Body Fat Loss Expert Reveals: 'Intermittent fasting is a hoax!' (Do THIS Instead!) @drandygalpin

you want to gain more muscle you want to. have more energy you want to have more. mental focus okay why haven't you done. that before I want to find what is that. single thing that stopped you from. winning and that's all I want to work on. professor of Kinesiology expert in. muscle physiology Dr Andy Galpin what's. going to burn more calories walking a. mile or running a mile running a mile a. calorie is energy walking a mile running. a mile is the same thing if someone's. listening right now and they're thinking. Fitness and strength are my big goals. this year how would you encourage them. to think about it number one predictor. of success with training programs.

is the number one Health and Wellness. podcast Jett J shett the one the only. Jett What routine is the best for. someone that wants to gain muscle and. lose weight there is no specific. direction to that and I know that was. like the most deflated answer possible. after that enormous setup but I'm saying. that because I actually want to empower. people not the opposite it having done.

this for many years having taught for a. very long time one thing that is very. clear if you give hypers specific. answers to questions like that when. someone hears that and they go oh I. can't do that exercise because my knee. hurts or I can't train like that because. I fill in the blanks right then they. often feel like they can't do anything. and so what you do is you take people. from 10 to zero and I hate that I want. to go everyone from zero to two I want. to get somebody to 10 but I want all the. wins we can possibly get and so if you. look at that combination of things you. said two VAR things things specific.

things grow muscle lose fat okay great. that gives you effectively every option. under the table for your Fitness routine. there are some core things that will lay. in that Foundation though that will be. true regardless of your approach I can. hit those very quickly this is a basic. saying that we will there variations of. this but the concepts are few and the. methods are many as long as you hit. these next couple of Concepts you can. choose all kinds of different methods. the methods are things like how many.

days you do it you use kettle bell do. you run do you go outside do you use. group classes you go those are all. methods methods they're important we can. get to that detail but concepts are few. here's what that's going to look like. are you doing something consistently if. you look across the literature for many. years now the strongest predictor of. success with training programs fitness. programs exercise programs and nutrition. programs number one predictor of success. short and long term is adherence you. have to be consist consistent I would.

take a consistent approach with a. suboptimal program with a bad program. any day of the week for that particular. question so be consistent second one is. there's got to be some sort of. progressive overload that doesn't mean. you have to lift more weights it doesn't. mean you have to train harder or more. but there has to be some sort of. intentional progress that could be done. within the day the week the month you. get lots of ways to get there but be. consistent and try to keep progressing. eventually outside of that we're getting.

into more nuance and so now we're. thinking about things like you probably. want to use really high efficient. movements these are exercise types. movement patterns that have a lot of. caloric expenditure with minimal time. right most likely I'm inferring from. that question that person probably. doesn't want to spend 20 hours a week in. their Fitness and so you want to choose. things um this is not typically. isolation work so I wouldn't spend 20. minutes doing bicep specific exercises. for that particular person you got to.

get a lot of muscles worked and you got. to burn a lot of calories so this could. be a combination of some type of. strength training program and some type. of cardiovascular program or anything in. between the reality of it though is I'll. reiterate one more time and because I've. done this many many times personally. this is consistent across the literature. those two goals can be achieved with no. or minimal cardiovascular training these. can be achieved with very minimal. strength training these can be achieved. with body weight training with any other.

of those things you have tons of options. there so if that is truly your goal pick. something that's going to give you a. little bit of both sides of that. equation stay safe don't get hurt you. still got to work and our because this. is our third one there's got to be. consistent effort there so be consistent. keep doing it try to be high. productivity with that and then you got. to try I need a six to seven out of 10. on an effort scale would love to see a. little bit more but I'll live with six. below six we may not be having enough.

actual stimuli to grow muscle or lose. weight but you give me those three. things and most people are going to have. a tremendous amount of success. absolutely thank you for that and I. appreciate the refreshing answer and not. having to be specific and and I agree. with you I think that's that's a very. fair way to go and it's actually the. only truth and reality to it as well. yeah you know honestly I have a hard. time when I get questions like that. because I want at home as a listener. when I hear people on podcast I'm like. would you give me like one example so. I'm sensitive to that but the reality of.

it is it's not the most honest answer. it's not the answer scientifically and. me coaching people now the people that I. personally train the non-athletes it's. not real that's not really how I would. approach them so I I try to do my best. to give an honest answer and I know. that's not always as tangible but it is. honest reality yeah if someone's. listening right now and they're thinking. Fitness and strength are my big goals. this year how would you encourage them. like the work the people that you work.

with if someone's like Andy train me now. coach me now how should I be thinking. about my goals over the next 12 months. how would you encourage them to think. about it there's a handful of ways um we. will always start at the top okay what's. what's our biggest constraint and that. sounds a little bit backwards but we. call these things performance anchors so. you want a goal right and I use the. soccer example here football maybe if. you're listening you want to kick you. want a goal and there's something in. that way there's a Defender there's a. goalie there what's your goalie and I'm. saying that to say is it finances is it.

time is it injury is it you've never. been to the gym before and you're. nervous because once I know that the. entire path I'm taking is going to be. different based on that very first. filter you want to gain more muscle you. want to fill in all those blanks okay. why haven't you done that before have. you tried in the past and failed have. you never tried that's the biggest lever. we have to work on if it is a finance. issue I can't afford gym membership okay. got it now I'm going to take on a. totally different route if it is.

unlimited Finance like okay now we're. doing you know next level stuff if it's. somewhere in the middle we have. different answers so this could be a. combination of saying identify why you. failed in the past or why you've never. started and overcome that barrier and. I'm done I'm gonna stop right there. that'll give me six months right in this. initial case in that person you laid out. I'm cons I'm going back to what I said. earlier adherence is number one and. consistency over time so I want this. first January push this February push.

towards Fitness like new year new me I. want to win I want wins wins wins I. don't care if it's an optimal program it. doesn't necessarily matter we'll come to. those details later but I want you to. have an experience through Fitness that. went yeah that was kind of that was okay. wasn't so bad I I wasn't super sore and. I okay now you're a Believer now I can. get that two days a week to three now I. can get you an invest $50 and get you a. kettle bell at home okay great like we. can start pushing the pace here if we do. the opposite and we give these big huge.

charges that can work if you're an. all-in type of person you maybe I could. get you on that all right like let's get. it personality wise but if that's not. your personality oftentimes that is a. crash and burn by February or March and. that actually dissuades you probably. more from starting again the next time. so for the general. population as a aggregate answer here I. want to find what is that single thing. that stopped you from winning and that's. all I want to work on when we program. for our executive clients and all those.

we look at the year and we look at this. whole thing and we use what we call a. quadrant model so the quadrant is you. get 10 total points and you can choose. to spend those 10 total points across. four areas all right so 10 total not 40. total here are your four areas and we do. this practice before they start anything. they don't get a workout before any this. question is answered we go through this. exercise we lay out their answer this. gets posted on a note card it goes in. there most most vulnerable place this.

could be their office where's the point. where it's going to you were going to. work out today and then you didn't is. that your Netflix TV is that the office. because you wouldn't stop working is it. right you get held accountable to that. and we're going to hold you accountable. to that here's what the quadrant looks. like quadrant one is we'll just call it. business whatever you do for your life. and. your finances okay that's business. quadrant number two is social family. relationships whatever that means to you. to number three is your physical health.

again these These are wide ranging. definitions and everyone gets to Define. it for themselves qu number four is. recovery so we start off by asking and. we always do this and if if you want to. play along you're welcome to this is. kind of fun sometimes let do it great. let's do that right now for you so you. got 10 total chips let's start with. business of your 10 how many do you want. to spend let's say this is January and. you're G to get kick started Jay what. are you going to put and it's time am I. thinking about it in terms of time or. energy or it's all of it right so we. intentionally keep vague if I say you.

got Life Energy yeah you got 10 right. could be money could be combination. Focus attention resources however that. makes sense to you yeah it's business. family let's start with business health. and Recovery recovery right so business. and I would and over what period of time. it doesn't matter you define it okay so. I'd say yeah over the year let's do a. let's do it a quarter a quarter one next. over the quarter okay yeah so I'd say. honestly where I'll probably prioritize.

would be like five great yeah most. common answer is five okay by far the. most common answer is five nobody wants. to say six because in their head they're. go Haven got enough left yeah and no one. everyone knows it's not four yeah right. so we're at five or business now let's. go on to uh relationships relationships. I'd say is well my work I business. relationships are very strong in that. sense so my personal relationships I. it's an easy one for me my my circle's.

small so I'd. say two okay great we're at seven right. how many do your Fitness two great now. we have an obvious one left couple of. rules we have on this one by the way. what you just gave is by far the most. common total answer right almost. everybody has this problem there's. issues with what you just. said we never let recovery be less than. half of our next highest category I'm. happy did to one that's great most.

people recovery end up going to zero. what does recovery mean it doesn't. necessarily mean a massage or sauna fine. that can be it recovery can be a night. out with friends recovery can be I need. a loone time recovery tons of ways what. is the thing that gives you energy back. is what we're trying to go after. physical fitness same sort of thing. there's always overlaps between these. things we would work through you on that. one so that that routine you laid out. says fine okay you gave me two for. physical fitness I'm going to construct. a program now that says this is at most.

20% of Jay's energy if I come then and. get you with this program 5 days a week. I know I've lost already you're not. going to get it and if you are are you. going to get it for three straight. months you just told me business was a. really big priority at the same token. when you come back to me and you're. asking and you're wondering why the. program isn't getting you the success. that you want I'm going to say you gave. it. 20% what expectations did you have okay. what do you want to take it from if. you're not willing to move it from. somewhere else there's only finite.

things that a human can do so we're. going to walk backwards from that. equation so I might say fine we're there. now we get to quarter two and you want. to adjust that you want more results you. want to lose more fat fill in the blank. for the adaptation I go great where are. we going to pull it from it's not going. to come from recovery now it means less. business less friends this is the. ultimate Dynamic we have to play right. people don't want to do the recovery and. they don't want to pull it from there. but then they expect massive gains in. Fitness we can get you through short. periods of time uh we have these special. scenarios all the time where it's like.

hey the Olympics are coming World. Championship are we we can juice up this. a little bit with all kinds of little. tricks but those don't last and. sometimes they burn you into a bigger. hole so if we're thinking long-term. strategy with you I'd say great I'm fine. with two we would go up a little program. and in your brain it goes to two and I'm. watching and I'm like Jay you didn't do. this thing for Recovery it's been three. days it's been a week we're at zero for. Recovery don't expect fitness goals with. no recovery bam Jay been out went out. again last night went out a little again.

took another trip friends has been at. three or four you get the point here. right so we I can hold you really. accountable to that and saying if you're. not getting your Fitness goal number one. starter is are you even giving it a. chance to succeed if not we have a. non-starter and we have to change our. expectations yeah if you want more. results you got to give me more pie give. me a bigger shot at it and we'll get. more results physical strength is one of. the single strongest pun intended. predictors of lifespan we will focus.

more typically on Fat Loss Quarter Two. no holidays nothing around and everyone. has a little bit of extra motivation to. look a little bit better over the summer. when the sun comes out and they're more. likely to have their shirts off people. generally want three things in their. Fitness they want to look good they want. to feel good and they want to perform. good now what does look mean I don't. know you tell me I really appreciate the. constraint approach too I found my. constraint was travel and so I haven't. traveled for the last six weeks and I've.

felt my absolute best with sleep food. diet everything I've been on the road. for probably eight straight weeks and. I'm the opposite yeah exactly and and. that was my my life was like I'd be. working out for one week eating right. for one week everything's good then I'm. traveling for one week then one week so. I was one week on one week off and then. I'd plann to spend these two months in. LA and it has been lifechanging from a. workout point of view sleep point of. view point of view everything we just.

talked about I can do I have been doing. five days of workouts a week you know. eating really well whatever because I'm. in one place because I'm saying all of. this to reiterate your point it was all. about the constraint always it was all. about the constraint I had the. motivation I had the drive I had the. discipline I had all that stuff but. travel was the thing that made me feel. like I was having gains for a week and. then losing it and then getting. discipline and then losing it and that. was just exhausting so let let me run. you through two specific examples on.

that and I love you brought up travel. this is super easy we uh have a coaching. program called R this is this like. excellence in kind of everything program. if you were in r with us right now I. would say great you've been home I'm. going to change your entire program it's. going to be more gym stuff we're going. to lift more weights we're gonna have a. very specific plan I'm GNA ask you to. report back exactly how much you lifted. we're going to track it and we're going. to do heavier there had we flipped the. rule and you were all of a sudden on the. road I would say great if I gave that. same program that's going to be a.

terrible one it's not going to work why. because everywhere you land you're G to. have to go to find a gym it's not going. to work and then the hotel gym sucks. like I've set you up for failure that's. bad coaching I would have s six weeks. going you know what here's what we're do. it's called a flexible program we don't. need anything more than a band and a. kettle bell okay maybe you're not even. the kettle bell and we're going to. rotate the days so what I mean by that. is right now if you're at home I would. say Okay Mondays are this Tuesdays are. this Wednesdays are this and when you. didn't do that on Wednesday I'd be. calling you why didn't you finish why. didn't we train Wednesday what I don't. care I'm on it right that doesn't work.

on the road I would do more flexible. program where we have a concept we're. trying to hit we're trying to get a. strength training day in you do that. strength training day whatever day that. comes up as soon as you get it in we. check it off and then we have say the. next day is going to be a a a long. duration workout great you get that in. when you can but we also have. flexibility because when you go hey you. know what I got an extra hour today. there's no gym but I went for an hour. walk boom got that thing in you have. different things you can plug in play. based on availability time and energy. right so that's the way to have you.

success at the end of six weeks we. wouldn't have probably made a ton of. progress on you if you're on the road. constantly but we would have not gone. backwards anywhere the the literature is. really clear the science is clear you. can maintain muscle size you can. maintain muscle strength very very well. cardiovascular fitness is incredibly. stable with one or so training sessions. per week we could have kept you right. where you're at and then we would have. looked at this and said okay our. expectations for Progress are not not. going to be high during Jay's six weeks.

of travel let's all set expectation here. but when when we get home we're getting. after it and our expectations are higher. so at the net end of both of those you. add them together and you see where I'm. going with that right so it's not just. expecting yourself to to gain five. pounds of muscle every single month it's. unrealistic yeah we have looked at the. whole quarter the whole year is what we. in our we look at the whole year for. people and we go okay great quarter. one's not the quarter we're going to go. after it we're going to work on Mobility. we're going to work on our breath we're. going to work on Thousand other things.

that can be done on the road can be done. with traveling we're going to get our. best gains and fill in the other blank. when we've got maybe it's quarter three. and we actually have goals for each. quarter for the year that are plotted. out and so we give people the best. chance of success the best example I can. give of that is quarter 4 is the worst. possible time to have fat loss goals in. America like it's impossible you run. into Halloween I have a little bit of. candy right and then it's like well I'll. get back on it but reality it is like.

Thanksgiving is going to be here in a. couple. weeks all the way out through New Year. yeah terrible if you try to have for. most people a huge fat loss school. you're going to lose so we don't play. that game you know what we typically. focus on this part of the year we're. going to shift towards muscle growth. that's when you need excessive calories. right let's Feed the Beast let's not. fight our life life will win we're going. to go back typically just as you know. big examples here it's different for. everyone we will focus more typically on.

on Fat Loss Quarter Two you know why no. holidays nothing around and everyone has. a little bit extra motivation to look a. little bit better over the summer when. the sun comes out and they're more. likely have their shirts off clothing. down so it fits life a little bit better. is is you see my point here right yeah. Seasons tot seasons of when to shift and. sometimes we have one goal it's really. basic it's really simple it's like I. want to do this and it's not possible. throughout the year and we don't shift. it and mold it and I think Andy you know.

I'm taking a couple of steps back here. but it comes from this societal view of. what Fitness is right like that's and I. want to talk about that with you because. Bo I love this yeah because I just feel. like as I'm listening to you I no it's. one of the biggest challenges is we. don't actually know it's like every year. there'll be a new thing like strength is. really important protein is really. important this whatever right and it. just there's a new fat every year and. and I want to talk about that with you. but I think for a lot of us we don't.

really know what the pillars of Fitness. are like we don't know what defines. someone as fit we just have goals like. oh I want abs this year I want this this. year I want less belly fat this year and. you know for someone who grew up. overweight I grew up overweight and then. when I changed my diet started working. out I just got super skinny and lean. it's like to me there was a point in my. life where I just believed if I was lean. and I wasn't overweight then I was. healthy right it was as basic as that. and I think a lot of Us carry that.

around where it's like you see someone. with abs or whatever you want and it's. like yeah they're healthy they're fit if. you had to break down and say what is. the pursuit of Fitness what's the answer. yeah no I absolutely love that so At His. Highest category we always Define it as. people generally want three things in. their Fitness they want to look good. they want to feel good and they want to. perform good part of my grammar right. now what does look mean I don't know you. tell me. you want to have this look or you don't.

want I do not care but at some point you. want your body to look a certain way or. not look a certain way up to you to. Define you want it to feel a certain way. you want it to feel strong you want it. to feel fast you want it to feel mobile. you want it to feel don't care you. define that then you want to perform. what's that mean you want to have more. energy you want to have more mental. focus you want that digestion problem to. go away um you don't want that knee pain. gone okay so it's it's a look a feel or. performance metric absolutely ultimately. everybody's after right yeah so from our.

professional athletes to non to the. students that work in my lab for our. research questions that's the first lens. I'm looking at what does that mean for. you so when I'm designing a when we're. designing a study or we're again working. individuals filter number one what does. fit what does look mean to you what does. feel what does perform look to you now. I'm calibrated right because I love this. question so much Fitness can be I just. want to be able to Surf every day. amazing I'm in right fit this just means. I Want More Energy with my kids I'm I'm.

here for all of that all of that can be. rooted in performance we have a saying. that if you have a body you're an. athlete which is to say I don't care if. you want to use those physical abilities. to shoot a basketball or hit a golfball. like some of our clients or you want to. use that to just run your business. better be a better leader make better. decisions be able to work more hours and. less. fatigue fine you're still asking your. body to perform it's the exact same. thing except for a couple of little. points at the end of physical movement.

skill right so that's answer number one. now taking this question entirely. differently if you look at what is. generally true for most people Fitness. is a combination of a handful of things. you want to be able to do activities and. not pay major. consequences that is it right I I want. to be able to walk up this dang Hill and. then not wake up tomorrow in in. screaming pain so it is a I want to do a. and then I don't want B to happen as a. consequence so I want to EMP everyone to.

be a to that and then not pay major. consequences whether it's injury or. handful of other things so for most. people to be execute a a resilient. physiology that is able to do many. things is it's one of the reasons again. we called it arates this this concept of. I want to be able to do many things and. then not have severe consequences so. you're going to have to have some. semblance of physical strength number. one right you don't you be a powerlifter. or a bodybuilder or weightlifter blah. blah blah but minimal levels of strength.

if you want to look at this from the. medical perspective I can make that. argument we can go into tons of the. research I was about to ask you that. yeah why is strength so important. because I feel like we've undervalued it. for a long time and you don't you could. go your whole life well I would say that. we as a strength conditioning field. didn't help ourselves much right this. was actually the whole fun story here of. in the early 1900s strength training was. viewed as something that was really.

deleterious it was dangerous there was a. long story here but you'll have a heart. attack it's this thing right and that. stayed along for a long period of time. the science said it was bad for you and. then the science changed in fact there's. a famous individual Nam Dr karpovich Who. himself was a scientific advocate of. this is dangerous and then collected. more data and realized actually it's not. dangerous and then oh my gosh there's. all these health benefits that happened. in the 1950s and 60s right after that on. the back of it you've got arold. Schwarzenegger you've got Pumping Iron.

you've got Conan you've got these things. and you went from bad for my health to. oh my gosh I can become a superhero and. this empowered a generation of men. mostly oh my gosh I can become a. physical superhero that was awesome but. the downside of that was everyone's. association with him with strength. training was muscle and bodybuilding and. that is a very limited perspective of. strength so scientifically the people in. this field were not strength training. people the ex physiologists the. nutritional scientists for in most part.

the 1960s through 90s were all endurance. folks and so you had no research being. done I mean you couldn't make the. argument anymore that it was bad for. your health but there was no argument. that it was really great for your health. and they had a whole generation of kids. like me who came up on that but then. also like science and started saying. like why aren't we doing studies on. strength and high intensity stuff and. well that only lasted so long before. work started coming out on that area and. now it is so clear we have mechanism we.

have epidemiological evidence we have. randomized control trials in men and. women young old and the research goes on. physical strength is one of the single. strongest pun intended predictors of. lifespan and so you've got lifespan. which is how long you're going to live. you have health span which people talk. about now which is you how how healthy. are you within those years and now. scientifically we call that strength. span right and what they're saying is. strength span it's not not the only. thing that matters but it's an important.

characteristic to your health span if. you lack physical strength a number of. things start to happen number one uh. this is one of the reasons why we look. at for the record like leg strength and. grip strength as two of the most. ubiquitous predictors you'll see this. all across the literature as. statistically significant predictors of. mortality and in fact some of the papers. that directly compare strength again. mostly leg strength leg extension and. grip strength to V2 Max often times but.

not always but often times we'll show. strength is a stronger predictor of. mortality or all cause mortality than V2. Max so we we've talked at nauseum you. know the last bunch of years about. important V2 Maxes and it's absolutely. true but strength is right there as an. equivalent predictor of how long you're. going to live so the question is why. well you have correlation and causation. here lots of evidence on both sides if. you are weak say in your hands. it is a proxy for overall strength so.

bat of itself is is true it's also. direct intervention if you can't carry a. bag confidently and you can't put a a. backpack in an overhead compartment. you're not going to take the bus you're. very less like you're much less likely. to go on an airplane this now leades. secondary problems with social isolation. you're not confident one of the single. biggest predictors or one of the single. biggest issues we have with unsuccessful. aging. is that people when people start to feel.

like they become a burden on society. they start to withdraw rapidly no one. wants to be the person in line holding. everybody up no one wants like you just. you know all those examples there right. so people are more likely to just. socially withdraw and now we're having. all the secondary problems of social. isolation and even physical activity. starts to go down because people don't. leave their house they watch TV more and. this whole Cascade of things start to. happen so we have direct and indirect. mechanisms there that. again you don't have to be massively. strong but just maintain some semblance.

of grip strength your legs are going to. tell the same story this is your. interface with the world your legs and. your hands and so your ability to. locomote to move throughout the world is. mostly your legs if you don't feel. confident that you can walk up the steps. to that museum slowly you stop going on. those trips you start doing that extra. thing it hurts too much it's too. exhausting again fill in all the blanks. here and so having some sort of physical. leg strength gives you confidence that. allows General physical activity which. then pays all those additional benefits.

that doesn't even carry and count the. direct physical benefits so if we start. looking at muscles specifically muscle. quality and this can be defined a lot of. different ways is going to regulate in. part things like your blood glucose and. you've I'm sure talked to many people. about the importance of metabolic Health. skeletal muscle is going to explain. about 80% of the variance in your. resting metabolic rate that's that's. your you know your fast or slow.

metabolism again 80% of the variance is. going to be explained by how much lean. muscle you have for the most part so you. don't need to be huge but losing muscle. is is called sarcopenia if it's you lose. muscle faster than you should be with. aging highly associated with. inflammatory States reduced resting. metabolic rate which then goes right. back to the equation uh glucose. regulation inflammate like all of these. things start to happen last fire hose I. know I'm going after it this a little. bit here but this is a a topic of clear.

passion to me is you have the presence. of strength as well as the act of the. training itself so going through the. strength training process has additional. benefits to things like your central. nervous system brain and neurological. system the evidence is very clear your. physical brain will stay healthier in. terms of uh white matter and things like. that when you strength train it will. stay around a lot longer there's. actually a lot of research now that. starting to points to the fact that.

things like dementia and Alzheimer's. late on set specifically is highly. preventable and that by highly I mean. it's an extraordinarily High number. you'd have to get a neuroscientist on to. to really get numbers there but it it's. way more preventable than we realize. specifically from physical activity and. exercise as a as a not the only thing. there but a huge component to that. lastly why remember the way that you. move throughout the world has three big. components to it so when you pick your.

leg up like that and you just shifted. your toe what end up happening there is. three things some signal went from your. central nervous system this could be. your brain spinal cord it doesn't matter. nerves s a signal that's part one part. two those nerves activate or turn on. muscles and then the muscles contract. that's part two those muscles are. surrounded by connected tissue the. connected tissue actually is tight into. your bone pulling the connective tissue. is what actually made your foot move.

like that so connective tissue is part. three so the reality is anytime you're. strength training you're keeping. connective tissue healthier you're. keeping that muscle quality high and. you're continuing to keep that nervous. system activated keeping that nervous. system alive is keeping your brain alive. it's physically what you're doing it's. keeping your entire nervous system. around and fine tun it's the same. process and so when we tend to think. about strength training as something. we're doing for our muscles we cannot. forget we're also doing it for our. joints we're doing it for our bones and.

we're also doing it for our brains and. nervous system by far there's nothing. that will land even close to as. impactful as even moderate quality sleep. you you have to have that brain fog and. energy are the most common ones I'm. comfortable saying 10% of the time this. has been a hydration issue intermittent. fasting does nothing particularly. special doesn't help you lose fat any. faster long as you equate for protein. you quit for calories you you'll get.

basically the same result what's the. difference between walking cuz we always. hear walk 10,000 steps if that's the. least you can do what's happening when. you're walking 10,000 steps versus. running one you know a mile three miles. five miles whatever it may be versus. strength training with weights for your. legs great I man I love you're on fire I. love these questions so much let me ask. you a trick question and I'm telling you. I'm tricking you right now yeah right um. what's going to burn more calories. walking a mile. or running a mile running a.

mile what's calorie oh W king sorry my. bad a calorie is energy right calorie is. work right walking a mile running a mile. oh same thing it's the same thing. interesting yeah now it's a bit of a. trick because you probably would burn a. few more calories walking or run running. rather because there's a little bit of. inefficiency in the system right right. right but theoretically if you're simply. looking for caloric work this is why we. have so much evidence at this point you.

can manage calories any way you'd like M. that'll hit people if you like long. duration slower stuff you like you know. cardio or her I hate those phrases but. if that's ringing a bell to you which. phrases do you hate things like cardio. okay I because it doesn't mean anything. right what's cardiovascular training. anything that uses your heart like well. fantastic that is literally every form. of exercise right like it doesn't make. any sense right right right if you hate. that though you don't ever have to do it. we can get the same place and the energy.

thing I just gave you was just a little. silly example of saying hey look if we. really actually get down to the. physiology and science these are not. major differences like people think that. they are so I if I'm looking at Fitness. across the entire Spectrum here I think. it's helpful to break it up into three. Global areas if you can't tell by this. point in the show I'm a I'm a teacher so. I love it systems and numbers yeah it's. great number one what you laid out when. you said walking 10,000 steps I will. bucket that into physical activity this.

is human Movement we should have a. default state of human movement right um. whether this is walking standing playing. with our kids gardening if you're in a. laborer and you have a physical. fantastic so if you're listening to this. and you're thinking my lifestyle is. really active because I'm a a. construction worker or I'm a nurse and. I'm walking up okay you probably don't. need to go out of your way to do a whole. bunch of low intensity cardiovascular. exercise you could but if we're trying. to get really efficient and saying kind.

of what's my minimal viable option here. I could say if we got to give one up. let's give that one up because you're. getting your 10,000 or 15 or 20,000. steps if you've ever paid attention to a. teachers my wife spent 17 years as a. preschool special ed teacher her step. count was outrageous because her whole. life was just going three steps at a. time trying to keep a kid from like. doing something really naughty or. dangerous or whatever so there's a lot. of professions that are even outside of. true uh like construction jobs that get.

a lot of physical activity they don't. realize it so that person I'm going to. go we're good there maybe we're going to. go float on category two which is we'll. just call this structured cardiovascular. exercise this is intentionally going to. work out this could be intervals it. could be swimming it could be pickle. ball Sports uh wrestling like any number. of things it could be higher intensity. stuff or even lower intensity stuff but. you're you're going to work out right. heart rate going to be much higher here. you're probably going to break a sweat.

or something like that I hope you're not. breaking a sweat walking like it's. physical activity right so if you if. those things help you kind of understand. the general category of number two. that's what we're after so if we go back. to that nurse um or that teacher and. we're thinking okay we're good over. there but we still need to get one to. two days a week most likely of this. structured cardiovascular training if we. want to make it simple give me one day. where we get a really high heart rate. I'd like this I'll call Max it doesn't. necessarily need to literally be 100%.

but it's going to have to be well past. comfort zone one day a week is all we. really need up there doesn't have to be. a long time I don't care the method you. pick I don't care the machine you go on. if you want to run sprints I'm all for. it you want to swing kettle bells to do. it like great what I'm looking at is did. we get that node knocked off yes we got. high heart right up there cool category. three is more of our traditional. strength training thing and you asked a. little bit of a question earlier about. why is that. different why is it not the same why.

isn't the walking and the higher. intensity well I did Sprints why my legs. are tired and sore why is that not. strength training well there's a very. specific reason first of all it's pretty. good if that's all we can do I'll take. it that's a win but your muscles are. actually constructed of hundreds of. thousands of individual muscle fibers so. think of this like a ponytail so a. ponytail you think of as like one thing. but in reality it's just a conglomerate. of a a bunch of individual hairs that's. how your muscles work you have lots of.

hair call them muscle fibers in there. each one of those muscle fibers can be. broadly categorized as either fast. twitch or slow twitch fast twitch does. what it sounds like slow twitch is more. has more mitochondria in it it handles. most of your basal physical activity. right now you and I are using almost. exclusively slow twitch fibers nothing. we're doing fast here right and so. they're not fatigable so if I ask you to. take your finger maybe your right finger.

left finger we'll do left finger and. reach up and touch your nose with that. left finger now what you just did right. there is you activated a set of neurons. that said okay turn on the muscles in. combination to touch that nose the. neurons you just turned on are very low. threshold which means they're easy to. activate they're very energy. efficient but they're going to activate. generally those slow twitch fibers now. if I said um grab that can of juice will. you or juice sorry to call it juice yeah. what tea yeah sparkling to you yeah okay. great put that back in your left hand.

now do the same exact activity and raise. it to your. nose boom you just did the exact same. process but you needed to produce more. Force why because you got an extra eight. ounces or something in that H so your. body went wait a minute I'm assuming. nothing was going to be in my hand but. then I realized there's an additional. amount of force needed and so how did it. increase Force production your muscle. fibers can't squeeze any harder when. they contract they contract as hard as. possible every single time the only way. that you increase Force production is to. turn on more of those.

nerves we just train our nervous system. that's what it is more of those nerves. turned on if I were to now take that t. and we had it made it 40 kilos the only. way that you can continue to produce. more Force to lift it up to your nose is. to turn on those additional muscle motor. neurons which are going to be your fast. muscle fibers so if we extend this all. out when you're doing those other. activities you're not ever going to get. to that high threshold you're never.

going to use those muscle fibers and so. one of the things we know happens with. aging when we omit strength training or. strength training like activities those. motor neurons and those muscle fibers. die and this is why we lose strength and. power as we age is because we never. activate those. neurons I don't care about getting you. PRS in the gym right now we're trying to. make sure that we just don't lose any. functional capacity. 50 years from now the sprinting that got.

your leg sore was good but those nerves. are turned on when force is required. yeah we didn't get enough physical Force. production this is the exact same reason. why things like body weight exercise is. great it's good it can take people a. long way but. eventually we're going to run out of. some options here especially for our. lower body because we just won't have. enough load to activate all the nerves. or the motor units rather in the legs to. truly get Force production to keep them.

as strong and healthy as possible so. that third category we're talking about. remember category one was kind of. physical activity category two is that. structured cardiovascular category three. was structured strength training stuff. you got to give me one of those days a. week right so if we go back to this kind. of nurse lots of physical activity one. to two days a week of that one to two. days a week of something related to. strength we'd be good there we Chang. that scenario up to somebody more like. you and I was probably not doing a lot.

of steps throughout the day we're. sitting yeah you and I going to have to. engineer that back into our lives yeah. so the fitness routine I I don't know. any any about how your day is set up I'm. just assuming yeah you're sitting more. than that type of person that Avatar I. would put more structured physical. activity in your life we would maybe do. something like uh a 10-minute walk three. times a day two times a day we would. maybe hey let's add in a walking. treadmill Maybe maybe let's add in like. we would look for little games that we. can maybe we need to add in one or two.

days a week of an hour long hike as part. of your structured fitness program to. get that back right so what we're always. doing is again assessing the entire. nature and saying those are the three. big areas most people have and you got. to move well within those categories and. don't get hurt and never lose your. flexibility and there's more stuff but. categorically these are the first layers. of filters I'm going through and saying. okay if we have to leave one of these. things out maybe we can right so maybe. you sit at a desk job but then you go.

and you you do kickboxing class okay we. actually got node two out of there maybe. now we just put some physical activity. in there and put some strength training. in there and we're actually we're okay. we can survive with that right right. that's kind of the best way to think. about your lifestyle and think am I. getting any of these three great and. then if okay optimal is not realistic to. me then what do I have to do to just. kind of get MVP yeah out and then that's. how I go about thinking it yeah that's. brilliant that's such a great breakdown. because I think we often like you said. we kind of live in either extreme we.

doing a lot of number three and not one. or two and not three or however it works. and I think I've been through every. phase in my life of doing tons of one. ignoring two and three doing tons of two. ignoring one and three and then doing. tons of three and ignoring one and two. and so it's hard to be really good at. all three yeah this would go back to. quadrant and we say okay what's a. realistic goal yeah right okay realistic. goal is I'm I'm at five with business. okay well then maybe we go look he. doesn't have time to do three and a half.

hours of zone two and then do a strength. training and then do it that's we're. gonna lose that but we're not going to. let that be an excuse for never doing it. yeah yeah so next quarter we're g to. come back and you got to pay me back. we're going to go back into it we're. going to now emphasize maybe chloric. restriction we're going to do more. movement because it'll burn the same. calories and we have more time and you. got to promise to me we're going to take. business down to four MH deal great now. you have a window you're looking at it. you're going okay I got this month I got.

you don't have to feel bad about. skipping this thing because there's a. plan there's a strategy right but then. I'm also going to be able to hold you. accountable to something that was. realistic um and making progress so you. don't have to have those balances I. talked about all year round it's okay to. shift them different priorities. different times of the year look at your. schedule look what you want look at. what's realistic and then set yourself. up for the best chance for failure yeah. what for Success sorry yeah for sure. what recovery AIDS or what supportive.

environment do you need for strength. training because as you explained that's. like the most intense or the one that's. really working you the hardest in that. sense what do you need to support that. to make sure it's effective right so. with recovery when you think about. strength training recovery in most. people's mind is how sore was I okay. however you got to remember with higher. intensity cardiovascular stuff that has. a different recovery demand as well so I. don't want you to think strength. training requires my recovery because.

we've seen a lot of people burn. themselves into the ground with lots of. high-intensity cardiovascular training. and they have no idea why got it right. especially your your hard charging. Executives decision makers surgeons high. pressure. jobs high pressure high pressure high. pressure high ventilatory. rate high sympathetic drive all day and. then leave straight to the gym high high. high high high probably had a. pre-workout and then guess what we can't. sleep stunning right like so there's a.

recovery requirement for both pieces. there and they are separate right so. when we're thinking that higher. intensity cardiovascular stuff we're. thinking more systemic right so now I'm. looking at is our overall caloric. expenditure there do we have recovery. time are we downregulating throughout. the day are we not overindulging in. stimulants a whole set of equations over. there from the muscle side um number one. if we're getting excessively sore we. might have issues with our program we. shouldn't be getting that sore that.

often unless you're at a pretty high. level and even then the research is very. clear the am muscle soreness you get. from after lifting weights has almost no. correlation to how much muscle growth. you'll get from that workout wow so. that's the terrible proxy for good or. bad workout of how sore I guy what is. the proxy for a good or bad workout. there's a there's a fantastic model that. I heard years ago from a friend of mine. named Dr Mike isrel and I'm stealing. this Direct directly from him so I'll. give him his due credit for that you can.

kind of think of three things here we go. with the list again in the workout if. you're trying to grow muscle you should. probably feel that muscle this sounds. crazy but you'd be stunned how many. people have tried to say get a bigger. chest and they're benching and they're. benching and they're benching and it's. they're never getting a bigger chest. from and like are you feeling your chest. contract no well then for you that. position the way that your Anatomy Works. your Technique whatever equipment you're. using it wasn't probably targeting your. chest so then why do we expect your.

chest to grow doesn't mean it has to be. maximally contracted but there's got to. be probably some feeling of it's feeling. like it's contracted number two you. probably want to feel some sort of what. we call a pump in there so after the. session that muscle should look a little. bit bigger it should have contracted. filled with blood filled with fluids. like it should look a little bit bigger. number three you should feel it. something the next day a little bit. tight good um three out of 10 in terms.

of like how tight how sore it's probably. good if it's seven eight n out of 10 you. may actually be going backwards because. you may take so long to recover from. that that it's going to compromise the. quality of the next training. session if you love this stuff and. you're into it I'll take five or five is. okay uh but if more than that if you're. at zero then I might be thinking okay. maybe we didn't get actually enough out. of that session. two to three is a good level of soreness.

out of that so um we're initially. thinking those of things so number one. if you're getting excessively sore my. biggest tip for Recovery is making sure. you're not actually getting too sore to. begin with second one by far there's. nothing that will land even close to as. impactful as even moderate quality sleep. you you have to have that if you look at. any of uh the scientists that work in. this area of muscle growth if you look. at many of the people that coach. people here when you start seeing solid.

progress you start looking at sleep as. your first before you look at. supplements before you look at anything. else you definitely go to sleep and if. you see compromises in sleep you're. going to go back to that as your first. area of emphasis and I know people hate. to hear that but I'm telling you look at. the people who the best in the world at. growing muscle there's a reason that. that's like one of the first places. they're going after yeah so don't get. overly store number one make sure you're. prioritizing your sleep after that if.

you want to go to nutrition we can look. at it okay great maybe our total caloric. intake is low that's generally where. we're going to start from a protein. perspective often times um as long as. it's reasonable walk us through the. ideal amount of protein we actually need. yeah I mean reasonable is this is a. heavyish by the way something like one. gram per pound of body weight or 2.2. grams per. kilo rough starting point if you want to. go below that I'm not going to argue if.

you want to go below that is and let's. say you're at uh. 086 uh I can survive that that'd be. closer to say to like 1.6 grams per. kilogram so6 would be grams per pound. right so both units there for you I I. can leave with that people can grow. muscle like that no question about it. I'm people can grow muscle very clearly. on on many food sources plant-based. animal based like they're both effective. if you go above that you don't.

necessarily guarantee more growth either. and so what we're looking at with. protein for most people is like just be. in the stratosphere don't make it your. constraint don't make it the problem. once you make it not the problem then. it's probably like going up. more sometimes that's helped with with. people but it's generally not been the. thing that that has really been like oh. I was only at one gram per pound and I. went to 1.5 and I don't get sore anymore. that can happen but it's probably not. we're looking at um so it it it's again. it's one of those things where like just.

don't make it the contractor and you're. probably okay yeah that was a big one. for me because I've definitely I tried. to match my body weight and protein but. I just couldn't take it every day it. just wasn't possible for me ah we got a. lot of tricks we could get you there if. you want like how depends on how you're. eating it is why right so we can sneak. it in in different places uh really good. example of this is how many meals do you. eat a day roughly three meals okay great. so sliding in 25. gram in between before after a meal is.

not as hard as one thinks right if. you're trying to eat that in you know. eight ounces of chicken. breast that's going to be uncomfortable. but if we get that in in terms of this. is why protein shakes I'm plantbased as. well yeah no problem right we can easily. get that um friend of mine Dr Mike. Ormsby at Florida state has been doing. research in an area for over 15 years. now of protein feeding immediately. before bed. now a lot of people M like whoa whoa.

whoa whoa whoa what yeah that's. surprising 15 years of research in this. area he's tested combinations men women. metabolically unhealthy people like in. and in general most of his studies point. to the same thing that is 40 grams of. protein about 30 minutes before. bed he's yet to find any disturbances in. sleep now this is 40 grams of protein. this 120 to 150 60 calories these are. not 500 calorie full meals right this is.

a fairly modest amount admittedly I. think the best he's done with sleep so. far are kind of questionnaires and so I. know one of the things he's working on. right now is is more High Fidelity sleep. testing uh because this is one of the. things yeah obviously I'm a you know we. have I have a sleep company like I'm. very interested in maximizing sleep so. In fairness there it's plausible but on. the surface so far of all of his studies. he's yet to report any significant.

disturbances in sleep um what he has. reported though is very little change in. things like fat oxidation so one there's. this misnomer like if you eat right. before bed your body won't use this you. stored all his fat and he he's done so. many studies now that I think that door. is about a slam shut as possible that. that that's just not going to be the. case and so his research is also not. indicating. some over-the-top Advantage for muscle. growth it's not going to increase muscle.

growth by 25% like none of that's true. it's a modest benefit so for me when I. summarize his work I say okay look very. little. detriment an opportunity to get in 40. more grams of protein if you're low on. your protein targets so if you're okay. on your protein targets you don't I. don't think you need to do this I don't. think that there's a huge Advantage but. if you're really struggling this is one. of the things we'll go to and 30 minutes. by the way is a arbitrary number MH if.

you go oh my gosh I tried that one time. and I don't do it then like absolutely. there's there's not worth there's not a. ton of benefit here and I'm trying to. make that really clear right I don't. like over selling this is just hey. there's no detriment really and if it's. not messing with your sleep and this. helps you get closer to your protein I. would imagine and by the way he's done. this in plant-based as well same thing. like basically the same results from. plant-based ones so maybe 40 is too much. for you all right give me 25 mhm give me.

20. 15 we don't want to like don't get too. lost in detail right the point is here. you go you had dinner at 6 630 something. like that probably and then maybe a. couple of hours later you you want to do. Whole Food great and his research you. know scientifically he uses protein. powders just to control oh he's actually. used whole food as well you want to do. yogurt thing you want to do whatever. your favorite source of protein is 150.

160 calories like these are not all of a. sudden like massively disrupt your blood. flow and stuff like that there so it's I. think it's a very viable option it's not. required no special magic benefit to it. but that's one of the many little tricks. we can use to plug in and you you kind. of put together two or three of those. strategies you'd be surprised 60 80. grams of protein can kind of come like. that and you're like oh wow like that. was actually sort of yeah that's. surprising I want to your thoughts about. another thing that I think people get. hung up on and and maybe don't know the.

insights behind is what should you eat. before an after a workout I have an old. YouTube video up that is called. something like post exercise anabolic. window I think it's like 25 minutes or. something so you want all the details. you can go there I'll give you the. two-minute version right for those that. that don't want to do that the post. exercise anabolic window was this idea. that there's this magic it started off. as 30 minutes. window post exercise where you had to. consume your nutrients specifically.

carbohydrates and protein to maximize. and there was good rational molecular. mechanisms as to why we thought that. existed summarized many years later it's. very clear that that's that's just not. the case and so the way you want to. think about this is total protein intake. throughout the day is going to determine. almost all of your variance there so as. long as you hit your total and and even. I'll say total protein intake throughout. the day. is not even that. important it's probably thought about as.

like protein throughout the week so like. like long as kind of like maybe you're a. little bit lower today a little bit. higher tomorrow that's that's how real. life actually works 100% right yeah you. end up having steak for one night and. you got extra 60 grams a protein the. next night you had a pasta dish and what. all it'll be okay right so don't get. overly concerned about you were 10 grams. low today or 20 like you'll be fine. right so that matters most there are. some exceptions though when you are. performing at a high level of energy. expenditure let's let's take some of our.

like baseball players it's not a big. deal because the energy expenditure in. baseball is not incredibly high for. Major League Baseball NBA players this. is different though our UFC fighters way. different our professional boxers way. different they're training hard twice a. day almost always right um golfers a. little bit different so if you're. training really really hard whether. you're an athlete or not but you're. you're a work outter you're super active. you're on the walking treadmill you know. you're you're an endurance boat you burn. all those calories your nutrition window.

might matter because you may not have. enough time to restore muscle glycogen. remember you store carbohydrates in your. muscle and you'll use some of those. during exercise and if you're doing a. lot of hard work you use a lot of it and. then if you're not consuming nutrients. you just you kind of run out of time. before then the session happens again. four hours later so in those particular. cases nutrient timing does start to. matter but it's not magic molecular. signaling window as so much as it is.

practical issue of just like you ran out. of time to refill those muscle glycogen. stores and so your training for the next. session went down because we we couldn't. refuel we actually just completed an. intermittent fasting study and it was. the first of its kind because we were. looking specifically at there's been a. lot of research uh Grant Tinsley and. Texas Tech has done a lot of awesome. work and many others on 168 intermittent. fasting right really really common you. eat all your calories mm in an 8 Hour.

window let's just say you don't eat. breakfast you start eating at 11 a.m. and you eat dinner at 700 like really. common thing lots of research on that. compared to normal feeding three meals a. day six five whatever and the the. evidence is pretty clear at this point. intermittent fasting does nothing. particularly special doesn't help you. lose fat any faster or anything like. that really no not at all wow long as. you equate for. protein you equate for calories you.

you'll get basically the same result wow. some Studies have reported maybe like a. half a kilogram extra fat loss others. not but if you look at the research on. aggregate it's about the same if it fits. your lifestyle if it help you be more. adherent tremendous I'm all for it. that's great nothing's super special. yeah about it for caloric restriction. right yeah probably. all 15 20 studies from different Labs at. this point so like generally they're all.

kind of saying the same thing yeah well. we were interested in though is what. about if you're trying to grow muscle. what happens right because all those. Studies have put people in a caloric. deficit trying to lose way right so they. bring them down there for the most part. or caloric maintenance so we took young. highly trained people that try were. trying to grow muscle we put them in a. caloric Surplus we went way above energy. needs put them on very high protein. one group did 168 one group did not and. we did everything we took muscle.

biopsies looked at molecular signaling. genetic signaling single fibers. adaptations we looked at muscle size we. looked at sleep we looked at digestion. we looked at Hunger we looked at. happiness complaints of how hard or easy. the diet was we looked at all of it net. result there were differences but in. terms of muscle. growth about the same wow one of the. biggest things with the fasting group. was there was just a lot of anecdotal. like oh this is hard it's just hard and.

specifically the problem was. carbohydrates right it was hard for them. to get their carbohydrates in without. getting a lot of GI distress we had that. come up a number of times performance. specifically leg strength started to. come down in the fasting group and I. think we have pretty good rationale to. suggest if you're trying to maximize um. because we were progressively. overloading them basically you can. imagine this like you're in the gym. training and you finish every set this.

isn't exactly what we did but it gives. you the concept you finish every set and. let's say you do leg press at 200 pounds. and you do 10 reps okay next time you. come in you're going to do 11 and if you. did 11 next time we're going to do 12 so. like every single session if they were. getting they were gonna so they were. training really hard for eight weeks I. just don't think they had the recovery. capacity right I think either there was. Under reporting because it was just like. I can't I'm going to going to write the. number down but I can't really eat that. food that's that's always possible in.

like real human studies yeah or there. was actually and we had in the paper we. have pretty good rationale to think that. this is a real finding so coming all the. way back like if you're trying to. maximize strength and muscle gain and. you're training really. hard both would work um in fact actually. the intermittent fasting group didn't. put on as much fat so the reality of it. is it's my opinion this is how science. this is how nutrition really works one. of the reasons I advocated so hard to.

ask sleep questions um fatigue was. higher in the fasting group too oh. interesting energy got lower interesting. harder throughout the day more naps. actually naps were the same but just. perceived energy got lower towards the. end of the study people go into. change my from my worldview that's. exercise that's nutrition there's many. forms of change though right when you go. into change you often do it because. you're inspired you heard something you. heard your podcast you're like great I'm. going to try that that sounded awesome.

so you go into it with an expectation. the reality of it is very few things are. panaceas so maybe higher protein is. better for muscle but maybe it hurts. your. digestion okay maybe it hurts your sleep. maybe it then helps your horm I'm making. those up yeah yeah but that's the real. honest true truth how it works right so. right you're going to have to make your. selections right I don't like to be the. person of going like you should optimize. for this or that right but you should. have some knowledge of going okay I'm.

going to choose yourman fast okay I like. it because I get AB andc but then I'm. probably going to lose D&B these things. you're constantly experimenting and. figing it out yeah I really appreciate. that take because I think that's what. it's been for me i' I found that it's so. many things that you have heard and. tried to do and felt it was right and. it's like well actually I just want to. feel and it goes back to what you. started with right how do I want to look. how do I want to feel and what was the. third one performance perform right yeah. and so I I spend a lot of time in that. how do I want to feel and perform and so.

many things that I'm told would help me. look better are not things that help me. feel and perform better that's probably. pretty true yeah right yeah and no but I. just love the take that it's about. figuring it out how important is. hydration and how much water do we. actually need okay this is another one. where if you want to get scared look at. the hydration research scared in the. sense of um. you want to pick erectile dysfunction. you want to pick headaches you want to. pick in fact there there's actually a.

paper that I just saw a week ago two. weeks. ago less than I actually yeah I think it. was about 1%. dehydration will reduce cognitive. function in a statistically significant. manner right so if you are less than 1%. dehydrated which is almost functionally. impossible for you to notice you will. see clinically meaningful and. statistically uh significant reductions. in a number of different markers this is. when I say cognitive function I mean I. think I can't remember honestly. specifically this paper but it's often.

things like word recall executive. decision making um short-term memory. things like that right so again can't. remember the exact metrics in this. particular study so you'll see that you. can pick Thermo regulation you can pick. I mentioned sexual function endocrine. Health body composition sleep like. you'll you'll run Yourself Dead worrying. about this that said it's not as scary. as it sounds because when we typically. report like 1% dehydration 2%.

dehydration what we're talking about is. percentage of your body weight and not. like oh my God I'm I'm just tiny below. optimal you have to be like pretty far. below optimal to be one% of your body. you have most of your body is water so. to lose 1% of that is you know a liter. or sort of more right so that's to say. when we have done this a lot I'd. probably say I'm making this number up. somewhere between five and 15% of our. people that we've coached over the years.

have come in with problems and all we. had to do is just get their hydration. not terrible and this is everything from. headaches constant headaches to brain. fog brain fog is probably the biggest. one brain fog and energy are the most. common. ones 10% I'm comfortable saying 10% of. the time it's just been a hydration. issue wow what what is it the other. times sometimes it is by the way. sometimes it's overhydration interesting. very like. probably this is just anecdote here this.

is not my lab I don't know the research. on this or if it exists or not but this. is just what we've seen. generally women have an issue with. overhydration there's like my wife and. her friends have these like called. emotional support models it's like they. go to work or whatever it's like seven. different water a tea and a like a. recovery drink and their hydration it's. like bottles everywhere right I'm. talking about you Daren and. Danny um but sometimes that's a case of. like they just consistently drink water. water water water and so they get they.

get close to what's called hyponatremia. that's the science word for salt right. sodium more specifically and hypo. meaning low so what ends up happening is. not that your salt or sodium gets low in. your system um by the way this is. actually really common in endurance. athletes and every year somebody dies in. an endurance race from hypon. netrum drinking too much pure water you. drink too much pure water it gets really. dilute sodium is half of the it's part. of the equation rather that causes an.

electrical gradient that lets muscles. contract why that kills you as your. heart is a muscle so your heart will. will stop Contracting because there's no. gradient difference there not a positive. and negative charge from one side of the. cell the other side so it won't contract. and and transmit. electricity it's not really super common. you're not you're probably not going to. dry drinking like a little bit of extra. water but if you remember back in the. day of there used to be things like um. fraternity rushes and things like that. where they make the the new pledges. drink a gallon of water or there's been.

terrible stories of parents like. punishing their kids and again it's not. really common but people have died. pretty routinely really yeah lots of. fraternity people died from these like. that's terrible you just your heart will. stop yeah right you get super diluted so. most likely you're not drinking you're. not going to kill yourself but what you. can get is some way up that journey to. where. electricity again I'm kind of screwing. up some science here on purpose to for.

communication purposes but if you can't. send electricity from one side of a. neuron to the next one then why are you. expecting cognitive function to be at. its peak so we have seen this again many. times it's not the most common maybe 10%. of people that's hydration issue of that. 10% probably I'd say 70% are under. hydrating so 30% of that T it's a small. number but it is. real are just drinking too much the rest. and the rest of that are on the opposite. side of the equation right so they're. drinking insufficient amounts of water.

or they're having things that look like. dehydration that are this is going to. sound funny but they're actually we'll. call them anxiety related there's a very. clear relationship between. hyperventilation and this is resting. hyperventilation so if you're sitting. there and you don't realize it but your. respiratory rate is actually. like I'm exaggerating but you're making. a point right yes yes yes that can. actually put you in a position of of. where you're actually getting rid of too. much carbon dioxide because you're. breathing in oxygen breathing out carbon.

dioxide you're getting carbon dioxide. concentration too low in your system. this is going to put you into what's. called respiratory alkalosis okay. respiratory alkalosis is oftentimes then. matched with metabolic acidosis so that. that entire side equation tries to. balance the pH in your system one of the. mechanisms it has to do that is then. start altering how your kidneys re. resorb and and reabsorb electrolytes. salts and things like that which then. Alters hydration so some of the times.

this comes back to us going and I'm get. I'm using anxiety like very. inappropriately here but roughly of. saying oh okay this is a hydration issue. but that's not because you're not. drinking enough water or having enough. salt or whatever the case is this is the. fact that your system is continually. trying to dump fluids that's the problem. we have to come backwards and solve so. we can cover the symptom give you more. salt or reduce water something like that. but really we got to work all the way. back to the beginning and say like let's.

stop this problem from reoccurring that. happens really commonly we see that a. bunch in that you know 10% sort of. people what are some other. healthy solutions for brain fog yeah I. mean we get this one a lot so it's funny. um I would say brain fog people I don't. know again I'm making a number up but it. feels to me like 90% of the time they. think. some thing unique and special is going. on some micronutrient is out of whack.

they've got some sort of toxic thing. floating around they got a pathogen or a. gut bacteria thing and those those. happen we we see those and that's a real. thing. mostly it's the basics and I and I. really truly mean that we have a very. high success rate at r with brain fog. really high success rate and of the. majority of the time it is the okay for. you it might might be your sleep is. completely. dysfunctional boom you maybe don't. realize your sleep is.

dysfunctional gone brain fog gone like. that's it right um maybe it has nothing. to do with your sleep your sleep is okay. maybe it's not great but it's okay and. your nutrition is really mixed with your. physiology great sometimes it is gut. microbiome related sometimes we do see. Heavy Metal toxins at at high. concentrations like those things are. real I would say if you don't have. access to a program like ours or. Advanced testing. if you do the basics really get your. Stress Management under control Quality.

Water like really all that stuff and I'm. really trying to emphasize that because. that's mostly free stuff you don't need. to turn to coaching you don't need to. turn to a stool sample you don't need to. turn to a blood test you don't need to. buy supplements yet get your house in. order with movement sunlight quality. food a large percentage of your brain. fog is probably going to go away if. you've tried that and haven't had. success maybe you can take additional. steps but really um we we've had we joke.

sometimes um that like we've had a lot. of people spend a lot of money and we're. like you knew the answer we told you. this coming in and you so past that it. can be micronutrient related there's no. question about that um there we we see. that pretty routinely that can look like. all kinds of different stuff um I'm I'm. wishing there was like one or two I. could pull out and say J it's usually B6. or B12 it's not the honest answer though. it has come up but like. sometimes it's it's honestly it's super.

sporadic yeah if you get your breathing. in order though if you get stress in. order you get reasonably close with. hydration reasonably close with Quality. Foods and see some sun like most of you. will probably see really significant. improvements yeah Andy I'm intrigued we. talking about all of this I'm wondering. what's your schedule where what do you. prioritize well I have a family I have. five companies and I have a research lab.

so let's answer it with your your. quadrant oh my quadrant yeah we start. there yeah no so that's actually really. cool um because I I do this. practice um just moved my family pretty. recently moved my lab so now my lab is. in uh I'm at Parker University in Dallas. X we're building a 65,000 foot human. performance center it's going to be open. to the public so really really excited. about that do we're going to be able to. do a lot of testing and stuff in there.

graduate students a lot of research in. there um we have a cool Visitor Center. that's GNA be a part of it I'm just like. so stoked to be congrats man that's. awesome thank you man so that all. happened this quarter and then um my my. sleep company absolute rest our blood. work company vitality and our coaching. program um all this stuff came out so. this quarter is was quite frankly a. seven and in business and I have to give. a huge shout out to my wife cuz like we.

knew coming into this quarter I'm like. this is going to be rough I'm not gonna. say she's hasn't complained at all but. for the most part so my fitness has been. a one the lowest it's probably been in. my memory I'm doing the best I can my my. coach Tim is sort of like geez are you. ever gonna train I'm like I'm doing like. doing sort of the best I can yeah um. everything the rest of it's one right so. it's one one one all category recovery. one relationships one my relationships. personal things like that have been. almost non-existent very intentionally. that said I'm super stoked because um.

I'm about well in fact when I leave here. I'm going to be spending about seven. straight days with nothing but family I. love that so I'm paying that back um. when the new quarter comes and when we. start off that that's going to go back. down to five from a business perspective. and that's all going to come back up in. training so I'm super stoked to get back. after it but we made this decision in. early summer. um just it's the unfortunate thing of. like the the lab move and our family.

move and two of our companies really. taking off like really taking off and I. was like I see where this is going and. I'm just going to set expectations. personally yeah it's great to hear the. reality of it right like that's the. point that's the that's the reality of. life that you've kind of had throughout. this whole conversation I feel like. you've given no false Solutions quick. fixes there's there's no hacks and. habits that are like it it's not who you. are and and I appreciate it because even. in your life you're like yeah this is.

what it actually looks like when you are. working out consistently training every. day what does your workout look like so. I have different phases is what I do. right now one of my biggest things I. look forward to every year my dad my. brother and I always go on a hunting. trip in the fall right like all kinds of. stuff this year we're up in about 10,000. FT elevation in the in Western Wyoming. and we're running up and down the hills. basically the whole time so I generally. schedule my entire year around that. phase which means prior to that it was a.

lot more long duration um rucking moving. training things like that not. emphasizing muscle growth not. emphasizing even like V2 Max or anything. like that I need to be able to handle. the mountain and I need to be able to. handle my respiration and the elevation. so I'm geared towards that coming back. off of that trip then I knew this. quarter was going to be awful so this. quarter was just about moving I'm trying. to move I did a little workout yesterday. in the hotel room um today all I. basically got in was was sauna for the.

most part right no time and I had well. that's a lie I did a bath I did a bath. in the hotel room it's like the best I. could come up with I had no break and. meeting and I'm like I can get a. 15minute hot bath in and like sweat move. throughout the day okay that's how it is. now when I go back um to start off after. this refresher here it's generally going. to look something like this I'm mostly. going to be lifting weights three to. four times times per week and I don't. ever have a Monday's legs Tuesday's arms.

things like that because that's never. going to happen I just have the next. workout and I get that thing done the. next time it's available so I don't. actually have like seven day routines I. just have a thing I'm trying to get done. over across 90 days and so what that. ends up looking like is generally like. 70 workouts I try to get done in 90 days. sometimes that's nine or 10 or 11 days. in a row because I like have the space. and then I know I'm going to have two. workouts in eight days MH right so I'm. just like if I have a chance to train. I'm going to train because I know like. schedule is going to eat me right now so.

I do that so generally three to four. days a week of lifting generally one to. two days a week of trying to move a ton. this could be a lot of steps up and down. the mountain uh where I live this could. be I will do many of my meetings where. like people always laugh at me because. I'm just going to like Pace back and. forth I love pacing when I work so I'm. just like trying to crew movement. throughout the day um and then something. at least once a week like I said earlier. where I touch maximum possible heart. rate in a lot of different varieties the.

last probably year or so of lifting. specifically has. been probably the most frustrating year. of more like almost year and a half now. because I made a conscious decision of. saying you know I feel good everything. is great but I need to be thinking about. the next 60 years and so I have a couple. little asymmetries and a couple little. things that I know are not moving how. they should be moving so I have a coach.

and all of my programming is just. correcting those things so the the. workouts are just infuriating because. it's all the stuff you suck at it's none. of the stuff that like feels these big. rewarding things out of it but it is a. saying it's me stepping back and going. what if you spend a year what if you. spend a year and you weren't trying to. maximize growth or maximize strength. you're really trying to maximize joint. health and function. would you regret that 40 years from now. I doubt it right and so it's it was just.

like looking back and going let's run. the counterfactual what if you didn't do. that you'd probably regret it yeah so. then you make that choice so um Lifting. for me specifically the last year has. just been like so not fun but like. that's the conscious decision I made of. investing in myself so yeah um thanks. for the man yeah man yeah I really. appreciate it it's it's great to hear. and I think everyone who's listening can. give themselves a bit more grace as well. because you know you know all of this.

and I think often people look at people. who who know a lot and are doing so much. research and have good healthy habits. yeah but there's a reality of you know. and and I I you know same for me like in. the work that I do like it's you know. I'm constantly trying to share the. moments where I'm like you know probably. didn't respond as well as I could have. or wasn't as mindful as I should have. been or you know that's the reality of. of what it means to be alive and so it's. a practice man it's always a practice. right yeah absolutely uh Andy we end. every episode with a final five but.

before we do that there are a few more. questions I kind of wanted to loop back. to um and so one of them was why do you. suggest that we don't work out at night. um you can workout at night but you want. to just be careful of how much is. disrupting your sleep and what type of. workout you're doing especially if your. day is laid out the example I think I. gave earlier was really high intensity. uh sympathetic fight ORF flight type of. day if you're then always matching that. with additional sympathetic Drive some.

people that's okay but a lot of people. on our experiences that has been their. you know quote unquote root cause of. fill in the blank right so low. testosterone brain fog sleep sort of. like okay when you're on gas pedal all. day maybe for you right now your. exercise needs to be a little bit more. restorative rather than the opposite. it's not always the case though I train. at night with generally no issues. whatsoever I like it I almost always. train at the end of the day um so it can.

be just fine got it just be mindful of. yeah if you're looking at your system. and going okay great um I can do really. high-intensity stuff I can do and we've. like our sleep technology is pretty. outrageous so I can verifiably say these. things I can do lots of stimulatory. stuff I can watch Lord of the Rings in. 8k on a 90 in screen I don't have this. but like right in front of my my face a. minute before bed and I have zero issues. with blue light I have zero issues with. stimulation and that's just how you're.

wired sleep architecture is going to be. fine sleep duration Sleep Quality the. amount of time the depth within each. sleep phase I track all these every. night. right no change for me so intensity of. exercise is going to have no bearing on. on me but for you specifically yeah. totally what I've seen though for a lot. of our. people is um not always but many people. it's the opposite where we have to be a. little bit more Mindful and so what we. might have to do is say okay we can.

train but your training has to look like. this we have to redefine what training. is for you we have to do our higher. intensity stuff earlier or at minimum. and this is what we do for our athletes. because they don't have an option they. have to their competition is at night. right NBA plays at 7 o'clock or you get. the idea let's at least match the. high-intensity work with down regulation. post exercise if we just walk off the. court or walk out of the gym and go. right now now we finally see our kids. for the day or whatever like you're just.

asking for disaster here give me five. minutes three to seven is what I say. give me three to seven minutes can we. down regulate a little bit and we have. really found that can give us. 80% of what we need to get it's not 100. but if all those things are or your Fus. you're like that's it that's my only. time of day and I'm not giving up my. okay fine give me my five minutes post. training you can do this in the car you. can do this in the locker room or. wherever it is lights down cover your.

face with our athletes will put just. their shirt or their towel over their. face lie on your back I would love to. give you a specific and highly designed. down regulation breath work. routine that's what we that's our gold. standard but if you can't do that or. won't do that just give me the other. stuff fine just breathe through your. nose all right you want to do a double. extended exhale so you want to do a. Cadence like a 4 second inhale 8C exhale. generally the longer you're exhaling the. more down regulatory it is like okay.

great like we have lots of protocols we. can go into tons of customized breathing. programs we do that a lot but if not can. you make it as simple as go sit in your. car close your eyes and just breathe. through your nose set a timer for four. minutes that actually is a stunning. amount of Effectiveness to that wow I. love that man that's great yeah I I. definitely Str I was playing pickle ball. at night I was doing my morning work out. in the gym and then pickle boy in the. evening it was destroying my sleep like. I it would take me 2 hours like I'm.

someone who thankfully for as sleep. pretty quickly and it's like I would get. in a bed at like 9:30 and I wouldn't get. to bed till like 11:30 12 cuz I was just. like Wired from playing pickle ball for. like seven to n or whatever it was and. so I'm having to figure out I I I just. stopped playing because it was having. such a big impact but I appreciate it. I'll try that out I will try it out yeah. you you'd be surprised it might not be. enough for you you might you might have. to do 15 or 20 minutes. might not work at all but but give it a. go you might we've seen enough I'm might.

work I'll try it out another audience. question we had to answer was what do. you suggest for women with PCOS in terms. of an ideal workout so when you get into. situations like that whether it's PC. whether it's just simply really. difficult menstrual cycles to manage. whether it's a menopause or you know you. know if we're going through it things. like that um this area of research is so. tricky because symptomology is so wide. ranging. defining menopause is uh physiologically. easy but even understanding you know it.

could be six months or 10 years like. it's a really hard thing symptoms are up. and down the menstrual cycle alone. independent PCOS you're you're adding on. top of those things I have yet to see a. clear-cut specific this is better got it. um and just sort of like if you want to. follow some guidelines and you're. feeling better I'm I'm all in like. that's great if not though I I don't. have a specific thing that says you have. to do this this way um we on are yet to.

give women different styles of training. while we're here we don't train them. differently just because they're women. we don't um do anything different. throughout the menstrual cycle with. training or nutrition just because. they're women um we do everything that's. based on the individual so if if we need. to do s stuff we absolutely will but we. do not walk them in and saying oh okay. our women do this solid training our men. do this we we absolutely do not and I. know that was what you're asking but no. no but that's really useful yeah I. didn't know that no I'm intrigued we we. definitely you don't have different. protocols you have it it's so individual.

it's not based on gender it's not like. oh you're male so this is better for. your strength than female yeah it yes. like men and women have massive. differences and we're always going to. acknowledge and pay attention to those. things but I'm always just coaching you. and what are the differences that people. should be aware of you have clear. hormonal differences generally right um. one of the things that we have seen in. in our research and I would say it's. held true in our coaching practices a. lot of the times women handle volume. better from an exercise perspective and.

when I say handle I mean you can give. them more reps more sets they can train. more often their recover is faster the. other way you can flip that why is that. well we've actually done some work here. and nobody really knows I notic it's. that with my wife my wife's like. that you you honestly like it's pretty. true uh my friend Brett Contreras made a. a really awesome post recently and I'm. like wow this is great specifically on. this point again I want to give him. credit cuz I'm like oh actually he he. nailed this when people say things like.

oh we don't train men and women. differently like I just said I generally. hear that go okay you never trained. women like you never train women if. you're gonna say that that's exactly. what Brett's post was I like okay. because honestly we we sort of do now. walking in we do not but I know that. often times we can bring the volume up. also it often times means they need more. volume not always but I'm hedging. quickly of going okay we got to start. probably thinking more volume here and. if we're not getting responses as. quickly as we want we're pretty quick to.

just go to volume right and often times. when oftentimes men that'll go the other. direction when it comes to Performance. too women because of that generally. don't need as much of a taper they don't. need to have they don't have to back off. as much to get that super compensation. that that peing day again these are very. yeah Brad generalizations right we're. always coaching the individual yeah we. can't get specific without uh totally. Avatar in front of us exactly so um. those are some ones that we kind of like. pop out to immediately where we see.

differences I've coached world champion. females in probably six or more Sports. at this point so we've done powerlifting. and UFC and a bunch of different sports. I'm. wrestling I can also say most often. women are more in tune with their body. than men they generally give better. feedback you if you go ask one of our. male athletes like how you feeling today. like I know what they're going to say. pretty good coach trick whatever where.

women are more likely to be like I feel. pretty good but uh back's a little bit. tighter here energy is just a touch down. you're like oh and they're really in. tune with this thing feels a little bit. awful over here men are like kind of. blunt instruments a lot of the times. women will um be more responsive to. changes in caloric intake where again. men are a little more robust to those. things so you have to be be really. careful you have to be really careful of. lowering calories too much too long for. women you got to be careful not men but.

you can get away with it a little bit. more so when it comes to just sort of. these generalities those are the ones. that pop up the most some things that. are counterintuitive actually since. we're here we and there's a lot of. research on this that I say empirically. our coaching practice. scientifically uh we actually just. published a meta analysis I was a. co-author on this one so uh somebody. else LED this one. but you don't really see much of a. difference in rate of increase between. men and women in terms of strength and.

muscle it's not that different you grow. at about the same relative rate it's. just that men are generally bigger so if. you both gain 10% your absolute amount. is is far much higher so it looks like. you just got it there there are some. subtle differences there within that met. analysis you can read the details if. you're a nerd like that but the the. take-home message for that is it's it's. very much the same and I would say our. coaching experience has seen that we. don't see women on average struggling to.

put on more muscle relative to men or. strength um if the training and the. nutrition and all the other factors are. equal they're going to progress pretty. much equally um for a long long period. of time the last one that would jump out. to me is on a similar note there is we. generally see women through aging are a. little bit more successful against joint. injury oh interesting men are going to. be a little more banged up mhm for the. most part so I think that's a believable. story too I don't know why but well I.

can I could guess go on a little more. aggressive probably worse. decision-making but you get it so. categorically those would be some of the. differences got it thank you Andy I want. to ask you your final five these. questions have to be answered in one. word to one sentence maximum oh boy so. the first question is what is the best. health advice you've ever heard received. or given the notion of adaptability and. plasticity is far greater than people. realize your genetics play a big part of.

course but your lifestyle is far more. important to your end story than your. genetics so you have the ability the. capacity Within Reach to make a. significant Improvement in any aspect of. that look feel perform that you choose. some work there but you have autonomy in. your body that's very hopeg giving I. love that uh question number two what's. the worst Health advice you've ever. heard of Rec. GED oh. boy I'm going to cheat with my answer. here and give a antithesis to my first.

answer which is the idea that there is a. certain food you can or can't eat that. all of us in humanity have to be eating. or sleeping or training or living a. certain way or we're going to be. unhealthy that is colossally untrue. unfair and unhelpful great answer uh. question number three for someone who's. really trying to lose some stubn been. belly fat what should they do this will. sound a little bit counterintuitive but. a large portion of your resting.

metabolic rate Your Metabolism is. defined by how much muscle you have so. getting those last few pounds off the. belly maybe try to put some muscle. on my guess is you've already done. everything else so try that option and. and would you recommend how or that's. case specific in yeah totally question. number four what's something you used to. believe to be true. about health that you disagree with now. I have a lot of answers I've been open.

honest I probably should do more about. things that change I was very against. cardiovascular exercise uh I thought. like strength training is the only thing. you need to do that that that's very. wrong I was also very against low. carbohydrate diets in any form I was. very against intermittent fasting and I. think I wasn't totally wrong on that but. those are viable strategies for most. people they're not perfect for all goals. but those things are options so I'd say.

those three specific ones but in general. I was simply too closed-minded about. assuming I knew what everyone wanted in. terms of the outcome and the. goal when you do that you start limiting. options and you are working too much off. of hubris the more you realize people. are looking for different things then. you start to realize okay these are. potentially acceptable they just aren't. going to get to where I thought everyone. wanted to go and that was not the. appropriate approach so all of your.

questions by the way I'm in like. sentence nine 10 but I love it man it's. so good uh Fifth and final question it's. a question we ask everyone who's ever. been on the show if you could create one. law that everyone in the world had to. follow what would it be you know what's. quite funny about this answer is I. literally sent a tweet out the yesterday. that said I think we should make it. illegal for to recline their seats on. airplanes that's so good all my top of. my bra I'd be really mad at you for that. little God I hate that but you can reine.

yours too that's the whole point not cuz. you're smashing into my lap and I can't. work all right oh you're a worker that's. yeah I'm like you're plan time is. perfect work time now plane time is the. only time I switch to entertainment so. oh really yeah I'll read a book or I'm. watching something or no man I hate it. so my my cheeky answer here would be I'd. make it illegal to recline seats on. airplanes I love it and you everyone. thank you so much for listening and. watching Andy thank you for all your. incredible insights wealth of wisdom I. hope that you will take away one thing.

and apply it from this episode remember. that's my request you won't be able to. do all of it you won't be able to do. everything try and pick the one thing. and just apply it to make a shift in. your life follow Andy across social. media his podcast everything else he has. going on to make sure that you're. connected to his Insight I'm sure it's. had a big impact on you I know it has on. me and Andy I look forward to having you. on the show many many times thank you so. much that was my pleasure man I can't. wait to come back yeah thank you if you. love this episode you will enjoy my.

interview with Dr Daniel Aman on how to. change your life by changing your brain. if we want a healthy mind it actually. starts with a healthy brain you know. I've had the blessing or the curse to. scan over a thousand convicted felons. and over a hundred murderers and their. brains are very damaged.