Mark Bell's Power Project - Sprint Training for Longevity: Endurance, Elasticity, and Staying Uninjured

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Jump rope isn’t just “conditioning”, it’s a gateway drug to elasticity, sprinting, and better performance for jiu-jitsu and wrestling.In this episode, Fast Over 40 coach Cynthia Monteleone breaks down why long jogs don’t match the demands of combat sports, how to train speed endurance without getting hurt, and the biggest sprint cue most lifters miss: relaxation.We also get into warmups, tempo vs max-effort sprint days, hamstring pulls (and why “weak hamstrings” is usually the wrong diagnosis), plus recovery, nutrition, and supplementation strategies she uses with everyone from elite athletes to everyday people.Follow Cynthia Monteleone:​ @fastover40  www.fastover40.comSpecial perks for our listeners below!🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!🩸 Get your BLOODWORK/TRT/PEPTIDES! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com and use code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off Self-Service Labs and Guided Optimization®.🧠 Methylene Blue: Better Focus, Sleep and Mood 🧠 Use Code POWER10 for 10% off!➢https://troscriptions.com?utm_source=affiliate&ut-m_medium=podcast&ut-m_campaign=MarkBel-I_podcastBest 5 Finger Barefoot Shoes! 👟 ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM?si=JZN09-FakTjoJuaW🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎➢https://emr-tek.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!

Achilles tendonitis is actually a bacterial issue. Spontaneous Achilles ruptures are actually related to staphlococcus aureus. If you sprint max effort under fatigue, you're probably asking for an injury. You can't push through the sprint. You're actually going to have a higher power output because you're relaxed and you're not using that nervous system energy. Do we know that lactic acid there's no such thing? That this is an old term. Elite athletes and masters athletes, we start warming up like an hour and a half before a race. I won the decathlon, indoor hiptathlon, all these championships, a silver medal in the pentathlon,

which I just started learning two years ago. I've already won a gold medal in the 400. Like, I feel like I'm good for a while. What are just some general things that you think can be helpful for people that maybe are dealing with an injury from maybe a supplementation standpoint? I love this. I talked about already eating for neurotransmitters. So that's the number one thing. I'm thankful for your insight on the jump rope because, I mean, that's what I've been using for, like, longer period if I want to do because like jiu-jitsu you know you need to have a level of endurance right and I didn't feel like jogging was serving me the way I wanted it to when I was doing that but as I've been building jumping skill it's like jump rope seems to move well with

everything I'm interested in sprinting elasticity and my goal with jump rope wasn't just like to jump for long periods but I want my jumping to be elastic where like I could just hop hop hop hop you so yeah yeah that was good insight from you so So thank you. Yeah. And, um, Jiu-Jitsu, you do need to be explosive, even though you're in a lot of isometric positions and that sort of thing. You do need to have that power.

Like a lot of people don't realize that wrestling is the same way. Like one of my passions as a wrestling coach, along with my husband is that, uh, we teach our wrestlers, one, how to cut weight in the healthy way because, I mean, there's some really gnarly stuff going on, cutting weight. And so we teach the kids how to cut weight, you know, the right weight or just stay within realm of a healthy weight. And then we also teach not jogging for wrestling. These wrestling coaches will have them go on long jogs for endurance training. But if you think about it, when you're wrestling, you're exploding, resting, exploding, resting. And then you need that several times.

So you need speed endurance, right? Not just endurance. So we have them do sprints instead. I think sometimes what people are trying to do with having people run longer distances, I think they're hopeful that they're going to get a cardio benefit that is going to allow them to perform other things at a lower heart rate or be able to handle things that are more difficult with a similar heart rate. But it doesn't really work that way. And to try to build a base with long distance, it would just take a really long time. And to try to like have somebody cruise at a heart rate of 130 or 140. but running like a nine minute mile pace, it's not going to happen. But it might happen quicker if someone was doing things more explosively.

That's correct. Because like what is cardio, right? A lot of people, there's some debate now finally in a good way about what is cardio. You can get cardio. I mean, Charles would teach us this, Charles Bolkin, that you can get cardio from strength training if you're doing it a certain way. And then what type of? of cardio, what is that doing your heart? Like, is it making your heart reactive to explosive nature?

Like, I remember that something was taught to me that when somebody does have a heart attack, they're more protected if they have a sprint training or some sort of explosive training because their heart is used to that burst of movement than rather than cardio. But we also talked before about, you know, how maybe the hyper remodeling of, that comes from endurance training is not really great for the heart anyway. So like what is cardio? I think we're redefining it in a good way, like things that we can do for cardio. So we've talked a bunch about sprints and stuff like that, but it would be great to talk about how to avoid injury, how to maybe make yourself a little quote unquote bulletproof. It's kind of hard sometimes to bulletproof yourself against all types of

injuries. But we see a lot of athletes nowadays a lot of non-contact injury, which is a lot of is really interesting. We see a lot of Achilles and I've heard you on other podcasts talk about how you feel like you have some expertise in that area. So I think that would be really cool to touch upon some of those things. Yeah, I have a really different approach to a lot of different things that I think just, you know, hopefully is helping a lot of people out there. My elite athletes, the lady next door, that sort of thing. So some of this information might be new because nobody's ever heard anyone say Achilles tendonitis is actually a bacterial issue, right? Have you heard that?

No. Yeah. So what I did is I went into the research. And when I say went into the research on any given week, like usually every week I read 50 medical journal articles on any subject. And I don't just read what I agree with. I read opposing points of view. I just go through and I assess patterns. So this is how I found out too that red meat is like so good for.

your heart. It's got El carnitine, which is one of the best things for your heart. And then here is the mainstream media telling me, you know, red meats causes cancer and all this stuff. So I do my own research and I find my own information. So what I found was that spontaneous Achilles ruptures are actually related to staphilococcus aureus. So they biopsyed the hamstrings of the same individuals and found there was no staff. So what happens is that some of these bacteria swim toward inflamed tissue and like to live in it. So maybe your Achilles is inflamed from running or something like that. And if you don't properly take care of your micro bacteria, they will accumulate in those tissues.

You could, I think, I don't know if it's on YouTube anymore, but a long time ago, there was a video of Charles giving a lecture on all non-traumatic injury is bacteria. And so he was the first one who planted the seed. And then I, yeah, I don't, it was an Italian, it was some Italian conference. And I think they may have taken it off since then. But yeah, all non-traumatic injury is bacteria related. And so I took it around with it and kept researching because, you know, he passed away shortly thereafter. And I found that the upper body bacteria was different from the lower body.

So if I had an athlete that had frozen shoulder or, you know, usually that's more of like a, a weekend warrior type athlete. But frozen shoulder or tennis elbow or something like this, it was the bacteria, balasticis hominous, which is part of our commensal bacteria. Sounds like something from Harry Potter. Belasticis hominous.

Yeah, so when it gets out of proportion, though, just like staff is usually part of our commensal bacteria, our normal bacteria profile. But when it gets out of balance, then it becomes a problem. So I would treat them with supplements and food first for blasts as a somonus and their frozen shoulder, their elbow injury would go away. Same thing with Achilles.

So what do I, I'll go ahead and just tell you my protocol. And so what do I do for Achilles tendonitis? Well, I make sure that they have a lot of either monoloren or coconut products. So coconut oil, coconut meat, coconut cream, that sort of thing, because that has loric acid, which is the same as the monoloren. And that is the only thing that takes care of even resistant MRSA. So, can you believe this? Coconut is the only thing that can still, over all those antibiotics, take care of MRSA.

This is not medical advice, by the way. It's just what works. Antimicrobial or whatever, right? Antimicrobial. Yeah, antifungal, antimicrobial. I mean, coconut is just totally amazing. I have my clients put coconut oil after showers to create a breathable layer of, you know, barrier against this is great for jiu-jitsu because like wrestling there's a lot of bacteria going

around jiu-jitsu i'm gonna actually do that i mean luckily through the 10 years of jiu-jitsu i've never gotten staff or ring-worm or any of those but um this is helpful yes so that will provide a layer of like obviously you're not going to put it on right before you roll because you know to be greasy like if you just put it on like the night until you shower at night put it on after your shower and then still have it the next day like you can even see water drops just disappear on your skin, or like rather actually, they roll off of the barrier. Yeah. So, but ingesting that coconut oil, and no one's going to find research on this, it just

is through experimentation that I've known. They will find the research on monolourin and lark acid, but ingesting coconut oil, there's no research yet, but I think probably in 20 years there will be. Is there any issue if like, you like, let's say coconut oil, because not everyone likes just taking a spoonful of that. Oh, it's so gross sometimes. What if you have like morning tea or coffee? put it in this dissolving it and have any problem now?

Nope. No, not like glycine. Like glycine you wouldn't want to put in hot water, but coconut oil's fine. You can cook with it and stuff, right? Yeah, you can cook with it. But what I usually have them do is they put it in their protein shakes. So they make the way protein with room temperature water, add the coconut oil room temperature again, and then put the ice in afterwards.

And then it kind of makes like a milkshake smoothie because it thickens, right? Yeah. So that's a really good way to do it. How about coconut water? Like, you know how they have those coconut waters at Costco and stuff like that? Dude, does this look, does it have the same stuff inside of it? Coming from Hawaii, those coconut waters are a little offensive because if one, like I go every week to the farmer's market and I have a guy with a machete that gives me a coconut, you know?

So I know the difference and it just doesn't taste the same. So I don't know the authentic purity of those. I suppose the more raw and organic that you can get them, I've had some of those, you know, they're a little bit better. but they usually have high amounts of sugar, which my athletes really don't have a lot of sugar. A coconut is a weird monster. It really is. It has a lot of sugar and fat.

It's crazy. Yeah. It's like there's not a lot of foods like that. They call it in Hawaii, the tree of life. That was their tree of life. I mean, you could literally live off of that. You could. Yeah.

So there's a guy that chops coconuts at the Black Sand Beach, and he is the most jacked, ripped dude I've ever seen. And he is a combination of climbing the coconut. Like you can just go there and watch him climb the coconut trees with the machete. He's going so, I don't even know how many feet in the air. Just you can imagine, right? But also, I think he's on meth. So I'm like, I need to interview him.

Like, he's the most fit, jacked guy I've ever seen in my life, including all of my Olympians and decathletes and everybody. And I'm like, he's got the formula. I mean, I don't want to like recommend that formula, but I'm just curious, you know. So he's like always fidgeting. and around and doing stuff and he's got his machete and then you just pay him 10 bucks and he goes up the tree and gets you a coconut. Wow. Yeah. Okay.

So anyway. That's a good deal. What are some of the other things you do for like the Achilles tendon? Okay. So the other thing is obviously preparing your muscles. So strength training for that split squat, knees over toes style that really helps get you into that position. Small pogo hops are great for you. So you don't have to be, you know, a high jumper to get the benefits of making those feet strong and those tendons strong.

You can just do small like pogo hops or like just tiny small jumps. So any kind of plymetrics like that are great. What question real quick? What are your thoughts for even for people that are like much older, right? Where leaving the ground is like my dad, 82. So even before leaving the ground, how about like being able to just like hop in that way? Is that beneficial? Totally.

Okay. Yes. But they also, they have a test for, like a jump test, right, is great for everybody. But I'm not going to give my 82-year-old dad a jump test. So the test would be how many times can they stand up and sit down from a chair in five minutes. So that's a good test to do for older folks. Yeah. And promoting that.

I'm a big fan of the polova barefoot shoes walking around. And I actually don't recommend sprinting in barefoot shoes because I think that you need that cushion for all the load that you're doing it. I don't recommend sprinting in spikes. This is kind of a controversial subject in track because there are some coaches that have their athletes in spikes all the time so that they are adapted to sprinting. There's a medium, right? You can't have only flats and then throw your athletes into spikes and expect their feet

to adapt to them. I think the barefoot shoes come in handy for bridging that gap where you can just walk around in them and strengthen, but I don't think that you should be in spikes all year around because that really puts too much stress on all your joints as well. So I think there's a happy medium to that. What type of shoe would be the happy medium? Or what type of footwear if there is a brand that has a specific shoe that you're like, you know what? Sprinting in these is what I generally suggest for athletes. Like for flats, you mean? Like if you're, if I'm doing interval work and I'm not wearing spikes. Yeah. I would say the Nike Pegasus Zooms are good. I'm not a Nike

politics fan, but those are the best shoes, in my opinion, for interval work. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything other than the coconut oil that you would recommend that would help be helpful with this bacteria? For metabolically, nope, that's the magic. Great. Yeah, is the coconut oil.

And then for upper body, the blast is ominous. You could either do the antibiotic route, or if you don't want to, you can start with garlic. So Alicinin is usually the garlic supplement, but or just. just like pound the garlic. I'm sure your spouse would love it. Oh, that, no, okay, no, that's actually really dope. I love garlic.

I have minced garlic that I take a little bit of each day, just because my grandma, like, suggests, she just told me to do that. So it's something I do for a while. So, I mean, what else does the garlic do? Well, it's antifungal. So, yeah, yep, and antibacterial. So it just, all of these little foods that we take,

that we consume are dictating what our gut bacteria is as well. Heart healthy, I believe garlic is too. Yeah, there's a lot of things garlic's good for. In fact, over the years, if the wrestlers have had gnarly ringworm, I've seen my husband take garlic and kind of burn it with the. Damn. With, yeah, and it works. So, yeah.

Okay. A lot of injuries are, you know, probably a lot of them just coming from people like overtraining, kind of overdoing it. How do you help people manage that? Yeah. So let's talk about track injuries. Hamstring pulls, right? Gosh, I think it was an Altus coach on Andrew Huberman's podcast, and he was telling him,

you shouldn't sprint. And I really took offense to this because here I am telling everyone, like, you can sprint. Like, let's start slow. And he kept saying, you shouldn't sprint. That's why you pull a hamstring every time. You shouldn't sprint. You should just skip instead, and you shouldn't even try to sprint. And I think he was the white guy with the beard?

Yes. He was so Stu McMillan. Yeah. He's very condescending. I don't like, I just feel like there's a better way. You know what I mean? Reach people a better way. That's just my personal opinion. But in the track world, there are a lot of coaches that would disagree with that as well. And what is the way then to prevent those injuries? Well, it's actually the neurological firing again. So that prediction, like prediction from, we talked earlier, about ground contact time and predicting when your foot's going to strike the ground, hamstring injuries don't come from weak muscles. Look at you, Mark. You have very strong muscles, clearly. That's not what it comes from. It comes from overreaching, over striding, or not anticipating the load and not having the tendon elasticity, and then your hamstrings carrying too much of the load. So those things are what really creates hamstring pulls and strains. So if you work on your

predictability through drills, track drills, before you run, then you're primed to remember what cadence you're supposed to be at, where you're supposed to be. So you work on that. You work on your strength work at ranges. So the slow RDLs that we talked about earlier is six second, eccentric, maybe four second. And then you are just really making sure that you're neurologically firing at the right time. You don't run fatigued. I think we talked earlier like, okay, like max sprint one, maybe I should have max sprint in three. So if you sprint max effort under fatigue, you're probably asking for an injury. But we also talked earlier about having a separate plan. So you have tempo days. You're not max sprinting every day, right? Would you do your max

lifts and power lifting every single day? Nope. Like, you know, several of them? No. Very, very rare. So why are people sprinting like that. When I say people, I mean like the longevity influencers who don't really know. So yeah, you think about it that way. You're not going to try to do max effort every day. You want to do tempo, then you want to do a short max effort with proper rest periods, not under fatigue, and then a race model type of situation where you're combining a little bit of the two. There are some track coaches out there that are, I call them teaching lazy sprinters where they say never sprint tired, never do track workouts, only sprints and spikes, only sprint fast. And this is just not realistic and not preparing the foundation for good spring.

None of the elite, please, I don't want to name names, but the elite athletes just laugh at these influencers saying this, you know, and they're just like, okay, whatever. And it matters even if you're not elite because we want to keep everyone injury free. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually curious about this. When it comes to, when it comes to sprinting, is there any type of cadence that some people want to develop when moving through space? Yes. The reason why I ask this, okay, cool. And I want to mention the reason why I ask this, it's like you'll see some people run and sprint and they're like their breathing is just, there's no cadence with the steps or with movement.

And then you hear some sprinters where it's like you hear a, you hear that audible sprinting. sound, right? So what can people think about when trying to apply that to sprinting? I love that you asked this because I definitely wanted to talk about this. The best sprinters actually and the ones who have the least amount of injury are the ones that are most relaxed. So have you seen Sidney McLaughlin run a 400 or 400 hurdles? Have you seen all that like Shakari Richardson or any of the elites Gabby Thomas, their cheeks are bouncing up and down? Because they're so relaxed. So Mark, if I could pick on you for a second. When I see you sprint online, I notice that, and it's not your fault, it's from powerlifting. So in power lifting, you're

grinding it out. Yeah, you're like used to push, push, push. You can't do that in sprinting. You can't push through the sprint. You have to deep breath, chest out, roll the shoulders down, and in fact, and you reset your neurological system. So in fact, you could do that three times before you start sprinting. And that lack of tension, yeah, roll it down, long exhale, at least three to four seconds, three times. And you're actually going to have a higher power output because you're relaxed and you're not using that nervous system energy for trying to grind it out.

That tension follows all the way down through your hamstrings. So you really want a relaxed upper body, relaxed jaw, everything relaxed, relaxed fingers, elbows, drive, yes, but everything else is. relax shoulders relaxed and um do you think you can do that with a cue with a what with a cue oh yeah um do you think i can run more relaxed every every coach has a different cue for what they want to say for that so my coach would just say uh shoulders down he'd yell at me shoulders down because it's natural as we get fatigued too to they creep up you know like you end up creeping up and rolling into a fetal position where you want to just stay really open relaxing

down, your arms are on the side of your body, your fingertips by your eyeballs and into your pockets. Like everything's relaxed. And in fact, I did read that if you do that before deadlifting as well, that you tend to have a better power output for your deadlift. If you relax your shoulders down, now. So you're still going to have that grind, but you're going to be not fighting yourself in that nervous system, if that makes sense. So the cadence, yes, and controlling your breathing along with it, the best sprinters are controlling their breathing as they run. There's some, there's some track coaches that have their athletes hold their breath while they're running. So what are we looking at? Oh, the spring for sprints we did the other way. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay.

So it's hard on the treadmill because so that that's a tight, you know, your chest is not out in that one. But that's, it's hard on the treadmill because you don't want to, it's, your nervous system is trying to protect you from falling and, you know, scraping your face in the treadmill. I think it's your form's already going to be different on the treadmill. But it's a different different different yeah, but you really should concentrate. I would even just go slower and better form until you can get that's like a little bit better. But the chest, chest still not out. Because when you put your chest out, your shoulders automatically roll down. You feel that? Like anyone listening out there if you just stick your chest out? I'll give that a try next time I. Roll the shoulders down. I think it's also for me.

I think, you know, and you can correct me if I, if I, if you feel I'm. wrong, but I think it's just a byproduct of like just doing it more. That's true. I don't think I can cue myself to death at this point. I think I need to just, I need to have a lot of repetition doing. I do agree. I think that makes a lot of sense. You said slower.

I think that's the ticket is slower and then have that cue in my head of relaxed, chest out. I think if I do that repeatedly, it's start to get ingrained a little bit better. If you do a lot of 90 to 95% work, then you're going to get the same kind of like you're almost there, but you're a little. bit safer, right? So it's just, uh, slow enough to think about the technique. Yes. Because once you go to 100, you can't really think of it. Right. And it should always be above 85% by the way. And if people don't know what their maxes and, you know, it's kind of like strength training. You know, you're one rep max. And then you go

back from there with percentages. If you don't know what your one rep 200 meter maxes, then you kind of just guess by perceived effort. But so your perceived effort should be above 85%. I think everybody can kind of of feel with their, right, their perceived effort. So the cadence. So the best sprinters are the most efficient sprinters. So what creates efficiency? That means your muscle strength, how hard you're hitting the ground and pulling it back. And then your relaxation. So for instance, the breathing and the 400. I would take two inhales and a long exhale. I would control my breathing like that the whole way around and i do think that that was one of my keys to success and then my coach taught me to take a deep breath right at the 200 mark and drive with that breath um and then of course i gave myself the dopamine

cue of reward at the 300 let's go let's get there um but that helps create more energy for the whole sprint and then once the you know the fatigue hits uh and there's nothing else you could do at the end of a 400 you guys both ran a 400 before you know what i'm talking about i have i'm at 400. He does that. Yeah. So at, well, you've seen 400 meter runners. Yeah, they all, they tie up at the end. Yeah, Ryan, maybe you can bring up the clip of her like nearly dying at the end of 20-year runs. Okay. I don't even know if you were doing 400s on that day that you just collapsed on the ground. You know what that workout was? I had to look back. I saw it. I saw you wrote it out and it was like a lot of stuff. I was like, holy crap. Well, Brad was asking me,

what was that workout? And I had to look back in my training log because it wasn't recent. I was from before. And there it is the best thing about 400 meter training. In the right. Yeah. This was 300 meters followed by it was one and a half minutes rest, I think, and then another 300 and then another 300. So it's three times.

You're like glued to the ground. And then there's three sets. Wait, three sets of that. Well, let's see. My PR in the 300 at this point is like 41. to 42, about 41, and I was running 45 to 47. Yikes. So 45 second is like, if you were to keep going, that's 60 seconds and 400.

So I had to do three sets of those. 90 seconds, right? Basically it's three, six and 900, right? I was like, or was it three, two? Yeah, anyway, it was a brutal interval set and like, but this was my favorite, this is my favorite thing about 400 meter training, is that feeling right there where I was like, wow, I didn't even think I could do that. And I just did that.

Now, I did not hit my times exactly on the last set, but I wasn't supposed to kind of thing. You know, I was supposed to try. I was close, but I didn't quite hit them. So, yeah. So what happens, actually, I need your guys' help in the help of your audience for this. Okay, you ready? What happens at the end of the 400? That's tying you up.

What do you think it is? Well, I mean, fatigue. What does everybody say it is? Oh, lactic acid. Lactic acid. So we all know, do we know that lactic acid, there's no such thing, that this is an old term. Yeah, so we need your help. We need to rename this because it's one of my pet peeps. And even I still say it. Sometimes when people don't understand what I'm saying, I'll say,

oh yeah, like I even feel fatigue and my biceps and my pecs, you know, when I run. And I'll, they'll go wet and I'll be like, you know, like lactic acid. But it's not lactic acid. Because what happens is we have our first 10 seconds, right? We have our phosphocreotene stage. And then we move into producing too much ATP or not producing too much, but a lot of ATP. that creates the byproducts of too much hydrogen ions and too much inorganic phosphate. So we have this pie and we have these hydrogen ions. And then our pH does go up or gets more acidic in our blood goes down. And so lactate comes in as the hero and tries to make fuel for us.

And so people have put those things together and thought that it's lactic acid, but it's not. Lactate is actually the hero. It's energy. Yes, exactly. So what's causing the, and then after that happens, all those, the inorganic phosphate, calcium is disrupted. So then that signals the muscle contractions, right? We need calcium for that.

So because of that, our contractions slow down. We're not able to get that signaling as well. And then comes the neurological fatigue. Our brain's like, okay, we're getting all these signals. We really need to protect ourselves and slow down. which you can override a little bit with dopamine. But, okay, what should be the name of this instead of lactic acid? Maybe somebody can write in the comments.

Like hydrogen ion riot, I don't know. Any ideas? Like, it can't be lactic acid anymore because it's not correct. We need to re-educate everybody. Well, we'll leave it to you guys. Comment down below. Let us know your thoughts and what we should rename that or what it should be called. Yeah.

But have you heard that before? That it's not lactate acid? I don't think so. Oh, okay. So good. Hopefully I taught somebody something today. What are some signs that someone's like overdoing it, that an injury is like around the corner? Like is it PRs? Is it the way you feel? Like, you know. Yeah. So good question because, you know, I went through my whole master's career not being injured.

So no hamstring pulls, no quad pulls, nothing. I would feel like it coming on a little bit. And I would make sure that I was dynamically stretched. So I made sure in my warm. warm up was good. Elite athletes and master's athletes, we start warming up like an hour and a half before a race mentally, you know, showing up, going through the motions. So it's a long warm up for a short race. So making sure we're warmed up all the way. And if you do feel like a little bit of a strain, like don't push it.

It's not worth it. Probably you need to back off intensity a little bit and figure out why are you feeling that strain? For me, it was not, again, it was not that my muscles were weak or maybe even my neurological timing was okay but my pal we all have stress patterns so like my stress pattern is I tilt this way I sleep that way too so that makes my pelvis rotate and I have an upslip on one side so my PT would actually help just get my pelvis back to neutral and taught me how to do it myself before a track

meat with wedge blocks and that kept me from ever getting my hamstring strain because if you think about it, if you're tilted like that, right, it's going to pull on. Same with lifting, I'm sure, right? Do you guys do any of that? Do any of what? Like resetting your pelvis or making sure you're, like, even. A lot of lifters will utilize like stuff that Kelly Sturrette, you know, would show where you, you know, do things to kind of like open up the hips or, yeah, kind of reset yourself before you start your workout. Right.

Make sure everything's even. Yeah. Best you can, yeah. At this point, like, for me, it's just making sure. all my tissues feel supple and like moving. I naturally move through certain ranges, but I do tissue work through the week to just make sure that there's nowhere on my body

where something's feeling off. And generally that mixed with movement for me has allowed me to just not have, like not feel like I have any type of inefficiencies. Yep, I totally agree with that too. Yep. So for me, it's like a yoga flow in my dynamic warm up.

Just moving through it, making sure nothing's static. A lot of hip mobility, having like all sprinters do hurdle drills so you're like you know doing all of those around the corner hit mobility things so oh gosh whenever I see like mobility influencers or something like that I think just do track drills and sprinting like you can get to that those or what about like all the rep or all the strength training ranges that Charles taught you know that we see now in ATG and who you know Ben Patrick learned will be the first one to say he learned everything from Charles you know

So like all of those low squat ranges, low knee, you know, knees over toes, which I think which one of you I was talking to earlier said that old coaches would have said that was bad for your knees. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so we know now it's actually the best thing for your knees because it strengthens your VMO, which protects your knees. But yeah, I mean, I really feel that proper range of motion in strength training and sprinting, you don't need extra. mobility work except for like if you want to obviously keep the flow yoga the rope flow the you know jump rope juggling all those things keeping moving and loose and giving signals to your spinal cord great yeah i feel like like one of the big concept here is having a diagnostic for yourself

having a reliable full body diagnostic that allows you to kind of check and feel what might be off mean one of the first things though is like you need to understand what off feels like because you could be coming from this with a lot of issues. But overall, everyone does need some kind of movement diagnostic to let you know I can go really fast today. Yep. So what do you think happened recently if you strained your hamstring? Like what do you think was wrong that day? Oh, is this our last set?

You know, we did a lot of sets. I'm still newish to sprinting. And I don't know, we did like 14 sets. We were going fast towards the end. So, you know, already fatigued. Yeah. So probably just under fatigue and maybe tense in the upper body. Yeah.

Partially from that fatigue, probably. So, yeah, I guess. I got PR. So it's like I've said earlier, you get PR, just go home. You know, take your PR and put it in your little, put it in your bag and walk on out of it. Yeah. And I don't know if you felt this, but if you talk to any of the track athletes, they'll tell you that in sprinting, usually their best race was the one that felt the easiest.

And that's because of that. relaxation and how important that is. And the rope flow is one of the best things to kind of get you in that relaxation kind of mode too, right? You know, that sort of thing I'm saying as opposed to grinding it in a bench press or something like that, which, hey, there's a, when I say the the ranges in the strength training, there's a time in place for the power as well. So usually in the training block, if you take a nine month training block, it'll be three months of foundation work, three months of intensification, and then the last three months before competition will be the fast moving bars, the Olympic lifts, the short power lifting type heavy loads. So I think, you know, I would love to see more people out there doing proper training blocks. What about, you mentioned like kind of VMO type stuff a lot. What about just the health of the knee? I think a lot of people that are, you know, over the age of 40, they're like sprint. Like I can't even get out of

side and barely jog. My knees are trash. Right. So I recently had an x-ray of my knee. I had a, I've never been injured, but I did get injured this year from an accident falling from pole vaults. And so instead of like, I didn't get injured from like a lateral movement or any kind of, you know, thing like that. But I was launching into the pit and my grip was a little too high. I came. Instead of going into the pit, it means I stalled at the top and I came straight downheaded for the steel box. Didn't want to land in that through my leg out to the side and my spike caught the top of the mat. My knee took the brunt of the fall. Everything like that.

I know. Sorry. But dislocated kneecap torn ACL completely. Lateral meniscus and medial meniscus torn. And I immediately then got a blood clot so I couldn't have surgery. I was stuck in, you know, immobile. but it turned out that, well, it turned out that that was actually okay. But let me get back to that.

The x-ray, when they x-rayed my knee, they said, wow, you're going to be 50 in, you know, a couple of months, and you have zero degeneration in your knee. And you're a runner? Like, they just couldn't believe it. But when you're not doing over-use injury type work, like endurance training, then you're more likely to have really healthy joints. But I also attributed that to my strength training to understanding the sprint loads and doing a lot of sub-maximal work and leaving maximal work for just one day a week maybe. And then increasing maximal work as you get closer to season too, maybe.

But yeah, so I think it's just taking care of my joints, the metabolics, because we talked about joint health actually being bacteria-related. Do you know rheumatoid arthritis is actually a bacteria overabundance called pre-vitalis. which comes from eating too much fiber usually and fruits like all these people doing smoothies they need to look into previtella so if you have rheumatoid arthritis look into previtella and mitigating that so when I say joints and bacteria are related that's what I mean too so yeah back to my injury if you want to hear about it so I got this DVT blood clot they put me on eloquist which is a blood thinner and I took it for three months and then I was like

all right, let's go, let's have surgery. And that was the protocol, three months. They tested me, and the blood clot was still there. And I was like, oh, no, like, I can't have surgery. And, like, it's going to be terrible. But I started to give me a headache. Like a week later, I noticed when I took it, I would get a headache. And I looked up side effects, headache, eloquist, and it said it could be brain bleeding.

And I was like, okay, fuck no. I'm not doing this anymore. It's not working. Now it's giving me headaches. Like, what am I doing? I'm a metabolic practitioner. I know what to do. So I called my hematologist friend I used to train with.

I said, hey, I'm going to titrate off this aliquis. And I'm going to start a supplement protocol. I'm writing myself a supplement protocol. And he's like, I fully support that, Cynthia. And so I titrate it off, did the supplement protocol. It was natokinase, which is derived from fermented soy. That's the nato. Natokinase.

Cerepeptase, it's an enzyme from a silkworm, actually. Very Eastern medicine, right? Type things. Question, would you? Because I eat Natto like every two days. Would you, yeah, yeah, yeah. I started doing that like a few years back. Did your grandma tell you or you just knew?

No, no, no. Okay, I just looked it up as a good ferment. I eat a lot of fermented foods, right? And that's when I heard about. So like I get that. It's like fermented soybeans or something. Yeah, it's you, it's slimy dog. Yeah.

Would that be giving you? the same things as a supplemental natokinase. Yes, I believe so, but I tried three different kinds and the kind I like was called like a mega nato. So I just, I think it was just the dosage that was more concentrated. I will never go to a doctor ever again about my general health. All they want to do is put you on pills. Really well said there by Dana White. Couldn't agree with them more. A lot of us are trying to get jacked and tan. A lot of us just want to look good, feel good. And a lot of the symptoms that we might acquire as we get older, some of the things that we might have high cholesterol or these various things, it's amazing to have somebody looking at your blood

work as you're going through the process, as you're trying to become a better athlete, somebody that knows what they're doing, they can look at your cholesterol, they can look at the various markers that you have, and they can kind of see where you're at, and they can help guide you through that. And there's a few aspects, too, where it's like, yes, I mean, no, no shades of doctors, but a lot of times they do want to just stick you on medication. A lot of times there is supplementation that can help with this. At Merrick Health, these patient care coronators are going to also look at the way you're

living your lifestyle because there's a lot of things you might be doing that if you just adjust that, boom, you could be at the right levels, including working with your testosterone. And there's so many people that I know that are looking for, they're like, hey, should I do that? They're very curious. And they think that testosterone is going to all of a sudden kind of turn them into the Hulk. But that's not really what happens. It can be something that can be really great for your health because you can just basically live your life a little stronger,

just like you were maybe in your 20s and 30s. And this is the last thing to keep in mind, guys. When you get your blood work done at a hospital, they're just looking at like these minimum levels. At Merrick Health, they try to bring you up to ideal levels for everything you're working with. Whereas if you go into a hospital and you have 300 nanograms per deciliter of test,

you're good, bro, even though you're probably feeling like shit. At Merrick Health, they're going to try to figure out what things you can do in terms of your lifestyle. and if you're a candidate, potentially TRT. So these are things to pay attention to to get you to your best self. And what I love about it is a little bit of the back and forth that you get with the patient care coordinator. They're dissecting your blood work. It's not like you just get this email back and it's just like, hey, try these five things.

Somebody's actually on the phone with you going over every step and what you should do. Sometimes it's supplementation. Sometimes it's TRT and sometimes it's simply just some lifestyle habit changes. All right, guys, if you want to get your blood work checked and also get professional help from people who are going to be able to get you towards your best levels, heads to Merichhealth.com and use code Power Project for 10% off any panel of your choice. Okay. So you're getting like a daily health benefit, but if you were targeting something like this, which this is not medical advice, this is just my experience. If you were targeting something like a blood clot, then you would want something that's breaking down the fibrin, which is what the natokinase does.

So maybe that concentrated form would be better. But you're already preventing that from happening, you know, in normal life and increasing your blood flow by just doing it naturally. So I did the natokines, the serapeptase, and high-dose fish oil. And three weeks later, I got retested and my blood clot was gone. So the ultrasound technician said, I gave her my story, you know, and she said, well, that's not surprising because 30% of the population, the eloquist doesn't work. And I'm like, wow, they didn't tell me that when I went on it, you know? And then the vascular specialists came in, and I explained to him what I did.

He was old school, getting ready to retire. I thought I was going to get yelled at. And he said, tell me more. Tell me what you did. I've seen natalkynase in the research, but I don't know much about it. Tell me more. And that was super refreshing. Now, whenever I mention it to like nurses or something, they get,

their little pen and paper out and they're like, let me read this down because since COVID, there's been an explosion of DVT blood clots from the vaccine or from COVID itself. They're not sure. But yeah, so again, it's not medical advice, but this is what I did. And it worked for me because it breaks down the fiber and that makes the blood clot, whereas eloquist just thins the blood so that your body can break down the fiber. So then I was there with my, do you have? No, no, keep on.

Okay. Then I was there with my no blood clot. I can have surgery. The surgeon checks me and he says, well, funny things happened. You're actually growing a new ACL, so to speak. And I'm all what? He's like, well, you're growing a scar bridge because you were immobile for a while and then you've been doing your protocol, which was Charles's ACL protocol.

And he said, you're growing scar tissue, a scar bridge. And I said, yeah, but scar tissue is chaotically formed. So won't that be weak? And he said, well, yeah, but then your connective tissue grows over the top of it. and that is strong. So if you want to, we can wait to have the surgery and you can see how you can continue to heal. And you know me, I'm like throwing everything at it as a metabolic practitioner.

So I'm like, hell yeah, I want to grow a new ACL, let's do it. You know, so that's where I am right now, growing a new ICO. So like in terms of how, how's the feeling right now, right? How often do you get like imaging done to see how it's progressing? And when do you think projected potentially you might be able to start? start sprinting again. Yeah. Well, don't tell my husband, but I did run up the hill the other day. He's like, don't do too much. You know, he's protective of me. He tells me, I go brush the horses up at my friend's farm and he's like, don't get on a horse today. And I'm all like, babe, sorry,

I totally fucking got on a horse today. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, that's just me. I'm a little crazy. So I, you know what? I'm not in a rush. I don't need to come back to win another championship next season. I don't know if I mentioned, but I won the decathlon, indoor hip, all these championships and a silver medal in the pentathlon, which I just started learning two years ago. I've already won a gold medal in the 400. Like, I feel like I'm good for a while, you know? Like I don't need to come back and just smash it again next year. So I'm giving myself grace and time to heal naturally to see what can I do and what can I teach others from this.

So I don't know exactly what the time frame is, but it's steadily getting better. Every day it's a little bit better. I can, you've seen me walk around. I can walk normal. I can do like a little bit of jumping, a little bit of pogo hops. I can do squats almost all the way down. I can do split squats maybe about three quarters of the way. So every day gets just like a little bit better.

So if that makes sense. Yeah. And I think it would be great to just dive into nutrition from here. Okay. Because we're talking about injuries. And I think they tie in pretty good. You know, your training. ties in with that as well, how somebody programs their training and stuff like that.

But what are just some general things that you think can be helpful for people that maybe are dealing with an injury from maybe a supplementation and a nutritional standpoint? I love this question. Yeah, that's great. I love specific questions because, and individual cases, because everyone is kind of different, but I can give some general advice towards that. Well, I talked about already eating for neurotransmitters. So, that's the number one thing. That would be red meat in the morning for altiracine to create dopamine, not spike dopamine, because we don't want to spike it and then drop it. So avoiding high sugary foods in the morning, this is going to increase energy throughout the day, which will make your training better,

whatever type of training out there you like to do, lifting, you know, whatever anyone's doing. So it's going to make your training better and more consistent. And it's going to give you a lower inflammation. So I go for a low inflammation diets. And some people say, well, red meats high inflammation. I guess like vegans say that or something. I don't know. But it's not really when you think about it because it's got so many protective nutrients and so many great B vitamins and all the things that you need iron, zinc, carnitine, carnitine.

I mean, it's really, in my opinion, the superfood that we have. Yeah. Not to mention it tastes great. Easy to digest normally. But also, I really like wild meats for the nutrient density in those, elk, venison. In Maui, we have an overrun, you know, overrun, deer, overrun deer, I guess you'd call it, a problem. So harvesting them is actually a humane thing to do. So, yeah, Venice and elk, that sort of thing.

Those are really great. So the classic Charles Polican meat and nuts breakfast is a great way to start the day. And then, you know, incorporating fatty fishes, salmon, that sort of thing. My clients don't really eat grains because they can be super inflammatory. So some of the, I guess, fitness trends that I have not had good experiences with for my clients, when I eliminate them, they get way better. They have breakthroughs. They break world records.

That would be cottage cheese and yogurt all the time every day. A lot of women, especially, for some reason, are relying on that for their protein source. The red meat's going to be better. Question. How about something like Greek yogurt? Would that also be something you'd be like? My clients don't eat Greek yogurt either. Yeah. Every once in a while it's okay, but if they're trying to lose body fat, if they're trying to lose weight, if they're trying to compete at the highest level, that actually will put five pounds of fluff on them, the yogurt and the cottage cheese. So that dairy, yeah, it doesn't matter if it's raw either. And it contributes to joint inflammation and bacteria in the joints. Really? Greek yogurt does. All dairy. All dairy. So you have people eliminate dairy. I like, I like dairy.

I know. Damn. Well, you know, if you were my client going for a world championship, I say, what do you like more? Do you like a gold medal or you like the dairy? Have the ice cream after. But you know what? That's just, again, this is just what you're asking me, my experience with clients, and this is what's work. Yeah.

So the way protein seems fine for most athletes. But if they have any kind of bloating or reaction, that means their bacteria is off. And they either need to take probiotic with it or better yet. They maybe need to do the beef protein powder. and then supplement the leucine because the beef protein powder has less leucine, has more glycine, less leucine. So someone with tendon issues, I would recommend the beef protein powder over the way. So, you know, it kind of goes back and forth.

Or they do way in the morning, beef in the afternoon. Total carnivore's beef protein, right? Beef and collagen, yep. Oh, awesome. Quick question about going back, because the main reason I do use Greek yogurt is because of the probiotics. It's because of the bacteria. So what would you think would be if I were to get rid of Greek yogurt,

What I just, because I also use, I also eat kimchi. What about coconut yogurt? I never heard of coconut yogurt. Oh, you can make your own coconut yogurt. Oh, yeah. There's a got, there's a, I do have it at the store too. Yeah. Oh, you've seen it.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, right. If you're not into making your own yogurt. Yeah. Oh my gosh. One of my clients, Sandy Morris, she's like the best pole of author in the world. She's amazing.

Yeah. She loved her yogurt, but she actually just, oh my gosh. She just got so fast and good this year. I'm so inspired by her. But she loved her yogurt. So she just took the coconut cream and she opened the probiotic that I prescribed to her into it. And she put it in her where her like her snakes live. It was warm overnight.

And that's how she made her yogurt. Yeah. It was like super simple. But otherwise, you're right. It's at the store. So eliminating the dairy is not popular when I say that. Cottage cheese, not popular. Also, I often take athletes off creatine, especially.

women. I've had three athletes set world records not taking create like going off the what's the reason? Well, there's an osmotic water shift that happens. So what I mean is there's water that goes into the muscles as we know that takes muscle that takes water out of the extracellular portion and our hormone system relies on this water kind of retention expulsion system called RAAAS women especially and it's very hormone sensitive so this can cause all kinds of double periods headaches bloating nausea not to mention I think it's gonna come out in the next 10 years you might be a little bit sensitive to creatine if you have a genetic

predisposition genetic mutation right so if you have an SLC 6 8 68 a transport protein transport gene mutation you're it's gonna sit in your gut and you're gonna get bloated so I think I'm not saying creatine is bad I'm saying that it shouldn't be blanket recommended. And you don't need it for a stellar performance. And even my elite athletes, I can't think of one of them right now, maybe one male that is taking it, cycling it, not long term, but cycling it. But otherwise, if you're out there and you've had bloating, nausea, headaches, just know that you're not alone, that it sometimes happens. So that's one thing that's, I'm also not popular for saying, but I'm just, I spit the truth. You know what I'm saying? So,

Yeah, other than that, dietary-wise, I do like to use anti-inflammatory supplements, so if they need it. And I judge on a case-to-case basis, that would be Boswellia is really good for that. ATP has one called Inflam Control. That's really great. It's got curcumin in it as well. There are some people that are worried about curcumin messing with hormones, but in my experience, it's better than taking Advil. like it works better than taking Advil even. And this is kind of a, you know, an Eastern medicine hack as well.

So curcumin. I've even increased curcumin during competitions if someone's felt a little niggle or something like that. And it just works wonders. Not relying on food given to you. So making sure that you're prepared. My elite athletes when they go, this can be for everyday people too if you're traveling. For instance, you don't want to eat the airplane food or even the airport food unless you're in a good airport. So why not control your environment and pack your food? Why not meal prep? You know,

really control your food environment to eat as clean as possible. You're going to be less inflamed. Like, who knows what they're cooking that airplane food in, you know? We don't want to guess. I just take sardines with me. Oh, you do? I keep, and what are your thoughts on saris? But yeah, I keep like, I keep sardines on the person because like just a little bit of hot sauce. Yeah, it's just good. Sardines and anchovies are in my client's protocols. Oh, really? percent of them. I never messed up anchovies. But why?

Because they're, well, I mean, not everybody likes to eat them and they don't, it's just on the list of approved proteins. Gotcha. Salmon as well. Not high mercury fishes,

not tuna, that sort of thing. But yeah, it's got so many great beneficial oils in it. And it's packed in that small fish. So they're actually even better for you than most of the other fishes. Some people worry about canned foods. You're eating little bones and stuff too.

Yes. calcium. I'm sure. It's apparently the lowest in on in terms of heavy metals, mercury, et cetera. Correct. Right.

The big fishes are the most. Yeah. Like the tuna and all that stuff. So we have, at our restaurant in Hawaii, we have fresh tuna that comes in every day. And I, I very rare.

My husband's like, I can't believe you rarely dabble in this. But like it's the freshest ahi, that nice rich color. And every once in a while I'll have some pokey. But otherwise, yeah. A little mercury here and there to balance things out.

Right. But I'm not eating it every day. And I have had clients who have come to me and they say I eat tuna every day and I go, go get tested right now for mercury. They get the hair test. And 100% of the time, if they eat tuna from a can every day, they have mercury in their hair. I think some of you guys would be interested to check out. Paul Saladino actually recently had a video where he got tested. I think he actually got his blood cycled or whatever.

But he also had a few of his friends do the same thing that loved eating fish. Oh, really? Yeah. They had so many levels of heavy metals and heavy metals and their testicles, et cetera. Oh my God. Because of the amount of fish that they eat. So just something to keep in mind. Yeah.

So fish is part of the protocol, but it's, you know, I'd say the red meat and then the poultry at night for winding down are the staples. So the poultry can be, you know, chicken thighs. The skin's really good for you, you know, that sort of thing. Do you like chicken breast? What do you think of chicken breast? I don't like chicken breast, be perfectly honest. I don't personally like them.

I think every once in a while, that's fine if you want to make a dish. shadow them, but the thighs are a higher priority on my client's protocol. So what else for anti-inflammation? There is a, you know, I talked a little bit about Maya medicine that I'm into right now. So there's something called Tokotrinols that I do believe is at the cutting edge of people who know, know already, but it's at the cutting edge of the research. And this is the longer chain of vitamin E. So you've heard of tachophrols probably if you get a vitamin E. Okay. So if you look at the back of a bottle of vitamin E. Usually it says tachoforol. Tokotrianols are the longer chain of it. And in the medical research, it'll say like tokenotrinals were discovered. It's an antioxidant too. So,

you know, maybe like 10 years ago, we've newly discovered this longer chain of vitamin E. But if you look in Maya history, they totally fucking knew about that back then. And I love stories like that where it just, you're like, damn, the ancients had it figured out. Like sometimes I feel like we're getting so far away from what truly serves us in our bodies. And so that's why I really like to use any supplements like that that are really traditionally ancient based. So the Maya used the annatto from the achiote bush. So anato is like they color cheese with it.

It's like this reddish orange spice. So I have my clients actually take ground annatto and they just put a pinch in there. coffee it's fat soluble so you have to make sure you have coconut milk or something. I'll probably swell that I'm going to get them on Amazon right now. Anato, yeah. And then if you, you can actually get a supplement of it too, but I think if you're fine and you don't have any particular ailment or like I pick and choose who I put the supplement. Otherwise, I tell my clients just put a pinch in your coffee or someplace where there's fats. Yeah. Yeah. An A-T-O.

A-N-N-A-T-O. Oh, okay. Anato. Yeah. And anyway, if you look at the research on tootrinals, that's one of the things that inhibits tumor growth. It does, there's a whole host of amazing benefits to this antioxidant. Great for paramenopause and menopause as well, by the way. So, yeah. So I guess, I mean, that's kind of a nutshell. If you were to throw like this food or that food out, I would tell you. But it also varies per individual.

So maybe some people need more liver support. And yeah, I've kind of gone down the past, well, more to traditional Chinese medicine roots of what Charles used to teach as according to, you know, he had a system where you measure body fat. I've taken the roots of that and used that to produce a program rather than going by like what I learned from him and that program because I think it was a little, I don't want to say too basic, but it was more basic than what I need for my clients and what I need to achieve, which is helping my dad not have cancer and, you know, helping my elite athletes win gold medals. Like I'm going to that level.

I don't need to just, you know, go to the every day. I want to go the max level, make everyone their superhero warrior self, if that makes sense. So I do all the research all the time on these things. And I do a metabolic evaluation based in more like the key and related to where body fat is stored. In the prior podcast, you alluded to a bit like, you know, we were talking about how a lot of your clients eat less carbs. and you're saying, you know, over 30, 40, et cetera, you need to think about this. When some people hear that, especially coaches within the strength community,

they're like, that is, those are buzzwords for scams. Like you don't need to eat differently over 40 or over 50, right? But what is it you're thinking about here? And, and question, why is it? Because on another, again, there's a lot of 20-something-year-old coaches and athletes who are like, what do you talk about? I eat 300, 400, 500, 500 grams a day, and it helps my performance.

Same with everybody in my peers. group who's also here. Sure. You know what I mean? So what's the reasoning here? Yeah. They're not wrong and they're not right at the same time. So you can be carb adapted and do great on 400 grams of carbs.

But eventually that systematic sugar intake, I would say, because most of it gets converted to sugar at that level and the fat accumulation over time, because if you don't use the carbs, then it's going to accumulate as fat. We all know this. So if you don't use that and you don't need it, then, you know, it's going to cause health cascades. So this is a great point. You say it's a scam because you don't need a different diet after 40. Well, I mean, you'll ask any over 40 women and she'll tell you stuff she did before isn't working anymore.

So I don't believe that in regards to women especially. But in a way, that's right because I tell my high school athletes to eat the same way. I tell my dad to eat. And that is this system of 100 grams or lower of carbs with the proper amount of protein for that individual, the proper amount of fats for that individual, which usually is somewhere around 80 to 100 grams, like depending on the person. I do vary it per person. And why?

Because these poor athletes are being told they need sugar. Okay? Why are they told this? Sorry to be a conspiracy theorist, but this conspiracy is true. I had an athlete that went to Penn State, I believe it was, and their head nutritionists for sports was the same for the whole nutrition school. They were educating all the nutritionists coming out of that school. And she was also on the board for Kellogg's.

And she was telling the athletes, you need Pop-Tarts, eat the Pop-Tarts. Oh, damn. You need, he asked for a Gatorade with no sugar, and they said, no, you need sugar. So they kept pushing all this Kellogg sugary stuff on them. And they were teaching their nutrition school students, the same. thing. So what happens? They get to, I get, I get clients from the Olympic training center and they say, well, my nutritionist from the Olympic training center says that I need sugar, because that's what they were taught, just like doctors don't know a lot about nutrition generally. They're not taught it.

So I'm trying to help these young women, especially, who are getting PCOS, you know, polycystic ovarian syndrome, it's an insulin issue because they're getting told they need sugar. This pisses me off because they don't need it for their performance. In fact, what I find is shifting their intake to 15 grams of sugar or less, if you're looking at sugar, 15 grams or less per day, not counting potatoes or anything like that. I find that their performance skyrockets, their health markers go back to normal.

They don't have hormonal issues. They have their periods, which they, trust me, you want your periods, lady. You know, like it's really, really important. So I'm concerned about not only their gold medal, but are they going to be able to have kids when they want to, that sort of thing? Like, that's what my priority is.

Your superhero war yourself in life. So I think that we're doing a great disservice to these young women, especially because I think with testosterone, the male athletes can probably handle that a little bit more. Yeah, so I'd like to see that change where coaches are more open to this, you know, paleo, keto, carnivore style of eating, eating for nutrient density, eating for neurotransmitters. Yeah.

But question on this. So what do you think is missing from most athletes who are trying to do this type of diet, but when they're in, you know, let's say sprinting, when they're lifting, they're not, they're noticing their performance isn't where they know it can be if they had more sugar and more carbohydrates. What do you think are some of the missing links for that athlete within how they're approaching the diet? So I think they were trained to think that they need the carbohydrates and they don't need them. Gotcha. And they need to transition from carbohydrate adapted to protein fat adapted, right?

Because then you're going to get longer lasting energy for your performance and your training. You're going to get less inflammation because you're eating less of those inflammatory sugars. So, you know, like when any time you increase any kind of like, sugars like that. You're shortening your telomeres, which are the, you know, the telomeres, there are the caps in the ends of your chromosomes. Yeah. They get shorter every time you replicate

cells. This is like a biomarker of aging. So they show that high sugar actually shortens those. Things that lengthen them, red meat, you know, exercise, sprinting, that sort of thing. So there are ways to kind of manipulate those. Sometimes you have athletes where you're like, well, damn, they eat McDonald's

and, you know, pound the cereal. D.K. Metcaffe eats a bag of candy every day or more. Right, right. And can perform, but longevity-wise, it's going to catch up to them 100%. It always does. And then they end up having health issues too. Hormonal issues, inflammation issues, heart disease. Like, I mean, just, I've seen it. And why have I seen it? Because I work with high school athletes all the way to athletes in their 80s.

So I see all scenarios. Yeah. That's just, it's my passion. And I'd like to just, some people say, okay, well, Cynthia, sounds like that's restrictive eating and we don't want to create eating disorders because you're saying don't eat cottage cheese you know and to that i say listen i have clients with eating disorders who have come to me for help particularly women in their 20s who are guess what put on this roller coaster of sugar by their coaches because they're like here drink this chocolate milk after track practice to get your protein and your sugar in they have acne they have PCOS they have you know they just have all kinds of

issues going on and they gain a little bit of weight and their coach says oh well you're getting a little bit so then they run it they have to run it off they get this eating disorder and they're in this cycle of inflammatory sugary foods having to get rid of the weight by whatever it is method probably not healthy and then that's what's reinforced but when you you know from experimenting with diets when you start to eat red meat and you have satisfying foods like protein rich foods everything changes. You no longer feel like you need that cycle and that roller coaster, but you feel satisfied. So you're like, oh, okay, cool. All of a sudden, I don't have body fat because I'm not storing those excess carbs. And I feel lasting energy. And my brain health is great. My myelin sheath nerve health

is great from the B12. All of a sudden, these athletes have a profound change and they don't have an eating disorder anymore. So it isn't. it restrictive. It's actually empowering. What about like during a workout? Intra workout. Any intra-workout concerns with hydration, carbohydrates or post-workout? Yeah, great question. So intra-workout, I like for my athletes and clients to intake amino acids, essential amino acids. And also ATP has a great product called glutamide, which is Charles actually formulated it. It's glutamine and glycine. And when people say, you need carbs, you need carbohydrates. Listen, I'm not carnivore and I think, you know, look at Sean Baker. He's doing just fine without carbs. I think it's possible. I like to introduce

some plants for antioxidants. If some people, if people are autoimmune and they can't do plants, fine on that as well. But intra-workout, if you are having less carbs than the normal carbohydrate adapted athlete, glutamine and glycine, glutamine especially, replaces muscle glycogen without spiking your insulin. I mean, people out there should already know this, but it's surprising how many people don't know this. So you actually can replenish the glucose with the glutamine. So you don't need the carbs. You actually just need glutamine. What's that specific supplement called? It's called glutamid, and it's glutamine and glycine. Yep, specifically formulated by Charles. So yeah, so glutamine and glycine, amino acids, electrolytes. I like ones that don't have

sugar, of course, because I'm watching the sugar for my clients because it's inflammatory. And then post-workout, weigh protein, preferably, if they're tolerant. You know, there's like the controversy over when to intake protein right now. Still? Wait, with who? I don't know. It seems like I'm still seeing it. Okay. Like, is. Yeah, there's different types of protein, right? There's faster protein, slower proteins, so forth, right? Yeah. So there's like a camp that says it doesn't matter when you intake the protein. Oh, there's that too, yeah. Yeah. But what Charles taught us was it actually, the weight protein blunts cortisol after your workout. And that's, you really want to bring that cortisol down quickly. And so that's why it's important post-workout. And while you're still breathing

hard. So I teach my clients to intake their weight protein particularly, a clean way. Of course, not the junk that's at the corner store, please. That's a, you know, birthday cake flavored or whatever. Like, I mean, I'm a little, I'm pretty strict about that. But, and then more glutamine and glycine in that. And if you can't do that, then the beef protein. But blunting that cortisol while you're still breathing hard, like while you're cooling down maybe, you're doing your dynamic cool down, huge difference in recovery and promoting that strong muscle tissue. Because we want our, our muscles to be functional. Yeah. What type of carbs do you recommend? Okay. I really like root vegetables. Anything kind of, I want to say in the paleo realm is good. In Hawaii, we have a lot of taro and cassava and

kind of like eastern root vegetables. But I think generally if I were to classify at root vegetables are the way to go. But depends on which person and how much. And carb timing and quality is what I like to say. Berries, berries. Potato be lumped in there? potatoes would be good but not white potatoes in my opinion you're going to get more benefits from colored potatoes and sometimes I change the color per individual how about plant 10 yes that's on the list too that's approved okay how about a cassava cassava for sure yeah we have a lot of that in hawaii so and then so you can go grain free i'm mentioning like west african i'm mentioning west african stuff that in Nigeria everyone eats cassava everyone eats like foo is made of that

that's a that's the pounded yam that they have with soups right plant 10 is big over there. Look at Nigerian athletes. Yeah, but that's interesting. But you know, actually and like when it comes to this, do you, because athletes generally love rice, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, rice is huge in bodybuilding too. Everyone loves, what are your thoughts on rice in that sense? A lot of my colleagues that trained under Charles still use rice in their protocols. I don't. So, why? I find it still is in that inflammatory category. Like I really, like every once in a while I think it's fine. I tell my athletes and my clients like, hey, if you, if you're at a, I don't know, out to dinner and you don't have any other choice and there's a gluten-free pasta, like

that's rice-based, like that's going to be better than if you're eating any other crap. But, yeah, limiting grains in general has worked wonders for my clients. But again, not restrictive, empowering. Yeah. Yeah. Have you, I'm going to imagine that if you are working with an athlete, and they're feeling like a little, like maybe the training volume and everything is just kind of a lot. I'm sure you go back and try to correct, but maybe you're correcting more with energy and calories from fats than you would maybe carbohydrates. You're right on the money on that one. Yeah. Because, you know, if you have somebody like a multi-event athlete who's training for seven, eight hours a day sometimes, they're not grinding that whole time, but they're still out there moving.

And then, like I told you, like my decathlon is five hours. long to six hours long one day and then the same the next day. So I'm having to be explosive on demand discus, high jump, long jump, 100 meter sprint, 400 meter sprint as the end of day one. How horrible is that? Yeah. So I'm having to be explosive on demand several times. I'm definitely going to look at increasing my fats, but also the number one problem, you guys, is people are under fueling. I have to teach so many people, whether they're elite athletes or just my neighbor next door, that they're not eating enough. They need to do the intense exercise and eat enough. They're just not freaking eating enough. And so, like for instance, for those long days,

it's more like steady fuel. And this is controversial too, because you have a bunch of people who fast, right, and then eat large meals. I find better success. I guess you'd say if you just continuously if you're practicing continuously fueling, sip on that protein shake during practice, sip on the electrolytes and amino acids, sip on the glutamine, which is all mixed together, you know,

keep sipping on it. And then they have totally steady energy. Multi-event athletes will have their meal usually right before shot put because it's the least, you know, demanding. And people think, okay,

how can you eat steak right before a 400? Like, don't you want to throw up? And my answer is no, because it's actually digested in the upper part of your stomach right away. It's, well, I mean, we don't say right away, but it's digested up there,

so it never makes it to your colon where carbohydrates do, and then it sits there. So my athletes show up to their events fueled. They have all the nutrients. They have the neurotransmitter energy, and they don't have any kind of bloating. So that's huge.

If you're feeling ready for competition, you want to feel like that warrior, you know? You know, through this conversation, I haven't charged you mentioned anything about like eggs at all. What are your thoughts there? Is there a reason we haven't talked about that or? No, eggs are on the list, but I do limit eggs. When I do the body fat test that I was taught and that, you know, I've further developed,

but one of the measurements is the cheeks. I can actually tell how many eggs people eat by their size of their cheeks because eggs, if eaten daily, causes inflammation in the cheeks. So they get, they get, they could be lean here, lean here, and they got chitmonk cheeks. So Charles actually sent blood work to a bunch of different labs all over the country, the same blood work. He labeled them differently, hockey player, dancer, whatever. And all the different labs came back with different results, except for one lab. I think it was Cyrex labs.

Consistently gave the same report. So all those other labs were just, who knows what they were doing, making shit up. I hear this all the time. That labs come back with inconsistent results. You know what I'm saying? Okay, so Syrex. And then he found out from that lab that eggs were one of the top five inflammatory foods. And so when I have my clients get rid of them for a couple weeks and then reintroduce them, maybe every third or fourth day, which is something I learned from Charles, then their little chipmunk cheeks go down and their overall feel better.

So I think maybe it's related to eggs being in vaccines and then getting vaccines when we're little or something like that. I've heard that theory before. I haven't done the research on that. But it makes sense as a possible theory, that it could be an immune reaction. Yeah. But also rotating foods is the thing I recommend too. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a great question. Thank you. Yeah, I think you nailed so many great things for us with nutrition and tying in the supplementation. You did mention like curcumin earlier. There's any supplementation or any things that you like that help with I don't know, muscle soreness or like aches or things like that.

Just kind of general bumps and bruises from training. Yeah, I get this for my jiu-jitsu athletes. This is the question from that that group the most. Is this something that you can relate with that a lot of people that roll are like kind of sore a lot? People, yeah, people that do jiu jutsu generally. There's a lot of reasons, but yeah, people that do jiu-tutsu feel. What do you think some of the reasons are then? Well, some aspects are frequency.

I think there's also an aspect of a focus. They're rolling too much. Some people are rolling too much. Some people don't have any movement practices outside of jiu-jitsu that make the body feel good. So one of the things that you see a lot of people do is like, well, to get better at jiu-jitsu, you do jiu-jitsu, you lift weights. And when you lift weights, it's very like you're meant to break tissue down, et cetera. Then you go back to jiu-jitsu. So it's just a cyclical.

They're not repairing. There's nothing. Yeah. There's, there's, there's, they don't think about that a lot, right? So there's there's a lot of reasons. Okay, so the aches and pains normally, yes, you're cumin, but not around training. So that could be a temporary fix, but, you know,

I would think addressing the root cause, that's why I asked you, what do you think? Doing that ice bath sauna rounds, I'm still a big fan of that. I'm not really a fan of infrared sauna. I don't really like microwaving yourself. Contrast therapy feels like magic. It does.

And there's a whole thing about women not doing and all the stuff, I don't know. It's still beneficial. I just, I recommend like an 18 minute lower body instead of the full plunge for some people. There's nuances to all of this. So I'm giving you generalized advice, but when someone comes to me as a client, I give them specifically individual advice. But other than that, if they stay on top of those amino acids with that glutamine and glycine,

they have, I don't even know, like 60% less aches and pains, I would say, if they really stay on it. So I think that's really important to recovery. And then of course just getting their nutrients in. So from food mostly. And then supplements are supplements. So if you need the supplementation, then supplements. And again, I like to go back to those ancestral kinds if I can that are based in the traditional medicines. But yeah, does that? Yeah, that's great. What about something like magnesium? I remember Charles Polaklin would talk a lot about magnesium and now there's so many magnesium supplements. have you found magnesium to be helpful for people to supplement people that you work with? And if so, like what kinds do you recommend?

Yeah. Charles was a great fan of magnesium because it's such a co-factor in so many 300 enzymatic reactions. It is a base foundational supplement for sure for, I would say, almost everyone, like 99.9% of the population. So I actually brought you a magnesium lavender body butter that I made myself with Shea and cocoa butter and you put it behind your knees and it's got the magnesium in it that'll soak in. But my favorite thing is when people say, I go, they'll come to me and they'll ask me, you know, just somebody in passing, they'll say, Cynthia, I have cramps in my muscles after I run. What should I do?

You know, just someone walking by, they know my ear. And I go, okay, well, like, um, uh, uh, uh, magnesium would be the top of the list. And they go, I take magnesium. And I go, okay, which one do you take? And then they're like blank, right? So even out there on Instagram, they're like, I take magnesium, but no one knows what kind of magnesium they take.

And so I'm like, is it usually it's the junk magnesium citrate from Walgreens, to be honest. And that's just going to make them poop. So what do I like? I like a magnesium glycinate for neurological and muscle tissue support. I like, usually it's a blend. But magnesium glycinate, I love magnesium l3 in for your brain. So that usually comes in at night.

There's one from ATP called MindMag that I love. That's the only magnesium that crosses the blood brain barrier. So that's why that one's so important. But otherwise, like a citrate, if you're having problems with your movements or something like that. But those two, the glycinate blend and the, the L3 and 8 are really, I mean, my go-toes. And how much of the population needs it?

I'd say like 9.9.9% of people because you lose a lot of that when you're exercising hard, as you know. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Where can people find you? Okay. So my main hub is fastover 40.com and my Instagram also fast over 40. And then I'm coming out with a new app and all that stuff soon.

So that'll, but that's the main hub, fastover 40.com. Thank you so much. And thanks for all the gifts. that you brought to us. Yeah. You're welcome. It's been a really fun conversation, which I knew it would be.

Strength is never a week. This week, this is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye. Aloha.