Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 365: Best Supplements, Ramadan, Eating to Recover + More (Q and A)

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. This is a Q&A episode where I am taking a deep dive into many of your health, fitness, productivity, supplementation, performance questions fielded from over on my Instagram. You can find me on a bunch of different social medias, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Threads, where I share my unabashed thoughts and tips with regards to living a healthier life. But some of the best questions that I find on those platforms, I bring right here to the podcast so we can take a really deep dive. So without further ado, enjoy today's Q&A episode. 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, protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post-training formula and creatine, 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 single formulation, be it a pre-workout or a vitamin, contains clinically effective dosages of ingredients shown to work in humans in clinical research supported by robust trials. No filler, just legit ingredients in each and every formulation proven to work. The whey protein isolate is so light, it's fantastic, it mixes in water,

it tastes amazing, and I drink it every day even as somebody who's lactose intolerant. That's just how high quality this whey protein is. And it's sourced from Irish dairy cows that are raised well, eat their natural diet and packaged in climate friendly packaging. I love their plant protein too. For those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products. those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products. 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.

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. In typical fashion, I am going to take a stab at your username before I get into the questions. If I get your username wrong, don't get upset. Some of these are really hard. But the first one, easy one, comes from LeoMendoza11. And Leo's question is, any words of wisdom for someone trying to get into the personal training field? So, for anybody looking to work in fitness

or personal training or really any interpersonal, you know, relational based business, I think the most important thing that you can do is to get really clear on why it is that you would like to work in this field. Is it because you're interested in fitness? If so, fantastic. Is it because you like helping people? If so, fantastic. Is it because you like working hard and working directly with people one-on-one, face-to-face, or having those same kinds of interactions over email, text, or however you're going to communicate? Truth is, if any of those things don't sound like it's your cup of tea,

then personal training and fitness training or online coaching, whatever vehicle you're going to use to deliver better health to people is probably not for you. This is a routine-based business. It's a habit-based business. It means lots of talking, lots of communicating, lots of showing up. And that's not for everybody. But if you are passionate about fitness, passionate about helping others, and passionate about being on a routine and fairly scheduled, then personal training can be a really good career path. It just takes a lot of work to build a clientele.

Years, not months. And with the kind of adjustments we're going through sociologically and technologically, I think we will always need people to help with keeping our population in better health and fitness. But it can oftentimes feel like a job where your efforts are occasionally underappreciated. Okay. Next question comes from CR underscore Samps. How do you know when to increase maintenance calories for building muscle? So good rule of thumb is if you're gaining

around 1% of your total body weight per month. So I'll use myself as an example. Let's say I'm 200 pounds and I am bulking at a current rate of two pounds per month. I'm okay with that. I'm cool with that rate. That's 1% of my total body weight gain per month. I can assume with that. I'm cool with that rate. That's 1% of my total body weight gain per month. I can assume that some of that is muscle. If I'm gaining 2% of my total body weight

per month, let's say it's four pounds, that rate of weight gain is simply too much for me to ensure that a lot of it's muscle. If I'm gaining a half a pound a week, I might, or a half a pound a month, I might be leaving something on the table. So I would say if your rate of weight gain is less than 1.0% of your current weight per month, you can go higher and you can add a little more calories to your quote unquote bulk for building muscle. Okay. This question comes from the young wolf 12 started taking the Legion multivitamin. How would I tell that they are working? So I am a huge fan of Legion's products. They are a sponsor of the show.

They make a fabulous protein pre-workout and greens powder that I take every day. And I also take their triumph multivitamin. Eight capsules is one serving. So I actually split that into just a half dose. capsules is one serving. So I actually split that into just a half dose. I only take four capsules into like two chunks of two capsules a day. But I am unable to tell when my multivitamin is working as has been the case with multivitamin supplements for over a decade. I do not notice a difference when I do or do not take a multivitamin outside of the fact that like my urine is yellower and contains more of those water soluble vitamin kind of solids, distillates,

when I'm taking it. You don't notice a multivitamin the way you notice something like, say, consistent creatine use or consistent pre-workout use. What you do with a multivitamin is you frame it as an insurance policy. In all likelihood, if you eat a healthy diet, you don't need 100% of the nutrients in your multivitamin. You might need some of them to quote unquote fill in the gaps. And I think the way you might know that it's working is if you notice, hey, I'm filling in these gaps. I'm not getting sick. I'm able to recover. My skin looks good. My hair looks good. I feel well nourished. These are things that might cue you into the fact that your multivitamin is working. But if you have a high quality multivitamin from a manufacturer like, let's say, Legion, I also really like the daily

vitamin packs from another partner, Blokes. I've also really enjoyed Kirkland's multivitamin. I also really like the daily vitamin packs from another partner, Blokes. I've also really enjoyed Kirkland's multivitamin. I think Thorne makes a high quality multivitamin. Those brands use quality forms of the vitamins that are bioavailable. And if you take them consistently and daily, that's about as good as it's going to get. But you have to acknowledge that with multivitamins specifically, you are not going to feel their presence, for lack of a better term, the way you do with so many other supplements. So the devil's in the details. It's really in showing up consistently and you're not going to notice much. But if you're getting sick a lot or, you know, you have poor immune function or you feel like you're clearly deficient in some vitamins and minerals,

maybe you'll notice a difference there. Okay, this question comes from real underscore slim underscore Kia. How can you make progress with fitness with very lightweight as an obese person? Great question. So as somebody who's obese or heavily over fat or heavily overweight,

you can make huge progress with your nutrition using walks, body weight resistance training, or heavily over fat or heavily overweight, you can make huge progress with your nutrition using walks, body weight resistance training, working on foundational habits like stretching, getting up from a seated position if you've been seated for more than 30 minutes. You know, like I said earlier, daily walks, you can look at incorporating foundational movement patterns like pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, hinging by just incorporating a couple dumbbells into your routine. You don't need anything heavy or anything crazy. You could get away probably with two tens and two twenties, you know, just really starting slow. And then also, you know,

in the name of making progress as an obese person, we probably want to work on diet to get your body fat and body weight down. It's not healthy to be obese in any capacity. So I think your best bet is to work on your nutrition at the same time. Focus on increasing your protein intake, your fiber intake, monitoring your calorie intake, and paying attention to how many calories you're eating. Make sure that you're not going overboard on ultra processed foods that are hard not to over consume. Make sure you're not drinking too many calories. These are all things that you can do to make a huge difference in the battle against obesity. Okay. This question comes from Jason hair one. And the question is best foods to focus on during six week recovery from surgery. So anytime they cut you open, there is going to

be a substantial requirement for protein. Think about when you tear your muscles down at the micro level, we call these micro tears. You need protein to repair those micro tears. And the same thing is true when you have an incision in your dermis. When somebody cuts your skin open in that capacity, you are going to need quite a bit of protein. Now, you might add something like collagen into the mix because the skin is made a lot of collagen and keratin. You definitely should add something like vitamin C to the mix because that helps with collagen synthesis. I would for sure focus on getting a high amount of dietary protein, as well as maybe some foods that can

help you manage inflammation, especially water, supplemental magnesium, lots of greens, lots of proteins. The true answer here is a healthy diet. I might also look into Lyle McDonald's work. He's done some interesting research on recovery from injury specifically. This question comes from Nat Natty. And the question is, are sweet breakfasts in the morning really worse than savory? Hard to say. I would imagine that for most people, a sweet breakfast contains on average, a greater percentage of calories from ultra processed, hyper palatable, hard not to over consume foods. So that makes me think when I think of a super sweet breakfast, donuts, you know, muffins, cereals, things that when I eat them personally, I am never,

ever, ever full. I could always eat more. But when I have a vanilla protein shake with some blueberries and a banana, I'm very full. When I have a savory breakfast with like eggs and multigrain bread, I'm very full. So I think that on average, a lot of the sweet breakfast options are particularly low on the satiety index. And a lot of the savory breakfast options are a little higher in protein. However, this isn't to say that you couldn't have a sweet protein shake to start the day and put yourself in a better position than say something savory like chilequiles, which is not particularly ideal for most people in most cases. Unless, of course, you're just trying to really enjoy breakfast and you're like on Mexican vacation. Okay, Growling Alyssa says, I have EDs, what supplements are best to take? So if EDs means erectile dysfunction, probably something like L-arginine or nitrogensine to promote blood flow.

If ED means eating disorders, again, without knowing the eating disorder specifically, I would definitely recommend speaking to a psychologist and eating disorder professional. But if it is an eating disorder where you are not getting adequate nutrient exposure, I would strongly encourage you to do what you can psychologically to eat a healthier, more balanced diet, rich in the fuel you need, and potentially fill in those gaps with some simple stuff like protein and a multivitamin. Okay, this question comes from Amar Adan. And the question is fasting and training in Ramadan tips. Amar also asked a similar question on that kind of same note around, you know, managing eating. And he said, he's currently doing intermittent fasting, 80% cardio, 20% weight. So

if I were fasting for Ramadan and doing 80% cardio, 20% weights, I would probably flip that to doing 80% weights and 20% cardio. And during Ramadan, a lot of your fasting is happening during the day and you eat from sundown basically to sunup. So when sun goes down, I would load up on a ton of protein and I'd probably wake up early in the morning to have a little bit more and then get into that fasting window, sneak a lift somewhere in there and continue. But I would change how much cardio I was doing to do more weights. And I would guess that during the fasting period, doing tons of cardio and tons of fasting could lead to less than ideal muscle growth or even some slow level muscle loss. I would want to avoid that. Aaron Jessica Yoga asks,

does creatine have calories? So creatine is nitrogenous in nature. It is made from amino acids. Therefore, like all amino acids, it has about four calories per gram. Now you won't see this on labeling and you definitely don't see this on amino acid products because there are some different rules and regulations around listing the calories on a nutritional supplement. But to keep it simple, yes, creatine has calories, but the amount of which is so small, it's almost not even worth tracking. Okay, SweetMelissa82 says, should I keep my head up or tuck my chin for RDLs?

Likely not going to make a difference. I prefer a more neutral spine. My neck starts to hurt a little bit if I keep it in that hyper kind of extended chin up position, get a little pump in my neck extensors, not my favorite thing in the world. So I like to keep things a little bit more neutral. What's going on, guys? Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and best user interface possible.

You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells or elite physique Which is a female bodybuilding focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed Specifically to help you develop strength as well as the glutes hamstrings quads and back I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels But what's cool about this is when you join these programs you get programming that's updated every single week the sets to do The reps to do exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific. So you'll find

other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions. It's a really cool training community and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the core coaching collective, my app-based training community. Back to the show. Phila Mint says, you mentioned doing mobility bites through the day on a recent episode of the podcast. Consider sharing to YouTube. So if you guys actually just go over to my YouTube channel, Danny Matrenga, you're going to find a ton of different videos. I have videos on exercises that I believe to be the most underrated,

videos on how to create your own workout program. I have this exact 10-minute daily mobility routine. I have complete push days, complete pull days, fat loss tips, my favorite exercises for various muscle groups, how I designed my gym and my studio. I also have over 250 individual exercise tutorials that make learning how to lift with good form very easy. And they're not those like over the top 10 minute tutorials. Most of these are one minute long, extremely concise and loaded with actual tips that I've picked up from really coaching people how to move and exercise. So it's all there for you over on the YouTube. Okay. Rain.me says all protein powders have artificial sweeteners and they say it messes up your gut. So that's not true. Many protein powders use artificial sweeteners, but

not all. Legion uses Stevia, which is a natural non-nutritive sweetener. I like that more. I also tend not to have issues with artificial sweeteners and my gut. However, there is literature that is similar to the literature on alcohol that says we see changes and alterations in the microbiome when we introduce artificial sweeteners, not necessarily messing it up or damaging it, but altering it. So if you want a protein powder that is free of artificial sweeteners, not necessarily messing it up or damaging it, but altering it. So if you want a protein powder that is free of artificial sweeteners, I would recommend Legion. I quite like it. ZeroFoxtrot1825 asks, what do I think of BPN and Jocko supplements? I have never tried either brand, but it does appear to me to be the case that both brands make a high quality product. And I believe VPN uses

transparent labeling. I can't say for sure about Jocko, but I would hope that they do. But a bunch of people who I know and believe to be pretty discerning enjoy supporting these companies. So I'm sure that they are very, very cool. KawaiiGirl48, best way to up your protein intake. very cool. Uh, Kauai girl 48 best way to up your protein intake of a high protein breakfast and make sure that you are not playing from behind and can really help. Also Kauai girl 48 has a great username. Kauai sounds amazing. I will be there in about five to 10 days depending on when this airs. Okay. Uh, great question so far. Let's see what we've got. Lauren underscore quiz. Do you train bodybuilders? Yes, I do. And I have for years. I actually find training bodybuilders to be fairly easy compared to training most people. They tend to be pretty self-motivated. If you

give them a plan, they will stick with it, especially on the nutrition front. My favorite demographic to work with is women's bodybuilding, physique, style, bikini, figure, whatever you categorically sort yourself into in the more natural setting. I have worked with men and women who are enhanced, meaning they use steroids. I have worked with men and women who are natural. And I think in general, I like to work with natural bodybuilders. Although I will say it is not my favorite demographic to work with in person. I prefer to work more with novices in an online capacity. I like novice intermediates all the way up to

natural bodybuilders. Ad Astra 2033 asks, are carb powders necessary during heavy lifting days? For most people, I would say no. And this is because you store 300 plus grams of carbohydrate in your body, in your liver and muscles in the form of a compound known as glycogen. Glycogen holds onto carbohydrate. It is really carbohydrate just bound up and stored in your tissues so that you can use it when you need it. And you might need it during a heavy lifting day. And it's very unlikely that you need to supplement with carbohydrates if you have glycogen. McHenry asks, trying to understand how heavy I should be lifting fatigue out last few reps set or last set both. Definitely both. You want to be having a hard time reaching the total reps you've set for yourself in

most of your sets. If you have three sets of 10, it's okay for the first set of 10 to feel easy. But if on the second set of 10 reps, eight, nine, and 10 are not challenging, and it's only on the third set where you face challenging reps, you are not pushing yourself hard enough to potentiate the most gains possible. And I would recommend pushing yourself hard enough to potentiate the most gains possible. And I would recommend pushing yourself hard enough to potentiate the most gains possible. Jen Slack 22. How do you transition from a cut to maintenance slowly or just go? So the slow transition back is known as a reverse diet. Going straight back

is just normal behavior. I would recommend going straight back. The people for whom I'd recommend a reverse diet are people who are a little bit worried and neurotic about going back to a higher calorie intake and sneaking their way back there might make things a little bit easier on them psychologically. I don't believe there's any physiological benefit to a reverse diet for most people. In fact, I think it is a scam in so many ways perpetuated by the fitness industry to, uh, you know, get people to stay on a coaching program longer. I think if you really care about people's physiology, um, you know, you just help them go back to maintenance or get them back to maintenance and communicate to them, um, that, you know, you're going to gain a little body fat, whether we go up slow or we go back,

you know, uh, at a more reasonable pace. It's just not, in my opinion, reasonable to slow crawl your way back. It just, it's just not a good move. It doesn't work for most people. Um, and while it is something that I, I think that, you know, some coaches could spin and be like, no, look, I have a really compelling physiological argument for why we do this and why we should do this and, and, you know, the importance of it. But I am just entirely and completely unconvinced that there is a real good reason for this. Okay. Donna TV asks, what do you think about BCAAs and electrolytes during an early morning workout? I love supplementing with LMNTs electrolytes during my morning training sessions. Absolutely love it. That said, not necessary for

everybody, but if you want better pumps, if you want better focus, if you want the opportunity to, you know, in my opinion, more, you know, more, more, give yourself a more standard physiological place to start with these morning workouts where you have a little salt in your system, where you're holding onto water a little better. You could add a little caffeine to this. You could add a little creatine to this. I wouldn't even bother with, you could obviously add pre-workout to this. I really would not bother with adding BCAAs. I don't think they're going to do much of anything. Instead, I would recommend that you focus

on getting your, you know, post-workout amino acids circulating, meaning have some protein for you when you're done. But that's about it. Okay. The Lily May May asks, how long does it take to start noticing a difference while taking creatine? For most people, it does take about one month for creatine stores to reach a level of saturation where you see the benefit in the work that you're doing. So give it about a month. Sub Shobin asks, what is the minimum grams of fat per day for a woman? Sometimes I struggle to even hit 50. I would just multiply your body weight times 0.3 and consider that the line at which point, if you go below that chronically,

you're going to start to have issues. So if you're 150 pound woman, probably around 45 grams for most women, I w I would never go lower than like 30, 35 for very long. You can get away with it for a couple of days, but you will start to see some issues if you're too low fat for too long. And for most people, too low fat for too long is going to equate to some serious issues. This one's from just Danielle is eating too much fiber bad, like over a hundred grams in a day. Oh, if you are eating a hundred grams of fiber in a day, I would be shocked if you were not constipated and dealing with like considerable gastrointestinal distress. Fiber is one of those weird things where too little is a problem,

but too much is also a problem. And too much is a great way to end up super constipated and probably really uncomfortable. And if I were you, I would bring that number down because I don't know how sustainable it is. And I would imagine that over time it might cause some issues for the gut. This question's from, this is Amit Goyal. This is Amit Goyal. Why is there so much noise against carbs and what kinds of carbs should be considered? There's a lot of noise against carbs because they are included in many of the ultra processed hyper palatable foods that we cannot stop over consuming that are clearly a big component in why the obesity epidemic has grown to out of control proportions.

However, there's also some like amazing nutrient dense carbs like carrots, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, many of the grains that you enjoy that are oftentimes processed or ultra processed in their normal forms are really nutrient dense. And so see, there's a lot of noise against carbs because when people cut them out, they cut out junk food. But when you cut out like the nutrient dense carbs, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, tubers, et cetera, you lose out on a ton of nutrition. So I would consider more whole food, minimally processed carbs. I would actually consider having those with every meal to help keep me full, to help with weight management and energy. I would try to minimize my exposure to these ultra processed carbs. That's my personal

breakdown there. Jennifer J. Curtis wants to know how many calories is too little for a deficit. If you have a low TDE maintenance and total calorie requirement. Somebody asked me this yesterday. I'm dropping my calories like 100 per day until I'm in a deficit. And I was like, dude, that's like barely enough to account for a margin for error. And I would say that if the number below your maintenance is too small, you're not even going to notice it. Like most people are probably going to miss by 100 calories north or south by virtue of just being bad at counting. So I like the number of like three to 500 calories below your maintenance for most people.

And if you're any less than that, there's a really good chance you're not even going to notice being in a deficit because we will make tracking errors. And unfortunately for most people, tracking errors of normal degree are more than enough to knock you out of a deficit if it's just 100 calories. Okay, DawnLove444, why is it so hard at night not to overeat but i can wake up and not eat for five hours so at night your inhibitions are lower your you know stress from the day has accumulated to a high level you're probably at home you're relaxing your satiety and appetite signals are probably coordinated around a circadian clock that has put you in a position where you feel a lot of hunger in the evening. So I think that's why I think in the morning, oftentimes we wake up and have low appetite. I know I am one of these people. I actually started recording this podcast at 440

in the morning. I'm literally just sipping espresso black. I'm not going to be hungry for at least an hour or two. I will take a protein shake with me to the gym when I start training clients, and that will probably last me like two to three hours of feeling full. So just bear in mind that I think your circadian clock and circadian biology is dictating when you're hungry. And if you just work on skewing that and kind of dealing with being less hungry in the evening or being a little more hungry and trying to eat more fiber, eat more protein, listen to those signals, but not oblige them. You can regulate this pattern. Last question from Nicole Castillo. I'm 26 years old, female. I've been getting sick too often. Any recs on daily supplements? So without a doubt, going to recommend a multivitamin, zinc, and maybe even a greens powder. These things are not for everybody, but if you are

constantly getting sick, it is very possible that one, you're not washing your hands frequently, and maybe even a greens powder. These things are not for everybody, but if you are constantly getting sick, it is very possible that one, you're not washing your hands frequently, huge thing you can do to fix that. And two, maybe you're super depleted in valuable micronutrients that help to modulate your immune system. So load up on those vitamin zinc and my favorite greens powder, Legion Genesis. However, if you're also in a calorie deficit, I would work on fixing that too. Okay, folks, that's it for those questions. I hope that you enjoyed them.

If you did, do me a favor and follow the show on iTunes and Spotify and leave me a five-star rating and review so more people can find the show so I can help more people get in shape with your help. Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next one.