
In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: Top 9 Exercises for Each Body Part Based on EMG Research. (1:49) Addressing price concerns of the face serum from Caldera. (26:20) ...
Loading summary
Sal DeStefano
Everyone's loving family Freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800.
Adam Schaefer
Per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days.
Sal DeStefano
Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone16128GB8999 Eligible trade in eg iPhone11 Pro for well.
Adam Schaefer
Qualified credits end and balance due.
Sal DeStefano
If you pay off early or cancel contact T Mobile.
Adam Schaefer
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through August 12th. Get big savings on your favorite products for the little ones in the family and earn four times points to use for discounts on groceries or on gas. Shop in store or online for items like Earth's Best Yogurt Smoothie, Gerber Pouches, Happy Baby Pouches, Huggies, Natural Baby Wipes, Pediasure Bottles, Earth's Best Crunchy Sticks and Gerber Yogurt Melts, snacks and earn 4 times points. Offer ends August 12th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
Sal DeStefano
If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump Mind Pump with your hosts Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded and loved fitness and health podcast in the history of podcasting. This is Mind Pump. All right, today's episode. Live callers got to call in. We got to coach people on air, help them with their fitness health journeys. But this was after our intro. Today's intro is 57 minutes long. In the intro, this is where we talk about fitness and fat loss and studies around exercises. We talk about current events, family life. It's a great time if you want to be on an episode like this one. If you want to be coached by us on air, email us your question@liveindpumpmedia.com now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Caldera Lab. We talked today about their face serum uses all natural, organic and wild harvested botanicals. The reviews on this face serum are some of the best you'll find anywhere. We love it. Go check it out. Get Better skin. Go to calderalab.com that's C-A L-E-R-A L A B.com mindpump the code mind pump 20 will get you 10 20% off. This episode is also sponsored by Organifi. Today we talked about their green juice. By the way, if you go on organifi.com mindpump when this episode airs, they're giving out free green juice travel packs and an extra 15% off and free shipping with any three products, plus free Shilajit with any five products. This is massive. You can also use the code mind pump and get 20% off. We also have a sale on some workout programs this month. Maps split in the anabolic metabolism bundle. It's all 50% off. Head over to maps fitnessproducts.com use the code july50 for the discount. Here comes the show. Is there a scientific way with data to show which exercises are the best for each body part? Proponents of EMG studies. This is electromyography, which actually shows muscle activation quite accurately. Would say, yes, we know which exercises are best. Today we're gonna list the best exercises for each body part based on these studies. And we're either gonna agree or disagree based on our experience. Ooh, let's get into it.
Adam Schaefer
I like this. I like this thing. Let's first, I mean, set the table for. Because I think this is actually one. This is an interesting topic to me.
Sal DeStefano
It is. It's a bit controversial.
Adam Schaefer
It is because there, there's a lot of people, especially on the science side, smart, educated people that want to make the case for this being the end all, be all when it comes to what exercises are superior. They're based off of the research that we've seen, based off of emg, how.
Justin Andrews
Much activity they can see.
Adam Schaefer
And I think most people hearing from the. These people that are supporting this because they're typically very intelligent, they're using a study to support their argument. People just fall right for the bias. Problem is this doesn't tell the full story.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schaefer
And I think that's the area where hopefully we can step in and. And share a little more of the nuance. And then maybe with that paired with some of these studies, because I'm not saying that you. They're worthless. I think it tells us something, but I don't think it nearly tells the full story.
Sal DeStefano
Agreed. So these studies measure muscle activation. You can, you can explain this, let's say as a percentage of maximum voluntary contraction, how many muscle fibers are being activated. So it's definitely valuable. The problem is that doesn't necessarily mean the most muscle growth, which we'll get to. And this also doesn't take into consideration individual variances, how you perform the exercise. If it's appropriate for you, what your technique looks like and so forth. And you know, we've trained people for lots of, for, for many, many years. And when you talk to coaches and trainers who've done this, sometimes you get a different answer because of their experience. So I'm going to go off of and we're going to talk about what the studies show, what the EMG studies show to be the absolute best. And as we talk about them, I'll read what the shuttle, the studies actually show in comparison to certain popular exercises, for example. And then I think we can throw in kind of, you know, our, our opinion on it. So we'll start with chest. Now, chest. The EMG studies show that the dumbbell chest press has the best activation, that it activates the most muscle fibers. In fact, I'll pull up the study here, I'll pull up the study itself and it shows that you have 100% of pectoralis major activation versus because what exercises typically barbell is the barbell bench press. Barbell bench press gets 95%. So 5% better on the EMG study for chest activation than the barbell. Yet you oftentimes hear coaches limited on load refer to the bench press. Yeah, so let's talk about that a little bit, Justin.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, let's talk about that because as we know like having two dumbbells, like we're, we're, we're limited based upon, so let's say even have like a hundred on each side. When I could have a barbell, I could stack a substantial more amount of weight and be more effective. The thing is like this is going to turn into more of a compound lift. And so I'm going to have a little bit more muscle activation throughout my body as opposed to just an isolated muscle group that I'm testing.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. So you know, metabolic stress and mechanical tension or load also drive muscle growth. So can you lift more total weight with a barbell than you can with dumbbells? Yeah, yeah, 100%. Like I don't know very many guys who could bench press 315 who can also handle 100 and you know, 55 pound dumbbells. That's pretty rare. It's pretty rare that it's equal. It typically looks like I can bench press this much and then it's substantially lower total load when I handle dumbbells. Because there's, there's, there's the, you have to balance them, there's stability, more stability is involved.
Adam Schaefer
You have to be able to pick them up and carry them, put Them in position. Yeah, Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
I mean, that's a great point, Adam. Like, practicality. Yeah, most like, that's real life. Right.
Adam Schaefer
Most of the time that you see guys that can do, I, to a place where I, I was mirroring it. That, and that was a very specific goal for me. I went on a kick for. It was at least a year, maybe even longer, where I was like, can I get my, you know, dumbbells to match my, my bench press? There's a lot, obviously a lot of focus on that. And even when I did get to that, where I was able to do 150 dumbbells, it took a, you know, it took a guy or two setting him up on my knees and spotting behind me. And, you know, it was like such the effort just to try and match 315. And that's not even my max bench press. But just to get to where I was able to work out with those weights, what I could easily do on the barbell by myself was a lot of, a lot of effort to even be able to do that.
Justin Andrews
There's a lot of expended energy just on stabilizing that weight, which you're gonna have to account for that. Whereas with a barbell, you can distribute that, like, pretty effectively. I'm curious as, as far as, like, you know, how they could test more in terms of overall force output versus just muscle activation recruitment.
Adam Schaefer
Now, I, I, I do want to. I also, because I here, this is. When I look at your list, I peeked ahead, right. I'm seeing what the ones, there's ones on here that I think I would argue. And then there's ones like this, like. Sure. I, I, I think, yeah, you're not going to go wrong. Exactly. That's my point. And you could actually never do a barbell bench press. And I will, I will build you the most epic chest ever doing that because it's a, it is a great. I also like that it's a greater range of motion and that it actually follows a much more natural path for the individual versus a fixed pathway can come together. That's right. I'm a big fan of, of a dumbbell bench press. I think if all you do is barbell bench press, you are missing out by not dumbbell pressing.
Sal DeStefano
So. I agree. But I will go back to what you said, Adam, because we have to look at real life and handling heavy dumbbells, just getting them off the rack, bringing them to the floor, bringing them up on knees, the technique to bring them back is not easy. It's Actually not easy. As you start to get real strong that expends energy that makes it unwieldy. In fact, oftentimes I avoid the dumbbell chest press. Not because the barbell so much better, but because of that I gotta go grab the 120 personal, right? That's right.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. That being said, I would think I bet you guys are similar to me is I taught dumbbell chest press with clients more than I did barbell bench press. Yeah, I, I most clients it was.
Sal DeStefano
Easy for me to range.
Justin Andrews
Emotional stability was way more important.
Adam Schaefer
Yes, yeah, exactly. So that would. And you know the way I could guide them and help them.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schaefer
I just. So it's easy to bail. I would say a dumbbell chest press was more of a staple in my programming than even a barbell bench press. But if you I were to look at my own training barbell bench press for the reasons that you just brought up is a go to so but of of all the ones on here, this is not the one. I would die on the hill. No arguing.
Sal DeStefano
And Even based on EMG, you're talking about 5% difference. Like that's that problem. Yeah. If you count load. Is it going to make a difference?
Justin Andrews
Substantial.
Sal DeStefano
Probably not. All right, next we get to back. Wide grip pull ups showed some of the best.
Adam Schaefer
I would die on this activation. This is the hill I would die on.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. The last. No. Well, well, let me get to it. Right, so 90 to 95 for the lats and high activation for traps and rhomboids. 70 to 80%. Here's the deal. Wide grip pull ups require a a certain amount of stability, mobility and strength that most people don't have. Yeah. And so ask me how many of my clients I had them do wide grip pull ups. Rare. Yeah. If they did pull ups it was typically a neutral grip, shoulder width or it's assisted somehow. That's right. And it also doesn't address what most people need which is to be able to strengthen that back shoulder position which most people have an issue with because we work at desks all day long and our shoulders are forward. And personally speaking, I love pull ups a lot. This makes its rotation in my workout quite often.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Is it number one, probably two or three functional exercise. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. No, a row or actually a deadlift is going to go and replace here for me, I mean just the barbell row is far more I think overall functional. I think that I can load it eventually a lot more than I could to y grip. It doesn't require the same type of mobility, stability, and even just basic strength, because a lot of people can't even pull one themselves up one time on that.
Sal DeStefano
Not a. Not a bad exercise.
Adam Schaefer
No, no.
Sal DeStefano
I love it.
Adam Schaefer
And. And okay, if you're listening to this and you. And you don't do that ever, what a great goal to say, hey, I'm gonna. I'm gonna get strong at the Y grip pull up. And I bet if you've never focused on that, you'll see some incredible change overall. Yeah. Yeah. And you're. And I bet great development from that. I think so. I do think.
Sal DeStefano
But most people would benefit from getting really good at rows versus a wide grip pull up. Although both are very, very, very beneficial.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
So next is deltoids dumbbell shoulder press. So dumbbell shoulder press 85, 90, 90% activation from both the anterior and medial head of the deltoid. That's the front and the side of the delts.
Adam Schaefer
Not surprising based off of what was shown for the chest.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
For the same similar reasons.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. And it's. It's got. It's got better activation than a barbell. It's got a greater range of motion. I would argue it's better for shoulder. Overall shoulder health. You could do this. I think you could totally do this, and it'd be okay. But like you said, Adam, same challenges that you would run into with a barbell versus a. A dumbbell and just the overall load you could do with the barbell, you will never be able to match.
Justin Andrews
No.
Sal DeStefano
With a dumbbell.
Adam Schaefer
Well, and again, another example of if I look back to all my clientele, I dumbbell shoulder pressed way more barbell shoulder press. You know, I had the. I had a handful of clients. That load was really important, and we needed to have over £200 on the bar in order for them to keep growing. Most of my clients never grew out of dumbbell pressing and. And also easier for me to spot support coach.
Justin Andrews
Most clients deal with upper cross syndrome. Most clients have those protracted shoulders don't have good shoulder mobility. So putting anything overhead already we have like, this risk factor. You know, even bracing the lower back, There's a lot of things there that, like, you can kind of work through a lot more effectively with dumbbells. So I. I would tend to use those a bit more, but then work towards the barbell press.
Adam Schaefer
Any added benefit. You guys think, too, because the shoulder is a floating joint. And so to do a movement that requires more stability. Would you?
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think that. I think if you got really good at dumbbell, full range of motion. Dumbbell shoulder press versus barbell shoulder press. You're probably gonna have better function in the shoulder joint with the dumbbell than you would barbell. But a full, full range of motion barbell shoulder press is awesome too. Oh yeah. It's just the dumbbell. I mean, I can bring it way down here. I can come out to the side.
Justin Andrews
That spiral line, that diagonal sort of movement there, which is healthy and beneficial.
Sal DeStefano
That's right. So. So this one I could, I could get with for sure. Quads barbell back squat 74% activation for the quads with about 43% for, for glue.
Adam Schaefer
This is what they rated number one. I actually thought it was, I thought they rated hack squats as number one.
Sal DeStefano
No. Barbell back squat seems to have the best.
Justin Andrews
Not even front squats.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, best. And it's close. It's pretty close. This I agree with. Yeah, like it's, it's the best exercise. I mean leg, leg press is a limited range of motion. Back squat does so much for the whole body.
Justin Andrews
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
It's a fundamental, you know, human movement to be able to do. No arguments for me on this.
Justin Andrews
And then when it comes to leg extension or something.
Sal DeStefano
I know, it's so funny when they show those EMG studies, leg extension, why waste your time?
Justin Andrews
Yeah, why waste your time?
Sal DeStefano
Nobody's ever built big quads from doing, you know, nice quads from doing leg extensions.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. I actually thought they had hack squats is one, leg extension is two. And I didn't think, I thought back squats was like three.
Sal DeStefano
No. And this is based off of analyzing all the data. I actually used AI to go through all the EMG stuff. Interesting. Okay. So you might find one or two that show a little bit better. Okay. By the way, here's this funny thing. Okay. Again we're going to go back to individual variants. If I have. Now this isn't common, but let's say I have a client or you're the kind of person that is like hip extension or glute dominant. So your squat, you have this interesting looking squat where you don't get much knee flexion and extension. Like you really sit back with it and you sometimes see this with a low bar squat. Powerlifters will do this.
Adam Schaefer
Lane squats like this.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. To generate the most amount of power and strength. I could see them getting more quad activation from a hack squat or even a leg extension because they've, they're, they're the way that they do the squat relies so much on the hips versus more than the quads.
Adam Schaefer
I mean, you, you, what you're touching on right now. I love, I love this conversation because even with all the great studies around the emg, even with us agreeing and some of this like that, there still becomes an exception to the rule. And a good coach and trainer recognizes that and sees that. Okay. I have somebody who has a low bar squat where they slide back into their hips and a lot of the glutes and posterior chain is involved. And hey, right now we're trying to focus on quads like yeah, front squat, hack squat. Other movements become better. Even though the studies and the research might point to the back squat in that situation. Well, that's generally speaking and in that study. But I bet they didn't take a hundred and all 100 people squatted like Lane Norton does. And if they did, it would look different.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schaefer
So you have to always be able to consider that too.
Sal DeStefano
That's right. Next up, hamstrings, Nordic curls. Now I, I agree that you probably are going to get the most brutal.
Adam Schaefer
Good luck getting one to do these.
Sal DeStefano
But I don't know very many people that can do this without hurting themselves.
Adam Schaefer
I only have a, not a lot.
Sal DeStefano
This is a very high tension exercise requiring, requiring very strong hamstrings with lots of stability. By the way, the Nordic curl outperforms a leg curl on a machine precisely because you also have to stabilize your upper body as you go down so you get a little bit of that, that extension that the hamstrings and the stabilization that the hamstrings provide. But yeah, if you line this up with other hamsters, I would guess it's going to be the Nordic curl. But good luck finding someone who could do this.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, this wouldn't be mine. Right. So this would be a stiff legged deadlift right here for me.
Sal DeStefano
I could do that with anybody.
Adam Schaefer
That's right. Very easy, basic movement for a lot of people. But so, so valuable. In fact, I, I, I, right now I can only literally think of two clients I was able to do Nordic curls with my entire career. Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
I don't even know if I even.
Justin Andrews
Do good mornings before I do these.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. And I don't even know if I could do these right now. If I tried them, I haven't done them.
Adam Schaefer
So I'd have.
Sal DeStefano
With a pole. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
It's just not, there's ways that, by the way, the point we're making, you could, I could use straps. Yeah, there's, there's a lot of ways to Regress this movement. But again, why, when I can go right to another movement that I think is so important. I think a learning how to do a proper stiff legged deadlift is such an important.
Sal DeStefano
There's also the functional component. You're far more likely to lift something off the ground than you are to do a Nordic curl in real life. And exercise, by the way, strength, this is very important for people to understand. Strength is as much of a skill as it is your muscles contracting. In other words, you could have. You could have muscles that contract way harder than another guy. Like we could test your individual muscles and they're bigger and they can generate more force. But that guy practices a particular movement and has a skill. Right. And you don't, then you go do the movement and suddenly they can lift more than you.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Why? Because strength is also a skill. Not practicing hip hinging, which you're going to do in your life all the time, is a missed opportunity. Yeah, missed opportunity. Nordic curl, like, have you guys ever done Nordic roll in real life? I've never, never in my life. Had to pick myself up.
Justin Andrews
Hold on a second.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, that's never happened. Okay, glutes, here's. Here's where we might get a little controversy. The hip thrust. Hip thrust. You get 70 to 80% muscle activation of the glutes. Yeah. Compared to 52% that you'll get with, let's say, a squat. Because the argument's always what grows the glutes more, squats or hip thrusts. Now, here's what's funny. I have studies that compare muscle growth, okay? And this is exactly what we're talking about. When you look at the studies on growth, guess what? They're both pretty damn close. In fact, it's pretty close. The studies suggest that the squat might be a little tiny bit better at growing the glutes than the hip thrust. Yet the hip Thrust in the EMG study is at 70 to 80% activation, where the squat's only 52%. So if you based it off that, you would think you would see a big difference in hypertrophy. The studies that actually measure the end result, which is growth, actually show no difference.
Adam Schaefer
And I think the case that you're trying to make here, because I don't think anyone here is trying to make the case like you don't need hip thrusts or hip thrusts aren't good. It's just that I think that squats, this is another, another check mark in the category of squats, are better for this reason. The last three quads, hamstrings and glutes you get from squatting. And if you get really proficient at that, the carryover into all those gets greater too. And so what? As a trainer, programming for someone doesn't mean I'm never going to do hip thrust. It means I'm primarily going to get really good at the squat with my client. And every once in a while we might do some hip thrust because it does have great benefits to it, it'll accompany it, but I'm going to get really good at back because in fact, your, your point with the back squats, even for quads, it's so good. It's like this would be an example of where maybe they front squat a little bit because I still want them squatting for that. But then for glutes, we're going to make sure we back squat. And so they're getting lots of squatting and lots of squatting is going to make them really good at squatting. Getting them really good at squatting is going to make them strong in all those areas.
Sal DeStefano
Right. Now, again, another wrench in this whole conversation. There are people where glutes, where hip thrusts are going to be superior for glutes, and these are people that have trouble connecting to the glutes when they squat.
Adam Schaefer
Yep.
Sal DeStefano
Now, so this is where I think EMG studies are excellent. If you're that person that has trouble connecting to a muscle in conventional, well regarded exercises that you're supposed to do for that body part. Like, if you're that person that's like, man, I squat and I never feel my glutes. My quads get a pump, I'm building my quads. My glutes don't seem to be growing at all. It's because of your technique and how the squat is being activated is activating your body. These are the people that hip thrusts are going to be amazing for sure. And this is why hip thrusts on social media gets so much love. Because the type of person, the bias of the person that discovers the hip thrust and then raves about it is typically the person that just didn't get good activation from a squat. And so they, that person discovers a hip thrust is like, there's my glutes. This is what I couldn't feel.
Adam Schaefer
Which, by the way, which causes these people to be, you know, die on.
Sal DeStefano
That hill because they're like way better than squats.
Adam Schaefer
I was squatting my whole life and I never built my butt. All of a sudden I started hip thrusting and now I've, I've built a.
Sal DeStefano
Butt and Again, like, like there's general categories of great exercises. I think they're all good. When you look at those general categories that are, that are agreed upon and then you have your individual variants where like, man, I know you said that you feel this exercise more, but I feel this one more. Well, you probably are. It's probably better for you then. So listen to your body when it comes to that. Next up, this was an interesting one for biceps. Concentration curl. Interesting. I would not place a concentration curl in the top five of big bicep building exercises. I just wouldn't. I think it's the load. You're just not going to lift as much as you would with a traditional standing curl or a barbell curl.
Justin Andrews
Barbell curl.
Sal DeStefano
Concentration curls are good, but it doesn't typically make the top, you know, four or five for best bicep exercise. That being said, we're talking about the biceps. So almost any bicep exercise is okay. It's not a big deal.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, I'm surprised that the, the reverse grip pull up did not get.
Sal DeStefano
I don't think they tested it.
Adam Schaefer
Oh, they didn't even test it probably.
Sal DeStefano
How many people do a reverse grip pull up with emphasis on the bicep? Like besides arm wrestlers?
Adam Schaefer
Nobody does. That would be a cool EMG study.
Sal DeStefano
Thing because I, I think it would crush.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, I think so too. Just in that stretch position like that and actually curling the body weight tension. I mean, to me it's like if Nordic curls wins for hamstrings, I would think that would win for biceps.
Justin Andrews
I mean, you got to go to that level.
Sal DeStefano
We got to get it more popular before it gets tested that way. The other reason why I think concentration curl probably measured high, the bicep does flex the elbow, but a lot of people don't realize this because one of the heads of the bicep is. Goes over the humerus or the top of the arm. It also brings your arm up a little bit, your elbow. When I'm in that concentration, that concentrated curl position, I'm often having to activate the bicep in two different directions, which you don't get a lot of sometimes in other exercises.
Justin Andrews
Okay, I'm going to speak upon the athletic side of the fence here. Like show like what is the concentration curl? Exactly?
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, like for, for, for, for sports.
Justin Andrews
No, just like what position is your arm in?
Sal DeStefano
Your. This is either bent over or on your arm.
Justin Andrews
Cuz is it like the one that's.
Adam Schaefer
Coming in like this?
Justin Andrews
Get out of here.
Adam Schaefer
The Arnold curl.
Sal DeStefano
You know how much I Love it when Justin doesn't know a bodybuilding exercise.
Justin Andrews
Like I would even say preacher curl over that, you know, like that. This is a silly one.
Sal DeStefano
By the way. Here's what the study shows. 90% activation versus a preacher curl, which is 86%. 4%. Probably. Probably nothing. Especially when you consider.
Adam Schaefer
Well, and then when you add in what you guys said earlier about load and stuff like that too. So you're talking about a major, major difference.
Sal DeStefano
Totally. All right. For triceps dips. Dips outperform skull crushers and push downs by 5 to 10%. I'm not going to argue with that.
Adam Schaefer
I'm not. Definitely not. I love dips and they're functional push downs though. And over extensions wouldn't even come second and third for me.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, close grip push ups.
Adam Schaefer
Close. Yeah, close grip bench press. That would, that would be my, my 1 and 2 dips in close grip bench press for building the triceps, I think are the king of the king of the movements or king and queen of movements for, for the tricep for sure.
Sal DeStefano
And then for abs, we have hanging leg raises. Not going to argue this. If you can perform. This is the.
Justin Andrews
This will be under like perfect form.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Here's the caveat, right? If you can perform hanging leg raises properly, meaning you're hanging either by your hands or by your elbows. And when you bring your legs up, what's bringing your legs up is pelvic tilt. It's not flexing at the hips. It's actually your pelvis rotating and rotating it up. Then. Yeah, it's hard to beat a hanging leg raise. That being said, and this is. Listen, 100% true, I'm going to say this right now, 100% true. I almost never, never, never, never see anybody perform. Even guys and girls that are fit and Jack almost never seen people perform a hanging leg raise. Very rare.
Adam Schaefer
Well, you can do like Justin said, the decline reverse like crunch crunches.
Sal DeStefano
Love that.
Adam Schaefer
And boy, make that really difficult. And before you even get to this, this is such a progression to that that most people, most people that are doing hanging leg raises have no business doing hanging leg raises yet. They're just, they don't need to. There's a better movement for you to learn and get good and strong at. And then let me. I mean if you are somebody who can do decline reverse sit ups and you can do those with a steep, steep incline and it's easy and you can do high reps. Okay. Yeah, hanging leg raises, let's go. But I never had any Clients that got to that level where we needed to do that, like just doing that on the decline and slowing it down and emphasizing curling all the way up and then resisting on the way down.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Good luck.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Very, very difficult exercise. But if you could do it like the Nordic curl, a great exercise. Just people. Most people can't do it properly. Anyway, I, I got to address some questions that we get on one of our partners, the Caldera Lab face serum. The size of the bottle and the cost. I looked up how long that lasts for the average user.
Adam Schaefer
Dude. Lasts over a month at least it's.
Sal DeStefano
Three to five months.
Adam Schaefer
I was going to say it lasts.
Justin Andrews
A long three to five.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Because you don't need much and it lasts a very plus. I also, by the way, the, the, the face serum, I think I've said this before, but I didn't know the second part. So every ingredient, every botanical in there is organic. It's also wild harvested. Wow. So they actually go out and harvest these things in the wild. What, and it's completely organic.
Justin Andrews
They don't grow it.
Sal DeStefano
Like, they're not like controlled form. No, no. This is like, this is like natural. Natural, natural. What a trip. And, and then I looked up the, the reviews on it, and it's one of the highest reviewed face care products, period. On the market. They're amazing on the market. I mean, it's no wonder why they blew up as soon as people use it.
Adam Schaefer
Now that you said that about the usage. So the audience. Every. Every day before we podcast, it's a bit of a ritual for me that before we go on, I have. I keep it over here right next to me and I just kind of apply it and you know, Jerry replaces that for me. You're probably right. It's probably.
Sal DeStefano
But you use it way. You use way more of it than the average person because you rub it all over your body.
Adam Schaefer
Rub it on my surround. Yeah, But I still. That's why I probably said a month. A little over a month.
Sal DeStefano
I put like literally two drops. One. One or two drops on my finger.
Adam Schaefer
For my whole face. Yeah. So, you know, I use a lot of it. I use it on all my psorias spots. I use it on the top of my head. I use it on my face every. I'll use it all over. And that still lasts me over a month.
Sal DeStefano
And you can tell a difference when you.
Adam Schaefer
I imagine, I imagine if someone's just using it like that, it probably lasts several.
Sal DeStefano
Several. Three to five months is what the average user says anyway. Did you guys see what happened to Elmo's?
Adam Schaefer
Yes, thank you.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, Trump can bring that up.
Sal DeStefano
Oh, my God.
Justin Andrews
Horrible.
Sal DeStefano
Like Elmo has. So everybody knows Sesame Street. Elmo. Somebody hacked his account on X and Elmo was saying the most racist, terrorist, anti semitic stuff.
Adam Schaefer
I didn't see that. All I saw was the Trump one, bro. I know.
Sal DeStefano
I kept going, yeah, bro, it was racist. It was anti semitic. Oh, and it was. Wow, bro. Like. Like the stuff. Now you know, it's funny. Do you guys ever watch that? Have you guys ever watched that one clip somebody made with Elmo where he's partying with his buddies? Have you ever seen this one?
Justin Andrews
Is this one of the cocaine?
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, dude. Where he's party swinging from the. Yeah, you know, he's having sex with like a. Like a fluff, you know, the stuffed dummy bunny, and he's doing cocaine or whatever. So people started posting that, like, real Elmo was real Elmo's wild. You know what's funny about this? I bet you Elmo's page grew from that controversy.
Adam Schaefer
Sure it did. You know, because I don't. I don't think I ever even. I didn't even know he had one until just now, dude.
Sal DeStefano
It was what was happening.
Justin Andrews
I didn't read any previous posts. Was all like, the kid related.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, dude. Yeah, bro. It was like, oh, no. Like what you expect from elf? Yeah. And then they went off. They were saying things that.
Adam Schaefer
They have to shut it down. What happened?
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, yeah, I think they did they. Doug, does it say that? I don't know. Let me see here.
Adam Schaefer
Oh, he's only got 600, 000 followers. I wouldn't. I would have thought.
Sal DeStefano
Well, it has since been secur. It's. Since. Yeah, I. Because I was on X and I saw these posts by. I thought it was a fake account. I'm like, oh, my God.
Justin Andrews
I just saw the. The backlash. And I was like, oh, my God.
Adam Schaefer
I saw other people sharing it. That's why I wasn't sure if it was true, you know, so I'm already there, dude. I'm at a point, I. And I see that I've already conditioned myself that I. When I first see something that's crazy over the top like that I don't believe.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, I know.
Adam Schaefer
Like, now that you guys have said that you've seen it, you, like, it's like, okay, now. Oh, that thing I did, that confirms it.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, right.
Adam Schaefer
As I'm. I'm in disbelief. First.
Justin Andrews
I was hesitant to bring it up because of that as well. Because it's like, you know, they're, they're just throwing everything out there to get some kind of reaction.
Adam Schaefer
And so many people do that where they, they, they photo. I mean, how many times have you seen someone Photoshop Trump's, you know, tweet and then they put something else on there. It's like, he never said that. Like, dude, it's getting so much of.
Sal DeStefano
That, it's getting so wild on Internet, in the, on the Internet social media. You know, it's a big problem right now in high schools, high school boys or whoever is taking yearbook pictures or pictures of kids that go to school with and they're turning it into pornography. And so, and it's getting shared like.
Justin Andrews
Their face, they're putting on with their face.
Adam Schaefer
Oh, wow.
Sal DeStefano
So they have un. And what's happening is they're the people are using Google and I forget who else's technology to do this. So it's like a big problem for these tech companies because, and listen, yes, I know it's fake or whatever, but imagine being a 15 year old girl and suddenly at high school everybody's circulating a fake video of you. Yeah, but it's a view.
Adam Schaefer
Doesn't even matter.
Sal DeStefano
It's fake.
Adam Schaefer
It's the fact that someone's doing.
Sal DeStefano
How violating.
Adam Schaefer
Wow.
Sal DeStefano
And terrible would that be?
Adam Schaefer
You know, it's interesting to see how, how, you know, tech and everything's gonna handle this. I did. Did you guys see what YouTube is doing? I think and I think it's a great move. I actually thought this is. So I've been thinking about like, man, what are we going to do with the whole, you know, dead Internet theory? Like, you know, are we like just a couple years away from everything being just AI and did you see what YouTube did? So, so you, if all the, the money and stuff that you can make from views and watch time on YouTube, if it's an AI generated account, ain't happening.
Sal DeStefano
Good.
Adam Schaefer
So.
Sal DeStefano
No, that makes sense. They're gonna, they want to protect their money.
Adam Schaefer
They want to protect real users.
Sal DeStefano
Like people who make content. Yeah, that's YouTube. Yeah. If you don't have people making content, YouTube doesn't exist.
Adam Schaefer
It also, it also keeps from like a monopoly. Right. Because the first person that kind of figures out the hack and the algorithm of what you need to generate volume. Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
They could have, they could have videos a day.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. And 4,000 different accounts that are all AI and fake and it's one person who's reaping all the benefits of that. You crush 4,000 other creators that would compete with.
Sal DeStefano
Did you see John Deloney? His show is crazy. A girl called in. She's an adult.
Adam Schaefer
He gets wild.
Sal DeStefano
She's an adult. This woman now is she. I think she was in her 20s and she had a stepfather. This is terrible. That raised her. She had a good relationship with. Yeah. And she, He. He let her borrow his phone to do something and she saw that he had. That he had AI images of her that were nude. What? And it's like she was obviously like, this is disgusting. I can't believe it. What do I do with this? It's not real. Like he didn't go follow her and take these photos.
Justin Andrews
Just created it.
Sal DeStefano
But he just created it. And there were. The crazy part about this is there's no laws now they will. I'm sure they're gonna have laws against this. I'm sure if you do this and it's not authorized that you can get in big trouble because they have to pass laws against us. Yeah, you have to.
Justin Andrews
Your likeness. Wasn't there some. I think it was in like Europe or something. They started to kind of have you register your likeness so it was protected and you could like, you know, create some kind of legality around that.
Sal DeStefano
They have to. Yeah, they have to.
Justin Andrews
That's kind of the only move we got left exactly.
Sal DeStefano
For what I'm saying. Like if it's. Does it. Is it. Are you protected? Is somebody protected right now from something like that? Is underage images if they're, you know, I. Is that. Is that even covered under current law? I'm not sure. I don't know. But this is like a thing that's. Yeah. Wow, that's happening.
Adam Schaefer
I thought you were about to share. I just saw on is one of his recent ones too. Is yet a. He had a live caller call. He has a wild call. I. Because I know John so well. I love. Half of what I love is just to see his reaction. Like what the is he gonna say? So if I had you to handle this one, John.
Justin Andrews
He does it so massive.
Adam Schaefer
He does. He does.
Sal DeStefano
Well, he's probably heard it all.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, he has. He. I'm surprised how he doesn't get more. I like my mouth was like, oh, this guy calls in and he's trying to ask his advice on how to like you know, work through this situation. And he's telling the story that him, his wife and his mother in law were all drinking together and the. His wife went upstairs to go sleep with the kids and he fell asleep downstairs with his stepmother. Woke up and then, you know, slept with his stepmother or his.
Sal DeStefano
His actually had. With his mother in law.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. With his mother.
Sal DeStefano
Had sex with her.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, yeah. And actually, like, pursued her. Right. So she, like. Yes, she.
Sal DeStefano
And he's asking for advice. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
And John's just like, yeah, you're done.
Justin Andrews
You messed up.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
What's crazy to me is that he called for advice.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. He's like, you know that.
Sal DeStefano
That's. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. He's like, you don't come back from that. Yeah. Like that. Like, you dishonored.
Sal DeStefano
You dishonored my wife.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. Yeah. You dishonored your wife to such a horrible degree. You can never recover from that. Like, the right thing to do is actually to walk away. Walk away from. Apologize, of course. But you need to walk away.
Sal DeStefano
You know what's crazy about all this is reading the. The, you know, reading the Old Testament. I was so blown away by. There's books in the Old Testament that are just laws and they spell out like. Like sex laws. So, like, so specifically that obviously people were doing this stuff. It's like, you. You do not sleep with your sister. Do not sleep with your mother. Do not sleep with your husband's wife. Do not sleep with your. Your aunt.
Justin Andrews
Don't have your dog.
Sal DeStefano
Do not have sex with an animal. I'm like, wow, they had to spell this out back then. What is going on here? That's just human. It's just human nature. We can just go crazy.
Justin Andrews
It's like all those signs you see at the airport for what not to bring. And you're like, somebody brought a chainsaw.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
I think those are funny. There's like, random things on there. It's like, of all the things they picked to not to bring, like, why is that? Who brought that?
Sal DeStefano
Did I tell you this?
Adam Schaefer
Who brought that? More than once that they felt they needed a sign? Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Did I tell you how bad. How mad my kids got? My older kids got at me? You guys know I do this with you guys all the time. When? The airport. And then I'll make a joke while you're getting. You're going through security. Hey, did you tell them about the fireworks in your bag or something like that? I did that to my kids, dude. And they were so angry. What's wrong with you?
Adam Schaefer
I'm like, oh, my God.
Sal DeStefano
You don't have fireworks in your bathroom.
Adam Schaefer
We always do that. I always do.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
I do it to Katrina all the time.
Sal DeStefano
You're the one. I think you're probably the one. You've gotten the most targeted a lot. 100 every time. 100 every time. I know when you're getting patted down, we always check his groin. That's where he hides.
Adam Schaefer
The best is like. I mean I appreciate the guys that have like that sense of humor. Yeah. Sense of humor. Sometimes you get people that are just, you know, all upset about it and stuff, so.
Sal DeStefano
And we got to make light of it. It's uncomfortable.
Justin Andrews
Manhandle you anyway.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, it's uncomfortable. Nobody likes it. Yeah. So might as well make a joke about it, dude.
Justin Andrews
Well, speaking of messed up things, like I was looking like it's kissed BW8 I think is this like actual news? Like I follow and they. There was this case of like these. This couple down in LA who couldn't apparently were like trying to go through fertility clinic to get to be able to have a surrogate option. And they found out like that they have. They had done this with like 20 different people and so they actually had to full term. 20 kids were the same surrogate. The same surrogate. So. So they.
Sal DeStefano
This woman's just pregnant. 25. She's just.
Justin Andrews
No, no, no. All different surrogates.
Sal DeStefano
Okay.
Justin Andrews
Her eggs. So she like her eggs.
Sal DeStefano
She.
Justin Andrews
She willingly.
Adam Schaefer
Or they did it when they stole.
Sal DeStefano
Her eggs to give other people. No.
Justin Andrews
So the, the thought is they did that on purpose. They have this like big mansion in Florida. Like there's this whole like weird scandal to it. Like there's a lot of theories coming out about it is like, you know, if there's some trafficking angle with this in terms of like, you know, so they. They're only able to adopt like, you know, a handful. The rest of them go to foster homes and so they're. But these, this couple actually owns the. The fertility clinic that did this.
Sal DeStefano
Disgusting.
Justin Andrews
So anyway, so I was just like appalled at like that this was. And apparently this is going on more frequently than people know about.
Adam Schaefer
Okay, so help me understand here. I'm a little confused. So a couple who owns a fertility CL used. So the wife basically using other people's eggs.
Sal DeStefano
No, hers.
Adam Schaefer
She produced a ton of eggs. You know what they do that you produce 20, 30. So they. They've probably froze 50 of her eggs and then they gave them out.
Justin Andrews
And it was all like the same time to. To 20 different couples. And then the baby genetically they're finding.
Sal DeStefano
They're still finding the baby goes babies to them to supposedly go out to a dark.
Adam Schaefer
Yes.
Justin Andrews
To come back to them to. To. Yeah. For them to adopt.
Sal DeStefano
But they're not their home.
Justin Andrews
But yeah, they. They can only adopt, like a handful. Like, oh, like, wow, two kids or so. I don't know what the.
Sal DeStefano
This is. What I start to think about is.
Adam Schaefer
That just a possible strategy, though, of like, hey, we're Gonna put out 20, and hopefully we get five, because they don't always take.
Sal DeStefano
No, they all came out. That's what he's saying.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Justin Andrews
Oh, all of them took.
Adam Schaefer
Interesting.
Justin Andrews
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. How many? About that, too.
Justin Andrews
But I'm like, I. Yeah, like, it's.
Adam Schaefer
I think.
Justin Andrews
Yeah. Obviously they store more for that reason, but they would. They would probably only use, like, two couples at max, I would imagine.
Sal DeStefano
Look it up, Doug. I want to hear what this case.
Justin Andrews
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Is all about. And you could probably just type in. Yeah, because I'm trying surrogate, you know, case or something like that, or California.
Adam Schaefer
Surrogate, because I know. Okay, so when. When. Like when Katrina and I went through all this. Right. That's what they're. They're hoping that she gets, like, you know, 10, 15 eggs, right? And a lot of times when you have to go through, like, something like this, you know, the. The woman's only having a handful eggs or so you're not getting a lot. And so you're really hoping and praying you get 10, 15, 20 eggs, and then you do. You. You freeze all. And then you try and inseminate all of them, you know, in hoping that four take. And then of the four that take, two keep. And then, you know, you have one or two.
Sal DeStefano
They think it's trafficking. Like they were selling.
Justin Andrews
Yes.
Sal DeStefano
Oh, they gotta. These people gotta get killed.
Justin Andrews
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
I'm not a. I am not a. Wow. 17 of them.
Justin Andrews
It's horrific.
Sal DeStefano
Dude. Dude, what is this? There's real evil. There's terrible evil in the world. And I'm not a. I'm not pro death sentence, but stuff like this can sway me.
Adam Schaefer
What I'm having a hard time is like, how do you. How do you connect then right away to trafficking?
Sal DeStefano
Because the kids go.
Justin Andrews
And that's the incentive and they get paid, like. And you could see how their lavish lifestyle, like, doesn't add up. Oh, so they have a huge, huge house, and it's like, okay, wait a minute. Maybe they want a lot of kids and they have a big house for a lot of kids. But then it just doesn't. It doesn't add.
Adam Schaefer
I mean, could it also be a way of, like, avoiding taxes and just kind of backdoor getting people kids, too, though? Like, okay, so you.
Sal DeStefano
You run sell the kids.
Adam Schaefer
So that's. So that's most Likely what's happening right now. These people are trying to sell the kids on the black markets and have to pay taxes. Think about it. You have your own. You have your own.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, but who's buying these kids in.
Adam Schaefer
The black people that are willing to save money that way. It's like imagine you're in. Okay, Think of this. I'm trying to think of how you.
Sal DeStefano
Think you want a kid, Adam, you want a baby, you're going to go to the black market to buy it.
Adam Schaefer
No, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't look like that. You come to my clinic, okay, to come get a baby, and you're telling me. I tell you, hey, it's going to be $30,000. Oh, man, it's so expensive.
Sal DeStefano
I tell you what, we have on for 15.
Adam Schaefer
For 15 grand. But we're gonna have to do it this way. I'm going to do it.
Sal DeStefano
We're not going to. There's a reason why there's laws around this.
Adam Schaefer
Well, I mean, obviously, by the way, me explaining how I think this was down isn't me justifying it by the means. I'm just trying to rationalize. Like, where is your brain going to do that? It makes sense. If you own the clinic, you got to pay taxes on all this income that you're doing. You do 20 kids for 15 grand. Black market. It's a lot of money. You're. And then that also explains the lavish lifestyle because you're only paying taxes, say, on 200 grand a year, but you're really.
Sal DeStefano
Well, they're more like 400. Their best case is tax evasion. Then the best case scenario. Yeah, but you're selling the black market. It's like, who's coming to you?
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, no, it's. Again, you're not pro. I bet you're not selling the bike. I bet it happens just like that. You're in it. You're in it. You're in an office and you turn a blind eye. Yeah, exactly. And you're like, listen, I bet you if we look at. Look at the case, I mean, I could be totally wrong. They could be some crazy. I feel like, though this is Right now that's a hot topic. So everything is like, go that direction for the news. Like that obviously gets everyone's boil going. All the stuff that, you know, Epstein and what's going on. I wonder if it's more like, is that one of the people that are.
Sal DeStefano
No, those.
Justin Andrews
That's the couple. That's the couple.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Justin Andrews
So they actually used her eggs in.
Sal DeStefano
His Sperm, I guess.
Justin Andrews
And they had these surrogates raise these.
Sal DeStefano
Kids and there's like 21 of them. I think the oldest is 12.
Adam Schaefer
Okay.
Justin Andrews
But apparently there was a three month.
Sal DeStefano
Old that had been abused at the house.
Justin Andrews
And that's how they found out about this. It was shaken, I think.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Wow. Well, there you go. That's terrible.
Adam Schaefer
Interesting.
Sal DeStefano
You know, there's a controversy around surrogacy, by the way, that people say that having a baby grow in another, in a woman, and then when she gives birth goes to someone else, that there's some trauma there that you don't want to address. Just the separation from the mom that, you know, that, that, that carried the baby. And that's, that's controversial to say because people don't want to say that that's even a possibility. But, man, that's really crazy. All right, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go. Fitness. Let's bring it back to fitness here for a second. So just, just by the way, what I'm about to say points less to the value of what I'm about to say, more to just how sedentary humans are. They did a study that showed that walking 4,000 steps a day. 4,000 steps, by the way, is nothing. It led to larger grain, larger brain volume, about 2% for an improved memory from 4,000 steps. With this, with, by the way, this isn't like, oh, walking is miraculous. What this really means is people are so inactive, you are so sensitive that their brains are atrophying. Their brains are atrophy 100% from not moving.
Adam Schaefer
And, and, and it only takes 4,000 to counter the average atrophy.
Sal DeStefano
That's right. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
I mean, this to me is the similar story when you've read, when you've talked about how little it takes just to keep from losing muscle.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
At once every two weeks. Like, that's how inactive we are as people like to just keep your muscle from falling off, you just need to do something once every two weeks. This is similar to that. It's like we are so inactive. In order to keep your brains from atrophying, all you have to do is minimum walk 4,000 steps. And you're right. I think it's less to say about how miraculous 4,000 steps is, just to say, wow, how unhealthy inactive we really.
Sal DeStefano
Are along those lines.
Adam Schaefer
And it's not just your muscles that are suffering. Your brain is also suffering.
Sal DeStefano
Oh, yeah. Your brain controls all of it, Moves it all. It's all connected and it prunes off what you're not using. And if you're not using your brain, because every time you move, you're using your brain. If you don't move, your brain will atrophy. Along those lines, did you see the new CDC data on teenagers and pre diabetes? Jackie sent this to us. This is CDC data. One out of three teens. 33% of teenagers today have pre diabetes.
Justin Andrews
Whoa, that's appalling.
Sal DeStefano
33. Do you guys, people understand this? Really high teenagers never had any of this. Zero. Zero was what it was. Yeah. Okay, now it's 33. 3% have pre diabetes.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, we're not doing.
Adam Schaefer
How do they measure pre diabetes?
Sal DeStefano
Blood sugar, Just.
Adam Schaefer
So basically what this is saying is that they, they, they checked a thousand of pre teens their blood sugar and they all read over this number.
Sal DeStefano
Yep. So it's not high enough for type 2 diabetes, but if you're pre diabetic at as at 15 years old, you're going to get type 2 diabetes. Wow. When you get older. 33%. One out of three. That is absolutely insane. This is a significant threat.
Justin Andrews
Major need. There's a world.
Adam Schaefer
It's so crazy to me because we just. We recently had a caller and we're. And she was asking about, you know, trying to, you know, keep her kid from having. She wants to do similar to what Katrina and I do with like the no sugar really early. And the. The crazy thing to me is we know stuff like this, that where we're going, it's like that there's still pushback from family and people that, hey, we probably shouldn't do that.
Sal DeStefano
You know what's crazy about this, though? And again, I'm gonna just go in a little bit of a different direction. We grew up in the 80s and 90s. Okay. And I'm gonna be honest with you, we all ate a lot of sugar. All of us ate a lot of sugar all the time.
Adam Schaefer
But we also played like, that's crazy. Outside.
Sal DeStefano
We were always exercising, climbing. We were moving our bodies.
Adam Schaefer
That's how we. So this is how we got in trouble, though, Sal, because it's not to say that what we did, what we did in the 80s and 90s, was good. We were doing something bad also. We were just lucky that we still lived in a very physically active society. And so we countered a lot of that bad by moving enough. That's one of the beauties of exercise and movement. You can get away with a subpar or even poor diet with. With a lot of exercise to at least counter all the extra calories yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Because I would bet that if you compared the 90s to today, a kid's diet.
Adam Schaefer
Oh, I don't think it's worse. No, it's the same.
Sal DeStefano
No, but what's changed dramatically.
Adam Schaefer
Totally. I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. But that, again, that doesn't mean we were doing it right. I think we were doing it wrong too.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
I think we just, we. We are now seeing the consequences of eating like that and those habits and behaviors. Kids don't move and kids don't move. It was the perfect. It was the. It's the. The perfect worst recipe happened is you had a bunch of 80s and 90s babies have babies after they, you know, ho ho's and Twinkies and eating like that was no big deal. We all did it. So then they justify it to their kids. Oh, no big deal. Let's feed my kid ice cream and give them the snacks and do all the things I did as a kid.
Justin Andrews
Now they're just sitting there.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
And then you throw an iPad their way.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
And just comatose them for the entire day.
Justin Andrews
Like, side is boring.
Adam Schaefer
Crazy. Yeah. Recipe for that.
Sal DeStefano
I mean, it's. Again, people have heard to say this, but when I. When we were kids, kids were never inside. Never.
Justin Andrews
No.
Sal DeStefano
Like, I. I mean, never, by the way, we didn't have cell phones and tracking.
Justin Andrews
It's not good. We just weren't good about staying inside.
Sal DeStefano
Going inside was a punishment.
Adam Schaefer
Did you see that other article that Jerry Jackie sent? She said it last week. Actually, I never brought it up on the show. I thought it was interesting. There's a movement called Feral Feral Summer.
Sal DeStefano
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Feral Summertime or something like that. I think it's called it basically Feral Kids, right? Yeah. Really incur. It's like a movement that's happening right now that, you know, trying to encourage other parents to let your kids let your kids.
Sal DeStefano
You know, I was talking. It's funny, I was talking to my wife. I've been talking to my wife about this recently, and we're really good. She's really good with limiting screen time. But when I have the kids all day, which I do. Not super often, but maybe once or twice a week, I'll have them for a large chunk of the day. Jessica will get out of the house and I'll. I'll be with the kids all day long. There is a pronounced different in their behavior when I run their little butts off and we go to the park two or three times a day versus when we're Inside, radical difference in their behavior. So here you are as a parent, and your kids are not going outside that much because you're not either taking them outside or making them go outside or whatever. Then they're acting up. And then in order to deal with the fact that they're acting up, you use TV or a screen. When in reality, again, if this was a dog, if you had a dog that was chewing your furniture and pooping all over the place, and you went to the vet, and the vet. First question the vet would ask is, how long often do you take your dog for a walk? We really don't go for that many walks. Okay, that's your problem. Get your dog outside.
Adam Schaefer
You don't need to sedate your dog or give them some sort of medication or do something else.
Sal DeStefano
Go get.
Adam Schaefer
You.
Sal DeStefano
Get him outside.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, I literally.
Sal DeStefano
This is what it literally looks like when I have my kids. 9am is my goal. And we go all the way. We go for a walk all the way to this big park that's by where we live. And we're there from 9:30 till typically 12:30. And it's like we're running, they're going, and we're playing. Then we come home. Daughter goes down for a nap. My son and I hang out a little bit. She wakes up and we go back to the park. If I have them all day, it's typically what it looks like. Yeah. And they're way better behavior.
Adam Schaefer
You know, originally last year, when I was house shopping, on my list of things that Katrina and I had over the years put together, like, okay, what does our ideal place look like? A pool was not on my list. I did not that that just happened to happen with this place because I fell in love with everything else. And I can't tell you how grateful I am. Looking back now, I. I would have actually put it as one of my top things now because of that reason.
Sal DeStefano
Right. It's warm outside.
Adam Schaefer
Just having a young. Just having young kids, and they just naturally gravitate. It is so easy to convince him to go play and swim in the pool. And then I see the benefits of that. I mean, aside from the fact that we're not Even thinking about TV and iPad stuff like. But being out in the sun and doing something physical like, oh, connect. I mean, all the things I just. If I would, if I knew this going into it when I went shopping over a year ago, that actually would have been one of my number one priorities. Now that I know that. But it wasn't, was I just. I Lucked out that that happened. And now that I see how we use it and I see the benefits of that to the point you're making. Because it's just so easy to go.
Sal DeStefano
Up when I'm stuck inside. I even make it because sometimes if it's raining right, you can't go outside too. You know what I do? We do this thing where I'll play EDM music and I make my kids run and I turn it into games. I'll pretend like I'm a police officer. The speed limit's only this much. And then they run, oh, you're breaking the speed limit. And they just, pah, pah, pah, bah. And I'll do this for an hour to exhaust them physically, because if I don't, they don't. It's not good for them. They don't feel good and they act it out. You can tell they're snappier with each other, meaner, more disobedient. Whatever you want to say.
Justin Andrews
Well, dude, even when it's raining, I mean, we used to call each other out and be like, dude, it's mud football time. And we go out and deal with the elements. I just think we're such pussies now. Like, get out there and deal with it and your body's going to benefit as a result of it. Yeah, you might get a little cold, but you'll get stronger.
Adam Schaefer
I really think, I think it's, I think it's less, I blame less of the kids being pussies and more of us as parents taking the easier path.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, you want to control us.
Justin Andrews
It's the parents that are pussies.
Adam Schaefer
Well, yeah. And want the easier path. Right. Like, and I've seen this happen many times. And listen, I'm no stranger to also know what it's like to come home from a long, stressful, busy day. And all I want to do is walk in the door.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schaefer
Put my feet up on the couch, have my wife come over and rub my head and tell me it's going to be okay. That's right. 100 had those days. But yet I've got a five, six year old running around. Daddy, daddy, daddy, let's do this. And boys, would it be tempting to just, hey, put your favorite show on the iPad? Because he certainly would love to do that. And it takes extra effort for me to get up off there and go, let's go outside and go play. But I, I see and know the difference and the benefits of that. And, and yes, I. And at that moment, that's where to me, that's. That's real parenting is sacrificing in that moment to make that. When it's hard, it's. When it's easy, it's easy. Yeah, you're not special. It's not. You're not special when I. I take my kid to play in the pool because it's easy. No, when it's hard is when you.
Sal DeStefano
Don'T want to go out.
Adam Schaefer
I don't want to go out there, and I don't want to do that because I'm taught. And so I think the price. I think his parents. We have. We have chosen that path. And I think I shared this with you guys. So many, like, we had a. We. I told you, one of the last trips we had, we had all these kids at our house up in. In Tahoe. And, you know, there was a lot of. The kids had iPad times, and. And although it wasn't a lot, they still let them do it. And we've taken it away from Max completely. And, you know, Max sees all them doing let's do it. And all it took was Katrina and I being like, hey, do you want to go roast marshmallows outside? Hey, do you want to go, you know, throw, like, as soon as we offer to do something outside with him? He preferred that. But if you. But if you continually use the iPad as that tool to entertain them, they will eventually crave that more than they will that outside, and then you're up.
Sal DeStefano
A real.
Justin Andrews
That's the real challenge is to stay ahead of it right into.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Justin Andrews
To understand, like, okay, I have to have structure for them and options for them. Like, maybe sometimes they're not just gonna, like, all of a sudden think of that themselves. Like if. You know. And again, when they get older, they'll. They'll have a better time if you've established that. But you have to establish that first, just like anything else.
Adam Schaefer
I remember watching you do this because you remember, I mean, we've had. We've had the Truckee House now for seven years, I think, or something like that. And the boys were much younger, though. Your boys were my son's age.
Justin Andrews
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Back then. And I remember when we would get up in the morning when all of our families were there, you were like, I. We're going out. We're doing, like. You had to plan the day of physical activities outside and get the boys out right away. You were proact. You did. And being. I remember me, I'm more chill. I want to Be lazy, kind of sleeping my vacation. And you were like, I gotta. I have to go do this, I have to go do that. And I'm sure inside of you, if there was no kids there, you would love to sit down, right?
Sal DeStefano
And do nothing.
Adam Schaefer
But I know I, you know, I got to watch that firsthand from you for years of like, no, this is what I have to do. Otherwise my boys will want to play video games all day and do nothing.
Sal DeStefano
That's the other side of it. Like, you could also be at home and say, no TV, no iPad, whatever. But you're at home and you're doing. And now they have to choose something to do at home. Meanwhile, the temptation of this perfectly engineered device, which is engineered to get their attention, the engineer who worked on it, much smarter than you are, you're just. They're next to this temptation. So get out of the house. They're not going to ask for the tv. Why? It's not here. We're at the park. Let's go feed the ducks. Let's go run. Let's go do this other thing. So it's like, get out of the temptation that these kids are. Otherwise. It's this battle and then you're fighting with them and then they're arguing.
Adam Schaefer
Well, you know what's interesting too is that you, you, you, you trade the convenience temporarily, but you actually make it harder for yourself.
Sal DeStefano
Totally.
Adam Schaefer
So in the, in the temporary moment, it's actually harder. It is harder in the temporary moment. It seems like the easier path to just give them that. But then the tantrums, the not going to sleep, the like getting up in the middle, all that comes from that, you know, and so it's like you actually, yeah, you actually, you think you saved time or you made it easier, but you actually made it harder for yourself because you didn't choose the first hard. You choose. Okay, I'll delay. And then you got the, the hard later.
Sal DeStefano
100. All right. I got a study on green juices. I don't even know that these studies existed. I'm going to read this to you. I actually looked this up. So they did a study on how green juices affect things like inflammation. And believe it or not, I'll pull up the study here. Now, this was done on, on obese women. And so what they did is they gave obese women a juice powder that had greens in them. So very similar to like organifies green juice.
Adam Schaefer
Okay.
Sal DeStefano
Okay. There was a 30% reduction in what's known as protein and lipid oxidation. All right, what Is that, well, proteins and lipids become oxidized and become inflammatory with oxidants. So antioxidants help prevent this. So these are, by the way, these are obese individuals. So it's not necessarily the best demographic. But by simply drinking a green juice, it reduced both of those by 30%. Which translates typically to things like, can translate to things like lower heart attack risk, lower pain, better cognitive function because you don't have this like oxidation going on.
Adam Schaefer
Now I'm imagining that's because I know like green juice has ashwagandha has these other things in it. It's primarily from all the antioxidants from the concentrated fruit.
Sal DeStefano
That's right. Concentrated greens.
Adam Schaefer
Greens, okay.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schaefer
Because I know that like your, your fruit, your greens, they have a lot of antioxidants. The fact that it's concentrated in a juice, I'm sure you're getting an abundant of that. Yeah, 30, 30 something is a mass.
Sal DeStefano
From a green juice that's like an easy supplement. And again, like both of them are associated with heart disease, obesity related complications, insulin resistance. Now the authors of the study speculated that this, this effect is obviously stronger in people that don't have a lot of vegetables and fruit in their diet.
Justin Andrews
Sure.
Sal DeStefano
That's how I use the green juice deficiency. That's how I use the green juice. When my vegetable intake is low, I'll have a green juice and it looks like it's the right thing to do. If you have any questions or curiosities, are you considering hormone replacement therapy or peptide therapy? Go to mphormones.com, the doctors there will help you. And right now, this is the biggest sale I've ever seen. 30% off everything across the board. 30% off all peptides, 30% off your hormone replacement therapy. 30% off everything. Right now go to Mphormones.com back to the show.
Justin Andrews
Our first caller is Lauren from Oklahoma.
Sal DeStefano
Hi Lauren.
Adam Schaefer
How you doing, Lauren?
Sal DeStefano
Hi Lauren, how are you?
Ryan Seacrest
How are you guys?
Sal DeStefano
Good, we're good. How can we help you?
Ryan Seacrest
I'm just gonna get to my question. Okay. I wrote to you guys and I listened to you. I've been listening to you for about a year. I listen to everything you say and do. I love you all three. Justin, you remind me so much of my husband it's hilarious. But anyway, this is what I wrote. I said I am a 43 year old woman who is 57 and I currently weigh 148 pounds. I have always worked out, I eat healthy, I get in my Daily steps, et cetera, et cetera. My issue question is that I have taken phentermine 37.5 milligrams daily for almost four years straight, and it has ruined my metabolism. While on the medication, I was able to maintain a weight around 120 to 125 pounds. And I felt really good in my clothes and my body. I have been off the medication now for about 14 months, and in my mind, I have ballooned up. I listen to you all on the daily. I follow your advice. I lift, I think heavy, three to four times a week. I walk eight to 10,000 steps a day. I try to get in 130 grams of protein daily. I watch my calorie intake, I track my macros, all while raising three kids and working full time. I desperately want to lose 15 to 20 pounds and it is not budging. I want to run back and get another prescription for phenermine, but I know that's not the answer. So I'm wondering if you guys can help me. And since then, since I wrote this question, I did go get my hormones checked by a hormone doctor. All my hormones were in the normal range, but the testosterone was on the low side. So I did start testosterone cream four weeks ago. And I'll be real honest, I complained about my weight and he did give me semiglutide. So I started on that, the low dose, 0.25 milligrams, and I have not lost. Lost a pound. Okay, so nothing has come off.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, we'll give it some time. Okay, so. So you stop phentermine, that. Which is boost norepinephrine. So it's kind of like a thin.
Adam Schaefer
Thin.
Sal DeStefano
Yep, that's what it is. It's a central nervous system stimulant. And it will make you eat less. Semaglutide will do the same. As you continue to increase the dose, you'll see that your appetite will drop and you'll eat less. So that's essentially what happened, right? You. You were on it, you ate less, you went off of it, you ate more. Now, your body weight for your height's not bad. I don't know what your body fat percentage is.
Ryan Seacrest
I had it checked in April, and It was at 22%.
Sal DeStefano
You're fine. Oh, yes. You were eating too little before then.
Justin Andrews
Healthy.
Sal DeStefano
Lauren. Yeah. I hate to break that to you, but on phentermine, you were underweight.
Ryan Seacrest
I liked being thinner. I'm very soft, and I can't seem to tone up.
Sal DeStefano
22. Body fat is not soft. But I think what you're talking about, and I get it, is you like to be smaller, but that you were under eating before and now you're probably eating more appropriate. 22% is amazing. That's great. Especially if you're strength training and you're getting stronger. That's excellent. Semaglutide is going to help a little bit with insulin sensitivity. You might drop your calories a bit, but do. What are your calories at, by the way? What are you averaging right now?
Ryan Seacrest
Well, I know what you're gonna say. So before I got on the, I mean, anywhere from tweet between 1200 and 1700 a day, I know it's too low.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Ryan Seacrest
I just, I don't have the appetite to eat.
Adam Schaefer
So the other thing too that I'm concerned about is in here. You wrote too that you try to hit your 130 grams of protein a day. And then I know that you're taking semi glutide, so I imagine it becomes even more difficult to hit that. And then you also say that, you know, you feel soft. And one of the, one of the recipes for fixing soft is muscle muscle. And if, if we are not hitting enough protein consistently, even if you are strength training, you're just not going to build muscle. You're not going to build muscle on. Under eating calories and under eating protein. You're not going to get that firm look that you're gonna. That you want. And so a reverse diet and building muscle would be the focus for you and I. I mean, that's what we would be doing.
Sal DeStefano
And let's go a little deeper. Lauren, how long have you been, let's say, been kind of focused on your body where, you know, you're like, oh, I need to lose weight or I need to change this or. How long has that been a focus? Forever.
Ryan Seacrest
I'm 43 and I mean, probably since 14, 15.
Sal DeStefano
Can I give you.
Ryan Seacrest
I grew up in the 90s, so, you know, the mosses were the end thing back then.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So did I. I get it. Can I give you some, like, honest, objective feedback?
Ryan Seacrest
Yes, of course.
Sal DeStefano
Your assessment of how you look is distorted. It's not accurate. So you can't trust the mirror. Or to put it differently, you can't trust yourself. 22% is great body fat percentage if.
Adam Schaefer
You'Re getting stronger, especially a mama three. A mama three at 40. I mean, that's.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
I bet if I'm winning, you're winning.
Sal DeStefano
I bet if I asked your husband.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
I bet if I asked your kids, I Bet if I asked your friends, hey, does Lauren look fit? They'd be like, oh my gosh, she looks amazing. So what you're seeing is not true. And so what we need to work on, if you really want to solve this now, if you want to live the rest of your life being body focused with the anxiety that goes along with it and all of the other things you're not aware of. See, where you're not aware of when you've lived this way for so long is it's negatively affecting all your relationships. It has, it's being placed above things that are more important. So it can probably cause things like anxiety and stress. Around eating out, around vacation, around examining yourself in the mirror, trying clothes on, oh, my God, I don't look good. It's self consciousness, all that stuff. If you want to, if you want to break free from that, what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to get you to stop looking in the mirror and breaking yourself down. And what we want to do is focus on something, a different metric that is going to move you in the right direction. Strength is probably the best one. I'd like to put you on a program like Maps Powerlift and I would love for you for the next three months to be hyper focused on getting stronger out the squat deadlift and the bench press. And I'd want you to also simultaneously try to eat more because the truth is you've been eating too little for too long.
Adam Schaefer
I, I would like to see if you're open to it. I'd like to see you work with Corinne, our trainer. I think she would be incredible for you, where you're currently at right now and helping you through this process. I think the most challenging part of what Sal is saying to you is not the adherence of the stuff per se, but more so the psychological game that it plays with your head. You start doing some of the right things. Oh, my God, I feel like I'm getting fat. Oh, this can't be right. Or that's right, you know, and then you bail from the plan. And so having a coach checking in with you frequently, just letting you know, like, hey, Lauren, you're kicking ass, you're doing good. We're heading the right track. Trust the process. Trust the process, I think would be incredibly valuable if you're open to that.
Sal DeStefano
I'm going to tell you right now your Height, your weight, 22 body fat, 43 years old, you're winning. You look better than 99.9%.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
You look great of women in your age group. Okay. But that's not, doesn't matter what I say. What matters is what you feel about that because. So we got to move away from that. And I'm going to tell you the other end of this is going to be amazing. And you'll have this relationship with fitness and diet that feels free and non stressful and then you'll be able to kind of see a little bit more accurately with how you're actually doing that is what Adam's saying is correct. It's going to take a little bit of coaching through this process, but you're, you're, you're, you're doing good, but you could do so much better by increasing calories and getting strong. And that's actually going to give you.
Adam Schaefer
That'S the body you want.
Sal DeStefano
It's going to give you all this incredible benefits. But you.
Ryan Seacrest
I think I've just always been so afraid to increase the calories.
Adam Schaefer
Of course, of course. It's common. Super common.
Sal DeStefano
Super common.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. Super.
Justin Andrews
That's why you need somebody in your corner for sure. I think a coach would be really good.
Sal DeStefano
Super, super common.
Justin Andrews
Lauren.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
And I want to make it clear that even though like Sal's telling you, you, you've, you know, you have kind of what we call perception drift of yourself, right. The way you look at yourself, it doesn't mean that we can't sculpt and build the body. You're, you're thinking that you. But it's, it doesn't start there. It starts first with loving yourself where you're currently understanding what the process looks like. Being comfortable with the process of reverse, like that's, you have to get there first so we can go do the things we need to do to then sculpt the body that you have in your mind. But, but it's you getting in your own way on the way to that because you're not allowing yourself to do. And that's where the, if you're at.
Sal DeStefano
22% body fat, eating 12 to 1700 calories, oh my God, we're going to see some tremendous body sculpting changes. If we can just get you to the point where you're able to reverse diet properly with some good strength training and you're going to feel libido is going to go through the roof. You're going to sleep really good, you're going to feel really stable and strong in your body. And then a light switch, it's going to feel like a light switch at some point. Like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And I feel so free. This is great. On top of it. So if you're open to that, we'll have somebody call you. At the very least, they'll give you a consultation. But. Okay.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
All right, let's do that. I'm so glad you called in. Super common. Like, you are, like, you know, probably 50 of the clients I work started in that. In that.
Adam Schaefer
And just if you do end up working with Corinne, listen to her. She's amazing. She is amazing. She is great at what she does, and she will absolutely help you through this if you let her, but you got to let her.
Ryan Seacrest
Okay. No, I appreciate you guys so much. Everything you say and do, I will listen. I just need that someone to keep guiding me.
Sal DeStefano
This is good. I'm excited. Yeah. Thank you so much, Lauren. Maybe we'll have you on in a few months.
Adam Schaefer
I would love to. I'd love to circle back.
Sal DeStefano
All right, let's do that. We'll have you on in a few months. Okay.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, check back in.
Betty
All right.
Sal DeStefano
Thanks, Lauren. Have a good day. You too. That's a real thing. I mean, I know it personally, but, you know, just on the outside, I could always look at someone else and see it very clearly. And, you know, 22% is not soft. No, 22% is a healthy lean.
Justin Andrews
It's like, ideal fit.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. That's where you want for A woman between 19 to 22 is, like, fit and lean. Leaner than that. Sometimes you start to get hormone issues. Higher than that can look curvier, you know, below 25%, typically. 22% is amazing, especially for someone who's 43 years old. Her calories are so low, too, which is crazy.
Adam Schaefer
That's why she's not building muscle. No, that's what's happening, which is she has found herself in a place. It's actually keeping her relatively healthy, lean, all the things. But she wants more for her physique, meaning she wants to be tighter, firmer, sculpted. But you can't do that without the nutrients. You can't get there if you don't hit what your body needs, calorie wise and protein wise consistently. And the reverse diet is what she needs to do to enable the. To do that.
Sal DeStefano
She'll get up to a nice 22, 20, 300 calories and feel like, oh, my God. Yeah, I feel so good.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. No, this. I. I hope she ends up working with Corinne. Corinne will help her a lot.
Sal DeStefano
Our next caller is James from Oklahoma. What's up, James?
Adam Schaefer
How you doing. James, what's happening?
James
Hey guys. I appreciate you guys taking the time to answer this question. I'd actually sent it in a little bit ago and some things have changed a little bit, so I'll kind of modify on, but I'll just kind of read the question out to you.
Sal DeStefano
Thank you.
James
Justin, this is kind of more specifically to you because of what the work that you do with high school athletes.
Sal DeStefano
Okay.
James
So I've been listening to Mind Pump for several years. I know that Justin is the guy that does most of the training for high school athletes. Through the years, I've done a lot of work with high school athletes and older adults. By using Mind Pump programs and podcasts, I've been able to make very good progress with a lot of these people. But I had someone reach out to me recently about their morbidly obese high school student when I'm at a little bit of a loss here. I've worked with hardcore athletes. I know that most of the time these coaches have programs in place that I don't want to mess with their programs. I want to my stuff to be through what Justin has said, form, technique, a little bit more specific stuff. We don't want to work them really hard, you know, So I do that. A lot of that kind of stuff. Not to overdo their regular sessions in recovery, but with this young man, he's. I had originally put that he was 5, 6, and his dad is estimated around 350. He's actually around 300. I weighed him last week. He's 5 6, weighs around 300 pounds, and already I'm starting to see a little bit of edema in his arms and his legs. And I'm just concerned that this young man is going to have a pretty low quality of life, you know, if we can't do something and I can't get excited about what's going on in the process itself, I don't want to overwork him, but I also know that he's 15 years old. He's going to be a little bit more resilient than some of my older obese people that I'm working with. But kind of how do you think that we need to kind of go along with this? I've got. Currently I've used Anabolic for numerous people. I've got performance split, Power lift bands and ocr, and I kind of broke this up for different people. I've got some people that what we've done is we've. I've done Anabolic, but I've done it More of a isometric type, asymmetrical. So we'll do left side, right side. We'll split everything up, you know. But I'm just curious as to what your thought would be on how do I get through this? How do I. How do I help this young man?
Justin Andrews
Okay, so. And you're working with other obese individuals as well, and your concern is that he's younger, like 15. Is he also an athlete or is this just like you're trying to help him out with his fitness?
James
No, he is not an athlete at all. His parents knew that I worked with some other people. I go to church with his parents, and they reached out and I just offered to help him free of charge to get him a program in place to kind of help him. He is not currently an athlete. He's a farm kid. He is a very, very strong kid. But it's just a situation to where I'm just trying to figure out, you know, I don't, I'm not worried about overloading him as far as his other activities go. That's, I guess, my biggest concern at this point.
Justin Andrews
So, yeah, so you're trying to find. Because it's really not, not much different than, you know, training an adult in that, in that situation. It's just a. You're trying to figure out, like, what to present him in an appropriate way. And so building him up and building up his foundational strength is definitely something that's, you know, I would focus a lot on that and technique and everything else you're doing in terms of like, introducing him towards strength training, but then educating him through the process of like, really the nutrition side. It has to be a huge conversation that you start kind of planting a lot of seeds with that. So I mean, I, again, it's. We want to build them up. And so he's building up and, and, and gaining muscle and being able to, to get stronger in the process. So that way, you know, as. As we get this nice exchange later on as he adjusts his calories and we can kind of, you know, build that metabolism up to a place where he can start to. To really change that over and start burning body fat. But I mean, it's really like, it's no different than what we would address with, with, with a, with an adult. But it's just, it's, I think for, for students, it's. You don't want to overwhelm them. And I think you're, you're kind of conscious of that already. So I think, you know, what you're already kind of applying and using maps, anabolic and, and introducing him to a lot of those like, you know, foundational lifts and really teaching that and setting him up for success later on, getting him excited about lifting weights. It's going to kind of take on a life of its own. So I. I just try to like, plant as many seeds as possible with these student athletes or, or just students in general to. To bring that passion there first. So it's not like I'm not treating it like it's. It's this crisis. You know, it's more like he's. You're inviting him in and you're trying to really, like, you know, build that passion from him and get him to ask more questions. And so I guess that's. That's the approach I would take. I don't know if you guys have any.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, the fact that, the fact that you're. That you made the comment that, you know, he's already kind of strong, I would really lean into to that as the conversation like, let's get strong at this bench. Let's get strong with this thing. Hey, we gotta hit our protein. And make sure you watch what happens when you consistently hit that protein. While we also get strong. I think I would communicate a lot to that. And then the other thing I would really pay attention to, if you can, is do you have any idea what his activity looks like outside of you? Like, is his activity?
James
What I did is I had his parents start. They actually run a fireworks stance. They've been super busy for the last few weeks. So I told him, said, listen, what I would like you to do is whenever you're done with the fireworks stand, I don't want this weird offset time of watching steps. Show me a regular week of. Of what activity looks like, you know, about how many steps we had a day. Are we at 3,000, 5,000? Then from there we can start slowly incrementing that. You know, the first thing dad asked me about is what everyone asks about, well, when should we start running? And I was like, he doesn't want to run. Never. You know, especially not at £300.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, yeah, change.
James
But we can, we can. There's ways that we can do cardio without any running, but we can just increase these step counts. So I do have them. Currently he had an apple watch, so he is starting to track his steps for a week or so. I had them just loosely. I was like, well, obviously loosely is okay, but as specific as you can get with what we're eating, you know, can We, I don't need you to necessarily weigh anything right now, but if you can tell me, well, I had a cup of mashed potatoes and two chicken breasts and this and this for dinner and give us a ballpark idea of what those calories look like. That's going to get us a good start to kind of what we're doing moving forward.
Sal DeStefano
Well, here's what's most important. James with a. Because you have a very unique opportunity with a 15 year old and that opportunity is, can I help this kid develop a relationship with fitness and nutrition that he does for the rest of his life? That's more important than what you do in the workout. It's more important than the exercises, it's more important than the diet, the specifics. So what you're going to try to do is become a mentor to him. And more important than anything is can you make it enjoyable?
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Now what, you know what that typically looks like for a 300 pound 15 year old? Does he enjoy hanging out with you? Yeah, that's more important than the workout.
Justin Andrews
A lot of chopping it up.
Sal DeStefano
Does he like coming to see James and oh man, James, he's a mentor, man. I like to ask him questions about talking to girls and my friends and school and then, you know, what ends up happening. Without realizing it, he develops a relationship with fitness that is positive and you end up becoming this mentor for him. I have several clients I worked with who were young kids like this were obese. One of them became a personal trainer eventually. But now he came to me because his parents forced him to work out with me. And I remember one of our first workouts, he told me he was embarrassed to take his shirt off at the pool. Now this kid eventually became a personal trainer and eventually became a top trainer at the company that I worked at. But, but it started, he hated working out. Why did he hate working out? I would hate working out if I was £300 and you're making me do stuff that I suck at. Nobody likes doing that. So what it looked like when you'd show up was we're hanging out. High five. Okay, let's do this exercise. It's kind of moderate intensity and then in between sets we're having conversations. And then you know what happened? Second workout, we do that exercise again, we're having a conversation. I'd say, hey, by the way, John, last week you did five of these. Guess how many you just did. I don't know because he wasn't counting because we're hanging out. You did eight I did eight. Yeah, you did three more. Do you know what that means, John? No. No. What does that mean? You are not the same person today as you were last week. You are fundamentally a different person. And you watch their face light up like, oh, my God, I'm not the same person. Yeah, you did five last time. You did eight. In fact, it was easier to do eight than he did five last week. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, that's crazy. You know what the best part is? It's going to keep. This is going to keep happening. This is exciting. And so the most important thing you could do is mentor this kid to have a relationship with this where he enjoys it. If you do that, the rest is easy. Now if the focus is on the, what we're doing and you got to do the wraps and you got to count your steps and watch what you eat and it becomes this thing that he doesn't enjoy, then the odds that he's going to stick to it are very low. But the unique opportunity is if he figures this out now, it'll stick with the rest of his life.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, I think too. And you mentioned you kind of talked to him about calories. I think the simplicity is totally, you know, and so we, we talk about trying to focus more just on whole foods and like hitting your protein targets and so just, just kind of like asking prodding questions and it protein related. So he has an idea of like portion sizes and all that kind of stuff based on, you know, what he's consuming. But did you, were we able to, to accomplish our protein goal for today? And that's like the entire conversation.
Sal DeStefano
It might even look like this. James, just to scale it back because I'm getting memories now. This was a long time ago. I worked with this kid, but it looked like this. Hey, did you eat the, did you eat the four eggs before our workout?
Justin Andrews
Yep.
Sal DeStefano
I would just tell him something specific like that, hey, for breakfast, I want you to eat four ground meat today. You know, exactly. And eat that first. I don't care what else you eat. And I would say that literally, I don't give. I don't care what else you eat. Just eat this. Just eat this before you come and work out. And we just start there. And then you know what he did? I don't remember. It was like a few months later, he'd come to me and say, hey, I think I'm gonna cut out soda. Great idea. Let's do that. Yeah.
Justin Andrews
And then he would do that compounding effect.
Sal DeStefano
Oh my God, it was amazing. This kid lost so much weight and then I stopped training with me and then I saw him years later. He was a personal trainer, was amazing. But it's really about this relationship. So if he looks up to you, like, like, you know, you know, you, if you played sports as a kid, you remember those coaches that were like mentors to you. If you can become that for this kid, like it's going to be, that's number one. That's number one.
Adam Schaefer
Number one, be liked by him, right? Be liked, loved by him. Number two, if I can get the kid to increase protein and get excited about one or two lifts, you're winning. You're literally winning right now.
Sal DeStefano
And then he'll do it himself.
Adam Schaefer
Exactly. If I can, if I can just excite him about his bench press or squat or whatever he's already probably good at and excite him about getting stronger there and, and connect the dots that hitting protein intake is going to serve that goal. And then the, and he just likes seeing me. I got.
Sal DeStefano
And then he gets one comment from a kid that's like, hey.
Justin Andrews
If you can communicate with the parents too and really get them, give them ideas especially like food wise. So you're not inundating him specifically about all these like food options. It's just like, here's, here's what you.
Sal DeStefano
Do with parents of a teenager that you're working with. This is what you say to them. Hey, dad, I don't want you to say anything about this. Let me handle it. Don't do nothing. Now when you guys cook food for each other, for yourselves, if you want to make it healthier, I'll give you some ideas. But don't ask him about what he's eating, don't ask him about his walking and running. Don't do anything. Because teenagers hate listening to their parents. And if the parents start to push on him, he's going to want to move in the other direction. So you're the guy. So what you tell the parents is, dad, let me handle this. Don't bring it up. Don't ask any questions, just say nothing. If he says something to you, just be curious. Oh really? What's that like? How's that feel? But do nothing else. Let me handle the rest. There's gonna be, here's what it is with a kid, there's as much coaching for the parents as there is for the kid. When you're working through this because they're obviously the ones running the household and usually it looks like, don't mess up what I'm doing. Is what you want to say. Does that make sense?
James
Yeah, it does make sense. Dad was actually. He even told me, he said, listen, if I need to go along with you guys, work out with you guys to encourage whatever I need to do along with this. Dad had bariatric surgery, I think about five or six years ago, I believe mom had bariatric surgery a few years ago. So it's a larger family. It's got a. You know, I actually, when you talked about the mentorship aspect of it, you know, I'm actually his youth minister, so I have been for several years. So that kind of helps a little bit.
Sal DeStefano
This is great. Helps. And James. Okay, so. So you understand the, the power of grace. So he's going to need a lot of that in this journey because he's. He's going to want to shame. He's going to run into. Run into these shame spirals. Every time he messes up, he's going to mess up. Everybody does. So you're going to be the one to show him that grace. Oh, that's all right. That's normal. Everybody screws up. Not a big deal. And then let's enjoy the workout type of deal. If dad comes along and you notice that dad is trying to coach or be a little overbearing, then it's not a good idea. So if you know the dad really well and you can say, probably not a good idea, it might be better that he's not there. But if dad is like gonna let you coach dad at the same time and just sit back and let you do your thing, then that's. That's perfectly fine.
Justin Andrews
It's good bonding for him for sure.
James
And that was my biggest thing is, you know, what I've done with most people. I've had my wife, I've been on here once before about her. You know, she has. She's lost since Saturday. We started with Anabolic, went through performance. We've bounced back and forth between those two for a while. She's down about 58, 59 inches. You know, overall, you know, strength dramatically increased. That's what I've done with most of the people, because men, if you're in this age group and women if you're in my age group, you don't have to work out six days a week. Listen to these guys, because it does work, but two or three days a week is plenty. So I didn't know for sure about starting with Anabolic or if I needed to do like a match starter type program or anything like that. Sorry. Are you saying just go ahead and roll?
Sal DeStefano
No, I think anabolic basics. But we'll send you map starter. Yeah. Just in case if you need to regress.
Justin Andrews
Yeah. You're going to feel that out better than us.
Adam Schaefer
And don't it. It is like to Sal's earlier point, the workout is like the least important part of this entire thing. If a whole workout is you guys hanging out chopping it up and all you did was was bench press for the hour, that's a win.
Sal DeStefano
That's it.
Adam Schaefer
If he's in a bench press and he likes it and he likes seeing himself, he's wrong. You could spend the whole hour on that.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. You can rest five minutes between just talking to him.
Adam Schaefer
And that right there is, is moving the needle in the right direction with this kid. Besides trying to or aside from trying to like add all this stuff and like what's the ideal? You're not, we're not there. Like let's, let's get him excited about getting strong and, and hitting his protein shake and I think that's going to move the needle the most.
Sal DeStefano
Totally perfect.
James
Well, man, I really appreciate your guys input. This will help a bunch and I, I love what you guys are doing. You guys have helped me tremendously. And the number, every person that I work with, I'm using Matt's programs for and it seems like it just never, never slows down a little bit. They're always asking questions. So I really, really appreciate what you guys are doing.
Sal DeStefano
Thank you, James.
Adam Schaefer
I appreciate it.
Justin Andrews
Doing great work, man. Appreciate you.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. Keep it up, dude.
Sal DeStefano
I love that question. Yeah.
Justin Andrews
Stuff that makes me feel good.
Sal DeStefano
It does. And I, you know, this is what all trainers need to understand this because what we said about the relationship aspect with fitness with the kid is true for adults too. Yep. When you get a client now oftentimes with the client you need to be a little bit more specific. They're more tolerant of maybe more guidelines. Not always, but sometimes, often. But also with the client you get a. The typical client has not had a fitness consistency at all in their life. They eat like whatever. And so number one goal with the trainers, Can I, can I help them develop a good relationship with this? Yeah. And if you do that, they're there forever. If you don't do that, you can have the best work on the world and you fail.
Adam Schaefer
It sounds crazy to think this, but if I could only get him excited about one or two lifts, that might be the only thing we ever really.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Justin Andrews
It's a huge win though.
Sal DeStefano
Huge.
Adam Schaefer
Like, if he just.
Sal DeStefano
Especially a 15 year old, then he's gonna stun.
Adam Schaefer
Just gets excited. Excited about getting strong in a lift. Like, I am completely focusing on that. Like, everything we do and if we do anything else, it's to support.
Sal DeStefano
That's right.
Adam Schaefer
Getting stronger at that and getting him.
Sal DeStefano
Like. Like, if you feel like an example of that, Adam would be like, he's somehow naturally strong at bench press. So he's going to fall in love with that. Yeah. One of those he's going to grab every once in a while. We'll do a couple things over here and there, just keep you healthy. But let's get you strong at the bench because he loves it.
Adam Schaefer
Our next caller is Betty from Utah.
Sal DeStefano
Hey, welcome back.
Betty
Hey, guys. Good to see you guys again.
Sal DeStefano
How are you? Good.
Betty
Can you hear me okay? I've got my headphones in. I want to make sure you can hear me.
Justin Andrews
Okay.
Sal DeStefano
Now, if I recall, we have your notes up here. I do remember you. You had really rapid weight gain a short period of time, and you went to go get your hormones checked, see what was going on. Do you have results?
Betty
Yes, I do. Yeah. So I have to tell you guys something that was really wild that happened. So I submitted my question on Monday, got the email to be on your show on Tuesday asking if I could be on it on Wednesday. So it was, like, very quick. And so something interesting happened. I was like, yes, I'd love to be on the show. I called my mom. I was super excited, and we had the show and it was great. And I later found out that my father passed away the day that I called you guys. I'm sorry.
Sal DeStefano
I'm sorry.
Betty
And that's. No, that's okay. But so my mom, she didn't tell me till after because she wanted, like, this to go well. And I just wanted to say thank you for. There was something serendipitous that happened that day that made me talk to you guys that day. And I don't think without the hive speaking to you guys that day, I would have made it through the rest of my day. So I just wanted to say something happened. I talked to you on that day for a reason. So thank you and thank you for having me back.
Sal DeStefano
Okay, Betty, thanks. How can we help you?
Betty
Thank you. So I got my results back, and my blood was really super healthy, but my hormones were totally out of whack. My estrogen's super high, my testosterone is very, very low, and my progesterone is low. So I got my protocol and I'm on 0.08 of testosterone injections once a week. And I have progesterone, but I don't take it yet because I take it on days 14 through 28 of my cycle. And I'm taking DHEA and my thyroid hormone, so I've been doing that. I'm almost to two weeks. It'll be two weeks on Friday since I started everything.
Sal DeStefano
Okay, so with the progesterone, I'm assuming you take it before bed?
Betty
I would, yes. I haven't started taking it yet.
Sal DeStefano
Oh, you haven't tried it?
Betty
Because my cycle hasn't got there yet, so.
Adam Schaefer
But yes, it's good news that we know this.
Sal DeStefano
It's good news, though. Yeah. So. So you're on. Sounds like 8 milligrams of testosterone, if I'm not mistaken. The progesterone will help with things like calmness, anxiety. The thyroid will have the biggest impact on aesthetics. It'll have the biggest impact on weight. Now, two weeks in, what you're probably just going to notice from thyroid is energy. But give it about 45 to 60 days. If everything else is the same, then you'll start to see weight on the scale go down.
Betty
Okay, cool. And so I kind of did, like, while I was waiting to get my blood work and everything back, because I had to get my blood work done during my load, my luteal phase, and I was in my luteal phase, like, when I talked to you guys, so I had to wait a whole month for that to come around. So. So I've only been doing my hormones for, like, I said, about two weeks. Almost two weeks. And so far, what I've noticed is, like, my anxiety and my stress is, like, gone. Yeah, I didn't notice how bad it really was until I don't have it anymore. And so that's been amazing. So I gotta say, you know, kudos and thank you. Because I went to my doctor and, like, I said, she was like, well, if you're having your normal cycles, your hormones are probably fine, but they were not. So I want to say thank you, but. So that's the biggest thing I've noticed so far. And I kind of. I did a. I did maps 15, but I kind of, like, modified it a little bit. And so I've been working really, on getting my calories up. I'm at about 2,000 right now. I get anywhere from, like, 150 to 170 grams of protein. And so I'm doing really good. I feel like my strength's gone up quite A bit, but it was like. So today I weighed myself when I was 150 pounds and I was 146 when I talked to you guys, but my body fat percent has gone down by, like, 1.5%.
Sal DeStefano
Great.
Betty
Since we talked to you.
Sal DeStefano
So, yeah. So here's what you'll. So I'd say stay the course. The hormones for when that starts to kick in is usually around in terms of, like, what you really see, because right now you're feeling it right the top. The testosterone is probably helping with the anxiety. You haven't even started the progesterone yet. Wait till you start that. You're probably gonna feel really good when you get that. And the thyroid. Thyroid's probably giving you a little energy, probably a little bit more energy. But what you'll notice about month three is then your body's gonna change as the hormones really start to work. Now the testosterone, the strength's gonna start kicking in. If it hasn't already, you'll probably start to feel it. Week three, week four. But by, like I said, 90 days is when you'll start to see just like, whoa, what's going on. My body's, like, changing and I'm keeping everything the same. Okay, so, yeah, you're moving in the right direction. I think you're moving the right direction. Stay the course. I don't think you need to do anything drastic with diet. You can kind of stay the course, keep strength training, stay active, be patient. People think when they go on hormones that overnight their body changes. It takes like three, six months for that. I mean, you feel different relatively quickly, but the visual changes to the body take between three to six months for most people. So stay the course.
Adam Schaefer
This is all great news.
Sal DeStefano
Totally.
Adam Schaefer
This is all really good news. And I appreciate you coming on and sharing because I feel like this happens to so many female clients of mine that I've had where, you know, they see a general practitioner and they're like, oh, cycle's fine. You should be fine. You're young, you're healthy, you're good. And it's like. And then you go do a deep dive on your hormones. Go, oh, shit, look at where my estrogen. Just talk like. And that makes a huge difference on your ability to build muscle and burn body fat, which you know. And then also the anxiety of the house. So it's just awesome to hear that you got it checked, that we know that that's what the. What it is, and it will. It's just going to get better from here. So keep doing Stay the course.
Sal DeStefano
Yep.
Adam Schaefer
Be patient. And it's going to continue to get better.
Betty
Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me on. Because I do want to show women that, like, you're not crazy. Your hormones might just be out of whack. And it's kind of become like my tagline. Like, if somebody is, like, acting crazy or like, you know, having issues or something, I'm like, maybe they need to get their hormones checked. But it's. Well, helped me so much already in these last two weeks. Like, my husband's even like, you're not crying all the time anymore. Like, you're like. Everybody's noticed a huge difference. And I especially have. And it's like I'm a totally different person. I feel like I am balanced and normal instead of, like, running hot like I used to. So it's been. It's been awesome. And I have noticed all of a sudden within this last week, my strength. Like, I feel like my bench, I was kind of stuck at a. Where I was at like 165. I just could not get any. Any higher than that. So I started focusing more on benching with dumbbells and like, incline bench instead of just normal flat bench. And my incline bench with the bar went up from my PR was 135. It's now 145, and I can rep like 2 or 3 with 135. And yesterday with dumbbells on incline bench, I used 50 pound dumbbells and I was able to get 9. And I've never been able to do that before. So all of a sudden it's like things are starting to kick out, like, kick in and ramp up, and it's actually like, really fun to be like, things are changing. So it's. It's been really. It's been a wild couple, but it's been really good.
Sal DeStefano
Betty, do you know that you're hella strong? Do you realize that?
Betty
Yeah, you know what? I kind of. I kind of do. But in my gym, I'm pretty much like the only woman that's in the weight room. And so when I see people lifting, it's all dudes. And it's like, of course it's a dumb comparison, but it's. But that's just who my peers are, you know? And so I've never. Nice to hear.
Sal DeStefano
I've never trained a female. I've never had a Female client incline 135. If you have ever thought about competing in powerlifting, I think you do well if you don't have our Power lift program. I'll send that to you.
Betty
Power Lift. I think I do, actually.
Sal DeStefano
Okay. You would do.
Betty
Well, I either have power lift or I have strength. I don't remember which one. I have one of the two.
Sal DeStefano
We'll check. If you don't, we'll send it to you. Because with a 135 incline, I think he would smoke. Most women in the competition, at least.
Betty
In bench press, it's pretty fun. Like, I don't know. I love it. And it's like, I. So shortly after we talked, I listened to your episode about my body types and, like, the endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph, whatever, And I was like, I am 100% an endomorph. Like, I'm the person. I feel like I can build strength and build muscle, but my body doesn't get smaller. It just gets bigger. But it's like. And so when you guys said, you know, really lean into the strengths and stuff, I really. I'm listening and I'm eating and I'm trying, and I feel like I've finally broken through that wall that I had.
Adam Schaefer
So awesome.
Betty
It's been this last. And it's so crazy because it's just two weeks, but these last two weeks, I've noticed a big difference already. So I'm excited to see in 90 days or so, you know, what really happens.
Sal DeStefano
But awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Adam Schaefer
Thank you for the update.
Sal DeStefano
Thank you so much.
Betty
Thank you. And also, do you guys check the trainer forum often?
Sal DeStefano
Sometimes. If you tag us especially.
Betty
Okay. Okay. If I have any questions, I'll just reach out to you there. But thanks for having me back on. I hope this helps women everywhere. I hope one. At least one woman hears this and decides to get checked and figure things out.
Sal DeStefano
So thank you so much. Thank you, Betty.
Betty
Thank you. Have a good day, guys.
Sal DeStefano
Bye. I'm convinced. Convinced that a significant percentage of women who've been prescribed SSRIs or enziolytic medications right around the ages of between 35 and 40s is because of the perimenopausal. Menopausal changes shift. Most general practitioners or, you know, typical doctors are trained in using those medications to deal with those symptoms. They're not trained in using hormones to deal with those symptoms. And you could. We could talk about the reasons why, but so often this happens where you get a woman. Like, I feel like I'm going crazy. I have all this anxiety. I don't know what's happening. My body's storing body fat in My belly. And the doctor's like, oh, you need low dose of Zoloft or you need, you know, Xanax or whatever, when it could be just like little progesterone, little testosterone. Oh, I feel back to normal, you know? Our next caller is Michael from Colorado.
Adam Schaefer
What's up, Mikey?
Michael
Hey, what's up, guys? Good to see you, man.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Michael
First time listener.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. Yeah. If people don't know you, you did improv work with us back in the day, help us get better at podcasts.
Adam Schaefer
You were the main reason Justin doesn't suck.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
For the audience. So they know started out second.
Michael
I'll take full credit.
Adam Schaefer
I'll take full credit.
Sal DeStefano
How you doing, man? How can we help you?
Michael
Good. You know, I'm just going to jump right into the question that I wrote.
Sal DeStefano
First off.
Michael
Great to see you guys. I wanted you to know how much I appreciate everything you're doing, which is part of the reason why I'm calling you because I want to share something I'm struggling with and would appreciate your thoughts on. Thanks to your podcast, Sal's book, and the programs that I've got from you guys. I feel like I have more than enough information to make better life choices, but I'm running up against something that I think a lot of people, especially men, have a problem with. And the thing that I'm finding extremely hard to do as a man in today's society is admit that I need help and then ask others for that help. So it seems for me, it seems like it's something that guys are just kind of programmed into believing. And one of the things I admired about you guys over the years is how you role model strong masculine characteristics and have allowed us as fans to come along that journey with you. And I wondered how you managed to work through the stigma and social pressure to kind of be a man and just handle your stuff, especially in a field where there's such a stigma and social pressure to fit the ideal macho dude stereotype.
Sal DeStefano
Wow.
Adam Schaefer
So that's. Great question.
Sal DeStefano
Good question.
Michael
I just turned 60, and I made the same promise to myself this year that I made every year before. Eat better, hit the gym, follow a program. You guys, I'm sure you know the drill because you hear it all the time, but this year, you guys inspired me to admit that if I'm going to have a chance of success, I need help with this whole thing, and I need to hire a trainer. For me, it's never been a matter of money that prevented me from getting a trainer. It was being Embarrassed that I really did know what to do. I even have access to guys who are experts at fitness and training like you guys, but I didn't ask anybody for help. So coupled with not knowing who to ask or where to find them, I fall into old patterns, which eventually lead to sitting on the couch with a bag of Doritos. To be quite honest, the wild part of this for me is I've really admired you guys and how you ask each other for help and how you show support to each other. But when I think of asking for help, I feel like I'm weak or that I failed. I'm breaking some kind of macho guy code. And I'm curious how you guys approach A, the challenge of recognizing you're in a situation where you need help, and B, identifying the best resource and getting over the hurdle of asking people for help.
Sal DeStefano
Oh, man.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
What a good question.
Adam Schaefer
Great question.
Sal DeStefano
Well, first off, good friends. And. And this is. I think this is true mostly for men. If you have good buddies. Yeah, they will. They'll tell you.
Justin Andrews
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
When you.
Justin Andrews
When you cut right to it.
Sal DeStefano
They'll tell you when you're messing up. And if you respect them, which you. If they're your friends, you do. Yeah. Then it's okay. See, there's a myth that men don't follow advice. That's not true. We just need to respect the person we get it from. And when we do, we follow very well. Like, you get a guy with a mentor, a coach, you know, a boss or whatever that they respect, like, they are. Like I'm following. So it just. That's part of it. The other part of it is we were put in a unique situation as trainers. You know, we all got into training at early ages. We loved what we did. We really wanted to help people. And if you really want to help somebody in our field, I think this is true for a lot of fields like this. But in our field, if you really want to help people, over the years, you start to figure out what works and what doesn't. And what we all kind of realized was the more authentic and vulnerable we were, the more our clients trusted us and we were able to help them. And so it just kind of trained it in us. I know it did for me. I know it did for me. I tell the story of this young girl I trained early on who had just battled anorexia. And she had come out of the hospital. Her parents hired me to train her. I met with her therapist, got a little coaching. And I remember in our first session Something came over me and I said, hey, I know what it's like to have body dysmorphia. And she looked at me like I was crazy. I said, well, it's the opposite. I said, it's the opposite of you. I force feed myself. And, and I remember that moment was just like crazy shift. Like, she automatically, like, trusted me and I became much more effective. And I had a lot of situations like that. The more honest and vulnerable I was with my clients, the more they trusted me and the more effective I was. And so because I cared so much about them, it trained that in me. And I know Adam and Justin had similar, similar experiences.
Adam Schaefer
Similar. But I have such a different reason for my. I've been asked this a lot and I thought about it a lot. And when I go back, like, what, why is that? Like, I have no, we have, we have a bunch of going on in the business right now. And like, I'm so quick to pick the phone up and ask a bunch of other people, how do I do this? I can't solve this. I'm having a problem. And so for me, it's something that I, I've tied to with business success. As a young entrepreneur, I, I've studied a lot of the most, you know, wildly successful people in the world and something that they all seem to have in common is the speed at which they can solve a problem. And the, the, they get to the answer as fast as possible. Now the reality is in life you're going to run into so many things you don't have the answers to. And so I always ask myself, like, who do I know that has this answer for me or could answer this question better than I could? And I'm so quick to humble myself and go, I don't know how to do this, or can you help me do this? Or do you know somebody who. And, and get to the answer as quick as possible and then, and then commit to it.
Sal DeStefano
Right.
Adam Schaefer
I mean, that, that is something that I admire in people that I've met that are really, really successful. Even though they're incredibly confident in who they are, they're also humble enough to reach out or ask somebody else for help when they need it in order to get the answers. And so I've trained myself to do that at a pretty young age. And it is something that I, I practice and I, I think mine was more connected to the, the trying to be successful at business. Why I, I fell into.
Sal DeStefano
Can I add to that, Adam, I think you've identified being strong with being The. The guy that can find other people that'll help. So that makes you feel. You know what I mean?
Adam Schaefer
Or just get to the answer.
Sal DeStefano
Right, right. So that's the identity, rather than I have the answers. The identity is I can find the answers.
Adam Schaefer
Yes.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. And so, I mean, so, yeah, I. I think that's probably why I've been able to do that so successfully, is. I'm open to that.
Justin Andrews
Well, yeah, that's a, That's a great.
Michael
Switch up of perspective because, like, as opposed to the. The idea that I kind of buy into, which is, you know, as a strong man, I don't need help. Like, I'm going to solve this problem myself, you know, so. So I buy the book and I, I read, you know, the. I read Sal's book cover to cover, and now I've got all that information. So, you know, as a strong man, I feel like I've got the information now as a strong man, I can solve my problem. But you're flipping it and saying strength is admitting. Admitting that you need help and, and reaching out for the help. So that's. That's flipping it on its head.
Sal DeStefano
Right?
Adam Schaefer
I'm gonna go straight to the. The smartest person. I mean, literally, I was just dealing with this right before we got on this call with you, like, trying to get a. I'm looking for a lawyer that can do something very specific. And I'm like, I sent like 10 messages out between yesterday and today to people I know that probably have access to that person that could coach me on how I need to draft this letter. And it's like, I had no problem. But I know, I bet you out of those 10, someone is going to be awesome. And like. And then now I feel like once I get taught from that person, it is a bit of mine. Like, okay, now I get it. Next time I have that problem, I will know the answer, but I don't know the answer right in this moment. I'm gonna find it. And I'm on. I'm on a mission right now as fast as I can to get that from help from somebody else. And so, yeah, reframing it more like that, as do I have a contact that is the best in this field or this thing to help me with this? And then if I help get help one time, like, literally hold my hand through this process, I'll probably know how to do it next time. And I feel like with you, that's us right to you in this situation is. It's like, hey, I know these guys that are really good at this stuff. Like, like, let me get to them right away and see, see what they tell me I need to do, you know?
Justin Andrews
Yeah, I think, I mean, I could relate a lot to what Adam's talking about, mainly from like an athletic perspective too, because.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Justin Andrews
You know, and too, to your point, like, we don't ask for help and that. And for me, that was a big struggle and a big shift and transition that I had to learn and I've. And I've learned everything the hard way and, and Right. And it's just, it's just part of the experience of I have. I'm going to go drill this, I'm going to go try and practice this as much as possible by myself and. And you get to the conclusion that if I don't ask for help, I'm not going to advance, I'm not going to grow, I'm not going to move to, to a new place. I'm not going to change. Because you're running old patterns and you're just continuously running with what, you know, other people know more than you. And so for me to really humble myself and then start bringing people in and create accountability and create groups around me and mentors, that, that was a humongous shift for me. And then it's like, you know, everybody's asked, like everybody that wants to grow and succeed needs people, needs other people. You're not going to do this by yourself. So. Yeah. And then too, I learned a lot from my clients as well. Just in order to convey and communicate to, to be able to, you know, be vulnerable and admit, you know, I have these flaws. I have the same struggles. I have a lot of the, these things in common in, in that common human experience. A lot of people struggle with this. So to, to just like admit that and, and release it is really liberating.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah, you know, it's cool. Michael, there's, there's some interesting data, I think, that connects to this. Now it goes to religion, but there's a much bigger conversation around this. And I was looking up data on in particular religion, how you influence your family. And it's really fascinating in regards to men in particular, if a father is the first person to become a Christian, let's say, versus the mother or versus one of the children, the odds that the rest of the family will follow is significantly different. So here's what the data shows. If it's mom, 30 something percent that the rest of the family will follow. If it's dad, it's over 90% now. I heard Arthur Brooks communicate this, and he said, one of the reasons for this is when you're a kid, dad is the biggest, strongest guy. And then you see him kneel down to somebody else, and that has a. It has a powerful impact. Then there's other data surrounding this. Which is the most effective parents in terms of getting their children to follow their faith. What do they do differently? And it's the parents that apologize to their kids genuinely the most. And then if you look at the sub data, it's the dads. So which dads are most effective with their kids? It's the dads that go to the kids and say, humble themselves and say, hey, hey, buddy, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled that way. And who do that regularly. So where am I going with this? Male strength, true masculinity comes from that. It doesn't come from doing everything. It comes from the confidence that flows from being humble. So it's. It's a bit of a myth that masculine strength is having all the answers. That guy is not strong. That guy has. That guy's a bit insecure. The guy that's strong is the guy that goes, hey, I don't know how to do this. Can you give me a hand? That's. That's the strong guy. Yeah. Yeah.
Michael
You know, and I think it's. I think it's ironic that, like, I really buy into the concept. Like, if someone asked me for help, I'm so excited to help them, and I really want to. To be there and help my buddies out, but flip the coin, and I don't want to inconvenience my buddies.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Michael
Does that make sense?
Sal DeStefano
Absolutely.
Adam Schaefer
Well, I mean, look at this situation. We. We reached out for help from you how many years ago. You're just now getting. Getting to us? Maybe.
Sal DeStefano
You guys are a lot smarter than I am. That's for sure.
Adam Schaefer
No, but you're right.
Michael
You're right, though. Like. Like when I. On my 60th birthday, I'm sitting there thinking, like, I'm making the same resolution to myself that I make every year. But then I thought, like, who are the. Who are the smartest freaking guys that I know in this arena? And it's you guys. So it.
Sal DeStefano
It.
Michael
It's a little. It's a little bit embarrassing reaching out to guys that you look up to and respect to say, hey, I need some help. Like, I can't control this, or, I can't figure this. I can't figure this puzzle out. But then it's. It's like you said, you know, Adam and Justin both, like, humbling yourself and reaching out and saying, I can't do this is the only way to get past it. Right?
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. I respect you more now.
Adam Schaefer
And I also think, Mike, just, you know, give yourself some grace here too. Like, I actually think it's one of the more difficult things because it's, it's. It's science, it's human physiology, it's psychology. It's like they're. You're tackling all those monsters. When you're in pursuit of building the body, the physique, or the thing that you want to do, it's not just X's and O's, it's not just do these exercises or just eat this thing. It's like, man, why do I have these behaviors? Why do I have challenges? I mean, boy, it really forces you to solve a lot of different issues. Not as simple as. So like, I can get anybody to. It's really interesting that has crazy discipline to just do these things for the next eight weeks and they'll see some sort of change. But if you're trying to make lifelong behavioral changes, there's a massive psychology piece to this. That unwinding that. Boy, having a professional who can help you do that is paramount to your success. Very few people can just go solve it on their own. A lot of, A lot of people think they can. No, the data shows it, but they don't. And, and so being able to reach out to somebody who's really good at this and say, hey, you know what? Like, I think I need to hire you for a while to, to just, you know, be that, be that voice in my head for the next six months and see what a difference that makes. Oh, man, it's a, it's a, It's a world of a difference.
Michael
Yeah, I'm 100 down with that. And something Sal said resonated with me too, about a faith based community. Like, that's one of the first steps in, in a faith based community is acknowledging that you're helpless and there's a power higher than you that you need to ask for help.
Adam Schaefer
Right, Exactly.
Sal DeStefano
That's the, that's the key. That's the crux of it all.
Justin Andrews
Stone of it all 100.
Michael
So you're. And, and if you're in that community, you're surrounding yourself with other. Other men who have made that same commitment and have that same acknowledgment of I need to ask for help from a higher power. Which translates also to, hey, I don't know how to fix this carburetor, but somebody I know does, and I'm going to humble myself and ask them how.
Sal DeStefano
Totally.
Michael
So.
Justin Andrews
That's right.
Sal DeStefano
The greatest. One of the greatest sins is pride.
Michael
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
And that leads to all the others, typically. So 100 makes sense. Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Well, let us get one of our guys on you, Mikey.
Sal DeStefano
Well, I. Have somebody call.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael
Please, please have somebody call me. Because the. One of the main reasons I reach out to you guys is I made the commitment on my 60th birthday that I'm going to hire a trainer. But then I. I thought about it. I'm like. Like, I so respect and appreciate the programs that you guys run, that I don't want to just, you know, go onto Facebook Marketplace and hire some trainer who doesn't, you know, subscribe to the same belief system that you guys do and kind of are approaching it from a. A holistic and full wellness perspective. Not just. Not just bulk.
Sal DeStefano
No. 100.
Adam Schaefer
Glad you did.
Sal DeStefano
We got good people.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah.
Adam Schaefer
Let us. We got you, bro.
Sal DeStefano
We'll take care of you.
Adam Schaefer
All right.
Michael
I love it, man. Thanks, guys. I appreciate everything you do. And by the way, I would have really appreciated if you dropped off the quality for a couple of months at least after I left, but you guys are. You guys are killing it, man.
Sal DeStefano
I love it.
Michael
I love everything you're doing.
Adam Schaefer
Appreciate it, Mike.
Sal DeStefano
Thanks, brother.
Justin Andrews
You're awesome, man.
Michael
Thanks, guys. Take care, man.
Sal DeStefano
It was good to hear from him.
Adam Schaefer
Oh, yeah.
Sal DeStefano
People don't know that right before our podcast, it was a peer. How long did we work with him for? Was a year. Yeah, at least a year. About a year. He's an improv coach, and he would do these improv exercises with us to improve, to help our skills. Yeah. With communicating on the podcast. Yeah.
Justin Andrews
Take up in our flow. For sure.
Sal DeStefano
Yeah. And it was. It was fun. He's a very talented guy. Really? Yeah, He's a great guy.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah. No, I mean, it was. This was Doug's relationship. Classic example of the question he's asking. We all looked at each other. Listen, we. We can get better at this craft. Where are we missing our flow, our communication? And Doug's like, listen, improv coaches are great for that. You know, that ability to think on the fly and do that stuff and flow with each other is. That's a major skill. I know a guy. So Doug reached out, brought him in house, and, yeah. Once a week, we used to meet with him before we podcast.
Sal DeStefano
We do all these weird improv.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah.
Justin Andrews
Yeah, they were fun, they were funny.
Adam Schaefer
They were fun and really good. And, and I, I definitely got a lot of value from it and shoot, we probably would. I think he, he moved is why we stopped. That's right.
Michael
Exactly.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, we probably would have been still doing it because even after we had learned a lot of the basics from him, we still felt the value of having that coach just continue to push us in that direction. And so, yeah, kudos to Mike and love hearing that. I didn't, I didn't know if he had really continued on being a fan of the show and sounds like he's been listening, like pretty religiously. So. That's cool.
Sal DeStefano
That's awesome.
Adam Schaefer
Yeah, it's really cool.
Sal DeStefano
Look, if you like Mind Pump, check us out on Instagram. Justin is @mindpumpjustin. I'm mindpump distefanoadam. Mindpump. Adam, 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 bundle@mindpumpmedia.com the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, anabolic maps, performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of fit 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, a number you can get it now. Plus other valuable free resources@mindpumpmedia.com if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.
Adam Schaefer
Hi, I'm Chris Gethard and I'm very excited to tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random people on the phone. I tweet out a phone number. Thousands of people try to call, talk to one of them. They stay anonymous.
Sal DeStefano
I can't hang up.
Adam Schaefer
That's all the rules. I never know what's gonna happen. We get serious ones. I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison. I've talked to people who survived mass shootings, Crazy funny ones. I talked to a guy with a goose laugh, Somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends.
Sal DeStefano
I never know what's gonna happen.
Adam Schaefer
It's a great show. Subscribe today beautiful anonymous.
Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth – Episode 2649 Summary
Release Date: July 26, 2025
Overview
In Episode 2649 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth, hosts Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews delve into the top exercises for each major muscle group based on Electromyography (EMG) research. The episode not only highlights scientifically-backed movements but also addresses the practical applications and nuances of these exercises in real-world training scenarios. Additionally, the show features live coaching segments where listeners seek personalized advice on their fitness and health journeys.
Top Exercises for Each Body Part Based on EMG Research
Timestamp: [00:59]
The episode begins with the hosts exploring whether there is a scientific basis to determine the most effective exercises for each muscle group through EMG studies. EMG, which measures muscle activation as a percentage of maximum voluntary contraction, serves as a tool to identify which exercises engage specific muscles the most. However, the hosts caution against viewing EMG data as the sole indicator of an exercise's efficacy for muscle growth, emphasizing factors like load, individuality, and exercise technique.
Chest: Dumbbell Chest Press vs. Barbell Bench Press
Timestamp: [04:18]
Sal Di Stefano highlights that EMG studies show the dumbbell chest press activates the pectoralis major at 100%, slightly outperforming the barbell bench press at 95%.
Justin Andrews counters by noting the practical advantage of barbells, allowing for heavier loads and greater overall muscle activation due to its compound nature.
Adam Schafer shares personal experience, stating he prefers integrating dumbbell presses for clients due to better shoulder health and a more natural movement path, despite the higher muscle activation of barbells.
Back: Wide Grip Pull-Ups vs. Barbell Rows and Deadlifts
Timestamp: [10:29]
Sal Di Stefano points out that wide grip pull-ups offer 90-95% activation for the lats, higher than barbell rows and deadlifts. However, their complexity in terms of stability and strength requirements makes them less practical for the average trainee.
Adam Schafer advocates for barbell rows and deadlifts as more functional and scalable alternatives that better serve overall back development.
Deltoids: Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Timestamp: [12:41]
Quads: Barbell Back Squat
Timestamp: [14:33]
Hamstrings: Nordic Curls
Timestamp: [17:11]
Sal Di Stefano acknowledges Nordic curls as the top hamstring exercise with superior muscle activation but notes their difficulty and limited applicability due to the high strength and stability required.
Adam Schafer suggests substituting with stiff-legged deadlifts, which are more accessible and safer for most individuals.
Glutes: Hip Thrusts vs. Squats
Timestamp: [21:19]
Biceps: Concentration Curls
Timestamp: [23:12]
Triceps: Dips vs. Skull Crushers and Pushdowns
Timestamp: [25:00]
Abs: Hanging Leg Raises
Timestamp: [25:31]
Live Coaching: Listener Questions and Expert Advice
The latter half of the episode features live coaching, where listeners call in with personal fitness and health challenges. Below are summaries of notable listener interactions:
1. Lauren from Oklahoma: Overcoming Metabolic Challenges Post-Phentermine
Timestamp: [60:30]
Issue: Lauren, a 43-year-old woman, struggles to lose weight after discontinuing phentermine, despite maintaining a regimented fitness and nutrition routine post-medication.
Advice:
2. James from Oklahoma: Training a Morbidly Obese 15-Year-Old
Timestamp: [60:30]
Issue: James seeks guidance on training a 15-year-old high school student who is 5'6" and weighs 300 pounds, showing signs of edema and requiring a tailored fitness program.
Advice:
3. Betty from Utah: Hormonal Imbalance and Fitness Progress
Timestamp: [89:00]
Issue: Betty, a woman in her 40s, experiences hormonal imbalances (high estrogen, low testosterone and progesterone) affecting her fitness progress and mental well-being.
Advice:
4. Michael from Colorado: Masculinity and Seeking Help in Fitness
Timestamp: [100:43]
Issue: Michael, a 60-year-old man, grapples with societal stigmas around masculinity that discourage him from seeking help in his fitness journey.
Advice:
Conclusion
Episode 2649 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth provides a comprehensive analysis of the most effective exercises per muscle group based on EMG research, balanced with practical training insights. The live coaching segments offer valuable, personalized advice, reinforcing the podcast’s commitment to science-backed and experience-informed fitness guidance. Whether discussing the nuances of top-tier exercises or addressing individual health and psychological challenges, the hosts deliver actionable takeaways for a diverse audience.
For more expert fitness programming, visit mapsfitnessproducts.com.