2811: This Food Item IS NOT As Healthy as You Think

14:38Adam Schafer:Don't you guys agree? Oh, yeah. It's always breakfast, right? That's the most challenging one. And the big challenge around it is exactly this. It's like what's a breakfast food? Yeah. Oh, and I don't have any time. So I fit it in that category. My favorite one is I'm rushed in the morning. Scrambling eggs takes a grand total of eight minutes. If that. Maybe. If that. But it's weird that we're like convinced that it's like, no, no, I have to eat while I'm running out of the door.

15:01Sal Di Stefano:By the time, this is why it's such BS. The thing, the enchilada or the chicken and rice or the ground beef and rice, whatever you had for dinner thing. By the time you, to make this easy too, by the way, I don't know if people do this or not. We make the big dinner, and then when I'm cleaning the kitchen, I'm portioning it out in Tupperware. So it's already set. I literally throw it in my glass thing in the microwave. I hit 230. I crack the eggs over. By the time that thing is done microwaving, the eggs are ready to get thrown on top of that. It is not long at all. So that idea, you know, a hack for somebody who can't wrap their brain around doing this or with a client, what I would do.

15:44Sal Di Stefano:this is another way i love to use this tool you fast somebody for 24 to 48 hours and then they're they're start to realize and then their first meal they get to have is the breakfast dinner is the is the eggs over their side yeah name that whatever it is watch how good that tastes when you haven't had something for that long and it's like you need to recondition that or change that relationship with food there you go that's how you start doing that is and if that's so hard for you to wrap your brain around. And then after you've conditioned yourself, which I've been doing this long enough now, like I actually crave that.

16:19Sal Di Stefano:Like that sounds so much better than a bowl of cereal or waffles or pancakes do for breakfast is having one of those dinners with some eggs cracked over the top.

16:29Adam Schafer:I'm just thinking of so many things like toast. When would you eat toast aside from breakfast? Yeah, you wouldn't. A slice of toast with butter. I mean, it's a really good thing to think about and understand because I think the key, I know this, the key to long-term success with diet is changing your relationship to food. That's really what it boils down to. That's all this is. Because when you have a, first off, you have to have a complete relationship with food. What I mean by that is if you grew up in a modern society, which if you're listening to this podcast, the odds are you did, your relationship with food is very narrow, likely.

17:05Adam Schafer:It's likely this really narrow relationship where it really boils down to, is it the right time to eat this food and is it palatable? That's it. It's really about it. That's how you judge what you need to eat for the most part is am I going to enjoy eating this thing? You don't have a complete relationship like how does this affect my digestion or athletic performance or energy. You don't have a complete relationship with it. And I know this because I've trained so many people that when I would have people start paying attention, they started to realize that certain foods that they ate all the time made them feel crummy.

17:34Adam Schafer:Like I didn't even realize that the energy crash I had was because I had a bagel every morning. Once I took that out, I felt better. So one of my family members is doing this with diet, and she has eliminated a lot of things out of her diet and then recently had an oat milk latte from Starbucks, and she texted us, and she's like, this kills my stomach. She's like, I didn't realize I always had stomach issues, and it was probably this thing I had every day. I just had to take it out for 30 days before I realized it. But once you have a complete relationship, here's the selling point now. I'm going to sell it to everybody.

18:06Adam Schafer:As your relationship with food becomes more complete, it gets easier to eat healthy. Way easier. It's not like this struggle all the time because you have this better relationship with it.

18:15Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I think it's just, I think it's hilarious that something that you admit that you like at 6 p.m. at night, you don't at 7. That should make you want to inspect that relationship. It's like, that's strange. It's not like I'm asking you to eat something that you don't like. I'm like, all I'm saying is the thing that you ate at 7 o 'clock that you love to eat, throw four eggs over it in the morning time and it's life changing. And then just do that for a while. Recondition what you eat in the morning like that and holy shit, look at this. And it's so time saving because you're already making...

18:51Sal Di Stefano:Dinner is the one that I feel like most people, not everybody, but most people consistently make, right?

18:57Adam Schafer:If they're going to cook anything.

18:58Sal Di Stefano:If you're going to cook... I mean, obviously there's people out there that are like, I don't cook anything. I get that too. But the one meal you like. But yeah, the one meal you cook dinner. Okay, so stop cooking just for dinner and double the recipe. Double or triple the recipe. And then while you're cleaning the kitchen up, which we all do, we have to do, section it off in the cup of rice, the six to eight ounces of meat in your Tupperware. Put it in the fridge. And then in the morning when you get up and you're in such a hurry, take the two minutes, 30 seconds to put it in the microwave and throw the four eggs on.

19:28Adam Schafer:It's so funny. I was just having this conversation, uh, something like along those lines with my wife. Cause I did, uh, I grilled a bunch of chicken thighs yesterday. So I did like meal prep sometimes, make a bunch of chicken thighs. So I have a bunch of ready meals that I can have, you know, when I come to work or whatever. And so she's putting them in Tupperware for me. And she's like, you're going to eat the same thing. Like, don't you get sick of this? I said, no. I said, first off, I like the taste. It's not bad. It's not like as good as like pizza or something like that, but it's not bad.

19:59Adam Schafer:but it makes me feel good to eat this way. So I enjoy eating it. Now it's not the only thing I eat. I don't just eat these meals because she makes dinner. So we have something different for dinner. Sometimes I'll have something different for breakfast, but it's my relationship with it is it's enjoyable because it doesn't taste bad, but I like the way it makes me feel that I was just came back from LA for a podcast circuit. And I'm very aware. I've been doing this for mind pump for a while now where I go and I'll fly somewhere and do like three or four shows in a day, which requires a lot of energy, not physical energy, but you have to be mentally sharp and you go from one place to another, get on, you got to do your thing.

20:37Adam Schafer:And, you know, so I'm really, really conscious of how I feel mentally. I'm very aware of which foods I should eat when I'm doing that. And it typically looks like lower carb, higher protein, and I'll have some fiber. So breakfast, normally what I would have would say steak, eggs, and potatoes i'll have just some steak and some berries and then for lunch it's going to be like some kind of vegetable and some kind of protein i don't normally eat like that regularly but i know i feel more mentally sharp to be able to do four shows from 8 a.m to you know 3 p.m yeah and so i'm just aware and so what does this mean when i eat it do i hate it no i enjoy it because i know what it's going to produce so the relationship with it is fine doesn't bother me yeah you know

21:17Sal Di Stefano:i mean i actually prefer it i think it's great i also think too uh i mean you can't you you don't do dairy but the the dishes that i'm i'm giving examples of too throw some cheese throw some cheese i wish i could what one to two ounces of cheese on top of that too i mean is you can throw that on anything is amazing i do and let me tell you uh you one to two ounces of cheese on a dish like that is not what's keeping you fat or not fat no like that you're talking about a couple hundred calories in the morning time over a healthy dish that's not the difference of you being in shape or not shape so it doesn't have to be so it doesn't have to be dry chicken chicken breast and white rice and pouring eggs like no i'm i've got cheese and salsa i'm like oh it's

22:00Adam Schafer:it's a salsa is another good one yeah it's amazing all right i gotta bring this up i can't hold it any longer justin because you're gonna die bro over there so remember how i brought up how um they uh killer whales have been observed putting dead salmon on their heads yeah and it's like a style it's like they're showing off their new style did you know chimps are being observed putting blades of grass up their butt what they'll walk around and they'll have long blades of grass sticking out of their butt and to the best of the scientist's ability they're like I think it's a style

22:39Sal Di Stefano:or they ate something that made their butt itch no

22:43Adam Schafer:No, they're literally, this is like a phenomenon that's been well observed. It's not like they happen once. They're like shaking it around. No, you got to see the pictures, dude. Let's see if Doug can find some of these pictures. They're walking around. It's like long grades of blood. What's the benefit here? Long blades of grass. It's non-functional and pointless cultural fad.

23:00Sal Di Stefano:Developed a fashion trend of sticky.

23:01Adam Schafer:You got to find the pictures of it, Doug, because I was cracking up. There you go. Yeah, see? Grassy butt. Yeah, look at the guy on the left. They're so hot right now. Look at that, dude. But you know what it makes me think of, too? Like, we laugh at that. we think they're so ridiculous. Like, come on, everything we wear is ridiculous. I was going to say, this is them making us.

23:17Sal Di Stefano:They see like women walking around skirts or like this is their version of it.

23:20Adam Schafer:Or super long, you know, super high heels that hurt your feet or whatever. Yeah. Wow. The first chimp to do that was the cool chimp. Nice little accessory. Right, right, right. And then everybody decided. He's the trendsetter. Look at how much grass he has up his butt. Hey, look at Dave, dude. He's got something shiny over here. As soon as the female chimps were attracted to it, all the other dudes were like. That is so weird.

23:44Sal Di Stefano:I know. Animals are funny. Is it possible there's some sort of nutrient that's in the grass that is getting absorbed? I don't think so. Or was this like a prank and they're like, you know, like farting it over one of them or something? I mean, did you go down the rabbit hole and read some theories or did they just go directly to the trend? They literally, the best theory, that's it.

24:02Adam Schafer:It's some kind of social trend.

24:04Sal Di Stefano:As soon as Doug Googled it, that was the first thing that came up was trend, was fashion trend. Someone was just accidentally trying to wipe or something and stuck it in there. And I was just walking around.

24:14Justin Andrews:Oh, man. He's on to something. There's a 12-year-old chimp named Juma who started it all in 2023. The origin. Oh, it's like this is a new. Hey, you got those Jumas? And so once Juma did it, five other chimps did the same thing within a few weeks.

24:32Adam Schafer:What? Yeah. Then they just grab one and do that blade thing. Juma's a trendsetter, dude. Yeah, Juma knows. You got them Jumas, dude. You got the new Jumas? What's going on, dude? Weird. Speaking of like revelations and stuff, so I'm in LA, right? I got to share this because it's just, you know, for the aging dudes listening right now. So I'm in the hotel and in the hotel room, the bathroom has your mirror, but it has one of those side mirrors that kind of unfolds, kind of folds out the little mirror. Yeah, yeah. And I wake up, do my thing, take a shower. I'm trying to get my hair to look halfway decent or whatever.

25:10Adam Schafer:So I use the little mirror, and I go like this. I see my head, bro, from this angle right here.

25:15Sal Di Stefano:Bro. I think every - Hey. Hey. Your hair loss is accelerating really fast. I think every - It's happening. Every man that went bald has that story. That one time. That time. I know. You were never in denial that you were thinning. No, I knew it. I was never in denial. But there's a time. Where you see it. There's a very clear moment in time. And I remember when mine was, it was when we were shooting content early days out in the front and, uh, Rachel still worked for us. And I think her and drew were behind the camera back then. And she's doing cuts, you know, and then she'd come over and she'd be like, and between cuts, I was down on my phone working.

25:55Sal Di Stefano:And that was when we had all them soft lights up there. It was bright lights. And so she's like, you know, what do you think of this edit? She's going through. and then you see me put my head down and look at my head and i'm like yeah yeah what's happening nobody told me it was like that bad you know it's like i knew of course i knew like but i didn't know like that like and i was just that was it i lived next day i was shaved off dude and then i never

26:18Adam Schafer:looked back well so i'm like i'm not as brave as you are so i was telling my wife because my wife's been slowly like encouraging me cut your hair shorter like let's slowly transition so i text her i'm like babe i'm like it's really bad she's like it's not i'm like honey you're short you don't see the top like like you know because you see me from that's how i felt katrina was katrina's like oh it's fine i'm like you don't see the top yeah you don't see the angle yeah so so she's she's like this is what you're gonna do she goes uh when vicky cuts your hair so so today it's shorter every week get it a little shorter a little shorter and then eventually you'll be all the way down this is an interesting strategy yeah i'm not against it i think it's i think it's interesting i'm more of a rip the band-aid off so you get like the crew cut going now because

26:57Sal Di Stefano:So I'm trying to think if I, like, I'm looking at it right now and I'm like, if I grew mine back out, I think I might be like. Would it be like this? Well, who knows, though? It's been a while. You know what I'm saying? So I like, because I was already committed before that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're thin enough now where I was, that was enough for me. The white light hitting, like, the experience you just had was enough for me to go like. But I also, you know, because, and you'll see, watch, when you get all these messages. Because there's a bunch of dudes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as a kid, I shaved my head intentionally, like, all the time.

27:28Sal Di Stefano:So did I. Oh, you did. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. So then it shouldn't be a big deal for you either. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I feel like if you were -

27:33Adam Schafer:Honestly, if we weren't on camera all the time, I wouldn't care less. I'd just shave it. But I just, I'm waiting for the comments. You know what I mean? Like, oh, he shaved his head. Where'd it go? You know? Maybe become a beanie guy. A beanie guy? Yeah, yeah. I don't got a good hat.

27:43Sal Di Stefano:You're not really a hat guy.

27:43Adam Schafer:No, you guys have good hat faces.

27:45Sal Di Stefano:I don't. The beak thing. Justin is the one that makes me the most angry. He has this gorgeous hair and he wears a hat all the time. It's like disrespectful. Yeah, what's wrong with it, bro? It's disrespectful to guys that don't have hair. I don't like silly hair. To see a guy wear a bald cap all the time. Yeah, what's wrong with you, bro? Dude, it's just not my thing, man. Yeah. Yeah. All right, whatever it is. Whatever, bro. Disrespectful. Yeah. Sorry.

28:08Adam Schafer:You know, back in the day, bald heads were prized. Really? Yes. I love that you could always back up. Yes, and men used to shave their heads in different cultures. He never brought this up when I was bald.

28:22Sal Di Stefano:I think that was because of syphilis. As soon as he starts going bald, he starts fighting. He comes out with the science to support why this makes him a superior man. I haven't seen that.

28:33Adam Schafer:That was syphilis, and they got wigs as a result. Is that how the wig thing started? Yeah, yeah. The powdered wigs. Because they all had syphilis, yeah. Wow. I know in Japanese culture, men would shave the top. I know that for a long time, not recent, but a while ago, if you were gray or especially balding, it was considered wisdom. You were considered more wise. That's gray. I know that about gray. I don't know about bald. No, really. It was bald. You had to have the really long. No, not that. Whatever, dude. Mustachios. Are you searching for us, Doug?

29:11Justin Andrews:Yeah. So in Egypt, apparently, it was a big thing. Bald heads. Yeah, there you go. That's a long time ago, though. Egypt. Things have changed.

29:17Sal Di Stefano:The Yule Brenner look. Whatever, dude. Well, no, fact check just the syphilis thing. I'm going to hint that. Oh, yeah. No, I know. I'm on point with that. Across various cultures, shaving your head was a symbol of - The hidden racist history of hair loss? Huh? Racist? Look at the top right. Racist history? The hidden racist history of hair loss. Come on, bro. Everything's racist. That's so stupid. Racist.

29:35Adam Schafer:See, right there, what's that symbol of wisdom? Historically, in some context, baldness was associated with maturity wisdom and nurturing, and it was treated with neutrality and art rather than as a flaw. Yeah, just look up powdered wigs and syphilis.

29:48Sal Di Stefano:Well, I feel like the wisdom part is that because it's just like, for example, Doug, with all his hair and his good looks, could pass as a very young man still. Yeah. When you're bald, there's no passing as a young man. As soon as I became fully bald, I never got carded again. Really? Yeah, never. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. Once that happened, it was just like, it's not that athletic, you know. Yeah, there's no like, you can't pull off the... Maybe he's 17. Yeah. No.

30:13Adam Schafer:He's like, he's for sure of age. We can sell him this alcohol. Yeah, see, look at that. Powdered wigs were heavily associated with the syphilis epidemic that plagued Europe starting the eighth time. I knew that. Thank you. Wow. Popular, fashionable, a necessary way to conceal the symptoms of the disease, which included patching hair loss.

30:32Sal Di Stefano:So this is like the big white ones, like the judges. Powdered wigs.

30:35Adam Schafer:Yeah.

30:36Sal Di Stefano:Those are called powder wigs. They would powder them. They would powder them. They would powder them.

30:39Adam Schafer:They would have a wig. and I don't know if it was human hair or horse hair. I think it was horse hair. And they would powder them with white powder to make them white. So they're called powdered wigs.

30:49Sal Di Stefano:Oh, so those would be colored normally.

30:51Adam Schafer:Because horse hair. They would use horse hair. No kidding. Yeah. I didn't know that. And they'd be braided or whatever. Have you ever seen pictures of like parliament, English parliament, and they'll wear them?

30:59Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I feel like I've seen that, but I didn't realize they were powdered. Yeah. I had no idea.

31:05Adam Schafer:It's really weird that men were into that. You know what's weird, though? If you had syphilis, you were just screwed, huh? How did it go away back then? It didn't? I don't think it went away. Wow. You just suffered through it until it took you out. What does that say?

31:16Justin Andrews:Yeah, so the wigs were made out of human hair, horse hair, and goat hair.

31:20Adam Schafer:Depending on how rich you were.

31:21Justin Andrews:I suppose.

31:23Adam Schafer:Goat hair was cheap. And horse hair. Yak hair as well. Yak hair. Wow.

31:29Sal Di Stefano:I don't know. And then they put powder all over it. It's chest hair. It doesn't look like it had powder all over it. They look like they're white.

31:34Adam Schafer:Yeah, but that's because there were paintings. They didn't have your picture, but it was powder. I guess that's a good point. Yeah. You want to know what's a weird trend that they did in Japan? I think it's Japan. The women would blacken their teeth. Did you guys know this? Oh, yeah, that's true. What?

31:48Sal Di Stefano:With, like, charcoal or what?

31:50Adam Schafer:I don't know what they would use, but because you'll still see old paintings. Because they used charcoal to brush your teeth back in the days. No, no, no, no. This was like they would stain their teeth black. And this is like wealthy women would do this.

32:03Sal Di Stefano:That is weird, dude. Yes. I just picture it. I'm like, that will look dysfunctional.

32:07Adam Schafer:Yeah, and you can see old Japanese paintings with these. What was the theory on? I don't know exactly.

32:13Sal Di Stefano:Other than to signal wealth, right?

32:15Adam Schafer:It was a Jack. Okay, so here we go. It was called, how do you say that, Doug?

32:19Justin Andrews:Ohaguro? Gudo?

32:20Adam Schafer:Okay. Ohaguro. It was a Japanese cosmetic custom primarily practiced from the Heian to Ego. That's a long time. It was practiced for. So from 794 to, wow, 1868 periods where women and some men dyed their teeth black using a solution of iron fillings and vinegar. It signified beauty, maturity, marital status, and social status, also acting as a dental sealant to prevent tooth decay. Wow. Huh. Isn't it? Look at that. And you'll see pictures of or paintings. I have never heard of that. Black teeth, though. Yeah. That doesn't look that good. No. Yeah, see, look. See right there? Wow. Looks like you don't have teeth.

32:56Adam Schafer:Yeah. Yeah. Dude, people are weird, dude. So blades of grass up your butt's not that big of a deal.

33:01Sal Di Stefano:Apparently, it's, you know, par for the course. Yeah, see? That's fascinating. I have no idea. Where did you come across that one?

33:08Adam Schafer:I read it a long time ago. Japanese culture to me has always been very interesting. Doug and I have talked about this before. Did you know that one, Doug? I'd heard it before. Oh, so you did. Okay. So Doug and I have talked about this before because when we started Maps, which we still haven't done, we said there was a number. We said once we hit this number, we're going to go to Japan. We never did. We never went to Japan. But I've always wanted to go. I'm sure you passed that number. Way passed. Oh, yeah. A long time ago.

33:28Sal Di Stefano:Do you guys remember what the number was? Yeah, I do. I'll tell you off air. Oh, yeah.

33:32Adam Schafer:We passed it month two. No, no. That's hilarious. Yeah, but... I'm still waiting to go. Japan has always been an interesting culture to me because they did judo. I find it fascinating. I love the culture. I love how polite they are. I want to watch a sumo match. I think the food is interesting. I've always wanted to go to a sumo match. I want to go to a judo. You've done it.

33:55Sal Di Stefano:You know the sumo match when they come over here is really cool. I know. I know it's obviously not there or whatever like that, but that was like really cool. Sumo wrestlers over there are like major. When they do the sumo match over here. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it's fun.

34:08Adam Schafer:They're major celebrities over there and I think they have like a big celebration. We turned 40 if I'm not mistaken. It's like a huge birthday. It's like crazy to watch the amount of food they can consume. Yeah. In one sitting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? Where'd you see that? I've seen the videos. I don't know. Yeah. It's a lot. That's awesome. It's insane. It's a lot.

34:24Sal Di Stefano:What does it say about us every time we do this all the time? You know that? You and Doug started. Maybe it's your fault. What? Well, there's been a lot of milestones that we said we were going to do a thing. Oh, we just bypassed it. Yeah. I don't think we've ever followed through. I don't think I've written any of these. I think some of them are good to skip. There's a couple that I'm glad we didn't do.

34:46Adam Schafer:We don't need to go any further.

34:47Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, there's a couple crazy ones.

34:48Adam Schafer:We'll talk about it. Maybe that's probably why we didn't do those.

34:51Sal Di Stefano:But there's been a lot of other ones besides that, like of traveling somewhere or buy this thing or do a thing. Like we've set a lot of milestones and I don't think we've done any of them. None of them. None of them. No. So what does that say? We're busy. I think we're just, yeah. I don't know. We just keep going. Keep moving.

35:10Adam Schafer:A trip to Japan would take, we'd have to go for at least two weeks. That's why. I think 10 days you can do a lot. 10 days, yeah. Have you done Singapore?

35:17Justin Andrews:I have. You've done Singapore. Long, long time ago.

35:20Adam Schafer:You know, there's one of us in here that would stop the Japanese trip because it takes too long away from the business. pretty sure everybody else would be okay i think we could work 10 days out yeah there's one of us yeah one of us has a problem every time i take a day off

35:40Adam Schafer:hey speaking of eating a lot dude i had to go up a size in viore pants oh bro are you double xl's no the pants pants so i wear the double xl's not these not these the um which ones are the ones that look like slacks is that is that what i'm wearing Love Meta. I usually wear 34, and it fits my waist, but my wife's been making fun of me because they're too tight around my legs. Yeah. So I went and got 36s, so we'll see how that goes. Oh, wow. You jumped up. But the legs are a little tight. There's another size you could do instead of. Shut up. Just to get smaller. So that cardio is really coming into the fact, Tom.

36:13Adam Schafer:Yes, like, how's those cardio weeks going? It's only, hey, I just started it, you guys. Give it some time. This is this week again, right? Yeah, so last week. So I'll just be straight up. So this is just, it's obviously a struggle. It's a small step forward for me. But on the cardio weeks, I'll still touch the weights a tiny bit. God, you still haven't done that? Just a tiny bit. Bro. It's just a tiny bit. Jessica, dude, come on. Get on this guy. Shame him way more. No, no, no, no. Listen. You got like ankle weights? No, I'll do like a couple sets. Dude, you are hilarious. I know. Okay, gotcha.

36:45Adam Schafer:It sucks. But anyway, I'm just cardio. Just cardio, and then the other week is just strength training. it's actually making the strength training weeks really enjoyable because I miss it and I don't not like walking on the treadmill I love listening to books I really enjoy listening to books

37:01Sal Di Stefano:well the part to me that's interesting to me is that you allow yourself to still do this little thing where it's just like why not just rip the bandaid all the way off I'm not wouldn't that be the part that makes it sounds so logical I know wouldn't that be what you would at least coach someone to do No, no, no. No, I know you. I'll just keep... But I mean, like, so how do you do this? So when I set goals, whether it's nutrition, exercise goals, whatever. Yeah. Like, so in my head, and I'm just curious how you frame it for yourself, like, it's not a successful week until I've done that. Until I've proven I can just do cardio, no weight, nothing like that.

37:44Sal Di Stefano:Do you say that to yourself, or are you more like, like, this is, I'm easing my way into this training. That's a good job. So what's the self-talk through that process?

37:53Adam Schafer:I want to be able to do it in a way.

38:00Adam Schafer:Listen, I'm taking small steps because I think if I take too big, which is actually still a big step for me. Well, obviously. Just doing a few sets a few times a week. Has it been scaling down, though, consistently? Way down. Way down. Because on the weeks I do cardio, I'll do maybe for the whole week a grand total of six sets. That's not even one workout for me normally. That's like a quarter of a workout normally. So it's still a big scale down and it's early. I'm early in it. Okay. So I'm just taking it one little step at a time because I know this. I know this about myself. If I go too far, I'll revert back and bounce back.

38:35Sal Di Stefano:So, I mean, so again, so is that like the goal? Like, okay, I'm still progressing. Next week maybe I'll try even less sets or no sets? Are you saying that to yourself?

38:45Adam Schafer:Yeah, what I'm doing is I'm actually really starting to enjoy the weeks that I don't lift that much and just listen to a book. So I think the more I do that, the more I enjoy it, then the less I should be able to do is what I think. But we'll see, dude. We'll see. It's a son of a gun, man. Everybody has their thing. This is mine. This is mine, dude. It's really making me, I'll tell you what, dude, it makes me so empathetic to when we have callers who have challenges around nutrition and workouts it's like man i get it dude it's it's a weird strange everybody has their thing some people it's you know things that are like real obvious alcohol drugs whatever uh you know fitness is a good thing so it could be even harder to tackle because it's supposed to be a good thing right yeah it's like a work addiction work is a good thing what do you mean i should yeah yeah so but I totally get it.

39:37Adam Schafer:So when I talk to people, I'm like, all right. And I've been coaching people like this for a long time, but we'll take one little step at a time because you push too hard, either yourself or someone else. You just go in the opposite direction.

39:49Sal Di Stefano:Now, do you consider this connected also with the nutrition piece? Are you handling those separately? Are you trying to handle those at the same time?

39:59Adam Schafer:Oh, you know, diet has never been a huge big thing. So I'm not stuffing myself. So I'm not trying to eat a ton of food. I just have a high appetite. So that's not an issue. That's not going to be a problem for me. It's the workout. The big thing is the workout. It's the lifting. I got to go lift. I got to get a pump.

40:20Sal Di Stefano:Okay, so you're not trying to like, you know what? I need to really also probably cut back on some calories too.

40:25Adam Schafer:No, I mean, not really. That's not really a big thing for me. It's the workouts for sure. I could change the diet all day long. You know what will happen if I change the diet? I'll just try to get shredded.

40:34Sal Di Stefano:Well, I mean, I almost feel like if you don't, you're just going to keep – because this break I don't think is going to revert in any less muscle at all. I think you're going to just get more muscle. If you keep your eating the way it's eating, you're eating right now, and you scale back on that, you're just going to get bigger. Well, here's the deal.

40:48Adam Schafer:If I do this to try to get smaller, it's not going to work. I have to do this to break the cycle and enjoy it, and then the side effect will probably be less muscle. But if I'm trying to force this result, I could. That's where I don't agree. I think you're going to build more muscle. I mean, okay, so it's like somebody who's like, I really want to get in shape. I'm really concerned about the way I look. And we just say, look, just try to chase performance and then let's see how you look. Yeah, yeah. So if I just go and try to kind of break the cycle, break the addiction a little bit, break the connection, then however I look is however I look.

41:30Adam Schafer:But if I'm like, I'm going to make myself lose muscle, you know how easily I could twist that into getting shredded? Then it becomes like, I'm going to get down to 4 % body fat type of thing. And I know myself. Yeah, that's interesting. I know. That's interesting. Paying the butt.

41:42Sal Di Stefano:Well, we have, today's a big day too. I get Corinne's DEXA scan since we started. Oh. Yeah, I did it today. So I'm really interested.

41:50Adam Schafer:What's your, what do you think? You know. Her calories, she's increased them quite a bit.

41:56Sal Di Stefano:Oh yeah, a lot. So this is what will – I wish that I was out there with her right now because I'd want to communicate to her, and so she'll get to listen to this afterwards no matter what, is no matter what the results are, I'm already happy with where we're at. So I'm praying that they come back and they don't alarm her in any way, right? Because no matter what, I knew I wanted to go here. and uh because and last week was a tough week uh heading into this week and you know one of the things that we you know we saw a new number on the scale again with that we've never seen and one of the things that i let her know i said hey just so you know um you know we're heading to dexa i actually had already before when we first started this i had a number in my head i wanted to push you all the way up to and you're still under that and so and she was like oh wow really and i'm like yeah i said so you're doing great like you're she's inspiring me dude yeah Yeah, she's very courageous.

42:54Sal Di Stefano:I've been so impressed with all the things that she's juggling right now too. She does a lot for the business and she's got a lot of stuff going on. And moving all the way across the country to be over here and then to also be doing this is like she's very strong. Very, very strong and tough. and we have not, I anticipated a lot more hard conversations that we would have to have and kind of setbacks and like, okay, let's get back on the horse type of conversation. She's been like, whatever I tell her, she's, and I've really, and I've continued like, I just keep challenging her and challenging her and I keep waiting for her to like have that kind of like, okay, it's okay, we'll go, but she's been.

43:38Sal Di Stefano:She looks so healthy too. She looks so good. Very fit, very healthy. She looks so good right now. and everybody keeps coming up and telling me I'm like you should tell her that because I don't know if you're telling her that because I think so too

43:48Adam Schafer:I'm trying not to say anything about her appearance because I know other people are and I don't want to add more focus on you know how she looks but I see that she's strong and she's inspiring me that's what I'm communicating to her because really she was one of the you know there's a lot of things that have inspired me but to see her do that it's like okay I gotta tackle this

44:08Sal Di Stefano:yeah so I'm curious so my guess is I mean, I hope we put on a solid four, maybe five pounds of muscle. Wow. It would be really nice. And how long? What would you say? What was your last day? I mean, I'll know when I see the dates, but I don't know. Was it 45 days? That sounds about right. That sounds about right. That sounds we're around there. Man, that'd be great. Yeah, yeah. I think so. I mean, you've got to know right away that you jumped the calories we've jumped. there's a lot of water going on right now right so with this actual scale um but yeah i think i think we could have put four pounds of muscle on that's incredible i mean she's hit pr after pr after pr yeah and so so and you know so this is good to talk about because you know what if it didn't come back that what if it doesn't come back we've only put one pound of muscle on or she still has to go this right exactly and we talk about this on the show a lot too because it comes in with these weird waves.

45:09Sal Di Stefano:Like sometimes then all of a sudden, two weeks will go by and she'll put on four or five pounds. It's not like you add this perfect, there's this perfect mathematical equation of being a calorie surplus.

45:20Adam Schafer:Quarter pound every three days or whatever. Yeah, yeah.

45:23Sal Di Stefano:But we know we're doing the right things because she's hitting PR, she's strong in her workouts, she's like, muscle bellies are getting filled out, like all is good. But I hope for the sake, for the psychological part as she's going and building and doing this that she gets to see great results.

45:40Adam Schafer:Did she get her hormones tested? I would be surprised if her hormones didn't just get more optimized from feeding herself.

45:48Sal Di Stefano:You know what? I'll ask her the last time she did blood work. We didn't do blood work together. But that would kind of wish

45:54Adam Schafer:Because hormones are so strongly affected by if you're constantly trying to eat minimal or in a deficit, that'll make your hormones

46:05Sal Di Stefano:not look well even without seeing the blood work i think that's a testament to why we're hitting prs and everything right there for sure you know i'm saying that's part of it but yeah so part of it is

46:14Adam Schafer:like you ain't gonna build a bunch of get really strong and have your hormone profile get worse

46:19Sal Di Stefano:it almost always is getting which again back to circling back like what could happen is we don't see as much muscle as i would have liked of which would mean that the scale is going to read higher body fat percentage and things like that that would would normally spend somebody out and why i'm saying is like that still wouldn't even spend me out as a coach it's that these things are starting to organize and get better and the the pop even more positive results could end up piling on down the road which just highlights again how this happens to people sometimes where they can get really discouraged it's like you know you're doing the work you're putting it in your your body's just starting to get healthy and then you go test again to see where you're at and then you don't see the results that you want you're like oh f this it's not working it's like no you were just starting to really and so i important and then and this is really common with especially my my female clients that i've trained before is like you know we first have to really feed that body and and get healthy and then it'll start doing the things you want i.e burning body fat building muscle all easier yeah it gets becomes easier and so uh you know don't bail just because your first test isn't amazing or whatever like that but i i feel pretty good i think we're gonna i mean from what i when i see from way she looks and the her what i'm seeing her do pr wise and

47:36Adam Schafer:she's doing it right now the dexter yeah yeah so we'll find out yeah like literally oh yeah we'll

47:40Sal Di Stefano:know you should do a story about it yeah i mean well we'll see like we'll no matter what we'll obviously i'll talk about it and i'm sure she'll talk about it but uh i'm i'm excited to see what

47:48Adam Schafer:kind of progress speaking of hard work justin i know you did something this weekend yeah what did So what was that picture?

47:55Sal Di Stefano:You missed the whole detail. Yeah. Well, so I'm trying to list my house, and there's some things that I just was coerced into doing, so that way, too, we could kind of maximize the potential, and I could get more profit out of this and do some of the work myself. So what are you doing? Dude, so, you know, whenever you get your septic inspected, you need to dig it out. Oh, I don't know. Okay, so. He doesn't know any of this stuff. Yeah, I'm going to educate you here. That's where the poop goes, right? Yeah, the poop goes in the tanks. Okay. So there's lids, and mine had like one was like six foot down, the other was like four foot.

48:41Sal Di Stefano:And the thing is, you base this off of a plan, which is like drawn up. It was like hand drawn. You can go to like city records, all this kind of stuff. And we're trying to find like better plans for this. And like, there's literally just like a hand drawn, like here's a box, like arbitrary box here. There's no like measurements to go off of based off of like where the house is in proximity to the drainage to this. So it's like a treasure hunt. It's like a treasure hunt. Dude, it's exactly what I did. Did you flip that in your head like that to make it a pop? I didn't even think about that. I didn't think a treasure hunt didn't feel like a treasure hunt.

49:20Adam Schafer:You have a crappy map. You got to go find the treasure, dude. Yeah, X marks the spot.

49:24Sal Di Stefano:I bet he wishes that someone would have framed it that way for him. Let's have some fun with this, kids. And I'm like, my whole thing before I even got started, I'm like, these guys, obviously they're deferring because they charge premiums to come dig. And I was like, that's absurd how much money they're trying to charge to just dig this out. I'm like, fine. you know fine we'll do it uh and now i know why they charge like premiums like because it's you don't know like and i'm like they have to have some kind of like hack or whatever and i'm trying to like ask around nobody's helped me out so the first day we're just digging you know like okay based off of this i'm like trying to you just start digging start digging and then i look i'm like a smart contractor would probably have like written like on the house somewhere like you know directionally like this distance away like or you know like so i was looking on you know the post that was like holding up our our deck and i'm like i saw some numbers on there i'm like oh maybe this

50:23Adam Schafer:is it you guys and like we're going off of this theory and it led us nowhere you know absolutely

50:28Sal Di Stefano:nowhere and like i'll show you pics but like we literally started in one place had to go all the over here combined both of it went deeper like i have there's layers um i hit all kinds of different like piping just shovels oh my god it's in our group thread if you see our group i don't have the picture so we don't so here's the thing like this was all low tech like everything because i can't fit heavy machinery in my backyard there's like no real like access point like i would love that had like little cats you know i could have rented and you know dug it out and had fun with it uh but no so i was doing that i literally felt like chain gang and we were like we were digging i had like a little like headlamp on and and we were digging till it was like eight o 'clock at night the first day and i was like just completely beat uh and it's weird dude like i have this weird whenever my body gets like overworked i get it switches into this like adrenaline response and so i woke up just like energized crazy get back after it we're digging again and we have to then now we have to get rid of these like huge redwood stumps and so i'm like well i have a guy i know that was like a friend of mine he's uh he actually works at the wood shop he teaches wood shop at the local high school and also used to be a lumberjack and i'm like well this guy can help me out you know and so it you know costs a bunch of thousands of dollars to get rid of all this stuff and he's like oh dude just give me a couple hundred bucks i'm like dude rad come on he comes down he has this huge um chainsaw that was like for me to you like like blade wise and i'm helping him kind of like move these huge rounds uh and lift it and we're like up uh substantial height you know like 10 12 feet up and we're just we're sawing these like like hundreds of pounds rounds and i'm trying to chuck it um so it doesn't roll all the way down the hill and i go into my my neighbor's like house so we're trying to stabilize it and and anyways like it was just it was madness it was crazy like the work we were doing and like i ended up like losing uh control of one of them and it like went over the side and actually smashed my fence and like broke the fence.

52:50Sal Di Stefano:So I got to fix the fence. And so we're, we, anyway, he left, he had to go. And so I had to get rid of these rounds. So the only thing I have was like a, I had a mall, like an ax mall. I don't have like a working chainsaw. I borrowed from my dad and I'm trying to like get through it. And it, he gives me one that's just like totally shot. And I'm like trying to look how to fix it. The kids are like really involved digging and chopping and like moving and like hauling. And so the benefit of all of this stuff and it just I could go on and on. But it was like it was just mad, crazy, hard, grueling work.

53:29Sal Di Stefano:I haven't done that. And I can't tell you how long it's been. And it just reminds you like, oh, my God, this is like where I started. And then I just knew I can't like sustain this. Like, this was unsustainable, you know? And the kids have never done anything that hard. So they were like, yeah. Like, they're getting, like, amped about it, taking their shirts off. They're, like, you know, hitting as hard as they can getting nowhere, you know? Dad, look what I did. Like, yeah, buddy, yeah. Every now and then they get one. And actually, Ethan, he's got a little more mass. So he was, like, you know, getting through it.

54:04Sal Di Stefano:Everett was getting frustrated because he's, I'm like, dude, you're shredded. You don't have mass yet. You know, it's going to be different, trust me. But he was doing a great job digging. Did you find it? So we found one lid. We didn't find the other one. So that's still, you know, up in the air. I have like four rounds left.

54:23Adam Schafer:We split like 12 rounds or so. Bro, can I just say what a good friend you are? Because you didn't ask Adam or Doug to help you. I know better, dude. I know better. I appreciate you. Because I'd be like, oh, I got to go help Justin. But you didn't. You know what I mean? Bro. What a nice guy.

54:41Sal Di Stefano:Dude, the worst part is I go, like, I borrow things from people, and it's just been the same process. Like, I should have just bought it. Like, I end up getting, like, faulty things, and then it, like, takes away from, like, daylight. Like, daylight is the currency. Like, I needed more. I need one more day to really complete and finish. So we're going to have to delay the pictures because my backyard looks like a war zone, dude. It's just sawdust. Like, you guys would have died, dude. I was, like, stabilizing, and my friend was cutting, and, like, so, because it's such a big saw, like, the amount of volume of sawdust was just bukkake my face.

55:20Sal Di Stefano:Whoa! Just plop, plop, plop, plop, plop. Like, just, it was insane, dude. I was so dirty and just, like, just, and I loved it. This weird part of me, I just loved it. Dylan's back there laughing. You're sadistic, bro. Yeah. But now I'm like, oh my God, I'm so exhausted. I would have. How much money did you save? Yeah, 10 grand.

55:43Adam Schafer:Yeah. It better be 100 grand.

55:45Sal Di Stefano:It's only the 20, 30 range. Oh, you think 20, 30? I think so. No. Dude, come on. Okay, so. I saw the work, but. There's like 10. It's probably 10 for just the removal of these huge trees. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. And then it's at least five to six for like the digging part. So yeah, you're right. It's probably less than I was hoping. Worth it? For the lesson to give, again, I'm reframing this. Yeah, you have to. I have to reframe this. I wanted them to, you know, I'm always looking for an opportunity for them. Yeah, 100%. Having two boys, even I would probably consider something like this, just for that.

56:25Sal Di Stefano:Have two teenage boys, this is a good lesson. I don't want to do this. I can afford to go pay someone to do this, but I'm going to go do this because I think I could see my, I would do that. I would do that. I kind of did that as I was going because I was very tempted to just call some people. I'm just like, dude, we need some reinforcement. And then if I had to do that right now because my boy's too little to do anything like that, I would call you guys and I'd tell you, listen, this thing's going to cost me this much. I need you guys to have to come over here because then I know Sal would just cut a check.

56:56Adam Schafer:So fast.

56:57Sal Di Stefano:So fast. How much? How much is it? I'd be like, hey. I love you, bro. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I love you. I'll just pay for it. Yeah, exactly. If you were smart, you would have framed it like, hey guys, trying to save about 10 grand. How much did you save, bro? Yeah, yeah. Here's the money. I really need your help. I never ask you anything like that. So then Sal would feel hella guilty. He asked me, and he's like, hey bro, I'll tell you what. You know what? Just tell me how much it is. I'm going to pay so much.

57:20Adam Schafer:100%. That's the move. That is the move. That's the move right there.

57:25Sal Di Stefano:Oh my God. That's brutal, dude.

57:26Adam Schafer:I bet you were sore. So sore.

57:29Sal Di Stefano:But then I got up and I sprung. It was so weird, dude. I can't even explain it completely because it was just like I have this bolt of energy. Even right now, I'm very energetic. I think it's all going to go away real soon. This is where I wish you wore aura rings and things like that because it would be kind of cool to see one, what you burned. I bet it's crazy how hard you slept because of that. I mean, you felt it. I think that's why because I slept deep. Slept deep and hard. Yeah, deep and hard. And that's the other thing too. It's like I do have two modes. And, like, I really like hard fucking work.

58:05Sal Di Stefano:Like, I want to do something really hard. Otherwise, I'm like, eh. Like, you know, the maintenance stuff is, like, so unmotivating to me. You know, I've been on this, like, sleep journey thing. Part of my theory on, like, the sleep routine, all the stuff like that, why I think it's become – because it never felt like it was that important to me before. And we've, you know, we've kind of gone back and forth. Is that just because we were young and resilient? I also think there's another layer to that, and Justin's touching on it right now, that the amount that I used to physically exhaust my body.

58:37Sal Di Stefano:Sure. Even like a good hard workout today is still nothing compared to what it was in my mid-20s or even like, yeah. Exactly. I would not only train hard. I was moving heavy stuff all day long. And being in the sun. Yeah, physically exhausted myself on a more regular basis, and I think that has a lot to do because I've already connected already. Like, man, I got to do at least that 8, 10 ,000 steps and I need to get that good hard workout in to even think I'm going to get close to decent sleep. If I don't do that, and so I think a lot has to be with like, that's part of why I'm not and is tough to get in.

59:12Sal Di Stefano:I bet you if I did something like that with you, I would be just, yeah.

59:15Adam Schafer:You know what messes me up is planes, planes. If I'm on a plane even for an hour, oh, I just feel like crap. I don't know why, but what's his name? Scott, when we talked to Scott, he said, I guess the oxygen concentration on the planes is really low. And so he explained that. I don't know. I mean, I am still right now.

59:33Sal Di Stefano:Last night, I couldn't even get my Oura ring off because of how much water I was holding from flying. When I fly, I definitely get our – and that's how I can tell is my Oura ring.

59:43Adam Schafer:Did you try the compression socks? No, I didn't do compression socks.

59:49Sal Di Stefano:I didn't mention that. His long compression socks. Varicose fades.

59:52Adam Schafer:Yeah, dude. Hey, Doug, I got to ask you. you did, you were the first one out of us to do the appointment with, uh, Vita Bella. Oh, you did yours. Yeah. How'd it go?

1:00:01Justin Andrews:It went well. Yeah. I mean, I spoke to the, uh, medical professional and, um, basically I was just getting some of the things I already had. Yeah. And, uh, that was on, I think the 19th is when I had that.

1:00:13Adam Schafer:So the reviews are coming in from, from people who are going through them and, uh, they're all good reviews, like super good service. So was it fast, easy? It was super fast.

1:00:21Justin Andrews:So I, of course I kind of knew what I needed and wanted, I already had my labs. And so it was 19th, which was a Thursday, and everything was shipped out right afterwards and arrived on Tuesday. Wow. That quick. Wow.

1:00:35Sal Di Stefano:By the way, that's a nice change. By the time this goes live, California should be all set now.

1:00:40Adam Schafer:Oh.

1:00:41Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:00:41Adam Schafer:So you can go to mphormones.com and get set up, and then you'll be able to do California.

1:00:45Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, so California, I mean, and by the way, he had to move heaven and earth to try and get through all the red tape of California. Yeah, and this is why, obviously, he did it before, but did it just because of our show and because we have such a large listener base in California.

1:00:59Adam Schafer:So just for people to know, what is it monthly? Is it$129,$147? $139.

1:01:07Sal Di Stefano:It's$139.

1:01:08Adam Schafer:That includes your testosterone, whether you're a man or a woman, so your testosterone replacement, or in Clomiphene, or B12 shots. And then if you prepay for the year, you save 10%, and then they'll give you your first lab panel for hooked up. Yeah.

1:01:23Sal Di Stefano:And even if you don't do the prepay for the year, so you prepay, you save that money. Even if you just go to the monthly, their blood panels are only 89 bucks.

1:01:31Adam Schafer:That's it. Yeah.

1:01:32Sal Di Stefano:And if you have already done blood panels within the last six months, they can use those. Right. You don't have to do new ones. No, yeah. Super, super, super nice.

1:01:42Adam Schafer:Doug, are we going to get you on testosterone finally or are you just going to keep sticking? I mean, I don't see a reason to do it

1:01:47Justin Andrews:unless you convince someone.

1:01:49Sal Di Stefano:That's true. You're not curious about what 205, Doug, looks like? I'm curious for sure

1:01:53Justin Andrews:I mean I think I would love it you know but again I'm also not wanting to interrupt my own production

1:01:59Adam Schafer:he's got like he's got like high TRT natural level

1:02:03Sal Di Stefano:now have you told yourself if it was like let's say in the next eight years it were to dip down would you then? yeah totally consider it for sure he could go down to half

1:02:13Adam Schafer:and he'd have high testosterone

1:02:14Sal Di Stefano:I know that's what I mean though what if it was because you know you've monitored now consistently for a long time half would make if he went down half, he would feel like lower. He would feel it.

1:02:24Justin Andrews:Yeah, I don't know. I mean, last blood test was like 1 ,600. That's his total, dude? And I can't remember what my free was. Your free is good too, right? My free was good too. Yeah, that was my big concern. I was really working to get my free up.

1:02:39Adam Schafer:Yeah.

1:02:40Justin Andrews:And so as of now, I do feel good. I mean, I'm not getting as jacked maybe as I potentially could if I was taking -

1:02:47Adam Schafer:Are you just horny all the time with that much testosterone? Do you really want to know? I can only imagine.

1:02:55Adam Schafer:Remember for his birthday?

1:02:59Sal Di Stefano:Nice things about Doug? Such a great lover. His girlfriend.

1:03:03Adam Schafer:Everyone said such nice things about Doug. He's a great man. He's a good father. When it gets to her, she's like, he's a great lover.

1:03:10Sal Di Stefano:Okay.

1:03:11Adam Schafer:It could be worse things, I guess. Exactly. It could have been worse things.

1:03:14Sal Di Stefano:I mean, if you're a dude, that's kind of not the bad thing. Get around here. Everyone was.

1:03:18Adam Schafer:Now everyone knows, Doug. Like we put on the podcast. So they call Doug the Jug. ButcherBox delivers high-quality meats to your door at incredible prices. Grass-fed meat, heritage pork, wild-caught fish. If you like protein, you want the good stuff, you want the healthiest stuff, and you want to save money, you go to ButcherBox. By the way, they have a Mind Pump box. The Mind Pump box is our favorite cuts of meat, which includes ribeyes, bone-in chicken thighs, premium steak tips, baby back ribs, the gluten-free chicken nuggets. Those are amazing. And flat iron steaks. If you go to butcherbox.com forward slash mindpump, you'll get yourself a hookup.

1:03:59Adam Schafer:New users will get their choice between free chicken breast for a year or shrimp for a year or ground beef for life. All of that. Butcherbox.com forward slash mindpump.

1:04:13Justin Andrews:Our first caller is Charles from New Jersey. I'm glad to be on here. I really appreciate all you guys do. I know you guys hear that all the time, but, you know, there was kind of a screenshot of, like, in 2022, I was, like, in the throes of active addiction and alcoholism. And God came and Jesus came and saved me out of that. And ever since then, my life has just gone in the right direction. and I appreciate you guys having rock recovery on and stuff like that because it ties together like this faith fellowship type of vibe that you guys have which I think separates you from you know any other you know podcast out there that that that speaks about fitness so I really

1:04:54Adam Schafer:appreciate that thanks man how can we help you brother Awesome.

1:05:00Justin Andrews:So right now, so I'm working out with, he's actually the pastor of my church. And we work out at my house in the mornings. I have a little gym set up. I have a squat rack. I have, it's all Olympic, like proper gear, a dip bar. Anyway, so we're doing, you gave me strong last time I was on. So I really appreciate that. So we do strong in the wintertime to bulk, and then we do anabolic in the fall, and then we do aesthetic in the spring into the summer. So my question is, like, where do I go to kind of fill in that gap between the three? Like, there's kind of looking at it, like, almost quarterly, like, knock out, run this program, run this program, run this program.

1:05:50Justin Andrews:Which one should I squeeze in there now to kind of close the circle?

1:05:55Sal Di Stefano:Symmetry or performance. That's it. Symmetry or performance. Either one of those would be perfect.

1:05:59Adam Schafer:Perfect additions. They would be very complementary. What you have with Strong, Strong's got some decent functionality, but it is somewhat sagittal plane focused. MAPS anabolic, very sagittal plane. Aesthetic, very bodybuilder focused. And so symmetry or performance would help fill the gaps. It would help with lateral stability, unilateral strength. It would really help bolster your joints. So if you want more of an athletic lean, you would go with performance. If you want more still kind of that strength training, bodybuilding lean, then you would go symmetry. But either one of them would be a great addition.

1:06:42Adam Schafer:So you pick. I'll send you which one you want, bro. Pick, yeah.

1:06:45Justin Andrews:Symmetry would be awesome. I really appreciate that. But, yeah, you know, the whole program, like, has really given me a lot of, like, in my life, it's given me the structure that I was lacking. And I feel like the MAPS programs give that structure and the videos and all those things. So, you know, you guys do a great job, and I truly appreciate all that you guys do.

1:07:12Adam Schafer:Yeah, Charles, I'm reading your question, too, here. It says you gained 15 pounds of muscle using Map Strong. Tell me about that. Yeah, so I went from – so Strong, I really bulked.

1:07:24Justin Andrews:I was eating a lot of whole foods, tons of protein, tons of carbs and protein and calories. And then I went from – I was like on a bench. I was benching like I could do 225 like three times. And then after Strong, I was knocking it out for like 10 or 12.

1:07:43Adam Schafer:That's great, dude.

1:07:44Justin Andrews:Wow. You know? Yeah. It's like, I used to always do the bro workout. So, like, I'd go to the gym and they'd be like, let me guess, thighs and chest.

1:07:52Sal Di Stefano:You know? Yeah.

1:07:55Justin Andrews:And now, because of, like, you know, the programs, I have really, like, well-rounded, it's well-rounded me in my fitness journey.

1:08:03Sal Di Stefano:That's awesome. Yeah,

1:08:05Justin Andrews:so symmetry sounds great.

1:08:06Sal Di Stefano:That's like a, bro, that year of programming is such a beautiful mix of training. You're set. Yeah, yeah.

1:08:13Adam Schafer:You'll get really good results with that combination. Yeah, for sure.

1:08:18Justin Andrews:Awesome. Well, I appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you so much for everything you guys do again. And I'll look out for symmetry, and then I'll get working on that. And I'll let you know how it goes. You got it, man. Appreciate that, Charles.

1:08:33Adam Schafer:Yeah, I appreciate you calling in, brother. Keep us updated, man. Thank you, dude. Awesome.

1:08:36Sal Di Stefano:Thanks, guys.

1:08:36Adam Schafer:Thank you. That's great.

1:08:39Sal Di Stefano:Oh, that's a lot of strength and muscle. Especially, I mean, he's not a 20-year-old kid who just started lifting. You know, probably been lifting most of his life.

1:08:47Adam Schafer:And by the way, when you, I mean, he said a little bit on his question, but he sends in an email. So people send an email, and you can read, you know, as I'm reading his email, he's a recovering addict. Yeah. He had really bad issues with alcohol, and now here he is, like, working out, sober. Turned it all around. You know, he's got a strong faith. Just incredible transformation. and I just want to you know, fitness is such a great vehicle for growth. Yeah, it's such a great way to get, to help someone move away from some of those unhealthy addictions. You can always do fitness wrong too but as a vehicle for improving your mental health, for giving you discipline and structure, your physical health.

1:09:31Adam Schafer:It's the core of everything. It's amazing. Our next caller is Rob from New Jersey. What's up Rob? How you doing Rob? Hey guys, how's it going? Good, how can we help you? Well, new location, I'm in Florida now. But anyway, thanks for taking the call. And I appreciate it. I listen to you guys every week. More than once a week, actually. Probably every other day. But I just wanted to, you know, you guys are the experts in this. And I know a couple of you guys did some physique competition. So I'll give you a little background on myself. And then what, you know, I'm looking for some advice on. And always worked out my whole life, except for like a three-year span when my wife got pregnant.

1:10:10Adam Schafer:I decided to get pregnant with her about 23 years ago with my daughter. So during that time, it was the only time I was kind of a little out of shape, but then got back into it again. I got heavily into triathlons, Ironman distance. I did a bunch of Ironman, a bunch of half Ironman, about 40 marathons. I don't know how many there were, but I did all that kind of endurance sport activity. until 2023. And, um, at that time I had a herniated disc. I went to get surgery and, uh, had some real major complications during surgery, caused paralysis in my left leg, couldn't walk. Um, I started to gain, you know, heavy, heavy recovery and, and, uh, a lot of rehab worked my off for that and, uh, was able to get most of the function back in my leg and, uh, just have like weakness now in, in like the, um, support muscles of the leg, like the ankle area.

1:11:03Adam Schafer:So if I run and I'm on uneven surface, I could fall over. So I decided to obviously stop doing triathlon and marathons and got into physique training for shows. And I also on the side do Brazilian jujitsu. I don't remember which one of you guys do it, but I know one of you guys do it. So I do that as well. I've been doing that for 20 years. I should be a black belt by now, but with all my injuries and stop a couple of times. So I'm a brown belt. And so I do that. And I'm training for shows. I did about six shows. And this is where my issue is. I am very tight on my diet, very, very disciplined on my workouts.

1:11:44Adam Schafer:I don't miss a day, probably even I don't follow my own guidance to people because I do some personal training and coaching on the side myself. I never take any days off, but I take muscle parts off, muscle groups off. My diet's really tight for the shows. Last show, I went in with a really, really good package. I was 2.8 % body fat. I did it on three in-body machines. It was like 0.1 plus or minus, and I was 168 pounds. Off-season, I'm about 185. I have a coach. My coach, I had a coach in New Jersey when I was there. I'm trying to find a coach in Florida, which I think I found one.

1:12:25Sal Di Stefano:He wants me to get up to like 200 pounds and get to like 185 for my next show.

1:12:30Adam Schafer:But my issue is I can't get out away from second place. I'm 51 and I'm in the, so I'm in the 50 and older group. I go down in the 40 and older group too. So I do both and I do like usually a novice or an open or something like that. The last show I was in, I had a pretty stacked 40 and over group. It was like 15 guys in there and I came in second and then the 50 and older, I came in second again. And the shows I did before that, I'm like, like third, second, whatever, somewhere in that ballpark. My problem is I think I'm fit. I had the fitness that the show is requiring, but I don't have the size.

1:13:08Adam Schafer:And I'm struggling with putting size on. and I have enough awareness to know that I have a little dysmorphia when it comes down to getting a little belly fat when you're trying to put on size. But I just wanted to get your guys' input on, you know, maybe I should change up my program. I guess every coach needs a coach, right? So maybe I should change my program. Maybe I need to do something a little different with my diet, and I just wanted to get your insight on that.

1:13:34Sal Di Stefano:I have a lot of thoughts. First of all, taking second is incredible, okay? So that's first and foremost amongst everything that you do, right? I mean, your full-time work, kicking ass, jiu-jitsu, and you still have the ability to get up on stage and finish in the top five is impressive as shit. Second, you have to know by now if you've been doing this enough times, there's a lot of politics in shows too. So it's not always the best physique technically takes first place. A lot of times it's the guy who's being coached by the guy who sponsors the show and gives the most money to make sure that show keeps operating.

1:14:13Sal Di Stefano:So there's a lot of bullshit and politics in bodybuilding. As you probably know, if you don't know, there is. So if you're not part of the clique, it's tough to take first place, no matter how great of a physique you present. So that all aside, because I do agree with your coach. What I tell all of my competitors, shows are one in the off season. What you bring to the stage isn't where it wins the show. That's what reveals the hard work from the offseason. And so I do kind of agree with it, whether the poundage that he's saying is exactly right, but you've got to gain. If we're going to show up with a bigger, especially if the judges, that's their feedback, is you're a little smaller than the other guy and we need to put.

1:14:58Sal Di Stefano:And that is all done in the offseason, is can you put enough size on in the offseason that when we get ready to cut for the show, we have the biggest version of you to reveal. It's not done and it's not your cut. It's not a lack of your diet. It's not a lack of your discipline to get down to 2-3%, which you obviously can do all that. It's can you work through the mental part of putting on, and you're going to have to carry a little bit of body fat to put on that kind of size. Staying lean and putting 20 pounds of muscle on is nearly impossible, so you're going to have to eat to get big and most likely not move as much as you move in order to kind of put that size on, and that's where the show is won.

1:15:36Sal Di Stefano:The show is won in what you can do in the offseason to get ready for the next show. Or you kind of just keep kicking ass like you are too. I mean, if you're my client, you and I are having a little bit of this back and forth conversation and I'm going, Rob, is it that important to win first? If you want to really win first, above all things, then we start to shift your whole life around bodybuilding and it starts thinking that way. But it sounds like you're pretty goddamn impressive with everything that you already kind of do. And that was kind of my attitude on competing was like, I'm competitive as shit.

1:16:07Sal Di Stefano:Like getting to the pro level was a, was the big major accomplishment for me. I never placed above sixth place at the pro level and I never cared enough because I have a career and it was always about building that and I have other things that were important to me. And I, and I proved to myself that I could, I could show up with a better package every single show. And I've got a handful of trophies to show that. And it's cool, but it's like, if I really wanted to make a career out of this and try and make it to Olympia or be first place as a pro, man, it's a lot of politics. It's a lot of sacrificing everything else in your life.

1:16:42Sal Di Stefano:And I don't know, it sounds like you're kicking ass pretty good, dude. So that's kind of all my thoughts. So I'd like to hear what you think from hearing that.

1:16:48Adam Schafer:No, I appreciate that. I mean, look, I have a full-time job. This is definitely not my job. I'm an executive in a med tech company. So I'm traveling all over the place. And it's really tough, as you could imagine. I mean, you did show. So you know what it's like prepping and being out on hotels like every week, basically, and eating out and doing what you need to do. I'm weighing food in front of customers. It's hysterical, but it actually makes for good conversation, too. But nevertheless, you know, my goal, because I'm obviously a very competitive person. I've been in competitions my whole life.

1:17:21Adam Schafer:I'm looking to get first so I can get a pro card. And I'm not going to Olympia, and I'm not looking to even probably go into a pro show. I just want to, you know, get a pro card and that's my goal. Just like getting a black belt in jujitsu is the question that I have is, do you think there's a program that I should be doing, um, training differently than I'm training now? Uh, I guess. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1:17:46Sal Di Stefano:So like what, just hearing kind of your breakdown of who you are, like, and obviously if we were coaching, I would get even more detail, but I would probably have to scale back your amount of activity and volume and really feed you. So it looked more like a MAPS anabolic type of protocol. Less days in the gym, hitting it hard and heavy when we do, trying to gain and build, and more food. So I would push the calories and I'd have you on a program like a MAPS anabolic type of a program, which I bet is way less volume and days in the gym than you. It's a three-day-a-week full-body routine, and I bet you're more of a five - to seven-day-a-week type of guy who trains and probably hour, hour and a half.

1:18:25Sal Di Stefano:And that's kind of seem counterintuitive because it's not a lack of you need to push more you need to let your body grow and in order to let your body grow you probably got to pull back on the volume a little bit focus on getting strong with maps anabolic feed your body more food than it's ever been fed before and that's that that is that's the the way we're going to get to the

1:18:43Adam Schafer:pro card rob you train naturally or are you uh enhanced or you train naturally no i'm natural Well, that's the other problem I have. Yeah. I take, well, I wouldn't say natural totally. I had very, very low testosterone levels when I was doing triathlon because I was a fanatic about eating fat. So I just ate a lot of carbs and protein. And then I did, I mean, 20 plus hours a week on a bike. And I think it kind of damaged my goods down there a little bit. and I had, when I went to go get my testosterone checked, it was 160. So I was on, I've been on TRT since I was 35. Okay. At regular levels. Like I think I just got a test that I'm like 450, 480, something like that.

1:19:32Adam Schafer:So it's not like I'm pumping in 1200 on my test. But I go into these shows and these dudes are no question because I can't go into a natural show being on testosterone. These guys are definitely enhanced. The reason why I ask you that, Rob, is gaining, because if you go from, you compete at 168 to come back at 182, that's a lot of lean body mass to gain, which is tough to do with TRT levels of testosterone and your age and all that stuff. Now, I do agree with Adam, reducing the volume, increasing calories, that's the protocol. Now, here's the other thing, though. You probably have an incredible recovery ability and tolerance considering your background.

1:20:16Adam Schafer:To be able to compete in as many Ironmans and half Ironmans, for people who aren't aware, an Ironman is a marathon plus a lot of cycling, a lot of swimming. So to be able to do that as often as you did, you probably have a really exceptional ability to recover. So the program that I think you would do well with would be MAPS Anabolic Advanced. So it's higher than MAPS Anabolic. You're in the gym about four days a week. It alternates high intensity, low volume with higher volume, lower intensity. And I think someone like you would probably respond well to that. And it's probably, I can pretty much guarantee it's less volume than what you're currently doing.

1:20:58Adam Schafer:So it's definitely going to affect the volume. It's not as low as a traditional MAPS Anabolic, which might actually be too low a volume for someone like you. and bump the calories. And you'll know it's working because you're going to get stronger. But gaining 12 to 15 pounds of lean body mass at this stage, that's a big one. I think we could put on 5 to 6 pounds of lean body mass by the time you hit stage. It's just going to take us some time. I'd be happy.

1:21:23Sal Di Stefano:What you don't want to do, and I don't know if you've already done this or not, but I tell my competitors, we don't pick a show yet. We go in the off-season, let's go build, let's go focus. Because this could take three months, could take six months, could take nine months, but let's agree that we're going to go build and put some size on you that you've never seen before. And then we'll nail down a show. What a mistake a lot of competitors do is they go, oh, this works in my calendar. I'm going to train. I'm going to take that show August 16th. And then you start trying to put it all together now.

1:21:53Sal Di Stefano:It's like, no, let's go focus on your off season. Let's go build. And that could, you know, depending on how well you can get them calories up, how well you respond to MAPS Anabolic Advance, that will dictate if I was coaching you on when we decide to take a show to get cut.

1:22:05Adam Schafer:What do your calories look like in the offseason? So I'm supposed to be at 3 ,300 a day right now, and I'm barely getting in 2 ,500. Yeah, no way. Just because I'm just like all over the damn place. But everything I eat is clean as a whistle. Like I don't change what I eat from prep to show. You just eat more. I mean, from prep to offseason rather. I just eat more volume offseason. Yeah. Maybe I'll throw in like a couple of pretzels here or there, but I don't do anything like out of the ordinary. Maybe I'm a little bit tighter on the condiments, too, during prep. But overall, I'm just not getting enough calories in.

1:22:45Adam Schafer:And part of it is because you guys know how this is, man. Like, I get a little belly fat and I lose my mind. You know what I mean? And I'm trying to put on some mass at the same time. and then I go to the gym and I'm like, all right, well, maybe I'll do more, 10 more minutes of stair mass just to make sure I don't put that belly fat on. In addition to my, my half hour that I did prior to my workout and cardio and then do my workout. And I do that every freaking day. So I might battle on this in my head, but mind you, when I give the advice, like you're giving to clients, I'd say the exact thing that you're saying.

1:23:19Sal Di Stefano:So, I mean, uh, I mean, would you want to coach? I mean, it sounds like you have one over there. We virtual coach over here. Do you think that would help having somebody who's kind of just staying on top of the diet and kind of steering it for you?

1:23:35Adam Schafer:Yeah, I wouldn't mind, especially somebody that's been doing this kind of stuff before that knows how to deal with somebody that has a little bit of a mental struggle like me with this. Alright, we'll have somebody call you. But, you know, MAPS Anabolic Advanced, hit consistent calorie targets. You'll gain you'll gain muscle on that yeah for sure but without i mean 2500 calories a guy like you

1:23:58Sal Di Stefano:you're gonna you're just gonna maintain the hard part's gonna be the mental part rob i can tell already you're a disciplined guy you have you have that work ethic and all that stuff like that it's gonna be uh letting go of the body fat percentage going up a little bit you know you have the tools to get it back anytime you want so you're not gonna get fat okay you're gonna go you're gonna go up to 12 maybe 13 you know percent body fat that's not crazy you can get right back down easily. But that will bode well with building. If you're too lean, it's really hard to put on just lean body mass. So you got to let yourself soften up a little bit to put on some good size.

1:24:32Sal Di Stefano:And again, I don't know if I agreed exactly what the number the guy threw at you, but the show's one in the off season. Can you and I go and go put on 20 pounds on the scale, be okay with a couple percent body fat going up, but then look at each other and go like, oh yeah you're eating 3 ,500 calories you're strong you see PRs in the gym you're hitting like that's what I'm looking for before you and I go let's get ready for a cut for for the show so okay yeah that makes sense yeah I'll have someone call you and and see if we can help you out through this process but and we'll also send over an anabolic advance for you bro that'll be awesome

1:25:06Adam Schafer:man thank you guys you guys do great work I appreciate it enjoy listening thanks Rob take it easy do you so for people listening because how many iron man's okay his brother he did five he did five iron man's i don't know if you guys ever trained iron man athlete yeah okay he did five iron man's 15 half insane iron man's yeah this is what an iron man competition is i had to remember i had to look it up just to be sure it's a 2.4 mile swim plus a 112 112 mile bike ride And then you'd run a marathon. And then you run a marathon. That's the competition. A lot of chafing. Yeah. So now in order to be able to do all that, crazy training, consistency, diet, there's a level of genetics there.

1:25:47Adam Schafer:I think the guy probably recovers really, really well. Yeah. Which is why I had him do something with higher volume. But I can guarantee you right now the amount of volume that he's probably training is probably insane. Oh, I knew. I knew right away.

1:26:01Sal Di Stefano:I mean, he also runs a Fortune 50 company. He's a killer in business. He's a killer on the jiu-jitsu mat. Because I can't see him, right? We can't see a picture of what he looks like and stuff like that. I just know this dude is way over-trained, way over-does all of it, and that's going to be the hardest part for him. I mean, telling him to come down to a MAPS anabolic or even an anabolic advance is going to feel like a quarter of the workouts that he does. Yep. It's going to be unnerving for him. Then telling him that he's at 2 ,500 calories, you need to be more like 3 ,500 plus calories, is going to feel so extreme and different.

1:26:40Sal Di Stefano:But it's the only path. And again, repeat what I said to him. Shows are one in the offseason. It is not the prep. It is not the getting ready for stage like everybody thinks. It's what you build and what you do in the offseason. All the getting the prep is, is revealing the work. You don't build no muscle in prep. You literally just carve away the body fat and you show what you did in the off-season. And if you always keep your body fat percentage low and you stay training this high of volume and your calories that low, you aren't building anything. You're maintaining a strong, fit, ripped physique.

1:27:17Sal Di Stefano:So when you get into prep, you just get a little bit leaner and you present the same physique.

1:27:21Adam Schafer:You just keep showing up the same. Same way, yeah.

1:27:23Justin Andrews:Our next caller is Lucy from Virginia. Hi, Lucy. Hi. Hi. Thank you guys so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it. How can we help you? I think I have a programming question. Four months ago, November 2025, I had my third total hip replacement surgery. For reasons that are now very obvious to me, I was overdoing it with my yoga. And in May of 2025, almost dislocated and ultimately ended up cracking my hip replacement during yoga class. Because the surgery was a repair of an existing replacement, they had to use posterior entry rather than anterior, which my first two were anterior. And with a posterior approach, my surgeon has me on a one-year limitation of movement, which would include no more than a 90-degree hip, like trunk-to-leg angle, no crossing my legs, and no picking up anything over 20 pounds.

1:28:25Justin Andrews:So starting in December, I ran your MAPS fan program all the way through and loved it. I'm now running MAPS suspension and also love that. Those are both perfect because I don't have to pick up anything over 20 pounds, but I'm still getting great resistance.

1:28:42Sal Di Stefano:I'm actually making progress.

1:28:43Justin Andrews:All right.

1:28:44Sal Di Stefano:Great job. I'm sore from yesterday.

1:28:48Justin Andrews:But my next my question is, what's next? I have until November, so about nine months of these limitations. Should I just cycle back and forth in between these two programs? Is there another program or style of programming that you would recommend, like isometrics, or maybe run a traditional program like anabolic with light weights? For context, I will be 50 years old later this year, 5 '3", 120 pounds, and a former professional ballerina runner and competitive yoga athlete all of which led to the three total hip replacements i promise i'm now off of all of that because i can't do it anymore um physically or mentally really as you know sometimes god whispers and sometimes she shouts this was as loud of a shout as i possibly could have heard without doing any detrimental harm so i'm so thankful I was finally forced to listen.

1:29:45Justin Andrews:Any help would be great. You can shout at me now. Yeah, no shouting.

1:29:49Sal Di Stefano:I thought you were in your 20s, by the way. We're all tripping out on that right now.

1:29:53Adam Schafer:So Lucy, so here's what's going to happen. If you do everything right, you're going to reach a point where you feel like you could start going way beyond and you're going to have to fight that because of the hip replacement. keep your range of motion uh within the realms of what they recommend and you can strengthen within there yep and don't push outside of that you could totally strengthen within there uh i think map starter is a good program um and isometrics are also great uh our program map symmetry has two weeks of isometrics the two weeks of isometrics i think would be beneficial um even right now but starter would be the next program that you could totally do you can also Oh, sorry.

1:30:34Sal Di Stefano:Yes. The starter has like reps to tension. So like really take advantage of that with the timing and the tempo and then emphasize those moments where you're squeezing at the top of the rep. So you do, you can infuse a bit of more isometric focus in that program. because I know the weights are going to be a little lighter because we've got to keep it under control. That's the direction I was going to go actually with your original is should I just rotate to those two? You can start to create isometrics in the bands and the suspension trainer too. So nothing stops you from like hold, like let's say you're doing a suspension push-up, holding at the bottom for two or three seconds or holding just with your elbows slightly bent so you can kind of create like a new stimulus because you've already ran through it.

1:31:19Sal Di Stefano:The next time you run through it, you can do things like that and that'll help build strength also so run it the way it's laid out but then add an isometric component to each set which would be a great way to kind of manipulate that program a little bit so that's also an option so you can play with the suspension and the bands also i think starter is a great and like sal said that's the the biggest key is going to be because at one point you'll be cleared uh of like hey you're good to go you're going to be tempted to want to do too much so long as you stay in that range of motion and i've had clients where that we don't squat past 90 degrees, but we've gotten really strong within that 90 degrees.

1:31:56Sal Di Stefano:And box squats are great for those as well. Built a lot of great lower body muscle and feel great. And so, yeah, no, you're on the right track.

1:32:02Adam Schafer:Yeah, when you look at hip replacement, artificial hip, artificial joints, they're limited in the range of motion. So it's different than what your natural hip would be. And so you probably have really good extensibility through your yoga, ballet. delay and so your tendency is going to be to challenge ranges of motion because that's what you know but these joints are not made to do that what happens when you challenge the range of motion is now it rests on this artificial joint and they're just not made to be able to do that and so regardless of how you feel stay within with when it comes to the lower body stay within the range of motion and you'll do plenty great with that you'll gain good strength you'll feel good you're not going to feel limited but if you start to try to push the range of motion like you normally would, that's when you run into it.

1:32:48Sal Di Stefano:It's all about recruiting. So just think about that slow and just recruit as much, you know, muscle fiber, uh, and infuse that as much as possible.

1:32:56Adam Schafer:Do you have starter? I don't know. Send that to you. Yep.

1:33:00Justin Andrews:Thank you so much. I should say also, I'm, I'm, um, I'm working with Dr. Brink. Oh, awesome.

1:33:07Sal Di Stefano:Well, you're good. You're in good hands.

1:33:09Justin Andrews:Like you said, for that very reason, because one year isn't some magical number, I assume. So it's not like at one year, I'm all of a sudden now I'm able to squat to the floor. So I, he's helping me kind of get the PT part discharged. I was discharged from PT and I, I just wasn't ready. Um, so I, I wanted to work with him. Uh, and he's just great. I want everyone to work with him. He's the best. You're in the best. I'm like, just do what he tells you.

1:33:37Adam Schafer:Yeah, exactly.

1:33:38Sal Di Stefano:We'll go ahead and step out. Yeah.

1:33:40Justin Andrews:No, no, no. He's the best. Not at all. No, I want all of you on my team.

1:33:44Sal Di Stefano:You've got all of us. I mean, he knows all the programs, too. So if you tell him that the guys gave me starter and you use that with what he's doing with you, you're in the best hands you can be. Absolutely. In fact, I'd love to hear back from you a while. Let's check back in with us a few months down the road. I'd love to hear where you're at.

1:34:02Justin Andrews:I will. Thank you. um for the isometrics i seem to remember you guys talking about that they stop working after like two or three weeks is that is there a reason to do the two weeks and then come back to it no no no

1:34:15Adam Schafer:so when we talk about that what we're talking about are the strength gains are really rapid in two weeks but you continue to get results uh from isometrics especially when you put them in a program that includes traditional repetitions yeah so it's not like they're a waste of time They're great. Okay. But when we look at the data.

1:34:33Sal Di Stefano:It's just mentally challenging for people to do them for a long period of time, I think, for the most part.

1:34:37Adam Schafer:Yeah. But isometrics are wonderful for you. Will always be wonderful for you.

1:34:41Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. You can progressively get more strength, you know, by continuing it for sure.

1:34:45Justin Andrews:Okay. Terrific. Well, everything right now is wonderful. So I'll do them for the next nine months. Good. Yeah. This is a very – I'm trying to rebuild physically and mentally from this injury. So this is very, very, it's, yeah. So I'll use isometrics as long as they're productive. You're in great hands. Okay.

1:35:07Adam Schafer:Great hands. Yeah. You got it. All right. All right. Bye-bye. I wish he opened with them with Brink. He's better than we are. Yeah. He's a champion. Yeah. He's the best when it comes to this kind of stuff. But, you know, I've worked with people with hip replacements and you have to, you look at the actual product. Yeah. It's, it's, it is limited. Yeah. That's the limitation. And so you can't push beyond what it's made for like you would with a normal joint. Otherwise, the product itself starts to become damaged and you start to get issues. Our next caller is Sarah from California. Hi, Sarah.

1:35:42Justin Andrews:How you doing, Sarah? Hi. Hi, guys. Oh, my God. I'm so pumped to be talking to you. This is crazy. I'm so inspired by everything you've been doing. Like, it's so clear how much you want to help people. So you guys have actually inspired me to go through the NASM certification and consider like a career change or a side gig and personal training down the line. So thank you so much for everything you do.

1:36:02Adam Schafer:Yeah, thank you. How can we help you?

1:36:04Justin Andrews:Okay, so my question, I'll just read it here. So I've been working out since I was 14 when I got my first gym membership at a 24-hour fitness here in the Bay. I'm 43 now. I know that I'm a bit orthorexic and I definitely have an addiction to exercise, but I both look and feel great. I look better, I think, now and I'm more fit now than when I was in my 20s or 30s. And I just never felt like I looked the way that I do before. And I also just really love training and movement outside, running, cycling, hiking, walking, you name it. But I definitely overdo it. So my question is, is this going to for sure bite me in the ass?

1:36:46Justin Andrews:at some point? Or do you guys think that I continue as is, as long as I'm feeling great? And I guess I should also mention that I've been using a variety of peptides for several years, which I know helped me train better and recover better and faster. So I guess my hope is that the addition of these tools to my toolbox means I can do more and push a bit harder without the same repercussions. But I'm curious what you guys think and I would love your thoughts.

1:37:13Sal Di Stefano:Let's peer a little into what the training looks like. How much training volume? Are you tracking steps? What's it look like for a week?

1:37:23Justin Andrews:Yeah, I mean, it's basically all of my free time I'm training, or a lot of it is outdoors, but five days a week I'm doing an hour to an hour and a half. Strength training is pretty intense. And then anywhere from three to five hours of just cycling or running or hiking. like it's a lot it's i mean when i say it out loud it actually sounds totally ridiculous but like i love it too you know i just love being outdoors and i just think mentally it helps my mental health a lot too and i just feel like i have a lot of my my best thoughts and ideas while i'm outside so there's that but there's also just a compulsion too right which i mean i love i love

1:38:04Sal Di Stefano:walking and hiking outside that's awesome uh cycling and running can be okay can get intense so really quickly so but hiking and walking outside for mental clarity being outside i'm all pro that so yeah doing that uh strength training five days a week could be okay uh but if you say it's really intense in an hour and a half that that's that's a lot yeah that's overkill way overdoing it i'm so by the way you answer this question will help me determine if i can help

1:38:34Adam Schafer:uh with this so why do you think there's some orthorexia or compulsion

1:38:41Justin Andrews:uh because i can't remember the last day i didn't do like at least a few hours of activity and if i don't get that in um like i don't feel normal okay how do you feel about that um i mean right now i'm at a point in my life where it's okay like i'm single right now so I don't have a partner I need to be giving time to. I don't have kids. Um, but like, what if that, you know, what if that happens soon or I've switched jobs and I just literally can't do it? I think I'm going to just feel awful. And, and like, that's, that's not healthy, you know, to like not feel good or be freaked out on a day where I, you know, don't work out a lot.

1:39:27Justin Andrews:Like, that's just, that's not healthy. Like that's dependence.

1:39:30Adam Schafer:Yeah. So you feel like it's controlling you?

1:39:33Justin Andrews:Yeah, a little bit. And I think for a long time, I really convinced myself, no, it's just that I love it. But I'm like, especially actually, since I've been listening to you guys, I've kind of been realizing this isn't just that I love it. There's a little bit more to it. Good for you.

1:39:47Sal Di Stefano:That's what people continue to say.

1:39:49Adam Schafer:Look, I just, you know, forgive me for my brevity, but alcoholics love their alcohol. And so they say they like it, they enjoy it. And I think you're getting a little bit of awareness that this thing is controlling you but it doesn't sound like you're at the place where you could change it yet because you're also saying i love it i like it it's like

1:40:11Sal Di Stefano:my favorite thing i look great i feel great i feel great but then you're like it's controlling me

1:40:15Adam Schafer:yeah this may be an issue so i mean i could tell you from the outside it definitely is an issue and you're doing way too much uh the question is can you change it do you want to change it bad enough yeah like to yeah that's right because eventually because eventually how you start this

1:40:33Sal Di Stefano:question is right eventually you'll be forced to it's gonna bite you eventually hormonal bone stuff uh you'll that that starts life is gonna happen yeah yeah and so the answer is yes eventually your body will force you to it's a question of do you have the motivation to change it right now especially when you like the way you look like the way you feel and you and you say you enjoy all those things that was to sal's point that's really tough it really sucks to be forced to

1:41:01Adam Schafer:change it when something happens that sucks yeah to change it ahead of time is hard but is way better yeah it's better yeah because what'll happen at some point is something's going to happen and you can't do all that stuff or something's going to happen physically or mentally and then you're going to be like oh my god some breaking i have to yeah come out of it but it could be a number of different things, but at some point, this thing that's controlling you that you're kind of like, Oh, I think it's controlling me at some point. It's you're going to be forced to have to make a decision. And then that's the word that's the hardest.

1:41:36Adam Schafer:That's hard when it's like in your face where you're at now is actually an easier place to, to make those changes. So it really is up to how, and you really have to talk about it in a way to yourself. That's honest because what I hear, and I know I hear this cause I talk this way. Okay. Cause I know what you, I know what you feel like. Okay. You are me. Okay. In this, in this regard. I know I've heard a lot of, yeah, yeah, yeah. As it's coming out of your mouth, you're trying to give yourself a escape. Like, Ooh, it's this thing that's controlling, but I love it. Ooh, it might not be so good for me, but I can do it.

1:42:10Adam Schafer:Ooh, but I look good and I feel good. And so it's like, you're afraid to say to yourself, this is a problem and it needs to get fixed because if you say that, then you have to change it. So you're like, maybe not. so that's kind of where you're at uh with it right now well are you at a place where you'd be open

1:42:27Sal Di Stefano:to even outsourcing it in other words hiring a coach to tell you what you need to do and then

1:42:31Justin Andrews:following just doing what they tell you yeah i mean here's another thing like so i haven't always been as fit and looked as good and so being at a point where i finally feel like i'm like i love my body now and this was not always the case you know and so i've been through different iterations of my body and so you know would i be willing to totally scale back on exercise yes if i was able

1:42:55Sal Di Stefano:to like mostly keep the body that i now have you absolutely can you absolutely can you'll get you'll get you're not you're like that would actually be so if i was coaching that's the easiest part you've built the physique you like and you're like adam i like the way i look it's like cool let me show you a way easier way to maintain that look yeah if anything you'll improve you it will It does not take five days, an hour and a half of training. Let me put it to you this way.

1:43:21Adam Schafer:You look as fit as you do in spite of all the wrong stuff that you're doing.

1:43:26Sal Di Stefano:Right, right, right.

1:43:27Adam Schafer:And you're putting a lot of peptide bandages and stuff like that on it to keep the ball rolling. You'll actually look better. Yeah. So if that's what you're afraid of, yeah, don't worry. Yeah, yeah.

1:43:38Justin Andrews:Yeah, that is what I'm afraid of for sure, right? Because, like, I've been 25 pounds heavier and like didn't get looks or compliments and now I'm like I'm at the gym and I'm like that crazy chick who's like busting her ass but I get complimented you know I get women complimenting me on my arms which is awesome and I used to hate my arms so like if I can keep all that and do way less yeah I'm definitely like at a bigger Sarah you're totally Sal

1:44:05Adam Schafer:Sarah listen I don't do it for compliments

1:44:08Sal Di Stefano:I get no compliments Selena. That's why he wears that wife beater in the gym all the time.

1:44:15Justin Andrews:It was like a wife. You changed the name of it recently.

1:44:18Adam Schafer:Wife pleaser. Which sounds just as bad somehow. Sarah, you're already a valuable person. You're already worthwhile. All that outside whatever is meaningless. You're already worthwhile. You're already great. And you don't need all that. You really don't. In fact, it's keeping you trapped. But if you want, look, here's the deal, okay, because we'll answer your question. Are you going to like suddenly your body's going to change in a negative? No, it's not going to happen. You'll get as great or better results with way less work. But I also don't want you to focus on that because that's also going to steer you in the wrong direction.

1:45:03Adam Schafer:So, I mean, a coach would really be helpful, but you've got to be in a place to where you're okay with that, where you're going to let go and be like, okay, this is really a problem I want to address. If you're not there yet, then it wouldn't help you.

1:45:15Justin Andrews:Yeah. I think I'm in that contemplation stage of change still. But I feel like I'm getting closer to having a mindset of readiness.

1:45:29Adam Schafer:You know what you could do? Try this. This is what I'm doing right now. Because I've been on and off with this forever, sometimes better, sometimes worse. course i so i started doing where every other week uh i don't do any so this is for me this wouldn't look like it for you but for me every other week i do zero to no almost almost no strength training and i just do cardio because that's the thing for me walking you should say he doesn't do cardio i just do walking okay so maybe it looks like this for you instead of what you do every single day maybe it's like okay on wednesday and friday i'm cutting it way down and then wait and then see what happens and then slowly step ladder yourself towards doing less.

1:46:12Adam Schafer:Maybe it's one day. Maybe it could be like, all right, Fridays, instead of doing an hour and a half of strength training and all this cardio, maybe it's like, I'm going to do nothing or I'm going to just go for a hike or something like that and keep it light because you could also turn that into crazy and just step ladder yourself. For me, it's every other week because that seems to be what I can do right now.

1:46:34Justin Andrews:How is your thought process and your mental health as you go through this?

1:46:39Sal Di Stefano:He sucks at it, so I don't know why. No, no, no. I just started it. He needs a coach. You need a coach.

1:46:45Adam Schafer:I just started it, and so this is week two, so I just got into it. But what helped me was on the week I'm not strength training. I'm listening to books that I'm really interested in, so I look forward to that. So I walk on the treadmill and I listen to a book because just doing nothing is too big of a bite for me. So I'm like, okay, so every other week I'm just, so maybe there's something else that you're really interested in that you really like to do, whether it's a book or you go, you know, it might, it's just something that's not exercise. And then because not doing something is hard, but doing something else when we place of it is easier.

1:47:21Adam Schafer:So maybe it's, maybe it's yin yoga. Yin yoga would be great for someone.

1:47:25Sal Di Stefano:The hardest part, Sarah, if I was coaching you, the hardest part is I'm going to tell you that I absolutely can keep the body or even better if you wanted. But I also simultaneously need you to let go of that at the same time. That's the hard part. So it's like I can guarantee you as the coach, I could say, hey, don't worry. I'll keep this body the way it is or maybe even improve it. But I also need you to just trust me and let it go while we do this. And so that part, that letting go process, that's the hard part. And that's the part that you have to separate from. That's what this guy is still struggling with is completely letting go of that and going a total different direction.

1:48:05Sal Di Stefano:He's easing himself in with the walking stuff. But so what my journey looked like years ago is like part of like getting into a whole different modality, like let go of the jacked look. I look like I can go get that anytime I want. And you can too. You've look at, you've already proven that you proven you have the ability to go get that. So now try and train yourself. Can I let it go? It doesn't mean be unhealthy. I'm saying get fat. I'm just saying let that focus go and focus something on something else for a while and know that you got that in your back pocket if you ever need to. That's the growth part right here on your journey that you need to get through.

1:48:40Sal Di Stefano:And on the other side of that is a healthier version of you, a fitter version of you, and way less control and effort towards it.

1:48:47Adam Schafer:Sarah, how's your social life with friendships and stuff where it is all revolve around the gym?

1:48:54Justin Andrews:I am right now. Yeah, there's not much. But I just got back to the Bay after living abroad for a couple of years. And also, like, I went to Burning Man for 10 years. And so my previous life was like a bit of a partier and all my friends loved to party and I want nothing to do with that. So I think I've just kind of shifted that all and all my energy into like health and fitness. but now I've overdone it, you know?

1:49:19Adam Schafer:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean that, that, that's, that's, that's another, that's another thing that could help, uh, is seek out kind of social community. Yeah. Social community for me, it's my church. That's actually helped me quite a bit. Um, and that's the other thing too, because otherwise you have all this time on your hands and you're like, yeah, I'm going to go to the gym. Cause I like doing that.

1:49:37Justin Andrews:I know.

1:49:39Sal Di Stefano:I love this. I love this. You get coached. I know you say you're content planning right now, but a good coach for a good I'm getting closer

1:49:49Adam Schafer:if you're like okay I'm ready to do that you let us know we've got some great coaches here you're not far from us either by the way so you can even do personal training here on occasion like once a week or once every other week and actually come into the studio and work with one of our trainers

1:50:03Justin Andrews:oh that'd be awesome I'd love that would you?

1:50:05Adam Schafer:you want somebody to call you?

1:50:07Justin Andrews:yeah you know why not yes

1:50:09Adam Schafer:alright let's do that and we'll see you we'll get you down here Sarah

1:50:12Justin Andrews:awesome alright guys well thank you so much for your time and for everything you do I appreciate it

1:50:17Adam Schafer:you got it thanks she also works for the enhanced games did you see that? I did see that she's like PR for the shut up for the marketing

1:50:26Sal Di Stefano:oh that's cool I hope she comes down here

1:50:28Adam Schafer:which also makes it more difficult because you're working in the enhanced games

1:50:32Sal Di Stefano:it's kind of a skewed environment I know listen

1:50:36Adam Schafer:if I didn't have kids and a wife and all that stuff I know exactly gym that's what i would do all the time yeah because you got to find other things that uh you can replace it with what are you talking about you still already do i don't go i'm not three hours well no okay i'm saying if i had yeah but you'd never miss yeah but it's my point is i'd be three hours a day if i didn't have you'd be even worse exactly even more crazy that's right

1:51:02Sal Di Stefano:yeah no it's uh i mean still at that place where this is where it's hard when again and i think this is the exact same challenge that you feel with it is you're healthy you're fit you look good you know i'm saying so it's really tough to tell somebody to break that when they have all these these positive things that they have felt from it and their body's not screaming at them that's right um and telling them they can't do that but there's also other sides of this sometimes too it's not just dysfunction on that side you can become dysfunctional in your social and your that's That's why I asked her.

1:51:35Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Because she probably doesn't have a social life. It impedes on a lot of opportunities. You can't work out that much.

1:51:39Adam Schafer:I mean, if you don't have that and you feel kind of lonely.

1:51:42Sal Di Stefano:And what happens is that person is that type of person, lots of friends and being close to like this, you either don't or you find another person with the same issue.

1:51:52Adam Schafer:Of course.

1:51:53Sal Di Stefano:And then you both obsess over it together. And that's why we see so many people in the fitness space that are bikini competitor and bodybuilder together because they share this addiction together because they can't date anybody else that as at all balanced because it doesn't work so they have no idea and they tell themselves they're so in love and they have all this in common when it's like yeah you have this unhealthy relationship with exercise that's in common and so got to break free of that or you'll have a really hard time connecting to somebody who doesn't want to take three hours of walk a day an hour and a half training sessions every single day and measure

1:52:25Adam Schafer:every food they eat totally look if you like the show come find us on instagram mind pump media

1:52:29Justin Andrews:Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price.

1:53:11Justin Andrews:The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 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. Hi, I'm Chandler Garcia. As a PICU nurse and global health advocate, I've cared for women and children all over the world, from Costa Rica to Egypt to Kenya and beyond. And no matter where I go or how tough the conditions get, I always wear my figs.

1:53:52Justin Andrews:These scrubs are lightweight, breathable, and super soft, perfect for long shifts in any environment. They've got pockets in all the right places, the fit is flexible, and they're durable through every admission, surgery, and post-op. But it's not just about the scrubs. Another big part of what I love about figs is when they say they're committed to supporting healthcare workers all over the world, they mean it. I recently joined them on an impact trip to India where I worked in triage. caring for babies in a mobile clinic. My figs aren't just what I wear. They're part of the impact I want to make.

1:54:22Justin Andrews:Wherever my work takes me, figs helps me show up ready to make a difference while looking and feeling my best. Get 15 % off your first order at wearfigs.com with code FIGSRX. That's wearfigs.com, code FIGSRX.