In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I’m on the road and sit down with strength coach Martin Silva to talk about how to improve body composition, performance, and long-term health, especially for high-achieving clients in the 35–60 range. We get into unlearning a lot of the nutrition beliefs people bring in, why I still like keeping nutrition simple, higher protein, fewer ultra-processed foods, and how short-term tracking can build awareness without becoming a crutch. Martin also walks through how he structures coaching check-ins, his own background going from bodybuilding and restriction to a more health and strength-focused approach, and what actually works in the real world. We also cover programming, including full body vs upper/lower splits, single-leg work, squat and deadlift variations (I’m a fan of the trap/hex bar here), mobility priming, and how to monitor technique even when coaching online. Plus, we dig into stress, sleep, managing distractions (your phone is probably not helping), and a few rapid-fire tips—including “never miss twice.”
In this episode of the Flex Diet Podcast, I’m on the road and sit down with strength coach Martin Silva to talk about how to improve body composition, performance, and long-term health, especially for high-achieving clients in the 35–60 range.
We get into unlearning a lot of the nutrition beliefs people bring in, why I still like keeping nutrition simple, higher protein, fewer ultra-processed foods, and how short-term tracking can build awareness without becoming a crutch.
Martin also walks through how he structures coaching check-ins, his own background going from bodybuilding and restriction to a more health and strength-focused approach, and what actually works in the real world. We also cover programming, including full body vs upper/lower splits, single-leg work, squat and deadlift variations (I’m a fan of the trap/hex bar here), mobility priming, and how to monitor technique even when coaching online.
Plus, we dig into stress, sleep, managing distractions (your phone is probably not helping), and a few rapid-fire tips—including “never miss twice.”
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to the Flex Diet Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Mike T. Nelson. On this podcast, we talk about all things to improve muscle, improve body composition and performance, do all of it in a flexible framework without destroying your health. So right now, this might sound a little bit echoey. We are on our way back from South Padre, Texas, so we're briefly stopping in Austin on the way home, but wanted to still get this podcast out.
So today, we're talking with personal trainer Martin Silva. Um, he is a personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach focused on helping clients improve body composition, performance, and long-term health through structured training and practical nutrition. He's got a really, uh, immense background, and in this podcast we talked about a ton of things from just body composition, the [00:01:00] framework, how he does his check-ins, even a little bit of his backstory related to, uh, bodybuilding and training.
And then we got into some more specific stuff, kind of more on the training side. Everything from, uh, how... what is the intent of your training, other things you should think about during training, single leg progressions, uh, hip thrust debate, mobility, trap bar deadlifts, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So I think you'll enjoy this podcast.
We tried to give as much practical, um, advice as we could. And if you want more practical advice from myself, sign up to the free Fitness Insider newsletter. I'll put a link down below. Got a ton of daily content, um, going out there. And we appreciate you for listening to the podcast. Got a ton of great guests, uh, coming up again as always, [00:02:00] and in the meantime, enjoy this wide-ranging training and even a little bit of mindset and nutrition discussion with Martin Silva.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Welcome to the podcast. How are you today?
Martin Silva: I'm great, Mike. Yourself?
Dr Mike T Nelson: I'm doing good. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
Martin Silva: Pleasure, my man. Pleasure.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. And so one of the topics we're talking about today is, uh, body composition changes, and I'm always curious, what would you say is kinda your general, I guess, theory related to body composition changes?
And then the sub question of that is, probably give us a little bit more detail of what type of people you generally work for so we have an idea of context.
Martin Silva: Yeah. So generally, I work with high-achieving people, a lot of entrepreneurs, ambitious individuals, generally aged between about 35 and 60, within their age category.
So they have done pretty well in their life, with their career and stuff, but they've kinda just [00:03:00] let their health slide, and their personal standards with their habits, and then obviously the body which follows that, to your point. So they'll come to me, and they'll wanna improve the way their body looks, body composition.
And then what I find is a big, and you can probably relate to this, a big challenge, uh, I think, I think the biggest challenge, not necessarily a challenge, but the first port of call is people have a lot of beliefs. And they have to unlearn a lot of things when it comes to nutrition and even the training piece.
So strength training, which we can get into, the impact of strength training is just insane, what it does for the metabolism and all these other things which not only improve your body composition, but they improve longevity. You know, muscle's the longevity organ. So I get them to prioritize on that, because we know the, you know, eat less, move more model- I- if, if it was that simple, everyone would be, you know, walking around with six-pack abs, right?
We know that doesn't work. Um, obviously it is on paper, calories in, calories out, but [00:04:00] they come to me for that. And then it's the nutrition piece then, which is the most challenging part for most people, especially a lot of people I work with. They work a lot of hours, a lot of them have kids. So it's ultimately having something which is super simple because they tend, before they come into the program, they tend to overcomplicate things because a lot of the, you know, beliefs they have on nutrition and having to train even six days per week and do one hour in the gym and do cardio, and then I've got to follow a meal plan.
For example, again, to your question, 90% of my clients don't even follow a meal plan because I like to teach them. I say to them, "You don't want to rely on a coach forever. You really want to be self-sustaining." So my goal is to make you self-sustaining, and to do that, you've got to teach a man to fish. So rather than just giving them a fish, giving them a meal.
Now, meal plans are helpful, and I do supply them to give them structure, but that's kind of in the background. The main thing is in the trenches, understanding [00:05:00] why are you not implementing, right? Why maybe over the last few years have you let yourself slip? You know, eating a lot of ultra-processed foods.
Let's improve the food quality. Let's improve the protein intake. And that's just obviously, most people know that now, but they don't implement it and they don't have the awareness with consistently having optimal protein. So what they say a lot of the times, or what they think they're doing and what they're actually doing is it doesn't match up on paper.
So long story short, it comes down to the fundamentals of eating op- let's just say a gram per pound of body weight with protein, right? 'Cause it's kind of hard to go wrong when you're eating that amount. And then when they come to me then, obviously the strength training piece, getting them and this is what I want to k- pick your brain on on, on my podcast, because it's very nuanced.
People, people always say it's, oh, you know, it's 90% nutrition. I don't really buy into that. The training stimulus is very nuanced from person to person in terms of what people can recover from, and a lot of people I work with, they get stuck in the recovery trap. They're all or nothing, so they go too hard.
[00:06:00] They don't actually even realize that you're over-training, you're doing too much. And then you have to get them to switch their mindset, like I had to, which we can maybe get into, in terms of sometimes less is more, and it's about being smarter, training more frequently, and making strength training the cornerstone of what they're doing with exercise.
Now, cardio can be valuable, but that for improving the way your body looks, cardio is ineffective. Walking, if you want to class that as cardio, walking, great. I know you talk about zone two and strength training, having high protein, improving the quality of the food so you're- Avoiding ultra-processed foods or at least minimizing them, they would be the big rocks.
And then obviously, we, we both know, right, str- uh, sleep is the foundation. Without, you know, that's another conversation, without prioritizing that and optimizing that, you're always gonna be on the ba- back foot. And then there's the stress management piece as well then, which is stress and sleep I see with most people, when something's off, a lot of the times it comes down to one of those two big rocks, Mike.[00:07:00]
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. Awesome. On the nutrition side, how... I, I agree with you. I think most people kind of know what to do, but the application side is leaves something to be desired. And I think most people overestimate how they're actually doing on nutrition. I think they think they're doing better than what they are.
Any tips for, I guess, more on the adherence side? So let's say someone's bought in, they're like, "Hey, I know I need to do better on nutrition." How would you kind of guide or coach them to make sure that it actually happens?
Martin Silva: Well, the first port of call for most people is the good old tracking calories. And I know a lot of people don't wanna hear that, because let's be honest, most people hate it, and no one wants to be using an app for the rest of their life.
So the way I communicate it, Mike, is I'll say, "You know, we're gonna start tracking." That's for the majority of people, not everyone, but I would say about 80% of people, "We're gonna start by tracking your food [00:08:00] so I can meet you where you're at. But that's not the destination. It's a good starting point as a tool to use.
So that's what we'll start with, shine a light on what's going on. Let's see how much protein you're having, let's see the quality of the food you're eating, and then let's fine-tune and put a game plan together then with the calories and macros." Now, going back to my point, you know, calories and macros is almost like surface level.
Obviously, in one arena or one kind of viewpoint, it's everything because the law of thermodynamics, like we say, calories in, calories out. If you wanna lose weight, you gotta burn more than you eat. If you wanna gain weight, generally, depending on your body type, you wanna be in a little bit of a calorie surplus.
But it's actually the behavioral aspect which is making people fall down. It's not not knowing necessarily how much protein to have and what macros to have. So that's where I'll meet, and then we'll formulate a plan then in terms of, right, let's aim for this protein target. It could be something as simple as that.
This is how we're gonna hit that protein target and fit it around your lifestyle. [00:09:00] So how do we get in, let's just say at least 30 to 50 grams on over three of your meals? And what I see with a lot of people as well is they kinda like, they skip breakfast. I see a common, a common challenge of people with the nutrition piece where they're either, you know, busy or whatever.
It's an excuse. We know that, right? But, "I just don't bother eating breakfast," right? "I'm not hungry till lunchtime, and I'm just, I'm so busy, I..." And then you realize they're grossly under eating protein. And if they do have breakfast, it's a poor choice. Because they're not having proteins then they're naturally having more carbs.
And then they have lunchtime, they might have, you know, a decent amount. Dinner they tend to have a lot more. But because of that, they're undereating protein. And then with a lot of people, not everyone, when they start having a good amount of protein for breakfast, it tends to blunt their appetite. Uh, sometimes it improves their relationship with food because then they're, they're not starving and ravenous and hangry by the time they get to lunchtime.
So they're the, they're the big rocks. And then it's obviously with the fats and carbs then, it depends on where the individual's at and what level they're at. But I like to fine-tune that as well, obviously for [00:10:00] performance in the gym. And also just there's so much, I find there's so much variance in terms of how people feel and perform when it comes to the carbohydrates and the fats, and even gut health, what people can digest properly.
So then that's where more nuance comes in. And that's kind of it in a nutshell. There's, I can keep going down the list, but that's the first things that come to mind.
Dr Mike T Nelson: And then based on what they've kind of tracked, do you check in on them on a kind of a, a weekly basis and then look at kind of compliance?
Or how does that look on a kind of week-to-week basis?
Martin Silva: Yeah. So with compliance and adherence, it depends on the client in terms of how frequently I'll check in with them. But let's just say at the start of their journey, so with, with my program, it's 90 days is the minimum commitment. What I find is for that first 90 days, I'm checking...
For the first 30 days, let's just say, I'm checking in pretty much every day. And I, on average, depends on the person, but I'll do one call a week for like that first 30 days so I [00:11:00] can check in with them properly and get feedback, make sure I don't miss anything. Then after that 30 days, it'll generally, it'll drop down to like every other week then for the rest of the 90 days, and then we'll reassess after the 90 days.
And then on average, it'll drop down to like once a month. In terms of the calls, so I can get direct feedback and everything, 'cause that's just more straightforward a lot of the times, but I'll check in most days with most people. And then every week I have like a check-in system then as well on, on my... A lot of my clients are actually in America, so my Monday morning generally is when I do most of my check-ins, and then that's like Sunday evening in America, and obviously Monday morning here.
Um, and to make sure they're adhering to it then it's like, okay, we've set these targets. I'll literally put it into the, the calendar in the app that I use, what their habit is or what their one or two habits are, their targets. They have their macros and everything laid out. It could be steps, whatever target we're focusing on.
But normally, well, always it's one to two fundamental habits, because that's another big thing that people fall down with. In fact, this is the biggest problem for most people is, you'll see this, trying to change so much at once. So with [00:12:00] my clients, it's like, what I always look at, what's the lever we can pull that's gonna get you the biggest bang for your buck?
Number one habit. Number two, what's the second lever we can pull to accelerate things forward? And then I'll check in with them then. And obviously, you know, if they're not sticking to it, let's find out what's going on, you know, why you're struggling to stick with it. Uh, but for the most part- You know, people do stick with it.
And that's, that's your, your goal, your job as a coach anyway is to lead. And I'll be honest, you know, it took me... I've been coaching for almost two decades now. I'm 38, started when I was 20, and it took me a long time to get to the point where it's like you've got to really meet people where they're at.
And that was me. Maybe we could get into my backstory, but whatever. Um, my story was, you know, struggling with all or nothing, bodybuilding mindsets, you know. And then that was over a decade ago. I overcame that, and then I started having more compassion for myself, started eating more whole foods and started focusing on health over aesthetics.
Um, and that's kind of what we were saying off air. That's, over the long term with [00:13:00] clients, the average client will stay with me roughly between about nine to 10 months on average. And over that journey, it's, they, they then, people who stick to it long term, and, and you'll attest to this most likely, it's, it's not the body.
The body, you look better as a byproduct, but it's the mental, it's the emotional health, it's all the other aspects of your life that improve when you, uh, when you take care of yourself. So long-winded answer there, my man, but that's it in a nutshell, you know?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. All good. Um, what is kind of the biggest lessons you learned from your journey that you've been able to apply to clients?
Martin Silva: So number one is being overly restrictive, and that's, again, a cycle that I've seen a lot of my clients stuck in is either, A, they're being overly restrictive or... No, the, the, the one, the one is someone who's at a higher level and they're in motion with their training and they're consistent with their training, but they're afraid.
They want to stay [00:14:00] lean, and they're so afraid to actually get to the next level because, you know, the strategy's not the same if you want to get your body to a, to the next level, and even your overall health can't just, like, you can't just diet your way to success. At some point you got to reverse diet, you got to build, you got to eat more.
And they're stuck there, and then it's getting through that psychological barrier, "Right, we need to reverse diet for a long period of time," and then we can talk about, you know, maybe trimming down some stubborn fat after that. But along that journey then, that's when they start connecting the dots, "Oh, my performance is improving a bit in the gym 'cause I'm fueling my bu- body."
There's a mantra I like to use with clients, which is, um, uh, "I eat to build." So you're eating to build. You're not eating to, to stay lean or to lose weight. That mindset shift when you do that, and you focus on maybe strength in the gym as well and that performance piece. So all, all that to say, I want to tie that into what I was struggling with.
There's, sorry, there's the other person then as well, where they're just overly restrictive and they were cutting back, stuck in the dieting cycle. So that's where I was at to an [00:15:00] extreme level. So go back to 2013 is when I did my first bodybuilding comp. Just jumped on stage on a whim. I was a, I was a PT in the gym at the time-
Dr Mike T Nelson: Hmm
Martin Silva: and in my local area back home in the UK. I'm from, uh, Wales They were saying, "Matt, you're in shape. Jump on stage." They got a local men's physique one, right, which is the one with the board shorts. Jumped on stage, came second in the show, and then qualified for the, for the British finals, which was, like, six weeks later, and I'm very competitive.
So I was playing rugby up until that point, so then they kind of replaced that feeling of, oh, wow, could be onto something here, and that's when things went downhill for me, that six weeks. Jumped on stage, um, didn't actually place in the show. That's another conversation. I'm natural as well. I've never taken steroids, but I always competed, and that was my choice.
I always competed, um, with, in untested federations so a lot of the guys were on
And I would go in the gym, my legs, right? My legs are my weak area, and my shoulders, I was told, right, on s- uh, from the judge. Then I would just hammer those body parts down. [00:16:00] After overeating, I'm like, "Right." And I would time it, right? 'Cause I almost, well, subconsciously, I would already preempt that I'm gonna overeat.
Then I would plan my, my leg day and my shoulders and stuff, which I don't do anymore, right? We can get into the training stuff. I train smarter now, but I used to do bro splits back then. And I used to hammer my legs, and I w- it would be driven by self-hate, right? Which is where a lot of people are.
They, they, they don't like parts of their body, so they train for that reason, right? "I hate this body part." And you can get in g- don't get me wrong, you can get in good shape doing that. I was in great shape. Uh, but it doesn't last, right? And then the worst shape I was in was for that 18 months. So that was the two big things I struggled with.
Um, and then it was after that then, the third point then is switching my mindset then and focusing, 'cause I started getting some gut health issues. This was a bit of a wake-up call for me from, like, overeating so much. My gut would be in agony the next day, and I remember, like, the third time it happened, I remember lying in bed going, "Yeah, the, I'm out.
I'm done with this now." And that was kind of the turning point for me. And then I did a program then, Mike, [00:17:00] where it was, uh, 12 weeks and I just focused on strength. I was like, "Right, let's switch the mindset, man. This aesthetic stuff, like, it's never-ending. Like, it never ends." You ne- you never, you... If you're focused on your body, there's always gonna be something you're disappointed with, right
Like, there's always gonna be something. So I switched that, and I was like, "Right, let's get into this. Let's hit some PBs." Over that 12 weeks, I hit a PB on my, all my main lifts. Basically squats, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press. And that, that was, like, the, the mindset shift for me. And then fixing my gut.
Then I started, um, intermittent fasting as well, which I don't recommend for most people, but just to give my gut a break. And then it was like, started eating more whole foods, and it was a gradual transition for me. And with the, uh, poor relationship with food, I didn't have the mindset of cutting everything out.
"All right, I'm not gonna eat this, I'm not gonna eat that." 'Cause that just doesn't work. I, I come to realize it never works. It just doesn't work, right? If you, if you try and th- I used to make lists of all these foods I was gonna eat after a comp, right? Mm-hmm. It became an obsession.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Mm-hmm.
Martin Silva: And it doesn't work, so I just started eating more whole foods, you know, in- [00:18:00] intermittent fasting, fixed my gut, started hitting PBs in the gym.
I start- I'm going, "Wow, actually, I'm actually looking better now as a byproduct of health." And that was, like a real big, you know, paradigm shift for me.
Dr Mike T Nelson: So with your clients who are more on the body composition focus, do you focus more on performance in the gym in terms of the training aspect, then?
Martin Silva: Yeah.
Always. Always the performance in the gym is the key thing that moves the needle forward. So it's, you know, we know, we know progressive overload, ultimately adding more training volume each week. But more important than that, as you'll know, is mechanical tension. So obviously I'm online now, so coaching people through that- I just literally, I, I created, like, this masterclass recently for them, right?
Just to, just to get even more intricate with it, because the mechanical tension, the technique, uh, the volume that you're doing, uh, stopping two reps short of failure [00:19:00] instead of going to failure most of the time. So that, that is everything, man. That strength training piece, like, doing that. I like to u- use the word, um, appropriately, the strength training, because you can follow...
You can get a program, follow the best program in the world, if it's not appropriate for your body, right, and you're not recovering fast enough, um, you're not maybe, you know, you're not, you're not following it properly, you're not, you're not, um, being intuitive, right? 'Cause there's only so much teaching you can do.
After a while, you have to get your clients to think for themselves in the gym as well. It's like you, you, you get to learn, no one knows your body better than you, so you've gotta, you've gotta learn that sweet spot. Um, so yeah, that's, just to answer your question that's everything, man, the strength training and performance piece.
Dr Mike T Nelson: How do you monitor performance online week to week? Because I know that can be a little bit tricky. You're obviously not, you know, having them test every week. How do you kinda keep an eye on that?
Martin Silva: So I'll get them to send me over technique videos so I can run through the form and stuff, [00:20:00] and also I get feedback off them on, on the calls and, and basically see where they're at really, and just check in with them about it, and make sure I'm, I'm coaching them through the program.
So that's, that's it in a nutshell. But yeah, in real time, when I was PT-ing people, if you've got a good PT, you're never gonna be able to replicate, like, in real time having someone there who's good. But at the same time, I think people can overcomplicate things as well, right? Like with anything. So sometimes it's like, "Are you getting stronger?
Are you recovering well? Are you following the technique in these videos?" Obviously I've got my own, uh, video library and stuff. Um, "Are you, you know, sending me the videos that I need to see with your squat form, deadlifts, all those fundamental movements?" And if they're not doing that, then obviously it's hard to get the most out of it, you know?
Dr Mike T Nelson: And it sounds like you're programming more compound lifts, or how do you decide how to set up, like, we'll just say over the course of a week, how do you kinda decide what goes where?
Martin Silva: Yeah, absolutely. All [00:21:00] compound lifts. We know that gets you the biggest bang for your buck. Again, mechanical tension, working, you know, multiple, it's a multiple joint movement, right?
So you're working more than mus- more muscle, uh, one muscle group on the compound lifts. So I'll get them, depending on where they're at, is, like, on average my programming looks like this on average. Upper-lower split, where they'll do four sessions a week, upper body, lower, upper body, lower. Throw some core in there as well.
Normally with legs or it could be upper body. Or they'll do full body three times per week. But what I do is I get them to do these, uh, to... the training frequency piece, as we know, is the most important piece pretty much- H-h-how frequently you train in the body parts. And back to the program that I did back then when I, when I hit those PBs, what I was doing is I was doing these resistance band sessions on the days in between- Mm
my full body sessions. Um, twice a day I was doing them, just low intensity to test out that frequency [00:22:00] tool. So I have them doing that as well. So I'm having them doing a light pump up. It could be, or even mobility as well, I'll tie it in there. Where it's 10 to 15 minutes, that's all it is, and the intention with those band sessions in between, let's say those four gym sessions or those three full body ones, is to facilitate recovery more than anything.
So that's where people go, right, they go, "Band session," they, they wanna go all out. No, no, that's not the intention. The intention is just get a pump on and stop, basically. And you still get a bit of the, uh, metabolic benefits as well, 'cause it's still a strength signal. But it facilitates recovery, uh, adds to the total training volume as well, right?
Um, so that's generally how it looks. Now, with some people who wanna go to the gym more often, I'll either do three full bodies and then I'll have them doing target sessions on the days in between. So let's say they wanna do five a week, three full bodies, two days in between, it'll be let's look at what your weak areas are, functionality-wise as well, not just like aesthetics.
'Cause I see most people posterior chain is weak, so I'll get them to focus on those areas on the days in between. Or if they're really hell-bent on the aesthetics [00:23:00] piece, okay, then we can focus on doing like a 20 to 30-minute, like, target session where it's, it's low to moderate intensity. It's, you know, that's, that's kind of a hard one to explain to people if you just say it on a podcast, it's like everyone's gonna get it wrong.
So I have to, like, really hammer that one home. Now, this is just gonna be a pump on. You can keep like 5, 10 reps in reserve. You're just gonna go and, uh, and target those, those body parts. So that's kinda how it looks in a nutshell, really. But yeah, that frequency piece, so training every body part at least twice a week.
Um, and with the full body, I find with full body for the major- like, for the average person, I'm just thinking now listening, right, 80% of people on average, they benefit more from doing full body. And it's not just because you're hitting every body part three times, it's also the behavioral aspect. It, you know, if you miss a full body day, let's say you do two on a terrible week, you still hit every body part twice.
Yes, you haven't done like a trauma- a, a, a big amount of volume each body part if you're doing it right. But if you're doing like an upper/lower split or like a split of some sort where you're targeting... If you miss a session, you can get [00:24:00] discrepancies and stuff. Um, so I find it's easier to stick to for a lot of people as well, doing that full body when you look long-term.
But, um, yeah, man, this is a lot of nuance to the training piece, right?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, and you just get so much more... I mean, I just wrote an article for Muscle & Fitness the other day about do deadlifts, you know, build muscle? And my argument was, yeah, as long as you know how to do them and you program them correctly.
And I j- I just went with the old school, you know, Bill Starr 5 x 5, you know, if you had to pick, you know, one set and rep scheme. 'Cause it's a heavy enough load where you're gonna get a fair amount of activation. You're doing a deadlift, you're moving, you're activating almost every muscle in your body.
And if you can do that, like, my argument was I don't see any eel-shaped, rake-shaped people doing five by five with deadlifts with 405 pounds, right? Mm. There's probably some exception. There's probably some wiry powerlifter out there who can do it. But most people, if you get up [00:25:00] to appreciable higher level loads for general population, by definition, you would've added a fair amount of muscle in that process.
And again, that process is, uh, for a lot of people, that's a multi-year process. It's not gonna happen in a couple months.
Martin Silva: 100... Oh, I'm glad you mentioned compound lifts, right? 'Cause that was, uh, part of the question. 100%, it's very technical, right? So, like, look at even a squat. Yeah. All the people I've coached in person, eight to nine out of 10 people, like, they're not gonna squat with good form with a bar on their back.
No. They, like, just to be able to... It- this is the hardest part, is getting people to implement this. Like, really, this is a big battle with the training piece. I know in my- and I fall into this trap too. If I went in the gym and I just literally focus, hellbent, my intention is I'm gonna just get better at squats.
I'm gonna practice that movement. I'll do the mobility required. I'll just practice it and then gradually increase the load, or just go and practice deadlifts. The, the value you [00:26:00] get from just doing that, right, if you can get good at those movements, is absolutely insane. So, just doing those. And then you've got, so you've got your squats, your deadlifts, then you've got obviously your overhead press as well.
That's, like, if I could just pick, you know, two exercises, it'd probably be an overhead and a d- and a squat probably to do forever, right? Or overhead and even a deadlift. Overhead press, doing that properly, you know, it's, it's very kind of technical, especially with a bar, just doing an overhead press, full extension.
Yeah, and then obviously you've got, like, a rowing movement then as well. Like, if you're doing, like, a bent over row or even a cable row, or even learning to do pull-ups, right? So valuable. If you look at the top two exercises really for back, deadlifts, functionality, and muscle gain, you know, pe- people overlook that.
They, they see people with, like, you know, uh, good aesthetics on their back. It's like, yep, deadlifts, thickness, and then the pull-ups as well. So yeah, those movements, man. Like, y- you know, work towards doing th- like, not everyone can do it, and some people are gonna have issue, issues, injuries, all that kind of stuff, right?
It's a little disclaimer there. But if you can work to doing those movements in some way and [00:27:00] practicing, and that's always my communication methods with clients. It's d- going to the gym, we're working out with an intention here, right? To build muscle. So to do that, you need mechanical tension, and you just need to look at practicing the movements and getting better at each movement rather than just training to get tired.
Like, that intention's really important , you know? Really important.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. I totally agree with that. Um, what are versions you use for s- for squats? Like, I found- I don't even think I have a single client right now that back squats. No, 'cause I don't have any power lifters, and the strongmen I have, I d- I don't have them back squat.
But, um, what other versions of squatting do you use, or do you find you, you can get people to back squat, or what's your opinion on that?
Martin Silva: Do you know what? As you say that, I was just trying to think, how many clients do I have back squatting now? I honestly don't think I've got any, and if I have, it's probably someone I've been coaching for ages, like one or [00:28:00] two, but I can't think of any off the top of the head.
So here's what I do, and this is what I think is really underrated when it comes to results, is just single leg movements, right? Uh, people don't do them, number one, right? So the body thrives off novelty. Um, let's just give you an example. I love a... You wanna see someone squatting body weight first, right?
Just to see where they're at, just to see where their, you know, discrepancies are, et cetera. But just doing a reverse lunge, that's like one of my favorite movements 'cause it requires balance, stability, strength. So I, I love reverse lunges, you know, at the start of the program as opposed to a, a, a barbell squat.
And then when I do get them squatting, it'll be goblet squats, right? So, you know- Mm-hmm ... holding the dumbbell in front of you, it's way less technical and easier to practice the movement. So I like those two. And then if they can, obviously the deadlift, highest risk movement, right? There's so little room for error with a deadlift.
You gotta be so careful on that. So with deadlifts, depending on where they're at, obviously you want a hip hinge movement of [00:29:00] some sort. So, you know, t- getting them to do, even if they're at a decent level, getting them to do a Romanian, practicing a Romanian deadlift so they can practice that hip hinge movement with dumbbells, for example, or even a barbell.
Um, or even I love, you know, people hate it when I program this, but doing like a toe toucher, balancing on one leg with good form and just reaching out to touch your toe and standing back up again. No, no weights, right? And practicing that. For a lot of people can't do that. You have to regress that 'cause of the balance.
So that's, that's the way I start in general for most people. And then what I find is when they get stronger, and then Bulgarian split squat is more advanced, more technical, uh, than a reverse lunge, I would say for, for a lot of people. Um, and then when they, when they get stronger doing those single leg reverse lunge, it could be any type of lunge or a Bulgarian split squat, that then carries over into squats and, um, even, you know, deadlifts for example.
Like I dunno what your thoughts are on a hip thrust. Now I don't, I don't program them very, that often, but I [00:30:00] still, I still program them. And what you fi- you know, that hip extension, it, it can carry over into your squats and deadlifts, that, that strength, you know? So yeah.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, I mean I do program hip thrusts for some clients.
Mm. It depends on what their goals are. If they are really focused on more glute development, I probably will because it's... You can get more variety by adding it in. It's a compound lift. You can go pretty heavy on it- The caveat I have is that at lockout, I wanna make sure they can actually feel like their glutes are contracting.
A lot of people become very low back and hamstring dominant, I think, on that movement. Unfortunately, probably to their detriment. For athletes, I'd say it's mixed. Like, I, I tried a lot of hip thrusts in the past and, I don't know, like, they just didn't transfer for me. Like, my deadlift didn't go up, my squat didn't go up.
I don't know. Like, I would- maybe it's just me. You know, maybe it was the mechanics. I don't know, maybe it's my biomechanics, who knows? But [00:31:00] I'd say for athletes, I'd say it's much more split, and I don't tend to use them that often unless they're a new athlete and I really think, like, their posterior chain is a major weakness.
Maybe I'll throw something in them, but I'll probably use other variations and options first.
Martin Silva: Yeah, good shout. I think that, that movement's been blown up a lot online now, right? You know? But, uh-
Dr Mike T Nelson: Oh,
Martin Silva: yeah. It's- They can have, they can, they can have some value, but it's like, when you look at the what gets you bang for your buck, isn't it, you know?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. Do you use any variation of, like, uh, front squats or kettlebells or safety squat bars or Zerchers or anything else- Zerchers ... like that, or is it just kind of a depends-on-the-person type thing?
Martin Silva: Depends on the person, yeah. I like to build them up to that, so I do use Zercher squats. I do use, uh, front-loaded, just, like, front-loaded dumbbell squats.
Yeah, yeah. I like to build, build people up to the front squat with a barbell, but that, as you know, that's super technical. So yeah. Yep. When we- we'll use the support bar as well at times. But, uh, yeah, it'll be [00:32:00] front-loaded normally with dumbbells or kettlebells or the Zerchers. Yeah, I love the Zercher. I f- well, I hate it, right?
It's horrendous. Such a painful exercise, man. I think, I, I think, uh, yeah, I think, uh, I, I prefer bloody front squats to Zerchers, and that's saying something.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. It's... Yeah, I, I program a lot more Zerchers than I do front squats because it's harder to do a Zercher squat wrong. Even a front squat, most of the time, again, I know a lot of people have extremely limited wrist mobility, shoulder mobility, all that kinda stuff, but if I can, I will usually force them into a clean grip because it's just so much harder to cheat at that point.
Mm-hmm. Like, as soon as you just get any little bit forward, like, it's just not gonna go. So I do like them from the aspect of that they are kind of a little bit auto-correcting, where, as you know, like with a back squat, most people I find don't have the shoulder external rotation to get in that spot, at least with a straight bar.
And if [00:33:00] anything goes wrong, it just turns into, you know, a, a good morning exercise anyway.
Martin Silva: Yeah, yeah, 100%.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Definitely. Awesome. Is there something different with, do you feel like with training and programming or even biomechanics, you feel that you do that's different, but if you found that it's been super beneficial?
Martin Silva: Anything I do different with, uh, biomechanics with clients, you mean?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, like kinda- Yeah ... different than what would be the more, I don't know, po- I don't even know what's popular anymore, I guess. But anything- No ... you found that- Yeah ... not many people are doing but you found to be super effective?
Martin Silva: The ones I mentioned, definitely, like single leg movements, especially when it comes to a, some...
'Cause basically a lunge is a squat, right? It's the same, it's the same- Sure ... mechanism, right, but just on one leg. So that's definitely a big one. Building people up to doing a single leg Romanian deadlift, as you know, very technical. Very technical. So, you know, just doing it with no weight first, toe touches, balancing on one leg, practicing that with good form, and building [00:34:00] them up to doing that.
I think that's one of the most underrated exercises, but again, it's very technical, so getting that right. You definitely wanna get way better on two feet first as well. So doing a, a Romanian deadlift, just, you know, with a barbell or dumbbells and, and practicing that first. So I'd definitely say building people up there is underrated, 100%.
I like, I think what's a massively, uh, underrated tool when it comes to biomechanics is, you know, we said about shoulder press. A Z press, where you're sat on the floor and you press overhead.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Oh, yeah. A
Martin Silva: Z press. Yeah. A Z press, I mean. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A Z press.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, I'm just kidding.
Martin Silva: No, no, no. No, it is.
It is a Z press. You guys say Z in America,
Dr Mike T Nelson: right? I know.
Martin Silva: Yeah, a Z press, man. I think that is so underrated because what I love about... And starting with dumbbells instead of a barbell I think is better- Mm ... because it's, it's a little bit less technical. And when you press overhead, when you're sat down, even just sitting, and forget about any weights, just sitting down in that position, if anyone wants to look at a Z press online, right, and then just pressing your arms [00:35:00] overhead and fully extending right overhead, just doing that for most people is really hard.
Forget about any weights. Doing it properly. Now, you do that with dumbbells, light, you have to go super light, then you build up to doing that with a barbell and then, you know, you, you get that bar in line with the crown of your head. When you extend your arm, you have to extend your arms pretty much on that, otherwise you'll fall back.
So it's one of them things where force is full extension, which down... And obviously because you're sat upright works all the, uh, posterior chain as well, so you actually get a bit of, uh, back development there as well, so it really improves the posture. And another, these are very technical, so I don't want people to go try these, right?
But something that's massively underrated is, again, I wanna talk about shoulder press, is, like, a behind the neck shoulder press. I don't know what your, your thoughts are on that.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Mm-hmm.
Martin Silva: But as for the posterior chain, and if you... I- it's very technical, right? So being able to do that, most people can't.
But when you can get to that level where you can even start with a really light bar and do that, that's massively underrated as well. Let me just think of, um, yeah, mentioned a form of [00:36:00] deadlift. That's the main things that come to mind anyway. Probably think of a few others. Nice. But definitely, oh, when, when you say biomechanics- Mm-hmm
100% obviously mobility. So this is something that is, was a game changer for me as well, is- Priming your body before you lift- ... which, uh, a lot of people don't do. And I'll be honest, even I do the bare minimum 'cause I don't, don't like it as much as lifting, so I'll do the bare minimum. I should, you can never really do enough.
Priming your body before you lift. So I look at my clients, and because I coach so many people in person as well, I see a lot of people have similar issues, right? They have weak posterior chain, uh, generally weak glutes for a lot of people, um, even h- the top of the hamstrings as well. You know, like when I say posture, I mean like the upper back to the mid-lower traps, uh, rhomboids, and they have really tight overactive traps.
Uh, trunk no one, very little people do any rotational movements, which is a, another big one, which is really important. So I'll get clients to, to do that as a strength piece. But [00:37:00] mobilizing before you lift, you know, 10, 15, ideally 20 minutes. But, you know, you gotta be careful with actually the amount of time people have to like train, but that is a game changer 'cause it, it amps your nervous system up, and those mobility movements, they're very, very technical.
Um, you know a wall press? You ever try to- Mm-hmm. Yeah ... wall... Oh, mate, like how br- like just to build people up, I have to get them doing a sitting wall press first, where they're sat down against the wall and they're just doing like a rotation there, arms out in front. Even that's killer doing that properly.
But just for the audience, standing against the wall and doing a wall press is, I can't really ex- describe how to do it properly on a, on a episode, but those kind of movements as well, those mobility movements they, not only do they, they stop you getting injured, but like people say that, but it's like that should be the bare minim- minimum benefit you want, right, from doing mobility.
It's priming your body. It's amping your nervous system up to do the job better in the gym essentially.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Awesome. And on deadlifts, are you using a straight bar, or are you [00:38:00] using like a hex bar or trap bar, or does it depend on the client?
Martin Silva: I prefer for most clients a hex bar all day long. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's obviously less technical, and they can...
I find they can practice better with that with less risk, and then they can also get their nervous system adapted to lifting a bit heavier slowly but surely. And that's another thing, right, for myself that I know I'm lazy with that over the last few years because if I do sumo deadlifts, right, Mike, 'cause we know it's more technical with the barbell, I have to prime my body for longer.
So I'm just like, I'll just keep doing the trap bar 'cause I can't be bothered priming as much. You know what I mean? So yeah, most people, most people hex bar for sure.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. That's what I switched to too. Like e- even in person, like if they're not powerlifting or they're not... There's a trade-off 'cause, yeah, a hex bar you get a little bit more quad development, whatever.
But for most people, like it's just, it's much harder to do poor form with a trap bar than a straight bar, [00:39:00] uh, just especially when you're coaching online and just trying to get them to do the effective amount, and you can still get a huge amount of overload with it. So, uh, I'm a big fan of it
Martin Silva: Same. And that's a, that's a good point with in person.
I used to do this, I used to not use the trap bar. It was only towards the last kinda three, four years of me PT-ing that I was like, "You know what? This is way better for most people to practice and get better at that movement with load," for sure.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. Awesome. Um, transitioning into stress, what do you, do you monitor stress with HRV or questionnaires, or how do you determine stress level in clients?
Martin Silva: Yeah, that's a tricky one to monitor, you know, because you don't wanna overload them with habits and stuff. You know, for example, breathwork, you know, having that time where you at least stop and calm your nervous system down. And then I think with the stress management piece, I think it comes back to a lot of it, as well as hitting the sweet spot with the intensity with training and the volume.[00:40:00]
Because, you know, most people are, they've got so much stimulus nowadays with, you know, people are working longer than ever, 'cause as you can check your email at any time. So I like to look at, before we get to the stress, I like to look at the sleep first, 'cause they both go hand-in-hand. Sure. So it's like, let's have a look at your sleep routine.
So for example, coming away from cognitive stimulation at least an hour to 90 minutes before bed. In other words, no phone, no laptop. Some people, you know, realistically even 30 minutes, because a lot of people, most people are just on it right until they go to sleep, and just not having that cognitive stimulation before bed.
And just having a bedtime routine is the most overlooked thing in the world. And then the next thing, and this, uh, 'cause then obviously when you improve your bedtime routine, you sleep better. That's one of the best things you can do to, to, to manage your stress levels and get good sleep. But the other thing then is in the morning, this is a big thing I think that's overlooked, is again, most people keep the phone in the room, like I used to do.
The first thing they do in the morning, the [00:41:00] only time in this day and age, right, the only time you have a little window to not check your phone, not be distracted, not get into that, you know, cortisol elevating, you know, fight or flight state almost- The only chance you have to be calm is in the morning where you have that, like, if you give yourself 10, 15 minutes, even longer ideally, you know, where you're just not checking your phone.
You have a podcast ready, go on a walk, whatever, right? But not checking work emails, all that kind of stuff. I think that's something that's really overlooked for, like, overall stress as well. Just starting your day right and finishing your day properly as well with a proper bedtime routine. Then if we look at, like, actually getting feedback from clients, it'll be asking the questions about, like, let's have a look.
Are you recovering properly from training? Um, let's have a look at your, your diet as well, right? 'Cause obviously if they're slipping with diet or they're even, you know, skipping meals, which a lot of people do, that adds to cortisol, overall stress. Um, but yeah, it all comes down to, like, being disciplined with stimulus and distractions, like being on your phone, working.[00:42:00]
Like, if you can get diligent with that, getting that phone away from you at certain times, having allocated times where you're winding down, a- and go all in with it as well. It's like I say to clients, it's like if you, if you're gonna relax, go all in with that. You know what I mean? Like, if you're gonna watch TV to unwind, don't do both, like where you're doing a bit of work and then...
Try and go all in with each piece and, and go all in with the relaxing piece as well. And, uh, I think with stress management, it's something I'm working on too, and I always say to clients, 'cause you know what it's like. It's like you almost, I don't wanna say life coach, but you almost start becoming that in a way because you're like-
Dr Mike T Nelson: Sure
Martin Silva: you know, "What are you doing for fun?" You know, a lot of us, we forget to have fun and do stuff for fun, including myself. Started playing volleyball again, but I'm lacking consistency again, right? That's fun for me. It, it, it just, it's the best way to manage stress, doing some fun stuff. Getting nature as well there, right?
So, you know, I say to my clients like, "What are you doing for fun?" You know, "What are you doing for self-care this week?" Instead of planning everything around work and all the chores you've gotta do, how about you factor in what you're doing for yourself first, and you factor in what you're doing for fun, and that's a big thing for, for managing stress as well.[00:43:00]
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. I, I agree. Do you- have you had any luck showing or using any apps to track time on phone or removing apps or anything like that? I, I go back and forth. Like, I- ... I think the first thing I tell people is just, for God's sakes, turn your phone off more often during the day. And I also forget, like, how many people have notifications on with everything.
Oh. That's one annoying thing with Apple, is every once in a while it does an update and it, it turns on these notifications in the background, and all of a sudden my phone starts going off. I'm like, "What the hell?" Or you're around someone and their phone's going off all the time and you realize, "I don't know how anyone gets anything done with notifications on."
That, that still is a mystery to me, I guess.
Martin Silva: That's such a, such a good point, man. It makes me anxious just when I see someone with notifications on and it's like, how do you live with... Like, I'm already irritated and distracted [00:44:00] listening to two notifications on your phone. How do you live with that- Yeah
all day, every day, you know?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah. So do you have 'em turn, do you have like kind of a priority list of like, "Hey, let's try to turn notifications off. Let's try to turn your phone off at a certain time"? Do you ask them to kind of monitor their time on certain sites, or how do you kind of go about that?
Martin Silva: Yeah.
What I do is I get into d- like delete apps. I see with clients on social media, for example, and they know it as well. They're like, "You're right, you know, I'm gonna delete it." And then they might go back on there, right? And there's only so much. There's like, you can make people aware, you can tell 'em what to do, you can coach them through it, but like they've gotta do it.
You know, they gotta actually do that. So yeah, deleting social media apps 100%, uh, works, works a treat for a lot of clients 'cause unless you're using it for business, it's just eating away at your time and just distracting you. So many other things you could be doing. Now, I'll be honest, I used to look at, like I used to call clients out and just go, "Let's have a look at your screen time."
You know what I mean? Like, you know, "Didn't have time to do this and that. Let's have a look at that." And like you make them aware of it and it's like you get 'em [00:45:00] delete, yeah, it's just like I tell you what, man, that phone and all this stuff and all the apps and social media, you're not gonna win the battle against those things, you know?
You've gotta have practices in place. So that's the thing, just deleting apps. And also, I've recommended to a few clients recently, it's um, especially the ones running the business or whatever, it's like use your phone for a purpose. So when you're doing work tasks or whatever, or when you're doing stuff on your laptop, keep your phone away from you, you know?
Because that's gonna be a distraction and that's gonna eat into your energy and a lot of times add to your stress because then you're procrastinating not getting work done. And, and use the phone then for y- be intentional, right? So like I'll say to clients, "Well, let's be honest, everyone procrastinates at times."
I like, I say to them, "Right, if you're gonna, like rather than just going on your phone and just mindless scrolling, right? If you just give yourself a window of time, right? So you're actually aware and going, 'Okay, I'm just gonna, you know, got a bit of time free. I'm gonna give myself a little bit of time.'
You know what I mean? A little bit of entertainment on Instagram or whatever." Cool. But when you just, you're just doing it subconsciously and it's just that it becomes an impulse, it's a big problem. [00:46:00] So I would say the main things, it was definitely one of keeping the phone out of the room. I know it's kind of like with distractions and phone, it's, it's kind of a broad thing to say, but it's such a game changer.
You know, most people don't implement it. You know what I mean? You have to push people to do it. But the ones who do, they're like, "Man, that's a game changer," because they've got a cheap alarm. They got the phone out of the room. They can't get distracted. They don't check the phone in the nighttime when they wake up, which is like the worst thing you can do, right?
Oh,
Dr Mike T Nelson: yeah.
Martin Silva: For sleep and stress levels, man. But even, even like I had a neuroscientist on recently and he was saying like there's, there's some studies to show now like if you've got the phone in the room, your subconscious- Yeah ... brain is still active, right? It's still like, okay- Yeah ... emails, Instagram. You know what I'm saying?
Notifications. So they're the main things that really come to mind. That's kind of how I monitor that. And then really I just, on the calls I'll, I'll question them on these things and, uh, and kind of adapt at the time, you know?
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. Awesome. So if you were to give kinda, uh, an executive is looking for kinda your four top tips, kind of a rapid fire for better body composition, what would your top [00:47:00] four be?
Martin Silva: We gotta start with sleep, and people overlook that one. They go, "Oh, just do the training, diet." Okay. "I j- I sleep like a baby." You probably don't, right? Because I track these things. So what I would say with sleep is just if you can get a bedtime routine, that sets you up to win the next day. Something. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Even if you can give you an hour, yourself an hour before bed, prepare yourself for a good sleep, and obviously you wanna be getting seven to eight hours of solid sleep. Get that phone out the room. So it's the practices you have in place with sleep, not just the amount of time you sleep. And then just a, a simple method with sleep is, you know, the 3, 2, 1 method.
I like that 'cause it's simple. No food three hours before bed. Two hours, no fluids, providing you're hydrated though. I see people fall down with that because they're like, "Oh, yeah, did the two hours." You go to bed a little bit dehydrated. Nothing's gonna mess your sleep up more than that. Um, and then one is obviously no electronics before bed.
So definitely sleep. Um, prioritize that. Number two let's go into nutrition. I mean, if we're speaking to the average person, we have to go [00:48:00] with number one. Well, I, I would say number one with nutrition, w- a practical thing would be the protein one, right? That's more practical. I'd say if you can aim, I like to use a round number of a gram per pound of body weight, even though that's high for a lot of people to hit.
Even if you're, you're not even close to that, let's say you track your food, you see your protein is way under that, even aiming up towards that and just being diligent with that one target, and not dropping the ball on weekends and going, "Yeah, it was cool in the week," and then just chill on the weekends and let your hair down, right?
That's not gonna cut it for a lot of people 'cause they grossly undereat on the weekends or when they travel. You've gotta constantly be mindful and aware of that, and just literally relentless with trying to hit that target consistently. That changes everything, just that one thing. Take everything out of it.
And the other thing then, I'd say the third one with nutrition, would be just avoiding ultra-processed foods. I think if I had to pick one piece of advice, like, to give to anyone, if you said, "You got one thing to tell anyone with nutrition," it would have to be just do everything you can to avoid those [00:49:00] foods, because they're designed and engineered to make you overeat.
You'll never win the battle. They actually did a study on it where people ate 500 calories more, and there was a cr- Hmm ... I won't go into the details, but it was a cross-study.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Yeah, yeah.
Martin Silva: Yeah. Did you see that one?
Dr Mike T Nelson: I didn't see that one in particular, but-
Martin Silva: Yeah. I mean, they, they, they crossed the groups over, they monitored a lot of things.
Basically they ate 500 calories more a day when they had unlimited access to the ultra-processed foods versus the, the whole foods. That's basically, you know, if you wanna balance that out, you're gonna gain around about a pound of fat a week by doing that, right? So if you can minimize those foods, and I like to hit people with a 90% rule now with that as well.
I used to say 80%, but if you really wanna get to that next level, you wanna be, you know, healthy metabolically, you wanna be in... You, you don't wanna just get lean, improve your body composition, you wanna be able to maintain that all year round. If you can become a person, like the identity piece, right? You need to become a person who naturally wants to eat whole foods, and [00:50:00] that, that's a process.
When you get to that point and, like, 90% of the foods you eat are in a single-ingredient foods, best way to describe whole foods, are single-ingredient foods, and you give yourself that 10% leeway maybe with the UPF, the ultra-processed foods, um, it's harder to go wrong. But if you can eliminate those foods.
Number four, I mean, I could keep- I could give a few more. I've given quite a few here, but I'll tie this into one, right? It's the training piece. Strength training, do that properly, right? Like, like Mike was saying, get good at the compound lifts. You know, focus on doing it right. You know, not just, not just going for the sake of it.
That's important, showing up, consistency, we know that. But, uh, um, that doesn't cut it, right, when you wanna get to the next level at some point. So, and obviously just injuries. Get good at the movements, uh, focus on the mechanical tension, and just do strength training properly, and focus on that recovery piece as well.
So just a quick little nugget on that as well. If you're sore, what I've found is if you're sore for longer than, you know, two days you've normally just [00:51:00] crossed the line, right? You should feel like you've done something and get a little bit of muscle soreness, but if it's longer than, like, a day or two, people judge a workout on how much pain they're in, right?
Which is, like, crazy when you think about it. And it's like, no, you want your body to adapt and get stronger and build muscle. If you're stuck in that recovery trap for too long, that slows down progress. So do the strength training properly and then, you know, if we tie that into the ex- exercise piece on the fourth one, movement, like, is number one, right?
If you could pick one form of exercise, it beats strength training, really, when you look at longevity and movement. That should be the foundation, is just movement is medicine. You know, sitting is the new smoking. Literally as bad, you know, as, as bad for your health as smoking. You know, sitting down for longer than two hours at a time.
Just move as much as you can throughout the daytime. Lots of, uh, lots of activity throughout the daytime is, uh, is a game changer.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Awesome. I appreciate it. Uh, where can people find more about you?
Martin Silva: Okay, I just wanna say as well, they were, like, practical steps, but a lot of people really, they're gonna know a lot of that.
There's one thing I would like to say, right, with mindset- Sure ... 'cause that's the biggest [00:52:00] thing that holds people back. It's beating themselves up too much. It's if they're not perfect, they hit the off button- You have to learn to bounce back faster, right? It's like that in any area of life. When it comes to, on the weekends, let's say you're not perfect with eating the way you want to eat, or you, you miss a session, a workout.
Never miss twice is a mantra I like to tell clients. Never miss- Yeah, James Clear ... two days in a row. Yeah, 100%, James Clear. That's where that's from. Never miss two days in a row, right, with training, for example. Or even if it's a day where you, you diet, let's just say it's terrible, it goes to shit, excuse the French.
Next day, bounce back. Never miss twice. It applies to everything, even the habits I implement now, whether that's reading, whether that's doing my Portuguese lessons, right? Never miss two days in a row. Game changer. Uh, people can find me on Instagram at martinsilvafitness, and the podcast is Optimize Your Body on all platforms.
Optimize is spelt with an S-E on the end, not Zed-E on the end like the American way. Uh, just so they know. So Optimize Your [00:53:00] Body, it's on all platforms, and, uh, on, uh, my YouTube, it's just Martin Silver Fitness, but I share the podcast basically in video form on there. That's pretty much it, really. The website, optimizeyourbody.com.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Cool. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for all your time, and appreciate all your knowledge and everything. And, um, yeah, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
Martin Silva: Absolute pleasure, Mike. Thanks for having me on.
Dr Mike T Nelson: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Huge thanks to Martin for coming on and sharing all of his great training knowledge and providing a ton of tips that you can go out and directly apply right away. If you want more tips like that with definitely more of a research tinge, check out my daily Fitness Insider newsletter.
Go to miketnelson.com/newsletter. Put the link down below. You'll be able to hop on completely free, and we'll send you a cool gift. We've got all Martin's, uh, information [00:54:00] down below. Make sure to check him out online with all the great things he's got going on. Got a ton more great guests, um, coming up as always.
Thank you so much for listening. If you have time to leave us a little review or give us a thumbs up, a like, download, all the great stuff that helps us with the algorithms, goes a long way to promoting the podcast, getting us better distribution and continued great guests. Thank you so much for listening.
Talk to all of you next week
Speaker 2: Did you see that?
Speaker 3: Yes. The frog is certainly taking a beating on this show. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's hard to feel sorry for him. We take a beating every show.
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