Don Saladino. Gabrielle Lyon. You are one of my best friends. I’m so grateful that you’re here. I’m honored to be here and it’s just honestly like this the trip out here was not just about doing this it was about seeing your husband your children you and just it’s fun just kind of rapping all day right. What are you doing? What are you ordering? So we should tell people I really set you up. So you and I have known each other for about 10 years we have been very close for almost a decade right not just through fitness and nutrition but we’ve really gone through life. Business, family, extraordinary. Yeah and you are one of my most favorite people and we’re gonna talk all about health wellness fitness but the reality is if you guys don’t know Don Saladino you’re always so humble but you are extraordinary you and your wife Mel. Thank you. She’s an ordinary extraordinary people so hopefully you guys will get a taste of not just health and wellness but also who Don is as a human because you know my husband he’s a very good judge of character. We were up last night laughing I was I got a man crush on Shane we were like sitting at the table talking about stuff so funny so interesting and so capable yeah amazing person and I would say you are one of his most favorite people. Thank you. That being said I really set you up for dinner we went to dinner. Oh my god. At tiny number five. Yesterday if you guys are in Houston and have are looking for a great restaurant tiny number fives is farm to table and so again Don and I have been friends for a decade and we really eat clean we eat clean around the around. And I was disappointed I was though I’m jumping in I was disappointed because I’m sitting there going all right what you gonna order I’m just gonna go Times two. Simple. What did I say I was gonna order? You said you were gonna order a protein style burger and I was looking at you like you had nine heads. I’m like who are you like what are you talking about really? Did you get a burger and fries? Yeah I’m just gonna eat I’m like okay and I’m sitting there taking 15 minutes ordering like apologizing to the waitress because I’m like I’m so sorry for the changes and then she’s like times two. That was a full setup I can’t believe you owe me that you even believe that but well done sir well done. I love it. And Don Saladino just in case you guys didn’t know this if you haven’t read my book Forever Strong Don wrote the training program and kicked off our Forever Strong Summit which he will be doing every year hopefully. Yep every year and I haven’t announced this but we have two more books in the pipeline I’m probably not supposed to be talking about that but Don will be doing the training for both those so I’m really excited. Honors. And I have to say your level of fitness puts everybody else to shame. That’s nice to say but you know it’s not if you guys are looking and watching him his biceps are poking me in the eye and oh my gosh Matt we did not do our pre-podcast ritual so I guess we’re gonna have to do it afterwards. We’ll do it afterwards. Which involves post post-ritual I’ve been hearing all about this too. Which involves multiple push-ups to Eminem but we will be doing that again. Okay done.

For the general population we get so many questions about body composition and the number one thing people want to know is what do they need to do to lose body fat and again you run multiple challenges have so many different programs and by the way your clientele are some of the most famous people on the planet. So you can talk about the full spectrum from Ryan Reynolds who I’m a huge fan Ryan if you’re listening to this podcast and if you’re not you should because you are probably the funniest actor on the planet. Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, who else? Annie Hathaway, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski. I mean I won’t name drop anymore but the list goes on and listen I’ve had a great career. It’s interesting because it changed a lot right. I went from a trainer at a big box club to owning a golf performance facility. I worked with a lot of rotational athletes to then working with Hugh Jackman and getting people ready for the big screen. So you got to be malleable in business and you got a this whole performance physique world is something I really fell in love with at a very young age because I want to perform like an athlete but I want to look a certain way and I want to you know I want to feel a certain way and that’s where what you do really comes in because without that what are we like the biceps are meaningless right like we got to be healthy internally. So yeah I think to answer your question of what do people need to do first off I mean we’re all different and some people love this and some people don’t love this and I get confronted by a lot of people who say “Don I just want to want this.” You mean want to get fit? I just like for some people are like oh god I just wish I could wake up every day and be excited about going to the gym and be excited about eating right and I’m like listen I’m more consistent in this than you know almost anyone. Anybody. There are days I wake up and the motivation might be I don’t believe that for once. No there are days I wake up and you might be a little tired you had a rough night’s sleep you had travel but the discipline never changes. It’s like if you ask me would you rather have motivation or discipline I’d rather have the discipline piece because the discipline piece is going to allow me to push through those days that I don’t feel motivated. So yeah I admitted the other day I was on Ben Newman’s podcast and I think I haven’t taken you’re gonna laugh but like I haven’t taken when I say a day off I don’t mean I have my rest days but I have not woken up since 1996 and said oh this is not a day I’m gonna train. I always will go and do something I’ll find a way to be successful and I’ll leave feeling successful even if that’s mobility but I’m always keeping my eye on that discipline and yes I have cheat meals and yes I was in Austria a few weeks ago and I drank some beers and I do those things but when I come home it’s business and it’s back on the plan and there’s certain non-negotiables when I train so I’m not expecting people to do that but listen we need strength training right and I think we need you know right around three days a week at a at a bare minimum right. Would that be enough to change to lose body fat? I think it would be and I think that depending on your lifestyle I’m not telling you for the other four days to go sit in the desk and not move or not be active but if you got in and you did three days of resistance training and the other four days you were active with steps and you were trying to get outside and you’re hydrating and you’re focusing on sleep and you’re focusing on something that we love called protein right. Never heard of it. Never heard of it and and trying to the food I consume I want it to be powerful right like I’m not going to just eat like a chicken breast and some white rice. Which is the old school way. Which is the old school way of doing things like yes we’re gonna have broccoli with it or we’re gonna mix like you’re the way you eat or when you look in your fridge very interesting and I love it. It’s very organized. It’s very organized but like you had your grass-fed steak you had you know some shrimp you had some chicken you had your potatoes you had your rice you had your vegetables and you had other things up top your kraut maybe your kimchi. That’s right you noticed so you were looking yeah so like for fermented foods and you know there was never you were never sure of being able to consume something that was powerful so I think there’s a way to eat that’s delicious. I think it does take a little discipline and a little planning like if you’re gonna wake up the next day and say oh god I slept in my meals aren’t ready and when am I gonna train? I never sleep in right because I have two little children who woke up and were like where’s uncle Donnie? I missed that but yeah I think to answer your question I think if you got in started with you know three 20 to 30 minute sessions and the other day that’s not that long it’s not it’s not long but then the other days be active like like walk take the stairs instead of the elevator move like maybe after your meals go for a 10-minute walk doing these things that are really going to help you accumulate your steps and you know I think good things will happen and when good things start happening then those magic words come in it’s like all right I’m seeing progress what’s next so many people don’t want to keep up with you know with that discipline because they’re not seeing progress so when you’re doing something every day and there’s nothing in return it’s really difficult to want to continue to do it so that’s my thing if we could show them a little bit of progress we’re going to get them coming back a lot more and progress begins you know there’s the physical progress but also being able to set a standard for yourself 100 you set a standard you execute on that standard if you were to say if you’re out there listening and you’ve never picked up a weight which I know some people are in that spot or maybe they’ve always been doing cardio because again cardio is easy you jump on a piece of cardio equipment but strength training is a non-negotiable for reducing body fat and changing body composition Don has trained every type of person under the sun from famous people to athletes to tier one operators whom we share together if someone starts at 20 to 30 minutes of resistance training three days a week how should they think about it should be a Monday Wednesday Friday what kind of it should be how should they space it and would these be full body exercises I like full bodies because now we’re repeating with some frequency and I think someone who’s getting started the big complaint is I don’t want to feel too sore right like I like to sort is that the big thing oh my god am I gonna get really sore doing this I’m like all right but so if you’re turning around and you’re training frequently meaning like a Monday Wednesday Friday or Tuesday Thursday Saturday you’re allowing yourself a rest day you know in between mentally we might develop some motivation which becomes a problem when most people start training they get so excited and they get over zealous and they jump in there and the next thing you know they’re there for an hour and a half and then they’re sore the next day and then they come back in and they do it again and then three four days in they’re like I’m shot and I can’t keep up with this and I’m like I don’t have that type of time and that motivation starts diminishing so I want them to go in I want them to hit it I want them to leave there wanting more like like leave they’re not being completely spent is that why you say start with 20 to 30 minutes because at 30 minutes you could probably keep going I can create any program for anybody like it’s if someone comes to me and they’re like I for some reason at 20 minutes I lose motivation I’ll design for them the 18 minute workout it’s just and I can design in a way where we’re going to check a lot of boxes we’re going to train the entire body you’re going to work you know you’re going to work all five components of fitness you know strength mobility cardiorespiratory endurance muscular endurance and body composition so you know all those five components we’re going to check those boxes with if we are you know training in a smart way and we’re training in a very efficient way but if you’re coming in there and frivolously pulling stuff out of the air you’re going to have a big problem and and there’s not going to be any balance to your programming and you’re going to over train certain areas of the body or some people don’t like using the term over training but you’re going to overload certain areas of the body and that could result in some issues in the future and it’s not a well balanced program it’s not a well balanced program but if you’re training with a well balanced program you’re going to notice even posturally from a movement standpoint you’re just going to be in a much better place so take me through i’ve never trained before i’m starting with the 20 to 30 minutes three days a week i meet you at the barn which is amazing sure we start with some mobility or do we go yeah take me through i’m still listen i’m a fan of mobility i i am i will it feels great um just i call practice so what i’ll do is i will personally screen someone i’ll run them through some type of a functional movement screening or if there is red flags i’ve got a team of medicals i work with where they can come and do an sfma or take them through their process so once we understand how that person is moving then i can design my practice or call what you want warm up movement prep prehab whatever you want to call it i don’t care but like then we could design that very simple approach based off of what it is that person needs so if they’re lacking an external rotation in the shoulder we might work on that or thoracic extension or thoracic rotation so it’s very purposeful right i’m not gonna take a woman who can twist her spine like gummy and start working on open books it’s a useless movement for her she doesn’t need it she might need to hang from a pull-up bar and work on grip strength i’m just making this up right but i think coming in and taking anywhere from three to five movements and just rolling through it to where your heart rate gets picked up but we are practicing things that we want to get better at that i think becomes very very important and then you know it’s how are we structuring the workout based off of their goals and we designed you and i designed a foundation workout for exactly that you guys listening again there’s been so many questions about how do i get started and what specifically do i have to do don and i created a workout for you we’ll and hopefully it will be ready we will link to it and we developed it it’s a three day a week dumbbell only program right it’s very very simple so i we just not everyone has access to a gym and if you do fantastic so do you think that everyone at this day and age should have access to a gym um

 you know what it’s it’s some people just aren’t gonna have the time right it’s like you you have two kids at home i make the time you make the you you make yes yes yes you do but like some people aren’t going to have you know some people are going to have to be at work at a certain time so i have no problem with you buying a pair of power blocks and getting an adjustable bench and we have a pair you didn’t see them in our i love them i love them i think i think it’s like almost the i think it’s the ultimate like in home tool i agree but you you can buy a pair of power blocks get an adjustable bench and you’re you know you’re you’re ready to go yeah you’re you’re ready to go you don’t need much more is what i’m saying so i don’t want to discourage people who are like listen i have two kids i gotta get on the bus and then i have to be at work at 9 a.m like all right like you can’t leave them home alone like right like you don’t have you get it’s not gonna work out that’s not gonna work out exactly but you get what i’m saying i i think the dumbbell only program is allowing anyone to be successful and then from that point if you can get to the gym yeah that’s why i’m here as a coach is to say hey listen we don’t have to do pullovers we can go do a vertical pull because you have access to a pull-up bar or a lap pull down or whatever it is or yes we have some pulling machines let’s go have some fun with that let’s add some variability and so you know i think we’re starting with the dumbbell only and then we can build from there i love it and when we think about exercises specific exercises that we do do you think that there are a handful of exercises everybody should be able to do should we be squatting so as someone who is now going to start a dumbbell only program and we’re just picking that for you guys but the exercises that should be done they should be able to squat they should be able to press how do we think about that yeah so i like breaking it down like you’ve got your squat you’ve got your hinge what’s a hinge hinge would be like your rdl it would be something where you’re you’re getting less um knee flexion out of is that where you bend you hinge you bend from your waist yeah so like an rdl a good morning like your kettlebell swing like a hinge even though a swing would be a little bit more i think advanced if you get a newbie starting out i’d be more interested in teaching them just how to do like a dowel hinge or maybe like a simple dumbbell rdl but you guys will link we have videos yes yes absolutely so i like going with a squat a hinge an upper push an upper pull and it’s a hinge push push a pull and pull is there a reason why it’s in that order no you can you can go hinge squat pull push i don’t care okay i really don’t actually prefer like yes if you wanted to vary it up and start with the hinge at times like sometimes we’re more focused in the beginning and sometimes we need to warm up a little bit more yeah that’s a good point prioritize would you say that the more complicated the exercise the earlier on it should be done um i think so so and i think yeah that might contradict a lot of like what crossfit does but i actually think it’s a real it’s really good advice yeah but if we’re teaching something like that’s demanding a lot of power like like a snatch a clean you know something of that nature that’s demanding a lot of speed i’m like always programming that in the beginning because i want them to be alert i want them to be fresh um and i don’t want them to be fatigued because once you start getting fatigued with those movements you begin to load dysfunction and when you load dysfunction bad things can happen right you’re gonna get hurt yeah a squat or um a hinge not necessarily squat right yeah so it’d be a yeah squat a hinge okay a push a pull and a core movement and a core movement so what would be an example of each of those so squat would be like a goblet squat um it could be a split squat which we did yeah which which i which absolutely and i love the split squat because it’s um it is um a unilateral movement and i categorize like split squats differently than the rear foot elevated differently than front foot elevated so those are three forms of split squats but i will program them all a bit differently i’ll i’ll i’ll keep more of a vertical knee tibia if i am doing a split squat um a rear foot elevated split squat is definitely going to be more knee of a knee dominant movement and a front foot elevated split squat i might be able to recruit the posterior chain a little bit more but i’m still keeping that vertical knee tip so there’s always a reasoning for why i’m putting something in the program but yeah i like balance i like variability but i’m not going to start a beginner out with a rear foot elevated split squat it’s a very difficult movement it requires a lot of balance and um you know i think but a body weight split squat is very safe a goblet squat is very safe and there are times where we try and program that and it’s not in the cards for the individual maybe because of some knee issues that they had in the past or balancing issues and then we figure out a call to regression or a lateralization to something else that they’re going to be able to be successful with so we’ve got um those are our two so we’ve got the squat we’ve got the hinge which would be like let’s just start with an rdl and that’s a romanian deadlift um an upper push a push-up something as simple as a push-up or that’s important right to be able to do push-up and they don’t even need uh a weight with a push-up i’m blown away by how many people perform a push-up incorrectly no rep no rep matt is the the king of no repping but it’s there’s a push-up is a moving plank that’s how i categorize it it’s like we’re in a plank position so we’re getting the benefits of a plank but we are moving so it’s dynamic so when i get someone into a push-up i am trying to allow them to create tension with the floor with their hands i want them to squeeze their glutes i want them to fire their lats and i want everything to raise and lower in one piece i don’t want their hips to stay down where you see people bobbing with their upper body and you’re causing extension in the lower back it’s just in my opinion there’s a more efficient way to do it and um people can still develop very strong physiques by doing things inefficiently but i also believe in my opinion that when you do things inefficiently you’re always in the potential of causing more risk injury over time what about okay for the the push-up or a pushing motion we have a push-up what else do we have we have a bench press yeah we have a dumbbell so we have a horizontal press or vertical press is how i differentiate my um my my pressing so push-up would be horizontal a dumbbell flat bench press horizontal an incline bench press horizontal a seated dumbbell press vertical a landmine press vertical like a kettlebell bottom-up press vertical so like there’s a handstand push-up vertical like there’s different levels of of a of a difficult difficulty that we can assign to people and then we have so we have the squat hinge the push the pull and then we got our core movement and we talked about did we talk about the pull uh no we didn’t okay what’s what are the exercises for the newbie listening that want to include uh a pull and again squat push pull core you do this three times a week yeah i love it because now we’re you want now we’re accumulating some volume over three days so we’re in bodybuilding terms someone would go in and let’s just say this let’s say they um god let’s say someone does legs on monday and no no no chest it’s universal chest i purposely said legs just because i’m like i always do legs i’m like okay let’s let’s say someone does chest on monday and let’s say they accumulate 14 sets of their chest work and we also have to talk about set and rep range 12 sets 14 sets whatever is i think your sets are all dictated by your intensity so when i say 16 sets of chest you can get a chest workout done in seven working sets six working sets how hard are you going to go less right so um if you’re doing let’s just say 16 sets for the sake of math we can do 16 sets in one day or we can do four sets a day over four days we’re still accumulating those 16 sets so like what i’m what i’m doing is we’re training for different things if someone’s a bodybuilder yeah we may want to go with a little more volume or um intensity or we may want to train a little bit more frequently during the week if i’m working with someone for performance or i’m trying to get them moving and they just want like a strong build and they want to be lean and they want to be athletic um you know i these full body workouts i think are a great approach and there’s so many different ways i could structure them i could still focus on strength and power i could still do circuit work right i could still set them up in different ways and they’re efficient so i think when we don’t have time um the full body workouts and uh are a good way to check a lot of boxes i think they’re great i in fact the program that we created i’m going to be using because we are you know managing some of these injuries and again you can still make body composition improvements by just being consistent and and again you can change it for if someone is moderately trained or more advanced you would increase the either volume or intensity which would you think is more important for body composition changes um specifically fat loss yeah you know what i would have to look at training age first so if someone is new to training if i’m coming in with an intensity approach in my opinion most people are not going to be able to stabilize and maintain i mean if i had my wish out of it i mean i would balance out between some volume work and dropping down volume and raising intensity i think it is it’s been my approach my entire career i will set my training up into different blocks blocks of like uh two months right where is that how any everyone should do it no no this is just this is just how i this is how i do it so i’ll set up like january and february will be the same program but i’ll have progressions every two weeks and the exercises will change in february and then march will come in hockey yeah yeah i mean listen i gotta pay attention like during i’m a hack hockey player by the way let me like be be clear but if you’re playing three four days a week um you know you want to be careful about how you load the spine you want to be careful about specific movements that you’re doing like your body is could potentially you know uh it could take a toll on your on your body so i think exercise selection is important and i think isn’t intensity is important when you’re playing that much and um then when you scale off i think it’s a time to put your foot on the gas in certain areas and maybe start focusing on a little more strength and power and you get a little bit more aggressive with certain things but all throughout the year for for me it’s like those workouts start with that practice portion and um that’s what allows me to feel very um flossed flossed i i like that term i don’t like it’s just it’s a fun term to use and it’s not it’s not a scientific term let’s be very clear here but it just feel more feel more flossed and feel more loose and feel more recovered the pull for the beginner what are the best pull movements that again you know you and i talk we’re really training for longevity even and everybody should whether they’re a military operator or an actor it’s your body’s your tool resiliency yeah exactly yeah what are some of the key pulling exercises that you like yeah i’ll break it down from like a vertical pull or a horizontal pull so it’s no different than the pressing right vertical pull can be your pull up chin up neutral grip pull up lap pull down right like that’s your vertical pulling right you’re pulling high down and then your horizontal pull could be like your one-armed dumbbell row your chest supported row your face pull right some with equipment some some with dumbbell some with machines it’s it’s you know if you have access to that equipment i’m all for you you know have fun with your training also like if you’re getting in and you’re training at home all the time and you’re bored and you’re just like oh you know don and gabriel wrote me this dumbbell wrote this dumbbell program and i’m just getting bored of it like go to a gym get some variability like have fun with your training like go in there and you know don’t make it miserable i want you to enjoy it i have a question that i don’t know the answer to and you might not know the answer to this probably not uh but this is so fun having you on the podcast um where did these exercises come from i mean who in i mean just think about it we create these programs and then we continue them a squat makes sense because that’s something that my kid could do but where do we where did one determine that a pull is important i mean a pull up would make sense but some of these exercises have you ever thought about who developed them or why yeah i mean i i think we have a few names for a few of the movements out there right but i mean people are inventing crap today they’re just like throwing a name on it and you say to yourself well obviously through social media and through the reach that we have i think these things are so much more visible and fitness now is so much more accepted than it was you know even back in the 60s and 70s like that was fit people who were fit jackal lane i’ll never forget it like i was um i trained with him once yeah so he was uh he came into gold shim i want to say it was either his 90th birthday or gold’s gyms like 100th or 90th anniversary and they had jackal lane kind of walking into the gym and he looked at me i was in a sleeve of shirt and he’s like let’s get me on camera with that kid so i ended up working out with him and you know he was 90 years old he was inclined pressing 55 pound dumbbells and i got to sit with him and hear his story a bit and when he passed i i was invited by his wife alayne her name was alayne lalane right and um now we went out to the tribeca uh one of the tribeca theaters and i sat through this this documentary i gotta be honest i was teary-eyed most of the time because this guy people he was like it you know back in the day he’s like you know i’m mixing all these fruits and vegetables in this blender and blending them together people are like this guy’s crazy and he’s you know pulling a barge he’s swimming and he’s pulling this humongous barge and he’s doing all these feats and he is really one of the people that kind of set the standard and i think kind of and yeah in a way normalized like what it is we all go do now moving weights and moving and i think it’s such a beautiful thing but when you turn around you look at these exercises some of these exercises have been around for centuries i mean thousands of years like there’ve been people doing some of these movements um and you know once in a while you’ll be able to find a picture of a physique from a hundred years ago and you’re like oh my god like he’s obviously nattie like he looks amazing like but um it’s it’s cool to see that it’s cool for me to see it but nowadays like yeah like you look at the rdl like it’s a hinge like people have been hinging forever and suddenly someone’s like oh we’re gonna call this the romanian deadlift or you know it’s like movements that again have been around for a really long time the pull-up like oh wow that’s a real scientific name like someone’s hanging from a bar like pull yourself up like we’re calling that the pull-up like it’s probably how it literally happened and then we just hung with these things and then now you see all these sports scientists now um researching and trying to find out other ways to do things more efficiently but um i also it’s interesting about a lot of this research is we’ve all seen research that um have been published and you know you’ve seen it then contradicted you know decades later and yes there’s certain research papers that we’ll you even explain yeah that you’ll look at you’re like oh this is solid but you know i also look at specific experts in our field that have been doing this stuff for 20 25 30 35 years and there’s some of the best research experts without having things published right exactly who you’re referencing yeah so it’s for me that’s for me that’s impressive like just because a paper might come out and it might say well there’s no evidence that mobility is helpful well this guy’s been doing it for 30 years and this guy now is seven years old and he moves beautifully my evidence is gonna push myself in that direction or sometimes it takes time for yes for evidence to catch up with what we know or hypothesis the we talked about squat push pull core exercises yes tell me how important those are for a beginner and what we should be doing because i remember i went on a good morning america and i called you i’m like don they want me to do exercise i’m like do you remember this yes and i was like here’s what i’m thinking for the core exercises i went uh blah blah blah sit up and you’re like uh no yeah we’re not doing sit up so explain to us good core exercises and why yeah i mean i want to be clear the sit-up’s been around for a long time and there are plenty of people that can do sit-ups and never have back issues i’m just when i but maybe it’s not the best i mean yeah so the reason why i don’t program it is because you know statistically a lot of people have sore backs and a lot of people are sitting in this position they’re in this kyphotic position all day and and just adding um i think that flexion you know under strain can be um can be detrimental right so i’m a i’m a huge fan of one arm carries or some type of as a core exercise yeah like because always core exercises we think that we’re going to be laying on our back right sit-ups or you know matt over there doing flutter kicks but no some of the strongest people i’ve worked with um they have you know we have assigned you know carry variations into their training diet and they’ve had an incredible level of success with it i mean there’s so much benefit there’s so much bang for their buck i’m out of that movement and you know what like i’ve seen as a rehab tool i’ve seen dr charlie weingroff you know um post surgery bring someone in and it’s a very whether it’s shoulder surgery or whatever it might be you know starting them with a weight down low is is going to be a lot safer than getting them up in this position here so you know i have seen this used as a rehab tool from medical professionals very successful i’ve seen it used um and a core stability your number one exercise is a is it would it be called an offset carry it’s just a one-arm yeah i mean i mean some form of a carry depending on you know what they’re capable of doing but i love one arm carries planks are i i think i think a great introductory movement i think teaching someone to get into a plank position and create tension these tension techniques getting into position and say listen we’re not going to hang out in this extended position squeeze your glutes squeeze your legs and you you taught me something yesterday about a plank it was it’s not about the length of time that you can hold a plank because an individual could like how much tension yeah but you said that it was about creating tension and being able to hold the quality of the plank under tension right and that i thought was a really good learning tip i think it’s a great way to kind of supercharge your plank a bit right where most people i can hold the plank for eight minutes like great like there’s trust me there’s there’s plenty of um strength carry over from that but when i see most people holding in those positions they’re in a bad position and they might be loading themselves in a way that i don’t think is that i believe in my opinion isn’t the safest thing for for them so i think teaching them how to do a hard style tension technique plank for 10 to 20 seconds where i’m literally like telling them envision a tornado is blowing over you right now as you’re in this plank position what are you going to do how are you going to stabilize they’re like well i’m going to try and rip the floor apart to stabilize i’m like exactly are your glutes going to be tight they’re like yeah is your chin position going to be packed yeah it’s like i’m moving around them trying to like palpate their body trying to move them a little bit they’re just literally shaking within 10 to 20 seconds isometric isometric hold exactly and how many reps would they or how many yeah would it be considered a rep yeah yeah i mean i i would put them maybe under time like so i would start someone off like hey listen let’s let’s see if you can hold that position because i put people in the positions and they’re like i can’t hold a plank and i’m like okay we’re gonna work up to that and then there’s other things like yeah like if they can’t hold a plank which i’ve seen um we can hold a light dumbbell with two hands how late are we talking as light as we have to go to where we’re adding external resistance to the equation but we want people to want them to get under load yes we want them to get under load and i think that that’s probably one of the biggest misconceptions for people is they’ll say well um you know i can’t lift up that’s too heavy and it might be a 10 or 15 pound weight but that’s a problem in my opinion but i think it’s just a thought process right because you could go lift your child or a suitcase and it’s gonna be a bag of groceries that’s right it’s gonna be much heavier a bag of groceries how about this i’m traveling this afternoon we got a suitcase that we’re carrying that suitcase is gonna weigh a lot more than two pounds like you better make sure you’re able to carry this stuff you know i’ll quote recently i was listening to a physical therapist talk about the one arm carry and how he likes loading it so heavy that he’s like if you can do a shrug with it like it’s too light type of thing right so i thought that was a really good indicator but i also understand i am not taking a newbie into the gym on day one when they’re feeling vulnerable or they don’t have that foundation and i’m turning like hey mrs smith like you haven’t trained in 40 years or ever like let’s go over and grab that 24 kilogram kettlebell go for a walk don’t worry if it’s heavy like god forbid something happens like we have to develop that confidence whether she can do it or not we have to develop that confidence i want them to turn to me and i want people to feel empowered when they come in to exercise and when they go and they play with their kids i want them to feel empowered we saw a woman that you know the other day in her 60s she was killing it in the gym killing it and you know what most 20 25 guys she’s stronger than me she’s my size she’s she’s stronger than me sled pulling sled pushing sweating out of breath walks by me gives me like a fizz i’m like oh my god who is this like super woman over here she runs ultras yeah it’s impressive and now we just and she moves well there’s not too many people who run ultras where i’m like wow they move really well yeah she moves really well yeah um and then so basically for fat loss it’s enough and you know i say fat loss and body you know re-composition this essentially would be enough for a untrained person to begin to put on skeleton muscle mass yes um yes you know what’s cool about this it’s um you could take a newbie in here i call them newbies and you can run them through this slowly as individual movements taking time talking them through it holding their hand a bit i can come into this workout right now and this is not the way that i’m training right now and we’re going to talk about the way that you’re training because you you again i’ve known you for so long there’s a lot of complexities to your training and a lot of uh things that you add in that i think are really really cool thank you the rep range and tempo and time between sets for uh an individual who’s just starting tell take us through where we should start to think about i think an individual just starting should monitor their rest time because a lot of times they’re going to come to me and say wow it was weaker today and i’m like well why were you weaker maybe on session week one you were taking three minutes in between your sets and maybe this week you were only taking a minute like in my opinion you might not be weaker you just might not be recovered so i think by monitoring your rest time that’s important because suddenly i can bring a woman into the gym and we can go through dumbbell bench presses and maybe she’s bench pressing 20 pounds in each hand and we’re resting 60 to 90 seconds then the next week i come in and for some reason i’m just making this up we decide to rest 30 seconds probably not pressing those 20s but she’s gonna look at me and go what the hell’s wrong with me why am i changing the 15s why so i think understanding that your rest is going to have a lot to do with your success with each set and um i do believe that when we’re starting with someone new i like starting with a higher rep range because i consider that practice and i think they start understanding tempos if i’m going to get a newbie in there and have them do fives right five repetitions five repetitions we’re practicing five reps the amount of load i have to add to the bar is going to be a little bit greater than what i want them to do i would like them to start with a little bit lighter weight i’d like them to understand the movement pattern i’d like them to practice and get connected with that movement that’s why i’m not against you know even someone new with machines are bad i’m like machines could be a great um very variable sometimes it’s like all right well maybe we’re so fatigued if we are training to for hypertrophy that at a certain point safety becomes an issue and now that we’re on a machine we can really push without having to require all that neuromuscular coordination and all that stability suddenly we can get on that machine and we can we can push or if someone is i put people down on dumbbells to do dumbbell flat presses and they’re like whoa safety’s a problem here like oh my god they can hurt themselves they can hurt someone else around them like they don’t they don’t understand that movement pattern get them to uh to a machine chest press to where you could be on one of those things drunk and you can you know you can not that you’ve ever tried that i’ve never tried it but you you get what i’m saying i think there is a place for a lot of these things so to answer your question i would like you to monitor rest time see how you’re feeling how long how long do you think for an individual starting how long should they be resting i think anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds considering we’re not getting under heavy loads i think is really conservative i think that’s a really conservative place to be there’s some people who are going to grab weights they might be so fatigued that going into the next set they’re like oh my god i need more rest stretch it out to 90 seconds and you know what if they’re still fatigued go to two minutes you know log it but you’re tracking it track it because we can change a program stimulus by leaving the sets and reps the same but almost progressing the rest times you’re you’re saying something very smart here it’s all about the adaptation that we’re looking for we focus a lot on what is the individual exercise and the reason i’m covering individual exercises isn’t because so much that it’s that specific exercise not to confuse people but the movements are important but it’s the stimulus yes that we’re after and you have taught me a lot about how we can change the stimulus whether it is volume intensity rest times while doing the same program you know it’s funny i learned that i stole all that information from this old bodybuilding coach named vince geronda and i remember reading about this guy probably when i started coaching in the late 90s and it was interesting because i went back to some of his training methods when i broke ribs or i injured my shoulder and suddenly i couldn’t get under heavy loads anymore so as a young trainee you’re like okay well can’t bench press 225 right now what do i do and you’re like all right we’ll get on the you know incline press and press eight sets eight and we’re going to do that on 45 seconds rest for two weeks and then two weeks later we’re going to do that on 30 seconds of rest and then two weeks later we’re going to do that on 20 seconds rest and suddenly loads that were so light to begin with are feeling heavier than that 225 and you’re just creating the stimulus and you’re sweating and you’re feeling successful so i believe that we go to these we can go to these tools when you know life throws us a curveball or a speed bump i really like that the uh 60 to 90 second rest that’s in between for example our hinge or squat so we’ll do how many reps are we starting with 15 to 20 i i think 15 is a good number and i think you know at the very least that goblet squat can become a body weight squat right it’s it’s um i actually think the goblet squat can get a little easier in the body weight squat because even if you put a light dumbbell or light kettlebell in someone’s hand you’re allowing that core activation it’s acting as a counterbalance and um you know i try to have people squat and they’re going onto their toes and i’m like all right let’s let’s put this box down i teach them how to kind of sit back onto the box to where they’re learning how to use their glutes a bit more and be a little less knee dominant and um you know that’s how i would approach it but don’t feel that you know just because it says goblet squat doesn’t mean we can’t call lateralization work on those body weight squats body weight squats like push-ups and pull-ups i think are these foundational movements that we should work on and how fast do we progress so right now we’re doing a repetition range of five to oh 15 sorry 15 to 20 reps we’re doing 60 to 90 seconds in between two to three sets right i was gonna ask you two to three sets is a good place to start again we want them to feel successful we want them to get out of the gym you know in a good amount of time so they can come back in and be hungry to come back in again i’m trying to build this level of consistency and i’m trying to you know remove that vulnerability that a lot of people feel when they’re grabbing a dumbbell or they’re going to a gym and they’re around people and the first couple weeks is all neuromuscular connection it’s all central nervous system yeah learning the pattern listen it’ll take longer than that i mean this is this is an art like the strength is uh strength i love that line strength is a skill like we just develop these skills as we get more and more reps in so i’m not going to say like two weeks you’re going to be great like no like we need to put time in but we could start progressing i think two to three weeks we could start progressing and when like when do i like to change a program first when it’s when we feel like it stops working like when someone’s going in there they’ve been seeing progress and then suddenly they stop seeing progress i’m like all right let’s pull some new tools out of the tool bag but different than changing the rep range changing the yes talk about tempo either well yeah we’ll get to tempo this is actually like you can run this template for i know people who are in incredible shape that run full bodies all the time and there’s so much variability suddenly now like that hinge can become a trap bar deadlift it could become a um a conventional deadlift it can become something ballistic right like we could start getting into hang cleans and we could start doing things that are kettlebell swings or kettlebell snatches and we could do things that are a little bit more advanced and technical when we’re not doing ballistic so and we’re doing what i’m talking about here oh tempo i think and we all count differently but i think going into like uh like a one Mississippi two Mississippi three Mississippi up is is solid or some people might do um to produce more high to perjur might just be like one Mississippi two Mississippi one Mississippi two Mississippi so very slow so notice how that tempo four seconds to do both reps four seconds to do both so concentric and eccentric yeah so i’m making this up so like right now if we do that three second eccentric and we’re explosive on the concentric it still took us four seconds to do the rep but i approach that set a little bit differently than if i did two seconds down in a slow controlled concentric that both sets are both four seconds but we um i might program those a bit differently and how often should someone be thinking or changing up tempos um that’s actually a good question i don’t think i have like a set um you know i might change the tempos with um the training block um if someone’s been training a certain way for a while and i feel like they’re starting to tap out like rarely do i like to change um tempos when they’re in this honeymoon phase of like getting stronger getting stronger getting stronger like someone’s coming in and their squats going up and every week they’re like a newbie and they’re getting stronger and they’re excited i’m like great great great like i’ll save those tools for when i feel like their progress begins to plateau a bit i like that are there certain weights that people should increase by for example is there any kind of standard that you increase your squat by five pounds yeah would it be a week would it be a month how do people it’s a great question like when you when you turn around to a movement like a squat you’re going to be doing a heck of a lot more weight than someone’s doing a side raise so if i take a female and she’s goblet squatting 30 40 pounds which is very you know very a very normal thing to do she’s not side raising 30 or 40 pounds she might be side raising you know five to ten pounds this is a range i’m not like i’m saying everyone’s going to be in here but i think the percentage increase on the side raise is going to be you know minuscule it compares it depends on it all depends on the lift yeah i think it really a lot of it depends on the lift like the squat and the dead lift like i went up um i was traveling i wasn’t like today was a day where i was like all right i’m not gonna go crazy heavy so i went up to like i think i’m the deadlift for a set of five when it’s like 420 right but last week i did 405 so 15 pound increase is significant my it’s it’s it’s a lot but i’m ramping up my deadlift so i’m in this phase right now where i’m leaving a lot in the tank um i’m not going to jump 15 pounds on a side raise or a bicep curl or a rear fly or an isolation movement right like those are going to be much more minuscule that’s a that’s a really good perspective for people listening and they should be trying to increase weight there should be this component of progressive overload yes because if they’re not then would essentially they be just maintaining yeah i mean i know some people that have incredible physiques and are in great shape and they just kind of you know every time it’s like the same thing over and over like let me be clear about something the fact that you’re getting in there and doing something is better than not doing anything so like and if i was getting stronger every single day every single week of my life i’d be the strongest human being on the planet like right ever so like it’s you’re not going to continually get stronger at these lifts over and over and over and that’s why like variability it’s like all right if we’re turning around and we’re training a more of a hip dominant squat a wide stance squat and we’re kind of tapping out there there’s no reason why we can’t go to a heels elevated a little bit closer a little bit more knee dominant loading the body a bit differently we’ve already worked on being very strong in a hip dominant way i’m starting to tap out there so in my opinion for what i’m training for let’s go load our parameters a bit differently and you know if i was a nationally ranked power lifter maybe that’s not the way i’m going about it like but um i i know for what i train for which is what pretty much everyone trains for and what is that being jacked in tan well done well listen no no seriously like we want to we want to have high levels of energy we want to look better naked we want to be strong we want to be able to rinse and repeat every day you want to be able to wake up and feel resilient you don’t want to wake up and get up and be like oh my god my back so like my program is going to look um a bit differently than someone else training for a power lifting meet or um chris bumstead training for the olympia right like there’s there’s different ways to assign programming is there any truth to the idea that if someone is uh x number of pounds that they should be able to squat are there standards that yeah people are making up these standards but i don’t really get it like and i i’ve read this a thousand times like there was a there was a category of the day like everyone should be able to do their body weight on bench or squat i’m like okay like great like i saw the other day someone there was this test like it was the old man test like someone is passed they were talking about putting on your shoe your your i’m sorry your sock and your shoe and lacing your shoe without putting your foot on the ground and if you can’t do that you’re an old man i’m like no maybe you have maybe you have hips that don’t move because of god’s will this is the way you’ve been put on earth like it’s just your bone structure like these are circus tricks so i think sometimes people get good at certain things and they want to like standardize it as like a test or um suddenly like oh if you can uh uh you know bench uh double your body weight you’re yeah hell yeah you’re strong like if you could double bench your body weight like for me that would be me i’m at 210 pounds i would be bench pressing 420 pounds i can’t bench press 420 pounds the the charts and i think they’re i think they’re just made up and i think maybe it gets you know we’re like all right this is someone who’s strong like okay i could squat double my body weight am i strong sure i could squat one and you start seeing the percentages like and if you could squat if you could bench press like 1.75 pounds like this is just numbers people make this up like why like so i don’t know i think people obsess over these things sometimes and um at the end of the day what what’s quantifying this stuff for us like if you live to 100 years old or live to 90 and you’re healthy and you’re not in the hospital and you can move really well and you could be strong did it really matter whether you’re able to squat you know double your body weight could jackalane squat triple his body weight like probably not like i don’t know like the guy was 180 pounds so what is it what’s what’s the math on that he’s squatting 500 pounds like no he’s not going to squat 500 pounds he never was able to make he was he was he was a machine so that’s what i’m trying to say and and i think it’s a really good perspective because we do have these charts out there and are they valuable i struggle with it because again the way that someone’s weight is distributed is totally different whether they’re 30 body fat or 15 body fat what percentage of their body is muscle versus how tall are they how long are their limbs like exactly i had a buddy of mine in college he had a 500 pound bench press and he couldn’t squat 500 pounds so people like well he just had a strong bench he just had a really strong bench the guy at his body weight was still squatting i think 480 so what he’s suddenly he’s weak because he can’t squat and more than they sometimes we’re just made a certain way and we’re built a certain way and we have to stop listening there’s so much clickbait out there and there’s so many people making up these standards it’s nonsense and it really is about about being able to train for life getting stronger over time what about as we’re thinking about the newbie who’s going in for body composition changes we’ve really addressed strength training which isn’t complicated it’s three days a week we went through squat hinge push pull and a core exercise simple what about cardiovascular activity where do you stand with high intensity interval training sprint interval training versus zone two um where should i love it all i love it all i mean i love high intensity interval training you saw me yesterday on the air bike and i chose the air bike because again it got off a plane um much safer much better way for me to get my heart rate up to the specific area i needed to get into the specific zone i needed to be in and i went hard and was that a was that a max effort for you uh yeah it was pretty close to it i mean i was i was trying to get into the red like i call it the the red and the legs were burning and i’m on this new program that i put together and i’m trying to ramp it up so every week it’s feeling better and the recovery is better and the intervals are progressing but i’m running those higher intensity intervals only twice a week and that i even thinks a lot right but i also play ice hockey twice a week right right now so but i don’t categorize that as high intensity because i monitor my heart rate out there with a chest wrap and i’ll look at the comparison and because you know you’re waiting for the puck or you’re looking at where the play is or it’s stop go stop go stop go it’s like all right your heart rate my average heart rate is definitely lower my max heart rate is definitely a bit lower because it’s not like you’re not out there in the sprint the entire time like there’s a little bit more strategy to the game so i would categorize that more as my medium intensity intervals and then you got your slow steady state which you know everyone likes to talk zone to now which has been around for i think it’s way overplayed way overplayed way overplayed it’s been around for a long time but i think it has its place i think people who are fatigued i think people who are trying to just move and work up a sweat i think this mindless piece to it also where maybe you get off a plane and you’re just tired but you’re feeling like you’re retaining water from the flight and you just need to get that blood moving a little bit putting that incline up and and doing a power walk for 30 to 45 minutes where your heart rate’s in that 120 to 140 range and you’re you know you’re breathing but you can still have a conversation i think there’s a lot of benefit to that also so i think there is a time and place for these things but anytime someone’s like oh high intensity all the time i’m like we don’t know enough of the story yeah and i swear i which i love training with high intensity again and it blasts my nervous system i it’s very difficult to recover um you know depending on if you’re just doing it which yes but we also look at the movements we also look at the movements like there are movements that with certain people trying to do high intensity i would not program like i’m a big sprinter i’m a big hill sprinter like i love it i i find that to be incredibly challenging and it can be very very dangerous for people who are not proficient at running when they get fatigued you have the you know the possibility of them tripping and falling like i’d rather them get on an airdyne bike or i’d rather them get on a ski erg or a versaclimber or something that’s stationary locked in safe and it’s like just go like you just what do you want me to do like today i want you to go at an eight rp out of ten that means like not 100 20 off 100 like that’s where we’re gonna stay or guess what you have 15 seconds right now i want you to envision like i have a stake on your back and there’s a pack of dogs running after you and they’re like oh my god like i’m not gonna tell them to do that when they’re running like that’s gonna become you know they might be compromised but putting them on an air bike i think is really a safe way to go about that type of training and high intensity exercise so this is high intensity interval training um there are numerous different ways these protocols play out right what would a beginner think about for let’s say we wanted to add it in to a training program would this look like 20 minutes of high intensity yeah of 20 seconds on two minute rest i’m doing even less okay so tell us through that i might i might have some someone just getting started i might put them on the bike and say all right listen let’s do like a three to five minute warm up or if it’s at the end of the workout they’re already pretty warm and it doesn’t doesn’t matter when someone does um interval training oh i don’t i mean i like i did it yesterday as a standalone day like my my wednesdays lately had been interval days where i come in and i practice and what do i practice i practice like some gymnastic stuff handstands l sits ice cream makers front levers like i try and work on that stuff but i didn’t have access to all that yesterday so what did i do i came i did mobility um i did about a five minute warm up on the air bike and then i um i wait i went eight intervals of of a of a one to three work to rest ratio which means um the first week i was running um my challenge group through um actually the first month i’m running them through a one to three work to rest ratios that means for week one 15 seconds of work 45 seconds of rest week two 20 seconds of work 60 seconds of rest we’re still at that one to three week three and four would be 30 seconds of work 90 seconds of rest so i would run them through that for a month and um i think for a newbie you could start with like three sets i think they’re going to be blasted on three sets of just so three yeah i mean 15 on 45 off that’s times three that’s that’s three minutes of work i mean that’s that’s a joke but what we’ll do over time is we could start increasing volume if you want to get technical i start looking at that how their heart rate’s recovering and then when it recovers and they can handle more i might pile some more volume on them but we’re not always going to just keep adding volume adding volume adding volume i think we should top out that high intensity training no more than like 20 minutes i think that is like a max um if someone’s doing high intensity training for like 45 to 60 minutes like it’s probably either they’re like they’re like an absolute savage which we know a few of them or they’re just not training in a high intensity way maybe they’re doing more of that medium intensity how i categorize my hockey game right maybe they’re just kind of down shifting a bit and they’re not trying to blast it so high intensity for me is trying to get someone close into that red of like oh my god max heart rate like we’re approaching it this is really painful i am out of breath i cannot have a conversation but again when we’re starting with someone new let’s keep the volume down three sets and we could start progressing it over time and i just want to highlight here there’s a it’s actually really well done paper that talks about all this in the world journey uh world journal of uh cardiology this is a 2019 paper and just for the listener the variables improved by high intensity interval training again yes you will feel better but it improves vo2 max which we know it improves hscrp so if you’re getting your blood work these are inflammatory markers it improves myloperoxidase which this is a marker that we measure in our clinic and a whole bunch of other things that includes insulin it improves insulin resistance does a lot of things with very

 not low effort but very short amount of time very short amount of time it is very it’s very efficient but are there times i’m not using it yeah i mean i i think you know you got to look at those other stress factors in their life which most people aren’t like remember training’s a stress it’s good for us it is a stress so if you’re you know out partying the night before and you’re dehydrated and or you were on a plane or your jet lag like these are times where you know i would you know second guess the level that you’re pushing someone now again not everyone you’re you’re a beast like you can handle things anymore i can i can i can handle things your husband can handle things right i’ve got friends that can handle things but you know other people i i just i don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze is what i’m saying and you said two days a week max with this yeah for everybody yeah yeah i think that’s a good way to go and um there is uh that’s not saying that you can’t do more but i’m saying that’s i think that’s a good standard and there are multiple different protocols out there martin gabbala if you have you heard of martin gabbala he’s kind of the godfather of high intensity interval training yeah and he says a lot more he no no no he there’s just different protocols and his is this is aerobic uh 10 times one minute hit hit protocol high intensity interval protocol well we’re gonna work up to that and that’s what i meant about the work to rest so like month one this month i’m programming a three to one next month i’m programming a two to one the month after i’m programming a one to one and a one to one would be one minute on one minute off so like where you know i i think again we’re trying to change that stimulus by manipulating not only the work ratio but the rest oh my god the rest is gonna completely change the the workout for you so i enjoy that i think it’s i think it’s when i say fun people are gonna think it is fun especially if you can get hooked into that zone start gamifying things you’re like oh i got a goal today like let’s go like i gotta be here when there’s certain monitors now where you’re like i’ll set my phone up i use um oh god i i use not first booth my zone i use my zone and it’s colors and what’s what’s kind of cool about it is i heard of that yeah so my zone it’s in front of you and it’s already calculated your max heart rate and i know i gotta hit the yellow or the red so how hard i work until i hit the yellow i’m aiming for the red this set but like if i get in the yellow i’m good and i got it so it’s like and then out of nowhere you see it lighting up and you’re like oh my god i’m in the green i’m not working hard enough and it’s it’s pushing you to try and get there and it’s it’s it’s challenging but you’re able to quantify what you’re doing and that’s actually really important because think about it if you are too tired or mentally fatigued you might not be in the mental zone to be able to execute right what you need to to actually get the stimulus and tracking it’s really important we track food we track blood pressure all these things we should be able to track progress and output in the moment i think it’s really important yeah what’s interesting is a lot of the wearables now are tracking cardiovascular but they’re not really tracking that resistance training piece i know even i work with auro or you know companies like whoop out there like you can go in and do max effort lifts which oh my god my heart rate is you know when you’re trying to stabilize while squatting you know four wheels on each side or whatever it is your heart rate’s up and then afterwards it’s not really recognizing um you know that effort and that work right through the things that they do to quantify like whoopio uses strain etc so it’s not really it’s not able to take into consideration yet you know those other factors so even the wearable market right now we’re finding it’s not perfect but it’s not perfect yet yeah it’s going in a good direction it is and it’s really helpful because i i think previously unless you were an elite athlete people weren’t tracking high intensity interval training right do you think it’s more important to track heart rate or it is to it to track then we give you an example there were periods of time where we were in the gym and we were doing a 500 meter row we knew that that 500 meter row should be sub two yeah do you think that that’s is it more important to try to get to the sub two you know 500 meters or is it more important to track heart rate you know it’s funny about the sub two thing um heart rate’s going to change so much according to age right so if i’m up in that 160 range i am cooking i’m 47 years old on monday so i know my max heart rate’s around calculations around 181 so how am i up in that 160 160 to 170 range i am like blazing um but the other day i was talking to a woman who’s in her 20s and i’m like where’s your heart rate at she’s having a conversation she’s like how about 181 and then you’re like okay well she’s 21 years old right so i think when you try and compare heart rates sometimes it’s very it’s almost it’s all like individualistic like it doesn’t it’s the heart rate’s important for you um but i also know that most people out there when they’re looking at heart rate they don’t know what they’re looking at like i would challenge and say 90 of the people out there who wear heart rate monitors are just like oh well my heart rate got to 180 i’m like what does that mean they’re like right like they don’t really know so to answer your question if the goal is to be sub two because you’re training for an event or something that’s pretty important right you know but also i think understanding that when you’re training that if i’m at 170 or that woman i was just talking about is at 170 those efforts are completely different so it is also about the effort and i need to understand the efforts because if someone is taxing themselves out by getting close to that to their you know threshold that might mean there’s so much more effort going in and there’s so much more fatigue and then i have to understand that in reference to talking to them about rest and recovery and their program design and what they’re doing the next day that woman who is doing that 180 whatever was that 181 who’s now at 170 that’s a joke like she’s she’s she’s writing on a piece of paper and she’s doing that right scrapbooking but i but i think they’re i think they’re both important but i think we need to understand what we’re looking at both for yeah uh that makes a lot of sense and that kind of leads me to this sprint interval training so high intensity interval training is up to 80 percent really your max output but sprint interval training is is different that’s a hundred percent effort and it seems like that’s not very well tolerated by yeah and you know it’s interesting you should talk to derrick hansen about this my podcast partner you should bring him on he he’s probably one of the god he’s probably one of the best in the world i know when it comes to running mechanics and sprint training and he’s very rarely having anyone do 100 efforts like he’s working on a lot of falling starts he’s working on a lot of things between 10 and 20 meters  and he’s working on a lot of techniques so i know it’s very difficult once you start getting people in that 100 range for sprinting it’s like there’s a lot of risk yeah coming there and i’m i’ve got to be honest i’m rarely going to design that for people um i might take myself there but i better make sure that okay how’s my travel been that week how’s my warm up how’s my body feel warming into that because like i said i’m gonna use that line again there’s a cost of doing business do you think for that now kind of and i guess we’ll round out the conversation of the newbie nutrition sure um what are your thoughts on how they should be aside from the whole food component focusing on protein again you and i’ve talked for years yeah your thoughts about how an individual who’s starting out really focusing on losing fat what are their key nutrition strategies that they should be focusing on first thing we want to do is as you know kind of you’re like you’re like the queen of all this stuff i can’t believe i’m actually talking to you right now you i know you know all this stuff but i think one it’s understanding where what are we starting with because if someone’s like oh yeah like well how do you eat well i eat dinner and i’m like okay what’s your dinner like it’s like uh whatever burger fries or you know whatever it might be and you’re like okay like i might kind of the word i use is like marinate them into this a bit like i’m not going to turn it up be like oh i want these three square meals tomorrow because they’re gonna puke and feel full and feel like shit and excuse my language but um but like what i might start doing is like all right listen let’s let’s try this let’s start with a really small breakfast and let’s maybe incorporate a protein shake for lunch oh i can have shakes for lunch no you can have just shake now for for lunch and then i’m trying to kind of marinate them into getting those three square meals a day and then how many times a day well i like to understand my client’s macros i’m not saying they all no no it is it is a contentious topic in the field you have to know what you are eating i disagree this whole intuitive eating thing i think it’s i think it can be used you and i could turn around and intuitively because we know what our portions need to look like and we know around what that’s going to translate to you get someone in there who has a lot of questions and they’re like a woman the other day well can i just count calories and i’m like well if you count calories you technically can get all your calories from carbs right technically good right there’s going to be a little protein in there but it’s not really breaking down the ratios like let’s just start tracking one meal and let’s get comfortable with that one meal and then a few weeks later like oh this is easy all right let’s do lunch now a few weeks this is easy all right let’s do dinner now so i like to understand you know where are they starting but i also understand that every meal during the day is an opportunity for them to consume nutrition and if i need to consume i’m making this number up 3000 calories a day to break even i hit my maintenance calories if i’m eating 3000 calories a day that’s and i’m only eating three times a day that’s a thousand calories a meal most people can’t do that i can do that right yes i’ve seen you eat right but now suddenly if it goes to five meals a day that’s 600 calories a meal a little bit doable for most people so like yes i like we talked about that reverse dieting approach and i think which is very helpful right and then talking about intermittent fasting like i don’t have a problem with fasting for for some people but you know you’re now diminishing that opportunity to consume nutrition and if you only have eight hours to eat during a day well how are you eating are you having like a salad at lunch and having a handful of nuts at three o’clock and then going into a big dinner because you’re probably not consuming the fiber that you need right very important you’re not consuming the protein you’re probably not getting the ratio of fats and carbs that you need and if there’s that much variability going on in your day your body in my opinion is not going to reap the benefits it’s not going to change and i would say that there’s really that there’s evidence to support that so the book forever strong yeah one of the reasons why i wrote the bible it’s the bible seriously one of the reasons i wrote it is to eliminate that chaos um you should know what you’re eating on a daily basis you should have a strategy in place and it allows you to be consistent and it allows you to actually understand what you are executing off of 100 um and if you are someone new to diet and nutrition these are fundamental things to build the house and then for example i mean the reality is don does measure his macros he knows what he’s doing for the most but i’m not measuring him this week when i’m with you right i’m here but we know what our meals look like but we also did pull out of scale because you and i want we wanted to see over or under what the person was what did i call

 you were right i said it was seven ounces of steak you said no it’s about how minuscule that is you’re off by it out yeah it’s pretty funny um it it’s just important to recognize again you’ve made your career like this i have never seen and i’ve been seeing patients for 20 years thank you and it’s extraordinary to see because you know how you’ve been able to fine tune your body i mean you had your uh apollo on your ankle it looked like you’re on house arrest you had your magnesium before bed i mean you have your you had your water you have all these things but i but i enjoy it yeah and you enjoy it like we but we we we enjoy it but you know you have to build to that you know um yes and it has allowed you to maintain a body composition all natural for decades which is unbelievable so if you’re out there and you are starting understanding that while don may be at one extreme which for you is actually not really extreme is just to frankly discipline yeah that there are ways to lead up to doing these things and actually frankly no matter where you are in your journey the more dialed in you are the more effective you are going to be yeah period end of story whether you are training for a marathon whether you are trying to make moderate improvements if you are someone who is an advanced uh you know training of advanced training age in order to move the needle you should always be striving for something better 100 and and and i like those small wins and sometimes we don’t have to recreate the wheel it’s um um i think i told you the story about a buddy of mine years ago you know him his name is john he came to me takes his shirt off in my office and he’s like one of my closest buddies he’s like dude i just want my top two abs and i just started laughing i’m like what are you talking about right top two abs i’m like well what are you what are you doing because i don’t want to eat like you i said okay he never said that so broke down his nutrition with him knew his training is pretty good gets into the gym three four days a week doesn’t do a lot of cardio gets his steps in and um we just modified a couple things with his nutrition it was so simple it was to the point where he looked at me and he said that’s it and i said yeah and he came back in a month he took his shirt off and we literally saw this line of definition starting to break out his abs and he said this magic these magic words to me he’s like oh my god can’t believe that’s all we needed what’s next and that was like that was almost like a light bulb went off in my head because we don’t have to sit there and deliver an a-plus program there unless obviously there’s massive health concerns and someone needs or they have to or they have to get ready for something exactly but john was a perfect example where if i handed him my program he’s not going to be successful he’s not going to like me he’s not going to want to do it and then what good am i doing and i think that’s what coaching is it’s like let’s start with that minimalistic approach let’s see how they respond to it let’s have them come back to you going wow it’s working what next and if you could do that with clients that’s why i’ve been successful in this career and when you are working with um you know movie stars or even just athletes how often do you trick do you change their nutrition plan how tight are you because you definitely keep them on a really tight nutrition plan yeah how often are you changing their macros um ryan reynolds we really haven’t been i mean ryan reynolds has been this progression over 15 years when i met him and i could talk about this i mean he was very low carb guy and i met him and i’m like we may want to get that up a little bit and he didn’t really like believe me early on and then you know and i remember him sending me you know he sends me updates and he sends me an update i’m like oh my god he’s oh my god i’m eating sweet potato notes and this is like a decade ago at that point and i think a big light bulb went off in his head and now he’s a business person now he realizes the importance of performance like it’s not just about him getting video and on screen he’s got to go home and now he’s on zoom calls with the company with his companies or his or his managers or whatever it might be so or soccer team over football team over in wales so um i think someone like that he’s a little bit more of a robot where it’s like okay let’s look at this little tweaks you good you’re good boom like he’s a dream right and then there’s other people that come to me and it’s just how much time do we have in like two weeks i’m like oh that much to get ready for something yeah like two weeks like really like well what do i do i’m like stop drinking no process i was gonna i was gonna ask you about alcohol for if someone wanted to and i i alcohol kills you hesitate to use the word crash diet but um if someone is let’s say someone has to be an abating student two weeks and obviously we don’t want two weeks no but this happens i know their job right we have to do it what do you do no cheat meals no booze i mean when i say process i i mean like i don’t mean like going out and have candy bars i mean minimally processed stuff like olive oil is minimally processed isn’t it like i’m okay with olive oil like that’s that’s fine so i want to be yeah i want to be a shake away protein shakes processed yeah right fine fine with those things um i think um the alcohol piece is massive um yeah we’ll get them training not seven days a week it’ll probably be six days a week like we’re probably gonna put our foot on the gas a bit and would that be two day training sessions uh two days meaning cardio on top of that yeah especially if they have to get leaner so this is where you would add cardio in and it’s probably more than uh zone two it’s probably a little bit higher yeah yeah we’re gonna have to do those higher intensity days but we’re also gonna have to balance that out with zone two because listen i’ve done it i we’re overloading them a bit now and in those two week period in my you got the thing most people understand is that they’re no good to me if they go on set and they’re like like falling asleep falling asleep so like we have to send them to set and we also have to understand that just because the movie’s starting in two weeks doesn’t mean we stop what we’re doing because maybe that shirtless scene is in four weeks right now training has to so i have a two week period of time to put my foot on the gas and then when filming starts wow we have to manipulate that work so we can overload for two weeks then we can back off according to their schedule but still get it in and activity’s still high eating still clean but alcohol is the one thing that people i think they miss i liked it like i love good beer i was in austria i was having one or two beers a day delicious felt fine hydrated ate my protein still worked out snowboarded seven eight hours a day it was awesome but it beats you up it beats you up and the amount of what it does to you hormonally what it does to your rest and recovery how it pulls water into you like i’m a single digit body fat guy all year long like you get puffy you get inflamed you know old things you start feeling a little bit differently that’s sleep quality drops that readiness drops your hrv drops these are all massive problems so when people are like well you know i have you know uh my doctor said i can have you can have whatever you want that’s right what are you training for are you training for the cover of muslim fitness are you training to be shirtless in wolverine or are you just training to look good on the beach and have a good time and have a good quality of life because those are different i’m giving you different answers to those questions but alcohol there’s i agree with you it’s tequila clear gluten free it’s alcohol is alcohol it’s poison just understand what you’re getting it is and for women for perimenopause and menopause okay i think that it is one of the things that really um make make it just makes things worse yeah it makes recovery difficult it makes sleep worse it makes body composition work and i have friends that will certainly argue with me about this that the evidence supports that if you are able to manage your calories then there’s a place for it but from a from a brain effect over time and uh i mean the the most obvious um thing that you can measure is your resting heart rate at sleep and when you have a drink or two i i very rarely know anyone who’s resting heart rate doesn’t go up by about five six beats it’s like all right what is that telling us right there it’s like you can have a couple of drinks and that happens like that’s pretty drastic you do that over time and and that there’s that chronic inflammation in there and your body is just not healing and resting do what you want like you can live my my grandma and her four sisters live to be the ages of like 95 and 105 like i think they smoked a cigarette every day i think they drank a scotch every day they had low levels of stress they ate high quality food and they got away with that stuff but again they were not like my grandma was in a wheelchair she wasn’t looking for these bodies she wasn’t like oh we’re looking for body composition changes that’s what we’re looking for we can’t do it and that’s where increased doesn’t mix and that’s where increasing dietary protein people will say well one gram per pound ideal body weight’s too much but if you’re looking for body composition changes you have to hit your dietary protein you have to manage your total why are people saying it’s too much i mean i’ve always heard this but what like what evidence is pointing them in the direction of like oh you don’t need that much well there’s a difference between minimum amount to prevent deficiencies an optimal amount to move the needle for body composition and the evidence supports double the rda which would be 0.8 grams per kg but double the rda will show improvements in every area for body composition while carbohydrates are controlled lean body mass decreased body fat you know there’s can i ask you another question right right now um wouldn’t a lot of it come down to where your where your blood results are so like if i’m consuming 1.25 to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight and i’m doing this because i need my calories a lot higher because i’m burning a lot more like people talk about michael michael phillips was eating 12,000 calories a day could you imagine v a clean i’m like it’s impossible he’s not eating a fibrous diet he’s not eating slow burning carbs and getting 12,000 calories in a day it’s but it’s impossible right but like wouldn’t you um isn’t it too much if you looked at someone’s blood panel and you’re like oh wow their liver enzymes are off or or something is no that’s a really good question okay so that’s what i’m curious yeah yeah that’s a really good question we don’t have any evidence that would say that one gram per pound ideal body weight or even higher would have any negative effect no but that’s what i that’s what i mean so if i’m consuming one and a half grams i’m gonna go i’m gonna go high one and a half grams and you know my blood work and you’re like wow this is perfect then why is why is my why am i proteins too high then um this is where social media has come in yeah but i would challenge any doctor any like i would like to hear that answer why if my levels are all perfect and i’m consuming 1.25 to one and a half grams per pound which is over a gram i challenge them i’d like to know i want to get educated why am i too high if i have to keep my calories high and um if my um if my blood tests are perfect like why would my answer would be that you’re not okay well i’m asking you out there i’m asking all the gurus out there i would love to i would love a description we we have solved it yeah you know again nutrition is very contentious and you have to understand what is what are the ultimate outcomes yeah you know you might have longevity experts talk about how a reduction in dietary protein is going to be beneficial i don’t even want to say these things it’s not uh it’s not a sea elegance is not a human and we are talking about maintaining strength mobility all of these things that require dietary protein right yeah it’s ridiculous agree um if you were to say some of the biggest roadblocks problems mistakes that people make for the goal of losing body fat what are your top three mistakes oh god top three okay i can give you top two you want top five no top three top three fat loss mistakes fat loss mistakes one would be not understanding what’s really going into their body so we’re gonna side let me just explain so like well i eat healthy well what do you eat well for practice i have three egg whites and i have um a piece of toast i’m like okay uh what do you have for lunch i have a salad and a piece of fish how big is the fish this big for dinner what do you like you it’s not like even though they might be consuming foods that are nutritious they are they’re under calorie they’re under protein so i think not understanding um what’s actually going into their body that protein piece massive they don’t understand they just think they’re choosing good foods they’re grazing all day they’re eating little things like nuts oh i had nuts and fruit i’m like well yeah nuts and fruit 10 times and your fat is probably over 100 grams and you weigh 100 pounds and because you’re so full you’re not able to get enough protein in so not understanding what’s really going in your body i think is a huge problem and that checks a lot of boxes resistance training i think we got to prioritize this a little bit more oh i want to burn fat so i’m just going to start with cardio i’ll get into resistance training i’m like do both like i like i love cardio i enjoy cardio i just do it’s just it’s i like the sweat i like the mindlessness of it i like the you know it’s quick it can be quick but do that with your resistance training if we have more muscle and ladies i don’t mean we’re getting bigger but when i train still trying right but like i train blake lively i train emily blunt i train andy hathaway these are very feminine athletic physiques they are strong women and that is important so understanding the importance of resistance training but also coupling that with um with cardiovascular is two and the third third biggest fat loss mistake um so we had food we had resistance training oh um god you know what it’s got to be this i that that that rest component is so underlooked i just i think i’ll call paul chec it’s the best fat burner and it’s free like i’ve had people who we’ve increased sleep quality over weeks and they’ve lost significant amount of fat loss when you are under resting you are not repairing your hormones and you’re not repairing your body and you’re not going to have that energy and your body is not going to move and burn really simple like so what do we just say nutrition training and rest and and sleep it’s like those are the three things not saunas not cold plunges if you get your training you get your nutrition and you get your rest and recovery to like 80 being really really solid like at least you’re gonna see some pretty dramatic results and um i i just think it’s not that simple most people really underestimate rest and sleep that and it’s in the data actually that individuals that are not sleeping pulling night shifts their blood glucose is worse their blood pressure is worse insulin all of their metabolic markers seem to be worse i’ve seen people put on significant amount of body fat who have private chefs who are training six days a week and they’re like why am i gaining weight i’m like you’re sleeping three hours a night well my doctor said that’s i’m like the rarity and i’m the one like that’s adequate i’m like no it’s not like i don’t mean to disagree with your doctor but this is not working for you you need to train well i can’t go to bed early you need to train sleep well i’m not hungry for breakfast well you got to train you got to train to be hungry when i say that it’s like start incorporating some proteins start getting some amino acids in your body early on maybe a piece of fruit will build that right sleep um i sleep three hours a night what time do you go to bed two in the morning can you make it 130 yeah i can how do i do that well let’s start winding down earlier the next thing you know john albacoco i could talk about him and getting to bed every night three to four in the morning now it’s 10 11 at night it’s like that is you have any like how big is that there’s a reason why the guy’s down 120 plus pounds and we’re going to lose another you know he’s 400 he’s 491 pounds now so our goal is to get him down in that 250 range he’s got to have surgeries he’s got to have specific things but getting his bmi down right now is something we have to do before we explore any of that stuff so um yeah sleep huge where do you think the industry is going the fitness industry where do you think do you think that there’s any new uh training technology or again you’ve been in the fitness industry you’ve seen really i mean you’ve been in there for 25 years you’ve seen multiple iterations of different things yeah i’ve been working with tech for over god for as long as i’ve been in the business i mean um readiness devices that weren’t you know um wearables that were i remember laying on a mega wave it’s laying on a floor for three minutes with a head sensor a chest strap a palm sensor like you know and having to keep your eyes closed and measuring you know hrb you know this was i don’t know how long ago so it’s um i think where is it going i think our um access to research is becoming better and better um i think the right research out there is becoming pretty awesome because it’s pointing us in a direction to be able to make really good decisions i think a lot of these readiness trackers and a lot of these tech pieces are getting better and better and i think it’s giving us information to be able to make good decisions but i also think you know with a lot of this stuff comes excuses and well the research says i only need to do two sets well that’s a very good point yeah it’s start to hear people say oh but resistance training that that’s i don’t need to do that much yeah like i only need a set i’m like well not exercising like i’m watching some of these biohackers now that like exactly to be honest like they’re they’re not like some of them are really impressive and some of them just aren’t they’re like they’re they’re coming in and they’re posting their training and they’re like well i just did this on the light press and i’m like your range of motion is terrible that might be a poor choice of exercise and your intensity is not where you think it is for you to receive the benefits like when you see someone do a max effort set it’s scary yeah it’s i’ve been there it’s it’s not pleasant i’ve squatted 315 for 30 on my back and i almost had a brain aneurysm like i had to lay on the floor for like a half an hour like it’s not something that most people and i’m not saying that to be proud that’s a style of training that when you’re going into high intensity training it is like someone’s holding a gun to your head and they’re like you better get this right now where there’s like frightening stuff’s gonna happen to you so i think we take a lot of this research and i think we just we kind of skew it and we make it into what we want to make it to be and at the end of the day you still gotta work hard you still gotta put effort in you still got a meal prep you still gotta get to bed early it’s it’s sometimes i’m watching a tv show and like my wife has a joke with me we never finish the show together because 8 39 o’clock how i’m feeling i’m i’m going to bed look what type of life is i love my life like i have two beautiful kids beautiful home i live a great lifestyle i could do what i want i could work from where i want and i’m building businesses and i’m having a lot of fun doing it so allowing me to go to bed early just means that i’m able to get up and i’m able to attack my day so that’s important to me that’s what i want to do do i have those nights where we go out we party or we go out we’re out late yes we do very once in a blue moon very once in a blue moon and when i do it i enjoy it and i say all right you know what big deal you’ll catch up in a few days and you’ll move on and that’s how i approach that stuff but i think we’re getting such good access but i think people are forgetting the fact that you still got to go in there and you still got to put that work in and it still needs to be challenging and um you know if sometimes it gets frustrating has someone been doing this as long as i have when someone starts on every conversation it’s like well the research states and i’m like okay i get it we’re we’re trying to make good decisions here but this person needs just to get off the couch this person just needs to move example do i like spin bikes they’re fine like do i like someone sitting down in training all the time the answer is no especially when that person’s been in their desk 10 hours a day do i want them on a bike no if someone is going to turn around say i love spinning it got me off the couch i’m in better shape my bloods are better my body composition is better i feel better i better sex drive i sleep better yada yada yada am i going to turn around and say i don’t like spin i’m just saying great i said but can we do things to kind of compliment you being in this position yeah can we do things to maybe open you up a little bit can we focus on getting those glutes to get a little stronger can we focus on that thoracic extension that thoracic rotation that shoulder mobility these things that maybe five six days a week are going to destroy you at being able to do that’s where as a coach i’m going to come in and i’m going to assess the individual and i’m going to help them become great at what it is they love to do you again i’ve watched you train for many years how important i’m always seeing you do something different you’re always adding something different or trying a new it’s fun movement or it’s not fluffy but it’s fun i like doing different challenges i’ve trained with you whether it’s a rotation slam broad jump all these other things how important is it for new skill acquisition um like like newbies or just developing new skill so for example my training age is like 300 now i’m just kidding you’re in great shape i’m gonna be unbelievable so for someone who has been training they’re listening to this maybe they’re a physician maybe they’re a coach we have a lot of those listening how important is it for them to learn new physical skills um i think it’s important because i like challenging how the body moves and i feel like the body can feel better if you’re putting in variability that makes sense and that’s not fluffy what do you mean fluffy fluffy means like the the guy doing pistol squats on the bosu ball and then like everyone in the world’s trying to try it it’s like all right yeah like do me a favor like learn like the same like you’re trying to attempt this right now and you can’t do a proper body weight squat that’s when learn the body weight squat now there is that freak out there that could turn around with double kettlebells overhead which i cannot do and do a pistol squat on a bosu i’m jealous i can’t do it but you know what i’m not going to try i’m going to try and continue to get great at the things that are going to make me a better athlete and that are going to put me in a really good place to be successful so i think it is um it is it’s important but it’s not like it’s not imperative like if someone turns important but non-imperative i like that yeah but it’s it’s like it’s important if you want to continually improve and reach and get better but again what about that person who’s like and i’ve run into him once in a while like how’s your training going like it’s great how’s your body feel amazing are you happy with your body composition yeah i’m in a really good place considering like what is i like to do in life it’s not perfect but i take my shirt off and i and i feel good and my wife’s happy with it and i’m like like great great great great like what they’re doing seems to be working no injuries we’re in a good place am i still trying to get them to try new things yes because i still would like to develop as their coach i want to push them but am i saying like what you’re doing is wrong because you haven’t changed your program in the last six months like for me to say it’s wrong would be unfair why am i going to beat that person up like they’re doing good stuff they’re in a good place as a coach i’m in a way going to try and trick them into getting into better shape and developing things and wanting to excel exceed yeah without feeling like you know they’re putting themselves in a place where they’re not going to be successful right they’re happy yeah for example someone who doesn’t swim doesn’t necessarily need to learn uh they’re gonna dive you know yeah i mean as long as they can swim um what about supplementation yeah great what what are your top you know i’ll say three but it could be five it could be ten which i know it’s not ten but sure key supplements for longevity that you love i become a big magnesium fan i know

 yeah i’m a big magnesium fan i’m a big vitamin d fan if your levels are you know i know what kind of magnesium do you like um i like thorn and um which is a magnesium biclycinate yeah um so i use that um vitamin d um i think getting a good omega in agree really solid um that’s three right there and i’m gonna turn you on to use creatine i use creatine and you know i’ve been using i’ve been using it for 25 years i’ve been using el glutamine for about 25 years also these are supplements i’ve just kind of kept in my regimen i make a little morning elixir where i’ll get in and i’ll take um i like switching up the strains in my probiotic i just take one um first thing in the morning i’ll take that with some water and then i’ll prepare my elixir which is like glutamine creatine i use like a good greens reds or reds powder which you always got me turned on to early on and actually we had we cycled through so we did reds and greens but then there was a period of time where you really ramped up your training and we added in do you remember we added in blue yeah blue yeah i call it purple yeah blue algae yeah then we added in makia berry to get yeah maki whatever we say wrong maki we added in that maki berry powder was different polyphenols for you yeah but again that’s what i mean by putting things in your body that are powerful so yeah i think that would be that that was really it um i’m turning you on to two other ones yes we’re gonna start you on beta hydroxybutyrate 10 grams reading all about this too and we’re gonna put you on was i gonna put you on urolithin a that was on my mind but i think we’ll we’ll start with beta hydroxybutyrate but i would love to start you on some urolithin a yeah and one thing that you got me reintroduced to recently was um you know i will have i’m not a big pre-workout person but um coffee right yeah we’re gonna do coffee with bubs collagen which is what i love their collagen so bubs makes a great collagen and they make um oh god what was the other thing we were adding in the mct and then bubs mct they have a mct powder so mixing that in you gotta use the frother we’re talking before all morning i couldn’t find it look where the hell’s the porch yeah like the kids have it upstairs we’ve gone through four or five frothers they’re the best i love them yeah um and that was one of the reasons why so don you’re very tight with your nutrition very tight with supplementation it’s interesting because i do your blood work i do your you could talk about it i’m really happy with it it’s really good i mean it’s it’s a joke everybody else has something that can be approved improved on and then i look at yours i’m just like don no it’s it listen it’s in it’s in a good place i was more you know i was more shocked about um my testosterone being raised i think we went from like 680 to 930 and people were like well what did you do and i’m like you know what i really think at the end of the day because they were thinking like well is it is it the plunging is it the song actually we got you sleeping better because you were doing home construction yes remember and um we need an air filter air filters but also like i’m not going and i thought about i was like oh i’m not commuting three hours a day anymore i’m like uh duh could you imagine like you don’t have to wake up at 3 34 in the morning always now now it’s more like five or five thirty and they’re like wow that makes a huge difference it does definitely a time where we’d want to test your testosterone is in the morning you need that early morning sleep and there’s always reminders like last night you remind you keep every time i get around you remind me of certain things like we just ate earlier last night that i normally would and i had my magnesium wasn’t hungry i ate which meant i front loaded my calories beautifully yesterday i felt this guy’s an eating machine by the way yeah but like but i slept like i slept great and i looked at my aura and it was like what did you do last night you know i was like sweet i was sitting there like all excited i was so pumped up and um yeah so your blood work always looks really great and you and we also do gastrointestinal testing for you because the more an individual trains sometimes we see gastrointestinal permeability it just with the increase in training volume and yours you’re it just looks really good for what we can tell from the gut microbiome these inflammatory it looks really good but you did so well with the mct oil and collagen that just leveled i know and so that’s why we’re going to add in beta hydroxybutyrate we’re going to add in 10 grams i think it’s going to be really good for energy brain function it’s anti-catabolic i think it’s amazing for muscle great um we are going to put it on we’re going to put you on some urolithin a which helps with endurance with strength we use mito pure i’m going to get you some i love that and i think that you’re going to feel it though that combination of what you’re already doing i think it’s going to be amazing oh it’s it’s fun but it’s fun it becomes like it becomes like a game you have a good time with it but again i try telling people like like it’s one thing to enjoy doing this it’s another thing to obsess over this until you get yourself so crazy and like you’ll have moments where like okay like i’ll never i’m telling this story too when she’s a pretzel this is what the pretzel is right go ahead so like during um her during her first pregnancy she was like um i’m like well how are you gonna plan your nutrition remember i was crazy i am way way better i was so she said yeah i’m doing meal delivery service and all this stuff and i’m like okay okay okay and in one day she facetimes me with shane i remember you were up on the museum of natural history i think you were around there on like upper west side and um she’s got her phone and she’s chewing and i’m like what are you eating and she holds up in new york city pretzel and i’m like yeah so um you know early on in my career i was very just obsessive about nutrition i was gonna get it right remember this and it was like how are we gonna focus on body composition and then you go through different phases of life i mean and then i got pregnant yeah i mean i would come in with my meals pack just like you was like don what are we doing this is my percent body fat these are where my uh lifts are i mean it was it was pretty intensive and then you get pregnant go through pregnancy you have to shift your focus it can’t be about body composition it’s all the time you know all the time there’s other things there’s other things there’s other things and then i think that you’d come out the other end and then you can have more of a balanced i agree uh mental attitude about the whole thing i mean seeing how you’re living your life now i mean i get choked up right now but like seeing how you’re living your life now i think it’s like you found it man like you’ve got an incredible husband you’ve got two of the cutest little kids i got to come to the school to pick them up it’s funny because they’re all calling the uncle down so everyone’s like oh my god this is her brother um but just to kind of see what you’ve created with all this and it really it warms my heart a lot because you know we we never always had those moments where like oh yeah things are like great and perfect and god i mean we could do a whole talk on business right now what the things i had to go through people don’t understand yeah um it really allows you to appreciate what you have now i have one last question that i have been thinking about a lot and i wasn’t sure i was gonna ask you let’s do it um but i’m gonna ask it too where does faith come in oh my god yeah this is this is this is a good one um you know i was raised when i say i was raised from a religious family i i don’t want you to think it was something that um you know we went to church sundays my mom was a eucharistic minister and um you know it was something where um at a young age i was exposed to it but i made a lot of mistakes and i did a lot of things throughout that period of time like any other kid so when i say i you know i whatever whatever you believe in is what you believe in but if i say i believe in god i don’t want anyone to think for a second that i am you know trying to be a goody two shoes or i didn’t i make a ton of mistakes and it always happened but i think even now today church you know i’m pretty involved with st patrick’s church in in honeyton i fell into the head usher position um years ago because my um because my sister’s fiance died in a car accident terrible story i don’t know if we ever talked about this and um he um fell asleep at the wheel on the way home uh from the train station and um i would always go to church um when i was home and his father john’s father was the head usher of the church so i went to um to go help him out i said john i’m at the masses let me help out he said thank you and then he got ill had it back down then the head usher brought me in as the assistant usher and then the head usher died i know it sounds terrible track record and then i became the head usher very good friends with the monty so i’m involved with the church and faith is something that um every day i um i try to improve every day i try and reflect and i try and look at the things that i that i want to do better or every day i look at demons that i’m fighting and i say stop thinking about that or get your like i i i’ve ramble like my thought process goes off sometimes someone bumps you in the subway you’re thinking about it for two hours is that is that the best use of your time is that the best use of your energy um so um i know it’s something that i rely heavily on um and it’s still a part of my life every day um and it makes me better and it’s cool because the more i practice it and the more i try to improve it the better i feel so that’s why i’m so heavily that i want to be involved in it it’s just that’s all i can say i’m never going to turn around and talk religion or politics of people i’m never going to turn around say that you should be doing this there’s certain this is your business but i do these things because it’s simple it makes me feel good and when i make a mistake i’m like damn it you know like get your shit together and and and and reflect and recognize and move on and and from taking that approach i’ve just become a much happier person it’s that simple well don saladino you are one of my most favorite people love you love you i love you you are family um we talked about fitness but the reality is you’re an incredible businessman thank you um and i strongly suggest people follow you thank you listen to what you say listen to some of your other interviews you are one of a kind appreciate you and listen right back at you i mean for me to jump on a plane and come out to see it says a lot about you right i mean i love you you’ve always been one of the most i’ll tell you right now besides my wife my sisters and my mom the most supportive woman i’ve had in my life is you by far i love you i love you too good stuff i am going to link where people can find you thank you you have many programs and uh i’m excited to share the program that we make together it’s fun it’s fun we’re gonna have a good time it’s it’s gonna be good and if anyone has ever has any questions shoot me a dm i’ll get back to them on it friends don saladino