Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 155: Q and A - Creatine Loading, Probiotics, Training Splits + More

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. As always, I am your host Danny Matranga. Thank you so much for joining me today and continuing to listen and subscribe to this health and fitness podcast. meaningful to me that I get an opportunity to chat with you a couple times a week to help you on your health and fitness journey, your performance journey, your longevity journey. This is a dream come true of mine. And every single one of you listeners is part of making that dream come true. So the fact that you guys maintain your subscriptions, that you continue to listen, that you continue to download, that you leave reviews, that you share it on your Instagram story, that stuff does not go unnoticed. And this podcast would absolutely not be possible without each and every one of you. So from the bottom of my heart, seriously, seriously, seriously, huge, huge, huge thanks. Another way that this podcast has

been possible, it's made free, is through some of my amazing sponsors, one of which is Elemental Labs. is through some of my amazing sponsors, one of which is Elemental Labs. LMNT, their premier flagship electrolyte product, is something that I take every single day. I am a huge fan of the citrus and raspberry salt flavored electrolytes, as well as the orange and the mango chili. There are a ton of different flavors available on their website, but what I love about LMNT is that it's sugar-free, sweetened with stevia, no artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, and it's sodium, potassium, and magnesium-based. Common electrolyte products are usually loaded with sugar, food dyes, and they really skimp on the electrolytes that matter, particularly things like potassium and magnesium, but not LMNT. LMNT does it right, making sure you're getting a hefty dose of

bioavailable forms of electrolytes to help with muscular contraction, hydration, and recovery. I use my LMNT anytime I do one of my sauna sessions. I aim for about 60 minutes a week, 57 minutes to be precise. While I'm in the sauna, I'm always sipping on my Elemental Labs LMNT. to be precise. While I'm in the sauna, I'm always sipping on my Elemental Labs LMNT. Now, another time I use it is right when I wake up. I have a half a packet with water so that I can start hydrating early. One of the things I tell my clients often is stop playing catch up with your protein, with your hydration. Start your day off with those things, right? And so starting my day with a half a packet of Elemental Labs, LMNT with water instead of coffee and really mixing that in. I mixed that in with a nice Yeti that they were

kind enough to send me. That's 32 ounces. I have a half a packet with 32 ounces of water while I take the dog for a walk so I can get moving and get hydrated. If I train fasted, which often happens because I'll usually train when I get back from that walk. It's so nice to have some sodium, potassium, magnesium, and water in my system. I get better pumps. I'm able to better manage my fatigue and I just love the way it makes me feel. And LMNT has been kind enough to extend to you guys a free sample pack. So you can try all eight of their flagship flavors from watermelon, mango chili, lemon habanero, chocolate, unflavored, watermelon salt, raspberry salt, citrus salt, orange salt, all sent to you for free. All you got to do is cover shipping. To take advantage of this and try

one of my favorite supplements out there, you can go to LMNT slash Coach Danny, or just check the show notes below. I think the actual link, if I'm going to be precise here is drink lmnt.com slash coach Danny. So to take advantage of this offer, go to drink lmnt.com slash coach Danny. They will send you guys a ton of samples out. All you got to do is cover shipping, which I think is like five bucks. So not bad. Five bucks to try this stuff out. You probably would pay more for like one or two Pedialyte. And this is far, far superior. Okay. So getting into some of your guys's questions, I always like to try to cleanse the Q and A queue that I have on Instagram as frequently as possible. And I have some really

good ones on here. And the first one comes from Miranda underscore Stefan. She asks heel wedge recommendations that won't break the bank. So let's talk about why somebody might use a heel wedge or some type of heel elevation in their training. So there are a few different forms of these that I like. Let's talk first about the cheapest form, and then we'll go to the most expensive form. So the reason that heel elevation tends to help a lot of lifters, okay, is that it enables more forward knee travel, irrespective of one's ankle mobility. More forward knee travel, getting more bend, flexion, and extension out of that knee can lead to better quad activation, better movement patterns on things like squatting and lunging. And so you'll often see heel elevation as a feature of squat shoes or many workout shoes that are designed for squatting because of that added ankle mobility element. Now, some people

would rather include a wedge because they don't like squat shoes or it's just more practical for the apparatus that they're using. And so the best place to start if you want something cheap is to just head over to Amazon and load up one of those foam yoga wedges. If you buy two of them, you'll be able to have two different angles simply by stacking one on top of the other. And last I checked, those were only like $15 to $20. So those work really well. Another thing you can buy, this would be like the second level, if the yoga wedge is the bronze, this would be the silver, is something called a slant board. Now a slant board, generally these are made out of wood and they adjust to have multiple different angles going from the slope

being the lowest to the highest. And usually there's some adhesed or adhesive bounded like sandpaper style material to help with traction. And so this is going to be a little bit sturdier. It's going to be harder probably to use on things like squats, but it works really well for things like lunges. It can work well for squats. It just depends on where exactly you like to line your hips up when you do your squats. And the gold option here would be something from Prime Fitness USA. They sell a steel squat wedge that is pretty beautiful. They sell these in a variety of different angles, very sturdy, works really well for things like leg press, well, hard to do depending on the leg press, but works really well for things like squats, split squats, hack squats, front foot

lunges, or I shouldn't say front foot lunges, but using them to modify the position of the front leg while performing certain lunges. So those are the kind of go-to squat wedges that I have. Okay, next question comes from clow underscore 4507. And she asks, will I always need to stay in a calorie deficit to maintain my weight loss? So this is a good question. I think it's a good opportunity to go over terms here. So the first term I'd like to describe or unpack is calorie deficit. So what happens when you enter a calorie deficit, or it will, let's just describe calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is eating less than your total

daily energy expenditure. Your total daily energy expenditure is the number of calories you're burning when you're doing activities that you do throughout your daily life, such as exercise, fidgeting, and walking around. So that component of your total daily energy expenditure is categorized as NEAT and EAT. Then you have your BMR, which you've probably heard of before, your basal metabolic rate. That is the total cost calorically to run organs like your kidney, liver, brain, et cetera. Keep yourself alive. And then lastly, you have a component of your total daily energy expenditure called TEF or thermic confective food, which is the cost calorically of digesting and assimilating the foods that you eat. And so all of those things put together create our total daily energy expenditure. The larger,

more active you are and the more you eat, the larger that number tends to be. The smaller, less active and the less you eat, the smaller that number tends to be. So larger, very active, very muscular males who eat a lot will probably have a higher TDEE than smaller sedentary females who don't move and eat a lot. They'll have a lower TDEE. Now, obviously there's a lot of variance there. There's nuance. There's things like maybe people who are calorically thrifty versus people who might be calorically a little bit more, let's call it reckless. They just generally consume more calories. These are some of the genetic variances between how we might metabolize different things or how we might just metabolically be different. By and large, different things or how we might just metabolically be different. By and large,

any number of calories you are below that TDEE is going to represent your calorie deficit. So if my TDEE is 2,500 calories and I am only eating 2,000 calories per day, that would be a deficit of 500 calories. And if I did that and maintained that long enough, my body would have to find that extra 500 calories from somewhere. And generally, it is going to find it in this form of triglycerides stored in body fat. So we'll liquidate some of the fat in our body fat. We'll turn that into usable energy and we'll try to close the deficit so we can do what we need to do. Now, you don't only lose fat in a deficit. Of course, you will lose some muscle, but that's why resistance training is so important. That's why protein intake is so important. It can create a buttress against excessive muscle loss. But now that you guys kind of have an idea of what a calorie

deficit is and how it creates weight loss, let's talk about do you need to maintain that deficit to maintain your new weight? Now, that leads me to a secondary term that we must define, which is metabolic adaptation. So, if my total daily energy expenditure is 2,500 and I'm eating 2,000 and I'm losing body fat and I'm losing body mass and my body is adjusting accordingly, I will experience to some degree something known as metabolic adaptation. Now, the simplest way to describe this would be as follows. In the reduction of my weight, in the reduction of my tissue, as I get smaller, as my body stays in this 500 calorie deficit longer, the total daily energy expenditure, this figure that was 2,500 at one point,

will start to adapt. It will start to come down. Now, it doesn't necessarily come all the way down to 2,000. It might go down to 2,300 or 2,400 or 2,150. Who knows where it's going to end up? A lot of this has to do with lifestyle and behavior. But the good thing is we know that some adaptation is going to happen. And if the deficit is really intense and if the lifestyle adjustments are really intense, the adaptations tend to be a little bit more intense. If the deficit is managed a little bit more conservatively, you give yourself the occasional diet break, you give yourself the opportunity to really respond and just kind of go with the flow, you might see less adaptation. So you won't need to stay in your deficit

to maintain your weight. But in all likelihood, your total daily energy expenditure will adapt as a response to change in body mass. So using the example I just said, if we go from 2,500 to a 2,000 calorie or so the TDEE is 2,500, we're eating 2,000, we're losing body fat, maybe two months down the road. We're like, what do I maintain at? It's a good assumption that that number will be less than 2,500, but probably a little bit more than 2,000. 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. This question comes from Tay A Fit and she asks, what are my favorite recipes? And this is a quick answer. I will tell you this guys, I really enjoy food And most of the recipes I like to cook are not necessarily particularly quote unquote healthy. I love to grill. I love to barbecue. I love to create foods that are culturally significant to my Italian heritage, my Sicilian heritage. I love the recipes that my girlfriend is sharing with me. She's Mexican. So as I get to understand her culture more and her culture more

and her dishes more and what's significant to their family and what they like to cook, I'm loving those. And not all of those are super healthy. And those are the kinds of things. And those are the kinds of recipes that I really enjoy. A lot of the foods I eat for the bulk of my day, like salads, like fruits, like oatmeal, like protein shakes, turkey, eggs. I just prepare those in really boring ways. And I totally understand that that's unsexy and probably largely not that cool, but that's the honest truth. Okay. Next question from at the living dot mechanics asks, how often should one train core? So core training is really important to unpack and divide into some different movement functions slash patterns. So I think when a lot

of people think of core training, they think exclusively of things like sit-ups. They think of things like crunches. They think of things like planks. All of these are good. Crunches are flexion. Planks are anti-extension. And so there's a few different movement patterns that I recommend training when it comes to the core. Let's talk about them. One of them is rotation. And so these would be things like med ball throws and Russian twists. Another is anti-rotation. This might be something like pal-off pressing. Flexion, is anti-rotation. This might be something like pal-off pressing. Flexion, like hanging leg raises and crunches. Anti-extension, like planking. We've got things like lateral flexion, which might be things like overhead ball slams. And then we have things like anti-lateral flexion, things like farmer's carries. And so what you'll notice here thematically is you have the ability to create force and create movement in a plane, and then the ability to

resist force and resist movement in that same plane. And I think training all of the things I just mentioned is really integral to your total ability to use your core. So you don't only want to train flexion. You don't only want to train anti-extension. You don't only want to train rotation or anti-rotation. You want to borrow a little bit from all of these so that you can create a core that is able to produce and withstand various forces. And I think that'll just make you a better lifter and a better athlete. So how often can you train it? Well, if you divide it out into all these different functions, theoretically, you could train it every day. Because maybe one day you do anti-extension based exercises, the next you do flexion, or you do a little bit of everything, or, you know, however you want to

space it out. But I think that the real answer to this question is, train it as frequently as it takes to touch on all of these different functions. Okay. This one, this question I like, it comes from iray.vq. She asks, what is this 100 lunges everybody is asking about? Is it a good finisher? So, 100 body weight walking lunges is something that I have been prescribing to clients for a very, very long time. I think it's a phenomenal way to improve mobility. I think it's a phenomenal way to challenge your legs at the end of a leg day. I think it provides a substantial amount of metabolic fatigue and metabolic stress. And I think it's fairly accessible for all fitness levels. So if you're totally new to this and you've never weight lifted before,

you've never trained legs before, then it's probably not very accessible. But if you've had entire training sessions dedicated to your legs, then you shouldn't have any problem finishing it off with a hundred body weight walking lunges, unless you have some contraindications like knee pain, for example. Here's what's cool about this. To do a walking lunge, you need a substantial amount of ankle, knee, and hip mobility. To do 100 of them, you need conditioning, you need resilience, and you need to really be strong because it's not something that's very easy, especially for larger individuals. Now, for people who are totally new, you might do 50 a leg. For people who are advanced, you might do 100 per leg.

But what I like to do is I park as far away as I can when I get to the gym. I walk out and I lunge all the way back to my car. That's how I end my leg day. I throw my gym bag over my shoulder. It's not that heavy. And I lunge back out to my car. And I know that people probably think in the parking lot that this dude is crazy, but that's what works for me. I really, really have liked this because I find it's a great way

to get a pump. My glutes are always sore after my quads are always juiced up after I feel great. I think it reinforces deep hip mobility. It reinforces good ankle mobility. And it's something that if you haven't tried, I would definitely recommend. I've never had anybody negatively review it. I really like it and I think you probably will too. Okay, this question comes from Joyce Giggles. She says, barely starting creatine. Do you recommend a loading week? I do not recommend loading creatine. Now, creatine is something I get a lot of questions about and I think it's important when we talk about creatine that we acknowledge what it is and how it works. And basically, I think the best way to describe it is that it helps you get more reps in the gym, helps you push a little bit harder in the gym, helps you recover a little bit faster,

helps your muscles stay hydrated. And it does this by basically taking ADP, which is the broken down, used up form of ATP, which you learned about in high school biology class, and it helps that ADP more quickly be resynthesized into ATP for usable energy. So it helps you create energy at the cellular level. Now, to take full advantage of creatine, you need to have saturated stores of intramuscular creatine. And the best way to do that is to take it for a considerable amount of time. Now, some people are impatient, and they want to experience the results as quickly as possible. And if you load creatine, taking between 10 and 20 grams a day, you can saturate your stores more quickly than if you take a maintenance dose between two and five grams a day. Here's the thing. A lot of the side effects that people tend to complain about with creatine supplementation, like bloating, excessive water

retention, and gastrointestinal distress, those are generally more common during a loading phase because you're taking much more. If you just start with a maintenance dose of two to five grams, I would say preferably five grams, you will eventually reach creatine saturation. It just takes longer. But the likelihood of experiencing some of the more negative side effects of creatine, of which there are very few, those risks are substantially decreased. So I tend not to recommend loading in almost every circumstance imaginable. I think it just contributes a little bit too much to digestive distress and discomfort. Okay, this question is from Shelly Shelly Bobeli, and she asks,

probiotics in a capsule form necessary? Previous to my partnership with Seed and really getting an idea of what they're all about, I would have said to probably avoid probiotics altogether. But I do think that Seed, and this is a new sponsor of the podcast, a phenomenal company, very, very cool product, very, very amazing company in how transparent they are. I would say that a capsule-based probiotic is the best way to supplement with a probiotic. Now, if you're not eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, I would start there. But the cool thing about seed is that they have a dual capsule. The outer capsule is made out of prebiotic fiber material that helps the actual innards, the secondary capsule, this capsule inside the capsule, which also has fiber in it, which also has all of these amazing probiotic

strains that have been clinically proven to work in humans. It helps this stuff get to the gut. A lot of probiotics, whether they're mixed in things like greens powders, protein powders, kombucha, et cetera, not all of them are actually able to make it to the gut, even the stuff that's in a capsule. So Seed's capsule technology is pretty incredible because it actually encourages and enhances the availability of the bacterial strains. So if you are looking for a probiotic and you want one that is legit, that works, that's clinically proven to work in humans, and it's loaded with strains that help with nutrient synthesis, gut health, gut barrier integrity, and skin health, you should check out Seed. S-E-E-D. They're the newest sponsor of the show. They make a phenomenal product. And if you check out using

the promo code Danny15, you can save a little money. I've been using them now for over a month and I absolutely love them. I think they make a phenomenal product and it's the only probiotic supplement that I actually recommend. And that's saying something because for quite some time, I have been very skeptical about the efficacy of probiotic supplementation for many reasons. Okay. This question comes from underscore Erica. She says thoughts on sweet sweat gel, bogus, right? That is right, Erica. I do think that almost all topical gels, whether they're promoting enhanced fat loss, increased muscularity or vascularity,

these are things that I generally believe are pretty crappy, pretty low efficacy. They don't do much besides clog your pores and enhance the rate at which you sweat. And quite frankly, that's just not enough to get me excited about using a product. I like to see a little bit more when it comes to spending money on things and just clogging my pores, helping me sweat in the area that I rub the gel on or maybe rubbing gel on and then wearing a

waist trainer. There's absolutely zero reason for me to believe that this is efficacious. And I think that these companies are largely spreading misinformation and sensationalized marketing and branding. So not my type of thing. Okay. Next question comes from Han Nguyen. This will be the last one. She says, busy mom. If I can go to the gym three to four days a week, should I do a full body routine or a split routine? Uh, so pretty simple answer here. If you can go three, I would do full body. If you can do four, I would do upper lower. I actually recorded a podcast just on this, but really the reasoning here is three times a week allows for a three times a week training frequency and volume to be spread out pretty nicely. a week allows for a three times a week training frequency and volume to be spread out pretty nicely. Four times a week, I might instead opt for two days for the upper body and two days for the

lower body. All right, you guys, thank you so much for tuning in to this quick Q&A episode. I appreciate every single one of you. If you haven't yet, leave me a five-star rating and review on iTunes, and now you can even do that on Spotify. Thanks so much for listening and stay tuned for the next one.