The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 300. How to Build Muscle After 50: Protein, Leucine & Amino Acid Timing - Jim Stoppani

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Jim Stoppani, PhD, joins Gary Brecka to explain anabolic resistance, why leucine decides whether a meal builds muscle at all, and why he takes his branched-chain amino acids 30 minutes before eating instead of with the meal. Plus protein absorption from whole food versus whey versus free-form aminos, cardio versus weights when time is short, and how to train after 50 without getting hurt. CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARY’S VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Join Jim Stoppani's Workout Programs!: https://bit.ly/4wYU50G   Connect with Jim Stoppani Website: https://bit.ly/4y3e5A0  YouTube: https://bit.ly/4gD5IFP  Instagram: https://bit.ly/4i9QjOp Facebook: https://bit.ly/46wKcwl  TikTok: https://bit.ly/4cmnSZM  X: https://bit.ly/4i4S9jy  Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: "ULTIMATE20 " FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKpCYMBIOTIKA: "BRECKACYM30" FOR 30% OFF: https://bit.ly/4tjyluP GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TAB: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch  the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8foX: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 - Intro of Show 04:48 - Creatine as an energy molecule 07:04 - Creatine's brain and memory benefits 07:48 - Creatine and sleep deprivation 08:35 - Monohydrate vs hydrochloride 11:17 - Why creatine wrecks your stomach 16:02 - From Yale to Weider magazines 19:16 - Buzzword labels and underdosing 24:22 - The five pillars of supplementation 26:14 - When to take creatine 28:41 - Building muscle after 50 29:08 - Anabolic resistance and leucine 30:24 - How to actually use BCAAs 34:24 - Whole food vs shakes vs aminos 36:25 - Weights vs cardio on a time budget 41:32 - Myostatin and gene therapy 51:19 - Is the anabolic window dead? 54:15 - Three protein meals beat two 56:21 - The must-have supplements 58:39 - NAD, NMN and aging 1:00:14 - What it means to be an ultimate human Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions.  Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation.  Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So many companies were taking advantage of consumers who just read creatine, and alienate that don't understand you need a certain dose of each one of those ingredients for them to be effective. Supplement manufacturers just throwing things on the label, like creatine, but putting it in in dosages that someone that didn't have the background that you had saw it on a label, they're like, okay, then this must be a good supplement. But what's the dose? Every ingredient is only going to be effective at a certain dose. Your background in the supplement industry, your background is a writer, an educator, and having a biochemistry background means that you can take the practical application, muscle building,

fitness, exercise, and bring it all the way down to the cellular level. As you're aging, what is important? Mobility, maintaining muscle, metabolic health. I would say for the middle-aged and older, you want a more well-balanced fitness routine. In fact, there's research suggesting that those who work out with more variety have more longevity. What is the secret to maintaining a muscular physique and not getting injured when you get into your 50s? The secret to building muscle after 50 is... Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast.

I'm your host, human biologist Gary Breka, and today we're settling the score on one of the most debated topics in health and fitness, supplementation. My guest is Dr. Jim Stepani, a PhD in exercise physiology, Yale trained researcher, and the man who's built training and nutrition programs for the Rock, Dr. Dre, and L.L. Cool J. Jim is going to break down creatine and why up to 30% of people can't even tolerate the standard dose and what to take instead. We're going to dive into protein, lucene, and exactly what happens to your body's ability to build muscle after 50, a phenomenon called anabolic resistance and what you can do about it starting now, no matter what your age. We'll even get into the cutting edge myostatin gene therapy and the future of muscle growth. Whether you lift or

you just want to still be strong and independent decades from now, this episode is required listening. Let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecker, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest is actually going to answer a lot of questions that are all over the media right now. We're going to settle to score on supplementation, creatine, cognitive function, what you need to do now, even if you're in your 20s, to reach older age and still be healthy, strong, and thriving. And before the podcast even started, we started a mini podcast in the kitchen. I'll share that with you guys in just a moment. But Dr. Stepani, Jim Stepani, welcome to the Ultimate

Human Podcast. Thank you, Gary. Pleasure to be here. Yeah, I'm really excited to have you on because you see people that are walking the walk and talking to talk, and then you see people that really have their arms wrapped around the science. And I think you're that rare breed hybrid that has both. Thanks. I think I would say that same. Yeah, that's my passions of the science, but also the real world application of it.

Yeah, I mean, clearly it's working. For the record, he is substantially older than I am. He's two years older than I am. I want to get that out of the way early when he was like, I graduated high school in 1986. I was like, yes, graduate in 1988. So I was a sophomore, you were senior, you're so far ahead of me. But, you know, you can live your care for younger years through my eyes.

But I feel like if I had a sleeve, I might look more jacked. But it appears that those are real muscles and not tattooed. But I'm so excited for this podcast because they're, You know, your background in the supplement industry, your background as a writer, an educator, obviously getting your doctorate and having a biochemistry background means that you can take the practical application of muscle building, fitness, exercise, and bring it all the way down to the cellular level. Right.

So I would love to start with what I think is the hottest topic in supplementation right now, which is creatine. Of course. And creatine's been around forever. Forever. I think it felt, you know, when I was in, like, college, it was like the body building. Yeah, mid-90s is when it really took off. Yeah, it was the, you know, all of the bodybuilding rage, I assume, because it helped

to retain some water in the muscle. But now it's starting to emerge with cognitive benefits. Yes. And that's why we're hearing people talk about it. And that's why we're hearing people talk about it. So could you, first of all, what is creatine? How does the body make it? And then let's go down this debate between monohydrate and hydrochloride.

Why is one better than the other? Are they about the same? I know we have more data on one than the other. But, you know, I have my parents on it now for cognitive function. Of course. And they're in their 80s. I recommend everyone literally should supplement with creatine. So creatine is a what in the human body?

It's an energy molecule. You know, everybody thinks it's this muscle building supplement. And we make it in our eyes, right? And it's one of the most critical energy molecules in the body. And the reason why is because it provides what's known as a high-energy phosphate. And if you know what ATP is, right, or dentistry phosphate, a little maybe a little too technical, but that's our energy currency, right? And so to contract muscle, to run, we need ATP to fuel all that, every process in the body.

Even to think. And Creighton helps to make ATP, and it helps to make it very much. quickly, which is why it's so important for like when you're lifting weights. That do we naturally, like a lot of things in aging, does our capacity to produce creatine decline over age? Possibly, it's not really one of those, you know, even though we do make it, it's not like say DHA, where as we get older it starts decreasing, right? But what we do know is that

to really maximize the benefits it can provide, what we get in our daily diet and what we make is not enough. Where would we get creatine from in our diet? So you get it from meats, like animal, beef, fish. I assume you're a meat eater. I am. Great. I am too. So, sorry, vegans.

It's a complete protein. It's a complete protein. I worry about my lucene intake. Yeah. So why is it now crossing? the boundaries into being, you know, no longer just a bodybuilding supplement. I mean, what are the, what are the, where does the data fall on cognitive function, neuroinflammatory conditions?

Yeah, there's a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting data on creatin, not for muscle building. And one of the most discussed is the brain benefits. And so there's research, you know, single studies, metanalysis studies where they take a bunch of studies and sort of look at them all and see that all the results kind of come out the same, right? That's what it meant. It's a study of the studies. And what the studies of the studies show is that taking creatin can provide some cognitive benefit, improving memory, right, recall.

And there was a recent study showing that if you're sleep deprived, a high, a large dose. And again, this was almost 30 grams of creatine, 25. to 30 grams. In one shot or over an entire day? In one shot, decrease the sort of cognitive hit that you get from sleep deprivation. So mitigated the effects of sleep deprivation. And is something? But now, what we know about creatine in muscle is a lot.

What we know about creatine in the brain is very little. It's early. But so we know it takes about three to five grams of creatine per day to perform. provide benefits to the muscle. For the brain, we may require a little more, maybe closer to 10 grams, because it's harder to get past that,

you know, blood-green barrier. Right. And what about the forms of creatine? You know, there's a big debate of monohydrate versus hydrochloride. My understanding is that the HCL version is a little more water-soluble, but the monohydrate is where there's a lot more data. Yeah. So let's talk about the form. So if you thought about creatine in a lab somewhere, let's say a scientist studying creatine,

and he's got a jar of it, right, in his lab, right? What would that form be? It would be creatine monohydrate. It's just its default form. Okay. Okay. And so the very first study was done using creatin menohydrate. And so when scientists want to replicate something to see if, oh, that study showed results,

will it now show results in women? Will it show results at this dose, right? They want to go back and use the same form that was used in the original one. So since it's its default form, right? That's the form that's been studied. Okay. And thousands and thousands of studies.

What is creatine hydrochlorite? It's the same thing. It's providing creatine, right? And you're attaching something to it. Okay? With creatine monohydrate, there's actually a water, molecule attached. Even though it's dry, there's a water molecule attached. With the hydrochloride,

what's attached to it is not a water molecule, but a molecule of hydrochloric acid. Salt. Exactly. It's a salt, right? And so what does the hydrochloric acid do to the creatine? It increases its solubility. So have you ever seen someone or mixed a glass of creatine monohydrate and water? Chunky. And it's, you know, you've got all those particles in the bottom. Yeah. You drink it. It's kind of gritty. So creatine is, goes into solution very poorly.

Even though it's hydroscopic, which means it pulls water to it, it takes a while. Okay. So when you drink a glass of creatine, because creatin pulls water to it, that's why you hear about water weight, right? It goes into the muscle. Which is the bloating that especially women want to avoid. Yeah, but it pulls it mainly into the muscle. So it's not really like, you know, extras. cellular. It just makes the muscle look bigger, right? It's more volume. However, if the

creatin has not pulled water to it while it's in your glass and you drink it and it sits in your intestines, those particles are going to draw water to them while they're in your intestines. And that's the explosive diarrhea you hear so much about with creatine monohydrate. You're going to look great, but you're going to have explosive diarrhea. And so there's somewhere around, I think, 20 to 30% of people can't tolerate five grams of monohydrate. Wow. 20 to 30%? Yeah, 20%.

And then if you go up to a 10 gram dose, it's something, a single 10 gram dose, it's something like 50 to 60% of people cannot tolerate that. Wow. And so that's the benefit of the hydrochloride. It's for those people. I can't tolerate five grams of creatine monotid. Really? Yeah. So you take the HCL person.

So I take the HCL person. And that's the only, that's the only difference is that it goes into, when you mix creatin, 100 chloride in water, it instantly goes in the solution. And so it's not pulling any water while it's in your intestines. And so not only do you get fewer stomach issues, but you absorb more of it. So it takes a smaller dose. So you're not taking a bioavailability hit. You're not taking.

No. So it's not. that one crosses the blood-brain barrier, one doesn't, one is more bioavailable, one's not. It's just that one has more clinical data and the other one, but at the end of the day, creatine is creatine, is creatine, is creatine, is creatine. It gets into the muscle as creatin,

and it gains that high-energy phosphate, and that's what it does. And where do we suppose that some of the cognitive benefits are coming from? From what I've read, if you don't have enough creatine, because it's also a methyl donor, If you don't have enough creatine, you know, to donate methyl groups,

then the body's going to grab methyl groups from somewhere. So it's going to grab them maybe from Sammy as a dentistate. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so when the body is deficient in anything, it doesn't go without, it just takes it from somewhere else, right? I mean, like when we're fasting, we're not eating, but our body is. It's just eating us. And hopefully it's eating you from the weakest point forward, the senescent cells,

breaking those into energy or breaking them into amino acids. So it can still build structures in the body, which I find just so insanely innately intelligent. That's why I always say, the more I study the human body, the more I believe in God. We don't have to go down that road. But, you know, it's our body just so intelligent. And so from what I can gather, the line that I draw for creatine and, you know, neurocognitive decline and the memory studies and also the sleep deprivation is that if you don't have enough of these methyl donors or creatine, the body's still going to get it from somewhere.

So it's stealing it from places that you might not want it to steal from. Yes. Is that a fair assessment? Oh, for sure. There's so many, so many ways that it's working, you know. And at the end of the day, it's providing energy to the nerve cells. So just like a muscle now can do more work, right? So it can a nerve cell.

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I never travel without this, and it is my favorite biohack. Visit drinkh2 tab.com. That's drinkh2tab.com and upgrade your hydration today. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. Sure. And I mean, and at the end of the day, all of these, you know, advanced memory decline, you know, diagnoses, Alzheimer's, dementia, early onset cognitive decline, memory loss, cognition issues. These are all at their root neuroinflammatory issues. Or circulation, trapped histamines or cytokines or what have you in the brain. And I guess the evidence is that creatine can cross this blood. brain barrier in high doses and maybe mitigate some of those effects. So would you make the blanket statement that at a certain age, everybody should be on a certain dosage of creatine or not quite yet?

I would. I would do. I mean, I would totally agree with that. I would, I would, I think most people should consider at least a five gram dose per day. Yeah. And I'd love to talk about, you know, when we were in the kitchen, we were talking about your transition from pure. academia, you know, into the practical world.

And it started with which a lot of our listeners are not going to know. With like Joe Weeder and, you know, back in the day when bodybuilding magazines were like the only access that, you know, young athletes or young bodybuilders had any real information. That's a good point, you know. On how to build muscle. That really. Yeah. Because they're, yeah. Where else would you learn about metabolism or macronutrients or...

So what was your departure from academia like into, let's just call it the real world? Right, right, the practical real world. It took a while to get, you know, to get used to to be, you know, going from... Where did you land out of academia? Yeah, so I left. I was at Yale School of Medicine and I landed at Weeder Publications in Los Angeles. in Los Angeles, which, you know, Los Angeles was the mecca of bodybuilding at the time.

And I worked for, you know, Joe Weider's muscle and fitness. We had Shape Magazine. Many people may remember. I remember that one, too. For women. We had men's fitness. And then we had this hardcore one called Flex, which was like IFBBB bodybuilding, it covered all the contests and whatnot.

And so I would write for all those. you know, different audiences, you know, some were more hardcore, some of them were just fitness-oriented. Yeah. But you know, at the time, you know, bodybuilders were kind of leading the charge on hormone therapy, supplementation, nutrition, because, you know, these guys shared a lot of data. They were very open about their, you know, the stacks and their cycles and what was working and what wasn't. And even then, you know, they were checking biomarkers long before people were. even doing annual blood work. Most people got their blood work done

every maybe five years unless something was wrong. Isn't that crazy to think about it? I mean, now it's sort of become the norm. But bodybuilders back then were not just flying blind. I mean, they were experimenting on themselves. Like, is this hurting my liver?

Is this hurting my kidneys? Is this causing my inflammation to go up? And I remember, you know, even back then reading, before I even knew what biomarkers was, it was even before I had my first biology degree. But there was a lot of good information in there that was coming from that, you know, coming from the bodybuilding community. Sure. So you're, you, so then you gravitated towards actually creating a supplement line. I think it was born out of need when we talked about your, your background.

Because here you are as an editor for these magazines trying to provide quality information to the reader. And you seem to get very frustrated by the lack of disclosure that was going on in the supplement space. space or what we call proprietary blends. Right. And also, you know, supplement manufacturers just throwing things on a label like creatine, but putting in in dosages that were... Yeah, what I call buzzwords. Yeah, buzzwords.

Yeah, you know. Cretin. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sounds great. Like, I want both of those, you know. And if, you know, if someone that wasn't, didn't have the background that you had saw it on a label, they're like, okay, that must be a good supplement.

But what's the dose? You know, every ingredient is only going to be effective at a certain dose. And the protein is one of those, right? Yes. Like I said, I'm recommending about five grams per day for most people. And I was reviewing supplements that had 250 milligrams of creatine or 500 milligrams. So 1 20th of that space. Yeah, 500 milligrams is half of a gram.

And I'm telling you, you should have five grams. They're giving you a half of a gram. And, you know, that's what was so irritating to me that so many companies were taking advantage of consumers who just read creatine, beta aline, that don't understand you need a certain dose of each one of those ingredients for them to be effective. You know, I feel the same thing going on in the biohacking space.

You know, I told you I have a great part of, like, red light beds in my garage downstairs. It was very astounding to me how some of the leading brands, brands, $100,000 red light beds, for example, very often did not have the nanometer wavelengths, the milawatts of irradiens. We're not creating a therapeutic dose. And if you accepted the manufacturers published data, then, you know, and of course, if you're paying $100,000 for, you know, red lightbed, you expect that it's going to work. And what I found was a lot of these were just red light bulbs. Like, you might as well stand next to a Christmas tree. And it was frustrating

for me too. And I feel like as someone has a large audience in the space, we have an obligation to stand in between the consumer and a lot of these manufacturers and say, this is valid and this is not. And the same thing in the supplement space. And so for you, that led to you formulating your own supplement. Yeah, you know, I had to, you know, like I would be telling people what to look for and it was almost impossible to find, you know, which was, you know, ingredients that you know, studies behind them, and it lists the actual dosing. And that, trying to find supplements like that was very difficult. Yeah, things like natural flavors, proprietary blends.

Those are sort of buzzwords for we're not telling you. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah, we're not going to disclose. And so instead of just telling people, this is what you should look for. I provided the example. And then how did that go for you?

Well, very well because, you know, I had been, you know, I had already been teaching people how to use these ingredients and how to build their own, you know, before you work out, what you want to take after you, work out, whatnot. And so the formulas already existed. So when I manufactured them, those same formulas were still there. And so the consumer already knew they were taking it, just making it on their own, this was going to work.

because they're already taking it. Right. Just mixing it themselves. Now this is actually flavored. So they get all in one spot. Yeah. So it ended up being a really good journey. Very successful.

Yes. Journey for you and ended up in GNC. Yeah, it was a very popular brand. Again, because this was in 2013. And at the time, most subloid companies were not telling people how many grams of creatine or whatever was in there. And so, you know, this was some of groundbreaking in the supplement industry.

And I think you find this, you know, not just in the supplement industry, but also in like the equipment industry. And you see a lot of our, like I see a lot of good data provided by a certain clinical study. And then everyone just borrowing that data, but not really following the threshold doses. or, you know, we talked about this in shake plates, for example. Not all shake plates are created the same. I mean, there's certain concussive forces you have to create to improve bone mineral density and drain lymphatics.

But the consumer doesn't know that, you know, one vibration plate is different from another vibration plate. They just think all vibration plates are the same. And they can cite, you know, the outcomes from a different product and just sort of borrow that data and allow the consumer to assume that that data is valid in their product when it's not. You know, you have to meet certain threshold standards.

What do you think is the biggest hole in the supplement industry right now for the consumer? Like, where are they going wrong? I mean, what's... How does a consumer, in other words, pick something up off the shelf, you know, a supplement, and kind of ensure that they're getting what they're expecting to get? Yeah, well, you know, the... I created this sort of paradigm that I call the five, pillars of supplementation.

And so it's based on, you know, a solid nutrition foundation because you can't supplement a bad diet, right? Right. First thing you need to do is create a stable, proper diet, whatever that's going to be for you, right? Right. We could debate. Whole food based.

Exactly. Right? But a whole food based, right? Once you have a solid nutrition plan, then you can start looking at supplements to help take your performance or body composition. further, right? And so the first pillar is the ingredients. And that is, do they have clinical research supporting their effectiveness? Right? The second one is the form. What's the best form of that ingredient? Is it going to be the cretan monohydrate or the hydrochloride? Right? The third is,

what is the dose? Minimfective dose. Of that agrania, right? Is it, is the dose on the bottle, at least the daily dose you're getting, similar to the daily doses in the literature in the published studies. Fourth is, are there any synergies in that formula? Ingredients that may work together, right, and support one another. For example, if you had brand chains in creatin together, leucine can increase insulin to some degree. And creatin requires insulin to get into the muscle. That would be a good synergy, right?

Right. Are there any synergies that are going to promote the ingredients themselves even further than they can by themselves? And then the fifth pillar is timing. When do you take it, right? When is the best time to take the creative? And is that matter? Yeah. When is the best time to take creative? Well, with food. With food? Yes. Because like I said, to get into the muscle at least, right? Brains is a little different. We're still confused about brain. But at least we know about muscle, right?

And it requires insulin. Insulin helps to shuttle creatine into the muscle. Okay. So if you have creatine with a meal, yeah, right? Protein and carbohydrates, you're going to have an increase in insulin that's going to help to drive that creatin to the muscle.

So crazy is insulin. So creatin with a meal, you could, but with a meal you'll take up about it's estimated around 30% or 40% more creatine you'll take up. Oh, wow. Okay. So you could take it fasted,

but you're just getting less of a dose. Because I work out fasted. I take something called Perfect Amino, which is just all nine essential amino acids. I don't like the full feeling, but I eat right after I'm done. Working out, you know, working out, I mean, eating before I work out for me

is just not something that works for my body. And I don't get the blood. blood sugar crashes, you know, sometimes I, we work with about with these guys at my son's house and there's guys passing out and throwing up all the time because they're, their, their, their blood sugar's tanking. Um, so they probably should eat before they work out. But let's, let's actually talk about a good, um, because rarely do I speak directly to like the middle age men in my age. We're both in our 50s. You're clearly holding a lot of muscle for a guy in your, in your 50s. So what, what is the secret to maintaining, you know,

a muscular physique and not getting injured, you know, when you get into your 50s. Because I think you're so smart by the time you get in your 50s because you realize you can actually get hurt. Yeah. My son doesn't think he can be killed by a bullet. Neither one of my sons.

Just because they haven't been really hurt yet. And like, you know, they haven't blown discs back squatting or anything. I used to race motocross. Oh, did you? Now when I race... So you know you can get hurt. Now when I watch.

Motorcross, I'm like, What? Why did? Why would I do that? Like, yeah. You know? So many ways to get hurt. Yeah.

Now we're like bungee jump hell though. What was I doing? Yeah. How am I still alive today? Yeah. I have no idea. But yes, you know, you think you're, nothing's going to hurt you, you know, until you get older. But the secret to building muscle after 50 is protein and lucine.

So as once you hit 50, you're an anabolic resistance. Circropenia, right? Well, not even just sarcopenia. What anabolic resistance is, it means if, how old are you? Max over there? Yeah, Max. How old are you? 27.

Little young and. If Max eats a steak and let's say provides 30 grams of protein. And I eat that same steak. Right? We sit down in your kitchen together. I offered you a steak. You turned it down for the record. Yes.

He's fasting right now. If we both ate that steak, you know muscle protein synthesis is right? After you consume protein, right? Muscle protein synthesis spikes up. Well, the muscle protein synthesis that max will get is going to spike up probably about 40 to 50% higher than mine will spike. with the same meal. Why? Lucene.

So our intestines steal more lucine. They do. And lucine is the key that turns on the muscle building. Because I've always seen in branched chain amino acids, lucine, isocene, is usually in a two to one to one ratio. So lucine is double isolucine and valine. And I assume that that's because

there's good research behind that. Yeah, and it's what sort of, it's how it did the, in the muscle. It's typically at a two to one one ratio as well. Okay, so that's where that ratio comes from. But I've also heard that branch chain amino acids on their own is sugar water. Well, yes and no.

Okay. Right? And so when you do a study, you can bias a study before even do the study. And so the studies on branch chains saying it's basically flavored water is comparing branch chains to essential amino acids, right? Brand chains are essential amino acids. But it's only three of them. Yeah.

Right. So they compare, they take people and put them, have them fast. And then they consume either branch chains or essential amino acids. Right. And then they see muscle protein synthesis. Well, it goes up more with essential amino acids because the essential amino acids are also providing the brand chains, but it's also providing the 17 other amino acids. Right.

But that's not how you would use brain. Nobody would wake up in the morning, fast it and go, I'm going to take some branch chains and call it a day. Right. Right. So here's how I use branch chains. So I was saying the lucene, right? So lucine gets stolen by your intestines.

The older you are, the more lucine. It's sequesters. And that's why the muscle protein synthesis isn't going up as high. So why not take more lucine with your meal, right? And when you want to take lusine, you want to take branch chains because of that two to one to one ratio. Okay. The lusine works best when the isolucine and the valine are there, okay? Because they do other things.

Well, lucine turns on this process called mTOR, right? The valine and the isolucine do other things that help with the muscle protein synthesis. So they work better together. So what I do is I take the branch chains, not with the meal, because research, has shown, you can get this a little complicated, the research is shown that when you take the branchains with the meal, the branch chains never show up into the blood for some reason. They still get sequestered.

So what I do is I take branch chains about 30 minutes before I eat. Ah. So that the branch chains can get through. Right. They turn on the muscle protein synthesis. Then you have the whole food providing the rest of those essential amino acids. that the lusine is now going to use, right? Because it turned on muscle to build the protein.

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So are you still a big proponent of get the majority of your protein from Whole Food? or yes and no. What's interesting, what's interesting is, right? And we all say, I even said with the, with the five pillars of supplementation, you want a solid nutrition foundation, right? And that's typically whole foods. But what's interesting about whole foods and muscle protein synthesis is that when you consume a steak and let's say it has two grams of leucine in it.

And then you consume just two grams of lucine by themselves. Okay? Not only does the leucine by itself get into the blood faster than the steak for obvious reasons. Right, because it's coupled. But twice as much lucine shows up in the blood from the amino acids as it does from the food. Wow. Twice as much. And so it's estimated that a whole food, say a steak, will only provide you somewhere around 50.

50% of those amino acids. A protein shake may provide closer to 70% of those amino acids. Like a way protein. Free form amino acids will provide probably about 90% to 100% of the amino. Right? We just took the amino acids themselves, right. Okay. So looking at that, right?

You would say, well, it'd be better to just take the lucine or a protein shake than the whole pot. remember what else is in the steak that you're not getting B vitamins all kinds of right right so it's it's complicated and so both are for me both are important you know and it's using both properly and like like I said I'm going to take the branch chains right before my whole filled me like I said 30 20 minutes before your whole food meal and then I'm going to have my my whole food so what is it? What does a typical day in the life of Jim Stubani look like? I mean, clearly you're doing resistance training.

And would you say that, especially for middle-aged men, if I only have 30 minutes or 60 minutes to work out every day, cardio or weight training, or is it important to do cardio and weight training? Because I have actually seen some very prominent folks that I have a high level of respect for, well-credentialed, say, if you only have 30 to 60 minutes, weight training beats cardiovascular training hands down in every clinical study that they had ever read. And so if you only had a certain amount of time, and also people that don't think that weight training can actually

give you a cardiovascular benefit are not weight training, right? Right. You're just lollygagging around the gym. Sometimes I want to take a knee. You're doing like five reps on the bench press and then sitting on your phone for five minutes. Right, right. If you keep a pace.

Try, you know, supersetting or keep your rest periods. shorter. To get your heart right up. It depends on the goal. But you can. And like you said, if you had one or the other, I would pick resistance training because you're going to get the resistance for the muscles, which are critical with circupinia as you're aging, right, quality of life.

But you're still getting cardiovascular. Right. It's not like there's no cardiovascular. And again, depending on how, now I'm very fast-paced. I super set. Oh, you do? All the time. Yeah.

I'll do a chest and a back, you know. So push pull. Yeah, pretty much. Is that, so how are your, like some takeaways for my audience, you know, how are your workout structure? Do they work, are they structured push pull? Is it one body part per day? So many different regimens out there.

Is it, do you go almost to failure, stop one rep shy of failure? That seems to be a lot of evidence around that. Do you do drop sets, try to fatigue the muscle through the full range? There seems to be evidence around that. Yeah. There's progressive resistance. I do all of that. You're not helping me, Jim.

I want the one best way, dude. There's no one. There's no one. That's a great thing about resistance training. There's a million ways to do it. You know, there's a million different modalities. You can use free weights, bans, pneumatics, you know, what have you, right? still going to provide similar benefits.

You could train heavy, you could train light, you could train fast, you could train, you know what I'm saying? Depending on your goal, it's going to provide benefits. Right. You know, for overall, for me right now, like you said, I change up which muscle groups I'm doing in a workout right now. I split my body into two different workouts. I have a leg and shoulder day.

and then I have a everything else basically chest back arms okay and you're doing all of those on the same day no okay well one so two workouts two different days and then I typically train either four times a week with resistance training um or sometimes even more five times a week yeah and are you are you intentionally doing cardiovascular training or you're getting that through your weight training I get a bit of it through my weight training, but I also do, you know, I like hiking. Well, that's the best way to get it. Yeah.

Interval training. I, you know, I mix it up. For the greatest hypertrophic effect in the least amount of time, where does the research say the greatest benefit is from? Training to within one rep max, drop sets. What does it say? Yeah, I would. And again, it's going to depend on the individual, right?

Somebody who's advanced is going to want to do drop sets and go to failure. Somebody who's got a year or less under their belt, close to failure is plenty. And you're a big fan of consistency over time versus high intensity for short periods of time. And you talk about programming for the middle age lifter is way different than programming for the 22 year old. For sure. So how do those differ? So I would say for the middle. age and older, you want a more well-balanced fitness routine, right? Like when you're young,

you might have like, oh, I want to be, you know, stronger or faster because I play pickup basketball or, you know, whatever it is, right? I skateboard, I do some of this. As you get older, I'm 50, right? Will I be able to get my biceps any bigger? Probably not, right? Yeah. At the stage. Will I be able to bench press anymore? Probably not. Will I be able to run any faster than I can right now? Probably not, right? So instead of trying to focus on like one goal and maximize that whatever it is,

whether it's the strength, right? As you're aging, right, what is important? Mobility, right? Maintaining muscle, metabolic health. not getting hurt. Right. It's a big one. Yes.

Right. And so the older person, I think, needs more variety. And in fact, there's research suggesting that those who work out with more variety versus I just lift weights or I just run have more longevity. So it's actually the variety. Another, I think, really hot area is gene regulation research. research. And I know you have some core competency in this, myostatin inhibitors and some folostatin gene therapy. And these seem very promising to me. I don't know where you fall

in that, but folostatin, for example, inhibiting, you know, myostatin, which is what sort of stops our muscles from growing, for a lack of better words. It's a governor. Yeah, governor. It's like a So like, and muscle growth. Yeah. So taking the governor off of muscle growth, where do you fall in some of these gene therapies? And do you see those becoming a little more mainstream?

I think it's very exciting. I don't know about it becoming mainstream anytime soon, but who knows. But what are you excited about what the future? Well, you know, when I was a teenager, I used to eat fertilized eggs.

Do you know why? Because of the Falostep, which reduces myostep, right? And so all these bodybuilders, because no one else knew, right, swore you had to buy fertilized eggs. What is it fertilized egg? An egg that's been fertilized. That's, you know, that can grow a chicken versus the ones you get at. Right.

Okay. At the grocery store, right? Okay. Because of the Boston. So how do you buy fertilizer? And so I'm very exciting. In fact, there was a company that came out. with a myostatin inhibitor from egg yolk.

Right? That's what they got, the fall of statin. However, was it effective, right? There's research that shows if you take a myostatin inhibitor, like fallostatin, like this one, supplement company, the exact, the exact product, it dropped myostatin by about 40%. Okay. In middle-aged men, right? Wow.

Impressive, right? Yes. However, the product didn't sell that well. I tried it. Didn't do much for me either. Why? Well, I'll tell you why. Do you know how to lower myostan working out?

Lowered myristan. In creatine by about 30 to 40%. Wow. So if you take a person who's already working out, already taking creatin, they've already lowered their milestone levels by 30 to 40%. will this ingredient lowered anymore? No, it doesn't appear to. Will gene therapy?

Yes. Okay. That's different. Right. Because that's a direct shut off of the gene. Turning on and off. Right. Versus trying to turn it off.

So I'm very excited. I'm very excited about, you know, and you've seen the case studies of these infants that have, you know, both myostan, genes have been turned off, you know, and they're like... Muscular. Yeah. Yeah. Little infants.

You're right. Yes. Yeah. So I'm, you know, very excited. I wish I had that. Access to it. So are there any good full of statin gene therapies that are really available today? When I went down the rabbit hole of it, it's like you got to go to Nicaragua or like one place in

the world where you can actually do these because they're not improved. It's just too early in the game. You know what I mean? To really pinpoint. where, but it's exciting. Yeah. It's exciting. What else on the gene front are you excited about, if anything?

Because I've heard Dr. Mike talk about some of these new gene therapies, and I don't profess to remember the names of some of these, but about how these could potentially replace a lot of these anabolic steroids that body also use to gain this kind of muscle mass. Insulin growth factor. Yeah, instead of the old school, just antibular. Yeah. Tren and yeah. Trestosterone and DECA and all of these other things which have clear side effects,

especially long term. Yeah, but we don't know what, you know, changing this gene could also. Yeah, it always freaks me out a little bit too. Like CRISPR kind of freaks me out a little bit. It's got a lot of promise to like delete genetic mutations, but then how far do we take it when we start like designing the genome? Yeah. And, you know, against our, you know, the natural intention.

for this replicatory cycle. Yeah. You know, and it seems like every time we really mess with Mother Nature, something really bad happens. I remember growing up, I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay. And there was, you know, they wanted to add, get more oxygen into this estuary, which is a mixture of like saltwater and fresh water.

And so it used to be fertile for like oysters and crabs and, you know, Maryland crabs. I mean, I grew up on Maryland crabs. And so a bunch of scientists, put this algae into the bay, coated the whole bottom of the bay, blasted the oxygen content up in the water, and then dead fish were floating everywhere for years. I mean, it just jacked up the whole ecosystem. And I feel like we might be going down that road in human beings if we jump on the bandwagon too soon.

Yeah, you know, that's why, you know, I always have concerns. Anytime there's something promising, it's like, well, what else is it going to do is what I always think, you know? So in general, let's get back to the middle-aged male versus the 22-year-old male because I'm middle-aged and I work out with both my sons who are in their early to mid-20s. And I love working out with them. And I actually feel great. My joints don't hurt. And then I'm performing these workouts.

Yeah, I love it. I say the same thing. I feel very lucky that I very joint issues. Yeah. Because I've had them in the past. You know, I've had an ACL injury. I've had low back injuries. I mean, that is the worst.

Right. So, I mean, for me, number one is like, don't get hurt. Yeah. Because that, and then that sets you back. I mean, if you get an injury, it sets you back six months. It's a year before you really get back to where you were. Yeah, especially at this age. Yeah.

So what are the big hallmark milestones of, you know, middle age, let's call it, 45 years and older versus early 20s for workouts? Is it volume? Is it weights? Is it the complexity of movements? You know, I own a cross-fit gym for a while, and I saw a lot of people getting hurt doing complex, you know, Olympic lifts. Yeah.

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It's designed to fit like a second skin. Activating your core, improving blood flow, and even helping you with recovery while you train. What I love most is that the weight is perfectly distributed. It doesn't pull on your shoulders or throw off your... alignment, whether I'm doing strength training or cardio or just taking a walk, I'm burning more calories, building muscle and pushing my endurance even further. If you're serious about leveling up your training and unlocking your full potential, check out the ion weighted vest at iongear.com. That's a-i-o-ngear.com,

and you can use code ultimate for 10% off and start training smarter today. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. That's, you know, as an exercise scientist, you know, the, Those are the things that are frustrating. It's like, I have many CrossFit friends, you know, and it's like I love the value of CrossFit. What I think CrossFit did well is it opened up Olympic weight lifting to everyone. Now, on the flip side, do we want to really open up Olympic lifting to everyone? Because you have to be very proficient at it to, you can't just.

Yeah, form is so critical. You can't just go in there and whip out 30 reps while you're, after you've run a mile around the gym, you know, like, yeah, that's not how Olympic lifters train, you know, because you can get injured that way. Right. Yeah, and I saw it. You know, there's a better way to do it.

But anyway, but yeah, so on the middle age, you know, like I said, I'm more about being more proficient in all levels of fitness, your flexibility, your mobility, right, your strength, muscle mask, because we want to avoid as much sarcopenia as possible. Which is age-related most always thing. Yeah. And so I'm, you know, as far as the actual workout design, obviously, it's not just about age. It's also, where is this person?

Are they just starting? Have they been working out for a year? Have they been working out for five years? Have they been working on all their life, right? Those are different, even though they're all 50, right? These are all different. They would require different workouts because it's more about the individual. But on a, you know, on a basic breakdown, I would say a variety of repetitions, you want to do some heavy stuff, right?

Because that's going to activate those fast-stitch fibers. I think you want to do some lighter stuff as well for more endurance-based. And lighter weight now is finding to be more hypertrophic, better for building muscle. Right. But then I would also include yoga into your routine. I would also include cardio as well so that you're getting all those areas. You're getting mobility, flexibility, cardiovascular, muscle building, strengthening, etc. Where do you fall into post-workout nutrition? Because that's, that's, we have talking about an area where people get paralysis. The anabolic window, right, which I've heard, totally been thrown out. And so Brad Schoenfeld is the one, and Brad is a friend of mine. You probably know the name.

I do. Who published that study. Now, it's a study of studies, as we talked about, right? To conclude that maybe the post-regor window isn't as important as we once thought, right? But the studies are only as good. The study can only as be good as the studies. And the problem with sports nutrition research and bodybuilding research is there just hasn't been enough of it done. You know, most of the research that's done, like with carbohydrates and post-workout, is for endurance athletes and looking at if they have carbohydrates immediately after, how do they perform the next day?

And so we've taken all this indirect data and tried to apply it to how a bodybuilder should train and eat, right? And so Brad did this meta-analysis on all these studies in post-workout nutrition, finding that maybe it doesn't really matter. However, in the same note, he will say, I would never tell a professional athlete to not eat immediately after they work out. I would never. This just means the average Joe and Jane who want to go to the gym do not need to down a protein chain.

as soon as they're done working on. Okay? Yeah, to catch the better, yeah, as long as they eat within, you know, an hour is fine, right? Right. An NFL lineman, would I say the same thing to him? Brad would say no, I would tell him to eat.

As soon as you could. You know, and so the whole, the post-anabolic window is dead thing has been overplayed because it's really, because it's really, look, if you just want to be fit and healthy, you don't need to run home and get your protein shake ASAP. Does a professional athlete want to do that? Probably. Right.

Okay. That makes a lot of sense to me. And that's Brad's own words. Yeah. And then. And I parrot that. Would I tell somebody who wants to gain an extra quarter inch on their biceps? that important to them to not eat right after? No, I would suggest eat. And the other way to look at

that is to build muscle, right? You need so many times in the day where you spike muscle protein synthesis, right? And what the research is showing is three meals is better than two. Okay? Four might not be better than three, but three appears to be better than two, right? So you need to get at least three good high protein meals in a day to maximize. So if you work out and then wait three or four hours to eat, that's going to lessen the number of windows you can have. So my take is eat right at as soon as you can. Right, as soon as you can.

You know what I mean? So what are the, from a supplementation perspective, what are the important ones to get the timing right on? The timing right would be, And again, it depends on the goal for all these. Because, like, you can argue with creatine, right? I would take it with a meal. However, many people take it on an empty stomach, and it serves them well.

Like I said, there's a difference of about 30 or 40% more uptake into the muscle when you have it with a meal. Okay. Okay. So maybe increase your dose if you're taking it fasted. Yes. You can still, right? You can still get benefits from it. something like beta alanine for example right which helps it helps buffer uh acidity in the muscle

to help prevent fatigue right that one i would take before you work out okay because of what it does beta aline yes beta aline i like taking before um because and what's the dosage for that you want to get about around three to four grams per day. Okay. And it's kind of like creatine, where you want to take it repeatedly because you need to reach a certain level. So not the three or four grams first thing in the morning.

No. Saying gram, gram, gram. Yes. Okay. But it also is a bit like caffeine where it gives you a little bit of a picme up, a slight one. And so people who take it at night may notice

they can't go to sleep. And so I'll typically recommend that one either earlier in the day or before they work out. Okay. And out. Things like that. So if the FDA were to outlaw all but three to five supplements tomorrow, which would be the three to five that you'd say these are kind of must-haves? If you're on this strength training journey, I think that the data is very clear now. Muscles are metabolic currency, leg strength, grip strength, B.O.2.

max clearly correlated to longevity, decreasing cardiovascular risk, you know, mitigating a lot of the major risks of older age, falls being probably the greatest. So what would be those three or four must-haves to sit, sift through the noise? Sounds like creatine is one of those.

Definitely for, top of the list. Okay. Definitely creatine. Safety and effectiveness. Beta aline, for an athlete, I would probably say yes.

For someone who's just looking for health and fitness, I don't think it's that critical. Okay. Something like fish oil, right? I would say that's not as critical because you can get that from Whole Foods. Right? Something like that. Yeah, I'm a big fan of Omega 3.

I would say branch chains are essential amino acids. I would put on that list because as we talked about, you're only getting, you know, maybe 50 to 60% of the amino acids from your whole food meal. right? And so for somebody who's older, who just wants to spike your muscle protein synthesis more, being able to take those, like I said, branch chains are the essentials, which are providing the branch chains as well, is going to be important. What else do I have on that list? I also want to, well, I'll just you finish that list and then I want one final question for you

on one particular nutrient. Yeah, it's hard to come up with a list because, like you said, supplements are more goal-oriented, right? So it would depend on the person, you know? Like, it would be different for an athlete versus a 60-year-old who just wants, you know, to maintain. To maintain. So then. However, Creighton would be the one.

Yeah, Creeteen, don't let them out while that one. You know, is really the list, you know, that the one that everybody should really. Must have. Where do you fall on, or do you have an opinion on? NAD, NAD plus. Yeah, I think it can be very effective. Do you take it as NMR? Nicotinamide mononucleotide?

Yeah. Or nicotinamide. Depends on you. And if you're infusing or orally. Well, let's take that like an oral in your supplement stack, right? I would do the NMR. NMR versus NAD. Nicotinamide monotin.

Yes. Nicotinide mononucleotide, the NMN? Yes. NMN. Okay. So, Enamon, I think I would absolutely agree with you. I think Dr. Davidson-Clair would agree with you too, like increasing our body's ability to make it naturally rather than just taking it in.

And I think there's... And that's, as you were talking about, as we get older, that's one of the things that will decrease. Yeah, yeah. The liposomal versions I see from like symbiotica and some are phenomenal. There's the ones that I notice, and they actually, I think the liposomal deliveries for for nutrients like that are critical because a lot of... of those are just denatured first-class metabolism. You'd probably agree with that too.

So I appeal to so many audiences, but I rarely talk to the guys that are like my age, and I actually want to look more like you look than what I look. So I'm going to follow your advice. Maybe I'll even start taking some of your supplements. But I wind down all my podcasts by asking my guests the same question. And there's no right or wrong answer to this. But what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

What it means to me to be ultimate human is to perform at my best that I can at that time, right? Whether, you know, I may have certain injuries or limitations, right? It's the performance, but it's also about how I treat other people. I think it's just being kinder to people is important to me. You know. You could use a lot of kindness in this world right now. Right. For sure.

Well, I've got a lot of VIPs waiting for you in the other room that got a bunch of questions for you. If you're interested in becoming a VIP and joining my VIP community, getting one-on-ones with me and getting into some of our private chats and using the Gary, ask Gary anything AI, which again, look at your blood work and look at your gene testing, evaluate your supplement stack. You can head over to the ultimate human.com forward slash VIP and join my VIP community. I would love to see you in there. Jim, this has been amazing because you're clearly walking the walk and talking the talk. I think your background is very unique in the industry.

Thank you. And, you know, your grasp of supplements and what's effective, what's not. I definitely want to continue to follow your journey. I hope you'll come back on the ultimate podcast at some point in the future. And until next time, guys, that's just science.