2668: Two-Day a Week 30-Min At-Home Dumbbell Workout Program for Muscle & Fat Loss & More (Listener Coaching)

22 Aug 2025 · 1 h 17 min · 32 chapters

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In short

Listener coaching on the “minimum effective dose” for strength training and fat loss/muscle gain, arguing that most people only need two structured dumbbell sessions per week (30 minutes each) plus daily movement.

Guests

No specific guest interviewees. The hosts are Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. “Jake Rez, also known as Nurse Jake” appears only in sponsor reads (not as a workout guest). A “CEO of Paleo Valley” is referenced from a prior show, not interviewed here.

Key claims

  • About 80% of strength-training benefits come from ~2 days/week, 30–45 minutes (most people can be consistent with this).
  • Strength training should be basic (high-return movements), done at ~80–90% intensity (stop 2–3 reps before failure), with rep ranges mainly 8–20 for best results/safety.
  • Rest 2–3 minutes between sets.
  • Daily activity matters; steps are a proxy, with ~7,000 steps/day delivering most benefits.

Notable examples

  • Two dumbbell workouts: Workout 1 (lunges, incline press, row, reverse crunches); Workout 2 (RDLs, overhead press, curls, triceps extension).
  • Exercise and strength training are discussed as reducing cancer risk; one cited study: a single 30-minute session reduced prostate cancer cell growth ~30% in vitro.
  • Discussion of gym pricing “middle tier” disappearing (cheap vs luxury).

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

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Listener Questions Overview

1:41 to 2:02

Discussion about answering listener questions and topics of the episode.

“In today's episode, we answered listeners' questions.”

Two-Day Workout Introduction

3:19 to 4:25

Introduction to the two-day a week, 30-minute workout program.

“How much strength training do you need to see muscle growth and changes in your body?”

Benefits of Training Less

4:25 to 6:40

Discussion on how minimal training can provide significant benefits.

“To reap the benefits that exercise can provide.”

Understanding Strength Training

6:40 to 8:00

Insight into what constitutes effective strength training and workout intensity.

“What we're not saying is you do two days a week, 30 minutes of strength training, and then you do no activity for the rest of the week.”

Rep Ranges and Safety

8:00 to 9:14

Explanation of the importance of rep ranges and safety during workouts.

“Even if I convince somebody who doesn't understand what I'm talking about and I say, oh, you know, two days a week, 30 minutes, then they immediately think, oh, that's because you beat the crap out of yourself.”

Rest Periods and Their Importance

9:14 to 11:40

Discussion on the significance of rest periods in strength training.

“Which doesn't include failure, by the way.”

Focus on Strength Over Appearance

11:40 to 14:00

Encouragement to prioritize strength gains rather than physical appearance.

“So even if you feel like you could keep going, don't you rest in between.”

The Importance of Daily Movement

14:00 to 15:25

Learn why focusing on daily activity is crucial for health and fitness.

“And now finally, let's talk about activity before we get to the workout.”

At-Home Dumbbell Workout Program

15:25 to 17:28

Discover a simple yet effective two-day workout routine using dumbbells.

“These are 30-minute workouts that require dumbbells and maybe a bench for some of the exercises.”

Exercise and Cancer Prevention

17:28 to 19:19

Understand the impact of exercise, especially strength training, on cancer risk.

“I got a cool study here on exercising cancer.”
Show all 32 chapters

Research on Bee Venom and Cancer

19:19 to 21:43

Explore emerging research on bee venom's potential in treating breast cancer.

“We think of lung cancer or other cancers.”

Debate on Animal Protein vs. Veganism

21:43 to 23:44

Engage in the discussion about the nutritional value of animal protein compared to vegan diets.

“Which, by the way, it's such a silly argument.”

The Future of Lab-Grown Meat

23:44 to 28:00

Examine the implications and challenges of lab-grown meat in modern diets.

“But then what they do is they have to go and try to make points that are not true.”

Debating Lab-Grown Meat Ethics

28:00 to 29:38

Explore the ethical implications of lab-grown meat and its production methods.

“So you're still eating meat, but now it's just more sciencey.”

UFO Sightings and Emerging Technologies

29:38 to 30:55

Discussion on UFO sightings and advancements in technology including gene editing.

“I know where they've injected them with things and stuff.”

The Rapid Growth of Information

30:55 to 32:31

Understand the exponential growth of information and its implications due to AI.

“Yeah, he makes it with Joe, our old friend there.”

Adapting to AI Disruption

32:31 to 33:38

Learn why understanding AI is crucial for job security in various industries.

“So you just, I mean, you can explain it, but now it'll also show you visuals.”

The Changing Landscape of Gym Memberships

33:38 to 35:54

Examine the polarization of gym membership prices and its market impact.

“well, you know, electricians and plumbers.”

Training Insights from a Pro Bodybuilder

35:54 to 39:59

Gain insights into effective bodybuilding techniques and training methods.

“Is it average or meaning because it's lower and higher?”

The Mental and Physical Challenges of Bodybuilding

39:59 to 42:00

Discuss the mental toughness and physical challenges faced by bodybuilders.

“Can you recall the order of exercise you guys did?”

Bodybuilding Preps and Personal Experiences

42:00 to 43:35

Learn about the speaker's approach to bodybuilding preps and personal insights.

“Because I'm telling, I mean, and this is not me comparing myself to Johnny or any of those guys because they continue to do it much longer than me.”

Training and Sales Conversations

43:35 to 44:32

Explore humorous anecdotes about training and sales conversations with colleagues.

“And then Adam would make me watch Boiler Room, so he told me.”

Nicotine and Cognitive Health

46:04 to 47:48

Discuss the cognitive benefits of nicotine and its effects on mental health.

“Doug, I want you to look something up for me.”

Vaping and Its Risks

47:48 to 48:44

Unpack the risks associated with vaping and personal experiences with its addiction.

“Maybe, but I know that this is actually, have been researched as a, there you go, see?”

Home Improvements and Water Quality

48:44 to 53:26

Hear about home improvements, specifically related to water quality and skin health.

“the mint, uh, nicotine things that like the, the, the lozenges or whatever, totally not a big deal.”

Health Benefits of Donating Blood

53:26 to 54:54

Learn about the health benefits associated with donating blood, especially for men.

“do you guys know what your blood types are?”

Personal Experiences with Blood Donation

54:54 to 56:03

Listen to personal stories about the experience of donating blood and its effects.

Blood Pressure and Dog Antics

56:03 to 1:02:12

Enjoy a light-hearted discussion about blood pressure, a dog being sprayed by a skunk, and humorous remedies.

“Just walk in the house and then just, that's it, you know?”

Skunks and Wasps: A Surprising Connection

1:02:12 to 1:03:10

Explore the ecosystem dynamics of skunks and wasps, and how skunks help control wasp populations.

“You imagine being that animal, All of a sudden you wake up and you're like, ah!”

Optimizing Strength for Weight Class Athletes

1:03:18 to 1:10:00

Gain insights on how weight class athletes can optimize strength and body composition without sacrificing performance.

“Tips on how to optimize strength, lean body mass for weight class athletes who don't have the ability to do a traditional bulk and have to be conscious of scale weight.”

Finding Balance in a Healthy Lifestyle

1:10:00 to 1:12:28

Learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle while still enjoying indulgences.

“lean out really good so it's like i like to to uh inform the client on what whether they are these people or not and then it's not there's an advantage to both is what i'm trying to get at And leaning into your strength.”

The Pump: Understanding Muscle Growth Signals

1:12:28 to 1:16:48

Discover the relationship between getting a pump and actual muscle growth.

“On either end of the spectrum, extreme fitness fanaticism or not doing any of it, you have bondage.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Justin Andrews:Hi, I'm Jake Rez, also known as Nurse Jake. As a travel nurse, I've worked in all kinds of places, different settings, cities, and climates.

0:07Adam Schafer:Every assignment brings on a new challenge, which is why I always bring my figs. These scrubs are built for whatever the job throws at you. They're breathable, flexible, and comfortable in any environment. No matter where I land, I know they're going to keep me looking and feeling my best. And don't sleep on the details. The pockets, the features, the finishing touches, everything has a purpose and it makes a real difference when you're moving nonstop. The fit is clean, tailored, and super polished, and they come in a huge range of colors. In other words, they feel great throughout a 12-hour shift, and they always look good.

0:38Adam Schafer:See every healthcare professional on Instagram.

0:41Justin Andrews:If you work in healthcare or know someone who does, check out Figs and get 15 % off your first order at wearfigs.com with code FIGSRX. That's wearfigs.com, code FIGSRX. Hey, Chicagoland. The Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza in Wilmette. Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette.

1:22Adam Schafer:Wayfair, every style, every home. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we answered listeners' questions. People went to Mind Pump Media on Instagram, wrote in some questions, and we picked four of them. By the way, if you want to write in a question, that's where you do it. But that was after the intro. Today's intro is 59 minutes long. In the intro, we talk about fitness and fat loss and muscle gain, how you can improve your health, current events, family life.

2:00Adam Schafer:It is a great time. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Paleo Valley. We talked today about their meat sticks, grass-fed, grass-finished, and fermented. What does that mean? That means the meat is juicy. It's not dry. It is not dry jerky. These are delicious meat sticks with good protein, good macro profiles. They stay fresh. Take them with you when you travel. Great snack. Go check them out. Go to paleovalley.com forward slash mind pump. You'll get a discount automatically applied at checkout. This episode is also brought to you by Jolie. They make shower heads that filter the chemicals out of your water.

2:33Adam Schafer:So when you wash your hair and your body, well, it's better for you. Go to jolieskinco.com. That's J-O-L-I-E-S-K-I-N-C-O.com forward slash mind pump. By the way, you could try it out yourself for free with free shipping. And if you don't like it, you return it for a full refund for within 60 days. It's pretty cool. By the way, on their website, you can get a report for your zip code to see what kind of chemicals are in your water. By the way, again, Jolie shower heads, remove those chemicals. We also have a sale this month. Maps 15 minutes is 50 % off. Half off. If you're interested, go to maps15minutes.com.

3:12Adam Schafer:Use the code muscle50 for the 50 % off discount. Here comes the show. How much strength training do you need to see muscle growth and changes in your body? How much is actually useful and going to work? Well, I'll tell you. Two days a week for 30 minutes. It's true. For most of you, two days a week, 30 minutes will give you great results. We're going to give you a two-day-a-week, 30-minute dumbbell at home workout program. We're going to give it to you right now. I don't believe you. That'll work for most of you. Let's get into it. um you know i this one feeds into the stigma that we have you know what i'm saying like we're like

3:50Sal Di Stefano:these the these you know old dads for only beginners who people are one thing yeah don't don't really work out it fits right into that stigma if you're like a hardcore just do an hour

4:03Adam Schafer:that's all we're asking well here's the deal here's the deal i am not interested and i know you guys too i'm not interested in reaching the addicted fitness fanatics i don't care about i I care about you guys. I'm one of you. They're not going to listen anyway. But you already got your thing. You're already doing your thing. You're probably doing too much, but that's fine. I do the same thing. I'm interested. We're interested in reaching people who have not yet been able to. Right. Be consistent. Make this a part of their life. To reap the benefits that exercise can provide. What really improves the quality of your life.

4:32Adam Schafer:And the message they keep hearing is the ones that come from the fitness fanatics. Yeah.

4:35Justin Andrews:100%.

4:36Adam Schafer:You got to beat the crap out of yourself. Work out all the time. Here's what the data shows. There's a certain amount that you can do that will reap about 80 % of the benefits. Anything more than that, you start squeezing out a little bit more. Okay, so 80 % of the benefits that you'll get from strength training comes from about two days a week, 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes as you get more advanced. And that's it. Now, yes, you can get to 85, 90%, but now you're talking about way more time in the gym. It's attainable. It's not that crazy.

5:03Sal Di Stefano:When the people you are describing who haven't made this a part of their lifestyle consistently, when you ask them, I would say that 100 % of them would be happy with 80 % of their ultimate goal. So it's like... Totally. Yeah. So I mean, it's a good point to make. It's a good conversation to have because one, because that is, we have this kind of stigma around us, which is funny. You know, we just had Scott Donnelly in here and on the way out, he was like, I could tell he was like wanting to know like what I did for lifting. He did one of those like sizing me up. And then you're like, you know, so what do you do?

5:32Sal Di Stefano:Double split retreat. Yeah, yeah. He asked just like that. Are you doing like the wads or the double split? He totally asked like that too. Like, well, you know, like a once, twice a week, you know, type of deal. And he's like, really? Like, you know, at the end, I would go hard. And I'm like, no, I said, you know, I want to be mobile with my son. I want to be strong enough and capable enough to do the things I need to do and feel good. I want to have a healthy enough metabolism that I can eat a flexible diet and enjoy foods that I like to eat. I said, yeah, so it doesn't, it really doesn't take as much as what everybody makes it out to be.

6:05Sal Di Stefano:And the further you go outside of those boundaries, like, so, yeah, if you eat like an asshole, it does require a lot more activity to burn all those calories. But if you eat balanced and feed your body properly, you don't have to train that much, that hard, that often to elicit a tremendous amount of results.

6:27Adam Schafer:Listen, most of my clients that I trained for years and years and years and years trained twice a week, strength training. That was it. That was their routine, two days a week. By the way, one of the challenges with this is people hear the message that you need to be active every day to be healthy. That is true. What we're not saying is you do two days a week, 30 minutes of strength training, and then you do no activity for the rest of the week.

6:47Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, sit on the couch all day.

6:48Adam Schafer:No, no, no. Activity every day is important. That's not what we're talking about. What I'm talking about here are structured workouts. What we're talking about is strength training. How much strength training do you need to do to get about 80 % of the results that strength training is going to provide? And it turns out very clear, again, the data supports, a lot of the data supports this and our experience supports this. For most people, it's a couple of days a week, 30 minutes. As long as you do progressive overload and you train yourself, you do the right exercises, do it the right way, you're going to get great results.

7:18Adam Schafer:Are you going to look like a bodybuilder? No, but you're going to feel fit. You're going to have more muscle. You're going to look more sculpted and your body will continue to progress following a routine like this. So number one is you don't need much. Number two is it needs to be basic. basic meaning focus on the movements that count the most, the ones that produced the most return for investment. Cause there's a million and one different strength training exercises and they all have value if they're applied properly, but they don't all have the same value. And for this person right here that we're talking to, this person is interested in health, fitness, faster metabolism, good hormone health, some strength, like some exercises are just better to invest your time in than others.

7:59Adam Schafer:So it does need to be basic. The next one is intensity. Once I say this, here's what happens. Even if I convince somebody who doesn't understand what I'm talking about and I say, oh, you know, two days a week, 30 minutes, then they immediately think, oh, that's because you beat the crap out of yourself. Hit. You must go so hard twice a week for 30 minutes that that's all you need. No, that's also not true. The intensity is about 80 to 90%. So you're going hard, but you're not at 100%. You're not killing yourself. In fact, for most people, that kind of intensity all the time will actually cause your body to regress.

8:33Adam Schafer:You'll start to overtrain and burn yourself out. 80 % to 90 % intensity most of the time is what you're after. And yes, there are other short stints or spurts or sprints where you are pushing it, but they're short. Most of the time, 90 % of your year is going to be sitting at around 80 % intensity. That's what gives you - And that's effort, really.

8:53Justin Andrews:Yes. I mean, more than anything, you don't have to assume that that's just like load, that we're just maximizing every single time. You can actually apply more effort into some of these exercises and also change up your acute variables. So you could change the tempo. You could hold it for a bit longer. But to keep within that 80%, 90 % range is ideal. That's right. Which doesn't include failure, by the way. Right. Failure is 100%. Right.

9:18Sal Di Stefano:So it's not even failure training.

9:20Adam Schafer:No, this is stopping about two, three reps before your form is going to break down. So it's hard, but you know I could do about two more reps. That's when you stop. Rep range, let's talk about that here. With this workout, all the rep ranges up to maybe 50, all the rep ranges from one to 50 have value. We're going to pick, though, the rep range that's going to provide the best bank for the buck and the best safety, and that's between eight to 20. So it really doesn't matter. I don't care if you go 15. I don't care if you go eight or 10, it is a good idea to try to work in different rep ranges.

9:56Adam Schafer:So for a few weeks, you could stick to around 10 reps, maybe a couple of weeks after that, stick to around 15 reps. But eight to 20 is a nice sweet spot when it comes to rep range with, when it comes to risk, building muscle strength and performance.

10:09Sal Di Stefano:I was just going to ask you, I'm assuming that the reason why you're not including like the three to five rep range, because we know how beneficial that is for building muscle is for the risk profile that's right yeah so safety yeah so because then you're definitely gonna get some science nerds they're gonna hear that be like how could you not include three to five reps which is some of the you guys so you were factoring in a risk profile and the reason why that it changes by the rep range is someone who chooses a weight they can do eight times it's a it's going to be significantly lighter or relative to their max lift that's right where if you're picking a lift that you're only going to get three to five reps, you're closer to your max and therefore has a greater risk profile.

10:50Sal Di Stefano:Typically, right? And this is a safe zone for any lifter to start at.

10:54Adam Schafer:For results and risk, right? Nice for both of them. Next up is you're going to rest in between sets for about two to three minutes. Two to three minutes because the rest periods are what makes strength training strength training. If I cut the rest periods too short or eliminate them completely, this is no longer strength training. So you might as well get rid of your dumbbells and just do jumping jacks in place. You're essentially getting the same value. And I'm oversimplifying, of course, but the rest periods in between are what allow you to train in the energy systems that produce strength and muscle.

11:30Adam Schafer:That's what we're looking for here. It's crucial. If we're going to do strength training, it's to build strength. If we're going to do endurance training, it's to build endurance. For what we're talking about, this is strength training. So even if you feel like you could keep going, don't you rest in between.

11:44Justin Andrews:So I like that you said two, three as well, because some people could just do one and still consider it strength training. However, like the more we lean towards the longer amount of minutes, because typically people, they don't, they don't follow this. This is something that they just ignore and, and just want to keep pursuing the rest of the workout to get it finished. And then miss all the benefits.

12:04Adam Schafer:In fact, I recommend people, especially if this is new to you, get a stopwatch and literally watch the stopwatch and then wait till at least two minutes before we start again. Because a lot of times people, especially in the beginning, they're like, I think I can go again. And they jump right in. And then we lose some of the benefits of strength training. The exercises that we're going to list, you want to do about two sets of each of the exercises. Now that's looking at the total volume for the week. Again, we're looking at minimum amount to get most of the benefit. So when we go through the exercises, you're doing two working sets.

12:36Adam Schafer:So this is beyond, this is after you're warmed up and you feel good, 80 to 90 % intensity, you want to do two sets of all the exercises that we are going to list here. And the focus is on getting stronger. If you're getting stronger relatively consistently, so if you're just getting started, you're going to notice yourselves get stronger week after week. If you're feeding yourself properly, you're doing what we say, you're doing it right, you should see yourself add reps or weight pretty consistently for a little while. This doesn't lasts forever. But over time, strength is the best measure of whether or not you're moving in the right direction.

13:13Adam Schafer:Now, of course, three, four, five years down the line, you're not going to get stronger forever. But initially, it's strength that correlates to building muscle. It's strength that correlates to improved performance, improved results. If you're getting stronger, when my clients were getting stronger, I know we're doing a lot of things right. We're doing at least most Everything's lining up.

13:33Sal Di Stefano:I also think that part of this recommendation is also intended to take the client's focus off the scale and the mirror. That's right. Which tends to be the most common things that people are watching. Most common things are, I'm not happy with the way I look, or I need to lose this amount of weight. And when you focus on those two things, a lot of times they're misread from somebody who doesn't know any better. And then they end up making a decision within their workout or their diet that is counter to what they should be doing.

14:02Adam Schafer:They compromise their results.

14:03Sal Di Stefano:Yes. And you, instead of being focused on the mirror and the scale, if you just focus on getting stronger and allow that to be your North star while following all the other tips, it will serve you far better than the mirror of the scale. That's right.

14:18Adam Schafer:And now finally, let's talk about activity before we get to the workout. Every single day you should move. Now I read a study before that talked about the amount of steps you should take every day to get most of the benefits of steps or most of the benefits of activity. By the way, there's nothing necessarily magical about steps. It's just an easy way to track activity, right? So you can be active a lot of different ways. You could ride a bike, which includes no steps, but we use steps because it's easy to measure. Most phones have a pedometer or you can buy a very inexpensive one. It's something you can track and you can see throughout the day.

14:52Adam Schafer:Well, I just saw another study that just came out that showed it was 7 ,000 steps. 7 ,000 steps a day, will give you the majority of the benefits you're going to get from activity. Beyond that, you start to get more benefit, but the benefits you get start to diminish dramatically with increased steps. In other words, all the benefits you get from 0 to 7 ,000 are phenomenal. From 7 ,000 to 10 ,000, you get a little bit more benefit. From 10 ,000 to 15 ,000, even less benefit. But 7 ,000 is where you get the bulk of the benefit from being active on a daily basis. All right, let's get into the workout.

15:27Adam Schafer:These are 30-minute workouts that require dumbbells and maybe a bench for some of the exercises. And that's it. So we'll start with workout.

Read the full transcript

15:35Justin Andrews:Very simple, I love it.

15:35Adam Schafer:Very simple. We'll start with workout one. You're going to start with dumbbell lunges. The goal is to do eight reps to 20 reps per leg. If you're doing lunges, it's probably easier to go for eight. 20 reps per leg is going to take you a long time. That's pretty brutal. So dumbbell lunges, two sets. Then we go to a dumbbell incline press. This is for the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Then you have a dumbbell row. And then you do reverse crunches. Two sets each, four exercises. This is workout one. Do this, skip a couple days. Then you get to workout two. The first exercise on workout two is dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, RDLs.

16:13Adam Schafer:This is for the glutes and the hamstrings, another lower body exercise. Then you're doing an overhead press. Then you're doing some curls and a tricep extension. And congratulations, you've worked your entire body. Yes. Cover all the bases. And if you follow just this routine for a year and you got stronger consistently over that year, you will see some really amazing changes. And you do the 7 ,000 steps a day, you'll see some great improvements.

16:39Sal Di Stefano:I'd like to add some more specific, easy to follow advice to this person that wants to follow this is for four weeks, do 10 reps on all these exercises. Then for four weeks, do it at 15. then for four weeks, go to the eight rep range and just keep cycling through that for the entire year. Totally. You do that. Keep it easy, simple. Cause the only thing that I can change is it just enough. Yep. Every, every, and the kid, you know, we tend to rotate things in our programs around three weeks for our reasons, but like four is easy just every month. This is the month I'm running 10 reps on everything I do.

17:12Sal Di Stefano:Oh, this is the month I'm doing 15 reps of everything. Oh, this is the month I'm doing eight reps of everything. These are the exercises I'm doing. you cycle through that for a year's time, that is going to progress most people significantly in their first year of training. And even if it's not your first year, if you've been out of training for a while, like let's say you've been off for six months, a year, years, but you've trained in the past, this routine will get you really, really far.

17:38Adam Schafer:That's right. All right. I got a cool study here on exercising cancer. Probably, besides not smoking, that's not really a thing you do. It's a thing you don't do. Besides not smoking, exercise is the most anti-cancer thing you can do. And by the way, if we take the category of exercise and look at the subgroups of what form of exercise has the greatest - Strength training. Yeah, cancer risk reduction and strength training. But all forms of exercise, pretty remarkable. There's a new study that came out.

18:11Sal Di Stefano:Is strength training more than not smoking, or is it still not smoking number one? It's more.

18:17Adam Schafer:You know what's funny about smoking? So smoking causes a lot of problems. Right.

18:21Justin Andrews:The cancer, I hate to say this. Does it filter more problematic cells out through cell autophagy? So I'll read this study to you.

18:27Adam Schafer:So exercise creates a less favorable environment for cancer growth by altering hormone levels, immune function, inflammatory markers, and metabolic factors. An Australian study in 2022 found that blood samples taken after a single 30-minute exercise session, so one 30-minute workout, reduced the growth of prostate cancer cells by about 30 % in vitro. So they use in vitro, it's not an animal, right? So it's not a human. But in vitro, when they take the blood sample of someone who's exercised for 30 minutes and they put it in there, it reduces the cancer cell growth by 30%. Now we see this translate into the real world.

19:05Adam Schafer:Exercise, strength training in particular, dramatically reduces cancer risk in a big, big way. It's one of the single biggest cancer reduction risk things you could do. Smoking causes a lot of health problems. So it's not just cancer. We think of lung cancer or other cancers. It also can cause heart disease. It causes stiffening of the arteries. It could contribute to lots of different things. the lung cancer risk increase was with um smoking and i hate to say this because it sounds like it's a defensive it's actually not that big of a of a of a jump in risk it's a jump for sure but it's not like this huge jump that people freak out over that doesn't mean you should smoke because smoking causes a lot of other health problems when you downstream things when you compile all of them together terrible okay not good for you but yeah how crazy is that one blood sample reduced uh cancer cell growth by 30%.

19:56Adam Schafer:Yeah. Because of what gets put in the blood from exercise, from what the muscles release and the body releases.

20:03Justin Andrews:Now, unrelated somewhat, but did you hear about the bee venom in breast cancer research? So it was like a substantial reduction. Like they're starting to use it as a treatment, valid treatment. I don't know what the percentage is. It was a very high success rate that they're using with bee venom. That's wild. Yeah.

20:21Adam Schafer:That is so wild. Doug, can you look that up? Bee venom in cancer?

20:25Justin Andrews:I've been meaning to bring that up. This is one of those old notes I had a long time ago and just kind of like fell off.

20:30Adam Schafer:Well, you know that we've gotten like snake venom. We've learned how to get anticoagulant medicines from blood pressure. Yeah, or something like that.

20:38Justin Andrews:From snake venom. So it's pretty cool that. Yeah, natural sources. I'm always interested in that, if it makes a substantial impact or not. What does that say there, Doug? Yeah, so there are certain components of bee venom, particularly melatonin is called that may have anti-cancer properties uh so induce cancer cell death and inhibit growth they can target specific cancer cells and a variety of other things yeah

21:06Sal Di Stefano:now is anybody bottling this up and selling it in pill form or is this like they're just that level

21:12Justin Andrews:yeah only been worked on animals mainly at this point that's interesting yeah it's you know it's

21:19Adam Schafer:so interesting to me how different people react to bee stings forget the allergic part but i don't know do you guys get a big reaction from a steve being no katrina does but i don't me neither i get nothing i get like a tiny little whatever i have a cousin whose hand gets all swollen if he

21:33Justin Andrews:goes since scientists tested honeybee venom on different types of breast cancer cells in laboratory dishes the secret weapon is melaton a molecule that punches holes in cancer cell walls causing them to die rapidly while leaving healthy cells mostly unharmed researchers found that melatonin works like target missile anyway this this says that it was like destroyed 100 of aggressive breast cancer cells in under 60 minutes whoa which was crazy what would they do like inject it directly into a tumor yeah injected it that would be interesting is this all relatively new too is this like just now emerging i just saw it yeah i saw it like a month or two ago oh

22:10Adam Schafer:interesting yeah i um it's so funny yesterday um and without talking about who the person is um because I don't want to give them lots of fame or whatever, got called out by some person on social media about a comment we made about protein, animal protein being superior.

22:27Justin Andrews:Oh, yeah.

22:28Adam Schafer:Which, by the way, it's such a silly argument. I literally told the guy, I said, we have been on air for 10 years. 100%, there are things you could come after us for that are way better than this, because this is pretty established. and the thing was that, you know, animal protein, gram per gram, it builds more muscle. It's got better amino acid profile, more bioavailable. This is pretty well established with protein experts. Anyway, he did this post trying to refute something we said. So I went on there and commented and, oh my God, I don't realize that his page, because it says Dr. So-and-so, his page is all about um it's all these like pro animal welfare welfare vegans yeah and that's the religious side of veganism dude you know it's also the side that we defend yeah it's i mean

23:19Sal Di Stefano:you're gonna be about it yeah i mean that's what we one of the when we talk about veganism and the the people that like we totally understand is the people that are doing it for those reasons like if it's not a healthier way to eat like that's established we know it's more difficult we know all of the science says we've said that since day one for a long time but at the same token understand that there's people that are like hey they believe it not and like i'm i'm not going to

23:45Adam Schafer:tell them that's a bad you know it's interesting to me this is how you know it's for some people it becomes like a false religion almost is like uh you can say i believe in the welfare of animals to the point where I don't want to eat them. Okay. You can say that. But then what they do is they have to go and try to make points that are not true. Like it's healthier. It's better. A vegan protein is better for you. That's what people were saying there. It's better for you than animal sources of protein. I'm like, you don't have to say all that. But that's how you could tell that it gets so twisted that not only do they say, I don't want to eat animals.

24:22Adam Schafer:They also say, oh no, but it's also better and everything. Like there isn't a single thing you could list.

24:25Justin Andrews:it reinforces their belief system instead of staying objective yeah yeah it's it's it was wild i know i got called an animal abuser in that i wish i would have seen that would have leaned into that i saw me the other day actually dude i almost commented like uh no i eat them but

24:43Adam Schafer:i don't use them i don't keep chickens burgers is abuse i'm gonna eat you later those are my

24:50Sal Di Stefano:my favorite instagram doctors i just that's what gets them to mad they don't they don't like that When you say Instagram doctor. Yeah, yeah. Oh, look. I just go, oh, look, another Instagram doctor.

24:59Justin Andrews:Are you done with your TikTok dance? They get so mad.

25:02Sal Di Stefano:You can tell they get so upset. Of course. They hang their hat on that so much.

25:05Adam Schafer:Oh, look, an Instagram doctor. Oh, my God. Yeah, I just saw a post on, who was it? A fitness influencer. I won't say who it is. Did a post and said how they can't wait for lab meat, lab-grown meat, to be commercially available because -

25:22Justin Andrews:Because it's proven itself to be so healthy, obviously.

25:24Adam Schafer:Well, it's like, I should read what he said, but essentially how it will be the greatest reduction in suffering in human history. Come on, read it then. Did it really say it like that? Okay. I'm eating lab-grown meat the second it's mass market ready. It's biologically identical to animal meat and would reduce suffering more than any technology in the history of our planet.

25:47Justin Andrews:Do they believe in keeping wildlife wild? I don't know. Because that's interesting because they suffer amongst each other.

25:55Adam Schafer:Yeah. You know what this challenge is? The challenge of this is that, yeah, I know they say it's biologically identical, but I don't buy that it's going to be the same. And you can't sell that to me. You can't sell to me that you're going to grow tissue in a lab, I'm going to eat it, and it's going to be the same in every way. It's just there's something about it that's wrong. And I think if you just like worship science, then I guess you can make that argument. But it just, I think most people know in their core, like that's not right. To grow steaks in a lab. And by the way, you wonder why they're promoting this so much.

26:33Adam Schafer:Well, we need living things to consume. And you can mass market, but you could also patent it. If you lab grow meat, you have now patented steaks that you could sell that you could now competitors can't copy versus cows or chickens or whatever.

26:50Justin Andrews:I still think that they're going to turn into zombies. What? People that eat this lab-grown meat only. What are you consuming? Yeah, there's no life in there. Yeah, it's weird.

27:01Sal Di Stefano:Our Frankenstein. How close are we to this becoming like a mass-marketed thing? Are we close?

27:08Adam Schafer:I think it's so expensive that we're not there yet. I mean, have you seen what they look like? They print the meat and marbling and everything. So what you would get is what it is. let's say they produce a hundred ribeyes it would all look identical like every single one would have identical it looks like the marbling the plastic food that you you kids could get and

27:27Sal Di Stefano:like their toys you know what i'm saying like those like those things so interesting to i you know do we have we had people like tasting it and trying it like how closely does it taste

27:37Adam Schafer:to the real thing we should look it up i mean isn't isn't like i know this is impossible impossible

27:42Sal Di Stefano:burgers not the same thing as lab grown meat but i mean are aren't are we not thinking it's the the same thing's going to happen with that. I mean, I think that people are, I think there's something in us that will go, this isn't right. Whether it's the taste that will do that with, it's the visual of it that will do that, but something about it.

27:58Justin Andrews:I get the stem cell from an actual meat, right? Yeah. Yeah. So you're still eating meat, but now it's just more sciencey. Yeah. What does that sound? It's way more expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Anywhere from 17 to$23 a pound. it's not like it'll never work like that. People are going to pay more. Well, they're going to find ways to get the cost down.

28:21Adam Schafer:One of the ways that I've seen them theorize getting the cost down, by the way, because printing the meat cell by cell is why it's so expensive. I've seen them say that they would engineer animals that were grown without brains so they don't feel pain. So you'd have like, yeah, dude.

28:39Justin Andrews:It's like weird, man. You're trying to tell me that's not cruel. To bring something like that.

28:43Adam Schafer:into the world pigs or cows that are you know well yeah and i get it because their thought

28:48Justin Andrews:process is that they could like extract um some of the cells from an existing animal put it in meat regrow it and duplicate it but yeah it's just i mean the further away we get from the natural process of things like the the more of these like unforeseen problems are going to

29:05Sal Di Stefano:that's it it's just the unforeseen we should probably test it on prisoners for a while first Wow Why Why prison Just cause Justin's theory Is correct You know what I'm saying So at least they're locked in cages When they turn into zombies

29:17Adam Schafer:Wow bro That's messed up That's old school dude That's messed up Dr. Fauci Yeah

29:26Sal Di Stefano:Just in case Justin's right It's not a bad strategy To like Let's test this out here We'll run it in prisons For like a decade And then we'll launch it That's not nice He's joking everybody

29:35Adam Schafer:Yeah They've done experiments On prisoners in the past I know where they've injected them with things and stuff. Oh, man. That's super not cool. Did you guys see, I know you did, Justin, the sphere, the metal sphere?

29:47Justin Andrews:I heard you guys talking about that off air. What was that? Dude.

29:49Adam Schafer:What?

29:50Justin Andrews:He's all whispering.

29:52Adam Schafer:It was clear. It was like. Pull it up, Doug. Pull up the sphere over the. It's like Mexico or volcano.

29:58Justin Andrews:It's a metal orb. It was like inside a volcano in Mexico. Yeah. Why over a volcano too? Just to make it even more. Again, this is. there's a lot of this sight of UFOs around like these big mountain peaks.

30:12Adam Schafer:Yeah, look at those volcanoes. Is that real footage? Yeah.

30:14Justin Andrews:Get out of here. It's like a perfectly round metal sphere. Get out of here. This could just be some technology that they're working on. I mean, most of this stuff too, and somebody was breaking this down. Wow, that's a lot of footage. That now can submerge in water really fast. But this is like an emerging technology. they think that the government's been working on.

30:36Sal Di Stefano:I mean, we're definitely due for some, like, Blackbird-type shit that we had. I mean, that was, like, 1960. That was a long time ago. That was, like, where are we at now? Yeah, exactly. That was a long time ago. We're growing meat in a lab, bro. We should be doing some crazy shit on the airplane side. Come on. They wouldn't share it with everybody either.

30:52Justin Andrews:Gene editing silently is getting crazy. I don't know if you guys looked into that. What is it? Gene editing.

30:57Adam Schafer:Oh, no.

30:58Justin Andrews:Oh, yeah. It's advancing like crazy.

31:00Adam Schafer:I saw it. So not secret. it but have you guys seen how fast like some of these commercial drones are have you seen how fast they take off oh yeah they're crazy oh it doesn't look real yeah you can go on youtube where people buy oh yeah they take off so fast yeah it is scary just wearing the vr and it's just you know i mean

31:18Sal Di Stefano:what through your own head movements what did scott donnelly say today when we were talking to him about the donnell oh it's not donnelly it's donnell oh it's donnell sorry scott shout out Scott there. Get his name wrong. Scott Donnelly. I think he makes supplements. Wasn't that like a supplement? That's Joe. I know. Yeah, he makes it with Joe, our old friend there. No, what did he say? It's down to now. He was breaking down what the printing press did, then what the internet did, and then now what AI is doing as far as advancing.

31:42Justin Andrews:It's like 13 hours now. Yeah.

31:44Adam Schafer:All the information ever -

31:46Sal Di Stefano:Doubles. Yeah.

31:47Adam Schafer:Yeah, that we put out on the internet doubles every 13 hours.

31:50Sal Di Stefano:And so back in the printing press, it doubled every 25 years.

31:53Adam Schafer:Yeah, it was 100 years before that, which was because of the speed of how fast people could make.

31:57Sal Di Stefano:So every 100 years before printing press, it would take to double the information. Then it was 25. Then it went printing press, and that cut it all the way down to 25 years to double the information. Then the internet came around and took it to - I think it was a day. One day. One day. Was it one day? Yep. Yeah. And then now AI is now taking it down to - AI took it down to - 16 or 13 hours? 13 hours. And that's exponentially speeding up right now. Yeah. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah.

32:22Justin Andrews:That's crazy. Well, ChatGBT, where are we at now? Five, I think. Have you guys used it? Yeah.

32:27Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I use it all time. Is it crazy? ChatGBT? Does it talk to you?

32:30Justin Andrews:Well, now it'll do infographics for anything you want. So you just, I mean, you can explain it, but now it'll also show you visuals.

32:37Sal Di Stefano:It is very obvious to me that if you're listening to this right now and you're not at least trying to learn how to utilize ChatGBT, you are going to get left behind. because there's a learning curve of just understanding how to prompt it correctly. I mean, I barely kind of, I feel like I have a very surface.

32:58Adam Schafer:I use AI like advanced Google.

33:00Sal Di Stefano:That's what they say every boomer does. I have a total boomer. There's all kinds of jokes circling around about, you know, boomers use AI as they just Google search with it, which is, hey, I mean, at least you're getting introduced to it. But there is such a more advanced way to, I told you guys what my sister was doing, right? I don't know if, did I talk about that? Yeah, I mean, the ways that some of the younger generation is using it is pretty fascinating. And how well you prompt it will determine how well you use it. And so if you're not practicing it right now, I think that you're going to get left behind.

33:33Sal Di Stefano:And I think every industry is going to get disrupted by it. I saw, I sent you. I mean, even like, so the old, like what we were saying just a few years ago was like, well, you know, electricians and plumbers. No, even them. Like if you're a plumber or electrician and you're not using it to troubleshoot things and get to it faster. I told you about my brother-in-law who like fixed his, like that's a mechanic right there. He literally, something that he would have done, taken it to a mechanic a year ago, he was able to use AI to actually work through that process and teach him in a very short period of time on his own car.

34:04Sal Di Stefano:Like, so it's like, if you don't think it's going to disrupt even physical labor,

34:07Adam Schafer:you're crazy. Well, what's crazy about this is that I sent you that clip yesterday, that gentleman, I don't remember who it was, he was an expert on it. And he said that, he thinks, he says in two years, 50 % of white collar entry-level jobs are gonna be gone two years 50 % gone and the challenge I've seen even more than that well the challenge with this is that we can't adapt fast enough typically with evolving technologies we can adapt markets with it well but this will change so

34:33Sal Di Stefano:quickly what's going to happen Sal and I don't disagree with that point is that we're going to have this I don't know what you're gonna call like a period of darkness or like a really rough patch to your point is that the will because typically when new technology comes out it develops and creates more new jobs that's right and it will still do that yeah but it's the fall off will be so fast that it's going to take those the 50 people that lose their white collar job something out yeah it's going to take them exponential like more time to figure it out faster than the new jobs are coming on and so we're going to go through this weird period where like those jobs Again, if you're using it right now, you're protecting your job.

35:14Sal Di Stefano:I really think that it's going to come down to imagine a business where you have 15 employees that are doing jobs that technically AI is going to be able to do. There's going to still need to be one person on that staff. They have to prompt it, use it, do it. Might as well be you. That's right. So if you're listening, you be that person. Go figure that out. Protect your job by doing that because you'll keep the person on the staff that has that ability to do that. Or they'll hire a hammer.

35:39Justin Andrews:You know, learn a trade because you're fucked.

35:42Adam Schafer:Speaking of industries, the gym industry is interesting. Did you see that article that Jackie sent over, the average cost of a gym membership? Oh, I didn't see what it said. So I read that and I read a little bit of the article. What's interesting to me about the gym industry. Is it average or meaning because it's lower and higher? That's right. That's what I was going to say. What's happened in the gym industry is you have really cheap or you have now expensive. The middle stuff is gone. Crushed. It used to exist. There used to be like nice mid-range gyms. Now it's like you're paying either$10 a month and then that's the kind of gym you get.

36:14Adam Schafer:Or you're paying$200. Or you're paying$150 or$200 a month type of gym. It's really interesting how that's happened.

36:19Sal Di Stefano:Well, because they're so closely related. Because even like your spa that's$150 to$200, when it comes to the main things that you need to get fit and healthy, the$9 one has it. You're really justifying paying that extra$100 for these little lush amenities. Oh, I get a massage there. Oh, it's got a cold plunge. Or it's not as crowded. Yeah, or less people. And so you are accepting I am paying a higher premium for not much more of the thing that it's giving me that is giving me the real results. So that's why it's washed out everything in the middle. Because then you're like, well, I'm going to spend 50.

36:53Sal Di Stefano:I may as well go all the way up to 100 and get the spa-like place. Or I may as well reduce it down to 10 and go do the whatever fitness 19 thing. So it's pushed everybody into those two directions, those categories.

37:05Adam Schafer:Speaking of gyms, I was at a UFC gym this morning. Shout out to my buddy, Don Cardona. He owns the one Oak Ridge Mall. And I went and did part of my series again. And I worked out with Johnny Sebastian. I love Johnny. Which was a good time. I've never worked out. I've worked out with lots of people. I've worked out for years and years and years. Never worked out with a pro bodybuilder. Johnny's a pro. Known him for years. It was a lot of fun. It's really cool training with someone who's at elite level when it comes to their training. and bodybuilders are so good at certain things when it comes to strength training.

37:40Adam Schafer:Like they're so good at understanding angles and isolating and how to feel a particular muscle. We did this one machine. It's just a lever pull down machine. So you've seen hammer strength and this is a Nautilus lever one. I use it all the time. He took handles that normally you would use on a cable machine, hooked it over the handle of the machine.

37:59Sal Di Stefano:Rotated to the side. Rotated a little bit.

38:00Adam Schafer:He gets a full stretch of it and I'm watching his technique. So he's not like some dude who just saw it on Instagram. Like he knows what he's doing and obviously he's well-developed. So he turns his body and he's getting like full stretch in the lat, full contraction. And he's, I mean, great technique and kudos to him. He's been bodybuilding for decades now, competing, never had a major injury and it's because his technique is so good. He's not one of those guys that goes after like just chasing crazy amounts of weight or whatever.

38:26Sal Di Stefano:Such a good point or topic to bring up after the fit tip that you had today and we were talking about how to get 80 % of the results. It's what he's, i i love it too i mean i i've worked out many times with johnny and oh yeah oh yeah there's a there's a crew of i gotta i'll in fact maybe for the editing team i'll send a great old school picture of me my and my uh belt and wife you know my tank top and ellen golds yeah yeah that's where we all we all used to train there and so i've got me you know there's like four or five of us pros that were all together lift that used to lift like that and we just rotate who's leading the workout and stuff like that but my point is that uh so good yet so bad like so good and fun for like you yeah with your knowledge and understanding to to witness it be a part of it have fun with it enjoy it but for the average person who's just looking for that 80 it's such a waste of their time to even think about what he's doing the handle over the thing turning sideways they don't waste your time yeah i mean but if you're a pro bodybuilder six weeks

39:22Adam Schafer:out from competition you're you're at your peak like he's got more muscle in his body than uh than you know and most people ever have like it makes sense yeah and to see him perform the movement it was it was a good time i did more volume than i typically will do in a workout and thank god the timing worked out to be a back workout because that's the one body part that i can hang with a lot of people yeah the whole workout was back it was back and biceps i mean i was like looking at his schedule because his daughter's going back to school so when his daughter goes back to school we would have to meet at 5 30 and like no way 6 30 is as early as i'll work out and thankfully it worked out to be a back day.

39:56Adam Schafer:Cause if it was leg day, you guys, I would have had to skip the podcast.

39:59Sal Di Stefano:Can you recall the order of exercise you guys did? What'd you start with? What'd you go with?

40:04Adam Schafer:We did the one arm pull down machine. And what he does is he does like five exercises. The first, uh, I want to say two, two sets, working sets, one heavy, one higher rep. So he's got the kind of the structure. Then we went to, uh, a lever row machine, kind of like the one Dorian Yates did the hammer strength one.

40:23Sal Di Stefano:Interesting. Not a barbell or a T-bar row or a big -

40:26Adam Schafer:Then we did chest-supported dumbbell rows. We did a straight-arm pulldown. I'm trying to think of what else we did.

40:33Sal Di Stefano:All isolation stuff.

40:34Adam Schafer:Yeah, just in really good technique, really good form. Yeah, of course. He's six weeks out, too. Dude, trip off this, right? This is the other thing bodybuilders are good at. I'm talking to him. He's pre-contest. I think he's six weeks out. And again, muscular guy, right? He's not huge, right? He's a smaller guy, but he's got a lot of muscle on his body. and I'm like so what are your calories at right now 1800 1800 calories right now he goes I don't

40:57Sal Di Stefano:know how many days in a row of zero carbs yeah before he carb loads forget that here's another

41:01Adam Schafer:thing bodybuilders do and I know athletes are all good at this okay so I'm gonna piss off some athletes but I don't know any athlete generally speaking that knows how to suffer like a bodybuilder they suffer they and they love the suffering like they are like depleted he wakes up at 4 a.m so he could do an hour of cardio before he comes walking right oh 1800 calories no carbs i'm like oh and this is just i i 12 so it's like 12 weeks of doing like three months of this just i mean i attribute

41:34Sal Di Stefano:that to the number one trait that makes 90 of them successful yeah i mean genetics is obviously in that in that factor too the next one is their ability to suffer suffer you gotta love it because i i remember training with a lot of them and they eat bland garb like just yeah dry he's like telling

41:50Adam Schafer:me his breakfast is like a half a cup of dry oatmeal he's like walking the throat like every day bro he's like no that's my carb days oh my god dude the suffering i mean you want to talk about

41:59Sal Di Stefano:getting the 80 percent then getting to 90 percent then get 99 and what you are talking about is

42:05Adam Schafer:Yeah, squeezing that one.

42:06Sal Di Stefano:Point something percent. Because I'm telling, I mean, and this is not me comparing myself to Johnny or any of those guys because they continue to do it much longer than me. He's been on the Olympia stage. I didn't make the Olympia stage. I never got that crazy, dude. And I got pretty far. Like, you could get really far, really impressive, still eating a lot of salt, still eating pretty good foods, still not training crazy like that. I definitely did get up. So within the last four weeks or so, I would get up. For me, it was like 6 a.m. And I would walk the first hour. But for me, that's early, right?

42:43Sal Di Stefano:So that's an additional hour early. And I definitely could keep my calories low. I definitely did low carb for like three days in a row. And then I would refeed. But I never had to do zero. I never did preps longer than, I never did 12, 16-week preps. Some of these preps they do. I did six to eight weeks. I always kept myself within 4 % to 5 % of stage ready. so I only had to prep for like six, eight weeks. I think eight weeks was the longest I ever did a prep for, like a true prep where I was dieting hard like that. And some of these guys, they suffer, in my opinion, way longer and harder than they need to.

43:16Sal Di Stefano:Now, granted, I do believe he's trying to squeeze out a percentage that I was just willing to give up. You know what I'm saying? I was like, I'm just trying to prove I can get up there, you know what I'm saying, and do my thing. Like, I openly am not trying to get on Olympia stage. It was like shredded glutes.

43:31Adam Schafer:Yeah. yeah right like that's a whole other level cheeks yeah what they're after that's nuts it's so wild yeah we had a good time though he's he's a great guy he's so funny too i love john he's a great person we were joking too because uh i was telling him because you know i have this men's group this christian group that meets together and he just recruits people left and right and i always i tease him i'm like bro if you were this good at sales when you work for me like you know and we were joking he's like oh yeah adam used to tell me that all the time i always tell him i asked him if they want to hire me.

43:59Adam Schafer:They said no, so I just walked away. And then Adam would make me watch Boiler Room, so he told me.

44:04Sal Di Stefano:I did, dude. I tried so much. Because I liked him so, I mean, I kept him on the staff because I liked him so much and sort of the team. Everybody likes him. He was such a good team guy and he was very knowledgeable and this and that, but he was so focused on his training. I'm like, bro, if you just cared about your business, a fraction of what you cared about your competing, you would be the top trainer, but he just never cared enough, you know what I'm saying? So, but great guy to be on the team.

44:27Adam Schafer:I'm going to take a left here. Something I did not know until we had the CEO of Paleo Valley on the show, and I got to say this. So one thing we've talked about, they have these grass-fed meat sticks that I didn't understand. Now I know because she explained it. I didn't understand how they kept them from being dry. Jerky is always dry and whatever, which is fine. I don't mind that much. But the meat sticks from Paleo Valley are not dry. It's like they're fresh. It's like someone made it for you. It was so unique. Like, it's like somebody literally made it for you and then gave it to you, not in a package.

44:58Adam Schafer:That's what it tastes like. It's like, it's juicy.

44:59Justin Andrews:Tender, juicy, yeah.

45:00Adam Schafer:And I asked her, I'm like, how do you do that? They're fermented. Yeah. The meat is fermented. So the fermentation process breaks down the meat so that it stays juicy and it's not dry and like most jerky. And so why -

45:14Justin Andrews:I love how honest she was about how, like, it costs them a lot of money to do that process. And that's why you don't see that everywhere. That's exactly - I was just going to say,

45:22Sal Di Stefano:This is what the reason why not everybody has it does is it's more expensive and more time. And both of those cost companies way more money. If you can't turn out the product faster, time is money. And if it costs more to do it and you don't get that much ROI on it, most people, they just skip it. They're like, forget it. This is how we've always done it. But so I love when I hear stuff like that about some of these companies that we work with, when they take that extra step to make a product significantly better than the, than it's quality just speaks for itself. Super high quality.

45:52Adam Schafer:It ruined meat sticks for me. There's a lot of good meat sticks out there, but none of them taste like that. It's like somebody made a sausage for you and then just serves it to you. That's what it tastes like.

46:00Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, that was fascinating when she brought that. It made a lot more sense when she said that. Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, that was so good.

46:04Adam Schafer:Doug, I want you to look something up for me. Look up the brain health benefits of nicotine. Now, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because my wife's mad at me because I use nicotine lozenges, so I just want to... Just want to make a point right here. Just want to make a point right here. No, that's not why. A little bit more, yeah. That's not why, although she teases me. came over. And so I'll use nicotine lozenges sometimes for the cognitive boosting effects or whatever. And yes, it's addictive. It's like, it's addictive as caffeine, I would say. But my mom asked my wife, she's like, what are these?

46:34Adam Schafer:She's like, oh, that's Sal likes to use nicotine sometimes. She threw them all away. My mom did in my house. She probably thought you were like smoking or something. My son is smoking. By the way, this is a typical Italian mom. I'm a grown man with kids. Grown man. She comes to my house. She throws my stuff away. Like, what are you doing, Mike? Yeah, so read this to us, Doug.

46:55Justin Andrews:So yeah, there's potential short-term effects of nicotine on mental health. Cognitive enhancement may temporarily improve attention, working memory, fine motor skills, and episodic memory functions.

47:08Adam Schafer:Yeah, mood regulation helps with that. Did you guys know? I find it less addicting than caffeine, in my opinion. So do I. Sometimes I'll forget. I don't even care. Caffeine is way more.

47:17Sal Di Stefano:When they're in here and you got one or what, I'll ask you, throw me one, I'll have one, but then I'll go weeks. I forget we don't have it. It's like, so I don't know. I feel like it's a different.

47:25Adam Schafer:That's what the data says. But for me, I can go. It's a nice little pick me up. Yeah. But did you know that you, that it has been studied as a treatment for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's? I believe, Doug, if you, you could look that up. It's really interesting.

47:39Sal Di Stefano:Well, won't anything that has cognitive benefits help that? Not anything. Oh, I thought almost anything that has reported cognitive benefits would also almost.

47:48Adam Schafer:Maybe, but I know that this is actually, have been researched as a, there you go, see? Some studies suggest potential protective effects. In other words, preventing, potentially preventing things like Alzheimer's. I'm not promoting, by the way, we don't have a nicotine company. People are like, are you trying to sell nicotine? But it is interesting that because it's been so closely connected to cigarettes. I feel like

48:09Sal Di Stefano:the cigarette companies would be all over that as a promoter.

48:12Adam Schafer:Well, they can't because cigarettes are not good for you. By the way, vaping, nicotine is bad for you too. Terrible. You get popcorn lung from inhaling all those salt. Is that

48:20Sal Di Stefano:on the rise still or is that coming down yeah the solvents that that was a memory that was like

48:25Adam Schafer:skyrocketing i have a family friend that just passed away i didn't know him very well but i knew him when i was younger he was in his 40s popcorn lung from using using vapes wow using

48:35Sal Di Stefano:vapes yeah i found those i i found those very addictive i played around with it for a minute and that was what quickly what made me get rid of it was like whoa this thing like scaled the the vape one yes so so you talk about the difference between like it's such a fast hit right yeah the the mint, uh, nicotine things that like the, the, the lozenges or whatever, totally not a big deal. The, the, like the Juul vapes, totally different. And I don't know if that's because there's something to do with like the mouth and the, like, cause I know that, that there's supposed to be addictive behavior. Like part of the addictive behavior of smoking is actually the behavior of it, right.

49:07Sal Di Stefano:Or the actual action of doing it. So I wonder if there's something to do with that, that as the,

49:12Adam Schafer:if I'm not mistaken, inhaling a substance is the fastest way to absorb it. So any drug that can be inhaled - Faster than boofing? Huh? Yeah, dude. More than boofing. If people don't know what that is, go ahead and Google that.

49:26Justin Andrews:Make Doug do it. Google boofing. I'm assuming you're talking suppositories. How do you know, Doug? I'm just guessing.

49:38Adam Schafer:Educated guess. Sure. Anyway, how many of you guys are using the Jolie - um changed my life okay so i changed my life okay i want to hear this i i would i was hoping you would say that because you're the guy with psoriasis yeah yeah well it's okay it's just

49:54Sal Di Stefano:full disclosure though there's there's more than just the typical reason why i say it changed my life so uh if everything that we did um to the house right so we got the house last year and i didn't move into it for what almost eight months or something like that and we we remodeled like pretty much everything and uh and so to like our spec katrina and i like were really thoughtful of like this is all this is all the things that we want we got it the way we want just want it and the one thing that i was like kind of unhappy with was our bathroom and they had just kind of remodeled it and so i just didn't feel i was like do i really want to destroy this whole thing just because it doesn't have a bathtub and you know i'm a bathtub guy you know and the and i in the the shower so they had and in california we have like this you know weird restriction valve thing or whatever for water pressure yes so stupid so i had a shower head no exaggeration that was like a drip you know so i have this beautiful house that i just designed all nice for myself and then i thought and in my and logically i told myself i can't it's not a big deal but then i realized like i shower twice a day every day and when i'm in first thing in the morning i'm not i'm kind of a bear like Justin, you know, and like getting in and taking a shower where half my body's cold still with hot water on me.

51:09Sal Di Stefano:I was like, this is going to be a problem.

51:10Adam Schafer:It's like your shower has prostate.

51:12Sal Di Stefano:So I was ready to, I was, I was already, we were like a month or two months in. I was ready to blow the whole bathroom up. I was like, I was fed up. I took a train. I was like, F it. I can't take this anymore. I was so angry. And she's like, well, let's put the, let's have my brother take a look at it and see if he can change something on the valves and we'll put the new Jolie head on it and stuff like that. Put it on like night and day difference. And then of course, it filters the water. It filters the water. That's why, see, I know that's why I said the full disclosure.

51:39Justin Andrews:You don't notice it until you actually do it.

51:41Sal Di Stefano:It's crazy. Part of it was that I relieved the pressure. So then I got all this extra pressure. And then my skin felt amazing because of the, whatchamacallit, the filter inside of it.

51:51Adam Schafer:Doug, you like it too? I do. What are you getting from it?

51:53Justin Andrews:Well, I mean, if you have chlorinated water, which most people do, that chlorine stays on your skin after you take a shower and it gets itchy, right? And this basically removes that.

52:05Sal Di Stefano:It feels almost like there's a conditioner in it. Wow. So it feels like you're - It feels like a slick - Yeah. Yeah. So much to like if you ever felt salt. I haven't put mine in yet. Oh, and the showerhead's dope. And by the way, it takes five minutes to do. It does. It's super hot. They give you the wrench. They give you everything. I feel so bad that I took even this long. I really - It's very simple. I paid my brother. I'm the worst. Okay, it'll probably take you 10 minutes. I paid my brother to do it, and I realized, like, what did I just pay for right there? That was really stupid right there.

52:30Sal Di Stefano:I thought it was going to be way more of a project than what it was.

52:32Adam Schafer:I've already hung up two painting this year.

52:35Sal Di Stefano:I'm done with my magic. He's getting your quota.

52:38Justin Andrews:I'm good. I'm good. I need to get one for my son, though, because he, especially chlorine or anything like that, like coming out of pools, his skin is so sensitive. Which one? Oh, mine too. Everett. Oh, really? Yeah. Just, I mean, anything really skin related, like he reacts and you see it.

52:54Sal Di Stefano:We're literally, right now, Katrina was texting me while we were on air. We just got our pool converted. because of that. We just converted our pool to salt water.

53:03Adam Schafer:Oh, nice.

53:04Sal Di Stefano:So yeah, I was waiting for that to happen because that was the last piece for me because it's great. I have the house now good for the shower and stuff, but I still get in a pool. And my pool guy was really good. He was doing this conditioner, so it wasn't as bad as your typical cornmeal, but it still was. And we're in there so much. It was drying out my psoriasis.

53:20Adam Schafer:You guys use it all up and through the summer or you guys use it daily?

53:22Sal Di Stefano:Daily. Daily I'm in that pool right now.

53:24Adam Schafer:So I'm going to ask you guys, do you guys know what your blood types are? I think I'm O positive. You're O? And what about you? Do you know, Justin? I don't know if I know.

53:34Justin Andrews:It's like AB. AB?

53:36Adam Schafer:Yeah, you should be giving blood, Doug. Oh, okay. Be careful what I say here. We have universal. I know you normally drink the blood. Oh, come on. This myth will never die. That's why you look so young. No, no, no. So I just gave blood recently. Doug, look at the benefits of donating blood for men. this is got health benefits so i'm trying to convince you guys first off people need blood i dread it every time people need blood they need it and so this is like one of the best things you could do and it's good for your health if you're a man and you give blood pull up the benefits

54:12Sal Di Stefano:once a year is that where the benefits are i believe so i think it's once a year i believe

54:15Adam Schafer:i think i've heard the same thing yeah uh yeah uh let me see look up the benefits for yeah cardiovascular health this is for men it balances out your iron levels so men can build up high levels of iron because we don't lose blood like women do so it balances that out and it reduces it improves cardiovascular health

54:35Justin Andrews:just to give blood so do you lose like the EPO benefits of having like extra amounts of blood cells

54:41Adam Schafer:well no it reduces risk of cancer look at that Doug read that for me

54:45Justin Andrews:yeah I see that emotional well-being stimulates blood cell production I'm super attached to my blood it actually gets this it burns calories 600 to 640 calories per donation of course you're losing

54:58Adam Schafer:part of your body burns calories we just sold it yeah doug just closed everybody right now yeah

55:04Justin Andrews:the body has to replace the donated blood cells yeah so it takes about for men in particular it's

55:09Adam Schafer:healthy but if you're type o you should because i have universal like you because that's what type o anybody can use it right anybody can have it no so they're calling me constantly they're like get in here we'll let you in early give blood or whatever even with all the big blood bags

55:26Sal Di Stefano:he's the kool-aid guy get him in it's fortified that's why justin i can't go they're like oh yeah no you're good we don't need your stop when they hey you know what though when i went in there

55:36Adam Schafer:i went in there that morning so i told you guys this off air but so i'm recording the series that i'm doing right every night i've done three of them now the night before each time i'm filming the series i get terrible sleep have nightmares i don't know what it is so anyway i go in so this was the day of filming so uh dylan and i filmed that morning and because i had such bad sleep uh i took extra extra pre-workout right extra stimulants so i did that workout sleep deprived we filmed it was awesome then three or four hours later i was supposed to give blood so i go in there and they check my blood pressure before and i'm already like oh no am i gonna have high blood of pressure because of the stim you know and that was good i'm like okay cool but my heart rate was high so the nurse looks at me she's like we're gonna have to wait five minutes and test you again i'm like i looked at her i'm like i had a lot of caffeine today come test me in five minutes i like tried to meditate or whatever and it was all good but you brought it down huh i brought it down enough

56:30Justin Andrews:to be able to give blood so white coat syndrome yeah no i'm not nervous of that i was just all the i used to get that did you really yeah my blood pressure would go up but yeah i had all kinds of stuff blood pressure related i had to get through with that whole like tumor and all

56:42Adam Schafer:that kind of stuff like how you just say that a little tumor it was non it was not not a big deal

56:49Justin Andrews:the one that i gave you yeah the one that adam forced me the company dude you got a trophy i also got a tumor um but yeah oh did i tell you guys about like again my my dog got sprayed by You told me. I saw the tags. So, again, it was so.

57:08Adam Schafer:What did he do? Just walk in the house and then just, that's it, you know?

57:11Justin Andrews:He starts sneezing a lot and came to the front door. And I didn't smell it right away. Right when he came through, he went towards the couch to try and, like, rub himself on it. I'm like, no. So, at least this time we caught it, like, quick. Threw him outside and then immediately put stuff in the wash. but Courtney created this concoction that beforehand when this happened, it was like there's a good way to neutralize it that really did work. And it totally – I thought tomato juice was supposed to do it. No, uh-uh. It doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't work at all. We did that. It's like we tried that.

57:46Justin Andrews:Yeah, no, that didn't work at all.

57:47Sal Di Stefano:So I bought 400 cans of tomatoes and baked my dog.

57:50Adam Schafer:That was a conspiracy theory sent by Italians to sell more tomatoes.

57:54Justin Andrews:Oh, yeah, this will help you. Yeah, I'm trying to find the – What was the base? The recipe of it.

58:00Sal Di Stefano:Do you even know what the base was, like the main ingredient or whatever?

58:03Justin Andrews:I think it was baking soda. Oh, baking soda. And then there was a little bit of like dial soap or not dial. What's that one? The dish soap? Dawn. Thank you.

58:13Adam Schafer:The one they always show with the birds with the oil.

58:15Sal Di Stefano:Dawn is used for a lot of like little hacks like that. It's just soap.

58:18Justin Andrews:Oh, that's what, okay.

58:19Adam Schafer:So if I look up Dawn, I'll find it. There's something special in Dawn. I don't think so. I think so. I don't think there's something special about Dawn soap. I think so. I think it's smart marketing. I think what they did was with the oil spills, they donated.

58:29Justin Andrews:This one with hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, dish soap, like Dawn. Oh, yeah. Here's half a cup of baking soda, one quart of hydrogen peroxide, and a couple squirts of Dawn. But yeah, I just wanted to throw that out there in case anybody else had a problem with a skunk. And so the other thing I learned about it, though, which is it's unfortunate we have skunks. And we got this crazy ecosystem at my property. There's like all kinds of different animals coming through because we got fruit and all this other stuff. But we have a lot of wasps right now. There's at least like five to six nests all over the place, right?

59:04Justin Andrews:But what I didn't know was skunks actually, they go in and they eat through the wasp nests. So you need to keep the skunks to get rid of the wasps? Yeah. Apparently, they get stung. It doesn't even really affect them that much. Oh, interesting. And so at night, they go in and they dig them out. To research that? How'd you find that out? Yeah. because we saw one of the wasp nests and it was like dug out and i was like what and then courtney told me and she had looked it up and interesting skunks so i was like dude skunks

59:31Sal Di Stefano:my wife sees one insect and the i feel so bad for our exterminator guy he's like in my house she calls him oh yeah one spider one bug one wasp whatever that and she's on the phone dude she paid for like whatever certain there's like this upgraded service where they're like they'll come out unlimited time so we pay a monthly fee that's like unlimited amount and let me tell you she gets her money's worth because well i feel and i feel so bad i'm like bro like i know my spider yeah she does she sees a spider he's out there so unacceptable give your son a um a bug

1:00:02Adam Schafer:vacuum so he can collect them and then do things with them he's not he's he's because his mother

1:00:06Sal Di Stefano:oh no so what do you think he's like scared of him too yeah i'm like always like i'm always calming him down like when she he sees a bee now he's like oh be a bee like son you're okay he's fine don't worry about it he's fine but because he sees his mom get all freaked out about it i I was like, now he's that way. So he's not a bug kid.

1:00:23Adam Schafer:Oh, no. We have bug vacuums because my son likes -

1:00:25Sal Di Stefano:No, I've seen the spiders and stuff that your kid gets. My son would freak out. Really? Oh, yes. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, he's not a bug person at all.

1:00:33Adam Schafer:Yeah, we feed him to the carnivorous plants. We have a Venus fly trap. I love that. We have a pitcher plant. And then we just bought a, what's it called? Sundew. So he'll catch the bugs in his vacuum. Yeah. And he'll wait for me to come home. Then I'll come home and we'll grab it with the tweezers. and then we'll put it in the Venus flytrap or in the sundew and let it. It is rad.

1:00:55Sal Di Stefano:That's amazing. It's so cool. Max waits till I get home and we build Legos. That's what it is.

1:00:59Adam Schafer:Yeah, if we're not catching fun. Didn't Justin, weren't you the one that said that you put a bee on a leash one time? Yeah.

1:01:07Justin Andrews:Did you hear about this? So dry ice. We used to do that with lizards.

1:01:11Adam Schafer:No, no, a bee, bro. Listen to this.

1:01:13Justin Andrews:Yeah, yeah. So we got a bee and we kind of, we put it like, so I took this glass and I put it on top of it and then we were able to transport it into the freezer. Yeah, because they fall asleep, right? Yeah, they fall asleep. And then we actually found some dry ice and it like froze it completely. And then I tied a... Thread? Dental floss. Dental floss, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, around it's a little thorax, whatever you call it. And then it kind of came to it, dried out on the deck. Did you walk your feet? It was like you're holding a balloon. But it's moving and it's like... When did you do this?

1:01:49Justin Andrews:when you were a kid? When I was a kid, yeah. And like, I was there with my best friend. I'm not going to lie. We thought it was a funny scene ever. I kind of want to try it. I'm not going to lie.

1:01:54Adam Schafer:So you don't have to - We were dying laughing. You don't have to dry ice. If you put them in a freezer - Yeah, just the bug vacuum. With the bug vacuum. We'll put it in the freezer, they hibernate. And then we'll feed it to the plant, and then it wakes up in the plant, and it's dead or whatever. So, okay, do you want to talk about torturing animals?

1:02:08Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, this is what the ID doctor should be talking about. You know? You know what I'm saying? You imagine being that animal, All of a sudden you wake up and you're like, ah!

1:02:16Justin Andrews:Vegans don't care about insects. That's the hilarious part. They're not cute. Some vegans won't even eat honey. Well, that's respectable.

1:02:23Sal Di Stefano:Go all in. You're going to go all in. You can't discocracy. Yeah, I don't feel like it's fair you discriminate with mice and squirrels and all these other animals that get killed.

1:02:32Adam Schafer:Well, see, people don't like mice or rats, but they like squirrels.

1:02:35Justin Andrews:It's almost the same animal. It's the same. They're the same as rats in a lot of places. They'll come in and destroy your house. Squirrels are just way too. Screw squirrels.

1:02:44Adam Schafer:They're really cute though. Yeah. I won't flip their tails. Until they destroy your property. I'm fine with them. Look, if you're listening to this podcast, you're interested in performance in the gym, but what about in the bedroom? Joy Mode makes a supplement that boosts blood flow down there. Proven by data. By the way, this actually works. You should hear Justin talk about it all the time. Joy Mode is very powerful stuff. Try it out. Go to tryjoymode.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code MINDPUMP at checkout and get 20 % off. Back to the show.

1:03:18Justin Andrews:First question is from Kayla Serjord. Tips on how to optimize strength, lean body mass for weight class athletes who don't have the ability to do a traditional bulk and have to be conscious of scale weight. This is a good question.

1:03:32Adam Schafer:When you're an athlete in a weight class type competition, wrestlers would be a good example, right? there's always this worry of like okay if I build muscle or gain weight then I'm going to go up in a weight class and have to compete with people who are also bigger here's what I'll say to this because I've trained high school wrestlers before don't worry about your weight class allow the weight where you're at the weight class cuts that you see the pros do leave that for them when you're in in high school and maybe even college sometimes college gets away with this trying to limit yourself to your weight class, in my strong opinion, actually reduces performance.

1:04:12Adam Schafer:You're better off feeding yourself, allowing you to be strong and compete against bigger people than you are restricting yourself, trying to stay light and then go into competition feeling weak and depleted.

1:04:21Sal Di Stefano:Another way to look at this or another strategy to this is to hover around a maintenance with a slight surplus. Like you're really trying to target maintenance within reality what's happening to the body. there's this myth that we're like in this we're always in this perpetual cut or perpetual bulk it's like when you're hovering around maintenance what's happening is you're never at like no there's no way you are perfectly eating the perfect amount of calories that's exactly at you know your your maintenance calories all the time what's happening is there's this ebb and natural ebb and flow where sometimes you're in a little bit of a surplus sometimes you're in a little bit of deficit maybe over the course of 30 days it evens out to be kind of like a maintenance but you're actually in a little bit of a bulk, in a little bit of a cut.

1:05:05Sal Di Stefano:And if you live at that kind of maintenance, so eating what your body needs to build muscle and to survive and be good, you'll kind of naturally lean out and build muscle in a nice, even way.

1:05:15Adam Schafer:Now, there's also this too. There's a myth that the leaner you are with the more muscle you are, the better of an athlete you're going to be. The truth is, generally speaking, because there's always, okay, people are going to look at pro athletes.

1:05:28Justin Andrews:You might ruin your gas tank.

1:05:29Adam Schafer:Yeah, people are going to look at pro athletes or the highest level be like, oh my God, they're shredded and whatever. Generally speaking, the athletic body fat percentage for men is around 14 % to 16%. And so shredding down to 8 % to get into a leaner, lighter weight class is actually going to reduce your performance. Yeah, most athletes perform best in this relatively lean body fat percentage, but not shredded. For women, it's typically between 18 % to 25 % for athletic performance. Maybe a little lower, maybe 24%.

1:05:59Sal Di Stefano:This is why I think the strategy of kind of hovering on your maintenance will kind of get your body to land where it's best. And why this is difficult is when we compare ourselves to other athletes because to your point, that's generally speaking. But there are some examples of guys that perform at high levels at 9 % or 10%. That's right. They're anomalies, but they're there. But then there's others that are at the higher percent. And so really it's where your body feels most comfortable and lands there. That's a good point.

1:06:24Justin Andrews:Yeah, and I think too a lot of times it's the coach that's pushing these athletes into those categories. Because they need someone to win because they know they'll dominate at a lower body weight class.

1:06:34Adam Schafer:Or they just need someone to compete in the weight class. Or they need somebody there.

1:06:36Justin Andrews:They just shoo them in there. Yeah. And if it's a parent, you got to look out for that.

1:06:41Adam Schafer:I trained a high school wrestler who was, I think he was a junior, whose coach made him cut so much. I mean, the kid passed out. Isn't Kayla the fighter?

1:06:52Sal Di Stefano:I don't know. She's the MMA fighter. Yeah. I'm pretty sure she's the MMA fighter. Right? We've sent her stuff before.

1:06:59Adam Schafer:Yeah. I think when you're at that level, Kayla, when you're at your level, what you want to do is maximize technique, skill, and performance and stay in that kind of maintenance. That's why I think that's the best advice. Because very few people can do this. There are some fighters that'll cut 15 pounds of sweat to make a weight class or 20 pounds. And then they can compete the next day. But most people can't do that. And definitely women. Women have a tough time with that. Right, right.

1:07:25Justin Andrews:Next question is from Clo Clo Lifts. how do you know if you have good muscle building genetics as a woman you know out of curiosity

1:07:32Adam Schafer:doug if can you pull up whoever this is their their profile because i'll she's probably got it she probably has them i you know what that's a good bet i know i bet you i feel like people that that have good genetics ask that like yeah you're 100 right yeah um all right muscle building genetics is it doug is that him on point yes let me see pull it up let me see let me see what she looks like let me see oh yeah oh yes scroll down yes scroll down more yes yeah dude great oh my god look at her back yes dude yeah okay you have good you got great genetics yeah so muscle building genetics uh kind of fall in this category do you build muscle easily uh oh how do you know well uh you're typically stronger and more muscular than everyone around you and when you work out you just build.

1:08:21Adam Schafer:Number two, do you have long muscle bellies? Do your muscle insertions, are they long? Is your bicep short or is it long? Are your calves long or are they short? Long muscle bellies, when you develop muscles that have long bellies, they just look bigger and rounder. And then there's, do you have good muscle building genetics for bodybuilding versus for sports? They're very different. Bodybuilding muscle, bodybuilding genetics are, or muscle building genetics are like wide shoulders, small waist you know narrow hips uh for sports you don't want to have a tiny waist you need to have a thicker you know just bone structure to be able to take you know getting i mean i feel like

1:09:00Sal Di Stefano:a good example of comparing people you guys know from us is like comparing me and craig like craig is built way better for sports although he did bodybuilding and men's physique with me but i have more of a men's physique physique than he does and i definitely square i don't have a great athletic body. I don't have the good hips for a lot of sports. And so, but yeah, she definitely has great muscle. So why this is what's interesting or what I think is most important about this conversation for the average person is I, I'd love to hear your guys' opinion, but this, my opinion around this is when I have a client who has good muscle building genetics, they typically have a harder time getting really lean, right?

1:09:37Sal Di Stefano:They build muscle really easy, but then they have a hard time losing body fat. And so I like to lean into their strength. It's like you build muscle really well let's really build some muscle that's only going to speed the metabolism up making the fat loss thing easier versus like grinding and eating so low of calorie and just fighting for every inch of body fat percentage down i lean into the strength and the the reverse is true i think that you have some people that like feel like they have terrible but those people lean out really good so it's like i like to to uh inform the client on what whether they are these people or not and then it's not there's an advantage to both is what i'm trying to get at And leaning into your strength.

1:10:12Adam Schafer:But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because what you have is what you have. And you can improve upon what you have. You can improve and optimize. That's right. Because when I say good versus bad, it's comparison. And comparing yourself to other people on this pursuit is a path towards sadness. It's not going to help you. Whatever you have, you have. Work with it and do your best. That's it.

1:10:33Justin Andrews:Next question is from Ernie Meyer. How do you still have fun with a healthy lifestyle? Wow. No junk food, can't sleep in or stay up late, no alcohol, no screens. What's there to look forward to? I do all those things.

1:10:47Sal Di Stefano:I had Chinese food yesterday. I slept in on Saturday. I had some alcohol last weekend, watched some Netflix with my wife. I don't know.

1:10:56Adam Schafer:You know what's interesting about this? So there's a couple sides to this. Number one, there's this myth that there's freedom in doing whatever you want when it comes to healthy lifestyle. So I'm free and you're restricted. You're restricted because you're focused on eating healthy and you have to go to the gym three or four days a week. I'm free because I don't do any of that and eat whatever I want. But it's a myth because you're not really free. You're not free from disease. You're not free from pain. You're not free from mobility issues. you actually are chained down by your perception of what is free.

1:11:32Adam Schafer:The truth is a balanced, healthy lifestyle, because I'll talk about the fanaticism that can go extreme. Right, there's both extremes. The balanced, healthy lifestyle is far more free and has far more to look forward to. A healthy version of you has a better quality of life, period, end of story.

1:11:47Sal Di Stefano:Listen, nobody became an alcoholic from one drink. Nobody became obese from one night of Chinese food. Nobody became addicted to tech by watching your Netflix series once. There's a way to enjoy all of these things and still have balance. Where it gets out of hand is when it becomes a habit. When it becomes everything. Yes, and you become addicted to all of those things that you just said. Like, I won't eat Chinese food every single night, or else that will lead to that. But you can absolutely get to a place where you have a very healthy balance and be able to incorporate these things.

1:12:26Adam Schafer:On either ends of the extreme spectrum.

1:12:28Justin Andrews:You got to stop following zealots. Yeah, totally. Sounds like that's what he's doing.

1:12:31Adam Schafer:On either end of the spectrum, extreme fitness fanaticism or not doing any of it, you have bondage. The balance looks like this. A majority of the time, you prioritize your health. A majority of the time, you're consistent with your workouts. A majority of the time, you get good sleep. And that allows you to be free. It allows you to enjoy yourself. You're not bound by disease and mobility. You feel good. You have good energy. That's where the sweet spot is. It's the two extremes that are the myths, the shredded. They must really enjoy their life. No, they don't. They're fanatics about it. That becomes everything for them.

1:13:10Adam Schafer:And then the other end, where they do nothing, now they're bound by all the disease and the decreasing quality of life.

1:13:15Sal Di Stefano:I think the other point to be made about this is there's a lot of people that will look at these very small percentage of people that have ridiculous, crazy physiques that they promote online. And then what it takes to get to that, you go, oh, my God, I don't want that lifestyle. And it's like, well, of course. Of course you don't. Yeah. And it's actually not even a healthy place to live. And so I would stop comparing or looking at that as an example. And you can absolutely be healthy, fit, strong, mobile, and incorporate those things within your lifestyle. It just doesn't become all of your lifestyle.

1:13:48Sal Di Stefano:It becomes a part of it. And honestly, I find it more enjoyable when it's that way. You know how great Chinese food was? I was like, I'd had that in months. It was like - If you had it every day though? Oh my God. And I would feel terrible. And it would, so when you actually live that, when you have the discipline that you're talking about, where you make healthy choices 90 % of the time. When you enjoy these things 10%, they're way more fun to enjoy and they don't set you back.

1:14:12Adam Schafer:By the way, Chinese food isn't unhealthy. It was Chinese takeout that you had. Yes. That's why. That's why I'm clear.

1:14:17Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I'm pretty sure you got that. I'm sure people understand. What do you mean? Chinese food's healthy.

1:14:22Adam Schafer:No, no, no. He got takeout. Yeah.

1:14:25Justin Andrews:Next question is from Burke himself. Does getting a pump equate to muscle growth?

1:14:30Adam Schafer:No. Somewhat. Yeah, it's not a pure equate. It doesn't equate to muscle growth. Sacroplasmic hypertrophy. Well, look, if you get a pump in the gym, you're probably hydrated, well-rested, the workout is appropriate, and the pump itself may actually signal muscle growth. It's stimulant. It's not a bad signal. In fact, I know when I get poor sleep or when I'm not well hydrated or I'm overtrained, I stop getting pumps in the gym. And that's how I know this isn't working. The pump itself, though, isn't the be-all, end-all. Because you could do low-rep strength training. power lifters don't get a pump and they build lots of muscle you know you could train in rep ranges that don't produce a pump and build uh and get a great physique but i like the signal of a pump it's also uh psychologically um you know rewarding for a lot of people i mean i know it is for me i know a lot of people that go to the gym and love getting a pump because whatever they're working on now looks like it suddenly becomes more developed and it gives you that

1:15:25Sal Di Stefano:psychological encouragement where where i don't want to say this gets dangerous or where this uh tends to lose its benefits is when you get stuck in chasing the pump all the time i spent years of my lifting career like this because the pump felt so good it looked so good momentarily and so all of my training looked like chasing the pump and because of that it all looked very similar low rest periods supersets like just airing up and getting all the but then when i deflate and i didn't look like over a period of years i didn't look like i really gained or built that much muscle. That's because I wasn't cycling through strength periods where I was lifting three to five reps and resting for three minutes.

1:16:04Sal Di Stefano:I was constantly moving and chasing the pump, and then I wasn't continuing to build muscle. But in a short period of time, if you've never trained that way and you train that way, there's huge benefits to that.

1:16:15Adam Schafer:You know what's interesting about the pump? Athletes hate it. That's the last thing you want. It's counterproductive. The last thing you want on the football field is pumped quads. No, yeah. Or I remember - It's not a benefit. No, I remember. BMX racer? Oh, I had a BMX racer. He literally told me. I said, what's your goal? He's all fit. He goes, I just don't want my forearms to get pumped while I'm racing. I remember being perplexed. You lose your grip. How do I, what do I do?

1:16:40Sal Di Stefano:You're like, I've been chasing you after that my whole life. How do I help you not do it?

1:16:42Adam Schafer:Or judo and jujitsu when I used to do that. Your forearms get pumped. You're done. Your grip is done. You're going to get your ass kicked. The pump is a very interesting thing. A lot of it is psychological. It's great to get, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're building muscle. Look, if you like the podcast, come find us on Instagram, Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body,

1:17:05Justin Andrews:dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com.

1:17:53Justin Andrews:If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

From the publisher

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer four Pump Head questions drawn from last Sunday's Quah post on the @mindpumpmedia Instagram page. 

  • Mind Pump Fit Tip: Two-Day a Week 30-Min Dumbbell At-Home Workout Program for Muscle & Fat Loss. (1:54)
  • Exercise and cancer. (16:14)
  • Veganism can be a false religion. (20:47)
  • Lab meat and science worship. (23:43)
  • Advanced technology. (28:18)
  • Gym industry changes. (34:17)
  • Pro bodybuilders are built DIFFERENT. (35:40)
  • Meat sticks that are NOT dry. (43:02)
  • The cognitive benefits of nicotine. (44:39)
  • The health benefits of a filtered shower head. (48:17)
  • Why men should donate blood. (52:00)
  • Do you have a problem with a skunk? (55:33)
  • #Quah question #1 – Tips on how to optimize strength/ lean body mass for weight class athletes who don't have the ability to do a traditional bulk and have to be conscious of scale weight? (1:01:53)
  • #Quah question #2 – How do you know if you have good muscle-building genetics as a woman? (1:06:00)
  • #Quah question #3 – How do you still have fun with a healthy lifestyle? No junk food, can't sleep in or stay up late, no alcohol, no screens. What's there to look forward to? (1:09:08)
  • #Quah question #4 – Does getting a pump equate to muscle growth? (1:13:00)

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