Episode #913
What if fitness didn’t mean endless hours in the gym or giving up the foods you love?
In this episode, Doug Holt interviews fitness expert David Sherban, who shares his practical, no-nonsense approach to achieving health and fitness without sacrificing your lifestyle. With years of experience as a coach and gym owner, David reveals how small, consistent changes can lead to sustainable results, challenging the myth of “all-or-nothing” routines.
Listeners will learn:
- Why making health a priority now prevents future challenges.
- How to build a fitness plan that fits your busy life.
- Nutrition strategies that are both effective and enjoyable.
- The role of peptides, blood panel analysis, and strength training in achieving optimal health.
David’s insights are particularly valuable for business owners and professionals looking to balance career success with personal vitality. His coaching style focuses on creating a realistic, sustainable plan for long-term health.
Connect with David Sherban:
Instagram: @davidjamessherban
Email: David@trainnoble.com
Tune in to discover how to reclaim your health, find balance, and enjoy the process!
.
Hungry for more?
Head over to our BONUS page for special access to some of the deeper tactics and techniques we’ve developed at The Powerful Man.
Also listen on:
Transcription
David Sherban 0:00
It’s like, it’s almost like turning fitness into, like, how do we build a business? It’s like, well, how do we build a plan for you to get back to—where I say, back to—or just get to where you want to go.
Doug Holt 0:11
What you’re saying is just make it a priority, right? Because if you don’t make it a priority now, it’s gonna become a priority later for you.
David Sherban 0:17
A lot of times, people go into this journey with, like, “All right, what’s the diet that I need to do to get to where I want to go? What’s the hack real quick that I need to do to get there?” Instead of just realizing, “I just need to revamp my life in a certain way so that I just live this way.”
Doug Holt 0:41
Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of the TPM Show. We have a very special guest with us today, and we haven’t done one not live in a long time, but we have David Sherban with us. David, thanks for being here, man.
David Sherban 0:53
Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Doug Holt 0:55
Yeah, I’ve been excited about this for a while. It’s been interesting to see your growth and coming through. Tell the listeners and the guys watching this a little bit about yourself, a little about your background, and why you’re here.
David Sherban 1:08
Absolutely. So I’ve been a very active person. I was a fitness coach, and so that’ll kind of preface a little bit. I grew up dancing, and I was very active. I played soccer and all that kind of stuff. So I was a very active kid, and when that dance career decided to be a switch for me, fitness was that thing that took over activity.
Now, it’s not that I didn’t work out while I danced. I was a guy—I had to lift the girls up, right? The stronger I was, the cooler the lifts that I could do, and the more impressed people were. The bigger applause that I got, right? We all love that.
But yeah, when dancing was a thing of the past for me, fitness became the thing that I went to for activity. In the beginning, it was just, I was the guy that went to the gym, worked out, and was just trying to get stronger and bigger and all that kind of stuff. At some point, results started happening because you start getting people asking you questions like, “Hey, what’s the best ab workout?” or “Hey, how did you get your chest or your arms like that?” or “What do you eat? How much protein do you have?”
You just start getting all those random questions, and you start answering. Eventually, at one point, somebody was like, “Hey, do you want to be a coach for this group fitness place?” And I was like, “Sure, why not? Let’s give it a go.”
That was awesome, and it eventually rolled into me owning a few gyms in my life. I went from group fitness to being more about the individual. My background went from strength conditioning to strength conditioning and helping people get out of pain—specifically without going to the doctor. Not to replace the doctor or physical therapist, but there are plenty of people out there like, “Man, every time I back squat, my hip hurts,” or “Every time I deadlift, my back hurts.”
So it was diving into things like that. Most of my clientele were male business owners, actually in their 40s, 50s, 60s, even their 70s. They’re like, “I just want to be able to move again. My grandchildren run around me like crazy, and I just want to be able to have memories with them,” right?
They just wanted that active life back, and that’s what I actually loved diving into. It’s like, how do I give these men a life that they’re proud of again? They’ve run these businesses, but obviously, things get kind of put to the side. Sometimes that’s their health and fitness.
But yeah, so that’s where I’ve been, and I finally just got to the point where I sold my company, and we’re moving on to the next phase of life online.
Doug Holt 3:31
I love it. You mean, you’re making such a difference in people’s lives. Obviously, I’m biased. I have a background in fitness, like yourself, and I love that you get to spend time with somebody, their goals, and their dreams, and then help them start achieving it and gain back that vitality so they can live a fuller life.
David Sherban 3:49
Yep, exactly, exactly.
Doug Holt 3:52
That’s great. So, you know, a lot of the people that watch this on YouTube or listen to this on their podcast are at the gym when they do it. A lot of our guys, like yourself, who’ve been through the TPM program, are doing their Alpha Rise and Shine. They’ve got their headphones in and are probably listening to us.
Now, when we look at that from a health and fitness standpoint, the way I look at it is we have two avenues, right? We have fitness, and we have health, and they’re not necessarily always the same. For the men you’ve worked with, what are some of the common misconceptions or little things that they just miss on their fitness journey?
David Sherban 4:29
You know, a lot of the time, the misconception is that they have to be in the gym every single day, right? They see me and they ask questions like, “How often do you work out?” And I’m like, “I work out, like, three times a week, three to four times a week.”
They’re like, “But how do you look like you, and I look like this?”
And, you know, they’re just one of those guys that put everything into their business—it’s all go, go, go. And so they try to do that same thing with their fitness, and then it just becomes a burnout-type situation. Like, “I’m just not seeing any results,” or, “It’s been so long, and I just continue to gain that one to two pounds every single year.” Then the holidays come around, right?
It’s really just breaking it down, like, “Well, how often are you moving around every single day?” It’s like, are you intentionally eating food, or are you just so busy during the day that you just grab anything that’s available? Or do you just completely miss lunch because you’re so busy, right?
You guys are such great planners in your business. So how do we do the same thing for your fitness? If something’s on your calendar in your business, you’re doing it, right? If it’s not on your calendar, you’re probably not doing it.
That fitness and health thing needs to be the same way. For some people, I say, “You need to put this on your calendar. You’ve got to go and get that morning walk. Go get 2,000 steps out of your 10,000 steps for the day.”
A lot of guys have an Alpha Rise and Shine routine, like I did—and still do—where part of that walk is, “How do I take all of my supplements real quick? How do I take my peptides real quick? How do I get my glass of water before I go on my walk?”
It’s almost like turning fitness into, “How do we build a business?” It’s like, how do we build a plan for you to get back to—or just get to—where you want to go?
Doug Holt 6:16
What you’re saying is, just make it a priority, right? Because if you don’t make it a priority now, it’s gonna become a priority later for you in a much, much tougher way.
For guys, making it simpler… I’m sure a lot of guys watching this on YouTube can see Dave is clearly in great physical shape, aesthetically. I don’t assume otherwise. I’ve got to imagine a lot of guys are like, “Well, he spends two hours a day, seven days a week in the gym, never has fun, doesn’t do anything like that. All this guy does is work out, sleep, and eat cardboard.”
Give them a little bit of a reality check into what you’re—you know—not only just the adaptations you’ve made, because this is obviously a lifestyle for you, but what are some of the things? Give us a day in the life of David.
David Sherban 7:06
Yeah, I’ll say one thing before a day in the life of David. A lot of times, people go into this journey with, “All right, what’s the diet that I need to do to get to where I want to go? What’s the hack real quick that I need to do to get there?”
Instead of just realizing, “I just need to revamp my life in a certain way so that I just live this way, and it doesn’t have to be restrictions.”
In my life, I love oatmeal with a bunch of brown sugar in it in the morning, and protein powder and stuff like that. I love my ice cream. I probably have it more often than people think. Like, I love a good pint of Ben & Jerry’s, right?
But it’s not that I eat like that all the time. Most of my meals are already prepped. Some people say, “Oh, I can’t do meal prep,” but I’m all about convenience. I’m 100% about, “How do I make my fitness and my health as convenient as possible?”
I use meal-order companies like Factor. It comes in every single week. I do that for my lunch and dinner. My oatmeal is my easy thing in the morning, and I always drink a protein shake at some other point in the day.
I try to make the nutrition part as simple as possible because it can become very complicated. People say, “Just stay in the front of the grocery store where there’s no boxes and it’s all fresh food.” That’s great, but do you have the 30, 45, or even 60 minutes to prep, clean up, and eat?
If you do, great. Or if you have somebody that can help you out, awesome. But I just like to build things into my life that make it convenient for me.
For fitness, my friend owns a local gym, and I have an accountability partner. I don’t just haphazardly go.
At night, I have my nighttime routine—from skincare to supplements, magnesium drinks, and peptides. You do it enough, and it becomes a habit.
And rather than just being a habit, it becomes your life. This is just how I live now.
And as far as people going, “Well, any restrictions that I have myself?”—I don’t restrict myself. I mean, I understand food, and I eat within reason, right? But, like, I’ll go out with my buddies, and I will drink. I understand the consequences of drinking—I’m gonna feel inflamed, I’ll have two beers, and I’m also gonna have a headache in the morning. It just is what it is at this point, right?
But it doesn’t have to be this whole restrictive thing. Is there going to be some—let’s call it—sacrifice to get to the point of where you want to go or be? Yes, there’s going to be a little bit of it, right? But once you get there, it’s so much easier to stay there than you think, as long as you had a coach that helped you learn the habits of how you got there, right?
There are so many weight loss drugs now that people just take, but as soon as they’re off that drug, they gain all that weight back because, psychologically, they learned nothing about how to actually maintain where they’re at, right?
And so, yeah, that’s a little bit about the day in the life of David.
Doug Holt 11:17
I love that. You know, again, I always talk about my previous life in the fitness industry, surrounded by awesome people like yourself who have made it a lifestyle. And like you said, they make it easy for themselves.
I always call it putting it in the toothbrush category—the brush-your-teeth category, not the get-a-massage category. It’s just something you do. One of the most controversial things in my experience in the health and fitness industry is nutrition, right? Everybody’s got a philosophy. People get very dogmatic about it—”Just veganism,” or “Nope, just carnivore,” or what have you.
We’re not going to hold you to this, of course, but what’s your philosophy on your personal nutrition that allows you to live the lifestyle you’re living? Have the Ben & Jerry’s, go out and get a couple of beers with the guys periodically—what is that philosophy for you?
David Sherban 12:09
It’s about not being perfect, right? Everybody’s like, “Oh, you’ve got to have the leanest chicken, and you’ve got to have the best vegetables—they can’t be frozen vegetables.” For people that have not made the choice to eat, we’ll call it “healthy,” anything in moderation is going to be just fine. It’s not going to kill you at any point, right?
But just take baby steps. I didn’t start by just having really lean meats and only vegetables with some light sauces, or some creamy sauces, or whatever. Sometimes you go to—where’s my favorite place? I love a Potbelly sandwich, right? All the sauce that’s on there is probably a ton of calories and fats and all that kind of stuff, right? But it’s probably better than the McDonald’s Big Mac you just ate, right?
So, it’s being okay that it’s not perfect in the beginning. You’re not going to nail it every single time, but eventually, you’re going to go, “All right, once it becomes more of a conscious thought,” you’ll start to pre-plan. Then you’ll be able to go, “Oh, instead of ordering Potbelly today, I’m going to make my sandwich so that it’s a little bit cleaner,” or whatever it is.
Or, “I’m going to order from this place, but I’m going to order less dressing, less of this, and take some of these things off.” You can go to a place like Panera and have a very high-calorie, fat-dense sandwich—or you can customize the sandwich like crazy, like I do. I have a favorite sandwich there that’s got avocado, tomatoes, and rosemary bread. You don’t have to just pick what’s on the menu at one of those places; you can make your own type of sandwich.
It’s not something I was always conscious about. I used to be very much the “if it fits your macros” kind of guy. For anybody that doesn’t know what that means, it’s like you get your set protein, carb, and fat goals, and it doesn’t matter where you get those calories from as long as you hit those goals. It could be some of the worst food.
So, I just try to say, don’t complicate it. Don’t give yourself too much of a hard time. Try to make a good choice.
As far as every diet goes, you can lose the same amount of weight on any type of diet because it all comes down to being in a calorie deficit, right? If you’re trying to build muscle, you’re just trying to keep that protein as high as you possibly can while you’re in that calorie deficit.
So don’t get too stuck on one diet or whatever it is. Just try to create more conscious, health-conscious decisions and consistency.
Doug Holt 14:42
I love that. I did a podcast with Dr. Marie Agnew—she’s an amazing doctor and has a background in nutrition. One of the things we were talking about was elimination diets. Why does the carnivore diet work so well for people?
Well, one, it’s severe calorie restriction—you’ve just eliminated so much. But two, you’re eliminating all processed foods, like all the crap you’re putting in your body. You’re not doing that anymore. You’re probably putting in cleaner meat because it tastes better. You’re probably very conscious of how you’re cooking it, and you’re getting to know your food more intimately.
David Sherban 15:15
Yeah. And a lot of people get stuck on, “Oh, this thing helped me lose weight before, so I’m just going to do this thing again.” And it’s like, well, it’s probably the things that you stopped doing—like you just said—that actually helped you get there.
Doug Holt 15:33
What I love about what you’re doing is it’s sustainable, right? A lot of diets just aren’t sustainable. Everybody’s thinking, “I’ll do this for the quick fix, and once I drop that 10 pounds, 5 pounds, whatever it is, then I’ll go back.” And that’s why they start putting it back on.
You can’t go out with the guys, you can’t go out with your wife or kids and get ice cream or whatever else. It just doesn’t become sustainable, thus not becoming enjoyable.
David Sherban 16:00
Right. Enjoyable. That’s the biggest part, yeah.
Doug Holt 16:03
Well, I know we were talking about this before we hit record. One of the things I love that you do is you help people not only become healthy and vital—really get their mojo back—but also become pain-free.
Nobody realizes how much they need their back until they hurt it. You don’t realize how much you need your shoulders until you hurt them. Let’s talk a little bit about what you’re seeing as common issues for businessmen or men in general who come to you and say, “Man, I’m just in pain.”
David Sherban 16:43
Yeah. So it’s usually three things, depending on what their job is.
One, they’re not moving enough, right? It’s very much an “if you don’t use it, you lose it” type of situation. Your body is trying to be as efficient as possible, so if it doesn’t need to hang on to a bunch of muscle mass, it’s not going to.
Another thing is that a lot of business owners are under stress, right? What I find a lot of the time is, if we can help you become more resilient to stress—because stress isn’t going to go away, right? People ask, “How do we get rid of stress in our life?” and it’s just not going to happen. There are always going to be stressful things out there.
The question is, how does your body react to it? Does your central nervous system freak out every time the smallest thing happens? A lot of the time, just getting people to understand breathwork—like we have in the Alpha Rise and Shineor Alpha Decompression routines—helps.
When your body stops freaking out, your cortisol levels go down into a normal range, and your body doesn’t feel as inflamed. Suddenly, the pain starts going away.
The last thing is nutrition. Some things we eat are really inflaming to our joints. They’re not nutritious for us and don’t actually help us recover. It’s kind of true that you are what you eat. Whatever you put in your body, your body is going to use that for fuel. Anything it doesn’t need either becomes inflammation in your body or becomes waste.
So yeah, it’s those three things. A lot of the time, people just stop moving. When’s the last time you ran a full-on sprint? Then you go to do it one time, joking around with your buddies, and guess who pulls a hamstring? It’s you. You’re the guy who pulls a hamstring because you haven’t moved.
Then you say, “Oh, I’m just old.” And I’m like, “You’re not old. Yes, you’ve aged—number-wise—but we’ve stopped being active and doing those things.”
So, I help those guys move through training, talk about their mental state and how they handle stress, and address their nutrition. A lot of their pain goes away faster than they expect. Sometimes they’ll say, “Oh, I feel great,” and then they try to do something too intense.
I’ll remind them, “We’ve felt good for three weeks, but we’re not ready for a full-on marathon.” But it’s great that they’re feeling better.
Those three things—movement, stress resilience, and nutrition—are the key things I focus on, and they make a tremendous difference.
Doug Holt 19:07
I love that. I’m trying to imagine the person listening to this, going, “Man, that’s great, David and all, but you don’t get it—my hips hurt, my back hurts.”
The thing I’ve seen in my own personal life, and also from working with people and knowing guys like you, is that if someone works with someone like you, David, and their back hurts or their hip hurts, what previously seemed impossible—like, let’s say, running a marathon—starts to become possible.
Someone might come see you with a goal like, “Well, I just want to get out of bed without hurting,” and then they achieve that goal. Then it’s, “Wow, I feel good. A 5K sounds pretty cool.” They do their 5K and think, “Whoa, this was fun, and it wasn’t hard—it actually felt great with the endorphins.”
What I’m saying is, it starts to stack on top of itself, right? It starts to compile, almost like a flywheel in business, where the more you invest in your wellness, the more you enjoy it and the healthier you get, so you can keep climbing that ladder.
David Sherban 20:06
Right, and the more routine it becomes.
Doug Holt 20:10
Exactly. What I’ve found in my life—and I’m curious about your thoughts—is that the more I take care of my health and wellness, the more people who take care of their health and wellness show up in my world.
The opposite is true too. If I go through a pizza-and-beer phase, suddenly I’m hanging out with guys who eat pizza and drink beer and aren’t in shape.
The irony is, back when I was in the fitness industry, at the end of a race, what do they serve? Beer. Guys like yourself can metabolize it better because they’re out there working out, and their metabolism is kicking in.
I think there’s this dogma or belief that if I get into fitness or become “healthy,” I have to give up everything. Obviously, I’m making a generalization here, but people think they have to sacrifice too much.
That’s what I love about what you’re talking about here—it’s not about giving up everything.
David Sherban 21:31
Yeah, exactly.
Doug Holt 21:31
So, if you were to give advice to someone listening to this—maybe some of the guys in TPM you’ve met—they’re thinking, “I don’t know where to start. I’ve got a gym membership, but I don’t really go. What are my first steps?”
David Sherban 21:31
First, coming from the trainer’s side, if you can find yourself a knowledgeable trainer, that’s one massive step. All of a sudden, just like when you find a mentor, you have access to a massive wealth of knowledge.
But let’s say someone comes to me looking to train or get in shape. A lot of the time, before I ever work with a client, I dive into their lifestyle. I ask, “What’s your sleep look like?”
A lot of the guys in TPM talk about testosterone, right? There’s a study out there that showed one group of guys who got eight hours of sleep had 30% higher testosterone than another group who only got five hours. That’s purely because of sleep.
Sleep is a huge thing for me. A lot of business owners have this “grind” mentality. They just keep going and going, saying, “I can run on four hours of sleep and keep going the next morning.” And it’s like, “Yeah, you can—until you can’t anymore. Then your body’s just going to feel like crap all the time.”
So, we dive into sleep and ask, “What does it look like? How can we make it better?”
Most of the time, I tell guys—I know a lot of them have kids, and they want to come home, play with their kids, unwind, or whatever—but I say, “Give yourself a bedtime.”
A lot of people say, “I’m going to get up at five o’clock in the morning.” And I’m like, “Okay, cool, but what’s your bedtime going to be so that you can get up at five without feeling exhausted?”
Doug Holt 22:49
Hey guys, I wanted to interrupt this episode because it’s dawned on me that many of you aren’t aware that we actually have a book on how to save your marriage without talking about it. Thousands of men have read it, reviewed it, and I want to give you the opportunity to do the same.
If you’re interested in grabbing it, it’s a short read, but it’s helped a lot of men just like you. Maybe you’re not interested in The Activation Method yet, but this is a small entry point that can really turn things around for you.
Go over to Amazon—we have it priced as cheaply as Amazon will let us—and grab a resource you can use right now to start getting results in your marriage. Now, let’s get back to the episode.
David Sherban 23:26
And then, you know, we sit down and go, “What does our past look like? Were we athletes before, or were we never athletes?” Then we dive into pain: “Have we ever been in pain? Have we ever had surgery or anything like that?”
And then, obviously, there’s nutrition. Most of the guys I’ve worked with—I can’t assume, right?—I was never the guy that was larger and needed to get smaller. I was the guy that was smaller and wanted to get larger. But plenty of the clients I work with are larger and want to get smaller.
The same approach works for both groups outside of a calorie deficit: strength training. It’s about finding a workout routine that fits with our life, right?
Obviously, we’re going to have to make time—we’re not just going to find time. We’ll need to make time intentionally, and that could start with 30 minutes, three times a week. Just create the habit of 30 minutes, three times a week.
Or, do you just work out at home? Do you find a good dumbbell workout situation? You don’t have to have the world, right?
If you do have a gym membership, find someone you respect—someone who looks the way you want to look or has achieved the results you want. A lot of times, people come to me and say, “Hey, how do I look like you? We’ve been friends for a long time, and I think it’s time for me to start asking you some questions.”
The other thing is strength conditioning, which I love. You can get great results from lifting weights. That’s how you start changing your muscle mass, building that chiseled look—the big pecs, shoulders, biceps, back, and legs.
Pick something that you might enjoy. In the beginning, it might not feel like you enjoy it, but if you enjoy Pilates and it gets you to work out three times a week, do it. As your fitness knowledge grows, you might say, “Let’s try CrossFit,” or, “Let’s do bodybuilding now.”
It’s about finding convenience and enjoyment. Will you find joy in the first two weeks? Probably not. But after 30 days, you might think, “Oh, I see an ab—holy fit!”
That’s where I’d go with it. Try not to complicate it. Do I think there are better ways to get in shape than others? Yes, but is something better than nothing when you’re just getting started? By all means.
Doug Holt 26:07
I love that. And like everybody knows in business, it’s so interesting to me. If a man’s trying to expand his business, he’d hire someone in marketing if that was the weak spot. If it was finance, he’d get a finance coach. If it was sales, he’d get a sales trainer.
So getting a fitness coach is great for so many reasons. One, the knowledge base. But two, a lot of guys are intimidated to go to the gym. They’re intimidated because they don’t know what they’re doing or they don’t look the way they want to look.
Going into a gym with a fitness professional or someone there is such an easy entry point. Your trainer is going to know everybody in the gym—it’s their home, essentially.
It’s a really easy way for them to introduce you to people, show you around, and teach you how to safely use the equipment so you can expedite your results.
David Sherban 27:02
Absolutely, yeah. A lot of people feel very uncomfortable—they’re insecure about going into the gym and being one of those people on TikTok, being filmed using a piece of equipment wrong or something like that, right? They get made fun of.
Doug Holt 27:16
Yeah. There’s a whole bunch about that—those trends where women are filming guys looking or glancing over, or what have you.
David Sherban 27:22
Yeah, you don’t want to be one of those guys. You’re like, “Sorry, I was just… you were doing it right, and I was trying to watch you do it. I wasn’t…” Yeah, yeah.
Doug Holt 27:29
There’s also nothing wrong with admiring a beautiful person—male, female, whatever. Someone who’s in great shape is in great shape. Or you might just be looking at the weights, thinking, “When is she going to be done so I can grab those weights?”
You mentioned a little bit about TRT and peptides earlier. Can you talk more about your experience with those?
David Sherban 27:50
I’m 37, almost 38. About a year ago, when I was introduced to TPM, I was in a very depressed, anxious state. We can talk about that, but my testosterone was at 400. That’s not super low, but it’s low, right? The range goes up to 900, and you can go well above that.
Originally, I went to get blood work done just to see what my levels were, and my levels were all over the place. Physically, I looked really healthy, but my blood panel didn’t match at all. I felt like crap—I was inflamed, didn’t sleep well, had horrible energy levels, couldn’t think clearly, and so on.
In the beginning, I thought, “How can I use supplementation and nutrition to start correcting things?” I did that for about six months and was able to boost my testosterone from 400 to 550 naturally—just by sleeping better, eating better, and improving my supplementation.
Then I thought, “How do I get past this?” A lot of guys go on TRT. I haven’t gone the TRT route yet. I have friends who’ve done TRT, but I decided to try a different route called enclomiphene. For anyone looking into testosterone-boosting or replacement therapies, enclomiphene is an option.
After starting enclomiphene, I felt significantly better. I boosted my testosterone from 550 to 750 in just a couple of months. That was the only change I made, along with continuing my improved routine.
Then I got more blood work done with a company that recommends peptides, which are becoming very popular. If you don’t know, semaglutide is a peptide—it’s the GLP-1 peptide people are using for weight loss. Peptides are amino acids that the body can produce naturally or synthetically.
I started taking a peptide called HCG to help with testosterone production. There are also peptides for human growth hormone (HGH) and IGF-1. I wanted to experiment because I wanted to offer this to my clients. I thought, “I need to experience this for myself.”
For me, the results were incredible. I gained five pounds of muscle in five weeks. That’s fast—you know that’s fast. I was in the gym, pushing hard, and taking peptides like BPC-157 and TB-500, which help with recovery.
My accountability partner would ask, “Are you sore?” and I’d say, “No, I’m not sore at all. Let’s go!”
At the same time, I was running five miles daily, eating 3,500 to 4,000 calories a day, and experimenting to see what I could do with peptides. I wanted to test how far I could push myself before considering TRT.
Not that TRT is bad—I have friends who say it’s a night-and-day difference. You ask anyone on TRT, and they’ll tell you it’s life-changing. But I wanted to try other options first.
For me, it’s about progressing my own health and fitness so I can help my clients—especially business owners—do the same.
That said, peptides aren’t magic. You still have to work out. If they ever make a peptide that produces muscle as easily as semaglutide helps with weight loss, it’ll be game over for the health and fitness industry.
But for now, peptides are just another tool to push myself further and help my clients understand these options. They might see ads for peptides or TRT on Instagram and wonder, “What is that?” Most doctors won’t prescribe peptides, but there are specialized physicians and companies that do.
I’ve given myself over 200 shots at this point—don’t let that scare anyone away! I take quite a few peptides, even one to try regrowing my hair.
Doug Holt 34:18
Very familiar. I get nerdy and geeky with this stuff, so I’ve dove into it pretty deeply for a while.
David Sherban 34:24
Okay, I was trying to stay surface-level with it. I wasn’t trying to get too nerdy or geeky for any of the guys listening.
Doug Holt 34:30
Well, it’s great. One of the things I love that you said, as a professional helping people, is that you’re getting in the trenches.
In my experience, in any industry, you have the book smarts, and then you have the in-the-trenches knowledge. In the fitness industry—more than any other industry I’ve experienced—the science catches up to the in-the-trenches people.
The things that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, and all those guys were doing, we now look at and go, “Oh, this makes sense because of that.” They just figured it out by doing it. You have to be in the trenches to know what it’s like.
David Sherban 35:05
You do. You absolutely do. And I enjoy it.
Doug Holt 35:08
What I’d love to do is bring you back and answer questions from some of the guys if you’re interested in doing that.
Gentlemen, if you’re listening to this and want to ask questions—and I can bring in guests like this—go ahead and email VIP@thepowerfulman.com. Submit your questions, and those will get filtered down to me. That’s VIP@thepowerfulman.com. Reference this episode, and I’ll do my best to maybe throw in a pint of Ben & Jerry’s to get David back here again—maybe even get him to the TPM Ranch.
Then we’ll do it live, which would be fun as well. So, what’s next for David? What’s coming up on your plate?
David Sherban 35:43
The next thing on my plate is, now that I’ve sold my physical location, I’m going online to work specifically with business owners. That’s where a lot of my expertise has come from.
It’s diving into blood panels, like we mentioned earlier. It’s about looking at what’s going on inside so we can help you get that exterior physique—and make sure you can actually do something with it.
I love getting people jacked, but I also want people to feel good. You can be jacked and still feel like crap. Your shoulders hurt all the time, your knees hurt—all that kind of stuff. You’re working out, but you still feel terrible.
Doug Holt 36:21
Yeah, I’ve been there.
David Sherban 36:21
Exactly.
Doug Holt 36:21
Awesome. So, where can people find more information about you? Obviously, you’ve been through the TPM program and are active in the community, which I love seeing. But for the guys who aren’t in the community, where can they find you?
David Sherban 36:35
Absolutely. There are two places. One is my Instagram: David James Sherban.
The other is my email: David@TrainNoble.com. You can email me and just say, “Hey, I listened to the podcast and would love to hop on a call.”
I have no problem hopping on a consultation call to figure out if I can help or give you some advice. If you don’t sign up, no problem. I’m just here to help.
Doug Holt 37:07
Yeah, and guys, I was in the fitness industry for over 20 years on both the academic and practical sides as a head strength coach. David is a guy who knows his stuff.
Before we hit record, when we were talking about what to discuss on this episode, one thing I really appreciated was that David said, “Hey, Doug, I’m here just to provide value. That’s the only outcome I want—to help people.”
That shows. Unfortunately, it’s rare, but it really shows in what you deliver.
Guys, reach out to David. Jump on a call. He’s a great guy, and it’s worth getting to know him, if nothing else.
Man, thanks so much for taking the time. I know how busy you are over there. Thanks for all that you do. I know we didn’t even touch on some of the stuff that Sophia, who connected us, mentioned. So I guess this warrants another time for us to chat.
David Sherban 37:53
Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Thank you for having me on.
Doug Holt 37:57
You got it.
Gentlemen, I always say, in the moment of insight, take massive action.
Go back and listen to this again. David lays out, literally, a playbook for you. If you’ve been sitting there, maybe like me—I have a workout meeting right after this—I’m going to throw my treadmill under my desk and walk just to get my body moving.
I’ve got tons of stuff to do, my desk is full, and we have men to help and things to do in our lives. But make your fitness and your health a priority.
As David says, if you don’t, I guarantee you’ll end up spending all the money you’ve made working hard just trying to get your health back. So why not just add that into your routine?
Add more vitality, and you can still have a couple of beers with the guys and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s every now and then, and still live your best life.
But whatever you do, take the action today. Throw on those shoes, go for a walk, hit the gym—whatever it is for you.
We’ll see you next time on The Powerful Man Show.
