2841: The #1 Reason You Keep Failing at Fitness (It's Not What You Think)

19:13Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I'm consistent. I'm consistently doing something. You know what I'm saying? And even though you'll hear me talk on the show of my training volume picking up or down or I'm kind of on it, getting up there, I'm never completely off of it. I'm doing something. You know what I'm saying? I'm walking. I'm doing something. Or I'm making good nutritional choices because I know that my training volume is down. And so your relationship with it just looks completely different if you've learned to connect those dots. I think that's a good thing. I think, too, another big step in the evolution of this whole process is like because you go through and you do to the T, like your workout, like your planned workout.

19:49I have if you're one of those where you actually have a program and you're following it and it's like, OK, I have to get through this. That mentality of having to get through the workout is something that's like that's like step one. And then you'll show up some days and you'll be like, you know, this is where I'm at. I'm overstressed. I'm under slept. Like I have all of these other factors going into this workout. And as I'm going in, I don't have the strength today. Like how do I tweak, adjust, like those tweaking and adjustments and, and modifying to, you know, make it beneficial for you while you're there is, is a whole nother step, which, you know, you're going to learn that a lot from a trainer.

20:27You're going to learn that from experience. And everybody has the ability to do that. And what's cool is we've been able to kind of help progress that, that process because we've now have options of like, Oh, there's 15 minute versions. There's, you know, these other, uh, uh, things we're trying to introduce people to, because that isn't like an overall thought people have going to the gym ever.

20:50Adam Schafer:Don't do anything that makes you hate, uh, working out. That's like, that's such an important thing to understand. Like if you're going to the gym and you're like, no, I'm going to do this thing. I totally hate. And you're strengthening that and you're not going to do it. you're going to stop. So don't do anything like that. It's funny too, I was thinking about when I started to first figure this out, because while you were talking, I was like, when did I start piecing this together? I remember when I started piecing this together, because I remember feeling a little conflicted at first. So when I started thinking about this, and I was like, okay, why am I having a challenge for the last eight years?

21:28Adam Schafer:Why is it that I can't figure out how to get people to do this for the rest of their life? Why is it that my fail rate is terrible. Like, yeah, people will get in shape with me, but then they stop. Especially if they don't work with me anymore. Then they totally stop. If I'm really trying to help these people, what's going on? And I remember initially it was like, ah, they lack discipline. They just need more discipline. But I'm like, wait a minute. I'm training executives. I'm training doctors. I'm training really successful, disciplined people. Maybe it's not them. Maybe I'm not a good coach.

21:59Adam Schafer:Maybe I had to figure out the way that I'm trying to guide these people. So I remember when I first started piecing this together, you know I'll get a client that would come in and they're just tired and oh man I had a rough night and whatever and I'm like this was like I felt like I was going off like I was walking out on a branch and I was like you know what do you want to let's just go for a walk and they're like okay and we go on a walk and in my mind I'm thinking like this person's going to think they're wasting their money they're going to be like why did I hire this guy just to go on a walk why did I whatever and then you know I saw another client you know a few days later or something you know and I'm like hey no why don't we just stretch and again i'm thinking in my head like oh man this is a big experiment like i hope these people don't feel like i'm with if they come to me and think they're wasting the money i'm gonna give them a free session that's what i kept telling myself next thing you know i got clients calling me saying the craziest thing i'd never heard this before as a trainer they would call me and say hey i'm not feeling good today really tired i know we're not scheduled to work out but can i come in what you don't feel great and you want to come in that i'd never heard that before and so as i started doing this the consistency went through the roof and then i developed i helped develop people into uh lifelong fitness people and it was incredible but it was scary at first yeah totally

23:11Sal Di Stefano:scary at first yeah i feel like we get a lot of flack i still i still see it around like uh oh the mind pump guys are on this like low volume kick and i see the comments and stuff and i'm like you know it's so funny people hate us well it's all it's always the person who's still trapped in that place of like...

23:28Adam Schafer:I also am not

23:29Sal Di Stefano:talking to you.

23:29Adam Schafer:If you're like so disciplined, you never miss a day, you're beast mode. I'm not talking to you. What are you doing listening to this? I don't care. Listen, if you're a coach, listen to us because we're going to teach you how to coach other people.

23:39Sal Di Stefano:But I'm not trying to motivate you, bro. You're already going to the gym all the time. You're the 5%. You're the 5%. The other 95 % of the population... I'm talking to everybody else that needs help. You legitimately can handle it. Kudos to you. 100%.

23:52Adam Schafer:I would not sit you down and talk to you about you need to be more consistent. You're consistent, homie. See you later. you won. I'm talking to everybody else right now. Do whatever you want.

23:59Sal Di Stefano:Increase your volume. I don't give a shit.

24:01Adam Schafer:Dude, I got to tell you. That's an easy thing. I'll change the subject. I got to tell you guys. This is just for parents out there. My three-year-old. So you have the terrible twos, right? Threes are oftentimes worse if you talk to other parents. And my daughter went from hard to harder, dude. My three-year-old? Oh my God, dude. Hey, she's so defiant. She's just clapping. Poor Jessica can't get a break.

24:25Sal Di Stefano:I call them. Aurelius was a handful. She's a handful.

24:28Adam Schafer:He was a normal, like what you would expect from a kid, handful. Okay? My daughter is so defiant and nothing works. Nothing. Bro, I'm telling you. I'll be like, okay, sit right here. And she'll get up and she'll start throwing things off the table. And I'll be like. And I'll be like. And at some point you get mad, so you threaten her. So I'm like, I'm going to throw away your stuffy. She'll grab it and throw it away herself. Just do it, dad. I'm going to do it. What is going on, dude? I got a text from Jessica this morning. All it said was, uppercase, I am furious. I'm like, uh-oh, what's going on?

25:08Adam Schafer:Your daughter just threw, I guess they were eating pasta with pesto, and we'll put pecorino on it. She got mad for some reason, took the whole thing, and just threw it on the floor. And she's like, dude, I'm going to lose my mind with this.

25:21Sal Di Stefano:My buddy talks about this with my goddaughter. She's like this. And he's like, bro, I do not want to be a parent that's spanked. I have to spank. It's the only thing that works. That's what he's like. He's like, I can't. Otherwise, I cannot get her to listen or do it. Like, she is just that defiant. And he's like, bro, I do not. I always pictured myself as a parent that would never do that. He's like, but I've been. It's the only thing that gets her attention. Otherwise, she'll just do whatever the hell she wants and not afraid of any taking away stuff, like, just doesn't care.

25:58Adam Schafer:I know, and I'm like, please, Lord, let this be the phase and not when she's a teenager. Because three years old, like, I could deal with you throwing something, like, teenager that does that? Oh, Lord.

26:08Sal Di Stefano:Well, isn't that what they say? They typically say it's one or the other is what they say. I know.

26:12Adam Schafer:I don't know if that's true. That would be awesome if it was. Because I'd much rather deal with a toddler. I think that just gives people hope. Yeah, I think so, too. Look forward. Although I do love it. I don't think I'm going to be that bad. Because I do have two big age gaps. And I love, there's memes that you'll see with like, it's like a parent. It's like when you're listening to someone say the toddler stage is the worst, but you have teenagers and they're like smiling at them and they're thinking, like in their head, you just wait. There's other things.

26:39Sal Di Stefano:Do you see we did soccer? We did soccer last week. I didn't see any of this. Yeah, we had soccer. How do you do? Yeah, how do you go? Was he interested at all or is it just kind of? I mean, we went. But did he play?

26:52Adam Schafer:Like, what do you mean?

26:52Sal Di Stefano:I mean, so it was soccer camp, which was great because it was a perfect way to introduce it. And the coaches were great. I mean, shout out to that. I should give love to the company. I can't think of it off the top of my head, Adam Morgan Hill. But a couple guys that were running this camp, there was like three of them, probably in their, I'd say, late 20s or something like that. Super great with the kids. I mean, it made a lot of games out of it. Awesome. So perfect for my son to introduce it. Like I think putting him on a team and like going straight into full on practices would be, he would be like, hell no, I don't want to do it.

27:27Sal Di Stefano:But because he had three of his friends there and it was a camp. And so it was all a lot of play and teaching them some skills and stuff. But yeah, no, he's, and I found out afterwards that like, I mean, he, he finished the three days because his mother bribed him for a Lego to, if he made it all three days. Yeah.

27:45Adam Schafer:But did he say he wants to do it again?

27:46Sal Di Stefano:I don't want it. He said no more. No. I mean, he didn't, he's like, I, you know, like, Hey, how'd you like it? It was all right, dad. Well, that's not bad. At least he was like, I hate it. Yeah, he didn't say he hated it, but he also said he didn't care for it too. I mean, he's like, well, mom said I'd get a Lego if I made all three days. So I made all three days. I did it.

28:06Adam Schafer:How was he while he was there?

28:08Sal Di Stefano:You know, he was more interested in when it was going to be over. He was constantly like, how many more hours is left? How much longer is left? When's lunch? it's like Ethan chasing bees oh dude yeah yeah he was like yeah the ball I mean there would be times where it would get kicked his way he'd kind of make a jog towards it and then some other kid would bolt there really fast and then he'd be like let me kind of turn around so yeah just not he'll find his thing yeah I mean so we saw a good progression like day one so we we were going to not go at all in fact I tried to convince Katrina to not be there at all because he does better when we're not there.

28:51Sal Di Stefano:And so I got her to at least agree to being out of sight. So we dropped him off, and he thought we were gone, but we weren't gone. We were kind of watching from afar. And there was a couple times where he went down, and I saw that he started to cry a little bit and stuff like that. I went, oh, fuck. But the coaches were so great. Got him up and like, come on, shake it off, get him to move and get going and not focus on getting hit and stuff like that. And so it was really cool. I did get to see you know day one that happened then to day two none of that day three none of that so there was a progression yeah so there was a progression and that's good but yeah not a lot of interest and it was just like

29:28Adam Schafer:well I mean you know at that age when they're young it's interesting because I really I was telling you guys about my son he'll run but when the ball gets close to him he runs away for some reason but he'll run the whole time yeah I think he's trying to appear busy or something I don't know but by the we're now I don't know how many weeks we're in now four maybe four or five weeks now he goes after the ball yeah because he gets it because so they progress well yeah he was

29:52Sal Di Stefano:he's yeah remember he's a year year what year and a half younger than max is and he's at an age where he's like like he your son's got all the energy and the athletic ability yeah he just needs it focused on oh this is what i'm supposed to do like when you're that young when you first do you're just like what's everyone doing everyone's just running around you'd be surprised i talked to

30:09Adam Schafer:a lot of parents who who have kids in high school who are like super athletes i'm like oh my kid didn't figure out until it was 10. I mean, Katrina and I were that way.

30:17Sal Di Stefano:Both of us were. That's what gives me hope is that we were both late bloomers when it came to sports. Although I did play soccer pretty young. But I'd say, like, I don't remember my desire for it until I was much older. Like fifth, sixth grade, right? So, you know, there's still time for it. And all I can do is keep introducing him. But I know, I mean, he's funny, man. He's different in so many different ways. I mean, I could, you guys know Bowser and Mario is like his favorite. You know, he's so into that stuff, right? Did you guys watch the new Mario? Well, so I'm driving. Like, hey. Check your time at the theater.

30:55Sal Di Stefano:I'm like, Mario's playing at the theater. You want to go? And he's like, oh. He's like, it's at the theater. Can we watch it at home? And I'm like, well, it's not at home, right? If we want to watch it now, we'll go to the theater. We'll get some popcorns, gummy bears for that. And he's like, I'll wait until it comes out at home. So I'd rather watch it at home. you know that's you dude I'm a homebody we were at Jason's last night we were at Jason's and we're all hanging out and he comes up to him sitting next to Jason talking to him and his dad and Max is like dad I'm ready to go home now right in front of Jason alright dude I said give you like 10 minutes he's just such a homebody bro I mean that's why I don't get mad he's patient he has a good attitude about it if i tell him he's got great character so it's like yeah you know i'm saying and he knows what he wants and so and he yeah yeah he's not afraid to tell you like yeah no doubt it's not i don't care for it that much so we were at a birthday we were at night

31:54Adam Schafer:birthday it was like a party with a lot of our friends from church and a lot of them have kids that are the same age as uh my five-year-old but they're all girls so they were in the jumpy house and just my son with literally it's like five six girls his age and they're jumping and playing and i'm watching this whole thing and the moms are coming over they're like this is gonna be interesting but they get older like yeah dude dude you know the only guy speaking of that you

32:15Sal Di Stefano:know it's funny we were talking about this this weekend larry's birthday party i was talking to my sister-in-law about this and uh we're talking about max and he's got he was with oh he's this girl who's he's one of his best friends and she's like she's like super tall and looks like she's like five years older but they're the same age and uh she totally like grabs him by the hand and he just he loves her he'll do whatever she wants to do and like that it's the cutest thing ever and it's hilarious to watch my wife it drives katrina crazy katrina does not like when little girls boss her son around oh which is ironic as shit to me because every man she ever dated yes i'm like the irony and she goes the iron of you not to care you would never put up with that shit i'm like yeah but he's he's a kid yeah he's six right now it's cute you know what i'm saying like it won't be cute when he's in high school i'm like yeah and i'll talk to him when he's in high school right now it's okay he's got this but boy she just she sits him down like you don't let those girls tell you what to do oh yes she does and she gets and so her sister and i are talking about like it's hilarious to me to watch your sister get so defensive with these little girls she that is her katrina's biggest pet peeve with the kids is that is girls is she does not like seeing little girls boss her son around and so she is adamant about like sitting him down being like hey when she tells you to do this you don't you don't do that unless you want to yeah yeah and i'm like let him she's cute and he's he likes he likes hanging out with her and he gets along with him and so

33:44Adam Schafer:she'll figure that out yeah you know it happens eventually yeah i mean i i so i mean maybe that's

33:50Sal Di Stefano:because her my sister-in-law was like she's like i'm surprised that that doesn't bother you and i'm like you know i was kind of like that when i was young i liked you worked through that yeah i hung I hung out with the chicks, and I liked older girls, and they could totally get me to do whatever. I remember being like. They're charming. Yeah, I remember being in fourth, fifth, sixth grade and being on the bus and having the older girls talk to me, and they could get me to do stuff because I was into that, you know, whatever. But then I grew up. I got older, different, you know what I'm saying?

34:20Sal Di Stefano:So I look at him, and I see that. I'm like, it's okay right now. He's fine. Yeah, it's okay. Katrina's like, hell no. That's so funny.

34:27Adam Schafer:That's so funny. I went to Legoland last week How'd you like it? It is Did I really just like it? For little kids It's amazing It's awesome It's amazing Perfect for his age It's definitely though If your standard is Disneyland Oh come on

34:40Sal Di Stefano:You can't compare

34:41Adam Schafer:Bro it's like super janky It's more Knotsberry Farm I think it's a great

34:46Sal Di Stefano:I think it's a perfect Right before Disneyland So like I didn't want to take Max to Disneyland It's better for little kids I didn't want to take Max to Disneyland Until he was able to ride all the rides That was a big discussion. We had friends that took their kids to Disneyland at four. They can't even ride everything. It's so expensive. It's like, why do that? Exactly. And so I was like, let's wait until Max is at an age where he's tall enough and can ride everything. And Legoland's perfect for when they're before that. There's a lot of stuff they can still do.

35:14Adam Schafer:And you did every ride that he wanted. The park is perfect for little kids. And it's the first time it was just him and I. So it was nice father-son time just having fun. Now, how was that? It was awesome. It was awesome. He kept telling me how awesome it was. He kept saying, this is the best time I've ever had. I don't remember that, yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are the ones that make a big impact. Oh, this is the best time. This is the best place. I love this. Let's not leave. He just kept telling me over and over again, we're having fun. I let him eat more treats than he normally have. We stayed up late, right, till 9, which is funny, because he would tell people, I stayed up till 9.

35:46Adam Schafer:Yeah, yeah. You know, crazy. But we had a great time, dude. And then before that, I took my 16-year-old down to look at some colleges down the LA area. and then the day after we went to universal together very different experience okay so

35:58Sal Di Stefano:how did you do this did you fly down with your daughter and then fly back and then fly down again my son oh i thought you drove down i did two trips oh you did two separate flights back

36:07Adam Schafer:oh wow okay and i wanted to have alone time with each of them yeah and you know first off with your teenage kid uh it's hard to get teenagers to kind of open up especially i don't know if this is more true or not but it's it's hard like if i you know hey how's your day what's going on to get one word answers plus she's busy she's got sports we don't have like all this time to sit and just let the space create that so i'm like let's get away we're gonna start looking at colleges soon anyway and uh but it's funny because we were driving and uh i had uh ai print out i printed out or not printed i took 50 questions you can ask your 16 year old daughter for connection i actually asked it.

36:48Adam Schafer:So I kept asking questions. Didn't work. I was going to ask you, do you remember

36:53Sal Di Stefano:what Fig and Eagle, there was something he said, there's a way to engage your teenage kids.

37:00Adam Schafer:Yes, it's stuff like this. Instead of saying, how was your day at school? You would say something like, if today was a movie at school, the title being. Yeah, dude, I tried

37:09Sal Di Stefano:all that. Doesn't work.

37:10Adam Schafer:No, she has to be in the mood, man. It was like pulling teeth to kind of get her to... One thing that I can always do with my daughters have fun though so we can always like together have fun yeah but to have like those deep conversations it's like what ends up happening is i force it and it turns into a lecture and then she shuts down even more you know what i mean yeah so i'm like trying to like to get her to kind of open up uh and she kind of did a little bit the first day then we got a little argument by the end of the day because uh you know there's like certain colleges that i will pay for and anything outside of that i won't and so she's now the whole like you're trying to control me i'm like well yeah I'm paying.

37:48Sal Di Stefano:If you pay, you can decide. Do you think part of that challenge is also, cause you said something that reminds me of the, the challenge I had with my siblings. So I have, I'm, there's four of us and I'm there in the, the two youngest ones, there's a massive gap, 13 and 15 years. And so most of their life, I was just like in another parent. Yep. Yep. And what I've had a really hard time in, in our, in our thirties and forties now is just being a brother. Yeah. And I know that part of that is my fault. Like I don't even, and I, it took me a long time to realize even the way I talk, cause I would go into lecture mode.

38:23Sal Di Stefano:I didn't even mean to, you know what I'm saying? It's just natural that that's the way older brother. I have a lot more experience and wisdom, but I'm like, I'm trying to get out of that. And so do you feel like some of it is even you on how you communicate back to her? Right. Like it for sure. Because, uh, like practicing, she says something and you're like, Ooh, I want to do this, say this, but I need to practice.

38:43Adam Schafer:It's not even that. it's just getting to like start opening up like we'll just drive in the car and it'll be just quiet and she'll just listen to music i'm like okay like i'm here to like connect with you so then i got to do the whole like hey put your phone down yeah hey let's just talk for a second

38:56Sal Di Stefano:but what i what i recognized what i realized was that a lot of that was my fault because when they would i would go right into lecture mode versus i what i needed to learn to do was they're going to say something and inside of me i have the answer i think but i just need to be a brother

39:10Adam Schafer:like oh damn that's so it's more like this because i know that feeling i have that with my siblings too uh it's more like this no one's talking i'm asking a question i get a short answer nothing else i'll give you so then it's like hey you know there's these are a few things that you want to look at you know when you meet a guy and so i just it's like i'm trying to create conversation but if she starts talking i'll listen uh you know i figured that part out uh with her but we can have fun so then the next day we went to universal and then we had a blast uh and i said so i get motion sickness i don't like going on roller coasters but i'm like i'm gonna do and my daughter loves the scariest most crazy rides so i'm like i'm gonna do every ride i don't care how crappy i feel bro by the end of it it was this close dude throwing up i was so close dude but i did every ride and then we were able to start kind of warming up and talking and stuff like that but yeah those teacups for you though no we did you know which one almost got me do was the harry potter freaking yeah dude was it was it the first time you've been at universal universal is cool now i've been there beer huh did you try that no what is that oh yeah i saw it it's like i'm really sweet uh creamy like like root beer kind of stuff oh okay yeah i should have got that yeah it hurts really good yeah i should have got that no i hadn't been there in a while um that place is massive that's that's fun with older kids for sure yeah yeah not with the younger kids the younger kids would have hated that yeah but anyway i mean it turned out to be good but it's just uh i'm just gonna try creating more of those opportunities to just be just the two of us because um whether it's at home or getting away i feel kind of bad just listening to your guys stories like we literally didn't do anything for the kids i mean i didn't do anything either bro we were sick bro there's so much going on and uh but we obviously we took them to palm desert and it was fun like we went on some hikes and uh you know i took a mini golfing and there's this place there that's like so old school it's like it reminds me of uh uh karate kid you know where he goes the golfing stuff oh yeah like the the go-karts and stuff so it was great was um i was i was racing against ethan he's like super into racing and he thought he was awesome and all this stuff and so the last lap uh i just i cut him off and then got right in front and beat him so i could flex on him forever so that's good bragging rights do you remind him that you're way heavier and you shouldn't have beat him yeah yeah i'm basically like king kong out there you know a little like mario kaki kong yeah exactly but uh we we actually purchased a um uh an old BMW car for him.

41:57Oh, you got it? You got it. Yeah, it's a different one. And it was a bummer because like we, for his birthday, we were trying to time it, obviously close to his birthday, but the one that we're going to get fell through and the guy sold it to somebody else like right at the last second. We're like, dude. But this one was like still a manual stick shift. So I really wanted to make sure that was like a thing.

42:19Adam Schafer:That's a flex, by the way, for him. Like he's going to take girls out on that. They're going to triple. It's also a brilliant strategy on his part too.

42:26Sal Di Stefano:It's a, it's a nice smart way for a parent to keep your kid off the phone while he's driving. Totally. Without saying it, you just do it. I mean like, cause yeah. And he's really into a stock car racing and racing in general. And I'm like, if you want to be all in that world, you better know how to drive a stick shift. And so I, it started to kind of resonate. I'm like, there's a learning curve. It's not easy. And so he, he took it around the parking lot and it was cool. Cause this, younger guy who was selling it uh you know he's like hey i'll take him and like you know took him around and taught him some things without us which was kind of cool to watch him uh you know figure it out you know he did pretty well he didn't like stall it out like completely at first he did all right you know but then it he's done motorcycles um no not really oh really okay i mean he's done like like quads like so he knows how to use a clutch he knows how to use a clutch like

43:20Adam Schafer:somewhat but not that's so different though it is but it's a concept because i yeah sure sure because i learned on a uh what are they called the the 50s the little oh yeah yeah and i had a clutch so when i first drove a stick shift i got the concept of the clutch because otherwise you don't know the concept of a clutch yeah they're like what do i do right yeah yeah so there's a lot to learn there with rpms and you know listening and what's cool though is you get really like attached to the vehicle like you understand the sound i missed it oh i missed dude it's next on my radar i forgot like and i was driving it a bit and it's funny because it's you just it's a very visceral experience that way as opposed to you know just like turning it on with a stupid you know button and then we're out of here like it's so automatic now um but yeah i love it because it's it's it's like no balls dude it's it was uh the other one we were looking at it was like a v8

44:14Sal Di Stefano:this one's like a v like like a four banger yeah yeah so he didn't know that and i was like and he picked it and i'm like okay cool like we're driving it on the frid was like 75 it was like screaming to make it over this hill i'm like but that's good it's good news for us as parents

44:33Adam Schafer:we're like so he's not gonna be racing starts modding it well yeah because he's got a job He needs a job before any of that happens. You turbo that thing. Next thing you know, you got it. Yeah, exactly. That's what I would do back in the day. That'll be cool. It was cool. I got a friend of mine. I got to tell you guys about this. Success story from Cratein. She's a nurse, and she does a lot of the swing shift crazy stuff that nurses will do. And she started working out and stuff, but I talked to her about using Cratein for the mental health and cognitive benefits. Because she's like, because you know this, Justin.

45:06Adam Schafer:as Courtney used to work these crazy hours. Brutal. So brutal. And it just fries your brain. Yeah. So she's been taking creatine, and she's like, it is night and day. Yeah. It's like, my energy, I'm not foggy. She's like, I think way better. She's like, this stuff is incredible. Anybody on these graveyard swing shifts, this should be mandatory. That's a great call. Dude, and it's not a stimulant like caffeine. It's good for you. So she was just rave reviews about it.

45:29Sal Di Stefano:It's making, this is making its way into mainstream now. So I was at dinner last night with Jason and his family, and his sister-in-law and his mom were talking about creatine for the brain. And they're not like fitness people and stuff like that. And the only reason why I came up in conversation, I was there. She obviously knows that I have the health podcast and everything like that. And they were asking questions. You know, I heard creatine is really good for your brain. I'm like, oh, wow. So it's made its way. When I start hearing it like that, at like a dinner party with like regular people that aren't like considered fitness people and knowing that, I was like, oh, that's super interesting to me to hear people talk about it.

46:08Sal Di Stefano:You know Legion has capsules. Oh, they have capsules?

46:10Adam Schafer:Yeah, you do Kraytium monohydrate capsules. Oh, I didn't know that.

46:13Sal Di Stefano:Yep, yep. That'll be a lot easier. Oh, I thought it was powder or gummies.

46:16Adam Schafer:No, you just get the capsules, which makes it hella easy. And I think it's like five capsules. I think it's like five grams or whatever the dose is. Super easy, inexpensive, just pure Kraytium monohydrate capsules. Put them in. Of course, smart. Legion did that. Yeah, yeah, very smart. Yeah, super smart. I watched, I sent it to you guys, guaranteed you guys didn't watch it. but there's this documentary on prime called universe designed. Oh, you sent it to us to watch. I did. I'll have to check that out. It is fire. So it's all about like the probability and odds that there isn't an intelligence behind the universe and all the stuff that we had Stephen Meyer on the podcast, which that should be dropping soon.

46:55Adam Schafer:Right. Is that dropping soon, Doug? Before this episode goes up.

46:58Sal Di Stefano:I don't think so. Okay. Right after, I think.

47:00Adam Schafer:So anyway, so you know, it's so, it's a great documentary it talks about all the evidence all the and it's got all these scientists on there and of course there's apologists and philosophers but you know when i was an atheist had somebody come at me uh with with this explanation i i definitely wouldn't have been an atheist anymore because as they're breaking it down it's like whoa this is the probability that uh everything's so finely tuned and so perfect like if any one of these uh yeah slightly off. One of the, any one of these forces is off by a little bit. Nothing exists. There is, there is no planets.

47:36Adam Schafer:There is no, um, life. There is no water. Um, and then DNA, uh, and how it looks like a computer program. Um, it just, it's just incredible, but they really break it down. It's so good. And so I was watching that and then that led me down a rabbit hole. And I didn't know this by the way, I know, you know, this Justin, I'm pretty sure you guys know that they find seashell fossils on the tops of some of the tallest mountains in the world you guys know that actual seashell fossils yeah at one point these massive mountains were covered in water yeah which yeah evidence yeah yeah which looks like speaking of evidence i i'd sent you guys well since we had such a long car ride it was like uh let's listen to the podcast and like i've been getting into sean ryan's podcast quite big just because of the guests he's been having on really good uh i don't remember the name of this gentleman but he was going through the exact case for the shroud of turin oh yeah dude it was so compelling dude i've and i've been a very big skeptic you know with like it i want to that looks really cool and it looks like you know it'd be great and it doesn't have to be true and it doesn't have doesn't have to be true but uh i I mean, they've gone back and forth with it over the years because they took a bit of the corner of it for evidence and then carbon dated it and it didn't come back.

49:01The organic material they use. So I guess he debunked that because it's like the perimeter of it. They have to reinforce because it's like a shroud. So it'll start disintegrating. So they have to reinforce it with this cotton reinforcing. and so that's what they were picking up on. The science that they've done,

49:21Adam Schafer:what they've done to analyze it is wild. Insane. Insane. Like there's dimensions to this. And they tried to recreate it. Like holographically, you could like expand it to where it looks like the features and everything. And oh my God, there was a stat on there. I'm not going to remember it, but it was an insane stat of like the instant that light must have gone through, like some kind of like a nuclear yeah the intensity of it that didn't burn it that left this image yeah yeah all of it is like impossible and i was pretty crazy impossible they can't explain it you

49:56Sal Di Stefano:know speaking of shows since you guys are talking about stuff like that i i have a new one that i found which is totally different than what we're talking about right now it's called company retreat have you seen this it's on prime you all will like this this is one that i feel like all of us will like especially we all like kind of like office humor and stuff okay so imagine the office uh combined with a reality element to it meaning that one of the employees is actually a real person but has no idea that they are on a show at their they think oh that's hilarious bro it is a brilliant concept so it's like a prank is like the truman show kind of no not not even like not like truman it's more like the office just imagine one of the office members really thinking they're showing up to a real job but everybody else but everybody else is an actor is in on the prank.

50:44Sal Di Stefano:And they have everything written of how it's all going to go. So they, so they, it's so brilliantly done.

50:49Adam Schafer:That would mess with your head so bad to you. It is. You're losing your mind.

50:52Sal Di Stefano:It is so good. And I was like so blown away by how good it was. What's it on? So I think it's on Prime. Look up if it's on Prime. I think it is. Actually, I didn't know this until after I found this. We watched, Katrina and I binged the whole thing. Found out that they did an original one called The Jury. And it was the same concept. It was a staged, like whole court hearing and one person was actually a real person. The rest were all actors and they put them through a whole like... Dude, that'll mess with your... Dude, it's so good and it's hilarious because it's very office type humor, but it's done in such a way where it's so believable that this could happen.

51:33Sal Di Stefano:Everybody's in on it, but you, like, imagine. Imagine that, like you show up to work and everybody's

51:38Adam Schafer:kind of off and doing weird things. You start to lose your mind. And when they interview,

51:42Sal Di Stefano:they interview this guy and they, and they, it's as an intern and the pitch is that it's going, they're documenting this process on their retreat that they're doing and are you okay being on camera because we're doing a little documentary on our whole thing. So he's aware that he's being filmed and so he's in on being filmed but he thinks it's a documentary for the work and they're just, they're just documenting all of it. So, I mean, the fact that there's camera, the cameras that are around and they hide a lot more cameras and there's a lot more to it that he doesn't know about, but he sees cameras, and so it's not like a big deal.

52:14Sal Di Stefano:Oh, it's so good. That sounds funny. That is prime, by the way. It is prime, right? It is hilarious. Yeah, yeah, I know. You guys will. I can't believe I've never heard of it. I know. We just came across it, and I read what was going on. And I'm like, just reading, I was like, oh, that's funny. I'm like, no way that's true. Is it one of these reality shows that is staged reality? And I went and did research, and I'm like, oh, no, this guy 100 % had no idea all this i'll watch this one yeah jessica for sure you guys will like it

52:43Adam Schafer:dude somebody that so i know i won't say too much so i want to talk about who they are but someone i know uh started using uh 70h okay so listen been telling everybody this stuff dude guys this is so by the way it's made illegal in california although apparently you could still buy it in some places but it is illegal i looked it up because when i was talking to this person And they're like, they made it illegal. So I'm like, okay, good. 70H is so strong. It's like taking a prescription opiate. Yeah. But it's, you know, from a plant or whatever. She had back pain. This person I know had back pain.

53:23Adam Schafer:Friend of hers said, hey, try this natural herbal painkiller. It's so strong, by the way, that we'll take this tablet and we'll break it up into fours. So you can literally break up this little tablet into little corners. and she's like oh man my back pain went away I felt so good so I was using it for a month she was just using it for a month she tried to go off severe withdrawal she's like I have to scale it down that was a month just a month of using this stuff which by the way so they derive it from kratom and kratom is addictive it can be very addictive it's a concentrated version of it but it's basically like the difference between kratom and 7-0-H.

54:03Sal Di Stefano:7-0-H is the chemical inside of Kratom that gives you the opiate filling.

54:08Adam Schafer:It's like you took Kratom, which is a leaf, and they're like, how can we turn this into a straight up? What they did was

54:14Sal Di Stefano:they took the one main chemical of the leaf and concentrated it into this pressed pill. So I forget what I looked up because I looked up when I was Like, what's the equivalent? How strong is it? Oh, I want to say it's like 10 Kratom pills, which would be like 5 grams of Kratom 10 would be like one tablet? Yeah. yeah yeah yeah it might be more if somebody's not if somebody uses it for the first time and

54:38Adam Schafer:they took one tablet they would get severely ill they could it depends on how how like are you the

54:43Sal Di Stefano:type of person that like it's it's so that would be equivalent to basically taking like a double strength vicodin yeah so most people would vomit yeah some people like katrina would get sick from that she's very sensitive things like that other people would not uh i wonder if there's been overdoses on 70h in california there has to be yeah i don't know i don't know i don't know um Where's it most prevalent? Is it Florida or?

55:03Adam Schafer:All over. Everywhere. All over the U.S.? Oh, yeah, dude.

55:07Sal Di Stefano:Give them in smoke shops everywhere. And gas stations, too.

55:09Adam Schafer:So the feds, or is it the feds? Who does the controls, the drugs and stuff? Anyway, they're like federally looking like. FDA, right? They're trying to ban it everywhere because of its strength. What does it say there, Doug? I'm seeing if there's overdose history. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, were present in fatal and non-fatal overdose cases.

55:35Sal Di Stefano:Well, present, it could mean they were overdosed on something else. You know what this reminds me of?

55:39Adam Schafer:Remember when they were, like, this one back when weed was, like, super illegal. And they were making, like, they were taking, like, THC, chemically altering it a little bit. Making it into dabs. Making it into, like, no, not dabs. They were, like, there was, like, I was, like, it's like weed, but it's legal. And people were going to the crazy salvia. Oh, the artificial version. It wasn't salvia. It was literally like they're making synthetic cannabinoids. Synthetic, yeah. This is crazy what people, what they'll do. Yeah, I know. They gave you crazy side effects.

56:05Sal Di Stefano:I've warned everybody I know to be careful because this stuff is like. Bro, 30 days.

56:12Adam Schafer:She just used a little bit for 30 days. I mean, I might. She went through.

56:15Sal Di Stefano:What's the date? Where are we at? What's the date right now, Doug? The 13th, April. So November 11th, I think it was the date that I came off. Oh, everything. I literally have hit my first week of like feeling normal. Yeah. I just, I just hit it. I just up until brutal. Yeah. Up until a week ago, I still had like jaw clenching and anxiety at night. And I've just recently, and I still wouldn't say I'm great, but I, I, I feel the closest to normal that I have felt like now.

56:52Adam Schafer:and this has been the first week so are you so you know some people um who some most people can have some alcohol not a big deal and some people become alcoholics and then when they stop if they're able to stop they're like i will not have a single drink yeah is it like that for you oh yeah yeah because you're like i'm gonna touch it not even a little i mean i have it i like everyone

57:13Sal Di Stefano:thought i was crazy because i didn't even throw away all the pills i got all of them just i can I like looking at it. It's a reminder. Yeah.

57:20Adam Schafer:Good for you.

57:21Sal Di Stefano:I wouldn't want, you couldn't convince me. So different though, right? Cannabis, alcohol. That's because of what you went through. Yeah, yeah. Stuff like that, I could totally, oh yeah, I'll have a drink with you. Oh yeah, I'll smoke with you. Even though I told you guys it's been that long since I've done cannabis, I didn't announce that and say I wouldn't anymore and I totally would if the right situation called for it. I would not be worried about that. But you couldn't

57:47Adam Schafer:pay me enough to indulge in one day of that wow oh yeah no because the fact that i still know that

57:53Sal Di Stefano:i i have after effects from that that that long and i also know how easily that you know a little

58:00Adam Schafer:bit turns into a little bit more it's all about knowing yourself isn't it yeah yeah i'm very aware of of you know and i knew because it has a pull on me too not like quite like that yeah but uh but i i will not i won't go near it because i know it's got a pull yeah the part that so the

58:14Sal Di Stefano:part that makes me mad about that is i i went through mad at myself is and i played this game of it's an herb right because i i went through you know vicodin stuff like a long time ago and so i and so i know better i wouldn't touch that again like someone offered me one of those big no you know like or if i needed one no i don't even if it was pain or surgery i'd still not take it because i know my own relationship with that so yet i allowed the kratom thing even though i know it works on the opiate receptor but it was like this justification of it's this herbal leaf and so but to see what it put me through it's like it was i mean that the what i went through with the kratom was worst withdrawals than i ever experienced with vicodin now i didn't obviously take as much for as long as i did which is but that just throws in the face of the lie that it's

59:03Adam Schafer:it's a better substitute yeah yeah it's like a total yeah yeah bullcrap i know i mean there's

59:07Sal Di Stefano:So I did a full interview with Doug Bopst on it. He had me talk all about it. That's all we talked about. And I saw some of the people in the comments. And there's a lot of people that are saying things. And I get it because I had an uncle that was hooked on prescription medication. And the Kratom helped him merge off of that. And so there was a handful of people, I'd say, that were commenting on my interview that were saying things like, well, not all of us. It's not bad for everybody that were defensive about it. And so I'm like, yeah, no, I can understand that. You could potentially use that as a way to merge off of a really strong Oxycontin or Vicodin.

59:55Sal Di Stefano:And so it could be helpful for some people. And I know that the whole documentary that originally sold me on it, that's how it sold me. I saw a whole documentary on these - Was that his name's documentary? No, it was before his. oh really yeah it was called the um something i think i want to say it was a magic leaf or was that was that his it was one before him that uh that that i'd seen and that that was what convinced me that oh this is like this you know they get pictures as herbal thing and it's all natural and it's helps all these people that have opiate addiction and things like that i was like oh wow this sounds like a really a really good thing and so no different than tea or caffeine or something else and it's like yeah that's the thing that trapped me into or led me down this like three years but yeah i know what are we i don't know how many months i tell you what though um uh what's the name of troscription guy that we just had oh yeah yeah yeah uh shit dr share

1:00:49Adam Schafer:um yeah look what dog because uh um are you his sleep stuff of all the stuff the best sleep yes i've never tried so that so here's here's the bro that'll make you sleep here's the move like

1:01:01Sal Di Stefano:period you take you you dissolve you dissolve one of the calms first yeah so i'll have so i typically my routine right now is uh i'll get ready i'll make myself chamomile tea i'll kind of drink the chamomile tea first while we're watching a show or something that i'll throw one of those calms under my tongue let it dissolve completely by time it dissolves it's set in and i can already feel myself like like totally chill out and then i take the what's the z triple z one Yeah, that's the sleep one. Yeah, the sleep one. Put that under and dissolve. By the time that dissolves, I mean, my eyelids are getting heavy.

1:01:38Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. And then I just... Yeah. It's the most effective. Yeah. Yeah, Dr. Scott Share, I believe. Did that episode go live yet or no? Let me see. Oh, good. So it'll have gone up. So awesome. Listen to that episode. So people have heard us talk about that. So yeah, you'll hear in the episode, hopefully you heard the episode, him talk about a stack. I've been taking that since we met him and it's been incredible. Yeah. What I haven't done consistently that he told me to do also is take the methylene blue during the day. And so I really want to string like two or three days together where I do that, where I take the methylene blue in the, in the morning or in the afternoon or whatever, and then use those two consistently and see if I, cause he says that that'll help it.

1:02:20Sal Di Stefano:You know what else helps is the,

1:02:21Adam Schafer:the Tromune, which is an, it's a cordyceps extract and it's not, it doesn't make you sleepy, but it does increase REM stage. Oh really? So take that before bed and you'll get more. REM stage it's not a sleep supplement it's yeah but i'm trying to improve REM that's it so REM

1:02:39Sal Di Stefano:and deep i'm trying that does that's i mean i'm on you know I've been tracking consistently and uh i'm still on the hunt so i have yet to do back-to-back 90s so that's like uh that's like the goal for me is trying to try to do that but yeah no it's been it's been cool and now i got the the sauna going so i'm gonna i'm gonna i haven't had a yet a nice little which was the plan was this week that we just had off, but Max got sick, I got sick, everything got thrown out the window, but I was going to really get my regimen together with my training, my diet, the sleep staff. Don't you hate that?

1:03:14Adam Schafer:You get a week off?

1:03:16Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I had this whole plan of like, we had this stuff that I had to take care of with the cars and so that, and that all got pushed out and a headache. I'm still trying to figure, I told you guys that we had like a dead animal that we can't, we had to take the rover in to get like taken apart. Oh, that's right. And then they find it? It's still there. you've had it for a week you've had it for a week and it was funny he tells Katrina like four or five days we have a connection over there and he calls her up and he goes hey he goes we can't find anything there's no dead animal it's fine and the car is fine I'm like that Katrina's like no it's not trust me and so he's telling her they're kind of like arguing on the phone and they know each other since high school right and so she's like arguing with him and so he's like well let me go hold on I'll go check so I guess the car that day had been sitting out in the sun with everything sealed up and he comes back he's like okay we're we'll keep it you come in get a loaner we'll get to the bottom of this because i guess how weird yeah we cannot figure out where where it's coming from or where it's at but it is disgusting and it smells like there's a dead animal somewhere in this car which is so crazy like if you know my cars i keep everything like clean and tight and like you can't like you can't it's like you would never think that there's this weird coming in so they're having to take apart everything.

1:04:30Sal Di Stefano:It looks like a piece of fruit or a banana somewhere. I mean, if it is, it's not where...

1:04:37Adam Schafer:Because you've tore out the inside. Oh, yeah.

1:04:38Sal Di Stefano:We've already removed the seats. Front seats, back seats of all... Weird. Yeah. So it's got to be something that's burrowed. Looked through the glove compartment. Burrowed on the carpet. Yeah, burrowed on the carpet or up in the chassis or something like that because... Weird. Yeah. So strange. Cannot get to the bottom of it. And he was so certain that there's nothing. We checked. We pulled the seats up. We don't think we can't find anything. And then he put it up, parked it out there, and he's just like, okay. Dude, mice can get anything. Right. That's what we're afraid of is that it's like some little, tiny little mouse that got trapped.

1:05:07Sal Di Stefano:Like in the AC or something. Yeah, it's somewhere in there, and they can't figure out where it's at. But there's something because it's rancid when the car heats up. So, yeah, I'm dealing with that right now.

1:05:21Adam Schafer:Supplement companies are known for not being very good. Oftentimes what the bottle says is not what's in the bottle. Third-party testing often shows that the supplements you're taking are a waste of money. And many are not backed by studies. This is not the case with Keon. Keon products are tested. They're clean. They're effective. They only use supplements that have data that backs them. Look, if you want the best supplements, this is a premier supplement company. If you want the stuff that's the best for you, go check out Keon. Go to getkion.com. That's G-E-T-K-I-O-N.com forward slash mind pump.

1:06:00Adam Schafer:That link gets you one of the biggest discounts you'll get anywhere 20 % off. Go check them out. Here comes the show. Our first caller is Mitchell from Ohio. What's up, man? How you doing, Mitchell? Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. You got it. What's going on? Yeah, so I'll give you a little bit of background and then give me my question there at the end. So I've been lifting for about six years. I'm 24 years old. I feel like I'm pretty strong for my size. I'm six foot three, about 185 pounds. But I feel like I'm not building the physique that I want. So a little bit more background. I started lifting when I was 18.

1:06:40I played college baseball, so that's when I kind of got started lifting. I was about 175 pounds when I started. And then in that first year, I put on about 10 pounds, I'd say, and built some size and strength. those newbie gains. But since then, I really haven't been able to put on the size that I want. So, I mean, I feel like, like I said, I'm strong for my size, like, but I still feel super skinny. And I just, I don't know, I feel like I'm doing everything right. I'm running MAPS 15 advanced right now. I'm eating about 3 ,200 calories a day, about 190 grams of protein. I just, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

1:07:14So I just want to get your guys' advice on what I should be doing. Damn, you're strong.

1:07:18Adam Schafer:Yeah, you're strong. Very strong. What's your workout? Tell us what your workout looks like? Yeah, I mean, I'm running, uh, 15 advanced right now. So, uh, so I, I go to the gym, I'm in there five days a week. I work out with the buddy. Uh, so I, I don't do the full six or seven days. I just kind of throw in the day six and put that in, uh, you know, scattered out throughout the week, uh, through those five days. Um, but, but through those, you know, I mean, I'm, I feel like I'm pushing myself and, and grinding. I just, I'm just not seeing the the growth the muscle growth that i feel like i should be you just gotta eat more

1:07:52Sal Di Stefano:are you are you playing uh are you playing any ball are you doing any other activities outside because these are your height your numbers everything's very similar to like kind of where i was at and i just i was active i was an active guy i played pickup basketball all the time i was lifting i was wakeboarding i was snowboarding i was doing all this stuff do you do a lot are you pretty active guy or what so my job i'm pretty active in my job i do carpet cleaning and uh in water damage restoration. So I get about 8 ,000 steps a day. So I'm not like sitting down in an office all day. But, I mean, I feel like I'm not – other than the gym, I don't go out and play ball or anything like that.

1:08:30Adam Schafer:Your age, your activity, the amount of strength training you're doing, your size – 4 ,000 plus calories. If you get 3 ,200 calories a day, it's going to keep you where you're at. Yeah. And you're going to be fit and healthy and you'll be good. You want to gain some size, you've got to get up to close to 4 ,000 calories at least.

1:08:46Sal Di Stefano:down which is you just gotta eat more food dude and consistently because i like every day if you've done this like because i remember also being here i could i could do a couple days where i was hitting 4 000 and then i'd go back down it was just so hard to eat that much which you can probably you can relate to and that's that's really what it is it's just it's consistently being able to consider i i talk a lot on the podcast some of the big hacks for me uh i had to get ahead of the calories. I was not a big calorie eater in the morning. And so starting with something, even if it was like low, low calorie, like early, early in the morning.

1:09:20Sal Di Stefano:So I was hungry by nine or 10 in the morning to eat a big breakfast. And then I'd have another meal and then I have lunch. And so if I got behind on calories, 4 ,000 just seemed impossible. If I was good about my mornings, I could do that. I don't know if that resonates with you at all, but that was, that was my hurdle. it definitely does because i i did struggle with that before i'm eating about a 600 calorie meal for breakfast before i go to the gym uh kind of on my way to the gym ish uh so so i've kind of got ahead of that a little bit it's a little tough for me because with my job i'm on the road a lot yeah um like bouncing between job sites uh so i don't just with that and keeping that in mind i mean is there any like i don't know types of hacks or anything like that for me yeah here's

1:10:04Adam Schafer:So here's the deal. A guy like you, it's going to be like an effort to put on size through eating. And it is hard. Now, if you just keep eating what you're eating and do what you're doing, bro, you're crushing. You're way stronger than the average 24-year-old. You're fit. You got good lean body mass. You're doing good. But if you want to gain another 10, 15 pounds of lean body mass, it's got to be a concentrated effort with food. And if you're on the go, this means you're going to need to meal prep. and so what you do is you have these meals in your car you keep them in a in a cooler or something like that and then when you're you know every few hours you go out there and you you eat one and you

1:10:43Sal Di Stefano:know in 10 minutes and you go back to work get uh creative with so if um and give me your obstacles if you have them like for example i know sometimes guys that are working on jobs that they don't have access to like a microwave so it's like so make like uh chicken pasta cold salad type dishes can you have dairy yeah yeah I can I actually drink a lot of milk actually

1:11:05Adam Schafer:full fat dairy cottage cheese is really good you can throw some fruit in there some granola the high protein yogurts are really good you can add some peanut butter for some fat in there

1:11:16Sal Di Stefano:throw some cottage cheese with a scoop of vanilla whey protein in it and pineapple stirred up now you're talking about like a 50 gram high protein and the high fat one like Sal saying full dairy cottage cheese. You can keep it cold in your cooler like that. It's easy, so you can scrap it down. Tuna fish. Yeah, tuna and chicken cold pasta casseroles I used to make, so I keep that cold. You need a prep. You got to have stuff like that prep for you while you're on the job site, and you just got your little...

1:11:48Adam Schafer:4 ,000 calories consistently every day will not happen on accident. Again, I'm going to say this again. you're doing great bro you look good you're fit you're strong so you don't have to do what we're saying uh but if it's like okay i want to i want to gain some muscle i want to put on some size right it's going to be a concentrated effort every day for hitting 4 000 calories a day yeah and it's going to feel like that's your training so 4 000 is the number i should be

1:12:16Sal Di Stefano:yeah yeah easily that number easily that number is what you need to be at i know it's a lot it's a uh cheat calories for someone like you but cheat calories in the middle day not allowed to do cheat calories at the end of day allowed in other words what i'd had to do was i'd set a goal of i got to get my you know 200 grams of protein in through whole food good sources and then if i'm still under on calories i would enjoy a more you know satisfying type of dinner a burrito a burger and fries you can get away with that but hit your protein but hit your protein through whole natural foods first through the like good meal prepping that you do and then if you're still like only at 3200 calories and you need more then enjoy those french fries enjoy the things that will push your calories up that'll help you out but make it a goal to get the other stuff first before you do that what will what will shoot you in the foot which is what i did early which is like well i need to gain so i'll eat whatever and then at lunch i do a drive-through fast food or i eat a burger and then that fill that would fill me up i wouldn't get enough protein and then i wouldn't eat till four or five hours later.

1:13:24Adam Schafer:It's just a bunch of fat and carbs.

1:13:25Sal Di Stefano:And then now I'm still not eating enough calories and I'm low on protein. That's where you'll get stuck in this kind of like you plateau.

1:13:32Adam Schafer:It's going to feel like another job. I'm just going to let you know. Eating 4 ,000 calories a day every day is going to feel like another job. So you have to prep, plan it, don't skip a meal, be consistent. And you'll probably gain, I mean, I would bet money that you're probably going to gain consistently with your calories. You'll probably get up six, seven pounds of lean body mass.

1:13:52Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah.

1:13:53Adam Schafer:Doing that.

1:13:53Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah. Especially how strong you are. You're just missing the calories, dude. That's it. You're lifting good weights right now. You're on the right program. You're doing everything.

1:14:03Adam Schafer:And just to encourage you, it gets easier as you get older. Yes. Because right now, your metabolism is on fire, bro. When you get in your 30s, you'll be able to build muscle at lower calories than you are right now. I remember what it was like at your age. It was like I had to feed myself. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'm already thinking about it. Like I meal prep with, I make like a breakfast hash for when I get home from work is like a first dinner thing. So I got like a bunch of things in the fridge just stacked up. So I'm trying to eat that like with a bunch of protein in it. But yeah, it's just hard to eat that much.

1:14:33And luckily my wife bought me a thermos so I can actually take like leftovers on the job now. I'm just eating a sandwich and stuff. So it's helped. But yeah, it's just hard to eat, man. It's like, it is like a second job. Like what you said.

1:14:46Sal Di Stefano:And things like breads and some of that too, it'll fill you up on something that's a bunch of carbs. And you need high protein, high calorie, clean sources that your body burns through, and then you're ready to eat again.

1:15:01Adam Schafer:You know what's a good bulking meal that's not even bad? Cold. It's like 80 % ground beef, rice. And then when you take it out of the cooler, you add some sour cream and some salsa on it. Mix it up, and it's like a cold burrito bowl. But it's like high calorie. easy to digest. And I could eat that, man, I could eat that several times a day. No problem. Yeah, that's a good idea. Not too expensive either. Yeah. That's the other thing too. It's like eating all that food. No, Oh no, no, it's expensive to frozen. I think bulk frozen vegetables, uh, rice, ground beef, rice, uh, you know, shredded cheese on it.

1:15:36Adam Schafer:Sour cream, cottage cheese, super cheap. Uh, very, very easy. Yeah. Yeah. But you guys think, uh, you think 15 advances. All right. For me,

1:15:45Sal Di Stefano:that's a great program for you, bro. Yeah, the 15. Because I ran Powerlift probably when I hit those numbers in the email. I was running Powerlift, and that's when I saw the most strength game. But, again, it wasn't like size, but, I mean, I was missing the. Have you ran MAPS 15 Powerlift yet, the 15 version? Yeah, yeah. No, I didn't even know that. Oh, yeah. We'll send you the MAPS 15 Powerlift version. So that'll be great. Because I like you, the amount of movement you have. The mistake that I made in my 20s was thinking I needed to be training in the gym for an hour every single day. You're running the right program to build.

1:16:20Sal Di Stefano:Running a 15 protocol like that, just trying to get strong. You fill your body with 4 ,000 calories. You follow Mass 15 Power Lift. You're going to build, bro. We will put 5 to 10 pounds of muscle on you. We will. Awesome. Do that. I'd love for you to hear back from me if you do it. Stick with it. It's all in the prep though, dude. Dedicate yourself to prep and be ready for it. Perfect. I would love to keep you guys updated. so all right yeah well thank you guys i appreciate you everything you do so right on mitchell hey

1:16:48Adam Schafer:let's have you back on in 60 days yeah yeah we're gonna send that over to you mitchell follow it sounds great thanks guys yeah dude eating uh i know some people who are like need to lose weight love to hear that like eating 4 000 calories every day grass is grass is always greener on

1:17:04Sal Di Stefano:the other side it's but you know what both are hard they are you know saying trying to lose 50 pounds and be lean and skinny is hard. Trying to build and be over 200 pounds when you're the skinny, it's hard. They're both hard. They both take the same. It's interesting because it's such a different struggle and the other person on the other side always says, oh, poor you. It's like, it's just as hard for him to try. He's got to do the same type of preparation. He's got to make an effort on Sunday or whatever day to prep those meals. He's got to resist the temptation to drive through the fast food restaurant and just do something quick and easy.

1:17:38Sal Di Stefano:and he's got to make the thing that he prepared in his Tupperware.

1:17:41Adam Schafer:It's such a full-time job, bro, to eat that much food every day. And if he does what he's doing now, he's fine. But he's like, I want to gain muscles. All right, you've got to force your body to gain it.

1:17:53Sal Di Stefano:You've got to figure out what to digest well, all that stuff. But if he hits 4 ,000 consistently. Oh, he'll build some nice muscles. Yeah, he'll be a 200-pound low body fat percentage jacked dude. He will. Our next caller is Kalia from Florida. Hi, Kalia. Hi, guys. Wow, this is really surreal. I'm not going to lie.

1:18:13Adam Schafer:How can we help you? So just so I don't miss anything or trip over any words, I actually wrote everything down, if that's okay. Yeah, let's go. So growing up, I was always an overweight kid, and I had a really bad relationship with food. And looking back now, a lot of that was tied to using it as a coping mechanism. And it wasn't something that I was intentionally taught, but it was definitely something that got passed down to me. And I carried that with me for a very long time. Into adulthood, that put me in a cycle of yo-yo dieting and losing the same weight over and over again. I had tried everything from vegan, keto, fasting, whatever trend was out there, I probably did that too.

1:18:56And it got to a point where I was like, okay, I'm tired of looking on the Internet. I want to know the truth. So back in 2019, I originally got my NASM certification originally just for myself. I didn't have any intentions of really becoming a coach or doing anything with it at that time. And over time, I started to find a lot more balance with food and training and my body. And then fast forward to 2022, I had my son. And during that pregnancy, I gained over 120 pounds. and there was a couple of times I got on the scale and I was damn near 300. I didn't recognize myself in the mirror anymore, but this time I knew it was different because I knew the things that I had to do, I just had to give it some time.

1:19:43So I focused on fueling my body, lifting consistently and intentionally and getting stronger. And I ended up losing a lot of the weight and building some muscle too. And that also led me to fall in love with powerlifting and I've been competing now for the USAPL for about two years. Fast forward to now, I got recertified in 2024 and built my coaching brand, Iron Fox Strength. And it's really centered around just helping people build strength for the long haul and not for just aesthetics. I've also been working with a coach myself. He goes by Muscleman Marcus on socials, and he's helped me a ton with structure, direction, and has been a kind of a mentor figure for me as well.

1:20:29But I'll be honest, in the pursuit of chasing a coaching career, I've been doing things a little bit backwards. I've been in the restaurant industry for over a decade. I've done everything from dishwasher to management, and I've been trying to build a coaching business on the side while still working there. I had some clients here and there, but nothing has felt super consistent. and a lot of the times when I'm online, I feel like I'm just yelling into the void because there's so many other people doing the same thing. And recently, the restaurant life just started to feel like it wasn't fitting me anymore, like I was wearing shoes that didn't fit.

1:21:08So I made a big shift. I left that job and I started working in a gym here in St. Augustine called Anastasia Fitness. I'm at the front desk right now, but they told me that any clients I bring in or get are mine. So I'm treating it like an opportunity to build something in person, build relationships with people and the members and grow from there. So my question is, if you were basically starting fresh as a coach in a gym environment, trying to build your first real consistent client base, what would you focus the most on? What works when it comes to building trust, getting those first clients and creating momentum for the in-person space?

1:21:50because I have a really big vision for where I want to take this and my future. I just want to make sure that what I'm focusing on is the right things early on.

1:21:59Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, great. How many workouts would you say happen in that gym a day? How many people do you scan in a day? How many would you say? About 300 on average I see on the headcount on the computer. Okay, that's not bad. That's a decent amount of people. It's locally owned and operated too, so it's like a smaller one of the gyms in town. So I like the saying that you're in the learn phase of your career, not the earn phase of your career right now. And so what is more valuable than what price you should charge or how many clients can you get to buy from you is how many people can you get in front of you is more important.

1:22:36Sal Di Stefano:And the fact that you control the front desk and you're scanning people in, I would use that as an opportunity to get those people in front of you for a session of training. and use that practice to build your skills, build your ability to convert them into clients and like really focus on that. And then the business will come. If you really sit there and try and strategize on how do I get clients to pay and what price should I be? And should, do I build an online presence and sales funnels? It's like right now you have this great opportunity where you are meeting 300 potential leads. Those are some of the best leads.

1:23:14Sal Di Stefano:These are people that have already raised their hand and said, I am going to pay for a membership and show up to a gym because I need to change my life in one form or another. Those are some of the best potential clients you could ever ask for. So getting them in front of you and getting them for a free personal training session or do free assessments with them or teach them a powerlifting move or make you think of a whole host of things that you can start doing for them is great practice and where I would start you first. Yeah, Kalia, of all the places in the gym, the location that is the best by far to potentially get clients is the front desk.

1:23:52Adam Schafer:That's the best. Second best is the workout floor, but it's actually a distant second. Because the most difficult part of talking to people or getting them to maybe want to work out with you for a free workout is that initial ice breaking. Getting their attention. And they're already coming in and, hey, how you doing? Scan them in. Boom, done. it's the best place and this is why i trained all my trainers to work the front desk uh this is what we talk about in our course that we have for our coaches and trainers so all you got to do is uh get people to work out with you for free and then based and then from there uh you'll get the clients that's it just get them to work out hey what are you working on today you want to come back and focus on your deadlift or you want to build a better whatever or let me take you let me take you through a workout i'm a competitive power lifter and then schedule them for a workout out and that's it and you do a bunch of those you'll get clients no problem yeah they'll want

1:24:40Sal Di Stefano:if you if you become if you become the mayor of that gym by knowing all the people that get scanned in by first name what they're working on what they're working into easy before you know it they're going to recommendations whoever whoever is the owner of that gym is going to want you as the trainer training there because you're going to i mean that's the key and that's the focus on that right now can i get to know all these people that are coming in by first name what their goals are, what they're trying to do, and help them in any way, in any capacity whatsoever. Would that be teaching them the technique of a deadlift or a squat?

1:25:11Sal Di Stefano:Would that be taking them through a full workout? Would that be taking them through your NASM squat assessment? I mean, those are all tools that you already have in your tool bag. High-tension, high service, like just pay attention to the quality that you're providing them. All of that is going to play the long-term so well. Like you're going to build that reputation in there, and then that's just going to keep like escalating in the snowball effect.

1:25:34Adam Schafer:I'll give you specific numbers, Kalia. If you can schedule yourself 10 to 20 free workouts a week, okay? So every week, if you can get yourself 10 to 20 free workouts, within three months, you'll have a full roster of clients.

1:25:48Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:25:49Adam Schafer:That's it. Yeah. So just do that. So can I get myself for next week, can I book myself 15 workouts with people? Like 15 free one-on-ones. If you do that after three months, you'll have a full roster.

1:26:02Sal Di Stefano:So an idea that comes to mind right away for me with someone like you with a power lifting background, I would literally pick a day, say 30, 45 days out from now, and I'm going to do a squat clinic for free. And I'm going to have a sign-up sheet on the front desk, and I'm going to say hi to everybody and be like, hey, would you like to improve your squat from somebody who's - Just that one lift at a time. Yeah, and literally just try and get 30 people to show up to your squat clinic and teach all the mechanics of the squat. how to prep for the squat, how to make, like, what it looks, whatever.

1:26:35Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, perfect. I love that idea. And now all those people that show up to that and they get something from you, I guarantee at least three to five of them will hang out after the hour of teaching them. And then you book a free workout. And those are now people that go, I tell you what, let's spend some more time. I'd love to spend some time with you one-on-one. Let's book something next week and you and I can dig more deep into your reason why your knee hurts. Boost your authority in there. Yes. And start hosting these free little clinics every other week where you try and get 10 15 30 people in for free and those people will turn into potential clients for sure and it's something you already do simple yeah i love that idea yeah and then you probably and then you probably should get in our elite trainer academy since this is the type of stuff that we coach and talk about i mean that's yeah i definitely have checked out that link i just haven't pulled the trigger yet yeah i mean that's so just so you know um when we went out when we pursued that and decided we were going to build that we did not want to compete with ncsf nasm all the great national search that out there what we saw as a gap is exactly what you're calling about right now is a lot of these search do a good job of giving you the fundamentals but don't teach you how to go build a business from ground up so literally our course is centered around that it's like how do you take your little bit of knowledge that you've gained as a personal trainer and then actually turn that into a business whether that be in person virtual we cover all that stuff, this is what that whole course is about.

1:28:00Sal Di Stefano:So that was really the, it's not another NASM or another NCSF. That's not what you're going to get from our course. You're going to get learning how to build your business and tactics like what we're talking about right now. Yeah. I had always heard, you know, you think you're going to get certified and you're just going to coach people, but really it's just a lot of business stuff. And I'm just really learning that. And I'm just like, okay, let's figure it out. A hundred percent. I mean, this is why we thought this what our cert was so valuable was because it's like there's a ton of great national certs to learn you know biomechanics and human physiology and nutrition and there's not there's not i don't think that i think we have plenty of those we don't have enough not enough of them talk about okay now what do i do with this damn thing you know i understand how to help somebody but then how do i actually turn that into a legitimate business and a livelihood but kalia

1:28:49Adam Schafer:the fact that you work the front desk and oh yeah you're in a busy gym you're in a great position That's like, that's so much of this is just being able to put yourself in that position. You're already there.

1:28:59Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:28:59Adam Schafer:So the rest is really just follow the steps.

1:29:01Sal Di Stefano:I don't know who the boss is who hired you and stuff like that, but you'll blow their mind if you all of a sudden start holding these squat and deadlift clinics and shit. And you sign them up at the front desk. And 30 people start showing up to it. Like, I would so do this undercover and just do my thing and like, let them watch you and then watch what happens. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great. I definitely think I'm going to do that for sure. All right. Cool. I love it. I love what happens. Yes. And hopefully we'll see you. Yeah, I will. 100%. Hopefully we'll see you inside of Elite Trainer Academy soon.

1:29:30All right. Sounds good. Thank you, guys.

1:29:32Sal Di Stefano:Yep.

1:29:34Adam Schafer:I mean, you guys remember, we used to fight over the front desk. Oh, yeah. It's interesting that we bring this up now, and a lot of trainers and people don't even know the power of just people coming in to greet you as they come in and how easy it is to schedule. It's a huge advantage. Oh, God. The front desk is like, that's the place to be. And she already works there. So if she just follows the steps, and I was concerned, I think within a few months, she'll have a nice client base.

1:29:57Sal Di Stefano:And I asked how many people that were working out there because that makes a big difference, right? If you're getting 300 leads a day, that's a lot of people. That's plenty of people to build a legit business off of. You know, it's different if she was working at some small box that saw 10 workouts in a day. It's still the place to be. Oh, you're right. That's far less. Oh, yeah. But, man, you get 300 workouts a day. I got 20, 30 people showing up to my free squat class in four weeks. That's right. Easy. No problem. Easily.

1:30:22Adam Schafer:Our next caller is Catherine from South Carolina. Hi, Catherine. Hi, Catherine. Hi. How can we help you? So excited to be here. Thank you. Thanks for coming on. Just wanted to give a shout out to my sister. She listens to y 'all every day. So I'm kind of a fan through her to you. She's on one of your Muscle Mommy programs with one of your coaches. Nice. She encouraged me to reach out.

1:30:43Sal Di Stefano:Oh, good. How can we help you? Well, first, I guess one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to y 'all was because I have a son getting married in June. So it's very motivating for me to be at my best. And I kind of have been weight training off and on for the last year, but really seriously for about eight months. And then I kicked it into high gear in January and I've shed about 14 pounds of fat. And I think that's really, really, really good.

1:31:16I feel like I've kind of just stagnated now. I've been in a slight calorie deficit of about 200 calories since January 1st. And it seemed to really be working well. I have plenty of energy. I recover well. I'm sleeping great at night. But now I'm just kind of stopped. And I want to keep getting – I still have some body fat that I want to shed. So what do you suggest?

1:31:44Sal Di Stefano:Let's talk about your programming. What are you doing as far as your strength training? I am doing four days a week, most weeks, upper-lower split.

1:31:54Adam Schafer:Okay. Okay. That's not bad. And are you feeling pretty strong? I am, actually. There's a couple lifts that I had to regress a little bit in, and I was thinking that was probably maybe because I wasn't eating enough. And then I kind of got over the hump, and I was getting stronger in those lifts again. Oh, good. So that's good. That's good. Yeah. You said you're in a small deficit. What are your calories? 2 ,000. between 2000 and 2100 okay that's not bad so so we we run into a bit of an issue here um you could go into a deficit but now you're starting to dip into 1800 17 hour calories i don't want to do that yeah i wouldn't we don't want you either i wouldn't yeah i wouldn't do that especially i see you're

1:32:34Sal Di Stefano:doing 14 000 steps a day so you're active yeah you're not you're not a sedentary person so it's a bit well i do i do a 45 minute to an hour walk every day so that's where a lot of those steps are coming from. Yeah, that's okay. It's still a lot of steps. And four days a week of strength training. Yeah, you're an active person.

1:32:50Adam Schafer:You're better off building into getting leaner than you are trying to cut into getting leaner. So if you were to gain some lean body mass and do it in a nice, slow, consistent way, your body fat percentage will go down. What does that look like for me?

1:33:05Sal Di Stefano:2 ,300 to 2 ,400 calories right now. Oh no. My son listens to y 'all too, and he was like, they're going to tell you to go into a calories are plus. He knows this. And my sister said that too. Yes. I mean, that's what you're set up for. Because the other option is what Sal said, and you already agreed, we don't want to do. And you're right. You don't want to do that. I don't want to take you to 1 ,700 calories. That's such a low.

1:33:28Adam Schafer:You'll lose weight, but you'll lose muscle. And you won't feel good.

1:33:31Sal Di Stefano:You'll feel better going up to about 2 ,300 to 2 ,400 calories and really just focus on getting strong. Don't worry about the scale, because you might see the scale go one or two pounds up. It's not fat. You didn't put fat on. You know what I'm saying? You're eating more calories. You're eating more carbs. You're going to have more water. Just don't worry about that. What should happen is you should probably see maybe the scale go up one or two pounds, and then it'll level off, and you'll feel really good. And then that is where we're at a good calorie place and really focus on getting strong.

1:34:00Sal Di Stefano:And then the next sign I'm wanting to hear from you is that you're hungry, because then that probably means we build muscle. I have started getting hungry lately. Good. Like, in January, it was really hard work to eat 160 grams of protein a day. And I was having to supplement with protein shakes. And I just couldn't. It was like punishment eating all that food. And now I'm eating that food and I'm a little bit hungry when I go to bed. Oh, good sign.

1:34:28Adam Schafer:That's good news. Good sign. When's the wedding? How long do we have? It's June 19th. Okay, so if you went up to 2 ,300 calories right now, I think what would happen is you probably, you get stronger, you feel better, and then you get leaner. I think if you just stayed there, you could actually even go up from there. You could eventually get up to 25, but I bet if you kept it around 23, 24 and just kept doing what you're doing, you would get the look that you're looking for by June. Really? Yeah.

1:34:55Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Yeah. You just need to be fed more. You're hungry. You're hungry. You're hungry too. That's a good sign. Such a good sign. I mean, I'd love to give you a program too, if we could set you up with one of our programs, not that there's anything wrong with what you're doing, but I think you would, it would, it would do you well to switch over to something else. Well, that would be great. I'm getting a little weary of trying to figure out what to do every day. I mean, I think I have good knowledge, I think, but it gets old trying to figure it out.

1:35:18Adam Schafer:You work out in a gym? I do. I go to the gym. All right. We'll send you muscle mommy. Follow that program. Yeah. Okay. That's what my sister's on. Yeah. Yeah. You'll love it. Yeah. No, you'll do, you'll do great on this. Bunker calories, 23, 24, stay there and give us some time. So just keep doing that till the wedding.

1:35:35Sal Di Stefano:Yep. I mean, yes. I also think though that you could potentially get hungry and she could probably still feed a little bit. We have enough time that she could get all the way up to 26, 2700 and then come back down too.

1:35:45Adam Schafer:If you want, look, Catherine, if you want specific, because this is where we would want to adjust.

1:35:50Sal Di Stefano:We could have you coach too. Yeah, that's right.

1:35:52Adam Schafer:We would want to adjust you as we go, because we would ask you questions, see how you're doing, whether or not we want to reverse a little more, whatever. You could work with one of our coaches and then they could work with you up until the wedding and take you through the entire process and adjust calories essentially based on how you feel, your performance, that kind of stuff. That would be another option.

1:36:12Sal Di Stefano:And the only reason why that's better than what we're saying right now is just because what I don't know is the feedback from you in three weeks. The first thing I would say is, boom, I'm going to take you up to 23, 2400. And then I'm going to check in with you and you're going to let me know, I feel this, I notice this, this is going on. And then from there, I'll either say, cool, stay the course, we're right where I want you to be. Or I might go, wow, okay, you could eat we could eat some more let's go up another 100 or 200 and then i might so that's the only thing that's different is like it's hard for us to predict how you'll be feeling what you'll see in three four weeks but your sal is right you could probably hover right around there all the way through and you'll end up you're going to see improvements all the way till there i think we have enough runway room yeah that if i was like much more yeah much more specific if i had you that whole time i think i would really try and keep ramping the calories up till i get till i I get about 26, 27, maybe even 2 ,800, and then hopefully have a whole month before.

1:37:09Sal Di Stefano:And then I cut for a month going down. And I take you from like 28 all the way back down to 2 ,000 to 22, and you just lean out right into the wedding. That is kind of what I was hoping we could do something like that. Okay, so that's where the coach would help. Because knowing that you're going to respond exactly how I would think or want you to, I'm uncertain until we're going through that process. And there might be some adjustments along the way. But you have enough runway. You're in a healthy, good place that we could totally do something like that. But again, like I said, knowing that for sure.

1:37:48Sal Di Stefano:But you have both options. You can do the Sal way, which is like hover around those calories. What he's telling you, I think, is the more conservative way where you'll be okay. He knows that he can give you that advice. you'll be better where you than you are right now. I'm thinking more like, well, I got enough room. I could really push that metabolism and then I could really cut her. I could do more, but then I would want to be closer to you to know, to see and know. So I don't send you on the wrong, wrong path. Well, I feel like I'm, I have the drive right now. I have good energy. I really want to keep moving this thing forward.

1:38:21Um, I, I'm not tired. I'm not too tired. I think going to the gym four times a week, um, is good. I'm not, but if there's something more I could do more concentrated to get to the finish line of June 19th, obviously it's not the finish line, but it's, you know, a good goal.

1:38:40Adam Schafer:You have a lot of fun with a coach because it's going to get much more specific. Uh, you're going to have a lot of fun with seeing how your body responds. I think you'd be surprised at how great your metabolism responds, uh, the muscle, the leanness. Uh, It's much more targeted that way. It's just we'd want somebody to be with you to know when to make those changes.

1:38:59Sal Di Stefano:The cool part of going through with the coaches, you'll have these strategies to use forever. What you'll learn about your body and what they'll learn going through it with you is how you respond to that. Everybody's different. Some people respond really well to the calorie surplus. Some don't so much. And I have no idea if that's going to present any sort of challenges mentally, too. And that's all part of coaching. is like listening to my client tell me what they're going through, what they're feeling, what they're feeling, and then trying to coach them on what exactly they're reading. Okay.

1:39:32Sal Di Stefano:All right. We'll have someone call you when we hang up right now and we'll have one of our coaches kind of lay out what that would look like for you, and hopefully we'll see you in there. All right. That's great. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks for calling in. See you, Catherine. All right. Thanks. Bye.

1:39:46Adam Schafer:She's in a good place.

1:39:47Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. I mean, you gave the best. Yeah, very conservative. Very conservative answer. That's right. Yeah.

1:39:52Adam Schafer:But if you want like focused, targeted, like make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. I can't help it. I can't help but go like. No, I don't know how she's going to be in force.

1:39:58Sal Di Stefano:I got a lot of time. Yep. I got a lot of time. She's in a good place right now. That's right. I would like to ramp her up way more aggressively to like 2 ,800 plus calories and then put her on kind of an aggressive cut for four weeks. And by the way, aggressive cut will look where she's at in calories now. That's right. She'll go back down where she's at now. Yeah, but after we've spread that metabolism up, built five, six pounds of muscle on her, lifted all her lifts up, and then just watch herself lean out going into the wedding. Our next caller is April from Wisconsin. Hey, welcome back. Hey, how you doing?

1:40:31How you doing? Hey, guys. I'm glad to be back. I emailed, I think it was Doug or someone, a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to give you guys an update because the last two times we spoke, you guys were hounding me to do power lift, and I was too stubborn to listen. So what happened? I ran it and you guys were right.

1:40:54Adam Schafer:That's weird. I know, I know. So I'll take the loss on that one. So in October, after we spoke, I was like, okay, I'm going to try it. Ran the program and what is it? It's now end of March. And I can happily say that I have visible muscle. Yeah. and it's pretty awesome to finally see the progress that I've made. After October, I actually stopped tracking my calories. I stopped weighing myself. I decided the only numbers I was going to focus on was the weights I was adding to the bar, the dumbbells that I was grabbing. So no longer, you know, tied to the scale. Yes. So it's, it's been really cool.

1:41:41My husband told me that Um, my legs look bigger, my butt got bigger and higher. I actually have arms. So like hearing that validation, um, and seeing it myself is just like, um, it's awesome. So I'm really pumped to, to keep this going.

1:41:57Sal Di Stefano:Great job. That's exactly what you needed to do.

1:42:01Adam Schafer:I'm so glad you did it. I'm reading your email here. So let me know if this is still accurate. You went from 650 calories a day to about 2000 to 2100. Yeah. So 1650 to about 2100. Yeah. Okay. And your strength, uh, it looks like you're squatting from 45 to 85 pounds. So you went up 40 pounds in your squat almost doubled it. Yeah. That's phenomenal. And you're actually kind of careful with that because you don't want to hurt yourself. It says in the email. Yeah. I have two, uh, back fractures from when I was in high school. It just never healed. Right. So I have to be really careful with squatting and deadlifting.

1:42:32Adam Schafer:No worries. And then you gained three to four pounds of muscle essentially uh per the comment of your husband with your legs and your butt and the strength yeah i mean when i the last weigh in i did was october and i weighed 10126 i weighed myself last week i weigh 127 so i definitely think i did a recomp yeah like just eating intuitively which was really great that's cool yeah so i want you want to hit that i want to hit the question

1:43:01Sal Di Stefano:that I see coming, which is the, I have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks, but I want to get back to my plan to increase my calories and again, to start MAPS Aesthetic. I don't think MAPS Aesthetic is the program for you. I do want you to increase calories though. I think you absolutely can keep going up in the calorie direction. I think MAPS Aesthetic volume is unnecessary for what you're trying to accomplish and where we're at calorie-wise. That's my opinion.

1:43:25Adam Schafer:Bump your calories and follow MAPS Muscle Mommy. Okay. That'll get you what you want. Okay. That was actually my, the, the next one I was going to suggest if you guys had options, I was like muscle mommy was one that I was kind of on my radar. I did notice that like training with deadlifting and squatting, um, like my, I just like I got less flexible. So, um, you know, doing something definitely, I mean, I have to do something different. I just feel like it's, uh, I just run its course. So I think muscle mommy will be a good fit. Um, when I know I have to ask this question, so don't kill me, Adam, but like when, do I do the cut?

1:44:02Cause like, I think I'm fine now. Like I'm like totally in the zone now. I do feel like I'm going to trip myself up once summer gets here and I'm walking around in shorts and tank tops. And I, I mean, I feel, I feel bigger and I'll admit I feel fluffy. I feel big, but I'm still not freaking out. I just see myself getting to that point once the weather starts to turn here.

1:44:23Sal Di Stefano:So even though you only went three pounds up on the scale, husband says it's butt and legs, you still feel fluffy i do and i don't i think it's like i don't know if it's like like because i'm i've increased my food and maybe i have some digestive issues but i always feel bloated by the

1:44:39Adam Schafer:end of the day just kind of feel gross it's because you know what it is you're tripping yeah you're tripping yeah you're tripping yeah so you're used to eating very little yeah so eating all new eating appropriately to you is too much so adding more is going to be even more it is well

1:44:55Sal Di Stefano:I mean, what we're getting to is that, so we have, we've just had some recent callers where we talked about this too. Someone where you're coming from will be, would be far better off building into the physique than cutting to the physique you want. You with, you with, and I know it sounds crazy to say this, but 10 more pounds on the scale or 10 pounds on your body. Of muscle. Will look better than trying to cut you down five pounds. Okay. You will have the roundness of the shoulders, even a rounder butt, the shape that you want. The whole deal. You'll look more amazing building into the body you want than trying to cut into the body you want.

1:45:34Adam Schafer:April, do you know what your body fat percentage sits at? I don't. How tall are you? What's your body weight? I weigh 127 and I'm 5 '6". Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, hon, you're lean. Yeah. Especially with your strength and all that, you're lean. Yeah. Yeah, I would go up to 2 ,300 calories, follow MAPS Muscle Mommy, and have a great time letting your metabolism really just work.

1:45:57Sal Di Stefano:Same focus, too. Don't focus on the scale. Focus on the strength of the gym. Those extra calories, if we do a good job, should fuel that strength. That's what we want to see.

1:46:07Adam Schafer:And just so you know, someone like you, if I coached you, I would easily get you up to, over time, like 2 ,700, 2 ,800 calories. No problem. No problem. Yeah. So even 2 ,300 is lower than what your body's capable of doing, and you're not going to gain all this body fat. You're just going to get really sculpted is what's going to happen.

1:46:27Sal Di Stefano:Which is why I wouldn't want to cut you. I wouldn't want, if you were my client and we were together long term, the goal would be to do what Sal said before I said, okay, we could probably cut and see what that looks like because you're tall enough, you're lean enough, You're lifting enough to get to a place where you should be able to easily eat over 25, 2600 calories and maintain the body and physique you want. And cutting you before that is just I'm setting you up for for failure down the road, you know, so that. OK, I don't like eating a ton of food because, I mean, I eat whole natural foods, right?

1:47:07I'm cooking all the time, all that stuff. Can I get those extra calories from like adding more olive oil or butter? Yes.

1:47:14Sal Di Stefano:I would encourage you not to change much, especially with someone who would feel like they're eating. Like adding, I don't know what cuts of meat you eat right now, but have a little bit higher fat cuts of meat. I don't know how often you enjoy a ribeye or a tri-tip or the high fat ground beef. Enjoy that. I'm picking up half a cow in two weeks. Oh, you are? Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. So enjoy higher fat cuts. Enjoy those or add an olive oil when you're doing something like that. Eat chicken thighs instead of chicken breast. Don't do the extra lean ground turkey. If you do do ground turkey, make it in olive oil.

1:47:49Sal Di Stefano:Add a little bit of butter to your rice. Do things like that that's not really radically changing the kind of way you eat, but just you know you're bumping 100, 200 calories through higher – and the higher fat always does good with my females. My female clients always are better served getting those good, healthy fats in their diet and avocado in there. Add stuff like that. I love that, especially if you're hitting your protein already consistently. Okay. Yeah, I definitely do. Even though I don't track, I tracked for so long, I definitely am getting my protein. I do think the digestive stuff probably is coming from trying to increase my carbs because my carbs generally sit on the low side.

1:48:26I did hear you guys had a caller. I think she had very similar stats to me, but she said that she eats very high fat, low carb. And you guys said it was okay that I'll still build muscle even if I'm not chasing.

1:48:38Adam Schafer:oh yeah oh yeah yeah you know i mean going zero no carb uh some women have hormonal issues from that but going lower carb higher fat perfectly fine yep okay yeah i'm probably like 80 grams of carbs a day that's what you're at now yeah yeah oh you're fine yeah you could yeah and you could bump the fats a little bit and if it's digestive you could try adding psyllium husk to your meals it's just the fiber that helps uh yeah so you can try that yep okay cool okay last question for you guys um because again you had a recent i listen to you guys every day like seriously um you guys are amazing um but you had a recent episode about creatine and how women should be taking it um i have a heart condition and i cannot take it it causes um palpitations okay so if you could recommend a second in place a supplement that a woman should add to their stack that's not creatine do you guys have any suggestions of like what would be a good one yeah no and you've been recommended by your doctor not to take creatine yeah my cardiologist recommended not to take it just because of my electrolytes have to be like dialed in oh i see that makes perfect sense okay yeah i mean honestly multivitamin vitamin d uh with k omega-3s um you know these are just health supplements there's not a ton of supplements out that make a huge difference you're hitting your protein target.

1:49:57Adam Schafer:If you weren't hitting your protein, I'd say a protein shake. But there's like not a lot of, I mean, you know, there's stuff that can help with inflammation, with sleep and, you know, but honestly, make sure you get your nutrients. So, you know, like methylated B complex, some women do really well with that. Vitamin D with K2, most men and women do well with that. Yeah.

1:50:18Sal Di Stefano:I'm assuming you're already doing like blood work and checking your hormones and you know, you're all balanced on that side. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I also suffered from from graves disease two years ago so i get that checked every six months so if you're balancing your hormones out you're hitting all your micro macronutrients even as great as creatine is it's not like it's it's not that big of a deal for you not to be you're not missing out on some huge i feel like i'm missing out everybody it's like crap okay no no you're not you're not in fact you know what i we're an area that i think everybody can always be better at is is sleep And so if you put some effort and energy into getting really good night's rest of consistent sleep, that'll serve you even more than even the best creatine in the world will.

1:51:00Sal Di Stefano:Like you like consistently scoring really high on sleep every single night. So having a good sleep routine, whether that's, you know, and for me, it's like chamomile tea, my magnesium. Like I have my little supplement stack that really helps me calm down, wind down and get a good night's rest. uh if that yeah hold my teddy bear all those things so if you don't if you don't put a lot of effort into that i think that would serve you as much or more than even creatine would okay yep okay cool okay all right guys thank you great you're doing great um i'll just say one last thing anybody if you're women especially if you're afraid to lift heavy listen to them it actually works thank you so much guys thank you thank you good job bye if i recall so i should give her love because if i recall we did the call with her and she got off i said she ain't listening to us yeah yeah we almost like took a bet on yeah i think i think she i think she was the one that i said that so i gotta give her some love that i felt that energy

1:52:02Adam Schafer:i gotta say this too with the digestive stuff not that this isn't common because digestive issues can be common in people uh but sometimes oftentimes i find people who are afraid to eat more or who've constantly eaten eaten too little or have restricted when they eat appropriately to them it feels like they're bloated yeah i'm doing that it's just a new thing yeah and it's like you're just not used to feeding yourself you're used to being empty all the time that's a big part of it that right now

1:52:25Sal Di Stefano:yeah that's what we're going through right now is that you know it's like i i know it's appropriate everybody else says it's a butt feels like it's that's right too much i'm bloated my dash it's just like yeah if you've trained yourself to eat so low a calorie you're just used to being empty all the time all the time yeah it feels so different to you if you like mind pump come

1:52:46Adam Schafer:find us on instagram mind pump media thank you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted rgb super bundle at mindpumpmedia.com the rgb super bundle includes maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by sal adam and justin to systematically transform the way your body looks feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos the rgb super bundle is like having sal adam and justin as your own personal trainers but at a fraction of the price 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.

1:53:48We thank you for your support. And until next time, this is Mind Pump. Are you noticing your car insurance rate creep up even without tickets or claims? You're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry handles the legwork by comparing quotes side by side from over 50 top insurers so you can confidently hit buy. No spam calls, no hidden fees. Jerry even tracks rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over$1 ,300 a year. Don't settle for higher rates. Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.ai slash libsyn today. That's j-e-r-r-y dot a-i slash l-i-b-s-y-n.