On this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sit down with Dan Hunter to talk all things “corporate athlete.” If you’re trying to crush it at work and not feel like a melted quesadilla by 3 p.m., this one’s for you. We dig into the real-world challenges of staying sharp under stress, from building sustainable habits to fueling your brain with tools like creatine, ketones, and amino acids. We also explore how physical stress affects cognitive performance, the importance of trust-building, and what actually works when it comes to supplements. Tons of actionable takeaways here for anyone looking to upgrade both body and brain in high-stress environments.
On this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I sit down with Dan Hunter to talk all things “corporate athlete.” If you’re trying to crush it at work and not feel like a melted quesadilla by 3 p.m., this one’s for you.
We dig into the real-world challenges of staying sharp under stress, from building sustainable habits to fueling your brain with tools like creatine, ketones, and amino acids. We also explore how physical stress affects cognitive performance, the importance of trust-building, and what actually works when it comes to supplements. Tons of actionable takeaways here for anyone looking to upgrade both body and brain in high-stress environments.
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Flex Diet Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Mike T. Nelson. On this podcast, we talk about all things to increase muscle performance, improve body composition, do all of it in a flexible framework without destroying your health. Today we've got my buddy Dan Hunter, and we're talking all about corporate athletes how to maintain and strive for peak physical and mental performance.
So even if you're not a corporate athlete or executive, I think a lot of the concepts that we talk about here will cross over. So we're talking about the practical experiences. What are some challenges in training these types of athletes? The role of habit formation. Even get into things such as ketones and cognition, building trust, the role of supplements.
And a bunch of other stuff. So I think you will enjoy this podcast and our sponsors [00:01:00] today. If you're looking for electrolytes, we've got our friends over at Element. I'm drinking the grapefruit one today, so I really enjoy, that's probably one of my favorites. Raspberries, my other favorite also. So check them out.
We will have more from Teton. Ketones coming up very soon. If a new product should be out again, very, very soon. As soon as I have an announcement, I will share all of that here, but pretty excited about that. And then for training equipment, check out my friends over at Beyond Power with the RO one.
That's a really cool device that replaces a cable machine and allows you to train with differences in concentric and eccentric. So you can do rows with a hundred pounds of concentric and then have it pull back with say, 130 or even 150 pounds. And what I really like about it is you can change the strength curves on it.
Super easy to use, [00:02:00] and you don't necessarily need an app for it. You can just change everything directly on the screen. There's no monthly fee, which is nice. I, my pet peeve with a lot of, especially equipment when you feel like you paid for the equipment is. Now you have to pay another fee forever in order to use the thing you spent a lot of money on.
That is definitely not the case here. So I've really enjoyed it. I've used it a lot. I've had a couple people pick it up so far, and they've, they've really loved it. So check them out. It is an affiliate link below. Any questions on any of those? Hit me up. As always, if you want more from me, make sure to check out the daily newsletter.
Go to the link below, we'll send you a free gift and put you on the newsletter with all sorts of great, free, usable, and hopefully entertainment at the same time for information. So enjoy this podcast here with my buddy Dan Hunter.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And welcome to the podcast, Dan. How are you doing? I'm good, [00:03:00] thanks. I'm good, thanks. How are you? Good. Good. Nice to see you again. Someone in person. I think the last time I saw you was in person, was it Texas? Is that right? I think yeah, indeed.
Dan Hunter: It was in Dallas for the transformation.
Genesis.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. I'm trying to remember what year that was. Is that 2019? Because it was, I always have this thing now where it's it's before COVID or after COVID. It was right before COVID.
Dan Hunter: That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It was 2019 in, in in Dallas. Yeah. That was fun. That was a good time. It was, it was. It was nice to get together a lot of coaches who were passionate about, getting results in the field.
And so that's, that was the idea there is just to, to bring together trainers, coaches who from an education perspective are still coaching, like proper coaching in the trenches day to day. And, you get a lot of educators out there now who. They spend all their time educating and and, and not so much coaching.
And I feel that that's that's [00:04:00] possibly, a weakness to, to the education system. Because, we're constantly learning and evolving and, and implementing and, and and, and I think that whilst there's, there's this place for what used to work, there's place for science, but there's place right now also for what is working through experience in the field, that's what I wanted to, to do there with the transformation genesis. And I'd love to be able to do it again, but it slowed down a lot of these in-person courses, seminars post COVID. But I would, I'd love to be able to get something like that going again because I know that there's genuine interest for, first of all, for, for knowledge, but also I think for, for, to be part of a tribe, to be part of something, and and I remember how, again, and again, I sound like an old person, but pre COVID the the, the, the world of strength and conditioning was a small, tight knit group. And now, post COVID, it's, it's, it's expanded dramatically, which is great.
But it seems like the new guys on the block are much more [00:05:00] interested in what they can learn online or for free or from influences and stuff like that. And it would just be so great to reach out to these guys who I know I, I'm sure we could get interested in, in, in the real stuff, but they just need to know it's out there, I think,
Dr Mike T Nelson: yeah, I think like I always am big on applied, applied knowledge. Like I still have clients online. I've capped it to 17, just from my own sanity. Okay. But I, I've had feedback from many marketers and maybe. I dunno, I see their point of at what point have you been doing it long enough that you have enough accumulated info, et cetera, et cetera.
But like you said, I, I'm still in the area of, I just get more difficult cases that I have to problem solve of problems I wouldn't seek out myself to solve, to get other knowledge. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because that person's paying me a lot of money and something comes up and you're like, oh crap.
Like how do I figure this out? I'm gonna try to do whatever I can to figure it out. Or if I'm left on my [00:06:00] own, it's Hey, this is a cool study. It's a hard read. Do I really need to learn about X, Y, or Z right now? Dunno.
Dan Hunter: No, that's right. And I think that, it's, it's hard to have, I believe, anyway, it's, it's hard to have that mentality in, in, in a sector or an industry where.
There's constantly evolution where we're learning more and more still. Yes. So if you can't then go and take that and go and apply it with your client base and, and, and see, whether what the papers are saying, you're actually translating it into Yeah. It doesn't actually
Dr Mike T Nelson: even work too.
That's right.
Dan Hunter: That's right. Because no matter how good a study is and Doug, I love going through studies, no matter how good a study is, sometimes there are certain variables which we just haven't taken into account. And, and it's it it, it's always good practice to then go and take something and before going spouting off over the internet or on courses, it's okay, has this worked When put it into practice?
Yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And that's my other little pet peeve of you see people even more so on the research side, who are very well [00:07:00] educated, but tend to, I don't know if it's because of popular media or because things become popular will skew more towards the side of their knowledge. And which I'm fine with them giving out their opinion and even, potentially guessing of what the future may bring or talking about current research.
But I get a little unnerved when they start translating that into specific coaching advice. And I know they've never coached a single person in their entire life. And then you see some of the crazy stuff they come up with who anyone who's coached people for even a couple years would look at it and go, that may be true in research, that may be an accurate interpretation of that study, but that is a horrible advice for anyone to do in practice.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. Yeah. Some of it's just not even practical to practice. It is non practical.
Dr Mike T Nelson: No, but they don't know that and they're like this is what you would need to do. And I'm like, maybe for 0.5% of the population.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, totally. I think that that's, that's the, [00:08:00] that's the other part, which I always, I always say is your, your recommendations are only good, as good as the amount that they're gonna be able to actually do.
And and that's, and, and that's definitely the case with the, the kind of population that I work with, which, corporate clients is, there's so many other variables which are gonna affect how affect, how much they can put into practice. And so it's about finding the most effective dose and the most effective way of communicating what you want them to, to put into place.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And you work with a lot of corporate athletes, like, why did you call them athletes? Which I would agree with that term. One of the, the things I sold from Dr. Koba Z Health years ago is that an athlete is anyone who uses their body to make a living, which you could argue is almost. Everyone, they're just different degrees and each have their own unique sets of constraints and problems you're trying to solve.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, that's right. I, I call them corporate athletes because [00:09:00] oftentimes the demands on a, on a corporate client are very similar to a certain extent. To to an athlete in the sense that they need to perform at the highest level. They need to be able to recover well to perform well.
They need to be able to make good decisions under stress split decisions under stress. They need to be able to handle chronic levels of, of stress throughout, a working season. And and yeah, so anything which is, which is related to performance, we're looking more on a, on a cognitive side, but it's still performance to me.
But then there's all the other aspects around it. Which are nutritional or, or, or lifestyle which are going to augment and improve their performance when they're not. Expected to, to perform, if that makes sense. So then we are, we're talking about sleep regulation, we're talking about energy regulation, we're talking about mood, we're talking about all of [00:10:00] these, all of these types of things.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And I'd say also on top of a lot of constraints of maybe some of 'em have more income to spend, but then they're limited on time or vice versa.
Dan Hunter: I would, I would say that yes, it definitely income to spend, but I would say they're more, again, based on the limited experience that I have with pro athletes.
I've worked with a couple of pro soccer or football teams. I've worked with individuals and stuff like that. But I wouldn't say that, I'm. The, the, my main business comes from, from pro athletes, but I would say that from the exposure that I've had to them, what's great with corporate athletes is they're willing participants always.
Oh yeah. And they're coming to you asking for your advice because they genuinely want your expertise to get better. And that's not always the case when working with pro athletes, especially, no. They are begrudgingly coming to you a lot of the time. Especially, I, like I said, my main [00:11:00] exposure has been with, with soccer players and football players.
And, having them understand that it's not okay to be playing PlayStation till two or three in the morning or training on an empty stomach 'cause they just don't feel like it. Or because they want, I'm not sure if you call it the same in, in, in in the us but like Nutella, like chocolate spread on Yeah, yeah.
Stuff like that, and for them it's as long as I, I've got talent, man, I'm, and, and then they've got people around them and mm-hmm. And, and whispering all things in their ears. So I find them to be much less willing participants than, than than the corporate world. And, and so there's a bigger pool to, to fish in.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And even with, I think people would be shocked at how many high level athletes don't really like training that much and almost do it more as a job. Obviously there's a plenty of exceptions to that. There's people who are super passionate about it. They love it. They'll do whatever those people, 100% e exist for sure.
Mm-hmm. But I think, and this was [00:12:00] my perception years ago before even working with any higher level athletes was, oh man, these people are professionals. This is all they do. They've gotta just, every single one of 'em has gotta love their sport and love everything about it. They'll do whatever I tell them to do.
And, no, that's, that's not true.
Dan Hunter: No, because the ones that do oftentimes become the exception, you talk, if I talk about and even though they don't do it, the, the best, so let's take for example, and again, I'll talk about the sports that I know, but Christiana, Ronaldo, right?
Mm-hmm. Chris, John Ronaldo is known to be someone who really takes care of his body, who
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yep.
Dan Hunter: Who does all of the recovery stuff or over the extra training, pays attention to his nutrition, is what he does when he does that. The smartest, the most efficient stuff that he could do. No, I don't think so.
When I, when I see some of the stuff that he does, you're like, yeah but, but he's doing something and he's doing something, therefore doing more than most. And so he's, his longevity in the game is higher. And I'm sure that there are examples of that in American football and, and, and, and, and other [00:13:00] sports too, right?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. I even think of because I grew up watching Michael Jordan, and like just watching his career, he definitely paid a lot more attention to strength and conditioning and recovery and, and obviously hired a trainer and, all these things, even being as good and talented as he was, and that was at a time where it was just starting to be a little bit more accepted.
But you do find a lot more athletes towards the end of their career realize, oh man, all of a sudden if I could take care of myself this off season, I might be able to play one or two more seasons. Not only do I want to play, 'cause I realized how much I love the game at this point, and I don't wanna retire.
I also could make, few more, tens of millions at the same time. So yeah, it's interesting to see trajectories of people who started off just getting by in raw talent and Nutella or Skittles or whatever, and towards the end of their career realize that now they're doing all the things they need to.
And shocker, a lot of times it, it does work. Like they're able to play, for a couple more years at the end of [00:14:00] their career.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. And, and examples of the opposite, right? Is there somewhere you go, man, and you can see it happening and you're like, I know you got talent, but go train, go train, go train.
And they don't, and then they come back after off season overweight and you go, eh, that's an accident waiting to happen. And then, a season later they're just, continuously injured and their season and their, which careers cut short because of it, and it's such a shame. Yeah. But, and, and then, but then of course, i'll, I'll digress, there's, yeah, yeah. There's also the, the issue nowadays, which again, we're talking like post COVID, is, there's the, there's the sexy training compared to the unsexy training, oh yeah. You can go to Dubai and you can train on wobble boards and elastic bands and, and do all this velocity based training all the time with plyometrics constantly.
And, and man, that is the place to go if you want to be the best. No. Yeah. It's, it's not. That's, that's, that's sexier on [00:15:00] Instagram, and, and I think that we, we we're talking to a generation of athletes where. That sometimes I, I, I, I, it's countless the amount of coaches that I've spoken to who have said to me, man, I we were doing such great stuff with this athlete and, and injury free so many minutes played, these types of things, all the rest.
And then all of a sudden, the head got turned by something by some trainer they saw doing this stuff and went off. And then, and like I said, there are many factors which, which influence injury. And it's not always what the strength and conditioning coach does. And I think that sometimes we tend to jump on that bandwagon, but for sure there are good practices and not so good practices.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And once you've been around enough, you can watch film of certain athletes and just see things. And like you said, there's no way you can 100% predict an injury, but you could definitely see patterns. You can definitely see things that are going on and. If you've done it long enough, you can, I'd say relatively accurately predict that they're gonna [00:16:00] have an injury coming up sooner than later.
What kind of injury may be harder to predict at what point? Who knows? And even within a lot of the high level organizations, like exactly what you said, there's so many people in cogs in the wheel from the physio that's working with them directly. Maybe they have a nutritionist, maybe they have someone for mindset psychology.
They've got logistics, they've got their skills person, they've got maybe a team. They travel, they're travel athletes, and now they're moving back and forth between different places, different locations. They've got a manager, they've got someone else they might have hired to do something else. And so now you've got.
Nine cooks in the kitchen. And sometimes it isn't always clear like who is the top person doing the systems approach to everything. And a lot of times it's just this coagulation of these, these experts who know ill intent by any of 'em or not that they're not good at their job, but again, you have to figure out how do all those components work together in the best manner [00:17:00] too.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. So much noise. And also then I think that that sometimes leads to the, the players not always trusting. In the beginning, you know what they Oh, sure. Giving so much advice and they're not sure whether the advice they're getting is coming from a good place or not. Yep. Especially when you talk about, we, we, we could, I could talk about this all day, but I'm not sure I'm the best person to talk about it 'cause I'm, it's not, obviously not my.
Not my expertise either, but I, I'm
Dr Mike T Nelson: not, yeah, but I think it, it illustrates that there is no perfect scenario. So I think a lot of times people training 'em, whether they're corporate athlete or division one athlete, or they're just going to the gym to look better naked, I think, yeah. It's always easy to look at someone else and be like, oh, they're a top level athlete.
They can have a chef cook for 'em. They could have all this stuff done. And the thing I've always made is even like in the US with Oprah Winfrey, who's been a public figure, we've seen her gain weight, lose weight, has money, can hire a coach, could hire a chef, could hire everyone to do everything for her.[00:18:00]
But at the end of the day, it's still that individual who has to decide, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna eat the food that was made for me. I'm gonna go to bed early. Like even at the highest level where everything in theory could be done for you. It's still the individual who has to decide, like your corporate athletes.
Oh man. Okay. I'm gonna try to get to bed a half hour earlier tonight. Or I'm gonna choose this option of food over this or not, or eh, today was a hard day, but I'm still gonna go train 'cause I'll feel better afterwards. It still comes down to that individual has to decide and make those decisions no matter what the outside circumstances look to be optimal or not.
Dan Hunter: Totally. And that's actually something that I'm really curious about. I've I've spent a lot of time trying to understand what triggers that click. Totally. You you, you, you have clients that can be coming to you for months, years and you're giving them all of the right advice and, and you're working it a a million different ways to try and get them to [00:19:00] implement it, but they're, they just haven't made the decision themselves.
And then all of a sudden something out, nowhere just clicks and they'll do one of the basic things. One, one of the most simplest things and all of a sudden everything changes. And, and I, I, I would, I would love to say that there's some type of, magical formula to figure out where that click happens.
I haven't found it yet, but me neither. But I do love trying to figure out, I, I spent a lot of time also just because I'm, I'm, I'm a constant student and I'm always trying to study as I spent a lot of time studying NLP as well.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Mm, interesting.
Dan Hunter: Try and understand like, how can you communicate to someone and sorry, communicate with someone and pick up on signals and respond to them in a way which, which brings them to that click sooner.
Because they're always leaving clues. But if you're not listening and you're not I'm not sure if there's [00:20:00] this, there's this expression in, in English or not, but I know that in Belgium they often say you're born with two eyes, two ears. Yes, yes. In my mouth for a reason. And, and I'm, and, and I'm constantly trying to figure that out.
Whenever my client's in, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm watching, I'm listening, and I'm just trying to pick up on, okay, what's that one thing? What's that one pain point? What's that one that I can respond to, which can help trigger or click sooner for them to, to make that, that change? Because it's crazy.
We, just to give you an example we have a a, a client that's been with us for years and had been struggling with weight for, for a while and had spent a long time around us and, and got, got all the best advice and all the rest, and just, wasn't making any progress then outta nowhere.
Out of their own accord just to say, all right, I'm just gonna rock to work every day and back. And, and I, and it was like great, we've spoken about extra movement for a [00:21:00] long time and we've spoken about fresh air and we've spoken about sunlight, and we've spoken about all of these things, right?
And but then all of a sudden does it, and then, and then gets on a roll, and then just like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And, three months later, down 17 kilos, you're like, wow, that's where it was. Yeah. But, and you can, you can suggest that for as long as you want. It's, it's, try finding that one thing at the right time, which is gonna make that, that click. So yeah. That's something I'm really, really, really curious about. More and more,
Dr Mike T Nelson: yeah. The 'cause also the
Dan Hunter: goal for I, I'm sure it's the same case for you Mike is really, if, if you're genuinely passionate about what you do, and I know that if we've been in this industry this long, it's the case is you're passionate about changing people's lives.
Oh yeah. There's no other reason to
Dr Mike T Nelson: stay
Dan Hunter: on their lives. It's what's gets you outta bed in the morning. And if, and so that's why that question keeps me constantly searching,
Dr Mike T Nelson: yeah. The, the two parts I have a hard time resolving in my [00:22:00] head are the two books I recommend trainers to buy in this area or anyone is atomic Habits by James Clear, which is BJ fog stuff of just do really, really small habits, habit stacking, and, and there's a lot of great research on that.
I've used that with a ton of clients. Yeah, exactly. And does it work? Yeah, it works really well. Mm-hmm. Does it work for a hundred percent of the people? I would say no, but I don't think anything works for a hundred percent of the people. No. But on the other end of the spectrum is another, the book by James Fell called the, the Holy Shit Moment.
And it's basically like what you were describing. Why do people change in almost an instant? What appears to be overnight? Like my dad for many years, when I was growing up, smoked cigarettes, smoked probably half a pack, maybe a pack of cigarettes a day, tried to quit many, many, many times.
All of a sudden, one day he got really sick and just said, I'm never smoking cigarettes again. Never had another cigarette for the rest of his life. 35 years later has [00:23:00] never smoked a single cigarette. Yeah. And I'm just like, how, how does that work? Like how do you have a lot of data showing that small change works, but yet you have these.
Epiphany things where all of a sudden instantly, and the per person has normally done it multiple times before, but this time it appears to be the same, but obviously wasn't the same. And they make a huge change, and that change actually sticks. Like those two paradoxes just fascinate me.
Dan Hunter: No, I get it. It seems to be like this accumulation of pressure, right?
Which all of a sudden that pressure becomes too much and there's a flip, yep. Yeah, yeah, totally. But that, I I, I remember having that same question that same conversation a good 10 years ago about, the, the, the relevance of putting these pictures of, people with lung cancer on on cigarette packs and stuff like that, because they, whilst the intention is good, there are, there are a lot of people out there who they know all the reasons why they shouldn't smoke.
They still can't stop smoking, and then indeed I [00:24:00] think you said it was your father, my grandfather had the, the, the same thing is he got sick. One night one, one day like dog sick and then couple of days later went to go and smoke a cigarette, went, oh no.
And put it down. I've smoked again, and it's baffling.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. I get your thoughts on this part, and we'll talk more about corporate athletes too, because I think this is relevant that the only two things I think I've can air quotes figured out in that area is one, I think there has to be some sort of association of a different sensation.
So for example, if you read studies on the use of psychedelics, like psilocybin for smoking sensation, and you read like what some of the people actually reported in the study. And this is usually with therapy, but it's usually only like a couple sessions. I can't remember exactly. It's two or three sessions more than one person reported that.
Under the influence of the psychedelic, they could feel [00:25:00] like they knew what would happen if they continued to smoke, even though they knew air quotes. They, they didn't have any more new data about what it was, but because of the drug, they had the sensation of what it felt like if they either were continue or if they were to stop.
Which I find fascinating. And then also related to that is just the role of your identity. And people even, after even psychedelics for an example, have reported that they felt like their identity had shifted. So now they were someone who no longer has to smoke cigarettes or whatever the thing was.
I don't know. There's gotta be, I think, some connection between, between, between visceral sensation and an identity.
Dan Hunter: I, I do remember and again, it was part of that same conversation is when you talk about identity is people who identify themselves as ex-smokers or as alcoholics are more likely to relapse than those who don't.
Yes. [00:26:00] And, and, and indeed that's that, that's that identity shift. Totally. And I see that actually, it's funny you should say that. I see that in in transformations. Yes. So in lifestyle choices and stuff like that is when people start with us, they're doing it, with a short term, oftentimes a short term goal in mind, and they're like, I can be disciplined for this amount of time.
I can stick to that diet for three months or for six months or whatever. I can train for three months or for six months, but it's when you when it's, it's, it's not a, and, and, and those conversations happen and they have to happen with the coach oftentimes is it's let's reframe this.
Like when you're working. At least the way that I explained it, when, when they were, when you are working with me, I'm not interested in you doing the hard stuff for three months. I'm interested in you, see, you, you already visualizing who you're becoming yes. And, and faking it before you make it like, so in your head the, [00:27:00] because once it becomes indeed like a part of you like for me, someone said to me, training what if you don't feel like training?
And again, with, with a balanced approach, this, you don't, you don't, you don't want to just push, you don't wanna just be obsessive either. But, for me, having grown up in a family that is that is very active, very sporty, my, my parents were athletes and all the rest is. The way I, I compare it is a bit to brushing your teeth.
Like for me, training is like brushing my teeth. It's not a question of whether I will or whether I won't. It's, it just, it's part of
Dr Mike T Nelson: me. And it's more a question of how or what. Yeah, exactly. And,
Dan Hunter: and, and it just, it will happen. Because, actually it's the same with brushing teeth. So in the beginning when you're a child, it requires discipline.
It requires, to be encouraged to do it and all the rest. But you get to a point where, when you're older I'm not sure that I know anyone that will turn around and say to you, I like brushing my teeth. But the feeling they get from not brushing their [00:28:00] teeth outweighs the dislike of brushing your teeth.
I don't wanna walk around with fur on my teeth. I don't wanna walk around with, with smelly breath, with yellow teeth and stuff like that. So I brush my teeth. And honestly, when you've been training so long. I don't wanna walk around feeling sluggish or or in, or tight or in pain or, all, all the, all the symptoms.
That, that are overwhelming associated, associated with not training enough because you've been there long enough. And that's your new reality, right? And that's definitely the, what I've just said. There is a conversation I'll have with every one of my clients.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. It's, it, I, you might notice that on this, but I believe it was, I think it takes a year and a half or two years for someone to exercise consistently to be considered a air quote, lifelong exerciser, which on one hand you're like, oh my God, that's such a long period of time.
But on the other hand, if you think [00:29:00] about what percentage of your life it is, it's not really that long. And in terms of investment, even if it's two years. If you could be guaranteed at a high 90% that you would continue those healthy habits in some form the rest of your life. I'm like, man, that's a, that's a pretty solid investment
Dan Hunter: and that's the reason why I'm convinced.
When people talk about online training and stuff like that, that, post COVID people were worried that all personal trainings are gonna be replaced by Yeah. Either online coaches or AI's no, like for that exact reason that you just gave Mike. Having an appointment with someone in person two or three times a week for that amount of time is sometimes the key to lifelong change.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I've even had people who've inquired and I just do online training. I do some in-person stuff here, but only in just an as needed basis.
Dan Hunter: Mm-hmm.
Dr Mike T Nelson: If I know a trainer in their area and they are especially newer to exercise, like most of the time I'm like, Hey, just [00:30:00] go work with this person.
Yes, it's gonna be more expensive. Yes, it's gonna be more time, but. You're gonna learn how to do the exercises better, they're gonna watch you. They can give you immediate feedback. You have to have a little bit, yes, it is an inconvenience, but like you said, you're gonna build in that habit of going somewhere and doing the thing.
And even I think online there is something about being accountable to a real human versus an ai. Like I think even the accountability portion is very much underrated because if, I only do online, people pay me a fair amount of money, but they also feel accountable to that person as another human who is really trying to help them.
And that sort of bridge of, I don't want to disappoint this other human until I can get this to be more an automated process, I think is an effective bridge to get them to continue to do better things long term.
Dan Hunter: Totally. But, and, but, and then that goes back to what you said right in the beginning, which is I coach 17 [00:31:00] people where, you know, if you, if if you're coaching a hundred people online, oh, I don't know how people do that.
Build that accountability. You need, you need to be able to, to, to have that space to yes. To check in with them and and properly. You have all these biofeedback forms and all the rest, you need to check in with that person, for it to really feel like you're being held accountable, I think.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And last quick story on that. I have sometimes people that'll come over to my house. We'll do like a, one or two day or mentorship thing and we'll have 'em do exercise in the garage and that kind of stuff and do some lectures. And a friend of mine was here once and she was asking me, she's when you're doing online coaching, like how often do you give people feedback?
And I looked at her and I'm like. For you? Yeah. Maybe once every four to five days. And she is horrified. She's what? That's so horrible. I'm like, because in your instance, you are doing it to be compliant to [00:32:00] me. You, you want to show that you're doing it, but you're doing it to impress me, that you can show up and do the thing.
Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna withhold feedback because I wanna see autonomously how often you can continue to do the thing without any input from me. Because long term, when you're not working with me, that's what's gonna be able to, to, to do it. And I've known this person for many years, so I could get away saying that and she's oh, oh, okay, I get it.
Yeah. But if someone's brand new and they don't have any experience, you don't really know 'em that well. They may need more often more feedback and more encouragement and that type of thing too. So it's this, it's this gray area, but like you said, trying to get them long term that it becomes more of an autonomous process then.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. Although I would argue that I'm not, I'm not sure that there's anything wrong with, with, with, with being, with being coached for a lifetime. So what I mean Oh, I don't think so either. Yes. 'cause, because oftentimes it said, you want to, you want your, you want to at some point, ethically you [00:33:00] want to, to, to get your client to be autonomous.
And I totally agree with that. However, I've been training for, three decades. And and I still want to be coached because I think that that helps me get outta my head, and so I'm much more picky with who I allow to coach me. Oh yeah. But, but I don't wanna be writing my own programs.
I don't want to be I would much rather someone who I really trust and who knows their. Excuse my language, they're shit. Um mm-hmm. To be, to, to be coaching me. 'cause it, that's that one time where I don't have to think about it, yeah. Just, just go ahead and do,
Dr Mike T Nelson: and I would rephrase that, that I should say autonomous and the fact that they are going to do the work.
Yeah. So I would argue, like in your case, you're definitely gonna do the work whether you have a coach or not. But I do agree that having a coach, as most people I coach our trainers themselves, gets you out of your head to not second guess it. Yes, you are still accountable, but I think at [00:34:00] that level it's more of, okay, I can be hyper-focused on the things that I know I need to do, and I can make sure that I'm not getting in my own way by complicating it or 'cause everyone just doesn't want to do the things that are hard, that might be the most effective for their goals.
I, I still have a coach that helps me, lift the inch dumbbell because I know I will do things that look like and I could convince myself might transfer. But might not, where if he is okay, here's your top four things you need to work on. I can't really get around that. This item is number six.
Is it really number one? He is no. Okay. Yeah, you're right. You're right.
Dan Hunter: I love it. Yeah, for sure.
Dr Mike T Nelson: So how do you apply that to, to corporate athletes then? Do you, it sounds like you do a lot of stuff with everything from nutrition to sleep to training. I guess the two part question. One, how do you figure out where to start and then how do you organize that for them going forward?
Because [00:35:00] the mistake I made early on was I just way overwhelmed the crap out of people the first couple weeks. 'Cause I'm like, oh my God, you have all these things to do and I just, let 'em have 13 items, which was a complete Trashman fire, which was totally my fault.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that.
It starts with a good, a good conversation and obviously it, and everyone will come in with different goals, but ultimately I think that a lot of the goals afterwards converge to to, to a few. And in most cases, especially, when we're talking about the type corporate athletes, these guys are smart, right?
And so I, I and they could talk me out of a room on lots and lots of topics. So I think that. The, the mistake that I used to make when I was younger was feeling like I had to come with all the answers. Mm. And now, you're sitting across the table from the CFO or the C-F-O-A-C-E-O or of, of, of a, of a multinational company or someone who's [00:36:00] successfully launched and, and sold multiple startups, these types of things, right?
They're smart people. And so then I just sit down with 'em and I, and, and, and I spend my time asking them questions. And they'll talk to me first about their goal, and I'll just keep digging deeper and de deeper into that goal. But then also it's okay you obviously know a lot, but, but what, what it, what can you implement?
I'll be asking 'em what they can implement right now. Now what do you think that you could do to to get closer to your goal? What do you feel is something that's realistic right now? And, and, and oftentimes I'll be, I'll be just guiding them towards the answers they already know lifestyle wise.
And then I'll just add in a bit of salt and pepper here and there, when it comes to the the details of nutrition, for example, that might require a bit more explanation. But some of them know I need to be, I need to get, I need to get to bed earlier, right? I need to switch off sooner.
I sh I probably shouldn't be drinking as much alcohol when I'm out with clients, and these are all quick, easy [00:37:00] wins because they know it and they will admit it to you. And, and the great thing is, is with with corporate clients is if you keep, if you allow them to feel like they've got.
Some control. They're much more compliant. And so I start with that. And then over time what happens is, and, and again, because they're, they, they, they're highly educated and smart. They, they oftentimes come in, in an industry. I think it's less the case in the US but especially in Europe, is it's, it's a young industry.
And so they, they, and it's not always as well protected. You can get people that become like personal trainers, with a weekend course. Yeah. And so they come in with a little bit of apprehension or they don't trust you a hundred, a hundred percent. And that's where I don't wanna spend my whole time justifying myself.
I don't wanna spend my whole time explaining stuff. So what I do is I build that trust by allowing them to guide the conversation. And I, and I just ask them questions. And then afterwards I follow up with an email and say, Hey, look, this is what we agreed let's let's start off by putting that into place.
And so [00:38:00] that's all the nutrition, lifestyle aspects. And then over time, as they trust me more, then I'll be coming in more with the details like the, the when it could make sense to to take certain supplements when it could, when it could make sense to, to even supplement with just, just more protein when it could make sense to implement maybe a, a sauna or, or, or, or, an, an evening walk.
And, and then you can, and then you can explain the rationale behind it and, and they're open to it and they'll hear it. That's, that's definitely one aspect. And then when it comes to the training I think that from that perspective it's evolved a lot over the years. One is, one thing that I do, which I don't think a lot of people do, is I really take this cognitive aspect seriously.
And so what I'll do is I will stress. The body, and then I'll ask them in their rest sets to complete cognitive tasks.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yep.
Dan Hunter: And and what I found when [00:39:00] doing things like that is I use and, and I've got no, no, no money for plugging this or whatever. But, but I use, I use Peak for example, which is an application, which is which helps with little games and, and they're all different types of games.
Some of them are memory games, some of them are logic. Some of them are quick reflexes and stuff like that. And it scores them and it helps. And, and again, you're speaking to people who are, are driven by that type of stuff. And yeah. Yeah. What happens is adding those things in when some of these people, they don't like to lift, they don't want to do cardio, but you add that element in it, that competitive cognitive elements into it, man, they light up and, and, and you're able to show them over time an extra bit of this, data set, which which translates to better performance for them in their daily life where you're showing your added value. And, and, and, and when you can take that also, [00:40:00] and because obviously our, our, our, our job is also about selling ourselves to a certain extent.
When you can take that to the next company and say yes, we improved, visceral fat levels and, and blood pressure and, and, and all these types of things which help, for health insurance policies and all these types of things. But on top of that, look at this, we've got symptomatically waking up feeling more energetic, not having a dip at lunchtime and all this, and then look at this.
Then cognitively memory went from, at the age of 50 to 53, which, most people don't think that they can really improve cognitively. When they get to a slightly later stage in life. Now look, memory improved there. This improved there, and all the co cognitive functions and showing that I think is really cool.
And, and, and and have added value of course, so on.
Dr Mike T Nelson: That's awesome. Have you, just for my own curiosity, have you played much with, with ketones in that area? There's some interesting data with. Supplemental ketones under [00:41:00] cognitive function, under higher levels of fatigue. I know Brandon Egan's done some of that.
It's, the data sets are a little bit mixed, but that's something I always find fascinating.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, I've played with it. To say that I've implemented it over a big enough amount of people to really draw conclusions I probably wouldn't be able to confirm one, one that I have, which obviously I'm teaching no one anything new is creating, right?
So in, in, in periods of high stress, sleep deprivation periods, bumping that creatine up to, levels closer to 20 grams has has huge impacts and that I can show like that is something that I can really show. Cool. Ketones, when I first started playing with them I'll be honest with you, I, I wasn't sure of, and this is just my lack of knowledge at the time, is I wasn't sure of the impact of what I had to do nutritionally.
So if I [00:42:00] was giving them ketones what if, if they're then if eating carbs, is that going to impact the Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. These types of things. I would, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. I've obviously looked into better use of fat as a source of fuel. But that's more my endurance background, as a, as a triathlete and working with long distance athletes and stuff.
And there ketones I've definitely used a lot of. But yeah. What, what are, what are your thoughts?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, I'm biased because I do some work for ton ketone nesters, but it is one of these areas I've just been fascinated by since I originally talked to Dom dagostino back, oh God, how many years ago now?
When they were first Patrick Arnold was doing the first ketone nesters for him for the military projects. The fact that you can take in an exogenous ketone and get high levels of blood ketones within a few minutes, to me is fascinating. And for a long time, similar to you, I was like, I don't know if it's a good idea in the face of carbohydrates.
[00:43:00] Because, for listeners in general, ketones would show up more during a starvation condition or during a ketogenic diet, which is very low carbohydrate. So I was very worried about, having high levels of blood and then high levels of ketones because that never really seems to happen.
Mm-hmm. At any other time. But there's been a couple studies and the main first one was in cell many years ago in endurance Athletes did high levels of I think it was KI Clark's study, high levels of carbohydrates, high levels of Delta G ketones, and showed that was fine. And there's been some further studies that have been replicated a couple times now showing that exogenous ketones may actually blunt blood glucose levels.
So instead of being detrimental, they may actually be beneficial in, in certain cases. And so they're
Dan Hunter: blunting blood glucose levels by, in increasing the glucose uptake or
Dr Mike T Nelson: we don't entirely know yet. I don't think there's been a tracer study done on it to see what's happening. But my limit understanding, which is just more [00:44:00] of a guess, I think it's actually changing how.
The liver is putting out basically carbohydrates or glucose into the blood. I think it's probably breaking that to some degree. So you still have a rise in glucose levels, but it doesn't go up quite as high. So if you look at the curves of like area under the curve of blood glucose levels with and without ketones and with ketones, it tends to be a little bit lower.
And so not in a
Dan Hunter: fed state then,
Dr Mike T Nelson: In a fed state. Yeah. So with a meal, so if you have let's say 80 grams of carbohydrates and we give you 10 or 20 grams of a ketone ester and the other group you have say 80 grams of carbohydrates and, and no ketone ester, the group with the ketone ester, the blood levels over the next two to three hours will actually be lower in the group that had the ketones.
So it appears to be modifying blood glucose levels, and I don't think it's modifying the absorption of the carbohydrates. I think it's [00:45:00] actually stopping more production from the liver of putting out more carbohydrates into the bloodstream, is my guess. I don't if we really know mechanism, why would
Dan Hunter: the liver be putting more glucose out into the bloodstream if you're in a fed state?
Dr Mike T Nelson: I think it does, it drops off, but I think the, I think it changes some of the kinetics of that and maybe it changes the kinetics of what's actually being used by the tissue. Yeah. I don't know, like if, we've only had a couple mouse studies that have looked at it, and I haven't seen a tracer study looking at any of the mechanisms yet.
I,
Dan Hunter: I wonder, I wonder if you looked at insulin levels and whether that first phase insulin response, is impacted by it, then my guess is that it, that's one probably is postprandial. That's the one that obviously postprandial is going to, it seems to play the most effect on long-term blood glucose levels afterwards if you get a real good first phase insulin response.
Yep. Okay. Yeah. Cool.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, my guess is I think it's [00:46:00] probably more that first phase of insulin release, which is really harder to figure out from different models and that kind of stuff. But my guess is, yeah, I would agree. So it's on my little list of do we have any idea what's going on there?
Me, I don't know, but but yeah, it seems to be beneficial on that. And then under fatigue, it does seem, I found ketone esters seem to be beneficial when blood glucose use in the brain is maybe a little bit goofy, like higher levels of stress later in the day, that type of thing. Mm-hmm. And the variability I've noticed in response to it is like extremely individual.
Like some people like, eh, if I'm well rested and stuff, I don't notice a huge difference. But if my stress level is high, my sleep's off a little bit, training's high, then I seem to notice a much bigger effect from them, which is interesting. Yeah. And do
Dan Hunter: you, do you recommend pairing it with something like carnitine or does that not play a role?
Dr Mike T Nelson: [00:47:00] You can, I don't know what your thoughts on carnitine is, but it carnitine in and of itself, like for oral carnitine, do you need wicked high doses to get anything that matters? Like 2, 3, 4 grams probably. Or higher? Yeah. Yeah. There's a greenhouse study where they did it with, I wanna say, was it 80 or a hundred grams of carbohydrates?
And they did show that you could increase levels of carnitine by doing that. We don't know if those increased levels of carnitine matter much at all. Meano with like fetal thinking, shuttling
Dan Hunter: of fatty acids, across the across. Yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It definitely seems to help. People use injectable, all carnitine and it's anecdotal at this point, but pretty much 90% of the people I know who've done that have reported that it seems to make a pretty big difference.
There's some other stuff with astaxanthin may potentially change the, the CCPT one enzyme. Mm-hmm. So the carnitine, pase, transferase one, which then if you change that you can get more fat into the [00:48:00] mitochondria. Maybe I, I don't know, it just seems I dunno what you've seen, but supplements in general increase fat use just other than things that amp up your nervous system, stimulants outside of that, like I don't.
It doesn't seem to be a lot that moves the needle
Dan Hunter: well. It, it's oftentimes, it's, it's the body's amazing at that, right? It's oftentimes, it's enzymatic, isn't it? So it doesn't matter. Yep. To what extent the, the levels are at. It's the enzymatic activity, which is important. And it's just like I, again, we, we can go off on loads of different topics, but it just, the what was it again?
Increasing levels of what now I'm, I'm lost for words. The the the supplement, which was supposed to be helping against anti-aging, of being Oh, like Nmn or nr nm, that type of thing's. See, that's the same thing with the n mn and, and ide. It's. You can, you can supplement with it with as much as you want.
But there's, there's no way of knowing that at the moment if you're [00:49:00] especially supplementing with it orally, that you're actually changing any usage of it as when it comes to the electron transport chain, yeah. Yeah, sorry. That's, that's, that's, that's another perfect example where people are just seeking to increase the, the, the, the ingredient, but forgetting that the body is tightly regulated and it's all about what are they, what is the body gonna do with it, and sometimes it just won't use it. So yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, that's been my bias. I, I tried NMA little bit. I didn't notice a big difference. I didn't use it a ton. I may have done. God, what, two to four grams of NR every day for eight weeks. And I didn't notice, I couldn't find any difference. Like I couldn't find resting heart rate performance.
HRV blood work was fine. 'Cause I'm like, if it, it does participate in the energy pathway, but if it is increasing all this energy, show me the studies that it increases performance, right? Because in healthy people it should, and [00:50:00] it doesn't seem to, at least two studies show one was like mixed and one was like eh.
Dan Hunter: But it's crazy though, right? Because I remember I presented to to the university hospital of lun, which is quite a well-known hospital on NAD plus. A good 10 years ago. And the, and, and, and, you're, you're showing all the studies that they did on rats, where they, they they're getting all this and, and they're, they're recovering their eyesight and their curvature of their spine is improving.
Oh, those are crazy
Dr Mike T Nelson: animal studies.
Dan Hunter: It was, it was nuts. But then but then give it orally to, to a human. And I think that that tightly linked circuit of, internally your body saying no this is something that I will regulate whether you give me more of it or not. I'm curious if it's, if it's injected locally to the certain sites, whether that helps or not.
But clearly our, our body system is cleverer than us.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And the IV studies on it are. I, I haven't looked for four months, but I can't find a single IV study in humans on it.
Dan Hunter: [00:51:00] There you go. I
Dr Mike T Nelson: can find you anecdotal reports of people I know who said it was the best thing they've ever done, and I can show you reports of people who are like, I spent two grand and I don't feel any difference whatsoever.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. Yeah. Do you get a lot of questions on like supplements and my brief work with some even just athletes or even higher level of corporate people is that I think they're so inundated with, I don't wanna use the word biohacking, but all the biohacking stuff and stuff that I think could be beneficial, but down in like the single digit percentage and then you do.
A form and you're like, bro, you're sleeping five and a half hours a night drinking like eight cups of coffee, and now you're having nicotine lozenges at 8:00 PM at night to work longer and you can't sleep.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. I get supplement questions a a lot. I think in Europe it's a bit more taboo than it is in, in in, in the UK [00:52:00] or the us.
People are less th i I oftentimes get the GaN enough through my food, type Oh yeah. But there de there indefinitely are questions and and I, and I will so I, I actually work with a, a, a company called Spoken. Oh, nice. And, and the idea again, I, I never really wanted to get involved with a supplement company because I, first of all, what I always used to do before was I would take.
I, I, I love working with blood work and stuff like that. And so I would, I would, I would take what I'm seeing symptomatically. I would take what I'm seeing aesthetically performance wise, and then I would, I would adjust, right? And I would then go to a company like Bulk Powders dot co.uk.
And that's a plug that I have nothing to do with, right? Yeah, yeah. I'll go there because what I would like is I could literally get in bulk. And, and this is actually recommended to me. Bulk was recommended to me by a guy that used to work for me that you know quite well. Mike Camille.
[00:53:00] Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Tell him I said hello. He is great. Yeah,
Dan Hunter: yeah, yeah. So I used to go to to, to bulk for that. And so again what was great there is I could say, okay, I need you to get 250 grams of. Citruline malate and I need you to get, this much of caffeine anhydrous. And so you would get it and it's third party tested.
And I love that. I really love that. What I found though, is 'cause I'm super passionate about it, I can get people on board about buying these single ingredients and then putting it together and, and, and doing that. What I found the more I work with the team is, first of all, it's not all their passion, and they, and they can't, SS speak therefore as, as, as as, as, as in depth about it or as passionately about it as I can.
And so then then so then spoken I got involved with them because actually the, the CEOA guy called Jordan Boxer was at designs for Sports and designs for health. And he said, listen, what we really wanna do is we want to [00:54:00] develop only a few products, which we've been given, like free reign to go to labs, test whatever you want as coaches.
So we're gonna put together a, a, a, a panel of, of, of, of coaches of what they, what they think are smart guys. I'm not sure that I'm smart, but and, and they said, okay, test whatever you want, but we want to put together four or five things, which are going to which are gonna increase the likelihood that people are gonna take this, but that are genuinely going to have an impact.
So not fairy dusting yeah, yeah. Putting in a, a ton of ingredients just to be able to make the claims, but not having enough dosage or choosing low quality, low bioavailable bioavailable ingredients so that so that margins are higher and stuff like that. So just to do what you want and, and, and with myself, I, I, I got involved a bit later, but you got people like David Lawrence, Jordan, Dr. Jordan Shallow Andy O'Brien and, and, and a, a few other guys involved. And they just went and they, and [00:55:00] and built a couple of products. And two of the ones that I really, really love and that we're talking about, energy brings me back to this, right?
But two of the ones that they built, one was Sleep Builder and one was Amino, a TP. Mm-hmm. And sleep Builder I think is really cool. Sleep Builder, what they, what they've got in that sleep builder is they've got they've got 300 milligrams of a, like a tri-blend of magnesium, which great, but it's, it's it's, it's, it's the real bioavailable forms.
You've got some orate in there. Bis glycinate in there. They've got high a high dose of OL for your serotonin and these types of things. They've got your thine in there, a high a high, I think it's two or 300 milligrams of of altheine. They've got a glycine, three grams of glycine in there, for body temperature, for also just for subjective sleep quality.
And then one of the ones which has which has been really interesting and it's, it's, and, and I'm curious what your thoughts on this is. [00:56:00] It's is then they add in five grams of glutamine. Yeah. And so to me the thought process there is on an empty stomach, taking it before bed really helps to rebuild the gut lining so that you're not only just sleeping and getting well rested, but you're being, rebuilt as well and helping with di digestion.
A lot of athletes over the season through impact, through bad nutrition, through poor sleep, their gut health degrades. And so they added that in. And it's crazy because I would say that, and like I said, I would love to hear what you think about this, but I would say that 60 or 70% take it and they, they wake up on another planet, they're like, what The, just hit me.
That's amazing. But then you've got like the, what I would call like the. The GABA sensitive type clients who have tendency more for anxiety and for, and so I think that glutamine, which obviously has pathways towards glutamate can sometimes have a, a, a, a more negative impact on their sleep.
And I've been, [00:57:00] I've, I've seen that by taking it like at 4:00 PM instead of late, late at night, has had a, has had a positive impact. What's your, what are your thoughts on that?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, honestly, I, I don't know. I don't know if we've got good studies showing how far glutamine will convert. Obviously the biochemistry of it makes perfect sense.
Glutamine is something I used back in the day for a lot, and then I stopped using it for many years and. Coincidentally enough, I actually just started adding it again because we were using it for, my wife has some digestive stuff we're working through, so that's one of the things we added.
Dan Hunter: Mm-hmm.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And so lately I added, it's five or 10 grams after training. And my thought being that maybe it'll help with immune system, and maybe it's a little bit of a stretch, but I do it after my longer, like two, two and a half hour sessions. We do know that, especially your background as an endurance athlete, that you can end up with gut permeability stuff, especially with long, long hours of intense endurance training.
Usually that's [00:58:00] many, many, many hours, and athletes are highly stressed, but I thought, eh, it's not really gonna be any negative. Maybe it'll help a little bit with recovery and maybe some gut stuff at that point. Get me back to more of a parasympathetic state and glutamine iss cheap. Now there's no real negative side effects, so I just started doing that a couple weeks ago.
Can't say if I noticed any difference or not, but. It doesn't seem to be any worse.
Dan Hunter: There, there was an interesting thing that, that Charles used to stay back in the day. Yeah. Which was about the glutamine and your, and glycogen and glycogen as well, post training. And he was using like 40
Dr Mike T Nelson: grams, I think, or something like that.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. And saying how it's actually quite, quite good at replenishing or, or helping with the replenishment of glycogen post-training. To be honest, I, I was, because of my endurance background there was no substitute for, for your cyclic dextrins or your Oh, yeah. Because I totally agree with that.
With that. That's for me was the, the, the cleanest source. And then, but then going, going to the next one is and I'm curious about your thoughts on that. So they, then [00:59:00] they, they dev and so you can see there that with, with the Sleep builders supplement, they're trying to put together a host of ingredients, which are, a higher, higher quality ingredients and at the proper dosage, three grams of glycine, five grams of glutamine, 200 milligrams of L-theanine. I think it's, I, I can't, I can't be sure, but I think it's so many grams of inositol, not milligrams, actually Grams. Yeah. From what I looked at it
Dr Mike T Nelson: before, it was, it was pretty solid formula.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. And so that was the idea was here, not taking separate ingredients. 'cause I would love to have people take, that's what that was. The case before is I wanted people to be taking glycine and magnesium and stuff, so I'd be buying 'em separately. But the other one is this amino a TP. Because in amino a tp, you have your, obviously you have your, your.
Essential amino acids in there. Adding in an in an ingredient that I've loved for, for quite a few years is tyrosine. Mm-hmm. Because because of the, it's it's cognitive and, and stress impact when it [01:00:00] comes to training without the, this, the, the, in my case, without the sleep impact, 'cause I'm quite sensitive to sleep.
But the other one that they, they have in there is this a TP. And obviously my first question was, wait a second. A TP is something that your cell makes, how are you giving them a TP? And the way my brain works is, is glucose creates glucose or, fatty acids, right?
But create. A TP through your your electron transport chain and, and, and all the rest, right? But but the idea here is, you know how it's, it's a patented form. And so what happens is it sits outside the cell. And you know how when, when you take creatine right, stored as phospho creatine, and so it helps you to recycle that a TP when it passes off its phosphate phospho, creatine can then give it the phosphate again and it can recycle this, this, this patented form of, of a TP sits outside the cell and can do the same thing.
And so it can help [01:01:00] you to recycle a TP. And I'll tell you what again, I don't, I haven't delved really deep into into the science of it, but anecdotally when I've given it to people in the afternoon. Not giving them caffeine and stuff like that. They're like off, they're like, they're, it's a, it's an interesting one.
Have you heard of that before?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. There's been some old stuff. I remember talking to Ralph Ger about this, that a TP was originally, it was ribos was the main thing, like to be increasing the adenosine pool. Mm-hmm. That had very, very mixed results. And then there is a TP as a supplement and Ralph was saying that there was some blood vessel beneficial helps and maybe some dilation.
Again, I'll have to look into it. It sounds interesting, but maybe a TP is being broken down and then added to the adenosine pool maybe, so that you again, just like creatine, maybe you have that.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Pathway running a little bit faster. But yeah, I have used Del Tyrosine in the past. Usually it's, gram amounts that you, you [01:02:00] need, but that does seem to be beneficial with that too.
Yeah, definitely check that out. That's super cool.
Dan Hunter: Cool.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much for all your time today. I really appreciate it. Where can people find out more about you? Tell us what you, you got going on for websites, social media, et cetera?
Dan Hunter: Yeah, you, if you want to just look me up on Instagram myself, it's just Dan Hunter 85 showing my age.
If you wanna look up the company. It's just dh transformation. Our website is just Dan Hunter. Be if yeah, if you wanna, if you, if you have any questions you I'm happy to answer emails rather than dms. I'm, I'm a bit old fashioned that way, so it's just Dan. And then, if, if anyone.
Is interested even on the spoken side. It's just, it's, it's, it's I'm more than happy to to offer some type of discount if someone's interested in those. Like I said, I, I wanna be clear as I am involved with them, which is why, Sure. While that's the case. And so then again, just, just email me Dan at dan hunch dot b and [01:03:00] I can, I can I can sort that out as well.
Awesome.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And if we have people located in Europe where, tell us where your physical locations are.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, so my physical, I have, we have three gyms. So we have one in Verne, which is the outskirts of Brussels. It's more of a, more of a residential area. It's my gym baby, it's it's where I've created my training mecca. So we've got like 500 square meters of just. All the training stuff that I, that, that I wanted to see. So all the way from, you're a laco Olympic lifting to your nice strong man track of, 30 meters. I'm not sure what that is in in, in, in yards.
But and then your, just everything that I could think of is in there. And then we've got two corporate locations. And so our two corporate locations are in the center of Brussels. One is one side of Brussels and one is the other side of Brussels. They're in two corporate buildings.
And yeah, they're, the idea is really the owner of the, of the buildings, post COVID, they wanted us to create [01:04:00] a an environment which we attracted people back into the offices, so it was, can you create a community which is healthy, vibrant and so there yeah, we have dh trainers present there all the time.
And yeah, and employees can come up to, to them, ask them anything, sleep questions, stress questions breakfast questions, training questions. And we're really happy to be able to, to assist so many people on a, on a daily basis like that.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. That's awesome. I'd highly encourage everybody, check out all your wonderful stuff.
And yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Dan Hunter: Great. My pleasure. And thanks for having me on, Mike. It's, it's always great to talk to you.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, that was good. Thank you so much. Cool.
Dan Hunter: A bit more explanation.
But some of them know I need to be, I need to get, I need to get to bed earlier, right? I need to switch off sooner.
I sh I probably shouldn't be drinking as much alcohol when I'm out with clients, and these are all quick, easy wins
because [01:05:00] they know it and they will admit it to you. And, and the great thing is, is with with corporate clients is if you keep, if you allow them to feel like they've got.
Some control. They're much more compliant.
And so I start with that. And then over time what happens is, and, and again, because they're, they, they, they're highly educated and smart. They, they oftentimes come in, in an industry. I think it's less the case in the US but especially in Europe, is it's, it's a young,
Industry.
And so they, they, and it's not always as well protected. You can get people that become like personal trainers, with a weekend course. Yeah. And so they come in with a little bit of
apprehension or they don't trust you a hundred, a hundred percent. And
that's where I don't wanna spend my whole time justifying myself.
I don't wanna spend my whole time explaining stuff.
So what I do is I build that trust by allowing them to guide the conversation. And I, and I just ask them questions.
And then afterwards I follow up with an email and say, Hey, look, this is what we [01:06:00] agreed
Let's let's start off by putting that into place.
And so that's all the nutrition, lifestyle
aspects. And then over time, as they trust me more, then I'll be coming in more with the details like the
The
when it could make sense to
to take certain supplements when it could, when it could make sense to, to even supplement with just, just more protein
when it could make sense to implement maybe a, a sauna or, or, or, or,
an, an evening walk.
And, and then you can, and then you can explain the rationale behind it and, and they're open to it and they'll hear it.
That's, that's definitely one aspect. And then when it comes to the training
I think that from that perspective
It's evolved a lot over the years. One is, one thing that I do, which I don't think a lot of people do, is I really take this cognitive aspect
Seriously.
And so what I'll do is [01:07:00]
I will stress. The body, and then I'll ask them in their rest sets to complete cognitive tasks.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yep.
Dan Hunter: And and what I found when doing things like that is I use and, and I've got no, no, no money for plugging this or whatever. But, but I use, I use Peak for example, which is an application, which is,
which helps with
little games and, and they're all different types of games.
Some of them are memory games, some of them are logic. Some of them are quick reflexes and stuff like that. And it scores them and it helps. And, and again, you're speaking to people who are, are driven by that type of stuff. And yeah. Yeah. What happens is adding those things in when some of these people, they don't like to lift, they don't want to do cardio, but you add that element in it, that competitive cognitive elements into it, man, they light up and, and,
And you're able to show them over time an extra [01:08:00] bit of this, data set, which which translates to better performance for them in their daily life where you're showing your added value.
And, and, and, and when you can take that also, and because obviously our, our, our, our job is also about selling ourselves to a certain extent.
When you can take that to the next company and say yes, we improved
visceral fat levels and, and blood pressure and, and, and all these types of things which help, for health insurance policies and all these types of things. But on top of that, look at this, we've got symptomatically
waking up feeling more energetic, not having a dip at lunchtime and all this, and then look at this.
Then,
cognitively memory went from, at the age of 50 to 53, which, most people don't think that they can really improve cognitively. When they get to a slightly later stage in life. Now look, memory improved there.
This improved there, and all the co [01:09:00] cognitive functions and showing that I think is really cool.
And, and, and
and have added value of course, so on.
Dr Mike T Nelson: That's awesome. Have you, just for my own curiosity, have you played much with, with ketones in that area? There's some interesting data with. Supplemental ketones under cognitive function, under higher levels of fatigue. I know Brandon Egan's done some of that.
It's, the data sets are a little bit mixed, but that's something I always find fascinating.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, I've played with it.
To say that I've implemented it over a big enough amount of people to really draw conclusions
I probably wouldn't be able to confirm one, one that I have, which obviously I'm teaching no one anything new is creating, right?
So in, in, in periods of
high stress, sleep deprivation periods, bumping that creatine up to, levels closer to 20 grams [01:10:00] has has huge impacts and that I can show like that is something that I can really show. Cool.
Ketones,
when I first started playing with them
I'll be honest with you, I, I wasn't sure of, and this is just my lack of knowledge at the time, is I wasn't sure of the impact of
what I had to do nutritionally.
So if I was giving them ketones
what if, if they're then if eating carbs, is that going to impact the Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. These types of things.
I would, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
I've obviously looked into
Better use of fat as a source of fuel.
But that's more my endurance background, as a, as a triathlete and working with long distance athletes and stuff.
And there ketones I've definitely used a lot of. But
yeah. What, what are, what are your thoughts?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, I'm biased because I do some work for ton ketone nesters, but it is one of these [01:11:00] areas I've just been fascinated by since I originally talked to Dom dagostino back, oh God, how many years ago now?
When they were first Patrick Arnold was doing the first ketone nesters for him for the military projects.
The fact that you can take in an exogenous ketone and get high levels of blood ketones within a few minutes, to me is fascinating. And for a long time, similar to you, I was like, I don't know if it's a good idea in the face of carbohydrates.
Because, for listeners in general, ketones would show up more during a starvation condition or during a ketogenic diet, which is very low carbohydrate. So I was very worried about, having high levels of blood and then high levels of ketones because that never really seems to happen.
Mm-hmm. At any other time. But there's been a couple studies and the main first one was in cell many years ago in endurance Athletes
did high levels of
I think it was KI Clark's study, high levels of carbohydrates, high levels of Delta G ketones, and showed that was fine. And there's been some further studies that have been replicated a couple [01:12:00] times now showing that exogenous ketones may actually blunt blood glucose levels.
So instead of being detrimental, they may actually be beneficial in, in certain cases. And so they're
Dan Hunter: blunting blood glucose levels by, in increasing the glucose uptake or
Dr Mike T Nelson: we don't entirely know yet. I don't think there's been a tracer study done on it to see what's happening. But my limit understanding, which is just more of a guess, I think it's actually changing how.
The liver is putting out
basically carbohydrates or glucose into the blood. I think it's probably breaking that to some degree. So you still have a rise in glucose levels, but it doesn't go up quite as high. So if you look at the curves of like area under the curve of blood glucose levels with and without ketones and with ketones, it tends to be a little bit lower.
And so not in a
Dan Hunter: fed state then,
Dr Mike T Nelson: In a fed state. Yeah. So [01:13:00] with a meal, so if you have let's say 80 grams of carbohydrates and we give you 10 or 20 grams of a ketone ester and the other group you have say 80 grams of carbohydrates and, and no ketone ester, the group with the ketone ester, the blood levels over the next two to three hours will actually be lower in the group that had the ketones.
So it appears to be modifying blood glucose levels, and I don't think it's modifying the absorption of the carbohydrates. I think it's actually stopping more production from the liver of putting out more carbohydrates into the bloodstream, is my guess. I don't if we really know mechanism, why would
Dan Hunter: the liver be putting more glucose out into the bloodstream if you're in a fed state?
Dr Mike T Nelson: I think it does, it drops off, but I think the, I think it changes some of the kinetics of that and maybe it changes the kinetics of what's actually being used by the tissue. Yeah. I don't know, like if, we've only had a couple mouse studies that have [01:14:00] looked at it, and I haven't seen a tracer study looking at any of the mechanisms yet.
I,
Dan Hunter: I wonder, I wonder if you looked at insulin levels and whether that first phase insulin response,
is impacted by it, then my guess is that it, that's one probably is postprandial. That's the one that obviously postprandial is going to, it seems to play the most effect on long-term blood glucose levels afterwards if you get a real good first phase insulin response.
Yep. Okay. Yeah. Cool.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, my guess is I think it's probably more that first phase of insulin release, which is really harder to figure out from different models and that kind of stuff. But my guess is, yeah, I would agree.
So it's on my little list of do we have any idea what's going on there?
Me, I don't know, but
but yeah, it seems to be beneficial on that. And then under fatigue, it does seem, I found ketone esters seem to be beneficial when blood [01:15:00] glucose use in the brain is maybe a little bit goofy, like higher levels of stress later in the day, that type of thing.
Mm-hmm. And the variability I've noticed in response to it is like extremely individual.
Like some people like, eh, if I'm well rested and stuff, I don't notice a huge difference. But if my stress level is high, my sleep's off a little bit, training's high, then I seem to notice a much bigger effect from them, which is interesting. Yeah. And do
Dan Hunter: you, do you
recommend pairing it with something like carnitine or does that not play a role?
Dr Mike T Nelson: You can, I don't know what your thoughts on carnitine is, but it carnitine in and of itself, like for oral carnitine, do you need wicked high doses to get anything that matters? Like 2, 3, 4 grams probably. Or higher? Yeah. Yeah. There's a greenhouse study where they did it with, I wanna say, was it 80 or a hundred grams of carbohydrates?
And they did show that you could increase levels of carnitine by doing that. [01:16:00] We don't know if those increased levels of carnitine matter much at all.
Meano with like fetal thinking, shuttling
Dan Hunter: of fatty acids, across the across. Yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It definitely seems to help. People use injectable, all carnitine and it's anecdotal at this point, but pretty much 90% of the people I know who've done that have reported that it seems to make a pretty big difference.
There's some other stuff with astaxanthin may potentially change the, the CCPT one enzyme. Mm-hmm. So the carnitine, pase, transferase one, which then if you change that you can get more fat into the mitochondria. Maybe I, I don't know, it just seems I dunno what you've seen, but supplements in general increase fat use just other than things that amp up your nervous system, stimulants outside of that, like I don't.
It doesn't seem to be a lot that moves the needle
Dan Hunter: well. It, it's oftentimes, it's, it's
the body's amazing at that, right? It's [01:17:00] oftentimes, it's enzymatic, isn't it? So it doesn't matter. Yep.
To what extent the, the levels are at. It's the enzymatic activity, which is important.
And
it's just like I, again, we, we can go off on loads of different topics, but it just, the
what was it again?
Increasing levels of
What now I'm, I'm lost for words. The
the the supplement, which was supposed to be helping against anti-aging, of being Oh, like Nmn or nr nm, that type of thing's. See, that's the same thing with the n mn and, and ide.
It's. You can, you can supplement with it with as much as you want.
But there's, there's no way of knowing that at the moment if you're especially supplementing with it orally, that you're actually changing any usage of it as,
when it comes to the electron transport chain,
yeah. Yeah, sorry. That's, that's, that's, that's another perfect example where people are just seeking to increase the, the, the, [01:18:00] the ingredient, but forgetting that the body is tightly regulated and it's all about what are they, what is the body gonna do with it, and sometimes it just won't use it.
So yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, that's been my bias. I, I tried NMA little bit. I didn't notice a big difference. I didn't use it a ton. I may have done. God, what, two to four grams of NR every day for eight weeks. And I didn't notice, I couldn't find any difference. Like I couldn't find resting heart rate performance.
HRV blood work was fine. '
cause I'm like, if it, it does participate in the energy pathway, but if it is increasing all this energy, show me the studies that it increases performance, right? Because in healthy people it should, and it doesn't seem to, at least two studies show one was like mixed and one was like eh.
Dan Hunter: But it's crazy though, right? Because I remember I presented to
To the
University hospital
of lun, which is quite a well-known hospital on [01:19:00] NAD plus.
A good 10 years ago. And the, and, and, and, you're, you're showing all the studies that they did on rats, where they, they they're getting all this and, and they're, they're recovering their eyesight and their curvature of their spine is improving.
Oh, those are crazy
Dr Mike T Nelson: animal studies.
Dan Hunter: It was, it was nuts. But then
but then give it orally to, to a human. And I think that that tightly linked circuit of, internally
your body saying no this is something that I will regulate whether you give me more of it or not.
I'm curious if it's, if it's injected locally to the certain sites, whether that helps or not.
But clearly our, our body system is cleverer than us.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And the IV studies on it are. I, I haven't looked for four months, but I can't find a single IV study in humans on it.
Dan Hunter: There you go. I
Dr Mike T Nelson: can find you anecdotal reports of people I know who said it was the best thing they've ever done, and I can show you reports of people who are like, [01:20:00] I spent two grand and I don't feel any difference whatsoever.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. Yeah. Do you get a lot of questions on like supplements and my brief work with some even just athletes or even higher level of corporate people is that I think they're so inundated with, I don't wanna use the word biohacking, but all the biohacking stuff and stuff that I think could be beneficial, but down in like the single digit percentage and then you do.
A form and you're like, bro, you're sleeping five and a half hours a night drinking like eight cups of coffee, and now you're having nicotine lozenges at 8:00 PM at night to work longer and you can't sleep.
Dan Hunter: Yeah.
I get supplement questions a a lot. I think in Europe it's a bit more taboo
than it is in, in in, in the UK or the us.
People are less th i I oftentimes get the GaN enough through my food, type Oh yeah. [01:21:00] But
There de there indefinitely are questions and
and I, and I will so I, I actually work with a, a, a company called Spoken.
Oh, nice. And, and
The idea again, I, I never really wanted to get involved with a supplement company because
I, first of all, what I always used to do before was
I would take.
I, I, I love working with blood work and stuff like that.
And so I would, I would, I would take what I'm seeing symptomatically. I would take what I'm seeing aesthetically
performance wise, and then I would, I would adjust, right?
And
I would then go to a company like Bulk Powders dot co.uk.
And that's a plug that I have nothing to do with, right? Yeah, yeah. I'll go there because what I would like is
I could literally get in bulk.
And, and this is actually recommended to me. Bulk was recommended to me by [01:22:00]
a guy that used to work for me that you know quite well. Mike Camille.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Tell him I said hello. He is great. Yeah,
Dan Hunter: yeah, yeah. So I used to go to to, to bulk for that. And so again
what was great there is I could say, okay, I need you to get 250 grams of. Citruline malate and I need you to get, this much of caffeine anhydrous. And so you would get it and it's third party tested.
And I love that. I really love that. What I found though, is 'cause I'm super passionate about it, I can get people on board about buying these single ingredients and then putting it together and, and, and doing that. What I found the more I work with the team is, first of all, it's not all their passion, and they, and they can't, SS speak therefore as, as, as
as, as, as in depth about it or as passionately about it as I can.
And so then
Then so then spoken
I got involved with them because actually
the, the [01:23:00] CEOA guy called Jordan Boxer was at designs for Sports and designs for health. And he said, listen, what we really wanna do is we want to develop
only a few products, which we've been given, like free reign to go to labs, test whatever you want as coaches.
So we're gonna put together a, a, a, a panel of, of, of, of coaches of what they, what they think are smart guys. I'm not sure that I'm smart, but
And, and they said, okay, test whatever you want, but we want to put together four or five things, which are going to which are gonna increase the likelihood that people are gonna take this, but that are genuinely going to have an impact.
So not fairy dusting yeah, yeah. Putting in a, a ton of ingredients just to be able to make the claims, but not having enough dosage
or
choosing low quality, low bioavailable bioavailable ingredients so that
So that margins are higher and stuff like that. So just to do what you want and, and, and with myself, [01:24:00] I, I, I got involved a bit later, but you got people like David Lawrence, Jordan, Dr. Jordan Shallow
Andy O'Brien
and, and, and a, a few other guys involved. And they just went and they, and
and built a couple of products. And two of the ones that I really, really love and that we're talking about, energy brings me back to this, right?
But two of the ones that they built, one was Sleep Builder and one was Amino, a TP. Mm-hmm.
And
sleep Builder I think is really cool.
Sleep Builder, what they, what they've got in that sleep builder is they've got
They've got
300 milligrams of a, like a tri-blend of magnesium, which great, but it's, it's it's, it's, it's the real bioavailable forms.
You've got some orate in there. Bis glycinate in there.
They've got high a high dose of OL for your serotonin and these types of things. They've got your thine in there, a high a high, I think it's two or 300 [01:25:00] milligrams of of altheine.
They've got a glycine, three grams of glycine in there, for body temperature, for
Also just for subjective sleep quality.
And then one of the ones which has which has been really interesting
and it's, it's, and, and I'm curious what your thoughts on this is. It's
is then they add in five grams of glutamine. Yeah. And so to me the thought process there is
On an empty stomach, taking it before bed
really helps to rebuild the gut lining so that you're not only just sleeping and getting well rested, but you're being, rebuilt as well and helping with di digestion.
A lot of athletes over the season
through impact, through bad nutrition, through poor sleep, their gut health degrades. And so they added that in. And it's crazy because I would say that, and like I said, I would love to hear what you think about this, but
I would say [01:26:00] that 60 or 70% take it and they, they wake up on another planet, they're like, what The, just hit me.
That's amazing. But then you've got like the, what I would call like the. The GABA sensitive type,
clients who have tendency more for anxiety and for, and so I think that glutamine, which obviously has pathways towards glutamate
can sometimes have a, a, a, a more negative impact on their sleep.
And
I've been, I've, I've seen that by taking it like at 4:00 PM instead of late, late at night, has had a, has had a positive impact. What's your, what are your thoughts on that?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, honestly, I, I don't know. I don't know if we've got good studies showing how far glutamine will convert. Obviously the biochemistry of it makes perfect sense.
Glutamine is something I used back in the day for a lot, and then I stopped using it for many years and. Coincidentally enough, I actually just started adding it again because we were using it for, my wife has some [01:27:00] digestive stuff we're working through, so that's one of the things we added.
Dan Hunter: Mm-hmm.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And so lately I added, it's five or 10 grams after training. And my thought being that maybe it'll help with immune system, and maybe it's a little bit of a stretch, but I do it after my longer, like two, two and a half hour sessions. We do know that, especially your background as an endurance athlete, that you can end up with gut permeability stuff, especially with long, long hours of intense endurance training.
Usually that's many, many, many hours, and athletes are highly stressed, but I thought, eh, it's not really gonna be any negative. Maybe it'll help a little bit with recovery and maybe some gut stuff at that point. Get me back to more of a parasympathetic state and glutamine iss cheap. Now there's no real negative side effects, so I just started doing that a couple weeks ago.
Can't say if I noticed any difference or not, but. It doesn't seem to be any worse.
Dan Hunter: There, there was an interesting thing that, that Charles used to stay back in the day. Yeah. Which was about the glutamine and your, and glycogen and glycogen as well, post training.
And he was using [01:28:00] like 40
Dr Mike T Nelson: grams, I think, or something like that.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. And saying how it's actually
quite, quite good at replenishing or, or helping with the replenishment of glycogen post-training.
To be honest, I, I was, because of my endurance background
there was no substitute for, for your cyclic dextrins or your Oh, yeah. Because I totally agree with that.
With that. That's for me was the, the, the cleanest source.
And then, but then going, going to the next one is and I'm curious about your thoughts on that. So they, then they, they dev and so you can see there that with, with the Sleep builders supplement, they're trying to put together a host of ingredients, which are, a higher,
higher quality ingredients and at the proper dosage, three grams of glycine, five grams of glutamine, 200 milligrams of L-theanine. I think it's, I, I can't, I can't be sure, but I think it's so many grams of inositol, not milligrams, actually Grams. Yeah. From what I looked at it
Dr Mike T Nelson: before, it was, it was pretty solid formula.
Dan Hunter: Yeah. [01:29:00]
And so that was the idea was here, not taking separate ingredients. 'cause I would love to have people take, that's what that was. The case before is I wanted people to be taking glycine and magnesium and stuff, so I'd be buying 'em separately. But the other one is this amino a TP.
Because in amino a tp, you have your, obviously you have your, your.
Essential amino acids in there.
Adding in an in an ingredient that I've loved for, for quite a few years is tyrosine. Mm-hmm. Because
because of the, it's
it's cognitive and, and stress impact when it comes to training without the, this, the, the, in my case, without the sleep impact, 'cause I'm quite sensitive to sleep.
But the other one that they, they have in there is
This
A TP. And
obviously my first question was, wait a second. A TP is something that your cell makes, how are you giving them
A TP? And
The way my brain works is, is [01:30:00] glucose creates glucose or,
fatty acids, right?
But create. A TP
Through
Your your electron transport chain and, and, and all the rest, right? But
but the idea here is, you know how
It's, it's a patented form. And so what happens is it sits outside the cell. And you know how when, when you take creatine right, stored as phospho creatine, and so it helps you to recycle that a TP when it passes off its phosphate phospho, creatine can then give it the phosphate again and it can recycle this, this, this patented form of, of a TP sits outside the cell and can do the same thing.
And so it can help you to recycle
A TP. And
I'll tell you what again, I don't, I haven't delved really deep into into the science of it, but anecdotally when I've given it to people in the afternoon.
Not giving them caffeine and stuff like [01:31:00] that. They're like off, they're like, they're, it's a, it's an interesting one.
Have you heard of that before?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. There's been some old stuff. I remember talking to Ralph Ger about this, that a TP was originally, it was ribos was the main thing, like to be increasing the adenosine pool. Mm-hmm. That had very, very mixed results. And then there is a TP as a supplement and Ralph was saying that there was some blood vessel beneficial helps and maybe some dilation.
Again, I'll have to look into it. It sounds interesting, but maybe a TP is being broken down and then added to the adenosine pool maybe, so that you again, just like creatine, maybe you have that.
Dan Hunter: Yeah, yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Pathway running a little bit
faster. But yeah, I have used Del Tyrosine in the past. Usually it's, gram amounts that you, you need, but that does seem to be beneficial with that too.
Yeah, definitely check that out. That's super cool.
Dan Hunter: Cool.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much for all your time today. I really appreciate it.
Where can people find out more about you? Tell us what [01:32:00] you, you got going on for websites, social media, et cetera?
Dan Hunter: Yeah, you, if you want to just look me up on Instagram myself, it's just Dan Hunter 85 showing my age.
If you wanna look up the company. It's just dh transformation. Our website is just Dan Hunter. Be
if
yeah, if you wanna, if you, if you have any questions you
I'm happy to answer
emails rather than dms. I'm, I'm a bit old fashioned that way, so it's just Dan.
And then, if, if anyone.
Is interested even on the spoken side. It's just, it's, it's, it's I'm more than happy to
to offer some type of discount if someone's interested in those. Like I said, I, I wanna be clear as I am involved with them, which is why,
Sure. While that's the case. And so then again, just, just
email me Dan at dan hunch dot b and I can, I can I can sort that out as well.
Awesome.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And if we have people located in Europe where, tell us where your physical locations are. [01:33:00]
Dan Hunter: Yeah, so my physical, I have, we have three gyms.
So we have one in Verne, which is the outskirts of Brussels. It's more of a, more of a residential area. It's my,
Gym baby, it's it's where I've created my training mecca. So we've got like 500 square meters of just. All the training stuff that I, that, that I wanted to see.
So all the way from, you're a laco Olympic lifting to your nice strong man track of, 30 meters. I'm not sure what that is in
in, in, in yards.
But
And then your, just everything that I could think of is in there.
And then we've got two corporate locations. And so our two corporate locations are in the center of Brussels. One is
One side of Brussels and one is the other side of Brussels. They're in two corporate buildings.
And yeah, they're, the idea is really
the owner of the, of the buildings,
Post COVID, they wanted us to create
[01:34:00] a an environment which we attracted people back into the offices, so it was, can you create a community which is healthy, vibrant
And so there
yeah, we have dh
trainers present there all the time.
And
yeah, and employees can come up to, to them, ask them anything, sleep questions, stress questions breakfast questions, training questions.
And we're really happy to be able to, to assist so many people on a, on a daily basis like that.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. That's awesome. I'd highly encourage everybody, check out all your wonderful stuff.
And yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Dan Hunter: Great. My pleasure.
And thanks for having me on, Mike. It's, it's always great to talk to you.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, that was good. Thank you so much. Cool.
Speaker 2: Hey, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: I dropped my gum. Hey lady, would you toss my gum up?
You could have taken it out of the wig [01:35:00] first.
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