Well with Arielle Lorre - 390: Get In Your Best Shape for Summer: What to Eat (and When), How to Train and Tips and Tricks for Toning with Kenny Santucci

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Kenny Santucci is one of NYC’s top fitness trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. He joins the show to discuss the best nutrition and exercise hacks to get in your best shape ever including how to correctly use food as fuel and eat to lose weight, the ideal workout split, how to cultivate motivation and discipline, a genius tip for building a real routine, and hard truths we all need to hear about diet and training. This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Visit Zoe.com and use code BLONDE10 for 10% off a membership.Go to Ritual.com and get 25% off your first month for a limited time at ritual.com/BLONDEGo to clearstem.com/WELL and use code WELL at checkout for 20% off. Visit justthrivehealth.com/discount/well for 20% off your first 90 day bottle of Just Thrive with promo code WELLTry LMNT and get a free sample pack when you to to DrinkLMNT.com/WELLVisit purelyelizabeth.com and use code WELL at checkout for 20% off.Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Auto-hue with Sunny Cars feels as if the children Not me's Beaselstramble Sandvorda Actisvercare Verdwine Vacantcy can chaotic

But who'sorgalose An auto-hurt Says No No Stress No own Novelte cost Always full-rength So full-legged

So will auto-hue Without Your Reyesadviseur Onsonicars.combe The following podcast is a dear Media production In a world of ever-changing wellness trends and information, what does it mean to truly be well? I'm Ariel Lurie and I'm going to explore this with you. I am bringing you candid conversations that will equip you with everything you need to live your best life and look good doing it.

Think of well as your go-to resource for all of the latest in wellness and me as your internet bestie. Well, let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. have the best episode for you today. It's such a fun one and such a relevant one because I have been sharing on Instagram how I am trying to not only get in my best shape ever, but also get in great shape for summer. I'm sure a lot of you share my goal and I have gotten a lot of that feedback in DMs. Everybody is on this mission to look and feel good. So I wanted to talk to Kenny Santucci, my guest today.

He has a ton of experience in the fitness world. He's made himself known as one of New York City's top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. He has shared his training approach and wellness philosophy with features in top health and wellness publications such as Shape Magazine, Men's Health, Men's Journal, Well and Good, so many more Women's Health magazine, just to name a few. So he really lives his mantra of helping others well beyond the walls of the gym. He is the creator of the Strong New York Health and Wellness series. He is the heart and leader behind these events that have already raised thousands of dollars and brought awareness to the community around men's and women's health issues.

He's also the owner of the Strength Club in New York City and the Strength Club in New Jersey. Those are his gyms. And he's the host of the Strong AF podcast. And he's a party. We had such a good time in this episode. There are a lot of laughs. There are some hard truths. and there are tons of amazing tips and tricks for how to get in your best shape, how to cultivate

discipline and motivation and actually want to work out, and how to get that summer body that you want. So we talk about how to practice restraint with diet and exercise. He had a tip that was life-changing. I've never heard it before. You'll hear it in this episode for how to create that desire around working out. We talk about what to eat and when, how to use food to not only lose weight, but fuel your body in the best way. We talk other nutrition hacks. We talk obviously the best ideal workout split, some diet and exercise, hard truths, and so much more. So please enjoy Kenny Santucci. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Really excited to talk to you. I would love to go back and talk about your younger life for a minute,

because that really informed who you are today, right? And kind of why you do, what you do. So can go back to like young Kenny? Sure. And what was that turning point for you where everything changed? Yeah, the story I always tell, and I remember it like it was yesterday. I grew up in New York, New Jersey, to a very Italian family. And I'm looking in the mirror. I was just about to go to an eighth-grade birthday party. And everybody at school that day was like, oh, okay, this one's going to kiss this one, and that one's going to kiss that one. And I was nowhere mentioned in any of this. So I was like, I got to deck myself out in the best track suit I had. because I'm a fat Italian kid

and I gotta wear a track suit. So I'm looking in the mirror and I put my track suit on and I'm like, I got these big square glasses not as cool as these that I have on right now. They were kind of nerdy.

I'm looking in the mirror and I'm like, I look terrible. And I said to myself in the mirror, I go as soon as I get to high school, I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna work out. And I realize that that 12, 13 years old, I go, there's no one that's gonna help me with this.

My family can help me. They don't know what's going on. They're out of shape and overweight. And I wanted to look like, the people that I saw in movies and comic books and on wrestling. So I go, I just got to start doing what they're doing. I got to start working out. So as soon as I got to high school right away, I mean, before high school even started, I started playing football and that starts in the summer and running and lifting and all that stuff. And I just fell in love with that process. And then I

started buying muscle magazine. So by 12, 13 years old, I was like in it and loving it. And then when I got good at it and understood what I needed to do and I did enough research, and I did enough research, I started to want to do it for other people. Like other people are like, oh my God, you used to be so heavy. Like there were still friends of mine who were like, dude, I remember when you were a fat kid. I'm like, I know. So do I. They just have to remind you.

Yeah, yeah. So and now they, a lot of those guys are like, oh, I wish I would have done the same thing or now I'm heavy and you're skinny, you know, everybody, it's constant. I hear it all the time. And now opening the gym in New Jersey, I have a lot of guys who are, you I grew up with kind of coming to the gym and they're like, what are you doing? How do you do it? So I think it's helped my business tremendously. How did you do it then? And is that different from how you do it now? Absolutely. I think obviously the more I understand. It's like becoming a Jedi.

Over the years, you get better at your skill. And I tell people, that's why I enjoy doing what I'm doing. A funny story. The other day, my mom gets this letter in the mail because I still have some stuff sent to my Jersey address and it was a letter saying that they've been looking for me for the past like five years and that there's some relative of ours that had me as next of kin and had $9.2 million that had to be transferred into my bank. Obviously this was a scam. However, just toying with the idea of having $9.2 million tomorrow, I was just like, my life wouldn't really change. I would still do what I'm doing because I love what I do. And, And I realized that at a young age.

And the way I did it then was very gritty. I was kind of, it was very bodybuilder style in the fact that I would open up a can of tuna and just eat the tuna out of the can. Now I'm like, all right, I drifted a little way from that kind of that, you know, that way of doing things. Kind of similar, you know, I'll have a shake or two a day just to get in my protein intake, but I learned a lot.

I think the answer is still the same. You know, the same way that bodybuilders and people got into shape years ago for like movies, like actors, like you hear, I've read the Sylvester Stallone book that he did with Gunner Peterson, and, you know, they talk about diet and nutrition and what he was doing then in the 80s and 90s is still the same stuff that he would do to get into shape for a movie now. So that's where I kind of got a lot of my information from, the Arnold Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.

I read that when I was a kid, and, you know, Arnold still talks about the same stuff, the same stuff he was doing in the 70s, the same stuff he does now. So for me, it's, I'm a little more calculated now. I understand a little bit better. Obviously, when you're younger, you could get away with a lot of stuff. I was going out with my friends. When I got to college, I started to drink a little bit more. When I was in high school and stuff, I didn't really drink that much.

And now I don't drink at all, really, maybe once a month, if that. So, yeah, I mean, it's a lot of the same stuff. Like, you want a high protein diet. You want to stay away from the carbs. Like, that was probably the first time I did like a, almost like a keto diet. It wasn't called that at that point. But it was just high protein, very little fat. and, you know, just carbs before and after the gym.

So. So I want to talk about the different components to getting in shape, right? Because we were talking before we started recording. Everybody wants to be told what to do. And you can tell people what to do, but then there's another part of that, right? People need to find the discipline. And that's huge. And I know that you talk about discipline a lot.

And that's often the biggest hurdle. Because we all kind of know what to do on some level, but it's the actual doing it. that's the hardest part. So let's kind of break it down to like mindset and then what we actually need to be doing. As a trainer and a gym owner, I've been doing this a long time and you run into so many different people at so many different stages of their life. There are people who go to the gym, but kind of half-asset. There are people who have never been to the gym who don't even know where to start.

There are people who go to the gym and want to dial it up, you know, who are in great shape and one. And I have a mixed bag of nuts in both gyms and. throughout my career. And you just have to meet people where they're at and try to figure out what they need right now. And everybody wants everything right now. I mean, that's society, that's America. That's how things go. But you have to break it down. So for instance, somebody who's never worked out before, I had a guy come in with a full head of steam in January. And he's like, I want to come five days a week, loaded. He just got, you know, sold his company. He's got,

he's like, I got nothing but time. Give me a diet. Give me a workout. I go, how old are you? He's like, I'm 44 years old. Have you ever worked out by looking at him? He looked like a bag of milk. And I was like, you've never worked out a day in your life. Let's take things one step at a time. I think the gateway drug for most people is finding a gym routine that they enjoy and not doing it right away. Everybody wants to do, all right, I'm going to come Monday to Friday as much as I can. Start with two days. And I want you to kind of long for it. I want you to miss it a little bit so that you come back. So I always start people with one, maybe two days. That's interesting.

I've never heard that before. And that makes so much sense. For sure. Always leave wanting more, right? Of course. Versus the other way around. Yeah. And everybody, well, because burnout happens, right?

Everyone's like, well, I'm going to get on this diet that I can't subscribe to because I don't really believe in it yet. And I want to go into the gym, but I've never done this in 44 years of my life. And now I'm just going to do it out of nowhere. So I say start with two days. And then let's lock in that habit for the gym. the next three to six weeks. If you could guarantee that you're going to show up, if you're going to give me two hours a week for the next six weeks, then we can move on and I could give you something

else, whether we give you another day of the week or we start to dial in what we should be eating. But most people can't bite off that much. You don't have any discipline and now you want all the discipline. Yeah. So it doesn't work like that. So, and then there's other people where I have, you know, younger guys who are in their 30s and stuff who are like, dude, I just want to get shredded this summer. It's like, all right, let me see what you're eating. And when I start to dive into what they're eating, it's relatively good. And then the weekend comes.

And they're like, well, it's just one day. And I'm like, yeah, but you're having 4,000 calories in the day. You're day drinking all day with your friends. And then you're eating like shit at night. So let's just dial that back. Let's make it one shitty meal if that's what you need to do. And then everything else we need to tighten up. So it's taken a piece by piece and meeting people where they're at.

And I think the way the brain works is that you can't really, fathom doing all this like you want it all at once but you really can't process that much so you need to take it one step at a time and i try to get people to you know little goals it works on the endorphins that you get from accomplishing a goal oh i went twice this week that's amazing great i could definitely do it because i've done it now now i could do it again next week and now after i know that i could do that for two or three weeks and i start racking up these wins and that's what i tell people rack up as many wins you can have one good meal, get to the gym an extra day. And then when you start to rack up these wins,

now you start to build that discipline in, and now you start to realize how good it feels to feel better. You know, one of the guests I had on my podcast recently, she was just saying, she's like, I wish I could get everyone to feel how good it feels to be strong. And I talk about that all the time. I try to get people to understand that it will infinitely

improve your life when you start to do it, but you can't do it all at once. If you came into the gym and you're like, I want a deadlift 300 pounds. I wouldn't put 300 pounds on the bar and have you do it. I would slowly gradually work you off to a point where within three to six months, we could get you that point. It's interesting.

Like, it sounds like you need to practice a lot of restraint, which I feel like people don't necessarily think of when they think of, like, getting shredded or getting in shape or whatever it is. And it gives me a little bit of anxiety because I'm one of those like zero to 100 people where I do this all the time. Like, I fall off. And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to like get back.

and I'm training with my trainer three times a week, then I'm doing Pilates twice a week, and then I'm doing this once a week, and then I'm doing that. And I have to go zero to a hundred, and either I burn out because it's too much, or I don't do it perfectly, and then I get what I call the fuckets,

and I'm like, well, fuck it. I'm like, scrap that plan, you know? But you're not alone. Yeah. It's taken me, like I said, I started doing this when I was 13, 14 years old, and I've gone through seasons of feeling different ways. Like, there are times where I hated working out.

I'm like, I don't want to go to the gym so bad. And I've just now, over the course of the last 25, 30 years that I've been doing this, have now came up with different ways that I convince myself to work out, whether it's I have a training partner or I have a place that I go or I try a different gym. You know, I've tricked myself into doing it every day. You know, and there are definitely mornings I get to the gym and I'm like, I don't want to do this. But I know like little ways that'll kind of get my heart rate up and I'll feel better.

and I just start doing something. And I think that's the biggest problem is that people don't know how to trigger that part of their body. The hardest thing to do is actually get to the gym. Now when you're there, I encourage people to take classes where their friends are there or they can meet people. One of the things I say about our gym is that we build muscle and we build community.

You'll never work out alone. You'll either work out with one or two other people or you'll work out with me and one of my trainers because I want people to have some sort of accountability and multiple people checking in with you, being like, hey, you're going, right? Okay, cool. I'm going to go too. When it comes to hydration, I think a lot of people are confused.

They think more water equals more hydrated. And while that may be true to a certain extent, healthy hydration actually isn't just about drinking water. Being optimally hydrated is actually about optimizing your body's fluid ratios. And this fluid balance depends on many factors, including the intake and excretion of electrolytes. So electrolytes are charged minerals that conduct electricity to power your nervous system. They also regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and outside of your cells. Something that I learned years ago was that when I was retaining a ton of water, it was actually because I was deficient in electrolytes.

So when I added electrolytes, it helped to balance that out, which is counterintuitive to most people because when you're supplementing with electrolytes, you are getting sodium, potassium, and magnesium. A lot of people think sodium means retaining water, but no, it can really help to balance things out. So I love element. It is a science-backed electrolyte formula containing 1,000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium. And it has no dodgy ingredients. They also have the best flavors. I love citrus. I love orange.

I love the grapefruit. They're all so, so good. They also have chocolate. You can put it in your coffee. I know a lot of people that do that. And each stick delivers a meaningful dose of electrolytes free of sugar, free of artificial colors, or other sketchy ingredients. It's formulated for anybody on a mission to restore health through hydration. And it's perfectly suited for athletes, for those of you who are working out getting ready for summer as we're talking about in this episode, people who are fasting.

If you're following a keto, low carb, whole food, or paleo diet, it's perfect for anybody. And right now, Element is offering a free sample pack with any purchase. eight single serving packets free with any element order. This is a great way to try all eight flavors or share element with a friend. Get yours at drink element.com slash well. This deal is only available through my link, so you must go to D-R-I-N-K-L-M-T dot com slash well. I have been traveling for the past week and I have a new travel non-negotiable when it comes to my skincare. It's actually kind of a daily non-negotiable, but especially when I'm traveling and I tend to run a little bit more puffy and tired than usual. And those are the clear stem matcha eye patches. Oh my God. They are so

effective. I really haven't found anything that helps my under eye area. Like these patches, they just really help to plump things up, help with fine lines and brighten that under eye area. They also stay on during a workout, which I absolutely love. So when I wake up, I can just throw those on, go do a workout when I'm done. I am less puffy, smooth, and ready for the day. I'm also obsessed with their skin spray all day. It's a hypochloric acid, so I love that when I'm traveling, and the bounce back serum. And if you're not familiar with clear stem, they are amazing.

They help you treat acne and aging at the same time, which is pretty tough to find. Oftentimes, products that are targeted at acne can tend to be kind of harsh and drying for the skin, which is not good at all for signs at aging. So Clearstem tackles both of those without using skin irritants, parabins, thallates, or poor clogging ingredients. So if you've dealt with breakouts, you know that typical acne products, like I said, dry you out, they can damage the skin. And traditional anti-aging products can clog your pores. So this is basically your clean, comprehensive, all-in-one approach, addressing both acne and aging without compromising your holistic health. And because I know that this is so important, and a lot of you appreciate this, clear stem is backed by rigorous scientific evidence their products,

have been clinically shown in third-party trials to effectively improve acne within four weeks with further improvement over 12 weeks. So unlike other skincare brands, Clearstem is dedicated to both product safety and efficacy. So discover the Clearstem difference and experience clear, healthy skin for life. Go to Clearstem.com slash well and use the code Well at checkout for 20% off your first order. That's C-L-E-A-R-S-T-E-M dot com slash well and the code is Well. I don't know if you guys can tell by my voice, but I am recording this early in the morning. I always record my ads early. And as soon as I'm done, I cannot wait because I'm going to go downstairs and have my breakfast,

which is my favorite meal of the day. I'm a creature of habit, and I always either have a yogurt bowl, a chia pudding type bowl, or an oat bowl, and it's always topped with purely Elizabeth granola. It's my obsession. In fact, the journey to purely Elizabeth started when the founder, Elizabeth Stein, wanted to create obsession-worthy foods, and they're full of better-for-you ingredients and culinary taste. So that's how she came up with delicious granola, with crunchy clusters, ancient grains, and superfoods to help make good choices easier. So Elizabeth, who has been on the podcast, is a certified holistic nutrition counselor and health coach. She's super intentional about selecting the nourishing ingredients that go into each Purely Elizabeth product.

And she settles for nothing short of delicious. So I personally love that her products are made with, like I said, ancient grains, superfood seeds. They contain no artificial flavors. They're all certified gluten-free. They have plenty of non-GMO vegan and keto-friendly options. And when it comes to the granola, they have a ton of flavors to choose from. So they have things like chocolate sea salt. They have blueberry hemp.

They have vanilla almond butter, which I love. and my personal favorite, the OG original ancient grain granola. It is so good. It contains organic oats and nutritious ancient grains with superfood seeds like chia, quinoa, and amaranth. They are in these delicious, crunchy clusters that have this unique, salty, sweet taste. But they're not overly sweet like most granola. It's baked with coconut oil and sustainably sourced coconut sugar, which is unrefined sugar. And it is so good. Like I said, I put it on my breakfast bowl. I will snack on it. sometimes I'll have it with a little almond milk as a dessert. There are so many ways to enjoy.

So right now you can visit Purelyelisabeth.com and use the code well at checkout for 20% off. Purely Elizabeth, taste the obsession. Join us on May 17th in Los Angeles for the Dear Media Edit, a live wellness experience. A day of curated conversations and immersive experiences with your favorite dear media hosts and leading voices in health and wellness. Explore what it means to truly feel. feel good inside and out. Tickets are on sale now at dearmedia.com slash events. I was going to ask you being in the industry as long as you've been in it, how do you keep it spicy? Because I feel like

you're just like am I on this hamster wheel forever? And I feel like a lot of people probably feel that way, whether they're in the industry or not. Like we're all told that we need to work out for our health, for longevity. Like it's so important. We all know that. And yet I think that we get into these routines that are like really monotonous. So how often do you recommend people switch it up and how often are you switching up your own routine? Well, two things. One, I say there's, you have to be somewhat goal oriented, right? You want to have something where you're looking forward to it, whether you want to go run a marathon or you want to go do a high rocks. There's some sort of physical component to it that you're looking forward to that you can mark on the calendar and be like,

okay, I'm going to go train for this or I'm going to do this. That's one way to it. The second way is I try to help people understand that exercise is now like hygiene. You wouldn't go a day without taking a shower. You wouldn't go a day without brushing your teeth. So why would you go a day without exercise? Because that's the most important component, right? That's good for brain health. It's good for your skin.

It's good for your bone density. It's good for circulation. There's really no downside to exercise but showing up to the gym. So I help people understand that. I have clients who are three years old. clients who are 83 years old. Never in my life, in the years I've been doing this, has anyone ever left the gym and goes, I shouldn't have done that? You know, before the gym, they're like, think of a million and one excuses why they shouldn't go. Oh, I could go drink with my friends. I could go over here. Oh,

there's a store. I could go shopping. And you'll get 101 distractions. But as soon as you're there, and there's somebody like, hey, let's go. You got to start moving. I think that's what helps a lot of people. most of the time I tell people I go I'm a strength coach but at the same time I'm an accountability coach I make sure you're there and you know some people if there's money on the line they're like oh I don't want to waste the money so they show up other people you know feel accountable to people other people feel like oh I don't want to stand my trainer up that's rude and obnoxious to do that so I think just finding what works for your mentality so for me how I've switched it up over the years I wrestled and played football in high school and

college. I wrestle all through college. Then after college, I got into jiu-jitsu a little bit and then started doing endurance racing. After I started doing endurance racing, then I found CrossFit. After CrossFit, I started doing jihitsu again and powerlifting and things like that. So it's been this cycle of different ways to test myself. But for me, what always sits in the back of my mind is I cannot tell people to go and do these things without doing it myself. I can't say to you, hey, you should go run the New York City Marathon. Haven't never ran the New York City Marathon. Fuck no. It's not happening. But I can't tell people to do these things and explain to them the level of difficulty

have never done it myself. I know what mile 15 feels like. I know what mile 19 feels like. In fact, I know how it feels 10 times over. So what I tell people, I go do different things, put something on the calendar.

And a lot of people are always like, summer's coming. I have a wedding coming out. Yeah. So it's like, okay, you have this hard stop. Like,

Hey, in L. weeks in Europe. Okay. June 4th. Okay. Let's fucking go. So you got something on the calendar.

Yeah. So now it's like, all right, how do I make this a routine? How do I not break that routine? How do I stay disciplined? And if you enjoy doing Pilates, like the days you don't want to do anything, go to a Pilates class. Go and do it. Go do something.

For instance, like with a lot of my clients, they're like, I don't want to be here. It's 5 a.m. 6 a.m. I'm like, all right, let's just throw the ball against a wall or slam it down or, you know, let's do, a couple band press downs because anything will start to get your endorphins going, get your heart rate going. So I give them like little task to get them going, you know, pushing a sled. It's just simple things that don't take any skill level that aren't as daunting as a task and they just start doing it. I am in a phase right now where I like what you said about accountability. I have to have a trainer.

I like somebody who's going to be kind of mean to me. I have trainers that I have a great relationship with. So they can be mean to me. And they'll text me and be like, hey, what are you doing? You're up in five weeks. Like they see what I'm doing on social media and stuff like that. My trainer was like, I need that body perfect. You better be working out today. Like things like that. That motivates me and I'm paying them. So it's double accountability. No, I have a client who I saw this morning. She had a a surgery a couple weeks ago. And she had kind of had fallen off. I see this girl five days a week. And she's incredible. She does everything I ask her to do. And then she fell off. She had the surgery. She's like, well, when should I come back? I go, now because if you're wearing a fucking tankini at Dumbo house, it's like people are going to make fun of you. So get your ass over here.

And she was like, all right, I needed to hear that. Because most people do. I go to this jujitsu gym and all the guys I roll with, all the guys I'm with, they're like, dude, you haven't done a tournament like six weeks. I'm like, fuck, I haven't.

They're like, oh, you're getting soft. You're getting old, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, all right, that was like the kick in the ass that I need it. Most people need that. Everybody's like, oh, that's rude and that's mean. It's like, no, it's not. It's fucking reality, right? It's not a, you know, a why.

Yeah. We're falling off. We need to hear from somebody who gives a shit about us. If your trainer didn't care, I don't think you're 200 bucks or 300 bucks is going to make or break the guy. No. But he's trying to keep you accountable. And most of the time, I even charge my family at my gym in Jersey.

And I didn't want to. And I've done that in the past where I let people come for free. But then they don't respect it the same way. So now they're like, I'm paying this money. I have to go. Interesting. And you're wasting my time. So I have to be there.

And I tell them that. Like, I don't want your money. but it's the only thing that's going to keep you honest. Yeah. It's very motivating. For sure. And that's another thing. It's like, where does the motivation come from?

How do you stay motivated? People probably ask you that all the time. People ask me that all the time. And I'm like, I'm not motivated all the time. Usually it's like I just have to take the action. And then the action precedes feeling motivated. But do you have any like tricks for motivation? Because, you know, we're talking about the hardest part is getting there, right?

The hardest part is having the discipline. So where do you get the motivation to have the discipline to get there? Well, I'm definitely over all the soft bullshit that we've been dealing with over the past five years. Yeah. Like, oh, be nice to everyone. It's like, fuck that. It's like some people need the truth. And I think that the reality of life is I've done my best work when someone was either mean to me.

And everybody's like, no, not everyone's like that. Sure. But at the same time, when you hear the truth and it bothers you, one, you either don't care about the truth. And you're like, I'm fat. I'm okay with it. Fine. Or you're like, hey, that's offensive. It's like, why is it offensive?

Because it bothers you and you're not doing anything about it. And you know you have the power. In the back of your mind, you're like, I know I have the power to do this and I'm not doing it for myself. Why not? Because it's easily accessible. When I was 13, 14 years old in 1996, 1997, there was no influencers teaching us how to do stuff. There was no internet where you could go look up workouts and stuff. You had to figure it out yourself.

So if a 13 or 14 year old could figure out how to do it, then somebody at 40 or 30 or 35 in 2025 could easily find a gym because when I started going to the gym, I would go to either my high school gym or a gym 25 minutes away from my house. Now there's a gym on every corner. There's four gyms just in my building. So you have no excuse not to go. You have 101 different modalities. I mean, there's some of the dumbest shit out there. You could have an app. You could have all these things. Like there are people who build your personal program for free. I mean, you go on AI and ask it a hundred different questions. Chat, GPT. Yeah. trainer. Yeah. So it's endless about what you could do. No one has to tell you like, did you brush your

teeth today? You're like, it's gross if you don't. And I tell people, I go, you're fucking gross if you don't work out every day. Oh, that's offensive. I don't give a fuck. It's what you should be doing. It's gross if you don't shower. You walk into the room when you look like a mess and you're like everyone's mean to me. It's like you've given them reason to because you've walked in and this is how you're presenting yourself. Right. If your hair was messed up and disheveled, there'll be a million-on-one comments. What the fuck's wrong with her? Why's her hair a mess?

They always find things to pick on me for. Even when there's nothing to pick on, people will find stuff to pick on. The amount of times I've had people, the internet always wins. There are always comments where I'm like, dude, that's pretty good. They're so clever. You're some nerd in a basement in the middle of Nashville or something, just writing shit about all of us. God, especially on TikTok, I'm like, you know, I have to hand it to you. Like, that was amazing.

And they'll find the weirdest shit. I'm like, some guys are like, oh, do you see his eyes are kind of crossed? I'm like, are my eyes crossed? I'm looking at the mirror for like two weeks straight. I'm like, are my fucking eyes crossed? I had one. This is like such an aside, but I was talking about the time that I went to a ditty party. Yeah.

And in the episode, I don't know, it was like my skincare, the lighting, my face was really shiny. And all these people were like, yeah, she still has the baby oil on her face. And I was like, it's amazing. Like, it's so funny. Yeah. Yeah, people are clever. I mean, you could only laugh about it because somebody is sitting there having nothing else to do but to shit on you. Yeah.

So it's comedy. Yeah. It's a compliment. Take it as a compliment. I'm glad that people give a shit. When was the last time you truly listen to your gut? Misleading health advice is everywhere and much of what we know about food is wrong. And this is where Zoe comes in.

Zoe is backed by one of the world's largest microbiome databases and the most scientific. scientifically advanced at-home gut health tests. Zoe gives you proven science whenever you need it. So gut health matters. I don't have to tell you guys. Your gut health is key to your overall well-being, and Zoe is here to help. So with Zoe, you receive insights that empower you to make smarter, healthier food choices. So one of Zoe's at-home tests is, of course, a gut health test. It's one of the most advanced in the world. Their scientists have identified 50 gut microbes associated with positive health outcomes and 50 linked to negative ones. And Zoe provides you with detailed results so you can understand exactly what is happening in your gut. Zoe's app creates a tailored program based on your

unique results, guiding you step by step with recipes, meal plans, and food scores to help you make consistent progress. And clinical trials have even shown that Zoe's personalized nutrition program works. So you're eating the right foods for your body. You will feel healthier in weeks and build better habits for life. And with regular testing, Zoe helps you track your gut health and ensures your advice stays up to date. As a Zoe member, you'll get an at-home test kit and personalized nutrition program to help you make smarter food choices that support your gut. So go to Zoe.com and use the exclusive code, Blonde 10 to get 10% off membership. That's ZOE.com, and the code is Blonde 10 for 10% off. When it comes to taking care of my skin, you guys know that I do

all of the things, including focusing a lot on my skincare, at home, treatment modalities, things like face taping, guasha, I'm using this gold roller now that I love, I do facial cupping, massage, all of the things. However, I really truly believe that skin health starts from within, and this is why I love rituals highest era. It's basically like a multi-step skincare in one daily supplement, and it features two of the best clinically studied ingredients shown to help minimize wrinkles and hydrate skin from within. So it contains a sustainably harvested plant oil extract containing glycolipids and seramides. This helps to support the reduced appearance of wrinkles and fine lines and promotes hydrated skin on the face and the body, and then it

also has hyaubest, which is a bio-fermented lower molecular weight hyaluronic acid. And this has been studied in human clinical trials and helps to promote glowing and moisturized skin. Something that I love and appreciate about ritual is that they really put the time and the work into studies. So in a clinical studied, hyacera is proven to reduce spine lines and increase skin smoothness in 90 days. It led to a 2.9x increase in skin smoothness within 90 days as compared to placebo. And high asera subjects reported an improvement in skin elasticity, glow, and radiance in 90 days. I was not part of that trial. However, I've been using it for months now.

And I noticed that my skin really retains moisture better than it has been. So it looks plump and glowy and noticeably so much better. So start hyacera to support your glow without comprehensive. on clean science, get 25% off your first month for a limited time at ritual.com slash blonde or add hyacera to your subscription today. That's ritual.com slash blonde for 25% off. I'm sure that by now you guys know that health really starts in the gut, but every day your gut is fighting a silent war against processed foods, work stress, pesticides in your food, and even toxins in the air that you breathe. And when your gut is in trouble, your whole body feels it. This is where it gets.

crazy. Most people are spending money on probiotics that don't even work to support their guts and help fix this issue. But 99% of traditional brands die in your stomach acid before they reach your gut. So you may as well flush them down the drain. That's what makes Just Thrive spore-based probiotic completely different. Just Thrive is the only one clinically proven to arrive 100% alive in your gut. And it does something no other probiotic can. It turns your gut into an antioxidant factory, creating protective compounds exactly where you need them most. So for you, that means better digestion, healthy immunity, more energy, and easier weight management. Just Thrive probiotic comes in a capsule or berry-flavored gummy, so there's an option for everyone in the family. You can also

take the capsule apart and you can use the powder in things like smoothies or oat bowls, yogurt bowls, you can even bake with it. So there are so many options for how you take the probiotic or how you give it to your family or loved ones. Plus, it's backed by an industry-leading guarantee. So if you're ready to transform your health in 2025, take the 90-day challenge, love the way you feel, or get a full product refund, no questions asked. Visit justthrivehealth.com and save 20% on your first 90-day bottle

of Just Thrive probiotic with promo code well. Don't forget to check out all their other natural, clinically proven products to, like their newest product, digestive bitters, focus in memory, gluten away, and more. That's justthrivehealth.com code well. So since we have summer coming, I know everyone listening is, you know, probably motivated because they want to be strong and be healthy in all the things, but we also want to look good. So do you have a universal breakdown, like a workout breakdown that you could recommend for people, whether it's like you're doing this for this many days, understanding that everybody is different? They're starting at different points. And we were talking about meeting people where they are, but in general.

Do we want to be doing strength a few times a week? Do we want to be doing cardio? How do we want to be mixing it? All of that. I was a big CrossFit guy for a long time. Obviously, I was a big endurance guy for a long time of do a lot of running and swimming and biking and things like that. What I found works really well and what I do at both my gyms.

And obviously, that's what I sell people and that's what I believe in, is the basis of what you do. My gym is called the Strength Club because I want to help people build strength. And you could build strength at any age. You could build strength at two or 92. It doesn't matter. Like you could always improve the way you move through the seven planes of motion. I would say, and it's way harder.

Like I could get you faster in five to six weeks. It'll take me years to get you stronger. And I tell everyone that. So I was like strength should be the baseline. Strength should be in everyone's program. If you like doing Pilates and yoga and cycling and all that bullshit, great. Do it. Do it as much as you want.

However, the base of your program, the bottom of your piece, pyramid should be a strength program. Two, three, four, five days a week, whatever it may be, do some sort of strength program with someone who knows what they're doing or find it online. But what I've noticed is that a lot of people are, you know, buying into the whole strength idea, but they're lacking the level of intensity they need. You know, so a lot of people are like, oh, I did my weights today and I'm good. Well, there needs to be a certain level of stress and pressure put on the joint to make the diamond that you want to make. So you have to make sure that you're strengthening the muscle to a point where you're asking it to grow,

and there needs to be some level of that. Now, I talk about this a lot, and I rarely hear it talked about online, is muscle maturity. When somebody first starts coming to the gym, they look frail, they can't push through movement. However, as you grow and you start to build muscle tissue and you start to build muscle maturity, you get to a point where you could kind of grind through reps and get more out of your exercises. And that's what we want to do. We want to work to a point of either pre-failure or working to a point of failure most of the time. So I say three, four days a week at least of strength training. And then you could throw in all the other stuff because most of the other stuff is accessory work. Should your heart and your lungs be strong? Absolutely. And that's the definition of cardiovascular work.

If you want to do cardio work, whether it's a stairmaster or rowing or running outside, whatever it is, fine. But I think the basis of what everyone should be doing or I know the base of everything everybody should be doing is some sort of strength program. I think a lot of people use exercise and strength training as a form of dieting. They're like, oh, this is I'm going to lose weight. It doesn't work like that. You're never going to outwork a bad diet. If you're overeaten six, seven, eight hundred calories, you're never going to look the way you want. So your diet needs to be dialed into a certain degree and you need to have some sort of string program. And yes, I want your heart and lungs to be strong, but you don't need as much of that.

So in my gym, we have it two days a week. We do Wednesdays and Saturdays that we do cardiovascular work. And then on Sundays, I give them the option. You want to come in. You can use whatever you want to whatever you want. There's four days of strength training and then two days of cardiovascular work. And I think that works really well for most people. but don't get it confused.

Like cardiovascular work is just that. Like when people are like, oh, I'm strength training going to F-45. It's like, no, it's mostly cardiovascular work here. I know like each one's different, but for the most part, you're never working at a high enough threshold to develop muscle tissue. And that's why you have a lot of these young influencers and stuff who are now buying into this stuff. They're listening to the guys who really know what they're talking about.

And they're going to gyms and they're pushing heavy weight and they're trying hard. And anybody who knows how to strength train will tell you that it needs to be a consistent thing. And you need to develop this over time and you need to progressively overload to see the results that you want to see. It's not just going to happen. When people come to me and they're, I don't want to put on too much muscle. I mean, that's you. I'm sure you've said that or heard that. Yeah.

Don't want to get bulky. Yeah. I'm like, I wish it was that easy. Yeah. I've been trying since I was 14 to look bulky. Yeah. I haven't done it yet. So I'm still trying to figure that out.

I hear that. And then also, like, this does happen to me sometimes, too. Like, if I'm pushing really hard, I get puffy. Puffy. Yeah. Okay. Your face. Explain puffy to me. Puffy is like, I just feel like I'm, like, retaining a lot of water. I don't know. Maybe I'm not recovering enough or something. But I get puffy. I'm like, this is not, yeah, I'm like, it should be the opposite. Yeah. Well, if you look at it, right, if you've ever seen that diagram, I'm sure it's all over the internet. internet, anybody can look it up. It's like five pounds of fat and then five pounds of muscle. Five pounds of muscle is maybe one-fourth of the size of the five pounds of fat. So when you have more muscle tissue, it's going to make you a little bit more dense. Now, will you retain a little bit

more water? Sure. But no more than if you were heavier, right? You're always going to be better leaner and tighter. Yeah, it's like, it's usually just a period right after the workout for like a day or two. And then, and if I'm doing it really consistently, then if I go on vacation or something, then that all goes away. And I'm like, oh, I'm ripped. But it's like hiding under the puffy. Yeah. I don't know. Somebody is probably like stress and just being in L.A. and I think a lot of times people don't realize that when you are exercising, you're working harder, you're probably you might, you're one going to retain a little bit more water. You're going to, you know, force blood through the muscle tissue a little bit more. And then you're going to want to eat a little bit more.

Yeah. But your body's going to utilize a fuel better. I, I compare it to if your body was a car, if you have no muscle on your body, you're like a Honda Civic, you've got a four-cylinder car, right? And it can't utilize the fuel as efficiently. Or you have a Ferrari, which has got a 12-cylinder engine, and now you're pumping gas through the car, so it's going to utilize that fuel more. So when you're taking in too many carbs, well, then you're just leaving gas in the tank. But if you have all this muscle on your body, now you're utilizing fuel.

so no matter what you're eating, it's going to utilize a fuel better. More muscle is always better. For longevity, for aesthetics, anything you want out of life, it's going to just improve that. Any doctor worth their own salt is never going to tell you,

oh, don't exercise. Yeah. You mentioned eating carbs before and after your workout. What other little hacks can you recommend when it comes to nutrition? Because how much of body composition do you think comes down to diet and how much comes down to what you're doing in the gym?

I mean, all it comes down. I mean, if you're talking about aesthetics and you want to look a certain way, I mean, 90% of it is what you're eating and how you're utilizing fuel. I think the most important thing is like one having some sort of exercise routine because I went to a couple biohacking events in the last couple months. And, you know, a lot of these people are always trying to look for this cheat code. Like, oh, I suck on Ashwaganda leaves and I sit in a cold tub for three days. And I'm like, well, you're missing the biggest biohack.

hack of all, which is exercise. Start doing that. And then a lot of this other shit could be just additives. So this is a three-day argument about the whole food system and everything like that. But food is too readily available nowadays. Right now we walk down 7th Avenue and there's croissants being sold on the side of the street. You walk into a coffee shot, they got cookies and pastries.

You know, there's so much shit always around and we always think we need to be eating. Everybody's like, oh, I'm slightly hungry. I need a chocolate. I'm slightly hungry. I need a fucking 700 calorie frappuccino. Being hungry is okay. You could be hungry. It's like it's another level of stress that your body goes through.

That's actually good for it. A buddy of mine, I was talking to him the other day and he's got some gout, right? His diet's not great, but I know it runs in his family's dad had and stuff. And I told him, I go, listen, you want to reset your gut right now? I go just fast for the next two or three days. you could drink black coffee, you could drink some water, but, and he's like, dude, it actually improved the way I feel. And I go, 100%, because everybody fears being hungry

because it does feel like shit. I mean, I did a show years ago where they starved this out and on an island and you're like gnawn on your hand because you're so hungry. It feels terrible. But, you know, when you get through a day or two of that, you're like, okay, I don't need as much food as I think I do. So everybody thinks like, oh, you're hungry. Here, let me have this, pull out this giant bag of fuck.

and snacks and we got fruit loops in and all this shit. So you're like overeating carbs. And if you're not using utilizing those carbs within like a two hour span, then your body just stores it. So you don't need all these carbs. You don't need as much food and fuel as we think we do. And I don't think we need as much water. The amount of people who come into my gym with water bottles like this and be like, I got to finish two of these today. I'm like, where are you going? This is a like six gallons. Yeah. You don't need that much water, right? I'll go. Always the girls. too, right? The amount of Stanley water bottles I've thrown

away in my gym, because they get left everywhere. And you can hear us coming from a mile away hitting every every, every, you know that sound. They're like lined up on the window. I have like 12 fucking Stanley water bottles. It's like $800 worth of water bottles.

And they'll leave them there. And they'll leave them there. And they'll forget them. They're like, I have another one. I'm like, you spend more in fucking water bottles a year and then you're probably doing shoot. It's crazy. Yeah. Oh my God. Okay, so how much water should we be aiming for? I mean, I eat when I'm hungry. I drink water when I'm thirsty. But like first sight of feeling of hunger, I'm not like, oh, I got to crush a subway sandwich. You know, I'll let it sit for a while. I want that feeling because it's letting my body know, hey, listen, you're alive. You don't need this right away. I'm not going to starve to death. You could go, you know, the longest three minutes without air and three days without water and three weeks basically without food. I mean, there are fucking monks who go. days and months without eating. You don't need to eat as much as we think we do.

You know, obviously if your goal is to build muscle tissue, then yes, you need to consume more than what you think you do. But if I'm just trying to sustain and look good, I don't really need to eat as much as people think we do. And we've demonized fat in this country. You know, everybody's like, oh, I can't have trans fats and this fats and that fats. It's like fats are a better form of fuel than carbohydrates are.

Carbos are like a fast, you know, kind of like kicking the ass. And it's like, okay, I need that. But for the most part, like I said, I mean, build it around your workouts. But other than that, one of the things I was talking about Gab, this weekend was she was saying that Gabriel Lyons for people who are. She was saying, she's like, you should earn your carbs. You don't need to have them all the time. So. And I think a lot of people don't understand what fats and carbs are.

So if you're like, oh, I'm going to go get a salad. Okay, well, your salad's full of fat and carbohydrates, right? You got croutons in there and you got nuts and cheese and all this shit. And like there's no real value to any of it. So you just ate 3,000 calories in this bowl of salad and you've eaten really no protein or anything. And one of the things that people don't understand too is that protein is a building block of muscle. If I want to build muscle, I need more protein. It's like saying, I want to build this building, but I don't want any of the bricks.

And I don't need any of the wood. It's like, well, how are you going to build the building on? You know, so the carbs and fat are the fuel, and then the protein is what you need to build the muscle tissue. And if somebody wants to like lose weight quickly, if they have an event coming up or something like star yourself. Yeah, love it. I know. You heard it here.

I'll tell you what, because I mean, Chrissy could tell you this. I help a lot of guys at my jihitsu gym with like some of their diets and stuff. You have to cut weight quick, right? So I was trying to cut down to like 190. I had to lose like 10 pounds. That week, I completely cut carbohydrates out of my diet. The carbs that I was eating, I was eating a little bit of fruit, berries, and, you know, some watermelon.

And the night before my match, I was two pounds over still. That night, I ate an entire New York strip. And that's all I had. The next morning, I was two pounds of underwear was supposed to be. Because it takes so much energy in your body to burn that steak and to utilize it as fuel. So because I was depleting myself and I wasn't drinking a ton of water, so I wasn't retaining water. And that morning I was like, all right, perfect, I'm good. I went for a little run just to get my heart rate up, I warmed up, but I was underweight. So people are like, oh, I have to starve myself.

I have to, no, you just need to fuel yourself properly and you could get away with, you know, doing that. Like, for instance, anybody I've ever trained to do the New York City Marathon or any races, I think people still have this idea that they need to carboload the night before, but you're just sitting on all those carbs. You're just going to store it all. If you're going to have carbs, have two hours before, and then you're going to slowly cycle them in every 30 to 40 minutes, depending on how you feel.

But again, you see people in, you know, doing a New York roadrunners or one of these races, they'll go run two, three miles, and then they'll go drink a gallon of beer afterwards or eat a bagel. And I'm like, you didn't really work that hard. Yeah. You were running for 20 minutes. You don't need all that, all those carbs. Yeah.

You know, I'd say somewhere between 30 and 40 grams of carbs like before or after is about what you need. And then from there, you really don't need as much. Yeah. I recently saw something about LeBron James and his diet and his timing of how he eats. And you would think, maybe not you, but I think a lot of people would think, oh, he's, you know, waking up early. He's training all day.

So he's probably eating a huge breakfast. And then he's going to train and then he's going to practice and he's eating. And he doesn't really eat his first meal. until after all of that. So he'll have like a smoothie or something. He'll go do weights, then he'll do training, he'll do practice, and then he'll eat something like before the game, like a few hours before the game and then game and then something after.

Yeah. And I'm sure there's some level of hunger there. He's like kind of craving stuff, but he knows he doesn't need it. And some people, you know, because you start to get into a slight version of ketosis there and you start to burn any fat that you have on your body, Now that's a cleaner form of fuel.

It's the difference between like regular gas and high test. You know, you're going to utilize that fuel a little bit better. You're going to feel better. I normally, I don't eat anything. Like I'll wake up. I'll have a couple black coffee. Sometimes I'll throw some MTF in it. I'll throw a little grass-fed butter in it just for brain functionality.

I just feel better when I'm on that. And that'll be my breakfast. And then I didn't eat. I ate, what, an hour ago, two hours ago? It was my first meal of the day. I haven't really had anything. And I felt great all morning. I've been up since 5 o'clock.

So, yeah, you don't need as much as most people think they need. I feel like with women, though, it's a little tricky, you know, like hormones and stuff. I was a disaster today. Yeah. Let me tell you, because I woke up five hours of sleep because my travel schedule has been crazy. I was so tired. I just had matcha right away. So got that caffeine.

Great. So didn't really give myself a chance to, like, wake up. And then I had meetings and I didn't meet anything. and then I was like, oh, I need to work out before I get ready for the podcast and everything. And I didn't have any food. I had like a granola bar. Sure. But it had so much sugar.

I had that. I had a workout. After the workout, I was like, I am going to pass away. Like, I feel like I'm going to die. Well, that's another time. Days. I mean, it was horrible. I thought I was going to pass out.

So then I went and I got bacon and salmon. Great. That's great. And I was brought back to life. Yeah. Yeah. So like having the carbs before. Listen, what I say having, you know, a granola bar right before is, I mean, if you're going to have a granola bar, that's the time you want to have it.

Yeah. It'll get you through the workout. Yeah. But I say this all the time. It's like peanuts. Peanuts are, you know, comes from the earth. It's pretty normal. I could eat peanuts and drop dead.

You can eat peanuts and it could be your favorite food. Everything's going to affect people differently. You just need to, and it's a lifelong journey that you need to figure out what works for you. So some people love getting. into a fasting state and not eating all morning. Does it work for everybody? No. Does it work for the people who enjoy it? Yeah. I mean, for me, it's, I didn't, I never really set out to do it. I'm just like, I'm not hungry. I don't really need to eat right now. And then I'll have like one big meal. So I had like six eggs and some turkey bacon. I enjoy eating that. I've now found like I was telling

you in the beginning when I was first starting this, I hated eating tuna out of the cans. It tastes like shit. Now I enjoy eating eggs. I look forward to eating eggs and turkey bacon and steak. Like those are the things I enjoy eating. I love eating watermelon. So like if I need carbs, I eat fruit. I eat a ton of fruit. Second time I've heard you talk about watermelon.

I love it. I love watermelon. Like summer's coming. I know. It is so good. Yeah. Yeah. It's the best.

But shitty watermelon's hard. No. When it's like not when it doesn't really have color and it you can just tell that it's going to be. It's gross. You need like the really vibrant color ones that are like really juicy and tart. Yeah. I love that.

I love a good watermelon. Like oranges too. I'm a big orange guy. Big orange guy. What are your guilty pleasures? Do you have any? As far as food goes? Because if we're talking about other stuff, I mean, I love smoking cigars.

I mean, I know that's not great for me, but you have to have some outlet. I'm a big donut guy. I love donuts. From where? So there's this place right over between my apartment and the gym. And it's called Bear Donuts. And I've stopped in there more times than I'd like to admit. and crushed a toasted coconut donut.

Oh, that sounds good. Love, love a good coconut toasted dough. I like olive oil cake. That's great. Oh, my God. Right? I had the best olive oil cake of my life a couple weeks ago. Where?

This place, Leora in L.A. In L.A.? Yeah. Insane. It was so good. There's a great little new steakhouse. Daniel Ballou just opened up a place on 24th and Park. And it's unbelievable.

The desserts are amazing. I took a bunch of the girls there a couple weeks ago. And I was just like, yeah, give us all the desserts. And I was like, oh, and we finished all of them. And I was like, all right, this is, we're going to have to work this off now. Yeah. But one of my tricks and tips that I teach a lot of people, especially if you live in the city, go to restaurants downtown or uptown, depending on where you live, walk there and walk back.

Because a walk after your meal before and after is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Yeah. I feel instantly better. If I, one of my favorite restaurants here in New York is Manetta Tavern. Every time we go to Menendatown, I'll walk there. I'll have the burger or steak or something there, and then I'll walk back. And if I leave full, by the time I walk back home, I'm like, I feel pretty good. I feel better than I did.

Like, go on how your body feels. Like, you could listen to all the experts. I'm not a fucking expert. I just happened to be doing this a long time. You know, I've never worked in a lab, but my lab is the gym. I've spent 20 years now doing this with people. And I know it works for me. I use myself as a lab rat all the time.

But I have thousands of clients that I've seen. over the years that I know it works, I know it doesn't work, I know what makes you feel good, I know it doesn't make people feel good. So I work with that and I work off what I've seen over the course of the years. One of the things that I tell people all the time, I started to have a lot of my clients who were older,

I treated them like they were younger and they love that, one, because it makes them feel better. And two, it's they need to be doing the same exercises that everyone else is doing. You need to get them into the patterns that they're gonna be doing throughout their day. You want to make sure they could get themselves off the toilet. You want to make sure they could get themselves out of bed.

And there are certain movements that you have to perform to get better at those things. Mm-hmm. So is there anything that you used to believe about fitness that you've changed your mind on? Yeah. You know, when I was doing the CrossFit stuff, I was going hard all the time. And I've broken myself. You know, I've torn my shoulder. I, you know, screwed up my knees, my back.

just because I was 30 years old, you know, or 28 years old when I first started doing it. I'm like, I got to go hard. I got to go hard. And, you know, I don't think you need as much of that. I think it's steady progress, you know, do as much as you can, but with some constraints around it. Working with experts, I mean, I've been lucky enough that, like I said, I mean, one of my good friends is Don Saladino, who's, in my opinion, one of the best trainers.

And he's worked with every celebrity there. is and there's a reason why and I've gotten to pick his brain about a hundred and one things and we talk about that and you know Jordan Chalos is another guy who's been doing it forever and Jodafranco's you know most of them are like 10 years older than I am and these are guys who've been doing it longer than I have and they have more research than I have in the field so I kind of learn from them and I've been lucky enough for that and then I've kind of just learned how my body works when you're younger you could get away with a lot more but as you get older if

somebody tells me that they have back pain, I know what that feels like. I know what severe back pain feels like. I know what knee pain feels like. I didn't know what that felt like when I was 27, 28 years old. If I had an older client, they're like, I have back pain. I'm like, ah, shut up. You're fine. But now it's like, I'm like, all right, let's address this because I know what that feels like. And let's take care of it. How old are you? 42. Okay. Yeah. So you're back pain years old? Well, I was 38 years old. It was like 20, it was during the pandemic, and I got out of bed and I couldn't move. Oh, my God.

I thought I was paralyzed. I couldn't move. That's terrifying. I scared out of my mind. And I crawled out of bed and I'm laying on my back and I'm like, literally, couldn't use my legs. And I'm laying on the ground. I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with me? I had no idea what was going on out of nowhere.

And I read every book, John Sarno's book on Backpillar. I read multiple. That's the emotional, emotional pain one. Yeah, yeah. And I think I was freaking out because it was the pandemic. I didn't know when my next dollar was coming from. I didn't know what was going on. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm not going to be able to move.

And I did some stretches. I did everything I could do because I've definitely thrown my back out before deadlifting too heavy and shit like that. So I'm doing everything I could. Over the course of the next two years, it just got progressively worse. Like I was buying only slip on shoes and slippers because I could. because I couldn't bend down to time my shoes. I couldn't sit, like sitting like this would be so painful.

I went to see doctors at HSS, Mount Sinai, NYU, and every doctor was like, oh, you need to fuse your spine. And I'm like, fuck out of here. So it sent me down this rabbit hole of like, how do I fix back pain? And it was so scary and so crazy. And doing this research, they were saying adults, male and female, over the age of 30 will have some degree of back pain, like 70% of people will have some degree of back pain.

And you're like, holy shit. That's crazy. This is wild. Yeah. And, you know, whether it's stress induced or physical, like what I tell most people, I go, unless you've had blunt trauma to the back, I mean, we wouldn't have made, you know, thousands of years on this planet if we're this fragile of people. But what happens is over time, we're deconditioned, we're falling apart. You know, you start to get older.

and there's maintenance that has to be done on your body and you have to take care of it and slow things down and work different ways to get out of that. So it was definitely, it was chemical, it was neurological, and it was physical. And you have to work on all aspects of that. You know, it's not just one thing.

Yeah. Okay. What's one thing people should start doing and one thing people should stop doing? One thing I think everybody should do is adopt a healthy lifestyle, do something to improve wherever they are. I don't care who you are.

I've interviewed professional bodybuilders, you know, and I've interviewed people who've never worked out a day in their lives. And I think no matter where you're on a scale, you could always improve what you're doing and how you live. And one of the things I tell people that most people aren't doing enough of is creating great relationships, because I think that's such an important part of mental health as well as physical health. You just operate better when you know you have people around you who care about you. So I think one of the issues that we're going to tackle this year at my big

expo that we do every year is creating better relationships. You could have a significant other, but don't cut everybody else out of your life because you have a significant other. And then one thing I think people should stop doing is stop getting so fucking offended by everything. Somebody's giving you some feedback, process that and be like, is it their fault they said it or is it my fault that it bothers me. Mm-hmm. So. Mike drop.

Love that. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. So fun. This was awesome. And thanks for wearing the sunglasses with me. I didn't want to leave you alone. I don't want you to feel like you're out there by yourself.

I know. I know. I appreciate it. Well, where can everybody find you? At Kenny Santucci on social media, Instagram and YouTube and TikTok. And then Strong New York is September 27th, which is the biggest health and wellness expo

in New York City. Am I invited? You are, you have a free ticket. Amazing. You get a VIP ticket. So if you want to come, you're more than welcome to come. Anybody at Dear Media. So you guys are all welcome. But it's a fun day. We have multiple workouts going on, everything from puppy yoga to kids classes and jiu-jitsu and weightlifting. And then we have a main stage of education on everything from motivation, communication, and fitness. And then we have a full expo floor of like new brands and older brands and partners that we have here in the city. So we try to build up New York City businesses as well as kind of help some of the bigger brands kind of tackle whatever they're working on that year.

Amazing. Yeah. Cool. We'll be there. I hope so. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks.

I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.pod. You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Lori. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes. And we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Thank you.