2631: Five Tricks to Boost Protein Intake & More (Listener Live Coaching)

13:41Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I know. So the Greek yogurt with the berries and a little bit of granola and some honey is just an incredible dessert. I mean, I love having that afterwards. And even if you just finish dinner, I still seem to be able to get that down.

13:54Adam Schafer:So here's one that, uh, the protein powder cheesecake cups, uh, which are delicious. Now I don't have these cause these are dairy, but I've tasted them. And this will give you about 15 grams of protein per cup. So you take a half a scoop of, uh, protein powder. So you could use like whey, uh, vanilla, a half, uh, a cup of low fat cream cheese, one tablespoon almond butter, one tablespoon, a teaspoon, excuse me, of stevia, a quarter cup of crushed graham crackers. And what you do is you mix the protein powder, the cream cheese, the almond butter, and the stevia until it's smooth. You put it into cups.

14:28Adam Schafer:You top it with the graham cracker crumbs, and you put it in the fridge or the freezer, and you have 15 grams of protein, peanut butter cups, or almond butter cups, essentially.

14:38Sal Di Stefano:I mean, all these can be made in your Ninja Creamy, too.

14:42Adam Schafer:Yeah.

14:43Sal Di Stefano:I mean, you do this all the time. All the time. This is like your thing. These are all the stuff. You name it, I've tried them.

14:49Adam Schafer:Have you done the cottage cheese chocolate mousse one? that I have there? I don't think, I've done some of the peanut butter chocolate cups.

14:55Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, we've done peanut butter chocolate cups a bunch of times. I don't know if I've done the cottage cheese chocolate mousse.

15:00Adam Schafer:It's a half a cup of low fat cottage cheese, one tablespoon of cocoa powder, one teaspoon maple syrup, quarter teaspoon vanilla extract, and then you can add chocolate shavings if you want. You blend the cottage cheese, the cocoa, the syrup, and the vanilla until smooth, you chill it, then you put the chocolate shavings on it. And apparently it's supposed to be super good. Dang, I want to try that. Yeah, and that's 14 grams of protein. I mean, if you do stuff like this and you plan, because most people will miss, in my experience, when they miss their protein, it's around 30 to 50 grams. I don't care who you are.

15:31Adam Schafer:People will try to hit it, and they're off by 30, 50 grams. That's typically what I find. Doing what we just said, you'll hit that. No problem.

15:39Sal Di Stefano:So the same way that you made the point about the eggs, so Katrina makes these protein peanut butter balls. You've probably seen them in my refrigerator before, and she makes them in bulk. So she'll spend a Saturday where she makes 20, 30 of those things or more. And we just put them in a big Tupperware thing in the refrigerator. And each one, I think, is – I think a single bite is eight grams of protein. And so I eat two or three of those at a time throughout the day. And it's just another way to boost that. But, yeah, I think if you do planning like that, the bone broth thing, the breakfast tip like that – And a lot of this for clients was always just getting them to create these new habits around snacking and eating.

16:18Sal Di Stefano:Totally. And if you could get them to focus on hitting their protein intake and doing it with these habits, then this becomes a part of your lifestyle. Pre me getting ready for a show and really having to dial my diet into the level that I had to, I didn't do a lot of this stuff. I just, being honest. And so I fell into the common trap of sometimes I'm hitting my protein intake, sometimes I'm not. And that was enough to really keep me from really progressing consistently. And it wasn't until I competed did I have to show progress consistently. And the diet was the thing that I was most dialed on.

16:52Sal Di Stefano:And at first, it's a bit challenging because it's different from how you eat. But over a year or two of doing that consistently, you start to build this habit and routines around snacking, eating desserts, all the above. And now it's just become a lifestyle. I do attribute that. I mean, I've been talking a lot on the show about how fitness in my 40s has gotten easier. I do attribute not only all the muscle mass from training that I got, but also some of the habits that I picked up from competing that have now just kind of stuck around. Like the Greek yogurt for dessert. That's a go-to for you.

17:29Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I mean, forever, it was either a dessert or just white knuckle it and do nothing. Where it's now, it's like, oh, no, I don't need a white knuckle it. I'll just go have that. and that just feeds into my protein intake and it's a good dessert. And so that was a habit that I created that I didn't have before. That is, it helps me stay healthy, fit and keep muscle.

17:47Adam Schafer:Awesome. I read a meta-analysis on resistance training alone for fat loss in comparison to cardiovascular training alone for fat loss. In other words, what do the studies show when people just start strength training? They don't change their diet. They don't change anything else. and then what does it show for cardio when they add that and they don't do anything else? Okay, so how do they compare? Love this, love this. How do they compare for fat loss? So here's what the meta analysis, because I found a meta analysis for both. Here's what they show. Cardio, without, by the way, I want to preface this.

18:26Adam Schafer:Exercise alone with no other intervention. No dietary intervention is a terrible way to burn body fat. So if you don't fix your diet, it's going to be very hard to lose a substantial body. You'll improve your health. You'll improve your mobility, your function. Can we speculate on what happened? Yeah. What do you guys think? Cardio by itself versus strength training by itself?

18:48Sal Di Stefano:I actually think cardio by itself lost more fat. Not a lot, but I bet it lost a little bit more fat. But I also think it lost equal amount as muscle. And then the different, and then I think that the just, And again, we're saying no intervention of diet. So I'm assuming that these people just -

19:06Adam Schafer:They just had these people work out one way or the other.

19:09Sal Di Stefano:Right. And so I would think that somebody would run like crazy and they would end up losing a decent amount of body fat just purely out of the extra activity they weren't doing without the diet intervention. But they would also lose quite a bit of muscle. The people who lifted weights, I think would be just barely behind the body fat. I think it would be close, but then they would actually retain or build muscle. And so the overall -

19:36Justin Andrews:Recomposition, like they built muscle, but the same amount of body fat they came in with was sort of kind of the same. Yeah, body fat percentage would be better in the muscle people

19:44Sal Di Stefano:or in the lifting people, that body fat percentage. But I think fat, there's more fat loss in the running. More fat actual loss.

19:49Adam Schafer:So you guys don't have much faith in your strength training. It's even better than that. Strength training edged out just a little for fat loss.

19:58Sal Di Stefano:Okay, well, so that's, I said barely edged out on the other way.

20:01Adam Schafer:For weight loss, cardio won. Yes, because they lost muscle.

20:04Sal Di Stefano:They lost muscle. Yeah, that's exactly what I said.

20:06Adam Schafer:No, you said cardio would lose a little more fat.

20:08Sal Di Stefano:But barely edged it out, I said.

20:11Justin Andrews:Percentage of body fat would have been better for the strength.

20:13Sal Di Stefano:But strength training still lost more body fat. Yeah, so that's impressive. It's impressive that it even edged it out a little bit.

20:20Adam Schafer:Now, think about, so again, I'll just say it again. It's just very...

20:24Sal Di Stefano:Now, okay, so one more thing, because I just want to know more of the study. Were they exercising an equal amount of time?

20:30Adam Schafer:So this is a meta-analysis. These are studies of studies at looking at both interventions. By the way, it's not much. I'm going to tell you guys right now. The average fat loss for people who just lifted weights was like three pounds. Okay. So, and for cardio, it was like 2.8 pounds. You don't lose a lot when you don't change your diet as well. Sure, sure. That's just what happens. Now, health will improve. So if you don't change your diet, you just exercise. Regardless of how you exercise, so long as it's appropriate, health improves. Now, I'll argue, and I have data to support that strength training, if you had to compare the two for overall health, would win, mainly from the insulin sensitivity.

21:10Adam Schafer:Yeah, the building muscle part and the benefits of that. Now, weight on the scale went down more with the cardio group, but that's because they paired some muscle. Yeah, because they lost.

21:18Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I was close to what I said, but I'm surprised, actually, that the muscle still edged. I mean, the lifting weights edged.

21:25Adam Schafer:And the speculation was because of the boost in metabolic rate. Of course. That came from the strength. If you stretch that study out, you stretch that study out five years. It gets worse. Oh, yeah.

21:33Sal Di Stefano:It would get better. Oh, strength training will crush it. And so people need to understand. Okay, so what is happening if there's no diet intervention, what is happening so positive for the people that are lifting weights? Well, what's happening is that, and we talk about this all the time, the beautiful part about lifting weights in conjunction with, let's say, not having the best diet, is at least when you overeat, some of those calories are getting partitioned over to building muscle. That's the benefit. With cardio, it doesn't work that way. Like any overage of calories goes to fat. It doesn't go to anything else.

22:08Sal Di Stefano:So if all things are equal as far as the exercise part, the added benefits that you get from cardio, there are none.

22:16Adam Schafer:And I will argue this all day long because these are meta-analysis studies, and these studies typically are, you know, what are they, three months long, four months long at the most. You stretch this out over two years, three years, five years. Oh, yeah, just compounding. Strength training will beat it on all fronts because of the metabolic advantage. By the way, you might be wondering, how is it that they're not losing a lot of weight? Your body adapts very quickly to activity. It learns how to become more efficient with your overall calorie burn. Here's why. Cardio burns a lot more calories than strength training.

22:48Adam Schafer:That's a fact. You run for an hour. or you lift weights for an hour, you're going to burn way more calories on an elliptical or running or cycling or swimming. That's true. The difference is strength training, the adaptation that it triggers is metabolically advantageous. Building muscle speeds up your metabolism. It makes your body want to burn body fat on its own more and it makes you more sensitive to insulin, meaning your hormones start to work better in terms of fat loss for you. Insulin sensitivity is great for fat loss. Insulin resistance is terrible for fat loss. But in these studies, the meta-analysis, the scale went down more for cardio, but fat loss was roughly the same.

23:32Adam Schafer:Why? Because the strength training group didn't lose muscle. And in some of those studies that they took, they actually built a little bit of muscle. That's what I figured. Right. Now you combine it with fixing your diet. Now you've got the formula. Oh, yeah.

23:45Sal Di Stefano:You take those examples and you give one piece of advice. go hit protein intake. And that radically - Eat it first. Yeah. That radically shifts those results too, positively for the people that are lifting weights, where it's negligible to the runners. The runners, you tell both groups, now all I want you to do, so since we didn't do anything, no diet interventions, and all we've done is cardio and lifting weights to do this. All right, next thing I'm going to tell these two groups, hit your target body weight and protein, change nothing else, just that. And that muscle -

24:18Adam Schafer:It's synergistic with strength training because of the muscle movement. Yes. It's going to benefit the cardio group too. It's going to be more muscle preserving. It's going to also reduce calories because it's satiety producing. But it's synergistic with strength training because you're fueling the muscle growth that the strength training is triggering, thus improving the metabolic advantage even more. Yeah. But I like this study, right? I like it. But I also like to communicate to people like, and I train people like this, by the way. All of us did. I had lots of clients who did nothing with their diet.

24:48Adam Schafer:And they just came and worked out with me twice a week. And it took me years to get them to change their diet. Why? Diet's hard to change. That's the hardest thing to change. It's the most ingrained in us. It's just the most challenging. There's much more attached to how we eat than there is to, I can make it to the gym twice a week. So I had lots of clients that didn't change their diet. Here's what happened to those people. Over the years, because it was a slow process, because they didn't change their diet, over the years, they got leaner and leaner and leaner and leaner, and they got stronger and stronger.

25:17Adam Schafer:There wasn't this radical change in body fat. There was radical changes in health, radical changes in strength, radical changes in mobility. But fat loss was a slow, gradual process. On the flip side, managing gyms, you see these people. They'd come get a membership, and they would just on the treadmill four days a week. That's all they did. You would see this initial weight loss, and that was it. That was it. The rest of the time, they were members. For years and years and years, they looked the same.

25:42Justin Andrews:Exactly the same.

25:43Adam Schafer:And they had good stamina and endurance. It's always a mystery to me.

25:47Sal Di Stefano:but yes further on i know you know since we're talking about fat loss did you guys see the recent thing that the news with the ozempic recently no what the they failed to uh file for their patent renewal gonna lose billions what a stupid costly who's that guy i think it was up

26:04Justin Andrews:in canada is that what it was yeah up in canada they didn't uh file their extension so up in

26:09Adam Schafer:canada they can generic it they can sell generic which will result in billions of dollars imagine

26:14Sal Di Stefano:how fast that dude got fired yeah imagine if you're that guy in the meeting you imagine that

26:18Adam Schafer:uh it was literally just the market it was i turned it i turned it in a day late yeah

26:23Sal Di Stefano:that's exactly what it was it was like literally they just failed to respond to the renewal thing in time and then it the patent expired which opened the open the door for good news for people

26:34Adam Schafer:yeah for sure you're gonna start smuggling uh peptides from canada yeah Yeah. Bro, you're going to Canada? Can you bring me back some some some aglutas? Did we talk?

26:45Sal Di Stefano:Did we talk openly on the podcast yet about our conversation with Dr. Seeds and just the speculation around that? No, because I mean, I know I want to have him on the show. We're going to have him on it. But I still think it's fun for because to our credit. OK, I remember when we had Israel telling the show and he was he was basically breaking the news to us. What's what's coming down the pipe? And then we saw the news and we talked about it. and right away just we were very like uh hesitant as far as like this seems and we speculated on what we thought might be some of the dangers of this like and i thought that was a really like like smart on your part of thinking like okay if people on ozempic and these glp1s what we've seen really struggle to get enough calories to contain a sustained muscle mass and then you take a drug that ends up still building muscle in this calorie deficit but that tissue still needs energy then won't it rob other organs and stuff like that in order to do that which i thought was a really uh pretty strong theory and idea by you but we brought that to seeds and he brought up a

27:56Adam Schafer:whole nother so so so what happened so there was a study that we talked about on a previous episode where they took monkeys and they took groups of monkeys, one group, diet alone, another group, GLP-1, another group, GLP-1 plus myostatin and activin A inhibitor. So both myostatin and activin are inhibitors of muscle growth. And when you take the brakes off, you just build muscle. So they're like, all right, what's going to happen here? And what happened was the monkeys got lean and built hella muscle on a low-calorie diet. Which is insane. Crazy. And they're not working out. They're not making these monkeys lift weights.

28:30Adam Schafer:No. So my speculation was if you take the brakes off myostatin and activin, you're going to fuel muscle growth at the expense of the rest of your body. Yeah. You're going to steal nutrients. It's not going to be functional muscle tissue. Well, that's what Seed said. Dr. Seed said this is not going to be efficient, healthy muscle. Which kind of blew all of our mind, right? Yeah. You're going to have layers, build layers of muscle tissue that aren't healthy. It's useless. Which makes a lot of sense.

28:55Justin Andrews:You know, you've seen the whippet dog or the bull. Yeah. And you haven't seen them actually move or do anything like video wise.

29:03Adam Schafer:So the Belgium, Doug, Google Belgium blue bull. So the Belgium blue bull is a myostatin deficient, for lack of a better term, bull. Now it wasn't done in a lab. It was bred this way. We just figured out that's why they were so muscular because we learned about myostatin. We tested these bulls like, oh, we bred these bulls to have this myostatin deficiency. so when you look at a picture of this bull there it is right there it looks like a bull like a cartoon bodybuilder bull he just slapped muscle now what Dr.

29:37Sal Di Stefano:Seed said that was such a duh moment for me or like an aha moment was we've seen these forever, we've talked about these bulls a bunch of times, but we've never seen an example of this bull pulling the strength of 15 other bulls like you would think

29:53Adam Schafer:But to see all that muscle, you do it. It's useless muscle. Let's put it to work. These are not the work bowls. When you want a bowl that's strong. It's not the ox. So the early 20th century is when they were made. And what do they use both for, Doug? Scroll down. Both for dairy and beef. There you go. So they were bred for more meat to eat. They were not bred for more work. Working bowls are not Belgian blue bowls. In fact, Belgian blue bowls are bigger and not stronger. In fact, they're just tastier. They don't even perform as well. So now picture this. Muscular people, really muscular people.

30:31Adam Schafer:That are weak. Who are similar to obese people.

30:35Justin Andrews:That's going to be so weird.

30:36Adam Schafer:Where they're walking around with like lumber. Yeah. With a big muscle that's kind of useless. So that's what Dr. Seed said will happen with these drugs.

30:45Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, which is really interesting. Talk about pure, like just cosmetic.

30:50Adam Schafer:And you know who's going to adopt it immediately? bodybuilders listen we have don't care about like function this is like this is the equivalent of like butt implants and you know breast implants you're gonna have buffed dysfunctional people like dysfunctional in terms of muscular like strength and performance yeah so it's all for the whole category yeah so you're gonna be a big like you can't move really well that's weird and

31:15Sal Di Stefano:then and then who knows what are all the downstream effects of that right oh because then i still think your theories of like organs being robbed of nutrients like you think you got all this extra useless muscle that can't be better for the organs keep up that amount of consumption yeah that can't be better for the heart it's got to be that's got to be worse i predict that this

31:36Adam Schafer:bmi actually would matter there you go i predict the risks will be more like obesity than they will like uh having muscle yeah because you're gonna have more weight not necessarily more insulin sensitivity tissue it's not beneficial it's not functional it'll look a particular way yeah but

31:53Justin Andrews:you're not very healthy yeah that's gonna be weird you'll look more impressive in a weird way you'll push a guy like that that's so anti-justin i already feel like that already that's like that's like justin's anti-anti this is like the ultimate balloon animal guy yeah i mean and the

32:11Adam Schafer:The other fear is this. Team new, Justin. The mTOR, which is a signaler of muscle growth, which is fine. I know they like to say, oh, mTOR for cancer. No, no, no. In the context of a healthy, it's fine. But we don't know what hammering mTOR into the sky, what that could potentially do. Will that increase the cancer risk? Right. That's where you might see some weird tumors and shit start to grow. Like, whoa, nice biceps. That's a tumor. It's actually another bicep. Interesting. You know? Interesting. Totally. Speaking of compounds and stuff, I got to mention GHKCU. For skin. That peptide is so crazy.

32:51Adam Schafer:Yeah. It's so crazy. It works so well. I've been going into more of the research on GHKCU and skin and skin health and how it helps with UV exposure and sunburn and all that stuff. That peptide is incredible. so the company uh luminos uh the intera uh product luminos they have a very high concentration of gh

33:16Sal Di Stefano:kcu in there the high is still fine that that in caldera is all i use on my psoriasis now bro that's

33:22Adam Schafer:it those two things it is so powerful like we have family friends that'll come over my wife will have them put it on when they come in and then by the end by the by the time they leave they're like in

33:31Justin Andrews:the mirror they're like what i had some in my house and we had been talking about this i don't a while back about like using it anytime I got a sunburn. I was out working the yard all day long and didn't have my hat on or anything. I had like the total like stereotypical redneck, you know, where it was just everything was red and had this huge line right here on my face. Did you put it on? I put it on and then the next day I didn't have anything. It's crazy. Yeah.

33:55Adam Schafer:That was weird. I told you guys my niece, right?

33:57Sal Di Stefano:So what, okay. What is, what is the peptide signaling or doing? Is it like mitochondria health or it's like regenerating faster?

34:04Adam Schafer:Skin repair. it's a signaler that says repair repair repair it's like turbo charging your your skin's ability to repair to repair and handle stress interesting so collagen production skyrockets so you put it on and it's like your your skin's i mean i hate saying this because everybody says this but you look younger like wrinkled everything you look younger because you basically what you're doing as you get older your skin stops being able to do what it did when you were younger but gs just more weathered and yes dude it's this way of doing wrinkly i know it's pretty cool that's cool i I read a study on coffee that you might like, Justin.

34:37Adam Schafer:Okay. Is it a positive one? Yeah, it is. Keep up your habit, you addict. Oh, here we go. Look. So GHK signals skin cells to increase the synthesis of collagen and elastin, which is what makes it look more.

34:52Sal Di Stefano:So is there any studies that share or show?

34:56Adam Schafer:Oh, wound healing. That's right. It's good for wound healing too. Of course. I forgot about that. There's lots of studies on that.

35:00Sal Di Stefano:I imagine that's why it's good for putting it on my psoriasis. Yeah. So it's healing that. So, okay. So GHKCU paired with like a collagen protein? Any benefits? Supplement? Yeah. Probably. Any benefits to doing it together? Probably. I would think so too.

35:18Adam Schafer:I mean, it might be a good idea to like take a bunch of essential amino acids and then use it. That might be a good idea. I would say put it on and get in front of the red light.

35:27Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, does she? Oh, yeah. After she gets to her night shower, her routine is she rubs the - We ran out, dude. They need to send me a turbo charge. She rubs the luminous on, and then she sits in front of the red light for 10 minutes. That's like her thing. She's better than I am.

35:40Adam Schafer:Bro, it's better than, I wish women, like Botox, do this. Oh, yeah. This looks like Botox, except your face doesn't become paralyzed.

35:48Sal Di Stefano:That's how big of a difference. Well, it's the opposite of what Botox does. That's right. Botox, you inject, and it kills all those cells, right? It basically kills all those muscles, and that's what they do, right? And then this is like basically rejuvenating or making it healthier, younger.

36:04Adam Schafer:Atrophies your little muscles. We were watching, what show is it? Love Island. Okay. Oh, my God. Listen, not my choice.

36:13Sal Di Stefano:I mean, we're all guilty of watching some trash TV.

36:15Justin Andrews:That's like real trash TV. Is that where they're like trying to see if they still got it and they're like being tempted by everybody?

36:21Sal Di Stefano:They're trying to break each other up. Is that like Temptation Island?

36:23Adam Schafer:No, Love Island is just, it's, bro, it's everything that's wrong with the world on a TV show. I was like, who's going to go on this show? I'm connecting with my daughter. Oh, she likes it. One of the things we do is try to meet her where she's at. So she wants to watch her sing. All right, let's watch it so we can be a part of her life. Sure. And then through that, you have influence. I can get down on that. So she's like, oh, I like this show. It probably sparks a good conversation. It's so hard not to comment the entire time. Yeah, good. Because like, oh, the way that they're coming out, these people coming out, it's so ridiculous.

36:54Adam Schafer:And then they're like, OK, you're going to make out with two guys. And my daughter's watching this. and I just want to rip my hair out. You know, like, oh, what am I, you know? But we're watching it. I'm trying to, like, again, influence her. But anyway, the host of that, this really beautiful woman, but something was wrong, like, with her face. And this is going to sound mean, but I was watching. I'm like, something's not right. And my wife's like, that's Botox. Yeah. I'm like, oh, my God, you're right. Yeah. No matter what happened, like, her mouth would move, but everything else looked identical.

37:25Adam Schafer:Yeah, it's got to be the Botox. Oh, I mean, that's the part, too, that's, like,

37:28Sal Di Stefano:it's starting to make a lot of people look the same, which is weird. That's part of the beautiful thing about humans is that we're also, we have all our -

37:35Adam Schafer:You know what's crazy about that? When you paralyze the muscles of your face and you're not able, you know how much communication is subconscious? Like, I don't know why I feel a particular way by talking to this person. I can feel their energy or whatever. What's happening, my brain is picking up cues on subtle changes -

37:54Sal Di Stefano:On their posture, on their expressions. Your face, your eyebrows. Oh, yeah.

37:58Adam Schafer:nose oh yeah well if you paralyze all that it actually can decrease my theory is it'll decrease your ability to connect with other people and not just then that would be an interesting study to

38:08Sal Di Stefano:show like on average if uh it makes people less likable like if they did you know how they did that one study with like the scars faces and you just like grade them like that if they did something similar like that where you have all these botox faces and he's like are these people more trustworthy or would you like this person on a scale of one to ten and see if they would be less disliked. Well, here's my, here's my theory. Yeah.

38:25Adam Schafer:There's degrees of it for sure. Hear me out. Cause I I've read psychology studies on psychology around this, right? So, uh, there are subtle cues that my brain picks up on that I'm not aware of, uh, that'll, that'll give me a feeling about you, whether it's happy or sad or tense or even empathy, empathize with you a little bit. And a lot of it is based off of your posture, your voice inflection, the health, uh, that you, you know, how, how you appear to be healthy, but also the subtle changes in your eyebrows, your eyes, your nose, your ears, all the things that I'm not fully aware of. So I can't empathize and connect as well with you when that's all paralyzed.

39:01Adam Schafer:Here's the flip side. When you're looking at a face, people don't, there's studies on this. When you look at a face with a facial expression, your face slightly mirrors it just a tiny bit. And they think the reason why you're doing that is it's helping you empathize as well. So I bet you, I bet you we could find studies on this i bet you they exist that lots of botox reduces your ability to empathize with other

39:25Justin Andrews:people not just their ability to empathize with you some of the other day i was watching just kind of i had my headphones in and i just sometimes i like to people watch and uh i was noticing that when when people were interacting and talking to each other the person that was listening to was still like subtly mouthing the words of the person in front of them talking and it was like you don't pick up on that a lot but like it's it's like subconscious it is you're finding

39:49Adam Schafer:changing your accent just a little bit because you're talking to somebody.

39:52Justin Andrews:Dude, that happened to be in Ireland when I was with my brother.

39:56Sal Di Stefano:I'm guilty of that too. The inflections. If you're around enough, you just naturally do it. Yeah.

40:00Adam Schafer:That's just showing you kind of what I'm... Doug, look up. Does Botox affect your ability to empathize? Now imagine this. A mother. You have a newborn baby and all they can read is that. And the baby's looking up at you while you're breastfeeding the baby. And the baby sees a face that doesn't emote. Could that change? Could that potentially change the development of the baby's brain?

40:25Sal Di Stefano:For sure, the question is how much, right? Is it negligible or is it like a lot?

40:29Adam Schafer:I don't know, man, because you add that up over years. I mean, I think it's got an effect.

40:33Sal Di Stefano:There's got to be ways that we could probably study that.

40:35Adam Schafer:Do you see any studies on this, Doug?

40:36Justin Andrews:Yes, so it does show that Botox could alter how people perceive and express their own emotions, but does not seem to affect their ability to empathize.

40:45Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, right. Hey, speed of that. I had someone, I had one of our listeners who asked me a question on my question and I answered it. So I'm curious to see you guys. What is empathy to you?

40:59Justin Andrews:What is empathy? Yeah. I feel empathy is the ability to project yourself into somebody's situation.

41:06Adam Schafer:I think it's being able to perceive how they feel so you can empathize with them. Is that right? I feel like that's what it is.

41:14Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I don't think there's, I don't necessarily. Let's see what the internet says. So it's, yeah, your ability to understand somebody else's perspective, right? So how, and how well can you do that? Like how well. Like put yourself in their shoes. Walk in their shoes. Yeah, how well can you tolerate, understand somebody else's thoughts and beliefs and like that?

41:32Adam Schafer:Yeah, we're right. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It involves stepping into someone's shoes. Yeah.

41:39Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I'd say it's a real, when you think about it, it's a, we throw it around. like we people say it all the time but it's like it's a it really is a true art and skill and it's only really challenged when people say things that you disagree with or you don't necessarily empathize naturally to like it's real easy to empathize with somebody who it's like they lose their father and it's like okay it's easy for me to have empathy with that because i understand that feeling and it's like that's not real empathy to me real empathy is the ability to do it when it's not natural when it's like I actually have to actively think I don't know what it's like to do that and let me try and understand why maybe this person comes off this way or maybe why I don't like them is maybe that's because I am having a hard time empathizing with their situation or their beliefs or their perspective so there's a real art to be able to do that.

42:30Adam Schafer:It's a female superpower.

42:31Sal Di Stefano:Well, so the way I actually answered this and said, I think I'm not very good at it. I do think that I try and work on it. I said, I follow my wife's lead. She's incredible. Katrina has this ability to empathize with everybody. And it obviously is a natural gift.

42:49Adam Schafer:Women in general have this gift, which it comes with its own challenges, right? Women are really, men are, I mean, if we were to be - We're good at picking out predators.

43:03Justin Andrews:and that's what we have to because you know we want that trait well this is somebody to empathize you're right and we want somebody to always see that uh but we have to protect that it's it's a

43:13Sal Di Stefano:what a what a great way to highlight the differences of sexes and why we make such a good team because you're exactly right justin so my natural inclination when i run into a stranger that seems off or suspect is danger and like oh that guy's a creep or this that hers is like you know he might have had a really bad day today hon like you have no idea he might have just got bad news at work and like what you're feeling is that and it's wow you're crazy he's fucking creepy you know what i'm saying so you know but together you balance each other out right so you kind of put her on alert a little bit maybe you don't just go cuddle up to that guy or whatever what's going on with him but then at the same time too it makes me go like well maybe i won't be so knee jerk reaction to something he says or does maybe i can understand so it's like the combination of

43:54Adam Schafer:the two works you guys have empathy it's very interesting do you guys have empathy triggers like if you watch a movie what's what are the what are the things in movies that get you

44:01Justin Andrews:anything about kids yeah me too yes yeah especially yeah like if they're sick or whatever you know it's like some sob story where they lost their kid or i'm like so i i was watching uh lilo

44:14Adam Schafer:and stitch now it's live action okay just got you and well because first off i don't know if you guys remember the cartoon or whatever but live action same thing same story right but you got this little girl first of all they both lost their parents so now it's bigger sisters taking care of the little sister and the little girl is she she she feels left out and the kids are kind of poking fun at her so i empathized with the little girl right away but i empathized a lot with the older sister because i was the oldest so i immediately was like oh my god if i had to take care of my siblings i could totally feel what that would feel like and the responsibility because the older sister in the movie she foregoes going to college because she has to stay home to

44:50Sal Di Stefano:take care of her little sister so that's a that's a trigger so if i if i see um a movie and there is a feel-good part around like the father it it just like i fight back tears it takes there's obviously a lot of therapy that needs to be done there they're like because it's a feel it's not it's like a feel-good moment for like where the like the the dad and the did something good yes and the dad and the child are like really like bonding connecting like that it it takes everything of me not to break down crying so it's like there's obviously something there that like that's like why it's like a it shouldn't be something i cry about because it's like a happy moment in a movie it's not like it's not like we're sure it's not a kid losing something or pain it's actually a feel-good moment out yeah yeah so there's this like a emotion of this emotion comes up and i have to like i have to pull the justin and like i'm not supposed to cry right here i'm not supposed Everybody's so open here.

45:47Sal Di Stefano:I'm just like, mm. No, I have my moments, and I'm very aware. I've totally, like, it was something in my, probably my last, this is like a last decade of, like, introspective stuff for me. It's like, why does that always come up? And it's in weird parts of the movie. It's not parts that are traditionally. People, like, old yeller, when the dog dies, you cry, when the family member dies. Like, that doesn't get me. What gets me is, like, a feel-good comeback moment with dad or something like that. and then I was like, oh, God. You don't know where that comes from? That makes sense, dude. Well, I'm sure it comes from my childhood of not having a dad.

46:21Sal Di Stefano:I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. Of course. It's also, you know, I always question like, okay, so that is, you know, is it a weakness or is it a strength? Because is it - Depends how you use it. Right, because I think it's also what has driven me to be a good dad. Of course.

46:40Adam Schafer:It could have made you a shitty dad too. Right. It's all in how you choose. Yeah, I do.

46:44Sal Di Stefano:I do like I understand that too like I understand that that also you you you typically choose one way or the other either they're because of that bullshit you're this totally disconnected dad you don't know how to connect to your child because you weren't taught you didn't see it you don't know how to do it or you probably go the other extreme where it's just like that's all I think about is like how to how to be a good dad how to handle those situations no anything with

47:08Adam Schafer:kids gets me and then after losing someone close to me uh who suffered from cancer if i see somebody with cancer in a movie oh that really messes me up just because it's a personal yeah experience

47:19Sal Di Stefano:yeah see that that's what see things that are typically sad don't get me so sad it's more

47:23Adam Schafer:than the other way the one the one what's weird what'll get me tearful which is weird is anytime there's like a battle movie and then the good guys like come out out of nowhere and start to

47:33Sal Di Stefano:win i start to get emotional i'm like what's wrong with me sometimes the triumphant like

47:41Adam Schafer:and it could be the stupidest movie bro it could be like dude what was i watching pacific rim this is like robots fighting monsters you know and the robots like almost dead and then they come out and they win and i'm like getting emotional my kid i'm like why am i just emotional

47:55Justin Andrews:yeah there's been a handful of times where i've cried in public it was like that was one of those My career had ended as a football player, and we're just sitting there and going around, and we're kind of talking about our experience. And then, you know, knowing that I wasn't doing it anymore, it just all hit me. And then that was, like, hard. But it was the – also, it was the championship. Like, we won because it was the hardest year, like had all these factors against us. And just that effort, you know, I don't know what it is, but like just everybody with that type of effort and like perseverance and then like seeing it pay off was just like, Oh yeah.

48:35Adam Schafer:You know, you know, what gets, you know, what'll make me cry every time to the point where you guys have seen me, I'll turn, I'll start, close my phone.

48:43Sal Di Stefano:If I see stupid Facebook memories or now your phone does this like memory,

48:48Adam Schafer:you know, video. And I see my kids from two or just two or three years ago. Yeah. And I watch it. I got to turn it off. So I'm going to cry in front of my friends, right? I'm going to wait till I'm in the bathroom.

48:57Sal Di Stefano:so the thing that so what always interests me and this is just the i guess the introspective part of me is that when i have emotions and i've said i've shared this for a long time right why yes like people uh have asked uh like because i talk a lot about like self-awareness is like i think it's one of the most important or powerful things that you can ever learn and it's like okay well how do you train that i said well for me learning to train that started with dissecting my emotional highs and lows. So I lay in bed and think back to the day and go like, man, there was that moment where I got really angry at Sal for something.

49:32Sal Di Stefano:It's always me. I'm just using this example. It's not a real example. I've never had to go introspective on how I got, I've never gotten that mad at you where I had to think about it. I knew where the fuck I was mad at you.

49:44Sal Di Stefano:But using that example, right? So I got really upset and frustrated with him. What was that? What did he do or what did he say that triggered that, which then in turn says, what does that say about me and what's going on there? And also the opposite is true. Like, boy, I just had this day, like a good example. This was Doug and I did the car thing. And like, boy, that I just so much joy from that. Like, and it's not just like leaving it out. Like, what was it about that? I always try and unpack that. I always try and unpack these emotional swings that we have north or south and then say, what does that say about me?

50:19Sal Di Stefano:what is it so do you do that so like when you get emotional and you want to cry over the kids because they're all memories do you try and unpack it or you just chalk it up as i get oh no i unpack

50:28Adam Schafer:it because i miss uh i feel like i missed it like oh my god i wasn't present enough even if i was it still feels like i missed it you know what i mean so do you think and so this will be really

50:39Sal Di Stefano:interesting since you that you've connected that i wonder if as the two young ones right now get older and you look back does it shift the the way you feel i don't know because i know it's still

50:50Adam Schafer:early i just saw a video of my four-year-old when he was two and i lost my marvel so that's

50:55Sal Di Stefano:interesting and you're you're very you were very very present for that it's not a i just and you

51:01Adam Schafer:didn't definitely feel it's just gone you know what it is it's that at that that the giving tree dude that god that's that freaking book dude don't ever i know that's what i'm saying the

51:11Justin Andrews:Facebook hits you just like that.

51:13Adam Schafer:It's just I saw him at two, and he was giggling, and he was hella chubby back then, and we're playing, and that little boy's gone. He's a new boy, and I love it. But that little guy's gone. I don't get that.

51:27Sal Di Stefano:Oh, it kills me. When the Facebook memories pop up, I get more joy. I look back.

51:35Adam Schafer:Oh, it's a joyful tear, but it's still like, oh, that little guy's gone. That little, you know? And then I think to myself, who he is now, that's going to be gone soon, in a year or two.

51:45Sal Di Stefano:It happens so fast. Yeah, I wonder if it'll change. Because I'm still so early in the game of fatherhood that I still am thoroughly enjoying every stage so much. And you guys told me that this would happen. You said that each stage is different, and you love each one more than the last, but they're different.

52:04Adam Schafer:So when you watch videos of Max when he was two, it doesn't make you choke up like, oh, my God.

52:08Sal Di Stefano:No, no. I get more like, oh, man, I remember that. That was fun. Or, oh, I remember that day. Like, I totally remember. Especially the way I have trailed his personal Instagram is that I've strategically made an effort to, like, only post, like, once a week of his life for his whole life. And so I can really timeline and go back and, like, go back.

52:31Adam Schafer:Do you guys have any weird anger triggers? Like, things that are, like, I have one, like, getting lost. only because I have the worst sense of direction. I've actually been told by a client who's an expert in the field she said it's a form of dyslexia. I could get lost so I drive home from here every day we've been working here for 8 years I can't get home without GPS. I cannot get home without GPS. I get lost so easily. And it's been like that since I was a kid. So if I get lost it triggers something inside of me where I'm so angry. And it's the weirdest thing. But that's obviously why. yeah oh you're waiting on me you're so used to me just going right away i just thought it's right

53:12Justin Andrews:i already have mine just a little bit yeah well all right i'll be honest like i for me a lot of times redundancy um so if i have to go back and do something that i know was good or um but somebody else has convinced me that i gotta go back and redo something or or like i lose my shit i did not like that i did not like i like creating things and letting it be and then moving to the next thing because my brain just keeps going this direction i don't like going backwards yeah um and i feel like you know first i was like i was always trying to work on that i was like i gotta get better at this i gotta you know i gotta look back and i gotta tweak and i gotta you know work on making things more perfect and i just like i just abandoned it completely i don't have to do that like i just stick with my strength and that's my strength is keep creating keep moving forward and build people around me that can help me with that instead and uh so but that used to be a huge trigger for me uh because i would clap back real hard when somebody had like a you know different opinion about you know the way they would have done it did you have to do homework a lot or something redo it over and over again um yeah i'm sure i don't know i don't know what that is.

54:32Justin Andrews:You didn't put your name in the right place. Yeah, it must have been part of school, I think, brought that out of me. And two, I think it's just that the way that I do things, I like to do it myself. And I like to figure it out myself. I understand people have written books, and they have processes and ways to do it the most effective, efficient way. And sometimes I just don't care. I want to learn it for myself the way that I process it and the way that I want to do it. And I just don't care. Like, I don't care about your book and the way that, you know, you figured this thing out.

55:11Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I mean, I have an analysis for you of being one of your best friends and being around you for so long. And I think I know you really well. And I've said this about you before. I think that you're your own biggest critic and you don't need anybody to tell you that you fucked up or you did something wrong or you could do something better because nobody is going to assess, analyze that more than you and care about it more than you. That's true. And I've known that about you for a very long time, that it's like I don't need to go, if Justin didn't do something perfect or great, I don't need to go point it out because he's already overanalyzed it enough and it's just going to annoy you if I come over and remind you of something you already know.

55:51Sal Di Stefano:And so I think that's a lot of what that is.

55:53Justin Andrews:Yeah, you're right. I mean, that is a lot of that. and it's brought contention. I mean, we've worked through it, me and Courtney. Like, that's been a big one because it's like. Oh, I can imagine. She's like, well, and you got to think about different brains. Like, hers is very clinical. Yeah. And it's very like, like, I read this. This is what I'm stuck on. Like, I don't have any vision of anything outside of this is the protocol. And so that's like loading the dishes. That's like taking things and putting the trash out this way and then closing the lid this way. I need to tell you. And there was a lot of that in the beginning, and it was just like we were like.

56:32Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I can only imagine because I can only imagine if I didn't make that read on you trying to lead and manage you that way would be fucking we would not get along. No. We would not get along.

56:42Justin Andrews:Probably one of the first managers that did give me a space. Yeah. Because that was like in coaches too. Like I had to go through a few coaches before I got good ones that like. Understood that. Understood it. And then I thrived. but it's just that's just my personality so yeah yeah yeah mine's mine's tied to the the empathy

56:59Sal Di Stefano:thing so uh i lack a lot of empathy for people that complain about their life boy that's just oh i've seen that i've seen you do that oh that'll trigger me dude i don't like when people tell you you're privileged oh god or they or they just bitch about their life like you know how hard how bad oh that's and i lack that i really lack empathy and i that's an area i have to try and work on because I'm quick to be triggered to that. Just like, um, I, I don't have a lot of patience for, but I just, uh, cause you had a hard one. It's not good. Not even just that though, Sal, like forget my, like, I don't tie it.

57:34Sal Di Stefano:Like, uh, I don't try and have an oppression Olympics with them. Like I was more like, that's not how I feel about it. It's more like you are, you are doing none of that, any service or good. So, uh, we all have had hardships. They just look different like I don't think that my life was any more harder than anybody else in this room I just think it was different and I think you wasting any time talking about how hard and how shitty it is for you is like wasted energy and if you really want to get out of that situation the best thing you could do is be trying to solve those problems and talking about it and and and you're only going to manifest more of it by like bringing light to it and saying it's so hard it's so bad poor me it's just like dude get over yourself like so i i'm like i have a really hard time with having empathy for people and that's not to discount say they don't have it hard uh but we all have it hard everybody heart is different for everybody and and there's all different levels of it and getting into this like comparing who's had it easier or harder is just it's just a waste to me it's just like and the more you and the and again to what does compare to my child is like i've learned that that's a superpower because if you've had to go through a lot more shit you've had to solve more problems and figure more things out than the guy who got all the privilege so give me all the shit and i don't want the privilege the privilege is people think it's the easier route like no it's like i'm my biggest fear of my son is having as much privilege as he has because he's not gonna have to solve as many problems as i had to solve by the time he's a young when i set him off when he's 18 if we were to compare our child's forget the trauma and the bullshit but think of just all the problem solving I had to go through and figure out that made me into the man that I was by the time I was off on my own by 17, that he just didn't have to do that.

59:23Sal Di Stefano:So that's a, I don't think it's an advantage, and people that talk about it as such an advantage is a massive trigger for me.

59:29Adam Schafer:Doug, do you have an anger trigger? That's like your weird one? I don't know if it's weird. Maybe I think everybody probably feels the same way.

59:37Justin Andrews:Anything that wastes your time. For example, you're on hold for 45 minutes with a bank, and then all of a sudden it just goes blank. Then you have to call again. Oh, man. Oh, boy. That one will trigger me. You and I are a lot alike in that area.

59:57Sal Di Stefano:I mean, God bless Katrina. She has completely – I'll lose my mind to you. She knew it or what about me, but part of the ability for me to do what I've done today is that she found that out about me. so early and she just took all that off my play was just like she had that doesn't bother her the fucking multiple calls hang-ups wasting hours at all i hate oh bro if i do something and and it wasted 30 minutes of my time and it's some shit like that i just lose my shit i'm just like i could have been doing so many other things with my time right now and this so where she's just like so chill about it like she can be managing seven different time wasting things at one time and she's learned to just like clear my plate of all that.

1:00:43Sal Di Stefano:And I'm like, Oh, that allows me to very fortunate.

1:00:45Justin Andrews:No, it is.

1:00:46Sal Di Stefano:Cause I, that is a, I forgot how much that's a huge pet peeve of mine.

1:00:50Justin Andrews:That reminds me of, I did have a moment where I kind of like lost it, but thankfully nobody was really around. But, um, I was driving the new car I got and then I drove it home and had it like, so I took my son the other day. Um, and we were late for something. So I just made like a protein shake and we drank it and all this. And he had it in the back seat and I don't allow him to ever bring food. Nobody ever brings food in the car. And I get home and my car had been baking in the sun. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's all rancid, dude. And thank God he wasn't there because like, like it's a huge trigger for me if the smell is rancid and it like smells so bad.

1:01:31Justin Andrews:And I know that I have to clean it and I know what I'm in for kind of a thing, both those things together. And so, so yeah, so like you have Katrina, like Courtney, like just knows ahead of time how angry and like how like really bad, like my, I lose it on that level. And so I, I, I came out, I was like, Oh my God, smell my car. Like go. And she's like, like go for a walk and like, let me handle this. And she's like, that's awesome. Steam cleaner thing in there. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I don't want you to do that. Like, no, I don't like you when you're like this. Go for a walk. and I'm just like, all right.

1:02:09Justin Andrews:And thank God, like she's learned. That's like, that saved probably everybody in the household.

1:02:15Sal Di Stefano:I would say that's one of the most ultimate things in a partnership is when you find a partner who has that ability to see those things in you and like, no, like this is, and vice versa for us too, right? Like if I can see those things that Katrina just does not want to deal with, can I step in and take care of those things? And she does that for me. So that's like huge.

1:02:37Adam Schafer:All right, let's take a left here. The ingredients, so joy mode, right, the pre-sex supplement. I like to take it before working out because it increases the pump. The ingredients in joy mode, I believe you could actually measure a difference in your blood pressure when you take it. That's how much it dilates your blood vessels. So the ingredients in there have been shown in studies to improve endothelial health. This is blood vessel health because of the boost in nitric oxide. and I would like some listeners to take their blood pressure, drink Joy Mode, an hour later, take your blood pressure again and you'll probably see it be a little bit lower from the metric oxide.

1:03:14Adam Schafer:Oh, interesting. Yeah, the ingredients in there, if you take them regularly, you should get a measurable difference. Good for all the different types of pumps. Well, that's why it's a pre-sex supplement. That's what they made it for. It was for - Yeah, you use it for working out. I use it for working out. Justin and I use it for sex. And you guys like it. Yeah. I mean, for working out, it's great. I mean, not together, just separately.

1:03:37Sal Di Stefano:I'm glad you clarified.

1:03:38Justin Andrews:I have to make sure that there's a distinction there.

1:03:40Sal Di Stefano:Who was that? Was it Sal or Justin who did that to the clear guy and he got all weird? He said, like, are you guys together? And then you're like, well, together, together. And then he got all awkward.

1:03:54Justin Andrews:It's like it's a joke. Calm down, bro. Yeah, you can't. We're not in the Bay Area. You can't joke about that.

1:03:58Adam Schafer:But yeah, for blood flow, that's like the best supplement. So Ned is hemp oil extract that you feel. It's high in CBD, but other cannabinoids. Listen, take this 45 minutes later, you feel euphoria. It really works. Try it for yourself. Go to helloned.com. That's H-E-L-L-O-N-E-D.com forward slash Mind Pump. Use the code Mind Pump. Get 20 % off. Back to the show. Our first caller is Derek from Florida. What's up, man? How you doing, Derek?

1:04:28Justin Andrews:How you guys doing? Thank you for everything you guys do and thank you for having me guys. You got it. How can we help you? So I'm going to jump right into my question. Is that cool? Yep. All right, so on a typical story. I'm 42 years old. I got a four-year-old son. Around the time that we had him, I just started letting myself go. I just didn't have enough time to work out. I made every excuse in the world, got super lazy, gained about 40 pounds. about a month ago, I decided I wanted to start trying to get myself back in shape. Start waking up early in the mornings, doing some workouts at night as well, trying to not overdo it, trying to follow some of the rules that you guys have put forth where I don't want to put too much of a toll on my body.

1:05:11Justin Andrews:But at the same time, kind of struggling with the diet part of it. So my main question that I have is when I put in a, like a daily energy expenditure calculator, all of my details, it pumps out a number that's around 3 ,000 to 3 ,200, depending on which calculator I'm using. I know that I need to be at a deficit if I want to lose some fat, but I also don't want to go too hardcore. My issue is that in the past, anytime that I eat over about 2 ,400 calories with a cheat meal at the end of the week, I tend to gain weight. So I'm worried if I jump up to 3000 calories, am I actually giving my body too much food and too many calories?

1:05:52Justin Andrews:Or am I going to be in a point where my body's actually getting what it needs and maybe I'll stop storing fat and using it for what I actually want it to do, which is build muscle.

1:06:01Sal Di Stefano:Derek, how far into this are we? Like you put on the 40 pounds and then you started to make, wanted to make change. How long, how long have you been attempting this right now?

1:06:10Justin Andrews:It's been about a month. I do want to preface this by saying before I had my son, I was down at like 10 to 12 % body fat, 205. I'm six two. So I had a pretty decent physique. It just, it went to hell after, after we had the kid.

1:06:24Adam Schafer:Are you, and you're tracking right now, is that how you know you're eating 2 ,400 on average?

1:06:28Justin Andrews:Yeah. So I'm eating 24 on average, but I do add the cheat meal every week. And that varies. Some weeks I'm only adding like 400 calories. Some weeks on that Saturday, I'll add like a thousand. It just varies on what we decide

1:06:40Adam Schafer:to choose so that's your maintenance then if that's what you're eating uh on a regular basis those calculators are a rough estimate they can be off significantly so i i always tell people it's a good starting point but tracking is where you're going to get your maintenance i also

1:06:53Sal Di Stefano:wouldn't start you like that though either though i mean at 24 well no i mean here's the thing i mean i wouldn't even be cutting right now if if you put 40 pounds okay on in the last couple years um i don't even have to ask you questions you were you were eating i mean you were doing some damage so probably i don't know if you drink if you eat a lot of fast food but to put okay yeah so if you put 40 pounds on you were fucking around like for real so i'm gonna go like hey let's if you were my client i i would assess that with you and be like let's let's just knock out a couple of these really bad things that you're probably doing that you know about already i don't know your mind would be binging ice cream at night and drinking on weekends or something like that and And so I'd be like, that's all I want you to do.

1:07:36Sal Di Stefano:And let's go after eating protein. Because I guarantee if you're eating all that shit, you're probably under consuming on protein, over consuming on empty calories or trash calories. I don't actually want you to cut yet. I really want to, especially a guy that like you, who was in really good shape, who probably had a lot more muscle because you probably lost muscle and put body fat on. So I'm going to focus on building right now. I'm not tripping about the scale, even though I know you may be a little bit in your head. I'm like, I want to feed your body correctly get out let's cut out of and I wouldn't go crazy either because if you were eating that out of bounds I just need to tighten up a few things that are probably the the gross offenders and really go after eating protein and building muscle especially for the first couple months I mean it would look very similar I don't know if you paid attention to my comeback story I did on YouTube but I I didn't I didn't quite fall out of 40 pounds out of shape but I'd fallen out of shape for me and I hadn't been training consistently at all and I documented how I ate and how I train to come back.

1:08:34Sal Di Stefano:And what I didn't do was go right into a cut, even though I needed to lose body fat. It was, listen, I got, I I've lost a lot of muscle the last couple, you know, for me, it was months for you. It's been years. So let's go get that muscle back because that muscle is going to make the getting lean and shredded way easier if I do that. So the focus should be, in my opinion, should be that first. Wouldn't you guys do the same thing? Yeah, I would.

1:08:58Adam Schafer:So you're what, 230 now, 240? About 240. Okay. And you said, so you've just started last month. Does that mean you started working out again last month?

1:09:07Justin Andrews:Yeah, I went extreme because I can't do anything in moderation. So I went out and bought a full rack, home gym, functional trainer, everything I would need at the gym so that I had no more excuses. So I've been doing about three full body workouts per week. And then I add in a little bit of core work on a fourth day. And then every day I'm walking about a half hour.

1:09:27Adam Schafer:Yeah, you got to feed. I agree with Adam. Feed the muscle growth that you're going to start noticing, and that's going to be more effective for fat loss than going to cut. Going in a cut right now, especially at 2 ,400 calories, a guy your size, I don't think that's a good idea. I'd put you up to 2 ,700 calories to start with, high protein, try to hit 220 grams of protein a day, and then just focus on getting stronger. and you're getting a nice body composition change is what's going to happen. And then at some point, once your calories start to ramp up, which they will, as you start to build muscle, then cutting won't be a problem.

1:10:06Adam Schafer:You start to cut right now, you're going to find yourself... Yeah, we're not even there yet. You're going to find yourself in a situation where you're eating 1 ,800 calories a day. Yeah. And your workouts are going to suck. You can ramp that up quite a bit.

1:10:16Sal Di Stefano:I'm guessing if you're cutting down to those calories and you're also allowing a cheat night, you probably have a hard time hitting your protein. I imagine you have a hard time hitting 220 grams of protein every single day. It would be hard to do that unless you're eating super clean every single day.

1:10:32Justin Andrews:Yeah, I've been eating really clean last month, and I've seen the scale move a little bit. Not that much, I think, because I'm building some of that muscle back as well. But I'm averaging between about 175 to 200 grams of protein a day. But this is new. It's not like I've been doing this for very long. Right, right.

1:10:48Adam Schafer:220 a day. Focus on strength training. Get your calories up to 27, 2800 calories, and your body will change in the right way. And then slowly increase the calories over time. The body fat will come off through that process. If you go straight into a cut right now, you're going to end up in a situation that's going to suck.

1:11:08Sal Di Stefano:It's going to suck and really slow. It doesn't mean you couldn't see some body fat loss that way. It's going to be a slow process, which you're probably already feeling that. Because what you've done probably in this month isn't horrible. I wouldn't be surprised if you've made decent progress. You might have lost a couple pounds of fat and got a pound or two muscle back. But you'd be far better off leaning into, I'm going to go build muscle right now. I'm not going to worry about the scale going down and losing right now. Like, my goal now is let's go get back that muscle that you had before and put that on your body because it's like building your engine.

1:11:38Sal Di Stefano:It's like, hey, you want to go race right now? It's like, it's not time to race. Let's go put the horsepower in this engine, and then we'll race. And then you're going to have a better time winning that race that way versus, hey, let's just go start racing right now. It's like, no, let's go rebuild that engine. And what's great is that you've been here before, so you'll get it back pretty fast, dude. Especially if you're leaning into it. You're feeding the body enough calories to actually build muscle.

1:12:01Adam Schafer:And protein, particularly.

1:12:02Sal Di Stefano:So if you're feeding it enough to build, then it'll build it back way quicker than the average person because you have that muscle memory on your side. So lean into that, and then what we do is we – and if you've got your size, I'm wanting you to be up over 3 ,200, 3 ,500 calories before I bring you back the other way. So what this is what if you were my client, this is the way I'd be communicating this. All right, Derek, this is our first goal. Our first goal is I want to get you up to thirty four hundred calories and not gaining any weight. That's what I want you to do. And if we've done that, then I know what's happening is you're we're ramping that that metabolism up and you're now your new maintenance level is like thirty four hundred.

1:12:39Sal Di Stefano:Before I'd even think about cutting you on your first one, you're a good sized guy. You're not a little petite dude. So I don't want you cutting from twenty something calories. You should be well over$3 ,000, especially if you're training three days a week and you're walking and you're doing some decent activity. So we need to feed you and focus that way first and then come back and cut. And if you haven't had a chance to kind of watch the journey that I had on my comeback, it would be good for you to watch it because you hear me have the conversation of why I'm doing this and why am I focusing on eating more now and only training this much.

1:13:12Sal Di Stefano:And you get to hear me kind of walk through that whole process because you're in a similar situation where you've lost a bunch of muscle, put on some body fat, been out of it, but that'll come back quick for you.

1:13:23Adam Schafer:Yeah. And do you mind if I address more of your email in part of this? Yeah, absolutely, man. The testosterone that you're treating to get it elevated, that'll be really hard.

1:13:36Sal Di Stefano:I didn't even realize we were even doing that. Yeah,

1:13:37Adam Schafer:that'll be really hard with low calories and a cut. A cut tends to lower testosterone. So if you're in this process of trying to bring levels back up, what we're saying is the most effective dietary and exercise approach. At building muscle, it's a great way to make your testosterone more effective and also, in many cases, raise testosterone. So I wouldn't go in a cut for many different reasons, that being one of them.

1:14:04Sal Di Stefano:Are you taking TRT or no?

1:14:06Adam Schafer:No, it's on anclomiphene.

1:14:08Sal Di Stefano:Oh, okay. So you're trying to get back like, okay. I thought it was.

1:14:11Justin Andrews:Yeah, I didn't want to just cut off my production. I was hoping to increase it naturally. I don't know the pros and cons, and I don't know if you guys want to get into all that, but I thought that was the best decision for me right now.

1:14:24Adam Schafer:What you'd want to do— HGH, I would have thought they would have put them on. Or HGG, I mean. No, so what you'd want to do is go on this path that we're saying, ramp your calories up, high protein, lift weights, get stronger. You're on a clomiphene. Go off in clomiphene. stay on this path don't over train don't go in a cut two months later see where your testosterone levels are at yeah if they stay high then you're great uh if they drop down then trt would be the the next approach but if you go on in clomiphene raise your testosterone do all this stuff then you want to cut and you go off in clomiphene your testosterone goes down all right was it the cut did i go too aggressive like what's going on here so yeah that's that that's that's how i didn't

1:15:06Sal Di Stefano:I didn't even read further into this and realize that this is even more important that we focus on building muscle right now. I didn't even realize we have lower testosterone. This is also, by the way, why it feels very slow for you right now is low testosterone. If testosterone is low and you're trying to build muscle and get lean again, it's going to be a slower process. So part of building the metabolism up and building muscle and increasing calories should also boost that. It will boost that testosterone, whether it puts you in a really good range or just boost it a little bit. it's going to boost it versus if you're in a cut and a deficit right away and you're low testosterone it's only going to sink it so the the getting your calories up but you'd have to go off and

1:15:45Adam Schafer:clomiphene and then be off for a couple months to see if it sticks okay cool yep but and you think

1:15:52Justin Andrews:the the program i'm on right now three days a week full body with some walking that's i like that

1:15:57Sal Di Stefano:that's great yeah i like that you're getting stronger it's working are you following maps is that anabolic is that what you're following or are you doing your own thing uh right now i'm

1:16:04Justin Andrews:just doing my own thing, just kind of winging it.

1:16:06Sal Di Stefano:Oh, well, we could, why don't we send you maps anabolic so you can follow that, uh, which is basically that protocol. Uh, but it's already planned out for you. So you don't have to think about it. So just follow that. I think it's a great program for, for where you're at. And then I'd love to hear back from you in like 30, 60 days, just, uh, shoot back to me kind of where you're at and we can assess more of the testosterone stuff, because if, if it doesn't go the way you want, then that's where we can have talk about some different options to support and help that. And just so you know, you can take synthetic testosterone and you can still keep your, if you still want to try and have another baby, you can still do that.

1:16:43Sal Di Stefano:If you get off of it, it doesn't ruin it forever. There's a lot of myths around taking testosterone and how it just like ruins your natural testosterone. That's, it's not true. You can, especially a therapeutic dose. We're not taking bodybuilders, super physiological doses and doing it all wrong. Like you would do it in a very therapeutic way. And they can, they can manage keeping your natural levels up also by taking HCG. I got Katrina pregnant on testosterone. So I had already been taking testosterone for years. We knew we want to get pregnant. So I took HCG with it and that brought up my normal levels and we had max.

1:17:16Sal Di Stefano:So totally not a problem. Okay. Good to know. But yeah, circle back with us, Dick. I'd like to hear back maybe in a month or two after where you're at, your testosterone, see if we can help you from there.

1:17:26Justin Andrews:Perfect. Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

1:17:28Sal Di Stefano:Awesome, man. I didn't even see the testosterone thing that makes it even more stronger.

1:17:34Adam Schafer:And you know, this is my experience. In my experience, taking a man around his age from, you know, not exercising, eating poorly, exercising, eating well, testosterone reliably, not always, but reliably double. Oh, it'll go up. I don't, I feel super confident. Inclomiphene raises it artificially. So that's going to throw off like, is it working or not? That's why he has to go off for a couple months to see if it sticks. It's an interesting approach with enclomiphene. Yeah, why enclomiphene and not HCG? HCG is more used for boosting fertility. Enclomiphene is like Clomid. It's the isolated isomer.

1:18:14Adam Schafer:Yeah, it's what you take when you come off of the cycle. So it attaches to the estrogen receptor, tricks your body into thinking you don't have estrogen. So your male body, what happens is it produces more testosterone because that's where we get estrogen from. but uh i don't know i find it interesting uh because um i don't know too many people who went on that and went off and then it stayed up tends to be up because you're on it then you go off it goes back down from the people i know but it's like any i'm not super familiar with the literature but you know when you combine it with like a lifestyle change that's the way to go yeah

1:18:44Sal Di Stefano:and then addressing kind of the point i made with the 40 you put 40 pounds on in a in a relatively short period of time like you're you're eating like an asshole you know it you know i'm saying You don't need to get crazy, change that. You don't need to go radical. So without even diving deep, I'm sure he was doing a lot of things I'm saying. I'm drinking. I'm eating out like crazy. I mean, if you're eating like that out of bounds, you just get rid of a couple major offenders, like all alcohol, gone or something, and then hit my protein intake. And lift. Yeah, and lift. And you'll see crazy change just from that.

1:19:18Sal Di Stefano:And then we can start adjusting. There's no reason to go into a cut aggressively already, especially considering he's coming from a guy that sounds like he was pretty buff, pretty jacked, 12 % body fat, 220 pounds. He had some muscle on him. So he's got that working in his favor too. To not feed the body enough calories and protein to grow would be a huge mistake.

1:19:40Adam Schafer:Most people do well growing into fat loss. Yes. Our next caller is Gabriel from Texas. Gabriel, what's happening? What's going on, man? What's up?

1:19:50Justin Andrews:Hey, how are you guys doing? Good, man.

1:19:52Adam Schafer:How can we help you?

1:19:54Justin Andrews:So I just wanted to say that I'm kind of like a newer listener to you guys. I believe I found out about you guys last year when Sal did that podcast with Bradley Martin. Yeah. And dude, your testimony was very powerful. Just wanted to throw that out there before I got into my question. I'm kind of like in a newer walk with Christ again myself because I kind of fell off. And like hearing those type of things make me believe like, okay, yeah, like this is the real deal now.

1:20:21Adam Schafer:Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Very cool. Yeah.

1:20:23Justin Andrews:So before I get into my question, I was just going to give a little bit of context. So I started powerlifting in January of 2024. And then I moved to Houston in June of 2024. So I kind of had like a little bit of trouble adjusting to the weather, like, you know, the type of weather change. um but so since then my one rep max numbers for squat was 440 my bench was 293 and my deadlift was 480 um and that's competing at 82.5 kg so now I'll get into my question uh since I had started powerlifting in January I had a recent change in my career path um I now work graveyard hours So I work from 1 a.m.

1:21:10Justin Andrews:to 11 a.m. And if I was going to ask you guys, would I have to prioritize more of my meals or more of my sleep if I wanted to improve those numbers? Because I know both are like pretty important.

1:21:24Adam Schafer:Sleep. Sleep's going to hurt you faster. So first off, you're strong, dude. Yeah. Great numbers. Great numbers, dude. And thanks for the encouraging words. um so here's what you want to do with you work graveyard shift and it's not a it gets really hard when somebody works graveyard two days a week and then two days a week they work different hours but you're consistently graveyard right yes sir okay you want to mimic night time as much as possible when you get home and you're and you're going to go to sleep okay and you want to mimic daytime at night as much as possible okay to keep you awake for work so bright lights, that's fine.

1:22:03Adam Schafer:When you're at work, keep that happening. About an hour before you're off, I would put on blue light blocking glasses. Now, depending on your job, you can wear the mild ones that are maybe slightly yellow tinted or maybe clear. Then when you get home, switch to red, red blue light blocking glasses, get blinds, get blackout shades in your room and make yourself go to sleep like it's nighttime then when you wake up start your day with your meals but that's going to do because you have to trick your brain into thinking night is day and day is night so uh so that you don't suffer some of the consequences uh of sleep it has to really be

1:22:42Justin Andrews:an aggressive approach to like uh creating that environment it's because it's it is such a um you know this schedule is so tough and it's it's tough to give advice because it is really like something that's not beneficial long-term.

1:22:57Adam Schafer:Yeah. But when somebody does what I'm saying, you, you, you can make it through. Yeah. And I've seen a lot of the negative effects, uh, dissipate, but it's, it's kind of an intentional thing. Um, and then on your wake hours, just be structured with your diet, uh, and, and make sure you get your, your, your food intake and your nutrition. Um, this may mean when you're at work that you use, uh, I don't know how, how, uh, if this is available to you, if you could bring one or two meals at work with you, or if A shake is more convenient. But it's going to require a little bit of planning. But if you do it the way we're saying, I think you'll be okay.

1:23:33Justin Andrews:Okay, yeah. I was just asking because my work is very, I don't want to say unorganized, but there's not a set time that we go to lunch. My typical time is around 5 a.m. That's usually when they'll send us. But if it's busy, they'll send us closer to 7 or 8 a.m. And that was one of the things that I was telling my coach. I forgot to mention I do have a coach. And I told him, like, hey, man, it's hard for me to get meals in because sometimes when they send me at 7 a.m., I get off by 11. And it's like I just ate four hours ago. I'm not hungry anymore. But on the days that they do send me at my normal time, I am able to kind of get most of my meals in.

1:24:14Justin Andrews:I just don't know if that affects anything because I know you guys say protein is one of those things that doesn't roll over. so like i i just wanted to see what you guys thought because my coach did tell me the same thing he was like dude you need to prioritize your sleep way more than anything right now yep

1:24:29Adam Schafer:yep it's the it's the it's the the largest contributed injury which is a big deal for power lifting is is poor sleep so what about a shake or something like that where you know you could add the extra protein you know when you know just go grab it real quick and take it are you able to do that at work when you don't have a break yes sir there you go that would help okay

1:24:49Sal Di Stefano:so the guys both are uh talking to you like good coaches and trainers um i'm gonna talk to you like you're my boy yes sir and i'd say bro this is not the time to try and be a power lifter in your life like yeah only because okay and i know because you're good at it obviously and so i know how hard it would be to probably tell you that but if i was your boy looking out for you i'd say you know doing something that is redlining like as far as max reps uh while also risking good sleep or bad sleep uh is just you putting yourself in a risk category uh that is just not ideal you know and it's like this time in your life i'm like man it's like you're i don't know if you plan to work this way forever or this is just a period of your life right now and it's not it's probably the worst time to also try and become the strongest guy too or strongest version of you just risk wise so i would i'd be in your ear about that like hey is this like necessary we do this right now and you really really love it that bad because it's probably not the best way

1:25:49Adam Schafer:to be training yourself right now usually i'm the guy that says something like that but there's more you know i have more questions right do you have a wife and kids no sir i'm single okay so there's always compounding factors it's okay to destroy yourself no no no no it's not okay to destroy yourself but but but you can't you do have the ability the time to be much more disciplined and structure. Right, right.

1:26:12Sal Di Stefano:You could be selfish right now.

1:26:14Adam Schafer:And you can do that because there's a lot of guys I know who go to bed, they have a normal schedule, but they got three kids, a wife, and a job and that's their compounding factor. So it's just going to require discipline and structure. Now, if you're that guy, no kids, no wife, single dude, you work swing shift or night shift but you also like to go out, you like to hang out with your buddies and lose sleep, that's going to mess you up. But if you're disciplined and structured and your coach adjusts your programming uh when you need it that's a really good way i think you're okay that's a really good way to

1:26:45Sal Di Stefano:put it because i'm assuming you're a younger guy and you probably still have a social life too

1:26:49Adam Schafer:because i think that something's got to give here yeah and so if you are and i guess that's if you

1:26:54Sal Di Stefano:were my boy i'd be really questioning that i'd be like hey man how much do you love this power lifting because if you love it then then do it and then and then sacrifice the other stuff that's right i think to do all the things you're doing and then also have somewhat of a social life

1:27:07Justin Andrews:and do that you just got to be real disciplined can you just train without competing can you just emulate that and like keep building you know because it is really not ideal like like i just don't see a lot of like forward progress with this type of uh scheduled environment it's just really the odds are against you i mean unless your whole life revolves around that because

1:27:29Sal Di Stefano:to sal's point like yeah if you but i mean i don't know young single guy do you still go out with your buddies every once in a while and have drinks and do your thing or maybe all your buddies

1:27:38Adam Schafer:are like you and they're all power lifters which is cool yeah that'd be cool it's pretty rare that

1:27:43Justin Andrews:i do go out only because like i'm still new to texas in general so i don't know many people there that's kind of why um like i decided to do this because i can dedicate all my time to it and because it's fun yeah like in terms of going out i'll maybe go out like once or twice a month usually when it's only my week one or week two but my friends that i have met over there they kind of already know like oh okay he said something about week three so he's not coming out tonight.

1:28:08Adam Schafer:How old are you? How old are you? How old are you, Gabriel? Say that again, sir. How old are you? 28. Okay. Listen, uh, one of the best things you could do is just stay focused and disciplined anyways. Uh, so I don't think you're missing out by not going out with your buddies all the time. I think focusing on powerlifting your job, personal growth. I think that's great. I think this is going to serve you more in the future anyway. So I don't think you're missing out on a ton. If you have a social network that you'll hang out with here and there, but you're not hurting yourself, you're not drinking a bunch or whatever, I don't think that's a bad thing.

1:28:47Adam Schafer:In fact, when you talk to young men like you, the ones that do well are the ones that tend to be disciplined in some area. Otherwise, lack of discipline, we tend to go all over the place. So it's really on. You sound pretty disciplined to me. and I think you can make it work so long as you stay, you plan and you stay structured. But if that's not the case, then yeah, I mean, Adam's a hundred percent, right. You try and do everything and forget it.

1:29:13Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I agree with that. Like if you're, if you're all in on this, bro, then you can do it. You absolutely can do it. I just, I don't, I don't know enough. And if I was talking to you as my boy who hangs out with you and drinks every once in a while, probably not a good idea right now, bro. But Hey, if you're, if you're all in this, I mean, I like it. I mean, But you do got to get really disciplined. Sleep becomes the number one priority. Nutrition becomes the number two priority. And you build your routine and stuff around that. And so it can be done. It definitely can be done.

1:29:42Justin Andrews:Okay. Do I have time for one more quick question? It kind of ties in. Yeah, sure. So usually my coach tells me not to do like heavy accessories on week three and four because we're more pushing like those primary lifts. Yeah. Is it bad if some days that I skip them? So let's say, for an example, on Tuesdays, I have my secondary squat and secondary bench day. But I will skip accessories because I slept throughout the day and then I have to go to work. We'll go home to get ready for work. I go at nighttime. So is that a bad thing that I skip accessories sometimes? No, that's a better way.

1:30:21Adam Schafer:Especially since you're doing the accessories week one, week two. You know what I mean? Now you're getting into the heavier lifting. that's actually what i would tell you to do yeah yeah when whenever we get into the heavier like

1:30:31Justin Andrews:week three and four he dials down the volume he actually listens to you guys i had asked him at my very first comp if he knew about you guys and he was like oh yeah i listened to them a lot and so like when he told me that i was just like okay i i really trust what this guy is saying i just really wanted your guys's opinion about the sleep and food as well

1:30:48Adam Schafer:yeah he's on point yeah yeah dude and i don't know i i get i i definitely think you you you you're giving me the vibe like this is something you're serious about. Yeah. That you're a serious young man. You want to do this. Yes, sir. You got the discipline and you structure your night. You know, you sleep and all that stuff. Do it. Go for it.

1:31:06Justin Andrews:Yeah. Okay. So then you guys say to prioritize the sleep more.

1:31:09Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:31:10Adam Schafer:Yes. Okay.

1:31:11Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah. It should really dictate a lot of everything, right? That's right. Even like your intensity towards the workout and stuff like that. That's right. That's how you stay healthy. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah. I'd love to hear back from you after your meet. Hit us up. When's your competition?

1:31:25Justin Andrews:I just had one in March, so that was a rookie one, and I'm talking to my coach about finding maybe a local one again sometime in October or November.

1:31:33Adam Schafer:I'd love to hear back from you afterwards. Oh, yeah, yeah. Reach back out and update. Let's know how it goes.

1:31:37Justin Andrews:Okay, I appreciate you guys. You got it, man.

1:31:39Adam Schafer:Thanks.

1:31:40Sal Di Stefano:Thank you.

1:31:41Adam Schafer:Yeah, dude, I mean, okay, because you're right. Like, typical 28-year-old, not very disappointed. Yeah, single 28. But think about us and how we were at 28, and not saying that we did everything right, But when we were focused on something, that would have been like, I'm going to do this. And he kind of gives me that vibe. And so you can totally do it. But you do that, plus your night shift, plus you're going out and partying twice a week. No way. No way. That wouldn't happen. Our next caller is Claire from the UK. Hello, Claire.

1:32:15Sal Di Stefano:How you doing, Claire?

1:32:17Justin Andrews:Hi, guys. It's such a pleasure to be able to meet you all. I appreciate how much you've changed my training for the better.

1:32:24Adam Schafer:Oh, thank you so much. How can we help you?

1:32:29Justin Andrews:So currently I'm in a reverse diet trying to gain muscle, but recently I've started to notice an imbalance in my hips when looking at progress photos. I'm unsure what is causing it, whether it is fat muscle or maybe a hip mobility issue. I do have a hard time growing my quads, so I do wonder if it could be related. I have attached pictures to give a better representation.

1:32:56Adam Schafer:Okay. Where do you, okay, what do you mean a hip imbalance? Like one side, let me see. I'm looking at the picture here.

1:33:03Justin Andrews:Yeah, so like one side's like quite square compared to the other.

1:33:08Adam Schafer:You might be a little overcritical, but I will tell you this. If you notice an imbalance in exercise, that's always what we want to pay attention to first. so if you do like one-legged exercises or movements and you notice asymmetry there's an asymmetry or a big difference addressing that will address uh the um the development issues that you think you might be seeing do you have our program map symmetry because that would be the perfect program for you um so at the minute i'm actually following

1:33:42Justin Andrews:aesthetic um which is being quite good to be fair but to be fair when i've been doing my front squats i have been noticing like a bit of tightness in my left hip where i've got it in balance because i don't really tend to do front squats usually i i i would like to send you

1:34:02Adam Schafer:symmetry and i'd like you to switch to symmetry yeah go to symmetry you'll get better results

1:34:05Justin Andrews:do unilateral training for a bit you'll notice a lot more if there is any kind of difference and discrepancy there.

1:34:12Sal Di Stefano:I'd love to go to Symmetry, and then I'd love for Doug to put you in our private forum, and then if you show me videos of you squatting, it'll really help us, because if I can see the way you move, we can address where the potential imbalance is coming from. It's hard to just tell from a picture. I can kind of see what you're talking about. You are being pretty critical, but I can see what you're talking about, but it's hard to tell if it's due to overdevelopment, Lighting and inflammation, like it could be a host of different things. And so seeing you squat and move will really help us get to the bottom of what could be potentially going on.

1:34:51Sal Di Stefano:When you do like, do you ever do 90-90s for hip mobility? Have you done those before?

1:34:58Justin Andrews:Yeah. So before bed and the night time, like I always stretch.

1:35:01Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:35:02Justin Andrews:Yeah.

1:35:02Sal Di Stefano:So when you do 90-90s, can you lift your back foot off the ground? And do you notice a difference between left and right?

1:35:13Justin Andrews:I'm trying to think I don't think I've actually like taken my feet off the ground before but I certainly when I'm stretching like my left leg in front like it does feel tighter okay so so do

1:35:25Sal Di Stefano:so there's a video on YouTube on our mind pump YouTube where I do 90 90s and I show the progressions of it so if you can look I don't know if Doug or Dylan can send that over to you but I'll have them send that to you and watch the video and then what I want you to do is to do those 90 90s and try and lift your back foot up what that will do is you're if there is a discrepancy right and an imbalance one of them you'll be able to lift up a lot further than the other one and then that'll tell us something about that hip right or the opposite so also I do want to say

1:35:55Adam Schafer:this because how long have you been strength training in doing this um I've been strength

1:36:01Justin Andrews:training for about 10 years I know I probably look younger than what I actually am um yeah but I've just started asphatic like I'm in phase one currently still so okay uh yeah you do

1:36:16Adam Schafer:look a lot younger than that I would like when you start lifting weights at 10 but the the when you're when you're straight you're you're but no body there is no body that's perfectly symmetrical and sometimes the trap we get into oftentimes uh is we we take a picture of ourselves that we look at ourselves and we study our bodies and we focus so much on any, what we could perceive to be imperfections. And I want to communicate this to you because, uh, if this mindset or this challenge will never go away until you stop studying yourself. So, and the best way to do that, in my opinion, because I could tell you not to do something, but that's, I need to tell you to do something instead is focus on uh your performance and how you feel it's a great it's a great way to take you off that direction otherwise i'm gonna tell you this right now you can strength train for the rest of your life and if you study your body you will always always always find areas that need this or that or that's not perfect or whatever and then fitness uh is not really improving the quality of your life it's becoming a problem you know why sal saying this

1:37:26Sal Di Stefano:right you already have an incredible physique so it's it is very balanced very symmetrical you've got a great physique already and so we're we're definitely nitpicking right now for sure so um but i i i'm more interested in the feeling different or pain or any of that like that that's so that's what i want to get to the bottom of that as far as the way you look you look amazing and you're doing great and you've done great obviously um i think you have a very balanced physique you look like you could compete so i i don't i'm not critical of that i'm very curious to you know do you notice impingement or pain or anything that's what we should always pay and that's why i want to see your squat because then i can help you break that down and get to the bottom of that um and symmetry is the right program symmetry you'll get great results a period end of story from symmetry so we'll send symmetry over i'll have doug put you in the private forum and then if you get a chance, I'd love for you to shoot a video of you squatting, give me a good view front, side, back.

1:38:26Sal Di Stefano:Just prop your phone up and do five reps on each side, right? Five from the side, five from the front, five from the back. That'll really tag us in the forum and then we can take a look at your movement and then get to the bottom of what potentially could be going on.

1:38:39Justin Andrews:That's perfect. Thank you. You got it? I was just wondering as well, just out of curiosity, When should I actually cook down from a reverse diet?

1:38:53Adam Schafer:When you get to the point. Because I'm kind of stuck at the moment. When you get to the point where you feel like you're just eating a lot of food and you feel strong and you feel good, you're like, okay, I don't think I want to eat anymore, then that typically is a good place to start reversing.

1:39:06Sal Di Stefano:How many calories are you at right now?

1:39:09Justin Andrews:2 ,200.

1:39:11Adam Schafer:Okay. How tall are you?

1:39:16Justin Andrews:5 '6". Like 5 '6".

1:39:18Adam Schafer:Oh, you're tall. Yeah, I keep going. Yeah. I'd probably get you up to 26, 27, and then do a cut.

1:39:25Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:39:26Adam Schafer:Yep.

1:39:27Sal Di Stefano:Okay. That's good. Thank you. Once we put you in the forum, you can communicate with us in there. So we're going to have Doug put you into our private forum, and then as you're going through this process, you can just ask questions and tag us in there. We'll help you out. That's perfect.

1:39:39Justin Andrews:Thank you.

1:39:40Sal Di Stefano:Okay. You got it. We'll see you in there.

1:39:43Justin Andrews:Thank you. See you.

1:39:45Adam Schafer:Bye-bye. yeah just the the overly critical but what adam is saying and i want listeners to really pay attention to this asymmetries from a performance in pain perspective are important to pay attention to asymmetries from you studying your body typically or not now there are asymmetries that are that are massive these are the ones you go to the doctor like what is happening to my arm or whatever but the ones like i mean i could study anybody and i could point out yeah imperfections because what's the ideal is it's an ideal that's unachievable and you want to get out of that trap otherwise fitness becomes this uh this this tyranny and it's terrible we don't move completely

1:40:28Justin Andrews:balanced and so therefore you know it's just never gonna equate to that no i mean no no normal person

1:40:34Sal Di Stefano:would look at her and go think that she has any imbalances yeah the average person would go oh my gosh she's in incredible shape right uh so yeah i mean but the things i'm listening to is the the hip pain that's the discomfort like if you notice that already notice when you do front squat something's off like okay let's get to the bottom of that that's that's important that's a that's could be a movement issue that we can fix and so i am interested and curious about that uh as far as how critical she is of how she looks i think uh i think she's beyond good right now and this is her in a reverse diet too this is not even her leaned out so she leans out she's a little crazy She can compete with a physique like that.

1:41:11Adam Schafer:If you like Mind Pump, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump. DeStefano, Adam's at Mind Pump.

1:41:16Justin Andrews:Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. 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.

1:41:58Justin Andrews:The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-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.