2749: How to Reset Your Hormones in 90 Days (Trainer-Approved Plan)

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

Episode 2749: How to Reset Your Hormones in 90 Days (Trainer-Approved Plan)
Date: December 13, 2025
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Overview

In this episode, the Mind Pump crew delivers a “trainer-approved” 90-day plan to reset and rebalance your hormones naturally. Drawing on decades of experience and relatable real-world client cases, Sal, Adam, and Justin discuss why hormone imbalances have become more common, how to identify if your symptoms might be hormonally-driven, and lay out a stepwise plan for recovery and optimization—including sleep, stress management, diet, and smart training. They also answer live caller questions about plateaus, body recomposition, endurance training, and performance versus aesthetics, all with their signature unfiltered honesty and practical tips.

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Main Discussion: Hormone Imbalance—Understanding and the 90-Day Reset

What Are Hormone Imbalances and Why Do They Matter?

• Hormone imbalances, marked by symptoms like low libido, energy, poor skin, disrupted sleep, and poor recovery, are more common than ever.
• Standard bloodwork by general practitioners often doesn’t pick up on “within the range but suboptimal” hormones.
• “Your hormones have to be so out of whack for [doctors] to notice based off their readings...but you can have symptoms of hormone imbalance even if your numbers are ‘in range.’” – Sal (05:59)

Key Symptoms

• Feeling "not yourself," persistent fatigue, anxiety, sleep disruption, poor recovery, low motivation, temperature dysregulation, low libido.
  “It could disrupt sleep...Libido could go down, hot/cold temperature changes—you just don’t feel like yourself.” – Adam (09:25)

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The 90-Day Hormone Reset Plan

1. Sleep—The Foundation

• “Sleep is one of the biggest contributors to good or bad hormone profile.” – Sal (09:40)
• One bad night of sleep can tank your hormones, but cumulative poor sleep is devastating over time.
• Basics: 8 hours/night, consistent bedtime and wake-up, avoid electronics & caffeine/alcohol before bed, cool room.
• “Give yourself 30 days—most people see improvements in a month.” (10:59)

[09:40–11:54]

2. Stress & Activity Management

• Overtraining is rampant among “fitnessy” people, while general populations are underactive.
• “You can’t force your hormones to balance. You can only allow them to balance.” – Sal (14:37)
• Avatars:
  • Over-caffeinated, poorly slept go-getters doing too much high-intensity work → scale back, use gentle strength protocols (MAPS 15).
  • Sedentary screen addicts → increase walking, strength training, sunlight exposure.
• “Training itself is a stressor. For a lot of people, sleep honestly would be the answer—and rest.” – Justin (13:52)

[11:54–16:05]

3. Diet—Protein, Fats, Carbs, and Nutrients Matter

• Underfeeding (especially of essential fats and protein) is a major modern issue; chronic low-carb diets can impair thyroid and insulin sensitivity.
• Suggestion: Eat your (ideal) bodyweight in grams of protein, focus on whole foods, eat until satisfied—not overfed or undernourished.
• “You can eat 10,000 calories a day, but if your protein and fats are too low, over time, you’ll die because they're essential nutrients.” – Sal (16:05)
• Two avatars: Overfed/undernourished (lots of junk food), underfed/undernourished (whole foods but not enough calories).

[16:05–19:21]

4. Nutrient Deficiencies & Modern Food Realities

• Modern agriculture means our food is less nutrient-dense; supplementation is often needed.
• “The amount of calories required to get those nutrients is higher than what most people consume anyway.” – Sal (17:49)
• Notable drops in minerals in vegetables/fruit over the decades; supplementing with vitamin D, zinc, magnesium is often necessary.

[19:21–21:17]

5. Practical Nutrition Guidance

• “If you hit your bodyweight in grams of protein, eat it first, stick to whole natural foods, eat until satisfied—that pretty much covers everything.” – Sal (21:17)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “You can’t force your hormones to balance. You can only allow them to balance.” – Sal (14:37)
• “Protein is not a garnish. Most people eat tacos with 1–2 ounces of meat—it’s all carbs. You have to prioritize the protein.” – Adam (24:54)
• “If you focus on aesthetics too much, you think you’re getting quality of life. But you’re actually reducing your quality of life.” – Sal (58:14)
• “Trying to keep a 300lbs bench press while training for a 108mi bike race? You'll get hurt.” – Adam (77:40)
• “The girl doing a thousand kickbacks—she feels it in her butt, but thinks she’s building her butt.” – Justin (50:14)

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Detailed Episode Timeline & Highlights

Hormone Reset Plan

• 03:29–06:34: Introduction to hormone imbalances, personal stories of discovering and learning about hormone health.
• 09:40–11:54: How sleep deprivation destroys hormonal balance.
• 11:54–16:05: Overtraining vs. sedentary lifestyles; “allowing” rather than “forcing” balance.
• 16:05–22:44: Nutrition: avoiding underfeeding, macros, quality, and “overfed undernourished vs underfed undernourished.”
• 19:21–21:17: Decline of nutrients in modern foods; why supplements can be necessary.
• 21:17–31:20: How to build practical eating habits: eat protein first, whole foods, and avoid obsessive restriction—actual client stories and solutions.
• 31:20–33:39: Protein snack strategies for hitting intake targets.

Q&A Caller Highlights

• Pat from Florida (53:45–68:22): Plateau on weight loss/health journey at 58.
  • Outcome: Focus on strength, maintain activity for enjoyment, hit protein, don’t chase unrealistic aesthetics.
  • “Be careful not to start nitpicking yourself from an aesthetic standpoint…you won’t improve quality of life by focusing so heavily on aesthetics.” – Sal (58:14)
• Dan from Pennsylvania (70:05–74:52): Reverse dieting and volume—overwhelmed by MAPS Strong.
  • Outcome: Reduce volume, try MAPS 15 Strong, be strict with tracking, especially weekends.
• Christian from Minnesota (75:39–84:52): How to balance training for a 108mi bike race at 50 without losing muscle.
  • Outcome: Focus on endurance; lift with moderate intensity just to maintain, not build, muscle; increase calories as training ramps up; let go of maintaining high-level strength goals temporarily.
• Chance from Indiana (86:17–91:03): Mobility, performance, and aesthetics; dealing with shoulder pain.
  • Outcome: MAPS Performance is ideal; modify exercises for joint health; address likely bicep tendon issue with specific stretching.

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Guidance for Specific Fitness Avatars

• Overly Stressed/Active Listeners: Scale back intensity. “MAPS 15 protocol and actually LESS is more when it comes to hormones.”
• Sedentary Listeners: Add daily walking, basic strength sessions, time outdoors.
• Chronic Dieters/Undereaters: Increase calories, especially protein & fat. “You can’t scare your fat off.”
• Nutrition Overthinkers: “Focus on the big rocks—you can naturally reset hormones with the plan above, most of the time.”

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Notable Educational Asides

• Declining nutrient density in produce—supports mindful supplementation.
  • “Between 1950 and 1999, iron down 15%, calcium by 16%, riboflavin by 38%...” – Doug (20:30)
• Flexibility eating and metabolism: “When your metabolism is roaring, those flexibility days are more frequent.” – Adam (30:16)
• Misleading fitness advice on social media: “Nobody has developed amazing quads from just leg extensions. It doesn’t happen.” – Sal (49:25)
• Training for multiple extreme goals at once (“300lb bench” and “100+ mile race”) is a recipe for injury.

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Tone and Language

Conversations are casual, practical, and filled with good-natured ribbing and honesty. The hosts maintain an encouraging, “real talk” approach—calling out industry BS, but also celebrating real-life wins and challenges of their listeners.

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Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Sleep, stress management, protein-first eating, and appropriate exercise intensity are foundational for rebalancing hormones within 90 days.
• Don’t get caught in the “aesthetics trap.” Prioritize how you feel and perform.
• Supplements may be warranted due to nutrient gaps in modern food, especially vitamin D and magnesium.
• Your training and nutrition must fit your season of life and goals—don’t try to do everything at once.
• Authentic lifestyle change beats quick fixes and extreme diets.

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Want More?

• Listener Call Summary: For questions, visit mplivecaller.com to get on the show.
• Programs Mentioned: Maps 15 Strong, MAPS Performance, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Symmetry—all available at mapsfitnessproducts.com.
• Follow & Connect: @mindpumpmedia, @mindpumpsal, @mindpumpadam, @mindpumpjustin, @mindpumpdoug

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Transcript

[Sal Destefano]

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[Caller 1 / Dan]

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[Adam Schaefer]

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[Sal Destefano]

He's talking to you britches.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm not.

[Sal Destefano]

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[Adam Schaefer]

Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here.

[Sal Destefano]

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[Caller 1 / Dan]

Mind Pump.

[Sal Destefano]

Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump and today's episode. Live callers called in and we got to coach them on air. But this was after our intro. Today's intro was 51 minutes long. In the intro, we talk about fat loss and muscle gain, fitness, current events, family life. It's always a good time. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this one, send us your question to mplivecaller.com now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Paleo Valley, makers of the most delicious protein powder I've ever had. In my entire life. It's a bone broth protein. Their chocolate tastes like chocolate donuts. Not making this up. It's incredible. Very easy to digest. Good for gut health. Go check them out. Get yourself a discount. Go to paleovalley.com mindpump this episode is also brought to you by Luminose by Entera. The highest amount of GHKCU peptide in the skincare product you'll find anywhere. What is ghkcu? It's a peptide that dramatically increases collagen production. Not making this up. Use their product. After two or three days, you could tell a difference. It's very powerful. Go to enteraskincare.com mpm that's e n t e r-a skincare.com mpm use the code npm and get 10% off. Also maps 15 strong. It's a brand new maps program. It's maps strong but in a 15 minute a day version. And it's 50% off. Go to maps15strong.com use the code 1250 for the discount. All right, real quick.

[Justin Andrews]

If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear? [e-mail] I'm talking right now.

[Adam Schaefer]

Hit pause.

[Justin Andrews]

Head on over to my pumpstore.com.

[Adam Schaefer]

That'S it. Enjoy the rest of the show.

[Sal Destefano]

Hormone imbalances suck. They feel terrible. Low libido, low energy, Skin looks like crap. You're sleeping. Terribly horrible recovery, no results. What's going on here? It's actually quite common. Hormone imbalances these days seem to be far more common than they used to be. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna give you a 90 day reset, okay? Many of you can rebalance your hormones in 90 days. If you tackle the problem and apply these strategies, we're gonna get into it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Let's go. Do you remember when this used to be like the, the, like the big challenge that you have with your clients? Like not real. Like, I think early on I'd draw up these meal plans, have these workouts, and you'd have these clients that were coming back that were, you know, I'm doing it, I'm doing all the things you're doing and they're just not seeing the results. And I think that like your hormone clinics and stuff that they have now just. They didn't exist back then. So it was like, well, go see your gp. And the GP would be like, you're fine, you're okay. And then you'd be like, man, what is something's. And you just assume they are lying to you.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And. And then. Then we start to have maybe. I don't know, it's probably eight years or so into my career to the. To the. You know, the hormone replacement therapy and the clinics start coming up and you see more. You could still find a hormone specialist back then, but it was just really uncommon.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, no, I. I didn't know.

[Adam Schaefer]

I didn't know as a young trainer to, like, send somebody to do that.

[Sal Destefano]

I had. I was super blessed when I had my studio. You know, when I opened my studio, my idea was to have this kind of wellness facility. And at the time, I was like, just pure trainer. I understood strength training, I understood cardio, I knew macros and calories, and that was it. And I had a young woman that worked in my studio. She was a physical therapist by training, but she went private and invested heavily into educating herself on hormones and gut health. So I had the opportunity to work next to her, and I would overhear her talk. It was a small studio, so we would, you know, I'd overhear conversations and then I would work with her myself. And at one point, she helped me, and that's when I learned about hormone imbalance. And like you said, Adam, you go to your typical doctor, your gp, your hormones have to be so out of whack for them to notice based off of their readings. You know, there's like, you can have hormones that are so bad that the doctor's like, okay, we gotta give you thyroid.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Right?

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal Destefano]

Or you could just have hormone imbalances that kind of fall within range, and they're like, well, you look okay even though you have all these symptoms of hormone imbalance. And so I got the opportunity to hear and witness what it looked like to try to balance hormones in a, you know, quote unquote natural way. Now, sometimes that doesn't work, but many times it does. Many times you could do things in your life or not do things in your life that will actually cause changes in your hormones to balance them out, and your symptoms will start to get much better. And so I think that's what's important to talk about right now.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I had this very similar experience to what you described, Adam. But it was two of my clients that I had trained for years, and we were doing all the right things to the point where I was even infiltrating and having a personal chef make and prepare all the meals. And we had all the macros, and everything was balanced. Balance and I was like, literally taking over their workouts and managing their movement. And it's like, what is. Nothing is moving the needle at this point. We got to a certain, you know, point, and it was just like, just barely. Any progress.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I would say, go ahead.

[Adam Schaefer]

People have to understand, too. Like, I love that. Like, we have Doug as a great example for this because he's a bit of anomaly, but so are some of these clients that you end up dealing with. And more often than not, where somebody doesn't know where their healthy baseline is. And to your. The point you made is that this range is so wide that imagine. Imagine Doug, you know, a bunch of stress hits him, stuff goes on. He starts eating bad, doing a bunch of things, and he. And his testosterone goes all the way down from where he's at, what, 13 or 12 or whatever. 1200 or whatever the hell it is, his total. And it tanks all the way down to, like, 450. Yeah, 450, which is a third. Like, it's like, literally more than cutting him in half.

[Sal Destefano]

But that would put him within range.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, but he. He would feel that. Like, he would. He would probably feel depressed. He would be unmotivated to lift. He wouldn't be recovering the same. Just all. He would feel all these symptoms. But if he were to go in to see his gp, his gp, say, hey, your age, you're doing great. Yeah, you're doing great. Nothing wrong with you. And so I think this is what happens to a lot of clients that are just talking to their general practitioner and they're like, oh, yeah. And they're. And they're now in their 40s or 50s, and they fall in the, you know, lower range, but still in the range. And the doctor says, hey, you're. No, you're fine. It's like, well, yeah, but did you know where you were just 10 years ago? Could you have been double or triple what that was? And that's what you're used to feeling healthy at.

[Sal Destefano]

That's why symptoms are also important to look at. And you know what's crazy, too, Adam, you mentioned people. 40s, 50s. Hormone imbalances or symptoms of imbalances are hitting younger people now at rates we haven't seen earlier. Yeah, I mean, we can use, like, data on testosterone. Those levels have been declining in men for decades. The use of birth control in women has caused lots of issues as well. So let's start with, like, the big rocks, the big reasons why sometimes, or oftentimes people will have these kind of. By the way, imbalances feel like suddenly my body's not mine. Nothing's responding like it used to. I can't seem to recover. I've got all this crazy fatigue or anxiety. Basically, it's like, what is going on?

[Adam Schaefer]

Typically, it could disrupt sleep. It'll keep you from recovering. Libido could go down. Hot, cold, temperature changes.

[Sal Destefano]

You really just don't feel like yourself. And that's kind of, I guess.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it doesn't have to be all of those. It could just be some of those.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. That's right. So here's the first one that I've noticed. If you look at the data, this has a profound effect on your hormones and that is sleep. Sleep is one of the biggest contributors to good or bad hormone profile. So poor sleep over time, by the way, acutely it'll affect your hormones. One bad night of sleep in studies has a profound effect on your hormones. But cumulative kind of crappy sleep over time definitely throws things out of whack. It spikes the stress hormone cortisol. As your body's trying to produce more energy to get you moving, you'll see estrogen and progesterone start to be out of whack in women. In men, testosterone will drop. In women as well, growth hormone starts to change as your body's trying to deal with the stress of poor sleep. So in my experience, when I would work with clients like this, if we tackled sleep first, we would typically see the needle move in the right direction. And what does this look like for most people? And we could do a whole episode on sleep. And we have. But generally speaking, you want roughly eight hours of sleep every single night. You want to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. And the things that tend to affect sleep negatively are electronic use right before bed, you know, bad temperature in your room. So you want to essentially take it. Caffeine is a huge one. Alcohol is another one. You want to essentially tackle sleep and be consistent with it. And so you want to say to yourself, I'm going to bed at this time, and this is the time I'm going to wake up and I'm going to do this consistently. And give yourself 30 days. For many people with poor sleep, it takes about 30 days to start to see improvements in this. So that's the first place that I would start. The second thing is stress. Now, our audience, I think we have a bit of a self selection bias of people because it's a fitness podcast. In our experience with our audience, we probably are talking to People who over train or do apply too much exercise and stress on themselves versus when we look at the general population. General population needs more activity.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, they need to step up their game.

[Sal Destefano]

But when we talk to people who listen to our podcast or who call in who are like, ah, my hormones feel out of whack and we look at what they're doing, it's like, whoa, you're doing way too much, typically way too much exercise, way too much stress. And so I would say if that's you, where you're like, yeah, I work out consistently. I never miss a workout. This is like my life. This is why I love what, I love doing it. I think a, a Maps 15 protocol for many of these people would be appropriate.

[Adam Schaefer]

I think, I think it's also important to note that the, the context of that matters because every, even the people listening right now are like, oh, that's not me. And I had this, I just had this call with my, my cousin who's, you know, perimenopausal on thyroid struggle, has been struggling with weight forever and eats hardly anything. And so these, the people that don't think that they're over training don't realize that it's part of the, the whole piece that that makes it over training. It's like they look at the training by itself and like, well, my friend is doing CrossFit and they're doing all this stuff on. I'm not even close to that and I go for walks and I'm only doing this. I can't be possibly over training. It's only a few days a week or whatever. But what they don't realize is that in the context of maybe not the best sleep, they're super low calorie, not hitting their protein intake, who knows what their job, family life looks like. You got all these other stressors. And then in addition to that, when you go in the gym, you get after it or you love the circuit class type of training and it's just like, yeah, yeah, that's not necessarily bad training. It's that in the context of where your body is at hormonally and health wise, it's wrong for, It's a wrong conception and it's not helping. And it's only making, it's only exacerbating the problem, which is really frustrating because you're putting this, what feels like hard work in towards losing weight or getting in shape and you're only making it more difficult for yourself. This is why most people, well, it.

[Justin Andrews]

Doesn'T, it doesn't neutralize your stress, which I think a lot of people making the right decisions with nutrition, with, you know, training and then sleep. I mean, sleep, honestly would be the answer, and rest. But it's like, you know, for them, it's. It's the combination of all three. So, you know, I'm doing all the things except that training itself is a stressor. Have to remember.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm glad you said that, because I think there is this misconception about that so many people, oh, when I'm really stressed, I go train really hard. And so they. They think of it as a stress relief because of what gets released right afterwards and how you feel and that feeling of accomplishment. And so there's a psychological part that tells you that, oh, this is a. This is good for me when I'm really stressed out. This helps me recover, get better mentally, and stuff like that.

[Sal Destefano]

You can't hear this. This will help people. You can't force your hormones to balance. You can only allow them to balance. Okay? So you can't make it happen. I can't go to the gym and be like, this is going to make my hormones balance by beating myself up. You have to allow them to balance. So there's two sides of the spectrum here. There's the I sit all day. I'm never active. I'm in front of a computer all the time. I'm really never outside. And then you have the, you know, go, go, go. Poor sleep, work caffeine. And I go to the gym and do orange theory or crossfit or circuit training. So those are the two general avatars of people with hormone imbalance. The person that I said, first, you got to go outside and walk. You got to do some strength training. You got to move this person over here. Let's scale it way back. Let's have you do maps. Fifteen protocol. Two lifts a day. Stop all the other stuff. We're not having you do extra cardio. It's okay to walk those two people. The approach is a bit different. One of them, we got to get you moving, dude. You got to go outside. You can't be in front of your computer all the time. You got to get some. Some sunlight. This person over here, scale it way back. You're doing way too much. Bring it down. Let's have you lift a little bit, and let's have your body start to balance itself out. So those are the kind of two general avatars when it comes to activity and how it's affecting hormones. Then when it comes to diet, you know, Adam Mentioned one that's actually quite common, which is underfeeding yourself.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, yeah, you're. If you don't eat adequate, especially nutrient wise. No, if you don't eat. Okay, the big, the big ones are fat and protein. You don't eat enough fat and protein. You can forget. You can kiss your hormones goodbye. You need both just to thrive. In fact, you can eat 10,000 calories a day. But if your protein is too low and your fat is too low, you'll over time die because they're essential nutrients. So that's the two most important. But carbohydrates also are in there as well. A lot of people think, oh, carbs are not essential, which is true. Meaning you don't have to eat carbs for your body to function. But what we see in the data is chronic under carbohydrate feeding causes hormone imbalances, especially thyroid. This is what we see in individuals. It also can cause, over time, insulin resistance. I know people are like, I thought carbs were bad for blood sugar. There's actually this strange phenomena that happens where you go no carb for too long. You actually cause some insulin resistance and some issues. So carbohydrates also need to be in there as well. You don't need a ton of them. But if you're listening to this and you're like, I'm allergic to carbs or whatever, I don't eat them. I never eat them. And. But you're having issues with your hormones, eating carbohydrates may just be what you need. And so that's what you're looking at with the diet now on. There's again two avatars that we typically see with this, which is the overfed undernourished and the underfed undernourished. So overfed undernourished is like, I eat a lot of garbage, a lot of heavily processed foods. This is what my diet looks like. But I have nutrient deficiencies because I don't eat high quality food. Then over here, it's like, I eat high quality food. I just don't eat enough. I'm eating 1200 calories a day. You know, I listen to you guys. I eat whole natural foods, but when I look at my food intake, it's low, man.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So you need to bump your calories. We just got to give you more, more, more food to get those hormones to balance. So that's the nutrition piece. And then nutrient wise, I if had you asked me 10 years ago what I thought about taking a multivitamin and Taking certain nutrients in supplement form. I would have said, well, if you eat a whole food diet and you're healthy, you probably don't need it. I don't believe that anymore. Now when I look at the data, the amount, first of all, the planning required to have a nutrient sufficient diet is insane. So fitness professionals who plan everything, like, good luck, it's hard for you, let alone the average person. And then the amount of calories required to get those nutrients is higher than what most people would consume anyway. For a man, it's like almost 3,000 calories a day. Which most guys, if they consume 3,000 calories a day of a healthy diet, that might in some cases be too much or they're eating more than that, but it's not those types of foods. Well planned out nutrient deficiencies will cause hormone imbalances in particular things like vitamin D. So supplementing with those becomes quite important in some cases. And I've seen this, by the way, not all, not super frequent, but I would have to estimate, in my experience, 20 to 30% of the time. So it's a significant minority. Somebody would just supplement with vitamin D and zinc and magnesium, and then we would suddenly see hormones start to balance out.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Do you think a lot of this has to do with just how depleted our soils are?

[Sal Destefano]

Totally.

[Adam Schaefer]

Like, Doug, I pulled this. I know I've seen this before. Our fruits and vegetables, like a potato or a tomato, like just like 100 or 200 years ago, wrote that, like the. Just the nutrient value of that to today's. It's like, it's crazy different industrial farming.

[Sal Destefano]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

How it, like, took over and they just don't do the regenerative.

[Sal Destefano]

No, they replenish what's. What the soil needs to grow a vegetable, but they don't replenish the. The minerals that are in the soil. And so mineral depletion is actually quite high. So you could eat, you know, 500 calories worth of fruits and vegetables today has the nutrient equivalent of, let's say, 100 calories or 200 calories from 80 years ago. So that actually makes a big difference. So you could be eating lots of fruits and vegetables, but you're not getting the same nutrients that your grandparents did.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I've seen like, two. I've seen some really good, like, examples.

[Sal Destefano]

Magnesium's a big one.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you taste the difference, too? I'll be honest. If you ever grow anything in your backyard. Yeah, it's so substantial.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. What does that say there, Doug?

[Doug]

So I'm looking at, for. Between 1950 and 1999, there's been a drop of like, iron by 15, calcium by 16, riboflavin by 38.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's a. Yeah, just. That's in the 1990s.

[Doug]

Even protein, I'm talking about before we were born.

[Sal Destefano]

1950.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, he said 50.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Doug, look up magnesium. That's a big one, right? The riboflavin flavin is a big one. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

38.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. I mean, so. So, you know, again, you're not even.

[Adam Schaefer]

Talking about 100 years, though. You're only talking like, I mean, we're talking 50 years.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, right.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's crazy.

[Sal Destefano]

Right? Right. Right. So multivitamin becomes. That's why now we have studies that show people take multivitamins, tend to do better, have better health overall. Think it was a, you know, healthy bias.

[Doug]

But magnesium, the range widely from 10 to over to 80, 90%.

[Sal Destefano]

Down, down. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, supplement with the multivitamin, get good sleep, and then diet wise, here's how you, here's how you approach your diet. It's going to sound very simple. This is actually really it. You've heard us say this at least a thousand times on the podcast. Now, if you hit your body weight in protein or your target body weight in grams of protein and eat it first and stick to whole natural foods and eat until you're satisfied, that pretty much covers everything. That takes care of all of it. Now you're like, I want to lose weight. That actually gets you to lose body fat. I want to build muscle. That actually gets you to build muscle. It actually your calories. When you consume this way, when you eat this way, your calories. This is the really not the best word to use to describe it, but this is what happens. They balance out, meaning you'll eat more when you want. When your body needs to build, you eat less in order to burn body fat. So over time, you get a body composition change by following a plan like that. So it kind of falls into where it's supposed to be naturally. Unless you're on the extremes where you're like, you know, chronic undereater, in which case I, I'm having you make yourself eat more, or you just have this crazy appetite, which this solves that many times. But you may be in that 10% where you have this dysfunctional relationship with food, where you super eat, in which case, you know, you got to cut back a little bit for most people, that's it.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, I was reminded, I was told you, I talked to My. My cousin just the other day about her trying to lose weight and the challenges that she's had. She's been struggling for a very long time. It's good for me to do this just because we don't coach clients anymore and it's been a long time since. And. And every time I do, it reminds, like, you know, this is stuff that we should probably talk more about or bring up on the podcast. Because what I realized talking to her is how 1. How common she is, because I've had this conversation so many times of how many clients. Just don't know how that sounds really crazy. But it's like, for example, like, I told you guys about the breakfast thing where she was just like, lost.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. How do I eat 35 grams?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I don't. I don't. It's. How do I. I'm kind of a picky eater. I don't like Greek yogurt or I don't like cottage ch. And so how do I get 35 to 50 grams of protein in the morning? I just. And then, like, literally telling her that, you know, you can have ground beef and rice doesn't bother. Chicken and rice. And. And she's like, yeah, I could do that, I guess. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

That doesn't have to be a breakfast.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right, Right. And then, and then last night, and because she. She was telling me the last time she was around me, she goes, you know, it was so refreshing to be around you. Like, you. You actually look like you eat normal. Like, normal. And I saw you had a drink, and I'm like, yeah, that's how it's like. The difference is there's some things that you. I've. I've learned that you. I have balance and I understand what my body needs. And so. But you can still have a lot of those things if you, if you understand what you're. What you're intaking and you get an idea of that. And for example, I sent her a picture last night. It's, you know, Tuesdays are taco Tuesday at my house. And so we're. We're having tacos, and I, Katrina always makes the tacos in bulk. And then, you know, I carve that over and then in the morning, can crack a couple eggs over it and make it into, like, a little bit of cheese.

[Sal Destefano]

Breakfast. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Now it's like a breakfast thing. And so I'm sending her a picture of that. And her question to me was, so do you use corn or flour tortillas for the tacos? And I said, oh, I said, well, good question. I said, first, weigh out what 7 to 8 ounces of that ground beef looks like, and then tell me how many shells that you can eat with that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And I said, what you'll find is that that's a lot of meat. And most people, most females like her are. And she told me, she goes, you know, I normally eat about two or three tacos, but I load it up with all the lettuce and veggies, and it has probably 1 to 2 ounces of ground beef in it. So you just. You got a bunch of carbohydrates and low tacos. Yeah, but exactly. And I said, one to two ounce. Maybe you got three ounces of meat in there. I said, so next time, meat is not a garnish. I said, weigh the meat out so you can see how much meat you need to be. Because I'm trying to train her to get at least 6 to 8 ounces in every serving. And I said, doesn't mean you can't. I said, and so what I said, what it looks like for me or for Katrina, because it's harder for Katrina to eat that many tacos. To get to 6 to 8 ounces is we'll take a big bowl of lettuce, we'll put the 7, 8 ounces of meat on it, sprinkle some cheese on it, and then we'll crack, like, one taco shell to have the taco shell on it. But it's like one taco shell gives you that. I'm having, like, a taco salad type of deal. But the main priority is that you get to that protein. And it's just, like, mind blowing to the people. It's like, I'm having all the same stuff. I'm having cheese, I'm having ground beef, I'm having the lettuce, taco shell, like. But I'm prioritizing the meat and that people just don't think like that.

[Sal Destefano]

The other part of that, too, Adam, is that most the time you're eating very healthy, because she mentioned that you had a drink. You must have been hanging out. There is definite value in eating food for its enjoyment and for connecting with people. That's for sure. Like, that's a real value. But if that's the only time you did it, you would always eat healthy. You would almost always eat healthy.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

And the problem is we eat for palatability or enjoyment most the time when we're by ourselves or when it's just a regular lunch or whatever. So if it's like 90% of the time when you're eating, you're eating healthy. That 10% when you're eating for enjoyment and connection. Yeah, it's totally fine. In fact, when you realize it's for connection, you still eat in a more healthy way. Because I've experienced this. I experienced this in the past where when I would go on vacation, it felt like I was, you know, oh, I'm taking the brakes off. And then the meal was not about connection. The meal was about gorging.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It was about, like, let me get this in my face as fast as possible versus, like, I'm. I'm hanging out with Adam and Justin. We're having great conversation. This is about connecting and connecting over the food. It's actually still resulted in better behaviors.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's another layer to that because we actually talked about that on the phone. Also because she again, was bringing up that I had a drink and I was eating normal. She said, as everybody else. And so, yeah, that's because I was with you and family. And I'm not going to worry. I'm not measuring my food or I don't care about that time. But then I go home and I go back to it. I said, but there's another factor that I also have working for me that you don't have working for you, that we need to get working for you, which is your metabolism. From eating these lettuce tacos and, you know, 1800 calories, you get more flexibility. I said, when you start to lift weights and you hit that protein intake like I'm telling you to do, and that's all you focus on. And I don't care if the scale stays the same. I don't even care if the scale goes up two or three pounds and your main goal is to lose 30, what will happen is your metabolism will get faster. And then those occasional nights with your husband, when you have a glass of wine or when you're with family for Thanksgiving and you have your slice of pieces, it doesn't feel like it sticks right to you. Right now, it probably feels like that because that 450 calorie slice of pie is almost half of the calories you eat every day. And so, but when we build that metabolism up to where you're eating 25, 20, 600 calories to maintain your weight and you decide to have that pie every once in a while or you decide to have that cake, it's a very small percentage of what you ate. And if you actually paired it with a day that you went and lifted There's a good chance that surplus goes to some good work too.

[Sal Destefano]

So we talk about this all. I love when I experience personally what we teach because it solidifies it and galvanizes it so much. I told you guys recently, I've made a real concentrated effort to eat 220 grams of protein or more a day. I weigh about 215, 220 pounds. And so I've done this now for five or six weeks. And what we talk about, I have now just experienced. And it's so cool to experience it, you know, at this stage of my life. And, you know, having talked about it for so long, I haven't really targeted that in a long time. I always eat high protein, but never like consistent 220 plus. Here's what happened. I started doing it consistently, and this is what it felt like at first. At first I just got stronger and I gained some weight on the scale. And I did. My weight went from 216 ish to about 220 ish. So I went up about 4 pounds. Why? Because I added extra calories, extra protein. I got stronger in the gym. I don't care if my weight goes up or down. I'm like, I just want to hit these extra protein and just see how I feel around it. Because, you know, we talk about it so much. And then here's what happened. My weight went up to about 220. Now it went back down to about 219, 218. And I'm lean. Yeah, I built muscle metabolism, kicked up, my body composition changed. Now I'm like, shredded. I was lean before, now I'm getting shredded and I'm not. And I'm eating more. Why? Because I hit those high protein targets. It's really awesome to, to experience. I know we teach it again, but I know once you do it yourself, you're like, oh, my God, it does work.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's the biggest thing I miss about competing. When your metabolism is roaring like that, those flexibility days are more frequent.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Adam Schaefer]

When you get to a point where you're still training.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

No, that's. No, you're right.

[Sal Destefano]

You can't do this and not work out.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're right. That was my point too, with her is this. It's like, you know, you're sending the signal is that even. Even if you had this little night, people don't realize that if you just focus on hitting the protein and you're consistent with those two or three days of lifting. And so say it's like Friday night and she decides to indulge. But she still hit her goal. Like she said to herself, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hit that protein intake for the day. So she hits it and then 150 grams for dinner. We're gonna have that pie and maybe a glass of wine. And she overeats 5, 600 calories over what her, her maintenance is. But then Saturday she's in the gym lifting weights like there's. Or maybe Friday morning.

[Sal Destefano]

But by the way, she's not, I want to be clear, not because she's burning the calories off the exercise. No, it's the signal that you send that tells your body to build muscle. Your body uses those nutrients and puts it to muscle, which then fuels the metabolism.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it could work the other way. She could have. If she listed it Friday morning before she went and did all that stuff. It already sent that signal. And her body would need to recover from that, from that work. So those additional calories, a good portion of those get allocated over to recovery and building muscle. And so what a great place to be to be able to have this flexibility and also know that these extra calories that I decided to eat just today because I was enjoying my family, because I got my workout in and I hit my protein intake like that. Some of that's gonna get partitioned over.

[Sal Destefano]

This is, it's so, so. And I want to be like real clear on this. It's not easy to hit these targets. So you do it consistently. What. And I'm, I'm now again, it's galvanizing it in myself. I've coached it so many times, but now that I'm trying to consistently do it, something that's really helped me a lot was including protein snacks because it'll, it'll give me an extra 8 to 10 grams here or there. I do this three times a day. There's 20, 30 grams of protein. The Paleo Valley meat sticks. Staple. Yeah, staple helps a lot. It's a staple. You know, it's, it's because I'm trying to hit these targets. Not that I need to snack, but if you are somebody who likes to snack, there you go. You have yourself, you know, 8 to 10 grams of protein, grass fed meat versus either doing nothing, not hitting your protein target, or snacking on other stuff, which typically is carbohydrates, typically a bunch of carbs.

[Adam Schaefer]

It was the exact tip I gave her after I said the having that big dinner, carry that into your breakfast. She's a teacher and so she gets to school about 23 minutes before the kids. And she didn't have a lot of time to prep. I'm like, so all you got to do is throw that in the microwave or throw it in a skillet real quick and break an egg over it. Now you have your breakfast to eat before they get there. And then she has this window for like two or three hours before she gets her lunch break. I said, carry a couple a bag of beef jerky or a couple beef sticks with you before that, and that'll do.

[Sal Destefano]

The Paleo Valley ones. Have you tried the Paleo?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They, like. They've tried most of the stuff. They listen. Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Justin, you said you told someone this advice, but they didn't work out, so they just got better.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, I mean, I was, like, trying to get them to target protein and, you know, just simplify everything. And then they stopped. They weren't, like, training in combination with that. And it's like, if you're not going to train, you're just eating more calories. Like, it's just got to go somewhere.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You got to get the signal to go with it.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

So.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, that's.

[Sal Destefano]

That sucks.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not working.

[Sal Destefano]

That sucks, dude.

[Adam Schaefer]

Especially when if they're using, like, things like, you know, big five guy burgers to get their protein.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, that.

[Justin Andrews]

That's the other thing. Exactly. You gotta watch out for where you're getting the source of it.

[Sal Destefano]

So fun, dude. I gotta tell you guys, this fun. Just. Just this thing that is so funny. She's gonna get so mad when I share this. But my wife does this thing, and she denied it. She'll deny it. In fact, she's gonna bring it up. She's listening right now. She's gonna bring it up. You do this, honey. We'll be on the couch, and we'll be just chilling. And I'm like. And we're either watching something or reading something with the kids or just hanging out. And I know that if I stand up to do anything, she's gonna ask me to get some.

[Justin Andrews]

You're now, Aaron boy.

[Sal Destefano]

In fact, she's waiting, dude. That happens. She's waiting for me. And I know this because I'll stand up. Oh, can you get me my water?

[Adam Schaefer]

And I'll be like, that's funny.

[Sal Destefano]

And I know. I'm like, you've been dying of thirst this whole time. You're just like, I'm just gonna sit.

[Justin Andrews]

Here, wait it out.

[Adam Schaefer]

Sooner or later, he's gotta get up.

[Sal Destefano]

Suffer until he gets up.

[Justin Andrews]

Wait till he breaks.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Then I'M gonna make him the worst.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's like the opposite direction you're going to.

[Justin Andrews]

My kids do that to me all the time.

[Sal Destefano]

Your kids do that?

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

They're like, what am I, your servant? Like, no, you go get it. I. I'll get it for Courtney, but I'm not gonna get it for them.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I don't mind. I'll get it for. But I'll tell her that. I'm like, were you just sitting there waiting for me to get. No, but I thought about it. As soon as you stand up, like.

[Adam Schaefer]

No, I feel like I do that to Katrina.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

I feel guilty right now. You say that. I'm like, I kind of do that.

[Sal Destefano]

You just sit there and wait. I don't.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what it is? I just don't know what it is. Her movement is what triggers. Like, I've been wanting to get up and get something right. Like, I think it happened last night.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm not gonna get up.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, we're like. We're laying in bed watching. Watching. Watching the warriors or something like that.

[Sal Destefano]

And.

[Adam Schaefer]

And I saw her get up, and I'm like, oh, could you grab my. My. My mellow, please? So I. I had already thought about it, and I hadn't got it up yet. I'm into the game, and then she gets up to move out of it.

[Sal Destefano]

So she. She pulled. You know, she pulled the other night on me, which will work every single time. I think this works on every man, but we were upstairs, and she had some night supplements, and she's like, oh, damn. You know, I forgot my night supplements or whatever. And in my head, I'm like, she probably should just go get them, you know? But she's like. And so I'm like, are you gonna go get them? And she's like, no, I don't care. I'm so sleepy. I'm just gonna go to sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

I can't do it tucked in.

[Sal Destefano]

If I forget something, that's. I'll get up and whatever. So she's laying there. I'm like, okay. And then she's like, will you. Will you get him for me? I'm like, yeah, of course I'll get him for sure. You know, you're the man. You know, you're. You're. You're the man. You're gonna go down and, you know, take care of me. And it's downstairs, it's dark, and I'm like, okay. It's like hearing a noise at night. I'll get it for you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Every time.

[Sal Destefano]

I know. Super. Crap.

[Adam Schaefer]

I gotta tell you guys some stuff with Max that we've been implementing that I think is really cool. I wish I actually would have thought about this sooner because it was. I don't know if. Could you. Do you guys know what book do you hear me recommend to people? It's a simple read that I tell everybody to read. It's like an easy book.

[Justin Andrews]

One Minute Manager.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Boom.

[Sal Destefano]

I had no idea.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're terrible.

[Sal Destefano]

I was looking at you, showed you.

[Adam Schaefer]

How much you've never listened.

[Justin Andrews]

I listen a lot over here.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm like, doug, who got that feel like everybody would have got that. It's like I was like, going through my head. I don't know any books you said. I know you said a lot, but I can't remember a single one right now.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're so terrible, dog. You're so terrible.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm sorry. Anyway, so I, I, I bring that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Up only because I started to implement this with Katrina and then there was like this aha moment.

[Sal Destefano]

It's like.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's the same exact psychology as, as One Minute Manager.

[Sal Destefano]

Just the positive.

[Adam Schaefer]

So we've, I've made this. So I. The routine is at my house. If you haven't heard already. If you have already, I apologize for having to hear. You know, at night when it's time for Max to get ready for bed and get in the shower with that, like his, his route, Katrina takes him up, he gets in a shower. If he's not reading to one of his aunts and uncles or, or my mom or dad, mister. He kind of rotates through everybody, through the family. So a lot of times he reads to them via iPad. That's what he'll do at night. And then she kind of tucks him in. I'm downstairs kind of cleaning, getting the house all straightened up before we go to bed. And then I, I come upstairs, come in his room, you know, kiss him goodnight and lay with him for a while. And I told Katrina a while back, I said, you know, I wanna. He's at an age now where he's very cognizant of obviously everything he's doing and he can articulate and, like, he's definitely, you know, he's at a much, much more mature age. And so I think he's ready. And he understands, he understands how to regulate his motions, all those things.

[Sal Destefano]

He's moved out. He's moving out of that little boy.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right, right.

[Sal Destefano]

So cool.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, it's cool. Like, you can have, like, a real deeper conversation with him. He asked a lot of really smart questions and things like that. And so one of the things I want to do is reinforce all these great behaviors. So we've made a goal that every night when we tuck him in that I find something in the day that I'm proud of that he did. And it's been cool to watch, to watch that unfold. And, like, you know, and sometimes I have to search. Right. Because it's just like, maybe you just. I was like, what did he do? Like, last night was one of those nights. And it's like, oh, you know what I noticed as I was cleaning up? Like. Like, my son has always just done his homework. He's never. Not done his homework. He's never bitched about doing his homework. He just does it.

[Sal Destefano]

Does it.

[Adam Schaefer]

He just does his homework. His mom. He comes home, mom says, do your homework. He sits down, does his homework. And so that was the thing that I. I brought up last night. But you can see now, after consistently doing it, because we're about a month or so into doing it, it just is. It's super powerful, dude.

[Sal Destefano]

It is.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's unbelievably powerful. You can tell he likes it. You know, you could tell it makes him feel good, and you can tell that it's reinforcing all those behaviors. And I'm like, man, if I can stay on top of this, on all these things and address that that way, I'm like, I remember how powerful this was with my staff. Like, it was just. It blew my mind. It changed the leader. I was at 26 when I read that book.

[Sal Destefano]

It also does another thing, too, Adam, which is. It's. Yes. It's powerful as a leader, powerful as a parent, as a partner. Do this to your wife. You know, she does this back to you. It also changes the lens by which you start to view things, because you start to notice more.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

Of the good things, because it's really easy to not notice those things and notice, like, the thing. The ways that someone might mess up. But when you state. When you consciously are like, what are the good things? What are the things that they're doing that are good, you start to notice them more and value them more, and it changes relationships 100%.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, I think as a parent who's always searching to be more patient with their kids, it helps with that. Right?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Like, if you're thinking. You know, if you were thinking, I've never met a parent who's like, doesn't wish they were even more patient with their. With their child. And so if you train yourself as an adult to look at through the lens of not what he did wrong today, but it's like, what were all the things he did right? You know, what were the things that I'm happy he did that I noticed, like, you know, when his mom told him to go in there and just go brush his teeth, he got right up, went in there and did that. Like, those are little tiny behaviors that I want to reinforce and point out versus, oh, the one time that he, you know, he didn't put his toys away right away and he delayed. It's like, it's minimizes a lot of.

[Justin Andrews]

The negative things you have to address. I mean, I, I've definitely noticed that like in rewarding a lot of those moments where you're like, wow, you did this. You did such a great job with this. And yeah, I've, I've been implementing that a lot with my kids. And the other thing too with that. It's funny because every time I have like somebody stay with me at the house, they get to see our family dynamic and how things like really work, you know, because like you go to family functions and it' like, hey, here's the portrayal of us, you know, and like they're on their best behavior with, you know, and so it's funny because like my sister in law is like staying with us this week and it's like, you know, she's in the mix and you know, there's moments where like I have to like reprimand Ethan because, you know, he's not getting it done at school or this or that's happening and it's like we have to like, you know, it's like we're, we're open and, and I have to like follow through with all these things that we're implementing and seeing.

[Adam Schaefer]

So.

[Justin Andrews]

But with, with Everett's like, he's doing so well in school, but then we'll have like things that I'm kind of a little more flexible on because of the fact that he's like crushing it. He's crushing it here, he's crushing here.

[Adam Schaefer]

But he's dropping the ball a little.

[Justin Andrews]

Bit here with like, you know, gaming or whatever. The thing is that like is kind of drawing his attention and it's like, you know, as an outside perspective, you don't get a lot of the data points and all this. And so there's like, like, you know, she's great. She wants to like kind of help like shape and like correct and do something. I'm like, he's all Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, he's, it's, it's interesting you bring that up too because so my, my brother in law, his, his son just went to, to college, to Oregon and you know, they, they've parented him quite a bit different than I think I, how I'm with Max, especially when it comes to like technology and stuff like that. But it's been good for me to see because I'd say I'm on the other extreme of like none of that stuff to see like how much freedom he gets with games and gaming and all that stuff like that. And their, their big thing is like getting your work done at school. Responsibility. And he's going, he's going to be a doctor. So that's what he's on. And he's, he's a 4o student and they've always, that was kind of how they've always managed that, that thing. It's just like, hey, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of you sitting and playing games for hours on end, but your homework, your responsibilities, these getting done, they allow him. And he's got social skills, he's got friends, he played sports.

[Sal Destefano]

Kids are different.

[Adam Schaefer]

He's got, yeah, kids are different. So he gives him a lot of that weaknesses, he gives him a lot of that autonomy because he does these other things really well. And it's like, you know, I, I could see where that's where I'd be a lot more flexible on some stuff.

[Justin Andrews]

And yeah, because it's, it's one of those things, me growing up, it's like everything, it was like everything was regimented. Like even if I was crushing it, it was like if I slip in any other facet, you know, or like I, the negative. Yeah, they come in like you know, full authoritarian and I'm like so yeah, I try to balance that out of like where I really put my emphasis but really I'm trying to focus more on the positive things and reinforcing.

[Sal Destefano]

It changes everything. Jessica and I have been going through a challenging season and there's a few reasons for it, but one of them is we have our niece that just moved in. 18 year old kid. Love her, she's wonderful. Not that she's caused any challenges, but it is a new dynamic. It's a new challenge. We have a new kid in the house that we have to care about.

[Adam Schaefer]

And not just a kid, a teenager.

[Sal Destefano]

A teenager care for. She's now moved into our dynamic. It's a big adjustment for her, it's a big adjustment for us. And So I think, among other things, that's caused just some challenges. So Jessica and I were sitting down the other night. We haven't done this in a while, which reminds me of how important this is. We sat down and just had three hours, two or three hours of just conversation. And we went to. We started to notice just the positives that have happened during this challenging season. And it made me realize it's not as challenging as I thought. Or should I say, not as negative as I thought. I just. I forgot to focus on all these amazing things. Yeah. So we were talking. It's like, oh, my God, this was incredible. Look at what happened here. And this is so great. And it completely changed the filter by which we view this kind of. We're looking at this challenging season. It's so easy. We're so wired to it.

[Adam Schaefer]

We're wired. I was just going to say the reason why this is.

[Sal Destefano]

You have to consciously do it.

[Adam Schaefer]

So simple, yet it's so profound is because we are wired the opposite way.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

We are wired to look at scary, danger, bad, and it's in our best interest.

[Sal Destefano]

You don't need to try to think about that.

[Adam Schaefer]

You don't. That comes natural. And so when you become aware of that, that's that even with your own child, whether you like it or not, your default pattern is keep him safe. Point out all the things he does wrong, bad. Like that's. That's your brain is operating from that system. It takes a conscious effort to go, like, remove that switch and go, what are all. What. Okay, sure, he did that thing that he was not supposed to do, but what did he do 30 minutes earlier that I was so proud of that he did?

[Sal Destefano]

Like, you should see that.

[Adam Schaefer]

So difficult.

[Sal Destefano]

You should see the data on the odds that you're. That somebody is likely to leave a negative review over a positive review.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's like 8 to 1.

[Sal Destefano]

It's crazy. Yeah. If you have a good experience at a restaurant, unless it blows your mind, like completely blows your mind, you're not going to leave a review.

[Adam Schaefer]

Even then. It's like a low percentage. Even if you, like, a lot of times somebody blows your mind, you just tell your friend, oh, man, that was so amazing. But you don't get on it and go.

[Justin Andrews]

That's how you, like, figure out where you're going to go, too. You go right to the negative ones and you're like, how negative?

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. How bad? 100%. So it has to be a conscious effort to shift this filter. And it Makes a huge difference. And then we're talking about. You were mentioning your nephew. Kids are so different. You made me think of this text that my wife sent to her family the other day. My two little ones are so different in this one respect. I'll read to you what she wrote to illustrate it. She goes, dalia, this is my 2 year old or my 3 year old. Dalia is the most independent kid I've ever known. Won't let me help. Even to the bitter end of her attempts and frustration. She wants to brush her own teeth, she has to comb her own hair, she has to put her own socks, she gets her own self dress. She tries to change her own diaper like she wants. Like, I'm gonna do this, right? Aurelius, on the other hand, literally makes me hold his hands and rub them together to lather soap and wash it off. Like, wash your hands and stuff for dinner. Can you come wash them for me? Like, I mean, come on, kid.

[Adam Schaefer]

That has to be. That's such a great combination of when you see nature and nurture, right? Because you're. When you're the little one and you see the older one already doing it that organically kind of does that. And then if you're also that type that just, it just, it amplifies it, right? It just amplifies that She's. I could do it. My brother, my older brother does all these things. I can do these things and so, so different.

[Sal Destefano]

It's so fun. Literally, he's just like, can you come wash my hands for me? No, dude, Rub your own hands together.

[Adam Schaefer]

I tell you, I. I asked, I asked. I was laying with Max the other day and I just was talking to him and I said, hey, I said, you ever, you ever think about what your son's gonna be like one day? And he's like, huh? I'm like, you know, when you're, when you're older, like daddy's age and you, you have your own son, you ever think what he's gonna be like? He's like, you see, like he. Long pause, pondered, you know, like, what would that be like? You know, what do you think you'd be like? He'd be really nice. I said, you're probably right, dude. You're probably right.

[Sal Destefano]

I gotta say something. That just the a peptide that it has that I am continuing, like little by little over time, I'm placing it higher and higher and higher on the list of just effective peptides. Ghkcu. Yeah. Oh, for skin. Oh, man, it's liquid botox. It works so well that I can tell if I stop using it for. It takes about 45 days, 60 days I've stopped using it. And I notice my face versus using it. Huge, huge, huge difference.

[Adam Schaefer]

Trinity, and I swear by it is.

[Sal Destefano]

So the one we get from Entera has got such a high degree of it that after I use it three or four times, I can tell. But that's taking the whole skincare by storm. They just don't put enough.

[Adam Schaefer]

Did I. Did I hear him say yesterday that they're coming out with more like in another one like that?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's gonna be crazy.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I know. It's gonna be amazing.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

One thing I want to touch on before we sign off here, I just gotta mention, just an annoyance I have. We did this clip on social media where we ranked quad exercises and we ranked leg extensions at the bottom. And there was an out. There was outrage. Outrage that no leg extension.

[Adam Schaefer]

Tick tock outrage.

[Sal Destefano]

That's. That's the best. This is quad extension. Listen, everybody. This is all.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is all.

[Sal Destefano]

Nobody has ever developed amazing quads from just leg extension. No, it doesn't happen. If you do. You already had amazing quads beforehand.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, it just doesn't do. Sal, tell me. There's got to be a study that they've done out there where somebody only did leg extensions three times a week and then the other person only squatted three times a week. And then they compared what happened. I mean, it's got. And if you, if you are the burns, if you're the leg extension guy, I dare you to do, do that with your buddies. You be the leg extension guy. Let your other buddy be the squat guy three days a week and see what I'm like. What?

[Justin Andrews]

It's a feel thing.

[Sal Destefano]

It's a feel thing.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Results.

[Justin Andrews]

This is about.

[Adam Schaefer]

I feel it make all these guys feel like idiots, you know? Hey, it's equivalent to the. The girl doing the thousand kickbacks. Yeah. It feels in her butt. Think she's gonna build her butt?

[Justin Andrews]

Do your StairMaster kickback.

[Adam Schaefer]

I remember your donkey kicks, dude.

[Sal Destefano]

I remember the first time, but I feel it. The first time this got communicated to me was a group of Powerlifters who were, at the time I was a kid, they were the most. Most big, strong dudes ever seen in my life. And they were having me do like heavy singles and doubles of overhead press. Like, you want to get big shoulders, get stronger. The overhead press. And I'm. And I remember, I'm like, you know, but I. But I feel like laterals more in my shoulders. And he goes, oh, yeah, no. You know, he said to me, he says, go like this with your arms. Put your arms out and do shoulder circles for a minute. And so I'm like, okay. I'm like, does it burn like a dude? It really burns. You will build zero muscle doing that. And I was like, okay.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, damn.

[Sal Destefano]

I should. I should listen to this guy.

[Adam Schaefer]

What is it? It's the ekg. It's the ekg.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, no, no, it's.

[Adam Schaefer]

I always get the acronym.

[Sal Destefano]

What do they use on.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's not the actual.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Muscles on magnet. What are they using? I can't remember.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's not ekg.

[Sal Destefano]

It's not ek. Just for your heart.

[Adam Schaefer]

I always get the acronym wrong for this.

[Sal Destefano]

Muscles on magnets. What do they. What do they use to look at muscle activation? I can't believe I forgot.

[Adam Schaefer]

I know. I. I do it every time. Every time. I just. Because it's. It doesn't.

[Sal Destefano]

You're looking for activation.

[Adam Schaefer]

But the reason why I'm bringing up is so. So people understand because that. That's the. The science that you are aware of that you think is so good, that proves that leg extensions are so. Is based off of that science that it lights up your quads like a Christmas tree because something lights it up. Right. Just because it lights it up. It does not just. It's no different than if you were to put that same machine on a girl's butt and she did butt kickbacks. Okay. But I don't think there's any debate that. That versus hip thrust or squatting or deadlifts. Doesn't even come close. It's the same argument, dudes. So all you dudes that think that leg extensions are superior, you're an idiot.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. That's all those. The research that supports how great leg extensions are. Are EMG reports. Just because they light up.

[Sal Destefano]

Up.

[Adam Schaefer]

And just because.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, your quads are working.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, that's true argument there.

[Adam Schaefer]

So do you. When you do butt kickbacks.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You go. Go do. Go do 50 butt kickbacks right now. I bet all.

[Sal Destefano]

All your butts are gonna burn or do what I did with the shoulder here.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Little shoulder circles.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, your shoulders are gonna light up great for rehab. But, you know, you can't argue it's better.

[Sal Destefano]

It's not at the top.

[Adam Schaefer]

I didn't even go through. But I heard. So was it. Did you go through them? Did you learn.

[Sal Destefano]

Just people. I can't believe these guys put leg extension. There's s. Tier.

[Adam Schaefer]

What's clickbait?

[Sal Destefano]

You're not gonna find.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is rage. Rage bait.

[Sal Destefano]

We got a lot of work to do, guys. I read those, I read those comments. Like, oh my God, no.

[Adam Schaefer]

Tick Tock needs to be saved. Tick Tock needs to be saved.

[Sal Destefano]

Tick Tock is where the dumbest fitness people live. I think so. I think Instagram has, has gotten way better.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right?

[Justin Andrews]

Well, we don't have time for it.

[Sal Destefano]

You know, X has got great fitness people. I've seen great posts on X. Yeah, Instagram is good. TikTok idiots. I think that's where they all live. Sorry, everybody. We'll help you. I'm offended. We're gonna help you out. If you like high quality meat and you don't like to spend a lot of money, go to Butcherbox. They deliver grass fed meat, wild caught fish, chicken, pork to your door at great prices. Go to butcherbox.com mindpump by the way, on that link, new users will get your choice of New York strip, ribeye or filet mignon in your box included for free for an entire year. All right, here comes the show.

[Doug]

Our first caller is Pat from Florida.

[Sal Destefano]

What's up, Pat?

[Adam Schaefer]

How you doing, Patton?

[Sal Destefano]

Dude.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Good day, gentlemen. Pleasure to see you.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, same man. How can we help you?

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Well, I've been. I've been on a journey for the last 18 or 24 months, and I feel like I kind of hit a bit of an obstacle roadblock, plateau, whatever term you want to use.

[Adam Schaefer]

My.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

My health journey is focused around getting healthier. I'm 58, closing in on 60. I want to lead a much more active lifestyle, so I've been trying to get my weight down. My weight has gotten down, but I feel like I just hit a point where I can't get it to go down anymore. Now I know I'm getting stronger. I hit the weights two days a week. I Stairmaster two days a week. I'm back on the bike after my surgery in June. So I rode 15.6 miles Sunday. I ran two miles this morning. I just feel like I'm hitting this point where I can't get any lower in the weight area and there's pain points and I'm talking things like love handles and things like a little bit of a protruding gut. So I want to get rid of the dad bod. I want to do this because I want to get healthier. I want to get my cholesterol in line without taking any more statins. And I like to get my BP down, which I'M like borderline between normal and high. So these are all the drivers behind me trying to get the weight into what I think is more acceptable range.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay, so we have a couple things we want to look at here. Great job, by the way. Number one, I want to say that, and this has only been about two years.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

I mean, it's been two years weight focused. I've been on and off training my entire life. I grew up playing multiple sports. Football, baseball, soccer.

[Adam Schaefer]

Great.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

I've always been active.

[Sal Destefano]

Great.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

And as I got into a desk job and growing up into what I would call adulting, things slowed down. Weight came on and I maxed out. I think it was in my late 30s or early 40s. I maxed out at 208 and my face was bloated and I was like, I can't be this heavy anymore. So that's when the journey started.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay, good. And then let's talk about your strength. You said you're getting stronger pretty consistently. Yeah, that's a great.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

I can tell that from, you know, the dumbbells I'm using for my shoulder press. I can tell that from the. I'm moving up in weight with my bench, my incline bench, you know, flies press, the number of push ups I can do. You know, two years ago, I could barely squeak out 30 in a set. Now I can do 55 or 60 in a set. So I know I'm good.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, you're doing good.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, you're doing really, really well. Let's talk about the health stuff. I see I'm reading your question. At one point you had a little fatty liver. Blood lipids look like little. How is, how is that all looking now? How are your lipids now and your.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Blood all in line? Because I got that diagnosis of the fatty liver in July and that was after my surgery in June because I didn't slow down with my eating and drinking from the standpoint of just living life daily normal. Right. So my liver scores got out of whack. I got put on Mediterranean style diet, which had me cut back on red meat, had me cut back on eggs, which I was leaning into heavily for my protein intake, which pretty much was the only macro that I've been tracking based off of listening to you guys. I don't really track my calories. I don't really track my fat. The fatty liver was a little bump in the road, so to speak.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. But now everything's good.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. I mean, how are you, how are.

[Adam Schaefer]

You doing with hitting the protein intake considering you had to Take out the red meat eggs. Are you really consistent with that or you struggle to hit that consistently? What's that look like?

[Sal Destefano]

It's been a.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

You know, I've literally been. I've been tracking that, trending that upward for the last three or four weeks. So, you know, I'm slowly but surely moving into, you know, a. A higher lean protein intake.

[Sal Destefano]

And.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

And, for example, during the Mediterranean diet phase, I was only doing three to five eggs a week. Well, I mean, I ate three eggs this morning, so that kind of thing I'm getting back into. But I'm also not eating red meat every other day like I was. I'm now adding in more chicken, I'm adding in more fish, but still trying to hit those protein targets.

[Sal Destefano]

So eggs, I wouldn't worry about. Saturated fat can have an effect on someone's lipids, but eggs typically don't. The data shows this. You could play with a little bit. There's always an individual variance. There's a. There's a trap that I don't. That I'll talk to you about, that I do. I don't want you to fall into. And the trap is that you're doing great. You seem like you got your fit, you've got good stamina, good strength, healthy. Everything's moving in the right direction. The trap is to start nitpicking yourself from an aesthetic standpoint. Okay. Where you look in the mirror and you go, okay, well, I'm fit. I'm strong, healthy. Blood lipids look good. Everything's moving in the right direction. But I got this love handle area here, or I got a little bit of body fat here, or I want a little bit more definition there. And it's a trap, because you're not gonna get an improvement in quality of life by focusing so heavily on the aesthetic. Focusing on performance and health are gonna give you a great deal of the aesthetic. But just look, if you start nitpicking yourself in the mirror, especially at 58, you're almost 60. So, you know, and we got to just, you know, call that out. Like, that's. You're getting to the point now with age, where age starts to play a role. And I bet if you compared yourself to your peers, you're probably in a completely different category. And so you don't want to create these standards for yourself from an aesthetic standpoint that start to reduce your quality of life because you're sacrificing certain things or chasing something that's kind of a. A little bit of a boogeyman, like I mean, we could cut calories.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's two, there's two knobs. We can turn that. I see. Don't you?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. I mean, I could see protein and I would, yes, I would stop the, the intermittent fasting.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I, and then I would also maybe scale back a little bit on the endurance training. So, like, still do some of your cardio. I mean, it's good to keep the cardiovascular endurance up. But like, long bike rides or consistently long runs are not serving you. Building muscle. So it's, it's not bad for you. But if you're trying to make an aesthetic change, since that's what you're asking, like we're trying to trim off the body fat, that's actually not helping the cause. What will help the cause is consistently hitting protein, like, very consistent with the increase. Continue to get stronger in the gym and building muscle.

[Sal Destefano]

And the scale might not even move.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right. The scale might even go up. I mean, because I don't care if you increase calories as long as you increase that protein consistently simultaneously while you lift weights. What might happen is we might put four or five pounds on the scale, but it'll be muscle. It'll speed the metabolism up and you'll look different. The waste will come in, you'll be. But the. Doing a lot of endurance training while also doing the strength training while also maybe not being very consistent with the protein tank is the reason why we're kind of at this plateau aesthetically.

[Sal Destefano]

And the intermittent fasting is not making it any easier. Right. On you. It makes it very difficult.

[Adam Schaefer]

Really difficult.

[Sal Destefano]

You know, 180 grams of protein a day with intermittent fasting. Just so you're doing this on hard mode.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

But again, you gotta, no, you're, you're right there. I mean, the only reason I do the intermittent fasting was a maintenance, you know, when I, when I started this journey and started taking a couple pounds off. And I, you know, the intermittent fasting helps just to maintain weight for me. It kind of just gives me that ability to stay level, so to speak. And I, I also suffer from a bunch of itises. Right. I got some arthritis, I got some tendonitis, I got plantar fasciitis in both feet. Right. And that's another driver here. From the standpoint of when I'm, when I weigh less, my plantar fasciitis doesn't bother me.

[Adam Schaefer]

Sure, yeah, right.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

You know, because it just, it makes sense that way. And the other thing too is, you know, you mentioned, you know, outperforming My contemporaries, you know, and that's another driver here. I have this regular group of guys that I play golf with and I kick their butt every time. And I want to. I want to continue hitting them by 30 and 40 yards like I do.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, yeah. I tell you what, Pat, I mean, big picture here, if you focus on feeling better. So what are the things that help with the tendonitis and fasciitis? Performance enjoyment. Are you enjoying your workouts? Are you enjoying. You want to run and you like it. It keep doing it. If you're only doing it to get leaner and it doesn't really matter, then you could try other options. If you keep focusing on those things, the rest tends to follow. What tends to happen. We focus on aesthetic too much. We think we're going to get this return in quality of life. We actually reduce our quality of life and we get the look, which you can get, but it, but it's. It's not going to. It's not the same. Most people don't get an increase in improvement in quality of life life from just focusing on the aesthetic, especially not in a place where you're at, where you're doing. You're doing really well. You know, I would say if you just hit your protein and stop the intermittent fasting, you'll probably move in the direction you want to move cardio wise. You know, maybe the running is not helping with the plantar fasciitis, at least maybe not now. And you can modify that. Unless you love it. You know, if you love being active and being able to run, which, you know, if you stop running, you'll lose the ability to run. That's the other part of it. So what Adam's saying is correct. From an aesthetic standpoint, you could do other forms of cardio that are not going to be as muscle, I don't know, damaging, for lack of a better term. But if you stop running, you'll lose that ability. So if you like to run and you want to be able to run, I don't know if you should stop it.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

I only run once a week.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Yeah, it's a once a week run because, I mean, bluntly, my body can't take the pounding of running more than that.

[Sal Destefano]

That.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

You know, you know, I've got a bad knee, I've got a partially torn mcl, so I can't really put too much stress on it. I only run two, two and a half miles at a time. It's not like I'm out there doing six.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

And the Other reason I like to run is because, you know, I like to be able to, when we go to a national park, I like to be able to go on a six mile hike, you know, that kind of thing.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's good.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

And we go on, and we go on a national park trip every year. So I want to go on these hikes because that's part of my enjoyment, you know, from a lifestyle perspective.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Well, I could give you a workout plan that I think would be good. Instead of two days a week, would you be open to doing like a everyday 15 minute plan, like maps? 15.

[Justin Andrews]

I think 15%.

[Sal Destefano]

So it's probably the same volume that you're used to. It's just not all done in two days. It's a little bit every day and a lot of people get better results that way.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay, are you going to a gym or are you lifting at your house?

[Caller 4 / Pat]

I lifted a gym, a big box gym, but it's got everything, you know, and, and I recently got my, I got my stairmaster. Up to 30 minutes of StairMaster, 112 flights of stairs. So, you know, like I, I get off that thing and I feel like I've accomplished something and, and that, you know, the sweat's just coming down my face and, and that's how I love wrapping up a session like that. But I go in there and I do anywhere from six to eight, you know, weight movements. Three, you know, three sets of 10, two sets of 12. Whatever it is, whatever I'm doing, whether it's shoulder press or lat pull down.

[Sal Destefano]

Or, you know, let me send you a program, Pat. I'll send you max 15. That way you have some good programming. And then do you know what your body fat percentage is sitting at now?

[Adam Schaefer]

You said it was.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

No, I don't. I've never measured it.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. I'll just tell you this is generally true, but for A man who's 58, sitting in the mid, you know, the mid teens, body fat between 14 to 18% and being fit is actually healthier than being between, let's say 10 to 12% and being fit, all things being equal, that slightly higher body fat percentage within that range is actually going to.

[Adam Schaefer]

Give you, especially if you got cardiovascular, vascular endurance, you got strength, you have all those things which you do.

[Sal Destefano]

We idolize this really lean look, but it's actually not healthy or not ideal for longevity and health.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Understood. One of the key drivers behind this was the losing muscle mass. And so, so, you know, after listening to you guys and knowing what I used to do, When I was younger, that's why I got back into the gym, got back into moving some weights around and, and, and again I go back to the, to the push up example where you know, two years ago I could barely do 30 in a set and I could, I can pump out 55 or 60 right now if I had to.

[Sal Destefano]

That's great.

[Adam Schaefer]

Awesome.

[Sal Destefano]

Double strength.

[Adam Schaefer]

I do, I do want to, I think sal's advice is 100% perfect and what he's saying. I do want to double down though on the, the what, what will happen and why you feel this plateau is when you have the endurance training and you're also missing protein intake. That's a recipe for no way we're building muscle. So that's like why you'll feel a plateau is like what's happening is you're eating just enough to maintain right where you're at, which is a great place. And that, and that's kind of Sal's point is like dude, you're, you're, you're kicking ass. You're, you're, you have endurance, you're strong, you're kicking your peers ass, like, but you're also asking questions about body fat percentage. And I'll tell you from an aesthetic part place is we got to consistently hit protein and, and focus on building muscle. That's what's going to get you in that place where you'll, you'll trim body fat and you'll start to sculpt body composition. That's right. There's, there are two different like goals. And so what you're feeling right now in the plateau isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's, you're in a great place. You're healthy, you're fit, you're strong, you're capable. But if you're trying to make change aesthetically, then, then, then the focus becomes okay, we really need to focus on hitting that protein intake on a very consistent basis. Really get strong in the gym. And then the endurance training just becomes less important. Because I'm trying to build a metabolism doesn't mean it's done, don't do it or it's bad. Just becomes less important when the focus is trying to sculpt the body. So that's why you're feeling what you're feeling.

[Justin Andrews]

Then if you want to accelerate your results with golf, you go to maps 15 performance just to reinforce that rotational torque. Work in, in. You know, all these like workout plans are great, but they lack a lot of rotational movement and lateral focus to reinforce that is going to keep you, you know, pretty strong in that accelerated movement.

[Sal Destefano]

Good call. Why don't we send a perform master 15 performance?

[Justin Andrews]

That'll be more just so you keep that edge above you.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, that'll be a better one for you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Awesome.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Love to get another 10 yards on the driver.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

All right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Doing great. Pat that.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

Thanks, guys.

[Adam Schaefer]

I really appreciate it.

[Caller 4 / Pat]

It's great talking to you guys.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, you too. Thank you.

[Sal Destefano]

All right. All right. Have a good one. Is he as old as you, Doug?

[Doug]

Yeah, he's a couple years younger.

[Sal Destefano]

Same age, huh?

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, no, you're older.

[Justin Andrews]

Look how young all the time.

[Sal Destefano]

It's so crazy.

[Adam Schaefer]

Even with his new gray beard, it.

[Sal Destefano]

Looks, it looks, it kind of makes him look younger a little bit, which is kind of weird.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, he looks like the young guy trying to look older. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Can I see your I.D. sir? Yeah, yeah. I, I, you know, that's such a.

[Adam Schaefer]

It'S such a hard one to advise. Right.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, you don't want to get caught in that trap. I, I, you know.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, I know that's why I'm, that's why it works that you say what you say, but it's like to me, it's here, it's very obvious.

[Sal Destefano]

Here's what it is.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's very obvious. You're very obvious. What's going on?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, there's a couple lovers.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, he's, he's, he likes to get the sweat. So he's hitting that stairmaster probably every time he goes to gym hard. He's moving a lot. He even goes for a run for, you know, know a long distance. He's biked for a long distance. And then it sounds like hitting, man. If you're not eating steak and eggs and you cut that out of your diet and you're doing more Mediterranean and you're intermittent fasting. I know. He's not.

[Sal Destefano]

No.

[Adam Schaefer]

Hitting 180 grams of protein every day.

[Sal Destefano]

No.

[Adam Schaefer]

So if he just hits 180 grams of protein every day, focus on the strength training. Maybe replace some of the higher intensity cardio with more like walking or, you know, whatever. Like, that's the, that's the solution. But, but, you know, your, your point is incredible. Which is. I mean, hey, at that. If that was my dad. Dad, I like what you're doing.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know what I'm saying? Like, you're, you like it?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You're, you're, you're. The fact that you can go for a run and you could ride your bike that long and you're that strong in the gym. Like, who gives a. That you don't look like Mr. Universe right now. Like, you're way more capable and you're in better health. But at the same time, if you want the aesthetic answer, I have that for you. It just looks different than in your approach.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Dan from Pennsylvania.

[Sal Destefano]

Dan, what's going on?

[Adam Schaefer]

How you doing, Dan?

[Sal Destefano]

Dan.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

Hey, how you guys doing?

[Adam Schaefer]

Good. Good.

[Sal Destefano]

How can I help you?

[Adam Schaefer]

Great.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

So I'm just gonna read my question. So I'm 42. I just started Map Strong while going through a reverse diet, and I'm kind of struggling with it, and I'm wondering if it's too much volume for background. I've lifted my whole life, but always was overweight. About eight years ago, I dialed in my diet and dropped about 60 pounds. Since then, I've never really committed to a proper reverse diet, and I'm starting to find it harder and harder to lose fat when I try and cut. And my weight has kind of slowly been creeping up over the years. So I thought Matt Strong would be a good program to run for the reverse diet. However, I'm finding myself worn down, sore, don't feel like I fully recover from each workout. And so I was wondering if I should build in more rest days or if I should skip the work sessions or drastically dial back the intensity of the work sessions. The only other Maps program I've run into this issue with is Maps aesthetic. And I know you guys have said that a lot of times that's too much volume for most people. So I'm wondering if this could be the same issue.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, it is.

[Adam Schaefer]

Switch programs.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So switch programs. Strong is. Is decent volume. The work sessions are. Are. Are pretty. It's funny because the more volume.

[Justin Andrews]

It's a lot.

[Sal Destefano]

They're more volume in the workout, the foundational workouts. That's what I noticed. Yeah. If you feel worn down, it's. It's too much.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

We'd want to switch programs, and you could either avoid the work sessions, which is totally fine, or you could go through a bout of maps 15 and. Or maps Anabolic, which would probably be appropriate.

[Adam Schaefer]

Have you ran Maps Anabolic yet?

[Caller 1 / Dan]

I have ran Maps Anabolic, and I actually just ran Maps 15 over the summer.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

And like that. So I wanted to, you know, for the reverse diet, I figured since I was adding more calories, I kind of wanted to try Map Strong to. I really haven't focused on strength in a while.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's logical.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, that's logical.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

I think we could tell them what's.

[Justin Andrews]

Coming out or what.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh yeah, we can.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I figured. Yeah, we have map strong 15 so. Oh, we had the 15 minutes minute version which is definitely cuts into you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Once it drop drops, I can.

[Doug]

Yeah, well by the time this airs it will be out so we can actually send it over.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, so you actually going to be the first one to get mass 15 strong, my friend. Oh, that's great. We'll send that to you. Follow that.

[Justin Andrews]

Just too good a fit for what you're talking about.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, you'll like it. It's got a lot of the cool exercises from Map Strong but it's in fit in a 15 minute protocol so that'll work really well for you.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

Okay. Yeah, no, that sounds great.

[Sal Destefano]

Out of curiosity, Dan, where'd you take your calories with this reverse?

[Caller 1 / Dan]

So when I was cutting I was around like 2,000 a day and I've been trying to eat around like 25 to 2800 a day and I've noticed that the weight's kind of like really kind of been like creeping on. Like I gained about 10 pounds. So I don't know if you know, I'm just kind of.

[Sal Destefano]

That's a big jump.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

Yeah, it was a big jump. And also like this time of year, you know, there's a lot going on. So I don't know if maybe it's just like, like I'm letting it go too much on the weekends and if that's contributing.

[Sal Destefano]

Probably.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

If you're not tracking on the weekends, that's probably what's happening for sure. Yeah, you got a reverse diet. Tracking in my opinion is more important than it is for. Yeah, for a cut for a lot of people because it gets out of hand. I would stay consistent at 2500 calories for a while and then move up from there. But be consistent.

[Adam Schaefer]

And when the weekends. I think the weekends are more important than the weekdays because the weekdays, when you got work and you're busy, you tend to kind of fall in line naturally. Better the weekends. Weekends is definitely where stuff gets out. The other thing, the other advice I'd add too is are you tracking steps right now to kind of see what your daily activity is?

[Caller 1 / Dan]

Yeah, I mean I'm pretty consistent with like around like 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh good.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

I live and work in the city so it's really easy just to get a lot of steps in each day.

[Adam Schaefer]

So be careful of if you're like that in the city Monday through Friday and then the Saturday and Sunday have the same amount of steps or do they get reduced? Because if you reduce the steps simultaneously. Also a little loose on the diet, that's where that gap gets filled real quick.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

No, I usually. Weekends, I'm still pretty good with the stats.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay, good. Okay, good. Because that. That's really common where someone's more active throughout that week, and then they have the day where they sleep in or they're not. They're not moving as much, and then they also double hit. I'm a little looser on the diet, and that's enough right there to cancel out all that great work.

[Sal Destefano]

But if you're.

[Adam Schaefer]

If you're.

[Sal Destefano]

If you track with your reverse diet and stay consistent with that, follow mass 15 strong. I think you'll be good.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Good.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right on.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

There you go, man.

[Adam Schaefer]

All right, dad.

[Justin Andrews]

Let me know how you like it.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

All right, we'll do.

[Adam Schaefer]

All right, guys.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you.

[Caller 1 / Dan]

All right. Thanks.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. When I knew right away, when you said, oh, around between 25 to 28. Like, oh, you don't know how much you've had it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, well, I mean, come on.

[Sal Destefano]

And then weekend's a little.

[Adam Schaefer]

Come on. We just went through Thanksgiving. I mean. Oh, it's only been a few nights. I haven't had pie.

[Sal Destefano]

I know. Are you having pie every night?

[Adam Schaefer]

It's like a sin to see all that pie. It's gonna get thrown away if I don't eat it.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, we have apple crisp in our fridge.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, that's right.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, God.

[Justin Andrews]

My tongue has got, like, a sore on it from all this sugar.

[Sal Destefano]

I don't think that's.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

It'S from you again. You set yourself up.

[Sal Destefano]

Poor dad.

[Adam Schaefer]

That doesn't.

[Sal Destefano]

Joke's on you.

[Adam Schaefer]

This does not help Dan at all.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Christian from Minnesota.

[Sal Destefano]

What's up, Christian?

[Adam Schaefer]

What's up, Christian?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Hey, guys. How are you?

[Sal Destefano]

Good, man. How are you?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Good for Tuesday, I guess.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. How can we help you? Dude.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Dude.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

So turning 50 here in February signed myself up for a crazy endurance ride next June. So I just wanted to read my email to you guys and get some advice from you guys.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

So I'll be Turning February. Turning 50 this February. I wanted to reach out for some training advice. I'm six three, about 217 pounds, sitting around 20% body fat. I live in Minneapolis and lift weights five days a week during the summer and six days during the winter. I also mix in zone two cardio a couple days a week. Here's where it gets interesting. My brother in law, he's a banjo player in a traveling band. Somehow talked me into signing up for a 108 mile gravel bike race in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in Chile.

[Sal Destefano]

Soon.

[Adam Schaefer]

Most.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Most of the training plans I've seen call up are at least five days a week of riding for 60 plus minutes, ramping up over time. My goal is to take this seriously while still lifting heavy year round because.

[Adam Schaefer]

That'S what I love.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Most. Every year I bench £300 on my birthday and since I'm hitting 50 this year, that milestone feels extra meaningful. My main concern, how to balance endurance training without losing muscle mass strength. I'd love your spirit perspective on how to structure my training and nutrition to stay strong in and lean while prepping for this is this event.

[Adam Schaefer]

Something's got to give.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, you can't, you can't.

[Adam Schaefer]

They're conflicting, they're conflicting goals. It's, it'd be different if you said hey, well I'm gonna go for a run. But you're not. You're talking about a real goal, dude, like a real endurance goal. And it completely conflicts with a 300 bench press. It just is the complete opposite.

[Sal Destefano]

And so you gotta ask yourself what it's more important. Yeah, more important, more valuable, what's going to give you more quality of life and then, and then lean into it. If you try to do everything, you're going to get nothing or hurt. That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Most likely you'll get hurt. Like if you try and keep a 300 pound bench press and train for 100 miler, you're going to get hurt. Yeah, guaranteed. Doing one or the other like you're going to over tax the body trying to go for two, go keeping two goals. Just, you'll get hurt but it doesn't mean there's nothing wrong. Like you could totally just. I'm going to commit to this whole endurance thing because it sounds fun and challenging and I'm turning 50 and like how many 50 year olds could say they could do that? But just commit to that and then your training looks like keeping yourself from getting hurt. It's more mobility. It's more mobility and, and maybe some isometric work in there. Maybe one day of really moderate training, but really that's it. No, that's nothing that you're not, you're not making strength gains, you're gonna lose a little bit of muscle. Hopefully we maintain most of what you have. Hopefully. But that ain't the goal anyways. The goal is like you get good at this endurance race and not get.

[Sal Destefano]

Hurt just to help you feel better. Christian, whatever you lose, come right back. Yeah, you'll get it back so fast.

[Adam Schaefer]

It'll come right back.

[Sal Destefano]

It won't be an issue at all. It'll be, you know, it'll bounce right back. The way you would do this is follow the endurance training. And I think what Adam said is, I mean, that's what I found with all my clients who did that kind of training the most we could do or what we could do. What we did that was beneficial was about one day a week of strength training. And it was moderate, where we did like three or four lifts and that was it. The rest of their training was focused on their sport.

[Justin Andrews]

Where's your bench at right now, by the way?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

I do 275.

[Adam Schaefer]

Five. Five by five.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

So I'm not worried about hitting 300 in February. Right. I just, I mean, I just want to check that off. Be. Be a 50 year old with a bunch of high school and young kids watching me throw up £300.

[Adam Schaefer]

I don't need to do it.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

I don't need to do it again. Right. So I don't want to, I don't need to maintain. I'm actually not looking to maintain 300 pounds after that. I mean, 225, you know, just, you.

[Justin Andrews]

Know, it's not that far off, but.

[Adam Schaefer]

Work out with that.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Yeah. So I'm, I'm confident I'll do £300. It's just I, I like lifting weights. Right. And Sally kind of made me sad when you said, oh, we had to do it one day a week because it's kind of a stress reliever. You know, my wife and I go to the gym every morning at 5:45. It's part of my routine, so I'd like to keep up with that.

[Adam Schaefer]

So you could spread it out. You could do maps. 15.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You could do math 15. And then like, so what it could look like, since you like that, and it sounds like you and your wife have something that I think is far more important than any of the goals is getting up and going to the gym together like that. But you have to discipline yourself to do two things. One, only do the two exercises in there, and two, keep it at moderate intensity. And that, that takes a lot of discipline to do that because again, then now the focus becomes. Comes the endurance training. And so really you're just going through the motions on that. I'm like your weight, I'm making you do 50, 60 intensity at most. So you're way lower than what you normally do, but you're still doing it. You're sending a signal to your muscle that, hey, we still need this muscle. Because I'm going to get in this gym, I'm going to do two exercises every day. But then right after that you're going into your endurance training and that. And that's kind of the focus.

[Sal Destefano]

Your brother in law, is he very competitive or is this new for him too?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

He's competitive. I mean he lived out in Steamboat for 10 years, so he's a really good skier. He was actually a pretty good natural athlete. And my wife, which is his sister, she's done numerous Ironmans and she actually is now been invited to be on a competitive gravel bike team. 12 women from across the country have been selected to be on this team. So she does that as well. I've done races before, I've done 60 miles before, so I've done a combination of lifting and riding. I'm just kind of worried about like the elevation starts at 6,000, finishes at about 8, 300. So that's kind of.

[Sal Destefano]

Is your goal to compete or is your goal to be able to just do it?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

No, we're just doing it together. Him and I, we, we're gonna, you know, ride next to each other, draft out some people and finish.

[Sal Destefano]

You're gonna, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay, dude. If you, if you pray, you just keep, just ride. You gotta ride a lot.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep.

[Sal Destefano]

Do a little bit of strength training. If it's just to be able to complete it, you'll be, you'll be fine.

[Justin Andrews]

Reinforce your hips and ankles. Ankles, you know, make sure if you need like again with the 15 protocol, you got like two exercises so you could still do mobility right after that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. Maps 15 is the program for you, especially since that's your routine of kind of going to the gym every day like that. Just discipline. Don't do more. That's. I'm just gonna say that's. Don't do more. Okay. That's where you'll, where you'll up is you'll do more or go harder. So don't play in the middle of this. Let me see where my bench is at. I feel like I can still throw 0275 up for five. It's like, no, right now we're just, we're working out with 185 and we're doing the, we're doing the reps and it's like that's the goal right now. And it's like I'M focused on the training, on the endurance training. I'm touching the weights because I don't want to lose a lot of muscle. You just want to maintain. If you do it like that, you can very easily finish this race, do well, not lose hardly any muscle. And then as soon as you're done, your body's gonna put on muscle. You'll be strong as within. Within a month after.

[Sal Destefano]

There's a totally different mentality with your training. Training. If you're like, I just want to be able to complete it versus I want to compete. If it's. I just want to. Yeah, dude. If you don't tackle this like you're trying to win, I think you'll be okay.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

As far as nutrition is, like, maintaining my protein and stuff, I try to get 220 grams in right now. I really don't watch my carbs. I just, you know, eat fruit, rice, etc. Do you guys should I increase my protein and my calories? Like, right now? I try to hang around like 2,500. I weighed 246 at the beginning of the year.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah. Calories, yes. Protein. You're already fine on protein, but calories, yes. You're gonna need some carbs for all that.

[Justin Andrews]

Endurance carbs.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Fuel the performance. So based on how you feel, you'll bump it.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, you're gonna. He's gonna. You're. He's. You're almost the exact same. You're 217, you said, and you're 6:3. Yeah, it's. I'm 6:3 and around that. You're gonna be needing to be over 3,000plus calories with all that riding, for sure. So, you know, it doesn't mean you need to jump to that right away, but as you start ramping up that, that fuel those, fuel those, those workouts. Because that will be a recipe for losing, losing muscle. You'll just get lean, lean, lean, and you'll lose. You'll lose muscle because you're doing so much endurance training and not enough calories. So definitely keep those, get, get those calories up. And it can be through carbohydrates, if you like, whatever, because you're getting enough protein and so whatever you enjoy.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Cool. Yeah. Well, that's all the questions I have for you guys. I really appreciate you guys and I, I love listening to you guys. I think my favorite part is when you guys just get into real life conversation with each other. I've got four daughters, so I love all the kids talk and everything. Like that. So I'll keep doing. Doing what you're doing. You guys are great.

[Sal Destefano]

And I'm gonna assume you're.

[Adam Schaefer]

Do you have master teen? We gotta send that to you.

[Sal Destefano]

If you don't have.

[Adam Schaefer]

Do you have master team?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

I don't have Matt.

[Adam Schaefer]

All right, well, we'll send that. We'll send that over to you.

[Sal Destefano]

By the way, I'm gonna assume your daughters are super athletes with you and you and your wife as their parents. Holy big dude. Strong wife's iron, man. Are they all crazy athletes or whatever?

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Basketball, hockey, downhill skiing and swimming and lacrosse. So yeah, they're kind of all over the board. So the only thing they can't do is play football like a guy. So that's all that matters.

[Sal Destefano]

That's awesome. Genetics.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's awesome.

[Sal Destefano]

Good stuff, man.

[Adam Schaefer]

Very cool.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

All right, guys. Thanks much.

[Sal Destefano]

Easy.

[Caller 2 / Christian]

Take care.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, that's so dope.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. You know, if you're fishing fit, you work out, you're fit and you don't go to win, you could. You could do pretty well. I mean, I've done.

[Adam Schaefer]

He could absolutely do this.

[Sal Destefano]

I've done long endurance stuff, but without like being fast just because I'm fit.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, no, you haven't. Not 108.

[Sal Destefano]

Not 108. But I did 108. I'd have to train.

[Adam Schaefer]

My point is a monster.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, it is.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's a monster.

[Sal Destefano]

It is. But if he's going. If you. He just does. If he practices long ride.

[Adam Schaefer]

Here's. Here's. You're right. If he, like he already has. I'm sure he has already downloaded the, the, the formula for what he needs to do on the biking part of the. It's. Is it all biking? Did I get that right? Okay, so if he, if he follows that protocol and he does map 15 with the attitude of I'm just coming. Coming in here and touching the weights, he'll be fine. He'll be totally fine. But what will get in his way is one. Getting after everything, trying to think I'm going to win. Win this 108 thing or I got to be my brother in law or whatever like that. And really p. Got endurance training and simultaneously going like, I got to keep that 275 bench. That's the recipe for the injuries about.

[Justin Andrews]

The bike seat and my Gooch man. Yeah, a long time.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, that hurts.

[Adam Schaefer]

A Gooch 108 miles.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

That's a lot.

[Sal Destefano]

That's a lot.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Have you ever rode a bike more than two miles?

[Caller 3 / Chance]

I don't.

[Sal Destefano]

I don't know how to ride a bike.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Chance from Indiana.

[Sal Destefano]

What's up, Chance?

[Justin Andrews]

What's happening?

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Hey, guys, how can we help you?

[Adam Schaefer]

You?

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Thanks for having me on. I'll just go ahead and read my question here. I am trying to decide between two programs. So I'm looking for which program that is not going to sacrifice aesthetics but has a focus on reclaiming mobility. I'm looking for better movement patterns and kind of having something to help build a bigger gas tank. I don't have a specific athletic pursuit that I'm looking to improve in, but I want to be able to maintain my strength and improve my cardiovascular endurance just for things like play and sports from time to time. As I get older, I have seen a regression in my ability to kind of run. And I don't really want to be a runner. So, Doug, recently talking about incorporating sprints was something that spoke to me. I can easily do three days, three foundational days a week, two mobility supplemental days. So the main question comes down to or questions is, is performance the best fit and would it be okay in performance to switch chest exercises to unilateral due to some joint pain in my shoulder, specifically phase one, or should I skip phase one altogether? And then should I also follow this program exactly the way it's laid out and allow the endurance gas tank to kind of build up in each phase change? Or should I incorporate things like the sprints or hit in the mobility days since those are shorter workout days? Or would something like map Strong be a better fit because it has the work sessions and I could do mobility and stretching kind of on those non foundational days to supplement that.

[Sal Destefano]

Just do performance. Yeah, it's all laid out. You don't have to add anything. Yeah, it's gonna hit all the things you said said. And yeah, you can definitely change the chest exercise for sure.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

But it's got everything you asked for. It's all built into the program.

[Justin Andrews]

I was almost thinking symmetry just because of what you just, you know, brought up at the end there. But yeah, I think performance even covers that with mobility. That's right. You'll be all right.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, yeah, that's a perfect program for you.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Okay, that's kind of what I was thinking. So I'm, you know, it's good to have the confirmation there with phase one of performance and doing unilateral. Is it a big deal if I switch to like a higher rep scheme of 6 to 8? Okay. Not gonna matter too much.

[Sal Destefano]

No, you're good, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's perfectly fine.

[Adam Schaefer]

Totally fine.

[Sal Destefano]

Do you have mass performance?

[Caller 3 / Chance]

I do, yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Awesome.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

I. I've been doing so. I didn't know also, if you care if there's specific unilateral exercises that you think are better for the chest. Chest with shoulder pain. I've been doing floor presses, and those seem to not cause any pain, although I know that's not unilateral.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, let's talk about your shoulder pain here for a second. What are you experiencing?

[Caller 3 / Chance]

It's. It's just some pain right here in the front. If I. It seems like even when I try to really set my shoulders and put them in, you know, put them in the back pocket. Yeah, there's a little bit of pain right there. I think it's due to, like, I kind of messed it up shooting my bow, and so there's that pain when I do chest exercises sometimes.

[Sal Destefano]

Of the delt.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

It's your bicep tendon. It's called bicep tendon. Bicep tendon tendonitis.

[Adam Schaefer]

That makes perfect sense from pulling a bow, too.

[Sal Destefano]

So deep stretching of that bicep on the right with massage should. Should really help take care of it. Okay. Yeah. So, yep, it's. It's. I'm almost positive. I mean, there's no way to know for sure without, like, doing a full assessment, but what you're describing sounds like biceps.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, one of the ways you can figure that out is you do a really good. You know, how to do a bicep stretch where you rotate your wrist over and come back behind you. If you don't, you can. I think we have one on our YouTube channel. If not, you can Google it pretty fast, like how to. How to stretch your bicep really good and get a really good deep stretch in the bicep. And then after you get out of it, see if you feel some relief there. And you'll. You'll feel some relief just from doing that.

[Sal Destefano]

If it's bicep tendonitis. I mean, a deep stretch much. It's like, right away, you'll notice.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

Improvement.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

I mean, that would make sense because I'm not doing anything for my bicep. I'm doing, like, dead hangs and more shoulder mobility, and none of that's helping. If it's bicep, I'm not doing anything for that, and it's not improving.

[Adam Schaefer]

So it's right over the shoulder right there. So that's why you probably feel that. That's super common too.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Rifle flip Right. Do we have a video? Okay.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Yeah, yeah, I know. The rifle flip.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And really, I mean like a long, long static stretch of the bicep. Front. The front Dell and then go in your chest presses and see how you feel.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

Got it. Okay, I will do that.

[Sal Destefano]

All right, man.

[Caller 3 / Chance]

All right, thank you, guys.

[Adam Schaefer]

All right.

[Sal Destefano]

You got it. That. You know what's funny about that pain is unless you know how to address it, it doesn't go away.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, yeah, because you think it's shoulder.

[Justin Andrews]

You see.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

It feels like it's your shoulder for.

[Sal Destefano]

Shoulder and then it's like wasted. I mean, this is one of the.

[Justin Andrews]

Things as a trainer.

[Sal Destefano]

So some. Sometimes you'll hear a problem and you're excited because you know you can. Yeah. Make an impact. And that kind of shoulder pain that he's describing, whenever I get a client with that, I was. I could almost always show them dramatic improvement right away and then within a couple weeks make it gone, you know, just from deep tissue massage.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, the giveaway too is the bow.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, that's, that's all you're pulling back with that bicep with that. He's probably just strained it or overused it for some reason, especially since he's connected like something do with my bow. Because everyone.

[Sal Destefano]

Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see what's at. Mind Pump.

[Doug]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically, improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, anabolic maps, performance and material 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 three 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

[Chris Gethard]

Hi, I'm Chris Gethard and I'm very excited to tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random people and on the phone I tweet out a phone number. Thousands of people try to call. Talk to one of them. They stay anonymous. I can't hang up. That's all the rules. I never know what's gonna happen. We get serious ones. I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison. I've talked to people who survived mass shootings. Crazy, funny ones. I talked to a guy with a goose laugh. Somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends. I never know what's gonna happen. It's a great show. Subscribe today.

[Adam Schaefer]

Beautiful.

[Chris Gethard]

Anonymous.