2638: Five Proven Ways to Age Slower & More (Listener Coaching)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Mind Pump Episode 2638 - Five Proven Ways to Age Slower & More (Listener Coaching)

Release Date: July 11, 2025
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge
Produced by Doug Egge

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Introduction

In Episode 2638 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, the hosts delve into the intriguing topic of aging, presenting five scientifically-backed strategies to slow down the aging process. Drawing from over 40 years of combined experience in the fitness industry, Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, and Doug Egge dissect each method, supported by current studies and real-world applications. The episode also addresses listener questions, providing personalized coaching insights.

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Five Proven Ways to Age Slower

1. Strength Training

Timestamp: [03:02]
Adam Schafer emphasizes strength training as the cornerstone of anti-aging:

"Strength training is the best. It's the top way to slow down the aging process most effectively."

Key Insights:

• Biological Impact: Strength training enhances muscle mass, improves bone density, and boosts hormone profiles, all of which are crucial markers of biological aging.
• Functional Benefits: Increased strength translates to better mobility, balance, and cognitive function, mitigating common age-related declines.
• Practical Application: Even minimal strength training—one or two days a week—can yield profound anti-aging benefits. Former clients in their 60s and 70s demonstrated significant improvements by maintaining regular weightlifting routines.

Notable Quote:

"If you were to pick one form [of exercise] that would slow down the aging process the most, it would be strength training." – Adam Schafer [06:38]

2. Calorie Restriction / Avoiding Overeating

Timestamp: [12:00]
Justin Andrews and Adam Schafer discuss the importance of moderating calorie intake:

"Don't overeat. Overeating is a fast way to age."

Key Insights:

• Caloric Management: A 10-15% reduction in daily calories, particularly through a high-protein diet, can naturally reduce calorie intake without compromising nutritional needs.
• Protein Prioritization: Consistently meeting protein requirements is essential, as protein isn't stored like carbohydrates or fats. Overconsumption leads to excess being converted to energy or stored as fat.
• Health Implications: Maintaining a slight caloric deficit helps in managing weight and reducing metabolic stress, thereby slowing the aging process.

Notable Quote:

"People who are severely underweight have a higher mortality risk than those who are a little overweight when it comes to aging." – Adam Schafer [14:51]

3. Omega-3s, Grass-Fed Beef, and Fiber

Timestamp: [14:52]
The hosts explore the role of specific nutrients in combating aging:

"Omega-3s and grass-fed beef improve your fatty acid profile, reducing inflammation that accelerates aging."

Key Insights:

• Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Counterbalance the excessive omega-6 and omega-9 intake prevalent in Western diets, mitigating chronic inflammation.
• Grass-Fed Beef: Offers a superior fatty acid profile compared to conventional beef, enhancing overall health.
• Fiber Intake: Crucial for digestive health, microbiome balance, insulin sensitivity, and reducing disease risk. High-fiber diets are consistently linked to slower aging markers.

Notable Quote:

"Fiber is beneficial for digestion, beneficial for your microbiome in ways that we now know are beneficial for slowing down the aging process." – Adam Schafer [16:05]

4. Naps

Timestamp: [17:45]
Adam Schafer introduces the benefits of short, regular naps:

"Short, regular daytime naps between five to thirty minutes can make your brain appear up to 6.5 years younger."

Key Insights:

• Cognitive Health: Studies, including the UK Biobank, link habitual short naps to increased brain volume and slower cognitive decline.
• Sleep Quality: Naps do not disrupt nighttime sleep but rather complement it, especially as sleep quality naturally declines with age.
• Practical Tip: Limit naps to 20-30 minutes to avoid grogginess and maximize refreshment.

Notable Quote:

"A 20-minute nap would be perfect and would require no drugs, no caffeine, just to make us feel better." – Adam Schafer [20:54]

5. Mindfulness or Prayer

Timestamp: [21:02]
The final strategy focuses on mental and emotional well-being:

"Frequent prayer and mindfulness practices are associated with longer telomeres and slower aging."

Key Insights:

• Telomere Length: Regular engagement in mindfulness or prayer correlates with longer telomeres, indicating slower biological aging.
• Stress Reduction: These practices lower cortisol levels, enhance insulin sensitivity, and improve executive function and memory.
• Gratitude Practices: Incorporating daily gratitude can reframe negative experiences, promoting a positive mindset that supports overall health.

Notable Quote:

"Gratitude practices can measure your aging. They can measure your health. These are real effects. It's not just your mind changes." – Adam Schafer [29:00]

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Listener Questions & Coaching

1. Should You Add More Weight or Do More Reps?

Question by Jason Snurb [Timestamp: 60:12]

Discussion:

• Adam Schafer suggests starting with adding reps until mastery of the current weight is achieved.
• Justin Andrews adds that tempo adjustments can also be an effective way to increase intensity without necessarily increasing weight.

Notable Quote:

"Often, men will sacrifice form and technique to put more weight on. Instead, let’s slow the tempo down." – Justin Andrews [63:33]

2. Baking Soda Before Workouts for Bigger Pumps?

Question by Sean Dickerson [Timestamp: 67:39]

Discussion:

• Adam Schafer explains that baking soda acts as a buffer to reduce acidity in muscles during high-intensity exercise, potentially enhancing performance.
• Caution: High doses can lead to gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea.

Notable Quote:

"A high percentage of people who do this will get diarrhea, which is not good for athletic performance." – Adam Schafer [68:54]

3. Tips for Hitting All Heads of the Triceps Without Elbow Pain

Question by Dr. Cotton [Timestamp: 71:49]

Discussion:

• Adam Schafer advises that all tricep exercises inherently target all three heads.
• For those experiencing elbow pain during overhead movements, he recommends reducing weight and focusing on form to alleviate discomfort while still engaging the muscles effectively.

Notable Quote:

"If an exercise hurts, figure out why it hurts and fix that. Sometimes what fixes it is going super light and practicing the movement." – Adam Schafer [73:26]

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Additional Discussions

Peptides and Recovery

Throughout the Episode

The hosts discuss the use of peptides like Pentadeca Arginine and Thymosin Beta for rapid injury recovery, highlighting anecdotes of significantly reduced healing times. They explore how peptides mimic naturally occurring hormones, offering a safer alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals.

Notable Quote:

"Peptides are different than pharmaceuticals. They exist in the body, and the risk profile is generally far safer." – Adam Schafer [40:11]

Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Timestamp: [44:42]

Adam Schafer shares insights on AI's potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics by outperforming human doctors in accuracy. He speculates on AI's integration into medical practices to enhance diagnostic precision and streamline pharmaceutical development.

Notable Quote:

"The AI diagnostic correctly diagnosed four times better than a panel of human doctors." – Adam Schafer [46:07]

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Conclusion

Episode 2638 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth offers a comprehensive guide to slowing down the aging process through practical, evidence-based methods. By integrating strength training, mindful caloric management, nutrient optimization, strategic napping, and mental wellness practices, listeners can adopt a holistic approach to longevity. Additionally, the episode provides valuable coaching on common fitness dilemmas, reinforcing the show's commitment to actionable, science-backed fitness advice.

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Follow Mind Pump on Instagram:
@mindpumpmedia | @mindpumpsal | @mindpumpadam | @mindpumpjustin | @mindpumpdoug

Visit: mindpumppodcast.com | mapsfitnessproducts.com

Transcript

[Narrator]

It started with a fence leaning, weather worn, one of those things you stop noticing until one day it just fell over. The neighbor next door retired, fixed income. She couldn't afford to replace it. So I took a photo of the fallen fence and wrote a few lines about who she is, how she always waves from her porch, how she still puts out Halloween candy just in case someone comes by. I started a GoFundMe. People donated, not a lot, 20 here, 10 there. And when the GoFundMe reached its goal, we hired someone local, got the materials and put it back up by. She had a brand new fence, stronger than before. And somehow it wasn't just her fence anymore, it was ours. One small gesture can bring people together in big ways. If there's someone on your mind, now's the time to do something about it. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform. Start something good today at GoFundMe.com that's GoFundMe.com GoFundMe.com this is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe with actors voicing experiences inspired by GoFundMe users.

[Sal Destefano]

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

[Adam Schaefer]

Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer.

[Sal Destefano]

And Justin Andrews, you just found the.

[Adam Schaefer]

Most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast in the history of podcasting. This is Mind Pump, right? In today's episode, we answered questions that our listeners posted on Instagram mindpump Media. But before we did that, we did the intro portion. Now in the Intro today was 59 minutes long. This is where we talk about fitness studies and fat loss. We talk about current events, family life. That's the fun time. So we hope you'll enjoy it and then get to the questions again. If you want us to answer one of your questions, go to Mind Pump Media on Instagram. That's where you can post it. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Mphormones.com now at MP Hormones. The doctors there can assess your hormones, put you on hormone replacement therapy to build muscle and burn body fat. They also work with peptides. Today we talked about Pentadeca argonate and Thymosin beta for really, really fast recovery from injuries. Go check them out. Go to mphormones.com this episode is also brought to you by Paleo Valley. Paleo Valley makes a protein powder that's so delicious, it literally ruined all protein powders for me. Their chocolate and salted caramel. It tastes like candy. You got to try it out for yourself. Go to paleovalie.com mind pump, by the way, on that link, you'll get 15% off. Also, we have a sale this month on some workout programs, Maps split in the anabolic metabolism bundle of programs. All of that is 50% off. If you're interested, go to maps fitnessproducts.com and then use the code july50 for the discount. Here comes the show. Getting older. It can suck, but it doesn't have to suck. We're going to talk about five proven ways by studies and data that actually slow down the aging process. Again, they're proven. Let's get into it.

[Justin Andrews]

I feel this is prompted from our gray hair conversation.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I know. Getting old rules that we were all. I need to reframe this. Let me list all five first, then we'll break them down. Just so people know what we're going to talk about. Here are the five ways that the data shows are the most effective ways to slow down aging. Strength training, calorie restriction, eating things like omega 3s, grass fed beef fiber, taking naps, and mindfulness or prayer. All right, let's get into all of them and the studies and data that shows why. Now, I first think what I want to do is kind of paint the context. Okay. There's biological aging, which you can measure through certain markers. Right now we don't have this perfect telomeres. Yeah, it's not perfect, but there are some markers that are pretty good. Right. Like telomeres, which is. Or mares. I don't know how you pronounce.

[Doug]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Which is an enzyme produced by the. By the body that'll go up or down depending on how quickly you're aging. Telomere length, in length or shortening, you have other markers, like inflammatory markers, hormone markers. Yeah, that. Mitochondrial dysfunction or function. So that's all biological. But then you have like the perceived dysfunction that. Or should I say that the general dysfunction that we would attribute to aging.

[Doug]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Lack of strength, lack of mobility, lack of energy, you know, stiffness, bones not as strong. Maybe cognitive decline. Like all the things that we, if we were to kind of generally say, like what happens? What are the bad things that happen? You get older. Those are things that, you know, we would typically listen to. And so, sure, the things that we're going to talk about have been shown in studies to reduce the markers of biological aging, but also have been shown to improve the symptoms associated with aging. That's why number one is strength Training.

[Justin Andrews]

I was just going to ask you, what would you say is better, improving the symptoms or the markers that we currently have that tell you whether you're getting older or not?

[Adam Schaefer]

Symptoms. Symptoms or. Yeah, because that's what you're feeling.

[Doug]

Yeah, right.

[Guest]

That's more relevant to your individual experience.

[Adam Schaefer]

Who cares if your biomarkers look great, if you feel like crap, Right.

[Justin Andrews]

Which.

[Adam Schaefer]

Which I don't know if that's ever the case, maybe, because again, we don't have this, like, perfect way of measuring aging from a, you know, biological.

[Guest]

My real age score.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, right, exactly. It's so funny. I had a. I have a cousin who sent everybody his biological age score because he was like, oh, I'm so much younger than my age. And we all know him because he's our cousin and he is.

[Justin Andrews]

He looks the oldest.

[Adam Schaefer]

He's not just looks the oldest. He's for sure the oldest. Like mobility, like everything. Like, most tired, 29. So I don't care what your score says, bro.

[Doug]

Do well.

[Adam Schaefer]

But strength training is at the top because it does all of the stuff. Okay? So as you get older, you can lose strength, you can lose mobility, you can lose balance, your bones can weaken, your hormones can change, your insulin sensitivity gets worse, you lose energy, all that cognitive function declines. Strength training, of all the forms of exercise, is the best. I'm not saying that's the only thing you should do, by the way, just for.

[Guest]

Promotes the best youthful profile.

[Adam Schaefer]

It does. So if you were to pick one form and that's all you had to do, which is not ideal. Ideally, you do multiple forms of exercise.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

But if you had to pick one, that would slow down the aging process the most from. From all the markers and the symptoms. It's strength training. It just is.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, it also has the greatest ROI on the other four things that you listed on.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. You don't need to do a lot of it.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. For what you get on return, for the amount of time invested in doing it. It even surpasses the other four things that you talk about.

[Adam Schaefer]

One or two days a week of strength training is profound in its effects when it comes to slowing it. In fact, my career as a trainer, I had a lot of clients that would be considered. It's so funny. We were in Vegas talking to the clients of our trainers. We now have trainers. We now have trainers who coach and work with clients, some of them virtual. And one of them came up to me. She's in her 70s, wonderful woman. She goes, I hate it when you refer to people in My age group as advanced age. Call them something else. That's just the term that was used in our space. Right. When you get your certifications, it's a category. But I had a lot of clients. A majority of my clients were over the age of 55. In fact, most of them over the age of 60. And they all lifted weights once a week. Like, I don't. I can't think. Maybe one of them that I can think of off the top of my head did more than that. Everybody else was once a week, and they were active throughout the rest of the week. So it wasn't like they didn't exercise.

[Justin Andrews]

Doug was a couple.

[Adam Schaefer]

Doug. Doug was a. He wasn't. He was in his 40s when I trained.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

60S early.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. No, no, no. Sorry, dad. We always got to do the age jokes. It helps when people meet you.

[Justin Andrews]

They're like, oh, my God, he looks amazing for 85.

[Adam Schaefer]

For all the guys talk about, you know, he's not 85, but. But they all lifted once a week. And the difference was, you know, one of the big things that you'll hear about as people get older is their balance is off. And I. And we think. We tend to think that balance is. And it is this. But this isn't what's happening when you're getting older. We think that your vestibular system, your inner ear, like, oh, you're losing your balance because your. Your way of managing balance and your brain is getting worse. That's not what's happening for majority of people as get older.

[Doug]

No.

[Adam Schaefer]

They're losing balance because they're weaker.

[Doug]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

When you're weaker, you're just not as.

[Justin Andrews]

Strong, as stable, and your body is pruning off things that you're not challenging and using.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right.

[Justin Andrews]

So if you don't challenge stability, strength, movements, and out of these that are uncommon, then when the body has to move in this uncommon way or out of it, you're weak. And the body said, we don't need this anymore because you stopped doing it. Therefore, it's interesting that is that what we tend to do is try and pin it on something going on in the brain that there's. Well, I remember, see, is something there. But it really has more to do with.

[Adam Schaefer]

I remember having this discussion with one of the best physical therapists that I've ever met in my entire life. I've talked about her before. She worked in my studio. We had this conversation because she also had clients in this age group. And what she would do is balance exercises which are great. There's nothing wrong with them. But I remember talking to her and saying, you'll get more bang for your buck if you just get them strong. And we had this whole discussion. Now, the reason why she did that is because physical therapists are so correctional exercise focused. They're not strength training focused necessarily. And I remember her going like, one of the few things I taught her, because most of the stuff she taught me was one of the few things that she took from me was like, oh, let's just get them strong. And that's what happened to my clients. I just got them strong and their balance went through the roof because they were stronger. I didn't have to focus on balancing as much. It was just, let's build strength.

[Guest]

This is something. I mean, I've been talking with my dad.

[Justin Andrews]

He's been.

[Guest]

He just had knee replacements and, you know, he's 6, 7, and he's a big guy and he's old and it's like, you know, his bounces off and all this stuff. And started to kind of use a cane. I'm like, you can't use the cane.

[Doug]

Oh, God.

[Guest]

Cane is the beginning of the beginning of the spiral.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

The end.

[Guest]

And so, you know, it's just been work. But I mean, just to. To really folk refocus and prioritize strength training and how we introduce that and do it appropriately with the right amount of dose, like. And it's already making a big difference. But I mean, that is such, like a common theme. It's like, let's just go to the cane. Let's just get stability somewhere.

[Adam Schaefer]

If you had to pick an organ of the body, that was the organ of youth. It's muscle. Muscle is what keeps you young more than any other organ in the body. Keep your muscle healthy and you're going to age slower. That's just a fact.

[Justin Andrews]

And someone would try and make the argument that the heart is that. But by proxy, if you.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right.

[Justin Andrews]

If you, you know, work on the muscle, the heart is going to.

[Adam Schaefer]

Healthy muscle tends to equal a healthy heart. It's more complex than that. Diet comes into play and all the things. Right. Lifestyle. But yeah, healthy muscle contributes to healthy heart. And the studies on this are pretty clear.

[Justin Andrews]

I think that's an important thing for us to discuss in this conversation, because the typical default from either a general practitioner or just the average person will go, oh, this is why I need to, you know, do cardio or do a little bit of aerobic exercise, because I need to strengthen my heart. Because the heart is the most important. The difference is you can strengthen your heart and all the rest of your muscles on your body get weaker and atrophy still. Whereas if you strengthen the muscles support on your entire body, you will get some benefits and carry over to the heart.

[Adam Schaefer]

More carryover. That's right, yeah. And time for time, it's, it's the most useful use of your time. But you should do both. Right?

[Justin Andrews]

Right. And that's, but that's what I'm glad you said it because my point of that is not saying like, oh, don't do any cardio, you should just lift weights. But the point is if I had my dad and I only had one choice, he's any one hour a week with him. Exactly. And he's only. I'm going to get him strength training because I'm going to get some of the heart benefits from that in addition to all the other benefits that come from building muscle.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's funny too, when you look at the studies on bone weakening in women, right? Osteoporosis, more common in women when they have female participants who do aerobic or cardiovascular exercise regularly, their lower body bone density obviously maintains better than the average person who doesn't do anything. But their upper body bone density still declines because it's only on the lower body and it's not as effective as strength training, even for the lower body. Strength training, you build muscle, you build bone, you want strong bones for the rest of your life, stay strong. And again, muscle is the organ of youth, so keep it. By the way, studies on people in their 70s and 80s who do consistent exercise shows that they have muscles that if you were to analyze them in a lab, you almost couldn't tell the difference between them and a 20 something year old. So that's how awesome it is to do strength training. Next is calorie restriction. This one's interesting. Now people take this too far, right? Where they see the studies on animals like oh my God, you know, these rodents or fruit flies live 30% longer because they were on calorie restricted diets. And here's why it goes too far. If you go calorie restrict too far, you can become weak and brittle. Okay? So if you eat too little, you're also weak and that could cause lots of problems. That being said, I think to put this more accurately, calorie restriction, I'd like to say it like this. Don't overeat. Yeah, overeating is a fast way to, to aging.

[Justin Andrews]

I feel like I like that even better than Even saying calorie restrictions.

[Adam Schaefer]

Calorie restrictions with the data because you're.

[Justin Andrews]

Because you, you very easily can tip into the. Too much too. Especially in the context of our experience of training the average person who is also trying to do the first step, which is lift weights, almost always under consumes protein.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And that's one of the most essential things that you could eat for the building blocks of.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm so glad you said that, Adam, because here's what the, the studies show. When they do the studies on calorie restriction. It's a 10 to 15% reduction in calories.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's not a ton, but it's consistent. Do you know how you can get a natural 10 to 15% reduction in calories? Eat a high protein diet. Eat it first.

[Doug]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

So your protein is high. Calories naturally drop. Now you're hitting, now you're doing both.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. And then, and you're hitting the thing that is going to compliment your body, the first one. So and if you negle to do that, that, that's, and this is so important because if you go okay, I got it. And so then you start doing things like fasting and really calorie restricting because you hear the studies and the benefits and you're also doing the strength training. You don't even get to really reap the full benefits of the strength training.

[Doug]

No.

[Justin Andrews]

Because you're not hitting your protein intake. So those, and then that compounds if you actually do that. So if you take the advice you just said, which is instead of looking at like calorie restriction, just eat a high protein diet, prioritize protein, the calories will naturally probably balance themselves that way while also strength training. Now the effects are compound 100%.

[Adam Schaefer]

And then just to hammer this home, when you look at the data on mortality, people who are older, so let's say over the age of 70, the people with the highest mortality risk are people who are severely underweight or underweight. Underweight is worse than being a little overweight when you're older, not obese. But being a little overweight is better than being a little underweight when it comes to mortality. Why you get sick or you're in the hospital and you're a little underweight, a lot more susceptible. That's, that's when things really start to fall apart. So, so it's really more accurately don't overeat and don't overeat consistently. That'll make you age slower. Next is omega threes, grass fed beef and fiber. So omega 3s and grass fed beef, all put in the same category. Now here's why I said grass fed beef. If you eat a lot of beef, it makes a big, it makes a difference to make sure that your beef is grass fed and grass finished. Because the fatty acid profile is better. So really it's connected to the omega 3 tip. Now why omega 3? Because our fatty acid profile in western societies is so off that it's pro inflammatory. We have this huge, we have this terrible ratio of omega 6s and 9s to threes. And what it does is just produces more inflammation in the body which more than is necessary or appropriate, which accelerates the aging process. Foods that are high in omega threes or second best, not as good. But second best is supplementing with omega 3s to balance that out, which reduces the, the oxidative damage and inflammatory process that can contribute or that does contribute to accelerated aging. Fiber is another one and I love talking about fiber because you, you, this carnivore diet group of people, which I'm going to say first, there's a very, very small percentage of people that a carnivore diet is going to be good for. These are the people who are hyper immune response for whatever reason, Michaela Peterson types, where they eat for whatever reason. Their body's super reactive to almost anything. So it's best to avoid almost everything or everything except for meat. And you can get away with meat because it's so nutrient dense. But what they'll often do is make this argument that fiber has no benefits, which is crazy. Fiber has some of the most literature of anything in diet to show benefit. Fiber is beneficial for digestion, beneficial for your microbiome in ways that we now know are beneficial for slowing down the aging process, reducing the risk of disease. Fiber helps with insulin sensitivity. Fiber is good for you. It's good to eat a good amount of fiber. And in the studies on diets that tend to show, you know, benefits in terms of aging, they tend to be higher in fiber. So omega 3, grass fed beef, if you eat a lot of beef and fiber, which, which takes us to naps, this is pretty cool. Have you guys seen the studies on that?

[Justin Andrews]

You know, a little bit, but not a lot. And this one's interesting to me.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. So I'll, I'll read you some of the studies.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. While you're getting into it, I, I have a, a theory on, on why this is this from a study perspective gets so praised so much. I think it has less to do with taking naps and more to do with how much as a population, we neglect sleep. Yeah, yeah, that's my theory too.

[Guest]

And as we age, and I've noticed this with my grandparents and like it, and they've even mentioned it, that it's been a lot like, they go to bed a bit later and get up really early. So their. Their window kind of changes in terms of the amount of sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

That sleep quality gets worse as you age. That's a fact. It's an absolute fact that that happens. So that may be the case, Adam. In fact, there was a study that was done because I thought one reason why sometimes people avoid napping is that it might disrupt their evening sleep. And what they found in older individuals was it didn't interesting. It did not disrupt their evening sleep. So it just contributed to getting better sleep or more sleep. Now, the studies show that short, regular daytime naps between five to 30 minutes. So you're not napping for an hour or two.

[Justin Andrews]

No, it's very short.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're napping for 20 to 30 minutes.

[Justin Andrews]

And anybody who's ever experienced this knows this. Like, you, you, once you cross over.

[Adam Schaefer]

That, like, yeah, you get to 45 minutes to an hour, you wake up, it's a worse.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, you feel worse.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

But whereas sometimes that. I just did this while we were up in Truckee, because this is a place when I feel like I can do this, where we get up early, we go to the lake, we're active. So, like that and like midday, I'm like, man, I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap and I'll lay down. And it' like it's so fast, it almost felt like I didn't sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. You feel like you were awake the whole time.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, but I know I slept because the time went by and I went, oh, wow. I slept probably 20, 30 minutes. And then I feel so refreshed.

[Adam Schaefer]

So here's what the data shows, and this is just a summary of it, by the way. The strongest evidence comes from. There's a UK Biobank study. It linked habitual napping, those short naps, to brain volume equivalent to 2.6 to 6.5 years younger. So when people did this, their brains looked younger than their actual age.

[Doug]

Trip.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right. Moderate napping is also correlated with slower cognitive decline and biological age acceleration in longitudinal tunal studies. These are studies of, like, thousands and thousands of people. Now, here's the other side of it. Excessive long naps probably signals or signifies that you have some health issues. And so somebody's like, oh, my God, I Need a two hour nap every day.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's something going on.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

That we need to look at. But the short naps, 20 to 30, that's, that's mine. 20 minutes. And I'll often tell my wife this, I'll say I'm gonna go take a nap for 20 minutes, I'll set my alarm, I'll come back and I'm like a new person.

[Justin Andrews]

So do you think though that, to my point, that it, it has more to do with what you're lacking in your, your night's rest than it has with this, this, that this is some sort of a hack?

[Adam Schaefer]

I think it's both.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, like if somebody was getting eight hours of full great rest every single night, I imagine they're getting little benefit to these naps. Or do you think that person still experiences the same benefit as the person who is only getting six hours and then they're also at least taking this nap?

[Adam Schaefer]

So they've done studies on both and they both benefit.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So everybody benefits from a 15, even somebody well rested. That's right.

[Justin Andrews]

Interesting.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right. In fact, it's, it's, I could say this right now and I bet you 80% of people listening would be like, oh yeah, we all get that dip of energy right around 2 3pm what we typically do is reach for caffeine.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

To get us up. When a 20 minute nap would be perfect and would require no drugs, no caffeine, just to make us feel better. And then lastly is mindfulness or prayer. This one's one of my favorite ones. I'll pull up some studies for you guys, which is pretty remarkable. There was a cross sectional study that analyzed over 1200 adults between the ages of 40 to 80. What they found, this was the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and they were looking for links between religious practices and telomere length. Frequent prayer was strongly associated with longer telomeres, particularly in women and older adults. The effect was partially mediated by social support and lower stress. So suggested that prayers benefits might also come from emotional regulation, community engagement. Telomere length was approximately 5% longer in frequent prayers compared to non prayers, which is equivalent to about one to two years of slower aging. Now mindfulness is the other side of it. So mindfulness is like meditation, stuff like that. And they found that it also does the same thing. Increases telomere activity, reduces stress cortisol levels. You get increased improved insulin sensitivity. Like it's no longer the woo woo. Like we have lots of, lots of studies that support, I mean it's better memory, executive function scores, slower cognitive decline.

[Justin Andrews]

I think there's a deeper root connection there. I've been thinking about this a lot too. I just listened to a really cool conversation with Chris Williamson and Alex Hormozi and they're kind of, they were talking about this interesting phenomenon that we, we do as humans where let's say you're having what you would consider a bad year of your life or a bad season of your life. And then you unpack that. Like what does that mean? And really what it is, it's a collection. And normally a small collection one time moments where something negative happened.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

But then you, you know, catastrophize it as this magic. This massive time frame was really like those were four little blips. Blips in a period of this time. But you've chosen to focus so much on it and allow it to be this big problem. So if this is true, then the inverse should be too. Can I not take these small positive moments that have happened probably in the same exact time frame and reframe that time of my life and go, it really isn't a bad time of my life. In fact, I've had several significantly more positive things. And so I think mindfulness and prayer hacks into that. I think mindfulness and prayer or gratitude practices stop you for a moment because it's very easy. We're wired this way. Bad thing happens. Freak out. All the negative, like all your focus goes there. All the focus goes there because we're wired that way. So it takes you actively going, wait a second, you know, I'm okay, I'm not going to die. There's no lion. Or whether that, that, yeah, sure, I lost the job. Yeah, sure. Got in a huge fight with what. But the end of the day, this also happened. And this happened. And this also happened. And it's like, and I'm healthy and I'm alive and I got somebody who loves me.

[Adam Schaefer]

We are. We are.

[Guest]

Fear doesn't prevent death.

[Doug]

Right. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And we are, we are negatively inclined. And we are take for granted machines. Yes, we really are. We are. My dad used to tell me this all the time. So. My father was a poor Sicilian immigrant, very poor. Okay. No, he had to, he had to leave school to work at 9. That's how poor they were as a family. And he used to tell me this all the time. Like, man, you have no idea the blessings that you have. And I didn't get it as a kid. I just never understood. I think this is why sometimes when People travel or they go volunteer.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

They come back happier perspective. It changes your perspective because how often do you turn on your water faucet and go, man, I'm so grateful.

[Justin Andrews]

I know.

[Adam Schaefer]

I got water Outlook.

[Guest]

It creates your reality.

[Adam Schaefer]

Instead, here's what happens. Or you turn on the light switch. Instead. This is what happens. Your power goes out once a year. Life sucks. Yeah. Rather than 364 days. This year, I wanted electricity, and I had it just at the fingertip. There's a comedian that does this bit where he talks about how people were complaining that their wi fi wasn't working on the airplane. And he's like, you are traveling through the sky. You're on a. On a charade of the gods to Hawaii, and you can't, you know, get on Instagram for 10 minutes, you know. Yeah, but it. But it requires practice.

[Doug]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because if you allow your body, your brain to naturally do what it does, it is going to go to the negative. It won't go to the positive.

[Justin Andrews]

So this is my point.

[Adam Schaefer]

I agree.

[Justin Andrews]

Of the unpacking the prayer and the mindfulness thing. Or you throw in gratitude practice in there is, I think, what. What we. If you. Literally speaking again, Alex Hormozi, his most viral tweet was he said the. The greatest superpower. I'm going to probably bastardize a little bit, so forgive me, but it's like the greatest superpower is the ability to be grateful in moments when there's nothing to be grateful about.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And so. And I think there. And the reason why I probably went so viral is because there is so much truth in that statement is like that ability, again, reframing and being positive in when there's nothing to be positive about has so much power. Maybe the greatest. One of the most great, great, most powerful things you ever learn to do. And so I think prayer, mindfulness, all those things give you a glimpse of what that.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it has to be a practice.

[Guest]

You feel that there's nothing to be grateful for because you haven't trained yourself how to do that.

[Justin Andrews]

It made me think. Did you share on the podcast? I don't know if you did. I know you did with me privately. I don't know if you share publicly on the podcast, but I just think it's. It goes right in line with this conversation. I think it's so important for all of us is you. You began to. You stopped with the, you know, five things of gratitude at the end of the night, and you have now throughout the day, throughout the day, like force yourself And I just think that it. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because my pray, my gratitude, my prayers were. Started becoming.

[Justin Andrews]

Did we talk about that publicly, or does that just mean you.

[Adam Schaefer]

I don't know if we talked about.

[Justin Andrews]

I just think it's. If we didn't or if we did it, I apologize for us having this again. But I just. It's on my mind a lot. I think it's really powerful. I think it's an incredible hack. I don't know if you got that from somebody else or.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, what happened was I found. I always. You always hear gratitude. Practice, practice, practice. So I knew the value of it. But the problem was my prayer started to sound generic.

[Justin Andrews]

Same thing, same five.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Like, hey, thank you for my family. Thank you for my health. Thank you for, like, every day. And I was missing the daily small things that I could be grateful for. And so what I started to do, actually set alarms for a little while was every other hour, little alarm would go off and I'd be like, all right, what just happened that I'm grateful for? And I started finding myself grateful for.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, random little stuff.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, my. I'm grateful for the.

[Doug]

The. The.

[Adam Schaefer]

The joke that Justin told me earlier. Oh, my God, that was so funny. I'm so grateful for. I'm so grateful. I went for a walk and it was sunny. Sounds silly, but it changes your brain so unbelievably powerful.

[Justin Andrews]

And I think that. I think gratitude practices have been. Become so popular, and everybody talks about it, and there's really, like, two camps. You have people that, like, have bought into it. I'm like, oh, my God. Lifechanging other people. Like, oh, it's a bunch of. And I think where the bunch of comes from is from people. And I can. I can attest this personally myself of doing the exact same thing where it's like, okay, I've really implemented that for a while and been like, I'm. I'm even to write it down, the five. And the same thing happened to me. I'm like, well, this is lame. I'm writing the same five things. It's not that I'm. I'm not any more or less grateful for those things because I'm. I am writing them or not writing them down anymore. But what it. I failed to do was that was like, how about, like, look beyond that? And then. And then that's hard to do at the end of the day.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, you forget, but you.

[Justin Andrews]

Exactly. And so what a great new practice that you have implemented.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's cool, too, because my wife has been Commenting to me on how encouraging I've been lately. But I haven't even thought of trying to be more encouraging. It's happening now.

[Justin Andrews]

It's a byproduct.

[Guest]

You're just noticing things.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm just noticing stuff that I don't know.

[Justin Andrews]

Cause you're positive.

[Adam Schaefer]

And I can't default to noticing them because it's not my default. It's just not a default. Human default. And there are more positive than negative people. I get that. But, no, it's a practice. And the data shows, man, they can measure your aging. They can measure your. Your health. I mean, these are real effects. It's not just your mind changes. It's your health changes, your fitness changes. Everything changes. It's like you're doing something.

[Guest]

Hey, you know, if you stay in that negative frame.

[Adam Schaefer]

100. Speaking of aging, I gotta tell you, it's just something funny. I know you guys will make fun of me, but I had. I had friends over positively. I had friends over on Sunday, good friends of ours, James and Melissa. Love them. And we're hanging out, and my wife does a good job of making photo albums. And you know what she does? She takes these pictures and she gets them printed in these books. They're really cool. You can get them printed. Shutterfly. Yeah, that's what it is. Okay, so we had them out, and these are like, 2016, 2017. So they're old. You know, it's like, you know, eight years old type of deal. And so these friends came over and they'd never seen these pictures. And we've only become. We've only been friends with them for, like, the last six months. So they pick them up and they're looking at it, and they're like, oh, my God. They're like, is that you? Like, yeah. Wow, look at all that hair. And look at that baby face. I'm like, screw you guys. That's eight years ago. But. And I. I. It just, you know, made me realize it's. And this is true, too. The older you get, the faster you age. Actually, look this up. The aging.

[Doug]

The.

[Adam Schaefer]

The aging process.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

It accelerates as you get older. Now, that being said, probably has a.

[Justin Andrews]

Lot to do with the other things we talk about.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But also. Also for anybody in this category where you're. As. You're getting older, like, oh, my God. If you do the things that we're talking about regularly, it's. It's not fair to compare yourself to eight years ago. And comparison isn't a great thing anyway. But if your ego Needs a little stroke like mine did. I'm like, all right, do I know any other 46 year olds and how my aging comparison to them? Pretty good. I'm doing all right.

[Guest]

I blame my gray hair on seeing a ghost.

[Adam Schaefer]

So say what?

[Guest]

I said I blame my gray hair on seeing a ghost.

[Adam Schaefer]

When did you, what ghost did you see?

[Guest]

That's a ghost.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, no. Yeah, your favorite.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I, you know, I have a story I like to, I love to share when talking about aging because it was so impactful for me in my 20s and I've shared it once or twice before in the podcast, but since you're on a topic, shared again. Like, I thought one of the coolest. I'm like 24ish or 5ish, somewhere around that range. And we've all talked about. One of our favorite things about training clients that were much older than us is just the wisdom.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, I love it.

[Justin Andrews]

And I, and I. One of my favorite things about being a personal trainer is I just love, love meeting all these different people from all different walks and all different age levels and parts of their life. And I just, sometimes I feel like I got more from the training session than they did.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

Asking them questions. And I had this, this boot camp class, right. Of like, I don't know, probably 20, mostly women, some men, but mostly women in there and ages from. I think the youngest I had in there was a teenager or early twenties, all the way up to like seventy, you know, the, the whole range. And I, I asked one morning, it was just on top of mind for me because I was thinking about aging and getting older and stuff like that. And I was just like, man, I'd like, I gotta be in the best years. Like I'm 25, I'm going to Vegas, I got a couple dollars in my pocket. Like, I look good, I feel good. Like, this is probably, this could be peak.

[Adam Schaefer]

Is this peak for me?

[Justin Andrews]

Like, you know, and I'm so, I'm asking all them and the thing that I found that was so unique was that every single one of them would talk about, oh yeah, I remember my 20s or I remember my third. And then, and then I'd say like, so what were, I asked him what was the best period of your life? Time wise. And every single one of them, whether I was Talking to the 30, the 40, the 50 or the 70 year old, said right now, that's so cool. And, and I was like, wow, that's interesting.

[Adam Schaefer]

The one thing they had in common was they're all fit.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because if your health goes south. I could see.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, they were. I mean they not. I wouldn't say like, like, you know, healthy. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

They were doing a boot camp. Yes, yes.

[Justin Andrews]

And so all of them. Yeah, exactly. The fact that they could even do a boot camp speaks to their. At least their level of fitness and health.

[Doug]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

They weren't ripped jacked fitness but they weren't like they were people that cared about their health enough to show up to a 6am class with this young kid and run around a track and do a bunch of shit. Right. So it. But we really fascinated that mean that literally 100 across the board. Then there was not one person that goes like oh man. I mean I missed my 30s. My 30s were great. You know, I'm saying, you know, 50s, not at every one of them said all the great things about those periods of time. Still didn't trump the current moment.

[Adam Schaefer]

Would you say. Well, let me ask you guys, would you trade wisdom for going back 10 years ago, 15 years, 20 years? No, that would suck.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's what they say, youth is wasted on the young. It's because wisdom is so valuable. Yeah, it's super valuable. And wisdom gives you peace and calm and all this in the knowledge that comes. Wisdom is different than knowledge. It's. It's from experience.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

I used to love training all the clients because that.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, the advice they would give me was always like love. Oh, it was the best.

[Doug]

I love.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean we had a call yesterday. Was that the one that you were in or. Yeah, it was the one you were in. When we had. We launched we kicked off the longevity group and Linda, was that her name? 75 year old.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, I think so.

[Doug]

Oh yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Just love. I mean man, I let her down.

[Adam Schaefer]

So she can listen to it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. That just lights me up. When we get, when we get clientele. I love. That's probably. We did a thing that was different, unique to the audience that didn't. It wasn't there first time ever we'd done this where we launched a program and then we offered a. Basically a free zoom for the first kickoff. Yeah, kickoff to the program. And so you just got just for us an opportunity to for an hour talk to this audience of people and man to look at the group of the hundred and something. Whatever 100, 200 people that were in there.

[Guest]

Such a spectrum.

[Justin Andrews]

Such a spectrum. I mean everything from young old. I mean every, every walk alive you could think of is just so cool to see that. And I, you know, speaking of the. I just think it's so neat that we've got people that are 75 and just love the show.

[Adam Schaefer]

Speaking of trainers and stuff, that clip you showed me me of Joe DeFranco, I love him.

[Justin Andrews]

So listen, let me tell you, he gets it.

[Adam Schaefer]

He's so good.

[Justin Andrews]

You know the story. Okay, yeah, let me tell you the story. So I get a text. I've been talking a lot with, you know, we have guests on the show. We have lots of people that come through here. Every once in a while, we all talk about this, that we. We meet people that we just hit it off with, and we, you know, they walk out, we go like, oh, that's our people. Joe DeFranco is an example of that. Right. Ben Bruno has been that just for sure. Really. He wasn't even on my radar. And then I. And then we got to know him. I had heard his name drop a bunch of times and seen his stuff. I was like, oh, he seems like a good guy, but it haven't really met and hung out. And then we hung out just like, oh, that's our people. Really, really like this dude. And we've remained in. In texting con back and forth and, you know, probably, I don't know, once or twice a week is what we text each other. And he sends me over this text. He sends me a clip from Instagram, and it's a trainer basically. Talking about him.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And he's like, do you know who this guy is? And it's one of the guys from Functional Patterns who we've talked about before. Just, you know, as far as, like, his. His method of getting attention on the Internet. And so we've already. I won't go through us scolding his ass because. But the point of videos out there, who he was like, oh, yeah, yeah. I kind of like, eye rolled him. Like, yeah, I know who the dude is or what. Like that, like, not, you know, whatever. He's like, man. He goes, I can't stand trainers like this. I said, I tell you what, I'm going to. I said, this is last week. I said, I'll tell you what, I'll bring it up on the show and roast his ass again. Just because I don't, like, I don't. I think it's just poor taste with some of this. But then literally, like three days later, I'm up on my feed and Joe DeFranco decided to do. What do they call that, Like a reaction video to that trainer who's basically shitty on room. And I told Ben, I'm like, I don't think I could do that better. I said, he's like, Joe lit him on fire.

[Adam Schaefer]

So the video was. So who's the athlete that he's training?

[Justin Andrews]

Tyrese Halliburton.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay, so Ben's is. By the way, Ben has a client base that's incredible because he's so good and he trains this athlete. And I guess this athlete suffered an Achilles injury.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And this functional patterns guy is like, oh, it's this. This is why he tore his Achilles. It's this exercise criticizing Ben, which is just, oh, it's so frustrating because. And Joe DeFranco breaks it down. Well, but you can. There is no training methodology that will guarantee injury free, especially at that level. But the point he made, I thought was so good. He goes, look, if you're going to criticize him for this, for his. As his trainer, for this injury, you should also credit him for all the success, which. And he. And he crushed.

[Justin Andrews]

Which, by the way. Okay. Tyrese Helliburton is what, in season three or so right now? So he's what we consider like his freshman years as a pro athlete and is having a all star career year. Carried the Pacers all the way to the NBA Finals.

[Adam Schaefer]

Ben's his trainer.

[Justin Andrews]

And Ben is his personal trainer. Went on one of the most epic, epic runs in playoffs you have ever seen. Nobody had the Pacers predicted to go all the way. Nobody saw him. So. And then, by the way, it's game seven, last game of the championship. Paces are playing. And Tyrese against what was told to him to sit out because he had already strained his calf.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And he played anyways. And then he tore his Achilles.

[Doug]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

And then he tore his Achilles.

[Adam Schaefer]

And then.

[Justin Andrews]

So for some puke trainer to break down.

[Adam Schaefer]

I heard that word in so long.

[Justin Andrews]

To break down that it's.

[Adam Schaefer]

It was just one exercise.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, just to like, that's such garbage to do that. And. But I mean, I had planned to come on here and roast that the. The functional patterns guy, but I was like, dude, Joe did such a better job. I could have.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what I like about Joe?

[Justin Andrews]

Share the clip.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because Joe was a trainer. I looked up to when I was a trainer, and here we are, you know, 10 years into mind pump. He's still a trainer. I look up to. I still learn from. He's incredible. Absolutely incredible. Speaking of injuries and healing, what always used to blow me away, and I think I know why now these athletes will have a tear and they heal so fast, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

It's.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's I used to be like now part of its genetic. They are of course athletes. They're like the 1%. So their bodies are just different.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But the other part of it which I understand now is they've probably been using healing peptides for 15 years for sure. Before we know about it.

[Doug]

Before.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, for sure.

[Justin Andrews]

Of course of. Because it's all the science has been around for a long.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right.

[Justin Andrews]

And so you know that when you're that high of a level and you have that kind of money, you have that much resources and access, you're a.

[Adam Schaefer]

However many millions of dollar asset to this team.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

They're going to be like let's get the top scientists. Let's get you.

[Justin Andrews]

I was the same way too. I was always like this makes no sense.

[Adam Schaefer]

How are they playing like at a pro?

[Justin Andrews]

Of course genetic genetics always play a huge role. So they're the super athlete is you know, part of what makes them a super athlete aside from all their athletic gift abilities probably also their recovery ability, their ability to tolerate. So they, they have that working for them too. But still it was still such a short period of time that it didn't make sense to me. Like there's something else going on here. I feel like what we understand and know about peptides now and some of the recovery therapies that are becoming popular today that science has been around, I.

[Adam Schaefer]

Got to say so because we, because we have our partners@np hormones.com, we have access to peptides which allows me to, to use them and see what's doing what or whatever when you combine. So pentadeca organate, which is almost identical to BPC157. So BPC157 is what everybody knows. But I use a version called Pentadeca Organate. You combine that with Thymosyn Beta Wolverine stack. Oh wow.

[Justin Andrews]

There's a reason why they call it that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh wow. And there's anecdotes of people like healing in 50 of the. The time it would normally take.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Cut your healing in half. When I use those two, if I have a strain or anything like that, it is miraculous. I'm not using that word lightly. It's literally miraculous. The other thing too when you combine those two is you just get this different look to your body. And I think it's because it upregulates the growth hormone receptors. So I think because it definitely changes how my body looks. But that combo right there, those two peptides together, if you want to heal. Oh my goodness.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean it is Crazy supplements are here, peptides and stuff. And hormone therapy is like up here. And even within that category. And you're probably one of the better people. I think you. I think Ben Greenfield, guys that really control a lot of the variables in their normal life are some of the best people to hear talk about.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, wow.

[Justin Andrews]

I felt that I noticed a difference. I'm not that person, admittedly, like one. I'm super inconsistent with things all the time. I change variables right now in my life. Right. Competing time. That was a total different time. But right now I'm like, I'm admittedly not the best person to be like, oh, this peptide or this thing. But that is so noticeably different. Like I've been.

[Adam Schaefer]

Because you've used it when you've injured.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I've been injured so many times in my entire training career and playing sports like my entire life and know about how long a thing an injury should take and what it should feel like. And every time that I've been injured and I've. And I've used that stack now and it's probably been at least six times now or whatever it is. Like notice like half the time to.

[Adam Schaefer]

The point where you're questioning. Yes, he'll. Yeah, healing. Like, is this really. I tore my hamstring where it was. There was bruising. It was noticeable. I tore the hamstring in. In Hawaii. It was noticeable. Bruising. Didn't have access to my peptides. So I was in Hawaii for the. For five days with this injury, limping around, got back, went on the. The two peptides I talked about within three weeks. Fine, three weeks. This was a discoloration hamster. This was like a great. A pretty high grade.

[Justin Andrews]

What is your prediction, Sal, with RFK getting involved now and I know what his thoughts are on a lot of that. Do you think that we are going to see peptides more widely used just by the general population? Do you think we're going to start to see it more in like the general practitioners being able to.

[Adam Schaefer]

I do. Because they're different than pharmaceuticals. So peptides exist in the body. Now, that doesn't mean that. Mean that they're risk free, but the risk profile of a peptide is generally far safer than a pharmaceutical, mainly because they already exist in the body. Pharmaceuticals are drugs that they invent to shoehorn into a particular class of receptors to make something happen. Peptides, your body knows what they are and what to do with them. So like BPC157, Thymus and Beta is made by your thymus.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

Your Body releases this when you're injured. It releases it to speed up recovery. Taking it is your body knows what to do with it and it does what it's supposed to do with it. A pharmaceutical is different because the side effects are, well, who knows? And let's see what ends up happening. And again, we're kind of forcing this drug to do this thing. But a peptide is, it's like a hormone. Your body already has them. So when you take those two peptides together, you're taking two things that your body already produces. You're just amping them up, which speeds up signaling the natural. That's right. Now the problem is, is that they're not, you know, they're generic. So the margins on them are slower or smaller. They're not patented like a drug is. So the incentives are not the same. That being said, they're so effective that they're blowing up and everybody knows about them and they're exploding. And I think that what I think he's going to do, I'm hoping what he's going to do is he's going to place, he's going to try to make it more accessible for people as an alternative. Because right now, if you want a pharmaceutical for pain, your insurance will cover it. So now I'm like, well, I got this pain in my knee. Doctor prescribes painkiller. I'm going to take that. Whereas if I got to go get a peptide, it's more expensive. Not because peptides are more expensive, but because insurance doesn't cover loopholes. That's right.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So that's what I think is going to end up happening. It'll be interesting as a result. Speaking of doctors, you guys see the, the report on AI doctors? Have you guys seen this?

[Justin Andrews]

No.

[Adam Schaefer]

Can I read something crazy to you guys?

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I, I mean I heard, I know of people already that are using AI just to read their, their, their panels for them and getting like these crazy. Right. If you know how to prompt the AI correctly and you go, here's my blood panels. Basically tell me all the things I should be doing supplementing all that. Like, and the reports are like, I'm.

[Guest]

Sure it's a lot more individualized. Oh, doctor. And it's a general practitioner. You're just going to get like, well.

[Justin Andrews]

And then, and then you can modify, adjusting. So then it kicks you feed you all this and you go, well, I also have this going on. Or I also have only this much time to do this. And I, it's like, so gears here's.

[Adam Schaefer]

The difference between a brilliant doctor and a good doctor when it comes to diagnosing. A brilliant doctor can take all these, all these variables from you. They know your medical history. You went to this doctor, went to that doctor. They take all this stuff, they can bring it together, and from there they can assess what's going on better than a good doctor.

[Guest]

Brilliant doctors, more data points to work with.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So what's that one TV show with that one doctor that does that? So that's an example of like, now that's obviously TV show, but a brilliant doctor can look at all these variables like, and, oh, I've been to 50 doctors. They can't tell what's wrong with me. And then the brilliant doctor will look at everything, go, oh, this is what's happening. This is what's going on. AI does that very well because it could take every variable.

[Doug]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

So what they did was so they took AI, an AI model. Microsoft developed an AI system. Okay. And they compared it, they benchmarked it against real world case records published each week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The AI diagnostic correctly diagnosed four times better than a panel of human doctors. So they compared it to a panel of human doctors versus AI. They knew what the answer was. So they said, here, what do you think's going on here? AI was four times more effective at diagnosing.

[Justin Andrews]

Yikes.

[Adam Schaefer]

How wild is that? Isn't that crazy?

[Guest]

They had all the same variables.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right.

[Guest]

Access to those variables and still beat them.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep, that's right.

[Justin Andrews]

So what? A major disruptor.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, that's crazy.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So now they're not. I don't think they'll replace doctors.

[Justin Andrews]

No, no, no, no. You know what's cool about this, that's exciting is that one of the number one complaints both from doctors and from patients is the limited time that doctors have. Totally with these patients is they got 15 minutes to do exactly what you just said. Just aggregate all this data, figure it out, get a little bit of a personal story. You feel okay. And then do this thing where what I think is going to happen is that they're going to be able to use it in conjunction with the. Or complement with the, the AI. And now you're just going to get a better.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Answer and response from your doctor.

[Adam Schaefer]

If I had to imagine what this would look like, it would be like they would use an AI model that's going to give them three options. Then the doctor is going to look.

[Justin Andrews]

At those options and say, I think we should do this.

[Doug]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

Rather than like this or even final say. Yeah, or even.

[Justin Andrews]

Or even like how right now when you come, like, what's the, the process? You go in to see the doctor, you sit in the lobby for a half hour, then you, you get in, you see the nurse who comes and does some of the basic blood pressure stuff like that. Then you wait again for another 15 minutes. The doctor comes in, you get 15 minutes with him.

[Guest]

Need longer forms to fill out ahead of time. So when you go in there, you get all the variables and it, you know, accumulates.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, or the nurse does a lot of that for you. She does a lot of getting it set up for when the doctor comes in. I mean, I. It's going to, it's going to make things better.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

More efficient.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah, Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I don't think it eliminates doctors in the human element quite yet, at least.

[Adam Schaefer]

No, it's also going to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry because what it's going to do is it's going to take all these potential drugs and it's going to sift through 100,000 potentials and break it down to the. These are the ones that are 90% likely to be effective for what you look for. It's going to break IT down to 4 or 5. Then the pharma industry can now take their money and invest in those and figure out what's going on. It's going to save a lot of money.

[Guest]

Be cool to see that too, even on a preventative level. Or you see options of like, here's, you know, if the symptoms are severe, then we start going down the chain of like, you know, more aggressive.

[Adam Schaefer]

I have a family member who he. His father died in his early 40s from a heart attack. He's had a couple heart attacks now, and he's only in his, I want to say, in his late 50s. And when he first off having a heart attack, one of the things that they'll measure, I think it's called troponin. If I. Am I right, dog. Is that what it is? Look that up. It's. I think it's a marker of heart damage. His troponin levels will measure fine. He went to the hospital having a heart attack. He's got the pain and they're like measuring his troponin. Like, you're not having a heart attack, you're not having a heart attack. Your levels are normal. And it turned out he was having a heart attack. He doesn't have crazy blood lipids. He doesn't have all this other like. And they can't figure out why. And this happens. By the way, this is a small but significant percentage of people. They're in this weird category of why are you getting these issues when you don't have all these normal markers that we would normally see? Is it troponin? It is troponin. Like, what's going on? Someone like that I could see benefiting from AI where they're like, you know what, let's do all these tests, input your data in the AI and let's. Yeah, let's figure it out. And it could be something. It could be something strange like you don't absorb this nutrient. That's it.

[Justin Andrews]

Who are all the top competitors in AI and what are their cult? So you have gbt, you have Gronk. You have Gronk.

[Adam Schaefer]

I know Microsoft has a few. Few has one. Who's.

[Doug]

Who's.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Guest]

Gemini. Google's.

[Justin Andrews]

So have you. I was asking because I know that there. I think we even said this, that we thought that Chat GBT was going to like, basically destroy Google. Right. And I even told my friends the other day, I was like, you know, we're still, we're so conditioned to Google search when using AI is far more. Is better for everything. Every single thing that you would Google for AI is better than Googling already. Right. But do you, have you guys noticed when you Google, what happens now?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, it pops up. AI.

[Justin Andrews]

The first answer is AI now.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

So it's already like, what a move. Yeah, what a move by Google. I didn't even realize this until recently because I, I again, I've been trying to use chat GPT and then I actually Googled something and I went, oh, the top, the top thing is, is the AI answer first and then it has all the links to other possibilities. But they've already integrated that. So to me, that was the best defense they had to that.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So these are all.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's a lot. Chad, gbt, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Deep Seek, Splutter, Meta.

[Justin Andrews]

Gemini doesn't even have Grok's not even on there.

[Adam Schaefer]

Interesting. Blutter.

[Doug]

AI. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Who owns Grok? Who owns that one?

[Adam Schaefer]

That's Elon Musk.

[Justin Andrews]

That's X. And chat GBT is OpenAI on Microsoft. And then what? And then who did you say Google was?

[Sal Destefano]

Gemini.

[Justin Andrews]

I think Gemini is Google.

[Doug]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, now one of the challenges though, is that sometimes the answers seem like they're biased because the AI seems like it has its own bias or personality. So it'll say it'll come up with answers that are like, huh? Like, why would you say something like that? Some of them are pretty obvious.

[Doug]

Really. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So now can you prompt out of it, though? You can imagine you can prompt out of it.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Like there's a famous one where it's like there was a famous one where it's like, you know, if there was a terror, they'll ask like, hypothetical questions. They fix this. But there was one where it was like, if there's a terrorist who's going to detonate a nuke but you. But in order for you to stop them from detonating the nuke, you had to say a racial slur. What do you do? And the air is like, well, you never should say. So in other words, let the nuke go off.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it's because it was programmed that that's like one of the worst possible things.

[Doug]

Yes. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's a silly example, but.

[Doug]

But, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

So interesting. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And I feel like you could, like, even the imperfections, at least what I've seen, you can prompt around it where you could say like, well, except for this example. Or give me something that's more like this. Or speak to me from this. Like there's even. I've even heard about the, like, loopholes around gambling and stuff like that. Like, because they've obviously programmed it to where gamblers can't use it to improve their gambling skills. But then you could still prompt.

[Adam Schaefer]

Figure out a way.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Like it's a book or a movie, you know, write a book or a movie. Yeah. Like, so there's, there's prompts to still work around all the things that they're trying to like, regulate with it. So it's interesting.

[Adam Schaefer]

I got a question for you guys. Have you guys ever used something that was so good a product or maybe you drove a car or you did something that it ruined that whole category because it was so good. Does that ever happen to you?

[Doug]

Yeah, there's lots of things.

[Adam Schaefer]

Things like that. So. So I. Paleo Valley ruined protein powder. For me. It tastes so good that everything else tastes terrible.

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's a combination though, for you.

[Doug]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not only does it taste so good, but it also probably, when you talk about digestion is probably one.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, that's why I started using it.

[Doug]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Was because I can digest collagen easily. I can't digest it.

[Guest]

Can't do waste.

[Doug]

No. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

But I had. I mean, I've have, I've had so many friends now that switched over it because the taste and they're like, are you sure this doesn't have, like, a bunch of sugar? Are you sure this. I'm like, no.

[Justin Andrews]

My favorite part about it is the. Your ability to boost it all the way up to, say, 60, 80 grams.

[Adam Schaefer]

And feel like water and.

[Doug]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

And it not because I remember the old days of doing that. I remember a young kid trying to chase protein and having a hard time back then and being like, I'll just have three scoops or four scoops.

[Guest]

And it's just like, oh, my God. Suffering.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. You're just, like, choking down chalk or. It was paste tea. It was just like, this is not good. Where that. It's so thin and light that you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Can put four or five scoops in there.

[Justin Andrews]

And it's like, I used to do.

[Adam Schaefer]

This in high school, man. I would pound protein shakes or gainers. Then I'd go to school, bro. And I was.

[Guest]

There's like, fireworks in the back of the math class.

[Adam Schaefer]

Just like, oh, my God, you guys are those guys. I'm like, poor. I felt bad for anybody blaming on everybody else. Of course you did. You'd call it out right away.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. You probably pointed out the nerd. Oh, my God, Johnny, that's your fault, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

I have a story I got to share with you, Sal, before I forget. I shared it with Doug and Justin yesterday, and I did, only because.

[Doug]

Was it.

[Justin Andrews]

Who was training? Who's Marcelo? Marcelo had a client in our studio, and Marcelo, obviously, like, our trainers, sometimes will let the client choose their music or playlist.

[Doug]

Oh.

[Justin Andrews]

And so this song comes on, and I go, oh, my God. Like, up until just a week ago, I'd never heard the song, and now I've heard it a thousand times already. And so I'm like, whose playlist is this? And Marcel's like, oh. He points to the client. I'm like, oh, I got to tell you, this story that just happened to me. So we are. It's me, my best friend, and my best friend's daughter. The one that. I tell you, she is just like a fireball. She is all personality. Absolutely love this. My goddaughter is amazing, right? And she. She's in the car. It's me, my. My best friend and me. We're in my truck, and then she's in the back seat, and we're driving from Reno to Truckee, and she's this. She, like, Justin and I are kind of talking, having conversation, and she's, like, trying to get our attention. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. Pink pony girl Pink pony girl. She keeps Saying that to Justin. I'm like, what is she saying? He's like, oh, peak pony girl. I'm like, what is that? Is that a game or something there a toy she wants? And he's, he's like, no, no, it's a song. He's like, she wants me to play it. I'm like, well, play it. Put it on right so. And I'm like, uncle, getting all into it. And you know my truck, I got the stereo system. So I'm like, yeah. He puts on Pink Pony Girl. I crank it up in there.

[Doug]

She's.

[Justin Andrews]

The windows are down. We're driving. Summer days of that. She is just singing at the top of her lung. Little three year old, she knows all the words. I'm dying laughing. And we're like, we're going. And I'm like listening. And I go, bro, do you know what the fuck your daughter is singing right now, bro? The song is about a girl who moves from Tennessee to California to become a stripper.

[Adam Schaefer]

She's like, rebel, what are you doing, bro? You have got to listen to the song. The whole.

[Justin Andrews]

It has such a catchy chorus. And of course the three year old only hears the Pink Pony Girl and she has no idea what she's singing. But I'm like, dude, as a dad, you have one job, bro.

[Adam Schaefer]

You keep your daughter off the pole at 3 years old. Your girl, your girl's already seen the.

[Justin Andrews]

Top of her lungs.

[Adam Schaefer]

A stripper song. Dude, this cannot be a good start today.

[Justin Andrews]

I damn near fell out of my chair when that happened because I. Because I had no idea. I'd never heard the song before and never had heard it. I guess it's really popular. More not right. I'm under a rock. But she was singing.

[Adam Schaefer]

I can't wait to hear it now.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh yeah. So I, I. There's a clip. I'll share it with the editing team so they can insert it in here. Because when we get to. One of my favorite things to do when we get into our, our community over Truckee, I always let my son get on my lap and drive the rest of the way into the, into the house or whatever. And so I let her do that and she's d. And we had the song Crank the windows down. She's singing to the top of people.

[Doug]

Looking at the car.

[Adam Schaefer]

Terrible parents. They're listening to Stripper.

[Doug]

Oh, I know.

[Adam Schaefer]

They're letting her dress.

[Doug]

I know.

[Adam Schaefer]

I.

[Justin Andrews]

And I had a bunch of dms too, of people that like, yes, I'm, I'm aware. I just Found out what it was. It's not me who's. It's not my daughter. I'm not encouraging it.

[Adam Schaefer]

My kids listen to dinosaur songs. There's songs you can find on YouTube of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Spinosaurus and these crazy names. My kids just over and over and over again.

[Guest]

What is that weird stuff on YouTube, dude? Like, have you ever seen. There's this guy, he. He just does a whole swath of anybody's name, and then he just adds, like, poop. He's like, poop.

[Justin Andrews]

Poop. Sal.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, my God. My son would love.

[Guest]

Yeah, I know. I was like, oh, my God. My kids were younger, they would have.

[Adam Schaefer]

Dude, he's getting in trouble right now because it's my fault because I make butt and poop jokes all the time.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, we had to do.

[Adam Schaefer]

And now my son, it's his favorite thing to do. And the more you tell him not to do it, the more he has Tourette's over it and he needs to say it. Yesterday, I gave him five bucks because I said, if you can go 30 minutes, which is a long time for a four year old, you can go 30 minutes without saying any but any butt, poop, or pee, I'll give you five bucks. And he messed up twice. And I started the timer over. I gave him another chance, and he did it. But it was. He was so proud.

[Doug]

Oh, God.

[Adam Schaefer]

But he gets in trouble.

[Justin Andrews]

My son is the same thing we. And he learned it from my godson, who. Who's a little bit older and was saying. And chicken butt. And so he. Chicken butt is the answer to everything. Hey, Max, you want to do this? Chicken butt thinks it's so funny. It's not funny, bro. It's not funny anymore. You said it way too much.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, so anyway, he taught my two year old, so I have my little two year old now, and I'll. I'll sit her. Hey, Dalia, do you love papa? I love butts. Now we're here. Beautiful. Look, most of you probably don't drink tap water. You probably have filtered water. But you wash your body with tap water. That can be a problem sometimes. Tap water oftentimes has tons of chlorine, which dries out your skin, can cause issues. Heavy metals can sometimes be in that. And there's other contaminants. Well, check it out. There's a company called Jolie Skin, and they make shower heads that go on your shower and filter those things out. It's a filter for your shower or your bathtub. Go check them out. Go to jolieskinco.com mindpump that's J-O L I E S K I N C O.com mindpump Try it out for yourself with free shipping. By the way, if you don't like it, you could return it for a full refund with no Questions asked within 60 days. Try it out. Your skin will feel different. So will your hair. Again, it's jolieskincareskinco.com mindpump back to the show.

[Sal Destefano]

First question is from Jason Snurb. Should you add more weight or do more reps?

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, I love this question because I could see how either one would be appropriate. I can't now. I'll say this. Typically with my clients, until we get to maybe rep 15, maybe a little lower 13, I tend to add reps because I want them to master the weight that they're lifting before I add load. As I've gotten older, I now add reps more than I add weight. In the early days it was weight, but I don't think one. I think one or the other can be right depending on what you're doing. If your reps are really low, add reps. If your reps are really high, add weight. And so it's high over 15 reps, probably add a little weight. If your Reps are below 6, add reps. I think you're right.

[Guest]

I do kind of use that as a determiner if they're a bit newer in the process or younger, you know, to see how they can stretch their capacity with that and find that range and limitation with weight. And then as we have gone through this and matured like, you know, adding reps, it just seems like a better, you know, plan for longevity sake.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, so this is a, this is a really cool question because I, we got asked this in our, our group coaching forum or the Zoom call last night and I was on this and I also included that. What you guys didn't say is tempo is in there too slow, slowing down the rep. And the person who asked it was a really good question. Corinne knew her better than I did. And Corinne gave the advice and then came back over and said to like basically reiterated like that I know her really well and this is why I wanted her to do this thing. And so this is where like trainers. And this part is another example though of where having a personal trainer who knows you as a client is really helpful because I'll give you an example where the, the answer to this is different and, and to be yet to the same person at the same Stage of their training is some clients, they, they, they're, they don't believe in themselves and they're fearful of adding weight. But you know, as a trainer, you're watching them like, I know she's much stronger than I'm watching the way she's moving that way. And so that trainer I, I, that client I encourage, like, come on, we could add five more pounds. Even though I know I could progressively overload her by slowing the tempo down or adding more reps to the point you guys are making right now. Because, because that is probably the default, safer, better route to go. Like, that's like, I think that advice is a wise, generic, good answer from a trainer is like, hey, early in their lifting career, add reps, slow down tempo or the first two directions we go. Because that's risk versus reward I'm gambling with. But there is the, also the example of this is the client who I know can push more and I'm trying to also teach that skill in them.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And that's great, that's great for trainers here who are listening because often what you're weighing are is results to can I, can I do something with this client that's going to improve their trust in me, their trust in themselves and the relationship to fitness. And sometimes adding weight does that.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it's more often than not with women. More often than not with men, I don't need to add weight to do that. More often than not with the opposite.

[Justin Andrews]

I got to slow down the tempo.

[Adam Schaefer]

Get them to.

[Justin Andrews]

Because yes, great, great point. And that's another example of how this answer is different. Generally speaking, there's exceptions to rule on both. But generally speaking, my men will sacrifice form and technique to put more weight on.

[Adam Schaefer]

I can do more.

[Justin Andrews]

Exactly. So that client, I go, hey, what? Instead of adding more weight, let's slow the tempo down by four seconds. And then I love to watch that cook them without any more weight. But then my, generally speaking, my female clients tend to be more, their form and technique is great and she's doing wonderful. And I could just add up the reps or I could slow the tempo down more, but I want her to see herself lift 10 more because I know how empowering that is. I know how many, how many clients that I've had that I got to do that. And they went, oh my God, I did not know I could do that. And what that does shatters their perception for that new client. Boy, it's a powerful, powerful female clients.

[Adam Schaefer]

That the 20 pound dumbbells were the heaviest that they ever went. And so getting them to go up to the 25s or the 30s or the 40s was like, it just shattered their paradigm, improved their confidence. And now they're like, I'm strong. I'm actually strong. It's like, you could have done this before. You were just afraid. And so increasing the way improves the client trainer relationship and it improves their relationship to fitness.

[Justin Andrews]

All three, though, are examples of progressively overloading the body, which is the most important thing. Adding weight could be one of the examples. Adding repetitions and slowing down tempo. All three will get the job done. All three will be a novel stimulus, will continue to build muscle, are great for anybody at any level. But here's where the individualized part comes in and we're, we're coaching and training will always be better than a bunch of three talking heads on a podcast because that trainer, if they're a good trainer, they factor in the other variable of I know my client and I know what they're going to need the most.

[Sal Destefano]

Next question is from Chris Shenanigans. I've heard you guys say protein is hit or miss daily. It's not a weekly average. Why? If I hit 150 grams one day, 250 grams the next, for an average of 200 grams per day, why does that not work?

[Justin Andrews]

You don't store it like carbs.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, you don't store, you don't store protein like you do with carbohydrates or fat. So fat, you obviously store it on your body as body fat. Although if you go too low a fat for too long, that's not good.

[Doug]

I'll kill you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Carbohydrates you store in the form of glycogen. Your liver and your muscles will hold that for you. Protein, you don't store. The protein on your body is your is like actual active tissue. You don't want your body to pull from those tissues. By the way, that's hard to do. You have to really starve yourself for a while for that to happen. But here's what happens when you overeat protein. So let's say the maximum benefit you can get from protein for you was 200 grams. Everything above and beyond that gets converted to energy in the form of glycogen or stored body fat. If your calories are too high, you don't take that extra protein and store it. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So you could use it later for recovery.

[Adam Schaefer]

It doesn't happen. Carbohydrates, you store, fat, you store. So protein is the one thing that you need to hit consistently to reap the most benefits. You can't have three high protein. Now there is evidence, because I'm going to get people that say this. There is evidence that shows that when you go lower protein back to higher protein, muscle protein synthesis levels change. So there is some compensation. So what I'm saying is over generalized and black and white. I know it's not as black and white as what I'm saying because it is true. Like if you go low protein one day, high protein the next day, absorb.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Your body, it does more protein synthesis the next day to kind of offset. So but it's not storing it. It's still not storing it. So yes, there's some compensation, but the compensation is not the same as with carbohydrates or with fat or with calories. Calories can average out over a week or definitely over a few days. Protein. Not really.

[Sal Destefano]

Next question is from Sean Dickerson. I keep seeing that taking baking soda before you work out will give you bigger pumps. Is there any truth to this? I'm worried instead of getting bigger pumps, it's going to be bigger dumps.

[Justin Andrews]

Is this a thing?

[Adam Schaefer]

Doug, look up.

[Justin Andrews]

Is baking soda a thing?

[Adam Schaefer]

Look up the studies on baking soda and athletic performance.

[Justin Andrews]

What's in it?

[Adam Schaefer]

It's actually, it's actually sodium.

[Guest]

What is it?

[Adam Schaefer]

Bicarbonate.

[Guest]

Bicarbonate, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So it buffers like a precursor to nitric oxide.

[Adam Schaefer]

No, it buffers your blood. It's a buffer. So it makes.

[Guest]

She's talked about this briefly.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So enhances athletic performance, particularly high intensity activities by buffering the acidity that builds up in muscles during exercise. So it's a buffering process. Now here's the deal.

[Justin Andrews]

I've never seen this or tried this.

[Adam Schaefer]

Here's the deal. It works.

[Guest]

I've done this for acid reflux and.

[Doug]

It helps a bit.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, yeah, though this, it works. By the way, the data on baking soda for high intensity exercise, like there is a measurable improvement in athletic performance. So it's actually when you're looking at, especially for stamina and endurance, high intensity style, it's probably one of the best things you could take.

[Justin Andrews]

Is this in a short term or is this like even like consistently before?

[Adam Schaefer]

So you take it, you take it before you work out. Okay, now here's the, the bad part. The high percentage of people who do this will get diarrhea, which is not good. Which is not good for athletic performance.

[Justin Andrews]

Great pumps, but huge dumps.

[Adam Schaefer]

But it, it's, but it is true. It's weird. It's weird. It's cheap. You could test this out if you're one of those people that can do.

[Justin Andrews]

This like a tablespoon.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, you know what? Good question. Doug put up. Look up how much baking soda to improve athletic performance.

[Justin Andrews]

See how good the AI is, though, by the way? Googling. And that's what it gives you now.

[Doug]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

So it. But it. Listen, the. The data on this is fascinating, but by the way, this is old study. Like, a lot of studies have been done this for years. So this isn't like new. It's been around for a long time.

[Guest]

I've heard about this and never actually applied it. I wish I would have experimented.

[Adam Schaefer]

Does that give you a dose, Doug?

[Sal Destefano]

I am looking for that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Look up.

[Doug]

How.

[Adam Schaefer]

How do you.

[Sal Destefano]

Three to four.

[Adam Schaefer]

Three to four teaspoons of water. Four hours.

[Justin Andrews]

Teaspoons.

[Adam Schaefer]

Four hours before athletic performance. Oh, so it's four hours before. Oh, interesting. I've never tried this.

[Justin Andrews]

I kind of want to try it.

[Doug]

No, no.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, because I tend to have gut issues anyway, so I'll be really mad if I did this.

[Justin Andrews]

And then you got to taste terrible.

[Adam Schaefer]

Baking soda's not bad.

[Guest]

It's not bad, really? Yeah, you mix it in water. I mean, it's chalky, salty, kind of.

[Adam Schaefer]

It tastes like salty Alka seltzer.

[Justin Andrews]

You used to brush your teeth with that, didn't you?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I still use toothpaste. That's got it. You know what's funny? Baking soda was the go to remedy for heartburn, you said. Well, my dad swears by it.

[Guest]

Okay.

[Doug]

So.

[Guest]

Yeah. And this, this always was a factor for me when I'd say, stay at a friend's house. I was always, like, paranoid because they didn't have anything.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Guest]

It's not like everybody carries Tums in Mylanta and whatever the else I need to solve my issues.

[Adam Schaefer]

But everybody has baking soda.

[Guest]

But everybody has baking soda.

[Justin Andrews]

So I.

[Adam Schaefer]

Middle of the night.

[Guest]

So I remember, you know, I'd stayed a friend's house.

[Adam Schaefer]

We should just go through their.

[Justin Andrews]

Unfamiliar with their house.

[Guest]

And I'm just like, you know, 2am like, going through their cabinets, found baking soda. I'm like, yes. And I take too much. I'd be burping forever. And then finally it'd like, calm down. But yeah, totally works.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, my, My dad does. This is like an old Sicilian remedy. My grandmother. You take baking soda and you add lemon to it in water and mix it. Now there's.

[Justin Andrews]

There's a lot of, like, food recipes that include a few teaspoons and Baking soda.

[Adam Schaefer]

So it absorbs smells and, you know.

[Justin Andrews]

So, yeah, that's what we've always is in the refrigerator. You keep it open in there to help absorb the smells and stuff like that. Keep that. So would the foods that contain that extra bacon.

[Adam Schaefer]

I don't think it's enough. I don't know very many. How much you're eat 3 to 4 tablespoons or teaspoons of baking soda.

[Justin Andrews]

I think, like cakes and things like that.

[Sal Destefano]

It's very, very low amount.

[Justin Andrews]

So eat the whole cake.

[Adam Schaefer]

It just gets blended in.

[Justin Andrews]

Like this idea.

[Adam Schaefer]

Adam's like, I ate yesterday. I worked out. I had three teaspoons. All I got was the diarrhea. How'd you get it?

[Justin Andrews]

Well, I ate a whole cake.

[Sal Destefano]

Next question is from Dr. Cotton. Any tips for hitting all heads of the triceps when behind the neck movements cause elbow pain or discomfort? I don't think it's a mobility issue since the pain is at the flexion point, not when having hands behind the head.

[Adam Schaefer]

So, okay, first off, just to be clear, you're hitting all three heads anytime you do a tricep exercise.

[Justin Andrews]

Can't isolate a part of them.

[Adam Schaefer]

So you're always hitting. Now, it is true that when your elbows are above your head, that the stretch is in the long head because that's the one that attaches the scapula. And so it is being more targeted. I hate using that word, but it is being more targeted because of the stretch. Now, here's what I would do with my clients who would have elbow issues with overhead exercises. We would still do them. We do them so light. It was silly because this would actually fix it. This would fix it. So, like, let's say your workout. Normally you'd use a 30 pound dumbbell overhead. I'm giving you a seven pound dumbbell and you're slowly stretching. Rubber band. Yeah. And squeezing at the top. Like, I am not a believer. Now, there's definitely. If you have an injury, acute injury, like, avoid the movement that hurts it. But I'm. I'm in the school of thought that if. If an exercise hurts, figure out why it hurts and fix that. And I'm telling you, sometimes what fixes that issue is to go super light and then practice that movement.

[Justin Andrews]

I also like, which is also going lighter, doing single arm this way, because then it allows like a lot. When you do the, like in a easy curl or a machine or a dumbbell, you're in this fixed position. Whereas if I kick out and I can open up, it gives a little Relief. And sometimes people are like this and they're straining their, their neck and their shoulders to do that position.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Or simply just by doing a single. I can, I can kind of position my body a little bit to where it's more comfortable, yet still get the benefits of the stretch to this day.

[Adam Schaefer]

When I was a kid, I was really strong at this exercise. So it was like, you know, when you're a kid and you're strong at something, you're like, cool, let's show off in the gym. So I'd use 120 pound dumbbell and I go crazy with it these days. I go light when I do overhead. I use a rope, I use the cable. And my goal is to get a deep stretch and squeeze and I don't do it heavy. And I get great results from it.

[Justin Andrews]

I love it. I single dumbbell it. That's. I, I love a single dumbbell one at a time like that. And that way too, I can focus on balancing it out and get the stretch. I'm also not risking a lot because I'm not as heavy, but then it increases the intensity. So those are some ways to do it at the end of the day too. Like if it absolutely was bothering my client that much. It's not like the end.

[Doug]

It's not. No.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's not a squat, you know, or a deadlift, like this functional movement that you absolutely have to do. Absolutely. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is @mindpumpjustin. I'm @mindpump distefano and Adam's @ Mind Pump Atom.

[Sal Destefano]

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 trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the like 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.