Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 118: 5 Lifestyle Things I Do For Myself *wellness non-negotiables*

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

In this episode, Danny shares five non-fitness activities he does for his long-term health and wellness. The five things are:sauna useoutdoor walksgetting to bed earlygardeningtherapy---Thanks For Listening!---Check Out Our New Partner Elemental Labs!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE!Want Coach Danny to Fix Your S*** (training, nutrition, lifestyle, etc) fill the form HERE for a chance to have your current approach reviewed live on the show. Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!---- Support the Show By Shopping for Your Supplements At Legion and using the code “DANNY”Support the Show by Staying Hydrated with LMNTSupport the Show.

Hey everybody, welcome in to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matrenga, and in today's episode, I'm going to talk about five non-tracking, non-calorie, non-working out things that I do to improve my health and wellness every day. I'm very aware that most of you probably listen to this podcast because you want to optimize your performance in the gym Maybe your fat loss or maybe you're a personal trainer and you want to have more actionable tips in some from the trenches wisdom To take to your clients

Uh, and I think that's great and I think that's what we focus on here most of the time But there are some elements I think of your general health whether that be physical or mental That you can focus on that will enhance your performance goals, your aesthetics goals, your fat loss goals, right? I tell people all the time, wherever it is that you're at, if you do the best you can to monitor or keep your health in check, you'll give yourself the best chance possible to achieve your goals. Meaning healthy bodies and healthy people tend to do better than people who are not healthy and well.

And while those are esoteric terms that often get thrown around a lot and everybody's definition of quote-unquote health and quote-unquote wellness are very different, I do think that there are some small fundamental habits that I'm going to share with you today that you might find practical and might be worth implementing into what it is you're already doing to live a healthy, fit life. Because truth be told, most of you who are, you know, fans enough of my work that you listen to my podcast, I'm guessing you take that stuff pretty seriously. But before we get into it, just a little housekeeping. Ho, ho, ho, everybody. Football is back. I have enjoyed watching preseason football so far. I know that a lot

of you have a team that you root for or you're chief for across the country. I'm a Rams fan, kind of stuck in purgatory here in the Northern Bay Area with a bunch of 49ers fans. But I will say I liked what I saw from Trey Lance, the 49ers rookie quarterback, as well as from Justin Fields of the Bears, Trevor Lawrence, of course, the anointed one himself, finally being on an NFL field after what seemed like years of tanking for Trevor. So it comes as no surprise that those two guys, I think in particular, performed well. Those were the guys I thought that were in the best positions to do well early on in the season. I like Lance's

situation in San Francisco with a good coach and a good supporting cast. And I think that Urban Myers brought in pieces that are going to help Trevor. But I also liked what I saw from Zach Wilson of the Jets. And I was most impressed with what I saw from actually Mac Jones and Justin Fields of the Patriots and Bears, respectively. So if you're a fan of the Jaguars, Jets, Niners, Bears, or Patriots, you should be pretty happy with the kids you got back in training camp the next couple weeks here, and I'm expecting all of them to win the starting job by the end of the season.

So a new era of quarterbacks, and if you like football, you like quarterback play because that's really what it all comes down to these days. Again, shameless plug for Core Coaching Method, my amazing coaching company and team. Free guides, online coaching, in-person coaching, Zoom coaching, nutrition consultations, training consultations, fitness business consultations,

you name it, we've got it for you over at corecoachingmethod.com. All of your training and nutrition, fitness, lifestyle management needs will be taken care of by yours truly. And like I said, my phenomenal team that I love so, so much. And lastly, guys, plugging a new sponsor of the show, Elemental Labs. Elemental Labs is an electrolyte company, and we're going to talk a little bit about how I use their product when we get to this list of five things I do to improve my health and wellness. But I think electrolyte supplementation is one of the best things you can do if you're

somebody who sweats a lot, you live in a hot or humid climate, you want to improve your performance in the gym, in the morning, particularly if you train early when you're maybe a little bit dehydrated still. If you're somebody who trains, like I mentioned, in hot or humid clients, or you just sweat a lot, electrolytes are great for replenishing fluid. If you use the sauna, they're wonderful. If you're somebody like myself who uses the sauna multiple times a week and you really just need to replace fluids acutely, you can actually take palatable. In the sauna, we've got things like mango chili, lemon habanero, the classic citrus salt, orange salt, raspberry salt, watermelon salt, all really, really good. There's even a chocolate.

I'm not a huge fan of that. And in unflavored, which is also really palatable, pretty easy to get through. You guys know that unflavored products can be pretty hit and miss. So Elemental Labs and myself have teamed up to get you all eight of their electrolyte flavors for free. All you got to do is cover shipping.

You can go to drinkelemente.com slash coach Danny and get your eight sample packs. Again, just pay shipping. Okay, guys. So getting into five things that I do for my health and wellness every single day. And so I should stipulate that I don't do all of these things every day. Some of them I do, but I do a combination of all of these things almost every day. There will be one, if not multiple, of these things.

I am a huge fan of the hot sauna. What turned me on to the sauna actually was several years ago, I was listening to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and he had Rhonda Patrick on his show, somebody who he's had on multiple times. She was discussing the benefit of using the sauna to reduce all-cause mortality, increase blood flow, circulation to the brain, lots of cool stuff. So what I enjoy about the sauna, first and foremost, is it's quiet. Normally I'm one of the few people in there. I try to use it at off hours at the local commercial gym, and it's really, really peaceful in there because it's a place that you can get away. And while you can listen to music, which I sometimes

do, I usually listen to things like lo-fi beats or Hawaiian slack key guitar, things that I find extremely relaxing. I leave my phone outside and really disconnect when I'm in there. And that alone makes it a valuable thing for my well-being. I'm not a huge meditator, but what I find is going into the sauna and simply closing my eyes, removing technology with the exception of audio from my world, and just really trying to keep my input as close to zero as possible, I really leave relaxed and with great peace of mind. I'm a big, big fan of creating opportunities for peaceful environments and spaces where you live in particular. For example, I have two fish tanks in my room that both have pretty large sponge filters, And sponge filters make this

really relaxing, gargling, babbling brook-style bubble noise. And paired with the water that's circulating through the fish tanks, I have a wonderfully peaceful room that helps me fall asleep at night to the sounds of what is essentially just moving water. And I find that that's a really good space for me to be restful. I also find that complete silence is helpful and I usually have that in the sauna. So if I'm not listening to relaxing music, it's completely silent, which really, really helps. Like I mentioned, I initially started using the sauna for the health benefits I heard about when I was listening to that episode of Joe Rogan with Rhonda Patrick. I would refer you there because I do think

that she is a very good resource on the benefits of the sauna. One thing I will say is I prefer the sauna to be quite hot, and I prefer wood-burning or electrically heated saunas over things like infrared saunas, but I have noticed when I use the sauna, and there is evidence to support some of this stuff, my pain and my DOMS is reduced, whether that be muscle pain, delayed onset muscle soreness, joint pain, all of these things improve for me the more frequently I use the sauna. I am less stressed for reasons that I think are an extension of what I highlighted earlier, just getting the opportunity to truly unplug. The sauna has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in men ages 42

to 60, right? Over a 20 year study conducted in Finland, they looked at 2,315 men ages 42 to 60. And the findings of the study suggested that people who use the sauna had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. I've noticed that this cardiovascular effect of being in the sauna is certainly tangible. Like you will notice it. If you go in there, you're going to say it, you're going to notice your heart rate goes up. I have actually worn my polar monitor, which is a heart rate monitor in the sauna and got my heart rate or caught my heart rate sneaking as high as 116 beats per minute. So if you're sitting in the sauna for three minutes or 30 minutes, three times a week, I should say, and your heart rate's let's call it between 110 and 120, that's a low

grade bout of aerobic exercise. So while we think about the sauna conventionally as being a hot box where you break a good sweat and probably reduce some soreness and feel really relaxed when you get out, it's also enough of a challenge on the body. It presents enough of a stress that the heart rate does get up enough that I think it's considered a low-grade cardiovascular event. And I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing. There's also some research that the sauna might be good for people with psoriasis or eczema,

which I have had at different points in my life, as well as asthma. So all really, really awesome benefits from something that you could do for 20 to 30 minutes every day or just a few times a week. My sauna schedule is three to four times a week. I'm usually in there for 20 to 30 minutes. The second thing I do for my health and wellness every single day, and this is a daily one, is I get to bed early. And the reason I get to bed early is because I'm chasing that seven to nine hour benchmark for sleep. I like to be closer to eight when I can.

And I used to take a lot of pride in being somebody who only got like five hours of sleep. I would walk around like being the least slept person in the room. Is that the best way to put it? I would walk around and kind of, you know, strut my badge of honor, you know, flaunt it. I got less sleep, you know, especially when I was in high school and college, I really liked the, um, David Goggins, just work harder, you know, it just be the hardest worker in the room kind of mantra and vibe in, you know, projecting that and making sure that everybody knew that I was, uh, with what I know now about sleep, that everybody knew that I was destroying my health, my wellness, my mental health, my ability to stick with things like sleep is really, really important.

It plays a role in a lot of different things biologically with regards to your health and long-term health. Poor sleep is linked to poor decision-making, poor test taking, you know, degenerate. It has a degenerative effect on your brain. There are a lot of bad things that happen if you don't get enough sleep. And I used to take a lot of pride in not getting enough sleep. Now, as somebody who's more educated on the topic, I think that my sleep is very important. And I aim to get seven to nine hours of sleep. And there's a few ways that I do that with my daily habits. The

first is I cut all my caffeine off before 10 a.m. That means I usually have my coffee at about 5 o'clock. I start when I wake up with a double shot of espresso. And if I'm going to have another serving of caffeine, it's usually another shot of espresso around 8, 9, or 10. No later than 10 because I don't want caffeine in my system when I get to bed. The second thing, which I mentioned earlier, is my actual space in my room is very quiet and very peaceful. And so that helps quite a bit. Pair that with the kind of big habit of

making sure that I'm in bed no later than 10 o'clock and I get the opportunity to get seven to nine hours every single night, depending on when I want to start my day. I usually get to bed by 10 and I'm usually up no later than five. So that's about seven hours. Now, if I can push it to six, that's awesome. I get that eight hours I'm after. But as somebody who started, you know, my training career, my professional career, being an underslept five hours a night guy, just getting to seven has been an emotional adjustment. It's required me shedding the identity of being the person who wakes up the earliest. And I still certainly am very effective and I work very hard in the time and hours that I do have awake, but I'm feeling a lot better and my mental health is in a much better place

when I get good sleep. One of the things I am realizing more and more is just how big of a role sleep plays in my mental health, not just my performance, my dietary decision-making, my cognitive abilities, but it really does affect my mood. On the day that I don't get a lot of sleep, I'm quite a bit more anxious and I'm quite a bit more likely to experience feelings like depression or anger. And so I do everything I can now to get as much sleep as the day is going to allow while still doing the things in the evening that I enjoy, like spending time with my friends or my partner. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast.

And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode.

Habit number three, walking my dog, especially outside. I do play with Cooper in the house and throw the ball around, so he gets quite a bit of exercise in the house, benefits of him being only about 10 pounds. But I try to take him on at least one walk a day. And those walks are about a mile, and they're about, let's say, 15 to 20 minutes. Sometimes I make them two miles, and if they're two miles,

then they're around 30 minutes. And what I'll do is I'll listen to a podcast, an audio book, something that I enjoy. You know, you guys often ask the podcast that I like. I like the Sam Harris podcast. I like the All In podcast. I like the Stronger by Science podcast. I don't listen to a tremendous number of fitness podcasts anymore, which is no dig to any of my fellow fitness podcast producers, but so much of my day is spent on fitness and consuming fitness content in written form and creating fitness content and pouring through research, applying it to my clients that I don't listen to a ton of other podcasts. So my big three are the Stronger by Science podcast for fitness, the All In podcast for things like just I'd say tech, social, political, all of that stuff.

The Sam Harris podcast, which is a lot more philosophical. And then Politicology, which is a political podcast that I quite enjoy. It's aligned with a lot of the political beliefs that I have. But that's neither here nor there. I take that time to walk for personal growth, where I listen to things that excite me, that I'm passionate about, but in particular to make sure that they're, as often as possible, not fitness. Because I am extremely passionate about that, and I spend so much time working on it, that when I go on this walk, I want the opportunity to unplug. And I've gotten a lot of you tagging me in your stories where you're taking your walks, listening to my podcast. And I think that's phenomenal. And if you

are a personal trainer and you're looking to grow, I think that's phenomenal. And so for me, I'll listen to podcasts that I think can help me grow in the areas that I'm really interested in growing in right now, or the things that I'm passionate about. So I get it. My podcast makes a lot of sense if you're a fitness hobbyist or you're a trainer. But if you're somebody like myself who's been training for a really long time and you have additional interests and you need to unplug after a super long day of coaching,

creating content, recording podcasts, whatever, I don't always want to listen to a fitness podcast. And I think it's important to give yourself space to not suffocate and be like, I need to work, I need to work, I need to work. If you can take, like I said, between 15 to 30 minutes on a quick walk, listen to something that you enjoy, walk your dog, you know, get outside. A lot of good things can happen there, right? Like walking has been shown to increase creativity and to decrease anxiety. Two things that I need help

with. I need a little less anxiety and I always need to keep my creativity in fighting form, if you will. Being outside is also quite nice where I live. I understand that not everybody has places where they can just take their dog to walk because of the temperature, because of the climate, because of just the general safety of the area that they live in. But 30 minutes of additional movement a day, it's beneficial for my heart, it's beneficial for my body composition so a lot of good things come from this and this is a daily habit just like getting to bed early so there will be days and i want to make this clear because i talked about this earlier i don't do all of these things

but there will certainly be days where i do every single one of these hobbies whether it's getting to bed early going on walks with my dog or going to the sauna or the two that we'll get to here momentarily these are all things that i do on a semi-regular basis. And most of them overlap. I'm always going to get my walk in. I'm always going to go to the, I'm not always going to go to the sauna. I'm usually going to go to the sauna and I'm always going to get to bed early. So there's almost, you're going to see three things that I do every single day. And I want to highlight that most of these take less than 20 to 30 minutes. So, you know, there's no energy spent on getting to bed early. That just requires me walking upstairs and going

to bed. It only takes me about 20 minutes to use the sauna. It only takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to do these walks. So practically speaking, implementing these habits can be very, very non-infringing on your day-to-day life. They don't have to suffocate you. They don't have to take up all of your time. Number four is therapy. I see a therapist on a semi-regular basis to deal with the stress of being a busy professional, juggling romance, juggling relationships, juggling the familial responsibilities I have and the drama that we all have in our life. It's nice to keep my head above water there. I consider that no different than going and seeing a personal trainer, but this

is kind of like a personal trainer for my mind. Somebody who's keeping me on the right track, making sure I'm making good decisions, making sure that I'm being fair with myself and I'm not being overly critical, but also holding me to account and doing the things that I say that I'm going to do and helping me navigate my interpersonal dynamics, interpersonal relationships, all these things. So that's something that I don't do every day. It's something I do weekly or biweekly, depending on how I'm operating or my stress. And I definitely recommend it, especially to men, because I think it's very stigmatized. And I think a lot of people in our space go, oh, look at me. I go to therapy. I'm so

cool. I'm so woke. And this isn't that. I just think that there's a lot of value to therapy. I think it can help you level up. I think that there's a lot of benefits to having open and honest conversation with somebody that you trust that might give you the opportunity to work through some of the roadblocks that you have. And again, that's one that might be cost prohibitive, but if you have insurance, it's worth looking into. And if you're dealing with things like anxiety or depression, or you're having a hard time with follow-through, or you're having trouble with your relationship,

this is a very valuable tool, and it's very well studied. It's an effective intervention for dealing with a lot of different things, and I highly recommend it. Last in number five on the list is gardening, but I think you can sub this for anything that you do with your hands. You could say something like maybe woodworking, right? I know that sounds like totally random or painting or sculpting, things that are creative and constructive that you do with your hands. And so I work in my garden every single day. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you know exactly what it is that I grow. I live in a state where growing cannabis is legal. And I know that some of you probably aren't huge fans of cannabis, but do understand that I'm not growing this at a scale where I'm fueling the war on drugs. It's simply a recreational fun plant to grow here in California. And I'm not somebody who drinks alcohol. So on

occasion, I will use cannabis and I enjoy it quite a bit. And I'm not going to encourage or discourage anyone from using it. But again, I'm an adult. I think people should be able to do what it is that they want to do with their bodies. I don't feel like I have to make an explanation for this, but I do feel that in the fitness community, cannabis consumption is considered an oxymoron, right? Because people go, well, hey, isn't that bad? And I can completely understand where people are coming from. I have not found that to be the case in my life at all. I feel that it adds nothing but a positive benefit. So if I can reduce the stigma at all, I'd love to do that. And I spend quite a bit of time in my garden. It's a very synergistic

thing that I do with my fish, right? My fish tank and my gardening, I would say, are number five. They are both hands on things that require my unkind of cluttered mind to be focused on. With the fish, I'm looking at pH, I'm looking at food, I'm looking at water temperature, I'm looking at water parameters, I'm looking at fish behavior. Can I match these fish? Can I put these fish together? What am I trying to do with my hardscape? Do all these fish have space where they can hide? Can they all fit together from a species standpoint? Is one going to grow so big it's going to eat the other? Do we have territorial males? Too many, too little. When having three different tanks in my home, I'm constantly monitoring it. And I keep a variety of different

fish, cichlids primarily, from South America. Those are my favorite fish to keep. They're hardy, they produce a lot of waste, which I'll get to in a minute, and I really, really enjoy it. And I actually use the water from my fish tank, which is rich in nitrogen, to water my plants. And for anybody who is growing anything, I cannot speak highly enough as to the growth-enhancing properties of watering your plants with fish waste. It is like, you know, you're getting your fertilizer. It's highly bioavailable nitrogen. It helps plants when they're in the vegetative stage. So these two hobbies I do pretty much year-round, and they really go hand-in-hand together.

They're super, super nice. They're super enjoyable, and they really help me disconnect. And these are things that I do with my hand. So for at least a couple minutes a day, I'll be out in my garden, whether it's foliar feeding the plants and giving them a spray where they get nutrients, watering them, giving them their fertilizer. Right now they're in the flowering stage. So they're getting a little bit more potassium and a little bit more phosphorus as when they're in the flowering stage so they're getting a little bit more potassium and a little bit more phosphorus as when they're in the vegetative stage and they're focused on growing i'm giving them a lot more nitrogen and so just keeping an eye on them trimming off any growth that i think looks like it's not going to get a lot of sun or it might be kind of taking energy

away from the main plant the body the main plant, and making sure that if there's any pests that I'm removing them, working everything through the trellis so that everything gets equal sun exposure and support. And it's just mindless. I get to be out there. I get to be at peace. I get to be in nature and all of these things, but this thing in particular really helped me unplug and feel better. And so sharing these things, guys, as just simple habits and behaviors, I think can be really helpful to supplement the things we talk about on this show all the time with regards to nutrition, with regards to performance, and give yourself a break. You got to be able to pump the brakes a little bit, have balance, and creating time for things that will make your mind better, your body

better, your soul better, things that enrich your life are going to be really, really valuable. And I don't want to get woo-woo. I don't want to get silly-nilly. Truth is, you got to work hard. You got to kick ass. And if you want things to happen, sometimes you're going to have to get through some rough patches and you're going to have to hustle. And you might have to put your mental health on the line and not in a way that's dangerous, but you know, truth be told, hard work pays off. And I'm the last guy who's going to tell you, oh, it's all about self care. But these are five really quick, reasonable things that I find double dip in the self care department to give me the opportunity to work on my personal growth, give me the opportunity to

unplug and not freaking go crazy and kill anybody from the constant interactions I'm having all day. And those are using the sauna, going to bed early, getting outdoor walks with my dog, going and seeing a therapist on a semi-regular basis, gardening, and managing my fish. I don't think you need to start a garden, get a therapist, get a fish tank, get a dog and walk them. I think you might do well to just simply implement one or two of these things. Or think to yourself, what's something that I can do outside that I enjoy, that keeps me active, keeps me moving, and lets me unplug? What's something that I can do with my hands that I'm passionate about that allows time for growth or relaxation? And pair that with getting to bed

early and maybe hopping in the sauna a few times a week. You can implement these habits if you want. I think they're reasonable. I don't think they're any way, shape, or form as difficult as implementing a multi-day-a-week exercise routine. So if you can do that and you're good at time management, you can implement some of these habits to improve your health. Thanks again, everybody, for listening. This has been the Dynamic Dialogue Podcast. I'm your host, Danny Matranga, and you can help me out a ton by sharing the show on your Instagram, by sharing it with friends. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to help podcasts grow. Leaving reviews on the iTunes store helps a ton, but everything helps, guys. I am so

appreciative of every single subscriber, of every listener, of every one of you who shares, and just please keep it up and consider supporting the show in your free time or supporting the sponsors who support me because you guys are the jet fuel to helping this thing continue to grow. We hit our all-time monthly download record this month, so things are really, really flying and I'm pretty darn excited to continue to share dynamic dialogue with more people. You guys have a good one and thanks so much for listening.