Dissolve one packet of Element in 16-32 ounces of water upon waking and during physical exercise to ensure optimal brain and body function by providing vital electrolytes (sodium, magnesium, potassium) without sugar.
Take an all-in-one vitamin-mineral probiotic drink (e.g., Athletic Greens) once or twice a day to cover basic nutritional needs, address deficiencies, and support microbiome health which impacts immune system, mood, and overall biological systems.
Incorporate some form of resistance exercise (body weight, bands, weights) into your routine to offset age-related decline in strength, improve posture, enhance bone density, and protect against injury.
For approximately 10% of your workouts or individual activities, push to the point of feeling the “burn” to generate lactate, which acts as a hormonal signal to positively enhance the function of your heart, liver, and brain. When experiencing the burn, focus on deep inhales to maximize oxygen delivery.
First thing in the morning, perform the CO2 tolerance test (4 deep nose inhales/mouth exhales, then a fifth deep nose inhale followed by the slowest possible mouth exhale) to objectively measure your nervous system’s recovery and capacity to engage the calming parasympathetic system.
Upon waking, test your grip strength (e.g., with a grip tool or floor scale) as a simple thermometer for your nervous system’s overall recovery; a 10-20% reduction from your baseline indicates insufficient recovery.
Perform 5 to 15 sets per muscle group per week, using weights or resistance that are 30-80% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM), ensuring you train close to or occasionally to muscular failure for strength and hypertrophy gains.
Keep resistance training sessions generally between 45 and 60 minutes, avoiding longer durations, to prevent excessive increases in cortisol and inflammatory pathways that can be detrimental to recovery and training goals.
Always perform resistance exercises through a full range of motion to ensure effective muscle engagement and maximize the benefits of your training.
For hypertrophy (muscle size), focus on isolating specific muscles and generating hard, localized contractions; for strength, prioritize moving progressively heavier loads through compound movements, distributing effort across muscle groups.
To gauge a muscle’s potential for hypertrophy, try to deliberately contract and isolate it hard (to the point of slight cramping) without external weight; good neural control indicates a higher capacity for growth.
Perform hard, isolated contractions (flexing) of the target muscle for about 30 seconds between work sets to enhance hypertrophy by increasing local stress, tension, and damage, though this may compromise performance on subsequent sets.
To increase explosiveness, speed, or jumping/throwing power, learn to move moderate to heavy loads as fast as safely possible throughout the entire set, avoiding training to failure where movement inevitably slows.
To stimulate testosterone release, perform 6 sets of 10 repetitions of big compound movements (e.g., squats, deadlifts) with precisely 120 seconds of rest between sets, up to twice a week.
If your goal is strength or hypertrophy, avoid whole-body cold exposure (ice baths, cold showers) within four hours after a resistance workout, as it can interfere with muscle repair and growth pathways.
Be cautious about using antihistamines and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) within four hours before or after exercise, as they can disrupt the inflammation needed for adaptation and muscle gains, and NSAIDs block important pain signals.
Maintain low systemic inflammation by ensuring sufficient daily intake of Omega-3s (over 1000mg EPA), Vitamin D, and Magnesium Malate.
At the conclusion of your training session, deliberately engage the parasympathetic (calming) nervous system for five minutes using respiration tools (e.g., 10 physiological sighs), NSDR, or hypnosis apps to kickstart the recovery process.
Perform a few physiological sighs (double inhale through the nose, long exhale) between sets to help recover the nervous system, maintain nerve-to-muscle contractibility, and enhance focus during your training session.
To specifically target a muscle for hypertrophy, perform isolation exercises for that muscle (e.g., leg extensions) before compound movements (e.g., squats), understanding this will reduce the weight you can lift in the compound exercise.
Maintain sufficient levels of salt, potassium, and magnesium in your system, as these electrolytes are absolutely vital for optimal nerve-to-muscle communication and overall physical and cognitive performance.
Ingest 3-15 grams of creatine daily, depending on body weight (e.g., 5g for 180lb), to significantly increase power output (12-20%), improve cellular hydration, indirectly boost lean mass, and reduce fatigue.
Take 2-5 grams of beta-alanine daily to support performance in mixed anaerobic/aerobic activities (60-240 second range, e.g., 8-15 rep sets, interval training), improving muscular endurance and reducing fatigue.
For long-duration exercise bouts (e.g., long runs, swims), consider ingesting beet juice, arginine, or citrulline to improve performance through vasodilation and increased blood flow.
Aim to ingest 700-3000 milligrams of the essential amino acid leucine with each meal to support the synthesis of myosin for muscle hypertrophy and muscle repair for strength.
Eat 2-4 times a day, ensuring each meal provides sufficient amino acids, as frequent eating (6-7 times/day) is not necessary for most individuals to support muscle repair and growth.
Schedule intense cognitive work on days you don’t physically train, at the same time of day you normally would exercise, to harness your nervous system’s learned focus and enhance non-exercise cognitive function.
Schedule your training 30 minutes, 3 hours, or 11 hours after your normal waking time to align with body temperature and cortisol rhythms, providing regularity and potentially optimizing readiness to train.
Utilize the Waking Up app for various meditation programs, mindfulness training, Yoga Nidra, or Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) protocols to learn different meditation types and restore cognitive/physical energy.
Download the beautifully illustrated cold exposure protocol for fat loss from thecoldplunge.com (under the protocols tab) to guide shiver-induced fat oxidation.
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