Habits and Hustle - Episode 334: Don Saladino: Building Muscle As We Age and Defying Genetics with Hard Work.

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Ever wondered who gets all those actors in shape for those massive roles? Want advice for your own fitness, diet, or business from one of the hardest-working people in the space? This episode is for you!  In today’s Fitness Friday episode on the Habits and Hustle podcast, I chat with Don Saladino about the importance of hard work when it comes to fitness. Genetics can play a small role, but they never outweigh someone’s work ethic. We also dive into building muscle as we age (hint: it’s not impossible!) and the importance of nutrition when it comes to body composition.  Don Saladino is a Coach, Film & TV Superhero Trainer, & Fitness Entrepreneur. From training Hugh Jackman for Wolverine, to Anne Hathaway for Catwoman, and Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool, Don has a lot to offer in terms of what it takes to get superhero ready. Having thousands and thousands of training sessions under his belt he offers diet, exercise, and just plain life knowledge for anyone, not just those at the top of their game. Oh, and he's one of the nicest people in the industry.  What we discuss:  Hiring a coach vs following an Instagram influencer  Changing body comp by cleaning up nutrition Building muscle as a seasoned human Genetics versus hard work The importance of a rest day Find the full episode here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-205-don-saladino-coach-film-tv-superhero-trainer/id1451897026?i=1000593506464  Thank you to our sponsor: Pendulum: Head over to www.pendulum.com and use code JENCOHEN for 20% off. To learn more about Don Saladino: Website: https://donsaladino.com/  Instagram: @donsaladino Don Saladino App: https://my.playbookapp.io/don-saladino  Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices.

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Before we dive into today's episode, I first want to thank our sponsor, Therisage. Their Tri-Lite panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go. And I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations in places in my body where honestly I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red light therapy is my go-to.

Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use Therisage Trilite everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to Therisage.com right now and use code BeBold for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to Therasage.com and use code BeBold for 15% off any of their products. I think there's a big difference and we're going to get into this after, after we talk about the superhero part, but being a true strength and conditioning coach, a fitness coach and like a social media fitness influencer, there is a big, big difference between the two.

And I think the knowledge and education that, you know, you bring to the table is so vast. And I think a lot of times people get very confused, they don't know what they don't know, right? So especially in today's culture and time, people go on Instagram and they're seeing people who have 10 million followers because they look good aesthetically, but they know nothing. And we don't know what they're seeing people who have 10 million followers because they look good

aesthetically but they know nothing and we don't know what they're doing behind the scenes. So I want to get into that. I think it's super interesting. I mean, I think we, listen, we know what we know in life, right? Like there's things that you're exceptional at and there's things that I have an account. Like there's certain people that I hire that I'm like, I just, this is not my wheelhouse. And I don't, I mean, I don't blame the consumer because what do they know? Like they see an attractive guy or an attractive woman who looks a certain way,

who's putting up content that looks fun. But they're just putting up what works for them. So there's a difference between a coach and there's a difference between a fitness influencer. I think a coach, you got to get your hands dirty. Like I was something I'm proud of is, yeah, I've trained over 40,000 one hour sessions. Like that's 25 years of me training. And for years where it was 50, 60 sessions a week

to help keep my lights on. Like I'd con edge shut my power down. Like I had an amic shut my cards down. I almost missed 37 consecutive payrolls. Like doing it in New York, like my overhead a year was two million bucks just to keep the lights on. Like you go through some tough things

when Lehman Brothers craps out, when Bear Stearns goes under, when Goldman is literally sinking and half your business is corporate events because I have a golf space upstairs. Like you got to reinvent yourself and it's tough. So I had to go through hell, but it's still some of the best moments of my life.

I mean, the most creative I've ever got in business. I mean, I got a PhD in business from being in that place. It's given me a lot of stuff. Absolutely. But I wouldn't change, I would maybe change a couple of things, but not everything. Some of the pain I had to go through.

I love what you said, because I say this a lot, that the life skills that you get from fitness from a young age is a microcosm for life in general. You learn so much, like you said, the confidence that you got, the goal setting, discipline, all these things, like you have to be resilient. You know what I mean?

Like there's so many things that set you up for success. Right. And if when you take fitness seriously, like you were talking about. Okay, so you said with the nutrition versus exercise, do you think it is that dominant on the nutrition side? Or you think it's- Nutrition's very important,

but I know some genetic freaks that can eat what they want and they just have this perfect physique. And I see that happen. But I think it's really understanding macronutrients and the power of calories, where I've changed body composition and gotten people leaner from not putting them in a deficit. And that's always what I strive to do.

I do not wanna put an actor who's preparing for a role into a deficit unless they've earned it, right? Like, and earning it means like, have you been living at your maintenance calories? You know, how's your digestion? How's your sleep? Like, how much weight do we have to lose? What do we have to do with our body composition?

I've changed body composition by just getting people to maintenance calories and cleaning up their nutrition and then their body becomes this energetic fat burning furnace. So let's talk about a couple of things. So what, so then do you believe that you don't believe this whole thing about like, oh, we all have genetics and we all have a baseline that we can manipulate? I think we all have, we all do have genetics. We all do have a baseline, but I think that's not sleeping on hard work. Like I've even talked about it. Because you look amazing.

Thank you. But like even talking about myself, like I don't know too many people who work harder than me in the weight room and doing what I do. What do you do? What's your routine? I mean, it depends on the time of year. But I mean, I'm training five, six days a week.

I mean, I probably do a little too much because I play hockey three days a week. And I run one day a week. And then I get all my lifting lifting and I love a power building approach but I work a lot on mobility. So you know. Do you work out like how many hours a day? A couple.

Two hours a day. Yeah, probably. Do you take a rest day? Yeah, I have to. Normally Sundays I like shutting down. You do. Just cause I'm with the family and it makes sense. I like training during the week because I'm on

and I'm working and like Sunday's kind of the day where I try and disconnect a little bit. Is it hard for you not to work out because some of them, yeah, like it's, because for me, I have to work out every day because then it's like it's a, my frenetic energy has nowhere to go. Yeah, it is hard.

I mean, Sundays are kind of easy because I'm training myself or maybe it's a Saturday if the day flops. But when I'm going seven days a week, I do notice performance starts dropping, and quality starts dropping. And time off is important for someone like you or someone like me who is really,

it's easy for us to get in there and do it. It's part of who we are. But most people out there aren't like that. And those people I try and get coming in with this minimalistic approach. We've seen some incredible progress by taking a minimalistic approach with people. Right, I think to your point, not everyone's fanatical,

right, so it's about what can you do? Because what I find also, people do what they like to do, not necessarily, right, so people always say, what's the best thing to do? The thing that you're actually gonna do, right? Oh, I mean, on there. Right, so people always say, what's the best thing to do, the thing that you're actually going to do, right? Oh, 100%. I mean, I have a friend of mine who helps me.

My buddy, the muscle doc, Jordan Shallow, I'll turn to him a couple of times a year. I'll be like, write me a program. I'm too close to this right now. I got you. And he'll put some stuff together to me. And I'll be like, oh, that's interesting. That's interesting.

It gets you out of your comfort zone. I write so many programs that like, even for myself, I'm too connected to my own emotions and myself. So I like getting people to put things together that I trust and that'll challenge me. Not just from a, like a strength standpoint or a cardio standpoint,

but how about the way that we move? Right. The movement patterns again. Yeah, movement patterns is so important. So important. People don't talk about that. Nope. You know, you said something also that was interesting That's really important. The movement patterns, again. The movement patterns are so important. So important. People don't talk about that. Nope.

You know, you said something also that was interesting because normally coaches like you are not, like they're not people who like cardio. They don't believe in cardio. They think cardio would burn muscle mass. It can. Right? It can.

But you're doing cardio. You're running. I enjoy it, but I enjoy it. Right. So for me, like in the winter time, I belonged to this great hockey club, three minutes from my house, and I have a group of guys that we play.

It's like a league. Three times a week you play? Oh, yeah. I play Tuesday mornings at 6.30. I play Friday mornings at 7 AM, and I play Saturday mornings at 7 AM. It's awesome. It's so much fun.

And then Mondays, I've been doing some tempo work on the motorless treadmill that my buddy, Derek Hanson, who's a world-renowned running mechanics coach, put together for me. That's hard to do that one. Yeah, but it's more like it's quick burst. So it's not so taxing. I mean, we're doing like 10 seconds, 8 seconds, 6 seconds.

Oh, wow. Doing some temple runs. It's more about the elasticity and getting the body to fire. And that makes me feel good. If I was going out and I was doing long runs, I think that's it. So you don't do that? I do, but not during hockey season. Do you not think that like long runs, I think that's... So you don't do that? I do, but not during hockey season.

So do you not think that those long runs, like what's your opinion, like as you age, right? Like for like 40 and over or 30, whatever, that that's not breaking down a lot of lead muscle mass? It can. Look at the bodies of a runner versus the bodies of someone who is resistant training. There's no arguing that.

Right? There's no arguing that. But I also understand that people enjoy what they enjoy. Do what they do, what they like to do. So if you want to go out for a three mile run once or twice a week, do the resistance training. Make sure your protein's high enough to where you're not going to have that muscle breakdown. Start paying more attention to nutrition.

Avoid this fasted runs in the morning because that will potentially break down more muscle, get some amino acids in your body, like do things that are going to keep you from breaking down. Okay, well, you're saying a lot of stuff. So fasted cardio, I was going to say to you, what do you think? I'm not a fan of fasted cardio. If it's a bodybuilder that's doing low steady state, that I'm okay with it. But most people out there, they're fasting and their performance is dropping. So I never want wanna have any,

it depends what type of cardio are we doing. Are we doing cardio for just fat burning or are we doing cardio for performance? So two different things. Like I go in for a VO2 test and it's telling me that my optimal fat burning range is at 127 beats a minute. That doesn't mean I'm gonna live at 127 beats a minute all the time.

Like I gotta get into the 160s. Like, I have to train in different zones. Like, I have to do that if I wanna be a well-rounded athlete. But I also have to understand that you can't keep throwing stress on stress on stress. You keep throwing all these great things, all these great exercises, all these great modalities

into a pot. Like, it doesn't, like, you could take 20 of your favorite ingredients. If you throw it in, it might all once, italities into a pot. You could take 20 of your favorite ingredients. If you throw it in, it might all once, it tastes like shit. Like it's not gonna, excuse me for saying it, but these are great ingredients. They're great exercise at a certain point. Like we're doing too much.

And that's what I find is a big problem with some of the type As. Well, hold on, I wanna be doing this and that. Like, dude, you gotta slow down. It's too much. Your body's gonna just, it's gonna tap out at a certain point. So how do you know when that happens?

Right? So like for someone who is a type A personality, I have a friend who is, how do you, how do you, what do you say to them? What's the best way to train that person? I think we got to assess how are they responding

to the training stimulus. If you're turning around and you're doing what you're doing and you're waking up every day and you feel great and your energy level's high and you feel like you're getting stronger and you're in a good place, well, it ain't broken, right? What if you're tired though? If you're tired all the time,

then I think we gotta assess. But that's life, right? Life's tiring. It could be. Are you tired from the hour and a half that you're training or are you tired from the fact that you're going to bed and sleeping only five hours? Or maybe your sleep quality's down.

Or maybe your nutrition's not where it needs to be. Maybe you're not getting enough calories in. Like there's so many, I can't even give that advice because there's so many questions I'd have to ask. And also like I think everything is very personal, right? So when people ask these questions, like it's very hard to know without knowing the person, right? Like some body types, and I don't care what anybody says,

I know if I don't do cardio, A, my brain doesn't turn off. My brain doesn't turn on. That's really what gets me really focused and alert and gives me more energy. And my body type does better with cardio. Like I keep weight. I love cardio. I mean, I think it's-

I can maintain weight better that way. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I just think that when you also do resistance training. I do. Right. But I don't love it like I love cardio. I don't get the same high from it as I do for cardio. Cardio gives that high. It really does. I mean, when you're out there and you're sweating and there is a feeling off of that that we love. I mean, there's something to be said about that. And I don't, you know, I just- That's why I do it. Not because I love being on a treadmill.

That's why I do it. I do it because I need that. That's what gets my endorphins going. 100%. Weight training doesn't do it. Even though I know intellectually, that's what really helps build lean muscle mass. Especially as you age, right?

Like, I find it hard. I'm sure you get this question. I'd like to ask you age, right? Like, I find it hard, I'm sure you get this question. I'd like to ask you actually the most common questions that you get from people. Yeah. Because this is one question I think most people ask and I'm curious, how do you build lean muscle mass as you age?

Cause it gets harder and harder. And then besides like this, don't give me the basic like, oh resistant train, eat protein. Okay, well let's say we're doing those two things. No, I think it's mindset. I think it's mindset. I think people start giving up, they start tapping out. And I've seen some incredible things

by very seasoned people. Season is my way of saying that as they're older. As I got it, nice euphemism for old. Right, but like they're very seasoned. And, but no, it, nice euphemism for old. They're very seasoned. Seasons. But no, it's like you're getting older. I'm like, OK, my body comp, I shot the cover of Muscle and Fitness last year.

My body comps is good if not better. You did? Yeah, it was my second one for them. And I've done probably a dozen covers. I did Men's Health, I think, three years ago. I've been on a lot of covers. I've been on 12 covers, at least. So for me to be able to keep hitting that as I'm in my,

I'm 45 now. Like, Oh, thanks. So you do look, I told you this, you do look amazing. Thank you. But it's, there is, what has changed for me? Let me, let me, let me answer that. Cause I think that's going to help.

The days of throwing in frivolous activity when I would just go for a 12 mile run, because I just wanted to listen to an album or like something like that. I was like, oh, I'm just gonna go run 12 miles. I would just do that. Or throwing in, oh, I'm gonna golf on this day, or hockey, I'm gonna do.

Now things gotta be a little bit more planned. And I think it's helpful for me when it's a little bit more planned. Because if you just keep throwing those ingredients in that pot at a certain time, like I said, it's gonna for me when it's a little bit more planned. Because if you just keep throwing those ingredients in that pot at a certain time, like I said, it's gonna start tasting funky. And that's the human body,

and that's what I have to think about differently. So it's understanding that, all right, if I squat, if I back squat this week, should I be doing heavy deadlifts three days later? Well, if I'm playing hockey, my low back's gonna be pounded. So how are my hips and my back and to respond to that? You start thinking about things differently rather than 20 years ago.

I was like, oh yeah, I can handle it. Like it's fine. Like your body just doesn't recover when you make stupid decisions the way that you used to recover. But, but I'm finding I'm still able to put muscle on. I'm still able to get stronger. I'm still able to hit PRs. I'm still able to do. Tell us how. I'm still able to put muscle on. I'm still able to get stronger. I'm still able to hit PRs. I'm still able to do-

How? Tell us how. I'm still- You're doing a lot of cross training too, which is good, right? Yeah, but I'm also focusing a lot on strength and power, which a lot of people don't like doing because they get afraid of those words. Right, I heard that power, my friends at Mind Pump,

do you know the Mind Pump guys? I do know them, yeah. That like, you can use power lifting techniques to really increase your muscle mass for people, right? Yeah, I think neurologically it's gonna help out. I also think that we need to be strong as we age. And it's funny, because a lot of these young kids who are getting into this stuff,

I'm watching them, it's kind of ironic, they're following 40 year olds, how did so and so train for the Olympia? And they're doing 12 reps and 15 reps. And I'm like, guys, stop with that. Like work on muscle endurance a little bit. You gotta get strong. And strength is something that I think we start becoming

afraid to focus on as we get older because we think we're gonna get hurt. And we can if we're not. But it's making a good decision. Like if you can't touch your toes, like am I gonna have you conventional deadlift? Like the answer's probably no. Like probably no conventional deadlifts

are gonna happen, but I'm gonna work on your hinge. I might get you into some sumo deadlifting with the kettlebell. I might then get you into a trap bar as we improve mobility and I'll get you stronger at those movements. The mistake becomes that like I'm watching this guy here, Jim Smith, who can't even touch his kneecaps,

is trying to get into a full deadlift position and his spine is flexed and he's loading dysfunction. So I think it's also people out there understanding what exercises should you be and should you not be doing. If you can't externally rotate the arm past here, how the hell am I gonna shoulder press? Standing, I'm gonna have to arch back and lean. Now I'm in my spine.

Now I'm pressing from here, all the tension's going on my lower back. There's a cost to doing business. So it's understanding this stuff is how we can train hard and heavy as we age and we can do this with some resiliency, most important word that I use, and either some consistency or intensity.

Because if we're consistent, that's fantastic, but as we get consistent, we wanna play with intensity.