like, I'm fine now. I'm like, I don't need to worry about body fat. I don't need to worry about muscle. That's easy.

[Jordan Syed]

Freeze you up to actually proceed.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what happened if we turn a bunch of everyday average people takes.

[Justin Andrews]

That burden off of the people that feel like, oh, my whole life I've struggled with Weight. It's like, well, that's easy. Take this, take that.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what it'll feel like for the average person to be able to burn body fat, build muscle through medical intervention. You know what they're, we're, what they're going to want to do, express it. They're going to want to go work out, they're going to want to go hike, they're going to want to go.

[Justin Andrews]

It's like what we see. I mean, we've seen this in our time too. The up like, obviously Silicon Valley and tech, like that exploded in our lifetime and that caused just millions of people to have desk jobs and sit around all day. And what came of that? Your, your obstacle course racing, you know, it's like, yeah, you got going through hoops of fire.

[Sal Destefano]

That's one of the things.

[Justin Andrews]

Paying pay to run through mud, climb, jump through fire, swim in freezing cold water. It's like there's, there's a part of.

[Sal Destefano]

Us man camps where they've got dudes like crawling on gravel.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's like yelling at them. It's. Yeah, people pay for this.

[Justin Andrews]

It's, it just shows you how much that we internally are, are drawn to that and need that. And so even if we find a way to hack all this stuff, we'll find our way back there, we'll find our way back to the struggle, back to the challenge, back to the competition. And so, yeah, I'm probably more bullish than bearish on the GLP1s and the medical interventions.

[Adam Schaefer]

Far more bullish. I think fitness is gonna blow up if that actually all happens.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And it'd be cool to see a bunch of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s being athletes. I saw a video of this 75 year old dude sprinting, doing sprints the other day and the whole comment section was like, I wish I could be like this guy. I wish I could be like that guy. It's like, we're gonna see more of that and people are gonna be. Because right now when you get people in their 30s and 40s, they're like, oh, back in my heyday, back when I was in high school, it's like, you could still do that. Like you could. I think we'll get to a point where we're seeing more and more people actually improving their athleticism and their quality of life and their performance far beyond what they've ever done in history.

[Adam Schaefer]

How's the podcast going? How are you enjoying that?

[Sal Destefano]

I love it. This, I love this stuff like this.

[Adam Schaefer]

Is that your Favorite. What's your favorite form? Okay, so it's podcast. Why is it because long form and you, like, get into discussion or.

[Sal Destefano]

I like having conversations. Like, it's when you get to actually know people. The issue with the short form content is you have to deliberately craft it. It's deliberately. And there's an art to it and there's a science to it for this of a conversation. There's an argument to be made that there's an art and science to it, but it's much more just genuine. It's just, this is real.

[Adam Schaefer]

You can't fake it. That's for sure.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, that's exactly right. And I just like. And I like that we can go off on tangents and there's not like, hey, this is what we need to say and this is what needs to happen in this 32nd. Like, I just like to chill and have a drink or a beer, whatever it is. I just want to have a conversation that's actually meaningful. So that's. I love podcasts.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're definitely a purse. Just hearing you talk today to our coaches and trainers and knowing you just through the years on the podcast, you're, you're, you, you. You're very much driven by, like, a sense of kind of purpose.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Like, okay, I want to, like, I feel good about doing this, so that's the direction I'm going to move.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And let me figure out a way to make this work for my life and maybe become a business. But I like moving in this direction.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

What's your greatest source of purpose now for you in your life? Is it. Is it your family? Is it still fitness or you. Are you looking in other directions? I know you know jiu jitsu. I know you do a lot of different things.

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, the greatest source of purpose, I think inherently is God.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

That. I don't see another way around that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

In terms of like, the source. Right. Like, it has to come from that. At least speaking for myself, it has to. And then from that. Okay, so if God is the source of it, then from there it's like, okay, family making. Sure. So in Judaism. A major theme in Judaism is bringing God's light to this earth. Right. So a lot of people ask in Judaism. They'll say, well, do you believe in heaven and all that? And there is a concept of heaven in Judaism. It's called olam haba, like the world to come. But we don't talk about it as much. And it's not necessarily the purpose of being here is not to live a certain way. So we get there. The purpose of being here is to bring God's light, bring heaven to this earth. And so basically, I do my best to pray every day and listen. I'm not perfect at all, at all. Like, I'm sin, all that stuff. But, like, it's meaningful for me. The source of purpose comes from what can I do every day to bring God's light to this world?

[Adam Schaefer]

Do you look at. When you do things through that lens, then, like, okay, I'm going to do this podcast. How do I bring that to this podcast? Or I'm going to do this content, or I'm going to help this person. Is that. Is that the lens through which always.

[Sal Destefano]

In everything I do. And there's literally just a lesson. I was listening to a rabbi talk about this the other day. Like, if you have a gift, whatever your gift is, and you're not, you're not using that gift to positively impact other people, that's a huge sin. And so for me, like, the reason. One of the reasons why I work so hard is because it's like, if I don't use this platform and this knowledge, it's like there are people who will not benefit as a result of it. It's like, that's why you have to work with one of those. You have to.

[Justin Andrews]

Did that shape or form different after having the kids, or has it changed at all for you? Like, how you do that? Obviously you kind of explained the lens at which you look at it through, but having the kids change anything for you?

[Sal Destefano]

I think it just made it a much more deep connection and much more belief than ever before. Like, when you have these beautiful little angels that you're like, this literal creation is so crazy. And then to see my wife go through pregnancy and childbirth and all that, like, and then to have these little kids. And then literally today, like, after the seminar, I called really quick. I spoke to my oldest daughter. She's two and a half. And for the first time, she was outside and she was like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm outside. And she doesn't have the concept of I'm in another state yet. But she said, where are you going? And it sounds so stupid when you say it, but, like, when you have kids and you watch them go from literally, like, nothing to you have this human asking you, where are you going? It's the craziest thing in the world. And so all it's done is just solidified and deepened my belief in God. And. And again, I feel like, it sounds pretentious when you talk like that. I'm not trying to sound pretentious. I'm not trying to sound perfect at all. But it solidified my belief in higher power much greater than I could ever imagine.

[Adam Schaefer]

Do you practice more of your faith more as a father than you did before?

[Sal Destefano]

Way more.

[Adam Schaefer]

So it just totally brought. Have you seen the data on fathers and faith?

[Sal Destefano]

No.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay. So I brought this up on the show. The odds that the whole family will follow a faith if the mother is the first person to become devout is 17%. Do you know what the number is if the father becomes the first person? 94%.

[Sal Destefano]

Holy shit. That's crazy.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's a radical difference when the father does it and your faith. And in mine, where the men are told to lead spiritually, did that strengthen you to see, okay, this is what I need to do as a father. This is very important for me.

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, I hadn't. I don't. I was not aware of that data, which is crazy. It was more. It was more a thing of once. So I've always been Jewish, but not like I. I hadn't always been super religious. I'd gone through phases, like when I would live in Israel. Ironically, when I lived in Israel, I was far less religious, I felt, because I was. It's almost like it's just part of life. There's. Whereas when I would leave and I was away from it, I wanted to find a way to be closer to it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, that makes sense.

[Sal Destefano]

So that would bring me closer to it through practicing, but then having kids and just feeling this overwhelming connection to God, that has brought me closer to it. But it's one of those things where, I guess when my wife and I are very serious about doing it, then the kids are going to be a part of it. And it was. There wasn't really anything where I was like, hey, I'm doing. I'm not doing this for my kids. I'm doing this because I think this is the right thing to do. And. And that's it. It's not like, hey, I have kids now, so I should be doing this. It's more like, I have kids. I now I fully am bought in more than ever before. So this is what we're doing now type of a thing.

[Justin Andrews]

What have been some of the challenges you've had with parenting as far as, like, things that maybe you think is more important and she thinks less or vice versa that you guys have come across so far?

[Sal Destefano]

With my wife, yeah. You know, we haven't really? Listen, my kids are eight months and two and a half, so, like, we're not really having that crazy of a. It's still so early on. Yeah, I mean, the. The major things are. The main reason I wanted a gym in the house is so they could see us working out. Yeah, it's super important.

[Adam Schaefer]

Your wife pretty consistent with it as well.

[Sal Destefano]

Like, stupid consistent. Like, my wife is. Is ruthlessly consistent. And she didn't listen. Everyone's birth and pregnancy is different, but they were like, you don't work out for six weeks. And she was like, no. After giving birth, she was in the gym almost immediately. And she worked out throughout her entire pregnancy and obviously adjusted intensity and volume, but there was never a time that she just stopped working out. And so that was the main reason we wanted a gym in the house, is so the girls could see us prioritizing fitness, put a rock wall in their playroom, and had got my daughter in gymnastics when she was 8 months old. And so, like that. I think because you and I think we were talking about this yesterday about, like, if you do it as a kid, your ability to maintain or at least always have access to this athleticism is so much easier for the rest of your life. You can always come back to it. And if I'm thinking, like, what's the greatest gift I could give my children long after I'm gone, outside of creating a relationship with God and a higher purpose is like the ability to. To use your body and the ability to stay healthy and to be confident in your ability to do it. And then if I also think about nostalgia, I think is the most powerful human emotion in the world. Like, when you create, you have a nostalgic feeling about something. I want my girls to be in the gym with us and have nostalgia around working out so that when they're older, they can think. I used to work out with my dad. I used to work out with my mom. I don't want them to look at it as a punishment. I want them to look at it as, like, this is something that I used to do as a kid. And I will always do it because every time I'm back in the gym, I get to think about great times with my parents. I think that's a really incredible gift you can give your kids.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So how your wife stays at home and you work, you run the business.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

How is that dynamic? How does she support you? How do you help her? So I'm assuming she runs the house, obviously, because you're doing the work, you run the business. What does that look like with that dynamic?

[Sal Destefano]

I was talking earlier about how there neither job is more or less important. Like, I, you know who I love is Dave Ramsey. Yeah, I love Dave Ramsey.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, he's great.

[Sal Destefano]

And there was a. Someone called into his show one time and there was basically someone was talking about how their finances were separated and Dave went off.

[Justin Andrews]

I saw that one.

[Sal Destefano]

Dave was like, what? When you get married, you're one. It's. It's not. You don't allow someone certain finances, like, everything is shared together. Nope. I didn't feel comfortable doing a prenup. I didn't like the idea of going into a marriage being like, hey, what was mine before? Is like, no, it's like, this is forever. And I feel like lately people have been trying to find ways to almost preemptively be like, if this doesn't work out, then we can end it and it's okay. It's like, that's not how you go into a marriage. Like, that's wild to me. So both jobs are equally important. Being a mother, being a father, being a business owner, being in charge of the house. Like, they're equally important. One is not more important than the other. There are some times when I have to sacrifice and I have to be like. Like, I'll give you an example. I had a podcast scheduled on May 9th in the morning, but my daughter is performing at her school and I'm like, there's no way I'm missing that. So I canceled the podcast. It's not like work comes before everything else. I think family has to come first. And we both have different roles that we've decided upon that equally contribute to the family. One is not better or more important. It's just this is what we both have decided to do.

[Adam Schaefer]

How do you guys tackle nutrition? I know the 8 month olds, but the 2 year old, how do you tackle nutrition? It's crazy to me that when you look at food for toddlers.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

We just talked about processed foods. They're all processed foods for toddlers. It's insane.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

How do you guys tackle nutrition?

[Sal Destefano]

A lot of it is based around what they see us eating. So, like, we do a really a concerted effort into making sure they're seeing us eat fruits, vegetables, proteins, very free. Like that's, that's deliberately having family time and meal time, not just for the sake of the improvement of our family unit, but also so that they can see what are you eating? Why are you eating like, I'll have olives or I'LL have, like, we just. We always have a tray of like, fruits and vegetables out. So there's always like, fruit, like. And my wife does this and she's amazing. Like, there's always strawberries and blueberries and blackberries and. And red and green and yellow peppers. And they're all out. Which, by the way, is an amazing hack in terms of if. But if you just have this stuff out, the kids are more likely to snack on.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Whereas if you don't have it out, but then you put it out with other stuff. Well, why would they have that if they could have like the Pirate's Booty or whatever? So just having it always out, they're more like, okay, I'll have the carrots. Okay, I'll have the pepper. So there's always something like that out. And then that's always our first option. We also have ice cream almost every night, but it's just, it's a little bit like almost every single night. We're like, hey, you want some ice cream? You want some ice? Yeah. Great. Sometimes she's like, no, which is awesome. She's like, no, I don't want it. I'm like, cool, you don't have to have it then. But it's like, it's a lot of. Let's fill up on the good stuff and if you like some of the other stuff after, wonderful. But they see us prioritizing our health and fitness all the time.

[Adam Schaefer]

I think what you said about leaving the food out. So my wife does that. We have this mini fridge that is supposed to be a wine fridge, but she turned it into the kids fridge.

[Sal Destefano]

So smart.

[Adam Schaefer]

And they can reach it. And those are called anytime foods. So anytime they're hungry, they can go in there and grab whatever they want. And she'll sneak different foods in there just because she wants them to try them. So like something that's bitter or something that's, you know, whatever. And they'll do it. They'll go play with it and they'll try something and be like, eh, I like it, or whatever.

[Sal Destefano]

That's genius. It's great. Especially if, like, I want to eat something. They know they can go there, they open it up, it's right there, it's available. But if, if, if the options between that And M&Ms, it's like, well, obviously I'm gonna have the fucking M's. So will I. Yeah, exactly. So to have those fresh, healthy foods always available, it increases the likelihood that you're going to have them. And then they can learn on their own. Oh, I feel better when I eat this almost every time. Not almost every time. That's an exaggeration. A fair amount of time. If my daughter has a little bit too much chocolate or something, she'll be like, oh, my tummy hurts. I'm like, why does your tummy hurt? And we'll go through, try and go through, like, well, what did you, what did you eat? Oh, okay. So you had, did you have more chocolate than we told you to? Yeah. Okay, so now she's. I didn't, I don't shame her. I'm not like, you shouldn't do that again. I'm like, interesting. Okay, that's good to know. Now we know that for next time. Just like creating more self awareness on what, what they're eating.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're, you're a notoriously hard worker. What does that look like with kids? Because you put a lot of hours in. I love you telling the story of, you know, when you early days of training.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You didn't take a day off for like three years or something like that.

[Sal Destefano]

No. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But when you have girls, you love them so much, your kids, like, what does your schedule look like now? Has it changed?

[Sal Destefano]

So it has changed, but I still, I still work very, very hard. The main thing is usually Shabbat, Friday night, Saturday night, no work. So completely off, Completely off.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it's all family time.

[Sal Destefano]

It's all family time. No Instagram, no social media, no publishing content, Shabbat.

[Adam Schaefer]

So that means no work. And like, what are the rules on that?

[Sal Destefano]

So the rules are pretty strict. I don't follow all the rules. The main thing is like, I'm just going to take time off of, off of work.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

But there are like, technically, depending on who you're talking to, electricity. You're not supposed to be using electricity, you're not supposed to be driving. I'm like, I'm doing that. But I mean, for example, if you are in Israel or if you're in Jerusalem, for example, depending on where you are in Tel Aviv, it's not like this. But in Jerusalem, like, everything is closed.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's Friday, Saturday.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep, Friday night, Saturday night. And then on Saturday night, shops will start opening again after sundown. So Saturday night, like nothing is open. Or Saturday, all day, Saturday, nothing is open. And then at like 7:30pm, all of a sudden shops start opening, which is great because it's built into the country.

[Adam Schaefer]

I was just going to say. So much value on that culturally. Because yeah, when you're in a culture like that, you're kind of forced to like take time off and it's okay. It's like everybody else.

[Sal Destefano]

It's a known thing.

[Adam Schaefer]

Everybody agrees.

[Sal Destefano]

I have a friend who's a lawyer and like they will not get calls even if there's a, like everyone knows there's a high profile case. And this gone. You are not legally allowed to call someone about work on Shabbat.

[Adam Schaefer]

See, that's interesting.

[Sal Destefano]

Like it is not allowed. So it's, it's. I think it's wonderful.

[Adam Schaefer]

I think there's some real value.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, I mean what's wild about that is that's been a tradition for a. Forever, right? For a very, very long time. And you think about the time we're in with, with tech and you get.

[Adam Schaefer]

Texts and emails 24, 7.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. I mean I don't, I don't know if there was ever a period of time when that was probably more valuable than right now. Agreed to practice that. So it's wild to think that's something that's a very.

[Adam Schaefer]

The origin of that. Right. Was to just rely on God. So like you don't work because you rely on him two days a week.

[Sal Destefano]

So it comes from on the seventh day, God rested.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's it.

[Sal Destefano]

Right. So that's. And seven is Shaba. So Shabbat, it's like it's the Sabbath, it's the holiest day. And then on for Christianity it's on Sunday and in Islam it's on Friday. Friday. And so it's. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So you're off those two days and then the rest of the days. You work a lot.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I work a lot. And basically I. From. I. I will never miss putting my girls down to sleep. That's a hard.

[Adam Schaefer]

Do you put them down?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, wow.

[Sal Destefano]

I will never miss putting them to sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

What's that look like? Because that, that process can take a long time.

[Sal Destefano]

It's World War iii.

[Justin Andrews]

It's wild that you'll miss forever one day, right?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, exactly. It's comes. It's crazy.

[Adam Schaefer]

They don't want to go to sleep and you just got to make it up.

[Sal Destefano]

They don't want to go to sleep. And my, my oldest is becoming very manipulative and figuring out ways to extend it.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm thirsty.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm hungry.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I'm hungry.

[Sal Destefano]

I need a yogurt now. It's like. And then I'll bring the yogurt and then she'll pretend to eat it and she's not actually eating it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Just.

[Sal Destefano]

It's crazy, dude. And I'm Whipped. So I'll just be like, I'm happy to stay with you, but then I'll work until 2 in the morning. Or like, lately my workouts are between 10 at night and 2 in the morning.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh.

[Sal Destefano]

And then I wake up early, and then I start working before they're up. And so the thing I'm sacrificing is sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

The thing I sacrifice right now is. And that's always been my. Like, the one thing I'll sack is sleep. That's what in order to do. And I'm not saying that's good or healthy. I'm not. I'm not saying. Saying it's great. I'm not telling anyone else to do it. But for me personally and historically, if I need to work, I'll sacrifice sleep in order to make it happen. And so I'm not. I will. I literally stopped training Jiu Jitsu for a while because I was training Jiu Jitsu in the evening. I was like, I'm missing putting my daughters down. I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. So I literally stopped. And now I'll train Jiu Jitsu at a different time so that I don't miss putting my daughters to bed. Like, I will not miss that.

[Adam Schaefer]

So is this a break for White? For Mom? Does she not doing the bedtime and you do it?

[Sal Destefano]

No, she doesn't want to miss it either. So we both. Every night.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, that's wonderful.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, we all do prayers at night and, like, we all hang out and we have dinner together. So basically from 4pm until about 7:30 every day as family.

[Adam Schaefer]

Is there something that you do that is just. Your daughter's. Just something special that dad does? Like, is it to play with them? Roughhouse.

[Sal Destefano]

Roughhouse. Like, yeah, that's the thing. Like, we have a trampoline. Take her outside, like, go nuts and sprint it. Like, yeah, we. It's a lot of roughhousing. Go on the jujitsu mats and roll around. Like, she just likes to hang from stuff. So, like, hanging in the. With, like, it's a lot of rough housing.

[Adam Schaefer]

I find some of that stuff cool. Like, my kids, I tell stories. They love the stories that I tell. So. And I get so tired sometimes. Like, tell me the story. Then they tell me all the elements of the story that they want.

[Sal Destefano]

What are the stories?

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, God. It's like, can you tell me a story? What kind you want of dinosaurs? And then my daughter, my little one's like, bunny. Okay. Bunny's gonna be in it too. And candy. Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

And you make it up.

[Adam Schaefer]

I just make them up on the spot.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, that's cool.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, and they're. And they're fun. And I gotta, like. Sometimes I'm too tired to, like, think of story.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But I'll do it. And then I like to use them to get at my wife sometimes because she's better at everything with them than I am. So, like, no, let mom tell the story. My wife's like, she can't come up with a story on the spot. Oh, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

They'll remember that forever. And they'll do that with their kids. They'll want to do stories.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes, yes, absolutely. Love it. How about now, training wise? You've been around. You've been doing this for a long time. Some people don't even know that you trained with some of the best powerlifting coaches in the world. Very well versed. Is there anything new in the training horizon that you're excited about? Anything you like to either do or talk about or work with your coaches with?

[Sal Destefano]

So, I mean, I've been obsessed with mobility lately.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

And going. Circling back to what we were talking about, people not feeling good, and it's like, so I. I'm gonna toot my own horn on this one. You know, fitness goes through phases. We had, like, the functional training phase many years ago, and then we had powerlifting was really, really huge. And so I think. I don't know. Tell me if you agree or disagree. Probably around 2018, 2019, we started to see a huge surge towards hypertrophy training again. And I said I was like, people are gonna not be moving well. Cause you know, what happened with the hypertrophy phase or craze was everyone being like, you gotta train to failure all the time. And I was like, yo, you guys do this for a few years, you're gonna be fucked. And so I really, really started to get into mobility stuff. And so I've been just loving it. I really wanted to get the splits. I'm like, very close with the side splits. My front splits. I've got.

[Adam Schaefer]

Explain how you're going to do this because the application videos is crazy. Training for flexibility and mobility are different than training for hypertrophy or speed or strength in terms of frequency and whatever. What does this look like?

[Sal Destefano]

You know, it's crazy. It's really not that different.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, so explain that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, so I do. I. It's funny. When you hear about flexibility, everyone's first reaction is, all right, I'm going to do stretching every day. I'm like, why the fuck Is that your first reaction? It's like if you want to create an adaptation, you have to apply enough stress and enough, a high, a high enough level of intensity in order for your body to adapt to that. It's like if you're just doing like this overhead stretch, like half assed. Imagine if people went to the gym and did a half ass bicep curl. They're not ever going to stress their muscles enough to cause an adaptation. Same thing with mobility and flexibility. I have one session a week for my front split and one session a week for my side split. And that's how long? Long, at least two hours.

[Adam Schaefer]

And this is all wow. And is it a lot of static stretching plus dynamic stretching.

[Sal Destefano]

So it's, it's, it's funny when I, when we say stretching, it's strength training and greater ranges of motion.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right?

[Sal Destefano]

That's all it is. FRC stuff, A lot of FRC stuff. But like, for example, it could be like I'll do a hip flexor stretch, but load it. So I'll load it with 30 pound dumbbells and I'll do like 10 pulses, 10 reps and then I'll rest or then I'll do the other side and it's fucking brutal.

[Adam Schaefer]

It sucks.

[Sal Destefano]

It's absolutely devastating. I would rather do super heavy Bulgarian split squats than I would do this. It's fucking horrible. But it's crazy. And it's just one a week. Just one session a week. And then I have other sessions. My training schedule right now runs on a 10 to 12 day timeframe. So rather than it being seven days, it's about a 10 or 12 day cycle. And I'll have push pull legs. Within that 10 or 12 day cycle I'll have two, I have one front split day, one side split day and then I'll have a plyometric day and I'll have a couple zone two cardio days. So it's about a 10 or 12 day cycle. So I can fit everything into that time frame. If I was trying to fit it all into seven days, it wouldn't all fit. So I just made my week.

[Justin Andrews]

That's really cool. I don't think I've had somebody. You know, it's so funny that we.

[Adam Schaefer]

We get so locked in.

[Justin Andrews]

I know we get locked into a seven day week in 24 hours. It's like you can't fit it all. Yeah, the body doesn't work that way.

[Sal Destefano]

It doesn't.

[Justin Andrews]

Nothing, nothing says you can't have a plan that takes 10 to 12 days. Accomplish. And then the freedom of that is like, okay, I got to get a push day in. I got to get a pull day, and I got a lay day in. Okay, I got to get two mobility. So I got five days of work trying to fit that in. Seven days. I know I'm gonna miss more than that. I'm gonna stretch that over 12 or 15 days. And as long as I do that.

[Sal Destefano]

A lot more leeway that way. And that way, like, there's a lot more flexibility in terms of. For example, if there's one day where I'm like, I'm fucking exhausted, I can. I can only give 30 minutes to a light session, but I had, like a two hour flexibility session planned. I'll just swap it. I'll be like, I'll do zone two cardio tonight for 30 minutes, go to bed, and then tomorrow hit my flexibility session, and it's no harm done.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's funny what you say, too, about mobility and flexibility. I remember first meeting my wife. She traveled with Cirque du Soleil for a while.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schaefer]

And she didn't. She wasn't on stage. She worked for them. But she ended up becoming very proficient at the silks. I mean, could sit in, you know, in the splits, one foot, that's wild spin. And do all kinds of crazy stuff. And she never worked out before that. And I said, how did you, like, get to be able to do that kind of stuff? She goes, well, I watched the Russians work out and I watched the coaches stretch them, and I couldn't. I thought she was. She's like, I thought they were hurting these people. Like, some of them are kids, and they'll just grab their legs and they're wrenching on them and there's, like, intensity. And she's like. So I started to do that to myself and train with them.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it was brutal. She's like, but within a year, I could do all this crazy stuff. So what you're saying is so true.

[Sal Destefano]

They're doing loaded stretching because someone else is doing it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And the data, by the way, on that, for people who are like, I just want to build muscle, there's actually a hypertrophy effect.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, there is.

[Adam Schaefer]

There is a hypertrophy effect from doing that. And combining it with strength training is actually pretty remarkable.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Jordan Syed]

Well, it's interesting, too. And I've learned. And I'm watching a lot of your lower back, like, kind of fixed videos and all that, which are great, too. Like the hip flexor. A lot of people, I mean, they're not strong. And that's really, like. It's something that's been even more apparent to me because the first thought is like, let's stretch this out and let's be in a passive stretch.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Jordan Syed]

You know, figure that out. But really, I need to work on the strengthening.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes. That for me was a huge unlock in terms of my thoughts on stretching was it's just passive. When you actually start to look at stretching as an opportunity to strengthen it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

And I think when I first started, I was like, how could stretching strengthen? It's like, we haven't tried it. Like you have. If you go through. Do a program like, learn how to actually use stretching in these longer positions using weights.

[Jordan Syed]

Like you're using weights.

[Sal Destefano]

But even an isometric hold. For example, like, if you use a go in a long lunge, keep your back leg straight. You're essentially going into a hip flexor stretch, but you isometrically hold that for 30 to 60 seconds. Good fucking luck. Like, that's brutal.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, people don't. So I think it's. We have to understand the concept of. Or the reason why someone's tight in the first place. I think what we conceptualize is like a tight muscle, like a rubber band that's really tight. That's not what's happening. If you tore the muscle off your body and threw it on the floor, it would have maximum flexibility because there's nothing telling it to tighten up.

[Sal Destefano]

Correct.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's all central nervous system.

[Sal Destefano]

Correct.

[Adam Schaefer]

So what you're doing by strengthening the muscle through those ranges of motion is telling the central nervous system, it's okay. It's okay to have this length. The reason why you're tight in the first place is not because the muscles are tight. It's because your central nervous system is saying, we got to keep you in this short range of motion. We don't feel safe moving. So strengthening is how you get more flexible.

[Sal Destefano]

That's exactly right. If someone who thinks they're really tight dies, you can move them around.

[Adam Schaefer]

All of a sudden they're super fast.

[Sal Destefano]

All of a sudden, they're flopping all over the place. You can put their leg behind their head because there's no central nervous system telling them that they're in a dangerous spot. Same thing if someone goes into a coma all of a sudden. Okay, like, you can fucking move them around. It's no problem at all. But as. But if you. It's the whole. If you don't use it, you lose it. And it's true. If you don't use the range, then your body's going to be like, why the fuck do I need it?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Have you ever heard about. Heard those stories where they say, like. Like I actually talked to a friend who got an accident, but they didn't get hurt because they were knocked out before the car started flipping. Their body was so loose.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And I've heard of this before. I think it has to do with the cns.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

To where otherwise, when you're awake and you're tight and then you start tearing stuff.

[Sal Destefano]

That's exactly right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because of that.

[Sal Destefano]

That's exactly right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Which is pretty wild. So how much progress have you made in your ability in this. In this?

[Sal Destefano]

Front splits. I've got front splits. I can show you a picture if you want.

[Adam Schaefer]

Where did you start? Like, where did you start? And how long to take you before you could do it?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Jordan Syed]

Like John Claude Van Damme.

[Sal Destefano]

That's literally why I like here.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because of him.

[Sal Destefano]

Split.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah, look at that.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, shit.

[Sal Destefano]

But here, I'll show you, like where I. I started here. That's where I started. Oh, wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, wow.

[Adam Schaefer]

So how long did it take in?

[Sal Destefano]

A year and a half.

[Adam Schaefer]

Wow.

[Sal Destefano]

A year and a half. But it was again one session a week for my front split. That was it. It was about two hours. And it's just a lot of. For the front split, it's hip flexors, strengthen and lengthen.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep.

[Sal Destefano]

Hamstring, strengthen and strengthen and lengthen. And then also a lot of compression strength. So, like when you're.

[Adam Schaefer]

What do you mean by that?

[Sal Destefano]

What I mean by that is like the front leg out here, right? Yeah, the front leg. It's not just about having your hamstring be loose or mobile enough. It's also about being. Having strength enough here to bring this up. Yeah, Right. To raise your leg so that it's.

[Adam Schaefer]

That stretch so shortened.

[Sal Destefano]

So that's like pike holds like pikes. Yeah, that. That's your. You're strengthening your lower abs to lift this up in that lengthened position. So that's what you're really working on for a front split is those three things. And then a side split, obviously, adductor length, but al. And mobility and flexibility, but also the strength of them. And then your glute mead getting strong enough to be able to like, lift out to the side. That's. Anytime I finish a side split session, my glutes are lit the fuck up. Because it's not just about letting myself sink down. It's about pulling. You're like. It's Abducted. So it's.

[Adam Schaefer]

Dude, it's brutal.

[Justin Andrews]

Any secondary, any secondary benefits that you didn't think were gonna have that ended up happening?

[Sal Destefano]

Like, oh shit, my back feels fucking awesome. My back feels like butter. That's what I was like, I can put my girls in their cribs, no problem. Throw them up like. And it's. You know, I'm only 33, but there's a lot of dudes my age who have kids who come over and like, I'm the one carrying their kids running around the backyard.

[Adam Schaefer]

You also have a history of heav ass deadlifts.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

In the past it was your top deadlift at 1.530-530.

[Sal Destefano]

What body 132.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's ridiculous.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So now you're saying your back feels even better, dude.

[Sal Destefano]

Better than it's felt since high school. Powerlifting didn't help my back. Like, my back did not feel great when I was training at west side and not. Didn't feel good.

[Jordan Syed]

Cool points though.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, it gave me a lot of cool points. But now I can do. I can, I can still deadlift 405 pretty easily. Like cold, like, if we get the bar out there, I could deadly 405. Like probably on like my second or second attempt. Go 315 first, no problem. Then 405. But now I can also do that and then drop in the splits and then I can do a backflip and it's fine like for that, for me is. So you know, who I really am just blown away by is Juju. That, like that, that strength, flexibility to the nth degree. Just the most extraordinary.

[Justin Andrews]

He almost doesn't make sense.

[Sal Destefano]

It doesn't. And I'm just, I'm so enamored by that guy. Yeah.

[Jordan Syed]

And like, I'm so curious about everything too. He just takes it all on.

[Sal Destefano]

He approaches it in the best from curiosity and passion.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's like. And there's never. I think he does aerial stuff where he's. Yeah, it's like that's what we. We all get so locked in. Like, well, I'm an Olympic lifter. I'm a power lifter. I'm this. It's like, well, I think we should just learn it all.

[Justin Andrews]

Have you ever. Have you ever met John in person before?

[Sal Destefano]

No.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, he's cool cat.

[Sal Destefano]

I would love to.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah. We had him on before you went. Who he was really? Yeah. So he, he was long before. I mean, he must have. I mean he maybe had 60, 000 followers back then. Chimera Coffee. He had no sponsors. Chimera Coffee was the very first sponsor to ever sponsor this show eight years ago. And they also had found him. So we, they were really good. These guys that had this coffee company were really good at finding like up and coming talent. They found us where no one had known who we were. We were still really small. They had found Juju when he was really small and so they introduced us and he came on the show when.

[Sal Destefano]

We were like, that's awesome.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. And we, we met. He's like a super nerd, I believe. Yeah, he's super, like tech, like tech nerd guy. Oh yeah, he's very like his, he's very methodical about everything that he does. So he comes off as kind of goofy and kind of cheat guy. Yeah. Just have fun. But he's like, very deliberate. Very deliberate.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, makes sense.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Achieving that level of, of proficiency in so many different things is in a.

[Justin Andrews]

Body that doesn't look like it should be able to do, you know?

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, it's funny, you're talking about flexibility. I, I feel like because, because muscle building has finally becoming mainstream. Yeah, finally. It took a long time, but it's finally the value and the importance of it and what it does for the, for, for just longevity and health, not just how you look. It's finally starting to go mainstream. I think what you just did is called the next big trend.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Which is flexibility or mobility, like real flexibility and mobility.

[Sal Destefano]

That's what I think might be the next big trend. It's because people are gonna need.

[Adam Schaefer]

Makes sense that it would follow.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And that's where I think that's what happened. I think we've already seen the cycle. So we saw like bodybuilding was huge in like the 60s, 70s, 80s. And we see that like that natural bodybuilding era. Then the functional training era came right after. And I think that was partly because of that. I think we're seeing the cycle repeat.

[Justin Andrews]

That's an interesting theory on that now because we came, we came on the scene when the, when the beginning of the functional stuff really kicked off. Stability balls and foam pads and balancing.

[Adam Schaefer]

On everything, everything on one leg.

[Justin Andrews]

That was like. You know, we talk about this a lot that you know, it just like anything in this space. Right. It typically comes from a place of good that we need to do. Then it gets bastardized. Right. And like as the end all be all. It's the only thing. It's the truth, you know?

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

And then, then everybody shits on it like, oh, those guys do doing balance stuff. Right. It's like, well, there's some things in there that were probably pretty good. Don't throw everything out there. So I think that's a pretty good prediction. I think that. I don't think I would, I don't think I'd argue with you that there's a good chance that, that that's probably going to come back around. We're due for. That was 20 something years ago. Yeah, it was 20 something years ago when we were, when that was like a popular thing when all that stuff came on.

[Sal Destefano]

I think people have, thank God, gotten really into strength training and building muscle and, and they were like, oh, this is really, really cool. And now they're going to start seeing like, okay, I was told that I shouldn't stretch because stretching is going to make me weaker. But that person, that person and that person are doing like splits. Well, like Juju Mufu is like holding splits and he's, he's literally lifting a hundred pound dumbbell in the Jean Claude Van Damme splits. That doesn't make sense because if what I was told was true, then that wouldn't be possible. And that person's doing it. And figure skaters are figure skating while holding someone overhead on the ice and smiling. Clearly they're strong as shit, but also flexible enough to be able to do that. I think people are going to realize, oh, I could get strong in these longer positions and I can just get better and better and better and better far. And what I've been told essentially has been a myth. It's been a lie. Like I could do it all.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. Nutrition wise, if you have to give one. I know you probably hate questions like this. You got to give one tip to the average person that's going to make the biggest impact. Just one tip. They want to get fit or more fit. They want to lose some weight, get a little healthier.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

They can only do one thing.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

What would you tell them?

[Sal Destefano]

I'm going to specify I'm only talking to the majority of America.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm not talking to the smaller percentage of people who have eating disorders or any of that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Correct.

[Sal Destefano]

To the vast majority of America, don't eat like an asshole.

[Justin Andrews]

You've been hanging out with asshole.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's my life, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it.

[Justin Andrews]

That's my life.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it.

[Justin Andrews]

You guys are in the same cloth. That's my line.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

I love it. That's it.

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, and we could add on and if. And when you do eat like an. Don't treat yourself like an. Just like you accept it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, that's great.

[Sal Destefano]

Then get back on it. Right.

[Justin Andrews]

I think you follow. I think the other part of that, because I think that's, I love that line and I use that all the time because, and personally myself, it's like, I know when I do that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, like it. Have some self awareness.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You know what I'm saying? It's like you can get away with eating a lot of foods that are quote unquote bad for you so long as you don't eat like an. It's when I go back and I smash the whole point pint.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

You know, or I finish that and then I go have another serving or something else. It's like. And I know when I'm doing it, you know, I think what we try and do is we disassociate ourselves from those moments. And then I don't know why I'm like this, you know, it's like really?

[Sal Destefano]

I know why.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I know why.

[Justin Andrews]

Let's be honest with ourselves.

[Adam Schaefer]

When was the last time you ate like an asshole? Or does that never happen?

[Sal Destefano]

No, of course it happens. I'm trying. I mean, recently sometimes, like when I'll eat ice cream, I'll eat it when I'm not hungry and I'll just be like, well, I mean, I have this, I might as well just eat it. So probably within the last month I ate like a whole pint when I shouldn't have. Yeah. But then I, I, I ate it and I felt like.

[Adam Schaefer]

But you didn't.

[Justin Andrews]

That's the other thing. So that's the other step to this. Right. So I just did it last weekend. It was my mother in law's 75th birthday and they made like my sister.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's. We had all the cake.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, the cake.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And I just like, I mean I ate a lot of cake.

[Sal Destefano]

I know, exactly.

[Justin Andrews]

And my, and like my stomach hurts after. I mean, I hurt afterwards.

[Adam Schaefer]

How much cake did you eat?

[Justin Andrews]

It was a lot, dude. It was like, it's probably like a, like a normal size cake for a birthday.

[Adam Schaefer]

No. Myself.

[Justin Andrews]

Pretty close. Yeah, pretty close. I'm a big guy though. I'm like 230. No, I just, I, I know I'm eating like an in that moment. Like I know that like every normal sign in my body saying like, you're good.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Like you were already full when you started this. And then after the first big piece.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Those moments, you know, and so there's Probably a sadistic part for me, like, where I'm like, I just need to make sure, like, oh, yeah, this is really bad. You know, Let me make sure it still makes me feel awful.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And then. Sure, shoot. It does. I'm like, yeah, there it is. So I don't know. I think a lot of people are. They just disassociate themselves.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

In those. In those moments. And it's like, first become aware and then do your best to not do that a lot, you know?

[Sal Destefano]

Correct.

[Justin Andrews]

And so. And then I think the next thing after that is like, if you build a lot of muscle, it does really support and help in those situations. Because the worst thing that I think people do is use running and just calorie cutting as their form of getting in shape. And then they eat like an asshole.

[Adam Schaefer]

It was very protective.

[Justin Andrews]

And the combination of that is.

[Sal Destefano]

Is.

[Justin Andrews]

Is these crazy swings of weight gain where if you really just focus on strength training, build, try and get strong and build muscle. Hopefully some of them extra calories get partitioned over to building some muscle and building the metabolism so that the next time that you have those moments, because we all do, it isn't as damaging to you. And then you're also aware and you're awake. In those moments, you go, your biceps got bigger.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Temporarily I look good after that kid.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Temporarily I look good.

[Sal Destefano]

Good.

[Justin Andrews]

But I don't feel good afterwards.

[Sal Destefano]

That's the thing, though. It's like, it's. It'll happen.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

But then it's. It's over.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it. And then. And then the rest of, like, for a while, you're dialed. And then occasionally it happens again.

[Justin Andrews]

That's. That's another great point, is the next thing that the client. The average client does is then they spiral out of that. It's like I. The next day. The next day I get up and, like, I'm remembering how I felt, and I'm like, oh, yeah, clean eating from now on. Because I want to feel good.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Not because. And then. Which is the opposite of what most people do. Most people go, like, I up last night. Well, f it off.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

You know, now. I mean, pancakes and syrup this morning. And then I'm on. Now it's on. Right. And so it's like how people.

[Sal Destefano]

It's funny, when I was in college, people would handle their hangovers by going to get, like, greasy food.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And it never made sense to me. Like, they'd go get all this And I'd be like, I'm gonna make like.

[Justin Andrews]

A blueberry strawberry smoothie gravy, bro. That was ours.

[Sal Destefano]

Afterwards, it never made sense to me.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what?

[Sal Destefano]

I feel like shitting.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what it is? The psychological electrolytes, the psychological phenomena of it is that these hyper palatable foods, there's a bit of comfort that comes from eating them. And I mean, it's literally like a drug.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I feel so shitty. Let me temporarily feel good eating a cheeseburger.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Even though afterwards I'm gonna feel way worse. It's like trying to fix a hangover with another beer.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Temporarily. I feel a little better.

[Justin Andrews]

There's some science to that. And there's science. Yeah. I was gonna say, because your blood sugar crashes really hard and that's what causes the hangover. Part of it brings it back up.

[Adam Schaefer]

Part of it is you just feel bad, which is why shame doesn't work. You feel really, like, shitty about yourself. You're gonna temporarily. You're more likely to temporarily medicate with food.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And even though it makes you feel shittier.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Later on. That's just human.

[Sal Destefano]

My movie. My client, Connie, bakes us and like every quarter she'll send us. And I remember what it was now. She made us these, like this, like, cinnamon toast crunch marshmallow cake, and I eat the whole thing. Oh, my God.

[Adam Schaefer]

You get diabetes.

[Jordan Syed]

That's like.

[Sal Destefano]

Basically I. We buy so much ice cream that when I go to Walmart and check out the woman behind the counter, one time she. She looked at me straight up, she was like, you're going to get diabetes.

[Justin Andrews]

No, she didn't.

[Sal Destefano]

God. And then the next time I came in, I wasn't buying ice cream. I was just going in, like, pick, like, diapers up or something. She was like, you got diabetes?

[Justin Andrews]

They do.

[Adam Schaefer]

Who I am.

[Jordan Syed]

I love when CVS people, like, are concerned about your.

[Justin Andrews]

Check it out.

[Adam Schaefer]

They're like, oh, good stuff, man. You're always a blast to have on the show.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you, guys.

[Adam Schaefer]

We appreciate you so much.

[Justin Andrews]

We think of you as family, bro.

[Adam Schaefer]

For the audience doesn't know you came in. And you. You spoke to our. A group of trainers and coaches that attended. One of our.

[Jordan Syed]

Lots and lots of value.

[Adam Schaefer]

And I have to say, probably, definitely, definitely one of the high points of the whole day. I can see just the questions they were asking and you were giving them some such good, practical information and honest, very good, honest information. So we appreciate you. You're definitely one of the good guys in the space.

[Sal Destefano]

I love you guys, thank you for having me out. It's always it's a blessing to have you in my life. And you had an amazing event that you put on today. Hopefully next time like it like triples, quadruples in size. It was really extraordinary. And the video about all the success stories you guys have had was really incredible to see people saying thank you for all the stuff you've done for them. So it's thank you for having me. It truly is a blessing to be connected with you guys and to be here.

[Adam Schaefer]

You got it bro.

[Sal Destefano]

Thanks.

[Jordan Syed]

Feels safe.

[Narrator]

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