2683: Weird workout hacks that Build Muscle Fast & More (Listener Coaching)

17:17Adam Schafer:what's weird about it too is that by when i would do that squat uh it was a squat bench in a row by the third workout or fourth workout, I was stronger, which was really weird. It was really weird. I was like, I come back in the garage, do it again. I'm like, oh my God, I feel so strong suddenly. And then you get a little fatigue by the end of the day. It's like the adult version of a theme park. You spend your whole day. For fitness fanatics. Fitnessing. Yeah, it's so fun. Next up, we have BFR training or blood flow restriction. This was really popular maybe like 10 years ago, eight years ago.

17:51Adam Schafer:I don't hear anybody talking about this too much anymore, but this works for the extremities really well. What you do is you use a knee wrap and you tie off your arm, let's say, relatively tight, not to let your arm go numb, but enough to where you feel like, oh, yeah, some blood flow is restricted. Then you pick a light weight. You go high reps. Because the blood, the waist products can't leave the muscle as well, they build up and it'll torch you. but it builds muscle very quickly.

18:21Sal Di Stefano:I also feel like it's very similar to the isometrics. I'd notice a huge difference from it, but then it tends to fall off. Falls off. Yeah, like it doesn't replace traditional training. And I feel like isometrics are the same way too. Great thing to add or complement your lifting or interrupt your traditional lifting because there's great benefits, great gains from it in a short period of time. But I did notice, because I did a lot. I remember when we first were talking about BFR on the show and we wrote the guide and all the things. I was using it in different ways and there was a point where I was like man this is working so well can I just do this for those body parts and temporarily it worked but then I started to see it's I started to regress after a while it's just like oh you can only just just do that for a

19:03Adam Schafer:certain period I gained a quarter inch from my calves in like four three weeks doing it and then I was just stopped working after that yeah well when I had pain too it was such a great option And so you didn't have to do very far range of motion at all. And you get plenty of benefit from it.

19:18Sal Di Stefano:I mean, that's really where this came from, right? This came from hockey players rehabbing and professionals, right? And they don't want them to atrophy too much. And so they tie off the limbs and do this. So there's very low risk because you're doing such a lightweight. It's a super lightweight. But again, it was designed originally for rehab purposes, which is how I love to use it now, too. You have someone that's just had a knee injury or something like that, and you can tie off the legs and do light leg extensions and get a massive pump on your quads.

19:47Adam Schafer:Yeah, next up, we have a very simple workout that you could do for a good three, four weeks, and it's the squat, bench, and row everyday workout. And literally what you're doing in the gym every day is a few sets of squat, a few sets of bench, a few sets of rows, and you do it seven days a week. It's a real broad stroke, but it gets pretty much everything. Oh, yeah, but you really manage the intensity here. One of these workouts is going to be hard. The rest of them, you're just kind of practicing the exercises. But in a few weeks, you put on some gains with those lifts right there. There was a while ago where the squat everyday routine got real popular.

20:22Adam Schafer:You guys remember that? Yeah, yeah. People are adding like 50 pounds to the squat. I feel like it's the time of year that it comes around.

20:26Sal Di Stefano:I feel like it's once a year. No, I'm serious. I think somebody has made like a tradition around a month that they do that in. And I think every year, I remember you hear it starting to go around. that it's like this, you know, squat every day.

20:38Adam Schafer:I would not do this for longer than three or four weeks because this is asking for injury. The same pattern over and over again, over and over again, you're going to hurt yourself. But you do this for like three weeks. Feed yourself well. Watch what happens.

20:48Sal Di Stefano:So I like, this is, I've used this strategy when coming back from being off for a few months to reintroduce training again. Real basic, only doing a couple sets and every day a little bit. And then after I start to get acclimated and then, okay, now I'm back into my training routine. It's a real cool way to kind of reintroduce that.

21:05Adam Schafer:Next up is to use the sled. The sled is still one of the most just undervalued, incredible tools for everything. I mean, you could build your back with a sled, your shoulders, your chest, sorry, your legs. It's great because it has no negative portion of the rep. It's all concentric, which means it doesn't damage the body much. And you could stand in front of it and pull it towards you for your back. You could drive it forward. You could drive forward with your legs. This is a great tool, and you could devise a workout, you know, a couple weeks where you're just using the sled, give your body a bit of a break, go back to your normal workout, and then see suddenly you've got some new strength.

21:49One of the lowest risk methods to build muscles.

21:51Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I think we all agree that this is probably the most underrated tool in the gym, hands down. I mean, I just think that. And you see, it's become more popular. I mean, ever since they started, you know, putting grass. Yeah. Introducing a functional kind of grass area. You definitely see most gyms. But I don't know. I think that for as useful, powerful, low risk with Big Bang, we should see. I mean, every gym should have to have multiple sleds. The fact that one sled is enough for an entire gym just shows you how underutilized such a great tool is. the fact that one gym or one sled can support an entire gym just tells you how much of an underrated tool.

22:32Adam Schafer:It's one of those tools that's, uh, it's appropriate for beginners to advance. Like it doesn't matter where you're at. It's good. And then lastly, uh, isolation before compound, or another way to put it is you could take your workout program, flip it upside down. So normally when you go to the gym and you work, let's say chest, it starts with compound lifts and it goes isolation. Do it, do it backwards. Do the isolation first end with compound way different feel, way different feel in the body. You get a crazy pump. This is not the way you should always work out. Yeah. It's not how you should always work out.

23:03Adam Schafer:But if you did this for a couple of weeks, it does switch things up. And what's interesting is the compound lifts feel very interesting when you fatigue the muscle already. And then you go to perform them. The pump is intense.

23:15Sal Di Stefano:I used to do this a lot in bodybuilding, a lot, a lot. I mean, it was a very common thing when, uh, cause there's also, there's also periods of time when I would be training where I'm in this kind of low calorie place. And so I know I'm not going to be building like there's times where I'm like, compound lift has got to be first. I'm trying to build strength, trying to build muscle. I'm in a calorie surplus. And there's other times where it's like, I'm managing my intensity. The calories are low. It's like, what a great time to focus on all those little isolated areas or parts of the muscle that I want to focus on.

23:45Sal Di Stefano:And I'm just going to start to work out with it. Flip it on its head.

23:48Adam Schafer:All right. I got a cool study that I know you guys alike. This was August 25th of this year at McMaster University. The study was trying to look at the link between McMaster University.

24:01Sal Di Stefano:Is that a real university? What was it? Superbad? What was the kid's name in Superbad? McLovin? McLovin University. Come on, guys.

24:11Adam Schafer:It's not real. Where are you getting your studies at? This is Science News. This is Science Daily. Where's this university at? It's not a real university, guys. I call suspect, but it's it. It's all McDonald's university. Jack-in-the-box university. No, it's a real university, a real study. And the study was trying to examine whether or not there's a link between eating meat and cancer. So we've seen other studies. Let's find this university first here, Doug. Let's see. Wow, look at that. It's up in Canada. Wow, it's a real university, guys. It's not real. All right, then. It's a real website, that's for sure.

24:46Sal Di Stefano:I remember that guy remember that doctor the rubber band doctor oh yeah he's got a certificate yeah he's got a degree from like a website no no that's a real

24:58Adam Schafer:they do a lot of research anyway I'm insulting you I know I'm insulting you I know there's so many scientists I have a master's degree anyway Anyway, so you guys have seen studies before where they try to link eating meat to cancer. Anyway, when you break down the studies, what you find is it's processed meat and processed foods that have the cancer.

25:23Sal Di Stefano:So eat a lot of hot dogs, you can get cancer.

25:25Adam Schafer:Yeah, you're going to eat garbage. You're going to get some bad results. Anyway, this study is a large study of nearly 16 ,000 adults found. Now, I love this study because it gets crazy. Found no link between eating animal protein and higher death risk. Surprisingly, I like how they said surprisingly because it's not surprising to me, higher animal protein intake was associated with lower cancer mortality. Oh, look at that. Supporting its role in a balanced health-promoting diet. So this study, this was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. They analyzed data from 16 ,000 adults age 19 and older using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

26:07Adam Schafer:Again, there's no increased risk. In fact, it looks like there may be a slight protective effect from eating. That vegan pays me. What's that one you got from UCSF right there, Doug?

26:15Sal Di Stefano:You just pulled up. Oh, this is another one. Yeah, I'm just looking up the study here. Yeah, yeah.

26:21Adam Schafer:So, I mean, it's interesting because trying to connect one of the most foundational basic foods that humans have been eating forever, one of the most prized foods, a food that if you get meat, if you're out in nature and you don't have grocery stores and you have to hunt, you want meat because you're going to die if you don't get meat. Your body literally just yearns for it. You're not going to have enough plants to support you. You'll get nutrient deficiencies. I mean, I always go back to that show alone.

26:50Sal Di Stefano:It does such a good job of probably what it looked like 500 years ago. I mean, literally, that's what it probably looked like when you were trying to survive. and you look at the guys and girls that only find berries. Yeah. They don't last. No. And they don't even last. The crazy part of this is, like, you're talking about living forever or living for a lifespan. These people don't last six months. Yeah. Like, you don't even last six months eating that way. Like, so it's crazy to think that. And even, like, meat isn't enough. It's like you have to have something that has good enough fat in it, too, healthy fats in it.

27:25Adam Schafer:Again, meat, if you just ate meat, this is not an ideal diet, so I'll say that first. So don't just eat meat. Nobody's making that case. But you probably won't get a nutrient deficiency. So if you just ate meat, not ideal, but you're not going to get to a point where your body can't function. You can't do that with a single plant. You cannot. In fact, you would need a plethora of plants. You would need a grocery store that provided you with all these plants that you would never find naturally to even come close to a diet that doesn't create a nutrient deficiency. And even then, nutrient deficiencies are quite high.

28:01Adam Schafer:So meat is not, not only is it not bad for you, it's actually quite good for you. And this study was, and they did a great job because they did all kinds of different controls. In fact, they looked at the study, looked at plant protein. They found that there was no impact on cancer mortality. it was actually animal protein that may have a small protective effect. I don't necessarily think that animal protein is special from a cancer perspective. I do think for, and I have another study I'll share when it comes to protein synthesis, but it's the nutrient deficiency issue. That's the issue, is that when you're not intaking adequate nutrients, then cancer risk tends to go up, and animal meat tends to solve that issue.

28:44Adam Schafer:In fact, back in the day before vitamins were invented, if you had a nutrient deficiency and you went to a doctor, they would make you eat meat. They would tell your kid to give them liver or give them organ meat to solve that issue. So the vegetarian argument is that it's the inflammation, the mTOR and all this that leads to the cancer. And that's always been promoted so highly. No, no, no, no, no. It's like saying testosterone causes prostate cancer. When you have cancer, first of all, anything feeds cancer, especially anything that feeds a cell would feed a cancer. So that's the case. But in normal circumstances, no, it doesn't do that.

29:23Adam Schafer:This is why fasting is anti-cancer, by the way, because you're killing a cancer cell by starving it to death. And healthy cells tend to be a little more resilient.

29:31Sal Di Stefano:Are you following the data on the GLP-1s and obesity chart and everything like that? I mean, I feel like we were talking about it, I don't know, four or five months ago. It's been a while. It just keeps climbing. So many people are using it. No, okay, yeah, but what's happening with obesity rate, though? I mean, I would think if GLP-1s can - Oh, for overall statistics right now. Yeah, because for the first time in how long? It stopped. It stopped and actually reversed a little bit, right? We were reversing. So are we starting to see an acceleration in the opposite direction?

29:59Adam Schafer:I haven't seen any additional data, but the trends that you see with food companies, because I think you'll see that first. You'll see the trends with food companies before you see obesity data, which is harder to collect. What do you mean as far as losing money?

30:12Sal Di Stefano:You mean that way? Yeah, like who's buying what?

30:14Adam Schafer:Snack food companies are losing money. Yeah, they are.

30:16Sal Di Stefano:I mean, they're losing so bad that they're trying to re-engineer the food to bypass the signal from the GLP-1, which is crazy. That's right.

30:26Adam Schafer:Fast food, snack foods, they're all losing market share because people are just not eating as much. You know, when you look at snack foods, for example, or fast food, a lot of people will eat snack foods but their heavy users eat a lot so yeah you look at your consumer base you have your like all your consumers and then you have a segmentary consumers that buy the most yeah it's like 80 80 20 so it's not that americans are eating less snack foods generally it's that the heavy users are really are eating way less because they're on glp1 god

30:56Sal Di Stefano:is that really what it is yes yeah what i would be interesting to see what the percentage of that is how many of the heavy users are of the total market share. I know. Is it like a really small part? I don't - I mean, my roommate with all his wrappers everywhere, it was very revealing. You always call out your roommate, dude. Yeah, I'm calling out, dude. Yeah, he does. He hates you. I mean, he's changed his eating behaviors now, but he got, you know, he was up there, man. You shamed him into it. I know. I saw one time - Oh, my God. Where do you find all this stuff?

31:26Adam Schafer:I saw data once on fast food restaurant. I don't remember what the number was, but there was like a, it was like a percentage of their consumers ate the bulk of their food. And I remember what the number was, but it was pretty crazy. They have like the regular customers that just give them most of their profits. Whereas most Americans will visit, you know, once a week or something like that. You got those people that are literally like several times a day, you know, that's all business, right? Isn't that funny? It is. Yeah. That's all business. Every company has their heavy. Buyers are your buyers.

31:53Sal Di Stefano:That's right. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? There's a, there's a percentage that buy most of the stuff. And I'm just, I'm so curious to like what that is. What that number is. Yeah, because I feel like, generally speaking, most people snack.

32:04Adam Schafer:Is it like 15 % of their consumers consume 40 %? Right, right.

32:08Sal Di Stefano:That's what I want to know. I mean, there's processed food in my cabinet. I mean, I for sure have. So I still fall in that category. But you're not a heavy user over the course of like three, four months. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I wouldn't consider us a heavy user of it. So what does this say?

32:24Adam Schafer:Oh, wow. Regulars, and this is fast food, regulars generate 65 % to 80%. of a restaurant's total profit. Dude. Whoa. That's substantial. That's crazy. Now, what percentage of their customers are regulars?

32:37Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I know. What does regular mean, too?

32:39Adam Schafer:Once a day, a couple times a week? So look that up, Doug. What percentage of the fast food industry's consumers are considered regulars? Yeah, what would you constitute regular? And then we'll look up that. What's a regular? I know. What's your guess? Yeah, like a multiple visit every day. Once a day? Maybe four times. a week or more to a specific restaurant, I would assume. I'm guessing. I have no idea. I'd love to see what

33:05Sal Di Stefano:this number looks like. Yeah, you got to think like McDonald's and stuff has the stats. They got to know. They got to have multiple day visits. You know what's interesting is that if that's true, I'm surprised that more fast food restaurants don't cater to your crazy users like that. Like having a rewards program, it's like, oh, that's your 20th Big Mac this month, Sal. You got one free. Oh, that's what I thought.

33:28Adam Schafer:15 % are highly frequent regulars where they go three or more times a week. Okay, three or more. So 15 % of their consumers give them 65 % to 80 % of their profits. Yeah. Wow. And so if you put those people on GLP-1s, their profits are probably... And those are the most likely people

33:49Sal Di Stefano:to use a GLP-1. That's right. Because you're obese. Yes. Wow. Targeted for them. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. It's got to be like that with almost everything. So they got to be hurting bad then right now. McDonald's. They have to be hurting. All of them. Are they? They're scrambling.

34:03Adam Schafer:They're having meetings. What do we do about this, you guys? Oh, yeah. Oh, you know what else is happening? Big fast food. Clothing companies are, the demand for extra, extra large is going down. Really? Yes. They're having to put more money towards smaller sizes because people are shrinking. Yeah.

34:20Sal Di Stefano:Isn't that crazy? Yeah. I want to see the chart. It's been a while since we talked. We were talking a lot about this. like what just like six seven months ago and we haven't talked a lot i'm just curious this is cold like this i mean there and we're now too we're now on to the what is it retitutide what's how do i say uh retitutide why do i name it so i know it's called ratatouille that is now

34:40Adam Schafer:that so we're now on to that that which is what what do you call that that's a glp3 glp3 yeah it acts on three receptors and now they're about to release or they're researching oral ones that are just as effective that's gonna crush because right now you have to inject them yeah and it's an insulin needle not a big deal but a lot of people are scared of injecting uh you give someone a pill yeah pills like no deterrent you guys 80 80 of everybody's gonna be taking that's that's around the corner yep yeah that's right this is culture shifting that's what we we said we speculated early on this is like one of those moments where we look back in time and you will see like oh yeah this is like when the birth control was invented changed culture like this is going to shift culture.

35:18I mean, and you still see a lot of the fear mongering with it as well. Yeah, it's like leading to blindness and all these kinds of things. Super, super tiny percent. Lots of fear mongering.

35:27Adam Schafer:Yeah, everything has its risk, but they're actually relatively remarkably safe. Yeah, when you overdose and overuse. Remarkably safe when you compare, especially when you compare it to the benefits that these people are getting with weight loss. But again, people, you got to lift weights and make sure your protein intake, otherwise you're going to lose a ton of muscle on them. You got to use it right. Back to the meat one, I have a study on ground beef versus soy for muscle protein synthesis. They compared both proteins. What they found was that 100 % ground beef, you would need to eat twice as much soy protein to achieve the same results when it comes to muscle protein synthesis.

36:08Adam Schafer:Wow. Yeah. Interesting. So that's because animal protein is more bioavailable, better amino acid. It's interesting though. Soy is not a terrible amino acid profile. When it comes to plant proteins, soy is one of the better ones. That was kind of the best option for meatless. It's one of the better ones. But in this particular study, four ounces of beef versus four ounces of soy, one serving of beef caused the muscle protein synthesis signal to do the job while two servings were necessary to get the same muscle-building effect.

36:41Sal Di Stefano:That's kind of fascinating. So in other words, like if I was eating soybean burger patties, for example, and I had to eat twice the patties just to get the same result.

36:51Adam Schafer:Now, here's why this is crazy. If you're eating a purely vegan diet, it's hard to get enough protein anyway when it comes to like, maybe not essential protein, but what's considered ideal, right? For muscle-building performance, all that stuff. It's hard. You have to use supplements. Like try doing it with whole natural vegetable sources. Good luck. But even if you do add the supplements and do all that stuff, you have to take in more calories worth of protein to achieve the same effect. So, you know, it's harder. Now you're struggling with getting too many calories because you're eating twice as much to get the same effect.

37:28Adam Schafer:Wow. So animal protein is superior. Shout out to ButcherBox.

37:31Sal Di Stefano:ButcherBox. Hey, speaking of ButcherBox, I, so my, my, we were, we were barbecuing yesterday for the, for the Labor Day weekend. And my, my brother-in-law was the one grilling on my grill. And I was complimenting the meat. I was like, what did you season this with? And he's like, it was, it's your seasoning. And I'm like, what are you talking about? I didn't know that, but I guess Katrina must have ordered the last order. We get the seasoning from there. Have you guys, have you used their seasoning yet? They have seasoning. Yeah, they have seasoning. I didn't even know about it. Had no idea. Was tasting the meat.

38:00Sal Di Stefano:I could tell it was a different seasoning than what I normally use. I'm like, hey, this is really good. What did you season with? He was like, it's your seasoning. I'm like, what? And he shows it to me on the counter. And he says, butcher box. I'm like, I didn't know they had seasoning. Wow. So I just got my most recent box, and we just grilled. But my brother did it. So I didn't see what he was seasoning the meat with until after the fact and saw that. I'm like, oh, I got to bring that up the next time we talk about butcher box that they have seasoning too. Interesting. See if you pull it up, I can tell you.

38:27Sal Di Stefano:Oh, there it is. Yeah. Oh, I bet it's good. It was good. It was really good. That's why I commented on it because I was like, and I knew it wasn't because I typically use a Montreal. Yeah, that's your go-to. Yeah, it is like my go-to on most of my grilling. And I could tell it was something different. And he's like, yeah, no, it's a butcher box one. Although the bottle looked different than that. Is there another one or is that the only one? Yeah, I'll look for one. Yeah, interesting. Yeah. I can't wait to try it. I've never seen it on their site before. I know. I didn't know. I had no idea. So I'm glad you brought that up today because it's fresh.

38:57Sal Di Stefano:It was literally yesterday. So I'm so glad you brought it up. Yeah, they have a number of. Okay, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Sweet and smoky barbecue rub. I know. Cajun seasoning. How does that count towards our, so we have our boxes. It's$7. It looks like$7 each. Yeah, I'll start. I'm going to add that. I know. Cool, right? I think it must be new. It has to be. Yeah. Because I didn't know that. I never saw that. Yeah, I never saw it either. That's awesome. And I don't know if they just threw that in, knowing that I'd probably end up talking about it if I used it or whatever. But I have to ask Katrina if she actually intentionally went and ordered it, but it arrived with my last box.

39:32Sal Di Stefano:And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is bomb.

39:34Adam Schafer:So I got another study that confirms what we know, and that is that endurance training causes muscles to shrink. So if you want endurance, that's totally fine. If you're trying to build muscle, endurance training counters that signal. And there's a few reasons why. But one of them, and this is what the study shows. I'll read the title of it. Diffusion and physical constraints limit oxidative capacity, capillary supply, and size of muscle fibers in mice and humans when it comes to endurance training. So essentially what's happening is there is a tradeoff between size and endurance. And part of the reason of this is, you know, if you look at a cell, the larger a cell gets, the ratio of surface area to total volume starts to become disadvantageous to deliver, you know, or to improve its oxidative capacity.

40:25Adam Schafer:In other words, a small cell going from the outside to the inside of the cell is much easier if you're trying to deliver, because endurance exercise is, it's energy, it's a lot of energy. It's very energy demanding. Big muscles just aren't as good for endurance, period, end of story. So if you're sending a signal for endurance, one of the ways your body improves its ability with endurance, because it's an adaptation signal, is by shrinking muscle. So you can feed your muscle, your body all you want. You can do strength training. The signal says we can't have these muscles be so big if you want to have lots of endurance.

40:59Sal Di Stefano:How would you define for the average listener what endurance training looks like as far as like how long is it? Is it a minute your heart rate goes into the cardio threshold? Is it a 20, 30, beyond an hour? Like, how would you describe that to someone who's like, because what I don't want to do is also deter somebody who is, you know, running a little mile and trying to get in good cardiovascular shape to go, oh my God, my muscles are going to shake.

41:23Adam Schafer:No, and look, cardiovascular endurance and capacity is good. Like, you need it. Like, you don't want to just be this muscular person with no endurance. But when this argument comes up, like, it's a fact. And sometimes people argue with it. No, you could train both and it doesn't, that's not true. But if you're training for endurance, that's how you know. Like, are you just being active? Are you walking on a treadmill for activity? Or are you pushing the adaptation of endurance? If you're pushing for the adaptation of endurance, well, then that's what you're asking your body to adapt to. And it's going to make muscle smaller.

41:56Adam Schafer:Just how it works.

41:57Sal Di Stefano:And I think most importantly to understand that when you have very specific goals. Because how many times do we get somebody who's just like, I want to build, I know I want to build muscle. but then they also want to do that. And it's just like, we'd be far better off focusing on building the muscle and then going that route or just focusing on the endurance and then deciding after we're done. By the way,

42:14Adam Schafer:the best approach to what you just said, Adam, for people, it's funny. I'm going through this with my daughter right now. Cause she's off season. She's going to start soccer in a couple months and she, or a few months. And she's like, uh, okay, can I do, can I give her a workout? I told you guys this, right? I gave her a workout, which by the way, so funny. She came, you know, she's with me now this week. Cause she was with her mom last week. and uh remember i had that debate with her over the workout she's like how am i supposed to make gains it's not enough volume so she came over and i'm like are you getting stronger and she's like oh yeah i'm getting way stronger i said it's weird it's as if your dad kind of new yeah that's strange yeah i said the top fitness podcast i'm always trying to make her know i'm cool you know what i mean anyway uh she's like can i should i do conditioning with this and i said no the best way to train for this is separate them.

43:01Adam Schafer:So build muscle and strength and then you go through a block of endurance. If you do it all at once, it's not as effective. It's just competing signals. In fact, there was a study that showed that one week of strength and muscle building, one week of endurance, one week of strength and strength, alternating like that was better than combining them all in the week. You actually got better of both. Yeah, of each. You got more of each by alternating than you did by doing them all at the same time. Yeah, yeah. So just for people. You think that,

43:29Sal Di Stefano:you think the way Rock lost all that weight and muscle was just purely doing endurance or what? He dropped like 60 pounds. Did he explain that? Like, would he... So, I mean, 60? It was 60 pounds. Yeah, you could tell. I mean, he just, he shrunk. I bet he looks better though. Like, I haven't seen a good comparison of what he looks like afterwards, shirt off, shirt off. I don't know, Dylan, if you saw that. Yeah, I don't know. He was wearing a shirt, but I mean, you could tell on his neck and his face. Was this for a roll? That's what he said. Okay. So you had to lose weight for a role. You had to get MMA.

43:55Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

43:56Adam Schafer:Well, that makes sense.

43:56Sal Di Stefano:Kind of, because that's not the guy you get for a role that you want smaller, right? I know. Isn't that kind of typical? Don't you typically get Arnold, The Rock, those guys? You don't go like, he's the best actor. He's our last big dude. Do you? Is that really what he is? I know, you're right.

44:11Adam Schafer:I feel like if you're going to gain or lose a bunch of weight, you got to be like Daniel Day-Lewis. Go get Christian Bale. You're a good actor. Yeah, you're like a really talented actor. He's not really like a great, is he a great actor? I don't think so.

44:22Sal Di Stefano:No, I don't.

44:23Adam Schafer:I mean. He's good, but he's not like. Yeah, I mean, he's good. He's not Robert De Niro. Yeah, exactly. That's what I mean. You do that with that guy, right? Yeah. Him and Batista lost a lot of weight. Remember? Batista. Yeah. Oh, he's playing Mark Kerr. He's going to play Mark Kerr. You guys know who Mark Kerr was? No. Who's that? You guys don't remember the smashing machine? Okay, yes.

44:45Sal Di Stefano:So why would he need to be small for that?

44:47Adam Schafer:Because what may have happened, because Mark Kerr, when he competed, was huge. He was Mark Kerr right away.

44:53Sal Di Stefano:How'd you know that? He was too big.

44:54Adam Schafer:That's an old school MMA fighter. Remember, I used to be in... You recognized that right away? Yeah, so you got to watch the documentary Smashing Machine about him. So this guy entered UFC and just dominated. He was a total beast. But then at the end, I think something happened. I watched in this era. I don't remember that. Oh, yeah, dude. He fought in UFC. He looks jacked right there. Oh, Mark Kerr was a beast, dude. He was a total beast. So that's definitely not the role he did, Doug, for getting smaller. No, I think at the end, Mark Kerr, if I'm not mistaken, maybe you could look him up. Oh, like cancer?

45:21Adam Schafer:I think he got sick or something. He lost a bunch of muscle, if I'm not mistaken. So, yeah. So, Mark Kerr. He's massive right there. He's huge in the beginning of the movie anyway. Yeah. So, I think maybe he lost the weight for the end of the movie. Ah. Mark Kerr either got sick. I don't remember what happened to him exactly. I don't know if it was.

45:41Sal Di Stefano:That would make sense now because he's already, he's playing a role where he's supposed to be jacked, but then they're like, hey, listen, you get really sick at the end of this, so we need a month or so where you're.

45:48Adam Schafer:Yeah, Doug, look up what happened to Mark Kerr, you know why did Mark Kerr lose a bunch of weight or something like that

45:53Sal Di Stefano:I don't remember what it was. How do I not remember this guy's story? Dude he was Was he not in UFC? Was he in the Pride or something else? He fought in UFC too. Really? Because I didn't follow Pride as much

46:03Adam Schafer:Bro they called him the Smashing Machine because the match would start I mean he was so King Shamrock days After. Oh after. Mark Coleman Do you guys remember Mark Coleman? Yes. He trained under Mark Coleman Huh. They came from that whole school where they were just like brawlers yeah we're just gonna yeah basically overwhelm you yeah with our with our aggressiveness yeah and he was scary yeah he did get lots of offense he got sick i think he did get sick doug did you find out yeah how do you spell his last name k-e-r-r oh you guys gotta you guys gotta watch some of his old fights i mean i'm super interested now because i can't i can't figure out why i didn't i don't recall him yeah oh he's got a crazy story i just remember watching him it It was one of those, you would watch his fights, and you'd be like, this, you feel bad.

46:50Sal Di Stefano:He must have some sort of a crazy story other than just being a fire two. Was that the same era? Was that guy with the cowboy hat, had mustache, and who was just all over his head? Don Fry. Don Fry, I want to say, was maybe before him. Yeah, because that would be Ken Shamrock time. Yeah, yeah. Don Fry is Ken Shamrock and all that.

47:06Adam Schafer:Fry was a little after Shamrock, because Shamrock hit his peak earlier. You know, Shamrock, he was a beast before UFC. He fought in, I think it was called Pink Race, if I'm not mistaken, where they would do open hand strikes.

47:18Sal Di Stefano:Oh, that one. And leg locks. What's the one where they used to do like five fights in one night? Well, that's old school UFC. Yeah, when UFC first started, it used to be like tournament style. That's my stuff. And no weight classes? No. So crazy, dude. So The Rock did lose 60 pounds for the role. Yes. Okay. Now, Mark Kerr, he had some opioid addiction, and that's why he lost a lot of weight.

47:43Adam Schafer:Oh, yes, I remember now. Because of the way they used to train. Yeah. They used to train. They were so injured all the time. Bro, Mark Coleman and Kerr and those guys, there was a whole bunch of those guys, the way that they trained was like you go in the gym and you're going to fight. Like we're just going to fight. I mean, that's some of the craziest I've ever seen the rock looking right there.

48:02Sal Di Stefano:So he went up. So he went up and got jacked. Which, okay, now this makes more sense. Because he probably didn't lose 60 from kind of where he cruises at. It looks like he got jacked, put on an extra 15, 20. I think he lost it for that role. He did. He was bigger before. No, well, he's huge right there, Doug. No, when you're looking at the video, you're pointing, that is not him down 60 pounds. That is peak him.

48:22Adam Schafer:Yeah, at the end of the movie.

48:24Sal Di Stefano:100 % that is peak him. At the end of the movie, he's probably down. Have you not seen The Rock with his shirt off before? That is the biggest The Rock has ever been right there. Go Google that. I'm not sure about that. Yes. No, no, no, no. Adam's right. Yes, Doug. Okay, I'm being outvoted here. Well, I mean, Doug, have you never seen The Rock with his shirt off before? And he's huge. Bigger than that. No, he's leaner maybe. Well, anyway, so according to the article, he lost the 60 pounds to play the role. Yeah. Right. But he shot the first half jacked. That's right. And then he lost the weight for that part of the role.

48:58Sal Di Stefano:And it makes sense because that's the biggest I've ever seen in the Rock. He probably went up 20 pounds for the actual beginning of the role. Gained a little body fat size. Yeah, yes. He got huge. And then he probably cut hard and lost the 60 for what he looked like when he gets sicker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's, I don't think I've seen The Rock ever look that big.

49:15Adam Schafer:So that whole era was crazy and what they would do is they would take opioids to mask the pain so they could keep fighting.

49:20Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

49:21Adam Schafer:And they would just keep going and going and some of them became addicted. I believe Coleman got addicted at one point.

49:26Sal Di Stefano:I mean, all the MMA fighters, the wrestlers, everybody was addicted. I mean, a lot of these organizations, I don't know the story of UFC if it was like this, but I know like WWF was like this where they had like an in-house doctor and you just, you finish a match and you heard him.

49:40Adam Schafer:There is an opioid that they would actually inject even before matches. And I can't remember the name of it. But a lot of them got addicted to it. I don't know what that is. I don't remember what it was called. But they hit them with it before going out to do a match. Oh, my God. So they could do the whole. Numb them up. Yeah. You know, what a crazy position to be in, right? Because if I were a pro wrestler, I would have fallen for that. I would have, too. We all would have.

50:04Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I feel like you're a liar if you say you wouldn't. Especially if your passion is that.

50:08Adam Schafer:I would have not said, no, don't do that. I would have been like, I'm going to go out. I'm making all this money. I got my fans. I'm going to go perform. Go. Let's do it. And it was normalized.

50:17Sal Di Stefano:Like, everybody was. It's not like it was this underground shady thing to do. It was like, hey, go see the doctor. He'll take care of it. All my peers do it. The biggest guys on stage are doing it. It's like, yeah, 100 % you would fall into that. Especially a young version, 20-something. Oh, God. Pursuing your dream to be this superstar. Like, oh, of course. I think that would happen. All right.

50:35Adam Schafer:I got a study on ashwagandha that I wanted to bring up. So ashwagandha, I looked up a meta-analysis and some other studies, really, really effective for anxiety and stress, and it does lower cortisol. It does lower, because of the lowered anxiety and stress on the body. This is, again, a meta-analysis. I'll read to you guys the results. There were 15 studies that they used with a combined sample size of 873 people. ashwagandha supplementation significantly reduced anxiety compared to placebo and lowered cortisol as well significantly it is a very effective now it's not a permanent solution but i think with a stress protocol let's say you're over trained and you're trying to like okay i'm trying to back out of this uh organifies green juice has a nice dose of ashwagandha yeah that would be a great thing to add to your repertoire for lowering overall stress.

51:34Sal Di Stefano:Is that in the immediate short term? Like it doesn't have long term, like let's say I was taking ashwagandha consistently for two or three weeks and then I didn't, the benefits stopped right then and there or do they actually still carry on?

51:45Adam Schafer:No, these studies are typically eight to 12 weeks long and you'll start to see the effects within the first one or two weeks. Now for athletes, ashwagandha, people gain muscle and strength on it precisely because it reduces the stress. And athletes oftentimes are redlining. Well, yeah, that's the thing because they're overtraining half the time because they have to keep the movement going.

52:06Sal Di Stefano:That was part of my stack too when you were trying to help me with my testosterone level too. So it has benefits to that also.

52:13Adam Schafer:Yes, it'll raise testosterone with men who have low testosterone. So the green juice from Organifi is great because it has an efficacious dose of ashwagandha plus it has all the other micronutrients from greens in there. Get all your veggie nutrients as well. I mean, it's a great supplement for people trying to manage their stress, for sure. Your water, the one that you shower with, probably has chlorine, and that can alter the microbiome on your skin. It's not a good thing. An altered microbiome can cause dryness, acne, skin problems, or just poor skin health. Anyway, there's a company called Jolie that has shower heads that filter all that out.

52:50Adam Schafer:You put it on, and now you have filtered water that you can wash yourself with. Go to joleyskinco.com. That's J-O-L-I-E-S-K-I-N-C-O.com forward slash Mind Pump. You could try it out for free with free shipping. And if you don't like it, you could return it. Here comes the show. First question is from G Gingerich 1077. How does a person with a full-time desk job and a family find time to get the appropriate amount of weights in for strength each week, the appropriate amount of movement each day, the appropriate amount of cardio and HIIT cardio each week? Okay. First of all, you can't do everything.

53:30Adam Schafer:So just relax with the appropriate amount of everything. You can't do everything. I only do all the things I'm not doing. Listen, if you did MAPS 15, which is two exercises a day, and you got between 8 ,000 to 10 ,000 steps a day, you're going to get 85 % of all the benefit you'll get from strength training activity. That's it. That's all you got to do. How do you get those steps throughout the day? You just throughout the day, track them. So in your Apple watch or phone, you can get a pedometer bathroom trips and you just, you just get up and walk for five to 10 minutes, several times a day. Um, and you'll hit that number and two exercises a day is about 15 to 20 minutes a day.

54:06Adam Schafer:And you probably want to start your day off that way. If you have kids and a family, you're more likely to be consistent.

54:12Sal Di Stefano:If you start your day with it versus end with a short intentional walk in the morning, a short intentional walk at lunch and a short intentional walk at the end of the night will covers it covers that we'll get that up there and it's a massive up by short i mean 20 minutes or less like you could you could get that in uh and just doing that and that's a better strategy and trying to organize an hour block where you're gonna go it's not gonna work yeah that people are just less

54:36Adam Schafer:consistent i think if you just look at your pedometer and you see where you're at all right i'll get up and go for a five minute walk even just timing like i used to have like a little alarms with one of my clients where they get up and just stretch you know because they're so desk bound all day long just to have that like continual like five minutes get up you know stand

54:52Sal Di Stefano:up i also found just helping my clients become aware of the opportunities that are naturally presented to you to just walk more in other words you we all go to a store go something like that it's like hey intentionally park totally it makes a difference far away like oh there's two floors you got to go up i could take the elevator or you know what maybe i'm gonna walk up the stairs

55:12Adam Schafer:on this floor there's a bathroom on the second floor or like oh lunch i could have a door dash

55:16Sal Di Stefano:to me or I could walk up the road where it's a mile away or half a mile away to go get it's like there's a lot of things that are naturally presented to us that we've we've chosen the convenient understandably route you don't have to be in a gym yeah where exactly if you just start to go oh you know what I'm gonna do that thing today like I mean and by the way this goes even to someone who I mean I consider all of us fitness people right like I still think about this type of stuff when it comes to like a day where I know, oh, Saturday, I don't move a lot. It's like, oh, I'm going to intentionally go do chores around the house right now to get my activity.

55:50Adam Schafer:Now you're doing two things. Yeah.

55:52Sal Di Stefano:So I think of it like that. It's like, oh, you know what? I need to move. I haven't been moving all day. You know what? I've been meaning to go clean out that damn garage. I haven't done that in a while. I'm going to go do that.

55:59Adam Schafer:And let me add this, because if you're at work, you're at your desk, you may think you're taking time away from being productive. The data shows that breaking up your day with small walks improves productivity. Way more focused. In fact, we have a ritual here that we only started maybe a couple of years ago at most, where we go for a walk in the middle of the day. The reason why we do it is not to get the steps. That was initially why we do it. I know why we keep doing it. It actually makes us better on the show. We do it because we're better on the podcast. It improves productivity. So taking 20 minutes out of the day makes us better at our job.

56:31Adam Schafer:So I just want to say that because sometimes people are afraid that, oh, I got to work. I got to stay at my desk. Yeah. Next question is from Kaylin Mateus. if I'm not hungry at the end of the day, but I haven't hit my caloric or protein goals for the day, should I still eat?

56:46Sal Di Stefano:This is where your bone broth protein, I think is so good. This right here, because it's so light. Sneaky. Yeah, you could put three scoops of that in there and pound that with water. And so it's super light. And so if you don't have an appetite at the end of the night, but you're consistently under your protein, I think the Payo Valley bone broth is the go-to move. shake it up on some ice or almond milk and drink that.

57:12Adam Schafer:And by the way, a lot of this depends on who I'm talking to. Like if your calories are really low, then we're going to have to try to figure out how to get more calories. If your calories are okay and you're not hungry, it's not that big of a deal. The other thing too is sometimes this is a appetite issue and you may be overtrained. You may have too much stress. Oftentimes, if I had clients like this, which was less common than the client that overeats, right? But I would have clients like this relatively regularly changing the strength training to something that gets them stronger spikes the appetite.

57:45Adam Schafer:And they would have the appetite to be able to eat the food. So it depends on who I'm talking to for sure. Next question is from Delane Elizabeth. What is your best advice for a former college athlete who is finding out that lifting after college is hard when the last four years were filled with team lifts written by coaches? I love lifting and how great it makes me feel. but I've struggled with gym consistency after graduating from college and have gained some weight that I'd like to get rid of. Okay. This is ex-athletes can be very challenging. Yeah. This is like my story right here. It's very challenging because, uh, if you, especially if you're a college athlete, that's high level, right?

58:23Adam Schafer:If you're a college athlete, you've probably lived, you probably lived a nice portion of your life in a competitive environment. Your drivers are different. Your tolerance for intensity is different. and that suddenly changes and you don't know how to get yourself to the gym. I don't have a game. I don't have this competition. I don't have my team. So it really does take some work. And I would say this, buy yourself a well-written program or hire a trainer and start there. Don't just go to the gym to try and figure it out. The program makes a big difference.

58:57Sal Di Stefano:I'm surprised you guys didn't go in the direction of what we're about to release literally today or the next couple days. I think this is part of us testing this new idea out with what we're about to do with the Muscle Mommy program is we are building a community around it of taking people through the program with that accountability and kind of community piece to go with it. So if you're somebody that really likes that, you thrive in that. And it's also getting, you're getting coaching from us, right? Our team. And so it's going to feel like you're getting training, but for like a fraction of what it would normally cost if you had a personal trainer.

59:36Sal Di Stefano:So I think something like that is perfect for them. What's the website for the quiz right now?

59:41Adam Schafer:Musclemommymovement.com forward slash quiz. And that's a free quiz. And you can see where you fit and you'll get some free advice. And then if you want to be a part of a community that helps you stay consistent, it's going to be awesome. Next question is from Jaina B. How do you decide whether to keep fitness as a hobby or turn it into a career? Yeah, good question. If you're asking this question, you probably already love fitness. Okay, so you already love fitness. How do you know if you want to make it a career? you also have to love people just as much if you really love fitness but you're like yeah people are cool but i don't want to be with somebody what a great point that's what a great that's a

1:00:18Sal Di Stefano:great question to ask yourself because that's the deciding factor that is i know a lot of people that love fitness they love training themselves and they love that's right all the things but they're like not people shooting for other people people and they don't think yeah what a great i I think that's an easy way to solve this.

1:00:35Adam Schafer:And why is this important? Because when you're a trainer, you're not going to be in front of people that you just like. You're going to be in front of a lot of different people who are very different from you. Difficult personalities. Different goals, difficult personalities.

1:00:47Sal Di Stefano:I just did a clip on Instagram about this. Like you, 8 to 10, you have to be a chameleon. You are going to train people that have different ideology, different morals than you, worldviews, like hobby, all the things. and you got to find a way to enjoy that process. And if you can't see yourself enjoying those conversations with people who don't see eye to eye you or that you wouldn't find yourself hanging out with outside of training, that doesn't seem interesting to you or you don't like that challenge, it ain't for you.

1:01:17Adam Schafer:No, I find people fascinating. I do. All people fascinating. So when I would train people, I was always so interested in the person and what they did and what made them tick. And, okay, this person's abrasive. That's interesting. It didn't make me angry. It was more like, let's see if I can get this person to open up. Let me try this technique. And I just loved people. And that's what made the job so enjoyable. It wasn't the fitness that made it enjoyable. The fitness was – you better love fitness if you get into the fitness industry. That's a no-brainer.

1:01:51Sal Di Stefano:You know, I used to tell people career paths, like one of the – I just talked about this the other day is, you know, what do you find yourself reading at night? You know, what do you find yourself when you're not being paid? What do you, and if you're, if this person is, is that, uh, that would, based off that advice would be, Oh, you should be a personal trainer, but such a good point that maybe you're doing all those things. Cause you're really into it as a hobby, but then you think, Oh yeah, I'm not in, I'm not, I don't see myself holding conversations with someone with different political views than me.

1:02:17Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I can't, I don't see me putting up with personalities like that. And like, so you could definitely have this as kind of a hobby, but not like that side of it.

1:02:24Adam Schafer:And you have to be very hard to offend. You have to, I mean, I love this story. You get that thick skin. Oh, God. I mean, I remember I trained this, I'll never forget, I trained this general surgeon. He was this old school doctor. And I remember we were working, it was like one of our first sessions, might've been like the fifth workout. And he was warming up and he was super, right, right out the gate. Like he was abrasive and kind of like very cynical. And he was warming up and we were talking about, I was asking him questions. He's a general surgeon. And I was asking him questions about medications.

1:02:56Adam Schafer:And he's like, you know, and I knew he was on a statin because you have to fill out the form on what you're taking or whatever. And I'm like, have you ever considered taking CoQ10? And he looks at me. He's like, what is that? Some like magic herb or something like that? And he kind of like, he likes, you know, he's like a snarky. Yeah, he scoffs at me and he like keeps going. And I remember it didn't make me upset. I remember him like kind of laughing inside like this guy's hilarious, right? So anyway, we kept working out. And I, you know, I'd tell him jokes and warm him up. and I remember he came in, I don't know, four workouts later.

1:03:24Adam Schafer:He's like, well, and I remember he was looking, he didn't want to look at me in the face either because it's just his personality. I asked my buddy who's a cardiologist about that thing you said. He goes, you were right. I should probably start taking it. And after that, he warmed up to me. We became such good friends, but you have to be that kind of person because you're going to be - Yeah, you can't be offended by that. Yeah, if you're like this young liberal college student, you're going to get the old conservative dude who's going to talk about how much he loves Trump. Like, you better be okay.

1:03:47Adam Schafer:He's going to wear a MAGA hat to work out. You have to. And vice versa. Because you've got to help them with fitness. You're not there to agree with everything. So if that's not you, don't do it.

1:03:56Sal Di Stefano:My favorite clients were the clients that I didn't have things in common with. Because it was what a great way to challenge my own beliefs, to learn the other side. I'm forced to. I'm working anyways. And so you have to really embrace that and be into that if you're going to be good at it.

1:04:11Adam Schafer:Totally, 100%. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you at Mind Pump Media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price.

1:04:57The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. if you enjoy this show please share the love by leaving us a 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