2826: The Least Amount You Can Train and Still See Results

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Mind Pump Ep. 2826

"The Least Amount You Can Train and Still See Results"

Date: April 1, 2026
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deeply into the minimum effective dose of exercise needed for visible and meaningful results, cutting through common mainstream fitness myths about volume and intensity. The Mind Pump crew explores how little you can do—both as a beginner and for seasoned lifters—and still make progress (sometimes surprisingly rapid progress), while addressing sustainability, lifestyle, and mental health around fitness. The show also features live call-ins from listeners at varying fitness levels, offering personal stories and tailored coaching.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. What's the Least You Can Train for Results?

[03:32–07:00]

• Sal opens: "You already know the benefits of working out. Build muscle, burn body fat... but what's the least amount you can do to get results?"
• Research: Even one isometric contraction weekly can yield measurable strength gains for complete beginners ([04:32]).
• Minimum recommendation: One full-body strength training session per week is enough for visible change, with two sessions being plenty for most people.
• Adam: "One day a week of a full body routine will show change in someone's physique." ([05:27])

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2. Consistency Over Intensity and Volume

[07:00–10:55]

• Most gym newbies overdo it (e.g., 5–6 days/week), get burned out, and drop off.
• Start slow: Build a weekly habit (even one workout/one day), then increase over time as routine becomes ingrained.
• "Being consistent is more important than being intense."
• Justin: "That's the cool part of training—it ebbs and flows... One to two times a week is so great because it's attainable." ([07:00])

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3. Real-Life Success Story: Doug’s Transformation

[11:59–16:58]

• Doug’s journey: Years of overtraining with minimal results, then switched to two days a week of strength training (with Sal coaching).
• Results: Gained significant strength (deadlift from 135 to 405 lbs) and transformed his physique, despite being over 45 years old.
• "One day a week gets you about 60-70% of all the results you could ever expect from strength training. Two gets you 75%, three days about 85%." ([14:49])

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4. Why Most People Overtrain

[15:04–16:58]

• Many follow pro bodybuilder routines (high volume, intensity) without understanding the importance of recovery.
• Doug: "I thought I had to take every set, every rep to failure... didn't realize the concept of having to recover as a key component."
• Nutrition is equally important: Most overtrain and under-consume protein.

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5. Key Guidelines for Minimal and Effective Training

[18:52–21:16]

• 1–2 full-body workouts per week, or even just "one big lift" per day, 4-5 times/week, both can work for busy people.
• Consistency beats all: "The person who does something consistently and never stops is always going to do better."
• Sal: "You've probably tried the other way—going hard and quitting. Why not try this? You'll be more consistent." ([20:42])

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6. Lifestyle, Stress, & Modern Barriers

[21:16–26:56]

• Today's lower physical resilience (due to sedentary work, high stress from tech and media) makes traditional high-volume routines less tolerable for most.
• Justin: "We're less physically capable and mentally, internally, more stressed… we can't handle the same stimulus."

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7. Simple Recipe for General Public

[24:56–25:39]

• Sal: "One or two full-body workouts a week + 8,000 steps a day. That's it. If everyone did just that, we'd see significant progress."
• Dietary tip: "Eat protein-centric meals first, from whole foods. No need to obsess over calorie counting unless you're trying to optimize further." ([25:39])

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8. Handling Body Image & Plateaus

[65:07–76:39] — Caller: David

• Background: David, down from almost 300 lbs to 210, great strength numbers, eating 3500+ calories, but still mentally struggles with loose skin and body image.
• Advice:
  • "It's all in your head, dude." – Sal ([65:24])
  • Focus on performance, strength, and enjoying workouts—not harshly inspecting physique.
  • Don't hyperfocus on one "flaw"; over time, skin will tighten, body will continue to recomp.
  • Optimize sleep before changing any main training or diet variables.
• Memorable moment: Sal, half-joking, half-serious: "Just do the courageous thing. Next time you go to the pool, take your shirt off. Have fun with your kids. You're fine." ([71:58])

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9. Body Recomp, Consistency, and Small Adjustments

[78:13–86:44] — Caller: Amelia

• Issue: Strong, more muscle definition when flexed, but feels "soft" at rest. Busy & inconsistent, lower steps, sometimes eats carbs before protein.
• Suggestion:
  • Pick one habit to nail perfectly (protein intake, steps, or not missing a workout).
  • Sal: "Don't try to be consistent with everything at once. Nail one thing, then add the next."
  • For her: Focus on 150g protein/daily, then add steps or workouts.
  • Use a program like MAPS Anabolic (~2–3 full-body sessions/week), aligned to her lifestyle.

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10. Training While Pregnant: Focus on Feeling Good, Not Progression

[87:53–96:44] — Caller: Marisol

• 14 weeks pregnant: Anabolic may be too intense; switch to MAPS Starter (lower intensity, adjusts for fatigue/nausea).
• Advice:
  • "You’re building a body right now. Focus on feeling good, not progress."
  • Rest as long as needed between sets; never rush.

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11. Breaking Out of a Plateau: Food Quality & Simplicity

[98:04–107:18] — Caller: Mackenzie

• Background: 20 years lifting but only recently seeing progress via Mind Pump advice. Goals: Lose to 170 (currently 206), look proportioned and healthy.
• Nutrition: Hits protein but a lot comes from processed foods/shakes.
• Advice:
  • Cook and prep all food from whole sources; eat protein first at every meal.
  • Minimal effective training: MAPS 15 Dumbbell version—just 2 exercises/day, ~15–20 min, fits busy schedule.
  • Coach support offered for accountability.

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12. Strength Training = Rest + Recovery, Not Just Weights

[97:08–98:01]

• "What makes strength training is the rest periods… The only way to mess up rest is by making them too short." ([97:29])
• Big myth: "If you're struggling to catch your breath between sets, you're missing out on gains by not resting enough."

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Sal ([05:27]): "One day a week of a full body routine will show change in someone's physique."
• Justin ([07:00]): "It's not a linear thing...the one to two time a week thing is great, because consistency-wise, you'll do best."
• Sal ([10:10]): "Most people...do too much and end up with less results."
• Doug ([16:58]): "There's a bodybuilding myth—no such thing as overtraining, just undereating. That's crazy."
• Sal ([14:49]): "You can get 60–70% of the results with just one day a week."
• Justin ([18:34]): "It's just not stressed enough...everyone thinks you have to punish and intensify to get the physique you want."
• Sal ([20:42]): "The person who does something consistently and never stops is always going to do better."
• Sal ([25:55]): "If everybody just did one full body workout a week and walked 8,000 steps, we'd see serious improvements."
• Sal ([65:24]): "It's all in your head."
• Sal ([71:58]): "Do the courageous thing—next time you go to the pool, take your shirt off. You're fine, dude."
• Sal ([86:51]): "You can look back from pictures and say, hey, I've improved. But if you want to accelerate… it's time to tighten up something."

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Recommended "Minimal Dose" Recipe for Results

• Training:
  • Minimum: 1 full-body strength workout/week
  • Optimal for most: 2 full-body workouts/week
  • Alternative: 1 big lift/day, 4–5x/week (for busy types)
• Movement:
  • 7,000–8,000 steps/day
• Nutrition:
  • Eat protein-centric whole food meals; protein first at each meal
  • Don't worry much about calorie counting unless advanced
• Recovery:
  • Prioritize sleep (7+ hours) and manage stress

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Additional Memorable Moments

• Doug's recounting of spending $55 at an arcade on a claw machine for a $2 stuffed animal ([34:48–35:16]) – Comedy and parenting reality.
• Discussion on the economics of opening and selling sports card "rip" boxes ([37:43–47:51]) – Tangent, but highlights the obsessive nature people have beyond fitness.
• Caller support: Hosts deliver tough, honest, but caring advice—never shaming, and always reinforcing small, sustainable changes.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:32] Core topic intro: Minimum training for results
• [11:59] Doug’s transformation via minimal training
• [14:49] Data: Results progression by training days per week
• [18:52] One-lift-per-day protocol
• [24:56] Simple public recipe (full-body + 8k steps)
• [65:07–76:39] Caller David—body image, plateau, and realistic expectations
• [78:13–86:44] Caller Amelia—recomp, protein, and real-life consistency
• [87:53–96:44] Caller Marisol—training through pregnancy, "maintenance mode"
• [98:04–107:18] Caller Mackenzie—breaking plateaus through food quality and simple programs

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Original Tone Preserved

The hosts remain witty, warm, and blunt—always ready to bust myths ("That's crazy!"), tell personal anecdotes, and reinforce science over hype. Listeners receive clear calls to action and practical advice, framed with empathy and a no-BS attitude.

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Bottom Line

You can get (and keep) impressive, healthy results from just 1–2 strength workouts per week, provided you focus on whole foods (especially protein), daily movement, and consistency—plus, the less you stress about perfection, the more likely you'll actually build and keep the habits that matter.

“Most people would be thrilled with 60–70% of their potential, and you can get there with much less than what the industry tells you.” —Sal Di Stefano ([14:49])

Transcript

[Mackenzie]

My name is Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

The mother had lost her job because

[Mackenzie]

she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about 10, $10,000 within just a couple of months.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I think that the surprising thing was

[Mackenzie]

by telling a clear story and just

[Sal Destefano]

like really being very clear about what

[Mackenzie]

we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

by the situation that this family was struggling with.

[Doug]

GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform, trusted by over 200 million people.

[Sal Destefano]

Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's

[Doug]

gofundme.com gofundme.com this podcast is supported by GoFundMe.

[Caller Samantha]

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

[Sal Destefano]

Mind Pump.

[Caller David]

Mind Pump.

[Doug]

With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer

[Sal Destefano]

and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we had live callers call in, we got to coach them on air, but this was after the intro. Today's intro is 56 minutes long. Now in the intro we talk about muscle building and fat loss, exercise, diet, current events, family life. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this, here's what you do. Submit your question to mplifecaller.com now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Butcherbox. They deliver grass fed meats, heritage pork, chicken, wild caught fish to your door at incredible prices. And right now, if you go to butcherbox.com mindpump if you're a new user, you'll get your choice between chicken breast included for free for a year, tarpsirloin included for free for a year, or this is my favorite one, ground beef for life plus $20 off. So again, that's butcherbox.com mindpump this episode is also brought to you by Seed, the world's best probiotic. In today's episode, I talk about why Seed's probiotic is so much better than everyone else. Their delivery system is patented. If you want the benefits of a probiotic like better digestion, better skin, better mood, lower inflammation, go to seed.com mindpump Use the code 20mindpump. Get 20% off. These are also the final hours for our new bundle, our training bundle. The bundle includes. This is a spring bundle. It includes Maps Symmetry, the advanced training techniques guide, and Maps Prime. All of that together will over 50% off. It's only 147. Head over to mapsmarch.com Here comes the show.

[Doug]

T shirt time.

[Caller Samantha]

And it's T shirt time.

[Doug]

Ah, shit, Doug. You know it's my favorite time of the week.

[Caller Samantha]

Two winners this week. One for Apple Podcasts, one for Facebook. The Apple podcast winner is MDC 1970. And for Facebook, we have Justin Bergen. Both of you are winners. Send a name I just read to itunesindpumpmedia.com include your shipping address and your.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Caller Samantha]

Your shirt size and we'll get that shirt right out to you.

[Sal Destefano]

All right, real quick.

[Justin Andrews]

If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over atmypumpstore.com. i'm talking right now.

[Doug]

Hit pause.

[Justin Andrews]

Head on over to my pumpstore.com.

[Doug]

that's it. Enjoy the rest of the show.

[Sal Destefano]

You already know the benefits of working out. Build muscle, burn body fat. Look better, feel better. What's the least amount you can do, though, to get results? Two days a week? One day a week? What if you did one exercise a day? Does it actually produce visible results? Well, you're going to hear three experienced trainers talk about this right now. What's the least amount you could do to elicit the most amount of change?

[Justin Andrews]

The answer will surprise you.

[Doug]

Yeah, this, this varies a lot based off of your prior lifting experience. So I think we could, we could have this discussion based off of somebody who's never lifted. What's the least amount you have to do and, and have like, an honest, like. Okay, this is where I think the least amount of volume of training and frequency to stimulate good change and growth. And then I think, I think that becomes even less the, the, the longer you've been training and the more of a foundation that you have.

[Sal Destefano]

Like, we have muscle memory going. Yeah, yeah. Let's start with general. Okay, I hear where you're going. Let's start with person. What's interesting about this, I could pull up studies, I could pull up studies that show that one isometric contract contraction once a week yields significant strength gain.

[Justin Andrews]

That's hilarious.

[Sal Destefano]

Over the course of like eight weeks. So an isometric contraction isn't even a. Like, you're not lifting anything. You're just squeezing, squeezing for 30 seconds.

[Justin Andrews]

You can do that in your chair right Now.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And so there's studies that show that. And so strength gain happens with almost anything if your baseline is nothing. So if you're starting with nothing, almost anything will produce some changes in terms of strength. But, like, what, what would you guys say would be like, the minimum that would kind of produce visible change if someone were consistent with it. Right. Like if someone were consistent with it. And what form of exercise would you choose for this? I think I know what the answer is.

[Doug]

But of course you know. Of course you know, it's strength training. One day a week of a full body routine

[Mackenzie]

will.

[Doug]

Will show change in someone's physique. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two. Two.

[Justin Andrews]

I think consistently.

[Doug]

I mean, two. Two full body changes a week.

[Sal Destefano]

Great results.

[Doug]

Yeah. Could. Could build the physique that I would say 90% of the people are looking for.

[Sal Destefano]

I trained, I had a lot of clients, probably I'd say 40% of my clients. So almost half of my clients towards the back half of my career only train with me once a week now. They were active throughout the week. So they would try doing things like walking or hiking or cycling. So they would still move, but they weren't doing structured workouts. But one day a week, they would do a structured workout with me. And they all were all very pleased. In fact, one of the reasons why they were so, so pleased with the results is they were surprised. They were surprised that they actually saw physical and visible changes, which just like you said, Adam, one full body workout a week. And now I want people to understand that you can progress and change the workout as you go along. So this doesn't mean necessarily you're lifting the same weight, same intensity every time you work out. You're going to get stronger if you do this and you are going to add weight to the bar and you are going to be able to do more reps. So the workout does progress, but you don't need to do more for a long time. And two days a week is plenty. We make the case all the time.

[Justin Andrews]

That's the cool part about training, too, at ebb and Flows. And so it's like you can have a goal and you can seek out this specific goal. You can train for it, you know, and then you could actually shift your entire focus and work on something else to build up strength in different areas and avenues. And I think that, like, it's not a linear thing. Like, people think about, like, creating this routine that's like going to be this long term, forever routine. You're going to interrupt that routine, obviously, you want a baseline that's something consistent. That's why the one to two time a week thing is so great, because it's like this is something that's very attainable and consistency wise you're going to do the best with it and you can fluctuate from there.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. I think another thing to understand with this is your body can only progress so fast. So there's a limit to how quickly your body can progress. And doing more to try to push that to make it happen faster actually starts to make it work slower.

[Doug]

Well, there's a good argument that this is ideally where everybody should kind of start and build on.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Doug]

But it doesn't happen that way. Right. What happens is New Year's resolution. Doctor tells you something. Weddings coming around the corner, summer vacation. You know, there's some sort of external factor that creates this sense of urgency for you or change. And you go from not doing it at all to doing what you think is the most you're capable of doing to move towards that goal. When in reality you would be more ideal to start with just this one day a week and build consistency and, and scale and progress that workout for probably as long as you can until it's like, okay, like I'm loving this so much. And this is now. This is like brushing my teeth now

[Sal Destefano]

I want to do another work.

[Doug]

Yeah, I don't no longer never say whatever day it is. If you find that Sundays are like your easier days to get to this, to start this one day a week routine, I now become the guy who lifts every single Sunday. And I like it and I love it. It's a part of my routine. It's like, huh, I wonder if I became the guy who did Sunday and a one weekday like Wednesday or Thursday or whatever other day that you work and like, and then you start to do that. Like that would be, I think, if people did that. Because here's what's nice about. And it's not that you can't still do too much and over train in a, in a single day. You can usually with intensity and you could still have bad programming. Right. But you're less likely to over train or, you know, do too much of a workout, I guess in a, in a single workout, especially if you keep it, you know, an hour, hour and a half at most for that one workout. I think that you'd probably be all right. Where I find most people when they get started, because of the know, external motivation to do as much as they can, they, they typically do. They do too Much and end up getting less results.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Doug]

And they would get far more if they did a more appropriate dose. And, and that's not just because they're new and getting started. It's also in the context of what they're doing, diet wise, stress and the rest of their life. Yeah, there's, there's so many other variables where if, and let's say that all stayed consistent. You know, the stress levels and, and the, you not being as perfect with the diet and you only introduce one day of strength training, the, the likelihood that that's just going to over spill that stress bucket is less likely than the guy who decides, I'm super motivated. I'm going to go to the gym every day I can and, and push as hard as I can in the context of not getting enough nutrition, not sleeping the best, not, you know what I'm saying?

[Sal Destefano]

I think there's a really, a really interesting way, I think this would be a good way to look at exercise as a way to improve a physical ability and look at diet as a way to manipulate body fat, body composition. Right. So if I. So cardio is for endurance. Strength training for strength and muscle diet is to get leaner. And then there's activity, just daily activity. Daily activity is not for anything other than, it's just good for you to move. So look at it that way. And if I approach strength training with the goal of just getting stronger once a week is plenty of. If I want more endurance, well, then I can have some harder, you know, cardio workouts if I want endurance. But most people don't really care too much about lots of endurance. They just want to look better. So you can actually skip that. You could walk daily for the activity. And then diet, whole food based diet tends to cause that body composition change. I mean there's a, we have someone in this room where we could talk specifically about their personal journey with fitness. It was, it was Doug when Doug hired me. Doug, how old were you when you first hired me?

[Caller Samantha]

Probably about 47.

[Sal Destefano]

So. 47. So Doug Incorrect me if I'm wrong. So I'm going to try and, you know, replay this. Doug came and hired me. He was referred to me by his chiropractor. He was not a beginner. He had experience with workouts and strength training and fitness. Lots of experience. Right. I mean, you've done a lot.

[Caller Samantha]

Since I was 16 years old.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So Doug had done all this stuff and he'd gone through cycles of getting leaner, getting a little bit of body Fat. Never really dropping off, but always doing something, whether it was running or lots of bodybuilding or playing lots of tennis.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah, correct. That's all correct.

[Sal Destefano]

Roller skating.

[Caller Samantha]

Lots of roller skating.

[Justin Andrews]

Those little shorts.

[Sal Destefano]

So Doug comes in and. And hires me based off of the recommendation of a chiropractor with the expectation that I would have him work out with me four or five days a week. So this was actually. Doug was ready to give me money for four, five days a week. And I had. I actually convinced Doug, two days a week, we're just going to lift weights two days a week. Now, on top of that, you were also moving daily. I think you were playing tennis at the time.

[Caller Samantha]

Yes, I was. Tennis, running, like you said, Sometimes lifting weights.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. But mostly it was just me and you lifting weight.

[Caller Samantha]

Oh, so at that time. Yeah, I think I'd cut my tennis down quite a bit.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, at that time, yeah. So we were just lifting twice a week. And so here's Doug, 47 years old when we first started his deadlift started at like 135. He actually came to me with back problems and through two days a week of strength training, got his deadlift up to 405 pounds and radically transformed his body. Two days a week. In fact, this is what can. This is what. One of the reasons why he was encouraged to come and approach me about starting a business around this. That was two days a week. If you actually look at the data on how much you can accomplish with strength training, one day a week will get you about 60%, 60 to 70% of all the results you could ever expect from strength training. Okay, two days a week, you're getting like 75%, three days a week, 85%. Now, if you want to go and be a bodybuilder at some point, you're looking at four, five days a week later on when your body can tolerate it. So consider this. Think of your total potential and capacity for muscle, whatever your body's total capacity is. Now, would you be happy with 70% of that? I think most people will be very happy with that because they're at like 20% of their capacity. And the kicker is this. To get that 70% capacity, if I added more days, oftentimes I'm not making it happen any faster. It's just the limit of where I would end up after years of training. Just to encourage people, very little is required for people to get when it comes to strength training in particular, great results.

[Doug]

Now, even though I know there was many variables at play in, like, Doug's situation if you had to pin it to one main thing, why two days a week served him so much better than four or five days a week training. What would you say?

[Sal Destefano]

He always overtrained? Yeah, always over trained. It was intensity, lots of work. One thing Doug didn't lack is, was motivation and discipline. He was very disciplined, very motivated. If I told him to work out twice a day, I think he would have. But he always overtrained. So this was, I think, the first time you'd experienced appropriate.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah, of course, I got my education from Muscle and Fitness magazine, you know, from Ronnie Coleman and all those guys. Right. And so I thought I had to take every set and every rep to the limit, to failure, and the more the better, you know, I didn't realize the concept of having to recover, you know, as a key critical component of building muscle.

[Doug]

Did you struggle with hitting protein consistently too?

[Caller Samantha]

So that's something I really never even paid attention to.

[Sal Destefano]

No, that was later, dude.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah, I mean, I did, I bought protein powders, sure.

[Doug]

Like that's what everybody does, right? They buy the shakes.

[Caller Samantha]

But I never really focused on having my diet be protein centric.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And, but, and just so people understand

[Doug]

when you're working, which, by the way, is a, is, is a, is a recipe for the trap that you're alluding to right now. Right. So over train because lots of exercise.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Not enough protein because there's, there's, there's, there's a bodybuilding myth that, you know, there's no such thing as overtraining, just under eating.

[Sal Destefano]

That's crazy.

[Doug]

Now, with like many other bodybuilding myths, there's, there is some, there is some truth to it, meaning that in, in Doug's situation, maybe he could have handled three days a week if he was really good about hitting his protein consistently or whatever like that. But typically what we see is people are not only over training, but they're also under consuming protein. And in that context, it's like a recipe for totally hard plateau, not building any muscle or something, not recovering. And so, yes, swinging him back the other direction and all of a sudden, boom, you see this huge.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, here's, here's the thing too. Like, if you're trying this out, I think looking at the mirror and trying to see visible changes is not really a great way to gauge your results, especially in the beginning. Because if you're listening right now and you haven't worked out in a while or you haven't been consistent a while, you're like, okay, I'm going to try this I'm gonna try. One full body workout a week or two full body workouts a week. How do I know it's working? You're getting stronger. And this is exactly what happened to Doug before his body visibly changed. It was weeks of just adding weight to the bar. He was just getting stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. And then, boom, he noticed more muscle. And this process continued for a couple years. So if you're trying this out and you're like, let's see if this works. I'm just going to test it out. Here's what you'll notice the next week. You'll do the workout, do the same exercises, and you'll add. Track. Track your weight. Five pounds of the bar, two reps. Guess what? It's working. You don't need to force it to happen. In fact, forcing it or rushing it often makes it pause and stop. Because now you're compromising. Yeah, the. The adaptation. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I think it, you know, if people would just take the time to experiment with that and find, you know, what their recovery rate consisted of. Like, if they actually put more emphasis on getting your. Your protein, getting good sleep, lowering their stress levels in their lifestyle, like, in general, even just that alone. And then you just stress just enough through exercise. What that would unlock for them in terms of, like, potential results and progress.

[Sal Destefano]

It.

[Justin Andrews]

It's just not. It's not stressed enough. That's why we're always bringing it up, because it's just not in the common zeitgeist with everybody. It's just like, it been marketed that we have to just in order to get the physique we want, we have to punish and intensify and go through this, like, battle to get there.

[Sal Destefano]

I just had this. By the way, there's another way to do this. You could do one workout a week, or you could do one lift a day, five days a week. So there's two approaches to this. So one workout a week, five lifts in the workout would take you about an hour. Or you could just do one lift a day. So whichever one works better for you. I'm actually finding a lot of people do better with the one lift a day, especially if they have a home. Totally a home gym. I was just having this conversation with my friend Justin. He's an ER doctor and he's got that lifestyle right. So ER doctors tend to, like, intensity, and he's got that mentality around a lot of things. And so I took him through a workout, I trained him, and he was just shocked. He's like, you know, I always thought I had to, like, barely move the next day and beat myself up. I'm like, no, dude, that's why you're. It's so. That's why you feel so burnt. That's why it's hard for you to be consistent, and that's why it's hard for you to see progress. And so I trained him appropriately and he's like, I feel good. Like, that's how you're supposed to feel. And this, that was our first workout. Now you just wait because you know it's going to happen. I'm going to train him again this coming week, and we're going to do the same exercises and he's going to see us add weight to the bar and it's going to blow his mind.

[Justin Andrews]

Stronger and more energized.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. And he's going to be like, I can't. How am I progressing? Because the exercise sends the signal. It's not the thing that gets. You're not building the muscle during the workout, you're just sending the signal. But if you overdo it, which is easy to do, then there is no adaptation process that's. That's happening. And you can go really far with this approach. Plus, let's, let's look at the other half of this, which is the real challenge is consistency. Anyway, so, you know, you've already probably experienced this, where you've just started, really motivated, do a bunch, then stop, and just this on off of thing. The person who does something consistently and never stops is always going to do better.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So that's the other part of this too is even if it's hard for you to believe what we're saying, you've already tried the other way and you know you failed because you stopped. So why don't you just do it this way anyway? Because you're going to be more consistent.

[Doug]

Well, yeah, it'd be interesting to see like, long, long studies that were pulled out a year or two, the total volume over a year or two. Because I wouldn't be surprised if they're

[Sal Destefano]

going three months and going off for six months.

[Justin Andrews]

Stretch it out.

[Doug]

That's what I'm saying. Like, you might, you might go real hard, but then the, the person who ends up just doing the super low volume one day a week or the Two. Two days a week.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Right. Like at the end of, if we actually zoomed out over two years and you factor in how much more consistent that person is to just committing to one or two days over two years. It'd be interesting to see how different the volume actually is. You know, it wouldn't probably be, you know, there's a reason why I think we saw such a huge response to Maps 15. I don't think we'd seen anything like that since probably Maps anabolic maps aesthetic time. I mean we, we had a big, we had a big push. There's a lot of people that were interested in maps aesthetic, but maps anabolic as far as like the, the results and it blows people's mind because we, we really convinced a lot of body part split my full body routines out and I think it blew a lot of people's minds. And it's always been the flagship product and what we've written 25 or so programs. Yeah. Since then. And nothing I think has got as many people or as much feedback as map 15 has. And I think that has a lot to do. And I wonder sometimes too, like is that, is it, was that, was that general, like a general rule forever or is it more because of kind of where we're at today? Like I brought this up in the a podcast recently where we have this like low level stress all day long, more so it feels like than we did. Just like we had more acute stress back in the days. Right. I brought up like the you know, world war stuff and like crazy, you know, run for your life type of stress, but very slow paced kind of life. If it was, if it wasn't something like that.

[Sal Destefano]

I think part of it is in the direction you're going. Part of it is people are just physically less resilient today because they're just, we're just not active. Yeah. You go back 60 years, inundated 70 years. You know, since you were 12, you were physically laborious, like things were physical. I don't care if you were a stay at home wife or a, a guy going out to work. Like you had to wash clothes by hand. You're doing things by, you're moving all the time. So now you take the average, you know, 35 year old, 40 year old. It's like I want to start working out. What does your day normally look like? Well, I wake up. Yeah. I get in the car, I drive to work, I sit at my desk all day. I come home, sit down, eat and I watch TV and I go to bed. So you're going to go from that to three days a week, four days a week, working?

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's more like sleep and gut problems.

[Sal Destefano]

That's another one.

[Doug]

Well, and that's all going back to where I'm going, which is like the stress, the low level stress stuff I think that you have with phones and

[Justin Andrews]

the pandemic and all ruining circadian rhythms,

[Doug]

politics and the divide and like, I mean, and I know we've always had that, but it's never been front and center all day long for everybody. We've become addicted to these phones. And so we have this front row seat to all this stress and drama all day while also being.

[Sal Destefano]

And less connected in real ways and less.

[Doug]

And we're, and we're sedentary so we're less physically capable. We're, we're mentally and internally stressing ourselves out. That is got to be a recipe for not being able to handle a physical stimulus at the same intensity and level as we could.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, think about it, think about it this way. When we're in here, when we come to work here and we're in this sound, you know, proof, you know, box with electric lights or whatever, and we're here from let's say 9:30 to 5. Sometimes we don't walk out. Sometimes we eat. Here we go all day long. Yeah, I leave tired. Yeah, I leave tired.

[Doug]

And then you're not physically, there's no

[Justin Andrews]

way your physical is to sit. And you know that that's what you're telling your bodies to kind of like really keep your energy levels.

[Sal Destefano]

Dude, not only do I leave tired, but then I can't sleep. Yeah, then I can't sleep.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So imagine if you did that every day, how you would feel. Yeah. But you know, by the way, if you want like a good recipe for a consistent routine that will give you great results for a while. We don't even have to talk about diet because of course diet's important. We're just talking about the workout part. Lift weights one or two days a week, full body and walk 8,000 steps a day. Done. You're done. Everybody listening right now. Unless you're already fit and you're fanatical, it's an antidote really if everybody in society just did that one basic full body workout a week or two. But even if we just did one and just made sure they walked 8,000 steps a day, everybody would see significant consistent progress.

[Doug]

Well, especially, especially if you pay paired that with. The only tip regarding nutrition is eat protein centric meals first. Right. Eat protein, whole food, whole foods, protein first. And like, don't overcomplicate it. Don't count macros, don't count cow. Just do that.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it.

[Doug]

And yeah, you get a real.

[Sal Destefano]

I was just having a conversation with my cousin because he's, he's been working out more consistently. We're talking. He's like, dude, it's crazy. He's like, it's so. He's like, I. I'm trying to get my body fat down to 15. I think he's at like 17 and a half or 18, but he's, you know, he's, he's. He does Jiu Jitsu, plus he lifts. And he's like, should. What should I do? I said, well, you have two options. I said, one, you could track your calories. And cut. I said, you'll notice a drop in performance for Jiu Jitsu because your calories will be at a deficit. You'll be hungry. I said, anytime you're, You're. If you're dropping a half percent to a percent a week, you're going to feel hungry. I said, or I said, you could do this. Eat your body weight and protein. Eat only whole foods. And what will happen over time is you'll get body composition change. When your body wants to build, you'll eat a little more. When your body's ready to burn body fat, you'll eat a little less. You don't need to track anything. I said, it'll take you longer to get to 15%, but you're not going to notice performance drops in Jiu Jitsu. You're not going to feel like you're dieting. And we had this whole conversation about it, and he's like, it totally know. Totally click.

[Doug]

You know? Do you think, though? Because this is like, we do give this advice a lot and this is thinking out loud right now because I brought up to you guys one of the last podcasts we recorded, the kind of the epiphany I had with my family member that's taking a GLP one and just. I was so surprised on, like, how, how disconnected they were to, like, the response that they were getting from food. And so because of that, do you think that people's relationship with food is so effed up?

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Doug]

That. That's. Even though it's a simple piece of advice. Still hard, it's still so. Of course it is so difficult, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

The. The average American's calories, 70% of their calories come from processed foods. Yeah. So you tell someone to only eat whole foods. Radical change. Radical change. But. But by the way, that's one of the only changes you need to make.

[Doug]

That's why I, I think even, I think even I know I Know that is better advice. Right. Because it's truly like the recipe for getting healthy pretty fast. The easier step is just the protein thing is like you're probably going to go out and doordash.

[Sal Destefano]

So just see your body weight and protein.

[Doug]

So at least eat your body weight and protein and eat the protein first is probably the easier first step. And then along the way do your best to move in the direction of it being whole foods.

[Justin Andrews]

Sure.

[Doug]

Right, sure. So and that's kind of how I've always. I, when I, when, when I get tighten up my nutrition, that's kind of the order I, I always go, okay, I know I'm always under eating protein go after that first. I'm still doordashing some of my meals or I'm still getting stuff that's processed. But let's. And in my head I'm scoring my. Even if I hit a perfect day of protein, that's not a perfect score for me. It's not a perfect score until I get whole foods. Everything come all the protein comes from natural sources. That's a 10 out of 10 day. And so I'm always striving to get that that way. But I'm always focusing on hitting the protein and then trying to get better. About the.

[Sal Destefano]

I bet you, you know what would be helpful is if we like really advocated maybe we should do this really push like national, you know, meal prep day. Like hey everybody, Sundays, everybody go meal prep and grill your food. That would make a big difference. By the way, did you guys see the offer that Butcherbox is doing right now? You can get ground beef included in your, in your thing for life, for a lifetime. Yeah. If you sign up, you know, you pick your cuts or whatever, send your meats, they'll throw in ground beef for free.

[Justin Andrews]

Just throw it in?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

What?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, yeah. The other option, the other option is chicken breast for a year.

[Justin Andrews]

Sirloin I believe was the other one.

[Doug]

I mean you, you funny you bring that up. I know you don't. You're never on Instagram anymore. Anymore. That's what I post a lot on Sunday. Sundays is meal prep day. So I share what I share what I meal.

[Sal Destefano]

I grew up like three. I do like three.

[Justin Andrews]

You can pretty much make anything.

[Doug]

So yesterday, yesterday, like my go to thing, one of my go to things because I grill a lot yesterday I didn't grill is in the big iron skillet I have. I can fit three and a half to four pounds of ground beef in there.

[Sal Destefano]

Dude.

[Doug]

That I Montreal season.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. And for your size, guy For a guy like you, that's four days of food.

[Doug]

I saute. I do a whole onion. I chop up a whole onion, saute that in olive oil, slow simmer. So it takes 30, 45 minutes to do that.

[Caller David]

Why?

[Doug]

And then at the same time, I do two big old baskets of mushrooms in ghee and garlic salt.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, man, you're going overboard.

[Doug]

That's good, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

But it's delicious.

[Doug]

It's easy, though, because these are. These are slow simmering.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So you just put them on.

[Doug]

So I just put them on, and

[Sal Destefano]

then you cook a big thing, and then.

[Doug]

And I got the crock. I got the big thing of rice with 6 cups of rice in there, and I. I'm doing the meat and by. And it's all done at once. It takes the same amount of time to do all of those, so it's easy to manage all of them. And then I literally take the scooper and scoop the cup of rice out. I do two of the. The ground beef, mix in the onions and the mushrooms, and then the, like, I bring up the breakfast, you know, time. It's like, man, you crack two or three eggs over the top of one of those.

[Sal Destefano]

Breakfast. So good. Yeah.

[Doug]

So good for breakfast.

[Justin Andrews]

It was so funny. So I was like. I brought my son and his friends. They're all teenagers, teenage boys up, you know, with me.

[Sal Destefano]

Endless appetite, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

And so I was there without Courtney. Normally, Courtney is, like, the big cook, and she pretty much handles a lot of. Pretty much every day, handles all the cooking. And so I'm, like, making them breakfast, and we literally take one of those, like, 18 or. I don't even know, the biggest one of, like, eggs, and we. I literally used all of it, all the bacon. I had, like, four. Four bags of bacon cooked all of that. This. Just one breakfast. I was like, I'm out.

[Doug]

Time to go restock.

[Justin Andrews]

I cooked up 20 burgers at the same time. And I'm like, oh, my God. Grease fire. Like, I had to, like, shift them around, like, constantly moving them because, like, you know, you let them. They start dripping, and I'm just like, oh, my God. I just felt like I was in a factory or something.

[Sal Destefano]

Dude, that's hilarious.

[Justin Andrews]

Crazy.

[Sal Destefano]

I just forgot. I remember when I was that age, I was, like, like, 15. Your boy's 16, right? These are 16.

[Doug]

16, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

He's turned 16, I think I was 15, right around that age. And my dad, in the summer would take us. Would take me to work with him, and every once in a while, as a treat, he Would take us to, you know, Burger King or something like that, bro. I would order two giant meals as a 15 year old boy and just eat it all. Yeah, I don't even know how I did that without, like puking.

[Doug]

Well, and that's the thing is they'll.

[Justin Andrews]

Their tendency will then go to the junk food and the fast food and this. That I'm trying to. And I'm like, oh my God, this requires a lot of grocery shopping. This is so much, dude. Like, it's baffling.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. I got to tell you guys this, this weekend, so funny. There's. You guys know that bowling alley over there by the. By the mall by Oak Ridge? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they have an arcade in there. And so my son, if he gets so many days in a row of doing his. This is my 5 year old. Of his evening routine by himself, you know, brush your teeth, put on your pajamas, put your clothes away, do the whole thing and morning routine. Then he gets a star and if he gets so many stars and then I'll do something with him, right? So this prize was, I'm gonna take you bowling because that's what you want to do. So we go bowling and then they have an arcade there. And so we're playing the arcade and they have this Ninja Turtles game. And one of my favorite things to do with my son, because we never play video games unless we're at an arcade is regardless of how much it costs, I'll buy a card with 50 bucks on it and we'll play a game till we win. Because he gets so pumped to win this game. So we played Ninja Turtles, beat the whole game. He was super psyched. Then we had a little bit of money left and he's like, oh, let me see if I can win a prize for Dalia, his baby sister, my 3 year old. And like, second time in, he wins this. It was super easy. Picks up the stuff. He wins it. It's like, it's a great thing. Brings it home. She's like, if you give my 3 year old a stuffy, it's like you just. I don't know, it's like she won the lottery. It's like so excited. Even though she's not into it two days later. Whatever. I don't know what it is about stuffy. She's like my big brother. She's hugging him and I'm so excited. So she remembered that, right? So a week later, my. My son earned it again. So I said, all right, what do you want to do? He's like, let's just go play at the arcade. So we're leaving. And my daughter's like, oh, can you get me a stuffy again? Now, I wasn't thinking right because my wife was making a face, but I wasn't paying attention. So I'm like, oh, yeah, we'll bring you a stuffy. And my wife's like, what if you don't win? I'm like, no, super easy, dude. Like, it was an easy game. Like, I know we'll win again.

[Justin Andrews]

Put that doubt in my mind, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

We get there, we. We win the video games, we beat Ninja Turtles. I'm like, okay, we got 10 bucks left on the card. This is like three tries. We'll win this thing. Couldn't win the stuffy. So I'm like, oh, no, my daughter. So I put $40 on the card, bro. You're.

[Doug]

You're like a hundred dollars in like a $2 stuffy, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

I put $40 on because I'm like, I'll win it, and then we'll have money left over when we come back. Didn't win it. So I'm like, am I gonna have to go to the store? I'm like, I don't want to drive somewhere else. So out of laziness, I'm like, I'll put another 15 bucks. So now we're like like 55 bucks in for this piece of crap. Did not win, dude. We had to drive to the. I had to drive to the. To another store because I'm like, if I go home without a stuffy, she's gonna flip out, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, my God.

[Sal Destefano]

So we went all the way to Target, bought her a stuffy, and came home so that her eight dollar stuffy cost me like 65 bucks. I was so. Bro, I was gonna shake the machine, dude. I was like, what's happening?

[Justin Andrews]

Which machine is the claw one?

[Doug]

Yeah, it's a claw one.

[Justin Andrews]

Did you not see that? Like, somebody posted the hack to that.

[Doug]

There's a hack? Yeah, there's a hack.

[Sal Destefano]

Is it real?

[Justin Andrews]

Multiple times. And then it like it hovered. I don't remember. Watch the video.

[Sal Destefano]

It's like the Konami code.

[Justin Andrews]

There's like, there's a certain sequence you. And then it has to be just like hovering at like a certain angle over it. And then it comes down and grabs and pulls. And it's like.

[Sal Destefano]

Because you know that those. Those claw machines are like slot machines. They will. It's not your skill. No, it'll dictate. Yes.

[Doug]

No, one of those.

[Sal Destefano]

It'll Grab hard, so every so often it'll do it, right.

[Doug]

That's not what it is.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, it is.

[Doug]

That true. Google that, Doug.

[Sal Destefano]

Look it up.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah, I can believe it.

[Justin Andrews]

I believe it, though. I mean, you see how they rig all the.

[Doug]

I know. We've. We've won. I've also experienced what you just said where Max and I first tried.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Doug]

I pulled it.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And then it was like.

[Sal Destefano]

I think it's like a slot machine. And so I. That's why I spend so much money. I'm like, well, I've lost so many times. The time to win is coming up. No, dude, every time I lost.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah. So I, you know, talk about, like, gambling for something that's so overpaying again.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes.

[Doug]

Claw machines are designed to be in a shot. Told you.

[Sal Destefano]

Told you.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So it's like you can go in and program.

[Justin Andrews]

All the carnival games are.

[Sal Destefano]

Dude, it's like a slot machine. It's programmed to win, except, like, after so many losses.

[Justin Andrews]

Like the optical illusion with the ring on top of the.

[Doug]

Those bottles.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Like, it.

[Justin Andrews]

It barely fits.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And it looks like, oh, this is

[Sal Destefano]

gonna be easy, you know, but the. Rick. This is different because the claw machine is always going to close but be loose. So it looks like you barely miss it.

[Doug]

Yes, yes.

[Sal Destefano]

But every once in a while, depending on how you know, one of them, it grabs.

[Doug]

I have one and I've won. And then we try and run it back, and then it's like, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Caller Samantha]

Makes so much sense.

[Doug]

Yeah. And I thought I was like, oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, oil stuff on those, like, dishes to make things slip off of them. And dude, it's like, it's.

[Doug]

Yeah, it's.

[Sal Destefano]

It's a game.

[Doug]

I did. I did not. I mean, if it makes so much sense that it is. But it's like.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, because you think it's your technique. It's not your technique. It's the machines. Oh, this is the one. And then it goes. And it grabs it tight. And it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Doug]

So the key is to follow the kid who just dropped his $40 in

[Sal Destefano]

there, come behind how loose the machine is. Like, slot machine.

[Doug]

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's so crazy.

[Sal Destefano]

And that one was. It was. They must have set that thing to nothing.

[Doug]

Did you guys. Did you guys. I had a similar. Like, what am I doing? Right? So did you get. Did I show you guys all the. The baseball card box or the basketball card boxes that I bought.

[Sal Destefano]

You bought.

[Justin Andrews]

Are you getting in on the unboxing stuff?

[Doug]

So, yeah, so my buddies Are like hardcore into it, right? And so over the last, like, we're losing Adam. So listen, so listen, Adam's gonna close. It's. No, I'm not. I'm not. I am not going to close, you guys. I'm going to tell you how stupid I am when I think about it. Right? So, okay, I mean, you know, I collect cards, right? So I collect cards and jerseys and I have stuff like that. Typically what I do is I, I just go frame them. Yeah. I frame them, put them as a nice display and I buy them. I buy them or I go get the card, the, the retail price that where it's currently at in value. And yeah, they look good, right? So that's the thing, right? So now my buddies are like hardcore into the ripping. So what. What I did. Because they're into it. This is me. I'm such a sucker for my friends, right? Because like this, they're. We were into golf. I golf whatever. Whatever it is that they're into. I'm like, I'm down to, you know, to hang out. And I justify it as the. All of us hanging together. So over the last. We hadn't seen each other since just before Christmas. So it's been since November. In fact, we exchanged our Christmas presents finally last, last weekend.

[Sal Destefano]

And is this because they can't do your. Your hobbies because they're expensive? You guys want to go driving?

[Doug]

Yeah. Exactly how this has gone down. So I'm like, all right, so I'm the guy who has to do that, right? So I'm like, that's fine. Right? So. And they get excited because I roll. I roll up with like 30, 40 of those boxes, right? So I, they. I have been buying them since last year. And these. What's cool about these? And I. What I should have done is this. So cards are gotten to the point where the, the branded card, they make a run and then they shut them down, right? So all last year, up until probably January, February this year, I was. Every time I go to Target, I'd see one, I'd buy a box. I'd buy a box, buy a box, right? And they're not cheap anymore. They're like crazy how expensive. They're like 150 to 170 bucks for a box of, you know.

[Sal Destefano]

Really?

[Doug]

Oh, bro, it's crazy.

[Sal Destefano]

What are you doing?

[Doug]

So, so, so I've. So I know.

[Sal Destefano]

Hey, so your doordash Bill. Hey.

[Doug]

So listen, so listen. So we're. We're about to go and, and they're excited I'm coming, I'm coming to town and I'm bringing these boxes for all of us to rip, rip open and stuff like that. And I get online because I've saved them, I can turn around and flip all of them for double what I paid for them.

[Sal Destefano]

So long as they're not open.

[Doug]

Yeah, so long as they're not open right away I could double up my money just holding. Just because I held them. Yeah, because I held them. I didn open them. And there's, and so people crazy about that market. Crazy. Right. So there's a part of me just like, well, I'd love to just. But I know it's, it's about the experience opening up with my buddies and so. Oh, you should. You guys.

[Caller David]

I'll.

[Doug]

You guys are gonna freak out when I show you how many. I mean it took us, you know, we have, there was five of us friends and I'm giving out all my card packages to open and it took us an hour and a half, two hours to get through them, to just open them. Right. And go through. And you know, I got a lot of cards that are worth 50 bucks, 100 bucks here and there and stuff like that. I, I, you and you're, you're on the hunt for like one of the autographed or like rare numbered cards. And I get one of them, right. It's literally like the second to last package. And it's this card right now is, is retailing at like two thousand dollars. Yeah, it's a two thousand dollar card, right. That I pull. And that almost covers the expense of all, all the, and you of. And all the cards we ripped. This card has a scrape across the top left hand corner, which is so crazy. And my buddies are like, dude, it's so rigged that they do this on to keep the, the limited perfect cards down. It's like you got the card.

[Justin Andrews]

So they intentionally did.

[Doug]

That's, that's what they believe.

[Sal Destefano]

Because you opened a brand new package.

[Doug]

Yes, brand new. And not a single, I mean we're talking about. I went through thousands of cards. It was the only.

[Justin Andrews]

Every one of those cards in that package you open weren't scratches.

[Doug]

That one, not. Oh, not just that one. Every card that we owe cards, we probably went through all of them. Just that one card. Just that one card that also was the most expensive. Most expensive card suspect. Yes. And so right away that it's still, it'll still be worth probably a couple hundred bucks even at the, even like that. But it's, it takes it away from being one of the perfect 10 cards.

[Justin Andrews]

That's so slow.

[Doug]

And then when you do the math on like, how much I spent to do all that stuff, I would have been better out. I would have saved money going and just buying that card perfectly graded and everything.

[Sal Destefano]

Sold your boxes.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Held on to it and then.

[Doug]

But I mean, you miss out on the experience and the rush.

[Sal Destefano]

They know how much you love them, dude. Your friends know.

[Doug]

They should. I hope they do. I hope they do. Because, yeah, like, the business mind of me goes, well, that was actually a smart play. Just buying those early, hanging on to them till after the se. Towards the end of the season. And then I could have turned around and flipped and doubled my money right away.

[Justin Andrews]

Freaking Logan. Paul's still going hard with those Pokemon cards, dude.

[Doug]

Holy crap.

[Sal Destefano]

Is.

[Justin Andrews]

Are those things worth a lot? I'm like, well, he made.

[Doug]

He made millions off of that card.

[Justin Andrews]

10 something million records.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

I think he bought it for like 2 million. Sold for like 10. Something like that.

[Sal Destefano]

Silly dude. That's so wild.

[Justin Andrews]

So weird.

[Doug]

It is.

[Sal Destefano]

I couldn't do that even if. Even if you told me, like, this is a great. It's like, I just can't do it.

[Justin Andrews]

And it's weird because it's like, he's worth those money. He's. He's, you know, obviously he's doing the whole like WWE thing and all that, but then that's like a. He's always advertising Pokemon cards. Like, he's so into that. It's like, I wonder if you get that.

[Sal Destefano]

I wonder if him. Because of the publicity around it. And it's him actually also Dr. Oh, absolutely.

[Justin Andrews]

Of course. Of course. He's a big.

[Sal Destefano]

Interesting.

[Doug]

You can use your own celebrity created

[Justin Andrews]

that market, I'm sure.

[Doug]

Well, they're trying to, you know, they're trying to convince me to do is the two. The two of them is. They. They want me to back it and drive to one of these. So. So listen, all the math on this is crazy how this works, okay? So this is how I learned. Listen to how this works, okay? Body cards. So they. They have these, these. They have these live guys on like the, you know, the live. You know, if you guys are paying attention to Gary Vee's been telling every, like, live shopping is back. Like QVC now is like the next humongous whatnot. And the sports card market is like one of the hottest things. And so what a guy does is exactly. What I do is you buy all these boxes and then what you do is you go in these live chats or 30, 40, 50, 100 people are in. If you're really famous, there's thousands of people in there. But if, even if you're small time, 30, 50 people are in there. And then what you do, every person that wants to be a part of the auction and that wants in to watch me open the cards. Watch me open you. Basically, you. You, Annie up 20 bucks or 25 bucks. And 25 bucks, you randomly spin a thing, and then you get a team out of the. So there's 30 teams. You get one of the teams, and that's my team. So I pay. Basically, I pay 20. And any card that I open up, that's that team. You get that. I ship it to you. You get it. So it's like gambling, where it's, like, interesting and so. And so. And if it's one of the teams where there's hot players on that team that are worth the cards are worth more, the auction will go up. And so it's like. And you. And you learn. So now here, do the math real quick. Okay, so a box costs about 150, 170 bucks. For this, you get 30 people in there. Each person pays $20 just to get a team. Not only that, but even if. Because there's the chance that all these cars get distributed and your team never even comes up, you have everybody that Annie's in is a 4.95 shipping fee that you have to pay because that guy's going to ship you all those things, and you. You lose that no matter what, whether you get a thing or not. So everybody gets nailed for $5 guarantee. So they have five times 30. That's 150. Your cost for the box is already done. It's done. And then everybody pays $20 for a team. You're. You're positive.

[Sal Destefano]

So they're. Let me guess. They're telling you, hey, Adam, you have an audience. Why don't you do this? You should probably get this many people on there.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I listen.

[Doug]

I told them I'll finance it and I'll drive traffic to it if you guys do it. I'm not going to sit on there for that Would require so much.

[Sal Destefano]

I want to watch you open. Guards.

[Doug]

No, I am not going to be

[Justin Andrews]

the nerdiest thing I've ever heard.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I'm a huge.

[Doug]

That's.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm going to do a total Star wars version of that.

[Sal Destefano]

Justin will give you a wedgie, dude, if you do.

[Doug]

Hey, yeah, it is.

[Caller Amelia]

It's.

[Doug]

But it's swirly that. That. Then it got me going because I'm like, okay, well, that what I would do. Because they're into it. It's like. Because that's part of it too. You have to really. No, I. I don't. There's lingo. You gotta know. Yeah, I don't know the lingo. I don't know the, like, all the different. I have to ask them, like, if I get a car, I'm like, is this a good one? Like, because it's not just a player. There's, like, certain ones that are rare. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, they, like, if it's a hollow, a cracked eyes, like, there's all these cracked. Yeah, bro. There's all these crazy, crazy names for all. And so it's a trip, dude. It's like a whole, whole different world that I've been introduced to because they're so into it. I'm like, hey, I'll. I'll finance it, and you guys do it, and I'll tell people, hey, my buddies are doing this. Get, you know, the room full of 50 people. I said, I'm pretty sure. I know I do, because anytime I show cards, I get dms. So there's obviously enough mind pump listeners that also collect cards.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm sure there's a ton of.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah. And so I'm like, I can fill a room up with 30 to 50 people that I.

[Sal Destefano]

But how are their wives all happy about this?

[Doug]

Our wives. My wife is, like, cracking up. She's like, you guys are like, you guys are hilarious. And I. My buddies.

[Sal Destefano]

I bet their wives are super reverse turned on.

[Doug]

Well, no, my buddies. My buddy's wife does not, because it's an addiction for him. Like, for me, it's like, my wife's never even seen me do this. I have the discipline to buy those boxes and forget about them forever. It's more about when we get together and open it. Like. And I get it. There's a rush. I mean, after I'm. I'm like, come on, come on. Yeah, so. And you're. And you're sliding through them and you. You know, and like I said, they all. They look different. So you can tell when, like, one's.

[Sal Destefano]

You have to wear gloves. So you get fingerprints on them. No, but there's.

[Doug]

There's a. There's a. There's like, okay, like, there's lingo. There's a way to open them. Of course there's a way to look at them. You know what I'm saying? And so if there's like if there's a new guy, the group that's.

[Caller Amelia]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Sal Destefano]

What are you doing? That's how you slide. Rip all the clothes off.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. There's, there's a way you do it. So there's like the anticipation and it's all this culture that's been created from this online phenomenon of shopping on whatnot and. And these break what they call breakers that break these.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Doug]

It's. I. I found out there's. There's people that are paying for these silver cases of cards that are guaranteed to have high end cards in it. $11,000.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Caller Amelia]

What?

[Doug]

Yeah. 11 for. For 13.

[Sal Destefano]

We're so close to a society collapse. I feel stuff like this. What are we. I watched, surprisingly, I watched a movie this weekend that was so good. Like, it's. How often do you guys watch a movie that's actually good?

[Caller Samantha]

Rare.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh yeah, it's rare.

[Sal Destefano]

So I didn't even hear about this movie.

[Justin Andrews]

Last Dune was like, what? I said.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes. So my wife and I, like had nothing to do. And I'm like, you know the movies. She's like, yeah, is there anything good playing? So I'm going through looking and nothing looks interesting. But there's a sci fi movie, which I love sci fi, no matter what. Even bad sci fi I enjoy, I'm with. So I'm like, maybe I'll convince her to watch the site. It's called Hail Mary and it's. It is a sci fi movie. And I'm like, oh. And as I show her and then I look at the Rotten tomatoes, it's like 94%. So I'm like, well, that's a really good.

[Doug]

That's for a sci fi. It's real high.

[Sal Destefano]

Really good rating. It is. So she, she gave in. She's like, what? Fine. You want to watch it? I'll watch it with you, bro. That is a. It is a great movie. Now it's not. It's definitely sci fi, but it's. It's endearing. It's actually an endearing. Touching.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, what's the premise? Is this AI driven or what's the.

[Sal Destefano]

No, this guy. I don't want to ruin it for you, but. And you can look at, look up the ratings on it, Doug, right now because it's like, it broke records.

[Doug]

What.

[Sal Destefano]

It made the most money in a release of any non sequel movie. So look at Rotten Tomatoes or. What is that?

[Doug]

Wow.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah, it's Rotten Tomatoes.

[Doug]

95, 96%, Bro Project.

[Sal Destefano]

Hail Mary. It's so good. It was great. It gets you. Like, I don't.

[Justin Andrews]

Ryan Gosling. Is that who that is?

[Doug]

Ryan Gosling?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

[Doug]

So he.

[Sal Destefano]

So basically, I don't want to give it away. There's this. This phenomenon that's happening in space that scientists identified as. It's. It's. That's. It's slowly dimming the sun. And so they have to figure out how to solve this problem, because if they don't, in 30 years, like, Earth is going to go extinct, basically. He's a science teacher, but he's also this kind of expert on biology, and he wrote this paper that piqued the interest of, like, the, you know, like the world leaders. So they. They. I don't want to give it away, but he ends up going on this trip, this basically suicide mission because, like, you're not gonna be able to come back.

[Doug]

Armageddon kind of contact.

[Sal Destefano]

But it's really endearing. He ends up meeting this, like, alien, you know, probe. And then the alien itself is also trying to figure it out. So they end up working together. But it's like. It's really good. It was a really, really good.

[Justin Andrews]

Wow.

[Doug]

Yeah. Interesting. Check it out.

[Caller Samantha]

I find it interesting when I look up this movie in Rotten Tomatoes, there's another movie on the side. It says what to watch. And now playing rad 42.

[Doug]

Rad is out. Yeah. I don't know.

[Caller Samantha]

It just came up on my screen.

[Doug]

They did, like, a comeback. Yeah, I think it's the. The 40th or 50th, something like that kind of anniversary. It's an anniversary that's out right now. I don't remember what it is. It'd be probably 40. I think it's about right?

[Sal Destefano]

Have you.

[Caller Samantha]

Yeah, 1986 is when it was released.

[Sal Destefano]

Have you guys watched? Well, look at this.

[Caller Samantha]

This is hilarious. So the critics gave it a 42%, but the people, like, the. The general public gave it 90%.

[Sal Destefano]

It's got a cult following.

[Doug]

It does.

[Sal Destefano]

It's got a cult following.

[Doug]

Huge cult following.

[Sal Destefano]

Do you. Do you guys. Have you guys tried watching a movie that you loved as a kid?

[Doug]

I watched. I've rewatched this twice in the last.

[Sal Destefano]

You have three years now. Is there anything about it where you're like, oh, that's kind of cheesy?

[Doug]

But, I mean, it's. I mean, yeah, it's got the music, you know what I'm saying? Like, and the slow. The slow mo. Like, you know. Yeah, Send me an angel. And he's like. They're at, like, A high school dance. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you get back. But it's great, though, because you, like, think back so hard to stand. I was on that podcast, and I remember defending it. Oh, I would totally defend it.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Doug]

I think it was great. Yeah. I think it's so.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

So it's. It's very cheesy, but also. It's also great. You know what I'm saying? If you were a kid who was into BMX bikes back then, that was huge.

[Sal Destefano]

Back then. Yeah.

[Doug]

I mean, because think of it this way, like, if you watch the, you know, Ford versus Ferrari, some of these. Which was a great film. Also, if you're into those cars and, you know, that storyline, it's so great. And that during that time, like, Haro and Mongoose and they were all coming out. Yeah. Yeah. So if you know that, like, just forget all the storyline. Like, you get to see those bikes.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. When you're a kid, like, that's what you're into. And it's like the first representation that you just got.

[Doug]

Totally.

[Justin Andrews]

And that. And that happened with a couple sports or hobbies or something like that will just pop up.

[Doug]

You're like, oh, yeah, that's my thing.

[Sal Destefano]

It's so crazy, too, because we were doing crazy things on bikes with no helmets, nothing. We were just.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

We were jumping each other, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Here, lay down. I'm gonna jump over you.

[Doug]

I have photos.

[Justin Andrews]

I got landed on.

[Doug]

I have photos. I have photos of the bottom of tires.

[Sal Destefano]

I still have.

[Doug]

I have a. I have an old album like, I had from a kid. And it's like, us. And I'm wearing MC Hammer pants. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

I remember one time we were. We were up in the hills up in the foothills, San Jose, and we were on our bikes, and my cousin and I were like, hey, let's go straight down the hill. Let's see if we can do it. And thankfully, I was too chicken because I kind of went. Started going down, but then I stopped, but he's kept going. Started hitting hella bumps. We came off the seat and was riding the. The. The pole the whole time.

[Doug]

Dude,

[Sal Destefano]

I'm surprised he has to.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. At least it's still.

[Justin Andrews]

We're part of the whole, like, downhill skateboarding, like, movement where you'd go and you'd have these long boards and they're, like, fat and wide. This is before you could really do

[Sal Destefano]

ollies and all that.

[Justin Andrews]

It was like when it first was coming out and like, we would bomb as fast as we could. And literally, like one time I was doing that with flip flops. Explain that. Dude, my feet were just shredded. I had like road burn all over my knees. Like. It's so funny because you still see the.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

When you're a kid doing that stuff.

[Sal Destefano]

Dude, that's so great. Yeah. I pulled up some data and some stats on seed. So we got. I got a message from somebody on, you know, or we got a message about seed. And essentially what they said was, I've tried so many probiotics and seed was the one that really solved my gut issues. What's the difference? Why is seed so good? And so I looked up some of the stuff and so here's a few reasons why seed is so different. Number one, they have an outer and inner capsule. The outer capsule protects it from moisture, oxygen and acid while it feeds beneficial bacteria. The inner capsule delivers the probiotics to the colon. And they know this because they have this big digestive system simulator that simulates. And so it actually helps.

[Doug]

Patented.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal Destefano]

This is it. Nobody else has this. Nobody else has it. They also use active fluorescent units to count the. To give you an accurate live cell count other Companies use called CFO. CFU. Excuse me. Which is far less accurate. They use 24 strains, which are specific and have research benefits. And the prebiotic that they use in there is non fermenting and low fodmap. So sometimes people will take a probiotic that has prebiotics in it, but it makes them bloated. And like, what's going on? It's because the prebiotic they use is fermenting, but seeds is not.

[Justin Andrews]

It's a live culture. Right?

[Sal Destefano]

It's a live culture. But.

[Justin Andrews]

But you don't have to put it in the fridge.

[Sal Destefano]

No. Because of the way they make the capsules. It stays alive in the capsule, which by the way, the refrigerated ones. It's funny. So who was it? I think it was someone we interviewed from seed. They're like, okay, so it stays alive in the fridge, then you put it in your body. What do you think happens?

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Die.

[Sal Destefano]

That's true.

[Justin Andrews]

On impact. Yeah.

[Doug]

So.

[Sal Destefano]

So with seed, it's. It's protected all the way until it gets to the colon and then that's where it gets released. And that's why it's so much, so much better. So anybody's wondering, like, like there's, there's like. No, they're a unit.

[Justin Andrews]

Compare.

[Sal Destefano]

It's in a completely different universe from other probiotics.

[Doug]

You know, you brought up sci fi movies. I watched last night a sci fi movie on. I think it's Netflix. What's the, what's the guy's name from Guardians of the Galaxy? The main guy?

[Justin Andrews]

Chris Pratt.

[Doug]

Yeah, Chris Pratt. Did you see that one? It's the one where basically the, the judicial. Judicial system is all done. AI so like to speed up the process so that it's fair. Yeah, well, yeah, that's the whole objective. That's the whole idea.

[Justin Andrews]

Like Judge Dread kind of feel or.

[Doug]

No, it's actually. It was. Katrina was really reluctant because she's so not, you know, sci fi at all. But it was actually done really well. Like that was the most sci fi part about it was that it was like that the AI would. Would decide whether you're. You're guilty or not guilty. And it, it uses this, the huge database of all the cameras and text so it could scour all that. And it like the way it works is if the only way you get in this like execution like chair is if you're already a 90 something percent already guilty before that and then you have an hour and a half to prove your. To prove your case. To bring it. Yeah. So it's like. So it's any. He. He. The movie starts off and he's. He's the one who was a part of creating it it and he's in it and he like wakes up and he's in the, in the chair and he's like. Has no idea and then he has to like, get him. And so it's, it's got a. It's got a good storyline to it. It's an interesting report.

[Justin Andrews]

Esque.

[Doug]

Yeah, kind of Minority Report. Yeah, very much so. Like that. I love Minority, but it was good. It was, it was. It was surprisingly good. I didn't, I didn't have high expectations for it, but I thought it was an interesting plot and storyline to it.

[Caller David]

It.

[Doug]

And also something that I'm sure that we've considered, you know. Oh, I'm sure.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, they're probably working on that.

[Doug]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[Sal Destefano]

Just got to get us to the point where we hate establishments so much, we're ready to take on and adopt.

[Doug]

AI well, that process, that or what they. The way they kind of present it, the way it opens up, it's like a big commercial for the, the what they. I forget what they call it. Forget the name of what they. They call the system or whatever like that fairness. But it's because of how much homelessness and crime is kind of overridden all the cities. And it's so, it's.

[Justin Andrews]

So this is their answer to clean it?

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah. It was their answer to reduce it and then all the statistics on how it reduced it. So, yeah, I thought it was pretty good for a sci fi film that I went into it going like, oh, I don't think I would. We would like this. And even Katrina enjoyed it. So. And I like Chris Pratt. So it was a, it was a good one.

[Sal Destefano]

Element is an electrolyte powder. You add it to your water. There's no sweeteners, like artificial sweeteners, no sugar. And it's got a thousand milligrams of sodium. Why is that important? Sodium is the most important electrolyte you can use when you want to do things like reduce muscle cramps, improve recovery performance, help with the foggy mindedness you get on a low carb diet or especially if you're out in the hot sun. Element has the right amount of sodium. It tastes amazing. No calories. Go give it a try. Go to drinklement.com mindpump that link will get you a free sample pack of their most popular drink, mixed flavors with any purchase. Back to the show.

[Caller Samantha]

Our first caller is David from Maine.

[Sal Destefano]

What's up, David?

[Doug]

Hey, what's going on, David?

[Caller David]

Hey, guys. How's it going?

[Sal Destefano]

Good.

[Doug]

How you doing, man?

[Sal Destefano]

Good.

[Caller David]

How are you doing?

[Doug]

Well, what you got for us?

[Sal Destefano]

How can we help you?

[Caller David]

Yeah, I just wanted to first just want to say thank you. You guys have really helped me change my life. I followed your health and fitness advice for almost five years. I was hoping that you guys would be able to give me some direction for currently where I am in my fitness situation, if that's okay.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep. Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, right now we're looking up to you. So stupid.

[Caller David]

In my email, just to give you guys some context of, just to show you where I started and where I am now. I wanted just to show you guys that so you could see where I was starting. And it was a, it's a big step for me to reach out to you guys and just to share, to share those photos of where I started and currently where I am. Before I get into my question, I just wanted to give you a quick background. My goals are that I want to be healthy, strong, confident, fit, and most importantly, I want to be a good role model for my kids. For context, I'm 36 years old. I'm married. We have two kids who are nine and six. I'm six foot one and I currently weigh 210 pounds. I'm an auditor and I work remotely. I walk about 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day. I've been overweight my whole life and growing up I was always the heaviest kid in class. At my heaviest I was close to £300 and that was going up through middle school and high school. I was very self conscious about my weight and it definitely affected my confidence and how I approached life at a young age. My senior year in high school I met a friend and he helped me lose about £50. So I got down to around 250 after that. My workouts were very inconsistent and I stayed in between 240 and 250 pound range for years. I would exercise here and there, but it was mostly just trying to get a sweat and burn calories rather than following any real programming to build strength. Around 2021 I found your podcast and started listening to the show and it really changed my perspective on fitness and taught me the right way to lose weight and build muscle and get stronger rather than thinking of exercise just as burning calories. Since I started listening, I've purchased and run several of your programs, Anabolic, Performance, Aesthetic, Power lift, symmetry and 15. I've consistently been applying your advice and about strength training, eating mostly whole foods, prioritizing protein and staying active. When I first started listening I was around £240 and after running your guys's programs I was able to get myself down to my lowest weight since middle school of 202 pounds. When I was 202 pounds I was eating about 2, 800 calories and just finished Power Lift. Since then I've ran Anabolic, Symmetry, Aesthetic and Power Lift and I'm currently up to 3, 500 calories and I weigh 210 pounds. For the past six months I feel like I haven't seen any progress in the mirror and I still struggle with being self conscious, especially around my midsection, my stomach. Even with the progress I've made, I still see the overweight guy in the mirror and can't bring myself to take the shirt off at the swimming pool. Here's what my routine typically looks like. I wake up at 3 o' clock in the morning, I go to the gym, I run my maps, workout. I walk on the treadmill. Afterwards, if time allows, I'm home by six, get the kids ready for school and take them to school. And then the afternoons are school pickups, homework, dinner, kids, sports and family time and I'm in bed by 8:30. And honestly, I love food and feel like I could eat more than I currently do. But I have a mental block about pushing calories above where I am because I'm afraid of my scale weight going higher than it currently is and gaining fat and going back to going backwards. If you guys were coaching somebody like me, what direction would you push me in? Should I do blood work through Vitabella, consider TRT peptides, GLP1s, other supplements, or nothing at all? Do I need to push calories, get comfortable gaining weight to build muscle? Do I need to track calories more closely or macros more closely? I have struggled with this in the past and is my issue programming, nutrition, or a mindset? I just want to be the best husband and father I can be and I want to have a healthy relationship with health and fitness. And I just don't want to pass on my own insecurities onto my kids.

[Doug]

David, a lot of this, just so you know, is mental because we're.

[Justin Andrews]

I just.

[Doug]

Doug just now pulled up your photos and you look incredible, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, listen, you look great. So. So you've done a great job.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

But I got good and bad news for you. Which one you want to hear first?

[Caller David]

Always start with the bad.

[Sal Destefano]

It's all in your head.

[Doug]

Yep.

[Sal Destefano]

You want to hear the good news?

[Caller David]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's all in your head. It's all in your head, dude. Yeah. That's 100 your head.

[Doug]

I'm looking at, I'm looking at your photos right now, and you look incredible.

[Sal Destefano]

You fit, bro. You're doing great. You killed it.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

You won.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's over.

[Doug]

And here, here's the thing. It'll, It'll just. Now, it's just, it's just time. It just will keep getting a little bit better. A little bit better. Your body will tighten up, tighten up, tighten up over time. Like. But we're. You have obviously got yourself in a very good place, calorie wise. Your programming is good.

[Sal Destefano]

You're.

[Doug]

You look incredible, dude.

[Sal Destefano]

You're good.

[Doug]

Dude, you look really good.

[Sal Destefano]

You're good. You're. It's, it's, it's so in your head, it's not even funny. Yeah. And, and that's like, to put it differently, you're tripping, like, with what you're saying right now. It's so mental. And so there is a way to get out of that. Okay. And it's not programming and it's not diet. You're doing all the stuff, right. I will say you probably can get a little more Sleep. I think going to bed at 8:30 and waking up at 3 doesn't give you enough sleep. You're, you're, you're, you probably need at least a half an hour or 45 minutes longer.

[Doug]

There's also value in getting your blood work just so you can see your panels. I think there's value in that for sure.

[Sal Destefano]

But I do think you need, you need at least seven to seven and a half hours of sleep, especially being a father and all that stuff. Stuff. So that'd be one, one little thing I would say you could add. Other than that, you're doing great. Here's how you move out of this. Being in your head. Stop looking at yourself in the mirror and, and critiquing yourself. Just stop doing that. You gotta place your focus on your performance and your strength and stop the taking your shirt off, looking at yourself, finding the areas you need to focus on and what needs to come off and strong. Yeah, dude, because you're so, you're, you're. The way you see yourself is so skewed that that's really what the issue is and the challenge.

[Doug]

You're, you're at what, 3, 500 calories? Is that what you said?

[Caller David]

Yeah, that's 3, 500 calories. Not like counting, like any, like butter.

[Sal Destefano]

Not even counting that stuff.

[Doug]

Yeah, bro, you're killing it. Yeah, you're in a good place.

[Sal Destefano]

You're in a really good place.

[Doug]

You're eating a good amount of calories. You're, you're probably strong.

[Sal Destefano]

You look like you got good muscle. Yeah, you're great, dude.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah. It's just, it's just at this point, it's just, it's time consistently being this guy. And you'll, your, your skin will continue to tighten up, you'll continue to feel better. But where you're at right now, have you had a body fat test? I bet your body fat tests really good.

[Caller David]

I threw it into GPT and it said I was somewhere between like 13 and 15.

[Doug]

Yeah, that's what you look like. Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

You're leaner than me right now.

[Sal Destefano]

What do you want to go? I tell you what. Like, so here's the thing. Here's what might help you because you definitely should need to stop studying yourself in the mirror. Don't take selfies, don't stand sideways, don't do the whole thing where you're trying to pick yourself apart. Just stop all that and really focus on enjoying the workouts. Just, just focus on the fun of doing it and to be consistent and I think that'll take you away slowly from the way that you're viewing yourself.

[Doug]

I mean, is it. Is it. Is it overall everything, or do you just feel like you have a little bit of loose skin that's bothering you?

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

You.

[Caller David]

I just have that loose skin. Like, I feel like down there in, like, the very low stomach. I just. Whenever I walk by a mirror or I just. I see a reflection, I just, like, hone in, like, right on that part,

[Doug]

and I can shake it. That's hyper focused, bro. Yeah, you're way hyper focused. So it's so funny because when.

[Sal Destefano]

When.

[Doug]

As soon as Doug pulled it up and went, holy. I mean, you. You look amazing. Because I see all of you right away.

[Sal Destefano]

And all.

[Doug]

When I see all of you, I go, holy shit. And I'm like, what is this guy? And then you could see that you have a little bit of loose skin because you lost a ton of weight. And I'm like, that's what you must go right to and think, oh, my

[Sal Destefano]

God, this is nothing, dude.

[Doug]

Is nothing.

[Sal Destefano]

It's literally nothing.

[Doug]

No.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. You're hyper focused on one part of yourself which has now become all of you. And so you need to just stop. Like, if you find yourself focused, just look somewhere else.

[Justin Andrews]

Release it.

[Sal Destefano]

It and. And yeah, just enjoy the workouts. Dude, I bet your wife thinks you look amazing. What does your wife say?

[Caller David]

She told. Tells me not to flex.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I think. Yeah, but, you know, I'm sure you're like. You're thinking yourself. Like, what do you know, right? But she's right. Your wife's right. Yeah, Yeah, I just. Just stop looking at yourself, bro. Seriously. Yeah, it'll. It'll help you a lot. And just keep moving. Just keep doing what you're doing.

[Doug]

You gotta get right. You have good, good steps.

[Sal Destefano]

You're.

[Doug]

You're obviously going to following good programming.

[Sal Destefano]

You're.

[Doug]

Dude, you're. You're lean. You're. You're. You're in a really good place.

[Justin Andrews]

Gotta enjoy it, man.

[Doug]

Yeah, keep going.

[Sal Destefano]

Just have fun, dude.

[Doug]

And. And just know, too, like, how long. How long have we been on this journey? How long has it been now?

[Caller David]

Like, since 20, 21.

[Doug]

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Just keep going, dude. Just keep going and doing your thing the way you are, and it'll just slowly, over time, continue to get better and better and better. But where you're at is a. Is a perfect place you really are. And trying to push beyond that is. Is. Is going to send you in bad areas, not good areas. Yeah, you could go get Blood work done. I wouldn't mind. I mean, you're. You're getting old enough to.

[Caller David]

Where.

[Doug]

I like to see that as a coach, but I don't. I don't see any problems.

[Sal Destefano]

The one. The one thing you could do is get another 30, 45 minutes of sleep. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you could make that happen, you'll probably recover better. Yeah. You'll get stronger.

[Doug]

Which is also why I wanted to see his blood work. Because if you. If he's got low. Low a T at all, it'd be because he's not sleeping very well. And just. I want to see there. That's at. And then watch when you improve sleep. And then watch how that.

[Sal Destefano]

But I mean, I'm nitpicking here. I mean, how's your strength, David? Tell me your list.

[Caller David]

Yeah, it's good for deadlift. Last time. Last year I checked, I was 405 for deadlift. And then squat, I was 315. And bench, I was 255.

[Sal Destefano]

David, get out of here.

[Doug]

Get out here.

[Sal Destefano]

We're done talking wasting my time. You're doing great, dude. Yeah, listen, stop.

[Doug]

Don't change all, bro.

[Sal Destefano]

Listen, it's all. All in your head.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So what you got to do is get out of your head.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Just stop. Stop focusing on that stuff. Don't believe yourself when you have those thoughts. Enjoy the workouts, bro.

[Doug]

Are you.

[Sal Destefano]

Are you.

[Doug]

Are you, like. Are you hyper tracking, like, your food and stuff that. Are you over. Are you. Do you way measure everything? Are you just kind of guesstimating where you're at?

[Caller David]

Over the summer, I really. I tracked every meal for a good month, and now I've switched it over to, like, I. When I sw. My meals for what I consistently eat. I like, I know in my head what the 300 grams of, say, oatmeal is or.

[Sal Destefano]

You're doing everything great.

[Doug]

You are.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, everything. Yeah, I just. It. Just stay consistent and just start loving it, bro. Just start having fun with it. Don't focus on how you look in the mirror. Do the courageous thing next time you go to the pool. Take your shirt off. Take your shirt off and have fun with your kids. You're fine, dude.

[Doug]

Yeah, you are. You are, dude. You're doing good.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it.

[Doug]

Yeah. I wouldn't. I wouldn't want you to change from the place you're at. You're such a. You're such a good balance of.

[Sal Destefano]

You're gonna keep improving.

[Doug]

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's Just at this point, it's just time.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Doug]

You think about, you were, you were overweight a lot longer than you were jacked. You're jacked now, but you were overweight a lot longer than you were jacked. Give yourself some time to be jacked as long as you were overweight and

[Sal Destefano]

yeah, you'll get used to it and

[Doug]

it'll just keep getting better and better.

[Caller David]

Okay, awesome guys. Thank you.

[Doug]

What you're doing, programming and, and movement and diet wise is such a good place.

[Sal Destefano]

What did you think we were gonna say?

[Doug]

Yeah, just curious.

[Caller David]

Honestly, I thought you guys were gonna say go to like a 15 style workout.

[Sal Destefano]

Why? Well, you're doing great, dude.

[Doug]

Or maybe his sleep.

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, yeah, like I said, you could do a little better sleep.

[Doug]

Do you, do you have like aura ring or anything like that? Do you track sleep? Do you have any idea what your sleep quality quality looks like?

[Caller David]

Like no, my kids don't sleep.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, you can try. Listen, listen, if you don't have Mass 15, I'll send it to you so you could test it out and you'll know it's better. Well, you have mass 15, I'll send you one of the other maps. Which mass 15 do you not have?

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I mean worth experimenting.

[Doug]

Dave, if you go, if you go invest anything, go get yourself a. Go get yourself an aura ring so you can kind of track and pay attention to your sleep and just, and just kind of monitor and.

[Sal Destefano]

But you'll know if Maps 15 style training is better because you just get stronger.

[Doug]

Sure. But this will give you objective data if you're going to go spend money or do anything like some of the stuff you ask us. Go get yourself like a ring that will track your sleep and pay attention to. When you reduce to a Maps 15 program, does it improve? Pay attention if you get to bed a little bit earlier or sleep in

[Sal Destefano]

a little longer and I'll give you some good news, dude. Usually a guy like you or someone like you who has a skewed body image, what I would typically see is under eating also now what you've done really well is you didn't do that. You're actually feeding yourself.

[Doug]

Yeah, that's why he's so good.

[Sal Destefano]

So typically a guy like you comes on and I hear those, what you're saying and then I look at their food and I go, oh, you gotta, you gotta bump your calories. It's almost what I always gotta say. But you're eating enough. You're doing everything right, dude.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So yeah, just it's literally just stop hyper focusing on because here's the deal. I don't care how jacked and ripped you get. If you want, you'll find something.

[Doug]

You'll still see yourself always, bro. You will still see always. You know, the most insecure people are the people that get up on stage and have the best bodies in the world. World. Those are the most insecure people. It's what drove them to that. And they'll still pick them and they're still not happy. Yeah, I hung out with them all the time. It's like, that's so. It's not a, it's not a body fat percentage or thing you need to do. It's all in your head.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Doug]

You. You got to learn to, to love yourself and, and everybody the way everybody else sees you. And it'll get better and that. And so that takes time. So it takes time. And you're. You're doing great.

[Sal Destefano]

Just a total success story, dude.

[Doug]

Yeah. The only place I see for optimization is possibly sleep. And that's why I'm, I'm a fan of going and getting a ring and tracking and seeing if, if there. If that's. If you're deprived there and can you.

[Sal Destefano]

Because if you get more sleep, you'll just start to feel stronger and.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Energy.

[Doug]

Yeah. Other than that, dude, you're kicking ass, bro.

[Caller David]

Awesome. That's awesome. Great. Thank you guys. If you guys have time for one more question, can I ask you a quick question?

[Sal Destefano]

Sure, sure.

[Caller David]

Yeah. So with some of like, you know, between anabolic and power lift, there's some like off days. Could I replace those with doing more like core work or would that push it too far?

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, if you want to. I don't think you need to, bro. I mean, just what I'm looking at right now, I think you're in a nice place. I think doing more isn't going to get you any, any better results.

[Caller David]

Okay. So didn't they oh, you just say, just follow the program strictly as an intro that for. For that purpose. Totally.

[Doug]

What do you think? What do you think about giving him six pack ABS and running that with a Maps 15 program to build to? Like, have you, have you like really tried to build your abs, like lifting heavy and build them?

[Caller David]

Yeah. My last aesthetic session, my focus sessions were abs and obliques.

[Doug]

Yeah, you're doing good.

[Sal Destefano]

You're fine, David.

[Doug]

You're fine. You're fine, dude.

[Sal Destefano]

You're fine, bro.

[Doug]

Fine.

[Sal Destefano]

You're good. You're more than fine. You're doing great, dude. Yeah. Yeah, I just follow the programs. It's all working for you.

[Mackenzie]

You.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, don't. Don't try to add more. Overdo it. You're. You're killing it. If you're. Consider. You're going to continue progressing even though you're doing great right now.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

It's really just patience at this point.

[Caller David]

Okay, awesome. Thank you, guys. I appreciate all the advice and I just wanted to just. Just thank you again, you guys. I just love your advice and just the way that you cut through all the fitness industry bull crap that's out there and just tell us how it is. I. I really appreciate that. That helped me a lot.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you, dude. And show this video to your wife. Yeah, yeah.

[Doug]

Keep up the great work, bro.

[Caller David]

All right, thanks, guys.

[Sal Destefano]

Take care. Easy. So again, the reason why I said good and bad news, because good news is like, it's all in your head, meaning, like, you're doing it right. Bad news is that's hard. Yeah. Because listen, people watching right now, by the way, people watching, really easy to judge someone like him because you. But you probably do this yourself in some way shape.

[Doug]

Everybody does. Everybody has a spot, a thing, a

[Sal Destefano]

muscle, but it's so easy to see in someone else. Right. I look at his picture like, what are you talking about, bro? But then you like, we do it to ourselves. Yeah, but man, does that mess you up, dude, because here you got a guy who went from obese his whole life to fit. Strong, healthy eating, 35, no more than 3, 500 calories. He says, I don't. I don't even add up butter and stuff. He's probably close to 4,000 calories. Yeah, he's got a great metabolism. He's doing a good job.

[Doug]

210 pounds, around 13 body fat, questioning everything.

[Sal Destefano]

He's like, am a good job, bro. You're doing better than.

[Justin Andrews]

He's calling us. I really felt like we're his conscience, but from that camera angle, I felt like we were on the toilet. I couldn't get over it. I was like, looking up.

[Caller Samantha]

Our next caller is Samantha from Texas.

[Sal Destefano]

Hi, Samantha.

[Doug]

Hi, Samantha.

[Caller Amelia]

Hello. Oh, my gosh, this is so cool. It's like I'm in the studio.

[Justin Andrews]

You are.

[Sal Destefano]

How can we help you?

[Caller Amelia]

Yeah, thanks so much for answering and taking my question. And thanks so much for all the content that y' all put out. I'm surprised I haven't run out of have stuff to say, honestly.

[Doug]

Kidding. We have Sal.

[Caller Amelia]

I'm gonna go ahead and read my question so I don't miss any main Points. So I've been lifting consistently and focusing on progressive overload. My strength's been going up. I feel smaller overall, but it's like I've kept my same shape and just kind of like shrunk. So I think that I'm recomping. I can see more muscle definition when I flex, but at rest I'm still like a little bit softer than I expected. I generally center my meals around protein, but I don't track strict macros and my consistency does kind of vary week to week. Outside of lifting and like working out, I'm fairly sedentary. I do work from home and so I'm just kind of wondering. The feeling that I'm feeling is almost like I'm super strong, but then there's like a outside layer of me. So I'm just wondering if that's a normal feeling during the body recomposition phase or if I just need to adjust something like calorie intake, do like a mini cut or maybe just like tighten up nutrition or maybe even just move

[Sal Destefano]

a little bit more.

[Doug]

Yes, that's very normal. Do we have any more information as far as steps, calories? Are we tracking anything?

[Caller Amelia]

I did track out of curio curiosity the other week and I'd say I'm around like 1819 calories for the week. I will say I did notice whenever I did track, my protein is kind of wonky some days.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Caller Amelia]

And I kind of lead with carbs.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Caller Amelia]

Outside of that, like, stress is pretty high. I do try to prioritize my sleep because that right there is kind of crazy too. And for steps, if I'm getting out, like I try to do a walk at lunch, but with my schedule, it's honestly so busy and stressful. So I'd say like maybe average, like 5k steps.

[Sal Destefano]

So there's a, there's a theme that's, that's coming across with this. So first off, it is normal to question, you know, how well you're progressing when you're on a fitness journey. Actually, I want to know how long have you been doing this?

[Caller Amelia]

I'd say consistently. I've, I've been at athletic like my whole life. But I did dial things up. I'd say within the last two years I was, I'm five seven, I was 195, a good amount of body fat on me. And then now I'm 175 and I did lose some body fat there. So I. From the past few years, I can definitely see a difference in like pictures, the way clothes fit Stuff like that.

[Sal Destefano]

Good. So it sounds like you've been progressing. The theme, the theme that I keep hearing is consistency.

[Caller Amelia]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

So it sounds to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you'll have, have like consistent stretches and then less consistent stretches both with diet and exercise and activity and even maybe stress management. So I think with someone like you, just because that sounds like that's the theme, is to focus on consistency one step at a time, not all at once. In other words, we don't want to do, because this is kind of a failing strategy, is to be like, okay, I'm going to be consistent with everything and then, and then you end up falling off.

[Doug]

It's the protein.

[Sal Destefano]

Let's pick one thing and say, okay, everything else is going to be the way it's been, but this one thing I'm going to be ultra consistent with and I don't care what it is. It could be steps, it could be your workouts, it could be hitting your protein targets or avoiding heavily processed food. Pick that one thing and be very consistent. Once it feels habitual, like it's not like something you need to focus on anymore, then add one more thing. That's the key to, to, to long term consistency.

[Doug]

If you let me choose, I'd say protein. I think protein will naturally keep your calories in check. So there's also not an inconsistency around the fluctuation of the down. It's also going to serve you if you're being, if you're lifting, even if you're not the most consistent lifter, but you lift. You know, some weeks you hit three or four times, other weeks you hit one or two, but you're consistently lifting. Overall hitting your protein intake, you'll see muscle building benefits from that.

[Sal Destefano]

The, the, the three, the three places we could look is one is where Adam said, hit your protein targets. Eat it first. Another one would be to consistently get your steps maybe to 7,000 a day. Another one would be to not miss a workout of those three. And I'm sure there's more you can think of. But of those three, which one seems the most realistic? Not the best one, but the most realistic for you to be consistent with?

[Caller Amelia]

Honestly, it'd probably be protein, but I'll have to track again because if I don't, I'm pretty under.

[Sal Destefano]

Then start there. Just track your protein. You said you were 175. I think 150 a day is a great target.

[Doug]

Perfect.

[Caller Amelia]

Okay, cool. That's actually a lot easier.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

So you're gonna go for 135.

[Sal Destefano]

You're gonna go 50 breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or 30. 30. 30 plus a shake or something like that. Eat it first. Don't eat the carbs first. Eat it first. And the handles right. And, and see if you do that super consistently, which is going to be a struggle. But once you get to the point where it's like this is like no problem, then then the next one would be maybe steps or something like that. But that's it. That'll be. That's the path towards consistency across the board.

[Doug]

Are you following any one of our mass programs?

[Caller Amelia]

So that was actually going to be my next point because like you said, you don't want to just add all these things in because you're going to fall off. Well, that was me. I did get Muscle Mommy. And I want to say I forgot which other one that I got that. But that's whenever I was so determined I was gonna do all these things. Right. No, that's not what happened. So right now, I guess in. In the gym, at least I'm consistent. Maybe like three or four days. Yeah, on average. And so. And by the time I get in there, I'm doing maybe two to three exercises, but I'm. I'm really focusing on like lifting and form and just being there for like my mental too. So with. With that being said, like, I really haven't jumped into either of those. But with my. The struggle with that consistency, do y' all think that maybe like a maps 15 would be better for me?

[Sal Destefano]

That's a great. It's a great program for consistency because it's a little medicine builder for sure. Is your gym convenient?

[Caller Amelia]

I mean, no, not really. It's kind of. It's a struggle bus. It's so overcrowded. So. Okay, I do have to get there like in the morning, but of course that means I have to dial in with sleep, stuff like that. But I mean, I could maybe like, I usually have to modify something.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, okay, so that's why I asked you that. Do you have anything at home, like a suspension trainer or something like that?

[Justin Andrews]

Dumbbells?

[Doug]

I actually prefer, like, I do have some.

[Caller Amelia]

I wouldn't have any place for suspension or whatever it is, but I do have dumbbells and I can definitely get some other ones if I need to.

[Doug]

Based off of what I'm hearing, I would prefer like a Maps Anabolic. And even if she doesn't get all three days and she only did two days of full body working out, does

[Sal Destefano]

that work better for you?

[Doug]

Like, that's only three days a week lifting or two. And even if you do only do two, the way it's designed, it's full body, so it's not like you're missing anything. Right. So it's like you could literally. Oh, only got two days that week, but you got two. Two full body of Anabolic. With hitting your protein intake, I. I feel confident we're gonna see good progress from that. And then good weeks. You're hitting it all three days a week.

[Caller Amelia]

Okay. So if I start there and I do. Let's just say if I get in the. I'm in the gym two days a week.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Caller Amelia]

And, like, what's. If I want to just, like, go walk, you know, for my mental health, after work.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right. Yes.

[Caller Amelia]

The movement. I can do that.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Walk as much as you want.

[Doug]

Yeah. I think the Sal's point is I. Listen, if you start walking more, too, that's great. But it's like the main thing right now. Out of everything we're doing, we're going to give you Anabolic. So you have that. That's what you follow. The goal is to get there two or three times a week. Okay. But if. If you fall short of that, as long as you get in there for the week, I think you're going to be okay. We're gonna be fine there. But really focus on the protein. Like, let, like, let that be the cornerstone of. I'm gonna be. I'm never gonna miss 150. You know, I'm gonna hit 150 all time. Focusing on that will manage the calories really nice and put you where you're supposed to be. Even if you only hit Anabolic once or twice a week, you're gonna build muscle on that. That's gonna positively move you. And then, hey, if you also got time to do more steps, that would be great. Like, that's kind of the thought process, but focus on the protein first. That becomes the first thing that you don't miss.

[Caller Amelia]

Okay, cool. That simplified.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

It helps.

[Doug]

All right, well, send that over.

[Caller Amelia]

Awesome. Thank you so much, guys.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you.

[Caller Amelia]

Take care.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I think, you know, you're, you know, know, everybody has their challenge, but you could hear the theme.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah, everything's inconsistent.

[Justin Andrews]

She nailed it.

[Doug]

There's, like. There's, like, little and. And it's just. And listen, over the course of a year, she can look back from pictures and say, hey, I've improved.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Which is better than it was.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

But if you want to accelerate that process, It's. It's time to tighten up something. And the mistake I think a lot of people made and what you pointed out right away was just like, there's a theme of inconsistency everywhere. Let's not try and be consistent everywhere. Let's pick the thing that will move the needle or that you can commit to the most. And protein is going to be great for her. And then like with man, anabolic. That's why I like Anabolic is for her because that's why I asked her

[Sal Destefano]

if she was gym was convenient. Because if it's not convenient, you driving over there every day.

[Doug]

Oh, if she, if she had a home gym, I'd say max 15 all day, all day long. That would be the better thing. Get in there, just do two. That'll be easy. But it sounded like it's not convenient.

[Sal Destefano]

That makes no sense.

[Doug]

Right. And so it sounds like she has some days where she doesn't get good sleep and she doesn't go to the gym. And so it's like if she just hit Anabolic once or twice a week, she's going to see results, cover bases.

[Caller Samantha]

Our next caller is Marisol from IL, IL.

[Doug]

Hi, how you doing?

[Sal Destefano]

How can we help you?

[Caller David]

Hello.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Thank you for having me on. I'm really excited to speak to you guys.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I. I listen to you guys daily since like before COVID so it's like listening to the brothers. I didn't. I never had.

[Doug]

All right.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

But so I'm gonna just read my question and give a little bit of context.

[Caller Amelia]

So let me find it. So.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Hi, Mind pump team. I love your show. I've been listening to you guys since 2020. I have a part two question. The first one is I'm currently following maps anabolic and I'm doing the two or three day version when I'm able to. I'm currently in phase two and I have been trying to rest for about a minute in between sets, but I feel like lately I've been out of breath. In a minute's not enough. Is the program still effective if I rest more than one minute during phase two? Or is there another program I should be following right now?

[Sal Destefano]

Keep going because there's more.

[Caller Amelia]

Okay.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Yeah. I will mention I am currently 14 weeks pregnant. I have been feeling tired, nauseous, fatigue, and sometimes I'm just not really motivated to go to the gym. But I would still like to complete to keep my strength and mobility and not go backwards. I would like to maintain overall a good physique during pregnancy and just Be healthy. I'm currently about 33% body fat. I'm 5 3. I am married. I work a full time job. I do have a daughter already who's about to turn two. And then I have been consistently strength training for about four years now. I do have a history of yo yo dieting and doing like HIIT interval training. I'm not counting calories right now. I just feel like it's really overwhelming and a lot to track. But I do track for protein. Trying to aim for about 120 grams. I'm lucky if I do that. But I really appreciate your suggestions and anything you tell me I'm going to do. I do drink element creatine and fiber daily. So I would love to hear from the team.

[Doug]

So pregnant or no pregnant, I would have still said the same thing. Which is rest for sure. What's great about Map Synabolic is it's a strength building program and the longer the rest. You know what you can only do wrong in the rest department on maps Anabolic is rest too short court. If you rested three minutes, five minutes between sets, I don't care. So that's total. And you. Absolutely. And then the fact that you're pregnant also is another reason why.

[Sal Destefano]

Let's back up though because you said you're also feeling nauseous, extra tired, so which is totally normal during pregnancy.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Right.

[Sal Destefano]

And you gotta, you gotta.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And you got like a one and a half year old at home.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Your program right now is. Is starter, not Maps animal.

[Justin Andrews]

This might be too intense.

[Sal Destefano]

I think Map Starter is better. You're not trying to progress at all. You're just trying to maintain and stay healthy. Totally listen to your body. And postpartum when you're cleared, it's going to be a MAP starter again. But that's your program and it's going to feel like you're not doing a lot. But that's kind of the point.

[Justin Andrews]

How long is it maintenance mode right now?

[Doug]

How long have you been consistently following Maps Anabolic? Like how long you been.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

For a while actually. Actually after I had my daughter I started going straight into Map Synabolic and just doing really, really lightweight. And I've been doing that ever since. So I had my daughter back in like April of 2024 and I started doing going to the gym like end of May.

[Sal Destefano]

Now I'm assuming the reason why you're. Because earlier you said you try to do the two or three days a week when you're able to. Sounds like some mornings you're Feeling pretty nauseous.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

That's just what my schedule allows me to go to the gym, like one day during the week and two Saturday and Sunday for sure.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. Starter is the one. That's your program. That's it. Get in starter, live in starter. You're also going to do it postpartum and then after probably following it for a couple rounds, postpartum. Then you can go pre phase and maps anabolic. But you'll feel better in maps.

[Doug]

Also to the rest periods. Let yourself rest.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Who cares what.

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah. Let yourself. You. If you got rest. Yeah, yeah. In fact, I would always rather beneficial. I would always rather see you get an extra minute to two minutes rest and us lift five more pounds heavier than you to like be your heart race and feeling a little nauseous and like. Oh, like. Yeah, I don't want that. Like, I don't.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Yeah. I'm. I'm usually with a map synabolic. I've really had to scale back on the weight just because I'm out of breath.

[Doug]

Yeah. See, I. I want the opposite. I want the opposite. I want you to catch your breath completely and then lift heavier weight than the other way around. So rest. Give yourself that rest. Let that heart rate come all the way back down. Feel good, and then go grab. Go grab 5 pounds heavier instead of that. You know, that's. That'll.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I just. I. I really enjoy the map synaolic just because it's like just really easy movements, just straight to the point, and then I'm able to get to the gym two to three times a week. You know, starter's perfect for that.

[Doug]

Yeah, starter's good for that.

[Sal Destefano]

Perfect.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Caller Amelia]

Okay.

[Doug]

Y.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Sounds good. I. I also have maps, mommy, which I love too. And then I. I did performance as well, so great job. I guess another question or small question I had is what I know I'm not really following. Like, I don't have specific goals right now. Just trying to get, you know, through this phase. But is there anything I should be looking for or anything I can focus on just to kind of keep me motivated?

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, honestly, it's just going to be about feeling good.

[Doug]

Yeah. Healthy fed. Healthy fed, rested, good energy. That's the biggest win right now for us.

[Sal Destefano]

Your body's doing like you are right now, bodybuilding. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're building a body and you're doing

[Justin Andrews]

a lot of work right now.

[Sal Destefano]

A lot. Yeah. So you just kind of take care of yourself. That's it. You're not trying to go crazy or chase Anything or push anything crazy. You're just showing up, going through the movements, feeling good, listening to your body and preparing for baby.

[Doug]

If what you're doing is so good, the greater percentage of people are laid up on the couch and resting and not eating healthy and not like you. You eating your fed, stay fed, eat nutritious food, do the movements, rest like you need to rest. That's. Those are all the good. And how you feel is what the feedback I want. I'm not looking at your body. I'm not asking. I don't care if I hit. We're not. We're not trying to hit PRs. This is feel good, feel good, feel strong, feel mobile, feel healthy, feel rested. That's what we want. That's how we want to feel right now.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Yep, sounds good. So is starter like a three day?

[Caller Samantha]

Yep.

[Caller Amelia]

Is it a three day?

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Oh, okay.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, we're gonna send it over to you.

[Caller David]

Okay.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

That's amazing. Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys so much. Like I said, I just replaced all my music and I've just been listening to you guys daily. My husband's fed up. I'm like, oh, it's the mom pump, pump guys again. And I'm like, oh, man. Family and friends about you guys too.

[Doug]

So have you. Have you checked out our muscle mommy group before for.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I've looked into it again. I just didn't know if I could commit to something, you know, while being pregnant. I'm like, is it even, you know, worth me doing right now?

[Doug]

Yeah. I'm gonna have Doug send you seven days free in there so you can just check it out. I think it's incredibly valuable. We have a lot of moms in there, so that's. That have been pregnant that have. That are lifting. Lifting while pregnant, before pregnancy, after pregnancy. You got the calls with Corinne every week as a trainer who's helping coach people through. So I'll have Doug send you a link for 7 days free, so you can just kind of poke around in there and check it out. And if it's something you want to do, I think you get a lot of value from it.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Yeah, that sounds great. I would love to. Yeah, that's great. I really appreciate your guys's, like, information, and it's really insightful, all four of you guys. When you guys. I start discussing different topics, I'm like, oh, I see his ver. His point and then I see his too. And I have, like, no sides where, you know, like, who's right, who's wrong and.

[Doug]

But you like, you like everybody. That's. I like that.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

You like Justin the most. Everybody does.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I love you guys.

[Mackenzie]

I don't.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I don't have a favorite, that's for sure.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, thank you. And congratulations on the new baby.

[Justin Andrews]

She's Switzerland.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Thank you so much. I really appreciated it again. And I. I love. I want to say, too, that I love the. Our place Pots and pants.

[Doug]

Are they the best? They're amazing, right?

[Justin Andrews]

They are the best killer products.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

I got. I got, like, a set where it came with, like, two frying pans and, like, the two pots, and I use them daily. They're amazing.

[Justin Andrews]

So awesome.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Well, thank you guys again.

[Doug]

We'll send that over. We'll send that over to you right now.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, for sure.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Sounds great. Thank you again.

[Sal Destefano]

Bye.

[Doug]

Bye.

[Mackenzie]

Bye.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. What makes strength training. Strength training is the rest periods, everybody.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's without the rest periods. It's not strength training, so. And people think it's the weights or the resistance. It's cardio condition rest that makes a strength. That makes it strength training.

[Doug]

Do the blueprints recommend one minute in phase two?

[Sal Destefano]

It's their. Their suggestions. But what we need to do is communicate to people. It says at least one minute. At least.

[Justin Andrews]

That's like, minimum.

[Sal Destefano]

Not, like just one minute. But here's the deal. Like, you said it well, you said it perfectly. I. Adam, the only way you mess up rest periods for strength training is you make them too short.

[Doug]

Yeah. That's the only way.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

You rest for seven minutes between sets if you really want to.

[Sal Destefano]

Ten years.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

It's not gonna.

[Doug]

You can only go too short.

[Sal Destefano]

That's right.

[Doug]

And. And it's like. And for sure, if it is to a point where you're. You feel like. I'm trying to catch my breath. That's what's limiting my weight. You're. You're. You're. You're losing out on potential gains by resting more and then lifting heavier way.

[Caller Samantha]

Our next caller is Amelia from New York.

[Sal Destefano]

Hi, Amelia.

[Doug]

Hi, Amelia.

[Justin Andrews]

Hi.

[Mackenzie]

How are you?

[Doug]

Good. How are you doing?

[Mackenzie]

So thank you for allowing me to talk to you. And I'll just get right into it. I have been lifting for almost 20 years.

[Justin Andrews]

Wow.

[Mackenzie]

And eating. No. Nope. Unfortunately. Completely wrong. Completely wrong. I had no idea why the needle was not moving until I found your podcast. Your podcast was like, oh, I didn't know anything about rest. I didn't know anything about. You're not supposed to lift. Strength train and cardio. I didn't know I was over training. I Didn't know I ate wrong. I didn't know anything about protein. Thank God for you guys. I need to say that. Thank God for you guys. So my goal is that I am currently 206. I want to be 170, but I want to look like I'm 150, because my. My body type. I don't know if Doug shared it with you. Skinny just would not work for me. I need to be proportioned. I want to look good, you know, so I don't know if I can hardly hear you, but. So I've been eating 150 grams of protein. If I understand this correctly, you're supposed to eat the amount you want to be. Technically, I want to be 170, but that's a lot.

[Doug]

150 is good. 150 is a good number for you,

[Mackenzie]

and I hit that number regularly.

[Doug]

Oh, good. Oh, very good. Yes.

[Mackenzie]

Okay. Every day. I don't care what it is. I make sure I hit it.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Mackenzie]

So what I need from you guys is I might be over training because I do two full days of strength training. I rest for three minutes, and the whole thing, I don't sweat. Not really. I mean, it's good. It's comfortable. I do it twice a week, and that's usually Saturday or Sunday or Wednesday or Thursday. I. My job requires me to walk all the time, So I get 30 minutes easy. And on Sunday, I spin because I like it, and I do that for 30 minutes. But of course, what you tell me, if you tell me to stop doing something, I will do it because I really want to move the needle. I feel that I. I'm stuck. And I did share with Doug that when I. I went from 198 to 206, but my muscle went up and my fat went down. So I know I'm doing something right.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Doug]

That's actually a really good metric.

[Caller David]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

I'm trying because of you guys. I'm trying. You don't understand. I am trying. So I. I need help to move the needle. I wanted to go down.

[Doug]

What was the time period in which you. You did that? When you. You tested the. The body fat like that, and you. You got those results?

[Mackenzie]

It was a year because they had a fair here and they had that machine I got on, it was 198. And then they had it a couple of weeks ago, maybe right before I. I shared with Doug, and that's when I saw there was a difference. But I also see the difference in my body. I used to be really? Really. You can't see, but my arms were really big.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

And they're not now. And so I, I. And I have bad body dyspa. But I still, I see something. I see it in my clothes. I see, but it's not enough. And every time I see my physician or my gynecologist, they're quick to go. You gotta lose weight. You gotta lose weight. So I want to trick them. I want to look healthy. I want to look healthy, but I, I want a, you know, a decent figure for my size.

[Doug]

Yeah. So you're busy. So what do you do for work? What kind of are you? Physical labor? Are you moving a lot of steps? So what are you doing all day long?

[Mackenzie]

I'm a manager. I'm a manager, and so it requires me to oversee a lot of things and making sure things are. So I'm always on my foot.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Mackenzie]

Always, Always. I. Yes. I get to sit because I have to do some administrative stuff, But I say 30 minutes easily. I can say maybe four hours. I'm on my, my foot.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Sal Destefano]

And.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And you said right now you're 170.

[Mackenzie]

No, I'm. I want to be 170. I am. I am 206.

[Sal Destefano]

Got it, got it. How tall are you?

[Mackenzie]

Five, four.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. And you feel good? You feel strong, you feel healthy?

[Mackenzie]

I do. I started with £3. I have one of those spin things now where I have to turn to get stronger.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, very good. I'm loving it. And now with the nutrition, you're hitting the protein. You're eating it first. Is. Is your diet whole food?

[Mackenzie]

I'm not eating it first. Is that really important, to eat it first?

[Doug]

It'll do. It'll manage the rest of the calories. It'll make a big difference if you eat it first. It'll. It'll help manage the carbs and the fats and the other foods that you're having with. It's just an easy. It's a smarter way to eat, and it'll naturally bring your calories to where they'll be. It's almost magical how it works.

[Sal Destefano]

It helps with satiety. And so when you do that, let's say you make yourself a meal, you eat the protein first. You're like, you know, I could leave some of this food, then go ahead and leave it. Don't think to yourself that you have to finish it. Is your diet whole food? Is it based whole food, or do you find yourself eating processed foods?

[Mackenzie]

I'm working towards that. That. Yeah, I'm, I'M I'm working towards that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

I'm always on the run. I do have Jenny Craig and I use it for breakfast and lunch. And I drink protein shakes in the morning because I don't really like to chew. I just want to drink and keep going. But I know I need to change these bad habits.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, it's. Well, I'll tell you what, you're doing well, but you want to make. If you want to do something that'll, that'll, that'll really cause some change.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Sal Destefano]

It's really simple.

[Justin Andrews]

Simple.

[Sal Destefano]

Start prepping your food and eat whole natural foods. Only eat the protein first. That's it. Don't do anything else. And what'll happen when you do that and eat until you're satisfied? Don't, you know, don't, don't eat until you're stuffed. If you do that, you'll see your body fat percent your body fat start to drop naturally on its own.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, okay.

[Sal Destefano]

That's all it is really, because I think what's happening is you're hitting the protein, but a lot of it's coming from processed sources. So now what happens is, because it's negating the satiety effect. So protein shakes don't produce satiety like whole food protein. Okay. Processed foods like Jenny Craig, although they're not that bad, they are designed to be hyper palatable in a way that's different than when you prep the food yourself. So it's just a little extra time. You would prep your food, have your meals, take them to work, eat, go, try to do it all from whole food sources. Eat until you're satisfied and then you'll see your body weight naturally come down

[Doug]

and then what, what program? What are you following a mass program right now?

[Mackenzie]

No, I just do it on my own at home.

[Doug]

Okay, let us.

[Sal Destefano]

And what do you got at home?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, what are your equipment?

[Sal Destefano]

I'm sorry, what kind of equipment do you have at home? What are you using?

[Mackenzie]

Oh, I, I do a lot of free weights. That's pretty much it. I do a lot of free weights.

[Sal Destefano]

Do you have barbell, dumbbells, bench, or just dumbbells?

[Mackenzie]

I have a lot of. I just have free weights. That's it.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay. Do you, do you have a rack that you put the barbell on or are they just like dumbbells?

[Mackenzie]

No, it's the shelf kind.

[Doug]

Okay, so. So a Dumbbell Maps 15 would be awesome.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep. I'm going to send you a program that you can follow and you just follow the program as we lay it out. It's a. It's like a couple exercises a day. Two.

[Doug]

It's two exercises a day. That's it. You're in it. 15, 20, 15, 20 minutes. That's it.

[Mackenzie]

I've been doing seven twice a week.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

No, no. So instead of two days a week long workouts bit every day.

[Doug]

Yes. That'll be better for you too. So if. Just get in there, do the two. It take you 15, 20 minutes, you're in and out and. And follow that with the advice that Sal said and watch us really move the. So the other option, because you are a busy person, it sounds like. Have you thought about having like one of our virtual coaches coach you through the whole process?

[Mackenzie]

I did, but I thought I missed the window.

[Doug]

Oh, okay. So I'll tell you what I'll have. I'll have Doug set it up where someone will call you and show you what that would like. And if that's something you want to do, we'll send you the program no matter what. So we'll send that to you. So you have that follow Sal's advice. And then if you want additional support and help, we'll have someone coach you through the.

[Sal Destefano]

You have your own coach.

[Doug]

And then. Yeah, they'll be checking in with you and modifying on a regular basis.

[Mackenzie]

That'd be great. Now, I know this is probably a strange question, but if I do not.

[Caller David]

If.

[Mackenzie]

When I do what you're telling me to do you think I. I can at lose. Least lose 10 pounds by the time.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, for sure.

[Doug]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Sal Destefano]

Just the two step. The two things I said with diet alone will probably give you a good

[Justin Andrews]

test, the consistency of it. Yeah, we'll determine that for sure.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep. But I'm gonna send you. So Justin said the best dumbbell 15 is maps 15 muscle mommy Doug. So send that to her and then we'll have a coach call you. And if you want to hire one of our coaches, that's your best bet.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

Okay. Okay. Well, I think that's it for me. And again, I thank all of you. I feel like I connected all of you. Each of you have very, very interesting personalities that I love every single one. So I'm was very happy to see that you at least wanted to help me out. So thank you.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, and thank you, of course.

[Doug]

We appreciate the support. We hope we join you join the family because we peek in on all of our clients. So if you're training with one of our trainers, we'll get a chance to see more of you too.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

Nice thank you. Well, that's it for me.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay, thank you.

[Doug]

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

[Sal Destefano]

Send that to you.

[Mackenzie]

All right.

[Pregnant Caller (Marisol)]

Bye, guys.

[Doug]

Bye.

[Sal Destefano]

Bye. She's sweet.

[Doug]

Yeah, she was a joy.

[Sal Destefano]

Small changes, you know, and people need another dose. Like protein does produce satiety, but when you're getting it from either processed food sources like protein bars. Yeah. They kind of hack or especially shakes, you lose that satiety effect. In fact, when I'm telling people the bulk who are having trouble eating more calories and protein, I. I point them in the direction it helps in that.

[Doug]

Well, you remember, you guys remember when I told you I did that whole experiment where I did one show, all natural. Yeah. Whole now. And I remember how much I would crave the protein bars.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep.

[Doug]

I mean, become like, especially when you're trying to be in a calor. Calorie deficit. Those sweet bars tastes like it's like a treat or a candy bar. You want like three, four of those in a day. And those you're talking about 240, 250 a pop. Before you know it, you creeped up on and. And they're not feeling. So it's like you eat them and you're like, oh, so good. Then it's like an hour later you're like, I want another one of those. And so if you're getting a lot of your protein through processed food, it's tough to get the real benefits of what we talk about by just focusing on your protein.

[Sal Destefano]

So if you like Mind Pump, come find us on Instagram. Mind Pump Media.

[Caller Samantha]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically, improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, Anabolic Maps, performance and Maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving a A5 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.