2884: These 5 Exercises Are Almost Never Done Right (And It's Hurting Your Progress)

17:30Adam Schafer:Next, we have circuits. Circuits are to build stamina. Nobody does them right. People pick exercises, throw them together, form goes out the window, and it's like, let's just get as exhausted as possible. I can only name one value for it. Stamina. Yeah. Stamina.

17:48Sal Di Stefano:Well, okay, no, I can name two then. What? Okay. Short on time. so like if i had a time where like it was like this and this is where i like to use i think you know trisets or would a triset would you consider that a circuit yeah i would i would

18:06Adam Schafer:throw a triset so three or more yeah three or more i would i mean i mean we're getting this is

18:09Sal Di Stefano:semantics with it sure but i i would i would argue three exercises or more with no rest periods in between would be considered like a circuit and so where would i utilize and i would also lump HIIT style workouts in this category. And so where would I utilize HIIT or circuits aside from just trying to build muscle stamina would be short on time. And the novelty of it, it's like, oh man, that meeting ran late, cut into my hour workout. I've literally only got 15 minutes. I haven't done a circuit in forever. So I'm going to get a little bit of, you know what I'm saying? So I can see value periodically.

18:50Adam Schafer:you know what the issue with circuits is is that when people do them the fatigue is the answer it's the goal it's not about technique or form it's do as many as possible it's get through it a proper circuit like you're saying yeah technique is the most important thing yeah like it's fatiguing but you're not letting your form break down yeah whereas when you see people do circuits it's like go go go go go what do they call it a gauntlet it's just like that's the mentality is

19:13Sal Di Stefano:like i have to get through this like obstacle course of movements well the hard part the hard part to justify it like i'm saying is that i can also play devil's advocate or argue it on the other

19:24Adam Schafer:side that that's a terrible idea for example fewer sets right so i'm working out in my gym just the

19:29Sal Di Stefano:other day and you know they've got this class going on of you know nine people in a circuit and i'm watching them go through and they're literally doing like i think eight or nine stations for a half hour you know just they're just going around it's the whole time non-stop right repeat yeah yeah with i think every once in a while every five minutes they get like a water breaking them the right back to it or something like that. And I'm watching, I'm going like, God, everybody that's doing that right now would be far better if doing one or two. They just barbell back squatting for five sets.

19:58Adam Schafer:We're going to do squats and overhead presses today. That's it. Way better.

20:01Sal Di Stefano:We only got 30 minutes together. Whatever minutes do you have together, we're going to spend that entire time just getting good at the barbells. And I would argue that most people, that would be far more better. Now when I think of myself, who does a lot of that already. Who also knows technique and form. Right. And I go, So where could I, would I ever use a circuit? Well, I could see like, man, I haven't, I don't train enough stamina as it is. I only got 20 minutes today. Let me, let me, let me, let me push through a workout like that where I'm not, I know I'm getting a bunch of strength gains from that at all, but it's like, I'm living on time.

20:32Sal Di Stefano:Let me try and hit a full body little circuit and get out of here. I think too, it really feeds into the burning calorie mentality. Totally. I need to burn, you know. Oh, that's why they're all doing it. It's the highest burn you can do. That's what they're all doing it for. It's the circuit. So yeah, it's like, and again, the value of it is. Just the endurance of it.

20:48Adam Schafer:I mean, you know when you talk to someone, it's like, oh, you like circuits? Yeah, it's a great workout. What do you mean? Oh, my God, I get so tired and sweaty. That's why it's a great workout. There it is. Well, I mean, that was a trap I fell in with that boot camp, right?

20:58Sal Di Stefano:Part of why what kept me doing is the feedback. I mean, the ones they loved the most were the ones where they were falling over at the end, exhausted.

21:07Adam Schafer:You know what they really loved? Not to go off on a tangent or a side street here, but you know what they really loved, Adam? Was the community that they built and the shared struggle. Oh, yeah. Because they were together. Commiserating. They were going hard. And that actually builds bonds. And that's why they showed up. That's why they showed up. It's like CrossFit does because it does. By the way, the same people showed up to your free mobility class. They would come as friends, and it was that community that it built, which, you know, that's very valuable. Yeah, definitely. Next, Renegade Rows.

21:33Adam Schafer:Renegade Rows look cool. This is the only reason why people do them. Do you know what a Renegade Row is for? Anti-rotation. Anti-rotation. It's for anti-rotation. But somehow people put it in their back workout. Yeah. Because it says row. uh, because it looks hard. It's an anti, it's a very specific application. It's to strengthen something called anti-rotation. And I almost never see anybody doing it. Who's working on anti-rotation. What I almost always see is someone picking a cool looking exercise and I'm working my back. And so now I'm going to do this.

22:04Sal Di Stefano:This is another just fatiguing exercise. It's really, I mean, you want, you talk about jump boxes and this is up there with the, I mean, this is like a, when you would see the squat curl presses, you know, or like step up, step up, step up, curl press. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what this is. Step up press, step back, lunge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what this is. It's just like, get that heart rate going. I mean, Renegade Rose, because you're planking, rowing, you know what I'm saying? That's a lot. And so it's just an exhausting exercise to throw in a circuit. Totally.

22:40Adam Schafer:And then lastly, we have ultra high rep anything. What do I want to be ultra rep, high rep? Like 30, 40 plus reps. At this point, it's cardio. Yeah. You're doing cardio with weights, in which case you could do something else that's going to be safer. Yeah, it's hard. And you've lost the hypertrophy benefit. Now, I know what the studies show, that high reps taking a failure will build hypertrophy like lower reps, which is true, but there's a caveat there. cardiovascular when cardiovascular endurance becomes the limiting factor which it does when you're going 40-50 reps it's no longer hypertrophy it's just stamina so if that's what you want you want lots of stamina there's better ways to do it if you want to build muscle you probably are better off keeping the reps below 30 I would say it's probably the limit

23:25Sal Di Stefano:I think to close the loop on this because again we always get like a knee jerk reaction when we hammer it because there's always guilt that comes with that somebody who was doing that in their workout today, right? Somebody's listening right now doing jump boxes. Especially trainers. Yeah, you're like, what? Right, right. Especially trainers who have clients that listen to the podcast. Imagine a client bringing this. Oh, yeah. They're just like, you know, yesterday they told me this bullshit you had me doing. My book said this is stupid. Yeah, yeah. So listen, all of them are tools. The problem is that most people are using these tools for the wrong job.

24:00Sal Di Stefano:That's right. And so - It's like hammering nails in with a screwdriver. That's right. So it's not that I can't make a case for doing all of these somewhere. I can make a case for that. So can I. It's just that most people that come hire a trainer or go to the gym and work out, 90 % of them are like body composition change or they want to get strength. They're like, name the top three goals. And most of these don't align with that. Doesn't match with it. Yeah. And so you're using a terrible tool for the job. Right. And try and get it. Oh, you know what you didn't put in here that I would add to this list?

24:33Sal Di Stefano:100 % I can't believe we didn't make the list burpees oh yeah yeah well that's right there how did burpees not make this it's like a mix

24:40Adam Schafer:between jump box and renegade yeah I was gonna say burpees should have made this it's a great way to get tired yeah yeah should have made this list

24:47Sal Di Stefano:because you see those still all the time

24:48Adam Schafer:have you ever seen that's the you're punished and you go do burpees have you ever seen the prison there's some dudes on social media that have these workouts that they did in prison yes and they always involve like pushups and burpees yes and they have this specific technique there was this one dude I was watching. I mean, he's straight up. I mean, you can see this guy's got, he's got his dickies on. He's tatted. And he's doing these burpees and these pushups. And it's like he's breathing. You could tell he's done these. He must have been locked up for a long time, forever. That's Wes Watson. Bro, he's just.

25:16Adam Schafer:That's who that is. He's going through like I'm watching TV. And I'm like, that's impressive, bro. This guy's really good.

25:21Sal Di Stefano:Oh, no. That's his, he has, that's, that's the way. I think he's going to jail right now. He's got two big cases. He's going back to jail? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's got two big cases on him. Oh, no. All his cars are getting repoted. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. But I peek in on him every once in a while because I had a close friend of mine who was, like, super into all this stuff and was, like, swore by his content. I'm like, bro, this is a grifter, dude. Don't fall for all this stuff. And so I would check in every once in a while. I'd send him stuff, like, listen. And I'd try to convince him. He finally came around and realized that he was just a big froster.

25:52Sal Di Stefano:But what's impressive is if you watch him do his burpee workouts, I mean, the guy's definitely worked out a lot. Listen, I did a lot of burpees. If I had nothing better to do, bro, I'd be an expert on burpees too, dude.

26:04Adam Schafer:For real. Anyway, I noticed you guys have been using a lot of the ketone IQ. Yeah. Okay. Love the way it makes me feel. And I brought up some of the science as to how it's exactly working. So ketone IQ is exogenous ketones. Okay. So you take a supplement and instantly you have ketones that cross the blood-brain barrier. and now your brain is operating off of ketones. This is what happens when you're on a ketogenic diet. So when people cut carbs completely, sometimes what you'll hear, oftentimes what you hear is people say, man, I've got so much mental clarity. Like what's going on?

26:39Sal Di Stefano:It's just sharper.

26:40Adam Schafer:Okay, so here's why it's so, why it produces this. First off, unlike glucose metabolism, ketone utilization requires no insulin. So no insulin is required to get this to give you energy. It leads to steady ATP productions. By the way, when you take ketone IQ within 30, 60 minutes, you've got the ketones going to the brain. It improves mitochondrial efficiency. It boosts ATP output while lowering reactive oxygen species. In other words, it's like this really clean, efficient source of energy. They also upregulates BDNF. You guys remember BDNF, brain-derived neurotropic factor? they call this uh like miracle miracle grow for the brain yeah um and then it's got anti-inflammatory and neuro uh protective effects so it down regulates certain inflammatory pathways so that's just a lot of the science as to why like when people take uh exogenous ketones like ketone iq and they're like it feels like the lights were turned on like why do i feel so sharp it's not a stimulant like caffeine you can take it before bed uh but that's what's happening such a hack

27:49Sal Di Stefano:because yeah before that you'd have to like yeah really restrict eating and to get in that ketogenic state where you feel those effects and it's like man it's just be able to take that exogenous i'd love it you really have my favorite it's one of those supplements that you really have to try for yourself because trying to explain it to somebody is difficult it is because it's not caffeine it's not like that but you do get this energy clear feeling that you get which is similar to kind of like caffeine's i put it do you don't you know what i noticed the most any fog is gone

28:16Adam Schafer:That's it. I noticed the most is I can recall what I want to say sharp and quick. I feel sharp and quick is how I feel.

28:26Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I feel like anybody who takes it can feel it. It's a supplement that you don't need. There's a lot of supplements that we take that we know are good for us. For example, I know I need vitamin D. I have results that show it.

28:39Adam Schafer:You don't notice until the vitamin D is real low. That's right.

28:41Sal Di Stefano:Exactly. You have to be really deficient to notice. It's not like one of those things you take it and you're like, oh, yeah, I feel that.

28:46Adam Schafer:Oh, you'll feel this. Yeah. Yeah.

28:47Sal Di Stefano:You actually feel it when you use it.

28:49Adam Schafer:Speaking of feeling things, I made a huge, just a bad husband mistake. Oh, boy. Just a bad, you know, I'm supposed to be the leader of my family. I'm supposed to protect my wife. Confessions. And I just did such a bad job. So there's a movie out called Obsession. Oh, you went and saw that? Yeah, dude.

29:08Sal Di Stefano:You were talking about going to see that the other day.

29:10Adam Schafer:So I saw a trailer and I saw the reviews. First of all, 94 % Rotten Tomatoes. Like how often do you see?

29:18Sal Di Stefano:I heard really good things about it.

29:20Adam Schafer:Okay. So super high rated. And I watched the trailer. Traumatizing though. And I watched the trailer. And first of all, I read about it. It's a super low budget horror slash suspense movie. Okay. Low budget. So it's a million dollars to make. It's already grossed over$250 million. It's like one of the craziest, most profitable movies of all time. Now I see the trailer and I'm like, oh, this looks like, It's very suspenseful and it's low budget, which means it's probably not hyper gory, hyper. It's probably like more of the kind of mental, like, you know, those kinds of scary movies that you're like, oh man, this is really good.

29:57Sal Di Stefano:Psychological. Yeah.

29:58Adam Schafer:It is that, but it's also way worse. So I take my wife who's very sensitive to scary movies and I'm like, listen, I really want to watch this movie. It got high reviews. I think it's more suspense than anything. and so my poor wife trusts me and she's like, let's go watch it. And dude, let me tell you, this movie, oh my. I mean, if you like scary movies, it's one of the best ones I've ever seen. Really? Yes, dude. It's one of the best ones I've ever seen. It'll get you, bro. It's one of those ones that you're done and you walk out to the theater, you're not talking for like 30 minutes. Nobody's talking.

30:32Adam Schafer:Bro, it was, were you worried about how you're going to sleep? I don't, I could watch a movie like that, fall right asleep. My wife was affected. like really affected dude like I could see it in her face five times while we're watching it I rub her leg stuff's happening and I'm like this is not good dude

30:49Sal Di Stefano:I look at her without giving it away but it wasn't like jump scare stuff it was just like no there's jump scare too

30:54Adam Schafer:but it's so torment but it's so well made it's like I'll give you the premise

30:59Sal Di Stefano:so I read I was curious about it because there's a show that I did get into for a while although after a few seasons it got repetitive about it like most shows do and it's like okay same same trick you're right so i'm over it but the first two seasons i really loved and katrina and i got into it did you ever watch you yeah yeah okay so when i read about it yeah we liked it it read kind of like that it read kind of like this like and it really gets your brain going like oh my god people can get like no bro this this will twist your psychological yeah this will twist you hard and it does there is gore in there but they

31:34Adam Schafer:use it the right you know when they use gore the right way where it's shocking yeah so here's the premise because it's not going to ruin the movie this dude has he's got a crush on this girl he goes to one of these like you know like spiritual stores and there's this thing that there's like this one wish something that you can get you make a wish and it comes true so he wishes that this girl will love him more than anyone in the world so she becomes obsessed with him and that's all I'm going to tell you. Bro. It's bro. And the way it ended, oh my God, dude. It was bad, dude. And I'm telling you, looking at my wife.

32:09Sal Di Stefano:See, that sounds kind of like you, because that's what the premise of you is, is this guy. Something happens. He locks eyes with the girl.

32:15Adam Schafer:Adam, you can't watch this.

32:16Sal Di Stefano:And he becomes obsessed.

32:17Adam Schafer:I know you're sensitive. It will ruin you.

32:19Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, you already said gore and jumpy. I don't like that.

32:22Adam Schafer:Dude, I kept looking at her. I like a good story. I kept looking at her and going, let's go, honey. Let's go. She's like, no, no, no. And then at one point, it got real bad. I'm like, no, we're leaving right now. She's like, I have to finish it now. I'm like, oh, man, she's sucked in. Poor kid. She's got to ride it out, dude. Dude. And then we come out, and then she goes to the bathroom. And I guess some women that had to watch it went to the bathroom, and they were all talking about it. And they're like, I was too scared to scream. I want to scream, but I didn't scream. Too scared to scream. Listen, you've got to watch it, Justin.

32:53Adam Schafer:I know you will appreciate it. I will, yeah, yeah. Wow. That is going to be a classic. Wow. Yeah, dude. Wow. It was horrible.

33:02Sal Di Stefano:Did it just come out? Has it been out long? Yeah, it's been out for a little while.

33:05Adam Schafer:You can see how much it's grossing right now.

33:07Sal Di Stefano:Well, I know you said that, but I hadn't even really seen any previews or anything for it. I don't think I saw a preview before.

33:11Adam Schafer:I was so disappointed in Mandalorian, dude. That was stupid. Terrible. Yeah, that was dumb. You know, that's an example. I was going on record for saying that. No story. The story was going on.

33:19Sal Di Stefano:I hate that part that they do that, man, where they take advantage of a cult following, anything like that just milk it dry yeah no no no creativity in it or no no new anything it's just that oh we know there's built-in audience well yeah it also annoys me that they tie in a lot of like cartoon uh content that they put out before and you're supposed to like already know about all these like characters that have been in these other you know stories and and and too it's just like for me it was just so weak because it's like you have this opportunity to to make a big movie yeah you know and you make it like a tiny one-off episode but you just expand on it and it's like

33:58Adam Schafer:i'll give you one lame i'll give you one scene from the movie it doesn't give it away one scene where it's like she's living with them at this point right she's obsessed with them whatever yeah and she's acting erratic and weird and very creepy ways and so he's like hey honey i'm you know i'm gonna go to work and she's like okay you know you can go to work you know i'll just wait for you so she stands by the door which which there's more to it but he goes and he leaves and she's standing there looking at him smiling and not moving and he closes the door and then he comes home from work bro she's still standing she's still standing there she's soiled herself she's peed herself she's like vomited and she's like oh you're home i've been waiting for it bro

34:36Sal Di Stefano:and you're just like what is going on bro i mean how it's so bad how how long until his does he does it tip because obviously when he wishes for that the initial initially it's weird right out

34:50Adam Schafer:the gates right out the gates but then he likes her and then he's kind of like okay i'm gonna figure this out oh dude it's bad bro it's good though it's really bad yeah it's really bad anyway i just uh i just read some stuff about spacex adam oh let's hear it oh god dude let's hear it now this is crazy and so i got some some questions i think some some there might be some investment opportunities but not what i think not what we were thinking okay do you know how many millionaires their IPO is expected to create that work at SpaceX? Do you know how many millionaires? How many people work there?

35:26Adam Schafer:4 ,000. Whoa. Their IPO is going to make 4 ,000 people millionaires. And not like a million, probably like more than, like millions of dollars.

35:36Sal Di Stefano:Well, I read that... 4 ,000 millionaires. I read that 3 point, I want to say 3.7, 3 point something billion dollars is basically partitioned out for Elon. Friends and family. Yeah, friends, family. And I think what is included in that is investors in Twitter and his other companies that they do not have a period of a vested period time where they, because most time when you have an IPO like this and you're - Yeah, you have to wait. If you were pre-IPO, you have to wait until a certain amount of time. And I don't know what the average is. I'm speaking out of turn here. but I know there's a time that you have to wait before you can cash out and it's normally beyond six months or whatever like that, right?

36:20Sal Di Stefano:And they don't have that. So in other words, as soon as this thing hits and it goes to the moon right away, whether that's 10%, 30%, they automatically can cash out, which makes them like instant millionaires or centimillionaires right away, which then appeases them if they've been investors in these companies that haven't paid them back yet. And so it feels very Ponzi scheme to me. legal Ponzi's king because I know everything he's doing is he's going to be hooking up his homies I will say this, he's highly

36:51Adam Schafer:scrutinized because of his political positions and stuff, like they want nothing more than to take him down so he has to cross his T's and dot his I's but some people are saying that the IPO is an exit for a lot of people like that's why they're doing this is to get all these people to exit, well check this out I'm going to tell you Adam, so 4 ,000 new millionaires right off the gates Do you know where the vast majority of his employees live? LA. I wonder what that would do to the property values out in LA. Well, definitely.

37:20Sal Di Stefano:It'll probably cause a spike, right? It'll definitely cause a spike in the higher, the higher, which you don't normally see, right? So properties. Like in the 3, 4 million? Yeah, properties in the 2, 3, I think it's like 2.5 is what they say or something like that, at least in our area, is like a slower moving market. You're lucky to get a fire insurance. A percentage of people. So I'm sure the high-end homes, I mean, probably.

37:42Adam Schafer:Because that's got to affect that area. Yeah. If 1 ,000 of those people are in LA or 2 ,000 people, that's going to affect home prices out there because they don't have a ton of – it's like this area. One of the reasons why it's so expensive. Yeah, there's probably definitely not 500,

37:57Sal Di Stefano:5 million-plus dollar homes available right now, so it would probably impact – that now becomes a competitive market. Because you see that in Palo Alto. Or like what my buddy does, which he does that over here, right, where he buys$2 million to$4 million properties, dumps two to four million in it and sells it for 15 million like so good time to be someone like that somebody who buys high-end properties that need like love to them and then and then put it it's ready you have to relocate i actually was watching a thing uh i follow a bunch of like real estate uh influencer people so i thought i thought was interesting i think i sent it to doug of uh stuff that is uh in vogue now for houses they're trying to say that the uh there's a there's a case that we're going to go away from the big open space and back to partitioning like we were in the back of the days yeah i've heard a lot about that you have i was wondering that's why i said it to you i was curious if you had heard that yeah no i've heard that that's weird to me that's dumb why would you want that i agree with this yeah what's your think there's this people are going back to more cozy type of uh environments i'll give you an example think about our place in

38:59Adam Schafer:truckie do you remember the houses we looked at in truckie that they the same square footage yeah They were big and open. And then our house, and there's space in our place. But it feels cozy.

39:11Sal Di Stefano:So that's the part I don't like about our house. Yeah, exactly. You want more openness? So I still think back to the house that we were on the fence and then we went to that one. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, because I love that open concept. Yeah. But I think you would too because you're a big family guy. When my whole family is up at Truckee, we're crammed in that little living room. In fact, it separates everybody. half my family's in the kitchen half my family's in the dining room half my family's inside the living room half my family's outside but like when you come to my house because i have an open concept everybody feels yeah yeah that's what i like about if i now if i was if i was uh and this is why i'm curious and is it because families are shrinking and and that and so if it's it was just

39:53Adam Schafer:doing more roommates yeah if it was just me and katrina you know what you're right it's probably

39:56Sal Di Stefano:because families are free yeah because if it's just me and katrina i would like a little part I would like when we're in the movie room, I feel like I'm in the movie room. When we're in our living room, we have a cozy living room, but we have so much family. And so, and I like hosting. It's yeah. You're probably right. I think it's also just trends, you know, things come, things go, but I think the open concept is great. If you entertain a lot. Yeah, of course. Yes. You want to talk, you're also trending. And I think that's, that's falling out of favor, right? Like we're, we're losing community.

40:26Sal Di Stefano:Actually. Yeah. I've been hearing lately though, that, you know, the new thing is not to go to restaurants to entertain people but to bring people to your home and entertain so i think that might be a i hope that's true as well you know you know what else

40:40Adam Schafer:is trending which is interesting you was it you that sent us the video of the 24 on hillsdale the remodel yeah they're getting rid of the basketball court completely and putting more

40:48Sal Di Stefano:weights yeah i wanted to go stop in since that's the old stompy ground for all three of us we should go together i would love to go with you guys yeah i'd love to see so it looks totally different the

40:57Adam Schafer:Gym trends in general are going towards weights. They're taking all the square footage away from all this other stuff and moving towards weights, weights, weights.

41:06Sal Di Stefano:I mean, it's always made sense because even, I remember we talked to Mastroff about this. The wet area and the basketball court always is the least profitable. Yes. Per square footage, it costs them so much, so much, and it doesn't return very much. It was just like in a minute you like to have. And it's like, and if you look at some of the, one of the turnoffs uh if you have been a long-time member of 24 it's been how overpopulated the weight room area is like i tell you what the last memory i have of going to 24 to actually work out i walked out and i walked out because i was there at a prime hours i walked in the into the freeway area i kid you not this is not an exaggeration i never in my total career of being in gyms i'd never seen this every fucking dumbbell was off the rack oh man i've never seen that i've never seen a 24 and it there were i was so like my jaw dropped i went whoa yeah every every dumbbell was off the rack i mean either people were using it or they were on the floor and i went oh my god and i just turned right around i walked out think about two of you're eliminating the basketball court how much drama you just eliminated oh yeah you know like all the like liability of that yeah Yeah, and just the fights and constant.

42:18Sal Di Stefano:That's a constant. That's a big space, too. I mean, you could add freaking six. Tons. That's a whole other freeway area. Yeah, yeah, a whole bigger. That's why I want to go see it. I mean, but I like basketball court.

42:27Adam Schafer:Listen, you manage a gym with a basketball court, 100 % there's going to be a fight once a week. I'm sorry, once a month. It's also where all the free people are coming in.

42:38Sal Di Stefano:Small amounts. I mean, I used to have to stop people from letting people in the back door to get them inside the basketball court.

42:44Adam Schafer:Now, did you guys experience this as well? Because I re-ground opened that one, right? And when I had the basketball, they warned me. So there was going to be fights. I'm like, whatever, we'll break them up. It was the middle-aged dudes that would have all the fights. Of course. Did you guys see that too? Yeah, yeah. I expected like kids, you know, like teenagers coming in. It's the same thing you see in Little League. It's a bunch of 40-some-year-old dudes. Yeah, it's all the dads.

43:03Sal Di Stefano:I lost one of my best trainers from a fight inside the basketball court. Yeah. Because he broke up a fight? No, he got into a fight, but it was like he was. He didn't start it. He didn't start a fight. It was like you said, middle-aged dude, punking him and stuff like that, and swung on him. Yeah, he was defending himself.

43:21Adam Schafer:And he got fired? Yeah.

43:22Sal Di Stefano:You know why? Because all how the person who reported it. Oh, God. Yeah, I remember that. I also got, this is one of the handful of times that I was put on leave and almost fired. So I got so angry because at that time, my operations manager was out of town. She was on leave for like a week. and so the assistant operation manager was put in charge. She had it out for this trainer. She didn't like him. And so she stepped in and took control of the situation and she wrote the report up and wrote it up in a way that totally made my trainer look like the antagonist. And I got so angry, I went in the office and called her out on it and I made the mistake of going to the office alone with her.

44:07Sal Di Stefano:And then she reported me for cornering her in the office. And then again, they totally exaggerated the situation. And you're not exactly soft and gentle. I'm sure there was a little anger. So yeah, I was sent home and I was fired for that one too. So a lot of lessons.

44:26Adam Schafer:One time, I mean, there's many times this happened, but one time a dude runs out, bloody lip. There's a fight in the basketball. So I used to go, attention trainers to the basketball course. We'd all run in there at the same time. It would always just stop everything. I didn't see a bunch of jacks. and it was just the fight was tough what's the problem but it was always middle aged dudes that were just like what are you guys doing go back to your families I was just watching I have so many memories

44:49Sal Di Stefano:like you remember that movie Along Came Pauly yes where he's covering on the basketball court and the guy has his shirt off he's got like balled in and he's got like just a hairy matted body sweating I remember having to always cover that guy every time and it was like they didn't just sweat like drops of sweat where it was like slime oh you know what i'm saying like i dude and it was always shirts off immediately he takes his shirt off and i'm like oh god you know you know that guy knows that though yeah that's like part of his strategy his back hair is like a face such an old man move dude i had something to ask you so i uh almost every night i um i make tea like chamomile tea is like my my go-to move and you know ever since we've been working with uh monocor they say right yeah so uh i use that honey so that's always the honey now that i put in there because of all the medicinal benefits and everything like that that come with it and i like it tastes really good and someone dm me because i happened to i don't know if i talked about it or i showed it on video or something like that and they dm me and said you know that it loses its medicinal benefits if i mix it in my tea oh i didn't is that true do you know that not really yeah no so it's so

46:04Adam Schafer:the medicinal, the compound in Manuka honey, which is what Monocora is. And Monocora is a brand that has the highest amount of this medicinal compound called MGO. So it's MGO is what you're looking for. MGO, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral. This is what you'll, you know, people will use this. You can put it on wounds, right? You can put it on wounds. It heals. This is all data. Okay. It heals wounds. You could use it in your mouth for gingivitis. You eat it. It breaks down biofilms in the gut. So if you have bacterial issues, uh, like SIBO or whatever, sometimes bacteria create what are called biofilms.

46:41Adam Schafer:So nothing can penetrate them. Right. It protects them. And, and MGO breaks down biofilms. Anyway, if you put MGO in really, really hot water, boiling water and leave it in there for a while, it will degrade it. But you'd have to like put it in your scalding hot tea, mix it in, leave it in there for like 15, 20 minutes. So the way to do it would be make your tea you know keep it hot mix it in and then start drinking it and you're

47:07Sal Di Stefano:you're not losing much okay because that's how so first of all i don't boil it i don't even so i don't so i have a um i have one of those uh automatic hot water things have you ever yeah so it squirts out hot water right away yeah and it squirts it out at the perfect temperature so it's before it hits boiling yeah it's right where you can drink it yeah and so good so i use that and then i steep my tea for i don't know how five minutes before so wait till it's steeped and then add it after yeah and then that's where i add my okay so i'm okay you're totally fine yeah i was like oh man she made me feel stupid i was like this whole time i'm using we got this nice hack yeah well i have we got this good honey that i'm like wasting if it's i'm degrading that's the whole

47:43Adam Schafer:point you should see though the the the studies on uh manuka it's crazy on burns yeah on burns

47:51Sal Di Stefano:it's wild i wonder too like and i know i used to train this lady that's like a world-renowned an opera singer and she had like a whole you know process before to keep her you know vocal chords and everything all nice and ready and uh and then she would you know do all kinds of stuff with like hot water lemon and you know some honey i wonder if that would you know even using the monocora honey would so i i'll use it too when i start to notice i sort of like a little bit of a scratchy throat or whatever that i'll just take a tablespoon of it that's right and that's what i do it it's so much thicker and better than regular honey too even regular honey i would i would do something like that now with it with my like local honey with this it's so thick it coats it

48:29Adam Schafer:feels so good right afterwards yeah opera singers like legit ones they have they make a good living yeah that's a really hard skill it is to do have you guys ever money well i mean if you're in italy yeah and and uh i think well i i mean it's a very specific skill it's very specific yeah yeah she

48:48Sal Di Stefano:she definitely gets a lot of like big you know like gigs like in europe and whatnot but you guys I know composers make a bunch of money, for sure. I'm going to go see one at the end of this year, and the tickets, I was like, whoa. Composers or conductors? Is it not a composer who does the... Conductor. The conductor. Conductor is the one at the front with the stick. Yeah, exactly. So what's a composer? The guy that writes the music, or the person that writes the music. Can't you be both? No. You could be. So the guy that I'm going to go see, I'll share the next podcast. I'll share his... I have to show you this guy.

49:24Sal Di Stefano:He's badass. What's making you go to this? That's interesting. I like just stuff like that. I love, so I listen to all music. Like John Williams. I am into talented people. I have such an appreciation. I'm not very, you know how people get like, I'm only rock or I'm only country or I'm only this. I can pretty much listen, watch, go. I mean, I went two weeks ago to go watch a play with my wife, which was a, whatchamacallit, a musical. Yeah, a musical. You did? Yeah.

49:57Adam Schafer:What'd you watch?

49:58Sal Di Stefano:It was the one on Alicia Keys. Did you like it? Yeah. Oh, yeah, you did tell us about this. Yeah, yeah, I went and saw Hell's Kitchen. It was good. It was based off of her whole - I love musicals. I think it's very interesting. I mean, again, if you are talented in your craft, I'm interested. I find watching people that are at peak, and this guy who's a conductor, but I would call him a conductor and a composer because one of the things he does that's sick is live on stage he builds a song in front of you and he does it by his ear and so he has his entire orchestra and he'll be like okay give me and he coaches him give me a C minor and he'll no no no little higher there okay hold that and then he'll go to the next group and then you get to watch him and he'll do it first time ever it's not like he's rehearsed it The orchestra that he's working has never rehearsed any of it.

50:54Sal Di Stefano:That's cool. He's literally coaching each instrument up, and then it comes together. That's cool. And you get to watch it. I'm just like, oh, my God. I went down the rabbit hole watching him on YouTube, and he's just unbelievably talented. Dude, what's his name? Yeah, I'll find it. I know I apologize for bringing this up. I wasn't planning on talking about it.

51:14Adam Schafer:There's this one guy on Instagram. Justin knows him. I don't know what his name is. He's a drummer. Oh, yeah. And he does things so fast with sticks. Oh, my God. This is going to piss me off. Yeah. I can't even believe he does half the stuff he does. Yeah. I'm trying to remember his name. He'll use the back of the stick. He'll flip it. He'll use a base.

51:35Sal Di Stefano:He'll even put a stick on top, like, balanced over a cymbal and just, you know, shake it just enough so it'll, like, hit all these, like, really, like, complicated beats. It's wild. How talented. Jacob Collier. Okay. So he comes to San Francisco in, I believe, either October or November when we're going. But I mean, I'd never gone to something like this. So I look at Katrina, and she's like, well, where do you want to sit? I'm like, I want good seats, so sit close. And then she comes back. She's like, you know how much we're paying to go sit that close? I'm like, holy shit. I was like, well, I didn't think it would be like that.

52:10Sal Di Stefano:But I mean, obviously, he's wildly talented, and I'm sure makes good money. His name is El Estepario Siberiano. Okay. But yeah, he used to go by a different handle. Dude, he's right. You guys are good. He's so talented. You got YouTube, Jacob Collier, and watch him do this. Okay. Again, you don't even have to be into this stuff, and you go like, that is -

52:34Adam Schafer:I find it so impressive when people can do stuff. Like the worship leader at our church, Charlie. You met Charlie. He gets his haircut here sometimes. He's come in here a couple times. So he sings, and he plays the guitar. and the other day we're at church and he's doing the drums and I'm like, you can play the drums too? So afterwards I'm like, what else can you do? He's like, oh, I also play the trumpet. Like what instruments can you do?

52:51Sal Di Stefano:It's like they get bored, you know? Like you get the top tier of like an instrument and then it's like, well, what do I want to learn next? Because you get into the recording of it and you're like, sometimes you don't want to rely on everybody else to create your end result vision.

53:05Adam Schafer:He plays like five instruments. I'm like, what do you not play? Like piano. I know a lot of people

53:09Sal Di Stefano:like that.

53:09Adam Schafer:That's crazy. I think I'm into that stuff so much

53:12Sal Di Stefano:because it's like i'm so terrible like i have no talent in my bone whatsoever like i can't it's like so it's like so far beyond it's the worst for me because like i i have like this much talent and then like i'm around people that have like this much talent and you're just like it's it's crazy because i mean and there's a i guess a part of me too i like uh you know neuroscience and neuropsychology and so there's a part of me it's like what's going on in that person's brain that it's so different than mine that he could do that that he could just hear it and go no no no it's wired different just totally wired different it has to be operating on a whole different operating system that might get fire on because i'm like i can't i can't pick any of that up but then you see it all come together and you're like whoa that's so cool yeah all right i want to

53:55Adam Schafer:mention this before um we finish here uh that we we just we had somebody write in today who was a coach uh from a high school local high school oh yeah yeah and asked us uh about our workout programs for a student so he's a coach he follows our programs got great results it's influenced his coaching and he's like can is there any way we could offer these programs to my students these are kids at discounted rates so here's what we do and we're gonna do this for everybody um if you're a high if you are a teacher or a coach or administrator principal whatever at a high school and you want access, we put together six, we have six maps programs that we think are appropriate for high school kids.

54:36Adam Schafer:If you want, you can email us at, where are we going to email? Admin? Not admin, no. Yeah, ann at mindpumpmedia.com. A-N-N. A-N-N. So ann at mindpumpmedia.com. Write in that you're a teacher, a coach, you know, whatever from a school and you would like to offer your students these programs will give you 80 % off. So of these programs. So it's only for high school students. And only if a, again, a teacher or administrator, coach or whatever writes in and gets it to, and qualifies because obviously you have to prove who you are, but just send it to ann at mindpumpmedia.com and we'll hook up your students.

55:12Adam Schafer:And this is good because high school kids are working out, they're lifting weights and they need good programming. And a lot of stuff on social media is really inappropriate for kids. It's just not the right kind of workout. they're going to hurt themselves, overtrain, whatever. This way they have something structured, videos, demos, the whole deal. It's our stuff. We know it's good. So there you go. LMNT is an electrolyte powder with no artificial sweeteners and no sugar. Most electrolyte powders are full of sugar or they have artificial sweeteners. And here's one thing for sure. They don't have enough sodium.

55:44Adam Schafer:Look, here's the deal. If you benefit from electrolytes, if you need electrolytes, if you need to add them to your regimen so that you have less headaches, less lethargy, better athletic performance, less muscle cramps, just feel better. It's the sodium. Yes, you need the other stuff as well, the magnesium, potassium, but the sodium makes the biggest difference. Element tea has a thousand milligrams per serving. It actually makes a difference. I drink element every single day before and during my workouts. And I eat, I have even more, especially if I'm on a low carb diet, because when you're a low carb diet, you lose electrolytes.

56:21Adam Schafer:This made a big difference and there's no calories. It tastes good. So I could drink it all day long without adding calories. Anyway, go check them out. Go to drinklmnt.com forward slash mind pump. That link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase. Back to the show. Our first caller is Katie from Maryland. Hi, Katie. How you doing, Katie? Hello. Hi, guys. How are y 'all? Good. How are you doing? Good. Thank you so much for taking my call. So I'll just jump into my question and I'll provide a little background, but feel free to poke and prod and follow up with any questions.

56:58Adam Schafer:No worries. Thank you. So my question is, what should my programming look like during a high-risk pregnancy when I've been advised no heavy lifting or intense activity? So my background is I'm a huge fan and longtime listener. I've been listening since 2017. I feel like we are longtime friends considering I've spent hundreds of hours listening to you guys. The content and programs have changed the way I view fitness, faith, and family. I'm forever thankful for stumbling upon this podcast nearly 10 years ago. So I'm a 30-year-old female who has been working out consistently since I was about 16.

57:34I have followed MAPS programs exclusively for the last six years. Being that my husband and I wanted to prioritize having children with some infertility struggles in the mix, I listened to your advice and took several steps to prepare my body for pregnancy. I was 115 pounds and I put on approximately 20 pounds, some muscle, some fat in the last two years. I also dialed back my training to MAPS 15 programs plus daily walking to ensure I wasn't overdoing my training. In September 2025, I started IVF. I continued with MAPS 15, but with retrievals, transfers, and just overall side effects, I will admit that my training was not always consistent.

58:15Fast forward to January 2026, I got pregnant. Because of a history of miscarriages and an IVF pregnancy, I was put in the higher risk category from the start. At six weeks, I had a subchorionic hematoma, or SCH, and actually experienced bleeding until about nine weeks. At this point, I was advised no lifting, no activity. Thankfully, that passed and the baby was all right. During that time, I was only walking, doing mobility, but no strength training. After that, I started to incorporate lifting back in, but between first trimester symptoms and just fear of compromising the pregnancy, it was mostly body weight, some bands, squatting no more than the bar.

58:57Nothing was intense, nothing structured. At my 20-week appointment, I was diagnosed with a pretty severe placenta previa and was told again no heavy lifting or intense activity. I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant and just feel like I'm spinning my wheels. I haven't done any structured lifting or programs throughout the pregnancy. I want to finish the back half of my pregnancy healthy and prepare for this baby's arrival. I also just enjoy movement and my daily workouts for my mental health. I had pictured myself being the fit pregnant lady still squatting and dead lifting until day of delivery but that has not been the case which is a shame because i've actually felt pretty good throughout the pregnancy despite these complications any suggestions on programming or safe exercises i can be doing i had considered map starter since you guys talk about this post-pregnancy but i'm not sure if this would even be considered too much with my high-risk diagnoses yeah thanks

59:47Adam Schafer:for calling in katie i'm so glad you're you made it you're pregnant this is great and you've gone so that's phenomenal. So let me just encourage you for a second, okay? You have a history of strength training. And if you did no strength training, you did none for a year, not even nine months. You did nothing for a year. When you finally get back into it, your body is going to get strong very quick. The muscle memory is a real thing. So I just want to encourage you with that. Don't have a fear because maybe you have a fear of like, oh my God, I'm going to lose everything. And then what am I going to do afterwards?

1:00:23Adam Schafer:It'll be okay. It'll totally be okay. My advice to you is to walk.

1:00:28Sal Di Stefano:Mm-hmm.

1:00:29Adam Schafer:Okay. Yeah, I don't want you to do any strength training because of the risk that you're at, because of the hematoma and some of the other issues that you had brought up. I think lifting weights is too high of a risk for what is going on right now. I also want to just add that pregnancy is really hard, especially for women who have a history of fitness. Now, I don't mean that because it's harder for them in the sense that they're not fit and their bodies can't handle it. It's harder because you're probably so used to your body doing what you want and knowing what you do, what you can do to change how you move and your strength and your fitness that suddenly it feels like it's not your body anymore.

1:01:13Adam Schafer:Suddenly it's like, I can't, like, what's going on here? I'm at the mercy of whatever the heck my body wants to do. That's really, really tough. I've worked with a lot of women before, during, and after pregnancy who were athletes or really into fitness. And this was always a big struggle for them. And they would always tell me, like, that doesn't feel like my body. Like, I don't know what's going on. This is really hard. Who am I? It's like your identity, you have kind of this identity crisis, which I think happens anyway through becoming a parent. But it's especially for people who are used to knowing their bodies, which is one of the pluses of fitness is you really know your body.

1:01:49Adam Schafer:You know how to move, you know how to train muscles, you know what to do, how to make yourself stronger. And now you're in this position where you're almost forced and nobody likes to be forced. But again, I'm just going to tell you, uh, as a trainer, uh, I don't think you should do any strength training, but I do think you should walk. And I also think you can overdo walking. So, cause the risk with someone like you who's walking is like, fine, I can't lift weights. I'm going to walk the hell out of myself. and you'll go walking uphill and you'll go on crazy hikes and you're going to try and turn the walks into workouts.

1:02:23Adam Schafer:So I'm going to just go a little deeper. I don't think you should work out at all. I do think you should move, but none of it should feel like a workout because of the situation that you're in. But again, after you have your baby and you're cleared to exercise, take it easy. Don't overdo it. I think MAPS started would be a great way to exercise postpartum and then be very gentle with yourself because your body knows what to do. You've got lots of muscle memory. Your body's worked out before. So you'll do a lot better than somebody who has never exercised. That's for sure.

1:02:56Sal Di Stefano:By the way, you look amazing. Yeah. You look healthy and fit. So you're going to be fine. You're going to do great. Let's go have a healthy baby. And then we'll talk about what strength training and everything looks on the other side. You look great. so there's i wouldn't i wouldn't want you doing any more it's it's all about taking care of that other life and making sure they're healthy everything your checkups are great yeah and we'll worry about you will be you'll get in shape so easy and fast yeah and it's also it's also

1:03:25Adam Schafer:like it definitely about baby but it's also about mom so if you train your body when it's doesn't when it's not going to respond well to stress which is probably the situation you're in you can make it harder for yourself later. So the recovery would be much harder later if you overcame your body. And don't judge this whole process. Like, why can't I do this or whatever? It's like, this is okay. This is where I'm at. I'm just gonna chill. My sister, she had to be in bed for pretty much the entire last trimester of one of her pregnancies. They said, you have to stay in bed, which for my sister is like, she's a machine.

1:04:01Adam Schafer:She's always moving, always working, always doing things. It was very difficult, but, you know, now she's a kid. Now the kid I'm talking about now is 10 and she's doing phenomenal. So, so yeah, maybe not the answer you wanted from us, but definitely, I strongly, strongly believe this, that what we're saying is what you need to do. No, and I appreciate that. And that's largely what I've been doing. Two quick follow-up questions. Is there a step count that I should be kind of aiming for? I mean, just the usual eight to 10, um, or, um, you know, do you have another suggestion with that?

1:04:38Sal Di Stefano:With you, this is different. Yep.

1:04:39Adam Schafer:I'm going to give you two answers. Uh, so, um, I would like you to just to walk, to, just to enjoy the walk. It's not going to be a workout. If you start to feel a little tired, like you went too far. Um, what are you averaging now in your steps? about 8 000 but that's a lot of work just because of my job and i'm pretty sedentary so i mean that's putting in you know extra walks with the dogs extra steps um just you know around my mealtimes and whatnot thank you so much for your honesty so i'll give you a number that you can't go above 6 000 that's your mass okay yeah like that's the limit you're not allowed to go above 6 000 yeah and some days that's all i get anyways so and that's that's your that's your max that's your speed limit right there yeah okay all right i can handle that and then my other question is just like mobility you know i see a lot of like i don't say the tiktoks but you know pelvic floor therapist talking about just like hip opening exercises and things like that is there anything that i could be doing like stretching wise um again not a workout or not overdoing it that but just preparing for labor you have to be careful with stretching when you're pregnant because you're much more flexible.

1:05:52Adam Schafer:It's your ligaments. Super elastic, yeah. Yeah, especially towards the end. In fact, stretching can cause problems later on with pelvic floor issues and pain. So no stretching. But if you start to feel pain, then I would suggest you talk to a specialist and then they can give you some movements to help you. So sometimes women will have pain in their pelvis or they'll feel that kind of lightning shooting pain that comes maybe towards the third trimester as things are starting to loosen up. In which case I would refer back to your medical professional. Say, okay, what are some things I can do because I'm starting to hurt?

1:06:27Adam Schafer:But until then, it's like nothing. Like don't try to go chase anything with mobility. Just, you know, walk, limit it to 6 ,000 steps. And yeah, and enjoy this little break. Okay, well, it's definitely been a break. You guys have come out with so many programs during this time. I think I'll have to try them all once baby's here and everybody's healthy.

1:06:50Sal Di Stefano:Awesome. I'd love to hear back from you when the baby's back. Yeah, I would too. Final trimester. We got this. Okay. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Katie. All right, Katie. All right. She's like, oh. I want to wait. I mean, she's heading into her third trimester. She looks great. She does look great. Pregnancy's so hard, man. Could you imagine?

1:07:08Adam Schafer:I couldn't imagine.

1:07:10Sal Di Stefano:It's like releasing control.

1:07:12Adam Schafer:Totally.

1:07:13Sal Di Stefano:It's so hard, especially for fit people that have that ability to show up and improve their body.

1:07:20Adam Schafer:And then I hate, listen, I hate social media for a lot of different things. I really hate it for pregnancy because what you end up seeing highlighted are women doing CrossFit and marathons. Hey, I had my baby two months ago. I have abs. And so then women look at this and are like, what's going on? What's wrong with me? And it's like, that's just insane. Nothing to do with you.

1:07:39Sal Di Stefano:I mean, also add the fact, so remember how she started this. She'd been listening for a long time. She took all the advice on, she intentionally put on almost 30 pounds. In order to get pregnant. In order to get pregnant, right? And so imagine coming from 30 pounds lighter fit, you had to put on that body fat so you could have a baby, then you have a baby, and then you're starting to grow a baby. So her body in the last year has radically changed for her. Major transformation, yeah. Yeah, so she actually has got really, I think she's got good self-awareness. She's totally open about, I think she's going to be good.

1:08:12Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, fine.

1:08:13Adam Schafer:Even when she asked how many steps. She'll rebound. I knew, I had to ask her how many she was currently taking because I'm like, I'm not going to give you a number. I want to know what you're trying to hit right now.

1:08:20Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:08:21Adam Schafer:And let's scale it down from there.

1:08:22Sal Di Stefano:I know that sounds so different because we, and this is, I mean, this is what real coaching looks like is like that was different advice than we give to a lot of other people. But her situation, that is not. Risk assessment, right?

1:08:35Adam Schafer:I had a woman I tried. And in her first trimester, she couldn't come to her sessions. She would show up like one out of three appointments because she was so nauseous. Second trimester, she'd show up. We'd do a little exercise. Third trimester, she'd show up and I'd massage her. I'd work on her traps. And then we might do with something or sometimes it was nothing. And it was good for her just to show up. And this was an ex-athlete. And I know, of course, baby was healthy afterwards. And we got to exercise after. And it was amazing. But it was really challenging for her. Our next caller is Karen from the UK.

1:09:06Adam Schafer:Karen, how you doing? Hello. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me back on. Nice to see you again. Yeah, if I recall, you were like a performer, right? Like you sang on stage and... That's right, spot on. Yes, that's me. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, welcome back. Yes. All right, cool. Thank you. Let us know what's going on. Right, okay. I'm just going to read it up here again. Yeah, let's go. Go for it. Right, okay. So I increased back up to 2 ,600 like you advised because when I'm told to do something and I'm doing it. So I got straight back on it. I went and moved to Matt Strong. Got to say, by far, of all the programs I've done of yours, love it.

1:09:45Absolutely love Matt Strong. So got through phase one. Fine, didn't really see anything massively change. It wasn't until I got to about phase two that I started to see things clicking into place a little bit. Like the eight to ten rep range, started to feel noticeably stronger. My lifts began increasing. I started to feel more confident. I kind of decided just to think, well, sod what everybody else is saying. I'm just going to focus on how I feel and what my strength is like and not worry about anything else. So, yeah, you know, screw everybody's opinions, which is quite freeing, really. Generally, my clothes were fitting about the same.

1:10:24So I was thinking, well, that's what I expected. I have not weighed myself until literally just before speaking to you again. I've not weighed myself at all. and I've got the in-body, so I've not been on it at all. So it's been quite freeing, really, not to have to do that in a sense. So that's been good. I hit a bit of a setback a couple of weeks into phase two. I got gastric flu, pretty horrendous. And I usually eat through anything. Nothing stops me eating, but I physically couldn't eat hardly. So my calorie dropped to about 900, and it was all beige, literally carbs, because I couldn't eat any protein or anything, and I'd try but it's made me more unwell um so it took me a couple of weeks to get back up again but I pushed myself back up to two six again had to stop training for a week didn't think it was right to do anything um and then eased myself back in the following week going lighter and concentrating on form more than pushing the weight too much so it took me I did an extra couple of weeks of phase two because I knew phase three was going to hit a lot harder for me even though favorite phase really is the pushing as hard as I can for you know less reps so um I thought I was recovering really well and I went into phase three really excited about it um and then I developed sort of like a shoulder issue it started to hurt um and I was like oh god what have I done um so I decided to sort of adjust my training I sort of took anything out that involved pressing above my head because of the discomfort.

1:11:58I just focused more on rows and curls and things, which didn't hurt me because I didn't know what else to do about it. And I just maybe focused a bit more on the bottom of my body. So I did get through the whole of strong, but I felt like it hindered me slightly and I haven't been able to do it exactly as set out. I just tried to see myself through it as best as possible really because I did want to give up on it after how far I've come. um my my improvements and my positives from all this um my squat went up about eight pounds bench press up about 22 which is what's really annoying so i felt like i really really did well with that one hip thrust up about 33 so you know i'm doing it all from home it's quite hard to get up with what you know and i'm just trying to push it up myself it's quite hard to push that amount of weight on my own sort of like machines or anything i think but i'm really pleased with that one and my deadlift's up about 11 pounds as well so I feel like strength wise I've done really well um I can see some more muscle definition I can definitely see it in my arms I can feel it um so that's really good um weight wise I've popped up a little bit muscles about the same fats up a little bit um but I don't know whether that's because of what's happened in between all of it really that it's pushed me back a little bit um but I'm just really pleased that I didn't track my weight I stopped tracking my sleep as well because I actually found doing that put me more stressed about my sleep I'm now sleeping really well my progesterone is continuous all of that has leveled out massively so hormonally I'm in a really good place I just feel like I just I feel a lot better in my confidence which is what I was aiming for is to stop worrying about everything so much but I just think that I do feel like I'm ready for a cut I have got to that sort of point where I feel like I need a break I don't know if it's the injury clothes are really in a struggle I um I do a wartime show and I have to wear a war like you army uniform and I've got one that I've had for years and I put it on and I was like oh Jesus this is like the skirt is like maybe a bit too short now I went into a care home and well okay I couldn't bend over to put all my cables in because I was a bit worried about giving everybody a heart attack um and one fella on the way out though said to me I like your skirt you said but next time it needs to be a bit shorter and I was like yeah right

1:14:26Sal Di Stefano:you gotta love these residents they've got a great so it's sort of got to the point where I've loved this whole process I've really embraced it and I knew I had to come back and speak to you again but the body fat has gone up a little bit and I think if you can see my photographs I feel like I'm fuller I definitely feel stronger but it's not shown in my in-body results but I feel like I need that break um just to try and shave off some body fat for a little bit because I'm going into summer and I'm wearing the same two outfits all the time and I just need that break really um I was planning to go to 2-1 from 2-6 with 130 grams of protein 75 grams of fat and make the rest up with carbs I was going to I want to go to muscle mummy 15 because um of my studying I'm going to start doing well I've already started doing it it just allows me more time to because the strong takes up quite a lot of my time um because it's five days really isn't it and I love it but it's sort of I need more time to be able to study um and I just want to do a cut over the summer but I do plan then to reverse diet back after three months back up again and I just wanted your advice and whether you thought that sounded okay and what you would sort of suggest program wise that I go into to reverse back diet because I love strong so that sort of program whether something along those lines would be right for me but I also want to say thank you because I've obviously I just done my another nutrition exam that I wanted to get my level five but after everything I discussed with you I love my singing but I realized that long term I don't want to do it forever um and I then decided to sign up to become a personal trainer so I feel like it's what's missing because I advise people day and day about their food intake and their nutrition their health and I'm telling them what they should be doing exercise wise but I can't physically do it with them and that's what I feel is missing I want to actually be able to help them with that so you know that's what I've decided to do so now I've started trying to be a PT that's my next thing so i just really appreciate your advice um on what i've said basically i think that's you did a great job yeah i definitely think your in body is a little off i'm looking at your pictures right now uh i mean you i can only imagine you you can see that and feel that right i mean yeah i can feel it yeah yeah yeah i can see it your back your back looks you look like you built muscle and you look smaller yeah there's one bigger no no no no there's a picture you sent the one on

1:16:53Adam Schafer:the left is before, right? That's the before, Doug? No, no, that's after. Okay, okay. So you did build a little bit of muscle. You might have gained a little so I think what you're going is perfect with the cut. I think 2100 calories is absolutely perfect with the cut. No problem. I would like to see you do MAPS 15 symmetry because of your shoulder pain. Right. I did wonder if you might say that. I've got the actual symmetry program. I just don't have the 15. Yes. I don't know if I can cut it up at all. So MAPS 15 symmetry. We actually have a 15 version of symmetry. Ah, right. Okay. And I think that'll be good for your shoulder.

1:17:26Adam Schafer:I think it'll be good. Right. Your strength gains are exceptional. It's the 33 pound up on the hip thrust, the 11 pound of the deadlift, like everything's stronger. I think that's phenomenal.

1:17:36Sal Di Stefano:I also want you to know too, a lot of times what happens, what you just went through too, is the strength happens and then muscle tends to follow.

1:17:44Adam Schafer:Yeah, muscle follows strength.

1:17:46Sal Di Stefano:So it's not always like this direct correlation of like, oh, I got stronger, therefore I should have this much muscle. I feel like you're just, after getting sick like you did and then getting back in the rhythm and then the shoulder thing a little bit i think you're actually in a really nice rhythm now i understand trying to lean out because of we got work and stuff like that that's like in summer i get that but in a perfect world i would probably only give you a break for a couple weeks and then push you right back up because i think because i think you're primed to build more muscle i think you yeah you really are

1:18:13Adam Schafer:i think we're heading the right path now the reduction in training volume because 15 symmetry from strong is a reduction of volume is a good place to go with the 500 calorie cut yeah and symmetry i think is going to help your shoulder quite a bit i think okay i think you have the right attitude uh i uh everything you're saying like spot on the way you handled getting sick i think was spot on and the modifications you did because of the shoulder pain spot on i do now what i will caution you is when you go on the cut to not weigh yourself so often No, I'm not going to. I've learned from this. Okay, good.

1:18:48Adam Schafer:I think 2 ,100 calories with 15 symmetry is totally fine.

1:18:51Sal Di Stefano:Where are you averaging steps right now too? So my activity obviously ramped up after, like I said, she originally didn't journey. It gets a bit quiet. I'm around 10 ,000 to 12 ,000 steps a day. Oh, okay. Oh, you're good. Spending my gig. I'm 15 ,000 if I gig because I move around a lot. Okay, wow, okay. No, you're good. Yeah, you're good.

1:19:08Adam Schafer:No, no, no, you're perfect. Yeah, yeah. Perfect. Let's go for it. 21 ,000. Oh, that's great. If I was your coach, I would probably try and encourage you to do what Adam said, because what he's saying is 100 % true. It's almost like clockwork. You get stronger, stronger, stronger muscle. It's almost never stronger muscle. It's almost never at the same time. Not equal, yeah. But nonetheless, there's nothing wrong with going in a cut, especially if you need the break. Yeah, you're in a healthy place. You're in a healthy place. Yeah. Maps 15 symmetries, lower volume, a lot of unilateral work, which is going to help your shoulder.

1:19:40Adam Schafer:I see nothing wrong with doing that. yep oh that's good i did because i've done symmetry and i and i did think oh i wonder if they'll say that actually because i've also got your prime as well so i did i started to look through that see if there's anything to count me with with that and prime as well there is something

1:19:55Sal Di Stefano:okay so what my suggestion to you before you do any is working out especially upper body stuff just do that zone one test where you're supposed to put your arms on the wall it's the wall yes yes just yes do that four or five times before you get into a workout that'll help set you up in a good place. Oh, that's good.

1:20:12Adam Schafer:Yeah, and plus because of your schedule, I guess you're doing some more, you're going to be going into a season where you're a little busier. 15 symmetry is perfect. Yeah. Yeah, okay, that's great. And when I go back into sort of reversing upwards again, what sort of program was you now? I've done Strong and I loved it. Do it again.

1:20:29Sal Di Stefano:Do it again. Do it again. Oh, great. That's good then. Yeah, you had two hiccups in there, right? We got sick. We had the shoulder thing. You're going to come back off value. You could also go

1:20:38Adam Schafer:Muscle Mommy. Do you have that program? Okay, I've got that. Yeah, I've got Muscle Mommy. Yeah, if you want to do something different, you can go Muscle Mommy with the reverse. She loves strong. Do strong. There's nothing wrong with it.

1:20:47Sal Di Stefano:It's so novel. It's amazing. It's so novel too, right? It's so different than anything else. Yeah. What a program. Yeah, you've got to experience it. Run it again. You'll be fine. Yeah, it's such a good program, guys. I was getting into it thinking, this is amazing. I felt so great. When I got to phase two, I just felt like I was sailing. I was so gutted when I got that gastric flu. Yeah. Because it just had to press the hell out of me. Yeah. See, I'd love to see what it feels like for you to make it all the way through that program feeling good. I bet you see even more increases and feel great.

1:21:15Sal Di Stefano:Yep, yep. Oh, that's good. Okay, I've got a plan. Brilliant. Can I just say as well, like with going forward, like with studying and everything, I just want to say, I listened to an episode of yours. And it really actually made me cry a little bit because you were speaking to a guy called Nicky.

1:21:29Adam Schafer:Yeah. And if you know Nicky, yeah. And I'll tell you what, you guys, I know this is a business for you as well, but that really was pretty epic to be honest with you. Because coming from an eating disorder background, and that's what I'm trying to do with this. You see, I want it to be a business. But number one, I really care about people and I want to help people. Wherever I can offer it, I will offer my services for free for people to try and help them if they really need help. Somebody like Nikki. And I just want to say that because it really hit me hard today when I listened to you chat with that guy.

1:21:57And I thought what you offered and everything was exceptional. I just want to say thank you because you really do help people so much. And all of your advice, I just use it with my clients. And you give so much insight and experience behind. That's why I think you've inspired me to go forward what I'm trying to do. Wonderful. So, you know, I really appreciate everything you do. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for helping me.

1:22:18Adam Schafer:Yeah, you're such a lovely person. Yeah, yeah. Stay in touch. So are you nice. Thank you. Stay in touch with us, Karen. Let us know how it goes. Yeah, I will do. Yeah, you take care, yeah? Thank you. Thank you. bye what a bubbly wonderful she's got so much good energy she'd be a great trainer so her getting sick with the gastric flu that's like vomiting oh yeah that's the worst brutal so no doubt she lost oh yeah yeah no

1:22:42Sal Di Stefano:she lost momentum and progress she lost some muscle during that time and then her shoulder was hurting hindered by shoulder that's why I wanted to run it again because I think because she loved it she loved it so much it is such a unique program too I bet you there's movements that she was doing for the first time so I mean I bet the second time around she'll get. But in a perfect world, okay, if I had her as a client. Oh, yeah.

1:23:04Adam Schafer:No, 100%.

1:23:04Sal Di Stefano:And she asked for a diet break. I would totally respect that. Two weeks. Cool. Two weeks. We go down to 21 and then right back up. Because I think she's primed right now to just. No, 100%. Yeah. No, you're 100 % right.

1:23:15Adam Schafer:No, no, totally. I love, too, the story of the guy in the care home. Just picture this 89-year-old man. I know, right? You can totally see that. Yeah, I'm making a call.

1:23:23Sal Di Stefano:He's a creepy old guy.

1:23:25Adam Schafer:Next caller is Bianca from Texas. Hi, Bianca. How you doing, Bianca? Hi, guys. I'm so excited to meet y 'all, first of all. Yeah, how can we help you? So my question is, I've sort of been on a long fitness journey, I'm sure, like most people. My question is, so what do you do when consistency fails you? Because I feel like everyone preaches consistency. and so I was consistent with a plan that a nutritionist had put in place and I lost 36 pounds but eventually I sort of hit a wall and then like a year later and wouldn't go below 199 and then when I started strength training again and being more active I started like having energy crashes and it sort of stalled me.

1:24:18And then I started trying different things. And now I'm sort of afraid to be consistent per se, like in the wrong thing. So I don't know if that's the right question, but what do you do when you're consistent, but that doesn't quite work out for you?

1:24:33Sal Di Stefano:That's wonderful. Do you have a quite follow-up question that do you have more challenges with the consistency around the exercise and working out or more challenges with the diet or both? I think definitely with the working out, because I'm a teacher and my nervous system is sort of burnt out at the end of the day. So, and I love strength training. So it is a little hard to be consistent there. Okay, good, good. That's why. Okay. So for me, the advice looks like setting more realistic goals for yourself. So stuff that you set small, easy wins, what that might look like for somebody. And this is about, this is all about meeting you where you're at.

1:25:14Sal Di Stefano:Okay. So this could be any, uh, it could be, you recognize that you really don't even step that much in and you consistently only get about 4 ,000 steps. And so my goal with you would be something like, Hey, let's just make 6 ,000 steps a day. That's the thing that you always do now like that. Now we'll build training. We'll do other stuff too. But like, that's the one thing that we're just going to change that about your life. You never become a person who steps less than 6 ,000. It's an easy thing. I can go for a walk for 20 minutes every extra day, whatever that is, right? Maybe that's really easy for you.

1:25:43Sal Di Stefano:So maybe it looks like, let's just commit to like a program like grade eight where it's one exercise a day, just one lift. Let's be a person that just gets that one lift in a day. And so we need to find a place that it seems very realistic, like, you know what? I know I can commit to that and then build on that versus like I'm on or off, which is so common for people that have been in it's like okay i'm gonna do this thing i got my nutrition lined up and i've got my meals planned and i got this program that says you know this workout three or four times a week for an hour and then it's like you do it good for a week or two then a stressful week at work happens and then it's just like then it all falls apart it's like start baby steps with things that you know you can commit to and you can know you can win and go win at it for at least a month and then we build on it and then build on it like that that's that's what I would do with you.

1:26:36Adam Schafer:Bianca, I have a few, uh, ideas and assumptions that I'll have to ask more questions to dig a little deeper, but I would do, I want to start by speaking kind of broadly. I want to take like a thousand foot view, uh, on, on your question. So first off consistency is the challenge with everyone. So it's not just you. So when you look at the data, uh, weight loss is not challenging. For example, keeping it off is challenging. Working out is not hard. Continuing to work out is hard. So it's always consistency. So the, that's the big thing we need to tackle is what is it that, that when people do this, right, why do they keep doing it?

1:27:17Adam Schafer:And the easy, simple answer is because they love it. So number one, you need to find a form of exercise or a way to approach this where you enjoy it, because if you don't enjoy it, then you're going to be, a battle of wills. It's going to be a grind. So what you had talked about in the past was I did it, but then I had energy crashes. Well, yeah, of course you're going to stop. You're not liking it. You hate it. So we need to do something that you actually genuinely like and enjoy and look forward to. And what that's going to feel like is it makes me feel better right now. It's something I enjoy doing.

1:27:54Adam Schafer:I feel better later because I'm doing it. Not it makes me feel terrible. It makes me feel more tired or it takes away my energy for my work the following day. And I feel like I can't perform because all of those are like, for sure, you're going to totally stop. Now I do have some questions. So now we'll get back to, you know, a closeup view of, of kind of what's going on. You were following a diet from nutritionists and then you started working out and you started energy crashing. My guess, and I'd love some details is that your calories were way too low. They were at 1400. Okay. Yeah. You, of course you're going to crash.

1:28:28Sal Di Stefano:Way too low. Of course. And I do, sorry, I do get between 10 and 13 ,000 steps a day, by the way. Yeah. Just naturally. So that's very low.

1:28:38Adam Schafer:You're eating barely anything. Everybody would crash.

1:28:41Sal Di Stefano:It's amazing you weren't crashing just from that and much less the workouts. You slap on workouts on top of that. Do you know what you're eating now?

1:28:49Adam Schafer:Any ideas? Yes. So right now I'm at 1750 calories. and then I'm working again with a nutritionist, but I think she believed me now that I'm a little more active than she thought I was. But my protein is set at like 120 right now, so I don't know if that's enough. Okay, and you're now, tell me a little bit about the workout situation. Is it a home gym? Do you have to go to a gym? What does that look like? So I prefer working out at home because I do have a home gym. So it's just very practical and I'm more likely to work out at home. Wonderful. Good. Grade eight, dude. Now tell me about your day.

1:29:30I bought the grade eight, by the way, so I do have it.

1:29:33Adam Schafer:Yeah, okay. Now tell me about your day. What does your work day look like? What grade do you teach and what time do you wake up? What does that all look like? I teach third grade right now and I come into work at 7 a.m. I'm home by about four, but I come home to prepare dinner and just take care of some things around the house. I am a mom. I have, well, I have one 13 year old. Um, and then in the evenings, like after dinner, I'm pretty energy less. So that's been my struggle. And then it's either I go to sleep earlier and wake up early, like at 5am to work out, or I figure out how to have energy in the evenings to work out.

1:30:13And honestly, that's been like my biggest struggle. Okay.

1:30:15Adam Schafer:So you're all day long. You're working with how old are third year old, uh, third graders or the eight, seven, Eight and nine. Okay, so a bunch of eight, nine-year-olds. And then you got a teenager at home. I have one too, so I know what that's like. And you're eating 1 ,750 calories. So is this a nutritionist you're paying monthly? Yes. Okay. Can I make a suggestion? Sure. Okay. Would you like to work with one of our coaches? Absolutely. Because 1 ,750 calories is also too low. Wow. Now, how do I know that? How do I know that? you feel no energy at the end of the day. And working out you're probably like oh my god I gotta fit this other thing in and I don't have the energy to do it and I'm tired.

1:31:01Adam Schafer:That tells me your energy is too low. You're an active person. You're an active person. 1 ,750 calories would be the lowest that would put you after a reverse diet. Wow. Okay. I didn't know that. We need to build you into the body that you want not cut you into the body. It's already too low.

1:31:21Sal Di Stefano:You feel so much better, yeah.

1:31:22Adam Schafer:It's already too low. So phase one would look like this with one of our coaches. A reverse diet, you're probably going to follow a 15, MAPS 15, or MAPS grade eight style program. And here's what we're looking for. How's your energy? How's your strength? How's your mood? You're like, man, I feel good and I'm getting stronger. But I'm not losing any weight. I don't care. Right now I want you to feel good and let's get stronger. And we're going to do that for a little while. We're going to do that for a little while. We're going to stay in a season of feel good. I want you to be like Bianca, energy, amazing, creative.

1:31:54Adam Schafer:I look forward to my workouts. I get energy for my family. And then when we reverse diet you to a point where like, cool, we got some runway and you're feeling great. Now let's do a cut.

1:32:01Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:32:02Adam Schafer:And then what the cut's going to feel like is you're losing body fat, but you still feel good.

1:32:06Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:32:06Adam Schafer:And you'll be higher calories than what you're at now. That'd be awesome.

1:32:11Sal Di Stefano:That's where we need to go. That's where you need to go.

1:32:13Adam Schafer:That's where you need to go.

1:32:14Sal Di Stefano:And then two suggestions around the workout. and you can take either approach based off of who you are. Sal is the guy who gets up at 5 o 'clock in the morning and works out before he goes to the gym. I cannot do that. I mean, of course I can, right? Just got to go to bed early. Yeah, that's not my thing. Now, I also remember when I was having to commute and drive all the way back over to my place over in Marina and I would get home. It's like 4, 4.30 and it's like right before that, it's getting ready for dinner, play with my son, and do my thing. And so what I found I had to do was like literally as soon as I pulled up to the driveway, I was like, I go do my two exercises.

1:32:53Sal Di Stefano:And so my suggestion would be to you instead of like waiting till you kind of get home and you take off. Before you prep for dinner. Yeah, before you prep dinner and you kind of wind down and then think you're going to go in the garage and go get a workout. I'd be like, as soon as I get home. As soon as I get home, I'm going to just get those two exercises in if you're doing a MAPS 15 or the one exercise in. If you're doing grade A, get it done right then and there and then allow yourself to wind down for the night. That would be my suggestion if you do the later one. If you go earlier like Sal, then just like you said.

1:33:21Adam Schafer:There really is no wrong answer. That's right. But here's what's going to happen with a good reverse diet. You'll have energy for either one. Yep. Because right now what you're probably juggling is I got to wake up early and I'm going to be tired or I got to do it after work and I'm tired. And so how would it feel to have energy in the morning and energy at night, right? Now you can do your workout. Now we can build some muscle. Now we can speed up your metabolism. Now we can make your body, encourage your body to burn more calories on its own. That sets us up for the cut later on. But I would want you in a season of feel good, of energy, of getting stronger.

1:33:55Adam Schafer:And then later we'll worry about the cut. Because right now you're not in a position to cut. All you're going to do is fry yourself. You said something that was like such an important thing that you said. I feel like my central nervous system is fried. Yes. Because you've got a lot of stimulus coming at you all the time. your calories are low and you're actually walking and moving a lot yeah it's just not enough yeah

1:34:16Sal Di Stefano:you're that's a spot-on assessment it is fried it's that's a lot that's a lot that's a lot to be taking in to be moving all day long and then also try and pile on exercise and to only be

1:34:26Adam Schafer:eating that that's low yeah and i gotta tell you if you work with a coach or nutritionist that you feel like you have to convince that you need to eat more they're probably not good wow okay yeah Yeah, that's pretty eye-opening. I do feel like one workout, and then it's like I'm depleted after. It's not even about being sore. I'm just depleted the next day. No, no, no, no. You should not feel like that after a workout. You should feel energized.

1:34:50Sal Di Stefano:Wow. Okay. And you're lifting weights, and the primary focus when we're lifting weights is to build muscle. You will not build muscle on 1 ,700 calories, moving 10 ,000 steps. And feeling like garbage. And feeling like that. You won't. Also, all you're really doing is moving. And so it's like you're just moving more. All that work that you're putting into the weights is not giving you the return you deserve for it, that we have to feed the body in order for you to build the muscle from it. And so that's the focus. Like Sal, so the next like six months, I'm thinking we're slowly inching those calories up.

1:35:21Sal Di Stefano:We're focused on getting stronger. That's all like stronger, feel better, sleep better, more energy. That's all we're thinking about for the next six months. And then we'll go the other way and then watch the weight come down and you feel good while it's happening.

1:35:34Adam Schafer:And then it's easier to keep off because your metabolism is faster. you feel good yeah because right now momentum at that yeah right now it feels like you're hitting a wall because you are you're running straight into a wall so uh and by the way that what our coaches will also do is because they're also trained with exercise not just nutrition is to be able to take maps you know uh 15 maps grade 8 and they'll turn it into maps bianca so it's going to be very individualized for you yeah yeah that'd be awesome okay okay i'm gonna have somebody reach out to you uh and i'm we're we're probably looking at six to nine months uh of a process to get us all the way through.

1:36:08Yeah, that sounds great. Anything that will help me feel better is great.

1:36:12Adam Schafer:You got it. Thanks, Bianca. All right. Thank you, guys. Bye. Bye-bye.

1:36:19Sal Di Stefano:I can't believe the nutritionist put her on that low of calories. It's a nutritionist. Nutritionist, though? 1 ,400?

1:36:27Adam Schafer:Nutritionist will go as low as 1 ,200. That's their guideline. Here's what it is. Hi, I want to lose weight. Okay, cool. We'll cut your calories. That's the thing. to cut calories. We'll cut your calories. And the person's like, I don't feel energy. And even if I'm telling you I'm going to be strength training? Yep. Wow. Oh, but I don't feel good. I have no energy. I've fried or whatever. Wow. Okay, we'll go up to 200. No, it's too low, dude. It's too low. Of course you feel like, here's the deal. If you're in a cut and you can't do your day and you can't do a single workout. Yeah, you're not functioning properly.

1:36:59Adam Schafer:You're not eating enough. Or you have a nutrient deficiency. You're not recovering.

1:37:03Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, no. she she's moving like crazy she's trying to work out she's a high stress job with kids all day long has a kid she has come home to she's not tiny and petite either that her body type needs more calories than what it's at the combination of all that way under eating for where she's at no wonder it feels like she can't be consistent our next caller is alissa from michigan hi alissa how you

1:37:26Adam Schafer:doing alissa how you doing good to see you again welcome back yeah oh you remember yeah i remember Remember, you were like the machine. You worked out all the time. We kind of reverse dieted you, right? Cut down on some of the exercise and stuff? Yes. Yeah. So I'll read the email I sent in April. Tell us what happened. So in our prior call, you guys suggested I cut back my training as I'll up my calories in order to regain my period since that call. I did exactly that following MAPS 15, which you gave me, thankfully, and focusing on walking 10 ,000 steps a day, no running. About a week or two after our call, I did have a doctor's appointment regarding my period.

1:38:01they agreed that my period loss is most likely due to mental and physical stress however worried that at that point it had been over four months since my last period they were adamant that i go back on birth control since it had already proven to work for me as you know i was not still am not the biggest fan of it but i put my feelings aside and have had one normal period since then about to have my second one in like five days maybe um thanks my first call with you i felt incredibly better, lowering my training and eating more. I have gained about five pounds and focused on my strength in the gym.

1:38:32I'm hoping the birth control is a temporary fix. And after some more time taking any steps, I'll naturally have periods again. I do have a question though. Will I ever be able to get back to what I was doing previously running about 25 miles a week and training in the gym three to four times a week since my period is taken care of?

1:38:51Adam Schafer:Yeah.

1:38:52Sal Di Stefano:So remind me of the desired outcome of the running 25 miles a week are you training for something or you just like to run for 25 miles it just uh felt good it was fun for me so so a couple things um can we dive into that yeah there's i there's very let's i'm gonna make it a general question can anybody run 25 miles a

1:39:16Adam Schafer:week and lift weights three days a week long term and and be okay with that and feel good with that and not get burnt out. No, not really. That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot. Could you do it for like a season? Like you're training for something? Perhaps. Could you always do that? Probably not. Unless you were like, that was your life. Like you slept, you took naps, all you did was eat and train and relax in between workouts. And that's just super unreasonable. Know the responsibilities. Yeah.

1:39:46Sal Di Stefano:I also want to dive into I feel good. No, you don't. Like you mean temporary in the moment when you finish the run and you get the cortisol spike and I just completed that big run. Like, is that what you mean? Because all the other shit, the rest of your day, you don't feel good. You don't feel better. You don't have a normal period. So when we when we train a client, one of the first things that we have to do is deconstruct that and help them attach like what working out properly, feeding their body properly, what it results in, how to connect the dots. So many times with a client like you, I'd have to like, okay, now that we're feeding more, I'd be like, Hey, how do you feel?

1:40:21Sal Di Stefano:And he'd be like, Oh, I feel all right. I feel better. I'm like, well, how you seem? You're like, Oh, well, I am sleeping better. And I'm like, well, how's your energy throughout work? Well, yeah, actually I do have good energy throughout the work and I do feel strong. I said, and I, so we have to like help you connect the dots to when you take care of your body, all these other markers that make you feel good. But what happens is a lot of times we're addicted to this one thing, this cortisol spike or this feeling of completion or what some people it's punishing themselves for an hour. whatever it is but they've attached that i feel really good with that it's like do you really though in that moment you might but in the other 23 hours a day your body does not feel good but you're not you're so disconnected from all those other things and you're focused on that one thing and so i have to help my client reconnect to all the other things that makes them feel good when

1:41:05Adam Schafer:they take care of themselves what you're describing with three four days a week of training plus 25 miles a week would be elite athlete this is a professional this is all they do and it's for a season so i've trained people like this and they did not do this all the time it was like for a block of time and then there was a recovery period and it was very dedicated yeah it was a sport and everything was perfect and even then the strength training was not three to four days a week yeah with 25 miles of running it was one day a week of strength training uh with the people that i uh that i worked with but okay remind me of what you do besides working out and all that stuff were you in school like what are you doing in in life what's going on yeah so i'm an intern like right now i'm at my job three days a week like eight hours it's a desk job so i just sit but every morning on these days three days a week i wake up and walk on the treadmill 30 minutes i used to run so are you yeah no you're doing great but would i'm in school as well studying construction um my other two days i really just you know do whatever i want try to see my friends good on walks Alyssa would you would your friends and family say that you're an overachiever maybe in terms of exercise yeah so you you might just like the feeling of accomplishment and the fact that I could do hard things right which I totally get yeah uh but yeah that's a lot hun uh long term what running and strength training looks like for most people is if you want to run a lot, let's say 15 miles a week, then strength training is about one day a week.

1:42:39Adam Schafer:If you want to combine the two, it could be 20 miles one week, then the next week it's just strength training. So you alternate. Something like that with good nutrition. Yeah, I've heard you talk about that. Yeah, exactly. And then as far as the birth control is concerned, I would talk to your doctor or find a hormone specialist and say, look, my goal is to not have to take this. What do I need to do? What can we do? And I'm okay with giving it some time because I agree with you. I think four months without a period. I mean, I've worked with clients who didn't have a period for two years, three years, four years.

1:43:16Adam Schafer:So it takes a little time. I mean, I had one, I remember I had one client, she didn't have a period for years. We did the reverse diet, the whole deal. And I think she got her period, it was like six, seven months later. And then she ended up getting pregnant. So it could take a little while, especially if you were on it for so long. So you can definitely work with them. And I'm hopeful for that, especially because you're young. But with exercise, I mean, you can ramp it up, but 25 miles a week with three to four days a week, like that's not going to, that's never going to be a regular thing. That just doesn't happen.

1:43:47Adam Schafer:Sorry. Yeah. No, I understand. Does that make you sad? Yeah. A little bit. I just, I don't know. I did feel like I could take over the world when I was doing all of this. Yeah. Until your body's something to do. until your body gave you the middle finger. Yeah, yeah. Can you do, what if you did running one week and strength training the other week? Would that be something? Yeah, I've never done that. I would like, I mean, yeah, I can try it. If you look, it's a great approach. It's a really great approach for people who like both. Yeah. So I've already had a few people now call in and explain their experience doing that and they've gotten better at the running and the strength training.

1:44:21Adam Schafer:Yeah.

1:44:21Sal Di Stefano:By doing both. You're stronger, more resilient, you get recovery. You know, it's just a better approach, you know,

1:44:27Adam Schafer:long term for that yeah you can even try that now i think if you're bumping your calories where are our calories at again where are we at right now well previously in our first call i was probably like 1900 2100 now i'm probably eating like 2800 sometimes i mean i still have days where i eat probably 4000 calories like i just i don't know my mom will make pasta or something if you want to try if you want to try running and strength training you could slowly ramp up your running but it would be uh every other week so it'd be running one week so when you do your workout it's a run and then the next week it would be strength training can we then see how you feel can we back

1:45:04Sal Di Stefano:up though and just kind of celebrate some of the really positive stuff that's happened right now um 60 days you've gone from like uh 1900 2100 calories to 2800 plus calories you only put five pounds on we reduced the volume of training strength training and reduced your running and that's crazy yeah do you feel strong do you feel stronger in your lives yeah my so like what maybe months ago when i was running a lot and everything i was like i had been able to bench press i think my one rep maps one rep max was 165 for one and then i was able to do 135 for two like my the running totally decreased that and now i can do 135 for six for three sets of six wow that's really strong alissa yes you know that's a really strong yeah you you are strong you are doing great uh five pounds on the scale 60 days reducing all that volume and intensity and increasing those like uh you are on a perfect path right now yeah i i don't want to i don't want to mess and honestly the big gauge for me would be like let's just continue down this path and let's focus on getting off the birth control because i think that's in your future i think feeding yourself like this training at this volume uh the way you are just let's get strong and and keep doing what you're doing right now if we can tip you to the strong uh side of things a little bit more you know eventually uh you know it's going to benefit your body a lot more i don't know if that's any interest yeah like some kind of like strong pursuit as i know like you know it's an accomplishment thing that's kind of driving you with this this running uh you know know if you could kind of redirect that a bit for a while but i would love 15 strong or 15 power have you ever done it have you ever tried it would be awesome you ever tried power lifting style training no i have my brother actually did power lifting he's in high school and so i was like my first time even seeing it but i think it's cool i would i think i'd enjoy it i bet you could be

1:47:08Adam Schafer:competitive just so you know a female who could bench press 135 for six is exceptionally strong

1:47:13Sal Di Stefano:A female that can bench 135 for one is really strong. Yeah. So you're strong. And you have a lot of potential then. Got a whole reflex there for sure.

1:47:23Adam Schafer:You want to try that? I mean, I have thought about competing. I mean, I don't know much about it, but I always think if I'm going to compete, like I want to win.

1:47:33Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. And we would all love to see you compete in that. That would serve you and your body. Your body would do a lot better with that. Let's do 15 power. I'll have Doug send it over to you. And then stay on this course, and I'd love to hear back from you again. I think you're doing phenomenal. Yeah, maybe I'd be competing. That would be rad. For sure. That would be rad.

1:47:53Adam Schafer:I think you'd win.

1:47:54Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I want to hear your numbers after you go through 15 PowerLift. I just want to hear where you're at. You want to get back on in a few months? Sure. Thank you for this challenge. It's not like running focused. Totally. Let's go. I don't know. Let's go. It would be a great change of pace. Hey, 15 PowerLift, and let's see those lifts. I want to check back in with you. Oh, man. Okay, thank you. This is so exciting. I really have to thank you guys. You've changed my whole body and my brain. I really thank you. You're doing great. You're doing great. This will be awesome. Yeah, I can't wait to check back in with you.

1:48:28Sal Di Stefano:Making a lot of progress, for sure. Thank you. You give great advice. You're like dads to me. Oh, thank you. All right, Alyssa.

1:48:35Adam Schafer:We'll see you soon. We'll see you soon. All right? Thank you so much. All right. Good job, Justin. Justin nailed it. he sensed the competitive. That's what she likes. She's got the spirit. And as soon as we told her, you know, pushed her in a competitive direction that was better, her face lit up. Yeah. Really good job picking that up. Yeah. Yeah, no, she's going to do great. I'll tell you what's frustrating, that she's young and after four months of no period, doctors like birth control. Yeah, why? I know. Especially since - You got to give it time, dude. Especially since they recognize

1:49:02Sal Di Stefano:that it was a stress thing, under eating type of deal and then we've got her eating more. I don't understand it.

1:49:07Adam Schafer:There may be more stuff that we don't know so I want to be very careful. but if this is all of the information if it really was that the doctors like it was stress and overtraining and they're like but you know four months without a period let's throw in birth control like I don't know if that's a good idea

1:49:20Sal Di Stefano:no no dude not it sucks too because I bet you she's she was right around the corner from that coming back

1:49:26Adam Schafer:dude it could take a while yeah look if you like the show come find us on Instagram it's Mind Pump Media thank you for listening to Mind Pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price.

1:50:13The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.