2702: 5 Obstacles to Being a Strong Dad

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

Episode 2702 — 5 Obstacles to Being a Strong Dad (October 9, 2025)
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sal, Adam, Justin, and Doug tackle a crucial topic for dads: the five common obstacles that stand in the way of staying strong, healthy, and fit after entering fatherhood. Drawing from years of coaching, personal experience as fathers, and the latest science, the Mind Pump crew delivers practical advice, real talk, and actionable routines tailored to the demanding lifestyle of modern dads. This is a hands-on guide for dads (and parents in general) who want to maximize their fitness, energy, and presence for themselves and their families.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Unique Fitness Challenges of Fatherhood

• Motivation Shift: Many men are motivated to get fit when they become fathers so they can keep up with their kids but find their time and energy seriously challenged.
  • "When you look at the data on what motivates men to work out, this is actually one of the top 10...I became a dad and I thought, I should probably be fit so I could play with my kids" — Sal [03:29]
• Lifestyle Change: Added responsibilities, less personal time, more stress, and often reduced sleep and worse eating habits.

2. Obstacle #1: Time Constraints

• The Challenge: Finding time for yourself feels harder and sometimes even selfish.
• Practical Solution:
  • "Every day, you do one or two lifts. That's it...15–20 minutes a day, especially if you have some basic equipment at home..." — Sal [09:29]
  • Home gyms and minimalist, daily routines replace hour-long gym sessions.

Sample Minimalist Home Routine:

• Choose from:

  • Squat
  • Deadlift
  • Incline Press
  • Overhead Press
  • Row
  • Lateral Drag (sled/tube walk)
  • Windmill
  • Perfect Sit-up

• Do 3–4 sets of 1–2 exercises a day, rotating through all movements weekly or monthly.

  • "You'll get like 80 to 85% of all the results you could ever expect from strength training." — Sal [12:55]

• Real-World Example:

  • Adam shares how rotating workouts with his partner at home kept them both consistent as new parents, each sneaking in sets between time with the baby. [10:48]

3. Obstacle #2: Diet & Nutrition

• Why It’s Hard:

  • Eating out and processed foods increase; cooking and meal prep become less feasible.

• Simple Dietary Guidelines:

  1. Only whole foods (avoid anything in bags, boxes, wrappers, or with long ingredient lists)
  2. Eat 50g protein at the start of every meal
  3. Drink a gallon of water daily
  • "If every man listening to this right now just did those things...your body fat percentage would eventually fall to around 15%..." — Sal [15:42]

• No Calorie Counting Necessary: Focus just on quality and protein; this alone will bring most men down to a lean and healthy body fat.

• Adam’s Experience:

  • "For just one month, just focus on the whole foods...you'd be surprised how far that will take the average person." — Adam [16:56]

4. Obstacle #3: Sleep

• Biggest Issues:

  • Racing mind keeps you awake
  • Electronic devices disrupt circadian rhythm

• Daily Sleep Hygiene Practices:

  • Wear blue light blockers or turn off electronics 2 hours before bed
  • 10 minutes of slow, deep static stretching before bed, focusing on breathing and relaxing hips, hamstrings, and hands
  • Calming routines: e.g., soothing instrumental music (jazz/classical) at dinner
    • "There's something about that...it sets the tone for winding down..." — Adam [19:45]
  • Read a paper book before bed (not on your phone!) [21:42]

• "Sleep is more important and we don’t really put any energy and effort [on wind-down routines]..." — Adam [21:23]

5. Obstacle #4: Pain and Injury

• The Reality: Dads often experience nagging aches—back, knee, or shoulder pain.

• The Fix:

  • Pick 1–3 mobility movements that target your specific pain areas and do them throughout the day, rather than overwhelming yourself with many.
    • "You're far better off picking one or two that really give you relief and doing them more frequently, getting good [at them] than trying to do every single one..." — Adam [23:10]

• Supplements for Pain:

  • High EPA fish oil (with meals)
  • Bromelain (between meals, empty stomach)

6. Obstacle #5: Activity for All Types of Workers

• White-collar: Sedentary, stiff and inactive

• Blue-collar: Overactive, often achy or worn down

• One Universal Prescriber: WALKING

  • Take two 10-minute walks per day (ideally post-meal)
  • Benefits: Energy, reduced pain/stiffness, insulin sensitivity, mood
    • "It's crazy how profound a ten minute walk is in regards to an energy spike..." — Adam [24:59]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Dad Strength:
  • "You want to be able to start the lawnmower with one pull. You want to be awesome." — Sal [03:02]
• On Gaining Weight with Fatherhood:
  • “I put on some weight, dude...I was on the hustle to get rid of some of that weight.” — Justin [05:41]
  • “The average man gains weight after he becomes a father. The average guy, his fitness level drops…” — Sal [06:10]
• On Simplicity Over Perfection:
  • “Simple rules. And literally, if you just do these rules… protein first, avoid processed foods, gallon of water…” — Sal [15:42]
  • “You’re not going to get shredded on this. No. But you’ll fall in the category that the opposite sex thinks is the ultimate.” — Adam [16:58]
• On the Importance of Walking:
  • “Walking is great activity for the white collar worker…for the blue collar worker, it helps with pain, stiffness, stress.” — Sal [24:46]

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Important Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|------------| | Main topic intro & importance of strong dads | 03:02 | | The reality of time constraints | 06:59 | | Minimalist home strength routine explained | 09:29 | | Sample daily/weekly exercise template | 11:47–12:55| | Simplified nutrition rules | 14:00–15:48| | Target outcomes for body comp & ease of rules | 16:56 | | Sleep hygiene practices & routines | 18:02–21:23| | Pain and mobility—a targeted approach | 22:26–23:46| | Walking: universal fitness for all dads | 24:46 |

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Summary Table: The 5 Obstacles & Solutions

| Obstacle | Solution | Key Tips/Comments | |--------------------------|----------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | Time | Minimalist home strength training | Just a few sets, 1–2 lifts per day, 15–20 min | | Diet | Whole foods, protein first, water | No tracking, just follow the three core rules | | Sleep | Blue light blockers, stretching, music | 10-min stretch before bed, paper reading | | Pain | 1–3 targeted mobility/drills, supplements | Consistency > number of exercises; EPA fish oil, bromelain | | Activity (general) | 2x 10-min walks per day (ideal: after meals) | Helps both sedentary & active workers; energy & recovery boost|

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Takeaways & Tone

• The conversation is direct, sometimes playful, often personal – with each host sharing their own dad struggles and breakthroughs.
• The “Raw Fitness Truth” means stripping away over-complicated advice in favor of sustainable, realistic practices for busy dads.
• The episode is relatable for all fitness levels, but especially for those feeling overwhelmed by new fatherhood and wanting to do right by their kids and their own health.

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Final Thought

The team emphasizes—being a “strong dad” isn’t about hours in the gym or dietary perfection. It’s about small, consistent daily wins that fit your new reality: minimal home workouts, real food, sleep hygiene, manageable mobility, and making walks a fixture of your day. The message is simple: show up for yourself so you can show up for your family—strong, healthy, and present.

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Find more from Mind Pump:
Instagram: @mindpumpmedia
Podcast & training programs: mindpumpmedia.com

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Transcript

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

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[Sal Destefano]

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[Adam Schaefer]

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[Justin Andrews]

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[Dr. Z]

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[Justin Andrews]

To pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews.

[Sal Destefano]

You just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode five obstacles. Things that get in the way of being a strong dad. We break them down for you. By the way, this episode is brought to you by PRX Performance. This is home gym equipment. It's the best in the world. You can also make payments on it. So it's like having a gym in your home With a gym membership. Except this equipment is amazing and it's in your house, so you can work out in your underwear if you want. Go check them out. Go to prxperformance.com mindpump that link will get you 5% off. We also have a sale on Maps GLP1. This workout program also has nutrition advice, lifestyle advice. It's designed for people using a GLP1 like OIC or Wovi. This program maximizes fat loss, minimizes muscle loss, helps keep your metabolism where it's at so it doesn't slow down. Go check it out. Go to mapslp1.com use the code GLP50 for the 50% off discount. Back to the show. You're a dad. You want to be a strong dad. Of course you do. You want your kids to think you're awesome. You want to be able to start the lawnmower with one pull. You want to be awesome.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Heck, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

But there's five obstacles, five common obstacles that get in the way. Suddenly you have kids. It's hard to be strong. What do you do? We're going to talk about that in today's episode and give you the solutions.

[Adam Schaefer]

Is that not the universal measure of dad strength right there? That or the chainsaw. Can you start the mow chains? Yeah, Any sort of pool? Yeah, yeah, that.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Can you start.

[Adam Schaefer]

Can you start it in one pool?

[Sal Destefano]

That's the ultimate flex when you start.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Your neighbor or like, one would chop with just one stroke.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. But yeah, no, this is. So I want to do this episode because we get a lot of guys that call in and either they're becoming fathers and so, like, okay, what do I do with my workouts? Or they just became dads. And a lot of, you know, when you look at the data on, like, what motivates men to work out, this is actually one of the top 10. One of the top 10 things is I became a dad and I thought, you know, I should probably be fit so I could play with my kids or at the least, take care of my health. But you've got lots of new responsibilities. And so objectively, it's more difficult. It definitely is. I mean, it's different when you're a bachelor, especially you're not married, you have no kids. Like, your schedule is your schedule. There's nothing in there.

[Adam Schaefer]

Now, being both you guys were in your twenties having kids and also in the fitness space, did this cross your mind? Mine? Or was this just. Was this an afterthought? Because it was already your profession?

[Sal Destefano]

Good question. It wasn't an, you know, there's always that initial phase when kids are real young, but because I worked in gyms, it. I worked my work, had weights, so it wasn't that hard for me to be consistent.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Yeah, it just brought on a whole nother level of hustle. And so, yeah, I threw the. The workouts definitely ramped up for me just because I just felt this, like, compelling urge to do everything at once. But, yeah, I think. I think for me, I always wanted to maintain a level of strength, you know, as my kids got older, just to make sure I kind of led the example of that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I know that, you know, I'm. I'm the one who waited. Right. So wait, my mid-30s before or late 30s even before having Max. And I do think that it played a role in the whole mobility kick.

[Sal Destefano]

I remember you became more motivated for it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I remember being buff and Jack guy and then thinking, like, how uncomfortable it was for me to even get down in a seated, squatted position and thought, man. And I could just picture being down with him as a baby and thinking, like, you know, this is going to be. I'm gonna be all Jack. But then, like, getting down. And so I remember that being in the back of my mind, like, okay.

[Sal Destefano]

This is what you mean.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is a good enough reason for me to go down this kind of rabbit hole of mobility. So it did play a role for me that. But I figured you guys were probably in your prime, in your 20s already in fitness.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Well, I put on some weight, dude.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, you did?

[Guest or Additional Host]

And then I had to. Yeah, then I was on the hustle to. To get rid of some of that weight. But, yeah, it was one of those sneaky things. You look back at pictures, you're like, oh, wow, did I put on weight with her?

[Sal Destefano]

Well, if you look.

[Adam Schaefer]

You put on baby weight, huh?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, a lot of men do.

[Adam Schaefer]

I know it's majority. I think it's. What is the average, Doug? I want to say it's 15. 15 to 25 pounds. I think the average man puts on when his wife gets pregnant.

[Sal Destefano]

It's. Yeah, they start eating the same foods together.

[Adam Schaefer]

The guy starts just, yeah, I'm eating for two also. Yeah, it wasn't good for business.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, I mean, look, I mean, again, to be objective, it's just. It's just more challenging. You have mouths to feed, so the job becomes much more important. You have your. Your schedule is now more limited. It's just more difficult to maintain a good level of fitness food now, you know, it's harder to Plan you start to eat more, you know, processed foods or eat out more. So the average man gains weight after he becomes a father. The average guy, his fitness level drops after he becomes a dad. So what does that say there, Doug?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, so some don't gain much, but some may gain 10 pounds or more. I mean it's very general.

[Adam Schaefer]

I know all of my, all of my buddies that are not, I mean you're admitting him, you're a fitness guy. Yeah, even my, all my buddies that were non fitness guys.

[Guest or Additional Host]

I think you're lying.

[Adam Schaefer]

If put on, put on a lot more than £10. I remember.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, let's talk about some of the challenges. Talk about that. So I would say the first challenge is time. You know, getting away for sure, going to the gym, taking an hour at the gym, you know, 30 minutes drive time, all this and that and the other. But now you have a kid or more and you know, you got a wife that you want to also support. It feels, it is objectively more difficult to find time. It's also feels kind of like wrong to take tons of time.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's not even just that either. It's also the other factor that Justin kind of alluded to, which is this, this new internal drive to like provide more. And so you naturally working more, you kick up this, this work kick of like, I've got to make sure retirement's now said I can feed all these mouths that were like, you're starting to think differently. And you, and I remember you guys telling me this, that you'll see, you'll find a new level of work ethic when that happens. So now you have this new dedication to work more than what you already had. So regardless if you were already a hard working dad, you become a harder working dad. And then it becomes this kind of like, well, I'm already sacrificing this time with my kid, like, okay, do I want to go to the gym and do another selfish act? Forget it. I'll just, I can handle not being in shape right now. And so we tend to let that go.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And I mean I don't think I need to make the case, but a fit, healthy version of you is going to be more productive at work. You're going to be, have more energy at home. You're going to be more often than not in a better mood versus if you're not fit, not healthy, you're less likely to be anxious, depressed. And I'm sure your family wants you fit and healthy as well. So the challenge is how do I fit this in my schedule. How do I keep this consistent? Well, there's this myth out there that in order to be. And we'll talk about strength training, because that's the form of exercise that's going to give you the most roi. So there's many different ways to exercise, but strength training gives you a very high return when it's done right, at least, versus the time spent. In other words, you'll get the most muscle fat loss benefits, metabolic benefits, you know, health benefits, hormone benefits from strength training on a time for time basis in comparison to other forms of exercise. So let's just start there. There is this myth with strength training that you have to go to the gym at least a few days a week, and it needs to be like an hour workout. Now, I'm not saying that's not good. You know, you could go to the gym three days a week, an hour each time, and that'll probably be as long as it's a good program, decent. But for a lot of men, that's just. It's just too difficult to be consistent three days a week to take that time away, because it's not just an hour at the gym. It's going there and back. So you're really looking at an hour and a half, two hours. Is there another alternative? And there is, and it literally looks like this. Every day, you do one or two lifts. That's it. So every single day, you do three sets of an exercise or three sets of two exercises, and you're done. This will take you 15, 20 minutes a day, especially if you have some pretty basic equipment at home, like just a basic barbell, squat rack, or even just dumbbells, you could do this on a daily basis and get tremendous returns. So you're actually getting phenomenal gains in strength and muscle and all these things from what seems like very minimal effort. And that's because you're doing it every single day.

[Guest or Additional Host]

This saved me back in the day so much. I was under the impression even back then that I had to make sure I got, like, at least 45 to an hour's worth of work in for it to be valuable. And then on top of that, it's like I'm working two jobs. Then one I added on because my wife was out of work. And so I got this added stress and then no sleep on top of that.

[Dr. Z]

So it's just.

[Sal Destefano]

It's like.

[Guest or Additional Host]

And then you're increasing your calories and your cravings. So, yeah, if you're just focused and dialed in and you don't add too much excess of stress with exercising, you match it so it's actually beneficial. It's huge.

[Adam Schaefer]

This completely saved me and changed the way I thought about home gyms. If you guys remember, those are the anti home gym. That's right. If you listen far enough back, I was the gym rat guy and I'm just, I could, I don't see myself working at home and I was kind of not a fan of it. Never had done it consistently. When we moved to Marino when Max was a newborn, we was the first time I had built. I put the PRX gym inside of our garage. And this is how I train and this is how Katrina trained. So we both trained this way. And it was so great to have this newborn baby that I felt so present to be with. She felt so. And we just kind of would alternate like I'm gonna go do a set of squats and I'd go in and then she'd come out and we were like taking turns playing with them and going back and forth and just, we'd set, we'd. We'd even take like an hour to do two these exercises. Just taking turns on sets and just kind of trained and worked out that way and it was so great. I felt so good.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, this, we're going to give you the exercises that you could just rotate through and literally if you did these exercises, if you did one of these a day or two of them in a day, you're going to get good results, you're going to get stronger, you're going to see results and you'll be pretty consistent because it's not a big, it's not a big time suck. Not only that, but if you miss a day, you just pick right back up. You just literally pick right back up. Here's what the exercises are and you can just rotate these. Just make sure you do one of them almost every week. You have a squat, a deadlift, you have an incline press, an overhead press, a row, a lateral drag of some sort. So a lateral sled drag or tube walking a windmill and a perfect sit up. If you did one of those a day for three to four or five sets every single day, you're looking at 15 minutes a day. You have yourself a complete strength training routine. A lot of people listening might be like, is that really going to work? Try it. Yeah, try it.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's part of our grade eight, right. I mean that's, these are the great, this is the great eight exercises that we talked about just recently.

[Sal Destefano]

And they're very balanced Everyone I named, if you did all of these, is very balanced. You're working your whole body, different planes of motion.

[Guest or Additional Host]

You cover the swath of function of the body.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. That's right. And if you just did this, you're going to get like 80 to 85% of all the results you could ever expect from strength training. And I don't say that lightly. So yes, you could squeeze out more results by more working out. But think about that 15 minutes a.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Day as a baseline though.

[Sal Destefano]

This is so perfect, simple, amazing.

[Adam Schaefer]

I even like looking at it more like the month than even like a weekly thing too. Or it's just like you said, where you know, even if you had a rough day or two or a bad night of sleep, up night all with baby. And so you didn't train that day, you just pick up where you left off.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

So you just follow these eight in a row and just keep repeating it over for an entire month. And don't worry so much about this three day a week split or four day a week, like splitting your week up. It's just like, hey, try and get in there every day. Try and do this one of these main exercises and work through them consecutively.

[Sal Destefano]

You'll get stronger each time.

[Adam Schaefer]

And even if you get a day missed here or there, you just keep following it like that. At the end of the month, you'll have hit these all several times and I guarantee you'll see good results.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. The next challenge is diet. Now, I think there's a couple reasons why diet is so challenging. One of them is we think we just, we tend to overcomplicate the heck out of this. Say, oh God, okay, well, what do I eat? How many calories? How do I cut? Like, okay, am I eating enough to build muscle? What about body fat, macro balance? Do I gotta track? No, no. Here's some simple rules. Follow simple rules. And literally, if you just do these rules, we're about to say right here, there's three of them, your food intake will be pretty appropriate. Meaning you'll eat enough to build muscle. You'll also eat enough to start to help yourself burn body fat. You'll get body composition change just by following this. Here's the rules. Number one, only whole foods. So this is the one thing you stay away from. Stay away from processed foods. Anything that comes in bags or boxes or wrappers, things with lots of ingredients, just stay away from those. They make you overeat. They're engineered to make you overeat trying to eat an appropriate amount of food. Unless you track every calorie when you're eating processed foods, it's almost impossible. They just make you overeat. All the data shows this, so just avoid those. The next thing, aim for 50 grams of protein for each meal. Eat it first. That's it. 50 grams. For most men, this is appropriate. That'll be about 150 grams a day. If you're eating three meals a day, you're a big guy. Four meals, that's 200 grams of protein. Eat it first. Because it has a natural appetite suppressing effect, protein typically comes paired with fat. So you're getting your essential fats along with your essential proteins and then if you want to eat a little more in that meal, go and eat the rest of the food. Eat the carbohydrates, which and the vegetables and stuff that comes after. But just eat the 50 grams of protein first, breakfast, lunch and dinner and last, drink a gallon of water a day. That's it. If every man listening to this right now just did those things and was good with those three rules, your body fat percentage would eventually fall to around 15%, give or take a few percent. You build muscle and strength with the routine that we listed. That's pretty much it.

[Adam Schaefer]

I said. So I just got interviewed last week by our friend Doug Bobst and this was what he wanted to talk about was he heard me respond to an Alex Hormozi thing about being ripped and I made the comment of like, actually most women want men between 10 and 15%, a peak of them actually being 12 to 13%. And so the whole episode was about dieting to get down to 12 to 13 and like what does that look like? And literally this is the steps I took. The only difference is I said for just one month, just focus on the whole foods. I'm like, wasn't even. I was like just there. Yeah. If you're somebody, if you're a man in your mid-20s or 30, body fat trying to get down to this, the mid teens, 13 to 15%. I'm like just telling them for a month to eat whole foods will shift them several percent just by doing that. And then the next phase after that would be, okay, now go get protein. I'm like, and he was like, what? No weighing? No. I'm like, no. No calorie counting, no weighing, no measuring. The only thing that you're going to track is protein and follow that and, and lift consistently. And I said either a three day a week or like a maps 15 type of routine. And I said, you would be surprised how far that will take the, the average person. It will take you at least down to that 12 to 15. You may not get on stage and win.

[Sal Destefano]

No. You're not going to get shredded on this. No.

[Adam Schaefer]

But, but you'll fall in the category that the opposite sex thinks is the ultimate.

[Sal Destefano]

You're not going to have a belly. Yeah. You'll have flat, you know, relatively flat midsection. Good muscle. You'll look fit. This is typically what women are attracted to. It's easy to maintain. You just do these rules and you'll always fall right around there. It's a nice slow progression. So if you follow this, your body will just nice, even change month after month after month. It's not such a low cut that you lose and sacrifice muscle mass or testosterone. You'll build muscle doing this as well. While you're hitting the grams of protein, you're going to feel satisfied. So you're not going to feel like you're starving yourself. The only thing that you're not doing or trying to take away is the processed foods. Otherwise you're kind of chasing things. Right. And you're gonna feel great doing it. It's very, very simple. That takes care of the diet part. Next up is sleep. Sleep can be a very difficult one, especially when you have newborns. But I will say this, so when you look at dads, you're like, okay, what's the thing that gets in the way of sleep? There's two things that really get in the way for fathers. One is my mind is racing.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So I go to bed, my mind is resting. So I got to figure out a way to get my body into a parasympathetic kind of relaxed state. The other one is you're watching TV or you're on your phone. These are just sleep killers. Okay, so I'll start with the last one first. Wear blue, blue light blockers about two hours before bed. Or better yet, turn off your electronics a couple hours before bed. I know that's hard for some people. So wear really nice dark blue, blue light blocking glasses. That'll help reduce the, the wake signal that the light is sending your brain. And then for the parasympathetic, do slow, deep static stretching for 10 minutes before you go to bed. Breathe through the stretches. Don't hold your breath while you're doing these stretches that'll actually do the opposite. Breathe. Static. Stretching literally sends a signal to the central nervous system that says chill out and relax. And what you'll find is, especially if you're in bed and you find yourself to be tense or tight, where you get that feeling in your legs. Like this solves that and you'll go right to sleep. Well, yeah.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Two of you especially include breathing techniques alongside with that to really enhance, you know, that parasympathetic state. Like getting those deep, long expanding type of like inhales and then a slow exhale. It's really hard not to be in a calm state after you go through that.

[Adam Schaefer]

You guys know. You know what else has kind of helped me and I've like really notice the, the patterns of when I do it, when I don't do it. In regards to getting a better night's sleep when I and I. It's become kind of a family tradition now when we, when we sit down for dinner, we turn it on in the background and having like easy listening dinner.

[Sal Destefano]

Jazz, chill music.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Or Brain FM if you, if you liked what they have on there.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Because classical music.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, there's something about that playing in the background. It's not distracting because it's, there's no, it's all instrumental, so there's no words or anything I'm singing to.

[Sal Destefano]

It's just this soothing.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's very soothing. And, and I feel it like shift me from this kind of like thinking about the day, working through that to like, ah, it's like time to relax. I'm with the family dinner that's playing in the background and it sets the tone for winding down and all the other things you guys are talking about for bed. I've noticed a big difference with that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Getting your body into this parasympathetic state before bed. Even if you're only asleep six or seven hours because you're like, oh my God, I'm going to bed late or I got to wake up really early. You'll get more restful sleep and it's a very easy practice. It's like you're going to bed 10 minutes, get on the floor, do these stretches, breathe real deep. The areas you probably are going to want to stretch are your hips. Hips really have a lot to do with parasympathetic. So stretch the hips, stretch the hamstrings, stretch the hands a little bit, get into bed, and it makes a huge difference.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Well, it's even a good practice to figure this out, like how to calm your body down even after a really grueling workout, to get right into parasympathetic state. You know, your recovery rate increases substantially.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, I think it was, what a great point. Justin is just. I think one of the things with this is I've. I've met different people. Like, maybe your jazz is not your thing. Right. So I'm not telling everybody they got to listen to that. But finding what is it that gets you into that calm state, like, and maybe it is the stretching. Maybe it's reading, you know, maybe it's just shutting the electronics off. Maybe it's having. Switching the lights to kind of the red light. But it's like, I think the most important thing is literally just awareness around, trying to create that. We put so much energy and focus on waking up, right. The cold plunges and the get up by 5 and these morning routines. Yeah, we have all these routines around the morning to set the tone for the day, yet sleep is more important and we don't really put any energy and effort. I think simply making an attempt on what really does calm me down at night. And what helps that process and leaning into that, I think is the.

[Sal Destefano]

Is the sweet. You know, it's crazy. You said reading. Reading on paper. A paper book puts you to sleep. Yes. Reading on your phone wakes you up. Try it. Try it. People read before bed all the time to wind down. This was a practice for, well, for probably for hundreds of years, where they read by candlelight or have a nice soft light next to you. But it moved from that to reading on our phones, which is stimulatory, which does the opposite. So I'm glad he said that.

[Guest or Additional Host]

Every time I read a textbook for.

[Adam Schaefer]

College, it was like, no, there was time. I remember figuring that out, and I'd be laying in bed, and if I was tossing and turning, my mind was racing. I'd get up and just.

[Sal Destefano]

Open a book.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, open a book. And then give me about 15 minutes of reading. That late.

[Sal Destefano]

I'll be so awesome. All right, next up is pain. So pain can be an issue. Back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain. So here's what you do. Here's your resolve. This. Pick one or three, one to three mobility movements that are good for you. So the ones that you know help you the most. So some guys with hip pain, they do the cross legged, you know, mobility movement where they're sitting in their chair. It could be something for your shoulder. Pick one to three of them and you just practice them throughout the day. So when you find yourself with a couple minutes, get in there and stretch and do the mobility movement. And you do that two, three times a day on a daily basis. This is by the way, this is the way to get rid of pain, whether you have time or this is how trainers, good trainers get their clients to solve pain is to do mobility throughout the day. And it doesn't take much time at all.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm glad you prescribed a number. I think the mistake that I see some people doing say they go through prime or prime pro and they get overwhelmed by all these great mobility moves and they try and implement a bunch of them and you, you're far better off picking one or two that really give you relief and doing them more frequently, getting good than trying to do every single one in the book and only doing it occasionally. And so it's like find that one or two mobility drills that make the greatest impact and then do them more frequently instead of doing more exercises.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. And then there's two supplements that can help with pain. High EPA fish oil, take it with meals and then bromelain, take it in between meals on an empty stomach. They're actually extremely effective at reducing inflammation. Finally, a recommendation for activity that benefits both white collar and blue collar workers. So both, both people, both avatars have different challenges, right? White collar, you're not moving much. You work at a desk in front of a computer. You're lucky if you get, you know, 4,000 steps a day. Blue collar, you're moving all day long, you're swinging a hammer, whatever, and your body hurts and you're just. So one's inactive, one's very active. What would benefit both of them? That's the same thing. Walking. Walking is great activity for the white collar worker. It's also recuperative for the blue collar worker. And so what you do with the walking is try to take a couple 10 minute walks a day. The best time to do this is after a meal to improve insulin sensitivity. This for the blue collar worker actually helps with pain, stiffness, stress. For the white collar worker, it gives you the activity that you need.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And that's it. Two, ten minutes a day, maybe three, and you're good.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's crazy how profound a ten minute walk is in regards to like an energy spike too.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, we do it here every day and it's, it's always a difference. We get in this studio before our.

[Sal Destefano]

Second podcast, we have to.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it like makes such a difference to just get outside like that. It's a short walk. We're not walking very long. But just moving like that, out in sunlight, out in fresh air and comes back to work, such a huge difference.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you mindpumpmedia thank you for.

[Justin Andrews]

Listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes Maps, Anabolic Maps, Performance and Maps aesthetic, nine months of phase time 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 now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.