2651: Four Secret Hacks for Superhuman Strength

17:56Adam Schafer:And I think this is part of it. I think part of it is it's getting besides the central nervous system. Cause it does that well is you are strengthening those tendons. It's silly to me that it's not protocol to take somebody who's just learning, you know, anything involved with like exercises to not first have them go through isometrics. And also to the rehabilitation process, it should be like standard to start. I mean,

18:18Sal Di Stefano:it is. if you follow like a protocol like ken stretch i mean that's the philosophy that they they operate from they're like they're first they're like ken stretching connecting to all that in the isometric form then it's load you know i'm saying that's kind of the the progression for them i this is funny because this is also one of those things that i think i did as a trainer not really knowing uh all the reasons why it was so good but i found it was so valuable to take my clients for these incredibly slow negatives and i just attributed because nobody did it was like i i share yeah i share on the show all the time that matt i see you know i remember learning that like the ideal you know hypertrophy protocol was like a 4-2-2 right four seconds on the negative and i just would count people and i'd be like no one's doing this but yet everybody says they want to build muscle like and yet that's kind of the protocol then i remember going like well what if i took it to the next level and go six or eight seconds like that's got to be good and that's got to be even further from what most people were doing and so So it was really, and then I saw great gains muscle-wise.

19:14Sal Di Stefano:So this isn't just, you know, tendon strength that you get. This also gets the benefits of building muscle from this because of the novelty side of it. So such a huge benefit to incorporating this if you are, especially if you're a trainer, taking your clients through this type of stuff.

19:26Adam Schafer:Totally. Next up is stability. If you lack stability in a joint, one of your arms, one of your legs, your core, then your body's only going to be able to exert so much strength or so much power. It's like trying to push something with a broomstick, except in the middle of the broomstick, you have a bunch of foam. It's going to go everywhere, right? Stability is your joint's ability to stabilize and control the power and strength that you're trying to produce. This is why people's shoulders hurt when they bench past a certain weight or when they overhead press a certain weight or when they squat, their back hurts or why their hips starts to bother them or their ankles start.

20:05Adam Schafer:They typically lack stability. Now, how do you train for stability? Well, correctional exercise is number one. Unilateral exercise is a great – I love – ever since we put out map symmetry, it's like a light bulb for me because correctional exercise requires a level of understanding of exercise. Like the average person doesn't really get correctional exercise. If you work with a good trainer, they know it. But, you know, the average person – You have to diagnose it to a certain degree. Right. But if you just took the average person and put them through three months of map symmetry, which is just a bunch of unilateral exercises, is they're going to get a great deal.

20:39Adam Schafer:It solves it a lot of times. It solves a lot of it. So it's that one-legged, one-arm type training. It's really the ability to resist all these external forces. That's right. So lateral, rotational, like a lot of things that are pulling you out of position. So I like to always call it like anchoring. Like I like to anchor my body. This is like a lot of stability strength training is to just be able to stay in that position with like these opposing forces.

21:03Sal Di Stefano:Did you see what our buddy Ben Bruno was doing the other day with Clay Thompson? No. with the single arm dumbbell row. He had him doing a single arm dumbbell row and he kicked his back foot up on a bench on his toe. So he was having to stabilize his body and he's rowing like 80 pound dumbbell. And he was talking about the progression of that. And it made me think about what has happened in our space with stability training. Unfortunately, when we were early years, it was extremely popular. Circus training. Then it got bastardized. We went too far, got ridiculous. We were doing stupid things. And then it turned into like, oh, then we threw it all out.

21:42Sal Di Stefano:Like, oh, this is stupid. We don't need to train this anymore. And so I love when I see really good professionals like Ben still incorporating it and incorporating it with the right people in the right setting for the right reasons and just incredible value to be able to do something like that, to stabilize, anchor your body like that while rowing on one side.

22:03Adam Schafer:Another good thing for the average person that they could probably do is long holds while walking. Overhead holds, holding things in a rack position, suitcase holds. The reason why you walk, by the way, and do these and not just stand, because standing still will give you some too. But the reason why you walk is it involves a little motion. It involves other muscles, so your body's having to learn how to communicate everything. And that motion, it gives you that stimulus to try to stabilize. And it emulates real-world scenarios. That's right. That's right. And then training different planes. Don't just do lateral stuff and rotate in your strength training because if you get really strong moving in one direction and moving outside that direction doesn't catch up, what will happen is you'll start to move like your body is trying to keep you in one direction.

22:48Adam Schafer:This is where you get that meathead walk or look that can happen, and it's because your body is like, we're only strong here and we're not strong outside of here, so we're going to keep you in this plane. Keep you fixed.

22:58Sal Di Stefano:I know this is a shameless plug, But for the average person that's listening to this and or listens to a lot of episodes and hears talking about all these things, like, oh my God, how do I incorporate this? Like all of these things that we communicate were built into the entire MAPS philosophy. And so if you just went from like program to program to program to program like that, this all gets taken care of. You'll see it, yeah. And one of the most popular questions we always get is like, how do you program? And it's always so hard to communicate in a one-minute reel how we program, but it's like all these things are taken into consideration.

23:35Sal Di Stefano:And the thought process always is, it's like taking a client from base and covering and hitting everything that we think is most important for them to build the ultimate healthy, strong, fit physique. What does that look like? Well, it looks like a year plus of running from one MAPS program to the next and going through all these types of phases that we talk about. That's right.

23:55Adam Schafer:Last is speed. your ability for your muscles to contract with velocity. This is light load, fast lifts. This looks like plyometrics or throws. Uh, now these are fast concentric lifts, so they're not fast negatives necessarily. There's a, there's, there's definitely a place for that as well, but for most people, this is a fast contract concentric. So this would look like holding a weight in your arm and throwing it, right? Not necessarily bring it down and throwing it real fast. You're looking at, you know, a jerky movement or a bench press where you bring the bar down controlled and then you throw it up as hard as you can or a jumping push-up or something like that.

24:31Adam Schafer:Speed contributes a lot to strength to the point where powerlifters also do these days where they're training speed, even though their lifts are very slow because that's not the name of the game for powerlifting. They'll practice it because they know it contributes to that grinding slow strength as well. And then speed strength, this is athletic strength. Slow strength isn't isn't as important when it comes to sports. It's how, although there is some benefit to that, it's like how fast can you be strong? That's what makes you dangerous. Well, and you can really see too, like, you know, how this affects that central nervous system recruitment.

25:05If you can get really good at acceleration and you can organize, you know, that type of output, like that quickly, that really stretches your capacity for generating more force, even during strength exercises.

25:19Sal Di Stefano:If I were to critique my own programming for myself, this is an area that I know I need to do more of. Same. And I neglect. In fact, this was kind of top of mind for me because I know how much I neglect it. And I've been doing a lot of around the pool workouts and stuff. We did a band one yesterday, Katrina and I. And I was doing explosive push-ups in shallow water. It's a little bit of resistance. Yes. So I go underwater, and then I would explode out of that. It was like, I got so sore. is obviously an indicator that i need more of that and never and i'm just trying to be creative like outside and around the pool like what are these things i could do and i'm like you know what i'm always talking about how i need to do more speed explosive stuff so i was doing these underwater no i thought that it was really cool actually yeah i i actually trained like when i was trying to improve my 40 time and i was doing these combines like after college and was like thinking i was going to continue my career i was like training with the track team over here at San Jose City College.

26:14We just were constantly running as fast as possible in the water with resistance. It was super difficult and sweating and being wet at the same time was weird.

26:23Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I'm so glad you said that, Justin. Sidebar, we have my buddy's fantasy football league is starting up in two weeks. And the way we determine the draft order is a 40-yard dash.

26:38Adam Schafer:Oh, yeah, you told me. And we're all a bunch of old. A bunch of 47-year-old dudes.

26:42Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, a bunch of old, out of shape dudes. Yeah, bulletproof those joints. Yeah, and I'm like, I... You might be better off going slow because everyone's going to hurt. No, here's what I'm, like, what I'm so worried about is there's such a high expectation that I'm supposed to win. You know, I'm the fitness trainer guy, and I'm terrified of, like, to sprint that fast right now because I know I don't do enough of it. Ever since my Achilles, I've not done it, and I had all these tears and issues. And so I'm like, okay, if I were to do this, I've got a couple weeks. I mean I know I'm not going to get the best version of me but what would I do to do that pool sprinting would probably be a good that would be a rad series too bad it's not long enough maybe afterwards though maybe when I get my ass kicked it'll motivate me to do something like that that's a whole process dude that's probably a really good base for me to start there I can't just start even sprinting on the treadmill right now I'm not even there I'd be pooling in with a sled I'd be starting to drive that quite a bit That didn't even cross my mind to use my pull like that until you just said that.

27:41Sal Di Stefano:I'm like, I'm going to do that. Because I was like, how do I ramp this up in two weeks without killing myself?

27:46Adam Schafer:You know, back to the tendon strength, you just said Achilles. There was one study I read where they strengthened, significantly strengthened their Achilles tendon of the subjects with a slow negative. There was just a slow, heavy negative going down. And they had really, really good thickening of the Achilles tendon. So anyway, I got to mention, we'll talk about protein for a second, protein powder. you know there is a protein that doesn't get talked about enough that is every bit as good as whey uh and in some cases i would even say better and that's egg protein you don't often

28:19Sal Di Stefano:hear why is it why did it fall out of favor it used to be yeah it used to be super popular i

28:23Adam Schafer:was gonna ask you because whey i think it's because whey got a lot of publicity because it won the studies like barely oh okay so when it comes to like when it comes to protein quality they're almost identical as judged by branched amino acid concentration essential amino acid you know ratios leucine like egg and whey are almost almost neck and neck whey edges it out

28:47Sal Di Stefano:just a bit with those things so why that's weird to me sal is aren't there a higher uh rate of intolerances to whey than there would be eggs so you would think that egg would win because of that Yes, yes.

28:59Adam Schafer:So egg is, for most people, they can digest it. A lot of people can't do dairy. Right. But there's a little bit of a difference between the two, which gives a benefit, in my opinion, to egg, depending on what your goals are. Egg is a bit of a slower digesting one, and it doesn't cause the same insulin spike that whey does. So some people want the insulin spike. Some people don't want to have a protein that's going to give them a little bit of satiety. so whey will produce the least amount of satiety. So you'll take a shake and it's like because of how quickly it digests. Egg is going to produce a little bit more satiety.

29:34Adam Schafer:So somebody who's trying to not eat as much food and they want a protein that'll satisfy them a little bit, egg is better on that. But as far as everything else is concerned, they're pretty much identical. Like egg is a very, and now some researchers would call it the perfect - Contend for the sulfur. Well, some people would call it - Which is benefit, I'm sure. That's right. And some researchers say egg is actually the perfect protein. Didn't Legion just drop one? They did. You know, I was just talking to Mike. That's why I'm bringing it up because I haven't had, I haven't used protein powder.

30:05Adam Schafer:I've used bone broth protein powder, but I've stayed away from, I can't have dairy. And then they came out with their egg protein. I'm like, you know what? Let me give this a shot. Oh, you already tried it? I've been using it. Oh, how is it? First off, it tastes amazing. It's actually really, really good tasting.

30:19Sal Di Stefano:All his stuff tastes amazing.

30:21Adam Schafer:But I mean, it's a very high quality protein. I can tell.

30:24Sal Di Stefano:You know, I was on the phone with him just last week, and I saw that they had dropped that. I haven't had it yet, but I was meaning to ask him. Because, you know, I think I told you guys Legion set a goal at the beginning of the year. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn with Mike saying this. It's all good stuff, right? I think he set a goal of like 40 new SKUs in the year or something like that, which is a lot of new SKUs. So I've been watching like all the different products. You know, he's so heavily science-based. and I saw the egg protein come out recently, I thought, oh, I wonder what led him to go that pathway.

30:56Sal Di Stefano:And so it's so interesting. So I didn't bring it up. I'm glad you brought it up.

30:59Adam Schafer:Yeah, I mean, you look at the studies on egg protein for muscle building, recovery, the amino acid ratios. It's like, it's by far - You've seen a staple for a long time. Oh my God. Egg and whey are essentially neck and neck when it comes to like amino acids. It's a slower digesting protein. I would make the case in some cases that's better. But again, I'm splitting hairs. But if you're somebody that can't do dairy, but you want really high quality amino acid profile, go egg. Well, yeah, instead of vegetable options, right? Like a vegetarian. Vegan source of protein can be another option, and they're okay for some people.

31:35Adam Schafer:They're okay. They'll never be as good. I'm sure it's less than egg.

31:38Sal Di Stefano:Taste-wise, they don't come close to egg in one. That's the problem.

31:41Adam Schafer:Even forget taste. They're just not as high quality.

31:43Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I know you say that because that's you, but it's like that's why most people buy stuff. it's got to taste good dude just if you're gonna be consistent with it you have it's got to taste and granted i mean we are our companies that have vegan protein are really good i think the best tasting vegan protein on the market but if i got a choice way way or egg well the egg protein from

32:04Adam Schafer:legion's got a really nice creamy like that that's what i always like about egg is it creates like

32:08Sal Di Stefano:this kind of creamy it's got a nice texture yeah it's really good like milkshakes yeah my wife's

32:12Adam Schafer:been using it she actually made coffee with it the other day which is really good okay it's really good stuff anyway on i gotta tell you guys on friday uh so i went up to santa cruz athletic

32:22Sal Di Stefano:club oh you checked it out how'd you like it i saw you uh i saw you doing 40 sets

32:30Adam Schafer:yeah i can't wait to hear how this came about so fridays uh um there's a day that i go and i lift and it's we don't work fridays so it's a day that i can spend a little bit more time at a gym you've been talking about santa cruz club everybody's like it's this amazing gym it is by the way.

32:45Sal Di Stefano:It's rad, yeah.

32:46Adam Schafer:Oh, bro, it's for, like, well, for whatever you want to do, but for bodybuilding, they have great machines there. So I'm like, I'm going to go work out Friday. I'm like, you know what? Let me invite Kyle. So I called, I sent him a text. I'm like, you want to work out Friday? Go up to Santa Cruz Athletic Club? He's like, yeah, let's go. So we met up there like 7.15 in the morning, and I was going to do my whole upper body, and because they have so much great equipment, we just went, we just went crazy, bro. We just kept going, you know? So we did set after set of all these different machines and stuff.

33:15Adam Schafer:now I'm look Kyle Kyle is Kyle 25 yeah and he's like he's a pretty 24 so he's our head trainer so he runs our fitness department super mature smart I forget how young he is super mature smart kid you think he's 35 you might as well be 40 as I said you think he's 35 40

33:31Sal Di Stefano:for sure

33:32Adam Schafer:super smart I say kid he's not a kid he's obviously a grown man but he's a super smart dude does a real good job and so we're working out together and now I have the hormones of a 27 year old because of because I bought a hormone replacement therapy but it ain't the same bro so i'm working out with him in his 20s and we're going you know what i mean yeah yeah and i got home and i looked at my wife i'm like i i think i overdid it you think bro the rest of the day all i only thing that went through my head i was

33:58Sal Di Stefano:like oh this is hilarious this is sal right before he's about to start his little docuseries this is him getting it out of his system that's what i that's how i read it go to rehab yeah this is like you know you're getting ready to do all the drugs real quick you know you're getting ready You go to rehab, you're like, we're getting fucked up.

34:12Adam Schafer:We'll have the intervention, but I'm going to do this real quick. Yeah, yeah. But no, we had a great, it was a great work. I had a good time. Halfway through, I had to get some coconut water. I'm like, I need some carbs, dude. I'm starting to fizzle out. But we did, they have a forearm machine. Yeah. When I see a gym with a forearm. When I see a forearm machine. Of course you geeked out on that. My heart gets, you know what I mean? I get so warm in my heart. It's like, oh, that's a good gym. That'd be funny, yeah, because there's definitely parts of that gym that, like, appealed to me a lot more, too.

34:37Sal Di Stefano:I gotta make my way over there now I feel so left out I'm like Doug you haven't been there have you? no I haven't

34:42Adam Schafer:they got great I mean if you want like bodybuilding stuff bro they got some great they have the you know that lateral machine with the handles they have a fly machine that's plate loaded that's like really great it's always crazy

34:53Sal Di Stefano:I went into I was so mad I went into Fitness 19 not to bash him here but I'm going to anyways I went in there on it was Thursday or Friday last week was like I was back on my kick right I've said a bunch of personal.

35:07Adam Schafer:Your body changes so fast. I saw you this morning. I'm like, what did you get? Five pounds of muscle?

35:11Sal Di Stefano:I worked out three times. I worked out three times last week. I haven't worked out three times in a week. I don't know how long.

35:16Adam Schafer:Bro, you annoy me with that shit. Oh, man.

35:18Sal Di Stefano:You're like a sponge. It goes both ways though, and you know that. Yeah, it does,

35:22Adam Schafer:but it goes the other way too. It is.

35:24Sal Di Stefano:So I've learned to reframe it as a positive thing because I used, as funny as that, like as a kid, it was such a negative thing. I'd be so mad because I lose it so quick, but then.

35:32Adam Schafer:And get it back. I can get it back just as quick.

35:34Sal Di Stefano:So anyways, I was on my kick. I'm like, hey, I've kicked up all these good habits I'm trying to kick up in my life again. And obviously, one of them is being more consistent in my lifting. And so I had already trained two days. And I'm like, oh, you know, I didn't work out in here. Our gym was busy. And so I was like, oh, I'll work out when I get home. I'll just go to Fitness 19. And I went in there. And bro, there was lines for equipment. So I didn't lift. I was so mad because I wanted to lift. I did do a hour of lists, which I haven't done that a long time. And that felt good to get a little bit of sweat.

36:08Sal Di Stefano:And I got to listen to an audio book. And like, that was cool. But I was, I went into Lyft and I was, I was so annoyed by how packed it was that I'm like, I am not, I don't like waiting in lines.

36:19Adam Schafer:That's because you went to a gym. That's I know. I mean, that's the, that's the MO, right?

36:23Sal Di Stefano:But I'd never seen a dab. I didn't know. What time was it? Was it afternoon? It was like three. Oh, it wasn't even five. No, it wasn't even. Yeah. See, it wasn't like, I would expect that if I go at five or six. It was like three.

36:33Adam Schafer:Maybe because high school. We're out of school. It's summer right now.

36:37Sal Di Stefano:That's exactly what it is. I was like, this didn't make sense to me. Do you have a bunch of broccoli haircuts in there? Yes, bro. It's a bunch of dog shit. Dude, they all look the same, bro. I mean, they're trying. They all look like your boys. All of them have the same haircut as your boys. It's like they all go to the same barber, dude. It's so funny.

36:54Adam Schafer:We all look the same, too. I guess. He got all fed. He's like, do you talk about doing the show, Dad?

37:00Sal Di Stefano:because he brought his friends up, you know, hanging out with us over the weekend. I'm like, I mean, people just notice it. Like, that's the thing. It's a broccoli haircut. What am I supposed to call it? I mean, he actually rocks it pretty well. He looks good. Yeah, he's a good-looking kid. He's all fit, too. And that's what I was going to say. He's fit. He's got, like, a pull. Like, you can get away, in my opinion. I don't remember this. We went through, like, weird things like that.

37:21Adam Schafer:I want to see him with a 50s haircut, though. You know, like, almost like. Yeah, dude. Like, I just want to do that to him one day. I don't, you know, it's funny. they can shave their heads like it's such an epiphany like just shave your head dude yeah don't worry about anything and it's like you know you put a hat on you're good dude I mean that's why the bald thing a girl comes by like massage is it I'm coming up on you dude so many guys ask

37:42Sal Di Stefano:like how do you deal with that I'm like bro I don't know it's so easy it's convenient I already got my wife you know what I'm saying she's not going anywhere yeah she ain't going anywhere so I mean be jacked and bald you're fine I feel like that's it that's uh but I get it I mean some guys are I didn't realize how attached some men are to their hair. Yeah. That's such a... But I do... They do have... Like, I know that's a... I guess for some women, that's a must-have, right? Some women are like, you know, hair, tall, right? It's like one of these... Those have to be the top two, right? Yeah, what is the...

38:15Sal Di Stefano:You know what it is? No, I know height. I think height and hair are actually there. So I think maybe that's why it causes so much insecurity for some guys. Because I think that... But then again,

38:24Adam Schafer:you got some of the most sought-after men are shaved, bald, but they're also jacked. And they're also famous. and rich.

38:31Sal Di Stefano:Famous and rich. Bezos would have done real good if he wasn't rich. Right. No way. Yeah, right. He could have a real hard time. He looks so different though. It's Tripp looking at him compared to what he looked like when he first We're about a billion dollars. It helps.

38:51Adam Schafer:I know. Anyway, I got to tell you guys. So Adam sent a gift to thank you very much, by the way. Such a thoughtful gift. so first he texts me this guy's such a jerk he's like did you get your package i'm like what what package like i'm sending a delivery i'm like a delivery what are you sending he's oh i'm gonna send you a box of dicks i'm like i knew he's stressing out because his kids he's like oh god

39:13Sal Di Stefano:i gotta get him for my kids i'm like wait i'm like i'm like now at first i thought he was joking

39:16Adam Schafer:like shut up you guys well he's like it'll it'll be and he's like it'll be there between three to five so let me know when you get it take a picture of it and i'm like did he really send like a prank box of dicks. And I'm like, cause he, cause he could do that. And I already told Jessica, I'm like, I swear to God, if it shows up, I'm going to service it does that. I said, I'm going to, there is, I'm going to Uber. I'm going to Uber. That would have been a great get back to it. Well, you know why? Cause this was a problem. I thought to myself, if I get this box of, of, of dicks, throwing it away is a problem.

39:47Adam Schafer:Yeah. What are you doing? Your garbage bag goes up. It's a bunch of... All your neighbors are like, what do you do with it? They have to drive into a dumpster. It's a wild weekend. You actually thought about this.

39:59Sal Di Stefano:This is hilarious.

40:00Adam Schafer:Imagine that, trying to throw that away.

40:02Sal Di Stefano:Well, that would be, like you just said, the move would be to Uber it back to the guy. Oh, for sure. That would be the ultimate flex value. Oh, for sure. Okay, send it back to his house. We'd start Ubering it to each other. Nobody wants it. Yeah, it would be like a submit. Who runs out? But anyway,

40:14Adam Schafer:what he sent was, wasn't that everybody, it was one of those, a massive bouncy house. And this is because we had talked, I had talked... Oh, sick. I had talked about how we had a bouncy house and that we didn't store it well. It got moldy, so we had to throw it away. So he sent this huge one that you attach water to, and it has water slides and stuff. Oh, awesome. Oh, man. We were going nuts with that. I bet the kids were going crazy for that. Oh, nuts. Nuts. My son was jumping off that thing, bouncing down the slide.

40:39Sal Di Stefano:I mean, we were talking when we were walking. So great. And there's been a handful of things that I look back and go, oh, that was one of the best investments I've ever made in my life. I mean, they're relatively inexpensive. They're not. I assume they were thousands and thousands of dollars. You can get a really good one for$400 or$500. And they - It's hours and hours and hours of activity. I mean, my son - Those are the best ones. And I know you brought up like the water and the mold thing. Shoot, I'd say Max played on it 80 % of the time with no water. Yeah. Just we would blow it up. If it was a nice day outside, dad, will you blow the slide?

41:16Sal Di Stefano:I'd blow the slide up. and then I'd hang outside and just watch him bounce around on it, slide on it. I'm like, okay. And I remember after we had done that at least 50 times, I was like, well, that was the best.

41:25Adam Schafer:Have you gone down yours? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A little too big for us. Yeah, yeah. The whole thing was sick.

41:30Sal Di Stefano:So I have to stake it in if I'm going to get on it. Yeah. If I don't stake it in and I get the whole thing, we'll tip over. So I'm so glad they played on it. No, they were great.

41:40Adam Schafer:I said, you got to say thank you to Adam. He's like shy, but everybody was super, super good.

41:45Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I was on the plane or else I wouldn't have answered. That was when I was flying out to Texas. I went out and saw Jordan Sigh. I love Jordan Sigh, dude. Such a good guy. Great guy. Yeah, we had a great interview. He had some really good questions. We talked about fatherhood. I finished the books that you had sent over, the parenting one. Yeah, yeah. The title of it was Parenting the It. Oh, God, I got the term. Getting It Right. Getting It Right. Right. Yeah. Getting it right. It's so good. I mean, I took some notes because I did want to bring it up to you. I'll share. So a couple of things that were big takeaways for me in their house.

42:25Sal Di Stefano:There's really only three things that they talk to when it comes to like discipline the kids or what the rules, their three is just dishonor, disrespect, disobedient, the three D's and everything falls under that. And, and, and it's all about if you dishonor someone, you disrespect or you're disobedient. What they speak to is not the action or the behavior, but to the relationship that you destroy. How do you repair the relationship? Yes. And then the whole thing is around repairing that relationship. And one, it reminded me of something that I did as a kid that when I think of all the times I've probably been disciplined, one of the ones that was the most impactful.

43:00Sal Di Stefano:And it was also the one I hated doing the most, but when I really think about it, it wasn't that crazy of a punishment. I talked about that time where we went around paintballing and stuff, and my parents made me go to the house and knock on the neighbors and apologize to them. now I don't think my parents were that brilliant to understand what they were really doing I think they just thought that was the way to do this at this time because it's the only time we've ever it's a relationship repair yeah and so he tells a story in there that I was like and this made me think of Justin because I know Justin's at that age where his boys are kind of getting rebellious and with mom and you know in their house uh honoring their mother is the the pinnacle right honoring or honoring God honoring their mother or like the things that he speaks he doesn't even talk about honoring himself as a dad because by proxy if they honor their mother they're honoring they're honoring him or whatever and he tells a story in there where his son is basically he's 16 years old he's getting ready to drive out of the driveway and his mom is like getting on to him about something and he basically you know tells her to f off and then speeds out and his dad like as a dad you see this and he's like inside you're raging and he's like wanting to chase after him he calms down and goes off and he's like what am i going to do again speaking to repair the relationship that's not i'm not going to yell at him for the what he said to his mom and what he did, it's more about what you dishonored your mom.

44:16Sal Di Stefano:And you now have to go repair the relationship. And so he thought long and hard why his son was gone, what he's going to do. And then his son comes home and he says, you know, I don't want to talk a lot about what you did and what you said to your mom, but I want you to understand how much you dishonored your mother and how damaging that could be to a relationship. And you need to make that right. And he goes, so as your punishment, what you're going to do is you're going to take your mother to dinner. You're going to plan a night. You're going to take her to dinner. Perfect. And then when you come back, I want to hear how you repaired it.

44:49Sal Di Stefano:He said it was so good. They came, let him, they went and did it. And that was the punishment. And so as a kid, you probably know like, oh man, my ass is crap.

44:56Adam Schafer:He's going to take away my car. Yeah, you start thinking of those things, right?

44:59Sal Di Stefano:And so there's a part of even the kid that's like.

45:01Adam Schafer:No, because what came out of that was time spent in a repaired relationship. Yes. Relationships are everything.

45:07Sal Di Stefano:Yes.

45:07Adam Schafer:With your kids, with each other, they're everything.

45:09Sal Di Stefano:They even talk about, I like books where I get kind of aha moments or I'm like, oh, I would have done that different. And okay, that's new to me. That was a new little hack. That's smart. Yeah, very smart. Mainly because, too, you don't want to shut off the communication just by punishing either, right? And so now it's like you're isolating. You're taking both parties out of that whole communication line, whereas what you need is to reestablish that.

45:37Adam Schafer:Plus punishments, and this is a tough, this is a real hard line because sometimes I don't know how this works. Okay, so that's just full disclosure. But if your kids do things out of fear, they're not necessarily doing them out of the right heart posture.

45:51Sal Di Stefano:So he talks about this. And one of the things, so they don't talk about punishments or things that are assigned for certain things you do. It's dealing with the consequences of that thing. So it's all about that. So for example, he always talks about too, like, don't get yourself stuck in this, like, you reactive punish. Now you're grounded for two months. So it's like a threatening, punishing thing. It's even said like the words that he practices, oh no, I didn't see that you were going to do, oh no, I didn't see you doing that. You're going to have to face the consequences and like pause about it.

46:23Sal Di Stefano:You don't have to deliver what it is. It's like, you're letting them know like, oh wow, I can't believe you spoke to your mother like that.

46:28Adam Schafer:By the way, there's a lot of truth in waiting. because oftentimes when you throw something down right out the gates when you're angry, it's out of your anger. It's not smart. It's not thought out.

46:36Sal Di Stefano:And that's me. He says, oh, like, so this learning to, in that situation, go, oh, no. I can't believe you spoke to your mother that way. You're going to have to deal with those consequences. I've got to think about that. Yeah, exactly. And you don't even give the punishment. You go marinate on it. Like, okay, my goal. And so then thinking, okay, my goal is to get my son to repair that relationship that he just did. And this, obviously, I'm using the mom example, but he used other examples of, like, even fighting with kids at school or disrespecting another parent or things or a teacher. And like, you got to go repair that.

47:06Sal Di Stefano:And so he will sit there and marinate on, okay, if my desired outcome is to have my son repair that relationship that he just damaged, what's a good way to do that? And then that is the, that's the punishment, you know, it's, and it's not about punishment. It's more, you, you hurt a relationship and that's not okay. Like you need to go remedy that, right? Restore that. And so, and the, and the not reacting and going, oh no, it's just like a good practice of like, when you're like, oh no, you hit your sister, you're going to have to face the consequences for that, you know, versus like reacting right away.

47:38Adam Schafer:So I thought that was really, really, um, one thing that my, to add to that, cause my wife is really good with a lot of what you're talking about. And she, she's the one that introduced me to that book. One thing that she also does really well with, especially with the little ones is if they apologize, even if it doesn't seem sincere, you know, sometimes kids will like, oh you know oh i'm sorry they'll say it the wrong way or whatever rather than being like say that like you mean it or whatever immediately accepts it so no matter how how the kids say it okay thank you so much for apologizing yeah yeah and and what that's done is it's taught them to extend grace to each other so so i have a four-year-old and a two-year-old that if they do something to each other and it could be whatever it could be throwing a toy at their face and one of them apologizes to other they almost always immediately accept the apology which is remarkable yeah because typically you don't see that with little kids yeah yeah uh so that was just another thing to well you said

48:30Sal Di Stefano:it the other day um what i wanted to make sure i repeated like what the because there's there's four stages yes um that and then and that's what matters right is what stage you you're doing all these different things whatever i forget those four stages it's uh uh discipline train coach friend. So discipline is zero to five. Training is six to 12. Coaching is 13 to 18. And then friend is 18 plus. Another thing that I would have done wrong, but I'm glad again, I read this is one of the things he says is leave sarcasm at the door. I'm very sarcastic and witty and Katrina and I have that relationship.

49:04Sal Di Stefano:And I think that's funny. And I would have not have viewed it as such a bad thing, but I get it now when I under, cause I also, the book I read before was the whole brainchild, but the neuropsychology of a child in their brain. And their brain hasn't really learned to fully process sarcasm. They're still learning like, this is how you talk to mom. This is how you talk to people. And even though it's probably coming from a good point. They'll weaponize it. Yeah, exactly. They'll weaponize it or not know where the boundaries are with it or when it's appropriate to use it, when it's not appropriate to use it, because they just see that it's okay to do it.

49:35Sal Di Stefano:And so - I got to read that part. And basically what it says is just that it's not necessarily that, oh, all of it's so bad. It's it's not worth the risk. It's not worth risking what it could do negatively for what little return you get.

49:48Adam Schafer:Sarcasm can become cynicism and it can also be like a sharp sword.

49:52Sal Di Stefano:And it's just the wrong time. That's at 18 plus. Your kid becomes an adult and they're now on their own. Now you can have fun.

49:59Adam Schafer:Plus they do that with their friends.

50:01Sal Di Stefano:Right. They don't need it from mom and dad, right? So I thought that was interesting because that was something I would have done wrong. I think I would have definitely, I like sarcasm, but again um they're at they're at a teaching phase of their lives as a kid and so it's not necessarily something that i want to teach him right now while his brain is still developing as a way of communicating with people because of how bad it can land yeah because they won't they don't quite have the social awareness and self-awareness to know how to moderate they just see oh dad does it all the time therefore i can do it all the time so being mean can be funny yes in the wrong way exactly yeah i gotta look i gotta so that was really yeah really uh really really uh i mean the back-to-back books were so good to go from whole brain child to then go to the the parenting one that you recommended because they they had some crossover because uh the neuroscience you know what's interesting about what your the book you recommended talks about with the four stages of discipline teach coach and whatever the neuroscience talks and they're they're almost identical the years they're a little bit different i think the neuroscience one is zero to three, four to eight, and then so on and so forth.

51:08Sal Di Stefano:But a lot of the stuff that I learned in the neuroscience book has to deal with where the brain is developing. And that's why that way of parenting is so - Well, we forget.

51:17Adam Schafer:We look at kids, even adolescents, especially adolescents and teenagers, they're small adults, but they're not. Their brains are not the same. They're not small adults. They're adolescent. They're a different species, a different kind of creature, and they can't think, they don't think the way. I remember being told once that a teenager, if they feel a particular way, this is how they think they always feel. And I know this because I'll have my teenager, I'll give them something to eat or something and they'll say, I don't like that. Like, what do you talk about? You eat it all the time. No, I never liked that.

51:47Adam Schafer:And I'm thinking like, are you crazy? You always like this. But it's like, they literally believe what they feel right now is how they always feel because of how their brain.

51:55Sal Di Stefano:The other thing that he said in relation to this sarcasm, he talks about, he said this thing, I wrote it down was so good. Source determines weight, weight determines impact, and impact determines outcome. And it's in relation to the power of your words as a father. And your words are so heavy compared to anybody else. This is also why the sarcasm thing is not worth the risk, is because you may do something that you think is sarcastic and funny, but really hits an insecure spot of your kid. Say, for example, I know we're teasing about the haircut, but that one hits home to me because I was like, I remember my uncle wanted to cut my duck tail off and he used to tease me and make fun of me all the time about it.

52:32Sal Di Stefano:And I still remember that as an adult, how much that bothered me. I mean, I think as an adult now, I'm like, how ridiculous the duck tail. But it stuck with you. But it stuck with me because I, that was an insecurity spot for me and him, my uncle being sarcastic and teasing me, you know, hit me in a place like that. And as a young boy, I don't know how to communicate that and say that. So he probably never even knows. He's joking with you. Right, right. Wow. And so, again, a situation where it doesn't, you know, it's not worth it. It's as funny as it may seem to us or them, like the risk and the power of your words is so heavy that if you miss the mark just a little bit, you have no idea how deep that hits on the kids.

53:12Sal Di Stefano:Interesting. All good. Wow. Yeah, really good reads.

53:15Adam Schafer:Hey, so I'm going to take a left here. Do you guys want to know what the fastest growing segment of probiotic users are? muscle building for performance is it oh it is athletic performance

53:27Sal Di Stefano:so you think it's because it's new emerging science is that why

53:30Adam Schafer:it's so much data is coming out showing how because probiotic use it's been widely accepted helps with gut health digestion then the next one was skin it's good for skin then we had data showing it actually improves your mood wow look it helps with depression now we have all these studies showing it makes you stronger and gives you more endurance In fact, it's better than most athletic performance supplements. Really? In the data. From the probiotic? Yes. Well, you know, good bacteria produce neurotransmitters. Right. They help with inflammation. They help with muscle contraction and muscle health and insulin sensitivity and all the things that are important for athletic performance.

54:11Adam Schafer:So I guess it makes sense. But the data on it's really fascinating. There's studies on older adults. It's like they gave them a hormone. And they just give them a probiotic. And then they test them and they're stronger. 15%. Wow. In some cases. Wow. Yeah, pretty remarkable. I got to get back on taking seed. I actually ran out a little while ago. And I think I can tell with my digestion. So I'll start taking it.

54:32Sal Di Stefano:Well, you've always swore by it. Oh, I love them. You're the one that makes it.

54:35Adam Schafer:I absolutely love them.

54:35Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

54:36Adam Schafer:Absolutely love taking it.

54:37Sal Di Stefano:And do you think that's because, you know, if you have some gut issue, you're getting stuff in your bloodstream. You're then getting your body to react. It means you're probably in this constant, even low level to moderate level of inflammation all the time, that's going to affect all things.

54:51Adam Schafer:Well, what's interesting with these studies is they're taking healthy individuals, so they're not taking...

54:56Sal Di Stefano:Oh, so this is not somebody who necessarily has gut issues. No, they're not taking people with gut health issues. Oh, I assume that's what it is.

55:01Adam Schafer:They're taking healthy people, normal people, older people or younger people. Really?

55:06Sal Di Stefano:Now, are they randomly or are they actually intentionally finding people that, okay, this person doesn't even have gut issues, we're going to give it to them?

55:11Adam Schafer:The studies say healthy individuals, so I think they have to do a screening, and you don't have to have illness, you don't have to have whatever, right? Because that could throw off the study. and they're giving them this and they're testing their one rep max and they're testing their endurance. So you see an improved VO2 max. You see an improving strength.

55:26Sal Di Stefano:Now, do you think those, okay, do you think like, okay, so they're picking, let's say, a hundred random healthy people and then giving them that. But do you think there is so many people with underlining food intolerances and gut issues that probably would fall in a group of a healthy hundred people that that is probably what's impacting them? Or do you really think somebody who doesn't have gut issues, is really healthy, has that and still also sees that?

55:51Adam Schafer:Yeah, no, I think gut health is not perfect. That's super common. But for someone to have bad gut health, they'd probably be excluded from the study. Okay. So if somebody's reporting like irritable bowel syndrome or whatever, okay, we want people - Because we already know that would help them. Yeah, and not only that, but it's going to mess up the study. I don't want people who have any medical conditions or whatever to do this study on VO2 max or maximal knee extension strength or whatever. It's another study. And it's a performance enhancer, which is pretty remarkable. Interesting. Yes, absolutely.

56:22Adam Schafer:It's so interesting to me. I remember when we first started the podcast, we were one of the first fitness shows to really tout the benefits of gut health and probiotics. But back then even, it was all about mental health and gut health and then the downstream effects. The neurotransmitters, I think, is the biggest factor. Because, I mean, some gut, also the heart has them right, and the brain. It's just that's weird to me that it would enhance performance. Now, probiotics are not all the same. Oftentimes you'll get one, and most of the bacteria in there is dead, or it doesn't go where it's supposed to, or whatever.

56:58Adam Schafer:Seed is, I mean, they're light years ahead of everybody.

57:00Sal Di Stefano:You know, speaking of performance enhancement, when I did the interview with Jordan, something he said to me that I didn't know. I would have thought you've brought it up. Maybe you have already, and I don't remember you saying it. I didn't realize that BPC-157 is actually banned. Yeah. Like from athletes. From athletes, yeah. Oh, USDA and the other organization. Oh, WADA and all that? Yeah, that it's considered a performance enhancement. USADA, I think. Is it US? I think so. USADA?

57:25Adam Schafer:Yeah.

57:26Sal Di Stefano:I said WADA. I thought it was WADA. I said WADA. Yeah, I was barbecuing a lot.

57:31Adam Schafer:That was top of mind for me. It is banned. I don't have any tests for it. Good luck testing for a natural occurring peptide.

57:38Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I thought that was so interesting. He brought it up on the podcast and I'm like, oh, I didn't even.

57:42Adam Schafer:I'd like to see them test for it. I don't think there's any tests that can identify BPC. It's in and out of your system so quickly and it's a naturally occurring. Yeah.

57:50Sal Di Stefano:You probably have to, you have to accidentally do it right when you get tested. I don't even think they'd be able to see then. Oh, really?

57:56Adam Schafer:Yeah. Like how do you determine what a natural amount of that? We want to have enough data. Can you look it up, Doug?

58:01Sal Di Stefano:How do they test for it? Is there a test for it?

58:03Adam Schafer:Speaking of sports and stuff, professional sports, did you see the shirts? I got to say this. Let me preface this by saying. Oh, for the WNBA. I'm just going to say this. The shirts for the WNBA? Hold on a second. I'm just going to say this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've talked about this before. They have to be, WNBA has to be the most tone-deaf group of people in existence. How can you possibly make yourself look worse and more hated than what they're doing? Well, they just don't understand how it works. Yeah, they came out in these shirts. I'll look it up for you. I did not see this. They came out to play in a shirt that says, pay us what you owe us.

58:42Adam Schafer:Oh, my. Are you serious? How embarrassing.

58:45Sal Di Stefano:Do you know that they've, okay. I hope the views went down right after they did something.

58:49Adam Schafer:I don't know how much lower they can get. They haven't profited since day one. You have to fill seats to be able to make money. They're a subsidized league. The NBA subsidizes the WNBA. They're getting paid more than what they deserve. You get paid what you deserve based off of the revenue you bring in. And I'm sorry, ladies. You're amazing athletes. I mean, a lot of athletes are pretty obliqued. But you guys are tone deaf. What are you doing? Why are you bringing more light to yourself?

59:17Sal Di Stefano:Please tell me you saw Shane Gillis' stand. I did. It was his WNBA joke, bro. I fell out of my chair. Because I even got real. Because I hear, Amanda Hicks, a three-time WNBA All-Star giveaway ever. She played into it. She's like, yeah, the whole crowd's clapping. It's just like, I'm just kidding. That's my buddy's wife. I knew none of you guys would know any time. Oh, God.

59:41Adam Schafer:Well, it's just, if you want to make yourself more hated, you just keep sounding ungrateful and like you're spoiled. Like, just keep doing that. Otherwise, what you should do is say nothing and just play. But everybody knows you guys are not bringing in a revenue. They know that you're subsidized. So you just seem like a bunch of spoiled. It's just ridiculous. Pay us what you owe us. What do we owe you? You're getting free money.

1:00:05Sal Di Stefano:Your point of being tone deaf is like, listen, my wife played D1 college basketball. I mean, they're badass athletes. I'm rooting for the WNBA. I don't watch it, but I'm rooting for them. I think a lot of people want to succeed. I mean, I don't want to see them fail, but when you see this type of stuff, and then I see, too, the weird dynamic they have with Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark, if I do tune in WNBA, it's to watch her. Like, she has one of the most beautiful shots I've ever seen in the WNBA. It's like watching a female Steph Curry. She is badass. And then she's not part of the in crowd with a lot of these players.

1:00:43Sal Di Stefano:They all talk shit about her, treat her. And it's like, this is the girl who's bringing more attention to you than anybody. And you guys are infighting. This makes no sense. You would think you would elevate. This is like their version right now of Michael Jordan entering their league. That's what it is. I mean, obviously, she can't play like Michael Jordan, but to that level. It would be like fully embraced. Fully embraced because that's what took the NBA off was a player like Michael Jordan. This is the same situation.

1:01:07Adam Schafer:Besides that, okay, it's crazy to me when you play, you're in a league, you're in an organization that doesn't profit. It would be like if you work for a company that's constantly in the red and you go up to your boss, you're like, you owe us all more money. What? Have you seen our numbers? We're tanking. You're lucky you're not fired. Like, what are you doing here? Yeah. So it's like, why would you do that? Because I did not know they did this. It's like they're poking fun at themselves by wearing a shirt like that. So I see that and I'm like. Scroll up a little bit, Doug. Because that's Caitlin Clark.

1:01:38Adam Schafer:Is she wearing one too?

1:01:39Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, she was. Should they run like the profit loss? Whose idea was this? And just print it out for them and be like, look, here's where our team is. Here's where the league is. Like, where are we going to get that money?

1:01:50Adam Schafer:I don't know. It's just crazy.

1:01:51Sal Di Stefano:I mean, you have to think there's always somebody.

1:01:54Adam Schafer:Doug, look up how much the NBA subsidizes to them and see if you can look that up. I want to know what the numbers are.

1:01:59Sal Di Stefano:I've given the numbers before. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it's ridiculous.

1:02:02Adam Schafer:I think they have a$40 million a year loss.

1:02:04Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous. Yeah. Pay me what you owe me. Well, that sounds like the Colbert show, I guess. Like, he was losing$40 million a year. Was he? Yeah. He finally canceled it, yeah.

1:02:14Adam Schafer:His show sucks.

1:02:15Sal Di Stefano:No one watches our league. It's losing. Wait right there. No one watches our league. It's losing$50 million. What does that say? Go up, go up. Right here, up to this. Yeah, I can't see.

1:02:23Adam Schafer:Oh, they're complaining. No, no, no. Scroll down more, Doug. That paragraph right there. Yeah, right there. Who is it that's saying that?

1:02:30Sal Di Stefano:Red? No one watches our league. It's losing$50 million a year. We just got trolled after the ESPYs. What should we do? WNBA players. Let's become even more insufferable. Oh, they're criticizing that. So this was in response to the Shane Gillis thing. No. Yes, that's what it's saying right now.

1:02:46Adam Schafer:No, the author is writing about how ridiculous it is that these girls came out wearing these shirts. Yeah. So he's saying like, oh, would you guys all of a sudden decide let's become more insufferable? Oh, I thought it was like, okay, we got trolled at the SPs,

1:02:59Sal Di Stefano:and now here's our response. No, no, no.

1:03:01Adam Schafer:That's what I mean by tone deaf. It's like you don't know what's going on here. Yeah. I know. When I saw that, I was like, oh, my God. They need better PR, dude.

1:03:11Sal Di Stefano:The writer wrote the analogy that you just gave right now. Imagine being an employee at a company that has never turned a profit and showing up to work in these shirts.

1:03:20Adam Schafer:That's where we're like, ah, we're closing doors. Oh, man.

1:03:23Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, each of you owe us$230 ,000. That's what somebody should say. Yeah. That's so sad, dude.

1:03:30Adam Schafer:NBA gives them$10 million a year, it looks like.

1:03:32Sal Di Stefano:They give them$10 million a year and they still lose$50?

1:03:35Adam Schafer:Yes. And the NBA owns 50 % of the WNBA.

1:03:39Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. The amount that they're propping them up and the things that they're doing to help them. Which, by the way, I'm okay with trying to help them. If they want to do that, that's their company. See if you can figure it out. And you're going to be a part of this movement. You just got to be, hey, listen, you came in at it early.

1:03:54Adam Schafer:And by the way, I'm going to be very clear. A lot of professional athletes, male or female or tone deaf, oftentimes they act like they're spoiled babies. That's what I mean, yeah. But everybody hates it when they do that because, yes, you work hard, you train hard, but you're in this position. It's like really people want to see gratitude because so many people wish they could do what you do. So oftentimes when athletes come out and complain about silly things, they just make themselves look dumb. Well, this is how I felt about the baseball when they had the lockouts. it was just like I was so turned off by even watching exactly oh yeah the only thing after that the only thing that brought them back was the home run the home steroids steroids the home run

1:04:33Sal Di Stefano:battle they were dying after that I was a big baseball fan I stopped watching after that after lockout I was like this is lame like now I don't want to watch it anymore I mean I went through the same thing with the WNBA too over all the whole COVID thing so that way in the NBA or NBA yeah the NBA with that whole direct yeah no I've never watched it I actually have watched a couple WNBA games that Caitlin Clark is playing. So Katrina played, she played college,

1:04:56Adam Schafer:like high-level college ball. Does she watch WNBA?

1:04:59Sal Di Stefano:Nope. She watches every NBA game with me. She doesn't like WNBA. I put on the WNBA more than she does. In fact, I tease her about it all the time. I'm like, aren't you going to support your girls or what? So I'll talk shit to her like that. It's just, and she'll tell you, it's hard because they're playing the exact same game that the guys are. And the guys' level of entertainment is just so much higher. And you only have so much time. Now listen, I bet if the WNBA was at where it's at now and she was in college playing women's basketball, she'd probably be following you a little more. Maybe because she's like, maybe I can get in there.

1:05:35Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, and when she was in college, she followed, because some of these players that she played against are in the WNBA, right? Oh, interesting. So she knew them or knew of them really well. And so that part of her, she's intrigued. But if I came home and saw her watching the WNBA, I'd be so surprised. But I'll walk home or I'll come home and see her watching the NFL and watching the NBA. She watches that all the time. But Katrina also doesn't get roped into that support. It's either entertaining or it's not. Either I like it or I don't. Yeah, either I like it or I don't. I'm not going to do it just to try and make a point or this is me supporting.

1:06:07Sal Di Stefano:It's like, yeah, well, maybe when they get good enough, I'll watch it.

1:06:10Adam Schafer:The best skincare products contain the peptide GHK-CU. This peptide boosts collagen production in a remarkable way on your skin. The first time you use it, nothing comes close. The best company is Luminose by Interra. They have the highest percentage of GHKCU you'll find anywhere. Try it out yourself. One or two applications, you can tell a difference in your skin. Just go to interaskincare.com forward slash MPM. That's E-N-T-E-R-A, skincare.com forward slash M-P-M. Use the code NPM. Get 10 % off your order. Back to the show. Our first caller is Christian from California. What's up, man? What's going on, Christian?

1:06:51Adam Schafer:Hey, good morning. How are you guys? Good. How are you? Good. Thanks. Hey, I've been listening to you guys, I think, for about three years now.

1:07:00Sal Di Stefano:You've been on the show before. I have been. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I remember the Iggy jersey. I know that for sure. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. That's right. It's a little tough to be a Warriors fan. I know. I know. I know. We'll see. but I've ran a handful of maps programs and as I was running them I actually wrote little like one line reflections for each of them that I've run and I'd love to share them with you before I get into my questions oh cool yeah let's hear it the first one I ran was anabolic and my one line reflection for that one was this is what lifting heavy feels like because I think before then like i only ran eight to 12 reps on everything and never outside of that and so that was a cool one um then i ran performance and my one line reflection for that one was why are there so many damn lunges

1:07:54then i ran aesthetic and that one is yeah no adam is crazy volume was wild on that one i was on a bulk and i think i was still taking off a set or two every time yeah it's a lot then i ran symmetry and my reflection for that one was my left side sucks and then maps 15 i'm currently on the last week of it actually this is a four liner and it's this isn't enough oh wait what in the world yes it is. Awesome. Love your guys' programs. That's great.

1:08:33Adam Schafer:That's awesome, dude. Yeah. Cool. How can we help you, brother? Yeah. So my question has to do with borrowing volume to bring it up, like lagging body parts. I know you guys have talked a bit about if there's a body part that's lagging, then you, you don't just add volume, but you, you take a set from another body part and throw it onto that lagging one, or you reorder the workout. So you like prioritize that lagging one up top. That's right. And that all makes sense. But my question is, if I'm on a cut, does it matter as much? Because I know when you're on a cut, you're not really trying to build or just preserving the muscle that you already built.

1:09:13So does that concept of borrowing volume?

1:09:16Sal Di Stefano:Well, it becomes even more, it becomes even more important, right? Meaning that it comes more important that you don't add more volume than what you were already currently doing while also in a cut because you're already not going to build in a cut, right? Right. So, and it really depends, like, this is a bit nuanced, right? Because how aggressive is the cut? Is this like I'm hovering around maintenance and sometimes I'm in a cut or am I really cutting aggressive? Because we tend to separate the two like they live completely independent of each other. And they do live independent of each other.

1:09:50Sal Di Stefano:But in the context of a 30-day training cycle, there's probably periods of time when your body is in somewhat of a surplus and then there's other times when it's in a deficit and then at the end of 30 days we call it a cut because you were in a deficit more days or more time than you were in a surplus if that makes sense yeah so you're unless you're in like a really really aggressive cut sometimes you're kind of toggling back and forth and so the same rules would apply though is that you but in a cut it's even more important that you don't overdo it on volume because if you overdo it on volume in a cut, you're not giving the body enough calories and recovery in order to support that.

1:10:30Sal Di Stefano:Whereas you could probably get away with a little bit of that if you were in a surplus. So it just becomes, I'd say, even more important that you don't just stack more volume on. So let's say it's our biceps that we're trying to, let's say you're running Mass 15. You love it. You're like, oh, this is a perfect amount of volume, but you're like, you know what? I want a little more bicep or whatever it is. So you add an exercise a day into the routine that's for the biceps or two times a week you do, you know, three sets of extra biceps. Like that's probably okay in a program like that. That's low enough volume that it's not going to tax you.

1:11:04Sal Di Stefano:But now let's say you're in a program more like performance or aesthetic and you're in a cut and you're trying to add exercises to your body. Like that's not going to build. Your body's going to be so taxed, you're going to be stuck in that recovery trap that Sal talks about all the time.

1:11:20Adam Schafer:The game in a surplus is to build. The game in a cut is to preserve. So if you have a lagging body part, it's more important from an aesthetic perspective that you preserve the lagging body part more than the others. So it makes sense, right? It makes sense. Plus, lagging body parts, I mean, we can get into the weeds with that, but those tend to be the body parts that if a muscle gets pared down, those are the first ones that tend to get pared down, right? I mean, my quads grow if I just think about doing squats. And so I could do very little with my quads to keep them in a cut. That's not the case with other body parts where I have to really make sure that they're prioritized.

1:12:05Adam Schafer:So it's the same thing. You're still going to borrow volume. You're not going to build, but you're going to preserve better, uh, in the cut, uh, for the lagging body part. So it's the same. It's, it's just as valuable. Gotcha. That makes sense. And yeah, I think for me too, like my, I got, I have Filipino legs. And so I think about them and they grow. Um, but for me, like my lagging body, like shoulders and abs for me, I feel I'd like to develop more. Um, but I, like, I know there's just, there's so much value from squats. Um, and so I'm just thinking like not all exercises are created equal. And so I feel weird, like taking a set of squats and adding them to, I don't know, lateral raises, like those two don't seem.

1:12:52You're fine.

1:12:53Adam Schafer:How do we, how do I balance that? No, you're fine. I would cut down, especially if your legs grow really easily.

1:12:59Sal Di Stefano:That's where you would advise someone like that because you just said that, right? If you were a client and you're like, Adam, I mean, I do one set of squats. I mean, you could do, here's another way to do this is like, maybe you don't completely cut it out, but maybe it's like every other week you don't squat. And you know, you know that like, man, I just barely got to touch my legs once every couple of weeks. And I maintain my legs and there's, there's everybody has these, like my, unfortunately mine's not my legs. This is my arms, my arms. I literally could touch my arms once a month, once a month, I touch my arms and I will maintain like my arms.

1:13:30Sal Di Stefano:I'm not going to grow on that, but they're not going to shrink anymore if I can just, if I can touch them once a month. So if you have that and that's your legs, then, you know, do them, do them once every two weeks or once a month, and then add some of that volume to whatever the shoulders or whatever.

1:13:44Adam Schafer:Here's another way to do it, right? Uh, one set of squats is probably worth two or three sets of, uh, laterals or something like that. So what kind of, what are you looking for specifically with your delts? You mentioned laterals. I'm assuming you're looking for the lateral head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would cut out a set of squats, uh, just to make it simple and add two sets of laterals. That's a pretty balanced trade, I would say. All right. That's awful. Yeah, go for it. Do it. Cool. Yeah, dude. And then abs and a cut, unless you're looking for a lot of strength and stuff like that, you're going to see them as you get leaner.

1:14:22Adam Schafer:So you don't need to worry so much about adding volume to the abs, I would say. Gotcha.

1:14:26Sal Di Stefano:Christian, you're already in our forum, aren't you? I am not. Oh, wow. I'm not on social media. Good for you. Maybe I've asked you that before. We told you, good for you. I'm not going to put you on there then, so never mind. I know that, so Aesthetic has those focus sessions, which are like targeted trigger sessions essentially, right? And Aesthetic had too much volume for me. Is there another program that you guys would recommend instead of that one for like targeting? Well, I mean, you could do anabolic and then add focus. Or you could like, it sounds like from your, I mean, I loved hearing your one week or one sentence answers here.

1:15:11Sal Di Stefano:Math 15 seemed to do really well for you. Yeah. And that's a really low volume program. So I would suggest building off of that. Since that's one of the lowest volume programs at everything we have, you already recognize like, wow, actually I did pretty well on this. So why don't you build from there? Instead of taking a program that already has built in way more volume, take that structure and go, let me add a couple sets of shoulders throughout the week and just see how I feel. And that'll probably do really well for you because it's such a low volume program. And you may not have to change anything leg wise.

1:15:47Sal Di Stefano:I mean, that thing is already low enough volume that you could easily add four to five sets of shoulders throughout the week and totally not be taxing the body and see great results. So I would actually start you from that place and add to that, then go try and take, say, anabolic performance or aesthetic and then modify and change too much. It's like you've already realized that Mass 15 you thought wasn't enough volume, but it was like, oh, wow, my body's actually responding with this low volume. So maybe try adding a little bit and just keep doing that until you find the limit where your body goes, oh, no, now I'm getting sore way more.

1:16:19Sal Di Stefano:I'm not recovering the same. I'm not seeing the strength gains. Okay, that's probably too much. So build on that. Gotcha. Oh, yeah. That's super helpful. Thank you, guys. You got it, man. Hey, before I go, I wanted to do, you guys provide so much good information and so much, so many like hacks and things. I wanted to provide you guys with some. I have a five-year-old, and so I love your guys' stories with Aurelius and Max and my daughter's right there. And I'm sure you guys do this, too, but we like to read our daughter stories when she goes to bed. bedtime stories. And we like to do it with kind of like a moral to the story or find a book that has like a message that she's learning.

1:17:04So that usually means I'm in the library reading through all these children's books, making sure there's a message in there that I like that she can learn. But I've recently found if you prompt it right, Chad GPT is a great storyteller. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. And so if you prompt it, like my prompt for it was like, you're an award-winning children's author write me a bedtime story that takes five to ten minutes to read to my five-year-old oh wow she loves unicorns and silliness and it writes this story for you and they're great yeah and you can like always prompt it with i want her to learn more about sharing or i want her to learn more about overcoming hardship great holy cow that's Fascinating.

1:17:49Yep. And recently, because it, like, it learns, right? So Chad GPT knows that I'm reading these stories to my kid every night. And so recently it started adding at the bottom of the story. These are some follow-up questions you can ask your kid. Like, how does Luna the little unicorn, how did she feel when she first didn't want to share? And then, so I'm having these conversations with my five-year-old and they're sweet. That's great. Great hack, bro. Give it a shot. Yeah. All right, man. Thank you.

1:18:17Sal Di Stefano:Thanks, Christian. All right. Thank you, guys. Bye, brother.

1:18:21Adam Schafer:I don't know what it is for me, but I have this internal resistance to using AI. I do. I do. Like, part of me is like, that's a great idea. And then part of me is like, you're not going to create the stories for my kid. And I'm like, I read other books. Yeah, I'm outsourcing this. I'm like going back and forth in my head as he's talking. I'm like, I read other stories. Why wouldn't I read this? And I'm like, ah, you know, interesting. Yeah, the lagging body part conversation is a good one. And again, the biggest mistake people make is they just add volume, but they don't take it off anything else.

1:18:48Adam Schafer:They just overtrain. And they wonder why their body parts don't respond. Our next caller is Michaela from Massachusetts. Hi, Michaela. Hello.

1:18:56Sal Di Stefano:Hey. Hey, how are you? It's nice to meet you.

1:18:58Adam Schafer:Yeah, same. How can we help you? Cool. Okay, so first off, thanks so much for having me on and for all the content that you put out. I'm so grateful that I found your podcast a couple years ago. Thank you. Yeah, so here's my question. I'm going to go ahead and read it. so I've been crossfitting five to six days per week for about five years and honestly sometimes it's more than that I know that it's bad and I haven't been able to get away from it really because of the community I've made such great friends there throughout the years and throughout the various moves so I just bought my first home which is across the street from a really nice non-CrossFit gym.

1:19:41And I figured that now is a great time to try out all of your advice. So my question is, if you were me, what programs or practices would you recommend?

1:19:52Adam Schafer:Yeah, good question. It's a great question. Now, I want to back up to Kayla, because I want to just give you, I just want to, you know, cover something here. So you did it for years. You love the community. It obviously brought you some joy and it obviously improved the quality of your life. So yeah, maybe the workout isn't ideal. Did you injure yourself by the way? Were you okay the whole time? Honestly, I was pretty healthy throughout it. I think what's made me like realize that I need to switch is that going to the gym for 90 minutes and killing myself has been starting to impact me at work.

1:20:30Honestly, I'm getting just kind of tired in the afternoon. Okay. And I have to, I have to use my brain. So, okay.

1:20:37Adam Schafer:All right. So what, so what are you looking for in a workout program? Uh, specifically you enjoy working out, but are there, what other things are you looking for from it? Um, yeah. So I think ideally I would like to, to just kind of look like someone that works out. My, uh, joke with my CrossFit coach has been like, when are my arms going to come in? Like, what am I going to see those?

1:21:00Sal Di Stefano:Okay. So I, I, I also have a question like, so whenever I get somebody coming from CrossFit, especially for this long, the main thing that I'm mostly concerned about is how addicted to that training intensity and volume are they? Because probably the best place to send you is the complete opposite, but that's really hard psychologically for some people meaning we have programs that have lots of volume and require several days at the gym and then we have problems that are like very low volume like maps 15 that are short short workouts but you take somebody who's been used to beating themselves up for 90 minutes in the gym six days a week and you go hey i just want you to work 15 minutes out a day and i think that's the best thing for you they go uh they freak out but honestly that's where i'd want you to go.

1:21:48Sal Di Stefano:But I also understand the psychological part. And so sometimes a coach like me has to take someone like you and I slowly wean you off. I go, hey, mass performance is kind of CrossFit-like and it's got some good intensity in there. It's got a lot of multi-planar movements. It's similar. It's a fact we created that program as what we were trying to attract people who like CrossFit, but we think it's far better programming, better balance. And so I would take you there if If you're like, yeah, I do love it. And I don't know if I'm ready to go the other extreme. And then I would slowly step you back that way.

1:22:23Sal Di Stefano:So it really depends on where you're at psychologically.

1:22:24Adam Schafer:Yeah, a different way to say that is how willing are you to really switch directions? Yeah, I think I'm pretty coachable. So if you guys are telling me to do something, I will like do it to a T. Okay. Okay. I tell you what, I think you would love MAPS Anabolic. I think doing the three day a week version, you could do the trigger sessions on the off days, keep them low intensity. And I think you're going to be blown away. I think you're going to be absolutely blown away by the second and third week on the changes to strength and performance and how you feel. So that would be where I would send you.

1:23:05Adam Schafer:Okay. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. Let's go with that. Now here's what we're going to do, Michaela. I'm going to have you back on in a few months so we can ask you how it went. Okay. You actually rest during the rest period. Yeah. That's an important piece.

1:23:18Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, make sure you do that. That's actually a great point. You know, I know that CrossFit keeps you moving through the workout. That might be new for you to rest.

1:23:26Adam Schafer:This is very traditional straight sets. Contemplate.

1:23:29Sal Di Stefano:And so, again, I'm always thinking about who I'm training, right, specifically and the advice I'm giving. With someone like you, I am going to force you to rest for three minutes between sets because I know how difficult that may be, but how important it is for you from what you're coming from, where someone else, sure, maybe I'll let them get going in 90 seconds, where you, I'm going to be like, we need to rest. I want a full two, three-minute rest before you go to the next one. Building, which is different. Yes. And so really discipline yourself to do that, even though it's very different than the typical CrossFit workout.

1:24:04Sal Di Stefano:Trust the process.

1:24:05Adam Schafer:Yeah, and we'll have you back on.

1:24:07Sal Di Stefano:I'd love to also put you in the private forum if I can so we can just keep an eye on you, if you have any questions along the way that you have us to reach out to. Yeah, that would be awesome. Since it's only three days a week, is it okay if I do just like gentle yoga? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

1:24:25Adam Schafer:Oh, perfect. Well, there's trigger sessions too. There are trigger sessions, but I love gentle yoga. But yeah, yoga would be a good thing.

1:24:29Sal Di Stefano:Yoga and walking and mobility stuff. Great. Go for it. As much as you want. Like literally if you find yourself feeling a little restless because it is so extreme of a difference as far as the rest periods and less volume, all of the above. But you want to do something, go walk or go stretch or go do yoga. I love that. That's a great way to transition you out of those long, intense workouts.

1:24:53Adam Schafer:So you're talking about like a mild vinyasa flow or a yin? Yeah. Yeah, perfect. Go for it. Those are great. Okay, awesome. Yeah, all right. We'll see you in a few months. Thank you so much. Thanks, Michaela. Bye. Well, good. but as soon as she said, I'll do it, I'm like, let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to blow her mind, too.

1:25:11Sal Di Stefano:I'm excited for her because, you know, even though she had a good attitude about it, but, you know, you've been training five, six days a week for five-plus years. It's going to be a culture shock. To not see physical change that you wanted is a bit frustrating. Of course. You should not be having to train that much and not seeing the body that you feel like you're working on.

1:25:30Adam Schafer:Well, what kept her there was the community, but then after five years. They do that really well there, for sure. Yeah, you're like, okay, that's enough.

1:25:35Sal Di Stefano:Do you know that her comment on work and feeling, that was the, so when we obviously CrossFit originated over here in Santa Cruz area. And so the Bay Area, San Jose, Santa Cruz, a lot of us trainers were introduced to it long before. In the beginning stage, yeah. Yeah, early on. And so we were playing around with it. I remember when it was just getting popular before it was like nationwide and stuff. and uh i remember doing the workouts and i would just have to lay on the floor in my office for like a half hour afterwards and i was just done like the rest of my work day i was just done i was like one time i felt like tunnel vision yeah i was like this isn't good and i and i was like i didn't want to i didn't want to get up from my dad and i know part of my job at that time is to get out and mingle with my members and be i had no energy to do that i was just like i just sat at my desk with my heads my felt my heart beat in my head for like half hour and just so exhausted like this is not a way to live like this is not smart like there's no way i'm going to continue to do this and so that we mean going to war at every workout but i'm excited i'm excited to see what she uh what she does one more we save our next caller is sarah from washington hi how you doing sarah hello hello hi hi i'm i'm really fangirling right now like so big smile awesome How can we help you already?

1:26:54Big fan. So just quickly before I get into my email, I want to do the same thing that everybody does on these calls. You all have had a huge impact on my life. And just to say it lightly, Sal, I have appreciated your walk with Jesus. You kind of influenced me to go back to reading the Bible. So I'm on a 365 day Bible reading journey. So I hope I make it. So thank you for that. So I'm going to just get into my email and just full disclosure, I changed it a little bit because I felt like I didn't include some important things before I got to my questions. So I felt that that was important for you all to know.

1:27:41So I'm a 47 year old former CrossFitter. I'm sorry, who has been rebuilding after years of burnout, hormonal dysfunction, and overtraining. A little over a year ago, my lifestyle looked very different. I was lifting about four to five days a week, running about three to four days a week at about three to four miles each time. I was under eating, so about 1 ,500-ish calories, over-consuming sugar, and chronically stressed. About two years ago, I ran a half marathon. I was also lifting four to five days a week, and my weight had dropped to about 146 pounds, but my sleep was awful. I was extremely stressed, didn't feel good.

1:28:30By March of 2024, after running my half marathon, I was still frequently lifting the three to four days a week, but my weight had climbed up to nearly 160 pounds. And I was still just very depleted, low energy, poor sleep, very burnt out. Due to all of that, I found a holistic perimenopausal and hormone replacement specialist in my area. And after a deep dive into my labs and my symptoms, she put me on a whole food, high protein, high fiber diet and had me work out three days a week and completely stop running. I was extremely skeptical, but followed her path because I thought, what else do I have to lose at this point in my life?

1:29:20I also began walking daily at about 10 ,000 to 14 ,000 steps a day. In August of last year is when she introduced me to all of you. And ironically, the first episode I listened to was your CrossFit episode and was in tears laughing because I related very heavily to those crazy people in the box. And then between your podcast and her guidance, my approach to fitness has completely shifted to a 180. Since then, I've run your muscle mommy program, the 40 plus program, and I've attempted maps on anabolic. But back in November, when I started anabolic, and of course, I don't know how to underdo things.

1:30:10I did the three day a week program. The volume was too much and left me feeling depleted, worn down and I was starting to get reoccurring injuries. I have repeated MAPS 40 plus as it has helped regain consistency and strength, but I'm still battling just stubborn belly fat and poor muscle gain, mainly in my lower leg and glute region and struggle with flat energy. When I first started back in March of 2024, I weighed close to 160 pounds. My waist was 32 inches wide and my hips were 39 inches. At that time when I started, I was about 1500 calories. She has since worked me up and I'm currently eating about 23 to 2400 calories.

1:31:08um i'm not chasing weight loss but full disclosure i'm a 90s girl so the kate moss is always in my head and i'm fighting that uh perception a lot um and so i'm really trying to stay away from the scale as much as possible um i've been tracking tracking my monthly body comp um with ultrasounds and I'm consistently landing between 30 to 31 % of body fat. Currently, my waist size measures 29 inches and my hips are 38 inches and I'm 5 '6 tall. I'm frustrated. I don't want to be shredded. I also don't want to be skinny, skinny, but I'd be happy to be around 27, ideally 25 % body fat with more lean muscle that's evenly distributed.

1:32:02Just my labs for some context, I struggle with cortisol. I have led a very stressful life in my younger years. And so I think I'm paying the price. It's low throughout the day. I've done Stephen Kudbrall's saliva test and the Dutch test, and they've all confirmed very low cortisol. It varies kind of with my cycle, but I tend to fall asleep easily and wake up right around that 2 a.m. time frame. And then I'm crashing midday. My free testosterone is low. Estradiol has dropped and T3 is borderline. I eat, like I said, 150 grams of protein a day. So I follow all of your guidelines on what to do. My supplements, I am doing all the cortisol supplementation, magnesium, vitamin D3, all of the things, ashwagandha.

1:33:02I've even previously tried NAD plus through MP hormones. Last winter when I did try reverse dieting, I felt like the pills blurry dough boy. Like if somebody touched me, I would giggle and laugh. I was in just physical pain from it. everything I've heard and read keeps me pointing to the core issue of my cortisol. Even like I want to even try this, some morelin really bad, but everything tells me that if my cortisol is not good, I can't try some morelin. So I just, I'm going to keep spinning my wheels, no matter how clean I eat and how smart I train. So right before my question, there has been an update since I submitted my email because I asked myself, let's just pretend I'm on this call.

1:33:54What are you guys going to tell me that I don't want to hear? And so I ended up purchasing the Maps 15 and Maps 15 performance bundle. I haven't started it yet because I'm fighting that I can do more. But I just want you to be aware that I did make the purchase. So it is sitting in my, in your app waiting to be started. My goal is to build visible lean muscle, especially in my legs. Like I said, my quads, my glutes, my abs. I'm not chasing a six pack. I never care to have a six pack. I just want the flub to go away. I want to feel strong and shift my body comp without wrecking my hormones. So my main question to you, given my low cortisol hormonal profile and goal of body comp, not weight loss, what MAPS program would you recommend next?

1:34:57And how should I adjust training frequency or volume to support recovery, cortisol balance, and lean muscle gain without overshooting it?

1:35:06Adam Schafer:Well, first I appreciate all the details you gave us because I think I know the right direction for you. I think Mass 15 is the right direction for you.

1:35:14Sal Di Stefano:I also want to point out how good you're actually really doing. You're doing really well. The fact that you have got all the way to here and figured this out, you've reversed dieted to 2 ,400 calories. From 1 ,500. You've accomplished a lot more than it probably feels like to you. So I understand how it might feel. But listening to you break that all down and the journey you've had to go through to figure all this out and where you're currently at, you're on the right track.

1:35:39Adam Schafer:You're doing it really well. Really well. You went from 15 to 2 ,400 calories, and you lost, I think you said, three inches on your waist with only a half an inch coming off your hips, which tells me you probably built some muscle while losing some of that belly fat while bumping your calories almost 1 ,000 calories. That's a huge win. You're moving in the right direction. Now, when you're dealing with cortisol, essentially you want to be gentle with your body. So MAPS 15 is the right program, and if you added anything else, it would be something like a massage once a week, or it would be gentle yoga or something that is more nurturing, not a workout.

1:36:14Adam Schafer:I like massage. I think massage is great. Therapeutic movement. Something therapeutic in that case. The only thing I would add, okay, is you're doing everything right. If you stay on this path, you follow Mass 15, you're going to continue to see yourself incrementally progress as your body heals. And as you continue to do things appropriate, So you're going to continue to progress. If you want to accelerate this, if you want to see your body start to act and move the way that maybe you remember it used to react and move, the only next step would be to do hormone replacement therapy, which is a viable option.

1:36:44Adam Schafer:Okay. It's a viable option. You're 47. I think you're already taking, it says there a little bit of progesterone. It would probably look like some thyroid in the morning, some testosterone, and you would continue on progesterone. progesterone. And what that would do is that would bring your hormone profile back to something like you maybe had in your twenties and you would just be much more responsive and reactive to everything that you're doing. You would still have to continue on the path though. So what you wouldn't do is go on hormone replacement therapy and then go on MAPS aesthetic.

1:37:16Sal Di Stefano:Resist that temptation because it will be tempting. You still got to do all the same stuff, but the difference is if you do all the

1:37:22Adam Schafer:same, if you do all the stuff I'm saying minus the hormone, you're going to improve. You add hormone replacement therapy to it, you're going to improve twice as fast. So that's, that's the question. The question is, do you want to go down that route? If so, you would go see a, a hormone replacement, uh, therapist specialist that deals with, uh, women in perimenopause menopause, not your general practitioner. And again, it's probably going to look like progesterone, which you're probably already taking. Are you taking a pill or are you doing the cream? The pill. Okay. How many milligrams at night are you taking?

1:38:00200. Okay. And I read, again, I do everything you tell me. So I'm on like Jolene Brighton's website. Yeah. Oh, nice. And so I'm taking it the second half of my cycle or the first half. I don't take it to keep my estrogen normalized. Yeah. Smart.

1:38:15Adam Schafer:Yeah. So some women do that. But when you go on full replacement therapy, what they'll typically do is have you stay on all the time. But okay. So you're already on progesterone. What they'll probably add is testosterone. and some thyroid. And then testosterone and thyroid, think of those as the aesthetic hormones. Progesterone helps with anxiety, sleep, helps with those types of symptoms. Testosterone and thyroid is like build muscle, burn, body fat, and energy. You notice energy with those. So that would be the only other thing I would say that you could try. But otherwise, you're moving in the right direction.

1:38:49Adam Schafer:And you're going to progress even if you don't do hormone replacement. It'll just take a little longer and you're going to have to be a little bit more patient. But again, I'm going to, I'm going to emphasize this. If you decide to go the hormone replacement therapy route, you're going to get this signal. That's going to say, wow, I could do so much more. Don't continue doing what you're doing. And that's going to be, that's the direction regardless of whether or not you go on exogenous hormones. Okay. Do you have time for one more question? I do. Awesome. So, um, knowing, so I'm very competitive and I suffer from that.

1:39:22It's a, it's a bad quality to the point where why I over train. And, um, I'm very impatient because I want to train for a week and see my quads just pop. Um, so, and I recognize this, but one of the, um, issues that I struggle with. So I, I have a bulging disc. Um, I've had it, um, I officially was diagnosed with that about two years ago, but suffered from the pain for about four years. and I love to back squat. It's one of my favorite things to do. However, when I do back squat, I periodically, you know, I deal with two issues. I deal with just overall low back pain afterwards where it gets really tight.

1:40:11And sometimes it from back loading, I flare up my bulging disc. So I feel like I listen to all of you of what you do. I tighten my core. I do a lot of pelvic tilt warmups before I even get into my squat. But I suspect my ankles may be playing a huge role in my mobility. And I just love your input on how to prevent this from the stiffness and potentially even my bulging disc from reoccurring to ensure that I can back squat in my seventies.

1:40:49Adam Schafer:Yeah. We'll send you prime pro and you can do the ankle mobility movements and some of the hip mobility movements. In the meantime, you can switch your back squat, back loaded squat to Bulgarians. Yes. To, to unilateral split stance exercises. Bulgarians. So how I do, I tried those, but what I struggle with is the back foot placement. Yeah. I can't seem to get it.

1:41:10Sal Di Stefano:I have a video that I did on our YouTube channel. Maybe Doug can look at it while we're talking, where I talk about how to set that up. Because it is one of the challenging things. And then what people do, they end up feeling it in their hip flexor in the back trail leg, and they don't feel it in their lead leg.

1:41:25Adam Schafer:Or the ankle is all bent. Yeah.

1:41:27Sal Di Stefano:I did a video of breaking that down.

1:41:29Adam Schafer:You can also set up a bar on a rack and then put... If there's any kind of pad. Yeah, like the squat pads that we tell people not to use. Here's what it's good for. You put it on the bar, and then you can hook your foot over it while doing Bulgarians.

1:41:41Sal Di Stefano:We could also do lunges and reverse lunges too. So it's like, if that still is like frustrating and you just can't get it down where it's like, it doesn't feel right and comfortable. Then I would just as your trainer, I'd be like, listen, let's just do some reverse lunges or do some regular lunges. And you're going to get what you need from that. And a lot of times you can just add more stability by holding onto the squat rack. If you need to get in there, just because like that way you can direct, you know, that type of force more appropriately. So that way too, it kind of eliminates a lot of the discomfort with it.

1:42:08so when i'm doing the bulgarian squat i can actually hold on to the squat rack yeah yeah

1:42:13Sal Di Stefano:yeah yeah you could even have like what you carry you hold hold a dumbbell in one side to load it and then the other side is holding on to the rack just to help stabilize a little bit yeah so you could absolutely do that so but i'll have doug send over that video so you can watch how i kind of set up for it and see if that helps if not and then like like we said worst case scenario switch to lunges or reverse lunges and you're going to get just as good of work by doing that but i would definitely pull you until we got to the bottom of what's where the breakdown is mobility wise and there is a good chance it's in the ankles since that's the most common area and it's like maybe and maybe it could be too is just shortening your squat range up i know we talk a lot about the importance of really deep squatting but what might be happening is there might be a slight breakdown as you get below 90 and then that's what's and then because of the lack of ankle mobility than it's sending the stress to the low back where just by shortening your range of motion up because we could do a lot of other things to keep that range of motion there but when we back squat maybe i you know do it down to a bed and on those calm and a way you know that is if you do like uh bench squats and you feel that it doesn't bother you that's probably what it is like if you just sit down on a bench get up with load and it doesn't bother the low back at all it could be it's most likely the ankles as you get lower than 90 degrees that's causing that so So there's a few things we could do.

1:43:31Perfect. Well, thank you.

1:43:32Sal Di Stefano:You got it, Sarah. Thanks for calling in. All right. Thank you. Bye-bye. I'd love to have Corinne reach out to her. I just would like to.

1:43:44Adam Schafer:It'd be interesting. You know what's interesting about, and I hope as people are listening, they pick up on this, right? Because this is a common theme, and we all fall for it, right? It's like I bumped my calories 1 ,000. I lost three inches off my waist. I'm stronger. Why am I not progressing? Yeah, yeah, right. You know, and it's like, you are. You are progressing. You're actually doing incredibly well. The other side of this too is, especially for women in that age group, no matter what you do, you are going to have a fundamental hormone shift. As healthy as you are, there's a healthy hormone shift called menopause.

1:44:23Adam Schafer:That will make everything different. That does change everything. Now, with modern medicine, so long as you're healthy, there are ways to, I mean, you could go on hormone replacement there, maintain a hormone profile like we had when you're younger. And that's an option these days. Of course, it costs money and time, and it is using modern medicine, but it is an option. Look, if you like the podcast, come find us on Instagram. You can find us at MindPumpMedia. Check us out. Thank you for listening to MindPump. 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.

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