Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 183 - Q&A: Designer Creatine, TRT, Advice for New Trainers + More

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

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Welcome in to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, guys, I'm your host, Danny Matranga. And in today's episode, I'm going to be answering a variety of your questions from topics ranging everywhere from natural testosterone boosting to creatine, designer forms of creatine, different forms of amino acids, Romanian deadlifts, etc. So we're going to talk about a lot of different stuff today. I think you guys will enjoy this one quite a bit. But before we do, I'd like to take a minute to tell you about one of our amazing sponsors, and that is Seed. Seed is the premier probiotic product on the market, containing a plethora of evidence-based, clinically proven to work in human strains of bacteria that help with digestive health, nutrient absorption, nutrient synthesis, and even things like dermatological and cardiovascular health. Don't take my word for it though. Head over to seed.com and check out the amazing amount of scientific evidence they've amassed to support

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second to none. You've got a dual capsule technology that allows for the actual bacteria to reach the gut where they can populate much better than if it was just a single capsule. And there's prebiotic fiber included in these capsules so that the bacteria have something to eat once they reach their destination. Additionally, something that I think is really cool is seed is sent to you every single month fresh, so you don't have to worry about refrigeration or any of the actual organisms dying. The AFUs or the active fluorescent units, one of the technologies that is used to actually gauge the number of bioavailable microorganisms in the product, has seed as one of the highest available actual bacterial counts of any probiotic. And when you combine that with the amazing strains and the evidence base that they make very clear and available to all customers, it's definitely without a doubt my go-to supplement for kind of promoting long-term microbiome intestinal diversity. The best thing you can still do is eat a wide variety of fibrous

fruits and vegetables, including foods that might be fermented and contain some probiotics or just naturally fermented bacteria. But if you want to take it to the next level, I would recommend trying seed. One thing I can say for sure is that my digestive health has never been better since starting supplementing with seed about four months ago. There was some interesting literature with regards to some of these strains specifically as it pertains to things like atopic dermatitis or just inflammation of the skin. And I have not had many eczema outbreaks or psoriasis outbreaks or even acne outbreaks since I started supplementing with the product. And generally speaking, I do deal with a little bit of eczema across my body in different locations, although it's mild. And since I began supplementing, I have dealt with absolutely none of that in addition to

having less gas, less bloating, and just better overall digestion. So if you want to try Seed, which I still believe, without a shadow of a doubt, to be probably the best probiotic supplement on the market, and I really don't think it's particularly close at all, you can head over to seed.com, check out using the code DANNY15, and you can save 15% on your first subscription. Okay, guys, so getting into the questions here. This one comes from nutfit.ianflynn, and he asks, are there any natural testosterone-boosting supplements that I would recommend? So first, let's just unpack this. Why might somebody want to increase their testosterone naturally? Well,

first and foremost, testosterone is linked to better nutrient absorption. It's linked to better exercise performance, better muscularity. A lot of good things happen when you have testosterone, no doubt about it. Both men and women make testosterone, and men will, of course, make more than women in the same way that women make more estrogen than men, but we need both of those hormones in the right amounts. And for men, a little bit more might translate to better performance in the bedroom, as well as better performance in the gym. So why do men want to increase it naturally? Well, to me, the answer is fairly simple because to increase testosterone artificially or using steroids because testosterone in its many forms,

whether it's testosterone cypionate and enthate, the various forms of injectable testosterone or the various gel forms of testosterone come with some side effects, including increased aromatization or conversion to estrogen, unless you're taking an AI or an aromatase inhibitor, which inhibits the aromatase enzyme's ability to convert testosterone to estrogen, can lead to irritability and mood swings. It's not necessarily something that people want to administer, whether that be the gel or the injectable form, because oftentimes you're going to create a dependence and you're going to shut down your natural production. And there's nothing wrong with using anabolic steroids, or in this case, I should say androgens, because these are androgenic

hormones, to increase your testosterone. Some people really would like to do that, but people want to try to oftentimes do that first naturally before they sign up for the oftentimes lifetime commitment of hopping on testosterone. So there's a lot of different herbs out there that people will try, including ashwagandha, tribulus terrestris, longjack. I think that's longcomia, something else. And the two that I have been trying recently are Fidoja Agrestis and Tongkat Ali, which were both recommended by Andrew Huberman of the Huberman Lab podcast. And when I got my most recent testosterone panel back or my cumulative overall health hormone back from Merrick Health, that's the company that I work with. And we're actually in the process of forming a partnership so I can kind of extend that to you guys at a discounted rate so you can get all of your full service labs run up in the best way possible with one of the best companies on the market. But my testosterone came back pretty good on a scale of like one to 10. I'd say 10 being like extremely happy, one being not so happy. I was at like an eight. I was a little bit surprised. I had higher free testosterone than I thought. And I had higher total testosterone than I thought.

I won't give you the exact numbers, but like 1200 is basically like the max. 300 is like the absolute low end of the range for most men. Like they probably feel better somewhere between like six and 12, obviously than below six. And I was comfortably above six, which is pretty good for a natural, obviously. When guys start taking steroids, they often go way north of this. But I was in a good place naturally. I've been doing Tongkat Ali and Fidoja for about four weeks now, and I have not noticed many differences from a body compositional standpoint. I have not noticed many differences from a performance standpoint. And most of these natural over-the-counter testosterone supplements and things of this

nature, they don't really make a huge difference. And I wasn't expecting much. I've experimented with every natural testosterone booster in the past and gotten nothing. And in general, I don't think these do much, but I said, hey, you know what? I'll give this a try. So when I run my next lab, I can give you some insights. But based on the four weeks I've supplemented with Fidoja and Tongkat, I'm not particularly inclined to expect much more. In fact, I think just in general, the best natural testosterone boosting behaviors you can have are resistance training, adequate sleep, and not pounding yourself into a deficit. training, adequate sleep, and not pounding yourself into a deficit. So I think you guys should, in general, try to pursue lifestyle modulation over pharmacology or supplementation

if your goal is to increase your testosterone. This question comes from AJ Xstatic, and he says, is there a limit to strength gain while on a long cut? Short answer is yes. When you have a deficit of calories and you have reduced food availability, you should curtail your expectations for just how much strength you're going to be able to accrue in a short training window. If you took two lifters and put them on the exact same training protocol, one of them was in a deficit and one of them was in a surplus. Let's make this a three-person study. And one of them was at maintenance. I would expect the surplus and maintenance lifter to get better gains and better performance on the same program than the person in a deficit,

mostly because of food availability, fuel availability, and recovery. Simply put, you're not going to make the same strength and performance increases if you're chronically dieting as you would if you have the right amount of food availability. I think this applies to all athletic pursuits, however, not just barbell sports, strength sports, or these more perhaps strength-specific metrics. I think the same thing could be said for speed or sports performance. So there will always be a limit to how much you can expect to progress when you are nutrient deficient. Comparing that same program or that same training philosophy applied to somebody who maybe has the right amount of food availability.

This question from Jordan Deutsch says, haven't been able to train for one and a half weeks. Is this a big setback? No, not really. I think you will be totally fine. This question from Michaela Corson, weight train four days a week and cardio three days a week. Helpful for fat loss? Yes, I think this is a very, very good fat loss protocol. My coaching company, Core Coaching Method, works with a lot of general population lifters. We also work with a lot of physique-specific lifters, but for those clients of ours who are more comfortably in that general

population, physical fitness, lifetime fitness group, They just want to be fit. They want a routine that they can stick to. They like to have better body composition. I have found that four weekly lifts, upper, lower, upper, lower of about 45 minutes each paired with three rest days where you go on anywhere from a 20 to 90 minute walk can be absolutely incredibly effective at body fat reduction so long as you are dialed with your nutrition. That is really the big piece. Four days a week of lifting should be more than enough, and adding some supplemental cardio on top will totally speed things along, and they'll go even faster, in my opinion, if in fact you are extending the duration of those walks because you'll be burning more calories.

So the longer the walk, the greater the caloric expenditure. That will then increase the size of the deficit. 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 El Macusto. She says, do B-Stance RDLs target the glutes more than regular RDLs? So short answer here is no. I think they're both going to target the glutes about the same. The advantage of the B-Stance RDL and a reason that it shows up in some of my programming is it allows you to train the hip hinge, particularly a hip hinge that loads the glutes and the hamstrings in that RDL fashion with less weight or less equipment. So for example, if we've already done a heavy deadlift or heavy lunges or heavy squats, anything that might fatigue the grip or the low back, but I still want to train that

hip hinge or add some supplemental hip hinge volume into a client's program, a B stance RDL is a really great way to do that. It's also a great way to incorporate unilateral training or training one side of the body at a time, which is usually a good idea for minimizing any asymmetries that might develop over time. It will give you a really good idea, a good ability to kind of create balance and stability for sport. And what I like about the B-Stance RDL, especially for those who are training at home, and that's why this one shows up a lot in the upcoming app-based programming that we're

launching, which if you guys haven't heard, I'm super excited for this. We partnered with Train Heroic, who I think has the best user interface app-based fitness software, to bring you guys continuous programming for physique development from home or from the gym. Now, Elite Physique, our initial program, is catered primarily or leaning primarily towards what my female audience wants, which tends to be development of the glutes, quads, back, and shoulders. So that's a gym program very similar to what I've launched before with Female Physique 1 and 2. So these will be like physique-focused programs, but Home Heroes is very similar. It's physique focused, but you can do it at home with just a couple of dumbbells. And say you have

really strong glutes and really strong hamstrings, but your dumbbells aren't that heavy. A B stance RDL is effective because you're training the hip hinge one side at a time. So theoretically, you can get away with using half as much weight, which can be really beneficial if you have some equipment constraints. This question comes from AA Cruel. Do people gain fat when going to maintenance after a cut? So theoretically, yes. Let me try to put this in perspective. Let's say your maintenance is 2,000 calories and you go to a 1,500 calorie daily intake for six months, you lose some weight and you go back up to 2,000 calories. You will probably gain fat in that process for six months, you lose some weight and you go back up to 2000 calories. You will probably gain fat in that process for two reasons. One of which is just the general increase of caloric intake and your body needing to do something with that.

And then two is like if you were at 2000 maintenance, went to 1500 for six months, and then went back to your quote unquote 2000 maintenance, after six months, you've probably experienced some degree of metabolic adaptation, meaning 2000 is unlikely to be your maintenance at this point. It's probably closer to maybe 17, 18, 1900 because of some of the adaptations that will occur. So what's best is to probably just calculate what might be your new maintenance based on any activity changes you made during that weight loss period, based on any lifestyle changes you made during that weight loss period, based on any lifestyle changes you made, and of course, based on the changes in your body weight and body composition. Your total daily energy expenditure is likely to have changed,

but anytime you increase your caloric intake rapidly, and especially if you've been dieting for quite some time and you go above maintenance, which I think would be very easy to do if you went to your old maintenance, you can expect to gain some body fat. This question comes from kz underscore unit. She says, essential amino acids just for the taste to break up the monotony of water. What do you think of this idea? I think it's an expensive way to make your water taste better, but let's kind of break down what some of the benefits could be. Essential amino acids are amino acid supplements that contain all of the amino acids, as I see it. They contain all of the essential amino acids, meaning they don't contain the non-essential amino acids that

we make ourselves. Some do. But usually what we're talking about here is a supplement manufacturer that's trying to include all of the essential amino acids, including the branched-chain amino acids, into a supplement. So imagine this as being like a more well-thought-out BCAA. So what contains the BCAAs, leucine, isoleucine, and valine, the amino acids that are most associated with training performance and recovery, which they don't really do much if you get enough dietary protein, but they also include some of the other amino acids, which might be beneficial in that it's probably better to get all of the essential amino acids than just the branch-chained amino acids, if we're being honest here. So I would say between the two, if you're looking for an amino acid to

flavor your water and break up the monotony of water, I'd rather have essential than non-essential. your water and break up the monotony of water. I'd rather have essential than non-essential. But if I was somebody who was looking to increase the palatability of my water and my training performance, I'd probably opt for something like an LMNT electrolyte packet because you're getting sodium, you're getting potassium, you're getting magnesium, only 10 calories, sweetened with stevia. You're not spending a bajillion dollars a serving the way that many of these BCAA supplements and essential amino acid supplements have a tendency to kind of like run it up in the price department. You can drink a half a packet of LMNT, your water will taste delicious, salty, won't have any artificial sweeteners, which I'm not a huge hater on, but some people are really concerned

with the amount of artificial sweetener they intake. So if we're talking about secondary ways to increase water palatability that might have some performance carryover, give me electrolytes over amino acids. And you can go to drinkelemente.com slash coach Danny to get a sample packet of all their most popular flavors shipped directly to you. All you got to do is pay for shipping. They'll pay for the product. This question comes from Anthony Kamai. He said, how often do you do core specific training and what are your preferred movements? So I train my core pretty much every day. I train just because of the amount of compound movements I do, but I do think direct core training is important. And so I look to include a few things each week, one of which is a rotational component.

So that's oftentimes med ball throws and some stability anti-extension work like planks and stir the pots. I do some glute specific work like glute focused low back extensions, some adductor work like the Copenhagen plank, some sit-ups, hanging leg raises. Those are kind of the movements that show up quite a bit in my programming when it comes to core training, at least the ones that I kind of enjoy. This question comes from Daniel underscore 25 underscore UNM, and he says, any recommendations for shoes for just general weight training? So I will say that if you are not doing a lot of barbell specific leg training, particularly things like squatting and lunging, you can probably get away with whatever the hell you want in the gym and selecting for shoes that make you feel confident and that you like,

and that you're excited to wear is probably fine. So if you want to just spend the big money on like the cool Nikes or the cool Jordans, I'm totally down with that. It won't impact your upper body training really at all. And if you have good ankle mobility and you're not doing a lot of barbell squatting and stuff, you can probably get away with it. If you want to really get the most out of your lower body training, a super cushioned shoe is probably not ideal. So staying away from shoes with high amounts of cushioning is probably the best, especially if you're doing things like squats and a lot of lower body training that requires ankle mobility and stability.

So your best budget options are probably things like Converse, Nike Metcons, and Vans that tend to be flat, minimally cushioned, and hold up well to both upper and lower body training. If you want to get the most out of your lower body training, you might get a squat shoe with a small heel elevation that can enhance stability and promote better forward knee travel. But as a general rule of thumb, you know, if we're talking about overall fitness and weight training, and you might do a little bit of running, and you might do a little bit of lifting, and you probably do mostly upper body and lower body with, you know, a little bit of squatting here and there, but you don't want to buy squat shoes, I think I'd recommend a Nike Metcon because I do think you get a little bit more stability and support

if you're going on runs or doing any kind of aerobic training than you might if you did something like a Converse or a Vans, which are your best budget option if you're just lifting. This question comes from Low and Co. Will taking creatine make me bloated? Just started and someone warned me of it. I've had multiple clients over the years start taking creatine for the first time in their lives, and only a few have reported bloating. And when I have a client report bloating or digestive distress on creatine, these are the most common side effects, although I will say they are quite rare, I just have them reduce the dose. So if you're concerned about bloating or water retention or digestive distress, you can absolutely just reduce the dosage to something like two to three

grams a day, down from five grams a day, and you'll probably be totally fine. This question comes from It's Sidney. She asks, tips for newly certified personal trainers. And I've been doing this for quite some time, so I'll just tell you some of the stuff that I wish somebody had told me in no particular order and just kind of off the cuff. One thing I wish somebody had told me early on was that just because I like to train a certain way doesn't mean my clients like to train that way and that you should try to find the middle ground between what you know to be effective and what you know your client is going to need and what makes your client excited to show up, not just to see you, but also to work on on their own. Number two is that you'll oftentimes have to be a better listener than you are a better communicator.

Not that communication isn't incredibly important, but a lot of times you need to listen to what your clients need, what your clients are going through and what your clients are struggling with instead of just talking to them and giving them blanket advice. Really take everything they're saying into account and apply as much context as you can to their situation. Becoming a good listener is a really important part of being a coach. Another thing that's always helpful is be prepared, be on time, be presentable, and be ready. Whether this is for sessions, for meetings,

for online coaching consultations, whatever, a lot of trainers oftentimes will work out and show up to a session or a consultation dirty and sweaty. And I wouldn't really expect that or tolerate that from any other professional relationship. If you want to sit down with your accountant and he was all sweaty coming in off the gym floor, like, hey, hold on, we can go over your taxes in a second. I'm just a little stinky. You'd be like, man, is this guy really prepared? And it seems to be that it's more appropriate in a gym setting, but I always found it very off-putting when trainers showed up to sessions sweaty, out of uniform, unprepared, and very clearly fitting this into their very busy day. You should always be on time, preferably early. You should always be in uniform or presentable. You should never smell of body odor or anything specifically like gross, sweaty,

or jimmy. You really want to be presentable. And I think doing the best job you can of letting your clients know that you are there for them and to support them, not just to fit them in in between your workout and microwaving your tilapia and asparagus is probably a really good thing to do. Never stop learning. Maintain a white belt mentality. That's very important. Try to form a good relationship with other trainers and fitness professionals in your area, including people that work in allied health fields like chiropractic and physical therapy. All of those can be really, really effective at helping you grow and develop your business and your professionalism. Okay, this one comes from Emma Bad. Do you go in the sauna before or after a workout? So I go in the sauna after my workout for about 20 minutes, three times a week. I try to get about 60 minutes a week. Oftentimes I get more

many times on the days I don't train. If I still want to go to the gym and hit the sauna, I will do that. I will just do that knowing that this is part of my rest and recovery protocol, and I'm not going to exercise. Okay, this is from Grace Jane 0710. She says, should you cycle on and off of creatine? So cycling on and off of stuff oftentimes in the fitness space comes from kind of how many people approach steroid use. Many times people will do a cycle for 12 to 16 weeks where they use various hormones, and then they cycle off using things

like post-cycle therapies, various different pharmacological compounds so that they can reset their body's natural hormone synthesis pathways before jumping back on more steroids. With creatine, because our bodies make it naturally, there's some assumption that, well, if I supplement with it, will I stop making it myself? That's not necessarily the case. The literature seems pretty clear that continuous supplementation is the way to go. And I don't see any real reason to quote unquote cycle off. So I think you guys will be more than okay without quote unquote cycling off of your creatine when it comes to getting the most out of it without interfering with some of your body's natural production processes. I don't think that's an issue that you'll run into whatsoever. I think it's largely overblown and I think that

it's something that a lot of people don't really, you know, it's just because creatine works and increases performance doesn't make it a steroid. And we don't need to think about it even remotely similarly to the way we think about steroids. Last question also about creatine comes from a boy named Derek. And the question is creatine monohydrate or cre-alkalin? So cre-alkalin is an alkalinized form of creatine that is supposedly easier to digest and assimilate because it's already bound to an alkaline group that will make it easier to digest in the stomach's acidic environment. Crealkalin, Concrete, Creatine Magna Power, which is Creatine Magnesium Chelate, Creatine HCL, which is Creatine Hydrochloride, all of those designer creatines are just expensive,

marked up forms of creatine that work no better than plain old creatine monohydrate. So guys, when it comes to creatine, stick to the basics. Monohydrate, two to five grams a day for healthy adults is the way to go. I want to thank you all so much for tuning in to this Q&A episode and remind you that this podcast is not possible without the support and listenership of people just like you. If you'd like to continue to help me grow the show, there's a few things you can do that make a huge difference. The first is leaving a five-star rating and review on iTunes or Spotify. The second is just sharing it with friends via word of mouth. And the third is sending it to your friends on

social media, on texts, sharing it to your story, actually sharing links to the podcast. That makes a big, big difference. Thanks so much for tuning in and I will catch you on the next one.