2854: The Optimal Sets & Reps at Every Intensity ! Soviet Science Explains

15:47Adam Schafer:They go by how much they can do.

15:51Sal Di Stefano:Most of them are probably moving in the 70 to 80 minimum.

15:54Adam Schafer:This is so much more skill driven. I'm going to paint the picture. If you're a lifter and you're working out with a weight that's, let's say, 60 % of your one rep max.

16:04Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Okay, so let's say your max is 100 pounds,

16:07Adam Schafer:so you're working out with 60 pounds. just to make the numbers easy. Yeah. And you're doing sets of three to six reps. Yeah. Okay. You're, once you hit about 24 reps total, you're done. Most people will be like, I didn't even feel like it worked out. Yeah. Yes. I didn't feel like it worked out.

16:22Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. That barely will feel like a warmup for a lot of people.

16:25Adam Schafer:Yeah. They'll be like, this is easy. I could do way more. Like I should be able to push myself more. Yeah. So this is why it's so wild. Yeah. How it kind of breaks down. That's cool. I know. I've never seen that before. Next up. Now, one thing that the Soviets did, which was really cool, if you do any kind of plyometric training or you try to improve explosive power, you've got to give the credit to the Soviets. They're the ones that really figured this out. And they're the ones that figured out what's called the shock method or depth jumps. Yep. So a plyometric, what you do -

16:56Sal Di Stefano:He's all in super training, that book. Yes. Yeah, it's perfect.

16:59Adam Schafer:Yeah, so what you do with plyometrics is you're trying to maximize the speed at which your muscles can contract with maximal effort. By the way, power is what makes you dangerous in any sport. Strength is cool, power kills. If you got strength, cool. If you can move quick with strength, you're a killer. It's really the acceleration on command. And the way plyometrics looks is you're trying to train what you want. So a simple example of plyometric would be like, I'm going to try and jump as high as I can one time. Then I'm going to wait as long as I need to until I believe or feel, this is usually minutes.

17:36Adam Schafer:I'm fully recovered. Until I feel like I can beat what I did last time. That's the idea. I want to be able to beat what I just did last time. Yeah. When fatigue sets in, you're done. Cash. You're no longer training for this. So they did the depth jump where they figured if someone jumped, if someone dropped off of a high surface, went down, and then did the explosive jump, they were going to get higher and got more power. Which is now you see this in planometrics all the time. Yeah. It's adding that depth jump, which is kind of cool.

18:01Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah. That's totally used all the time in strength conditioning. Totally. I came from. Yesterday, I was training, and a trainer was training a kid, young athlete, on jump boxes. It took everything in me not to say something. Oh, you saw them?

18:16Adam Schafer:They're just doing it for fatigue.

18:17Sal Di Stefano:Yes, dude. Just sloppy back and forth. Yeah, just get tired. And then ride into that, into some knee tucks and something else, and just like this. You're not helping this kid at all.

18:27Adam Schafer:When you're doing that, people understand, when you're doing it like that, it doesn't matter what you do. No, you are not helping that kid at all. At all. No, what I mean is if you're doing that in your workouts and you're picking different exercises to do to fatigue, like I'm doing ice skaters and I'm jumping over the bench back and forth and I'm jumping on a box and I'm getting super tired, if that's what you're doing, it actually doesn't matter what you do because you're just trying to build endurance. You can just jump in place. Yeah.

18:52Sal Di Stefano:Or run on a treadmill or jump rope or do jumping jacks. It's going to get you the same place. That's right. It's certainly not helping their vertical. It's not doing that or their speed. It's like terrible.

19:04Adam Schafer:One thing I want to communicate about plyometrics, because there's obviously like strength training, there's varying degrees of skill required for how you apply it. Right. Plyometrics is often communicated that like, this is just for athletes. But the truth is, if you lose your ability to move fast, to move quickly, you lose it. So the average person should practice some form of plyometrics. plyometrics however basic because you will lose your ability yeah you'll still encounter it even

19:36Sal Di Stefano:into yeah your 60s your 70s your 80s you know just to have the ability to stabilize even yeah like yeah decelerate uh but yeah i mean for the most part the intention is everything with plyometrics so if you you know the the approach like what what your outcome is like even for that depth jump like the real reason for it's not to just try and you know jump and explode it's how quickly can i get back off the ground once i touch yes and so that intention in that focus in there is really what helps to trigger a more uh instant response you know from your muscles to yeah to then produce force everyone's it's pretty wild how quickly you lose that that's a skill i mean i i mean we're all familiar with like they talk about how a boxer his speed is first to go and then his powers a lot like he'll keep his power for a really long time it's it's another thing when you actually see that happen to yourself like i've shared the story of the jumping out of the truck and it was like such a weird dude i tore my hamstring because i went to go race my daughter

20:38Adam Schafer:in hawaii it wasn't even a competition or anything i just took off yeah boom tore a hamstring and

20:43Sal Di Stefano:you think because you're this fit strong guy like a deadlift 600 pounds and you've done and you've done that before many times in your life you just go like oh yeah i haven't lost i could run you're like, oh, I did. Yeah. I did lose it because my knees almost exploded. Like, holy shit. Your concentric potential is insane, right? Yeah. But now that eccentric, that decelerating component is not there, yeah, you're going

21:05Adam Schafer:to have problems. It's a skill. All right. So next up is undulating periodization. So periodization is where you're going through deload weeks or times when you're training at lower intensity. So they started that. They're the ones that started that. But it always looked like in the past, like if you looked at our strength athletes in the 60s and 70s, it was linear. It was like, keep going. Keep pushing. Keep going. Oh, you need a break because you're burnt out? All right, take a couple days off. Come back. They had structured periodization. I don't care how good you feel for the next three weeks.

21:36Adam Schafer:It was planned out. It's it. Like this is the schedule. This is what we're doing. It doesn't matter to me. I don't care. If you think you can go hard, that's fine. But we're going to do it this way. And the results were just. And I think this is so important for people to understand. if you wait until you feel like you need a break it's too late yeah you're already past it's too late you want to take the break way before you get to the point where you feel like you're starting

21:58Sal Di Stefano:well i mean this is a great it's a great point to talk about how some of the science that goes into maps like we often get asked about uh why are the phases three weeks or four weeks like when a lot of this research shows that you're up to like six or eight weeks that people will see You can squeeze more potential. Right. And so the idea is that we are forcing you to change that. Before you hit that plateau. Yeah, before you hit that plateau. It's like we're aware you could squeeze out maybe another week or two.

22:24Adam Schafer:Here's one way you could feel this out if you don't want to get all technical, because I get it. People just want to work out. If you hit a PR and a lift, the following week should be a deload. So hard. Definitely.

22:35Sal Di Stefano:It's so hard to do that. Psychologically, super hard. Yeah, when you're so high on that PR.

22:42Adam Schafer:The last thing I want to do when I hit a PR is to take a delo.

22:46Sal Di Stefano:That's the last thing I want to do. I'd rather punch myself in the face. You have to admit that every time that happens, there is a part of you that's just like, I kind of want to see what next week is. Yeah, you're like, oh, I definitely am. Especially if the weight moved up and I'm like, I could have done a little more. Yeah, it wasn't a grind to get it out. It was like, oh, wow, that came up nice.

23:03Adam Schafer:Listen, I'm going to be 100 % honest. 99.9 % of the time, if I hit a PR, I'm trying another PR the following week. 99.9 % of the time.

23:11Sal Di Stefano:Knowing that that's not what you should do. Yes.

23:14Adam Schafer:Yes, dude. Because you go into the gym, you feel good. You just hit a PR. I just want to see what I can do. Literally, you hit a PR, then next week go deload. Yeah. That's one of the best things you can do.

23:23Sal Di Stefano:I think that 352 was the first time I actually did a deload. I got one under the belt. Yeah, dude. You know what, though? That was probably, wouldn't you say too, though, one of the best systematic approaches to a PR you'd ever done? Yep, absolutely. So, I mean, like you were ready for it. Planned. Yeah. That was more planned. I think before that, it was the training that led up to, oh, the feeling of like, well, I'm going to really get after it because I feel like I can, you know, my strength is there. Yeah. Yeah. To defend you and us in that situation. Because that's kind of how that normally happens, right?

23:56Sal Di Stefano:The way it happens now, what you're talking about is, you know, I'm in my lift. You're like, man, I'm feeling good lately. It's just like, today I'm going to run some singles or triple. Let's see. Oh, whoa. Yeah. That feels so good. and then you're like, hmm, maybe next week I'll do it. You get to smell themselves.

24:11Adam Schafer:That's me. Next up, submaximal reps. So they were the ones that were doing well short of failure, 70%. 70%. And they'd focus on bar speed and technique, bar speed and technique, bar speed and technique. This is really hard. 70 % feels easy. So if you're listening right now and you do 70 % of what you can do, you're going to leave your workout feeling like you wasted your time. this is how they would train most of the time and what it allowed for was more volume no burnout more frequency it allowed for more work to be able to be done and they broke records you know training this way so it's pretty cool and then lastly uh you have the uh complex contrast contrast methods this is where they would pair heavy strength movements with explosive movements i think we know this now is called um post activation potentiation yeah which also is a

25:03Sal Di Stefano:pre-activation but yeah but yeah let's i know i actually was teaching some kid this the other day because yeah he was trying to to test out yeah this is pretty cool so like you do like a

25:15Adam Schafer:heavy single and then you go jump right afterwards you'll get higher because i mean to me the

25:20Sal Di Stefano:which is weird the coolest ever is to do like a really heavy deadlift and go do a pull-up or something you feel it oh yeah it's yeah it's a weird like it's a it's a weird feeling the first time you ever you ever do it like you can yeah i do that for vertical jump uh test and i did like a heavy squat and then went over and like just crushed it oh that's awesome speaking of feeling

25:39Adam Schafer:good so i was looking up so we work with ketone iq and you guys know i'm consistent like i'll use them two or three times in a day and i just love the focus that i get with them yeah and so i went online and i'm like do they do exogenous ketones affect neurotransmitters and the reason why i looked this up was because i'm you know i'm i'm add i could be labeled add i have been labeled by a doctor but uh it does it raises dopamine uh in the brain oh so it increases dopamine in the brain so for people who have trouble focusing uh maintaining focus or feeling scatterbrained it's uh it's not caffeine it's not a stimulant you can take it before bed and go right back to go right to sleep but the ketones uh the exogenous ketones do put you in ketosis you get

26:26Sal Di Stefano:more dopamine and you get that focus now is that consistently or does the body eventually adapt to

26:31Adam Schafer:that it it doesn't no it's consistent wow yeah it's not a stimulant response i know right i know i understand that it's not like it's just the way that the brain operates it doesn't affect your cns

26:40Sal Di Stefano:right so i know it's not like that but typically when you have something that has a like an effect like that on the body where it kicks something like dopamine up the body then starts to adapt to that and it no longer responds the same way but in this case it will continue that's right wow that's the dopamine that's part of that focus feeling yes no wonder no wonder no wonder why you like it multiple times in a day and you feel an effect yeah multiple times yeah and and it's

27:04Adam Schafer:interesting because it's not i know what it feels like to raise my dopamine with stimulants uh it's very different this feels different no it's not like i take it and i'm like oh i'm awake because i just had it just feels like clean fuel no it's just like i don't know i just focus better and There's no crash. No, there's no crash. It's the dopamine. And it's cool because I get this feeling from being a ketogenic diet. Obviously, with ketone IQ, you don't have to be in a ketogenic diet. You can eat carbs. You just take it, boom. Within 15, 30 minutes, you're in ketosis. And you get that effect, which is kind of cool.

27:36Sal Di Stefano:Seems like the stuff that tastes the worst works the best. It's not bad enough. No, they've got better. It's a huge difference. Do you know ketones? Huge difference on the original formula they have or is the second? Have you ever had any other ketones? It was like jet fuel before that. Yes. No, I'm not going around tasting ketones. So I've tried a lot of different ketones. Big ketone taster? Yeah, I know. Ketone bars?

27:56Adam Schafer:Is there ketone bars? Listen, I've tried a lot of different ketone supplements for years. They all taste like you're drinking gasoline. Yeah, yeah. Like not even a little like bad, like really bad.

28:09Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

28:09Adam Schafer:Their ketone IQ is like - I mean, I feel like the first formula was kind of like that.

28:14Sal Di Stefano:That's kind of what kept me from doing. I was like, you know me. I'm like, oh. Their first formula? you feel really good for me to want to keep that.

28:20Adam Schafer:Their first formula was better than everybody else. But now it's like it's not bad at all. Yeah. But their first formula was still better.

28:26Sal Di Stefano:There is something to say though about like a supplement that really works and like it not tasting very good that makes you feel like, okay. It's working? Well, yeah. Because it's like, because everybody knows the hack is to make something taste really good. And so then like, just like look at what happened with all the creatine gummies. Like 90 % of those out there are just worthless. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's just gummy, gummy bears. Everybody likes toddlers. Yeah, everybody's just eating a bunch of gummy bears.

28:50Adam Schafer:But no, but dude, they take these creatine gummies and they analyze them. Like 90 % of them have nothing. Nothing.

28:56Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, everybody's out there munching on gummy bears. It's all dextrose and that's it.

29:00Adam Schafer:Dude, how embarrassing are you a fitness person? You're eating gummy bears because you think you're taking creatine. Yeah.

29:06Sal Di Stefano:Well, you remember when once. Speaking of that, we haven't talked about that guy in forever. Where's he at? Who? Who's it? Dr. Integrity. Oh, no. He's still around. Is he? Yeah, he's still around. He's still around? What's he look like? He still looks the same. He's still in the bodybuilding forums. I haven't seen him in a long time. Number one, he was the first one to really promote the gummy bears post-workout, right? Yes. He's still all over the place. People love him. Is he still - He still sells supplements and stuff. Is he still with - Oh, yeah. He probably has his own supplement. Oh, there he is.

29:34Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Yeah. Super cool. Old pictures.

29:37Adam Schafer:Old school listeners will know exactly who we're talking about.

29:39Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. We're talking about Dr. Antetok. Is that new stuff of him right there? Can you tell if that's - He looks thicker on that left picture when he's in his lab coat. i love my favorite supplement i love doctors that love the photos they'll wear the lab coats for

29:53Adam Schafer:stuff like this i know i know just put a ladder of stethoscope yeah yeah yeah you know i'm a doctor right yeah come here yeah oh yeah you got your stethoscope on anyway talking to my stethoscope i read a cool study that i sent my daughter you guys want to hear it immediately sent it to my daughter i was like why her i was like you're welcome so here's what the study shows the The father's handsomeness. Hey, I should have tagged her mom. I should have said to both her and mom. The father's handsomeness influences the daughter's beauty more than the mother's handsomeness or beauty does. Is it reverse?

30:31Adam Schafer:Furthermore, daughters of attractive fathers tend to have more feminine facial features. Weird. Say that again. So a girl's. So you don't take on the masculine? No. From the father, huh? If a father's good looking. Yeah. His, or let's say mother and father are both whatever, good looking or whatever. One's not good. The father, his looks influences his daughter's looks more than the mother. And she looks more feminine. So it's not like she gets a masculine face. She has a more feminine and rated as more beautiful based on the attractiveness of her father.

31:02Sal Di Stefano:Now, does the reverse work for boys with moms? No idea. He's like, I didn't read that far. So if I had a daughter, she'd have a more attractive mustache. How did you?

31:12Adam Schafer:Is that what you're saying? I can't imagine any of your futures being feminine. I know. That's hard for me. Not saying you're not a good looking guy, but I don't know how that would make anything look feminine. Yeah, I don't know what that would look like. That would be weird.

31:23Sal Di Stefano:Remember that app? I would hope it would just take my wife's traits. Yeah, I feel like Sal and I have more feminine looking traits for sure.

31:28Adam Schafer:Well, don't include me.

31:32Sal Di Stefano:You're more feminine than I am. Cheeks, really. I'll take that. You got the high cheekbones. I don't have high cheekbones. I'm fat. You know what I mean? I got the fat face. There's no high cheekbones. A little prettiness to it. There's a little bit of that. Yeah, a little bit.

31:42Adam Schafer:Remember that app that you take a picture of yourself, and then it would take your face, and it would make it into a girl? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember that app?

31:50Sal Di Stefano:I never tried that. I should have done that.

31:52Adam Schafer:And then everybody's like, oh, that's Russia capturing our facial. That was like that in the old one where they turned you into this old man. Dude, so let me tell you why that app creeped me out so bad, bro. My family, it was like circulating in my family. I remember when it was. It was like four years ago, five years ago. It was just like your sister. It was so weird, dude. I remember that.

32:09Sal Di Stefano:I remember the picture. How awkward. Bro, it was weird. Spot on to your sister. It was my sister.

32:15Adam Schafer:And I don't think I looked that much like her. It looked just like her. And then she did hers, and she looked just like me. I mean, it just shows you how good that software was. Yeah.

32:23Sal Di Stefano:I mean, that's, you know, that was like so popular, then went away. What happened to that?

32:27Adam Schafer:I think that it was capturing people's like, it was capturing people's data. Yeah. Like facial recognition and stuff like that.

32:32Sal Di Stefano:I mean, people were still, even when that came out, people knew that they were still doing it. Stealing identities all over the place. I think it was the same one as the old man one. Wasn't it that one? because we all did that. I mean, probably same company, I would imagine. I did that one. My face looked the same. Make him old.

32:48Adam Schafer:There it is. You look like a picture from last year. You look like a picture from last year. You went backwards. What the hell? What's going on? Hey, speaking of facial recognition, you guys hear about the latest conspiracy theory? Oh, let's hear it. That grocery stores are putting little mini cameras under their products. So you'll see paper price tags under things, but they're replacing with these new tags and in them is a little tiny camera. And what it's doing is it's capturing your picture and using facial recognition technology to start identifying you and then communicate.

33:20Sal Di Stefano:They buy this.

33:21Adam Schafer:They communicate with Amazon and other companies selling you out to a company.

33:27Sal Di Stefano:Have you guys been, you guys see what Amazon has been doing on it's all it's streaming.

33:31Adam Schafer:No.

33:31Sal Di Stefano:Oh, so now, um, so on Amazon, like, uh, I watch a lot of sports on Amazon, right? Yeah. So when the commercials come up now, okay. So say it's like a Dove commercial or something, like for soap or something like that. And then I can add it right to my shopping cart. From there. Yeah, I can go, oh, Amazon, add to cart. And it'll just add to your shop. Just take advantage of impulsive food. Yes. While you're watching the commercial live while it's happening, you literally just right then and there, add it to your shopping cart. Wow. Pretty soon you just think of a product and then it shows up. Or even next to this type of stuff is soon, very soon, or this is coming, if it isn't already happening, is the commercials will start to change.

34:14Sal Di Stefano:For you. For me to you. So we'll both be watching basketball playoffs on Amazon, but I'll get ads that have caught my looking at grocery store stuff.

34:23Adam Schafer:When you can compile, when AI can compile all the data from all your social media, searches, hovers, clicks, comments, plus data that's with wearables, that's measuring your - Dude, where are we with augmented reality? Well, I'm just going to say, the ads are going to be weird, bro. It's so like, you're going to be like, that's exactly - We were pushing that so hard just thinking about that. Yeah, I did.

34:46Sal Di Stefano:But I mean, VR too, it was like people are pulling back from producing more VR content

34:52Adam Schafer:and stuff and it's because it makes people nauseous dude yeah i don't think it's it's just

34:57Sal Di Stefano:not hitting it's it's funny because i don't know i guess you see like movies where they tried to make them 3d forever you know and then it just never and they kept trying and it just never

35:06Adam Schafer:happened i wonder if it's gonna be like have you ever seen 80s movies that were 3d like they're so dumb they will include scenes to try to make it more 3d yeah like hey have this cookie and they're like put it on the screen yeah like so dumb the way they made him yeah to try to do all that stuff

35:22Sal Di Stefano:yeah yeah no vr completely fell fell out like that then the i was surprised by metaverse and all the time i tried it was like oh it's cool but yeah my algorithm annoying i bought my wife uh

35:34Adam Schafer:which she's like don't do this anymore so i'm like whatever but i bought i want to try to i i i love buying gifts this is like one of my love it's maybe not hers but it's my love language so whatever yeah i like to buy things right yeah and so i bought her this dress and i don't think she liked it so i bought her a dress and uh and i want to be able to do that like i want to be able to buy things yeah you know and she's like don't do that she's like i gotta pick it out i gotta try it on the whole thing but now my algorithm is a bunch of women's clothing so i have to go in there like every ad yeah every ad is just some new something else so i gotta go in there and like i do the whole thing where i click on it don't want to see this ad it's taking me like 10 times for

36:09Sal Di Stefano:the stupid algorithm pick up yeah i've had a problem so i do that a lot right so uh for katrina and there's so many companies now online and a lot of them are like uh scam sites like i've had to go back and get like refunds i got in fact i got something now what do you mean i bought oh yeah like so there's a you buy something you don't get it so a lot of these sites are just like fronts they get like the out so again algorithms figured me out the type of outfits that i'm buying for katrina and so now i'm getting like bombarded with all these and a lot of them are like great i'm like oh man this is that's a great fit i'm gonna get that but it's like all these off brands i've never heard of but it's like and a lot and i've learned now to go and read all the reviews then i go online and i actually search about the company and so but i had to learn the hard way of like i'd buy some i just had something recently that i bought i bought it for her back in january i still haven't received it yeah and i'm like i emailed them and stuff like i got one of the two items but not the other one i'm like i bought this back in january oh yeah that's on I'm like, I want my money back at this point.

37:11Sal Di Stefano:It's like six months.

37:12Adam Schafer:And you have to remember that you bought it. Oh, totally. That's another thing, too.

37:16Sal Di Stefano:There's been times where I'm like. Because I don't even remember. Yeah. So I know. I'm trying to trace it back and get that item number and all that kind of stuff. I bought Courtney. I was so excited about it, too, because it was so random. I saw she has chimp tendencies, where she just wants to poke on my pimples. That's girls, dude. That's my wife. So I was like, this is a good distraction. It was like some head of this guy that you put like goo in. Shut up. In blackheads. And you actually like can physically pop these. Justin bought this. And I'm like, this will be great. You know, distract her from trying to do this to me and the kids.

37:58Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. And yeah, it never came. It was like a total front.

38:03Adam Schafer:Yeah. Like if I squeeze a pimple and Jessica knows that I did it without telling her, she actually gets angry yeah Courtney does too no no she actually gets angry she's like there's a little bit of inside of her like and I think she realizes this is a dumb thing to fight about it's rare but there's like 15 seconds where I'm looking and I know like she's actually irritated that I didn't let her squeeze this yeah I mean it's weird dude does Katrina do that no she doesn't

38:25Sal Di Stefano:she actually thinks it's disgusting which is I know that's a very common thing with women but remember she's kind of like a dude yeah yeah yeah she watches sports like she's like she's not like she's not like she play video games with you I don't play video games but if I did, maybe she would. I don't know. I don't think so. When we first dated, I was still playing video games. So when we first met was 17 years ago. You guys played video games back then? Not together. I did. She played on her own? No, no, no, no. So when we, so, you know, her, my best friend, Justin, is her and his wife is really close.

38:57Sal Di Stefano:Her and Katrina are really close. When we first started dating, we had my condo and Justin lived with me and he was a physical therapist assistant, right? And the girls would come over on like, This is how lame we are. Friday nights, and the two of us would play video games while our girlfriends went out and danced and went to clubs and shit like that. That's so great. Just here like, yeah, go hit the clubs. Yeah, yeah, have fun. We're going to stay.

39:20Adam Schafer:Your level of security is amazing. I know.

39:23Sal Di Stefano:I know I'm not like a normal person like that. We're guys like, we have no idea.

39:27Adam Schafer:Oh, yeah, you guys go to the club and go hang out. You're drunk. We'll do something totally unattractive.

39:33Sal Di Stefano:Pass me the fun. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Very secure. I mean, if you ask, I'm sure that was probably one of the things that she, the fact that I would, I don't, I didn't care about that stuff and I was secure. And so, yeah. But yeah, we were doing stuff like that when we first met. But it only lasted a little while. And then after that, it was like, I don't think I ever looked back. I didn't want to play anymore.

39:53Adam Schafer:Study came out on, another study on what women consider to be the most attractive in men physically. And they actually came out with some data. I'm going to pull it up here. Their bank account? Nice. No. No. They have a body fat percentage and a shoulder to hip ratio that they found to be most attractive. So body fat percentage, 13 % to 14%, which is fit. By the way, everybody listening, it's achievable. That's achievable. Are you kidding me?

40:23Sal Di Stefano:That's not even abs. No. That's no abs. You're just fit. You don't have a flat stomach. You don't have a beer belly. You look like you lift weights, but you don't look like you live in the gym. Yeah.

40:34Adam Schafer:Yeah. Yeah, 13 % to 14%. And then the shoulder-to-waist ratio is about 1.5%. So shoulders to waist. So whatever the waist is, 1.5 of that to the shoulders. I don't know what that would look like on a man. But that's a pretty good. V-taper. Yeah, that's a pretty good V-taper. So I don't know. Maybe, Doug, you could type in some numbers and see what I'm saying. Yeah, Dr. Integrity has it. Yep.

40:56Sal Di Stefano:I wonder if there's like an app for you to.

41:00Adam Schafer:Well, you can measure your waist, I guess, then measure your shoulders and see if you match this type of deal.

41:06Sal Di Stefano:Yo, I think my – you know what your suit – so I'm 46. I don't know what my suit is.

41:11Adam Schafer:I have no idea.

41:12Sal Di Stefano:I think I'm a 46 on shoulders. Yeah, I have no idea. My waist is 30. I'm like whatever SpongeBob is.

41:22Adam Schafer:Those measurements apply to me. He's in the refrigerator. Hey, you make up with –

41:28Sal Di Stefano:The water heater. You make up with – You ain't going to push me over, dude. Hey, glutes and calves, bro. you make up where are you losing taper you make up in glute and cap everything's square

41:37Adam Schafer:it's stable it's very stable

41:39Sal Di Stefano:that's what 1.6 to 1 yeah but that guy

41:42Adam Schafer:is lean he's really really lean yeah you know so you have to be less they always have the best V taper they got a picture of a bodybuilder why is he like

41:49Sal Di Stefano:in that pose

41:51Adam Schafer:I don't know that's how Adam remember Adam's posing when he was on stage

41:56Sal Di Stefano:I think that was I like the way you used to like flare up your hands yeah what was that all about stop it I didn't do that yeah you did dude I didn't flare my hand like that. You did something with your hands. Just to like, you did this thing with your hands. You shake out. It's like you're getting all the feathers out. You're doing good? Dude, oh my God. That's so awesome. It's great. It's great because I saw how uncomfortable you were. The worst part about it is how much I really hated that part and had to do all of it. So of course I'm going to get roasted by all my buddies. We have to. In no world is there anything cool about that.

42:30Sal Di Stefano:You know what's funny? when I talk about that world for a minute was the guys that actually thought that was cool. Yeah, that's where there's a massive disconnect. Yeah, we are not alike here. I know I'm doing it with you. I know I'm getting out of here. You guys, we're not cool. Yeah, this is not cool at all.

42:47Adam Schafer:My niece is working at the gym right now. You know what, Doug?

42:53Sal Di Stefano:You can find an example. If you just look up Mind Pump Adam, it'll pull up. Oh, don't do it, dude. Don't do it, dude. Don't do it. You'll pull up a nice V-taver for you. No, no, I got to tell you. Let's check it out.

43:04Adam Schafer:My niece is working at a gym, and so she's never been in that gym culture. By the way, this is a great place. Gym culture has got its own problems, right? Working in a gym has got its own issues, but I think it's a great atmosphere. I really do. I think it's – generally speaking, people are coming in to better themselves. Staff is high energy. People work out together. If you've got a good manager, good culture in a gym, it's like a great atmosphere. So I'm so happy that she's working there. but she told me she's like there were some guys in the aerobics room and they took their shirts off and she's like and they were like she hasn't seen that before and she was like they were posing in front of the mirror and like you mean they were flexing she goes no they were posing and so she tried to show me yeah i'm like oh those are physique those are physique yeah dude they're

43:47Sal Di Stefano:totally that's what i'd be like i were like the the gym i went to right back then was very popular for like men's physique and bodybuilders. And like, that was like a thing. Like after your workout, go pose. Yeah. And like, I just did was not like, no, I don't want to do this here. Like I'll do it in my house. I'll do it in my house. I don't even want to do that, but I'll do it in my house. I do not want to do this here, but there's like a lot of sense of, you know what it is. The guys get all aired up, you know what I'm saying? I want to look at themselves. They're all aired up. Hey, it's for my sport.

44:16Sal Di Stefano:I got to do this. I think there's all these girls watching and really, it's just dudes like, yeah,

44:23Sal Di Stefano:watching other dudes it's always other dudes which i think i think that's the thing that every guy thinks is going to happen right what is going to happen when you get looking like that but it doesn't it's not chicks that are over there it's other dudes that are yeah way more respect lifting

44:37Adam Schafer:heavy that's just the way this period it's still probably from guys truth i was just no i was

44:41Sal Di Stefano:gonna say i don't think girls care about that either i don't have you ever had a girl walk over and be like oh that's nice squat no that's some serious weight no they're intimidated I mean, they'll make fun of you if it's small weights. I feel like that's something you or I would do, right? If I saw, when I see a girl squatting like two plates plus, I'm like, oh, I'll compliment. I'll be like, oh my God, that's a great squat. And you're strong. I'll say something. But girls don't do that the other way.

45:03Adam Schafer:There's this, you guys know I go to several gyms. And one of the ones I go to is more like a country club. And so the crowd is a little older. And when I go in the morning, there's definitely a group of people who are in their like 60s, 70s, maybe even 80s. because that's the time they like to work out. And there's this little Asian woman, and she's got to be 80. And I see her every time, man. I see her in there. She's working out. She's on the machines. She always makes eye contact with me. She gives me a smile. If I grunt a little too hard, she gives me a thumbs up. I don't think she speaks any English whatsoever, but I so bad want to give her a hug.

45:39Adam Schafer:But I'm for sure going to be creepy if I do. But she's so, I love her. She thinks you guys are in the same age category. That's why. you're doing a good job for you how did you do that man i see you guys she's like 4 10 she's probably 4 10 she's like this little tiny thing oh yeah oh i love watching it's so great that's so funny uh study came out on the happiest men what group of men are the happiest and it's married with men with kids yeah of course married men with kids are the happiest the least happy single men no kids peter pan dudes dude and you know what's why i'm saying this i wonder if income

46:19Sal Di Stefano:plays a role and what in that the guy like you the the guys that are single obviously we know the difference between yeah but a guy that is single and is struggling to get by versus a guy who's single and is is well now also like you know the window of time uh in terms of it being like are they older are they younger like i don't know i would i would assume i'd have a different

46:43Adam Schafer:perspective as a younger guy yeah i'm sure they're not interviewing you know 18 year olds yeah that kind of stuff uh so these are like within what you would consider married kind of father age so probably late 20s and between whatever but the difference is pretty pretty big it's like it's what's interesting about that sal is that the the single guy oh 22 to 35 oh between 22 that's pretty young so percentage of dads age 22 to 35 who are very happy okay married dads 37 percent unmarried childless 14 that's a big difference more than double yeah we're considered happy and this is important because well it's the media would have you believe otherwise well

47:24Sal Di Stefano:what's interesting about that is that that would include the uh early 30 guy who is making good money who like he's also admitting that he's not as happy yeah like a lot of a lot would you think that a lot of people like that would admit that yeah you think so that they're on that they're unhappy yeah they're unhappy i don't think they would i feel like they i feel like most of them would would put on the front that like i'm happy i'm killing it yeah i'm flying all over the world hanging hooking up with chips all the time like you know that that's true yeah but see adam what

47:52Adam Schafer:you just said right now is what the media portrays how many 34 year old dudes with no kids are traveling the world hooking up with all kinds of kids that's fair that's a that's a fair that's a that's a fair point that's how you're talking about the 0.5 you're right you're right yeah so

48:05Sal Di Stefano:that makes more sense most of them are lonely a lot of a lot of those guys are the thought that that's what it was gonna look like they're like man i thought i'd be flying all over hooking up with hot chicks and i'm just sitting in my apartment playing video games yeah i mean at the high school level when i was coaching and like it was such a culture shock for me like to see what these kids were like into and like uh and and you know like what your most popular kid what they did on the weekends. They were starting Dungeons & Dragons. They had all these little sub clubs that they're a part of and all this stuff.

48:40Sal Di Stefano:And I was like, that's so interesting. The popular kid? The popular kid, the quarterback, the handsome kid that's like, you know, should be out there. Was it the D &G? Yeah. Wow. Or D &D, whatever it is.

48:52Adam Schafer:D &G? What's D &G? D &D. Dungeons & Dragons. It's funny you say that. A survey of 2 ,000 Americans of Gen Zers found that 39 % of Gen Zers choose social media over sex, at least sometimes. 21 % do so often. One in eight Gen Zers believe scrolling is more pleasurable than sex. 23 % see no difference between the two. That's sad. What is going on? It's a bad sex. Real bad sex. You're not doing it right. Yeah, you're not doing it right. He's right.

49:26Sal Di Stefano:i mean this just so what does that mean okay yeah let's break it down yeah because that means because that sounds crazy it does sound crazy so you're saying that there's uh how do they get that where uh i have this option to have sex with my girlfriend but i just said you know honey i'd rather scroll on instagram right now i don't want to i don't want to do that is that what you're i

49:45Adam Schafer:mean yeah what yeah that's what this that's what they're showing teenage young boys young men 2 ,000 both men and women. So here's what I think is happening. By the way, according to another survey, 44 % spend six or more hours a day on the phone. 92 % sacrifice sleep to scroll. 20 % ignore basic bodily needs to get more screen time.

50:06Sal Di Stefano:You do notice how that has continued every time you read one of those go up. And I still think it's underreported. Right.

50:13Adam Schafer:So what I think is what you have is a generation, a significant percentage of a generation, the largest percentage of any generation where they've just been on this since they were kids and so their brains are wired this way yeah which is different than a mechanism like comfort thing like i could get stuck on my phone for sure because it's addictive yeah but i wasn't raised with it so my brain didn't didn't model itself all right well yeah it's not normal for you so

50:37Sal Di Stefano:even you you can get caught doing it yeah but you recognize right away how not normal it is that's right versus someone who's been who's been raised with it and their brain that is that is their medium that's that's the medium that's their normal so that's like it doesn't feel yeah weird

50:52Adam Schafer:yeah which is crazy because uh we're talking about sex but i think if they asked another study what they're really doing is okay take sex aside what's probably worse or what this is downstream of is these kids are happier doing that than just having relationships even interacting with real people that's the real one that's bad is that that's that they prefer to do that over being with regular

51:16Sal Di Stefano:Well, I mean, I think that's an obvious because I think what the study highlights is like they're willing to pass up even sex, which everybody knows is so pleasurable. It's like if you're passing up something that is that pleasurable, you're, of course, passing up something as mundane as just a conversation or connection.

51:32Adam Schafer:That's why I think when we look at the data, I really feel strongly about this. When you look at the data at people that use the most social media and its correlation to depression, anxiety. What are we looking at right now? I think it's less, hold on, I think it's less to do with the social media and more to do that they're not getting real relationships. What are you showing us, Doug? Yeah. I just wanted to see the age range for Gen Z. What is it? It's 13 through 28. Okay. Currently. So hopefully it's not a 13-year-old saying that. Yeah. Well, I'm sure they're... Yeah, they're probably looking at 18 and up, but...

52:01Adam Schafer:We're glad they're passing that up. Yeah. So, yeah. So I think that's what the data's showing. When you look at social media and its relationship to depression, you're officially a boomer, huh? No, no, no, no.

52:11Sal Di Stefano:you're not a 1965 gen x oh you just they're like don't drop me in that group i feel like i'm gonna boomer you you're are you a millennial uh yeah technically i'm an 81 he's so i'm right on the

52:22Adam Schafer:wait a minute bro you're a millennial yeah no yeah wonder yeah exactly wonder there's not a

52:29Sal Di Stefano:millennial ounce of me huh not the tiny i mean if there's any difference he just tried to call me a boomer so yeah i think it's fair game millennial hey people get pissed off on the podcast i get dms all the time when people like you didn't know you're a millennial right when we talk when we just talk about millennial and stuff all the time people always wait what's above baby boomer what

52:49Adam Schafer:is that called silent generation the silent generation is that like because of talkie films

52:55Sal Di Stefano:because they're dead that's why oh that's harsh that's cold my mom's part of that generation by I actually never knew that's what that was called.

53:03Adam Schafer:Yeah.

53:04Sal Di Stefano:Did you know that? No, I had no idea. Have you ever heard of that? I've never heard of Silent Generation.

53:07Adam Schafer:What's the deal with Silent Generation? What are their characteristics? They didn't say much, I guess. I mean, that's probably World War I.

53:13Sal Di Stefano:It seems logical. They're deduced just down the street.

53:17Adam Schafer:Your powers of deduction. That's why I get paid the big dollars, man.

53:20Sal Di Stefano:So our kids are Gen Alpha. Alpha.

53:24Adam Schafer:Yeah, Gen Alpha is our little ones. Okay. Anyway, so our crisp power is so popular. Our new trainers we're talking about. Did you hear that? Oh, yeah. We should use it as like a spiff. Yes. We should, huh? This is what you get for coming through and getting trained.

53:41Sal Di Stefano:I like the cheddar, which is, I don't like competition. The cheese one.

53:46Adam Schafer:Of all the things that we get sent to us, of all of our partners, that one is gone the fastest. Gone. Everybody's just eating those. It used to be the beef jerky.

53:55Sal Di Stefano:It's become now the crisp power. It is. Yeah, it used to be the beef turkey, but now everybody's on there.

53:59Adam Schafer:Now, you've said this before. I want to ask this again. Because who eats it consistently? Doug, you'll have it. Yeah, I do. Justin, you do for sure. Yeah. It's a snack processed, but it's high protein. Does it still hit satiety better than it? It does. Okay.

54:12Sal Di Stefano:I have brought this up before where -

54:15Adam Schafer:Because it's what, 27 grams of protein, I think? 25 to 28. 25 to 28.

54:21Sal Di Stefano:I've maybe three times I've ate two bags just to see. I was kind of curious. But one bag is satisfying. Okay. Which would not be the case for my chips. Oh, God, if you gave me a bag of pretzels that size, I would want an extra large bag. Yeah. And the fact that I know that it's high in protein and it's a healthier choice for me, the barrier to go to another one isn't very high.

54:46Adam Schafer:Right, because you're like, cool, another 25-year-old protein.

54:48Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would totally do that. But it totally satiates. After one, I'm good. It's like a perfect driving snack. That's cool. They should be in every gas station, dude. There's always horrible options, you know. They have to be. Right? They definitely should be. No, I mean, it would be so smart. I don't know if they've even tried to do it. I mean, they're in Costco now. They're in Costco. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if they made Target yet. I know they're in Costco. And they're in another big chain. That's the formula, dude.

55:15Adam Schafer:Dude, if you can create a really tasty high protein, like not for a high protein snack. Because when I say tasty high protein, people put it in the context of things that are high protein. It just tastes good. Oh, and by the way, it's high protein. You're going to crush. You're going to crush right now. And they were able to figure that out. Yeah. So good. Our place makes cookware that lasts a long time. But more importantly, no forever chemicals. Look, if you like nonstick cookware because it's easy to clean after cooking certain things, The problem is the forever chemicals. These are chemicals that stay in your body and they actually have hormone-like effects.

55:50Adam Schafer:They've been tied to things like diseases and cancers. This is what the studies show. So it really sucks. But how do I get something that's nonstick, that lasts a long time without the chemicals? Well, here's what you do. Go to fromourplace.com and then use this code, MindPump. You'll get 10 % off site-wide. Back to the show. Our first caller is Josh from Vermont. What's up, Josh? How you doing, Josh? How's it going? Thanks for having me on. You got it, dude. How can we help you? Well, so I'm just kind of, I started doing CrossFit back four years ago. And honestly, it's changed my life very dramatically.

56:26I've lost about 100 pounds and I've gained a lot of good skills. But the part of it that I really have enjoyed is doing the powerlifting portions that we do. And I'm kind of trying to transition out of going, you know, I go five, six days a week sometimes. and I'm trying to switch my focus to doing more. Do CrossFit because I enjoy the community. I enjoy the people. I enjoy 70 % of the workouts, but I really like the powerlifting portion of it, and I'm trying to figure out what kind of routine I should get into to continue building my lifts up, which are decent. I know they can get better, but I just thought maybe I'd ask you guys what you might suggest.

57:10That's powerlifting.

57:11Adam Schafer:Good question, and there's more in your email. So in your email, it says you're trying to transition from CrossFit about five days a week or six days a week to a weight training routine while doing CrossFit a few days a week, right? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, so, okay, ready? Check this out. The appropriate amount of CrossFit per week, if you love CrossFit, is a few days a week. Okay. And then nothing else. Okay. So if you do CrossFit three days a week, that's it. You actually get better results with CrossFit, by the way. You'll get better results with CrossFit doing it three days a week, but you can't add any more.

57:43Adam Schafer:Okay. If you want to do CrossFit and power lift, you might get away with one day a week of CrossFit and maybe two days a week of traditional power lifting. okay yeah all right that makes sense i mean i i have a it's a big mental thing for me like i kind of have to be there yeah sometimes it feels like um it's kind of saved me from you know alcohol alcoholism i'm like i'm five years sober and six years sober on christmas and um that's kind of when i started thinking like i i was up to 300 pounds at that point and i just jumped into it because i was wasting money at gyms everywhere else trying to yeah figure my own shit i just walk around in circles for an hour and then I'd leave basically and alright well okay that makes sense I guess I'd have to figure out how I could incorporate other things to kind of satisfy the mental need for the

58:33Sal Di Stefano:throw on the podcast and go for an hour hike or walk on the other days I do a lot of like disc golfing too or that yeah I love that you don't have to like so a lot of people think when we talk about this they go like man I like the five days a week of working out like still keep that routine of five days you have this hour block that you go do something active and fit like fitness related it's got to be lower intensity that's right it's got to be lower intensity so let it be disc golf let it be a hike let it be you know something like that okay uh on those other days and start to schedule it so like like literally if you like disc golf like start playing two days a week yeah like try to do like three or four yeah yeah like make make that a part of your lifestyle well let

59:13Adam Schafer:me ask a few more questions josh because i don't want to discount uh a few things that you said You said it helped you with your sobriety. You mentioned the community. How close are you with the community there at CrossFit, with the people that go there? Very close. I'm not trying to toot my own horn. I'm like a staple at our group. I'm very boisterous, and I'm very personable. So here, so look, I don't want to downplay that, bro. Yeah. That's very valuable. I think that's the most valuable thing here. I think it's more valuable than you lifting more with your powerlifting. Yeah. Now, the challenge is can we keep you from overtraining or beating yourself up or causing injury?

59:52Adam Schafer:Because that's a lot of intensity.

59:53Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

59:54Adam Schafer:But I think what you're saying with the value that you're getting from community and what it's done for you, I don't want to discount that. That's the most important thing. In fact, of all the things you said, that's way more valuable than getting your deadlift and your squat higher. It's way more valuable than hiking and listening to mind pump in your ears. It's way more valuable than that. It's the most valuable thing of all the things we talked about. So what I would actually recommend to someone like you is keep doing what you're doing and lower the intensity when appropriate.

1:00:19Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, just crank it down.

1:00:20Adam Schafer:So when you go in there, I'd say two or three days a week go hard like you normally do. The other two days a week go easy. Yeah. And you'll feel better. You'll feel better and you'll still be in the community. Yeah, I feel like sometimes I go into it thinking that. Today was a perfect example. We had a shoulder overhead day and we had another shoulder overhead during the workout. And you're supposed to build up heavy. and I was going to build up heavy during the strength training, but during the workout, I'm going to go, you know, 115 instead of 155. And I got into the workout, and after doing 195 the first during the strength, I was like, oh, 155, this is fine.

1:00:54And I feel great, but I just don't – a lot of times I have a hard time allowing myself to lower the intensity down because, like, I don't know. It's an addiction. It's wild. So here's what you do.

1:01:05Adam Schafer:For sure. This is what you do. You've got to involve your community. so tell uh the coaches there and the people that you work out with and literally tell them hey guys listen i got a problem two days a week it needs to look like this yeah i got a problem with overdoing it i today i need to go easy if you if you see me going too hard i want you to come and i'm going to do 115 on overhead press if you see me adding more weight i want you to come slap me in the face like involve your involve your community bro seriously yeah they've already helped for sure they've already helped you so much so yeah let them know say hey man i got to go easy two or three days a week here.

1:01:37Adam Schafer:I can't keep going hard, so I need your help. Today's my easy day. So here's the weights I'm going to go with. You see me go over that once you call me out, and then that'll make it awesome for you, dude. All right, cool. Cool. That sounds good. I mean, they've tried, but I guess the slap in the head might work probably the best. Yeah, dude. Well, they're so valuable to you, bro, that I think that that's what's going to help you the most. Okay, cool. You know? Yeah. That sounds great. That's it, dude. That's it, bro. Awesome. Do you do mobility work too? I have. funny you mention that i just i'm my mobility is pretty horrible and i just started um one of the trainers there got me on to i think it's go wad something like that and you um kind of you do a test and then it kind of builds you a mobility thing that you do 20 minutes a day to help with your like with my lack of my i'm more of like my my hips are super tight and um so i've been starting i started that i started that yesterday so i can't say i've been doing it but all right

1:02:33Sal Di Stefano:well is it i've done it two days is it possible uh on the two days that we're talking about where you focus on that where you can back off the intensity can you will they let you on the side of the class kind of do your mobility routine because that's what i would tell you to do is like since it's probably hard for you to discipline yourself to do that outside of your classes like make that a part of your class is on the days that you're supposed to back off intensity also do the first 20 minutes of your you know hour at the at the box do your mobility stuff That would really serve you.

1:03:01Adam Schafer:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to send you prime pro. That's our mobility kind of program. Okay. So you'll have another, another thing to reference. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I've got an open gym patch there too. So like I can sign up and just do the open gym those days as well. And I love that. I have been trying to, I've been, it's really hard for me, but I've been trying to make a schedule where I'm like, all right, Wednesdays, I'm going to just do mobility. I'm going to maybe ride a bike and just kind of not sweat too much and just take kind of an off day. I'm still working on it. I'm going to try harder.

1:03:33Sal Di Stefano:So, Josh, that would be the ideal. So this is, to me, this is the compromise I would make. I know Sal already said to you that, you know, obviously the community value is so huge. And I'm going to say something else to you that I think you're kind of aware of. At one point, you will be forced to become aware of. Because a lot of times we trade one addiction for another addiction. and it's easy to get caught in the fitness addiction because it serves us so much right it's so much healthier and everybody's going to pat you on the back and so you're just but you still have that addictive personality towards something and i think you recognize that in yourself and so it will eventually lead to injury and all this other stuff that will make you learn this lesson and so but yet at the same time too i agree with sal that there's such tremendous value in the community and i wouldn't want to pull you from that so that you just told me there's a way that I could still let you go to that CrossFit box five days a week, but we can modify it to what I think would be better.

1:04:26Sal Di Stefano:So what it would look like is three days a week you're doing those classes. The other two days you're doing open gym. An open gym looks like your mobility routine and then getting on like the elliptical or a bike and just cruising. And you still get to be a part of the community. You're still in there five days a week, but you're starting to scale back the intensity and the kind of beating yourself up five days a week. And two of the days are very recuperative. And then I think you get the best of both worlds.

1:04:48Adam Schafer:I'm going to tell you the two things that'll protect you from taking fitness and going too far with it. Okay. Yeah. One is to involve the community and let them know it's a challenge for you because you value it so much. You've got great connections there. That's the best thing you could do. That's number one. Number two, what do you do for a living? Let me ask you that first. Unfortunately, I drive a truck, which is really hard sometimes. That's fine. This will also help you a lot. get yourself a client or two and work train them for free okay start working with some maybe someone in the class hey let me train you for free i'm going to take that'll actually help you with yourself okay i actually um i just started shadowing to coach there as well good so you coaching some you coaching someone else is going to really help you a lot it's really okay it's so much easier to do the right thing for another person like you're going to be good at telling someone else you're overdoing it but it's real hard for you to do it and it'll help it'll help you a lot.

1:05:46Adam Schafer:So coach somebody for free and then just involve, let your, let your people know there, man, let's say I overdo it. You guys, I need help. Like today's my light day. Make sure I go easy that even if you don't listen to them, whatever they're aware. And it's, it's, uh, it's so valuable for someone like you to do that. Okay, cool. Yeah. That sounds, that sounds great. All things I've like kind of milled over from time to time and I just keep going back to the same routines, but I'm definitely going to, uh, put in some work and try to lighten the load a

1:06:13Sal Di Stefano:little bit i guess yeah that's it dude keep us posted josh i'd like to hear back from you when you've been doing this for like three months because i think you'll you'll see a difference in your performance too you'll feel better you'll look better you'll see strength go up like you'll you'll be benefited by doing this i know mentally it's difficult but you'll definitely see the benefits when you stick with it yeah no for sure i'd love to get back in touch with you guys about it all right all right man thanks brother thanks guys yeah when he said uh it helped with sobriety

1:06:41Adam Schafer:and he mentioned the community, I was like, ooh, let's keep them with these people because, I mean, I tell you, dude, that makes such a big difference for some people, especially what he's doing right now. Like you said it, Adam, right? You go from one drug to another. What he's doing is he's self-medicating differently. Now, fitness can go real bad, but it can also go real good, right? It can go real good. Whereas with drugs and stuff, not necessarily. It's almost always bad. but with fitness it could go it could go pretty good and it could be a decent way to medicate uh things like anxiety and depression um now you can overdo it as a tipping point but let me tell you for anxiety and depression fitness done right is the best thing according to the data um community throw that in there he's got himself a winning formula so long as he doesn't beat himself i mean

1:07:29Sal Di Stefano:i feel like the answer is right there that when he said that he has a the open gym pass where he can come in two days and do what he wants that's if i'm coaching him it's because you're right i agree like pulling him away from this community that has literally probably saved his life is not something i'd want to do even if i knew there's better programming exactly doing i get this to where you're going and so to me the the middle ground here is oh this is easy he's got an open gym pass so it's like two days a week you do that mobility routine that you've already know you need to do and and now it forces you to because you show up to an hour and there versus trying to do it at home and then adding it all by yourself yeah yeah no like that becomes your your two days a week two or five days a week now is 20 minutes of mobility and low intensity cardio and that you're still there and you get to see everybody you're part of the community still like that to me that's the the answer is that and boy i mean that's a way healthier balance yep uh and relationship with exercise and if he can get to there he's going to see a ton of benefits from it our next caller is Kelly from Massachusetts.

1:08:32Sal Di Stefano:Hi, Kelly. How are you doing, Kelly? Hi, good. How are you guys? Good. How can we help you? So I reached out because I am dealing with relative energy deficiency. I'm 21. I work out a lot. And I have been dealing with it for like three years now. And I just can't seem to find a solution for that.

1:08:53Adam Schafer:And who diagnosed you with this? I have a sports physician. I see her. Her name is Dr. Schley. I see her. And she diagnosed me a while back because my energy intake was really low. And I had all the red flags were shining bright. Yeah. So you were under eating and over training essentially is what was happening. Yeah. So I was training like six days a week. And I think my intake was roughly 1 ,200 calories per day, which is not enough. um so i've tried i see a nutritionist now i've tried increasing my my calories but i just haven't it's been a while and i haven't really seen any positive change so i just kind of i'm stuck and i'm not sure what to do when you say you've tried increasing your calories tell me what this looks like so i tried slowly increasing so i would add like 200 calories every few days i would try um But it was just so uncomfortable and bloating, and I couldn't really keep up with it.

1:09:57Adam Schafer:What number did you end up getting up to? I want to say 18, but I didn't stay very long because it was so uncomfortable. Yeah, that's why it didn't work. What feels comfortable for you is actually what's unhealthy. And eating an appropriate amount for you is going to feel like you're stuffing yourself. You're going to feel like it's too much. so we often say on the podcast uh listen to your body but that's not a good strategy for someone who doesn't know how to listen to their body whose signals are off which which would be like someone like you listening to your body is under eating and over training okay so it's going to feel uncomfortable for a while hun and you're gonna have to stay in it for a while to fix some of these issues so you're gonna kind of have to get through that discomfort and there's things

1:10:44Sal Di Stefano:that we advise like stay away from the mirror stay away from the scale like you can't focus

1:10:49Adam Schafer:on getting stronger in the gym let's let's let's talk about strength i think that's a great metric for you to focus on yeah right um that's kind of it was confusing for me because i was gaining strength i was getting stronger when it first started like i had cut my calories and i was super lean and i was gaining all this strength and i was doing really good and then i think it caught up to me. Now I'm like plateaued. I have like, I have a good training program for myself. I think I'm a personal trainer too. So like, I know, I think I know what I'm doing with how I'm making myself lift, but I think it's just not doing anything.

1:11:28You got to eat more. Yeah.

1:11:29Sal Di Stefano:Well, I, let's talk about five days a week training too, though. That's what's, what's the training routine look like? Cause if you're training five days a week with me, you'd only be doing two exercises. Yeah. So I initially, I cut down now because I realized it was way too much. I'm doing like probably four now. Um, but I do work a very like physical job. Um, I work in a hospital, so I'm like always on my feet and moving people and lifting people. So I'm doing four days actually lifting and it's like a push pull legs and then a full body

1:12:06Adam Schafer:type thing so to do that be active your age plus strength training uh yeah like your calories would would with me would probably get you up to around 24 2500 dang yeah easy but you we have to we have to ease our way there obviously and it would and you would get and you would just have body comp change yeah i mean and that's me trying to sell it to you but that's what you got to do hon you

1:12:30Sal Di Stefano:got to bump your calories oh i do i do want to uh to warn you though that what this what this journey kind of looks like i'm going through this with corinne right now as i'm coaching her through a reverse diet and when you've been low calorie and over trained for such a long period of time it will take the body a little while before it responds the way you want it to it's not as it's not this like beautiful linear progress it's like oh i bump calories and strength follows and then all of a sudden I look better too. And then I bump more. It won't look like that. What it will look like is I'm going to feel uncomfortable.

1:13:03Sal Di Stefano:This doesn't feel right. This is, oh, I feel bloated all the time. And it's like, I don't feel like I'm seeing much change or difference. The thing that you should notice though, is energy and strength. Those are the two main things we want to focus on because the body composition and all that and feeling comfortable will come down the road. Like that's down the road after our body gets healthy. It first has to get healthy. and then it will start to give you the results that you want. And it's not this perfect, I start this and then right away I feel that. It'll be a while before you and you just got to trust that process.

1:13:36Adam Schafer:Kelly, how long would you say that you were over-training and under-eating for?

1:13:43Honestly, definitely over a year. I would say maybe a year and a half. It took a while for me to lose my menstrual cycle in that. Like I was doing good for a while and I was sticking on that routine and everything was good. And then maybe a year into it, I lost.

1:14:02Adam Schafer:How long did you lose it for? I haven't gotten it back. It's been three years. Oh, wow. Okay. So, so it's going to probably, this is going to be about a year. Yeah. This is going to take you a year. You're going to go on a reverse diet ish kind of a protocol for about a year. Okay. Like no cut. You're not going to go on a cut for a long time. And it's going to be reverse dieting slowly, pausing when you're too uncomfortable, not going down, and then reversing again. And I'd like to see your calories at least, for what you're doing, at least around 2 ,500 calories. Okay. So do you suggest, like, adding 200 per week or, like, what protocol would you do?

1:14:45Sal Di Stefano:You're going to add 200 and then you're going to stay there for a couple weeks. And then we're going to add another 200 and stay there. I mean, here's, I would also highly recommend outsourcing to a coach. I mean, this is why Corinne has me helping her. She's smarter than I am. She's very experienced. She's a great, she's an incredible coach, but she knows that this is challenging for her. And so outsourcing it to me that like, just going to listen to me regardless of what, cause she's like, this doesn't feel right. I don't feel uncomfortable. I'm not seeing what it's like. Yeah, but I'm telling you to do this.

1:15:13Sal Di Stefano:You just need to listen to me. And so I would recommend even with your knowledge and experience like i would recommend outsourcing that if you're open to it because then it is just let a coach let them handle that week to week with you you know and what it looks like with mccurry and i sometimes i'll be increasing increasing and then i also i'm listening to her that's right and sometimes i give her a break and so because i and that's what a good coach will do like they'll listen to you and they'll feel you and i'm like and so i kind of push her push her push her i want her to go and then i can i can hear it in her voice i can see how she's responding to me.

1:15:44Sal Di Stefano:I'm like, all right, hey, we're gonna take a little diet break for a little bit and then I'll bring her down for a week or two and then I'm like, hey, are you ready? We're gonna go back up again. And so it is a little bit of push and pull and there isn't like this mathematical formula of it's gonna look exactly like this. It's like part of that is the coaching process is outsourcing to them, them hearing you out, knowing where they wanna take you and then together you guys head down this path for a year like Sal's saying. Okay. Yeah, I would definitely be interested in that. Okay, awesome.

1:16:12Adam Schafer:We'll have somebody reach out to you, Kelly. You're going to do great, by the way. You're so young. You've got a fitness background. As long as you can get over the mental part, you're going to crush.

1:16:22Sal Di Stefano:And if you're open to outsourcing that, you'll do well. You'll do great. Just like her. If you just trust that you're in good hands and will take care of you and just focus on hitting the goals they give you and stay in the course and you're going to be all right. Okay. Thank you so much, guys. I really appreciate it. You got it, Kelly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. hopefully we'll see you yeah that's right I'd love to circle back with you too to see how it's going yeah definitely we will alright Kelly thank you bye bye

1:16:50Adam Schafer:I mean we said this off air but it's funny how they give a clinical name to not eating enough and over training yeah

1:16:56Sal Di Stefano:I haven't heard that term actually before what it refers to

1:16:59Adam Schafer:is like losing your menstrual female athletes see this a lot they lose their menstrual cycle quite often it's so common that often times coaches are like yeah it's normal you know keep going type of deal that's a sign not necessarily a good sign Not a good one. But yeah, I mean, she's 21. Her body's going to respond. I mean, I'm very confident. It's not going to be as hard as it can be sometimes with someone. Oh, yeah. But it's going to be a year of slowly increasing your calories.

1:17:23Sal Di Stefano:It just needs to be stressed. It is going to be uncomfortable. Well, it is. And the hard part about this is that, like I said, is you do the work that you're supposed to do, and you don't necessarily see the results you want right away. No. And so you have to accept that. listen you have been beating up or abusing your body for an extended period of time it's going to take an extended period of time for your body to get healthy and then respond repair process right respond the way you want to so really the focus is not related to scale the way i look any of those things right now it's let's get our body healthy yep and so a huge win is the period coming back and in fact i'm coaching someone like this and saying like we we shouldn't expect any great aesthetic results until we get that.

1:18:06Sal Di Stefano:So let's go get that. And we can fix that. I know we can fix that. I know what that looks like. And so let's get there first. Then that's a good sign we continue to move in the direction. And then we'll start to look and see those things. Our next caller is Ted from Indiana. What's up, Ted? How you doing, Ted? Hey, what's up, guys? So thanks for having me. I'll just go ahead and read my question, even though it doesn't apply as much as it was going to. my work schedule is about to change where I'm going to have very little sleep and time to work out I'll have one maybe two days I'm a little anxious about my work home sleep balance because of how wildly my days are going to fluctuate I really just need some pointers on how to stay consistent not just with exercise and sleep but also with my family any advice would be greatly appreciated.

1:18:58So the schedule was going to be 35 hours on and then about a day off and 15 hours on then a day off and then another 35 hours on a day off. I'm a truck driver. I deliver. Um, and it's a cyclical sleep schedule on those three days. Um, I was really just wondering like the best way to kind of go about that i'm not so much worried about exercise and stuff but i really am worried about sleep that's a that's a really great question and they go hand in hand

1:19:38Sal Di Stefano:though just so you know because like um sometimes when you have when you have like a point time in your life like this what what healthy looks like strength training might be only one day a week or an exercise or two a day just really so it does because if you if you do too much on the workout it's going to impact sleep and so the workouts need to be look like what what complements me getting better sleep versus i know i can work out this many days it's more like okay what allows me to get better sleep and so it starts to look more like that for that type of a schedule ted explain the cyclic uh sleep schedule give me some more details so um you're sleeping in the bunk of the tractor while the other person drives and then you wake up when you get to the stop and you deliver all the product you're on a hand cart loading the cart up running down the ramp end of the store back up and then that goes on for 45 minutes maybe and then you hop back in the tractor you get back in the bunk and you take maybe an hour and a half two hour nap to your next stop and you and the driver switch off um doing that throughout the day like i said it doesn't apply to me so much now because my schedule changed twice since i sent the question in but it could apply in the future so i i still appreciate it do you get do you ever do you get like a full eight hours at any point when you're doing that no okay no it's it's um yeah it's it's pretty, pretty rough whenever it comes to sleep on those days.

1:21:17I am able to make it up on my off days, but, um, yeah, no, not, not really. You don't get eight hours.

1:21:25Adam Schafer:And now when you wake up, uh, are you awake enough to be able to do your work or do you find yourself groggy? Um, well, honestly, I'm kind of used to it a little bit at this point, so I don't notice so much grogginess. Plus I kind of implemented a lot of the stuff that you guys have already talked about. Like on the days that I do work, I take my 20 milligrams of creatine or my 20 grams of creatine, um, a few hours before I start my shift and then throughout the shift. And, uh, I try to get as much sunlight when I first wake up to try to help myself get to sleep whenever I am in the bunk. Um, I time caffeine so that it hits me harder when I am tired.

1:22:08So I don't really notice a whole lot of the grogginess, but I'm, I know that we're good at pushing through a lot of stuff. And I kind of know that I can push through a lot and I want to just be able to not age the way that I've seen a lot of the people that I do work with. Who's been there for 20 years, their back hurts and you know they've got like all of these problems and stuff and i don't want

1:22:36Adam Schafer:to end up like that do you find it difficult to fall asleep when you got to get in the bunk yeah i i do have a sleep mask and i use the uh i use the sleep mask and brain fm so when i get in there that's what i first do and then i try to wear blue light blocking glasses throughout the shift until I have to do my part to drive. That's what I was going to tell you. So grogginess is one thing, but hard time falling asleep is another thing. And I was going to tell you to wear really strong blue light blocking glasses when you get out of the bunk. And I mean the strong ones, the red ones. So, yeah, not the clear ones, like the red ones that block everything because that will help you fall asleep when it's time to get back in.

1:23:21Adam Schafer:But you're kind of doing everything right. Now, here's the deal. it's brutal so what we're doing is we're doing everything right but this is like as good as it gets yeah so that's a really brutal well this is we didn't talk much about the working out this is

1:23:35Sal Di Stefano:what i meant by they go hand in hand is like the one thing i would caution you is is pushing your body in the gym really hard for multiple days during a like a like a cycle like this this is like the time where our our training like you're getting in there you're doing movements but it's not i'm not trying to hit prs while you're also i'd be more concerned with strengthening your core and your posture and like you know really kind of reinforcing that to counter a lot of that like forward position seated positions yeah that would be my focus in the gym and then everything

1:24:07Adam Schafer:else is like complimentary yeah you know you know you could do you could put a suspension you bring a suspension trainer with you and um when you yeah when you feel like you're you're a little stiff or whatever you do a couple movements on there more for mobility than anything i do carry a band with me bands works i don't have a suspension trainer but i do carry bands with me whenever i go they're both great uh suspension trainer offers a little bit uh different i actually prefer it so if you can grab one it's easy to hook onto something you probably hook it onto the truck and do like w's and some rotation and just yeah just to feel good but otherwise you're doing everything i mean you're honestly doing everything right dude yep sounds good like i i kind of thought that i'm i might be doing everything to what you guys would say but i didn't know if there was something else that i should probably be doing that i'm not like my workouts are i'm not really focused on them so much right now like i if i can get two days in fine one day and it's usually like bench squat deadlift one day or something like that you're doing good no that's perfect you're doing good so another supplement you could try is uh liposomal nad uh so we have a row nutrition it's a company we work with we'll send you a link uh that'll help you with the energy part it'll complement the creatine that you're taking you're doing good though because you are depleting certain energies because you look

1:25:34Sal Di Stefano:you look really healthy too i'm assuming you have a pretty good diet then too yeah um i don't sorry there's a tractor going by um yeah i don't really ever eat bad um unless you know maybe once or twice a month when we go out to eat like i don't really think about it because i mean i'm with my family and stuff so it's not really that big of a deal but i'm pretty dialed in on my diet i feel like you're gonna be good bro your peers aren't good examples of what you will look like in 20 years if you're still doing that yeah yeah if you're if you're if you're eating well you're strength training once or twice a week you're doing yeah you're doing all the things ahead of it yeah bro you're gonna be good you're doing good okay yeah and what about eating real fast this is just the last part what about eating on my routes like is it okay to maybe not go the whole 35 hours or whatever i'm out without eating but like maybe most of the day because it's hard to like focus on going in and heating up your food and then getting back in the bunk and eating and trying to go to sleep i would rather just go no you're fine totally fine yeah you're fine i would drink uh and make sure you stay hydrated so much better than probably what everybody else does which is get the the frozen burrito at the truck stop and eat it while they're driving right yeah dude no yeah i've seen the people that touch the truck stop yeah yeah that's what i'm saying like that's like you you're you're way better off uh choosing to fast through that time and then eating when you can and yeah no you're doing good dude you're doing all the things right sweet yeah all right yeah well i think that's about it i i appreciate everything guys and uh i'll have uh well i'll have doug send you a link to the suspension trainer and i'll also gift you the the maps suspension program so that you have something that you can do off the truck whenever you want to which i think it's about the only advice i have for you that you can send them the row nutrition link yeah so we'll send that over to you all right cool i appreciate it guys you got it right on all right y 'all have a good one you too man it's funny you're like uh

1:27:35Adam Schafer:man people just they have some hard work dude that's a tough one that's a bitch bro get up

1:27:41Sal Di Stefano:and like straight from his sleep and then go moving crap and then okay get back to sleep your turn while they're driving i mean if anyone here you're the only one that could have that gift

1:27:50Adam Schafer:to fall asleep yeah but then getting up and moving after i would be mad you also train early you so

1:27:57Sal Di Stefano:abrupt you would be able to do it if anyone could do it out of us it's you oh you know i want to do you know angry i'd be all day long i'd be in a bad mood i mean talk about an exception of the rule right there i mean i could see he looks healthy i could tell by his face and i could tell by i mean he looked like a healthy guy yeah at that profession with that 15 years unhealthy job but he's i mean he's obviously cares and just trying everything and doing everything really really well but the people he works with are probably not a good example of what he'll look like or feel like they can mean they're drinking they're smoking they're eating well yeah they're eating like crap yeah just give me some french fries it's a rough environment for sure i'd smoke

1:28:35Adam Schafer:cigarettes oh yeah dude absolutely just to feel something our next caller is alexandra from washington hi alexandra hello hi how you doing how are you guys good how can we help you um so i've got two questions one is program related and the other is sort of career related but i'll start with programming. Let's do it. So I was a competitive athlete in high school. And then after graduating in 2018, I kind of kept training in that same mindset when I was in college. And then in 2021, I had this really weird, I don't want to call it an injury, but I, something hurt. And then after a couple months of recovering from that, I realized it was related to my hypermobility.

1:29:19And that's when the way that I trained really started to shift. And then since then, I've just had a handful of things that I don't really want to call them injuries again, but I don't have a better word for them. And I don't know how much background you guys have with hypermobility or hypermobile. Ehlers-Danlos is another sort of part of it. But it's like a connective tissue disorder. So there's a lot of like body-wide effects. but from a training standpoint, the biggest issue for me is joint laxity. My shoulders are the primary problem area. That's like the major instability. So sometimes subluxations, especially in certain positions.

1:30:03So I just end up with a lot of like muscle guarding all in like my traps and my neck extensors, like it just all gets super locked up. and when particularly activated or irritated causes like a lot of pain and a lot of restriction and then my right hip is also a little bit less stable on my than my left and I think that kind of plays into some low back irritation as well and then the laxity also makes my internal cues unreliable so it's really easy for me to overextend I'm not really sure what I'm feeling if it's the proper muscle working or if it's like a compensatory pattern that I developed.

1:30:41Co-contraction is also like a really difficult thing for me to catch when it's happening. And then I don't realize I'm doing something wrong until I wake up the next day and I'm just like locked up. And so, and like mirrors, they help sometimes, but it still is a little bit like it's good for external cueing, but internal cueing, it just is not helpful at all. and I've got like training and aesthetic goals but there's just like this big wall for me that every time I train I just keep running into like I'll feel good and then I'm like out for like a couple weeks and then it just totally sets me back so I'm trying I guess to understand like from your experience if you've worked with people with this like how I know when my body is ready for more weight because that's something I keep doing is ramping the weight and then it's too much, even though I can move it.

1:31:29Um, and then how I know when movement patterns are solid enough in order to progress into higher weight or reps or something like that. And then how you're meant to approach strength training when your body can clearly move more weight than it can tolerate properly, especially when like, I don't have the clear signals to do so in the moment. I know that was kind of like a couple of questions in one, but generally.

1:31:54Sal Di Stefano:That's great. Have you worked with a trainer in person no i haven't i had thought about it um but i've been having a hard time finding somebody who specializes in it um we don't necessarily specialize in this to have we all have experience doing it's another set of eyes yeah are you uh what's your education and by the way i know you're very you're very versed in this for sure um i graduated with a nutrition degree. I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Um, and then I came back up here cause I, the path that it led me on was sort of like dietitian in the medical field. And I didn't want to do that.

1:32:30And now I'm pursuing personal training after like four years of trying to figure out.

1:32:35Adam Schafer:Are you, are you, uh, you said up here, are you near us? Are you up near San Jose? No. So I live in Seattle. Up here. I mean, yeah, way North. Okay. So, so you're so, so, okay. here's what's interesting about this when when when you have hypermobility uh some of a lot of

1:32:55Sal Di Stefano:the rules it's the opposite of what we coach most people you know what you're gonna you know what

1:32:59Adam Schafer:you would do really well with uh first off isometrics is your best friend isometrics is first isometrics is your best friend uh and i mean like not just like uh holding a weight that's part of it but also pressing or pulling or squatting coming yielding yeah so like you're trying to move something that's immovable right so okay an example so okay so let's talk about a deadlift right so deadlift you know the traditional form right off the floor stand up all the way yeah what it would look like with isometrics is i would do a set where i'm at the bottom then i would do a set where i'm up uh more inches then i would do a set where i'm higher so each i would move through the range of motion but each one is an isometric and i would i would pull against a bar that isn't going to move for 15 seconds does that make sense so i'm breaking the movement up into segments and I'm doing isometric with each one and I'm using force.

1:33:50Adam Schafer:It's almost like you feel robotic now with like a lot of the movements you're going to do, but that's like the intention of it. It drives me crazy. So like a shoulder press would look like this. I get under a bar, I'd put it on a rack, I'd load it or put it somewhere so it's not going to move. And I'm going to push against the bar for 15 seconds. Then I'll make it go up a little higher. Then I'll do another set there. And so I'm doing the range of motion, but it's all isometrics. okay gotcha number two uh machines are actually great for you really yeah yeah yeah it's true

1:34:19Sal Di Stefano:yeah it's gonna limit your it's gonna limit your range of motion which is the opposite of what we tell everybody else everybody else we're always encouraging full range of motion with someone

1:34:27Adam Schafer:with your case you're actually gonna train like a meathead yeah this is where we typically will

1:34:31Sal Di Stefano:give opposite advice which is shorten the range up you know you can go further i actually want you to go shorter range of motion right now you do the two of those things the isometrics with with shortened range of motion on your movements and you'll stop feeling. And the reason why, it's not the weight, by the way, too, that's making you feel that way. It's the weight in those end ranges that's resting on the joints that's causing that. So it's like you can still progressively overload the body and get stronger. That totally can happen. What we just need to do it, we need to do it in a shorter range of motion, which is the opposite of what we're talking about.

1:35:04Sal Di Stefano:We've got to teach the body to respond and create tension and that muscle recruitment process is what we're training right now. on all these different ranges of motion so it responds more adequately. Yeah, how tall are you? Just under 5 '7".

1:35:19Adam Schafer:Oh, you're perfect. Machines will be great for you. So get in a machine, set it up. You're going to do a shoulder press. This is as low as I'm going to go. I'm not going to go all the way down. This is the range of motion, just like this kind of limited range of motion. That's your strength training. And then you're going to do isometrics, and that's going to help with your stability around your joints. And that's honestly it. So you're going to train yourself very differently than you would train 99 % of your clients. Yep. Yeah. She's not excited. Yeah. There was like, I had been trying to do a couple, like, are you familiar with, gosh, I'm forgetting his name, but he's known as the shirtless dude on Instagram.

1:35:57Yeah. Yeah.

1:35:58Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. You mean Justin? No, I'm kidding. He used to be part of MoveU. Andrew something and Kate is his wife and they have like a, they're both hyper mobile and they have like a program um that I've been sort of working through um yes but it also feels like um what like immature not immature but sort of like I I am starting too early in it like it feels like I can do all the stuff pretty easily like it's not making as much progress as I would have expected there are certain ones that that do for sure um i would say a lot of the isometrics and like the band work as well it does progress like pretty quickly but i do find sometimes like it just like i just haven't really found like i haven't i feel like i still haven't gotten over this like hump yeah that i'm expecting to have like better strength in the because my whole idea and correct me if I'm wrong, is like because I have a large range of motion that I should strengthen it in those hyperextended.

1:37:04No, no, no, no.

1:37:05Adam Schafer:Really? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Or not the hyperextended, but the further ones so that when I do get there. Not yet. You wouldn't even play with that until, yeah, you got to start strengthening shorter ranges of motion and then you can do some light isometrics in those positions.

1:37:22Sal Di Stefano:Because that'll give you 15 % north and south of that. So that's the benefit of doing the isometrics in those three stages at south. It radiates both sides. Yeah, so you're getting strength benefits further on than where you're stopping at when you do isometrics. That's what's so great about them. And that's the way you build strength at that end, is by an isometric right before what you would do consider full range of motions. And then you still get 15 degrees more by holding that isometric there.

1:37:48Adam Schafer:Yeah.

1:37:49Sal Di Stefano:And that's how you would get that strength there.

1:37:51Adam Schafer:99 % of people, I'm trying to strengthen you in a full range of motion. Hypermobility, we're staying away from your full range of motion because that's where you get hurt. Yeah. That's where you lack stability. Yeah. You're lacking stability at the end ranges, and that's what's happening. It's not the mid-range. It's the end ranges. Yeah. So that would make me think that I would need to strengthen those end ranges, but you're saying strengthen mid-range?

1:38:12Sal Di Stefano:No, no. That's how you get that strength at the end range. I see. is you come short of it and you create an isometric contraction there and you'll get 15 degrees, 15%. Nice to see a little more stability. That's right, that's right. Eventually, here's the deal. It's like progressive overload in that direction.

1:38:27Adam Schafer:If you do this well enough, over time you will be able to train in a really full range of motion. But right now I wouldn't touch that. That's why you're getting hurt. So that's down the line. So let's say we do this right, maybe a year or two from now, then you're able to go full range of motion and you're stable. but right now that's not so you here's what's happening you have a range of motion that you don't own yeah and so and you really don't own it yeah so we don't want a way to put it that's right so we don't want to play with that yeah yeah at right now prime pro would be great yeah to go

1:38:59Sal Di Stefano:through yeah prime pro would be good because otherwise i'd be like learn frc uh that would that would benefit you a lot as well but like yeah for what they're saying it's it's really it's a gradual progressive process and to to get those core movement patterns first where you generate the most force and kind of expand out is is you know the gotcha yeah so are you familiar with

1:39:19Adam Schafer:yielding isometrics no so that's like where i so that's where you're pushing or pulling uh or oh again something that's not moving so a really cool setup that you could do is you could put some anchor bolts into some concrete attach chains on them with collars then i can put a barbell in

1:39:37Sal Di Stefano:there and that's it not great diy little project it's a d it's it's a real simple now i can get a

1:39:42Adam Schafer:bench underneath it get a long enough chain and i press up i mean this is probably one of the most

1:39:46Sal Di Stefano:valuable ways to use the smith machine too yes yes smith machine would be good for this this i've seen a couple people sort of rig it that way yeah yeah you can use it you can use the smith machine to do that with with bench overhead press with rowing with dead lifting you could a lot of these movements we're talking about you can use uh well you can use the smith machine for that that's why that's actually this would be a great use of it interesting okay do you find that the clients that you work with that or worked who had hypermobility were you were they able to make yes significant yes oh yes yeah but it was it's like you got to approach it yeah you approach it very differently yeah yeah all right sweet i appreciate that and since you're going to become

1:40:27Adam Schafer:a trainer and you sound like you're really smart research isometrics look at the data on isometrics This is going to fix you. Isometric training is what's going to be the most valuable style of training for you. All right. Sweet. Yeah, I'll definitely look into that. I keep hearing that word bounce around. I haven't really gotten to it. I just have not really, I've been too afraid to do anything with like any of the big eight exercises. Because it just is so unapproachable. So I've just really stuck with like hand weights and Pilates sometimes. But even that I can like overextend it. Yeah. No, no, no, no.

1:41:03Adam Schafer:No, it's, it's totally doable. It's just, it's different than what you would do with the traditional person. Right. Okay. That's good to hear. Um, my other question regarding personal training as a career, um, I found you guys a couple of months ago. It's so funny. I like for so long, for literally four years, I'm like, I don't know what to do. Am I going to be a doctor? Am I going to be a nutritionist? It was always something in like the health field, but nothing really ever clicked. And then I watched or listened to like a 20 minute podcast where you guys spoke about like a couple things to know before becoming a personal trainer and it was like done um and so I started preparing for the exam I'm sort of in a weird um space right now because I'm getting married in like a month and so it's just like not a great time to be um wanting to I'm just busy really um but after I passed the exam I'm sort of thinking about I mean it seems like most people are doing like the path is like big box gym sort of like get reps with clients and then progress forward.

1:42:01Um, and I was just wondering if that's like what you would recommend or like, can you apprentice with personal trainers or like shadow them? Like,

1:42:11Sal Di Stefano:is that something that's, I mean, if you got, if you, if you know, for example, if you lived up here, like of course coming over and shadowing or, you know, some, one of our coaches or trainers would be ideal, but I would, but who you shadow would make a big difference too though. So I, I would want to make to, you know, you'd want to make sure you got a elite level coach that you're following. The best bet is to go into the big box. That's going to give you that. The other thing that I would suggest if this is the career path you're doing. So, um, like if NSCA is what you're going through or what do you, is that what you're doing?

1:42:37Sal Di Stefano:Okay. Yeah. So it's great certification, uh, NCSF NASM. Those are all great courses and certifications. When the course that we created was to fill the gap in the need that we felt for coaches and trainers, it's more highly focused on building your business. And so what would compliment after you finish your NSCA would be going through our course because that's yeah that's more that's what i was planning yeah that that'll really complement that because you're gonna i can tell already you're just to make a career out of it you're proficient enough and understanding anatomy the body stuff like that and what you're gonna get from it in nsa is gonna be great the next piece will be the business side so uh our course plus getting some experience in a big box gym will set you up for a lot of success that's great yeah are you you sorry go ahead no as i said are you gonna do you want to train people in person or virtually ideally in person i mean i suppose virtual it seems like it's accessible to people when they need it and it i mean i can see the benefit in like having more clients that way but i'm definitely an in-person kind of big box that's better yeah go big box you'll be a better trainer by going in person first anyways totally yeah so we've got the gym that I go to right now is the LA Fitness, which no shade.

1:43:50It's not my most favorite, but I don't know. I know that you guys mentioned, it was like a podcast a couple weeks ago, I think, where you're talking about like the gyms that Mike, Mike Mastoff, I think owns. Yeah. But we don't have, I don't think we have a crunch in Seattle. And I know that he just bought 24 hour or something like that, or he rejoined as the CEO, but, um, it doesn't seem like the one that's available to me is that established right now. So I don't know if you have a recommendation for...

1:44:23Sal Di Stefano:LA Fitness is fine. You want... That's a good big box gym. They're a big box gym. What you're looking for from a big box gym is a gym that's got 10 plus trainers. You got peers. They can feed you clients. They're getting a thousand plus workouts a day. You want volume. Exactly. It's less about how good of a gym it is and it's more about just practice for you. Like this is... Like think of it more like this is more education for you than it is like this is my career and I'm going to work here forever. It's like, okay, yeah, I'm going I'm going here to get the reps in. And so a high volume gym is more important than like, oh, it's the best company ever.

1:44:57Sal Di Stefano:It's like I just want to get. Yeah, yeah. I just want to get bodies in front of me to practice all the stuff that I've learned. And that and that is what's going to sharpen your skills and get you to a place. And normally what we recommend to somebody is the goal should be get there, get your reps in and try and become one of the top trainers there. If you're one of the top trainers in a big box gym, you're ready to go build your own business or grow in that company or you'll be you'll do great. And that would be like a you're on your own kind of situation. If you want to, if you want to, you know, there's a lot of options from there.

1:45:30Sal Di Stefano:What normally happens when you when you move your way up into being the top personal trainer inside of L.A. Fitness or UFC or 24 Fitness is you'll also be presented with opportunity within the company, too. So if you end up falling in love with a company, there's a good chance they'll offer you management positions and leadership roles.

1:45:47Adam Schafer:Think of it as a paid internship. I'm going to go here for a year. I'm going to do my best. And then you're going to have a lot of opportunities and much more clear path of where you want to go from there. Yes. Okay, cool. That's it. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys taking the call. I wasn't expecting to be selected so quickly after submitting a question. It's been awesome getting to know all the information that you guys provide for free. And it's obviously changed the direction that I'm going. So much love.

1:46:19Sal Di Stefano:Have you found, you know that we have, Kyle, our head trainer, actually holds a podcast too. So on the YouTube channel. It's just for trainers. Just for personal trainers. Okay. Yeah. And some of our coaches come on there with him and they discuss just personal training and growing your business. It's called the Lead Trainer Academy. Yep. oh yeah okay i've seen i've seen the name that's cool yeah yeah all right i'll check it out thank

1:46:43Adam Schafer:you guys so much you got it correct congratulations on your wedding coming up yep thanks all right appreciate it yeah she'll do great i'll be fine hypermobility sharp the first time i had a client with hypermobility i was like what is this puzzle it's the opposite i was like what's happening opposite i couldn't figure out uh but then once you figure it out it's like oh this is okay yeah and then you just progress great but it's a totally different approach like shorten the ranger motion i never do that like with i know but it works look if you like mind pump come 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 mass 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.

1:47:45With 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,

1:48:01Adam Schafer:and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support.

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