2903: How to Build Bulletproof Joints (So You Can Train for the Rest of Your Life)

20:03Sal Di Stefano:It's like, well, no, it's the weakness and instability in the hip. You went in strength train. The body was trying to protect the joint. And so it was, it was tightening up and that stayed tightened up after your workout. And then it's been locked up all day long throughout your day. You went about your day doing no, just normal movements. You lie in bed finally at night and you're like, oh my God, my low back is killing me. And then, then people translate that into, I have bad back. That's right. And it's like, oh, no, we have a solvable issue. And your point of static stretching after a workout, one of the great ways to address this.

20:36Sal Di Stefano:Totally.

20:36Adam Schafer:Next up, mobility drills. And you kind of covered this a little bit, Justin, with Indian clubs.

20:41Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

20:41Adam Schafer:Mobility drills, essentially, and there are specific mobility drills or mobility movements. And you can look them up. We have a lot of these in like Maps Prime or Maps Prime Pro, for example. but mobility drill or performance mobility drills. Essentially what you're doing is you're moving and challenging ranges of motion. Uh, and you're trying to own those ranges of motion that you're challenging. So I'm moving my arm or my shoulder, you know, let's say I'm doing a wall circle. That's an easy one. I can communicate here. You know, I'm standing up against the wall, shoulder up against the wall, hand palm on the floor.

21:13Adam Schafer:And I'm trying to go all the way around without moving away from the wall and slightly and rotating my hand. And I'm just challenging the range of motion, trying to stay connected to it. And I'm doing these drills throughout the day. Now, what this is doing is it's letting my body feel comfortable with these different ranges of motion and connecting to these different ranges of motion. It's giving me better movement patterns or contributing to better movement patterns which then allow my joints to get stronger.

21:38Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I look at this as you're expressing these different ranges of motion and placing your body in positions you probably aren't in very often throughout the day. You're trying to increase the ability to recruit muscle to support that. And so to be able to add tension, be able to have access, to have strength in there where normally it's pretty passive. Like I can only get there by just kind of placing my arm in place, but I can't move out of it. this works on the ability to actually, you know, have access to that. So now, you know, you have less chances of, you know, injury or less chances of like, you know, this instability and pain as a result.

22:20Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, totally. This is so good because you get so many other benefits. I mean, obviously, we're talking about the bulletproofing the joints, but, you know, moving like this and having an isometric component to it like that is a great way to facilitate recovery, which is also a great way to build muscle. So while you're getting the benefits of bulletproofing the joints, you're also getting the benefits of getting stronger and building muscle, moving better, which is why we're so pro. I think you hear us talk about mobility drills and priming and things like that so much is because there's so many added benefits.

22:51Sal Di Stefano:I know we're talking about bulletproofing the joints, but so much more you get out of that by including that in your routine. Totally. Next up, drink lots of water and you got a high protein diet.

22:59Adam Schafer:So first off, dry joints hurt. And I'll say dry joints because I think it communicates it well. The lubrication in your joints, a lot of it is water. And drinking when you're thirsty will prevent you from getting really dehydrated. But there is optimal fluid intake, which is typically more. So I can't tell you how many times, and I don't learn this until much later, but when I figured this out, it was pretty amazing, how many times I had clients increase their water intake and notice less joint pain and better movement. By the way, muscles contract better when you're well hydrated. Joints feel better.

23:40Adam Schafer:Everything works better. And so here's what happens. If my muscles are not optimally hydrated, they're not going to move as well as they can. My movement patterns aren't going to be as good. My exercise techniques aren't going to be as good. Will that affect my joints? Yes. And so water makes a big difference. And then protein. Here's the deal. Connective tissue, ligaments, tendons, muscle, cartilage, protein.

24:03Sal Di Stefano:it's all protein i mean this is how this is why like collagen protein got so popular that's right was for this this exact reason and we've talked about this before if you're eating adequate protein then the difference between collagen or whey protein is negligible and so but it got so much marketing behind it and popularity because of the benefits of just having more protein yes for

24:23Adam Schafer:sure yeah no protein makes a big difference by the way your skin is protein so eating a higher protein diet probably give you better skin as well better hair don't eat your skin don't eat your skin That's for us, dude. And then lastly, get good sleep. So the number one recovery adaptation, you know, hack or thing that you do is your sleep. And so getting good sleep on a regular basis will make the adaptation process work well. The opposite is also true. Getting inconsistent good sleep will make adaptation very difficult and your body will be not so resilient against the stress of exercise. And then you can start to notice issues from that.

25:01Adam Schafer:I just read this cool study on carbohydrate intake and endurance athletes and also electrolytes. I got to pull it up. It's actually pretty cool.

25:11Sal Di Stefano:I just saw, speaking of that, I just saw your video, your reaction video to the guy that was kind of like slamming the electrolytes. There's a big movement right now in the space because of how popular they've become. Anytime something gets popular, it has to be like a negative swing. The swing back and forth, right? I mean, even we were guilty of this, right? We had talked trash long before about electrolytes because most everything out there, the Gatorades that were out there were just sugar water. It was just a bunch of bullshit. Most people didn't need that. It wasn't helping anybody. It was like Bondo.

25:47Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, and so even when we got sent, even when LMNT was sent to us, it sat in our studio for probably six months, maybe longer, before you even looked at the packaging, I remember.

25:58Adam Schafer:There's so many things to consider. You take the average person that eats a heavily processed diet, they probably won't benefit from electrolytes. They're probably getting plenty of sodium. Yeah. And you're not really fixing much with that person just by doing that. But there's so much that happens behaviorally from electrolyte intake that also improves water intake. Here's what I found, okay? And I should have considered this because I coached people forever. But there's often these downstream effects that aren't necessarily, you know, you're not getting benefit necessarily from the thing you're doing, but you're getting the benefit from the downstream things that are happening.

26:35Adam Schafer:So I'll give you an example. I know, so Element, you mentioned Element. So that's an electrolyte powder, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners you put in your water, but it tastes good. It's hyper palatable. You know what I found with my family? They drink way more water because of Element. Yeah, right. So do they need the electrolytes? Not sure. Some of them work out and they'll benefit from it. Do they benefit from the more water because they like the way it tastes? Yes. And it's not a bunch of sugar. So there's also that.

27:00Sal Di Stefano:Well, I think the biggest thing I think of is our audience. I mean, I don't know what percentage of them are like this, but if any of them are even remotely like most of us, which are primarily what we preach about all day, which is eating primarily a whole food diet, I don't get a ton of sodium in my diet anymore. Even if you salt your food. Yes. and it's so obvious to me. I don't even have to train hard in the gym, but because of my sauna and jacuzzi use, if there's a day that goes by and I've been consistent eating my whole foods, I didn't eat out, let's say, the last day or two, and I go in there and I use the jacuzzi or the hot tub or the sauna and I forget to take an element, it's not just I didn't, I have a pounding headache.

27:48Sal Di Stefano:Pounding headache. And one of those solves that every time. So you can't tell me that there's not some sort of a deficiency going on before I go in there and do that because my body has been at a point where it's taking all this sodium in. Then all of a sudden I go on a clean whole food diet where I get a fraction of that. And then I go do something where I'm sweating for 20 minutes and temperatures at 100. And then I'm getting a throbbing headache. And it's happened to me so many times because I've just mindlessly forgot and got lazy and didn't go grab one before I did it. And then it's like, ah.

28:18Adam Schafer:Dude, speaking of headaches and stuff, look at the data on using electrolytes for migraines. A lot of women, a lot of men too, but a lot of women in particular suffer from migraines. They bump their electrolyte intake. It makes a big difference. That's a big deal to somebody that has migraines. If you're working out hard and you're sweating and you do a whole food diet, here's how you know. First of all, try it. You'll know within the first couple times. Yes. You'll know. You'll drink it and you'll be like, whoa, I feel better. it's not a supplement that you need to wait to use you'll know i when i had clients that need electrolytes in the workout and i know because i train them halfway through they're like oh i feel dizzy and light-headed like okay well you know ask them some questions like wait a minute i give them some salt and 10 minutes later like i feel way better it's like you needed you needed some electrolytes in your system so anyway i got some i got a cool study on uh this is good for endurance athletes so they did this on cyclists who were doing a three-hour ride okay those who consumed 120 grams of carbs per hour that's a lot per hour so they're just drinking it while they're while they're racing yeah lost less than a third of the power they would have lost on water alone wow that's a big difference yeah that's a big difference for energy so uh so carbohydrate intake while you're training especially if it's hard training yeah makes a difference it was gel

29:39Sal Di Stefano:packs right carbohydrates makes it

29:41Adam Schafer:makes it different the goo or whatever it is by the way you know why people like the goo I've never had one of those before you know why they like to go it's just convenient there's nothing special about the goo it's just the goo it's just convenient carbs it's just sugar what is it yeah they put carbohydrates in there they probably put some complex carbs in there as well you don't need to have water with it have you had it before Doug I have you have had it years and years ago yeah you look like a goo guy yeah i did a lot of goo in the back in the day sucking down that goo okay yeah see carbohydrates so multidextrin and fructose electrolytes and then sometimes they throw bcaas in there yeah so but yeah no it makes a difference uh and then the element uh you know um so this by the way this is what i've been doing with jiu-jitsu so i've been training uh jiu-jitsu and um it's only an hour but for me it's a lot of endurance training because i don't Did you go this morning?

30:34Adam Schafer:Yeah, I want this morning.

30:35Sal Di Stefano:So what is it? Because it's kind of like a class setting. Yeah. Is it always the same routine? Like you go there, probably do a little bit of warm-up drills, and you guys roll. I mean, is it like the same? So different classes have a different breakdown.

30:47Adam Schafer:But this is a short one. It's only an hour. So we do some drills. So we'll do a technique, drill it, and then we go right into rolling with each other.

30:54Sal Di Stefano:So does that mean, I have no idea what I've never experienced?

30:56Adam Schafer:Normal class would have a longer warm-up workout in the beginning and maybe longer time spent in the technique and drills.

31:03Sal Di Stefano:Does that mean your instructor expects you to come in kind of warmed up and stretched out and ready to go?

31:11Adam Schafer:Yeah, you probably should get there early and do a little bit of warm. That's what I do.

31:15Sal Di Stefano:You guys just do like a few drills together as they kind of warm up?

31:18Adam Schafer:Yeah, and the drills will look like, you know. It's like a technique? Yeah, so it'll be like don't let them pass your guard, but you can't use your hands, and then they'll switch places or get on side mount position. he's trying to escape your job is just trying to hold him down and then they'll so that's like a

31:32Sal Di Stefano:drill uh you know or it could be and you'll do that for oh yeah back and forth which is also exhausting uh do they is he is he like coordinating it where like you know he'll tell you to switch

31:44Adam Schafer:yeah are you supposed to no they have timer okay oh yeah so the timer goes off and then you switch

31:49Sal Di Stefano:sides and then you how's your neck i i know that like your neck is for me dude when i when i was doing like moist. I remember my neck was stiff for like a week just because of all the like

32:02Adam Schafer:pulling and you know what you know what's the big realization for me. I move better than I thought I would. It's not great. Just better than I thought. Uh, there's a couple of things at the bar really low for yourself, but there's a couple of things like, um, that, you know, come to mind. One is, um, well, this is a big one and this is such a great thing for athletes to understand. and just for people who aren't athletes, you can have general fitness. So you can have endurance. You can have strength. You can have all these great general skills. It does not apply to what you're doing. But then there's movement efficiency that you only get from being able to move well.

32:37Adam Schafer:Okay, so like I get way more exhausted than I should. I know. Because I'm not moving efficiently because it's been 20 years since I've done it.

32:45Sal Di Stefano:How much carryover do you think? That's going to be interesting. There's got to be studies on this. So two people. Examples, right? Somebody who does no cardio, and then they go on a one-hour kayak ride. How much cardio endurance does the guy does? None. Then the other guy runs every day. So he's got endurance, but he never kayaks. But he never kayaks, and he's got to kayak for an hour. I mean, both are going to get exhausted before that hour.

33:10Adam Schafer:General fitness will definitely contribute.

33:12Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, that's what I'm curious. Like, how much, though? Not as much as you would think it would.

33:15Adam Schafer:Dude, you're just muscling things. You don't have good techniques. Well, that's it. Well, that's why I use an example of kayaking.

33:22Sal Di Stefano:and have something so simple. Because I feel like if you were probably a great rower and then, say, for an hour, and then you ask that person to go for a run for an hour, you'd probably actually have pretty decent carryover because there's less technique involved in running. So the more technical a thing is, the more specific I would think the cardio endurance would be for it, right?

33:44Adam Schafer:Yeah, there was this interesting show. I don't remember what channel it was on, but I think Randy Couture was on it. and they had him hold a choke for a long period of time and they had all these sensors on him to see what muscles were tensing and activating. And they were able to see how he switched. Oh, that was the science one.

33:59Sal Di Stefano:Sports science. You remember that? Yeah. They interviewed that guy, remember?

34:01Adam Schafer:They were able to show how the tension was getting moved to different muscle as his body was efficient at holding this position versus the average person.

34:11Sal Di Stefano:Compared to average person, yeah. Yeah, dude.

34:13Adam Schafer:Lighting up all over the place. Yeah, dude. I went against this today. I went against this kid. He's like 20 years old. uh, young kid, great kid. He's only been doing jujitsu for a year and we're going together and I'm, I'm, I'm putting him in positions that I should not be getting, like I should not be so exhausted, but I'm so exhausted. I know why it's because I'm not moving efficiently. I'm like holding myself there and like, man, it was, it's pretty disheartening. Yeah.

34:38Sal Di Stefano:I mean that it's going to, you know what? You're on what? Third, third time. It's only the third week. Yeah. So it's like a couple more weeks than I feel like it. And you are only, not a couple more. six months minimum well you're only going twice right yeah yeah that's why i mean if you that's

34:52Adam Schafer:what i mean bro you gotta you know this you have i have to i have to weigh my ability to recover yeah with how much i can do yeah i'll tell you the advantage i have now versus when i was younger i'm way smarter oh i'm patient yeah i'm gonna go easy and i'll let my body adapt what i used to do

35:08Sal Di Stefano:earlier that would just go and just go and burn myself talk about how long i mean it's taken me that so long to become that guy in the gym like when i think about how i train now i catch myself sometimes like that now where i'm so different where in the past there's times where i finish a set or decide not to go up and wait and it is so it still is difficult it's not as difficult as it used to be yeah but it's like uh where it's like everything says i could totally add more right now you know but it's like but i then i go why yeah i'm not going to benefit me yeah i'm already gonna get benefits from doing what i'm doing right now i know i am because i this has already been two and a half weeks since the last time my barbell back squatted and i can already feel like that that was challenging enough but it's like my ego goes like yeah but i want to put 315 on the bar you know i'm saying and i know i can do it because i just moved 275 relatively easy you know i'm saying but i'm going but why like there's no there's like i'm already gonna reap benefits from that 275 that i just moved and so it's taken a long time to get there like i i think even just six years ago I'd be really eager to put that 315 on the bar

36:14Adam Schafer:I'll tell you what it would be and I'm just like you and we have wisdom now because I've been doing this a while it's harder with strength training than it is with jiu-jitsu and I'll tell you why with strength training it's just me and the weights in jiu-jitsu I'm fighting a grown man and so I'm like if I'm not careful and I go too hard and I move the wrong way or I give the this guy he starts to go super hard and he catches me and it's like you just get hurt so i'm like i'm gonna go easy dude i'm gonna go super chill yeah and it's still hard for me find your skill dude i still get exhausted bro i get that kind of exhaust i haven't felt that kind of long time that you know that's where your stamina is like running out yeah and you just want to die he's like oh yeah dude i'm just like what is

36:57Sal Di Stefano:happening you know speaking of endurance and stuff like that doug you once a year go rafting you just got back from your your fourth of july last year is that like hardcore oh yeah no i mean it's class three top that's yeah there's listen where did it where that's it's it's pretty tame really you got a guide well how many classes are there well the five i think is a five is crazy i think yeah i think four i've done three and four four is like scary yeah well i mean for you it'd be scary i'm terrified you could fly out it's not that scary you have a life vest on you know i'm saying you get a guide you get a helmet it's fun but it's not scary but it but it's a lot of work when you're in a 8, 10, 12 person?

37:35Sal Di Stefano:How many are there? Yeah, there's there were six of us plus the guide. Where do they put you in the boat? Where are you at? I was up at the bow. So you're at the bow? Yeah. Okay, so they put the stronger guy up at the front and he's doing most of the steering and so he's getting commands. No, actually the guide's doing the steering. You're doing the well, I mean, he's steering, excuse me, what you're, I mean yes, he's ruddering it but you're, hard right, hard right, hard right, and you're back left, back left like you're, you are, he's doing a lot of the controlling. You are controlling Yeah, largely lazy though.

38:04It's largely lazy. Is it? Yeah, I mean, so there's moments.

38:08Sal Di Stefano:I'm trying to remember how much different the free and the four were. So there's moments where you're definitely digging in. Yeah. But they're typically very short.

38:15Adam Schafer:How long is the whole rafting experience? Oh, you start about 10 a.m. and you get done around between 5 to 6 p.m. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. The whole time you're on a raft now? Yeah. Oh, well, so. You get little breaks. So there's a lot of different companies. So we were up on the American River out of Coloma, which is gold country. here in California. And, uh, there's a lot of different companies, but the one we go with always, they, they do so much more than any of the other companies in that you get to swim a lot. You get to jump off rocks into the water. But how long are you on a raft?

38:48I'll tell you,

38:49Sal Di Stefano:four, at least four hours, he is floating on a river of those four hours. More than that. At least four hours. He's floating around of those four to five hours that he's floating on the raft. there are like intervals where for like a minute he's going to be really intense. Then he gets to cruise for a while. But I mean, think about that. Constantly, like minute, minute intense bouts for all day long. I'm going to tell you, today is Tuesday. I guarantee you're sore as shit. I am. Yeah, still recovering.

39:17Adam Schafer:Yeah, still recovering. Absolutely. What do you have to go to the bathroom when you're on this thing? Oh, well, so you do a lot of swimming. And so as long as that's all you need to do, you can just pee out in the river. All right?

39:27Sal Di Stefano:Wow. It's a lot of fun. so many calories, you're not having to poop very much. You pee. You reabsorb it? Yeah. You use that. Fuel that he filled up at 8 a.m., it's used up by 10.

39:39Adam Schafer:Were you wearing the Viore wetsuit? So, yes. So, this year, so you jump in the river a lot. In fact, I couldn't remember exactly when we started getting in the river. So, this year, what I did is I had bought two Viore wetsuits last fall. That's so cool to carry that, too. How did you know they had those? Well, I was on their site and I was doing shopping and I go, wow, they have wetsuits. I'm going to buy these things and I want to try it out in river rafting. But I was a little concerned about wearing them from the beginning of the day because it's going to be a 90 degree day. And you're wearing like, I think it's two millimeter thick material.

40:22And I was afraid it was going to get way too hot. So I wore a rash guard initially. we get out on the raft in five minutes and he goes all right if you want to jump in the water jump in the water and i go oh man i probably should have put this thing on earlier so i jump in the water we all jump in the water and it's you know it's up in the mountains and it's cold it's early still too and you do this multiple times sometimes you're floating down rapids on your back it's it's a lot of fun i highly recommend it but you're getting cold and then by the time we had lunch i had put the i have like a dry bag i had put both of my wetsuits in there and uh and so at lunchtime i took off the rash guard put on one of the wetsuits and then brianna's boyfriend thomas i gave him the other one he was cold too and the second half of the trip was so amazing i couldn't get enough of getting in that river it made that big of a difference well really good

41:19Sal Di Stefano:one will like control your temp like that it'll it'll keep it a nice it'll be you won't get too hot you won't get too cold in it no no i never got too hot in it even though it was 90 degrees did you wear they have a long sleeve one they have a short sleeve one yes i wore the short sleeve thomas wore the long sleeve next year i'm buying buying one for brianna they have a female one as well so that's dude they have so killer just and i were on their side earlier yeah and i was we were talking about the jackets because uh that was like my last purchase was their jacket that i love um they have so many like lightweight cool stylish jackets there's a lot of stuff on their website that you don't see in the store no that i for and you know you know we get sent stuff so i just assume oh we go in the store we do ads for them we also like i'm seeing most of it i don't we don't even see a fraction of how much cool stuff they have it's funny because like it's almost like you got to go there i i was playing a trip out to scotland and iceland and i was like i wonder if to have like a rain jacket you know and then i just look and there it was and it was like perfect the same thing it was like super lightweight and it just repelled water and i was

42:21Adam Schafer:you know perfectly warm you guys you guys couldn't pay me to do rafting really it's so crazy because

42:29Sal Di Stefano:especially you gave you little water wings three isn't that scary so here's how many drops did you have that they consider because the way they consider it is so a three will have a certain amount of like drops or fast pace like how many total do you think you had in a day i mean like class three ones maybe i don't know five yeah that's just not so many so only five times in the day will he have something that was like a probably a little drop off or the picks up the current around a corner and some rocks and at three it's not that four four i remember we had a couple like i had i'd really get after if i've never been higher than a four five is like crazy

43:04Adam Schafer:you're a great swimmer you both are good swimmers you don't have a light vest and a helmet on yeah

43:08Sal Di Stefano:that's it yeah you don't even need to worry about water you don't need to worry about going into the water we've never lost anybody with a good guide yeah i told you the story we've lost our guide before so i've been on so four is aggressive enough that you can hit some rapids and there's some boulders you got to maneuver around and we we hit we hit a bump so bad that it launched him off the back and i was and i was doing the front and i didn't hear my commands anymore and so and I'm so into it, trying not to hit the rock coming up. I'm paddling, and I look back, and there's my guide floating down.

43:42Sal Di Stefano:He's trying to yell, come on. Eventually, we hit the side, boom, and the front of the boat got stuck. Then he worked his, floated his way, and then climbed back in. Then we all pushed back off the rock. Just to let you know how easy it is, though, is Brianna started when she was eight years old. Okay.

44:00Adam Schafer:It was just making me feel bad, but I'm not going to do it.

44:04Sal Di Stefano:I feel like especially if we did like a three first there is more downtime in cruising. Well I see little children in rafts. Yeah. It's not that bad. I'm trying to. You know one time Do you pull up a picture of a class 5 rapids? Why? Because I just want to see it. I haven't thought about it in a long time. I haven't done one in a long time.

44:24Adam Schafer:You know what this makes me feel like? One time I was on this hike. I'll never forget. It was this gnarly hike dude. And I was going up and I was with my cousin and we were hot and we were like really trucking and we were doing it for a while. And this woman with a baby in a baby bjorn just walks by us that's how i feel right now so there's there's so i got a

44:41Sal Di Stefano:cool picture doug of me in a kayak on on on a good so i think uh we had one part i forget it's like called the devil's mouth or something like that and you all you see is is white water going down

44:53Adam Schafer:and they're always crazy names like that that's crazy hey dude i got speaking of kids dude did Did you guys watch the video I sent you of Aurelius? Oh, getting emotional over the soccer game? Dude, can I just tell you? I don't, like... You're so lucky, bro. Listen, listen. That's why I sent it, because I knew you guys would get a kick out of it. Oh, that's a cool graph.

45:12Sal Di Stefano:That's the irony, though. Actually, there's six. There's a level six. I didn't know that. I thought five was... Is six illegal, though, to go on? I don't know. I have to be a pro. Yeah, I think there's certain ones that you can't... You're not even... Like, it's illegal to go on.

45:25Adam Schafer:That's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy.

45:27Sal Di Stefano:So we don't watch...

45:29Adam Schafer:Unrunnable. Unrunnable. Yeah, okay. That C6 is unrunnable. So we don't watch sports at home. You guys know that. I don't watch sports. I never watch sports. I don't even have a subscription to watch sports. It's not a part of our life. It's not a big deal. We do other things. I never played really a lot of – I played as a kid, but I didn't play in leagues and stuff like that. I did judo as a kid, wrestling, lifted weights, but no traditional – so it's just not a part of our family culture at all. anytime something is on tv football soccer it doesn't matter and i and part of me is like is it because he heard me you know make a comment on this the first time he did it he loved it and i made a comment you know sometimes you say something your kid wants to impress you yeah but he loves it so i get the world cup because usa is playing the sucks that they lost but they're playing so i'm like you know what i'm gonna i'm gonna pay for this month and i'm gonna watch we'll watch the world cup so i put it on immediately a railist is like super into it oh my god thanks papa thank you this is gonna be so fun super into it and i'm looking at jessica like is he is he faking it like what's going on which team is ours i'm like usa usa is ours so we start doing usa you start chanting yeah then they start to lose bro he's crying he's no no he's upset he's emotionally he's mad i had like i had to turn it off he got so upset that they were losing why are we losing we need to win he's like crying and i'm like is he for real and at one point i was a little mean to him i'm like dude i'm gonna give you a word for acting there's no way you're this sad and jessica's looks at me with this angry look and shit you think he's been faking it this whole time he's like tears and he's upset bro it's in what is

47:02Sal Di Stefano:in this it is in kids some kids dna bro i we had we had all the kids over for max's birthday you know you don't have that big ping pong table right and uh my buddy his three-year-old son and the three dads, we were out there sitting outside the barbecue and stuff like that and his wife comes in and she goes, you need to go take care of your son. I've been playing ping pong with him for the last hour and he will not give me a break. He's three and he just wants to figure out but doesn't know what he's doing but he's just trying to figure it out and so determined at three years old. I can't bribe my son to play ping pong with me.

47:39Sal Di Stefano:I try to bribe him with Legos to play ping pong with me for 10 minutes and then he's like, i'm over it dad like i don't want to do anymore so some kids are just watching part is crazy to me yeah but that same kid his son who's three he's got like watch watch football with him all day

47:55Adam Schafer:long and just he's got this ultra competitive thing inside of him when it comes to that stuff and he gets really do you know if you were like that when you were little yeah you were 100 you

48:06Sal Di Stefano:can you can draw back to watch all every sport played every sport like ate slept and breathed dude yeah it was crazy it was like it's such an outlet for me though like that was like the the main thing that got me out of the house and so yeah anytime we'd hang out it was like we're playing basketball we're throwing the football we're bringing the soccer ball to the beach like whatever like i don't that was the thing like people go and like the beach and they chill and like they lay out and all that you were there to play never yeah yeah never i'd like chill it yeah my furthest my furthest memory is how old are you in third grade what are you in third grade Seven?

48:41Sal Di Stefano:No. Five in kindergarten or so? Maybe eight or nine. Eight or nine. Eight or nine. So my furthest back is eight or nine watching baseball. And I instantly became, and I'll never forget because it was our, my family didn't watch sports either. And it was my friend who was like a few houses down, his dad was like a diehard Dodgers fan and watched all the baseball games when we go over there. And I was drawn to watching it and then became this big baseball nut and instantly started collecting cards, memorizing all the players. I remember my parents used to bring me out in the living room because they were not into sports at all.

49:16Sal Di Stefano:They thought it was so fascinating that their friends could come over and you could quiz me on, who plays right field? Who plays there? I knew all that. What's his batting? I knew all these stats because I had my handful of cards and studied them and knew all. I didn't really get into it. Some of them, it was really going there. That really solidified it for me. Especially with baseball because so uh growing up like behind my parents house um the lefevers i don't know if you know jim lefevre was like the third base coach for the a's at the time then he was like the general manager for seattle and then also like the cubs in chicago um but we used to babysit as kids and so you know we we'd go to the games and we'd sit with the players wives and then like for the 89 series where the A's played the Giants like we actually got to go into the dugout and I got like Mark McGuire like Jose Giseco everybody to sign this ball and it was just like my eyes were like this

50:16Adam Schafer:big well so what I'm thinking is I'm thinking about taking him it's like a bonding experience to go to like maybe a Sharks game or like a minor league 100 % do it and just go the only thing that I'm worried about I'm telling you guys like he got really upset so I'm like

50:32Sal Di Stefano:like he'll work through it dude that's the thing about it's such a passionate experience like sports is like it's the microcosm it's like everything intensified all at once and then you then you work your way out of it was so funny bro it's wrong with them why can't they win it's in you or it's not in you i mean it's like it's it's in it he cares dude i'm hoping that he gets

50:53Adam Schafer:into uh the stuff that i enjoy like wrestling jiu-jitsu that kind of stuff i would i would be such a dream i mean the way everything's playing out i feel like it's just not how it works

51:02Sal Di Stefano:he's a little baseball he's gonna be in the conventional sports throw the ball with me I don't know how to throw a ball

51:08Adam Schafer:call your uncle Adam

51:10Sal Di Stefano:no I'm super I'm super jealous you can just tell your son's that way he throws a ball he hits a ball that way he shoots a gun already like that he does all these things and he's natural obviously you're a good dad you do these things with him but it's not like you've been training him to be never yeah great he just is into it yeah yeah and and they'll and to justin's point like you just automatically are passionate about it's weird bro that intensity that he had like that was our intensity even when i was a high school and call it like those important games like you're just like it's everything that's your whole world yeah it was really funny to watch and i was like jessica's the one that recorded i mean i hope it turns you into someone who ends up really appreciated i'll be into whatever he's into because i know how exactly i know how you get you you don't do anything half-ass and you do get very obsessive and anything and so it's going to be cool to see when it like right now it's so early it's like it's more play but you know if your son really gets into it and like it pulls you in i to hear you get into any sport like uh like i'll that'll be fun for us yeah that'd be a nice evolution for us it'd be a nice evolution of my pump you know i'm saying you get to finally talk talk sports you know what i'm saying it's so like so what i think about because everybody always i always talk to my my other good friends it's wild to me i have best friends that go back 30 almost 40 years now uh that we go back and uh it's always great to catch up and see them but i have now spent more time with you guys than anybody yeah even my friends that i say are 30 year plus friends you i would say you guys actually know me better yeah yeah you know because you know all the stories of when i grew up and then you know me now on a level on a daily level so it's like so wild but i have that part of with them that i don't share with us is that we're we're so a big part of my life was sports and so a lot of the conversation is is around that and so that's what we miss the three of us we don't talk a lot about that stuff here so see you go down that direction would be like way cool oh yeah we've got a lot to

53:19Adam Schafer:contribute if and when i got one more study to bring up and just a short one but it's pretty cool and i've talked about this on previous episodes but i think uh probiotics are going to be the next performance enhancing uh supplement trend because more and more studies show that they help with performance so they did a study where they had groups of men taking protein powder versus groups of men that took protein powder with probiotics that's the only difference so Was it the recovery that they're finding is the biggest benefit to that?

53:54Sal Di Stefano:Well, in this study, they were stronger.

53:55Adam Schafer:They were stronger. They got better strength results. Wow. The only difference was the probiotic. And there's studies that show it helps with fat loss. It helps with inflammation. It helps with strength. There's a study that shows that it contributes to maybe muscle growth. And it's good for you. It's like one of those. That's a healthy supplement like probiotics. Go for it.

54:16Sal Di Stefano:It's pretty wild. I sent you a study. I can't remember. I think you've brought it up on the podcast. Yes. Yeah. Have you brought that up on the podcast? I have. I don't know. I mean.

54:26Adam Schafer:Five grams of creatine in post-menopausal women dramatically reduced anxiety. 95%. Saw a reduction in anxiety. Yeah.

54:35Sal Di Stefano:95%. Pretty much everybody saw a reduction in anxiety.

54:38Adam Schafer:Dude, if you're not taking creatine. I know. You need to take creatine. Creatine monohydrate. You need to take creatine. It's so good for you. It's got so many benefits.

54:47Sal Di Stefano:I thought that was powerful. I know I've heard you for sure allude to that. I couldn't remember if you had actually addressed that study or not, but I thought, wow, that's a dramatic number.

54:56Adam Schafer:Yes, for a supplement that's healthy?

54:58Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Is that a drug? It's like it doesn't matter your goal, whether you want to build muscle or not, you should take that. Everybody. Yeah, because if 95 % of women say that they felt a reduction in anxiety just from five grams a day, that's worth it. It's awesome.

55:12Adam Schafer:Yeah, it's awesome. Caldera Labs Hydro Layer is amazing. What does it do? It visibly reduces lines and wrinkles. It firms and tightens your skin, and it minimizes the appearance of pores. It also evens skin tone. It's all-day hydration. It's non-greasy. It absorbs instantly. Now, a lot of people like to use retinol, but that's aggressive and can cause peeling and skin irritation. The Hydrolayer is different. It's anti-aging. It reinforces the skin's natural moisture barrier, and it supports the microbiome on your skin. It works exceptionally well. In fact, they've done studies on people using Caldera Lab products, and a majority, vast majority, 90 % or more, notice visible improvements in a very short period of time.

56:02Adam Schafer:Caldera Lab is the only skincare product we work with because they're natural and they really do work. They make your skin healthier. They don't just create healthier-looking skin. It actually makes it a lot healthier. Go check them out. Go to calderalab.com slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump 20 and get 20 % off. Back to the show. Our first question is from muazb95. Which training split is effective for natural lifters? Training one muscle group once per week or twice per week? Ooh, twice. Yeah, twice. So they do great studies on this. And training, now I want to say this. The volume is the same in both examples.

56:45Adam Schafer:So what I mean by that is what sometimes people do is they say, oh, cool, I'm going to work out my, let's say my chest twice a week. And so they just double the workload. So I already do my workout on Monday. I'm just going to do it again on Thursday. That's not how this works. The way that it works is you do the same volume, you just split it up. Okay. And what they find in the data is people build more muscle and build more strength doing this. And part of the reason is it reduces fatigue. Fatigue influences subsequent sets within a workout, which means you're gonna get less of that strength adaptation.

57:17Adam Schafer:And the second reason is that muscle building signal is being sent more frequently. And muscle building really peaks after about 24 hours, stays elevated for two or three days, and then goes back down. So instead of doing 10 sets for chest on Monday, you're better off doing five on Monday and five on Thursday. You'll get better results.

57:35Sal Di Stefano:Well, not only that, but you also, so the studies control volume. But in a real world, even when you make the equal amount of sets and reps yeah volume is higher volume naturally goes up you're stronger so that just shows you how much better two times a week becomes because it already has this built-in progressive overload into it in other words to sal's point if you're somebody who always just did like like one day a week you did the 10 or 12 sets of whatever muscle group and you now split that over two still only doing 10 don't go anymore because what will naturally happen is those five and five look different now you're stronger just like maybe the first five on monday looks the same because you were fresh on monday and you did five and then but the second five which would have followed those first five you're obviously weaker but when you put a day or two and rest in between and then you go and do it again you're going to be fresh again so it's going to look like those first five and so what does that naturally allow you to do increase the weight increasing the weight increases the volume so even in the studies that show volume controlled, it's better.

58:36Sal Di Stefano:We know that just organically, you're going to increase volume, which is going to increase muscle mass.

58:42Adam Schafer:100%. I will add this. This can get extreme, and it works even in extreme cases. So this doesn't work for most people because most people don't have a schedule that would allow anything like this. But you look at studies where they divide up the volume even more, where instead of training a muscle group once a week, they train it five days a week and divide up the volume. or they divide up even more twice a day and they divide up the volume so it's just more frequent

59:08Sal Di Stefano:it's better it's just bring up our 15 minute protocol it's like a split the you know for a natural lifter too to be able to have that kind of recovery and like eliminate fatigue completely you're just skill training in a sense and practicing and like dude watch how strong you get all that next question is from annika aj what can cause muscle loss accompanied need with fat gain while in a calorie deficit and following a structured strength training program.

59:36Adam Schafer:So this is easy, or I should say reliably what will happen if you're in too much of a deficit. So whenever you're taking in less calories and you're burning, your body's goal is to match the energy intake with the energy output. In other words, it wants balance because if you stayed in a deficit forever, you would die. In other words, if you burn 2 ,000 calories a day and you ate 1 ,000 calories a day and your body always burned 2000 calories a day and you always ate a thousand at some point you're going to die because where are you going to get that extra energy and your body's going to start pulling it from itself and all that stuff but that's not what happens what happens is your body learns to burn less calories to match the new caloric intake and one of the ways it does this is it pairs muscle down because muscle costs a lot of energy and so when you go in a deficit i don't care if you're strength training great usually what happens people over train with their strength training on top of it is your body's adapting and it's losing muscle because it's you're taking in too little calories.

1:00:31Adam Schafer:So this will happen. This happens to people who are advanced, who know what they're doing. They'll go into deficit and they'll lose weight on the scale and then realize their body fat percentage went up because they lost muscle. The name of the game with a calorie deficit is keep muscle. Preserve muscle at all costs. Can I preserve muscle? And if you don't, then you better lose more body fat than you lose muscle. But the best thing is to not lose any muscle.

1:00:56Sal Di Stefano:Well, and if you actually gained fat, you're technically not in a caloric deficit anymore. So what has happened is what you're alluding to right now, which is what used to be a calorie deficit for you. So let's take the example of you used to eat 2 ,000 plus calories, and then all of a sudden you decided to go on this really strict diet and cut yourself down to 1 ,200 calories. And so you're, quote, unquote, in a deficit initially. And that's such a dramatic deficit paired with your exercise, you just start paring muscle down like crazy. and what eventually happens is you pare down that muscle metabolism slows down and now your calorie intake is now maintenance it's no longer a deficit and so all it takes is you eating say 1400 calories or a little bit up and you gain fat right and that's what's happening because you can't gain fat in a in a deficit you're not you can't you're you're technically if you're in a true deficit you're catabolic you're not going to build a muscle or fat and so that but if you actually see on like let's say a dexa scan or a body fat test that you added fat pounds then you no longer

1:01:57Adam Schafer:in a deficit now that being said adam you can be in a deficit and go up in body fat percentage yes

1:02:03Sal Di Stefano:well yeah that's different that's because muscle that means you lost let's say you could see 10 pounds go down on the scale and nine of it was muscle and one of it was was fat and your body fat percentage will go up that's right which somebody will interpret that is how is this possible i'm in a calorie deficit and i gained fat you didn't gain fat you just lost so much muscle in relation to that's right the fat that you went up in body ratio window next question is from matthew with faith what are some exercises i can do at home to improve ankle mobility you

1:02:34Adam Schafer:know my two favorites are the combat stretch and sitting in a deep squat and bringing my knees forward while i do it those elevated squats i have not found anything to be more effective

1:02:43Sal Di Stefano:for me, at least with ankle mobility. Good combat stretch, dude. It's so easy to do at home, sitting on your floor, watching TV. Drive that knee forward. Yeah, and then once you get to a place, because then after that, it just becomes practicing sitting down there. It took a long time for me to get here, but once I got to the place where I could comfortably rest in a deep squat, I mean, when my son is playing Legos on the floor, I often sit in a squat and I'll for 10, 15 minutes in that position and I'll play with them. And just doing that will keep that ankle mobility up. So although I had to do a lot of combat stretching to get there and working on it, once I got to the place where I could get down in that and comfortably hold that, then it was just a matter of doing that to maintain that.

1:03:32Sal Di Stefano:And I now, I never do combat stretch. I can't tell you the last time I did a combat stretch. You maintained it. Now I just get down in a deep squat and do that and that maintains it. next question is from steven harwood 91 in a recent episode you guys mentioned doing tibialis raises for shin splints and making your lower leg look bigger etc it's an exercise i've never done or even thought about really but i'm loving them just wondering what other body parts or exercises are commonly overlooked or certain muscles that rarely get trained that should be getting tired. Oh, I love this question. Good question.

1:04:07I love this question. Off the top of my head. I got a bunch off the top of my head.

1:04:10Adam Schafer:Internal and external rotation of the shoulder. Sure. An internal external rotation of the hips. Yep. So what does that mean? So, 100%. So if my arm is at my side, so if you're listening, my arm's at my side, elbow bent, and I rotate so that the back of my hand goes back, right? So I'm twisting my arm out or I twist it in, right? So internal external rotation. The muscles that twist my upper arm, those muscles rarely get directly worked with strength training. They'll be in stabilized positions, but they rarely ever get really strengthened. And this causes shoulder problems when you get really strong and then the discrepancy between those muscles and the ones you're working or the movements you're working start to get too big.

1:04:53Adam Schafer:Same thing with internal external rotation of the hips. Those two, I would say, and then maybe wrist extension. You really don't see lots of people strengthening that, so you'll see some wrist issues.

1:05:03Sal Di Stefano:I think, and I will just reinforce that just because like, those are the two areas you're probably going to load the most. And the hips and the shoulders is carrying a lot of, most carrying a lot of your workouts, like in a sense. And so to constantly have that top of mind of be able to, you know, include and incorporate it, whether it's in your warmup, whether it's just like within your workout specifically and adding load to it, which I do suggest. I think we talk a lot about mobility a lot, but actually like, you know, like progressively overloading and adding some load to that to strengthen it is going to take you even further than just the maintenance of it.

1:05:41Sal Di Stefano:I love that you guys went so the opposite of what I was going with right now because you guys both went like health functional. What people neglect and miss for optimal joint health and mobility was totally not how I interpreted this. This person would ask about their lower leg looking bigger and we did tibialis stuff. So I went aesthetic right away. So I'm thinking of things like rear delts are totally neglected. If you want to sculpt great shoulders and or you want great arms, just delts and period. I think so many guys that want great arms focus so much on buy and try workouts all day long.

1:06:12Sal Di Stefano:They neglect working their shoulders more and building your shoulders up more and rear delts being one of those main things.

1:06:18Adam Schafer:A lot of people don't do rear delts. At all. They do laterals and presses. Yes. And avoid the rear delts.

1:06:22Sal Di Stefano:And then I'd say things like traps. Traps are neglected many times. to make a back and just the way your shirt sits on you. Like, I mean - A lot of functional reasons for that too. Such a great, great exercises to make sure that get, that get affected. Obliques are another one. People just, they don't want a bigger waist and so they don't train obliques, but get defined obliques or abs. You talk a lot about that and being able to see your abs at higher body fat percentage. You go on a strength training journey of like trying to build strength in your abs because they always tend to be like a, you know at the end of a workout if you ever do um yeah like an afterthought try going after like really building your abs and all of a sudden you can carry your body fat percentage two or three percent higher and see abs like so that's where my brain went right away because this was more like the other angle i was kind of going was more like just strengthening your feet yes and really focusing on that as it's anchoring your entire uh kinetic chain like anything you're gonna do like it's going to start there in your feet even if you're anchoring yourself to a bench uh so to to be able to have dexterity and strengthen your toes and uh be able to have good arch support and really be able to get up on your forefoot and not be so flat-footed like all

1:07:38Adam Schafer:these things will matter when force production but i'll say this i'll just add this like i i it's happened so many times with me with either friends or clients who are experienced where all we do is do some targeted external rotation exercises for the shoulder, and suddenly they can overhead press and bench press more. It's magic.

1:07:57Sal Di Stefano:Suddenly. Oh, that's how I have to start. Like 10 pounds heavy. I have to start every chest, shoulder workout with that. Yeah. That is, and I've hurt myself so many times not doing that because I'm strong enough to load all those exercises now. I have to prime with that, and priming with that, huge difference. Yes. Huge difference. It's a staple in every chest and shoulder workout. Totally.

1:08:16Adam Schafer: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.

1:09:01The 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