2688: Eight Simple Habit Hacks that Produce Fat Loss & More (Listener Coaching)

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

Episode 2688 – Eight Simple Habit Hacks That Produce Fat Loss & More (Listener Coaching)

Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge
Date: September 19, 2025
Main Theme:
The hosts break down eight actionable fat loss “habit hacks” that work without calorie tracking, rooted in their decades of experience and backed by research. The episode is packed with practical coaching wisdom for listeners seeking sustainable results, not just quick fixes—alongside broader discussions about health, fitness, psychology, and emergent issues like AI and social trends.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Rethinking Fat Loss: Sustainable Habits Over Tracking ([02:45])

• Sal: Most people can’t or won’t track calories forever. Instead, you can achieve fat loss with “habit hacks” that have nothing to do with counting calories or macros.
• Adam: For many clients, non-tracking habits are “more effective than tracking itself.”

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2. The Eight Simple Habit Hacks

1. Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods ([03:10])

• Sal:
  • "Ultra processed foods are engineered to make you overeat...simply avoid them and eat as much as you want, your calories tend to drop by about 500."
• Adam:
  • “There’s a psychological benefit...when you give people permission to eat more as long as it's whole foods, people have more success.”
• Focusing on whole foods naturally limits calorie intake and removes addictive food triggers.
• This simple step can have the biggest impact—and often was the only change many clients needed.

2. Don’t Eat While Distracted ([05:46])

• Sal:
  • “When people eat without distraction, they automatically reduce their calories by about 10–15%...people eat 20–30% faster when distracted and don’t register satiety signals.”
• Adam:
  • “If you ever sat at a table with no phone or TV and ate popcorn, it looks weird—you’re far less likely to overeat.”
• Distraction encourages emotional connections with food—often reinforcing stress-eating habits.

3. Eat Protein First ([08:44])

• Sal:
  • Protein has the highest satiety effect. “Just these two [avoid processed foods, eat protein first] got clients 90% of the way.”
• Adam:
  • Blood sugar stabilizing effects, better appetite control.
• 30g per meal is a good starting point.

4. Don’t Drink Fluids While Eating ([09:54])

• Adam:
  • “Not drinking while eating slows eating down, forces you to chew more, which reduces calorie intake and may help digestion.”
• Dylan:
  • “I realized I took way too big of bites...”
• Chewing is the first step of digestion; water can dilute enzymes and speed up eating.
• Sal:
  • For most, try hydrating beforehand as a compromise.

5. Put Your Fork Down Between Bites ([13:17])

• Sal:
  • “You realize you’ll get impatient—if you do, it means you’re eating too fast.”
• Adam:
  • “It’s less about the fork, more about getting you to chew and slow down. Speed is a problem.”
• Slowing the eating process lets satiety cues catch up.

6. Take a Walk Right After Eating ([15:06])

• Sal:
  • “A 10-minute walk stabilizes blood sugar ... even just contracting muscles (heel raises) can lower post-meal blood sugar.”
• Adam:
  • “Doing this with my partner became connection time too—a double whammy for health and relationships.”

7. Pause for Intention or Gratitude Before Eating ([16:31])

• Sal:
  • “Praying or reflecting brings awareness ... but many people initially hate it because it raises uncomfortable awareness about their choices.”
• Dylan:
  • “It also calms your nervous system—brings you into a state that’s better for digestion.”
• This builds conscious eating habits and aligns meals with health goals.

8. Install Barriers Between You and Bad Habits ([18:11])

• Sal:
  • “If chips are my kryptonite, I just don’t keep them in the house. And if I want them, I buy a single serving.”
• Adam:
  • “Just the 15-minute wait timer before eating junk cuts consumption 30–50%. Most people won’t bother.”
• Remove temptations or add delay—also helpful for family/kids.

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3. Deeper Dives and Notable Conversations

The Science of Isometrics ([20:13])

• Sal:
  • New research: Lengthened isometrics (holding a muscle in the stretch under tension) equal full-range reps for short-term hypertrophy—potential rehab/safety benefits.
• Adam:
  • “I use isometrics for calves all the time—just in the shower!”

Artificial Sweeteners & Brain Health ([24:54])

• Sal:
  • Cites a correlational study linking high artificial sweetener consumption to faster cognitive decline—but notes these populations often have worse overall health/diet.
• Adam:
  • “People who consume the most of these things tend to have the worst diets ... and are often diabetic.”

The (Unspoken) Costs of Pornography ([31:19])

• Sal:
  • Raises secular research showing frequent porn use is linked to:
    • Increased depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation, aggressive behaviors in youth
    • Actual changes in brain structure (smaller prefrontal cortex, changed reward pathways)
    • Increased impulsivity and relationship issues/divorce
    • Early exposure (avg. age 9–13)
• Adam:
  • “It’s like the processed food version of sex. The same addictive pattern.”

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4. Technology, AI, and the Future of Work ([51:51])

• Adam:
  • Expresses concern: Autonomous trucks & AI may eliminate millions of jobs quickly, outpacing society’s ability to adapt.
• Sal:
  • “UBI [Universal Basic Income] may become necessary—not necessarily a good thing, but political pressure will grow as AI disrupts jobs faster than new ones appear.”
• Justin & Adam:
  • For career security, recommend trades, person-to-person jobs, or becoming an “AI consultant” for small businesses.
• Dylan:
  • "Forget coding...AI will outpace that."

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Ultra processed foods are engineered to make you overeat ... when you avoid them and eat as much as you want, calories will often drop by 500.” — Sal ([03:15])
• “If you give people permission to eat so long as it's whole foods, that ‘I don’t have to restrict’ feeling leads to more success.” — Adam ([03:45])
• “When people eat without distraction, they automatically reduce calories by 10–15% ... the speed at which you eat is different because you're disconnected from satiety signals.” — Sal ([05:46])
• “Just put your fork down between bites. You’ll get impatient. That’s your sign you’re eating too fast.” — Sal ([13:17])
• “A 10-minute walk after eating affects blood sugar stabilization—and for couples, it’s connection time, which is huge for overall health.” — Adam ([15:45])
• “Praying or reflecting before you eat brings awareness—and people hate it because now they have to face the choices they're about to make.” — Sal ([16:31])
• “Just don’t keep the junk in the house. And if you must, install a 15-minute timer. That’s enough of a barrier for most people.” — Sal ([18:18])
• “Lengthened isometrics—even for three weeks—can be a game-changer, especially for rehab or if you’re in a rut with training.” — Sal ([24:10])
• “Heavy porn use literally shrinks the prefrontal cortex. It’s not harmless—it’s rewiring the brain toward impulsivity and reducing real-world rewards.” — Sal ([33:21])
• “AI is going to outpace job creation for the first time ever. UBI is coming—not because it’s good, but because there’ll be so much pressure when people are out of work.” — Adam ([54:51])
• “If I was a young man today, I’d get into trades or something with personal interaction. Personal training will be even bigger.” — Sal ([58:24])

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Listener Q&A Highlights

Can tempo that's “too slow” hurt muscle gains? ([63:14])

• Summary: Super-slow reps that turn sets into 1+ minute grinds become more endurance than strength/muscle. Under 30 seconds per set is generally best for hypertrophy.
• Sal: “Muscles learn how to contract fast or slow based off training ... if you only ever train slow, you’ll only move slow.”

Do certain rep ranges (like 4–6 reps) increase appetite? ([66:40])

• Insight: Novelty in training, not necessarily the rep range, often drives increased hunger—a positive sign if gains follow.

When is it time to cut calories for fat loss? ([68:06])

• General Rule: Only cut when you’re eating enough calories to allow a reasonable, sustainable drop (about 500 calories).
• Sal: “If you’re doing crazy workouts, at low calories, still have fat to lose—you’re backed into a corner. Reverse diet first.”

Best strategy for clients with only 1–2 × 30min sessions per week? ([72:17])

• Sal & Adam:
  • Focus on 2–3 big compound exercises per session—no fluff. You can see great results with this minimal, well-structured approach.

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Tone and Style

• The show is unfiltered, witty, and candid—delivering science-backed advice mixed with humor and honesty about fitness industry myths.
• The hosts often pivot into broader wellness, mindset, and societal topics while still bringing all advice back to practical application.

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Useful Timestamps

• 02:45 — Main Segment Begins: Overview of Habit Hacks for Fat Loss
• 03:10 — #1: Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods
• 05:46 — #2: Don’t Eat While Distracted
• 08:44 — #3: Eat Protein First
• 09:54 — #4: Don't Drink While Eating
• 13:17 — #5: Put Down Fork Between Bites
• 15:06 — #6: Walk After Meals
• 16:31 — #7: Pause/Reflect Before Eating
• 18:11 — #8: Barriers to Bad Habits
• 20:13 — Isometric Training Study
• 24:54 — Artificial Sweeteners and Cognitive Decline Study
• 31:19 — Dangers & Effects of Pornography on Brain and Wellbeing
• 51:51 — AI, Future of Work, and UBI
• 63:14 — Listener Q&A Starts

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Final Takeaway

The Mind Pump team lays out fat loss habits that require no calorie counting, yet have proven results—centered on mindfulness, environment design, and deliberately engineering your process for success. The discussion expands into mental, social, and future-oriented health topics, providing a rounded, relatable, and actionable listening experience for anyone looking for raw fitness truth.

Transcript

[Sal DeStefano]

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[Adam Schafer]

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[Justin Andrews]

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

[Sal DeStefano]

Mind Pump Mind Pump with your hosts.

[Justin Andrews]

Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews.

[Sal DeStefano]

You just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode we answered listeners questions. They went to Instagram indpump Media, they posted some questions, we picked some and we answered them. But this was after the intro. Today's intro was 60 minutes long and in the intro we talk about fat loss and muscle gain, current events, family life. That's a good time. By the way, again, if you want to post us a question that we can pick, it's Instagram indpumpmedia. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Rock Recovery Center. This is a rehab facility. If you, a friend or a family member needs help with addiction. These are the best people. They're so good at what they do. They care so much about the people they work with. And if you go to rockrecoverycenter.com mind pump you'll get some free help and somebody one of you will actually get a free scholarship, a 60 day scholarship, which is phenomenal. This episode is also brought to you by prx. This is the best home gym equipment company in the world, hands down. They have the famous squat rack that folds into the wall, comes off the wall six inches until you pull out the arms. Now you have a super stable squat rack, but they have so much more. And by the way, you can make payments on your equipment. So now it's like paying a gym membership, except it's your home gym. Go check them out. Go to prxperformance.com mind pump on that link. You'll get 5% off. Also, if you're a woman and you would like something that's a little bit more individualized, find out which avatar you fit under. Go to musclemommymovement.com quiz. See if you're a comeback queen, an efficient powerhouse, a strength novice, or a lifestyle integrator. It's again, it's a free quiz. Go to musclemommymovement.com quiz. All right, here comes the show.

[Dylan]

All right, real quick, if you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear [e-mail] I'm talking right now. Hit pause, head on over to my pumpstore.com that's it.

[Adam Schafer]

Enjoy the rest of the show.

[Sal DeStefano]

Getting lean often involves tracking calories or macros or everything you put in your mouth. And yes, that does help, but that can be quite a challenge. Look, we're gonna list habit hacks, things you can do that have nothing to do with the calories or tracking anything that typically result in fat loss. Oftentimes, in fact, these are more effective than the tracking itself for many people. We're gonna break them down right now.

[Dylan]

This is the ninja method.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes, yes.

[Adam Schafer]

Knock the first one out real quick because I feel like we talked to this one like crazy.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, we'll get rid of this first one first because we talk about all the time. That's just not eating ultra processed foods. So real fast, you should have a button for that. Yes. Here's why you do that. Ultra processed foods are engineered to make you overeat. So when you simply avoid them and then eat as much as you want. That's the other part of this, by the way. Eat as much as you want, your calories tend to drop by about 500. That's what they typically find in studies. So you now have a lower calorie diet, even though you're eating as much as you want and all you did was avoid foods that come in boxes or wrappers.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. You're also, I think it's important that people understand that there's, there's a psychological benefit to that also. Because when you, when you give people the permission to kind of eat more, if you want to eat more, so long as you stay with whole foods, there's this like, oh, I don't have to restrict feeling, which I think also results in more success too.

[Sal DeStefano]

Right.

[Adam Schafer]

So it isn't just simply that, you know, processed foods make us eat more and they tend to be calorie dense, but whole foods. And then also the psychological part of telling yourself like, oh, I can, I can eat in time. I'm hungry. I don't have to restrict.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

Allow myself to eat just have to make whole food choices and it's amazing what happens.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right. So if you look at food, if you think of food as having potential addictive qualities, processed foods take those addictive qualities and amplify them tremendously. So the odds that you'll overeat when you eat ultra processed foods goes through the roof. It's very difficult to eat an appropriate amount of calories if your diet is like most people's diets, about 70, 80% ultra processed foods. So. And by the way, just not to hammer this one, but just a little bit more on it, this first one that we just said towards the back half of my career is all I did.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

Because it's very difficult when you're taking the average person and you're trying to get them to adopt a healthier lifestyle. There's a million and one different things we can do. And so we're always looking for, as a trainer is what's the one thing I can do is have a big impact that people can tend to stick to. And it was this one and this one. For a lot of my clients, this is all we did.

[Dylan]

Well, there's so many behaviors attached to that. Like you have to actually prepare your food. You have to think ahead of time. Like you have to. If you're going to have food throughout the day that's a whole food, you actually have to prepare it and like set yourself up for success. So it just builds in those type of behaviors.

[Adam Schafer]

It trumps the other seven or eight you have on this list. If you do this one, the rest biggest impact is better than all the other one. And if you don't do that, then all these other ones become even more important to try and include that. But just simply getting rid of the.

[Sal DeStefano]

Processed foods, in fact, all the ones that we're going to talk about are made to be able to be done together. And you'll see as we go through them, you can actually stack them all together quite easily and it'll result in, for 90% of people watching, this significant consistent fat loss. Here's the next one. When you eat, don't eat while you're distracted. So don't eat in front of the TV in front of your phone. Actually just sit down and eat your food. Now here's what the data shows. When people do this, they automatically reduce their calories by about 10 to 15% automatically. So literally they'll tell people, here's a meal, watch the TV while you eat it, that we have the show on or whatever. Here's your phone, or you're in a room by yourself and you eat. And they monitor and people go until they're satisfied. So there's no, like, stop eating or just eat until you're satisfied. 10 to 15% less calories simply because they're not distracted. The other part of this is people will eat between 20 to 30% faster when they're distracted. So the speed at which you eat and the amount that you eat are different because you're disconnected from your body's signals of satiety. You actually read them late. By the time you get the signal that you're satisfied, you're beyond satisfied because you're distracting yourself with, you know, whatever you're watching.

[Dylan]

I mean, this happens so much with clients that we're always, like, kind of on the move. And they're, they're. They got to get in the car, they gotta hustle, they gotta grab whatever they can. And it's just this, you know, really quick eating where it's just. They don't really have those signals that they can pay attention to whether they're full or not. It's just they gotta get it in.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, I mean, have you ever sat down at the table or counter with no phone and no TV and ate popcorn or chips? Yeah, I'm envisioning that right now. That looks weird.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You know what I'm saying?

[Sal DeStefano]

If you walked in, right. If you walked in the house and Justin was just sitting at the table eating a bowl by himself, like, what's wrong with you?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, it would look weird.

[Sal DeStefano]

So you have to really love popcorn. Yeah, you would.

[Adam Schafer]

That's why, again, I, I like the. This is more kind of strategies, how we would talk to clients that didn't want to track calories or had hard things.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, I'm not going to tell my client, no, you can't have popcorn. No, you can't have chips. Just do it without watching TV or your phone and watch what happens. You'd be surprised how much you decide, like, and that bowl of popcorn doesn't even sound good sitting at the table.

[Sal DeStefano]

And there's, there's more science that goes into this. So we talked about the disconnection part, but if we go deeper, typically when you're consuming entertainment or media, that media is usually. It's trying to induce a feeling. Otherwise you wouldn't be looking at it. Whether that feeling be excitement or anger or fear or whatever, you're not looking at it. If it's completely. If it's as boring as Looking at nothing. You wouldn't look at it. Right. So it's inducing a feeling. So you're connecting to a different feeling while you're consuming food. And you're actually strengthening a relationship with food that is undesirable.

[Dylan]

So let's say you study for that with which emotion evokes the most hunger?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that's interesting, right? Like a, like a stressful scary movie make you eat more. Or would a happy, happy, like sport movie make you, well, even celebrate and eat more.

[Sal DeStefano]

Even more importantly, let's say you eat while you're stressed cause you're reading the news or politics, what that may strengthen inside of you, the neural networks may connect that say when you're stressed, this is what you do. So then in real life, you're stressed at work, you're stressed with your spouse, you're stressed with your kids, you have a stronger desire to self medicate with food because you've already strengthened that network through looking at media while you're eating so bad across the board. Next up, regardless of what you're eating, eat the protein first. This one's an easy one. We've talked about this many times. Protein has the highest satiety effect. When you look at the three macronutrients, proteins, fats and carbs. Second will be fat, it's actually a distant second. And then third is carbohydrates. So eating protein first tends to result in eating less calories overall. There's also an insulin sensitizing effect. Yes. Blood sugar kind of stabilizing effect that comes from eating protein first. By the way, make sure it's a decent amount of protein. You know, 30 grams would be kind of the minimum. And this, by the way, this and the first one we said not eating processed foods, eating protein first. This was like you're 90% of the way there. When I would train clients, just these two right here without having to track or do anything else.

[Adam Schafer]

Agreed.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yep. Next up, not drinking any fluids, including water while you're eating.

[Adam Schafer]

This is a cool hack that we picked up when we talked to Paul. Check.

[Dylan]

Was it a tough one to do?

[Adam Schafer]

It was Paul. Check. I think we started talking about this.

[Sal DeStefano]

He might have been the one to. Yeah, bring it up.

[Adam Schafer]

I think it was him who brought it up first. I don't remember. I remember it was around that time that we were talking to him and I had never tried that before and I was really fascinated by how, how well this worked. What I found it does more than anything else is it slows my eating down and Forces me to chew my food more.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

Is what we all. Not all. I mean, I'm overgeneralization. A lot of people tend to shove food in your mouth, and before you even finish chewing it, you're washing it down with a drink. And so that just speeds up how fast you eat. And it's not. And it's not ideal for digestion. And so simply having no liquid to swallow down forces you to kind of sit there and chew 15, 20 more bites. And that alone ends up reducing the calories.

[Dylan]

Made me realize I took way too big of bites. I was like, choking, you know, like, I hated this. I was, like, trying to force myself to not drink with eating. And it was like, oh, wow, I got to eat a lot smaller bites.

[Sal DeStefano]

You mentioned digestion. This is actually a. For people who have issues with, like, bloating or digestive issues after meals, this may be kind of a first line of defense, because fluid dilutes the digestive enzymes in the gut. Also, chewing is the first part of digestion. The smaller the pieces become when you chew them, the easier they are to break down by the gut throughout the body. So chewing your food regularly, like a lot of it, and allowing your saliva to do the work actually helps a lot of people with digestive issues.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, Doug just pulled out. The impact of drinking while eating on digestion is actually a debated topic. I know the arguments for not. Not to. What are the arguments for that are favorable? Well, hydration. That's silly. You can get hydrated all day, improve better absorption. Drinking water can help break down the. Yeah, but chewing would break it down even more. So that's terrible argument, too. Reduced drinking water can help. No?

[Sal DeStefano]

Nope.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, so I. Okay, here's a strategy then. If to counter all the. The few arguments is pound a glass of water before you sit down and eat.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, a few.

[Adam Schafer]

Exactly. And then you. So then you Takes care of the hydration argument and takes care of the feeling like there's the two biggest arguments.

[Sal DeStefano]

The only people I would be like, yeah, we should drink while you eat are people who chronically under drink water. In which case.

[Adam Schafer]

And even then, I still like the advice of, before you sit down, eat, you need to have a full glass of water and then have your meal.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

And then that would still solve that.

[Sal DeStefano]

But it makes a big difference for digestion. It slows you down. In studies on this particular subject, you tend to see, again, 10, about 10% reduction in calories just because somebody. By the way, as trainers. Trainers are the Worst at that one. Because when you have six to eight clients in a day. Yeah. And you got to eat in between windows of eating, you have five to 10 minutes. And so I would go in the back. I was notorious for this in my studio. I have a little kitchen in the back. And I'd have my meal ready to go. One client's walking out the door, someone's walking in. I'm like, all right, go ahead and get started. Foam rolling. I'll be right back. I'd go in the back, microwave my food, and I take two bites and wash it down. It was like I was taking supplements.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I would probably add any hard gainer into that argument, too. I think that's a.

[Sal DeStefano]

Because you learn how to do that.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Because you kind of learned. When you're a hard gainer and you've been forcing food down, you kind of learn to take bites and then wash it down as an easier way to get it down. And so I would add them to that category.

[Sal DeStefano]

Here's another one. This one sounds silly, but again, the studies on this are pretty interesting. Put your fork or your spoon down between bites. So you take a bite, put the spoon down with a fork, chew your food, and then pick it up. It's literally just slowing the process down. By the way, when you do this one, as silly as it sounds, you'll start to realize you'll get impatient. What will happen if you get impatient? You know, you eat too fast.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. I think this is the same as the, like, 35 chew rule or whatever. Like that, like, chew your food 35 times before you take the next bite. I think that it's basically trying to do the same thing without you counting your chews.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right. It's just a simple strategy.

[Dylan]

Restaurant for like three hours.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's ridiculous.

[Adam Schafer]

As I actually think the chewing and counting is a better one than this because you know how ridiculous you would look. Like this set.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Pick up.

[Sal DeStefano]

I mean.

[Adam Schafer]

But I just want to share with the logic. The logic is actually getting more. Choosing.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

That's really what it is. It's actually less to do because what is there? There's no science that supports the.

[Sal DeStefano]

Well, what happens.

[Adam Schafer]

It's that it adds time.

[Sal DeStefano]

What's observed in the studies is that people will do this.

[Dylan]

Speed is a problem.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right. Because this is what it looks like for a lot of people. You'll take a bite and you're already getting. And you've got the next bite on the. And so what happens Is neurologically you're anticipating the next bite. And this speeds up the process. Process even more. Yeah, because you're not thinking about what's in your mouth. Think about what you're about to get in your mouth. And this is what, what it feels like if you've gone through this is binging, where you just. You can't eat fast enough. Even though you have food in your mouth, you're not even thinking about what's in there. You think about, can I get the next one?

[Dylan]

The next thing?

[Adam Schafer]

And everybody's experiences. If you ever had a piece of cake or anything that's a dessert like.

[Sal DeStefano]

That, you always bring up cake.

[Dylan]

He's always fighting for everybody.

[Adam Schafer]

You're chewing on it, you're already like, carving the next piece out, you know what I'm saying?

[Sal DeStefano]

The only, only time I've ever seen a grown man buy a cake for himself. What's your favorite?

[Dylan]

Is it the corner piece or is it middle?

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, corner piece for sure. Yeah, yeah, the extra frosting.

[Sal DeStefano]

I feel you on that. Here's another one. Walk right after you eat. So this has a pretty significant impact on blood sugar and stabilization, which affects later behaviors. So the less your blood sugar goes up and down, the less likely you are to have cravings, irritability. Search for that quick fix with food, and it's literally a 10 minute walk. In fact, there was a study where people didn't even walk. They literally just sat down, they ate, and all they did was lift their heels so they kind of pointed their toes. I mean, it's like the most ridiculous exercise of all time. And they saw a significant reduction in blood sugar just because of the contraction of muscles, relaxing of muscles causes them to suck up all that blood sugar.

[Adam Schafer]

I know this is about fat loss, but I find this such a cool hack for couples using that as time to connect. I remember when we first started kind of talking about this as a tip for people, and Katrina and I were practicing that, we found that putting our phone away and just the walking afterwards, that we were initially doing it for the movement, digestion, and for the purpose of what we're talking about, I found, oh, wow. This became like this guaranteed time that we'd always be connecting without our phones and any distractions, which the benefits of that for my relationship are incredible. And we know that how important relationships are in the overall health journey. And so I would add this as like, just this like, double whammy of a. Of a hack. Like, if I'm looking at, oh, I'm gonna do a Couple of these. This one's gonna be one of my top ones for that reason.

[Sal DeStefano]

Right. Next up. This one is actually. It's very powerful, but it's actually very difficult. And we'll talk about why. But it's to pause before you eat. And you can either pray or reflect before you have the meal. So what you're doing is you're trying to reflect on the intention, what you want for your body, what you want for your health. Now you're praying. You're obviously praying and giving thanks. And what this does, if we take the supernatural out of it, what this does is it brings awareness. Now, here's why it's difficult. Oftentimes people don't want this awareness. I've had clients where I told them, hey, before you eat, I want you to pause. And then they come back to me. It's like, I hate doing that. And I'll say, why? Because then I don't eat or I feel bad about what I'm about to do. And it's like, well, you're in. This is the initial phase of awareness. And oftentimes we want to be not aware of the habit that we're doing or we want to kind of somewhat disconnect because we know it doesn't feel good.

[Dylan]

Well, it also calms down your nervous system and brings you into more parasympathetic, which is where you want to be when you're about to eat.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. I used to tell my clients to do this before you eat, doesn't matter what you eat. Pause and write down what you want out of this meal and what your ultimate goals are for yourself, health wise.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, so.

[Sal DeStefano]

And that's tough to do before eating a bowl of chips.

[Adam Schafer]

This is really, I mean, this is really powerful just purely from the awareness standpoint. I mean, I think I had a lot of clients that really believe they were really good eaters. And until we, we started tracking and logging, they're just unaware. We do a lot of things kind of mindlessly, whether it be grabbing a handful of nuts or the extra bite or the second serving or the extra sauce on it, like, and just stopping like that and taking a moment just helps the awareness piece. And I think that has a tremendous amount of value.

[Sal DeStefano]

Right. And then next up, install or create a barrier between you and a bad habit. So identify what your bad habit is.

[Adam Schafer]

To bring it in the house.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes, that's, that's, that's the ultimate barrier. Right. So, like, potato chips for me is kryptonite, like 100%. If it's in the house, I'm going to eat it. So I don't keep them in the house. And if I want chips, I'll buy a single serving. I'll make myself go and buy the single serving. But the barrier is I got to go buy.

[Adam Schafer]

The easiest thing to keep me away from eating ice cream, like, I love so much is not ordering it because there's many times where I crave it, but it's like, oh, I got to go get it or doordash it. And they go through the hassle. It's not going to be here for 30.

[Sal DeStefano]

Sometimes you do it.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Sal DeStefano]

But it's more often than not.

[Adam Schafer]

More often than not, I don't for that. Whereas if I regularly ordered it, every time we went grocery shopping, I always was putting a thing of ice cream in there. I'm eating it every single time.

[Sal DeStefano]

Right? Yeah. I had clients with this work, because you can be any barrier. So I had clients where I'd say before you eat, because they would say, well, I have them in the house for guests or. Because that was always the first one. Right. Is don't have it in the house. Well, I have it for guests or I have it for this. And I say, okay, when you want to eat it, set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and just wait 15 minutes. And it actually, it cut the amount of times that they would go and actually get that food by like 30 to 50%. With most people just the 15 minute wait. And some people get mad with the 15 minute wait because they're like, but I want it now. All you got to do is say, I can have it. I just got to wait 15 minutes. And it was just a barrier.

[Adam Schafer]

I. I remember a lot of clients justifying it for their kids where they'd say, like, oh, I have it in the house for my kids. But even more reason for you to not do this is like, you're now just creating inside my belly. Well, these kids now. Well, I mean, honestly, that was top. I think that was one of the top excuses for why those things made in the house. It's like, wait a second. It's like, here you are trying to create a new healthy lifestyle for yourself. Your justification of why you have those treats in there is because you have kids and maybe they're not overweight right now, but it's like, that's such a terrible idea. Is one, it's a temptation for you, and two, you're already creating bad habits for them, so later on they're gonna have the same Struggle you have right now. So it's like, may as well get the whole family on board right now.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, totally. All right. I got a cool study on isometrics. Justin, what that you're gonna like new.

[Adam Schafer]

Or just recently came across it.

[Sal DeStefano]

So I'm gonna pull it up because it was a link to the study. So I want to be clear on, you know, how I quote it. But this particular study was. So it's the effects of long muscle length isometrics versus full range of motion training on regional quadriceps hypertrophy. So and this is in advanced. This is people who lift in range versus the stretch range. So it was, it was a full isometric contraction to. What's it called? Is it called yielding or non yielding? Which one? The one where you're pushing and it's not moving. Where you're overcoming. Overcoming.

[Dylan]

Overcoming.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, overcoming. So it's. And it's in a lengthened position. So for the quad, they were in a leg extension, but it was at the bottom before you fully extend. And they were driving into the pad and it was too heavy to move. And they do it for the same time under tension that the other subjects did for the full range of motion. So 30 seconds. It was a 30 second gotcha, you know, contraction versus 30 seconds of full range of motion. In the study, what they found was both built the same amount of muscle.

[Adam Schafer]

Interesting.

[Sal DeStefano]

Same amount of muscle.

[Adam Schafer]

Now that's just remember since short term.

[Sal DeStefano]

Six weeks. Yeah, six weeks. Yeah. So it's a six week period of time. I. Now if you extend it out the full range of motion, I would bet my bottom dollar would outperform it. Plus it's more functional. But what's the benefit of this for people?

[Adam Schafer]

Rehab Safety.

[Sal DeStefano]

Safe. It is safe. And it is different if you're like, if you've been working. Oh, man. If you've been working out for a while, just do three weeks of this and watch what happens to your body.

[Dylan]

Well, this is why I always like to revisit it because I understand, like, it's pretty monotonous to, you know, do a full workout of isometrics is kind of brutal. But, you know, the benefits just speak for themselves all the time. And it's like, you know, if you ever feel like you're in a rut, that's always something to kind of bring into the mix.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You know where I use this a lot because I, I rarely train calves. Such a waste of time to spend time training calves. But I will do isometrics in the, in the shower. All the time.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

It's like if I. It's been a while since I've hit them, like that's what I'll do. And I swear, I see. In a short period, did you never.

[Sal DeStefano]

Walk in and go, what are you doing?

[Adam Schafer]

I'm just holding. I'm just on my tippy. I just hold and contract really hard. I do five times.

[Dylan]

Put your soap up at the very top.

[Adam Schafer]

Five. Five times. Make fun of me all you want, but I know there's a ton of people that do not spend a lot of time training their calves. You probably should probably do some of this, you know? Yeah. I don't think you've trained cabs since like 1985.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dylan]

I just do jump rope.

[Adam Schafer]

If you're listening and you've never tried it, try that. Just.

[Sal DeStefano]

These were links.

[Adam Schafer]

Easy. Easy thing to start with too. You're in there. Everyone takes a shower every day. It's like simple. Add that in your routine. Watch the difference in your calves in just a short period.

[Sal DeStefano]

Now these were lengthened isometrics though, right. So this would be like being at the bottom of a stretch with your calves.

[Adam Schafer]

What's it on the other side then?

[Sal DeStefano]

Less.

[Adam Schafer]

Is it?

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes. The growth, the. The hypertrophy we see from isometrics is better at the lengthened part than it is now. That doesn't mean that they don't all build muscle. And by the way, isometrics in the.

[Dylan]

Shortened position, because of the tension of it being in its elongated form.

[Sal DeStefano]

Y. I will say this shortened isometrics are valuable if you have trouble connecting to a muscle.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

So if you're like, I can't feel my glutes. Do them in the shortened position. You'll feel them. Trying to get them to feel in the stretch be very difficult.

[Adam Schafer]

Which is why I started doing the calf thing because. Because I know that's a reason for something to get underdeveloped is because the lack of connection there. Trying to get better connected. I saw great benefits from that. Trying to think how I would. I. I would need to be able to finish something. Yeah. We're like on a two by four or something like that. And then have to hold something to keep myself.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, you would drive into. So you get into.

[Adam Schafer]

No, you get in a full stretch and then I'm saying like you would hold from keeping me from going up.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, but it's not holding. It's your driving. But the weight is so heavy. You can't. No, no.

[Adam Schafer]

I know you're driving with your calves, but I'M holding my body still. Yeah, I'm resisting, yeah, I'm resisting the driving. I'm trying to. How I could be more difficult.

[Sal DeStefano]

I tell you, man, if you're, if you're listening to this and you're like super into strength training and you want to experiment with this, I would love to hear someone's results. Like, do this for, just do it for three weeks. Do it for three weeks. Try this on. You don't even have to try on every body part, but try it on some body parts where you're just doing this kind of lengthened isometric for 30 seconds, 30 second drive. Do a few sets of that instead of, you know, traditional exercise and then report back, you know, what you get from it. But the safety is what's, what's amazing with this. And it's different, it's a different story.

[Dylan]

Somebody would come up with like a stick or something.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, Justin, too late, bro. Too loud. Every time I bring up one of.

[Adam Schafer]

These, you know how painful it's going to be though when somebody, like when Nike or someone makes it, he goes like, super famous.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Because the next tool or whatever.

[Sal DeStefano]

All right, I got another, I got another study on artificial sweet. I'll read to you guys what the study showed and I want you guys to speculate on what's possibly going on. So the title of the study, this is what sucks about our news articles, is they don't break down the study. People will look at the article title and then they'll make their assumptions. It says, now they tried to be responsible here, but I know people will assume. It says artificial sugar alternatives may make your brain age faster. Study found. So people who consume the highest amount of sweeteners commonly found in low calorie drinks and desserts, experienced cognitive decline 62% faster than those who consumed the lowest amounts of those sweeteners.

[Dylan]

Well, I don't need any of that.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, well, well. So what do you think is going on here? Now keep in mind they just tracked a bunch of people for, let me see, how long. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

What are the things that are correlated to that?

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right. Yeah. They tracked, they analyzed 13, 000 adults, I don't know how many years. But here's the problem with this. There's no real controls.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And people who consume the most artif. Now, I'm not defending artificial sweeteners. There may be something there. But people who consume the most artificial sweeteners also tend to have the worst diets. That's just a fact. People have the most of these tend to have the worst diets. And in that category of people who consume lots of artificial sweeteners or people with diabetes. So what you may be looking at are terrible diets, diabetes, both of which are associated with cognitive decline. Yeah. So it's important when you read studies to tease that type of stuff out. Tease that kind of stuff out. Because. Did you ever hear back from our.

[Adam Schafer]

Buddy Lane on the study that you sent over to him?

[Sal DeStefano]

Oh, for processed food?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Oh, I was really in. I really was looking forward to hearing that.

[Sal DeStefano]

Hearing back from that. No, no, no, I haven't. I think we. More people should reach out to him because he likes to debunk things once again.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, if I know Lane, he definitely would go and read it, and he'll eventually make a video probably on it. But, you know, since we have the shortcut to him.

[Sal DeStefano]

The thing I appreciate about Lane is that he goes deep.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

So he doesn't just jump. He goes in and he literally breaks things down. And sometimes. And he's not seen this before, he'll. He sent me before the work that he's done on one particular study, and it's like he spent eight hours. Yeah. Trying to break something down. Which I appreciate.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, that's why it doesn't.

[Adam Schafer]

Isn't that he has a. Like a paid group that he does and isn't that what he does in that group? I think that's what he does.

[Sal DeStefano]

Oh, where he breaks down studies.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I think that's. Yes, I think that's the main. Like, if you really like that stuff. I think that's something that he. I mean, he does a lot of stuff on. On the. On his Instagram that's free. But I think. I think he, like, every week or something, he has, like, a new study that he does, like a full deep dive and, like, people that really want to get nerdy about it, so.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I think I'm surprised that you. You're not in that. I would have thought for sure you would take advantage of that.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, I just text him.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

He's my friend. He gets mad sometimes. I'll send him a text. I'm busy right now. I can't reply to this. All right, bro.

[Adam Schafer]

Speaking of our friends, I know that last week we. We had our. Our friends Tom and Ben. And you.

[Sal DeStefano]

You still rock recovery.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah. And then you. I hear. And did dinner. Went and did dinner. They come to your house?

[Sal DeStefano]

No, I invited them over. Okay. They're so.

[Adam Schafer]

You're so social now.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, well, so real recovery, like, no.

[Adam Schafer]

Friends, like, three years ago. Now he's got hella friends.

[Dylan]

Isolated.

[Sal DeStefano]

I had just. You guys. I don't like you guys anymore. I want you for. No, that's not. I. Real Recovery talking is their practice. They're working on it. You guys are great. You guys are amazing. I know that over here. You guys know I talk about you guys all the time in great ways. No. So Tom and Ben host the Real Recovery podcast. They also run Rock Recovery Center. They're just such good guys. You know, we hang out, I talk with them. They're so passionate and care so much about the people they work with. Like, they go so out of their way, you guys, to help these people, because they both.

[Adam Schafer]

They both went through that.

[Sal DeStefano]

So, you know, I mean, what a blessing they are to the people that they work with.

[Adam Schafer]

I imagine those are probably the. I mean, are all recovery centers ran by people that were ex addicts before.

[Sal DeStefano]

A lot of ex addicts become.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I imagine it's just like what we would see with people who lost weight, change their life, you know, I'm saying a lot of times become trainers.

[Sal DeStefano]

Well, I mean, it's a tough job. Even with even really successful rehab, you know, facilities, there's gonna be people who you. You spend a lot of time with that end up.

[Dylan]

They're so personal, though, like, in comparison to other experiences, I've heard, you know.

[Sal DeStefano]

Bro, they talk to these people, they coach them people, they bring the whole family in.

[Dylan]

Like, they're really good.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, Tom, text me sometimes and you'll be like, hey, I'm talking to this woman. She found us through your show. And, you know, he's like, would you mind making a video for her because she's a fan. And then I'll talk to him. And he's like, yeah, I've been talking to her for weeks and trying to help her out. I'm like, does she hire you guys? And she's. He's like, no.

[Dylan]

It's just weird to me. I don't know if you guys have seen, but there's, like, a documentary on, like, Bam Margera and also, like, you know, Britney Spears and all this. And it's like they go to this person that created some, like, virtual reality software to get them to, like, work on their recovery. And it's, like, interesting.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And it's. It.

[Dylan]

And again, there's. There's, like, contention around it. It's like, somewhat successful, somewhat not successful. But it's like, to me, the way that they're handling it was so impersonal in comparison to, like, really getting to the root of it.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, when I was hanging out with them, we were talking the spiritual component. And the success of people in rehab is so big. I mean, you guys know this, right?

[Adam Schafer]

Well, the 12 steps is based off Christian. Yeah, yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And they went through what it was based on. But, you know, in many of those cases, there has to be a spiritual. Real strong spiritual component because you're dealing with something so powerful, so difficult. And the ones that have those conversions, oftentimes it's that, you know, that's what Ben experienced. That's also what Tom kind of experienced. But just such great guys. Like, it's really. When you meet people like that that really, really, really care about the people they're working with to the point where they go above and beyond. It's just, you know, I also.

[Adam Schafer]

I also. I shared an article with them. I don't think I shared with you guys, because I was talking to them also. Just the. The need for those places. I mean, it's a sad thing, but it's like we need them more than ever. And it's getting worse before it's getting better with just the rise in depression and suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse. Like, it's just we're going the wrong direction when it comes to stuff like that. And so support groups and communities and people that are working to help that I think are just so important.

[Sal DeStefano]

Speaking of addiction and stuff, man, the data on pornography and its effects on. You know, you prompted this, right? Because you told me that. What's his name? Reach out.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. I always. Always say Cythia or Sathia. How do I say it?

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's Satya.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. So, you know, I just looked up more of the data on it. I think this is one of the most dangerous under. We. We under report, or we kind of brush it under the rug. Don't consider it to be, like, as bad as it actually is.

[Adam Schafer]

But we don't just do that. We, like, a lot of, like, therapists encourage it for, like, couples. And so that's terrible. It's been encouraged.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's terrible. It's not. Here's. Here's some of the data on this, because this is actually. This is secular data. Okay. So I'm not speaking from a spiritual, religious standpoint. Just look at the data. The average age of exposure is now 9 to 13.

[Adam Schafer]

Those 14.

[Sal DeStefano]

9 to 13. So think of the damage.

[Adam Schafer]

So young.

[Sal DeStefano]

Think of the damage.

[Dylan]

It's so accessible.

[Sal DeStefano]

The majority of men consume it weekly with 60% of these men consuming it several times a week. Here's what these. The data shows it is connected to depression, anxiety, lower overall, lower mental well being. Daily use was connected to higher scores on negative mental health measures and emotional coping is a key driver. Another study showed that it was increased to increased loneliness, isolation, psychological difficulties. There are some people that experience hypersexual disorder from porn. Then in Europe they were showing that it was that adolescent exposure was linked to higher rates of rule breaking, aggression and mental health issues. It changes. Then there's brain and neurological changes. It changes. Did you guys know you can MRI a brain? And if someone's a heavy porn consumer, by the way, do you guys want to know what a heavy porn consumer is?

[Adam Schafer]

What, once a day or something?

[Sal DeStefano]

More than several times a week. Okay, so daily user would be considered heavy.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

They can MRI you and see changes in your brain, changes in the frontal cortex, changes in different reward centers of the brain. It literally changes how your body perceives reward. Meaning become more impulsive. Yeah. And it changes all reward. So these parts of the brain aren't just for the sexual novelty or the novelty stimulation you'll get from pornography. They're also associated with reward from doing other things.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, it's very aligned with your tip today with processed foods because it's like the processed food version of sex.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

You just become, it just becomes like you, this appetite for is going to screw all that up. You're, you know, I'm saying it's very, very similar.

[Sal DeStefano]

It prefrontal cortex erosion. So it literally shrinks the prefrontal cortex which so changes command center. That's, that's, it's crazy. There was another study that showed that men experience greater declines in partner desire. It has a, a terrible effect on couples and relationships, dramatically increasing rates of infidelity and divorce. There used to be the belief that pornography would reduce things like sexual assault. Like, oh, if we give men, you know, with these desires more accent. No, it actually increases it. It is bad, it is not good. And it's so accessible and so insane. Like, this is, this is a problem that we need to talk about. You know, it's a big one and a lot of guys are like embarrassed to talk about it, I think. But more and more, I believe he's.

[Adam Schafer]

Scheduled to come back on the show, isn't he?

[Justin Andrews]

I believe so, yeah. We were not sure when though.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I was talking to him and, and it's been over a year since we had him. And so I was like, yeah, no, absolutely. I think that all the guys. And I believe it's an important conversation and I think a lot of people don't have it, don't want to have it. And so I think it's important to at least talk about it, make more people and parents aware of it. I mean, I'm always trying to think of how I stay ahead of all that stuff. Like. And the only thing I can think.

[Sal DeStefano]

Of is not giving yourself.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Delaying the tech thing for as long, as long as I possibly can. It's not. Is not allowing him on stuff like that, which is. I mean, I know it's a challenge because it's like so much of our world revolves around the Internet and the use of that. But. But I'm hoping by the time my kid is up to your guys's age that we've, we've changed that. The way some of that stuff is.

[Sal DeStefano]

It'S just going to get worse. With AI is what's going to end up happening.

[Adam Schafer]

AI makes that worse.

[Dylan]

There's all the safeguards they have now. I mean, it's pretty. There's some good software to, to combat it, like, even with clothing that can target clothing and all kinds of stuff. But all that's going to get eroded with AI like, it's going to override all that.

[Adam Schafer]

My hope with. With the rise of AI and it getting worse in that way is that I'm, I'm. My belief is in humans and culture that. And I feel. I feel like we're the pendulums coming back the other way. We're like young men and in general are just are trying.

[Sal DeStefano]

Talking about it now.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, they're talking about. We're just five years ago or 10 years ago, it wasn't talked about at all. So we're becoming more aware of it. I mean, I feel like, you see that was with my cousins up in Seattle, this one, the ones that are homeschool and stuff. And some of the kids have already moved to flip phones, you know, and so they're. And by choice, you know, they're not being told they have to do it, but they're. They're doing that because. Yeah, because they know how addictive all the other stuff is. And so it's like, yes, of course you want a phone for connection and. But you can still pick up the phone and call somebody and you can still do that. Like, you don't need to get on Snapchat to communicate.

[Sal DeStefano]

Well, I tried to put myself back into, you know, in the mindset that I. Or just the body and mindset and Hormones of when I was like 14, 15 years old. Now this was, this was the mid-90s. We didn't have the Internet. Pornography was way less accessible. You had to get a magazine.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And the only way to get a magazine, lots of barriers. You'd have to either find one in a dumpster or you. This is true.

[Dylan]

Or you had a tree house like me.

[Sal DeStefano]

And it was, it was so inaccessible to the point where.

[Adam Schafer]

And it was the same still images over and over and over.

[Sal DeStefano]

Wasn't like, it wasn't highly insanely novel.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes, exactly. That's what I mean. It's like if you were lucky enough as a teenage boy to get a hold of something like that, you had one. Yeah, or like, I think I had like a one page.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, it was all folded up.

[Adam Schafer]

For like years of having it. Yeah, it's like, you know, not a lot of novelty going on there.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, it's crazy. It's crazy. When you look at also the data on how pornography has changed over the last 10 years, it's gotten so much more extreme because like classic. So this is what happens with drugs, right? They'll introduce a drug and it's so strong, it's only so strong and then the users need a stronger dose. And so we go from, you know, mild opioids to fentanyl, you know, is where people end up.

[Adam Schafer]

Or just what, kratium kratom to seven.

[Sal DeStefano]

Oh. Or whatever. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Per example.

[Sal DeStefano]

So with pornography, it went from like nudity to extreme to extreme to extreme to now crazy taboo, like weird stuff that people continue to search for. And it's just, it's following literally the pattern of addiction and that dysfunction. And, you know, I talked about this earlier today. I had a workout with Dennis as part of my series and we were talking about like men. And you know, the topic for me was like, how the world really takes down men. Or, you know, the verbiage I used was the enemy. But you could also just say the world think about young men, how their desire going out to meet and talk to girls. Like, you had to like get your stuff, you had to get your crap together. You had to like figure things out, you had to get rejected, you had to present yourself properly, you had to go through some challenges and be kind of. That zaps a 14 year old's, you know, desire to go out and kind of like develop these skills that you need as a man. And then you throw video games on top of it. And now he's not going out trying to beat levels of the world. He's at home, you know, trying to beat level 39 of whatever video game. So these men are just neutered is what end up happening. Totally neutered. I know. Crazy.

[Adam Schafer]

So unfortunate.

[Sal DeStefano]

Anyway, I want to ask you, Justin, about you were requesting something from prx. Doug brought it. Brought up.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, the Halo. I want those Halo bars.

[Dylan]

Yes. Yeah, I. I was requesting them because originally.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

I wanted something that could add volume, especially for pressing and something that's like all. I mean, you could get a lot of concentric and less like the man on the eccentric portion of it with these rocker arms that are basically. It's kind of like a landmine, but it's like attached like so the anchor points at the top of the cage and you're pushing these arms out. So you get like a rad press out of it, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, what's dope is you can actually move the arms. There's.

[Sal DeStefano]

Put the arms down.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, you put the arms down and. And do deadlift type stuff with it. You can do all kinds of stuff.

[Dylan]

Oh, yeah. So there you go.

[Sal DeStefano]

You can even.

[Dylan]

Yeah. Use it. That's not angle as well.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's the best home gym equipment attachment I've ever seen.

[Adam Schafer]

I didn't realize how much they've been changing and upgrading stuff. That's. That's like.

[Dylan]

Well, for high quality velocity training too. I mean, if you're doing anything power like you want something like that.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's like free flowing as I'm looking at it. Right. For athletes, no brainer. I think you're breaking it down, Justin. For bodybuilders, Adam, set yourself up with a bench in front of that.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

For incline presses so much you can do. Or for shoulder presses because of the angle and where the resistance is at the bottom, it's easier. At the top, it's harder. Yeah. Which for like think of the shoulder pump you would get.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, I mean, I love too that they're independent and free. So you can. It's just contours to your body alternate too.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. Did you put that on your home gym? On your cage? You have a PRX cage with barbell dumbbells.

[Adam Schafer]

You can set it up. You can set up like a Viking press too. That's right, the Viking.

[Dylan]

I mean, all of us, we love that.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, we're raving about that for the last couple of years on how much love that movement. We don't even need that anymore. We can use that.

[Sal DeStefano]

I mean, I would, I would, I would use that every single day. So I wonder why we haven't we haven't you asked for it?

[Dylan]

I asked.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes. I just said I sent them waiting for it to you know, I guess they were waiting for some for a video from us to, to finish and so hopefully I can get that.

[Dylan]

Yeah, I just shot a commercial for them already. So.

[Sal DeStefano]

Did you really?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I did.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. I love it.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm curious how they're. I'm curious how, you know, it's, it's, it's tough. There's not a lot of good margins in, in equipment. So it's not like a super profitable type of business. Now they've continued to grow scale and, and do well. So be interesting to see how, how they are.

[Dylan]

How much the most convenient thing you possibly do for your home.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean it's have you guys. Okay. There used to be a time there's, there's a couple brands that we've been working with for a very long time that early on in the days if I knew somebody used the brand, they were also a listener of my. Oh, you listen to the show or what that was like that. PRX was like that. It's no longer like that. I've. I was just somewhere where somebody didn't know who the hell I was or anything. And they had a whole PRX set up inside their garage. Like oh, prx. Where'd you hear about that? And there was like oh, they had heard somewhere else. It was like oh had nothing to do with us. But that's how big they've. They've grown that big to where like.

[Sal DeStefano]

I think commercial gyms should use their squat racks. To be honest, you with you. When they're folded out, they're more solid.

[Adam Schafer]

I have no idea why you wouldn't but I mean maybe, maybe a lot of people think like we thought originally I really thought the standalone cage was better supported.

[Sal DeStefano]

It's less supported.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I know I did. But logically it makes sense now because I understand how it's use it but I didn't think that way.

[Dylan]

Well even then the ability to open the floor up. So if you're hosting an event or.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right.

[Dylan]

You know, whatever. It's like you want to give yourself options like that's fixed.

[Sal DeStefano]

Otherwise what's the value? Maybe you know this Justin. There's two types of safety bars you can have on a cage. There's the hard ones.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Or the ropes.

[Sal DeStefano]

And then there's the canvas. Yeah. Are the canvas ones like that? Because it's just drop it.

[Adam Schafer]

Just dropping it catches and drop it.

[Sal DeStefano]

So it's not like this clay. Yeah.

[Dylan]

It's not a clang.

[Adam Schafer]

I think it's some serious weight on the big. You drop serious noise.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Because it can. Because it's like, designed like this.

[Sal DeStefano]

It's soft.

[Adam Schafer]

So it's like you could drop £300 and it just catches it. People hardly. I mean, it's still McNugget noise. It's not quite if it's a lot of weight, but, man, you drop 300 plus pounds on those bars.

[Sal DeStefano]

Around.

[Dylan]

Comes asking for the yielding isometrics, though, too. So, like with the canvas is not very good for that.

[Sal DeStefano]

No. Yeah. Yielding. I would use just a traditional. I would just use the rack and load it with more weight than I can.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. For that makes sense.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

But for dropping weight, I think the straps have become more. More popular.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, the. The popularity of bumper plates. We saw that back climb in our. You know.

[Dylan]

Yeah, that was just Olympic lifting.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

Like, that's the only place you'd find it.

[Sal DeStefano]

Never. I never saw bumper plates. Now. Every gym uses bumper plates. But now I have a disdain for bumper plates. I don't like them. Unless you're gonna drop the weight.

[Dylan]

There's nostalgia for me in iron. Yeah, for sure.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, dude. Like, you know, you can't fit as many in the bar. You don't make any sound. It's like you put them together.

[Dylan]

I feel like it doesn't really count, you know?

[Sal DeStefano]

Dude, I want much sound.

[Dylan]

He's saying that I use bumper plates for my pr.

[Sal DeStefano]

But whatever. Yeah, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, anything that's getting set on the ground, I'm bumper plates. But everything else I'm not. I don't. There's no way I'm. I'm squatting with bumper plates.

[Sal DeStefano]

Unless you're gonna dump it.

[Adam Schafer]

Even I'm dumping it. The few times I. I just did dump it the other day, but.

[Sal DeStefano]

Did you really?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I'm using iron. Not very. It's not impressive.

[Sal DeStefano]

I was gonna ask.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, let's not talk about what I.

[Sal DeStefano]

Dumped it over 135.

[Adam Schafer]

No, it was. It was. It was. It was like 185. Or maybe it was. Maybe it was 225. It was two plates or less for sure. And I just. I. I thought I was going to get like 12, and I think it was at 8 and I felt. I felt that it was going to be rough. Now where I'm at in my training right now, like, I don't even mess around with grinding it out. It's like if I feel my form is going to go off on something like that. I just dumped it.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know what's crazy about squats? If you don't do squats for like four weeks and then you go do four easy sets of squats, full range of motion, you're sore.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

Oh, I know. It's. It's always shocking to me. You just get sore every single time.

[Adam Schafer]

Does not take much. That's why it's such a good exercise.

[Sal DeStefano]

I haven't done traditional barbell squats in a little while, but I did. Did box squats the other day and great replacement. It is a great replacement for traditional squats.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm so. I'm not a fan. And I'm not a fan because my. So much of my good at squatting.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's why I'm not.

[Adam Schafer]

Thank you. I appreciate that you think that. I don't think that at all. But I know that how much benefit I got from working on my hip mobility and then getting to a deep squat.

[Sal DeStefano]

You don't want to lose it.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't want to lose it. And what I have found, which is so cool because I definitely feel like, like there was two years there where, you know, I, you know, labeled myself as the mobility guy. Like, I just. That's how I did that all the time. But now I've gotten to a point where I do very. I do very little mobility work as long as I do movements like that and maintain the. And maintain that. Whereas if I started shortening it up and doing box squats or anything like.

[Sal DeStefano]

That, like, this is how bad my ego is, like backing way off to focus on that. I just won't. And it's really frustrating.

[Adam Schafer]

So crazy to me too. You have so much muscle.

[Sal DeStefano]

It annoys me so bad. My own just. I don't know, what do you want to call me? I just. It's just.

[Adam Schafer]

You know what it is? I'll tell you what it is, is you were like. I was. I. I probably wouldn't have either had I not been in pain. My low back bothered me so much. Yes. It annoyed me that I had this fit looking physique. But then I had low back, chronic low back pain. It was like embarrassing.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, and so that was a motivator. Had I not had that and I'm like you. Where you don't suffer from that, I probably would be in the same boat. But it was that.

[Sal DeStefano]

Except for I don't sit on the floor of my kids.

[Adam Schafer]

It's that. It's that. What's that paradox. I always bring up that I never know the name of the. No one's ever gonna remember this. Is that what it is? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's the. Where it's not bad enough quite far enough. Not quite far enough to make you get in the car and drive. And so. Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

So you take more time.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. So it's like, you want to know what's what. I'm excited for coming up.

[Adam Schafer]

Thank you, Dylan. Way to go over.

[Sal DeStefano]

Good job.

[Adam Schafer]

It's like the ninth time I brought.

[Sal DeStefano]

It up a day he had it saved. Yeah. I have bring it up again. You guys don't have Father Steve coming in on Friday.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Dylan]

Yeah, our buff priest.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, he's flying in.

[Adam Schafer]

So working out with them or what?

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. So this is part of this. It's part of my series. Right. Which is just kind of like trying to tackle this idol of fitness, but really talk about my faith journey. It's, you know, it's what it's becoming. I'm not holy lifting. And I've said this before. I don't plan it. And that's on purpose. I'm not trying to let my pride get in the way, because my pride is a. Is an MFer. Okay. It's a really, really strong good job. You're welcome. No bad words. But Father Steve was the first one that he was the. He. Him. Bishop Barron, but really was him. Arthur Brooks were the ones to kind of, like, open my heart a little bit to moving in that direction. Neither one of them preached or anything. Like, they were just such good people. And I remember when we met Father Stevenson, when we went down to interview Bishop Baron, I don't know. Was it seven years ago? Yeah. And, you know, when I remember when I first saw him, I was like, oh, he lived. Yeah. What's up, dude?

[Dylan]

I mean, it was a Joseph Glore or whatever. He was huge, too. Like, I was, like, impressed because I. I. You know, growing up in the church, nobody was in shape, dude. I was always like, potlucks and, you know, like, where's, like, nobody lift weights?

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Do you think it was actually we. My family was that we were talking about you because they're following your series, which, by the way, I think it's incredible how well received that's been because I did not encourage you. It just. Yeah, super well received. It's doing better than any of our other series. It's been incredible. My family was asking, like, you know, what was it for Sal? Now, I said that I thought that Bishop Baron, Arthur Brooks were some of the most intelligent people that you ever heard talk about it. That's what I think. I think you needed somebody who you felt was at your level or more intelligent, wise to intelligently break down spirituality, the Bible, all of that.

[Sal DeStefano]

That was definitely a factor, but it wasn't the first thing. The first thing, and I distinctly remember this, we went down there, which I don't even know why I was motivated to even want Bishop Barron on the show. I think it was divine intervention. But we went down there, and I remember when I came home, I told my wife this. I said, I don't know what it is about these people. I just want to be around them. I don't know what it is. They're just really good people. That's the best verbiage I had back then. They're good people. I just want to be around them. And then that opened me up, and then the intellectual aspect and their ability to explain things in the history, break things down. And when I asked them a hard question, or at least what I thought was a hard question, yeah, they were able to.

[Adam Schafer]

Intelligently, yes.

[Sal DeStefano]

They were able to appeal to my. Whatever the intellect, and that definitely played a role, but it was just being around them, and it was the.

[Adam Schafer]

The. The. The aura that drew you to them first and then the fact that they can Intelligently.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. Because had they had.

[Adam Schafer]

That probably took all of that.

[Sal DeStefano]

Had. They immediately came at me and tried to preach to me, I would have shut off. But we were just with them, and they were just such. Just confident but gentle, strong but soft, you know, just good. You could see how they interacted with other people, how they were with you. I felt zero ego. Oftentimes when you meet people for the first time, especially guys, especially if you work out. Look, if anybody lifts, you know what this is like.

[Dylan]

We've had a lot of experiences, interesting.

[Sal DeStefano]

Ones, especially if you lift. If you look like you lift and you meet another guy, initially, there's this kind of like, let's size each other up tight. It's kind of weird.

[Dylan]

Peacocking.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes. And as an older guy now I see it. It's a little annoying. It was none of that. It was like the most. They were just such great humility and just, I don't know, just great guys. And it just. It turned me in that, you know, in that direction a little bit. But he's coming on, so I'm excited. So I'm gonna work out with him, and then he's gonna. Do you guys know how to do that? Men's Group there, the Christian group. He's gonna teach it.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, he's gonna run it.

[Sal DeStefano]

He's gonna stick around.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, that's cool.

[Sal DeStefano]

And teach. Yeah, dude. So it's gonna be. To be really fun.

[Adam Schafer]

How's the daughter's going? Going?

[Sal DeStefano]

She's still going. Yeah, she's still.

[Adam Schafer]

Was there as many kids again?

[Sal DeStefano]

I was so impressed with like, 20 plus kids.

[Adam Schafer]

That is wild to me.

[Sal DeStefano]

It's crazy. It's a lot. I know.

[Adam Schafer]

That's a lot.

[Sal DeStefano]

It is.

[Adam Schafer]

Same kids, mostly.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. Large group of kids.

[Adam Schafer]

Just different schools and everything. That's another thing that's so.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yes, dude. And they're all different kind of different kids, different walks of life.

[Adam Schafer]

Now, do you. I mean, do you resist trying to listen and be a part or do you. Or do you involve yourself at all?

[Sal DeStefano]

You all ask questions. When they were at my house, I.

[Adam Schafer]

Because sometimes they rotate to other houses.

[Sal DeStefano]

They go to different houses.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal DeStefano]

So the different kids will host and they'll go to different houses each time.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. So. And so, yeah, when they were at my house, of course I was like, you know, eavesdropping. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Here and there. Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And, you know, and I kind of like, oh, man, I shouldn't listen. You know, I shouldn't eavesdrop or whatever, but I just get emotional.

[Adam Schafer]

Is it. Is it. Do they share leadership and like, does somebody else lead it every time? Or is it like one main person?

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, I don't. So I don't want to talk too much. I don't want these kids to, you know, put on, you know, whatever media. But there's typically this. There's this one. One kid that you could tell he's leading it.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, okay.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, and he seems to be the most spiritually mature, smart, you know, and it's funny, you get a bunch of kids together, he tends to be like one person that, you know, facilitates or whatever. But each person will read and they'll all have prayer requests, and it's. It's very communal. But there is a kid that seems to be the guy.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, before we started a little. Little bit of a tournament, I just. We didn't get a chance. I felt like I was starting to talk to you guys. And I hate. Not hate, but I mean, we get going on the podcast and I feel like there's still topics personally that I'm talking to you guys about, and I'm really, really interested in what we're going to see. And then I really think it's in the next couple years with AI, I was listening to someone talk about how it's going to disrupt the trucking industry and I was self driving truck. Yeah. I wasn't aware of just how many people that employs 7 million people across the United are in the, in, in the truck driving business. And I, I think we are already, whammo is already here in the Bay Area and you're seeing it all over the place, more and more people. And I actually think that the trucking thing is an easier thing to solve than actually self driving cars people. So you may believe that self driving cars, like, like a majority is still a decade or more away, but I think we'll see things like shipping containers and stuff like that being driven by AI way before we even see all these driving people around.

[Sal DeStefano]

Less risk will be regulation. Like they may do a regulation where they say it'll drive, but there has to be a live human in there in case something goes wrong or something.

[Adam Schafer]

Like that, which defeats the purpose that.

[Dylan]

The presidential candidate, he was running all based off of that and like went to where the trucking industry in the Midwest and was like really trying to talk about like, like UBI and all that.

[Sal DeStefano]

I don't know. You remember him?

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, that's interesting that you bring that up because that was leading, that was what this conversation was leading me to talk about, which is we discussed UBI a long time ago and, and I think thought that this was get a very strong possibility. I really believe it's a strong possibility. I also think for other reasons too. I think that, and it's not something that I'm, I'm excited by any means. I just think it's one of the ways that Trump will try and make his run look so beneficial is if we pass something like that where the government has to infuse a ton of money or we end up taxing a bunch or we end up printing a bunch. I just think that's what ends up happening. And then of course people are going to celebrate it because it's free money and so which will also drive everything up.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's universal basic income. Andrew Yang.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dylan]

He talked about a long time ago.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. So I think that UBI will be a thing. Not because I think it's necessarily a good thing, but the motivating factors will be strong. When AI disrupts so many markets, which it will, it'll be so disruptive and we won't be able to adjust fast enough. And so you'll have this really strong political pressure to figure out a way to Take care of people who are.

[Adam Schafer]

And you said something that's very key that I think is so important to unpack. Because the other argument is that we've seen this with printing press, we've seen this with Internet, we saw with tv. We saw all these things that. And innovation always happens and there's always jobs that. And I think we will see new jobs that we don't, we can't foresee. But I don't think it will outpace.

[Sal DeStefano]

No how fast speed is.

[Adam Schafer]

And I think, I think that we're already seeing, look how fast AI is reproducing and improving and how much more we just talked about the other day about how much content is being produced at the rate now versus what it was a decade. And then say, you know, printing press and computer days. Right. It's, it's accelerating at such a fast rate. And when something like this can get implemented and wipe out 7 million jobs overnight, potentially, and that's, by the way, we're only talking about one job right now or one sector, it's going to disrupt. I don't think that the innovation will be fast enough to create the amount of jobs. And I think that for the first time ever, we're going to be in a situation where it outpaces it significantly. And that will force a ton of people out of work with nothing to do, which I think is going to make such a strong case for ubi. A lot of political pressure, a ton of political.

[Sal DeStefano]

Especially when it's white collar. You have a bunch of white collar workers out of jobs who can organize political campaigns. It'll be a strong motivating factor.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, and you also have a president who, you know, wants to say the economy boom because of him. And that'll be an easy segue for him to look like he's blowing the economy up because he drives everything up. Because the stock market runs, the real estate runs, all these things. Because ubi, because once UBI comes, it'll just bring the floor up. You know, if you take the, the bottom, say 10 or whatever it is, they automatically get a certain amount of money. It doesn't mean it necessarily gets better for everybody or that much, but it'll do is it'll naturally bring rents up, bring housing up. It'll bring everything up. And so which can be, you know, on face value, a president will run on that as success.

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right. My fear around it is there's two. One is a lot of people will lose a sense of purpose when you're, when you're given kind of free money and then you're, you know, a lot of people will use that to grow businesses and do other things, but a lot of people will probably just take that. Of course, the other one is that when you're taking free, when you're taking money from the government, they now have the moral impetus to control people and control you. We already saw this with ebt, right? When they're like, you can't buy these, you know, sugary drinks and these foods. And a lot of people are like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's free money. Now imagine everybody gets, you know, UBI.

[Dylan]

And their limitations keep happening and, you know, you will.

[Sal DeStefano]

We'll, you know, weave into that is some kind of a social credit system where now it's like, well, you can't spend it if you do this or you do that and it'll feel right.

[Dylan]

It's moving, getting closer and closer to crypto is like a valid, you know, form. So.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't know, do you guys, if you guys were to. You're fresh out of college or you're a young teenage man right now and trying to find your way. Right. What are, what direction are you going? Like, what are you.

[Sal DeStefano]

It would be a smart direction.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah. What do you, what would. I mean, you, I mean, forget smart or not. It's like, what would like, I, I think a lot about, like, okay, I'm in this situation, like, what's my strategy? What am I going to try and go learn or what am I going to go focus on to put, to have job security right now? I mean, just a few years, I mean, not even a decade ago, people would say, get into coding. It was like gone.

[Dylan]

Yeah, no, don't do that.

[Adam Schafer]

Right? Like, definitely don't. I mean, how crazy is that?

[Dylan]

That's crazy.

[Adam Schafer]

Ten years ago that was the thing. It was go get, get your kid into coding because that he's gonna have.

[Dylan]

Forget about being a lawyer.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

Forget about these. Like, honestly, the trades are looking even more enticing these days. Like learning a real valuable skill that you do with your hands. Like robots are going to take a while.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. The other one would be.

[Adam Schafer]

So you would go probably trades.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, I would go. A job involving where you need to have like person to person interaction. So personal training, I think will still be a great job because in fact I would predict that personal training, although it grows year over year faster than a lot of other segments of the economy, I think it's going to grow even faster when more and More people are going to need fitness and you want a person or you want to.

[Dylan]

Be an AI consultant like you brought up the other.

[Adam Schafer]

I just think, think there's you know, 33 million businesses in the U.S. of the 33 million, 30 million of them are like solo entrepreneurs or less than five or 10 employees. So small businesses. Yeah. And you just don't know like you, you're not Google, you're not Apple, you don't have the resources to you know, build. You hear and you hear these, some of these guys on the, on Internet that are you know, talking about oh I, you know, I like lay off 10 people and I've got one AI that's doing job. So these people have the capital and sophistication to go out and implement something like that. The other 30 million entrepreneurs that are just them and three other employees don't have the time to learn all the AI stuff. And, but if you can come in as a young kid who understands that really well and all the bolt ons to it and then you can look.

[Sal DeStefano]

At a business consultant they hire you to figure out.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And what's great is that you could come in and you could, you could position it different ways. Either one, you come in and you go like, you know, you have a fee that you charge or for like E commerce and businesses like that, that.

[Dylan]

Like the new website consultant.

[Adam Schafer]

Totally. And you can attach yourself to the growth. You could come into a business like ours. And if, I mean imagine the position you put us in right now. If you had someone came in that they, they saw our books said, okay, this is what my pump has been averaging for the last five years and this is what your, your overhead has been employee wise. It's now is I'm going to come in and I'm going to increase margins by this much and I'm going to grow top line by this much. Don't pay me, pay me a percentage of the growth, of the growth. Like would you say no? Yeah, of course you wouldn't say no. It's like, and you're only asking a percentage, not asking all the growth and you're going to only get paid if you grow or you increase those margins. It's like a no brainer. Yeah. And it's very, I know, I know just our own business where we're missing on those things like that, that we're trying to figure out ourselves that if someone came in, stepped in and saw all those holes and got paid that way it would be so that that opportunity is massive for the young kid that's already into kind of the learning about AI and then all those businesses that don't even realize how much they can be using it could be easily. And you could, like I said, leverage different ways.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. The warnings on AI for use among adolescents, teens and as therapy are continuing to grow.

[Adam Schafer]

There's.

[Sal DeStefano]

I just read another article where it was Gemini, I think it was, where there was a watchdog group that's like your safety features on this for kids are garbage. And some of these kids are going in there and developing relationships with these AI models and they're getting induced into like psychosis or depression because they're so affirming. And it talks to you like a real person. But it's saying things like, yeah, you definitely. That makes sense. You should keep doing, you know, type of deal. And they're finding that it's turning into, into, into problems.

[Adam Schafer]

That's no good. You know, I've been meaning to bring this up the last couple weeks because I just looked at our Park City place. We have a lot of availability in that and we don't talk about it that often. So if you haven't seen our Park City house that we have, it's a heber. It's right outside of Park City, like six miles, basically right there. In fact, you can even check. Take a shuttle from the neighborhood over to the. The ski resorts and stuff. But a lot of stuff to do even in the summertime over there. That's beautiful. And so if you've never.

[Sal DeStefano]

And we've optimized it with like, oh yeah, winter's coming to dip red light.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that house is so cool. So if you, if it's all really, really nice. And so if you haven't looked at the mypumprentals.com you can see that place. But I just look, there's a lot of availability coming up in the next 30, 60 days. So if you're thinking about it, now's a good time to. And that right now is a lot less expensive than what it is in the winter. Winter time, it's a highly popular place to go in high demand.

[Dylan]

You compete with me because I'm going.

[Adam Schafer]

Ski and me too. Right. So we're all want to get in there. So if you wanted to check that place out and you now's a good time to do it for a very reasonable price. And there's availability. Check it out.

[Sal DeStefano]

Over the last 10 years, Mind Pump has worked with a lot of companies that sell protein powders. And what I'm about to say is 100% true. The best tasting protein powder I've ever had in my entire life is Paleo Valley's grass fed bone broth protein. Their chocolate tastes like chocolate donuts. I'm not making this up. It's delicious. Super easy to digest. In fact, it's great for people with gut health issues. That's why it's one of the proteins that I use. Go check it out. Go to paleovalley.com mindpump on that link. You'll get 15% off. Back to the show.

[Justin Andrews]

First question is from Amelia Hartling. Could tempo being too slow have diminished returns? I go super slow because I want to ensure proper form, but my workouts take forever.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. So slow reps are okay until they're so slow that the reps become endurance and stamina building. So typically you don't want your, your set to take longer than let's say 30 seconds. But if you're doing a really slow reps, like super slow motion training and it's like a minute, minute and a half, two minutes, you're now moving into endurance and not no longer doing strength training. So. And that's what you see with the.

[Dylan]

It's a novel way to do it. It is, yeah. It's not necessarily beneficial on long term.

[Adam Schafer]

I, you know, I haven't brought up on the show in a long time, but I used to have a fitness man. This was when I was just a trainer. So I'm 20. That was my fitness manager who used to train this way. Little, little ripjack Guy and sk. Yes.

[Dylan]

There's a little modality around that.

[Sal DeStefano]

Right?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And, and he did all. It was like just one long slow set for every muscle group. And Guy was in, in great shape. Shape. And I think if you're already in great shape and you do something like that to maintain, I think it is a safe, cool way to do it. But if you're, if you're looking for progress. Yeah. You're gonna be able to reap the benefits out of training that way for a short period of time. And then after that it's gonna, you're gonna need to move out of that.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. This got the super slow mo training. You can actually look this up. This was a methodology that came about during, I want to say World War II when they were. What's it called when they limit your purchase of certain goods.

[Dylan]

Oh yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

What's that called? It's like rations. They were rationing iron and because they needed them for the war effort. And so gyms which there weren't a ton back then. But there were definitely, you know, at that time, there were some areas, some places where there were gyms and they couldn't get dumbbells heavier than 20 pounds or 30 pounds. And so they came up with this.

[Adam Schafer]

Is that really where that came from?

[Sal DeStefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

I didn't know that. I actually thought it was more like the elderly and it's. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that.

[Sal DeStefano]

And now again, if the set takes you longer than 30 seconds or so.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, now it's endurance.

[Sal DeStefano]

Now it's endurance, which is okay if that's what you want. But now you're not doing, you know, strength training. But if it's like a 30 second rep, then you're probably okay. Here's the other side of it, by the way, is that muscles learn how to contract fast or slow based off of your training. I run into this with my strength training. I don't do super slow motion reps. I do traditional reps that'll affect function for you. Tell me to move fast. I did this the other day. Dylan was filming me and back in the day I used to do these pull ups where I would do explosive pull ups, right? Pull myself up so fast I could jump off the bar, catch it and come back down.

[Dylan]

Rip yourself.

[Sal DeStefano]

So I was trying to get fast and I hadn't done them in years. And I'm like, oh, Dylan, I'm gonna.

[Adam Schafer]

Go try strain your lat, bro.

[Sal DeStefano]

No, no, I didn't get strained at all. I tried and I'm strong in pull ups. I could go rep out 20 plus reps and I tried to do them fast. It was the slowest fast rep I've ever done in my life. I'm like, whoa, dude. I have no speed speed because I don't train well.

[Dylan]

That's another jumping the other day.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, that's another example what we were just talking about the other day when I was bringing up my 40 yard dash thing and why I wouldn't do it. It's like even though I could squat a bunch of weight and I can do all these exercises and deadlift, like sprinting is a different, a whole different skill. And I don't, and I don't train that. And it's like, that's real recipe for getting hurt right there.

[Sal DeStefano]

So you train slow always. You just. That's how good you move slow about that.

[Justin Andrews]

Next question is from Jamie Yoska. Can certain rep ranges stimulate the appetite more? Ever since I started training in the four to six rep range, I've Been so hungry.

[Sal DeStefano]

I don't have any studies on this very common. But this rep range, low rep ranges, they do.

[Adam Schafer]

Do you think it. Okay, okay. I don't know why I would debate that. And I, my argument, it's more novelty that stimulates.

[Sal DeStefano]

Could be. Right?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

It sounds like a woman, she probably never trained.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes.

[Sal DeStefano]

In that rep range. Yes, it could be.

[Adam Schafer]

But because I, I, because I bet you if you took the, the power lifter guy who's been lifting three to five reps forever and all of a sudden you put them on a superset training program or 15 reps even. Yeah, 15 rep program. All the time. He would feel his appetite go up.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know what, that's a, that's a great point. Is that.

[Dylan]

Or he just want to go to sleep.

[Sal DeStefano]

This is a good, this, it's actually a good sign. Now there's appetite that comes from cravings when you're over trained and stressed out, which is different. Different. But if you're training and you're getting stronger and your appetite's going up. Great sign.

[Adam Schafer]

Feed it.

[Sal DeStefano]

Great sign. It means you are building and you're moving in the right direction. But yeah, I noticed this with maps. Anabolic phase one. I would have people go into phase one.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And they'd all be like, I'm like really hungry.

[Adam Schafer]

And I noticed that with anabolic too. But I think that's because a lot of people neglect that reference. That's right. Yeah. And I think so. I think I would agree. Yeah. So I think it's more novelty and you're feeling your body wanting to build muscle. And so that's, that has more to do with the, the novelty of that than it is the actual rep range, in my opinion.

[Justin Andrews]

Next question is from Kennedy. Liz, how do you know when it's the right time for a deficit? I'm getting stronger and building muscle, but I'd like to lose some fat so I can see more muscle. I'm struggling with what my goal should be right now.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, you got to be in a place calorically where you could drop from and then that's sustainable. That's how you know, like this is a good place to do calculus Cut. Right.

[Dylan]

So almost uncomfortable amount of food that you're eating.

[Sal DeStefano]

Well, I mean you don't want to be like, you know, oh, I'm, you know, I'm building, I'm eating 2,000 calories. So now I'm going to go in a cut to 1500 calories.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And then this is where you're going to Kind of be at. That's not really a good place to be. I like to see people higher, so when they cut, they're in a sustainable.

[Adam Schafer]

Makes it easier.

[Sal DeStefano]

Caloric.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, that's general advice. To your point, a general, good generic number to kind of look at is like, you should be able to cut 500 calories from your diet, and you're happy and satisfied with that calorie intake, and you can maintain. Maintain it for a long time.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah. You're not a good rule of thumb.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, Just. Just a good generic place is like, hey, can I take 500 off the calories I'm eating right now? And can I imagine myself eating that way?

[Sal DeStefano]

I'd like to ask you a specific question, Adam, because you competed. Now, this is obviously another level, right? So you're trying to get on stage. 2% body fat, the whole deal. How low did your calories get towards.

[Adam Schafer]

The end of 2500 was staged.

[Sal DeStefano]

That was the lowest.

[Adam Schafer]

The lowest.

[Sal DeStefano]

And that was like, you're about to walk on. That's, like, unhealthy.

[Adam Schafer]

That was. Yeah, that was me pushing. Pushing was. Sometimes I didn't even have to get down to 2500.

[Sal DeStefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

But 2500, maybe I flirted a couple days with, like, 2300. Never even touched 2000. I was always 23 to 25.

[Sal DeStefano]

And how high did your calories get?

[Adam Schafer]

5500.

[Sal DeStefano]

Holy cow.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

Now, how high was your body fat? Because you never let yourself really get.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And I was so I like, you know, peak pro, biggest, heaviest, highest calorie. I was probably around 12 body fat on the high end. And I was. And I was eating close to 6, 000 calories. So 5,500 or so.

[Sal DeStefano]

And then you would cut.

[Adam Schafer]

And then I would cut all the way down. And that, when I was that high cutting was the lowest would be like 3000.

[Sal DeStefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

So when I say 2300 to 2500, that was when I was going, like, to USAS and I was smaller. I was. I hit USAS at 203. So imagine I've been on stage at 203 to as much as 220.

[Sal DeStefano]

Okay.

[Adam Schafer]

So the smaller version of me at 203 came down to, like, 23 to 2500 was my absolute low.

[Sal DeStefano]

And those.

[Adam Schafer]

I was probably up, like, 4000 to 4500.

[Sal DeStefano]

And again, just to put it in context, 23, 2500 calories, you're hitting the stage at, like, what, 2% body fat?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah. 3% is what I probably hit. Stage for USA is right.

[Sal DeStefano]

So just so people understand, like, and now it's extreme. We're not talking about typical person losing body fat to be healthy.

[Adam Schafer]

Which is why you hear me jump on people right away when I hear where the calories are at. It's like you don't need to be more realistic for the average person. Understand is I always like using Melissa. She was the last person that I trained for stage age.

[Sal DeStefano]

And she's what, five?

[Adam Schafer]

Five one or five? She's less than five three. She's five three or less. I can't remember. She's shorter. And when, when she first hired me, she was eating about 20, 100, 20, 200 to kind of maintain. And she wasn't at stage body fat. She was like, you know, she was softer version of her. She wasn't overweight or anything like that. But we got all the way up over 3, 000 calories. And then I cut her from 3, 000 something. Cutting it like we always talk about 200, 300, so. And she hit stage at what her maintenance was when she hired me.

[Sal DeStefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. So she hit stage.

[Sal DeStefano]

What was her body fat?

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, she was down into single digits. She got.

[Sal DeStefano]

No way. Yeah, nine, ten.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, she was, she was ripped when she, when she hit stage. So she, I mean she carries herself in probably the mid teens year round now. But yeah, no, we ramped her metallic. That was a healthy, decent calorie amount for a female and small that I worked all the way up over 3,000 and then brought her down.

[Sal DeStefano]

Yeah, I mean if you're, if you're eating, you know, 1300, 1400 calories, or if you're a man, 1800 calories, 2000 calories, and you're doing workouts like crazy and you step in and whatever and you have another 20 pounds of body fat. You're not getting to 3% body fat. You're just trying to get down to 15 or 16, which is healthy body fat. And you're already there. You got nowhere to go. You got to reverse and get the calories up. So that's really the best way to decide. Like, is it time for deficit? Are you in a place where you can cut and be okay?

[Adam Schafer]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

Next question is from Wally. How do you program for a client who only wants to meet once or twice a week for 30 minute sessions? I feel like it's hard to be productive in that short amount of time.

[Sal DeStefano]

I had lots of clients like this. Yeah, Yeah, I had lots of clients like this. You know what it looks like? Aside from encouraging them to be active on their own, which typically looks like walking, maybe the occasional exercise at home. You're doing two exercises. Two or three.

[Adam Schafer]

You do three. You get about three. Because our 20 maps 20 is math 15, which is like maps 20 advances two. Actually you get three exercises. Three big exercises.

[Dylan]

Compound exercises.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, three. I would do three compound lifts each time. So I had three compound lifts.

[Sal DeStefano]

And you're getting great results.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And you'll, you'll build actually a very solid. I think people will be surprised, in fact, a lot of people probably because.

[Sal DeStefano]

People do it so wrong. They don't realize that they don't have to do where.

[Adam Schafer]

Where you're not gonna see great results if you're doing, you know, know tricep push downs and bicep curls of your two or three. Like you're, you're doing squats deads over all the body parts rows. Yeah. You're doing two to three big compound lifts for four sets, let's say three to four sets of each of those two times a week and just sticking to that and working on getting strong. And you will absolutely build a great physique.

[Sal DeStefano]

Just so people know my, my typical workout these days and I'm doing way more than what they're saying is about 40 to 45 minutes and that's it. It's not a lot.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

You know, you don't need much if it's done properly. But for the average person, this is, I, this is actually not just, you know, good this for many people, it's idea. I had clients like this. Now they would meet with me for an hour because I didn't sell 30 minute sessions. But the workout was 30 minutes.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

The rest of the time was like stretching, mobility, talking about diet, nutrition.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal DeStefano]

And they got phenomenal results. So that's how you, that's how you organize it. You do two or three compound lifts, focus on getting them stronger with those, don't focus on other fluff and you're good. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you at mindpump Media.

[Justin Andrews]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance.

[Sal DeStefano]

Check.

[Justin Andrews]

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

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