Unfiltered Fitness: A Deep Dive w/ Sal Di Stefano of MindPump

00:00Nobody likes to hate themselves forever. It's just, you can't live that way. That's an abusive state of mind. What is up, you guys? What is up to our fitness people, to our lifelong learners, and everyone in between? Today, man, we have someone truly special with us. If you've ever found yourself going into a deep, deep rabbit hole of fitness podcasts,

00:32then really our guest needs no introduction, but his voice is one that resonates in earbuds across the world, challenging myths, enlightening minds, empowering countless individuals on their wellness journeys, fitness journeys, and all of the things it has to do in the fitness space. And from the Powerhouse Podcast Mind Pump, we have the insightful, the candid, the ever curious Sal DeStefano with us today. Sal, welcome to The WarriorBabe Show.

01:03Thank you so much for having me on. That was a really nice introduction. I feel very humbled. So thank you for saying those wonderful things. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. So let's dive into the world of fitness, right? The myths, the trends, and so much more. But first, before we do that, how do you personally define fitness, Sal? That's a, wow, what a great question. So fitness, there's fitness, health, wellness, athletic performance. Like these are all categories, I would say that are under the health umbrella or within

01:39the health sphere. Uh, but when I talk about, and most people think fitness, they think like physical fitness and how they look and how they're able to perform. Uh, but I, I trained, um, just everyday people, not fitness fanatics, just regular people trying to become healthier and improve their lives for over two and a half decades. And I managed, uh, gyms like regular gyms where, you know, we're the ones that I would say the average person, you know, works out at or starts training in. I trained lots of trainers. So my bias is towards the average person, um, and their struggles around health, um, and

02:16mobility and pain and those kinds of things. So fitness for me, it definitely encompasses the physical aspect, but really it just means being healthy, uh, overall. So mental, physical health, emotional health, uh, spiritual health, you could put that in there. But just, that's the way I like to define it. That's the way I like to communicate it. Uh, because besides fitness fanatics, which, you know, you would probably fall in this category. Obviously you have a popular fitness podcast, fitness fanatics, uh, live to work out.

02:48The average person works out to live, right? They, if they exercise or if they modify their diet, it's really to improve their life. Um, not, it is not their life. So that's how I like to talk about fitness. And I'm, I'm always trying to reach, and my co-hosts, uh, are very similar in this. We're always trying to reach the people that haven't been reached or who haven't been able to really develop a lifelong relationship with fitness that works for them. So when you hear me talk about these things, um, that's always who I have in mind.

03:21That's the, those are the people I care most about. I'm not trying to get fitness fanatics more fit. I think it's cool to talk with them and I can do the, I can get into fun conversations, but I am, I'm talking to the average person. So it's like, how can we, how can we improve the quality of your life? And how can we use this incredible tool called fitness to do so? I love that. I love most importantly, it's unpack everything you just said there, like meeting the individual where they're at and then being able to take them along, whatever's going to best suit their journey to be successful in fitness.

03:52Yes. It makes no sense. Uh, the way that the fitness space tends to communicate, um, fitness is so ineffective and there's a million and a one, uh, different reasons why, but one of the reasons is that they communicate fitness as if it's a light switch where you're talking to somebody. Cause look, look, the truth is, and this is the big challenge is that the default in modern life. Okay. The will, where you will naturally fall. If you just live your life like everybody else, the way you're supposed to in modern societies,

04:27the default is poor health. I mean, I don't, I don't think I have to argue that the data is very clear that that's far more common than great health. So that's the default. And so, you know, we're trying to kind of change that a little bit and move people in the right direction. And you can't go from the default to all of a sudden I'm working out five days a week. I'm eating perfectly, you know, throw in whatever you want, organic, you know, high protein. I don't eat, you know, a few hours before bed.

04:57I mean, I literally can make a list. That's. You're going to the farm and you're cutting, you know, you're going to farm, getting the grass fed beef from the farm. Yeah. You know, like I only eat, you know, I only eat cheese from cows that are blessed by a monk and whatever. So the, uh, we do a terrible job because we communicate it in such a way that not only does it either a turns people off completely because they look at it and they go like, that's insane. I would have to change absolutely everything about my life. And how could I do that? I have kids, a job.

05:28It's not my favorite thing to do to work out. Like this is impossible. Or you catch people in this state of motivation, which, you know, tends to come from usually initially a little bout of self-hate. Maybe you see yourself in the mirror or somebody makes a comment or you get winded playing with your kids or something. So then you get this little burst of self-hate motivation. So then the fitness industry captures you and then you do try to do everything all at once, which is completely unsustainable. The fail rate is north of 90%.

05:59That's the, again, the data shows all that. So, um, the key really, like anything, if you want to make changes in a positive direction or in any direction, and you want those changes to last forever, because I'm pretty sure nobody wants to get fit and get healthy and then go back, right? Everybody's trying to do this forever. The only way to do it is through a step-by-step process. It's a learning process. It's a journey. And then there is a, another myth, which is that the, this journey has a destination.

06:30There is no destination. Uh, you know, I, myself who love this and have been doing this for a long time, I get older, things happen with my health. I have, I have four kids. I have a business life circumstances happen. So there is no, like I'm here. It's like, how do I continue to use this tool? That's very effective to continue to improve the quality of my life. And how do I mold it and shape it, uh, to do so? And so these are the skills that, uh, I like to communicate and teach people.

07:02And if you do it right, if you do it right, it's effective. And what I mean by effective, I define effectiveness, not by congratulations. You lost 20 pounds, but rather congratulations. You never gained that 20 pounds back and you're doing this forever. And it's something now that you've put in part of your life and it doesn't cause stress. It doesn't cause anxiety. This is just how you live now. And that, that may sound, uh, unreachable to a lot of people who may be watching or listening right now, but it's very reachable. There is a way to do it.

07:34And it's not the way that it's communicated, uh, in my space and the fitness and health space. So number one, want to apologize for that. Cause I communicated it wrong for a lot of time for a long time. And number two, um, you know, if you, if you listen in, um, we'll let you know kind of some of the ways that you can make this an effective journey, something that becomes something that you enjoy. That's why I think you're so respected in this space too, as well, obviously with the, with mind pump being as successful as it is with the podcast, but you are so open and honest with the growth that you've made for yourself as like, you know, when you were doing

08:09the training with clients in the space to your methodologies to like, you know, just being real, raw and honest with the evolution of you and the guys on the, on the team. And you're sharing that outwardly to others, which I think, you know, when you are really, really good coach or a good person in the space, it just wants to good for other people. You exude that outwardly. Cause it just is something that becomes a part of the development and your honesty. And then making sure that other people are receiving that so that they can embark on the right types of things that will get them to where they want to be in their journey.

08:41Yeah. Yeah. I really appreciate you saying that. And I do want to be very clear. Um, uh, I am not the exception in the, uh, in the trainer and coaching space because you have the fitness industry and it's a lot of stuff, but when you talk to trainers and coaches, uh, who are doing this and they've done it for a while and they're doing it for a living, I'm not the exception. I'm the rule in the sense of my attitude, trainers and coaches who do this for, who want to do this as a career, who stick to it. They do this because they really care. They have found this amazing thing called fitness and nutrition and health and wellness,

09:18and it's transformed their life and they really want to help others through it. And, and, and look, fitness is not a great industry to make money. If you want to be rich, you probably shouldn't become a personal trainer. So the people who do it and stick to it are, are doing it. They really love it. I mean, when you talk to, when I coach trainers, you can feel the passion. And so really what it is, is, um, I'm trying to be as effective as possible. That's all it is, is I keep, you know, through the years and anybody who's been doing this for a long time, they'll tell you this is that they have these moments where they look back and they go, man, I'm not being effective.

09:49What am I doing wrong? How can I be more, how can I communicate differently? And what, why isn't this working? Why is it that my clients are struggling the way that they are? Or why is it that they, they get to a certain level, but then they slide back and, you know, what's, what's happening here. And that's the question that, um, I asked myself for years and years and years. And you, you, you touched on something that I think is really important. When the average person is hearing, um, fitness advice or nutrition advice from a quote unquote

10:22fitness expert or a professional, what can often happen is they, they look at this person and it's like this halo effect. So this person who they look good, let's say they work out, um, while they do everything perfectly, this is so easy for them. They never had any struggles. And then this is, this part happens either a, you look at them and you feel like you kind of tear them down a little bit because you're like, well, yeah, you may be good with nutrition, but you're not there. And so then it's all of a sudden you're not relating to them or you feel like they don't

10:54understand you because, you know, you look at them and you go, well, yeah, you love doing this or you're only 23 years old. Of course you could do this. Just wait till you get to my age or just wait till you have my challenges. So I learned this on accident. Actually, I had a client who was, um, this was after she had gone through therapy for an eating disorder and she was on, on the road recovery and her parents were my clients. So they hired me and I talked to this individual's therapist and I always tried to do that. Right. Yeah.

11:25What's okay. So what are the things I should avoid or, and I got great advice from this therapist on things I shouldn't do, like weigh her, test her body fat, talk about her, her body. Like I had to focus on performance and strength because the other, you know, the other routes were, would be really triggering. And so I heard all that. And I remember it was probably, I don't know what it was. It made a third or fourth session training her. And, um, I thought, you know, I'm going to tell her about my struggles with body image. Cause I had, I had some big ones when I started. So I told her, I said, you know, when I first started working out, it was the opposite. Like you, you went through, you had anorexia.

11:58I always thought I was too skinny and I did a lot of dangerous and harmful things to myself, um, to try to remedy this really distorted view of myself. And I told her, I went through and told her about all the, the things that I did and the challenges. And it was like a light switch. Like she related to me. She felt like, uh, my advice now was legit and real. And from that day forth, um, you know, cause a lot of trainers and coaches, I think sometimes we're afraid to tell people how imperfect we are, but we, first off, we're human.

12:30Uh, second, uh, second, you are more effective as a coach or a trainer when you're a hundred percent honest, which includes letting your client know when you don't know something, you don't know everything. You don't have all the answers and everything's not easy for you. And you're, and your people will relate with you more. And then they'll, they'll, because look, as a trainer, the, the number one thing you need to work on and focus on, uh, among other things is, can I get this person to trust me?

13:00Because I'm telling them to do, make these big changes. Do they trust me that it's possible? Do they trust me that it's going to really benefit them? Do they trust my process? Because it's going to be really hard at first. They may not see or feel the benefits at first. Can they trust me? I'm leading this person through this dark cave and I'm telling them where to step. And if they don't trust me, they're not going to move forward. And sometimes they're going to, they're going to step into, into holes and I'm going to have to tell them you're stepping into a hole and that's okay. So the best way to do that is to be yourself.

13:33So, but by the way, this was not natural at first. Um, but now it's very natural. And luckily I have co-hosts that are super good in that sense. So we can just, we can communicate in very real ways and it's, uh, it's a good time, but I, I appreciate you saying that because that's very important, uh, to myself and to my, my co-hosts. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control.

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14:39Visit warrior babe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warrior babe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I think we just said their relatability and story is so important for your client to trust you and understand that you can take them along their journey because of the experiences that you've been through too as well. And they see it that, you know, you'll help them along, along the way. So I thought that was very important. Um, so something that I want to dive into talking about, obviously a little bit more of the,

15:14I want to put a pin into what you just talked about, because I want to circle back to talking about like the client coach relationship. Um, so we'll come back to that a little bit later in the podcast, but I want to dive into something that you guys do so well at mind pump, which is you guys challenge the commonly like help beliefs in the fitness industry. And you guys use science, you guys use research, you guys use your own personal experiences. You guys are just so good at doing it. So throughout your career, what, um, what would you guys say? What would you say is like the fitness myth that you found to be the most persistent?

15:45And why do you feel like it's so hard to debunk those specific ones, the specific myths? Yeah. So let's unpack first. What a great question. By the way, there's, uh, there's too many to count myths that are out there, but I think I have one that is most impactful, but I think we should, uh, first unpack why these myths exist in the first place. So the fitness industry is a market, just like any market, uh, meaning that it has to sell ideas and products and services in order to thrive. And in order to create, um, more products and services or just to exist.

16:18Okay. And consumers drive the market. And, uh, this is both good and bad. It's good because you are, you're always trying to deliver services and products, uh, that are working. And the way that you know, they're working as people are buying your products and services, or at least working to an extent. The bad part about it is in markets, uh, consumers know what they want, but they don't always know necessarily what they need. Right. So if you go to the grocery store, for example, 80% of the food in the grocery store is heavily

16:51processed. You know, you could loosely place in the unhealthy category. And that's because the average consumer of food really values things like convenience and palatability, like how good it tastes and the experience. So the market delivers, you get lots of money and innovation in that direction. And so again, that's an example of consumers want something, but they don't necessarily know what they need. Right. So the fitness industry does the same thing. Now there's a responsibility for the people also delivering the information, the fitness

17:22space. And it's also skewed because the people that tend to get the most attention, the people that tend to get the most views or clicks, or back when I was, you know, an early trainer, the people in the covers of the magazines and all that stuff tend to be the ones that look the best, right? They're the most attractive. They have the best looking bodies, or they tend to have the most charisma, or they can deliver, you know, quotes and comments that tend to spread very quickly. So they're not necessarily the smartest.

17:54They're not necessarily communicating the right information. They just do a good job of getting attention. And what that does is it creates this bias towards fitness fanatics who tend to not be very balanced in their lives, tend to not really quite understand what the average person is going through, not have much empathy. It's a lot of people who, through their own insecurities, became obsessed with exercise and diet. And so at the top of their list of priorities is how they look and how they present themselves

18:25to the world. And so we think these are, oh, these are the people I should listen to. So the result of that is bad information. So here's the big, probably most impactful, I would say, myth. Is the, it's the myth of motivation. And then to go a little deeper, it's the, how we get to that motivation that is also a myth that we perpetuate and capitalize on. So let me talk about that for a second. So motivation is this wonderful feeling.

18:58Okay. All of us love it. Nobody doesn't like feeling motivated. It's like happy. Like it's this feeling you don't want to go away when you're motivated. Nobody needs to tell you to go to the gym. Nobody needs to tell you to, you know, eat healthier or go for a walk. Nobody needs to tell you anything. Like you're motivated. Like you have this, this driver, this feeling that makes you want to do all these things that you know you should do or that are good for you or, or whatever. Now that's great. And there's nothing wrong with it.

19:28The problem is, is it's a feeling that goes away like any other feeling. So when it goes away, that's where the challenge lies. There is no challenge. As a trainer, I was never challenged with getting motivated clients to do anything. That was easy. It was when that feeling went away, which it does, where the challenges would then arise. So motivation is not something that we need to focus on or concentrate on. And everything in the fitness industry is around this. All the speeches and talks and products, they all focused on this.

20:00And the reason, by the way, the reason why they focus on this is when you're in a motivated state of mind, you're more impulsive with your consumption habits. So you get somebody who's never worked out, hasn't worked out for a long time. For whatever reason, all of a sudden they're like, I'm going to do this, right? Maybe it's January. I'm going to do this. Then they go online and they're ready to buy a new diet book supplements. They're ready to pay for a gym membership. And so the fitness industry capitalizes on that, that state of mind. And they talk to that state of mind. What we need to talk about more is the skill of discipline.

20:32Okay. Now I don't, I'm not saying, and I want to be very clear that if you don't exercise regularly or if you don't eat right, that you're not a disciplined person. There's lots of extremely disciplined people that are disciplined in other areas of their life. They just haven't been able to develop the skill of discipline in this particular segment. Okay. There's lots of successful, uh, executives or, you know, parents that are very involved or people that are very disciplined in many, many aspects of their life. They just haven't built the discipline around the skill of consistency.

21:06Let's say with nutrition and exercise. Part of the reason why they haven't likely is because, uh, when we, a, we, we love that feeling of motivation. So we wait for it or try to create it. And then B it's often created from, and what usually comes before it is this self hate state of mind. Okay. So it looks something like this. Like, um, I'll just give you an example. It's like, uh, Oh God, I saw that picture of myself on Facebook. Someone tagged me on.

21:38I do not look good. Like I need to do something about this. Right. Or somebody makes a comment or you try on a pair of clothes. You haven't worn for a few months. They don't fit or whatever. Right. So it's all, you're auto, you're all of a sudden aware. Oh, like I got to do something. My God, I hate the way I look or I'm fat or I'm inadequate or, you know, whatever. Word you want to use. This is kind of like, I'm hating myself right now. So then what that does is that puts you into motivation. That's it. I hate myself. I got to get out of this body.

22:09I need to be different. Okay. Now that is a very powerful short-term motivator. Very powerful. When you hate yourself, it will motivate you in a short period of time to do a lot of different things. The problem is a motivation goes away because it's a feeling, but also nobody likes to hate themselves forever. It just, you can't live that way. That's an abusive state of mind. So at some point what ends up happening, and here's where it's going to resonate with a lot of your listeners and viewers is you're on this path, right?

22:43You hate yourself. I hate the way I look. I'm gross. I'm going to do this diet. I'm going to cut these things out. I'm going to work out. And then eventually you're like, I'm sure people have said this to themselves or to other people. They're like, you know what? I just want to enjoy my life. Like this diet sucks. Or I just want to enjoy my life. The gym sucks. Like, I just want to, I just want to be happy. Like I want to be with my friends. I want to have some wine. I want to eat some pizza. I want to be with my whatever, or I don't want to go to the gym. It makes me unhappy. I don't like it. It's, it's, it sucks. And now why is this?

23:14And I'm sure people listening are like, oh yeah, that's exactly what happens to me. Like I go off my diet because I want to enjoy my life. Yeah. Now here's why that's this crazy to think about is that nothing, almost nothing I should say will improve the quality of your life. And I mean, everything in your life, you name it, your relationships, your libido, your sleep, your skin, your health, your mobility, your energy, whatever, nothing will improve or almost nothing will improve all of those things.

23:44Like just getting more healthy. There isn't anything that will get better. Even your bad moods will get better if you're healthier. And yet, and yet here we are, we reach a point where we're like, I just want to enjoy my life. So I'm going to stop doing these things. Right? Really what's happening is you're saying, I don't want to hate myself anymore. I don't want to hate myself anymore. This sucks. Why does it suck so bad? Well, when you work out because you hate yourself, guess what your workout is? It's a punishment. The pain initially is cathartic.

24:17So if you've ever done this, this is what it feels like. You get into that state of mind of self-hate. You got that initial motivation. You beat yourself up. You get super sore or you get super sweaty. You almost throw up. And then what do you say? Wow. That was a great workout. Oh man. I had a great workout yesterday. Well, what do you mean? Oh my God. I barely made it. And I crawled back to my car and I, you know, God, I can barely walk. What a great workout. Huh? Now, why are you saying that?

24:48Well, when you hate yourself, you get temporary relief from pain. It's like self-flagellation. It is cathartic initially, right? So that's why you feel that way. And again, eventually, who the hell wants to keep punishing themselves? Diet in that state of mind is restrictive. It's not nourishing. It's this right here. You're in that state of mind, self-hate, motivation. You go to your friend's house. You're a week into it, two weeks into it, okay? You go to your friend's house. Your friend says, hey, you want to have a slice of pie?

25:20No, no, no, no. I can't. I can't. I can't have that slice of pie. What? What do you mean you can't? You can or you don't want. There isn't you can't. Who is saying you can't, right? It's the person within you that is saying you can't do this because you're whatever, fat, inadequate, out of shape. You don't look good. You are tyrannizing yourself or punishing yourself. This is why when you go off a diet, okay, that initial period when you go off a diet,

25:56you don't just go back to how you were eating before. You go initially worse and then you go back. So it's like, you know, I'm on this diet. I'm on this diet. I hate myself. This diet's restrictive. This diet's restrictive. Damn it. I just want to enjoy myself. Or maybe the damn, maybe a leak breaks in the damn, right? You have one cookie. Cookie. Ah, that's it. I'm eating the whole box. And then you eat until you're uncomfortable or you go way beyond because what you're actually doing is you're rebelling. You're rebelling against this feeling of self-hate.

26:26And the fitness industry pushes, perpetuates, and capitalizes on this. And it's no wonder that millions of Americans every year, every year, millions of Americans lose weight. And every year, almost every single one of them gains the weight back. And they go through this cycle until, this is the sad part. This is the part that I'm trying to avoid. We lose these people forever. After about three or four cycles of this, the average person gives up.

26:58That's not for me. And they accept, for lack of a better term, this terrible state of being. It becomes their normal. And they're like, oh yeah, I've lost weight three or four times. And I've done workouts. And it's just, you know, it's just not for me. So instead, we need to communicate differently. We need to communicate that exercise is self-care. That diet is caring for yourself. That caring for yourself is not a feeling. Like I feel caring.

27:28It's an action. And when you do it that way, well, now, you know, it changes everything. It completely changes everything. Now it's like, no thanks. I don't want that slice of pie. I know it'll taste good. I know I'm going to enjoy it. But I'm taking care of myself right now. What an empowering feeling, right? Instead of the other one. Right. Love that. And I love that you, because if you think about it, our fitness space, it's huge, right? And then, but the obesity factor is just getting worse and worse and worse. So like something needs to be changed in that sense. But to what you were talking about motivation and then needing, because I'm big.

28:00I love what you're saying, because I've preached this in and out to followers, to our community, everything that like you have to develop the discipline muscle. And so can you speak a little bit what that means to you? Like somebody who needs motivation ebbs and flows, like you said, it's a feeling. It comes, it goes. But like, how can somebody learn like to develop that discipline muscle? So when they're in that moment, when there's a pie or there's this and they choose to say, no, like I'm just, I know I'm going to feel like shit the next day if I eat that. How can someone develop a discipline muscle?

28:31And what does that discipline muscle look like? And how can that serve them for like the next years of their life to stay consistent with, you know, not always feeling motivated, but knowing that like, hey, despite the temptation of what I'm feeling to want to give up, I'm going to tap into my discipline because it's going to serve me for the longterm. Yeah. Super great question. This is where we now talk about like, how, how do I make this happen? Well, well, first off we have general discipline. And the more you practice this skill in different aspects of your life, the easier it becomes

29:04to apply it to other parts of your life. However, discipline is always also very specific. And I want to say that because I want, I don't want people to get the wrong idea and think I'm saying that you're an undisciplined person. Uh, because I, I lack discipline in areas that other people are exceptionally good at, and I'm constantly trying to learn from them how to accomplish or apply or develop the skill of discipline and other avenues or aspects of my life. I just happen to speak to the fitness one.

29:35So, but all discipline is developed the same way to put it loosely. It's a slow step-by-step process, but let's get specific. Okay. With any skill, uh, there's a four, there's four general stages of learning. Okay. And you can, you, if you're a parent, you've seen this in your children and just when I, as I go through it, picture your kid growing up and it'll become very obvious to you what I'm talking about. So the first stage of learning is unconscious incompetence.

30:05Okay. So you don't know that you don't know. You literally don't know that you don't know. So you're just unconsciously incompetent about whatever skill that's out there, whatever, whatever. You just don't know that you don't know. Right. Then you quickly move into this next stage, which is conscious incompetence. Oh, I don't know that skill. That's a skill I'm completely unaware of. Now I'm aware of what I don't know. Then you move to the third stage and this is where people can get to, but then often where

30:40they get stuck. And this is where the challenge comes in. Right. The third stage is conscious competence. So now I'm consciously making choices or, or, or taking actions that I'm trying to make. I'm trying to move in this direction and I have to consciously think about it. Okay. So think of a child, think of a child that goes from crawling to walking. Okay. They all of a sudden are like, Oh, there's this thing called walking.

31:10Let me try doing it. And then they start to walk in a little kid. When they first start to walk, you can see they have to consciously pay attention to every step. And they have to, like, they have to think about what's happening as they walk. If they try to walk and do something else at the same time or whatever, they lose their balance. And it's, it's, you know, it's great. I have two little kids and it's great to watch this, but eventually through practicing repetition, you know, to the, the, the practice of the skill of walking, the child moves into

31:43the fourth stage, which is unconscious competence. So everybody watching and listening to this right now, I'm pretty sure you don't have any toddlers watching and listening walks now and doesn't think about it. Like, I don't think about taking steps or my balance. I can eat a sandwich. I could talk. I could talk on my phone. I could read something all while walking, right? It's now has become an unconsciously competent skill. So you have to move through those four stages to get to the point where this, you know, this

32:16discipline or this skill of staying consistent with your workout and your diet is just this unconscious thing. This is just how I live. And it's great because this is where you take the stress anxiety out of it all. Cause what happens is first you're unconsciously incompetent. Maybe you watch a podcast like this. You're like, Oh my God, there's all this stuff I haven't, I didn't realize. Then you're like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to, now that I'm aware of, of what I don't know. Right. So that's stage two. Now I'm going to try to apply it. So Sal said, you know, I'm going to do this.

32:49So I'm going to do this. And then I have to think about it. Like, okay, that's right. You know, uh, make sure I drink a glass of water with every meal or something like that. Right. Okay. I got to eat protein first or okay. I got to walk after my meals or whatever. Maybe you heard me say something somewhere. So now you're consciously thinking about it and then you do it long enough. And both consciously and subconsciously, you start to make connections. I feel better when I do this. This is great. Actually enjoy doing this more than not enjoying it. And then it becomes this kind of unconscious thing that you do that is easy.

33:20And that's great because in the conscious competence stage, and I want to be very empathetic to people and I want them to understand this is the stressful, challenging part of fitness. This is where you, yeah, it's like, okay, yes, I got to eat healthy. It's kind of challenging. I got to think about it. I know I have these cravings, you know, maybe I, I, wow, when I'm stressed out, I really want to eat these things over here. So I got to become aware of that or whatever. So that's the hard kind of like challenging stage. But once you start to move out of it, you will, you will get into this place where it's this natural thing.

33:51And what you do is you, you, um, apply one skill at a time to that formula, not 50 skills at a time. So the next question is always, well, where do I start? Okay. It doesn't matter. Literally doesn't matter where you start, but here's how you find it doesn't matter. And it matters. It doesn't matter in the sense that, uh, one step forward is exactly what you want to do. Uh, it doesn't, it doesn't matter what that step is because every single person watching

34:23right now is going to have a different first step. Okay. And then it matters because you have to take a step. So how do I find that step? Where do I go? Okay. So fine. I find this, you sold me on this idea. How do I know what to do first? Here's what you do. It's very simple. Ask yourself the following question. What is one step I can take that is challenging, needs to have some challenge? Otherwise it's not going to mean anything to you. So what is one step that's challenging? And then here's the most important part yet realistic.

34:55Here's the context forever. Don't say to yourself, what's a challenging step I can take that I can do for the next two months. Anybody can do anything for two months. That's not, that's silly. That's you're not being fair to yourself and you're definitely not being fair to the process. You have to be very honest and also say to yourself, like, I'm in a motivated state of mind now. Will I be able to do this when the motivation goes away? So what's one step I can take now that is a little challenging, but is also realistic for me for the rest of my life.

35:26Start there. I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's a five minute walk twice a week. I don't care if it's an extra glass of water. I don't care if it's one piece of broccoli. I don't care if it's one exercise. I don't care if it's reading a page out of a fitness book. I actually had a client like that once where we went all the way back and her first step for nutrition, because that was really hard for her, was literally, can you read a paragraph out of this book once a week?

35:56And that's where we started. Now, eventually we got really, really far, but that's where we started. And then what'll happen is it'll move through those stages that I talked about. And if you choose a good step, it'll move through relatively smoothly. Then you'll get to unconscious competence. And then you ask yourself that question again. What's the next step I can take? That's challenging yet realistic forever. And then I'm going to tell everybody right now what to expect if you do this right. And I'm going to sound like a wizard when you go through this, but I'm not.

36:27It's just, this is human behavior. Okay. Okay. Here's what's going to happen to you. You're going to take that first step. It's going to be some challenge. If you chose right, it'll move into the unconscious competence stage. It'll become a part of your habit. And then you'll ask that question again. And then here's what's going to happen. Each step tends to get bigger as you go along. So you might start off with something that feels inconsequential to you. Do not judge it. That's your first step. Like I said, it could be a five minute walk once a week. It doesn't matter what that step is. And you may say to yourself, what's it, what's the point?

36:58Don't ask you. Don't judge it. Just, just take that little step. The next step tends to be a little bigger because we've built confidence. We're starting to develop discipline around this thing called fitness and health. We're starting to feel maybe something from it. So the next step tends to be bigger and the gaps in between steps start to get smaller. So what tends to happen, which is the opposite of what people usually experience when they do this the wrong way, is this snowball effect of progress where it's like, you know, nothing's happening.

37:32Nothing's happening. Oh my God, I'm starting to feel better. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Fat loss. Wow. This is happening really fast. And I don't know how. And I feel great. Versus what people typically experience, which is, wow, I lost 10 pounds. Oh my God, this is impossible. Oh, I got to do even more. I lost another three pounds. Ah, forget it. And then they get it back. Right? So it's like fast, nothing. No, it's going to be like this slow and then snowball for trainers and coaches. This is what, this is how, you know, you're on the right path with your client when they come to you and they say, Oh, I used to love hearing.

38:06I love the word weird. I loved when my clients would say this. This is weird. Yes. This is really, I know you've heard the same thing. This is really weird. Like I'm losing weight and I'm feeling really good. And I don't feel like I'm like trying super hard or what's happening. Like my body just wants to, like, I don't understand. This is really weird. Like when you hear that, you're on the right track. You know, you're doing this the right way. If you're, if you're like, ah, I'm clawing at every little, you know, I plateaued after 10 pounds and now I'm barely eating and I'm doing all this stuff and I feel terrible.

38:39I guess you're doing it wrong. I love that. Clients and coaches need to just rewind the last five minutes and listen to that over again and just be okay with saying this is weird. Not expecting. Like I always joke around with everybody. Everyone expects to put their body into a microwave and out pops a toned body in 30 seconds. I'm like, Oh my God. Right. Like it's just not going to happen that way. Like, let's just focus step by step. Like you're saying one habit at a time. And let's make this for, you know, the longterm for you to live a healthy life.

39:11Yes. Yes. And I'm going to, I mean, look, I, I, I'm going to try and use analogies because, uh, I'm loosely familiar with your demographic of, of people who watch and listen to your podcast, which is, which is roughly the demographic that I train most, uh, as, as a trainer. So let me use this example. Okay. People like to use the word sacrifice. Like, Oh, you got to sacrifice this in order to accomplish that. You got to sacrifice eating, you know, hyper palatable desserts and sweets or whatever in order to look this way.

39:42Or I got to sacrifice time to go to the gym and do this kind of stuff. Yes, that's true. However, real sacrifices. And you know, this, if you're a mom. Okay. And here, I like to use this analogy because parents and especially moms in particular, um, they put this together very quickly. You sacrifice a lot for the betterment of your children and you, you recognize the sacrifice. By the way, the sacrifices you're going to make for fitness pale in comparison.

40:13So I don't want people to freak out and be like, Oh my God, it's gonna be that hard. No, no, no. Raising kids is, it's a billion times harder, but you make those sacrifices for your kids, for them to be better humans, to have better health, to have better experience. And you know, it's hard, but if you went back in time, you would do it all over again. There's no question. There's no question why you're doing this, right? It's hard, but I'll do it all day long because it's totally worth it. It's the same thing with what I'm talking about, except it's way easier. It's way easier.

40:44The sacrifice, if you do this right, if you ask somebody who's figured this out, who does this now forever, and I'm not talking fitness fanatics. I'm talking about the average person who didn't do anything, who all of a sudden now, three days a week, they're consistent. They eat generally healthy. It's not stressful to them. For example, something realistic, right? If you ask them, wow, it must be a terrible sacrifice. They'll be like, actually, I mean, I guess, but not really. I really enjoy it. And by the way, that doesn't resonate with people when they're first getting started because they're like, oh, that person must just love it right out the gates.

41:15No, no, no. That's the place that you end up getting to if you do this the right way. So there's light at the end of the tunnel is what I'm trying to communicate here. Love it. So good. Again, everybody just needs to rewind and listen to everything that Sal's saying. This podcast better be put on repeat a couple of times. So I want to go down into talking about the demographic of women, right? That we serve. We speak to women that are like 45, 50, 50, post-menopause, pre-menopause, all that, that phase of life. And we know during this phase of life that those women can experience issues with decreasing bone density.

41:50And I want you just to speak on how crucial and critical strength training is in this context for the longevity of their life. Because a lot of these women come to us and they're like, I'm doing cardio. And they feel like cardio is the means to the ends. And like cardio is going to get them the results. It's going to build a strong body. But they are afraid to step into the world of strength training for many reasons, right? And we try and debunk those things with them. But I want you just to share in your perspective why strength training is so important to longevity for these women going through this phase of life.

42:23Yeah. Well, first off, there is nothing that comes close when you talk about bone density in particular. There's nothing that comes, not even in the same universe, in terms of its effect, its positive effect on bone density, like strength training. Nothing comes, like second place is so far away from first place in terms of things that positively affect bone density. That's almost a waste of time if you were to look at and compare. Strength training directly sends a signal to the body to build stronger bones.

42:54You're literally telling your body very clearly and directly, we need above all else, stronger bones. So people are like, well, how's that happen? Uh, it's not controversial to say that strength training directly tells your body to have stronger muscles. Everybody knows that, right? You lift weights or you do some kind of strength training or resistance training, you get stronger muscles. That's the whole point. Muscles anchor on bones. Bones are a part of that, that building process. So you're literally giving your body direct direction, direct instruction to get stronger bones.

43:30And the data is crystal clear on this. If you want stronger bones, lift weights or do strength training. By the way, strength training is body weight, bands, machines. I say lift weights, but it's anything. It's any type of exercise where you use resistance in pursuit of building strength. And I want to make sure I say that last part because you can use resistance, but just make it cardio. Like I could go do circuit training or do 50 different exercises all at once. That's not strength training. Strength training is specifically to build strength. Okay. So it looks more like I do a set and then I rest for three minutes and then I do another set.

44:04And then I rest for three minutes with the pursuit of getting stronger. That tells the body very clearly, I need stronger bones. Okay. So we've been communicating bone density wrong for so long. We've been saying things like you need calcium, you need vitamin D. Here's what you need to do with your diet. And it is true that if you have a deficiency in things like magnesium, calcium, vitamin D, that you won't have many of the building blocks required to build bone.

44:34Just like if you don't eat any adequate protein, you won't have some of the building blocks to build muscle. But if you just eat a bunch of protein and don't send the signal to build muscle, nothing happens. If I take a bunch of calcium and magnesium and vitamin D or even change my hormones, I may be providing the building blocks and hormones do give somewhat of a signal, but I'm not really giving the directions. It's like having a bunch of bricks and plywood and two by fours and you have a bunch of workers there, but you don't have any instructions.

45:10So they just sit there looking at the bricks and they don't know what to do. So you got to do strength training in order to make that happen. Cardio does not do that. There's a small bone building effect that happens from cardio and it's very localized typically to the lower body. In fact, data shows that it may in fact cause bone loss in the upper body. So we can kind of get into that, but strength training does that. Now here's something else that strength training does because you mentioned longevity. Okay. When you do strength training, the direct signal, the direct result or what your body hears, if you do it right and you feed yourself, right.

45:42Got to say that too, is build strength, build muscle. Lots of side effects along with that. Faster metabolism. Your body's more shapely. And we can go down the list of whatever. But part of that process is when your body gets the signal to build muscle or to get stronger, one of the first things it does is it organizes its hormones in a way to do so. Because the hormones are part of the signaling process.

46:13Okay. So what does that mean? Well, in women, what you'll find very consistently if done properly. And again, this is like, this is in another universe in comparison to other forms of exercise. What you'll find is a balancing out of estrogen and progesterone. So you could have, you could be estrogen dominant, progesterone dominant. Um, and you'll find that balance will start to happen because a balance profile is what your body wants to use to build strength. You'll notice your testosterone levels start to become optimized.

46:44Now you may be listening to this and what, what does testosterone have to do? I'm a woman. Testosterone is a vital hormone for women, just like estrogen is for men. If you, if you were to take estrogen out of a man, he would become depressed. He would lose strength. He would have joint pain. His health would decline. If you took testosterone out of a woman, she'd have low motivation, low libido, muscle tone, muscles, you know, would be gone. Uh, she'd have anxiety, depression. So the difference is the ratio, right? There's an optimal amount of testosterone for women, optimal amount for men.

47:14Okay. So strength training optimizes testosterone, optimizes estrogen, progesterone. It optimizes cortisol. So that's a buzzword, right? The stress hormone. Well, cortisol is necessary, but there's a optimal way that we should have cortisol. Like it should come up. It should be high in the morning to wake up and then it's just slowly go down and come down at night. It should not be elevated all day long or low in the morning where you feel like crap and you need tons of coffee and then high at night and you can't go to sleep. So you need to take, you know, uh, you know, Xanax or something to go to sleep or drink glass of wine.

47:46Right. So, so it balances out cortisol. It also raises growth hormone. The youth hormone starts to go up. You also, and this one's very important, become far more sensitive to insulin. Insulin is a very important hormone to pay attention to. Insulin resistance doesn't just cause diabetes. It also causes cognitive decline and dysfunction. Causes anxiety, depression.

48:19It can cause lethargy. So feeling lethargic. Um, it causes, uh, fat gain in, especially in the midsection. So if you notice as you're getting older that you don't gain body fat like you used to, well, you can, there's a combination of cortisol and insulin, uh, that's happening, uh, right there where it's, you're, you're not responsive to insulin. Um, it's generally, it's probably one of the main drivers of poor health as we get older is this resistance to insulin. And there's a long way before you get to diabetes or even before you get to the range where the doctor starts to pay attention.

48:55Like, uh, you, you probably have started to develop insulin resistance type symptoms decade before you ever develop actual, what would clinically be called insulin resistance. So what's happening? Why is it so, oh, and then also the problems, a lot of problems that, uh, plague women, endometriosis, um, you know, uh, issues with their period, um, uh, where their ups and downs or feeling whatever cravings, those can be tied to, um, insulin resistance as well.

49:26So why does building muscle and strength so effective for insulin? Uh, muscle is literally, first off, extremely insulin sensitive. It's one of the most insulin sensitive tissues in the body. Part of the reason why is it's where it's one place that we store, uh, processed sugar as energy. So if you want to take floating sugar out of your body, out of your blood, you want to increase the capacity of your body to store sugar in the form of glycogen.

49:58Glycogen is the, is the energy. So building muscle does it. In fact, studies on severely obese individuals who lose no weight. And I'm talking about people who are like a hundred pounds overweight. They'll have them build a little bit of muscle, like three pounds of lean body mass. And you'll see significant improvements in their blood sugar and in their insulin sensitivity. So, um, and there's so many other reasons. Gosh. I know. I didn't think I would love that you're going down this rabbit hole with all of that. I love it. Thank you. Because there's so many things in there that I was like, cause a lot of women come back and they're like, I got my blood work back from my doctor.

50:33And like, why is this so better? And then we go into explaining these things and helping them understand that it's not just the, you know, physical attributes that come from strength training or what these women are going through with post-menopause. It's also the internal aspects that like everything's kind of recalibrating to like you, helping you to live with, like, we're talking about longevity in the long run, being around for your kids, being around for your grandkids, like all of these things. It's not just a physical thing. It's an internal thing. And yes, there's also, there's also this, and this is a selling point. I like to communicate this.

51:04Those of us in the fitness space have known this. If you look at people who've been working out for decades, who do lots of running, let's say, by the way, all activity, if done appropriately is good for you. So, so I want to be very clear. Okay. So any activity you do, if you're consistent, it's appropriate. You're not overtraining, not hurting yourself. It's great. You're in the right direction. Okay. But we're talking specifically about strength training. Those of us in the fitness space have known this for a long time, that people who do lots of cardio, and that's the form of exercise they do, and they've done it for decades.

51:35They're far better off than their peers as they get older. But when you look at them in comparison to, let's say, somebody who's put a focus on strength training, they age a lot faster. We have now data to support why. Well, first off, the hormone balance is better with strength training because, again, it has to organize. A muscle building strength supporting hormone profile is a youth hormone profile. A hormone profile for endurance isn't necessarily a youthful one. Okay. But here's the second thing, and we now have a study to support this. It's really crazy.

52:06All exercise improves the quality of your skin, but only strength training has been shown to improve the building process. There's actually a building process in the skin, the collagen matrix, that gives your skin that thickness that you tend to have when you're younger that you tend to lose as you get older. So as you get older, you notice your skin starts to get a little bit. In elasticity, yeah. Yeah. It doesn't feel as like, I don't know, as plump or as it's more papery and thin.

52:39There's a collagen matrix in there that starts to break down as you get older. Well, it turns out, and there's a great study that just came out literally specifically showing this, and they compared strength training to cardio. They did a head-to-head. Strength training sends a build signal throughout the whole body. First off, there's a localized effect. So if I work out my bicep, most of the signal goes to my bicep. But I also get the systemic effect. In fact, they've done studies where a person works out one arm, doesn't work out the other arm. Most of the strength gains go to that arm that they train.

53:11But they get a little bit of strength and muscle gains in the arm that wasn't trained. There's this kind of systemic effect in the body. Well, it seems and it appears that telling your body to build, feeding your body appropriately, also tells your skin to build. It also is strengthening and thickening your skin. And I love this as a selling point because I know most people like the cosmetic effects of exercise. So I'm just hammering this home. If you want to appear more youthful and healthy in that sense, from a skin perspective, we have now conclusive evidence what those of us in the space have seen for decades, which is strength training makes your skin literally younger.

53:55It builds your skin just like it builds your bones. You're going to make it now. Now, this is just a great selling point. I'm going to be like, all right, I'm going to lift weights now. That's it. So Sal told me it's going to make my skin look better. Studies show it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's awesome. That's really cool. So good. You gave me chills to many of those points there, especially with the way that like, you know, cardio makes the body look, but in congruence with strength training. But then just spitballing that skin, you know, just every woman is so, you know, concerned about their skin, skin products, like doing that whole jam.

54:28But if you just tie in strength training, it can help that aspect. It does. It does. Not only does it help that, but here's one more thing just to hammer this home. Strength training is unique in the sense that it's very effective with a small dose. Other forms of exercise, they all provide some benefit, like I said, like doing something is better than nothing so long as it's appropriate. Always. So I really hope I'm not discouraging anybody. If you found something that you're doing now and it's more than you were doing before and it's appropriate, don't let me talk you out of doing what you're doing.

55:01Continue doing it. Okay. We're just talking about the benefits of strength training. So I'm getting very specific here. So they all have that value. But strength training, one other thing that's unique about it is it's very effective in low doses. Other forms of, in terms of the effects on the body, cosmetically, health-wise, if you did strength training appropriately twice a week for 45 minutes, you would have profound strength gains, profound metabolism boosting effects.

55:34And then the side effects of fat loss with that. You would have profound hormonal effects, profound effects with two days a week. Other forms of exercise, you would get benefit, but they're not nearly as profound. So why is that a selling point? Because I know modern life and modern life looks like this. I'm sedentary, but I'm busy. I'm busy. My schedule's packed with everything. Like, I got work, and then I got the kids, and I got to take them here, and then we got this play date, and I got this thing going on. And so, like, every day, an hour a day, which is what they recommend, like, that's not going to happen.

56:07I can only do two days a week. Well, okay. What can I do that's going to give me the most bang for my buck, right? I got to dig this hole. Do I want to use a spoon or do I want to use a shovel? So if you don't have many days a week and you want big bang for your buck, strength train. Nothing's going to compete. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Appreciate that answer so much. Benefits of strength training. Totally agree with other forms of activity and exercise. Doing something is better than doing nothing. But strength training in terms of overall just strength to your bones, muscle, mind, skin, all of the things.

56:37Dr. Gabrielle Lyon says it's the organ of longevity. Yes. So I firmly believe that. So I want to touch on, because I know that we have limited time left, and I appreciate your time today. I want to touch on one question with the client perspective that we pull from the top that we first talked about at the beginning of the podcast and bring it into this. From your perspective, what are some key benefits that clients gain from working with a professional fitness coach? Oh, gosh. Okay.

57:07So just a little context here. Okay. So our podcast, we've been on air for eight years. You know, I don't know. We're approaching, I mean, I don't know how many hundreds of millions of downloads. So we reach a lot of people. We reach a lot of people at this point. I feel very blessed to be able to do so. But we make, like, we do not fool ourselves at all. In fact, we say this on the show all the time.

57:38You know you listen to the show. We are not making the big impact. The trainers and coaches make it. We were trainers and coaches for decades before we ever did this. I am not impacting everyday people like I was when I was a trainer. Like, I may be reaching more people, but I am not going to change somebody's life like their trainer will. So we try to communicate to trainers and coaches more than anything. Those are the real soldiers in this battle. So our biggest point of influence or what we focus on is talking to coaches and trainers.

58:14Because we know that if we can influence them and kind of explain what worked really well for us, that they're going to make some big changes. Okay? So trainers, a good coach and a good trainer is the most valuable thing you can invest in. If your goal is to accomplish lifelong changes in the positive direction with fitness and health. There's nothing more guaranteed. Nothing's guaranteed. There is no 100%. Okay? But nothing is more guaranteed than that.

58:45That's period, end of story. There's no podcast, no YouTube video, no book, no class, no nothing else that'll come close to having a good guide. That's with you. That can help you along the way. That can predict what's going to happen. It's very important. A good coach will tell you, you're going to feel this. Because then when you do, you don't feel like you're alone or lost. You're also prepared. This is a person that's going to lead you up the mountain.

59:15It's going to tell you, if you step there, you're going to fall. If you step here, it's a little easier. And then if you do fall, which you will, they reach down, give you a hand, you grab onto them, and you get back up. And this person is going to, a good coach and a trainer, is going to teach you or guide you on how you can develop this skill and this discipline so that you can then do it for the rest of your life on your own. And that, you can't get that anywhere else. Now, of course, there's bad trainers and bad coaches out there, and I understand that.

59:51But there isn't a segment in the space that is going to be more successful at helping you do this for the rest of your life. So we talked to that, and I know it's expensive in comparison to a gym membership. There's a reason why a gym membership is so cheap. There's a reason why it costs $20 a month. The gym has figured out a formula, and the formula is this. Let's charge a price that's so low that everybody signs up and that they won't cancel if they don't show up, and that's our model. You know, Jim, I managed gyms for a long time.

1:00:23This is when I left gyms, okay, is when I started to learn this data. I remember they had statisticians come in and show us data, and they said, the members that cost us money, the ones that we don't profit off of, are our heavy users. And I remember hearing that and going, what an upside-down business. Like, I'm here to help people. Right. I'm here to help people, and the people that are losing us money are the ones that show up.

1:00:54You know, why are they costing us money? They use the equipment. They wear things down. They pay their $20, and that's it. The ones that make us money, the most profitable members were the ones that paid and didn't come. And I thought, this is crazy. So don't compare the cost of a trainer to the context of the rest of the fitness industry because that's all designed for you to not use it or to use it and then stop. It doesn't make any sense. Right. Okay? If you want something that's going to work or that is the best chances of it working, nothing holds a candle to hiring a good trainer or coach.

1:01:29Now, in terms of cost, I'm going to give people some advice right here. There's a lot of different ways you could do this. If it is very expensive for you or, should I say, not feasible to work with a trainer on a regular basis, you can work with a trainer once a week. You can work with a trainer once a month. You could do it virtually to where you just do text and phone call. And then, of course, it's more and more effective the more you can see the person. So I work with them three days a week or Tuesday a week. But any type of support and advice you can get from a coach or trainer who's good is so much better than anything else.

1:02:03So I cannot speak to that enough. That is right there. If I'm trying to get a family member, I just did this with my dad. You know, I'm getting my parents. I've been, you know, lifelong trying to get my parents to be consistent with this. And I've gotten some success. But, you know, luckily I'm in a position financially where I can afford to hire somebody for my parents. And my dad has been consistent for six months with his workouts because he's got a good coach. Like, I know this. I know this. There's nothing more effective.

1:02:33Yeah. I love that. I'm doing the same thing with my parents right now. And they're finally making some headway. And it feels so good. Isn't it great? It feels amazing. That's awesome. Yeah. So, okay. One last question because I know we're wrapping up some time here. And I appreciate, again, your time being on this podcast. I'm excited for it to get to the listeners. Everyone can dive into all the amazing insights that you gave today. Well, one last question. If someone's looking to make a genuine shift in their fitness journey, what are some fundamental pieces that you'd offer in advice for that person? All right. So here's one piece of dietary advice that is simple that will yield you tremendous effects.

1:03:13Just one step. And that's this. All you have to do is try to, for the most part, avoid heavily processed foods. That's it. What are heavily processed foods? Foods that are in wrappers and boxes, lots of ingredients. So these foods have been engineered to be so palatable that they actually will make you overeat. The data is very clear on this. They're really, this is what they do. Okay. If you simply do that and then you also eat as much as you want, eat until you're satisfied, eat until you're full, but you're only sticking to whole natural foods.

1:03:46So like one or two ingredients or foods you cook yourself type of deal. You're going to get leaner. You're going to get healthier and it's going to feel like you're not dieting. You're going to be like, but I'm eating a lot. And I feel full, like I ate a whole bunch of, yeah, this is weird. Okay. So that's just one, one step with that. Here's the next step that I'll tell you. If you are going to approach strength training, just do this. Pick three exercises. Okay.

1:04:16Pick three good exercises. And when you do work out, whether it's at home or at the gym once a week, three days a week, whatever, approach those like you're learning a new skill. Practice them. Don't work out with them. Don't think to yourself, I'm going to get my legs sore. I'm going to get my shoulders sore. I'm going to get my abs sore. This is all about the sweat and whatever. Don't do that. Just say to yourself, I want to get really good at this exercise. I want to get really good at this exercise.

1:04:47I want to get really good at that exercise. That will get you far better results than the, I'm going to work out, make myself sweat sore. You're going to be much more appropriate with your intensity. You're going to get way more benefit from the exercise because you're going to learn how to do it really well. And it's going to, it's going to be much more enjoyable that way versus the, I need to beat myself up. So literally just go to the gym and say, okay, I'm going to practice squatting. I'm going to practice overhead pressing. I'm going to practice rowing, whatever. I don't care what they are.

1:05:18Three movements, practice them to get good at them. And that's it. Those two things right there are very big impact drivers. Literally, if you just did those two things, everybody watching, listening to this right now, you would feel and see significant results relatively rapidly. That'd be consistent. You're missing number three. What's number three? Oh, one more thing. I love it. Forgot. Last thing right here. This is another one that's a big one. Go to bed the same time and wake up at the same time every morning.

1:05:50That's it. Oh, man. Sal, you just opened up a whole can of words for another podcast. No, no. You know why? Because here's why is everybody hates Mondays. I'll go back to work. I feel like crap. We give ourselves jet lag every weekend because we go to bed at the same time, Monday through Thursday, because we had to wake up for work. Friday comes along. We go to bed late because we can sleep in. But what we're really doing is we're changing our circadian rhythm every weekend. And then every week, we have to go through the process of correcting that jet lag. That has profound negative effects on hormones, cravings, appetite, mood, et cetera, et cetera.

1:06:26So just go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. And that by itself makes a huge difference in how you feel if you just did that. Same time, every time. That's it. Those are the three things right there. Amazing. Sal, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Your insight, your advice, the new studies that you shared with us. Super dope. Thank you again. And yeah, thank you. Appreciate you being here. Thank you so much for having me. Hey, guys. Real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle, feel more confident, do it alongside one of our 30-plus professional coaches.

1:07:07Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork that you may have. And all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. Now to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.

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