Celebrity Trainer Reveals The Truth About Steroid Use In Hollywood

@DonSaladino has worked with a huge number of Hollywood starts, including Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and Blake Lively gives us the real scoop on what its like to train celebrities!

The ALL NEW RP Hypertrophy App: https://rp.app/hypertrophy/code/RP_YOUTUBE?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=RP_YT

Become an RP channel member and get instant access to over 30 hrs of exclusive in-depth training and advanced science content! ➡️https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfQgsKhHjSyRLOp9mnffqVg/join

0:00 Meeting Don Saladino
7:51 Assumptions about Celebrity Trainers
12:15 Steroids
19:30 Goals for Celebrities
25:30 Growing as a coach
27:30 Compliance with Celebrities
36:00 Tough Conversations
43:00 Training and Travel
48:10 What can regular people learn

a lot of folks who watch these types of videos on our channel would be like it’s the studio that says look this is your dealer this is he’s going to tell you what to take it’s like the they almost think of it as the Chinese government approach frustrates me about a lot of the comments is folks I’m Dr Mike from Renaissance puration this is Mr Don saladino he is a super world famous celebrity trainer weird intro I know I know we’ll get to it in a second so we’re going to have a little chat I’m going to ask Don about what it’s like to be a celebrity trainer what some of the upsides are what some of the downsides are and especially for you folks tuning in we’re going to talk about what you can get out of how celebrities approach their training because um only a few of us can be celebrities and well neither of you me or you are so but we can only look up at the greats like Harvey Weinstein no wait wait is he technically a celebrity oh my God in a sense she still I don’t know I think he’s in jail I I know he’s in jail actually good he just reminded me good all right low already first question first question have you ever had a personal interaction with Mr Weinstein I’m kidding okay I just you were G to answer that weren’t you but he was way more I think he was way more attractive in his earlier years right I don’t think he was ever attractive maybe maybe not yeah first question um introduce yourself to our audience tell us who you are where you come from what your background is sure uh Don saladino I um God I started in the Fitness business in 1999 I opened a couple of gyms in the city that revolved around golf when you say the city please be specific one city everyone I’m sorry to break it it’s New York City right New York new exactly he’s got a good New York accent so uh yeah um opened um two gyms in New York City the first one was drive495 it was a golf Fitness training facility it was a it was a great concept we had it for 15 years our 15-year lease expired May 31st of 2020 would you believe that interesting interesting so the timing worked out well I got into the digital space in 2010 um got into the app Business uh started that with um Adrien Peterson dwade Wade and Ernie L’s built this MTV Cribs and app I mean it toned it and then completely shit the bed after a period of time that’s a totally other conversation but that’s when I learned a lot about engagement the the celebrity trainer thing to be honest like being called it’s kind of a joke like be because no no I’m I’m going to be honest like here you develop this business you you build up this education and Practice What You Preach for 30 years of your life doing this as well as anyone from a nutritional standpoint a recovery standpoint I mean I’m 46 now I’ll be 47 next month and um this becomes part of your life and then suddenly you start working with a big name in Holly the celebrity trainer you’re like okay this is going to pay the bills okay yeah I’m gonna ask you another question how did that happen so you’re you’re you’re training golfers which AKA means mostly rich people and Prett much there’s a difference between uh New York Manhattan rich people and celebrities and that difference is you would be standing in an elevator with a celebrity you know exactly who it was they have a net worth of 30 million you stand in the elevator a metet worth of someone 100 million in New York you have no idea because they’re just some like C about to say most of the members like my celebrities used to joke around and they be like I’m the poorest person 100% yeah like a couple of them like I trained Ray Donovan for for for years and he said that to me once and I was laughing you’re like y you’re not wrong no he wasn’t because you know what we who do we train I mean everyone from I a couple I I I can’t even talk about but the like really wealthy ones that worth in the billions uh the founder of Tommy HFI or Calvin Klein himself and go on and on like big big did you ever try to get free clothes off Calvin K like no you know he wasn’t even like kidding yeah this just like most people would say yes he didn’t even he sold the company he had one of the most epic um exits ever by the way I think he got paid something like 50 or 60 million a year just for the rights of his name to the day he dies and then I think his daughter gets I’m in the wrong business we totally fucked up how did you get to how did you uh get to celebrity how did it go it was it was Hugh Jackman so Hugh Jackman was training with who I do not Train by the way he trains with a great coach I think she’s based in Texas um Hugh Jackman was in my club working with a buddy of mine who was a coach okay how did he get to your Club how does my buddy calls me up and he goes Hey listen I’m working with Hugh Jackman at the time he wasn’t that big and he knew it was a private club he’s like would you mind if I came in and worked with him I’m like not a problem there was no social media there was no nothing right so Hugh comes in and we start you know bsing and he’s watching me train and this and that and his trainer make a long story short ends up his wife has gets pregnant with triplets and they decide to leave the city I think cost a living obviously this city sucks for raising kids yeah it’s not it’s interesting because someone once told me who raised their kids in the city it’s the best gift you can give your children and I’m like probably not but some gifts suck though to give like sending your kid to military school is probably good for them too but they’re not going to love it yeah but like culturally I get what they’re saying the thing I loved when my kids were in school there up until they were only six like every kid in class was a different ethnicity they walk places by themselves yeah it was just like culturally it’s like no one knows black white gay it doesn’t matter which that’s what I love about the city that’s really special but um yeah so he basically comes to me and goes your my buddy who was the trainer was moving and um he asked to work with me and I said great so I worked with them for a year we got them ready for Wolverine in Australia um it was just it was a fun project there was no social media I remember I was really the one thing I did which I was still to this day Pat myself on the back for was I wanted nothing but just what’s the goal like so I remember him what else is there right well people tied into social media people tied into marketing he came to me and he’s like men’s uh men’s Vogue wants to do something on us and I’m like no whoa and he was like what what are you talking about I’m like no I’m like this is like dude we we got to work this is you like fuck fuck like what do you don’t worry about he just wanted to get the clients in shape period that was my whole objective even to this day I’ve never asked a client to do social posting for me sure I’ve never been like hey could you okay I do a I do I do an exceptional job because it it requires so much more than just training yes and there’s so many things we have to do when they’re on the road well I need a PT in London where’s my meal delivery service or a chef um all right I’ll be over there I’ll jump on a plane I’ll be in London in a day I’ll ask you about that in just yeah so like stuff like that’s interesting but that was my and then I think because he saw that one he went behind my back and did the men’s Vogue thing for us which was I appreciate it well that’s good you fucking idiot thank God he did that yeah but there was no call to action then so it’s like all right you know what think about it you know the importance of this like okay I could do press and it’s like I didn’t have an app at the time yeah um oh wow someone in in in Florida is reading about the article they can’t come to Soho but it puts your name in The Ether doesn’t it so how Okay so that’s my next question how did it go from j h Jackman to other people H just opened the floodgates at that point I mean there people say that so how does that actually work like well I’m getting phone calls and it’s like hey it’s Scarlet Johansson like oh hey I know who you are it’s like and the next thing you know you know you’re meeting this one that one Sandra Bullock’s in there The Rock’s in there training it’s just it’s just every week there wasn’t a person that um but my but my two show ponies like the the two to this day that have done more for me in business um would be uh Blake ladley and Ryan Reynolds they’re my they’re my they’re my like people and you got them kind of the same way off that hug acman effect where yeah it all kind of like I really owed him a lot like a lot because once the door open for him um like the floodgates open and then people there was some point of Separation there was some degree of separation where it’s like oh from him I’m like oh oh Billy crup came from where it’s like talked okay so this is actually a super important question we have for you we do a lot of celebrity workout reviews on the channel and a lot of times folks in the comments and folks dming will uh you know some of the celebrities train super well they’re like oh this is awesome yeah but some of them seem to be training or being trained by folks that maybe have less knowledge than we would have expected and then come the I would call them conspiracy theories or at least suppositions about people have an assumption in their heads about okay so this celebrity is working for the following studio and the studio is pays for the film right the executive producers Etc yeah and so the celebrity to them is in a sense a piece of capital Machinery uh like they’re they’re something that makes them money by being in movies right and I think a lot of people assume like the studio aka Big Hollywood they have a a list of trainers or this network that they connect to and they go hey Sandra Bullock you got to get in shape you go with this person and then so a lot of times we get the comment of like hey like why don’t they have trained Sports scientists why don’t they have the best most prestigious people why is it some random guy from La that’s training them totally I totally agree with you what I always say is I I don’t know here I’m gonna gonna ask you in a second but my hypothesis is that almost all celebrity training occurs by the celebrity themselves through Word of Mouth like I’m Sandra Brock I find out Hugh Jackman trains with you I hit you up and I go can you train me there’s no Studio involvement there’s not like a harvey maybe maybe for some lower lower tier celebrity coming on a major role like so if you have like a new actor or like a newish actor that’s going into the Deadpool movies and they’re not in the network right like okay maybe you’ll get like I’ve gotten calls from Marvel in the past but like no offense to Marvel like you’re not speak to like an upper executive over there you’re speaking to some lower tier like someone who’s new like oh we this is our budget XYZ and they find out about you the same way everyone else did three now what I do is I surround a team so depending on who I’m working with I have you know anyone from your functional medicine doctor which might be you know Dr Gabrielle lion or Dr Dwayne Jackson who you know prescripts guy Dwayne and Gabrielle are fantastic you know I have everything down to your um meal delivery service your chefs your you have it down to what does that mean Don that means you that means I have to facilitate it if they need it if they need it do you tell them they need it or ask them if they need it um it’s really more my job to assess their lifestyle and say do they need it okay because it’s not my job to come in there and have someone spend as much money as possible definitely even though they have a gazillion dollars well yeah I mean some of them have more money than you think or less money L money I know about that right and we’ll get to that in a in a second but like if Ryan Reynolds has coming to me and I’ve been working with Ryan for 15 years and Ryan’s just a creature of habit he’s got his food nailed his supplementing is really minimal stuff like basic you know Thorn stuff creatine glutamine just Basics BCA if needed if he needs it um on that specific day not something that he always needs um you know I don’t have to turn around and suddenly start having get all this Blood paneling done and out of nowhere where like a bigger deal out of it than we need to now I always suggest that I I want all my actors getting blood work done at least once a year okay yeah no just to keep them upright I I want to know what’s going on we’ve had a lot of you know scary shit that’s happened in this world or you know people dropping dead a buddy of mine the other day about 10 years old of me had a had a very minor heart attack like he was getting chest pains and his wife rushed him in he had a clogged you know had to throw a stint at him so um you know these things always scare you a little bit so I think just for that reason and that’s less about body composition for me that’s like overall health like all right man you’ve got a strenuous few months ahead of you you’re going to be traveling you’re going to be away from your family you’re going to be in different time zones um several different time zones and we need to make sure that you’re resilient one of my uh mentors BR Chavez he once I was having a conversation with him about the trade-off of taking lots of steroids and performance enhancers and how that affects your health versus how that affects your physique and he told me something super brilliant he’s like I think you’re thinking about this a little bit wrong what I like to say is health is the Bedrock on top of which we build a good physique and if you don’t have good health you can just forget about training hard in the gym and eating well oh I think it’s your foundation sure now we were we were chatting a little bit earlier the steroid piece I probably know less than my dog about it’s just not tell us about that yeah well it’s just not my expertise it’s not something now I I’ve always had good blood work done right and it’s always um when I say that I mean you know my um my tea levels are good hormonally I’m in a good place you personally me personally so it’s not something that I’m not a doctor right I’m not someone in in my opinion I don’t care how smart you are out there don’t play fake doctor like if it’s something that someone needs a performance Hing substance or you’re an expert in that area enologist someone who who has a right to talk about this then yeah 100% um do certain people need it do I do I think when I’m 80 years old maybe I’m going to need it like do I decide to finally jump off that Natty train do I think I’m any better or any diff any better than the next person because I have been natural no I’m just telling you like why would I get on it based on my goals okay I don’t compete on stage I’m at you know my my testosterone levels are 9:30 as a recently that’s actually really high so real quick so you don’t compete on stage no but a lot of celebrities how they look in a role let’s take Chris Hemsworth for Thor for ex I mean it fucking matters right 100% 100% the typical interaction I know that not just from your experience but obviously you hobnob with a few other celebrity trainers in the industry is it more often the case that celebrities come into a trainer such as yourself and they go Hey listen like I think I need some help or are they already like hey this is what I’m gonna be doing or they just don’t talk about it how does that play out as far as interaction is concerned again not sorry because real quick no this a great question the a lot of folks who watch these types of videos on our channel would be like it’s the studio that says look this is your dealer this is he’s GNA tell you what to take it’s like the they almost think of it as the Chinese government I think what frustrates me about a lot of the comments is people immediately think because someone’s at a certain level that they have to be taking something or who was it the other day who’s the uh Jack Reacher guy uh Allan richon yeah and and I’m not a controversial person on on social media it’s just not my style but like I I don’t want to say I went at him but I I kind of I was listening to an interview by him I don’t train him by the way well you’re a New Yorker so you’re automatically more confrontational than a Lage person I try not to be but it’s kind of in our blood but he’s commenting about why he’s taking something now I’ve got friends of mine that’ll turn around and they’re massive and twice as strong as I am and I’ve heard people go to them like how’d you get that strong and they’re like drugs and you’re like sitting there like oh my God thank you finally like fucking own it yeah he jumped on an interview and he’s like you know like I just trained so hard for the last nine months that I just literally like drained myself of all my testosterone I I literally beat it out of me and he’s sitting there and I’m like that’s what frustrates me because we’re immediately first off have you done everything in your power to do it naturally the answer is no like I I I know because to do everything in your power that’s a lot a full send right like is he is he competing on stage no he’s not like and sometimes the actors I think go a little overboard because lighting’s amazing makeup is amazing camera angles are amazing um look at the movie 300 like they were that was it was bullshit it it was total bullshit but everyone’s like oh my God look at them like they would not you could take the most in shaped person in that movie and put him in a natural physique competition he would finish dead last and he would he’d be laughed off stage so like I think standard so when you’re seeing Hugh Jackman deadlift 450 which for an actor is phenomenal very good for an act very good for an actor and like you could probably do that 30 times i’ I’ve done four I’ve done four uh I did 430 for like close to 20 and I’m a string bean so like and I’m not I don’t consider myself strong to the level of like my powerlifting friends who like compete in the K or like Matt winning who’s a good buddy of mine like kind of a strong dude right there right a little bit he’s a little bit strong so like I I think also it becomes this scapegoat for most people and that frustrates me if someone could just turn around and be like you know what no like I’m trying to optimize body composition and I’m working with the best doctors and we’re monitoring our Bloods and we’re going into this with a really methodical way of approach all this then I’m like okay own it man like great like own it but don’t be the guy putting yourself on the cover not at least admitting to it when you’re asked that question that to me I don’t respect because you’re GNA have some 14-year-old kid who’s sitting here looking at that and they’re going to oh it’s drug free so do you think it’s tough for some You can disagree with me all you want on that it’s my op I’m not here to a lot of opinions I just want to know from the master my opinion my opinion so uh God such a New Yorker thing it’s fucking my opinion fuck you say F I didn’t say F but you were thinking I’m trying to cut that down it’s lent sorry my so um a lot of folks would say well look like how are they supposed to admit it if two things one it’s illegal yeah and two wouldn’t news media and Hollywood Studios want to distance themselves from someone that admits to using it you know I don’t know nowadays think the answer is no because all these you know hormone uh replacement therapy facilities now now like everyone’s justifying like now it’s okay yeah now it’s okay so like my thing is like okay like just just take ownership on it like sure say what Allan whatever say Richardson said and make up the bullshits you know answer of like my tea was so low because I’m just so I trained so hard so so he’s saying that he like was not enhanced or had to be enhanced he had to he was saying he had to be enhanced sure sure okay um all right there’s so many I mean are we looking at all those lifestyle components like when my when I took my testosterone Dr Gabriel Lon happy you know I share all my all my labs but um I was at 682 years ago and I got to 930 everyone’s like how’d you do it and I’m like honestly like it’s probably 15 different things like first off I don’t I I got away from the brick and mortar in New York city so I limit increasing stress is a huge way to increase your test that’s that’s number one right so like I eliminate 6 hours of commuting every day to 60t get the fuck out no I’m sorry 3 hours three hours three hours that still sucks three hour 3 hours a day of community hour and a half there and back hour and a half there hour and a half back but um I was doing that five six days a week so okay big that’s a that’s a big deal you were driving um I had a car service certain days thank fucking god or I would take the train so um that’s oh the train holy shit my work hours were insane um suddenly quality of sleep improved uh became a little bit more I like to use the word dynamic my nutrition really started paying much more attention to micro rather than just macro which is your typical actually trying to get healthy yeah exactly um and then like yeah all the bullshit other things that I do the saunas the plunges that’s like such a speck and I don’t even know if it works I just feel good from it and I do it so sure the the sauna stuff and the plunges and all stuff reduces stress and and tends to increase your testosterone and make you healthier but I think a lot of people miss the fact that if you’re eating Twinkies all the fucking day there’s not a fucking plunge for you that’s not going to save you um right uh all right next question for you what is the typical and I know it’s tough to say typical but average or tell us a story about what the average interaction is like with timelines and goals for celebrities like I know you have celebrities that you worked in the past that they’re kind of always training under you and always kind of give them some guidance and maybe you put the pressure on before a rle for a bit but uh when people want to get in shape for a movie let’s say it’s a movie that require some physicality like the you know Thor that whole look like you’re going to shirtless I don’t work with Thor by the way but just just Ryan Reynolds in one of the 80 movies in which he takes a shirt off and I start muting the TV and getting the lube going just kidding I’m already so wet I don’t need lbe for Ryan but in any case uh yeah yeah so I’ll take care of that um so what is the timeline typically when people reach out and have you ever been in a situation in which uh celebrities will reach out to you and be like hey I got this thing in four weeks and you’re like good news bad news get the fuck out right tell tell us about how that works I I can’t mention this this act very well a-lister in Hollywood really good physique on him too and he Dr Mike isra exactly um so he said um I’m like how much time do you have he’s like this movie I’m getting getting ready for he explained to me the role he had some tattoos on his body I said how much how much time you you have and he said two weeks what and I said oh wait actually This was oh my God how ironic this was a call from the production company which I rarely get okay this happened to be a call from the production company where we’re referring so and so we know you did a great job with so and so um how much time I have two weeks and I’m like okay so um did you just hang up the phone no I just said listen I do my best I said I said listen I don’t know let me let me take a look at him I already knew he had a good physique and he came into my office okay so he wasn’t totally out no no not at all not at all and he’s like what do we do I’m like couple things I’m like how are you with the booze he’s like you know a couple drinks a week I’m like that’s gone for the next two gone I’m like gone can you imagine if he was like well I can’t stop Boo for two weeks okay then here’s an Alcoholics Anonymous card and then I’m like um nutrition I really it’s going to be almost impossible to figure out your Macros in like the next few days eating protein and that’s yeah let’s just so we literally went exactly that and then I said um I also I want you to get a tan yeah no hey look that matters and we’re gonna we’re going to keep our steps up we’re going to get you high intensity card honestly we’re going to mix in some steady state more frequently just we’re going to do some saunas we’re going to try and get the water out of your body and they were like we need bigger shoulders we need bigger arms looking at I’m looking at this guy and he brings it up I’m like do me a favor shut the fuck up I just told him and he just started laughing I was like this is not like whatever but the funniest thing was is that I handed this person back um to the production company and I called them and I said this is what I said I was like we worked really hard I said are you happy and they’re like Donnie’s perfect thank you wow and I was just like okay the two week Miracle but it wasn’t did we change anything in two weeks we probably dried them out a little bit sure um things appear obviously why am I telling you but things appear differently when you actually when I get tighter I actually look more symmetrical and I look a little bit bigger so like I think they and again you’re dealing with novices like they they don’t know it’s rightfully so they just they want to finish product on on screen yes H but my goal is really Beyond aesthetic piece of the aesthetic piece of it like my goal whether someone’s coming to me with the aesthetic piece like this is the goal aesthetically my number one goal is always resiliency because what most of the actors don’t realize it’s like oh okay like you’re going to be doing stunts or you’re going to be now training with a sword for 3 hours a day or doing gymnastics training for three hours a day and then you’re expecting to come in here and train for an hour hour and a half you’re just G to cook them that way yeah and it’s like oh oh and then you’re reading scripts and then you’re starting to do prep and then you’re trying to maintain training while you’re shooting like and this is on set and at fucking Antarctica or some shit like that right or or like oh guess what uh so and so got sick or this camera broke down or there was a call time at 7 and and so and so the diva didn’t show up till 9 and now you’re supposed to get off at 8 and you’re not getting off till 10: and it’s just like these that’s the that’s the challenge with working a lot of these actors oh and you’re doing it away from your family and you’re in a six-h hour time zone change living in a trailer or some shit like that yeah and that’s where things get challenging like I a lot of the strength coaches and I have a right to talk about this because I am a strength coach but um they’d be like oh it’s harder to train athletes I’m like it’s really not and they’re like all pissed off’s a big structure for athletes there’s a big structure for athletes but they’re also they’ve been exceptional at their crap and they used to all of it you’re bringing Sebastian Stan now and you’re like oh we have to teach you sword fighting now for the next two months and he’s literally sitting there like he’s got my shoulders hurt you’re like yeah he’s like okay and he’s trying to like sit here in bench and you’re like wait a second maybe we need to make a different decision here maybe we got to de lo a little bit maybe we got to go to machines well her machines aren’t good trust me like mach are great exactly machines are great like you know we were talking downstairs about not loading the the the spine like sometimes there’s times to load and there’s time and they’re traveling I’m like no loing the spine around travel is real tough you sit on a plane for 19 fucking hours you go do high bar squats later that day in your hotel and you’re like oh I felt something weird that’s it exactly but yeah that’s that’s where it’s different sure the typical timeline for getting at um your clients your celebrity clients in shape for these physical roles typical timeline I would say about three months that’s decent yeah I’d say about three months now I’ve had Jackman I had N9 months for which was beautiful because I literally had holy CRA yeah I mean we were literally like nine months of what like nine months of corresponding with someone is a little bit different than nine months of like he’s five days a week fucking grinding what was it nine months of one that it was really it was nine months of pulling him back a bit at times because when he came in his whole his whole he’s very hard worker so when he came into to me he’s like two days and I’m like whoa when are the Olympics yeah like chill out like let’s let’s just let’s see how your body’s responding and now may I add this was 16 17 years ago so I’m a different coach then than I am now so there’s things that you pay attention to differently now that you may not have been thinking about what tell us tell us a little um I think intensity probably was a little bit higher I think if I had that period of time and I knew he was in a set place I did map it out but I definitely would have like now like we pay I mean was were you paying attention to RP 17 years ago like I wasn’t like going you’re just going like it’s just I’m not ashamed to admit that so I think um paying attention to RP like understanding maybe there needs to be D Lo periods um how often am I going to change the exercise selection maybe in the past there was a little bit too much variability at times you know body all this bullshit uh but there’s there’s things now that you that you learn and you understand and you also got to look at the person you’re working with and you got to make good decisions based off of their needs like just because you know I’m a big conventional deadlift guy doesn’t mean I’m going to have Reynolds do it like no Ryan we have Ryan trapar he’s got a little taller than me and he’s he’s he sets up for success in that position and we could put our foot on the gas a little bit more in a safe in a safe way I’m not getting Ryan ready for the stage I’m not getting him ready for a powerlifting meet the juice ain’t worth the squeeze right the idea is for him to take the shirt off and look amazing and for him to be resilient yes and there are many ways to do that that don’t break a person into fucking pieces never load dysfunction in my opinion just like the biggest tragedy I think in in Fitness is you just see people like well I see him doing it so I’m going to do this oh yeah monkey see monkey do um Ryan Reynolds yeah Hugh Jackman these were guys that seemed to come to you and there were 99 questions about what to do with them but their dedication was not one of those questions Wow have you ever no names obviously sure unless you’re willing to really take the New York card out and just fuing har he fucking animal who not who sorry have there been instances and tell us about them where it’s obvious to you really quick working with someone that the limiting factor is going to be like their degree of compliance yeah and how do you as a coach bridge that Gap with them because if you have a regular person client even just like a rich ass CEO and I’ve trained a few of those folks myself in the day you can real talk them because usually they don’t have a big ego about shit they’re not important in the sense of they’re famous so like listen Frank you want to be able to fucking swing the fucking Golf Club next year you got to fucking make it two days a week and this shit’s just not happening you know what you’re right with maybe some more pradish celebrities have you ever had that situation where they’re like I want to get in this shape and I have 12 weeks and they’re not making sessions or they’re not trying hard or they fuck up their diet I’ll ask you a diet question separately after this but how do you have you dealt with non-comp oh yeah sure how how do you how do you deal with it probably uh less over my last 15 years because remember I became an authority in this area you know when I was whatever the math is now 30 years old so you know I’m 46 to be 47 soon so you know people would come in immediately like oh you got these people ready and there’s this trust but yeah I’ve I’ve had a cou I had an actor come to me pretty well-known guy now I wouldn’t say A-list like that B+ almost there would people be able to recognize this personal on the street yeah damn okay 100% so um he came to me and he was a little down one day and I said what’s up he’s like you know I saw a picture of Hemsworth and you know I was like okay and did you at least jack off yeah exactly right but I’m like all right well what’s up he’s like you know I I feel like my progress is not like I’m not there and I’m like let me ask you a question how long you been training and he goes a year I go so you Waits one year and I knew the answer this obviously how long do you think Chris has been training I’m like he’s probably close to my age so he’s probably maybe a few years less than me I’m like but this guy is really dedicated his life to Fitness whether you think his training is good or not good there’s some things in there that are decent there’s some things that you’re going to look at and be like this hands down I’ve seen them work you’ve seen work sure but the dedication over years beats any of that but and but that’s the thing that you start looking at you start looking at like what is the best right and you look at some pretty Ronnie Coleman like the greatest bodybuilder we’ve ever seen like aesthetically on stage like would you would you argue that aesthetically I think it’s absolutely true that he’s not remotely one of the best bodybuilders but as far as dominating his era there is no comparison Ronnie for several years as soon as he walked on stage at the Olympia it was already over almost never seen and that’s I mean body and that’s not that wasn’t a fair way to be put it because bodybuilding there’s so much more with posing and yes and and I being a fucking dick no that’s fine I knew I was going to get at least one of those I knew I was going to get at least one of those F but um when you look at Ronnie’s training it’s like the guy did a lot that was right and he did maybe things that you’ll say were wrong right I think that’s a really fair thing to say like arguably one of the most jacked ripped physiques ever in the open class maybe that’s the way that I should have put that’s exactly cor so but what made Ronnie great like now if Ronnie’s training like you which I’m a big proponent of like I I I I Dr Mike is is phenomenal but like if Ronnie now is starting to pay a little bit more attention to you know positioning and actual Tempo and he’s working like this is he better or is he worse like you hope that the answer is through science and what you studied is he’s better now what I do believe is maybe he’s not in a wheelchair right now maybe but does he win at the level he won at if he suddenly changes his train like do we really know like I’d like to believe the answer would be yes but maybe it’s not maybe he had to be under that that that level of load right that maybe he just needed that type of tension created but with that there’s a cost of doing business so you know that’s um you know that’s something that I look at a lot when bringing someone in there I after my screening after my movement screening and after you do movement screening 100% so what are you looking for so I’m going through a basic FMS and I’m actually incorporating some things from the Titleist performance Institute even though they’re not rotational athletes there’s just things from a joint by joint approach I want to look at so I will look at a basic FMS and if there’s any red flags I have a medical team Dr Charlie wro Dr Kyle balls or that I would call in the room and be guys you gotta get out here like I got I got a red flag and I wouldn’t say that in front of the client like that but you’re gonna die you’re gonna die like you you move terrible you have you have you have no hope right because their goal right now is just to get screen ready my goal is like okay I’m gonna get your screen ready but I got have to make sure that you know when you’re riding around in Bulgaria on a horse which by the way Dave Harbor when I trained him for Hellboy um he had to wear a prosthetic suit so everyone’s like what is the like that was an interesting case not to jump around but he had to get into a prosthetic suit and people were like well what’s the big deal about training I’m like the guy can’t pick up a 24 kilogram kattle Bell without his back hurting him legitimately could not do a was a medical issue so I call him my medical and he’s like Charlie’s like this is a training equals rehab thing like go through our basic protocols and we within nine weeks we I have a video of him pulling close to 400 lbs off the floor wow it wasn’t a 1 RM he probably was at 85 90% and he’s like let’s go more I’m like you’re done and he’s like wa wa I’m like you’re not a power to do match like you’re on a plane tomorrow we’re we’re done but my whole goal with him was resiliency and to make sure he didn’t lose too much weight because he came in at 250 pounds they’re doing uh suit checks on him like three four five weeks in and they’re like he’s losing too much weight we’re going to pull the training budget We’re not gonna we’re going to he’s 249 PBS his body compositions just changes he’s like what do I do I’m like go eat ice cream every night I swear God like just just do something to pull some water in I wish had yeah me it was basically like like he was I didn’t want him to like complete crap throughout the day because then we know what ends up happening there so Health not only just Health but like you hear from these young guys like oh I’m getting my calories or I’m eating enough I’m eating a lot and I’m like no you’re not you’re eating one big meal you’re getting pancakes bacon eggs you’re so filled up you can’t eat for another six hours and then you’re missing those opportunities throughout the day to consume nutrition on a macro and micro level so um he was compliant very very so the other the other guy that I jumped off I I scatter a lot no no that’s okay so he the other guy he was basically a little frustrated that he couldn’t get the Chris hemworth results it was like a year so I I turned to him and I was like I want to be an actor he’s like you do I’m like no I’m like I don’t want to be an actor I want to be an actor and he’s just looking at me I’m like and I’m gonna go take acting courses for one fucking year yeah should be you’ve been doing this how long he’s like 20 I’m like okay one year oh I can’t get it I’m like stop throwing a temperat so I know how to talk to him there’s certain clients of mine that I will get in their face and be like grow the fuck up and there’s other people that we have to it’s small wins I’m working with a guy right now pro bono don’t take a sent from him he was 525 pounds last year uh two two years ago and he couldn’t walk four to 600 steps a day he’s at about 406 now and people well that’s two years yeah it’s a long time but his body composition’s completely changed and he’s walking now you can look at his board up there six 7,000 steps a day build that type of resiliency impressive I had a woman I worked with who was close to 900 lb that’s now down around 360 how long did that take you I’m like uh six seven years yeah like and they’re like well what about biggest well that’s why Biggest Loser they put the weight back on but people most all of them but this is things take time so I the training the celebrity angle has always been somewhat of a challenge because I hate like you have small Windows of time I understand if you’re preparing as a bodybuilder and you have to get ready for stage but believe I’m in like long not really a small window that’s 24 weeks or something much different I wish I had 24 weeks did you ever have to Real Talk someone that is a um they have a role coming up they said they wanted to be in really good shape but they’re not hitting the nutrition they’re skipping sessions yeah do because they’re famous celebrity people do you kind of like EAS go easy on them and throw some hints or are you ever like listen Wanda you need to wake up to the fact that we’re not going to get you in the kind of shape you want to be if you keep yeah and that’s basically the exact conversation yeah it’s just like hey man listen it’s um you want to do X and we have a certain amount of time that’s going to require you to do why let me show you something these are my meals this is my training schedule this is how many days a week I do it let me show you this woman here who you’re aspiring to be this is what they do okay this is now sometimes we can take a minimalistic approach so I’m not going to lie it’s for minimalistic results yeah but like if you have a woman coming in you already and she already has a good physique and she’s like I got to get in shape for this role I have 16 weeks I just need stronger arms I’m going to be in a tank top you’re looking at her already you’re like okay she’s probably at 177% body fat already she’s in a really good place um I think let me hear about your eating you know what I um you know um I eat three times a day I focus on getting protein I have a little bit dessert every night um I like to have a couple glasses of wine a week like all right man like what do we really have to do here maybe four weeks out I’m like kill the wine the wi yeah and like suddenly just through training you’re 15% body F exactly but but that’s why it’s not always you know if you have someone coming into you that’s like completely scared shitless about this and they’re like I need to get better shape but and you’re seeing that all right let’s just add a minimalistic this minimalistic approach to their lifestyle and see what changes and sometimes you get a good result off of it without making them miserable and for me that’s like fantastic have you ever fired us celebrity client and by fired I mean you’re just like hey look this this is not working out after multiple attempts not not a celebrity client I have fired um I don’t like using the word fired but I you know what I mean but I but I have ceased to interact with professionally I have professionally cut it off fired them right uh yeah because it’s just like it’s to a point where like I don’t mind playing therapist at times and I don’t mind you know I’m a very good person to talk to which is why you know um I’ve got a lot of in my online community and I’m I’m very cool see that but um I have zero women in my life they don’t want to look like you my wife she tolerates me she’s she she’s funny it takes a lot of money every month to get Gucci bags she’s very funny by Gucci is she really she’s really fun see she probably likes you better than she likes me doubt that um so you you’ve ceased working with people because they’re so non-compliant that you’re yeah it just it gets to a point where I’m like you’re unhappy like this is not like you don’t need you don’t need me you need like a therapist and you need to and you need to divorce your husband and you need to just and I don’t say it that way for me to say it’s for your L we’re not miracle workers here I don’t care how good of a coach you are and there is a difference between a good trainer and a good coach in my opinion but like having being a good coach is someone that knows what tool to go grab out of the toolbox and sometimes if it’s not in your toolbox you direct people elsewhere basically Psychiatry is not in my fucking tool yeah I mean that definitely but I’ll people come into to me initially and they’ll be like I hate I hate any barbell work work or or like I will not put a bar on my back or I hate kettle bell training and I’m like okay like I’m not one of these people who are like oh we have to do that you start with what they can and watch I start with what they can and then the M I’ll never forget this is actually kind of a nightmare this is um probably when I opened my club in 2005 2006 I had a guy come to me and he wanted to work with a suspension trainer but he was calling it a TRX so he’s like I want to do these TRX workouts and I’m sitting there at the time I’m like I couldn’t be selective on who I wanted this guy ended up becoming one of my closest buddies but I’m sitting there going oh my God like he’s like I want to do all workouts with TRX and I’m like holy shit well go fuck yourself do that exactly but I’m like all right listen let’s let’s play a game here so I was like okay so we bring him into the sessions and we’re mixing you know his Dynamic warmup and we’re going through some TRX work and you know I gave him a lot of what he wanted and started sprinkling in a couple of other things and then he turns to me and he says all right man this was great but like now what do you have for me like let’s get away from that thank God and then the next you know he’s swinging a kettle bell and next thing you know he’s you know barbell front squatting and you know he was he he started understanding the importance of some variability and um how his core is going to get a lot stronger you know from front squatting than from doing a TR it’s always an odd request to go tell a professional how to do their job yeah uh like hey hey mechanic fix my car but only use a screwdriver like okay what um to your job mostly has been yeah to coach people in person write them programs oversee their programmatic execution when they’re elsewhere have you ever had a situation well sorry one step back do you handle people’s nutrition all the time when they work with you or some of the time or very little of the time um a lot of the time until I feel like there’s something uh that’s involving a medical yes okay so like if they have diabetes if they have maybe some uh some gut issues going on that I feel like they need to take a deep dive I’ve got a group of functional medicine doctors that you know obviously nutrition backgrounds that we can now go do a deep dive in but I believe in the team approach I I did that at my club because we worked with golfers so we’d have the golf pro we’d have the physical therapist we’d have the strength and conditioning coach we’d have the nutritionist and we all work together so I I believe that as a team we’re going to be a lot stronger when we’re doing our thing like it’ll be a little more costly but you but mostly you’re the person of doing the nutrition for folks it have you ever run into a scenario in which they’re really good about their training but either the nutrition or the physical itivity cardio or the sleep just isn’t there because a lot of times when you train people like I used to be a trainer in New York City for some time they expect that the training is what’s going to transform their body yeah but you and I both know that the training is kind of the stimulus is the impetus but the nutrition and Recovery really are the fuel on that fire less less from the celebrity less from the celebrity so they’re generally pretty good about and that’s why when you asked me it earlier it was tough for me to answer it because the celebrities are coming in like they know their job jobs on the line they know there’s this level of accountability so they’re pretty fucking serious they’re fucking serious like I’ve had I’ve had I’ve had one guy who you know want wasn’t getting ready for a role was just getting in shape to get in shape he’s a very well uh well-known um uh Hollywood star he would come in I’d be like how you know how was he eating last night he look at me he like you know like went to the royalt down they have these fucking little burgers and you know how can you say no how do you say no how many vodka he’s like two and I’m like all right dude listen like how many vodka for he’s like six and a half like six eight um but like again wasn’t getting ready for everything but he was feeling like shit from doing it so I had to sit down with him have a conversation be like listen if you’re able to do this once in a while and not feel like shit that’s one thing but the fact that you’re getting so upset that you’re doing this means that we need to address this and it was a totally different conversation travel tell us a story about how you manage your clients when they’re traveling a lot because it’s so easy to have a fucking setup have a fucking Chef or have your meal service or have your making your meals you’re living in the city you’re train like you’re living in Hollywood for example you got your gym you got your train everything’s great then you’re filming and fucking Nepal for four months do they so first of all when you are directing their training while they’re away on set yeah do you talk to the production team about what equipment they have available and ready or do you tell them no I normally deal with I normally deal with their assistants okay and their and their assistants are I pretty much like r one of Ryan’s right-hand people is my niece I got her of the job she been with him for seven years Blake so like now like when when they go away like it’s just like all right we need this equipment here and Life Fitness is sending stuff or perform better sending stuff so they’ll send stuff to the shoot yeah but you can’t always send shit to Nepal right can you no but we just sent um a full gym to London for Ryan for Deadpool and now we’re auctioning it off Life Fitness basically I worked out deal with Life Fitness where they where they gave him I want to say at least 60 GR in equipment um full dumbbell rack up to hundreds is this like in a tent somewhere like no this is in the house he was he was staying at he took a he took a bedroom and he cleared it out so we put full Dum Rock to 100 we put um belt squat glute Drive leg extension leg curl laat pull down Smith machine he likes the Smith machine um uh dual adjustable pulley um pretty much had that’s really it that’s really it so but we had it all done in De so I call Life Fitness and I was like listen we’re going to do this gym and they’re like would you be willing would he be willing to auction it off and I asked him he’s like absolutely so they gave him the gym for free in Deadpool colors that’s awesome and it was set up in the bedroom which I like normally doing like Life Fitness and Hammer has been an incredible partner of mine perform better has been an incredible partner of M so when I work with someone I’m typically able to get like a gym Lent over there and then picked up or like we’re auctioning something off now so yeah and do you need a big space no you need a you need a bedroom you could take a bedroom clear out all you know if it’s a big bedroom you can clear everything out and you could probably have to floor load’s good enough or if it’s in the basement you will not have a London all the building are from fucking 1560 there’s all yeah there nothing’s going anywhere so yeah so I was just over there with him in the before the new year and it was um you know it’s not like I’m hanging out with him every second but like we we’re getting up at 4:45 to get him um yeah no he was training every morning at like 4:30 5 o’clock and then going to do shooting and stuff shooting all day till it would get dark out and then you’d have an hour and a half car ride back to the from the set and by then it’s 7:00 at night and he’s literally shower he’s taking Zoom calls for his businesses and not getting a bed till 9: and rinse and repeat rinse and repeat rinse and repeat for you know 3 four months I mean it’s it’s it’s brutal people don’t understand and you’re away from your family like well I hate my family but no I’m sorry I said that wrong my my family hates me so I was about to correct I feel like I’m relieving them right by but but you get it so it’s not like did he have a chef no he didn’t have a chef like um the production company like um you know Marvel’s going to send a chef um in for the entire crew but what they’ll end up doing is they’ll packing him a bag and he’ll leave with a bag of food for like that night in the next morning uh but again robot like the meals like you open up metal tins it’s like a salmon it’s his vegetable it’s a starch and so you interact with the chef to give the specific macros it’s it’s it’s completely like on o it’s on overdrive now it’s just like it’s it’s done like the assistant has everything she’s like any adjustments I’ll look at it I’ll be lately she corresponds with the chef and the chef makes meals it’s done that’s awesome it’s it’s not it’s not this like oh there’s a chef at the house preparing food it rarely happens it’s it’s normally you know Marvel’s fcking the bill for the company and then I think all the the the big tier celebs are leaving with their meals and that makes a lot more sense it’s kind of funny you become a celebrity you’re worth gazillion dollars and you like eat food out of a fucking bag at 7 p.m in an apartment no one’s there you’re like this is Fame huh it’s just it’s and I’ve been very lucky I think the people I’m working with they’re they’re really like low maintenance like I don’t work I think the the ones that are here okay they’re the ones that are the easy ones I think sometimes when you’re dealing with someone who’s kind of getting entry level and they want to be there yeah it’s that’s what I found have you ever had interactions with people that were so high maintenance that you were like no that’s good people are also coming into me and they’re they’re vulnerable they’re vulnerable what do you mean they’re just coming in and they’re like um listen most most people coming in and work with you aren’t in the shape you’re in most people coming in and work with me you know aren’t in the shape I’m in and and and um you so they’re like I’m in your world yeah so it’s been different it’s it’s very helpful that I’m on you know I’ve been on three Muslim Fitness cover since 2018 and did you know that I have all three of those covers in front of me in my masturbatorium I I you know I knew that his wife told me that she puts him they put him on the ceiling so that’s how I jack off laying down this guy’s he’s out of control right notice how I’m just like let me look at this I’ll uh make sure I have all their questions covered really quick lot of celeb question today I’m shocked I thought you were gonna you know listen it’s mey listen if it’s mey one last question for you please how big is it no sorry that’s for after the camera’s off um what can regular folks learn from celebrity training done right and celebrity training done wrong because a lot of people will see the celebrity training the go on musle and fitness they’ll see the little preview of this is how the rock trained for that the following role what do they get out of it that’s wor while what has your exposure with celebrities been like this is lessons you need to learn from these people this is what they fucking do well to get into yeah I I think the main the the word is consistency they have I’m not going to tell you that every one of them’s going to go in and train as hard as him or or me um or whoever else right I mean everyone but they are consistent up they make it part of their job like so when they have to get ready for a role it’s being scheduled as if it was a shoot day yes and and the director standing there and like you have to be here at this time like that’s the one area that level of consistency I think is remarkable um and you know I mean listen the people that I work with that nutritional piece of it that rest and Recovery piece of it they really understand this is what it takes and um if you’re a coach you better Practice What You Preach because if you’re sitting here and you’re skipping your own workouts or you’re all over the place nutritionally uh guys I don’t skip workouts I don’t like if I had to be like I had trained 5 a.m this morning because I had a I had a doctor’s appointment I had you coming in I’ve got other things going on this afternoon it’s not happening later so I had a train at 5: which meant I had to be up at 4:30 and it’s just if it’s that or if it’s not doing it it’s that if it’s me waking up at 4 it’s that and I think taking that mindset and don’t worry like the Readiness piece and I know the aura and your HRV save all that shit because plenty of people specific exercises and stuff cuz people are like oh that’s the glued exercise that’ll make me look like Scarlet Johansson but it’s actually like no showing up 4 days a week and getting on her meals and rest is what makes her look exactly and and the level of consistency she’s been doing at that for the last 10 to 15 years is what has been doing it so like don’t expect like you’re not going to feel like a million bucks every day there’s certain days you’re going to come in you’re not going to want to be there you’re G to feel like shit it’s going to take your time to get your body loose and you just got to like I say marinate into it and I think that’s the biggest uh takeaway from the celebrity coaches I from the celebrities um training otherwise they’re no difference than anyone else you’re ever going to trade I love it Don thank you so much for sitting down with us this is great where I want to I want more of you I want to hear more of your voice I want to see more of your face and potentially other body parts well yes I’m here now but one cannot simply just show up to your house so technically speaking we’ll publish your address and say that just chill don’t do that let me at least give someone’s address I don’t like there you go that’s awesome if we can’t just come to your house how do we get more of you where do our followers Instagram donino and donald.com um anyone ever has any questions fired off to me even from a business standpoint I mean doing a lot of business courses now for coaches and teaching a lot of online stuff which has been uh really fulfilling for me because it’s you know coaches Focus so much on you know getting their certifications and becoming great at their craft and they’re sitting here training 40 50 60 hours a week and they’re like I can’t make any more money and I can’t scale and how do I do that so I’ve been helping a lot of people out with that I love it thank you so much for huge pleasure thank you folks see you next time thanks