The Built To Grow Podcast

Santo Chiappetta
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  • Self-Improvement
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Built to Grow explores the transformative power of resilience and growth. Join Santo as he interviews experts and thought leaders, uncovering stories of overcoming setbacks, mastering habits, and breaking through barriers. Inspiring insights to help you evolve and thrive, because growth is never finished.

  1. 5d ago

    Getting Back on Track Is a Skill

    We talk about consistency as if the goal is to find the perfect routine and never let anything interrupt it. But that isn’t how life works. You travel. You get sick. Work gets busy. Your schedule changes. Sometimes the routine that used to fit your life simply doesn’t anymore. So maybe consistency isn’t about avoiding disruption. Maybe it’s about becoming someone who knows how to come back from it. In this episode of Built To Grow, I explore what “getting back on track” actually means, why we tend to restart too aggressively after time away, how to rebuild healthy habits without trying to fix everything at once, and why sometimes you shouldn’t return to your old routine at all. We also get into the difference between being inconsistent and being interrupted, how to recognize the habits that never actually disappeared, and why repeatedly finding your way back can eventually build something more valuable than a perfect routine: trust that you know what to do when life changes. You’re probably not starting over. You’re getting another rep at coming back. Join The Rep Report, my weekly newsletter: www.strengthbysanto.com/friends

  2. Sep 30

    Your Health Is Requiring Too Much Thinking

    What if the problem isn’t that you need more discipline? What if you simply have too much to manage? After 17 coaching calls this week, I noticed the same idea showing up in conversations about nutrition, workouts, recovery, health data, relationships and stress. Taking care of yourself requires more than time. It requires attention, decisions and mental bandwidth. Eventually, adding another workout, another metric or another habit can make health feel like one more thing you’re trying to keep up with. In this episode, I explore how to make health require less thought, why your minimum matters, what 130 workouts over 31 months can actually become, and why sometimes the problem you’re trying to fix started several decisions earlier. Health should give you more capacity to participate in your life, not consume all of your attention trying to perfect it. Subscribe to The Rep Report: www.strengthbysanto.com/friends

  3. Sep 23

    Your Health Should Make Life Feel Easier

    What if the best sign that your health is improving isn’t the number on the scale—but how much easier your actual life feels? In this episode of Built To Grow, I explore an idea that came out of a conversation with a client: the things in her life hadn’t gotten easier—she had become more capable of handling them. We talk about strength, energy, stress, recovery, consistency, motherhood, mental load, and why “I know what I need to do” doesn’t always mean you need more discipline. I also get into why the same workout can represent completely different levels of progress depending on what else you’re carrying, how to recognize when you need to push versus recover, and why some of the most meaningful signs of progress are the ones we rarely track. Because health isn’t supposed to become another full-time job. It’s supposed to give you more capacity to participate in the life you’re building. In this episode: Why getting stronger should make everyday life easierThe difference between having time and having capacityWhy “I just don’t care today” isn’t always a motivation problemStrength training for real life, not just the gymHow stress, sleep and recovery affect consistencyWhy doing the same workout can sometimes still be progressMaking health habits easier to repeatA better way to measure whether your health is actually improvingFor more of my writing and ideas on strength, health, behaviour and living a more participatory life, join my free newsletter, The Rep Report: www.strengthbysanto.com/friends More participation. Less perfection.

  4. Sep 15

    You Don’t Need to Pull Every Lever

    “I only got two workouts in.” Why do we say that like we’re admitting we failed? In this episode of Built To Grow, Santo explores what happens when taking care of yourself becomes another thing you’re behind on—and why knowing what to do doesn’t always mean having the capacity to do it. We talk about the invisible health scorecard, the mental load of being everyone’s default person, why old routines stop fitting, and how to tell the difference between needing more discipline and needing more support. If you keep telling yourself, “I know I should be doing more,” this conversation offers somewhere else to start. Health should give you more room to live. More participation. Less perfection. Want help putting this into practice? Join the Glow Challenge to work on building more room and capacity by fitting a new habit into the day you already have, without carving out another block of time. Join the Glow Challenge:https://www.strengthbysanto.com/glow-challenge

  5. Sep 9

    What if challenging behavior is not the problem, but a signal?

    Dr. Lisa reveals why regulation, not punishment, is the real key to helping kids and adults move from overwhelm back to safety, connection, and control. Santo Chiappetta and Dr. Lisa unpack the hidden stressors that quietly drain our capacity like: - Sleep - Sensory overload - Transitions - Hunger - Lighting - Screen time and even the emotional weight of the news. Instead of asking, "How do we stop the behavior?" this conversation asks a more powerful question: "What is this person’s nervous system trying to tell us? This episode touches on: * Why behavior is often the surface-level symptom of a much deeper stress load * How co-regulation works through tone of voice, pacing, facial expression, and environment * Why transitions can derail regulation, especially for anxious kids and dysregulated adults * The difference between self-control and self-regulation, and why that distinction changes everything * How to spot hidden stressors by tracking body signals like jaw tension, shallow breathing, fatigue, and cognitive overload Dr. Lisa also explains the science behind the Safe and Sound Protocol, neuroception, polyvagal theory, and the vagus nerve, showing how sound can act as a direct pathway to felt safety. Santo brings a coaching lens to the conversation, connecting the dots between reflection, self-awareness, and the everyday experiments that help people discover what actually restores them. The episode also goes deeper into a cultural blind spot: - How boys and men are often taught suppression instead of regulation. Dr. Lisa breaks down why healthy masculinity depends on early attachment, attuned caregiving, and connection, not emotional shutdown or premature independence. If you’ve ever wondered why the same coping strategy works one day and fails the next, or how to support a child, partner, or even yourself when emotions run high, this conversation offers a practical and deeply human reset. Essential listening for parents, coaches, educators, and anyone trying to build a calmer nervous system and stronger relationships.

  6. Aug 26

    You’re Making Progress. Why Doesn’t It Feel Like It?

    You are probably not "off track" - you are just judging yourself against a version of health that real life can never actually sustain. This episode challenges the exhausting all-or-nothing mindset that makes busy women feel like failures even when they are making real progress.I unpack a conversation with a client who was doing far more right than she realized, but still treating every imperfection like proof she was behind. From missed workouts and chaotic dinners to the tiny "but" that erases everything good, he reveals why so many women mentally discount their own effort and keep chasing an imaginary standard that does not exist.Topics of discussion: Why one missed workout can feel bigger than three winsThe dangerous "but" that turns progress into failure in your mindHow to stop comparing your real life to a fantasy woman who sleeps 8 hours, meal preps perfectly, never gets stressed, and somehow avoids every disruptionThe "next reasonable thing" strategy for chaotic days when perfection is impossibleHow to build confidence from evidence instead of waiting for a perfect month to feel proudI also reframes how identity actually changes: not through one flawless week, but through hundreds of small pieces of evidence that you keep showing up, adapting, and continuing. If you have ever lost sight of your progress because you are too focused on the missing 15 percent, this conversation will feel like a wake-up call.This is essential listening if you are trying to improve your body, your habits, or your nutrition without making your real life feel like a constant failure. This is the reminder to keep growing, keep going, and finally let some of it count.

  7. Aug 18

    Joyspan - Stop Optimizing your way out of Enjoying life.

    What if the real goal of health is not living longer, but having more life inside the years you already have?In this episode, I make the case for a new metric I call Joy Span.The amount of your health, discipline, and hard-earned capacity you actually convert into dinners, trips, late-night conversations, and the croissant in Paris. If you’ve ever felt torn between optimizing your body and actually enjoying your life, this episode will hit hard.I pulls from decades in health and fitness, plus lessons learned through boxing, coaching, and building a life around discipline, to argue that modern wellness may be shrinking the very experiences it was supposed to protect. I breaks down why training, sleep, strength, and recovery are essential - but only as the foundation for participation, not the final destination.You’ll hear how:obsessing over optimization can quietly make you afraid to livethe hardest rep is sometimes not doing more, but knowing when to stop, rest, or say yesHow health creates latitude - the freedom to walk farther, travel, stay up late, help someone move, pick up your kid, and still say yes to lifejoy is not comfort or avoidance of hard things, but the ability to remain present for both the beautiful and brutal parts of being humanThis episode is for high performers, fitness-minded listeners, and anyone who has ever treated their routine like a fortress instead of a launchpad. This episode challenges the idea that discipline and joy are opposites, and reframes health as preparation for fully participating in your own life.If you need a reminder that the point was never to protect yourself from living, this one lands exactly where it should. Essential listening if you want more than a longer life - you want a fuller one.

  8. Apr 7

    You're Capable Enough to Burn Yourself Out — Here's the Way Back

    You didn't burn out because you were weak. You burned out because you were too good at holding it all together. Jeff Catapang knows that pattern well. Former journalist, martial artist, meditation coach, group fitness instructor — he's spent his career studying what happens when high-performing people stop listening to their bodies and what it actually takes to find your way back. In this episode, Jeff unpacks the tension-release cycle he first discovered through martial arts and why it's one of the most powerful — and most ignored — tools for people who pride themselves on keeping it together. We talk about what burnout really looks like from the inside, why presence is a skill you can train (not a personality type you either have or don't), and how genuine confidence gets built through the body long before it shows up in your life. If you've been running on fumes and calling it discipline, this one's for you. In this episode: Why your capability is both your greatest strength and your biggest riskThe tension-release cycle — what martial arts teaches us about nervous system regulationHow to build resilience that doesn't require you to white-knuckle through everythingWhat success actually feels like when you stop measuring it by output

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About

Built to Grow explores the transformative power of resilience and growth. Join Santo as he interviews experts and thought leaders, uncovering stories of overcoming setbacks, mastering habits, and breaking through barriers. Inspiring insights to help you evolve and thrive, because growth is never finished.

Information

  • Creator
    Santo Chiappetta
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Santo Chiappetta
  • Show Website
    The Built To Grow Podcast

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