Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 260 - Q&A: Magnesium and why you should take it, deload tips, how I track macros and more

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

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This episode is brought to you in part thanks to some of our amazing partners like LMNT. LMNT makes the best electrolyte product on the market. In fact, I've actually started drinking my LMNT each and every morning before I have coffee so as to optimize my circadian biology, make sure that I'm hydrated, and make sure that I'm getting ahead on my water intake throughout the day and not reliant on stimulants, but instead being somebody who's reliant on stimulants, but instead being somebody who's reliant on hydration and the proper balance of minerals and electrolytes. If you want to feel your best all day, mentally and physically, it's imperative that you stay

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the special link for Dynamic Dialogue listeners. This episode is brought to you in special part thanks to our awesome partners over at Ice Barrel. If you're like me, you want to get the absolute most you can out of your fitness and out of what it is that you're doing in life. I like to make sure that I'm recovering well and prepped for hard workouts. I like to make sure that my cognition is sharp and I like to make sure that I'm doing what I can to maintain my long-term health. And cold water immersion is a phenomenal tool I use and have used for a while to help me do this. Cold water immersion or taking ice baths is a great way to improve your recovery and performance. Just a few short sessions a week can really make a difference in how you recover. It can increase and improve your heart rate variability. It can enhance performance. It improves mood and brain function. It also provides an awesome boost of energy and focus because when you hop in an ice bath and you get this amazing vasoconstriction effect and your body starts releasing epinephrine and norepinephrine,

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like ice baths or cold exposure or sauna heat exposure can be really valuable for increasing that subjective sense of well-being and bringing you back to a place of alertness in a really chaotic world. It's also great for just cultivating resilience. I find I'm much tougher. Again, this is a more anecdotal thing, but I find that I am much tougher, ready to face the day's tasks when I am consistently exposing myself to the elements. Call it bromeopathy, call it anecdote, but I will tell you one thing is for sure, cold water immersion has made a huge difference for my health and well-being in just a few short sessions a week, and Ice Barrel is the sleekest, best-looking, cleanest, and most affordable way to do it reliably. You can head over to icebarrel.com slash Danny to take

advantage of their 100% satisfaction guaranteed with again, a 30 day money back guarantee and save 125 bucks on your ice barrel using the promo code Danny. So again, icebarrel.com slash Danny and check out using the promo code Danny to save 125 bucks. This podcast has some awesome partners. And one of my favorite, of course, is Legion Athletics. Legion is my go-to supplement manufacturer for what I like to call my big rock supplements. This would be my protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post-training formula, and creatine, and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. So why do I like Legion so much? What sets them apart? It's quite simple. Legion uses all natural ingredients. All the formulas include natural coloring and natural sweeteners, no artificial sweeteners, just stevia. And every

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Also, I love Legion's pre-workout, but specifically the pre-workout that does not contain caffeine. That would be their Stem Free Pulse. I'm a huge, huge fan of beta alanine and L-citrulline, but I don't like taking in wildly high amounts of caffeine. So if you are somebody who likes pre-workout with caffeine, you can try Pulse. Or if you like it without caffeine, because you maybe want to enjoy your morning coffee or monitor your caffeine consumption, try the Pulse Stim Free. My favorite flavors there for sure are the new grape and the amazing, amazing tropical punch. As for my creatine, I get that from Legion's Recharge.

Five grams each and every day. I take it on the days I train as well as the days I do not because Recharge also contains L-carnitine, which can help with promoting muscle recovery and decreasing soreness, as well as some ingredients to help with creatine utilization. And of course, my favorite supplements for my ancillary micronutrient health are Legion's Multivitamin and Legion's Greens Powder. Not only do these two products contain a ton of high quality vitamins and minerals. They also contain unique adaptogens like KSM 66 ashwagandha and reishi mushroom, which I like to take each and every day to promote my health. If you want to cover all your bases with a high quality protein,

creatine post-workout or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like greens, powders, and multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to legionathletics.com and check out using the promo code Danny. That'll save you 20% on your first order and you'll rack up points that you can use the same way as cash every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matrenga. And in this episode, I'm going to be answering some of your questions.

These are questions that I have fielded from my Instagram. Instagram's probably the best platform you can reach me on. My name there is danny.matrenga. I answer a ton of different fitness questions on there at least once a week through the little question box you can post on your story. So if you want to have your question featured on the podcast, be sure you're following me over there. You can turn on notifications, check my story. Occasionally you'll see it there. You can also follow me on Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube for

more fitness, health, longevity, performance, and productivity content to help make your life healthier, more productive, and hopefully better. But the best questions usually come right from you guys, and they usually get answered right here. I will answer some occasionally on Instagram, but the best ones get saved for the podcast. So for those of you who are here from Instagram, thank you so much for joining me here. We have questions today from a variety of different topics. We've got discussions about calories, specifically calories and counting them as it pertains to body fat reduction. We're going to discuss protein and the other macronutrients a bit as well. We're going to discuss magnesium and the other macronutrients a bit as well.

We're going to discuss magnesium, the mineral magnesium, and what you can expect to gain from adding it as a supplement, what you might notice if you are deficient in magnesium, why magnesium deficiency is so prevalent, and why addressing it with supplementation is at least reasonable, if not something most of us should be considering. We will discuss deloading specifically why I believe it is necessary to take deloads on a strength or hypertrophy program, muscle growth, muscle gain program. We will talk about pre-gym snacks, particularly how to fuel before early morning sessions. If you are training fasted, you like to train fasted, what you can do to add fuel in without having huge amounts of gastrointestinal distress. We will talk quite a bit as well about just some good post-workout

quick snacks, things that I think will be helpful, mostly discussing nutrition here today. So our first question comes from JC Lund. And the question is, counting calories and protein versus counting all the macros, does it make a difference? The answer is it depends, but let's talk about the context in which it depends. The first is, of course, the individual. The bandwidth required to track anything increases with the more things you add in to that tracking quotient or equation. If I tell you eat less than 2,000 calories, that is a considerably easier task than if I tell you eat less than 2,000 calories, eat more than 120 grams of protein, eat less than 300 grams of carbs, eat more than 28 grams of fat. If I give you targets four at a time versus one at a time, it would be reasonable for me to expect it to be more challenging for you to hit those targets

with a high degree of compliance while you learn the skill. So for new people who are new to the idea of tracking calories for weight loss, for people who are new to this, and this is something that I didn't understand when I first started training. Like if I just understood this one thing, it would have made a lot of people's lives a lot easier, specifically, of course, a lot of my clients' lives a lot easier. And that's that when we're talking specifically about just weight loss, just weight loss, I want to lose weight, but I mostly would like to lose body fat. You are going to get about 80% of that from tracking just calories and getting enough protein to make sure that you're not losing muscle. The carbohydrate and fat thing, tracking those extra two becomes

more important, the more athletically inclined or body composition specific, like specific for like bodybuilders. That's when that stuff really matters. When you need to make sure that you are getting adequate amounts of carbohydrate and fat, or you get the right balance of carbohydrate and fat to get specific body composition adaptations. So who needs to track all four macros? I think that that's a fair question. And it's a question that I don't think enough people ask, enough coaches don't ask, is who really needs to track all four macros? I think it's simple. People who have a body composition specific goal on a timeframe, people who are competing in some type of sport where they need to have access to certain substrates, whether it's carbs here or fats here, they can't be too high or too low on either of those things. You could talk about people with cognitive performance goals,

but really we're talking about performance and body composition. If we are simply talking about general weight loss and, you know, making sure that you have enough protein in the diet that when you're losing weight, you're not losing muscle. I think we're really talking about just tracking protein and just tracking calories and letting the rest kind of fall where they may. For clients who sign on to work with us in my company, Core Coaching Method, I find that performance and aesthetic outcomes tend to be pretty darn important. So we're programming all four macros with time considerations for a lot of our clients. But we also have a lot of general population clientele. And these would be clients for whom I would say health and weight management are the most

important factors. And I don't want to necessarily give them too many things to focus on, too many targets, because many of them are new to the idea of tracking food. And a lot of the clients that we work with that have body composition specific goals are not so new. Many of them have tracking experience. So I'm asking them to resume a behavior or to change course with the behavior they're already doing. I get a higher compliance rate than when I'm like, hey, I want you to track all four of these things. So typically we will give them the framework. We will give them a macronutrition plan that outlines why these macronutrients are important for you, but we will hold you accountable to just tracking calories and protein for your weight loss specific goal. This is what those

habits look like in action. You want to have plates that have a good amount of protein, a lot of fiber. You want high food volume, low nutrient density or high nutrient density, low energy density foods, and you can go from there. So I think for many of you, you do not need to track all four macros. If you really want to perform at your best in any capacity and you want to look your best in any capacity, it makes a really big difference. I'd say 20 to 40% difference overall. Like if you were doing like a perfect on the calories, perfect on the protein, but not giving a crap about the carbs and fats, I think you could be leaving 20 to 40% on the top end in the tank as it pertains to maxing out your exercise adaptations. Because I do think training and

pairing your training and fueling at the perfect and most granular level is what the best of the best have a tendency to do specifically when it comes to physique and performance. And I think you could say the same for longevity. I think a lot of the people in the biohacking community have for better or for worse, shown some of the effective ways we can time our nutrients and choose our macronutrient spread a little more thoughtfully to optimize cognition, to optimize sleep quality. A lot of people are getting data points on these things from wearables or from high-tech mattresses, which is awesome.

A lot of people really invested in that data and nutrient timing and where you get the other stuff from really matters at that highest level. But if you just want to lose fat, calories, protein, sleep, train, move, start small, build up. That's it. Next. Speaking of next, we'll get into the next question. This question is from Love of Fabrics. And the question is, what does magnesium do? So we'll talk about magnesium, its role in the body, why supplementation with magnesium makes sense, why magnesium deficiency is prevalent. So first off, magnesium is a mineral. It's a mineral that you could also classify as an electrolyte. You could also classify it, because it does appear on the periodic table,

as an element. It's a very abundant element. In fact, it's the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust. But we're talking specifically about elemental magnesium that you would get through food, through supplementation, and what its role is in the body. So we know it plays a crucial, crucial role in metabolism. We know that it is an enzyme and a cofactor for a myriad different number of biological processes. You'll hear 500, 2,000, 6,000. I've heard a lot of different numbers, but the point is magnesium gets used in a ton of different biological reactions and a deficiency in magnesium could limit the number of biological reactions you were able to undergo in a 24-hour period, which could lead to functioning in a suboptimal fashion. So what do you need to know about magnesium, where you can look,

what you might start to see if you might be deficient and you don't want to go run labs? Well, magnesium plays its biggest role in muscle, nerve function, blood sugar regulation, and cardiovascular health. So if you're somebody for whom those things matter, or you're somebody for whom those things are currently a struggle, or you're noticing some decline in those areas, or you're wondering what's going on, it might not be a bad idea to ask yourself the question, am I getting enough magnesium? A lot of people struggle to get enough magnesium in their diet because we get it from leafy greens, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and fish, which are very healthy and nutritious foods. But if you look at the general population,

they don't eat a ton of those foods. They eat a lot of foods that tend to be more processed. And even when they do eat greens, they're not necessarily cruciferous greens. They can oftentimes be greens with a lower nutrient density. And this could be for socioeconomic reasons. It could be for a lack of nutritional literacy. It could be for preference. Point being, people don't eat a lot of leafy greens. Nuts and seeds do tend to be the primary source of magnesium in the diet for most people. But again, whole grains and fish are great, but oftentimes cost prohibitive proteins like fish get skipped and whole grain options are oftentimes left on the shelves. Instead, people tend to go for more refined grain products because they tend to be a little bit more palatable and tasty.

They also oftentimes are cheaper. So people are eating all these calories, but they're not necessarily eating enough of the foods that they get magnesium from. They're eating the processed versions of them. So magnesium deficiency isn't that uncommon. And like I said already, you look at muscles, you look at the nervous system, and you look at the heart when we talk about magnesium. So muscle cramps are a big, big symptom. If you have a lot of cramping, you could look at magnesium. That's a huge reason why I like to take LMNT before I train. I really enjoy having an electrolyte before I train. And it's not just because I train in the morning fasted and we're going to talk a little bit about fasted training down the line. So I don't want to jump the gun. Um, but it's also because I get better contractions. In my opinion, this is subjective. I find that I'm more hydrated. I find that I'm

more inclined to drink the water when it has a tasty electrolyte in there, but I'm also getting magnesium into my body early. So I'm not playing catch up. If you're new to the podcast, you've probably not heard me say this, but I start my day off pretty early with lots of water, lots of protein. I train early. I get magnesium, sodium, potassium, and early in element. Those are my go-to electrolyte supplement. But the cool thing about getting those things in early is a lot of people don't get enough protein. They don't get enough water and they don't get enough magnesium. And if I start early on those, don't get enough protein, they don't get enough water and they don't get enough magnesium. And if I start early on those, I don't necessarily feel like I'm playing catch up all day. And I don't

almost, I don't necessarily always even need to supplement. If you don't want to, you know, start your day with electrolytes or you have high blood pressure, so you're sensitive to sodium and you only want to supplement with pure magnesium, you can try bisglycinate or L-3-N-8, magnesium 3-N-8 before bed. I've heard from many guests on the podcast, Luis and Nicola. We talked to Dean about the role that magnesium plays in brain health and different types being able to help our sleep be more restorative and recuperative, help our nervous system downregulate and cool off. And you need a form that crosses the blood-brain barrier to maximize the cognitive effects. So you'd want L3NA. Andrew Huberman talks a lot about this. Hey guys, taking a break from the show to tell you about our amazing sports

nutrition partner, Legion. Legion makes the best evidence-based formulas for sports performance, sports nutrition, recovery, and fat loss. I don't recommend many supplements. In fact, I think you can get the majority of the nutrition you need from a whole foods diet. But let's be honest, many of us are either on the go and need assistance, or quite frankly, we're not going to settle for average and we want to get the absolute most we can out of our training. So Legion is the company I go to for all of my supplement staples, whether it's creatine, which I get from their product Recharge, my protein that I get from either Whey Plus or Plant Plus, two of the best tasting proteins on the market. They come in a variety of flavors and they don't have a ton of fillers and gum. Just Whey made from grass-fed cows from Ireland in a plant protein

blend with a fully comprehensive dose of amino acids. I like to take a pre-workout. Sometimes I like it with caffeine. Sometimes I like to enjoy coffee in the morning and have my pre-workout later without caffeine. Legion makes both. Both the pre-workout with caffeine and without come with a full dosage of clinically effective ingredients like beta alanine, betaine anhydrous, and l-citrulline to help you perform your best. They also make a phenomenal greens powder loaded with one of my favorite things, reishi mushroom, and a men's and women's multivitamin that contain a few different things that men

and women might need for their unique physiology. So when you think of your vitamins, your fish oil, your pre-workout, your protein, all of the things that many of you take every single day, I'd encourage you to check out Legion. They have an amazing line, wonderful products, wonderful flavors, naturally sweetened, no dyes and colors. You can't go wrong. You can shop using the show notes below or by going to legionathletics.com and checking out using the promo code Danny. That will save you 20% and it will actually help you get two times points towards future orders, which you can use the same as cash. Pretty cool, guys. So head over to legionathletics.com and check out using the

promo code Danny to save on all your sports supplement needs. Back to the show. What's going on guys? Coach Danny here, taking a break from the episode to tell you about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method, and more specifically, our one-on-one fully tailored online coaching program. My online coaching program has kind of been the flagship for Core Coaching Method for a while. Of course, we do have PDF programming and we have app-based programming. But if you want a truly tailored one-on-one experience with a coach like myself or a member of my coaching team, someone who is certified, somebody who has multiple years of experience working with clients in person online, somebody who is licensed to provide a macro nutrition plan, somebody who is actually good at communicating with clients because they've done it for years, whether that be via phone call,

email, text, right? This one-on-one coaching program is really designed to give you all the support you need. With custom training designed for you, whether you're training from home, the gym, around your limitations and your goals, nothing cookie cutter here, as well as easy to follow macronutrition programs that are non-restrictive. You'll get customized support directly from your coach's email or they'll text you or they'll WhatsApp you. We'll find the communication medium that best supports your goals as well as provides you with accountability in the expertise you need to succeed. As well as biofeedback monitoring, baked-in accountability

support, and all of the stuff that you need from your coach when you check in. We keep our rosters relatively small so that we can make sure you get the best support possible. But you can apply today by going over to corecoachingmethod.com, selecting the online coaching option, and if we have spots available, we'll definitely reach out to you to see if you're a good option. And if we have spots available, we'll definitely reach out to you to see if you're a good candidate. And if we don't put you on a waiting list, but we'll be sure to give you the best shot at the best coaching in the industry. So head over to corecoachingmethod.com and apply for one-on-one coaching with me and my team today. Hey everybody, but I have a favor to ask you. If you're a regular listener or somebody who

gets value out of this podcast, somebody who's learning from me on your health and fitness journey, whether you're a trainer, a high level athlete, or you're just getting started, other people need this kind of advice. And the best way for you to help me grow the podcast is to take a little bit of time, literally one to two minutes max to leave a rating and review on the app that you listen to your podcasts on. The majority of you probably listen on an iPhone and you probably listen on Apple podcasts, but many of you listen on Spotify. Both platforms allow you to leave a quick, easy review. And if you could leave me a five-star review plus a short one to two sentence blurb

about what you like. Not only will it help more people reach the podcast, it will help me to continue to refine what it is I bring you each and every week. Thanks so much for doing this. It means the world to me. It helps me achieve my dream of helping more people live a healthier life. Enjoy the episode. Now, if you want one that might help with sleep, you try bisglycinate that's a form that's bound to glycine getting a little extra glycine and amino acid will also help with sleep so those are the two supplemental types i'd say 200 to 400 milligrams is going to work for most people take too much you're going to poop your pants remember i'm not a doctor i'm not a physician

this is not a prescription you shouldn't listen to anybody on the internet without doing your research and your due diligence, checking the safety profiles of supplements. I will say creatine, electrolytes like sodium, potassium, magnesium, a lot of this stuff we talk about on the podcast, omega-3, vitamin D are generally safe for most people. But I do want to encourage you guys to always do your due diligence and check. Anytime we talk about supplements. I've listened to so many podcasts and rushed to buy a supplement immediately without even finishing. I don't even turn it off. I just open Amazon, buy it and start taking it because somebody smart said to. And sometimes that's a great way to find a supplement that works. Sometimes it's a great way to flush your money down the toilet. So always do some robust evidence-based pontification before you hit that one click to buy on Amazon.

Which reminds me before I forget, there are many medications for which supplemental magnesium could be contraindicated. So proton pump inhibitors and diuretics, okay, they tend to deplete magnesium. Those are commonly taken. Okay. And if you are taking those medications specifically, which I know a lot of people actually are or know someone who is, I've had clients who have used a magnesium supplement and had great results and they did so at the behest of their physician. So if you're taking a diuretic or a proton pump inhibitor, send your doctor an email and ask them if the potential for more magnesium-rich foods in the diet or a magnesium supplement might be sensible, especially if you have other medication, you always want to check that off. But those are two populations for whom they get a pharmacological

magnesium depletion on a daily basis with their meds. So it could be worth adding stuff in specifically there, regardless of what your performance goals are. Okay. This question comes from Eileen lifts. And the question is, is a deload week necessary? So let's, let's define deload week. This is a resistance training concept, uh, specifically built around the idea of, uh, recovering and maximizing the principle of what we call in the strength and conditioning world, super compensation, which is kind of the idea that, Hey, you train really, really hard, push above your current threshold. You overreach a little bit. You take an extended recovery period. You materialize all these gains, materialize and actualize in that recovery period. And then you ramp up again and really go for it.

And the deload serves as that super compensatory period and that recovery period to keep you from overtraining, getting an injury, getting burnt out psychologically. So it's a technique that an individual is going to use to reduce the training volume and the intensity of the training volume to recover from the consistent stress of resistance training. Why I think it's important, it allows you to recover from all of the accumulated local central nervous fatigue. And it's going to really, in to recover from all of the accumulated local central nervous fatigue. And it's going to really, in my opinion, and from my experience, reduce the risk of an injury. Now, I don't think you need to deload every four weeks. I think you can get away with deloading

every four, six, eight, 12 weeks. I have clients where we deload every 16 weeks just because of the way we cycle through programming and through volume. A lot of times the introductory phases, the first week of my programming for clients is lower volume because a lot of times when we shift blocks and we integrate two, three, four new exercises or two, three, four exercises we haven't seen in a while. Truth is you're going to use a lot of the same exercises all the time because that's the shit that just works. But when you integrate something new and your body's not as adept at recruiting those motor units, getting them to contract in that sequence, you might have less efficiency on that new exercise. There might be more muscle

damage, less intermuscular coordination, less intramuscular coordination. You're just like, oh man, I am tanked from that low volume workout. So a lot of those first weeks, they tend to be lower volume anyway. And that gives me some, some peace of mind knowing like, Hey, the volume's not there, which means in, in all likelihood, the wear and tear on the soft tissues, isn't there. And the wear and tear on the nervous system is reduced. We might see a little more soreness from the increased muscle damage and the lack of, you know, kind of just haven't having a novel movement or novel movements in the protocol. But we get those built in every time I shift blocks,

which is like four to six weeks, but a real deload where you cut things back 40, 60%. I think you can time those up for your vacations and be like, Hey, I'm taking a vacation. Boom. Perfect time for a deload, hit the gym for 15 minutes, four to five. So you're there four to five days at the gym for 15 minutes, twice, catch a quick little pump, two sets of 20 for like three or four different exercises. Boom out the door. You know, you can do these really small, low volume, just catch a pump workouts for, you know, three days over a seven day period where you give yourself a full seven days off and just catch a pump just to kind of tell those muscles, Hey, I'm, I'm stick. I'm, I want you to stick around. I want you to hang out, but really bring the

volume down a true D load. It could be like for a power lifter going in and staying at, uh, 40 to 60% of their one rep max, uh, you know, for a Olympic lifter, same thing. For a bodybuilder, it could be two sets of 15 to 20, five reps from failure, four or three reps from failure. There's a lot of different ways you can deload, but the goal is to continue to stay active and train, but not fully unleash the beast, so to speak, not to train in a way that you're accumulating fatigue. In fact, maybe in a way that allows for recuperation. I think you can also take that time to focus on mobility, flexibility, form, breath work, aerobic work. I've always liked the idea of increasing the list, the low intensity, steady state cardio during those aerobic weeks. I wouldn't say just pick up and go running. I'd say like

you could use stairs, rowing, cycling, because running is demanding enough that it will make your recovery kind of, uh, you'll have to partition some of that recovery from weight training to recovery from running. If you're not a good runner and you're not an economical runner. Um, but if you do that zone two cardio, I think that this is common because many people who enjoy weightlifting, myself included, I have to incriminate myself because I've noticed if I don't call myself on it, one of you guys will call me on it. So in the spirit of calling myself on it, right? I've noticed a lot of weightlifters, including myself, wants things to do on their deloads because their training volume has been reduced and they like to be in the gym investing

in the development of their body. When you take the volume out and say, Hey, you got to do less for this week. They're like, well, can, can I do something else? And mobility is a great option, but you know what else is great? Finally doing that cardio you always tell yourself you need to do. And one of the cool things about aerobic adaptations is they tend to stick around a lot longer than anaerobic adaptations, even when you don't train them. So if during that deload week, you do a few workouts just to get a pump, and you also spend a lot of time doing low intensity, steady state zone two cardio to boost your aerobic capacity and just generally do your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and capillaries

some due diligence, you will find that your aerobic health throughout the entire year is a lot better. And I think that when we talk about exercise, we need to talk about it in the most practical and economical sense. And if you are in a routine, but you're skipping out on that cardio, you know, we know how important that is for general health. And I think those of us who do really like to weight train tend to avoid it or skip it a little bit. Those deloads are great times to, you know, you know, you're going to be in the gym for 30 minutes less than normal. So why the hell not do that 30 minutes on the stairs? You're going to keep that routine going. Everything.

Okay. Last question of the day comes from Elliot Nall. And the question is, what is an early morning pre-gym slash pre-run snack? So I think the first thing I would say that a lot of you should try is training fasted in the morning. If you haven't tried this, I know it can sound totally crazy to go to the gym without anything in your stomach. sessions, I would feel very heavy and bloated with food still sitting in my stomach undigested, which was never a great feeling. So I started training fasted and I would use BCAAs before I learned about how kind of inefficient that was, EAAs. I would use Himalayan sea salt, tons of water, pre-workout. And now I've kept it substantially simpler. I take stimulant-free pre-workout before I train for the alpha-glycerol phosphocholine. That's a nootropic, the only one I really like. It gives me a little bit more focus. And I take LMNTs, electrolytes, to give myself magnesium,

sodium, and potassium. And I save the caffeine for after my session because I'm training at about 5 a.m. Sometimes I do have a scoop of the caffeinated pulse that I pair with that stim-free pre-workout if it's something like legs, but I'm really working on pulling my caffeine down. But I say this because fasted training has worked wonderfully for me. I love it. I actually find that I'm able to get right into my day and my workout quality was better fasted. So if you are training and you mentioned early in the morning, I would explore training fasted for at least one week just to see how you do. Now, if you want to have a meal, I think that meal should feature two things, carbohydrates and proteins, preferably carbohydrates that are easy to digest and aren't high in fiber. So things like fructose from low fiber fruits and glucose and things like

cereals, grains, oats that aren't, you know, they could be processed in that, you know, a grits, a rice cereal and an oatmeal that's not, you know, steel cut, but maybe one of the smaller quick oats, that lack of fiber will allow for quicker digestion and better gastric emptying and better motility through the small and large intestines. So you're not going to be like either, oh my God, I feel like I swallowed an anvil or, oh my God, I have to shit. Uh, it'll be kind of a nice balance with a quick, easy to digest protein. So things like dairy, eggs, protein shakes tend to be a little bit better, uh, because of their textures and because, uh, relatively speaking at a structural level, like chewing and masticating and eating high protein

meats, those tend to digest a little more slowly than things like eggs, yogurt, and even like whey protein, which is essentially already digested. So there are a few snacks that I went ahead and scripted out for you that I think will fit into this criterion. So I'll read out this sample menu for you of what I think could make for a good pre-gym meal that will digest somewhat quickly and won't sit all that heavy in your stomach. So the first one would be Greek yogurt with berries and granola. Greek yogurt, of course, has protein berries and granola, of course, provide carbohydrates from two different sources utilizing two different pathways. And granola tends to be made from simpler grains. And oftentimes there is some added sugar or honey, which can be beneficial prior to training. A second option would be hard boiled eggs

and some type of toast. Obviously you have fat in the hard boiled eggs, which will slow down motility. And you could opt for a whole grain oat bread, something to that effect. The thing you just got to pay attention grain oat bread, something to that effect. The thing you just got to pay attention to is what's your digestive rate like. If you digest it quickly, that'll probably be fine. If not, you could simplify it even more. Peanut butter and banana, good option. If you want something really, really fast, I find this is the fastest one, probably the least likely to provide a high amount of protein, but also probably the fastest cottage cheese and fruit, just like yogurt and fruit, essentially protein shake and fruit.

That is my personal favorite. So there you have it, guys. Those are some quick things that you can kind of incorporate before you train some quick meal ideas. But if you haven't tried training fasted, I would definitely try that. Okay, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the podcast. I hope it continues to add value to you on your health, fitness, productivity, whatever it is that you're working on and you're looking to kind of fine tune your life around. I think being healthy, fit, and optimized from a physical sense is critical for that. And I want to thank you for giving me any time to help you do that. I know there's so many podcasts that I like to listen to. I feel guilty when I don't catch up with them.

And knowing that you guys take time for mine is so incredible. And I just want to thank you for sharing it and remind you that if you haven't yet left the show a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, that doing that helps a tremendous amount. And I will love you forever if you take the one to two minutes required to do that. I will catch you on the next episode, guys. And until then, be well.