2948: The Type of Exercise That Will Get You Past Sticking Points & Why This Beats Every Other Form of Exercise

14:38Adam Schafer:So for smart lifters, like you want to get through sticking points, do this. This will blast through them faster.

14:44Sal Di Stefano:You know, you can see where we, this science has been applied at the highest level, like sports. I think Corey Schlesinger, when he was on the show, shared and talked a little bit about this. Remember how he uses his box? Yeah. And one of the things he would do is put his athletes in these kind of like compromising positions and then do isometric. And just hold. Yeah, isometric holds so that when their ankle is contorted in this position, which it gets contorted in that position in a basketball game. That's right, yeah. And then do an isometric contraction.

15:13Justin Andrews:It's like those 45 degree blocks.

15:15Sal Di Stefano:Yes. And then you see this too. I mean, sometimes you catch it on TV, not as much, but at a game you can see pre-game all the trainers are out on the floor and almost every superstar athlete has their own personal private trainer and you can see them doing a lot of stuff where the athlete will get in this position and then the trainer will push against them and that's what they're doing. They're resisting against them and creating that in a position that they would get in the game.

15:46Justin Andrews:Which I think in my opinion is the best form of sports specific training. Totally. As opposed to like, yeah, you trying to explosively move into the, like, you know, I tend to save a lot of that kind of stuff in the conditioning for, you know, sports, just like the practice of it. But to your point of like getting those positions, you could find a lot of those precarious positions where a lot of ankle rolls, a lot of like knees, a lot of shoulders in a compromised position. You can really reinforce the stability there with isometric safely. and then when you get in that position or you're throwing acceleration on top of that, you're way less susceptible.

16:26Sal Di Stefano:It's one of my favorite things to watch before the game because I geek out on the fact that I can tell like, oh, that's a good trainer. You can tell by what they're doing. Some of the guys don't have that. They have like a general trainer that like helps for every team and then you have like your superstars that have gone out and like hired somebody else and they're all kind of doing different warm-ups. Now, granted, each guy has specific needs and stuff like that so he probably should be doing some different stuff. but I can always tell the guy who's like on another level of helping them because you see them doing a lot of movements like that and doing a lot of isometric holds and positions.

16:58Sal Di Stefano:And I'm like, Oh, that's really cool.

16:59Adam Schafer:Yeah. So, uh, I have a little bit of experience with this developing strength at an angle. Um, I used to get stuck at the bottom of a bench press and it was significantly weaker than when I was up like four or five inches. So there was a period of time there where I got under a bar that was stuck in that position. I drove against it. And mainly because I read some old Soviet studies on how they would use these. And I read a book called Dinosaur Training that talked a little bit about this. Not only did it get that sticking point to not become a sticking point anymore, I did it so much that that now is no longer a sticking point.

17:35Adam Schafer:It's actually a strength. If I get stuck on a bench press, it's not halfway up. It's on the lockout. It's never in the beginning anymore because I did this. I haven't gone through the training of working on it yet. than I should, but it's remarkable because I remember literally when I got here, if I couldn't move here, I couldn't. Now it's the point where I'm going to get it up at least four or five inches and then I get stuck. And it's because I made it a strength. Train your body to recruit more. Yep.

17:54Justin Andrews:And it's not, it like repeats that process. If you do it enough times, it's pretty magical.

17:59Adam Schafer:I did this with a deadlift as well. So you can actually, this is a great little home gym set up. You can set up, anchor two chains to the ground. So if you have concrete in your garage, you bolt them into the ground and anchor these two chains and put collars at the end of the chains and you can attach them to a bar and you can pull against the floor or you can push against the floor and you can make the chains long, short or whatever and work on all these different sticking points, which by the way you guys, everybody listening who wants to just build a better looking physique a little DIY. Getting through sticking points and strengthening your body in different angles is going to contribute to better gains in muscle and in aesthetics.

18:37Adam Schafer:So this isn't just and athletic performance thing. And then lastly, here's where isometrics are phenomenal. And this is what you noticed, Adam. Yeah. For pain relief, isometrics are remarkable. It's like someone with like Oshkud Schlatter, right? Where they have that knee tendon pain. If they sit in a leg extension position and just drive against something that doesn't move, the data shows a 45 % reduction in pain after one rep of doing that. That's crazy. One rep. So what you probably notice with your warmup is when you're doing that with your lunge, you get into your squat and you're like, whoa, everything feels really good.

19:11Justin Andrews:It's more stable now. Yes.

19:13Adam Schafer:And then for tendon strength. Tendon strength and stiffness improve faster with isometrics than other forms of exercise. I'm going to tell you right now, muscle strains and stuff, they really suck. Tendon and ligament strains are far worse. They take way longer to heal. Muscle strains heal much faster. and sometimes when we do lots of bodybuilding and lots of hypertrophy training our tendons and ligaments lag behind um and that causes issues got the big strong muscles and tendons and ligaments that can't really uh support them very well counter that with certain strength athletes where it's the opposite their tendons are way stronger than the muscles yeah i'm convinced

19:56Justin Andrews:especially like um seeing a lot of people get like rapid strength gains and big muscle growth but then getting these injuries. And sometimes that's due to taking anabolic steroids or with bodybuilding or with sports or just your training, you're getting after, you're building strength so quickly, but you're not reinforcing that strength. And to be able to, yeah, have something that can still build strength and reinforce your tendons is going to keep you all intact.

20:25Sal Di Stefano:I feel like we'll know when this has really started to become a trend or a wave is when somebody invents a little machine station that has like a... I feel like you're in my head.

20:38Adam Schafer:I was literally thinking this.

20:39Sal Di Stefano:Can you not picture this platform cage thing that has all these... And you just push into it and it just tells you your number? Yeah, and on it is like a wall... I'll tell you all about it. ...of all the different... Really? There is? Where? There is?

20:52Justin Andrews:Yeah, so if you guys have ever seen a stretching cage... Yeah, exactly. That's what I was envisioning. So me and my friend were going off on this when we were geeking out on doing it with a stick and different angles and different positions you could place. And so we put blocks on that stretching station, and then somebody actually welded and created one. So it's like you could push, and then in the middle, yeah, you had the chains where you could pull a different chain. It exists? Yeah. What's it called? Well, that's the thing. It's not like commercial.

21:24Sal Di Stefano:Oh, okay. Somebody made one. Oh, of course there's somebody who's made one. It's not that mainstream. That's my point. It's like when we know when we see a mainstream in a gym, someone's got a - If there was a line of machines - I'll make one in our gym. It'd be cool.

21:39Adam Schafer:If there was a line of machines that were basic and simple to use, so it's like chest press isometric, leg press isometric, overhead, then people would use it.

21:47Sal Di Stefano:Literally, it would be like for every body part, you'd have a little thing and show people how they could - Yep. Yeah. And you just drive into it. It wouldn't take up that much space. No. It would be a - Like a little corner spot. Yeah. And like you said, I envisioned it with like a stretching cage. It's almost like a priming station.

22:04Adam Schafer:Listen, if you're a personal trainer and you don't use this with your clients, you're stupid. This will give them so much better. It'll blow their minds. When it comes to pain alone, this was one of my favorite ways to help somebody feel a reduction in pain right out the gates.

22:17Sal Di Stefano:I wish I did this. I never did this with my clients to prime them before they did like a squat or deadlift. What I see it working with me right now, I'm like, man, that would have been such a cool tool to use that. I didn't use that. I wasn't aware.

22:30Adam Schafer:I did this all the time. I learned it from the physical therapist that I worked with. So all credit goes to her. But if I had a client who had hip pain when we'd squat, it would be literally as simple as this. We'd sit in a chair. I'd have their leg up against the wall. I'd sit next to them so they don't slide on the bench. Press as hard as you can for 15 seconds against the wall. And they would do it. They'd push real hard. We'd stop. We'd go do a squat. Hip pain gone. It was the fastest, easiest thing you could possibly do. Now, does it replace correctional exercise? because that's still necessary in some cases.

23:01Adam Schafer:But in the cases - It unlocks movement though. That's how I used it. I used it so they could do the exercise. And if you're a trainer, you're not using isometrics. Like you are, I mean, it's dumb. It's so easy to use and so valuable. Anyway, I want to ask you, Adam, because I see part of your pre-podcast ritual is to use Caldera Lab all over your face. And I was watching on YouTube. I almost never watch our show on a big TV at home. If I ever like review our show, I'll go on my phone.

23:27Justin Andrews:You had to watch it because there are new lights or what?

23:29Adam Schafer:Yeah, so I was at home and I was in bed with Jessica. I'm like, hey, I want to show you the new lights. So I showed her an older one and then the newer one with the new lights, and it looks so much better. But, you know, on the big screen, you see our big old faces. She's like, Justin Adam McGuay, handsome. Well, I was like. This whole time. First off, I was like, man, the light's really good. And then, like, your skin looked really, really good. And so then I see you rubbing oil all over. And you've been doing that for a while.

23:52Sal Di Stefano:Oh, I've been for almost two years now. It's been a very consistent regimen for me before we start the podcast. Maybe just now the audience can tell with the lighting and stuff like that. But maybe before they were like, I don't know. Adam says he's used that Caldera. It doesn't look like it's working that well. And then all of a sudden you do some good. It's got a cheesecloth on that. Yeah, yeah. Now you put some good lighting and maybe you can see the difference of it. But no, I swear.

24:13Adam Schafer:Is it the good before the podcast?

24:15Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah. I use the good the most. Yeah, yeah. I use the good the most for sure. Just because that oil is really easy. And I've talked about this before with my psoriasis. It's like the key to that, like psoriasis dries your, if you're not familiar with it, dries your skin out. And so having some sort of an oil. And before I was using, I mean, back in the days when I didn't know any better, was using all the steroid creams and all that crap that you should.

24:38Adam Schafer:Not the fun steroids either. Yeah, no, these are not fun.

24:40Sal Di Stefano:These didn't make me any stronger or look better at all. It just helped with this. But once we started working with Caldera, the first time I had used it and noticed that, it's just become this like staple thing that I use on a regular basis. And I keep it everywhere. I've got one in my car I've got one I've got shoot I've got three I told you all my cousins use it

24:58Adam Schafer:do they? none of us were like skincare like none of us everybody because they come to our Christmas party so every year

25:05Sal Di Stefano:oh that's when you guys

25:05Adam Schafer:introduce a lot of family every year Mind Pump throws a Christmas party and we invite for staff and then some family and friends and I got a big family so my cousins come and we give out goodie bags and so we were giving out Caldera Lab stuff and they all they all buy it not regularly dude it's funny you bring up

25:21Sal Di Stefano:the Christmas party I was going down memory lane with our christmas parties because we're only on year six of throwing one of throwing christmas parties and katrina's like why did we do that i'm like well because we didn't really have a staff it wasn't until we started to grow a staff it was just us yeah it was like i mean the four of us could go have dinner anytime we want so it was about six years ago uh i think i think this will be the seventh uh i gotta remember i was going through all of them um um it was crazy because uh the very first couple it was like a big deal that we we took a picture with everybody that was there you know and it's like look at the staff and look at all all of us all there together and stuff like that and uh we didn't do that last year i mean we had 105 people there and so we obviously didn't get everybody together for a picture we didn't do a group photo no we couldn't i mean come on and then you know we got we get we just reserved a new place because we outgrew that place as we're expecting 150 uh this year and so it's so crazy to think that you know we went from no christmas party because we don't really have a staff to like the first couple of them like taking these pictures and i'm like i'm going back looking i'm like oh those are so cool and then i'm like oh we didn't do it last year and i'm like well of course we did it like could you imagine trying to organize everybody yeah could you try and

26:34Adam Schafer:organize that's every family function i have bro at the end my sister or someone's always like everybody get a picture we got little kids i'm like oh god here we go crow's nest or something Yeah, and we got to organize everybody. And one kid runs away and they're getting threatened by their parents. Get over the right now. I'm like, this is not a happy picture, you guys. This is not a happy picture. Yeah. Dude, speaking of kids, dude, I was telling my kids love, especially my son, loves it when I tell him stories from when I was younger. He loves it. Tell me a story, Papa. Tell me a story. So this time he's like, what did you guys do that we don't do anymore?

27:06Adam Schafer:I'm like, oh, that's an interesting request. So I was thinking, I'm like, you know what you guys, you know what kids don't do anymore? There's games that we played as kids that are now illegal in school. They don't let them play these games anymore. She was like, what are you talking about? So I'm like, first I brought up Red Rover. You can't play Red Rover.

27:23Sal Di Stefano:Steal the bacon.

27:23Adam Schafer:Steal the bacon. You don't play. Do you guys remember Butts Up? Yep. Did you ever play Butts Up? Oh, yeah. Is that where you smack someone's butt? No. The tennis ball. Yeah, dude. Oh, and you go against the fence. You basically assume the position.

27:37Sal Di Stefano:That's right. That's if you don't catch it. They throw it at you.

27:41Adam Schafer:So what you do is you throw it up against the wall, and it bounces once, and you catch it, you're okay. But if it bounces more than once, you've got to go up, stand up against the wall with your hands on the wall, and they get to throw it as hard as they can at your butt. At you.

27:54Justin Andrews:So there's a few different options with that, right? So they have to spread the feet out and the hands out like this. And your feet are, I don't know, maybe like two feet away from the wall. So the move is always to try and bounce it underneath their legs and get them right in the crotch. I didn't say that.

28:12Sal Di Stefano:That game was, that was played against a handball wall and we played with a red ball is what you played with, not a tennis ball. Oh, we played with a tennis ball. Oh yeah, it was a red ball and you threw it as hard as you could and it was exactly what you were doing. If it bounced more than once.

28:25Adam Schafer:Bro, my kids thought it was the funniest. They thought, you throw it against their butt and he's dying.

28:32Sal Di Stefano:I forgot that was the name of it. Butts up. Butts up, dude.

28:36Adam Schafer:Illegal. You will never see anybody play that in a school today. That's such a good game. They would get kicked out. It's such a good game. Kids are missing out, dude. You know what?

28:45Justin Andrews:You used to play Battle Pong, too, where you'd take your shirt off, and then if, like, you miss and, like, you lose, you'd throw it,

28:52Adam Schafer:and you'd be able to hit, and it'd leave, like, crazy marks on their body. You know, so I understand why they banned some of these games, because Red Rover definitely, you know, kids got their arms broken sometimes or whatever. I get it.

29:03Justin Andrews:Yeah.

29:03Adam Schafer:But I almost think, like.

29:05Justin Andrews:Over asphalt.

29:06Adam Schafer:It was training. Oh, yeah, dude. It was. and especially boys because they would see this is what guys would do you'd see a girl that you like and she's holding hands with someone else and the goal is to run through and break through the chain sure and so you're always trying to show her like I'm going to run through her arm and end up breaking the girl's arm but what I was going to say is I feel like these games childhood games like they kind of toughen you up and prepared you for life dude because it's like you know

29:30Justin Andrews:yeah we need more stop being so soft yeah

29:33Adam Schafer:we need more of that over asphalt I kind of think we do dude

29:36Justin Andrews:I get why we banned them but I also I'm like yeah now everything's xenoestrogened out with like rubber everywhere and like you're trying to pad it you know

29:44Adam Schafer:and then they get into a job or something and the boss is in a bad mood and now they're like

29:48Justin Andrews:ah

29:48Adam Schafer:you know and it's like really yeah let the aggression happen we used to we used to play bloody knuckles that was a real game you guys

29:57Justin Andrews:it's good to get it out you know I feel like people are calmer you can't pencil fight

30:03Sal Di Stefano:we used to pencil fight yeah we're doing stuff like that baby britches there's a lot of stuff

30:06Adam Schafer:Baby Bridges was a great one. Remember Baby Bridges? Remind me that one. If your buddy said something that starts with a B, you could punch him as far as you could. That was like Slug Bug. Yeah, unless he said Baby Bridges first. And this game would last years. It was never, you never stopped. So you just, yeah. It's an ongoing game like that. Oh my gosh, dude. Kids are missing out, dude. I'm going to talk fitness for a second. Just something that's frustrating. Always frustrates me. generally but then more specifically generally i really hate it when uh people in our space so fitness people attack each other yeah this is part of their brand their brand is to attack each other now i get calling people out for for advocating for dangerous things or for just lying to the public i think this is just for attention even then i'm not the biggest fan of that because

31:02Sal Di Stefano:I feel like there's a way to do that by educating. Yes. It's like you could say, hey, some people say this. Exactly. You could call someone out without calling someone out.

31:11Adam Schafer:Without clipping, you know, putting a clip of them and trying to be that guy. But anyway, it's frustrating because somebody who's famous for this, the functional patterns people love. This is like part of how they build their brand. And they did go after someone. It's like their whole marketing strategy. Who does this a lot too.

31:25Justin Andrews:So they're kind of like, you know, it'll be wonderful. It'll be great to see who wins this. It's funny that they've waited this long to find each other. No, no, no.

31:31Sal Di Stefano:No, they've been going at it for years. Okay. Oh, yeah, years they've been going at it. So they were poking.

31:35Justin Andrews:I've just recently seen a lot.

31:37Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah, no. In fact, I would argue that the two of them built their brands off of going after each other early.

31:44Adam Schafer:Oh.

31:44Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah, this is a five-year-plus feud. Yeah. Wow.

31:48Adam Schafer:So they were going after Lane Norton, and they were talking about how he did a post where he deadlifted a bunch of weights. Obviously, Lane's really strong. And in the post, Lane's like, I got bad sleep last night. I woke up with a headache, but I'm still working out. So they're like, this is why he gets injured. And this is why. It's like, no. At the highest level, when you're that strong, it's like when people point at a pro athlete getting injured and go, oh, it must have been his lack of correctional action. No, that's a pro football player. Yeah, that's getting hit by a 300-pound person that's trying to cut angles and whatever.

32:21Adam Schafer:The reason why people get injured when they're deadlifting 700 pounds is because they're deadlifting 700 pounds. It's because they're getting after it. And you're at such a high level that the smallest thing comes from.

32:30Sal Di Stefano:To your point, Lane could do 500 deadlifting for the rest of his life and probably never get an injury again.

32:36Adam Schafer:Well, the comment I put underneath, as I said, if he was deadlifting what you could lift, he would never get hurt.

32:40Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah. But it's so frustrating. Yeah. It's so frustrating. Yeah, it's tacky. Yeah, I'd like to go back and see because I believe because I've been paying attention to both those guys for a really long time. um and i think probably what happened was uh both had a bit of a this is early before everybody knew who both of them were um they had a bit of a cult following for each of them for different reasons and they probably both saw the the algorithm right i mean they saw i mean what why it goes viral why it does well is because it's drama yeah you know people love people you will go to indy 500 to not see the car win they see it to watch the crash right and so people are here for the fight for the drama and they and so it just it just goes that's and so i don't

33:28Adam Schafer:even know why why would you want to build a business with that kind of attention that's

33:31Sal Di Stefano:got to feel so well because crappy i i think angry i think you don't um yeah i don't think you think about that early on i think you are you are especially let's go back you know eight years ten years ago when social media is just becoming popular and you're trying to figure it figure it out i mean i'm i'm i'm guilty of you know using shirtless pictures and and my physique to get to get all the you know i'm saying because at that i'm trying to figure out like okay how do i how do i play yeah how do i get attention how do i play in this game um and i and i and i had a moderate success um early actually really good success because back then 10 000 followers was a big deal you know 10 years ago or shit uh that was more than that i was 18 18 years ago before mind pump so 17 18 years ago if you had 10 000 followers you were one of the the bigger pages on there um and all the attention what i i quickly realized that none of it was converting to business and then i was like okay well that was the whole point of this was to do this for the business and then i so i learned that way and so i think a lot of people just don't know i think they think that just more eyeballs what's that old saying like even bad news is good news you know what i'm saying yeah and so i hate that statement i know but people still live by that yeah they operate from from that place and so i think the theory is like oh it's just it's more eyeballs so it's good for the business i think uh somebody like ourselves who've been doing this for a really long time now have a little bit more experience and wisdom to know that like okay you may get more eyeballs faster on you but the type of attention that you're going to attract uh that's negative and drama far exceeds the the benefit of the business side of it and you're far better off going slow servicing and taking care of the five people paying attention to you over delivering on them making them radical fans and love you and growing that way not to mention it's so so this is

35:27Adam Schafer:such a great segue uh i just discovered um this i gotta find his name he's a scientist who specializes in brain, essentially brain training or neuroplasticity. His name is Dr. Lee Warren. Okay. And I found one of his videos, Jessica showed me him and I started watching his video. And what he does is he talks about how you can train your brain to change. And what I mean by that is where they actually can do an fMRI or an MRI. They can look at your brain and see that the brain itself changes in structure through different types of practices. In other words, it's strength training for your brain.

36:13Adam Schafer:So like you could change the shape of a muscle through different exercises, you can actually change the shape and function of your brain by doing certain things. And so he was, there was a few things he was talking about. One of them was gratitude, which is the data on this is wild, you guys. So he calls it neuro rehab. So gratitude gratitude activates the medial prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain that regulates emotion. It literally reshapes it and grows it so that, so when you practice daily gratitude, things you're grateful for throughout the day, and you're really paying attention to it, your brain gets better at noticing good things.

36:53Adam Schafer:So it actually strengthens its ability to notice positive things. And what they find is that people who do this, they are far more resilient during hardship and they're just more resilient in general. So, you know, the whole like, you know, try to find the positive. That can be really difficult because our brains are naturally wired to notice negative always. It's always about safety, right? Keep me alive. But when you practice gratitude, the part of the brain that does that, which is this part that I mentioned, actually grows and strengthens and it becomes more natural. So it's like I practice squats.

37:27Adam Schafer:What happens? I get better at squats. If you practice gratitude, your brain gets better at noticing things to be grateful for, and it becomes much more automatic, which I think is fascinating.

37:39Sal Di Stefano:Well, I mean, you know, I just shared with one of the last podcasts, I'm on that kick right now. And I think the part about the practice is really important because I think a lot of people, at least this is, or at least this is, I'll speak from my experience. my experience with it um i kind of it didn't really work for me at first and i think it was because it was kind of like this afterthought or yeah it was like this real general stuff like i know exactly what you're talking about thank you for my wife i'm thinking for my kid i'm thinking for my job yeah it's like the same five things kind of like every day i was like oh you know i hear all this research around how beneficial this is let me practice it and so i'd go through this thing and you know every once in a while i get lucky and something landed new in my lap of like something happened that was like and it was like oh i was thinking for that thing today or what it was like real i'm like yeah i just didn't feel a difference from it i really started to challenge to go deeper into the most kind of simple and mundane things like that like or that i was grateful for i've told you that what i where that's evolved to now um because i finally connected the dots like oh that's what i was doing wrong was these generic answers versus like unpacking my day and moments of like oh you know what i'm that big argument i had with sal like i'm so grateful for the way he brings it yeah you know i'm so well this is something that you i don't think you would think about right right right right and then that's the point of this right i think maybe i should just say that right is that uh not to tease you or anything like that it was more like that would not normally make a gratitude list that's right right and it was like but it was uh the way we handled our relationship after that i'm so grateful he's my partner like that's like versus just saying i'm so thankful for my partners yeah like that that's like one way to do it and i learned this and what connected dots for me was i've shared on the podcast um many times one of my favorite books was one minute manager one of the exercises that i put into place and practice the whole premise of the book is to instead of leading from a position of correcting your employees and the things they do incorrectly and wrong all the time, focus on pointing out the things they do correctly.

39:47Sal Di Stefano:Right. And so what that looked like for me was, okay. And what the generic version before I, like I evolved it and thought of it was like going over and being like, Hey, Justin, I'm so glad you work here. You're a great like that. Like that's the, not specific, not specific versus going over and saying, Hey, Justin, I saw the way you were just with your client rich. And man, I just, I appreciate the detail that you put into his programming and your attentiveness when you work on them and then walk away it was like huge difference on having this very specific detailed thing that i appreciated in that like the response i got from my employees i had i needed to learn how to do that to myself like instead of like these big generic like my wife my house my family my job like the stuff it became like a very specific moment in the day

40:33Adam Schafer:or thing or what like that and then so that's what i was doing and i stopped doing it and i'm reflect back on the previous hour for what I was grateful for. And what they show with neuroplasticity, practicing things changes it. But if you really want like effective neuroplasticity, if you touch an emotion to it, it's very powerful. So I can think about something that just happened. It's easier for me to attach an emotion to, like, I'm thankful for my kids. I can definitely think about my kid, but the way I tend to attach emotion to is I think about think about something my kid did yeah and so and then when that happens the neuroplasticity is much more effective well that's like and then you start to see more positive things naturally and it's literally reshaping your brain yeah i know for me it's the

41:20Justin Andrews:when we talk about like stress well there's also good stress like there's a way to look at it is like this is moving me forward this is all part of growth uh versus like it's a negative thing Like, and it is, I mean, I've been in that same state right now where it's like, I'm trying to constantly see that. And I'm like, this is moving me forward and this is a good thing. And this is, you know, it's hard, but it's like, I'm, I'm through this phase now. And like, uh, just construction in general is going to like, Oh, force that upon us. Uh, but like, you know, we're, we, we keep looking at like this little thing just happened and then we, we, we acknowledge it.

41:56Justin Andrews:And then instead of it just being like, Oh my God, overwhelming, like anxiety over all these things. Post-traumatic growth is a real thing.

42:03Adam Schafer:So there's post-traumatic stress, and there's also post-traumatic growth.

42:06Sal Di Stefano:Well, and understanding that as you go through the stress is magical. 100%. I'm learning to reframe that. You know what else I've been doing since, I don't know how many weeks it's been now, since we had Jim Quick in here, but I've been really consistent with first thing I do, I go read. Yeah. Makes a difference.

42:22Justin Andrews:He made so many good points about that.

42:23Adam Schafer:Huge difference.

42:25Sal Di Stefano:Huge difference. I had a couple days where I missed, noticed the difference.

42:27Adam Schafer:I told you where I break my phone, so I don't even have access to social media or text until I go in my car. Yep. Makes a big difference. Yeah, yeah.

42:33Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, there's been a couple times where I went to go grab, to go check on things because I already got up, showered, kind of brushed my teeth. I still hadn't looked at my phone yet, but then it was like, I was like, oh shit, I haven't read yet. Get over, read a quick page or two and stuff like that. Like even that slight bit, it makes a huge difference. By the way, what this points to

42:48Adam Schafer:is you can strengthen other parts of your brain that you don't want to. You're right. So if you're constantly focused on the negative, on the criticisms, on the problems, on the challenges, on the hopelessness, you will strengthen your brain's ability to notice those types of things to the point where those things become larger and positive things become smaller. So it's like, you want to change the filter by which you see the world. You could do it through training your brain. And the crazy part for me that blows me away is we can, we can see this in studies in terms of people's outlooks, but it's all subjective.

43:22Adam Schafer:Like, yeah, I feel happier. Yes, I feel less happy. All right, what's going on? No, no. We can look at your brain and see parts of the brain are larger. it's objective it's wild that is well what's the what's the what's the thing that arthur brooks is

43:33Sal Di Stefano:doing right now i've heard him on multiple podcasts like he's touring on this like his this like uh and he's doing like this um i don't know what you call that like a like a negative bias or whatever that where he's like saying like these are the five ways to guarantee you'll have

43:46Adam Schafer:a terrible life or whatever yeah and he's pointing to that direction yes and he's pointing all those

43:49Sal Di Stefano:things on your phone get on your phone like people normally do yes yes scroll through social media this many hours a day. Like he's nailing. Don't exercise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, it's totally amazing.

43:58Adam Schafer:Another one that he talked about is that, so prayer or mindfulness thickens the cortical areas of the brain that help with emotional regulation and attention and memory. Brain scans show this. It is, it's so crazy to me that you could change the structure, the physical structure of your brain by enacting some of these things. And it's cool because it's something under our control. Yeah. So it's like, do you want an outlook that is generally more, by the way, I'm going to say this right now because sometimes people are like, well, yeah, but your life doesn't really change. You just think it's better.

44:30Adam Schafer:First off, that's not nothing. That's awesome. But second off, what do you think a more positive, hopeful outlook will do to your behaviors and the actual objective things in your life? It'll change those too. So it's not just I notice more positive things, but the more I notice more positive things, the more positive things that probably create an influence. Yeah. So it's like this feedback loop that is incredible.

44:56Sal Di Stefano:I'm pretty sure a lot of, if not all of that research, stems back to Daniel Kahneman. Daniel Kahneman, thinking fast, thinking slow, Nobel Prize winner. And he's the one who did all the research around that. And I've tried to get you to read this book before. Neuroscience guy. Yeah, thinking fast and slow. Daniel Kahneman, am I saying it right? Kahneman. Kahneman. Damn, bro, you remembered that? One of my favorite books. It's a little heavy for the average person if you're not into neuropsychology and neuroscience stuff. So if you're into that, you, it's a really cool read. The gist of it, though, is that your brain toggles back and forth between these two modes, basically the monkey brain or like your critical thinking type of brain.

45:44Sal Di Stefano:And what you're training it to do, you're training it to get better at switching from that. We all default to the monkey brain, which I forget the terms that he uses. That reactive. Yeah, that reactive animal instinct, whatever. And so many people live in that. But you can actually train to kick into the second one. And those are exercises that all do that. And he won a Nobel Prize for all this research. And I believe that's probably where a lot of it comes from.

46:12Adam Schafer:Speaking of exercise, a study came out on exercise and effects on cortisol. You guys want to trip off something? This is really cool. So when you exercise, it's a stress on the body. So we've talked about this many times. One of the reasons why you get stronger, more fit, your body tries to adapt to the stress by becoming more resilient. But for all intents and purposes, if we were to measure all of your stress markers while you're working out, it would be, it's a stressor. Okay. This is pretty cool. So you get a cortisol spike when you work out. You're supposed to, it's a stress. but the cortisol spike from exercise suppresses the next cortisol response from another stressor.

46:50Adam Schafer:In other words, if you're about to do something stressful that you know is going to spike your stress hormones and your whatever, work out before. You'll go into it and you'll have a less, you'll have a lowered stress because you did something hard before.

47:03Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, no, it makes total logical sense. What I'm trying to think of right now is like, where I've done that accidentally. Oh yeah, that's it. Boy, what a great argument for that. What, ice bath before?

47:12Justin Andrews:Yeah.

47:13Sal Di Stefano:I mean, because you know everybody's always trying to—

47:14Justin Andrews:Some people reported that because it is a hard commit. Wow. Like psychologically. Like before you're about to get in an argument or something.

47:20Sal Di Stefano:Well, I mean, this is why you think it's such a great way to start your day, period. That's me. Not a bad point. You do something hard and resilient. This is why I've always thought all the arguments back and forth with ice bath and building muscle and post-workout. I know. They just went to the wrong stuff. Yeah. You've now bastardized something that I think is extremely valuable. and that wasn't even the main case for it.

47:42Adam Schafer:Nobody was doing saying, hey, ice bath to build muscle. Yeah. Who's doing that? Nobody cares. Yeah.

47:46Sal Di Stefano:So it's like starting your day off with that is an extremely valuable thing for a lot of different reasons. To Justin's point right now, bringing this up is like, I mean, that's a great, great case for that. It's pretty inevitable that you're going to run into something difficult in most days and so you've already primed it.

48:04Justin Andrews:You're just more resilient. Yeah, it's what life throws at you. it's funny like even back to the reframing kind of conversation it was like i could do that all day through it but man i could not account for the soreness i got afterwards like we had to move um oh gosh like four tons of rocks i do just who just me and my family oh that's right

48:25Sal Di Stefano:he wasn't there i forgot wait a minute you and just that's it hey hey listen yeah let me let me let me hijack your story okay yeah just because i tell your story better hey last time you told

48:34Adam Schafer:He left the studio. The last time we said that, dude, he got so mad. That's fine.

48:41Sal Di Stefano:I'll set you up. I'll take a break. Do an ice bath. Go ice bath.

48:48Justin Andrews:He's going to hype it up. Yeah, exactly.

48:51Sal Di Stefano:I'll just set the table for you. Our audience gets hella mad about this. I know.

48:55Adam Schafer:You don't let Justin talk until the screen.

48:58Sal Di Stefano:Fuck off. I know his story better than he does. No, stop. Stop. You're just making it worse. No, no, no. You're supposed to be a part of it. I do. We went to go look at that building, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. The day you didn't show up. Right, right. And this dude shows up. Oh, yeah. I forgot what I was going to say. Not that you needed to be fancy. I mean, I wasn't fancy or anything like that. No, yeah, yeah. But we're showing up to look at a building, right? And so that, as the four founders, right? And here comes this founder, rolls up, dude. And he is from, like, head to toe in, like, sawdust.

49:28Sal Di Stefano:Oh, just. Like, yeah. He looks like he just. Chalked up. Yeah, he's all chalked up and dirty as shit. He goes in his truck.

49:34Adam Schafer:I'm like, what? Just a plume. What are you doing? Plumes just flying off me.

49:38Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, and then he shows me all this stone that he's moving because they couldn't bring it to his house. So dude has got to roll from Felton all the way back and forth.

49:48Justin Andrews:Yeah, and we've been dealing with certain issues because our driveway is so incredibly steep and a lot of trucks that are anything bigger than like a – even sprinter vans can't make it up really yeah sometimes yeah because it's just it's too much of a pitch uh so we had them just like okay fine they're just gonna like take off and we're like well no just drop it off at you know where we're at right now and it's like 45 minutes away but it's still like you know we'd rather have the the material and figure it out and courtney was like kind of like going back and forth with the delivery and uh so they ended up dropping off these huge crates like in and we had um how many crates was it so it's four four huge four of them each one was like a ton plus wow and and so it was like so it's not only that it was the fact that like that weekend too we were having to open house and so we couldn't have those at the house and so we have to get rid of have to move it we have to move it and like i don't know like a service or somebody or like i was thinking man we need to get we need to get a forklift and we need to be able to like put this up on a truck that's like a flatbed truck or like you know i'm like this is crazy and it's like well let's see how much we can just take out then move and i'm like are you serious you understand what this is gonna and i'm like i already knew i was in for it i'm just like whatever i just started going and i just started going and then i put like i emptied it so first you have to empty it out then you gotta like restack it and everything inside the truck so So we ended up doing like three trips back and forth between two cars.

51:24Adam Schafer:And that's a 45-minute – oh, my gosh.

51:26Justin Andrews:Yeah. And so it got to the point where is that like even after I came, I still had like a crate and a half left. Yeah. And I had to come back and finish. And then by then like the kids are exhausted. Like Courtney's like – I'm like, no, you guys – And so I was like, I'll just do the rest. And I'm still out there with like the little headlamp on and just like stacking and back and stacking and back. Bro, yes. And I was just torched, dude. I haven't been that torched in a long time.

51:55Sal Di Stefano:I wish you had an aura ring. So when you do crazy shit like that.

51:59Adam Schafer:Did you sleep good or bad? Terrible.

52:02Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, sometimes over-exerting.

52:02Adam Schafer:Because you went beyond. Yeah, it went past. Oh, God. When you go that beyond? I was adrenaline.

52:08Justin Andrews:Yeah, fried. Fried. Totally fried.

52:09Adam Schafer:Yeah, like.

52:10Justin Andrews:Ugh.

52:11Adam Schafer:Yeah. Now, did you have beer and pizza after? Because that's the only thing that I would want to eat after something like that. You know what I mean? The high calories. Yeah, dude.

52:17Justin Andrews:Yeah, high calorie thing. No, we didn't. I'm trying to think what we had. It was like some barbecue, I think. Okay. Still, I ate a lot. Yeah, for sure. You know why you're such a good friend?

52:27Adam Schafer:Can I tell you why you're such a good friend? Because you didn't call any of us. You didn't ask anyone. You didn't call any of us. I love you, dude. You know why? Because we would have helped for sure if one of you guys asked. I'd be like, I got to go help.

52:36Justin Andrews:Yeah.

52:36Adam Schafer:But you're just such a good guy.

52:38Sal Di Stefano:I don't think it's like that because I just, yeah. No, I think we all have that in common. We're like, I'm going to be miserable. I don't want to make my boys miserable with me

52:46Adam Schafer:Everybody else is going to be miserable If I call you guys for help, it's an emergency It's like something real bad Well now you know

52:53Justin Andrews:It's going to be a real big job if I call you guys Wow

52:59Sal Di Stefano:We would have been like See how much this costs if we hire this movie That's how we would help

53:02Adam Schafer:We're going to pay a bunch of people to help Let's all hang out It would be so nice to sell my house

53:10Justin Andrews:And then move over Oh, God.

53:12Sal Di Stefano:I'll get there. I'll get there. When he showed up, I died laughing. And then I'm like, what is this fool doing now?

53:16Adam Schafer:Dude, you know what you got to take? Because you're probably so sore and stiff. Crazy. So the Rho has the curcumin bottle. We have some in the fridge. Oh, OK. Take that three times a day. It's got curcumin and resveratrol. It's really good for inflammation. Anti-inflammatory? Very effective at that. By the way, speaking of Rho, because they use liposomal technology, which if people aren't familiar, this was a medical technology that was designed in the 60s for medications. And now you can find it in really, really high quality products. Roe is, they're experts at this. So liposomes are like little, basically little fat liposomes that encapsulate whatever you're trying to deliver.

54:00Adam Schafer:And it protects the compound and increases bioavailability. So I went on and I looked up a study and I said, okay, I'm going to look up something that already has pretty good bioavailability. So I get it with glutathione. Glutathione, if you're not taking glutathione liposomally, you're basically wasting it. You need to take glutathione liposomal form. Curcumin, it better be liposomal because it needs that. Otherwise, you could take a ton of it. You're not going to absorb much. But what about something like vitamin C? Or creatine, some of those. Right, right. What about, well, I looked up vitamin C.

54:30Adam Schafer:Vitamin C, you could take vitamin C, it'll absorb quite a bit. If vitamin C is liposomal, one and a half to 1.8 times higher bioavailability. bioavailability, vitamin C. Wow. So you'll absorb way more if it's liposomal than if it's not. And vitamin C already has pretty good absorbability or bioavailability. Now, with creatine, which you mentioned, one of the things that liposomes do is they protect, they can help reduce things like gastro distress. This is why I've got so many friends now who are like, Sal, I take creatine, and if I take more than two grams of creatine, it messes up my gut. Some people are sensitive to creatine.

55:09Adam Schafer:She does the raw version for that.

55:10Sal Di Stefano:I mean, even I noticed the difference of that, like the bummer about the gummies is I have to break it up through the day. I can't eat all of them at once.

55:18Adam Schafer:No, you try Rowe's creatine and push it to 15 or 20 grams. I mean, I got friends of mine who are like, again, they're like, man, I've tried creatine. I can't, it bothers me after two grams. And there are no issues with the Rowe. They're like, it feels way better on the gut.

55:31Sal Di Stefano:I've got to try it like that because I haven't done that. I've just, I've been like, I just, If I want to make a dose, the creatine, I just have to - You do it throughout the day. Yeah, just bring it up. That's another strategy.

55:39Adam Schafer:Here's the problem with that.

55:40Sal Di Stefano:That's a pain in the ass. It is. How hard is it to get clients to take supplements? I'm not consistent. Yeah. I'm just honest. I'm not. I'm not consistent.

55:47Adam Schafer:Getting them to take it once a day is hard enough. You want to, oh, here, take this three times a day. Yeah. Not going to do it. Yeah. So with the row, you could - Yeah, you could take your dose, and it doesn't bother your gut, and it's super - Interesting. It's absorbed very, very well.

55:59Sal Di Stefano:What were we talking about off-air? and you were asking me and I was like, oh, I'll tell you when we get on the podcast. I can't remember what we were talking about. I don't remember. Yeah, we don't remember. We were talking about something and you were asking. Weekend?

56:09Adam Schafer:Was it something over your weekend? Or I don't remember.

56:12Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I don't remember. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I remember now. I was like, well, it was over the weekend. Okay. So my aunt came in for her birthday and we had a hibachi chef come to the house and serve. Was that good?

56:27Justin Andrews:I saw Doug's video where he threw the egg up.

56:30Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah. So it was the same one that we, the same company that we used before. Remember that we did with Shallow and Dr. Connery, right? That's a good time. Yeah, good time, right? So we said this then, same company, different guy.

56:42Justin Andrews:Uh-oh.

56:44Sal Di Stefano:This guy shows up, and there's a major language barrier between him and I trying to figure out where he's going to put it. I really wanted him to come all the way up to my, you know, in my backyard where I have the countertop and everything? Yeah. we had exactly eight people and that's what i have seats wise i'm like oh this is perfect i'll just have him come up here and and he'll do the thing right behind my barbecue and it'll be awesome and he was just like uh you know he he was telling me basically no not a good idea he couldn't do it you know at least that's what i got from it and i'm like okay and then i'm like trying to ask him like well where do you want to do it i've got this area with all kinds of different areas i got all these tables that i can set up wherever and um you know there's there's this back and forth of like well like he's asking me and i'm asking him because he's telling me he can't do that i'm like i can't understand why he can't do that so then why don't you tell me how you want it i'll lay it out anyways took forever we finally make this like kind of u-shape and you know the way you do it is so uh you make a u-shape so they can come in the middle and they can do their thing right so i make this u-shape and then he sets up like 10 feet out of it and underneath my balcony and I'm like, okay, whatever.

57:51Sal Di Stefano:You know what I'm saying? Let's just get this party started and get going and everything. So he starts, which, you know, he starts to do some of those tricks with the flames of that, and flames are hitting the bottom of my – and so I'm, like, stressing out while he's doing that.

58:06Justin Andrews:Yeah, that would freak me out.

58:07Sal Di Stefano:And, you know, he's starting to do his, like, juggles and some of that, and he, like, drops his spatula the first time he starts juggling. I'm like, this guy is, like, brand new. B-team. Somebody's, yeah, B-team uncle. they like sub because the real the real guy's not supposed to be here or whatever and then uh and by the way i'll get to the part where doug was alluding to and i by the way too we we sent a message in the company because i was actually really kind of disappointed in this part so the guy uh you know he he has this little squirt gun with sake and he's like coming out for sake sake and he's like shooting it in all of our our mouths and everyone's kind of laughing and he's he's trying to do that like every i don't know a couple minutes to or a couple you know 20 10 20 minutes to break up the cooking and stuff and that's fun and all and everyone's kind of laughing some people are you know no thanks i'm good and uh then he comes out and he pulls out this like little man and this squirt comes out of his where his penis would be and so it's like squirting in your mouth i know right i know so he does all this and uh whatever a little aggressive yeah a little A little aggressive.

59:11Sal Di Stefano:And then out comes a dildo. What? No. What kind of party is this? Yes. And then he squirts. And I'm like. And of course, Max is there. So my son is there. No, dude. Yeah. And so we're like, oh. You know, we cover his eyes. And we're like. This is a bachelorette party. And so it's like. Okay, he sees me. If you went to the wrong place. Yeah. So he did.

59:31Adam Schafer:Gay celebration. Yeah.

59:34Sal Di Stefano:And again, there's like a language barrier there. So I'm being kind of patient about it. And I'm not. No peepee. The adults are kind of like laughing a little bit through it, but then everyone's like covering Max's eyes. And I thought, okay, once we did that, like maybe. He would know. He would know. Brings it out again. No. Does it like three more times. Bring this out. And so I'm like, whatever. And thank God. So my aunt is like, but my aunt and my cousin are there who are like super strong Christians and conservative. Oh, wow. What did they do? Thank God it wasn't my uncle. Now, even though they are, my uncle is the most.

1:00:04Sal Di Stefano:My uncle would have got up and left. Like he would have been so offended by it. My aunt's a little roll with the punches. She's kind of cool type of deal. And so she was like, yeah, so she was like, okay. She's praying for you guys. Yeah, yeah. She's going to party Adam through. This is a box tree. Awesome.

1:00:19Adam Schafer:Please forgive my nephew, Adam.

1:00:21Sal Di Stefano:So that all went down.

1:00:22Adam Schafer:And they think you hired this guy to do that. Oh, yeah.

1:00:25Sal Di Stefano:And I was like, hey, I had no idea about any of that. The last guy. Last guy to do any of that. And I was disappointed, but I wasn't as upset. I became upset when I realized that we, Katrina's like, because I was like, man, I can't believe he didn't pick up. And I'm giving him a bit of a doubt, like the language barrier. Maybe he didn't understand that was not the right vibe or whatever. But then I found out that when we hired them, Katrina actually gives them a list who's there, and Max is on the list as a seven-year-old. So that pissed me off because it was like, oh, you showed up. You know, you sent somebody here.

1:01:00Sal Di Stefano:I don't care, bro.

1:01:01Adam Schafer:If you're working and you see a little kid, just don't do that.

1:01:04Sal Di Stefano:Just don't do that. It's a huge shit. I mean, I don't know. So Duggan, is it culturally okay over there? I mean, is it more appropriate? No, of course not. Okay, so I don't like, for me, I'm being like more patient. Like, okay, maybe -

1:01:14Justin Andrews:I don't know where he's from, to be honest.

1:01:15Sal Di Stefano:Maybe it's more culturally accepted where he's at to do stuff like that for the kids, maybe. But then when I thought, well, as a company, if you know that a kid's going to be there, there's like, you shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have even done that. Because he could have just done the squirt gun and it would have been totally fine. Totally. It was like, okay, bring it out. And it escalated. As the party went on, and then he made, for Doug and Rachel, he made a balloon penis and a balloon vagina. What kind of a party? Yeah. What the heck? What kind of a party? Bro, it's the same company that we are.

1:01:48Sal Di Stefano:They did none of that. You're just eating food. Yeah. None of that happened when we had that company come out for us. They didn't do any of that. Normally, they just do the tricks. The volcano fire, flip the egg, some of that stuff. So that's all I, I didn't realize I was going to have to be like, hey, don't bring any of your pornography stuff. Yeah, dude.

1:02:07Justin Andrews:I don't want to drink sake out of a penis. Oh, hot dogs and bananas here. Yeah. Wow. Like, why?

1:02:13Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, it was crazy. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was a little, I was a little disappointed. Thank God, like I said, my aunt was cool, you know, and she, I mean, at least I think she was. She's praying for you for a while. Yeah, she's like, hey, don't throw me any more parties on. Yeah. Talk about like not reading the room. No, totally not, dude. Oh, that would have made me so much. My son, dude, too much.

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1:03:09Adam Schafer:If you're on a low carb diet, oftentimes people say going on a low carb diet makes them feel crappy, especially at first. They need to get their body to adjust. That's because their body gets rid of a lot of sodium in a low carb diet. Drinking Element can prevent that. Low carb dieting with Element, you feel amazing. The stuff tastes great. It's natural. It works. I take it before I work out for better pumps because I absorb more water and, of course, no calories. Go check them out. Go to drinklmnt.com slash mindpump. And on that link, you'll get a free sample pack of the most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase.

1:03:45Adam Schafer:Back to the show.

1:03:46Justin Andrews:First question is from Nick Duregger. What exercises would you recommend to help prevent injury for runners? I've heard you guys talk about tibialis raises to prevent shin splints in the past. are there any other exercises you'd highlight best exercise for sure is the not running one i'm just i mean okay i'm just strengthening there's actually some truth there because a lot

1:04:10Adam Schafer:of uh injuries uh from runners overuse it comes from overuse so not overdoing it uh is very important enough yeah and not under eating is also very important sometimes uh runners get caught up and they eat really little and so they can't uh recover that being said yeah tibialis raises phenomenal for shin splints um lateral slag drags forward slag drag rotation and lateral reverse sled drags like they will really help both and here's why a sled drag is so good or slag drive is so good when i'm pressing a sled yes i'm strengthening my glutes my hamstrings and my clods but i'm also strengthening my calves and my foot so i'm pressing through my foot and so it's going to give me strength that really translates to stability when i run and i like the sled just across the board if running is your main thing the sled should be one of the main things you use for your strength training lateral sled drags is great for it band problems so people like oh i you know my it band hurts all the time i gotta foam roll it like you do lateral sled drags

1:05:09Justin Andrews:you can strengthen that forefoot as well too so it's like yeah now you can work on your mechanics of not you know running with a lot of times people getting caught up and they're running a little more flat foot and so you can really drive and you know be in good position with that and add load to it with the sled so i totally agree with that that too and then some rotation they're like a windmill would be a good supplemental uh exercise i mean to stay on par with our conversation today

1:05:33Sal Di Stefano:i think that even better than tibialis raises would be uh tibialis isometrics sure is to do something like where you're trying to overcome so i would get my foot under like a couch or a lip or something like that try and try and pick it up and drive as hard as you can on that uh that would be before I go on a run, priming with that every time would be ideal.

1:05:53Adam Schafer:Yeah, because you have shin splints, knee pain, IT band pain are probably the most common. So shin splints, tibialis raises, or isometrics. Knee pain, pulling a sled is really good. It's where you hold onto a rope or something attached to a sled, kind of squat down, and you extend each knee. Really good for protecting.

1:06:09Sal Di Stefano:We've got a great YouTube video on Mind Pump TV of the sled drags like that.

1:06:13Adam Schafer:And then the lateral stuff, man. That lateral strengthening with a sled drag is really good for helping with IT band tightness. So if you find yourself having to always foam roll every time you run, oftentimes it's a lack of stability in that lateral position. Next question is from Olga Lee.

1:06:33Justin Andrews:How do you avoid overeating, but also eating enough to gain muscle?

1:06:37Sal Di Stefano:High protein.

1:06:38Adam Schafer:Yeah. High protein diet. Yeah. You actually gain less body fat in a surplus with protein. So that's number one. And number two is this fear is overstated. Oftentimes, people who ask this are so afraid of eating in a surplus that they think they're going to balloon up, okay? So if you're in a modest surplus of like 400 calories, 500 calories, I wouldn't be worried about this. Where I get worried is when people under-eat so much that when then they go on the other direction, it's like they open the floodgates. Well, especially when it's whole food-based.

1:07:11Justin Andrews:It's really hard to, first of all, overeat with whole foods because there's natural limiters in there and you get satiated pretty easily. So I would say, yeah, if you stick to that, like it's pretty, you're going to be pretty fine.

1:07:24Sal Di Stefano:I've had so much success with my clients. I still to this day, this is what works for myself. And it's not easy. There's so many times where, you know, it's 9 o 'clock at night. I've kind of had my meals or whatever like that, and I'm hungry again. and uh you know what sounds good at eight or nine o 'clock at night is a giant thing of popcorn or ice cream or something savory or something what doesn't sound really great is to go downstairs and reheat my ground beef and rice but what works is going to do that and and if i just if i just eat that way with a high protein whole food meal uh i don't overeat i and i and i hit my protein intake and i give the my body what it needs because it's obviously it's saying i want more and it's probably because i trained really hard before that or i was extra active that day and if i just discipline myself to eat the whole foods and eat a big high protein meal the you land perfect it's wild not to mention this is sometimes happens to adam where you're

1:08:25Adam Schafer:like i'm hungry it's nine o 'clock at night all right i'm gonna go eat a whole food meal you're like i don't feel like it i wasn't really hungry i just had a craving right you know oftentimes

1:08:32Justin Andrews:it's the case yeah yeah next question is from sylvia gassa if a man wants to develop strength but doesn't want to develop big muscles, is one gram of protein necessary?

1:08:44Adam Schafer:So one gram of protein per pound of target body weight isn't necessary for any of it. It's just better. So you'll gain more strength by doing that and you'll build more muscle by doing that. But it contributes very well to both. But I will say this, because there are people who want to get stronger and not get bigger, especially athletes that are in like weight classes. So I get this, like you're a wrestler or you do judo or jujitsu or whatever, and you're like, I want to get really strong, but I want to stay in my weight class. Like, what do I do? Body weight exercises are really good for this.

1:09:19Adam Schafer:They're really, really good for this. Why? Not because they don't build as much muscle, but rather because what they do is, if I gain weight while I'm performing a body weight exercise, my performance doesn't necessarily improve. In other words, if I'm doing pull-ups, I'm pulling my body weight up. If I'm doing a pull down, I'm using the weight stack. So body weight exercises can kind of help keep that in check and give you that strength that tends to translate. And the other thing is just to practice lifts and have really good neuromuscular connection to lifts because a lot of your strength comes from that.

1:09:52Sal Di Stefano:You could toggle back and forth between a build and cut too. So what you could do is like, and I would run more of a cut than I would run a bulk. And so I'd have two weeks where I am trying to get big muscles and eat like that and train like that. and then I go back to a three-week cut and then I toggle back to two weeks where I'm eating a surplus and I'm trying to get big muscle. And if you do that, you're not going to get huge. I mean, that's not enough of a surplus consistently long enough that you're going to grow a lot. It'll keep you lean. It'll get you stronger. Like, I mean, it's tough to get really strong and not feed the body what it needs to grow and build.

1:10:29Sal Di Stefano:It's just really tough to do that. If like you're saying, this is a question coming from like a, an athlete that just can't and doesn't want to do that, then I think body weight is a great strategy. But if this is somebody who's concerned they're going to get too big and too bulky and they don't want to be that way, just toggle back and forth between a bulk and a cut.

1:10:47Justin Andrews:Limit your calories more than anything, right? Next question is from Holly Bear 3. I have knee arthritis in my left leg and plantar fasciitis in my right foot. Should I train completely unilaterally, both upper and lower body, to correct movement patterns or can i get away with just doing lower body exercises unilaterally and train

1:11:10Adam Schafer:upper body like i usually would you can you can get away with it but here's what we notice uh when you have unilateral issues uh in the lower body it tends to also run with the connection yeah so you might not have pain in the upper body it's all connected there's probably some stuff going on there as well.

1:11:31Sal Di Stefano:Just visualize this for a second. If you have plantar fasciitis, she said, in her right foot, is that what she said? And then knee arthritis. Right. You have that going from the... And you're doing a standing overhead press. The driving forces into the ground on your right side completely to your left side is going to be different. That's going to ping pong its way all the way up the kinetic chain in your body. That will absolutely change the way that bar moves above your head. Whether you can see it visually or not, it will change the way that does that. And so a tremendous value in running like a program like symmetry, where you do full, you know, work on upper and lower.

1:12:08Sal Di Stefano:I don't, I don't think that you, I mean, we recommend that to anybody anyways, regardless if you had these, for someone like this, it would be something that I would force them to do as a client. We recommend to everybody, regardless of plantar fasciitis or arthritis in their knee, that you should run a round of symmetry every single year and it will benefit you. So, I mean, why not?

1:12:30Adam Schafer:A hundred percent. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's mind pump media. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to mind pump. If your goal is to build and shape

1:12:38Justin Andrews:your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super bundle at mind pump media.com. The RGB super bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com If you enjoy this show please share the love by leaving us a 5 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