The Phys Flex Cert Closes TONIGHT Mon Oct 21, 2024 at midnight PST but you can still in before that time!
Phys Flex Cert full details below
https://miketnelsons.samcart.com/products/physiologic-flexibility-certification-oct-2024/
Here today I also explores the balance between eustress and distress in physical training and recovery, emphasizing effective stress management for optimal performance.
This includes insights on heat adaptation strategies, including when to retain or dump heat for maximum benefits. You will learn about practical tools for monitoring performance, such as the Concept2 PM5, and alternative methods like cold water immersion and saunas. You must understand the framework of physiology and once you do, then you can play and set up your own protocols.
00:18 PhysFlex Certification Closing Announcement
01:06 Eustress vs. Distress Model
03:27 Temperature Regulation and Performance
03:58 Experimenting with Cold Water Immersion
05:40 Measuring Performance and Recovery
07:46 Understanding the Eustress Model
08:18 Heat Adaptation Strategies
10:41 Advanced Training Modalities
11:57 Practical Tips and Psychological Aspects
13:47 Certification Details
Phys Flex Cert info at
https://miket.me/physflex
[00:00:00] Mike T Nelson: Hey, what's going on? 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 performance, add muscle, improve body composition, and do all of it without destroying your health within a flexible framework. Today, a very short note here number one item.
[00:00:21] Mike T Nelson: Wanted PhysFlex certification is closing tonight. This is tonight, as in Monday, October 21st, 2024. It will close at midnight pacific standard time. So I'll put a link down below. You still have time to enroll. I even added another exclusive unlisted bonus item for you there. And if you're wondering why my voice sounds a little bit trash though, I was up a little bit late last night at the amazing concert.
[00:00:55] Mike T Nelson: That's the Lorna Shore, Whitechapel, Kubla Khan, and Agnes [00:01:00]Zugebog, which was, it was amazing. Very, very good show. But the reason why I mention that is it ties into a concept I wanted to talk about right now that we do cover in the PhysFlexCert, is the eustress versus a distress model. So eustress, stress you can generally recover from in not too much time.
[00:01:25] Mike T Nelson: Distress, stress that takes you a little bit longer to recover from. So probably after my, excuse me, training session today, I'm probably taking tomorrow off because that's probably more than a little bit of you stress with the concert and deadlines and everything else I've had going on here. And the other point of all this is having a framework of which you can think your way through things to set up.
[00:01:56] Mike T Nelson: your own tests on an end of one level. This could be yourself [00:02:00]as a fitness enthusiast. This could be setting these things up if you are a trainer or a coach for your athletes. No matter what we do, we're trying to do and follow the best principles possible in latest research. But we're also working with humans who are a little bit different, and we need to individualize it.
[00:02:17] Mike T Nelson: and check to see what's working the best for them. Which is why in the flex, FizzFlex cert, I do have a big picture which gives you the entire framework of how all these different components fit in. From pH regulation, to breathing, to temperature, and much more. So back to our eustress distress model, I'm going to give you an example here.
[00:02:42] Mike T Nelson: This is a little bit more of an advanced example for sure. Um, but, I'll give you the example and then I'll explain how I got there. And you can do something very similar, once you understand the frameworks, once you understand some of the mechanisms. And I'll show you [00:03:00] how to actually measure it, so you'll know if you are going in the right direction or not, and you don't need a, you know, several thousand dollar metabolic cart or a moxie setup or nears or anything else.
[00:03:12] Mike T Nelson: I have all those devices here and they're super great. I love using them, but sometimes just having old school, no technology, maybe a heart rate strap makes life a little bit easier at times too. So back to our eustress distress model. One of the things I've been playing with a lot is temperature.
[00:03:30] Mike T Nelson: So right back to around, Oh boy, was it 2000 20? I got a cold water immersion converted to freezer. Started playing with that daily especially during the lockdowns. Wasn't going anywhere, wasn't teaching. So it was pretty easy to have the kind of the groundhog day, day in and day out of the same thing over and over.
[00:03:54] Mike T Nelson: And found out lots of cool stuff with that. Again, it's all in the cert. Um, but [00:04:00] after I got that stuff down, I was thinking about what are other ways we can use temperature regulation. And so what I did is, I set up a series of repeats on the rower. These were designed for VO2 max. So I believe at the time I was doing, I think I was doing 5 minute intervals.
[00:04:20] Mike T Nelson: And then doing complete rest in between. I'd work up to around 3 of those. And it was Minnesota, it was the summer. So I took the rower, we live on kind of a dead end street. Hauled it out in the middle of the street. And did my rowing outside, which I love to do. So not only do you get a little sun exposure, gets a little bit better movement for the eyes, they get to see a little bit further, it was also very, very hot.
[00:04:44] Mike T Nelson: And what I realized on some of my previous ones was that even though I was resting completely, so I would wait till my heart rate got down below 80 beats per minute, which is kind of a biometric method, which I got from Coach Cal Deets, by [00:05:00] interval three, my performance really was dropping off. Now, this could be just simple conditioning, I wasn't ready for it, my aerobic base was not allowing me to get back, could be allostatic load, right, just the total amount of stress on your system, real simply, but my HRV was looking pretty good and I had done it for a couple weeks.
[00:05:20] Mike T Nelson: And then I realized, oh, each time I did this, it was super hot outside. And, maybe if I could find a way to dump that heat load between each round, would that allow me to do a higher level of performance in the same time, i. e. a better density? So remember, at the end of the day, you really are looking at output all the time.
[00:05:44] Mike T Nelson: Even if your goal is to add more muscle, you need to give your body a reason to do that. And by measuring your output, volume is a great one to look at. Percentage of one rep max, so how heavy of a load you're lifting. Density, volume [00:06:00] divided by time, you can obviously look at quality of movement. If you are doing more progressive overload, assuming you have enough calories and recovery is okay, you will eventually add more muscle.
[00:06:12] Mike T Nelson: Now, the other cool part is by looking at output, if output starts to drop, then that means your recovery may be off a little bit. So I was seeing my recovery acutely here from interval 2 to 3 is a pretty big drop off. I realized it was pretty hot out, so maybe the temperature had something to do with it.
[00:06:32] Mike T Nelson: I'd warm up, do everything I needed to, and then I would get into the cold water immersion directly after round one. Dry off, get back on the rower, and then I went to hit round 2. Oh wow, I realized round 2 felt a little bit better, my RP was lower, and my performance was a little bit better. Cool. Did that, climbed back into cold water immersion after interval 2, and interval [00:07:00] 3 was actually really good.
[00:07:01] Mike T Nelson: And I think on a couple times I actually got 4 intervals then. What I realized was, it was probably the acute heat load on my system. that was the reason for the drop off in performance. And by getting in the cold water immersion, I would only get in for about, you know, one to two minutes or so up to my neck.
[00:07:23] Mike T Nelson: That would dump a lot of that heat load because of the cold. And then I would get back to my normal body temp, but not, you know, I wasn't getting super cold or anything like that because we do know that core temperature. If you drop that too much, you will drop performance also. But I wasn't in there long enough to do that.
[00:07:43] Mike T Nelson: And performance was good. So now when we look at this model, this is more of a eustress model. We're really, really prioritizing performance as the number one thing. I found something that [00:08:00] I could do that would enhance performance. And if I can do more high quality Over time, assuming my recovery is good, then I'm going to get the adaptation I want, in this case a better VO2 max, faster.
[00:08:14] Mike T Nelson: Alright, so again, looking at output is key. However, if my goal was, I've got two weeks, I'm going to compete in a hot environment, then I would not dump that heat load in between. I would prioritize the adaptations to the heat. I would take a little bit of a performance drop. Again, I don't want it to go super, super low.
[00:08:41] Mike T Nelson: Because I want the adaptation to become better adapted at the heat because the competition would be in the heat. Max, I would say, thermal acclimation to heat, maybe around two weeks. Again, you, if you're at an elite level, is it gonna be longer than [00:09:00] two weeks? Yes. But in my experience, one to two weeks is some pretty intense work.
[00:09:04] Mike T Nelson: you can do really really well for your adaptation to the heat. So I would target at least two weeks, maybe three weeks, to give yourself a little bit of a buffer space. The point there being that because I understand the framework of what I'm trying to accomplish, then I can answer the question of, in this case, would I dump the heat between round one, two, and three or not?
[00:09:29] Mike T Nelson: If my goal is all out performance, and I don't have to compete, in the heat. So the heat is not a factor on competition day. So competition days, by definition, tend to be distress. Then I'm going to dump the heat load because that will acutely increase my performance. And the way I verify that is just by looking at the output.
[00:09:54] Mike T Nelson: Um, so in this case, I was doing rows for time. So I was using my average Watts, which the [00:10:00] Concept2 PM5 gives you as my way of determining my output. So pretty easy. However, if my goal was to reach max heat adaptation because my performance I want to increase on a specific day in the future, acutely on the training days leading up to that, I may prioritize the adaptation that I want to see, i.
[00:10:26] Mike T Nelson: e. leaving that heat stress on the system longer to promote more of an adaptation to the heat. and I will give up a little bit of acute performance today for that payout in the future. So when we're looking at kind of more of these advanced modalities such as, you know, temperature, heat lactate, ketones, even breathing, we need to be cognizant of what type of model we're using and what is the overall goal.
[00:10:58] Mike T Nelson: Because again, it doesn't mean that [00:11:00] either one of these methods is right or wrong, dumping the heat load or not. It just depends upon what you're trying to do. And therefore, the context of that is super important. Cool. So that's why when I did the Phys Flex cert, they have a big picture.
[00:11:17] Mike T Nelson: So you understand the concept, you understand exactly how to do each one. And then we have five explicit action items for each and every one. Now, a lot of them are not quite as, I'd say, complicated or involved as this. If you don't have cold water immersion, you can take a cold shower or there's other things you can do.
[00:11:35] Mike T Nelson: Same thing with sauna. If you don't have a sauna, saunas are great. You can still exercise maybe in the heat. There's other things you can do to increase temperature. So in the third, I tried to. Make some that use technology and some that don't use any technology at all. So it's not a requirement that you need anything super fancy to get the benefits from this.
[00:11:57] Mike T Nelson: And then last side note is, [00:12:00] I found I didn't end up doing this a whole lot because it sounds weird, but getting completely soaked, drying off, getting my shoes back on to do the next interval was kind of a pain in the butt. Um, I haven't found a short way to do that. I'm not getting into my cold water immersion and rowing with crocs on or anything like that before somebody suggests that.
[00:12:20] Mike T Nelson: But, um, so there usually is going to be an additional cost to what you're doing. I did it a few times and found out it worked pretty good, but I also realized I need to be pretty motivated to, to do it just because there's more moving parts in it. And this gets into the psychology aspect of things also.
[00:12:39] Mike T Nelson: Um, If you make things really, really complex and there's 800 steps, even if you can justify all 800 steps, if you find your athletes are not getting it done because of that, the answer then is to simplify it. So I haven't used this method with a whole lot of athletes yet. I've done it with a couple, um, and the main [00:13:00] reason is if they have an issue getting the intervals done, that's by far and away the number one thing.
[00:13:08] Mike T Nelson: So do the work first, and then the state of which you do the work, you can make it more fancy after that. I don't want people to leave this thinking, Oh my gosh, the only way to do my intervals now is I have to get a cold water immersion tank, and I gotta crawl in there in between each interval, or it's not gonna be worth anything.
[00:13:22] Mike T Nelson: Again, the incremental benefit there is probably in the single digits for sure. Um, but in some cases, those single digits make a massive difference. So if you're already kinda maxing out, where you're at, or in my case, you've seen your performance on that particular thing plateau, then you can get a little bit fancier at that point.
[00:13:42] Mike T Nelson: So I don't want people to miss the, the old forest for the trees there. So there you go. Um, there's an advanced concept related to temperature regulation, which is covered in the PhysFlex cert. But the main reason I wanted to do that for you is to explain that if you understand the framework and you understand [00:14:00] how each thing fits into there, and you know, the context.
[00:14:04] Mike T Nelson: You could take the same intervention, might be beneficial for one case, and may not be beneficial for another case. So, there you go. The PhysFlexer is open today until midnight tonight. This is recording Monday, October 21st, 2024. Go to the link below here for all of the information. If it is after that date, you can still go to the link.
[00:14:31] Mike T Nelson: I think we'll have a waitlist for the next time it opens, which will probably be around March 2025, um, right now. So go to the link below. You have until midnight tonight, Pacific Standard Time, Monday, October 21st. Um, I did put up some unannounced bonus items there, too. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast.
[00:14:52] Mike T Nelson: Really, really appreciate it. We will have another bonus episode coming out midweek this week. [00:15:00] So you won't want to miss that. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Talk to all of you soon.